#this campaign is also gonna be excellent

[wynnyfryd]

Trailer park Steve AU part 60

part 1 | part 59 | ao3

cw: reference to canonical minor character death

Max slams the phone down, knocking her forehead against the wall. Sixteen calls in a row and still no answer. “I give up,” she sighs. “You should just go.” “Seriously?” Steve protests. “And just leave you here? Alone? After—?” After all that? He throws his hands out like an umpire calling a safe. “No. No way.” “Look, my mom will be home soon, you can’t—” “—I’m not letting you get hurt—!” “—What are you gonna do? Fight my nightmares for me?”

“Maybe I will,” Steve mutters under his breath, pissed off and replaying the conversation on repeat while he gets ready. Feels like a psycho for doing it; feels certifiably unhinged just going about his evening after everything that happened, putting on a clean shirt and choking himself in a cloud of Farrah Fawcett spray so he can go pick up the sweet-but-stupid girl named Brenda he promised to take to the game tonight; so he can go cheer in the bleachers like he didn’t almost die.

(Or like, very vividly hallucinate his own death, which... Yeah. Doesn’t feel any less horrific.)

But whatever. Max is right. Without El, there’s really nothing to do but wait. Hop’s dead, Bob’s dead, Joyce is thirty hours away. Owens is off the table, too. What’s Steve gonna do? Call the government and tell them to come nuke the boogeyman? He doesn’t have any proof. 

He also doesn’t want to freak Dustin or any of the other kids out without knowing for sure what’s going on and what, if anything, can be done about it, so...

Fuck.

Fuck!

He gets dressed; he goes out. Picks up Brenda and does his best to be nice to her even though she gets on his nerves the moment she gets into his car, and he buys them sodas at the gas station and doesn't say a word when she spills Sprite down the side of his passenger seat.

The school is packed when they show up — the crowd in high spirits, the marching band leading chants. Nancy's reporting from the sidelines, Lucas is laughing with his teammates on the bench, and Steve leads Brenda toward the bleachers and does his best not to think. Not about the graveyard, not Max, not the looming threat of cosmic terrors. Not about the fact that Eddie is somewhere in this building, probably looking all hot and menacing while he leads tonight's campaign. Probably perched on a prop throne drinking Mountain Dew from a painted chalice like a fucking dork; probably making it look sexy, anyway. Tight jeans, legs spread, an air of casual command…

Steve could go find him. He could make everyone else leave; he could get on his knees and crawl between Eddie's legs—

"Does it bother you that we might win the championship, like, right after you graduated?"

Reality comes back like a slap in the face. "Yeah, that's an excellent question, Brenda, thank you so much for bringing that up."

They get settled into their seats, and Steve wishes he were more excited when the ref throws the jump ball, but he mostly just wants to go home. ("You always want to go home," the Robin in his head reminds him, and the Robin in real life throws him a weird look when she catches him snorting to himself about it.) He's just tired. Worn down in his bones, hollowed where he thinks his marrow should be, and he's clinging to normalcy with a sort of sweaty desperation that he’s pretty sure Brenda can smell on him because the date just sucks; it’s so bland, so mutually boring and bored. He spends most of the night mouthing stupid shit at Robin or keeping a sharp eye on the court — anything to ignore his proximity to Eddie; anything to drown out his messed-up head and heart. 

When the game finally ends Brenda gets a ride to a party with some friends. Steve goes back to Dustin’s place and paces a hole into the carpet. Stays up until 3 A.M., humming a Fleetwood Mac song.

In the morning, he tells himself as he drifts into fitful sleep. 

In the morning it’ll be fine. 

In the morning Max will come by the store like she promised, and they’ll keep trying until they get ahold of El, or Owens, or someone, and that someone will know what to do and how to help.

—

In the morning the TV tells him there’s a dead girl in his house.

—

part 61

tag list in separate reblogs under '#trailer park steve au taglist' if you'd like to filter that content. if you want to be added please comment and let me know (must be over 21; please either verify in the comment or have your age visible on your blog)

#trailer park steve au #steddie #steddie fic #steve harrington #eddie munson

[atinylittlepain]

Nothing to Hide - A Joel Miller Story

no outbreak!joel miller x f!reader

joel miller masterlist

she learns a couple new things about her man over the course of a night.

warnings | 18+ SMUT, and nothing but(t), yes this is a pegging fic

a/n | it's here! welcome, everyone, to the inaugural night of the Peg that Middle-Aged Man Campaign 2023! over the course of the next week or so, I as well as a handful of my favorite writers will be putting out some excellent fics under this campaign for the whole spectrum of Pedro Pascalian characters! so keep your eye out! much more to come, muahahahaha

i know for a fact that both @beskarandblasters and @wannab-urs will be posting or have already posted two other spectacular PMAMC fics on this fine evening, so go check those out as well!

.......................................................

“What is that?”

“Don’t– you can’t laugh.”

“Oh my god, Joel. What the fuck is it?” 

“Well what d’you think it is?”

“I think you lost a bet is what I think.” He’s silent for a moment, his lack of a reply all the answer she needs to burst out into laughter.

“No, really?” Joel lets out a huff.

“I was really really drunk and dumb, ok? Jesus, woman, stop looking at it!” She stifles her laugh enough to turn him around by his shoulder so he’s facing her, running a quick hand through his curls, his face flushed and set in a scowl.

“Oh, baby, I’m gonna be looking at it a lot with what I’m about to do to you.” She can see the bob of his throat in the faint light of her bedroom, the way his eyes go a touch hazy, drooping under his lashes. He’s pretty, something she’s known since they started dating, though she also knows he’d probably short-circuit if she ever called him that. But tonight, she intends to treat him like it, giving, providing, where he’s always so eager to do the same. 

“Why don’t you lay out on the bed for me, handsome?” He gives her a jerky nod, seeming to think twice before he cups her cheek in his palm, dragging a hot kiss from her before he complies. He’s still in his boxers, long expanses of tan, bare strength laid out on her sheets, propped up on his elbows to watch her as she rifles through a dresser drawer to find a few things. His eyes widen when she turns back to him, baby pink strap in one hand and a bottle of lube in the other. 

“Don’t worry about it, baby. We’re gonna work you up to it, ok? And if you don’t like anything, just tell me and I’ll stop.” It’s setting heat threading through her core, thick and warm, the silk of her panties sticking to her cunt from the pulse of arousal, coaxed on by the stark contrast of how he normally is to how she gets him right now. Her man, always in control, always the strong one, the dominant one, the giver, laying it all willingly at her feet.

It had started with a bit of pillow talk one night. Joel knew that she had been with women in the past, but he had never been so bold as to ask anything about it, not until that night, drunk on sweat and sex, a boyish grin slipping across his lips, turning dark and reverential fast when she was more than happy to tell him about her experience, going so far as to show him the toys she had held onto. But what she hadn’t been expecting was Joel Miller, the walking homage to southern masculinity, asking his next question.

“You ever used that, um, with– with men?” 

They had talked about it more afterward, Joel eager to bring it up, ask questions, seemingly just as perplexed as she was that he was so interested in it.

“I don’t know, I mean– never thought about something like this before. But, with you it just– fuck, it seems kinda hot.”

And that’s how they’ve ended up here, her kneeling between his spread legs on her bed, palms rubbing up and down his thighs as she leans over and lays a kiss to the little swell of his belly, smiling against the jump of his muscles. 

“Relax for me, Joel. I promise I’m gonna take good care of you. You trust me, right?” 

“I– yeah, I do.” She slides one palm up from his thigh to his chest, pressing lightly to get him to lay back.

“Then just let me do all the work, alright? Gonna make you feel good.” With that, she draws her attention back down to the waistband of his boxers, hooking her fingers in the sides to tug them down and off his legs before settling back between his thighs, her fingers tapping the joints of his knees as a light command.

“Can you bend your knees for me, baby? Need you a little more opened up than this.” She’s surprised by the groan he lets out at her simple question, a breathless shake of his head.

“Fuck, I– you– that–” She cuts off his floundering, her palm rubbing a soothing circle against his chest.

“Hey, if you don’t feel comfortable, we don’t have to do anything different, seriously.” “No! I mean, no, I want to. It’s just– different. But different’s good. I’m good.” How could she say no to that?

“Ok, baby, I’m gonna warm you up. You tell me if I do anything you don’t like, alright?” He nods, his eyes staying glued on hers as she ducks back down, lips ghosting over the underside of his already hard cock before lapping gently at the tip. She works him over with her mouth for a while, taking him down as far as she can, her hand stroking the rest, reveling in the way his muscles slacken and tense beneath her ministrations, the way he starts to let himself go to the pleasure, his head pressed back into the pillows, eyes scrunched shut, shaky pants and curses leaving his lips. When it seems like she’s gotten him nice and relaxed, she pulls off of him, continuing to lap at his length while she fumbles around for her bottle of lube, spreading a dollop between her palms before getting her hands on his length.

“Just want you to get used to the feel of this stuff, alright, baby?” He hisses at the cool contact, but lets out a breathy, low-rumbled uh-huh as she swirls her slicked-up palm down his cock, slipping her hand down to cup his balls, a move that sets a broken groan thrumming in his throat. Her other hand presses against his thigh, getting him to open up more for her as she slips a finger down a little further, finding that tight ring of muscle and applying a bit of pressure, Joel’s hips bucking up at the sensation. 

“Easy, baby, gotta stay relaxed for me if I’m gonna open you up.” He lets out a disbelieving laugh, throwing his head back as she presses her finger in, her other hand lazily stroking his cock as she does.

“Jesus, fuck– you’re good, so fucking good. Never felt anything like this be-before.” She smiles up at him, pressing a kiss to his hip as she slowly pumps her finger inside of him, only stopping to lathe more lube over her hand.

“Think you can take another one, baby? You ready for that?” He nods, a long sigh leaving his lips, but that’s not good enough for her.

“Need words, Joel. You gotta tell me what you want.” 

“I– yes, more, please. Want more.” To get a please out of Joel Miller is no small feat, and she revels in it, just a little, easing a second finger in along her first one, stretching him out even more. He’s a vision, chest flushed, cheeks ablaze, one hand tugging at his mussed-up hair, the other balled into a tight fist in the sheets as she works him open. It’s messy as hell, lube slicking up everything, dripping between his thighs, his cock throbbing in her hand, his words a filthy slur of praise and curses that go straight to her aching core.

“Do you wanna finish like this, baby? Or do you wanna take it a little further?” 

“More, yeah, want you– want you to go further.” She slips her fingers out of him with a smile, crawling further up the bed to steal a kiss, his mouth insistent and devouring before she pulls away with a lewd smack. His eyes trail up and down her body as she stands at the foot of the bed, first slipping her bra off, followed by her panties, before reaching for the strap. And he’s an intent and willing audience, following the way she slides the harness over her hips, deft fingers fitting it snug to her body.

“Can I have you on all fours, handsome?” He moves tentatively, a dazed look on his face when he glances over his shoulder at her, trying to watch as she spreads lube over her silicone dick. Her eyes, meanwhile, are focused back on the thing she had been so shocked to see earlier, moreso surprised that he had somehow managed to hide it from her over the months that they’ve been dating. Thick, dark ink, one of those culturally insensitive, faux-tribal numbers she’s sure he walked into a parlor and just pointed at on the wall, goaded on by Tommy and his construction crew buddies no doubt. There’s no two ways about it, Joel Miller has a tramp stamp, and she can’t help but lay a giggling kiss to it, causing him to let out a huff over his shoulder. 

“I’m gonna get it removed, ok? Just– haven’t gotten around to it yet.” 

“And what if I kinda like it?” She can barely keep a straight face saying it, biting back a laugh as he huffs at her again, though she’s quick to soothe him, running a palm up his spine before her hand settles at his hip.

“I’m sorry, baby, no more teasing. You ready for me?” When all he does is nod, she taps him on the ass, a few pats of her palm seeming to remind him what she wants.

“Yes, fuck, ready.” She keeps one palm splayed over his lower back (and his tattoo), holding him steady as she slowly presses forward, easing him into it with gentle rocks of her hips. He’s breathing hard, little groans loosing from his chest, but he doesn’t tell her to stop, letting out a long sigh when she’s finally seated fully inside. She curls over him, pressing a kiss to his shoulder, her words a faint rasp into his skin.

“Doing so good for me, Joel. Tell me when you want me to move, baby, take your time.” He cranes his neck, looking for a kiss she’s happy to give him, a desperate tangle that’s still so sweet. 

“You can move, I just– fuck– it’s good, feels really fucking good.” It’s what she wants, wants him to feel good, and to keep feeling good, leaning slightly back on her knees to find a slow rhythm with her hips, one hand reaching around to stroke his throbbing cock, Joel letting out a harsh moan when she does. She’s never heard these sounds from him before, broken grunts and breathy chants of her name with each thrust of her hips, completely losing himself in the sensation. She curls back over him, her hips set in a deep grind as she drags her lips over his temple.

“That feel good, baby? Nice to have someone take care of you, huh? Taking it so good, Joel. You gonna come for me? Gonna let me have it?” 

“Jesus fucking christ, feels so fucking good– you’re gonna kill me, shit– fucking close, so fucking close.” With one more pass of her hand over his cock, one more rock of her hips, he comes on a punched-out exhale, slumping down onto his elbows with a shuddering heave. She presses kisses all over his shoulder blades as she pulls out, trying to soothe the hiss he lets out at the ache, quick to guide him onto his back so he doesn't flop down into a pool of his own spend. If he hears her low-murmured be right back, he doesn’t show it, forearm slung over his face, chest still heaving as she slips out of the bedroom to get him a glass of water.

“Is this how you feel? After we– when I– when we–” She cuts off his stumbling question with a light laugh, sitting down on the side of the bed next to him and coaxing a few sips of water out of him. 

“So you liked it?” He quirks a brow at her, one of his hands coming to rest on her thigh, squeezing the swell of it when she laughs again at his expression.

“Gotta be honest, darlin, my expectations were low. Kinda wanted to try it just to see, I guess. But fuck, that was, uh, that was something else.” She can’t help herself, leaning down for a quick kiss that he chases after with a much deeper one, greedy hands squeezing and pulling until she’s getting dragged onto his lap, wincing at the slick stick of it and pulling away.

“What? What’s wrong? C’mon, darlin, wanna take care of you now.” Though he tries to pull her back in for a kiss, she plants a firm palm on his forehead to hold him back, stifling a laugh at his perplexed expression.

“That sounds nice, but you are covered in lube and it’s sticking to everything. Can we continue this in the shower, baby?” Ever the gentleman, Joel acquiesces to her request, letting her get up before shuffling into the bathroom in all his bare glory to get the water warmed up. 

It’s an irresistible urge, walking into the bathroom, seeing his back facing her, his cute little ass and the hilarious art just above it, and she just has to give a quick pinch to his hip before raking her nails over the ink, grinning at him as he turns around with an exasperated huff.

“Ain’t ever gonna let me live this down, are you?” 

“That depends, do you have any other tattoos you’ve been hiding from me?” His grin goes smarmy, drawing a gasp out of her when he pulls her into him with a hooked arm around her waist, pressing a hard kiss to her lips.

“Nothing else to hide, darlin. Think you’ve seen it all now.”

...........................

tags for folks who i think would enjoy this lmao: @wannab-urs @beskarandblasters @jksprincess10 @cutesyscreenname @swiftispunk @northernbluess @pr0ximamidnight

#joel miller #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller x reader #tlou #tlou fanfiction #joel miller x you #joel miller angst #the last of us #joel miller fluff #joel miller smut #joel miller one shot #joel miller au #joel miller fic #joel miller imagine

[girlcrushart]

In all likelihood today’s post will be the first of back-to-back Charly Jordan posts. Things could change of course, but the second poster is already made and ready to go because I found two photos of Charly at the same time that speak to her excellent ability to pull off pretty much any look perfectly. I’m gonna loosely assign devil and Angel labels to these pics. This one, all badass and black and red is naughty Charly. She’s really hot. Maybe more my type than Angel Charly. I mean, those abs are… ya. But then again you’ve yet to see Angel Charly. Really hot also. I’m building anticipation you guys. You’ll find out tomorrow. Unless there’s suddenly pregnant celeb pics or Kristen does another Chanel campaign. Anticipation is fun tho right? Today’s girlcrushart guardian is Charly Jordan.

#charly jordan #girlcrushart

[eighthdoctor]

Maximianus Philophonos Bard 11/Rogue 1

Because we're at the end of the campaign, I wanted to write up a little bit about Max.

Max started as a combo of two A+ tier ideas:

A charisma caster but the charisma is "the most pathetic little man you've ever seen, you can't possibly say no"

A bard who thought being a bard was like being a professional musician and is shocked to find out that it is not, in fact, at all like being a professional musician.

The other thing going into Max is (before naming him, the name is only accidentally a pun) I wanted to abuse the shit out of the bard class. Minmax that fucker. Dating the DM is an excellent method for getting away with this. Turns out a single level in rogue gets you some expertise (2x proficiency bonus to some skills) which you then get MORE of with bard levels, and eventually bard gets you jack of all trades (1/2 proficiency to anything you're not proficient in) meaning that most of his skill checks are something like +5.

So out of universe I needed a guy whose first level was in rogue, remainder in bard, a classic pathetic little wet rat of a man, who is both wildly talented and also just. Completely incapable of using that for malicious OOC purposes otherwise my wife would kill me.

What I wound up with is someone who has crippling anxiety. Max is very nearly too anxious to function in society, gets outsize sympathy for it, and really can only do social interactions in the framework of performances.

See, at about 18 Max went to magical Juilliard to become first violin in the Requiem City Orchestra. After the first semester he realized two things:

Magical Juliliard is not really Juilliard at all, but more like the CIA academy if they also taught music.

He's trans. (Sidebar: He does not actually have a deadname. Maximianus is his stage performance name that he just sort of. Went with. After coming out.)

This is all hideously awkward and embarrassing and he has multiple fullblown panic attacks about the first thing.

Max's family is huge and overbearing and supportive and he doesn't really want to come out to them because it will be a Whole Thing TM and he is so, so, so bad about receiving affection, and he really doesn't want to tell them about the school mixup because then he's wasted their money and they'll never ever ever say anything about it but he's just a drain on their resources and also everyone will be so caring, so sympathetic, poor kid, homecooked meals for months, mom knocking on the door every day to see if he's still crying--

So he goes no-contact. To avoid explaining why he's dropping out of school.

He did accomplish one thing in that semester though, and that was making friends with a tabaxi student named Ihava (Ihava Nayme, because Jo mistakenly didn't give her a name and we promptly engaged her in conversation and also a subplot). Ihava is a budding revolutionary and realized that (a) Max totally has subversive tendencies and (b) the ability to baldfaced lie to cops and make the cops feel bad for you is priceless.

That's how Max got involved in a budding insurgency, and over the following year or so took his first class in rogue. Some theft, but mostly just skulking around, standing watch for others, passing info, etc.

Then he got itchy feet--Requiem isn't tiny but a year trying to avoid contact with any relatives, your luck will run out eventually, and Max is also just. He's not flighty but he does like novelty, and at some point the Violet Guard were gonna figure out that this kid was turning up at a lot of crime scenes. So he dropped a letter to the family (identity crisis etc graduated early etc going off to join the circus don't worry about me), and really just started moving across the country, working as a travelling minstrel.

He very rarely pays full room & board, instead playing for his dinner. He eventually washed up in Suncrest, and met the rest of the party when the tavern down the street [checks notes] exploded.

And this is where he really started taking off, because Max is two very cool things in one package:

He is just a good kid. When asked by a NPC why we were putting so much effort into helping her, his immediate, honest answer was "how could we not?" and he stands by that 11 levels later. He's somehow remained mostly Lawful Good despite some VERY sketchy actions, because at his core he wants to help people, and he wants to do so within a strict code of morals. They're just...sometimes unusual.

He's also got a VERY nasty imagination and will put his spell list to work in deeply creative (and fucked up) ways.

As an example. At level 4, Max got the second level spell Phantasmal Force, which lets you convince one being that Something Exists. This is obviously a spell mostly constrained by the player's creativity.

Also at level 4 Jo dropped us in a dungeon at the bottom of which was a Young Blue Dragon. This was moderately outleveled for the party and we should have fucked off.

Instead Max went "hey is that a male dragon" and the DM said yes, and Max mindfucked the dragon into thinking there was a Young Red (male) Dragon coming into HIS LAIR, and then the dragon spent multiple rounds trying to fight the illusion and we completely killed a dragon without major injury at level 4.

This became Max's Thing: Using his spell slots to wildly outsize effect, through monopolizing a major enemy, convincing NPCs to let us go where we really should not go, utilizing cold iron + animate objects to do serious damage to the Wild Hunt...

He didn't usually do the most damage and he didn't often get the kill shot, but he was doing battlefield control. A lot.

And so then we come to the final arc. Jo wrote up the bit about the Wish spell here. (I need to add that once again we fucked up her plans, because of COURSE the WIZARD would attune to the STAFF OF THREE WISHES, and no. Consensus was to let Max do it because Max is the words person. This worked out very well, see here.)

But just. You have the world's most anxious bard. He didn't even want to be A Bard, he wanted to be a musician. He also has a mindblowingly powerful artifact.

For over a minute, Max had to maintain perfect concentration to save the world. A friend died in that minute. Multiple friends fell unconscious and had to be revived (mostly by Max). Almost everyone in the party temporarily incapacitated themself (see here) to ensure that he passed Concentration saves he should have failed.

There's a massive battle going on entirely around Max. He is the focal point of everything. Everyone he loves is risking literally everything to keep him focused, and he spends most of it in a pocket dimension trying to keep breathing. He's channelling impossible power to try and fix the converging planes and defeat the Summer Queen, and he can only do this by not fighting, by hiding away and curling up tight and thinking very, very hard.

And he does it. He succeeds. We find out tomorrow what that looks like but god damn I am proud of my boy.

#HE'S SUCH A GOOD #i'm not sorry for putting this massive thing on everyone's dashes y'all deserve it #julis runs d&d

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

going to be real bunwitch seems to be pretty happy that scout's going through it. extremely fucked to look at a person in a high stress situation with their personal pets and go "haha i doubt its real but if it is theyre just being dramatic". Like how fucked up is it that the other person mainly involved (bonefarm) who has experience with falsified animal control calls can sympathize with someone they dont even like but bunwitch is just completely shifting the blame off themselves and acting like scout is overreacting. if they werent the ones that did it, it was definitely one of their followers. certainly hope bunwitch doesnt have to worry about any false animal control calls or doxxing anytime soon, because theyre gonna get the exact amount of sympathy theyre giving scout.

Oh I absolutely have no doubt it was them or one of their pals lol. They’ve been pissing and moaning about Scout for days now for absolutely no reason. The last post I saw of theirs before I mass blocked a bunch of these weirdos started off with something like “I don’t get why culling newborn rabbits is bad but mice isn’t” yeah man, Scout didn’t say that though. It’s weird to cull pinkie mice solely for pattern or sex too. The main reason pinkies are culled is that they’re a specific size that makes them an excellent stepping stone in feeding baby carnivorous wildlife. I don’t personally cull pinkies as food because it’s a waste of resources and low in nutrition, but if you’re feeding something like a very small snake you don’t always have that many options since they swallow prey whole making it impractical to simply cut adult mice in smaller pieces. A newborn rabbit of most breeds is similar in size to adult mice and halfling rats so you can much more easily just use those and not have to worry about supplementing with calcium or anything. Rabbit meat in general is so low on fat it’s a bit useless to most carnivores as a food staple unless you have an obese carnivore you need to drop weight off of.

That’s a digression I know, but my point is that bunnyblr weirdos will take any opinion that may conflict with their interests and spin it into their own narrative to organize their pathetic little harassment campaigns.

“Oh you said goat kids shouldn’t be hard culled at birth in your opinion? Guess that means you hate rabbit breeding and want us dead but personally step on baby mice with your bare feet, also sometimes your cattle who live outside have mud on them im calling the cops on you in real life because I stalked you to find your name and address, I’m the normal one here!”

Anyway, I hope Scout gets some form of legal Justice for this because it really is just them openly threatening with a not-so-subtle “fall in line because I know where you live and how to find you by name if you move”. There’s no other justification because you cannot legitimately tell me that they thought sending an ACO to Scout’s apartment, not the property the cattle are kept at, their personal apartment where they live, was actually done in good faith to “save those poor moos” absolutely not. Nothing Scout has done is illegal or considered unethical by anyone who knows anything about cattle. This wasn’t done out of concern this was done with the intent to harm someone for saying something they didn’t like online. You don’t send a cop to the home of a queer person with good intentions. It’s absolutely sickening behavior.

[comicaurora]

Hey I'm getting into DnD, do you have any podcast or series of a DnD campaign to recommend? I know there is critical role, but wich one of those should i start with? Is there a better beginning than critical role? I am lost here, please help

This is gonna very much depend on your personal preferences and attention span! I recommend sampling a range of DnD podcasts to find your personal tolerances and what parts appeal to you. I'm not the most widely-read person in this space because frankly most DnD podcasts are on too slow a boil for my attention span, but I've got a few you could check out-

Critical Role is the biggest and most well-known one for sure, but pacing wise I personally can't get through it. I love it in concept, but it's slow enough and huge enough that my brain zones out in the downtime and I lose track of important details when things speed up again. I think my first successful exposure to it was a brisk two-hour video that's just a Best Moments Of Grog compilation. That's also why I've been really liking The Legend Of Vox Machina, which keeps all the biggest and best moments but paces them like an actual story instead of a game. It's not representative of the experience of playing a TTRPG, but it is a lot of fun.

I personally enjoy limited-run miniseries a lot more, because they work better for my limited attention span, and on the critical role front that means I recommend EXU Calamity, a Doomed Heroes far-distant prequel to the modern setting of CR. Only four four-hour episodes and it's on a bit of a slow boil for the first three, but because everybody involved knows how the story's going to end, there's an endless drip of dramatic tension along the way. The DM, Brennan Lee Mulligan, is going to show up a lot more on this list.

On the subject of short miniseries DM'd by Brennan Lee Mulligan, Escape From The Bloodkeep is my personal favorite and the one I revisit the most. Six two-hour episodes, deeply unhinged and intrinsically comedic as it's a full-series parody of Lord of the Rings. I recommend it for a lot of reasons, not least of which being that Matt Mercer, who is an excellent DM, gets to play, and his playstyle is a great example of how to roll with the punches and the dice, since his extremely menacing nazghul captain is afflicted by a string of hilarious failures and he kind of just owns it, to the point where his character arc becomes accepting his worth as an individual with the power of friendship. It's a great example of not taking yourself or your character too seriously, which is a vital skill for players to learn in order to handle the whims of the dice sometimes (or often) not cooperating with your narrative wishes. If CR isn't working for you but you're interested in what you can pick up from this extremely talented DM, this is a good way to get that!

Dimension 20 (Collegehumor's DnD branch) has several series I really like, most of them DM'd by Brennan Lee Mulligan again. His DMing style really works for me, and he takes an approach to pacing that I quite like, so they're generally a safe bet for me. One I categorically recommend is The Unsleeping City, an urban fantasy DnD game set in New York City. This one is 19 two-hour episodes, so longer than the other miniseries but still much shorter than CR, and it can give you a bit of a sampler for (a) the genrebending you can do with DnD and (b) a longer-form story with a less rigidly determined finale than the previous examples. Brennan's DM style is very cool, and he puts an unusual amount of focus on characters getting solo vignettes, which is sometimes considered a bit gauche in DM circles because it means the other players don't have a whole lot to do during those solo conversations, but it works for him and his players and the effect is very cinematic!

But if you want to see a different DM's style in the same space, A Court Of Fey And Flowers is run by Aabria Iyengar, one of the EXU Calamity players, and she has a very different but also cinematic DMing style! The game is also a hybridization of DnD and a different system for facilitating Jane Austen romances, which is dope. Only the first episode is up on Youtube, but that should probably be enough to let you determine if you want to check out more.

I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention the two DnD Actual-Plays I'm in, Rolling With Difficulty and Heart of Elynthi. Rolling with Difficulty is subdivided into three seasons of 8-10 four-hour episodes each, with each season having one overarching plot or threat but mostly being composed of episodic adventures - it's a Planescape series, meaning most episodes take us to a completely new plane of existence to deal with its unique geometry, fun denizens and wacky threats. It's also a lot more edited than some actual-play podcasts, with an effort to avoid the slow parts and the dice-rolling, mental math, "what am I gonna do this round," etc. Heart of Elynthi is an ongoing series that's only about five or six episodes in, with an overarching mystery in the background and a "collect the things to save the world" plotline in the foreground. It also streams new episodes on Twitch on (some) Wednesday afternoons, so if you'd benefit from a live chat to hang out and talk with during games, that might be worth checking out to see if you like it! Elynthi also has had some pretty cool behind-the-curtain stuff about how the players can handle in-character disagreements without them turning into IRL fights, which is something I don't think I've ever seen another DnD actual-play explicitly unpack but is also extremely important for players to consider, so that's fun.

#asks #not aurora #media recs

[luddlestons]

New requests about Vox Machina and Bells Hells glutinous maximus lists? This is hilarious to me, specifically.

[m9 list]

i mean, i'm not gonna say no. LET THE STUPID HCS CONTINUE!

...actually, I am gonna say no re: Vox Machina, as I haven't listened to the whole campaign and none of these Ass Opinions are based on character art, so even though I know what they look like, I have no thoughts on them. BELLS HELLS THO.

Fearne! You just can't beat a cute fuzzy lil goat butt. Also she has a fluffy tail.

Dorian, and anyone who saw him in that pageant outfit KNOWS it. his regular look is more modest but he's admittedly proud of his figure--he just doesn't want anyone to talk about it or he'll blush.

Orym does not do all those lunges and shit for nothing. when they all got the new outfits, he put those tight pants on and everyone was like WOW OK.

Imogen, she's got horse riding muscles so probably also excellent thighs

Ashton, they're definitely built like a brick house but not particularly curvy. great pecs on him, though

Chet keeps claiming that if you saw him when he was 150, he'd be top of this list, nobody knows whether to believe him

Laudna has like a negative amount of body fat and is also dead. Her body type is tree branch, sometimes very literally. Zero ass.

FCG has been disqualified for not actually possessing an ass.

(as with most things, i have no opinions on betrand bell.)

#critical role #bells hells #i'm sorry and you're welcome

[thefringespod]

Its the last day of 2023 and the last #AudioDramaSunday of the year! Here's my last wrap up of weekly listens for 2023, starting with @thenightpost. I listened to the mini-episodes between s1 and s2 today and they're so much fun! I'm excited to get back to listening this week!

Up next we have @innbetween which im officially caught up on and AHHH I really love this show. The concept of moments between campaigns is so brilliant and Hannah Wright does such a good job with writing it. S5 starts THIS WEEK (or right now for patrons) and its going to be great

New @somewhereohio was MARVELOUS this week I love hearing more of what Orange is doing and the editing that brought that section to life was incredible. I also just love that all of season 2 so far has been dipshit teen shenanigans underscored with horror. Its excellent

This week's @woebegonepod was absolutely phenomenal it went back and forth between making me feel emotional to making me laugh and then the ENDING gods no one is doing it like Dylan woe.begone is. There is a cw for gore and it comes in a way I did not expect but in a wild way

Episode 3 of the Grotto and Athan has once again just. Knocked it out of the park. Between the music for this show and the incredible voice acting that's involved and the *mystery* of it all, The Grotto is quickly becoming a favorite of mine and yall should listen

And I would be remiss if I didnt give one last plug for @souloperatorpod which starts TOMORROW for patrons on their patreon and next week for everyone. Tot has put so much work into this and yall are gonna love it. Im incredibly proud of Tot and can't wait to see her blow yall away

Since this is the last ADS of the year, I want to shout out some shows that kept me company in 2023: @ethicstownpod, Super Suits, The Technomancy Project, @liarsandleechespod, Tiny Terrors, @doyoucopypod, @eelerschoice, @224bbaker, @kingmakerpod, @karenonepercent, @tellnotalespod, and @thewyrdsidepodcast (just to name a few)

These are all absolutely wonderful shows that I would highly recommend to anyone and everyone. Also a lot of them are up for the Audio Verse Awards so if you haven't voted yet please consider some of the shows above!

Here on the Fringes we're almost halfway through the season!! This week's episode is currently live for our crowdfunder backers and our patreons at patreon.com/PineTreePods. I'm quite proud of this episode and next week's episode and can't wait to hear y'alls response :)

And over on @forgedbondspod our cast has been finalized! Thank you to everyone who submitted an audition, there were so many incredibly talented people who did so and there were many hard choices but I think yall will like the cast we have. Official cast announcement coming soon!

That's all for this YEAR! I'm excited to see what 2024 will bring and can't wait to keep sharing the stories I have in the works with y'all

Thank you to everyone who followed along with the Fringes this year! Looking forward to seeing y'all again in 2024 💜

#audiodrama sunday #audio drama sunday #pines notes #recommendation post

[sarenth]

Reflecting on some of the posts that I have made and seen in the last couple of weeks, both here on Tumblr and on TikTok, I am increasingly suspicious of anybody that insists that voting is a useless or misdirected effort of energy. Not only have I seen innumerable cases in my state where this is simply not the case, entire sections of the federal government are effectively locked into right-wing positions because Trump won his election. He has entire sections of the appeals system and federal government more broadly aligned with him precisely because of how many nominations he's successfully put forward. Now, this does not mean that Biden or even the Democratic party more generally is going to ride to the rescue, however it speaks to the power that voting results wield.

Not voting is not an effective protest. All you are doing by not voting is saying hey someone else make this decision for me. By not voting you are not actually saying to the system "Hey I'm protesting against you!" At that point you have given the government system cart blanche to fucking ignore you.

I don't know who told you that not voting was anything other than giving up what little power you have to influence your government and therefore how your tax money and society operates on an everyday level. They lied to you. After a certain point there's no nice way to put this.

If you choose not to vote, that is a choice. I view it as an incredibly poor one. I also look at voting third party outside of elections where you know the candidate has no honest to the Gods shot to be a waste of time. You can vote however you want. If you want your vote to be effective then you're going to have to play with the system we've got until we can make a better one. These things take time. If we are being realistic, it is likely more than a few election cycles.

Another thing I have found intensely distasteful this entire election cycle has been from some leftists to sneer at harm reduction, as though opposing Republicans with Democratic candidates is just caving to fascism. Democrats and my State backed up unions and secured a woman's right to choose and secured bodily autonomy not only for women but forLGBTQIA+ folks. Republicans have fought against that.

"Oh but Manchin-" "Oh, but Sinema-"

Are not the whole of the Democratic Party. They were conservative holdouts in a largely center to center right coalition party whose younger constituents are far more left that the old guard. They fucked up some excellent legislation (or at least excellent opportunities) to put us in far better positions through helping to kill the Democrats' Build Back Better Plan and similar legislation.

Trying to punish the Democrats retroactively for not pushing Roe v Wade into law or not fulfilling all their campaign promises, by withholding your vote come the elections is short sighted, retrograde, and ultimately, harmful. It hands power to the Republicans without a fight, and allows them to set the boards for zoning, schools, city council, and so much more. It actively shoots your fellow citizens in the foot so you can feel moral superiority.

It reminds me of folks saying "Well I'm not filing because I am not gonna pay my taxes!" Unless your income is entirely under the table or illegal, or you intentionally changed your contributions, chances are that you were paying taxes this entire time and the only thing you're doing by not filing is potentially fucking yourself.

I get being angry, desperate, and despairing at the state of things, whether the political system, the world more broadly, or whatever issue you hold most dear to your heart. I'm not saying don't be angry, sad, depressed, or raging. I'm saying use it well. If you cannot summon up the give-a-shit on your own case, do it for those around you. Every bit we can do helps, and voting can make a lot of difference in our neighborhoods, and from there, the greater world.

Whether you are reading the missives from various pulpits or you're looking at project 2025, Christofascism is here. Folks have been warning about this for quite a long time, and it is here and it is in full swing. We cannot afford for the Republicans to take over. Heathens, Pagans, magical folks, none of us can afford a Republican victory at this point. Republicans have shown a deep willingness to use the apparatus of the state to harm queer and non-Christian people. They have shown a disdain for the separation of church and state. If you are on the right in this country you should be concerned if you're in any marginalized group. You will not be spared because you're "one of the good ones ".

Did you not see how they treated the Log Cabin Republicans? Did you not see that? Voting red will not save you, it will not make you more palatable. If the Republicans take power and get what they really want through their Christofascism and Project 2025, it does not matter how long you've been a Republican; if you are queer or Pagan you may as well not exist.

Believe me, I am not for a moment stating that Democrats are our saviors. They are a coalition center right political party that we can influence through our lobbying and votes. We can influence them through a variety of other means, including direct action is some have done. Some of you have failed to notice that your direct actions actually were useful! Kamala Harris came right out and said that they were pushing for a ceasefire, after so long of just leaving it off the table entirely. It is not that the narrative cannot be pushed, it is not that we cannot be heard, but you all need to recognize when you are heard and act accordingly without moving the fucking goal posts.

You demanded the administration work on a ceasefire and now they are. That is a victory! However, the Democrats cannot make the Israeli government and the Palestinian government come to a ceasefire. There is also only so much that we can do given the treaties and the alliances that we have. Yes, I know that America has a history of breaking it's treaties and why couldn't we just break this one? Well, because we're just not going to because it's been policy for almost the last 80 years. I just fervently wish the left more generally understood the political process better than it does and realize that we are doing quite a lot to move things along from where they could have been.

If you think for a second that Trump presidency would be better on any of these things you're wrong. That there are some leftists want to sink this project of American democracy simply because they didn't get what they want reminds me a lot of screaming fucking children who want a toy and are going to scream and shout when they don't get it. There's a sincere lack of understanding of the political process that I am seeing right now, especially given what I saw during the primary elections, and is sincere lack of understanding the political process with regards to our position with Israel. Again, I am not saying for a fucking moment don't be angry and don't do everything that you can't tell lobby for the Palestinian people. Engage in whatever diversity of tactics appeals the most to you. Part of having a diversity of tactics is including voting and on the ground diplomatic work. It isn't fun, it isn't sexy, but it's absolutely necessary in the meantime to get us to a place where we can be more effective. I would rather be more effective than being morally pure. I would rather be more effective and do what is possible than see everything around me fucking burn because it isn't just right.

I really do not hold with deontology. As a heathen my ethics are more centered in consequentialism. I care about how the tapestry looks after it's been woven, more than I care about how it has been woven. I will take an imperfect way of getting to the end of a tapestry then the tapestry never getting finished or being finished poor due to constantly unraveling it. There is no way that burning everything down is going to be helpful or effective for most folks. In any case, burning everything down with nothing to replace it leaves folks like me who rely on regular medications like insulin completely fucked. To be sure, the system fucks me and those in my position. It fucks the poor, the disabled, the marginalized. However, not having anything to replace it and just burning everything down, having no complex systems in place to slot into place will do immense, untold amounts of damage. Reforms are not sexy, and but they are how we can continue to live while we do the work needed to make things more equitable, more fair, more just.

I want change. We need to change as a society to become more just, equitable, fair, and to survive in the face of the challenges that we are facing. However, stepping away from the system as a whole, as though you're not going to be wrapped up in it as things go forward, that, to me, is giving up. It's not revolutionary. I would far rather see leftists and left-leaning Heathens and Pagans to flex their vote and their activism locally, to make the changes on the ground that we can where we live, how we live, with the Ginnreginn we live alongside.

#polytheism #animism #polytheist #animist #heathen #politics #us #us politics

[munsster]

Hiii I just found your page and I love it!! Could you maybe do headcanons for Eddie dating a reader with a wealthy family? Tysm 😁

eddie with a wealthy s/o

A/N: oh and reader SPOILS him and he’s like a confused puppy about it

Warnings: fluff, wealthy!reader, kissing, gift-giving, tipsy driving (DONT DO IT 🤬), PDA, bribing dustin, pet names (bug, baby)

he had no idea ur family was THAT upper class

not that you’re avoiding the topic, but whenever you’re deciding who’s place to hang at, he always beats you to the punch

plus his bed is rlly comfy soooo

how could you refuse??

anyway…

sure you dress nice & wear fancy jewelry most days

come to think of it, he supposes you are sorta preppy

and you drive a brand new car

you also pay for most of the meals, tipping upwards of 40%—unless of course the waiter was an asshole, then they get around 20%

what really shocked him is when you paid for everyone’s meal that one time they all went out to a diner after an especially grueling campaign

maybe he just didn’t consider your finances a huge factor in… anything really

he still doesn’t

but you invited him to a gala and it all became a little clearer

btw the gala was hosted at a mf country club and on the way there eddie kept asking you over and over if he looked nice enough (he did)

he was WORRIED

he put his hair up and even wore a pretty baby blue dress shirt and tie

you kept chuckling a little at his nerves because he’d be like “hmmshsmshjs is this okay???? should i take off my watch??? please, bug, you gotta help me out”

you’d think you were dying with how hurried and panicked he was speaking

but you just reached over and held his hand and gave him a kiss on the cheek, whispering sweetly

“they’re gonna love you” + “you look beautiful” + “nothin’ to worry about” + “you should put your hair up more. suits you” + “you’re cute when you blush”

and he’s simply melting into the praise

the whole night, the two of you are attached at the hip

he’s so nervous with his ringed fingers gently cradling the flute of bubbly you snuck him

you were right; everybody loves eddie

you’re just smiling next to him, holding his hand while he chats up the golf dads and housewives dressed to the nines

he collects a couple business cards and is flushed pink after his third glass

he definitely gets roped into a golf game with one of the neighborhood dads after he talked himself up a bit too much (with no help from you)

“he’s an excellent shot!!!” you chirp, knowing full well eddie has never golfed in his life—then promptly whisper an “i’ll teach you” against his ear

you get so excited when the orchestra—yes, orchestra—starts to play

and eddie HAS to drag you onto the dancefloor

how can he not??? you look beautiful

and the ladies on the sidelines hoot and holler when eddie lays a big ol’ kiss on you

oh to be young and in love *sigh*

aNYWAYS

you take him to your house afterwards and he is in awe at the steadily increasing size of the houses as his lil old van trundles through your gated community

hello???? is that a mansion?????

“technically, it’s a McMansion, eddie baby”

“technically” he huffs out turning on to your twinkly street lined with about a dozen american flags

“talk about old money”

and you just smile at him and drag him up the —long ass—driveway with a grin

“isn’t it gorgeous?” “oh, bug, you know nothin’s more gorgeous than—holy shit is that a crystal chandelier????” “wait till you see the pool”

and there’s a marble floor and a winding staircase and a shit ton of angel statues

and the upstairs is even crazier with like white carpet—shoes are left downstairs—and a fuckin’ intercom system

“EDDIE EDDIE—wait okay, stay here and i’ll be right back” and he’s just standing in your room twiddling his thumbs when he hears

“ksh-kksh—i feel the need……. the need for speed….. do you copy, eddie???” in your deepest and gravelliest operator voice

coming from a speaker. in the wall.

and then you hop back in the room with this huge smile and he’s flabbergasted

basically, you let him wear some silk pajamas and you share your $300 skincare routine with him

and the whole time he’s sitting pretty and so confused

then he’s just laying on your round bed with a canopy and looking at you like how did i not know you were rich???

tbh he was rlly ignoring the signs for a hot minute

oh my god your bed is insanely comfortable

you scare the shit out of him when you hop out of bed with a gasp

he is SO concerned

but you walk back in the room with a cute little gift bag

he’s already pampered and smelling like vanilla, what else could there be—

the bag is labeled GUCCI?????

goddamn bro what is this day

but you hand him the bag all excited and like what is he supposed to do

so he unwraps the little black box and opens it and inside is this dainty little necklace with a heart charm

awwWWW

but like “c’mon, i can’t accept this….”

“PLEEEEEEASE????”

and you always win him over with that pout

and he’ll always call you a brat for it

so you help him clasp it on and he looks so pretty

“mama called while you were in the bathroom!” “and what did mama say?” “well, she said they’d be at the four seasons tonight” “jesus—” “and that they wanna invite you on our trip to LA—” “—christ” “…...’s that a ‘no’?” “nO!!!”

after that, you do not stop spoiling him

as much as he is reluctant to accept your gifts, he can’t shy away from a good leather jacket

people being so confused when you step out together

and you literally are not paying attention to their looks

awh but eddie is and he holds your waist a little tighter when he gets self-conscious

and you just stop him in the middle of the sidewalk and give him a kiss

him willingly holding all your bags when you go out shopping

“can i carry that for you????” “eddie baby, you already have 6–” “i can do it”

you basically being corroded coffin’s little manager: flirting to land gigs, finding them a good label, buying them new equipment when something breaks (or when they want shiny new amps), sleeping with the front man

eddie’s pretty sure gift giving is your love language because lord knows you don’t need much else, but when he gives you his favorite ring

oh boy, it’s all over

total waterworks, definitely

you always asking him for style advice

and rarely listening

“leopard print or floral” “hmmm…. leopard print” “both it is!!”

taking him and his friends to chicago and basically paying for everything

and they’re like holy shit, you’re made of money

and you do get a little shy at the praise

but his friends love you

and they did before you blew a shit ton of money on them

and it made eddie nervous the whole time

but you always reassure him it’ll be okay

and you’re worried he thinks of you different now that he knows

“you don’t think i’m… i dunno, pretentious?” “not even close, bug. think you’ve got a knack for shopping, though” “oh, stoppppp”

the gang thinks the amount you two display affection (to put it gently) is ‘gross’

you do a lot of sitting in his lap and general cuddling

mostly, you’re all over each other

and one time dustin would not stop ragging on eddie for making out with you at the carnival

and eddie just calls dustin a ‘twerp’ while you hand him a fifty and smile

he never mentioned it again

you definitely drag eddie to many more galas

and art galleries and the opera and horse racing and your beach house????

BUT in return, he takes you to his metal concerts and you join in on his D&D campaigns

don’t get him wrong….

he appreciates the financial security of it all, but obviously it’s a new feeling

sometimes it makes him a little frustrated to see someone with so much disposable income

especially growing up in a trailer park

it’s just different, you know???

so you let him pay for dinner when he asks

and he learns to understand you love spoiling him

and you learn to understand that he doesn’t love it all the time

but he really loves you

even when he has enough shiny things for a lifetime

he’s always considering just one more

and this time, it’ll come in a little velvet box

“love you, eds!” “love you, richie rich” “hey”

masterlist

#eddie munson #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x gn!reader #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x you #stranger things #x reader #stranger things x y/n #stranger things x reader #fluff #st4 #stranger things 4 #x gn!reader #headcanon #eddie munson headcanons

[yourplayersaidwhat]

In our campaign I (male artificer) am the accountant basically. If an item is gonna be sold I’m the one selling it and dividing our assets (cause we also have a village we’re supporting). Our wizard is always struggling to have enough money for their supplies (paper, ink, and other spell stuff). So I have been giving her 2/3s of my share since my guy is super frugal and has hoarded all of his gold anyway since he can make whatever supplies he needs. She hasn’t noticed for 10 sessions. 

Also, it’s become a running joke that since the other four characters have all had romantic interactions we’re going to find my guy a significant other as well. This hasn’t worked out yet cause he’s just not really looking. 

DM: Ok so for everything you just sold that’s going to be about 314 gold pieces. 

Me: Great. 157 to the village. 31 for everyone. I’ll give wizards the extra two gold. 

Wizard: Awww how nice. 

Me: Well fighter doesn’t need the extra gold and cleric tends to just donate it to her temple because she doesn’t use all of it. You need it. Oh Wizard also take 21 more. 

Wizard: Huh why? 

Me: Cause you need it?

Wizard: Where’s this coming from?

Me: My own funds? I’ve been giving you most of my shares for awhile? 

Wizard: Wait what?

DM *Who has access to my excel sheet with my funds/town funds*: It’s true he has. 

Fighter: I ship it. 

Me: Wait no. 

Cleric: So do I. 

Wizard: Awwww does Artificer like me. 

Me: I’m done doing nice things for this group. 

#shit my players say #dnd #rpg #submission #shareable #seduce all the things

[brocktonbay]

HALFTIME SEXYMAN REPORT

ROUND ONE IS OVER AND THE RESULTS ARE IN!

The bottom seeded three-way matchup between Flashbang, Kevin Norton, and Gregor the Snail has ended in a decisive victory for Gregor the Snail. With his sultry looks and unconventional underdog status, Gregor has captured the hearts and twisted imaginations of the wormblrinas. Though his odds going into round two against Sexyman Favorite Jack Slash are exceedingly low, Gregor stans should remain hopeful. There's plenty of him (and his slime) to go around.

In an outcome that's sure to please the serial killer flower crown edit side of tumblr, Jack Slash has handily defeated Eidolon. Fans of sopping wet meow meows, Harry Du Bois, male pattern baldness, and @datmoongamer were heartbroken at these results, though not entirely unsurprised. Minority voters of this massacre of a match are advised to seek refuge with the Danny Contingent. Should they organize well enough, they might just be able to make it out of the upcoming DILF bracket alive.

The dubiously moral "heroes" conference was fraught with sexual tension, thanks to canonical gay representation and some… particular artistic choices from @heyitschartic. Armsmaster came out on top 😏 of Legend, but if he wants to advance to the semifinals, this tinker techbro is gonna need more sponsorship than a Larry David cryptocurrency Super Bowl commercial.

One of the most surprising games of the weekend saw wormblr-favorite Accord struggling to maintain an edge over Lung’s smoking-hot physique. After a sloppy first quarter, Accord managed to pull ahead and secure a win. But with his confidence shaken going into round two, Accord might not be a shoe-in for finals as predicted. Can he get himself together and stick to his numerous game plans? Or could we anticipate an upset?

The closest match of the night was in bracket five, where Danny Hebert beat out Crawler by a slim 2% margin. Artists both rejoiced and despaired at the fact that Crawler would not need to be drawn in any further rounds. Fans of Crawler take heart; though he may have lost early in wormblr’s 2023 sexyman tournament, us commentators suspect this won’t be the last we see of this monsterfucker-friendly face. Some athletes are growers, not showers.

The bishi showdown between Marquis and Mr. Gladly ended in a definitive and widely predicted win by Marquis. It seems that voters who are hot for teacher just couldn’t face the raw sexual charisma of Amy Dallon's father. Inside sources at the Birdcage have told us that Marquis is also pursuing a career in modeling, so stay tuned for next year's cellblock leader calendar, where he'll be starring as Mr. May AND October!

Trickster made excellent use of his top hat and gamer knowledge, defeating a colorfully costumed Nilbog in bracket seven. But unless he can pull a new trick out of that hat, our analysts aren't too optimistic at his chance of advancing into the semifinals.

Last but certainly not least was the Thinker Off between Coil and Number Man. Thanks to an aggressive pre-season campaign from @cpericardium and subliminal bulge messaging, Number Man golden ratio'd his way to 79%, leaving the remaining 21% of voters (sexually) confused at Coil's cake.

#sorry this took me forever #see you all in round two! #miss tumblr sexyman 2023 worm edition #worm #worm parahumans #parahumans #worm web serial #long post

[gillianthecat]

Gonna end my semi-intensive campaign for the best kiss bracket here. I can see the writing on the wall: I've looked at the number of voters in each poll, and not only is this round decided, I can already tell who will win the semi-finals and the finals.

I was having a lot of fun campaigning and analyzing and updating my posts. But it stopped being fun. The one I don't want to win is going to win it all, and in the next round campaigning for OFC over PatPran is going to feel unnecessarily divisive.

I went into it as a fun way to talk about BL kisses, but my hater's heart has emerged a little to strongly, which isn't fun for me.

At some point I may write about my thoughts and feelings about Kinnporsche. Both the show itself, and also the fandom around it; which fascinates and baffles me, and sometimes annoys me, and is pushing me to face the fact that in some ways I can't help but be a contrarian. Seeing something get super popular that I have mixed feelings about, or think is only ok, usually pushes me to the other direction and dislike the thing and see its flaws.

In general I also tend to get tired even of shows I love if I'm overexposed to them. So I have filters even for things I really liked, like The Eclipse, Bad Buddy and Big Dragon because I was reaching saturation point and didn't want to stop liking them.

None of this is self-knowledge that's new to me; I've been thinking about it vaguely all along, but this poll is pushing it to the forefront. Even though I assumed from the beginning KP would win, my feelings about seeing it beating out other shows are stronger than expected.

And on an intellectual level, I am just so fascinated by why it is THE show out of all BL shows that has developed such an enormous fandom. My impression is that most fans of BL are fans of the genre as a whole, or at least multiple shows, but that there are large numbers KP fans who are fans of only that. (I don't know if that's accurate though. I've drafted a poll to try and get some of the demographics of that, though I suspect my reach isn't big enough to get a enough responses to get any real answers about it.)

Don't get me wrong, I was completely absorbed when I binged the first half of the series in late June. And also went a little crazy over vegaspete when I binged the second half after the whole show was out. It was the show that got me talking on tumblr, and in that way was the first show that made me part of a "fandom." So I can see why people get obsessed with it. Just not sure why there are so many more than for other good BL shows.

Is it because iQIYI did such heavy advertising? I actually heard of the show several months before I even heard of BL, and then watched it mainly because iQIYI kept reminding me about it. For me, it became a gateway to BL more generally, but perhaps there are a lot of fans who just stopped with that?

Is there also a large group of people who were watching BL casually but weren't particularly BL fans, and then watched KP and thought it better than anything other BL? I've seen scattered comments with those opinions, but not sure how broad-spread it is. (I suppose if I'm feeling very curious and very brave I could go into the comments and reviews on KP's MDL page, which might give me some idea of numbers.)

With how my ADHD manifests, I don't have the attention span to become devoted to one show at the exclusion of all others, and so I can't really understand the mindset of fans who do fandom like that. (For any show, be it Star Wars or Marvel or The Untamed.) But I guess there are many people who do participate in fandoms that way? And KP is one of the shows that many of that style of fan found?

Is it the mafia plot? (there have been other mafia plots.) Is it how glossy and expensive it all looked, and the truly excellent cinematography? Is it how high heat the sex scenes were? (Were they significantly higher heat than anything previous though? Could be.)

Is there something about Kinn and Porsche as a couple that is particularly compelling to people? (I don't personally think so, certainly not compared to other BL couples. For me their story kinda petered out once they got together. And I found Mile's acting serviceable, but not that compelling, but I do see that he has lots of fans so perhaps it's just me.)

If so, what is unique about them? Enemies to lovers, boss-employee, torn between duty and love—I guess that combo is somewhat unique? I can't think of other shows off the top of my head now at least.

Is it the darkness and danger and plottiness of the mafia story? I know that sort of thing tends to engender obsessive fandoms. Are there other shows that have that too? I can see why if that's your thing, you wouldn't be into more slice of life BL like Old Fashion Cupcake or Semantic Error, or the youthful high jinx of most HS or Uni set shows.

Some combination of all of that? Some luck of timing? Did the advertising have a significantly bigger reach than for any other BL? With KP being my entry point into BL, I'm not able to compare with what the fandom was like before it came out.

Anyway, not sure if this is coherent, and absolutely NOT trying to start discourse. But if you do have theories you feel like sharing about how KP ended up with the fandom it has, I'd love to hear them. Or do you think I'm wrong and its fandom actually isn't unique for BL?

For context, the ten most popular BL shows on MDL are

The Untamed (2019) - 83,572

2Gether (2020) - 60,952

TharnType (2019) - 57,444

Until We Meet Again (2019) - 55,451

KinnPorsche (2022) - 52,838

Where Your Eyes Linger (2020) - 50,310

Semantic Error (2022) - 50,309

Theory of Love (2019) - 49,263

Bad Buddy (2021) - 48,411

Love By Chance (2018) - 46,652

I'm measuring "popularity" by the number of MDL users who list the show as watched. The show on MDL with the most watchers of everything is Goblin (aka Guardian: The Lonely and Great God) with 199,983.

The Untamed I would say has it's own fandom, overlapping with but distinct from BL fans. In some ways (other than heat levels) I can see it as a model of what might make KP so uniquely popular as well - complex plot, violent danger, and angst, and lovers kept apart by circumstance.

Most of the other shows on the list are popular Thai BL from three to four years ago, so it makes sense to me why they've accumulated lots of watchers. Where Your Eyes Linger, at number 6, surprised me, I don't hear much about it on tumblr these days and would have guessed it was much further down. KinnPorsche and Semantic Error are the newest shows on the list, coming out around the same time last year. But although I hear a lot of love for SE, I don't see it having an obsessive one-show fandom like KP does. I do see a lot of very devoted Bad Buddy fans, but again, most of them seem to also be general BL fans.

Addendum: (For the record, my assumption/prediction is that KP and PatPran will win their respective semifinals, and KP will win it all, by at least a 20 percentage point difference.)

#fandom thoughts #introspection inspired by the best kiss poll #why do some shows get super popular? #no tags here #not trying to open a can of worms; just thinking out loud #my ramblings #i'm probably talking in circles a bit but that's one of the reasons it's behind a readmore

[fursasaida]

This is a long, excellent investigation of how the movement of people and goods through Rafah became monopolized by one man. It includes a recent history of state-tribal relations and warfare in Sinai, the origin and development of "coordination" fees as the means of getting through Rafah before al-Argany came on the scene, the displacement of tribal peoples from border areas, and al-Argany's rise through Sinai politics and business to the point that he seems to have Sisi's ear to some degree.

We have all seen GoFundMe campaigns for people trying to get their relatives out of Gaza. This is why and how those campaigns became necessary: an entire profit infrastructure built on the difficulty of crossing - and the accompanying human suffering - from long before 10/7. It's impossible to choose any one excerpt, but here's the scope of the investigation:

In the past months, Mada Masr spoke with dozens of sources, including 17 Palestinians who tried to pay coordination fees to secure their exit from Gaza, two Egyptian coordinators, two drivers working at Hala (one of Argany’s companies), a source working at the Awja crossing, two sources from the Egyptian Red Crescent Society and four members of different Sinai tribes. They explained how Argany built his empire in just a decade in a country whose state institutions are known for their ironclad control, and how he ultimately gained control of the sole crossing into Gaza and became the main arbiter of even the smallest sliver of life making its way into the strip, now drawing its final breaths under bombardment and hunger.

And here's a detail that I can't get over, which comes out of the part about how one of al-Argany's companies more or less took over from the Red Crescent:

The Red Crescent would contact transport contractors, who in turn would provide the drivers and trucks from smaller companies, in addition to porters to assist the Red Crescent volunteers. The Red Crescent also took on the responsibility of receiving the money provided by the international organizations and countries that send aid, to be expended on the logistics of aid provision.

However, since mid-November, the Sons of Sinai has taken direct responsibility for transport operations and the provision of workers, replacing the Red Crescent, whose role has been limited to receiving the aid from abroad and surveying it, in addition to coordinating with countries, according to both Egyptian Red Crescent sources.

The Sons of Sinai first emerged as part of this operation just as the first fuel shipment entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing on November 15. The company declared at the time that it had been “crowned the logistical transporter of this assistance.”

An administrative source at the Rafah crossing tells Mada Masr that this first tanker entered the Palestinian side on the evening of November 14. To the workers’ surprise, the tanker left just 15 minutes later without unloading and its entry was postponed to the next morning, when it returned with the Sons of Sinai logo plastered on the sides of the vehicle.

With this debut, the company began to assert its control over different aspects relating to humanitarian aid. It hung banners reading “Sons of Sinai company warehouses” at the main warehouse used by the Red Crescent in Arish, which had been donated by a local business man to the Egyptian Red Crescent Society.

You're gonna have to wait for aid! We need to make sure we establish our brand!

#palestine #gaza #egypt #sinai #mobility

[edge-oftheworld]

no but i can't get over how actually well done the last few days were. announce a surprise and not 48 hours later we find out that 1) tour movie, the same thing taylor swift did a few months ago and now everyone wants plus we know it's a show they worked super hard on, 2) it's free, excellent for anyone who couldn't afford to go etc (we've all been there) and out literally right now on a (mostly) free platform (the very same one that they got started on but anyway) and perhaps most notably, 3) it's free with the hopes that you might instead of paying for it donate to gaza, and the links are right there.

like they could've charged us $20 each for the show and sent all their profits there themselves (with the hope that we believe they're being honest that it's 100%, for them of course we would but i know others have lied about similar). but instead they gave us autonomy over our donation just like. encouraged it. like cmon who wouldn't listen when ashton tells us to donate to something if we can? (also did anyone else say so, i'm not the best at keeping up with social media so lmk if there's more of them to give credit to here). anyway we gotta talk about it more. how perfectly this was done: we get a gift!! be it for christmas if you celebrate or just in general, that we expected we'd have to pay for. now we get asked, hey, if you have any money could you send it to these people who Really Need It So Badly if you can? I know not all of you do so we won't stop you from watching the movie if you don't but

also this is a really clever way to show their support for gaza. like they are (deliberately i think) trying not to be leaders in an area that they aren't experts in, and there has been a lot of misinformation around, a lot of misunderstanding, like yes they did stand up for ukraine last year but the media was a lot more black and white for that one (or should i say blue and yellow) but when it comes down to it they're not stupid and they're not fooled by whatever the country they currently live in is pushing and they've actually taken their time to not say shit to save face prematurely but actually do something that's, even if not big or dramatic, gonna be impactful? they've not put themselves out there campaigning for a ceasefire, yes, but they've posted links that are. they've not guilted us into donating but please tell me you're not at least feeling some obligation to. it's simple, it's actionable, it's right there in the caption and takes like 20 seconds. and if any of us in the fandom (global family or whatever they're building) are leading in the ceasefire decolonisation space we have our little encouragement to see that yes, these musicians we love aren't gonna sit there and do nothing. it's not monumental, but it's something.

and tbh i wouldn't be surprised if this was all planned like a week ago in a zoom call between australia and the usa when ryan texted to say that the film was done. like it was in their random spontanous lightheated style. i also think we can learn something from the fact that it's okay to not jump on everything the minute it comes out but actually every lasting impact is a long-haul effort that you've gotta sustain yourself for by doing what you love as well. and also sometimes the right opportunity to do something about what we care about comes and you just take it, don't think too hard, don't wait either if you don't need to, if there is a cause that needs your effort whenever you get an opportunity to give it will always be the right time. hopefully they've set a precedent for something--i have no idea if any artist has done similar but i'm really proud of them.

and that's why i don't get the fact that we've been talking about how horrific this genocide is and then going right to which songs they cut or kept. like i would like a live version of you don't go to parties! but i would like an entire fandom to donate to aid for gaza even more and be thinking about why we need a ceasefire and maybe doing something about it even more. i've been unwell yes and under financial and other stress yes but i'm not starving or freezing to death and so i'll take that L and i won't go home. i won't stop talking about what's important. i'm starting to find my voice again and this has been a big inspiration for it between all the discouragement.

have we not figured it out? they're not just dumbasses sometimes they do something towards a cause we really care about so let's give them credit for that. heck they even filmed bad omens in ukraine in 2022 have we forgotten about that? they don't put themselves out there as influential figures in any way but that's sometimes the best way to humanise the people we care about (and i think honestly they just do this naturally because when you're not chasing clout and you're trained to recognise talent and potential talent in even the worst situations, you'll automatically think like that). it's small in the face of everything going on, yes. so am i! and if i learned anything over the last 24 hours it's that small things can be meaningful. this has been to me and i don't doubt to the recipients of the donations of (i hope) an entire fandom.

(also if you don't mind the tag @littledrummerangie i know you were talking along a similar vein a few weeks back and i'm keen to hear if you want to, if you found this as satisfying as me)

#5 seconds of summer #5sos #luke hemmings #ashton irwin #michael clifford #calum hood #the 5 seconds of summer show #live and backstage in amsterdam #human rights #palestine #unicef #save the children #gaza

[goose-exclamation-point]

random opinion post about celeste difficulty namings

i have come to a realization that this is MY blog so i can write about whatever i want. insert an evil and mischievous grin

In Modding communities, finding a working system to classify the difficulty of mods is something pretty important, and the celeste community sticks to a handful of names for substantial difficulty stepping stones, being Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, and Grandmaster. These five were established by the 2020 Spring Collab, and since then have become the norm. However, as the community ages (holy fuck, its been three years since spring collab??) players naturally get better and mappers naturally feel comfortable making harder stuff. I am now going to discuss why I do not like the names for 99% of the harder stuff :)

obligatory note is that these are all opinions and all in good fun im not gonna explode if someone calls a celeste map astral or anything its just something which lightly ticked me off so hey thats why i write about it

One point which I'll often come back to is the usage cases of the first five difficulties. Beginner, Expert, and Grandmaster are all titles, you can call yourself a Beginner at Celeste mods, in the same way a pro chess player could call themselves a chess Grandmaster. These are subtle, but in my eyes help establish and ground the difficulty names, in my eyes if you told someone "I'm a celeste expert!" versus "I'm a celeste grandmaster!" they could probably understand grandmaster as being better, due to it's usage in other mediums. As for Intermediate and Advanced, these are words just defining skill levels. The important part though is that these have a precedent of being used and having meaning, look up advanced or intermediate on YouTube, and you'll find a lot of educational videos on things like "Advanced English Learning Practice" or "25 phrases every Intermediate English speaker must know", so on. Now for the specific GM+1 Names I don't like: Celestial, Astral, and/or Stellar: These ones I see a lot, and they feel like very weird cases. All of these are... Not skill titles! But instead words used to describe space????? When I hear "Astral Celeste Maps", the first thing that would come to mind (especially if this was my first time hearing the term) was maps relating to or themed after space, but nope! they're instead used for really really hard celeste maps. These are somewhat titles (calling yourself an astral just makes me think of a sci-fi movie), but their titles aren't for skill levels in any way, Looking up "Celestial Difficulty" on YouTube won't net you any other communities or the like which use these as difficulty markers. Maybe one community here or there use them but I doubt they are nearly as prominent as "Grandmaster" for example. Virtuoso: This one's better, although I'm still not a fan. Virtuoso is defined as someone who excels in the technique of an art, in particular a form being in the sciences or arts, also typically used in musical cases. This is a good start, and writing this has made me like the term slightly more knowing its definition, but it still falls under an arbitrary line in my eyes. What defines Virtuoso as being harder then Grandmaster? From Beginner up to Expert, I feel like the definitions of the words naturally place them in that order of difficulty. Grandmaster can be seen as arbitrary yes, but it's already been established so in my opinion there isn't all too much you can do. If you wanna hold a campaign to remove all usage of the term 'grandmaster' from celeste modding so there are more natural stepping stones from beyond that then be my guest. To get to the point, theres nothing in the definition of Virtuoso which places it as harder then Grandmaster. once again my opinion but comparing a status from international competition in a game (Grandmaster) to a word defining skill in an art (Virtuoso) feel arbitrary in my eyes. virtuoso is also goofy in my eyes so i just dont like it because of that ultimately though writing this has made me realize im fine with virtuoso but oh well. also if you knew what the word virtuoso meant without having to look it up i do not believe you are real sorry </3

yeah thats it thats the post i just kinda wanted to 'rant' about Celestial Astral and Virtuoso theyre goofy lets just stick to "Super Grandmaster" thnx, id be interested in reading someone's thoughts on the term virtuoso but otherwise goodbye have a nice night

#celeste modding #the goose speaks