#I'm just not used to it anymore

[djpaige]

I mean it was just SUCH. A PERSPECTIVE SHIFT!!! It was-- UGH.

Like, you're watching episode 1 of Calamity, and you open with "Fire." Just that reminder that THIS IS GOING TO BE A DARK STORY. You know this, this is what you're signing up for! These characters are awful! They're all lying about various stuff! They have these ambitions and secrets and lies that will lead them all to RUIN. And you're watching this story unfold, and it's so tense because you KNOW that the Calamity happens. It's already heartbreaking because it's not so much that you know they *can't* stop it, but because you know they *don't*! It's in the lore! It's in the timeline! The Calamity is a thing that happens! TWO THIRDS of the population dies!!! TWO THIRDS!!!

You spend three episodes wondering how the Ring of Brass will mess everything up so bad that the world gets as bad as it can possibly get. Two thirds of the population! Dead!

And then in that fourth episode, Brennan flips that shit on its head. Because he brings in a worse tragedy. One where EVERYONE dies. No one makes it out of Exandria. Complete and total annihilation. And then gently introduces the idea of... what if you could save some of them?

That last fight had characters with HP in the single digits, no spells left, and it was unwinnable if the goal was to win the fight. But the goal changed and became to just survive long enough. You know they can't all survive this. But you sure as shit can hope that they can last those crucial 18 seconds. Just enough to make the difference between losing everyone, and not losing everyone.

It became a story not of how they lost two thirds of the population, but about how they saved one third. And it was an absolute master class in how to use tragedy to tell a story of hope.

[coolnonsenseworld]

Last piece ❤️💙

There are still leftovers of the Calendar as well as some A5 prints with calendar pieces 💞

linktr.ee/Mezzy (or check my Tumblr for links)

[katherinemckay]

hear me out:

wicked but instead of i'm not that girl (reprise) glinda sings a reprise of what is this feeling? but it's her realizing too late that she has feelings for elphaba

and the concept would stay the same like it's sung slower/higher and the melody of the song is the exact same with almost the same lyrics but loathing → longing and other minor changes (might i suggest detestation → temptation)

and it ends with a quiet "longing you my whole life long" and then it transitions straight into elphaba and fiyero in as long as you're mine

[positivelyadhd]

you actually don't have to know who you are.

i feel like there's a lot of pressure to know exactly who you are and what you want to do in life but you really don't? because people change, and you might know who you are one day and realise a few days, months, years later that actually that's not who you are anymore. and that's okay.

you haven't "lost" yourself, you've grown. and growing means you have the chance to learn about yourself again.

maybe things you used to hate doing actually sound fun? or your dream job isn't your dream job anymore. those clothes you used to love aren't what you feel comfortable in anymore or the one person that really understood you no longer seems to.

it can seem scary when the things you used to hold close aren't the same anymore but it means that you've changed, you've become a new you and now you can get to learn that new you instead.

[journeyman-tier-fibercraft]

Knitting repeat 37 out of 40 on the lace shawl for my cousin’s wedding present

[theoldkyokodied]

shuake twitter doodle dump :)

including some cuddling, some standalone akiras, some memes, more lipstick goro thoughts and r*ddit shuake that has a target audience of exactly one person: me. i just think it's funny if they both post on the site yknow

[pasdetrois]

death and the maiden

Henri-Léopold Lévy, La jeune fille et la mort [Edited with excerpts from John Clare's “Invitation to Eternity”] • William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet • Kay Nielsen, "The Chasm” (Edited Detail) • Death Takes a Holiday (dir. Mitchell Leisen, 1934) • Chuck Connelly, Untitled • Takato Yamamoto, Death and the Maiden • Martine Leavitt, Keturah and Lord Death • Gustave Adolf Mossa, Valse Macabre • Charlotte Salomon, Der Tod und das Mädchen • Theodora Goss, "Death and the Maiden" • Zbigniew M. Bielak, Ghost: Cirice (Edited Detail)

[r-h-e-t]

It’s French. For “let’s go”.

[usertoxicyaoi]

teamwin's ability to go from spicy and hot and heavy to soft and sweet and shy to flirty to serious to comedy kings to tragedy heartbreakers to bratty and bickering to comfort and understanding is one of my favourite things about them ... like. they've got it all they've got everything to them and the ability to do it all so well. they're never too much of one thing. there's never a dull moment with them.

[furiousgoldfish]

seeking advice about a persecutor alter: I want them to stop hating me

[britneyshakespeare]

I really don’t feel like we’ve reckoned as a community with the consequences of the “ace discourse” and “MOGAI hell” era. A bunch of people had their phase of being a cyberbully and validating all the fears and anxieties of asexual and aromantic people around their own invisibility. They spread their own basic incurious ignorance and pushed people back in the closet, back to being the laughing stock of a premise rather than a real group of people who share an immutable orientation, not an ideology. 

Asexuality isn’t a culture. It’s not a political ideology. It’s just an orientation and it deserves wider recognition just like any other identity in the LGBTQIA+ community. People live in general unawareness about asexuality and its related spectrums, which leaves people feeling ashamed and broken, just like any other erased and embarrassed group of people. Just that phenomenon is really not so hard to understand.

Some people are going to live without sexual or romantic attraction, and considering that’s such a huge part of how most people structure and visualize their lives, yeah, it’s a thing worth mentioning in public. It’s inherent to the heteronormative blueprint of society. But for years on here (and still to this day in some corners) people just wanted to deliberately misinterpret definitions of our terms, make bad faith strawman memes out of children’s self-expression, and overall make a punching bag of asexuality, even going so far as to say, often and loudly, that our increasing visibility perpetuated homophobia. Again, as if being asexual is a viewpoint or a belief. Something other than just what we are, plainly and simply.

Yeah, I don’t really know if I wanna let that go just yet. I feel like we can’t just “move on” without more people actually talking about this.

[sysig]

Ooh, could I request something with a royal vampire Scriabin x vampire hunter or priest Edgar?? I just saw their outfits for day 18 and was like 👀 "I immediately love them", lol. My brain also keeps making a half connection between this concept and vampire moths, probably because of the Vargases' weird relationship with moths/butterflies since the diaryfic. So if you felt like including any butterfly imagery, I'd be interested how you would incorporate it!

Day 24 - Try again? ♥

[leviathanlazarus]

I Dream of the Sun

Pairing: Danny Wagner x (F) Reader

Word Count: ~2100 

Warnings: sort of PWP (oral sex; fingering; unprotected penetrative sex; Danny is a gentle top). 18+ ONLY. 

WAKE UP BABE, NEW DANNY FIC JUST DROPPED. Excuse my absence, but y’all know Danny is forever my everything and this new look of his has me in a whirlwind of emotions and desire. Hope my fellow Danny Girls can appreciate <3

---

You always thought your boyfriend was the hottest person to ever walk the planet, but when Danny sent you a selfie from the latest, newest city the band was frolicking in, you could have fainted right there on the spot. He hadn’t told you he was switching up his look–not that he needed to–and the surprise was just, well, wow. Not a lot of guys could pull off bangs, especially not with such wild curls, but Danny did. Easily. And you weren’t sure if the eyeliner was just for show, just for your own personal enjoyment, but it worked regardless of the intent. 

You called him right away, too wired from excitement to go to bed as planned. “Get home,” you demanded as soon as he answered. “Right now.”

That laugh only made your heart spin around faster. “Soon, babe. So is the new look Y/N approved?” 

“Very approved,” you affirmed, lying back on your bed, the low glow of the bedside lamp warming your senses in tandem with Danny’s voice and the image still flickering in your mind. You put him on speaker just to look at the selfie again. “You look so hot, it’s unreal. Send me more.”

Danny laughed again, low and soft. “I will. Just wait until you see what I’m wearing for the show tomorrow.” 

“Nothing at all?” you teased, imagining just that. Maybe just some skimpy shorts, Sam-style. “I’d fly down there right now to see that.” 

“I’ll give you a hint–leather.”

You groaned. “Oh, Jesus, Danny. You’re gonna kill me. Is all of this Jake-Josh-and-Sam approved?” 

“Well, Josh helped me pick out the pants, so yeah, I’d say so,” Danny said with a chuckle. “And Jake helped me pick out the eyeliner.” 

“I can’t believe you’re wearing eyeliner,” you said, running your free hand through your hair. It was safe to say you weren’t going to sleep for a while. “Didn’t I suggest that like, a while ago? You look like an Egyptian god.” 

“It’s kinda hard to take off, even for an Egyptian god. Those makeup wipes sting my eyes.” 

“Ask Michelle for some micellar water,” you suggested. “We can’t have you ruining those gorgeous eyes.”

“Micellar water? Okay, I’ll listen to you–again.” Danny sighed softly, but you could hear the smile attached to it. “So what is my gorgeous girl up to tonight? I actually thought you’d be asleep and that pic would be like, a morning surprise.” 

“Well, Daniel, I’m really not tired now,” you told him, but you situated yourself under the covers anyway, curling around them. “I wish you were here. Or I was there. I miss my cuddle buddy.” 

“I miss you too,” Danny said, and the words sang through your heart and the softness of his voice was enough to begin to lull you into earnest tiredness. “Nine more days.”

-

The nine days couldn’t have come soon enough. After you’d seen the pictures of Danny in those tight leather pants and the sparkling mesh shirt, you had half a mind to really fly down and pounce on him like a cougar. Patience prevailed, and you managed to wait until he actually returned home, coming up the steps to the house as the sunset backlit him even more beautifully than any stage lights, his endless dark beauty amplified by the brilliant waves of gold, tangerine and fuchsia in the sky. 

Danny’s eyes were the first thing you’d noticed about him back in the day and they were still the first thing that always beckoned you in whenever you saw him–the mossy, lush green threaded with fine strands of gold, and the black eyeliner surrounding them only made his lashes look even more unbelievable. He did look like an Egyptian god, like Ra, like the sun itself, with his sculpted, otherworldly falcon features, everything sharp and dark, and you had to catch your breath as he stood outside in the evening light, looking right back at you. 

You’d waited too long to have Danny back in your arms in and in your bed. Stripped of everything, his body felt warm and hard, all this muscle cording through his arms, his stomach, his legs, taught and hot. You pulled him on top of you, eager to be captured by all of him. It always felt a little unreal when he returned or you saw him again in whatever place the band was at, like entering a dream. It was always a good dream, no matter what stressors or setbacks you’d both dealt with during the absences. The reconciliation felt like fire being rekindled, and with your fingers threaded through those wild, soft, dark curls, you pulled him in fast and hard and kissed him, falling right into the dream that had become reality yet again.

Danny kissed back just as hungrily, the tip of his tongue gliding over your bottom lip. He lifted himself enough to weave one arm between your bodies, his hand smoothing down your stomach to your hips, fingers slowly moving to one thigh and teasing the hem of your underwear. You spread that leg further, silently encouraging him; Danny groaned softly against your lips as you lifted your hips and rubbed your other thigh in between his own. Your satisfaction in feeling how hard he was was interrupted when he lifted himself up, pulled your underwear down, then nestled himself right between your thighs. 

“Fuck.” You exhaled a shaky breath as Danny’s hair delicately brushed over your sensitive skin and his tongue slowly, intently, warmed upwards through your center. You were already wet, giving him ample ability to lick and tease fluidly, and the sudden rush of cool air across your bare skin was quickly alleviated by more languid strokes of his tongue. A single, teasing flick over your clit made your body tense and needy–you stroked your fingers through his hair and dared to look down. 

Danny’s eyes connected with yours as he easily slid two fingers inside, gently gliding through all the slick and heat. Your heart was beating fast and you were already feeling the steady but quick flow of an orgasm coming on. You couldn’t help it–he was too beautiful and way too good at that, at knowing everything you liked, at working his fingers, tongue and lips in perfect harmony until you were quivering and pleading for more, not allowing yourself to look away from his gorgeous, summer storm eyes. When his lashes finally fanned down, you saw the black kohl streaked through each one, and he lapped expertly over your most sensitive place; your fingers tightened in his hair so hard that, distantly, you worried if it hurt, and felt yourself tighten around his fingers below. 

It felt so easy to moan his name, as it always did. Danny gave a few gentle licks and slowly withdrew his fingers as he kissed your thighs, butterfly-soft and sweet. It felt so easy when he kissed your lips again, both of you shameless in your want and love, and when you stroked your hands down his back like he was made of silk. His shoulder blades were sheathed in smooth, balmy skin and he purred quietly as you treaded down his spine to the slight dip in his lower back, drumming your fingertips over every inch you could manage. 

“Can I?” Danny questioned, settling between your legs. He was always one to ask permission, his eyes reflecting the same low glow of the same bedside lamp. You liked to keep it on just to see him as best you could. The real-life experience could never be compared to any photos or videos he, or others, sent you, no matter how glorious those were. 

“I’ve been waiting,” you said, pressing your lips to his strong, tan neck, his hair brushing over your face and smelling like warmth and summer. “For weeks, might I add.” 

Danny’s soft chuckle vibrated against your mouth. “I know. Me too.” You kept your arms wrapped around his shoulders as he guided himself forward, the first slip of his hard cock against your heat already tantalizing. Slowly he pushed forward even more, finally connecting the two of you in the way that only seemed to ever work with him and him with you; he groaned quietly and you gripped his shoulders with both hands. It didn’t hurt–it never hurt with Danny–but it was still overwhelming to feel him like that, each absence somehow feeling more stretched out than the last. But finally, your heart and body’s longing for him suddenly came to an end because he was there in all his glory, looking down at you like you were the most brilliant treasure ever found. 

“God, that feels so good,” he said, mirroring your own deep breath with a slow, deep exhale of his chest. He gave a shallow thrust, bumping your hips together, and you tangled a strand of his hair around your finger, tugging. 

You kept your eyes on his, though Danny’s were cast downward, watching his own motions carefully; one of his hands caressed up your side to your breast, cupping and gently squeezing. That sent a humming tingle through your body and you instinctively reached down–two fingers parted to lightly stroke his shaft as you felt him thrust forward again, then you placed those two fingertips over your own clit, moving in tandem with him. He kept watching, breathing hard but quietly, but when your thighs tightened around his hips and your back arched up into his touch, he quickly reached down to grab your wrist.

Surprised by the sudden movement, you gasped as Danny pinned your wrist over your head. His hold wasn’t hard–you could very easily snatch it back to yourself, but you liked this game. The steady graduation from gentle and soft to feisty and playful always got you going, and it clearly had Danny going, too. His eyes were bright when they met yours again, cheeks flushed beautifully pink and a small smirk was fighting its way across his lips. 

“Not yet,” he told you, squeezing your breast more firmly as he lowered himself to give you a kiss. 

You were content to wait–the way Danny filled you was like nothing else, and his hand was leaving your chest and traveling down your pelvis. You were never going to object to him making you come. Still, you asked, “Why not? I’ve waited long enough.” Danny stroked through your own slick before gently circling your clit, matching the rhythm of his thrusts; your wrist tensed within his hand and your free hand moved to clasp the back of his neck. 

“You don’t have to wait much longer,” he assured you, voice rougher with all his effort. He freed your wrist and collapsed further into you as he held the side of your face, fingers brushing through your hair, and kissed you deep and hard. Both your moans were swallowed by one another’s lips and tongue and Danny’s skin burned even hotter beneath your palm, the finer, tighter curls at his nape damp with sweat, while your hips pounded together. 

Danny was losing it as you were too, captured by this heat-and-light soaked dream. His teeth sank into your bottom lip; you clamped one leg tighter around the backs of his thighs but he still managed to hit every nerve between your legs just right. You nipped at his own mouth in response, breathing raggedly beneath him, pulling on his hair hard as one more fast, wet slide of his fingers and one more dense, deep thrust inside you sent you spinning. Danny resorted to sloppy kisses along your cheek before trailing down your neck, letting you breathe and moan and shudder. Melting into you, he just barely pressed his teeth along your throat, leaving a wet and warm open-mouthed kiss along your tender skin–through the darkness behind your eyes, a bright yellow sky flickered clearer and clearer as you felt him break and shudder just the same. 

It was another minute before you could both successfully catch your breath. Danny laughed a little, cheeks even brighter and pinker than before, and kissed your forehead before rolling onto his side and wrapping his arm around you. 

You stretched out, all your muscles free of tension you hadn’t even realized you’d been carrying for so long, and extended one hand to brush hair back from his face. “You’re all I ever dream about,” you told him. “I miss you all the time, so bad it shocks me when you come back home.”

Danny smiled, lighting up your entire world once more. “I think about you all the time, Y/N. Are these good dreams, at least?”

“The best,” you said, smiling back, getting lost in his stunning pull, the dark-rimmed eyes leading you into an endless summer. “I just like them better when I actually wake up next to you.”

---

Tagging: @mountainofthesunn @bigthighsandstupidguys @dreams-madeof-strawberrylemonade @kiszkawagnergvf @chestinfect-me @woman-ina-dream @itsametaphorbriansblog @karrotkate @edgeofgreta @silver--storms @jimmypagesandbrianmayshair @camomillacatalina​ @mssives​

[grapejuicegay]

Thinking about this silly little moment and just how much it really means. They’ve spent so long fighting about ideological differences and beliefs. And now, after all the drama is done, after Akk has finally come face to face with the fact that he was genuinely brainwashed, after both of their belief systems have changed because of each other, after the curse has finally been revealed.

Now they can just joke about superstitions. Like yeah, let’s go sail to the edge of the sea. We survived the curse of the eclipse, we can survive falling off the edge of the earth too.

[taminoarticles]

— Tamino for Behind The Blinds, Issue 13 / Fall/Winter 2022 (x)

Tamino: The In-Between State

Antwerp, July 2022

Interview by MARTIN ONUFROWICZ Photography by ZEB DAEMEN Fashion by JONATHAN HUGUET

For Tamino, the title of his new album, Sahar, reflects his mindset while working on the record. “The literal meaning of the word is “just before dawn” and I think that perfectly captures the feeling of being in this in-between realm that I felt at the time,” explains the Belgian-Egyptian singer. Having catapulted him to fame in Belgium just after turning 20, Tamino’s debut album Amir also earned him fans from all over the globe, leading to non-stop touring for years. With instant popularity — and responsibility — at a young age, Tamino oscillates between adolescence and adulthood; this very in-between state being at the core of his latest record.

With Sahar, the musician continues to express the melancholy and vulnerability that became a signature of his artistic language. The key tool in creating the record was the Arabic lute known as the oud — an instrument that takes center stage in a ballad titled A Drop of Blood. “With this song, I wanted to accompany myself with the oud as the main instrument, just like my grandfather and father did in the past,” says Tamino. “It was very important for me to have at least one song like this on the album to honor the traditions of Egyptian and Arabic music.”

MARTIN ONUFROWICZ: Why did you decide to name your new album Sahar? What is the meaning that this title holds to you? TAMINO: The literal meaning of the word Sahar is ‘just before dawn’ and I think that perfectly captures the feeling of being in this in-between realm that I felt at the time of creating the album, and still feel a bit right now.

MO: Where is this feeling of being in an in-between state coming from? TAM: It has a lot to do with what my life has looked like in the last couple of years. I went from moving to Amsterdam to study, where I felt so out of place, to moving back to Belgium and my music career taking off, and starting to tour almost immediately for years. It felt a bit like tunnel vision — my life started to just revolve around one thing. I’m still very young, and feel like a child on so many levels, but I'm working very much like an adult.

MO: The album was written during the solitary times of the pandemic. How has that period affected you? TAM: I was always planning on having a break because my team saw that I was feeling a bit burned out. So when it came a bit earlier than expected, I was quite happy about it. That said, I always imagined that when I will have my rest, I will be able to integrate into the world again as a regular person who's not traveling all the time, but then that wasn't the case either because everyone was at home, and life as we knew it was on hold. I think that period has definitely contributed to that feeling of in-betweenness as well, and was also a very transformative and important time for me personally.

MO: You're starting touring again later this year. Having this perspective now, how are you going to try to avoid the burnout you had a couple of years ago? TAM: That was the one thing I kept saying to myself during the break, “I’m going to learn from this and take this zen feeling that I found into the busy life that awaits me again." Of course, I’m not sure how well I will do, but it definitely already affected how I approach work. For example, I’m now in New York for a couple of weeks and not just packing all the promotion stuff into one week because I thought, "I don't really have that much to do in July, so let me spend some time here and see what it’s like." I wanted to be here long enough to be able to ground myself, get to know some new people, have fun and be inspired.

MO: That sounds like a really good idea! What are your favorite places in the city so far? TAM: I’m staying in Williamsburg, which I really like. I also really enjoy the Lower East Side. I went to Central Park yesterday, which is always amazing. But I have yet to discover a bar or a restaurant that I really love — I’ll know when it will happen because I’m a creature of habit, so when I find it, I will want to return there every day. [Laughs.]

MO: Which of the songs on the album was the easiest to write and which one was the most challenging? TAM: The one that I wrote really fast was The Longing, the first song on the album. I first came up with the guitar-picking sound that I recorded on my phone and the next day while being in bed, I listened back to the recording and started humming the melody. Then, all of the verses came in one go! I was stunned because that rarely happens, so that was a very cool moment. A Drop of Blood was probably the song that was the biggest challenge for me because it was the one that I knew I wanted to write — all the other ones were improvised while I was trying out sounds with the guitar. With this song, I knew that I wanted to accompany myself with the oud as the main instrument, just like my grandfather and father did in the past. It was very important for me to have at least one song like this on the album [to honor] the traditions of Egyptian and [more broadly] Arabic music.

MO: Looking back, do you remember having a clear moment when you realized that music was something that you wanted to pursue as a career? TAM: Music was always something I did, but I never really thought about making a career out of it — I remember that while I was growing up, I never really worried about how l am going to make money later and I'm very thankful for that to my mom. We didn’t have a lot growing up — she was a single mom with three kids — but she never put pressure on us to earn a lot or anything like that. I do remember clearly writing my first song when I was fourteen and the feeling of ecstasy that I got from it — for me, it was one of the best feelings in the world and something I've been chasing ever since!

MO: What's a music album that changed your life? TAM: There’s been so many, but one that comes to mind immediately is one by Radiohead that I got when I was also around fourteen. I don’t think it was even a specific album, but rather The Best of Radiohead — I just remember being so inspired by their music when I first heard it. Now, my favorite record of theirs is In Rainbows.

MO: That's so cool! It must be a totally dream-come-true situation then for you to now be able to work with Colin Greenwood [one of Radiohead's band members] — I saw that you collaborated with him for Sahar. TAM: Yeah, it's amazing! It sometimes still feels so surreal when I think about it, but now, Colin has really become a friend to me — we have played a lot of concerts together and he did seven songs with me on the new record. He's a lovely person and it’s a dream to work with a musician of his caliber.

MO: How did you guys first meet? TAM: We had mutual friends in Antwerp — they took him to one of my shows and that’s how it started.

MO: Let’s end with a throwback question: who was the first musician you saw playing live and what impact did that make on you? TAM: It was Lenny Kravitz at Sportpaleis in Antwerp. Also, his song I’ll Be Waiting was the first song I deliberately learned by heart — I performed it at a school concert. I love Lenny, he's such a good performer!

[nightmarecrypie]