#no wonder why I'm loosing my communication skills

[weministertomonsters]

A Shift In Character - 1

Your husband is coming home today. You shift listlessly on the couch, staring at the movie playing on your laptop while your mind travels hundreds of miles away, to where he must be in a hotel room, packing up and getting ready for his flight.

I'm going to have to talk to him, you think. We can't keep going on like this.

You love your husband, you really do. But it feels like at some point in your marriage of three years, you got on different trains heading in different directions. He dove headfirst into his work, while you settled down to start making a home out of your house.

You have terrible communication skills, but he isn't stupid.

He had asked what was wrong about a month ago as he hopped into bed after his nightly workout and shower.

He was home for a rare weekend off from work, and you had spent it with an amiable air between you. As if you were roommates and nothing more.

You had been reading, but now you pressed your face into your pillow and mumbled that it was nothing with your back turned to him.

What you really wanted to ask was why he wouldn't have sex with you anymore. Was there someone else? Was it because you had gained weight? Were you no longer attractive?

In your mind you screamed these questions at him. But in reality, the embarrassment froze you up so that the times he did ask, you always insisted it was nothing. So really, this is as much your fault as it is his.

That's why the guilt from last week is eating you alive. Your best friend had decided she'd had enough of your moping (you didn't want to talk to her about it either) and suggested that maybe you go to a professional.

"As in a therapist?" You'd asked, choking on your hot tea.

"Is that what you want?" She asked, speaking far too loudly and comfortably.

You snuck a burning gaze around the room and hoped no one was listening in.

"I'm fine. Therapists are for broken people," you mumbled and immediately hated how much you sounded like your father.

It was too late to take that back, though. Your friend tilted her head like she was seeing a new side of you.

"Who told you that?" She asked.

Suddenly, you felt stripped naked. You had said too much and at the same time, too little.

"I think I just need a fun night out," you said quickly, knowing it would distract her.

It worked. That was how you found yourself at a club at eleven in the evening, dancing till your feet were sore. You'd kept a strict regiment of clean living and sleeping early for a few years, but as you downed another shot you wondered why you had even bothered.

Before you knew it, your friend had disappeared in the crowd, and all of a sudden you had a stranger's hands on you. You turned to see a delightfully scruffy man with twinkling green eyes and a jaw you just want to rub your cheek against.

"Hi," you smiled and hiccupped, swaying to the beat.

He leaned in and for a second you felt his nose press against your neck, so quick that you thought maybe you imagined it. Goosebumps covered your skin.

"Where's your husband?" He asked, having to raise his voice to be heard.

"I don't know," you giggled, tossing your arms in the air. "He left me all alone."

You didn't think twice about how strangely pointed his question was. The strap of your high heel was coming loose, causing you to tip forward. You caught yourself with a hand against his chest. His shirt was unbuttoned just enough to feel a sliver of his skin, burning against your palm.

"Oops. I think I drank too much," you yelled in his ear. "I drank like, way too much. You're very hot by the way."

"I know," he said and took your hand gently and led you to a table in a quiet corner and gave you a bottle of water, sitting next to you.

"You're sad," he said. "I don't like it when pretty women are sad."

You took a sip from the bottle and now that you had sat down, the sadness started to creep back in.

"I think my husband doesn't love me anymore. He won't sleep with me," you admitted, trying to adjust your dress which was riding up dangerously high.

"What a shame," he said. "I can fix that."

"Really. How?" You leaned towards him, your boobs threatening to spill out of your dress. "Can you make him love me again?"

"He'll find you irresistible," the man promised, a predatory smirk creeping onto his face.

"Let me guess, you're going to try and sell me some kind of love potion or charm," you snorted. "I don't believe in those."

"No," he said and put his hand on your thigh.

That was when you should have pushed him away and left. But that simple touch woke your body up and with the alcohol buzzing in your veins, your mind lost the battle against your body.

You let him caress your thigh, your breath quickening as he leaned in.

Just one kiss won't hurt, you thought.

But that one kiss seemed to rewire your brain. His lips were so soft and hungry against your own before you realized what you were doing, you had straddled him, barely able to keep your moans to yourself. In retrospect, he seemed to be doing it more for you than himself. Like he knew what you had been missing. He tugged at your hair and your back arched as you pressed against him. He buried his face in your neck, leaving kisses on your skin.

"So fucking pretty," he growled huskily. "Your husband shouldn't be able to take his hands off of you."

"I..." The mention of your husband was like a bucket of cold water, bringing back some of your self-control.

"I need to go," you said, putting your hands against his broad shoulders and pushing.

He chuckled but he didn't let you up. One of his hands secured your hip and the other cupped the back of your neck, pulling you in.

"Please stop," you pleaded, trying to draw on your weak conviction.

He ignored you, leaving an open-mouthed kiss on your neck and suddenly biting down. You yelped at the sting of real pain as his teeth broke the skin. You fell off his lap in shock. He grinned at you with sharp teeth and eyes that glowed faintly in the dim lighting.

A primal part of you was afraid. You stumbled to your feet wondering if the alcohol was still making you see things. You rubbed your neck but your fingers came away clean. You looked back at him, but the chair was empty. It was like he disappeared into thin air, however, the throb between your legs told you that the encounter was very real.

The next day you bought your very first toy and smuggled it home as if the bag was see-through. You came thrice in the span of an hour and that was what had sealed your decision. You had needs too, damn it. You were tired of pretending otherwise.

Fast forward to today. You'd had a glass of wine, and your courage was off the charts compared to the usual. Your heart leaps in your throat when you hear his keys jingle in the lock. You're jumping up and you're by the door when it opens.

"Welcome home!" You say, dragging him into a hug. "I missed you," you murmur against his neck.

He smells so good, you could just eat him whole.

"It's only been a week, darling," he laughs and kisses you chastely on the cheek. "Let me bring my things in."

You follow him like an affectionate puppy. Finally, he placed his suitcase in the bedroom. He's about to unzip it and start unpacking, but you're too impatient for that.

"Can't that wait?" You murmur, slipping your arms around his waist.

"I'll forget," he says. "I managed to spill wine on my favorite white shirt, I have to see if I can get it out-"

"Later." You shove him on the bed with enough force that he bounces slightly.

He stares up at you in shock, blinking as you straddle him and crawl up to his face.

"I've been so lonely," you murmur, rubbing your thumb over his bottom lip.

"What's brought this on?" He asks warily. "Are you mad at me?"

"Huh? No. Why would you think that?" You ask in confusion.

"You're clutching me like an anaconda," he grumbles. "I hate to be a spoilsport but I've had a long journey, dear."

It takes a moment for you to realize he's rejecting you. You see red. A few moments later, you're landing on the floor and he's scrambling away from you.

"What the fuck, woman?" He clutches his cheek and stares at you. "All this because I want to sleep? You're the one who used to turn me down!"

"I have not ever turned you down!" You huff.

"Right. Of course. That still doesn't give you the right to slap me."

"I didn't," you say, confused.

You don't remember doing that. One moment you were on him, furious as heck, and the next, he was shoving you off the bed. When had you slapped him?

He stares at you for a long moment. "You need to blow off some steam, that's what. Maybe you should go for a run?"

Your anger comes back even hotter and you're growling low in your throat as you pick yourself off the floor.

"Are you saying I need to lose weight?" You say through your teeth, which you're grinding together so hard that your jaw aches.

He rubs his forehead. "No, darling. I'm suggesting it because it's what works for me. Besides you're so angry right now that you're flushed. We need to talk, but not like this."

You glance at yourself in the closet mirror and he's right. Your skin is red and patchy from your face to your shoulders. That's never happened before.

"Oh god. Fine," you say, grabbing your jacket and marching out of the bedroom.

"Where are you going?" He calls after you.

"Out! Get your beauty sleep," you snap and slam the door on your way out.

You hail a taxi. You know exactly where to go, and who you're going to try and find.

Read the next part here -> Part 2

#exophilia #monster x reader #monster x human #monster boyfriend #terato

[acesolaris]

Education in a Solarpunk World

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel. ~ Socrates

I'm very passionate about knowledge. I'm extremely curious and love to share everything and anything. As you might notice when scrolling though this blog, I love to deepdive into topics and pile and sort the informaton I find, both for me but also for others.

I'm also living in a western european country and my school system is terrible. So bad in fact, I gave up my wish to become an schoolteacher and followed another passion. There are other well articulated and better researched sources that go into the why our school sytem is this way. I'll only talk about my vison to make it better.

The whole plan is creating an individualized curriculum for each student with a focus on creating citizens who are mentally-balanced, socially well-adjusted and know how to think, so the teaching would differ for each student.

My Solapunk version of education, has three pillars.

The first is free education. Free acess to the Institutions, but also the knowledge through libraries, free acess to the Internet, free acess to academic studies. Free acess reagardless of age. there is a minimum time you have to spend in education, but lifelong couriosity, learning and exchange is encouraged, even after you started doing your chosen daily labour in the community.

The second pillar is the fact that the concept of general knowledge is a construct by the society and state you live in. So let's completely revamp this. I strongly believe that general knowlede should be considered everything that helps you taking care of yourself when you don't have acces to the help of others. Examples out of my head are cooking, basic maintenance of your home/prosessions/garden, first aid, but also how to get and revaluate knowlede you need and don't have. That, and a basic understanding of numbers, reading and reading comprehension to evaluate what you are reading and be able to apply it to your life. To properly form arguments and comunicate in a non-vilolent way. Thats the basic curriculum, the shell so to speak. It doesnt matter how you learn it, via games, from your parents or classes you take. You can't leave education untill you have proven to function in those in your way.

Ok, so the kids earn those skills in peer groups of around five or six people for as long as they need in their own pace, but what about, you know, everything else? They get let loose. There might be some age restriction on topics, but what I envison is pure interest and passion driven learning. There's no classes or grades, just develloping skills and knowledge. Every day there are three or four discussion pannels or lectures to a weirdly specific topic, like the manuscrips of Timbuktu, the life and times of Ghandi or how to best craft a basket out of different plant fibres. And anyone who wants can submitt a topic, and if it interests you, you go, otherwise you stay and work on your linewight in your drawing or solve math problems. Depending on your learning style, there 're videos, audiobooks, texts and writings in differnt lengths in differnt formating from bullet points to tomes. There are workshops, and studygroups, games and media that cover every topic you possibly want to learn about. It doen't matter when you do it, it matters that you do it. If you are a night owl, you come at 9pm, if you only can focus for 30 min before having to switch the topic, you can, if you leave with 15 because you are sick of learning you can come back with 21 when you regrett dropping out. Time doesn't matter.

There is a third pillar which is the treatment of children as actual people. Up until I was 18 years and suddently an adult my no was never respected, unless I gave an essay on why I didn't want to. Simply because I was a child and my parents knew better- every adult knew better. Which I see everywhere, and people are wondering why consens is such a dificult concept to establish as we have to learn that No is adequate. No justifications, just a No. So the learning Institute has scientists and social workers present, who are accessible as someone the students might go to for advice when needed with whatever neeed might come up: assist in finding resoures or give input and correction on fake news, or they may act as mediators in case-you know- kids being kids. Overall however, there is the understanding that children have a certain autonomity they can adjust themselves to give up or keep. Children are people and are treated as such.

The students keep a portfolio of their skills, both as a resource of knowlege and memento. Plus, after spending a specific minimum time depeding on how easy you learn the "general skills" you would be allowed to submitt this portfolio to a council of scientist chosen by you who will certify you for your chosen field of studies. You don't need to, but from my own experience having a ceritficate of your skills is damn sattisfying. And you can do it immediatly when you are free to or wait five more years because you don't feel ready. Again, the choice is yours.

Remember, you can stay as long as you want and even after shifting your focus away to the application of your skills in the community, you are free to participate in the discussions and give lectures. Everyone is allowed to give them, after all. Scientists are conducting their reserach at specific research centres that are connected to the education centres and the students are allowed there after a certain age or reaching a level of knowlege deermined by the scentists working on the project.

There are questions up for debate of course, especially how we want to teach history, tackle the things we did to each other and the planet. My country is prized for how selfreflected we are but our political climate sugests otherwise so, it's still open.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A small Linkspam on topic:

@safety-net-did muses about what should be considered general knowledge which inspired this post as well as @queerspacepunks contribution.

one of the many tumblr discussions on how children are a repressed class

another one on the same topic

a post of @missmentell on resources to learn basic life skills of adults

this reddit discussion on how to remember history.

~@acesolaris

#solarpunk #philosophy #future vision #education

[misspearly1]

Chapter 3

Chp1 || Chp2 || Chp3 || Chp4

Pairing: Joel Miller x F!Reader

WC: 7K

Summary: How does one adapt to the changes of the world? You’ve grown too comfortable in the post-outbreak of the Cordyceps Virus. You had to change, for your own safety you had to change who you are, you had to alter your moral compass, but now one year after finding sanctuary in Jackson community, how do you turn back and change into what you once were to fit into the normalities of society? Maybe a certain Texan man who knows exactly what you’re going through could be of help, a lot of help.

Warnings: 18+ Adult Content. Minors DNI. There is violence and dark themes in this fic. A lot of flirting. Fade to black smut and then a lot of smut. Somnophillia. Joel and Reader are very horny here peeps. (Not sorry 🤣). Fluff.

AN: Wow okay! I don't actually know what my end goal is for this fic, did have an idea to begin with, but now I'm just going with the flow at the moment and I'm really enjoying the plot I'm coming up with as I go along. I hope ya'll enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you my lovelies 💜

Adrenaline is just a hormone that the body releases into the bloodstream when your fight-or-flight response is triggered. Amazing right? How your own body can produce a chemical that makes your heart beat rise and your mind react quicker, basically making you fast on your feet with god-like reflexes and quick thinking skills. 

Your fight-or-flight response was activated the moment Joel drove over the bridge leading into the heart of Rexburg City, where the Skincrawlers live - a nasty group of men, covered head to toe in their own dirt, wearing nothing but a piece of thin material over their crotch and behind, for whatever reason why, you do not know. Nor do you wish to know. Skincrawlers isn’t their official name, it’s just what you call them as they physically make your skin crawl.

After stashing your original vehicle somewhere safe, you and Joel managed to sneak into the army base like a breeze, but of course finding the keys for Cougar 4x4 MRAP was locked up tight in the HQ building, where the vast majority of the Skincrawlers resided. With far too many of them to face head on in a fight, you and Joel kept on with being stealthy and carefully slipped by them all, reaching an office on the southside and finding the keys. Everything was running smoothly, right up until you were caught running across the tarmac to reach the vehicle warehouse and an alarm was sounded. 

Your stealthy cover was blown, but it didn’t matter at all since you had the keys for the Cougar and it is from their retched behaviour and desire to ravage you and Joel that really triggered the release of adrenaline to flood your bloodstream. The adrenaline rush - where the real fun begins. You’ve never felt more alive than what you did sitting in the top seat of the Cougar handling the big gun while Joel drove around the army base like a madman. He made the right choice to put you in the gunner seat and you understood why he wanted one of these vehicles for himself. It’s like a mini tank on wheels, but quicker. Empty bullet casings rained down like a tropical storm as you let loose on the trigger, tearing up the Skincrawlers base while they ran for the hills. Would you blame them? Who would go face to face with this vehicle? You certainly wouldn’t. 

“Woah.” Ellie sighs. Cutting through your story telling with her chin placed into the palms of her hands and her eyes transfixed on you in Jacksons pub. A whole group of ears is around you listening, but she was most excited to hear how Joel and you brought back each and every one of the Rexburg Residents from The Temple. “What happened next?” She asked, intrigued to know everything. 

“Well, we chased them outta the city too, kiddo.” Joel answered with a chuckle. Seeing the child-like wonder in her eyes once again was refreshing, given the circumstance of their relationship as of late, he was optimistic of reconciling since she smiled at him, still asking for more details of how he and you managed to do what you did. Ellie’s grown into a young woman now, but Joel will always see her as his baby girl. Looking over to you, Joel jerked his chin outwards for you to finish the story while he nursed his beer. 

“There was a lot more supplies in that army base that Ronald knew about, too much actually.” You began after taking a sip of your own beer. “The Skincrawlers were hoarding a lot of useful shit. Years upon years worth of stock just sitting there, not to mention all of the things they had stolen off the poor people who entered the city.” 

“Shit, that sucks.” Ellie’s brows furrowed, thinking of the many that had failed at what you and Joel succeeded to do. Many were probably just seeking passage. 

“We cleared the city out, El.” You reassured the young girl. “Ran the Skincrawlers out, buried the people they had killed and cleared the bridge. Rexburg is open for any survivors that want to pass through unharmed. The Temple is our base now. We’re using that for more survivors and maybe even a place for Jackson to expand.” 

“Oh.” Maria popped out of nowhere, cutting in with her verdict. “No one said anything about The Temple being our base or expanding-”

“No Maria, think about it.” You cut her off too, not backing down with your idea. “Me and Joel can go back out there with a group, they stay at The Temple while we scout ahead for other communities, and if the group happens to find survivors while they’re waiting for us, they can stay at the Temple. The supplies Maria-” You emphasized with a nod, reaching into your jacket to pull out a sheet of paper with a list. “I ain’t lying about the amount of supplies, there was too much for us to transport back here and that Temple is locked down tight. Ronald made sure of it.” 

“We’d be willing to help, Ma’am.” George - one of the ten able bodied people of Rexburg - stepped forward, speaking on behalf of four other people behind him. “We know that area like the back of our hand, it’s still our home and we still have a fight left in us before we’re ready to retire. We, and anyone else who you’d be willing to give, would happily operate the Temple and find survivors.” 

“It’s expansion, Maria.” Circulating back to your own point, you patted George on the back as a thank you for stepping forward and backing you up. “If you’re okay with this and we go ahead, we will have a base eighty miles out in another state, not only finding survivors who want to live and make the world better again, but we will find the people who don’t, the people who pose a risk to Jackson and what you’re building here-” Upon seeing the look of consideration on her face, you could visibly see how she was contemplating the idea and decided to add some more good news. “-You want to know why the Skincrawlers took over the city? It’s because there is a solar power plant on the army base. The idiots had electricity but never used it. I checked it out myself Maria, they shut everything down. It looks as simple as flipping a switch.” 

“It probably will be.” Another man amongst the crowd butted into the conversation, this time it was a Jackson resident, one of the many who fixed the hydroelectric dam years ago. “Solar power is simpler and if it’s on an army base like you say, I’m willing to bet that It’s a backup source of electricity for the city.” 

The whole pub broke out in chatter of the idea, most favouring it and a small amount going against it. You looked around the room, taking in the reaction and feeling your chest swell with pride. For once in the whole time you’ve been a resident of Jackson, you actually feel a part of what they were trying to do here, like you were making a good beneficial difference of bettering the society. Ellie looked at you with a grin, her reaction and Joel’s making your own smile grow wider, but before the group within the pub could debate any further, Maria held her hand out and yelled for everyone to quieten down. “It hasn’t been decided yet folks, so don’t be getting your hopes up.” The woman turns to you then, her jaw tight with annoyance. “I need a word with you in private.” 

Oh shit, here we go. Sighing with defeat, you dropped your shoulders and turned to flash Joel a look as if to say, ‘wish me luck’ before following the leader of Jackson out of the pub, preparing yourself for the reprimanding. You know Maria is pissed, you can feel it. “What’s your goal here?” The woman turned to face you as soon as she passed the door, confirming your suspicions with her tone of voice. “What is it that you’re trying to achieve?” 

“Two birds one stone, Maria.” You shrugged, explaining. “I like being outside, but I can do good out there too. Things that could build the community that you’re building here. Before I came to Jackson, my only goal was survival, finding someplace safe and I never thought I’d find it, but I did and now I’m left with no purpose…” Stopping your ramble to take a second breather, you were sharing more than you liked to. “...All I have done for the last twenty years is fight for another day to live. Now, I can live here happily, but what do I do with the fight that's left in me? Isn’t it better to put it into a good cause? Fight for your dream of rebuilding?”

“That was my fathers dream.” Maria kicks at the pavement, dropping her head with a sigh. “All of this was his, he found this place and built the community. I just took over where he left off. My men fixed the dam, we set up security and we’ve just been living out here peacefully.” 

“Maria, I’m not here to take over or tell you how to run your community.” You say reassuringly. Feeling a sentiment of regret in her tone, you could sense that she wants this but is afraid of anything going wrong and you understand why too, being a leader of fifty families is fucking hard work and it’s a lot of responsibility for one person to take on. “You call the shots around here. I would just like to play my part with helping in any way that I can.” 

“God, Y/N why can’t you be an asshole again.” Maria chuckled, shaking her head. “That woman who always disobeyed the rules would make my decision a lot easier right now.” 

Damn, did Maria just call me an asshole, but in a complimentary way? Laughing with her, you shrugged your shoulders and shook your head. “I mean, I don’t think I was an asshole per se, more of a…” pausing to find the right answer, you ended up laughing again in agreement. “Yeah ok. Maybe I was an asshole.” 

“Yeah, but you always mean well.” Maria clicked her tongue, looking up and down the streets of Jackson. She stared for a second in through before looking back at you and gesturing with her hands. “This… Whatever this is that has changed with you, it has something to do with being out there, so you and Joel are still the reps of Jackson, I’m settled on that, but I can’t settle my worries of this expansion idea, Y/N. All I can think of is the risks.” 

“I know, and that’s okay too, Maria. Like I said, you call the shots.” Expressing a smile to the woman, you know for certain that time is all she needs to be swayed. Or maybe she needs a push, just a little nudge in the right direction… “Are we done here so I can go back to my drink?”

“And there it is. I knew she was still in there somewhere.” Maria laughed a genuine and sweet sounding laugh as she nodded. “Yeah sure, go ahead. We’re done here, Y/N.” 

Smiling to the woman with a curt nod, you turned and re-entered the bar with a heavy exhale. Holy fucking shit, that was… something. Collecting yourself together when seeing Joel look at you for answers of what happened, you gave him a wink and mouthed the words ‘later’ before accepting a fresh bottle of bud from him. “I finished yours, it was getting warm.” 

“Thank you, Joel.” You smiled, appreciating the gesture from him. Both of you raised your bottles when Maria re-entered the bar, giving you both a curt nod before making her way over to Tommy. 

“Hm, something good happened out there, I can tell.” The man whispered into your ear, but his beard tickled your skin, causing a giggle to bubble up from your throat as you playfully slapped his arm. “Stop that, you’re tickling me.” 

“Well, I didn’t do it purposely.” Joel retorted, defending himself with a chuckle. Though, upon seeing you narrowing your eyes at him, he brought his hand up from the table and gently held the side of your face. “I’ll show you what deliberately tickling you feels like, darlin’.” 

Trying to pull away from his grip when he dragged his bearded cheek across your neck, he also pinched the sensitive areas on your hips, making you laugh so much that your stomach began to cramp up. “Joel, please.” You begged between giggles, kicking the table. “You made your point!”

The man tutted before pulling back, showing you mercy. “Glad we’re on the same page now, pretty lady. I was going for the knees next.” 

“What? You mean like this?” Grabbing his kneecaps and laughing menacingly when he jerked in his seat, spitting his drink out, you let go of his leg to lean back in your chair, almost crying with laughter. He managed to get beer down his shirt and across the table because of your actions, but each time you stopped laughing and looked at his unamused face and his beard wet with beer, you broke out laughing again, rather loudly actually. It was catching people's attention. 

“I’ll get you back for that.” Joel warned, but you had great pleasure in reply with. “Oh no you won’t-” Leaning close to whisper, you shared why. “Let’s call this even for teasing me about cuddling you in bed, huh?” 

“You’re the one who cuddled me, darlin’.” Joel leaned in, making the gap between you both so incredibly small now, your lips were nearly touching at this point and he probably thought he could make you break first with his intimidating stare down, but that didn’t bother you in the slightest. In fact, it made you that much more confident to bite back. “Yeah, that’s true-” You smirked, well aware of the eyes on you and Joel, expecting you both to kiss each other. “-But I didn’t hear you complaining about it either. Actually, did I put your hand on my thigh too, Joel? Hm, that’s funny.”

“Yeah, that is funny, darlin’.” Joel backed down, his cheeks blushing a crimson peak in colour as he lowered his head with the biggest and dumbest smile on his face. “I wouldn’t know anything about that, sweetheart. I was sleeping. So were you. Maybe it just happened naturally.” 

“Joel Miller.” You tutted. Shaking your head at him jokingly, you enjoyed watching the man blush for being called out like that and you wanted to tease him more now that you’ve had a taste for it. Placing your lips to his ear, you spoke in a degrading tone. “See, I think you know exactly what I’m talking about, cowpoke.”

“Maybe…” Joel paused. Licking his lips and thinking carefully, he placed a hand to your inner thigh with a gripping squeeze before caressing the flesh. “Maybe we should do it again sometime. So we can find out how it really happened.” 

“Oh.” Sucking in a sharp breath of air, your lips formed into the shape of an ‘o’ from his manoeuvre. It felt good, really fucking good. Hand firmly placed to your thigh, burning a hole in your jeans, he dragged a thumb across your leg and looked down to your lips, waiting for an answer. 

You answered by taking his hand away from your thigh and standing from your chair. The look of defeat flashed across his face before you then pulled on his hand, whispering. “Let’s go find out how it really happened, Joel.” 

That smile reappeared on his face and he took one more swig from his beer before standing too. “Yes ma’am.” 

1 week later 

“Are we ready?” You ask, buckling up your seatbelt and turning to Joel, who fired back a rather excited ‘hell yeah, girl’. 

Leaving the Cougar in Jackson, you both were taking your original car back out on the road for another run as Jackson reps after a week's worth of preparation and a little rest too, but with that little nudge to sway Maria on her decision sitting in the back seat. 

It was radio equipment, everything you would need to set up in The Temple to report back to Jackson. Maria doesn’t want to risk sending people out there and that is understandable, but a radio base is just an alternative for now. Tommy was in on the idea and even helped by gathering some of the equipment, most from within Jackson, but the big haul came from a quick scavenger hunt that you took during the week. Your plan is to reach The Temple, set up everything then attempt to reach Jackson to set up a secure line of communications. Eighty miles is quite a stretch for a two-way connection, but at the very least you can broadcast your signal and let them know you’re okay. 

Driving out there should only take a day and a half, and you have enough supplies in the flatbed of your truck to get you that far before dipping into the supply that you left at The Temple, plus there are still more things to be salvaged at the army base too. You weren’t exaggerating, that place is a gold mine for supplies. You’re taking first shift driving while Joel sits in the passenger seat, cycling through a selection of music tapes to listen to. The man made sure to bring some music along this time after the last run. It was too quiet and boring for him apparently, but you didn’t care because you agreed that music would help for the ride ahead. What you didn’t plan for is him to fall asleep not even three songs into the playlist. 

Fully laid back, mouth open and snoring, Joel was having the time of his life sleeping the hours away while your eyes remained glued to the road and that was really boring. Hm, I suppose he needs the rest for when he takes over later. You think to yourself. Your thoughts are all you have right now to accompany you anyways and boy did you let them run free while he was sleeping. I wonder if he dreams about that night… The smirk crept onto your lips, thinking back just seven days ago when you left the pub with Joel and took him home.

The things that the man did to you in your own bedroom, the way he left you in a puddle of your own mess, whimpering and begging for more, should be illegal. You’ve never resorted to begging, but you begged for Joel and when he finally stopped with his edging and gave you want you want, you have never been left so utterly satisfied in your sex life. Joel discovered things about your own body that not even you knew, reaching areas that deep within your core, given the right angle, that you didn’t think could be reached. That man had shown you a whole new experience, but ruined it for others. No one else could ever satisfy you like Joel. You know it. And what you also know is that one night of passion with the man is simply not enough. You want, no, you need more of him. You need more of Joel’s loving touch at every chance you can get, but being out on the road together doing a difficult and dangerous job is not the right time or place to do it. It’s too risky. Distracting. Just like it was distracting you now as you tried to concentrate on the road when all you can think about it pulling over and climbing onto his lap, waking him with a kiss. 

“Fuck!” You say out loud, unintentionally but thankfully not loud enough to wake him from his slumber. I’m frustrated, Joel. Sexually frustrated and it’s your fault! Sighing as you shake your head, you haven’t felt this way in a long time. In fact, you can’t exactly remember the last time you had sex, Joel is your first in what must be at least eight to ten years now. You’ve been celibate for so long that a non existent sex life didn’t bother you, but now it does since you’ve had sex again. I wonder if he could tell. Your face scrunched in thought. Could he tell it’s been a while? Maybe that’s why it was just the once. 

Joel didn’t act differently at all after that night. The man took a shower the next morning, ate breakfast with you then headed out with you to start preparing for this trip. It was weird because it felt… right. As if you both knew that you’d end up having sex, it was just a matter of when, but the issue now is that you find yourself asking if there's anything more to it, or is it just meaningless sex. I’ll ask him later when we’re ready to call it a night, not while we’re driving. 

Keeping yourself entertained for now with the music playing through the car, the song that played next started with a ghostly yodel. Country music with a country singer, you should have guessed Joel liked this music, but this song in particular was called Cowpoke which made you smile considering you like to call Joel that name. You wonder if he purposely chose a tape with this song on there just for that reason. It was an old song, you could tell, but it had a nice beat to it. The next song however, you recognised instantly with the beginning guitar riff. It was Otis Redding, Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay and you couldn’t help but sing along, but quietly so as to not disturb Joel as he slept. 

Before you even knew it, half the day was gone already and Otis had played his song four times already, but this time with Joel rousing just in time to hum along with him. It was time to switch seats, you needed a break from behind the wheel, but first you both needed a good stretch. There is a spot you picked out to sleep in last time you drove this route and if the break on the side of the road is kept brief, you both will make it there in time before nightfall. “I need to stretch my legs.” You say as you pull the car over to the side of the road. “My ass is numb and my legs are cramping.” 

“I can help with that, pretty lady.” Joel eyed you up and down with a smirk, eliciting you to roll your eyes at him. Unclipping his seatbelt and hopping out the second the car was turned off, he stretched his arms out wide, his shirt riding up from the action. Shaking off your thoughts about the trail of hairs on his abdomen, the ones you kissed when you went down on him that night, you got out of the car too and did the same as him, stretching your arms and legs before joining him at the side of the road. 

While Joel went to retrieve a couple items from the back of the car, you sat down on the grass and leaned back onto your hands, basking in the evening sun with closed eyes, until you felt a pair of lips on your own and a hand to your shoulder gently pushing you back. “J-Joel what are you doing?” You ask breathlessly, feeling him slot between your legs and carefully distribute his weight above you. 

“Kissing you.” He mumbles before slipping his tongue past your lips. Exhaling a deep breath when feeling you grind against him, he met your movements halfway by rutting into you. “Eager for me, aren’t yer darlin’?” Joel asks, mockingly. 

“Yes, Joel.” You gasped. More than you know. Kissing him back feverishly, your body spoke all the words you couldn’t as you clamped your legs around his back and ran your hands up under his shirt, feeling his skin beneath your fingers, but Joel broke the kiss to look you in the eyes with a smirk. “Well, you’re gonna have to wait, sweetheart. We’re on a schedule.” 

Missing his touch as soon as he moved away, you sighed, feeling even more frustrated than before and sat up to face him, looking for answers. “What are we doing here? Do you like keeping on edge or something?”

“A little, yeah.” Joel chuckles. Grabbing a couple sandwiches for you both and handing you one, he pulled your leg over his lap and began massaging your calf. “I like when you're a whining mess beneath me, and I ain’t sorry about that either.” 

“Asshole.” Muttering under your breath before taking a bite from the sandwich, you appreciated the moment you were sharing together right now as he kneaded the cramp away from your leg, looking in your eyes with what you can only describe as lust, but there’s a chance you’re going to ruin it with your next question. “And what about what we’re doing here? Are we a thing or is this just sex?” 

“I don’t do casual sex, if that's what yer thinkin’.” Joel spoke seriously and looked at you seriously. Running his hands up your legs and grabbing your thighs, he dragged you close to sit in his lap. “I’d like this to be something, but if you feel differently then we should end it here, pretty lady.” 

“Ok, cowpoke.” Fighting back the smile on your lips and swallowing your food, you were relieved to know that Joel wasn’t looking for casual sex, but you didn’t particularly plan for a relationship either. It’s new and exciting. “What happens if I want it to be something too?”

“Then it’s just like I said.” Joel smiled, kneading the flesh of your ass. “You’re just gonna have to wait. We’re on a-” he pauses briefly, slipping his hands closer to your heat, “-really tight schedule, darlin’.”

Nodding to him, you rolled your lips together in an effort to disguise how his words and actions clearly had an effect on you, on your nether regions in particular. You were soaked, pulsing with every subtle touch from his fingers. Jesus, this man knows how to please a lady. Smiling with your thoughts, you placed a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth and adjusted your legs to properly sit in his lap before tucking into your sandwich again while Joel took his first bite, his lustful eyes never leaving yours. 

This road trip is going to be very exciting that's for sure. 

-

Opening your eyes with yawn, the sunlight trickled through the car, alerting you that it was morning. You need to get moving, get back on the road. Peeling your cheek off of Joel’s shoulder, you turned your head to look at him but found that he was still sleeping soundly. The movement from you stirred him a little, causing a whimper to slip past your lips with his semi-hard member still seated inside of from last night's activities. 

Resting your cheek back down to his shoulder, your eyes roamed his face in adoration for the man while he slept. You could get used to this. Waking up in Joel’s arms and feeling spent after a night of his passionate love making. Your core ached and your legs too from the positions he had you in, but you loved the feeling he left, the claim he made on your body. You’re his, there’s no doubt about that now, and that thought alone made your heart swell and your smile grow. 

After driving the rest of the way last night, he stopped at that spot you picked out to rest in, which was a blocked tunnel, but the entrance itself had enough space for you to park the car up and provide a little cover from the natural light slipping through the windows. You like to sleep in darkness, much like Joel and this place was perfect at concealing you both fucking like wild animals in the front seat of the car before you collapsed onto his chest and fell asleep. You giggled quietly when remembering the horn being pressed a couple times from Joel pushing you up against it and pounding into you from behind. The noise echoed throughout the tunnel and he stopped his actions, waiting to see if he had unintentionally alerted anything hiding in the shadows, and when he was satisfied that he hadn’t, he turned you around and switched the positions before returning to fucking you, but slower and deeper, with loving kisses. 

It was only hours ago but thinking about it had you feeling horny again, ready for another round with him. However, there is business to attend to and at some point, you have to wake him up and get dressed. Just five more minutes. You battle with yourself, pulling the thin blanket further up your back and nestling into his chest, you were just about to close your eyes but instead, you widened them upon feeling him grow. The little movements from you weren’t waking him, but it was waking something else. You could feel your slick around his cock sucking him deeper into your pussy and your brows rose with intrigue upon watching his mouth open to gasp before he settled again, and when you pulsed around him, his brows furrowed before his face softened again. This is fun. Rolling your lips together, you felt a blossom in your lower stomach with the idea of waking him with an orgasm. 

Carefully peeling your body away from his, and slowly sitting up properly, the action caused you to sink down further onto his cock and elicited a humming groan to slip past his lips. You smiled when seeing that it didn’t wake him and took an experimental roll of your hips and the man gasped again, this time tossing his head to the side. Joel was rock hard, you could feel every ridge and vein rubbing through your walls when you pulsed around him. Lifting yourself off him and sinking back down, you moaned with the sensation and watched his hands ball into fists as he murmured something under his breath. He was slowly waking up with each movement you made, but before you could lift yourself off him once more, the man startled you by wrapping an arm around your back and pulling you down to lay on his chest. 

“Last night wasn’t enough for you, darlin?” Joel growled. Gripping bruising handfuls of your ass to lift you up and then slam you down onto his cock, eliciting a soul shattering cry of his name to slip by your lips, he continuously repeated this action, knocking the breath out of your lungs each time he thrusted through your quivering pussy. He put one foot up on the dashboard, giving him that extra leverage to pound up into your cunt as he held you in place. Your desire was soaking him before you even reached the point of climax, hitting that particular sweet spongy spot deep inside, his skin slapped yours vigorously with each thrust. “Oh, there you go again, Y/N.” He mocked, delivering a harsh slap to your ass. “Fucking making a mess of yer’self.” 

“J-Joel…” Whimpering his name, you lifted your head to kiss his lips but he grabbed the back of your hair and buried your face into his neck, grunting into your ear. “No, darlin’. You stay just like that for me and take my big cock like a good girl.” 

Unable to move an inch from the hold he had on you, all you could do was take the punishingly good pleasure of his cock driving through your dripping wet cunt at a brutal pace. Goosebumps rippled across your back, you felt butterflies in your chest as the coil in your stomach threatened to snap at any moment, and your throat burned as you wailed his name for the umpteenth time in the last twelve four hours. “That’s right, baby.” Joel yelled over your voice, the car rocking from his pace. “Scream my fucking name when you cum on my cock, Y/N.” 

“JOEL!” Mewling with your release, a blanket of white static erupted behind your eyes and the man held both palms to your ass, holding you in place just in time for the onslaught of liquid gushing out and around his cock. Your moans hit notes you didn’t think you could hit as you writhed with pleasurable aftershocks. Spark shooting through your whole body, your toes curled with overstimulation as he grinded into you, drawing out more desire from your cunt as you whimpered into his neck, but he wasn’t finished yet. If you have learned anything for the x amount of times you’ve had sex with Joel thus far, the man wasn’t finished just yet. 

“Look at me, darlin.” He requested, his voice gravelly, but soft. Doing as he asked, you tilted your head to look at him, breathlessly panting in your face, his forehead flushed with sweat and his irises expanding like he was on drugs, only the drug was your pussy and the man was high off it, living in ecstasy. “Almost there, sweetheart.” Joel pressed his forehead to yours and planted a sweet kiss on your lips before rutting up into you again. “Hm, if I could cum inside yer doll I would, but I quite like that mouth of yours taking my load.” He kissed you again, this time slipping his tongue inside while picking up his pace. “Oh fuck.” Joel moaned, actually moaned. High pitched and sounding needy, his brows pulled together upon feeling his balls tense, ready to release his warmth inside of you but he warned through gritted teeth. “Where do you want it baby? I'm close.” 

“My mouth.” Pulling off him quickly and dropping to your knees, you wrapped your lips around his length, tasting the remnants of your own sweet desire before sampling a taste of salty pre-cum, his balls were tight in your hands as you sucked. Burying your nose into the hair on his mound, you looked up at him through half lidded eyes and moaned with pride upon seeing the man laying back with closed eyes, his face absolutely torn with bliss. “Y/N.” Joel gasped, running a hand down to his lower abdomen and bucking his hips off the seat, his mouth fell open with a long and drawn out groan as he pumped a hot load of his seed into your tongue. The noises you made as you gulped back each spurting rope was worthy of another orgasm. Your pussy clenching around nothing with the sinful noises he was making, you moaned when slipping your hand down your body to massage your over sensitive bundle of nerves. Still sucking him off, you drew every last ounce of desire that he could give before releasing him with an audible pop and inhaling deeply to catch your breath. 

“Get back up here and kiss me, darlin’.” Joel called for you. Beads of sweat rolled down his temple, the car windows completely fogged over from your steamy love making and when you clambered up his body, your skin stuck to his as you met his lips in a kiss, you shared the mixture of your desire and his. Laying your weight down onto Joel, your pert nipples pressing into his chest as his cock slid through your folds, you whimpered when the tip of his cock brushed past your clit, feeling your libido rise again with a vengeance. How is it possible to want more after all that he has given you in twelve hours? 

Joel at this point has the map to your body memorized, he knows exactly what you're feeling right now from the way you’re kissing him and the way you're moaning. Without hesitating, the man took his hard cock in hand, running the tip up and down your cunt, taunting you with it. “This what you want, darlin? Hm? You want more?” 

Nodding into his neck, you held onto his shoulders and grinded your hips, dragging your slippery folds along his dick and whimpering when his bulbous tip breached your entrance. “Take what you need, baby.” Joel groaned, closing his eyes and savouring the little noises you made as you fucked yourself on his cock. Your movements were slower than his, languid and deliberate, but your pussy squeezed him tight, accentuating every bump and ridge of your velvety walls. You were close, Joel could tell. You were squeezing him even tighter and your soft mewls got louder directly into his ear, and he was close too, surprising even himself of the stamina he had lately, but you stopped your movements abruptly. 

“Darlin?” Opening his eyes to look at you, his brows furrowed when seeing your face scrunched with concern. “What is-” He tried to ask but you shushed him quietly, shaking your head. It didn’t take a genius to know that you were listening for something and Joel listened too. Tilting his head slightly to look through the spots in the window where the condensation had disappeared, he didn’t see any movement, but he heard a distant howl. It was infected. “You heard that too, right?” You ask in a whisper, to which Joel nodded and bucked his hips. “We got a few minutes before they get here, let's make this quick, baby.” 

“You can’t be seriou- oh fuck!” You moaned softly, then bit the back of your hand to muffle the noises you made as he kept rocking his hips while murmuring quietly into your ear. “Oh I’m dead serious girl.” 

Joel Miller is an entirely different breed of man. He continued to fuck you in the front seat of the car while a group of infected were approaching to see if the noise was their next meal, but upon noticing that they were getting too close, the man turned the car on and rolled the windows down before driving off with you bouncing on his cock, your hands gripping his neck to balance yourself as he drove erratically. Somehow, the danger of the whole situation made you feel even hornier, especially when seeing his eyes roll into the back of his head and struggle to concentrate on the road from your grip around him and the moans you moaned into his ear. Only until he was at a safe distance away did he pull over and watch you finish on his dick, seconds before he unleashed his own desire across his stomach. 

The both of you were a panting mess in the front seat of the car, flushed with sweat while the breeze blowing through the windows cooled off the post coital heat still lingering around in the air. You were in a great need of a shower too, but taking a minute breather at the side of the road was cut short as that group of infected caught up and Joel had to drive again. The Temple was an hours drive away from the tunnel and he kept you on his lap the whole way there, his cock still hard and buried deep into your cunt. 

Joel, is just a different breed of man. 

-

“Homeland, Homeland, come in. This is Juliet reporting to Homeland, do you copy? Over.” Joel spoke into the microphone quietly. After a long day of setting up the radio equipment, preparing dinner and setting up camp for the night in The Temple, you had crashed out as soon as you laid your head back and he didn’t want to wake you. 

“Homeland, do you copy?” He tried again after a short while. “This is Juliet, reporting to Homeland. We made it to Alpha and we’re safe. Standing by for your message. Over.” Looking over to where you lay, the man wanted to join you right now but he needed to try a couple more times to see if the connection was reaching for a two way call. The code names were your idea. Homeland meaning Jackson, Alpha meaning The Temple and Juliet meaning Joel, but you didn’t give yourself a code name to be used over the radio. He thought of one while he waited for a reply and smiled when he found it. “Homeland this is Juliet. If you’re receiving this message loud and clear, just know that we’re safe. Juliet and Pretty Lady have reached Alpha and we’re safe. Over and out.”

“Juliet Juliet. This is Tango. Do you copy? Over.” Tommy’s voice crackled through. Joel could practically hear the excitement in his brother's voice and it tore a big victorious smile across his face. There's a working line of communications. “Tango, this is Juliet. I hear you loud and clear brother. Over.” Joel chuckled. Leaning over in his chair, he couldn’t wait to tell you in the morning and see the smile on your face. 

“Oh thank God.” Tommy sighed. “Can you stay a while? I want Maria to see this. Over.”

“Sure Tango. I’ll stand by. Over.” 

Almost an hour and half later of communicating with Jackson, Maria was thrilled to know that there was a direct line of communications. If there shall ever be a situation arise where you need help, this radio would come in handy. Joel or you can report back whenever to let Homeland know your plans and when you’re moving out to find another community. Finishing his call by saying goodnight to his brother and Maria, Joel also requested that they also relay the goodnight to Ellie for him before the radio went silent. 

Looking up at you again, the man set the equipment down, stood from his chair and pulled his shirt off before joining you on the air mattress. Joel lifted the covers carefully so as to not disturb you, but nipped a trail of kisses up your arm and neck before settling behind you, his arm laying around your stomach and chin buried into your neck. You hummed sleepily and snuggled into his warmth. There’s a lot of work to do around here and he looks forward to every minute of it because you are by his side every step of the way. 

You’re his pretty lady.

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[maguro13-2]

Miku.EXE Origin : The Revenge Pt.8

[Somewhere near the Majin Sonic Zone]

[Sonic.EXE is shown flying over the woods]

Sonic.EXE : My dear daughters. Where could they be? How could they just wandered off here in this forest? I bet it's the work another enemy, or Exeller must've held them right here in the Majin Sonic Zone territory.

Tails.EXE (via communicator) : Master Xeno. We have found the location of two of your daughters where they just might be. They've entered the perimeter of one of the locations in the Defense Line.

Sonic.EXE : Okay, I have them on sight. I'll find them and come pick them up.

Tails.EXE (via communicator) : Good! But just be careful around the defense line. There are intruders that might be part of the enemy intrusion.

Sonic.EXE : "Intrusion"? I thought there would be any enemies near the defense line. How come you're sure that I'm aware of that?

Tails.EXE (via Communicator) : About that...It appears that both your daughters are currently at Majin Sonic's Territory.

Sonic.EXE : Then is it sure that they are safe after they wandered off to an adventure on their own?

Tails.EXE (via Communicator) : Affirmative. Please, find your daughters and get back to them in one piece.

Sonic.EXE : Got it. [hears Emerald Radar beeping] Hm? What's this!?

Tails.EXE (via Communicator) : Master Xeno! There is someone on your tail! Someone has entered the location of the defense line! And...I believe it's coming after you!

Sonic.EXE : What?! [behind him is Exeitor chasing after him]

[GUARDIANS : SQUID - Kenichi Tokoi]

Exetior : I've been waiting for you, Xenophanes! This time, I have you on my sight!

Sonic.EXE : Sh*t! It's one of Exeller's ally, Exetior the Highest! It looks like that he entered the defense line by doing some stealthy stuff around. Why didn't anyone noticed until now? If he knew about my whereabouts of me and my daughters. This is going to be really messed up for me, I bet if I could just loose him on sight, then I need him to get him off my tail! Tails! I need him to get him distracted while he is chasing me to have my daughters be threatened by the hands of Exeller! Set up a defense that will work on him!

Tails.EXE (via communicator) : Good! I'll work things out for this! I hope this new type of defense will work on his allies, that's for sure.

Sonic.EXE : Good! Xeno out!

Exetior : Hey, Xeno! Where do you think you're going? I'm just getting all the fun after you disappeared into Earth! Not as much fun as you wanted! But this will be looking good on you!

Sonic.EXE : Ha! I would never be so impressed by you, an ally to the enemy! Let's see you can handle this! [unleashes an attack against Exeitor, but he dodges by teleporting] What?!

Exetior : Over here! [DBZ SFX : STRONG PUNCH]

Sonic.EXE : GAAAAAAH! [wipes the blood off his mouth] Tch! Not bad for an ally, but let me give you a hand! [grabs Exeitor's arm and spins throws him back.]

Exetior : [Resists being thrown] Oh, you think you're so clever about that, why don't we make this out? [fires energy shots at EXE]

Sonic.EXE : Huh? He can fire as many energy shots at a rate like this! I won't even miss out a thing! Time to activate my force (activates a force field that surrounds him] Ha! That won't even putting a scratch on me! I wonder how will you keep this up, Exeitor! You're no match for a God like me! I bet you will not lay a finger on my daughter's hair!

Exetior : [laughs evilly] This should be interesting for a "God" that knows how to put up a fight! This is really entertaining for me that handles the levels of a "God"! Watch me as I will crush you with my own hands! But you're an aggressive fella for you to handle all of your powers! I won't get too cocky about that!

Sonic.EXE : Hmph! Have it your way, Exeitor! You think that you can outsmart a "God" like that? I have the powers of a "True God"! My skills are superior to yours of a demigod! What sympathy sounds that to you!

Exetior : This is really excruciating! A truly valiant effort for this kind of entertainment! I hope we would really make great use of your daughters to handle the powers of "God" theirselves!

Sonic.EXE : You think so!? If you're really the one that is so special in any kind of way, why would Exeller told me if my daughters would able to receive the powers of a "God"?! I hope that is an excursion!

[the two begins to clash]

Sonic.EXE : My daughters has been gifted from my powers, and I would make them the powerful "Gods" they can be! They will go strong, and when they do, they will defeat the enemy and surpass me! There is no way that my daughters will never betray nor is my family! I won't let you tear it apart! The creepy legends are my friends, the daughters that I created are family! So have at it!

[the battle ends]

Sonic.EXE : *panting*

Exetior : *panting* Well, I'm afraid that's just the beginning! You're willing to understand if your daughters would be capable handling those kind of powers, I bet, I won't even break your daughter's smile. But in this case, I will help to you all that I am in deep favor of Master Exeller's excellency. But enough is enough, this conversation is over! Time to die, Demon of Destruction [charges an attack] This attack will wipe the existence out of you, and when it's fully charged, it can fire amounts of energy I built up within my powers, and you will be nothing more than a pile of dust!

Sonic.EXE : No! He's going to launch an attack, and it's super deadly! This is bad, his powers are much way stronger than I imagined, this will proven to be my bad luck for him!

Exetior : [cackling] Here, Xeno! Eat this! [Suddenly, Exeitor gets attacked by an energy shot from behind] Who goes there?!? [turns and sees Kaito.EXE]

Kaito.EXE : I've been waiting for you, Master Xeno. Tails sent me here with a distress signal and I heard that you are needed in assistance.

Sonic.EXE : Kaito.EXE...my apprentice! You sure have good timing!

~ THE APPRENTICE OF GOD IS HERE! ~

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic cd #sonic.exe #creepypasta #vocaloid #kaito #kaito vocaloid #sega #crypton future media #crossover #dark comedy #horror #mystery #thriller #supernatural #drama #adventure #action

[a-little-bit-of-lots-of-stuff]

.

#it's embarrassing to admit but #with the mess I am I think you can tell... #[the remaining of] my household is all so messed up... #sometimes I really wish I could escape to somewhere else #when this happens is when I try to stay in my room as long as possible #but then that gets me in trouble because I 'ignore everything and everyone' #but can you blame me? #sometimes i just really hate the energy around #it's even suffocating sometimes #but you know what's the worst part? #all this happens because of ONE person and that person is somewhere out there living his best life #i know i have to get over it and try to love my life the best I can but... #he and his actions keep messing up with the piece i manage to get and it's all just a fucking horrible cicle... #i know it can't be like this forever #but sometimes it feels like it will #i'm just so fucking tired #but lol d wording would bring even more trouble so i have to keep living in this fucking horrible nightmare #no wonder why I'm loosing my communication skills #all this feelings make me not want to talk to anyone ever again #i mean i want to talk but i don't because how could I ruin someone's time with my problems #ughhhh even writing it makes me feel so stupid... #let's keep everything in it's bottle. andrea #frustration rambling #thoughts

[bbugyu]

HI can u maybe talk abt seungkwan the way u answered previous member asks? 🥺 i love reading ur little analysis and i'm deep into my sk feels atm

AAAAA URI BOOOOO YES OGMNGGNV i ult boo seungkwan FUN FACT even tho i never write for him because he’s like. he’s my best friend. i love him. lets get it

so seungkwan is an enfp, which is the campaigner! this is another personality type that makes a really good leader (there’s so many in svt omg) and if i remember right, cheol has said if it wasn’t him, he would want boo to be leader! despite being one of the youngest members in seventeen, he is incredibly skilled and a really good teacher, and he is REALLY strong in communication. there’s that video of him leading a vocal team practice, and you can really tell he knows how to bring out the best in people. jeonghan hits a note and seungkwan’s like “see! i told you you could do it! why did you hesitate??” and jeonghan like shy giggles and it just shows that he knows exactly how to encourage and praise people in the way that they will be receptive to. this comes from his extroverted intuition, which means that he is good at like. abstract thinking. he sees things for what they can be, not for what they are. this links to being super creative! seungkwan is one of the members with several writing credits on the svt discography, and you can tell by the way he just randomly belts out runs (seokmin does this also lol) that he’s always thinking about new melodies.

enfps focus on relationships a lot, whether its between people, situations, or ideas. he makes connections that other people wouldn’t, thanks to his abstract thinking! but he’s also kinda stubborn - he’s someone who thinks that his values and morals are correct and is unwilling to budge. i think the reason he really stands by his values tho is because enfps tend to overthink everything, so he truly TRULY believes that he’s in the right!! because he spends SO MUCH TIME thinking about EVERYTHING that he’s like... there’s no way i’m wrong (meEEE)

he follows his heart! his decision making has less to do with logic and more to do with how he feels about the situation. enfps also work through stuff out loud, which is why seungkwan seems rambly sometimes - he needs to hear his own logic out loud in order to fully process it and then comes to a decision by the time he’s done explaining! but his gut feeling is REALLY GOOD like he has a strong feeling so it’s smart tht he uses it! his ability to see things as what they might be make him really good at problem solving. ex. mafia games! the mafia always tries to kill seungkwan first, and it’s because he always observes what everyone is doing and says stuff that worries the mafia - he makes himself a target by being too smart, and he knows it (which is why he begged shua to save him in the first round during don’t lie 1). i think he’s better at interpersonal problem solving vs. logic puzzles - he’s not bad at them, but he’s better at reading behavior and noticing changes in patterns.

enfps can seem really serious or like. “high stakes” a lot of the time (it’s because they care so much haha), but they know when to let loose. seungkwan always encourages everyone to have the most fun during breaks, or during ttt!! when they were scream singing psy and twice DHSKSD he’s also EXTREMELY enthusiastic - he literally puts his everything into anything he tries. he does everything like rent’s due KEFJFHSKD i think it’s so admirable!!! but the reason he’s able to do that even in front of people he doesnt know is because he’s so extroverted. he’s super personable and friendly, and people seem to get along with him really easily. every time he’s on a show as a guest, the hosts LOVE him. him and jaejae are literally iconic together like I LOVE THEMMMM i think we can all relate to him because of how excited he gets about things. like he’s such a fanboy. wonderful king! as a fellow wonderful, we stan. that’s why he gets good recognition as professor boo!!! even fans of other groups go and watch his vlives because he has such genuine fan knowledge of kpop through the ages. hes enthusiasm is UNMATCHED!

svt is so full of empathetic people like. damn. seungkwan is really good about giving advice (thanks to his problem solving skills and the fact that he thinks about how things can be instead of how they are), but he’s an extremely attentive listener. like dino said in the kelly clarkson video, seungkwan is really good about checking up on people when they’re going through a hard time.

ok thi sis getting long so speedround: he’s kinda disorganized. he really cares about health and tries to keep up but i think he loses shit like constantly because there’s just too much JFSDKF. his emotions overwhelm him really quickly (usually anger FDHSKH). he seeks approval a lot, which means he gets really nervous when he’s around people he really idolizes (ex. when him and mingyu were on omniscient manager and he looked constipated).

I LOVE BOO SEUNGKWAN SO MUCHHHFJKHJSHD

#I LOVE HEEEE #anon #ask #booff #svt hc

[badusimworld]

~ what made me loose interest ~

I started to become aware of some mistakes that I had made on my original save of stories that I post here, that made me loose interest in the game.

For starters, I didn't know what would be the best way to manage time. Since didn't want to miss any birthdays or other events in any households, so as to document them, I played with ageing off, and then I sort of decided when each sim aged up, manually. But this really made my game too stagnant and I started getting bored of the same sims, sometimes. So this taught me to have ageing on for everybody and have mccc manage the households I'm not playing.

Another thing that for me was a mistake was playing this game as if there were milestones. For example, I wanted to max out careers and skills and even complete collections at some point. But I realised it's not really my cup of tea. So I'm making it a point to not care about this anymore.

~ new play style ~

I also decided to focus on specific neighborhoods at a time, starting with the Foundry Cove in Willow Creek. But I plan on moving my favourite sims from this particular rotation to a new nbh, after some generations, and introducing new households in the remaining lots of that new nbh, leaving the other sims of this rotation at the mercy of mccc.

There, I'm playing 4 households and I made a park in the 5th lot, acting as a community space / playground. I didn't necesarily want to think a lot about the kinds of household I would put in each lot, and I've learned about mysef I don't really like spending a lot of time in CAS. So I went and looked for some households in the galery and found some interesting ones.

The first household I play is the BFF household, which was already there. Liberty was fired from her job and is now a youtuber / streamer, who is slowly gaining fame. She's engaged to Travis who's a programmer. Summer holiday is really into sports and yoga.

The second household is a single dad who's a cop, with his daughter, who started as a toddler and has since aged up, she loves the outdoors and is a scout. He started dating Summer right after they settled in and she has since moved into their place.

The third household is a lesbian couple, who both work as civil designers and have a toddler together. Ngl they are my favorite, obviously.

The fourth household is a girl who moved into an old home she inherited from her grandmother (it's the house that came with the paranormal pack). She loves to knit and so far she's living off her inheritance plus the money she makes off Plopsy. She was kind of dating this guy, who by pure chance was paired up with Temperance by mccc. So all of a sudden it made complete sense why she was being haunted by Temperance. Earlier today he died from the anger emotion shortly after finding out our girl is pregnant, which probably made things with Temperance even worse. This sim also is the leader of a spiritual group for women that some ladies from the nbh also attend.

~ mods ~

I'm overusing the group system in general on this save for friend groups, coworkers, scouts, etc. I use a mod to get rid of the limit of participants and it's great that way.

I'm also using the Wonderful Whims mod, specifically for the attraction system. It adds a level of messyness to the social group, knowing who each sim finds the most attractive - which is not always their own partner.

I use MC Command Center to keep the rest of my save alive.

I also have LittleMissSam's mods, many of them, but in particular the ones to make your home a business - I plan to use them in the future.

~ final words ~

All in all, I'm really really enjoying this. I'm less focused on documenting the story, and having it be perfect, and more focused on having fun moments with the sims, having them interact with the nbrs, letting them age naturally. I'm starting to think the game was somehow designed for this kind of nbh focused play style.

#rambling #ts4 #nbh rotation save

[dontasktheradiodemon]

so basically any time I've seen you talk about food it's a meaty thing, if I'm not forgetting something. do you ever do any meatless meals? also where do you get your produce? being a vegetarian in hell is suffering. but I guess that's the point huh

🎶 I do very few meatless meals, but then I do very few plantless meals, either!

🎶 That seems like an obvious statement, but from time to time it surprises people. There's a stereotype that cannibals primarily eat flesh as a large portion of their diet, I'm sure from watching those who like to eat meat fresh and in public—and I’m sure my own reputation doesn’t help! But watching a cannibal chew on a man in the street and concluding he primarily eats human flesh makes as much sense as watching someone pluck an apple from a tree and concluding he primarily eats fresh, unwashed apples: eating like that is more of a treat than a dietary staple! But I digress. I do like to take these little opportunities to clear up misconceptions about my dietary community, but let’s get back on track!

🎶 Aside from the rare raw fleshy treat, my preference is for well-rounded meals with a complex flavor palate—meat, vegetables, herbs, spices, grains... Either all in one dish or spread between a main course and several sides that compliment the flavor. All told, I find the best meals have more plant matter than meat matter in them, even if the meat is the central attraction... but most of my meals incorporate flesh of some kind, yes.

🎶 But I won't turn up my nose at a sufficiently delectable meatless meal! The most common, of course, being seafood—I don't know whether you count seafood as different from meat, I don't myself but I know enough people who do that I thought it worth mentioning—but I'll have pure vegetarian dishes too. I make a mean variation on eggplant parmesan using a plant native to the inner ring of the Seventh Circle. The common name for it is "blasphemer's stool," it looks rather like a squat maroon cactus, and after baking it to neutralize the poison and letting it soak a couple of days to soften up, it makes a wonderful eggplant substitute! You can find it at most imp supermarkets for fairly cheap. Let me know if you'd like the recipe!

🎶 Which leads right into your next question, doesn't it! Believe you me, Hell isn't kind to carnivores, either. You're not going to find a cattle ranch or chicken farm down here, and the local shellfish are universally toxic. Most of the cannibals I know who started postmortem—including me!—did so because we humans are actually far safer to hunt and to eat than a vast majority of Hell's native fauna! But I digress again, you're looking for produce!

🎶 There's no easy guarantee to getting good produce, but here are a few tricks I use:

🎶 One: learn all your nearby grocery stores. All of them. And when I say “nearby,” I mean every store in a thirty-mile radius! And don’t count out the unexpected spots like the ice boxes in gas station convenience stores! Sometimes there’s just no better way to get a particularly fussy ingredient than by going store to store to see who happens to have a healthy supply. It means a lot of extra legwork in the beginning, but over time you’ll get a feel for which stores are most likely to have healthy onions, which stores all get their tomatoes from the same farm, et cetera.

🎶 Two: learn when your nearby grocery stores expect to have their produce delivered! It will be least likely to be wilted or rotten when it’s first delivered! To best compete with your local gourmands, you want to be there when that truck is being unloaded—even if that’s three in the morning! Don’t despair if your first few trips leave you waiting for a truck that never arrives; food shipments and deliveries are irregular, especially in the city, and expected delivery times are more loose guidelines. Make friends with the stockers and slip them a little bribe and most will be more than happy to tip you off when that long-awaited truck arrives, or even hide a healthy pack of peppers for you to pick up!

🎶 Three: get to know your neighborhood farmer’s market—as well as the farmer’s markets farther abroad. There are hardworking sinners scattered throughout the nine circles doing their best to coax Hell’s soil into growing seeds from the mortal realm. Their individual crops’ successes will vary more widely than those grown in the secure facilities that sell to grocery stores, but when they do succeed, they’re typically healthier and heartier than their grocery store counterparts! Subscribe to some farmers’ periodicals to keep up with which circles’ growing seasons seem likely to thrive and which are struggling this year, and if some crop you particularly covet is looking to have a good year, consider making a road trip out to the circle where it’s flourishing.

🎶 Four: get to know your neighborhood black market! If you’re willing to pay a little more for better quality, smugglers moving goods out of the mortal realm are the way to go. You’ll have best luck finding smugglers near enclaves of inhuman demons—imps and so forth. Be prepared to barter! Never put part of your soul on the line no matter how desperately you crave a nice juicy lemon. Five percent of your soul here, five percent of your soul there, and pretty soon you’ve sold ten percent of your soul! Some native demons see human souls as a mere currency of convenience to be freely exchanged, but enough treat collecting souls as an end in and of itself that you should never sell to someone you don’t know. What you sold for a bunch of bananas, they may not be willing to let you buy back so cheaply. Resist the temptation and deal only with smugglers willing to trade in money, goods, and favors.

🎶 Five: try cooking with local ingredients. Unsurprisingly, Hell’s native flora thrives far more easily than transplants from the mortal realm! Most Hellish crops require much more labor to make edible, not to mention palatable; but if you’re a little adventurous and don’t mind accidentally poisoning yourself from time to time, learning to work with local ingredients is very rewarding. Like I mentioned earlier, imp supermarkets are a fine resource for most Hellish produce—but there are some plants that sinners have worked into recipes that native demons don’t eat, so consider picking up a guide to Hell’s edible flora and foraging for your own ingredients!

🎶 And finally, six: consider growing your own food! Many mortal realm crops need quite a bit more help than a mere green thumb to grow—why, some will take a green arm and a leg!—but if you’re skilled, careful, or lucky, you can maintain a few ingredients yourself. I myself recently acquired an okra plant and a pepper plant that have lasted several weeks in fine health! No okra yet, but the bell peppers are ripening beautifully!

🎶 To the carnivores out there, most of this advice also applies to meat and seafood, with the exception that most mortal realm animals are even harder to raise in Hell than mortal realm produce. If you’re trying to avoid cannibalism, don’t look into hunting your own meat unless you’re really, really into hunting—and it doesn’t hurt to be an adrenaline junkie.

#anonymous #ask

[solarbird]

What do you know, this does have a chapter two!

Amélie Lacroix used to be the Widowmaker. She's not, anymore. Talon is gone, and the threat is over. But few if any governments are really willing to forgive a known terrorist with dozens - no, hundreds - of kills under her belt, so coming in from the cold wasn't really an option.

But one has to make a living somehow. A lot of the same skills used to infiltrate for assassination work just as well for other kinds of infiltration, and Amélie always did have an eye for spotting value in art.

[ao3 link]

The Queen's Toaster Chapter 2: The Bird Wives

The dark-haried woman took off her Raptora helmet, and shook her head, short hair immediately spiking up, as it always did.

Flying in this is so different, she thought, to flying a jet.

She looked down at the armoured helmet with its beak-like visor and grinned at herself. It may not be the same as a jet, but flying in it brought her even more of a rush, with so little between her and the wind, and the clouds - and the anti-aircraft fire, too.

Grabbing a cleaning kit and a towel, she wiped the helmet clean, dried it, and ran the towel through her own hair for good measure.

That won't do, I need a shower! she thought. But it'll wait 'til I get home.

The base showers didn't bother with hot water. Lukewarm from the ground was good enough, unless she had the option of better, and she did.

She'd just about finished flight training, at long last. Since the end of Talon had meant a second end for Overwatch - at least, for a while - she'd had to do something with her life. And sure, Helix might not be the same, but having regular income again helped make up for it.

That, and the other benefits.

I wonder if these come in orange?

She popped the helmet into her locker, and started dismantling the rest of her armour, pulling it off piece by piece, for storage and overnight checkout before next flight.

"Oh, please - take your time," she heard from the disarmament station behind her. "It's far too nice a job to rush."

Lena spun 'round, surprised, and jinked forward, past two benches. "You're back! Already?!"

Angela grinned, and kissed her younger wife's forehead as she leapt into her arms. "Yes!"

Lena wasn't settling for that, not under any circumstances, and hopped up on her toes, to give her elder wife a proper kiss. "Fuck, I've missed you. Where's Reeha?"

"Talking with your instructor. She'll be here any moment now."

Lena pulled Angela against her, holding her tightly. "Fuck, I've missed you."

"I've missed you too, Lena. We both have."

The Englishwoman leaned back, smiling broadly, hands on her wife's hips. "How was the conference? How's Winston? How's eep!"

"Come here, tiny wife!" Fareeha said, hauling Lena bodily up into the air as Lena shrieked, giggling, teleporting just to turn in place, not wanting out of her younger wife's arms, but definitely wanting to see her face to face.

"Reeha!"

The two women kissed, as Angela smiled at the sight.

"Your instructor had good things to say - except for your tendency to teleport your way out of trouble."

"And why shouldn't I? 'Use every tool at your disposal,' first rule of combat, you know that." She grinned.

Fareeha licked Lena's nose. "'Don't get into trouble in the first place' is the real first rule of combat, and you know that."

"Yeh, yeh..." She sighed, and put her head down on Reeha's shoulder. "Fuck me, I've missed you so much."

"I will! But not on base."

Lena bit at Fareeha's neck, and Ree snorted, dropping Lena to the ground. "Finish getting undressed first. And shower here. We're taking you out to dinner before going home."

"Oh, are we? I thought we were gonna get some overdue R&R?"

"You have to finish flight training, Captain," Fareeha replied. "But consider this a downpayment. Undress and shower, and be ready to go in five minutes. That's an order."

"Aye-aye, Colonel." Captain Oxton saluted her wife in the most sarcastic way she knew how, and hopped to.

They'd gone straight from their all-too-short honeymoon to a deployment to two separate conferences and training, so there was no way in hell she was going to be late for this.

-----

"She get there?" read the purple text.

"Oh yeah, she got there," Emily typed in reply, in orange text, sitting at her desk in her small office.

Amélie sat out in the living room, on a couch, communicating with her buyer, confirming acquisition and arranging alternate delivery for the package.

"Right where you said she'd be, too. _And_ about to set off an alarm."

"Thanks for picking her up for me," came the purple hacker's reply. "It's not my story to tell, but"

Emily interrupted, the shared cursor turning orange as she typed. "You saying that is hilarious, you do realise, yeh?"

The cursor blinked for a moment, before turning back to purple.

"Yes. It is. I know. But seriously, she's been through a lot. And she was totally going to get busted sooner or later, and I knew it, even if I didn't know how or where All her infiltration training is based around range work. Close up, she has some, but not as much. But she had to deliver on this job, and... well... I had to make sure it happened."

"I know, I know. What's a favour for a friend? Besides, she's _smokin'_ hot. Totally worth it."

"I told you!"

"You told me, but you didn't _tell_ me, luv. Oh god, it's all I can do to keep my hands off her. But then I'd 'find out' about her too early, and... if she's she who I think she is..."

"I didn't tell you," insisted purple.

"You really didn't," assured orange. "But I'm pretty sure I know."

"Then... in that case..."

"Yeh."

Emily shook out her hands. C'mon, girl. Keep it in your trousers. If I'm right, she's one very hot property.

She looked over at the apparently-black-haired woman whose artificial skin colourant wasn't quite enough to keep a blue tinge entirely at bay in the cloudy daylight.

This is going to be tricky enough as it is. You've laid the table, now just let her decide whether she wants to bite.

"Still - if what you actually will tell me is true," she started typing, in orange.

"It is," purple text interrupted.

"...then hey, maybe you won't owe me one. Maybe I'll owe _you_."

"Now _that_," a glowing purple sugar skull replied, "is what I like to hear."

-----

The newlyweds smiled at each other, leaning back in their chairs, relaxing as the dinner plates were cleared, the dessert course ordered but not yet at the table, the three of them sipping tea, qahwah arabiyya, and abricotine, according to their tastes.

Lena wasn't sure exactly when she'd developed her fondness for abricotine, but she was pretty sure it had something to do with joint testimony to the UN in Geneva - or, much more specifically, when she'd had to share quarters with Fareeha and Angela the whole week. Athena had apologised, calling it an 'accidental oversight,' but at least the one bed was a full king. Hana never let any of them hear the end of it, all while stridently denying being the RPF shipper whose name translated from the Korean meant SoManyBunnies.

Despite what everyone at Gibraltar assumed, they didn't start being "a thing" there - but they had become surprisingly comfortable with each other, very quickly. The actual "thing" would start not long afterwards, the three of them hunkered down in the desert, Fareeha wounded but not in any real danger, waiting for extraction after a successful but extremely difficult mission in the Sudan.

They'd a critical hidden Talon information relay and communications centre deep in the Nubian Desert, on desperately-useful information provided by the Widowmaker herself. At first, all three of them thought of that night as a one-off - the stress of battle will do that, after all - but then there was a dinner, and they found they had so much to talk about, then another dinner, and then an after dinner, and...

Well.

Lena's phone buzzed, and she pulled it from her pocket, hoping it wasn't a callback for mission. Talon may be gone, but Helix's work was never done, not with Vishkar out there, and tensions still high between omnics and humanity, and O'Deorain still on the loose, and more.

But instead, purple text reported Package delivered, and the teleporter smiled, before looking up to her curious wives.

"Is it...?" Fareeha asked, hopefully, as Angela looked to Lena, expectantly.

"She's home," Lena replied, relief in her voice.

"Oh good," Angela said, letting go of a little bit of tension she hadn't been fully aware she carried. "I hope this works out. She's been through so much."

"Yeh," Lena agreed, while replying, "Brilliant. Thank you ❤," and putting her phone away. "She really has."

"So have we," Fareeha noted, having mostly forgiven, but entirely not forgot.

"Yes," Angela said, reaching out and holding her taller wife's hand. "Too much."

"It's in the past," Fareeha insisted, squeezing Angela's hand.

"Not for all of us," Lena replied, as dessert arrived. "Particularly not for her."

"No," Fareeha agreed, after a moment. "I suppose not."

"Still, though," Angela said, "she's in... well. I'm not going to say good hands..."

Fareeha chuckled. "No."

"But," Angela continued, "given everything, probably the best available."

"Give 'er more credit than that, love," Lena said, putting aside her apricot eau-de-vie before picking up a piece of the feteer meshaltet, and dipping it into the lovely black honey served on the side. "It's probably the best chance she'll get."

"For your sake," Fareeha smiled, affectionately, choosing the white honey and cream, as Angela chose, in turn, the soft cheese, "...I'll hope you're right."

#gingerspider #speedy recovery #pharmercy #bird wives #polyamoury #the queen's toaster #lena tracer oxton #emily driscoll #amélie widowmaker lacroix #widowmaker #angela mercy ziegler #fareeha pharah amari

[john-nicole-bahandi-blog]

When I moved up at my old school I somehow wonder on what school should I be in, so I let my parents choose it for me so they decide to put me on, T.I.P. same place where my brother graduate but it turns out pretty well because I like the way they teach and their facilities and heres how my #TIPlife starts. In my very first day at this school I feel like a very new human being out of his comfort zone, but as time goes by I get used to it, because of this friendly human beings in short my classmates. As the year goes on our school make so much of events that we need to participate and it really builds me to my personality and specially my social skills because I'm not the type of guy that talks a lot it takes time to make me confortable to anyone maybe some people is the same with me but it's hard to be unsociable and not communicating but because of T.I.P. I somehow passed through it.

When I join "larong lahi" in "Buwan ng wika" celebration I somehow got nervous becaus e its my first time tonplay those games especially "sack race" but we loose after that I think we loose becaise if me because its my first time I don't know how to play it and I don't want to slip around and mess with the game but it turns out so well we enjoy it after then. We do some subtle things actually its just me because they go with their outside friend and me, I just roam around the school trying to fit in the things they do because I do want to be that "emo guy" I'm not even depress but yeah I don't smile so much but I somehow assure myself that I'm happy even though it is not obvious to others but I'm still trying to show it and make them feel it because even my teachers ask me if I'm okay or is there anything that happen, I say no I'm fine but people is very curious to anything that is around to them but I don't mind them because its just normal to be curious that's why we discover and seek.

All in all I enjoy and love T.I.P. as the time goes by and also this institution is very lovable that is why it is worth to stay and learn and I know that I could develop myself here after all especially my sociap skills for now I learn how to adapt and change in some ways because people is very different and somehow hard to understand but ounce you get close and know them, they are lovely too you just need to be friendly which is hard for me because I just observe and look after them then I try to apply. I think I'm learning people now I should take psychologist, I'm just joking, but seriosly I'm learning one by one and I know I can improve myself together with them and also with T.I.P. For now this is the only thing that I can tell and the year is not over yet so let's make memories and call it remembrance someday for now this is this my sum up of my #TIPlife bye for now.

[ehayes87]

Hi Erica, I'm wondering what other skills are required to be a storyboard artist in the animation industry like you. The level of draftsmanship required in that field seems so simple. Maybe TOO simple. I've been told by employed 2d animators in the gaming industry and several other artists that my figure drawings are very solid. Not meaning to toot my horn, I still need to improve. But is there something I'm missing? Is there like some kind of a catch? Are people with no degrees glossed over?

Hi! You’re asking if there’s more to storyboarding than good drawing skills. And the short answer is: YES!!

Long answer: Drawing skills are the bare minimum when it comes to boarding. It’s the base skill that every other skill grows off of. Most importantly: cinematography! A beautiful drawing is useless is if your cuts don’t make sense. Or if you’ve got bad staging. Or tangents. Or you’re crossing the 360 too often. Or your acting is off. Or your pacing is weird. The list goes on and on!

Yes, you need to know how to draw, you need to know basic perspective and anatomy, and then from that knowledge, you need to learn to do it in shorthand; loose, fast, and efficient while still communicating everything clearly. That is why storyboards look the way they do! Gorgeously detailed drawings are near pointless in storyboards, and to be plain, there is no time for it. I actually know a storyboard artist who was fired (yes, fired!) for being too detailed. He was falling behind.

Background artists are responsible for beautifying the environment with wonderful detail and crisp, clean lines, and colorists are responsible for beautifying those lines with amazing hues and shadows and lighting. Our job is to rough! Out! That! Story!

 Hope this helped you. Good luck on your journey to boarding!

[boombarada]

How do one survive a lock down?

We are getting paranoid by locked down in our houses. Going nuts. Going crazy by the thoughts of going crazy. Nothing to do. Just eat sleep and entertain ourselves. A number of us doing home workouts and yoga and art and what not.

Do you know, some people from the same community, which we currently reside, face the lock down, to the some extent, everyday; and most of their lives. And yet they don't go crazy. They're as human as us. They're as sane as us, or I would say more intelligent than ours, because over the period of time those humans have evolved. They have made ways to survive in such lock down environments. They have found their ways to stay happy and healthy!

I guess by now may have got the idea whom I'm talking about, if not le'm help you. I'm talking about women of our houses. Don't go haywire by thinking I'm a misogynist and planning to persuade that women's place is in house only. Hold your sudo feminist horses down, and try to read this article with logic.

Today after a long time I took the broom in my hand and started cleaning my bedroom. I am fairly habitual to keep my room organised, neat and tidy. But kachra pota, was a chor i used to outsource, like a generic middle class houshold. I can't remember the name of the person, but some one great expressed once that cleaning the place where u live is a meditative task, and it proved quite completely today. Although organising my room was always a helping hand in anxiety release ans feel relaxed, cleaning the house with the broom was a totally different meditation. You come across every single inch of the house. As if a king give a public appearance on the streets, and get to meet his subjects closely, each and every one of them. I started from my lalji's place, and ended at my car parking! I realised where does the most dust accumulates. I explored there is ant colony in my years. I got acquainted with what sort of flowers are there in my yard, where exactly is the plaster cooling off, which tile has gone loose, where does rain water accumulates and creates puddles, from where the exterior paint is peeling off, and not of all i realised how bigger my house is. Although we are middle class family living in a moderate 3 bhk house, we always hear our mom saying this house is big. Being a person who never used to actually understand why she was commenting like this. According to a person who's travelling in the house is mostly starts from bed and ends at kitchen never figured what is the size of the house. Being a designer we always wonder how beautiful we can make a house, How intricate details and decor we can provide, always disrespected the idea of minimalism, but today was the day I realised baapu. Why गांधी आश्रम was designed the way it is, because baapu used to clean the his kotdi by himself and he was aware of what he needs, how much he needs, where he needs, when he needs, and how he will maintain it. Being the prisoner of online shopping malls and capitalist shopaholic nature we have forgotten the word maintain.

And that my friend where the wisdom of our mom/women of the house comes into picture. That why even baapu understood the importance of women and respected them highly.

Today in man ki baat, modi thanked all the agencies and servicemen who are providing their precious help to the nation today in this tough times. Who are maling sure our lock down doesn't drive us insane and we all stay safe and stay at home. Which is admirable.

But at the same time do we actually thank the women of the house who makes sure that our handkerchief is washed, dried, folded and kept at a right place. Even if don't thank, or would just spare a day once a year, (women's day) that's alright. But as an intelligent human being we must learn how these humans have evolved in such an environment. There is this school of thought that a number of yoga and martial arts evolved from doing routine houshold chores. Yogis living by themselves in middle of nowhere realised the importance of organisation, cleanliness, tidiness, and neatness. Which are the mediums used by women of our homes to make hour house habitable and maintain the it's liveliness. No wonder our ancient texts speaks highly of women whenever the talk of day to day life occurs.

I urge all the interior designer and architects to do karcha pota once in a month at least to understand space, material and detailing. I urge all the fashion designers to wash their clothes once in a month by hand, (not washing machine) to understand the design. I urge a the chefs, or culinary enthusiasts to wash dishes once a month to completely understand food. A great designer and personality, Sir Mickey Desai once said "design starts from us" and I realised today that us starts from where we live. Thus if you don't understand, and digest where u live, I feel you've not excelled in the design world.

That's why women has this in built instincts of designing. They are good at it. They have mastered it over the period of time. Without trying to be the women of the house, one can not master the world of design.

Women of the houses, has survived everyday lock down, by loving their homes. By. Loving the people who lives in it. By activating the home feeling. They established organizations, systems which can help through the day to day lock down. The household chores are no degrading jobs, rather they're the most inteligent ways to maintain health physically and mentally while staying in lock down. If one really wants to respect women, try understanding them by doing what they do. Men of the house usually jokes around that women are un-understandable. Keep the jokes aside and appreciate the heros you've got inside your house. We are spending all our time posting thankyous and showing of gratitude on social media towards the police, doctors and local authorities. Try showing some gratitude towards the women who are making sure with the least ingredients how can they prepare meal which would be fulfilling as well as not that burden on the finance of the house. They're the first line of heroes we have got.

By learning from their skills of survival in lock down we are not only respecting them but clearly we are surviving.

Do houshold chores.

Help you mother and wife.

And this lock down will turn into learning for a lifetime instead of boring, social media addictive, foolish time pass.