#Functionally it doesn't make a huge amount of difference but it feels like there's a good break point there so. 13 installments it is!

[karaeilish]

★ sad girl; b. eilish. . .

★ wife!billie x pregnant!reader

★ fluff `

soft beams of LEDs and fluorescent bulbs illuminated every square meter of the huge room, where the red carpet was held every year, along which thousands of the most beautiful and talented stars of different generations, and the most ordinary people, walked. this was the place where everyone could shine, but no one, absolutely no one, shone today like you. and there were reasons for this; this was the first year that you came to this red carpet not as a girlfriend, but as a wife. a future mother.

billie was especially gentle today, spent the whole morning and afternoon, showering you and your tummy with kisses, not forgetting to mention that you're the most beautiful woman in her life. and she meant it, because every glance she cast at you was filled with only love, affection and admiration.

on the way to the event her hand never left yours and her lips never left your neck, leaving teasing kisses that made you giggle, feeling your cheeks heat up with a blush. "do you know you look like a real goddess in that dress?" her gaze falls on your body, covered in tight red fabric, shoulders open, showing expressive collarbones, a slit on the thigh makes her thoughts wander to the most lustful desires.

"you've said this already… ten thousand times in the last hour?" you giggle, lowering your hand to her cheek to press a kiss to her plump lips, but she tries to deepen it, for which she earns a light slap on the hand, pulling away with the most pained expression on her face. "i thought you loved me"

"you're gonna smudge my lipstick, baby" the words feel like a knife to her heart and she clutches her chest, testing to see if it will get the reaction she's looking for.

"try that trick on our future baby" the smile never leaves your face at the thought of the baby that will be coming in a few months, and the same thoughts are passed on to billie. this time she doesn't ask you, pulling you into a deep kiss that lasts until finneas starts faking gagging, earning a slap on the back of the head from claudia a few seconds later. billie laughs until she gets slapped on the back of the head herself.

you're a little nervous about walking the red carpet, but with the amount of compliments your wife has given you, it's hard to keep thinking about anyone giving you the sideways look. being an expectant mother is something to be proud of.

billie didn't let go of your hand for a moment, as the cameras flashed and the admiring exclamations were focused only on you and the way her hand always rested on the small of your back in a protective gesture.

"babe, i'm gonna go away for two minutes, okay?" she leans towards you, asking quietly, and even when you tell her 'no problem' she can't help but ask three more times if she's sure she can leave you for the full 120 seconds.

compliments pour in every few seconds, and your cheeks turn pink, betraying your shyness.

"look at her. you look like a queen!" a familiar voice is heard from behind you, and you turn around with a smile, noticing amelia in a beautiful blue dress. "hey, you're glowing, girl."

you giggle loudly, telling her that she looks beautiful herself, but amelia just waves it off, squeezing your hand gently. "but seriously, you look gorgeous tonight"

your eyes almost water as you realize that absolutely everyone in this room thinks you look beautiful.

"thank you. but you haven't seen my woman" and as if sensing that you were talking about her, billie comes over to you again, starting the conversation with a gentle kiss to your temple.

"everyone's seen your woman, my love. but has they seen my queen?"

౨ৎ tags; @billiesbabygirll, @amara-eilish, @st0nerlesb0, @bxllxebxtch @mystiquemm, @bilswifee, @dragoneyelashart, @bilssturns, @chrissv4mp, @allyeilishh, @bitchesbrokenpromises, @too-sapphic-to-function, @thefeverburningalive, @peytonglazesbillieeilish, @1nn3rthOughts, @thebluediner, @xiletay, @eilishsfantasy

[not-poignant]

Hello! I apologise if you’ve already talked about this before and I just missed it, but if you don’t mind me asking, do you experience brainfog from your fibromyalgia (or other conditions), and if so, do you have any tips on dealing with it? I have FM as well and often find it impossible to focus on creative works when it’s bad—which is often due to the weather where I live 🫠 I feel like I can never finish anything, so I’m in awe of your output! Thank you in advance if you get the chance to answer; I hope you have a lovely day / night!

Hi anon,

I find brain fog is a pretty huge spectrum from 'can't do anything including watch TV / play video games' all the way to 'can't do executive function / editing but can probably still write a little.' So it's definitely different for everyone.

That being said, I don't try and write through brain fog. I don't think it's helpful and I don't really try and 'fix' it when it's there. Most of the time I take it as an indicator of a need to rest and/or a sign that I'm in a flare that will get worse if I push too hard. One of the reasons I took March off was because I typically am sunk energy-wise/health-wise during March-April (and October-November) due to the seasonal transitions from summer-winter and winter-summer.

The way I work accommodates this. For example, I don't have a daily wordcount, I have a monthly wordcount, so that if I need to take say 10-15 days of not writing because I'm too unwell, that's okay. I don't work full-time hours. Chapters don't actually take me that long to write (with the exceptions of sex and other action scenes), so I really only need 2-4 hours of alertness to get each one written.

I usually have a good idea in the morning of how foggy I'm going to be. And if that's the case I'm trying to get better at not fighting against it. Instead of thinking 'how do I deal with it' I think okay, it's here now, I'm going to get nothing really done today, I might go lie down again / play a mindless video game (if I can) / etc. I try and let my brain and body rest. It recovers from the brain fog fast that way.

There are also extremely basic things that are frequently overlooked re: helping with Fibromyalgia-based brain fog like: Looking into decent neuropathic or nerve-based pain medications like Amitriptyline or Lyrica (ymmv, but I know they help me). Making sure you're getting as much decent sleep as you can. Staying hydrated in a very genuine sense (sometimes my brain fog has literally disappeared after drinking enough water, though this is rare that it completely disappears). Eating well, and eating a balanced amount of protein, carbs, fat and fibre (and learning what this means for your body). And, though most of us hate it: Pacing. I.e. Making sure you stop before you're past you're limits, or not writing until you "can't write anymore." Stop when you still have a few paragraphs left in your head.

Writing is very fatiguing work, as is thinking about writing, and editing.

The reality is though, I have the privilege of being in a country where I'm on a disability pension and get disability support because of how disabled I am. Not everyone is fortunate enough to be in a country that takes care of their sick, elderly and vulnerable populations. And not everyone in those countries is lucky enough to have the "right illnesses" to access those supports. (Fibromyalgia doesn't count, for example, but I have enough other disabilities that I can still access support).

I could not live the way I live without those things, and without the support of folks on Patreon and Ream.

What I can say is that forcing myself to deal with / push through brain fog made me permanently sicker each time (my doctors and I think there's an element of ME/CFS in my diagnosis because of those, since FM shouldn't be degenerative in any way at all - literally differentials exist for this reason), so it is really important to make space for it. It took me a long time to learn this.

I schedule sleeps in the afternoon, I am honestly lying down for about 10-16 hours per day, every single day, to get the energy that I have. Yesterday I was in bed (though not sleeping the entire time) from midnight to around 11am. I was back in bed at 2pm until nearly 6pm. That's my life. I'm sure you're familiar, unfortunately. A lot is sacrificed to make sure that when I'm upright and functional, I can do things. If I'm lucky, maybe I'm in bed from 2pm until 4pm, maybe I get up at 9am, but I can't think of the last time I was awake through an entire day without collapsing (literally) as a consequence.

It can be worth sitting down and taking a proper look into pacing and your Energy Envelope. It's an ME concept that applies well to FMS and Long Covid.

Anyway hopefully there's something in this mess that helps, though my prevailing method these days is just...let the fog be there, and rest. Make sure you're taking basic care of your body. That sort of thing.

[42starsintheuniverse]

Sokka & Zuko- The Invisible Winner of the Kataang/Zutara Debate.

Please don't take this as "Shipping War Bait", I'm doing a character analysis of ATLA about my opinion on which close Zuko relationship makes the most sense!

I feel like fandom treated Zuko/ Sokka as a crack ship but like?? That's never made sense to me.

Firstly I personally think that Aang will always remember how the fire nation destroyed his people. No matter how much he consciously says he forgives Zuko (& the fire nation) I would BET that unconsciously there's still something deeply hurt in Aang that can never truly be healed about that. As a result, Aang would not be able to LOVE Zuko as close as his other relationships. It's one of those hard to swallow pills but it's just how I interpret the characters. Aang's body has that bias, the deepest parts of his mind won't ever forget the horrific fact that his people are dead because of Ozai, and Zuko is Ozai's firstborn.

I know Aang's whole thing is that he preaches forgiveness, but here's the thing... We aren't always aware of how deeply our trauma affects us. Sometimes you don't hold a conscious bias against people... You hold an Unconscious bias. And to me, Aang holding an unconscious bias against Zuko, and not being as close to him, makes sense.

Toph could honestly work with Zuko, I think she's also a good contender for closest relationship. Though I see it in either a platonic or romantic sense (depends on the vibe). I think there could be a bit of 'fandom implicit bias' there in having Zuko and Toph constantly presented as platonic only. Like, Toph is disabled, she's blind... Do we ever question that maybe we don't like putting her with people romantically because she's disabled? Is Katara the one people ship Zuko with romantically- because Katara is more traditionally attractive? Toph is short, stocky, has short hair, is brash, and blind... Like, there's a chance she doesn't get the same treatment as Katara because she's not traditionally attractive in the way Katara is.... Something to think about.

-All that being said, I like Toph and Zuko as having a close bond either romantically or platonically. I think it's funny that they're both born rich kids, I think it's funny that they only have one fully functioning eye between them (and the comedy and hijinks that leads to). And they do work really well together throughout the show, Toph forgives Zuko when he accidentally burns her feet. And Zuko clearly appreciates how chill Toph is- she doesn't have PERSONAL bias towards Zuko as the son of the Fire Lord, in the way that the other three do.

Moving on to Katara, I have a similar sort of feeling there. It's made obvious that Katara SAW her mother die at the hands of the fire nation. It was traumatic, it was horrific, and because she was a child watching it- that is likely a DEEP core memory. In the context of the show, Zuko helps Katara find the man who killed her mother, because it's sort of a levelling of the scales. It doesn't even make Katara LIKE Zuko, it makes her neutral towards him. He helped her to basically right a wrong (that's her perspective). So yeah- for the same reasons, I've just never been convinced that Zuko and Katara could have a strong and intimate relationship because of the deepness of Katara's trauma. It takes a significant amount of time in terms of the show for her to even start talking and trusting Zuko at all. Doesn't FEEL like good romantic potential to me.

But Sokka, Sokka is the best fit of them so far. The thing is, Zuko and Sokka have a lot of different experiences- but shared values. Consider the things they've had to deal with, Sokka had to handle a huge level of grief & pressure as he quickly became responsible for his family and community at a noticeably young age. Then consider how that parallels (it is not THE SAME, but there is a PARALLEL) to Zuko's abuse & exile. They're both young men, they're both conditioned to think they should be a certain way (Sokka a warrior, Zuko a tyrant). Sokka is creative & inventive, which mirrors how Zuko has to create a new emotional source for his fire bending- once again, these are parallel elements of their characters, and demonstrate how they could relate to each other.

Sokka as a character is also slightly more separated from the association between the fire nation and the death of his mother- compared to Katara. Once again, she saw it happen right in front of her as a small child, Sokka was slightly older when the event happened, and didn't see it first hand.

There are some more generic elements of their characters that might suggest gay subtext; such as Sokka's hypermasculinity being a masking behaviour so no-one would think he's attracted to men. (Most people understand why that is; but if you don't know- leaning into very masculine things as a man, can make it feel like people won't question your assumed "straightness").

But I think what I've touched on is more relevant because it's very much tied to THESE specific characters, and how they interact, and how they could relate to each other.

TLDR; Zuko and Sokka work as a ship cos they have less things stopping them (barriers to intimacy & trauma to heal from). And they have probably the highest relatability to each other's lives, allowing them to trust each other and open up, compared to the other characters.

[cavalierious-whim]

Heat (Wriolette, NSFW)

Wriothesley has been Neuvillette's platonic heart partner for just long enough to catch feelings.

'Lord Over Me'

5.4k

omegaverse

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--

"Others would think that you want to tame me." Neuvillette's voice is a quiet purr that, like a match, sparks a flame in Wriothesley's gut.

The hand against his sternum is light, but the implication is heavy; Neuvillette hangs over him, pinning Wriothesley to their bed with an impressive amount of strength. Any other alpha would bear their teeth in a bid for dominance. Any other alpha would roll them over in a tangle of limbs and force submission from their omega.

(But not Wriothesley. No, no, there is a delicious heat to pleasing a partner, in just heeling and giving them exactly what they want. It isn't as if Neuvillette doesn't bear the brunt of his own instincts. For all his talk, he's still needy, still has his moments where he can barely function beyond the thought of Wriothesley's cock spilling deep inside of him, but—)

"Is that what you want, beloved?"

Wriothesley blinks, realizing that Neuvillette has asked him a question. His throat is dry. Words are hard because he's too busy choking on the ruddy scent of Neuvillette's preheat. And fuck, he's happy to help with this. Neuvillette is his friend, his—

Not mate. Never mate, no matter how sweetly the endearment of beloved drips from Neuvillette's mouth. Wriothesley knows that he's different, knows that Neuvillette regards him with a fondness reserved for him alone, but still, Neuvillette is still the emperor, the Hydro Sovereign, a dragon—

For all the affection he has for Wriothesley they are not cut from the same cloth, secondary genders aside.

Still, Wriothesley lets himself imagine it. Makes helping Neuvillette through his heat less of a suffering thing, and more a wild fantasy to indulge in.

"I—"

"You know that I like it when you use your words, Wriothesley."

Neuvillette's quiet request is a trap; genuine, yes, but he'll use the answer as a relentless tease for however long Wriothesley is doomed to warm his bed.

"I would never," Wriothesley finally breathes. Tame Neuvillette, he means. Fuck, he wouldn't; he's an alpha who just wants to please, and if that means submitting to the omega of his desire then by all accounts that's what he'll do. Neuvillette's wild, mad dominance is something to be cherished, to be relished. It'll speak of a job well done, and the alpha in Wriothesley's chest will just steep in the praise, getting off on the high of being so good.

Neuvillette hums. Scratches through the hair on Wriothesley's chest, and thumbs over a nipple that peeks out from his half-opened shirt. "You want to be tamed instead," muses Neuvillette, the skin around his eyes creasing as his mouth curls into a subtle but effective smirk. “You invite it even, crave it. You would let me take and take and take as I wish.”

Always, thinks Wriothesley. Pinned to that bed, he thinks, Always because I’m yours, burning underneath Neuvillette’s sharp look, and the graze of his claws across Wriothesley’s chest.

A soft churring of content as Neuvillette’s hand slips between the fabric of Wriothesley's undone shirt to squeeze at the taut muscle of his chest. “How well our desires align which is why you'll always be so dearly beloved to me.”

Dearly beloved, he calls him, tenderly enough that Wriothesley can imagine it, at least. Neuvillette is fond of him, sure, but in a way that a child likes a toy; they are close friends, companions, but when it comes to things like this, Neuvillette is very articulate in the way that he demands pleasure. And there's trust there, Wriothesley knows it—but, but—

No, his alpha is okay with this. Wriothesley’s alpha preens when Neuvillette's hand dips lower, lower to brush against the bulge of his erection still trapped in his trousers.

"Clothing," muses Neuvillette, hooking a finger into Wriothesley's waistband for a gentle tug. "Technically you are part of my harem. Should I demand that you wear only a silk robe when in my presence? Or—and this is a thought—remain entirely naked for my sake?"

That's the heat talking. Wriothesley's helped Neuvillette through several at this point, and he's learned to recognize what is off-kilter language for the man. Neuvillette will be embarrassed later and apologize, cheeks blushing pink, but now, right now, there is no hesitation to his teasing; to his wants and needs, or the way that he slings a leg over Wriothesley's hip, settling across him properly.

Neuvillette is barely dressed, clad in one of those damnable silk robes he was just talking about, and nothing else. He hasn't lost himself yet. His scent has shifted, and the room smells like ocean water, like salt caught on the breeze and Romaritime flowers, but it's still muted, still just on the cusp of boiling over.

Still, Neuvillette is keyed up. He drops his hips, grinding his ass against Wriothesley's cock, already leaking a mess of slick, and the lack of mortification shows how close he is to slipping.

"Sweetheart," murmurs Wriothesley, "can I touch? Can I—" His hands hover there, just shy of Neuvillette's hips. He knows he doesn't need to ask, that it isn't required, but it's a small act of service that makes his alpha burn hot in his chest with need. He wants to hear the request, wants to have it melt into his skin, stoking his arousal.

Neuvillette knows this. He sighs, his expression softening. "Sweet boy."

He does not bring others to bed, even during times of need. Neuvillette's told him how he holds off for as long as possible, how he'll ignore his cycles until he cannot anymore. "It's a matter of balance," he's said. "I must remain impartial and taking a partner, even in a functional sense, still spells favor whether I mean for it to or not."

Wriothesley also knows that he used to employ Clorinde's help when it eventually became too much to bear. And then Navia's too, with her and Clorinde together, but that was years ago, and now, now, it's only him, only Wriothesley.

("I have a need of you," Neuvillette said to him once an eon ago, and those words drowned Wriothesley's fate deep underneath ocean waters. "It makes sense. We are friends, and you are not put off by my commanding nature. We are suited for each other." And yes, pragmatically they are, but a man can only be a fuck buddy for so long before catching feelings, and gods they're lucky that Neuvillette's need for control, and Wriothesley's determination for answering that call outweighs any unwieldy thoughts of love. But, but—)

"Have I lost you again?" Neuvillette's question is like a knife through Wriothesley's thoughts.

Sharing a heat with Clorinde was once in a blue moon, and entirely professional. Wriothesley's talked about his own experiences about this with her and Navia. "What do you mean he teases you?" Clorinde asked, almost appalled by the thought of it as she clutched her non-existent pearls. Apparently, fucking Neuvillette was a one and done deal with her. Maybe it'd last a little longer with Navia helping, but when Wriothesley recounted tales of being pressed into the bed for days at a time, of being wrung so dry that he literally couldn’t form a knot anymore, Clorinde nearly dropped her tea.

So. There's that. Compatibility, he thinks because that makes it easier, right?

(No, but that's a problem for Wriothesley and his hand later. He's fine jerking off in his room after the fact to the fantasy of being more.)

There's a sharp, stinging tug at Wriothesley's hair. He hisses softly, but Neuvillette's fingers do not loosen. No, he leans forward, his weight hot and heady. "Wriothesley," he purrs, and oh, the burn of Wriothesley's scalp under his grip is a delicious, grounding thing.

"Sorry, I just—I was thinking."

"Thinking?" Neuvillette's gaze narrows, but his pupils remain blown wide by arousal. "Of what?"

That's a trap. Archons, that's the worst trap of all.

Wriothesley licks his lips, his throat suddenly dry. The answer is simple because at the end of the day, he's still an alpha. Neuvillette is still an omega nearing his heat, and the scent of his need and slick is so thick in the air that it blankets them. Yes, Wriothesley wants to please. Yes, that's what drives his alpha; to see his mate happy and tended to, but the thought of breeding him, of watching Neuvillette's belly swell with a clutch makes his cock twitch and harden to the point of near pain. It's instinct. He needs that, specifically that, because fuck, it's still part of his purpose.

"Ah, yes." Neuvillette's mouth curls into a smile, and Wriothesley knows he can smell his desire. "Such an alpha when you want to be."

"Sweetheart."

There, he finally manages to utter a word, as hoarse as it is.

Neuvillette clicks his tongue, shifting over him until he's spread out across Wriothesley's prone body properly. "My alpha," he says, and fuck, fuck, that's— "No one else's, yes? Mine and mine alone."

"Yes." Wriothesley finally swallows around the lump in his throat. "Yes, only yours."

There's a joke there, probably, something that Clorinde would regale about being knot-headed and a part of Neuvillette's harem, but Celestia above, Wriothesley doesn't care, not when Neuvillette's scent is thickening, and he's clawing at him like a beast in—well—heat.

Neuvillette's fingers leave his hair to curl around Wriothesley's face, knuckles dragging over scarred skin. Then he takes hold of Wriothesley's chin sharply, teasing the swell of his bottom lip with a thumb. That pad catches against chapped skin. "This," says Neuvillette. "I want your mouth first, beloved."

As if he'd say no. "Yes,” croaks Wriothesley in response. “Yes, like this.” Finally, finally, Wriothesley touches him, hands curling around Neuvillette's wide hips to guide him up.

There's soft laughter that drips from Neuvillette's mouth as he settles over his face. That laughter dissolves the moment Wriothesley's mouth finds the swollen folds of his vent, forgoing his cock entirely. Neuvillette moans, jerking overtop him.

Wriothesley groans at the taste of his slick, decadent and thick. Then up, up, to where his cock has slipped from his vent, thick and hard. Wriothesley kisses over its length, tongue lapping at the ridges just beneath the head. Neuvillette moves, shifting for a better angle, until Wriothesley can reach and wrap his fingers around his cock. A quick stroke. A thumb that drags across the slit, feeling the wetness that pools there.

"Wriothesley," hisses Neuvillette, squirming over him. "I'm—"

Neuvillette almost begs. He won't, not quite yet, but gods, he nearly does, and what that does to Wriothesley. He doesn't mean to tease Neuvillette, no, he just wants to take his time and savor tasting him, but Wriothesley also knows that Neuvillette is nearing his limit.

What a sweet, torturous thing. Neuvillette hates his cycles because he doesn't trust others to see this part of him, or the way that he loses all inhibitions. Others would take advantage; others would mate him, using that weakness to bind them together.

(And yes, Wriothesley's teeth ache to sink into supple flesh, but he'd never. Fuck he wants to, but—)

Even Neuvillette struggles with this. Later on, he'll pet over Wriothesley's swollen scent gland, making it all the harder to not. But Wriothesley is good. He's so, so good, and he's able to hold off, relishing in just the dream of it, which is precisely why he's here, and no one else.

Neuvillette will claw at him. He'll demand and beg to be bred and mated, and Wriothesley will do neither—at least not in the way both of their instincts demand.

"Beloved." Neuvillette's gaze is hot, blazing. He watches Wriothesley in almost a predatory way, in a way that demands a claim, and oh, how well Wriothesley's alpha responds to that.

"Tell me what you want, sweetheart."

Neuvillette still holds his jaw and a bruising grip. His thumb presses against Wriothesley's mouth, slipping between his lips, tamping his tongue down. "This," he mutters, half-mad with lust, more on the cusp of his turning heat than he's been the entire night. "This, Wriothesley, around my cock."

That, he can do. "Of course," he says. "All you have to do is ask, and I'm yours."

Neuvillette has enough awareness to scoff, but that sound melts into an aching thing of pleasure as Wriothesley angles Neuvillette's cock towards his mouth. Wriothesley's lips seal around it, sucking the head right between his lips. His tongue swirls around those ridges, dragging across every single one, pulling a deep moan from the back of Neuvillette’s throat.

Fuck, he could die a happy man like this, choking on his omega's cock, making him feel good.

Wriothesley's hands slip to Neuvillette's waist, then his hips. He pulls at Neuvillette, guiding him to take his pleasure, to sink his cock deeper and deeper. Neuvillette looses a strangled sound when the tip of his cock finds the back of Wriothesley's throat. Like this, his vent brushes against Wriothesley's chin, a tease of a touch that leaves Neuvillette desperate for more.

"And these," he demands, latching around one of Wriothesley's wrists to pry it from his hip. "These," he repeats, fingers slipping between Wriothesley's, smooth skin against calloused as he tugs that hand between his thighs, "inside of me."

Wriothesley could laugh. Instead, he suffocates on the taste of Neuvillette's cock, on the smell of his heat and arousal. His gut burns. His own cock is hard in his trousers, trapped against too-tight fabric.

He's a good alpha, so he does as Neuvillette asks, shoving two fingers straight into the wet heat of Neuvillette's cunt. Wriothesley would rather take his time, would rather drag his knuckles over slick and swollen folds until Neuvillette properly begs to be fucked, but that wasn't what was asked of him.

Later, he'll get what he wants. Later, Neuvillette will be a mess—a demanding mess, but a mess nonetheless, riding Wriothesley's cock as he begs to be bred. Neuvillette hates that part of himself, hates losing his nature, of falling into his instincts, be that's why they are so well suited; Wriothesley takes pleasure in giving him everything that Neuvillette asks for. It isn't about him, it's about his omega, his—

Wriothesley forces that next thought to derail. Instead, he focuses on his task, on swallowing around the tip of Neuvillette's cock. He curls his fingers, brushing them against the part of Neuvillette's length still inside his vent, and oh, the sound the Neuvillette makes is enough to make Wriothesley pop a knot right then and there.

Neuvillette groans. He curses, deep and throaty, as his fingers slide through Wriothesley's hair again. There's that sting once more, the pleasure-pain of Neuvillette's claws scraping over his scalp, of pulling at his thick and coarse locks.

Wriothesley's cock aches to the point of near pain, but he can hold out. He moans, his jaw slackened as he tries to bob his head. The angle makes it hard for leverage, so the hand still on Neuvillette's hip tugs gently, trying to encourage Neuvillette to fuck his mouth.

"You—Wriothesley—" A soft, fluttering sound of want bubbles up from Neuvillette's throat. He takes the hint, drawing his hips back before rolling them against Wriothesley's mouth.

His cock slides deep, bullying Wriothesley's throat. For any other alpha, this wouldn't do. Another alpha would toss Neuvillette off and reverse their positions, but Wriothesley just moans; he moans and purrs, and pulls at Neuvillette's waist, demanding more.

All the while he fucks Neuvillette on his fingers; two, then three, then a fourth, his pinky sliding right into that searing heat. The tightness is divine. Wriothesley can't wait to get his cock in there too, to fuck his omega full of come, but this, this is—

Neuvillette's hand curls around Wriothesley's throat, his palm resting against. The hold is light, gentle. "Alpha," he whispers, awestruck, high on his lust. "My beloved alpha, I can feel myself here. I wish you could see how well you take me."

Wriothesley does what little he can to bob his head. He drags his tongue against the underside as Neuvillette's grip on the back of his hair tightens.

"Stay like that. Just like that. I want—" Another roll of Neuvillette's hips, this thrust harder, sharper, leaving Wriothesley to force himself not to gag.

Breathe through your nose, he tells himself, but fuck, all he can think about is the weight of Neuvillette's cock against his tongue, and the way that Neuvillette's vent squeezes around his fingers.

It'll take nothing for him to come. The moment his cock is inside Neuvillette, he's going to pop a knot, spilling immediately. Neuvillette will laugh, will tease, will demand more, and oh, Wriothesley will give it to him.

Another thrust into his mouth scatters Wriothesley's thoughts. His nostrils flare, and his eyes water. He's hazy-brained on the lack of oxygen, at the way that Neuvillette still pulls at his hair. That one hand still on Neuvillette's hip digs in, but it's nothing like Neuvillette's claws, nothing like those pinpricks of pain, of pleasure.

"Fuck," curses Neuvillette, his head tipping back. "Fuck, you feel—" And then a soft whine as his face pinches with pleasure. It's so rare to see him like this, so unrestrained, but Archons above, Wriothesley loves it.

Soon, he'll be a keening mess, a sight that only Wriothesley gets to see, that only he's trusted with. For all Neuvillette's distaste of losing himself, he never seems to mind with him. No, he relishes it, leans into it, and that's why it's harder and harder for Wriothesley to separate himself. With every cycle they share, Wriothesley just falls deeper and deeper into love—

Now is not the time for that.

Now is the time to make sure that his omega gets everything that he asks for and more. That's what Wriothesley gets off on, that's what satisfies his alpha; acts of service for one man and one man alone.

Neuvillette's close, Wriothesley can tell by the way his cock twitches, and how his insides seem to milk his fingers. His movements lack grace, all stilted thrusts of his hips as he shoves his cock into Wriothesley's mouth over and over.

Pleasure snaps with a hot, heated utterance of Wriothesley's name. Neuvillette spills into his throat and Wriothesley doesn't just swallow, he feasts, gorges on the taste of him, devouring that thin and watery come.

Neuvillette still seems frazzled. Even with his grip on Wriothesley's hair loosening, even as he pets through Wriothesley's hair, mussing his bangs back from his sweaty brow, Neuvillette still seems keyed up.

He waits until his cock is half-softened to pull from Wriothesley's mouth. "Show me," requests Neuvillette, even though he knows his seed is long gone. Still, Wriothesley puts on a show of opening his mouth, tongue lolling out to show that he swallowed every drop.

A sweet, pleasant smell fills the air. "So good to me." Neuvillette's thumb sweeps over Wriothesley's mouth again, considering the mess he could've made. Later. Oh, later, he'll definitely spend himself across Wriothesley's face, marking what's his.

"Are you—" Wriothesley grunts softly, wriggling slightly to get the kink out of his neck. He'll happily let Neuvillette sit on his face all day, but he isn't getting younger, and there are limits to the angles he can bend himself in.

"Not quite," replies Neuvillette, already knowing his question. He leans back, scooting down until he's settled across Wriothesley's hips again. "It won't be long, but—" His gaze tips down to the obvious bulge of Wriothesley's cock. "There's enough time to enjoy this before I lose myself entirely."

"Wait, wait—"

Neuvillette does, to his credit, pause, hands hovering over the opening of Wriothesley’s trousers. He gives Wriothesley a tilted look. Lets his pink, forked tongue dart out and lick his lips. "If you wish to wait, then I will make it so."

Meaning he won't let Wriothesley come for a long and proper time, which is equally not great.

(But also good. Really, it's fine. He's there to help, to do what his omega wants, and if that's to drag him to the edge time and time again until he's a bleary, begging mess, then so be it, but—)

"Just a second, that's all. Let a man try to keep his dignity. If you don't give me a moment, I'm going to finish the moment I’m inside—"

"Which is the point, I assure you."

Oh.

Neuvillette's gaze sharpens. His hand might as well be a weapon as he brushes over Wriothesley's clothing, deftly undoing his trousers to free his length. The touch is scalding, almost too much, and Wriothesley has to screw his eyes shut to not spill into his palm.

"Trying so hard," muses Neuvillette.

"I—I'm—sweetheart."

"You want to come inside of me."

Wriothesley moans, arching in the bed as Neuvillette strokes his cock once, twice.

"What a good boy, waiting for me."

That's worse. That's making this so much worse, and Wriothesley has to dig his feet into the mattress to keep himself from tipping over the edge. "Neuvillette—"

"Is that what I am to you? Neuvillette.” His tone is rounded by amusement.

"Please."

Neuvillette hums, his grip loosening, but the touch still remains. Another stroke of Wriothesley's cock, this one softer, his thumb dragging over the slit, churring at how wet it is. And then down, to the swell at the base, where Wriothesley's knot is already halfway there, ready to lock itself inside his vent.

"Wriothesley," says Neuvillette, leaning close, his free hand moving to drag through Wriothesley's bangs once more. Lazy. Slow, the tips of his claws creating the most delicious friction, just enough to distract from the hold he has on Wriothesley's cock. "Beloved, what am I?"

"My Sovereign."

A good, safe answer, but not what he's looking for. Neuvillette presses for more. "And?"

Wriothesley swallows. "My omega. My—fuck, please, just—"

Neuvillette is quick, so, so quick to sling a leg higher over Wriothesley's hip. "There we go," he says, the grip he has on Wriothesley's cock tightening again. "That's what I wanted to hear."

He tilts the tip of Wriothesley's cock towards his vent, the head sliding across folds so slick it's a miracle that Neuvillette hasn't flooded anything. "Alpha," he purrs, sinking down, down, down, and then: "My alpha. My beloved, my—"

Neuvillette is strong enough that even a rolling grind can bruise Wriothesley's hips. Wriothesley clings to him, hands finding purchase in the divots of his waist. He moans, meeting Neuvillette's movements, thrusting his cock up and deep until his knot is there, right there.

"Mine," hisses Neuvillette, tossing his head back, dragging his claws down Wriothesley's sternum, his chest, his belly. "All mine, always mine."

This, Wriothesley thinks, is divine. This must be as close to ascension as he'll ever get, Celestia be damned. Neuvillette levers himself up and down, whispering filth about being bred, about how he wants a clutch, about how he was made to wear Wriothesley's claim, to bear his children.

His heat must be rising. Neuvillette says these things unbidden and freely, and fuck it has to be his cycle talking with the way that Neuvillette's gaze keeps flickering across Wriothesley’s neck.

It takes no work for Wriothesley’s knot to sink in. Neuvillette's wet enough, slick enough, needy enough that only the right angle is all that it takes, and once it's settled, once it's locked into place, Neuvillette lets loose a strangled keen that's going to haunt Wriothesley's wet dreams for a decade to come.

"Yes, yes, just like that," he begs. "Wriothesley—beloved, you're—"

The thing about an omega in heat is that they just come and come and come. Neuvillette's already there, his vent squeezing Wriothesley's cock like he'll die if he doesn't get bred full. He works his own cock, stroking it until he's fully hard again, a vision of rapture as he sits astride Wriothesley's hips.

"Perfect," Neuvillette tells him. "So good, so perfect, you're everything that I need."

Wriothesley spills. He thrusts, arching in the bed, and spills deep into Neuvillette's vent with a long, drawn out cry of his name. His alpha's pleased. Fuck, that's all his alpha wanted—to hear that his omega has been satisfied, that he's given him what he needed.

"Archons—"

Neuvillette snarls at that, making Wriothesley bite his tongue. "Sovereigns," he amends. "My Sovereign. My omega, my—"

Mate. Fuck, at least Wriothesley doesn't say it aloud. But it doesn't matter because he blinks and catches sight of Neuvillette's face which is red and ruddy, and full of barely contained arousal. He must smell it, Wriothesley's desire. He still hasn't come again, squeezing at his own cock as he watches Wriothesley with an unreadable gaze.

Then, Neuvillette leans forward and tucks his face into Wriothesley's neck. He inhales. Presses his nose right to that aching, swollen scent gland, and inhales so deeply that Wriothesley wonders if Neuvillette might choke on his pheromones.

"Beloved," he purrs, teeth grazing the scarred skin of Wriothesley’s neck, directly next to that spot. "My alpha, tell me what you want."

For you to bite. To feel the sting of your teeth as they lock deep, and we tip over the edge together to worlds unknown.

"For you to come," he says instead, taking the higher road, which is exactly why Neuvillette trusts him with his most vulnerable moments. "Come on, sweetheart, let me feel you come again, this time squeezing around my knot."

"Wriothesley—"

"I'm already inside of you. I've already come. You're full of my seed—don't you want it to take?" It's filthy dirty talk that makes his alpha preen, and it seems to soothe Neuvillette's raging instincts as well.

Neuvillette whines softly, fucking his hand, grinding back against Wriothesley's cock as he drags himself closer, closer—

And then he's coming, spilling against his hand, and all over Wriothesley's belly. It's wet. Watery. Smells like the ocean. Wriothesley scoops some up and brings it to his mouth for another taste, and fuck, if Neuvillette's heated expression isn't worth the days of bruising to come.

But then Neuvillette's expression clears slightly. The scent of his heat is thicker, but he's more aware, less sluggish as he leans against Wriothesley. Usually, this is when he pulls away to wipe down and grab some water before his cycle comes back with a vengeance.

This time, Neuvillette remains close, purring as he combs his fingers through Wriothesley's sweaty bangs. His gaze flickers to Wriothesley's neck again. Lingers. Wriothesley tells himself again that it's all talk and no play.

But then Neuvillette asks, "How many years have we been doing this?"

Wriothesley has to think. It's been long enough that he doesn't know the answer, that he knows when Neuvillette's cycles are on their way. He swallows, words thick in his mouth, but Neuvillette saves him the trouble of an answer.

"A curiosity, that is all," he continues, thumbing over Wriothesley's scent gland.

This touch is new, and it lingers, Neuvillette petting over his neck like he's trying to commit the feel of it to memory. A dastardly thought. Wriothesly's throat bobs against the pad of his thumb, which results in a momentary pause, and a soft, genuine smile from Neuvillette.

Wriothesley isn't a fool. There's something there, something stretched between them that they refuse to openly acknowledge. But it’s there. Friends don't fuck like they do. Clorinde's commentary about the clinical nature of how she used to help Neuvillette through his heats is proof of that, but this, what they do is…

"My omega," says Wriothesley, maybe a little stupidly. It's one thing to say it when Neuvillette goads him too, but in the aftermath of sex, in the quiet moments when they're locked together, and they're lazing in the sheets, it feels different.

"My alpha." Neuvillette's response comes off as smug. "My Wriothesley. My—"

That thought isn't finished because Wriothesley's knot has gone down enough for his softening cock to fall free with a squelch. Neuvillette panics, instinct taking over as his hand flies between his legs. He shoves his fingers in to keep Wriothesley's semen from dripping out, unable to bear the thought of their hard work going to waste.

(Which it will. Semen is mostly water, Wriothesley's learned, and Neuvillette can fling it away with a flick of his wrist. Pregnancy is of little concern, thank the gods because Wriothesley doesn't think he would make it through these heats whilst having to wrap it up. Something, something alpha instincts. He has them too, even as warped as they can seem from an outside perspective. Plus, it distresses Neuvillette to not properly be filled, which means he hasn't done his job, which means—)

"Water," says Wriothesley, forcing himself to think clearly. He sits up, scooting to the edge of the bed. "A quick shower—"

"No."

Wriothesley starts, his brow furrowing

Neuvillette settles back into the sheets, uncaring of the mess that he's leaking around his fingers. Again, unusual, but Wriothesley isn't going to complain. It's a sinful sight, seeing Neuvillette's fingers shoved into his vent, Wriothesley's spend wet and creamy around them.

"Wriothesley, come here."

He goes, like a puppet on a string, slipping back into those covers because Wriothesley cannot deny Neuvillette a damn thing. His alpha churrs the moment that Neuvillette drapes over him, tucking against Wriothesley's side. Wriothesley's instincts are soothed when Neuvillette scents him, dragging his nose over every inch of skin that he can reach.

But.

"Are you nesting? Why are you nesting? Why—"

"Let me have this, beloved. I never… I never ask for this, so let me indulge, please."

Neuvillette's weight is heavy against him. He's gone quiet, pressed against Wriothesley's side, face shoved against his temple. Right, then. Wriothesley can weather this. Wriothesley will, because he has no other choice, but fuck it this doesn't feel like a thing that mates do, not friends that occasionally fuck.

"Your rut, Wriothesley." It isn't a question. Neuvillette's words are hesitant, though, like he's picking his way around broken glass. "The next time, I wish to—"

No, no, no. There are two lines they haven't crossed. Wriothesley spends his ruts alone and Neuvillette has never voiced an interest in them beyond inquiring about how he's feeling right before and after. And the other is—

Neuvillette tilts Wriothesley's face towards his. "Beloved," he murmurs, tracing his bottom lip with a thumb in a way that's far more intimate than Wriothesley shoving his cock inside of him.

They do not kiss. Bite at each other, yes. Leave marks, yes. Mouth at skin, at nipples, at hips and cocks, surely, but this is another line they drew so long ago, an unspoken rule that they wordlessly agreed upon. Once, Neuvillette called all of this contractual, but even then it felt wrong, and he's never mentioned it again.

"You heel so well for me," he muses, cupping Wriothesley's face with tender affection. "I joke about taming you, but—"

"You can, Neuvillette."

"I want to claim you, beloved." A pause as Neuvillette angles Wriothesley's face just so. "Can I? Will you let me?"

He should say no. They should both say no because this would open a can of worms when it comes to the Court of Fontaine, and Wriothesley isn't sure that he can stomach it. But Wriothesley is an alpha who just wants to serve his Sovereign, who will, in the end, give Neuvillette whatever he asks of him.

Neuvillette does not tame him. Neuvillette kisses him, and it's a soft, hesitant thing because—and it hits Wriothesley right then—Neuvillette must have never kissed another before now. It's a little sloppy. There's too much tongue for something so sweet, the forked tip of Neuvillette's flicking over his bottom lip for a taste.

But it's a claim. It's as much a claim as Wriothesley painting the insides of Neuvillette's vent white; as breeding him through his heats, and lingering about in the off times to make sure that he bathes and eats.

Wriothesley shows him what to do, licking into Neuvillette mouth, swallowing his moans as he guides that sweet kiss into something lazy and deep and loving, because that's the scent that leaks from Neuvillette's pores; not heat and desire, but slow-boiling affection tempered by saccharine contentment.

His alpha has never been more settled, and when they nap after, tangled together, foreheads touching and sharing a pillow, Wriothesley doesn't think he's ever slept so well. 

[truestfeeiing]

7, 13, & 20 for Near? 🫶

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

yea!!! so i really like the way a lot of creators write about near's inner feelings. i think it's easy to write him off as too cold or an L copy but they really function totally differently! so i really appreciate seeing him be humanized and imperfect and emotional, in his own way. i also love the way fanartists depict him, the broad range from gremlin to cutie pie to bishounen. i myself am on the gremlin/bishounen side but haven't gotten to demonstrate it in my art yet.

13. What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot?

i most strongly associate puzzles with near. the way that everyone is a "puzzle" to be deciphered is a concept i like to make him grapple with (whether it's true or not). i think he's a huge proponent of 👍 in texting

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

in terms of personality, probably naomi misora, right? she's incredibly intelligent as well and has similar ideals. i may be biased as a meronia stan but i think mello's fire is exactly what near needs, and he may be able to get a bit of that from naomi. i also think about the one art that always makes me laugh that goes "they're like oomfs.... to me" about near and L. i think they may not get along very well though. my second guess would be rester. i think he and near get along exceptionally well.

Asks here

[ell-vellan]

A bunch of my random, non-story initial opinions of Veilguard, with the knowledge that I do and will love this game no matter what, because I need somewhere to put them all:

I kind of hate the color customization system?? I cannot figure out the brightness and saturation levels to make the colors I want. Am I just dumb?? What am I doing wrong here that all the blonde options look green

I do love the stylized look of the game, it's different from DAI but it has a unique flavor and the colors are very lush (for once in a DA game lol)

So far, rogue has been more fun for me than mage. Haven't tried warrior yet.

i wish we could have customized Inky's arm/prosthetic even a little

It's so cool that we get body tattoos and scars and we can customized which ones go where. Would have loved to be able to mix and match but I know we can't have everything (sigh).

It's pretty apparent as someone who has background with the games, but it would've been cool to have the tattoos labelled "Dalish," "Dwarven," "Lord of Fortune," "Crows," etc for story reasons (even though I'm sure it only matters to the small percent of us who are into the fanfic side of things lol)

Elven ears are huge again and we can't change that. lol it's whatever i guess

The thing about customizing heads based on 3 different heads is...hmm. It's difficult to get the hang of, but I'm glad that you can customize it so much? Still, it's been hard for me to figure out how to make that look good.

they let us check our character in different lighting and with different armor!! great idea

terrible idea: only 3 previous worldbuilding choices. I got spoiled to this so I was prepared. but what the heck was the point of the Keep? why did we waste our time with all of that if none of it was carrying over? Way to flush the previous 15 years of story down the drain. Who's the leader of Orlais and Ferelden? Who's Divine? Who got left in the Fade? Guess it doesn't matter at all! I'm okay that we don't know where our Hero of Ferelden is, it's been long enough in game that their part is done, but Hawke? boo.

At first I was so excited about the "random" name generator! But it's literally just like 15 pre-made names not sorted by race naming conventions that you cycle through. Could've been cooler. oh well I know most of their demographic just wants to kill things I guess

The elves look like dwarves to me for some reason? like they're stockier now, not lithe like DAI. Just takes some getting used to.

While I kind of miss the open world a tiny bit, just for the sake of feeling like we're truly exploring and less "point A to point B," it's also nice not to feel like i'm wasting hours of my time just walking through open nothingness and getting a million meaningless fetch quests

The voices are all so good

Rook's moves are cool, they're fun to play

Speaking of, why do we walk so slowly?! I'm sprinting 100 percent of the time.

Miss the search function for items, even the highlight/glimmer is faint enough with the lighting of the maps I missed a bunch of stuff the first ten minutes

I wish we had a teensy bit more unique dialogues/reactions based on our background/race, so far it's been quite a small amount

I'm undecided on the whole...armor system thing

the maps are gorgeous

I love how many settings we can customize, it's great. I don't care about combat and I can make that part so much less annoying and save myself a bunch of time spamming attacks to get back to the story, which is what I care about, lol

Solas is so hot like this. wow

[holopossums]

There's a lot of weird mentalities in fandom. I feel like incest and proship is tolerated way too much in some circles, and the way people deal with incest/proship in other circles isn't mature enough for me to agree with. Which is why I'm sort of stuck in this weird position where I don't agree with a lot of people.

Here's the thing: I'm not getting buddy-buddy with people who don't even have the spine, maturity, and decency to stand against making incest and sexual abuse titillating in any form. I'd advise that if you want to keep an ounce of respect from good people then do the same. Don't get buddy-buddy and don't interact with those sorts of people if you want to retain any respect.

Incest and sexual abuse in media is absolutely a huge social problem that's worthy of addressing. And I would treat it no different than, for example, framing racial violence in media as good. Or transphobia, or homophobia, or misogyny, or any other serious real social problem that requires careful, thoughtful framing when it is touched on as a topic, because the way it's treated sends a message. And that messaging is picked up by us on a subconscious level, which then feeds into our view on certain topics or certain people.

A person who makes incest/underage porn that is spun as a positive, titillating thing is functionally no different to me than someone who insists that, for example, racial violence or gender discrimination is okay to frame as a good and positive thing in stories. It's the exact same kind of disregard for a respectful way to depict a topic and treat the affected group. And it's the same lack of care and critical thought that makes proshippers and incest likers very susceptible to propaganda and bigoted narratives pushed by others who create media they like.

I've watched as the "fiction doesn't affect reality" crowd emulates talking points and behaviors from conservatives as well as actual predators. It's scary how people's lack of self-control and lack of desire to work on themselves with regards to how they approach media gets used against them. It can easily turn you into someone who cultivates a lack of care and respect for vulnerable groups without you even realizing it, and that's the insidiousness of it.

I see things like pro-incest and proship as a proud admittance of being weak-minded and unwilling to participate in critical thought about media, your relationship with media, and your personal impact in fandom and in the world. It's giving, "It makes me feel bad/ashamed to think about the larger implications of what I'm doing, so I just won't think about it. And if anyone questions/criticizes me, I'll regard them as a pearl-clutching puritan rather than a sensible and fair individual who's calling on me to have a sense of care for others and the world around me."

It's only one part of a much bigger problem, which is a slow shift in attitude away from critical thinking and care for others in our society. It affects more than fandom. But that bigger problem is a topic too big to tackle for this post.

At the same time, to spend copious amounts of energy going after these dogshit people instead of just shutting them out of your life and your personal spaces... that's not good either, you know? It's not good to obsess over them.

I take care of my own space - my own social media feeds and the Discord servers I run. I shut those people out of my spaces as much as I can, even when they are truly awful people who invade my spaces and don't respect my boundaries. And that is all I can truly do.

Sadly, even though it can be cathartic, the world doesn't get fixed by going after shitty people online who refuse to think about what they're doing because they're a bunch of weenies who don't have the maturity to work on themselves. The world better benefits by providing comfortable spaces for yourself and those you love, and focusing on educating others and spreading positivity.

You sort of have to adopt the mentality of "block liberally and leave others alone if they're outside your sphere, even if they're stupid as hell and gross and make you angry, but take no shit when your personal space and boundaries are invaded".

I feel like that is one of the only good ways to really deal with those sorts of people. Anything more will drain your time/energy that could be used on better things, and anything less allows people to walk all over you and make you feel bad.

[armory-rasa]

Bazubands part 1: A LESSON IN HUMILITY 🤣

So one of my projects for the winter break was to make a set of bazubands made for myself -- a middle eastern armor piece that provides all-in-one wrist/forearm/elbow protection, and the easiest way to get the coverage required for SCA fighting. (My garb is viking, but such are the exigencies of modern safety standards, that fighters usually wind up with a mix of armor types.)

Anyway, I packed up the necessary tools and materials and took them with me when I went to visit my parents, which is why the backdrop for these pictures isn't my usual workshop.

Found a pattern on google, cut it out of 10-12 oz veg tan, traced/carved/tooled it:

(You can see why this is the easiest way to get elbow protection, it's WAY less fiddly than trying to do articulated plates around the joint.)

Soaked the elbow cop again (because it was starting to dry out by the time I was done tooling), rounded it out and stitched it up:

Dyed it black, in my parents' backyard:

(And if you use Angelus dyes, that's how you keep from spilling it -- the box has little perforations so that it can hold the bottle safely upright.)

WAX THAT MOTHERFUCKER:

It doesn't show in that picture, but I have a metal bowl of wax (jeweler's casting wax) melting on the stovetop. I alternate between brushing it onto the leather, which looks like the picture above, and then putting the leather in the oven at ~200F, at 10-20 minute intervals, until the wax soaks in. Repeat until the leather is fully saturated and does not absorb more wax. (This often takes hours, so find something else to multitask with.)

But when you're done -- ta da!

Your project will be thoroughly waterproof, very strong and hard, with a low lustre. It's functionally ABS plastic at this point.

The next step was padding, so I got some sheepskin and and fitted it to the inside:

(idk why it's so fucking orange, but the alternative was kind of a mint-mucus green. I think the orange is growing on me though.)

Time to pattern the other, simpler piece of the bazuband, because they're hinged to enclose your full arm:

(I couldn't do this earlier, and therefore do both pieces concurrently, because I had no idea how much bulk the padding was going to add to my arm. I suppose you could wrap your arm in padding when you're measuring at the start.)

Slapped a quick design on it:

(And carved & tooled it too, though I neglected to get pictures of that.)

And then--

DISASTER, MY FRIENDS.

I put it in the oven, and it lost its gd mind.

WHAT.

Seriously, just -- words do not do this abomination justice. o_O

LOOK AT IT.

Coming so close on the heels of the Khorasan pouch, which had turned out absolutely perfect and has been more widely shared and lauded than anything else I've posted, this was a humbling experience. 🤣 Like, yes you're good, Gabriel, but you're not immune to fucking up.

So what happened here? Why did the same leather as the bazubands, undergoing the exact same steps and processes, turn out like THIS?

I'd have to repeat the experiment to 100% confirm my theory, but I'm pretty sure the critical difference is that I was speed-running this one, and I didn't wait for the dye to fully dry before I started waxing it. It wound up with, essentially, wet leather hermetically encased in wax, and since the water didn't have anywhere to go, it did weird things to the structure of the leather fibers when it started heating up. And because I don't often work with wax, I had somehow never run into this situation before, and thus already learned that lesson.

Ah well.

It wasn't a huge amount of leather, and it was only like two hours of work, so I'm not that fussed about it. (More embarrassed than anything else, at what feels like a very rookie mistake -- and conscious that it could have been SO MUCH WORSE if that had happened to the larger bazuband pieces, which had a lot more time and materials sunk into them.)

Anyway, I'm going to tweak the pattern a bit, make it narrower at the wrist and a bit longer, and change the design to something that matches the dragon better -- and let it fully dry this time. 😂

[inventors-fair]

Too Many Options: Opponent Trigger Commentary

We've arrived at a point here! Yes, the point is that this was a fairly difficult contest, or so I thought, anyway. It's hard to be punitive. A lot of these cards took some inspiration, as you may see in the commentary, from the same general circle of cards. And as a whole, I mean, I get it—Magic has a lot of cards that want you to do things that make you feel good, and not a lot of stuff that's designed to make your opponent feel bad. That's the tradeoff, questions to answers, vibes and competition. Not that removal and whatever doesn't make your opponents feel bad, sure, but it's about them making tough choices explicitly.

And overall, I think we did the best with what we got. Some cards are more direct, some are more specific, and some are designed beyond premier sets pretty explicitly, and that's totally okay. It's always a pleasure to see what people consider as responses to these prompts, you know? What does the collective think? At this point in my life I'm really trying to get the finger on the pulse, because, well, that's my line of work right now. It's certainly different. But I think we can all agree: let's take a break from punishing people in the game and get to punishing them verbally. (mostly kidding)

JUDGE PICKS are cards I wanted to highlight because a) they almost made the cut but not quite, b) they did something particularly interesting, or c) I just kinda like 'em, or d) mysterious reasons on which I shall not elaborate. Let's get psychic.

@arixordragc — Warden of the Beyond

Constructed all-star, and Commander eyebrow-raiser. I think there are some pretty wild variations of this card, but the precedent is there in a few cards. I honestly thought it was more powerful than precedent suggested. Looking into it more, it's only the life-gain stuff that puts it slightly above the cards that are already there, of which there is...one, and one blue card from a core set. It's an interesting blend, honestly, although my guess would be that people would jam it and see how it goes. There's quite a bit of cast-from-exile-restriction stuff that could use this card in their build-arounds.

Without a tax, exactly, I feel that this card is playing a role that we've seen before, and the lifegain is an interesting addition but it doesn't yet elevate it for me. The sheer amount of text that one has to put on a card like this in order to get it to function is enough that yeah, it makes sense that there wouldn't be room for much else without squishing it in there. This is a fine card, sure, and there have been enough ways for white to play in this space that I'm sure it could find a role in its shell, and as I said before it would slot fine into commander. Impulsing and PVDR-ing and plotting and whatnot—yeah, this is just where you need to be. Having played in the white tax space before, I will say that I'm not blown away, but I totally get where this design would come up given the prompt. Fine enough for all formats, a fine piece of the shell for where you'd want to add it in.

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@bergdg — Miasmatic Cauldron

I was about to get on you for that adjectival form, but I'll be, that's actually one of the correct spellings. I had no idea! Anyway. I'm feeling that kind of "witch's revenge" trope that's uncommon enough for me to wonder if it's actually a trope; I suppose "scorned spellcaster" is something similar, I dunno, I'm not gonna trawl TVtropes right now. My main worry is the repeatable aspect of it, but that's about it. Repeated removal, like I've said time and time again, is a huge benefit in limited. If there's something that discourages an opponent from attacking for the rest of the game, that's a little rough. However, easy fix: just have this artifact sacrifice to activate its effect, with the X equal to the counters that were on it when sacrificed.

That way, I feel you can do a "choose one or both" with it, because planeswalkers are infrequent enough for that to be more of a side-thing. (Side story: way back when planeswalker removal was rarer, I actually had someone in a Gatecrash draft use Merciless Eviction to exile my Gideon. Awesome game from 10+ years ago...) It's still a good card, or at least a good base. A repeatable removal effect with no timing restrictions is still a good bit more powerful than uncommon needs, though. Props to the typeline as well. Really, the vibes here are doing this card wonders. Now, it wasn't specified, but final thought: if this wasn't made for limited, I'd still wiggle with numbers and timing (and possibly sacrificing) just in case; I can see where this would be more balanced in multiplayer games.

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@bread-into-toast — Tidehollow Well (JUDGE PICK)

I grok this card. The grokkitude is pretty wild for how you have to word this. I'm sure there's precedent for where all these "or"s are going, but man, is this card hard to read on a first go-around if you're not already prepared for what's ahead of you. I'm actually not sure if this would be a Commander card that slots into a control shell for some evil Esper legend, or if this is a standard card that could play with the hybrid space between Esper and Grixis (given the setting) in a premier set that happens to appeal to a certain Commander build-around. Either way, I do appreciate the space that goes into it, because the work that you put in (and especially the mean synergies that you can enact reactively) are definitely solid.

Asking for your opponents to be discarding these things, and/or forcing them to do so, isn't the easiest bar to clear, and now I'm wondering about the philosophy of that... I mean, in this day and age, reactive cards aren't printed quite as much as proactive cards. So what's the bar to clear for punishing an opponent, syphoning off of their resources? Do the punishments need to be costed higher now that the power of action has also been raised? Or is playing punishments maindeck a barrier in itself that can be pushed? I dunno, that's a wild thought. Still, depending on the eggs/aristocrats players around you, I'm sure this card could be a wild ride. The flavor text is probably the weakest link for me, honestly. Where's the esoteric pith of Esper, y'know?

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@deg99 — Azorius Auditor

I'm glad that the Azorius are finding their ways to be a little bit funny; I always found "attack lawyers" a great archetype for Ravnica, and the exaggeration comes across quite well here. In addition to the art direction and flavor text, the mood and designs come across together with the same space as Lavinia without the sneaky seriousness that she brought with her in RNA. This one is definitely a reactive card, and a highly specific one as well. Limited isn't going to see much of this as a P1P1, unless there's a cost-reduction mechanic that's running rampant. The only one that I can call to mind from Ravnica is Spectacle, although I'm just kind of tired and probably misremembering. It's funny, the one Izzet mechanic that cares about costs that I can recall is Overload, which skirts this card completely.

You know, I just thought of a really annoying twist on this design that would be slightly broader and also far more punitive: having creatures with power greater than their base power unable to attack/block unless the difference between them was paid. That...would be horrible, probably needing a larget cost, and not exactly related to this card except in the difference, but—I'mma write that one down for later. So like—this one being specific means that you can probably push it in other ways, y'know? I genuinely think this card could've been three mana instead of four. But that's just a minor change, because this card is meant to go into greater formats with a greater impact, and you can play it in limited if you want as a flier that shuts down some strategies but only a little bit. And that's perfectly fine.

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@hanavesinauttija — Fastidious Exciseman

I'm surprised to be writing about a second Lavinia-inspired card in a row—I assume so, I mean. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Lavinia is one of the more punitive cards that people call to mind when they think of Ravnica, and I respect that. This card has a lot of text on it, and I'll be honest, as thorough as it is, you could've put anything in the flavor text and I would've believed it. But let's back up a bit. Per usual, people aren't going to be using this in limited at all, and there's very little space outside of anti-Spectacle builds for it. Commander and Vintage and whatever have their little additions, and hey, I don't see anything wrong with extra treasures. I just don't think that this card necessarily justifies itself compared to its forebears.

The body is more easily castable, but the body's not really on-curve. Making the treasure tokens is well and good—but that hoop is very specific. I think this trigger could have been more broad. Casting big spells, playing things with big creatures, casting specific types of spells, whatever you wanted... I want a reason to really think about why I'd play this card. People casting spells like this doesn't come up enough outside of some group/meta specific stuff. Maybe I'm also on the fence because there happens to be two cards back-to-back that use this space of the trigger. It's interesting to see where the inspiration is in general, though, and where people thought about opponent-triggered effects. I think we're gonna see even more of that as we go down the line...

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@helloijustreadyourpost — Fear of Mortality

Hey, a second nickel! Or rather, a fear with menace that triggers off of combat damage! I kid a little, but it's kinda funny that we had more than a couple submissions with very direct inspiration/ideas/builds like that. First minor thing: "they gain" should be "that player gets" for the counters. Weirdly enough, for the second ability, I think Suncleanser is the precedent for it, and it would be worded: "...to a player, that player loses all doom counters..." Hm. For grokking, I'd word it to completion as: "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player loses 1 life for each doom counter they have, then they lose all doom counters." Or something like that, the last sentence is wiggly.

I like how this card would fit into the black/red/blue side of Duskmourn, far away from the various lifegain shenanigans and what have you. White didn't seem to have too much lifegain, honestly, or maybe I was just missing out on a lot of it when I drafted. Either way. The ability to hate out some lifegain is pretty reasonable, although I'm not sure if this card is necessarily good enough as a constructed hate-piece. But hey, it doesn't have to be. I'm sorta surprised that there wasn't a card with this name in the set, but it's a little heavy, so that's fair. You know what would be really funny? If there was exactly one other card that made doom counters that only kinda synergized with this one. Heh. Regardless, final verdict is that it's a fair notion, just do your homework for the whole counters-wording stuff, because that stuff is nonsensical sometimes. But necessary.

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@lanabutnotdelray — Malice

The main problem: this is already the name of a card! Le gasp! It's part of a split card though, so I'll let it slide. Now, let's talk about this thing. It's...mean. It's quite mean. It's a control card through and through, and of course if someone has a bunch of tokens then they don't care about it at all, but for any kind of board building, this card buys you enough time to get yourself back together. The ability to make multiple opponents now want to target you in a multiplayer game is actually mildly muted due to the fact that it doesn't actually win you the game so much as it keeps you alive. For that reason, I'd imagine this sees more sideboard constructed play and/or duel commander play. If you manage to get multiple copies, then you're in for a good time, and that takes a LOT to come back from if your opponents are trying to cruise.

As far as the flavor goes, though, this is where I feel that there are some elements that aren't quite coming together for me. Black isn't the color to necessarily punish hate, is it? It makes sense that you're the one being hated because of the effect, and/or flavoring the attack against you as hate, but that feels like a perspective of white or green, not black. How does black see antagonism, or how does it perceive the tactics/emotions that it would otherwise be reflecting? Hatred as a tool is the realm of black, not its enemy. And the name of the card becomes muddled again, because if this effect was the result of malice, then the "hate" would be on your side, and there would be no toll because that would imply that YOU'RE paying it. It's a bit of a confusing who's-who around here.

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@maypletreeway — Time Bind

This card is pretty darn specific, and it's weirdly easy to just sort of...not have to deal with if you've got it against you? In the scenario where you're casting three spells in a single turn, the first two can go off without a hitch, and then the third spell happens maybe during your second main phase and then you're good to end the turn because...you were already good to end it. See what I mean? Storming off is one thing this card is good at hating, but there are already measures against that that simply limit the amount of spells that can be cast at all, for much cheaper. Plotted spells would be more difficult to resolve, although blue and white are the archetypes for plot/exiling spells/not casting from the hand, what have you.

It's hard to justify this card's effectiveness when it's a mildly slow do-nothing on board. As worded, it doesn't even stop an multi-opponent counter war, because one individual player would have to cast three spells to trigger it. Sometimes that happens, and that's all well and good, but for five mana, I'd rather have played Archon of Emeria, holding up a Negate. Is there a way to keep this within the prompt and have it be more powerful for this cost? I don't really know. There are certainly other avenues, like just countering, limited the spell numbers, taking an extra turn even, I dunno. I just feel that there needs to be something more/different to make this card fully playable.

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@mrcatfishing — Retired Sensei

It's fair to bring up Plague Wight as an example here in your submission, because that -1/-1 effect has something pretty special about it: it doesn't necessarily kill the thing that blocks it by itself. This card, on the other hand, has double-Last Gasp on its blocks, and lemme tell you, that kills quite a few things. The unfortunate truth is that this card might as well say that it can't be blocked, because in order to even trade with it an opponent needs two creatures with eight toughness and seven power between them. My guess? They'd rather just take the two damage and not lose their stuff. So the question becomes: why does this trigger need to happen in limited? Well, maybe it can emphasize some Ninjutsu effects by making a creature not really want to be blocked. Is this the most effective way to do so? I honestly don't think so, and I'm not even sure if that's part of the intended environment for this card.

Let's talk about the positives, though, because I will say that the trope here of a retired teacher who's still dangerous is something we don't see a whole lot of in MTG, and I do totally get what you're after there. Blue for the flavor, black for the vibe. The pseudo-callback to a reverse Bushido comes across as well. Still, vibes aside, I feel that this card could've used a bit more rigor when it comes to the natural state of what attacking/blocking looks like in limited. I want you to take those vibes and really game with them for future submissions, consider what an opponent might do pragmatically. With numbers adjusted, could you have added another ability to play into U/B's combat space more? Last minor note: is there a reason that you left "human" off the typeline there? Feels a little weird to have that one missing here.

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@nine-effing-hells — Moonsoul Moth

Gorgeous AD, I will say that much. As for the card itself, there are some times where your opponent is just gonna have to bite the bullet and gain a little life. You can Grove of the Burnwillows it back up, but this card is a 4/3 flier with lifelink, and it's...good, but also three colors, and I think that this card is cute more than anything. And playable! And a pretty good design with lots of flavor! But it's definitively cute, and by that I mean "I'd play it in limited and nowhere else." Depending on the lifegain, you're usually not going to see this as much outside of a flying body if you have the color fixing, but that can be enough. What sort of mana fixing is in this set, after all?

The more I consider it, the more I'm recalling that there are the lifegain-sac lands from SNC, the dual lifegain lands that show up practically everywhere now, and so on and so forth. In an implied three-color set, mana bases that give you life are common enough to perk up this card's ability to use its return. Was that intentional? And if your opponent has any lifelink themselves, running white or black, it's awesome to complicate combat in that way. Like, I'm reaching a little bit here depending on the kind of environment that's being implied, but there are options, you know? I'm willing to meet the moth halfway. Situational, well of course, but this contest is about the situations, and how willing someone is to put themselves into one where a moth is attacking their face.

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@piccadilly-blue — Ooze Mimicry (JUDGE PICK)

I would play this card in Atraxa, I think, so that's one point for you. The real question—actually, the only question I have—is whether or not that trigger is worded in the exact right way. I don't believe there's enough precedent to say yes or no, so I'm gonna give it to you there! As a smaller aside, it's kinda funny that this card doesn't trigger if they're putting something directly onto the battlefield, only if they're putting something into their hand. Granted, there are a lot of cards that reveal upon searching (notably, the Tutor cycle), but fetchlands? Outta luck. The REAL real question: where would this card be printed? I think the answer might surprise you, because I imagine this in the same place as something like Opposition Agent. Draftable Commander, baybee. Because this card would be mid at best in a premier set.

Could it trigger off of, like, whenever... Okay, hear me out. For this kind of cost, whenever a spell or ability causes an opponent to search their library, you may [some kind of cost]. If you do, copy that spell or ability and you may choose new targets for the copy. This ability triggers only once each turn. ... Except that that wouldn't work, because then there's the question of Field of Ruin, and whether or not that would trigger because the searching is optional. So...sheesh, what a rough field. I want there to be more but I also want to get commentary done, so I'm gonna leave you with a positive mark on your quiz and tell you that the flavor text is a C+ on a strong B of a card. ... Can you imagine if we started grading every submission like that? What a horrible idea lol. Hopefully the metaphor tracks.

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@wildcardgamez — Syphoned Assets

This one is super weird in a good way (I think). Based on other "punisher" effects, it might be worded "Whenever an opponent activates a mana ability of a nonland permanent" rather than the passive voice. I'm not entirely sure. That said, this is a Commander card through and through, and I'm not gonna hear otherwise. What's it gonna do in limited with the exception of punish some Treasure stuff? Is that even that big an issue? I don't really think so. Maybe this could be in a draftable set and then it would be a rare that gets first-picked out of boredom or fixing without much specific use. Granted, it's a fine card—explosive? No. Fine? Sure. Making mana one time is (usually) never that big an issue if it takes this much setup.

You're gonna lose some friends for a second around the table after dropping a Sol Ring and this, but oh no, it's a casual multiplayer format where you're ramping out a big thing slightly earlier. Honestly, I get it. Everything about this card is fun-for-a-turn normal artifact goodness and I think it's a funny design that makes mana rocks into a mind game. I suppose the thing that I would critique the most is the name, because if this was mana-rock-candy, it would be sugar flavored. I don't get a sense of what this is really trying to depict here? Like, what's the power, what's the vibe, what's the color energy, y'know. Gotta grab yourself a name that's just as cheeky as the card and tell me what this treasure is doing in the world.

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@xenobladexfan — Gesserith, Frontier Contractor

As you mentioned in the writeup, triggering off of an opponent's crime spree isn't going to be the most direct way of getting your counters and maybe isn't the best space for this kind of effect. And yet, I'm not entirely opposed. You know what this feels like? It's the vibe space of Sarkhan the Mad. At that point, he was about 7% of all planeswalkers that had ever existed in paper; now, there are almost 300, and they've had a lot of iteration. What weird space is there left? There's absolute madness like The Aetherspark, and there are also cards like this. I don't...really hate it. If your opponent wants to attack them, they're probably gonna commit a crime to get through. That's a give-and-take minigame, a disruption, and man it's a pain but honestly that's part of this card's charm.

Breaking it down a little: The 0 ability should have the colors come afterwards (see the Oracle text for Godsire). I wish they could be 2/1s instead of 1/2s but that's fair for the cost. I like the -1 effect because of how it also works with Auras and how Auras slot well into this card's colors. The emblem effect is a real pain in the butt but that's how Emblems are supposed to be, I guess, and it's a shame there's no room for reminder text. Sometimes Planeswalkers are just like that. Honestly, the weakest ability is the -1, and the biggest weakness of this card mechanically is the fact that it doesn't feel like it wins you the game so much as it slows it the hell down. There's nothing inherently wrong with control conditions, but this card comes down early and hoo boy it can be a pain to deal with. Thank goodness for evasion, though. Overall? I dig it more than I think I should. Take that for however you will. Except that you're not wearing a hat here, so -1,000 Fair points.

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@yd12k — Captain of the Second Chance

My initial feeling is that this card is pushing the spirit of this contest. Or at least, it's pure technicality because of the blocking/blockage, and the wording is really rough. "Whenever a non-Spirit creature you control dies during combat, if it blocked or was blocked this turn, amass Spirits 1." would be what I would go for personally. And like, I get it, because an opponent has to do it in order for it to trigger... I don't know, I really don't know. You're right in every respect, and the choices are your opponents. I think this is on me, actually. Because there's no reason that this shouldn't actually be fine, even if it doesn't say "opponent" on it. I think the fact that it triggers off of your creatures dying makes it feel like it's not in the spirit, ultimately, and while the card itself is fine, I'm a lot less down for it given the intentions, which is more my fault than yours.

And again, the card itself is fine. Get yourself a big Spirit ghost and have fun with it. It's actually really funny that you can amass for whatever card type you want but some of them will want flying and some of them just don't have the ability to get it because of how Amass works, not without additional text. So I'd put this actually to have the caveat: "...amass Spirits 1. If you create a token this way, you may have it enter with a flying counter on it." And I think that that's necessary, plus—if you're reading this and you're working on your amass cards for this week, keep this in mind, yo. The fact that it's a Spirit itself is kinda funny; tbh, I think it should've been a non-Spirit creature to ensure that you get at least something out of it, because it already has vigilance, and therefore would be a perfect candidate for sacrifice. The last note I'd say is that the name could use some work. It's too on-the-nose for me at the moment.

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@yourrightfulking — Coward's Bane (JUDGE PICK)

We're ending on a wild note, it seems. Why does this thing have no additional creature type? Was that intentional? I really want some kind of flavor justification for it in the flavor text or AD, because right now it feels more like you a) were trying to go for an esoteric approach but didn't factor in that it's honestly more confusing not to have the regular type, or b) forgot. Eh, either way, I think the card's pretty funny, and definitely a premier card. You better swing in and you better make it nasty, because otherwise I'm gonna swing right back at you. That's just what red wants to do, and the downside is that your opponents will be taking massive damage every turn. Gotta love it. After even a single turn of holding back blockers, they're in trouble.

What I really appreciate about what you've done with this card is the fact that you chose your trigger quite carefully. It's worded as an "at" trigger, which not many people did from what I recall, and the decision is...inaction. Like, that's just what red wants to both encourage to win and punish to get ahead, and that's kind of brilliant, if I do say so myself. I feel that people didn't use those kinds of effects as much, or at least they didn't consider what timing could do to an opponent. Lemme take a look through... Yeah, you are the ONLY person who submitted an "at" trigger, and I'm really grateful that you did. I think if you're not OP and you're reading this, take it to heart: variety isn't just in pushed effects, but also in the question of what might make for a more diverse, competitive, and interesting spread of cards. But my liege, do consider AD, FT, or at least your typeline next time.

~Enjoy amassing for the masses, folks. @abelzumi

[magneticmage]

What are people's thoughts on a transgender Brosca or Aeducan?

Like we're told that Orzammar's caste system is based on one's same-sex caste, right? But, like, how complicated are someone's feelings towards their sex and how it differs from their preferred gender when the entire foundation of their culture is so sex segregated?

(Disclaimer; I'm cisgender so I'm not sure how to word all of this right without coming off as lacking understanding of nuances, accidentally coming off as rude and ignorant, or something, but I will do my best. Please be understanding that I am trying to NOT be rude, just might be a bit ignorant on phrasing things? Under a cut because it can be a bit ramble-y and maybe off-topic in some spots)

So transgender Brosca/Aeducan thoughts are hard to word, especially since I usually play my main ones as being cisgender, but even that is...a whole field of Thoughts.

Like I am aware that cisgender female Aeducan should actually be a different caste (probably some kind of noble or upper warrior caste, if I had to warrant a guess but your mileage may vary) than she is, but is considered functionally royalty in what probably amounts to no small part of her being her father's favorite child (because who cares about rules when your father is the king?). And that cisgender female Brosca is already defying some form of cultural expectation by being a casteless Carta thug rather than being a noble hunter like her sister Rica (nothing against Rica here, as I adore her, but Brosca not being one definitely seems to be a Choice, ya know?).

And if they are lesbian or any other orientation that isn't heterosexual, this also has added dimensions of its own as well. All of which is super interesting on how it comments on Orzammar society. Blah blah blah.

But like....what about transwoman Aeducan? Or transman Brosca?

Like how accepting is Orzammar society of such a thing? I'd assume not very much because of all the implications around potentially changing castes, which is socially frowned upon? Like it may not as big a deal for someone whose parents are roughly equal in terms of caste, but when there's a huge disparity between social ranks like, say, a noble lord and a servant caste mother? And, to digress slightly, it does make me wonder if some lower caste/casteless mothers have ever tried to pass off their assigned female children as sons, regardless of gender identity, all in hopes of a better life for their children. Like how Mary Reed's mom dressed her as a boy to keep getting money from her father's family. I mean, that's happened in our world to some extent as well. And how would someone whose intersex be viewed in this society? Do they just...like get to choose? Or is it a guess?

I don't have any answers.

Back to Brosca and Aeducan though.

How much does Trian's sexist comments about women being breeding flesh sting an Aeducan who views themself as a woman and choses to be one? Does their father most likely acknowledging them as his daughter publicly affect things? What about a Brosca that knows that their assigned sex at birth matching Kalah's is what cost them whatever caste their father was? How do they see those born the same sex as them that then go on to become noble-hunters wishing for a son, so their lives can get better? Does it make them angry or sad? Maybe a mixture of feelings?

Like I know that suffering and issues like these are not all that makes up a transperson's identity and I'm not saying it has to either. I know that some people face enough of these kinds of issues in the real world and would rather not have to deal with it in their video games and that's also okay. They can just decide their character is trans and not make it a big deal and that's a perfectly okay thing to do!

But I just...I have questions and am curious about how it might work in cases where they might want it to be a big deal? Is that a bad thing? That or maybe I worded things badly here or in a way that doesn't quite hit the mark because I'm not transgender?

If anyone else wants to weigh in here with their thoughts, like, please do? Or if there's better worded-meta out there, let me know because I'd love to read it.

Thanks for your time.

[ming-sik]

Thoughts on Veronica and how most fanfics seem to blame her well... *gestures to everything about her* this because of her 'lack of education' and not how she (and her siblings) may or may not have been targeted by the Lesiegang faction due to her lineage?

Ik most fanfics make it out that she's insaine for wearing veils while in the fanfic Ahrensbach wears veils to 'protect themselves from sun's rays' and treat it like canon and for importing spices from Ahrensbach as this huge threat to the duchy because (insert 100+ medical reasons) and honestly? It reads like someone who's wanting to become a bit closer to their dead mother by practicing things her dead mother practised (and don't get me started on how yucky I feel everytime when Rozemyne superiorly tells everyone how spices are ruining their stomachs and the amounts of spice they eat is 'unsafe', conveniently ignoring how spicy South Asian food can get yet not many over there's forming stomach ulcers or on the verge of death because they smell 1 tokbokki-)

Anyways, I'd really like to know your thoughts on this!

So previously I did not know that much abt aob fanfic but.

IMO the answer is that AOB is classist/misogynist/xenophobic and fans end up either picking up on that or being drawn to it. It's a pretty simplistic answer but it explains a lot of the really strange behavior that goes on.

Veils are pretty clearly an attempt to invoke hijab which is by itself fine, YS is actually desperately lacking cultural differences between duchies, and if that's a Lanzenavian custom that's been imported to Ahrensbach that'd actually mimic how wimples are at least believed to originate from hijab. However even the way canon treats veils is really weird. Veils shielding you from the sun is actually mentioned in p5v6 during this Detlinde pov chapter

but since Detlinde and Georgine are veiled indoors, they're also almost definitely worn for cultural reasons. All of which is again fine... except that they're the evil duchy. The veiled characters we see are Detlinde, Georgine, Veronica, and Aurelia(Fraularm and Alstede aren't veiled, so this is presumably an optional cultural practice). Three of them are villains, while Aurelia's reason is that she's ashamed of strongly resembling Veronica and wants to hide her face, which would be an absurd thing to expect of her, except that Ferdinand never shuts the fuck up about Detlinde looking like Veronica so she probably would face discrimination for resembling someone in her family. There is not a single even neutral female character... well, in Ahrensbach, but also specifically who wears a veil except Aurelia who's wearing hers for a very specific reason unrelated to her being from Ahrensbach.

Aurelia also gets discriminated against for wearing a veil, which would've been a decent way to show a conflict where a likeable character ISN'T portrayed as the unambiguous good party except that the story doesn't seem to think this is strange. No characters really push back on the validity of this suspicion and Aurelia herself seems to accept it as a matter of course. The fact that fans have obviously picked up on the fact that veils are meant to be a strange exotic cultural practice and are writing characters that way themselves is pretty telling.

As you say, it's fine to veil. There are a lot of reasons to do it from the utilitarian sun protection to propriety to her being proud of being from Ahrensbach, which is in itself neutral unless you accept the premise that Ahrensbach is the evil duchy or you think veils are inherently suspicious.

Veronica's lack of archduke candidate education is obviously irrelevant because she managed to scheme enough to create the Veronica faction. The women had a phd in machinations and knowledge of enough archducal matters to function as the Aub's first wife, so either she got an archducal education once she was married or she just didn't need it which could be how it works because unlike female aubs, female archducal wives aren't expected to take over their husband's work when their husbands are pregnant. Even if she was uneducated enough that she struggled with handling administrative duties, how this would lead to her abuse is a problem we apparently have our strongest misogyny soldiers working on because those two things are unconnected. In canon characters outside of Rihyarda are pretty uninterested in why Veronica or Gabriele are the way they are, but most people aren't evil because they're stupid, they're evil because they have what they believe to be a completely valid motivation for whatever heinous thing they're doing, and the way YS treats faction politics definitely could've been a major source of her desperation to solidify her power alongside her stated internalized misogyny. (Her internalized misogyny isn't necessarily the story's misogyny, but it is strange that this isn't really pushed back on and the only victim who gets much spotlight is Ferdinand despite Veronica seeming to target women much more harshly.)

None of this is a defense of Veronica, I disagree with the thing where she systemicatically abused and ostracized a massive portion of the duchy and my condolences to her victims, but the ways AOB chooses to signal that especially female characters are villains is notable and by notable I mean falls into some patterns. This is mainly that damnable Ferdinand's fault because he 1) will not shut the fuck up about how everyone he dislikes is basically his mommy reincarnated and 2) hates women so much it's unreal, so the fact that he's Rozemyne's main source for a lot of characters colors that. You could argue that this is him and other characters intentionally being written as unreliable narrators, but if that's true then it's a little strange that the fandom is so united on taking his word as gospel, and when read it does not come off that way. Veronica's deal being attributed to stupidity might come from how Ferdinand treats Detlinde if I had to find a reason for it, but honestly the machinations of the AOB fandom are in some ways incomprehensible to me.

The spice thing is just straight up racist. It's racist in canon, the way that all spices are lumped together when both nutmeg and chili peppers are "spices" despite having wildly varying flavors and effects is in itself racist. We don't get a single named spice. Are they talking about peppercorns? Chili peppers? Nutmeg? Cumin? What about ginger? Even assuming we're talking about specifically capsaicin, spicy food causing ulcers is mostly pop science, and the health risks beyond short-term pain pale in comparison to, like, alcohol. Spice tolerance is a thing and Rozemyne might not like a ghost pepper, but shockingly yeah cultures with a lot of spicy food aren't pretending to enjoy it as an elaborate bit(tteokbokki are Korean but I know what you're getting at). If Ahrensbach people eat food flavored with fantasy bird's eye peppers from a young age they're not gonna experience any problems from eating spice unless they have unrelated health issues.

As with everything the defense of this is probably that the characters are unreliable narrators. I've spent a lot of time arguing with people on this so at some point I just have to say that if every sympathetic character in the story is parroting something and no conflict ever arises from the fact that they're incorrect then the story is just having a character say something that is true in universe, and the fact that Ahrensbach and by proxy Lanzenavian culture are treated the way they are is xenophobic in Ahrensbach's case and racist in Lanzenave's. Fans are Like That because they pick up on this stuff and either uncritically accept it as just a thing that's true about AOB's worldbuilding that's neutral or were already prejudiced and therefore had no conflict when the story confirmed those prejudices. Which is another thing. If these characters are meant to be unreliable narrators, you'd think the fandom wouldn't uncritically accept character testimony so often!

[patheticpoems]

Hi! I have several questions I'd really appreciate answers to. To start off, I'd really like it if this ask is not ignored even if you cannot answer some questions. 🙏🤞

1. EIYPO(everyone is you pushed out), I'm sure you've heard of this term, maybe even believe in it, but for me, it doesn't make sense. If everyone is you pushed out, doesn't that mean that all the evil people like murderers, grapists etc exist because you somehow influenced them?

2. How would shifting/manifesting be explained with children who get sick, die, lose their parents very young? It can't be something they assumed in that manifested, or is it? Does that mean their sickness, loss of parents etc is entirely because they manifested that outcome into reality? Using the logic that everything we assume/believe is what our reality is, that would be a yes, but I find this to be very cruel and illogical because most children would not assume/believe they'd get serious illnesses, lose their parents, etc.

3. When the US election took place, a LOT of manifestors/witches claimed Kamala would win, were manifesting it, yet in the end, Trump won. Why did reality not manifest/shift accordingly to assumptions?

4. This is a question more for my personal shifting and manifesting journey, as well as where I am 'stuck' kind of. I've been manifesting a lot of things for several months, none bore fruit aside from what I could see as one being successful, but I'm not sure it can be summed up to manifestation because it required action in the 3D. I haven't 'tried' to shift in a long time, even though I want to. At the same time, I feel like I'm just numb/not interested in it anymore, despite really wanting to live a life full of freedom, power, love etc. I prefer sleep methods, but I've ended up in my CR when I woke up, which is disappointing, and that lead me to just not expect anything different. Honestly, I'm not sure myself how to describe my current situation. Just feels like I'm stuck and can't move forward in my shifting journey.

—I'm very sorry for the huge amount of text, I needed to share all this because it really bugged me. I would be very happy for answers and advice on my questions. Thank you so much! 🫶🫶🫶

hey anon! I appreciate your questions, I tried to tackle them decently enough but do feel free to send another ask linking this post if you have more questions or specific ones pertaining to anything I've said! also some explanations are gonna traverse through the questions because some explain something stated in the other. i should be the one apologising for the huge amnt of text in a min LOLL

1. yesn't? when we say eiypo it means that your perception of people is what will reflect. rather than it being because you influenced them it is more so because you believe they are there, because you assume that they exist. It doesn't mean you caused their actions or caused them to do the things they do but rather it is more so due to external influences. Now, what do I mean by external influences? This goes into the second question.

2. I've actually spoken about this topic before here. To tie in relation to your first two questions I'll semi-repeat the cause here; Circumstances, survival and unknowing.

If you live in a reality where you are constantly being told, be careful, there are murders happening nearby, shootings, assaults, then what would you do? You'd adjust to keep yourself safe. Maybe you'd change the times you go out, how long you stay out, carry something with you for safety. If you were as your example stated a child with illness, you'd be confronted with that reality repeatedly: With how you may lose body functions you once had or they weaken, how you get used to certain treatment, blankly painted walls, maybe your guardians whispers of money and the cost of trying to keep you alive.

That's circumstance and survival, so what's unknowing? Unknowing refers to not knowing about the law of assumption and what brings up that post I made about unconscious and conscious manifestation. The law doesn't stop working. If I stop paying attention to gravity I won't suddenly lift into the air. That's what makes it a universal law. So, the answer would be yes as you said, however I don't find it to be illogical even though I agree it is cruel from the standpoint of human ethics but awareness is neutral, good and bad is a concept we humans made, it isn't something came with the existence of everything. Once you stop looking at it as them consciously manifesting it and rather as a matter of them doing it unconsciously it makes more sense.

It's difficult to be someone in a tough circumstance because you keep trying to adjust to it so you can survive but that reaffirms your assumption that this is your reality and you don't even know it. As a final note on this question because I don't think I addressed it? As to how they'd get an illness as in what would even manifest it, I believe it ties in into the societal belief that "anything can happen" anytime, anywhere, anything can flip in a way we consider good or bad.

3. so, in the first question I said, "it is more so because you believe they are there" there in reference to your reality. I intentionally didn't go into detail then because I felt it would be more suited here.

Why did reality not shift according to those assumptions? Reality did shift, just not for you, not for people who are outside of the assumption. Manifesting (which is just shifting) is about awareness. Who are you aware of being? What life are you aware of having? We don't have one singular reality, there's a new reality every single moment and this is an individualistic experience.

You may have seen this before maybe but some idk how many months ago I think it's been nearly a year now? But at some point, people had begun to talk about doing a void pact. That if one of them entered the void they'd manifest everyone in the pact gets in, however, this was flawed at its core (Here are two good posts about why that wouldn't work 1 & 2.) When you manifest something all that is changing is YOU, how you perceive things. So if I assume kamala won, then IM shifting to a reality where that's true, because that's what manifesting is, shifting. My awareness is what shifts.

4. this post is already long but it is about to get even longer soz xx. im gonna try and pinpoint what you might be having trouble with so, gonna shoot out a bunch of questions then followed by statements: Does your disinterest stem from doubt, how you feel (or felt if my answers helped) that these questions were too blatant a plot hole to ignore and made a reasonable case that maybe loass simply isnt a law? Why do you say you constantly end up in your CR, what dictates a success to you other than yourself?

Statements. You are always shifting. You are always succeeding, maybe not in the way you want to be but your reality is a reflection of your assumptions, in your favour or otherwise. The 3D doesn't dictate if you got what you want, you do. You are interested, you just don't want to be more disappointed than you already feel you have been. I can't look into how those months you spoke of were, if you want you can send a follow up ask describing your perception of your desires and how you went about manifesting but going off what you told me and that alone what I'll tell you is that you are always manifesting, just because it isn't what you want doesn't mean it isn't working.

[amoeganism]

🎈🍓🐞🩸 for both creatures !!!!!!!

SUPER LONG LORE DROP TIME!!!!! YIPPEE YAYYY

🎈 (balloon) - What does your character do at parties? Are they a wallflower or a party animal? Do they go with friends or alone?

when mayumi still went to school, she was almost never invited to parties and was generally avoided (she was an insane bully in middle school and freshman year to cope with her home life so #karma #rip #deserved) the ones she did go to though, no one talked to her unless they were super drunk or under the influence of other substances so she'd have a drink then leave. the people who did talk to her would usually cuss her out or try to take a swing at her. it never really changed for her and she knew that, but there's free food and drinks!!!

ryuji grew up in a smaller, more conservative town where parties were generally traditional festivals. he liked them and would go to as many as he could with his family and friends, but he thought crashing random functions with cokeheads and alcoholics was better. his reasons: a shit ton of drunk people are 1. funny, 2. dont gaf about him being there, and 3. he doesn't know anything about them and would be too fucked up to care about who they are

🍓 (strawberry) - Does your oc believe in anything? Are they superstitious? Religious? Atheistic? Has anything in their past made them this way?

mayumi doesn't believe in anything and was borderline nihilistic at one point in life. she doesn't feel like there's a need for her to believe in a higher being and even if she tried, she can never convince herself to do so. in her mind, if there's a god that's punishing her for not believing in it, then they can go fuck themselves

ryuji on the other hand, was raised in a non-religious household that didn't believe in anything apart from traditional japanese gods and goddesses. however he's tried to devote himself to christianity in order to "fix himself" because he has a crippling inferiority complex and unhealed trauma. it didn't work out and now he has an intense hatred for the church and religion in general cuz he thinks it failed him.

🐞 (ladybug) - What does a perfect day look like for your oc? What do they do? Who do they see?

mayumi would like to be in a tropical place out of a touristy area where no one knows her. she has a huge appetite and can spend an entire day eating around. she's also never been outside of japan so somewhere completely different would be like a dream. she's like one of those tourists who pretend to be a local but u can tell she's one cuz she's always taking pics LOL

ryuji fantasizes about living in a high rise apartment in the busiest parts of tokyo and see his face posted on a huge screen on the side of a building, right outside of his window. he'd actually really like doing business and he'd like to close off the day wasted at a club (and maybe make out with one person... or two.... or three....)

🩸 (blood) - Is your oc squeamish? Are they disturbed by the sight of blood? Have they ever been in a situation where they had to overcome being squeamish?

mayumi is not squeamish at all and is scared of pretty much nothing. she just does not GAF abt anything .... absolute menace like puts salt on slugs when she was a kid menace

ryuji isn't phased by bugs since he grew up in an area with a shit ton of crickets and cicadas and flies and shit. he used to make a quick buck by selling dried up cicadas to tourists for like 50 yen #businessman! small amounts of blood doesn't bother him and he finds horror movies boring. however any injury larger than a scrape GETSSS him like he'll curl up and gag kinda reaction -_-

[creepy-crowleys]

15, 26

Darker Muse Qs

15. What is a secret they’ll take to their deathbed?

((It isn't much of a secret to friends, family, and allies, but she prefers to have some privacy about her functional immortality and very strong suspicions about what being one of Gaia's and the Buzzing's chosen entails.

Taking something to your deathbed is a little more complicated when you'll quite possibly never see one. :p

Crowley is the kind of immortal that can be killed, but will just get back up due to her bond with the Buzzing as a separate, even more annoying to kill entity: Kill her, the Buzzing, who are connected to her outside of the physical plane, will be unaffected, haul her soul off to somewhere a bit safer, and just bring her back. Endlessly. Whether she wants to or not. Existing outside of time, if the fragments of the Buzzing inside of her aren't destroyed practically simultaneously, in a way that will likely require vast amounts of overkill to completely vaporize them across multiple dimensions beyond human perception, they will just escape and bring Crowley back with them.

It isn't a perfect system; the Buzzing do get tired eventually and will take longer between regenerations, and Crowley loses pieces of herself in the being dragged back and forth that can result in more permanent damage if she doesn't get a chance to properly recover. There is a canon Bee in the Orochi Tower used for experimentation, killed and tortured enough times to no longer be functional. Crowley is very aware that it's a possible fate that awaits her.

She isn't keen to reveal information, lest anyone outside of her world get similar ideas to try it for themselves. Among other things. People who want to hurt you find out nothing they do will actually end your existence? They'll get creative, take advantage of the fact they can utilize every terrible idea that pops into their head and never fully break their toy.

And it's cheating. Why admit you have an ace in your sleeve when you can potentially catch an opponent off-guard with it?

She does try to inform allies about her condition so they know to prioritize other party members over the one that can reattach her own limbs as necessary, or so friends and loved ones can worry a little bit less about things going wrong.

And she's picked up enough Undertale lore to assume it would... probably be upsetting to a fair few people in the community to admit to also being a huge pain in the ass to keep down.

And she's also uncomfortable with the reality of what the Buzzing are making her in exchange for the power they've given her. She's pretty certain at this point that the previous generation of chosen, alongside Gaia, are her world's angels. And that she's intended to play that role, alongside Anima, in whatever new world they colonize. It isn't something she particularly wants any part of, she's afraid of what will become of her as her humanity is stripped away, and she is very, very aware that angels are not especially well-liked within her circles on here.

People know, some even know the back-door method of semi-functionally killing her and her wishes should things ever progress too far in a way isn't comfortable with. But it's something she'd really rather not call too much attention to.))

26. How do they feel when they’re completely alone?

((Lonely. :p

Crowley likes some amount of privacy and doesn't care for crowds or being the center of attention particularly, but she doesn't like being alone. She's had a lot of isolation in her life; having someone else there - even a pet or someone just in a room with her doing something completely different - is a comfort for her.

The paranoia and restlessness creep up that much more quickly when she doesn't have someone or something to keep her attention on.))

[switch]

i really wish they would update faerieland employment agency just a bit. it's a really understatedly valuable part of the site in terms of allowing an entire class of many otherwise functionless items to serve a purpose, being a mechanism to continually remove said otherwise functionless items from the site- especially now that charity corner has been sent to hell forever-- and as another alternate route for people who either struggle with games or restocking for any reason to earn a good chunk of daily pocket change (making a minimum of 5k in profits from 5 free jobs for 25k in a day is perfectly feasible), and the tiering system enforced by the job coupons in theory keeps it from being a complete hellhole free-for-all, since people with a lot of money already should be incentivized to go do super jobs and leave more casual players alone with the free jobs.

i also honestly just think it's fun. i really like the quest systems on here.

admittedly if they did update employment agency to make it too much better it risks getting hyper-competitive since one advantage of it right now is not too many people bother with it currently, but i don't think it needs too much rebalancing either. releasing the job coupons through daily quests was a really good start for getting people to engage with employment agency more, since previously a lot of the coupons sold for twice as much as they should have in order for it to have ever been worth buying to use, but the issue remains that green and blues are inexplicably always worse than doing free jobs. green and blues have no reason to exist. i can't fathom why it was programmed like that in the first place, but i just wonder now if new TNT is even aware of that when they put them in here. i have to imagine that theoretically the easiest way to fix that would be to just increase the base minimums of the green and blues, but doing so without bumping up against the higher coupons' rewards is difficult. if we raise the other coupons' rewards too high just to accommodate making green and blue not useless everyone might just start killing each other over job coupons again and make the whole thing worthless.

if we assign red's min/max of 9k-10k down to green (which, in a bubble, 9k is lower than what some frees can be, but frees also can't reach 10k), we could then shuffle blue, red, and silver's values to something like (spitballing here, they should follow more of a consistent increase in pattern like the others) to blue = 28-30k, red = 38-40.5k, and silver = 45-50.5k, all without bumping up against gold's 55k and above. admittedly, those differences in profits might be so similar that it doesn't make for a huge difference, but you still get the advantage from higher tier coupons of just being able to do more jobs in one, so i don't think it would muck up their functional values too much...?

this could muck up the value of ever doing free jobs at all though. i admittedly can't foresee if greens and blues would stay so cheap due to being in dailies that it would always be worth just buying them and never doing frees anymore. maybe their price would stay high enough that it would just be something people do whenever you get one in a daily, and otherwise you'd stick with frees? anecdotally i've gotten four greens and one blue this entire time which feels like an okay amount.

although, uh, those values would bump them right up with lower tier brightvale coupons. brightvale job coupons are weird and i don't like them and i don't know what to do with them. maybe they'd also be fine because of the above 'value in more jobs' thing.

there is also the discussion that they could rebalance the jobs themselves (either ratio of quantity/reward, what items it seems to favor, etc), but i'm really not confident on that one. i'd be fine with the actual jobs being left untouched and just the coupons being rebalanced for now. the only thing i do think they should do is increase the number of jobs that spawn per round, in frees but especially in supers. it's absolutely barren and was just not made with how many players neopets would have one day in mind. but on that note, should more pinks or purple jobs spawn too? maybe increasing the spawn rate of all jobs would make pinks and purples a bit more feasible, but if more people are doing super jobs then pinks may still be too hotly contested. pinks should be the rarest due to being the most profitable, but "7 pinks jobs spawned in TWO WEEKS" is obscene. especially when gold brightvale jobs seem to spawn a lot more frequently than pinks or even purples given they have the same maximum as pink and are only 5k lower on the minimum, and are on average better than the also-rarer purples.

god i hate trying to factor in brightvale job coupons. why did they even make these things. agh. anyway, employment agency wasn't updated to the new layout so i don't think they're ever going to surprise-rebalance it like they did with other stuff, unfortunately.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

I've got a bit of trouble figuring out how to draw the anatomy of winged humanoids. Your references on wing anatomy have been really helpful, but I'm not sure whether to make the wings an extra set of arms above the actual arms, or have them in the back like most winged humanoid depictions like angels etc

like these:

It seems like your winged people are the latter, but then I'm not sure if that fits with how their skeletal anatomy would look like with two pairs of scapulas on a single ribcage. That would be a bit crowded unless you move the arms more forward and closer together, and you would get something like the two arm-pairs again.

Can you help me?

sorry for the delay! my life got hectic with having to move house and all. I have posted about winged humanoid skeletal anatomy before, though it's a little old at this point. But for the most part I think it still works fine.

since then, i have taken my main oc with wings and kinda moved his arm shoulders around, so now his arm shoulders are more forward and downwards on his torso, like this:

not a perfect skeletal build, but it shows my ideas well enough. The two shoulder blades have different points of contact, and from a different angle the wing shoulder blades should be closer to the spine. Birds actually have incredibly small scapulas, all things considered. they're quite narrow and long. I don't know exactly how much they move, compared to human scapulas. but with the arm shoulder more forward and down, the two scapulas shouldn't interfere with each other too much. as for whether or not the motion would be restricted if the scapula is actually a modified rib, that's possible i think.

it might also just function a little more like a hip joint. your pelvis doesn't shift around a huge amount when you move one leg. not in the same way your scapula shifts when you move your arm, at least. the majority of motion i feel in my scapula always comes when i move my arms behind me, which pushes the scapula over my back. it moves in other ways too, but i think this back motion is the one that would cause the most trouble with the double-shoulder situation, and it is probably very restricted.

the musculature of the wings might also restrict this type of arm movement, so winged people just won't have the exact same range of arm motion as a normal human, and that's fine.