#I will begin by saying I'm not sorry

[stingslikeabee]

kisses grace her skin like petals falling from a flower; his lips, a delicate press along her neck. hands that wander the curves of her body; hot breath between loving affection. "as precious as crystal-" his voice a whisper "nay - the goddess, herself-."

though his initial movement is one of care; his hands are quick to turn harsh, a grip around each wrist - a pull of her into him. with her body to his, she'd feel the hardening member between his legs - the heat that boils between them.

"and to think-" he continues, lips rougher now - kisses lingering with the tease of a bite "who do you belong to, but me-?" another kiss - another lash of tongue to skin, so fair. "none other-" he could have her now. he will have her now. "mine and mine alone - to do with as i please-"

unscripted asks . always accepting

The fabric of her nightgown was flimsy at best; not at all suited to provide a barrier to the exploring hands of anyone, and certainly not those of the man at the helm of the Holy Empire of Sanbreque. Not that Melissa wished for him to stop, or cared to put up a good fight to illustrate the point - such times had long passed; their games of cat and mouse changed into something else.

In their shared bed, within the refuge of a cottage that no one would imagine to be linked to the imperial family, Sylvestre was not an emperor - he was a man, a member of the commonfolk. And more often than not, one physically subjugated by the courtesan who enjoyed being atop of him: a better angle to look at him, to admire the ripple muscle under her hands, to set a routine he lacked anywhere else.

Within these four walls, Sylvestre Lesage had to fight for dominance - it was not freely given to him as a result of a title that she playfully ignored the weight and importance it carried. Melissa knew better than to enact that type of behavior in public, but in their room - well, she was no queen, but maybe good enough to be a goddess.

He surely sounded worshipping enough.

"Is that so?" the woman murmured, leaning over his figure to grant access to the bare flesh of her neck, face hovering over his like a tantalizing dream but without giving into temptation just yet. His mouth at first was enough to have her pulse quickening - but the addition of hands suddenly pulling her by the wrists to have her come flat against him had Melissa's blood growing hot, a melodic voice blessing the emperor with a delighted laugh.

"Someone is feeling greedy tonight," the courtesan retorted with a singsong quality to her speech, Melissa allowing her body to sink comfortably over his and adjusting in a way that their figures meshed clearly - it was impossible to ignore the signs of arousal. The woman moved against him on purpose, creating more friction with her lower body given the fact she was temporarily restrained at the wrists, but the kisses robbed her of clever answers for a minute.

When the man did pull away, however, Melissa looked at him with partially closed eyes, honey-colored hues fixed on the face of his radiance and refusing to acknowledge that title for more than a passing second in her mind. Instead, it was her turn to dip her head lower and to seek his face, the courtesan's own mouth now making a path that went from his chin to the nearest ear, appreciating the friction of the facial hair against her sensitive flesh.

"But can you afford me, Sylvestre? I don't see any gold or precious gems; a fortunate man like you having a goddess of your own and you failed to bring offerings?" Melissa laughed airily, fully aware of how her hot breathing would tickle his flesh and have the emperor even more bothered; the light thrust of his strong frame was indication enough of a certain impatience.

"But I am merciful," the courtesan declared, making a mockery of the station of both of them - something unthinkable beyond these walls, but now that he had played his hand, Melissa fought back with her own weapons. Teeth closing over the cartilage of his ear, she enjoyed the way he reacted to the tease - and as her hands were suddenly released, one of them went to the middle of their joined bodies - the remaining fabric of their nightwear was annoying, but not enough to prevent her from wrapping digits over his now semi-rigid erection.

"I will take you for myself instead. That might be just enough payment," the woman sentenced, and kissed him in return this time - hard, passionately, enough to bruise a less experienced lover. She didn't dare leave marks where he couldn't hide them - so instead the Melissa worked to carve a place for herself in a more hidden location but nonetheless impossibly valuable: the heart.

[accirax]

(Whit did, in fact, gaf, but he wasn't about to let anyone know that.)

[mik3stuff]

ngl I love this in fandoms when a small fraction of the queer community simply decides that "we have too few transfem characters, what to do? hm I know! let's take that male character with extreme loser vibes and wet cat core and headcanon her as transfem! just for fun!" and then someone takes it to analyze and- wait, why does this headcanon actually even make sense…?

[deliriousblue]

i was totally expecting a wedding(s) scene but i'm personally quite happy we didn't get it! i wouldn't have been bothered by it necessarily but i also think weddings can be a bit of a shorthand to suggest a happily ever after without needing to say anything too specific about what the future of the relationship looks like.

and what we got instead felt very genuine and personal to the relationships in question. style spends his years saving to buy back the diner for fadel; they've been building a stable life around one another (see: double burial); they're clearly heading toward marriage soon if not just yet.

on the other hand kant and bison have been about experiencing with one another the adolescence that neither of them got to have the first time around, and we end the show on them sharing a dream that bison only ever expected he'd see alone and pulling kant right into the magic of it along with him.

and those make sense to me in the context of the relationships being different and the characters needing different things! and it grounds me in what those relationships (and characters) might look like going forward. it's an open ending but in the sense of possibility.

(and i mean. clearly i think kant and bison are staying together and really good for one another. i just think that doesn't need to be synonymous with 'marriage' and certainly not 'marriage immediately'. i don't think they're completely settled but. in a good way? they're learning alongside one another they're figuring themselves out. sometimes teenage love is two men in their thirties. and i think that's beautiful <3)

[peridots-pixiwolf]

[Start ID. A redraw of the official icons of the ten named slugcats from Rain World, arranged in two rows: Survivor, Monk, Hunter, Nightcat, and Gourmand in the first, Artificer, Rivulet, Spearmaster, Saint and Enot/Inv in the second. Each is drawn in roughly the same pose as in the original art and fitted with speculative interpretations of their biology, and the second image is a “dead” version of this. For example, all ten have slug-like rhinophores in place of ears, cuttlefish-like colorful eyes with strangely-shaped pupils, cephalopod-like beak "teeth", expressive barbels or oral tentacles at the corners of mouths, spiny radulas, and the frilly mantle fringes of sea slugs, though otherwise their faces are squishy, simple and mammalian-shaped.

Cream-colored Survivor and yellow Monk both share triangular, bicolored spots matching their eyes (which are tan and brown, and two shades of blue, respectively), small, bumpy fringes, and relatively neutral looks on their faces. Defensive-looking Hunter is mostly a dull orange-pink, though their blobby fringe is a more violent red and their back is purple and marred with lumps. Nightcat is navy blue and flecked with dots of yellow and teal, their rolled rhinophores are a lighter blue, and their shading fractures into stars in some places. Gourmand is almost uniformly tan, their wide, very ruffly white mantle fringe bordered by a spray of white spots, and their beak sticks out from either corner of their smile. Primarily red Artificer, snarling, has yellow markings of multiple sorts, a prominent yellow dewlap and their characteristic dark scar taking out a chunk of its face. Rivulet is a darker blue than usual, with long barbels, red gills and rings, countershading, and a cheerful expression, sticking out their radula. Spearmaster is purple with orange accents, eyes and spots, a large fringe and spines down their back. Saint’s green caryophyllidia are marked by small, yellow diamonds, and their long, thin radula extends far below them. Enot is decorated with mottled red stripes, blue patches, yellow stars, and an uneven and almost cartoonish imitation of blush, though generally the same deep blue as Nightcat, a passive or almost slightly smug look on their face and their rolled rhinophores out to either side.

In the second image, nine of the slugcats’ eyes are crossed out, indicating that these are death icons. They look fairly the same, with mostly expression differences. Survivor is caught in the beginning of a threat display, a karma flower sprouts from Monk’s side, Hunter is burdened with overgrowing, purple and blue rot, Nightcat’s rhinophores are pinned back, and Gourmand looks mildly disheartened. For the final row, Artificer bites its radula between small plumes of smoke, Rivulet drops their expression, Spearmaster looks very startled, Saint looks almost entirely the same besides half-open eyes and their markings greater in number, and Enot grins confusedly. End ID]

If you'll excuse the unusually lengthy ID: the arena meme introduced by @pansear-doodles at long last after a nearly year-long wip status (or, rather, finished a month ago today to honor my own first time playing it!)

Design notes and shout-outs under cut! :]

The following people are some of those who’ve inspired my designs most since I started this eight months ago (or just inspired me to get a little weirder with slugcat biology), among many others for sure, and I thank them for it–but this is simply to bring attention to artists I find cool, and in no way an obligation to interact or anything :]

> @saturncoyote , @carpsoup , @charseraph , @gallusgalluss , @bitsbug , @dopscratch , and @0hmanit (and a special mention to dddeerbo and hunterlonglegs, who’ve since deactivated)!

Survivor: Surprisingly the hardest to pin down the colors for, since nothing with its sibling's palette seemed to match up right (I did have to add in a little blue somewhere for Monk, the beginning of making it clear how much I’m simply going based off of vibes for the colors of scug innards). I consider them, Monk and Gourmand to be part of the same gene pool of slugcats, and even possibly the same colony even if the latter isn't really related, so took a bit of Gourmand's coloring and fit them in with their inspiration: Goniobranchus verrieri. They serve as a bit of an introduction to my ideas of scug traits (i find it really fun how many people have thought to add so many silly sluglike fixtures of biology completely independent of me, buuut here I’m mostly talking about species variation), and like in-game they’re pretty average! They, Monk and Hunter have a couple scars sourced from a piece of Joar's concept art that I'm failing to find, those across the bridge of the nose, under the eyes, and across the rhinophores, respectively, and my Survivor interpretation features many on the back of the neck, as a result of survived lizard bites.

Monk: Their coloring is primarily based off the fact that I associate them with blue fruits, honestly, a bit because I was compelled to establish a familiarity with Rivulet, and lastly inspired by the spots of Goniobranchus kuniei (and geminus, less important to me as one of my characters is a kuniei instead, but more fitting). Between the yellow + blue and the circular marking in the center of their face, they’re meant to bear a little resemblance to an iterator that shares similarities with the characterization I’ve given them, and similar coding of her sibling can be seen on Survivor’s markings around the eyes. As both a “default” slugcat and one whose campaign I haven’t played, though, I can’t say I have much more to point out about em.

Hunter: The whole rot thing made for a really fun time drawing them, and while the color change on their back is a result of this, it’s also an excuse to relate them to Babakina festiva, arguably my favorite sea slug (mostly for sentimental purposes). And to Spearmaster, a fellow messenger slugcat, and it serves as a gradient between Hunter’s pink and the “traditional” color of Rot seen in the DLLs. Aside from their affliction, they’d actually be the plainest in terms of design, as they don’t have any patterns or quirks of body type, just the red + purple and strange lumps + possible malnutrition. I can’t remember if NSH had created them in particular or just...caught + released or something, but it probably wouldn’t be strange for a lab-grown slugcat to be simple like that.

Gourmand: Like the two above, they’re rather plain in terms of coloring and adaptation, and like the two above, I find that fun. I decided it would be nice to avert the “all slugcats being of the same body type, and Gourmand’s out of place as the exception” thing by just...adding more fat to all of them, really. I did want to emphasize their sheer bulk even so, both fat and muscular (not like I couldn’t have still gone further with it, of course, but slugcat anatomy can be a little obfuscating sometimes, and they were intended to look rather plush considering personal size headcanons and therefore the lack of proper gravity), and the thick and flounced mantle looked like a good addition, as per their sea slug Glossodoris hikuerensis. Unlike Survivor and Monk, I didn’t attempt to hold their resemblance to any particular other character (which means a little less to balance out the “default gene pool” thing), so those are all the design notes I have for em.

Artificer: The second slugcat I’ve ever played, or finished the campaign of, my favorite for at least a long time, and the first thing I did was give them yellow accents, the shape of which have troubled me slightly (not quite like the spots or stripes of the others). They’re both a little more appealing and more explosive-looking to me, and considering how early on I played Arti, actually present in some of my older art. It does give them a little resemblance to Saint (completely intentional, two slugcats with strange relations to karma), as well as the fact that its radula is green for familiarity with one of its children (at some point it was going to have all-green markings, even!). I’m generous with their scars, partly because it was fun to overemphasize the one on their face and partly because it does seem like a reckless slugcat, on top of the dangers of its explosive abilities–I’ll probably just keep adding more forever. Mostly-red sea slugs aren’t too common, but Hexabranchus sanguineus works for sure. The ridged, yellow dewlap can expand for combustion purposes, or something along those lines. Arti’s where I began experimenting with a lot of the mildly-offkilter features seen in my interpretation of slugcats, as they’ve once again been a favorite from the start.

Rivulet: I've obviously given other slugcats spots, deeply enjoy the bubbly-soda markings of other peoples' slugcats, and thought seal riv would be cute. Despite not too closely resembling it, they've been government-assigned Hypselodoris bennetti, for color reasons and for a couple sentimental ones. Originally, the colors of every scug were meant to match up with the custom colors I gave them at the beginning of their campaigns, (though Arti, Gourm and Spearmy are the only three who actually apply here, since I've only played through half the slugcats: I gave arti the yellow as mentioned above, gourm brown eyes and spearmy light pink spears, furthered by the outskirts pearl accompanying me and that palette all the way to moon. Tolerance training for eternity in hell cause I already knew about the maroon pearl quest). I initially gave them the colors of the bi flag for fun... but with the limited palette of this image, I was left without pink for a while and decided to see how they'd look in red. I then realized how they now wonderfully matched Moon, and besides, red's a sort of camouflage in deep water! As a side-note, the difference between their eyes and those of others always bothered me a little for anatomical purposes, and the cephalopod eyes were probably influenced by this!

Spearmaster: Inspired as much as possible by @notyourfunnyman ’s wonderful spearmy: designed in a way that helps it fit in with scavengers, at least between the long sensory tentacles, big ruff, back spines and slightly thin/distended anatomy, a form of defensive mimicry. I always had annulate rhinophores in mind, for a little diversity sure, but mostly because the shape reminds me of radio antennae and communication towers (seems fitting for the comms array and being a messenger slugcat)! I started searching for a real-life slug to give them just by looking up their rhinophore shape...and was met immediately and coincidentally with annulate-topped nudibranchs that fit them more perfectly than I could've imagined: Flabellina and surrounding clades, I think Paraflabellina ischitana works very nicely. The orange was completely unplanned, but there wasn’t a place for light pink among the other slugcats’ palettes, and importantly it likens them to both Hunter and Seven Red Suns a little more.

Saint: I am very much a non-furred slugcat enjoyer, with respect to those who aren’t, so figuring out the only visibly furred slugcat was an interesting challenge. I’ve decided that they likely have other, milder adaptations for help in the cold, mainly just more efficient fat storage, and what looks vaguely like fur is instead a bunch of tubercles (called caryophillia, for the second reminder out of three). Their inspiration doesn’t have these, however, Miamira sinuata’s numerous yellow and blue spots (not to mention...whatever’s going on with that shape) and general effect of being the only really green nudibranch I could find were probably perfect for a strange green echo. Not pictured, but their beak-teeth are tiny and flat to make a surface for grinding soft food against with the lack of a functioning radula, which is tipped with a specialized spiny “grapple-hook” for better traction/grip (not to mention the numerous little teeth running down the whole thing).

(Best part of hiding this under a readmore means edits will be seen by all reblogs, I'm mostly sure, because I completely forgot to mention! The spots on their forehead are simple eyes. Their camera eyes appear closed in-game, I like to believe their complex eyesight is rather poor anyways or otherwise reason that they aren't seeing out of those, and while this was far from her REASON for attunement with the world, it does help compensate for mainly viewing it through a canvas of simple light and dark. This, and the fact that their swapped-out "fur" is not only to commit to a lack of hairs but contributes to sensory input!)

Nightcat/Enot: I guess you could say I found the “these two are technically the same person” compelling. (E.g. similar colors, both very strange and enigmatic, and Enot/Inv/Sofanthiel’s remark during the dating sim about getting removed from Arena Mode.) I doubt they’re the only two slugcats in their body, considering humans with DID tend to have more than a few (and I find it very funny that a slugcat bearing resemblance to Nightcat appears in Gourmand’s ending. They’re allowed in the colony and Enot isn’t </3), and I have to credit @faelingdraws ’s art for being what convinced me on it! Their design inspirations come down to trying to balance a few different ideas: making the patterns and palettes of both look oddly similar (special mention to the stars, since those are fun to draw), basing them off of Felimare sechurana and juliae respectively, using blocks of color with the same placement as in Enot’s official art, and specifically making Enot look...biologically reasonable and imperfect, whilst also clearly trying to imitate human displays of emotion (what with...the eyes and blush on that one piece of official art).

Lastly, here’s just a lineup with notes on body shape and size. Most of the nicknames (existing to give a little more space, that’s all) are obvious, and while I can’t remember why I shortened Nightcat to Nox, it is in honor of my friend by the same nickname :]

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Had Silna's father already cut his tongue out by the time she was born? By the time he met her mother? Was he ever able to speak to his daughter, even once?

And is the shaman's role always hereditary like this? It's certainly implied to be in the show. Did he know from the moment of her birth that he would be forcing this sacrifice onto her one day? Had he grown up his whole life under that terrifying shadow as well? Did he watch her mother patiently teach Silna her first words, knowing it all the while? How old was Silna, when she was told that it was her duty and obligation to cut out her own tongue?

We talk about the parallels between Silna and other characters like Crozier who have a burden of responsibility thrust upon them that they do not want and cannot handle. But all the British men did, in some way, choose the life that led them here (yes, even the marines, in that they chose to join the military). Silna is the only one who was born into the role she is forced to play, with no way out. The tragedy of the men's fates is that they doom themselves with their own choices, but the horror of Silna's is that she has no choice.

[hellooobees]

I can't stop thinking about how the show sets up selfishness and selflessness as two sides of the same coin. How do you walk the line between making sure your loved ones can achieve their own dreams even if it means hurting yourself, and hurting your loved ones because you're hurting yourself for their sake?

It all goes back to Thame putting up his wish on the orange tree that he'll make all of the other members' dreams come true. Thame, who agrees to a shitty contract and works himself to the bone and makes it completely his burden to prove that Mars is a good investment for the company. Thame, who is made to believe that that very act of love and sacrifice is only debilitating his friends' dreams and the only way to keep his original promise is to leave.

We see Thame essentially being back at square one in this episode. He has to leave and go to Korea alone so the people he loves can achieve their dreams. But so much has changed since then. Thame had found hope, that he could simultaneously keep his promise and be selfish to want both his band and his partner. He's once again been working himself to the bone, giving up all of his time and attention between the band and Po, because his tiredness is such a small price to pay to turn that dream into reality. Why wouldn't he gladly take on all of that tiredness and more?

But despite all of the groundbreaking things he's achieved and everything he's given of himself, it doesn't work. His friends break down around him possibly reigniting the same insecurities from earlier that he worked so hard to ensure wouldn't come to pass. His boyfriend breaks up with him despite Thame promising to take on all of the burden and tiredness to make it work. He's being forced to leave everyone behind and he's being left behind too.

That flip from Thame being convinced that the best thing for him to do would be to leave for everyone else's sake, to the rest of Mars and Po being convinced that the best thing for them to do is to step back for Thame's sake is so so important to me. It's not just Thame who made making his friends' dreams come true into his own dream. The rest of Mars and Po did the same thing with Thame's dream. But how does it all work when the sacrifices you're willing to make for the dreams of your loved ones are at the cost of their happiness because they're at the cost of your own?

Thame's effort didn't go to waste. We see all of that effort manifesting in how it opens doors for the other members and Po so much more easily now. But it's also true that at the base of those new successes lie the shattered hopes of that shared dream between them.

The show sets up the question of whether the person who's leaving others behind feels hurt, and we see so many iterations of it. We see Earn leaving behind the person who was an instrumental part of his success without a second thought. We see Thame giving himself up and leaving for the band's sake. We see Jun leave twice, the first so that his friend would for once think of himself and his own success instead of letting the others drag him away from it, and the second when he's sure that his friend can be what the person that he cares for deserves. We see Pepper being completely willing to leave if the two biggest parts of his life cannot exist together and we see Gam actually leaving when it proves to be true. And we see Po leave because he cannot let himself become an obstacle in Thame's path and make all of their efforts come to waste. If that's the price to pay so that the people they love can have what they want then so be it, right? Their sacrifices are insignificant in the face of that.

But what happens when all those sacrifices still aren't enough? When the cost becomes too huge to bear?

[riuuneon]

it's getting hard to manage, sorry

[fluffypotatey]

trans people i love you trans people i love you trans people i love you trans people i love you

[slayerdurge]

so like... the Qun being reveled to be pro-trans in DAI makes zero sense... considering both sten & the arishok are shown to believe strongly in gender roles... and that sten even goes as far as to say that a person can never be anything other than what they're born and that a fisherman who tries to become a merchant will never be a real merchant and will only ever be a fisherman pretending to be a merchant... like... ?????

I mean i get wanting iron bull to be pro-trans himself but wouldn't it make way more sense for that to be something he actually dislikes about the Qun... and then it would actually create tension in his storyline between his own viewpoints & agency and the messages he's learned from the qun and partially actually believes and has partially been forced to believe through literal indoctrination and abuse... and therefore whether he becomes tal-vashoth or not could actually be something that matters instead of just a meaningless pseudo-choice...

[pinkfey]

remember how in dao there were always like multiple flirty options u could just spring on ur love interest and it wasn't something that was brushed past it would stop a conversation dead in its tracks to have a cute secondary flirty offshoot with small variations dependent on the flirty option u initially chose with a unique course correction to get back on topic after...... yeah.

[breadmecoshy]

I lied to you

In fact, this will not be a oumota comic, but a comic about Kaito on the verge of a heart attack for 20 pages

[aeb-art]

hey what if they were always friends?

these little doodles were inspired by both @pillowspace's art and also this twitter thread by @znvorz o7

alt of the second pic below the cut

sunny can't be out physically at the moment, but charlie knows he's still there ;u;

[smile-files]

it feels sort of silly being surrounded by all this layclaire stuff while in the throes of an obsession with a completely different set of layton characters. i acknowledge the tenderness and tragedy of it all but i'm just not in the headspace to engage with it in any meaningful way lol

[microwavetoaster-selfships]

I think I need that "Wow, I haven't stubbed my toe in five months! I was then shot fifty-seven times." Audio again

[mel-loly]

-Good morning to everyone who likes Luffy!💖