#(GOTCHA! is how you do this correctly)

[ajortga]

affection deprived

pairing: jenna ortega x fem reader

authors note: i do not like this but hopefully you do, please send more requests

word count: 1.5k+

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based off this request!

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where r asks emma to hold jenna's hand to see if she notices and the second emma held jennas hand she immediately knew it wasnt r's hand

-🥝

It was another filming day. You come in at least 4 times a week, rather if it’s to run a scene over, hair and makeup, a chemistry read or checking on costumes. 

As you get on set, you grab a coffee (that always manages to go untouched and goes cold) while playing a thumb war with your best friend, Emma Myers.

“Do they have strawberries today?” You ask while having your tongue slightly stuck out in concentration. “I don’t know where they get them from, but they’re always so perfectly sweet.”

Emma giggles, trapping your thumb as you squeal. “Gotcha! 1..2.. I think they do, I saw watermelons too if I remember correctly. 3… 4..”

You giggle, huffing when she wins the match. “At least those will make my day. Hey, your hands are so soft.” You begin playing with her hands, admiring how squishy they are.

“Thanks, babycakes,” the blonde jokes, holding your hand as you both swing back and forth while walking through set.

If anything, holding hands makes you think of Jenna. You haven’t been cuddly with her at the moment. You think it’s because she’s so caught up in work and how you always seem to hold her hand, that she doesn’t notice when you’re not. It’s like everywhere you go she automatically thinks her hands are intertwined with your warm ones.

“Hey, Emma. I wanted to ask you something,” you say, glancing into the distance as you see your girlfriend unaware of your presence far away, talking to one of the directors.

“What is it? You need me to help you with something?”

You nod, tearing your eyes away from the ones that weren’t looking at you to the ones that were. “You think you could help me out in trying to cast some spell on Jenna to make her realize that I miss her touches?”

“Oh yes.” The blonde says, making a small ‘pshhhh’ sound as she takes out her invisible wand. “Jenna Marie Ortega, I command you to snap out of your acting character and recognize your girlfriend’s needs!” She says, swaying up and down.

Your eyes roll, watching her be silly and take the opportunity to snap a photo. “Uh huh. I don’t know.. Okay. Jenna and I used to do this thing where I’d sneak under the table and cling onto her hand. It’s just been something that we’ve done ever since.”

In your relationship, you were the sucker for the people who knew you inside and out. Jenna was just that person. She’d rub your knuckles gently in a circle with her thumb whenever you grew nervous, always came home from her other film projects with something you’d like. 

Obviously she still does, you’ve just been feeling like you’ve had the lack of affection. “Which makes you grumpy,” Emma would say. You would sulk before filming a scene and Jenna would’ve noticed if hadn’t a distraction popped up. It was almost like you could see the small puzzles in her head would begin to turn then be interrupted. 

“So.. How is me holding your girlfriend’s hand going to do anything?”

“Hopefully it makes her notice how AFFECTION DEPRIVED I AM!” You almost yell. If she really thought Emma’s hand was really yours, you think you’d break up with her. (You would never be the one to break up first.)

-

It was Friday night. Some would say it was the night to party all night long. 

They were true.

Almost every Friday the Wednesday cast would gather at someone’s house, preferably Georgie’s because he had a trampoline and some dope snacks. You didn’t want to admit that when you and Jenna first saw how many good snacks he had, you slammed them into your bag. Jenna brought an extra tote bag smashed under the things in her backpack to push all the snacks in there the next time you went to Georgie’s house.

You stare down at your hand, chatter filling the room as everyone talks while eating. You wonder if it’s any special. You’re not sure why it matters so much to you. It's just like every other hand, right?

No one knows you better than Jenna, maybe you should just be straightforward with her and the lack of affection you’ve been feeling lately. 

“Ems?” You holler, looking around. You find her on the couch across from your girlfriend, in a deep conversation with each other.

And when Jenna turns to you with those sweet brown eyes, you feel like the happy giddy feeling in your chest. The feeling that lingered when you had a silly, puppy loved crush on the girl for the first time. You were a bundle of nerves, squeaking whenever you talked to her, cheeks flushing easily. 

And she was yours. Except that feeling just popped up again. Your eyes dart the room, opening your mouth to say something, then shutting it. Instead, you give an awkward wave and run out.

Jenna gave you a smile, eyebrows furrowing as she watched you dash out.

“I think my baby is scared of me.”

Emma rolls her eyes, looking at you go, “An affection deprived baby.”

-

“Okay Agent Double Two x Five thousand and Sixty Two, it’s time.” You whisper, you and the blonde eyeing the target in front of you.

Like two partners in crime.

“Roger that.”

Emma crawls under the table and you almost break your facade, a silly smile threatening to plaster on your lips as you see her bump her head on accident. You can see Jenna, talking to Hunter as she brings her drink to her lips. 

You look away, looking down at Emma’s current journey.

As she keeps talking, Emma counts the hands to be able to reach the right one. She approaches the brunette, where her hands are against her lap, and lightly taps it. A stupid grin forms on your face when you see your girlfriend’s face contort into confusion.

Jenna processes what’s going on as her hands roam around. She lightly catches the hand and feels it. Assuming it was you, she intertwined her hand with yours.

It doesn’t take 10 seconds before she feels like something is out of place. The hand is soft, but it’s too soft. Yours is just the perfect amount of soft. She rubs her thumb over the person’s knuckles and the pattern isn’t familiar.

She immediately tugs her hand away and looks under the table to see a goofy Emma Myers looking back.

“Emma? What the hell are you doing under there?”

“I was actually looking for my ball that I dropped.” Emma backs herself up, shoving her hand into her pocket and bringing up a neon green ball with a smiley face. “Oh wow! It was here all along! Thanks!” 

The blonde crawls out as the other girl blinks and watches her walk off. Something about realizing it wasn’t you made Jenna feel disappointed. She hasn’t held your hand whenever you nudged it while walking down the streets together. She’d brush it off thinking that you did it by accident. 

The events of the endless hours of filming caught up to her, she had been neglecting you with her lack of affection. All the signs were in front of her, yet she didn’t notice.

She excuses herself and looks around for you, peeking her head into the living room to see you scrolling through your phone.

“Hey, cutie. I missed you.” The brunette says softly, catching your attention as she squeezes next to you. You don’t respond, making grabby arms. She almost feels how twitchy you are as you cling onto her, her fingers thread through your hair, hoping she can make you feel a little better.

Your hands touch something soft and you feel hers nudging into yours. The perfect amount of softness. She didn’t realize how much she missed your touch until you’re curled up to her like a koala.

“I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting your affection needs. I just feel like filming messes with my surroundings. I would never do it on purpose, okay?”

God you missed her. You missed her cuddles. You missed her hugs. You missed-

“Y/N.”

“You swear?”

“I’ll swear on.. I don’t know!”

She wraps her arms around you tightly, lifting you up on her lap as she presses her lips to your cheek. "I want you to tell me whenever you feel this way, okay? I can’t survive knowing that I let you feel a certain way you don’t like and I don’t even notice.”

“Okay. I will, I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to think that I’m too affectionate.”

“Never.”

A small grin comes upon your lips, “Now can you teach me how to distinguish people’s hands?”

For the rest of the night, Jenna lets her scent comfort you, your hand laced in hers for almost the rest of the party. When you see Emma, you give her a goofy smile and a thumbs up. She grins and does a two finger salute.

Let’s just say that all the days after, you were woken up with kisses and hugs, and definitely a bit too spoiled on set with a showered affectionate girlfriend. She even tied your shoes. Maybe it was too much, but you didn’t want anything less. Too much made you feel like the happiest girl in the world.

[j0eyj0rdis0n]

can we get some sub toby moments? like he’s on top and all that but he’s just so whiny

thanks!!

Gotcha covered! I hope this is good enough! Again unedited because I’m lazyyyy

SUBBY DOM TOBY

Fandom: Creepypasta

Plot: Toby loves fucking you so much that he becomes a whole new person when he does

Warnings: Soft sex, unprotected sex, that’s about it?

You loved having Toby on top of you, honestly you liked having him wherever you could. Top, bottom, sideways, whatever ways, you didn’t mind. But what you loved more than that? When he actually starts fucking you.

That confident persona just melts away as soon as he bottoms out. Feeling your soft squishy walls around him just makes his mind fill with static. The good kind of course. You love watching the way he gets so damn pussy whipped for you. If you remember correctly he told you one time that “your pussy is magic”. And tonight you were working your magic.

Doing absolutely nothing.

You watched happily as Toby bottomed out, letting out a breathy moan. “S-shit babe- I’m not gonna last long at a-a-all…”

You could only chuckle as you stroked his hair softly, looking up at your pretty boy barely keeping it together and he hasn’t even moved yet.

He starts up a slow pace, rhythmic moans coming out ever so often when he hits that gummy spot in you. It’s almost as if your pleasure is his too. But as usual, it’s not long until he loses control of himself. Mind and body included. His pace has gone fast and heavy, hands planted on either side of your head as he fucks you relentlessly into the bed. His eyes flutter from the pleasure.

“Mm f-fuck, m’ gonna fill you s-so full… Buy y-you a bi-ig house… Fuuuuck- We’ll have b-babies together… Ahh, gonna ma-ake you s-so happy-“ He groaned out, watching through half lidded eyes as you nodded rapidly.

Oh how he loved it when you agreed so quickly.

“You’re so f-fuckin’ hot babe-“ Toby breathlessly moaned, leaning down to leave dark marks on your neck.

You found it so sweet how he saw you as the most beautiful thing in the world. And the best part was you didn’t have to even do anything. All you had to do was lay pretty underneath him and he did the rest. Just with some sweet praises.

He loved the way your back arched and your chest pressed against his. How warm you are and how your pretty nipples felt against his chest. Pulling one hand from its place beside your head, he tweaked your nipple softly, getting you to squirm just the way he likes.

“J-just like that babe- Sooo good for me. Come on, I know y-you’re close.” His thrusts continued to pick up pace, the wet sounds that came from between your legs only urging him on more.

You were seeing stars as you came. Your chest heaved with heavy breaths as he followed suit, filling you up until he couldn’t anymore.

He gave you a sloppy kiss before pulling out, leaving you whining from the empty feeling.

“Awww don’t whine b-babe! We got tomorrow t-too!” Toby said with that stupid smile, giving you one more kiss before laying down next to you.

The rest of the night was filled with soft kisses shared between the two of you, marking each other all over, and mumbled praises against flushed skin.

[clowncaraz]

a transandrophobic's guide to transandrophobia

a small and short guide that oversimplifies things so even normies can understand. basically "don't say these things, be normal about queer men."

what is transandrophobia?

transandrophobia was coined around 2017 by a user named Saint (st-dionysus). it's a term describing multiple ways transmascs, trans men, or genderqueer men experience a form of androphobia that has the main goal of separating manhood from trans identities.

what is transandrophobia made of?

transandrophobia is made up of transmisogyny and androphobia. the transmisogyny is the ideas that trans men are either women in disguise, traitors or alien to womanhood, or lost little girls fetishizing lesbians. the focus on trans men as confused women is to assume that women cannot be anything but little innocent girls or servants. if a woman is not of those categories, then they are traitors, snakes, and are not real/pretending to be women. we see this in all sorts of spaces. if a woman is not subservient and tolerable, then they must be a "bitch," or a man in hiding. for trans men, this narrative means that they are failing womanhood because they too are not tolerable or subservient.

androphobia is the fear of men or the patriarchy. it affects women more than it affects men, and most trauma resulting from it comes from direct or indirect sexual violence or misogyny. androphobia in terms of trans men would be the fear of manhood or isolation of manhood from transness. a common pushback against androphobia and transandrophobia seems to be the idea that trans men are just trans, not men. they aren't women, but they aren't men either, so they stay in the gray zone of being defined by their agab or their sex traits.

the isolation of manhood from transness is a tactic used to correctly gender trans men without having to acknowledge their gender as being related to manhood, even if that fear is towards those who uphold the patriarchy - which trans men, by identity, do not fit in the patriarchy. it is why androphobia is known as irrational or abnormal, as all phobias are, but isn't recognized as hate or discrimination. when trans men and cis men are perceived as the same type of manhood, the assumption becomes that trans men are of the patriarchal system instead of being completely outside of it.

why androphobia and not misandry?

misandry was created to be used as a gotcha towards feminism. no one wants that. misandry is real, but is not represented in the term. instead, the subsequent discrimination and hate of men would stem from androphobia's fear. fear is the reason many people say they hate something that could cause it, and it's not irrational to fear, but the consistent anxiety and distrust leading to narratives that affect men who are not of the patriarchy is a phobia.

no one hates cis men for being men, it is hate of their ability to use their cis status and patriarchal power. cis manhood is preferred, it is widely accepted, it is natural.. trans men on the other hand are hated for being failed cis men and confused women, who are then hated for being related to cis men by being men incorrectly.

you might be transandrophobic if..

...you see trans men as the cis men of the trans community. this is a running joke in some spaces, but it perpetuates the idea that since cis men are of a higher power due to privilege, that trans men must have the same privileges and the same status due to them being men. this is not how you affirm transmasculine identities and frankly, it's downright gross. when you begin to see trans men as trans men instead of removing their manhood from their transness, you see that the manhood is inseparable from our transness and is in close quarters to how our identity functions. without that manhood, we are not trans and we are no longer of that community - we are then lumped into three categories; "non-men," nonbinary, or afab. when trans men say that we do not want our manhood to be reduced/separated from our transness, we mean that the other terms to categorize us are inaccurate, false, or derogatory.

...you don't think theyfab is a slur. it was made specifically to go after those who were assigned female at birth and used they/them primarily. this affects most if not all trans people who are genderqueer/nonbinary and were assigned female. it's a slur and is used that way.

...you don't say trans man, but instead say "tme." tme is transmisogyny exempt, and is known to be used as a stand in for anyone not presenting as a woman. it's a bioessentialist/intersexist term alongside it's counterpart; tma. these terms leave out and actively discriminate against intersex bodies and identities - and if pointed out - those who use the terms tme/tma will have a meltdown.

...say more slurs. if any of this is in your daily or private vocabulary and you actively refer to trans men or transmascs like this, there is a problem.

...you position our HRT or manhood as poison. i don't have to explain this that much but would it be acceptable for a trans man to say that estrogen is a poison and womanhood is essentially harmful by nature? if not, that might be a reason as to not do the same to trans men who need it.

...you position our oppression as lesser or never experienced. trans women face transandrophobia. that's the truth. the fear of supposed men in women spaces is one of the most rampant forms of prejudice against trans women.anyone can experience transandrophobia and transmisogyny. anyone can experience exorsexism. the main point of it is what it is supposed to be attacking. transmisogyny attacks womanhood that is trans or queer. transandrophobia attacks manhood by removing it from transness.

...you ignore the quarrels of trans men against rampant transandrophobia that seem to revolve around fears of being excluded due to not being feminine or woman enough, which the community seems to gravitate towards.

...you make transandrophobic claims that don't make sense at all.

[wwwildberries]

^᪲᪲᪲Doll Face ^᪲᪲᪲

Arthur Morgan X F!reader

Farmer's daughter AU

Context : Your boyfriend, Arthur, is one of your daddy's farmhands. One day, Arthur visited a boutique in Saint Denis just to look around. His eyes then got caught on a doll that was just sitting on a top shelf, displayed. It reminded him of you. It looked like you, he thought. You have a whole collection of small petite dolls, too, so it would be perfect if he could get it for you.

𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 : 𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒆

╭────── · · ୨୧ · · ──────╮

After Arthur eyed the doll, he walked over to the lady behind the cashier and asked her, "That doll up there for sale?" His rough voice waking up the lady from her daydream.

The lady looked up at him and cleared her throat before responding to him, "Yes! She's been up there for a while.. so, if you wanna buy her, I'll turn down the price a bit."

"Sweet." He walked back to the shelf and reached for the delicate doll. He walked back to the cashier again and happily payed for it. It was for you after all. How could he not be happy?

The lady carefully put the doll inside a paper bag and handed it to Arthur with a polite smile on her face and thanked him, "Thank you, come around again next time."

Arthur nodded with also a smile before muttering a small "Y'welcome." And left the boutique with the doll. He got on his horse and galloped away back to the farm, excited to give you the little 'gift' he had bought for you.

He arrived from the boutique in the evening, so you were probably taking a nap in your room like usual. He got off of his horse and walked inside your daddy's house. Your dad noticed him coming in and greeted him.

He knows that Arthur Morgan was dating his precious, young daughter, and he was totally okay with it, happy even. He thought that Arthur was a kind guy, so why would he be upset about you two dating? But the age gap does bother your daddy a little, but that won't stop him from allowing his daughter to be with the rugged man. Arthur Morgan is a great guy to him.

Arthur went upstairs to your room and knocked onto your door gently. After a few times of doing it and getting no answer, he opened the door, and he guessed correctly. You were napping peacefully in your bed, your frame being covered by the blankets on you.

He quietly approached your sleeping figure and put the bag down on your nightstand, and sat down on the edge of the bed next to you carefully, not wanting to startle his precious angel up. He took a moment to admire you. Your unique and pretty features making butterflies burst in his stomach. He began to shake your shoulder slowly, attempting to wake you up. He just couldn't wait to see your reaction to the doll. It was almost adorable of him.

You finally woke up from your dreamland and fluttered your eyes open and saw your beloved, Arthur, staring down at you softly.

"Arthur?.. what are you doing in here?.." you asked, looking up at him with a dazed expression, still sleepy from your nap.

He chuckled as his gaze met your sleepy one. "I gotcha somethin' and I just couldn't wait to show you it." He said softly, leaning down to leave a light kiss on your cheek, which made you smile.

"Arthur.. hold on... I'm still sleepy..." You mumbled and rubbed your eyes to clear your vision. You sat up and turned your head up to look at him with a confused gaze. "What is it? What did you get me?" You asked him with a small smile, excited to see what he has brang for you.

"I've gotcha..." He stopped mid sentence to take the bag from your nightstand and put the bag on your lap. "Something. Open it." He finished.

You looked down at the bag that was now on your lap, then to Arthur, then back to the bag again before you started to open it. Your whole demeanor immediately changed, lighting up after you've unwrapped the fragile doll.

"Arthur! You got me a doll?! She's so pretty!" You happily exclaimed.

"Yeah... thought you'd like it, and.. it kinda' look like you..." He replied sheepishly while scratching the back of his neck.

"It looks like me?.." You asked him while giggling mid sentence.

"Yeah, I mean.. her hair, face, skin tone... she just reminded me of you."

"Well.. I'm flattered, and thank you, Arthur. I love it." You spoke softly before planting a feather light kiss on his cheek that made his cheek a light shade of pink a few seconds after.

"You're welcome, Doll Face."

You only smiled at the nickname before getting out from your bed, walking over to where you display your dolls to display the one he just bought for you. "Pretty!" You exclaimed once again while turning to him with that sweet smile of yours on your face.

Ever since that, every time you go back to your room from helping your daddy with the farm duties, you'll always find the chance stare at the doll that Arthur got for you with a smile, and sometimes little flustered giggles before going back to what you were about to do.

.

.

.

.

.

OKAY I've had this in my drafts for almost a month like I was so close to finish this fic but I didn't know what else to add so I just left it unfinished for a few weeks but now I'm done yay

I hope you guys liked it jeheiwjw I can't tell if this is ass or not but yes

Arthur's pic is not mine!! PC : v7xrle — NOBODY On Pinterest!!

[cripplecharacters]

Hi, I have a quick question regarding your ask about people becoming disabled from using magic.

I promise this isn't some sort of "gotcha" I just have autism and sometimes I don't understand things.

If using magic and becoming disabled from it counts as the "disability as punishment" trope, why is it okay to have people become disabled from doing other dangerous things?

(Obviously this doesn't apply if the lore is literally something like "The Gods don't want you to use magic so they made you get disabilities from it to punish you for doing it.")

I'm just confused I guess because it really didn't sound like that anon was using disabilities as a punishment (like my above lore example), just as a consequence for doing something dangerous.

Where are we supposed to draw the line between something being a punishment VS someones actions having consequences?

Hello,

Really, it depends on how it's framed.

Magic causing a disability is a bit dodgy but can be done correctly, but when it's because of a curse or because they've done something wrong, or "the price to pay," those start framing disability as a negative thing. Whenever something is the price that needs to be paid for anything, it qualifies to me as a punishment with cool framing. And because that thing is so often disability, it plays into a real-life misconception that disabled people are the way that we are because we've done something wrong or we did something to deserve this.

It's framing disability as a negative thing, really. Yes, you can have magic causing a disability and it can be fine or even really good, but when it's a negative thing, that plays into negative stereotypes, like the stereotype in some religious settings that people are disabled because we've done something to offend the god(s) of a denomination when we're just disabled because we exist. So, it's kind of a semantics issue. How it's framed. Framing it as a neutral thing vs framing it as a negative thing. That's the line.

Mod Aaron

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Hi lovely asker!

So I personally don't mind the trope of Magic induced Disability so to say. But I think the main part is the autonomy of the character.

If we have the character that uses their magic of their own will with knowledge of what will happen, I don't see this as a punishment or anything bad. The character has autonomy and is doing something willing that they know will lead to something else.

Then we have the character that is already disabled and uses magic that exacerbates their disabilities. This again like the one above is good, it shows the characters autonomy that they know doing so will lead to making whatever symptoms of their disability worse.

Then we have an outside force/other being that gives the character magic and gives them the knowledge that using the magic will disabled them. This one walks a fine line just because usually it depends on the fine details and how the author writes each characters interactions.

So wether this outside force/being gives the character a choice is where it makes the breaks the story. If they give them the choice of "you can walk away just as you walked in here or you can take the magic but know this will happen" it can be good, especially because you can show that the character doesn't find being disabled as something "bad". Now if they don't give the character a choice or give them an ultimatum that's when it gets bad and begins to fall into that trope.

Another example is exactly how you explained it that another being/outside force doesn't want the character doing something so they use disability as a punishment. This one is just not good, and is exactly the prime definition of Disability as Punishment, that should not be done.

My point is that the Magic Induced Disabilities or magic that exacerbates disabilities is a perfect allegory of an everyday disabled person. We all do things of our own will that we know will make symptoms worse (eat foods, drink alcohol, not wear braces etc) or that will disabled us in some other way. But the whole point is autonomy, we have autonomy. We're allowed to do things, dangerous things even, even if it means making things worse for ourselves.

~ Mod Virus 🌸

[avelera]

"Sometimes it's not that deep," aka, How to Write a Mystery (That's Actually There)

A good rule of thumb about predicting a well-written mystery is that other people are predicting the same things. Even better if a lot of other people, on their own, are analyzing the material closely and each, on their own, are reaching the same theories and conclusions! Yes, this can mean everyone's falling for the same red herring too, of course, but generally speaking, no writer is putting all that effort into writing a mystery only one person can solve.

The thing is, a good mystery should be predictable, but at varying speeds based on the attentiveness of the audience.

The most laser-focused readers (or viewers), the true Holmesian mystery-solving mystery readers with encyclopedic knowledge and a fine-toothed comb to go through the material, should be ahead of the characters trying to solve the mystery, but not so far ahead that the story becomes boring, ideally. Your mystery shouldn't be so predictable that it can be figured out on page one but, if a truly clever sleuth does figure out your mystery on page one, your story should also be good enough that it is still an enjoyable tale even if the audience know how it ends.

The attentive reader should figure out the mystery at about the same time as the main character. They should have the "Aha!" moment about two seconds before the character solves it for that little thrill of feeling very clever, which to authors is very funny, because if we're doing our job right, we didn't just set the clues for you to solve the mystery, we agonized over the timing of each clue's introduction just to make sure you got that little thrill of self-satisfaction at the moment we wanted you to.

The casual reader should figure out the mystery when the characters figure it out. They should get the enjoyment of seeing the mystery solved, and in retrospect be able to see the clues, but in the meantime have enjoyed their time nonetheless. It should be a good story on its own.

Now, this is relevant to fandom theory mongering because clues are not accidental. And there are usually a lot of them, if the author is doing their job. Yes, you should be able to analyze the costume colors to see that there are parallels between the green dress or whatever that the lead is wearing in this episode and how it's a call back to another episode and that means blahblahblah is going to happen, but, that sort of deep-cut, freeze-frame sleuthing is usually only in support of more overt clues intended for general audiences.

(Not to pick on any one fandom, but Ted Lasso S3 for example had a lot of Tedbecca shippers looking for hidden clues in the cinematography as their hopes faded for a canon confirmation of their ship. Alas, those didn't bear out, because they were not accompanied by textual evidence in addition to the subtextual evidence of how any moment now, these characters are going to stop dating and pursuing completely different people and actually hook up with or even verbally express confirmed interest in each other.)

Of course, a mystery can be tough to solve and be satisfying! It is sometimes even possible to solve those truly out there or even not yet fully supported mysteries that eventually turn out to be true (say, predicting a later book in the series before all the clues are even there from installments in the meantime). It can be really satisfying to correctly extrapolate from incomplete data before the author even intended you to see it or had figured it out themselves!

However, more often than not, the clues are deliberate and to assume you're the only one seeing them is probably a sign that they're not actually there.

A good mystery, a well-written one, should provide all the clues for the audience to solve the mystery on their own, within the text, even if the last few pages are ripped out. A good mystery is not a "gotcha". And a sign of a good mystery is that more than one person can pick up on all the clues because those clues are placed deliberately and yes, that requires a certain amount of sign-posting as well and in fact, one of the most fiendishly difficult things to do as a writer is strike the proper balance between sign posting your clues at just the right time to reward your attentive audience with enough data to solve the mystery just before the characters do, but not so early that they lose interest.

So, why is this important for fandoms? Because it's entirely possible to go down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole and convince yourself of stuff that's not there and then get really bummed when it doesn't happen. We're all guilty of this, myself very much included, especially in the largely subtextual world of slash shipping.

There's also real world exceptions and extenuating circumstances to my statement that a good mystery will actually provide the clues: like studio changes, dropped threads due to contractual complications, or a crowded writers room where not every idea gets pursued.

Plus, we've got the whole goddamn JJ Abrams-inspired mystery box bullshit run of television making creators think it's cool to pull one over on the audience and deny the clues they set up just to make a "twist" that no one predicted because it wasn't there, thus betraying the principles of a good mystery, and that also muddies the waters about how good mysteries should be written. (If you can't tell, I absolutely despise writers who pull this bullshit with the intent to trick their audience and they do not deserve any praise for being "clever" to just surprise people with an outcome that's not supported by previous text ala "rocks fall, everyone dies", ugh.)

But besides the damned mystery box crud, there are some good rules of thumb for determining if the clues you're picking up are real or not:

Is the subtext supported by text? Not "is her green dress backed up by a micro-expression glance you can barely see if you freeze-frame the show" but actually in the text. Does someone say, in dialogue, "Hey, we should go on a date," when you're reading subtext between two characters and can you be certain that the writers intended that text to be read the way you read it? One way to tell is if this sort of thing happens more than once, if there are more clues. Of course, there's also red herrings, etc, and hey, that's half the fun of a mystery, not all clues are Clues. But generally speaking, there's more than one clue for important stuff.

Is there evidence against your theory and have you considered it? This is basic Logical Thinking 101, of course, but only looking for evidence that confirms your theory and ignoring everything that doesn't will definitely convince you of some pretty wild stuff in a hurry!

Have you considered the genre of the work and whether it even has mysteries? Or is it, for example, a comedy which might address those "clues", most likely comedically, but might just as easily not even realize they were seen as clues?

But mostly importantly: do other people have this theory? Did they arrive to it on their own, based on the same text? If you are the only person with a theory and cannot use textual evidence to convince more than one person who is not of the same background as you (ie, convince your less-progressive dad that these two guys definitely want to boink based on the way they look at each other) there is a very likely chance you are stringing together disparate data points to match your desires, not the evidence. Bonus points if, seriously, you can convince someone who is of the same demographic as the content creators (writers, directors, etc.) that these clues are intentional. Most likely, your less-than-progressive dad has more in common with the thought process that went into creating the vast majority of content than your average Tumblr user does. (OFMD is the exception that proves the rule.)

As a final note, one thing it's very dangerous to do as a writer is introduce the idea of clues and a mystery without making your mystery air tight. Mysteries invite the reader to put their brain on high alert. It means they're looking for clues everywhere and even seemingly innocuous throw-away descriptions or the camera lingering on a random prop for too long can be misinterpreted and end up pissing off the audience who thinks it's a Clue.

You have to be so deliberate with a mystery, because it's not about just controlling the clues you release, but controlling the perception of the audience so they know what isn't a clue (unless it's a red herring, of course). That's part of why scifi author David Brin said all aspiring writers should have their first novel be a mystery, because it teaches you volumes on how to control your narrative and make everything intentional.

[fonulyn]

hellooooo :3

3, R, and 🐦‍⬛ (I think that's the emoji? sorry, my phone hates me a lil 😞)

hope your day is going well, fon :)

(ansdjkfgn honestly on my monitor all the birds look the same so I'm not sure if I interpreted this correctly either. i took it as "warm, golden sunshine" but i'm sorry if you meant the other one!! and thank youuu 💖 i hope you're having a great day!)

-

Moving as slowly and silently as he could, Piers tried to avoid stepping on the crunchiest leaves and the small twigs on the ground, just to not alert anyone to where he was. It was early in the morning, the warm golden rays of the sun filtering in through the remaining foliage, the smell of fall in the air. Piers hadn't seen another living soul as he'd been fleeing through the maze, trying to stay hidden.

Only a few more turns, and then he'd reach the exit, if his calculations were correct. He held his breath, his heartbeat picking up, his palms kind of clammy despite the crispness of the air. Maybe he could make it? One quick step, then another, a glance over his shoulder, and--

"Gotcha!"

Piers barely registered the word before a solid body barreled right into him, sent him toppling onto the ground. He lost all air from his lungs in the movement, even hit his elbow kind of painfully, but the carefree laughter from above him made it all worth it. As soon as Piers managed to draw in a breath, he groaned. "Again!?"

"Again!" Leon told him, settling on top of him comfortably. Piers was lying on his back now, Leon sitting on his hips, his butt nestled against Piers' crotch in a way that would've given him all sorts of ideas had they not been in public, technically. Even though the maze was basically empty, with how early it was.

"I didn't even hear you coming," Piers complained, but his hands found their way to Leon's hips, squeezing. "How the hell do you do that?"

"That's classified," Leon grinned, leaning down to brush his lips over Piers'. There were pine needles in his hair, and in the thick sweater he was wearing, and the way he was above Piers made the golden sunshine filter through his hair. He looked ethereal like that, and Piers brought a hand up to brush his fingers over Leon's cheek, completely mesmerized.

Leon tilted his head into the touch, his smile turning from victorious to something way softer. "Wanna try once more or should we go get a drink? I think I saw some warm apple cider?"

"I give up," Piers said, with a theatrical roll of his eyes. "I'm never gonna win this one." He grabbed the front of the sweater, yanking Leon down for a proper kiss, taking advantage of the momentary privacy. Even when it ended Leon stayed close, and Piers could've dealt with the uncomfortable ground and the branch digging into his back forever for this.

Even so, he only stole another kiss, a soft and brief one. "Okay, once more. Then cider."

Watching Leon's face light up was well worth knowing that he was going to lose this round, too.

[creative-kny-fics]

Are you taking requests? If so Lee!giyuu and Ler!tengen and rengoku

decline if you want and take your time <3

Did you read my last fic where Giyuu finally teaches Tengen and Kyojuro a lesson? This could be considered the second part (I didn't have another picture, don't judge me)

Lers: Tengen Uzui and Kyojuro Rengoku

Lee: Giyuu Tomioka

It had already been a week since both 'tickle monsters' had received their lesson, they were grateful, especially Tengen, that no one knew about it. But they were cautious, if they did something to anger Sanemi, he would say so and would NEVER let them both forget that "humiliation"

'I'm not happy with that damn humiliation... Do you know what's the worst?! That it was Tomioka who tickled us! TOMIOKA!!', Tengen was pouting, Kyojuro was also a bit embarrassed about it, but it wasn't as dramatic as Uzui. 'I know Tengen! Hahahaha Tomioka certainly surprised me! Maybe we should integrate him into our team!'

'NO!!' 'Just think about it! No one would suspect that Tomioka is good at tickling and that would give him an advantage!'

Tengen refused, not planning on deal with another "humiliation" made by Giyuu. Although some of his words were true, no one would expect Giyuu to be this good at tickling and that was what helped him to let their guard down. 'Hey... What if we get revenge?'

'Hmm, I think I know where this conversation is going and my answer is no! Uzui, take defeat like a mature man, you act like a child!', Tengen gasped offended, it was true but that was not the topic of conversation.

It took some convincing, but it seems that what changed his mind was when he returned from his checkup with Shinobu. His face was red, he stood in a corner and covered himself with his cloak. 'Hey... Are you okay-?'

'You know what Tengen?! Now I support the idea! Tomioka is going to get a taste of his own medicine for being a gossip!'

Tengen smiled and they both planned what they would do, although Kyojuro was scolding him because there was a death wish in his requests.

Giyuu never really said anything to Shinobu, she only did it to annoy them both, it was fun for her, although maybe she should have clarified some things to Rengoku but it was too late.

'It's been almost 2 weeks since Shinazugawa and I defeated the TenRen team, nothing has happened during those days, should I be worried or happy?', Giyuu thought while eating.

Revenge was a sure thing, especially from Uzui, he knew him quite well and he probably would have been throwing a masterful tantrum at Rengoku if he needed his help.

It was something to be expected for Giyuu, but he don't expected that a scream would bring him out of his thoughts, it was barely morning, it couldn't be a demon. 'DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU'D GET AWAY WITH THIS?!'

'Hahahaha calm down Uzui! We don't want to scare Giyuu!', Kyojuro commented to jump and start pulling Tengen by the ear.

Giyuu now knew he was screwed, not because of his sudden appearance, but because Shinazugawa was also there, but he was on Tengen's shoulders as he panted, looking exhausted.

If Sanemi had ended up like this for just helping him, what would happen to Giyuu who was the "mastermind" of the whole plan?

'KYO!! THAT HURTS!!' 'I hope this way you learn to respect Uzui! Now then, come here Tomio-!', they both looked at where the blue-eyed boy was sitting, but only found his food unfinished and covered with a tablecloth.

After Rengoku made sure Tengen put Sanemi down correctly, the two pursued their main target.

Giyuu didn't know what to do, everything he planned in one way or another would be ruined, unless he asked for help, but who would? Mitsuri would probably join them, Obanai would betray him, Muichiro would try to defend him in vain, Shinobu would be cruel enough to advise Tengen and Kyojuro on how to tickle him, but... Gyomei wouldn't do it, right? He has seen countless times that he has been the one to break up fights or tickle attacks, so he would be safe on his estate .

'GOTCHA GIYUU TOMIOKA!!', Giyuu was picked up from the ground and thrown into the air only to be caught. 'Did you really think your little escape plan would work?'

'Honestly yes, but I already saw this moment coming, especially because of your tantrums as an immature and melodramatic man...'

'And I totally agree with you Giyuu!'

Tengen stared at Kyojuro, seriously? Was he helping him or was insulting him?! Kyojuro pointed to his puffed cheeks and called him that again, well, that was enough!

'I thought we were going to get revenge on Giyuu...' 'I'm just telling the truth, you only need one romper to be a giant-sized baby.'

Giyuu snorted, normally these interactions between the two friends were quite funny, and they didn't understand why they didn't do them more often...

Oh wait, that was why, because those two always started to tickle someone and after that they just went away.

'Well Tomioka, I guess you know what's next, right?' 'Yeah, I'm surprised you haven't done something before...'

'Ooooh?', both hashiras raised their eyebrows. Did that mean, that Giyuu wanted that revenge to have happened sooner?

Or maybe he just accepted the fact that a "tickle monster" doesn't forget. 'My my Tomioka! Well, Kyojuro, what if you do the honors?'

'W-Wait... I didn't start with raspberries! Don't be unf...! AHAHAHAHAHA!!'

Going straight for the kill, huh? Although Giyuu was right, he didn't start like that, maybe he started with his worst spots, but he gave them enough time and a little warning of what was next, so did Giyuu have the right to complain, or maybe not?. 'Ow! Tomioka! Be careful or you're going to dislocate my nose!'

'I'M SOHOHORRY!! AAAAH!! O-oh my gohohod... Yohohou dohonehehe...?'

'What? If we're done? Oh Tomioka, this is just the beginning! Let's make a deal!', Giyuu shook his head, a deal between those two was not good at all.

But we already know what those are like, they are quite "persuasive"...

Giyuu had no choice but to accept, if with that he could prevent them from continuing to blow raspberries on his tummy and neck, everything would be fine. 'Okahahahay... What's the deal...?'

'More than a deal it's a game that Kyojuro and I play from time to time, we call it "the 5 questions challenge". If you answer a question wrong, you'll get a nice round of raspberries and if you answer correctly, you'll have a few minutes to catch your breath... So, do you accept or not?'

Giyuu hesitated, he had never heard that game, but well, I ended up agreeing, on the condition that they be gentle, but we all know that won't happen.

'I think they must be questions that Giyuu can answer!'

'Done.... And I think I know which ones are appropriate~' 'I don't like that face and tone of voice... Why do you...? Mhmhmhmhm!!', do you think you have an idea of ​​what the questions are? No? Well, let's find out!

They started with light pokes, just enough to make him laugh and not try to escape. It was time for the first question...

'Okay Tomioka, first question! Who's a ticklish baby...~?', Tengen laughed as Giyuu's face immediately turned red

It was no secret that Giyuu could NEVER help but blush at that childish talk, it didn't bother him, but he was a little embarrassed to have to admit certain things.

'I-Ihihihit's...!! Oh mahahahan, I cahahan't!!' 'Come on Tomioka! If you can't answer or don't answer the question correctly, you know what happens...~'

Giyuu shook his head, it was quite embarrassing for him, but what options did he have?

Whatever it was, he had to say the answer quickly, because Tengen and Kyojuro giving each other a knowing look was not a good sign.

'Okahahahay!! It's me!! Ihihit's meee!!' 'Correct answer! Okay, second question Tomioka! Do you like songs?!'

Giyuu stared at Rengoku. "You like songs"? What kind of question was that? One second... Songs, songs... Songs...?! Giyuu immediately shook his head, he felt that if either of them sang at that moment, he would snort and scream.

Kyojuro tsked and also shook his head in disapproval, indicating that the answer was incorrect. 'Ooooow Tomioka, but you were doing well! You don't like the songs? Then why do you always sing to Muichiro to sleep? You even sing with the Kocho girls!'

'Thahahat is dihihifferehehehent!! Plehahasehe!! Nohohot... AHAHAHA HAHAHA!!'

He didn't have time to respond, he always forgot that liars were punished with raspberries...

At least he felt safe having a uniform to protect him, but even with the uniform, the sensations ran through his entire body, making him tense. 'Well well, it seems we have a liar. Although maybe something has happened and that's why Tomioka now hates singing, I'll make her love it again!'

'WHAAAAT?! PLEHAHASEHE!! NOHOHOT THE SOHOHONGS!!' 'There are so many songs... Ooooh, how about my favorite? Itsy bitsy spider, he spun his web~', Giyuu shouted.

His idea was that if he screamed enough, he wouldn't hear Rengoku sing as he tortuously slid his fingers along each of the spaces between his ribs.

He could justify it by saying that it was the consecutive raspberries that made him scream, but when they stopped, he didn't know what excuse to give.

'Itsy bitsy spider, he climbed again...~ did you know that there was also an obstacle for our little friend?!'

'Ooooh? I didn't know! Tell us more about that Kyo!' 'Nooooo!! Okay!! I lied!! Yehehehes, I lihikehehehe the sohohongs!! I lihihikehehe ihihit!!'

They both wanted to give him a break, but without losing the sensation, so they used gentle tickling again, which Giyuu seemed to like. 'Aaaaw! Tomioka, do you like this feeling?!'

'Ihihit fehehels nihicehehehe! That co-countehehed as ahahaha the third quehehehestihihohon?!'

'Eeeeem, I think so! Hahahaha, how silly of me, but it's always good to ask for convenience!', Tengen laughed but nodded.

Although Giyuu had wanted the tickling to continue that way, there were still two questions left to answer...

Maybe if he answered correctly, they would gladly tickle him again.

'Very good! Fourth question! Do you like raspberries?!' 'Y-yehehes...'

Both Kyojuro and Tengen got excited, they already knew the answer, but still, the excitement of the moment, you could say.

Giyuu began to take a breath, he had already accepted his taste so, surely, they would give him some raspberries before continuing with the last question. 'Correct answer. You see? It's quite fun, isn't it? Kyojuro, ready?'

'I was born ready!', Giyuu wrinkled his neck in anticipation and closed his eyes, which he opened when he felt someone grab him by the sides.

Rengoku crouched down and began to inhale almost at the same time as Tengen, so that eventually they both blew a raspberry on his neck and tummy.

But unlike others, this one was not so tortuous, did it tickle you? Yes, obviously, but not to the point of becoming hysterical, he liked the feeling. 'Okahahahay!! Finahahal quehesiohohon!! Guhuhuys!! Cohomehehe ohohohon!! Ehehehehehe!!! Plehahasehe!!'

'Sorry sorry, we got excited! Well, last question...' 'Did you like it?'

He had to admit, even though at certain moments he thought he would die, the feeling was very pleasant, so he nodded, laughing when they both caressed his head.

'Well, our revenge is done! See you soon dear Tomioka!' 'Eeeeh, you don't have to leave yet... If you don't mind, could you continue...?'

Giyuu looked away, he had said it and there was no going back. Both hashiras smiled at him, sitting on the floor and complying with Giyuu's request. Without a doubt, the second best revenge that Giyuu has suffered

[giggly-squiggily]

sorry if i didn’t do this correctly^^ kurama x reader(romanticlly)- true love/soul mate

AWW! *sobs happily* I love Kurama so much! I've gotcha covered, friend!

True Love: "I could do this all day" + Soul Mate: "Not there? What about here?"

“Mmm…I could do this all day.” You sighed against your boyfriend’s shoulder, running your fingers up and down his arm in a slow rhythmic pace. “We should spend Sunday’s like this more often.”

“Mm-mhmhhmhph! Y-Yes, defihihintely!” He was giggly; but you assumed it was from the book he was reading. “I ehehhenjoy this!”

You snuggled closer, breathing in his rosie scent as you switched from tracing to drawing, making what you hoped would be a decent flower shape. “Enjoying your book?”

“Whahahat bohohooohk?” Huh? You blinked, sitting up some to find..no, he wasn’t reading anything! But why…

Realization hit you like a truck. Then, you grinned.

“Wahahait- wahahhait; (Y/N), hang oh-ehehehehhehehehe!” The redhead yelped beneath you as you wormed your fingers into his armpit, scratching away. “Nohohoho, wahahhahit! Nohohohohot thehehehehhere!”

“Not there? How about here?” You dipped your hands to his waist, scribbling into the soft spots along the way. “This spot works for you Ku?”

 Kurama arched beneath you, bursting into cackly laughter. “Ahehahahhhahaha, (Y/N)! Gehahahhaha nohohohoht thehehehehere eihihihiihihther! Ihiihiht tihihihiihickles!”

“Does it now? I couldn’t tell!” You giggled alongside him, worming your hands into his belly just to hear him snort. “My, it must really tickle with how much you’re laughing! I bet you’re enjoying this, given how you’re not pushing me away- do you like this Kurama? Hmm?”

“Aheahhahahahaha! I lihiihihihke yohoohohohu beihihihihng wiihihihith mehehehehehe! I suuhuhuhpose ihihihihit ihihiihisn’t toohohohohohoo bahaha- Ehehaahhahahahhahahaha!” The fox demon nearly flailed when you squeezed his thigh, twisting around and pulling you into his chest. “Ohoohohokay, ohohohokay…thahahat’s enohohohugh now.”

Buried in his arms with his beating heart racing in your ears, you didn’t have any complaints. Closing your eyes, you wrapped your arms around him loosely, giggling when he jumped. “No more tickles love. For now, anyway.”

“I can breathe easy now.” Kurama tsked, smiling when you giggled. “Very well, tickles will come later…for you.”

Send me a candy heart and I'll write a dabble for it!

[jaskierx]

man people will criticise ed for anything and present it as a gotcha

‘he wants to die but he’d rather get the crew killed than take his own life!’ yeah okay congratulations i guess? maybe that’s a way people feel sometimes? maybe it’s not actually super easy to just go ahead and kill yourself? do you want him to apologise for being suicidal wrong? you want to enlighten us all on how to be suicidal correctly?

[bitethedevil]

what annoys me the most about "canonically bad in bed", a list

- this is coming from hist LITERAL DILDO, like sorry he is not trying to pleasure his dildo, DO YOU PLEASE YOUR DILDO OR YOURSELF WHEN U GET OFF??? (totally understand haarlep is unhappy #freehaarlep but that is not the topic of this treatise)

- masturbation is always auto-erotic. e.g. almost all pornography directed at straight men shows men glorification of THEIR role in a sex situation, almost all erotica directed at straight women shows THEM being desired, it is always abt u and ur ego

- being "good" or "bad" in bed is a normative bullshit question I am frankly annoyed tav can even ask, because different people like different things, and this game is otherwise a lot better written about sex and gender stuff. also if you play haarlep's game, tav lies there like a starfish doing nothing at all, and haarlep likes it?? we should get rid of normative sexual evaluations of others smh

- there are people who like topping, people who like bottoming, frankly this is kinda toxic homophobic/misogynistic "haha, he was the one *getting* fucked all the time" implying a. the fuck-ee is dominated by the fuck-er and fucking is a violent act of dominance (untrue), and b. bottoms are somehow lesser than tops? so much wrong with this!!

- if I recall correctly haarlep just says raphael was bad in bed and always on bottom, and nothing about how long he lasts, and then the only way tav can use this knowledge to provoke raphael is by ASSUMING he doesn't last for very long, which is like wtf? why would u shame someone with some made-up toxic sex norms/assume they try to last when they masturbate? (even in case haarlep does say raphael cums too soon, shaming people for cumming too quick is such an incredibly mean thing, they can't control it)

- it is kinda sad (and toxic ngl) that raphael cares about haarlep so much and can't deny him anything and is so obsessed with this person who hates him and is dependent on him, giving strong toxic hetero relationship vibes. raphael, u can't have a relationship with someone who u control baby that is just not how it works lil guy, are u too scared u are not good enough for someone who will choose u of their own free will, are u scared they will leave u babygirl

to conclude we know absolutely nothing about raphael's sexual preferences, we just know haarlep is (rightfully) angry at him and being a slave, and raphael has ego issues which like come one we already knew that from day 1

I’m completely with you anon. The only thing I would like to comment on (and this is just my own interpretation) is the fact that Raphael can’t deny Haarlep anything. I don’t think that’s out of any fondness, I completely think its through Haarlep’s magic…which…just kind of makes it worse since Haarlep is there to spy on him for Mephistopheles. You saw how hard it was for Tav to deny him use of their body and mind. I’d imagine it works the same way with Raph, even though he’s a cambion. In my mind, the whole dynamic between Haarlep and Raph is fucked and Raphael is just trying to make the most out of a bad situation (I wrote a whole post on it a little while back, but it is of course just my own interpretation). Which just makes it even WORSE that Tav behaves the way they do about the whole thing. Like damn. I’d be mad as hell too.

I might write a standalone post on the weird discourse on Raphael’s sex-life at some point because it does somewhat fascinate me. Everyone is entitled to their own interpretation of any work, and that is something I hold sacred. What bothers me sometimes is the way that people talk about it. For example, the problematic way of portraying tops/bottoms and the shaming part that you also talked about in this ask.  

What bothers me even more is when people feel the need to drag that interpretation into fan-spaces to reduce the character to just those aspects as a “gotcha”. I don’t know if that is just me, but if there’s characters that I don’t like, I don’t even use their tags. I’ve written a couple of hate posts on the Emperor. They might show up under the tag just because Tumblr’s algorithm is weird, but I’ve never tagged them with the character’s name, just in case there are fans who use the tag and find that annoying.

Anyway…Thank you so much for the ask! I completely agree with you.

[itsscromp]

Reader and Rocket running away from the nova corps cause Rocket stole something and Reader ends up getting hurt.

Job gone haywire

Ahh some early-day stuff, I really like it anon. Poor guy, he would feel so guilty getting you hurt and would do anything to help you feel better :D. Word count:891

You and Rocket have been partners in crime for about 7 months now, Rags to riches, you two used your brains together to be able to pull off some amazing heists together. Today was no exception. You've heard that there was an ancient artifact being transported to the collector as you spoke, If it wasn't in his hands it would be worth 5 million units. Oh now this was something you needed to tell Rocket, Immediately running to him.

"Rocket, you are gonna love what I'm about to hear" You smirked.

"Lay it on me pal, what ya got ??" He turned his attention to you.

"So an artifact is about to be present at the collector's emporium, if we can pull it off correctly and quickly, we'll be 5 million units richer," You said eagerly.

His eyes and ears perked up. "5 Million units !!!!"

"Easy 2 and a half to each of us"

"Oh, I am down, when is it coming in ??" He was now super eager, you swore you saw his tail swish in excitement.

"If from what I heard, Later tonight it'll arrive"

"Ok, I think I have an idea"

You both agreed when the artifact arrived late into the night, you'd hack the cameras to make a repeat loop and then Rocket could sneak in and disable any other security measures. Easily pulling it off and sneaking in.

"Ok, so we need to be on the lookout for something that looks like this" You pulled out a drawing of the description of what it could look like.

"Gotcha, now come on, 5 million units await." He then began to look around the place as did you. Up and down, Left and right. You two worked tirelessly to find this flarking artifact.

"How ya looking y/n ??" Rocket spoke up after a little bit.

"Nothing on my side, Yours ??"

"No, goddamn why did they make it so flarking hard to find."

'Wait, hang on I think I got something" You then found a box and began to slowly open it, Rocket right onto it, climbed onto your back gently and looked over your shoulder to see it. Sure enough, this was the artifact.

"Wow... so shiny" He awed at it, making you chuckle.

"5 million unit's is ours" You smirked and raised his fist for a fist bump, which he gladly returned.

But the celebrations were short-lived as the alarms blared, You found that the box had its own tripwire if anyone were to lift the lid, the alarms would be set off.

"Scut, let's bolt it !!!" Rocket shouted and started running, you hot on his tail.

The two were quickly surrounded by Nova Corps officers, You then found a way out and began to bolt for it. "This way !!" You urged rocket.

But then you felt a sharp graze on your thigh as an officer shot your leg with his phaser, Rocket saw the injury and grew scared and angry, pulling out his own weapon and shooting back at the officers.

"Rocket no !!!"

"Go, Get outta here, I'll take care of them !!" He yelled.

You mustered through the pain and began to escape back to the ship, Rocket then threw a tazer bomb at them, which sent a huge electric shock wave throughout the building. He then caught up with you at the ship and immediately high-tailed it away from the planet. Once he was sure they were safe, he ran to your side, seeing you patch up your injury.

"Y/n... I'm so sorry, I did this... this is my fault" His ears drooped deeply.

You've never seen him so worried, so caring. You've always seen Rocket as this cocky lone wolf. But this was completely different.

"Rocket... it's not your fault"

He shook his head, he wasn't taking that for an answer. This was his fault, he wanted to make it right for you.

So later on, while you were changing the bandages, he brought in some coffee and food he coul make from whatever you two had left.

"Here... Your favourite" He gently rubbed his arm gently, looking down in guilt.

"Buddy, I'm not mad at you" You said softly. making him look up at you, ears still drooped.

"None of this was your fault, Absolutely none of it. This job comes with many risks, this is just one of them, ok ??"

He looked back down and gently nodded, without thinking, he jumped on the chair and hugged you tightly. You both were taken aback by what was happening, nevertheless, you gave the hug back. Rocket had a softer side to what you know.

"Hey, besides, How will I share the 5 million units with you ??" Letting go of the hug, smirking as you pulled out the artifact.

His eyes and ears perked up once again, a smile returning to him. "WOOHOO !!!!" He ran around the place, you two were rich !!!

"Oh, what should we do first ??" You offered.

"Drinks and lots of them, I know a really good bar, I'll punch in the coordinates." He ran off to the cockpit.

You smiled seeing him so happy, you would always help him, save him and protect him. No matter what.

Taglist: @callofdudes @fun-k-board

[nenilein]

Drama CD #1-1: The Genie of Wishes in the Underground Ruins (ENG)

[DISCLAIMER: This translation was made by me! Feel free to repost parts of it or the entire text wherever you want as long as you credit the translator correctly!]

INTRO

Arle: Drama CD Puyo Puyo! 

-

STORY

Narrator: A dark underground ruin crawling with dangerous monsters… This is the setting of a certain legend the people tell. It is said that within this ruin a being known as the “Genie of Wishes” has been sealed, and that he shall grant but a single wish of whoever comes to break this seal… 

SFX: *Puyo popping sounds*

Arle: Hah! There! One, two… Ice Storm!

SFX: *Monster dying shriek*

Arle: I did it!

SFX: *bouncing*

Carbuncle: Gugu! Gugugu!

Arle: Oh! Carby’s using that Puyo as a trampoline! That sure looks fun!

Arle: But this isn’t the time! C’mon, we gotta hurry on along!

Carbuncle: Gu-gugu!

SFX: *their footsteps as they run further into the labyrinth*

Arle: It sure has been a while since we’ve gone on this sort of adventure, hasn’t it? Let’s make sure that the first people to break the seal on the wishin genie sealed at the center of this dungeon will be us! Okay, Carby?

Carbuncle: Gugu, gugu!

Arle: Yeah, you’ve right! That’s why we’ve gotta speed up! I mean, what if somebody’s already gotten in here before us?

Witch: Howdy!

Arle: WARRRGH!! …Witch? Don’t scare me like that, geez!

Witch: Oh, c’mon, gimme a smile! Say ‘Howdy!’

Arle: H-Howdy…? Wait, if you’re here, then that means… You’re after the wishing genie too, aren’t you? 

Witch: Yep, guess I am.

Arle: Then you leave me no choice! Let’s battle!

Witch: Now, hold on a minute! Personally, I’ve got no intentions of scuffling with you, Arle!

Arle: Huh?

Witch: I mean, this dungeon is dangerous, like, VERY dangerous. And I’m just a frail little witchling, oh, however will I make it through here on my own? So I was thinking, Arle, how about you and I team up for this adventure? 

Arle: Heh? Um, well… 

Witch: Oh, please, please, pretty please? Do it for your old friend Witch~? 

Carbuncle: Gugu…?

Arle: I mean, if you really wanna party up that bad… I guess…

Witch: …As if~…Ohohoho…

Witch:  Gotcha guard down! Meteo!!

SFX: *attacking sound*

Arle: Heheh! Not a chance!!

SFX: *spellcasting and attacking sounds*

Witch:  WHOA!!

Arle:  I knew it! You were never the type to play nice. I figured you had some kind of ulterior plan, so I made sure to prepare a counter attack when you weren’t paying attention!

Witch:  Urgh…This blows…

Arle: You stay here and take a little nap now. 

Witch:  Hmpf! This isn’t fair, you know! 

Arle: Right back at you! Seriously… Anyway, Carby, let’s move on!

SFX: *footsteps*

Carbuncle: Gugu!

Witch: W-WAIIIIT!

SFX: *they keep running*

-

Arle: *sigh* So Witch made it here too… And if she did, then I bet-

Carbuncle: *gasp* GUGU!!

Arle:  Huh? Carby?

Schezo:  Hmpf… Arle. It would see you too have laid your sights upon the legendary Genie of-

Arle: YES, BINGO!! I KNEW it was gonna be Schezo next~!

Schezo:  What the- S-STOP POINTING AT ME! My face is NOT your bingo sheet!

Arle: Geez, it’s just a figure of speech, calm down! By the way, what’s it you’re after today? My magic power or that of the wishing genie?

Schezo:  Hmpf. I shall answer you. What I desire… is BOTH! 

SFX: *sword slash*

Arle: Ack! Rushing forward and attacking is not cool! 

SFX: *Puyo chaining sounds*

Schezo: It is your own fault for neglecting your guard! Finally, today will be the day that I shall make you my own! Oh, roar, my Dark Sword! 

Arle:  Urgh! I can’t fall behind…

SFX: *Puyo chaining sounds*

Arle:  Judgement! 

Schezo: That won’t suffice! I am more than ready to neutralize and counter that attack! Sting Shade!!

SFX: *blast*

Arle:  Argh! Schezo is always so strong…!

Schezo: Hmpf. Are you ready to beg for your life now? …W-Wait! What is that there dangling from your hip? It is… so round! 

Arle:  That? Oh, that’s a good luck charm Amitie gave me a while back. It’s a little plush figure that looks like an acorn frog. I think it’s really super-

Schezo: Uhh… it’s so cuuuuute…!

Arle: Yeah, right? It’s super cute and…! Wait, huh? 

Schezo: Such a lovely sight…! While the real thing is already unsurpassable in its adorableness, seeing a plush figure modeled in its image is just too…!

Arle: Um, Schezo? Anybody still home in there…? 

Carbuncle: Gugu, gugu…

Schezo: Right now, there is nothing… NOTHING I desire more than to have YOU!!

Arle: Ah… um… You mean… the plush, right? Okay, anyway…

SFX: *Puyo chaining sounds*

Arle: Seriously, how can he leave himself wide open like that… Urgh… I can’t even feel any good about this, but… let’s just get this over with.

Arle: MIND BLAST!

SFX: *blast, cartoon birds tweeting*

Schezo: WAAAARGH!

Arle: Critical hit straight to the brain, huh? Anyway, you spend some time recovering from the mind-melt here now!

Schezo: *lisping* Uhh… uhh… Where’sh this? What wash I… doing…? 

Arle: Okay, Carby. Let’s hurry on along!

Carbuncle: Gu-gugu!

SFX: *footsteps as they leave*

-

Arle: We’re pretty far in now, huh?

Carbuncle: Gugu…

Arle:  I’m pretty sure we’re just about due for her now…

Rulue: OH-HOHOHOHO!

Arle: *sigh* Yeah… There’s the laugh. I figured. I knew she’d show up. But, still..

Rulue: I had a feeling you would be here, Arle! 

Arle: Hey there… Rulue…

Rulue: You must also be searching for the Genie of Wishes. But in the end I will be one to undo the seal! And then I shall have a GORGEOUS wedding with my darling prince, Satan!

Arle: Yeah. That stupid, bland wish sure sounds like you.

Rulue: *shrieking* What are you calling “stupid” and “bland”!? Arle! Not only must you always stand in the way of my romance with my Satan, but now you’re also being so incredibly rude to me!!

Arle: What did I even do!? It’s Satan who’s obsessed with chasing me, not the other way around! 

Rulue: *shriek* You will pay for this…! I will shut you up for good with my marvelous martial arts techniques! 

Arle: *sigh* Yeah, of course this is where this conversation went.

Rulue: I will NOT hold back for a second! 

SFX: *Puyo chaining sounds*

Rulue: Queen’s Dance!

Arle: AAAAAAHH!!

SFX: *blast, more chaining sounds*

Arle: AHH, she sure still knows how to pack a punch! Urgh, and I’m still powered out from casting earlier. I really was hoping to avoid more battles… Looks like I’ve got only one choice!

Rulue: Come now, Arle. What’s wrong? Show me your best shot!

Arle: Hey, Rulue! Look behind you! It’s Satan!

Rulue: Such an obvious lie! That trick won’t work on me.

Arle: But Rulue, he’s waving at you~

Rulue: Ungh… As if I’d fall for this…!

Arle: Oh! And now he’s winking at you!

Rulue: …Uhhh….uhh…!

Arle: Ah! He just blew you a kiss!

Rulue: …She’s lying… I know she’s lying, but… Oh, why must you betray me, my foolish heart…!? OH, MY DARLING, SATAN~!!

Arle: Hngh! Fireball!

SFX: *chain sound, blast*

Rulue: AAAAAHHH!

Arle: Sorry for this, Rulue. But I really don’t think you should have THAT wish granted~!

Rulue: How dare you… AAAARLE!!

SFX: *footsteps as Arle runs away*

Rulue: COME BACK HERE, RIGHT NOW!

-

SFX: *still running*

Arle: *pant, pant…* …Ahh!! There it is! The final door!

Carbuncle: Gu-gugu!

Arle: The wishing genie is sealed behind that door! And we’re first in line to unseal him!

Carbuncle: Gugu!

SFX: *gate opening*

SFX: *slow footsteps*

Satan: Truely, Arly, Carbunny! You two ARE first in line! Let me congratulate you! …Or, well, you would be first. If one were to not count me! The great monarch of the night, Satan!

Arle: Satan? You’re here too!?

Satan: I had a feeling you would not miss your chance to visit this place, so I waited here. Hah. And you have done well defeating the many opponents in your path and making it here first! I expected no less of you, Arle! You are truly worthy of being my wedded empress! 

Arle: I keep telling you! I’ll NEVER be your “empress”! *sigh* How many times have I said that line now? I’ve kinda lost count. 

Carbuncle: Gugu-gu…

Satan: Now, now, there’s no need to be flustered! WAHAHAHAHA!!

Arle: This is really bad… Satan may be a moron, but he’s also really super powerful…!

Satan: Now, Arly, Carbunny, time to stop playing coy! Else I’ll have to be a liiiittle forceful in escorting you out of her~!

Arle: *sigh* Overthinking this isn’t going to help… Let’s get this going, Satan!

SFX: *Puyo popping sounds*

Arle: Hah! There! Fireball!!

Satan: Oh my, oh my… I suppose I shall accept this symbol of your burning passion! 

Arle: Urgh… Ice Storm!

Satan: Ahhh~ Such a nice, little breeze~

Satan: It is about time I returned fire… Disaster!

Arle: *screaming* AAAAAH!!

Carbuncle: *screaming: GUUUU!!

Arle:  Ou, ou, ou, ou, ouch…! Carby! Are you okay?

Carbuncle: Gugu…

Satan: Awww! Don’t make such a sad face my precious little Carbunny! I promise I’ll give you lots of pets after we’re done here~!

Arle: Hm… Satan!

Satan: Hm? What is it, Arle?

Arle: Um…Could you stand over there for a moment?

Satan: For what? Do you want to admire me striking battle poses for a little longer~? Hm~?

Arle: A little further right!

Satan: You mean here? How is this? Does this angle make me look especially handsome?

Arle: Yes, yes, that’s very good~! …Now, Carby!!

Carbuncle: Gu! GUGUGU!!

SFX: *Rubelcrack Beam*

Satan: W-WAAAAARGH!!! M…My eyes! MY EYES!! 

Arle: Perfect teamwork, Carby! Okay, Satan, we’re gonna go now! BYE~!

Satan: U-Urgh… N-No, wait… This can’t be… ARLE, WAIIIT!!

SFX: *footsteps as Arle runs away*

-

SFX: *still running*

Arle: *panting* 

SFX: *stops running*

Arle: *deep breath* Carby! We did it! We’re here!

Carbuncle: Gu-gugu!

Arle: Now, let’s see… Where’s that Wishing Genies sealed? The only thing I can see in this room is some musty, old kind of pot…

Genie(muffled): Over here…!

Arle: Whoaaa!! The pot just talked to me!

Genie(muffled): Over here…! I am sealed within this awful thing!

Arle: Oh, so that’s how it is… Hey, so, I heard that you’ll grant one wish to the person who helps you outta there. Is that true?

Genie(muffled): Yes. No matter how greedy or preposterous your wish, it will come true just as you imagine it! Now, come on, hurry, open the lid of this jar!

Carbuncle: Gugu…

Arle: …Right, you feel it too, don’t you, Carby? I have this really bad feeling about this.

SFX: *someone comes running*

Witch: *panting* …Hold it right there!

Arle: Argh! Witch!?

Witch: *panting* …Now I’ve caught up to you! 

SFX: *more people running*

Schezo&Rulue: *heavy panting* 

Schezo: ARLE! YOU’LL PAY FOR EARLIER!

Rulue: ARLE! DON’T YOU THINK YOU’VE WON ALREADY!

Arle: And now Schezo and Rulue are here too!

Schezo: Now hand me that jar at once!

Rulue: Give it to me!

Witch: No, to me!

[The scene now descends into Schezo, Rulue and Witch incomprehensibly bickering over each other about who should take the pot from Arle. This keeps going as Arle starts to talk again.]

Arle: What do I do now…? Argh! I don’t have time to think this over!!

SFX: *jar being ploppen open*

Witch:  EEK! Arle already opened the jar!!

Arle: Whoa…! *cough* What’s with all this smoke? What is going on!?

Rulue: Kiii! What is happening now!?

Schezo: Wait…

Rulue:  Huh?

Schezo: Something is not right here…!

Arle: Huh!? The smoke is taking the shape of a person!

Genie:  Wa-Ha-Ha… Hehehehehehe!! You fools! Thank you for breaking the seal on me, the Genie of Despair!!

Arle: Huh?

Schezo: The Genie of…Despair?

Rulue: But did the legend not speak of a Genie of Wishes?

Genie: Hahaha! That was a rumor I spread to lure foolish adventurers here. And it seems my plan worked perfectly!

Witch: Then… It was all a lie!?

Genie: That is precisely what it was! I mean who in their right mind would grant you lots’ wishes!? I must say, watching you all be deceived by such an obviously made up tale and quarrel so gruesomely among each other was very amusing! 

The Group: *restless sounds*

Genie: Eheheheheh! My powers are returning to me quickly! Behold the great power that once spread poison miasma across the lands! A magic which’s destructive spells once drove out each and every challenger who stepped before me, and turned this area into a land of despair!

The Group: *more restless sounds*

Genie:  Now, you shall fear me! Tremble in terror! In thanks of breaking my seal, you all shall be the first to taste the despair I-

The Group: SHUT THE HECK UP!! (Gu-gugu-GU!)

Genie: …Heh?

Witch: How dare you deceive me! You sure have nerve!

Rulue: I’ll teach you to play with the dreams of a maiden in love!

Schezo: I have no use for the magic of a being as repulsive as you!

Arle:  You’ve REALLY gone and made us mad at you now, you know!?

Carbuncle:  Gugu-gugu-GU!

[Everybody is incomprehensibly yelling at the genie without waiting their turn.]

Genie:  W-Wait! Were you even listening to what I said!? *deep breath* I am an INCREDIBLY powerful Genie of Despair, who is going to-

Arle: EAT THIS CHAIN! Here I go!! Diacute!

SFX: *Puyo popping sounds*

Witch: I’ll take over! Twinkle Dust!

Rulue: Very well! Concentration!

Schezo:  Oh, dark power… Tear Apart!

Genie:  *shrieking* What is this comet my eyes see before me!? W-Wait! Just a moment ago you were quarreling and snarling amongst each other! Why can you suddenly work together so perfectly!?

Arle: Take this! This is a special chain, full of all our anger! BAYO~EN!!

SFX: *BIIIG IMPACT*

Genie: WAAAAAAAHHH! *blasts off like Team Rocket*

Arle: *pants and sighs* Haaah… Now I feel a little better, I guess.

Witch: We managed to unite our powers wonderfully!

Schezo: Not by choice, of course, but I am also not surprised.

Rulue: Who would’ve thought that a party as prone to quarreling as us could work together so well?

Arle: Yeah, it’s scary how well we all synchronize when it comes down to it, huh?

SFX: *someone comes running*

Satan: Ah! Arle! What happened here? I heard a loud noise…

Arle: Oh! Satan! You only just got here? Your eyes aren’t hurting still, are they…?

Satan: Hmpf… I still find myself blinking a bit more than I should. But, much more importantly! I just saw a rather evil-looking genie come soaring my way. Before I knew it I’d caught it in my hands and sealed it away in a bottle suitable for the job, but where did it come from, I wonder? 

Genie(muffled again): No! NO! I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS!!

Rulue: *squee* Oh, my darling Satan! As expected of you, you saved the day!

Schezo: Just throw the bottle out with the recyclables. Nobody wants that trash.

Satan: What has gotten into you…?

Rulue: That all aside… *sigh* What a waste. I came all this way hoping for a gorgeous wedding with my Satan, and now this!

Satan: R-Rulue… I think you just gave me the chills…

Schezo: *sigh* I too came here looking to increase my power, but it seems all the walking was for naught…

Witch: It’s mortifying! I thought I’d be able to use this as a pretext to finally become a fully-fledged witch!

Arle: Yeah, same here! Just when I thought I’d be able to finally get my hands on some good curry again!

Carbuncle: Gugu!

Schezo: Wait…

Schezo, Rulue & Witch:  You were going to wish for CURRY!?

-END

[odinsblog]

You jew haters love a good token. Norm F or Masha or any white passing ashkie american jew who hasnt been to shul or a secular even in a decade... brb gonna cite thomas sowell and clarence thomas any time you bring up the hotep hasbara about "systemic racism" or ignore black on black crime is more prevalent then cops shooting unarmed trayvons. One day you might feel shame about going all in on jew hate. Probably not.

[re: this series of posts, or this one, or maybe this one?]

I don’t hate Jewish people. So jot that down and let’s get that straight, okay? I dO, however, hate what the state of Israel, Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu are doing (and have been doing for decades) to Palestinians

Note: Jewish people are Jewish whether they’re religious Jews who have been to a synagogue, or not. Non-religious, non-observant Jewish people are still Jewish people. Intentionally conflating “religious Jews” with all Jewish people is antisemitic

And another note: conflating Israel with all Jewish people is also antisemitic, so let’s not do that either, cool?

We could quibble about “white passing” Jewish people, but there most definitely are Jewish people who self-identify as white (just as there are Jewish people who self-identify as Black), but ultimately, I believe that this “argument” is a red-herring, and ultimately, secondary or even tertiary to what’s happening in Palestine

I know you think you’ve made some kind of “gotcha” point, but you really haven’t

We can easily dismantle Clarence Thomas and his hypocritical conservative, anti-Black SCOTUS rulings without ever once mentioning his race. We can prove that structural racism is a real thing simply by looking at lived reality and history. We can show that Black-on-Black crime is roughly the same as white-on-white crime, and is only invoked as a derailment tactic to take the focus away from anti-Black racism. Simple statistics and observations prove that the police routinely Stop-and-Frisk and execute more Black and Brown people than white people, usually without the same consequences that would occur if their victims were white

And we can very easily do the same thing with everything that Israel has been doing to Palestinians for decades; we can look at the definition of war crimes and objectively understand that Israel has been committing war crimes against Palestinians since before October 7th, and we can see that Israel’s reaction to October 7th has been the definition of “disproportionate,” and has been since 1948

And before I continue, I really want to make something clear: you can agree with someone on 80% of what they believe, and vehemently disagree with them in other areas that are not their area of expertise. No one is right about everything, and no one is wrong about everything—even broken clocks are accurate two times a day, right?

Moving on…

Look, there was a time when I used to think as simplistically as you do, anon. As you’ve correctly noted, I am Black, and there was a time when I used to believe that anyone who criticized Barack Obama, for example, was a racist, and if they were Black, then they were a Black person who had internalized anti-Blackness. It was a very insular way of thinking, but it kept me safe in a mental bubble of my own making. A bubble where, as long as I called people racists or self hating Black people, I was always right in my thinking and never had to challenge myself

But then, eventually, something wonderful happened. This thing called nuance happened and I learned that many things could simultaneously be true: yes, there absolutely positively are self-hating Black people like Clarence Thomas; and yes, there are people like Trump who only criticized Obama simply because he was Black and because they were racist white people (or frequently, NBPoC); but the existence of those racists do not magically invalidate all legitimate criticisms of Obama

So I learned how to do two things that proved invaluable: 1) look at the specific critiques, and separate the critiques, and evaluate the critiques on their own, 2) look at the source of the critiques, and their history of criticisms, and evaluate how fairly they applied those exact same critiques to others who were doing the same or similar things. Talk about cutting through all the bullshit!

So I learned that it was possible to be living in the real world that simultaneously had: white supremacists + self-hating Black people + people with legitimate grievances against Obama

You can (and should) apply this same line of reasoning with Hillary Clinton; yes, there definitely are misogynistic people who hate her simply because she is a woman, but that doesn’t nullify the criticisms of those people who have problems with her strictly because of her deeply conservative values

Anon, is Bernie Sanders a token self-hating Jew if he doesn’t side with YOU? (hint: he isn’t and he doesn’t)

Think about what you’re implying anon. You’re saying that Israel has never been wrong? About anything? And consequently, all Zionist Jewish people are right and anyone who disagrees with them is automatically antisemitic and hates all Jewish people?

Does that even sound right to you anon?

That’s a very comforting, if not somewhat mentally lazy, self-serving view of the world. One that doesn’t require any additional thought or self-reflection (or growth, tbh) on your part. It’s an adolescent version of reality

What we are talking about here, anon, is weaponized identity politics

anyone who disagrees with my good Black person is racist

anyone who disagrees with my good female is misogynistic

anyone who disagrees with my good Jew is antisemitic

This type of logic really makes “winning” arguments super easy, for people who don’t have any real arguments to defend their ideology

[carriesthewind]

a question, if you don't mind it! I read your post about the IA, and it makes a lot of sense, I wasn't aware of how their lending system operated, so thank you for that. I was curious, does there exist/do you know of any digital library that operates fairly and without harming authors? lending on a one to one basis etc? this isn't an "aha, there is not ethical option available to me so I'm allowed to steal, gotcha!", I just genuinely hope something like that exists bc for several reasons I don't have access to a physical library rn. thanks and I hope this isn't a bother <3

Hi Anon!

Unfortunately, I think the answer to what you are looking for is going to boil down to "there are a lot of free online books and resources, but not resources that will allow you to borrow any given book." But it's going to be a little bit of a complicated path to get there.

Part of the problem is the words "fairly" and "without harming authors." Because "fair" does not necessarily equal "legal," and authors can and do disagree about what systems cause them harm. So is "controlled digital lending"(CDL) (where instead of buying or licensing an e-book, the lender digitizes print book and lends the digital copy) that's one-to-one owned-to-loaned fair and not harm authors? Well, as the district court held, it's certainly not legal in the U.S. (because to be clear: while the IA was/is not doing one-to-one owned-to-loaned, the holding of the court was that even it it was, that would violate U.S. copyright law). But is it fair (or more fair and equitable than current digital copyright law) and does it harm authors? As I've said in a previous post, I have not stated and will not state a personal opinion on that. If you want to read more, the statement I previously linked by the National Writer's Union takes a position that it is unfair and harms authors; for a counter-position that it is fair and does not harm authors, here's the memorandum the EFF filed in support of their motion for summary judgement for the IA. And you can find lots and lots more written on both sides of the issue. (If you are struggling with where to start: a google search for "internet archive controlled digital lending" will bring up a lot of articles about the case with links to various statements and opinions.)

If you are looking to avoid illegal or disputed CDL, there are options, but they are limited: that is, there is plenty of digital books and reading material that is legally and fairly available online, but you are unlikely to be able to borrow any specific book. Some options that exist:

On the IA's "Open Library": anything in the public domain (including, as of 2023, anything published or released in the U.S. prior to 1928), as well as anything where the rights-holder has allowed the IA to distribute their work. (If legality matters less to to you "fair" and "harms authors," you might also be ok with works on IA if the author has permitted the IA or another site to loan their work in defiance of an allegedly unfair or exploitative contract.)

If you want to avoid the IA's "Open Library," HathiTrust Digital Library won their copyright case (correctly, imo) and host a bunch (17+ million) of digital books and other items. (By the way: this was a case where the IA - as one of their partner organizations - was on the right side and the Authors Guild, who sued them, was, imo, on the wrong side. Just to emphasize how complicated this is.) But (unless you are a member of one of their partner institutions - mostly universities) your access is limited to reading works that are in the public domain or for which they have been given permission from the copyright holder.

Lots of individuals and organizations post written material for free online! For example, while many journal articles are hidden behind paywalls, many are not; lots of short story magazines (esp. genre fic) have free digital versions; and lots of people post books for free online under a Creative Commons License. I don't know of any universal library for these kinds things though - where to look will depend on what you are looking for.

Beyond that, it depends on where you are and what you are looking for. For example, if you aren't in the U.S., there may be country-specific digital resources (e.g. does your country have a national library, and does it have digital resources)?

You can try looking into:

Local university or resource centers: sometimes, even if you aren't a student or profession, many of these institutions offer resources, including digital resources, to their local communities.

Local museums: same as above.

Local cultural or other kinds of resource centers: sometimes these kinds of organizations will have community libraries. These will often be specific to the interest of the organization in question, but it's worth checking!

Finally, if you are in the U.S.: if your lack of access to a physical library is based on the fact that you can't physically get to or access the library, but you do have a local library, you have options! Even if you can't get there to access a library card, some libraries will allow you to create a card online just for their digital collection. And many libraries have resources to assist home-bound patrons - it's always worth calling and asking.

If anyone else has any other suggestions, please feel free to add them! (Especially if you have information on non-U.S. and/or non-english specific resources)

[darklydeliciousdesires]

The Burden of Thunder... and Waffles - A Bishop Losa/Daughter One Shot Story.

I felt like writing something cute, and I know a few of you utterly melt at the idea of daddy Bish, so yeah. I gotchu :)

Words - 826

Warnings - Pure fluff!

The far away rumble of thunder rolling over the greyish-violet clouds acted as his alarm, Bishop grunting, scratching his face as he lifted his cell from the nightstand. 5:03am. Nope. He would not entertain getting up just yet. His head, still thick and heavy with sleep sank back down into the pillows, plump and downy, his eyes pulled back into the ever-alluring blanket of slumber.

It had only been about twenty minutes when the actual blanket which covered him began to move around, small hands and feet negotiating their way onto the bed, climbing up his back, a heel hitting him in the spot right above his left kidney. He grunted, and she continued her ascent until she was pressed flat against his back, small arms reaching for his neck.

“Daddy.”  

He smiled before even opening his eyes, hearing her little croaky voice speak the name only she called him, his little dark haired, hazel eyed princess. She was much like him of a morning, completely unwilling to rise early, but for Rosie Losa, she made an exception if it meant she got to venture into another bed and cuddle with her daddy.

“Morning, baby,” he murmured, feeling her tiny fingers stroking his beard. “How’d ya sleep?”

“Thunder stupid. Woke me up!”

He chuckled at her indignance. Two years old and already, she had no issue voicing complaint, even at the weather. She’d once proclaimed the sun to be dumb when her mother had advised her to come inside when it got too hot for her to play in the backyard, throwing herself onto the couch dramatically and frowning as she’d vented her frustration.  

“It’ll pass soon,” he advised her, feeling her soft breaths flutter over his bare shoulder. “Close your eyes and go back to sleep.”

Another roll of thunder sounded, Rosie squeaking softly with displeasure. “Is loud! Bad noises! Like helicacchopter!”

He snorted quietly, his grin growing. She couldn’t quite grasp how to say the word helicopter just yet. She had a list of words that he adored, that he almost didn’t want her to ever succeed in pronouncing correctly, for the joy it brought him to hear her mispronounce cookies as coobees, medicine as mexme and motorcycle as mocortycle. Her asking if she could sit on his mocortycle was one of his favourite things.  

“Daddy! Is too boom boom to sleep!” she whined, the thunder growing a little louder. “Can you make breaktees?” Breakfast was another word she couldn’t quite yet grasp.

“Right now?”

“Yep!”

“Can’t tempt you to sleep a little longer, no?”  

“Is too loud, silly!”  

Her mind, it seemed, was made up. She was a Losa through and through in that respect. “Where’s mommy?”

“Doing pedals.” Yes. Karina often did get up at a ridiculous hour to strap herself to her Peloton and cycle for an hour before getting ready for work. “Breaktees, Daddy! Now!”

He turned over, throwing her down suddenly, Rosie landing with a soft thump and a giggle as he reached to seat her on his stomach, shaking his head. “What happened to my little baby who liked to sleep in?”

“Told you! Thunder!” Her eyes widened, thrusting a hand towards the window with dramatic flair.

“Alright, kid. You win.” He yawned, stretching, Rosie sticking her finger in his mouth, as he always did to her when she yawned. “Stop it!”

“Gotcha!” Her giggle was pure sunshine, and he lived for it, even when it was as a result of his child getting her own back on him.  

“Okay, what do you wanna eat?”

She thought for a few moments, humming softly. “Waffles!”

Damn her. The one thing he was completely useless at making. Even with ready mixed batter, he inevitably messed them up. “You gonna help me? You know daddy sucks at waffles. But if you wanted scrambled eggs and toast, I’m your guy for that.”

Her face scrunched in a frown, her tiny nose crinkling. “No scrambly eggies! Waffles!”

The small one had made her demands known. “Alright.” Sitting up, he wrapped an arm around her, his feet touching the floor with reluctance, 5:42am and already compliant to the demands of the tiny overlord. “You know you’re the only person in the world who gets to boss me around like this, don’t you, baby?”

“And mommy!”

He smirked, pulling the bedroom door open. “Only sometimes. You, though? All of the time.” Placing her down when they arrived in the kitchen, he grabbed a pair of clean sweats from the laundry basket, pulling them on, watching Rosie heave the fridge door open and pull out the carton of waffle batter, the Hershey’s syrup following.  

“Now you do, daddy. Make waffles happen!”

He took the items she thrust towards him, saluting her. “Yes, jefe.”  

She beamed, a full grin of tiny teeth making him realise that just as long as she kept smiling at him like that, he’d let her wrap him around her little finger forever.