#☆ ; letters to oakie

[luvoakie]

Open up.

( @teamjo )

Oak opens the door without putting too much thought behind it.

Even if she’s clad in a little black tank top and tiny pajama shorts that expose the smooth expanse of her legs.

She has to crane her head up when Jo comes into view—her lips pull into a slow smile when she catches his eye, and she steps to the side so he can come in. The thin, flimsy strap of her camisole slides down her shoulder. She doesn’t pay it any mind.

“Hi,” she hums cheerfully. “Got my lemonade? ‘M thirsty.”

[soliddaddy96]

idk how kafka did allat

[comatosebunny09]

nuisance | sylus

summary: sylus doesn't get drunk...does he? warning(s): mentions of alcohol, pet names, cunnilingus, somno, language, oocness, blue balls of the female kind music inspo: i wanna know - joe notes: @muvaginger i'm sorry.

Sleep won’t find you tonight.

So you’re not at all upset when you’re shaken out of bed by the ruckus in the hallway. And as you pad closer to the front door, you hear what reminds you of a hit dog hollering.

Or someone trying to sing.

The beginnings of a migraine throb in your temples. You throw your door open, and isn’t he just a sight for sore eyes?

There’s a familiar shock of white hair. Drooping, sunset eyes fixed on you, and he’s singing his heart out—or so he thinks.

“I want to know what turns you on,” Sylus croons, a hand on his chest and a finger pointed at you. “So I can be all that and mooore.”

You sigh at his impromptu dance routine. It’s cute. Really, it is. But he sounds like a metal pipe being dragged across the sidewalk. Regardless, you don’t discourage him. Just cross your arms with a quiet smile, leaning against your doorframe to take in the show.

His voice crescendos after the second ‘I’d like to know,’ and you wince, waving your hands frantically to get your boyfriend to keep it down. The last time he pulled a stunt like this, you received a discrepancy letter for the noise from the front office. One more incident, and you’re sure you’ll wake up to an eviction notice.

A sweat-drop beading on your temple, you grab Sylus’s arm and snatch him inside, all the while hissing for him to shut the hell up. He laughs like the inebriated, lovesick idiot he is, and you lock the door behind him.

“Hey, sugar,” Sylus slurs, propped up against your entrance. He tugs on your wrists, luring you in for a sloppy kiss just shy of your lips.

The door thumps when you shove him back against it. Wanna run your fingers through his tousled hair, stroke his reddened cheeks, and unfasten the last few buttons of his shirt. Instead, you raise a curious brow, hands on hips, foot tapping.

“Sugar?” Of all the pet names, you’ve never heard that one come out of his mouth. Either he’s spent some time down south, or someone’s replaced your Sylus with a doppelganger. “Oh, you’re drunk drunk.”

No, you didn’t stutter.

“Honey,” he drawls, all silk and satin. There he goes again, talking like your mama. He folds his arms over his chest, mirroring your haughtiness. “I don’t get drunk.”

On cue, his knees buckle, and the oaky scent of whisky on his breath fills your nostrils. He nearly crumbles to the ground, catching himself at the last moment. Your hands perch on his hips, helping steady him.

“Drunk. You’re drunk, Sy,” you chastise, your voice strained, and brows knit with the effort of helping his heavy ass stumble to your couch.

He falls unceremoniously onto the cushions, wearing a stupid, smug grin. You’re breathing hard and trying to quell your heart when he makes grabby hands at you. And, of course, you fall for them, snatched down to his level until his breath fans over your lashes. And you’re slowly wondering who, exactly, is drunk at this moment.

Sylus studies your hands propped on his quads for leverage before peering into your eyes, straight into your damn soul.

“Bet this drunken fool could still make you feel good.” His voice bleeds sex as he runs a languid knuckle down your neck towards the divot between your clavicles, driving his point home.

You shiver. Won’t deny how your stomach hiccups from the thought of it. From the prospect of his voice all muffled between your legs, and the lewd sounds of him eating you out staining the air.

You swallow down your fantasy, hauling yourself back to reality. Swat his hand away, fixing your nightgown.  

“Sylus, baby, need I remind you you’re drunk off your ass? I don’t get down like that.”

He leans back in an easygoing slouch. Gives you a look that borders predatory, blinking slowly with furled lashes like the cat who caught the canary. You feel the low gravel of his voice pooling between your legs, and you hate yourself for growing all hot like this.

“What,” he purrs, tone coy as he disrobes you with his eyes. “We’re two perfectly consenting adults, right? Nothing wrong with having a little fun.”

You heave a sigh. Reluctantly back away from him, ignoring how the frown on his lips makes your chest pinch. You tear through the thick haze of desire that inhabits the air to pinch your nose.

“We can be two perfectly consenting adults in the morning when you’ve slept this shit off, Sy.”

Tonight is one of those rare nights you’ve seen him visibly pout.

“Boring,” your boyfriend whines, hugging one of your decorative pillows to his chest, and collapsing onto his side amongst your couch cushions in the fetal position. You contemplate fighting him for not taking his shoes off.

Instead, you roll your eyes, fishing a throw blanket from your lift-top coffee table. Toss it over his curled-up body, and he kicks it down to his feet like a haughty child.

You bend down to kiss his forehead, to which he flinches away like he’s been burned by cinders. Can’t act like that didn’t hurt a bit, but—

“You’ll love me again in the morning,” you say over your shoulder on your way to your room. Shut the door behind you, slipping beneath your sheets.

You feel a pang of regret for leaving him out there by himself. Despite your body thrumming and your head spinning, you did the right thing. You’d kick yourself if you took advantage of him like that, whether he thought he wanted it or not.

On your back, you scrutinize the textured ceiling through the dusk of your bedroom. He probably won’t even remember this, you muse, turning onto your side to watch the door.

You’ve never moved quicker when a sudden spark hits you, and you comically wrestle out of the sheets to dart towards your bedroom door.

It clicks soundly when you lock it, and you’re unsure if it’s Sylus you don’t trust or yourself.

—

Of course, why the hell did you expect a locked door to stop him?

A gasp is torn from betwixt your lips, sticky in the haze of your room as dawn breaks over the horizon. Your back arches involuntarily, and you scramble for purchase of your sheets, mouth curved around a whimper.

There’s a hot pressure between your legs. Flat, textured, and wet, easing up the span of your pussy, pushing your lips apart in search of the pulsating treasure between.

You bite back a sound, drawing the sheets back to meet a set of carmine eyes glowing in the dimness. You thread your fingers in his hair, unconsciously pulling him closer, and he chuckles huskily, nuzzling against the fat of your inner thigh.

“Mmmm, told you I could make you feel good.”

Your lips work around a response, but he swoops in between your thighs again to lick you good, silencing any objections, and making your body convulse.

TBC on AO3.

international | masterlist | off the grid

[yup-thats-me]

VALENTINE'S WITH SKZ

♡ Christopher Bangchan ♡

pretends to be oblivious all week

On the 14th, he'll wake you up to breakfast in bed

Kissing you nonstop

Take you roaming around the city

Lunch at a nice cozy restaurant

A fancy candlelight dinner date

I feel like he'll gift you a jewellery

♡ Lee Min-Ho ♡

Nothing all week whatsoever

Will make you think he doesn't know about 14th and you'd be oaky with it cause you know how busy he can be

But on 14th, he'll give you a small but a heartfelt gift Like a ring with something meaningful written than one of you had said to each other, or a pendant of the same kind

Will make you your favourite dish for dinner with a candle and dim lights in your dining

A movie date night with him, Soonie, Doongie and Dori :>

♡ Seo Changbin ♡

Being the big boy that he is, he'll take you on a shopping spree

Will buy you anything you lay your hand on

Shower you with extravagant gifts

Take you to a fancy-ass restaurant and will have the entire floor reserved just for the two of you

Have you wearing a special lingerie that he bought just for that day

And the night will be a long one with all the toys he had bought ;)

♡ Hwang Hyunjin ♡

Will give you a painting that he'd been working on for so long.

A picture with figures without facial features but surely is the two of you.

You'd hang it up in your living room, reminding you of your Prince whenever you look at it

14th will be a normal day with cuddles all day and dinner that the two of you made together with a candle and slow songs

♡ Han Jisung ♡

I bet you he'll have the whole week planned out a month before

He'll gift you little things but I feel like he's the kind to be shy to give it

So he'll just leave then at your house with a note saying, "happy chocolate day," or "happy promise day."

And on the 14th, he'll give you a big shopping bag and say, "Wear this tonight," with a smug smile and a wink

And when you do, you see a beautiful dress with the best shade of your favorite color

And he'll reserve a private place for the two of you in a high-end restaurant where the two of yiu could enjoy the night view of the beautiful city

♡ Lee Felix Yongbok ♡

Gifts all week

Will show up at your university to give you gifts cause you'll be too busy with assignments

He can do anything to show his girlfriend how much he loves her and cares for her

Will get into trouble with their PR but doesn't care

Shower you with his love and all of his attention all week, not that he doesn't the rest of the year, but extra. Making up for the time he was away from you.

Will bring you souvenir from every country they go to and gift them to you

On the 14th, he'll give you a cute massive teddy with a love letter

♡ Seungmin ♡

On the 14th he'll arrange a road trip and have a picnic

Only the two of you

Chocolates boxes in store for you

During the journey, he'll talk about how he had missed you, and was sorry for not giving you enough attention.

Picnic with a blanket and a bottle of wine or two, home made breakfast that he made.

He'll arrange the picnic in a flower field, I feel like.

Will pluck flowers and make you a bouquet.

Will lay with his head on your lap and talk about anything and everything

Will give you plushies and loads and loads of chocolate

And last but not the least, stargazing with him in am empty land near a river

♡ Yang Jeongin ♡

He'll really be oblivious of Valentines day like legit he'd be like what???

Then when you'll give him your present for him, he'll remember and be a bit embarrassed

But will ask you out for a date night, nonetheless.

He'll take you to a cozy restaurant that is less crowded and will give you a cute present there.

He'll apologise for forgetting but honestly, who'll stay mad at him?

You'll instantly pull him closer and kiss saying you already forgave hin long ago.

[therealpekej]

“Mrrrow?” Scratch. Scratch.

Oak startles at the sound, rising to her feet to open the window that Peke is pawing at.

She’s greeted with a loud purr and a headbutt before he turns to nudge a box towards her with his nose. Taped to the top of the box is an envelope with a crisp, pink paw print stamped in the center, and a messily drawn heart right next to it. Peke J jumps down to circle around her feet, rapid fire meowing and trilling as he looks up at her. She takes that as her cue to open the letter, which reads:

I'm assuming you don't speak cat? So let me translate what Peke probably just told you. Matsuno's a pussy whipped lovestruck ass and asked his cat to deliver shoes to his crush - which is you by the way - but it's fine because he's working on trying to make sure your birthday party's as fun as humanly possible for you. Peke stole one of your slippers so Matsuno could find out your shoe size because the sales ladies were looking at him real crazy when he was saying something about your foot could fit in his hand without a problem. He's whipped and it's getting embarrassing to witness. Anyway, he thinks you're really pretty and you'd like this style. See you later Oakie. Happy birthday sweetheart.

— Fuyu

@luvoakie @matsoono

[anniekoh]

The Hurricane Book: A Lyric History

By Claudia Acevedo-Quiñones (2023)

In this powerful debut, Claudia Acevedo-Quiñones pieces together the story of her family and Puerto Rico using a captivating combination of historical facts, poems, maps, overheard conversations, and flash essays. Organized around six hurricanes that passed through the island with varying degrees of intensity between 1928 and 2017, The Hurricane Book documents the myriad ways in which colonialism—particularly the relationship between the United States and the island—has seeped into the lives of Puerto Ricans, affecting how they and their land recover from catastrophe, as well as how families and citizens are bound to one another. Through accounts of relatives, folklore, and necessary escape, Acevedo-Quiñones illuminates both the tenderness and heartbreak of bonds with family and homeland. Moving seamlessly from the personal to the political to the environmental, she takes the reader through her own experience of family dynamics, mental illness, and substance abuse—and their long-reaching echoes—all against the backdrop of Puerto Rico’s struggles and beauty. An attempt at a colony’s etymology in a time when it is perpetually embattled by natural disasters, crippling debt, and the mass exodus of its people, The Hurricane Book is also an invitation to see the realities that many don’t want to see—a refusal to stay in the dark about ourselves or our collective history.

The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History

By Manjula Martin (2024)

Told in luminous, perceptive prose, The Last Fire Season is a deeply incisive inquiry into what it really means—now—to live in relationship to the elements of the natural world. When Manjula Martin moved from the city to the woods of Northern California, she wanted to be closer to the wilderness that she had loved as a child. She was also seeking refuge from a health crisis that left her with chronic pain, and found a sense of healing through tending her garden beneath the redwoods of Sonoma County. But the landscape that Martin treasured was an ecosystem already in crisis. Wildfires fueled by climate change were growing bigger and more frequent: each autumn, her garden filled with smoke and ash, and the local firehouse siren wailed deep into the night. In 2020, when a dry lightning storm ignited hundreds of simultaneous wildfires across the West and kicked off the worst fire season on record, Martin, along with thousands of other Californians, evacuated her home in the midst of a pandemic. Both a love letter to the forests of the West and an interrogation of the colonialist practices that led to their current dilemma, The Last Fire Season, follows her from the oaky hills of Sonoma County to the redwood forests of coastal Santa Cruz, to the pines and peaks of the Sierra Nevada, as she seeks shelter, bears witness to the devastation, and tries to better understand fire’s role in the ecology of the West. As Martin seeks a way to navigate the daily experience of living in a damaged body on a damaged planet, she comes to question her own assumptions about nature and the complicated connections between people and the land on which we live.

Other recommendations from Heatmap News.

[rinneverse]

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ [ ❥ ] oak's 300 follower special ! ⋆·˚ ༘ *

hello friends !! as a fun little way to celebrate 300 followers, i wanted to do a little event <3

how it'll work:

— send in an ask stating a character and then up to 3-4 letters from the prompt list below!

— i'll respond with my thoughts and perhaps even a little drabble if i'm feelin' inspired enough >:)

— i'll accept any characters from the fandoms i write for; just for ease of access, here they are again!

genshin. blue lock. tokyo revengers. jujutsu kaisen. haikyuu. chainsaw man.

— friendly reminder that my blog requires you to be 18+ to interact just for my own comfort! make sure you read over my rules/byf as well before sending anything ♡ [you can find those here!]

— you can find everything posted for this event under this tag: oakie hit 300! ☆

— that's all !!!! prompts will be listed under the cut so i dont clog up the dash<3

[ EVENT STATUS: CLOSED — DO NOT SEND IN ANY MORE ASKS !! ]

— NSFW ALPHABET !!

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

B = Body part (Their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

F = Favourite Position (This goes without saying.)

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

H = Hair (How well-groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…) 

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

L = Location (Favorite places to do the do)

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn-offs)

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterward)

if this flops i might cry btw. but we ball!!

[inflammatory]

Ok im going to be a hater real quick these are all the lyrics on “the record” that made me say fuck this what the hell is this. Nothing against “confessional” songwriting but not when its SOOOOOO BAD LIKE I am AWARE that all of them can write incredible songs on their own (off the top of my head, their bests: triple dog dare from lucy, chelsea and graceland too from phoebe, basically everything by julien but in particular little oblivions stuff where she’s matured in ability by leaps and bounds). Like they can do better than all of this seriously

The leonard cohen one was like genuinely you would have to waterboard me to get me to listen to that song again. When your lyric is an overused quote, fine if you make it work, when you directly mention who said it, irritating but fine, when you go on to use phrases like “existential crisis” and “horny poetry”? NOT okay. The other two examples are just rehashing, borderline exploitation of their collective history of slow confessional songs, sans everything that made those songs fresh and compelling pieces of art. It’s like a pb/ld/jb song deconstructed into disparate phrases set to heartstring-pulling instrumental. Quote from the incoherent review i wrote in a haze of disappointment directly after i listened for the first time: “letter to an old poet is just a chain of…como se dice…not quite cliches, but unoriginal and lowbrow turns of phrase” almost like when you’re a teen and you line break your bitter thoughts to make sparse “poetry”: you’re not special / you’re evil / and i’m better than you LIKE GET ME OUTTA HEEERRREEE

The singles are good though album peak at not strong enough and i am fond of all of their work and like showmanship but the music…well some of it is heinous. I cant get into the hype because im haunted by the lyrics to leonard cohen and also the way they said karaoke in another of the songs. Americans QUIT mispronouncing things to rhyme them with other words im gonna kill you im gonna kill the next person i hear say karaoke like carry oaky everybody with an american type accent watch your back

[rawrmeansilyindinosawr]

one of the most wholesome nights i’ve had in a while.

a few days ago we sat in a friends house and met a blind lady. she described being blind like being in a closet and hearing everything outside but not being able to see. my partner hugged her and fed her rice and Mac and cheese. she held onto our words. listened to our pauses and interpreted them as discomfort without knowing or seeing body language. she had eyes that saw past these nights past our finite lives past everything that we had or would seemingly leave behind.

she asked us to show us where the light was... and to help her find her pipe. to name 30 reasons why. and she cried. and she cried. and she cried. it was then that it took me. have u ever seen a blind person cry.?

have u ever felt the weight of the world with only just ur ears?

somebody with 4/5 senses could also feel the weight of the world with you then. maybe even more.

she cried cuz she said we loved each other like puppies. and told us to never let anyone tell us that we didn’t. that what we had was real, and everyone else could fuck themselves. then we named a bunch of things that felt good without reason and things that even were lovely that started w the letter L, it truly felt like one of the most wholesome nights i’ve had in a while.

-----------

walking through mirrored broken glass the albermarie road was so serene. the oriental familial home decor was described as generational and it was beautiful. porcelain. marble. the first room was a room dedicated to the dead, full of alters. sacrifice. benches, mull brown oaky wooden room dividers. this wasn't a house just like any other.

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

[luvoakie]

Hajime feels hot already, a pleasant buzz both dulling and hightening his senses. He used to be able to stay sober for much longer (time in a frat does that to you), but since becoming an athletic trainer he’s began to take much more care of his body — meaning less alcohol. It makes his cheeks flush and smile turn dopey. He moves through the room to the beat of the music in his ears, a drink in each hand. One for him, one for his girl.

When he spots her he grins, immediately sauntering over and grinning down at her.

“Hi, princess. Remember when I said to save me a drink? Here.” Hajime holds it out, pulling it back when she goes to reach for it, “Oh — no, nuh uh. Lemme do it for you.”

— @iwaizumied

“Hajime!”

Oak beams, spinning on her feet to face him. She’s pleasantly surprised to see he’s already buzzed. She was a little worried about his ability (or lack thereof) to let loose, but it looks like a few drinks in his system was all he needed to be good to go.

Her face flushes red as the pet name falls so easily from his lips—she doesn’t think she’ll ever be used to being called ‘princess’ so sweetly. It makes the tips of her ears grow warm, amplified even more so by the pleasant buzz of tipsiness she’s been feeling for a hot minute now.

“Thank you for the shot— hm?”

Her head tilts in confusion. She brushes a stray strand of hair that falls in her face as a result of her movement, tucking it behind her ear.

“Do it for me?” She parrots, blinking. “What do you— oh! Ohhhhh… wait, I think I know!”

Her lips curl up into a mischievous smile as the realization settles upon her. Oh, yeah. She definitely wouldn’t mind if she’s thinking what he is.

“Be gentle with me, ‘kay?” She teases as she steps closer to him, buzzing with anticipation.

[alpaca-clouds]

Smut 4 Smut | Creator Letter

Alright. For once I decided to try it with one of those "For Creator" letters to try and clarify a few things and just ramble a bit about my likes.

Let me start with my general likes and dislikes.

General Likes: Established relationship, Fluff (especially Family Fluff and Domestic stories), Hurt/Comfort, Healing from Trauma, Post-Canon, Hugs & Cuddling, Forehead Touches, Characters in friendly competition (for example in Sparing Matches or Board Games), Cooking, Characters travelling/hiking, Bathing/Washing, low-stake Sickfics (so like a character having a flu, nothing deadly), 5+1 things

General DNWs: Getting together, Pre-Relationship (for the romantic relationships), Soulmates, Reader-Insert, 2nd Person POV, Modern AUs, Non-Magic AUs, Omegaverse, Jealousy, Stories about Misunderstandings, Any Top/Bottom Clichés In Terms of Behavior

And maybe more importantly for this exchange, the Smut stuff.

Smut Likes: All the vanilla stuff (oral, anal, vaginal), One Character Taking Care of Their Partner(s) Needs, Bondage, Consensual BDSM, Femdom where it makes sense, Impact Play, Wax Play, Temperature Play, Prostate Milking, Forced Orgasm, Orgasm Control/Denial, Outdoor Sex, Bath Sex, Nipple Play, Exploring Each Other's Body, People Laughing During Sex, Clear Trust Between Characters

Smut DNWs: Omegaverse, Non-Con/Rape (unless otherwise mentioned for a specific ship), Dubcon, Age Play, Anything in Terms of Scat/Golden Showers and such, Pregnancy Kink, Slave Play, Gore, Mpreg, Scissoring

Generally it should just be said: I do love kink, especially all sorts of BDSM stuff, but I do not like it with all shippings, because some of the ships I read as being more vanilla people.

It also should be noted that there are some characters for which I even do not like certain vanilla things.

So, while I do enjoy smut with Astarion, I do not wish for Astarion in this - with the exception of the crossover one. Specifically because I mainly ship him with my Tav and... I got just too attached to the dynamic with them.

Generally speaking I also would appreciate even with the other ships that you do not bring in any Tavs or Durges, unless it is just a vague mention of a male Tav.

Now, let me talk about the different ships in this:

Wyll/Karlach/Lae'zel/Shadowheart/Nocturn (and any variations of those characters): Now, I will once more get out my handy-dandy diagram of how I ship them.

Basically, Wyll is only with Karlach romantically, and he also sexually only interested in her. While the ladies meanwhile are all over the place, though Lae'zel is a bit hold back on actually having something romantic going.

I absolutely do read Shadowheart as submissive, Lae'zel as dominant (oaky, that is just canon), Karlach and Nocturn as switches, and Wyll as pretty vanilla.

Shippingwise I would love it, if the OT5 exists in the background, even if you focus on two or three of the characters. That would be super nice, because I just love the idea of them all being in a big happy polycule.

Astarion/Themberchaud: Okay, I have this long explanation of how I got to that quite random ship. tl;dr is simply that I find they have some super interesting parallels going on there. And I kinda find that sweet. Now, obviously, because Themberchaud in his dragonform is the BIGGEST of all the dragons, I gave him a smaller dragonborn form. See also this picture.

Now, with those two I have the following headcanons concerning sexuality:

Astarion is a bit awkward concerning sexuality stuff, because he has more trauma than anyone should frankly had. Hence he is actually fairly vanilla.

Meanwhile, Themberchaud is super awkward, because sex was never something on the menu for him (because he was the duergar's dragon slave and barely ever got to see another dragon in his life).

And with them I just love some sexual exploration stuff.

Alfira/Lakrissa: These two I find just super cute together. And I absolutely would love to read something about them exploring their sexuality together. I kinda like to imagine, that Alfira is more sexually experienced than Lakrissa based on the fact that she is a bard after all. She kinda knows what she likes, but also does not want to be too pushy. And I do read Alfira as a switch - and would not be surprised if she knew a bit of sex magic or something like that.

Again, I just think they are sweet together and would just absolutely love to read something about them. Also, definitely some "cunnilingus as the main events" would be super nice to read about.

Araj/Aurelia: Another crackship of mine. So let me quickly explain my headcanon there.

I wrote on this blog before, that I could see Araj being a super interesting character based on the fact that while she has grown up around drow culture, she has been away from it for so long. And the drop have a really super restrictive culture that is just not good for anyone. And I kinda like the idea that all she can think about is restorung her house, until she actually does it and finds that she actually would not enjoy going back to Menzoberranzan. So, on her way there she hears about how several thousand vampires have settled in the Underdark. And her curiosity (and kink) get the better of her. She just has to take a look. And, well... Once there she finds all those spawn created by Cazador, and finds them struggling. Because they are so hungry, and there is only so much they can drink in the Underdark. But... Well, Araj has focused her research on blood based alchemy. She does not help them out of the kindness of her heart, but because she just has a fucking vampire kink, and really just wants to do things with them. But she helps. And Aurelia ends up being the one to volunteer for the kink - and through that, the two start to grow closer.

With them I could see a ton of blood related kinks, obviously, also some experimentation involving alchemy would be fun.

Also some insecurity on the part of Aurelia, because just like Astarion she has tons of sexual trauma from things that Cazador did to her. She wants to own her sexuality, but it is harder than expected. I also would absolutely love them exploring some stuff in that regard and Araj being surprised that she totally has catched feelings somewhere on the way there.

Ansur/The Emperor | Ansur/Balduran: Okay, with them I could see several things. One: Something that takes place when Balduran was still Balduran (keep in mind: Balduran is actually a bad person, because he is basically a colonizing piece of shit). Two: After he has become the Emperor and Ansur is trying to save him. The Emperor then trying to woo him with his powers, just as he would woo Tav (or whatever player character you have chosen). Also absolutely would love "hate sex turning tender" for them. That would be so fun. :P

Alright, my all-time favorite fandom. :D The Castlevania Netflix series. I love this show, I love the characters, and I love the kinky stuff you can get them to do.

Hector/Isaac: My OTP for this fandom and definitely one of my top ships overall! Part of that is their already quite kinky dynamic. The show makes it fairly clear in Hector's interactions with Lenore, that he is a submissive. And I just love to imagine Isaac as a careful dom.

Now, with them I really absolutely can see a lot of different kinks in terms of BDSM. Definitely Bondage and some Impact Play. Also some humiliation of sorts. That kinda stuff.

Something I would ask to be careful about, though, is the entire thing with anal sex. Because Isaac is a very religious Sufi, meaning he believes in the Qur'an. And the Qur'an is very clear on the fact that anal sex is a taboo. So I would prefer some more creative things for this shipping.

Morana/Striga: Those two I love as well - and there is way too little with them. They, too, are also canonically confirmed to be somewhat kinky. Or rather Morana is confirmed to be sadistic. And while I do not read Striga as necessarily masochistic, I absolutely can see her indulge Morana from time to time. Especially given the quick healing that vampires have.

Also absolutely love the idea of them playing around with Shibari and bondage!

I would absolutely love something with them early in their relationship experimenting with each other. I think that would be super cute. I am also a big sucker for some rather harsh BDSM play, while also being super tender with each other.

Something that should be noted here, too: I personally read Striga as trans and (due to the technological limitations of the time) also not at all transitioned. And this is a headcanon I am very attached to.

(Greta/)Trevor/Sypha/Alucard: Alright, the OT3/OT4. First thing I should note here is, that I feel that the level of kink is going to be very depedent on whether or not Alucard participates, because I personally do read him as fairly vanilla. Yes, I know, that goes against a lot of the "kinky vampire daddy" fantasies a lot of folks love, but I really... See him as a cinnamon roll doused in vanilla cream, alright?

Basically my kink headcanons for them are: Greta is very dominant and at least somewhat sadistic, she is also aromantic bisexual. Trevor is super submissive and masochistic, though he does not want to admit it. Sypha is a switch, but likes to be submissive as well. Alucard is demisexual and pretty darn vanilla. He enjoys having soft sex with Trevor and Sypha, but when kinky stuff happens, he mostly just watches and is fine with that.

But also, vanilla foursomes are super cute and I would enjoy reading them.

Abel/Original Male Characters: Okay, and then we get to the weird one... Look, I adore Abel. Yes, I am very aware that the Abel I am thinking off is very much a character existing mostly in my headcanon. However, I am a monsterfucker and absolutely can see him having hot sex with some dude. And if you wanna give him some monster genitalia, I am all there for it.

In my headcanon I pair him off with a male vampire with a superiority complex named Rüdiger, but this is nothing you need to take into consideration here.

Something I would love, though, is that I explained away the fact that our monstrous boy has no voicelines in either the game or the series, by him being actually mute. And I really like that idea.

And then we have Mizrak and Olrox from Castlevania Nocturne. Ooooooooh boy. I adore them so much. Because, like, two non-white gay men? Fuck, yeah, I am so in with this. But also, they have this entire messed up dynamic going on between them. To put it differently: They are deliciously toxic. I love it!

Okay, but seriously: I do see Mizrak as kinda held back sexually, because his entire sexuality is probably defined by tons and tons of religious guilt. Mind you, this was the era of Christianity where they really turned harsh on homosexuality. Like, don't get me wrong: It was always a taboo, but not the least due to colonialism, they absolutely went against that stuff during this period. So, while I absolutely read Mizrak as gay, I also think he is dealing with tons of religious guilt over it. Like tons and tons of it. And even more he is going to feel guilty about being attracted to a vampire.

Meanwhile I do think that Olrox is a soft, albeit dominant lover. I am going to assume that in reality he is going to maybe push Mizrak's bondaries - but never step over them.

And speaking of bondaries: Like with Isaac, I think that Mizrak due to religious doctrine is going to consider anal sex a taboo and will not engage in it. While the bible is not as clear on this like the Qur'an, the church doctrine at the time said anal was taboo.

However... With this fandom I absolutely would also adore Mizrak post-season01 having guilt filled nightmares revolving around his issues with his religion, and also his relationship to Olrox. And once it comes to stuff happening in his dreams, all bets are off. Olrox being rapey? Absolutely could be something he dreams about. Some sacreligious stuff happening involving altars, churches, and religious artifacts? Absolutely. If you want to, you can go really weird on that end.

[xtruss]

Boot Barn advertises Brass Indian Elephant Exotic Boots as made from elephant leather. Photograph By Rebecca Hale

Is a U.S. Retailer Selling Boots Made From Endangered Elephants?

Investigating whether these seemingly unremarkable boots were “genuine elephant leather” shows how tough wildlife laws are to enforce.

— By Din Fine Maron | January 9,2023

The Six-pound Box arrived on a steamy June day, hot from its ride in the delivery van. The label said “Boot Barn” in capital letters, and when I opened the package, the oaky scent of leather enveloped me. The lower half of the boots had a distinct wrinkly pattern that was rough to the touch. Stamped inside the boots’ shaft: “genuine elephant leather.”

At a list price of $799.99, they’d been advertised online as El Dorado Men’s Brass Indian Elephant Exotic Boots. That is, boots purportedly made from an endangered Asian elephant.

After four years as a reporter for Wildlife Watch, an investigative project funded by the National Geographic Society, I knew there was a market for just about any exotic species, from leeches to rare succulents. I’d become difficult to shock. But selling Asian (or “Indian”) elephant boots? That sounded unprecedented—and potentially unlawful under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), according to John Scanlon. From 2010 to 2018 Scanlon was secretary-general of CITES, which regulates the global wildlife trade. Asian and African elephants are endangered animals. How could Boot Barn, a major U.S. retailer, be selling these boots?

Inside the boots, black lettering states that the product is genuine elephant leather, as Boot Barn advertised online. Photograph By Rebecca Hale

So began an inquiry that involved months of interviews, research in trade and financial records, innovative materials analysis, and any number of dead ends. What we learned, finally, was a hard but valuable lesson: Efforts to monitor compliance with regulations that govern wildlife products can be stymied by the difficulties of proving the items’ provenance.

Only 400,000 African Elephants and 50,000 Asian elephants are left in the wild. Most Asian elephants are found in India and have what could be called a biological advantage over their African counterparts: More often than not, they are tuskless. That helps shield them from the ivory trade, which has driven the slaughter of African elephants. Among Asian elephants, only males can grow tusks, and relatively few develop them.

The chief threat to Asian elephants still comes from people, by way of habitat loss and human-animal conflict on farms and other land. Increasingly, the trade in elephant skin has also become a problem; the skin is sometimes used to make beads worn for good luck in Myanmar and China. But there hadn’t been reports of Asian elephant boots—so National Geographic set out to discover if Boot Barn’s boots actually contained elephant skin (and, if so, how they could be sold by a major U.S. retailer). I talked to wildlife and trade law experts, I scoured CITES records looking for legal elephant-skin shipments, and I identified which company made the boots—but beyond that, answers were hard to find. In the hope of determining the boots’ origin, National Geographic bought a pair to send for DNA testing.

Know the Species: Asian elephants are about eight times as rare as their African cousins. They’re also smaller, have rounded ears and an extra toenail, and more often are tuskless. They employ their entire trunks to lift objects, while African elephants have two trunk tips for such tasks. Photograph By Brent Stirton

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before the purchase, I’d called and emailed Boot Barn for weeks, asking about the boots and their sourcing. I got no response to almost a dozen emails, phone calls, and LinkedIn messages addressed to the retailer’s chief financial officer, communications office, and people listed as press and investor relations contacts. I also called customer service and reached a representative who said she’d look into it and call me back; I never heard from her. The last request for comment, addressed to Boot Barn’s president and chief executive officer, was sent in the weeks before this article went to press. That request received no response.

Boot Barn’s advertisement said the boots were made by a company called El Dorado. By searching for El Dorado’s patent records and then Boot Barn’s public financial disclosures to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, I discovered that El Dorado is an “exclusive brand” of Boot Barn Holdings, Inc.; Boot Barn’s public website lists El Dorado as one of the boot brands the retailer has created.

I asked Jonathan Kolby, a National Geographic Explorer who used to work as a wildlife inspector, to examine the boot photograph in the advertisement. He said the material did look like real elephant leather he’d seen. Teresa Telecky, a zoologist and the vice president of the wildlife department at Humane Society International, said the same. “I’ve never seen Asian elephant–skin boots for sale,” she told me.

When I asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—which polices U.S. companies’ trade in products from protected species—about the rules for elephant skin, the response was a statement: “As a result of the Asian elephant’s protection status, commercial import and subsequent sale of skins could only be legal pursuant to the antique exception of the Endangered Species Act.” The antique exception says products from protected species can be imported and sold—if they are at least a hundred years old. A similar CITES exception allows global trade of products that date to before the animal was placed on its banned list—in the Asian elephant’s case, that happened in 1975. Even then, global sales of the product would have to be noted in CITES trade records, which are public. When I searched those records, no shipments of Asian elephant skins seemed to line up as a potential source.

Another grim possibility: What if the skins had come from captive elephants in the U.S., perhaps sold off by one of the country’s numerous roadside zoos? Telecky noted it would still be illegal to sell them across state lines under the Endangered Species Act.

Dan Ashe, president and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, had another theory about the boots’ origin. He suggested that if the boots were genuinely elephant skin, it might have come from a recent U.S. import of African elephant–skin pieces from Zimbabwe. Though trade in Asian elephant parts is prohibited under CITES, there’s a legal carve-out for the trade in elephant hides from four African nations that have relatively stable elephant populations: Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.

Lab Testing: At biologist Sam Wasser’s University of Washington lab, researchers had successfully identified elephant ivory origins using DNA analysis. To attempt the same with leather from Boot Barn’s boots, they cut small samples and ripped them into shreds with a razor blade—a low-tech way to get as much surface area as possible, which increases the chances of finding DNA. They put the samples into chemicals that break cell walls apart, basically turning the shreds into a brown sludge that wildlife genetics lab manager Zofia Kaliszewska described as “gross and pulpy.” They spent about a week incubating the sample, adding chemicals, trying to find any usable DNA. But eventually, their computer spit out DNA results for only their control samples—none for the Boot Barn samples. —DFM. Photograph By Rebecca Hale

To explore the question Ashe raised—might Boot Barn’s “Indian” boots have been made from African elephant?—I called Sam Wasser at the University of Washington. He directs a lab that has successfully traced the origins of elephant ivory using DNA analysis. If we provided the boots, could his team determine whether they’re elephant—and if so, which species? Wasser said they’d try but couldn’t guarantee that the leather-tanning process had left usable nuclear DNA.

After the boots arrived at my house on that hot June day, I shipped them to Wasser’s lab. Samples of the leather were prepared and tested, but no nuclear DNA was found. Wildlife genetics lab manager Zofia Kaliszewska said the DNA could be absent because “tannins had killed everything” during processing—or because it truly wasn’t elephant. In a last-ditch effort, Kaliszewska had the lab look for mitochondrial DNA, which might have survived even if the nuclear DNA they’d hoped to find had been destroyed. That mtDNA couldn’t identify an elephant species, but it might at least tell us if elephant skin was present at all. The lab team then spent several days looking for mtDNA. It struck out there too.

So after all the time, money, and effort, we still couldn’t determine the boots’ provenance. Was Boot Barn making and selling boots legally or illegally from Asian elephants? Or making boots legally or illegally from African elephants and misrepresenting them? Or were these boots not made from elephant at all?

Here’s what we can say: Our investigation of the boots’ origin gives a glimpse of the obstacles that wildlife law enforcement, regulatory, and trade agencies face in monitoring online sellers of wildlife goods. As hard as these groups may work, they’re likely outgunned on the internet, a global hub in the multimillion-dollar black market for exotic animals and animal products—a key reason Wildlife Watch was founded at National Geographic.

As months passed, I continued to watch Boot Barn’s website. By the time this article went to press, the company seemed eager to move its elephant leather boots. They were advertised on sale, “34% off.”

— Dina Fine Maron is a reporter for Wildlife Watch, our investigative reporting project focused on wildlife crime and exploitation. It’s supported by the National Geographic Society.

[fauxastrology]

i do not have a plan for the future

[rindough]

bro we're doing experiments today i hate it i hate school sm

what experiment? 👀👀 i still rmb how stressful experiments could be at times, esp if u dont know what to do :///

[callilouv]

Yuuta simping

- Tired

I knew it ;;

I was so close to putting "I bet yuta's gonna be involved" in the tags JKHSDV

[clusterduck28]

Oaky, this theory is kinda out there but I'm going to post it anyway just in case it turns out I was right, so here goes:

This collector from Eda's dream and this Collector from Belos's memory are not the same Collector.

Evidence:

The moon/sun sides are reversed. In Eda's dream the Collectors right side has the sun patter on it, while Belos's Collector's sum symbols are on the left side.

In Belos's memory The Collector's moon crescent symbols are facing left while in Eda's dream (and basically all other depictions of The Collector), the crescent is facing right.

This is also evident in the particular frame i attached to this post, the crescent they're making right above their head is also facing left, depicting a different phase of the moon than the one that's usually associated with them.

It makes more sense for the crescent to face right instead of left because it mimics the letter C, the first letter in The Collector's name!

To me this suggests that Belos's memory might be distorted somewhat. The collector might not even actually be communicating with him, he's hallucinating them into existence and imprinting them into his own memories.

There could be other explanations for this, including the Occam's razor, a.k.a. it aint that deep actually, but like I've been going insane over this little unnoticed detail and I feel like it's gotta be important, at least a little bit!