#and also. to me dome what they sense makes sense. some i feel they are saying is trying to influence the thinking in thus fandom-

[lovingseventeen]

svt being green flags early into dating

a/n: dating boys who aren’t seventeen? i don’t recommend KIDDING but it’s tough out here. ngl i wrote this in one dash bc i’ve had it with boys

- picture these hcs as the talking stage/unofficial dating era but you guys are interested in each other

seungcheol:

❥ saw a quote recently that described a man as “alpha male energy without being an incel” and i think this pertains to cheol too

❥ never let’s you pay, picks you up in his car for your dates so you don’t have to commute anywhere and to ensure you get home safe

jeonghan:

❥ teases you but never crosses a boundary

❥ makes clever jokes but they’re never the kind of “dark humor” that’s just disguised as something problematic

joshua:

❥ he’s a prince, a walking green flag even

❥ hence the princess treatment that you tend to get

❥ always offers his hand to you when you walk on anything that could be precarious

jun:

❥ he’s a little silly but he’s very aware of when is a good time

❥ knows exactly how to cheer you up depending on the situation

❥ maybe you get funny voice jun or an attentive jun gently holding your hand and asking what he could do to help

soonyoung:

❥ consistent energy towards you

❥ you see him bounding towards your date meeting spot with the biggest grin on his face - the same genuine grin as the one on your first date

wonwoo:

❥ the best listener and he’s good at following up with you so you know he cares

❥“oh yeah how did your test go? the one you kept staying up for”

❥“did you end up talking to your boss about your hours?”

❥“did you end up getting the tickets for the concert you wanted?”

jihoon:

❥ his schedule may be busy but he does try to make time for you and he communicates when he can’t

❥“i’m a little tight this week but i moved some things around so i’m free saturday night, do you want to get dinner?”

❥“our day off is coming up, are you also free that day? i was thinking spending a day at home together?”

❥ he’s a little extra sappy when he can’t free up time

❥“we’re doing our dome shows this week, i’m so sorry i can’t see you, darling”

seokmin:

❥ also has very good, enthusiastic, energy towards you

❥ loves to text you consistently without being overbearing either

❥ good mornings and good nights are precious to him

❥ tells you unsolicited updates about his day and hopes you’ll do the same

❥ i stubbed my toe - remember to be careful sometimes!

mingyu:

❥ what can i say- he never lets you do anything in the sense that he doesn’t ever want you to feel the need to lift a finger around him

❥ your steak? do you want him to cut it for you?

❥ you need to build your new bookshelf? no you don’t, he’ll do it

minghao:

❥ so casually a gentleman

❥ tends to guide you by the small of your back when you walk together (he’s also always walking on the side closest to the road)

❥ it’s kind of a nice little reminder he’s there

seungkwan:

❥ he always brings an extra something in case you need it on your dates

❥ if it’s chilly outside and you’re talking a stroll around the park, he’ll an extra pair of gloves for you or an extra scarf

❥ or if you’re doing an active date, like trying volleyball maybe, he’ll bring an extra pair of kneepads for you

vernon:

❥ maybe he’s not the best with words but he’ll always send you little recommendations

❥ whether it’s a movie, a song, or a video, it’s his way of telling you “this reminded me of you”

❥ even in most casual instances, he’s thinking about you

chan:

❥ always takes care of planning dates

❥ while of course he wouldn’t stop you from planning a date, he also really enjoys thinking of where to go and what to do so he can just show you a good time :)

#seventeen #svt #seventeen headcanons #svt hcs #scoups x you #jeonghan x you #joshua x you #jun x you #hoshi x you #wonwoo x you #woozi x you #dokyeom x you #mingyu x you #minghao x you #seungkwan x you #vernon x you #dino x you #scoups x reader #jeonghan x reader #joshua x reader #jun x reader #hoshi x reader #wonwoo x reader #woozi x reader #dokyeom x reader #mingyu x reader #minghao x reader #seungkwan x reader #vernon x reader #dink x reader

[attyattlaw]

cross posting yesterday's rambling thread for posterity and because tumblr lets me edit things. anyway this is a sorta long thing and i might add things i forgot to mention in the twt thread

i tend to draw on-model canon because im a coward + just personal preferences. but the way i convert the canon designs into my artstyle is that i take the distinct features oda gives them and then combine it with personal headcanons to complete what should look like a unique human. Starting with Trafalgar Law, who is unfortunately a bland-ass conventionally pretty boy

someone commented a while ago the law hat drawing tutorial i made a while ago didn't make much sense and i realize its bc of the specific way i draw law's face: heart shaped (ba-dum-tss). That meaning, a narrow chin widening into a mild defined jaw, wide cheekbones, and up to his know-it-all brain dome.

given that, the pudgy guitar pick shape of his head i mentioned here should make a lot more sense.

i don't think this design point is unique to me, as most conventional pretty anime boy gets given jaws like this. a lot of law artists tend to veer into this head shape. just how life be sometimes. other points: flat, thick eyebrows is bc im a hairy gal and i need to feel better about myself.

Killer gets to be more interesting, because he shouldn't be considered conventionally attractive. my idea behind killer's is that those individual features is smth he would be insecure with enough to hide himself in a helmet but i draw him with all the love in the world actually. i'd like to think its how kid sees him or yknow, law, bc he's my kin assigned blorbo and maybe you ship lawkill as a guilty pleasure too i mentioned before (and ruined people's days) when i said whenever i draw killer he looks like griffith before i put on his goatee. the upper half of his face is distinctly feminine, with the lower half kinda over compensating. other than that uhh...idk. stan killer

Kidd is the bane of my existence, i feel like i can never draw his face consistently. yet at the same time he's so damn fun to draw everyone gotta try it.

my problem with kidd is that this mf does have eyelids. most kidd painters out there interpret this as him having deep set eyes (think Matt Smith or jeffrey star) . and yeh skill issue on me i should practice that. other notes, i try to make him younger than canon makes him look. he is my babygirl and he deserves to look cuddly. my band au kidd version has the honor of being allowed some chubs. he's just tries to look older and more menacing with edgy makeup. also i try to give him dimples when i can because, well i can.

Rosinante last bc i lost steam after kidd. the thing abt cora is that aside from not having eyebrows, everything is structured with the generic one piece man template. which means i gotta do everything myself doffy is there bc the way to figure out how to draw these two is to give them minor differences from each other, that being doffy gets slightly sharper features. in canon, these two are also rly wide boys (more of an oda style feat tbh) but i make them long. though bigger brained donquixote artists know that of these two brothers, doffy should be the wiry-er built. anyway that's it. in conclusion, i need to draw more girls actually i feel like im becoming misogynistic by osmosis from oda's style and now i draw girls all looking the same too.

#one piece #trafalgar law #eustass kid #eustass kidd #op killer #massacre soldier killer #donquixote rosinante #donquixote corazon #donquixote doflamingo #was gonna do robin and perona too at least but like...i have a job and stuff

[kumezyzo]

omg omg could you nsfw headcanons where like you’re in public or around his friends and he keeps teasing you LMAO

thank you for requesting!! so to start off, i dont think he would necessarily do this so ive tried to make it seem like him as much as possible! fem!reader btw. okay, yea thats it.

also, i love the idea of reader being dom to some extent alongside dom sapnap. like not fighting for dominance but just equally in love and feeling confident enough to take some lead. neither over doming or subing. if that makes sense.

anyway, enjoy! or dont... :) m.list

it starts off as an innocent whisper in your ear. bf!sapnap would have been checking you out all night. and when hes finally had enough, he's felt the need to indulge.

"you look good, peaches, you know that right?" he would whisper in your ear whrn he finally was able to whisper in your ear. inconspicuously of course.

bf!sapnap would stand behind you, his hands sitting comfortably in the back pockets of your jeans. every few minutes you'd feel hum squeeze your ass and chuckle breathily in your ear.

bf!sapnap who has his hand on your thigh when youre sitting. dangerously close to your core. he'd squeeze you rhythmically, kneading your skin.

as everyone else falls into their own conversations, he chooses to lean into your ear and whisper things he'd been thinking all night.

"i cant wait to get home, peaches," he says right against your ear. his breath tickling down your neck.

"yea?" you ask in faux innocence. "and why is that, baby?" you ask quietly. you pull back a little to see his reaction as you lick your bottom lip.

"cause you look fuckin' good, peach," he says wrapping his arm around your shoulder and bringing you in closer.

bf!sapnap who just whispers absolutely obscene things in your ear. when you'd whisper them back, he would just smirk as his face would dust a light pink.

"what, are you gonna fuck me? just absolutely silly?" you'd ask him once you two were completely alone everyone else having left to do their own things.

"if thats what you want peaches," he'd tell you, looking at you with half lidded eyes glancing down at your lips. "you'll let me?"

"mhm," you hum lightly biting your bottom lip as you nod. his hands slowly reaching down to cup your pussy through your jeans. "anything you want, baby."

bf!sapnap who would get pulled away from you by dream or george as soon as he was about to kiss you. he'd groan as they pulled him away from the table and towards the bar to order more drinks.

you giggle as he pleads with his eyes for you to save him. you shake your head and wave. you take that time to take deep breaths and calm yourself down. if you didnt, you didnt know how much longer you'd be able to handle nicks advances.

bf!sapnap who lets you go to the bathroom once he gets back with your drinks. he watches you walk away happily, checking you out as you get farther away.

when you get back, he sits you on his lap instead of letting you next to him.

bf!sapnap who uses this as an opportunity to feel you up a little more as he continues to whisper to you.

"i think we should leave them here," he proposes simply, playing with a belt loop on your jeans. "it would make it easier for us."

"if you're that worked up, we might as well just tell them that we want to go fuck," you tell him as you loop your arms around his neck.

"fuck... i might, babygirl," he tells you with a chuckle. he glances at your neck, thinking of all the hickies he could leave on you.

bf!sapnap who eventually does tell the other two that you want to go home. only earning him eyerolls as they tell him they know he just wants to get laid. he happily says his goodbyes and drags you out to his car.

"do you think you can wait till we get home?" he asks as he unlocks his car, his arm around your waist as he speed walks to him car with you.

"are you sure you can wait?" you laugh as he rushes to get in the car. you walk around the front and get in the passenger seat.

"i might just have to fuck you in here, peaches," he tells you as he contemplates what to do next. you watch him carefully as he calculates what do you. just then, he puts the car in drive and begins to back out.

"how about we get home, yea?" you ask, rolling your eyes at his impatience.

bf!sapnap who has to pull over into a wooded area cause he cant handle how you place your own hand on his thigh. he couldnt handle the way you unbuttoned his shorts and fit your hand in his boxers.

"peach, im driving," he would try to tell you. but as soon as you start stroking him, he'd look for the best place to pull over.

yea its kinda ass, im sorry. also a little rushed and less headcannon-y than i had hoped in the end. and i know it didnt make sense where they were... its about the smutty shit not the location okay 😅 -nony

#sapnap #sapnap x reader #sapnap x you #sapnap x y/n #sapnap x streamer reader #sapnap smut #dteam #smut #dteam smut #asks

[arcsnonexistantfandomblog]

Why Mount Rageous is better than This is the thanks I get as a villain song

!Disclaimers!:

spoilers for both movies possibly, I have not watched every part of these movie.

First let's adress the songs in general.

Mount Rageous

"The song medley is the main focus of the Rage Dome concert that the duo Velvet and Veneer are meant to be singing. They cut short their entrance and instead take to the streets in a run away situation with Trolls Poppy, Tiny Diamond and Branch is pursuit. The song is not just their final concert, in which they will win a Life-Time Reward and be set for life, but a way of taunting the Trolls who are trying to get BroZone back from them. Their fans drive alongside them, creating natural barriers that prevent the Trolls from getting to them and allowing the duo to be escorted in safety. Despite the impressive dance and singing moves while on the run, the song is without its faults (See "Trivia section"). It is a summary of what the two have not only amounted to on their raise to fame, but a nod to Velvet and Veneer's relationship itself. The issues can only be picked up upon by the listener, if they are paying attention to not only what the song is about, but the way the two singers are singing with Velvet's personality leaking into the song itself. It is a medley-style song and is meant to have an encore, but Velvet is cut off before it."

From Trolls.Fandom.Com

Sure the song combines Sweet Dreams (are made of this) and some other songs too [fame, and Watch Me Work] but it ironically becomes a great villain song for them because the viewer already knows that their talents aren't genuine because of the trolls being used to help them sing.

Unlike this the thanks I get, the way the song's genre is used works for the motives and characters in general. The lyrics not only feel very ironic for their goals and motives: but they also give characterization by who is the main singing.

Velvet is someone who is the main villain, not only because her being the one who does not have any moments to 'rethink' what she is doing, but also related of the relationship she has with her brother.

Vener however is more compassionate than Velvet and has some moments where he could have fully dropped out and became a better person. Heck he even gets punished at the end despite him being willing to change for the better and being the one to expose them both.

Basically what I am saying is that the songs they sing make sense for who gets the most of the song: for how each character gets a certain amount of spotlight. Like how Velvet adds lyrics that originally were not there, making veneer more quiet.

I have no cons for this because even without watching the movie and seeing the lyrics for how they are, you can tell who is the one who is willing to abuse the trolls to get their goal. That person is Velvet, as she seems to show no concern for it. Even her parts get louder at the end showing that.

You know the villains kind of remind me of the dazzling's where they have something they use to make their voices so...amazing and captivating.

In Watch Me Work, you see that both sing, and Velvet is still the main singer, but Vener is heard better here too, which shows how the villain song hits differently than the other song.

I also want to note how with their motives, how poppy and catchy the song it makes total sense, and fits their roles so well.

Now enough with this, time to go with Magnificos song...

This is the thanks I get?!

No notes here other than this...

The song takes place while Amaya is trying to get a wish back home with the star and the goat Valentino. It seems to be more like 'venting' in a way. This is all I know as I am going to watch wish with a friend on the 27th.

Alright so, wow the singing is great! That is obvious! I think the song does fine on it's own: it can be catchy but feels repetitive in some parts, I think it is because the composers are bad: not because of 'Ai'. Like... I get that it sounds that way, but they did not get the best composers they could for this movie and like... WHAT

Anyways, let's get to some positives I have with this song. For Magnifico, I think that this displays his personality pretty well, it at least gives him a flat baseline other than how compassionate he is towards his wife. It makes him feel full of himself and ungrateful for the attention he already has from many people who adore him or are willing to work with him.

Personally, the song feels like he is venting about his feelings as well, with how he talks into the beginning...until you get to later when you actually get to the part that feels like him planning and thinking about what he is going to do.

For a particular part the "I let you live here for free, and I don't even charge you rent" makes him feel like he is trying to embed that he wants you to know how kind he is. I mean..even by how he talks about it.

He actually does seem like he could have been a good person based on how some of the movie tries to portray him as a villain, even if some of his reasons are reasonable.

Alright, now cons.

So, just the lyrics and the "pop" in the song NEED DESPRATELY to change.

What he desperately needs is a STRONG song like Hellfire, where the villain has this moment where you can see how they are, their motives, and the strong composing and singing that come from it. The chills down your spine as this song comes on during the movie and makes you FEEL that emotion the villain has, and see them as a person.

Or like poor unfortunate souls where the background music intentionally makes it too where you get the vibe that things are wrong. Or like Friends on the Other Side where the song gets intense intentionally at some parts for a reason.

I think the lyrics could work, it just needs something to freshen it up and the song needs to NOT be so poppy. Like let Chris Pine use his voice for this song and show the power Magnifico HAS. Get the voice low, or high, sing long or normally.

The pop feels off for a guy like Magnifico, he is royalty, and he needs something that compliments it. Or hell do the opposite of At all costs and make it an EVIL lullaby where everything is just twisted.

So Why is Mount Rageous better than This is the thanks I get as a villain song?

It should be obvious, that not only does the song better complement the Goals and character traits of the villains but makes sense with it: but it also has that charm that the other song is missing.

Mount Rageous IS meant to be and is PART of a jukebox musical, so it should make sense for it not only to be a pop song but to reference other songs and make it into its beautiful creation for the villain.

Mount Rageous has the glitz and glam it needs, while This is the thanks I Get is missing its villainous charm and strong composing.

I feel like Chris Pines voice was not used to its full potential for its song, and Mount Rageous is so much better.

Mount Rageous makes This is the Thanks I Get look pitiful in comparison. And the sadder thing is this was for Disney's 100TH ANNIVERSARY MOVIE?! I mean come on man...you could have gotten the composers from Frozen and Lin-Manuel Miranda together[Despite how annoying it is how constantly he pops up], taken actual inspo from the previous songs, and to craft a song that is on par, or one even better.

There is so much missing potential, even the sections for both songs show that...

That is it for this post, thank you for listening/reading. I am going to record this as an audio and post it on YouTube hopefully.

#king magnifico #youtube #wish disney #disney wish #magnifico wish #trolls band together #velvet and veneer #mount rageous #song

[bajistadiamond]

Yuu and the Magical Power of Songs

Yuu Singer, Pomefiore (I Put a Spell on You)

Things were ant-colored.

Since Yuu has weird dreams he takes them as premonitions.

His most recent dream let her know that the Overblot de Vil was about to happen.

On the day of the VDC/SDC everything seemed normal, even Epel was super motivated. But then it all went down the tubes when the Royal Sword Academy held their practice.

Yuu watched as Vil's eyes lost their shine and became vacant before turning elsewhere.

Jamil, Kalim and Rook also realized what was going to happen. So they took the reins. When Ace, Deuce, Epel went for snacks, Jamil told Yuu to go with them and if he found Ruggie to stay with him.

Yuu didn't want to go and leave Kalim and Jamil alone, but Jamil was very convincing.

After some time with his friends, Yuu saw Ruggie.

The hyena beast boy noticed the white-haired man's concern and asked him what was wrong.

Before Yuu could reply, a ruckus broke out as Neige Leblanche arrived.

Using the neuron that sometimes worked, Grim asked his "minion" if he noticed anything strange in Neige's eyes.

Yuu saw it, it was Jamil's magic. Which meant that Negie was only here as a distraction.

Concerned Ruggie asked again what was wrong. Yuu looked at the stadium, noticing a nearly invisible purple magic dome.

Yuu told the boys to go to the stadium, that he would catch up with them later.

They understood the situation and when they left he summarized things for Ruggie. Beast boy looked at Yuu seriously. "Leona is sleeping, what do you need me to do?" Yuu smiled and hugged him. "Go with the flow." He said the white haired one before calling Crowley.

Crowley was very worried.

They may say that he is lazy or negligent with his work as NRC director, but he cares deeply for his students.

As one of the most powerful magicians on the "Island of the Sages" he can sense the disturbances in the magic of the place; not at the level of a fae, but he's still enough to feel an Overblot unleashed.

As he ponders how to fix the problem without alerting everyone on campus, he receives a call. "Yuu?" He wonders looking at his cell phone before answering. "Yuu, what…?" "No time to explain, I need access to the island-wide public address system." Yuu said interrupting Dire.

Yuu knew that Neige wouldn't be distracting enough, so he thought of hypnotizing everyone. Not only those present on campus but also the island in general so that nothing was leaked to the media.

Crowley wanted to ask what crazy thing his favorite student was going to do, but now there was no time. "Ok~ Explain to me later." He said before ending the call and sending Yuu the access link and password.

Ruggie couldn't believe Crowley gave that to Yuu and when she asked how he did it, Yuu smiled mischievously. "Privileges of the voice of the gods".

Yuu quickly accessed the system, but for the song he was going to use he required another person. He looked around and saw Azul at a vegan burger stand. "Azul!". He called the silver-haired Yuu.

Azul looked at Yuu and blushed because they found him eating, but before he could say anything Yuu grabbed his arm. "There is no time to explain or eat; I need your help." Azul looked at Ruggie, the beast boy shrugs.

After a while, they reach Main Street; the place is empty. "Okay, trust me." Yu tells Ruggie and Azul. The second years look at each other and then nod at Yuu.

They completely trust him.

Yuu smiled determinedly and activated the PA system…

~I put a spell on you~

~And now you're mine~

Yuu's voice was an eerie whisper. Yuu was very much against using her gift to control people, but it was an emergency and what better way to do it than with a super iconic song.

You can't stop the things I do~

I ain't lyin' ~

Ruggie and Azul couldn't believe their ears; the song that Yuu sang was a Halloween urban legend. They at that moment felt their magic increase, as if they were absorbing the magic of others to make them more susceptible to mind control.

It's been three hundred years~

Right down to the day~

Every being on the island or who could hear the speakers suddenly went blank. Yuu had in mind that those who were busy doing some work would do it robotically so they wouldn't get hurt.

Now the witch is back~

Yuu snapped his fingers creating a dome of colors over the entire island; The boy was surprised that he could create it, it was one of the biggest things he has created using the magic around him. Azul and Ruggie couldn't help but smile in amazement. "He has come a long way; I must give him a raise in his work." He thought the one with glasses. "How handsome and." The hyena boy thought; Yuu looked at him and winked causing a blush.

And there's hell to pay~

Negie was one of the last on the NRC campus to fall under hypnosis. He did not understand what was happening, but he knew that he was not in danger; a voice said over and over again that he trust. It might always be something innocent and witty, but he knew that that voice wasn't lying.

I put a spell on you~

And now you're mine~!

Yuu motioned for Ruggie and Azul to follow him. The three of them walked swaying their hips and mischievous smiles; in a way Yuu looked like he was the absolute master of the place. The song itself made him feel that way, but Yuu wasn't seduced by the power. His teacher taught him that many songs had the emotions of the original person who sang them; "I put spell on you" was made by Winifred to control Salem, so the song itself caused you to seek power. That was the reason why Yuu looked for trustworthy people, they helped keep his feet on the ground.

Hello Night Raven College

My name´s Yuu Ross!

What´s yours?

Each being fell under the enchantment of the voice of the gods, they danced and moved to the rhythm of the song. However, there is a being that was not entirely under that control. A certain fae was unaware of anything as he strolled through the forest in a state of bliss. He had been invited to an event by Yuu, he couldn't handle his happiness.

I put a spell on you~

And now you're gone~

Gone~, gone~, gone~, so long~! Azul and Ruggie sang with mocking gestures of distance.

My whammy fell on you~

And it was strong~

So strong~, so strong~, so strong~! "This power is intoxicating." Azul and Ruggie thought as they felt more power than they had in their core.

"Ok, more concentration." Yuu thought as he felt the slight attempts of the song to corrupt him and his choir accompanists. Yuu caused magic to swirl in his heart and turn him into a purifying light that drove away the whispers of the song's original composer.

Your wretched little lives~

Have all been cursed~

'Cause of all the witches working~

I'm the worst~

Yuu looked at the coliseum and the dome formed by Vil's overblot magic. The young man hoped that his gift had put everything on pause there. And certainly, as Yuu wanted, the VDC group from Night Raven College did not budge. The only one of that group who noticed that was Vil, who in his unstable mental state was screaming for not being able to move.

I put a spell on you~

And now you're mine~

The magic also added a few things to Yuu, Ruggie and Azul's wardrobe. Yuu, who was already wearing a white lace shirt and black pants and boots, got a purple corset over his shirt and a forest green tunic decorated with Celtic symbols and diamonds. Ruggie, who was wearing a PE tracksuit, got a short-sleeved pastel pink tunic and long gloves with floral designs. As for Azul who wore the dormitory leader uniform she got a complete outfit; His jacket lengthened into a skirt and turned red, his hat changed to a black veil edged in gold, and his shoes changed to brown boots.

Watch out~! Watch out~!

Watch out~! Watch out~

She ain’t lyin’ ~

Azul and Ruggie stomped viciously through the mesmerized getting carried away with the fun moment... Azul saw Jade and Floyd in the crowd, he walked towards them; he planted a kiss on Jade's nose and one on the Floyd´s cheek. Ruggie saw Leona asleep as his tail swayed to the music; he took a soda from a food stall and poured it on the lion… Maybe he will die later, but it would be worth it.

If you don't believe~

You better get superstitious~

Ask my friends

"Ooh, he's vicious~!" Azul and Ruggie whispered as if it were a secret.

Uh~!, Eeh~!

Yuu pointed from left to right with his arms and shook his head in a dance that was imitated by those closest to him.

You might also like~

Yuu looked at Azul and Ruggie with a slight evil smile, which they imitated. The song didn't corrupt them, they couldn't help but get carried away with the fun. Yuu decided to spice up the place by adding a couple of jack-o'-lanterns made of ice.

I put a spell on you...

A wicked spell~

I put a spell on you...

Oh Yeah~!

Crowley watched from his window everything. Despite the fact that his office was surrounded by shields and anti-spell wards, his shoulders moved with rhythm. The director looked at the coliseum before sighing. "I hope Ambrose doesn't find out about this." He thought with a frown.

Ah, say into pi, alpha maybe upendi~

Ah, say into pi, alpha maybe upendi!

In comma-coriyama~

In comma-coriyama~

Hey!, hey

High!, high!

Say bye~

The two chorister boys and the owner of the "voice of the gods" sang in opera-worthy tones, which surprised even them. The three raised their hands to heaven as they reached the end of the memorable performance that no one will ever know and remember.

Bye-bye~!

Oh-oh-ah

Bye, bye~!

With the final pose, the magic returned the outfit to its normal state in a flash. The dome that surrounded the island and while it was there the hypnosis would be maintained... It won't last long though.

Yuu looked at Ruggie and Azul. "Ok, any questions you have…" "You'll answer them later." Azul interrupted him while he adjusted his glasses. The hyena beast boy nodded. "shishishi~ don't worry Yuu, go save the day." Yuu smiled before stroking the hyena's head and ears causing a purr and a deep blush. "See you later~" Yuu assured them before running to the coliseum. There was a moment of silence before Azul cleared his throat. "So…you and Yuu?" Ruggie looked at Azul. "That is not of you incumbence." Azul nodded at what Ruggie said. "And besides, we haven't dormized anything yet." Azul looked at him blankly. Even he had already discussed things with the Leech twins. "Sometimes love makes you stupid." He thought the silver haired one.

#twst #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #twst oc #alternate universe #disney twst #au #mc #yuu #yuu singer #disney song #disney song yuu #ruggie bucchi #twst azul #azul ashengrotto #twst ruggie #twst vil #twst malleus #twst dire crowley #i put a spell on you

[aihoshiino]

If Ai had lived, what kind of parent do you think she would have been to teenage Aqua and Ruby?

luckily for you anon, I have spent a truly healthy [<- lie] amount of time thinking about this!!! This is going to inevitably dip into how Ruby and Aqua are both changed by having her in their lives just because that obviously matters to how she and the twins interact but... honestly at this point if you're following me, my bi-weekly unhinged essays about the Hoshinos are what you're here for.

Also worth noting before I get into it that I'm purposely not thinking too hard about Current Things in the manga like the documentary Gotanda was working on or the DVDs........ we know so little about them I can't really factor them into my rambles here lol so consider this just my most ideal happy end AU for the Hoshinos.

Anyway, I think it goes without saying that Ai would continue being an excellent mom to Aqua and Ruby. There would likely be some bumps in the road following B-Komachi's dome performance as her fame and increased demand puts pressure on her time and energy but Ai's priority is and will always be her babies so I can definitely see her and Miyako having a Stern Talk with Ichigo at some point to make sure Ai isn't overbooked to the extent that she can't spend time with them lol.

I also have a totally self indulgent AU based on Emiya Gohan that lives in my head, based around the framing device of Ai wanting to learn how to cook so she can make proper food for the twins as they grow up... my read of Ai is that she has a lot of issues relating to food security as a result of the abuse & neglect she went through, so being able to make good food for her own children and sort of rewrite her own relationship with food and cooking would be really healing for her.

Something also interesting to consider is the question of whether Ai would have been able to work through enough of her baggage regarding expressing her love to Aqua and Ruby... it takes such a desperate a raw moment for her to finally conquer that fear in canon that it's hard for me to imagine it happening in anything less than an equally cathartic moment, you know? At the same time, I really love the idea of Ai's slow progress towards healing eventually allowing her to do it without that kind of urgent pressure... instead of dying, Ai lives so hard she can eventually overcome that fear by her own strength!!!

I also think there would be a lot more moments like Ai and Ruby's dance with both of the twins – moments of Ai helping them both to untangle the trauma and baggage they carry from their past lives just through the simple act of loving and supporting them as their mother. Both Ruby and Aqua are explicitly described as being children "who never had a mother in the real sense" before their rebirth – for Sarina, she suffered the emotional abuse and neglect of living with a toxic mother who centered and prioritized her own feelings of grief and pain to such a degree that she completely abandoned her dying daughter. For Gorou, he grew up in the shadow of his mother's death as a result of childbirth complications, blaming himself and carrying the burden of his grandparents' grief and expectations in ways that are implied to have strained his relationships with them and left him without a real mother in his life.

Not only is this a healing experience for the twins, it's also ugely cathartic for Ai, too. As I've mentioned before, Ruby's "it's okay for me to dance!" scene with Ai is soooo incredibly powerful because it's about these two victims of toxic motherhood finding safety, healing and empowerment in the wholly loving and supportive parent/child relationship they build together. In general, the Hoshino family is a safe place where these three people who suffered abuse, neglect and the absence of loving mothers could find a place to heal and be loved.

Because of this, while I don't think that Aqua and Ruby would be hugely different on the surface going into their teens, a ton of stuff under the hood would be massively impacted. I like to think that growing up with Ai as a positive influence in their lives would have allowed them to essentially lay Gorou and Sarina to rest much sooner than in canon – not to forget or erase those memories, necessarily, but to definitively move on as their own people, having purified Gorou and Sarina's lingering regrets and trauma and being able to wholeheartedly embrace their new happiness as Aqua and Ruby.

This also means that they both have a much healthier relationship with Ai, in a lot of ways. I don't think they'll ever stop putting her on a bit of a pedestal but more in the way that a lot of people do if they grow up with a loving and good mom. On that note, I also like to think that with Gorou's weird baggage not causing such a conflict that Aqua might actually start calling Ai "mom"....... it makes me so depresso that he never did.....!!!

Without the weight of Ai's death hanging over them and her full and loving support at their backs, Aqua and Ruby still find their way into the entertainment industry, though for different reasons. Without his guilt getting in the way of doing things he enjoys, Aqua can admit to himself that he enjoys acting and tentatively pursues it through his childhood as the protégé of Gotanda again but in happier circumstances. He has similar initial hurdles as he does in canon wrt comparing himself negatively to Ai and underselling his strengths, but Ai would have a good talk with him about valuing what he brings to the table and not worrying about matching up to anyone else. Eventually, he becomes pretty focused on like, weirdo ass self produced projects he does a lot of the work on (acting, directing and producing) that don't make a huge splash in the mainstream necessarily but are well beloved in niche and horror circles and Aqua's happy with his work entirely because it's his and he's happy to make it, which is most important.

Ruby follows a similar track as she does in canon with becoming a member of the second generation of B Komachi, still driven by love and admiration for her mom but from a much healthier and happier place. Rather than feeling like she has to live up to Ai's image in her absence, she is inspired by Ai's presence in her life, her active support and encouragement and her boundless love and excitement to see her kids do what makes them happy. The canonical B-Komachi gen 2 still come together in mostly the same ways because I love them too much to separate them but this time, they're directly mentored by Ai and go full force through the industry with her support.

Eventually, I do think the three of them go public about their family - probably around the time the twins have graduated from high school, just to properly allow them the chance to be relatively normal kids without the scandal and pressure of being Ai's children hanging over their heads. It definitely causes a bit of an explosion, but I think by then Ai would have successfully transitioned from being purely an idol and would be more of a general household name/celeb, so there isn't as much outcry, but it definitely still stirs up some trouble that she and the kids have to weather.

At the end of the day, though, her presence in their lives would be a huge boon to them and it results in all three of the Hoshinos being much happier and healthier people. This response uh got a way from me a little and turned into like a whole AU pitch but what are we here for if not to delulu ourselves about scenarios where the Hoshinos could be happy..............

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #ai hoshino #aqua hoshino #ruby hoshino #i should probably start a #hoshino family #tag

[dannyphannypack]

Happy Holiday Truce @ghozteevee !

I'm so sorry about the wait! I'd say the holidays got away from me, but I think procrastination is pretty true-to-form for me. Something I'll definitely work on in the New Year. I really hope it's still January 3rd for you!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little story <3 I took some inspo from two of your prompts: post identity reveal family outing and sibling bonding. The sibling bonding is in the first quarter or so, the parental bonding is in the last bit. Also, the conclusion definitely ran away from me! Very Brother Bear vibes up in here. I hope that's okay!

Enjoy! :3

Word Count: 3280

Danny gasped awake with a shiver, barely catching the green of his eyes as it caught on the shiny, canvassed ceiling of their tent. His breath fogged in front of him, visible in the quickly dimming glow. It served as a warning of what he already knew had awoken him, but it was nice to get the confirmation anyway: there was a ghost nearby.

He rubbed the crust from his eyes as he allowed his brain time to wake up the rest of the way. The good news was that it didn’t feel like anything overly powerful. The bad news was that if it tripped his Ghost Sense, then it was powerful enough—and more than likely causing havoc, because it was clearly feeling some big emotions and those emotions usually amounted to some brand of anger. It also felt distinctly feral, and given their locale, it was safe to bet it was an animal spirit of some kind. Those could be especially unpredictable, and he wasn’t in the mood.

Danny looked over at the sleeping bag where his sister slept—seeing in the dark hadn’t been a problem for a long time, with or without the aid of glowing eyes—and he watched the slow rise and fall of her chest as she quietly snored. Now, whether or not to wake her was the question. The Ghost Assault Vehicle would be the safest place for her if things went haywire, but undoubtedly she’d be worried and clingy and want to help, which he also wasn’t in the mood for.

Ultimately, though, safety overruled whatever annoying sibling feelings she might stir up. Danny dislodged himself from his own sleeping bag and crawled across the floor to her, the waterproof fabric beneath him making rustling noises all the way.

“Psst,” he whispered, setting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Jazz.”

“Whazzat?” she asked, jerking. “Danny?”

“Hey. There’s a ghost.”

Her eyes blew open. “Like, here? Now?”

Yeah, maybe he could’ve handled that better. “Not yet,” he amended. “But I’m heading out. You should probably get in the Gav, just in case.”

“The G-A-V, Danny, not the ‘Gav.’” It was an old argument, one they hadn’t really argued over in years. Danny figured that Jazz probably found it endearing now that she was out of the house and missing him for most of the year. She sighed as she sat up and reached for the ground, hands fumbling towards her glasses. “You’re going alone? At least tell Mom and Dad first. And help me with a light, please.”

Danny summoned a ball of ectoplasm and sent it floating up towards the domed ceiling, where it lit the whole tent in a dim, soft blue. He grimaced. “I was kind of hoping you’d do that.”

Danny’s parents had been informed of his little secret only a week ago, and all-in-all it had gone down pretty well. The timing had been strategic, of course; Danny was going off to college at the end of the summer, and his parents needed to know why their newest ghostly ally would be disappearing from Amity for the entire school year (barring holidays and emergencies, if all went well). Going to college was a failsafe he knew he hadn’t needed, but wanted anyway—seeing alternate timelines where his parents were accepting of his after-school activities was very different from actually experiencing it in his own, after all. They’d reacted much as expected, though. Surprised. Excited. Sad. Guilt-stricken.

Jazz looked at him with something that bordered on pity, and it made him squirm. “I can if that’s what you really want, Danny,” she allowed. “But you know why I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Okay, no need to get all mopey about it,” Danny deflected, clambering up to his knees (the tent wasn’t tall enough to stand, which kind of put a damper on his whole ‘stoic’ front. Not that he’d admit that). “It just…still feels weird. But I can do it!”

Jazz raised her hands in fake surrender and fought a smile. “Yeah, yeah, you’re a big boy now, I got it.” She unzipped her sleeping bag and cast the cover aside. “I’ll go hide. Though…if it’s big enough that you needed to wake us up, maybe you should do more than just let them know.”

“Like?” Danny asked, just to be obstinate. He knew what Jazz was hinting at.

Jazz rolled her eyes. “Like ask for help, you big dummy.”

Danny sighed. It’d be the first time working with them since…“I don’t know if we’re at that level yet, Jazz.”

“You were before you told them,” Jazz pointed out with a raised brow.

“It’s different,” he stressed.

“Okay, well, different or not, you need to tell them you’re leaving, at the very least.” Jazz crawled over her sleeping bag towards the door and unzipped it with a practiced, fluid motion. “After you,” she said with a dramatic gesture towards the dark campfire and forest beyond.

Danny grumbled as he passed, and once out of the threshold he let the ectoplasmic ball lighting the inside of the tent wink out, just to hear Jazz’s indignant “Hey!” from behind him. Seconds later he heard (and saw) her flashlight click on behind him; ectoplasm-powered and too big for its own good, Danny was sure that thing created its own light pollution. He refused to use it on principle.

Danny walked the short trek to his parents’ tent and crouched to get the zipper, deciding against intangibility just in case one of his parents was awake enough to notice a shadowy silhouette phase through the wall. On the other side, Jack snored with the force of a train engine; Danny could swear it was rattling the zipper out of his hands as he fumbled with it.

The inside was dark, but Jazz’s flashlight outside cast long shadows across the floor. Danny moved out of the way so that the light could hit his parent’s faces; Danny knew his mother would have in ear plugs, so this was really the only safe way of waking her beyond shaking, which Danny knew from experience could be…startling, sometimes.

He watched her brows furrow before her eyes squinted open. She rubbed at her eyes with one hand and took an ear plug out with the other. “Danny? What happened?”

“Um, there’s a ghost,” Danny said (muttered, more like). “I was gonna go—”

“Hold on, I can’t hear you,” Maddie said, turning to shake her husband. “Jack, wake up. Danny needs something.”

“Whazzat?” Jack yelled, in much the same way as Jazz. Like father, like daughter. “What happened?”

“Uh,” Danny said, feeling tenser now with both their attentions on him. “There’s a ghost.” He pointed north. “Half a mile that way, maybe. Getting closer. I was gonna go deal with it, but I told Jazz to get in the RV just in case.”

Maddie frowned. “You were gonna go deal with it? By yourself?”

Danny glanced behind him, where Jazz was giving him a thumbs up from across the campsite. “Um, no,” he lied, turning back around. “You guys can come. If you want. You don’t have to.”

“Of course we want to, Danno!” Jack shouted. He had positively lit up, like grogginess wasn’t and had never been an issue for him. “I’ll go get the Fenton Grappler!”

“Do you know what kind of ghost it is, sweetie?” Maddie asked, still watching him. “What equipment do we need to bring?”

Danny hadn’t thought that far ahead. “It’s an animal, I think. It feels pretty feral. It’s not that strong, either, but—”

“Animal spirits can be unpredictable,” Maddie said, echoing Danny’s earlier considerations. “Alright, we’ll bring the capturing gear.” She paused. “If…that’s okay?”

Danny almost laughed; he’d never heard his mom sound so unsure when it came to ghost hunting. “That sounds good, Mom,” he said. “I’ll go get my boots on.”

— — —

Danny led the way through the timber with his parents, feeling a little silly in human form but unwilling to change nonetheless. It was nice to walk, sometimes, even when flying would be quicker and less taxing. And he could pass his feet intangibly through those pesky fallen branches and thorny bushes, so really it wasn’t all that worse than strolling down an Amity sidewalk. There was, he told himself, no other reason he might want to stay human in this scenario. He certainly wouldn’t feel uncomfortable otherwise.

“Are we getting close, honey?” Maddie asked after helping Jack over a rotted trunk.

The irony wasn’t lost on Danny; he’d asked the same question on the RV ride there. He felt around in his chest, feeling for the speed at which his core buzzed it’s steady warning, the strength of the tug. “Nearly there,” he promised.

“That’s a real neat trick, Danny-boy,” Jack praised. Danny could hear the smile in his voice. “You know, I always wondered how Phantom heard wind of a ghost faster than we did. Didn’t I, Mads?”

Danny kicked at some dead leaves and sticks at the ground, embarrassed. “That ghost alarm you guys developed works similarly. It maybe doesn’t have quite the range, though.”

Maddie hummed, contemplating. “And that’s what woke you up tonight?”

“Yeah.”

Maddie reached out to set her hand on his shoulder, stopping him. He closed his eyes before he turned to face her, bracing. If he hadn’t caught on to the concern in her voice before, he was definitely feeling it now. “How often do ghosts wake you up?” she asked, quiet.

Danny opened his mouth to lie and then thought better of it. That was a habit he was determined to break with his family, whether they’d like the answer or not. “Once or twice a night,” he admitted, slowly. When Maddie made a pained noise, he quickly added, “Usually it’s nothing to worry about, though, so I just go back to sleep. Like, at least half the time.”

She bit her lip. Guilty. “You shouldn’t have had to deal with that, hun.”

“Can we not do this?” Danny pleaded. These were the kind of conversations he’d been trying to avoid for the past week. “It’s my fault for not telling you guys, not your fault for not noticing.”

“We know that’s how you feel, Danny,” his mom allowed. She shared a glance with Jack from over her shoulder. “But we can’t help but feel like some of that lies on us, too. For noticing the clues but not acting on them in the ways we should have.”

“We want to know now, though,” Jack said, coming up behind his wife. “Warts and all.”

“Is this an intervention?” Danny asked, nervous. It felt like his core was constricting in his chest. “Because I get enough of that from Jazz.”

“It’s not an intervention,” his mom denied, pinching the bridge of her nose. “It’s just…Why haven’t you turned into Phantom yet, Danny?”

Danny wasn’t sure if he heard that right. It felt like the conversation had spun 180. “What?” he asked.

“This isn’t exactly an easy hike, sweetie,” she said. “Mostly uphill, through brambles and across fallen trees.”

“It’s been fine,” he argued. “I’ve been phasing through most of it.”

“If we were Tucker or Sam, you would have flown us there,” Maddie finished, and, well, he couldn’t deny that logic. “So why haven’t you?”

Danny frowned. “I didn’t think we were at that stage yet.”

“We’re not on a date, Danny; we’re your parents,” she sighed, shaking her head. “There is nothing you could do that would make me stop loving you. I changed your diapers; I should know.”

Danny frowned. If she had said that two weeks ago, before they’d known, he might not have believed her. He did believe her this time, but it was marred by something else—this aching, squeezing feeling in his chest, riddling his core with fear and anxiety and confusion and—

Oh. That wasn’t from him.

“Look out!” Danny yelled, grabbing hold of his parents and shoving them to the ground. His shield came up just in time: a glowing black bear, absolutely massive for its species, came barreling down upon it, scratching and growling and baring sharp, sharp teeth with saber-toothed tiger levels of length. He flinched against its strength but held steady, keeping his hands in front of him to feed ectoplasm into the bubble that surrounded them.

Perhaps realizing that its efforts were futile, the bear backed away, roared once in warning, and then took off running in the opposite direction, taking a moment to pause awkwardly at a hollowed tree stump before disappearing over the hill.

“Okay,” Danny breathed, allowing the shield to dissipate. There was that conversation out the window. He was almost grateful for it; he’d always been better at fighting than he was at talking, and staying human during this battle was quickly becoming a moot point, anyhow. “Alright, here’s the plan: you guys follow from back here, and I’ll fly up and cut it off from the front. Sound good?”

He was about to run off then, but Maddie grabbed his chin and twisted him to face her. Her eyes scanned over him faster than Danny could even blink, checking for injuries at a near-inhuman speed. 

Once he got over his shock at being grabbed, he started to squirm. “Mom, stop. I’m fine,” he murmured, trying to turn away to hide the way embarrassment was quickly flooding his cheeks with red.

Once satisfied, Maddie nodded and placed a chaste kiss to his forehead. “Be safe,” she commanded in a no-nonsense voice, like he’d be grounded for a week if he came back injured. Then, she finally let him go.

“You too,” he said, turning away. Squeezing his eyes shut, he transformed—focusing on the way his core bloomed outward instead of the stares on his back—and took off into the air.

Going on a bear hunt. He was sure there was a kid’s song about that.

Danny followed the tug in his gut from the sky; it was even stronger now that he’d transformed and they’d gotten…acquainted, for lack of a better word. He couldn’t shake that weird anxious worry in his gut—the one that seemed to be emanating from the bear in waves—but he could fight through it, and that’s what mattered.

Animal spirits were all instinct and emotion, wrapped up into something tight and cohesive that ectoplasm wouldn’t have trouble latching onto. Usually that something was governed by anger, which, as far as Danny knew, was the strongest emotion in a living animal’s arsenal. Human spirits could end up governed by that too, but there was more nuance to the reasoning behind anger with a person: jealousy, revenge, even loneliness could rearrange into different flavors of the same base emotion. It was easier to assuage because of its complicatedness; when there was a direct physical link to someone’s anger, there was something to solve.

It was more difficult to get angry animal spirits to move on. They were angry at everything and nothing all at once. The whole world fueled their anger, and so there was little that could calm them down.

Fear, though…He’d never met an animal spirit governed by fear, or worry, or whatever anxious instinct this bear’s ectoplasm was releasing. Maybe he could turn this into a happy ending, for both him and the bear. He hoped he could, anyway.

Danny dived down in front of it, and from the way it twisted backwards and picked up its pace in the direction opposite of him (the direction towards his parents), it seemed the bear could sense him, too. He went intangible and picked up the pace, letting trees and leaves fly through him at a dizzying pace. Finally, the forest opened into a little clearing, and Danny threw up a green wall at the end of it, where the bear was trying to escape. It skid to a halt so fast it left deep gashes in the dirt, dropped something fuzzy and black from its mouth, and turned to face him.

Danny froze. There, curled beneath the ghost bear’s legs, was a single cub. It peered out from behind her, oblivious to the danger and curious as to the reason for their night’s interruption. More importantly, it did not glow like it’s mother. It was still alive.

Mother Bear growled a warning at the same time Danny’s parents started crashing through the brush nearest her. “Stop!” he shouted out, holding out a hand despite his parents not being able to see him. “Uh, stand down!”

“Danny?” His dad called. “What’s going on?”

Mother Bear was looking increasingly frantic. Panicking a little himself—whether from the emotions that he was accidentally leaching off her or the situation, he wasn’t sure—Danny made a split-second decision and thrust a dome over the top of her and her cub. It would shield them from any sudden bear attacks, true, but it also served as makeshift protection from any Fenton weaponry.

He trusted his parents not to shoot him. He wasn’t sure if he trusted them not to shoot Mother Bear.

“It’s safe now!” Danny called to his parents. “Um, leave your guns outside the clearing! And walk slowly!”

Danny was almost surprised to hear them listening. He didn’t know why. He had to stop doubting them.

“Oh,” Maddie said when she breached the tree line. Mother Bear rotated to face her and Jack as they stepped out, gnashing her too-long teeth and backing further over her cub to put it safely beneath her belly. It peeked out from beneath her paws. “It’s…a mother.”

She sounded shocked. Danny concurred.

“Come over here,” Danny told his parents. “Behind me. I’m gonna try something.”

He stepped forward as his parents came around the dome. Mother Bear watched them walk until they’d settled behind Danny, and already he could feel that fear worry stress easing, just from having all potential predators in-sight instead of surrounding her.

“Danny,” Maddie warned when he took another step forward. “Bears are extremely protective of their young.”

“I know,” Danny murmured, keeping his voice low. He inched forward, getting lower to the ground as he walked. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Mother Bear snarled statically, touching on Ghost Speak but unable to form full coherence. Worry, is what Danny was able to read from it. Worry. Baby. Danger.

Danny switched tactics, changing to Ghost Speak as he set his hands gently against the wall of the dome, emanating as many calming emotions as he could summon. Calm. Safe.

She flinched, but her teeth were shortening, growing less sharp. Baby Bear yawned beneath her, a kind of squeaking hum. Almost like a puppy. Like Cujo, maybe.

Calm. Safe. Danny promised, at the same time voicing sentences in English above the Ghost Speak’s static: “It’s okay. You’re safe. I won’t hurt you. I won’t hurt him. You can let go. I’ll protect him. It’s alright.”

Mother Bear swayed, grew smaller. Promise. She growled. Staticked. No-nonsense voice. 

Promise. Danny responded.

Baby Bear nuzzled into Mother Bear, and she licked at his cheek as her body grew brighter and began dissipating, moving on. Baby Bear purred and purred.

She looked at Danny. Looked behind him, where his parents stood. Mother? she asked. With the emotions clogging her speech finally gone, he could actually understand her.

Danny nodded. “Yeah. That’s my Mom.”

Good. Mother Bear hummed, closing her eyes. Safe.

She disappeared, her glowing green fragments scattering on the wind.

Danny turned around to face his parents, and for the first time noticed that they were both crying. That was okay. He was crying, too.

He cleared his throat. “So. Anyway. Where’s the nearest Animal Sanctuary?”

#danny phantom #tayscreams #tay writes #holiday truce 2023 #phanfic #danny phantom fanfic #jazz fenton #maddie fenton #jack fenton #danny fenton #featuring: animal spirit inspo from shift by captainozone if i'm not mistaken #been a while since i read it but something something animal spirits being unpredictable feeding off instinct and emotion yaddah yaddah #happy holiday truce! i hope it's a good one <3 #this is the first time ive written anything for the phandom in … years #anything ive posted anyway #college has been ;-; taking the creative energies out of me ;-; #ive resorted to turning old dp plot bunnies into creative writing assignments for workshop classes. it’s rough out here #at least it’s working. people just think i have a thing about ghosts. and they’d be right but it’s much deeper than that #holiday truce

[dogtoling]

What are some ways Inkling / Octolings lives and society in general be different compared to humans? It can be canon, implied, or made up, I don't mind. Thanks!

jeez, this is actually a really hard question because in Splatoon, what we're given in game is extremely similar if not identical to what we have in real life. Realistically, a lot of things would be different, but it makes it REEEEAAALLY easy to default to "it's literally the exact same in almost every aspect" because that's often what we see in the game and it's also the implication.

If you compare Splatoon to a lot of other games that are set in fictional worlds, Splatoon is EXTREMELY tame in trying to set itself apart from human society. Probably intentionally, but it's very rare that something pops up in the game that makes you go "huh, that's a splatoon thing that isn't JUST there for a gameplay mechanic". Most things really are left up for fan interpretation, which is cool, but that makes it hard in its own way to come up with headcanons because it can be easy to feel like you're going TOO out there with ideas when the world is mostly down to earth (unless it's not, and the tone dissonance is insane). Now I'm just rambling, but I'll get to the point and try to come up with something.

So, focusing on the surface because I think it's safe to assume that most Mollusc Era creatures are surface dwellers, the most obvious difference factor in society is that there's probably thousands of different sapient species that coexist. That means there's really no limit to how insane the Splatoon world and its cities and structures could be to accommodate different species. Of course the games focus on Inklings and Octolings and they are fairly similar to humans, so we have a very human-aligning society that we're looking at. But somewhere else where inkfish might not be the majority species, I would imagine things might look and be very different. (I really would like to see it....) But because you specifically said Inklings and Octolings, I'll focus on their stuff.

I'd like to open this post (on paragraph 4... sigh) with the note that we really don't have a lot of information on significant differences in inkling society compared to ours. If anyone remembers something that is either canon or heavily implied and it isn't mentioned in this post, feel free to drop it in replies. From what we see in the games, the Splatoon society doesn't significantly differ from ours much at all. So yeah, most of this is going to be speculation or headcanons that aren't really rooted in the actual game.

ACTUAL START OF THE POST HERE.....

First off, they obviously have better technology than we do - at least Octarian technology is much better and seems to have spread to the surface recently. Flying cars are probably just a normal thing for inkfish... although I'd assume that's moreso in the Octarian domes, where I'd like to think the flying saucers (or "UFO"s) are a replacement for cars, given there's not a whole lot of space and things tend to be built on different levels. It wouldn't make too much sense to have a car-centric society when cities are like a mile across and there's not really even much space for driveways.

A small tidbit on cars in Inkopolis: did you know there's no consistency on which side of the road Inklings drive on? Depending on the stage, markings might be present, but cars STILL drive in random directions all the time and drive on opposing sides of the road depending on what corner of Inkopolis you go to. This makes me believe that traffic rules are kind of a wildcard in Splatoon and... perhaps it's just normal for different roads to suddenly change lane orientation, or some roads might not have rules for that at all. Doesn't seem that safe to me, but what do I know...

On the topic of cars and transportation, Inklings seem to love different ways to get around. Inkopolis alone has a train, a monorail, and a subway - that's THREE different trains mostly for traversing the city. They also have airplanes, hot-air balloons, and notably... zeppelins. Zeppelins are something that humans HAVE had in the past (and while doing research on this for literally no reason the other day, i actually found out they're NOT completely extinct?) but that we no longer use or manufacture due to various reasons and events in history. Inklings, of course, did not have those events, so they discovered zeppelins and apparently they love them SO so much that we routinely see them over Arowana Mall, and not ONLY over Arowana Mall, but Octarians have a whole military weapon type that's just a zeppelin with a face.

STILL continuing on the topic of transport, Inklings love having 23749237423 different transportation devices but they don't really need them? We know Inklings can super jump freely even outside of turf wars, we know they jump from the lobby to Turf War stages (this WAS the case in Splatoon 1). Realistically Inklings could easily super jump to cover short distances across the city or even longer distances over several jumps. Super jumping like that would all but nullify the need for public transit or a 15 minute walk to work, at least for Inklings that have the ability to super jump and don't have much to carry.

We do know from Salmon Run that most Inklings hesitate to super jump without a strong signal that they can navigate to, presumably because such a thing provides real-time coordinates that you can accurately calculate a jump to without needing to continuously SEE your estimated landing point. This is why Spawn Points have strong signals, the Grizzco boat has a massive antenna on it, Squid Beakons exist at all - list goes on.

Of course, we don't know if there's any kind of regulations or laws about super jumping outside of turf war, because obviously if everyone just super jumped everywhere all the time there could be collisions, and without signals to navigate by a lot of people would also miss their jumps and potentially get injured, or land somewhere they really didn't want to land. Such as the ocean, or a highway, or on top of somebody. It seems likely that there WOULD be rules against super jumping randomly outside of sports based on all this... but we don't really know!

Actually talking about society now. Our society tends to be extremely day-focused because humans are mostly a day-active species. Inkling society... seems to be mostly the same considering the tidbits we have on the Great Turf War. But I don't think the society itself is day-focused at all. We know there's tons of different species and even within Cephalopods there's differences between which species are day-active and which ones are nocturnal, so I believe that the streets see an almost identical amount of activity regardless of time of day. The businesses and the people you see on the street probably change, but there's a lot of people who aren't up during the day at all and live their lives in the nighttime. So in the Splatoon world, there wouldn't be a concept of "it's too late to go to the store" or "damn it, i missed the last bus". And the night-activity IS partially confirmed by Splatfests - they do take place at night (even though for day-active species, it's not unheard of to stay up late or even all-night to attend important or fun events. We do that all the time!)

Let's talk about food for a second (this might go into the "lives" section). I know inklings are heavily implied to be omnivorous in the game. I find this lame, so I choose to believe they are still MAINLY carnivorous predators and mostly eat fish and crustaceans - most of their food includes some kind of fish, maybe fish eggs, and shrimp. In spite of being mainly carnivorous, though, Inklings do eat carbohydrates such as rice and ramen noodles, as we've seen in the game. They can probably absorb some nutrients from said foods, but surviving on just plant-based things would be out of the question.

Inklings DO love fruit, which might be strange if they're not really getting much nutritional gain out of it. They seem to have an affinity for sweet things... which is typical for fruit eaters. I like to believe that Inklings evolved to like fruit not only because they're usually colorful, but mainly for their very high liquid content. As touched upon in a previous post, Inklings would realistically need to have a LOT of liquid in order to consistently produce as much ink as they do, which means anything that can help with that would be VERY welcome. I don't think early Inklings would've gone after fruit as a snack, but rather something that's akin to a funny-tasting water balloon that you can drain the liquid out of and get rid of the rest. Though modern Inklings do seem to like the whole thing.

Did you know it was implied in Splatoon 1 that vegetables didn't exist until recently? This was in Kelp Dome stage dialogue as far as I remember. I'd like to think what it actually means is that vegetables didn't really exist in SQUID cuisine until very recently - being brought in most likely in the span of the past 100 years, probably. Inklings as carnivores do not NEED vegetables naturally as they're good as long as they can eat some fish or shrimp, mostly, but nowadays vegetables are something that's included in some foods anyway - again they have high liquid content, and have a crunch that might be fun for the beak. As for where the vegetables suddenly came from? I'd bet on cross-species cultural integration that might have exploded after the Great Turf War concluded. Some species, like a lot of crustaceans, eat vegetables and the like - so integration of herbivorous species into Inkopolis and other mainly squid societies likely brought vegetables into the public eye. (There's also some "veggies" that didn't make the cut into Inkling cuisine, such as.... literal grass.)

yes we're still talking about food. I think Inkling food culture is pretty different to ours, even looking past the different nutritional needs. While humans tend to follow the pattern of a few big meals per day, I don't think Inklings have a consistent pattern at all. Cephalopods are extremely fast-paced animals that hunt their prey and swiftly move on, and their radula (rasping tongue) makes it so that they can't really take big bites of anything in the first place (yes they do in the game but i'm ignoring it in favor of biology). A HUGE volume of the Inkling body and torso is taken up by the ink sac, which also leaves kind of limited space for other organs, including the stomach. What I'm getting at is that Inklings probably can't eat very much at once, so they might not have a food culture that heavily relies on big and complex meals. They're more into eating snacks and eating those more often; something like the Crust Bucket's shwaffles and other quick things that you can grab and move on (and Inklings LOVE the deep-fried stuff because of the crunch). Inklings' preference to get little bits of food any time of the day and often without that much time between makes street food stalls really popular, too.

Octarian food culture... going underground for a moment, I'd like to talk about it for a while, because it's probably very different! A lot of the Octarian food culture likely developed within the past 100 years, as that's when the majority of their society was driven underground. That would be kind of disastrous for any culture, I think.

Octarians are (albeit stereotypically) a to-the-point kind of people in a lot of ways. Especially in the domes where distribution and availability of things is and has been poor in the past, they're not exactly eating fancy down there. If there's one thing that defines Octarian cuisine, though, it's got to be wasabi. If a dish is described as "spicy" or "flavorful"... it's probably got its fair share of wasabi in it, with wasabi being a somewhat largely cultivated thing in the domes.

In general, though, a lot of Octarian food is made to be A. simple, and B. easy to store and preserve for a long time. Especially in the early days of the Octarian Underground, there was NEVER a guarantee that you could find fresh food, or food at ALL, so preserving something to eat was of utmost importance. As such and even to this day, most Octarian common foods are dried, salted or fermented meats - salted and dried fish, canned fillets or fish eggs - or soups, which is famously a food type where you can replace 90% of the "food" with hot, flavored water. A lot of foods have a very strong taste (or a lack thereof) that would make most Inklings turn up their nose... but Octarians tend to like what they're used to.

Octopus meat is also on the menu from the Really Bad Years, but DON'T WORRY, it's typically made out of tentacles - originating from families running without food sometimes having to resort to cutting off their tentacles to fry up and feed the kids. It's essentially just meat and it grows back over time... though with the biotechnology Octarians have these days, octopus meat is manufactured in MUCH easier ways in a lab environment. Long tentacles for Octolings are still in fashion in the modern day - cut tentacles used to mean that you're probably poor, so not having to resort to doing so just so you can Live And Survive and Not Starve is pretty cool and hip.

Octarians do tend to have a somewhat different attitude towards food in general, though. For most Octolings in the domes, food isn't something you can play with - it's not even a GUARANTEE. Most Octarian food is to the point, made to last, and made to be keep you alive and kicking and not much else, to be honest. To many people, it's not much else than nutrition - it's rarer to find passionate chefs in a society where ingredients have historically been really hard to come by and have been strictly rationed so that everyone can have at least SOMETHING. Some Octolings growing up in poor families will have that singular salted fish for breakfast, or go to the store on lunch break to eat a can of fish eggs with their bare hands and absolutely nothing else. Even on the surface, because that's kind of what they're used to.

(end food section.)

Back to the Inklings. Turf Wars shape a lot of squid culture, especially that of teenagers. Prior to being something that was really widely recognized and being commercialized by corporations, it really WAS mostly just a youth sport - Inklings tend to be territorial, and marking their own group's area with ink is quite literally in their blood. Turf Wars began as a materialization of this urge without it being SUPER violent... or at least to give the fighting a set of rules and some kind of borders, to keep it off the main street. Of course, upon becoming extremely mainstream, Turf Wars have proven to not only be profitable, but also very beneficial - the overall amount of crime and miscellaneous violence has DRASTICALLY plummeted as squids have an actual outlet to put their instincts into.

Speaking of Inkling youths: I think Inklings become independent at a pretty young age compared to humans. We have some in-universe information (mostly pictures) that confirm that Inklings DO go to school, and based on Splatoon's society as a whole, I'll assume that it would mirror the japanese school system to some extent. But unrelated from school, cephalopods in real life are independent literally from the second they leave their EGGS. Inklings don't have this luxury, as we see they're not even fully developed with hands until they're around 14 years old. In pre-society wild ages, Inklings would typically leave their parents' school (pack) in their teens, once they're able to freely shapeshift and use their own ink - and seek out a new school to either integrate into, or form a new one out of a bunch of other stray squid. I'd like to think that this instinct has carried over to modern day Inklings - a majority of squid leave their families around 15 years old, or roughly after getting out of school. They then set out to find their place in the world - and their own other stray squids to form a new found family with. In the age of cellphones, most people probably choose to keep in touch with their parents and family members, but even when it was expected that you'd probably never see your kid again once they set out, it likely wasn't something that melancholic rather than just being The Thing That Happens.

That's pretty much everything I can think of right now before my brain turns into powder... again, there's not much the game tells us. There's some things I didn't really go into, like the implications of the food chain being confirmed to exist among sapient species, that's... a whole other topic. But anyway, I hope this was satisfactory, and I'd like to hear people's thoughts in the replies about your headcanons on Inkling society and how it's different!

#mailbox #squidthoughts #essay.... again #i proofread it 1 time if theres typos or nonsense no theres not

[hurkules]

Baulder’s Gate 3 Thoughts + Mild Spoilers

Bg3 is actually so heartbreaking. The way everyone has been a victim and at the mercy of some higher being.

I knew that DnD was a thing but I had no idea about any characters, lore, or world. I completely didn’t expect the story to be so good and the characters to be so compelling. I saw that there was character creation and romance and that was enough for me to buy it. Everything else was a lovely surprise.

I haven’t done a play through with romancing everyone (just gale and astarion) so maybe that’s where the disconnect is happening. I’ll give my opinion anyway though:

Astarion is clearly the favorite. I feel like he’s the only character that really got the vent and reflect on what’s happened to them.

Mizora gets to hang around my camp. Halsin can sleep with the drow twins ( I realize he’s very mild mannered, kind, and that it was centuries ago but come on. Personally, I just thought it was weird and a little insensitive but that’s me). It’s Act 3 and towards the end of the game and Gale is blissfully reminiscing over Mystra’s pleasure domes. Karlach break dances the whole time and doesn’t really mention how she feels about her heart until you fight gortash. Shadow heart is upset for a day after you spare Dame Aylin and cries after she gives up her parents and that’s it. The only one who’s response to everything kind of makes sense to me is Lae’zel and even then she’s clearly heartbroken, but you don’t get to dwell on it.

I understand that not everyone handles trauma in the same way and that’s okay, but the more I played, realized just how much everyone has suffered, and got attached, the more I was hoping for a little more…care. I also understand that there’s only so much you can put into any creation especially a video game, but those are just my thoughts on that one aspect. This was my first experience with anything DnD related, so maybe that’s why I’m a little taken aback as well.

Again, I haven’t done every character romance option so I might just be jumping to conclusions. I could’ve missed some dialogue options or something. If I’m dramatic and deeping it a little too much please tell me.

#my post #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #gale dekarios #astarion #karlach #lae'zel #wyll ravengard #halsin #baulders gate 3

[perksofbeingalittletwat]

I love FHSY with my whole heart but what makes me upset about it is I think Brennan over-emphasized the PCs relationships with NPCs in a way that made sense in-game, but didn't make sense from a player perspective. Not even to his fault, just a misstep I don't think any other season has had a chance to really correct.

So there's a couple of layers here, there's the in-universe reality, there's the Dome and the people in the Dome, and there's also the meta-reality of the people in the Dome creating a unified Product or Season together.

So from the top down, Brennan is making sure that the story happens at a fairly regular pace to keep with the number of episodes he's been allotted, pacing things to keep within the time period he gets for each stream, and most importantly for this I think, crafting ways to have cliff hangers at the end of episodes so that people are excited to come back. This is also influenced by the taped season convention of RP-Combat-RP-Combat episodes.

In the middle is the real conditions of the Dome, in which the six players+Brennan are the most obvious people in the room. The PCs have a lot to juggle here, they have to be in character, they are in character solving a mystery, they have to be attentive to how Brennan is crafting episodes and seasons which plays a lot into how they react to things, and they also have to be funny. And to be funny is to be in contact with the people around you especially in an improve setting.

So these two meta-layers are in conflict, the Intrepid Heroes are fulfilling their roles of being in character and being in the room, and Brennan is fulfilling his role of being in the room and being above the game, but in order to do that Brennan CANT play Tracker or Zelda with the level to detail that the IHs do their characters. That's just how the game works. He has to be everyone so in some ways Tracker and Zelda or Sandra Lynn or Gilear don't exist with the same level of durability and reality as the Bad Kids at any given moment.

And so when Gorgug doesn't tell Zelda he's leaving town (because it had been over an hour since Zelda was last mentioned, and because Riz and Fig had disappeared (people who were in the room)) it wasn't because Gorgug the 'person' didn't care about Zelda, it was because Zac the Player had his three other jobs to do.

The same way when Kristen didn't tell Tracker about Sandra Lynn and Garthy (it might have related to the mystery, there were tons of bits during that time, Fabians Bad Day occurs, etc) it wasn't because Kristen hadn't told Tracker, it was cause Ally the Player was busy. Ally even says "Wait was there another reason?!" When Tracker/Brennan asks them why they didn't tell Tracker.

Again it's not anyone's fault it's just a hard game to play, especially as a cohesive media product, especially as a cohesive media COMEDY product, but it also feels so jarring as a viewer to have Tracker and Zelda get pissed by PC inattention but not have Cathilda or Ragh do the same. Or even Adaine, who's name her fellow players can't even remember half the time. It feels like punishing the players for being focused on the mystery and plot being set before them and not the radial emotional consequences.

Its some great teen angst though. Like it works for story beats. I just don't think it was like. Agreed upon as part of the story and so I'm uncomfortable.

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #fhsy #dimension 20 fhsy #brennan lee mulligan #gorgug thistlespring #zelda donovan #kristen applebees #tracker o'shaughnessey

[12pt-times-new-roman]

I missed the first hour of combat but — C3E62, let's go!

"We built this for you!" oh honey.

Bor'dor has the lucky feat.

"In the aura of this oddly dunamantic energy emanating from Ashton—" Is this the first time Matt has confirmed that Ashton's abilities are dunamantic in nature? I know it's been obvious from our standpoint for a while now, and it was implied to the party by Caleb's mention of dunamis, but is that the first time it's been acknowledged in-game?

As Laudna starts to get flashes of memories eventually leading to Delilah, her ribcage cracks open to release a hound of ill omen modeled after the Briarwoods' undead hounds.

The dome above the temple begins to glow as a voice echoes from above. "Leave or be judged." A winged celestial being — a Dawnborn Angel — descends, with a flaming sword in one hand, to the middle of the chamber.

As far as I can tell, this is a home-brew. The Judicator seems to be modeled on a planetar (same AC and similar abilities, though likely a lower CR), but the "dawnborn angel" resembles nothing I can find.

Prism refers to herself at the Matron of Ravens' daughter. Now, her calling the Matron "mother" makes sense given the goddess' titles and namelessness; but being a shadar-kai and a wizard who has a "complicated relationship" with the Matron while calling herself the Matron's daughter is definitely cause for concern.

Deni$e has 3-4 rogue levels.

"The Judicator does not back down, it does not feel fear." It's also an "entity trained to hunt those of arcane persuasions." All I can think of are cybermen from Doctor Who.

The summons get the HDYWTDT on the Judicator!

A mid-combat break?? Is this gonna be a C2E86 situation where the entire episode is combat?

An angel, a demon, and an earth elemental walk into a bar...

Orym climbs the demon's back and sits on its shoulders like he's mounting a horse, which it begrudgingly allows.

Ashton speaks to the now-uncontrolled earth elemental in primordial. "We gotta get these people out of your home. Can you get me up there?" With its reaction (read: because Matt is giving the party some leeway here), the elemental grabs Ashton and attempts to huck them up to the angel with a nat20 (what the FUCK is the count on this? this pendulum has got to swing in this half, yeah?), because "the spirits of the forest have taken over where the arcana has failed."

The barlgura grapples the angel and brings it to the ground.

THERE'S the Chop Suey joke, finally. "When angels deserve to dieeee...."

Deni$e has a barbarian rage ability called "spirit of the mountain"? I can't find any barbarian subclass with this ability, and it's not a dwarf thing, so is this a home-brew barbarian subclass?

Bor'dor gets his second HDYWTDT on the angel with a 5th level inflict wounds. He holds its head, kisses its forehead, and says, "enough."

A second Judicator, the one that was patrolling the city, approaches the temple, but turns around and leaves at the sight.

It's so interesting to think about the way this battle would be interpreted in different campaigns. In C1, this would've been a heroic tale of villagers rising up against their oppressors and succeeding; in C2, it would've had underlying tones of national, material, Exandrian politics rather than theological ones, but still would've had that tinge of objective victory; and in C3, it is inundated by theological rhetoric and the politics of the gods, and mired by uncertain, subjective success.

The Judicators' masks are not worn, they are fused to the skull. (Again. Cybermen.)

Eventually, Abadeena's magic, alongside the spirits of the forest and the magic of the villagers, reduces the temple to rubble.

Orym is reconciling, trying to bring together conflicting goals, and Laudna clocks it with a pissed-off expression.

One by one, the remaining "captives" begin to follow the first into the forest, exiting the township and heading to the north, except for a single child. "I'm... I just wanted to feel like I belonged to something, you know, I—" And Abandeena responds, "Do you understand why this was wrong?" With that, they feel the final weight lifted, the hillside and village finally free.

Laudna approaches Abadeena. "Be careful not to become what you despise." She looks back with a genuine honesty. "Sometimes, you must do things you wish weren't yours to do for the betterment of your people. I'm not proud of everything I've done, but don't think your words are lost on me." "There's a thin line between being a savior and an oppressor." "Well. Thank you for being our saviors... we hear, of the Loam and the Leaf, thank you. For your deeds, whatever we can do, you have it." She casts some healing, and allows the Bells Hells to sleep in her house for the night because she can't cast scrying today.

Ashton asks for a private word with themself, Abadeena, and Prism. Nothing comes of it yet, as the village begins to gather toward the city center. They cook, swap stories, and sing.

For the first time in a long time, the village is free to give their thanks to the eidolons and to each other.

Bor'dor can't stop thinking of the face of the angel as they died, and he doesn't know whether he did the right thing. "Something is happening, and faith is shaken."

Prism is trying to view all of this with a skeptical, academic, objective mind, but she can't help but second-guess her subjective experience because everyone's happy and everyone's sad. She feels that this was a net good, but feels that compromises her objectivity.

Ashton believes that, leaving everything out of view out of consideration, this was a net good. They go with Prism and Abadeena behind a tree. ("It's time to get sexy now! It's our turn!" Talisein please)

There were tithes taken from the townsfolk. The temple was wealthy enough; these were not taken by the arbiters of the temple, according to Abadeena. She drags it to the city center, and Prolef begins to redistribute the wealth taken by the temple back to the townspeople.

While that exchange was happening, Orym finds Laudna. She remarks that the townspeople are ignorant of the greater evils in the world. They both agree that this ship is sinking, but this town doesn't know that; they agree that they are frustrated at their ignorance, their bliss, and lament that they have to get back to their people.

Laudna and Orym are so angry, but they can't articulate why — it feels to them like they just put themselves in great danger, when there's so much more at stake than there is in "this piss-ant town dealing with their piss-ant squabbles... I don't know why I'm so angry about it." "You've known more than your fair share of shit... I don't even think... I'm having trouble believing there's anything we can do. I just keep stepping forward because it's what I've always gone, but I don't know if there's anything we can do." "Ashton said something quite profound to me the other night, when were taking out watch around the campfire. Profound especially for them. Right now, if we try to change the world, it's just going to seem like an impossible task, it's just too much. But we can try and change that which we do have control over, our immediate surroundings. Save our friends." "I don't know how much time we have left on this planet — feels like it could all go soon, in a week. But I just wanna make do with the time that I have with the people that I care about, and I want to find them, I want to find them again." "Then let's find them. It's the only directive we have at the moment, the only thing we can control." Orym takes her hand. "I don't understand why you bounced down through history to be here with me right now, but I sure as hells am glad you are here." "I've seen a lot of shit, Orym. That's why we're still here." "And more coming." "We've shown we can take it. Let's just get the fuck out of this town."

Abadeena escorts them back to her cottage. She smiles, and reveals her first name: Joan. Whether the Bells Hells decide to kill her or trust her, she thanks them for trusting the village, agrees to help them on the path toward home, and offers them answers.

If the temple comes back, she does not believe this town is the only one rising up. They have a coalition binding together townships of the Loam and the Leaf, keeping them away from the influence of Vasselheim.

Prism asks if she's ever heard of Predathos or speculated on its nature, asks if Predathos is an elemental weapon against the divine during the Founding. Abadeena knows nothing about Predathos except for Ludinus' speech and the Bells Hells' knowledge, but she does recognize the confidence with which Ludinus spoke and the way his words influenced the people of her town. To them, the eidolons have a symbiotic relationship, as it has been for all those who lived on Exandria before the gods coopted it.

"The lands of Exandria hold to them innumerable eidolons that are tied to the forces of this world, of the titans that first shaped it. With the titans long-gone, they persist however they can, oftentimes among the rules of the gods who now rein. So they are echoes, shades, the remnants and the memory of the titans, of the great elemental queens and kinds of this world, the ones who originally sculpted it." Prism questions whether Predathos is more intelligent, more vengeant, than a simple "black hole."

Orym says to Prism that they don't know anything, and Prism retorts that she's trying to help by way of being really good at learning things. The only thing Orym has to go on is the track record of the people trying to release Predathos, which Prism agrees is "damning."

"Prism... I don't understand the gods, I don't know anything about the titans, I don't know eidolon from eyeliner. I believe that... I'm a widower because of the people who want to bring this about. So it's hard for me to wrangle with the other side." finally

Ah. So this encounter was not designed to pit the Bells Hells against the gods or against the titans, but it was designed to force them to reckon with the fact that they know nothing, nothing about what's happening around them, and further to force them to seek out information about the things they don't know.

AH. Abadeena does not wish to destroy the gods, but to return to a state of Exandria in which the gods and the Primordials lived in balance. Mortal races are an invasive species just as much as the gods are, but there was a point in history where they, the primordials, the eidolons, and the gods existed in conjunction with one another.

She also notes that the primordials, the eidolons, do not feel a threat from Predathos — and that the Matron of Ravens offers no warnings of Predathos, no insight, if she saw it coming at all.

Ashton and Laudna: Ashton doesn't think that the Hishari have anything to do with anything — that is something that they'll be asking of the Bells Hells "once everything quiets down." They are so angry right now, and Laudna notes that she and Orym feel the same. Ashton's worst nightmare was their very first divine intervention. "The gods saw me, a god saw me, I was not invisible. It was not hungry, it wasn't fearful, it wasn't — it was a messenger, it was sent, and it told me what I really didn't want to hear: that it doesn't fucking care, that I might as well be fucking gone, that I was a mistake."

Bor'dor goes out to look for Orym, but rolled a 4, so Orym — from his perch on a high tree — takes pity on him and (after Liam asks whether Bor'dor is a half-elf or not) reveals himself.

With a 19, Bor'dor impressively climbs the tree and joins Orym.

"Do you believe in god?" "I mean, it's beyond question. The gods have shaped the history of this world, they have dropped miracles from their seats on high and caused irreparable damage — and unmistakable good. I don't know that I care — I care about you and me, and I care about my family across the ocean." "My life is vert small. I wake up, I work, I go to sleep. My beliefs have been black and white. These people told just o go into a church and fight something that I can't fathom, and int he moment, where I felt victory, I didn't see a divinity or radiance or whatever the fuck you call it, I just felt sadness and compassion. Did you see the way it looked? There — why did we have to do that? Why is that what happened? And then I wonder, also, why — that woman, Abadeena, has no fucking clue what you people are talking about." [...] "I know, I think, barely more than you do, that people who are so determined to bust something out of our moon that it's worth killing a lot of people to get there. Do I believe in the gods? Yes. Have they had a ton of bearing in my life? No." "So you get to Ludinus, and then what? We just killed an angel, we saved a woman who has no clue about the fight that she's fighting. This village has no clue, they're fucked either way — what are we doing here? My life is very small. What are we doing here?" "I think that, um... Ashton, Laudna and I have friends that we were with, got pulled away from, and I think we've got a one in 2000 chance of stopping more people I care about from getting killed." "Okay. Let's do that, then."

Bonding over shit jokes and laxatives. Ah, the quintessential Critical Role experience.

But still, Bor'dor extends a hand. "I go where you go."

I'm just saying, my "multiple tables running at the same canon time concurrently, exactly like the way Pathfinder Society specials run" theory gains all the more merit.

Laudna stays up with Prism reading through books, and Marisha manifests Beau through Laudna. (Someone write an essay about how each of these players manifests specific aspects of a character throughout each campaign. Tag me when you do, if you do it before me.)

In the books, there are tithing ledgers, as well as deals and plans between the temple and the Silvercall Mill about buying out portions of the neighborhood. These plans were awaiting approval from others in the network — discussions about finding land for temples of the Wildmother and other deities hat wasn't already controlled. It's a lot of discussion about calculated expansion by Vasselheim and Othanzia.

With an arcana check, Prism identifies the runes on the Judicator as having an original draconic base, an arcana script that is divine and protective in nature but in some cases near anti-magic. It didn't present itself in battle, but the Judicator has the ability to dispel existing magic — its old magic, possibly related to the anti-magic cone displayed by the Mage Hunter golems that Ludinus employed.

Also in these papers is a discussion of Vasselheim sending forces to leyline nexuses. Prism notes that the leylines are stationary except for certain celestial events, of which the apogee solstice is the largest — nexuses stay where they are placed until the next apogee solstice moves that nexus, resulting in people gravitating to that area for the time between now and the next apogee solstice. It's about resources.

Prism has been away from her home for a decade. She believes that these past few days are validation for those ten years spent at the Cobalt Soul (or elsewhere), and stifles a personal smile.

In the morning, they are met with the smell of breakfast prepared by Abadeena. She offers to create a scroll for Prism so that she can copy the spell into her spellbook. (Again, because she's an Order of Scribes wizard, Prism can copy spells much more quickly than the average wizard.)

Ashton approaches Abadeena about the magic in their head. "It seems to bend the world... I have dreams, sometimes they're inhuman, sometimes I'm other people but I'm not... you ever seen anything like this?" "Like this? I have not at all... however, if you are to continue to travel, maybe speak with the spirits. Maybe things that are older than all of us combined have better insight than this frail form." ooooooo something something the Luxon is older than the world and so it makes sense that they might be some kind of primordial force. it makes sense that they might be a primordial titan that existed "before the gods" because the primordials also did.

Finishing breakfast, they enter the scrying chamber, and Orym enters unannounced — having taken a point of exhaustion from a sleepless night.

Again, Chetney giving each of the Bells Hells material gifts is a fucking genius move by Travis, because they all have scrying targets now. Whether intentional or not, it's genius, and it really goes reflect the themes of this campaign.

They see snow. Snow, falling, across a mountain range. They see Deanna first, with a prominent symbol of the Dawnfather — then they see FRIDA, a rosegold bipedal robot — then, the familiar image of Chetney, trekking behind with excitement and distance — then Imogen and Fearne, following behind, as FCG wheels up alongside them, all trekking through the snow. Prism and Orym recognize the smoky sight of Kravarad, and recognize that they are not far from Uthodurn. They see Imogen grasp her cloak and look back, as if she's making eye contact with the basin, with the scrying censor — Laudna shouts her name, but the image dissipates.

Regardless, they recognize that the other half of Bells Hells is on another continent, on the other side of the world.

Orym asks if there's anyone nearby who can transport them, and Abadeena notes that "those in Vasselheim could, if you had their favor." Yet she does know someone, about 5 days travel's away from Hearthdale, who could transport them: Hevestro, hierophant of the Emerald Tree, a powerful archdruid whom Abadeena once trained under.

So Team Issylra has two options: go to Vasselheim, a longer journey but with more people who could help, or go to Hevestro and count on the good will of a single archdruid.

Abadeena can scry two more times, and Prism can scry once, making for a total of 3 more scries. (Ahh, now I see why this episode is 5 hours long.)

Scry 1: Dariax. He's chewing on his nails with a dirty, scarred face, with a look of concern, sitting in a dark space they can't quite make out. He plays absentmindedly with the compass around his neck, thinking. A blue hand catches his holder, he gives a nod and stands with his spear — Dorian, also looking a bit worse for wear. "That's the bag of dicks—" "That's our bag of dicks!"

Scry 2: Bor'dor's Home / Brother. "Don't take your clothes off!" (Orym: "C'mon, let it happen.") "There, you see a vision of a homestead, modest but well-furnished, not quite the home of a farmer or a person who keeps cattle or sheep. It's an unfamiliar space to you (Bor'dor). You're uncertain whether this dagger is calling a connection to a place of import or a particular answer to your question, unfortunately."

Abadeena copies the scrying spell onto a scroll, which Prism copies into her spellbook.

Now, the Bells Hells must decide between two things: going to Vasselheim and trying to convince them to help, or taking their chances with the dangerous journey through a canyon to Hevestro's homestead. Orym's gut says the latter.

Matt confirms that no one in the party would know anything about the waters between western Issylra and eastern Wildemount, and that it would take a number of weeks to traverse it by ship. For the record, based on Exandrian timezones, geology, and cosmology, there could be an ocean the size of the Pacific in that space.

They decide to go toward the gorge where Hevestro lives, and Abadeena grants them a wind-based, cougar-shaped eidolon that will escort them. "If you meet others of the Valley Coalition, tell them of what has been done here, and let them know that we are ready to help them as well."

#critical role #note watches c3 #critical role spoilers #critical role campaign 3 #critical role c3 #critical role liveblog #bells hells #I'm not kidding #it's absolutely fascinating to me the ways in which this encounter would've been interpreted by both party and fandom across campaigns #because it would be SO different #which itself is reflective of the differences between each campaign

[eretzyisrael]

by John Podhoretz

I have lost count of the number of times the phrase “I have never felt like this before” has been spoken in my ear, texted to me, or sent to me in an email, in the three months since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

When I talked with Israelis on a trip in November, the phrase described a gut emotion few under the age of 50 said they had ever experienced—the sense that they were personally vulnerable to outside attack in a manner more like an extended military invasion than a terrorist blow. They had lived through years of ineffectual rocket fire that was all but magically extinguished by the Iron Dome and Arrow anti-missile systems. Those interceptions had provided a feeling of near-divine protection. No longer. Israelis feel raw now, and such vulnerability is never momentary or transitory; one might say the opposite. Once it seizes you, it might take years before you wake up one morning and notice suddenly it’s no longer there.

I experienced that blissful moment once in my life, in New York City in 1998, when I was walking alone late at night across Central Park and realized I was doing something I simply would never have done before in my 37 years as a native Manhattanite. The feeling in the gut of every New Yorker of my age—the need to protect oneself from some sudden onslaught, in part because everyone we knew had been attacked in one way or another—was just no longer there, and I had never felt it disappearing. Because of the crime drop, because of increased police visibility, because of the presence of others like me in exactly the same place at exactly the same time, this new sense of freedom was now my new reality.

I am not saying Israelis ever felt secure in quite that way before October 7. They had, of course, lived through 60 years of terrorist attacks (the Palestine Liberation Organization was founded in 1964 as a violence-worshipping gang designed to attack civilians on the model of the anti-colonialists in Algeria) and several short wars over the past half century. But through the 2010s and early 2020s, the sense of immediate danger for Israelis had split in two—and might therefore have seemed, oddly enough, twice as weak.

The threat had either become too geopolitically large to affect their quotidian existences (like the existential risk posed by Iran’s nuclear program) or could have only come so suddenly and unexpectedly that it would have been absurd to disrupt your daily life taking personal countermeasures (Palestinians engaged in a bus-stabbing spree at one point; how do you defend against that?).

These kinds of perils were certainly haunting, and they played a significant political role in Israeli elections and Knesset debates, but they were more theoretical to 9 million Israelis than actual.

So, now, when an Israeli says, “I’ve never felt like this before,” what he’s describing is a loss of stability, as though the very earth under his feet is no longer truly solid but might crumble beneath him. This is why the Hamas action, though not a terrorist attack in the traditional sense, may have been the most effective strike against Israel in the history of the Jewish state. It has destabilized people internally, which is terrorism’s goal. It also helps us understand the ongoing traumatic effect of the continuing crisis involving the hostages in Gaza. They have been held in unknown conditions for months now by monsters whose vicious acts on October 7—and sadistic conduct during the captivity of those hostages who have been released—makes the thought of what they might be going through utterly paralyzing and terrifying when it crosses your mind even for a second.

Israelis have the sense that, but for the slightest accident of timing and location, any of them might have been one of those hostages. And they hear the air-raid sirens, and they run to the shelters and do not do so in the almost lackadaisical way most of them did before October 7. The larger threat to Israel’s existence, and their own existences, has moved from the theoretical to the actual. After all, Hamas actually invaded Israeli territory and roamed on Israeli soil for three days before the Gaza envelope was cleared of them. Fail to finish them off now, and it could, it would, it will, happen again.

#israel #hamas #gaza #terrorism #palestinians #israelis

[chromedome-sympathizer]

Chromedome, for the send me a character ask? ;)

thank you rushing-waters!!!

(this is probably obvious but many spoilers incoming)

First impression

"wow, the artists really are pushing the proportions on these character designs, huh?" -my thoughts when reading for the first time

no seriously his waist is smaller than his head. why do you have a waist so small? for other bots to grab? (yes) (five husbands)

actually seriously tho mtmte was such an intricate fast-paced colorful blur on the first read that I didn't really notice him in particular until issues #14-#16 where I uh. started paying attention. for obvious reasons.

Impression now

whiny self-deprecating loser sadboy who I love with all my heart and soul

no on subsequent reads I definitely started liking him even more. the happiest scenes are when he's fully just some guy, like in the bar talking with swerve about nightmare fuel or trying to guess people from their transformation noises. he's also really good at his job!! (not just mnemosurgery, but forensics in general!) and sorry rodimus, but I would invite him along just for his dry wit.

Favorite moment

I thought for a long time about this one and I think there's just too many to choose from. but if I had to give one off the dome, (ha), maybe that little moment at the beginning of the time travel arc where he's talking to rewind and defending brainstorm. because yeah! he's his friend! and he likes to think he's good at reading people.

Idea for a story

hm. maybe a post canon / au situation where they're still on the lost light and he joins a dedicated forensics team. because I think it would be good for him to feel useful after giving up mnemosurgery

Unpopular opinion

maybe not unpopular. but his holomatter avatar would not look like that. maybe it's just the 2014-ness of it but it just rubs me the wrong way. I don't know exactly what itd be. maybe long blonde stoner hair. I'm thinking he's still masc. idk. he just needs to look pathetic. sadder

Favorite relationship

I could say rewind or brainstorm, but I'm gonna go the other direction. I'm gonna say rodimus. because rewind is right, he is an enabler. actually it's worse than that, since rodimus is not just enabling self destructive behavior but actively initiating it. ordering it, even, as much as anyone on the LL really needs to listen to his orders. (sorry roddy buddy.)

no but I think about this so much. because we remember a few times in canon where rodimus orders a crew member to shoot another. and it's often the same pattern: "shoot them!" "do I shoot to kill?" "yes!" "uh... are you sure??" "okay just incapacitate them." and in these cases rodimus is asking a crew member to harm (or kill) a crew member.

but with CD, rodimus is asking him to hurt himself for the betterment of the crew. usually for the reason that having the information in a dead or unconscious person's head might tilt the balance toward their survival. so in these times, when rodimus says "hurt somebody! (yourself)" there's nobody to say "are you sure?"

(granted, CD does usually say something like "this could kill me" but I don't count it because he's bent on self destruction and he's already got his needles out. I'm sure rodimus brushes it off as that "dry wit.")

Favorite headcanon

idk where this one came from. I think it's a pretty common fanon interpretation. but I love love love the idea that brainstorm made CD's needles. the drama. the angst. I live for it. it just makes sense too! they're both incredibly skilled in their fields and I think having them overlap in this way is incredibly satisfying. (heartbreaking. gut-wrenching.)

#thank you for the ask! #chromedome #mtmte #transformers #eh I'll tag some other people too since I talked about them #rodimus #brainstorm

[moronic-validity]

The Bed

The long-awaited next part of the DWU, this one comes after The Dome. I promise I'll go through and make a full sheet of all of them in order, but not today!

I don't believe this one was proof read, so here we go, with over 3k words.

This one is 18+ and this one has some fun adult times! With Simon bottoming!

ENJOY!!!

Simon looked at him and studied his familiar features. He knew he should be scared. It would make sense to be. He had never seen this side of Winter before, the ruler that could end a war before it had even begun. 

But he wasn’t. 

Winter reached out and cupped Simon’s face, stroking his cheek with the pad of his thumb.

“Promise you won’t ever leave me.”

“I would never want to,” Simon’s voice was soft, still feeling like he was in a daze.

Winter got off the floor and offered his hand to the smaller man, who continued to stare forward, not quite focusing on anything. 

He hated to see Simon like this, but part of him understood. The poor man had been awake for a few hours and had a panic attack, was blindsided by the meeting, had another panic attack, and witnessed an attempted murder, and it was all before the time he usually woke up. 

Simon looked up at him, eyes glossy from the number of times he had cried.

Winter placed his outstretched hand on his hip and thought for a moment before easily scooping Simon into his arms. 

Simon didn’t fight it, he just let himself be deadweight in the other’s arms. He was so drained.

He knew why the Flame Princess tried to use him as a bargaining chip. It made sense. He could understand that. But what would have happened if Winter hadn’t…his thoughts spiraled. She could have just taken him. He didn’t know this land the way he knew his homeworld. 

Simon felt the tears prickling at the corners of his eyes and buried his face in Winter’s chest. 

Winter carried him to their room and sat down on their bed, not letting Simon out of his arms just yet.

“My dear Simon, what can I do to help you?” Winter moved a loose strand of Simon’s hair behind his ear.

Simon answered with a slow shrug. 

Winter took a deep breath.

“Simon, do you want to be here?”

His head shot up, the tears coming back quicker than before.

“What do you mean?” He couldn’t help but sound hurt, bewildered by the sudden question.

“I just want to know if you truly want to be here,” Winter mused, “Do you want to be here, be with me.”

Simon looked at him, the man willing to kill for him, and tried to figure out what had gotten into him.

“I share a bed with you, don’t I?”

“Simon…”

“I’m your advisor.”

“Simon, I”

“I fuck you for Glob’s sake!” 

“Simon!”

Winter raised his voice just enough to snap the antiquarian out of his own spiral.

“I just asked if you want to be here, with me.” His voice was softer this time, holding Simon’s hands in his own.

“I do.” 

Winter squeezed his hands three times before speaking.

“I will never let anyone take you from me,” his hands got colder and his voice more firm, “ever.” 

They sat in this awkward embrace, neither one wanting to disengage. 

“Do you think we could take a nap?” Simon yawned.

“I don’t see why not!” Winter said, falling back onto the bed, pulling Simon back with him.

Simon laughed as they fell back before rolling to his side of the bed, pulling his covers around him and closing his eyes.

Winter rolled onto his side, looking at how comfortable his partner had gotten. He looked so peaceful. 

He couldn’t stop himself from worming his way under Simon’s blankets. 

Simon’s eyes shot open as his den of warmth was infiltrated by the coldest person he had ever known. 

He turned his head to see the shit eating grin of his king, who was doing his best to make himself comfortable under the six thick blankets.

“What are you doing?”

“Is it so wrong to want to hold the handsome man in my bed?” Winter poked Simon’s nose making him scrunch his face.

Simon grumbled, not quite happy with the sudden cold, but also pleased with the physical comfort. 

Winter inched closer,to him as Simon rolled onto his side, facing away from him.

Simon could feel the irritation coming off of his partner.

Literally.

The noticeable chill made Simon shiver. 

“It’s called spooning, put your arm around me,” Simon instructed. Winter did, still leaving space between them, “I gave up everything I had to come back to you My king,” Simon snuggled back into Winter’s embrace, closing the gap “I will never leave your side.” 

Winter opened his mouth to say something, then closed it; instead, he gave his Simon a small squeeze.

They didn’t cuddle much, especially not in bed. It wasn’t that there was a lack of casual intimacy, just that the difference in body temperatures made prolonged body contact a bit difficult for both of them. Winter’s skin was only a few degrees above freezing and Simon was so warm.

Winter found himself tracing snowflakes along Simon’s chest. It was a tender act that turned into tracing the small shapes along his stomach. 

Even through his clothes, Winter’s touch burned hot against Simon’s skin. It made him squirm, backing even more into the taller man. It earned a small laugh that tickled the back of his ear, making him squirm again.

Simon was glad Winter couldn’t see the blush growing across his face. 

Touch wasn’t unfamiliar, but the way the warmth of the blankets mingled with the coldness that radiated off Winter, it created a new sensory experience that Simon enjoyed more than he wanted to admit aloud.

Self control was vital.

The way Simon’s every move pressed his perfectly shaped ass right into his crotch was the last thing Winter needed to be thinking about. The way the man let out small noises of contentment drove him wild. 

But this wasn’t the time. 

Both men had to remind themselves of this.

The upside of being the little spoon was that his partner couldn’t tell that Simon was thinking of how good it would feel to be fucked under this pile of blankets. So warm and filled with such cold. He didn’t even know if Winter’s cock would feel cold inside him, but he had to assume. He didn’t even know if Winter would be willing to top, though again, he had to assume that since they were the same person, they shared the same delight in either position. 

The downside of being the big spoon was that Simon could absolutely feel his growing hard on. Winter kicked himself. He wasn’t supposed to be thinking about the delicious closeness or the way Simon seemed to be intentionally creating more friction than he needed to. 

Maybe it was the time.

Simon rolled over in Winter’s embrace and gave him a nervous smile, feeling rather hot under the collar. 

“Would you like to perhaps,” Simon took pause, hoping Winter would jump in before he had to ask, “get more comfortable?” 

“I’m already quite comfortable,” Winter had a lazy smile on his face, enjoying the position they were in.

Simon’s blush grew.

“I am too, I was just thinking we shouldn’t be wearing our formalwear in bed,” Simon began, pulling from the embrace to sit up and begin unbuttoning his vest. 

Simon got up and stripped to his briefs and neatly folded his clothes, before looking back to Winter expectantly.

Winter watched him, delighted at the sight of the unintentional, or very intentional, strip show. He followed his other’s lead and pulled himself from the bed, taking his time with each button and clasp.

He couldn’t help but stare. He was meticulous and there was something so attractive in the deliberate movements. 

“Close your mouth Simon, you’ll catch flies,” Winter’s lilting voice jokingly chided. 

Simon didn’t realize he had his mouth open. 

Once he was undressed, Winter returned to the bed and nestled under Simon’s blankets.

“Aren’t you coming back to bed?” he asked, patting the space Simon was meant to fill. 

Simon bit his lip and went back to the bed, intentionally pressing his body against Winter’s. 

He didn’t know why he was being coy. He wasn’t some bashful twenty something; he was a grown man, an old man at that, and he knew what he wanted. 

“Winter?”

The reply was a soft hum of acknowledgement that vibrated into his own chest.

“Would you be willing to…um…” Simon began searching for the word he was looking for and every alternative he came up with made him more flustered. 

Winter began to nonchalantly go back to tracing his snowflakes along Simon’s heated skin. He knew what the man was asking, but he didn’t want to interrupt his train of thought.

Simon’s brain went blank. He hadn’t been this flustered since his first date near the end of undergrad. 

“What would you like me to do my sweet Simon?” 

“I want to have sex with you.” 

Winter laughed again.

“Simon, we have sex all the time, why are you so worked up?” Winter pressed a kiss to the back of Simon’s head.

“Yes, but, I was wondering if you would be willing to-”

“To fuck you?” 

“Yes.”

Winter didn’t reply immediately.

“Simon, are you sure that’s a good idea? I know today has been a lot on you and I don’t want you to ask for something you don’t really want.”

It was Simon’s turn to laugh. He rolled over in Winter’s arms and looked at him.

“Please Winter,” Simon kissed his cheek, “I’m well old enough to know what I want, and I want you. All of you.”

The reassurance was all he needed.

Winter moved his hand to cup Simon’s face and kissed him. It was a soft kiss, almost as if he was scared to hurt him. 

It was Simon tangled his hands in Winter’s long hair.

It was Simon that pressed his lips harder against Winter’s.

He wanted, no, needed this so badly. 

Winter followed his lead though, he moved the hand cupping Simon’s face into his hair and gave it a soft pull. It caused Simon to open his mouth to gasp, just enough for Winter to slip his tongue in, wanting to explore every part of the man. 

Simon’s hips bucked involuntarily. It had been so long since he had been kissed like this.

Winter broke the kiss and began traveling down, peppering kisses along Simon’s jaw, and down to his neck, where he began biting. He wanted everyone who saw him to know exactly who he belonged to. He sucked at each mark until it was a deep red and sure to bruise.

All Simon could do was moan and loosen his grasp on Winter’s hair. It stung a little, but it was so much better than he had remembered. 

Winter used his position to roll them over so he was on top of Simon, staring down at him. He already had the dazed look in his eyes that Winter was all too familiar with. He moved further down from the man’s neck and collarbone and let his hand graze over Simon’s nipple.

It made his back arch. 

Simon hadn’t had many partners pay attention to his chest. He didn’t know how sensitive the area could be paired with how cold Winter’s touch was, he was in heaven. 

Winter raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected that strong of a reaction. He tried rubbing the nub with the pad of his thumb, then rolling it between his fingers. The man’s hips bucked and he squirmed. 

“Simon, if you had told me you were so sensitive, we would’ve tried this sooner,” Winter cooed.

Simon just whined in response, desperately wanting more.

Winter smiled at the desperate response from the usually composed man.

“Be patient my dear,” he gave his sensitive nipple a tug, “we’ll get there eventually.”

He didn’t bother paying attention to the other side of the man’s chest before moving lower, kissing and nipping his way down.

Winter hooked his fingers around the waistband of Simon’s briefs and looked up almost as if he was asking for permission. Simon brought his hips off the bed and let him pull them off. Winter absentmindedly threw them across the room, sure Simon wouldn’t mind him not folding them this once. 

He adjusted himself between his legs and looked down at his Simon, who was shaking in anticipation. He began the same process of biting and sucking around his thighs, so close to where he actually wanted attention, but so far at the same time. 

Simon gasped loudly and bucked his hips again.

Winter could only hope he was this vocal when he fucked him. 

Once he was satisfied with the bruising, he moved his attention to Simon’s leaking cock. It was a beautiful sight, a visual representation of his need. He licked up the side and to his surprise, Simon just took a shaky inhale. 

He figured he’d just have to work harder for a reaction. 

He took his mouth lower, taking a chance to bite at Simon’s inner thigh before making his way to his ass.

Simon’s head shot off his pillow when he felt Winter’s tongue along his perineum. 

“What are you doing?” His voice was shaky and he sounded scandalized.

Winter stopped and rested his head on Simon’s thigh, looking up at him with a glint in his eye.

“Simon, I just want to make sure you’re ready, that’s all,” his voice was soothing and Simon seemed to calm down a bit at his words.

“I understand that…but with your tongue?” 

Winter finally seemed to understand the issue.

“Simon, has no one eaten your ass before?” His words were intentionally lewd and made Simon blush bright red.

“Have you?”

“Once and I remember it being quite enjoyable,” Winter drummed his fingers along Simon’s hip, “Would you be willing to let me try?”

The question hung heavy in the air.

Simon thought about it for a moment before giving a timid nod and laying back down.

Winter kissed his thigh again and began trailing his kisses lower, back to where he was. He kept his touch light, not wanting to worry Simon again. 

The first broad stroke of his tongue made Simon’s entire body shiver.

He could work with this. 

He swirled his tongue around Simon’s asshole and he thought the poor man was going to come off the mattress. He smiled to himself and gripped Simon’s hips as he began to lap at his hole. 

Simon didn’t know what to make of this. Winter’s tongue was so cold, but his touch felt so good and he was right, it felt so good being this taken care of. He rested a hand on the back on Winter’s head and stroked his hair. 

The feeling made him hum with delight as he worked on loosening Simon up, only to have him tighten his grip and loosen it again. 

Oh he really liked that.

Winter pulled away with a self satisfied grin and sucked on his fingers until they were dripping with saliva. It took a moment of steady pressure before it sank in. He didn’t move. He didn’t need to. 

In Simon’s desperation to be filled, he began rocking his hips, almost involuntarily. It felt so good to be filled. He didn’t realize he had missed it this badly or he would’ve asked far sooner. He didn’t even process when Winter added a second and then third finger; at this point, he just wanted more. 

He couldn’t help but stare. It was a sight he couldn’t have imagined, though he was sure he’d dream about for weeks to come. Simon, who was usually so tight laced, was fucking himself on his fingers. It made his still clothed cock twitch.

He pulled his fingers away and Simon let out a whine.

Winter readjusted himself so he could take off his underwear. 

This was going to be fun. 

He spit in his hand and made a mental note that they needed to find lube.

After a few strokes and a bit more spit, he thought his spit and precum lubed dick was slick enough. 

Winter pressed the head of his cock into Simon, who pressed his face against his pillow.

He didn’t know why he was suddenly so timid, this was the part he was excited for. 

“Simon, my dear, I want to see your face when bottom out in you,” Winter reached forward and gently moved Simon’s face to look at him, “Beautiful.”

He didn’t remove his hand as he began to sink into him, inch by agonizingly slow inch. Every time Simon thought he had taken it all, there seemed to be more. Then finally, Winter’s pelvis met Simon’s and they sat like that for a moment. 

Simon hadn’t felt this full before. It didn’t hurt per say, but it ached and stretched him in a way he longed for countless times over the years. 

Winter didn’t move. He savored the feeling of tightness and fought every urge to pull back and slam back into the man underneath him. He wanted to, so badly, but he didn’t want to hurt him. He let Simon decide when he was ready, waiting until he began to squirm underneath him. 

It was slow at first, Winter still worried about hurting his sweet Simon. Every move was careful. 

“Winter,” Simon said breathlessly, “I’m not made of glass, please…” 

That was all he needed to hear. 

He let his hips snap forward, bottoming out again in one quick motion. He kept up his fevered pace taking the loud moans and whimpers as encouragement to keep going.

“This is what you wanted, right Simon?” He said between pants, “You wanted me to fuck you?”

Simon’s brain had turned off. He just whined in confirmation, willing to say or do whatever he needed to make sure Winter kept this up. He didn’t even fully catch what the other man had said. 

“I wish you could see yourself right now…” Winter mused, slowing his pace for a moment. 

Winter looked to the ceiling and formed a mirror reflective sheet of ice along it. 

“Look at yourself.” He instructed while snapping his hips forward again.

Simon moaned loudly and directed his dazed eyes to the mirrored ceiling and took the sight in. 

His hair was a mess, some of it plastered to his forehead with sweat, the rest in a near halo around his head. He was covered in hickeys and bite marks, flushed all the way down to his collarbone. He had his legs spread open with an incredibly handsome man between them. He couldn’t tear his gaze away as Winter began fucking him again. It was lewd. A small part of his brain told him he was far too old to be being railed like this. That those days were long behind him, a relic of the past.

Yet here he was, with a man who didn’t believe any of that. 

He let himself fall back into the intense pleasure. 

“Simon, I don’t know how much longer I’m going to last,” Winter was breathing heavily and his thrusts were becoming sloppy. He was just so tight and warm. It was incredible.

“Choke me,” Simon was close too, and only needed a little more to push him over the edge. 

Winter didn’t hesitate, moving the hand from Simon’s face to his slender neck. He didn’t press hard, he was worried he’d hurt him by accident. 

Simon held onto Winter’s arm and closed his eyes, he was so close. 

His thrusts had fallen out of their even time, he was just focusing on outlasting his other half. 

His whole body tensed as he came, shooting rope after rope onto his own stomach. 

Winter didn’t hold back anymore and when he bottomed out, he unloaded inside Simon. 

His cum was so very cold and somehow felt heavy inside him, causing Simon to tense all over again. 

They stayed like that for a moment, both men a mess, dazed and worn out from their activities. 

Winter pulled out and got up to get a towel for Simon. When he came back, the man was dozing off. 

“Simon?” Winter asked as he began cleaning up the mess Simon made on his own stomach.

Simon barely opened his eyes and gave him a dopey smile. 

“Simon, what are you doing?” 

“Taking my nap,” was his half asleep reply. 

Winter didn’t try to fight him on it, and instead quickly cleaned himself up before joining him under the blankets, holding him close.

#teddy talks #theo's thoughts #simon x winter king #the winter king #winter king x simon #winterking #winterkov #simon petrikov #simonpetrikov #simoncest #nsft #dwu

[astro-rainbow777]

Astrology Observations ⋆⁺₊⋆ 𖤐 Volume 3 𖤐⋆⁺₊⋆

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Good Afternoon friends! I hope you enjoy my observations that I’ve gathered. I am not a professional astrologer so please take these with a grain of salt 🫶

Take what resonates, Leave what doesn’t! Only you know what is best for you 😊

✨Enjoy! ✨

✧ Sagittarius Risings usually have family from different countries/parts of the world. If not, family can have a different cultural background and distance from the native. They also tend to get a lot of attention and comments because of the way they walk/have a generally noticeable lower half…hehehe

✧ Libra Moons are sooo sweet, good intended and charming. Me being a spiritually passionate person, the topic of soulmates never escape a conversation with a Libra moon. I want to remind allll Libra placements that there is more to Love than the romantic kind! Again it is very endearing, but you guys have the tendency to form peer relationships around the topic of romantic love at the center. So when y’all are finally in a relationship- there goes everyone else in your life. Of course this is not all Libra placements but there are some I’ve met like this. If you are a friend of a Libra moon, please try being supportive of whom ever they decide to crush on- even if you don’t agree. When you reject who a Libra moon loves, it’s like you’re rejecting them. Remember that they tie a big part of their ability to love others. In doing this you may forfeit them being authentic with you. Bonus points if they have Aquarius personal placements! You may get ghosted 👻

✧ Virgos, especially Virgo stelliums, why are you so good at EVERYTHING?!?! Like, y’all are the prodigies of life! So unfair, I have zero earth placements- there are days where I’m lucky if I can walk straight. But y’all? Y’all will try something once and be consider a master. Virgo risings have usually have Gemini midheavens- so you may be consider a jack of all trades. So much versatility and flexibility. I’m obsessed with y’all 😐

✧ Venus in the 12th: you guys are just the kindest, most selfless, beautiful souls! I love love love love you. I’m so close with a lot of you. That being said, you have THE WORST taste in romantic partners. No actually. At least one relationship in your life you have been a secret to someone. I genuinely feel for you people because y’all are so loving. Have the type of broken, egoic, heartless people- your intentions are good, but you can’t let people take advantage of you! You are just as guilty if you reward bad behavior. In health tho, yalls love is just so pure. Beware of substance abuse with this placement. Can also love fall in love with the idea of someone. Prone to day dreaming about potential partners, than falling in love with your thoughts about them <3 it’s kind of sweet in a way because your brain is so beautiful it falls in love with it’s self. These people turn trash into treasure in their own dome 🤕

✧ Sun in the 7th people are so popular! Everyone knows them-they usually have a pretty clean reputation too! You guys are pretty likable, at work y’all have sooo many connections.

✧ Saturn in the 9th can be very dogmatic in their beliefs. Now, the ones that I have met have experience some traumatic events to make them so opinionated. But there seems to be a disconnect between that one experience and the collective. For example) one guy I work has a Transgender cousin who SA’d some woman, so now he really believes that all people who are transgender are bad people. Which is not the truth obviously. But that’s their truth…so it is THE truth 😬 yikes

Mars in 1st house people can come off very strong…yes, but if you don’t know these people they can come off as just rude, aggressive, or annoying. When you really get to know these people it’s very common though to find that they are just very protective of themselves and that’s why they can be an intense personality. Y’all have a Sand paper first impression..does that make sense? Haha, no but for real y’all are warriors- usually these people have had violence/aggression in their home at a very early age. That being said, it’s very important when meeting new people that they establish their “dominance”- does that make sense?

Mars in Libra-ruled by Venus, these people had to have invented being fashionably late, always! Y’all need a timer strapped to you at all times! Love you tho, always thinking of how their actions will affect others.

Cancer Risings are sooooo pretty and soft. No fr! Your skin is so soft and plushie! Also your eyes twinkle, especially the woman. Y’all are sooo beautiful too when you’re taking care of someone you love, your just in your element.

Moon in the 3rd/Gemini don’t stick with one feeling for too long. As a result, if you are venting to some with this placement, don’t expect them to wallow with you in your feelings. Their type of cheering up is distracting you from them! That’s only what they know though! They do the same thing for themselves. But if your a sensitive soul, try a fire/water moon if you want someone to feel with you.

Individuals with a fifth house stellium may have an earlier introduction to parent hood or struggle with infidelity. Especially if Saturn is here. Life of the party tho!

Jupiter in the 8th, do people just give/buy you things? I have mine here and I don’t even have to ask people just give me stuff! Especially like hand me downs and food. I don’t even ask! It’s weird. Jupiter shows abundance and the 8th rules over other peoples possessions, so It’s a possibility that this is a manifestation of that placement 😏

Some Scorpio + Taurus Big 3 women I’ve met are VERY open about their sexual kinks- like post on social media about sex a lot. The ones I’ve met have a fascination with being a dominatrix/bondage? I know this doesn’t apply to all but just some that I’ve seen. Also posting about money, posting things that they want others to buy for them?

Thanks you for Reading✨

Let me know what you resonate with or don’t resonate with in the comments! I love feedback 💕

#astro community #astrology #astrology signs #zodiac #aquarius #astrology observations #aries #taurus #gemini #gemini moon #cancer rising #Jupiter eighth #virgo #Virgo stellium #libra moon #libra #libra mars #mars in first #Saturn in ninth #sagittarius rising #sagittarius

[randomvarious]

Today's mix:

Fuse Presents Hell by Hell 2000 House / Techno / Deep House / Electro / New Wave

Goddamn, man, I'm not gonna say outright that this mix in particular is the greatest shit in the world—although it's pretty close!—but the ethos behind it certainly represents what has ultimately led to some of the most astonishing sets that we've ever had the pleasure of witnessing as a species. There's this late 70s-and-80s-rooted spirit that's equal parts unpredictable and eclectic, in which the overall route of the set doesn't feel pre-planned at all, because the DJ takes risks by linking tracks together that you yourself would never expect to hear in succession. The overall journey from point A to point B that you get taken on is one that's long and winding and full of surprises, and the DJ themselves doesn't really have any particular destination in mind to begin with either, because the perpetual question that's always most immediately on their mind is, "hmm, what banger do I want to play next? 🤔"

And I feel like this flying-by-the-seat-of-its-pants approach to DJing has largely faded from the limelight and has gradually been replaced by either the DJ who specializes in one specific dance subgenre that's in one specific range of BPMs for a whole set, or the DJ who just plays mindless EDM claptrap from a pre-loaded USB stick 😒. All of it's so safe and hermetically sealed shut. Where's the danger, the fun, and variety of it all?

See, what you really have to understand here is that there was no place on the planet that was more sonically diverse than your typical late 70s and 80s dancefloor. House, freestyle, synthpop, disco, hi-NRG, pop, post-disco, art punk, art rock, art pop, electro, hip hop, funk, boogie, post-punk, new wave, dance-pop, dancehall, two-tone ska, glam rock, sophisti-pop, soul, alternative dance, R&B, etc., etc., etc., all had the potential to be played at any given moment during a set, and the ultimate job of the DJ was to craft a breathtaking sonic collage out of any of it.

And that's exactly what Germany's DJ Hell channeled here with this commercial mix from 2000 for the second ever installment in Belgian club Fuse's own series. But what's more is that while Hell was deriving his inspiration from an attitude of a bygone era, he also happened to have about an extra decade of music at his disposal that his spiritual predecessors didn't. And the 90s ended up seeing a mega-expansion on the frontiers of electronic and dance music entirely, so while Hell certainly picks out his classics from super popular acts like Donna Summer and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, on here you're also gonna find stuff from contemporary dance legends like Todd Terry and Carl Craig, different flavors of rock from Tuxedomoon, Sparks, and the Flying Lizards, Brazilian-sampled techno from Andrew McLauchlan, and deep house from Bougie Soliterre. In reality, almost none of this track list makes any lick of sense on paper, but that's the inherent beauty of the whole thing, folks! Once you put it on and get a taste of Orange Lemon's (Todd Terry's) "Extended Club Mix" of "The Texican," you really start to get a feel for the vision that's been laid out here, and it's one that's mindbendingly motley, and more in the vein of how a lot of old DJ sets used to be!

The best DJs to me are the ones who appear to be doing it purely off the dome and are just living right in the moment while barely thinking ahead. They know how to wow a crowd with a memorable blend of classics, a contemporary hit, and obscurities from any decade, place, or genre, but they make adjustments if and when they feel the need to as well. And above all else, they possess an uncanny ability to play songs that you don't see coming—or that you never even knew existed in the first place—while also convincing you that the choice they made is one that's both thrilling and logically sound. It's a tough act to balance, like a halftime gimmick who rides a unicycle and spins plates on a long rod that sits on their chin while also juggling bowling pins, but DJ Hell is someone who clearly has the knack for it and puts it on full display here.

The world could always use more of this kind of DJing in it, especially when so many of us now have access to more music than we know what to do with that's all sitting right at our fingertips.

And by the way, I didn't really get into specific tracks with this post here, but "Desire," by 69, which is just a nice alias that was used by Carl Craig, is one of the most stunning combinations of string synth and drum break that I think I've ever heard in my life. Good lord, what a tune that is! 🤯

Listen to the full mix here.

Highlights:

Speedy J - "Evolution" Ché - "The Incident (Wet Dream Mix)" Orange Lemon - "The Texican (Extended Club Mix)" Liaisons Dangereuses - "Avant-Après Mars" Tuxedomoon - "What Use" 69 - "Desire" Mitsu - "Shylight" Donna Summer - "I Feel Love (Patrick Cowley Megamix)" Sparks - "Beat the Clock" Phuture - "Rise From Your Grave (Wake Side)" Foremost Poets - "Pressin On" Bougie Soliterre - "Superficial (Main Vocal Mix)" G Strings - "The Land of Dreams" Frankie Goes to Hollywood - "Two Tribes (Annihilator Mix)" Dopplereffekt - "Rocket Scientist" Andrew Mc Laughlan - "Love Story" Filippo "Naughty" Moscatello - "Disco Volante" The Flying Lizards - "Steam Away"

#house #house music #techno #deep house #electro #new wave #dance #dance music #electronic #electronic music #music #70s #70s music #70's #70's music #80s #80s music #80's #80's music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music #2000s #2000s music #2000's #2000's music #00s #00s music #00's