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yumeka-sxf · 24 days

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Japanese Linguistic Observations in Spy x Family - part 2

Part 2 - Anya's "Anya-isms"

I think Anya has one of the most interesting ways of speaking out of all the SxF characters. But like with Twilight's dialogue that I previously discussed, it can only be fully appreciated in the Japanese version. Probably the most noticeable thing about her dialogue is how it's written compared to the other characters.

Written Japanese is comprised of three different alphabets: ひらがな (hiragana) and カタカナ (katakana), which together are referred to as "kana," and 漢字 (kanji). Kanji are the characters that hold the meaning of words, while kana simply represent the various Japanese syllable sounds and don't have any meaning on their own (much like the letters of the English alphabet). There are only about 100-ish total unique kana symbols, however, there are over 2,000 kanji in common use today. So Japanese children will start out learning kana and then learn kanji gradually during their school years. This is why Japanese children's books are typically written only or mostly in kana. This is also why manga and books aimed at a younger audience will have kana "translations" of kanji written above kanji characters, which are called furigana.

With that in mind, it's not surprising that all of Anya's dialogue in the Japanese version of the SxF manga is written entirely in kana. Even though using kanji in her dialogue wouldn't necessarily mean she knows kanji, reading a character's dialogue only in kana definitely gives off childish vibes – it conveys feelings of youthfulness and innocence, like "they're speaking only in kana because they don't know the kanji for these words…they're just a little kid, after all." At least, that's the feeling I get when I read Anya's dialogue. Though I haven't read enough manga in Japanese to say for sure, it seems like this concept of making little kids speak only in kana is not unusual, as there's at least one other example I know of: a manga from the mid-2000s called Yotsuba also has a titular 5-year old whose dialogue is written only in kana.

What's also interesting is that all of the other Eden kids speak "normally," using kana and kanji properly in their dialogue. This helps to convey the fact that, despite Anya being roughly the same age as them, their "rich family" upbringing has forced them to grow up faster. In the below panel, you can see how Damian's dialogue uses kanji (with furigana translations) while Anya's uses only kana, even for words that have kanji.

Interestingly, I found at least two cases where Anya does use kanji in her dialogue: when she's calling out the name of her big "Arrow of Light, Seize the Star" move during the dodgeball game, and when she calls out her "Lighting Bolt, Deliver my Aid" move when she tries to throw Yor's weapon back on the deck in the cruise arc. As you can see in the below panels, the names of these "moves" is written in kanji (with furigana translations). This makes sense not only because this is parodying shonen series where the characters shout out the names of their moves, but because it emphasizes how determined Anya was at these moments.

But going back to how Anya's speech compares to the other kids, another thing that stands out is that she speaks very "plainly." Her grammar is (mostly) correct, except for a few mistakes you'd expect a little kid to make. But she uses pretty much no colloquialisms, almost as if she knows the language but lacks the experience for using it in normal social interactions. I don't think this is unusual for a kid her age who's still learning, but it definitely stands out when compared to her classmates. For example, in the below panel, Becky uses normal interjections and other colloquialisms in her speech, like "ne" (ね), "wa" (わ), and "yo" (よ), which are all standard Japanese linguistic devices for softening or emphasizing your sentences. However, Anya doesn't use things like this in her speech. Again, this makes her speech come off as very plain and abrupt, almost like she's not a native speaker.

She also refers to herself in third person all the time in the Japanese version. In fact, I don't recall her ever using an "I" or "me" pronoun. I don't know why the English version of the manga doesn't keep this characteristic of her speech. I think it's very important in highlighting the childish aspect of her personality.

Putting all this together – the fact that she doesn't use typical colloquial speech and refers to herself in third person – really emphasizes the childish, naive, and almost baby-like nature of her character. I'm curious if Endo made her speak this way simply to show what a little kid she is compared to her classmates, or if it will somehow tie back to whatever roots she has in classical languages that he keeps hinting at. Regardless, as I mentioned in my full Anya analysis, what she lacks in speech and school smarts, she makes up for in empathy and resourcefulness.

Besides all this, Anya does make typical speech mistakes a normal kid would make, like mishearing words or saying things wrong. She mostly uses casual speech, but does try to use keigo (polite speech) on occasion, though not always correctly. For example, she says "ohayaimasu" (おはやいます) for "good morning" instead of "ohaiyou gozaimasu" (おはようございます).

But the most consistent "mistake" she makes (though it's not really a mistake) is what she calls Loid and Yor – "chichi" (ちち) and "haha" (はは) respectively.

Japanese has many different words for relatives depending on whether you're talking about your own relatives or someone else's, and whether you're talking to them or about them. "Chichi" and "haha" are the general, neutral terms for "father" and "mother," and are also used when talking about your parents to someone else. However, they're not used when talking directly to your mother and father. There are many other words for that, the usual ones being "o-tou-san" (お父さん) and "o-kaa-san" (お母さん), or some variations of these with different honorifics. Damian refers to his dad as "chichi-ue" (父上) which is very formal, while Becky calls her dad the actual English word "papa" (パパ) which is very informal and normal for kids to use. But again, "chichi" and "haha" are typically only used when talking about your parents, not to them the way Anya uses them. This started from the very first chapter where Loid asks her to call him something that sounds "elite." He originally suggests the very formal "o-tou-sama" (お父さま), but when Anya says "chichi," he doesn't bother to correct her.

Hearing a little kid call her dad and mom "chichi" and "haha" is kind of like calling them "my father" and "my mother" even when speaking to them directly – it's not wrong necessarily, just strange. But again, this serves to further emphasize the childlike nature of Anya's character.

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Continue to Part 3 ->

#spy x family #sxf #spy family #spyxfamily #anya forger #sxf manga #sxf analysis #sxf meta

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findmeinforks · 4 months

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Stay - Paul Lahote X Fem!Reader

Happy 2024! I honestly didn't know what to call this, but I just kept writing and now I'll probably need a part 2 🙃 enjoy 💕 2.8K words

"You have no idea how excited I am. I mean just how long have I been begging you to come live with me?" Emily grinned into the phone that was tucked between her shoulder and ear. She paced the kitchen while whisking a bowl of brownie mix, mindlessly chatting away.

"I must warn you though that the house does get chaotic. But the boys are pretty good about keeping up after themselves," she said while swatting away Embry's hand that almost made a dip in the bowl. He put his hands up in self defense as she rolled her eyes.

"Sounds great. Sam will pick you up at the airport tomorrow at noon. Let me know if you need anything else, and have a safe flight. I love you!" She she set the bowl on the counter, hanging up the phone.

"Was that Y/N? She's moving in tomorrow?" Quil questioned from the table with a mouth full of chips.

"Yes, and I trust that you boys will be on your best behavior in welcoming her..." Emily raised her eyebrow as she pointed a dripping whisk of batter at all the men now surrounding the kitchen.

"Depends, is she hot?" Embry snickered as he sat down.

"Oh....she is." Quil emphasized with wide eyes.

"Get it Embry!" Paul snorted as he clapped him on the back, reaching over into Quil's bag of chips.

"They WILL be on their best behavior. And no one will be 'getting' shit." The booming voice of Sam emerged behind Emily, wrapping his arms around her torso.

He reached his head over her shoulder as she let him lick what was left on the whisk, earning a disgusted "Seriously?" from Quil.

"Hey, but what if she's my imprint??" Embry held his up his finger to argue.

"You know that would be a different story...but we know already she isn't Quil's" Sam smirked at the youngest pack members now disappointed face.

"You guys are kidding right? I've seen pictures. Shes insanely out of all your leagues." Jacob quipped as he strolled to the living room.

"Anything is better than my crushes newborn infant..." Embry muttered under his breath, making all the boys cower in laughter.

"Oh yeah? You wanna say that again?" Jacob challenged.

Sam walked around in between them, looking from side to side at them both.

"THIS is what Emily is talking about. Keep the fights outside boys. I mean it. Just because Y/N knows about the pack doesn't mean she won't get scared if you clowns nearly phase in the kitchen. Are we clear?"

The two reluctantly nodded, Jacob sulking away to the living room.

"But come on, that was kinda funny.." Embry whispered, making the other boys giggle.

Paul shook his head with a smile at his little brother, leaving the room to shower before dinner.

There was something about the conversation that stuck with Paul throughout the night. Since Sam had met Emily, all of his brothers wanted imprints. They all saw what it was like to have one up close, and craved it desperately. He grimaced at the thought. The idea of a "soulmate" sounded ridiculous to Paul.

The problem wasn't that he didn't believe in it. Anybody could see the intense love that imprints had for one another, their bond growing with them until old age.

But Paul was not familiar with the term love. He never did get to see the love between his father and mother. She had been his imprint, but passed long before Paul could remember much about her. He watched his father struggle emotionally, never being able to get through the grief of her loss. Sure, he raised Paul as best he could, but deep down it was his mother that would have filled the void in their quiet house.

Things did get a little brighter when Paul joined the pack. For the first time he truly felt like he was part of a real family. He came home to hot meals, genuine laughter, and lively conversation. Not only had he gained a group of brothers, but ones with unwavering loyalty. None of them ever strayed away when Paul lost control of his temper, and were the first ones to help him learn to control it.

Maybe that was the reason he never looked for anything serious when it came to women. What was the point? One little outburst and they were out the door quicker than they had come in. He didn't allow himself to feel anything for them, because they'd end up leaving, and he was saving himself the heart break anyways.

Paul lay awake that night certain about one thing, he didn't need an imprint.

You inhaled the crisp fall air. Smiling wide as you looked up the steps to the new home awaiting you, the patio adorned in different flowers and cutesy outdoor decor.

"Oh Em it's just how I remember. You always make it look so cozy," you said as you squeezed the arm of your cousin beside you.

She returned your same smile.

"You're too sweet. I just can't believe you're really here. Come on, I'll introduce you to the boys."

You followed her up the steps, walking through the door to the warm smell of baked goods, no doubt that Emily had been up all night. You chuckled to yourself as you remember how she would go overboard on food whenever she was excited about something and couldn't sleep.

What you weren't used to, however, was being greeted by the several shirtless men. All incredibly in shape with tattoos on their arms, you might have been intimidated if it weren't for their cheesy smiles.

Emily gestured to each of them,

"You remember Quil, and that's Embry, Jacob, Seth, andddd well," she looked around puzzled for a moment. "I guess I'll introduce you to Paul whenever he comes around."

You waved at Quil and shook the other's hands.

There must have been some sort of inside joke, because as you finished with introductions you saw Sam laugh while they collectively let out a small sigh.

You don't think you were meant to hear it, but you caught Sam whisper at Embry,

"Better luck next time kid."

Emily didn't make a big deal of whatever it was, guiding you to your room.

After you got settled in, you found yourself strolling the hallway, looking over all the framed pictures on the wall. You had been over the moon when Emily had found Sam. You've never seen her so happy before, and you could tell he looked at her in the exact same way.

Not paying attention when the bathroom door opened, you collided with a large bare chest that stepped into the hall.

You gasped as two strong arms to match caught you before you fell, luckily, and you embarrassingly faced the one man you of course had no former introduction with.

"I am so, so sorry. I-"

"No no it's fine, are you-"

Both of you started and stopped mid sentence. Your attention had been captured when you two locked eyes. It was like you had been anchored to the floor by them. This warm, fuzzy energy had your entire body buzzing. It was so silent that you could hear your own blood flow in your ears. You furrowed your eyebrows in the haze. What the hell...

"ARE YOU SHITTING ME??"

A loud voice cut through the trance and you flinched at the abrupt sound. The man held you slightly tighter for a moment, as if he was about to protect you from whatever had interrupted you both in this hypnotic state.

Turning around so you both could see that the voice had been Embry, the man looked back and quickly dropped his arms, as if he just realized he had been holding you that whole time.

An unfamiliar emptiness lingered when he let go. He quickly averted his gaze, mumbling another apology before brushing past you, into a room, shutting the door.

His imprint. Right there. In the hallway of his own home.

Paul couldn't breathe.

He sat on the edge of his bed, nervously running his hands through his hair in a panic.

You were beautiful.

Breathtaking.

Your smell was intoxicating and your skin was so, so very soft. Your voice sounded like an angel. Your hair-

No.

No, he couldn't let himself think like this. He didn't need an imprint. Didn't even want one in the first place.

Was this some kind of sick joke the universe was playing on him? This girl could have anyone she wants. Why him?

Emily's call for dinner had him taking deep breaths. He could do this. They could live amongst eachother and not have to talk. There's ton of people in this house, it would be rare that the two of them would ever be alone. Right? Right. He could do this.

He walked into the bathroom, splashing cold water on his face. Wake up. It's just some girl. No different than the many that he had been with. Hell, if he could have sex with someone and never think of them again, he could do it. They had barely exchanged a sentence. Barely touched. He would be fine.

You sat down at the table, trying to behave as normal as possible. What happened in the hall was nothing. Whiplash. Yes, it was probably the whiplash from running into him. The poor guy seemed shy, and he was most likely just as shook up as you. It was a small accident and nothing more. He certainly didn't seem angry or upset, just caught off guard.

But wow....was he handsome. Certainly more attractive than any lousy guy you'd ever been with. He had this aroma of sandalwood and forest that was enchanting.

Okay, slow down Y/N. Let's not walk in on the first day and jump on some guy. After all, you two are going to be living together. Maybe don't make him uncomfortable in his own home. You shook your head to yourself. Just forget about the whole thing and it will be fine.

Luckily, Emily had started conversations around the table, easily able to take your mind elsewhere.

That was, until he came in the room. There was a beat of silence when he entered, the other boys seeming to look at him like they were anticipating something. When he didn't make a sound or even look up to anyone, slumping at the table and taking a plate, the conversations arose again.

Dinner was excellent as usual for Emily's cooking, and besides your beating heart constantly begging you to look at the man near the end of the table, it was almost normal.

It was when Emily put delicious brownies on the table, that it took a turn for the worse.

"I'M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU AGAIN. SHUT THE FUCK ALONE ABOUT IT" Everyone's head turned to the angry voice. It was him. He was so visibly upset that he was shaking, staring daggers at Embry beside him. Slamming his fists on the table as he stood up, you let an audible gasp slip.

That's when he looked at you for the second time that night. It was a far reach, but somehow you saw his eyes soften. The crinkles of anger in his eyebrows vanished, and he swallowed, before bolting out the door. Sam immediately followed, and Emily sighed, reaching out to touch your arm.

"I'm sorry about Paul. He's very.....expressive sometimes."

Paul.

"Leave me alone Sam."

Paul sighed through the mind link, his large wolf racing through the trees.

He didn't mean it. He never means it. But Embry would simply not stop talking. First it was meaningless. He asked what imprinting felt like. Paul had shrugged it off as nothing crazy, hoping he'd drop it there. Then, he had asked him if he planned on pursuing the imprint. Of course he told him he wasn't. He didn't need a soulmate. No matter what his instincts told him. But then, Embry had smiled and thanked him, telling him that you were now "fair game".

That had been when he lost it.

He stopped on the edge of a cliff, breathing in the fresh water air. Sam slowly approached his side.

"Embry only said that to get a rise out of you, you know."

Paul scoffed.

"He can do whatever he wants. I don't care about her."

"Oh you don't?" Sam didn't sound so convinced.

"Even if I did, she wouldn't want me. Did you....did you see the look on her face when I yelled?" Paul replayed it over and over. You had looked absolutely frightened.

"There is a reason she was chosen to be your imprint Paul. You don't know Y/N. She is patient, and most of all understanding. If you talked to her-"

"I don't need to talk to her. I am perfectly fine alone. I don't need a woman, and I definitely don't need an imprint."

Sam sighed.

"Paul. You can do what you want. I'm not the type of alpha to force you to love someone. But believe me when I say that I had a dark past. I was also comfortable with being alone. Emily is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Having a conversation with her doesn't mean there will be wedding bells tomorrow. All I'm saying is you don't know unless you try."

Paul nodded, and Sam left him with his thoughts.

You stared at the numbers on your phone screen. 2:00am. You huffed in frustration. Your mind had been a constant replay of the events today, your mind spiraling. You had settled on the fact things around here were weird, when you had visited Emily and accidentally caught sight of Sam in wolf form. But this energy couldn't have anything to do with that. Could it?

You decided to make yourself some tea to try and relax. Knowing Emily you knew there had to be some in the kitchen. You tip toed in the dark, your body stiffening as you recognized a familiar muscular back that sat at the kitchen table in a dim light.

You were ready to retreat back to your room when he turned his head around to look at you.

Damn, wolves must have good hearing.

"I was just....going to make some tea.." you pointed to the cabinet awkwardly.

He nodded, looking back down at what appeared to be a cup of coffee.

He couldn't sleep either?

You mindlessly tapped your fingers against the counter as you awaited the kettle, praying that if you stared at it long enough, it would speed up the process.

Fuck, was this torture. You were like a goddess, standing there in your pajamas, hair astray and up in a haphazard bun. He imagined walking up behind you, wrapping his arms around you, soaking in your warmth while he pressed gentle kisses on your neck. He wondered what it sounded like to hear you laugh...

STOP STARING. Say something. Anything. Just. Try.

He cleared his throat. It must have startled you because you quickly turned to face him.

"I'm...sorry. About what you saw earlier. That's not like me. I-Embry, he can get under my skin sometimes," he rubbed the back of his head.

"But that's no excuse. I'm-um, Im Paul, by the way."

He lifted his hand up in an almost wave. Why was he so awkward? He was never this way with women.

You giggled, and suddenly, he felt like he was in heaven.

"Y/N. And no worries at all, Emily said you can be....'expressive' sometimes."

He chuckled.

"That's one word for it. But I just don't want to scare you off..."

"Well. I think if knowing that you can all turn into a large creatures who can rip me apart and that doesn't scare me away, I think you were okay." You smiled. He could look at that smile forever.

He was actually talking to you. Man, was his laugh so perfect. You could talk with him forever.

The kettle screeched, and you reluctantly made your tea.

"Well....I guess I'll see you around, Paul." You took your mug and headed for your room.

His name on her tongue. He wanted her to say it again.

"You can stay. If-if you want. I, uh, I don't...know much about you."

You smiled.

"I'd like that."

To be continued......

#paul lahote #sam uley #twilight #bella swan #edward cullen #embry call #imagine #jacob black #new moon #quil ateara #eclipse #seth clearwater #emily young #breaking dawn #fanfiction #paul lahote x you #paul lahote x reader #paul x reader #fiction

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aetherialpiplup108 · 1 month

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Edit: Erased mention of the show from this post even if it was originally criticism because in hindsight, I want to avoid mentioning it at all due to the boycott.

What makes the Broken Trio (Annabeth, Thalia, and Luke) so impactful is that their bond is in stark contrast to the individual relationships the three share with their real families. Annabeth went thoroughly neglected by her father and absentee mother. The same for Luke, saddled with a mother who was tragically unavailable whether she wanted to be or not, and a father who never stepped in. And for Thalia, she never knew where she stood with her mother. Did Beryl love her daughter for her, or did she love her because she was proof of Zeus' favor. Did she truly care about Thalia--because from a little girl's perspective, she surely couldn't have cared about Jason all that much, trading his life to Hera in order to save her own--or did she just see her as a bargaining chip for immortality? And is that what love is? Later on, the same sentiment would apply to Zeus as well. Did he save her because he cared for her or because he thought she could be brought back to control the prophecy in his name?

All three of these kids were given nothing but conditional love. They all suffered under the weight of their desires to prove themselves to their parents whether out of spite (Luke, and Thalia to an extent) or love (Annabeth), because that was the only way they'd get the gods' attention, let alone their affection.

That's why it's so so important that when they came across each other and decided to form their own family, they chose to break this pattern. Luke stuck with Thalia knowing she was a magnet for danger with a huge target on her back. Thalia ignored Hal and Zoë's warnings, trusting Luke solely off who he had shown himself to be. And both of them looked at Annabeth, knowing she would slow them down--she was seven, how could she not--and decided to bring her along anyway because she deserved better and if her family wouldn't step up, they would.

These weren't rational decisions because family isn't meant to be rational and they're not Athena. They don't want to be. And we see this emotionality reflected in their choices throughout. Ever logical, strategic Annabeth believes in Luke even when she shouldn't because a long time back, he chose her when he didn't need to. There's a million different interpretations of Luke because, let's face it, his character was messy and inconsistent in canon, but what ultimately sets him apart from the gods or titans is a genuine care for his family, even if he stomps all over it at times. For Thalia, even after Luke poisoned her tree, she maintained faith in him right until the last moment on the mountain. Her breaking point was when he hurt Annabeth, leading her to purge all the good parts of Luke from her memory, forcing herself to only think about the betrayal so she could do what she believed was necessary to protect Annabeth. Not that I don't think she made the right call, but I do think this was far more of an emotional reaction than a purely practical one, which is further emphasized by how Percy (the neutral party, the outsider to this family) had to look at Luke empathetically and from both sides to make his final choice (@ruegarding has a fantastic meta on this that you should definitely check out).

Anyway, the point is: unlike the gods, these three did not perpetuate conditional love towards each other. It's essential that they saw each other, hurt and lonely, and chose to care, which is why it hurts so much when that found family breaks, and why it's the central piece that resolves everything in the end.

#as the number 1 thalia fan #i will defend her to the depths of the underworld #pjo #annabeth chase #thalia grace #luke castellan

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jamneuromain · 8 months

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Hey honey! I'm loving your bingo challenge<3

So I want to send in a request for Steve Rogers for the prompt 'ugly duckling'

So basically Steve meeting readers family and friends, and the running joke is how reader bagged an Greek god looking man like him despite being not so pretty. He soon understands why reader was first hesitant and a bit surprised when he asked them out. But Steve takes a stand for them in front of everyone and call them out on their behaviour and all the fluff! Please feel free to change anything you like or ignore the request if it's not worth it! Thank you so much! I love your fics💙

Hi hon <3

I feel so much about the "ugly duckling" so I added a little bit of "horrible family actions" that I've seen. I hope you'll enjoy this!

Make an Impression

Steve Rogers x You

Warning: Ugly Duckling, shaming from all aspects, bad language word(?)

Summary: Steve was nervous about meeting your family - your larger family, that is.

A/N: My eighth entry to the bingo challenge hosted by @the-slumberparty.

"What if they don't like me?" Steve whispered in horror as he looked at himself in the mirror.

"They will love you." You stood on the tip of your toes and kissed his cheek, "Seriously, my mom thought I'd be single for life. So she is already way beyond happy that I'd be taking someone home for this traditional festival."

Steve mumbled a "yeah", before turning to you, "I really want to make a good impression." He almost knotted his brows into a bun, "Any tips on how to be the best boyfriend?"

"You are the best boyfriend there is." You help flipping his collar in place. He was so nervous about meeting your family that he tried on five different ties for over a dozen times, leaving his collar a mess, "You'd be helping out... I think. And you definitely do not need a tie to suffocate yourself when you're helping out. They will love you." You emphasized the idea that your family would welcome him one more time, shrugging, "Just try not to answer any questions when my aunties and my grandma ask you about 'when are we having kids'."

"Kids?" Unfiltered panic filled his eyes.

"Um-hmm." You fiddled with the hem of his shirt, tucking it in place, "I know, we aren't even planning anything yet. Still, they love to do that. They'd be scheming when we're having our fifth kid with or without our help."

Steve swears he is sweating like a fountain.

"Smile. Tell them we're enjoying our solidarity. And you will be fine." You threw him a sympathetic look, "Tell them about your military stories. That would distract them enough."

You hoped your boyfriend would survive under your ruthless (or so you believe) aunties.

"C'mon. Mom said we should be there by 11 to help her cook lunch." You kissed his cheek again, "You'll do fine."

"Not quite sure about that." Steve muttered. If confidence could be measured from 1 to 10, he'd be negative a hundred by now.

You thought your aunties - your father's sisters - would be hogging Steve until he was going to have a panic attack, asking about your relationship or about his family three generations ago. But within an hour, you heard that he was able to make all of your aunties laugh with joy by telling some interesting stories in the barracks, while your mother kept you in the kitchen to help her around.

Help with cleaning. Not cooking.

After an hour and a half, your grandmother pulled an ancient photo book out of nowhere and started to show him your baby photos.

With pots of traditional dishes simmering over the stove, you were finally able to get a break from your mother's accusations of "not practicing homemaking" and escape to your boyfriend.

At which point, the photo album was only about one-quarter through, and your aunties had just started the chapter where you were 4 or 5.

"...now this." Your grandma chuckled and shook her head, "This was precious. She has always been the not-so-good-looking one among my grandkids. Hasn't changed about that. See her skin? And the hair? Her cousins tried almost everything to help her look better."

Yes. By "help" she meant that your cousins, who were not that older than you, shoved you around like a doll, pinning all their least-favorite hair bands and hair pins onto your head, and giving you ridiculous "make-overs".

The kind of "make-over" some 6-year-olds could achieve.

While your male cousins ignored you.

Some of them still did.

You didn't mind.

Your family isn't exactly the tightest bun in the world. You tried avoiding them until important family-gathering activities such as this one. Because they would criticize everything from your clothing to your work. And probably also tell your boyfriend that you are not that good.

"And what are you wearing?" One of your aunties eyed you disapprovingly, gasping as if she had just seen you. Even though you have been helping cleaning and cooking for at least sixty minutes, "Sweetie, your ass is going to rip your jeans. Why not sportspants? They are definitely more comfy. Could help cover your thick thighs too. Honestly, how you are able to date... him-" She gestured at Steve, "is baffling."

"That hair..." Another auntie tutted as loud as she could, "So messy, my dear. Have you tried conditioner? My boy brought back a bottle of L'OREAL conditioner from Paris and it has been working wonders. "

Third auntie chirped up helpfully, "Must have been that awful job, cutie pie. I told you that you should be working closer to home, not driving three hours to see your family. That incompetent husband of mine recently opened up a factory and we'd be happy to arrange a desk job for you. Smaller pay, but closer to home. What could a ton of money do anyway if you can't see your family every week-"

That's enough bullshit for you for a day. You'd rather drown yourself with mud than listen to them criticize from head to toe.

"I think that's my phone." You forced a smile, getting up as fast as you could, "I'm gonna go check."

"See, I told you a busy job can do you no good..." One of your aunties yelled behind your back, before gossiping in a low voice with others.

What you didn't see (or hear, for that matter) is that Steve apologized swiftly, leaving the couch and following you.

Eight months ago

Steve accompanied Bucky to his graduation ceremony that day. Being around the same age, they chose a path in the military at the start, though Bucky had a severe injury to his left arm and had to leave the sergeant program after only a few months. After some rehabilitation and trying a handful of jobs, Bucky decided to head back to university and study criminal law in order to become a police officer, or a district attorney if he's not fit for police work anymore.

Steve, on the other hand, was luckier. He stayed in the sergeant program and got assigned to the States right before Bucky's graduation. After three tours and a surgery to collect bomb shells from his leg, the Army decided he could be a drill sergeant on the New Jersey Base, responsible for training new recruits before shipping them overseas.

Anyhow, Steve pulled Bucky into a big hug when the ceremony was over. He whistled and nearly clapped his hand numb as Bucky beamed at him in a black graduate gown.

"I guess I'm the smarter one of us now." Bucky smiled coyly, punching Steve in the chest, "And the luckier one too." As he fished a cute girl in gown by her wrist and introduced her, "This is my girlfriend Wendy. Wendy Stone. Wendy, Steve."

She reached out shyly to shake his hand, "Hi Steve. I've heard a lot about you."

And as if Bucky was the magnet, attaching people like coins in a line, you slipped through the crowd patting Wendy on her shoulder, "Your phone. You almost forgot - Hi Bucky, I'll be out of your hair in a minute."

Bucky's palm flew to his forehead, gasping out in shock, "Damn. I haven't introduced you two yet. Steve, this is Y/N, Wendy's cousin. Y/N, this is my best pal Steve."

Five months ago

You had hung out with Steve a couple of times, but only in the presence of Bucky and Wendy. Wendy and you shared the same apartment, so it was nearly inevitable for Steve to bump into you when looking for Bucky, or Bucky asking both of you to join Game Night for you four to know each other well.

Steve grew fonder of you, nonetheless. He loves the laughter whenever you hear a silly joke; he loves the way you make a face to him whenever Bucky and Wendy getting all gooey and clingy, making both of you feel like the third and fourth wheel; he loves your optimistic and can-do attitude, whether it was Wendy having a bad day at work, or when the pipe burst in your apartment.

Before he opened his mouth that day, sharing a pot of coffee with Bucky during the quiet morning of a Sunday. Bucky cut him off, saying Steve's line, "You should ask her out."

"You think I should?" He gulped nervously, counting the larger bubbles on his coffee.

"Dude, why do you think I've asked you on these game nights stuff?" Bucky snorted into his mug, "You practically glued your eyes to her the day you met. It's hard not to notice."

"Thanks...?"

"Don't thank me yet, punk. I've asked Wendy about her. She's one tough-" Bucky paused before continuing, mulling over the semantics, "Is it degrading to say son-of-a-bitch? Because Wendy said the exact same words. Anyway, according to Wendy, she doesn't really date a lot. And her work is crazy as hell. Plus, they came from the same family, cousins from their mother's side. They are a hard-to-please bunch of people, and Wendy heard that her father's side was even worse."

Steve didn't really take the last line into consideration back then. Still, asking you out was one hell of a mission, worse than the tour he had in the middle of some desert. It took some persuasion and some more coaxing ("good-measured coaxing", Bucky insisted) to get you on the first three dates. But from that point forth, everything has run smoothly, until now.

"You alright?" Steve closed the door behind him. Your tiny room seems smaller with his broad shoulders larger than the door frame.

"Yeah." That's a lie. "Another few hours and we'll be left alone." You swept away the invisible dust on your jeans, murmuring.

That's why you don't like your relatives. The smell of grease and tobacco rose from the backyard where the men were drinking and smoking, more revolting than the way you remembered.

Steve pursed his lips tightly into a line, "Are they always like this?"

You huffed out an unamused laugh, "At least we were related. You should have seen how they treated my mom."

"That's why she's in the kitchen?"

An unimpressed glare threw in his direction, "She enjoyed that, believe it or not. Cooking and cleaning and homemaking." Raising your chin towards the kitchen, "Blamed me about 'not doing my part' just now."

"Why don't you-"

"Stand up against them?" You knew what he meant. You did. You tried. But they would always accuse your mother of not "teaching you properly".

"They are bullies, Steve." You shrugged, pretending that it didn't bother you at all, "They'd do anything to make sure we get all those nasty comments. And the moment any one of us stand up against them, they'd ask my parents to force me to apologize."

Steve crossed his arms, furrowing his brows again.

"Look, my mom is ... old-school. So are all of them. She nags a lot but she'd be sad if I'm not here to support her during this family reunion. But reunion means all of them, so..." You held his wrist, resting your head on his shoulder, "family comes first."

He took you into his arms, landing a kiss on your forehead.

You craned your neck to smile sweetly at him, as if nothing had happened, "Let's get back to the living room before they mock me for being a baby about it."

Surprisingly, for one full hour, they weren't able to make a comment about you - plenty of comments about Steve since your three cousins had arrived. More comments about your cousins. Gossips about their neighbors. Judgements thrown around on their men and your mother's cooking.

"... your daughter better have clarity on herself." Your grandmother pointed at your mother, drunk on her third cup of wine, her words slurring, "Steven....s Steve, here, is way out of her league. And she needs to maaaarry him before some s... ska... skank butts in."

Your mother eyed you, mouthing silently, asking you to eat rather than reply, before coming up with a polite smile, "Of course. But young people have their own opinions on marriage, and I suppose it's only fair that they figure it out themselves."

One of your aunts waved her fork too hard, sending a piece of chicken into the air, "Oops. Ma's right. And you need to have a kid soon, sweetie. Marry him, and have a kid. Your body is a ticking clock. Don't turn deaf towards it."

"I'm surprised you were able to get a boyfriend, let alone... this." Another aunt gestured at Steve, "You've never been the pretty one, cutie pie, and you sure ain't now."

You put your hand on Steve's thigh to calm him. You could feel his muscles tensing and his jaw clenching, not so subtly. You shook your head lightly.

Don't give them what they want. You hoped you were able to convey the message.

"Oh my oh my," the last aunt chuckled, "we are not going to witness some cheesy scheme of renting a boyfriend here, are we? I heard from my daughter Jean that it's quite popular these days. You know, it's not that embarrassing not to have a boyfriend, I mean, we all thought that way-"

Jean, being one of your cousins sitting by the table, chose to munch her food in silence rather than responding to your aunt.

"That's enough." Steve placed his napkin on the table, folded it back into a triangle before he spoke, "All of you." His rigid tone from the military days seeped into his voice, having the conversations on the table stop for the moment. Taking your hand beneath the table, he watched every person on the table with a serious expression, "Our relationship is none of your business, and so is her appearance. I see a beautiful, strong, independent woman, and I pity you for none of you were able to see her the way I do. Because you were so focused on yourselves, comparing everything about you to make you feel less pathetic. "

A brief pause.

"You didn't say anything about your daughter owning a clothing store, inherited from you, that barely gets by." He looked at the aunt who called you "fat".

"No one said anything about your son stuffing potato chips in his mouth and being unemployed, still taking expensive trips with your pension, because he's the son in the family." He points at the aunt who called you "cheap".

"And finally, you know damn well that husband of yours is having his third secretary-mistress. Since that's all the rest of you could hint about this afternoon." He directed at the aunt who thought you weren't "homemaker" enough.

"I hope you'll have the day you deserve." He spat out, standing from the table, asking for your hand.

For the first time today, your eyes sparkled with light. Gladly taking his hand, your rose from the table. Not minding if you have shoved your chair backwards too hard or the sudden movement is not "lady" enough.

"Mom, I'll come visit next week. Promise." A big smile raised the corner of your lips, waving your mother goodbye while the rest of the table watched in silence.

You still had trouble believing this when you got in your car. Steve immediately pulled you into a hug, nudging your neck with his cheek.

"Not so scared about 'impressing' my family now, huh?" You joked, tugging the end of his blonde hair lightly.

"They're going to hate me and you after I dumped every scandal on them." He mumbled apologetically, "Sorry, I hate bullies."

"No." You signed, "I should've be braver and just ... cut them off."

"You did the best you could." He kissed your shoulder gently, looking into your eyes, "You are everything I've dreamed of, and I meant everything I said at the dining table. You are incredible."

"Hold your proposal, Rogers." You teased him, seeing his ears turn into beet-red as you mentioned "proposal", poking his chest with your index finger, "You aren't on your knees yet and I'm not having five babies without five carats."

Steve's face flushed with a shade of pink, looking like a total turnip if it wasn't for his blonde hair. "Five babies???" He gulped, and then, "Does that mean we're having ten babies if I buy a ten-carat now?"

It was your turn to be stunned speechless. Only when he was grinning madly did you realize he was messing with you too. Laughing with tears, you fell into his embrace, "Steven Grant Rogers, you are a horrible person."

A few laughs bubbled from his chest as you leaned back in your seat and buckled your seat belt, "You'll get used to it." He started the engine and changed the subject, "I didn't have much food in your house. Mind if we stop by at the new Burger joint and order something?"

"I almost forgot how awful my mom's cooking is." You set your phone on navigation mode and put it on Bluetooth speaker, chuckling, "I'm starving. Let's go."

Find my The Slumber Party Present Bingo Challenge here 👈

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#steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x you #steve rogers fluff #jnmanswers #inbox <3 #writing challenge #the slumber party writing challenge

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fanficsformyfaves · 7 months

Text

Safe

Loki Laufeyson x Fem Witch!Reader

WARNING: SMUT 18+, ANGST, Oral Sex ( R Receiving) P in V Sex, No Protection (This is fiction, you are not, WRAP IT UP), Praise Kink, Mentions of Torture, Hurt to Comfort

PREFACE: Nearly a month after being rescued by Loki, Reader begins to warm up to him and even starts developing a crush on the all powerful god. One night, she has a particularly frightening nightmare about being kidnapped by Thanos and goes to find Loki for comfort

A/N: Flashbacks in Italics!

Dream Sequence in Bold, Italics and Colored!

Loki never faked his death in Avengers 1, but just escaped in this A/U

I have such an affinity for big scary villains having soft spots for 'that one person'

"Please", I sobbed quietly,

As the titan walked closer towards me. The gauntlet on his wrist emitting different colored glows from each infinity stone.

"I don't know where the mind stone is", I lied.

I couldn't give Vision away and betray the family I made of the Avengers. They've saved my life on countless occasions and I couldn't let them down.

"Lies do not bode well with me, little witch. It is in your best interest to be complicit", he warns menacingly,

Before calling over his henchmen to pull my bruised aching frame off the floor.

"I will not ask again...where...is...the stone?"

"I don't know!"

He sighs heavily and points the golden fist right at me.

"Fine. Have it your way"

The gauntlet begins to radiate light and I felt it drawing my powers out of my body. The screams of agony I let out echoing around the room and down every hall.

To say it was excruciating would've been an understatement. I could physically feel the life in me being quickly drained and the remaining strength I had left leaving with it.

Just as I was on the verge of completely losing consciousness, I wake up screaming into the darkness of my bedroom.

This was not the first nightmare I've had since escaping Thanos and I was sure it wouldn't be the last, but this one felt all too real. Like, I truly was still on that spaceship, enduring even more of the torture.

It had been nearly a month since Loki found and rescued me. No one knew that either of us survived Thanos' attempt on our lives, so, we were left to hide out somewhere in Europe.

At first, I wanted to leave and find the rest of the Avengers, but Loki refused to let me go and enchanted the house we were staying in. It wouldn't have been a problem...had I not just lost most of my powers.

He was a god after all and I was nowhere near strong enough to break through his magic, especially running on an almost empty tank.

"It's not safe-"

"They're my family, Loki-"

"Then they should be able to understand that you are in no condition to fight!"

"I at least need to let them know I'm alive!"

"And risk exposing yourself to Thanos?! Are you really that stupid?!"

The tension between us was all you could feel. That and the deafening silence that followed his harsh words.

"Don't call me that-"

"Stop acting like it and I will"

I walk away and take a seat by the bay window. He sighs and bows his head.

"I saved your life. You might hate me for this now, but I do hope...eventually, you'll understand", he says,

Before making his way back to his room.

I couldn't really blame him for being the way that he was. He had lost so much already and I was the only person, besides his brother, to give him another chance at life.

Loki and I met long before the kidnapping, while he was in S.H.I.EL.D.S' custody. No one was getting through to him and Thor thought I would be the right person for the job, given my past.

"You sure about this, kid?", Nat questioned,

"I know enough about dealing with people like him"

She furrows her eyebrows curiously.

"What does that mean?"

"I was like him", I emphasized,

Before walking towards the chamber they locked him up in.

"Well...you must be the witch I've been hearing so many murmurs about"

I sigh through my nose, as he scanned me up and down.

"A lot shorter than I imagined"

"And a hell of a lot tougher than your futile attempts to get under my skin, so", I smiled sarcastically,

"Oooh, sharp tongue", he says,

Using his elbow to lean against the glass, as his deep voice causes my stomach to stir.

"You might just be the most interesting person I've met today. Well, that's not saying much, given your competition. My dull brother, the broody spy, metal man and captain wonder boy"

I scoff, folding my arms.

"I hear you use to be a villain of sorts. Why the change? I can tell you had potential"

"I found a family"

It was now his turn to scoff and turn away.

"The avengers?", he mocked,

Turning back to watch me step closer to the glass.

"You truly think they actually care about you?"

I take a moment to myself, before returning my attention to the god before me.

"I used to be just like you. Untrusting, malicious, a conniving little backstabber that was convinced that everyone was out to get me. I would hurt people before they could even think of hurting me first, sound familiar?"

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head at me.

"If you're such an expert on my character, then why not just kill me and get it over with?", he questioned,

"Because you still have a chance. I did and I know you do too"

"How incredibly naive. This little mind game of yours might work on the weak, but not on me"

"Its not a mind game, Loki. It's the truth"

He glares at me in an attempt to scare me off, but that wasn't going to work.

I knew back then if the team had just walked out on me, I would still be in the same exact position as him, maybe even worse off. So I wasn't going to back down without a fight.

"Was it easy for me to let my guard down? No, it was terrifying. I thought they would turn on me at any chance they got, but when they came back and saved me from Hydra...I knew I could trust them"

"How touching. Should I bring out the violins?"

I roll my eyes at his sarcasm.

"The point of all of this is that I'm not giving up on helping you"

"You're wasting your time", he said dismissively,

"Maybe, but that's not gonna stop me"

Unbeknownst to me, what I said actually got to him that night and for the first time in centuries, he truly felt seen as something other than a monster.

After his escape, I didn't see him again till Ragnarok, when we had to battle against his sister, Hela.

I was preoccupied with fighting off one of the undead that I didn't notice another one closing in on me. Just as the Draugr was about to swing his sword, his head was cut clean off his neck and the moment his body hit the ground, Loki was revealed standing right behind him.

"Hi", I greeted surprised,

"Hi", he nodded.

I look behind Loki and see Hela's wolf charging at us, when I use my powers to suspend the creature in the air and send it flying over Asgard's edge.

"I see you've gotten stronger", he says,

Causing me to shrug.

Once Thor put an end to Hela's reign of terror and got the remaining of Asgard's people safely onto the ship, we thought we were in the clear.

We couldn't have been more wrong. The refugees were mercilessly slaughtered by Thanos' guards and we were all imprisoned for days. All of us, except for Loki, who still pretended to be on the titan's side.

Eventually, when Thor was ejected out of the ship, Loki somehow managed to sneak the tesseract out and plan his escape, but when he realized I was still trapped there, he couldn't leave me behind.

I was laying in my cell, after freshly being drained of my magic, when a flash of green catches my eye. I tiredly turn to see who it was and in my half-conscious state, I could still recognize the man rushing to my side.

"Loki?", I called out weakly,

"Shhh, I've got you", he whispered,

Scooping me up into his arms, before using the tesseract to teleport us away.

I couldn't make out where we were, but he immediately lays me down on the bed and started checking me for injuries. Thankfully, only my hands had aged years from my powers being taken and they would eventually return to normal with time.

"Get some rest. I need to make some arrangements"

It didn't take long for me to fall asleep after that.

Back to present day, I find myself leaving my room and making my way to his. Hesitantly, I knocked on his door and awaited a response. The door eventually opens and I was met with Loki rubbing his tired eyes.

"(Y/N)?"

I could no longer keep my composure. I run into his arms, throwing my own around him and sobbing into his chest.

"I had a nightmare", I wept.

He sighs in relief, before holding me.

"I still see him when I close my eyes"

"Shhh, you're alright"

I pull away, sniffling and he wipes my tears away.

"Come in", he urged,

Gesturing to the inside of his room. I nod and walk in, taking a seat on the foot of his bed, as he followed suit.

"He can't get you. I won't let him", he reassured,

Taking my hand into his.

"You can't promise me that"

"That won't inhibit me from trying"

I take a deep breath, as he uses his hand to gently cup my cheek and turn me to face him.

"It won't"

"Could I um...stay here? Just for tonight", I sniffled,

"Of course", he reassures.

We get into bed and buried ourselves beneath the blanket. A few moments of silence goes by, till Loki spoke up.

"Was this the first nightmare?"

I was too embarrassed to reply, so I simply shook my head.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was ashamed. I didn't wanna worry you either"

"Ashamed? You've gone through the worst of it and here you were, worried about how I would see you? (Y/N), you don't have to pretend with me. You're allowed to express your pain"

Hearing him be so sincere and gentle was more than enough to calm my nerves. I scoot closer towards him and he welcomes me in with a warm embrace.

"You are here with me and as long as there is still life in my veins, I promise you, you are safe"

I crane my head up and he meets my gaze.

Maybe it was just the exhaustion that was getting to me, but in that moment, I felt something and I was sure he felt it too.

"Loki", I whispered,

Carefully bringing my hand to his cheek.

"Yes?"

Without wasting another precious second, I press my lips onto his. If you had told me months ago that Loki and I would be here, in this moment, I would've laughed in your face, but right now...all I could think about was how good he felt against me. How effortlessly his skilled hands would caress the expanse of my back.

For a while, he reciprocated the kiss with the same fervour that I had, but then suddenly, he pulled away from me with a gasp.

"We can't"

"Loki-"

"If you're doing this because you feel as though you owe me...don't"

I couldn't help but feel my heart ache at his words. He really thought this was just a pity kiss, when it was nothing of the sort.

With my hands still cupping his face, I spoke.

"Loki. You saved my life, yes...but this isn't just some act of me saying thank you. Don't get me wrong, I will forever be grateful, but this is not what tonight is about"

He watched me intently, anticipating what I had to say.

"Life could end at any given moment and I won't spend what could be my last days being afraid. I know should've said this sooner...but I've fallen for you", I confessed.

His shoulders relaxed at my words.

"You truly mean that?"

"With every fiber of my being", I reassured,

Rubbing my thumbs back and forth on the apples of his cheeks. He lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, before continuing.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to hear you say that"

All the weight that had been burdening me for weeks had finally been taken off my shoulders. He brushes a hair away from my forehead, before continuing to speak.

"You saved me from the moment you met me. You gave me another chance at redemption...and I will never"

He presses a kiss to my forehead.

"Ever"

He pressed one more to my cheek.

"Be able to thank you enough"

He presses a final one to my lips.

"If you'll have me, darling, I would love to show you the depths of my devotion"

I couldn't help, but blush at his request.

"I'd love nothing more" I exhaled.

That was all the god of mischief needed to hear, before grinning like a wild cat and pouncing onto me.

Our lips meet in a heated exchange, as his hands used my hips to pull me in closer. Every inch of my skin was burning for more. All the secret pining and anticipation has lead us to this very moment and I knew there was no going back from here. Not that I had any plans of doing so.

At some point, he flips us over so that I was on top, straddling the expanse of his thighs. I pull away for a moment to grasp at the bottom off my sweater and pull it off over my head. I was now left completely topless.

A coy smile tugs at his lips and his hands make their way up my waist, till they gently settled on my breasts.

"Had I known this was what awaited me beneath your clothes, I would've invaded New York much sooner", he joked,

Making me chuckle, whilst biting back a smile and shamelessly rolling my hips against his erection.

"Glorious, every inch of you", he exhaled.

Every word he spoke had me losing my breath. Though, it should come as no surprise to me, as he was always so effortless with them. He didn't have to say or do much to make me melt and he knew it.

Growing impatient with me teasingly grinding on him, he flips us over once more, causing a surprised gasp to escape me.

"You will be the death of me", he murmured under his breath,

Kissing me again. His lips eventually trail down my neck, the valley between my breasts, till he wrapped them around one of my eager buds, using the tip of his tongue to draw firm circles. The sinful noises spewing out of me only encouraging him further.

Once he was done showering both my hardened nips with attention, he journeyed down farther, before yanking my shorts and underwear off and pulling my thighs apart. I couldn't help but feel a chill run up my spine, seeing him stare at me with now darkened eyes.

"At long last"

He drags a finger up my drenched slit.

"A feast worth dying for", he whispered,

Finally lowering his head. I gasp at the contact, feeling his tongue clean up the mess he caused. My hands flying up at his hair, grasping at the roots.

"Loki", I whimpered,

As my legs tighten around his head. I was only met with approving hums and his hands keeping my legs apart, allowing him to continue savoring the taste of me.

"Even the sweetest fruits fall bitter at your presence", he mumbled against my bundle of nerves,

Sucking it in like the last thing he'd ever have.

I already found myself trying to fight of the nearing climax that was threatening to overtake me.

It would've been less of a struggle, had he not decided to slip two of his digits into my needy cavern, repeatedly pressing into my sweet spot. He was oh so precise with his ministrations.

"You're close, I can feel it. Do not deny me of that. Come undone for me, darling. Show me how good I make you feel"

That was the final push I needed for the knot in my stomach to snap apart and unravel. My vision fading for a moment, as my body tensed to welcome in the euphoric high.

Eventually, I grow limp coming down from my orgasm and he slowly made his way back up to my lips.

"Do you taste yourself? So exquisite, so rich. I must have you"

"Then take me", I demanded,

Holding the back of his neck.

"I was only ever yours to take"

I could tell that unlocked something within him. Like I had just awoken a beast that was already trying to claw its way out. Giving me one last mischievous smirk, he sits up, pulling his own boxers off, revealing his painfully hard cock that was begging to be soothed.

"Do you see what you do to me? Driving me up the walls by simply just being? I will ravish you to no end"

"Stop talking and just do it"

He chuckles deeply and reunites our lips once again, before tossing my legs around his waist. He takes his member into his hand, pressing the red aching tip against my sensitive clit. My back arching off the mattress as a result.

"So responsive to my touch. Will you be good for me?"

"Yes", I whispered,

And before I knew it, he plunges himself into me, resulting in another gasp to escape my parted lips.

"You are just as I'd dreamt", he groaned into my ear.

After giving me a moment to adjust, he slowly pulled his hips back, before thrusting back inside of me.

"You feel so good around me"

It didn't take long for his pace to pick up momentum. Within what felt like seconds, he began pounding mercilessly into my heat. His arms bound tightly around me waist preventing me from slipping away, as if I had any plans to.

That same familiar feeling that overwhelmed me not too long ago already building up.

Loki wasn't that far behind either. I could tell by the tempo of his movements faltering with each passing second.

"I cannot hold back any longer. Come with me, darling. Now", he struggled,

As we both fall into it together. I claw down at the alabaster skin of his back, whilst he gripped onto me for dear life, emptying himself into my pulsing walls. He then collapses on top of me and we take a moment to catch our breaths.

By the end, the room smelled of sex, sweat and the apple cinnamon candle illuminating the darkness.

He then musters the remaining of his strengths to carefully pull out of me and place me atop his sweaty chest.

"Nothing and no one will ever hurt you again. Not while I can help it", he promised,

Kissing the top of my head.

#loki laufeyson #mcu #loki laufesyon x reader #loki laufeyson oneshot #loki laufeyson fanfic #loki laufeyson fluff #loki laufeyson angst #loki laufeyson smut #tom hiddleston

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celaenaeiln · 5 months

Note

this is a very unpopular opinion lol but i personally think they shouldn’t have made dick as bruce’s son. dc should have just resolved their problems with them being apart as much as they can in gotham & bludhaven respectively and then fix their dynamic slowly to become healthier and then make bruce & dick as brothers instead, bcs the crux of their problems was them being equals thus being brothers would have made their standing & dynamic more even & equals. (again tho this is unpopular opinion)

I completely agree!!

I don't think they should've made dick Bruce's son. Actually the son thing I guess is fine, but there's no need to emphasize it so much because it doesn't fit their dynamic.

Tale of The Teen Titans Issue #50

Dick's adoption, the way I think of it, is unnecessary.

Up until this point neither of them had even considered a father and son relationship. Their guardian and ward relationship only came up when Dick was in danger of being adopted away and Bruce starts begging and pleading about it.

Batman (1940) Issue #439

Dick says himself, "He could never be my father. I mean, I don't want another father."

Dick knew that Bruce loved him unconditionally and he was happy with that.

That's the second time when the circus wanted him but the first time, his blood relatives wanted to take Dick away from Bruce.

Batman (1940) Issue #20

"You can't take Dick away now! Not after all these years! He's like a son! I won't let you!"

Batman (1940) Issue #20

Alfred: "M'lord...I mean your honor...I've never seen Mr. Wayne deny the young lad anything! He fair worships the boy!"

(I think Alfred's still hasn't let the chips thing go.)

Bruce: "Dick is like my own son! I've even changed my own will so that in case of my death, Dick will get my entire fortune! Your honor, I...I love that boy! Please don't take him from me!"

Dick: "A fella couldn't want a better friend!"

Bruce's relationship with Dick is complicated ranging from son to partner to brother to everything in between. Why not add Mother in it too?!

But it wasn't like Bruce's relationship with Jason and I think that makes all the difference. By the time Jason came around, Bruce and the authors finally realized how to write a father-son relationship. Up until then, Dick was just everything for Bruce and since he was written that way, the authors let him stay that way.

The adoption scene and Dick asking why Bruce didn't adopt him...here's an anology. Suppose a kid goes to school and earns a A on every test and the teacher says "good job!" and they both move on. 10 years later another kid comes along and they get an A too. The teacher has now grown in experience and wants to facilitate growth, so they have now started giving every kid that earned an A a gold star sticker on their paper. This kid takes it home to show their older brother who had that same teacher 10 years ago and the brother comments, "Oh, when I went there, she didn't give out stickers!" But now make it about family.

That's what Dick and Bruce's adoption is. The adoption paper is the gold star. Was it needed? No. Does it make people feel better? Yes.

But I don't like this formally making Dick Bruce's son thing. Sure Dick feels better about it but it was pointless and actually takes away from what their relationship really is.

In the comics, Bruce's behavior toward Jason is more parental than his was to Dick. It was more of a "let me teach you" and "ok, so this is how I do it" with Bruce and Jason. It's a teaching moment of father to son guidance. Dick and Bruce's comics were more "this is what I think" and "I see what you're thinking and I'm going to add on to that" relationship. It was a we're both going to do about 50/50 of the work.

Also Jason came to Bruce at a time when Bruce was stable and knowledgable. Dick came to Bruce at a time when Bruce was literally falling apart. If he hadn't met Dick, he would've killed himself from how reckless he was being. Finding Dick, he saved himself too.

Canonically, Dick is described as a foil to Bruce - the light to Bruce's darkness. He acted patiently listened, worked, and understood Bruce. Bruce shared his emotional burden with Dick in a way he was afraid and careful not to do with the others.

He's still doing it.

Batman (2011) Issue #14

They're not acting like father and son, they're acting like partners.

"Oh, but the kids..."

"It's for the kids! Do this for me please."

Dick as Robin in his later years even screams at Bruce during an argument, "I'm not your son. I'm your partner."

This excessive parentification of Bruce and Dick's relationship, it's not how they function. DC somehow thinks that their loves needs definition. That it needs clear boundaries to show that Bruce loves Dick but the truth is, the devil's in the details and their relationship is riddled with them. You don't need to tell your best friend you love them, they just know. Both of you do. And DC thinks the only way to tell your best friend you love them is to tell them that which is not true.

That said, their problems only arose because Bruce was overly attached to Dick so I don't think he would've been able to let go without speaking to him. I mean, he did get captured (purposefully?) and expect Dick to just come save him just so they could start talking again during Jason's robin era and I don't know how they would fix their problems but I agree that they shouldn't be quarantined into a tiny, constrictive father and son box. They way they act around each and the demands both of them have of the other to act a certain way isn't how a father expects a son to be or a son expects a father to act. I'm not saying they aren't father and son, I just believe they're more complicated and involved than just that.

#dick grayson #nightwing #bruce wayne #batman #cl anon asks #thanks for the ask!

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sokkastyles · 2 months

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It is honestly very weird to see Ozai praise Zuko, even if he's not there. It feels like against the laws of nature. It's like how they made Tywin a little nicer to Tyrion on the TV show too, in the books he barely says something nice to him only that one time when it kinda sounded like he did when he named him the Hand.

It's been a while but I'm not sure that they made Tywin nicer to Tyrion on the show. I only recall him being nice to Arya that one time (whereas book Tywin would have found her unnatural).

I think a main difference between Tywin and Ozai as parents, which is true for both book and show Tywin, is that Tywin was able to recognize Tyrion's talents and use them, even while underestimating him. I feel like perhaps that is the direction they are going in for LA!Ozai, but I don't agree with the choice.

The dynamic Ozai creates with his children in the OG is very much a classic golden child / scapegoat dynamic. And even though we don't get much of Ozai at all in book one, I do not get the impression from the original cartoon that Ozai would have responded to the news that Zuko had found the Avatar by praising him. The response we see from him is that Zuko is a failure, because Zuko didn't capture the Avatar.

But more importantly - and this is where you have to remember that the golden child / scapegoat dynamic is NOT about what the children do, it's about the parent - more importantly, Aang's return means that now there's a chance that Zuko might actually do the impossible. This is not something Ozai wants because then Zuko is not fulfilling the predetermined role (that of the scapegoat) Ozai has set for him.

This seems contradictory on the surface because Zuko's failures are making Ozai unhappy, which is why Zuko is able to be manipulated into this role. He thinks that if only he does better, he can make Ozai happy and everything will be fine. But Ozai does not want to be happy with Zuko. Ozai has a psychological need to put his son down because of his own insecurity, for much the same reason that he has a psychological need to see Azula as perfect.

So I can't see Ozai learning that Zuko found and then lost the Avatar and then praising him. Even if it's a ruse to keep Azula on her toes. Because in the original, Ozai did that to Azula by using Zuko as the example of what happens when you fail. The fact that these roles do not change also emphasizes to Azula that she has to be the golden child, always. She doesn't have a choice. Zuko almost capturing the Avatar isn't something worthy of praise because almost isn't good enough.

The other thing about it is that if Ozai treats his kids as more like equals, there's less division between them. I know some people see this as him pitting them against each other, but a big reason why they didn't team up in the original was because Ozai was constantly telling Azula that she didn't need Zuko, that she was better than Zuko. If both kids are held to the same standard, there's more of a chance that both of them might decide they're fed up with being treated that way. But in the original, one of the main reasons why Azula did not have empathy for her brother was because she was taught that she didn't need to. She never got the same treatment as Zuko did. She was never even forced to see things from Zuko's perspective at all until the very end of the story, and screamed at her father that he "can't treat [her] like Zuko!"

Also Ozai praising Zuko and implying that he considers him his heir doesn't make sense considering what Ozai did to Zuko. You don't banish your heir and send them on an impossible task, unless you want them to come back with an army and a reason to usurp you. You don't publicly humiliate your heir and mutilate them and make them look incompetent, unless you want the other nations you are at war with and the peasantry to get the idea that the royal family is not, in fact, so untouchable.

In ASOIAF, Tywin's treatment of Tyrion makes the reader realize, long before Tyrion does, that Tywin was never going to make him his heir. I've always assumed that was also the case for Ozai, which is why what they're doing in the live action doesn't make a lot of sense.

#zuko #ozai #azula #atla live action

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helpimstuckposting · 7 months

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I’m a ghost and you are a shadow

—

When they finally got around to leaving the backyard, once Steve had collected all the little bits of himself that felt tattered and stretched to their limits, he glanced back at his bedroom window. He caught the blinds swaying just a bit, as if someone had been peaking through and just stepped away. It was easy to imagine Eddie, pulling his mess of curly hair over his face to hide even though Steve hadn’t seen him. He wished he’d come back down.

Eddie was the only constant back in his world. He may have been states away, chasing some kind of purpose that Steve had lost among the bodies, but he called at least once a week. Just to say hi. Just to make sure they were both alive. Steve thought maybe he’d been so used to calling Wayne, he just didn’t know what to do without him. If Steve could be that filler in his life, that voice on the end of the line whenever Eddie reached for the phone out of habit, that was fine by him. It was the only thing he’d started to look forward to.

He wondered if his Eddie would be sad when no one picked up the phone this week. Steve felt a little like the small child hiding amongst the clothing racks again. He’s sure Eddie would notice. He’s just not sure if he’d care. Maybe he’d also send the nanny if he could.

Steve steeled his thoughts as they stepped back into the house, trailing slightly behind Robin as if that would delay the inevitable. She told him it was okay, that he could trust this different version of his mom but he wasn’t quite sure he could believe her. Maybe this Linda was different. That still didn’t make her his mother.

Back in the living room, Nancy, Max, El, and Dustin looked up when he entered. Dustin looked so apologetic that Steve almost felt bad for his reaction. He looked like he wanted to tell Steve sorry, that he didn’t mean to blurt that out, or that he didn’t mean to startle him but he couldn’t get the words out. Steve just nodded at him with a small reassuring smile and ruffled his hair as he passed, sitting back down on the couch with Robin.

They were back to the looking at each other thing, so Steve took pity on them and broke the silence.

“I'm okay, we can call her. Did you tell everyone else?” He asked.

Nancy shook her head. “We were waiting for you, we didn’t want to do anything behind your back.”

Steve nodded, heart squeezing tightly in his chest at the reminder that they cared enough to do that, to wait for him. He turned to the kids that were no longer kids, sitting together on the second couch, Dustin on the left and the two girls on the right.

“Still got the walkies?” He asked. Dustin nodded, pulling the two-way radio out of the bag at his feet.

“Always,” he replied.

“Are you ready?” Nancy asked, eyes caring and worried. She emphasized that it was okay if he wasn’t, if he wanted a few more moments to prepare for what was sure to be a stampede. Steve reassured her it was fine, that they’d have to say something eventually, and Robin squeezed his knee to offer her support, letting her hand rest there to keep him anchored to the spot.

“The rest of the boys should be in town. Will and Mike work at the arcade and Lucas is working at Family Video.”

Steve smiled, it seemed like they’d passed down their shitty strip mall jobs to the next generation. It was still so weird to know the kids were the same age he was when Starcourt opened, older than Robin was.

Dustin clicked the radio on and took one more glance at Steve before pressing the talk button.

“Mike, Will, Lucas, this is Dustin, do you copy?” He waited a few seconds, static coming through the other line. “I repeat, Mike, Will, Lucas, do you copy?” Another few seconds of pause. “We’ve got a 10-17, I repeat, a 10-17, do you copy?”

The line clicked in response. “Uh, what’s a 10-17 again?” Mikes voice filtered through the speaker.

“I think it’s a request for a pick up?” Will’s voice responded on the same line.

“That’s a 10-16, isn’t a 10-17 out of service? Why are you telling us you’re out of service? Over.”

The line clicked again, “That’s a 10-7, Mike,” Lucas’ voice responded. “Over,” he tacked on.

Dustin was clearly ready to vibrate out of his shoes in disappointment. The voices filtering through the static of the walkies made something fuzzy in Steve’s brain. The banter and the arguing and the crackling of the speakers, he could remember it like it was yesterday, like he hadn’t been missing it for four years. He was starting to get misty-eyed again and clutched onto Robin’s hand, still resting on his knee. She squeezed back.

“You’re all useless, it’s urgent business! I repeat, urgent business! Over!” Dustin yelled through the receiver.

Max rolled her eyes on the couch next to him and sunk back into the cushions, arms crossed. El followed her example, crossing her arms as well and relaxing into Max’s side.

“You don’t have to repeat everything, you know,” Mike answered back, tone snappy and impatient. The familiar sound of arcade games crackled out vaguely in the background and Steve could picture him leaning against the prize counter, rolling his eyes as he ignored some little kid in favor of answering Dustin.

“My shift is over in thirty minutes, how urgent are we talking?” Lucas responded.

“Uhhh,” Dustin glanced at Steve, eyes looking just this side of manic, “Try back from the dead urgent.”

“What?”

“Dead?”

“Who’s dead?”

“Who’s back?”

Dustin pressed the talk button to cut them all off again, “Just finish your shifts if you have to and meet back at Base Nora, he’s not going anywhere. Over and out.” Mike, Will, and Lucas tried calling out over each other, the line cutting in and out about ‘who’s not going anywhere?’ and ‘what are you talking about?’, but Dustin just clicked the walkie off instead of answering.

Max leaned forward again, arms still crossed against her chest, and looked at Dustin like he’d finally lost it. “That was the absolute worst way you could have handled that.”

“Yeah but how fast do you think they’ll get here now?” he responded. Steve shook his head as a smile pulled at the corner of his lips. He had to admit Dustin was clever. Rude as hell, but clever. Max just smirked back at him.

“Oh they are so fired.”

“I don’t think Keith can afford to fire them,” El laughed.

Keith, Family Video, the kids, it was all so similar to his world. If it was just this, just the party and Robin and Eddie, it would be fine. The fact that his house was Base Nora, that it was clearly well used by many people and filled with laughter and the sunlight of the morning peaking through the windows, it filled Steve with longing for what he’d lost in his world.

He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d opened the blinds in his house. It was always dark, quiet. He barely even turned the lights on most days, just fumbled through the house hungover and half blind. If it was just the kids they had to tell, he’d be excited to see their reaction, to know that everyone was safe.

However, with the conclusion of one task, the other much more daunting task was at hand. The lightness in Steve’s chest from the kids’ banter was slowly stripped thread by thread, unraveling the warmth he felt and replacing it with cold dread. Robin pulled him up and they all made their way back into the kitchen.

He glanced again at the picture wall, taking in the images he was too panicked to really see before. He stepped closer. There was a picture of the party at a beach, though Steve didn’t know where. He’d only ever seen beaches from expensive hotel windows, before his parents deemed him old enough to stay home alone. Here, the other Steve was smiling, arms around Eddie and Robin, who both had their hair up in buns, kids fighting in the background. There was another picture of the party in his living room, blankets strewn around the floor, kids huddled around with a movie on in the background. He couldn’t tell which movie, but the kids weren’t looking at the screen anyway, they were all huddled around laughing at he and Eddie, sleeping soundly splayed out on top of each other.

Steve wondered how much happier this Steve was. How much more he had. He did things, went places, surrounded by friends, always touching and talking and laughing. He had the party, all safe, he had his mom. But he’d died, left it all behind and Steve was in his place, taking that spot from him. It didn’t seem fair. Steve really didn’t belong here.

“Steve?” Robins voice called as softly as he’d ever heard her. He turned away from the pictures to where she was standing by the phone, already held in her hand. She tilted her head toward the dial on the wall, silently asking if he’d like to do the honors.

He shook his head but walked over to her, stepping in as close as he could. She wrapped an arm around his waist and held the phone to her ear, inexplicably dialing the Wheeler’s number. He glanced over at Nancy, leaning against the archway to the kitchen.

“Our moms have girls’ days sometimes. That’s where they all are now,” she whispered as Robin finished dialing. He could hear it ring. The phone anxiety was creeping back up on him, clawing at his throat. What if she’s mad they interrupted, what if she’s sad he’s not really her Steve, what if she doesn’t care, what if-

“Hi Karen, can I talk to Linda?” Robin’s voice cut through his spiral. He could hear Mrs Wheeler on the other end calling out for his mom, heard giggling in the background and wondered how many of their parents were there. Linda. Robin Buckley was on first name basis with his mother. The more things stay the same, the more they change or whatever the fuck that saying was.

“Hello? Robin?” His mothers voice called out through the speaker. Robin gripped his waist tighter, squeezing three times. He tapped her hand three times right back. It was okay. He’d be okay.

“Hi Linda. I uh… sorry to interrupt!” Robin responded.

“Oh, nonsense, is everything okay? You’re all there, right?” Her voice was so soft, so kind. The last time he’d heard the same voice it was cold, hard like stone. A frigid ‘We’re very disappointed in you, Steven’ tossed his way before his father threw down job applications on the kitchen table. He blinked back the memories and tried tuning back into Robin.

“-don’t really know how to explain it, we just… uh. It’s about Steve.”

It was silent on the other end of the line. The static counting down the seconds before his mother cleared her throat to respond.

“What about Steve, Dear?”

Robin turned to look at him, a vague panic in her eyes as she didn’t know how to respond. They probably should have thought this through more, figured out something to say before calling. It was too late now.

“Um… uh… Something… happened this morning and we think it’s, you know, campaign related,” Robin emphasized, as if she were adding a wink, wink onto the end of her sentence.

She continued, “There’s some, uh, gates we think have opened and someone’s stumbled back into our lives.” Steve felt her shrug helplessly, letting go of his waist to give Nancy a sort of ‘please help me, I’m drowning here’ look, gesturing frantically to the phone. She marched over to them and slid it out of Robin’s hand, stepping in between the two of them.

“Hi, Linda. We think you should come home and see for yourself. It’s a lot, so just… try not to freak out,” Nancy added. Robin smacked her hand to her forehead, that would definitely make someone freak out.

Steve didn’t hear the end of his mom’s call, just the whispered frantic arguing between Nancy and Robin. Eventually, though, Robin hung up the phone and they all looked at each other. At least that was over now. The actual explaining this though was going to be harder. Where did they even start? Everyone was going to flip out the second they saw him, and Steve was exhausted enough already. He couldn’t wait for this part to be over, he just wanted to rest.

This much energy, this many people and conversations and socialization wasn’t something he was used to anymore. It was a bit suffocating, but that could also have just been the panic. It would take about fifteen minutes to get here from the Wheeler’s house, same for the boys at the strip mall — though, Steve wasn’t sure if they’d finish out their shifts first or just make a break for it. They were never good at impulse control.

He decided to sit on the staircase at the entryway. He figured being right there would sort of rip the bandaid off, so to say. So, he sat on the cold hardwood steps, felt Robin plop herself down next to him, and he waited. The dark wood table against the wall of the entryway was the same in his world, though there was a vase of fresh flowers, recently filled. Alive. In his world, they were never real to begin with. Instead, there was a large vase of scented sticks, some minimalist bullshit decor that meant nothing. He stared at the flowers, outlined each and every one to keep his mind away from the panic, to keep himself rooted to the spot.

He used to sit here after saying stiff and formal goodbyes to his parents. He’d watch them leave, tell them have a safe trip, close the door behind them and then just… sit on the stairs. He’d sit for minutes or hours or whatever amount of time it took him to get over himself and get back on with his life. Who cared about some superficial woes of a rich boy? What was he going to say, that he missed parents he never really had? That he wanted his mommy? It was pathetic. So he’d dust himself off, though a spec of dust probably didn’t exist anywhere in the Harrington house, and call up Tommy and Carol to tell them he had the house to himself again. He could fill it with as many people as he wanted before they got back, he was fine.

Now, instead of shaking himself out of it, he was snapped back by the sound of high heels against the brick steps outside. He held his breath, or maybe he just forgot to breathe all together. Before the handle was touched, a stampede of sneaker noises caught up to the heals on the steps, the panting and gasped complaints bleeding through the door.

“Hi, Mrs Harrington,” he thought it was Will’s voice that filtered in.

“Hi, boys. I’m assuming you got a cryptic call as well?” She teased. She teased. He’d never heard that tone before in his life.

“Yeah, Dustin called right in the middle of our shifts!” Lucas accused, as if Dustin didn’t specifically tell them to finish their shifts before coming over.

“Aren’t you going to get in trouble for that?” She asked

“Oh please, Keith can’t afford to fire us anyway,” Mike muttered.

With the greetings out of the way, someone finally gripped the handle. The rattling of the metal put a fire under Steve’s ass and before he knew it, he’d booked it around the corner and just out of sight.

“Wait, Steve-,” Robin shouted after him, though the door finally opened and she was confronted with four startled faces before she could run after him.

“Steve?” Lucas shouted.

He muttered a quiet fuck under his breath and braced himself. He couldn’t just leave Robin floundering around by herself out there, that was too cruel. So, instead of being an absolute coward he took in a deep breath, held it for just a few seconds until his lungs felt stretched to their limits, and then he let it all go as he stepped around the corner.

—

Sorry about that one guys, I hate cliff hangers but I never know where else to stop these lmao you'll meet Linda Harrington in the next one! We'll also hear from Eddie 👀

I'm still adding to the taglist as well, so feel free to ask!

@weirdandabsurd42 @sirsnacksalot @space-invading-pigeon @aliea82 @goodolefashionedloverboi @emly03 @bestwifehaver @mentallyundone @13catastrophic-blues @estrellami-1 @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @likelylad @aellafreya @wxrmland

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jonsimstwitchyeyeballs · 4 months

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TMA AU where everything is exactly the same except that Gertrude was Jon's legal guardian when he was a kid

I'm all for the somewhat disinterested unnamed grandma that let him occupy space and didn't show him affection plotline but hear me out:

What if that had been Gertrude?

You can come up with many a reason why she ended up having him under custody (I don't want to say they're necessarily blood family in this AU) and the story would pretty much play out the same way.

She would also be distant and frankly not immediately concerned with raising a child because she's way too busy stopping rituals and making fear avatars fear her, so she sort of leaves him unsupervised most of the time. He has no idea what her job even is, he just knows she prefers to work in secret instead of taking care of him and still is salty about that later on.

He doesn't find out Gertrude's been working for the Institute until he goes to work there himself and it's painfully clear he knows less about her than everyone else there-which is frustrating because he's learning things about her second hand, that's how avoidant she had been with him.

Obviously he resents her for it, so throughout Season 1 his comments about her incompetence are more targeted and personal, though not too personal since the only thing he knows about her is that she didn't care about his upbringing.

As the show progresses and he finds out who she really was it's pretty clear that in a twisted way she was trying to protect him from harm, keeping up an extremely typical relationship so that she doesn't get attached and he doesn't get used against her. She can't afford to be vulnerable for anyone, nor can she have anyone knowing he lives with her.

Of course, some people would find out and she'd make sure they'd never hear the end of it. Though, unfortunately she could not predict the bad luck via which a Leitner ended up in Jon's hands.

In the end, the arc about Jon discovering more about his predecessor and her deeds is largely the same, but it also has that extra vector of personal involvement, as he begins to rationalize her actions towards him too, but maybe not entirely forgiving. It's obvious that between the fate of the world and a child she would choose the former, but a part of him wishes she had told him more about her life and he didn't have to meet the real her post-mortem.

You can add a lot of angsty bits with the concept, like Jon wanting to get through all of Gertrude's tapes to see if he's even mentioned once, only to find out that he never is, or him meeting people who knew Gertrude but had no idea he even existed in relation to her and clearly describing her personality better than he ever could. Oh and of course the tragic irony that since she never told him about the Institute, he couldn't have known it was a bad place and ended up there anyway. I'm particularly fond of this idea because I still want to emphasize that Jon is still just a random guy at the end of the day and didn't end up where he did because of his relation to someone else.

It also serves the theme of human connections, making you wonder that if they had communicated and bonded, would everything play out the same way?

As a conclusion, I'd just like to say that this is by no means a correction of the original story, I like Gertrude being a completely mythical and mysterious figure just as much, I just wanted to share a different take (might make part 2 for more details/headcanons).

#tma #the magnus archives #the magnus pod #jonathan sims #gertrude robinson #tma spoilers #tma jon #tma gertrude #leitner books #tma au #also I just think it'd be cute if she raised him (and was extremely bad at it)

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thestrangestthing89 · 11 months

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It's really disturbing to me how many people are willing to force a romantic relationship on two people simply because they were kind to each other (occasionally). Mike being nice to El in S1 isn't enough of an indication of a crush. It's the bare minimum of human interaction. It's one of the many things that get overlooked when people are insisting Mike and El actually had romantic feelings for each other/a crush on each other. This is simply not enough of a reason to ship two people together. It's not enough to hold any kind of relationship together. Spending a couple days together in a high stress situation doesn't form a romantic relationship. And just because they are cute kids doesn't mean you are supposed to ship them. Of course they are cute. They are kids. All of the kids on this show are cute. Not only that, but I love how it just gets completely ignored that Mike and El have been referred to each other as family members since the beginning. There are repeated references to them being siblings and cousins along with multiple comparisons throughout the series to Mike with Hopper and Brenner.

The Duffers never wanted people to ship this. They have even said they were surprised people did. The most hilarious thing to me is when people ignore how they were compared to Eliot and ET. It's platonic. It was always platonic. Just because they put Mike and El next to each other on a couple of posters doesn't mean they were trying to emphasize a romantic relationship. They were trying to emphasize they are the main characters - or at least the main focus of the plot along with Will. Not to mention how they haven't done this in a while. They were worried that the show wouldn't be watched if Mike and El weren't together which I think is also why they sometimes put them on posters. But seriously there aren't a lot of these and Finn and Millie have barely done any promotional things just the two of them. This is different than Finn and Noah not doing promotional things together - that relationship is a secret. But Mike and El were out in the open and they still barely promoted it. They thought people would hate S2 because they weren't together. But that didn't happen. Instead when they are together in S3 most of the adult audience (their intended demographic) couldn't stand that relationship. They went out of their way to make sure people found it annoying.

The writers and the cast have admitted at various times that they felt pressured to promote that relationship. There wasn't supposed to be a kiss at the end of S2 but the Duffers said they felt pressure to add it. Millie has said the fans make her feel like she has to promote mileven. Finn is annoyed anytime the subject comes up. They hate this. They have never liked this relationship and they do everything they can to show people why they shouldn't be supporting it.

All this to say that so many people have convinced themselves that their head canons about Mike having a crush on her in the early days are true. And it's going to lead to a lot of pissed off people who won't admit that they just misunderstood the story when season 5 comes out. I think it really warps peoples perceptions of the show that fandom sites aren't very active right now. There are a lot of younger people on these sites posting regularly and it's creating this false sense of assurance when people agree with head canons. And I think a lot of people are projecting themselves onto the characters, which up to a point is fine. It's fine to find some aspects of characters relatable. But forcing these character to be like you and getting pissed when people point out something isn't accurate isn't you expressing your creativity. It's not being able to tell the difference between a fun, harmless head canon and the actual narrative. They are separate things.

Some of these head canons have gotten so out of control it doesn't seem like people even remember the actual story anymore, they just remember other theories and fan fiction. And honestly some of them range from completely random to flat out crazy (I'm mostly referring to relationship/character stuff here not theories about the supernatural plot. I feel like any random theory here is valid because the writers are making up this world).

But the intended demographic is adults and while a lot of them may not be posting on this site regularly, I guarantee you most of them don't think Mike ever had a crush on El. Most people are so annoyed with that relationship - because that is the way they wrote it. They want people to be done with it. And more of those people are going to come on this site when promotional stuff starts amping up only to get threatened out of it because people can't handle being corrected.

I say this as a millennial and someone who is a part of the target audience. The writers are not trying to promote that relationship. They never were. Because no emotionally mature adult actually likes it. It's been the younger fan base that always fixated on that relationship and the writers were surprised they even watched the show.

I'm starting to feel like by the time the final season comes out, I'm going to come on here ready to excitedly talk about the show only to find people upset because their theories weren't true. And it's mainly the people who are hurling around terms like misogyny, ableism, biphobia, etc anytime someone points out their theories don't add up with canon evidence. You can pretty much guarantee anyone immediately saying those terms (and usually using them incorrectly) in the face of mild criticism wasn't mature enough to be watching the show in the first place.

This isn't a teen show. It never was. It was never the Mike and El show and it wasn't ever about their relationship.

#no longer care who I'm pissing off #I will immediately block anyone who is rude #anti mileven #byler

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cto10121 · 7 months

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Seriously, Why Did Shakespeare Make Juliet 13?

One common trope among the annals of R&J clownery is the matter of Juliet’s age, which never fails to send clowns into a frothy spiral of pearl-clutching, hand-wringing agita (Romeo’s age, meanwhile, is never a cause of much paternalistic concern). But it’s worth asking the question, especially since:

His sources for the tale feature a much older Juliet and of course, Romeo. Why the change?

13 was considered too young to be married even by Shakespeare’s time; for the lower classes it was almost unheard of. Only children by nobility were betrothed that young, and chiefly for political alliance.

So there is a bit of a ~mystery. There have been many theories, some more likelier than others. Let’s count the ways.

1. Social Criticism: The Bad Old Days(tm)

This is most likely the case, tying into the fact that early modern Englishmen and women married in their late 20s as the norm. Even Shakespeare was at least 18 when he married his 27-year-old wife.

Nobility did betroth their young children for alliance, but it was understood by the late 1500s that 13-14 year-old girls were too young to bear children safely. A delay of a year or two before marital consummation was the norm. Shakespeare may have wanted to reflect that reality for his multi-class audience.

Also, Shakespeare was adapting a history set in the 1300s, during De La Scala’s rule in Verona. If Shakespeare had wanted to clue his audience in that this tragedy was set during the Bad Old Catholic Days, making Lady Capulet and the Nurse encourage their 13-year-old to consider marriage and explain that girls as young as she were already married would set those 🚩🚩🚩 🚩 a-waving for a 1590s audience. There is definitely an attempt to problematize the Capulets. Sure enough, we do have contemporary accounts mentioning a “tyrant” Capulet.

So Shakespeare’s audience (and we) would immediately understand the critique and also the dramatic stakes for Juliet—what kind of family she has been raised in, and the danger she would soon be in for merely resisting her father’s will.

2. Social Criticism: The Disempowerment of Youth

In de-aging his lovers, Shakespeare may have wanted to emphasize just how much Romeo and Juliet are at the mercy of their families. They have a degree of agency and autonomy, more so on Romeo’s part since he is undoubtedly older. But otherwise they are largely dependent on their families, and thus more vulnerable to the (deadly) consequences of their feud.

That’s why they don’t even consider fleeing Verona—not that it wouldn’t be just as stupid an idea even if they were older. But actual minors out in the world is a recipe for disaster.

3. The Power of (First) Love

Shakespeare may have wanted to make sure R&J had as little romantic experience as possible to drive home this point. While 13 was considered too young for marriage, love was a different matter. Even now the average age of first romantic experience for most people is 13-16. Romeo is hung up on Rosaline, but doesn’t seem to know her well at all or made much of an effort to woo her. And Juliet honestly is not thinking of marriage.

That said, there are some things in the play that go against R&J having no romantic experience prior to this. Romeo is impatient with Rosaline’s chastity vow and overall does not value chastity much. He also does not hesitate to pursue and woo Juliet. Juliet picks up on the flirtation right away without so much as a “whut” and tells Romeo that he kisses “by th’book.” She also warns Romeo that if he has no intention of marrying her, to leave her “to her grief.” Kids grow up so fast, I guess.

All of this may just be a sign of their instant chemistry rather than any prior romantic experience, though. As soon as they meet each other it’s as if they have grown by like 3-5 years older lol. And R&J are just as likely to experience first love at 16/18 as 13/17. But it does show that Shakespeare and his time were well aware erotic attachments began on the younger side.

4. Practical Theater Stuff

As Shakespeare’s troupe was all men, with young boys playing women, it would make sense for Shakespeare to write closer to the actor for Juliet. 13/14/15-year-old boy=13-year-old female character. Audience verisimilitude, and all that.

He may not have been necessarily 13, though, so again, weak sauce. And Elizabethans accepted such a whole host of artificial stage conventions that I doubt they would have really had their Suspension of Disbelief threatened by an older boy as Juliet.

Bonus: Adaptations

Due to vastly changing attitudes and norms, Juliet’s age has been changed for modern adaptations, for various different reasons, many valid. Those that have kept her age intact, though, have not always understood the social criticism and deliberate purpose behind Shakespeare’s decision to age his lovers down. Hence you get a lot of 13-going-on-3 Juliets and casting kid-looking actresses in the role general. If not, then she is portrayed as more immature and energetic than the text ever suggests, from tomboyish to typical girly-girl playing with her dollies (🤮).

Ditto for Romeo. Romeo’s age is not specified in the text, but casting directors have rarely aged him down to Juliet’s canonical age (the closest is probably the Polish and Cocciante musicals with really baby faced Romeos). More often, to compensate, Romeo’s actors have simply played him as more boyish and immature than even his part reads—a caricature of a teen boy as a more “fitting” partner for a more child-like Juliet.

All much ado about nothing, imo. Shakespeare would probably not give a groat if you raise Juliet’s age, so long the cruelty of the forced marriage is conveyed. With the expansion of childhood, the delay of marriage, and the rampant neo Puritanism, 16 is very much the new 13. Even so, with the age gap discourse, the clownery about Romeo being a Creepy Italian Groomer has only grown worse.

#romeo and juliet #rj meta #r&j meta #age gap discourse #what is most interesting tho is how many productions *don’t* age romeo down #romeo does read as an older teen definitely #but frankly so does juliet #after her first scene juliet reads as what we would consider 16

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acciojaeyun · 2 years

Text

underneath the table | fred weasley smut

pairing: fred weasley x fem!reader (royal!au) warnings: (18+) nsfw, voyeurism, oral, male-receiving? a bit of edging, spitting. idk what else to add here except the fact that this was filthy and i needed to cave into fred weasley, yk. prompts: “i’m sensitive, please”

a/n: here's the part two to those who've asked from the first part of the fic!! i always love some pining with dear ol' freddie. so, ofc, this will have a third part 🙈

summary: y/n y/l/n was as needy as ever for fred weasley after the last encounter where they were interrupted the last time. now, as another opportunity presents itself to y/n, she knows she has to do something about it.

"Miss Y/N," Madame Pomfrey says as she makes a quick rundown on her list, minutes before another banquette is to be held in the kingdom, as Hon. Ron, the family's youngest son, had announced his engagement with the Lady Granger - or Hermione, as she likes to be called most of the times - therefore, another celebration is expected.

Which meant Y/N had spent most of her free days instead of helping in formwork every Saturday with Fred hovering above her anytime he got, she spent the day going with Madame Pince and Madame Pomfrey for the preparation, from the cleaning of the chambers to buying vegetables, meat, and other raw ingredients from the merchants in King's Cross.

So, Fred, whose favourite day was Saturday considering he gets to see more of Y/N during the second to the last day weekend, was immediately displeased - to say the least. In fact, his team had won by the number of bludgers he had beaten off, leaving at least one or two for George to deal with.

"Pray thee, brother," George kids Fred as they unmounted the broom, with Fred emphasizing each action by harshly throwing his own away, leaving a loud thud as George found the whole scene entertaining. "take a breather or the next time I see you the whole broom closet is torn down into pieces of wood."

Fred rolled his eyes, shaking off his rather sweaty hair, removing his gears in such a fierce manner.

"Ah, still no attitude adjustment from Y/N, I assume?" George whispers, laughing almost immediately as Fred meets his gaze as he nonchalantly removed all of his gear.

"There's no attitude adjustment," Fred mutters, freeing the top section of his hair from the tight pony he has placed it in.

"Yet," George replies, winking at Fred, who, in turn, just slapped the back of his head, with George exclaiming a playful wince of pain as he returned the gesture to his older twin. "Don't know why you just can't ask her out, though, she seems pretty in love with you."

Fred shrugs, and immediately George knew. "Mum and Dad both know that we don't take rules by the book, Freddie. We simply have a mind of our own."

The older twin didn't dare to respond. He knows how he and George have a mind of their own, yes, he and his twin always had blown up different rooms and bathrooms - causing plumbers and carpenters to be working more than their usual hours.

With one pat on the shoulder from George, they made their way outside the Quidditch closet, with Ginny following closely behind with a pastry in her hand.

"Where'd you get that?" George asks as he tries to pinch off a part from Ginny, who had successfully whisked the bun away before George could get a hold of it.

"This," Ginny says before taking the last bite, "is from Y/N. If you want you could ask for one, or let Fred ask, I'm sure she'll give more than one." Ginny winks at Fred.

"I'm pretty sure she'll give the whole basket if Fred's the one who'll ask," Harry follows in, making them laugh as Fred huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Those are for later, you know she only gave you that bun since you’re her favourite Weasley," Fred says, still annoyed by the fact that he had not seen Y/N the whole day. "I beg to differ," Ginny counters, wiping off the cinnamon-covered fingers on her handkerchief, "when she got back, the first thing she asked after greeting me was where you are, I'm pretty sure I'm second."

"When did I fall into third place?" George pouts, making Fred punch his arm.

"Where is she?" Fred turns to Ginny as they neared the marble staircase towards the castle.

As soon as Fred has taken a shower and changed into comfier clothes, he finds himself wandering over the Kitchens four hours before the banquette - while he knows Y/N might be busy preparing, he couldn't help it, especially when he had witnessed the beauty of each curve that her body possessed. It was as if she was the finest wine Fred desperately needed to taste and devour, and he'll do everything to taste it - and for all he knew, Fred always got his things his way.

So, when Fred sees Madame Pomfrey leave the Kitchens with maidens following about her, he tries to recognise each lady, and when he realises Y/N was not included in the roster, he sneaks his way down to the Kitchens.

Lo, and behold, the fairest maiden his eyes had ever seen. Y/N was chopping the vegetables in such serenity Fred always found himself drawn towards. He took quiet steps, so much for not trying to break her focused stance before placing his hands on her hips, making Y/N jolt as she felt the touch.

"Goodness, sire," Y/N chuckles nervously as she recognises the familiar scent of the man who had his hands on the expanse of her hips. "you scared me."

"Where were you?" Fred ignores her remark, sliding his hands to her waist as he pulls the body against his, his body flushing at the contact, and sooner enough, he was getting turned on by the way he acknowledges he felt her skin beneath his touch.

"Head maiden duties, I had to accompany mesdames," Y/N whispers, hands failing to chop the vegetables on her board as she basks in the presence of the attractive young man whom she had been pining ever since.

Fred smirks at how Y/N tries her very best to stay composed, and soon enough, Fred places his chin on her shoulder as his hands enveloped Y/N's, guiding her hands in chopping the vegetables.

"You know you do have magic, right?" Fred whispers as his lips ghost the shell of her ear, kitten licking a small portion of her skin, making the lass shiver at the action. "Yes, sire," Y/N responds, biting her lip.

"But I prefer you guiding me on how to do it," Y/N responds timidly, making Fred's breath hitch and for him to let out a low groan. "God, m'lady," Fred chuckles as he presses his hips against her bum, "you don't know what you do to me."

Y/N places down her knife and spins around, making Fred lose his balance before gripping the edge of the counter Y/N had been working on, trapping the lady between his arms, their lips almost touching at the very small distance between them.

"Then let me know," Y/N says, and Fred immediately places his mouth on hers, pushing his hips against the crotch as much as he can, considering that her flowy dress didn't give him much access to it. Y/N moaned, hands intertwining behind Fred's neck as she pulled him deeper into the kiss.

Fred, with only half a mind, had successfully pushed the vegetables aside as well as the other kitchenware, taking a hold of her thighs to aid her as he told her to jump and seat on the counter. Y/N's legs spread wide as Fred hoisted the fabric towards the top of her thighs, giving him room as he tried to dry hump against her clothed crotch.

"Merlin, baby," Fred says as soon as their kiss broke, eyes meeting hers as his hips rutted against her, with Y/N sensually trying to meet his rhythm. "a fucking goddess you are - a slut - but a goddess." he winks at her, making Y/N blush.

But as soon as things could escalate further, the lad and the lass both heard the faint voice of Madame Pomfrey, with the heels of her shoes clicking against the marble stone floor.

"Shit," Fred says, pulling Y/N down from the counter and casting a verbal spell to fix the things on the counter. As soon as the counter was back to normal, he faced the lass, almost groaning at the sight of her: flushed, with dark eyes in such a stare he knew was only reserved for him.

"God, are you so sexy," Fred says as he pecks her lips more than once. "dinner duties?" he asks as the steps become loud with each second. Y/N shook her head, "They wanted me to rest."

Fred hummed, "Be there at the dining hall, alright? I'll miss you,"

"But, sir -"

"Lord's orders," he winked before turning Y/N around and making her take hold of the knife and usher her back to chopping.

"Oh, Lord Weasley! What a surprise," Madame Pomfrey says with a gasp as she finds him walking around the Kitchens, looking dishevelled, but the Housekeeper remained ignorant. "To who do I offer the visit?"

"I got hungry, looked for something to eat," Fred shrugged, "would you be serving the custards later, Madame Pomfrey?" he follows up a second later as the Housekeeper was about to respond.

"Oh, yes, sire, in fact, Y/N was the one who said to serve that tonight," Madame Pomfrey smiles. "Do you have any more requests for the dinner tonight, my Lord?"

"I'm good, thank you," Fred smiles, "but if I were to get hungry and needed those custards before dessert, I could ask Y/N right?" he smirks as Y/N's blush deepened.

"Of course, sir," Madame Pomfrey replies.

"Good, now, will you excuse me," Fred says, excusing himself, without him not trying to sneak a wink in Y/N's way.

And excuse herself was something Y/N tries to do as the banquette neared and some invited guests arrived at the Dining Hall. She hadn't seen Fred since he made his presence known in the Kitchens, and to say that the encounter made her underwear wet was an understatement. In fact, the whole time she had been preparing the custard flans, she has been looking at the door of the Kitchens ever now and so often as Fred said a while ago, and she only had stopped when Madame Pomfrey had called out her attention regarding it.

She huffs in annoyance as it dawns on her that Fred wasn't going to go down before dinner, and it almost pushes her to the edge when she had walked past him across the halls and he hadn't spared a glance at her.

How dare you, Y/N thinks.

And that was why she finds herself tucked underneath the long table of the Dining Hall, and she silently thanks herself for having to have chosen a thicker and longer table cover that reached the floor, for if not, she would be having a difficult time trying to act upon Fred's endless teasing.

So, as soon as she sees the familiar leather shoes clicking against the floor with the gold buckle that she knew was Fred's, she situates herself in front of the chair that Fred stopped at, and as soon as he took a seat, Y/N tries to contemplate whether what she was thinking of was worth the risk.

Goddamn it, Y/N bites her lip, I'm doing it.

Y/N had given ample time for Fred to situate during dinner, and her heart almost flutters as she held back a chuckle when Fred started tapping his foot impatiently on the floor as he tried to fidget, as if he were searching for someone.

When Fred's impatient foot-tapping had come to a halt, that is when Y/N's fingers lightly danced on Fred's knee, making Fred's knee jerk and hit the table, with Fred slightly groaning at the sudden action, and her laughing lightly as Fred tries to excuse what had happened.

Not a long while after, a teaspoon had fallen from the table, and Y/N stayed still as she didn't know whose silverware had fallen. Her breath hitched as she tried to keep it in, and sooner enough, she was met by a mischievous grin of Fred's.

Fred winks at her as he retrieves the spoon from the ground, making her blush as Fred pulls his chair closer to the table, much to Y/N's comfortability.

Y/N takes the lead as she tries to unbuckle Fred's trousers, pulling them down slightly as her breath ghosts on the black boxers Fred had worn. Her lips leave a kiss on the bulge that was starting to grow from the crotch, and her underwear, if it had been wet before, was getting wetter than it was a while ago.

She bites her lip before pulling the trousers down to pool at Fred's ankles, tongue immediately latching on Fred's clothed cock, making the lad jump in his seat. His hips involuntarily bucked slightly, an act which Y/N took that he wanted more.

But Y/N was not willing to comply - not yet - that's why she pushed his hips down on the chair, making Fred choke on his food, and Y/N smirked as she found the situation pleasant. She kept on kissing the covered dick, with her tongue going out every now and then to lick him under the fabric.

Her hands which were used to push Fred's hips down held the side of his thighs, pinching the muscular flesh as her teeth bit the band of his boxers, pulling it down sensually as she felt Fred tense up. Her fingers immediately tapped on his skin, soothing him down.

As soon as the pants were discarded along with his trousers, Y/N wasted no time and immediately licked his throbbing dick from the base to the tip of his head, taking her time to flick the skin from the head, tongue running across the slit of his cock.

Y/N's left hand went in between his thighs to cup his balls, wriggling her hand as she tried to massage as she bobbed her head up and down the impressive length of Fred. The hand that was used to cup Fred's thigh was now used to jack off his penis, her chest heaving out in such intensity as she tried to catch her breath.

Her fingers tightened and squeezed around the head, and soon, she was spitting on his head and smearing her saliva throughout the head, spreading it out on his dick before divulging again.

Fred's left hand went down the table, his thighs jerking every now and then as he tried to answer the small talk he found himself in, his hand tried to search for Y/N's right hand, to which Y/N had noticed, and after wiping the saliva-coated hands with Fred's thigh, she reached her hand towards Fred's and intertwined her hands with his.

"Fuck," Y/N breathed out as she paused from giving head to Fred, as it was challenging with his length and girth; hitting the back of her throat every down and then as she tried to eat him out whole.

Y/N was jerking Fred's dick off with such intensity, noting how Fred has been trying to suppress his squirming by tapping his foot and tightening his grip on their intertwined hands. She saw how Fred tried to buck his hips towards her mouth, and Y/N helped Fred by putting him in her mouth again, bobbing her head up and down with her tongue following suit, as her hand jacked off the remaining flesh that her mouth couldn't reach.

The hand which was used to massage his balls have been discarded, as she had already pushed down her hand to her underwear, teasing her clit before pushing two fingers inside her, desperately wanting to chase Fred's orgasm so she could come with the man.

It was at the same time when Y/N felt her orgasm approaching as Fred's right hand was now grasping her jaw, guiding her to be fast in order for him to come as his left hand dug his fingernails into Y/N's right hand. He didn't know Y/N was touching herself, and Y/N didn't know that Fred was doing everything in his willpower what was happening to him underneath the table.

Y/N quickened the pace on his cock, the noise of his skin on his mouth as well as her gagging was enough to turn her on, good thing that the Dining Hall was packed; as it drowned out the sinful noise that came under the table, had anyone been attentive enough.

Fred's hands stilled on Y/N, signalling that he was about to come, at the same time Y/N also came on her fingers, drenching her undergarments with her release. Fred's cum splattered down to the back of her throat, the salty yet sweet liquid burning up her tongue as she milked out his climax.

When Y/N felt that he was done, she swallowed the cum and pulled him out of her mouth and licked him clean slowly with her tongue, earning a squirm from Fred as he leaned against the chair, slightly peering at her from where she knelt on the ground in front of him.

"I'm sensitive," he mouthed, eyebrows furrowing as he met the innocent gaze of Y/N when she kitten-licked his overstimulated head. "Please," she followed his request.

Y/N winked and opened her mouth, indirectly telling him that she has swallowed his load. Fred's hooded eyelids looked at her in awe as he tried to breathe deeply without being obvious. His hands made way to her jaw and he ran his fingers on her cheek, "So pretty," he whispered.

Dinner soon ended after what seemed like a long while, but the night will soon be longer, for as Y/N reappeared - though looking unkempt - at the Dining Hall, clearing the tables as if she had not been underneath the table throughout, Fred cleared his throat and whispered to her, "Chambers, in two hours."

taglist: @georgiessunflower @vilentia @raiymaj @mellowsharkharmony @hehehhe1d

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ticklish-n-stuff · 5 months

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A brotherly talk

So @kairoscler and I were talking ab pairings and somehow we ended up talking ab AkiSaki being a thing and how Tsukasa would react to it AND NOW IM SO OBSESSED WITH THE IDEA I HAD TO TURN IT INTO A FIC RARARARA

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Akito & Tsukasa (platonic/Akito is dating Saki)

Lee: Akito

Ler: Tsukasa

Warnings: Tickles! Straight-

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Akito wasn’t sure how it happened. He definitely wanted nothing to do with the Tenma family, yet that all changed after he met Saki. Another soul passionate about her dreams of music, still going despite how hard it gets, and most importantly, she wasn’t like her brother. Sure she was more optimistic than what Akito is used to, but nowhere near the levels of destruction Tsukasa would bring wherever he went.

Somehow, those two hit it off and became an official couple. When Tsukasa found out, he was quick to pull Akito aside and give him ‘the talk’.

“Ugh… do we have to?” The ginger groaned, running a hand through his hair as Tsukasa dragged him along to a private room.

“Of course! Y’know that Saki’s wellbeing is my top priority, and I want to make sure you’ll treat her with the respect she deserves and— Hey! Are you even listening?!” Tsukasa pouted and huffed as Akito’s gaze was anywhere except where it was supposed to be.

“Akito, I’m not kidding—” the blonde emphasized his point to a jab into the younger one’s stomach, words falling deaf at the jump. “What was that?”

“Nothing! Just hurry up…” Akito crossed his arms, cheeks slowly turning strawberry red. Instantly giving him away.

“Oh, I see. You’re ticklish~” Tsukasa had a smug, toothy grin on his face. Watching as Akito tried shrinking in on himself.

“Shut up– H-hey! Don’t try anything!” The ginger's voice wavered as his senpai slowly approached him with devilish eyes. He tried stepping back, only to fall flat across the sofa. “Ihi’m warning yohou!” Poor Akito couldn’t help the nervous giggles that started bubbling in his throat.

“Maybe this’ll make you listen now~” Shortly after, Tsukasa hopped onto the younger male’s hips, keeping him trapped. Dazzling fingers quick to descend onto the soft stomach.

“waHAIT! NAHAHAHA! TSUKASA-SEHEHENPAI!”

“Now, repeat after me. ‘I”ll be a good boyfriend to Saki’” with each syllable, Tsukasa’s fingers would poke and prod at a different spot. Pinching up and down his ribs, skittering his sides, scratching at his belly. Anything to make Akito howl in laughter.

“I-I PFFTAHAHAHAHA! IHI'LL BEHEHE A GOHOHOD BOYFRIEND— OH MY GAHAHASH!” the ginger shook his head furiously. His eyes squeezed shut and cheeks looked like they were about to pop. Tsukasa couldn’t help laughing along, watching his junior lose himself in his hysterics.

"C'mon, you almost got it!" The future star encouraged to a squeeze at the hips, earning a full-on scream of laughter.

“Onii-chan, what’s happening in there?!” Saki’s voice broke them out of their erm… ‘talk’, causing Tsukasa to halt his fingers.

“Nothing! Just having a friendly chat~” he got off the ginger, who was panting as if he had run a marathon. He gave Saki a weak thumbs up, causing her to roll her eyes playfully.

“Glad to see you two getting along~” she spoke cheerfully. She definitely heard all the commotion, but for Akito’s sake, she’ll keep it to herself… for now.

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#project sekai #project sekai tickle #project sekai tickle fic #tsukasa tenma #akito shinonome #lee!akito #ler!tsukasa

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infini-tree · 1 year

Photo

so me and @clownnoise have been spitballing some concepts re: tetocu, but mostly the kids introduced. a lot of it involved having them show a more varied/deeper look at them to emphasize the original book’s themes of kids vs. the school system and it lowkey snowballed into what’s basically an indulgent dt17-esque reboot (in terms of how much it keeps faithful/what it changes with the source material), but tetocu.

anyway, here’s a lineup and a few out-of-context doodles of potential interactions/conflicts/’episodes’. there’s more info on the characters under the read more

general points

one of the main points of contention was the kids. the ensemble cast was honestly a good call for a tv series, but the kids are just surface-level tropes, if they even have a particular angle to them in the first place. as cute as the MISFARTS concept was, it was difficult to buy into it considering how little development there were for the introduced kids

the kids

gooch (aka steve aka suketsugu) is practically a bit of a rewrite situation from his canon counterpart. he’s moved from japan to the US, and frequently around the country as a result of his family needing to move with the museum pieces they’re taking care of. during this time, he’s had to pick up english, and as a result he’s learned to be a bit of a fast-talker to make sure conversations don’t derail from him. him, stanley, and bo are a trio in this one

stanley’s a pretty chill guy for the most part and ridiculously strong as a result of hauling produce on the family farm. a few years ago, he transferred from a different, much rougher school thanks to his new stepdad

bo is mostly the same, save from elaboration re: his background. bullshark had this idea where he lived in a woodsy area all his life and was immediately made the subject of school rumor after bringing a whittling knife. the heart of the trio

dressy is another rewrite situation where her hippie gimmick was angled more towards Animal Enjoyer, which was then further angled towards That One [Insert Animal Here] Kid. as a result of her independent nature, she doesn’t get along with the rest of the kids initially since she has a similar near-sightedness to the boys re: their pranks, but with her LARP shennanigans, sometimes picking fights

erica is a little nerfed in the sense that she isn’t this ultra perfect girl anymore. she leans more into the type of child forced to grow up too fast to help with their parents-- in the dm’s she helped around the house by taking care of her siblings. in reality, she’d love to do kids’ stuff like LARP as her self-insert

jessica (and by extension the sophies’) gimmick was angled more towards being a pageant queen. she’s still plenty vain as her canon self, but she can pinpoint anyone’s emotional vulnerabilities after being in the pageant circuit for so long. she also hides her own vulnerabilities regarding her dad who had left in a divorce a few years ago

sophie one is still her right hand/a bit more favored with jessica, but with the justification that she and jessica had prior history together as a result of her mom being part of jessica’s pageant crew-- so she actually knows quite a lot about the world of fashion, sewing, hairdressing, etc. there’s also the concept of her having an older sibling who was once in the pageant circuit, leaving her alone while her mom and sister were off backstage

other sophie mostly just tags along with jessica and sophie 1 of her own volition, but the other kids don’t get it (she has a baby crush on jessica). mostly just a daydreamer and bookish

#mells draws a thing #captain underpants #tetocu23 #(like dt/17. listen i just needed a snappy tag for organization #in any case im pretty sure there were some talking points i forgot to put in here rip)

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hikennosabo · 9 months

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random knives thoughts (trimax vol 7)

my vol 7 post is getting long and i have so much to say about knives that i think he deserves his own post, lol. and this got way longer than i expected it would.

not sure how to structure this though. i guess i'll just... go in chapter order.

this volume is a LOT to take in, in general, but also with regards to knives specifically. we see past and present versions, and the difference is night and day.

^ i love this scene of rem scolding knives so much, because it's just so... normal. a normal mother and son interaction. he was just a normal kid.

i also love this next scene, and i want to go through it slowly.

knives is so worried about conrad's reaction to them. he can't make eye contact. his face is red. he's trying to talk politely. he's trembling and sweating. compared to vash, who looks a little concerned, but relatively nonplussed.

i love how this is the only question conrad asks, and the two of them immediately answer. that's all that's needed.

i love the panel of knives crying so much. i can't imagine him crying like this as an adult... he's so emotional about all this. and i love vash comforting him by putting his arm around him. vash has to say "thank you" because knives is crying so much he can't even speak. knives was such a sweet kid, y'all.

and then there's this. now conrad is scolding knives like a parent, too. it's just. everything about this interaction is so sweet. it almost paints a picture of what could have been. things could have been different in another timeline. ugh ugh ugh

knives being the sensitive one, and the one with so much hope and confidence that plants and humans can get along, it hurts. it's almost hard to believe that the twins basically swapped in their outlooks and attitudes from being kids to adults.

^ that being said, put a pin in this.

^ not posting this one for any particular reason other than i think that knives being a little hackerman is so cute

^ i NEED to include these panels, though, because it's such a sibling moment. if you couldn't tell (lol), i love the bits of normal familial interactions we see, and the twins' scenes specifically just serve to emphasize how wrong everything is in the present day.

"since when have we been so different?" ...the line in tristamp which kills me the most. (if this line appears in a future volume i might actually just climb right into the microwave.)

and then we get the tesla scene. it's already been discussed at length, but knives being so traumatized that he passed out is just. so much. it broke him. it broke him!! and he slept through everything after that. it seems like a small mercy, compared to vash's self-starvation and suicide attempt, but in the long run... it wasn't. he wasn't able to work through his emotions with rem like vash did. he didn't hear the blank ticket story, or see rem cry.

aaand then he wakes up and immediately pretends to have amnesia. i'm gonna be honest, i wasn't actually sure at first if he was lying or not. but his anger and grief and fear are too extreme for it to be a reaction to simply "rem calmly explaining what happened." although i also thought the twins Forgetting Traumatic Events could be like. a running thing here. maybe.

also his "?" face is so cute. (somehow i forgot to include this one in my knives baby pictures post...)

the chapter 3 title kills me btw.

"i thought it would be better if he still knew the truth." i wonder if vash blames himself for knives's breakdown because of this. (he would've had a breakdown anyway...) and there's something to be said here about vash thinking this when he's the one who ends up blocking out traumatic memories in the future. thanks to knives, no less.

his conversation with rem kills me, also. "are you trying to bear all of this by yourself?" "yeah. i am." he just. admits it. and his expressions are so muted now compared to previous chapters. rem is trying but unfortunately she didn't try hard enough.

the mom-son hug... :( the way he clings to her. he's thinking about revenge, but it's so clear that he still loves his mom.

and that leads right into this. it's still a little while in between this and knives making the ships fall, but, i don't know, with the way he breaks out of the hug, then turns away, then turns back to say thank you, it feels like this is knives's goodbye to rem. like this is when he steels his resolve, almost. maybe i'm reading too much into it, idk. plus he looks so tired. he looks more like his adult self now.

it's more like he's telling himself this, rather than telling vash. he's choosing to be angry instead of afraid. (or acting like it, at least.) and with his face in shadow like in the flashbacks earlier in the story...

^ PAGES THAT KILL ME. the last sense of normalcy right before disaster. knives's expressions don't seem insincere here. maybe he was allowing himself some happiness before the execution of his plan.

and then, of course, we see him having a fucking breakdown.

they hurt to look at, but i love these pages so much. his face divided in two by shadow, tears on one side, blood on the other... he's. conflicted about his actions, to say the least.

but when he succeeds, he has no choice but to lean into it, yknow? no time for regrets.

^ me when i lie. honey, you don't look rational.

and then we smash cut to the present day.

i love this panel. knives looks so small here.

and i ADORE this page so much. it's gorgeous; poignant, even. and we've never seen knives kneel like this before. man, this volume has such good knives images. (also i was rereading this chapter with my music on shuffle and 'take me to church' started playing while i was looking at this page. interesting experience)

there is. so much in this scene. knives expresses regret for killing plants in the big fall. knives saying - STILL saying - that he's angry rather than afraid.

a lot has been said about knives's hypocrisy already, but there's something to be said about knives criticizing humanity, and saying that humans will selfishly consume plants "like parasites"... and then essentially doing that himself. absorbing other plants so he can use their energy instead of his own.

i think the phrasing he uses is interesting, though. it's almost as if he's asking the plant rather than using force. the gentle way he puts his hand on the glass, too. showing more respect to her than to his own brother. i mean, i guess it doesn't really matter because non-independent plants don't have free will anyway(?), and maybe that's exactly why he's acting like this(??), but. idk. it's interesting.

^ including this page for no reason other than it fucks severely.

and then finishing the chapter and seeing the chapter title again is just. ugh. like, so much happens in between the start and the end that you kinda forget what the title is and then it hits you like a truck. king of loneliness.

^ another page i'm including for the sole reason that it fucks severely.

^ yet ANOTHER spread that i absolutely adore, but i have more to say about it this time lol. i'm obsessed with how beautiful this page is, it's a renaissance painting to me. it's just the contrast of it all. knives, the villain, in a delicate pose, juxtaposed against the body horror, sleeping peacefully with fabric draped all around. the majority of the spread being white creates a sense of purity and also contrasts beautifully with the use of black in the other two knives spreads i posted above. instantly one of my favorite pages in the manga. and he's absorbed, what, three or four plants by now? making his aura so powerful even when he's asleep. which makes this image of him snoozing even more uncanny in context.

...now that i think about it, knives sleeps a lot, doesn't he? he's essentially "asleep" at the beginning of the manga until he gets resurrected, he passed out from trauma as a child, there was that time in volume 4 when he was soooo eepy and yawned in legato's face, and now this...

:( it's been said already, but knives has turned tesla into a symbol, much like vash with rem. if tesla had this power, what would she have done? we'll never know.

"i won't let you," he says. knives. honey. some self-reflection, please. whose fault was it that he ever used those powers at all. i'm begging you. LOOK INWARD.

^ more like millions guns lol. but actually i just wanted to point out he manifests 13 guns! thirteen, like the ghg! or it's just a coincidence.

knives insisting that this is a war... things to say when you're definitely not afraid of humans you swear. and then we get the dialogue from tristamp episode 12 from the scene that kills me the most.

at this point i said to myself (which isn't the first time i've had this thought reading trigun, and won't be the last), "why can't they just talk to each other like normal people?" LOL yeah so we're taking that pin out from way earlier in this post: "we can work through a few little differences if we just talk to each other." but if knives was capable of doing that, well the story wouldn't be happening at all, now would it? the concept of talking it out became impossible to him the moment he and vash discovered tesla.

also damn that post about knives seeing vash as an extension of himself wasn't kidding! i don't think i can add anything else to that, just. yep, it's literal!

aaaand anything else i have to say will have to be in my volume 7 post proper because i've hit the image limit LMAO. i just. wow. knives. what a character. what a villain. i'm rotating him in my mind like a rotisserie chicken.

#trigunbookclub #trigun talk #june speaks #millions knives

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