#it’s very easy to hear people’s personal stories and draw conclusions from that

[area51-escapee]

What I think I find most disgusting about 'menstruation as a signal of motherhood' is the fact that largely, we don't even think that way about animals.

Greedy/shitty people and shitty backyard breeders aside, we actually take more care to ensure that animals aren't bred before they're physically sound to be than we do people. Its even considered neglect and in some locations outright abuse to breed an animal before its 'feasibly sound to bear and birth' young.

My neighbour actually had her French bulldog taken away from her because it seasoned young and she had it bred straight away. It was far, far too small and young to bear puppies without serious risk and complication and her vet clinic reported her for neglect and puppy-farming.

YEAH???? And like. It doesn’t make any sense to me how somebody can genuinely believe that that’s all it takes to safely carry a pregnancy to term. You don’t have to go to medical school or have a degree to know this, I’m sure as shit not a genius, I’ve just listened to people’s experiences with being pregnant and giving birth. The human body is fucking weird, things happen all the time, just because you’re born with one set of organs doesn’t mean you’re good to go and won’t have any problems. There’s all kinds of complications that can occur, there are people capable of getting pregnant who will never be able to carry a pregnancy to term, there are people who can get pregnant but giving birth could cause significant damage to their physical or mental health, or outright cost them their lives. I find it absolutely insane when people try to say that having a period or having a uterus means you were meant to get pregnant, meant to give birth, as if that means fucking anything when the human body is simply unpredictable, and even if somebody is capable of doing so without issue, they should never have to unless it’s their decision. I try very, very hard to understand where other people are coming from, especially when I disagree with them, not because it will change my mind but just because I want to understand their point of view better, but this feels nearly impossible to me because I can’t understand how people would believe this when there is so much factual evidence that proves otherwise.

#discourse tw #pregnancy tw #miscarriage tw #animal abuse tw #I just want to tag for anything up there that could be uncomfortable #in general this shit makes me lose my mind because to me #it’s very easy to read medical and scientific evidence and draw conclusions from there #it’s very easy to hear people’s personal stories and draw conclusions from that #so I cannot understand people who seem to WANT to remain ignorant #I love minding my own business and not caring what other people do with themselves #so I can’t understand people who think that everyone else should live by their religious beliefs #and I think there’s an extra layer of frustration because what set me off was from someone I used to be friends with #and it has driven me insane wondering #were they always like this???? #the topic didn’t come up a lot but it DID come up #were they sitting there fucking seething??? disgusted at our beliefs on the matter? but kept quiet about it? #or were they normal and smth happened after we stopped talking???? #I can’t comprehend how the person I was friends with #can say a ten year old child should have to give birth #how they can agree that if a child has started their period their body is ready to carry a child #it’s heartbreaking and disgusting and I am so so confused and there is nothing to do #but be angry I guess #I can’t stop thinking of the video I saw #of the woman from Texas testifying about the harm the abortion bans caused to her #I think about it once a day it feels like and it was god awful #I can’t imagine being so heartless that you think she should have to go through that suffering #because of /your/ beliefs #anonymous

[bcacstuff]

So, yes today to my disgust actually someone thought she needed to put a name out here on Tumblr (again). Now she has some history all summer, and it all went nowhere... We all know she's just there for the 'scoop' even if there isn't any.

Anyway, yes I've been receiving messages already since last Tuesday about the woman she puts out now. Just for proof

For the ones not familiar with the Dutch language 'dinsdag = Tuesday). And I sighed when I saw that message, and it wasn't the only one, as people already seem to be on that track... as well. Because yes, someone I talk to a lot alerted me already before, and had all her stories and... the post on X from Andy Murdoch only added to the suspicion of course. As you can tell, and perhaps all of you were also very curious what place he would show in his live IG on Tuesday. Not at home, so much was clear.

So who is she and what is the connection to Sam? Sam started following her since February last year, when he did his Hyrox challenge with Nic. She's a gym rat, fitness infuencer as well and has done a number of Hyrox challenges and he often follows brands she promotes. She also often likes his post.

Now you could say, and that's what we were talking behind the scenes as well, she has a son and she lives in Glasgow. Two red flags...

Anyway, let's go to now and here... what do we know, what is sure, what is a fact and what is speculation or gives us food for thoughts...

From the live IG we learned Sam is not at home, but somewhere with more sun, warmer so you want. He didn't hide it in his live IG saying he might be a little sunburned and in speaking with Valbo it was clear he's at a warmer place than northern Europe, where in all countries (as well as in mine) it is freezing and have a lot of snow.

Even on the reflection of his watch you can see the blue sky.

Now you can have doubts about the post on X from Andy Murdoch, and I have no doubts certain parts of this fandom will. But I personally give this man the benefit f the doubt and believe his post where he states he saw Sam on a flight toGran Canaria on Sunday.

Curiously at the same time he seems to be there we see Sarah Holden posting from there as well. All training videos and easily to determine it's Gran Canaria, not only from the environment she posted but the gym she was at as well. And according to the information I was provided, she was still in Glasgow last Saturday.

So red flag or not, and even 2 red flags, it's not a secret some got curious and started watching (or were watching all the time already).

I mean posts like this

didn't leave much doubts, that gym she posted several stories every day from was easily found in Puerto Rico GC. And more.... she posted a lot stories, so it was even easy to search out the airbnb she is staying.

Quite a large villa for one person...

with a nice private swimmingpool

But but but.... you're gonna ask exactly what we were looking for, was that the same place the Live IG was from????

No it wasn't. We've certainly tried to find as many pics as we could find from that place, and it isn't far from the gym. But we can not identify this place as the same place the live IG came from. but there's an option he could have just gone to another place for the live IG 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, then there are some videos. On one you could see maybe his leg! Maybe, it's just a glimpse, on some others you could maybe hear his voice. I've put all 3 videos together as I can only post one video in one post. First video 'his legs?' Second and third video 'his voice?'

His leg, hard to see, as it is right behind the SOS sticker, but you can see it a couple of times.

His voice (?) in the beginning of the dog video very short and in the middle of the last gym video when she puts up the weights, someone shouting 'Let's go' which seems more clearly Sam's voice (imo)

So what conclusions can we draw out of this all. I think Sam is in Gran Canaria, you can doubt it and some will for sure, but I do not have much doubts he is. Sarah is for sure in GC training a lot. From what I have seen they seem to be on some sort of same training schedule. She's posting a lot on IG, he's active on IG as well. So are they together? Well her airbnb doesn't match his Live IG location, still there's an option he found a place that we didn't see or went somewhere else. To me it looks like they're training a lot, and that could be together, or partly together perhaps. It could be as much as just a training buddy, he knows her from Glasgow for over a year. But if there is more? I don't know. There are still red flags to consider as well

I know you will all have your comments, and some will call me out for everything. I'm posting this now as her name is already out there and that's bad enough already, as that will only make them more cautious perhaps. (which will mean we wont see much more most likely). I do think there is a bit more than just 2 people coincidentally being at the same place. But what or what the nature is, and are they staying at the same airbnb or not. I don't know.

For now I can only draw the conclusion that 2 people from Glasgow who know each other and share the same interest are both at the same place and training a lot. I did check Hyrox events and the website to see if Sam or Sarah or both were signed up for a future event (and perhaps together, he could go for a mixed double). But so far haven't found anything on there.

And that's all I have to report on it so far. As usual you can draw your own conclusions from it, in the comments preferably. Nasty messages calling me out for anything but good are a waste of time, I wont post them.

Edit, the airbnb pictures I shared in this post are not the correct ones, I correct it in my next post, so please see them here

[cardentist]

something that frustrates me is when you see an exclusionist or a bad actor say "X group doesn't experience oppression like Y does" the common response will be "you're right but that doesn't mean that X group doesn't still suffer."

the problem with this is not that it's an issue in a vacuum, that's a perfectly compassionate argument and an important one. people don't need to suffer "enough" to "deserve" to have their experiences taken seriously. comparing the suffering to two groups and punishing one of them for not meeting the standards of the other is an evil thing to do no matter what.

the problem is that nearly across the board it is wrong.

what it comes down to is that people Recognize invisibility and under exposure for certain groups. they recognize that certain marginalized identities aren't going to show up in the news or on a show, that they won't hear certain labels out of the mouths of their bigoted uncles at thanksgiving.

and that is taken As The Issue. that it is ignorance and ignorance alone that plagues the lives of the marginalized among the marginalized. what people don't understand is that invisibility doesn't mean that the marginalized do not suffer, it means that suffering isn't reported.

it's easy to take for granted the idea that X group doesn't experience outright violence when it's something that you haven't seen. And That's An Aspect Of Their Oppression. because when people don't know your rights are being violated then they don't know to help in the fight For those rights. even well meaning people will exclude marginalized groups from certain conversations because they don't realize they need to be there.

when people say, for instance, "Yes trans mascs don't face outright Violence from terfs, but the infantilization they face when terfs treat them like poor confused women that don't know what they're doing is still a kind of oppression"

what they Don't realize (and aren't taking into account) is that Statistically trans mascs face corrective rape and assault on similar levels to other trans demographics (among other forms of violence for that matter [Link 1, Link 2]. they Don't realize that there are Many Many instances of terfs openly fantasizing about doing Exactly That, of forcing trans mascs to turn into lesbians by having sex with them.

what they don't realize is that infantilization is a part of the Dehumanization and desire to strip autonomy and control away from trans mascs that they use to Justify their violence. that the perception of trans mascs as incapable, as needing to be rescued from blindly mutilating their own bodies, is a call to action.

sometimes that call to action is used to justify stripping the human rights of all trans people away through legislation, which we've seen most starkly with the focus on trans mascs in the uk. sometimes that call to action is personal violence. sometimes that call to action is indoctrination with the intent of abusing a trans masc into detransitioning.

what people see as Hurtful in words alone the victims see for the threat that it is.

I could make dozens of examples exactly like this (for instance, historically when trans mascs have been murdered it's been reported as violence against women. because when you're buried as a woman you don't have the voice to argue otherwise), and for a dozen other identities within the queer and lgbt+ communities (asexuals have a Very Similar story with their corrective rape statistics).

but what I want to impart with this post is the idea that you question assumptions about what a group does or does not experience. there's an entire world happening where you don't see it, and when somebody tries to cut an entire group of people out of an experience they're not doing it because they've Seen every corner of said world. question more than just the conclusions that they draw when they make these assumptions.

another thing of note: the more that these marginalized groups Do increase their visibility, the more we champion for their voices, the more this violence Will become overt. the more you Will hear about them in the news and on tv and from your bigoted uncle. and that violence won't be new, it'll just finally be drawn to the forefront. we've seen it before, and we're seeing it now.

#discourse #queer unity #trans unity #transunity #transphobia #transandrophobia #rape mention

[admirableadmiranda]

Forgive me if this was done incorrectly. I am new to Tumblr, but it’s a learn as you go thing I suppose 😂

I’ve been curious about books that have the characters learning or reacting to the actions or events that occur in their stories. I’m in the process of planning to write one, but have stumbled into a small road block. I’ve read some of your other takes on similar topics and believe that hearing (or reading) it from you might show me the right path to take.

I have no idea if this was previously requested, but what is your take on Madam Yu? How do you view her actions in response to Wang Lingjiao’s demand of Wei Wuxian’s punishment for the events of Xuanwu Cave? What is your opinion on her treatment of Wei Wuxian after Jiang Fengmian brings him back to Lotus Pier?

I understand that one’s opinions, experiences, and values can impact how her actions look, but there are some fics that defend her actions and some that label it as abuse. In the case of calling it abuse I have even encountered several people who call it a western view, where the slightest insult or injury seems most detrimental to a person’s overall ability to function or cope. I didn’t really understand what was being referenced when I read that particular part of the post, but maybe it’s something I have no experience with.

I, of course, have my own opinion on this matter, but I find that sometimes my opinion can be quite flawed. I am in no way able to draw a conclusion on this as I would be deciding on how I present her character based on my opinion rather than what lies written in text. For such a problem I believe that two opinions (or more) might be more trustworthy.

Nothing to apologize for, it just always takes me a bit longer to get to these asks that need an essay to respond. I'd rather take the time to think it through and consider my answer before writing one out.

I have only been asked about Madam Yu once before, I get a lot more asks about her son rather than her. Since you've sent me a really good ask for breaking things down, instead of being sassy or snarky, I'll try to keep as level a head as possible about one of my least favorite characters.

Cut for discussions about abuse, physical, mental and emotional

Yu Ziyuan is one of the most unpleasant characters in all of MXTX's works, completely lacking in redeeming traits and actions that can be defined as anything but abusive. She is the viper in the den, she's the poison of Yunmeng Jiang, she's the person who takes the least responsibility for any of her misery and MXTX never minces words about her.

Her actions in the face of Wang Lingjiao's demands are atrocious and shortsighted, both in that she's very happy to whip Wei Wuxian worse than he can ever recall her doing before getting ready to cut off his hand, only stopping when Wang Lingjiao steps "above her station" as Madam Yu sees it. She does not consider any possible way to handle the situation aside from whatever feeds and hurts her pride, making her an easy target for the Wen to lure her into drawing first blood. The only decent choice she makes is sending Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian out of Lotus Pier when it's clear that there's a battle that Yunmeng Jiang will be on the losing side of, and I literally do mean it's the only decent choice she makes. Not good, just decent.

Her treatment of Wei Wuxian is absolutely atrocious. From constantly slandering both of his parents in the same breath, to trash talking him and constantly insulting him to insult her own children, to straight up whipping him for such transgressions as...being too hot on a hot summer day to be fully dressed. For comparison, Lan Wangji straight up had to commit treason to be whipped and it was a one time event. Wei Wuxian mentions being whipped two to three times at a time and sent to kneel in the ancestral hall for hours until Jiang Fengmian would let him out. He's whipped so often that he just shrugs it off. And he's the only one in Lotus Pier treated like that, the younger disciples tease him for taking all the blows for them.

There is no way that her treatment of him can be justified. She invents the fantasy of Wei Wuxian possibly being Jiang Fengmian's bastard to hurt her husband and children because she is an angry person. She doesn't care who or why or what she says, only that she is forever angry at her life and punishes everyone else for it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Jiang Fengmian taking in an orphan as a disciple. We see that in several other clans that there are people who join without being directly connected to the main family, that the Great Clans are hundreds of people large, possibly even thousands. One child is not an unusual event in the slightest.

I can't say why people want to defend her, why they want to claim her treatment of the children under her care is acceptable. I'm sure some of it is a need to protect themselves from the realization that the behavior of some figure like her in their lives is not okay and they shouldn't have to live with it. That it is abusive to be constantly degraded and insulted, to be constantly shamed for not meeting impossible standards, to be struck for such things as talking out of turn or simply existing when someone is angry. Even in the book itself, Yu Ziyuan stands out from every other parental figure barring her own son in how she treats... well the three of Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian in specific, but in general everyone.

I have friends who are both far more qualified than I am to talk about south and east asian media, but they have kindly told me about shifts in some media, because there's also a shift in cultural mores where the treatment is being put under the lens and people are starting to question the nature of such treatment. MXTX is one of these people, her works clearly do look at abuse and the cycle of abuse as things to be addressed, and the cycle of Yu Ziyuan, Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling lay out the cycles of abuse and chosing to end them really starkly in Modaozushi. There is perhaps much more to be said on the levels of how people also treat those who are ranked lower in society than they are and how this also influences Yu Ziyuan's actions and treatment of everyone, but I think I am perhaps not the right person to do so.

As for the post you are referencing having seen, I have never seen this post myself (and hope to never see it as abuse apologia is never a pleasant thing to read) but I think there's a stark difference between say when Wei Wuxian hits Jin Ling on the shoulder in the Guanyin Temple after they get him away from the garrotte hold that Jin Guangyao has him trapped in, where first he hugs him very tightly before slapping his shoulder and scolding him to "not stand close to dangerous people!" and Yu Ziyuan hitting Wei Wuxian with Zidian for various transgressions that are never specifically laid out nor contain any attempt at helping Wei Wuxian to grow. Her actions contain nothing constructive or useful about them, it is just to let out her anger and cause pain.

I understand your doubt in your own opinion here, especially with some of the 'meta' and 'explanations' floating around in the fanbase, but I hope that I can lay it out clearly enough to remove doubts.

I wouldn't even call Yu Ziyuan an antagonist, she is straight up a villain. She is an abuser and a cancer to her own home. She abuses children, she abuses her husband and MXTX does not exonerate her in the slightest. Her every appearance directly makes the scene worse. The omniscient narrator is very clear that her anger has no sense or rational behind it, that she just gets angry and wants to hurt people. She poisons her son, she poisons her daughter and she tortures Wei Wuxian. She has no redeeming qualities and the fact that both CQL and the donghua decided to add a soft side that she did not have makes me very angry. Her son has far more redeeming traits than she does and it's still only enough to raise him up to antagonist, she is that terrible.

There is literally no positive action that she takes or kind word that she says. Even to the bitter end, she is filled with hatred, the scum of the earth that crawled her way onto the earth up from hell by clinging to the lotuses. Everyone in Lotus Pier would have been better off if she'd either never married in or died before she had time to poison everyone with her anger.

#mdzs #yu ziyuan #wei wuxian #canon jiang cheng #jiang yanli #yunmeng jiang #asks #anon #anon asks #tw abuse #there is no defending her #she is a villain through and through #and her actions are inexcusable

[galvanizedfriend]

Klaroline Fic Rec

For @klarolineauseason Week 1 - Canon!

Wolf Club by Radioactive59

Summary: When Stefan kills Ray Sutton, a child is left behind, a precocious eight-year-old werewolf named Grace. Klaus, in a rare moment of hospitality, takes her under his wing and decides to raise her as a Mikaelson. Antics ensue. And against all odds, Caroline finds that she wants to dance with a different pack of wolves.

Why you should read this story:

I realize this story is not going to be for everyone. At first glance, it wasn't for me either. It has an OC as a main character. Said OC is a child, and the whole story is told through her POV. If those are things you're not used to reading, I get it. I don't either. But hear me out.

I was completely enraptured with this fic right from the start. Grace is the daughter of Ray Sutton, who you might know as Klaus' first hybrid experience, when he's on the road with Stefan. After killing her father and carrying her around for a bit, unsure of where to dump her and having Stefan there to stay his hand, Klaus finds himself strangely fascinated by Gracie, and thus he keeps her as a mini side-kick (actually - he first keeps her a pet to appease Rebekah's mood after he undaggers her, which - very on brand for Klaus, tbh), because of course he has no concept of a child's needs. But this story is not about Klaus.

Grace is a delight! She's smart and sassy, a little force of nature, but still preserving that bit of innocence that makes her so endearing. Her feelings towards Klaus are incredibly conflicted. She hates him, but she can't help how drawn to him he is. After all, he's all she's left with after he kills her father. There's a lot of Stockholm syndrome in their relationship at times, but it's almost understandable, because not only is she a child, she also didn't exactly have an easy life prior to their encounter. Tough love is all she knows.

I said the story is not about him, but Klaus is also a fascinating piece. He's violent, short-tempered, has no idea how to deal with a child, but he's amused by Grace, and later on becomes attached to her. I guess he sees some of himself in her, the way she's been mistreated by life, how she's known violence from such a young age that she's become rebellious to the point of self-sufficience. She's precocious and obviously thinks she can take on anything, and Klaus can't help but admire that about her. She's a fighter, a survivor, and one who's not afraid to show her claws.

TW for some big red flag moments, though - which both makes sense if you consider who Klaus is and also makes you hate his ass. This isn't TO's Klaus, changing diapers like there's no tomorrow. This is very much early TVD Klaus - wild, mercurial, violent, selfish. He doesn't abuse her, btw (I mean, if you disregard the killing her father and then carrying her around part). But he does lose his patience a couple of times.

I also love how Grace just has her own opinions of the other characters. She seems to forget she's a mini person and takes Klaus' side a few times (raising eyebrows and causing general WTFs all around, while also getting eye-rolls from Klaus), but she also draws her own conclusions. For instance, she likes Alaric, because of course Alaric would be nice to a kid, even one who's been walking around with Klaus. He feels bad for her, is sympathetic, and so Grace likes him, even relates to him in how he lost Jenna the same way Klaus killed Ray. She gets that Klaus is a bad guy, she doesn't like that he hurts people, questions him a lot of the time, but she's also very quick to show her own wild baby wolf side, and that makes their relationship all the more interesting.

So far, there hasn't been a lot of Caroline. The story is unfinished, only six chapters so far. I am personally very much looking forward to seeing what that dynamic will be like once Klaus' obsession for Caroline becomes more obvious to Grace. But even so - I clicked on this fic for the Klaroline bits, and I have 100% stayed for little Grace. I just love her.

This is such a unique story, and the writing is so, so good, which is not at all an easy job considering it's written through a child's POV. If this is something you feel you might enjoy, please give it a try and show some love to the author! But mind the tags and be warned about any possible triggers and please, please, please do not leave any crappy comments if it turns out not to be your cup of tea. Don't be an asshole.

#klaroline #klaroline fic rec #radioactive59 #klarolineauseason

[leadfeathers]

Oh Lordt.

Parents came up for a weekend and wanted to see a baseball game. Went to game and it’s pride night. My parents are “straight people don’t get a whole month” kind of people. I told my mom we have Toyotathon.

Next day we go to small town nearby to shop and bop. What’s that? Small festival with food trucks? Great let’s go! Pride festival. We get a beer and rainbow wristbands and walk around. Dad can’t quite stand it. Not sure if he has something against pride festivals or if he’d just been standing too long. Hard To Say.

Mom wants to go to a Saturday night church service. Only Lutheran church with a service is a Everyone is Welcome here type church where they are celebrating pride month, Father’s Day, and Juneteenth all in one. There is a talk from a mom about her daughters transition. There are new bathroom signs they are proud of. The service goes way long as a woman is giving a Very Intense Sermon that is actually her life story and by the end I’m sobbing because her brother died after contracting HIV. We have to skip out early because it’s the longest Lutheran service I’ve been to. Longer than a Christmas service. And we have reservations for dinner so we gotta go.

I’d like to state for the record that I was not planning on giving my parents the talk about this stuff this weekend.

I was told hey we’re coming down come to a baseball game.

We’re in the car. Drivin. I’m stressing. I’m fielding comments about People. I’m trying my best. But guys I’m straight. I’m cis. I’m never right. I don’t use the right words. And my mom is asking me to explain it all. Pronouns. What are they. Nonbinary. Intersex. She has combined NB and trans in her mind. Do all trans people use they/them? Nobody introduces themselves with pronouns do they? Dads cutting in with Comments.

She just feels like people are spending all day walking around talking about who they want to have sex with! Or at least that’s what tv is telling her. I try to explain that it actually comes up very little. It can be as easy as someone just letting you know they are going through some medical changes. Maybe needing some help with those changes. Or maybe you need to learn a new name. Like how when someone changes their maiden name and it’s hard to make the switch but very expected and you know it’s rude to do it wrong.

And guys maybe I got through to her? I tried some jokes. I tried to keep it on the level of: we don’t want to deliberately hurt people and everyone is different and if they want you to call them a certain name or refer to them as a boy or a girl then that’s kind and pretty simple. No one has the same life experience so I just trust them to tell me about themselves and we go from there. She agreed with that of course.

The church was a bit weird. There wasn’t really anything church focused there at all and it had kind of culty vibes. They were talking a TON about their inclusivity work but never once mentioned any disability inclusion. Which was the one demographic that that very white Minnesotan congregation could probably understand the best. We chatted about that and how that can make us feel like outsiders. Both of them wear hearing aides now and obviously we have my brother who is severely disabled. So that was a bit of a touchstone for them.

My guys I’m so exhausted tho. I always feel like I’m trying so hard with them. To combat the shit they hear from their friends and the rest of our family. They love people and I think delight in silliness and uniqueness. And they’ve got this crazy wall on this one issue. I just think I’m the only person they know who tries to explain it to them.

I just want my parents to be nice people. I’m a little worried about my dad. Since he’s retired I think he gets more and more of his life from the internet. And his adhd brain and dyslexia combine to make him skip around from weird inflammatory headline to inflammatory headline making up shit and drawing conclusions as he goes.

#don’t read this if you don’t want to hear about my parents #someone help #I want to just go back in time and spend my weekend on a bike at a campground

[kinetic-elaboration]

October 12: Briarpatch 1x10

My Briarpatch re-watch is complete. I really enjoyed it and the ending was very satisfying!

I think this ep really showed off how well-cast everyone was. Seeing Alan Cumming just deliciously slurping up the scenery was great, but everyone just hit their noir toned roles so well. It was really satisfying even though or perhaps especially because it was so often over the top.

For example: “I’m the most terrifying thing in the world. A lady with a job. And I’m good at it.” That was?? Actually amazing? Feels good to hear her say it.

The episode did suffer a little bit from “has 10 finales” disease, in that the last 20 minutes easy--everything from the Confrontation Scene on--was just one ending after another. Oh, what a poignant conclusion. Oh wait! Oh, what a poignant conclusion. Gotcha--there’s more! But there were a lot of loose ends to tie up and personal notes to hit.

The intro, interspersing Dill’s plan with the actual plan being carried out, was so well-edited. I love that technique in general. I did find some parts of it a little bit hard to follow, even on a second viewing. For example, she told Spivey they were going to align themselves with Brattle, and got him to agree to that to her. He was supposed to break things off with Raytek at the same time. Presumably to get her to do something. But Dill also relied on Spivey still prioritizing his own skin, and trying to keep his alliance with Raytek anyway. At that point, Dill knew that Raytek was the second bomber. Was she trying to draw her out as Spivey’s backup? Which didn’t work, she actually came as Colder’s backup but it turned out the same? I presume that’s it. Although on the other hand, she knew the real estate deal was off, so maybe this was more about Spivey than Raytek?

Spivey she was just misdirecting entirely by letting him think she was really going to let Brattle go. To be honest, I’m not sure how she was expecting that to play out, if Colder hadn’t shown up. I guess use Brattle to get to Colder, and then let the FBI, who were never called off because she never had any intention of stopping the Senator at all, would get Brattle.

It’s a bit confusing and I would like it explained to me lol.

Another thing I really liked was that in this show about selfish people all working to their own selfish ends, where there really aren’t good guys and bad guys but just different types of bad guys who are more or less sympathetic, and our main character is a classic anti-heroine, everything still tied itself up in a morally satisfying way. It didn’t just throw up its hands at the end and say, well, everything is grey anyway so nothing matters! Rather, it had a very clear sense of what bad acts were, in this narrative, especially bad, and it punished the perpetrators of those acts accordingly.

Specifically, the cardinal sin of the story is hurting, betraying, using, or abandoning Felicity. Raytek, Spivey, and Colder all failed her in some way. And none of them get what they want. They are all roundly punished: Raytek and Colder with death, and Spivey with prison. (Brattle is also killed but he’s just an all around Bad Guy, so that’s unsurprising.) The Senator, on the other hand, is no peach, but he essentially gets what he wants: Spivey’s arrest will be a big win for him, Allegra is asking for almost nothing in exchange for not releasing the tape, and we can fairly well assume he will at least win the nomination for the Presidency. He was willing to kill Allegra! He’s pretty awful! But he wasn’t involved in the Felicity story. It would be unrealistic for everything to end happily ever after, in such a story, or with neat, clear lines where the deserving win and the wrongdoers are punished. Corruption is everywhere, at every level, and so many people are just selfish and awful and power hungry. So yeah, a corrupt, selfish, power hungry politician lives to fight another day. But Dill got justice for the person she came to avenge. That’s a happy ending, and it’s a morally satisfying ending.

It helps that there are a couple of just honest-to-goodness good people here, too, and that they unequivocally prosper. I’m thinking of Singe and Cindy, of course.

Dill as the anti-hero has a fitting ending as well. She is, of course, also complicit in Felicity’s death, and she says so many times. She’s guilty in the exact same way Spivey is: the only thing we ever saw was each other. But she has a self awareness that he never has, not even at the very end. And, critically, she doesn’t completely win. I see Dill’s ending as happy, yes, especially by her own definitions--she can drive again, she no longer fears her past, she’s free both of the burdens of her past but of everything, and she’s in control of her destiny again. And yet, her main reward is simply escape, and a blank slate. She doesn’t prosper, specifically. I’m not sure I’m explaining this correctly, especially since she’s never wanted the sorts of things, money and power etc., that the other characters want, so to say she doesn’t gain power or influence or whatever isn’t saying much. Still, I see her ending as more reaching purgatory than reaching heaven. Like the Master and Margarita in The Master and Margarita (weird comparison I know lol).

As Candy Bar tells her in the previous ep, you can’t beat the system, and the only morally pure thing to do is to leave it altogether. That’s what she does. She uses her blackmail to buy her freedom and also her escape from the whole immoral system. The system continues--the Senator on his way to the White House--she isn’t a hero, she didn’t bring the whole house of cards down. And it’s certainly arguable that her decision to leave entirely is actually morally pure. But then she was never a hero, right?

I also loved what the show did with the central conundrum of a murder mystery where the victim is important to the detective--the central conundrum of any narrative that starts with the death of someone close to the main characters--that the audience will never know that deceased character properly. We have to be TOLD what the character meant to other characters. We have to be TOLD what she was like. We have to be TOLD why we should care that she’s gone. I think Six Feet Under is a good example of this: the show starts and ends with major deaths in the Fisher Family but Nate’s death hits completely differently than Nathanial’s--because we know who Nate is.

Briarpatch’s solution to this is to fold it into the plot. Yes, Felicity looks like just a plot device, and not least to Spivey and Dill, who are brought together by her death just to spend 10 episodes doing their will-they-won’t-they, toxic-most-important-person dance. The audience forgets that Felicity was important to their relationship too. And Spivey and even Dill forget this at times too: as she tells him in their final scene, he’s wrong to say it was always the two of them. It was always THREE. He can’t look at her now and say that they can still win, because the only thing that has ever mattered is that Spivey and Dill come out on top. He betrayed the third person, and Dill can’t forgive that.

Never mind that it’s never really been Spivey and Dill anyway. It’s just been Spivey, Spivey, Spivey.

That she simply walks away while he’s holding the gun on her, a moment foreshadowed by her walking away from the kid with the gun, was really excellent.

The insistence of both Spivey and Colder that they are the good guys was VERY interesting in this overall context of a morally grey noir genre, with a morally grey anti-heroine at the center, whose ending was recognizing her own complicity in the evils she’s avenging and then walks away. Does Dill get to ‘win,’ comparatively, because she is honest with and about herself? Why is it so important to Colder and Spivey to see themselves as the good guys? Because it allows them to justify their bad acts? Colder is a quintessential “nice guy” who is absolutely devoid of any moral core at all, and completely delusional about it. It hasn’t been as obvious throughout with Spivey, but it’s certainly been simmering under the surface with him.

Contrast these two men to Raytek. She never says she’s a good person. She says she is a problem solver. She gets things done. She never worries about the cost because she has a larger goal in mind: fix the town, even if it means using people, double-crossing allies, lying, manipulating--even murder. These aren’t good or bad acts. They’re just steps in a plan. Nothing matters if you win.

Colder and Spivey have much weaker self-images. Colder is completely delusional. He’s completely separated his actions from his understanding of himself. He IS a good guy, and so everything he does is, by definition, something a good guy would do. And he kills Felicity over it--because she challenged his idea of himself and his idea of her. “She wore your sister’s face, but she was a different person. There was something twisted and evil inside and I had to kill it so I could keep loving the real Felicity” is a really chilling line.

With Spivey, again, it is subtler, but I thought there was something really sad about him facing Dill one last time and being completely unwilling to let go even a little bit from his own narrative. He was the good guy and he and Dill were united against the world and everything would work out for them eventually.

It helped that he could always blame Brattle for everything. And Brattle really did mess him up, and I do think meeting him again pushed Spivey back into that really dark mental place that years of abuse had created in him.

Or maybe it’s just as simple as, he will always care about himself most. He will always be selfish, to the very last.

It was definitely interesting to see a relationship, in Dill and Spivey, that WAS deep, and old, and multi-layered, where they DID love each other, as some combination of friends and family and lovers, where maybe in a sense they WERE soulmates, but they were also deeply twisted and bad for each other. Their relationship was so deeply unhealthy. It was all of those things at once.

#the year 2022 #2022: briarpatch #2022: fandom thoughts

[unit-zero-two]

“Good Readers and Good Writers”

I spend a lot of time in fandom spaces, and people in these spaces tend to focus on characters in a narrative as their main entry point into a work. A lot of us see or hear about a character and go, “I want to read the work this person is in”. Often we’ll find a character we empathize with, a connection that makes them a favorite, and possibly an obsession. Just as often we’ll find a character who is the opposite. Hated and despised, whose very existence fills you with disgust just seeing them appear. We might ask, “why is this character here?” or think, “this story would be much better if this character didn’t exist”.

But with all these thoughts and questions, the positive and the negative, we’re making a huge mistake as a reader. There’s a short, classic essay from 1948 titled “Good Readers and Good Writers”. In it, the author talks about how to approach a work as a reader. He mentions a question he’d put forward to students and asks them to pick four out of ten options for the most important traits of a reader.

1. The reader should belong to a book club. 2. The reader should identify himself or herself with the hero or heroine. 3. The reader should concentrate on the social-economic angle. 4. The reader should prefer a story with action and dialogue to one with none. 5. The reader should have seen the book in a movie. 6. The reader should be a budding author. 7. The reader should have imagination. 8. The reader should have memory. 9. The reader should have a dictionary. 10. The reader should have some artistic sense.

Some of these options are more obviously traps than others. The author found that students tended to lean more heavily on: emotional identification, action, and the social-economic or historical angle. He instead contends that, “the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense“. The basic summary of the article is to take a text on it’s own merits. To try to keep out preconceptions and the reality of our world. At least until you’ve finished. Once you’ve read a novel on it’s terms, then you can add in that context without it clouding your thoughts.

For fandom the largest pitfall tends to be character identification. Projection of their own morals and experiences on a character, both in positive and negative aspects. It’s not wrong to like a character, or even hate a character. It’s natural. But to do so while ignoring the narrative and themes, to refuse to accept a character on any terms, is just bad literary analysis.

And now is where I apologize for burying the lead. The author of this essay is one Vladimir Nabokov. It’s pretty easy to understand why Naokov might feel frustrated by readers not taking his characters on the terms and the narrative. Drawing premature conclusions, and having that affect their view of the work, and author, in general. This essay was actually published years before Lolita, but it’s not hard to see how someone who would write that novel would hold this view. Regardless of what views you hold of Lolita or Nabokov’s work in general, his point is still a good one for readers to consider.

You don’t need to like a character, just understand who they are and what they’re doing in the narrative. Once you can do that, a whole world of reading analysis will open up for you.

[animenewsplanet]

‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ Season One Review – Shonen at its Absolute Finest

It should come as no surprise to anyone to hear that anime has seen a surge in popularity lately. Our new normal in the COVID-19 pandemic usually keeps us indoors and often gives us more downtime to access new media. Plus, the 22 minute episodes are easy to digest, and the amount available to us through streaming services can bore anyone for a while. Not to mention the fact that current anime has maintained a consistent release schedule at a time when many other releases have been cut or delayed. But with many show runtimes stretching to hundreds of episodes, the question remains: What is it that's good and easy to watch right now? Well, look no further than Jujutsu Kaisen, a show that's been on the rise since its premiere and living up to the hype around it.

In conclusion, the Jujutsu Kaisen poster is a great way to show your support for the anime. It is also a great way to show your appreciation for the work that goes into making the anime. The poster is well-made and looks great, and it is a great way to show your love for the anime.

Jujutsu Kaisen ("magic fight" in English) is a series of fantasy horror fights. Created by Japanese animation studio MAPPA and directed by Sunghu Park, it is based on the manga of the same name by writer and artist Gege Akutami, originally published in Shueisha's Weekly Shnen Jump magazine. The anime debuted in October last year with English subtitles, followed by a dub that aired at the same time in November.

The series revolves around a fight between jujutsu wizards and demonic creatures nicknamed "Curses". Curses are entities that arise in the world through the concentration of negative emotions of people. They must be banished by these wizards, fighters who draw their powers from cursed energy, much like the curse itself. The protagonist, Yuji Itadori, is a high school student who enters a school for jujutsu magicians when she is discovered as the reincarnation vessel of an extraordinarily powerful curse named Ryomen Tsukuna.

This first season consists of chapters 1–63 of the manga in a range of 24 episodes. This averages out to a little over two and a half manga chapters per episode (except for the first episode which is mainly based on the overly long first chapter). It sets up a pretty good pacing for the story, which doesn't drag at all, and also manages to further develop some key scenes from the manga. A prime example of this is a scene that adds more depth between Yuji and his grandfather in the pilot. The scene with Grandfather Itadori is important to Yuji's development, and additional parts fictionally express the protagonist's feelings.

Another small change in the manga that still packs a punch is the opening scene of the show. The manga begins with Yuji at school going through his everyday life, while the anime opens in a flash-forward to events that don't take place until the second chapter, a scene that allows Yuji to be his mentor figure. , Satoru presents from Gojo, starting right at the same time. Bat. This creative choice from MAPA and director Sunghoo Park is highly effective as it sets a haunting and mysterious tone from the very beginning, an element that will characterize the series. The changes and additions made to the anime not only fill in the minor scenes in a good way, but also show the love and understanding of the creators for the source material as well as the major scenes.

Another thing that Jujutsu Kaisen excels at is introducing characters that become engaging very quickly. In season one, I can't think of a single character name that doesn't have at least one aspect that speaks to him, whether it's his story, personality, dynamic with others, or just looks. clam down. This applies to both the hero and the villain. Or rather "heroes" and "villains", because not everything is as clear as it seems. They are all brought to life by the incredibly talented voice actors who pull through their performances.

In conclusion, the Jujutsu Kaisen poster is a great way to show your support for the anime. It is also a great conversation starter and a way to show your love for the anime. It is a must have for any fan of the anime.

As stated before, the anime is a fast-paced adaptation, but that doesn't mean it won't stop living in the moment. The emotions and motivations of the characters are usually shown in very quietly spoken scenes. Alongside the main events of the series, we learn what really happens during downtime. This is especially evident in Yuji's reactions to events as they unfold. While she doesn't have a direct internal monologue, it's easy to see what's eating her through the footage.

As the fight ends, we learn that things are not as easy as Yuji initially thought. This evolution from a morally upright hero to a man struggling to succumb to the gray color of the world makes him all the more compelling as a character. The fact that it's his environment, and not his own personal issues, that he's really dealing with is a solid spin on the distinctive genre lead.

Aesthetically, the world we see looks like an urban fantasy, much like Tite Kubo's Bleach. Always with his inspiration on the tip of his tongue, Jujutsu Kaisen draws many tails from both the aforementioned Bleach and Masahi Kishimoto's Naruto, both of which were popular anime (and manga before that) from the early 2000s to the mid-2010s. ) was. While much more modern in presentation and storytelling, it respects what came before, so it's like Jujutsu Kaisen carrying the torch on the road to becoming a successful series like its now-great predecessors. ,

One thing that Jujutsu Kaisen in particular supports is its emphasis on properly developing its female characters, some of whom are some of the most engaging in the series. Characters such as Nobara Kugisaki, Maki Gen'in and Mai Gen'in are used to combat sexism in both the general genre and the real world. They are very well developed and used characters, which is nice considering that consistently well written female characters can be a rarity in mainstream shonen media.

Well, the key to anime is, of course, animation, and MAPPA doesn't hesitate to offer it. As a story with many fights, Akutami's art in the manga exceeds its ability to capture motion in still frames exceptionally well. The animation team takes this footage and puts it in motion, and the final product is amazing to look at. Top notch animation that pushes the boundaries of the shonen genre, makes for incredibly entertaining battles and features some beautifully shot footage straight from the manga panels. The visuals are also greatly enhanced by the energetic and calming music tracks scattered throughout.

Although the anime is out for now and the next season may be a long way off, fans will be considered for a film adaptation this winter, as announced by the official Jujutsu Kaisen Twitter account. The adaptation is based on Jujutsu Kaisen 0, a miniseries that preceded Akutami's conception of the main series and its events, and features several supporting characters from the main series. The film was announced almost immediately after the season finale aired.

Overall, the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen does everything right to offer fans a complete adaptation of Gege Akutami's manga. With gorgeous Japanese and English voice acting, beautiful animation, endlessly captivating characters and writing that shows great affinity with the source material, MAPPA delivers the season's must-see anime that seems no sign of slowing down anytime soon. does not show the signal. With so many good adaptations, the series is definitely one that anime watchers should not miss.

We also sell Naruto hoodies and stuff! Visit our website Merch Fuse.

[munchboxart]

I love how you draw King dedede! Also, thoughts on the Kirby TV show Kirby right back at you?

Thank you so much! Uhm this might get long so apologies for that The anime was a big part of my childhood and for my love of Kirby so I have a LOT of thoughts on it (also this includes some mild spoilers if anyone wanted to watch it)

I love it quite a lot, actually. It was one of the first mediums that helped me get really into Kirby (KRtDL/Super Star Ultra are probably the first ones to introduce me to Kirby).

I think the anime is very fun and really entertaining, but dear god I hate that it isn't game accurate. With the anime being so easy to access compared to the games (if you either don't have the money to afford one OR if you don't want to be spoiled by watching someone's playthrough/gameplay), it unfortunately is easy to think that the anime is canon, which still is a problem to this day.

For the anime content itself, I really like that they tried to build some lore about Kirby himself, and about how he and MK are a species that are destined to be Star Warriors or something, its cute! I don't mind the Cappies either, although I wont lie, it was a little odd going with "Cappy" as the population LOL. Them giving some stories with some of the generic enemies, such as with Bonkers and Knuckle Joe, was really nice. They also chose a really good voice cast for everyone in both ENG and JP, especially Dedede's. I also like the little quirk for Dedede and Escargoon in the JP where they end their sentences with "zoi" and "gesu" (I don't really know the reason for this, but I think it's a personality quirk of sorts? I could be wrong though).

Also I love Chef Nagoya so much, he's so cute, one of my most favorite characters from the anime

I do have gripes with it though. I can't help but feel Meta Knight is... really weak LOL, he's supposed to be the "last Star Warrior" and dear god he feels like just... a retired old man JDSFJHJGHH it's a little hard to be convinced that HE was the last one to survive But he is a little goofy guy, he appears and just runs away giving vague advice as if he's those "wise" people tropes. Also the fact that they didn't make him fly, when (I think) in the pilot, he does. Also just. Dedede himself. NOT THAT HE'S BAD, I quite like him a lot. It's just his characterization fucked me up so badly that I have a hard time trying not to go back to his "big asshole" type characterization.

Kirby speaking. I like that they went with him saying "Poyo", but it's been engrained so hard into my brain that I legit didn't know it was an anime only thing till recently. Although, I think that's fine, but him actually... speaking... words. Feels wrong. And this is also another issue for me, because only recently have I started to accept the "Kirby can speak" headcanon, when for so long, I've accepted that Kirby doesn't really speak since he's a "baby", because of the anime.

This is specifically with the dub. I fucking hate that they made Blade Knight incomprehensible. You have no idea how big of a relief it was to hear Blade Knight have actual speaking lines in the sub. ALSO renaming Lololo and Lalala to "Fololo" and "Falala". That fucked me up so much, it took me so long to get used to their original names

Lastly is the animation. I absolutely love the style they went with for Dedede, it's really expressive! I know that they had to use 3D with some parts to save money/move the process along, but dear god they made some part's 3D when it would have been easier to have do it with 2D. But I guess you can't do anything about that.

By the way, the anime is the reason I have a strong hatred for Kine

In conclusion, the anime is good if you want some entertainment, but it kind of ruined/mixed up a lot of people's perception on Kirby and actual canon. While how badly that has effected the community is up to the community itself, but for me as a big fan of Kirby now, it kind of messed me up a bit that I struggle with separating them still.

#i'm burdened with the knowledge that MK's JP VA is the same as dmmd's protag #i hope he got that bag #ive been wanting to dump my brain about the anime for so long. ty anon #kirby right back at ya spoilers #hoshi no kaabii spoilers #spoilers #ask #anon #my writing #kirby

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Do you have any advice on writing Tom Riddle? I know it’s a broad question…

His inner dialogue is difficult for me. He’s a very interesting character but because of that it can be difficult to get into his mental space especially once he is canon Voldemort and I love how you write him so if you have any advice I’d love to hear it

Ooh, a broad but intriguing question indeed.

So there's a few things here and all of them are... some varying shade of difficulty. I should also note that I'm a freak and, for god knows what reason, writing Tom is fairly instinctive for me. He's a narrative voice I can fairly easily slip into even in very AU off branches of things.

Vs.... If I tried to write Hagrid I'd have a hard time.

General Things: Writing Very Intelligent People

A very broad mistake I see a lot of people make, in general, is when they try to write intelligent characters. It's very easy for writers to slip into two traps a) tell not show and b) not understanding what intelligence fundamentally is.

In the first case, you'll have your super serial smart character. Rather than have the character make any intelligent decision at any point in the story, the author will make up for this by having every other character tell the narrator how smart X is. Narrator walks into a room, Y and Z are having a conversation, this conversation is always about how smart X is. Always. Have they mentioned how smart X is?

Every time you do this, I as a reader demand that much more proof that X really is that brilliant.

In the second case... Authors will have characters draw what I call National Treasure conclusions. Character X looks at a set of disperate clues, they then put them together in a genius way nobody else did, and this is because what they did is the dumbest thing that had no basis in logic or any realm of intelligence. Mount Rushmore was actually created by aliens and houses El Dorado. Other characters then applaud X's genius so that we know he's smart.

This doesn't work, don't do it.

The other is Character X might be able to, oh, I don't know, read War and Peace in two seconds. Whether X understands War and Peace is a different matter entirely, but the author conveys that just by reading it so quickly they must be a genius. This is not intelligence, it is simply a skill.

The way I think of conveying intelligence is to try to follow through a character's conclusions. They are likely to be able to conclude things faster than an ordinary person would and in ways that might not be obvious to an ordinary person in their situation. However, and here's the key, they can be wrong. They may not have all information available to them, they may have wrong information, they may have very strong internal biases, nevertheless what they conclude usually makes sense and is in its own way creative and very clever.

Take Light Yagami, particularly from the first half of Death Note. Some of his schemes (while overdramatic and ridiculous) were insanely clever and he routinely walks us through the steps of his logic and how his plans all come together. Light is a very convincing highly intelligent character.

Writing Tom

The first question you have to ask yourself is who the hell is Tom Riddle? This blog is filled with my musings on Tom, but the point is, that all of this was rattling in my head long before this blog was written. And all of it informs how I approach writing him.

You don't have to agree with me, many don't, but if you wonder why the Tom in my fics is the way he is then it's usually informed by at least some of what's above.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you have to get into Tom Riddle's headspace. Think about why he is the way he is, what different events in his life will do to him, how he would react to scenarios that never happened in canon, how does he talk or narrate, etc.

Then it becomes the easiest thing in the world to put him in any situation you want.

Tom Riddle voyages into space and is attacked by mutant bunnies? Hold my beer.

This really applies to any character you write and especially one you want to have narrate: try to understand who they are at their essence first and the rest will follow.

Tom Riddle's interesting in that we see so little of him and have no examples from JKR to guide us (vs. Harry who is our narrator from the original series). This, of course, is the fun of it.

#writing #writing advice #tom riddle #writing meta #meta

[daisyachain]

hi!! i've been reading through your ao no flag liveblogs lately and they're really interesting! i enjoy seeing someone so passionate about this manga and it makes me want to reread it .... i'm really interested in hearing what you have to say about masumi's ending though!! part of me thinks it makes sense but i'm mostly conflicted on it and would love to see it from your perspective ^^

haha well thank you! ah yes, the arc that created as much controversy as you can get in an active readership of like 10 people...

Blue Flag is an imperfect story, but it also gets a lot of flack for things that a) didn't...actually...happen, b) didn't happen in the way people think they did.

Part 1: Is it actually straightwashing?

The most common criticism I see of Masumi's ending is that she was written as a lesbian character and straightwashed at the end. Marrying off a female character as a way to 'fix' her issues is a common and harmful trope, and saying that lesbian women just need to get a man is a widespread homophobic trope and talking point. So, it's not a good look. To have a character angst over interest in a woman and end up happily married to a guy reads like a '50s pulp novel that just uses f/f attraction for marketing.

But, if the intention of the ending was to show that Masumi should give up on women and force herself to date men, then it doesn't. Mitsuyuki's description of her is 'look at my bisexual wife who has dated both women and men and could also have married a woman', which is an odd choice if the intention was straightwashing. It feels more like a clumsy way to make sure that, in a series full of ambiguity, there could be no argument that Masumi was queer. That isn't to say that cisstraight people don't view bisexuality as less/better than/straighter than her being lesbian and that making a previously gay character bisexual isn't still straightwashing (increasing the appearance of straightness).

Part 2: Was it actually a retcon?

So: Masumi's ending reaffirms that she's a WLW. One question is, was she always meant to be bisexual, or was she originally written as lesbian?

Blue Flag doesn't have a lot of straight (no pun intended) answers. Taichi never expresses any explicit attraction to guys, but there is enough subtext to suggest he's attracted to Touma well before the finale. Futaba believes she is attracted to Touma at first and is shown to be attracted to him using the visual shorthand of manga (blushing, etc.), but she later says that it was just misinterpreted admiration. Mami doesn't want to date Touma or any man, but she implies that she is attracted to Touma when she says around him she was 'glad to be a woman.' Within the main romance, Futaba says that it was specifically because Taichi was a friend to her that she grew to like-like him. The lines between friendship and romance are blurred in Blue Flag, and sometimes romance can only grow out of friendship.

Masumi has a tense conversation with Taichi in the first half after she breaks up with her boyfriend that most people (me included) read as her saying that she tried guys and she just isn't and can't be attracted to them. However, it's Blue Flag, so the conversation is unfocused and doesn't paint a complete picture.

"Even if I get a boyfriend, I can never make it work"/"I don't know why [I don't like him anymore]" seem to imply that Masumi realized that she was feeling compulsory heterosexuality and that she will never like men. "[I don't know] why he like someone like me"/"You can be friends with potential sexual partners? With both guys and girls?"/"I just wanted to hear how you men feel about [a girl liking other girls]" seem to imply that Masumi is bisexual and is afraid to date because someone might find out. Maybe she's written as questioning--she knows she likes Futaba, but she's feeling out other possibilities. It's Blue Flag, so it's unclear.

Part 3: How does it work with Masumi's arc?

Diving further into Masumi's story, she acts as a foil to Touma (and Futaba, see later). Touma feels free to show his affection for Taichi as a friend as well as a love interest and almost confesses to him of his own free will, well before he's forced to. Touma tells her that he intends to try and set Taichi up with Futaba (because they would be good for each other), and also that he intends to pursue Taichi in some way. He tells her he's "not like [her]."

For Masumi's part, she tells Touma that she wants to express more affection for Futaba--not necessarily in a romantic way, just to participate more fully in that relationship--but she's afraid to, she doesn't feel confident enough to try, and that she's "the worst" because of it. We see this theme repeated, that Masumi is pessimistic, is afraid to trust people and hates herself for being afraid. Her conversations with Aki and Mami explore this; Aki tells her that it's not bad to be insecure or unready and that it's fine to keep a secret/stay closeted until she's ready, Mami tells her that she does have people she can trust, who care about her and who will do their best to understand her and help out. Why am I typing all this out? Because Masumi is a bitter, insecure wlw and that is an Established Trope, but her twist on it is that her negativity or bitterness isn't over her attraction to women/to Futaba or even over the reaction she might get from others (as Touma's is), it's over her own insecurity. Like Futaba, she's hesitant to act on her feelings, and like Futaba, she gets frustrated and hates herself for her own inaction.

All that is to say--Masumi is never shown to have a problem with her attraction to women. Her angst isn't gayngst, she's not ashamed of her feelings for Futaba bur rather her inability to express them. Her problems are with social attitudes and more with her own personal feelings--she and Touma face similar problems, but Touma is simply aware of the consequences (being roughed up and ostracised by a certain group of people) while Masumi feels a more generalized and ambiguous fear.

If Masumi were shown to have mixed feelings about her queerness/were shown to be in denial/were shown to be trying to move on from Futaba, then her ending would read more as straightwashing. As it is, there's nothing in her character and arc to say that she'd ever want to erase that part of herself or get rid of it, rather, she wishes she could embrace it but she just doesn't feel confident in doing it. Her ending shows her as an openly bisexual woman who is out to her friends and husband at the very least, which is a completion of her arc in the manga (of learning to trust other people and express her feelings honestly).

Part 4: What context clues does the rest of the series give us?

This is branching off a little from the strict text of Parts 1-3. As I've said, as we know, Blue Flag is 50% subtext and interpretation. Characters speak, but they don't say what they mean, characters think, but they're not always honest with themselves or in tune with reality. Mami is an ominous and antagonistic figure in the first half, but then it just turns out that Taichi was jumping to conclusions. Taichi is the main character and narrator, but we get radio silence from him for like 7 chapters after the climax. Taichi is bisexual, but the reader has to guess that from the way the art style shifts between PoVs, the similar panelling between Futaba and Touma's confessions, the things he does and does not think about Touma and how he feels about them. It's safe to say that there is room for speculation.

First, there is no explicit evidence that Taichi could be bisexual before ch 54. It's easy to tell that he is, but again, there's nothing specific. Some people reading Blue Flag have said that him marrying Touma was out of character, unforeshadowed, bizarre, inexplicable, etc. because their experienced is coloured by their own heterosexuality. Masumi is shown to have dated a guy and in saying she didn't like him "anymore," implied that she did like him. Her conflicted feelings over her bf could well have been foreshadowing her liking men as well, and my reading that as comphet could have just been my own experience colouring the text. Who knows! Taichi's bisexuality was intentional from the start but could be read as a last-minute twist, so why not Masumi's?

Second, Mitsuyuki is Futaba 2.0. Same colouring, same personality. This could feel like a way of saying "Masumi just needs to like guys instead," but to me it reads deeper with some of the trans subtext around Futaba. One of my issues with Blue Flag is that it doesn't go further into Futaba's admiration/envy for masculinity and her uncomfortable relationship with femininity. As a cis woman who wants to be buff and mildly masculine, I can understand why she's a cis girl throughout and I don't necessarily think that she was supposed to be a trans guy. However, her relationship with masculinity draws a parallel to Mitsuyuki. Reading Mitsuyuki as a cis man, he is the combination of Futaba's personality and looks with her 'ideal form.' So, Masumi marrying Mitsuyuki can read as Masumi marring Ascended FutabaTM.

Third, Futaba having a faceless prop husband is interesting in the context of Mitsuyuki getting a name and personality. Mitsuyuki = Futaba and Mr. Kuze is a blank space, so the reader is prompted to reduce the scenario and slot Masumi into that blank space. Given Masumi and Touma's history as foils, I'm inclined to think that Mitsuyuki exists to show the road not taken. Back at the fireworks, Touma tells Masumi that he hasn't given up on Taichi, and Masumi says she doesn't intend to pursue Futaba even though the pining is making her miserable. Given that Futaba reacts a lot better to the idea of Masumi liking her than Taichi reacts to the idea of Touma liking him, given that we see Masumi has successfully wooed male!Futaba, I think that Masumi's ending shows that she could have ended up with Futaba if she chose to pursue her. She didn't and she still got a happy ending where she is confident in her sexuality and unafraid to trust, but she could have also had a happy ending where she married Futaba. Mitsuyuki is a man because desire-for-masculinity is a key aspect of Futaba's character, and Mitsuyuki is a named character with a personality because KAITO wanted the reader to know that Masumi could have ended up with Futaba (as Touma ended up with Taichi).

Fourth, KAITO's notes on volume give us a few hints. He comments that there was remarkably little interference with his story and that he was able to tell it as he wanted, and that the ending was meant to be a "question" to the reader. The way I see it, Masumi's ending wasn't meant to say "maybe you'll be fixed if you get a man" but rather was meant to complement Taichi's ending and say "things happen in ways you might not expect, but that doesn't mean they're bad."

Fifth, Touma/Taichi ending up together shows us that the series is willing and able to show queerness as a good thing and a happy ending, so it's unlikely that Masumi was meant to come off as "actually she just needed a man" and more as "life can be unpredictable but you can always find happiness"

Summary

It's unclear whether Masumi was written as a bisexual woman or a lesbian woman or a questioning wlw

I personally read her as a lesbian and I wish that part of her character had gotten more exploration

Masumi's ending wraps up her arc (struggling to trust other people with her feelings in general and her queerness in particular) in a satisfying and logical way

Masumi being bisexual does not in any way negate or lessen her identity and experienes as a wlw, bisexual people still face external and internalized homophobia and all the associated issues

Masumi's bisexuality may well have been foreshadowed, but the execution makes it easier to read her as a lesbian, which makes her ending seem like a homophobic cop-out in the style of the Hays Code

Masumi's ending doesn't straightwash her and goes to unusual lengths to affirm her attraction to women

Masumi's ending seems to be written to contrast Touma's ending, showing that getting or not getting the love interest depends entirely on whether you choose to pursue them

It's unlikely that authorial intent was to straightwash Masumi

#ao no flag #blue flag #itachi masumi #masumi itachi #kelsey liveblogs ao no flag #that 8 volumes of a manga where nothing happens could be so complicated...

[the-silentium]

11

Masterlist

Pairing: Five Hargreeves x Reincarnation!Reader

Words: 2755 words

Warnings: TUA season 1 and 2 spoilers, violence, blood, mention of torture, swearing, angst.

Requested by: @asphodelshare​

Hi! I read your Five fics and I like your style of writing! If it’s not too much to ask, could you write one where Five had to leave the reader back in the 2019 Apocalypse bc he didn’t have a choice. He then sees her 1963 counterpart, she doesn’t know him and he tries to stop himself from reconnecting w/ her but he can’t help himself. It’s up to you if it’ll end on a happy note or an angsty one! Xx

A/N: The Eternals are my personal touch, so I guess this should be considered an AU of some sort. I'm sure this wasn't what you thought would happen, I'll be frank, it wasn't what I thought either 😂 The end just wrote itself! And it wasn't what I had planned. Ouups. 

He tried. Really, he tried. Ever since the first time he saw you walking in the street wearing a school uniform, a school bag hanging loosely on your shoulder and a lunchbox in hand, Five had had a hard time resisting his need to run to you and hug your form with all his might. Granted, Five had no proof that the girl walking away from him was this time-line version of you, she could simply be a perfect replica of your 15 years old self with the same habit of drawing on her school furniture, the same bright smile and the same bewitching laugh. Yes, she was just a replica. A too perfect replica. 

Five forced his legs to take him away from her walking form and tried to push the girl at the back of his mind. He had to concentrate on his task to stop the new apocalypse and return back in 2019 where he left you. 

It never was in the plan to let you die under the meteor shower that ravaged the Earth, if anything you were at the top of his list of people he had to save. Unfortunately Five came to the conclusion that the past was a place way too dangerous for you to venture, add this to the Commission who would surely double down their effort to kill the Hargreeves and whoever helped them, your chances of dying in the past were way too high for his liking. The boy would never be able to live with himself if you were to die permanently in the past and not for only a few days in 2019. 

For a whole day, Five managed to forget about the girl and his feelings altogether. Alongside Diego, he broke into their father's company building and discovered some precious information. The part of the night involving the younger Pogo let him a bitter taste in his mouth but it didn't stop him in the slightest. Back at Morty's, Five was almost surprised to find his brother still breathing on the couch, his new partner in crime cauterizing his bullet-wound. 

"Did you cut yourself shaving? I can teach you to shave like a big boy." Sighing the boy put a gaze to the bleeding scratches burning his neck. All he could hope now was that Pogo didn't give him Herpes B. 

"No, I just ran into an old family friend." Five turned around towards the kitchen in hope of finding a perfectly brewed coffee pot. He groaned in disappointment when he noticed that not only was the coffee pot empty, but Elliott wasn't tied in the chair anymore. 

"You untied him?" Five shot Lila a brief glance before returning his attention to his surroundings, listening attentively to any sound allowing him to pin-point the man's location. 

"No. Was I supposed to?" 

Ignoring her question, Five made his way to the rooms down the hallway. He never ventured there before, he assumed that the three doors lead to a bedroom and some storage rooms filled with conspiracy theories just like the living room. Turns out he was partially right. 

Elliott's bedroom was empty, the bed still undone. The next door opened on a black room with pictures hanging on the walls and dyeing material placed neatly. 

From behind the last door, Five could hear two distinct muffled voices. He recognized the first one as Elliott's but the second one made him frown in concentration. It sounded familiar even though he never really talked to anyone from this time-line other than Lila and Elliott. 

Confused, Five opened the door, not prepared at all to see you standing in front of a seated Elliott, the two of you arguing in hushed voices. The cracking door alerted you, your angry gaze instantly found him, standing in your doorway with his mouth slightly opened in shock like an idiot. 

Five gulped as you made your way to him, there was no way that she wasn't you. Not only did she look exactly like you, but her pissed-off expression was the same as the you he knew. Your fists were tight at your sides, no doubt giving you the courage to not back down before him, your furrowed brows created little wrinkles that Five desperately wanted to ease away by a light stroke of his fingers and your eyes. Oh your eyes. How he had missed their spark. 

“Who are you?” You harshly asked while poking his chest with your delicate finger. 

Five had a hard time keeping his arms to his sides, preventing them from pulling you into a tight hug that you were sure to hate. Instead, he breathed in deeply in an attempt to calm his frantic heart. “E- What are you doing here?” He mentally cursed the slight waver in his voice, then again, you tended to have that effect on him. 

“I live here. Why are you here?” 

He was at a loss of words and couldn't help but stare at you in disbelief. You lived here?

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry.” Elliott stood up, his anxiety showing in the form of a hand scratching the back of his neck. “This is my daughter Y/N. Y/N this is- this is- eh. He’s one of them.” 

You even had the same name! It finally clicked into Five's head. He had heard of the rare phenomenon back in his days at the Commission, someone extremely important to the balance of the time-line would reincarnate after each one of their deaths to keep the time-line on track. Those very few, only eight in the whole world, were constantly chased by the Commission who in the beginning tried to discover the secret of their perpetual rebirths but then changed their goal to killing them as soon as they could when they discovered that the reincarnations could remember their past and future lives. Five had always thought that the Eternals, as the Commission called them, were just a story created by bored time analysts to kill time. 

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, a small smile slipped out of his control at the perspective that this was really you right in front of him, his best friend, his confidant, his partner in crime and the object of his affection. 

“The name’s Five.” So far you didn’t seem to remember him. Maybe you were too young or it was too soon. He had no idea how your condition worked.

"I don't care, asswad. You and your friends tied my father to a chair-" Five's heart stopped at the insult modern you used to call him all the time when his shitty attitude managed to get on your nerves. As much as he hated the nickname, he couldn’t help the rush of excitement he felt when he heard it. You may be starting to remember your future even if you were unaware of it.

"He tried to shoot us." Five deadpanned quickly remembering why they tied the man in the first place. 

"You are in our house!"

"He invited us in." Okay, this one was a lie. Five had space-jumped in first, but then Elliott hadn't kicked him out so he would consider it as an invitation to stay.  

"Dad!" You turned to the embarrassed grown-up, disbelief written all over your face. 

Five decided to let them argue alone and go control his ever growing feelings somewhere else, preferably somewhere you were not. Walking back to the kitchen to finally make himself some coffee, Five thought about how he could help you remember who you were- no, will be. 

“What’s the beeping?” Lila’s voice broke through his reasoning, catching his attention when she poked the computer screen. 

Five made his way toward the machine, a grin stretching his lips. “Vanya.” In a second he jumped away, carrying on with his plan to gather his siblings.

It was only two days later that he saw you next. You were eating your breakfast while quickly scribbling on a poor paper sheet, your foot bouncing rapidly on the floor as the seconds passed. Five was watching you over his warm cup of coffee, swiftly averting his gaze whenever you would lift yours. An elbow hit his shoulder, almost causing him to lose his balance and fall on the floor, wasting his precious black liquid. 

“What?” Five snapped at Luther after making sure his drink didn’t spill over his hand. 

“Why is Y/N here?” His whispering was not subtle at all although luckily for the blue-eyed boy, the sizzling eggs covered the excessive sound. 

Five went to his brother’s side, turning his back to you in the meantime. “She’s not the same Y/N. Well, she is but-” He groaned at the complexity of the situation. His brother would definitely not understand, so he went with the easy way out. “Long story short, this is her past life. Now stop talking abou-” 

“Oh, hey even your little girlfriend made it here.” Diego joined the conversation without a care in the world. He grabbed a plate along with some toast before dropping them at Five’s outburst.

“She’s not my girlfriend!” He could feel his body heating up despite his best efforts. 

All three of them tensed for their own reasons yet they all not so subtly turned their heads in your direction. If looks could kill, they would definitely be at the verge of death. 

“I’m not his girlfriend.” Five just received his killing blow. 

You hurriedly grabbed your bag under the table and rushed out of the room, paper in hand. The silence following your exit permitted your last words to bounce in his head, hurting his feelings like nothing before. If he could gauge the pain he felt at this right moment on a scale of 1 to 10, he would say that without a doubt this was a 10. 

What you said was the plain truth. In any lives of yours did you and him became a thing. It didn’t stop the fact that after all these years suppressing his romantic attraction toward you, Five had nurtured the hope that maybe one day, you two could be more than friends. Today this hope just blew up in his face, mauling his heart in the process.

So in the blink of an eye, the boy disappeared from the kitchen to live his pain alone, away from prying eyes and the pity of his brothers. 

Later that same day, Five was nursing his seventh cup of steaming coffee of the day when someone sat next to his own spot on the second floor, legs dangling in the air where the floor stopped to show the once TV shop. He sipped on his coffee as an attempt to show them that he wasn’t interested in the slightest in what they had to say, needless to say that it didn’t work. He should be used by now, it never worked.

“I’m impressed that you didn’t die from a heart attack or something. Your blood pressure should be pretty high with all the coffee that you drink in a day.” He nearly choked on his sip when your soft voice reached his ears. 

He turned to you, baffled to see you smirking at him. Not angry. Not annoyed. Playful. "You know, if you weren't from the future and weren’t endangering my father by your mere presence here, I would have loved to be your friend." 

Just when Five thought that he couldn’t be surprised anymore! "How do yo-?"

"Klaus doesn't stop talking about how he misses youtube." The boy sighed, clearly his brother couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He wondered if sewing his mouth shut would suffice to shut him up for good. Knowing Klaus, he would definitely find a way to express himself without his mouth. “Also I remember you, asswad.” You bumped his shoulder with yours before crossing your arms on the railing before you and resting your head on them. 

His eyes went wide, the meaning of your words slowly registering into his brain. He turned to you, trying in vain to not get his hopes up about your remembrance. A very genuine smile stretched your lips, making Five almost drop his mug on the floor below. He then realized that if you could remember your future life, then you surely remembered your future death and with it, how Five abandoned you to your demise. Guilt pulled at his heart at imagining what you went through because of him and fear darkened his heart at the thought that not only your past self would hate him but your modern self too. 

Something on his cheek caught his attention, the delicate stroke of your fingers awoke a fire under his skin when he noticed your gesture and the concerned frown disturbing your perfect features. This time around he couldn’t stop himself and reached forward, smoothing the creased skin with a light brush of his fingertips. 

“I’m sorry.” His hand dropped in defeat at his side, his gaze fleeing yours. 

“What for?” You asked, genuinely confused.

“I abandoned you to die.” His voice was so small, saying it aloud made him doubt his choice. He closed his eyes tightly to keep the tears away, his remorses started eating him alive. 

You moved closer and took the mug out of his hand when it was within your reach. You disposed of it before wrapping your arms around his waist and put your chin on his shoulder. He didn’t open his eyes, instead closing them tighter to the point that he started to see stars dance behind his eyelids. 

“You.” You blowed on the side of his face. Once. Twice. “Hey you. Open your eyes.” You sighed when he merely relaxed his facial muscles but kept his eyes shut. “I understand you know? You had to. I’m not mad.” 

You proceeded to poke his cheek when the absence of reaction on his part was starting to get on your nerves. “I’m talking to you, asswad!”

You gasped when Five suddenly turned his head to the side and connected his lips to yours with force. His hands found the side of your face to keep you close when his lips moved with yours in a desperate motion, as if you would vanish at any seconds. At one point, the kiss stopped tasting coffee, a salty taste replacing the strong addicting aroma.

Slowly Five pulled away to discover tears running down your cheeks. His first reaction was to close his hands into fists wanting to jump away and remove his damned heart from his chest with his bare hands. As the blue waves flowed around his fists, your lips stretched in a smile stealing his breath. 

"Took you long enough." Your almost imperceptible whisper was so loud in his ears. 

A smile mirroring your own formed on his face, he was beyond the moon all the while asking himself how he could have been so stupidly blind to your feelings. 

"We got there, that's what's important." You hummed in agreement before repositioning your head on his shoulder and contemplating what next. 

A few days passed and Five along with his siblings met their father. Needless to say that it went down pretty quickly. For some odd reason, Five found himself thinking that it could have been worse. Someone could have died. Or hurt. Everyone was in one piece if we didn't count Diego's soul. 

Space-jumping back at Morty's, Five thought that he was horribly wrong. Elliott's body laid in a chair obviously having been tortured before being executed. As much as the boy wanted to feel bad for the man who played such a great role helping him reach his goal, every thought that passed through his mind was directed at you. 

Five yelled your name before jumping from room to room before he noticed a crimson red trail leading to the black room. 

His shaking hand grabbed the handle of the slightly opened door, pushing it with a shaky breath escaping his lungs. 

If it wasn't of your school uniform you were wearing, Five couldn't have said for sure that this broken body was yours. The obvious torture you went through got him on his knees, water pooling from his eyes like two rivers. 

He was wrong. So dearly wrong. This, right now, was the worst pain he ever felt. He didn't even have to open his chest to relieve himself of his excruciating pain for his heart had completely stopped at the agony scaled to 11.

#five hargreeves #five hargreeves x reader #number five x reader #number five imagine #the boy #tua s2 #the umbrella academy #this is angsty #and it was supposed to be fluff #my bad #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves

[kingreywrites]

So Pardon The Dust

Fandom: Tangled

Word Count: 2493

Summary: When they arrive in the Dark Kingdom, the king has been dead for years.

Note: this is bittersweet, but the idea couldn’t leave me alone, and i had to write it out! so yeah, edmund’s death is heavily talked about, be careful if that’s not your thing! I just love Destinies Collide, and love what-ifs, so this story was born from there asghdh

Read on ao3

When they arrive in the Dark Kingdom, the king has been dead for years. 

They don't know that. What they do know is that once their travel in a shaky gondola over an immense rift ends, everything seems too easy. The kingdom is dark, cold, smells of dust and rust permeating the air, and it makes it hard to imagine that anyone has ever lived in such a place. But Rapunzel's hair pushes her forward, and they don't spend any more time thinking about it. 

They enter the equally dark and cold castle, searching for the moonstone. 

Desperate for a flicker of warmth, Lance lights a fire in a lifeless living room with no windows. Eugene's gaze is drawn to a painting, throning above the fireplace and depicting a man and a woman he presumes to be the king and queen. 

He cannot explain the deep uneasiness he feels at the sight, or even why he can hardly tear his eyes away from the picture. His heart is racing, and he explains it by blaming it on his concern for Rapunzel. 

The queen's smile remains etched in his mind as he moves forward. 

The king has been dead for years. They don't know it, but Eugene finds a room filled with overhanging statues and, sitting in front of a gigantic door, is a tiny skeleton covered in too big clothes and dust. A dark crown still hangs grotesquely on its head, but the first thing Eugene sees is the purple gem necklace between the fingers of its single hand. The same as the queen's in the painting. 

Eugene has a bitter taste in his mouth. Rapunzel holds his hand, also upset, and he remembers that they are here for her, and for her destiny. He holds her fingers tighter between his, and they move toward the door. 

The ghosts are… certainly a surprise.

Death is not something new to Eugene, yet he can't help but feel nauseous when the king's ghost appears so close to his own skeleton, eyes full of a melancholy and anger that only he understands.

He doesn't seem to be capable of speech. He just groans and attacks, mindlessly guarding the stone that cost him his life. When Adira arrives to help them, she calls him Edmund, a soft grief in her voice, and Eugene keeps the name in a corner of his head. Edmund. Not a ghost, not a skeleton, but Edmund, who protected his kingdom until he died trapped within it.

Finally, Eugene is the one who destroys his statue. He cuts off its head, and tries to forget how a few seconds before, it was his own that could have been lost, if the king's axe had not struck beside it. Luck saved his life this time.

Adira asks Rapunzel to enter the moonstone chamber by herself. She says that it's her destiny, and hers alone. Eugene wants to protest, worry burning in his heart, but he doesn't even have the time - Rapunzel looks at Cassandra, and announces that the three of them will go inside. He should be relieved, but he can't help but take another look at the king's- Edmund's body. Many people have died for this stone, and the more time passes, the more terrified he is of what awaits them on the other side. He knows death, more than any other member of this group probably; he's been around it personally. He promised himself when he came back to life, that he would never let Rapunzel die the way he did, slowly and violently, when she has so much to live for.

He doesn't know where this promise will lead him. 

When they arrive in the Dark Kingdom, the king is dead. They enter easily, and though the ghosts of past rulers stand in their way, the path to the moonstone is far from the most difficult adventure he has ever experienced. Eugene is worried, of course he is - he's afraid of the conclusion of their journey, afraid of what he cannot predict. Rapunzel tells him she loves him, and he almost wants to throw up, because they're in the middle of a kingdom murdered by that exact stone Rapunzel intends to grab. I love you too, he thinks, but can't manage to say, because the words sound like a goodbye, and he's not ready for that. He'd die one thousand times for her, if she asked him to. He'd die for her against her will too, if necessary, but he knows he can't get in the way today. As desperate as he is to protect her, he knows how much she values being able to draw her own path.

He wants to grab the moonstone first because he loves her, and because he loves her, he stays back.

That's not the case for everyone. He notices too late Cass running for it, and Demanitus' warning echoes once again in his ears, mocking now that the only thing he can do is try to pull Rapunzel to safety as the world explodes in colours. The king is dead, and their friendship with Cassandra is too, the shadow of Gothel haunting Rapunzel once again despite how much she deserves to be free from it. Cassandra flees, Eugene hurts his arm when she pushes him away, and Rapunzel runs after her, desperate to salvage what can be.

It doesn't amount to much, in the end.

Things settle down, as much as they can while Rapunzel still sits listlessly near the broken bridge Cassandra left behind, and Eugene goes in the castle again, in search of bandages this time. His left arm hurts.

He doesn't expect to find Adira, standing silently in front of... Edmund. Her back is rigid, her mouth in a straight line, but when he calls her name, he sees a foreign melancholy in her eyes. He doesn't know her that well, but there's a lot Eugene can understand from looking into somebody's eyes.

Adira sighs, shoulders lowering, and he's sure she hears his unsaid question. "I shouldn't be surprised," she says, but it's clear that in a way, she is. "I… knew, that King Edmund was not well, when we left. I often considered that he might very well be…" she trails off, her eyes falling on his body again.

"It's different to be sure," Eugene responds softly, his voice loud in the silence of this immense room. Watching them - Adira, and this skeleton, barely hanging together enough to recognise a human shape - it was difficult to conceive that once upon a time, they had stood here together, alive and happy, perhaps. He can't imagine what it feels like to see an old friend this way, with no warning. "Adira…"

"It's okay, Fishskin," she smiles, and in her voice, he could hear the echoes of all the time Rapunzel told him she was fine, because she didn't know how to act when she was not.

He barely knows Adira. Both because he didn't ask, and because she didn't want him, or anyone, to know her. But he can guess easily that her life had never been one of peace, not even before leaving the Dark Kingdom, and losing contact with the other members of the Brotherhood. He doesn't think she's unhappy, per se, but he- he knows, they all know, especially now after everything that happened, that anger and fear and grief are not emotions that should be let to fester until they explode. Maybe it's his worry for Rapunzel speaking; maybe he's confusing everything, and Adira is simply dealing with the situation the way she wants to, but before he can think better of it, Eugene takes a step forward, and asks her if she wants to bury the king's body.

"To- To give him a better resting place," he explains awkwardly, her eyes piercing right through him. He's ready to say sorry and hope she doesn't kill him for overstepping her boundaries, but, to his surprise, she softens, a genuine if sad smile on her lips.

"Actually Fishskin, that's… a great idea."

And so they do it. Adira finds a bear hood that the King used to wear - Dabney, she says reverently - and they place his bones in it, carefully moving everything in tandem. They don't really talk while doing it. There's not much to be said. Eugene thinks of this king, who was so desperate to save his kingdom that he doomed it, and he thinks about death, too. About how lonely it is.

Adira leads them down a few corridors, and they emerge in a small, grey looking garden. They walk until they find an unmarked tombstone.

"The queen," Adira announces shortly, and Eugene wonders if she helped bury her too.

It's not the first time Eugene digs a grave for someone. He remembers starkly getting out of the tower with Rapunzel, both of them entirely different people than who they were before, and finding a cloak and ashes at the bottom of it. He remembers how quietly distraught Rapunzel had been, and how he had proposed to bury what was left of Gothel.

Shaking his head, he tries to think about something else, but it's hard given the situation. His arm aches at each of his movements. Surprisingly, Adira breaks the silence, and that's enough to distract him.

"I often disagreed with King Edmund," she says, without looking at him. "He was a good king, but his duty to the moonstone blinded him to the bigger picture, and I was afraid that it would lead him, and us, to lose everything. I was right, as I often am," she chuckles, but there's no mirth behind it. Simply grief. Something that can't be quite put into words.

"How did he lose his arm?" Eugene asks, voice low as they finally lower the bones into the ground. His eyes catch the sight of the necklace falling aside, and when they're done, he picks it up, thumb running over the smooth surface of the gem.

"The queen died," Adira whispers. She's looking at the necklace too, when he raises his head. "Edmund's grief led him to act on the anger he had been repressing for too long, but the moonstone was much more powerful than he imagined. Its retaliation costs him everything he held dear."

Gently, Adira takes the necklace from him, and Eugene can't explain the impulse that makes him want to hold onto it for a little while longer.

He's sentimental, he reasons. There's something deeply touching about this man dying while looking at the last thing connecting him to his late wife. These are good explanations, but neither of them addresses the unease and bitterness rising in Eugene's throat. He doesn't understand it himself.

Adira looks at the necklace for a long time, emotions he can't name in her expression. Memories she will not share make her frown, and Eugene feels more and more like he doesn't belong in this moment.

"Should we… bury that with him?" he asks awkwardly. Adira bites her lips, and finally shakes her head.

"This necklace was special for the queen. I know she intended to pass it down to her children."

A terrible voice in Eugene's mind reminds him that it's too late - they both died, and that necklace, that tradition, died with them too. He's hit by the tragedy of it all again, relentlessly reminded that the king passed away long before anyone could try to save him. And they would have, Rapunzel would have convinced him to let her through, she would have given him faith, Eugene is sure of that. He thinks that's why he's angry, too. The king has been dead for years, maybe, alone and desperate until his very last moments. And Eugene, Eugene wishes to go back in time, and give him another chance, get him the help he needed before it was too late.

He has never been good at accepting unhappy endings.

"When… When King Edmund banished us from the Dark Kingdom," Adira continues, "he also made another sacrifice. He sent his son away, when he was barely a baby, to be raised far from the moonstone and its dangers."

Son. A baby, sole survivor of the royal family, who probably doesn't know he is. A baby, who isn't one anymore now, but who is probably alive, and the thought is enough for Eugene to feel something new - he'd call this hope, but he's not sure that it fits. Closure, perhaps.

"You want to give their son the necklace," he smiles shakily.

"That's what needs to be done," Adira agrees, before putting away the necklace in her pocket. The gem catches the moonlight one last time, shining brighter than before, and it's easier for Eugene to let go, this time. "However, I did not keep track of the prince. I don't know what became of him, after we left, but I will keep searching until I find him."

"Hey," Eugene grins, wanting to lighten the atmosphere a little, "you searched for the mystical and maybe non-existent sundrop, and you found it, so I'm sure a prince will be no trouble. And if you need anything, we'll be happy to help," he adds, more earnest this time.

There's a newfound warmth in her eyes, and she inclines her head, acknowledging his words. The situation feels easier, somewhat. They finish replacing the dirt on top of the king's body, and Adira places a little stone to mark the emplacement.

The king is dead, and Cassandra is gone, but Eugene wants to believe that they all can find their own healing in time.

One wrong move reawakens the pain in his arm, and Adira gauges him when he flinches. She tells him that if there are any medical supplies around there, they're probably in the King's personal quarters.

With her instructions, it's not too hard to find them. The bedroom he finds is enormous, which only heightens how empty and dark it feels. Blindly, Eugene makes his way to a window, and pushes the heavy curtains away, letting the moonlight flood the room, and reveal the ambient dust like as many little stars in the night sky.

One side of the bed is unmade. Next to the other, there is an empty crib.

His heart is racing, and he can't explain it. He turns to the bedside table, and does find what appear to be bandages, next to a pile of papers, so close to the bed that it is easy to guess that the king often looked at them. 

Eugene approaches. He tells himself, without much conviction, that he should not look. That even in death the king deserves to keep his privacy. Whatever these papers are, they must have meant a lot to him, keeping him company in his darkest hours, and Eugene doesn't belong in this story.

It only takes him a step, and a second, to recognize his old wanted posters.

#tangled #tangled the series #Eugene Fitzherbert #King Edmund #Adira #Rapunzel

[otonymous]

Kissed By The Baddest CEO (MLQC Victor x KBTBB - NSFW)

Description: Old flames and prospective lovers threaten to derail your budding romance with Victor before it even begins.  How will you extricate yourselves from a web of misunderstandings?

Warnings:

NSFW/18+: Explicit/graphic language — reader discretion is advised.  Potential Trigger Warnings: profanity, jealousy, angst, exes, mentions of alcohol, bone fetishes, rough sex, 69 sex position (oral sex), mirror sex, vaginal intercourse, swallowing, size kink

Mild spoilers for Victor’s family history (MLQC); slight bending of MLQC & KBTBB canon universes via creation of original side character

Word Count: ~10K words (please set aside a good chunk of time for some fluff, angst and smut 🤣)

Author’s Notes:

First of all, a GIANT thank you to the super gracious @lin-ful​ for commissioning this Victor piece from me.  You are an absolute joy to work with and I really appreciate the fact that you gave me carte blanche to basically do whatever I wanted 🤣  I really hope you enjoy the read!  (P.S. I would never be so sadistic as to ever make you choose between Victor and Eisuke, so please rest easy 😆)

This story is especially significant to me as a writer because it represents the culmination of a number of milestones: the first time I’ve created an original character, my first attempt at writing a crossover story, the first time I’ve written in both first- and second-person perspectives.  It is also the longest single piece I’ve ever written.  That being said, please note the warnings listed above and happy reading! 😊

Nb. This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, and incidents are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Chapter 1: Hello Diana

“Really Vic, I thought you were beyond name calling by now.”  

Her voice is sultry and low, smooth in your ears like the whiskey in her tumbler.  Completely at ease in a couture Givenchy pantsuit that likely cost more than one of your production budgets, she sat with her legs elegantly crossed in a leather armchair, tipping her glass to vermillion lips.  And as the flames danced in the imposing marble fireplace of one of Shanghai’s oldest and most exclusive supper clubs, they reflected off an enormous ruby ring gracing her middle finger.

Victor scoffs, taking a sip of his own whisky and glancing at you as you follow suit with the virgin cocktail he ordered on your behalf while you were in the restroom.

He was so infuriating at times, but at least it wasn’t warmed milk.

“First of all, you weren’t meant to hear that.  Secondly, I hardly consider ‘dummy’ name calling.  Far worse exists when it comes to options, as I'm sure you can attest to, Diana. You’ve used quite a few in your day.”

Amusement spreads across her fine features as she throws her head back in laughter, the sound enticing even as it disrupts the low chatter in the room.  However, none of the men looking her way seemed to mind.  She was brimming with so much joie de vivre that even you weren’t immune to her charms, smiling despite the anxiety that sat heavy in your chest from the very moment Victor introduced you to Diana Shum that evening.

You didn’t quite know why you felt ill at ease, especially towards someone who was doing you a favour by brokering a major deal on behalf of your company.  Well, more like doing Victor a favour, since he was the one who made the request.  Perhaps this was how all men felt in the presence of such a woman: elegantly confident and unapologetically vivacious, drawing attention everywhere she went.

“Are you still dredging up stories from our Oxford days, Victor?  Not very gentlemanly of you.  How do you put up with him?”  Diana turns to wink at you and the spotlight of her attention makes you feel like the only other person in the room.  “Let me assure you those boys deserved every insult in the book; one-track minds and transparent to boot.  They should consider themselves lucky I even acknowledged their sad existence.”  

“Di, you made the Prime Minister’s son cry.  You should’ve seen those puffy eyes the next morning at the swim meet against Cambridge."  

Victor raises his brows, subtle amusement colouring his expression.  And simple though it was, the sight of his handsome face so transformed by the faint smile on his lips made your heart race.  

No, there’s no way.  It’s probably just the fatigue catching up to you.  The flight to Shanghai from Loveland City must’ve been more taxing than you initially thought, even though Victor had graciously offered to let you hitch a ride on his private jet.  You place a hand on your chest, trying to calm the frenzied rhythm of your heart.  The gesture goes unnoticed by Diana but Victor throws a worried glance in your direction.  You smile to ease his concerns.  He furrows his brows.

“Oh please, I should’ve ripped him a new one with the way he tried to get frisky on our date.  He’s lucky I didn’t call Soryu to deal with him and his wandering hands.”

A sudden change seeps into Victor’s eyes, dark irises softening as if focused on something miles away.  “Soryu.  How is your cousin doing, by the way?”

Diana leans back, taking another sip of her drink.  “You’ll see for yourself soon enough.  I take it you are accompanying this lovely producer to Tokyo to meet with Eisuke and wherever the Ichinomiya heir is, Soryu isn’t far behind.  In all honesty though, Vic, surely you would know better than I.  Weren’t the three of you thick as thieves during prep school?”

You perk up at the topic of Victor’s childhood.  It was a rare chance to learn about the formative years of this stone-faced man before he became the slave driver of Loveland Financial Group.  

“I was only there for a year and a half with Soryu and Eisuke before…before my mother passed.  My father sent for me shortly afterwards.  I haven't seen them since.”

Deep voice trailing off, Victor’s gaze shifts to the fireplace where it remains, as if hypnotized by the flicker of orange flames.  And as the silence stretches on, you become disconcerted to see him so uncharacteristically lost in his thoughts.  You reach out to touch him but Diana beats you to it, laying a delicate hand on top of his much larger one as it rests on the leather armrest.

The gesture is ridiculously small for how much it blindsides you — the sight of her hand on Victor’s dazzling like the light reflecting off her ruby ring.

He blinks at the touch, long lashes fluttering in the split-second it takes for him to compose himself and suddenly, the unflappable CEO is back again.  

“I’m sorry, it’s been a long day and we should probably call it a night.  But you have my thanks, Diana, for setting up this meeting with the Ichinomiya Group.”

It was Diana’s turn to scoff.  “Can we please dispense with the formalities, Victor?  Soryu mentioned Eisuke was having difficulty finding the right people to make this documentary on the anniversary of his Tres Spades Tokyo hotel, so it was serendipity that we bumped into each while on business in London.  It’s a win-win situation.  Meant to be.”

Meant to be.

There is a spark of something in Diana’s eyes when she makes that last statement.  It stays with you long after you part ways with Victor for the night, lying awake in your hotel room as you wondered whether the LFG CEO was already asleep in his.

Chapter 2: SOS

“You’re awfully quiet.  Should I take this to mean that you already know everything about Eisuke Ichinomiya and his chain of luxury hotels?"

Victor speaks without raising his head, leafing through the documents on his lap and stopping periodically to leave his signature with the same gold pen that marked up your reports. Its barrel glowed warm, reflecting the soft lights of the cabin of his private jet, en route to Tokyo from Shanghai.

Letting out a shaky breath, you try to steel yourself despite the rising heat in your cheeks.  Because after a night spent tossing and turning in your hotel room, you arrived at a conclusion so absurd it could only be true:  

You were in love with Victor Li.

Against all odds, the bane of your life had become your biggest ally and mentor.  All the pieces of the square puzzle that was the LFG CEO had fallen into place to form one coherent and beautiful picture:

His exacting demands transformed into standards of excellence, his workaholism a paragon of commitment and dedication.

And though you were loathe to admit it, each soft utterance of “dummy” leaving his lips made the corners of yours turn up in the goofiest of grins.

Oh god, how did it ever come to this?!  Where and when along the rocky path of your working relationship with the slave driver did you fall in love with him?  But that wasn’t even the worst of it.  If your intuition about the previous night’s events served you well, the beautiful Diana Shum was also enamoured of him.

You turn to Victor, meaning to inform him with utmost confidence that you had already conducted extensive research on the Ichinomiya Group’s charismatic CEO and his chain of casino hotels.  You even thought to throw in a snarky reminder that he himself had been marginally impressed with the presentation you gave on the topic back in Loveland City.

“Are you close to Diana Shum?”

Was NOT what had you meant to ask.  Especially in a voice that cracked like a 12 year old pubescent boy’s.  And if there was a way by which you could’ve drowned in a bottle of water, you would’ve gladly done so.  Instead, you settle for gulping it down, trying to keep your stupid mouth from spewing more nonsense in front of the man who was your de facto boss.

“Ahem.”  Victor clears his throat, long legs uncrossing as he shifts in his seat.  Out of the corner of your eye, you catch the muscles of that chiseled jaw settling firm.

“I-I’m so sorry.  It’s none of my business.  You don’t have to answer-"

“I’ve known her for a while, if that’s what you’re asking.  She’s a classmate from university and also a cousin of a friend of mine from prep school, as you’ve probably gathered from yesterday’s conversation.  Since graduation, she’s taken over her father’s role as CEO of Shum Property Developments and we’ve partnered periodically on various business ventures…”

He continues and you nod at the appropriate times, half listening as a million thoughts filtered through your head: your surprise at how unusually verbose Victor was being, the relief you felt to see that he was as determined to avoid your gaze as you were his.  Because the truth was that the longer he went on about Diana — so beautiful, polished and charming that you couldn’t find it in yourself to hate her even if you tried — the harder it was to keep the clouds from darkening your face.  And when Victor says,

“Not like it has any bearing on anything now, but we also dated for a short period of time…”

…It hurts to breathe.

Finally turning in your direction, Victor fixes you with a scrutinizing gaze.  “Why do you ask?”

“Oh, um, I just…wanted to know a bit more about the person who helped me and my company.  So I can better thank her later.”

You speak without meeting his eyes, hoping to placate him with a quick smile as you pretend to rummage through your purse.  Thankfully, he drops the topic, returning to his documents.  And though the rest of the plane ride is spent in near silence, the thoughts in your head have never been so loud.

Chapter 3: Sexy Bones [Victor]

She wore that dress today.  The same one she had on when she impudently stormed my office to insist that I give her company a final chance before pulling funding:

Fitted to conform to every curve, yet formal enough to be professional.  Beautifully sensual in her usual understated way.  My favourite shade of red.

“It’s my go-to outfit when I need a confidence boost,” she told me once in between bites of pudding at Souvenir.  “It makes me feel like a queen, like I can do no wrong.  Perfect for business meetings I just have to nail, you know?”

“Dummy,” I had said then, feigning dismissiveness so she wouldn’t pick up on the way my eyes kept drifting towards her lips, so soft and plush I couldn’t help but wonder if her kisses would carry a hint of caramel sweetness.

It was true that the girl could be incredibly dense at times, playing at being queen when she already ruled my heart.  Or how oblivious she was to the fact that the British doctor was completely smitten with her during today’s meeting at the Tres Spades Tokyo hotel.

Dr. Luke Foster.

Completely absorbed in reading through what looked to be like a stack of medical journals, Dr. Foster had largely ignored us while Eisuke and Soryu made quick work of introducing the eclectic mix of other associates in the room:

Ota Kisaki, the so-called “Angelic Artist” whose work I was well-acquainted with, having previously spent a small fortune on his painting, Koro of My Kokoro.

Baba Mitsunari, a charming man whose handsome features were made all the more striking by the black fedora and red suit he wore.  The girl pointed out that he bore an uncanny resemblance to the cashier we saw at a convenience store earlier that day and I had to agree.

They glossed over a man named Mamoru Kishi, apparently sound asleep in one corner of the room with his face covered by a newspaper and a full ashtray by his side.

Finally, they came to Luke Foster, a blond-haired man with the air of an English gentleman.  Eisuke explained that Dr. Foster was the hotel’s on-site physician as well as a fellow alumnus of our prep school, apparently having left for reasons no one wanted to articulate the year before I transferred in.

And when the doctor finally looked up at us from his readings, his eyes took on an almost maniacal quality to see the girl standing by my side.

“Those proportions, those angles….perfect…absolutely perfect!”  He exclaimed as if in a daze, standing up suddenly and causing the reading materials to spill from his lap in the process.

He looked completely unhinged, almost like a zombie as he reached out a pale hand towards her collarbones of all places.  I stepped in front of her on reflex, only to have the doctor fix me with a piercing gaze as if he had just become aware of my existence and found it thoroughly offensive.

“Annnnd there he goes again,” Ota’s tone was one of exasperation, but there was no mistaking the amusement in the smirk that spread wide across his face.

“Ooh, Lu’s got a new victim!  Maybe now he can finally stop staring at the Boss’s girl every time she comes in to clean the penthouse!”  Baba chimes in, fingers stroking at his chin as if hatching some mischievous plan.

“Will the lot of ya shaddup!?  I’m tryin’ to sleep over here…zzz…” The man with the papers over his head gave a muffled shout before promptly rolling over onto his side.

Soryu just sighed, running a hand over his face.  And just when I began to worry that the girl was scared out of her wits, having wandered into this strange den of wolves, she surprised me by chuckling under her breath.  

Did the dummy find this funny?

“Tch, ignore them, Victor.  Let’s just get on with the presentation,” Eisuke said as he took his seat at the head of a long table.  The girl straightened up and immediately got to work, transforming into the consummate professional she always was when it came down to business.  I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride as I watched her nail her pitch.

Taking a surreptitious glance around at her rapt audience, I stopped at Luke.  The intensity of the doctor's stare made me uneasy, the way those blue-grey eyes hovered above the scooped neckline of her red dress, tracing along her collarbones as if he were caressing them with his gaze alone.  I mentally berated myself for not putting my suit jacket over her shoulders before she got up there.

And though it was spoken under his breath, Dr. Foster’s murmur of “sexy bones” rang loud and clear in my ears.

Chapter 4: In A (Traffic) Jam [Victor]

“Victor, you won’t believe my luck!  Not only did we cinch the Ichinomiya account, I also found the perfect candidate to appear on our Mystery Finder show!”

The girl was practically breathless on the other end of the line, words jumbling together as they came a mile a minute.  And though her enthusiasm is as infectious as it is adorable, I remind myself to play it cool.  “Really.  And who might that be?”

“Dr. Foster!”

HONK!

I swerve back into my lane on reflex, narrowly avoiding an accident as the driver next to me flips me the bird before speeding away.  My heart raced, beating fiercely against the cage of my chest, but it had little to do with my near brush with death.

At this moment, I was more concerned with a man who looked like Death himself.

“Oh my god, Victor, what was that?  Are you okay?”  The concern in her voice is palpable and it makes me think of how kind and tenderhearted she is, of how easily someone could exploit that to their advantage.  “This is a bad time, isn’t it?  I’m so sorry, I’ll call you ba-”

“Don’t worry about it, just some idiot not paying attention on the road.  And what's this about, ahem, Dr. Foster?"  The name itself was unsavoury, sticking in my throat until I spat it out.  I hoped the vitriol escaped her notice.

“Okay Victor, get this: it’s like the man has X-ray vision!”

She whispers for dramatic effect, and my grip tightens on the steering wheel as I picture those slate grey eyes sweeping over the curves of her body, a lewd expression falling over the doctor’s features.  He was a handsome enough man, that much was true; intelligent and a first-rate surgeon according to Eisuke and Soryu.  Goldman confirmed as much when I had him dig up all available information on Luke Foster.  On that basis alone, many women would find him to be an extremely attractive suitor and ludicrous though it is, I can’t help but think the worst.  Luke had been quite open in his admiration of her, especially her collarbones.  What if she returned the sentiment?

In retrospect, it was a horrible idea to leave her to her work (and that wolf) in Tokyo while I returned to mine in Loveland City.  While she had the company of her coworkers, clearly none of them sensed the danger in Luke Foster that I did.  I no longer had the right to call her a dummy when I was obviously the idiot here.

“I’m telling you Victor, he can just look at somebody and tell you everything about their bone structure.  It’s too accurate to just be guesswork!  Apparently, he can remember anyone he's ever laid eyes on based on their bones.  It’s incredible.  I’d love for Professor Lucien to meet him.  If only he had the time to fly out to Tokyo…”

The girl continues and I catch sight of my furrowed brows in the rear-view mirror, deepening the longer she goes on and on about men who weren’t me.

“…He’s already agreed to be a guest on the show!  But…he did make a rather strange request."

For a moment, I can barely breathe.  The skin over my knuckles blanches as it stretches tight, my grip on the wheel growing harder as I brace for unwelcome news.  God knows what she would’ve agreed to in my absence.  Filled with a sense of dread, I had to know all the same.  “Which was?…”

She pauses, the hitch in her breath subtle but speaking volumes nonetheless.

“Just say it, dummy.”  I soften my tone in encouragement though my mind was already racing, thinking of all the ways my legal team could dissolve a contract should the girl have already signed papers.

“Well, he…he asked if he could examine my body in lieu of payment for appearing on the show.  You should’ve seen him!  He was so desperate he was practically begging and I…I just couldn't say no."  

MOTHERFUCK!

Chapter 5: Role Model

“STUPID VICTOR LI!”

You had meant to throw the rolled-up magazine in dramatic rock star fashion, sending it flying across your suite at the Tres Spades Tokyo hotel to give at least a resounding smack as it hits the wall.  Instead, it flutters to the carpeted floor, barely a few feet from where you lay sprawled out on a bed much too large for a single person.

And from the surface of that glossy cover, Victor’s handsome face — all sharp eyes and chiseled jaw - staring up at you from beneath a headline that read: "Man On Top: How Victor Li Conquered The Business World.”

Man on top.  What a tease if there ever was one — especially since you’ve developed the recent habit of falling asleep to the fantasy of having the broad expanse of Victor’s muscular chest hovering over you.

“The only thing he should be on top of is ME!”

Your voice echoes in the room, empty save for you.  Even still, your cheeks burned from embarrassment over the absurdity of your current situation.  Victor Li didn’t belong to you.  Not when he had someone like Diana in his life.

Victor and Diana.  Diana and Victor.  A perfect match regardless of how the pieces fit.  And for an instant, your anger flares to remember the nonchalance in Victor’s voice when he told you that their past history as lovers had no bearing on the present, as if they didn’t look like they belonged together when you saw them just now in the lobby of the hotel, moments after you purchased the magazine with Victor’s face gracing the cover from one of the shops.

Practically ecstatic in your surprise to see him there at the Tres Spades, you were just about to call out to him when his name died in your throat, choked by the sight of the woman at his side.  Victor was escorting Diana to a limo waiting just beyond the revolving doors.  And the last thing you saw before the chauffeur pulled away was the two of them slipping into the vehicle together.

He hadn’t even told you he was coming to Tokyo.

It was only after you became aware of the fact that you were blocking the entrance to the shop that you recovered from the shock, murmuring apologies as you pulled yourself together just enough to make your way back to the safety of your hotel room.

Rising up off the bed, your feet sink into the lush carpeting as you pad over to where the magazine lay.  You pick it up and smooth out the crinkles, fingers tracing the outline of Victor’s profile as you do — gentle, as if you were touching the man himself.  And when your nose begins to tingle, you know it won’t be long before you feel the familiar sting of tears behind your eyes.

“Think you could stop being so nice to me, Victor?  You’ll give a girl the wrong impression.”  

Heaving a sigh, you slip the magazine beneath a pillow on the bed.  A quick glance at the clock on the bedside table told you it was almost time for your dinner date with Dr. Foster.  Sitting around moping wasn’t an option, at least not tonight.  Lightly slapping your cheeks, you push the image of Victor and Diana out of your head and get ready to step into the shower.

Chapter 6: Hard To Swallow [Victor]

“I’m glad you remembered that you owe me a dinner, Victor Li.  And though I practically had to drag you to this restaurant, I guess the means don’t really matter if the end result is the same.  But still, what a lucky coincidence that we bumped into each other again at the Tres Spades of all places.  Now that’s something to drink to.”

Diana holds up her glass, Cabernet Sauvignon swirling as it meets mine with a delicate clink.  Under the table, the tip of her stiletto pushes against my oxfords before sliding past my ankle, inching its way up my leg.  I pull away, watching those red lips spread into a smile as I do.

“You might be the first man who’s ever been able to resist me.  Has anyone ever told you you’re one stubborn asshole?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

She laughs at that, taking another sip of her wine before setting it down.  “So, tell me about her.”

“Her?”  I focus on cutting into my Kobe beef, already aware that Diana will see through my bluff.  She always did.

“Surely there must be another woman if you keep turning me down over and over again, Victor.  A girl has her pride too, you know.”

“We are not getting back together, Diana.”

“Tsk, you’re no fun, Vic.  All work and no play, all the time.  I’ll have to remind myself of that the next time I start entertaining thoughts of calling you up again.”

She pouts, but it isn’t long before her eyes take on that familiar spark of mischief as she continues.  

“But seriously, tell me about your cute little producer.  That is the girl you keep rejecting me for, I presume.  I need to know about the woman who’s finally managed to infiltrate the entirety of Victor Li’s notoriously impenetrable heart.  She must be quite the lover if she’s got you wrapped around her little finger like that, pulling strings with all your friends left, right and centre.”

It annoys me to no end that the mere mention of the girl is enough to reduce me to a swooning idiot.  I fight to keep the smile off my face.

“You’ve got the wrong idea.  She’s not my lover.”  

Diana begins to protest, but her words are lost on me because I’ve stopped listening.  In fact, the only thing I can hear is the blood rushing in my ears, propelled by the adrenaline racing through my veins to see him enter the restaurant.

Dr. Luke Foster.  

WITH MY DUMMY, NO LESS.

And my dummy looks…absolutely gorgeous.  Her hair is done up, leaving her graceful neck and collarbones exposed in a little black dress I’ve never seen her wear before, I realize with not an insignificant amount of jealousy.

But wait…collarbones?!

Sure enough, that surgeon is staring at her clavicle like some kind of pervert.  The sight alone incites the beginnings of a dull throbbing in my temples, no doubt exacerbated by the vice-like clench of my jaws.

I follow them with my gaze as they are led to a table for two; fixate on Luke’s face even as the sommelier arrives to make his recommendations to the pair.  The doctor stares at my girl like he couldn’t care less about the meal, as if the only thing he hungered for was precisely what I myself had desired for so long: the woman.  And she—

Just looked my way.

Surprise etches itself onto her beautiful features — the brows I had dreamt of one day lightly running a fingertip over while she sleeps lifting into a delicate arch.  And why shouldn’t she be surprised?  I had given her no indication that I had rushed over to Tokyo from Loveland City as soon as I heard what Luke had requested of her.  

But there is no nod of acknowledgement, no smile in greeting.  Just her, looking away as if she hadn’t seen me at all, her smile apologetic when she retrains her attention on the doctor.  And while it was only for a fraction of a second, I could have sworn her eyes carried a hint of sorrow.

Or perhaps I’m projecting.

Because her obvious avoidance feels like a rebuff, a sucker punch to the gut.  She’s never blatantly ignored me like that, no matter how wound up she was even during those times when I verbally tore her sub-par proposals to shreds.  The feeling of rejection sits heavy on my chest, the tie around my neck much too tight.

“Victor, are you all right?”

Diana’s voice cuts through my thoughts.  She is looking at me curiously.  I reach for my glass of wine, suddenly feeling like I was on the verge of choking.  “Of course, what could possibly be wrong?”

“ ‘What’s wrong’ is the fact that you haven’t listened to a single word I’ve said for the past ten minutes.  Even if there’s no chance we’ll ever get back together again as you so adamantly insist, the least you could do is pay attention to the person you’re sharing a meal with.”

I take a deep breath, more than a little disconcerted by the girl’s ability to affect me.  “Of course.  My apologies, you’re absolutely right.  Please, continue.”

Across the candlelit table, I look Diana in the eye, resolved to keep up at least the pretence of being interested in what she had to say when all I wanted to do was storm the table where Luke sat with my girl.  With each sideways glance in their direction, my grip tightened on my utensils to see them chatting, seemingly engrossed in the world’s most interesting conversation.

And when she hands over a manila envelope to the doctor, my heart skips a beat.

Could it be…marriage documents?!

One tiny corner of my brain berates me for how ridiculous I am being but when it comes to her, I simply can’t help it, and the fantasy in which I casually stroll over, flip the table onto Luke Foster and steal my girl away in a bridal carry becomes so vivid in my mind’s eye, it almost seems like a good idea.

Diana excuses herself to use the restroom and I pounce on the opportunity to send the dummy a text:

“MEET ME AT THE BAR IN THE TRES SPADES HOTEL IN AN HOUR.  DON’T BE LATE.”

Chapter 7: Choked Up

“Is there something wrong, Dr. Foster?  You haven’t touched your meal.”

You do your best to school your expression into one of polite neutrality as you take in the strange sight of the pale, blond-haired man shaking out an alarming number of pills onto the palm of his hand, tapping loudly on a bottle seemingly produced out of nowhere.  He pops them all into his mouth at once and you pray you won’t have to perform the Heimlich maneuver as he chases them down with a few gulps of water.

A smile spreads across the doctor’s lips as his eyes fall upon your collarbones once more.  You were used to feeling like a third wheel by now, even when alone with Luke Foster, given his penchant for carrying on conversations while staring intently at your bones.  But you took no offence at his behaviour, especially after Baba’s attempts to give you insight into Luke’s peculiar mannerisms:

“Try not to take it personal, Miss.  Lu will look at anyone who’s got beautiful collarbones.  It’s a well-known fact that he’s obsessed with the boss’s - he's even framed the X-ray films of Eisuke’s bones.  He likely just wants yours to add to his collection.”

Strange though it was, the request that Luke be allowed to have X-rays films of your collarbones in exchange for appearing on Miracle Finder was innocent enough.  Certainly nothing that warranted the stony silence you received on the other end of the line when you called Victor the other day to tell him that Dr. Foster wanted to examine you.  After a brusque “I have to go,” he had hung up.  No goodbyes, not even a mutter of “dummy.”  

But Luke Foster had been nothing short of a perfect gentleman, never once laying a hand on you.  Moreover, he even insisted on paying for tonight’s meal despite the fact that you had invited him as thanks for appearing on the show.  

“Please, just call me Luke.  Vitamins and water are all I need to survive.  I only ordered because Eisuke said it might be awkward if you seemed to be the only one dining.”

“I-I see.”  You smile, taking another bite of wagyu.  And for a moment, you are too wrapped up in the blissful way it seemed to melt on your tongue to be disconcerted by the strange events of the evening.

You weren’t, however, too distracted to continue throwing surreptitious glances in Victor’s direction, fighting to keep composed each time Diana’s laughter carried over to your table.  What were the chances that you’d find yourselves at the same restaurant in all of Tokyo?  You know that he knows you are here; even Chik couldn’t put on a performance convincing enough for the LFG CEO to believe for a second that you didn’t see him.

With your dismal acting skills, you definitely didn’t stand a chance.

“You’re in love with him.”

COUGH, COUGH!

You clear the steak lodged in the back of your throat with a few hacking coughs, half of your face hidden behind your napkin as you tried to be as discreet as possible, the words “Death by Wagyu” flashing through your mind.  After soothing your throat with a sip of wine, you ask:

“I beg your pardon?”

“You’re in love with that man sitting just over there with the woman dressed in red.  That Victor fellow who accompanied you to that first meeting with Eisuke.”

For someone who seemed to pay very little attention to matters that didn’t concern bones, Luke Foster was surprisingly perceptive.  Or maybe you weren’t as discrete as you thought you were and it was obvious to all but yourself that you were staring at the golden couple.

“I…how did you...what makes you—”

“Please pass this message on to him for me.  If he doesn’t treat your collarbones with the respect they deserve, he can’t blame me for swooping in to take his place.”

Then, for the very first time that night, Luke Foster looks you in the eye, the intensity in blue-grey irises making your breath hitch when he says: “Until then, I hope you find happiness with him, Sexy Bones — especially since he also seems to be exceedingly fond of you.  Quite the annoyance, really.”

And for the very first time that night, you smile freely, naturally, at Luke, blushing hard as you contemplate his words.  Suddenly bashful, you drop your gaze only to catch sight of the manila envelope you brought with you.  You pass it across the table to him.

“Here.  Your payment for agreeing to appear on Miracle Finder.”

The expression on Luke’s face can best be described as euphoric when he takes the films from you, momentarily excusing himself from the table as he murmurs something about requiring brighter lighting to examine them.

That is when you hear the buzz of your phone from inside your purse.  And when you finally fish it out, you see a single text from Victor, commanding as always:

“MEET ME AT THE BAR IN THE TRES SPADES HOTEL IN AN HOUR.  DON’T BE LATE.”

Chapter 8: Green-Eyed Monsters [Victor]

“Another whiskey on the rocks for you, Sir?”

I nod to the bartender, watching as he chips away at a block of ice to produce a perfect crystalline sphere — still spinning in the glass when he pours the amber spirit over it like a libation.  It almost takes my mind off the fact that the girl is late.  By exactly ten minutes, according to my watch.  And for a moment, I’m gripped by a sense of panic when I consider the possibility that she might not come.

She never did answer my text though I knew she saw it — having witnessed her reaching into her purse to pull out her phone seconds after I sent the message.  And while the logical part of my brain is telling me I’m being an absolute idiot, worst-case scenarios are already running through my head: the girl is side-swiped by a car while crossing the street, or somehow managed to fall into an open manhole and is currently standing knee-deep in sewage.

Or maybe she is pinned to the wall in a dark corner somewhere, hemmed in on either side by the gifted hands of a world-class surgeon by the name of Luke Foster.

I lift the glass to my lips, too impatient to even savour the smooth burn of the drink as I reach for my phone to send her another text.  That is when I see her:

Cheeks flushed and chest gently heaving as if she had rushed to get here.  An errant lock of hair falling from her up-do, framing that beautiful face like I had dreamt so many times of doing with the palm of my hand.

She makes her way towards me in that dimly lit bar, and though I’m aware of the faint ticking of the second hand of my watch, time may as well have stood still.  Because I could have lived in that moment forever, gazing upon the light in her eyes as if they held every last star in the sky, as if those heavenly bodies had fallen just for her in precisely the same way I had: deeply, irrevocably.

And I know there is no turning back.

“Victor, sorry I’m late!  What are you doing here in Tok—”  

“Why did you ignore me?”  My voice comes out stern, even to my ears, and I curse myself for losing my cool around her yet again.  The girl furrows her brows, eyes dropping from my face to the half-empty glass of whiskey sitting on the counter.  And when she looks up again, something in her countenance has changed — soft surprise giving way to a hardened expression.

“If it’s the text you’re referring to, I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.”

She looks away, refusing to meet my gaze as she perches on the stool beside me.  “Surely you wouldn’t have wanted me to interrupt your dinner date, especially when you and Ms. Shum seemed so intimate.”

Intimate?

The bartender approaches, interrupting our conversation before I get the chance to formulate a reply.  “What can I get for you, Miss?”

“She’ll have a glass of warmed milk—”

“Whiskey.  On the rocks, please.”

She speaks over me, turning slightly in my direction as she does.  I ignore the murmur of “Ladies’ choice” from the bartender as well as the smirk on his face as he begins preparing her drink.  The thinly veiled challenge in the girl’s expression — elbow propped up on the counter with her chin resting atop a loose fist — only serves to highlight how incredibly alluring it is when she pushes back.

“Hmm.  Bold.  Since when did you start drinking whiskey?  I don’t think you need me to remind you of your non-existent alcohol tolerance.  Besides, didn’t you already have enough to drink at dinner?”

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me, Victor Li,” she says, reaching for the glass the bartender sets down before her.  She takes a moment, staring at the rich, golden hues before finally taking a sip.  I fight to keep the smile off my face when hers pulls into a grimace from the sting of the alcohol she clearly wasn’t familiar with.  Dummy.

“I’m surprised you even noticed me at all, not with the lovely Diana there.  But I guess old wounds really do have difficulty closing, no matter how much we say they’ve healed.”

“You’d have to ask for the expert opinion of your overly friendly doctor about that.”

“Excuse me?”  She sets her drink down a bit harder than likely intended, sending the liquid sloshing about the glass to kiss the pink of her lipstick imprinted on its edge.  

I don’t like where this conversation is going, the ill-disguised barbs only serving to increase the tension between us.  It was foolish to have what should’ve been a very private discussion in a public space but, as always, the thought of her and Luke together is enough to make me forget my place and position, throwing caution to the wind and behaving with reckless abandon.

And still, the heat beneath my collar goads me on.

“Luke Foster.  The one you’re so enthralled with that your manners seem to have been completely swept from memory.  I presume that’s the reason why you didn’t acknowledge my existence when you saw me in the restaurant.”

Her eyes widen in disbelief as she leans in close, voice dripping with sarcasm: “Just like how you didn’t remember to tell me you were coming to Tokyo?  Or maybe you weren’t planning on telling me at all, since it clearly looked like you weren’t here on business.  But then again, I guess your business is none of mine.”

I don’t know whether I want to push back or kiss her senseless.

Instead, I settle for a deep breath, trying to keep my frustration in check.  Having a heated argument with her was not how I had intended my evening to go.  In fact, my entire day had not proceeded as planned, and if I hadn’t been accosted by Diana as soon as I stepped foot in the Tres Spades hotel, I would have been having dinner with the woman who occupied all my thoughts, all the time.  At the very least, I could’ve saved her from the clutches of a pervert doctor.

I glance in her direction, study the beautiful melancholy of her silent profile as she watches the ball of ice slowly melt into her drink.  Then I take another sip of mine, steeling myself for reparations I desperately needed to make.

“I am only going to say this once, so listen closely.  Diana Shum and I dated shortly after graduation for all of two months before we decided to part ways on amicable terms.  We make for much better business partners than we ever did romantically, and while she has expressed occasional interest in rekindling our relationship, I have never been of the same mind.  I can assure you this will never change.

“The reason I came to Tokyo is not because of her — professional or otherwise — but because I was in a rush to prevent a certain dummy from doing anything she’d regret later on.  But…”

I knock back the rest of my whiskey, emptying the glass.

“…I’m afraid I’m too late.”

She looks at me now, eyes wide as if she were still processing the words.  Her next question comes on a whisper: “Why would you be too late?”

And it is my turn to look away.  

“Well, you seemed to be pretty intimate yourself with Dr. Foster during your dinner date.  I can only presume that…”

The girl moves closer and I can’t help the way my eyes are drawn to her mouth — the tremble of her lower lip, full and pink and lush.  Without thought, I allow my gaze to trace along the graceful column of her neck, settling at the delicate notch between her collarbones and in that instant, I come to a visceral understanding of the extent of Luke Foster’s obsession, for mine was magnified a million times over:

I yearned for the entirety of this woman before me — needed her for myself, now and forever.

“Presume what?”  Her voice is low, shaking.

“I can only presume that you’ve already allowed him to…examine your body.”

There is a moment of silence — each torturous second seeming to stretch into eternity to smother the last embers of hope.

“I have…”

Oh god.

“…given him X-ray films of my collarbones as he requested.  That is all.  He’s never touched me, not even once.  I took him out to dinner tonight so I could give them to him as thanks for appearing on the show.”

Petty.  Sheepish.  I felt all these things, but none so powerful as the staggering sense of relief that washes over me to hear her say these words.  Closing my eyes, I let the revelation sink in, finally feeling like I can breathe for the very first time that night.

Chapter 9: The Big Bang

You don’t quite know what made you do it.  

The ambience of the bar, perhaps: sultry jazz and flickering candles purposefully placed to create just enough shadows for a veil of privacy.

Or maybe it was the crestfallen uncertainty that painted the handsome features of Victor Li’s face, his sudden display of vulnerability both novel and endearing.

Most likely however, it was the way in which his downcast expression morphed into one of ecstatic relief when you told him that Luke Foster had not laid a single finger on you.

Because when Victor tilts his head back, eyes closed and sighing deeply as if some unfathomable burden had been lifted, you cannot help but bring your lips to the Adam’s apple bobbing along the length of that strong, thick neck.

Cedar wood and pine.  

The notes of his cologne are so familiar you didn’t realize how much you missed his scent until you literally came face to face with it.  Victor is warm, so very warm beneath the skin of your lips.  And under your touch, you become vaguely aware of the fact that the rise and fall of his chest has stilled.

At any other time, you would’ve questioned your sanity for how boldly you were behaving, especially towards someone who was your boss.  You had never been one to put yourself out there when it came to matters of the heart.  Something about the moment however, about Victor, made you feel like the one thing you could not do was let this chance pass you by.

So when you hear that shuddering breath, feel the faint scratch of his five o’clock shadow when he nuzzles against you in return, you know you’ve made the right gamble.  Being with Victor Li feels right.  And the surreal sense of belonging you find within the embrace of his muscular arms gives you the courage to say, “You must really believe I’m a dummy if you think I’d let any man other than you touch me.”

He slides a finger beneath your chin, gently lifting until all you can see are those jet black eyes, swimming with heat and emotion.  The sudden silence of your surroundings sinks in: no more music, no idle chatter.  Not even the rustle of limbs moving about in the dimly lit bar.  And there, in the strange privacy of suspended time…

...Victor kisses you.

                        *                                     *                                      *

“Are you sure…this is…what you want?”

The deep timbre of Victor’s voice sends a thrill vibrating along the surface of your skin as he questions you between kisses — laid on your mouth, the line of your jaw, the pulse of your neck.  His firm body presses you into a corner of the elevator, empty save for the two of you writhing in unison against a mirrored wall.

Each movement of his soft lips against yours is purposeful, imbued with meaning: longing in the gentle teeth that nibbled on your lower lip before drawing it into his mouth, in the sensual slide of the tongue that sought yours.  Affection obvious in the hands that rose to cup your face, thumbs tracing circles on the apples of reddened cheeks to tell you in no uncertain terms that Victor Li belonged to you as much as you yearned to belong to him.

So you had no qualms about answering in the affirmative, nodding your head because the press of Victor’s muscular thigh between your legs already left you breathless and wondering whether he could feel your wet heat seeping through your panties.

And all he really did was kiss you.

Ding.

The elevator stops at your floor and even before the doors slide open, Victor has hoisted you up, wrapping your legs tightly about his tapered waist and whispering into your ear, “Which room?”

You knew Victor was fit, had seen him move fast and effortlessly through the waters of his Olympic-sized swimming pool that one time he had you deliver a report to his mansion on a Sunday.  And yet, you could not help but admire the sheer perfection of his physique — the bulk of his biceps, flexed beneath strained layers of clothing; the ease with which he carries you all the way to your suite.

And when he sits you down upon the king-sized bed, you wonder if it is, in fact, too small for all the things you cared to do with him.

The LFG CEO shrugs off his suit jacket, loosening his tie just enough to pull it over his head before dropping to kneel at your feet.  You watch him reach for you, shiver when he caresses the sensitive skin behind your knee with a light graze of gentle fingertips.  Large hands trail down your calf — touch barely there and teasing — until his palm finally cups the heel of your stiletto to slide it off your foot.

He looks up at you then, the intensity in ebony irises rendering you still and mute as you patiently await his next move despite the frenzied pounding in your chest.  There is a stroke of something almost feral in the dark depths of the gaze that falls heavy upon you — searching your eyes, lingering on your lips…tracing the neckline of your dress.

“I’ve never seen you wear this dress before.”  Victor says, taking the same amount of care to remove the shoe from your other foot.

And if you were able to think straight under the influence of his touch — the hands that pushed back the hem of your dress as they roamed higher and higher up your thighs towards your heat — you might have found it strange that Victor was choosing now, of all times, to comment on your wardrobe choices.  As it was, you answered without second thought: “It’s new.  I bought it especially for tonight’s dinner.”

Victor stills and when he speaks again, there is a faint tremble in that voice, as if fighting to contain some unfathomable emotion.  

“The doctor couldn’t stop staring at you.  I know because I was the same way.  I couldn’t look away from the moment you stepped foot in that restaurant.”

The revelation leaves you silent, waiting with bated breath for Victor to continue.

“Forgive me…”

Fingers entwine with fabric, gripping tight.

“…but I can’t stand the thought of you looking so beautiful for anyone else.”

RRRIIIIPPPP!

You fall back, wincing at the sound even as you feel your body respond to the sudden shock of having your dress torn right down the middle.  Victor’s display of brute strength was so at odds with the façade of composure he was synonymous with and yet, there was no denying that you were incredibly aroused by this show of power — by the fact that he was now straddling you on all fours like some wild beast, tearing away the rest of your undergarments to leave you completely bare.

You’ve never been so desperate to feel him inside you, deep and rough and untamed.  The thought throws you into a frenzy of lust.

Digging your fingers into the front of his dress shirt, you yank it open to send buttons flying in haphazard directions, but the only thing that concerned you was the sight of that broad chest and muscular torso, so impressive it actually elicits a moan from your lips and a smile from his in return.

Propping yourself up onto your knees, you press against him, flesh to flesh — one hand running over the burning surface of his skin even as the other tugs at the buckle of his leather belt, impatiently moving to palm him when his dress pants fall and gasping to finally see and feel the full extent of the LFG CEO:

Victor Li is rock hard and intimidatingly large.

And the sight makes your mouth water.

Sinking onto your heels, you trail your lips along Victor’s chiseled body, tongue teasing at his nipples as you do and relishing the catch of his breath in his throat.

But just as you begin to lay kisses along the deep V of his abdomen with the intent of tracing lower and lower, Victor stops you, puling you up for a kiss before laying back on the bed and positioning you above him…

…with his face between your legs.

“This way,” he says, voice muffled, and you might have commented on his inability to relinquish control even in the bedroom were it not for the sensation of his flattened tongue sweeping hot and wet along the seam of your already dripping pussy, teasing from end to end.

The sensation is so intense it’s almost unbearable.  You throw your head back, mouth dropping in a silent scream as you sink onto Victor’s face, fighting the instinct to grinder lower onto that talented tongue despite the encouraging grip of Victor’s hands, strong on your hips and thighs.

“I’ve wanted to taste you…for so long,” he murmurs, sucking the swell of your clit into his mouth and humming in approval against moist flesh to hear you moan above him.  “Your flavour is absolutely exquisite.”

Gathering your wits, you fold forward — intent on giving just as much pleasure as you were receiving.  Victor twitches once within your grip, not quite contained by the circumference of your palm and fingers, running up and down the sizeable length of his cock, hot in your hand like his breath on your slit.  And after placing a few wet kisses on the smooth, hard head, you open your mouth to taste him.

The tepid salt of his arousal.  The groans originating from deep within Victor’s chest each time your lip brushed past the tender underside of his cock.  The subtle rhythm of his pelvis, lifting in time to your mouth swallowing more of that solid shaft, quickly becoming slick with your saliva.

And then you catch sight of your reflection in the mirrored closet.  See the bulge of Victor’s bicep as he grips your hip, the flex in the muscles of his neck when he lifts to bury his face deeper into your folds.  See yourself: hair disheveled and eyes half-lidded, drunk on sex.  Observe the messy smear of your lipstick as your mouth stretches to accommodate more and more of your boss’s cock.  And when the tip of Victor’s tongue begins its relentless tease of your clit, you watch as a most debauched expression falls over your features, the tension in your body breaking as you find release on his lips.

You are still shaking when he enters you, sensitized by an orgasm that left tiny sparks of electricity running along every nerve, priming you for second helpings.  A true paragon of patience, Victor Li takes his time, deliberately slow as he pushes — savouring the sensation of drenched, swollen flesh parting just for him.

It was almost unfathomable that you could experience such extreme pleasure, each powerful swing of Victor’s hips driving him deeper into your body — hitting just the right angles until your very senses were extracted along with your second release of the night, running slick between your legs to ease the slippery slide of your bodies.

It draws out Victor’s own, your lover moving to pull out moments before you surprise him by taking him once more into your mouth — gaze locked onto those dark eyes from below as you taste him on your tongue, euphoric to see him bite his lips when your lick yours to swallow every last drop.

Chapter 10: Pillow Talk

Beep Beep Beep Beep.

You roll over, eyes still closed as you reach out to hit the snooze button on the alarm clock.

Except your palm comes down on warm flesh with a resounding smack, echoing throughout your hotel room and accompanied by a deep voice that says, “Are you finally awake, Dummy?”

Your eyes shoot open to see Victor lying naked in bed next to you, a splotch of red blooming on his chest where he had been attacked.  He sets his phone down to hand you a glass of water from the bedside table, and even though memories of the previous night come rushing back to burn your cheeks, you cannot help but notice how glorious he looks bathed in morning light.  You hope he doesn’t see the way your hand shakes when you accept the glass from him with a meek “Thanks.”

Victor clears his throat, waiting for you to finish drinking before he says, “That was the fourth time you slept through the alarm.  I’ve already informed your colleagues you’ll be taking the day off.  We didn’t get much sleep last night and I think you’ll need some time to…recover.”

You bite your lip, turning sideways to feign a sudden interest in the curtains so he wouldn’t see the giant smile spreading onto your face.  It was almost surreal that Victor Li was your lover, and if it weren’t for the exquisite soreness you felt between your legs, you would’ve been hard pressed to believe it for yourself.

The sheets rustle and before you know it, Victor has his chest pressed up against your bare back, laying a soft kiss on your shoulder before he rests his chin on it.

“How are you feeling?”  He asks.

“Okay.  Pretty good, actually.”  It was too early in the game to tell him you were already doing cartwheels in your mind.

“Good.  I’m glad to hear that because I found this under your pillow…”

He places something in your hands.  Your eyes widen when you recognize the magazine with his face on the cover.

“…And this ‘man on top’ wants to know what it feels like to have this woman on top of him for the rest of the day.”

You’ve made it to the end! 🤩 Thank you so much for reading!  Check out more of my work here! 📚 

#mlqc #mr love queen's choice #love and producer #mr love dream date #mlqc victor #mlqc li zeyan #mlqc smut #mlqc victor smut #mlqc fanfic #kbtbb #kissed by the baddest bidder #kbtbb luke foster #kbtbb eisuke #kbtbb soryu #kbtbb ota #kbtbb baba #kbtbb mamoru #crossover fic #fanfiction #my writing #commissions #elex #voltage

[rinharu-purple]

Lucien: MLQC’s Mastermind

Yes, I said that Lucien is the creepiest LI in my opinion, and I wouldn’t choose him in a million, billion years. BUT, Lucien is by far the one person, who is pulling the strings and is the driving force of the MLQC universe. He is the only person who acquires all the information from all sides and is connected to every important actor in the story. Therefore, Lucien has become the second LI I’ve started to follow more attentively. Mind that the ranking ist 1) Gavin 2) Gavin 3) Gavin 4) Lucien ;)

In my manifesto, why Gavin is MC’s choice, I’ve already mentioned briefly, that Lucien has the strongest EVOL among all the characters but is also the strongest character (it’s not the MC or the Black Queen, let’s not fool ourselves)

The Machiavellian

Before we talk about Lucien’s part in the MLQC universe, we should first look at him as person and observe the elements that make up his personality.

In the game, all our guys have their personal priorities. Gavin and Kiro are on the front line, fighting for peace and prosperity, Victor, well...I don’t think that he cares for anything else besides MC, maybe his position. But with Lucien, his priority is not a person or a concept, but rather a philosophy. Lucien wants to see the next step in human evolution and is determined to take any measures necessary to see it to it’s end. Other guys can not stand oblivious to other things that come up their way in achieving their goals but Lucien only has his eyes on the prize and to him nothing else matters, no one else matters and no ethics matter. 

Machiavellianism denotes cunningness and claims, that those dark triads use whatever means necessary to gain power. If we consider the choices Lucien has made throughout the story so far, we can clearly find his manipulative ways in getting other actors to the positions of his conjecture. He lies to MC and hides his personality as Ares, penetrates Black Swan to use their facilities, but also uses LFG’s resources for his R&D projects all the while concealing his true nature. 

Another trait of a Machiavellian, is that he is charismatic and friendly, all the while displaying no emotions. I think, there can be two possible reasons as to why Lucien has limited display of emotions. The first possible explanation has something to do with his parents passing and the trauma he suffered afterwards. Among all LIs Lucien is the one with the most loveless childhood and teenage years, the most important years in developing one’s psychological traits and during those years Lucien received alongside with Kiro the most blows. That resulted in him losing the connection to his emotions as a defense mechanism. 

Another possibility might be him losing the connection to his emotions as a result of a chemical reaction in his brain due to excessive testing Black Swan objected him to. Lucien’s EVOL was created in a lab and he was the first man-made Evolver. Lucien is called various times a psychopath, because he shows signs of psychopathy such as lack of remorse, empathy or compassion. It is said that that kind of behavior might occur due to a misconnection between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the amygdala. Considering the fact that Lucien’s parents were killed right in front of him and that he was both physically and psychologically abused for the coming years, this might have led him to experience an imbalance in his chemical balance. One might argue, that his altruistic actions in the orphanage are an evidence for his compassion, I think it is yet another disguise for his unethical ways of reaching his goals.

The Orchestrator

In all honesty no one is actively seeking alliances and keeps tabs on other’s actions for their agenda like Lucien does. Maybe Commander Leto but he mostly fails in drawing others to his side, because he is not able to speak in their pendants’ language or resonate with their perspective. Lucien, on the other hand, is gifted with an extraordinary ability to observe his surroundings and companions, making it very easy for him to talk to them in their terms and desires. Lucien doesn’t show much empathy, UNLESS, it contributes to his cause, in that case he can perfectly put himself in other’s shoes and plays them in such a meticulous way, that they join him willingly.

That is how Lucien directs MC successfully in entering the Black Cabin or in understanding the evolution core.

Lucien is not exactly a piece on a chess board, but is a player, who knows all the pieces very well, knows the rules of the game, has observed many games and took notes of how they all has turned out and therefore knows what kind of a game he is going to play. Just watch closely. how he co-operates with Kiro and the Black Queen. He knows that Kiro is using Black Swan for his goals, much like he does, so he uses his hacking abilities to access to information. The Black Queen is the initiator of everything in S1, so he makes sure to stay close to her. He knows that Victor is searching for MC and trying to understand the Evol gene, there he has an investor. 

The Cool, Calm and Collected Type

in the MLQC universe, everyone loses their composure at one point or another, because...who wouldn’t? Time and space warps constantly and people are also changing their stances depending on the time-space constellation they find themselves in. 

MC loses her cool almost on a daily basis, Gavin was in a constant haywire in the Daybreak era, Victor literally threw people into black holes in CH11 and freaked out as he saw the Black Queen for the first time and Kiro walks around in a bipolar state. So, everybody is pretty unstable due to understandable conditions but we never see Lucien lose his cool and this is one of his best qualities. 

Here is the thing about Lucien. This guy is always at least one step ahead of everyone and he achieves this by two simple rules: 

1) Acquire all possible information

2) Observe everyone and everything at all times

Why am I saying this? It lies in the basis of anxiety and angst. We humans tend to feel uncomfortable in the face of an uncertain situation, meaning in the wake of the unknown. MC is constantly anxious, because she doesn’t know what is going on, why is everyone after her, why is she blessed with the unconditional affection of 5 equally attractive men? (ehm, but not quite equally ehm *Gavin* hihi, sorry, Gavin-stan gotta Gavin-stan ^_^). Anyway you get the picture. Gavin went haywire in CH22 because he was pushed in a tight spot and therefore had angst. Same goes for Victor in CH11 his mind went blank as he saw history repeating itself and then in CH18 when he saw with his own eyes what could the girl of his dreams might become.

We don’t see Lucien in such deadlock situation though do we, and I think it is mainly because he is always prepared for every possibility and he can calculate them meticulously, because he possesses the largest chunk of information and also keeps tabs on everyone and everything that’s going on. So, when a crisis occurs he doesn’t freak out, sure he gets surprised at times, because the outcome of a a certain situation is the possibility, which he calculated to be no higher than 1% and yet there it is. But since he’s already took this into consideration, he has a plan. Combine this with his knowledge about the persons and organizations involved in the matter, then you have a calm Lucien, who is in control of the situation. Thus, he is calm. You can actually also bind this behavior of Lucien with that of a predator, whose movement are languid, is non-reactive and doesn’t mind turning his back to his opponents, since he doesn’t perceive them as a threat.

If this wasn’t enough, Lucien manages to joggle all of this without exposing himself. Even in the last stage of the play he never gets caught. Unless he willingly exposes himself, as in the case of revealing Ares to MC. MLQC actors can usually see through each other and use their weaknesses to meet their own ends. MC is obviously Gavin, Kiro and Victor’s weakness and their opponents can see this pretty easily. IT’s not quite the same with Lucien though and he doesn’t let himself be blackmailed or threatened by any weakness. He always keeps his cards close to his chest. 

Considering the fact that Lucin is the least outstanding LI, this is pretty impressive. So I guess this makes him the embodiment of the phrase “still waters run deep”.

The Renaissance Man

Lucien is a man of science and aesthetics. Explaining phenomenons with associations and loading them with philosophical substance. He doesn’t necessarily perceive things bluntly as they are, but interprets them in a meaningful way. The way he associates MC with a butterfly, how he wants to entrap her in ajar, so she wouldn’t get away, alas taking the only resource of color in his life away. Not only that, but he can also break down the matters at hand to its fragments and can therefore work his way up from there. He is blessed with a strong deduction ability, so he can connect the dots easily, come to a conclusion and act accordingly. No doubt that the other guys have very good deduction abilities, but because Lucien always has a bit of an information more than them, he can find the solutions just a little bit faster in my opinion. 

Reading is a necessity for his guy much like eating and drinking, Which is why we see him reframing events in the context of a certain story he’d read at some point in his life. With time, I will add here some of his quotes about certain situations to explain what I mean. Or even better, if you have some, that are evident in you opinion, you could add them in the comments. I really enjoy reading/hearing Lucien’s philosophical, scientific explanations to certain moments in MC’s life. They are always to the point and helpful.

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

So this is my very first analysis on Lucien and I have to admit, I still have  so many material to check on him, so if anything is missing please bear with me here :)

I was watching Joe’s Twitch while I wrote this, so there are many spelling, grammar mistakes, which will be corrected gradually.

This post will get better and better, scout promise!

#mlqc #mlqc lucien #mlqc simon #mlqc xumo #mlqc xu mo #mr. love queen's choice #I had to rewrite a large part of this because my PC #broke down #so this post will be edited around a 100 times #Im sorry