#kris wrote something | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

acaciapines · 2 days

Note

as someone who’s very excited to read your Dess raises Kris AU, something that i’m really excited for is the dynamic between Dess and Chara! From the little excerpt we saw of them in the past i’m so curious as to how they’re relationship functions / how it’ll effect Kris growing up and such. If it isn’t too much to ask, could you go a bit in depth as to how they ‘work’ in a sense?

jkegkjdfgdf IT MEANS SO MUCH THAT UR EXCITED.....WOW.....like i am too its just so fun to know other people are!!

and! yeah so. i go into them a lot in this post here where i said. a lot of what my ideas are right now (and its said better lol) but i can for sure talk about them forever and ever and ever. most relationship of all time.

under the cut cause Oh My God it was not supposed to be this long.

so!!! i think a lot of how dess and chara work is that as time goes on it becomes increasingly obvious that They Do Not, actually. like, the way i see dess is that she is very much a person who needs to be on the move--she cannot stay in one place. that just...isnt who she is, and its stifling, and she HATES being weighed down. and kids, uh, sorta do that to you lol. vs chara, who like...has defined xirself around this role xe took up, 'cause the huge difference between them is that chara chose to have frisk and dess just sorta ended up with kris, right? so thats one point they arent ever going to like, understand the other one on.

so a lot of what leads them to deciding to stick together is this sense of loneliness they both feel...dess for being someone who is always on the move has also always had people with her: azzy, for one, but i think shes also the sort of people who makes a lot of like, surface-level friendships? i think shes A Lot and most people never get to know her that well, but like...chara DOES. and vice-versa for chara: people never bother to get to know xir, but dess WANTS TO. dess really truly cares about xir and xir life and who xe is which is very new for chara. cause before this all xe's had is frisk who is. literally a two year old and doesnt have any other choice lol.

theyre both people who have been dealt a poor hand in life in regards to dark world bullshit, something they cant exactly get help with through like, traditional means. they meet when theyre both super young--iirc dess is 18, chara 21? 22?--and yknow, raising a kid at that young an age isnt the most common experience. dess has run away from home, basically, and chara's a college dropout with a biological family xe never want to see again...neither of them have anybody else! they dont have any help! so they bond over that, a lot. its like...seeing someone Like You for the first time in your entire life.

and all that said its the kids thing that really throws a wrench into everything.

because dess cant stay still, right? she cant. shes not wired for it. but chara does, and she trusts chara, and chara doesnt mind watching kris, so dess doesnt feel bad leaving them with xir. but. a day becomes a week. week a few weeks, a month, a few months. as time goes on dess coming home grows more and more sparse. but theres this sense of like...chara doesnt really know who xe is, anymore, outside of this family xe has? outside of being a parent and spouse? so to chara, to leave dess is like, unimaginable. dess is xir person. dess loves xir, which is something xe cannot really comprehend as a loveless aromantic, but having never been loved in xir entire life (chara had a Bad childhood lets just say) its like...dess chooses xir. and sure, shes gone a lot, but when she does come home, her home is XIR. her home is chara. its gloriously dizzying.

and dess does feel the same way!!! dess never really means to leave chara for so long, she just...loses track of time. hates being Needed by kids in any way more than a cool aunt they see occasionally. funnily enough she gets on with frisk better because frisk doesnt really expect a mom out of her. (that isnt to say its returned lol kris likes dess wayyyyy more than frisk does. but for dess its easier to be around frisk cause they dont expect anything). if the kids werent a thing chara and dess would actually work a lot better--chara is a lot less adventurous and likes staying back and tending to things, but without frisk to like, REALLY cement that xe'd enjoy going out with dess, probably not into dark worlds but travel might be nice. and dess wouldn't feel so much pressure, if its just chara, 'cause chara kind of just likes dess for who she is. so for just-chara, dess could stay. dess is used to people wanting her to be someone else--her mother, her father, hell, even AZZY, who like...he never acted on it, but he had a crush on her for their entire friendship. she knows he'd rather she return those feelings.

but chara GETS HER. chara cares for her in a way that doesnt want her to become something she isnt--its why they get married!! dess never felt romantic love, and still doesnt, but its chara who makes her go--oh. oh, so i think i know why people might get married, actually. its saying--youre my person, and chara is her person. and vice-versa, of course. dess is this light chara never had.

but. of course. they have two kids.

which. complicates things. dess puts chara first--she LOVES chara, loves xir in every single way she can feel love. but chara...chara cares about dess, a lot. its why xe's really blind to a lot of xir faults for a while...because thats dess. xe doesnt know where xe would be without dess. but chara is a parent. frisk and kris do come first.

the kids are like, aware of this. frisk is very much aware of this--they're younger than kris but they dont have these rose-colored glasses about dess, and they sort of notice, how much of a toll it takes on chara to be a single parent, essentially, still. dess sends money back--she IS sort of the breadwinner lol, turns out selling weird dark world things is sometimes actually a viable career--but she doesnt, like, parent. when she comes home shes a friend. but not a parent.

kris fights with chara a lot. idealizes dess. its that idea that the parent who has to be the PARENT, be the one to say no, be the one to deal with all the crying and meltdowns and just general messiness of raising another human being, is the one that also gets the most flack. dess is never around! which is hard, but it also means she never messes up. at least in kris's eyes, lol.

for frisk and kris dess really is the one thing that like, gets in between all else. its the wound they all keep opening again, because shes never around, and it hurts. whenever she comes back and stays for a week when she said a month the kids know how sad chara gets!! how lonely xe is! but kris writes it off because dess will come back, and frisk grows bitter. its the one thing the two dont talk about because its the one thing that fractures their sibling relationship. every serious fight the two have is in some way about dess.

the entire reason why noelle and kris end up meeting? because kris thinks that if they prove themself as brave like dess, and dive into and close a dark world like she does, she'll stay longer this time. but of course all that does is get them stuck.

dess never does things maliciously. she does, really, truly, care about chara, kris, frisk. but she also just...does things. she never looks before she leaps. she shies away from facing consequences. and thats like...the sort of thing you CANT do, when youve got kids. but she never wanted them. she never meant to take kris.

she's just. in too deep. and chara does NOT hold her accountable which doesnt help. it would be best for the kids if chara got a divorce but. chara cant do that. xe cannot be alone again.

OKAY THAT WAS A LOT. uh. if you (general) wants to know more!! hit me up!!! tho i will say i'll have more to say about other relationships lol, i think i've said most of what i can able dess&chara right now. BUT I AM ALWAYS THINKING ABOUT THIS AU I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ON HOW IT CHANGES THINGS--

#drkau #ask #deltarune #i hope this is! something lol #everything is subject to change as i write them cause im way worse at Describing this relationship than writing it #i wrote a lil 4k word test of it and i just want to gesture to that like there. read it. youll see #but thats just for me lol idk where id even post that.#but yeah. i say a Lot on this blog but i am better at putting that into like #writing yknow? where i can show it #BUT THANKS FOR ASKING I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT IT STILL EVEN IF ITS DISJOINTED AND MESSY #hint hint nudge nudge if anybody wants to ask about other character relationships :3 ive put a lot of thought into them all #like. did you know susie and kris went to middle school together.#that toriel and carol are married #that the asriel and noelle relationship is So Fascinating #DO YOU KNOW HOW KRIS AND NOELLE MEET AGAIN CAUSE ITS REALLY GOOD #god you dont even know what things are like when kris and dess are revealed to be alive. oh my god

5 notes · View notes

patchwork-crow-writes · 9 months

Text

Through A Crystal, Darkly

'C'mon Susie, give me back my glasses!'

Ralsei waved feebly with his free paw, trying in vain to swipe his spectacles back from his draconic tormentor. Without their protection, his entire world was little more than indisctinct shapes and colours - no contours to differentiate anything, no solidity to grip onto, an illusory world devoid of truth and meaning.

Oh, if only Kris were here to restore some semblance of order...!

"Ooh, look at me!' squaked Susie from somewhere above him, tongue poking out from between her yellowed fangs. 'I'm a gigantic dweeb who loves homework!'

The delicate metal frame, designed for the prince's more demure facial structure, dug into the scales behind her ears, and the thick cola-bottle glass made everything fuzzy, and hurt Susie's eyes to look through. But these discomforts were well worth taking the preachy little do-gooder down a peg or two...

...well, it wasn't exactly bullying. Just a bit of fun between friends, that's all. Yeah, that' s all it was.

She looked at him through her ill-gotten glasses. He seemed even fluffier than ever, distorted through those ridiculous lenses - in fact, he looked like an actual hairball with green and pink blotches coming off of it. She'd have snickered at the image if not for the fact she was already midway through a giggling fit.

He also seemed... larger. Wait, no, that wasn't quite... more like he had more presence. There was more Ralsei there than before... or something...

Ugh, okay, now her head was starting to hurt, and this joke had run its course. And then, just as she was about to take them off, Ralsei lowered his arm, and opened his eyes.

'C-c'mon...' he pleaded, his simpering smile unseen.

Susie blinked, staring into the swirling blackness where her friend's eyes should have been. It was a darkness deeper than she had ever seen before. The memory came to her unbidden, of the empty storage closet, the unending expanse, the floor giving way...

Susie stumbled.

The world beneath her feet was gone, in its place a formless, shifting void. Silhouettes phased across her vision, their forms indisctinct, but she could tell well enough that they were neither monster nor human. The darkness poured forth from Ralsei's eyes like black ink from an upturned well, staining everything it touched, blotting out the reality around it.

And slicing through the unfathomable depths, like spears of blood-red sunlight, were shapes that could almost be called eyes, if eyes opened up like festering scars, unfurling like the petals of infernal flowers...

Susie blinked again. She was back in the basement, everything was solid once more, and the only thing strange about Ralsei's eyes now were how irritatingly pretty they were.

...musta been some kind of... optical illusion or summat.

'...Fine take them back,' she grumbled, lifting them off her face and plopping them back onto the bridge of his snout. The prince blinked, adjusting their position until he was satified.

'Thank you!' he said with a bright smile. Then he turned to look toward the basement's entrance. 'Oh, Kris! Are you finished?'

The dragoness followed his gaze towards the figure, who was clutching what looked like an old USB drive between two fingers. Their armour was singed in numerous spots, and the hair all down their left side had become blackened and charred.

'Jeez, Kris! you look like ya lost a fight with a toaster!' cackled Susie. 'What were you even doin' down there, anyway...?'

'Susie!!!' the prince chided, a healing spell already primed. 'D-don't listen to her Kris - I'll have you patched up in no time!'

She turned away a moment while the prince tended to her friend's injuries. The strange darkness she saw, the eyes staring out of it... i had only been for a second, like the nonsense shapes you sometimes saw on the backs of your eyelids while blinking. Susie wasn't even sure if it had been real or some strange trick of the darklight.

Glasses were meant to help you see, weren't they? So then, what did Ralsei see through them? What kind of glasses could they be, if they could let you see things like... like...

'All done!' he called out. 'Good as new, Kris!'

And the thought was gone. Great.

'...whatever. Let's go!' she growled, falling into step behind Kris. As they left Queen's basement, she cast an amber eye over her shoulder at Ralsei, smiling placidly like everything was normal. Perhaps it was normal for him.

Glasses're for nerds anyway, she snorted quietly to herself.

#writing #fiction #fanfiction #delarune #susie deltarune #Ralsei #kris dreemurr #Chapter 2 #Horror #Visions #cw - mild eye horror #What if Ralsei's glasses were actually made with shadow crystals?#I wanted to show a glimpse of what he might see all the time on a daliy basis #and luckily for me Susie actually steals his glasses in an event in-game so I didn't have to make it up whole-cloth #Plus it means I get to recontextualise a funny moment into something quite disturbing and perhaps sinister #...don't think it's my best work but I'm happy I wrote something :)

7 notes · View notes

krismoss-dreemurr · 2 years

Text

Hey so I think we need to stop pretending our favorite characters in media are completely innocent and could never do anything wrong or fucked up. And also I think we shouldn’t have this mindset that what a character does in the past defines them now despite any personal growth

Maybe instead we need to try to understand why our favorite characters do the things they do or why they did certain things in the past and like. Chill out a little bit

#yes this is about the kris and Susie thing and yes I’m biased because I’m a Susie fictive #but can we also come at this from Kris’s perspective and acknowledge that kris was never afraid of Susie and they never seemed to hold what #she said against her. it’s so clear in both chapters 1 and 2 that they’re besties. we’re besties like no hard feelings about any of that #and it’s something that can be expanded on and worked through in the future #please let’s just trust Toby for the time being. I’m not saying you can’t feel a certain way about it or that you can’t analyze it #but let’s not freak out about it or let it completely change the way we see their current dynamic #personally I thought that it was a really interesting moment for both characters and it actually showed some growth for Susie because she #never was THAT terrible to kris after whatever kris said. I think when you’re a teen and you’re hurting you say and do horrible shit and you #might not even realize it until after the fact or don’t understand exactly how your words can affect other people. kris wasn’t reacting abd #when they did she thought they were laughing at her and given she was already taking out her feelings on them it probably felt Not Great #neither of them are good at effective communication or really being emotionally vulnerable #anyways yeah there’s my take #wrote this mainly in 3rd person because if any singlets see this I don’t want it to be too confusing #Susie talks #kris dreemurr #Susie deltarune #deltarune #safeutdr

32 notes · View notes

forecast-rain · 2 years

Text

dang I haven’t worked on the voicemail fic in a while :(

But also... I kinda suck at coming up with writing outlines. And I kinda need them.

Or maybe I don’t ?

idk. But I want to write that fic at some point :(

#cloud posts #it's just such a neat idea #fun fact - I was tempted to try my hand at writing a berdly & kris end up exploring together au #but then magnitomb au showed up and hoorray! I no longer needed to write it because someone better than me wrote it!#hmm #I'm still probably too ambitious with this #but I want to make a GOOD fic #not just... a fic #not just stuff I WANT to happen but I want to at least stay somewhat true to the characters #and I feel that's outside my capabilities as a writer :(#or maybe not #maybe I'm just... idk #but I can't seem to bring myself to write it #maybe I should do some placeholders #...probably #but still... what would I wanna achieve with it...#my first fic was written because I was very annoyed with how they wrote Noelle #the second was written because I was intrigued by the relationship of Berdly and Kris and Susie in magnitomb au #and the third fell apart because I didn't have a specific goal in mind I think #or maybe something else #but that was a contributing factor I think #what *interests* me about Berdly in the undertale universe?#and do I even want to think about this at the moment? or keep trying to make a song about one of my ocs?#too many options...

1 note · View note

gyudons · 4 months

Text

During the last practice in Pittsburgh before the holiday break, Sidney Crosby brought cookies to the rink along with, of course, some banana bread – “his mom’s famous recipe,” Marcus Pettersson said with a grin. “He’s got a little addiction,” Kris Letang added.

Crosby bakes for the group periodically throughout the season, one of many thoughtful gestures the Penguins captain makes for his teammates – impressive from anyone, much less someone of his stature. During this season of giving, Pettersson and Rickard Rakell had been marveling at the captain’s generous nature that very day.

“Me and Raks were actually just joking around about how good he is with giving gifts,” Pettersson said. “I don't know if he has a thought behind it about when he retires, that he is expecting a lot of gifts back from everybody (laughs). But I don't think so. I think he’s just a great guy.”

Crosby goes above and beyond to mark occasions for the people around him, whether it’s a holiday, a career achievement, or simply a memorable experience. His capacity to do all of that, in addition to continuing to be an elite talent at age 36 and an unparalleled leader, is remarkable.

Evgeni Malkin, Crosby’s fellow franchise center and teammate for nearly two decades, said, “It’s almost like he’s the perfect player, perfect friend. Some guys win just one Stanley Cup, they think they’re like a god, you know? But Sid, never. You see everybody wants to play here, first of all, it’s because of Sid.”

Letang joked that he wasn’t going to use the word perfect, “because there’s nothing perfect,” he laughed. “But he always makes sure everybody is taken care of, and they’re having a good time. He loves to get to know people. For me, what he did for my dad last year… the banana bread stuff… it’s just a way of looking at things, you never want to leave some people behind. There’s not a specific gesture that comes to mind, because it’s such a daily thing for him.”

Tyson Barrie, was touched by something the captain did for his agent, Bayne Pettinger, who had previously worked for Team Canada. Pettinger had been sitting with Crosby at another one of those BioSteel camps, which was in Montreal. At the time, Pettinger had recently come out as gay and mentioned in passing to Crosby how he thought the Pride warmup jerseys were so cool.

“Bayner FaceTimed me a couple months later, almost in tears,” Barrie said. “The concierge at his condo called him and was like hey, there’s a big package here for you, can you come down and grab it? Turns out Sid had gotten a Pride jersey framed for Bayner. He wrote, ‘Bayner, proud of you.’ That’s the kind of guy he is. You'll never hear about any of this stuff. He's just always doing stuff under the radar. He’s just a special guy.”

merry christmas! here’s a sweet little story about canadian hockey star sidney crosby

#so interesting to me #sidney crosby #pittsburgh penguins #christmas #hockey #nhl #bayne pettinger #evgeni malkin #kris letang #lgbt #lgbtq

2K notes · View notes

anxious-witch · 3 months

Text

Also, I didn't want to make a post yesterday because I feel very all over the place and I was for once in my life busy with some irl stuff.

That said. I am a multipshipper. I wrote everything from jance, poly! JO, bojere, and recently bokris. And I even understand that some ships hit harder for some of us than others, and we all have our wishes and preferences.

But there is really no need to fight or demean other people's ships to lift up your own. Repeat after me. Real people cannot queerbait. It's not a thing, it has never been a thing and assuming it's queerbaiting you are potentially forcing people to come out before they are ready. Don't do that shit.

Furthermore, I will be the first one to say I have no idea what kind of rs Jan and Nace and Bojan and Kris have. Platonic, romantic, both, in between, undefined idc. None of us know, alright? Unless they confirm anything, none of us know. Fanfics are fanfics and real life is real life.

But saying something is insincere because you don't like it? Saying it's fan service? These are REAL people. Doing a photoshoot. A very intimate photoshoot.

You are telling me Damon, who did Kris and Bojan's shots to such depth and detail would risk his reputation to do an "insincere" fan service? If he thought their realtionship(whatever form it is) was insincere, he wouldn't have done the shoot this way. He could have easily included them both in the shoot in a less intimate manner if he felt that was right. But he didn't.

I am tired of ppl picking up a fight over this. I tried to be reasonable and nice and bow out, but God, some of you need to touch grass. Not because of being a shipper but because of how far you are willing to do to justify it.

Block me if you wish, if that's healthier for you, but also for the love of God, learn to separate fanfic and real life. I am a writer, but there has to be a line somewhere. Cool? Cool.

#joker out #rio rambles #rio rants

107 notes · View notes

jokeroutsubs · 3 months

Text

[ENG translation] Rock'n'roll in the blood

An interview with the Guštin family in Slovenian newspaper Delo, originally published 6.2.2022.

Original article is available here for Delo subscribers. Original article written by Agata Rakovec Kurent for Delo; photos by Jože Suhadolnik; English translation by a member of Joker Out Subs, native proof reading by IG GBoleyn123.

If you repost quotes from the interview, please link back to this post! And if you repost the photos, do not crop out the photographer credit.

Next Saturday (12.2.2022), Gušti and young singer Leyre will present themselves at EMA¹, but first, we visited him and his family in Bežigrad².

The Guštins (right to left) Chantal, Maja, Kris, Miha and Maks, were all happily rolling around the house during lockdowns and having a pretty nice time. PHOTO: Jože Suhadolnik/Delo

Just as I was looking at the names on the doorbells and considering calling Gušti about whether I was even at the right address in Bežigrad, the last of the five family members, Kris, came hurrying home. Actually, there are six family members, alongside Chantal and Gušti and their kids Kris, Maks and Maja, there is also Apple the dog, who greeted me with loud barking. Dogs remain with their parents even when the kids start to leave the nest, we agreed as we sat down at a big wooden table.

For musician Gušti and Chantal Van Mourik from the Netherlands, everything started with a teenage seaside romance. After that, nothing happened for ten years, but when Gušti wrote Big Foot Mama's big hit Črni tulipan, he could not imagine anyone other than his teenage love in the music video. He invited her to the filming, she came, and the rest is history. Three decades and three children later, their first-born Kris is following his dad's footsteps as the guitarist of Joker Out, the most popular band among the Slovenian youth right now.

We all know Miha 'Gušti' Guštin as Big Foot Mama's guitarist and the writer of their biggest hits. 20 years ago, he went his own way, musically, and recorded his first solo album Dolce Vita, where his successful collaboration with Polona Kasal³ started. He also did a memorable duet with Zagreb resident Ema Gagro, but let's start at the end.

If not for the good song, then for the laughter…

Next Saturday, we'll see something completely new at EMA, as he has joined forces with young singer Leyre⁴. How did they find each other? "People have been hinting that I should sign up for EMA for years and years and I never did, but this time I told myself that I would sign up if I found a truly good vocalist.

Producer Žare and I started looking, and through Dušan Obradinovič - Obre, drummer of the band Dan D, we got to Leyre. Leyre is Spanish by birth, she came to Slovenia when she was two years old. She's from Novo mesto, she is 19 years old and studies in Ljubljana. It's a one-time musical collaboration, just for EMA, so that I can finally have an answer for everyone who has been asking me for years: 'Why don't you sign up once?'" explains Gušti.

His family, especially Chantal and Kris, were initially pretty sceptical about this endeavour. Because it's a circus, because it's always said to be "rigged"?

"No, not because it's rigged, but because I thought that dad had slight misconceptions about what you can achieve with a song at EMA. My reservation was that if you go to EMA with a bad song, it falls through, no one remembers it, and it all doesn't seem worth the effort to me. Of all the songs that have been on EMA, 95 percent have sunk into oblivion, and I didn't want something like that to happen to dad.

Once we talked things through, however, and especially once I heard the song, I supported him, just like mum did. If you go to EMA, you have to win, otherwise it all passes you by, that's my opinion," says Kris.

Is Eurovision as much of a circus in the Netherlands as it is here? "It used to be, but now it's not like that anymore. For the past few years, they haven't even had a pre-selection. There's a committee that picks the performer who then represents the country at Eurovision. As for Miha, I think it's great that he signed up. The song is fantastic and the singer is truly exceptional.

On the other hand, I find it all amusing. I know Miha, and Miha is not about make-up and image, but with EMA all of that matters, the sound and the look are a package and it's absolutely not just about the song. That part, the fact that Miha is going to clothes fittings, is greatly amusing to everyone in the family," Chantal laughs.

Next Saturday, they will all keep their fingers crossed for Gušti and Leyre at EMA. Photo: Jože Suhadolnik/Delo

So did Gušti have a particularly shiny tuxedo made for EMA? "The styling will absolutely be appropriate for the event. I turned to a stylist, we just ordered everything, but I will wear a nice, elegant suit, which will still be rock chic."

The youngest members of the family, Maks and Maja, are smirking as their dad talks about rock chic. How interested is their generation in EMA anyway? "I don't know, I never asked my friends about it," is the concise answer of the youngest, seventh grader Maja, who is great at artistic gymnastics, as well as being the most artistically talented in the family.

"To be honest, I don't watch it and I'm not very interested in these things, but I will definitely watch it when dad performs, if not for the good song, then for the laughter," Maks' honesty makes everyone present laugh loudly.

History is repeating itself

Kris, who just graduated in chemical engineering, was not too enthusiastic about Big Foot Mama or Gušti's later solo projects at first.

"Everything changed when I got involved in music myself, when the summer before my first year of high school, I took up the guitar. At ten or twelve years old, I listened to what was playing on the radio, and that wasn't like the music that dad was making, so his music didn't interest me. In time, when I started discovering more complex music, rock, I started to enjoy his stuff.

My friends, who I'm still in a band with, introduced me to Big Foot Mama's music and tried to convince me that Črni tulipan was a totally awesome song. Then, for a while, I was like 'Oh, awesome, dad!' At first I didn't even care that he had been with the Big Foots, then I couldn't believe that he had left the band, it seemed horrible to me, but now I completely understand why he did it, and I really like what he's done since leaving," he tells us.

Chantal used to watch fans screaming in front of Big Foot Mama's stage, now she can relive those scenes at her son's concerts. "The screaming never bothered me, I always thought it was fun and interesting to watch. Nowadays, Miha and I often talk about how we're experiencing the same moments from another perspective.

Where Miha used to stand on stage, Kris now stands, where I used to stand in front of the stage as his girlfriend, we now stand together, but everything else is the same - the music, people screaming, girls going crazy, all that. I think that's great and I couldn't be more proud of Kris, of his band, and of course also of Miha and everything they achieved back then. We do sometimes truly feel like history is repeating itself, though."

However, some things did change from the time Gušti was starting out in music to today. Social media arrived, and these days, if you're not on it - you don't exist. "My kids and wife help me with social media, I'm not very good at it. Before they help me out, they always explain how clueless I am and that I should engage with it more and get with the times.

I'm not interested in these things, I can't find my footing in this world, but I know that it has to exist. I have Instagram, Facebook, and after they get done criticising me, everyone helps me out," says Gušti, while Chantal adds: "We have to help him to prevent something worse."

Apple the dog will also keep her paws crossed for Gušti at EMA next Saturday. Photo: Jože Suhadolnik/Delo

Joker Out take care of the social media themselves; "we have the natural advantage of having grown up with this, and it is unfortunately an integral part of the music scene today. We couldn't achieve much without Instagram. Well, after Facebook, Instagram is also almost 'out' now, so we have to start thinking about TikTok, which seems horrible to me," Kris tells us.⁵

His younger brother Maks is also part of Joker Out's story as a roadie. "It started with me helping the roadie, bringing water, putting away the cables and so on. Of course they didn't pay me, it was all in the family. Then I took over the merch, selling T-shirts and other things, which is pretty fun, it's a lot of work, but it pays off," he tells us, while Kris laughs, adding sarcastically: "Well, it doesn't pay off for him, because we still don't pay him."

Joker Out released an album (Umazane misli) recently, while Gušti says about his new one: "To me, having released quite a few albums already, the most important thing is that there is music. And there is music, I release a single or two every year, and once there's enough of them, there will also be an album. When that will happen, I don't know. Since I've never sung, I'm still figuring out the best direction for my vocals.

To put it bluntly…

Even before the pandemic, which devastated our music industry as well, Gušti and Siddharta's singer Tomi Meglič already found a recipe for these weird times, a cycle of 1on1 concerts: "During the Covid times, Tomi and I had 30 gigs, which was probably by far the most among all Slovenian performers. Seated, distanced gigs were possible. They were very well-attended before Covid already, and then it just kept going.

To put it bluntly, we were lucky bastards. It was just a pity that we couldn't put as many seats up for sale as usual and the pay reflected that, but at least we could play." I already joked with Tomi in a recent Nedelo interview that the format suits Siddharta's and Gušti's aging audience, who - judging by myself - finds it harder and harder to stand for two hours and longer. Gušti laughs: "It's true that it's mostly people our age who come, faithful fans of Siddharta and Big Foot Mama, there aren't many young people."

Putting together the repertoire gave them a lot of trouble, because together - they have too many hits. "At the beginning, the format was 14 songs with an encore, seven of his, seven of mine, which we immediately filled up. I chose his hits, he chose mine. The problems are arising now when we should freshen it up, but we don't want to lose any of the songs." At the end of March, the 31st, Gušti is also planning a solo concert in SiTi Theatre with a new team. "I will do a half unplugged, half electric version, and I will keep that up afterwards."

Unlike Gušti, the Jokers were hit by the crisis at the start of their musical journey. "At first, we planned to release the album on the 1st of April 2020, with a concert in Cvetličarna following on the 9th of April. A month before, everything closed down and fell apart. We rescheduled everything for May, then for October, and finally for next October. We also rescheduled the album release. Firstly because we weren't completely happy with it yet, and we also didn't see the point in releasing it, only us not to be seen anywhere for a year and a half.

Then people would come to a concert and wonder where anything new was, because they would already know everything. In a way, we were happy to delay everything. That way, a lot of the pressure was released, or stretched out over a longer period of time.

Covid seemed very inconvenient at first, we felt like we fell off the horse, but when we look back, it was a very productive time for us. We made some radical changes, in the music, in the line-up and in our way of thinking, and it shows. The tension was mounting before the concerts in Cvetličarna⁶ and that's why they were much more cathartic in the end," says Kris.

They have just renovated their rehearsal space and started working on the new album, which they have promised for September. That is also when they're planning a big concert in Križanke, before that they have summer concerts, including some outside of our borders. "We will try to get a gig in Serbia, and we will also release a song in Serbian."

The damage that was done to the music industry is huge, despite some bright exceptions. "The consequences will drag on for years. A huge part of the industry fell apart, and many found work elsewhere. Not musicians, not the people we see on stage, but the people in the background, as well as those who worked for publishers, in the distribution chain..." Chantal reflects.

A nomad in the house

Because of the uncertain situation, she hasn't visited her homeland for two years. "Maja and I are hoping that we can finally travel there on the 17th of February, so we're already half in isolation. The last time we were planning to go there was in September, but then Kris got sick, and then I did too. I'm hoping and knocking on wood that we can finally do it. In the meantime, my sister visited us twice, and at one point, Transavia also cancelled the flight connection between Ljubljana and Amsterdam, and I would've sooner made it around the world than to Amsterdam."

Kris visited his Dutch relatives, as well as his girlfriend and a friend who are studying there, for one week immediately after the Cvetličarna concert. "At that time, he called home to say that there were no restrictions there and he didn't need to have a mask on at the store, meanwhile here, everything was a lot more strict. When he came back, things relaxed a lot here, while over there the restrictions got stricter," says Chantal, who hopes that travelling will soon be something regular again and they will be able to visit their relatives more.

Since Kris just mentioned his girlfriend, I ask him whether it wouldn't be better for sold-out shows if all members of the band appeared single. "I have no reservations about publicly saying that I'm in a relationship, even though other band members might say differently. Our singer Bojan would say 'Kris got dumped by his girlfriend..." at every concert before a song I wrote when I once had a broken heart, but he didn't mention that it was four years ago," he laughs.

"As young girls, we used to wish that the boys on stage were single, but now I prefer to watch guys like Miha who are in a long-term relationship, because it means that they actually know something and have something to show for themselves," Chantal concludes wisely.

Maks and Maja have not been drawn into the music world (yet). "I did kind of pick up the guitar last year, but I quickly lost interest because I have too many things going on in my life to focus only on one. I can play a few of dad's songs, and I might turn to the guitar again at some point," says Maks, and his proud mum adds: "Maks is very skillful with the computer, he edits music clips and is working with various musicians.

Of course it started with Joker Out and Gušti, but now he's also working with Challe Salle⁷, Nipke⁸, he's making various videos for Spotify and has his own business. He's our businessman. All three of them are very creative, not only in the field of music, which is interesting. Maja, for example, draws incredibly well and is constantly making art."

All three kids are artistically gifted, say the proud parents. Photo: Jože Suhadolnik/Delo

They handled home schooling successfully, and as the family businessman and second year high school student Maks says, "I've found that being at home is better for me. The trip from home to school and back is time-consuming. If I'm at home, I have a lot more time left that I can use for myself."

Kris finished practically half of his studies remotely: "For the first year and a half, I was at the faculty and saw 250 students in one place in large halls, which was fascinating to me. With each new year I progressed to, there were fewer of us, and at the end there were about 40 of us left. Lockdown came at the right time for me.

All the lectures were recorded and I didn't have to get up early, I didn't have to take the bus at half past six in the morning, I could sleep in as long as I wanted and then watch the lectures. Because the professors speak slowly, I could set the speed to 1.5 and I wasn't losing time."

"I think we're all well-adapted to remote work," says Chantal, who is a veteran of it, "I've been working remotely for five years for the international school SAE, School of Audio Engineering, which used to be in Ljubljana as well, but shut down in 2016. Now I work for them in the international space. During lockdown, we were all happily rolling around the house and we were having a pretty nice time.

The happiest one, however, was Apple, who had company all the time." Gušti smiles: "I'm the only one in the house who doesn't have his own room, except for our bedroom. Whenever I needed peace to create, I retreated there, or I waited for example for Maja to go to her gymnastics practice so I could go to her room, or for Kris to not be home so I could go there. I'm the only nomad in the house."

When I last spoke to Chantal and Miha about ten years ago, we also talked about their filmesque love story which, with three small children, wasn't always easy. "I often got home at five in the morning, hyped up, with a good concert behind me, and Chantal placed a baby who hadn't slept all night in my arms. I was searching for that line, how to satisfy my rock'n'roll side on the one hand, and be a good husband and father on the other. I didn't always succeed, but I'm trying," says Gušti, who now sees his first-born backstage at concerts too.

Chantal, who speaks Dutch to her family as well as to Apple at home, has not grown fond of Slovenian cuisine even after 23 years: "I'm sorry, but that is really not for me, cabbage, sausages, blood sausages, dumplings… Luckily I now have kids who, apart from Kris, support me in this. Slovenia is developing though, and you can also get more and more Asian food here, which we really like and used to eat every other day back home, since my dad is originally from Indonesia." She says that Slovenians are very close-minded in some respects: "The attitude towards anything foreign is still pretty problematic here."

Maks adds the finishing touch: "If Slovenia was as developed socially as the Netherlands is, it could make a lot of progress as a country. I'm talking about the relationship between different cultures, who work together in the Netherlands, like water that always finds a way, while here, they are very separated."

¹EMA is the Slovenian national selection for Eurovision

²Bežigrad is a neighbourhood in Ljubljana

³Polona Kasal is a Slovenian singer; her and Gušti performed as a duo called "Gušti & Polona" for a few years

⁴You can watch Gušti and Leyre's performance at EMA 2022 here.

⁵Joker Out have, in fact, had to start thinking about TikTok since then. As you probably know, you can find them on TikTok here.

⁶You can watch the Cvetličarna concert with English subtitles here on our YouTube channel.

⁷Challe Salle, real name Saša Petrović, is a popular Slovenian hip hop singer, known for being very focused on being a good role model for his younger fans. One of his big hits was Lagano.

⁸Nipke, real name Boštjan Nipić, is a popular Slovenian rap/hip hop singer. He's part of the Dravle Records publishing company and collaborated with Bojan in the song Jst mam sam sebe rd.

If you repost quotes from the interview, please link back to this post! And if you repost the photos, do not crop out the photographer credit.

#kris guštin #kris gustin #joker out #miha guštin - gušti

70 notes · View notes

krirebr · 5 months

Text

More Than This 1

Pairing: Ransom Drysdale x f!reader, Steve Rogers & f!reader

Word Count: ~4.1k

Summary: Arranged marriages have always been used to solidify business deals among the ultra-wealthy. Your stepfather wants to be in business with Harlan Thrombey, so now it's your turn.

Warnings: Heavy angst, age difference, adult themes, institutional sexism, a very brief conversation about the possibility of abuse, explicit language, the slooowest burn - Warnings will be added as needed for subsequent parts. All of my work is 18+ - Minors DNI

Dividers by @saradika-graphics

Masterlist

A/N: And here we go! A huge thanks to @drabblewithfrannybarnes for helping me nail down some of the worldbuilding details and @paperweight91 for reading so much of this and especially telling me how to fix the scene that refused to be fixed. You're both the best!!

Any comment, reblog, or ask to let me know what you think will be greatly appreciated. Even if it's just screeching at me. As always, thank you so much for reading! 💜

It was uncommon to be called to your stepfather’s office. The high rise on the edge of Studio City had housed the heads of his family since the silent film era, give or take a remodel and expansion or five. You’d only been here a handful of times, mostly left out of the family business. When his assistant opened the door for you, you were surprised to see a small group of people, all in expensive business attire, surrounding your stepdad, Joseph Rogers, at his desk. Even more surprising was the figure standing in the corner, staring out the window – your mother.

“Mom?” you asked, unable to hide your confusion. She just gave you a tight smile in return and turned her attention to her husband.

“Sweetheart,” he called to you. It’s what he’d called you since you’d first met him as a child and it had always felt patronizing and empty. You were well aware that you were an annoyance he’d been saddled with when he’d married your mother for her late first husband’s connections. Eighteen years later, you wished he’d drop the pretense already. “Please, have a seat,” he gestured to the leather chair in front of his large oak desk.

You sat down across from him. “What’s going on?” you asked, an uneasy feeling building in your gut.

“Congratulations are in order,” he said, smiling at you. “You’re engaged.”

Years of experience at bullshit industry and society parties had you pasting on a benign smile. This was your fourth, no fifth engagement, the first one dating all the way back to when you were 10. They’d all dissolved for one reason or another, the business arrangements at the heart of them disintegrating too. But looking around the room at all the extra people in attendance, you knew better than to dismiss this outright. You were older now. Many of your friends from school had found themselves married as part of business deals in the last few years. Love matches were uncommon in the circles you frequented. There wasn’t much patience for love when this much money was at stake. But still, just because it was expected, that didn’t make you any more ready for your turn.

“That’s wonderful,” you said, putting all your effort into keeping your tone even. “May I ask whom I’m engaged to?”

“Ransom Drysdale,” Joseph said. “He’s the grandson of Harlan Thrombey, the mystery writer. We’ve been trying to secure the movie rights to his works for years and this should finally cement it. It’s fantastic news for our family and this studio. The joining of our families should create many opportunities for all of us. Ransom is one of the most eligible bachelors in Boston. You should feel very lucky.”

Lucky was the last thing you felt right now, but you kept your face schooled as you ran through your mental Rolodex to try to figure out if you had any social connections to this man. The fact that he lived on the other side of the country made it less likely but not impossible.

“So,” he continued, sliding a stack of papers across his desk to you, “all you need to do is sign and initial the contract where it’s marked, and we can get started finalizing the details for the wedding next month.”

At that, all your poise disappeared and the smile dropped off your face. “Next month?”

Joseph nodded. “It’s important to strike while the iron is hot with deals like this. So go ahead and sign so that we can all move on to the next stage.”

Your heart thumped wildly in your chest. This was happening. This one was real. “Shouldn’t I read it first?” you asked, somewhat desperately.

He shook his head, “No need,” he said, gesturing to the man you recognized as one of the family lawyers standing beside him. “Julian has already gone through it with a fine-toothed comb. All of our interests are well represented. It’s all in legalese anyway. Impossible to understand if you aren’t a lawyer.” He chuckled and many of the people standing around the desk, staring at you, joined him.

“I just–” you stammered. You didn’t know what to do, but you knew you couldn’t pick up that pen.

Irritation bloomed on your stepfather’s face. “Lydia!” he called.

Your mother stopped staring out the window and stepped up to your chair. “Honey,” she said gently, putting her hand on your back. “This will be such a good thing. And then we can get to all the fun parts of planning the wedding!” She picked up the pen and held it out to you. You took a moment to look at her. Her features were drawn and her eyes looked exhausted. She’d looked that way as long as you could remember. It did nothing to reassure you.

You glanced at the door behind you. You knew you weren’t getting out of this room without signing the contract. You took a deep breath and took the pen from your mother. There was nothing else to do. No other choice. You quickly flipped through the papers, initialing where indicated and signing the last page. Your hand was shaking so badly you weren’t sure any of it was legible.

When you turned over the last page, Joseph clapped his hands together. “Excellent!” He took a large binder off the desk and passed it over to you. “We’ve put some information together for you on your new fiance. Ransom will be in town next week to take you to dinner so that the two of you can get to know each other. Now, I’m sure you want to go celebrate, so we won’t keep you any longer.”

At the clear dismissal, you stood up. Many people in the room offered their congratulations and you nodded to them, forcing a strained smile. Then you made your way out on shaky legs, needing to see the one person who might be able to help you process what had just happened.

You’d been six years old when you and your mother had moved into the Rogers mansion. You were terrified, already able to sense Joseph’s indifference towards you. But your comfort during that time, and all the time after, had been his son, Steve. Twelve years old, still reeling from the death of his mother and just as deeply lonely as you, he’d named himself your protector, shielding you from his father’s annoyance and your mother’s sorrow. He guarded you from monsters when you woke up in the middle of the night after a nightmare and would stare down your bullies on the playground. You were very quickly inseparable.

When you became engaged the first time when you were ten, sixteen-year-old Steve had taken you out for ice cream, telling you not to worry too much, there was so much time before anything would happen and that everything would be ok. When the arrangement had fallen apart, he’d hugged you and whispered in your ear, “See? I’m always right.”

That was the memory you couldn’t stop thinking about as you let yourself into your stepbrother’s apartment, using the key he’d given you on the day he’d moved in. He wasn’t in his front room, so you moved all the way to the back, to the spare room he used as an art studio. You lightly knocked on the doorframe as you entered, trying not to startle him. He was standing with his hands on his hips, staring at a half-finished painting, but looked over his shoulder as soon as he heard you. There was a warm smile on his face, but it dropped as soon as he took in your expression. “What happened?” he asked as you flopped down onto his couch.

“I think I might be really fucked, Steve,” you said quietly, your hands still shaking. You couldn’t get them to stop.

“What happened?” he asked again, more forcefully this time, as he dragged a chair from the corner of the room so that he could sit right across from you.

“Your dad, he–” You stopped and shook your head. Steve’s face darkened. “I’m engaged,” you said with a helpless shrug.

“Okay,” he said evenly. “That might not be the most dire thing. You’ve been engaged before. Nothing ever comes of it.”

You sighed. “They’ve set a date this time.”

“Oh,” was all he could say at first, surprise on his face. “That’s new.”

“Yeah.” you nodded. “A month from now.”

That had Steve sitting up straight. “The hell?!”

“It’s happening this time. I can feel it.”

“Hey, no,” he said, reaching out to touch your arm. “Let me try to talk some sense into him. Buy you some time. He might listen to me.”

You shook your head. “Everything’s already signed. They made me sign. I don’t think there’s any getting out of it.”

“He give you a name?”

“Ransom Drysdale.”

Before he was able to stop himself, Steve grimaced.

“Fuck,” you muttered, briefly covering your face with your hands.

“No, it’s– I’ve only met him once or twice, ok? I don’t actually know anything about him.”

“But you don’t like him.”

“He’s–” Steve paused, clearly trying to find the words that wouldn’t upset you even more, “a strong personality.” He looked at you carefully. “And he’s older than you. Older than me, even.”

“I know,” you sighed, reaching for your bag and taking out the folder. “They gave me this.”

You handed it to Steve and he paged through it. “This is intense. Do you think they gave him one about you?”

You shrugged. “Dunno. Probably. Can’t imagine it says anything interesting.”

Steve nodded, seriously. “It’s probably pretty thin. Just the story of that time you completely freaked out when you weren’t allowed to bring Mr. BunBun to school with you.”

You grabbed the pillow next to you and hurled it at him. “You’re such a dick!” you laughed. “I’m very upset!”

He batted the pillow back at you and cackled when it hit you in the chest. “He deserves to know the kind of person he’s marrying. The kind who throws a five-alarm tantrum when she’s separated from her stuffed bunny.”

“I was eight, asshole!” You laughed again but then your brain caught on something Steve had said. “Holy shit, he’s marrying me. I’m getting married. I don’t know anything about him. He could be anyone. You don’t even like him! He could hurt me and–”

“Hey, no!” Steve interrupted quickly. “I might not know much, but I know that. He won’t do that. I’m sure of it. And if he ever even tried, I’d be there so fast. They’d never find his body.”

“Will he be kind to me?” you asked quietly. He opened his mouth to say something, but you stopped him. “Be honest with me. Please.”

He sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Well,” you said, trying so hard not to cry, “I guess at least now we know exactly how your dad feels about me.”

Steve closed his eyes and quietly said your name. When he opened them, there was a resolved look on his face that was painfully familiar. His ‘I’m going to fix this’ face. He was intractable when he got like this. He set his jaw. “I’m going to talk to Dad.”

You shook your head. “Steve.” Your stepfather was just as intractable as his son. This would only result in a shouting match that wouldn’t go anywhere.

“It’s going to be alright,” he said resolutely.

All you could do was say “OK,” with a wan smile, knowing it was a lie. You lay down on the couch and curled up on your side. “Do you mind if I stay here for a bit?”

“Of course not. Lola good on her own for a while?”

You nodded. Your little dog was probably asleep in her kennel. “Yeah, for a while.”

“Do you mind if I keep working on this?” he asked, gesturing to his painting.

“I like watching you paint,” you said, trying to find comfort in the familiarity of something you’d done since you were small.

He stood up and turned back to his easel, and you did your best to focus on watching him paint and not think about how, if this went through, you’d have to move to Boston and you wouldn’t get to have this time with your brother anymore.

As expected, Steve’s talk with Joseph yielded no results when it came to your future. The only thing it seemed to have any effect on was their own relationship, Steve announcing to you that he was no longer speaking to his father the next time you saw him. You hadn’t expected anything else.

For your part, you spent the next week vacillating between going overboard preparing for your first meeting with Ransom—pouring over your folder on him, making salon appointments, shopping for a dress that would make the right impression—and pretending your problems didn’t exist. As such, the day of the dinner still snuck up on you. You were a nervous wreck.

The plan was for him to pick you up at your apartment, but an hour before he was supposed to arrive, you got a text from an unfamiliar number telling you to meet him at the restaurant instead.

So now you sat at the table, alone, in a new dress with your hair done. You’d arrived ten minutes early, and he was now 20 minutes late. You took a deep breath, staring at the empty seat across from you. He would show up. He had to.

Another ten minutes passed and, as you waived off the server for a third time, you let yourself consider what it would mean if your future husband had stood you up. You should go. It’d be pathetic to stay. And even if he did show up after you’d gone, it’d make a point. Show you had a backbone. You should definitely go.

Just as your hand began to inch toward your handbag on the table, the hostess came through, leading a tall, handsome man to your table. She stopped beside you and then ducked away. The man looked at you critically. He said your name like a question and, when you nodded, he sat down. He didn’t introduce himself, but he could only be Ransom.

He was dressed nicely in an expensive sweater and slacks, but much more casually than you were and looking around the restaurant than most of the other people there, too. And when he sat down, you could see the places in his sweater where it was threadbare or torn. You tried very hard to not take it as a sign of how he felt about this dinner, felt about you.

You cleared your throat to say something, you weren’t entirely sure what when he glanced at your glass of water. “You don’t drink?”

“No, I do,” you said, but when he smirked you realized how that sounded. “I can,” you amended, but that sounded odd too. “I mean, I don’t have anything against it. I was just waiting for you.”

He snorted. “Well, aren’t you polite?” His tone made it feel like the worst thing you could possibly be. He flagged down the server and ordered a glass of the Macallan 18, then huffed impatiently while you asked questions about their wine selection. You didn’t know how he could be half an hour late and make you feel bad for taking your time ordering.

Once you’d finally made your choice and the server left, you tried not to squirm as he gave you a once-over with his eyes. You felt disappointing without really knowing why. You tried to shrug off the feeling, but then Ransom said, “How old even are you?” with scorn in his voice.

You cleared your throat. “Twenty-four,” you tried to say with confidence.

“Jesus Christ,” he muttered.

You did your best not to shrink in on yourself. Maybe he was just nervous too. It was a weird situation. But, “Didn’t they tell you about me?”

He snorted again and rolled his eyes. “Gave me a whole binder. I never opened it.”

You looked down at your empty place setting, embarrassed. You’d studied every inch of what they’d given you, hoping to show him how seriously you were taking this and he couldn’t care less. “Oh,” was all you were able to say.

He grinned a little meanly. “You got one too, didn’t you? Don’t tell me you’ve memorized facts about me that you were ready to rattle off to impress me.”

“No,” you growled out. You weren’t going to let him make you feel small just for trying to show interest in the person you were going to have to spend the rest of your life with.

He swiped one hand over his mouth and chin. “My god,” he muttered, “this whole thing is fucking ridiculous.”

The waitress came back and set down your drinks. Ransom immediately took a large gulp of his scotch. You itched to do the same, but you suddenly felt like proving a point. Even if you weren’t entirely sure what that point was.

You were ready to order, but Ransom hadn’t glanced at his menu yet. Just as you were about to ask for a few more minutes, he said, “Go ahead and bring me another one of these right away,” and gestured with his drink in dismissal. She nodded and left.

Fuck it, you let yourself take a large drink of your wine. “Do you know what you’re going to have?” you asked, nodding to his menu.

He shook his head. “I have dinner plans after this.”

Heat shot through your whole body. “I thought these were the dinner plans.”

He rolled his eyes again. “Getting a head start on the nagging?” he asked, dryly. “Wow, it’s like we’re already married.”

You opened your mouth to do something, you weren’t sure what. Everything in your mind had gone white. But once again, Ransom beat you to it. “Alright, let’s get this done. You’re moving into my house. Fine. But I already have everything we need, so I expect you to pack light. I don’t need your shit cluttering up everything.”

You didn’t know what to say to that. You didn’t know how to have a conversation with him. Someone who left no room for you and seemed not to care at all about anything you had to say. And then there was the voice in your head that kept shouting about how incredibly important this dinner was to the rest of your life. And now it wasn’t even dinner. So when you opened your mouth to speak, what came out was, “I have a dog.”

He stared at you for a moment, seemingly surprised that you’d spoken at all. “What? No. Absolutely not. You’ll have to get rid of it. I hate dogs.”

You didn’t even bother to try to think through the static in your head. “She’s coming with me. I don’t care what else happens, I’m fucking bringing my dog.”

Ransom just narrowed his eyes and stared at you for a moment, then, “Fine. Just keep it away from me. And if it destroys my house, you’re getting rid of it. I’m serious.”

“She won’t,” you said, as sure of that as anything. “She’s a good girl.”

“Whatever,” he said, as the server returned with his second drink. He slid his empty glass to the end of the table, then said, “The bill,” without looking at her. As she took his empty away, he continued to you, “I don’t know why you want to deal with a dog and a baby, but…” he shrugged.

You just blinked at him, trying to catch up with the massive leap he’d just taken. “Baby? What? Who said anything about a baby?”

He laughed, loudly. “Oh my god, they didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?” you asked, harshly, panic starting to build up in your chest.

“Of course, they fucking left that to me. There’s a clause in the contract,” he said, “requiring you to get pregnant with my child within the first year.”

You stared over his shoulder, you couldn't look him in the eye, horrified and speechless. You couldn’t breathe. How were you supposed to breathe?

“You seriously didn’t read your own marriage contract?” The judgment in his tone had you shrinking in on yourself. You couldn’t help it.

“They didn’t give me any time,” you said, quietly. “They just made me sign it.”

“And you always do what you’re told, don’t you? Yeah, you look like a good girl.” He said it the same way he’d called you polite when he’d first sat down with you. Like it made you weak. Stupid. You’d never thought so before, but now you wondered if he was right.

“Fuck,” you whispered.

He chuckled humorlessly. “We agree on that,” he said. “This whole thing is fucked.”

At some point, without your notice, the server had returned with Ransom’s card and the receipt. He signed it quickly, then stood up. “Listen, now, at least, we can go back to our parents, tell them we met, chatted, got to know each other. Everything is hunky dory. And then do whatever we want for the next three weeks. Right now, I’m going to try to salvage my night. You go do,” he gestured vaguely at you, “whatever you need to do. I’ll see you at the wedding.”

And then he was gone and you were alone.

You sat in the back seat of the car on the way back to your apartment, running over every moment of your evening. You kept thinking about the way he’d looked at you, talked to you. A baby. You were supposed to have a baby with him. A child that you’d have to raise. By yourself, judging by how invested in all this he seemed to be. Forty, fifty years of him looking at you like that, talking to you like that. And a baby. You leaned forward and asked the driver to take you to your parents’ house instead.

Once you arrived, you said you needed to speak to your stepfather urgently and were shown to his study. You stood in the middle of the room, too anxious to sit down, and waited. Everyone was making you wait tonight.

Several minutes later, Joseph finally came in. “We weren’t expecting you tonight,” he said. “How did it go?”

You ignored his question, which you guessed was an answer in itself. “Please don’t make me do this,” you pleaded.

“Sweetheart,” he sighed, disappointed, and moved over to his bar, pouring himself two fingers of decanted whiskey. “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”

“It was. It was awful. He’s– I can’t do this. Please, please don’t make me.” Your voice broke, but you couldn’t be embarrassed about it, not when you were staring down an entire lifetime with him.

“Everyone gets nervous before their wedding. You’ll be fine. This is important. To all of us.”

“It’s not nerves!” You were close to shouting, suddenly. “You weren’t there. You don’t know. There have to be other families we need things from. It doesn’t have to be this family, does it? It doesn’t have to be right now. Please, please, anything else. I’m begging you, don’t make me marry him, have a child with him.”

He chuckled lightly. “Oh, that’s what this is about. It won’t feel as scary once the baby is here. You’ll make an excellent mother.”

You just stared at him, agape. He wasn’t listening to anything you had to say. “How could you not tell me that was part of the contract? I deserved to know. I wouldn’t have signed!”

His face hardened at that. “You were naive to not expect it. Of course, children are part of this. I admit that the timing is a little fast, but Harlan insisted.”

“Joseph, please listen to me. I can’t. I can’t. Please. If you care about me at all, you won’t make me do this.”

“You’re being ridiculous. It’s done. Everything’s signed. You signed. Now,” he said and took a drink, “it’s getting late. It’s high time you went home. Hopefully, you’ll be able to calm yourself down there.” And then he left the room, ignoring you as your whole world fell apart.

As you left, you passed your mother in the hall. Neither of you said anything.

When you got home, Steve was waiting for you, having already let himself in, holding Lola in one arm. “How did it go?” he asked seriously. You shook your head and finally let the tears fall. He pulled you into his arms, smushing you against your dog, and gently guided you into your home.

Part Two

Tag list is open

@stargazingfangirl18

@drabblewithfrannybarnes

@thezombieprostitute

@jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory

@bval-1

#ransom drysdale x you #ransom drysdale x reader #ransom drysdale x female reader #ransom drysdale #chris evans fanfiction #fanfic #steve rogers #knives out #captain america #reader insert #arranged marriage au #kris wrote something #more than this #ce characters

487 notes · View notes

izpira-se-zlato · 3 months

Text

Why Sunny Side of London Should Not Be The Opener

I've been listening to my recordings from ESNS 24 a bunch (because I don't have any streaming services and currently have my work laptop plugged into my speakers), and what really struck me is – SSOL is Not A Good opener.

A small essay, under the cut, because I still have not learned how to keep my ramblings short and somehow wrote around 800 words. Yeah. I tried not getting too critical, but it does talk about why I think something they're doing does not work, so proceed with caution if that is likely to upset you.

ETA: Added a bit about ESNS and Platosonic

Before we get into this, a bit of info about ESNS and Platosonic: ESNS is a music showcase festival – not a competition, as Bojan claimed, but an event where during the day, music industry people go to conference-style panels and in the evenings/night, "breakout artists" from Europe play showcase sets of 40 minutes. So there's a pretty decent chance there's like, critics and producers and god knows who else from the music industry in the audience.

Platosonic is an event set in the Plato record store (and the neighbouring coffee shop) where artists who also play festival sets play smaller, special sets in a more intimate atmosphere – JO with their half-acoustic set (i.e. Kris was on an acoustic guitar), and another artists from the band AySay played a solo set with her saz, to name two).

Okay, and with the stage set like that, back to the original essay.

I've been thinking about it for a while (ever since first hearing it live, really), that it works better at the end of the set, when they play it as their encore: the crowd is hyped, we've been partying, we've been partying together, and then it's just a release of emotion that feels good.

At the start of the set though? It hasn't worked for me ever since I first heard it live in that spot at Stožice. I put it down as, oh, I don't like this song that much anyway at first, but it's more than that, and the ESNS version really drove that home. They weren't playing to a home crowd there – Bojan remarked upon the familiar faces in the front row, and I got the vibes that he was a little glad, but for the most part, the crowd was pretty dead at first. They hadn't yet won them over. They needed to put the work in.

And SSOL does not put that work in. Instead, it already expects to reap the rewards, but if you don't know this band, and don't know this song, then having the first song suddenly put you on the spot and demand you scream... What for? They haven't yet done anything. They haven't yet played, they haven't yet shown their skill, and yet they demand you cheer for them?

And Bojan clearly recognised that something was off – he yells you guys suck, after the first scream bit, which is relatable but feels jarring and awkward every time I listen to the recording. It's unprofessional: the crowd didn't suck, you just expected adoration and engagement without having built it up.

It reminds me a bit of the Stožice recording. Now of course, Stožice was them playing in front of a literal home crowd, which adds another layer of complexity: a Slovenian crowd for a Slovenian band, and the (rightful) fear that in their bid for international stardom, they would abandon their Slovenian roots.

But it's what we have a professional recording for, and the change between SSOL and Gola is noticeable. Where SSOL has the scream bits that are loud (and imo better mixed in than in the studio version, which is jarring with how suddenly it switches between music and the screaming), Gola has the crowd just getting into it in a way that's missing from SSOL. SSOL feels like the prelude while Gola is the opening.

And, as many problems I have with SSOL, I think it's a decent live song! It's fun, it's easy to sing along to, it's a way for you to let out the emotions that built up... if they've been built up. Which is why I think they're doing themselves and the song a disservice by using it to open. It's a celebration of their fans and the atmosphere at their concerts, but the audience needs to be in that atmosphere. It does not work very well to build that atmosphere because it expects you to already be in that mindset.

And the ESNS set really underscored that. The crowd was silent, because why would they scream? Because the singer asked them to? Why would they? The band hadn't yet done anything except introduce themselves; they hadn't yet put the work in and yet expected to reap the rewards.

There was another bit that fell flat – when Bojan did his usual Anatagaski/Watashi mo spiel – and it was less jarring, but I think he could have done with more confidence there. And I do wonder whether he might have had more confidence if they hadn't started with SSOL.

Because I think they can win "fresh" people over, even with a full set in Slovene (hell, they did it to many of us). I'm pretty sure they won over a good chunk of that crowd. They have charisma, the songs are catchy, their stage presence is fun. But SSOL and demanding audience participation before they've earned it really hurt them.

And of course the Platosonic set the next day was different – smaller, more relaxed, less pressure from "industry people in the audience" – but Bojan seemed way more relaxed and way more in his element there, and if he'd been like that at Maas on Wednesday, and if they hadn't started with SSOL but ended with that, it would have been a much stronger set.

#joker out #bojan cvjeticanin #bojan cvjetićanin #sunny side of london #ssol #essay #at this point I should really consider putting this on AO3 huh #another almsot 800 word essay on JO #jo esns 24 #ESNS 24

58 notes · View notes

carlyraejepsans · 11 months

Note

You said in the Ralsei post that his flirting with Kris is supposed to make us uncomfortable or at least question his relationship to Asriel. I agree that Toby could possibly "go there", but do you think it's intentional on Ralsei's part? I genuinely don't think he knows he looks like Kris's brother. If someone makes Kris get into a relationship with someone who looks like their brother, I think it'll be the players fault for knowing he looks like Asriel and forcing it anyway rather than Ralsei himself actually knowingly being into incest. (feel free to answer this without posting the ask if it's worded badly)

all things considered i don't think he does. i think what's happening in deltarune is that ralsei, as a darkner, was created to play on our fondness and love for the asriel we knew in undertale. at the same time, if you're in any way familiar with classic rpgs, you'll realize that ralsei's role in the story is a direct callback to the "healer of the cast, bearer of the prophecy and love interest for the protagonist" trope (a role that was always given to female characters, tying into his gnc quoi), so being framed romantically by the story is... kind of a given here. however, those two core aspects of his, well, self, are basically incompatible. at least when it comes to his desire to be liked by kris, because being pushed into romantic situations you perceive as incestuous is, understandably, going to freak a guy out.

as you probably know, i recently had the chance to play earthbound, and paula reminded me of ralsei so much. ralsei deconstructs the rpg girl trope in general, but knowing how big of a mother 2 fan toby is, i feel like she was a pretty clear inspiration in the way he wrote ralsei. and something that happens again and again and again throughout the course of earthbound as soon as paula joins the team, is that people constantly make comments about her and ness being together. now, paula/ness is canon by the end of the game and has been confirmed as such by the creators, but earthbound as a game heavily features the topic of fatedness; and unlike deltarune, chosen ones and prophecies and dreams of future friends are never questioned by its plot, they are the plot. so, since a big part of deltarune's gimmick consists in questioning the trope of rpg fate, i wonder if ralsei's crush on kris might be revealed to be something predetermined too, going forward. after all, he spent a long time waiting for the heroes of prophecy to arrive so he could become their friend and help them on their quest. if that same "fate" determined that he was supposed to be kris' love interest, then knowing ralsei he probably accepted that fact and acted accordingly. which would mean getting into whether those feelings are actually genuine or if they're born out of duty and his submission to What Is Right And What Should Be.

the main reason i don't think he's aware, though, is that that incompatibility between those two aspects of himself that prevent him from fulfilling (part of) his purpose is a storyline that heavily reminds me of spamton's. ralsei is the most "purposepilled" character in the entire game. he is ADAMANT about reinforcing 1) his own lack of agency 2) that of all other darkners 3) the darkners' purpose towards the lighters as not only inescapable, but good, 4) the status quo of the light world/dark worlds dynamic as it stands. fulfilling his purpose is a BIG deal to him, and the story is obviously going to have an arc challenging it and sending the poor boy into an existential crisis. and him realizing during the events of the game that his literal appearence alone makes kris uncomfortable and prevents him from being the good rpg love interest character he was created to be, well... it just feels like a good way to further that arc.

#tldr i don't think he does and i think him realizing it could be a crucial aspect of his inevitable breakdown #answered asks #deltarune #ralsei #kris #incest mention #entry log #also correct me if I'm wrong but there's the fact that NEVER ONCE does he bring up asriel. queen even makes him a room and everything #but ralsei prince from the dark of prophecy fame.... doesn't ever even mention him? wrow. much to think about #metanalysis

171 notes · View notes

acaciapines · 1 year

Text

me out here like so i know ive written a lot of deltarune fic and my big project now is the owl house daemon au but what if i write MORE deltarune fic instead <3

fkgndfjg recently ive been thinking about an au where kris left with dess and thus its noelle and susie who fall into the dark worlds (similar to the ending of my fic either (first, last) where dess is human except idk if id keep that part of things) and im like. n. no. you cant do that. youd end up Writing Deltarune. do you know how long that would take. so fucking long.

but im like. but noelle in kris’s role....how the prophecy is still ‘a human, a monster, and a prince from the dark’ except the human died? vanished? before it could ever be fulfilled. how if i make it so kris and dess are still alive that means they could come BACK and we get to see a kris raised by dess. how this means asriel wouldve never left for college (since the dreemurrs think kris and dess are dead and if kris Died because of dess azzy 100% blames himself and isnt about to leave his mom and dad) and i get to explore his relationship with noelle as the two left behind. how ralsei is still kris’s headband here but there is no kris, so where does that leave ralsei?

BASICALLY SOMEONE STOP ME I KEEP GETTING MORE IDEAS. i havent even posted the bad end au yet and im like ok but what if MORE.

#chatter #deltarune #drkau #as you can see my brain is like. 80% deltarune at any given time #sorry this au is just its been in the back of my mind since i wrote either first last lol #bc there is something so interesting about it!#like a kris raised by dess would be SO FUN theyd be fucked up in so many new cool ways #like for example: not coyotekin! they might actually end up with less issues in the human/monster regard #and just identify as a monster!#(bc for all she does dess is 100% supportive of kris being a monster and sees them as such)#dess and chara might end up together (since dess still wouldve gone to xir)#which means we could get frisk and kris as stepsiblings!!#noelle and azzy would become super close! asriel wouldnt leave hometown!#toriel and asgore might not get divorced (dw it would still be an unhappy marriage lol) or if they do it would be later!#the prophecy would just be like. ralsei would have to content w it not being the end all be all way early!#since theres no human just two monsters!#the ralsei susie noelle friendship dynamics....#noelle being party leader....#fuck it guys i think im convincing myself to write this #if you read all of this tags Hi send me asks about this so i can hopefully get it out there #instead of adding yet another fic to the backburner #tho backburnering this one could work #since id want to write it as like. All Of Deltarune #so more deltarune being out helps lol #god. fuck. guys this one might exist one day.

5 notes · View notes

beeoftheanxieties · 9 months

Text

So, @da-proti-toku-grem kind of inspired me to make a lengthy post, sharing some positive vibes across the fandom, listing the reasons why I love each member of Joker Out and why I would go full mom-mode on them and cook for them and bake them gluten-free cookies.

Anyway:

A Joker Out, brain-rot, appreciation post

(members listed in alphabetical order)

Bojan

First up - as someone who had the chance to see them live, he is an insane performer

His ability to enchant the crowd is insane and you can tell really well that he has great acting abilities too

Watched him in Gospod Profesor too, spot on for someone who is a so-called amateur

His singing voice is... amazing to say the least, it feels really unique

Also, the way he talks, the sound of his voice, the words he uses, his pronunciation, if there were awards for talking he would get one

The languages he speaks, I want to study him, linguistically, he is truly a phenomenon

We of course love a bilingual king

He looks like he has his priorities straight

I also respect him so much for how open he is about his mental illness

I might relate to him a bit too much at times whoops

And the fact that he can somehow befriend literally anyone??? Love that

His friendship with Jere is the main one of course

Oh yeah and the fact that he literally helped people who collapsed at their gigs a few times

Bless him, he deserves all the rest he is hopefully getting

Jan

First things first, I have a soft spot for math guys

And the way he talks about math is fascinating (but you still won't get me to like it Jan)

Cat dad???? We absolutely adore Igor and a man loving cats is such a green flag

I know people say he mumbles a bit and it's hard to understand him at times, but idk, he talks nice and slowly, so it's still really easy to understand him

He comes from my home region, so I am very biased haha

Also, every band needs a guitarist with luscious locks

He absolutely owns the colour red, that colour was invented specifically for him

The nose ring suits him so well too, this man KNOWS what fits him

And if that ends up being jackets with nothing underneath when he performs, THEN SO BE IT

I know people call Kris the lesbian icon, but from what I've seen lesbians are very drawn to Jan as well

Oh, and he gives me Klaus from the Umbrella Academy vibes (I blame the hair and the pink boa)

Jure

Holy shit, sunshine in human form????

The most underappreciated one in the band imo

His surname literally means 'cat' and I am so normal that Jan has called him 'muca'

He also comes from my region haha, bias again

He's really good at filming, he actually shot a few things for RTV (national TV station) and edited them as well, god, talent

Also playing drums... I have sang, I have played guitar, played bass, but drums is something I feel like I could NEVER do, so hats off to you

As @da-proti-toku-grem pointed out, THE MOLE ON HIS LIP? weak knees, yes

He also reminds me of a good friend of mine and I vibe with him so much, I feel like I would vibe with Jure as well

I really don't like the fact that drummers tend to get ignored and I just wish there was more Jure performing content

Though I love it how every time, during Novi Val, he comes to the front and hangs with the others

His hair also looks so soft and fluffy aaaaaa

Again, biased but he resembles my bf the most out of everyone so hmmmm

Kris

The baby of the band! (and the only one in the band I could actually call 'mulc')

In case you didn't know yet, he's half Dutch

And he speaks Dutch, which, as someone who speaks Dutch (in theory, not in practice) makes me really happy

I wish to study him linguistically as well

Also his parents' story feels very close to me, as I'm dating outside of my culture as well

According to him he was menace as a kid and I think we should normalise the fact that you can become a better person as you grow up

But pls don't honk at me on the road Kris, pls, I will cry

The songs he wrote??? NGVOT and Vse kar vem??? Oh boy, I love them, adore them

His holey sweaters are also a vibe

Dutch fans, if you don't shower him and the rest of the band with gifts at their Dutch concerts, I will be mad

Also gotta honorably mention Maks

They gotta be my fav nepo-but-not-really babies out there

Kinda like Maya Hawke?

I am ranting

He also looks like the only member of the band that I would fight, and idk why

Also, I must know if he supports Max Verstappen haha

Minus points for chemistry though, I cannot with that

Nace

Okay everyone

Here we go

We have reached my beloved

I love all of them, but Nace just a bit more

It was love at first sight, I cannot lie

I have a soft spot for bassists and he might actually convince me to try and play bass again

He has been playing it for so long too??? like wow

Oh and of course; THE TATTOOS, BLESSETH BE THE TATTOOS

I will always go feral about his tattoos

At every concert

I know he was the last to join the band but it looks like he fits in so nicely, it's beautiful

Strong mom-codded dad friend vibes

He kinda is the dad of the band haha

And he looks like he gives amazing hugs (lucky all of you who had managed to get one already)

A nice addition to the band

Oh and he's apparently shit at sports which is like... felt

Plus the fact that he wanted to be a vet?

Me too boo, me too, but neither of us is there now

Anway, I'll stop now. In conclusion, this band has my whole heart and they deserve every good thing that happens to them and so much more.

#joker out #nace jordan #jan peteh #bojan cvjetićanin #kris guštin #kris gustin #bojan cvjeticanin #jure maček #jure macek #bee's rants #this probably makes me sound so delulu but I swear I am not #though i will admit #i have yet to have gone outside today #anyway let me know what y'all think about our boys

122 notes · View notes

rachelfoleyisntdead · 7 months

Text

-Not Sweet or Clean-

Pairing: Ashrah/Syzoth (Reptile), 1.9k words

Rating: Explicit

Summary: It's mating season for our favorite Zaterran... too bad Ashrah doesn't know anything about Zaterran culture.

tw: smut, unprotected sex, mating, partial transformation, full transformation, dirty talk

author's note: i can't believe i actually wrote this, it's filthy. but ashrah is one of my faves and she deserves to get fucked stupid by her hot lizard bf. why he have an insane tongue if he ain't gonna use it (he does). anywaaay. enjoy.

The sheets shifted, and Ashrah's eyes opened at the whispering sound of fabric against fabric. Sleep was relatively new to her, and when it did come, it was often accompanied by the human phenomenon of nightmares.

They were nearly always the same: Quan Chi found them, and she couldn't stop him from taking back Sareena. Half the time, Raiden, Kung Lao or Johnny died, and in the worst ones, Syzoth.

Her heart slowed as his arm wound around her waist and he pressed against her back, and her hand stopped wanting for her kris. It was just Syzoth.

Her lips pulled into a smile. "You're not supposed to be in here," she reminded him softly. The Wu Shi frowned upon unmarried lovers sharing a bed, but Ashrah still remembered the first time he checked on her, claiming he heard her struggling in her sleep.

It took her too long to figure out that he was afflicted with the same condition, and he was searching for comfort as much as offering it. "I won't tell," she added, turning to face him. "But maybe if you told Raiden... the Wu Shi might be understanding," she said, gently pushing his hair back from his forehead.

It was damp, and even in the sparse moonlight, she could see his cheeks and neck were flushed. "It's not that," he mumbled, wedging himself into her embrace. Between her legs, pushing apart the thin white robe and pulling her against his chest, his face burying in the crook of her neck and shoulder and inhaling deeply.

Oh. Well... this was exactly what the Wu Shi wouldn't approve of, but Ashrah had atoned for far greater sins. Syzoth's lips pressed against her neck, searching for the familiar spot that had her wriggling against him, as his other hand sought out the tie of her robe. His mouth opened, his forked tongue sliding across her skin as soft as silk. Her breath hitched as it slithered over her ear, and he pressed against her, hard and throbbing.

He was so eager... the first few times, he had wooed her shyly, unsure if she would accept his affection. But this time, there was something desperate in his panting breath and wandering hands, the kind of desperation that didn't appear until they were almost at their peak.

Something was off. Even the desire smoldering in her core couldn't burn away that feeling. "Syzoth..." she murmured, tilting her head away.

He followed, laving his lips and tongue along the fresh canvas she had accidentally exposed. "You smell so good... so clean and pretty, like that tea Madam Bo serves."

Ashrah flushed, her knees spreading wider. Syzoth often said sweet things to her, but the way that made her feel was not sweet--or clean. The Zaterran took advantage, pressing his full weight into her and shifting her onto her back.

As he started to grind against her, Ashrah steeled her voice, "Syzoth. Stop."

He looked up at her, green eyes dark and hazy, his mouth slick and pouty. The way he looked when she kissed him a little too long. So gorgeous and messy, but she'd barely touched him. Gods, why would that little voice not shut up?

"Don't you want me?" he asked, voice soft and husky as he rolled his hips into her. Instinctively, her body moved against him, craving that hard heat cradled against her.

Her hands framed his face. "Always," she affirmed. Earthrealm had given her many joys, but none she treasured so much as him. He was the only one who understood what it meant to be different, reviled and outcast by their own people, but still carry love for some of them. She had a soul now, and it recognized its counterpart in him... so she could not ignore this. "Tell me what's wrong."

His lip pulled between his teeth for a moment, then he said, "I need you."

Before she could even respond, his head ducked for her neck and he resumed grinding against her, even more desperately than before. His hand brushed against her thigh, and she jerked.

"I'm aware..." she said, reaching down to pull it away.

He kissed up her throat to her mouth, shaking his head. "No... no, I need you," he mumbled, his mouth fumbling against hers as he laced their fingers together and pressed her hand to the mattress. "Do demons not..." frustration edged his voice, "mate?" he tried.

It was so endearing. "You know very well we do," she replied. They had done so several times.

His head slumped, his forehead tilting against her shoulder, but his hips kept their rhythm. "Syzoth?" she asked, wondering if she had said something wrong. She did that often, being ignorant of human culture. She was learning.

Maybe this wasn't a human thing... she was ignorant of Zaterran culture, too, but she was just as willing to learn. She reached for his face, tilting it up so she could press her mouth to his. He responded automatically, giving her unfettered access and groaning in a way that settled deliciously in her core.

"Tell me what you need..." she beckoned against his lips, wrapping her legs around his waist.

"You," he whined. "I need you, please." His free hand slid between them, and she froze at the claw that grazed against her skin. A beat, and then a tearing sound and she knew what was in his hand before she saw it. What she didn't expect was for him to press it to his mouth and inhale, watching her hungrily.

Syzoth was a sweet man, but she knew there was an animal within him, too. One he had no intention of giving up... and one who apparently had it's own needs.

His head dipped, his mouth trailing down her stomach until his shoulders were nestled between her thighs. Ashrah knew what was coming next, her heart beating in the lowest point of her core; Syzoth was a generous lover, always making sure she was taken care of.

But this time, he dove in like a man in the desert who had just found an oasis. His tongue laved over her lower lips, drinking up every drop of her arousal. The forked tip fluttered against her clit, making her gasp and squirm.

His tongue traced every sensitive inch of her skin, exploring and worshipping her. He groaned into her, the sound reverberating in her core.

He pulled his head up, looking at her, his lips and tip of his nose shiny. She shifted beneath him; she was so close, but she needed more than just his serpentine tongue.

Finally, when she was almost to the point of protesting, his cock was sheathed inside of her, stretching and filling her. Hunched over with his face nuzzled between her breasts as he thrust. "You're so warm..." he groaned, his shallow thrusts getting deeper. His clawed hand gripped her thigh, trying to drag her up into him, and she grew impossibly slicker at the way his talons pressured her skin but didn't break it.

"Syzoth..." she moaned his name as he picked up speed. His tongue wrapped around her breast, the forked tip flicking the nipple, and she had to bite down on her lip to keep from crying out.

"I want to hear you." His thrusts were getting desperate again, and she could feel him thickening inside her. "Please, my pretty mate..."

They were going to get caught, she wanted to protest, but that wasn't what left her mouth. Instead, it was an answering plea of, "Hurry..."

It never took long. This human body was sensitive, and Syzoth always took good care of it. And maybe, the fact that it was him made everything so much more intense. No... that was definitely part of it. A few more deep thrusts and she was seeing stars behind her eyelids.

His thrusts grew shallow again, attempting to wring every ounce of pleasure out of her body. “Can we....?” he asked.

Ashrah's eyes blinked open. “Again?”

He nodded, that hungry look in his eyes as he took her in. “Just one more time,” he promised.

A promise that was almost immediately broken. After he pulled her into his lap, his clawed hands gripping her hips and guiding her up and down on his cock until he spilled, he made the same whining plea. She couldn't refuse, not with his tongue flicking against her ear, so she weakly agreed.

He flipped her over, cleaving her from behind. One hand snaked around her thigh, between her legs to play with that sensitive pearl of flesh just above where he was thrusting. He groaned in wanton delight, “You're so tight...” as her body clenched around him. She could barely breathe, let alone respond, completely lost as another wave of pleasure wracked her body.

And again, he whined, “Just one more time...” She was too strung out to protest as he carefully tilted her onto her side. Something rough and scaled wrapped around her leg, lifting it up—his tail, she realized.

He slid inside her again, filling that deep ache. “Syzoth~”

“You're so pretty and kind and strong... I hope our brood is just like you,” he groaned in her ear.

What...? “Syzoth, what are you--”

His mouth descended on her ear, whispering in a husky tone, “I'm going to put a whole clutch in you.” His thrusts grew even rougher, pounding into her relentlessly, the tip of his cock railing against her womb.

She could barely speak without moaning. He'd never been like this before... his tail constricted around her quivering leg, and a hazy thought slid across her mind.

He'd been holding back, controlling himself, containing that animal side to him. But it slipped out anyway, in his tongue, his hands, his tail. How difficult it must have been, considering the animal side... that was how he was born. He was more Zaterran with a human side, really.

She reached up with one hand to cup his cheek. He turned, nuzzling his face into her touch, though he kept moving between her legs with the same fervor. “You don't have to hold back,” she whispered. She still didn't know entirely what was going on, but she trusted him.

He groaned against her palm, shifting entirely. Her back was now pressed against broad scales, and his girth expanded inside her. She couldn't understand what he was saying, his words a whispering mess in her ear but his tongue and muzzle against her neck was enough to let her know that she was loved.

His hips tilted, his cock grazing against that spot inside her that made her feel like every part of her body was curling, and she choked out his name at her last climax.

He buried himself inside her to the hilt, spilling so much she could feel it sliding down her thighs. His mouth opened, his breath cool against her skin and then—teeth against her shoulder. She winced, the slight pain breaking through the haze of the afterglow, but didn't struggle. Then, he was licking at the small puncture wounds, and the prickling pain faded.

He slid out of her with a second gush of wetness between her thighs and shifted back to his human form. He let her leg down gently, then settled behind her, pulling her back against his sweaty chest. His hand rested against her stomach, stroking it gently. “I love you so much, my mate...” he mumbled, his lips brushing against the marks on her shoulder.

She'd ask him about it in the morning. For now, she was too tired to do anything but fall asleep, safely nestled in her mate's arms.

#ashrah #syzoth #ashrah x syzoth #ashrep #mk smut #i really don't know what to tag this with #tw: sex #i stared at this for like ten min before hitting 'post now' lmaooo

115 notes · View notes