#love me some cinematic rock

[june-again]

listened all the way through deadhorse by dirt poor robins

#june shines #pretty good stuff #love me some cinematic rock #im so not real today #lets just say i dont do well with narcotics #deadhorse #dirt poor robins

[comradekatara]

Can you go a bit more in depth about your post about Sokka in the Burning Rock episode? You said that it was basically his suicide mission, which I agree with. I'd really like to hear more of your thoughts on it.

okay yeah i mean i'm sure i've covered all these points before extensively because i love weaving a tapestry of sokka's fucked up psychological landscape more than anything in the world, but every so often someone will comment on one of my posts and be like "i think you're reaching i think sokka is the paragon of mental health actually" and i'm just like um. did we not all watch the boiling rock. did we just ignore the apotheosis of sokka's entire character arc. like katara's apotheosis in "the southern raiders" is both very overt and impactful and also, arguably, subtler than sokka's, because they don't explicitly spell out the themes every five seconds, but like. if you didn't watch the boiling rock then you cannot understand sokka. and weirdly enough i also believe that zuka shippers are the biggest culprit of this despite this episode being thee zucchini episode because they somehow still have the audacity to characterize sokka as "goofy sunshine who exists to comfort zuko" when like. the entire point is that sokka is legitimately suicidal here and zuko is doing everything in his power to support him thru what is quite literally a mental breakdown. like their relationship is legitimately interesting i don't understand how people have taken that and made it deeply boring.....but i digress.

the boiling rock is quite obviously sokka at his lowest. the worst thing that could ever happen to him – fumbling a mission that was squarely his responsibility, from its conception to its execution, due to not being able to sufficiently compartmentalize his emotions, leading to the mass imprisonment of most of his comrades, including the men of his tribe whom he idolized his entire life and felt immense pressure to live up to, including his father who he is deathly afraid of disappointing (for reasons that have nothing to hakoda being malicious or neglectful in any way, fwiw), and thus being directly implicated in the failure and the harm caused by said failure – happened. sokka is someone who is especially bad at dealing with failure, because a) he is exceptionally talented, and thus has less experience dealing with failure in both minor and major ways, and thus lacks the emotional resilience developed through the process of struggle and growth that normal people (such as, incidentally, zuko) go through and b) to sokka, whose primary desire at all times is to protect and provide for others in any way he possibly can, for someone else to sacrifice themselves for him constitutes a fundamental disruption to the order. there is a perverse wrongness to kya or yue or hakoda or suki making sacrifices on their own volition, because it means that sokka has existentially failed to protect them by martyring himself. like, he somehow feels so guilty about suki being imprisoned that when azula reveals this piece of information to him, it literally distracts him from his own mission. and mind you, there's absolutely no way sokka could have known or been responsible for suki's imprisonment. but he still feels guilty nonetheless. and azula knows that, knows exactly how to twist the knife to make him break, because, well, it's honestly pretty obvious.

sokka obviously cannot retroactively save his mother or his first girlfriend, but he can save his father and his current girlfriend. in "the awakening" aang says he has to restore his honor after the guilt and shame of his failure in ba sing se (aang is also an incurable gifted kid perfectionist, btw, as is azula. posts for another time...) and sokka repeats zuko's line again in this episode, after experiencing the guilt and shame of his failure during the eclipse. the driving motivation of zuko's entire character, feeling like he has failed in some ontological way and must therefore redeem himself or die trying, is reinforced through aang and sokka's respective experiences mirroring that drive. aang goes out in a storm and nearly drowns to redeem himself in some vague, nebulous way, because he isn't thinking rationally. and likewise sokka, who usually always has a plan and always thinks things through, feels that caution and foresight is pointless, because he came up with a genuinely brilliant invasion plan and it didn't work, so clearly there's something wrong with him (just as he always suspected) and no amount of planning even matters, because he's a capital F Failure and always will be. and so he vows to save his father, as he promised him he would when they parted on the day of black sun, or die trying, because if he can't even do that then what is he good for; at least he'll die a martyr, which to him, is basically his ideal situation. because to sokka, dying as a martyr is basically the highest form of fulfilling his purpose (being needed, protecting people) and so if he dies a martyr, then maybe his catastrophic failure (that is entirely his fault and rests squarely on his shoulders btw) can be forgiven. so his plan is basically just to sacrifice himself for his father so that he can die "redeemed." very normal, rational, healthy behavior, i would say.

sidenote, i also see people claim that "the boiling rock" makes sokka look stupid because why wouldn't he take any of the insanely talented benders to a prison in a giant volcano surrounded by a boiling lake, and it's like. sokka literally admits that he's not being rational, that he doesn't think he's going to survive this, that this is not a good idea. it would go against sokka's entire modus operandi if he brought the children who he feels a deep, presiding responsibility to protect on a suicide mission that he's lowkey hoping will fail (because he not so secretly loves courting death. it's like she's the moon or something). he only lets zuko come with him because he doesn't actually care whether zuko lives or dies at this point. sokka has absolutely no faith in zuko whatsoever (and frankly, why would he, zuko has yet to actually prove himself to him. he didn't even kill combustion man; sokka did) so he has no idea that zuko is actually going to be helpful and supportive in a meaningful way. and frankly, if he had known that at the beginning, or even remotely liked zuko as a person, he probably wouldn't have caved so easily when zuko invited himself to join. if he didn't think that zuko was objectively worse than him and basically worthless as a human being, i doubt he would have let himself be so vulnerable with zuko in the first place. meanwhile zuko is eating it up bc he's like "omg he's confiding in me he's letting me help him we're basically besties" because he doesn't actually know sokka well enough to realize that sokka doesn't actually do that shit with people he remotely respects. shit like "my first girlfriend turned into the moon" and "i had a feeling this was going to be a one way trip" are simply not things that sokka would say out loud 98% of the time. the fact that he is admitting something real is not a testament to the trust he places in zuko, but rather the opposite. sokka spilling his guts (you know, for him) to his resident collateral damage, sokka bringing his lovingly crafted space sword on this mission, sokka not even confirming whether or not his father is actually there beforehand – he's simply stopped giving a fuck, he doesn't care whether or not he lives to see another day, because to him, he has nothing left to lose.

but of course, that also isn't true at all. i mean, for one thing, zuko still needs to teach aang firebending, so he does serve a pretty important function to the group, and zuko simply telling him to do hot squats in his absence does not qualify as significant tutelage. but also, even more importantly, sokka is integral to the fabric of the group. when he's gone for a day in "sokka's master" they literally all just shut down and start complaining about how much they miss him (we don't actually see any b-roll of the gaang hanging around the western air temple because the episode is simply too busy for that, so who can say whether the same thing occurs twice). sokka cannot afford to simply die just because his first plan failed, he still has a major responsibility to his friends. fucking idiot. i've said before that sokka has the emotional resilience of like. a pathetic wet newborn kitten caught in the rain. but like, come on man. i mean, as someone who has also suffered from debilitating perfectionist issues and never had to be responsible for a failed military invasion that cost my people their freedom, i do get it, but still. not his best moment. although there is something genuinely admirable about the fact that after he finds suki, he decides that saving suki is enough, and genuinely does want to succeed in his mission going forward. like his love for suki is one of the only things that consistently makes him happy and makes him forget that his greatest dream in life is to be murdered, and that's so beautiful to me.

the entire point of this episode, by the way, is that sokka is wrong. if that isn't obvious. sokka's entire worldview, that he only has value insofar as he exists to provide for others, and if he fails to protect people in any capacity, he has fundamentally failed to uphold the one reason he even exists on this earth, and thus he does not deserve to exist unless he is bearing the weight of everyone's suffering or otherwise proving his worth through sacrificing himself for others, is um. fucking stupid???? and incorrect. and stupid. the thing is, unlike zuko, sokka can't really point to any one person who taught him to see himself this way. he can't just face his father and tell him that his abuse was cruel and wrong, because hakoda is a good father who has never not supported and believed in and encouraged him, done everything in his power to protect him, loved him unconditionally. hakoda has inadvertently damaged sokka's psyche in various ways, of course, but never with any intention to hurt him. like, ozai tried to kill zuko, on multiple occasions. it's a pretty obvious indicator of the primary source of harm in his life. but sokka is equally if not more Unwell, and there's no one single figure he can blame, because his complex lies within a tangled web of what my best friend fanon calls the "massive psychoexistential complex" of the colonized subject. he is being dehumanized not through interpersonal abuse, but through the violent logic of imperialism. sokka's formative traumas inform his psychology as he understands that he only has value insofar as he is protecting the people he loves (namely his sister) from being murdered by imperialists, much like his mother did. and that logic is continually reified through the violence he is being subjected to, until he truly absorbs the belief that his life has no value on its own, that he is genuinely Less than [human] in some fundamental way. which is obviously deeply tragic, but also lowkey kind of comical because he also happens to be the specialest boy in the world, who literally did come up with multiple working escape plans at the world's most secure supermax on the fly, mind you! but whenever anyone tries to point that out, including piandao literally saying "you're the most exceptional and worthy person i've ever met in my life" sokka is just like "um. that is incorrect actually." like NO ONE should depersonalize themselves and feel that their only value lies in their ability to serve and sacrifice themselves for others, but it's especially ironic that sokka literally does not think he has any value as a human being, and yet he is also objectively exceptional. like, do you understand why i adore this character so much. do you.

anyway. the point of this episode isn't that sokka has worth because he's exceptional, either. that's lowkey the point of "sokka's master," but also a) sokka doesn't really internalize it and b) the more important part of the episode lies in how much the gaang just misses his company because they miss their neurotic control freak big brother who makes bad jokes. but even if he couldn't come up with multiple working escape plans on the fly, suki and zuko still stay by his side anyway because they care about him. they are demonstrating that they would risk their safety and possibly even their lives, in the exact way that sokka is always trying to for everyone else, for him. that sokka doesn't need to be the one who always protects everyone else, and that he isn't a failure for letting people who care about him help him and protect him. and sokka has to accept their help, because suki and zuko are simply too stubborn not to force him into letting them support him. they are standing in a literal maximum security prison in the middle of a volcano and they are still choosing to prioritize sokka's mental health and wellbeing, which is honestly crazy, but also exactly what he needs in this moment. suki has known sokka for what, 3 days maximum? yes they're soulmates but like, girl get up. and in zuko's case, "girl get up" is magnified tenfold, because he literally risked his life to go with him to the boiling rock (also largely motivated by the guilt of not being able to stage his own prison break with iroh, but still!) and let himself get imprisoned despite being the fire nation's most wanted criminal, stayed by sokka's side no matter what including getting thrown into a literal torture chamber for him, jumped across a gaping boiling chasm with no guarantee that he'd survive except for the implicit expectation that sokka would catch him on the other side. like zuko is so fucking pussywhipped and sokka didn't even value him as a human being until like halfway through their entire mission. insane.

in conclusion: "the boiling rock" is a beautiful story of the most mentally ill boy on the planet (he took first place ever since jet died rip jet forever in our hearts), and his two ride or die bitches who he met like yesterday, and also his dad, and a casual homophobe named chit sang, all working together to demonstrate to him why killing yourself is a bad idea in most cases, probably. it's also the story of the most insane dyke drama of all time, but that's for another post (of which i have of course made multiple, most recently, here). i said it's the apotheosis of sokka's arc, and by that i mean it's the most overt acknowledgement of what his fundamental issue is, and the first steps one must take in actually resolving it (namely, accepting help and support from your peers and loved ones). do i think that sokka is magically cured after returning from the boiling rock? no, probably not (in fact, because i'm somewhat sick & twisted myself, i like to imagine that once the war ends, he actually gets worse). but he does seem genuinely happier after they return. and maybe that's just bc kyoshi warrior pussy hits different, but like. he was able to rely on others for help (including mai my best friend mai) who supported him unconditionally and prevented him from simply giving up, and that's so incredibly important. that kind of support is always important, to everyone, of course, but as we've established, it's especially important to sokka specifically, at his lowest (quite possibly ever), in this situation. no one has an obligation to risk their life for someone else, but sokka is something who thinks that his purpose is to risk his life for other people (namely katara), and so for people who really have nothing to gain and everything to lose in standing by and promising not to leave without him, to actually show that they support him unconditionally is huge. if sokka has no fans then i am dead and so is suki zuko hakoda toph aang piandao iroh the mechanist etc etc etc. perfect episode <3

#suicide / #writergracethepanda #asks #analysis #sokka #sokkaxsuki #cinematic masterpiece the boiling rock part 2 #(technically i use that tag to talk about maizulee but swagever) #this post is basically just stream of consciousness unstructured rambling so i hope you find it valuable in some way... #at this point i've given up on trying to do Readings of and make Arguments about sokka #and i'm just rambling. i posted a whole fucking. ACTUAL essay about him yesterday and no one read it #but this is not that. this is. who even knows. it's certainly not an ''essay'' #my thesis statement: i love sokka so much #my body paragraphs: hes a weak willed mentally ill fucking IDIOT #just trust me ok. trust the process

[gretavanlace]

Sugar II (part 7)

Jake Kiszka x reader

18+ only! Minors do not interact!

Warnings: graphic sexual content, language, angst, cheating, choking (barely, and only if you squint) fingering, etc

Hello lovelies! I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and a very merry Christmas (if you celebrate). So sorry for the wait, but I trust you’ll understand…things get so crazy this time of year! Please excuse any mistakes you find, I did some under the weather editing. Xoxo love you all ❤️

True to his word, he was knocking at your metaphorical door the second their brief intermission allowed, and now you find yourself trudging along beside him through a nearly deserted parking lot outside the town cinema that is conveniently attached to the mall.

The mall sees little action these days as it is - throw in the fact that it’s early afternoon smack dab in the middle of the week and you’ve got yourself a recipe for isolation.

Which was exactly the plan all along. It’s a small town, and questions are the last thing you need.

When he’d pulled up in his rental, some luxury sedan with sleek black paint and deeply tinted windows, you couldn’t help the giggle that bubbled out of you. How out of place he looked…he would’ve seemed more at home on a tricycle.

Now, after a hug that felt too intimate in the unforgiving glare of the sun, he holds the door open for you, ushering you inside, ever the gentleman, when his phone begins to hum in his pocket.

“Here,” a credit card, black and heavier than standard plastic, slips into your palm as he nods towards the popcorn and candy, “Go wear it out.”

“Trying to get rid of me, Kiszka?” You tease, leaning in conspiratorially, “Am I your dirty little secret?”

With a roll of his eyes, he shuts you down. “Dirty? Yes. Secret? Not so much.”

He tilts his phone to display Josh’s name trilling across the screen. “You’re welcome to say hello, if you’d like. But I honestly detest the thought of sharing you right now. Sounds torturous.”

Your eyes travel over him like he’s a fucking meal. Linen pants cuffed lazily at the ankles to display scuffed and worn boots. Light blue button up, barely buttoned and hardly hiding the softness of his stomach, which you long to gnash your teeth into. Coins and medallions clink about against his chest, locks curling like ribbons along the shoulders of his midnight onyx blazer…no, on this you two can agree, you’d rather not share him either.

“Don’t let him talk so long that I have to miss you.” You smile with a wink that sizzles the blood in his veins as he watches you make your way over to the concession stand.

In keeping with yet another promise, he stands beside you before the popcorn has even been buttered, ready to follow you into whichever darkened room you’ll be inhabiting together for the next couple of hours.

When you fold into your seats, you find yourselves utterly alone.

A half an hour in, and you’re deeply regretting your choice. Something more PG would have been a lifesaver. You should have opted for something animated, for christ’s sake.

Watching them twist through the sheets, his hands dipped into her waist as she rocks above him in the gorgeous, cinematic lighting would normally have no more than a minute effect on you…especially given how little you’ve paid attention to the actual plot.

But he’s so near. You can feel the warmth of his body heat. You can smell that woodsy hint that lilts through his aura, paired with the ghostly remnants of a cigarette he’d swear he never smoked. If you leaned in just a fraction of an inch, your lips could play against the corner of his jaw. And again, you’re alone, so alone, in the cool darkness of this deserted theater.

Watching them this way with him so close has your heart banging about in the cage of your chest like a bird, stunned and frightened. Intense. Inescapable.

It’s the middle of the afternoon. The sun is beating down upon smoldering asphalt just outside these walls, bathing this town, in which you’ve built a life, in blinding light. Outside, it’s just another Wednesday…but here, with him next to you, quiet and concentrating on the two strangers making love on screen, you could be a thousand miles away. An alternate reality where in which only you walk the earth - Jake’s hand in yours as he strolls along beside you.

“Care to share what you’re thinking so hard about?” His question hushes out, though there is no one else around to hear it, but his eyes remain fixed ahead.

“I’m not thinking about anything.” You bristle gently…he knows you far too well for it to ever feel fair.

“I am.” His head tilts towards yours, but still he watches on. “Would you like it if I shared, instead?”

“Didn’t anyone ever teach you that it’s rude to talk at the movies?” You tease, simply to avoid whatever you know to be coming, “You really are spending too much time with Josh.”

A thought seems to suddenly occur to him, flickering a nearly visible lightbulb above his head. “Do you ever miss the way it used to be? With Josh? Before I came along and fucked everything up?”

His hand, which has been linked loosely with yours since the lights went down, offers a tiny squeeze. A reassurance that whatever the truth is, it will be alright to say it.

“Never.” And that really is the honesty of it all. “I miss the way things were when it was the three of us sometimes…but I think that’s really only because I miss you. I miss him too. But so differently. And I miss Sam and Danny. I miss…” you fall silent, searching for words that won’t come, and finally settle upon, “everything.”

“You don’t have to.” He is still refusing to look at you, though your eyes are heating his cheek with the intensity of your gaze in the dark. “You don’t have to miss anything, anymore. You can come home, baby. You should come home. I want you to come home. I need you to—” his throat catches, and you watch his lips fold in against the vulnerability.

“I am home.” You argue, wishing you could take it back the second you’ve whispered it into existence.

“Why?” Finally, finally, he turns to catch your eye. “Because of him? I’m so sick of hearing about him it isn’t even funny. And not just because I’m jealous - which I most certainly fucking am - but because it’s such bullshit.”

Trying your hardest, you muster a bit of astonished annoyance, though you feel none of it “My life is bullshit?”

His response is matter of fact as he turns his attention back to the couple still feigning ecstasy before you “Yes, it is.”

“That’s real nice, Jake.” Now your irritation feels a bit more concrete. How dare he so nonchalantly sit here in the dark and try to poke holes in what you’ve cultivated in his absence? “What isn’t bullshit, then? Our pretend life that you choose to live inside? Or the one from years ago that you can’t let go of?”

Another squeeze of your hand comes tender and comforting, “I’ll let that slide because I know you don’t mean to be hurtful…and because I know you’re scared.”

“I’m not scared,” you pull away and begin to miss his touch instantly. “I just…I have a fucking life, Jacob. And you seem hell bent on ruining it.”

“Okay,” he nods, turning in to nudge your nose with his own. “Take me home then, Sugar. Parade me through your life. Introduce me to Mr. Wonderful. Show me where you sleep. Where you watch TV with him at night. Where you take your baths, floating in the bubbles until you’re pruny and half-drunk on wine. Show me your backyard. Show me the walls he fucks you up against while you don’t think of me. Show me where you hide away from him at night to whisper sweet things to me…and not so sweet things. Let me meet your cat.”

His mouth is so close to yours you can faintly taste his minty toothpaste, “I don’t have a cat.”

“Alright,” he grins, sly as a snake, cheeks sweeping against yours as they perk with his smile, warm and soft “then just take me home and show me your pussy.”

It’s crass and ridiculous, and you know he’s said it simply to make you laugh…it works.

~

“So this is it, huh?” He leans forward, peering at your house through the windshield as you coast into the driveway. “No porch. No garden. But I’m going to wager there’s a welcome mat.”

His eyes cut over to you, a wickedly adorable gleam dancing about in them, “There is, isn’t there? How fucking quaint.”

How does he remember that you hate welcome mats? That you find them to be untruthful somehow, because certainly not everyone is welcome…some who find themselves at your doorstep should just go away. And how has he guessed that you do, in fact, have one? That he brought one home not long after you moved in and you hadn’t had the heart to tell him to throw it out?

Once more, you’re reminded of Jake’s uncanny ability to peer inside your head, but you refuse to stoke the fires of his ego. “You promised to behave, Jacob.”

He pops his door open and climbs out with a lazy stretch, “Oh, c’mon pretty girl, don’t tell me you believed that.”

Hand slipping from the steering wheel, you steel yourself with a steadying breath. This was a bad idea. A horrible choice. A disaster gearing up to wreak havoc…but here you are, leading the way with Jake strolling along behind you, taking in the suburban elements of your neighborhood with his hands buried casually in his pockets.

He always looks as though he has nowhere to be and all day to get there. It’s calming. Soothing. Like the invisible hand of a beloved caretaker reminding you that there is time enough to breathe. No reason to rush, it says…that gentle air about him. I don’t mind waiting. Take your time.

As you fit your key into the deadbolt, he resumes his antics, “When will Mr. Wonderful return from sea? Is there a widow’s walk where we might watch for him together on this dreadful day of pining?”

Voice warbling and pitched low, he reaches up and tugs a lock of your hair, goading you like a drunken, English pirate.

“Shut up, Oliver, or I’ll go inside and lock the door behind me.” The hinges squeak open…no turning back now.

“No, you won’t.” He scoffs, laughing lightly at his own nonsense. “Seriously, do I get to size up the competition today?”

You welcome him in, slightly dizzy at the sight of him sauntering inside…you’ve imagined him here so many times. Longed for his penchant for filling up space, fat and full, with his greater than life presence.

He makes you feel small in the most wonderful way; you are bird cupped safe and sound in his palms as he holds you close to his chest, protecting you from the world.

And maybe you should tell him these things…the way he makes you feel. His eyes would turn soft, he might touch your face with his tender fingertips and sigh your name into the room like a wisp of a breeze.

But a glance at the mantel, and the framed picture perched there, sends a tiny rush of guilt surging through your veins and you shake the moment off and instead opt for a stern…

“No, you won’t be sizing anything up today, Jake,” you move about the room to keep his eyes on you rather than in the direction of the mantel. “I’m not sadistic enough to subject him to your gleeful nastiness.”

He laughs like he’s never loved anything more, tipping his head back to expose his gorgeous throat…you yearn to bite it. “Gleeful nastiness? Sugar, you wound me.”

Rather than stride across the room to sink your teeth into him, you cross your arms, disgruntled and annoyed. “You’d have way too much fun being an asshole, and he’d be far too nice to put you in your place.”

That darkens his eyes, and you almost regret it. Almost. “Put me in my place? Are you choosing sides, sweetheart? Because it sounds an awful lot like you are.”

“Maybe I am.”

He’s moving toward you now, and you should back away, you know you should. Instead, your feet shuffle forward.

“Pretend your heart lies with him all you want,” he sweeps his lips over the apple of your cheek, “but I know better, and so do you.”

“Kiss me.” You bite your lip against the plea a second too late.

Those warm eyes of his, like coffee stirred with a splash of cream, flick down at your mouth and back to meet your gaze, and then his answer comes simply and with finality, “No.”

“No?” You’re incredulous, and admittedly stung by his rejection.

“No.” He reiterates, stepping away from you as your hands drop uselessly from his shoulders to your sides. “Take me on the tour, pretty girl. Show me this wonderful life of yours. I simply cannot wait.”

~

The “tour” he was so eager for is winding down as you steer him down the hall hurriedly, hoping he’ll ignore the door that is cracked and streaming light into the hallway.

Of course, he doesn’t. “What’s the rush, baby?” He smiles, feigning confusion, “What prize hides behind this one? Is this your bedroom?”

Suddenly, there is no space left between your bodies, and his is radiating a possessive heat as he backs you up into the room, guiding you along with a sure and steady arm wrapped around your waist.

“Is this where Mr. Wonderful fucks my girl?”

“Jake,” you’re protesting, but your fingers have curled into his shirt, thumb toying with one of the buttons that has likely never known what it’s like to be fastened. “Stop talking about it.”

He tilts his head in mock confusion, “Why? You like sex, I like sex, let’s talk about it, yeah? Oh, this is it right here, isn’t it? Look at this great big beautiful bed. Did you make it yourself this morning? Are the sheets clean?”

His mouth is at your throat now, licking and sucking between his terrible taunting questions. “If I laid you down right now, would I smell you on them? Would I smell him?”

“Jake, shut up,” you snap, but you’re pulling his lips in closer, hands fisting loosely in his hair.

You expect him to toss you down on the bed. To crawl on top of you. To grab you. To fuck you. To own you on the bed in some misguided show of territorial dominance.

And you expect to let him.

You expect to fight to be on top so that his hair will rest upon your pillow…so tonight you might drift away into a peaceful slumber gifted by the scent of him blurring your senses.

Instead, you find yourself pressed up against the wall, “I won’t have you in that fucking bed, even though I could, if I felt so inclined. I can tell you want it.” He sizes you up while grinding his cock into you with a delicious rhythm that’s got your breath panting out in tiny puffs already. “You do, don’t you, baby? You want me to fuck you in that bed. You want me all over the sheets he sleeps in.”

You’re ashamed, so fucking ashamed…but it’s true.

He’ll go, and you’ll miss him so terribly, and in some sick and horrifically twisted way you want him to spill on to the sheets, to leave his fingerprints on every surface. To lick across the bathroom mirror. To use your hairbrush so that there might be a strand or two of his silken waves left behind. You want him to drink from the milk carton and lounge about on the furniture. To lose the remote between the couch cushions. To tilt all the pictures uneven with his careless touch. You want him everywhere…to leave behind tiny remnants of himself once he’s gone, little pieces to ease your aching heart.

“Tell me, sugar.” He fucks himself against you with quick rolls of his hips until you’re praying his name. “Tell me the truth, baby. Tell me where you want me to give you my cock. I’m so hard for you, sweetheart.”

“In our bed,” it’s a rush of desperation as you clutch at him, dragging him closer to you…but it still isn’t enough, you wish you could crawl inside him. “Fuck me in our bed. Make me cum in our bad. Make me say your name in our bed. Please, jakey, please,”

Ignoring your disgraceful display, he continues to rock into you, gasping into the crook of your neck while his breathless moans tickle their way into your ear, “Does he make you cum in that bed? Does he take care of your pretty cunt the way I do? Does he make you shake and beg for terrible things? Hmm? Are you a good girl for him in that bed? Look at it.”

You shake your head back and forth against the wall, thrusting wildly to meet him. He’s right, he’s so fucking hard.

His palm wraps around your throat, squeezing at the sides, directing your line of sight. “I said fucking look at it. I want your eyes on that bed when I make you cum. I’m gonna make it mine without laying a goddamn finger on it. My bed, and my girl with her pretty wet pussy that belongs to me.”

“Inside,” it’s a rasping, shaking plea, and it should embarrass you and cast your eyes downward in shame…but it doesn’t. You’ve always wanted him this badly, and he knows it as inherently as he remembers the walls of his childhood home. “I need you inside, need your cock.”

“That’s it, fuck doll…” there is a filthy smirk evident in his tone, though his face is once again buried against your neck, “Beg for my cock. Tell me how badly you need it. Ask real sweet, sugar…be my very good girl.”

Your bodies writhe together feverishly until you feel like you might catch fire and burn away into ashes that will singe against his tongue like scorching want “Please, Jakey…please. I think about you all the time. I can’t clear my head, it’s always so full of you. Fuck me, fuck me, please please please…”

A painfully ragged groan rumbles out of him as his mouth, eager and starved, sucks against your throat, “Not gonna fuck you here. Not in this room where you let him touch you, not in this house where you let him love you.”

“Outside,” your teeth clench around the word until your jaw is screaming as loudly as the ache between your legs. “Take me out back, fuck me there…”

At last, his face, so beautifully flushed and dew-kissed, emerges from the crook of your neck, “You want me to take you outside and slide you onto my cock all wet and pretty? Want to let your neighbors hear what a whore you are for me? Let them hear how wet I make your gorgeous cunt? Hmm? Let them hear you whine my fucking name?”

“I don’t care what they hear…” you’re nearly mewling with need, clawing at his shoulders, clutching at his shirt, nearing your end, but so desperate to run from it because you want so much more. You don’t want this to be over without him slipped inside you, hard and hot.

“Look at me.” The insistence in his tone leaves no room for argument and your eyes flutter open to lock in on his.

A breathy, “You’re so beautiful,” trips off your tongue - a reflex that couldn’t be helped if you tried. He’s an evil, diabolical doctor banging a tiny hammer just below your knee cap.

A slow, languid blink is the only indication he gives that he’s even heard you. “You know my face, sugar?”

It’s the most absurd question that has ever been asked of you. Of course you know his face. Sometimes, it seems like you know nothing but his face.

Those sleepy eyes, that seem to see more than anyone has ever seen, down the deep and winding halls within you. His plush lips, full and pink, cruelly perfect, with a Cupid’s bow to rival the angel’s even if you stacked them all together. Rounded tip of his nose, different now, but still constantly luring your kiss. His jaw, so strong at times, so soft at others, but always begging for your tongue to trail along its path…his brow, his eyelashes, the way locks of hair display it all like a gilded edged frame adorning a wall in some ancient, European museum.

Yes, you know his face. You will always know his face. He is true north on your compass. He is the only direction in which your heart will ever willingly travel.

You nod, not trusting yourself to speak even as your hips rock against him.

“Good girl,” he presses the softest kiss to your mouth, “I want your eyes on that bed when you cum, but I want my face in your heart, and my name on your pretty pink tongue. We’re gonna fucking erase him, aren’t we?”

Suddenly, you wonder who he means? Does he mean this new rival, who really isn’t his rival at all? Or does he mean Josh, even after all this time? Does he even know which? Do you?

“No, baby…” your voice is but a whimper, and it tugs a growl out of his lungs that makes you weaker still, “I don’t want to cum like this. I need you inside of me. Make me feel good, Jakey…make me whole.”

“Not here,” he shakes his head sternly and you shrink away from his scolding, head resting against the cool wall. “Never here. Not in this house. I hate this fucking house. I want to burn it down and salt the goddamn earth.”

“Give me more,” your fingers are tearing and pulling at him frantically. You need so much from him always, you need his everything.

“I’ll give you more,” his voice sounds feral, grinding and growling like sandpaper…like he is lost and stumbling along far away from himself, as he jerks you away from the wall and slams you up onto your vanity.

Tiny bottles and tubes tumble and spill to the floor, but rather than care, you reach back and blindly sweep the rest away to make room for whatever is about to happen.

“I’ll give you fucking more,” he bites into your throat as though he wants to swallow you down and carry you around inside him. “I’ll give you fucking anything if you’ll just let me. Let me, sugar…fuck, please baby.”

“Just…” you can’t finish your thought…can’t find your mental footing while vibrating with such desperation, so you don’t even try. Instead, you begin fumbling with his belt, but he shoves your hands away.

“I told you,” he grabs hold of your face, a firm yet shaking hand tight around your chin, “Not here. Stop.”

On your fingers march, fighting with leather and metal until his voice, soft and mournful now, guides you out of the haze, “Not here, sugar. Not here.”

Everything slows in a blink, as if fate has adjusted the playback speed, and you find yourself watching with bated, yet quieting breaths as he pops the button on your jeans and lowers the zipper, eyes on your face all the while.

He slips his fingers in slowly, carefully…you are precious and deserving of his care, and he wants you to have it.

“Lean back,” he soothes, the heel of his palm grinding softly against your clit, “Let me take care of my girl.”

You’re prepared to whine and barter, but he shakes his head the moment your lips part.

“Shh, settle down, sweetheart. I’ve got you,” free hand now petting at your face, he offers you the gentlest smile. “You’re so wet, sugar. So warm.”

“Jake,” you’re rocking up to meet him now, slipping into the breathtaking haze of bliss he saves just for you.

“What, pretty girl?” God, the way he’s speaking to you…each word dripping with adoration and awe. Drenched in lust. Positively soaked in love. “Does it feel good?”

“So good,” your eyes are drifting closed now as you wade deeper into the tepid pool of your Jakey. You want to stay forever, to sink into his swirling blue waters until you’re forced to suck him into your lungs and drown.

“Eyes open.” The demand is soft and delicate, like lace drawn across your flushed skin.

You recall his earlier instruction and cast your heated stare at the bed you share with a man you could never exist for the way you live and breathe for Jake, but he shakes his head, “I was wrong…I don’t want that. Look at me, sugar. Right here, look at me.”

How could you ever want to look at anything else? Your gaze locks with his, and in reward, he curls his searching fingers and drags a high pitched moan off the tip of your tongue.

“Good girl, baby…” he nods, dropping his forehead to meet yours “So pretty. Silky little pussy wrapped up snug and tight around me like she never wants me to leave.”

“Don’t,” you’re writhing and grabbing at him now, crawling closer and closer to the edge, “Don’t leave me, Jake.”

His hand trails down from your face to cover your heart, “Is that coming from here, too?”

Watching him like this, your chest feels like it could easily cave in…like it could crumple in on itself - a balled up scrap of cheap aluminum foil crushed inside a fist. He is a sonnet come to life. A haunting song, living and breathing, watching you like you are love incarnate.

Of course it’s coming from your heart. It’s coming from your soul…or perhaps from the soul the two of you sometimes seem to share.

“I don’t know why I keep fighting this,” strangely, tears are burning in your eyes as the white hot band of pleasure stretches tighter still in your belly, “You’re all I want. You’re all I’ve ever fucking wanted,”

Satisfied, the air sighs out of his lungs as his fingers crook just perfectly and unravel you with a jolt. It is such a lazy, undulating ribbon of pleasure, unwinding through your veins like slow heat as you gasp and hush his name.

“Just like that, baby,” he coaxes, sounding far away. “Nice and slow…just like that. Shh, I’m right here. I’ve got you, sugar, I’ve got you.”

Your eyes never stray from his, even when the intensity you find in them threatens to crack your chest wide open, and when you finally come down, that’s how you both stay for so long you can almost believe the rest of the world has fallen away.

When his fingers twitch and you shiver with overstimulation, it breaks the spell and he pulls back… reluctantly sliding slowly from the cashmere grip of your cunt, only to suck those two fingers into his mouth with a muted groan of content.

“Pack a bag, sugar…” his hands cup your cheeks, fingers slick against your face as his nose tips up to meet yours, “Or don’t. We’ll go shopping and I’ll buy you anything and everything you’ve ever needed. Whatever you want, pretty girl…it’s yours.”

“I—“ you can’t seem to think straight.

“C’mon, sweetheart,” he’s teasing now, with a barely there smirk taunting his lips, “Let me steal you away and take you home where you belong. I’ll write pretty songs for you, and make love to you every morning until the sun is so envious of us it resents having to rise. Let me build you a house. Let me till a garden for my girl.”

At last, you find your voice, “I have to do this the right way, Jake. His heart deserves care. I don’t want to hurt him any more than I have to. I’m the bad guy, here.”

“No,” that soft, hidden away smile of his clutches at your heart. “I think I’m the bad guy here. I just can’t find a shit to give.”

~

You’ve righted your disheveled selves and are now attempting to right all the other wrongs, with you stretched out on the rug watching as Jake picks up the tiny bottles and jars that litter the floor, asking after each one…

“Highlighter? What the hell does this do? Are you a book report?” And “How many lip glosses do you even need, sugar? You only have two lips.”

…before carefully placing said product back on the vanity - when, way ahead of schedule, the garage door rumbles to life.

Your heart lurches painfully in your chest, but on his end, Jake’s eyes light up with menacing delight, “Well, what do you know, babe? It seems our dear captain has returned.”

Taglist: @gretasintrees @greta-van-chaos @celestialfauna @s0livagant @groggyvanfleet @kiszkathecook @brokenbellz @llightmyllovee @doodle417 @seventieswhore @jake-kiszkas-smirk @weightofdreams-gvf @imdepressedaf1996 @alisonwonderland29 @gretavanfleas @gretavangroove @sparrowofthedawn @xserenax-13 @tbagggvf @obetrolncocktails @tripthelightfandomtastic @tripthelight-fanfic @jakeslovehandles @poofyloofy @70sgroupielovr @heatmyfleet @age-of-nyahh @sammiboo162 @gretasmokerising @thelvnternskeeper @spicedandicedtea @jakekiszkasleftnutsack @saoirsemaeve @mywickeddivinity @paintmyhouse @mckenna4 @sarakay-gvf @theweightofjake @thewritingbeforesunrise @joshsmama @sammysvanfeet @rhythm-of-space @highladyofasgard @jordie-gvf-admin @calumspretty @sad1lynn @demolitionndann @gvfpal @starcatcher-jake @gretavangroupie

#greta van fleet #greta van fleet smut #greta van fleet fic #greta van fleet fan fiction #greta van smut #greta van fic #fanfic #gvf fic #jake gvf #josh kiszka #jake kiskza #jake kiszka fanfiction #jake kiszka x reader #jake kiszka smut #jake kiszka fanfic #josh kiskza smut #gvf one shot #gvf smut #gvf imagine

[ricciardosheart]

Starry Serenade on the Riviera

pairings: Charles Leclerc X female (gf! reader)

The French Riviera basked in the golden glow of the afternoon sun, casting its warm embrace over the luxurious city of Monaco. Yachts gently swayed in the harbor, their sleek forms mirroring the indulgent lifestyle that defined this opulent corner of the world. In a stylish apartment overlooking the azure waters, (Y/N) awaited the return of her boyfriend, Charles Leclerc, the acclaimed Formula 1 driver.

As the door swung open, revealing Charles with a mischievous smile, (Y/N)'s face lit up with surprise. She hadn't expected him so soon. Charles approached with a bouquet of her favorite flowers, the scent of lilies filling the air as he handed them to her.

"Surprise, mon amour," he said, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek. "How about a spontaneous adventure this afternoon?"

Intrigued, (Y/N) couldn't help but smile. "An adventure? I'm in. What do you have in mind?"

Charles winked playfully. "It's a secret. Just trust me."

They ventured down to the harbor, where a sleek yacht named "La Belle Vie" awaited them. Charles had arranged a private cruise along the French Riviera—an intimate escape from the bustling world of Formula 1 and a celebration of their love.

As the yacht set sail, the gentle hum of the engine accompanied the laughter and chatter of the couple. They sat on the deck, sipping champagne and enjoying the panoramic views of the coastline. The Mediterranean breeze carried the promise of an unforgettable day.

"I thought we could have our favorite meal together," Charles revealed, unveiling a picnic basket filled with delicacies. The aroma of truffle-infused dishes mingled with the salted sea air, creating a sensory symphony.

(Y/N) couldn't hide her delight. "You think of everything, Charles."

He grinned. "Only the best for you."

Their lunch turned into a culinary journey, with each bite a testament to the pleasures of indulgence. They laughed, shared stories, and savored the flavors of their favorite dishes, creating memories against the backdrop of the azure sea.

As the yacht cruised along the coastline, Charles suggested watching a movie under the open sky. A cozy setup awaited them on the deck, complete with blankets and a projector. They nestled together, the gentle rocking of the yacht adding to the cinematic experience.

The movie played, but their attention often wandered to the stars above. Charles pointed out constellations, weaving tales of the cosmos. Time seemed to stand still as they lost themselves in the magic of the moment, wrapped in each other's company.

As the afternoon sun began its descent, casting a warm hue over the sea, Charles spread a blanket on the deck. They lay down, hand in hand, gazing at the sky as if trying to capture the essence of the French Riviera in their hearts.

"I wanted today to be about us, away from the pressures of the racing world," Charles confessed. "You're my anchor, (Y/N), and moments like these make everything worthwhile."

(Y/N) smiled, her eyes reflecting the love she felt. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, Charles. This is perfect."

As the sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in a riot of colors, Charles and (Y/N) remained on the deck, the French Riviera embracing them in its timeless allure. The yacht continued its journey, carrying the couple through the twilight of the Mediterranean.

In the quiet of the evening, with the city lights of Monaco twinkling in the distance, Charles whispered promises of more adventures and shared dreams. (Y/N) nestled closer, feeling the heartbeat of their love resonating with the gentle rhythm of the sea.

The yacht sailed on, leaving behind a trail of shimmering reflections on the water—a testament to a love that found solace in the beauty of the French Riviera. Charles and (Y/N), wrapped in the serenity of the moment, sailed into the night, knowing that some memories are destined to linger like the stars in the Mediterranean sky.

As the night deepened, Charles and (Y/N) found themselves in the heart of the Mediterranean, far from the city lights. The yacht glided through the calm waters, the only sound being the gentle lapping of the waves against its hull. Above them, a canvas of stars stretched endlessly, creating a celestial spectacle that mirrored the depth of their connection.

Wrapped in a blanket on the deck, Charles and (Y/N) traced constellations with their fingers, lost in the vastness of the night sky. The quietude of the moment allowed the whispers of their hearts to become the only conversation that mattered.

"I never imagined Monaco could be so peaceful," (Y/N) mused, her eyes fixed on the stars. "It's a different world out here."

Charles nodded, his gaze reflecting the shimmering reflections of the stars. "Monaco is known for its glamour and excitement, but there's a serene beauty to it when you escape to the sea. Just like our love—thriving in the quiet moments."

They lay in silence, the yacht gently rocking them in a cradle of tranquility. The hum of the engine became a lullaby, and, in that cocoon of peace, they felt like the only two souls in the universe.

As the night progressed, Charles guided (Y/N) to the yacht's prow, where the vast expanse of the Mediterranean stretched before them. The moon, a radiant pearl in the velvet sky, cast a silver trail across the water, inviting them into its nocturnal dance.

"Shall we dance?" Charles extended his hand, a playful glint in his eyes.

(Y/N) laughed, taking his hand. "Why not? A moonlit dance under the stars—it sounds like a dream."

The yacht became their ballroom, and the soft music playing in the background set the rhythm for their dance. In the embrace of the night, with the stars as their witnesses, Charles and (Y/N) swayed to a melody that only they could hear.

Time lost its relevance as they danced under the cosmic chandelier, wrapped in the enchantment of the moment. Charles held (Y/N) close, their hearts beating in synchrony with the gentle ebb and flow of the sea.

As the dance came to an end, Charles whispered, "You're my favorite melody, (Y/N)."

They returned to their blanket, savoring the intimacy of the night. Charles reached into a small cooler and produced a box of chocolates—each piece a miniature work of art. Together, they indulged in the sweet symphony of flavors, savoring the richness of both the chocolates and the moment they shared.

With the yacht gently sailing back towards Monaco, Charles and (Y/N) found themselves on the deck once more. The city lights came into view, transforming the horizon into a glittering panorama. The French Riviera, with its blend of glamour and serenity, became the backdrop to a love story that unfolded like a cherished novel.

As the yacht docked, Charles and (Y/N) stepped onto the harbor, hand in hand. The night had woven a tapestry of memories that would forever be etched in their hearts. The adventure, initiated by a surprise visit, had transformed into a journey of love, intimacy, and shared dreams.

They walked along the moonlit promenade, the echoes of their laughter harmonizing with the gentle lull of the Mediterranean. Monaco, with its grandeur and sophistication, embraced them as they strolled through its enchanting streets.

On a secluded terrace overlooking the city, Charles and (Y/N) found a quiet corner to sit. The night unfolded before them—a canvas painted with the hues of their emotions. They spoke of dreams, of the future, and of the enduring love that had guided them through the labyrinth of life.

The city below seemed to hush in reverence as Charles took (Y/N)'s hand and looked into her eyes. "This night was about us, about the simplicity of love and the magic that happens when two hearts are in sync. Thank you for being my partner in this beautiful dance."

(Y/N) smiled, her eyes sparkling with affection. "Thank you for a night that feels like a fairytale, Charles. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."

As dawn approached, casting a gentle glow over the horizon, Charles and (Y/N) lingered on the terrace, watching the first light of morning paint the sky. The French Riviera, with its timeless allure, had witnessed a love story unfold—a story that began with a surprise visit and evolved into a symphony of shared moments, laughter, and the quiet magic of the night.

Monaco, with its yachts and city lights, stood as a testament to the grandeur of their love—a love that found beauty in simplicity, thrived in moments of serenity and danced under the stars of the French Riviera. As the sun rose over the Mediterranean, Charles and (Y/N) embraced the dawn of a new day, knowing that their love story would continue to unfold in the enchanting world they had created together.

#f1 #f1 x you #f1 x reader #f1 x female reader #f1 smut #f1 imagine #f1 x y/n #formula one #f1 fanfic #f1 fic #f1 2023 #formula one x you #formula one x reader #formula one imagine #formula one fanfiction #forza ferrari #ferrari #scuderia ferrari #charles leclerc x female reader #charles leclerc x you #charles leclerc 16 #charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc smut #cl16 one shot #cl16 x y/n #cl16 x you #cl16 x reader #cl16 imagine #fanfic #smut

[spicedcinnamoncake]

'Do it already'

Pair: Fred Weasley x Reader

SUMMARY: He's a tease, and you're impatient.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: NSFW, penetrative sex, cussing, smacking (you smack him), teasing

Enjoy sluts :P

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

It was a cold night, you two were watching a movie on your laptop. He visited during the x-mas break, and was staying the night. That was only because your parents weren't home, obviously. They'd never let it slide if they knew of it.

The characters on the screen had had one of those moments, the cinematic moment where something in their heads click and they start passionately making out. Fred looked over at you, then back at the screen, grinning. His hand went up under your shirt, a finger tracing your chest.

'You know, we could always recreate some of the scenes in this movie' he whispered as the main heroine took her top off, throwing it over her shoulder. You smiled, picking up on what he was on about.

'Oh yeah? I'd be down for that' you whispered back, placing another hand at the base of his knee. He grinned as he leaned down to kiss you, sucking your lower lip as he undid his pants.

You leaned into it, one hand wriggling out of your shirt and the other closing the laptop. He took you onto his lap and squeezed your ass before moving his hands to your waist. You struggled out of your shirt, tossing it who knows where.

In an instant you two were naked, he was on top of you. He slid into you with ease, his cock already hard. You waited a moment, to adjust to him inside you before giving him the OK to start moving.

He fucked you slowly at first. 'I want to feel you, every single inch' he whispered, staring down at your face.

You two switched positions, you were on top. He loved it when you rode him. He was still very much in control, but he always got a full view of your body, your waist, chest, not to mention your eyes rolling to the back of your head.

You started to move back and forth, riding his cock until you felt you needed some extra assistance. 'Buck me'

He arched an eyebrow, a sly smile spread across his face. 'You need to ask nicely.'

You started to bounce impatiently, feeling an orgasm start to build up. All you needed was a little extra help from him and you'd be there.

'Do it please, I need it' you mumbled, still bouncing. Suddenly you felt his hands on your hips, they were firm and held you in place, you sat deep on him, feeling the length of him inside of you was driving you insane.

'No no, you're going to have to wait a bit' he smiled, rocking your hips back and for with his hands, in circular motions he moved your body around on his cock. Your face contorted in the sweet agony of sex, but you were so close to release, and he wouldn't let you have it.

You started to resist him, bouncing, begging, begging for him to start bucking you so that you could finally release all the pressure building up in your abdomen.

By now the pressure had spread. You felt it in your stomach, in your thighs, your ass, and your pussy was throbbing, aching to be released.

'I said...buck me...'

'Wait, almost'

You couldn't take it anymore. You reached out, and smacked him across the face. He looked at you, first in a state of shock, and then in a state of awe. 'Kinky'

'Do it already'

'Do what?' he asked, innocently enough. You leaned over, looked him dead in the eye. 'Buck me.'

You smacked him again. He smiled, loosening his grip on your waist ever so slightly. You started bouncing on him again, but this time you felt a gasp escape your lips as he started to buck his hips up, just enough for him to strike you where it felt good.

'Im almost there' you whined, sitting down hard on him every time he moved his hips up. 'almost, a little more,'

A moan left your lips has he hit it hard. 'Right there!'

He fucked you hard, striking your g-spot, you moaned in agony as you bounced on his throbbing cock, until you felt it.

All your muscles relaxed in sweet relief as an orgasm rippled through your body. You nearly screamed at how good it felt. You leaned over and kissed him on the mouth, before rolling over on your back, enjoying every single second.

When you finally recovered, you looked over at him, his face red. You blushed, hard. 'I'm, i'm sorry-'

He shushed you.

'Love, that was kinky as fuck. Didn't know you could be so dominant'

He grinned at you, kissing you on the forehead. 'Come on, let's get you cleaned up.'

#fred weasley #hogwarts #harry potter #harry potter fanfiction #fred weasley fanfiction #george and fred weasley #fred weasley smut #fred weasley fic #fred weasley x y/n #fred weasley x you #fred weasley x reader

[utilitycaster]

Regarding Editing and Innovating in the space, 2 people who get a Fraction of the credit they deserve are Ivan Van Norman & Marisha Ray. I mean, they created and developed one of the original mixed media cinematic interactive actual plays, Sagas of Sundry: Dread, and then Sagas of Sundry: Madness, and Marisha (later hiring Ivan as well) has continued that trajectory in some of the more intriguingly edited mixed format Actual plays at CR, like Call of Cthulhu, Undeadwood, and others, and being Instrumental in the developments at CR. Like, when you do watch the interviews you get a sense of just how Much of CR's current content designs, ttrpg intentions, and series are marisha's brainchilds, and it sucks that she doesnt get the credit others involved in similar projects, and even those projects, do.

This is a great point. I've mentioned this before w/r/t the fandom - Marisha, perhaps more than anyone, gets reduced even by many fans to "she's pretty and her characters are like what if a girlboss were a girlfailure" and her creative direction goes unheralded. It feels like this has gotten worse in recent years; I was baffled at how many people seemingly resented Calamity or Candela for taking up space they felt should go only to the main campaign when those were not only showcases for Marisha as a performer but also clearly something in which she had a strong hand in designing. Whenever people whine about there only being two main campaign episodes in a month because of Candela Obscura, I do think "You realize this was probably Marisha's call?"

I was focused in my response much more on Daggerheart, and so on the game design side (quick side note - reviews of A Familiar Problem, which Marisha worked on, were pretty positive; I wonder if something's happened in the past 2 years since that's when I've really felt this Damn Critical Role energy among actual play journalists), but I had been thinking about Sagas of Sundry and Undeadwood! I think I mentioned Sagas of Sundry in one of my posts about how Kollok isn't, in my mind, impressive. I loved Dread but never finished Madness before Alpha folded, but actually I was imagining something like Madness - fully on a set, people walking around like it's a play - for Kollok! When I saw everyone at a table with that rotating rock I was like "is this...it?" And, you know, Sagas: Madness wasn't entirely for me, but you can't fault the innovation. Similarly, when I think about the (baffling) criticism from one of the prominent actual play journalists I've had in mind while writing this, that Candela Obscura the show did not fully teach people Candela Obscura the game, I think about how Ivan Van Norman did straight up teach Savage Worlds during Undeadwood. Whenever people gush over the shadow puppets in Burrow's End I think it's deserved, but when they claim it's utterly new? Nah. Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace did it first. And Marisha had a guiding hand in the creative direction of all of these.

I think this is sort of elaboration on one of my points in my original post: I think a lot of the journalists are really out of their depth. I don't remember seeing their names when I first started watching CR in 2018, or when I got deeper into the fandom in 2019. My first actual play was TAZ, which I binged in late 2017. I really think a lot of the journalists flat-out don't know Sagas of Sundry or Undeadwood because they didn't show up until after Alpha folded. I've mentioned this elsewhere but so much of the claims of novelty and innovation are completely incorrect and not even terribly obscure. Look, I've seen/listened to most or all of 9 actual plays (this is counting D20 and CR each as one single unit, by the way - I've seen all but scattered one-offs from either), and seen or heard an episode or two of many more. I think that simply by doing that? I know more than a lot of these journalists.

Again: Worlds Beyond Number? The innovation is with the Witch class and the Wizard of the Citadel subclasses, and the allowance of extremely long downtime, but: longform podcast actual play with sound design? RQG did it starting in 2015. Griffin McElroy and Emily Axford have been composing their own music since 2017 or 2018 for their respective shows, both of which are also longform podcast actual plays. Again, Brennan pretty explicitly said "I don't think D20 is new, nor longform" in a quote and the article that quotes him argues that Fantasy High is new and longform...and that article also talks about how before D20 most AP video was livestreamed before talking about how boundary-breaking D20 was for having a livestreamed second season (you know, the thing that they just called old hat a paragraph earlier) that quickly pivoted to remote (even though remote livestreaming was actually quite common in smaller productions well before the pandemic, since you don't need anything but laptop cameras to produce it). I don't even keep up with much in the really indie AP scene, but those people I know who do are even less impressed by the state of Actual Play journalism than I, because D20 executes a lot of things extremely well, has a very talented roster of performers, and a budget most productions cannot hope to match, but a good deal of what it's credited for inventing (and which, again, it never claims to have invented. I want to be clear that the journalists decided to be like this for no clear reason) already existed. And, by placing this heavy emphasis on production, they are automatically making it hard for indie productions to impress them. For all they claim to be going after the 700 lb gorilla, they are simply cozying up to the 600 lb gorilla. It's real "um, why don't you try this little indie game called Pathfinder" hours.

I am fairly sure a lot of the people in prominent journalistic positions in the actual play sphere today came in only after the collapse of Geek and Sundry, is my point, and so I think they literally do not realize how much the medium owes to, for example, Marisha Ray and Ivan Van Norman, because they weren't watching in 2016 nor even skipping through the G&S archives, as I did as a new CR fan. I think they're absolutely out of their depth, and most of them don't even realize it.

#answered #Anonymous #long post #cr tag

[supersecretmetalocalypseblog]

I know everyone's already said shit like this but that shot where Dick Knubbler kisses the production booth or whatever in AOTD? profound. I feel that scene in my heart and soul and also in all of my bones. It's so tender and sweet. This shot was just so overwhelming for me for some reason, when I think about it i get teary eyed. It just feels like it has so much emotion and stuff in it, i feel it all at once. it's like "oh he's the individual ever! that's dick knubbler!! i love him???? Yeah okay this rocks! This movie rocks!"

And then i get mad and i'm like "there's no god damn way i'm getting emotional over a character named DICK KNUBBLER??????"

^^^^shots like these are going to put me in an early grave!

(A bit more below the cut here, but this is where spoilers for the plot are gonna be, so watch ur back if you haven't seen Army of the Doomstar yet)

NOTHING could've fundamentally prepare me for how viscerally upset I would feel about him dying. When he first showed up in Dethwater, i was like "yeah, this guy's funny i guess. I like him" but holy shit? and he's not even my favorite metalocalypse character or anything, but this right here? oh it's so over for me. He's so??? why? I get so sad every time I remember these two shots. It's like he's treated with so much respect (aesthetically and writing wise i mean) because they know what they're about to do. Look at him, look at how he's changed. he's serious AND silly! He's got the weight of the world on his shoulders, he's gotta help Dethklok! He's such a real guy, y'know? That's Dick Knubbler! And the way that death is part of the show's gimmick like "haha this is funny look how brutal it is" and then for THIS to happen? and it isn't gory and it isn't funny. It's serene. It's sad. It's emotional, and cinematic and GORGEOUS! There's a kindness and a huge melancholy feeling over the whole scene. HE's so beautiful here, like you know your about to watch an ally fucking die so hard, and he's so chill about it. "this is bigger than me" sort of energy. and he loves Dethklok, and Dethklok loves him! that's why this scene fucking sucks so hard I want to throw up its so good.... idk clearly i'm feeling sappy right now. the long story short is i'm going to kill brendon small for his damages to my emotional state lol.

#metalocalypse #mtl #dick knubbler #metalocalypse aotd #aotd spoilers #such a non analysis lol #I don't think i said nothing here #still though its how i feel

[incorrect-play-it-by-ear]

Tumblr simulator in the Play It By Ear cinematic universe part 4

🐻 bears-right-to-school

I don't want anyone to worry but there are some. TRuly concerning sounds coming from the zoo a few blocks over. We're supposed to be visiting it tomorrow, but if the distinct cracking of a gate i just heard is anything to go by that might be postponed lol.

👈TAGlikethefilmlikethegamelikethefilm

I thought you were like an animal rights person? Call the police or something you freak

🐻 bears-right-to-school

What? What gave you that idea? also I am not a freak chill

👈TAGlikethefilmlikethegamelikethefilm

Your username???

🐻 bears-right-to-school

Oh. Ok so what I am about to say is NOT going to help me in the freak/non-freak discussion here

📺 Brendanlovestv

Me reading the notes on this post

963 notes

💻 all-we-need-to-do-is-start

today's mood

🛜 financial-plans-are-for-nerds

Rachel please tell me this isn't another one of your "broad strokes, gets people in the door" ideas. We need an actual product

💻 all-we-need-to-do-is-start

How many internets are there?

🛜 financial-plans-are-for-nerds

...one?

💻 all-we-need-to-do-is-start

You're gonna fucking love this

13 notes

💃 I-do-want

Can't wait to see where my bridesmaids are taking me for my bachelorette's this weekend 😍

💃 I-do-want

This has been the worst weekend of my life

#I didn't know steamboats were still a thing # I didn't know you could book one for a bachelorette's party #and I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THE HELL THEY AGREED TO LET US STEER THE DAMN THING #SEVEN MOJITOS IN #SURELY WHAT HAPPENED CANNOT BE OUR RESPONSIBILITY

5 notes

🍄 funguys-and-gals

OK I need help settling a debate at work. SERIOUS VOTES ONLY

NO secret thirst option/see results button, we die like poorly informed geologists

🪨 rocks-stay-on-during-sex follow

OP how do I put this... a peach emoji for the fungi option might have been a tad. ill-conceived

🍄 funguys-and-gals

GET OFF MY POST

52 notes

✈️ airhost-with-the-most

So I took you guys' suggestion and hired a PI to follow my wife and see if she is cheating on me, to see if that is why it feels like our marriage is falling apart or if there is something else that we could actually work on instead.

I did NOT expect said PI to spend approximately 85% of his time monologuing into the air. HELP can I get my money back???

#He just said something about falcons and absinthe #I am working a flight to Phoenix in like an hour I DONT HAVE TIME FOR THIS

23 notes

previous editions

#zach reino #Jess McKenna #play it by ear #dropout #I know I post a lot of dumb shit but this might be the dumbest #tumblr simulator

[blankinsidecards]

Steddie fic rec list part 2:

Fluff Edition

Part 1

These are the only the ooeyiest of gooeyiest of comfort fics. As little angst as you can get with these two.

a cinematic vision ensued (like the holiest daydream) by @fivecenturiesofverse

• Rating: T • Complete

Eddie and Steve have been spending a lot of time together since Vecna. They're co-parenting kids, getting high every night, and sleeping in the same bed. They basically share a wardrobe too.

He thinks this is dangerous, its like they’re married, the casual sharing of intimacy, this space between them which feels like something and nothing all at the same time. He thinks it’s dangerous for him to pretend Steve sees it the same way, that one day Steve’s droopy, kind eyes are going to see right through him and he’ll lose this. This being a side of Steve’s bed that is his, a nightstand where his rings always pile, a draw of shirts in Steve’s bedroom that only Steve uses. He can’t lose it, so he shuts his mouth, turns out the light, and watches the slow breathing of sleep fill Steve’s chest.

This one is so sweet; all sharing of clothes and beds and weed. It’s really short but god is it soft. The weighted blanket of fluff fics. Really adore all of Eddie’s internal arguments when he’s looking at Steve being the softest motherfucker on the planet and forcefully reminding himself that Steve is dangerous. I think about Eddie walking his knuckles down the knobs of Steve’s spine almost daily.

Linger by @yournowheregirl

• Rating: T • Complete • Modern!AU

Eddie hates the library, he hates how quiet it is and how he’s always getting shushed by that librarian hag Muriel. But he hates his idiot roommate and his tendency to hog their dorm room to have loud sex with his girlfriend all night long, even more. And now he has to spend all night in the library cramming for an exam, which would be fine, if not for the fact that some polo-clad douchebag shows up and declares that Eddie’s study spot is actually his.

Or: Steve and Eddie fight over a study spot and accidentally fall in love over coffee, Vivaldi and the horror that is finals week.

So fucking cute. I forgot how much I love college AU’s. Features: Wonderwall by Oasis (much to Eddie’s chagrin), a librarian from hell, a SickFic Chapter, and an Eddie that has ADHD. Also, this one’s for the emo-kid Eddie truthers out there. Teeny bit of angst and some miscommunication but for me it was worth it. Frickin adorable.

Date me instead by @zhuletta

• Rating: E • Complete

Every date Steve has gone to lately has been horrible. It’s impossible that there’s something wrong with the entire female population of Hawkins, so surely there must be something wrong with him.

“Why don’t you take me on a date then?”

“Wh— what?”

“Take me on a date, pretend, of course, and then I’ll tell you if there’s something wrong with you or not.”

Or: Eddie proposes a crazy idea to see if there's something wrong with him, Steve finds the fact that it works is even crazier.

So so fluffy. You will get a toothache from this one. It’s the cheesiest plot you could think of. For those of you who love a good loverboy!steve this for you. They’re just wooing eachother all the way through. Delightful.

Saving All My Love For You (and it’s sequel Endless Love) by @subtlehysteria

• Rating: M • Complete

It was decided then and there in the Buckley residence’s lounge, on their weird Persian carpet while staring up at the off-white ceiling and Robin giggling at his side. He was going to rock Steve Harrington’s platonic world, man. And nothing was going to get in his way.

Or: Eddie notices Steve struggles with touch and in trying to help his new friend, develops feelings along the way.

Really sweet. Classic touch-starved Steve and tactile affection Eddie. Bedsharing, pinkie promises, and platonic hand-holding. Eddie gives Will a makeover and some advice. A bit of subtle body worship, love that. Sequel fic is also really cute but it has a bit of a rough scene with The Harrington Parents so be aware of that.

Do Nothing With You by @red-0ak-tree

• Rating: M • Complete

Steve and Robin get a two bedroom in Hawkins. It's perfect, except for all the ways it isn't. Drafty windows, clogged drains, shitty landlord. But it's got a couch. A couch that's often occupied by Eddie Munson. Home isn't really the kind of thing Eddie has much of anymore, ever since his trailer became the primary source for all his nightmares. Luckily, he knows of a semi-comfortable couch where he's always welcome.

Despite all it's problem, the house has perks. Primarily, it's somewhere Steve can actually call home. Secondarily, it's somewhere he can share with the people he loves.

AKA: The fruity four live in a convoluted roommate situation, and romance happens along the way.

We all love a good co-habitation fic. Robin and Steve get an apartment together, it’s falling apart, and Eddie knows how to fix things. Slowly, Steve and Eddie start to help fix eachother. This probably has the most angst out of all of these, but it’s also one of my absolute favorites and the sweetness overpowers the lows.

PTA Shouldn’t Stand for Pretty Tight Ass by @samthefrank and @humanityinahandbag

• Rating: M • Incomplete • Future fic/Modern!AU

Steve Harrington - ex local legend and fearsome bully, now single father of two - returns to Hawkins after the world spit him out. With a messy life to sort through, all he wanted was settle down and get his kids through seventh grade without any surprises.

Cue Mr. Eddie Munson, ex victim of one Steve Harrington, now Hawkins Middle School's favorite music teacher.

Or: What happens when your former high school bully raises two absolute nerds, joins the PTA, helps run the bake sale, makes the best cupcakes in Indiana, and may or may not be having a bisexual crisis.

This was the very first Steddie fic I ever subscribed to and let me tell you I get so HYPED every time I get the notification they update. Steve is a single dad to twins Dustin & Max, a damn good baker, and custodian at his dad’s auto dealership. Eddie is a music teacher in the style of Jack Black in School of Rock, who’s best friends with his fellow teachers Miss Buckley and Miss Cunningham. This fic has Robin and Eddie perform Body Talks by The Struts & Ke$ha at an open-mic karaoke and it’s so fucking electric that that song earned a place on my steddie playlist. It’s a real slow burn but I’m so excited to see where they take this story.

it’s such a magical mysteria by @phantom-of-the-wapera

• Rating: M • Complete

Eddie's staring at the ceiling, eyes half closed and still giggling faintly. He looks pretty. He looks like he belongs here, in Steve’s bed, and Steve gets hit with how much he wants Eddie to stay, to crawl in bed beside Steve every night and wake up there every sunrise.

And, shit, it’s a lot. Steve's gone, completely, fully, fucking free-falling his way into everything that was, is, and will be Eddie Munson. Head over heels, ass over tits, heart-took-a-nosedive off his sleeve and into the lap of the boy beside him, gazing half-lidded at the ceiling, the glimmer of dreamy stars in the sliver of his eyes Steve can see.

or, the one where Steve's trying to figure out his future, his feelings, and one Eddie Munson.

So fluffy, so sweet. They’re all nerds and they love Star Wars. This is a tiny detail but Steve goes to college and he likes it and I love that for him. Completely SMOTHERED in hope for a bright future.

nice to meet you, where you been? by @flowercrowngods

• Rating: T • Edit: Complete • Modern!AU

When Eddie enters the tattoo parlour that Chrissy recommended to him, he doesn't know what'll hit him. Never in a million years would he have expected the pastel or the minimalistic decor or how really fucking polished everything about this place is. It's like an antithesis to Eddie's entire existence has been created with the makings of this shop.

The absolute cherry on top is the man that walks into the room to greet him, though, and Eddie can't contain the look of absolute bafflement. Because there is no way that Steve Harrington, whom Eddie has has the maddest crush on in high school, owns a tattoo shop. No way. Nuh-uh. Not dressed in pastel like he is.

Eddie wants to punch a wall. What he doesn't know yet is that he'll have the best time reconnecting with Steve. And if he gets a tattoo out of it, well, then that's just another win for the community in his book.

LOVE a Tattoo Shop!AU and this is no exception. This one is pretty new, but so far it’s the fluffiest shit I’ve read in ages. Features trans man Eddie, Chrissy Cunningham as his scheming best friend, and a lot of Taylor Swift. I literally found this one moments ago and immediately needed to put it on this list. It’s too fucking cute, I can’t wait to see where it goes.

#ok I’ve been sitting on this for too long I’m finally gonna just post it. #stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #stranger things fic #steddie fic #steddie fic rec #fic rec list #steve x eddie #steve harrington/eddie munson

[69dias]

how does boobtat! jk act when he knows he has a hot gf and everybody at the function wants her 😣

i lurv u anon and i love me some possessive jk

warnings: possessive jk! he isn't written by colleen hoover, though so there's no crazy possessive violence or rough sex. classic ily kink, jk is sooooo faurking in love, soft sex . mentions of violence tho cuz he does wanna beat up all the bitches oc gets

wc: 1.3k

jeon jungkook is at the crux of the worst dilemma known to man: should he have stayed home and let you come to this party alone, or should he have accompanied you even if he knew that it would piss him off.

the route to this point was simple; he has a hot girlfriend, who’s wearing a hot dress (that he bought her). the reason he’s pissed off, however? he can’t quite place it. everyone at this party knows that you’re his girl — you literally have a tattoo of his initials that you flaunted on instagram the second it healed and you found a shirt that would complement it without making you look like a (your words) ‘bimbo’. but perhaps the fact that every man in the room knows that the two of you are dating and yet, still manages to act crude is what’s setting him off. 

either that, or it’s jealousy. but jungkook would rather die than process that ugly emotion and let the dam break, so he chooses to click his jaw and look over at you instead.

he gathers two things: a) yeah, you’re really fucking hot, and b) he needs to break the bartender’s jaw for attempting to look at your chest. jungkook, for the sake of his crystal clean criminal record, chooses to focus on the former. he thinks you’re the prettiest girl in the room, and while the fact that everybody else also does is hurting his ego, he cannot begin to think about it when you laugh, and his world blurs just a bit. 

it’s cinematic, really. the ‘girl you fall for at a party and can never really get over’ trope, except he’s lucky and you’ve fallen for him just as hard (which is a lie, because he’s smitten and would die for you). but you’re wearing a pretty maroon slip dress and it doesn’t hug your curves — for which he thanks the lord; if anybody truly got a good look at your chest he wouldn’t be able to ignore it — and your hair is pinned behind your head and you’re wearing that lipstick that he thinks he’d be okay with staining his favorite white dress shirt if it means he gets your lips on his skin. it’s called ‘taupe’ by Mac and its actually quite a pretty shade, and jungkook would happily buy you a billion more tubes of it because you meet eyes with him from the bar, and the party blurs because that his girl walking towards him right now.

he loves the way you walk, loves knowing that he’s marked the miles and miles of skin that run beneath that dress, loves knowing that your destination is him and not all the other men who are making it really hard for him to not process the aforementioned ugly emotion  — he loves knowing you’re his, loves knowing that the second drink in your hand is undoubtedly a scotch on the rocks for him, and he loves knowing that the feeling of unadulterated hatred every man in here has for him, knowing that you’re ‘jeon jungkook’s girl’ is mutual, because if you didn’t look so good walking towards him right now, he’d go up to each one of them, fuck his criminal record.

he’s proven right when you make your way to him, perfectly manicured hand reaching behind to his nape, the other handing him his drink — a scotch on the rocks with a twist — grinning as he pulls you into a kiss that’s far from chaste.

“wanna get out of here, baby?”

the frown on your face gives him your answer.

“we’ve only just gotten here, my love. what’s up?”

he’s a little too focused on the way your lips move, and the way your voice seems to turn his head into mush when you speak, so gentle and so fluent that it has his nerve ending faltering for just a moment. he can’t bring himself to say anything when you’re clearly disagreeing with him, so he avoids eye contact until they land on some guy, who seems to be just as distracted by you. only, that is, by your body. 

his eyes rake down your figure, conveniently ignoring where you’re practically molding into jungkook, conveniently ignoring his hands on your waist, conveniently ignoring how your lips are literally ghosting his jaw, which tightens involuntarily at this view, giving you your answer.

your head shifts to meet the other man’s eyes, which snap away quickly as jungkook’s expression switches from being entirely enamored by you to willing to kill for you, and it does not go unnoticed.

“oh — oh,” you laugh, low and lighthearted and jungkook immediately forgets what he’s mad at, turning his attention to you again. “you’re jealous, huh?”

“— no. what?”

his answer’s a bit too quick, a bit too hasty for you to believe him, which is why you don’t, opting to turn around and out of his grip. 

“it’s okay, ggukie. i have you right over here,” you pat the boob tattoo less than surreptitiously, which makes him shift his gaze to appear nonchalant (a stance you see right through). “and you know what, if you’re angry, maybe you can take it out on me later.”

//

he doesn’t, in fact, take it out on you.

no, you had nothing to do with the attention you were receiving, and jungkook deems it unfair to act like a Y/A novel character and blame you for being attractive, and instead, chooses to reward you, because you were his, and he could do that.

hence the languid thrusts he’s providing you with, cock filling you to the brim as he buries his face in your neck to very poorly hide the profanities he’s spewing. 

they’re muffled, but you hear his words exactly: “Jesus, fuck — that’s my girl, pussy so good it’s fucking made for me. Shit.”

and he’s right, because it feels fucking incredible, the way you feel so full that it makes your breath stutter before you exhale fully, the way you feel alive and unreal all at once, how his ruts are shallow but your cunt convulses at every ridge of his cock inside of you. your knees are trembling where they wrap around his waist; a futile attempt to hold your orgasm in, but jungkook’s moaning above you, and it’s so rare that you get to see this side of him.

the side of him that’s a bit gentle for a change, the side that doesn’t shove your face into the mattress as he takes what’s his, the side of him that you love just as much as the other, because jungkook’s never aggressive, just a bit mean, which only makes you feel all the better when he flips the switch to act like this. grabbing your hands like his life depends on your touch, fingers intertwining and voice breaking as his cock twitches within you, like your very being has him being thrown off the edge —

it’s a special way to affirm that you’re his, especially when he says your name, slurred like he’s drunk on your pussy and putting every last bit of effort into not finishing before you do. especially when he rubs figure-eights on your clit and stills in you completely when you finally moan with a broken cry of his name, as if feeling you clench around him will have him gone. especially when he does cum, and he pulls you into a kiss so sloppy that it’s just teeth and you swallowing his moans when he rides the orgasm out with a “god I’m so in love with you —“

//

jungkook thinks that the beauty of philosophy comes in those dilemmas that cannot be ‘answered’ per sé, but he has an answer to the problem he posed to himself at the beginning of the night:

definitely come to the party, because being pissed off always results in him drowning in pussy. and if it’s yours, that’s even better

#jungkook #jungkook smut #bts #jungkook drabbles #jungkook x reader #bts jungkook #jeon jungkook #jungkook/reader

[aheathen-conceivably]

What led you to taking the family from New Orleans to New Mexico?

Thanks for the question, my dear! It honestly hurt my heart to do so, since my own love and attachment to New Orleans is woven so strongly through the 1920s. But I knew from the get-go we’d be leaving the city for a couple reasons….

One, I simply can’t stay in the same sims world for too long. I’m like this in gameplay, but I learned in the 1900s-1910s that that instinct is even stronger in storytelling. Being able to find new angles, builds, lots, lighting, etc. is part of the fun and really makes me look forward to moving the story forward. Likewise, I really like the clear visual distinction of a new world every decade or so (because it won’t always be exactly every ten years), as it creates visual chapters and keeps things feeling fresh for me and I hope, y’all too!

But more specifically, I always knew that many of the end goals of the 1920s would require leaving New Orleans. One was Antoine’s toxic attachment to his past, and his need to let go of that in order to move forward. The other one, and arguably the biggest, was to end the decade with Antoine proposing to Zelda. As I discussed in detail here, this was not possible in New Orleans. Likewise, I did not want Violette’s formative years to be marked by legally mandated segregation (especially in school), so that she could have more freedom in her story and identity.

Now if you look at the map in the post linked above, you’ll see that the choices of where to move them is not exactly plentiful. The easiest choice would have been the Northeast, but I knew pretty early on that I wanted to have a desert backdrop for the 1930s. Thematically, I think it harkens to the images that we associate with this decade and also the concept of the American West, which by the 1930s is beginning to be exposed as a myth (this is a theme I find fascinating and y’all will see as the years go by). Its also meant to provide a heavy contrast to the warm, tropical air of New Orleans, and how that climate kind of intersects with the idea of decadence in the 1920s.

As far as sim-specifics, I try and look at all the worlds and see what can realistically be used for what decade and geographic location. From the get-go I was intrigued by Strangerville, since it’s a world I never really play in and the military base has some good story potential (oh? Is that a spoiler you say? 👀). I also don’t see it used that often, and I especially think the downtown is so cinematic. This really fell in line with the ideas I already had about leaving New Orleans and the themes of the West, so I referenced the map in the linked post, and ultimately decided on New Mexico. Then with subsequent research and studying Strangerville’s landscape (namely the rocks and the road and how I could incorporate that into the story), I finally placed the town in the Northwestern corner of the state, with easy road access both North and West for wherever the next decade takes us 😉

#ask #answered

[feelbokkie]

Don’t Let Me Love You | Playlists

pairing:  Felix x fem reader; Chan x fem reader

genre: smau, fake dating, crack, angst, fluff, non!idol au

warnings: Possible spoilers?? Or maybe just misdirection

summary: With the upcoming wedding of her cousin and her ex, Y/n is in desperate need of a date for the wedding that will show the happy couple that she moved on.

©feelbokkie (2023) — all rights reserved. reposting/modification of any kind is not tolerated.

masterlist

The firsts two songs in Chan's playlists aren't going to show up because I had to download them from my iTunes BUT I will link them right here if you want to listen to them

무단횡단 (Jaywalking) by Sung Joon

Wake Up by Sung Joon

*There are some repeated songs between the playlists. Interpret that how you will*

DLMLU Series Playlist (Spotify Link)

DLMLU by Stray Kids

Can't Stop by Stray Kids (Seungmin, I.N)

Heartbreak by Christian Leave

Careful What You Wish For by Bad Omens

Quite Miss Home by James Arthur

Hug All Ur Friends by Cavetown

I Hate Myself for Loving You by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

Not Falling Apart by Maroon 5

Sorry, I Love You by Stray Kids

Silent Cry by Stray Kids

The Kids Aren't Alright by Fall Out Boy

Look After You by The Fray

Catching Feelings by Justin Bieber

Lover of Mine by 5 Seconds of Summer

Can't Take My Eyes off You by Frankie Valli

Temporary Bliss by The Cab

Why Won't You Love Me by 5 Seconds of Summer

Lonely Hearts by 5 Seconds of Summer

Lie to Me by 5 Seconds of Summer

This is Gospel by Panic! At the Disco

Cuz I Love You by Lizzo

Paper Houses by Niall Horan

If I Could Fly by One Direction

Monet Issues by Chase Petra

Not in the Same Way by 5 Seconds of Summer

July by Noah Cyrus

A Soulmate Who Wasn't Meant to Be by Jess Benko

To Be So Lonely by Harry Styles

Truly Madly Deeply by One Direction

Y/n's Playlist (Spotify Link)

Can't Take My Eyes off You by Frankie Valli

Everybody Hurts by Avril Lavigne

To Build A Home by The Cinematic Orchestra

Superficial Love by Ruth B.

Why Won't You Love Me by 5 Seconds of Summer

Pleaser by Wallows

Stay by Post Malone

The Harold Song by Kesha

Mr. Brightside by The Killers

i love you by Billie Eilish

Unloveable by The Smiths

All I Want by Kodaline

Therapy by All Time Low

Please Never Fall in Love Again by Ollie MN

Leave Your Lover by Sam Smith

You Belong With Me (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift

Falling Out of Love With You by Rome Hero Foxes

Hard to Love by ONE OK ROCK

Still into You by Paramore

Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood

Please Don't Leave Me by P!nk

In Luv With U by Finn

Hopelessly Devoted To You by Olivia Newton-John

Schizophrenic Playboy by The Crabnerries

Die In Your Arms by Justin Bieber

I Loved You by DAY6

Cough Syrup (Glee Cast Version) by Glee Cast

Temporary Bliss by The Cab

Fuck You by CeeLo Green

Amnesia by 5 Seconds of Summer

Felix's Playlist (Spotify Link)

Deep end by Stray Kids (Felix)

Please by Chelsea Cutler, Jeremy Zucker

In Too Deep by Why Don't We

Sunflower by Rex Orange County

I Can't Make You Love Me by Dave Thomas Junior

Therapy by All Time Low

Mr. Loverman by Rick Montgomery

Fergalicious by Fergie, will.i.am

Sweet Creature by Harry Styles

Somewhere Only We Know by Keane

Dirty Little Secret by The All-American Rejects

Gives You Hell by The All-American Rejects

fOoL fOr YoU by ZAYN

All I Wanted by Paramore

I Hear a Symphony by Cody Fry

Heartbreak by Christian Leave

Complicated by Avril Lavigne

It's U by Cavetown

Talking to the Moon by Bruno Mars

Yellow by Coldplay

Pushin' Me Away by Jonas Brothers

Die In Your Arms by Justin Bieber

I Need Somebody by DAY6

She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5

Can't Help Falling in Love by Christian Leave

She Is the Sunlight by Trading Yesterday

I Don't Love You by My Chemical Romance

Temporary Bliss by The Cab

Can't Stop by Stray Kids (Seungmin, I.N)

Pray (I'll Be Your Man) by BTOB

Chan's Playlist (Spotify Link)

무단횡단 (Jaywalking) by Sung Joon

Wake Up by Sung Joon

i hate to admit by Stray Kids (Bang Chan)

Can't Take My Eyes off You by Frankie Valli

And I Love Her by Kurt Cobain

Bad Diary Days by Pedro The Lion

Love is Dead by Tokio Hotel

Mr. Brightside by The Killers

She Doesn't Love Me by Billy Cobb

I'm a Mess by Ed Sheeran

Breakeven by The Script

Your Song by Elton John

I Hate That You're Happy by Tiny Little Houses

I Miss You by blink-182

Can't Have You by Jonas Brothers

Love Unfinished by Christian Leave

The Truth Untold by BTS, Steve Aoki

DON'T FORGET by iKON

Don't Wanna Cry by SEVENTEEN

It's Definitely You by V, JIN

Missing You by BTOB

Ex by Stray Kids

i love you more than you will ever know by Never Shout Never

The One That Got Away - Acoustic Version by Katy Perry

I'm Lost Without You by blink-182

Lover, Please Stay by Nothing But Thieves

hell is where i dreamt of u and woke up alone by blackbear

i'm in love with u, sorry by j'san

DLMLU by Stray Kids

When I Was Your Man by BTOB

—

Buy me a coffee?

#feelbokkie writes #dlmlu smau #stray kids #skz #stray kids smau #skz smau #chan #bangchan #bang chan #lee know #minho #lee minho #changbin #seo changbin #chan smau #hyunjin #hwang hyunjin #felix smau #han #jisung #han jisung #felix #yongbok #lee felix #lee yongbok #lee felix yongbok #seungmin #kim seungmin #i.n #jeongin

[homomenhommes]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … April 22

Today is EARTH DAY! – Earth Day's a name used for two different observances, both held annually during spring in the northern hemisphere, and autumn in the southern hemisphere. These are intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's environment. The United Nations celebrates Earth Day, which was founded by John McConnell in 1969, each year on the March equinox, while a global observance originated by Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in, also called Earth Day, is celebrated in many countries each year on April 22.

1766 – Madame de Staël, (Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein) French author (d.1817); When old editions of the staid Encyclopedia Britannica say that someone's sex life is "unconventional," it can sometimes mean little more than the subject enjoyed something other than missionary position with his clothes on and the lights off. When a woman's sex life is even mentioned, no less described as "unconventional," then you had better sit up and take notice.

Madame de Staël liked not only men, but women, too. In 1798 the French novelist, separated from her husband, began living with a male lover, and met Juliette Récamier, the most celebrated beauty of her time. Mme. de Staël was 31, Juliette ten years younger.

"She fixed her great eyes upon me," wrote Juliette, "and paid me compliments about my figure which might have seemed exaggerated and too direct had they not seemed to have escaped from her. From that time on I thought only of Mme. de Staël."

They lived together for the next nineteen years, until the novelist died. Her final words to Juliette, to whom she had once written, "I love you with a love that surpasses that of friendship," were "I embrace you with all that remains of me."

Emile Norman with Brooks Clement

1918 – Emile Norman (d.2009) was a California artist known for mosaics, panels, jewelry and sculpture - with a meticulous attention to detail. Emile Norman grew up with a club foot on a San Gabriel Valley walnut farm. From an early age he exhibited artistic talent, carving his first sculpture from a riverside rock at age 11 - ruining his father's chisels, but also gaining his respect.

From 1946, Norman lived and worked at his studio-home in Big Sur on Pfeiffer Ridge with his partner Brooks Clement, until Clement's death in 1973 from cancer.

In 2008, actors Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry met Norman, purchased land from him in Big Sur, became his neighbors and his close friends - eventually taking five years to produce a PBS documentary, Emile Norman: By His Own Design. Having moved in with Norman in 2003, long-time friends Jeff Mallory and C. Kevin Smith had discovered movie film shot by Norman's partner Brooks Clement on a hand-cranked 16 mm Bolex, footage that was eventually incorporated in the documentary.

Norman died September 24, 2009 in Monterey, California at age 91, survived by three sisters.

1946 – John Waters was born on April 22. Recognizable by his pencil-thin moustache this American filmmaker, actor, writer, personality, visual artist and art collector, rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films and has, against all intuition and all odds has become the toast of Broadway with not one, but two major musicals based on his cinematic oeuvre.

For his 16th birthday, Waters received an 8mm movie camera from his maternal grandmother, Stella Whitaker. His first movie was Hag in a Black Leather Jacket. According to Waters, the film was shown only once in a "beatnik coffee house" in Baltimore. Waters was a student at New York University (NYU) in New York City.

In January 1966, Waters and some friends were caught smoking marijuana on the grounds; they were soon expelled. Waters returned to Baltimore, where he began work on his next film, Eat Your Makeup, which was filmed that year. Waters' films would become Divine's primary star vehicle. Waters' early films were all shot in the Baltimore area with his company of local actors, the Dreamlanders. In addition to Divine, the group included Mink Stole, Cookie Mueller, Edith Massey, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, and others. These early films were among the first picked up for distribution by New Line Cinema. Waters' films premiered at the Baltimore Senator Theatre and sometimes at the Charles Theatre.

Waters' early campy movies present filthily lovable characters in outrageous situations with hyperbolic dialogue. His early films, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living, which he labeled the Trash Trilogy, pushed hard at the boundaries of conventional propriety and movie censorship. A particularly notorious final segment of Pink Flamingos, simply added in as a non sequitur to the end of the film, featured, in one take without special effects, a small dog defecating and Divine eating the feces.

His 1981 film Polyester starred Divine opposite closeted, once-teen-idol Tab Hunter. Since then, his films have become less controversial and more mainstream, although works such as Hairspray, Cry- Baby and Serial Mom still retain his trademark inventiveness. The film Hairspray was turned into a hit Broadway musical, which swept the 2003 Tony Awards, and a movie adaptation of the Broadway musical was released in theaters on July 20, 2007.

Waters' most recent film, the NC-17-rated A Dirty Shame, was a move back toward his earlier, more controversial work of the 1970s. He also had a cameo in Jackass: Number Two, which starred Dirty Shame co-star Johnny Knoxville. A Gay American, Waters is an avid supporter of Gay rights and Gay pride.

1953 – Charles Farthing (d.2014) was a New Zealand doctor who specialised in the treatment of AIDS. He was the Medical Director of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation from 2001 to 2007. He later worked at Merck Sharp & Dohme as the Director of medical affairs for infectious diseases in the Asia-Pacific.

Farthing was born on 22 April 1953 in Christchurch, New Zealand. His father was an accountant and his mother was a music teacher. He was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, an independent boys school. As a child he had considered entering the priesthood. He went on to study medicine at the University of Otago in Dunedin.

Farthing began his medical career in New Zealand where he practiced as a dermatologist. After five years, he moved abroad and worked for a year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He then moved to England and joined St Stephen's Hospital in Chelsea, London. Between 1985 and 1987, the numbers of AIDS patients treated at St Stephen's rose from a dozen to over 1000. From 1985 to 1988, he was involved in clinical trials for the antiretroviral drugs Thymosin, AZT and foscarnet. In 1987, he helped found the Kobler Center at St Stephen’s Hospital which specialised in the treatment and research of HIV/AIDS. It was one of the first wards in the United Kingdom to specialise in the area. He was Chair of the all-party parliamentary committee on AIDS during the late 1980s, and was instrumental in guiding the governments reaction to the AIDS crisis.

In 1988, he was awarded a Winston Churchill fellowship which allowed him to move to the United States of America where he studied AIDS at the Bellevue Hospital in New York. He later became the Director of the hospital's AIDS treatment program. In 1994, he moved to Los Angeles where he became the principal investigator of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and in 2001, he was promoted to Medical Director. In 2007, he left the United States for Hong Kong where he joined Merck Sharp & Dohme. At the time of his death, he was Director of medical affairs for infectious diseases in the Asia-Pacific.

In the 1990s, after moving to America, Farthing played a leading role in the introduction of the triple drug therapy that has transformed survival rates and quality of life for those infected with HIV. In 1997, frustrated by the way in which safety concerns were preventing tests of HIV vaccines on live human candidates, he volunteered to try the vaccines himself. "Someone has to go first," he explained. "Medicine has changed. Years ago, people took risks. Now it is as if research cannot expose anyone to risk. That is why this research is going so slowly."

In the event, discouraging results from tests of a similar vaccine in monkeys meant that the trials did not go ahead.

Farthing died of a heart attack in a Hong Kong taxi in 2014.

Farthing was gay. At the time of his death he was in a relationship with Dougie Lui, a hotelier.

1956 – Phill Wilson founded the Black AIDS Institute in 1999 and is a prominent African-American HIV/AIDS activist. Wilson is himself both gay and HIV-positive. His partner, Chris Brownlie, died of HIV-related illness.

Prior to founding the Institute, Wilson served as the AIDS Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles from 1990 to 1993, the Director of Policy and Planning at AIDS Project Los Angeles from 1993 to 1996. He was co-chair of the Los Angeles County HIV Health Commission from 1990 to 1995, and was an appointee to the HRSA AIDS Advisory Committee from 1995 to 1998.

Wilson grew up in Chicago. His parents had moved north from the southern states like many black Americans did after World War II. Both his parents worked outside the home, but they also provided a strong, supportive environment within the family. He grew up learning a commitment to family and to the community too.Wilson was often involved in civil rights activities in the Chicago area, such as Operation PUSH, Operation Breadbasket, and Black Expos, according to Out Magazine. He credits his family with continuing to support him after he came out to them regarding his sexuality. Wilson told Out a story about how he and his former lover, Chris Brownlie, had been to a family reunion and an in-law commented to a cousin about their presence after they had left. "My cousin," said Wilson, "who is a very committed, active, and faithful Jehovah's Witness told this woman, 'that man is my cousin. He is welcome here, and his partner's welcome here. They're a part of our family. You can't come to my house and talk about my cousin and his partner that way. That's not allowed.'"

Phill Wilson has always been busy. He was busy in high school with community activities and still managed to graduate early. He worked hard for American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) and was married for a short time. He described himself as naive to his sexuality until he heard a radio interview with a publisher of gay magazines. He then went about trying to locate the gay community in Chicago and met his partner of 10 years Chris Brownlie in 1979.

In 1981 Wilson said he "had enough of the cold weather of Chicago." He and Chris moved to the Los Angeles area. They ran a giftware manufacturing company called Black Is More Than Beautiful. By this time both Phill and his partner had heard of AIDS. Some of their friends had been ill or had died. Wilson said around this time both he and Chris had biopsies of their lymph nodes taken, because they had been swollen for a long time. "No one knew what caused AIDS then," said Wilson. "The doctors told Chris and I that there were abnormalities to the lymph nodes but they couldn't tell us what it meant."

As the years progressed more friends grew ill and people learned a virus caused AIDS. In 1986 California placed Proposition 64 - a proposal calling for the forced quarantine of all people with AIDS - on the election ballot. Both Wilson and Brownlie volunteered to work for a committee opposing the passage of this proposal.

About the time of the November of 1986 election Brownlie became ill. Wilson said Brownlie's illness, plus the amount of time they found themselves working on the ballot proposal led them to close down their giftware business. With their efforts Proposition 64 went down to defeat. In 1986 Wilson also founded a group called the AIDS Prevention Team. This group was started with a small grant Wilson received while volunteering with a social organization called Black and White Men Together.

In early 1987 Wilson and Brownlie were both diagnosed with HIV infection, which nearly always gives way to full blown AIDS, an often sexually transmitted condition in which the body's immune system is depressed, making one susceptible to a host of health problems, usually becoming fatal. In fact, Brownlie's illness was classified as AIDS. This diagnosis just seemed to make Wilson and Brownlie work harder. They also founded the AIDS Health Care Foundation around that time, which has grown into the largest nonprofit HIV medical services provider in Los Angeles County. It now includes the Chris Brownlie Hospice, named for Wilson's late partner.Phill Wilson is realistic in his work with AIDS. He knows the heavy losses of colleagues and friends. His lover Chris died in 1989. He wrote about the grief and anguish in Advocate magazine in 1992. He often speaks of his work as war. But the necessity of the work keeps him going.

"If you don't do any of that long term planning," he told Out, "then you're assuring that it's going to be around another 5, 10, 15, or 20 years."

"By the time we have the infrastructure we have to have," said Wilson in POZ, "I'll probably be dead. But right now I'm doing what I'm doing and living my life as I see it."

1975 – Jónsi (Jón Þór Birgisson) is the guitarist and vocalist for the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. He is known for his use of a cello bow on guitar and his falsetto voice. He is also blind in his right eye and is openly gay.

Apart from Sigur Rós, Jónsi also performs together with his boyfriend Alex Somers as an art collaboration called Jónsi & Alex. They released their self-titled first book in November 2006, which was an embossed hardcover limited to 1000 copies,along with their first album, Riceboy Sleeps, in July 2009. On December 1, 2009, Jónsi's official website, jonsi.com, was launched in anticipation of his debut solo album, Go, which was released the week of April 5, 2010. After the release of the album, Jónsi promptly started a worldwide tour across North America and Europe, featuring songs from the album plus a few other selections.

1982 – Thomas Bridegroom was born in Knox, Indiana, USA as Thomas Lee Bridegroom. He was an actor, known for The X-Effect (2006), Bridegroom (2013) and The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency (2006).

Tom was born and raised in Knox, Indiana and finished high school at the prestigious Culver Military Academy. Tom excelled at CMA, winning the Hobie Leadership award, which garnered him a trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with the president. After graduating from CMA Cum Laude, Tom enrolled in Vassar College, where he trained in voice and piano.

Although he was succeeding in his academic career at Vassar, Tom made the decision to leave school early and pursue his true calling: a career in the entertainment industry. Tom co-wrote the powerful and meaningful song, “Lost” with his friend Paige Williams, which attracted attention from the music industry, as well as writing numerous other songs with many other talented musicians, and on his own.

Tom also pursued ambitions of acting and being in front of the camera. Tom gained national recognition at the age of 23 when he was chosen as the Hot Boy Next Door for the popular magazine, Teen People, for the October 2005 issue.In 2005, Tom met his partner, Shane Bitney Crone. Shane and Tom started a social media/public relations company, Bridegroom and Bitney, in 2008.

He died on May 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, California, USA when he accidentally fell off of the roof of his friend's four story building. After his death, Tom's family refused to acknowledge their relationship, and because of this his partner Shane Bitney Crone was prevented from being by Tom's side for several hours as Tom was in the hospital, and was even warned to stay away from the funeral by his family – and even threatened with violence if he were to appear. This is chronicled in the documentary Bridegroom (2013).

1993 – On this date the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, DC. It marked the first time the United States government inscribed the words "Gay" and "Lesbian" in stone in the museum's exhibit on Gays and Lesbians killed by the Nazis in World War II.

2014 – Harvey Milk is the first openly gay elected official on a U.S. stamp. He was an American politician and the first openly gay elected official in the history of California where he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He fought and defeated the anti-gay Prop 6. Milk was assassinated in 1978 by Supervisor Dan White.

[overwatchfics]

Some HC’s of the Shimada trio with an s/o who is a skilled pro at parkour, easily able to keep up and sometimes surpasses their own abilities.

Shimada with a Parkour S/O

Hanzo

The most in awe, he won't admit it, but he wants to learn

Hanzo has to actually train hard to keep up with you.

In exchange for learning your skills he'll teach you some about archery

COOL AS HECK ARCHERY PARKOUR STUNTS

If you both decide to be mutual assassin lovers, then your enemies are in for a treat

You and Hanzo become such a whirlwind of death it puts Reaper to shame

Hanzo would also enjoy implementing sparring to branch out in the art more

In terms of actually training, Hanzo will take you to areas up in the mountains for rock climbing

Genji

Genji is by far the most impressed considering he was enhanced with literal cybernetics

The two of you will do city stunts all around the parks

Even impressing a group of little kids who try to do their own mini scale parkor

Whoever lands the most flips buys dinner

Genji loves buying you dinner so he knows he'll lose regardless

Pls lose on purpose a couple times to save his pride please

Dinner on top a skyscraper? Dinner on top of a sky scraper.

Kiriko

I'm sorry, but you cannot beat Kiriko

She has the blessing of the fox spirit, can teleport, and her mom trained BOTH of the Shimada brothers.

Also the way she was speeding around in her own cinematic should tell you enough

However of you can keep up with her majority of the time she'll actually take you with her on her trips to one of Inari's Shrines in the mountains

The trek isn't easy, and if you make it with her, she'll be the world's proudest girlfriend

Maybe the kitsune spirit that guides her will reveal itself to you in respect

Meditations near a riverbed by the shrine

A/N: I honest to God forgot Kiriko is also a shrine maiden, and playing hours worth of Ghost of Tsushima and jumping and climbing to follow foxes to the Inari Shrines (and petting them ofc) has kind of inspired me to add that into kiriko HCs.

#overwatch2 #overwatch #overwatch x reader #overwatch imagine #kiriko #kiriko kamori #kiriko x reader #hanzo shimada #hanzo x reader #genji x reader #genji shimada #genji #hanzo

[themanwhomadeamonster]

prefacing this by saying i love dd2's soundtrack and i have some of it downloaded on my phone already. but i recognise that it gets a lot of criticism (for good reason too imo) and i am going to explore why that is without trying to sound like a hater 😭 also slight spoilers because i talk about the end credits theme

tl;dr: main title screen theme fucks up perception of the rest of the soundtrack because it's so musically disconnected from everything else

i think the problem with dd2's soundtrack "lacking a (recognisable) leitmotif" isn't that there lacks a leitmotif because there's actually two main ones, both of which stem from the end credits song. this generally isn't a bad thing, though just one is usually standard, there are sets out there where more than one leitmotif is used. the thing is though, in dd2 most of the in-game soundtracks use variations of the chorus melody (cyclops, griffin, some story cinematics, etc.) and quite recognisably too imo which makes sense!, but the (main) title screen uses the melody from the verses.

(side note: before anyone argues that even the chorus leitmotif isn't present in the generic combat soundtracks either, that wasn't the case for dd1/da either (except for the low intensity dd1 combat track) so i think dd2 can be excused on that front. i also think it's good that they didn't use it everywhere in either game because it would get annoying very quickly)

nobody remembers the theme of the dd2 title screen (don't lie, i don't either and i had to crank my brain to recall it when writing this) because you barely hear its leitmotif in-game until the very end during a handful of cinematic cutscenes. i think even the trailer music uses the chorus melody. so you have two competing leitmotifs, and on top of that, the one which SHOULD be memorable because it's the title screen theme is actually very rarely heard in-game. you wouldn't piece this together until the end of the game, AND that's if you even stick around for the credits to let it play!

in ddda, the title screen theme already plays in the first cassardis cinematic AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME, in a scene that was emotionally significant early on. those who hand down the story as an ending medley works because it's of two already strongly established themes (cassardis + eternal return). this didn't work with dd2's end credits theme because the two leitmotifs were not established as cohesively by that point. dd2's chosen leitmotifs should've recurred more regularly and in emotionally significant points in the game - even melve by itself and not anywhere else until the end would've been a good opportunity to use the verse motif because it's at the start of the game to hook the player + let them be able to connect it to the main theme, and it also lines up with the end credit's verse's lyrics

so musically i think the dd2 soundtrack is fine. catchy enough and imo memorable that it's an earworm. though i miss the rock/jazz/flamenco elements from the first game, the theme of dd2 as being very high fantasy instead of classic medieval low makes the folk/orchestra/occasional dungeon synth hybrid an appropriate choice to me, and this proves itself as a strength imo in its ambience. the lowkey ethereal dungeon synth of seafloor shrine and ancient battleground soundtracks + post-game ambience is atmospherically amazing. on top of that, i think its identity this time around lies more strongly in the folk instruments style for both vermundian/battahli ambience/combat music, which establishes the high fantasy folk vibe strongly.

unfortunately, the title theme does not reflect this at all LOL being a purely orchestral arrangement only - no folk instruments. into free was weirdly jpop but at least the rock elements did have some place in the soundtrack. as a COHESIVE soundtrack, it sounds very confused with its direction and that in itself is understandably more than enough to fundamentally turn off fans despite the positives. ultimately i think its musical identity would be stronger if the main title theme was changed tbh 😐 (and it did later, but by then it's too late + it only matches post-game vibes not the other 90% of the game). there's a thematic disconnect (conflicting theme/leitmotif until the end credits) as well as stylistic one (in-game folk music vs classic orchestra) which skews expectations of the rest of the soundtrack

additionally, i think due to the wack difficulty scaling - somehow worse than dd1 RIP, the side effect is that we end up hearing the low intensity soundtracks for most of the game and further ng+'s which of course are meant to sound less complex in comparison, which further perpetuates the weak soundtrack perception

#i do appreciate the variations on the eternal return leitmotif in the vermund and cave ambience tracks that's a nice easter egg #i wrote this at 5am sorry if im not clear ahdjsndn #but yeah....... oof the music in this game is so ?¿?¿?¿ #dragon's dogma #dragon's dogma 2 #dd2 #dd2 spoilers

[depressedraisin]

assigning every song from the car a leonard cohen record

purely based on vibes and overthinking

There'd Better Be A Mirrorball - You Want It Darker (2016)

(soul-y, sometimes cinematic orchestral elements, themes of bidding farewells and reminiscing over the past. it's also cohen's last record, released a few days before he passed away)

I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am - I'm Your Man (1988)

(funky jazzy sounds, lots of synths in the production and a general vibe of wry humour and playfulness in the songwriting)

Sculptures Of Anything Goes - Death of A Ladies' Man (1977)

(probably not the most obvious match but the way the soundscape is built in sculptures is very reminiscent, to me, of the infamous 'wall of sound' in this album. also i think upon first listen the song feels as puzzling as cohen's new sound might've felt to his audiences)

Jet Skis On The Moat - Various Positions (1984)

(cohen had started experimenting with more synths and modern elements in his music with this album and i get a feel of smooth jazz/lounge from the songs. very jet skis imo. also alex's use of abstract, surreal imagery might've reached a peak with this song - which should firmly place him in the "successors to cohen's mantle" line)

Body Paint - Various Positions (1984)

ehhhh not happy with this choice but can't think of anything better. let's say i want body paint to become as iconic as hallelujah so that's why

The Car - Songs of Love and Hate (1971)

the album is very classic spanish guitar heavy folk rock and extremely bleak and gloomy in vibes. the acoustic version of the car could fit right in. also im pretty sure this is alex's fav cohen record. he got the shirt and the references and all that

Big Ideas - Recent Songs (1979) and New Skin For The Old Ceremony (1974)

this one was a tricky one to place. both these albums have some piano and some strings, but are less layered and sparser in sound than big ideas. but the vibes match don't ask me why

Hello You - I'm Your Man (1988)

you know why i already told you

Mr. Schwartz - Songs From A Room (1969)

very sad. very very sad. very folk Rocky guitary too but not as much as songs of love and hate

Perfect Sense - Death of A Ladies' Man (1977)

this song is sooooooooo death of a ladies man like the way the string lines interact with the lyrics and the heavy orchestration and the grandiose soundscape. there's a reason why id die for this song

#this post is made for me and the three people who care #niche shitposting #the car #arctic monkeys #alex turner #leonard Cohen