#I'm insane there's no other way around it

[summertimesadnessirl]

Do you ever think about this?

Like about the Christian doctrine and what it actually triggers in the human psyche?

I'm a hypnotist so I think about this a lot.

I think specifically a lot about how like...

I think a lot about how often people who use propaganda use puns.

Like people will call out poor people for "poor choices" rather than another word. And men will claim things are a "numbers game" and then talk about how women want the 666. All these puns. Sometimes I feel like I'm going insane from all the puns.

And literally Christians have a story in the Bible where a guy goes around with his friends without guilt or shame attempting to do good, to treat everyone with respect and give them the benefit of the doubt, speaking against the death penalty, speaking out for the poor and the sick and the downtrodden and claiming that rich people who abuse their fellow humans are not going to heaven and that treating other people well and making sure they have food and medicine and all that is the responsibility of everyone, that everyone is holy, etc. Then they literally brutally murder him and eat him every week and tell people to pray.

Doesn't it make more sense when you look at the behavior of Christians if the moral of the story is meant to be to go find people who act like that is to persecute them, find a way to pay someone else to betray them, destroy them, and go out and use their words against others? Doesn't it make more sense if it's not

"Let him pray" but "let him prey?"

consuming mass amounts of media related to my hyperfixation isnt enough i need to eat it

[pinkyqily]

IT'S OKAY, WE'RE OKAY, WE ARE DEFINITELY NOT OKAY JUJU WATKINS x READER

Summary: After the losing game against Iowa, you and juju get into a nasty argument that leads to your teammates separating the both of you.

Warning: Angst Angst Angst, swearing, throwing shit around, bad juju and reader

Authors note: The match was something, so that is why we get angst for times like this, anyways happy reading feedback and requests are always appreciated 💕.

Tension within the team was high no one said a word as everyone entered inside the bus. All you wanted to do was sit down next to your girl and comfort each other, but that was a no brainer as she passed by and ignored you.

Her ignoring you kinda hurt but you weren't gonna push past it. You tried sending her texts only for her to swipe them each time, you saw her groan turning off her phone.

A pit was forming down your stomach but you ignored the feeling like a fool.

You knew the type of player juju was when things don't go the way they were supposed to. Right now with the loss she was definitely beating herself up over it. no one likes to lose, especially to a team that wears the ugliest shade of yellow.

Arriving at the hotel felt like you were about to step into a battle zone. Once again you tried getting juju's attention by grabbing her hands, but all she did was yank her hands away from yours like you were some insects coming to disturb her.

You tried one last time by tapping her shoulder until she finally snapped at you, raising her voice, something that she's never does always trying her best to be calm with you.

"Bro what the fuck do you want can you not get the hint that maybe I do not want to deal with your shit tonight". You heard her say which was shocking. Because she never had an outburst likes this not even infront of your teammates or others, so her doing this just made you feel like an attention seeker which made you embarrassed.

"First off, watch how you're talking to me because I do not curse at you whatsoever and all I was trying to do was comfort my teammate who thinks the whole world is on her shoulders when the team has a few bad games but it fuck me right?." You said to her.

a few of your teammates who hadn't head upstairs came to where you and juju trying to calm things down, but that only made things escalate.

"Wow this coming from the player that left the 3 pointer line all wide fucking open and probably cost us the game". The moments those words came out of juju mouth she insanely regretted them but it was to late because you already heard them.

"I'm so sorry that not everyone can be there own fucking Judea watkins that's oh so prefect". You threw back at her tears clearly streaming down your face

It was too late for juju to say anything as kiki and Ray came separating the both of you.

The looks from your coaches were equally heartbreaking because no one wants to witness their best players tearing each other to threads.

A wave of guilt filled juju as everything she said to you hit her like a brick stone she was obviously in her head and wasn't thinking at all but the damage was already done. She made you cry and hurt you're feelings what type of girlfriend and teammate was she?. Was all she wondered now.

You we're already walking off with kiki.

She tried saying something but was cut off by one of the coaches who told her not to.

"It not worth it juju just head back upstairs, we'll be having a serious talking about both of your behaviors ray please help juju up to her room". she heard coach say, heading back the other way with ray, head facing down has she pulled her hoodie strings ashamed of how she acted.

What she didn't see was the way you turned around, hoping for her to say something at all it could've been anything but she didn't.

Only leaving both of you to sleep with heavy hearts having a thin wall separating you once more, you guys were definitely not okay and no one was okay.

[trevorsgodmother]

𝓞𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓱𝓸𝓷𝓮… (M.S 🌪)

"Wish you were here right now All of the things i'd do" ☞ Masterlist

Warnings: Smutty smut, CYBER SEX, fingering, jerking off, swearing, pet names, getting caught (?), mentions of spicy pics teehee POV: First person (Matt and reader) Summary: You missed Matt too much, and get an idea...

(Your POV)

I'm currently sitting on my bed, bored out of my mind. My roommate was out for the day, and all my other friends were working. The only other person I could think of bothering was Matt, but he lived 3 hours away. It was annoying, the long distance, but we made it work. I wonder if he would be busy.

Then, I get an idea.

(Matt's POV)

I doom scroll through my phone, unwinding after the long, busy day me and my brothers had. They'd retreated to their own rooms, leaving my floor completely quiet, which was rare.

I was debating on calling my girlfriend, but didn't want to seem needy or overwhelming because we'd called earlier today.

A ping alerts me of a notification. I smile as I see the contact name. My girlfriend. That solved my problem. I click on the notification from SnapChat, leading to a snap. That was a bit weird, usually she just sent photos through messages. Unless...

I click the red square to open it. And my mouth goes dry. It's a mirror selfie of her sitting on her bed, in a blue lingerie set I'd bought her last month for our anniversary.

Holy fuck-

I feel a stirring in my pants, biting my lip as I screenshot the picture and save it to my hidden folder. Great. Now I'm rock hard.

(Your POV)

I giggle as I accept the call, my voice innocent. "Hi Matt. I missed you." I hear a sigh of exasperation from the other line. "You know I could've been around my brothers. Where was the warning??" I smirk at his breathlessness, knowing what's going on with him 'down there'. Even though he can't see me, I twirl my hair, putting on a slightly seductive tone. "Something tells me you wouldn't have minded." His breath hitches as he murmurs. "You're insane. And stop being all cocky"

The rustling of fabric makes a grin spread across my lips. "Whatcha doing then, Matt?" "You know exactly what I'm doing" His rough voice catches me off guard, and my dark blue panties are instantly soaked.

I swallow, shifting down a bit to get comfortable. My free hand trails down my body as I hear him start to grunt. “Matt-“ My voice is whiny, already full of need. I rub over my underwear first, letting myself get wetter.

But I can't hold back.

Every groan from him makes it harder to resist giving into my arousal, and so, as soon as my hand dips under my waistband, I'm in heaven. My fingers skillfully slide up and down my slick heat, gathering my wetness on my fingers. Every stroke makes me bite my lip harder, probably leaving a deep indent. I tease myself a little, then push my fingers in, gasping loudly at the penetration.

One hand is holding the phone to my ear, listening to my boyfriend pleasure himself, while the other is helping me get off to the sound of him.

My fingers moving in and out at a fastening pace causes high-pitched sounds to leave my lips, forgetting about my neighbours for a second. Not that I cared, it felt way too good.

(Matt's POV) (god grant me the strength)

As soon as my hand wrapped around my erection, I let out a deep sigh of relief. That picture had affected me wayyy more than it should've. Then again, I had carefully chosen that set to highlight her best features.

And it definitely did.

Her breath hitching on the other end as she heard me start pumping gave me a boost of confidence (guys i lowk dk how to write jerking off but oh well).

My calloused fingers felt heavenly against my hard cock, each motion making small whimpers escape my lips. I steadily spread my precum down my shaft while satisfying myself. "You don't know how good it is to hear your voice darling-" I rasp out. My eyes are half-lidded as I imagine her hand on me instead, her acrylics sparkling in the low lighting.

My stroking grows more erratic as I hear squelching from the other end.

The combination of her moans while she touched herself plus the sounds of her fingers working were sending me to the edge fast.

My hand quickens, hips jerking up in time to meet my movements. "Fuuckkk, baby- 'm so close-" I groan, eyes fluttering.

She whines softly, and I can tell she is too. "Fuck- Matt-" My stomach tightens, and my dick twitches as she says my name.

"Do- do that again baby-" She moans my name again, and I gasp as I tighten my hold and cum. I let out a guttural groan as hot ropes land on my hand and stomach, my eyes scrunched shut in pleasure.

(Your POV)

As soon as I hear him finish, my body tingles and the band in my tummy snaps. I cry out as I coat my fingers, slowing down my pace to ride out the orgasm.

Inhaling and exhaling slowly, I wipe my fingers onto my bed sheets.

We stay quiet for a second, before Matt murmurs out. "You ok baby?"

I sigh and nod, then realise he can't see me. "Yes. That was..." "Incredible" He finishes. I pull my blanket up over me, snuggling into the comfort of my bed. "So, about that picture..." I tease. He groans softly. "Fuck, don't even remind me of that." "Why, you gonna get hard again?"

Matt scoffs (ominous music plays as the characters fade into the distance). "I mean, can you blame me baby? You looked absolutely delicious in that set."

My cheeks flush, the words adding to my post-orgasmic bliss and almost making me speechless. "Shut- shut up Matt"

I hear him chuckle, but my ringtone interrupts our moment. I pull the screen away to see who it is, and my brow furrows. "Hang on, someone's calling me." "Who is it?" He asks curiously.

"It's... Nick?" I hear his tone shift as he grunts, annoyed. "What the shit does he want? It's almost 8 in the evening!" "I don't know. I'll call you back, ok?" He sighs, grunts again in acceptance, and cuts our call.

(Matt's POV)

I wait for what seems like forever, immediately back to my doom scrolling. I'm silently cursing my brother for cutting our phone call short, since I was already getting aroused again just thinking of her in that set-

My phone buzzes.

I pick up as fast as possible. "Hello? Babe?" All I hear is laughing and slight choking. "Um...are you ok?" She just keeps going, her breathing getting slightly strained. Finally, her giggles have died down enough to say; "Nick- asked me if- I was over." I'm confused. "Wait, why?"

What she says next mortifies me, making me freeze to my core. My girlfriend, however, could not give less of a fuck that I'd never live this down with my brothers.

"He heard you moaning my name-"

A/N: First smut fic about my boy Matty B <3 (I feel so awkward writing smut bro) DONOT STEAL MUAHAHAH (🎀) Taglist: @hearts4werka @stvrnzcherries @spaghetti835928383 @pvssychicken @snowysosturn @sllutty-sturniolo @sturnmeovr Dividers by @bernardsbendystraws and @issysh3ll -Ropitipop 👁👅👁

[centrally-unplanned]

So I think I will just add "the declining efficacy of protests" to the topic pile for an effort post since it is a very good topic that needs depth to cover. I will be briefer therefore here, no real expectation that it will be super convincing or anything.

protests are an incredibly important signal of how pissed off people are about something. protests can and frequently do serve an important function of being a highly credible and highly visible signal to people pissed off about something that other people are also pissed off about that thing--they served this role in the first trump administration wrt the muslim ban.

They are a very weak and indeterminate signal of all of that, actually! Which you sort of self-prove here: the muslim ban protests were quite small. A few thousand people at a dozen or so airports., The US is over 300 million people. This is anti-data, it is pure selection bias, it tells you nothing. One can try to claim "sure but that number of highly active people indicates a mass backing of semi-active people, it is like bubbles from a boiling pot" but everyone knows that isn't true, a class of people who "professionally" protest (students, party activists, etc), composed them. They are not the organic bubbling of the narodnaya volya, they are a faction everyone already knew existed.

Protests can be effective by surfacing undiscussed issues - if Maine's lobster fisherman "March on DC" due to a dispute on water pollution runoff I bet some people will go "okay fair enough let's take a look here". But the Trump muslim travel ban was not undiscussed! Every media source on the planet was talking about it. Hell, that is, in a lot of ways, why there was a protest! People think the protests create the tweets but just as often it is the other way around. They generate more tweets, sure, but there is a harshly declining value on these things. Most people's minds were made up and protests are very poor as an argument for those who were on the fence.

Which again ties back to the actual results - the protests did nothing. They (or the ban overall) were not a big topic driving median voters in the 2020 election, Trump didn't budge, etc. Maybe not literally nothing, eh, I'm sure the ACLU got marginally more funding for their legal suits due to bonus tweets driving donors. I don't think the individual protests in this case were like "bad" to be clear, marginal donor driving aint nothing for a few thousand people to spend a day achieving. But that is very small bore.

And they didn't do anything because:

(and the media is plainly not covering what is happening in the US government right now enough)

Guys:

My friends:

My dudes:

"Look if they just replaced that Groundhog Day Story with a headline on Birthright Citizenship the battle would be won"

It is actually impossible to drive more attention to the current activities of the Trump Administration because literally 100% of all political bandwidth that exists is currently being allocated to it. Trump has monopolized attention on his activities so badly the Danes are reading about defense policy on the daily, this shit is insane.

And, of course, Fox News is not covering these stories the way you want them to. The constellation of alt-right podcasters are not covering these stories like they are bad. But protests are not going to shift that needle! Because this (to play that transition card again):

americans must communicate to other americans in clear and difficult to ignore terms that 1) yes, people are mad about this, 2) no, they won't stop being mad about it, 3) you should be mad about it too and 4) if you are mad about it you are not alone,

Is false. It isn't true. Liberals are mad about this. Which you know because they are liberals and they didn't vote for Trump! Conservatives just aren't mad about this, not yet! And street protests by liberals - which is all they will ever been seen as because that is probably what they actually would be, it is lying to claim they would speak for the masses - will certainly not convince them.

We just had a real street protest, a vocal expression by the American people, a resounding call of a million voices making themselves heard:

And expecting people less than a month into the admin of a winner of that contest to give a single thought to what a crowd 0.1% the size of this one is waving signs about is folly. It isn't gonna happen.

Which I get is frustrating by the way. Trump is awful, doing real damage, he is correctly reading that he has a virtual blank check on power right now because that is how the system (both the gov and the Republican Party) works. Voters were fools to vote for him. Reality just sucks sometimes, it is a world of fools.

(This of course is laser-focused on the idea of "protest" a la things like the Muslim Ban response or the Women's March. Dems are currently doing many other things that are valuable and could be doing more. It is complicated but tweets and podcasts are almost certainly more important things to focus on. And hey if you wanna pivot to violently attacking or overthrowing the government none of this critique applies!)

It's kind of weird to me how little in the way of mass protests we're seeing in response to this Trump stuff.

I'm usually skeptical of protests. The modern, uh, left-wing protest culture seems actively calibrated to accomplish nothing other than making its participates feel good.

But this seems like exactly the type of situation where protesting could genuinely accomplish things. Trump is doing things that are (1) bad, (2) unpopular, and (3) illegal. That's the ideal case for protests to make progress!

Like, Trump isn't personally going to care about protests. But the thing they're good for is drawing attention to an issue that people either don't know about or would rather ignore, but where they'll be on your side if they have to actually think about what's going on.

That doesn't apply to most wedge issues, and especially not most of the ones that get the left fifth of society really excited. But "Trump shut down Medicaid" or "Trump handed the Treasury over to private actors who are refusing to spend money on [insert program here]" or "Trump put in a bunch of tariffs and now your groceries and phones are way more expensive" all totally apply.

[sky-scribbles]

Next up on Things I Liked About Veilguard: the faction leaders. We all know some of the factions and their NPCs did not get anything like the amount of content and character that others did (Strife and Irelin I'm so sorry, I still love you), but sometimes I take a step back and realise how wonderful the stuff we did get was.

I mean - Evka and Antoine. Everything about them is so heartfelt. I hadn't read the supplemental material, but they barely needed to interact before I understood why this sweet, smart guy and this tough, smart woman loved each other. They affirm each other constantly. They respect each other so deeply. They have written letters for the other to take to their Callings: a cipher only Antoine could read. Je t'aime. Je t'aimerai toujours.

I love how Myrna and Vorgoth are introduced, suddenly and unsettlingly there in the Lighthouse. I love Vorgoth speaking in all caps. I love the fact that nobody knows what they are. I love that they raised baby Ingellvar. I love how Myrna is calm and polished while every so often coming out with the absolute wildest shit. They're fun.

The Viper and Tarquin? Top tier. They might be my favourites, just because of how much they have going on. Each of them has a backstory, and you can see exactly how those backstories produced their personalities. Ashur has a secret identity you can piece together from notes and codexes (and it's the funniest identity possible). I love their argument over Ashur's paranoid investigation into Tarquin, because it shows that the world goes on when Rook is not in the room, and the NPCs have relationships that go through ups and downs.

I'm mildly insane over the level of devotion, with Tarquin's desperate letters to the Wardens if Ashur is blighted, begging for a cure Ashur won't take. Him standing over Ashur to defend him in the final mission, or else his devastating reaction if Ashur dies: 'It should have been me!' God, these NPCs are alive. (fun fact: I wrote most of this post, and then Sheryl Chee confirmed these two were written as being in love with each other and stupid about it. I'm so happy.)

Speaking of NPCs who love each other: Teia and Viago, my beloveds. Again, I was coming in without the supplemental material, and I was sold on them so fast. The way Viago tenderly cradles Teia from behind as they mourn Caterina. The way they're so involved in Lucanis's personal quests - they're his family, they're there for him, they love him. I love Teia's fierceness and her heart. I love their banter - so much mutual understanding, exasperation and affection mixed together. 'We know each other too well to be strangers.'

Isabela is as wonderful as she always is - I especially appreciate how her depiction in Veilguard makes it clear just how loving she is. But can we also talk about Rowan? (I don't know if she's technically considered a faction leader, but meh.) I love her poetic speech patterns; I love that she's a scholar who wrote a bunch of codex entires; I love her calm, soothing voice. I love getting to see a Rivani Seer at last. And I love how she'll suddenly turn around and say, still calm and soothing, 'Spirit of Determination: may your enemies die bitter and in pain.' Perfect, no notes.

Strife and Irelin, sadly, drew the shortest straw when it came to being fleshed out in-game. But what I do love about them is their relationships with your companions. I love the tiny detail of Irelin, Bellara's ex, helping her pack for the Lighthouse; I love how she writes to Bellara to beg her to take care of herself, because she still matters to her.

And while I am a profound Emmrook lover, I appreciate Emmrich/Strife so much too. I love their shared curiosity and sense of adventure; I love thinking that Emmrich might give Strife tenderness that his life has lacked, while Strife could help nudge Emmrich toward boldness. I love the idea of two older men who likely think love has passed them by suddenly going, oh. If the Veil Jumpers didn't get a deeper relationship with Rook, at least they got relationships with Rook's friends.

Dragon Age games always give us a fun roster of companions, but honestly? Veilguard got me invested in the non-companion NPCs more than any other game in the series. Yes, there should have been more - but what we got was so much fun.

tl;dr: Faction leaders, my beloveds.

[nichoskittycorner]

can we get pt2 of the hunter becomes the hunted cause…. I love your writing btw, you’re the only one that can write hybrids so good

First of all, thank you so much! It's been a while since I've written so I'm really happy you enjoyed!

You can find part one here

I didn't plan for a pt 2 but I can do a follow up:

* After arriving at your cottage, Nicholas couldn't help his tail wagging. Your little home smelled amazing and was so warm and welcoming. So even though he was still knotted to you, he found the place cozy

* "Hey little deer, this place is really nice. Maybe we could raise some pups here-"

* You snapped at him, blushing and stuttering out that he was insane and to calm down!

* Nicholas finds your flustered state charming, cheekily nipping at your neck to distract you, knowing that it would send another shock wave through your body

* "H-hey, cut that out. Unless you want me to start moving again-"

* Even though he didn't say anything directly, the fluffy tail of the wolf man wagged as his hands dug into the flesh of your ass

* Despite giving him directions on how to get to your room, he ignored them and wondered around aimlessly in your home

* That or he was relishing the subtle bounce of you on his knot with every step he took. The little movement tempting him to give into his urges, pin you down and force his knot in and out of you until he was coming undone once again

* In the meantime he kept cracking jokes and quips as you insisted he just followed your instructions

*Tired of his antics, your tail flicked in frustration and ears pinned back before you made your move- levering your hands on his shoulders and pushed upwards until he was out of you

*Nicholas let out a yelp like sound mixed with a purr before his jaw dropped. "How the hell did you do that?!"

* "Spite. Maybe if you listened to me, you'd still be inside me, now wouldn't you?" You stuck your nose up and crossed your arms, trying to walk past him to the bathroom. But with every step you took, his cum was starting to leak out of your pussy, running down your legs

*You couldn't show weakness, and tried to ignore it. Even as it became obvious with the stream of white flowing down, you kept your head in the set direction

*But as the night was proving, plans never went the way you originally saw

*You didn't even make it five steps before the clawed hands of the wolf were back on your body, pulling you into his strong chest and his nose landing on your neck. One hand gripped your breast tightly and the other pulled one of your legs up before two fingers were diving into your pussy

* "Just where do you think you're going?" His voice was practically a growl as he lips grazed the sensitive skin. Skilled and large fingers stroking in and out of you, pushing some of the escaped cum back where it belonged

* "I-Im going where I want!" You tried to keep your voice stable but it was failing. Just this little contact was riling you up once again

* "Away from me? Is that really what you want little deer? Because it seems to me that you want to be back where you just were." Emphasizing each of his words with strokes, nearly making you dizzy and craving more

* But he had annoyed you and there would be consequences. With every bit of willpower you had left, you pushed yourself out his grip and quickly made your way to the bedroom. Closing the door before he could follow you inside

*Finally, you could catch your breath and steel your nerve. As you found your clear thinking mind, something else caught your mind. It was way too quiet... Why wasn't Nicholas saying anything?

*Maybe he understood what the closed door meant and would give you some peace

* That didn't last long as you noticed a shadow in the window before it swung open and there was the aforementioned wolf. Casually sitting on your windowsill as if he hadn't just tried to sneak into your bedroom behind your back

*"Tsk, tsk, little deer. I'm hurt you tried to lock me out. What, you thought it would be easy to keep me away?"

* Realistically, you could've pushed him out the window and closed it so he would have to go through the door again. Instead, your instinct to run took over and you left the room

*The chase felt both like it lasted hours but also mere minutes. Your deer brain was focused on nothing but escape and thus blurred time. All you recall is running and hiding over and over again until you were back in your room

* This time, before you could let your guard down, you were trapped in the arms of a snarling wolf, one who wasted no time in pinning you to the bed with one hand and the other unzipping his pants

*"If you wanted round two little deer, you could have just asked~" His voice was like the ocean, deep and yet flowy. Sending chills down your body and almost made you prop your legs open for him on command

* His sharp teeth teasing at your skin as he stroked himself a few times, preparing to bury his eager cock back inside of your warmth. His knot only going down slightly due to the chase

* Rubbing his tip along your exposed pussy, drawing purposeful circles on your clit before sliding down to your entrance

* "Why the tease wolfy?" You spoke through a breathy moan, trying not to let him have the satisfaction of catching you and making you wet at the same time

*"Just savoring the moment. Because I'm going to make sure to stay where you belong-" Although his words sounded like a scold, they made you squirm before he pushed himself inside

*Unlike your expectation, he was slow with his movement. Savoring every stroke, pusle and twitch he was getting from you. Drawing out moans and pleas as he teased your body and fucked you slowly

* He was tormenting you on purpose. Waiting for you to beg as he used your warm cunt like a toy for his own desire

*You tried to resist, but what would be the point? You were playing this back and forth all night, why not just give in and let him do as he pleased. He did win this time after all, fair and square

* "Please! Stop teasing me, just fuck me already!"

*" Oh, now you want me? It took you long enough."

* As if he was the one being teased and finally given a release command, he let loose and gave into his feral mind. Spreading your legs slightly before tearing off the remainder of any clothes on your bodies

*Biting, sucking and marking up just about every spot he could reach as his hips snapped hard and fast into you, the previously deflating knot forcing it's way inside and out, stirring up your senses even more. The glorious stretch and release making your brain fuzz up even more

* From what little thinking you could do, you dug your hands into his hair, holding on for deer life as he sent you to heaven and back. Shamelessly making you cum again and again and just beg for more

* The jumbled up words of praises you sent his way made his tail wag and encouraged him to bury in deeper and faster. Marking up even your insides to belong to him. Maybe he could fill up your womb so you actually would bear his pups

*Thoughts like that drove him crazy. At least, what little thoughts he did have forming. It was mostly mindless thoughts about fucking you until his knot was stuck in you as you called him a good boy and pleaded for him to give you more

* He felt like a pathetic horny mutt with only one goal in mind. His tongue hung out lazily as your bodies were covered in sweat. The scent of your arousal, cum and sweat was like the perfect potion to keep him going

* Even as he came again and again, pooling your cunt full of his seed and making a mess on the sheets, he wasn't going to stop until his mostly formed knot forced him to stop

*The hot and pulsing ring that was forming forcing it's way in and out of your beaten up pussy was signaling how far along he was

*The tight grip inside and the sensation of it forcing it's way back in was bringing out the upmost wolf in him. He stopped caring how hard he biting, how much he marked or pinched and dug his claws into you. Your body was his now and that's how it would stay

* Finally, his knot fully formed. Keeping his thick cock trapped inside you. But he hadn't cum again yet, this time to keep his loads of cum sealed inside you

*Holding your hips down, he rutted rough and shallow inside of you. Getting whatever friction he could out to ease his burning desire to fill you up

*Even though he was already stuck, you wrapped your legs around his hips and begged him to cum inside

*With a strong howl, his cock twitched and came. Warm, thick ropes of cum shot out along with the movement of his hips brought out your own final orgasm. Your vision fazed in and out as you held onto his broad shoulders to stabilize your own quakes

*After several minutes and finally catching your breathes, Nicholas got you both under the sheets, holding you close as he nuzzled his nose into your cheek. Moving slowly to turn your head and place a delicate kiss on your lips

*Such a sweet action surprised you, especially after such a wild display. And clearly it was written on your face

*"What? Can I not cherish my little deer? You know this means your mine now, right?"

* You stared at him blankly before giggling. "Sure, sure little wolf. At least buy me dinner before you put a ring on it."

[slimepuparibaba]

What do you think about the set-up for Skyhaven? Physically, because I'm having trouble putting it together.

It's a floating island on top of Linkon City. We know this, but how do you get in and off of it?

Everything I've read on the cards talks about trains, but what if there's an emergency? Do they move in their little flying cars? I haven't seen like a highway connecting the two. If it existed, it'd kill the aesthetic and remoteness of Skyhaven, and honestly, I think Linkon is a little behind in terms of technology to allow a jet to just park wherever.

What if Caleb needs to get to MC fast?

The only thing I've got at the moment is him straight up jumping off Skyhaven with his evol. Of course, the overprotective yearning jock would probably do it, but it seems like a reach. There must be a better way.

What do you think? 👀

Wait, this is actually so interesting. Thank you so much for the question, lemme cook for a second--

Okay, so here's my current understanding of Skyhaven as of current:

Skyhaven is a floating island above Linkon. Best way to get there is via skyrail / train. An example of a skytrain exists in the graphic of Lucid Dreams, Caleb's Myth, as that seems to be a skytrain to a Skyhaven Amusement Park. There is also good chance that an airport for Skyhaven also exists if someone doesn't want to take the train, since... you know, Skyhaven in the sky. Doesn't seem like there's any flying cars that exist in the 2048, which is interesting. Haven't heard a lick of a mention of a flying car, and Caleb also drives a lambo that doesn't fly so.

I would imagine if there was an emergency in Skyhaven, the Farspace Fleet has evacuation vehicles. Since they're such a big faction in Skyhaven, they will have the technology to create ships or other kinds of jets, planes, etc that allow for safety evacuation. But from what it sounds, majority of the time, Skyhaven only needs to be under lock down (no one can leave Skyhaven, there may be curfew, etc) and them Fleet will take care of things. Also it is very likely (and by likely I mean pretty obvious) the Fleet has backing from Ever so they will absolutely have the means necessary to take care of emergencies. If anything, the emergencies are likely just orchestrated emergencies. But that's just me--

What IS interesting is that Caleb's "house" isn't actually a house, but said to be more than just a house. Place is a gigantic island that's floating around, it's huge, it's gigantic. Also man has a personal landing dock for his jet. Which is insane by the way.

With this in mind, this is what me and my sister think would happen if there was an emergency Caleb and he had to immediately get to you. We got three possibilities.

Man is actively breaking the fucking sound barrier with his private jet to get to you. He's the Farspace Fleet Captain, he's flying to you almost immediately. While Linkon may be slightly behind in terms of technology, there will probably still be landing pads, ESPECIALLY considering the Farspace Fleet seems to be a pretty influential faction that even the World Evol Government has to abide to, and Wanderers are such a common occurence that I wouldn't put it past them to have multiple landing strips somewhere. He will find somewhere to land, hell he'd land in the fucking forest and bolt to you fast as possible. Doesn't matter. If he has to kill someone to get to you, he will. He's above the law in that moment.

The chance of Caleb being ten steps ahead of you is also very likely. Him being Colonel allows him more chances for him to keep an eye on you, to watch your every move. What's more, he doesn't seem above being extremely over protective of you. Man is very perceptive. He would very likely lock you up before the problem even happens. But assuming that the problem was sudden and not even he could catch wind of it, if anyone gets in his way, he will kill them and rush to your side as fast as possible. When you're hurt, he has extreme tunnel vision.

And now, crack theory territory: Caleb will somehow be able to use the Spatium Core to his advantage. That specific Aether Core is held together via gravitational pull, and can manipulate space freely. The Main Story does show how this Aether Core can come into play, and there is a good chance Caleb will be able to properly figure out how to wield it and manipulate it. The moment MC is in danger in the future, I wouldn't be surprised if we find out a Spatium Core is with him and he starts to use its power.

And I'm just saying, Caleb can do a lot with his Evol. If he's somehow able to manipulate it HIMSELF to teleport to her, I also would not be surprised. Do I know how gravity works? No. But man can make blackholes, stop the rain from moving... damn it all if I can't see it happening where by some miracle happens and he can make fucking PORTALS using gravity and spacetime.

[riftdancing]

Hey...

I know its been a while and I don't usually talk about my IRL on here. I've mentioned briefly in passing that I've been struggling lately and I have every intention of coming back here to continue interacting and posting content.

This is still true.

It is my every intention to resume content soon, but it might be a slow process.

I've been trying to reblog a lot of content but you might notice it doesn't have my usual comments in the tags. That's because I'm just trying to get in the habit of being around this space again and supporting the work I find inspiring. I'm working my way up to leaving comments, but that's a lot of energy from me at the moment.

So I'm starting small.

If you're curious about where I've been, last fall I had a whole bunch of health problems arise that honestly should have put me in the ER (according to my Doctors.) ...But I'm also a stubborn idiot who worked in health care for a few years so I was a dumb ass who didn't go to the ER. ...As a result my current doctor repeatedly stresses at even the most minor inconvenience if I can't get a hold of her now that I should go to the ER because she knows how stubborn I am.

I won't get into what happened or the details of treatment, but I will touch on the fact that as a result of my treatment my hormones went insane for a few months and while my hormones were raging and I was learning to control and understand new felt emotions... the last place on earth I should have been at that time was social media. So I took an extended break, only popping in here and there to deliver on some screenshots.

I'm still kinda... navigating that emotional space, but I also started therapy in November and I've been doing a lot better since with the help of my therapist. So, I'm feeling a bit more socially confident in post.

With some other stuff being resolved, its my plan to get back into the game with this coming patch and live letter. I've really missed being here and in game, and I hope I have a lot to share with you for the rest of the year.

My plan is to slowly start interacting again so I wanted to ask if you could please interact back! I have RSD (Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria) which can make it hard for me to come back into spaces like this and I sometimes struggle to understand if I'm still accepted in a space. Your interactions help me to understand that I'm welcome and wanted here so any sort of interaction, be it on tumblr, discord, or whatever, is always deeply appreciated.

Lets make 2025 a great year!

[anamericangirl]

Long message ahead (sorry about that LOL):

It's so insane to me how the left will constantly claim to be the pro-woman party and then turn around to tell any woman who disagrees with them that they hope said woman dies in some way or gets raped, and I'm not just talking about that repulsive ask you got. They'll say disgusting things like that even to other leftist women who disagree with them on only a handful of issues. But yeah, sure, they 100% care about the rights and safety of women. Totally.

If I'm honest, that's what "woke me up," so to speak, and I know I'm far from the first - the realization that they claim to want to protect "marginalized"/minority groups until someone from said groups disagrees. Then out come the violent threats and slurs that they reprimand others for or claim that conservatives are doing, thinking they can "revoke your [minority group] card" as if someone will stop being female or POC or homosexual/bisexual or disabled simply for disagreeing. Personally, I think it's them admitting that they use these characteristics as shields, so "revoking" them from those who dare to disagree makes them feel stronger. Since they put so much weight on the "community" aspect, they think kicking out anyone who disagrees will leave the opposition destitute and are implying minorities can't stand on our own.

I'll never stop pointing out that the only people who call minorities "marginalized" (defined as being treated as insignificant or peripheral) are leftists. The only people who are openly treating us as an unimportant second class are leftists, and they are the only ones who have ever consistently implied we are such in society ("you can never escape what we labeled you so that means we gotta either tear everything down and start again, or you can just live in fear").

Like I said, it's nothing new, but it's stopped shocking me when something makes them show their true colors. It just happens to be the election right now.

TLDR: minorities aren't "marginalized" because of Western society, leftists just labeled us that to say exactly what they think of us, and realizing this has freed me.

Also, your blog is awesome.

Well I am very glad you have escaped that toxic mindset and your eyes have been opened to how destructive and despicable the left really is.

They parade identity politics and thrive on the idea that how a person identifies themselves is the end all be all of their entire being and thus they present themselves as a group who is pro-every identity to look like they accept you based on identity alone. But that mask falls off once you dare disagree with them on one thing. Then you are the enemy. And that's because they really don't care about identity. They care about ideoloy and if your ideology doesn't match theirs, then they try to revoke your identity as if they own it and get to decide what it's acceptable for people of certain identities to believe or not believe.

And, as someone who fits into more than one identity they claim to be "pro", I have never been welcomed, accepted or tolerated by them because I don't have the opinions they want me to have.

When you get down to it, if you disagree with them, they are racist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, ableist, etc. and they collectively use more slurs than any other group I have ever seen. But they think it's ok because they're using them on people they don't like.

They aren't good people and I think more and more people are coming to that realization. They are their own worst enemy and their behavior will turn more people away then it will bring to them and that is the only good thing about them.

They attract a lot of people because they are good at publicly playing the empathy card and looking like they care but it doesn't take long to see the that's all bs when you really start watching them.

I am glad you have been freed from that and I'm glad you think my blog is awesome! I think you're awesome :)

[craftstale]

hi!!! i saw u making an explanation to Toriel and Asgore’s symbolism and I was wondering what inspired you to give Sans sticky notes and Papyrus the pretty markers :D (mostly Papyrus bc he’s literally my fav and i love him sm ahhh!) but if isn’t that deep either, i completely understand LOL!

Sure thing!!! I love Papyrus a lot too ^_^ "Isn't that deep" oh brother, you got a Big Storm Comin'...

Sans is a sticky note because to me, a sticky note is kind of a "Support" craft supply-- usually you only really use it in tandem with Other Materials. Likewise, Sans is that usual punny guy everyone's Familiar with when he talks to people and gets the opportunity to "bounce" off people like in Conversations or Banter. He doesn't really seem to have so much Regard for Himself, but he cares about the people he hangs out with: Papyrus, the regulars at Grillby's, the Royal Guards stationed in Snowdin, Toriel... He just Thrives more with others! I also consider sticky notes a Not Very "Strong" supply, in that it doesn't have a good stick to thingsband will sometimes fall off surfaces, and it kinda reminds me of how Silly and Laid-Back he is, selling fried snow and hotdogs, pulling pranks, it's not the behavior of someone who is Strict and Straight-Laced? He has that "forgeddaboudit" attitude that I feel like can be Expressed that way... just goofing around and not Committing to much. (I think he would leave them everywhere like with his socks.) The weakness of sticky notes can also allude to his stats... But Importantly, I also think-- when he's Pushed to his Limits-- he can become something Incredible... if you are pushed to your creative limits, left with only sticky notes to work with, that limitation can create something Amazing with sticky notes, like sculptures, origami, when he is Absolutely alone and Has to do something, he Does and he Delivers. Only under that restriction does he show That side of himself, because he Finally forces himself into action. Sans is also Pretty Darn Smart, and to show that, I thought the fact that people sometimes use sticky notes to Study was also a good representation for all those sides of him... the Laziness, the Laid-Back Attitude, his Potential, and his Smarts. Not to mention lots of Pranks can be pulled with sticky notes, I'm sure you've seen at least a few. Oh, and also sticky notes are a nod to the silly joke regarding his stray Sock in the skeleton brother's house. It's only fair. (I thought giving him the little sticky visor was cute... like the one he wore in the dog casino !)

Papyrus was a little tough to figure out but I decided that the alcohol marker fit him well !! It's Bold, it's Vibrant, it's a Committed craft supply (on account of the fact you Can't Erase Ink)... It's like Papyrus being Unabashedly Proud, Brave, and Always Giving His 110%! Even in the face of danger (like when the Player decides to do a No Mercy run), he Knows the risk, oh, he is So Fucking Aware, but has such a Strong belief and is so Willing to Take That Chance, he stands his ground and doesn't Shy Away From It. Bold Marker Ink... You can't take it back once it's set down. You do have to be careful with Markers also, like, you must keep a level of Control when dealing with Ink as a medium and its Multitude of Colors. And Papyrus has Insane control over his Magic Attacks. He's the only one you Can't Die to-- even Toriel slips up sometimes, but Papyrus? It's impossible. And he's really Strong and Creative too! Like out of All the monsters in the underground, I don't think there is Any Bullet Pattern that can rival Papyrus's "Absolutely Normal Attack". Markers are also a craft supply used by people of All Ages-- markers are usually provided to children to color with, like Papyrus's love for things that are Usually associated with children (Peek-A-Boo With Fluffy Bunny... his Racecar bed...) but don't be fooled !! Markers are also a common medium for experienced artists as well (I think people usually move from Water Based to Alcohol Based markers...) Papyrus is definitely mature and serious when he needs to be, and he is Also very smart, I mean, his favorite book is "Advanced Puzzle Constructions for Critical Minds"! I based him Specifically on the Alcohol Marker as a reminder that Yes, He Does Like Things That Younger People Likes, but he is Still Very Much an Adult. Usually, when you buy these alcohol markers, they come with Two Different Tips, like Chisel and Fine or Something... I think this is kinda like how Papyrus is Quite Good At Lying, or having that Smug and Sassy side to him... it's not as Prominent to a lot of people around him, but to Frisk, he does let that side of him Peek Out a little. (Fun Fact: His hands/gloves creates the Finer lines while his feet/boots creates those Chisel Tip lines !!) Also I like imagining that he uses his ink as his Special Blue Attack, coloring over Frisk's soul ! He's also mentioned that his Battle Body can become a tuxedo in a pinch with some black paint, so I think he'd use his magic/ink for that also. And coloring the "Bridge".

The way their Mediums also work with others is pretty accurate to them too, I Would Think. Sans usually lets other people do the work (like how most of the work done on sticky notes is made by the Writer or whatever is applied On It) while Papyrus is more direct and active. I like to think that Papyrus writes on the little sticky note that Sans leaves around to Remind him to do stuff, like picking up his sock or recalibrating puzzles. (Their supplies also imitate their Stature too... Little Chunky Guy and Tall Slender Guy...)

[itsentraptasworld]

My biggest issues with vizzie pop is the concept and individual characters of her shows are genuinely very good but the execution is so mid

(I'm not completely up to date with Helluva Boss, but I watched most of it, so correct me if I'm tripping)

Helluva's boss had a fire concept, but it majorly lost the plot, and she can't write women. I'm not even completely up to date but ts doesn't pass the bechedel test at all vro😭

And I mean to a point where all the women are like void of personality outside of having one or two tropey traits that always end up revolving around blitzø or stolas. Like I get that blitzø is the main character, but damn.

Also, the whole love plot overshadowed the main point of the show, which was doing hit jobs. I do think it's interesting, but Octavia is so badly written bro.

Making stolas's ex just some crazy anrgy hot tempered woman ( literally since she was a child ) is insane.

I feel like I normally wouldn't have a problem with it because I to would be evil as hell to my husband if he burst into tears when he found out he had to marry me like bffr I support women's wrongs and allat (I Don't like her just to be clear)

but she's only that insane to make stolas look better and essentially make him like this poor guy who didn't do anything wrong.

Stolas was definitely not a good husband or father and it's not like I dislike him or anything that's just bad writing that his wife is "crazy" like he didn't cheat on her ect ect

A lot of these things could be funny and extremely interesting if ts was properly done but a lot of these choices were result of bad writing and keep in mind she decided to add this plot if that wasn't the case I wouldn't care it would just be fucking funny and kinda stupid

Like the og plot was these mfs have a hit job business and stolas is blitzøs magical booty call which they got the grimoire from. I genuinely don't think it was necessary for stolas to be such an important character infact I feel like it would of been interesting if we didn't learn much about him and he was elusive or whatever tf.

Even if everything was exactly the same and that's what changed, it would make way more sense because 1 that's how Blitzø sees him , they hardly talk to each other outside of smashing and stolas flirting and they barely see each other.

And like his perspective on things could be like only in some episodes that way it makes sense why he thinks that way and why blitzø thinks he doesn't gaf.

2 if he isn't so important the romance isn't so important because istg the killing business was way more interesting.

Also why does everyone just own a three piece suit in this universe omg😭 helluva boss is a lil better than hazbin hotel in this regard because some of the characters have normal clothes and it actually makes sense idk it doesn't look bad at all but like vizzie pop needs to be stopped!!! Not every one needs a bow tie 😭😭😭

[gothic-aesthetic-gal]

Old Scars (Part 14)

Ledger!joker x reader

Fem!reader is kidnapped by the joker and his henchmen while just trying to get a moment's reprieve from her boring, soul-destroying job ✨️

Tw: I mean, we all saw TDK, right? I'd say this is on the same level/rating. Kidnapping, violence, mentions of minor characters (not J) being misogynist/threatening SA, reference to past traumatic injury. This chapter continues the themes of being under the influence of a drug, with nightmarish hallucinations. Beyond this i'm not sure, i'll update these when I write more.

Part 14 -

I couldn't tell whether I was stuck in the grips of whatever Vladislav had dosed me with for hours, days, or weeks even. Time ceased to exist entirely in whatever dark place my brain had slipped down into. I was stuck in a purgatory of living nightmares, gripped by insanity, at the mercy of horrific hallucinations.

In the first moment of clarity I had, like the briefest spot of sun breaking through the thick clouds of a battering storm, I became faintly aware of my surroundings. I was laid out on a double bed in a white room.

I watched the peeling paint in one corner as it seem to pulsate and move. My blood was thumping in my ears, my throat dry as sandpaper, and the thin bars of light poking through the half shuttered blinds were unbearable. I groaned and drew up my arms and legs, rolling up like a little pilbug.

This glimpse of reality was short lived because the substance wasn't done tormenting me yet. I was burning up. Sweat beading from every pore, my skin felt raw and I thought that it was blistering. I frantically stripped off any clothing I had on, the fabric feeling like needles against my flesh. In this, the first of many subsequent after shocks, I began to see terrible things again.

All manner of abstract horrors flickered to life in my poisoned brain as I screamed and begged for help until my voice gave out. Occasionally, I thought I could make out voices nearby, or less often, in the room with me. Once of twice, I thought someone, or something, was stood over me but If I tried to make out their figure, it was like trying to look for a person in swirling mist - my brain kept latching onto shapes, and then they would move and I'd lose them again.

I thought that I was stood on one of the wide streets in the centre of the city, probably in the financial district. I shuddered at the sight of the glistening chrome skyscrapers towering over me, like knives stabbing into the sky. The air was thick with smoke and the sidewalks and road eerily empty. Devoid of life. Where were the finance workers in their suits and ties dashing around? Time is money so they always rushed between offices. Where were the cops on patrol, the city officials in sleek cars? Where were the taxis ferrying the regular folk: the cashiers, the bank tellers, the office workers, like myself? It was like finding an empty ant farm. What was the point of the structure if there was nothing living inside?

I felt my chest tighten up. Why was no one here? What had happened? I began to walk forwards into the fog, desperate to find some sign of life. Eventually I broke into a jog, one unsteady foot after the other, beating against the grey asphalt of the road. Rapidly twilight came and went and the heavy cloak of nightfall dropped over the city. The road seemed to never end or change. Just as I was about about to give up in utter despair, I hit a crossroads.

I saw a looming firetruck abandoned in the centre of the junction. Brilliant orange flames were licking their way along the bright red paint, reducing it to a burnt out shell. The windows were shattered and the tyres slashed. Still no people, alive or dead. Not knowing what else to do, I kept running along the main avenue. Finally the shapes of some cars emerged from the shroud of the smoke and fog. They too were abandoned, little more than burnt out husks.

Suddenly, I thought I heard the briefest whisper of a voice on the wind. I whirled around, this way and that, trying to seek it out.

"(Y/n)"

Something, or someone was calling to me.

"Where is it taking you now?" It came again from behind me this time.

I circled round, desperate to find the source. The voice was low, and oddly familiar. I couldn't place it. My brain felt like it had short circuited and all the connections were fried.

"What do you see?"

This time it sounded much closer, from the right and clear enough that the man speaking could have been right next to me. I whipped in the direction of the voice. There he stood, so close that I almost jumped out of my own skin. I stumbled and fell backwards on my ass in the road.

He stepped forward, his vibrant purple coat, even faded as it was, a dazzling contrast to the grey world around me. I looked up in silent fear at his face, covered in white paint with black circles around his dark eyes. There was the splashed curve of a blood red smile extending beyond the bounds of his lips, and his hair was a tangled mess of green-tinted curls hanging forward as he leaned over me with hunched shoulders.

I shrank back in his shadow, fear running through me, and struggled under his piercing gaze. I was silent, too afraid and confused to speak.

"What do you see?" He asked again.

"I - I see you," I stammered out in confusion, struggling to sit upright.

"Me?" Came his reply, and he looked equally confused.

The smoke was thinning out around us now, and the ghostly shapes of the city began to reappear with greater clarity as I slowly hauled myself up and back to my feet. My whole body ached in protest, even my bones felt like they were sore.

"Where... where am I?" I asked the strange man before me.

"Well, that depends?"

"What do you mean?"

I screwed up my face in confusion and rubbed my sore head.

"It depends. On the one hand you're here with me," he threw out his arms and spun around gesturing at the empty streets.

"And, on the other?"

He abruptly stopped spinning, his coat swaying around him and revealing a flash of beautiful orange silk lining, like dancing flames.

"On the other, you're supposed to be somewhere else."

I frowned.

"Where else am I supposed to be?"

"Beats me!" He erupted into laughter.

"Is she still out of it?" A new voice echoed around me.

Again it belonged to a man, and he spoke with a thick accent but it was still just the two of us standing in the empty street, now so clear that I could see right the way along upper fifth.

"She's sometimes responding to me now."

"So the the treatment is working?"

"Well yeah, but she's still gonna be a bit loopy until all of it leaves her system for good."

My head felt like it was full of thick sludge as I staggered forwards, past the strange man in the long purple coat. Nothing made sense. Something was wrong. What had he said?

'You're supposed to be somewhere else.

I decided to veer left, since going forwards didn't seem to actually cover any ground. I found myself in one of the compartments of a large revolving door to one of the skyscrapers. Turning around, I saw that the man had somehow appeared opposite me. He gave me an enthusiastic wave, much to my horror. I had to get away, something was deeply unsettling about him and now he was following me.

I turned and ran full tilt for a line of elevators, aggressively smashing my fingers against the call buttons and frantically looking over my shoulder. One of them finally arrived and I bolted inside, again smashing the buttons of the control panel desperately trying to get the doors to close. From my position, I could now see him again as he walked towards me - there was something all the more sinister about his leisurely pace. It was as though he was a big cat, stalking it's prey in the long grass.

The doors began to draw closed and I pressed the button for the top floor, feeling a swell of relief as the elevator began to shift upwards. I watched as the light on the control panel flickered through each of the markers for the forty-six floors. It seemed to take forever, and I was shocked when the destinstion arrived.

I gingerly stepped out into a large open-plan space. There was glass everywhere, and I felt like I was in a fish tank. I wandered by some partitioned executive offices, and paused for a moment as I saw that one had a beat up old tv set in it. It was so at odds with the surroundings that I felt compelled to look closer and approached. It was switched on and something was playing. I fiddled with the aerials on the top until the static dissipated and the picture clarified.

Much to my surprise, the film was one I thought I might have seen before... but I was struggling to recall what it was. I could see a man and a woman climbing the stairs of a tower. The scene was fraught, and they seemed to be arguing, or he seemed to be confronting her. The building violins in the soundtrack were spiralling higher and higher. I turned away from it: I had to keep going. I had to keep moving, even if I didn't know why.

Next, I came across an outdoor terrace which I rushed out to. The cold night air greeted me as I pushed open the door and a breeze blew past me back into the building, scattering loose papers in stacks on the desks. There were multiple empty tables and chairs lined up in neat rows. I wondered if some of the workers would drink coffee and talk about important meetings up here. I noticed one table was laid out, but not with what I'd expected to see. Instead it was littered with empty beer bottles and a deck of cards, like the vanished people had been interrupted mid-game. As I moved closer the wind picked up the cards and scattered them in every direction.

I reached out to grab the nearest one as it fluttered by. They were bigger than I'd have expected a standard pack of cards to be, and I soon realised why: they were tarot cards. I turned over the one I'd fished out of the clutches of the wind.

On it was a picture of a crumbling tower, struck by lightning, and two people falling from the top. The windows were bursting with flames and the storm clouds raging behind it. I felt a pang of dread at such an obvious bad omen.

The wind was rapidly picking up and I decided that I would have to head back indoors. I had wanted to look out over the city, hoping it might reveal some clue as to where everyone had gone, but I was terrified of being so very high up. As I turned to reatreat, there was an almighty boom, and the walkway beneath my feet shook so violently that I was thrown off balance. I knew immediately that something was deeply wrong.

There was a crescendo of shattering glass, and a horrible grinding, scraping sound. The whole building seemed to shudder beneath me. At a loss for what else to do, I picked myself up and ran back inside. As I fled in a total panic around a blind corner, I collided with something and went crashing to the ground.

"Hey, watch it!" Yelled out a man from the ground beside me.

I floundered around in confusion as he picked himself up and gathered the things I had knocked out of his hands.

"What the fuck is your problem?" He huffed, hurrying off.

I ran back to the elevator and waited anxiously for the next one to open. As the doors slid back I was again shocked as no less than fifteen people hurried out and chastised me for not waiting my turn. On the one hand, it should have been a huge relief to have people back, but on the other it only drove me to further madness in my desperate attempts to make sense of the whole situation.

As the elevator reached the fifth floor it stopped. The doors parted to reveal the strange man I had run away from earlier. I jumped back in horror and pressed myself back into the corner of the lift as he stepped in. He looked at me with an air of superiority and disinterest as I cowered in the corner. We continued to travel down to street level and a sharp ding indicated our arrival.

The opening doors revealed a scene of complete carnage unfolding - it looked as though a bomb had gone off in the lobby, all the glass was broken, things were on fire, people were running around screaming as the air was filled with acrid smoke. The man with the painted face strolled out into the middle of it all, entirely unfazed as I trailed after him in disbelief.

Out in the street, the usual bustle of city life had returned as though it was never gone and I stood beside the road watching as people and cars jostled for space. The air filled with the sound of police sirens as cop cars screeched to a halt outside the building and officers ran up the steps.

Just as I was looking down fifth avenue towards the mayor's offices at the end, several more explosions rocked the ground beneath my feet. Multiple buildings were hit. Cars swerved, people screamed, and panic took hold. Everyone began to run. Everyone except the strange man I had followed and myself. The crowd moved around us like water in a stream as we stared at one another.

One of the frantic people broke off from the herd and collided with me. I moved to try and help her up from where she'd fallen but she slapped my hand back.

"What are you doing just standing there gawking. Get the fuck out of the way!" She yelled as she gathered up her briefcase and scrambled away.

Suddenly I found my hand was clasped in the purple gloved hand of the strange man with the painted face. He put me into the position for a waltz, posing my limbs like I was a marionette. Before I could protest, I was whirling around in a strange dance with him. It felt like I was bewitched, like my feet automatically moved and I had no choice but to obey. The only kind of dancing I was accustomed to was jumping around a crowded dancefloor, too many shots deep to form any coherent thoughts - and that was as a teenager: an increasingly distant memory. We had all paid off the bouncer to not question our obviously fake IDs, and misspent our youth drinking and dancing all night. I found myself wondering where any of those people were now; ten years was a long time...

We were spinning around at such a dizzying rate that the towering buildings around me started to blur as my body kept graceful timing. Abruptly, we came to a halt as he put me into a dip. It felt strange to be suspended, as if mid-fall, held there by his strong grip. I looked up at his face in silent confusion.

He pulled us both back to standing position and I withdrew my hand from its resting place on his shoulder. The city started to fade and bleed, like an ink drawing in the rain. All the bleak colours and the harsh lines blotted together. Everything around me began to re-materialse as something else, and before I knew it, I was standing on a bridge. The rain was coming down in fat, heavy droplets which soaked into my clothes and ran over my skin. The hands holding me in place released me and I looked back to see who had brought me to this place. My strange dance partner stood just out of my reach in the downpour. I stepped back from the barrier toward him.

The rain was so heavy it was washing the paint from his features, revealing piece by piece his nakedness - his real skin. He looked lost in thought, and I had to touch his arm before he would react to my presence. As soon as I did, he spoke.

"You need to wake up."

"But I am awake!" I protested in confusion.

"No, you're not," he muttered back darkly.

I didn't know what he meant. It was all too much.

"If you don't wake up, you might get stuck like this".

"I don't understand."

"You're dreaming, and you have to wake up," he pressed, grabbing onto me and shaking me violently by my shoulders, until it hurt.

"But..." I trailed off as I began to think it through.

It would explain the strange things which kept happening, the way time had seemed to stop, the unexplainable disappearance and reappearance of the city's inhabitants, and the sudden change of location.

"Okay, so how do I wake up?" I asked, but no one was there to answer: he was gone.

I was alone on the bridge. I sank down onto the wet ground in total despair. I don't know how long I sat there, dripping wet and miserable as the heavens continued to pour down over the city. I watched the occasional pairs of car headlights sweep by and listened to the crashing swell of the river somewhere far below.

Maybe what I needed was a shock. If the nightmarish visions had stopped, and I was stuck in this shallow imitation of the city indefinitely, then maybe I needed to do something to shock myself into waking up. I turned slowly towards the bridge's barrier.

Dread immediately sank its claws into my gut. Surely that wasn't the answer... but what if it was? Just the idea of jumping made me feel dizzy and sick. I paced back and forth as I weighed up my options. If nothing else here had inspired enough fear in me to wake me, then I'd have to do something more drastic, and this would certainly qualify. Forcing myself to act out a long-time fear might just be the only thing drastic enough to work.

Why start small? I knew it had to be this. The most fucked up part of me enjoyed the poetry of it too, as I gripped the barrier with trembling hands and willed myself to climb over it. Just the sight of the drop made me want to cry out in panic, to turn and run, but somehow I held fast.

I knew I couldn't do it facing oblivion, so I turned myself around. What was I doing? What if this was all just some mental break I was having? And, oh god, what if it was like the Matrix: where the dream was more pleasant than the reality? If that was the case, this dream world left a lot to be desired. I exhaled sharply, as though I was trying to physically expel my racing thoughts.

A part of me was telling me I had to do this, even if I didn't know why. The primal, most prehistoric part of me was screaming self-preservation, but something in my heart told me to ignore it. As I made my peace with the decision, I saw a dark figure on the opposite side of the bridge. He had emerged from the mist like an apparition, and said nothing as he met my gaze. It was the batman. I wasn't alarmed by his presence, and something about the way he was watching suggested a kind of understanding. He didn't move to stop me, or offer any resistance.

I let go of the bars and leant back as far as I could. My heart fluttered into my throat as I felt gravity come up to greet me and I passed the point of no return. I toppled down into the dark with a scream of terror at my imminent end. I prayed that it would be quick.

With a gasp like I had stopped breathing for several minutes, I coughed and spluttered as I lurched upright. My dry eyes snapped open and I suddenly felt the urge to vomit. I struggled to the end of the bed. Suddenly, a bucket was thrust under my bowed head just in time. My whole body ached. When I finally stopped being sick, I let myself fall back onto the mattress beneath me.

"Kurwa, I'm glad I put the bucket in here," muttered the looming figure to my left. As I looked at him I remembered who he was.

"Are you okay, you were screaming again?" He asked.

"Tony..." I thought aloud.

His eyes widened in excitement.

"You know who I am now, yes?"

"I - I think so," I muttered, rolling onto my side with a groan.

"I will go and tell the boss. He's been watching you a lot, but even he needs sleep sometimes," he said.

I barely had the strength to answer him.

"Okay," was all I managed as Tony left the room with the bucket in hand.

Silent tears of relief rolled down my cheeks as I realised it was over, and I was still breathing.

Link to the masterlist for other chapters:

Tag list:

@dis0rderly-cl0wn-nerd

@dance-like-a-clown

@furisodespirit

@heath-ledger-jokers-wife

@sunfyrejoker

@lightsabergirl

@clowning--around

@ruby-da-archangel

@harleenqvinn

@helchronicles

@ostricx

@jumpingjellyfishhaha

@knoepfl

@nicklet94

Dividers by @strangergraphics

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

Veilguard Ecology Part 1

I have decided to channel the ways I am insane by cataloguing the plants, animals, rocks, geography, and what have you we see in Dragon Age, starting with Veilguard. I am starting this with the acknowledgement that all of these things largely exist just as "assets" and "textures" placed around the landscape to the devs rather than thought out inclusions (unlike some of the specific diversity of ecoregions & their contents we see in DAI), so I'm making it my problem instead.

who is this for? me. it is not going to be interesting to most other people beyond a vague "i didn't know that was something you could look at" or a "i like to read about other peoples weird hobbies" thing for everyone else probably. anyway

PROLOGUE PART 1: Minrathous

jumping into the game and what do we have here. two beloved companions we've known for years? no. ignore them. time for grass.

I'm going to use the fieldwork unknown ID naming conventions for plants that aren't referred to by species/common name in these games, though I will speculate as to what they're based on via imported textures. So this will be Grass1. You can see both yellow and green tissue, implying it's either a perennial or an annual that grows multiple rounds in a single season. My bet is perennial. The stems and leaves are both upright and rigid, the leaves angling sharply upward from the stems. This game is nowhere near detailed enough to see ligules, auricles, or trichomes (AND SHOULDNT. to be clear. i can't even imagine how hot my computer would be running) which are like my #1 way to ID grass family in absense of seed head (which these also don't appear to have) so not gonna bother guessing taxonomy. Although visually the shape reminds me of a Muhlenbergia perhaps. note if you google any of the plants i mention you'll only see highly watered versions which are Not how most grasses look in their native wild habitat, where they are much more resource limited, so keep that in mind.

And now on the other side of this little platform we have Grass2. Taller than Grass1, appears to be entirely senesced (gone dormant / all brown above ground / roots probably still alive--if aboveground tissue is yellow rather than grey you generally assume the plant isn't dead just not photosynthetically active). we have what MIGHT be now bare seedheads but no seeds left on them. the dry leaves tend to be more curly than rigid although the overall habit is still fairly upright and tall. This is too tall to be a Boutaloua or Hilaria jamseii but not spiky enough to be Hilaria rigida (although that one might be another contender for Grass1 now that i think about it), and the leaves are flat rather than rolled like an Achnatherum. probably its based on something outside my wheelhouse of dryland or great basin grasses so if i narrow it down better I'll come back to it later.

In this section we also see a pile of dead weeds all grouped together, in a few spots. however the lighting here is shit and i remember seeing these somewhere brighter later so I'm skipping them for now.

Here we have Shrub1. Look at that! finally something green in Minrathous (YES i know there is 1 single green herbacious something or other in the grass/weeds pile in the last spot but again it's in a group asset so we're saving it for somewhere with better lighting. also it just looked so sad there on its own). anyway this is an upright shrub with redish stems and some sort of dark berry in clusters. I'm guessing this is based on some ornamental which aren't my wheelhouse, but the leaves are opposite branching, leaf margins smooth and entire (though some are browning at the tips which is a nice visual detail), and the fruits form in small groups but not large enough cluters that would indicate an umbel type flower. I have NO proof to back this up but when i look at it i feel like it's vibe is evergreen rather than deciduous. maybe because the light on the leaves makes them seem waxy... however this is not a plant you are meant to look at up close as it's entirely flat textures layered together so i'm concluding analysis there until i pull up an ornamental shrubs list and figure out which one it's been scanned off.

ENOUGH WITH THE PLANTS, LETS TALK ROCKS: Solas' Hideout Cave

Ok there are some more senesced and dead grass/weed textures here too that aren't exact copies of above. but the lighting is even more abysmal so i'll skip for now and come back if i don't run into them elsewhere in the game i guess. also i'll be honest i can see an aspen leaf in the pile and there's NOT aspen trees here so it will just annoy me to put them in this section rather than Arlathan which is up next. let's look at the cliff instead.

Here we have some sort of chunky weathered yet clearly very stratified rock. you can see all those narrow horizontal lines that indicate this is a sedimentary rock, so at one time Minrathous was a depositional environment, which i'm not getting into right now but am making a note for my now 10-year-old tectonic plates map of Thedas. We're right on the sea without much beach and the rocks look more chunky than crumbly, as well as this darker grey color, so i'm leaning sandstone/siltstone rather than something softer like limestone. maybe some shale but Minrathous has been built so large I can't imagine the region is predominately shale or it'd be way more structurally unsound after all these centuries.

Now when I first played Veilguard this was one of the first places i stopped and went "ohhh, nice" while looking around because I do think they did a fantastic job with the ground surface textures. we have a sort of sandy patch on top of a rock base which makes sense for an area people are walking in/out from but the edges are clearer, which if they're being slapped by waves now and then would indeed drive the sediment either in or out. We have different grain sizes for the sand and gravel as well as different colors. The ground-rock is kind of way lighter in color than the walls-rocks but i am attributing this to the needs of seeing your character when running around vs stratigraphy change. anyway this is just chatter the funny part is actually when you go inside the cave

aaaand now we're leaving realistic critique behind and are entirely within the realm of game design. But i do want to point it out because i think this is one of those things that, unless you spend a lot of time thinking about geology/geography, you wouldn't ever consider. I've even bothered to adjust the lighting in these screenshots (why are games all so DARK) so you can see what I'm talking about.

Here in the hideout we first see on the floor some cobblestone/brick on the floor, partly obscured by sediment, and leading right up to and implied underneath the rest of the stone wall. In the second screenshot you can see the remains of elven brickwork in the wall and archways leading further in, both in various stages of crumbling. whats wrong with this? Well, the rock is growing on top of them. Which is not how rock works--rock can distort, warp, crush, etc buildings housed inside it but it does not grow over things the way plants do. Yes, even if ancient Elvhen empire was 10,000 years old, sedimentary rock cliffs need millions of years to form, not thousands, and if they WERE forming new rock it would happen in even layers from the bottom up, not growing over the wall like a parasite (I would allow for stalactite growth too but that's not what we are seeing in this cave).

What has happened here is: environment designer made an uneven wall, then took a brick wall asset, and sank it halfway into that wall so the rock shows through. This is WAY faster than designing a brick wall that is falling apart and showing rock from behind the places it's crumbled away. I don't blame them for doing this, it would be very silly to put that much extra work in for something only me and probably 4 other people will ever notice. but! perhaps now you will notice it too the next time you play a cave or underground section of a game and go "heehoo the fantasy Rock That Can Grow Over Things" the way I do.

That's all for this section--up next will be the Arlathan Forest part of the prologue, eventually.

[mirrorsforeyes]

another day, another complete stranger asking to be friends with me on websites (not tumblr)

the urge to delete everything and keep all my accounts everywhere all empty and private. there's nothing I hate more than people who ask complete strangers to be friends with them, you've never seen me before, you've never interacted with me before, you know nothing about me, and yet you want to be friends with me? no I don't think so, you don't, you're looking for friends but you don't want to be friends with ME because you don't know anything about me. the internet is not any different from real life in this sense, you naturally build relationships with people by continuously interacting them more frequently and more closely over time, until you become friends naturally without ever having to ask "do you want to be friends?" like a robot. i already emptied my rateyourmusic account, no profile picture, no username, no country, no comment section, because annoying losers kept bugging me like this. do I have to use "DONT TALK TO ME LEAVE ME ALONE I DONT WANT FRIENDS" as my username everywhere? god...

[jerswayman]

LOVE THY GOALIE. GIVE THY GOOD BOY HEAD PATS.

[always---wrong]

Sorry, hijacking a post here. I wanted to add my own thoughts to this too. As some one who is largely a Dean fan but also as someone who also loves Sam.

I agree partly. I agree that Sam not looking for Dean or cas hurt him. I don't think he was upset with Sam because he decided to stop being a hunter but rather cause he expected Sam to look for him, to try to save him no matter what because that's kinda what they do for each other.

Despite their flaws, these brothers will go to hell and back for each other. That's what we know as an audience ever since Season 1 and that's what Dean knows too.

They can always be sure that if the other was in danger, or dead that the other will fight tooth and nail to bring them back. Even if they aren't comfortable talking with each other, or having conversations without their walls and shields. (Mostly Dean because he doesn't like putting his feelings on Sam. 1. Because he was taught to help/take care of Sam. 2. Because his trauma made him believe that his feelings don't matter and he is there to help others. Which of course isn't true but John sucks)

The reason why I really dislike Season 8 Sam is because his decisions and actions don't match up with any other season of Sam. I was blind sighted. Completely baffled when I watched it.

Because the Sam we know WOULD of looked for Dean and Cas. From everything we know, he would of. There's so many examples of him desperately looking for ways to save Dean. From Season 1 to 5, then again in season 10 and on. Season 1 episode 12. All of season 3. Flashbacks in season 4 to when Dean was dead are all examples of this.

My favorite trait of Sam's, other than his snarkiness of course, is his stubborness and the things he's willing to do to get what he wants. It reminds me of John but not, because while John will push until he dies to get revenge even if it hurts his kids, even if HE hurts his kids in the process, Sam cares about Dean and those around him. He will hold back if it means itll hurt Dean. Exp: Season 1 finale. The exception being, if Dean is dying. The things he's willing to do to save his big brother is insane and I would do the same thing if I were him.

In Season 8, Sam was weirdly apathetic about Dean being gone. I was very confused. I thought he was possessed or something.

So I'm with Dean. I would be hurt too. Simply because saving each other from death is their love language. Really. Its how they show their love--- by protecting and saving each other. When Sam didn't do that it was odd. Even I as a viewer had to wonder if Sam still cared about Dean, even if it should be obvious he does. Cause Sam, as we know, cares about Dean alot. However, season 8 didn't feel like Sam so I didn't know what to expect.

If Sam just looked for Dean, even for a week I would of been totally fine. Dean probably too. I would literally give not two shits that he started a life with Amelia, because I too, if I was sure my brother was dead and I was still hurt by my time in hell, would also look for some simple peaceful times. Do I think Sam, as characterized previously would settle down? Um, actually maybe. With season 7 basically being the 'sam suffers' season I do think he might of wanted a break.

I also have opinions on Sam not looking for Kevin but it doesn't really have much to do about this discussion and it's so out of character I can't even-

Now, my opinion is quite different from yours later in your post. I do not think Dean is controlling. like at all. He's not upset about Sam's independent thinking. And it's not like Sam cares about Dean's opinion on the healthy food he eats. Dean calls the salads he eats 'rabbit food' but Sam also comments on the junk food Dean eats. Its just these brothers teasing each other. It doesn't really mean anything. They aren't deeply insecure about their food.

Sam is also a VERY independent thinker. Hes constantly doing what he wants to do. He went with Dean in season 1 because he wanted to get revenge on the demon. He wanted to do hunts in season 2 (at least in the second episode) because he thinks it's what his dad would want, sure it's because of someone's (his stupid father) opinion but ultimately it's what he wanted to do. John isn't even there. In Season 3 he wants to save Dean, even if Dean doesn't want him too. Season 4 is literally Sam just doing what he wants despite Dean's warnings (which were correct of course. 😌 I'm proud of my boy) In season 5 he wants to stop the apocalypse. It was even his choice to let Lucifer take over his body in the end. Then it was his choice to sacrifice himself.

Most of the time Dean is encouraging Sam to do normal things. Hes actually quite upset that Sam didn't get a normal life. Like in Season 1 in the Shtriga episode when he admits that he wanted Sam to have kept his innocence as a child.

Dean WANTS Sam to have a normal life. So that's not what he was upset about in season 8. It was cause Sam didn't even bother to look. Even for a bit. Even with the amount of energy and time it takes to do a simple hunt. He just decided that Dean was dead i guess and moved on.

However, Dean isn't insecure about Sam's independent thinking.

Man, season 8 Sam makes me mad.

I’m on S8 of my rewatch and man, Sam not looking for Dean after he disappeared into Purgatory really triggered Dean’s abandonment issues. 

I mean, yeah, Dean was pissed off because Sam didn’t even bother looking for him, and just kind of started a new life for himself, which is understandable. But it just clicked for me how much that would have exacerbated Dean’s abandonment issues.

Dean’s abandonment issues are so severe, that he even has difficulty with Sam having independent thought. Sam thinking about things differently or viewing things differently set Dean off. So many times, Sam expresses his independent thought, and Dean takes it as a personal attack on his own views and quickly snaps at him.

I mean it even trickles down to the choices Sam makes about the food he eats or the fact that he likes jogging to stay fit. 

Man…. that’s some serious shit right there.