Morning Kisses

Alastor x gn!Reader

ღ Itty bitty snip !

ღ a/n: this was originally only a warm-up posted to a discord server but a comment from @theradioshusband made me want to post it as well, so thank him :33

summary: Sometimes it’s nice waking up before Alastor because you get some extra cuddles.

ღ TAGS: sfw, just kisses and fluff

It’s rare to ever wake up before he does, the man seems to either never sleep or a perfectly attuned internal clock for dawn. But there are days like today when you rise from your own slumber with his warm body next to you, even with an arm wrapped protectively around your middle. Alastor has you pressed up against his chest, nose firmly pressed against your neck around your pulse point area, he looked peaceful while he slept, almost innocent with relaxed features with a soft smile.

Slowly and gently, you turned over to face him. You didn’t want to wake him just yet. Wanting to admire the cute sight that you’ve been gifted with. However, once you had made the 180° turn his arms tightened around you and he buried his face into your chest. You had to bite your lip to get a giggle. Not very long ago Alastor himself had protested having shared living spaces, trying to convince you that having independence from one another would be better, except now even when he doesn’t admit it he enjoyed these opportunities to hold you. Show you some affection behind closed doors and away from prying eyes.

The deer demon isn’t much for PDA, public or otherwise. He showed affection in different ways, his own ways. But there came reserved moments like these where he indulged you, and himself, in sweet touches and whispered nothings. The moments you could live in your own bubble together and ironically made your own little piece of heaven here in hell. You could stay like this forever if you could, but alas, there are duties and responsibilities that you know Alastor is nothing less than punctual to.

With a gentle hand, you run your fingers through his currently messy red hair. Your nails traced the back of his ears making them unconsciously twitch. It’s then you hear a soft groan.

“Good morning, deerling,” you whisper, leaning down to deliver soft kisses to his cheek. This is your favorite way to wake him up; peppering him with kisses while he’s still sleepy enough to not stop you from smothering him. “You were slow to rise today,” chuckling lowly your lips travel down to his to peck him, “You have to get up.”

Alastor blinked the sleep out of his eyes searching for the clock. “Good morning, darling,” the low reverb of his morning voice seemed to echo in your own chest. His radio filter is usually off until he’s fully awake. A little treat you learned about when you started waking up with him. “Seems I’ve overslept today. You’re getting me into bad habits.”

He said it so matter-of-factly that it made you giggle. “What do I have to do you waking up late?” you brush a stray strand of hair from his face, “It’s not my fault I’m comfortable to sleep with, silly.”

And yet despite his remark, he still hasn’t unwrapped from you. Alastor wasn’t that complicated of a creature, one just needed to learn to read him. He’s used to hiding or lying about his own emotions, it came as natural as breathing and that included his feelings about you. It took a lot of effort to get him to his point but there was still a lot of work to do in the spoken honesty department. For now, you didn’t quite mind it.

He hummed dismissively at your words pulling you into an actual kiss. Tender, warm. A gentleness he’s reserved for you and you alone. It’s slow, with purpose and his hand is now cradling your cheek. His thumb caresses the skin of your face, the very tip of his talon gracing it sending a shiver down your back. But the kiss doesn’t deepen or become heated. It stays just as it is; innocent and soft. The kind of kiss that has you smiling against his lips and don’t want to pull away until you need air.

“Simply starting the day off the right way, dear.” And with a last kiss to your forehead, he untangles himself from you to get out of bed. You almost want to groan at the loss of contact but you know there wouldn’t be any convincing him to stay any little longer. He already woke up “late” by his standards. So instead you watch him as he dresses and fixes himself up in his usual dapper attire ready to go about the hotel as per usual.

“You can sleep in here longer if you wish, sweetheart. It’s still pretty early for you,” he offered coming up to the foot of the bed, his hand coming to rest atop your head, patting you. “But don’t sleep for too long. It’s not good for you to be in bed for so long.”

With that, he vanishes into the void. Not without his shadow lingering behind for a second longer, he grabbed the shadow of your hand that dangled off the edge of the bed kissing your knuckles before also scurrying away. You giggled to yourself thinking, progress.

© 2024 the-xolotl — all rights reserved. do NOT alter, translate, or repost my works on any platform without my consent, do not claim my content as yours.

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word dividers were done by ME with @ cafekitsune template — give proper credit if you use it.

“Make it a son for a son”

There’s a new season two promo where we hear Matt saying Daemon’s infamous line for the first time. And it has me wanting to bring up something I see with the team black fandom.

(BOOK SPOILERS)

There’s an impulse within team black to distance the characters of team black but particularly Rhaenyra from B&C by presenting it as a rogue act committed by Daemon on his own.

Now, first the book does not tell us that. The book gives us little to go on beyond Daemon’s involvement and the obvious implication that Mysaria was his KL contact to set everything in motion.

The rest of the details are mostly speculation.

Rhaenyra’s involvement is limited to a letter from her husband promising that Luke would be avenged. We have no further details on what she knew or how she reacted. Which also gives the show lots of room to present Rhaenyra’s feelings about this revenge plot however they like.

But what I see often in this attempt to isolate B&C to a Daemon-plan not a team black plan, is a misunderstanding of Daemon as a character.

In a bid to defend Rhaenyra’s innocence in the act, Daemon can not just be the lone perpetrator, he is also the monster.

Except this is an intensely human act.

A personal attack.

He could have killed all of Aegon’s heirs in that moment. As well as TG’s two queens. That would be the political move. Taking out the other side purely for political gain regardless of the innocence of the children he attacked.

And this is where those arguments from even within team black fall flat to me.

Because this is not political. This is personal. This is a grieving parent and husband who has no control and could not prevent the initial attacks on his family.

It’s not only rage and revenge, it’s grief and guilt.

So when team black talks about this event and may even lean into the interpretation of Daemon being a monster. It actually takes away from the greater story of team black, part of what makes them unique in contrast to the greens.

The greens, and this looks to continue based on the promo which seems to suggest Otto wanting to use Jaehaerys’s funeral as a propaganda tool, are very politically driven.

Think about it, they’re acting on tradition, purposely wishing to limit the power of women. They use rumors at court as a weapon, look for deals to be made, deck their king out in symbols of legitimacy. They always have a political angle to the moves they make.

This does not mean they do not feel emotional! I’m not saying that. But team green always has this internal conflict of making the political move at the cost of the emotional gain.

And team black (but particularly Daemon) are the opposite. They will make politically bad moves to satisfy the emotional urge.

Look at Rhaenyra marrying Daemon in secret, yes there is a political angle, but ultimately that marriage was one for love. Or Rhaenyra imprisoning Coryls after turning on the dragonseeds.

And with B&C there is no political advantage! They gain nothing in terms of good will with the public or lords of the realm. They have no eliminated any threats. They actively let threats live!

So what am I getting at here?

I’m not justifying Daemon’s actions. But this is fiction. And sometimes I think it’s good to look at a story for more than just “right” and “wrong” or moral lessons.

I think GRRM asks such interesting character questions in the Dance.

What does it mean to do something in an act of pain that is clearly going to be detrimental to the other side?

What does it say about a person to do that?

I think team black specifically should be asking questions like that.

One of my favorite things about Mary Beard's Twelve Caesars: Images of Power is how she explores the surrounding context of artworks. It's not just "What is depicted, and how?" It's also:

Who made this (or had it made)? For what purpose? Pride, propaganda, humor, teaching, a warning?

Who are the intended audience - the owner alone? Their family? Rival snobby aristocrats? Churchgoers, students, the general public?

What else was going on in the world, and how does it affect the history of this artwork? (Imperialism, trade, and the rise and fall of dynasties often shift art across countries - given, bought or stolen!)

What references in this art would the audience have noticed? A lot of artworks call back to earlier ones, and this may be as subtle as the subject's posture or facial hair.

It makes me think about the art I see history lovers create today, too. And about historical fiction. I think it's easy to analyze media in terms of whether X subject it includes is good or bad, safe or problematic, and therefore whether the work as a whole is good or bad. It's easy, but wrong.

Art doesn't exist in a vacuum. Its meaning and effect depend on the creator, surrounding circumstances, and audience. Take Antonio Verrio's colossal painting of the Roman emperors at Hampton Court Palace:

I think most folks today would see it as a technically impressive baroque painting, but nothing special. Or just your typical monarchist art, in the same vein as Delacroix's Justice of Trajan. Why else would a British palace give center stage to a bunch of emperors, right?

But it's very likely that this painting was made as a joke. It's glorified fanart of emperor Julian's satire The Caesars, in which Julian makes nearly every one of his predecessors look ridiculous. If you look closely, you can spot scenes Julian wrote like Octavian being hassled by a philosopher and Nero playing a lyre (or guitar). I can imagine some nerdy aristocrat pointing out the gags to his buddies and roasting these guys.

However. The joke is not the only meaning of the painting. Meaning is given by the viewers, and modern monarchists may show it to each other and say, "This is real art, none of that woke nonsense." (Oblivious to Hadrian running after his boyfriend in the scene.) Anti-monarchists may hold it up as an example of autocracy being celebrated. Each group is reacting to the other, and using the painting to support their own messages.

I'm more of a writer than artist, but I'm also thinking about how I might apply this to my own works. Particularly, how not to overthink things. Because I want to be thoughtful about the messages I put in my stories, but readers are creative, and bring their own ideas to the text, too. There's no way to prevent that, nor should you really try. If you try to make the meaning too obvious, you'll likely make the work weaker, preachy, or condescending.

In the end, I suppose, all you can do is to do your best, create for the folks you want to reach instead of trying to appeal to everyone, and trust that the right people will understand.

Here’s the truth: You can be a really good friend, and still not be liked. You can hold someone dear and still not be valued. You can say all the right things, and still have someone twist your words, brush off your words, or worse—use your words against you. You can give it your absolute best, and still have it not work out. You can be pure as humanly possible, and still be painted as the bad guy. After years of work, these are some things I’ve learned:

You can’t control other people. Not even in the slightest, and it is a complete waste to ever assume you can. It will make you angry, and exhausted, and chasing something you don’t have a chance to catch, so switch gears and control you. Control your mouth. Control how you treat people. Control your attitude. Guard your heart, and keep it genuine. Keep showing up, and let that be enough.

Other people aren’t you. They don’t think like you, or feel like you. Their experiences belong to them alone. They approach situations differently, and their outlook is nothing like yours. Don’t expect them to handle things exactly like you do. They aren’t you. They’re them. Do your best to love them for it.

Some people are never going to like you, and there isn’t necessarily and a rhyme or reason. Your life will improve significantly as soon as you learn this.

Sometimes you’re actually the bad guy. Sometimes you’re the one acting foolish. Sometimes you’re the one with the toxic trait or two. Check your own heart. Clean out the junk, and grow from it. Apologize, and now that you’ve learned—take that wisdom, do better next time, stay humble, and give others an awful lot of grace along the way.

There is a purpose to it all. There is beauty everywhere. That failed friendship will teach you how to do the next one better. That heartache will remind you to be gentle with other people. That loneliness will help you appreciate connection when you do find it—and you will find it. Not every season lasts forever, but every season does produce something precious eventually, even if it’s just a fresh perspective. So sleep well, my dear friend. Life is a long series of letting some things go and holding others close—a catch and release sort of cycle. Let go of needing approval. Let go of bitterness, and resentment, and any of that junk. Let go of insecurity. Let go of guilt. It will keep you shackled like nothing else. Hold close to your family and the people in your life who have stuck around. Hold close to your morals and your integrity. Hold close to your light and your joy and your hope. Hold close to today. Believe in tomorrow. Hold closest to love. At the end of the day, it’s all that really matters, and as long as you have it—you have more than enough. Love, Amy

I think this is beautiful

the worst person you know is also a queen

tag the oc that's most likely to get stuck in a time loop and what kind of time loop it would be

"It's powerful, it's visceral, it's dark, it's like a Shakespearean tragedy. There’s no Arya — a character everybody's going to love. They're all flawed. They're all human. They do good things. They do bad things. They're driven by lust for power, jealousy, old wounds — just like human beings. Just like I wrote them."

Seeing people debate which grey characters can still be considered "morally good" and somehow Arya never makes the list, so it's the perfect time to bring back this quote from George which shows exactly how he views her character 🫶🏾

One of my favorite character traits that Junpei has is how as much as he's protective and caring to his favorite people and impulsively jumps into danger to help others if he has an opportunity to without wanting anything in return and highly values the promises he makes he just seems to also always be more curious than he is sensible or empathetic, he gets so caught up on the horrors he sees but he has such a hard time looking away, he's right to analyze and be intrigued by the ninth man's remains but he stands around staring at it until he pukes, in the showers you can interact with the wall behind which lies "Snake's" corpse and he will pick up more details about it each time you click on it until he has to mentally rip himself away because it's not that he can't keep looking at it it's that he better look away and focus on getting out, and the way he talks to Clover about the body with every minutiae she wouldn't want to hear is like his brain connects faster to his mouth than it can connect to his sense of morality sometimes which I guess turned out to be a good thing in this one case or just good common sense in general like there's other minor things he blurts out at times, he's stated to not have tact be his strongest suit, he's insensitive on accident trying to fumble through interactions even if he's entirely confident on what he's saying he's soo sharp when he has a goal in mind but he's soo dense if he's trying to just exist my man is so traumatized and his brain always seems to default to taking the most of any given situation in as possible to desensitize himself instead of any other response and sometimes it pushes his mind to be so single mindedly entranced on not ending up that way too that he'll describe a mangled body in excruciating detail to a grieving relative even if that's his friend and even if he feels guilty about it immediately as soon as he catches up with what just left his mouth instead of staying in his thoughts

I find it kind of silly that so many of those "time based life rule" sayings are like ~deep serious guidelines~ of some sort, but then there's that one other Well Known Rule that's just like "hrmm can I eat something off of the ground or not"

stupid asshole who lives in my brain

i think we need to address this @nmscord blog spamming the main nms tag (#no man's sky) into oblivion. this thing has to be run by some bot due to the constant posting.

it is the literal definition of a spambot.

at first i tried blocking this spambot but that somehow broke the tag??? the latest posts section was just empty, save for only 1 or 2 posts when there should've been a lot more. It goes for pc and mobile, you can try it yourself by blocking nmscord and then looking back at #no man's sky.

this annoying spambot is literally breaking the tag.

We must mass report this thing, i've already done it.

if we don't, it'll just keep on ruining the entire tag for everyone. so report it right now please.

if you can do that, then reblogging this post would just be as helpful.

I am trying so hard but it still isn't ENOUGH FOR YOU? DON'T YOU SEE HOW HARD I'VE BEEN TRYING?

Hi! Are you okay? Sorry but you haven’t updated on here in a while and I’m worried.

kendall was promised the company since he was 7 yrs old. in a way we as viewers were promised kendall the company from s1e1. if kendall got the company he would have turned into the monster his dad was. without the company he’s dead.. the music went out so we could hear the water washing him away one last time

Why did my mom have to join bible study

i'll try to finally start trying video game development as i am currently getting more space on my desktop lol. + i'll try to make more time to write originally again and also for music!