#I am at the same time fascinated and horrified

[asmuchasidliketo]

Apart from the "if you're feeling depressed suck it up and remember you must always look your best" this is pretty good. However, I find a big (and surprising, giving the source) problem with this: there is no talk about sanitary products.

I mean. Kotex. You sell them. Why not use this edutainment video to advertise your brand?

Especially if it can help young girls plan their days.

Thinking of the graphic novel Pucelle (sadly not translated in English, afaik) by Florence Dupré la Tour - the biographic story of child and teenage years of a girl with little to no sexual education... despite being born in 1978.

...Okay, here's a terrifying concept. A co-production between Disney and Kotex.

[dcxdpdabbles]

It's all Fun and Games Kids! Part 2

#HolidayRequests First off absolutely love your work and I'm so happy to show that by sending my support. I am not at all requesting all three just one of them. So dealer's choice. Congratulations! It's Triplets!, It's all Fun and Games Kids, or the Missing Half

Danny was buying some groceries when five armed men rushed in and demanded everyone to get on the ground. He stood by the milk, watching in fascination as the men gathered everyone near the back.

It didn't seem any of them were affiliated with big rouges, which could mean this was either a gang-related power grab or a couple of men looking for a quick buck.

They were likely taking hostages because they had messed up their big getaway and were now trying to make desperate leverage against law enforcement.

"I said get on the ground!" A man shouts behind Danny seconds before he is smacked with the butt of a gun. He hits the ground with a slight oof, but otherwise, he is okay. The same can't be said for his milk carton.

It splats in one large puddle, landing on the side and ripping a hole in the bottom corner. Hmm, that was a cheap carton. He should consider switching over to a different brand. He is then dragged to his feet and led towards a group of cowering people.

They were pushed against the vegetable bins and ordered to sit right under them so their backs were against the wood and the guards could limit their movement. It was brilliant, too, as being under the bins made it harder to see them for anyone attempting to rescue them.

Danny is shoved next to a trembling woman under the tomatoes, holding her hands against her mouth, muttering something low in Spanish. He doesn't know enough to translate what she says, but he figures it must be a prayer.

He offers her a smile. "First time?"

The look she sends him could have curdled dairy. He gives a small laugh, crossing his legs and getting comfortable. She returns to his prayers, and the two don't speak after that. Danny watches the armed men and realizes they're not new to this but aren't good at it.

These are the type of men who joined gangs for glory. The kind that would report violence at the drop of a hat and didn't care who they hurt in the process. Or worse, they enjoyed when they hurt people in the process, even if those people had nothing to do with them.

Danny frowns after a while, realizing that the men haven't looted them or emptied the cash registers. What were they after?

The store employees were all moved from the back of the store, their matching lime green uniforms an eye sore. They all wore the same horrified expressions as the group was forced to sit between the tomatoes and the onions.

The youngest one, a teenager who looked no older than eighteen, was wearing a black shirt with stripped lime lines, and Danny quickly figured out he was the manager. He was sobbing quietly, bruises on his face and around his neck indicating that the armed men had identified him as well.

Danny felt a spark of protective rage.

The manager sat beside Danny, so the Halfa scouted over, eyeing the men with the guns as he carefully slid his hand into the boy's palm. It was a testament to how scared the poor kid was when all he did was curl his fingers around his, tears rolling down his beaten face.

It made him wonder why, seeing as the other shoppers and employees did not have any indications that they had been attacked. It couldn't have been retaliation for trying to be a hero. No offense to the teenager, but he didn't strike Danny as someone brave or stupid enough to try to fight back.

If anyone, he looked more like someone who would hide in situations like these.

That's it. He realizes, watching how the men make head gestures at the manger. This isn't some off-chance hostage situation. This is a revenge plan. The kid's the target and these idiots are too low in command to realize it. No way they would have brought him out here if they did. Someone will come for him soon.

The teen had dark raven hair and the same pale skin as Danny, but his eyes were as black as coal compared to Danny's aqua blue. It might not work, but he was better equipped to handle whatever they threw at him until the bats or the police arrived.

He carefully lets go of the hand in his hold, running his fingers up the arm of the teen, keeping his eyes trained on the gunmen. He's doing it slowly, worried any sudden or fast moves will convince them to pull the triggers on their assault rifles.

The boy's breath hitches but thankfully doesn't blow their cover. The tremble in his limb has increased, and Danny wouldn't have felt bad about it had he not been on a time crunch. Eventually, his fingers brushed against the short sleeve of the manager's uniform.

"Listen carefully. You were just here to buy some groceries. You never worked here." He whispers, curling his fingers around the fabric and turning the polo shirt intangible. He pulls it right off the teenager's body in one quick swipe.

It slides off the boy's skin like water, and the second he slides it through him, Danny returns it to solid, letting it settle on top of his clothes. He quickly covers the teenager's naked chest with his own long-sleeve shirt, using the same method.

The boy's mouth drops, but he doesn't get a chance to respond before the armed men walk over to them. Danny pushes his head down, hoping to hide the bruises while hunting his own, using his hair to curtain his face.

Just in time, too, because the Halfa is yanked to his feet by two of the men, who sneer at him, and he lets the proper amount of whimpers when they backhand him and bang his head on the bin.

Danny is dragged out of the room while the third man threatens the people. He'll come back for them the second he has a chance.

"You thought you could hide in Gotham, Eric?" One of the men hisses, "After what your Daddy did? Half of my boys are rotting in cells for life because of him! "

Eric was likely in witness protection or had wronged a powerful man he shouldn't have. Maybe he was in an organized gang and had ratted someone out. There was no way Danny was letting these men get away.

They drag him towards the back, where a group of similarly dressed men and women are waiting. Glances at everything through his hair, wondering how long he had before someone realized they got the wrong person.

Maybe they wouldn't notice before they shoved him into the ain't oven; they were obviously planning on burning him in. Which would be the perfect place to shift into Phantom out of prying eyes. He had spent months chasing Batman as a regular love-stroke citizen.

He couldn't let all those dramatic swoons and pathetic flirtations go to waste by revealing he was a powerful meta now! Plus, how else would he be rescued by a hero if the man knew he could just do it himself?

He was forced to stand in the room with two guards gripping is his shoulders hard enough to bruise. Danny doesn't raise his gaze away from his shoes, so even though he knows someone is standing near the oven to give him a dramatic monologue, he won't look.

A minute passes before someone clicks their tongue.

"Nothing to say, brat!?" A kick to the back of his knees has Danny falling to his knees, gritting his teeth to stop himself from going ghost immediately. "Do you know what I'm going to-"

Whatever the man was going to say was cut off by a figure launching itself from the ceiling railing and kicking him in the back of the head.

Danny flinches as a body drops right next to him. There is a splash of blood as one of the men wails. Danny offers him a cheeky grin once the man rolls over and looks up into his face.

His wide eyes are stomped on by a dark boot surrounded by a fluttering cape, and the second pair of hands on his shoulder vanishes. Danny listens to the sound of battle, keeping his hair in his face and his eyes on his folded knees. He could get up and hide, but where would the fun be?

His favorite pass time has arrived.

"Are you alright?" The familiar voice growls, but Danny doesn't respond. It was too far away. The man needed to get closer.

Eventually, the boots and the cape returned to his line of vision, a hand slowly reaching for him, and Danny flung himself toward them. He must have caught the vigilante off guard because when Danny wrapped his arms around the legs, he did not dodge in time despite the jerk that indicated he was moving.

Dramatically, Dann wailed, still on his knees, pressing his cheek against a muscular thigh. "Batman! You saved me! I was so scard but you came to rescue me!"

A hand landed in his hair, pushing Danny away. That only made the ghost in him grin as he fought to hug the man closer. It must have been a shock to find that Danny had a lot of strength despite his young appearance.

"Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I was so scared!" He bawls, hiccuping for good measure as he rubs his cheek against the meat of Batman's left vastus laterlis. The man must do insane squats.

"Get. Off." Batman grunts, now using both hands to try and push Danny away. It's too bad for him; Danny has super strength. "Let. Go!"

"Mr. Fenton, everything is alright! You don't have to be afraid. Please let Batman go." Spoiler shouts, appearing in Danny's line of sight. He almost breaks character to pout at her intrusion. He can't, though, as that would ruin the game. So he lets her gently pry off his arms and helps him to his feet.

He shoots Batman with looks of undying devotion, though, which might have actually made the Dark Knight shudder, and that was all he wanted in life.

"You have real bad luck, huh?" Spoiler comments, rubbing his back like a small, scared child.

"I just wanted some milk for my Oreos." He hiccups, wiping at his eye. He then ends a watery smile towards Batman, who is helping Red Robin and Robin secure the gang that had snuck into his city. "But I did get to see Tall, Dark, and Daddy, so today is not a total bust."

"I'm going to be sick," The girl in purple mutters under her breath, and Danny nearly loses it right then.

He is distracted by Eric rushing towards them, a look of hero worship on his face as he slams into Danny with a loud but sincere "Thank you!"

Phantom purrs from inside his protective core. He should shop here more often. This place is a riot.

[lenaellsi]

One thing that really gets me about the opening with angel Crowley is that he's not just excited by how beautiful his stars are, or how fun the process of creation is, or how impressed he's made Aziraphale. He’s not in it for the glory or the aesthetics. He’s actually horrified by the idea that the universe will just be "fancy wallpaper" in the future, even though Aziraphale assures him that humans will "marvel" at his creations.

What Crowley loves about his stars is their potential. He is building, essentially, a nursery. Most of the universe's stars, he explains to Aziraphale, will come pre-aged--but his are just starting out! After they're given time to grow, who knows what could happen! Good or bad, black holes or new constellations—there are so many possible futures ahead of them, and Crowley can’t wait to see what happens.

And then Aziraphale tells him that he knows what will happen: those stars will never grow up. They will never shine or burn out or implode or become anything new. They’ll be destroyed before they get the chance.

"You can't kill kids."

“Whose side are you on?” “God’s, of course!” “Same God that wants me to whack the kids?”

"People die." "They do, don't they?"

“Great pustulant mangled bollocks to the Great blasted Plan!”

"Don't test them to destruction."

"It's always too late."

"Nothing lasts forever." "No, I don't suppose it does."

This fear has been chasing Crowley since before the beginning. It’s what caused his first doubts, put the first traces of gray in his wings. He’s been raging at the futility of watching beautiful, complex things be damned or destroyed for his entire existence, and that’s why he seems to the audience and to Aziraphale to be a mess of contradictions.

He loves to follow the trends of the times, but he clings to his classic car in an era of planned obsolescence for vehicles. He lives in an ultra-modern flat, but finds his greatest comfort in the unchanging security of aziraphale’s old shop. He hates the idea of killing children, but is willing to see a child die if it preserves the rest of the universe and foils the Great Plan. He “goes too fast,” but his most unique and notable power is that he’s learned to stop time.

Crowley hates predestination. He hates divine intervention and the removal of agency. Crowley, the architect of free will, is constantly torn between his love of change and choice and potential and his terror that everything will be destroyed by an unstoppable, incomprehensible higher power. That’s his driving conflict in the way that Aziraphale’s is learning to find his own path without following Heaven’s rules, and I am fascinated to see how it resolves.

[revelboo]

Invisible Monsters Pt 2

Lost Light Megatron x Reader-forgiveness

• One arm still cradling the empty cube, the other stretched out over the bar so his cheek can lay on it, you’re caught in a mix of pity for Trailbreaker and indignant anger that Swerve had just kept serving him. You hadn’t known what to make of the fact that they could get drunk or that Swerve and Whirl both find drunk Trailbreaker hilarious. Most of the time. They’d both lost interest as soon as he made the inevitable buzzed slide to depressed muttering. You’d watched the whole mortifying show with the same horrified fascination usually reserved for truly awful train wrecks.

• And at some point, Whirl had ditched you. Leaving you with Trailbreaker since there’s no way to get off the bar top Whirl had plopped you on without a broken neck. The big mech’s been silent long enough that you think he might finally be recharging, but you still keep well out of his reach.

• Neck craning to stare at Swerve on the other side of the bar, you wait for him to remember you’re still trapped. Because the only way to get to him is by climbing over Trailbreaker’s arm and hoping you don’t get swatted in his drunken stupor. No thank you.

• You’re relieved as soon as you spot Rodimus entering the bar and you lift an arm to get his attention. That grin as his optics light on you makes your stomach drop, though. You know that look. Sure enough, the red and orange mech was looking for you. Probably for something you’re not going to like. A certainty that grows with icy dread as he comes over, reaching for you.

• For a heartbeat, you tense and seriously consider taking your chances with the passed out drunk. Shoulders slumping, you allow the co-captain to scoop you up. “There you are,” he says, voice cheerful which set off all sorts of alarm bells. And then he’s walking with you trapped in his servos.

• “I’m not going to like whatever this is, am I?” You ask, clinging to his servos as his quick stride almost makes you fall. A grin is your only answer and you groan. It’s going to be bad. Definitely bad.

• As soon as you spot the massive, intimidating form of Megatron on the bridge, you wilt. Especially as Rodimus heads right for him with a cheery, “Hold this for me,” and thrusts you at the huge mech. Heart nearly stopping as Megatron instinctively reaches to catch you as you fall a foot or so into his hands with a yelp.

• Surprised to say the least, Megatron cups his hands around the tiny form that’s just been dumped into his hands. “Rodimus,” he growls, as the human glares at the younger mech.

• Backing away toward the door of the bridge so Megatron can’t try and give you back, he folds his hands behind his back. “Remember that asteroid field I piloted us through?”

• “The one I specifically said not to fly through?” Megatron asks, servos starting to curl into fists when a little hand lands on one. Startled, he glances down at you in his palm and forces himself to relax before turning his attention back on Rodimus. “Yes. I remember.”

• “Oh, good. Great,” Rodimus’s optics dart to you in Megatron’s hands. “So on a completely unrelated note, apparently one of the engines is now inoperable. Gotta go.”

• And he bails, leaving you in the former warlord’s hands. That jerk. “Seriously?” You growl, anger faltering as Megatron looks at you. And sure, he’s been gentle with you so far, but he’s huge and Whirl’s told you stories. Horrific, traumatizing stories that don’t quite mesh up with what little you’ve seen of him so far. This mech isn’t some bloodthirsty monster. He’s just a perpetually exhausted adult having to deal with nonstop stupidity. And he is tired if the way he vents with a soft growl is any indication.

• Casting about, Megatron isn’t sure what to do with you now. Set you down and let you wander the halls or just wait until Rung or someone else remembers to look for you? Anything but hold you in his palms as you look up at him with wariness, but not hate. You should despise him for what he’s done to your kind and your world. So why don’t you?

• Seeming to resign yourself to being stuck with him, you curl your legs up under you. Make yourself comfortable in his grip. “He looks up to you, you know.” The soft words surprise him as he frowns down at you in his hand before heading to his chair. It feels almost blasphemous to cradle your warm, little body and feel the steady beat of your heart against his servos. Something soft that was never meant for him.

• “Hardly,” he says, tensing as you jump lightly from his palm onto the arm of the chair to look around. “They’re all afraid of me.” Like you should be. Such a fragile thing, you shouldn’t fearlessly meet his optics. The almost sympathetic, wry twist of your smile as you spread your arms and walk to the edge of the flat surface, cuts him.

• “Everyone makes mistakes,” you tell him, head tipped up to study the empty vastness of space. Huffing softly, he sinks back in his chair. You dare sum up all the wrongness as just a mistake? He can’t understand how easily you can forgive and move on, but maybe, short lived creatures have to be able to let go because of just how short their lives are. Maybe they can’t afford to cling to old grudges. Or maybe it’s just you in particular.

Previous Next

[misseviehyde]

SHADOWS

My ex-boyfriend James is sooooo fucking weak and pathetic. I hate and despise him with every part of my soul. He is everything that is wrong with men these days. Indecisive, overly sensitive, small and pathetic. What a fucking loser.

His twin brother Jason by comparison is a God. He is the man I now desire. Once I despised and hated Jason, but now he is everything I seek in a man. Tall, strong, rich, dominant... he makes me so fucking wet. My new boyfriend is a total Alpha. The longer I stay around him the more feminine I feel. I love what he does to me.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me explain how this all started...

Once I was the nerdiest girl at school. It seems insane to say it now, given how popular I am, but there was a time when I couldn't name six fashion designers or contour my makeup or suck off three boys at once in the cheerleaders locker room. I was a fucking loser.

Terrible skin, flat chested, nerdy glasses and goofy teeth. No. I was once plain little Melanie. I even had ginger hair. No wonder everyone bullied me. Popular rich bitch Madison didn't even exist. I was a fucking nobody.

My life consisted of science fairs, anime and role-playing games. Not the fun role playing games where you dress as a sexy school girl and get railed by a hot guy... no... the loser ones where you pretend to be an elf.

To my shame I was even into LARPIng. Live action role play. Each Friday night, me, James, Jason and our other buddies would go into the local woods to play.

We would run around the woods pretending to be on adventures. Fuckkkk it was so pathetic, I feel a major ick just thinking about it.

Jason wasn't the God he would later become at this point. He and James basically looked the same. I don't know why I had chosen James as my boyfriend. I guess he was slightly more confident and had asked me out first. He and Jason basically looked and acted the same though. Many people couldn't even tell them apart. Even me sometimes.

Then Jason found the shadow and everything changed.

As part of our role playing experience we sometimes brought props along and Jason had found this creepy looking glass bottle in a charity shop. It was opaque and stoppered with a wax cork. Perhaps it held a liquid of some kind? Sometimes it looked like there was something dark swirling inside, but it was kind of hard to tell.

We needed a prop to represent an evil demon that was trapped in a bottle so Jason had brought out the bottle.

As usual the group had split up. It was dark now and I was on my own. I had on my favourite druid costume (ughhh so fucking fugly) and I was creeping through the woods under the moonlight.

Suddenly I saw Jason through a gap in the trees. He was on his own too and carrying the bottle. I headed towards him, he hadn't seen me... in fact he wasn't really paying proper attention to his surroundings, which is maybe why he suddenly tripped over a tree root.

The bottle span from his hands and smashed against the ground with a musical tinkle.

I had a perfect view of everything. Jason was lit by the moonlight, his scrawny body shivering and his eyes wide with fear as a rolling mass of black shadows erupted from the smashed bottle and flowed towards him.

I wanted to scream but my voice had left me and I could only put my hands to my mouth like a parody of some dumb anime girl as the shadows flowed into Jason. Black smoke forced its way down his throat, into his nose. It wrapped and enveloped him, melting and merging into his body.

Then it was gone.

But the scene was not over.

Jason let out a cry, or maybe it was a moan. I watched in horrified fascination (and now I'm happy to admit a little bit or arousal) as I watched him change. Jason... my God... was being born.

Muscles rippled and swelled under his skin, causing his shirt to rip and his fantasy style breeches to bulge. He tore his top off to reveal a rippling six back and toned muscles as his skin flowed like wax and he changed and transformed. He grew taller and bigger, more handsome too as his face became more masculine and his hair cut more stylish.

Grunting and grinning Jason ripped off his pathetic role playing costume and stretched confidently. He was entirely naked now and I gasped in arousal as I saw his magnificent ass and his perfect cock. As I watched it was growing. Ten inches of thick white meat now hung between his huge thighs and I almost salivated as I beheld his perfect manly body.

Jason confidently stretched his body, clearly enjoying how it felt. He grinned perfect white teeth and his eyes, once mild and nerdy shone with ambition and dark desire. He clicked his fingers and there was a wisp of smoke as a stylish black shirt and designer jeans encased his new perfect body. He now looked like a male super model and he strode off through the woods chuckling, leaving me breathing heavily and wondering if I was losing my mind.

***

I ran through the woods. Back then I was ungainly and lacking athletic ability. Whereas now I hit the gym daily and can bend into nearly any position (especially when fucking) I was a fucking loser, so I made quite the noise as I crashed through the trees.

James and the others soon found me and I garbled what I'd seen, but they all thought I was still role playing.

"Babe, it's a cool story, but one detail that doesn't work. My stuck up bullying brother doesn't play with us. He thinks we're losers."

I gawped at James. I thought he was joking at first, but as we spoke it became clear he was serious. The shadow had changed Jason, but it also seemed to have changed everyone's memories of him.

I had no idea why I hadn't been affected. perhaps because I had witnessed his transformation directly or something.

James and the others couldn't understand why I was so upset and worried. The shadow had looked evil and I was worried my boyfriends brother was now under the control of something wicked. I decided I'd have to confront Jason directly and see if I could aid him, so I told the others I felt sick and left to go immediately to James and Jason's house.

James started after me, but I quickly lost him in the woods. I didn't want him to see what had happened to his brother. I was sure I could find a way to save Jason.

Haha, what a fucking idealistic moron I used to be.

***

I arrived at Jason's to find the house had changed. There was now a pickup parked at the front and the house was larger and clearly more expensive. Entering the house I found it was better decorated and I nearly had a heart attack as I entered the kitchen to find Jame's Mom and Dad.

Michael, the Dad was now a handsome looking business man wearing an expensive suit. Linda, James Mom had transformed from a homesy kind Mom into a haughty and beautiful MILF. She looked stunning!

Neither of them paid me much attention, they clearly recognised me as James girlfriend. The sneer and look of disgust Linda gave me left me cold. I can't blame her. Linda is now a major icon to me and we are the BEST of friends. She loves me like a daughter and I've learned so much about manipulating and using men from her. But back then I was a dork dating her loser son James.

But that was soon about to change.

I found Jason in a room I'd never seen before. A personal gym.

He was stripped to the waist, his muscles rippling as he pumped iron. He turned and grinned at me as I entered.

"Well well well. My brothers dork girlfriend? What the hell do you want Melanie?"

"I saw everything Jason. I saw that weird shadow enter you. We have to get it out of you. What have you done to your Mom and Dad? This isn't right."

Jason grinned. "Ahhhh. So you saw it? So you remember the old me? Haha you have no idea Melanie. No idea how good this feels. The shadow within me hungers for power and pleasure. It serves no other purpose but to give me what I want. It can change things, people too. Anything that falls under my shadow can be twisted to serve my whim. I am a fucking God now."

I watched nervously as black shadows seemed to spread around Jason as he spoke. The air rippled with potential and a cold numb feeling spread through my body and my soul. Jason grinned as the light seemed to be sucked out of the room and I was drowning in darkness.

"You could be so much more Melanie. You're such a fucking dork, just like my pathetic brother. I always wanted you to be MY girlfriend and now I have this power you can join me. I won't force you, I want you to join me willingly. A taste of this power and I think you'll want more."

I gasped falling to my knees as the shadows surrounded me. All the warmth and kindness and love inside me was suddenly numbed. It was like the shadow was feeding on my positive emotions... perhaps it was.

The dark shadows enveloped and wrapped my nerdy body. Tempting whispers invaded my mind and I felt Jason's presence beating down on me and willing me to give in. The shadow wanted to change and corrupt me, but it would only do so if I wanted it to. Jason hadn't lied.

I don't know if you've ever been offered something so fucking delicious and perfect that even if it came at the cost of your soul you'd jump at the chance... but when that moment finally arrives, it's pretty hard not to succumb.

I'd seen what the shadow had done to Jason. It had turned him into the perfect example of masculine perfection. It could probably do the same for me, but make me the ultimate girl. All I had to do was let it in and surrender to the darkness.

I'd seen girls in magazines, on TV, on teenage drama programs. I'd always wondered how it would feel to be a Queen Bee... a head cheerleader type. What must it be like to be so pretty you can get whatever you want? How would it feel to be a bitch?

"Yes... change me," I groaned. "But only a little... I just want to be a little prettier."

I gasped as my body suddenly ached and I felt the shadows begin to change me. I ripped my dorky glasses off and felt my brace snap as I spat out the metal to leave perfect white teeth. My red hair turned a sexy black and my pale spotty skin tanned as my body toned.

It felt so fucking good.

"Don't you want more Melanie? Don't you want to become a real fucking bitch? If it feels this good to go a little of the way, why not let the shadows take you all the way?"

Jason had a point. The more I transformed the more I wanted to transform. As I felt myself become more popular and beautiful, the further I found I wanted to go.

"Yessss mmmmore," I gasped feeling the shadows pour down my throat and into my body. I could feel Jason in my mind now, his fingers manipulating my pleasure receptors and his thoughts becoming my own.

"That's right Melanie. You don't want to be a dweeb anymore. You want to go all the way. You want to be a fucking bitch. Say it."

I shuddered as delicious throbs of pleasure pulsed through my body. "I... mmmmmh, ohhh yes, I want to be a bitch."

"That's right Melanie. Let's picture a girl. Let's call her Madison. She's everything you want to be isn't she? Thin, pretty, bratty and spoiled. She's the kind of girl that has a new outfit every day, that all the other girls bow down to. I want you imagine how hot she looks. Nice tits, a toned body, ultra-feminine body language. So different to the dork you are. Are you picturing her?"

I was picturing her. I was thinking of every mean bad girl and bitch I had ever know in real life or in the movies. I was picturing Madison and boy was she fucking hot.

"Now say it. Say you want to be Madison. You want to be the bullying popular Alpha girl."

My pussy was wet, my already partially transformed body felt so good. I needed more... I needed the shadows to corrupt me completely.

"Yessss I want to be Madison."

I screamed and orgasmed as I said it, feeling the shadows flowing into me and destroying Melanie forever. All the kind gentle nice parts of me were consumed and the shadows pumped me full of evil, mean bratty thoughts.

Melanie died in that instant and I... Madison... took control.

Long bitchy nails shot out from my fingers. My face became meaner and even prettier, soft pouty lips curving into a bratty grin. My clothing became designer, my handbag expensive and my personality became that of a spoiled rich bitch.

Reality rippled and changed. Only Jason and I would remember the old me. It was as if Melanie had never existed and only I had been born.

The shadows withdrew, but they left their mark. I was a fucking evil bitch now, devoid of mercy. I only cared about myself... oh and Jason of course.

"How do you feel baby?" he grinned, towering over me in his Adonis body.

"I feel amazing baby," I grinned. "In fact I want to thank you for being the best boyfriend ever."

I giggled and sank eagerly to my knees. My long nails looked so hawt as I unzipped Jason's fly and his huge ten inch dick flopped out.

Moaning I began to pump and suck his cock. This was who and what I worshipped now. Jason had taken me from that loser James.

"Yesssss, good girl," grunted Jason as he put his hands gently on my head and pushed me deeper onto his cock. "You're my slutty bitch now and I have everything I ever wanted."

I just gagged and gargled happily, I fucking loved my man's big cock.

I couldn't wait for him to cum. I needed to taste it...

***

And so that is how I ascended from being a fucking pathetic loser into a Goddess myself. Jason is the Master of the Shadow and so long as he holds that power I am his willing accomplice.

Soon after the transformation James came home. He no longer remembered I had ever been his girl, but that didn't stop me and Jason fucking loudly next door and laughing about the little simp jerking off in his room next door.

I felt so evil and perfect. Being Madison was like a perpetual state of orgasm. The meaner and nastier I was, the better it all felt.

Sometimes I wondered what would have happened if James had smashed that bottle instead of Jason? Perhaps he would be the Alpha stud with the delicious bitchy girlfriend.

But it was just idle speculation. The shadows answered to Jason...

And I answered only to the shadows now.

THE END

[skullofrome]

Hot take from the JTHM fandom: I don’t think a JTHM movie should be made. Never. Not because of some weird purity nonsense like “iTs NoT tHe SaMe As ThE cOmIcS” because- yeah, that’s the fucking point. It’s because I am terrified of one thing: Incels.

Okay, here’s the deal:

We all know that Nny isn’t supposed to be idolised or looked up to, right? Like there are multiple times in the comic where his way of thinking or philosophy or whatever else you can describe the disastercore crockpot shitstew brewing in his mind as are criticised and questioned. He’s a great and genuinely fascinating character, I love him to death, but in real life he’d be a horrible, horrible person.

With all due respect and appreciation, he’s a dangerous, irrational, impulsive, hair-thin triggered, pathetic, cowardly hypocritical loser who tried to kill Devi, the one person he loved because he was afraid of a possibility he had no reason to worry about or even believe will happen. He is a sadistic monster who knows what he is doing is wrong but does not have the capacity and/or willpower to stop himself from hurting the people around him.

Point is- most of us should understand that Johnny is not meant to be looked at as an almighty prophet or a philosopher equivalent to the likes of Socrates or Confucius or this, that and any of the other. I believe we are meant to look at him as a force of nature: something that is chaotic and horrible and unwanted but is cursed to exist anyway. Something to study and analyse but never to admire or aspire to be. As relatable and funny and, dare I say, cathartic as he is, we must never give into the temptation of being like him. Incels and people like them, on the other hand, absolutely do not understand any of these things.

You see, incels are stupid. It’s why they blame women and minorities for the fact that they’re unlikeable and subpar. This applies to how they consume media, too. Characters like Walter White and The Joker were completely misunderstood and butchered by incels. If a morally grey male character pushed to the edge is even thought of within an incel’s space, they will devour and kill and consume it like bloodthirsty piranhas without giving it a second thought. As “intellectual” as they larp themselves to be, they have none; they don’t self-reflect, or analyse, or do even the slightest amount of critical thinking about anything. Their lack of self-awareness should disgust and horrify you. When those people read JTHM, they don’t see Johnny as who and what he actually is - a force of nature to avoid and only take in from a distance - they see him as a misunderstood genius; a pillar of supreme and almighty intellect; a based Chad among the sea of soyjack virgins that is Society™️. They take him seriously.

They’re literally Jimmy. And nobody likes Jimmy.

[cosmerelists]

Ranking the First Five Stormlight Novels

For the record, this is not meant to be an objectively correct ranking or anything--but it is my personal ranking. I wanted to wait to do this until Stormlight 5 came out!

And I gotta say--I like all of the books. But I can rank them by "least favorite" to "favorite," even if they're all among my favorite books in general, you know?

[Spoilers for Wind & Truth! ...And all the other Stormlight books too!]

#5: Wind and Truth

I feel bad ranking the newest book at the lowest spot...but so it goes. The thing is: I'm a simple woman. I come to Stormlight Archive looking for people with huge fantasy swords fighting each other in the sky. And while I do respect and understand Kaladin finding his place outside of battles and becoming a Therapist to the Stars, I did honestly miss him getting to duke it out against overwhelming odds.

I will say that this was probably my favorite Adolin book--his WAT arc was my favorite. I also loved the new ways that Shallan is using her powers, to say nothing of finally getting the Rlain/Renarin love story. It was also extremely gratifying to finally get a lot of the backstory about the Stormfather and Honor and the Recreance. I'm also fascinated that so many arcs involved oaths being broken framed as a good thing.

Lots of great stuff in Stormlight 5. But my monkey brain really wanted more sky fights.

#4: Oathbringer

I have to imagine that if you are a Dalinar stan, Oathbringer is probably your absolute favorite book. I'm a Dalinar fan but not a Dalinar stan, so that definitely flavors my reaction to this book.

This one does have one of my favorite Sanderlanches--the battle of Thaylen city is amazing (and Shallan single-handedly fighting an entire army does legitimately make me tear up every time). The invasion of Kholinar storyline is also great, and I loved meeting Azure.

Again, lots of good stuff, but not as much good stuff as some of the other books, at least for me.

#3: Rhythm of War

Rhythm of War was challenging for me because Kaladin is having the ABSOLUTE WORST time in his whole life and it's sometimes legitimately hard to read about it. At the same time, we get such great Kaladin fights thanks to the Pursuer, and one of the all-time great Kaladin Dramatic Entrances at the end.

Plus, I mean....Navani and Raboniel? So good! So toxic! Such an accidental toxic yuri horrifying love story. I'm such a sucker for self-sacrifice too, so Raboniel sacrificing herself to save Navani AFTER Navani killed her? That could have been created in a lab just for me.

PLUS this book had Maya and Adolin, both their kata fight and the whole "WE CHOSE" scene.

Incredible book, IMO.

#2: Way of Kings

I go back and forth about whether Way of Kings or Words of Radiance is my favorite, if I'm being honest. At the moment of writing this list, it's turned out this way.

I really love Way of Kings. The whole bridgeman plotline is horrifying but so compelling, and I love watching Kaladin build himself and his man back up. I love seeing all of the ways they manage to survive, from the side-carry to, well, war-crime armor I guess. The scene of Kaladin surviving the highstorm--with Syl in front trying to block it--is one of my all-time favorite scenes ever. The Tower Fight is fantastic all the way through. And the end with Dalinar giving up his shardblade to save the bridgemen is so earned.

On a first read I was less compelled by Shallan's narrative but it honestly gets more compelling the more often I reread which I've done...let's say a few times. She's such a great character from the first line.

#1: Words of Radiance

As I mentioned at the beginning, I am a simple woman sometimes when it comes to my fantasy series. Words of Radiance wins for me because it contains my three favorite plotlines / scenes:

The 4 v. 1 duel. So amazingly fun to read. Such a good scene for Adolin, for Kaladin, for Renarin. "Honor is dead but I'll see what I can do." Come ON.

Kaladin & Shallin fieldtrip in the chasms. I loved the way their relationship developed over the course of this scene. The end when they're huddled in the cave in the middle of the highstorm while listening to the Fused above them, telling each other their true stories--top-notch. Plus I'm a sucker for storylines where people have to both use and hide their powers, and so the fact that they're both Radiant and trying to hide that from each other makes me giggle maniacally.

The Kaladin vs. Szeth duel. This fight has EVERYTHING. They're in the sky. It's a highstorm. They literally run across enormous boulders that were RIPPED from the GROUND by the storm while said boulders are SPINNING THROUGH THE STORM. It's so over-the-top and it's my favorite fight in the whole series.

So that's me! I know there are tons of "What's your favorite Stormlight book" polls out there, but if you want to put your ranking in the tags I'd be interested to see it!

[chemicallywrit]

Hoboy. What a week. I appreciate audio drama for existing—for the real and weird and queer and interesting people making art that matters. Thanks for your art, folks—it’s Audio Drama Sunday!

🦵 This week’s episode of @sditepod was a play on Frankenstein, so you KNOW I had to bring it in for this post. You can’t help but sympathize with a financially struggling blue collar worker doing his best to care for the personhood of one of his charges, a veritable child of an elevator. And you can’t help but sympathize with El, who wonders if her purpose of Being An Elevator is even what she’s for if she isn’t good at it. I really liked the way this one ended.

🌊 OMG GUYS, @levianpodcast-desperado IS BACK. I am so glad Levian didn’t fade away, especially as we rejoin the story just in time to see how conniving Tanathea’s betrayal of Valentin really is. I love a sibling dynamic. I especially love a super messed up sibling dynamic. It’s hard not to be like “huh, maybe Tanathea has a point” even as she is destroying Valentin—and maybe that makes the twist at the end even more scathing. All those plans, Tanathea, and where does that leave you?

🔴 There’s something about a mundane medical event that turns horrifying that Someone Just Like You taps into in this week’s episode. Like, take it from someone who recently was coughing up blood (I’m fine! It’s cool!), when you do the smart thing and go to a doctor and the doctor diagnoses you with a Big Shrug, until suddenly things get way worse and then it’s too late? I have the same fear of those strains of meningitis that kill you in 24 hours. There is no small fear that Someone Just Like You cannot turn into a monster. It’s so good.

🎹 This episode of Hearthbound made me cryyyy, man! The way that this show uses those lo-fi sounds makes it feel so human. I’m fascinated by the way this show has chosen to portray Polyphemus—as we go on, I am interested to see how the other adaptations of characters are handled; maybe I can pick up on a theme.

🐎 Ohhhhh man, @worldgonewrongpod wins again. Especially after this week. How do you get out of survival mode indeed? You make new good memories. And how do you do that when there are banshees and work emergencies and fog that sends you to a swamp naked and racist homophobes? Well…you keep trying. You got to.

I hope you are all doing as well as can be expected. Please, for the love of God, keep living and keep making art and keep forming good memories. I love you.

[taragreenfield]

A shadow, a bone, and the stench of puritanism

One of the most disturbing things about the Grishaverse books is the underlying regressive, puritanical message they are conveying. Don't get fooled by superficial effects like dragon-shifting girlbosses and fancy "empowering" quotes like "It gets dark when I say it does" and "I'm not ruined, I am ruination"—it's just a candy wrapper for the purity ideals festering underneath. Alina will lose her say in whether it gets dark or not, and Genya will not ruin anything after all, because female agency is evil.

The first thing to strike the eye is the book's fascination with old, vitriolic, hateful, abusive women. Ana Kuya instills repressive values upon the children (mainly girls), lecturing them about "foolish mistakes of peasant girls," making them ashamed of their desires, and gets called a mother figure and remembered with unexplainable nostalgia. Baghra chastises Alina about her attraction to Aleksander at every turn, repeating the sentiment about "foolish girls" (gosh, are these two long-lost twins separated at birth?), and is painted as a wise mentor and a poor martyr of a mother, horrified by what her son has become (I wonder who raised him). It's not weird that people with such beliefs exist; it's weird that the narrative is trying to present them as something righteous.

If we are to believe the narrative, Baghra supposedly knew that the Darkling was "manipulating" Alina and was looking for amplifiers to take control over her powers for months, yet she stays silent up until the moment Alina and Aleksander are about to have sex. She averted a real catastrophe here! Obviously, if Alina had sex with "the wrong guy", she would have tainted herself for the rest of her life! That's the point of no return, eternal corruption of your immortal soul. The sheer moral panic over a girl having hots for a conventionally attractive guy would be hilarious if it wasn't treated as virtue.

Alina blaming Aleksander for "making her want him" in the end proves that she stayed in her deeply restrictive, backward mindset where women can't have sexual agency and can only be passive objects of seduction, deception, and temptation. A good girl doesn't have sexual desires; she's naturally chaste and pure until some big bad man appears and "corrupts" her, forcing her to want all those sinful, filthy, immoral things like sexual satisfaction or empowerment.

We see the same pattern with Zoya's retcon: in the trilogy, she's a desperate attention seeker, obsessing with proving herself to the Darkling. Other grisha don't seem to take her pursuits too seriously and think she is delusional. And suddenly, she was the Darkling's victim all along! He "groomed" her (although by her own admission she rarely saw him and always tried to get him to notice her), she was all pure and innocent, and he mercilessly seduced her with his sharp jawline against her will! Can't have our final girlboss lust over "an evil man" like some unprincipled harlot, can we? There is no way she might have wanted him on her own; she would never! She's a wronged Holy Mary, and that's all his fault!

Alina's relationship with Mal is a perfect example of a Victorian morality fable. Mal is a poster boy for the Madonna-whore complex, a guard dog of Alina's chastity: he's deeply uncomfortable with the fact that Alina might have been interested in another man, even before they started dating; he seems to be more worried that Alina might do something naughty with the Darkling than with the possibility of him hurting her; he gets aggressive every time there is a man breathing in the general direction of Alina. Yet we are told that he's just caring and protective.

In that excruciatingly dull, uninspiring sex scene between Mal and Alina, she says, "It was all we needed; it was all that we would ever have". I can't imagine that statement of resignation being a reaction of a young girl having her first sexual experience with the person she loves. Once again, we can see the same prudish values: a proper woman shouldn't be interested in sex; it's a chore for her; she just has to take whatever her husband gives her, lie back, and think of England. No matter if the rhythm is "awkward," the sex is as exciting as an unseasoned boiled chicken breast, and your partner thinks that the clit is a town in Fjerda, you don't want to be like one of those wanton whores who seek pleasure from their sexual encounters!

Her whole attitude towards Mal is downright disturbing. Look for yourself:

"I didn't care that we'd fought, that he'd kissed Zoya, that he'd walked away from me, that everything felt so impossible. The only thing that mattered was that he'd changed his mind. He'd come back, and I wasn't alone...If Mal was still with me, if he could love me, then there was hope".

The moral of the story: If the cheater, abuser, and drunkard still loves you and still deigns to come back to you, there is hope, and all is well! Be grateful for what you get; don't be a greedy slut! And that is what the narrative is trying to sell as a healthy, wholesome relationship. The books publicly denounce the collar only to hand the heroine a figurative chastity belt.

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 20: Academy Era Edition

Please note that some Academy Era info is dispersed throughout the other parts as well; I just wanted to make one dedicated to these nerds. I am not repeating stuff from other parts (purposefully, there may be some accidents, but I'm trying not to repeat things like Koschei teaching Theta hypnosis or like the hyperball team) or including some basic info I think are decently well known (like Torvic or the Gallifrey Academy Hot Five). ;)

The Master's real name is 32 letters long.

As students, Theta and Koschei enjoyed building time flow analogues to mess with each others experiments.

Koschei once gave Susan a toy which was actually a communication node that he could use to find the Doctor and Susan if they ever left Gallifrey.

Theta and Koschei also used to sneak out of the Academy to drink with Shobogans. On one such occasion, Koschei picked a fight with six drunk Shobogans.

Theta's name day and Otherstide are on the same day.

Koschei often hypnotized people as a joke. He was never punished for it.

Drax had a home-made skimmer that he would often use to go to his House rather than stay in the Academy dormitories. He'd also give Jelpax rides home because they lived close by.

Koschei was in charge of organizing the end-of-term parties, but the Eighth Doctor remembers that they weren't very good.

While at the Academy, Theta and Koschei traveled to Gallifrey's past in search of Valdemar, an ancient entity and Old One, but they found nothing of Old Ones. Theta was horrified by Valdemar's power while Koschei was fascinated.

When Vansell broke his leg while climbing Mount Cadon, Theta created a localized time bubble with a sonic wrench and two lengths of twine. This accelerated the healing process, and it was healed in two minutes.

Koschei and Theta also once traveled to Machasma and used sonic agitation to get out of a tight spot.

Theta Sigma came fourth place in the Time Lord Academy Sprint Championship.

Millennia had a natural gift for temporal engineering, and Theta believed she would one day make great intellectual achievements.

Tebediatroculozan attended the Academy at the same time as the Deca. He was incredibly clever but also envious of the Doctor for the adventures he had. The Eighth Doctor helped him move past this jealousy.

When Koschei stared into the Untempered Schism, he noted with much contempt that the Time Lords who had taken him there all refused to look at it themselves.

Mortimus is likely about 50 years younger than Theta Sigma.

The Second Doctor recalled that Koschei enjoyed being scared of the dark too much.

The Toymaker had Theta play Capture the Flag and thought that Theta had cheated.

When the Toymaker was using Rallon's body, Rallon had enough influence over his personality that the Toymaker had a sense of "good and evil." When the Toymaker went against the Fourteenth Doctor, he was no longer using Rallon's body, so this was not the case.

Theta was Borusa's teacher's pet, and Borusa favored him over other students. Later on, the Doctor would believe this was why the Master was bitter towards him.

In fact, an unproduced story's original script originally had the Doctor’s grandfather be named Borusa, but it was later changed to Pandak.

While at the Academy, Koschei befriended Salyavin and manipulated him to gain access to the restricted libraries. He wanted to steal The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey but could not find it, and Salyavin took the blame for his wrongdoing.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

[soangelbaby]

Does incel/misgynsistic rafe ever call women inferior either his wife/gf or just catcalling women like that? I can see him calling his wife inferior and a set of holes lmao

A SET OF HOLES OMFGSHG i am CRYING (real tears)

absofuckinlutely nonnie

the smallest things would set him off, you telling him no to changing the tv for him or deciding to do the laundry on your time, or something stupider like putting too much mayo on his sandwich and now he’s flying off the handle. not pacing, not even boldly angry, not a real fight — no, it’s a calm ferocity, simmering just beneath the surface before he lashes out at you, before he reminds you that just because he chose you, that doesn’t make you his equal. smirking like he knows you’ll still crawl back every time and you do. because you’re trauma-bonded to hell and back and somewhere deep down you think this might be what love is supposed to feel like.

“so this is what i get huh? after all i do, after all i let you have, you can’t even make me a fucking sandwich right?”

“you do the same thing every damn day, how hard is it? you’re lucky i’m patient cause’ anyone else would’ve walked away by now”

“see, this is why you need me, because without me? you’re nothing. you’d go back to being a lonely, pathetic little slut with nobody to tell you what to do”

OH if he’s catcalling? you’re just walking past, probably in your new mini skirt, tiny top, tiny heels all the same, clicking confidently on the pavement with your lashes curled and skin glossed in heat and perfume. completely minding your business, and then you see him — his eyes drag over you, slow, not appreciative but calculating, not admiring your beauty. no, imagining what he’d do if you were his already, how he’d ruin you and break you in and he doesn’t grin, doesn’t even look excited. in fact, he looks bored, like the idea of fucking you is more interesting than you are and like you’re not a person, just a potential, just a hole walking around dressed like prey.

“oh baby, look at that fuckin’ outfit. practically asking to get dragged behind a dumpster”

“walkin’ around like that? no self-respect, no discipline. you needed a man to tame you”

“typical. thinks she’s a 10 just ‘cause three dudes barked at her, get over yourself”

he acts this way because incel!rafe is not just misogynistic and he’s not just abusive. he’s fundamentally broken, in a way that makes him both horrifying and fascinating like a car crash you can’t look away from. every word he says, every slap of degradation, every slur muttered under his breath or screamed mid-argument, it all comes from the same place : powerlessness.

he hates women because deep down, he needs them. so he resents needing them and even more than that? he hates that women can withhold from him — their approval, their affection, their attention. and somewhere along the way, that resentment turned into a philosophy, turned to a structure he built his self-worth around. rafe doesn’t believe women are inferior because it’s true, he believes it because it’s the only way he can survive being emotionally and sexually dependent on them without feeling emasculated so he tells himself things like ;

“if i’m above them, they can’t hurt me”

“if i degrade them first, they can’t reject me”

“if i strip them of worth, then mine can’t be threatened”

he catcalls not to flirt, but to punish the women who dare move freely and confidently without him. he degrades his wife/girlfriend not because he doesn’t care about her — but because he cares too much and doesn’t know how to handle it. because love, for him, has always been twisted into degradation and humiliation. so he breaks the woman he’s with into something small, pathetic, and compliant because the idea of loving an equal terrifies him because it means vulnerability, it means losing.

[dawnofplumeria]

Is it weird for me to say that I don't ship Shangmei Oubing romantically but I find their dynamic to be fascinating? Like, most of the time I can't take the ship seriously because wdym that infamous commercial was made bc of the popularity of 2019 oubing!? C'mon Shangmei Oubing sounds like something straight out of a booktok dark romance novel! The ship feels so outlandish for me that I'm not too disturbed by its existence. To not go on for too long,Shangmei Oubing is basically the antithesis/dark version of 2019 oubing & that's pretty much the main reason why I'm interested in this dynamic.

For me, thinking about Shangmei oubing gives me the same feeling as watching ants burn under a magnifying glass or watching a YouTube video of someone torturing their Sims. It also makes me feel like being a nature photographer/videographer watching a helpless prey animal being devoured alive by its predator. It's a horrifying sight but yet I can't help but watch.

To whoever had the idea of creating that commercial: I am intrigued & terrified of your thought process.

[literary-illuminati]

2025 Book Review #23 – What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher

This is the second in a series, and I admit I opened it with some trepidation – What Moves the Dead was a tightly written piece of horrorand I could not see any way trying to drag it out would benefit anything. But it got a hugo nomination, and so I finally got around to giving it a shot – and am quite happy I did. This is definitely a sequel in the sense of ‘a separate incident involving the same characters’ rather than one trying to rehash the first novella – instead an entirely different little horror story, and one that stands on its own merits (if not quite to the heights of the first instalment).

The book once again follows Alex Easton, a retired officer of the Galacian army (a quintessential eastern European with a fascinating and wholly invented history and culture – any resemblances to the actual Galicia which was at the time part of Austria-Hungary are, I think, accidental) who has been enjoying a life of light decadence in Paris after the events of the last book, finds themselves back at their family’s incredibly rustic (not to say decrepit) hunting lodge, preparing it for the arrival of the English mycologist Miss Potter, shortly visiting to study all the fungus that calls the region home. Which, given the events of Moves the Dead, is very nearly as distressing an idea to Alex as finding their reliable old groundskeeper had died in his sleep. Killed, many of the village say, by a breath-stealing spirit now haunting the lodge for her next meal.

So this is a pretty straightforward horror story of the ghost (well, sleep paralysis demon) variety. The specific beats of the plot are honestly of little interest, though they’re well executed, and the monster herself isn’t really anything to write home about. The atmosphere, on the other hand, is sublime. Kingfisher nails both the kind of endearingly tropey and ominous gothic hunting lodge and village and manages some amazing things in really getting across how oppressive and terrifying cold and silence can be. The big final nightmare sequence is also very nearly note-perfect as far as action-horror goes – the imagery around the horse was just shiver-inducing.

The book is a sequel, but really only in the sense that the same characters are involved and their (or, at least, Alex’s – no one else seems to have been nearly so impacted) characterization is obviously and deeply informed by what they went through at the Usher estate. The book also very much assumes you have read the previous instalment and so brushes over the explanations of Alex’s gender stuff and what a ‘sworn soldier’ is and similar concerns. It is, however, much much more interested in the ‘soldier’ part of ‘sworn soldier’ than Moves the Dead was. Alex’s war stories, chronic tinnitus and flashbacks are a running theme through the book, and integrated in a very aesthetically pleasing way to the resolution of the whole affair. Alex feels like far more of an interesting protagonist in their own right and less of a well-executed genre archtype with a fun gender twist in this one, at least.

Which is, sadly, probably the only area where I can call this a better book than its predecessor.

Not that it’s bad, to be clear – not at all! But Moves the Dead was doing a book-length riff on the fall of the house of usher while also having fun with horrifying mycology while also doing some interesting sociological worldbuilding with Alex’s gender, on top of being an eerie, well-executed horror story with a charming cast. Feasts at Night basically only brings those last two things to the table, and in every other respect is basically just riding on Dead’s coattails rather than doing anything ambitious or novel. It also totally leaves behind Dead’s creepy and original pseudo-scientific and materialist cause of the horror but also refuses to outright commit to blatant supernatural elements, which I have always found to be a bizarrely popular worst-of-both-worlds for stories like this.Despite being weaker than the first instalment, I’d still absolutely recommend if you enjoyed it – and if you haven’t read What Moves the Dead but at all enjoy prose horror, then absolutely go start there.

[reijisteacup]

WAIT I'M SORRY THAT I AM SENDING IN TWO ASKS AT BASICALLY THE EXACT SAME TIME BUT THE IDEA POPPED INTO MY MIND WHILE I WAS READING MY PREVIOUS ASKS I'M SORRYYY

So, you remember that one ask with the uh insane monster sacrificial bride? What if they find her like all tired and calm for once because she ate like three edibles

LOLLLL

==================================================================================================

Sakamaki's

Shu Sakamaki:

Didn’t care until you floated past him muttering something about his "soul smelling like a thunderstorm in a coffin." Now he’s side-eyeing you in mild existential dread.

“…Are you possessed or just stupid high?” "Yes."

Reiji Sakamaki:

He is beyond horrified. Not because you're dangerous — he already accounted for that — but because your chaos is now… calm. Controlled. Worse. He can't "manage" this version of you.

"Who administered the substance? What dosage? I must know what caused this level of cognitive sedation—" "Your voice tastes like books. Be quiet, you'll make me forget how my blood sparkles." He walks away with a migraine.

Laito Sakamaki:

Utterly fascinated. He leans in, grinning.

“Aww, Bitch-chan’s gone all mellow~ Are we cuddly now? Or is this the part where you flay me with your eyes?” "If you touch me, the worms in the floor will sing. "

Kanato Sakamaki:

MELTDOWN MODE. You’re not obeying. You’re not twitching. You’re smiling without needing him.

"YOU’RE RUINED! WHO DID THIS TO YOU?! WHO MADE MY DOLL… SOFT?!" "The candy made my bones feel like air, Teddy. Isn’t that pretty?" He screams.

Ayato Sakamaki:

Freaked out and kind of mad about it. He was ready for the blood, the theatrics, the fight — not… you lazily humming in a ball while licking a spoon.

"Oi! Say something creepy already! Threaten me or whatever!" "Mmm… your ego’s juicy. I’ll pickle it later." "Wh– what the hell does that even MEAN?!?"

Subaru Sakamaki:

Absolutely unsettled. Blushing. Horrified. Wants to yeet himself out a stained-glass window.

“The hell’s wrong with her… why’s she staring at me like that…?” "You’d be the kindest to kill. It would feel like a kiss. A mercy~" "Tch—SHUT UP!!!" (blushing harder)

Mukami's

Ruki Mukami:

He knows something's wrong — something unexplainably wrong. You’re still dangerous, but in a quiet, untouchable way now. That’s far worse.

“Livestock… What exactly did you take?” "I swallowed silence. It’s warm." He updates the emergency warding sigils immediately.

Kou Mukami:

Nervous laughter. Pretending he’s chill but absolutely Not Okay

“Ahaha, babe… I like the vibe, but can you stop saying the mirror is trying to eat me?” "Only your reflection. It’s starving." "I—OKAY THEN—"

Yuma Mukami:

Stunned. Lowkey concerned but also lowkey impressed.

“She ain't tried to bite nobody in two hours… Is this like, spiritual growth… or the calm before a f**kin’ demon hurricane?” "If you hug me, the plants won’t scream today." “…That’s weirdly sweet. Also horrifying.”

Azusa Mukami:

Clutching your hand. Gazing at you like you’ve become starlight. You keep calling him “Zuzu” and smiling with unfocused eyes.

“You’re… safe now?” “I love you. Not romantically. But cosmically. You're like soup.” Azusa blushes. Doesn’t let go of your hand for a second.

Tsukinami's

Carla Tsukinami:

Suspicious. Disturbed. Intrigued.

“She’s quiet. She’s grinning. Why is she grinning?” "Your blood would taste like royal thunder. I dream about it." "…Restrain her anyway."

Shin Tsukinami:

Utterly delighted. Finds it hilarious. Keeps trying to poke you with a stick.

“Are you even awake in there, freak?” “You’re my favorite chew toy, Shinny~” “…Okay ew. But also kinda hot.”

[naazaif327]

So, I was initially kind of disappointed by the reveal that by the time we get to the Pit Girl Hunt from the pilot, most of the girls have still not fully given in and still don’t “want” to do any cannibalism or hunting besides Shauna. There was never a point where they really shifted into wanting to hunt and eat without the direct threat of starvation, and most of them don’t seem to really believe in the “religion” behind all the costume and ritual by the end. And I’ll be honest, I still kind of am a little disappointed because I feel like that was telegraphed for quite a while in the show. But then looking back to the beginning I honestly think they were pretty successful at answering the big question of the show: “how could a group of normal teenaged girls from American suburbia descend into a vicious cannibalistic cult that hunts and eats each other?”

There were a lot of possible answers the show put forward. Was it supernatural? Was there a dark wilderness god or the ghost of the cabin man influencing them into evil? Did the threat of starvation and exposure and proximity to death push them past the point of no return? Were they so horrified and angry at their unbearable circumstances that they started taking it out on each other like when Shauna beat up Lottie?

But the real answer is given in the pilot by paralleling their cutthroat behaviour in highschool to Mari’s hunt. It’s the vicious social hierarchies that teenagers, especially teenaged girls, find themselves trapped in by society and their peers. A vicious queen bee (borne from a combination of the repressive shackles of society, an underlying cruelty, and the catalyst of violence and trauma after the crash) finally blooms after spending most of her life as a wallflower and uses her social power to strong-arm them into doing things they didn’t want to do, because she revels in having this newfound power over her peers.

It’s Regina George making Cady tell Aaron that his hair looks sexy pushed back, it’s David from The Last Of Us convincing the small religious community he leads in the apocalypse to partake in cannibalism (when it’s implied that they might not need to) with a sadistic little smile because he likes making them do things they don’t want to do.

And not to absolve Shauna or make it seem like this is entirely the fault of society or misogyny or something, but these power dynamics and hierarchies were in place before and after the wilderness. We see it in the team freezing out Allie, with Lottie still going along with it even though it “doesn’t feel right”, we see the ways in which Shauna feels compressed into roles that she doesn’t fit into, wife, mother, sidekick; and the same society that pushes her into those roles is also the one that grants her the tools to take over and abuse the power the way she does.

Absolute power does not necessarily corrupt absolutely though, as we see Natalie reigning over the group without ever taking revenge on girls like Tai who slutshamed her and ridiculed her drug issues back in the real world. This is important because it’s not just that “it’s society’s fault that this happens” or “everyone is corruptible” or “Shauna is a completely unique monster” but rather that certain social hierarchies and societies that consolidate power for certain people are very easily exploited by people have a desire and capability to harm and dominate others.

Idk, I’m rambling a lot at this point but I just think it’s so fascinating that after all the twists and turns of what would turn the Yellowjackets into monsters, this was (at least a big part of) the answer.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 3/4/2025

my desktop has Kicked It™️🫠 so this is shorter and worse bc it comes from my ailing phone. the tuesdaypost is generally a multi-tab multi-window affair and i completely forgot about the ten-image limit on mobile

listening

i bought this cd months and months ago to fill out the 8 items for $1 sale at my favorite religious thrift shop with the worst vibes, bc i saw the name and thought “oh i like the guy”. i was in fact thinking of nick cave. i would describe this as crunchier than nick cave. also janglier. my most deeply held american trait is that i am a sucker for a song about a road trip.

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reading

i struck out with Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe bc it made me desperately, desperately miss my maternal grandmother and we simply don’t have time for extra emotion this week.

bad news from the zone tumbleweeds i hated this one too. this is a fourth (!) 1997 printing of the 1992 novel by Claire McNab, Under the Southern Cross. 180p, it’s the same physical quality as all the other Naiad Press softcovers. i did not look up anything about Claire bc copying and pasting shit on my phone is horrendous: however, the frontispiece notes that she lives in LA “for love” and misses Australia. the draw and strong point of this book are the vivid and immersive descriptions of various tourist points down under by someone who really loves the country. it’s an effective travelogue!

The vast, forbidding Australian Outback… the grandeur of Ayers Rock… legendary Alice Springs… the Great Barrier Reef… the primal beauty of Cape Tribulation…

Two women, from different continents, with different values, collide with spectacular results… UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

American Lee Paynter has built her small travel agency into an international tour company. Brash, confident, openly lesbian, her great love is her business. Women? They’re to enjoy and let go.

Alexandra Findlay is pursuing a career in Australian tourism with quiet focus and determination, convinced that her career is the best she can hope for in her arid, closeted emotional existence.

Now Alex has been assigned to accompany Lee on the American woman’s visit Down Under, to win Lee’s company over to Australian tourism. Suddenly Alex’s quiet life explodes… And Lee is challenged by a woman unlike any she has ever known.

there were a lot of components i did not enjoy about this book, but the actual construction and hitting what felt like what the next emotional beat in a relationship Should be was there. nobody said anything outlandish and nobody’s crotches were engorged. the first lesbian romance in this project ive read in first person.

i find it extremely funny when someone is in a gorgeous location and having a fucking miserable time. just seething in competitive rage. alex at one point states that her family will never forgive her if she comes out and lee goes “oh? you’re super close with them?” and alex has to go “😠 no 😠”. their relationship is at its best when lee is like “you know you don’t have to live like this?” and kind of mentally drop-kicks alex into enjoying herself. unfortunately these moments are few and far between.

i mostly hated this book bc i hated alex, but it was sort of fun (though not really what i personally read romances for) watching in horrified fascination for 180 pages as she sort of train-wrecked her way through the book. i HATE this kind of sanctimonious unpleasant gay. someone who is extremely pushy about your boundaries (lee doesn’t want anything serious and says so from hour one) but doesn't want to do any work at all on her own boundaries or emotional growth (in only one example, pitches a fucking fit at the airport after lee has been very firm about how she loves to fuck and had a great time with alex but doesn’t want anything serious). this is cutting a little too close to home bc this is nearly all baby (and a lot of grown/post college) western mass queers. i had enough of that in real life and enough roommates like that. i also don't typically enjoy the divorced woman discovering her latent lesbianism storyline. the coming out storyline deserves its own graf.

this book does a good job of portraying alex as believably prickly for her own reasons, and not just out of contrariness or to fit a trope. she was very badly scared by watching her lover get fired and her almost fired at her post divorce job! that makes sense! i wish the arguments for and against coming out that she comes up with for herself rang less true today! however, she doesn’t come out in the book as a big emotional gesture to join lee in scary freedom, she comes out to stop her boss hitting on her and to prevent her coworker from blackmailing her. her coming out is such a significant point of tension and happens with such a fizzle! I think I would be giving the book too much credit to agree and say that sometimes coming out isn't a big deal and is kind of a fizzle, be she is constantly thinking about how her first lover was fired for being a lesbian. it can happen to you!!!

there is a very contrived, unnatural ending that requires lee to betray all her most deeply held relationship beliefs/make a lot of bad decisions and a deus ex concussion for alex. not that i expect every book to be a Victorian morality fable, but i didn’t want her to have a happy ending that felt so unearned. I didn’t want her to be rewarded for being such a pushy bitch while doing zero work on herself!

at least the sex scenes were some of the less awful ones ive read in this project

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watching

HOUSTON MENTIONED

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playing

look at my beautiful little bitches

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making

i am a firm believer that anything worth knitting is worth knitting well and as heirloom quality as you can make it, bc it takes the same amount of time to knit something in garbage single ply that will fall apart in one wash as it does to knit something in yarn that’s actually good. however, sometimes you need to produce an acrylic baby blanket bc a baby’s one job (as i have previously stated in this series) is to produce fluids and crumbs, and you love their parents and want to make their lives easier without adding a wool blanket to the mix.

this baby blanket is completed, only two years late. i did not measure this or even really unscrumple it before throwing it directly in the warsh. nineteen repeats across and twelve up of the tumbling blocks baby blanket, applied icord edging on the short edges which took six! total! hours! to apply. i think this yarn is bernat softee in mint? some sort of oil byproduct. phil is on my lap i cant find the band to check. i got very tired of this one and its 200 stitches across and am glad to see it out the door and to the tender graces of the toddler recipient. next on the docket is some socks for a grown person. i hope i still remember how to make socks.