#;mod MBD | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

beck-nightengale · 2 years ago

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@chennnington Funny enough it also started because I was just mega salty that I couldn't marry Serana in Skyrim, so I wanted to make my own epic dark fantasy sapphic romance. 😂 I know there are mods for that now, but I'd only ever played the vanilla game on my PS3, so I didn't know back then. At the end of the day, it all comes full circle.

And I think I've got White Noise on my playlist for my post-apocalyptic eldritch horror books! It's an excellent choice! But I'd totally recommend other stuff by MBD also. They've got amazing concept albums full of songs that work for when you're writing dark shit, like Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them, In Bocca al Lupo, and Red of Tooth and Claw. Lots of very good character inspiration stuff; I just love them so much. I feel like I've got at least one song by them on every playlist I make.

(Also the lead singer wrote an entire album with songs he sings to his dog and donates the money to animal shelters, so you know the band be full of good eggs.)

To be fair, there are a lot of reasons to worry about animals in horror movies. I was always shocked and happy that the cat survived! There's an amazing animation from years ago that basically makes the third movie about rescuing Jonesie. That's my new canon for the Alien franchise and no one will ever convince me different.

Summer Reading/Writing/Arting Tag

Yo, I was tagged by @chennnington over here to do this thing and it does look like fun, so why not!

But I'm also going to be boring since idk who to tag, so anyone is free to fill this thing out if it hits your dashboard. ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ Go knock yourselves out.

1) Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

Thanks to Enderal kicking my creative nuts into gear and being recently liberated from certain "game-master" obligations (long, long ass story that'd probably go over most Tumblr folks' heads, anyway), I finally started diving back into a sapphic-flavored dark fantasy book series that I'd been planning since like around 2016 or so. It was mostly born out of some frustrations with the lack of WLW in general, and while I have some WLW elements in my existing works, I wanted to write something that was more overtly WLW with a leading lady who was outgoing about her sexuality than my previous protagonists (who are either repressed as fuck or too dead to hold a relationship that would function) and wouldn't take her four dang novels to finally kiss a girl.

Anyway, Morane Soraya was created from a whole mess of complicated feelings about women in media. I describe her as a combination of Julie D'aubigny and Anne Lister, with a bit of Christina of Sweden (all of who were badass women in history. Look 'em up!). I wrote a lot about the basics of who she is/what she's all about here.

Morane is a good bean:

Book 1, Bloodtithes, will go into her venturing into a scarcely-visited icy continent to investigate a possible cure or effective treatment to the painful condition she had been forced to live with, which gives her the proficiency she has in Blood Magick (which isn't inherently evil in her world, but very often misunderstood because of its side effects). She's from a mercenary group who all share the same condition and propensity for Blood Magick, so they're interested in this so-called "cure" as well, but not many make it to this country and survive, so Morane is sent alone instead. Along the way, she meets a horned jackal-man named Darius ka Dir, and gets entangled in a plot with a strigoika named Viorica Avanas who has a whole buttload of inner demons of her own (side note: I once played Vio in Skyrim to mess around with Kaidan and they got into some... Situations).

A friend drew Darius and he has a single giant and glorious curl that he is very serious about.

I've also talked a lot about Jade for my Enderal stuff, who was already based on an existing character, and I've figured out how to work her into Morane's world. She won't factor in until Book 2, Cloverleaf, because she's essentially gonna tear down a wall and break freaking everything.

You know. Like she do.

It's still in the planning stages but I'm feeling pretty good about it.

2) Rec a book!

I just started reading Dreams of the Dying by Nicolas Lietzau, which I'm enjoying a lot, but haven't read enough yet to form a coherent recommendation on it. I just got the audiobook though so I'm looking forward to that!

Otherwise, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is one of my favorite novels of all time and was a major writing inspiration for me. It's creative in how it gets you to feel uneasy while you're reading the book itself, a huge mindfuck, and one of the few novels that actually made me feel a sense of dread while I was reading it.

If you'd like some seriously bonkers reading material, I'd suggest giving it a looksee.

3) Rec a fic! (outside your character tag)

Iiii don't actually read fanfiction that much, so I'm not sure if I can rec one!

On the flipside, feel free to rec me some Enderal fics (or your own, if you have any). I'll read the shit out of it.

4) Rec music!

I can't recommend Murder by Death to people enough. They're my all-time favorite band, one of the few I've ever made an effort to go see live when they were playing in my city (just before lockdown hit, no less), and deserve more love. I've been listening to them since I discovered them high school and their albums just keep getting better and better.

Also it's not hard for me to find some character-centric songs from them because the topics they write about is very versatile. I tend to think of Lost River for Jade's story, and Ditch Lilly and Rumbrave for Rey's.

5) Share one piece of advice!

Writing women! Because I guess this one needs telling as there are people who still find writing female characters daunting or somehow more difficult than it is to write men. Which, fair, I was the same way. Despite having mostly female protagonists in the novels I'd written, the dudes in my earlier stuff somehow ended up taking the spotlight and stealing most of the development. I really struggled to work through some of my own internalized misogyny and "there are no good female characters in media" mindset, and it took a lot of opening my mind up before it got easier. Now I predominately focus on writing women to be that change I want to see - this includes not killing certain ones off to enhance manpain like I used to, which I learned was called "fridging", lol.

My advice for writing them is to just write them as characters. It sounds simple and stupid, but I'm surprised how much people get wrapped up in the "she must be a strong girlboss" brainrot that they end up with a very flat, boring character that literally no one can relate to, so she still gets outshined by the dudes because the writer tried to overcompensate her badass womanliness without giving her actually compelling character traits.

I feel like one of the main reasons why I absolutely adored Ellen Ripley when I was a kid was because she was written to be a man in the first Alien movie, but they changed the character into a woman without changing the script and it just worked. I didn't know that when I was young, but finding that out just made me appreciate Ripley so much more, because the writers didn't treat her like a "strong female character" but as just a character. I think if writers approached this mindset more, we wouldn't have the "no good female characters in media issue" that doesn't need to be an issue in the first place.

These days I approach character-building by not restricting certain traits by gender, and finding a balance between strengths and weaknesses. Just shut off your critical analysis brain to create a "strong female character" and just write "strong character" instead.

I could word vomit more about my own ladies and how much I love them now than I used to but I feel like this has gone on long enough. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#mostly using the reblog because my response got too long and i wanted to actually link shit lmao #am i tumblring right

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imagineclaireandjamie · 4 years ago

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Shielded. Chapter Nine. Week 5.

Sorry that it’s been some time, hopefully this wee chapter will help to guide me back on track <3 MBD

Shielded: Week FIVE. Interlude:

After a quiet few days Jamie noticed a marked improvement in Claire’s mood. She still seemed tired but he’d stayed around for most of the weekend to ensure she had someone to reach out to should the nightmares rise up and render her sleepless again. But they appeared to have abated ...for the meantime.

She certainly didn’t rise, eyes rimmed red after shedding one too many tears. Which was a positive.

Though he wanted to, he didn’t instigate any further physical contact. The hug, in fact, had remained unmentioned. Clearly it had made an impression, it had opened the door, figuratively, for their heart to heart but distance had immediately been restored and he didn’t wish to press it any further for the meantime.

It felt good to know something about her, a part of her old self that she had been comfortable enough to reveal to him. They certainly had plenty of weeks to go, plenty of time for more for him to learn more. She was somewhat of an enigma, still, but her walls had begun to crumble.

Under the circumstances he knew their bond would strengthen. It was only natural for two humans in close confines to grow closer but having attempted, unsuccessfully, to downplay his own feelings he had finally come to admit (only to himself) that his blossoming feelings were growing into something more than platonic.

As he ate the porridge he’d heated in the microwave he caught sight of the lunch she’d made and left for him on the side and smiled shyly. Though he could be seen to be reading too much into it, Claire had started making his midday meals more elaborate -and- she’d started adding a dram for him too. Whether she knew it or not, she was settling into Highland life. It was as if she was always supposed to have landed here.

“Do ye have the flask? Sat on small bales, Jamie sat with his nearest neighbour sharing their lunch with their faces to the rare midday sun.

“Oh, aye.”

“Who is she?” Rupert joked, nudging his oldest friend and taking a sip of his hot drink. “Clearly something is on yer mind. I’ve never seen ye so...flustered.”

“How do you ken it’s a she?” He quipped back neither confirming or denying his friend's suspicions.

“There’s something going on. We’ve known one another since we were bairns, running around the place in our clouts wi’ our mothers on our tails - no’ many can read ye, Jamie Fraser, but I can see it plain on yer face. Where did you meet her?”

He didn’t have much time to think how to explain Claire without giving away too much away but there was a certain amount of relief in the idea that he could confide in someone else about his growing feelings. So far everything he’d been feeling had been kept to himself, he certainly couldn’t share them with Claire - she’d run a mile, or hide away. It wasn’t fair to put that on her yet.

“Through a friend. We havana officially met, aye, wi’ lockdown.” He fibbed, keeping his face straight as he spoke. “But he had a friend in a similar situation, alone...mostly, and he thought maybe his cupid's arrow was on target this time.”

“Has he tried this game before?”

Jamie laughed, immediately thinking of the last time he and John had been close enough to trial his terrible dating advice. “No’ so much, but there have been some suggestions. All leading nowhere of course.”

“Aye.” Nodding, Rupert knew all too well how horrid his friends dating history was. He was, as he’d learned from overhearing his wife watching ‘Friends’, like a lobster who just hadn’t met his equal. “Ye mean yer English friend, right? The policeman? Is she bonnie?”

“She’s...shy, aye? And verra bonnie. I’m not sure she feels the same for me…”

“But yer already smitten?” It was a rhetorical question, Rupert already knew the answer and there was something pleasing about it. “I dinna think ye need to worry. At this point we’ve got all the time in the world. Just keep talking, yer a charming man, Jamie, and I’m sure you’ll continue to evolve the relationship until yer able to meet. Then, when we’re free of this madness, invite her up here.”

For once his conversation seemed to have given him a good reason to have Claire in his home. At least now Rupert would have no reason to question her sudden appearance (if and when he came across her). They had managed to steer clear of an illicit meeting during the collection of the orphaned lamb but if anyone was going to find her, it was going to be Rupert.

They were quiet again for a time, the insects humming around them as they finished off their lunches. He thought back to his lingering thoughts at breakfast. The sun was nowhere near up but he had heard her moving around upstairs as he’d prepared for the day. She was always an early riser but previously it had been because bad dreams had woken her. Jamie had the feeling this morning, though, had been different. Though he had yet to ask her honestly.

“Aye, verra wise Rupert.”

‘That yer charming?” Rupert jested, nearly pushing Jamie off their makeshift bale seats as they packed away ready to start the next portion of their day.

“Weel, no’ so much about that part and more about us having more time.”

“Is she at home too?”

“I think so, yes. Like most others.”

“Do ye wish you were home too?”

“Lord no!” He exclaimed, kicking Rupert’s filth wellies. “I’m the same as ye, Rupert MacKenzie. Canna stand to be locked away wi’ no purpose.”

As the words left his mouth, his heart skipped a beat as he thought of Claire and the freedom she’d lost in the process of moving here. Yes, it was for her own safety, but he hadn’t even thought of giving her something to keep her mind occupied. Stupidly, he’d assumed she’d keep herself busy but she was no longer in her own home and it would have surely been hard to find those distractions without more assistance.

“You alright?”

“Aye,” he lied, brushing off those thoughts, self-flagellation would do him no good now, “just thinking about how hard it must be to be trapped in your own home wi’out reason or focus.”

“I’m sure there are quite a few people whose dreams just came true. Dinna fash.”

Sighing, Jamie nodded. “Yer right, plenty of hermits out there ready to sacrifice their boring office jobs for a life of working from home, right?”

“Right”

He made a mental note, though, to return home with some productive suggestions. The garden was coming along nicely, but he knew she wouldn’t be eager to leave the house - even if it was still close to the property. Instead he would need to find something indoors that was suitable. First, though, he would need to learn some more about her. Something that would clue him in as to what kind of activity she’d prefer to occupy her time with. As much as he knew she had enjoyed learning how to cook, it had a limit, one she’d soon find herself at.

No, cooking wasn’t the task she needed.

But he would find something she could invest in.

#;mod mbd #Shielded #jamie x claire

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desiblr-tales · 2 years ago

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@dobaara : Do you ever want to talk about your emotions, shat?

@iktarapdf : … No.

@wtfrochh : I do!

@dobaara : I know, ro

@wtfrochh : I’m sad!

@dobaara : I know, ro

#is this accurate?#desiblr #mod love #desi tag #incorrect quotes #mbd

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lookslikethatsallthetimewehave · 3 years ago

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I sincerely hope the Poptropica Creators didn’t get any serious hate when people got got upset about Monster Carnival’s ending...

Like I wish the ending were a bit different too, but they don’t deserve actual hate over that, they seem like really nice people. I don’t know if they ever had dealt with that, but I just hope they never did. :(

#lol just my thoughts #i hope that never actually happened #but i wouldn't be surprised...#mbd #mod post

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onlyrats · 3 years ago

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(*๓´╰╯`๓) welcome to onlyrats!

onlyrats is a pet-rat based submission blog! feel free to input any asks and they’ll be posted! ask here!

we accept:

art

advice asks

rat rants / vents

pics of your rats

memorial posts

general rat stuff like that !

we will not post asks with slurs, abusive asks, etc. what will or won’t be posted is up to the discretion of the blog mods! posts that contain mentions of death, injury, or abuse will be tagged.

!! DNI: pro-ship / anti-anti’s, maps, zoos, TERFs, and other gross people of that nature

#important #mod mbd

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fuzzkaizer · 4 years ago

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Soulman Vintage Museum

“... if you'll get some difficulties with some original stuff and you will want to look at it closely and at the guts too, my little museum has some info and especially a pics which probably could help.This is an about 125 pieces list below of units I got and most of them already shared on my Soulman Vintage Museum page: https://www.facebook.com/soulman.vintage Use the search and find what you wanted to look at when you need. Some pedals are still not shared but I suppose it will be done soon too. The list is keeping in the page description and I guess will be complemented:

Ace Tone FM-2 Fuzz Master '72 Ace Tone FM-3 Fuzz Master '74 ADA Flanger '77 Ampeg SC-1 Scrambler '69 Arbiter Fuzz Face NKT275 '67 Barcus-Berry 1330-1 Standard Pre-Amplifier '75 Barcus-Berry 1330-S Standard Pre-Amplifier '73 Binson Echorec 2 T7E '66 Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble '78 Boss CE-2 Chorus '79 8900 Boss CS-1 Compression Sustainer '78 7300 Boss CS-2 Compression Sustainer '84 382800 Boss DM-2 Delay '82 232700 Boss DS-1 Distortion '78 7600 Boss GE-7 Equalizer '82 202500 Boss GE-7 Equalizer '91 QD31138 Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal '83 371300 Boss OD-1 Over Drive '77 6500 Boss SD-1 Super Over Drive '81 078300 Clark SS-600 fuzz silicon '68 Conn ST-11 StroboTuner '78 Cry Baby Thomas Organ 95-910511 Stack of Dimes '77 Cry Baby Trash Can '60s rebuild Cry Baby VOX Clyde McCoy pictured 1809 '67 Cry Baby VOX Clyde McCoy pictured 6779 '67 Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face BC108C '72 Dallas Arbiter Trem Face '71 DeArmond 600 Volume Pedal '53 DeArmond 601 Tremolo Control '48 DigiTech WH1 Whammy Pedal '91 DOD Overdrive Preamp 250 '79 DOD Overdrive Preamp 250 upgraded to '77 Echoplex EP-1 468 '64 EHX Big Muff V1 Triangle '72 EHX Big Muff V2 Ram's Head '74 EHX Electric Mistress V2 '76 EHX Hot Tubes '78 EHX Memory Man Deluxe '79 EHX Small Clone EH 4600 Mini-Chorus '82 EHX Small Stone Phase Shifter '75 Expandora EXP-2000 Bixonic '95 Fender Blender '69 Fender Fuzz-Wah '69 Fender Reverb 6G15 '63 Foxx Tone Machine '70s Gibson GA-4RE Reverb-Echo '66 Gibson Maestro BG-2 Boomer 2 8374 '68 Gibson Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz Tone 2612 '62 Gibson Maestro FZ-1A Fuzz Tone 14000 '66 Gretsch Controfuzz '73 HR Enver Distortion '02 HR Enver Fuzz '02 HR Enver Tube Screamer '02 HR SWC-2 Switcher-Comparer '18 Ibanez No.59 Standard Fuzz '74 Ibanez Overdrive OD-850 '75 Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer '84 Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer '95 Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro '80 Ibanez WH-10 wah '91 Klemt Echolette S NG51 '63 Klon Centaur 713 '94 Maxon D&S '76 Maxon D&S II '78 Maxon OD-9 Overdrive '81 Maxon OD-801 D&S '80 Maxon OD-808 Overdrive '79 Maxon OD-880 OverDrive Soft Distortion '76 Maxon ST-9 Super Tube Screamer '83 Morley MOD-ABY Switcher '80s Morley MOD-AER Deluxe Analog Echo Reverb '82 Morley MOD-DDB Deluxe Distortion '80 Morley MOD-SCV Stereo Chorus Vibrato '81 Morley PWA Auto Wah '78 Morley PWF Power Wah Fuzz '75 Morley RFS-1 Footswitch '80s Mosrite Fuzzrite V1 germ '66 Mosrite Fuzzrite V2 silicon '68 Mu-Tron III '74 with PS-1 Mu-Tron Octave Divider '77 Mu-Tron Phasor '75 Mu-Tron Phasor II '77 MXR Blue Box BUD '74 MXR Distortion + BUD '74 MXR Distortion II '82 MXR Dyna Comp BUD '74 MXR Micro Amp '80 MXR Phase 45 BUD '74 MXR Phase 90 BUD '74 MXR Phase 100 '75 Pro Co The Rat '82 Roger Mayer Fuzz Face '86 Roger Mayer Octavia '79 Roland AF-60 Bee Gee '75 Roland AS-1 Sustainer '76 Sam Ash Fuzzz Boxx '67 Schaller Fuzz germ '60s Schaller Universal-Fußpedal '69 Shin Ei FY-2 Fuzz Box silicon '76 Shin Ei JAX Fuzz Wah FW-8 '73 Shin Ei Uni Fuzz '69 Shin Ei Uni Vibe '72 Shin Ei Univox Super-Fuzz U-1093 '60s Shin Ei Univox Super-Fuzz U-1095 '72 Tone Bender Jumbo '76 Tone Bender MK4 '71 Tribute Buzzaround Tribute Colorsound PowerBoost Tribute Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster Tribute Fuzz Face NKT275 Tribute Marshall Supa Fuzz mk1 Tribute Marshall Supa Fuzz mk2 Tribute Octavio Tribute Selmer Buzz Tone Tribute Shatterbox Tribute the Zonk Machine MK1 Tribute Tone Bender MK1 wooden box Tribute Tone Bender MK1.5 Tribute Tone Bender MK2 Pro Tribute Tone Bender MK3 Rotosound Tribute WEM Pep Box Tube Driver BK Butler '87 Tube Driver Chandler '88 Watkins Copicat mk2 '61 Yamaha MBD-20M Multiband Distortion '88 “

documeted in very clean pictures: /soulman.vintage/photos

cred: facebook.com/soulman.vintage

#soulman #vintage #museum #guitar effects

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bettas-and-other-oddities · 5 years ago

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Y'all im so tired of animal groups on facebook

Someone posted about needing advice for their crested gecko and it was a problem of either extreme mbd or a broken jaw. And everyone was so damn quick to jump down ops throat and be as rude and aggressive as possible. "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE CHILDREN IF THIS IS HOW YOU TREAT ANIMALS" ,"You make your animals suffer so you should suffer" literally one person said op should kill herself. And I tagged mods and said stuff was getting out of hand and the replies. One person was like "Oh you pansy snowflake can't take criticism" like no my guy I can take criticism but telling this person who doesn't even really speak English and has had this gecko for less than 24hrs to go kill herself amd that she shouldn't have kids because she can't take an animal to the vet because they're closed...yikes. Facebook is so toxic.

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sleprandomizer · 2 years ago

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YGO forbidden memories 15 cards drop mod

15 cards drop mod makes the game much enjoyable and less grindy. I love FM but I'm not denying the vanilla game is bad. The vanilla version is super grindy and unfair with the difficulty spikes. Especially the grind. like we must fight the same opponent 200-300 times to get the strongest card we can obtain (meteor black dragon). With 15 card drops I just need to defeat low meadow mage 40 times and already got 3 copies MBD. The best YGO FM mod I have ever played.

(FM 2 mod just worse than vanilla FM. Super unfair with very strong enemy cards at the beginning also more grindy👎 )

#yugioh

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gotham-ruaidh · 7 years ago

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oh i thought you were an original founder at imagine. how did the blog start then?

Hi anon,@imagineclaireandjamie started sometime during the summer of 2015, founded by 2 mods (Mod Eli and Mod Katy) who modelled the blog after a similar blog in the Marvel fandom.In September 2015, the 2 founding mods opened up applications for new mods. In a "because why not" moment I wrote 2 short stories and applied. For some reason they chose me (and shortly thereafter, our Emeritus Mod Wheel @asthewheelwills and one of my current Imagine sisters Mod Eloise @dingbatland). Shortly after that, Mod Liv @westerhos was brought on board.Then when Eli and Katy needed to focus on other things, we invited Mod Lenny @lenny9987, Mod MBD @mybeautifuldecay, and Mod WTT @writtenthroughtime to join our party.Not too long afterward, Mod Bonnie @bonnie-wee-swordsman joined our merry band of misfits as well. It's been a long, strange, but oh so rewarding journey for we 7 current Mods. I hope they don't mind me speaking on their behalf when I say that we have more fun together than any of us ever imagined (pardon the pun 😎)!!

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beck-nightengale · 2 years ago

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Oofa, I don't think I've ever experienced any quest-breaking issues that bad when I played Skyrim on the PS3, but I'd probably be pissed off, too. At least now anything is possible with mods and console commands, but I don't regret making my own immortal lady for my book. I had fun writing her backstory and she ended up becoming her own thing altogether, anyway. Also she has a lion tail, sooo...

Red of Tooth and Claw is so so so good! I used to sing Spring Break 1899 all the time to my old cat (he was 22 years old when he passed) and he would chirp along with me when hitting those higher energy notes. I love the comment in that particular album's video describing MBD as taking "life-destroying sadness and channels it into something resembling open-wound optimism" because I think that's why I always resonated with their stuff. And as far as I know they've always been good people, so yeah. Definitely a plus.

Man much as I love horror I hate when animals get used for shock value in them, so any animal in a horror film gives me low-key anxiety throughout. Always a plus when they survive. Think that's another reason why I always loved the Alien movie, lmao.

Summer Reading/Writing/Arting Tag

Yo, I was tagged by @chennnington over here to do this thing and it does look like fun, so why not!

But I'm also going to be boring since idk who to tag, so anyone is free to fill this thing out if it hits your dashboard. ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ Go knock yourselves out.

1) Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

Morane is a good bean:

A friend drew Darius and he has a single giant and glorious curl that he is very serious about.

You know. Like she do.

It's still in the planning stages but I'm feeling pretty good about it.

2) Rec a book!

If you'd like some seriously bonkers reading material, I'd suggest giving it a looksee.

3) Rec a fic! (outside your character tag)

Iiii don't actually read fanfiction that much, so I'm not sure if I can rec one!

On the flipside, feel free to rec me some Enderal fics (or your own, if you have any). I'll read the shit out of it.

4) Rec music!

5) Share one piece of advice!

I could word vomit more about my own ladies and how much I love them now than I used to but I feel like this has gone on long enough. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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imagineclaireandjamie · 4 years ago

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Shielded: Chapter Six; Spring Watch.

Anonymous said to imagineclaireandjamie:

A hard man is good to find. [Mae West]

Jamie woke with a start, the alarm blaring in the background.

The dream had been intense and had left him panting, a sheen of sweat on his skin as he pushed the duvet aside and stood. As always it was light outside, the sunrise half blinding him as the blasts of orange and red permeated the old curtains. Washing the night from his skin, he plunged himself beneath the pounding rivulets of water coming from his power shower, his body temperature receding slightly as the morning wore on.

Fortunately Claire wouldn’t be awake yet and he could slip from the house almost unnoticed. He needed to get a good day of work done, and to forget the memory of his dream before he faced her again. The mere thought brought colour to his cheeks, the heat in his belly reminding him of how incredibly realistic it had been.

Delicate pink skin appeared without his permission and once more he could feel the remnants of it haunting him as he slid his wellies on and closed the door softly behind him. Working in a daze, he prepared his cows for milking, the heat of the morning fading slightly as the clouds rolled in. The animals barely paid him any mind, going about their own business as he fed, watered and tended to them.

She hadn’t snuck into his bed, as she had in his dreams, but she had infiltrated his thoughts and no matter how hard he tried, sporadic jolts of her came unbidden throughout the day as he worked.

She’s married, he told himself, although the argument felt pretty weak in his own mind. In the abstract she was, he could tell that she still thought herself that way despite starting her new life. Without knowing it, she often rubbed her wedding ring finger - though the ring had long since been removed. It was obvious she was struggling with the transition and who could blame her, it had only been a couple of weeks. She was still hesitating on her name whenever he spoke it out loud to her, the subtle twitch betraying her.

But she was beginning to thaw, the shocked reaction he received when he spoke to her growing less and less as time went on (which, secretly, made him smile).

The baby lambs were out in force as he pulled the sandwich from his rucksack - one Claire had made him the night before. He smiled to himself as he perched on the fence, watching his first time mums as they paraded their babies around the perimeter of the field. Food somehow tasted better when someone else had made it for him, the slight differences in style allowing him a great enough change in routine to be noticeable.

She, it seemed, had a penchant for adding multiple salad products on her ham sandwich. Whereas Jamie was always in a rush at 4am, trying to collect his thermos as well as various food items to keep him going for the day, usually he would just throw slices of meat on top of bread without much thought. Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and *butter*, however, made all the difference. He even had potato salad on the side and a bag of what looked like homemade crisps.

Before Claire had arrived, John had given Jamie a very brief update as to her situation. Knowing a limited amount, he gauged that the difficulties she’d encountered recently hadn’t really set in yet and, instead, she was going through some sort of nesting, using her time at Lallybroch to cook and clean, ensuring that her mind is actively kept away from thinking about much at all.

His mind needed something similar as the image of her pottering about in his kitchen whilst he was away brought to the fore those visions that had him startled awake this morning before his alarm had even a chance to ring and he shook the picture of her bare skin from his thoughts, turning back to his task list.

The orphaned lambs were thriving now. Most had been ��adopted’ by other nursing mothers but he still had two rogue ewes who were waiting for collection - Rupert, his nearest (mostly by proximity but also by friendship) neighbour had offered to take them for him but had yet been unable to drive over to collect them. In lieu of this, Jamie had been spending time hand feeding them every day though he worried each time he left them that he might return to something unmentionable.

Luckily, they’d survived another night in the small outhouse and he crawled in between them, the straw poking and prodding him as he settled with the warm milk bottle. The first, the largest of the two, squirmed in excitement, rushing to plonk herself by his side and suckle noisily at the teet.

“Easy now, lass, there’s enough for the both of you.” He soothed, watching as she butted the bottle, falling to her knees as she fed. Sheep were notoriously terrible pets, losing their fear of humans when in contact for too long and he had worried this close contact wouldn’t be good for the ewes, but watching the smaller of the pair sit helplessly in the corner made him think of Claire.

An idea came to him all of a sudden as he moved towards the lone female. He could, if he wanted, take the lamb home that evening and leave her in Claire’s care. Not only would it give the poor wee thing a greater chance, it might give her something else to turn her attention to in the day. There was a large chance he’d lose this one if he didn’t do something drastic.

-- --- --

An odd feeling settled in her stomach from the moment she woke up. Though she couldn’t put her finger on what the issue was, she felt a strange atmosphere hovering around her. Her skin prickled as she got out of the shower and she immediately felt as though there was something she should be remembering but couldn’t quite hold onto the memory.

She’d heard Jamie leave this morning, which was odd in itself. Usually she was fast asleep at dawn, not waking until much later when the house was quiet and she was alone. But she’d been woken this morning by some forgotten thought or dream that she couldn’t picture from the second she’d opened her eyes.

After barely speaking for two weeks, the weekend had been a welcome change.

Conversation had not been forced or odd, Jamie had allowed her time for quiet reflection and had seemed really quite pleased with her suggestions for the upcycling of his old furniture.

She felt useful, finally. A feeling she hadn’t had in some time.

Putting herself to work, she opted for cleaning downstairs for the best part of the morning. There was still a lot of dust residue from the sanding epic they’d had on Saturday, even spending most of Sunday dusting and hoovering hadn’t removed it all, so she pulled the dyson from under the stairs and tried to be as thorough as she could be.

Like cooking, she had never considered herself to be fluent in the art of housewifery. Before...when she had been able, her time had been dedicated to studying. There had been a cleaner for such tasks and, even afterwards, she hadn’t *needed* to be useful in that way. Here, though, there was nobody else to clean, do the dishes or cook and she found that losing herself to each task kept her mind (and body) active.

Sitting with the remnants of her crisps, she decided that was the dish she’d been most proud of since her introduction to the kitchen. She found herself thinking of Jamie and hoped that he was enjoying them too.

Their food deliveries now consisted of a greater variety of produce and she’d been able to add some colour to his lunch - which she had been making every evening and putting into the fridge for him to take when he left in the mornings.

She felt pleased as well as shocked at how easily she had moulded to fit her new life here.

Happy with her efforts, she turned her attention to the bookshelves in the back living room. There were titles dating back hundreds of years. Thick leather covers with yellowed pages sat proudly amongst the newer softback novels. She could tell which books had been read just by glancing at the spines, though there had been fingerprints in the thin layer of dust that had been there only hours before.

They were categorised, it seemed, by the surname of the author, carefully and methodically organised so that each time a new title had been purchased, it had been added in the right spot though there wasn’t room for many more.

His taste was eclectic, from non-fiction books on farming, agriculture, holistic medicines and horticulture to the classics (neatly bound with multiple editions ordered together, oldest first) including Jane Austin, Victor Hugo, Descartes, Melville and Hemingway. Jumbled in were some biographies but she’d assumed those belonged to either his parents or sister as none had been touched for some time.

Her fingers ran over the spines, stopping to hover over the drawing and painting books she’d first read when learning to doodle on the post-it notes in the first few weeks. She didn’t stop until she reached a relatively new title that she hadn’t noticed before. There was ruffling on the edge, a clear sign of frequent use, and some damage to the corners. Pulling it from the shelves, she settled into the comfy armchair, her cup of tea now cool enough to drink, and began to read.

It was modern, eloquently written with intricate plot weaving from the moment she turned the first page. The front cover clearly denoted that of a romance but there was intrigue and art as well as carefully homegrown characters. Before she’d had time to digest the prose, the front door opened and closed and she blinked. The clock on the desk ticked loudly and she noticed that hours had passed without her knowing.

Placing the book back on the shelf, she decided to leave it where it was for the time being and come back for it before bed. Though the visuals she’d imagined for herself stayed with her as she stretched and went in search of Jamie.

A loud noise caught her attention and she burst out laughing as she walked into the kitchen to find him wrestling with a small lamb.

“A new friend?” She said, her shock fading quickly.

“Ah; lass, I need ye!” His words were breathless, his cheeks a vibrant pink from the exertion of keeping the lamb from darting off and wrecking the joint. “I have a challenge for you, if you’re up for it!?”

#anonymous #;mod mbd #shielded #Jamie X Claire

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