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sineala · 9 months

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Steve/Tony Starter Comics Recs: 2023 Edition

I have been asked this month to talk about essential 616 Steve/Tony comics for a new reader, who is aware of the broadest strokes of their relationship (Civil War, Hickmanvengers) but wanted more context as well as recommendations for the best and/or most essential comics. [This is a repost from Patreon.]

First up, quick advice for newbies getting into Steve/Tony comics: I know there are thousands of comics and trying to figure out what to read is kind of like trying to drink from a firehose. It's going to be okay. You don't have to read everything. You're not going to read everything. Almost no one has read everything. A lot of things flat-out contradict each other. If you're looking to read fanfiction that is close to canon, most fic authors will generally give you an idea of when their stories are set, and you can look the issues up if you want. Or you can just wing it and see how far you get and look something up if you're really confused. That's what I do. Where do you find all these comics? If you are willing to pay money to access comics, the best thing you can do is subscribe to Marvel Unlimited, which is about $10/month and gives you digital access to pretty much every comic that is from more than three months ago. This is the way to go. They also have reading lists for characters and events. And they have recently introduced a line of comics called "Infinity Comics" that are only available though Marvel Unlimited that are designed to be read on your phone -- they're a single long comic that you just scroll through -- and as of right now they have just had a very fun Steve & Tony storyline in Avengers Unlimited. If you have a tablet, a regular-size tablet screen (mine is 9.7") will show you one page at a time, about the size of a regular page in a paper comic, and is definitely the optimal way to go. You can also read on your phone; most of the digital comics on Marvel's app are set up so it zooms in on a panel at a time. You can also read them on a computer, on their website, but the website version is much harder to use. There are a lot of different options for getting comics in paper -- and I'm happy to talk about them if anyone wants to know any of this, especially since some of the reprint lines have changed since the last time I probably made a guide about this. Just let me know. But I think for the newbie, digital is the way to go until you know more about what you like. Then you can fill your house with paper comics. If you are in the US (I cannot vouch for other countries), your local library almost certainly has comics in book form (usually paperbacks collecting multiple issues) and you can read paper comics for completely free. If your library subscribes to Hoopla, you can also read some digital comics for completely free. It's worth checking out. Right. I think that's probably all you need to know about acquiring comics for right now, so onto the recs. I have made some similar lists before. I have a list of essentials I previously made (yes, a lot of them are the same) and I have a flowchart of what the different volumes are. So a lot of this is going to be repeated from previous lists because the old stuff is still relevant. So, since the content will be similar, I thought I would arrange this a little differently than I've done previously, to liven this up. I feel like "best Steve/Tony comics" and "essential Steve/Tony comics" are separate lists with separate purposes, although some of the comics on the list overlap. There are a lot of comics with great Steve/Tony moments that we all love to read and share pictures of and so on and so forth. Like, "One Night in Madripoor." Great comic. A lot of fun. Would definitely recommend. But is it going to show up in fanfiction? Probably not all that much. It's just not a comic that inspires a lot of fic. So it's probably one of the best to read, but it's not essential to know. If you get what I'm saying. (The essential comics are generally also ones that are best to read, so it's really more of a subset/superset relation. Probably.) Okay, yeah, "essential" is basically the angsty shippy stuff and "best" is the fluffy cute shippy stuff. Essential Steve/Tony If you're coming from MCU fandom, the dynamic between 616 Steve, Tony, and the rest of the team may not be what you're expecting. They're not SHIELD's pet superhero project -- they in fact tend to have an uneasy and occasionally adversarial relationship with the government, for all that Tony originally founded SHIELD and Steve often works for them. The Avengers have existed in a world that's basically been full of weird shit for their entire adult lives, and so they've been dealing with it for their entire adult lives. They are seasoned professionals. They are also friends. You know all that 2012 Avengers MCU fic where the Avengers all live together and they eat meals together and they hang out and watch movies together? You know the fanon I mean? That's comics canon. People wrote MCU fic like that because that's exactly what the comics are like and everyone assumed it was going to be similar. The Avengers are also a little more structured than you may be expecting. They've got bylaws and procedures and -- when necessary -- courts-martial. It's also not a case of "Captain America always leads the team." He often does, but not always. He's not the team leader right now (Carol is; before her, it was T'Challa) and in fact he's not even on the team right now. When they started out, they actually rotated the position of team chair; the longest-serving chairs are Steve, Jan, and Natasha, in that order, but I think most of the major Avengers have had a turn at some point. Characters also leave and rejoin the team fairly often; it's unusual for the same lineup to persist for more than a couple years. So Steve's not there right now, but he probably will be again. It doesn't mean they're breaking up forever if someone leaves the team. They'll probably be back. If they're dead they'll also probably be back. The timeline's a mess but basically everyone was in their mid-20s when they started and is going to be in their mid-30s forever, for reasons that are too complicated to go into. So if you're looking for context, here's the best high-level overview I can come up with, focusing on Steve/Tony: The founding Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Wasp, Ant-Man, and the Hulk, who is retroactively un-foundered) have all been doing the superhero thing on their own for a bit in their solo books when they team up to defeat Loki, decide that they work well together, and decide to form the Avengers (named by Jan). They all move into the mansion. The Hulk then quits the team basically for forever (if you're here from MCU fandom, you should know he's... really not an Avenger) and he disappears, and while the Avengers are out looking for him in a submarine, they instead find a block of ice, containing Captain America, who is miraculously alive. (Iron Man is the first person he sees and also the first person who speaks to him. Fandom likes this.) After saving the Avengers, Steve decides to join the team. The team only remains the same for about twelve issues, at which point all the other founding members decide they need a break while Steve is off on a mission and he gets back to find that they have left him three brand-new Avengers (Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver), all of whom are career criminals. He's not real happy at first. The Avengers' roster changes many times over the years, and Steve and Tony are often but not always on the team together. Highlights in Tony's life include when he gets a heart transplant and no longer has to wear and charge the chestplate to survive, and also when he decides to stop making weapons. Steve quits and becomes Nomad for a few months while he gets over his feelings about the government, because the president of the United States has been conspiring with aliens to take over the world, and then commits suicide, shooting himself in the head right in front of Steve. Understandably, this messes Steve up more than a little. Steve and Tony first get a bit contentious in The Korvac Saga, in which Steve at one point punches Tony (well, Iron Man) in the face. They get over it pretty quickly. Tony develops a drinking problem. Then Tony gets sober, which lasts for a few years. In the intervening time Steve finds out Tony is Iron Man. Then Tony starts drinking again, it gets very bad, Steve is upset, and Tony nearly freezes to death in in a blizzard. Then he gets sober. At this point Tony has quit the main team to join the West Coast Avengers and then Force Works, where he stays for about ten years in real time. So he and Steve are on different teams for quite a while. Then Steve and Tony start to have fights. We get Armor Wars, where Steve disagrees with Tony trying to take back his technology, and we get Operation Galactic Storm, where they disagree about whether the main villain should die. Eventually they make up. They're still not on the same team. Eventually there's a massive plot that involves Tony being a brainwashed murderer, Tony being replaced by his teenage self, Tony dying in Steve's arms, and then everybody dying (except not really) while fighting Onslaught. They come back. Then we get a very nice run where basically Steve and Tony are friends and everyone is on the same team and everyone lives in the mansion and it's great, until Wanda loses her grip on reality, murders a few people, and blows up the mansion. Whoops. But Steve and Tony are still trying. They form the New Avengers together, move into the Tower, and everything is great until Civil War happens, at which point Steve gets killed (Bucky, who just came back to life, becomes Captain America) and Tony spends a lot of comics lying on the floor crying. Many bad things happen, including a Skrull invasion, which Tony doesn't really deal with as well as he could have on account of the lying on the floor crying. Eventually Steve comes back to life, and for Reasons, Tony develops amnesia and has now forgotten the entire Civil War. Steve remembers it, though. They don't immediately get back together. Things are a little rough and Steve isn't on the team because Bucky is still Captain America and Steve is off doing black ops with the Secret Avengers, which he is very bad at and is also depressed about, but eventually comes back, joins the Illuminati, gets the shield back, rejoins the team, and everyone generally has a good time other than the part where Tony has to drink to save the world and also the part where everyone punches the X-Men. Then the multiverse starts ending. Thanks, Jonathan Hickman. For reasons that seem like a good idea at the time, everyone kicks Steve off the Illuminati and then wipes his memory about this. Steve and Tony continue to be BFFs while Tony is lying his face off about this, until Steve remembers this and then attempts to hunt Tony down and kill him, which is complicated by Steve becoming suddenly old and deserumed and Tony becoming evil. Then the multiverse actually ends, a bunch of weird things happen, and then everything on Earth 616 comes back with basically the only difference being that Earth 616 now contains the Ultimate Universe's Miles Morales and the Ultimate Universe's Reed Richards who is a murderous psychopath. No one ever talks about the murdering or the part where the world ended ever again. After that, Tony is no longer evil, but Steve is still old. They aren't on the same team, I don't think -- Tony is main team, Steve is leading the Uncanny Avengers -- but then a Cosmic Cube makes Steve young again, which would be great except for the part where it secretly replaced him with an evil Hydra version of himself who then takes over America. This is a phenomenally unpopular move and this event ends much earlier than Marvel had planned. People tend to like this for villain AU purposes and also the AI version of Tony (because human Tony is in a coma). Also, oh, yeah, Tony finds out he's adopted. He found out a little before this, but now he's found his biological parents. Don't worry, his biological parents hate him too. We've spent the past five years having Jason Aaron's Avengers run which I don't think anyone really liked (it was okay) but at least Steve and Tony were both on the team, a couple of Cap runs with a lot of conspiracy theories in them (IMO, they've both been okay runs but not outstanding), and an Iron Man run where Tony gets addicted to morphine (do not read this run). Steve and Tony are on generally good terms at this point and have not tried to murder each other for years. (The brand-new Avengers run by Jed MacKay is really too new to say much about yet. The new Cap run hasn't started yet and will be by JMS, which I am excited about. The current Iron Man run by Gerry Duggan is absolutely the best IM run I have read in the past ten years.) So if any of that sounds interesting, that would be a place to start. If you're looking to familiarize yourself with comics that will give you the most context for fanfiction, I would recommend Civil War and surrounding events, as well as Hickmanvengers. This is because these two eras have a fair amount of fic about them and they have so much going on that's hard to figure out just by reading fic about it, and a lot of fic will be about the details. Whereas with something like Onslaught, it might get occasionally mentioned but you will probably never need to know anything more than "most of the Avengers died but they didn't really die and then they all came back a year later." So which comics exactly am I recommending, you ask? At some point you should probably read some version of Tony's origin story. The original is in Tales of Suspense #39, but there are a lot of retellings. Many people like the one in Extremis (IM v4 #1-6). Founding: The Avengers form up in Avengers v1 #1. Steve is found in Avengers v1 #4, and he and Tony are on the same team until Avengers #16. After that they are often both on the same team but this is the classic run with the founding Avengers. Heart transplant: This happens in Iron Man v1 #17-19 and Avengers #69. You probably don't actually need to read all this stuff to know what happens, but it's a great arc where a LMD tries to take Tony's place and Tony wanders around in the rain charging his heart from a car battery and then is kidnapped by people who think they are kidnapping the LMD and will train him to replace Tony. Weaponry: Tony stops making weapons in IM v1 #78. Nomad: Cap v1 #176-183. Steve isn't Nomad for very long. But he is in our hearts. Korvac Saga: This is Avengers #167-177. Demon in a Bottle: This is IM v1 #120-128. It's not actually the story whose events you think of when you think about Tony drinking (most people are probably thinking of the second drinking arc) but it is the storyline that first made him an alcoholic. Features Steve teaching Tony self-defense. This is by Layton & Michelinie who are responsible for a lot of fan-favorite classic IM arcs (this, Doomquest, Armor Wars, the introduction of Ghost, the Kathy Dare arc). Steve finds out Tony's secret identity: This is Avengers v1 #216. It involves Molecule Man stripping Tony out of his armor so he's standing there in his underwear. Second drinking arc: This one's the one with the blizzard. This is (most of) Denny O'Neil's run. It lasts from IM #160-200. Yes, it really is forty entire issues. Steve makes an appearance in #172 (the "flophouse" issue. where he has an argument with Tony). The blizzard is in #182. The rest of it is Tony trying to put his life back together. The villain in this one is actually Obadiah Stane; this is where he's from. This is probably my very favorite Iron Man run. I made a reading order for this. While you don't need a reading order for the main arc -- it's just a straight shot through forty issues of Iron Man -- it is referenced in other comics at the time and some of them contain scenes you might want to read. One issue that is not in that list (because I didn't know about it until recently) is Daredevil #204; Denny O'Neil was also writing Daredevil at the same time and he has a very drunk Tony make an appearance at a party Matt is at. Armor Wars: This is IM #225-232. The issue you actually want is #228, which is Steve and Tony having their first big fight. A bond is broken! Operation Galactic Storm: This is a crossover with about 20 issues across multiple comics; you can find a list somewhere. If you read fic where Steve is mad at Tony because Tony wanted to kill the Kree Supreme Intelligence, that's a reference to this arc. The easier option is to skip every issue in this except for the Aftermath issue, which is Cap #401, which features Steve and Tony discussing all the fights they've had. There are apologies. Kaminski IM: Len Kaminski's IM run is #278 to #318 and not all of it is great (however, if you are reading it, it's pretty easy to tell which parts are not great) but there's a lot of flashbacks here to Tony's childhood that often get referred to in fic; if a story has a canon detail about Tony's childhood, there's a pretty good chance it's from this run. 286 has the famed "Stark men are made of iron" flashback. 288, Tony's parents die and he buys the company that made their car and fixes the manufacturing defect. 313, the flashback with Tony taking his first drink, as a child. v3: I'd just like to issue a blanket recommendation for all of Avengers, Cap, and Iron Man volume 3 (this is the 1998 run). This is basically the very last of the classic Avengers dynamic, when everyone was still friends and lived in the mansion. Avengers v3: The first half of the Avengers run is by Busiek and Pérez and is, deservedly, a classic. The second half is perhaps a little less memorable but does contain Red Zone, which features everyone's favorite dramatic moment where Tony removes his helmet and exposes himself to a deadly airborne disease in order to give Steve CPR so Steve can live. No, don't think about the science; just enjoy the entire page of their mouths pressed together. Cap v3: I actually haven't seen much fic about the specifics of this Cap run (people will occasionally mention the part where Steve lost his shield and Tony helped him find the pieces) but it's by Mark Waid and in my opinion contains one of the best modern characterizations of Steve. IM v3: The first 25 issues of this is Busiek's run, which features both Carol's drinking arc and Sunset Bain's appearance in Tony's life. The rest of it has such great moments as the Sentient Armor arc (in which Tony's armor acquires sentience and then tries to kill him) and both DreamVision arcs, which are where Tiberius Stone is introduced. Civil War and surrounding events (CW, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Siege, Captain America Reborn): This is where I (and a lot of other people) started reading. There's a period of maybe two years of comics including the lead-in to Civil War (mostly the beginning of New Avengers v1 and the beginning of the Iron Man and Cap runs), Civil War itself, Steve's death, then the events Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, and Siege. Then Steve comes back to life. Even if you read none of the rest of this you absolutely have to read "Civil War: Casualties of War" and "Civil War: The Confession." The Confession is why we have a Steve/Tony fandom in the first place. I have a reading list for this, but please make sure to read those two comics. Avengers v4: The last of Bendis' Avengers runs (he started with New Avengers and then basically wrote every Avengers book for like seven or eight years); this is basically the story of Steve and Tony trying to figure out how to be friends again after Civil War. The era opens with Avengers Prime, which is a great miniseries featuring a truly epic Steve/Tony hug, and then about two-thirds of the run is Steve and Tony having screaming fights in front of all their friends, and then Steve gets to be Captain America again and rejoins the team and then everyone is friends until Hickman takes over. Hickman (Avengers v5 & New Avengers v3): The epic saga of Tony betraying Steve and then the entire multiverse ending. If you're going to read any of this, this is about 100 issues long and you have to read all of it in a very precise order (reading both series at the same time) or it will make almost no sense. Steve gets old. You probably will want to read Superior Iron Man, in which Tony is temporarily evil. Then the multiverse, in fact, ends. Then Secret Wars happens, but Steve and Tony aren't there. I also have a reading list for this run. Secret Empire and surrounding events (Standoff, Civil War II, Secret Empire): So after the multiverse stops ending (everything's fine, don't worry about it) and Tony stops being evil, we get the event Standoff, where Steve is young again but is secretly evil (he is replaced by a Hydra version of himself), and he continues being secretly evil throughout the events of Civil War II, which this time is Carol vs. Tony and Tony ends up in a coma. The one thing you will absolutely want to read is Civil War II: The Oath, an epilogue issue in which Steve villain-monologues at Tony's comatose body and tells him that Real Steve always loved him. Then Secret Empire happens, and Steve decides to be openly evil and take over America. Tony is an AI. Eventually Evil Steve is defeated and Real Steve comes back. I think that's about it for what Steve/Tony fandom considers to be important angsty events. There's been more recent good stuff, I promise, but it's all mostly been fluffy, in the sense that Steve and Tony haven't fought each other since then and nobody's died. I mean, not permanently. Best Steve/Tony (that isn't already essential) And now the fluff. I mean, it's not entirely fluff. I put 1872 on here. In my defense, I think a lot of the 1872 fic that gets written is fluff and/or fix-its. Tales of Suspense #58: Tales of Suspense, the comic book that Iron Man debuted in in #39, became primarily an Iron Man comic book for nearly twenty issues after that. But starting with #58, he shared the book with Captain America -- every issue from #59 to #99 (when the book ended) had one IM story and one Cap story, but not related to each other, just two separate stories in the same comic. The exception to this is #58 here, a story about both Steve and Tony, in which Steve is impersonated by the Chameleon. Tony at first thinks Steve is in trouble, and then he tries to chase him down -- but he ends up chasing the real Steve. Whoops. (This is one of the stories mentioned in Civil War: Casualties of War.) Tales of Suspense vol 2 #1 (1994 one-shot): Better known in fandom as "the azure eyes" issue, this is a Steve & Tony team-up where they've been on the outs for no reason I can determine but they have to work with each other and learn to be friends again. There are two pages that are Steve and Tony's interior monologues about each other and how they both think the other one is amazing and way better than them. (Tony is particularly fond of Steve's eyes, hence the fandom name for the issue.) Captain America & Iron Man 1998 Annual: This is technically part of my blanket v3 rec but I'd like to mention it specifically here. It's a standalone team-up issue where for Reasons, Tony decides to give Steve some amnesia, but they eventually make up and are friends again and it's very sweet by the end. Captain America & Iron Man: Invasion Force: This is an obscure internet-only team-up comic (you can find it on YouTube in four parts) which includes, among other things, Steve joking about Tony's dick and Tony, in response, offering to make Steve a sex tape. No, really. Captain America: Man Out of Time: This is generally my first rec to everyone; it's a modern retelling of Steve's origin story with some cute Steve/Tony moments and the addition of giving Steve a choice about whether to stay in the future. One Night in Madripoor: Technically, this storyline is Captain America & Iron Man #633-635; "one night in Madripoor" is on the cover of the first issue. This is some excellent Steve & Tony shenanigans in Madripoor with a lot of great banter. Avengers Annual vol 5: This is the annual from Hickman's run, but it's not by Hickman. It's a Christmas story and it's also the story that features the panel where Tony has made Steve's password "Captain Handsome." Avengers: Endless Wartime: The overall plot in this graphic novel is not at all what I would call fluffy but if you pretend that the only panel that exists is the one where Tony calls Steve "beloved" then it's pretty good. I don't recommend paying more than about five dollars for this. 1872: This is one of the AUs from Secret Wars, a Wild West world where Steve is the sheriff and Tony is the town drunk. Yes, I know 1872 is not fluffy. I know Steve is eaten alive by pigs in issue #2. However, there are some really sweet Steve & Tony moments in the first issue and I think most of the fic is a little softer than canon. Captain America/Iron Man (miniseries): This is a relatively recent (2021) team-up miniseries. Five glorious issues of Steve and Tony fighting villains, bantering, and also being really nice to each other. Avengers Annual 2021: This is the last annual in the Infinite Destinies annual series and it's basically "Steve and Tony hang out at home together and work out together and Steve feeds Tony his own breakfast and then they go fight a robot who makes them fight projections of each other because it knows they are weak for each other." Avengers Unlimited #52-54: Civil Score: New as of last month, this is a fun storyline where Steve and Tony attempt to steal a flash drive from the Serpent Society at a fancy party except they're both trying to get it before the other one does. (The very first issue of Avengers Unlimited is also worth a look, because it features Steve and Tony teaming up to fight Ghost and Taskmaster, and Taskmaster stops Steve's heart and Tony has to put Steve in his armor. It is some great h/c.) That's all I can think of! I'm sure I've missed some. I hope this gives you a place to start.

#posts i actually wrote #comics reading lists

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madlori · 1 year

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Hey! Get a camera up your butt! IT’S GOOD FOR YOU

One of my personal quests is to get everybody to get colonoscopies.

A colonoscopy has an insanely high benefit-to-inconvenience ratio. It’s not just diagnostic, it’s preventative. If they find polyps (which are basically little fleshy growths in your colon), they remove them with a quick little snip snip right there during the exam. Polyps can become cancerous if left in there, so this is actually preventing you from getting colon cancer, which is the FOURTH most common type of cancer after breast, lung and prostate.

It can also find actual cancer present, but if you’re getting regular exams, they’ll find it early, and treatment is very effective and often pretty easy. My dad had a lil bit of colon cancer but they literally just snipped it out, no radiation or chemo needed, and he’s good to go. If he hadn’t gotten a colonoscopy, he’d probably be dead right now, or he’d have had to go through much more radical treatments.

A regular colonoscopy is one of the most powerful tools in our medical arsenal to prevent a serious illness.

BUT LORI, ISN’T THIS UNCOMFORTABLE, IT’S LITERALLY A CAMERA UP YOUR BUTT.

Yes. Yes, it is. But you won’t care because you’ll be OUT COLD. They knock you out for a colonscopy with a quick-acting and quick-recovery sedative. I am talking about this right now because I had this procedure TODAY. My appointment was at 1030. I think they actually wheeled me into the scoping room at around 1100, and I walked out of the clinic just before noon. I woke up from the sedation and was totally alert within ten minutes. Had a nice lil nap.

Most gastroenterologists recommend now beginning colonoscopies starting at age 45, and getting one every 5 years, or more often depending on the results. But if you have family history, your PCP could refer you for one much earlier. I know a guy who started getting them at 25 because his uncle died of colon cancer, and based on the degree of polyp growth the doctors estimated they started forming in his late teens.

BUT LORI I HEAR THE PREPARATION IS NO FUN.

You’re...not wrong. But it’s really just annoying.

Naturally, to scope your colon, it has to be free of...the substance that usually fills it. So you have to do bowel prep for this. Bowel prep is something you have to do for a variety of procedures but they’re pretty severe about it for this because if your colon isn’t clear they literally can’t see anything, so.

It involves at least 24 hours of no solid food (broth and jello (except red jello) is allowed) and having to drink a prep solution. There are various kinds of these the time frame required is different. My prep was a 4 liter (yes, four LITERS) of a polyethylene glycol salt solution. It’s basically (puts chemistry hat on) a deliquescent solution that pulls water from your body into your intestines which is like turning on a firehose in there. Osmosis FTW. Liquidation sale, everything must go. Don’t go more than twenty feet from a toilet. Lay in some baby wipes. You also have to hydrate like a maniac because you’re shedding water much more than usual and you’ll shrivel up like a mummy if you don’t aggressively hydrate. The solution tastes...not great. I mix Crystal Light into it and it’s better. Mixing in a can of LaCroix was also helpful.

Not all preps are like this. Every clinic has their preferred method. I don’t ask questions. I do what I’m told. Then it’s nothing by mouth at all for 2 hours pre-procedure.

Honestly? The weirdest part is afterwards when you can eat again, and your whole guts have to kind of...fill back up. SO MUCH rumbling and noisemaking and squeaking.

The fun part? My clinic gave me a prinout of various photos of the inside of my colon, all squeaky clean like it hardly ever is. I might frame them.

The take home lesson here is that a colonscopy is super important, can save your life, isn’t uncomfortable at all, and you get to look at the inside of your guts. Win all around.

#colonscopy #health #medical #do it do it now #get it done

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mariacallous · 6 months

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It’s been one of the wettest years in California since records began. From October 2022 to March 2023, the state was blasted by 31 atmospheric rivers—colossal bands of water vapor that form above the Pacific and become firehoses when they reach the West Coast. What surprised climate scientists wasn’t the number of storms, but their strength and rat-a-tat frequency. The downpours shocked a water system that had just experienced the driest three years in recorded state history, causing floods, mass evacuations, and at least 22 deaths.

Swinging between wet and dry extremes is typical for California, but last winter’s rain, potentially intensified by climate change, was almost unmanageable. Add to that the arrival of El Niño, and more extreme weather looks likely for the state. This is going to make life very difficult for the dam operators tasked with capturing and controlling much of the state’s water.

Like most of the world’s 58,700 large dams, those in California were built for yesterday’s more stable climate patterns. But as climate change taxes the world’s water systems—affecting rainfall, snowmelt, and evaporation—it’s getting tough to predict how much water gets to a dam, and when. Dams are increasingly either water-starved, unable to maintain supplies of power and water for their communities, or overwhelmed and forced to release more water than desired—risking flooding downstream.

But at one major dam in Northern California, operators have been demonstrating how to not just weather these erratic and intense storms, but capitalize on them. Management crews at New Bullards Bar, built in 1970, entered last winter armed with new forecasting tools that gave unprecedented insight into the size and strength of the coming storms—allowing them to strategize how to handle the rain.

First, they let the rains refill their reservoir, a typical move after a long drought. Then, as more storms formed at sea, they made the tough choice to release some of this precious hoard through their hydropower turbines, confident that more rain was coming. “I felt a little nervous at first,” says John James, director of resource planning at Yuba Water Agency in northern California. Fresh showers soon validated the move. New Bullards Bar ended winter with plumped water supplies, a 150 percent boost in power generation, and a clean safety record. The strategy offers a glimpse of how better forecasting can allow hydropower to adapt to the climate age.

Modeling studies have long suggested that better weather forecasts would be invaluable for dam managers. Now this is being confirmed in real life. New Bullards Bar is one of a half-dozen pilot sites teaming up with the US Army Corps of Engineers to test how cutting-edge forecasting can be used to optimize operations in the real world. Early tests of the methods, called forecast-informed reservoir operations, have given operators the confidence to hold 5-20 percent reserve margins beyond their reservoirs’ typical capacity, says Cary Talbot, who heads the initiative for the Army Corps.

To Talbot, FIRO could mean a paradigm shift in how the Corps and others run dams. Historically, dam operators under the Army Corps umbrella had to ignore weather forecasts and respond only to rain and snow that was already on the ground. This rule traces back to the notorious capriciousness of traditional forecasts: If an operator takes a bad gamble on a forecasted weather event, the results can be dangerous. But in practice, this forces operators to react later than their gut tells them to, says Riley Post, a University of Iowa researcher who spent over a decade as a hydraulic engineer for the Corps. They might, for example, be expected to hold water in a nearly full reservoir even as heavy rains approach.

Recent developments, however, have sharpened the trustworthiness of forecasts, particularly for atmospheric rivers on the West Coast. Leaps in computing power have enabled ever-more-muscular climate and weather modeling. To pump these models with data, scientists led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have since 2016 launched reconnaissance flights over atmospheric rivers of interest, where they release dozens of dropsondes, sensor packs shaped like Pringles cans. The result is a detailed profile of a storm’s strength, size, and intentions, which can then feed into FIRO.

These reports aren’t clairvoyant; all weather forecasts involve a measure of uncertainty. But a dam operator with increased confidence in when, where, and how much water will strike their watershed can take a more “surgical” approach to holding or releasing water, Post says.

And if they know how much time they have, they can also make the most of their existing water. Take Prado Dam, a vintage 1941 facility that was built to shield Orange County from flooding but can also distribute water to 25 groundwater-recharge stations. This past winter, forecasts showed a well-spaced parade of storms tracking its way. So operators pulsed water from the dam into storage at an optimal cadence, giving it time to soak into the landscape. Adam Hutchinson of the Orange County Water District, which manages the groundwater-recharge system, said publicly in July that these actions delivered an “exceptional” boost to water supplies for “those dry years we know are coming.”

Jinsun Lim is an analyst with the International Energy Agency think tank who studies climate resilience in the energy sector. Lim says that this sort of specificity is exactly what hydro officials in many countries wish for: tools that can translate climate impacts at a local level for their unique watersheds and infrastructure. Talbot hasn’t seen anything quite like FIRO deployed abroad, but he says that curious parties from the UK, Chile, Southeast Asia, Australia, and other regions have contacted him. Meanwhile, other corners of the hydro world are applying similar logic to their own climate challenges.

For BC Hydro, which serves 95 percent of British Columbia’s population, heat waves have proven a bigger problem than drought. Rivers and rains remain strong, but the province’s historically mellow springs and summers have warmed up, prompting many people to switch on air conditioners, which jacks up power demand. To keep the ACs humming, BC Hydro keeps a close eye on its fuel supply, that is, its watershed. About 150 monitoring stations, equipped with snow, climate, and surface-water sensors, enable a near-real-time picture of water flows. This helps operators store up water for demand spikes in summer and winter alike.

Tajikistan, which gets fully 98 percent of its power from hydroelectricity, is adapting its fleet with a mix of hard and soft measures. Renovations at the 126-megawatt Quairokkum power plant, built in 1956, were screened against a range of climate scenarios—such as the diminution of its source glaciers. Just replacing its six Soviet-era turbines will hike output to 170 megawatts; the dam will also be reinforced for a 10,000-year flood whose intensity could exceed the previous design standard by anywhere from 15 to 70 percent. Meanwhile, investments by international funders in HydroMet, the country’s long-dysfunctional meteorology service, are paying off: The agency recently gave power generators early notice of a dry year, enabling forward planning.

Recent trends have underlined the need for such changes. Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency said today’s hydropower facilities are on average 2 percent less productive than dams were from 1990 to 2016. Droughts have weakened flows at many plants, the agency said, leaving fossil-based energy to fill a gap the size of Spain’s annual power use. Other dams have been exposed to extreme events for which they weren’t strictly engineered, as in north India in 2021, when a crumbling glacier sent forth a wall of water that wrecked dams and towns downstream. Last month’s disaster in Libya, due to the failure of two flood-control dams hit by a supersized Mediterranean storm, further underlines the risks of maladapted facilities.

Even hydropower’s harshest critics take no issue with nip-and-tuck improvements at today’s dams. But amid a massive expansion planned in the Global South, they warn against overconfidence that hydropower can adapt its way out of climate change. In July, an environmental group in Namibia urged the government to rethink a large dam proposed for the Kunene River, saying it’s prone to the same climate extremes that have sapped the energy of Namibia’s other dams.

As climate disruption sets in, solar and wind can provide equivalent power with less risk, says Josh Klemm, co-executive director of International Rivers, a human rights organization focused on river communities. “We need to really reexamine plans to develop new hydropower,” he says. “We’re only going to deepen our reliance on a climate-vulnerable energy source.”

The Army Corps, meanwhile, is in the early stages of studying whether FIRO can be attempted at 419 other dams under its umbrella. Scaling up FIRO isn’t entirely straightforward; other parts of the US have different kinds of precipitation events than California does, and some of these are currently a lot harder to predict than atmospheric rivers. But Talbot is optimistic that the ever-improving forecast science can find efficiency gains there for the taking. “It’s making your existing infrastructure work harder for you,” he said. “In the face of climate change, this sounds like a great way to position ourselves for buffering that.”

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nitewrighter · 1 year

Note

Would it be possible to see some interactions with some of the other scientists being suprised/impressed with Junkrat's engineering know-how?

Would you believe I've written interactions like this back in 2018? And 2017? I'm definitely due for an update though.

---

D.Va: *holding her light gun* Hold it right there, Junker!

Dae-hyun: *brandishing a wrench* Step away from Tokki! I mean it!

Junkrat: Sheeeeeesh. Talk about trust issues! I just wanted to take a little peek inside! I've been thinking of building my own mech for the scrapyard and figured I should see what makes these fancy-pants Mekas tick. T'be honest, the handling's gotta be a dream, but the propulsion's not as impressive as I thought.

D.Va: *squinting* And how do I know you're not stripping her palladium?

Junkrat: THERE'S PALLADIUM!? *quickly pivots to rush back at Tokki before getting tackled by Dae-hyun*

---

Moira: *working on her biotic rig*

Junkrat: *looming over her shoulder*

Moira: Unless you want to be vivisected, I suggest you take 14 steps back.

Junkrat: Y'know you'll have more control over how much piss you're shooting out if you put an iris aperture over that seal.

Moira: ...

Junkrat: You've just got the set amount of piss until you need to wait to recharge or start sucking on people, right? Like a piss vampire. A pisspire.

Moira: *slowly turning around*

Junkrat: But it's not like you need to firehose the team with piss every time.

Moira: *slowly standing up*

Junkrat: You could just install a piss aperture that--

Moira: *staring*

Junkrat: ....allows... more... control...over... the...

Moira: Call it 'piss' again. Please.

Junkrat: ...I sense a trap.

----

Junkrat: *staring at Mercy's wings* hmm....

Mercy: I'm not telling you the airfoil ratio.

Junkrat: Eh, I can ballpark it.

Mercy: It's not something you can 'ballpark.'

Junkrat: You say that now, but next time you see me, you'll be dealing with La Rata Alada!

Mercy: For all our sakes I hope not.

Junkrat: *wistfully* I was born to fly.

#overwatch #junkrat #angela ziegler #hana song #moira o'deorain #Dae-hyun Park #fanteractions

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doomandgloomfromthetomb · 10 months

Text

Sonic Youth - Knights of Columbus Hall, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, November 11, 1986

The Flaming Telepaths Tour! Late 1986 saw Sonic Youth taking EVOL on the road all over the place, with Firehose opening up (that band having just recently risen from the ashes of the Minutemen). You have to wonder what kind of impression these strange bands made on audiences out in spots like Kansas City, Tallahassee and Baton Rouge. They must have seemed like they were from another planet. Or maybe not! Back in those days, weird little scenes existed in virtually every city. And Sonic Youth was eagerly exploring most of them, making connections, absorbing and observing.

This Knights of Columbus tape is great — a SBD / AUD matrix that gives us a very up-close-and-personal capture of the band at this stage in their development. Things are getting a little more pro, but not too much; technical difficulties abound at the beginning. Thurston is heckled during a guitar strap malfunction. (Audience member: "You suck!"; Thurston: "You suck me!"; Kim: "Life sucks, you know?") A tuning break is soundtracked by Janet Jackson's deathless "Nasty."

But once things get rolling, Sonic Youth is mercilessly awesome, whether on a vicious "Tom Violence" or a haunting "Shadow of a Doubt." Steve Shelley gets to shine on the new "White Cross," powering everything with a Keith Moon-joins-Black-Flag energy level. Best of all is the version of "Expressway To Yr Skull," wherein Lee Ranaldo conjures up what may be the sweetest guitar tone of the 1980s.

The encore in Baton Rouge adds another wrinkle — Sonic Youth as a bunch of goofballs. Joined by the Firehose dudes (the supergroup is christened Ciccone Life), there's a skronky rendition of "Starpower" complete with free jazz sax and a rollicking, on-the-verge-of-collapse cover of Blue Öyster Cult's "The Red & The Black." Make a dash for freedom, baby!

(Oh and I couldn't track down a tape of Firehose's opening set, but here's one from a couple weeks later!)

Bandcamp | Merch | Concert Chronology

#sonic youth #firehose #sonicsummer

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mavis-merry-magnolia · 1 year

Note

I reread Kizumonogatari (the novel (english translated)) today. Many times, I am laid low by how pathetic Araragi is...

Oh yeah, trust me. I get it. I love Koyomi please don't get me wrong. He's one of the sweetest boys to exist but also, I want to spray him with a hose and basically any given time.

Kizumonogatari is also a really fun point of his journey since it's...the Beginning. It's Koyomi at his most pathetic and soggiest. "Making friends would lower my intensity as a human." Spends three full length pages describing seeing Hanekawa's underwear, because he's a dumbfuck teenager. Literally got himself turned into a vampire, because he was out to pick up glasses girl porno mags.

But it's also the arc that shows us how, fucking cool his fundamentals are. Even before Bake he's still the kind of guy to throw himself into a situation where someone needs help even to his own detriment. It gives us a scale of just how powerful him and Kiss-Shot were at their pinnacles before being bound together. It really helps bring together Bakemonogatari and show us just how much he'd actually changed by the time of Tsubasa Cat. Not to even add on how much greater context Nekomonogatari Black gives.

And it shows the beginning of one of my favorite dynamics in the whole series with him and Hanekawa, and their weird teenage sorta crushes sorta lustes on each other. You really can see how Hanekawa would fall SO in love with him, despite all his weird little fucking quirks, and with them going through hell and back together.

...none of these good words prevent me from wanting to grab the firehose when he's being TOO big of a weirdo or popping his head off like a wine cork at any given opportunity.

#merry mumbles #monogatari

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blazehedgehog · 2 months

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Isn't Steam a paradox from an economic point of view? They have the first mover adventage, they have a de facto monopoly, but they are not at all greedy -- not to the point of being anti-consumer, at least. And the innovations they bring to the table are actually useful stuff (Proton above all). Valve is just.. there, operating their business, making good money with nobody really complaining.

It depends on what economic values you subscribe to. A lot of guys like EA want to take the shortcut to easy money. EA even tried to compete with Steam, remember. They had their "Origin" client. They gave away free games for over a year and still nobody would use it. The hope was to give them something comparable to Valve's firehose of money. An easy profit stream where they could get a cut of every game sold on PC just by the simple fact they existed.

Rather than just do good work, they hoped to pry people off of Steam with the promise of regular freebies... except it was a client nobody wanted to use and in a lot of cases actively hated. It lacked most of the features of Steam, was a little bloated, and came at a time where EA was starting to push increasingly aggressive DRM that limited how many "activations" you were allowed per-game. So, it struggled.

The same thing happened with Uplay. Ubisoft thought they could make their own Steam, but the greed was too evident and annoying. It was a hassle to work with, added nothing of real value, and nobody wanted to use it. So most people didn't, unless they were forced to use it.

That's the thing with these corporations, right? Nothing is ever enough. They can't just sell well on Steam, they have to make their own platform so they can have all the money. And the profit lines must not only always go up, it has to go up faster. More and faster and more and faster and more and faster until the wheels come off and everything breaks.

Then these board of director weirdos, now among the richest 5% of people on earth, pull the ripcord and parachute over to the next corporation and start over. All the money, more and faster and more and faster...

What separates Valve is that Valve never seems to have treated it like much of a race. Like, sure, they do things to boost sales (even recently had a really ugly "capitalism celebration" sale event) but they seem pretty comfortable being themselves and not cranking all the dials until they break off.

Some of that is arguably down to the fact that Valve never became a publicly traded company. Once you get listed on the stock market, investors enter the picture, and the whole dynamic of how a company exists changes. Publicly traded companies rely on investors for some amount of operating costs, and the highest ranking investors can even legally control some part of your company as if they were employed there.

But there's never any guarantee that an investor knows what is good for your company. They just gave you a lot of money and expect you to pay it back at some point (by increasing shareholder value). And its created this culture of people who race to maximize everything at the expense of the structural integrity of the company and its employees. It's like (spoilers for one of the most famous movie trilogies of all time) the end of Back to the Future 3, right, where they need to get this old 1800's locomotive up to 88mph.

Feeding it that much fuel, getting the heat up that high, it builds up extreme pressure in the boiler and the train will eventually explode. Except for a lot of these business types, exploding the boiler is the point. Exploding the boiler is a successful operation. Like I said: more and faster and more and faster, right?

Some companies need investor money to survive. But... not all do. Many of them still go public anyway, because the race to explode the boiler matters more than just being comfortable. We're still in the era of people starting companies just to sell them.

Valve got lucky. They established an emerging market, gave people exactly what they wanted, and became the defacto home for PC gaming. Steam was such a comfortable, welcoming platform that nobody even thought about competing with them until they had already gained too much momentum to ever be slowed down.

And the only reasons most people can come up with to compete with Valve is "We want more money." Valve wants 30% of my earnings? A whole 30%??? Unreasonable! I'll start my own storefront! With blackjack! And etc.!

As someone who works with Youtube and gets a 55/45 split, I guess I don't have perspective on how 30% is some kind of horrible offense. Only in my wildest dreams would Youtube give me 70/30.

But really, that's all this is. Valve did good work and got themselves into a position where they now can't really be out-spent into obsolescence. I mean, Epic Games is currently trying to do that, and they're burning something in the realm of $275,000,000 a year (according to this website I am unfamiliar with and have never read before today). By Epic's own statistics, most people registered to the EGS client spend less than a dollar on the platform (723m users apparently spent $820m).

Valve has so much momentum with Steam that they can (and often do) just coast, granting them a reputation for taking a very long time fine-tuning most of their products until they are perfect. Gabe Newell is so rich he owns and operates multiple fully-staffed private yachts. Not by more and faster, but by getting to the race track before anyone even knew it was open and just doing the job so consistently they are now ten laps ahead.

To compare with what happened with Netflix, which also established an emerging market: Netflix also didn't want to just coast. Movie disc rentals by mail became streaming movies. That turned into streaming TV. That turned into Netflix wanting to make their own original content so they wouldn't have to pay to license anyone else's movies. That turned into Netflix wanting to offer games. And lest we forget, the founder of Netflix specifically has a vendetta against theatrical movies and continues to deliberately erode that market.

There is no "coasting" for Netflix. There is only more and faster. Netflix put out 17 original films in 2016. Last year, 2023, Netflix put out 153 original films, 49 original documentaries, 11 TV specials, 11 short films, 28 stand-up comedy shows, and at least 26 new original TV shows. The aim is not to maintain a good platform, the aim is to dominate and make all the money there is to make in multiple industries. The line must always goes up until the boiler explodes.

Anyone could just do what Valve did, but nobody wants to because it's too slow and takes too much actual work (and luck) making genuinely good products. It also theoretically leads to a "dead end" where growth slows or even stops. That means the line doesn't go up anymore, it just levels out and stays there. Outrageous! You mean the man who owns a fleet of yachts doesn't want make infinitely more money forever? The nerve of some people.

It's easier to crack the whip on someone else and crank up the heat until the boiler explodes. Especially when that's what all the competition is doing, too.

#questions #Anonymous #valve #steam #epic games #egs #netflix #capitalism #economics

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macmanx · 11 months

Note

Hi macmanx, thanks again for jumping in on that thread about the reply changes. I think it really helps tumblr succeed when people from all across the community can voice their opinions on changes affecting users. Just wanted to check in on whether you got a chance to see my most recent post, since there's a lot of miscommunication and confusion going around about what the actual change was and what feature was actually removed. Does that post help clarify things? There was a single specific link (to the "reblogged-from" post) that is no longer present anywhere in the page anywhere—it's now only accessible from the API. I also made a video for illustration in case that helps.

Thanks so much for that feedback! I've passed it along. Videos like that are super-helpful, especially when some of us (me) are struggling with describing things like "It used to work like this: [wall-of-text], but now it works like this: [other wall-of-text]."

And I'm glad my replies on @changes have helped! Sadly, with so much going on in the legit support venue, I haven't been able to put in as much time there, but 🤞I can again soon.

Back to the issue at hand, I can promise there are a lot of folks discussing how to move forward here. There's a give-and-take with making [tumblr] more familiar to new users coming from elsewhere without making it confusing to existing users, and not everything is going to work out. As I mentioned last time, "Some parts of Tumblr don't make sense to new users. We lose those new users, we lose any funding they would have brought in, and some day, because of that, we'll lose Tumblr." The trick is to find that balance where we give a lot and take very little.

I encourage anyone with thoughts on this, or anything else on [tumblr], to use the Feedback category on the Support Form. For this particular change, my role (along with the rest of my team) is to pass along feedback, but that Feedback category is like a firehose straight to the developers and designers working on this, no little old me getting in the way. ;) My door is always open here, of course, but I can't (and sometimes won't) answer everyone. :)

Thanks again!

#tumblr #mmx answers

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skinnytuna · 1 year

Text

for years of my life my needlessly late nights were consumed by composition. drums and chords and melodies. maybe a decade. i don’t know what’s gotten into me. now it’s all fucking words. last night i was imagining an open mic. i wrote so much stand up. i dont even know if im writing it right. i dont know anything about stand up. tonight i’m writing prose. and rambles. i dont even know what poetry is. i dont know the difference. i dont know a single god damn thing other than i dont know how to get my dumb ass to sleep without eating some drugs that do other stuff too. but maybe if i could sleep at night id be a completely different type of person. and maybe that person would be a dreadful bore. i will never stop firehosing unintelligibility into the computer until they throw me in a comfortable room that locks from the outside. i dont care who cares much more than a little. im tired. goodnight computer

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snarkythewoecrow · 1 year

Text

the trials and tribulations of learning to love

by: snarkymuch

Word Count: 6906

Buck/Eddie, kink exploration, getting together, first times, daddy kink, Dom/sub undertones, Eddie is very much the dom type, minor injuries, awkward first times, two previously straight boys figuring out they are gay for each other, blow jobs, fluff and humor, smut, soft idiots in love

Read on AO3

Summary:

Eddie had doubted many things through the years, from his ability to be a parent to providing for his family and being a good husband—but his sexuality? He'd never had a reason to doubt that.

Of course, that was before he met one Evan "Buck" Buckley.

From the very start, something about that goofy shit had a weird feeling stirring in him—that took him far too long to recognize as attraction, all things considered.

But, again, Eddie wasn't gay—or he hadn't considered himself bi-sexual or anything else—so he hadn't pieced the clues together. Not until fate intervened and dropped a ceiling on them, which gave him some up close and personal time with his best friend, and a few hours to consider things—like the thing that being pressed against Buck had caused in his pants.

—Or—

The awkward first times of two idiots in love. Blood is involved far more often than it should be, but they figure it out—eventually.

Eddie had doubted many things through the years, from his ability to be a parent to providing for his family and being a good husband—but his sexuality? He'd never had a reason to doubt that.

Of course, that was before he met one Evan "Buck" Buckley.

From the very start, something about that goofy shit had a weird feeling stirring in him—that took him far too long to recognize as attraction, all things considered.

Thank god the turnout gear was thick and able to hide his problem—as they'd ended up tangled in the rubble, Eddie lying over the top of Buck. He swore Buck had somehow realized something, like a sexual Jedi, noticing something off in the force.

So the ride back to the station had been a little weird, especially with Buck tipping his head and squinting at him, wrinkling his nose—thinking something.

Eddie had just dipped his chin in a nod, gave a tight smile, then quickly redirected his attention to the window for the rest of the ride, chastising himself for complicating the one relationship that had always been perfect.

Though, as they pulled into the station, and he'd glanced at Buck as he hopped out with a wink and quick, "I'm hitting the shower," something occurred to Eddie that maybe complicated wasn't bad—because possibly Buck might not be as straight as he seemed?

And deep down, Eddie could admit he was selfish. So yeah, he'd followed him with a silent prayer that all this shit wouldn't hit the fan.

Buck had mostly stripped by the time he reached him, and fuck, if that sight hadn't had him already getting hard. The crazy part was that Eddie had seen many naked and half-naked men, but Buck was the only one to pull this reaction from him.

He had nearly snorted when the term Buck-sexual entered his mind.

And Buck had stood there, pants slipping off his hips, head tilted just a hair, squinting those stupidly blue eyes and smiling with just one corner of his mouth. "Hey, Eds—need something?"

A harsh swallow, the drag of his teeth over his lower lip, then, "Uh—" He'd choked as Buck slipped off the rest of his clothes, and Eddie had not meant to look, but his eyes still briefly flicked to his dick—which wasn't hard, but also not completely soft. Though the FireHose Buck thing had suddenly started to make more sense.

Not a complete pervert, he'd managed to look away—charming tiles—then cleared his throat. "So, uh." A quick glance to make sure that no one else had been around. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. Ask away."

"Have you—uh—would you ever… I mean, never mind. I just… We already hang out all the time, Christopher loves you, and, um, would you like to take things a little more—I mean, not just friends, more, uh, like partners? Boyfriends?" He'd winced then dared to check Buck's reaction.

Buck's mouth had fallen open, head tilting to the side, then finally, a smile slid into place before he pursed his lips. "You're serious?"

"Um, yeah."

"Then, okay—yeah, alright. Boyfriends, huh? So we'd"—then he had motioned from his dick to Eddie and back—"be doing things—together?" Then he wrinkled his nose before adding, "I haven't, uh, been with a guy before, so… I mean, if we do this, I might be off my game. I mean, if you're used to dating guys who know how to do all the things."

"Oh, I've not been with any, uh, other men before. This is purely a Buck-sexual thing—I think."

A grin had spread over Buck's face. "Well, in that case—we can figure this shit out together. And for the record. This is a purely Eddie-sexual thing for me, too."

And that had been the start, and now because luck had been in their favor, they had secured over a week off together pretty soon after that conversation.

<hr>

They stepped onto the sidewalk, the door to the candle shop chiming as it closed behind them.

Candles weren't something he'd expected Buck to like, but the man had informed him about the benefits of certain scents and their calming effects—along with hinting at the ambiance they could supply.

Buck was such a unique mix of absolute disaster and self-care specialist.

And pretty things—nice smelling things—seemed to go hand in hand with him.

All in all, dating Buck hadn't been as shocking as he'd thought, considering neither of them had ever dated a guy before—and really, it wasn't too different than being with a woman.

Except for, you know, where it wasn't similar at all.

He'd never blended the concepts of masculinity and intimacy quite like this before—or had to reconcile being with someone who had the strength to Dutch oven him in bed like an asshole who'd just eaten too many burritos with someone he also wanted to fuck.

And it wasn't a bad thing—just different.

But they still had a lot to figure out. Like the sex—as somehow this had both of them reliving their teen years. False starts happened right and left—along with many missteps in between.

They had plenty of enthusiasm and desire—it was more about figuring out the approach. They'd get there, though. Or he really hoped.

Thankfully, blue balls weren't deadly.

Because so far, all they'd managed had been some hot and heavy kissing—which had been everything and nothing like he'd imagined.

Like how soft and plump his lips had felt on the first hesitant press—and fuck, the immediate, needy noises the nip to his lower one had dragged from his throat after.

The sounds had nearly kicked Eddie's knees out from under him—and damn, he'd never expected to be so turned on by something in his life. There was just something about the roughness, the rasp, and the tone that only a man could have—and knowing he'd caused it.

The feeling had been heady and had his dick painfully hard.

Though it had yet to be a complete success. It had ended in blood and Buck sporting a decidedly fat lip for two days.

"Fuck," Buck had sworn, pulling back with his hand over his mouth. "That's—" Then he checked his fingers. "Shit, that's blood."

And, of course, by that time, his dick had already begun to flag, as he had no interest in anything but checking on Buck, mortified that he'd somehow bashed his lip. It hadn't occurred to him that they were both used to taking charge and probably hadn't to Buck either, so neither had backed off.

After catching Buck's chin, he'd turned it into the dim light of the kitchen. "That's gonna swell. It needs ice."

And Buck had just given him a dopey grin, fingertips dabbing at the blood on his lip. "Well, a first for me—but practice makes perfect, right? So we'll just have to try again."

He'd huffed, though with a smile. "Let's wait until the bleeding stops first."

And after that, things had been better—but still clumsy.

If Eddie were honest, thinking of how things could go wrong terrified him. Because he happened to like his dick, and the idea of something—not fun—painful—happening to it made him cringe.

They just needed to be careful—give and take—and hopefully, they'd make this work, as both seemed accustomed to taking the lead in everything.

And a perfect example of that had already started playing out again as they walked back to Eddie's truck, the heavy glass jarred candles clunking together in the bag next to Buck's leg, heading toward a narrowing in the sidewalk, where a construction barrier had a section blocked off.

He listened to Buck tell him facts about some rare bird that lived in Guatemala, loving how excited he always got to share little things like that. And if anyone had anything to say about the dopey smile on Eddie's face—well, they could fuck all the way off.

So lost in Buck's animated descriptions, he hadn't noticed they'd reached the construction, or that he'd automatically begun to shift his partner away from the street side and danger—or that Buck had also instinctively started to do the same.

Of course, until the moment they'd become a tangle of limbs, trying to keep the other from hitting the concrete.

Eddie wrinkled his nose, squinting at the hazy sun behind Buck as he straightened. "Uh, sorry, years of putting my girlfriends on the inside."

Buck ducked his head with a breathy huff, the corner of his mouth tugging upward as he shrugged. "Yeah, a bit of a learning curve, huh?" And then, with his free hand, he ruffled his short hair, blushing. "So, uh, you want the street side—because I'm cool with that. It's fine—like, I get it, and, um, don't actually mind?" A wince, then a twist of his mouth.

"You sure? I don't want to step on your toes—figuratively or otherwise."

Buck did a far too cute nose scrunch, then shook his head. "Nah, I don't mind—it's cool."

"Okay, good."

"Great."

But neither moved for a second until someone trying to squeeze by shouted over their shoulder, "Get a fucking room."

And instantly, he moved to go after the guy, but Buck grabbed him.

"Chill, it's not worth it," Buck said. "Come on, I'm hungry and don't really want to bail you out."

Eddie pursed his lips, frowned, then nodded. He ruffled his hair, frustrated. "Yeah, you're right. Let's get out of here."

<hr>

Buck had started dinner, banning him from the room, wanting to surprise him. Christopher was at a friend's house, so Eddie settled in the living room.

So double checking that no one could sneak up on him, even though he was alone, he punched some shit into Google—because research could mean the difference between things ending in more blood and pain or a very happy ending instead.

And it wasn't like this was all new to him. A few of the women he'd been with had enjoyed anal—and he'd definitely liked it, too.

Though when it came to receiving it… he wasn't opposed, just unsure.

Because, of course, like any other curious person, he'd felt around down there before, pushed a dry finger in just a bit, cringed at the burn, but not really exploring beyond his first knuckle. From what he'd read, he'd missed out on some things, so maybe it might be worth exploring more someday.

Though for him, being on top felt more appealing at the moment, he was willing to give bottoming a shot if Buck wasn't interested in being one—or they could maybe just do other things?

And all this just emphasized how more research—aka porn watching—would help.

That way, he could iron out some of the wrinkles in his plans—get some visuals on shit like the placement of another set of dick and balls during activities. Not the type of logistics he'd needed to consider before with women.

The last thing either needed was to catch a knee to the sack.

So he'd made it his mission to watch as much gay porn as possible, hoping to prove that an old dog could still learn new tricks.

And all the possibilities were exciting and nerve-wracking—and sometimes overwhelming—reminding him how much he didn't know.

He felt like a teenager again, fumbling to reach second base, even though he didn't even know what that would be with a guy.

It didn't seem like they would be the same, though with a wrinkle of his nose, he wondered if fingering an asshole counted the same as fingering a chick? He didn't think so, but maybe it was? Just seemed more personal, somehow, though he didn't know why.

Focusing his thoughts back on the videos, Eddie double-checked the volume, making sure it was all the way down, then played the video he'd found.

He quickly grabbed one of the throw pillows to hide his crotch, just in case someone walked in, as his dick was already getting hard.

Because on the screen, the camera had begun to pan up the length of a muscular man, similar to Buck in build, who had red garters connected to matching lace panties that snuggly held his junk.

Not something he'd ever thought he'd find attractive, though it wasn't so much the man on the screen he found that way. It was imagining that it was Buck wearing those things instead.

It felt like he'd been waiting a lifetime to understand, but now he got it. The shape of his sexuality had always taken the form of Buck—and it had just taken meeting him and overcoming his fears to realize it.

He ground his hips into the pillow, mouth dry, as he imagined doing the things in the video with Buck, licking over the lace against his straining cock, how soft and damp the fabric would get.

The noises he could get Buck to make…

And god, dragging the panties down, freeing him, and tasting a dick for the first time—Buck gasping and knotting his fingers in his hair.

Or Buck on his knees for him…

Then maybe sliding a finger into the space behind his balls, rubbing the soft skin there, then pressing over his hole—

Eddie bowed, pressing the hand with his phone to his mouth to stifle his cries as he came—like a fucking teenager—in his pants. His other hand pressed the pillow to his crotch for a moment longer.

Panting, he tried to collect himself, closing the video that still played on the screen. Shit. He hadn't done something like that since he was sixteen.

Then, startling him, a worried-sounding Buck said, "Hey, you good?"

He could feel himself blushing to his ears as he adjusted the pillow on his lap, patting it a few times. "Yeah, yeah, um, great—totally fine."

Buck narrowed his eyes. "You sure? You're acting weird."

He shook his head. "Nope, nothing weird. Just, uh, watching some TV—Jeopardy is on."

"You hate that show." Then Buck glanced at it. "The TV isn't on, Eds."

He pursed his lips and crinkled his nose. "Uh, um, huh?"

Buck hummed—not able to hide all the hurt. "So, are we lying to each other or something now? I mean, I thought it might happen, but I kinda hoped we'd last longer."

Instinctively, Eddie got to his feet, pillow falling to the floor as he approached. "It wasn't anything like you might be thinking. I was—"

Buck's eyes suddenly widened, head tilting a bit like a puppy, an open smile spreading on his lips. "Oh-ho-ho… you were—" Then proceeded to gesture like he was jerking off.

Eddie sucked in a breath, held it, then, probably resembling a tomato at this point, just winced and said, "Uh, sorta—not quite, though."

Buck raised a brow. "How do you sorta end up with come on your pants when you're sitting alone unless you're jerking yourself off?" And at the duck of Eddie's head, the vague wave at his pants, something must have clicked for him. "Oh shit, dude. Did you fucking come in your pants?" And then he busted out laughing, which eventually tapered off into something more like giggles as he came to peck a kiss on Eddie's lips. "Don't look so upset—it happens."

He scowled. "To you?"

Another laugh. "Uh, no, but it could—totally could. No judgment, babe." Then Buck tried to give another peck to his nose, but he swatted him off. "Ah, come on. You don't need to be embarrassed—but I'm curious what had you so worked up."

He shook his head, waggling a finger. "Uh, nope."

"Don't be like that—you know I wouldn't kink shame. Come on, tell me. Were you thinking about me—us? You know, I've been thinking about some things, too."

Lifting his chin, he challenged. "Okay, okay, yeah, tit-for-tat, I tell you, but you need to tell me something, too."

Buck shrugged. "Alright, sounds fair. I'll even go first."

Eddie tipped his head, raising a brow in challenge when he remained silent.

"Fine," Buck said, then cleared his throat. "So, uh, I kinda like the idea of you—you know, being all caveman or just all—I don't know—masculine with me?"

"Caveman?"

"Hey, don't kink shame, man, but yeah. I've always, uh, been the guy, and I…." He ducked his head, rubbing the back of his neck, before daring to look up again. "I guess I sorta like the idea of not being in charge for a change—letting you push me around a little—maybe getting to be a bit, uh, girly, or maybe soft?"

And now Buck's cheeks had turned the prettiest shade of pink, and it was Eddie's new favorite color.

Feeling more confident, he licked his lips, dragged his teeth over the bottom one, considering, then said, "Well, that, uh, makes things a bit easier—I think. Because, um, I was picturing you in a pair of pretty little panties, being all soft and girly for me."

Buck looked up through his lashes. "Huh, so, panties… that could be good, I think. Yeah, that's something I'd be interested in trying, if you are."

"Wow, look at us, communicating—okay, so, that's a thing." Then he stepped closer, hooking his index finger under Buck's chin. "I think I could enjoy bossing you around."

Buck smirked. "I might not behave."

"Oh, I'm both patient and creative—I'll get you to listen."

"Challenge accepted," Buck said, then grabbed him by the front of his jeans, yanking him forward so their faces nearly collided. Then like a fucking deviant, licked his cheek before cackling and bolting from the room.

<hr>

They'd ended up in a heap on the bed, out of breath—insane for as in shape as they were—and it had been going well. Sucking marks onto Buck's neck, just beneath his ear, getting him squirming and whining in need.

Then Eddie had pressed his wrists to the headboard as he pulled Buck's lower lip into his mouth, dragging his teeth over it before releasing it.

"Stay or else," he'd warned, then let go to ruck up his shirt.

And any awkwardness he'd imagined at sucking at a man's tit melted when Buck arched and whined even louder, making it impossible not to take his nipple between his teeth and roll it some more.

So perfect—or so he'd thought—until he'd gone to get Buck's dick free, terrified and vibrating at the prospect of touching it, only for the zipper to get stuck, forcing him to yank it up and back down a few times—only to be stopped by a sudden howl of pain.

He immediately stopped, hands hovering and unsure as Buck made some very un-sexy noises, curling forward and covering his crotch as he did.

"Shit, shit—fuck!" Buck had his hand on his zipper, neck corded, and his head thrown back. "Ow—fuck—fuck—fuck!"

Eddie turned another light on, boner forgotten and tried to calm him down and get a look at whatever had just happened, though he already suspected.

"Just let me see."

Buck's eyes snapped to him. "What—fuck that! No, nope, no more touching."

Eddie winced sympathetically as Buck got the zipper down, eyes tearing a bit. It looked painful, and he itched to do something. And even though this wasn't how he envisioned touching Buck's dick for the first time, he couldn't shake his worry until he checked him over.

Placing a hand on Buck's knee, he ducked into the man's line of vision, who still had his hands covering his crotch. "Hey, I know this isn't ideal, but, uh, would you please let me take a look?"

With a shake of the head, mouth tightening at the corners, Buck sighed, a hand moving to drag over his mouth. "Eds, seriously, man—this isn't fucking weird to you? Wouldn't it—I don't know—like ruin things? I sorta pictured the first time you played with my dick being a hell of a lot sexier."

He huffed, eyebrows lifting, then tipped his head toward Buck, motioning to his junk. "Eh, I think that ship has sailed—and it's not weird. I mean, I don't think? Even if we were only friends still, I'd be willing to take a look."

Buck snorted, then hissed when he tried to shimmy higher against the headboard. "Oh my god. That is some of the gayest shit I've ever heard you say—and that's coming from the guy who's been swimming in De'Nile with you."

After a bit of blushing, Buck groaned something about regrets and needing a beer, then hooked his thumbs under the waistband of his pants and boxer briefs, dragging them down to mid-thigh.

He'd blame it on nerves, but he just stared and blinked for a moment.

"Well, are you gonna just sit there drooling or—?"

That snapped him out of his stupor. So with an eye roll and shove to Buck's knee, he scooted closer, swallowing at the sight of him.

The speckled blood blisters on Buck's shaft kept any indecent thoughts out of his mind.

"Shit, that's gotta hurt."

The look on Buck's face screamed "no shit," loud enough to make Eddie wince.

"Sorry, yeah, stating the obvious probably isn't helping." He ducked to take a better look, thankful the skin hadn't broken, though no doubt it would be irritated for a few days. A squirm from Buck had him glancing up, and he'd be a liar if he said the embarrassed fluster coloring his face didn't have him chubbing up like a kid with his first Playboy.

He cleared his throat. "Uh, so, the skin doesn't look broken, but there's not much to do about it—other than not letting me get too close. Seems I have a tendency for maiming you."

"Eh, learning curve, right?" And at that, Buck glanced down, taking his dick in hand and looking for himself. Then, a little disgruntled noise later, he dropped his hands awkwardly at his sides. "Can't say this has happened since I was like in single digits—nothing like getting to be embarrassed in new ways."

"Eh, I yanked it, and I should've known—I've got a dick, too."

Buck still had a pretty intense dusting of pink to his cheeks, obviously not over this, though Eddie did notice his tongue when it peeked out, then swept over his lower lip. "So, uh, do you want to, uh, try again? Maybe just stick with some less dangerous activities—uh, handjobs or something?"

"You can't be serious."

"Actually, I mean, yeah?" Then he motioned to Eddie's pants. "Come on—I can't be the only half-naked one. It's totally unfair."

Fuck—his skin prickled, heating up at the thought. His dick had apparently decided its agreement because he had to suddenly adjust himself. "Buck—it's not gonna feel great. It's gonna hurt—probably like a bitch—if I, uh, do that—I mean, jerk you off."

A little twitching wrinkle of his nose, then Buck took himself in hand, seeming to prove a point. And unsurprisingly, he hissed at first before continuing to pump his fist, teeth sinking into his lower lip as his dick got back into the game. "Little pain isn't so bad."

"Buck." It came out like a warning, possibly a challenge. A bit exasperated. "You might regret it later when it's chafed to fuck over those blisters."

Buck shrugged. "That's for Later-me to deal with. Present-me wants you to hurry up and touch me." Then the corner of his mouth tugged up. "Come on, Daddy. We both know you want to—isn't that right, Daddy?”

And the mischievous glint in Buck's eye, the way he dragged out calling him daddy, something he'd jokingly done before when he'd been trying to rile him up in front of everyone, had Eddie wanting to pin him to the bed.

He watched Buck's hand work over his cock, just barely coming up to the head with a slight twist on the upstroke, and he tried to commit the little movements to memory, as he wanted to make this good if they were doing this.

It felt like standing on the edge of a cliff—or the rush before running into a fire. His nerves were live wires as he curled his hand around Buck's, fixated in every way on each movement, drinking in every sensation.

And already, just from this, Buck's breaths had started to turn into throaty groans—the occasional plea.

Each little sound made him hungry.

And when he saw the swelling bead of pre-come in his slit, the only thing on his mind was tasting it, wondering what other noises he could pull from Buck—how much more would it take to tip him over the edge?

So pressing a hand against the trail of hair below Buck's navel to hold him in place, Eddie swallowed, then grabbed Buck's hand by the wrist, pulling it off his dick and letting it fall neglected toward his belly.

"Wha—Eds, what the fuck?"

He just shushed him. "Just—easy, okay? Daddy's got you—that's what you wanted, right? So just be good for me, okay? My good boy. Just stay still—I want to try something. I want a taste."

"Okay, yeah, fuck—fuck. You're gonna kill me," Buck whined, fingers twisting in the comforter.

He swallowed, licked his dry lips, then curled his hand around Buck's cock again, mindful of the injury but not entirely avoiding it.

The other man hissed a plea, begging for him not to stop as he tried to fuck into his fist, but Eddie just tightened his grip in a warning, knowing it had to hurt. "Uh-uh, that's not being very good. I know you can behave better than that."

A whine, then Buck nodded quickly, teeth digging into his lip. A fine sheen of sweat covered him. "Fuck, yes—I'm sorry, Eds."

"Sorry, what—who?"

Confused, dazed eyes met his. "Um, uh, sir?"

Eddie let his thumb press into the sore spot a bit, earning a throaty whine and his hips lifting off the bed. "Close—come on. You know what I want." And then he stilled his hand, making him squirm.

“Eddie…”

He chuckled. "Not so funny now, huh? Come on, you started this game. I'm just following through."

"Fine! Fuck, yeah—okay, okay, Daddy. Shit, just please—I'm not gonna last here. This is a lot, Ed—Daddy—shit, please."

And fuck, he'd never considered things going this way, but he wasn't about to start kink-shaming himself.

It felt different than when a woman called him daddy, the few times they had, which hadn't done much for him, but Buck saying it? Not even close to the same feeling—hearing it from Buck had him willing to do anything to get him to repeat it.

Eddie couldn't decide what part he liked watching best, his hand as he worked over Buck's cock or the expression on the man's face as he did.

"Shit, Buck—fuck, just look at you," he breathed. "This isn't—I don't even know what we're doing—what I'm doing—but I don't want to stop, ever. You're fucking beautiful like this."

An obscene noise escaped Buck, then his voice trembled as he said, "Flattery will get you everywhere, and uh, no complaints from me." Then he sucked a harsh breath when Eddie twisted his hand before continuing in broken pants, "Fuck, that—uh, I like that—definitely okay with some pain. I think we can safely check that box."

"Yeah?" Eddie asked, pressing into the reddened sore spot. "Is that so?"

Buck just hummed, his head thrown back. "Yep, new kink unlocked—lots of new kinks, actually. But, um, if you keep doing that, I'm really not gonna last—it's just too fucking good. Even just your hand—fuck! Never had better."

"Hang in there, just a little longer. Daddy wants to try something." The epithet still felt a little strange on his tongue, but the way it made Buck lose it more and more each time made it worth getting used to.

So heart racing, muscles trembling, he ducked his head slowly, getting close enough to flick his tongue over the head of his cock but avoiding the slit.

And from how Buck tensed and bowed, it wondered if he'd snap right then and there while Eddie wasn't far behind, and his dick still hadn't been touched.

The growing bead of come bubbling from his slit tempted him—and sure, he'd accidentally tasted a bit of his own come in the past; he'd kissed partners who'd just swallowed his load—so he had some idea what it might taste like—but this seemed different.

And it was—for the first time, he was up close and personal with a dick that wasn't his own.

And everything about that felt so intimate and erotic in a way nothing ever had before—it felt like achieving some new level of arousal he hadn't known existed.

Holding a dick in his hand, tasting it, challenged things inside him—it made him feel heady with power, having control over someone that physically could challenge him in every way.

And the trust Buck seemed to instinctively have in him felt terrifying and humbling and thrilling all at the same time.

Stroking Buck a few more times, a little lotion or lube would smooth things out, take the bite out of it, but again, he thought Buck might be getting off on the way his dry hand dragged and rubbed the tender skin. He'd already confirmed the pain felt good.

And the possibility of Buck being a bit of a masochist—complimented the fantasies he'd started to have involving the man. Things he'd never dared mention to previous partners—maybe that had some profound reason he couldn’t quite grasp, something to do with them being women and him not feeling uncomfortable seeing them cry or beg.

Part of the allure for him was dominating an already dominant or imposing person, not that a woman couldn't be those things, but there was something about it being a man—and not just any man—but Buck—that really did it for him.

He liked to imagine him trussed up, squirming as he kept dragging things out and denying him—bending him over a bench and warming his ass until it was hot and swollen, blossoming deep reds and purples. Maybe he'd be wearing thin lace panties, too.

All that strength and muscle bending to his will—gifting him with submission.

And damn, he'd bet anything that Buck would cry so pretty.

He shifted just a bit so his jeans pressed and squeezed him enough to relieve some of his need, even if a bit painful. Of course, it wasn't enough, but he wanted to take care of Buck right now. He could wait, though he knew it would be over embarrassingly fast when the time came.

He just hoped not to come in his pants again.

Slowing his strokes to concentrate, he pressed the flat of his tongue over his slit, the foreign fluid tingling his tongue, bitter and tangy but not exactly bad. Not when it belonged to Buck—his lips twitched toward a smile when his mind whispered about this being his gay communion.

He dragged his tongue over it, aware of Buck's not-so-subtle tumble into desperation, the pre-come smearing over his taste buds, then lifting away after, glancing over to catch a glimpse of Buck breaking apart. And damn, it was so pretty.

His skin had become flushed and sweaty, and his eyes consumed by need, so little blue even showing, and he had to have been chewing and biting his lips because they were so swollen and red, so fucking plump. He panted through his mouth, tongue just visible near his bottom teeth.

Jesus, that mouth—those lips stretched around his cock would look so pretty. Undoubtedly, he'd watch through those ridiculous lashes, the embodiment of soft and submissive.

Then a whined, "Please, Daddy," pulled him from his thoughts.

And Buck sounded so fucking desperate that it had Eddie taking pity on him in a heartbeat, calling him so, so good for waiting, then lapping over the head of his dick again, the flavor of his come so much fainter and missing the intensity of his first taste.

So ignoring his own aching needs, he doubled down on pumping Buck's cock, making messy work of sucking him off—wanting to watch his seams tear and fray and needing to be the one who did it.

His hand got wet with spit, and he no longer tried to hold Buck from fucking into his fist. The boy was just too far gone.

His gaze flicked to where he could see one of Buck's hands twisting the blanket in a white-knuckled grip. Then, making him pop off momentarily, his other hand had snaked beside him and begun clawing at his forearm.

"I got you," he said, threading his fingers with Buck's, giving him something to hold onto. "Don't hold back—come for me, okay?"

He assumed the chin dip had been some form of a nod.

So with one hand holding his and the other still stroking him, he went back to exploring the feel and taste of his cock with his mouth, adding and subtracting little things to see what made him react the most—doing the things he'd enjoyed himself.

Eternity might have been perfect—though, to be realistic, he could see how this could wear you out—but he didn't get very long, as Buck had started making short, tight gasps and gulps for air, the noises coming less often as if concentrating.

But really clueing him in that Buck was about to snap was the near pulse he could feel in the man's dick that had suddenly turned to steel.

So wanting just a little more—curious, too—he took a couple inches in his mouth and suckled as he pumped his fist while applying a tiny bit of pressure to that sore spot from the zipper.

And that did it.

He didn't get more warning than Buck digging his fingers into his arm, his body arching off the bed, a guttural noise leaving his throat before hot, thick fluid shot into his mouth, deeper than he'd anticipated it would. It nearly hit the back of his throat.

And the flavor was a lot—even though it was Buck—and it felt strange, pooled on his tongue where he held it, unsure he could swallow as more continued to leak in weakening spurts from his softening dick.

He knew that spitting was an option, but that felt weird, like taking the easy way out—and there was something he couldn't name about doing it. Felt like backing down from a challenge, and his mama didn't raise no quitter.

So he pulled off with a wet sound, the overstimulation causing Buck to startle, then swallowed the majority, leaving a little in his mouth, allowing the primal feeling to spread and sink into his bones.

He swallowed again, but before it could disappear entirely, he crawled up to Buck, gripped him beneath the chin, tilted his head, then kissed him—near brutal with the force—rutting against any part of him he could.

And it only made him harder to know that Buck was tasting himself right now.

Buck clawed at his shoulders, seeming just as hungry as him, then he pulled back just enough to pant, "Eddie—Eds—just let me—"

Too hungry, Eddie interrupted with another assault to his mouth, rough nips over his jaw, down to his ear. Again, it had Buck going wild under him.

But then, a hand shoved against his chest, making him growl in protest, only to finally pull back after another bite to the sandpaper stubble right under his jaw.

"Buck," he groaned, dropping his forehead to rest on his jawline before lifting to search his face for why they’d stopped.

Buck's lips were so fucking cherry red and plump, wet with spit. His pupils were blown, looking so hungry as he rasped, "I wanna suck you off—please." Then a sweep of his tongue over his lips. "Please, Daddy."

And that dragged some primal noise from his chest, his dick straining to be free now. "Fuck, yeah, you'd like that." He sat back on his heels and shifted so that he knelt near Buck's head. He didn't hesitate to pull himself out, giving his dick a stroke. And with his other hand, he swept his thumb over those soft lips again. "That fucking mouth."

Buck smirked, then adjusted his position, so he had a better angle, and to help, Eddie grabbed the headboard and helped guide his head closer, teeth digging into his lower lip as he did.

And then, after the tiniest consideration, a little pause, and gnawing on his lip, Buck lapped the head of his dick, made an adorable face, nose wrinkling at the taste of his pre-come, then dove straight into it like he did everything else in life.

Because Buck never backed down from a challenge—and thank Jesus, God, and all the saints for that—as the boy might be gagging a bit, drooling and slurping, catching teeth against tender skin on the downstrokes, but fuck, if it wasn't the best thing Eddie had ever felt.

Those lips looked so pretty stretched around him, and shit, when Bucky's teary eyes looked up through his lashes? Well, Eddie would have to apologize later for how his hips jerked, and he caused Buck to sputter and choke a bit.

Buck pulled off, looking like the prettiest mess he'd ever seen—fucking wrecked. "I can see you worrying—but don't, okay? I mean, as long as it's good for you—just use me. I like it rough."

Eddie wiped his thumb over the wet tear tracks, cursing. "Fuck, yeah—then you know what to do."

And then Buck was sucking him again, and Eddie didn't restrain himself as much, gripping his head and holding it so he could fuck carefully toward his throat a bit, feeling the give as he reached it. Each time, Buck gagged a little, more drool pouring down his chin, fresh tears on his cheeks.

Buck had so much strength coiled in him, but he gave this to Eddie. And even though Buck said he liked it rough, he already knew that worshipping Buck would be his new act of service.

Though right now, Buck was doing a great job at breaking him apart—despite all appearances to the contrary.

And Buck must have noticed he was close and started to double down. Every muscle in Eddie's body felt like it seized, everything building inside him suddenly reaching a razor's edge before it split him open.

He cried out as he came, not words—just some animalistic noise. And Buck took him as deep as he could when he did, swallowing without hesitation, letting him go only after a shiver of overstimulation passed through him.

He rocked back on his heels, trying to catch up with reality, feeling disjointed.

"Wow," he said, then glanced at Buck, who looked wrecked in the best way—or so he hoped. He touched his face. "So, uh, are we good? Was it too much?"

Buck half-snorted, then lifted an arm, making a grabby hand. "Not even close—but shit, that was—I don't know. It wasn't like anything I've had before. That's for sure. But it was definitely a good thing—ten out of ten, would recommend."

"Recommend, huh? You planning on sharing me, Buckley?"

Buck grabbed his wrist, then gave a hard yank—a potent reminder that if he'd wanted to, he could make a good show of kicking his ass. "Come here and cuddle me, asshole. Ever heard of aftercare?"

Eddie gave a breathy chuckle, settling beside him and letting Buck get comfortable in his octopus impression against his chest and side. "I've heard a bit—and you know I'd always take care of you. Before, after, and in the middle. Whatever you need."

A deep sigh, then Buck rubbed his blossoming five o'clock shadow against his bare chest. "Well, right now, I want to be cuddled and called a good boy—that was fucking hot, by the way—and then maybe some beer or something. My mouth tastes like jizz."

He chuckled, scratching his nails over Buck's scalp. "Yeah, that'll take some getting used to, for sure. I can still taste it, too. But damn, Buck, you were so good for me—such a good boy. Fuck, anything you want, ever—you've got me."

#buddie #buck x eddie #buck x eddie fic #buddie fanfic #buddie 911 #911 fanfic #snark writes

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