#palla

So these are mostly loose and disconnected thoughts, but the entire love square is caught in a tangle of assuming things about each other's sexual preferences and/or trying to figure out their own messy sexual stuff. It's some real comedy of errors shit.

Basically:

Adaman: those of you who've read TtH know that this man (at least when I write him) is very gay and also very shameless about what he's into. In TtH he's explicitly homosexual, but in the Rebound AU he leans more bi but with a VERY strong preference for masc partners. Homoflexible, in other words. He's also way more sexually experienced than repressed former catholic schoolgirl Irida and makes no secret of how he's had multiple hookups and flings.

(Or as my buddy Lye once put it, Adaman is the party elder who brought condoms and narcan, and Irida is the sheltered homeschool kid who heard "party" and expected pizza and ice cream.)

Anyways he latches onto Diam because he sees this extremely hot and extremely intimidating masc stranger and went "ohhhhhhh I need them to choke me while I beg for it and call them daddy." He does not realize that Diam's not really the dom type because they put on an intimidating front to hide that they're really kinda a softie.

Meanwhile Palla is trying to sidle in like "you can call me Mommy while I choke you" but Adaman's kinda put off by the whole dommy mommy thing. Because, again, very gay and much more interested in masc partners. Palla's just a bit too femme for his tastes. Plus he's getting a very strong vibe that they're more interested in having a sub than an actual relationship, and he'd like an actual partner to hang out with.

Diam: As mentioned above, Diam puts on a whole front of being scary and intimidating but they're really just. Kinda not. Like don't get me wrong they can be very scary, but that's more a result of them being naturally high-strung and anxious. They get impatient/worked up/overwhelmed very easily so they default to a resting scowl and a very curt attitude to seem more in control of things than they actually feel at any given moment.

As you can imagine this doesn't really lend itself to the kind of emotional vulnerability needed for relationships. Diam's had a few hookups but they always struggle moving things past that. So when they start crushing on Irida they're. Unsure how to go about actually flirting. Especially since she's so smol and cute and they're feeling a lot of cuteness aggression they're not used to. It results in a lot of walking on eggshells and awkward looming.

Meanwhile Adaman's interpreting all this ambient scariness as "Diam would make a great dom" and like. I'm not saying Diam wouldn't make a great dom. It's great for helping them work out the frustrations that come with their anxiety. They just think Adaman's only interested in them for their body and he wouldn't like the anxious wreck that is the real, actual Diam.

(In actuality Adaman takes two seconds to adjust to their true personality and goes "buddy if you needed advice on how to flirt you could have just said so." He then proceeds to try and wingman Diam and Irida together. Diam winds up developing feelings in the process, and of course the two hook up.)

Irida: A repressed former catholic and/or homeschool girl who has a lot of repressed kinks that she doesn't really know how to explore yet. Adaman and Akari have been trying to help her out with advice but she's too much of an awkward virgin to last through those conversations without dying of embarrassment. Palla awakens a lot of Things™ in her and she's left trailing after this cool, beautiful femme with stars in her eyes and several vivid new fantasies.

Meanwhile Irida's not even aware at first that Diam's interested in her, because they're so bad at communicating it. Again, lots of awkward looming. But even when she does catch on she's not really interested, because Diam seems too rough for her. She has no idea they're actually a huge softie who would give her the exact amount of freak she asks for and then dote on her the rest of the time.

It takes a lot of wingman attempts from Adaman to sort that out. After which Irida and Diam awkwardly test the waters of a relationship. And that gives Irida enough experience/confidence to go up to Palla and try flirting instead of just following them around like a lovesick puppy. Which in turn awakens Palla to the prospect of "oh wait, this girl actually has some serious freak potential" and suddenly Irida's got two partners to expand her horizons with.

Palla: Hardcore domme who treats kinky BDSM sex as their hobby of choice. Most of their evenings are spent cruising local gay bars and BDSM clubs, and if they smell sub on someone, they go after it. They're very confident in what they want and they're not afraid to make it a casual fling. Just pick up cute a sub or two for the night, have fun, and move on to the next plaything tomorrow. (They have broken more hearts than they can be bothered to count.)

Adaman, though? They want to keep Adaman. Adaman interests them, because he's got a similar blend of casual, confident kinkiness that they vibe with. They're also getting mixed signals from him whenever they put feelers out and assume he's just playing hard to get. He's not doing a good job at making it clear that he's not interested.

Meanwhile this awkward virgin that Adaman's friends with keeps trailing after Palla with hearts in her eyes, and Palla's just. Not interested. The girl clearly isn't seasoned enough for the kind of things Palla's into. She'd probably turn bright red and faint at half of the kinks Palla does on a regular basis. Yeah she's cute and all, but Palla isn't going to play babysitter for a vanilla-ass sub. They're better off trying to nudge her towards Diam.

As mentioned, they eventually realize how wrong they are in that assumption. And they eventually get a chance to clear up the misunderstanding with Adaman, when the two have drinks so Adaman can commiserate with them over the headache that is trying to play wingman for Diam. The second they learn that Adaman's hung up on their more femme presentation and wants more than just a hookup they're like "why the fuck didn't you just say so" and make it clear that they don't mind leaning more masc for their hookups. And they'd actually like having a sub that sticks around for drinks and hangouts after sex.