#I mean I’m 23 so it’s not that weird or anything but I’ve sort of made it weird by constantly calling my friend a baby because he’s 2 years | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dylanisdazed · 3 months

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so yall know i got an online job. well its online but its also local and today i had to meet with the boss man. he's like 65.

i went in there late cuz i had the kids and stuff so i waited until parker was home to watch his brothers.

so i walk in his office and he closes the door.

he says you drink? you look like you like to party.

i kinda laugh. like idk what this old man means. im 23. yeah i do like to party.

so i say yeah, i like to drink.

he says what do you drink?

i say pretty much anything but i really like bourbon.

he has glee in his face. "BOURBON! my boy! that's a man drink. that's awesome, it'll put hair on your chest! I've got bourbons I'm sure you've never had."

so he tells me to sit down. he pours half a glass of bourbon in the office. i drink it with him. then he pours another. he asks about my major and my life and i tell him about adam...

he's been married to a woman for 40 years and they have 3 children.

He talks about being a teen in the late 70’s/early 80’s. Honestly the conversation wasn’t too bad but as he talks about all the exploring he did…with marijuana, other drugs…and sex…he shifted his eyes and was staring into my soul.

Then without asking he pours a third drink. And moves over closer to me. I should have just said I didn’t want anymore but there really is something to the whole power dynamic that I just drank it. I felt so uncomfortable. I’m alone with him in his office and he’s got the door closed (no one else was at the office it was 6 pm) and I’m drinking a third glass of bourbon with this guy.

He watches me sipping the bourbon and says “I have to say, you’re a beautiful boy” normally I would be flattered hearing that and I just can’t describe why but it’s like I instantly felt how millions of girls must feel everyday when an old man in power is trying to take advantage of me. But I’m also polite and southern and idk so I smiled and said thank you and to help my nerves finished the drink.

He goes “you must really be a good time Dylan, you can hold your alcohol. I’m gonna have to use this whole bottle on you”

And that’s when I really felt weird and scared. Not to mention I had accidentally left my cell phone in my Jeep.

I sorta laughed and said I’ve got to drive home and I have eaten much today. He goes “Come on we’re just getting started”

I say I really need to go, my kids are waiting on dinner and he replies “you’re just a boy yourself, it’s interesting hearing you say your kids. It makes you even sexier.”

I laugh and say thanks but I need to go. I started to stand up and he put his large hand on my thigh (he’s like 6’5) and sort of held me down.

He said “you’ve got to have at least one more drink with me, an ending drink.” I just felt kinda helpless and didn’t have my phone and I was getting pretty drunk at this point so I said okay. He said “good boy”

He pours a last and stronger drink. I sip it as he stares into my soul and talks about how his wife is in Arizona and he’s pretty lonely and reminiscing on his youth and fun sexual explorations. He put his hand back on my thigh and started rubbing up towards my cock. I feel kinda dumb because I just sat there. I was scared and shocked and drunk.

He told me I had a pretty mouth and began unzipping his pants.

Then. THANK GOD. His office phone rang. He looked defeated. He picks up and I hear his wife. “Why are you still at the office? Your phone pinged you at the office.”

“Yeah honey, I’m just finishing up reports, I’m in no hurry with you out of town.” Blah blah blah

I finish my drink. Stand up and head to the door. I wanted to get out of there while he was still on the phone because I could tell he wouldn’t stop me or say my name while his wife was on the phone. I just turn around and do a wave and pretty much bolt to my Jeep.

I start driving immediately, wanting to get away from him. Then I start bawling. Nothing even really happened and maybe I’m just over dramatic or more innocent than I thought but I felt dirty and scared 😭😭

I’m driving drunk and crying and I called my mom. She tells me to tell Adam and so I do but when I get home Adam is waiting for me and consoles me but…he’s the most calm, gentle hearted person I know and he’s like homicidal angry.

“GIVE ME HIS NAME. IM GONNA KILL THE MOTHER FUCKER”

I’m like no ur not gonna do anything like that…

He’s like I’m waiting outside that office and I’m gonna kill him.

😭 it was kind of scary but also very heartwarming and sorta hot seeing him that way 😂

Anyway……. I’m sorry for the long and poorly written story.

I’m okay and we’re taking care of the matter and Adam is also okay and didn’t kill anyone 😂💚

Thanks for the love and concern.

It’s been hard the last few days because I keep thinking about it and wondering what would have happened if his wife hadn’t called. I can’t help it, but my body starts to shake violently when I think of it. I’m shaking now writing all this. 😭😭

But just know overall I’m okay and things are being handled. 💚💚

I’m not gonna talk about this again, at least not for a long time because it scares me.

Please don’t ask me questions about it. 💚💚 I felt like I owed an explanation though and I appreciate all the concern and well wishes.

Now back to fun Dylie!!!

#dylanisdazed #dylie

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am-i-the-asshole-official · 9 months

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AITA for being mad that my girlfriend broke up with me?

So I (23 M) got with my ex (23 F) about 5 months ago— we met through a college program, and really hit it off! It was just friends at first but I pretty quickly caught feelings, because she was just so down to Earth with me I really felt like I could spend forever with her. I wasn’t gonna say anything yet, because I felt like we hadn’t really known each other for that long. But then, some stuff happened in my city (don’t worry we’re fine), and thanks to that we didnt meet up for a good while. I ended up finding out she went to the next city over to escape a bunch of riots (I don’t blame her) so I drove out to make sure she was okay. Which she was!

I took her back home after telling her about what she missed— she was originally going to go to her parents house, but with some convincing on my end she agreed to go back. After such a long couple of days, I realized she always made me feel safe and comforted in ways no one else could. So I confessed to her, which she accepted, and we started dating! It was really nice, and super romantic. I felt like I found the perfect person and I thought she did the same.

But less than a month or so into the relationship, she completely turned on me! Getting mad about how I moved on from the previously mentioned from the crazy stuff happening in my city, yelling about her living in my house now, and not wanting to date anymore. It was like she completely forgot our friendship and relationship all. And I tried helping her get back to where she was, and sometimes she’d wake up like her anger had never happened, but after a few days it wouldn’t stick and I’ve given up on trying to make her remember anything. At first she was sort of OK with dating but it quickly turned into a on-again, off-again thingy.

She constantly complains about things— she complains mostly about my hobbies (I’m really into gardening and botany, which she says is “weird”, and I don’t know what she means by that…?), and she also complains about our neighbor, who I’m on really good terms with (apparently my ex and my neighbor (41 F) had bad blood in the past, but I had no clue!!!) In fact, she complains about my other friends (23 F and 22 NB), saying that the former is a “self-absorbed prick” and the latter got “brainwashed” by me after we became friendly. I feel like I can’t spend time with my ex around my other friends anymore or even mention them because of how vocal her anger is.

She claims to have constant nightmares and blames them on our negative relationship, and I was getting really fed up with it because she just lashes out in anger instead of talking ANYTHING out with me. We got into an argument recently, and because I was so angry I had told her that I didn’t like her now and I wished she went back to how she was when we first started dating. She was really hurt, and I didn’t mean to hurt her that way, but she ran off before I could apologize. It’s been days and she still hasn’t come home, but she texted me and told me we’re through (if it wasn’t clear enough). I’m pretty frustrated she has just been lashing out at everything and not communicating with me. It makes me feel shitty and I don’t get why she acts like this.

I’m afraid I’m being a dick for being mad she left without ever talking things out, but I wish she gave us a proper chance! So AITA??

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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snailsandpuppy-dogtails · 6 months

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Beep Beep

@flufftober day 23 Trinket Garvez WC: 655 Ao3

“What is this?” Luke asks with interest picking the small gold bag that’s just been placed on his desk up by the straps, “A gift? For moi?”

“Oh, don’t- don’t let it go to your head. I get everyone gifts, I’m very giving, as you may remember. And it’s just a little thing. Just a- you know, a trinket. A token of good faith that I’m on the right track again and I’ve got my head in the game and, and… and I’m sorry…for being a jerk” she adds slowly, knowing he doesn’t want to re-live the cringe-inducing moment of manic oversharing any more than she does.

Things between them since then had been weird in a he-should-have-been-weird-any-normal-person-would-have-been-weird-but-he-wasn’t sort of way and she hadn’t said sorry and it was sitting in her stomach growing every day since that she hadn’t acknowledged what she’d done was…not good.

Especially to do to him…given…

The bag has some weight to it but it’s not large, making Luke all the more curious about its contents. Now holding it by the base, he tips it, the item sliding easily into his palm. He brings the small rectangular object up, squinting as he turns it left and right in a faux display of inspection. He then looks at her, a queer questioning look on his face, but smiling. Always smiling.

“Penelope, this a pager. Where did you find this? Does it even work? I don’t think the Bureau’s used pagers in 30 years- actually, I don’t think they ever used them. I’m not even sure Rossi-”

“Zuuuzzhh!” she buzzed, covering his lips with her finger, “I KNOW. YES it works. Look. There’s only one number that will ever be on it, and,” she paused, fumbling in her skirt pocket, then triumphantly pulling something out, “there will only ever be one on mine. Ok?”

Luke regards her for a moment and for that moment she can’t breathe, the weight and meaning of what she’s said pressing on both of them, the understanding in the look he’s giving her. This was a terrible idea. The worst idea.

Carefully, quietly, he treads, “Penelope, are you saying this is just for you and I?”

And then she does it though she doesn’t want to, she turns and retreats. “Oh, my go- can’t you ever- just. Not think too deep? It’s not that deep.”

“But, Like, obviously, if it’s an emergency, call” she turns back to add, before nearly stumbling at Luke rising to follow her.

It’s just for them. A simple, complicated, impractical, long ago thing. A way to stay in touch but not connected to everyone else. Just them. But she looks like….he hates what she looks like. Hates needing to give her that levity and space after so long, but he does, he couldn’t not give her what she needs, “You know we need a secret code now-“

“Ugh.” she shakes her head. -Thank you-

“I mean, how are you going to know what-“ he continues, making a joke out of it.

Whipping around, she finds him face to face and juts her hand palm-up at waist level, “I change my mind- give it back I’m going to chuck it into the-”

“Noo,” Luke laughs, pushing the hand down and pulling away, making a show of keeping it high out of her reach, “this is mine now, no take backs, Chica. Possession is nine-tenths of the law”

“I hate you.” Penelope glares before spinning back to march off.

“I don’t think you do.” Luke teases, jogging after a second to catch up to her quickly escaping form.

“Well you’re wrong, like always, and I do.” she says over her shoulder.

“This pager says otherwise” he sings, letting her go, watching her go.

“That pager will never say anything, so have fun carrying it around,” are the final words in the discussion, but a secret smile fixes itself to two sets of lips, smiles that would stay the rest of the day.

#flufftober 2023 #day 23 trinket #criminal minds #garvez #luke alvez #penelope garcia #post cm:e #fluff #light hearted #esoteric technology #snails tales #ao3

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altschmerzes · 10 months

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if anyone has cats they would like to send me pics of i would appreciate that a lot i am having a very very fucking weird one right now and don’t really know what to do with myself.

the short version is: my dad died today. the long version is..... probably an absolutely ridiculous overshare but. like i said. don’t know what to do with myself so i’m just. idk im talking out loud i guess, putting this Somewhere. it’s. heavy, sorry.

so the post i made recently celebrating seven years going no-contact with my abusive father who kind of ruined my life in a lot of really serious ways i am likely never really going to completely recover from? yeah. he had a stroke earlier this year that sounded like it was pretty serious and that was a lot to process and then i just got the call from my mom that he had a heart attack while fishing with a friend this afternoon and died. apparently it was fast, which is good. he was fifty-five and i guess he’d just hit two years sober.

my mom sounded really upset on the phone, and i guess she’d only found out less than ten minutes before she called me, she just told my sister, who lives with her, and my sister went off to take a shower (read: have a breakdown in the shower), and then called me immediately and said “your dad died” as soon as i answered with a hey, what’s up. they’d been divorced for twenty years and he was a fucking bastard but i guess your ex-husband and your kids’ dad who you’ve recently been reconnecting with and spending time with again dies and you’re probably gonna have some strong feelings about it. my sister is in pieces, they’d reconnected and were spending a lot more time together. in their text they said ‘i barely got any time with him and i’m fucking heartbroken’.

and because he has no other living relatives my 23 year old sister who is uh, in a fragile state on the best of days, is gonna have to deal with all of the paperwork and shit that happens when someone dies. and my sister and i’s relationship is like.... it’s complicated, to put it politely, they are very hard for me to be around for a lot of reasons, but i wouldn’t wish that on them and i wish i was able to take on that stuff if only because i’m almost through law school and i’m the least emotionally invested in the man and it just would be easier for everyone if i did the paperwork and whatever.

and then there’s my brother, because i have a brother, who i barely talk about because it hurts to think about him. he’s nine years older than me and he’s my half-brother by my dad and after my dad went to prison on drug charges i didn’t see him for thirteen years. and then a long time after a brief visit too. he’s got two kids now, and for a while there we were in sporadic contact, but i haven’t seen or heard from him since i was maybe nineteen. and my mom was just kind of rambling on the phone about how she had to find my brother’s mother’s contact information because someone had to tell him and because i’m all the way out here and i can’t DO anything else i told her i’d find her and tell her what happened and get everyone’s contact information for whatever’s coming next so. now i’ve texted my brother, who is a living wound in my life, for the first time in like six years. he hasn’t answered yet and according to his mother he’s ‘devastated.’ so.

i’m not. i’m not devastated. i don’t know what i feel honestly. once i tracked her down on facebook and dealt with all of that i just sort of sat at the kitchen table and stared at the wall for a long time. listened to the mountain goats song ‘pale green things’ and drifted in a weird numb void. i’m not.... sad. not about him anyway. i don’t know what i am. i have a very difficult time articulating my feelings on a good day, fuck i mean i have a hard time identifying my feelings on a good day. some combination of autism and cptsd and the sense that if i have feelings someone is going to die, maybe me, maybe someone else. if i have feelings, i get someone killed, is the thought process, which is a long story but. is extremely hard to work around, especially when i don’t see the point because taking active steps to make my feelings known and make them something someone else has to deal with is like. what’s the point. why do that.

so i don’t know what i feel. i feel strange and distant and not-sad and kind of angry at my sister and brother for some fucking reason and guilty and resentful and relieved. there’s some relief in there i think, because it’s like. i don’t know. i had the thought earlier, ‘oh thank gd’ which is. it sounds heinous but i now i’ll never have to choose between attending my sister’s wedding and not having to see him there, if i go back to my hometown and feel like there’s a monster stalking me from the shadows i can just tell myself the fucking monster’s fucking dead and he can’t ever hurt me again. nobody in my family is ever going to be able to pressure me to just talk to him already, just move on and let it go. reconcile, forgive, get past it.

(i don’t know how much any of them know. i have never discussed this with my parents or my sister and i never plan to. we’ve talked about some things in vague euphemisms and talked around it even more. when he got out of prison and then when he was done stalking us which he did for a while and got some help i guess and was doing a bit better my sister wanted to reconnect with him and i didn’t. i had panic attacks, i was terrified, i didn’t want anything to do with him and i didn’t want my sister anywhere near him and i remember all my mom had to say to me about that was ‘if it makes you feel any better, i could take him.’ i don’t know what to... i just don’t know.)

i dunno. i don’t know. when i visited my hometown and stayed at my parents’ house (my grandmother’s house, when i say ‘parents’ i mean her and my mom generally) i slept with a knife on my bedside table and a plan of how to get out the window because i’d heard that he’d started dropping by sometimes and i was too scared to sleep otherwise. he terrorized me. i have very few memories from before he went to prison and most of them are of being terrified for my life. of being chased through the house, staying above the garage because for some reason we couldn’t be in the house that night. sexual abuse that i can still barely handle thinking about. he haunts my nightmares regularly, even though i haven’t seen or spoken to him in seven years, didn’t see or talk to him very often before that. i have panic attacks in my sleep dreaming about him, enough that i have to be medicated for it.

he’s a person who was deeply troubled and sick and suffered unimaginably in his life and it’s just.... i know all of that and i just. i don’t know. i hope he’s at peace i guess. i know he never was when he was alive. i know i’m not at peace most of the time, largely because of the shit he did to me. i don’t know. i don’t know. my dad’s dead.

#abuse cw #death cw #i dont know man. i dont even know.#csa mention #very briefly but. yeah. i dunno.#this is heavy sorry #long post

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eoieopda · 1 year

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[2k drabblepalooza] — CLOSED AS OF 4/14/23

this is belated because i wanted to hammer out some wips first, but now i have writer’s block, so the time has come for….

⭐️ a lil milestone event ⭐️

it’s been almost five months (to the day!) since i started this blog, and y’all have truly been a saving grace at a sad/bad/weird time of my life. in celebration of, well, you, i’m going to be re-opening my requests ❗️solely for this purpose❗️

unlike my 1k drabblepalooza, this event isn’t centered around songs that you submit. this time, i am giving myself the challenge of wrecking your bias 👀

so, what does that mean for you? great question — thanks for asking!

on or off anon, give me: the bts member you tend to see/read the fewest fics about + your favorite fanfic trope* examples include: only one bed, forced proximity, fake dating, cuddling for warmth, etc.

rules & limitations

your request must follow the theme ☝🏻

member x reader only — sorry!

unless i’m told otherwise, i tend to write gn!reader. please specify a preference if you have one.

i’m willing to do most tropes; however, i reserve the right to pass on something if i’m not interested in it, don’t feel qualified to write it, can’t make it work in drabble format, or if i’ve already done that trope with that member too many times.

you can absolutely include details about the scenario you have in mind! if not, i’ll just wing it, lol.

unless i’m told otherwise, requests will not include smut.

my blog is 18+ as is, but if your request involves smut, you absolutely must 1) request off anon, or 2) PM me so i can verify that you are indeed old enough to ride this ride!

i will get to these requests as i have time & brain juice. please, please, please do not ask if i got it, if i’m done yet, when xyz will be posted. that’s a major turn off 🙅🏻‍♀️

i do not write: a/b/o, sex pollen (because i don’t fully understand it tbh,) hybrid, fantasy, anything non-con or involving minors.

there’s currently no deadline for submissions, but i will eventually become overwhelmed and close my requests again. you’ll know when i do!

❗️please read this before submitting ❗️

my requests are only open for purposes of this event. please don’t just submit whatever it is you want. i will be deleting requests that do not follow the theme & rules! the point of this challenge is to deal with what i think is a weeeeee bit of over-saturation. i want bangtan on equal-footing as far as content goes, so i will be mindful of that as i choose requests to fill.

phew! 😮‍💨 okay. now that that’s all sorted….

thank you! i love you! happy hunger games, sweet beans! 💕

#jade’s requests #jade’s drabbles #2k drabblepalooza #hi welcome to chilis

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iwannawritelots · 1 year

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BE: Aesthetically Pleasing

Originally written May 2023

AO3 - I usually post here first!

Part 1 Part

Human AU Masterlist

Characters Active: Simeon (23), Asmodeus (16), Satan (1)

Ship(s): pre-established Simeon/Barbatos

Trigger/content warnings: none

Headcanons/notes from the author: hehe…

Brief Blurb: Simeon can’t get their mind off of the pretty goth that keeps showing up at work.

Taglist: @graveswrites

“Simeon, is everything okay?”

The person in question snapped out of their trance, giving Asmodeus their full attention. “Whatever do you mean?”

“You’re twirling your hair around your finger and spacing out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you do that before.” Asmodeus rubbed Satan’s back when he began to whine, and resumed bouncing him on her hip.

Simeon quickly took their hand away from their hair, face growing hot as they began to feel silly about it. “I… haven’t really had my hair this long before, so that’s probably why. Sorry.”

Tilting her head, Asmodeus asked, “Wait, why are you sorry?”

“I… don’t know. I thought maybe you were pointing it out because it was bad.”

“No, of course not.” Asmodeus waved away the thought, then quickly returned her hand to Satan’s back to soothe him. “I thought maybe something was wrong since you are so spacey.”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

After a moment of quiet, Asmodeus asked, “Then… what is it?”

Simeon snorted and shook their head. “You’re nosey.” They glanced at the pot on the stove, then added, “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you, but you can’t tell Lucifer.”

“Ooh, keeping secrets from Luci?”

Rolling their eyes, Simeon told them, “Sure.” Asmodeus switched the hip Satan was resting on, then leaned against the counter. Suddenly more nervous, Simeon began to fiddle with their hair again. “That wealthy regular brought a friend with him yesterday.”

“Oh…?”

“Yeah. A really… intimidating and pretty goth person. They were really aesthetically pleasing, so I’ve been thinking about them a lot.” Simeon huffed and crossed their arms. “Then he brought them with him again today too. The beautiful goth is just… so polite, too.” They shifted their weight and averted their gaze, realizing how weird it probably sounded when they talked about it. “I dunno why I’m so infatuated. It’s strange.”

Asmodeus giggled and shrugged. “Knowing you, it’s probably not going to become anything romantic. Maybe you just have a squish.”

“Probably.” Simeon sighed and stared off for a moment. “They’re so pretty. I really don’t want to stare at them like some sort of weirdo, but just…”

“Yeah, that’s how I feel about Solomon.” Asmodeus rolled her eyes when Satan screeched with protest at her taking her hand away for a second to push her hair out of her face. “I mean, I doubt you’re being creepy on purpose, if at all, but you tend to be pretty obviously nervous when someone is attractive to you.”

Simeon frowned and turned away to focus on the food they were cooking. "I do not."

“Uh huh. And I don’t go to parties.” Asmodeus walked to the dining table and set Satan in the high chair, sighing when he shrieked and sobbed with displeasure. “I hope you try to befriend this person. They obviously interest you.”

Flustered, Simeon told them, “Th-That’s probably unlikely, since it’s an employee-customer situation.”

“If you say so,” Asmodeus sang out, petting Satan’s hair. The baby simmered down a bit from his fit, crying turning into sniffles. “Do you think Satan will calm down if I give him some crackers?”

“Maybe.” Simeon left the stove for a moment to dig around in the snack cupboard. “Does he still like the strawberry ones?”

“Yeah.”

Simeon passed the crackers over to Asmodeus and returned to their cooking. They couldn’t help wondering if she was right… As they stirred the food and stared into nothing, Simeon thought maybe it wouldn’t hurt to seek friendship from the pretty goth.

#butterfly effect #obey me! human au #obey me! one master to rule them all #obey me! nightbringer #simeon #asmodeus #baby satan #simebatos #simebarb #iwannawritelots

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joonberriess · 6 months

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okay so, I’ve never fingered myself I’ve only ever had an orgasm through clitoral stimulation. Idk I’ve just never tried it, im still a virgin because although there’s a roster of guys that wanna fuck I just don’t want to. I’m not that naive that I think that my first time will be all sweet & romantic like the movies (at the same time im a firm believer of if he wanted to .. he would) but I just want to have romantic feelings for the guy I choose to have sex with yk? I feel like I’ve waited too long to just give it up to a random yet at the same time sometimes I do have the urge to do just that bcs im 23 & I feel like it’d be so awkward to meet a guy at my age & be like yeah im a virgin. I’m not cocky at all but I know im not ugly, so when I confide in the few people & tell them im still a virgin .. they look at me like im lying or somethings wrong with me. I literally did not mean to go into that much detail but I feel like some background would be good to my actual question😭so today I was masturbating (only rubbing my clit) & im wet obvi💀 & I know it sounds like a lie but my finger sorta just went there & I was shocked because I’ve never had that happen. So then I move away but then I go back bcs im a curious little shit so I go in like a knuckle deep & I was feeling around & im just there like okay this is new 😵‍💫 I managed to get my middle finger in & sort of feel around .. then im like shit im already here so I start thrusting my middle finger in but tbh it didn’t feel that great?? I have pretty small fingers & I’ve never had anything inside of me before, this was literally my first time so idk if im doing it wrong or is this normal?? I tried to go as far as I can go & I stopped as soon as I felt some uncomfortable pressure. Idk why but I expected that this would be the moment I squirt bcs I’ve never squirted before but after I cum I always have this urge to go pee (im a rookie but I’ve always thought that meant you could squirt pls bare with me) I do get creamy sometimes idk if that puts me under the category of a creamer or if that’s only determined through sex with actual penetration AJDHDHRK im so glad for anon I sound like such a fucking dweeb💀💀 this was very detailed so pls ignore if you feel uncomfy I just remembered that time everyone had girl talk & it felt like a safe space & I thought I’d ask for some advice. Idk if it felt weird bcs it was my first time doing that, I did it wrong? Or maybe it’s just not for me

aaaaa it actually just depends tbh, some people may not enjoy penetration and others do. it’s nothing wrong with you or anything, just try again next time and take things slow. try buying lube it could help who knows? ofc it’s only ur first time so ofc it isn’t gonna come out like perfect or anything but take the time to get to know ur body as u explore new things!

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talenlee · 4 months

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Decemberween ’23 — The New Music From This Year

New Post has been published on PRESS.exe: Decemberween ’23 — The New Music From This Year

How do you listen to new music?

I understand it’s really common for most people to listen to music in their cars or using systems like Spotify, which I don’t like and don’t drive. That’s right, I don’t like cars and I don’t drive Spotify. I listen to podcasts when I travel, usually, and I listen to music while I work at my computer, because I want something that affects my mood while I’m doing, like, this work.

Frustratingly, just because it’s usually there and ad-free, I let Youtube throw mixes at me. Then when I’ve noticed I’ve done that enough that some songs are part of my personal lexicon, I go and acquire those songs some other way, whether bandcamp (in the case of small bands) or

I want to nakedly recommend an mp3 collection to you. You don’t need special software to manage it. You can just dump all your music in a great big heap and use the search function on any mp3 player you like to find the songs you want. You have paid for music, you have paid for the right to use it in different forms, spotify subscriptions are not paying artists and they are rent-seeking on things you can buy directly, or in many cases have already bought.

Anyway, here’s the stuff that I added to my mp3 collection this year.

The Lads are a Christian band from New Zealand I listened to as a kid. I re-found them on Youtube this year. They’d had a song that stuck in my head, an idea that I’ve been trying to stick to, which is if you need a reason to make a change in your life, anything will do. Why not make a big change on Arbor Day, a day you probably had no idea was a day on your calendar?

Arbor Day - The Lads // Arbor Day

Watch this video on YouTube

I mean this isn’t amazing music, but I like having it on hand, you know? The detritus of what we are. Not all of us were influenced by absolute bangers. Sometimes the idea that ‘you can make changes to your life for any given arbitary reason’ is a good thing and it doesn’t matter that much that I got it from a band of dorks who moved to Nashville to sing songs to megachurch kids (which is their spot now).

Sub-Radio - Stacy's Dad (Full Video)

Watch this video on YouTube

Next up, a parody song. Stacy’s Mom is a banger of a song about having a crush on an older woman (and the song doesn’t, like, go anywhere with it). Then we get a delightful genderswapped version here, which I hesitate to call a ‘parody’? It’s the same song, basically, it’s just a different orientation with the same comedy bent.

One thing I do find a little awkward is, now I’m starting on being ‘in my forties’ (man that feels weird to say), hearing someone talk about ‘is he learning about the Civil War’ like – so what?! So what if that’s a thing that interests me!? How did I get read like that?

AJJ - "Brave As A Noun & Survival Song" (KVRX Library Session)

Watch this video on YouTube

The band Andrew Jackson Jihad, for, perhaps sensibly obvious reasons, changed their name recently. This meant they made an announcement on Youtube at some point and I noticed that (‘AJJ on their name announcement?’ what did AJJ mean?) and that meant I listened to some of their music, annnnnd I like it! I’m told they make Folk Punk, which sounds to me like nonsense but I also am firmly of the opinion that there’s nothing quite so punk as making very specific categorisations that everyone around you must adhere to, right?

BANG! - Last Life AMV

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Thanks to the Last Life Youtube series of Minecraft Hardcore Lets Plays –

What are you laughing at –

I wound up listening to some cool music that was made as part of animatics by cool fans of the series, too. And while sometimes that meant learning about something cool like the band AJR (who are not the same thing as AJJ, thanks file sorting),

Curses - Last Life Animation

Watch this video on YouTube

Or something interestingly indie and creepily jazzy, like The Crane Wives (and I’m sure I’ve shared this before, surely it was in my list of new music last year),

W.I.T.C.H | Double Life SMP

Watch this video on YouTube

Or maybe even something else normal people like like Devon Cole’s WITCH, it did also mean I wound up appreciating a song…

Sharks | Life Series Animatic

Watch this video on YouTube

By Imagine Dragons of all people.

Animatics are great. They recontextualise songs and the recontextualisation means that now I have a story for these songs to be about and not just, like, Imagine Dragons’ latest car ad.

The Killers - A Pirate Looks At Forty (Jimmy Buffett Cover) HQ

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I think I shared this earlier this year too, but it’s the Killers cover of A Pirate Looks At Forty. I may be a bit overly maudlin about anything to do with Jimmy Buffett this year, since this is now the point at which I know that he’s had to leave the party.

Yofukashino Uta

Watch this video on YouTube

Also, this year I listened to a bunch of Anime OPs, because I was watching more anime this year. And the anime this year that I liked just happened to have OPs that I think are great, so I added them to my list. In the vein of ‘sounds like just cool music you might seem international and interesting for listening to,’ there’s the band Creepy Nuts! They do Japanese hiphop and, in addition to the songs from the Call of the Night anime soundtrack, you should also check out Song for the Prodigies.

Summer Time Render - Opening | FULL HD [1080p]

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The opening of Summer Time Render sounds to me like jangly folk rock? I think people call it College Rock? Problem here is I don’t even know this song’s name. It’s just The Opening To Summer Time Render, which is my favourite anime of the year, like it just absolutely whips ass, so I hear this song and I remember how that show makes me feel, from its first embarrassing opening of boobs and butts to its astoundingly sweet conclusion.

"Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury" Textless version of opening "The Blessing" by YOASOBI

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The opening to Witch from Mercury has a similar effect, but I really like the way it has this, like, descending step effect? The staggering of it, it sings like dancing, and I love the way it feels like it’s responding to its own anxieties.

I have no idea what this song is saying.

TVアニメ『リコリス・リコイル』ノンテロップOPムービー｜ClariS「ALIVE」

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I think that the opening and ending of Lycoris Recoil whip ass. There’s this thing the opening does which I think anime openings love doing, which is this sort of crooning that turns into a high, wide arc and then abruptly stops and regathers its footing?

Paripi Koumei Ep5 ED

Watch this video on YouTube

Perhaps obviously, Ya Boy Kongming, an anime about music in Shibuya District, has nothing but bangers in its soundtrack. Everything, even the song by the Evil Bad Band That Sucks are good, but I especially like this cover of Kibun Jojo for the ending that adds instrumentation and a rap verse as the series progresses.

Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie - Opening | Honey Jet Coaster

Watch this video on YouTube

On the other hand, Honey Jet Coaster is just… like, energetic sugary pop music, it feels completely artificial and I have no reason to recommend it. Much like everything to do with Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie you kinda have to get something out of it on a very superficial level, because there is nothing going on here.

(That’s a lie, the song is voiced as if it’s a boyfriend singing about Shikimori, but the vocalist is a woman who sounds like Shikimori, and it describes how Shikimori is a ‘better boyfriend than him’ but you know, so what.)

The Truck Got Stuck - Corb Lund

Watch this video on YouTube

Now a hard swerve from songs I absolutely cannot sing to songs I absolutely can. I learned about Corb Lund this year! He’s a Canadian country musician, who I learned about after a comedian who appeared on Behind The Bastards told a story about how one time, a racist on a neo nazi website reviewed his set he did opening for Corb Lund, and was so upset he realised that Corb Lund might not be racist enough for him.

Anyway, truck got stuck.

Roll Northumbria (Loud Version)

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Continuing Canadian songs I can sing along to, The Dreadnoughts dropped an album late last year, lot of good songs but especially good is this version of Roll Northumbria, which is a song I already liked, but this time rendered as a big loud stomping song.

Sidle Up

Watch this video on YouTube

Also, something that a lot of bands I like have in common is how good they get when they say, turn forty and stop carrying around a focus on high school. That’s what happened to the Littlest Man Band, which is actually a spinoff band from Reel Big Fish, a 90s Ska Band One And A Half Hit Wonder. I have liked Reel Big Fish all through the years, but on a few tracks, as a gag, they let their member Scott Klopfenstein just do a wholly soulful rendition of a totally different style.

And uh, then he went and made his own band that just does those songs and they’re great.

blink-182 - ONE MORE TIME (Official Video)

Watch this video on YouTube

Talking about things from the 90s that got better as they matured, Blink 182 have a single this year. Apparently it’s part of an album I have no interest in listening to, but this single, on its own, phew. Just fantastic vibes and a real improvement on their baseline sound. It’s Blink 182, but with just a lot more musical competence and fewer mangled half-rhymes.

I thought after I was done with single paragraph summaries I’d go back through the article and bulk it out with more details, to get up to the word count I wanted. Turns out I’m at one and a half times my word count, oops!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Decemberween2023

#Decemberween 2023 #Media

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stiricidewrites · 6 days

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The Damage You Do: ch 23, pt 6

Hey look! I finally got to the yoga part of the arc named "I don't think this is a legit yoga pose" after like... tens of thousands of words...

Anyways, I decided to keep this as the same chapter, it'll just end up being super long. Also, the next week or two of updates will be shorter, because I have yoga regrets. So. Much. Research. And trying to make sure I'm describing movements in a sensical way ._.

It has been a time.

I did my best with describing the poses and using the proper terms, but I'm not promising I didn't mess anything up!

Enjoy!

Previously

“Have you done yoga before?” his dom asked, somehow managing to grab them both mats without releasing his hand.

“Huh?” wwx asked, watching that huge hand manhandle the mats. “What? Oh, uh… a bit? I had a friend who was into it when we were teens?” nhs had been ridiculously into it, actually. Still was, as far as wwx knew. He wouldn’t be surprised if the little pimp was able to do all the fancy moves… positions? He felt like there was an actual word for them? What was it…

lwj’s hand tightened around his for a moment, drawing wwx’s eyes to their clasped hands. His were tiny, compared to his dom's. Cute and petite. They would be almost girly, if he took care of them. He didn’t. Even just a few days after his mani-pedi they were already in need of some love. Broken nails and cuticles he’d ripped off. Calluses and a weird dry spot on the top of one. He supposed that taking care of his hands was technically part of his job now. lwj obviously wouldn’t want to be groped by someone who didn’t have baby soft skin everywhere! He had the money now, so maybe he should make himself an appointment?

“So, I guess I have a little experience? I might fall over, though, just so you know.” He smiled down at his dom as the man arranged their mats. “But, I mean, if you do this often, I’m gonna suck in comparison… What were you doing, before I arrived, I mean?”

“I have a standard morning routine.”

“Oh?” wwx had never had a routine. They gave him hives—not that Wen Qing believed him when he said so. More, he just got itchy inside? Which was totally hives adjacent, if you asked him. It was like all the monotony of the routine was rotting his insides. He had a bit of a schedule now, with his kid, but he was always throwing in whatever spontaneity he could. Even then, his schedule wasn’t his, it was A-Yuan’s, and that alone was enough to calm his twitchy brain down. To make it chill and enjoy the randomness of the things he could control.

lwj hummed, listing off his routine. Get up. Weigh himself. Get dressed. Drink some sort of fancy, healthy green juice. Go for a short run. Exercise his brain—that one wwx was interested in, and the first few minutes of their exercise comprised of lwj listing off the puzzles he played every morning as they relaxed into the mat and opened up their chest… or had the other man said back? Hips? wwx had already lost track.

“I eat breakfast after that. Sometimes, I plan my day, other times I go straight into exercise. The exercise varies day to day. Today, I was doing calisthenics.”

“So—” wwx broke off in a groan as his Cat-Cowed himself, back rounding and arching as he moved. Fucking hell did that feel good. He didn’t stretch nearly enough, man. “So, in other words, I’ve completely messed up your schedule, Mr. Lan?”

The man hummed as he pushed himself gracefully up, motioning for wwx to stay down. “It is fine,” he said as he leaned over his body, positioning his arms and legs, his hands and feet, into a slightly different configuration. “Flatten your hands. Balance your weight equally between your limbs.”

“Alright,” wwx squeaked as he tried to flatten out his palms, tried to ignore lwj’s weight hovering over him. They wanted to resist, his fingers slowly dragging upwards before he had to remind them to stay on the fucking mat.

#fanfic #mdzs fanfiction #wangxian #stiricidesmobji #dark lan zhan

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reasonablerodents · 6 months

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Who even is this guy?

I’m reasonablerodents, hotchreid truther and general purveyor of depravity. You can call me whatever you like as long as it sounds cool.

I basically only write pure pwp because apparently I’m unhinged about these guys. So if you’re under 18 then this is your warning: there is truly nothing for you here, I implore you to leave.

Basic Info

-23

-He/Him

-Writer seems too fancy for the things which spew from my hands but I write shit I guess

-Please talk to me about my favourite fictional fbi men/send ideas and requests/shout at me for corrupting the internet idk <3

-You can find me on Ao3 here!

-Drabble request event post here!

Writing stuff and tags under the cut!

Tags

#he squeaks- posts I’ve made

#asks- unsuprisingly, asks

#puppy my love my life- puppy spencer content

#my fic- what it says on the tin

#my art- you’re never gonna guess what this is

#unreasonablerodents- hard kink/dead dove/etc so you can blacklist it easily. or find it all in one place lmao

Feel free to request mini fics/blurbs if you have a hotchreid idea on your mind! If you’re here I assume you already know the sort of things I like writing, but I’ve put some things I will absolutely write and things I won’t at the bottom if you’d like to check!

Over half my writing is mean Hotch bc it’s fun, so uhhh… always remember to check the tags bc sometimes it gets weird. Sorry Spencer I love you really xxx

I’m working on making a fic masterlist over here but I’m lazy. For now, here are the links to my kinktober weekly roundups:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4 (TBA)

Things You Will See Me Writing: PWP, mean Hotch, A/B/O, dom/sub, most kinks tbh, emotional whump via smut, soft silly established relationship fluff, trans characters (my love my life <3)

Things You Will Not See Me Writing: Pregnancy (including in A/B/O), underage anything, SH, reader x fics, dom/top Spencer, parenting/raising kids, heterosexuality, p much any other ship unless it’s background/past

(If you’re looking at this because of my 100k words request post- I will write other ships for that! Check the post for more detail <3)

(None of these are explicitly triggers for me but I either feel uncomfortable writing them or I have 0 interest in writing them.)

#he squeaks #intro

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batmanisagatewaydrug · 2 years

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Hi. I know this doesn’t fall under the purview of sex ed, but google hasn’t been helpful and I feel like I’m going insane. I have a history of anxiety and mild paranoia and I feel like I’m blowing this out of proportion.

I take walks regularly in the same park. For the last couple months I’ve seen the same guy riding his bike there - youngish looking, I thought maybe he was a kid from the nearby high school or community college. He would sometimes yell something at me as he rode by, but i wear headphones so I didnt hear it. The last time i saw him, i actually took off my headphones and he was talking about bear tracks in the woods and offered to show them to me, which I declined and kept on about my business.

Last night, he actually got in my way, got off his bike, bowed to me and called me madam and offered me a rose. I told him i didnt want it and that this was weird, and he basically begged me to take it and started trying to play everything off like “oh I just picked a rose and thought it would be nice to give it to someone and well I saw a pretty girl and thought it should be for you.” And then rode off on his bike. I had to call my girlfriend to walk home cause I was afraid he was going to follow me.

Is this actually as creepy as it feels? Do you have resources you can direct me to for how to like. Deal with these sort of incidents? I’m 23 and I’ve never had anything remotely like this happen before. Thanks for your time, and I’m sorry, I know this isn’t the sort of ask you’re used to answering.

I mean yeah it sucks and that's annoying and unsettling even if he doesn't have any malicious intentions (which he almost certainly doesn't; the vast majority of men who do shit like this are normal dudes who just. don't realize how it comes across). it would rattle me for sure and we all know I'm an unflappably heartless bitch.

love that you made it 23 years without a dude being a pest to you while you're trying to mind your own business; congrats on that. as someone who's drawn a truly insane amount of street harassment due to the part of town where I live and work and the sheer amount of time I've spent on public transit, I recommend getting really comfortable avoiding eye contact, keeping your gaze straight ahead, and either fully fucking ignoring problem guys or getting real comfortable making them uncomfortable. say no, keep walking, headphones back in immediately if you took them out at all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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marksarmel · 1 year

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What I’ve been consuming 02/28/23

Winter refuses to let us go so we refuse to let go of our remotes! Pull up your quilted blanket dear reader and cuddle up for another episode of What I’ve Been Consuming.

TV:

The Last of Us - Boy oh boy oh boy! This show is just delivering in every sort of way. Episode 7 is another excellent episode, but a somewhat quieter one. While it doesn't share the wild emotional swings of fear and sadness as Episode 5 it still manages to strike a powerful chord. Young love is hard to capture in a realistic way, but the show creators as they’ve shown before, are more than capable of building out a strong relationship in a short amount of time. Ellie and Riley are both navigating a friendship that may be growing into something more and the fear and hope and yearning that comes along with this is so deftly handled by both actors that it almost makes me yearn for that time again. (Can I skip the heartbreak though?) As most game players know this romance will never see a natural end, but it’s the journey that matters most here. Quit reading what I’m writing and just go watch it.

Deadwood - I’m finally getting back to rewatching/finishing this series. I had started watching it years ago when it was originally airing, but never finished it. Then I tried to watch it again when the movie was coming out, but I was once again unable to. After recently finishing Episode 8 of Season 1 I finally feel like I’m on a roll here. This show is such a fully realized and unvarnished Western that it quite possibly erases any romanticism about the Wild West. That time was dirty, merciless and filled with more cursing than a high school bathroom. Deadwood is not a nice place to live and I barely want to visit, but seeing how there is a small spark of soot-covered goodness here, I’ll pop my head in just to see who survives and what’s left of their moral fortitude once the dust has settled.

One-Punch Man - I recently finished up Season 1 and found myself pleasantly enthralled by the eponymous character. At first I found him somewhat annoying, but I gradually came around to him. For me the real power of this series is in all the amazing characters. They’re all just so distinctly drawn and designed that I can’t wait to see what new quirky characters show up next. This is why I love anime, the weird crazy characters that always show up in these strange far away worlds. More of this please!

Movies :

The Good Nurse - Man was this just a scary movie. It’s not a horror movie by any means, but by the ending text crawl your pretty shook at the absolutely cold hearted corporate overlords that are running hospitals. Eddie Redmayne plays the titular “good nurse” with a dark cloud of dread hidden beneath a cheery helpful facade. Jessica Chastain is also the titular good nurse. She is also the brave overworked mother who ultimately exposes him. The movie is dark and slow moving, but you can’t escape it once it begins. It’s all just so simple and sinister. And as the closing supers reveal, the ultimate horror is a lot more than one “good” nurse.

Night Teeth - This was a decently fun vampire movie. It doesn’t really bring anything new to the genre, but it is slickly produced and uses its money well. It seems more focused on the love story that develops throughout the movie and thereby less interested in what the movie is supposedly about, which is vampires. There’s the typical genre tropes; a truce between humans and vampires that is under threat of breaking, a hidden vampire underworld and warring factions of both human and vampire. It looks slick, but I found myself more interested in some of the side characters who are portrayed by more magnetic actors in Sidney Sweeney and Megan Fox. Alfie Allen also appears, but feels underused. It’s good to see Debby Ryan here, but she is underused as well as she is stuck with playing a lovelorn young vampire. Lucy Fry, (who I completely did not recognize from Bright) does well here as the vampire BFF who is nothing but trouble. Overall a decent vampire flick that had potential to be a lot better.

Slayers - Am I on a vampire kick here? It’s looking that way. I stumbled across it while browsing around Hulu and it caught my eye when I saw that Thomas Jane was in it. I didn’t have high expectations for this one and boy was I proven right. There’s a lot of seemingly good ideas going on here, but other movies do it so much better. Fun video game style supers? Go watch Scott Pilgrim. A grim depiction of modern day social media obsessed teens? Go on Tik Tok! Or Twitch or Only fans! A haunted vampire hunter on a mission of revenge? Watch Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Or Blade, hell even the third one is better than this. Ugh I feel bad that Thomas Jane got suckered into this one.

Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania - Whoo what a fun ride this is! It’s good to be back with this crew. I do miss Scott’s regular crew and although Michael Peña’s Luis is hilarious I missed David Dastmalchian’s Kurt the most, but bonus he does voice a new character for this movie. I’ll leave it to you dear reader to find his voice. Paul Rudd is consistently good in this role, but he does get a bit of a backseat here as Michelle Pfeifer and Jonathan Majors do steal the show. Majors does wonders with what is a thinly written character. Pfeifer also makes lemonade out of almost nothing here, but her constant reluctance to talk about the Quantum realm quickly gets tiring. For me the real meat of this movie is in all the minor characters and the world design. From the amazing looking rebels to the world itself I was absolutely enthralled. I know people are divided on Modok’s design, but for me his humorous and honestly sad arc somewhat made up for it. He’s a tough character to recreate in live action and while it wasn’t great, it was more than good. The story moves briskly and never really lags. It does suffer somewhat from not giving Kang much of an introduction or purpose other than world (or in this case multiversal) domination, but again Majors is such a good actor that he makes it all seem worthwhile. This is a fun movie very much in the Marvel style and one that keeps the Marvel train chugging along for better or worse. I personally don’t need all my movies to be masterpieces of the genre. Sometimes a good movie is just that, a good movie.

The Knock at the Cabin - As has been for awhile, an M. Night Shyamalan movie is always a toss-up. You’re either going to be caught completely unaware by the twist and love it or be left completely underwhelmed. I actually fall somewhere in-between where I don’t ever really hate his movies. (I never watched Avatar as I believed all the reviews and given that it wasn’t his own concept I didn’t feel the need to see it anyways. I also have yet to watch Old.) This one I was pretty hyped for as I love me some Bautista! This movie sets an uneasy mood from the start. Slow dread seeps into every frame. Once we get inside the house, the dread comes with us and doesn’t let up until the end. Bautista is indeed good and the three other strangers, Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Abby Quinn are also all good. They represent a group trying to save the world, but to accomplish this must force a family of three to make a decision that seems drawn from an especially torturous Twilight Zone episode. While I don’t want to give away the ending, you’ll either love it or you won't, which, as I said, is par for the course. See this movie for the masterful way Shyamalan builds dread and fear and wonder. Your mileage may vary on everything else.

#media consumption #movie review #Tv review #watching tv #watching movies #the last of us #knock at the cabin #deadwood #night teeth #slayers #Ant man and the wasp #ant man #the wasp

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crystalelemental · 1 year

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With the turn of the new year soon upon us, now is as good a time as any to present another rendition of my favorite sync pairs. There are a lot now, but we’re keeping it to 25 to make sure it’s interesting.

25) Nanu. Nanu’s such a fun unit. Prior to his grid, the discovery of Screech/Bite utility kept him in a great position for F2P clears, supporting all sorts of threats like Kahili and Bugsy, or Dark-type pals like Masked Royal or Sidney. I find myself constantly going to Nanu as a third partner. But. I’d be lying if I said I found him particularly consistent. Screech is good, but often Leer feels just as valuable. Bite only getting Aggravation 1 means 40% which isn’t great, and worse is tied to getting crits so he demands crit support even if his partner doesn’t.

24) Champion Iris. I feel bad about it. But C!Iris has dropped a lot. So bad they took away her Champion designation. Now she’s just Alt Iris. It’s a tough life. I think what happened here is, when you have a favorite for like over a year, eventually you reach the point where you want to try out other units. That’s kinda what happened here, I think. She’s still good and fun, but nothing new has developed for her so I’m kinda like yeah, time to try other stuff. Also there are a ton of Dragons, and I find myself really wanting to try those out instead, so she just doesn’t see much play. Add in that she can be frustrating to work in Gauntlet sometimes, requiring higher-end tools than I’d like to utilize, and it’s...tough.

23) New Year Sabrina. I still really like Sabrina as a character, but I will admit that unlike a Jasmine, Caitlin, or even Roxanne, Masters hasn’t really done anything all that interesting with Sabrina, who often feels very uninteresting. Perhaps that’s why I’ve kinda meandered away from her a bit. I still love the New Years alt, and find her traits fantastic...but I also have to admit she’s not doing much anymore. I don’t get excited busting her out like I once did. I blame competition. Special Attack/Crit is a nice niche, but she’s decisively the worst option given how inconsistent crit rate is. Her other buff skills are nice, but similarly inconsistent. The one thing she does have is Endure, but now so does Winter Jasmine, who is way more consistent and useful and also I like her better. So I feel bad. Because I do love this alt. But she’s definitely dropped in the rankings.

22) SC Lillie. If you can believe it. I do love Lillie, and I think this outfit’s adorable. But also it’s...it’s just her original Nihilego cosplay in a different color. I really think part of it is just that the outfit’s kinda boring. Because otherwise, she’s a fantastically efficient special attack/crit buffer. Who sees less use than SS Kris and SC Jasmine. And often goes unused. I feel weird about it. Because she’s great utility, great design, great character. But I’m rarely like...extremely hyped about bringing her in. Not like the others.

21) Candice. Candice is so much fun. Like, as the original Common Grid leader, Candice was a shining beacon of hope for others to get similarly blessed grids, and also like someone who’d probably fall to like mid-tier performance. She...did not do that. In fact she’s still one of the best. What’s more interesting is that she’s gone from just really good, to kinda absurd? Like, her sync nuke can handle a lot of Gauntlet stages with minimal support. Despite Fire-type weakness, she’s handled Entei and Moltres. It’s just fun to see what kind of nonsense Candice can pull off.

20) Roxanne. My girl. Roxanne’s one of my favorite gym leaders, and despite being a common, Roxanne gets a ton of use. The Endure effect was a beautiful thing to get in tandem with how much she buffs. I feel like Roxanne isn’t particularly flashy as a unit, but what she does have is tremendous consistency. She’s useful in almost every game mode, and performs well every time I bring her out.

19) Anniversary Lillie. “Woah, what happened?” Same thing with C!Iris. But also worse, because her gimmick is kinda bad. Piercing Blows has landed on “Not that useful” in my eyes, due to how hard it hurts DPS. And her sync is such a joke that she’s the worst sync damage among Ghost-types if she misses Super Preparation 4. It’s just...sad. And at this point I find myself more excited to see what Shauntal’s grid looks like than running Lillie again. I know a lot of people feared it, and wanted it not to happen...but I did want 5/5 Master Fair grids. I wanted Lillie to get what she deserved. Because this alt is really pretty, it’s a top tier pairing, and conceptually I love how it operates. It’s just not what it used to be anymore.

18) Palentine’s Dawn. Palentine’s Dawn has fallen on hard times. I still love her. The design is great, I love me a good debuffer, but she’s...okay, she’s entirely outclassed now. Lucian is significantly more consistent, and even alleviates all gauge issues for free. Palentine’s Dawn cannot compete with Lucian’s abilities. It’s kind of funny just how hard he took over with just one move. Dawn still has her utility, it’s just a lot rarer to see her used over Lucian.

17) Kahili. Among flying types, I never really expected to gravitate toward Kahili. I always liked her design, but like most of Gen 7, she didn’t get much time. Also Toucannon is anathema; my darling Pikipek evolved into this and I’m still sour. But here we are, with one of my favorite Flying-type damage dealers to run. I think it’s the set. Massive sync damage with Super Preparation on the side, or Defense Crush on Peck to really mess up Gauntlets. She’s far from a world-beater, but I love getting Kahili to work.

16) Winona. Another Flying girl, apparently I have a type? Winona’s always been a top utility unit, and after grid, that’s been expanded to ludicrous extremes. While the lack of MPR on Rain Dance hurts, Winona ultimately gets a lot to justify her use regardless. Hurricane DPS is perfectly sufficient for most Flying-weak stages, and her sync nuke is pretty good when supported. Granted, “supported” means SS Kris and Anni Skyla, but it’s super fun to watch her go. Without that, the utility of Rain and Air Slash’s 60% flinch rate is divine. Add in a trainer move that buffs speed for gauge control, and I legitimately find Winona more valuable than May. I recognize May is far stronger and has MPR, but I find myself going to Winona every time. She’s just great, and I love her.

15) SC Diantha. Unlike a lot of others, there hasn’t really been strict competition for Diantha’s role as a favorite Fighting-type. Diantha’s remained top pick for a good, long while, but I’m still enjoying breaking her out. The ability to dominate any Gauntlet stage helps too. She’s just so ridiculously good.

14) SS Lyra. I really, really love this unit. Lyra’s outfit is adorable, and I love the added lore they give, setting it up as a dancer outfit from a prior era that was associated with Celebi. And the battle performance. I was supremely underestimating her. Guaranteed flinch didn’t, and still doesn’t, feel like anything special. Guaranteed Sleep is a thing with comparable effect, and it’s super janky thanks to consistently high resistance rates and single-target effects that mostly mess up timing. Why would flinch be any different? And the answer is...because Lyra’s flinch is a passive, that allows her to queue another move before it activates. Resulting in guaranteed continuation of your gameplay flow. Lyra...actually is the perfect utility tool. Barring Gauntlet stages that are immune to flinch, Lyra’s a win condition on her own. It’s great.

13) SS Dawn. Nothing’s really changed here either, but I do want to reiterate, I love that it’s based off storybook princes she wanted to be like. Something about that is adorable to me. I will admit that as much as I adore the alt, I haven’t been using her as much. I feel bad about it. She’s great, but I’ve been taken with using worse offensive threats, and Dawn doesn’t help those out as much.

12) SC Hilda. Similar to Diantha but more extreme. Rock is hard to shop for. Fighting at least has the occasional “I’m gonna try out Bruno” reaction, with the possibility of Wally if I ever wanted. But Hilda is uncontested. There is no other Rock-type. Every common I’ve tried is terrible. We really need BP or Lodge Roxanne to save that type for F2P. But honestly, even if other options existed, Hilda’s supreme. A cute dress for a fun character, and one of my favorite mythical Pokemon. They’re fantastic.

11) Kris. SHE’LL KICK YOU APART, OOO. I adore Kris. Masters does such a good job with her personality, and as a unit, I always kinda liked that she was a unit who had some kind of need. But then it started to feel unfair. She was literally the only unit in the game with unsalvageable accuracy issues. Aaron was a glimmer of hope, but that just locked her into one option, which is never great. But then, the expansion. 250% sync, 50% move, fixed accuracy, can buff crit to cap by herself. Kris went from zero to hero real fast. If I liked using her before, the acquisition of the best grid expansion just made her a delight. Did you know she can easily truck Moltres with just Eggmon Blastoise? Yeah. Two uses of Rain is sufficient. She can explode the second bar, and whatever’s left of the third. She has to hold herself back from beating Moltres too hard in Bar 3 so Rain doesn’t leave. Kris is ridiculous. She’s become a go-to for all Water-weak content, and honestly content in general.

10) Lysandre. Lysandre was always a fun option to use, especially in Gauntlet where he feels like someone who cannot die. But truth be told, in the current era, Lysandre...feels ridiculous. The full 5/5 grid, which I do have thanks to early player luck, absolutely rules. Crit Strike 3 and Brainpower were perfect multiplier choices for him. The inclusion of Downside Up is goofy, but it actually lets his trainer move buff his defenses, which plays into Healthy Buffer 5. Lysandre got bulky again move damage now. And being effectively immune to defensive drops means I’m willing to bet good money he’s one of the Latios solo options now. It fixed his CS performance too. Now his sync can actually threaten, thanks to 130% more damage behind it. It’s so good.

9) SC Rosa. You want to talk about what I love? Debuffs. Sure that won’t be relevant later. Special Attack/evasion debuffs is such a neat combination, and the heavy debuffing of special defense off Seed Flare is just a delight. SC Rosa has fantastic utility and the best Grass-type damage in the game, backed by great support tools. Also, a super cute outfit, with Sky-Fome Shaymin. Which I love. This was such a good return. Rosa was overdue for an alt, given her prominence in the game, and they did not disappoint.

8) Renegade Cynthia. Still a favorite. Nothing’s really changed. Love the outfit, really love the role. Do feel like she’s less exciting than she once was. When the hype wore off, she feels more like a supporter to other Ghost-types I’m more excited about testing, but at least she maintains that relevance.

7) Winter Whitney. This may be a touch of recency bias, but Winter Whitney rules. Triple Terrain effects, spread debuffs/team buffs per attack, great flinch rate, legitimately absurd damage on sync despite Normal typing. She can even tank. She can even tank. Whitney’s just ridiculous. This feels so much more aligned to her as a character. Miltank at least got good stuff with the grid, but the HGSS rematches always gave me the impression that Whitney is actually really interesting as a trainer, given some of the strategies she employs. And Sawsbuck really feels like it fits her eclectic style.

6) Lucian. I feel so weird leaving Lucian out of the top 5, but I stand by the favoritism that happens. Truth is though, Lucian...might just be my most frequently used unit. Lucian’s such a strange case of a 1/5 unit being ideal already. Growl has that much utility. Attack and special defense drops are great, AoE is fantastic, adding in a team speed boost each use is ridiculous. The fact that he then goes on to acquire this massive sync nuke at 3/5 is just icing. Lucian’s been useful in every mode. He sets up fantastic clears in CS, explodes Gauntlet stages, and is integral to Day 1 no heal clears in Villa. It often feels like there is nothing this man cannot do.

5) Winter Jasmine. I feel like I owe Classic Red an apology for underestimating Supereffective Up Next as an applied feature. Sure, it was because the rest of his kit doesn’t impress me while Jasmine’s does, but oooh man. Jasmine is nuts. SEUN on its own slams foes, but her bulk is absurd. I have yet to see her drop. To like...anything. And she’s not even the one getting the immediate +3. The fact she had double Potion MPR or the ability to block defense debuffs, or the ability to guaranteed paralyze foes that hit her, and can stack physical or special moves up next? Jasmine’s been ridiculously fun to play. I adore her.

4) SS Cyrus. It is...hard to say this isn’t my favorite. Look, I am Gen 4 fanatic, and a ton of that is Platinum and Explorers of Sky. I loved Cyrus, I loved Darkrai, and the idea that we now live in a world where they partnered those two up? I will never be over it. It’s so perfect. Add in that he’s the most consistent Dark-type damage dealer by a mile, while also providing Zone and sleep support? Cyrus can do it all. Not at once, but still. He’s absurd, and I adore this one.

3) Halloween Caitlin. Nothing’s changed, still the best. I love Caitlin so much, and this alt is precious and devastating, and despite cries of her kit being niche, her stocks keep going up with plenty of units capping crit but not their needed offenses.

2) SC Jasmine. While Winter Jasmine is gorgeous and I love it, SC Jasmine remains my preference. This is partly just...Celesteela. Jasmine and Ampharos felt so guaranteed that it could only work against them if they didn’t do it. But putting Jasmine with my second favorite ultra beast? That was unexpected and delightful, and she’s remained a favorite since. Add in that she’s my favorite type of support, special attack/crit buffing, and can even drop special defense of the foe off a one-bar spam that guaranteed recharges the gauge it used? Jasmine’s fantastic in so many ways.

1) SS Kris. But I think Kris is still #1. I adore this alt. It’s gorgeous, it’s unbelievable role compression, it’s my favorite kind of buffing support. Kris does everything I could want for a unit, and she’s kinda become my go-to for just about everything. Even stuff that doesn’t strictly need Rain, I’ve started going to her even before Jasmine lately. She’s just so good. And the outfit’s fantastic, the pairing with Suicune is ideal. Everything about SS Kris is still the best. Top unit introduction for the year, absolutely.

#pokemon masters #favorite sync pairs

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axvoter · 2 years

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Blatantly Partisan Party Review XXXVII (federal 2022): Socialist Equality Party

Running where: Senate grouped independents in NSW (Group F), QLD (Group I), VIC (Group Y)

Prior reviews: federal 2013, federal 2016, federal 2019

What I said before: “This is the sort of party so disagreeable, so keen to condemn anyone for stepping outside of a very narrow expression of ideology, that they could split over almost anything. Why not have a split about splitting! I do not take them seriously and I never have.”

What I think this year: The worst socialist option. I’m genuinely surprised the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) are fielding candidates, albeit as grouped independents. Back in the Group Ticket Voting days, the SEP had such contempt for electoral politics that it registered donkey votes as its tickets. But here they are anyway, stumping up the cash to get on the ballot knowing full well they won’t get the 4% first-preference vote required to have their deposit returned.

You might be wondering why they are standing as independents. The Australian Electoral Commission deregistered the SEP on 23 February 2022 after a genuinely funny sequence of events (AEC notice of decision here). Legislative amendments last year raised the party membership threshold from 500 to 1,500. Many parties met this with ease, a few merged with likeminded souls, and some simply gave up. The SEP, comically, submitted a list of 700 members, less than half of what was required, and the Australian Electoral Commission got to make surely the easiest deregistration decision of all time. What did the SEP do? Protest, of course. They pled that it was utterly unreasonable for them to be expected to sign up new members in the midst of a pandemic. Now, if this were 1922 and you needed to organise town hall meetings and stump speeches to reach potential supporters, that might be reasonable. But if you cannot find enough supporters despite you and everyone else being stuck in their homes on the Internet all the time—mate, mate, that’s on you.

You might also be waiting for me to get to the point: why is this the worst socialist option? Simply put, the SEP are the cranks of the Australian socialist space. That’s saying a lot given some of the weird units out there too. The SEP are still ranting that all other left-wing parties and trade unions, including other socialist parties, are on the “pseudo-left”. It’s tedious and childish. Just because you have minor ideological disagreements does not mean everyone else is some stooge of global capital.

The SEP also love to rant against identity politics and believe other socialist parties “represent the interests of an upper middle-class layer steeped in the divisive and regressive politics of identity based on race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender”. That’s right, these brane geniouses think that attention to—pervasive! systemic!—problems surrounding e.g. racism, sexism, and misogyny is simply “divisive and regressive”. They wouldn’t know solidarity if it bit them on the bum and they are sure as shit not intersectional. Everything else must bow to their class campaign, and only once there is a dictatorship of the proletariat dare you think about doing something about sexual harassment or racial discrimination.

Oh yeah and they’re also doing the whole thing of “covid proves everything we ever said was right; even though we weren’t talking about pandemic respiratory diseases, we told you bro!”

In the past I’ve recommended a middling preference because at least they have some core principles that leftists share, even if they won’t recognise this. I’ve bumped this down because I think their behaviour is childish and their failure to even cobble together enough members shows how poorly they engage people.

My recommendation: Give Group F (NSW), Group I (QLD), or Group Y (VIC) a weak or no preference.

Website: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/23/svgy-a23.html lists the candidates and https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/13/aust-a13.html contains their election manifesto

#auspol #ausvotes #ausvotes22 #ausvotes2022 #Australian election #Australia #Election 2022 #Socialist Equality Party #SEP #Socialist Equality #socialism #socialists #weak or no preference #independent politics

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purplesurveys · 2 years

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1446

1. Do you enjoy being surrounded by neighbors, or would you be more comfortable someplace secluded? I feel like being somewhere secluded would affect me negatively. I like the vibe where I currently live, where I have neighbors but none of us feel the pressure to talk with one another and keep up ties and such.

2. Is there any sibling rivalry between you and your siblings, if you have any? I don’t think it counts as a ‘rivalry’ as it denotes some sort of active competition, but I’m not on speaking terms with my brother due to something he did a few years back.

3. Do you usually root for the good guys or the bad guys? It depends on the character. I usually do find the bad guys irritating which is a testament to their execution, but sometimes there are just villains who are so good at being bad I can’t help but root for them - like Walter White and Gus Fring from Breaking Bad, and to some extent even The Governor from The Walking Dead.

4. Are you allowed to have pets at your house? Yeah, my parents own the place so we have three dogs.

5. Have you ever lived in a trailer park? No.

6. Is there anyone that you know through the internet that you would feel comfortable meeting in person? My circle of internet friends has drastically shrunk over the years and out of the few ones I remain to have, I’d really only be comfortable meeting Aliyah.

7. Have you ever had a dream involving characters from a game/movie/television show? I rarely remember my dreams but I’m sure that has already occurred before.

8. Do you ever have dreams about people you have never even seen before? Sure. I once had a dream where I had a daughter, even though I’ve never seen whoever that baby girl was before. There was another dream of mine (it was more of a nightmare, though) where I had to witness a loved one getting shot, and I wasn’t familiar with who the perpetrator was.

9. What’s the last thing you wrote down? I had to think of a mock-up for a social media card we were planning to pitch to a client and it was just harder to describe the asset to my associate in words, so I ended up doodling the envisioned material and writing some details on it for her better understanding.

10. Do you remember any phone numbers from years ago that now belong to someone you don’t know? I don’t think so.

11. How often does your household get numbers for the wrong people? Not very often; maybe once every few months. It probably helps that not a lot of people use landline anymore.

12. Have you ever found something strange in your mailbox? We don’t have a mailbox, but generally we’ve never received anything weird.

13. Is there anything specific you need to do within the next week? Just some work-related deadlines I have to accomplish.

14. What was the last movie you got from Netflix [if you use it]? I’m not sure what you mean by ‘got,’ but the last movie I saw was called A Hard Day, but it was the Filipino version coming from the original South Korean film. I watched it with my parents this morning.

15. Are you annoyed by the increase in prices for Netflix? My dad pays the monthly subscription for our family so it doesn’t affect me.

16. Who was the last relative that came to visit you? My grandma and one of my cousins came over for my brother’s birthday.

17. Does your bedding all match? Yep.

18. Are you having company over the weekend? Nopes. I only have friends come over whenever there’s an online concert we wanna watch together, and there’s none of that happening this weekend.

19. Do people come to you a lot with their problems? Not a lot, but my friends will sometimes come to me if they want to rant or need advice on something, yes.

20. Have you/would you ever consider teaching as a career? I don’t think I ever wanted to be a teacher, even as a kid.

21. Are you most comfortable with having short hair or long hair? Ultimately, shorter.

22. Do you usually cut your hair short in the summer? Nah, my schedule when it comes to having my hair trimmed is always random.

23. Are you interested in fantasy movies/shows? No, it’s one of my least favorite genres.

24. Have you ever gone whale-watching? I think we’ve tried it before? but it wasn’t too successful. I was able to see some dolphins, though.

25. What is something that you have a large amount of? K-pop freebies (mostly replicards, stickers, and thank you notes) from all the shops I’ve purchased from over the last few months.

#survey #surveys

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