#Is it good? I honestly don't know anymore I feel like I lost the plot at some point and then I think I brought it back I like the ending LOL

[ghostybat]

Omg I'm begging you to write the Bed Chem thing the previous anon asked 🙏(bless you previous anon) I'm going feral over here, you would write it so well 🙏😭

No for real, bless that anon, cus thinking about that au while listening to bed chem has me screaming 😭

But you 🫵 personally have so much more confidence in me than I do in myself. Like I believe my writing is subpar, it's okay at best there's so many other writers that could do this au so much better than I can and I think that they should go ahead and do it I would eat it up in a heartbeat! They most likely understand the characters better than I do too 🥲.

But! Because you believe in me more than I believe in myself I went ahead and wrote the longest thing I've ever written so far. I used so much brain power. Took me two whole days just to end up with 19 minutes of reading material writing is hard 🥲

So here you go! For you anon!

Bed Chem

“How much longer until this thing is over?”

Stephanie checked her phone, seeing that it was only 9 PM, and let out a soft groan. “Four more hours…” She had a look of utter boredom on her face.

“Great.” Damian sighed, taking a sip from his third champagne glass of the night. Damian wouldn't call himself a drinker, but these galas tended to be a little easier and go by faster with some alcohol in one's system. He had his first glass an hour into the event, his second two hours after his first, and now his third. He made sure to drink plenty of water in between—he wanted to feel lighter, not drunk.

Stephanie was sitting at one of the many tables while Damian leaned his weight against a pillar next to her.

The gala had been for some charity event—it always was, and of course everyone had to attend despite their lack of enthusiasm.

Damian and Stephanie decided to retreat to a quiet corner as they watched Bruce mingle with his many business peers, Tim getting interviewed for the fourth time that night already, Jason and Cassandra sticking by the dessert table playing judge, seeing which dessert was the best, and Dick himself was on his fifth drink talking and mingling among the rich, with Barbara at his side already deciding that he had had enough for the night.

“So,” Stephanie started, “how many interviews have you done so far?”

Damian took one more sip of his glass before putting it down. “Three, and I hope it stays that way.”

It was relatively normal for the Wayne kids themselves to get interviewed at these events. They get asked about their opinions and current ventures. Damian had already been asked multiple times about his art gallery that had been open for a month and if he had plans for any new pieces to be added. And as much as he loved talking about his art, it did get tedious having to answer the same questions over and over again. He would never understand how his father and Tim did it.

About another hour in, Damian had taken a seat next to Stephanie, watching her play some absurd mobile game on her phone when he decided to scan the crowd one more time, and his eyes landed on someone who looked to be a bit out of their element.

From what Damian could see, the man was tall, somewhere between his father's and Jason's height. He looked broad, though it could be the suit he was wearing giving that illusion. Damian hoped for the latter. His hair was curly, and despite the large frames on his face, it was easy to tell that he was handsome. All that being said, the man looked rather flustered despite the friendly smile on his face.

Damian was interested. Which was a rarity in itself.

Damian hardly ever found himself being physically attracted to people, good-looking or not. So, on the rare occasion that he did find himself physically drawn to someone, it just so happened to be a random, what seemed to be an overly friendly reporter trying his best.

Damian supposed that he simply found it cute watching the man get a hold of his bearings in what seemed to be a new environment for him.

He'd, of course, never say any of this out loud, though.

“Who's that?” Damian asked, pointing his chin in the direction of the curly-haired man who was now interviewing some socialite about who-knows-what.

Steph looked up from her phone, following the direction of Damian's eyes. “Oh him? That's… Jonathan… Kent!” Her voice raised as she remembered the name. “He interviewed me earlier, asking about my recent performance with the Gotham Orchestra.” Stephanie had gotten into a prestigious music college through her piano skills, landing her a job with said orchestra. “He's new, I think? New here anyway.” And she was right; neither she nor Damian had ever seen him before, and they tended to remember which reporters were regulars at these types of events.

“Why are you asking, by the way? Do you like him?” Stephanie gave a playful grin, turning her attention back to the younger man.

“Please, I just learned his name.”

“So you can be attracted to someone and just know their name.”

“Hm.”

Oh, and in that moment, Stephanie knew exactly how she was going to spend the rest of this night. Because despite how hard Damian tried to hide it, she could tell he was interested in the good-looking stranger; he wouldn't be asking questions otherwise.

“He has an accent, you know,” she scooted herself closer to Damian. “It's southern… or at least I think it is… I actually don't know if I'm being honest with you.” And she really didn't; all she knew was that there was definitely a twang in the other man's voice when he interviewed her. “All southern accents sound the same to me, but it’s definitely country!”

Damian continued to eye the man, watching him try his best to get one interview after another.

‘An accent…’ he thought.

‘I'd like to hear it…’

And Damian decided that was enough motivation for him to get up from his seat, take one last sip from his glass, and make his way toward said reporter. “I'm gonna go talk to him.”

Stephanie watched as Damian straightened his clothes and made his way across the room to where a flustered reporter stood. She took that as her opportunity to stand up herself and make her way to the dessert table where Jason and Cassandra had pretty much planted themselves for the night.

“Guys! Look…” As she got closer to Jason and Cass, she made a spot for herself right between them and focused their gaze onto Damian.

“Damian's gonna talk to that new reporter,” she said, grinning.

Jason and Cass, who had been enjoying their time eating the different desserts and getting out of interviews—with Cass simply giving one-worded responses and Jason just flat-out refusing—followed Stephanie's line of sight to where Damian was, in fact… talking to a reporter… willingly.

“Damian doesn't talk to reporters unless he has to. What's his goal here?” Jason watched, confused more than curious.

Stephanie rolled her eyes.

“He's going to flirt.”

Great, Jason was even more confused now.

“Damian flirts?”

“Sometimes. He knows how.”

“Why, though?”

And Stephanie groaned because it really should be obvious.

“'Cause the reporter's a good-looking guy, and it's better than sitting around at this stupid gala being bored!”

Jason supposed that made sense.

“Fair. Guess we can see if he gets shot down or not.” He chuckled at the possibility.

“Oh please,” Stephanie snickered. “Damian's not gonna get shot down; he has the charm of his dad and the looks of his mom—he could have everyone in this room wrapped around his finger if he wanted to.”

And that was true; Damian's looks alone could command a room. The soft and delicate features he had inherited from his mother were a sharp contrast to his already somewhat standoffish personality. It made Damian the perfect mix of pretty and mysterious. In fact, most of the time, he didn't have to go out of his way to charm people at all, but there were occasions where Damian knew exactly how to use that Wayne charm to his advantage.

Whether this was one of those times, however, was hard to tell.

As Damian made his way through the crowd, it quickly became clear just how tall this reporter was the closer he got. He was definitely around his own father's height—6'2” if Damian had to be exact. He easily towered over Damian's 5'8”.

Damian stopped himself right behind the reporter. He could tell he was fiddling with something.

His badge?

Notes?

It wasn't relevant.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh!? I'm so sorry!” There was a quick nervous turn around before Damian was finally able to be face-to-face with this reporter, and the moment he was, Damian took everything in all at once.

“I didn't see you there—”

Oh, there is definitely a twang.

“Damian. Damian Wayne.”

Damian held his hand out for the other to shake, and the moment he did, Damian took immediate notice of how big his hands were compared to his own.

“And you're Kent, right? Jonathan?” Damian said with feigned ignorance, as if he hadn't just heard the name moments ago from Stephanie.

Jon let out a deep breath immediately—embarrassingly. Half out of nervousness and half because the instant he had taken Damian Wayne's hand into his, he noticed just how small they felt, how soft they felt.

Jon, of course, knew about Damian Wayne; he knew about all of them. Who didn't? He also heard that they were a relatively attractive family, blood-related or not. Damian, however, seemed to be a different case. He had only ever seen Damian through videos and pictures, but being able to actually stand in front of him, it was so easy to tell that Damian Wayne was far more beautiful in person.

Jon took immediate notice of Damian's soft and delicate features, long lashes around beautiful green eyes, and slight, lithe frame with what seemed to be an average height of 5'7”? 5'8”, maybe.

He couldn't help but notice these things. It was hard not to, especially when he was a journalist!

‘These things mattered’—is what he told himself.

“You've always been a sucker for a pretty face.” The words of his mom echoed in his head. And she wasn't wrong. She hardly ever was.

So excuse him if he was a bit distracted.

So Jon composed himself, stood tall, gave Damian a genuine smile, and shook his hand before letting it go.

“Yes, Jonathan Kent, Daily Planet.”

Oh,

And how he was handsome.

Almost stupidly so, and the glasses Jon wore did nothing to hide that, much less the blue eyes and freckles that were behind them.

'Blue... Such a nice color,' Damian thought. And it wasn't like he hadn't seen blue eyes before; his father and most of his adopted brothers had them.

But on this man.

On Jonathan Kent.

They were stunning.

~~~

“The Daily Planet?” Damian questioned.

“I believe my father owns that, doesn't he?”

Jon nods and smiles, taking a sip from the plastic water bottle he had been fiddling with earlier. He couldn't seem to get the cap to close right.

“Yeah, he does.”

Damian decides that he likes Jonathan's smile.

“And how are you liking the event so far? It's your first time at a Wayne Gala, isn't it?” Damian stares up at Jon with curious eyes.

At this, Jon's smile widens a little more. ‘Damian Wayne's cute…’ he thinks.

“It's been lovely so far; you Waynes really know how to throw a party.” Jon chuckled, the slight hint of his twang coming through.

Damian couldn't help but wonder where it was from.

Couldn't help but wonder how his name would sound with it.

“It's definitely a lot more than I'm used to… If it wasn't obvious enough… Was it obvious enough?” Jon worries.

This whole event had been a really big deal for him, his biggest event so far since he started working at The Daily Planet with his parents. He was both excited and nervous, and so far, he had only gotten a handful of interviews that actually mattered.

But the night was still young, and just as luck would have it, a Wayne approached him.

“Well, if I'm being completely honest, you'd stand out whether you were nervous or not.”

“So it was obvious.” Jon sighed.

Damian shrugged. “Like I said, you'd stand out either way. I mean, your suit alone for starters is what... a rental?” He snickered.

Jon rolled his eyes. “My dad's. Men's Wearhouse, I think.”

“Well...” Damian took the opportunity to eye Jon from head to toe. “I still think you look rather handsome, Mr. Kent, if that helps ease any nerves.”

And surprisingly, it did.

Jon also took quick notice that he didn't mind being called Mr. Kent if it was said in the same smooth way Damian said it.

(He wondered if that was on purpose.)

“Hm.” Jon hummed.

And Jon grinned. Just a little, because Damian Wayne had just called him handsome.

“It does, actually. I mean, getting called handsome by someone as pretty as you, Mr. Wayne, is sure to boost anybody's confidence.” And then Jon beamed.

A genuine, sweet, charming smile on his face, the kind of smile a child would have when playing with friends or getting a hug from their mom.

“Thank you, Damian.”

Damian's breath hitched a little at that.

Especially after hearing his name said with that accent he was desperately trying to place in his head.

He wasn't used to receiving a smile like that from someone who wasn't Dick, or Stephanie, or his mother and father. He was so used to the grins and smirks he'd get from people around him simply because he looked nice; he knew how to handle those.

But a smile like this from someone he genuinely found attractive was so different.

Damian thought that if this was Jon's way of flirting, then it was cruel.

“Metropolis is where you're from then, I assume? Considering where you work,” Damian said while taking the opportunity to carefully move himself closer into Jon's space.

Not enough to be uncomfortable, but enough of an invitation to be friendly.

Jon didn't notice, though, not right away, because what he did notice instead was the light flush that appeared on Damian's face after Jon thanked him for calling him handsome.

‘Really cute…’ Jon thought.

“Yeah, Metropolis is where I live and work,” he stated.

“Then where exactly is your accent from, if you don't mind me asking?”

“Oh! I grew up on a farm in Kansas, actually."

Damian slightly perked at the word “farm.”

Jon took notice.

It wasn't a secret that the youngest of the Waynes was an outspoken animal lover; Jon actually found this fact to be rather endearing when it came to Damian.

He had read countless articles about the proclaimed Prince of Gotham (Jon did his homework) and how, despite his many talents and beauty, he was written as the most aloof and unapproachable out of all his brothers.

It made Jon wonder if he was ever lonely.

So finding out that the small prince had a soft spot for animals gave Jon peace of mind that they at least had one thing in common.

“My family moved to Metropolis when I turned 10, so that's where the accent comes from.”

A farm, Damian thought.

A farm boy from Kansas.

A farm boy with pretty blue eyes and freckles he wanted to trace.

“I like it, Mr. Kent, your accent,” Damian said.

“I especially like it when you say my name with it.”

Damian spoke that last sentence with a rather alluring tone, causing one Jonathan Kent to go a bit hot in the face at the realization that Damian Wayne—

The supposedly most unapproachable Wayne—

Had most likely been flirting with him this whole time.

Jon couldn't help but let out a little bit of a laugh.

“What is it?” Damian asked with a bit of confusion. Maybe even a hit of annoyance.

“Nothing,” he composed himself with a smile still on his face.

Jon then leaned forward enough so that Damian was the only one that could hear him.

“I honestly just never expected you to be a flirt, Mr. Wayne. I'm flattered.”

The pride that immediately washed over Jon as he watched the soft flush of pink grow on Damian's cheeks was enough to make his entire night.

And as much as he was flattered, and as much as he should have noticed what with the way Damian had been looking at him with big green eyes and standing so close, calling him handsome, Jon was here on a job.

“Well, Mr. Wayne,” Jon decided now was as good a time as ever. “Since I have you here in front of me, do you think I could ask you a couple of questions myself?”

~~~

The two had made their way to an unoccupied table mainly so they weren't in the way of other guests but also for a sense of privacy.

Jon sat himself across from Damian, pulling out what looked to be a notepad and setting his phone flat on the table, ready to record.

Damian, in the meantime, had decided he wanted to remove the blazer he had been wearing for most of the evening.

And so underneath said blazer revealed that he had been wearing a sleeveless cheongsam top, showing off lithe and toned arms.

Jon didn't think it was possible to look erotic while taking off a blazer. Yet there Damian was, sitting across from him, proving his point wrong.

‘Red looks good on him…’ Jon thought.

The top was red.

Jon needed to focus.

Almost in an instant, Damian noticed the shift in demeanor. What was once a nervous and slightly flustered Jon was now someone who had confidence and understanding in what he was doing. He sat with his back straighter and with a more intense look.

Damian couldn't help but also find this attractive.

“So, Mr. Wayne, I've heard you're opening up an animal sanctuary,” Jon looked at his notes, most likely reviewing pre-written questions. “An exotic animal sanctuary, to be exact, and you're even going back to school to get a zoology degree. Now, it's pretty well known that, among many, you are quite the animal lover; you're even a vegetarian, and you've already had such a successful career as an artist, even recently opening up your very own gallery. I imagine it must be a bit nerve-wracking to move on from something you've known most of your life to proceed with something new.”

And that is what did it.

Because if Damian wasn't attracted to Jon before, he was certainly attracted to Jon now.

Something about that whole question—if one could even call it a question—seemed so genuine that, bizarrely, it was enough for Damian to want to sleep with this man. Forget the fact that Damian had already found Jonathan Kent to be undeniably handsome; this, in itself, just added a whole other layer to it.

Immediately, Damian acted on that primal feeling.

“You know, Mr. Kent…” Damian moved from his seat across from Jon to the one right next to him in a lithe and smooth motion.

Jon noticed it immediately, the way Damian moved his body in a graceful, fluid, almost sensual way just to get closer to him. “You're the very first person to ask me about that tonight,” Damian said in a low, soft tone.

“Really?” Jon swallowed.

He was so close to him.

Damian was so close to him, looking up at him through long dark lashes and gorgeous green eyes.

Green might just become Jon's favorite color tonight.

“Mhm,” Damian hummed, flickering his eyes from looking into Jon's to down at his lips and then back to his eyes again.

Goddammit.

Jon was here for a job.

Jon was here to interview people.

Jon was not here to be given bedroom eyes from Bruce Wayne's youngest son in the middle of an open gala.

“You've always been a sucker for a pretty face.”

And by God, had his mom always been right. Because when Jon sat down and thought about it, the absurdity of it, the fact that someone like Damian Wayne was giving him the time of day.

How could he not flirt back?

In fact, Jon could flirt.

Jon could easily flirt and do his job at the same time.

He took a breath, adjusted his glasses.

“Well, if that's the case…”

Jon leaned in close enough for only Damian to hear.

Close enough for Damian to feel the light brush of Jon's lips near his ear.

“I'm glad that I'm the first. Especially seeing as it gives me the privilege of being this close to you tonight.”

Then Jon pulled back.

Pulled back to take off the jacket of his dad's borrowed suit.

Pulled back to roll up the sleeves of the white button-up he was wearing underneath.

And Damian stared.

Damian stared because it wasn't an illusion.

Damian stared because Jon really was that broad. His arms really were that big.

And in that moment, Damian wanted nothing more than for Jon to kiss him.

Wanted nothing more than for Jon to pick him up like he weighed nothing.

Wanted nothing more than for Jon to simply have his way with him.

“I'm also sure you hear this a lot,” Jon said with a stupid soft smile on his stupidly handsome face.

“But you really are so much more beautiful in person.”

[auroraksr]

UNDER THE TABLE [ LANDO NORRIS ]

synopsis: as lando streams, you decide to take him

warnings: fem!reader, smut, +18 (oral (m receveing), cum swallow, semi-public sex, only blowjob), basically porn without plot

wc: 800+

first of all, lando was live after a few - loads - of months without streaming.

second, he was in a call with max fewtrell, his best friend.

third, you were his very horny girlfriend. who couldn't wait, as much as he asked you to, a lot of times before he started his stream.

so, when lando came back from the kitchen and saw you sitting just under his table, he frowned. thanks god the camera was off, chat didn't saw - or heard - you slipping in and hiding there, waiting for your boyfriend.

"wh- what?" he murmurs, chuckling and shaking his head.

you put your index finger over your mouth as in for him to shut up and pat his chair. he walks over and sits down, completely lost.

you don't know what he thought you'd do, but you didn't care, cause when you got closer to his legs and started caressing his thigh, his eyes turned to you.

he was silently begging, maybe for you to keep going, go higher, maybe for you to stop and get off there. well, you took the chances on the first option.

you hoped he was good to hide his moans.

as you slip your hand into his pants, his breath hitched, making you giggle silently and slap his thigh in a soft way.

"mate, what are you doing?" you don't hear max say in his headphones, but you imagine after landos response:

"what? nothing, man." you smile.

as your fingers go over the tip of his cock, his muscles tense up and he shakes his head. you imagined he would try and stop you, but the only thing he does is push himself up and pull his pants down.

you let out a quiet chuckle at his eagerness. it was surprising, honestly, for someone who asked you to wait so much.

you continue rubbing softly his member, it getting harder in your hands. before you lower your head and take it in your mouth, you look up to lando, who was barely focusing on the virtual race anymore.

he bites his lower lip as your mouth surround his length, trying to keep his sounds to himself. as much as you wanted to hear him, you knew it was better to keep quiet or else people watching and max would realize something was going on.

you bop you head up and down, taking a while to take his full cock in you mouth, the tip almost hitting the back of your throat as you keep going. his muffled moans get harder and harder to prevent each moment, but he stops speaking.

"huge crash!" you hear a low scream get off lando's headphones and you shrug it off, knowing it's just max.

lando stays quiet for a bit and then hum something, probably not at you, but at his best friend.

you try to get back, sit down and take his dick out of your mouth, but before you can do it, he realises and buckle his hips out, reaching for your hair and holding onto it.

you look at him, your mouth full and completely surprised he decided to take the lead suddenly, but he sighs shakily and shakes his head.

"make me cum." he mouths, unaldible.

you smirk at his words, nodding and pulling back just to point to his microphone.

"mate, i-i'll be right back." lando says in the mic before muting it.

he doesn't wait for a response, just pushes his headphones off his head and his chair a bit back, giving you more space.

you smile at him and lick his tip, making his shudder. his head falls back, eyes closing or rolling every time he fells your throat wrapping around him.

"when this live is over i'm gonna fuck that tight little pussy like never before." he manages to say before biting his lips and pushing his hips forward again.

he looks at you and mouths something like "cum", but you shake your head signaling you didn't understand.

"i'm gonna cum, fuck!" he barely yells and you smirk.

you go as deep as you can before you feel his hot cum filling your mouth. as you mention getting up, he holds your head.

"you decided to do it, now you swallow." he demands, not letting you go before you show him your mouth. "good girl."

you smile and get up, holding onto his shoulders.

"hell, don't do that ever again." he says chuckling before sighing, looking at you.

"you don't like heads?" you say teasingly as you watch him shake his head vigorously.

"i love those. i just mean you don't need to do it when i'm live, babe." you giggle and kiss his cheek.

"i'll be waiting for you in the bed." you say as you walk out his game room.

you see his putting his headphones back an unmuting, max asking where we went.

"just got to finish some things up before the race." lando says suspiciously.

"ew, mate, gross." max says as he realizes that it probably had to do with something obscene.

the walk back to your room has peaceful, even though your pussy has still clencing onto nothing, you knew that soon he'd be back to fill you up.

[csphire]

I think what really breaks the Solavellan romance in VG for me is how much closure for the Inquisitor is sidelined in favor of Solas's half of the relationship. I get it. Forgiveness is important and it's his lowest moment but after everything Lavellan as a character had to go through and experienced, everything the character canonically loses, there's something off about seeing it all kind of end with an anti-climactic "Lavellan joins him in fade prison so he doesn't have to be alone." It feels almost like she's his reward. I'm glad for some people they like the ending but, man, it just doesn't sit right with me. Who comforts Lavellan over her lost friends? Who is there for her while the blight destroys Southern Thedas? Who helped her adjust to life after the loss of her arm? And unlike with Solas, none of that was the result of her choices or due to mistakes she made. Idk maybe I'm just wildly off base but I feel like while at least some of the writing has compassion for Solas there is none that is tangibly afforded to the Inquisitor. It feels like compared to the Warden and Hawke at least, a Solas-manced Inquisitor gets such a lack of care. They do almost all of the giving and they lose so much but it's never really tangibly acknowledged within the VG romance. people like to say "just head-canon it" but why am I doing the writers job for them? They had this romance span two games and involve a major antagonist, there should have been a more thoughtful and nuanced ending for VG.

I agree, with all the build-up in Trespasser it felt set up for the Inquisitor to play a bigger part in DA4. And out of all of the companions, it also felt like Varric was the one who helped the most, for not just Lavellan but any Inquisitor, to pick up the pieces after Solas left. He gave them a Kirkwall title, and key to the city, and basically rolled out the red carpet to help them feel like they had a place to call home when they would inevitably leave Skyhold behind for good. I feel like he led the charge in tracking down Solas in what I've seen in the comics too. So his death is a gut punch to any Inquisitor but it's just brushed aside and minimized for the plot twist and so a Lavellan can choose to go with Solas into the Fade. Please keep in mind, one thing I've not gotten a clear answer on, as I've not made it so far into the game is, did Rook know Varric was dead when he encourages the Inqusitor to redeem Solas? But on another note, the Veilguard broke at least one rule when it came to party sizes so I don't understand why we could not have broken another rule and had two protagonists to control when it came to dialogue at least. And many of us would have loved to have seen our Inqusitor fighting again as a temporary companion too because so many in the past in FB groups would drop ableist comments on how the Inqusitor cannot fight anymore with just one hand. It sickens me BioWare seemed to double down on this. With all the tough things out there they have handled in the past to address racism, sexism, gay and trans rights they shy away from addressing ableism? Like with Neve if we told her to take it easy because she was hurt at the beginning she could have had a talk with Rook about coddling her because of her artificial leg. But that didn't happen or any comment made about it at all. On one hand, not addressing that injury and focusing on her character might be cathartic for someone in a similar situation in real life. But honestly, I feel like Neve missing a leg was just put there to silence any criticism of benching the Inquisitor and in your words turning a Lavellan into Solas's reward. But I have seen some comments here and there that Mike did not want a Lavellan happy ending to happen at all. And it was the writers who pushed for it to happen for the sake of the Solavellan fans. So I sit here with a lot of mixed feelings about the whole thing. Two of my favorite characters in the whole Dragon Age series and one of them murdered the other and it leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth. I don't think Solas should have been so much of an antagonist in Veilguard mainly because he was not in the Inquisition. For me, Solas felt so out of character in Veilguard. Plus what he did ruined any chance for my Lavellan to reconcile with him because he's now killed two of his friends one of them a mutual of our Inquistor's. For me at least one does not run off with someone who has a track record like that ten years after he dumped my ass. Plus giving Solas a second chance feels... dirty, like an insult to Varric's memory. That and Lavellan deserved better than to sacrifice her safety, comfort, and possibly even life for Solas at this point. And I hate how the writers and the whole game set things up that leaves me feeling like that.

[allwormdiet]

Sentinel 9.4

Back in the saddle again

You know, I'm not sure if tinkers actually are "supposed" to be smart. The other examples we have to work off of besides Kid Win are Bakuda (constant state of fucking around and finding out until it killed her), Armsmaster (he of the dumbfuck raid boss solo plot), and Dragon (actually no notes on Dragon's relative intelligence), plus Chariot in just a minute here who literally only succeeds at being a mole because the Protectorate allows him to succeed as a ploy

I'll concede that they're adept engineers and scientists, sure, but you can know how to build a nuclear reactor and still be dumb enough to build it in your backyard. There's no single measure of intelligence that everyone measures high on, that's just not how it goes.

Then again like two-thirds of this chapter are lowkey about Kid having self-esteem issues so like, I get that he's being hard on himself. I feel like half the cape POVs we've gotten so far have self-esteem issues, never mind Taylor Hebert Queen of Self-Image Problems

I'm gonna skim over a lot of this fight like I had in 9.3, but while this can't feel good for one's confidence, honestly I'd mostly just be relieved. Like, yes, let the villains whose powers are Railgun and The Fucking Sun take it easy on me, that's fine, I like my body parts staying in the configuration they have.

Thank God he actually has a chance to feel like he's contributing, without the horror of accidentally killing someone

Wow, Trickster sucks. Why do they put up with this guy?

So, somehow I doubt he's somehow lacking in a specialty, but from the description of his apparent focus issues (plus the fact that taking medication to help with focus nearly took him out) I wonder if the way his tinker stuff goes involves having a bunch of little things, if the lack of focus is somehow a sign of what his specialty actually is.

Oh fucking boy

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay (sarcastic)

Also I don't know why they specifically would go to cities that have already been Endbringered but there's a real "kick them while they're down" energy to it that I do not care for. Goddamn jackals.

Is it the "another tinker" thing or the "that wasn't Armsmaster" thing that he's more excited about lmao

Weld's adapting a little better to his role, and Clockblocker is able to keep his mouth shut and play along, so things are improving.

I dunno man, it's a citywide apocalypse, does bedtime matter anymore?

Hey what the

Fuck

is going on here

Tinker-to-tinker communication

Y'know, now I'm curious what the wages are for a non-Tinker Protectorate member. Obviously Tinkers can have it made if they've got something the higher-ups want, but is Miss Militia making enough to own a house? Is your income tied to merch sales?

Think this is the first time someone has outright said triggering as a parahuman rewires your brain to some extent. Curious to see further elaboration on that.

I think if you're gonna hire a mole, you should make sure they can lie convincingly. That feels like step two.

(Step one is "make sure you can trust this person to be a mole for you")

Fucking gottem

Well hey Kid, looks like you're pulling your weight after all

Current Thoughts

I do think Sentinel is a neat arc but I'll admit, in recounting and rereading this it lost me a little bit. That might just be the Travelers fight though, I could feel the lack of stakes to the fight like a gap between my teeth.

Kid seems like a solid character, classic impulsive inventor with an actual exploration of what that impulsiveness does to his work ethic and self-worth. I'm glad he gets a chance to shine here and I hope he figures out his exact specialization so he can stop being so down on himself

The Wards do seem to be coalescing into more of a team as things progress, sure would be a shame if the resident lone wolf was to fall for obvious bait and disrupt that or something.

[lasandra]

Super Massive End Game Veilguard Spoilers Under the Cut!

Seriously. If you haven't finished playing Veilguard, DO. NOT. READ. So I finished DA:tV and I have been really trying to sort out my thoughts... And well...

Sdlkajshdfklajhsdfklajhsdflkjahsdklfjhaskldfjhaskldfhj I CAN'T!!! My dudes I am SO conflicted!!! Solas is the only character I have ever come across that I both love to pieces and want the best for him but I also want to beat him until he is a puddle of bruised yolk and cracked shells. This dude KILLED VARRIC FOR REALSIES! I am not okay with that. My Hawke's GOING to hunt him down when she finds out. If the Tevinter Magisters can get into the Black City then dammit so can she. And when she does, I am not sure even Lavellan can save him. Amelia (My Hawke) has lost so many of her friends/family/loved ones she can't handle this anymore. He also killed God's gift to elves Felassan. It's been over a decade since I read The Masked Empire but I don't remember there being a great reason other than him being upset that Felassan failed. Dude has GOT to stop killing his friends lol. Especially the hot ones. Like. Come on. As if that wasn't enough, he manipulated Rook. I love my first Rook (Carwyn de Riva) so much that I am STRUGGLING to play another playthrough with any of the other Rooks I had planned. To see that he manipulated her with blood magic... Stopped her from being able to mourn Varric with the others properly.... AND tricked her into that prison??? He didn't think she'd be able to get out. Luckily she had plot armor because if she hadn't gotten out I would find a way into Thedas to rip him apart myself. *Aggressive breathing noises* I feel very normal about this, obviously. Seriously though, guys, I came THIIIIIIIS close to tricking him with the fake dagger even knowing that Lanaya (my Lavellan) wouldn't have gotten her happy ending. JUST so I could see the LOOK on his face when he realized ROOK outplayed him at his own game! At the SAME time however... The idea of sending him into the Black City alone... hurts me lol! I don't want him to suffer. Dude has suffered a lot and honestly, I'm not entirely sure his being a friend-murdering ass is *entirely his fault... The longer I sit with everything, the more certain I am that Solas didn't really have a choice. Seems very much like he was sort of bound to the will of Mythal. Maybe I've missed something, I'm not as lore-savvy as I once was. But in the end when Mythal tells Solas that she releases him from her service and only THEN (NOT when Lavellan BEGS him to stop) is he willing to do the right thing? I don't know. It just reminded me SO much of his personal quest in Inquisition where his Wisdom Spirit friend had been bound and twisted against its purpose. If it works anything like what we saw in Inquisition with whoever drank from the Well of Sorrows, who's to say when something was him vs the will of Mythal? It could be a bit of a stretch but, there's certainly room for that interpretation, I think. And if that's the case, then he doesn't deserve the hell that awaits him. It's also the only interpretation I can really accept Lanaya still wanting to be with him. Varric was her friend too. While forgiveness is something I give freely, I cannot imagine reconciling with a man who did what Solas did without him having been essentially forced into doing it. *Sighs deeply* I saw the different versions of his endgame images... Shit man. The only way this man gets a happy ending is with Lavellan. Dude looks so miserable and gloomy in all the other endings. Moire (Trevelyan) was Solas' friend. She wouldn't want to send him off to be alone in such a terrible place. That would seriously eat at her. (Rook wouldn't care. Her give a damn was busted after he betrayed her for the twenty-billionth time.) It can never be anything but a complete and utter rollercoaster with this man! I do think that the ending I got with him was as good as it possibly could have been though, given everything. Sorry for this really poorly written rant. I needed to get this out of my system and it's almost 3am lol.

[the-way-astray]

thinking thoughts about gay fitz. how his arc has been gearing for him to step away from his family name, reputation, or legacy. how he has all those expectations on him and may mold himself to fit them rather than trust himself. etc etc.

also one more thing i thought of… (unraveled spoilers ahead!!) why the fuck didn’t keefe ask alvar about the vacker legacy even though it has been set up as a mediumish to largely important plot thread??

i think shannon needs to hire one fan/stan and one non-fan of each of her characters as a committee to make her books theeee best that they can be. lol.

good night!! it is 11pm. if it isn’t for you, have a great day ahead!!

hi, anon! those are certainly some thoughts you have there.

keefe didn't ask alvar about that because sophie already asked alvar about it in legacy. he said the troll hive was the extent of the research alvar himself had conducted, but that he suspected that his family had other buried secrets because of the sheer amount of power they held (but that he didn't actually know anything else for certain). so alvar wouldn't know anything more. and honestly? i don't think shannon will continue with the vacker legacy plot thread. it's wrapped up pretty nicely as it is right now, and revisiting it would take away precious space that could be allocated to closing plot threads that are actually still open. so, while i personally was not satisfied with the vacker legacy as a plot thread and would prefer shannon expanded upon it and gave us something more interesting, i also think that it's just not a priority anymore. it's been wrapped up. in a satisfying way? absolutely not. but it's been wrapped up nonetheless. so. that's a thing.

as for gay fitz, i agree!!!! i've talked about it briefly in this post where i mention several ways i would change kotlc, and one of those is that i would make fitz end up with dex because it would make his arc of stepping away from his family name so much more . . . cemented. (i also said in that post that my version of kotlc would have the elves not being queerphobic but unraveled shattered that so. we ignore that part i guess.) i think if he was gay in the (now canonically homophobic) lost cities, it would go a long way in making his arc about matchmaking and generally stepping away from being the perfect vacker and liking being a vacker and whatnot come full circle.

i personally don't think shannon's going to do it. and i also don't actually want her to do it. between the way fitz is dogpiled on by pretty much every non-tumblr fandom and the disastrous reception the three (3) mentions of gay people in unraveled received, i can't imagine this can go any way that could be considered good if it was canon. i talked about this same exact thing in a similar post about poc vackers a while ago, where i basically said the same thing (except it was about race instead of sexuality).

but, yeah, the headcanon absolutely slaps hard. fanon-wise, i'm personally more partial to keefitz, but i think in canon fedex is the superior ship. it's just better for both their arcs. as for fitz growing to realize that he doesn't have to mold himself to fit the overbearing vacker reputation, i think it would be so cool if he realized that because of a conversation with dex. dex is a noble, now, after all. there could be some connection there about how dex maybe feels pressure because of that but he's still not willing to sacrifice what he believes in or something idk.

my toxic trait is that i genuinely believe i could fix keefe. i could fix him . . . i could make him such a good character . . . shannon should give him to me. and yeah. she needs to do that with all the characters. at this point only stan-hater pairs could fix these guys . . .

[deusvervewrites]

I think you're right with Bakugo losing his quirk being something interesting for the series. I get that the intended reading (or at least a rather common interpretation in the fandom) of his character is supposed to be that he's generally completed his redemption, but to me it feels like its still got a lot to cover, mostly because I don't think that it dug that deep into his mindset or really made him actually reevaluate Why he wanted to be a hero.

I'm not saying he didn't have a character arc, its just that what arc was there was very slow paced, and kinda makes it look painfully slower when you compare it to the constant escalation of the rest of the plot. In theory its an interesting look into how changing as a person comes slowly, but in practice there's really only so long I can stand watching some little dick waffle about on whether or not he should treat people with basic human decency when he's looking to take on a position of power.

Like yeah he starts to respect his classmates, but to me it feels more like that respect came solely from recognizing their power rather than realizing that everyone deserves respect. It would be a solid start to an improvement arc! But no, its at what a lot of people think to be is the peak of Bakugo's redemption.

Especially in regards to Midoriya. Everyone cheers on the fact that he now sees him as a rival and even finds joy in their competition, but it currently falls flat to me because. its just validating Bakugo's power-based worldview now that Midoriya has a quirk. like sure he respects his heroic skills but does he respect him as a person?

But now, if he's lost his quirk... He's going to have to fully confront How Exactly He Fucked Up. No rationalizing that someone deserves his respect because they're as powerful as him and can compete against him in a game he's gonna win! Its either he rethinks his entire worldview or he wallows in his own misery at being quirkless, and there's no way that the story will go the second route, especially if Midoriya's own quirklessness sticks.

And honestly? that would be the most fulfilling ending to his character to me. Bakugo not being a hero would probably piss a rather vocal portion of the fanbase off, especially if Midoriya pulls off becoming a quirkless hero, but it would be very satisfying to me in particular, so. Yeah.

(OOPS this got long. My bad. I just started typing and it just spilled out)

I mean. I wrote a 1300 word essay on the problems I have with Bakugou's character arc. And like I said, his dialogue is worded once again to place value in Midoriya's Quirk over him. Personally I was hoping that Bakugou would be the Quirkless Hero because it would be a poetic inversion of how the series started while also showing a mindset that doesn't put that kind of value into Quirks.

Bakugou has some really good moments. The Final War has done a lot of good with him and addressed most of the issues I've had with his character overall. But with Bakugou you never know when you're gonna get a moment where he, I dunno, spitballing here, overhears that Midoriya lost his Quirk and starts crying because they can't compete anymore. Or physically attacks Midoriya for slapstick comedy. Wouldn't that be a weird writing decision? Making a joke about how Bakugou still attacks Midoriya? Over 250 chapters in? That'd be fucking weird.

[rubberducki20]

Mickey milkovich x M!Reader

♤Public Sex

♤Mick bottoms as usual ♡

♤ Pretty sure this is sex with no plot. It's just smut 🤷

**Border by @kodaswrld, I did repost it as well ♡**

You two shouldn't be doing this. At all. But him rising your cock was too good, even if you didn't imagine fucking him for the first time to be in yalls school bathroom.

Whatever. YOLO...right? This all started cause Mick drug your ass into a stall, honestly you assumed he was gonna beat your ass to hell. God, were you wrong. You clamped your hand over his mouth as he did yours, not wanting to get caught by anyone, let alone get indecent exposure on yalls records. You moaned softly against his hand as his other one dug his nails into your clothed shoulder. Based on his eyes, he was fuckong loving what he was getting done.

But don't think cause he was riding, meant he was top, he was only like this cause you told him thar you wanted to watch his face as he deteriorated in pleasure from your cock bullying his ass. Each movement was pushing you both closer and closer to the edge, and Mickey couldn't hold back any longer. He let out a stifled moan, his hand pressing harder over your mouth, biting into your hand, trying to keep himself from making too much noise.

Mickey could feel the heat building between you two, the intensity of sensation was overwhelming, and he knew he was getting close. He dug his nails into your shoulders, silently urging you to keep going, to take him over the edge. Thankfully, you could read ques. You took your hand out his mouth and grabbed his other hip, helping to give him some relief from being the one to move so much. Which rewarded you with a unbridled moan from him, his hips starting to move jerky and you could see how close he was.

Mick gripped your shoulders, probably biting his tounge so he didn't moan out anymore than he has. "Fuckin hell...im close." He ground out.

Mickey was getting lost in the sensations, feeling himself approaching the edge. He couldn't hold back anymore; he needed to release the pressure that was building up inside him.

"I'm gonna..."

He couldn't even finish the sentence, the words were lost in a shuddering moan. He bit down on his lip, his grip on your shoulders tightening as the waves of pleasure overtook.

Gladly, his undoing was yours and you filled him with hot come. Thank god yall didn't care about the condoms, honestly you reveled in the idea of him walking around with your cum leaking out the rest of the day.

Both of yalls' hearts were still racing, and Mick felt like his chest was going to explode. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this way, this vulnerable, this weak, but it was you, making him feel this way.

Mickey looked down at you, still catching his breath, his eyes roaming over your face, taking in your features, your flushed cheeks, the sweat on your forehead, the way your eyes were slightly glazed over with pleasure. He'd never felt this way before, and...he wasn't sure if he'd ever want it to end.

You smiled up at him, "So uh...want to come over for dinner?", already knowing he'd go back to being a brat.

"Fuck you. I ain't some bitch to prance around." Mickey huffed and you laughed "I just did fuck you.", kissing his forehead yall got cleaned up and dressed.

"Whatever. See you at six." He grunted before leaving you in the bathroom.

[o-uncle-newt]

THREE: it's just really good for mental health

I've been saying I'd post this and now that I have a nice long day with not much to do, I will- not that I haven't posted about this before. Honestly, one of the most important things to me about Cabin Pressure is that it has a power, shared with very few other things (among them incidentally are one or two key Double Acts), to make me smile/feel better about pretty much anything, no matter how dire, at least for half an hour- and with at least a bit of "afterglow" so to speak lol.

But I've written about it here, and here, and here and here... probably other places too. And I think the thing that impresses me the most is that, so often when I share this, I get loads of people telling me exactly the same thing. I don't know what it is exactly- is it just the comedy? The characters, who are over the top enough not to be IMMEDIATELY identifiable but still relatably human? The clever plots that you can get lost in? The heart and warmth and care? Probably a combination of all of these things.

You'll see some of the more specific examples of the above for me in the links in the prior paragraph, so I'll move on, possibly to a TMI extent, to a more specific thing, that might not surprise people- the impact of Arthur Shappey's Guide to Happiness on me. JF has said, I think, that it's a principle he genuinely holds by, and I know that lots of people agree that it's something that really hits you. And it really hit me too.

So I'll talk a bit about my own journey with it- shifting from being an Arthur to being a Martin (or trying to be). As in, this has concretely helped me become a happier/better person.

I am not exaggerating when I say that every therapist I've ever seen has heard of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore, and I'm pretty sure all of them have seen the above video from Fitton. Now, like a lot of other people, I really glommed on to the whole idea about how if you expect happiness to come from the big things then you'll end up disappointed when they don't measure up, so find smaller things that will give you smaller pockets of joy in your every day.

Without going into excessive detail, the last few years have been tough for me in some ways. At the time, I was in a terrible work environment that had serious ramifications for my personal life. And I kept on listening to that clip and being like "well yes I can make this better with self care" or whatever. And it did- I'd say it was more make this bearable but at the time that was still a lot.

At one point I was talking to my therapist and she was asking if I felt happy. And I said that on a day to day level I was enjoying myself (there were fun parts of my job, it was a larger situation that was the problem), but that I still often felt really miserable. She asked why and I thought about it and was like- I keep doing random little things but nothing is getting better. I'm still in the same situation I was last week, last month, and last year, and this is lulling me into complacency when the underlying root of the problem hasn't been fixed at all.

So my therapist asked me- what do you mean by complacency? Does that mean you're feeling better/happier than you have been? And I had to think about it but I could definitely say- yes, I was. I'd tried new foods, taken great trips, read interesting books, and had a lot of little pops of enjoyment. The difference was that now that wasn't enough anymore. Then my therapist asked me- "but don't you realize how huge that is? That you're past the hump where something small is the best you can hope for?" And she was right.

The way I think about it, that placement of the clip in Fitton, no matter what JF meant by putting it there and no matter whether he had anything that came later in mind when he did it, ended up just working beautifully. Like, it makes sense that this is coming from Arthur- he's the character who changes the least. He doesn't have to, much, and while I won't go so far as to say he doesn't have the capacity to, even if he did he has a lot of people who are protective of him because they don't think he has the capacity to. He enjoys his life. He doesn't really have any problems and the dreams that he sees as within his reach (aka, not being a "muppet baby pilot") are, for him, on par with the pleasure he gets from throwing an apple back and forth.

It's why Arthur is a great character- he's a reminder of something simpler in all of us. I don't think he's relatable at all, and that's a good thing- what we really love is the way Arthur makes us feel. He's so non-self-absorbed that in the few moments where his equanimity is shaken up, he's so thrown off kilter that we, who are more used to dealing with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, want to jump in front to protect him from them. We value the simplistic way in which he sees our goodness, because to us, things are more complicated.

But that complication is a good thing! That's what allows us to be more than and better than what we currently are, eventually. That can be really hard- especially when we're brought low, to take the work to improve things for ourselves can feel impossible. It can take love and support, it can take grit, and it can take an existing base of self-regard, but it can be done. Arthur may not need to, but we do.

At the same time, we learn something important from Arthur, and in particular Martin does in Fitton. (Douglas too, but with a different kind of application.) Martin thinks he's where he wants to be, but he KNOWS he isn't- he's not being paid, he's constantly bullying, and the facade he puts on is doing nothing to earn him the kind of respect that his essentially-purchased title should, in theory, entitle him to. To him, the way to get through it is to grit his teeth and keep on pretending, assume that if he carries on as he is (knowing that he's not good enough yet but still trying anyway) then he'll end up making it. But that just makes him more uptight and difficult, in the end.

What Arthur recognizes is that you DO need those little bits of happiness to make the big ones doable! If Martin is going to keep on trying for the big breaks, he'll inevitably fail at least some of the time (in his case, far more lol) and that will just dump him even farther down than he started. You start to curse the wind, because at a certain point you're trying to control forces that are uncontrollable and that will never guarantee happiness, just give you a potential chance at it. Once you've appreciated the smaller things that you CAN control, and you boost your mood and mentality that way, you start to recognize that maybe you can move past where you are. That you can get both the little things, the apple-tossing and singing, as well as the new big things you are striving for.

Arthur will never need to go past that first thing- the character as constructed has no interest in it. But as much as he doesn't understand the END of Martin's journey except when paraphrased for him in the terms of various movies (not all of which he actually understands), he understands the beginning more than Martin does- that he needs to have the small happinesses to build him up and make him be ready for whatever else comes his way.

Because here's the thing- if we all lived like Arthur, we'd never be with the loves of our lives in the moonlight, would we? We'd be worried it could go wrong or we wouldn't fully appreciate it, and anyway everyone would love us as much as we want to be loved already, and we'd be too busy soaking in the bath to care about the other thing. But the non-Arthurs of us are resilient enough to WANT the loves of our lives (well, on average- plenty of people don't but they wiil have their own equivalent bigger-picture and higher-stakes wants) and, as a result, to be willing to take the risk of it not being everything we immediately want it to be. But, if it's NOT what we want it to be, Arthur wisely knows that we need to make sure we have a cushion of smaller happinesses to fall back on in the meantime, to build us up until we can try again.

With credit to my therapist, I have to say that this reimagining of the Arthur/Martin paradigm and Martin's journey vs Arthur's stasis in Cabin Pressure has stayed with me- reminding me to give myself the smaller boosts I need as I take bigger leaps and really choose the goals that I care about. I'm in a different job that is a better situation, and while I still have plenty of problems, I've learned to find ways to balance them out with the smaller things that make life worth living as I try to overcome them more essentially and hopefully permanently. In the meanwhile, I have Arthur to help.

[the-weeping-dawn]

(questions from the Companion Tav ask game I reblogged from you) for Ilztun again!!

What sort of general actions raise or lower their approval?

Does your Tav have any escalating conflicts with one of the other companions, like Lae’zel and Shadowheart’s knife-fight?

Are there any unique NPCs associated with your Tav that can show up during the course of the game?

What sort of general actions raise or lower their approval?

Raise

Being a nosy shit about other people in the party since he can't himself anymore

He wants to know things. If you find yourself in a long dialogue and question chain, you're going to get the odd little approval through it. Like he doesn't want the necronomicon but he'll be disappointed if you don't at least go through the quest...He at least wants to see what it does.

Cats.

*gestures to the teif children* as a companion he's has at least one non-romanced ending where he adopts those little shits.

Lower

Trying to push into his business too quickly. From the wrong direction/without certain story prompts passive checks

He's generally against most evil route options, he can be talked into them, he'll argue it, but even as someone who can easily be pushed worse, he tends towards looking at bigger picture which honestly just comes into conflict with the game's evil route.

...Honestly I feel like he's got some wild player approval morality after a point, possibly takes being romanced but it's the fun thing about him generally being someone very used to doing as he's told by someone in his life, can fall into this pattern so easily when he's not forced out of it by narrative....

Do I just have a pile of exception cases for near every situation it just shows stronger in how he's less likely to disapprove of a player he mostly likes/trusts with it mainly being specific cases where he's going to say something? Quite possibly

That said he by default sides with the Emperor and regardless of above would need a lot to be talked out of that, and likely one of the opinions he can't have moved until end choices. I feel like this is going to end up being reflected most in lost approval so it goes here.

Completely shutting down considering tadpole.

He's going to have questions/concerns about drow and the absolute...he cannot be convinced out of these.

Does your Tav have any escalating conflicts with one of the other companions, like Lae’zel and Shadowheart’s knife-fight?

...Lae'zel I'm so sorry someone's getting into shit with you with the only peace you get being in act 2. He's a lot worse if she's siding with Orpheus, but he's gonna be on edge with her no matter what in act 3. That said, he's only avoiding getting into his own knife fight because he knows he cannot win and is probably on alert for him having been open about being very pro-killing people in their sleep at some point...

Are there any unique NPCs associated with your Tav that can show up during the course of the game?

The obvious is Sylfiel, friend he left menzo with and has been living with pre-game, who within fic I've been slowly working on is basically an additional party member upon she and Ilz reuniting in act 3, though she actually tends to be more main/Gale plot attached there, with Ilz as a companion I'm not even quite sure the role she'd end up playing while he's a companion. ...there's a second I could see showing up at Moonrise but again, he's a good lore source for both necromancy and illithid beyond just reading every single book you can touch. I'm not sure.

[professorhayforbreath]

so episode 5. all my thoughts

we picked up where the last one left off, good start

annabeth saying she knows percy isn't dead... how. to annabeth and grover there should have been no way percy was alive and finding out he was should've been so emotional but instead she was like dw i know he's not dead lol. it's kind of... lazy writing? like how are you gonna write a scene as gut wrenching as percy trapping himself with a monster and telling his friends to complete the quest without him because he's actively dying and has no reason to believe he'll survive, and then make the fallout of that so... nonchalant? idk if it's a time limit thing but that was so underwhelming to me

annabeth being the one to see the fates... no

fugitive percy enjoyers at least we won!!!!

the trio peeking over the road barrier at ares was cute goofy silly i liked that :)

gabe on the news shit talking percy i'm hooting and hollering!! "i really-- WE really loved that car" and "i'm gonna kill him". excellent. now put percy on the news fake crying about his "loving" stepfather i believe in you

i did want them to acknowledge annabeth's lack of experience with the world outside camp but having her say "i've never seen any kind of movie" has gotta be one of the weirdest ways they could've done that

the turnstile scene was cool i guess but as we go on i'm more and more conscious of how many episodes are left and how much plot there is to get through and idk i feel like this scene could've hit the cutting room floor and we wouldn't have lost anything

i do love the ambience of the park though. maybe i'm easy to impress because the aesthetic of an abandoned amusement park is just fantastic on its own but the set was very cool. wish it wasn't so dark so i could've actually seen it ❤️

percy and annabeth having a serious conversation with 'what is love' blaring in the background is sending me

first ever seaweed brain dropped! i liked the way they did it, it felt natural

actually back to the "i've never seen a movie" thing. you're telling me that in this version of the story, in which frederick chase was apparently a great dad who treated annabeth like a gift, he never took her to the movies? or she never watched one on tv? she had a whole seven years of life in the real world before going to camp and she's never seen a movie

annabeth isn't allowed to have fears she's too smart for that apparently

i think the scene with the chair was overall well executed with some great lines and fantastic acting but... idk. they really scrapped the original scene just to do what they already did last episode. i miss the spiders i miss hephaestus tv. it felt redundant to have percy sacrifice himself again. percy this is the second time today you've been like "no dw i'll just die" do you need to talk to someone

annabeth disillusionment arc complete already? calm down guys this is season one

ZOO TRUCK ZOO TRUCK ZOO TR

so it's confirmed the reason they go into the lotus casino is BECAUSE hermes is there :/ they said these literal children cannot fall for tricks and traps it's too unrealistic

not much to say about the grover and ares scenes bc i don't know what to make of them. i didn't mind them. ares had some funny lines. i guess my only complaint is that the grover i know would not have been so calm talking to the god of war. i'm curious to see where that cliffhanger leads

is it just me or did the pacing improve a little bit this episode?

despite how negative i sound i enjoyed episode 5 a lot more than episode 4. there are still so many weird changes, additions, and omissions though. honestly i think a big part of the reason i enjoyed this one is because i'm not expecting anything anymore. i'm not getting my hopes up about them adapting the book normally i'm just intrigued by this thing like a scientist observing an experiment. like hmm what are they doing now? fascinating *takes notes*

[smosh-fessions]

There's something I gotta confess:

I hate this fandom as a whole. When I got into it a little over a year ago it was fun and fresh but it's devolved into this mess of I don't even know what to call it. Smoshtwt is hateful and smoshblr is just annoying and I even stopped watching for a while because just wasn't fun anymore. I've gotten back into it again but I just don't feel the same way about it like I did last year. And it's especially the people that are mean to be mean. Valid criticism is fine but when you start to attack looks it's just like we lost the plot somewhere. I rarely interact on here anymore but like there's no other place to talk about Smosh and how much I love it so it's yeahh...

There is a startling amount of attacking people based on appearance here that I've never quite experienced anywhere but high school. It was a shock for me to walk into, honestly.

Twitter is just... Everything it touches gets kind of rotted. It's not a good place to go for fun anymore for anything.

[werrrrrd]

CHARLES XAVIER X READER/OC pt.1

SUMMARY: May is a Mutant. She wishes she wasnt. She has the ability to control blood and after showing signs of aggression and poor control of her powers, her parents put her through treatment at an institution run by Doctor Shmidt. After going through horrendous things at the mutation corrective institution, she is forced to stay with Shaw, the man who put her through those things in the first place. Working with Shaw she explores the many things her powers allow her to do in mostly uncomfortable ways. She runs into Charles Xavier while his team tries to capture and detain Shaw and they have a stand off between the mutants on both sides. Charles and May have an immediate connection that neither can explain and try reason with themselves while also trying to find a way to be near each other. Despite the things that May has experienced and the punishment she will receive if she is caught, all she wants to do is help Charles. With so much happening, May isnt sure how this is going to work or if she can build up the courage to completely severe connections from Shaw to be with Charles

WARNINGS: shock therapy, manipulation, death, suicide, surgery is mentioned including an undetailed description, slight malnutrition, forcive murder, abuse of authority, blood, lots of blood since this is like her power, anger issues, aggression, mentions of murder as well as the actual murder, mind reading, OC is not very kind to herself, let me know if you notice any others. No sexual assault but definitely Shaw being creepy.

AN: First off, this story is VERY loosely based on x men first class and the happenings in that movie. I really don't regard what happens in the actual story line or the accuracy of setting or characters just because I felt like focusing on the romance plot line between May and Charles. I'm guessing you already know what the movie's plot is and you don't want to read another story that just follows along those exact lines. I hope that this doesn't bother anyone. Second, this story has a very long prologue. I wanted to give the character more backstory so that she could be better explained and her behaviors and tendencies made more sense to y'all. I hope that this does not discourage you from reading cause she's pretty cool. Of course you could skip the prologues and read the part where she actually interacts with Charles if you'd like but the prologue helps enrich the story so I hope you do read it. My OCs name is May but of course you could read it as a reader insert if you like, I didn't really describe her too much so this wouldn't be too hard to do. I honestly didn't put too much effort into writing it because I wanted to get it all out before I lost motivation. If you notice spell issues or parts that don't make sense feel free to let me know but most likely I will not be doing anything about it. Bear with me, there are plot points that don't really connect but please ignore because like I said if i don't get this out like RIGHT NOW, I will lose interest and ill have this whole thing that doesn't have an ending and that makes me sad. ANNEEYYWAYYS Tehe! Please enjoy

PROLOGUE I

I grew up in a home that didn't blame me for my mutation. It wasn't my fault that I was the way I was. My parents loved me but that doesn't mean they fully accepted who I was. They said that there was a perfectly good girl just waiting to be cured of my mutation. I fully believed the same. I was sick and the only thing that would make me better was to get rid of the mutation. They didn't really try any treatments until I began losing control. Whenever my sisters would tease me about my mutation I could feel the fury growing. Soon enough I couldn't take it anymore and would use my abilities to make them stop talking. The first time I ever did it my oldest sister Maxine was poking and prodding me

"Mom wishes you were normal, she's embarrassed because you're a freak," she whispered in my ear while we sat together eating breakfast. She was young and didn't really mean it. But I was young and I didn't know that yet.

 In the middle of her next sentence she felt her jaw clamp shut and her voice stop suddenly. Something she had not done herself. Full of fear she burst into tears and ran to my mother. I used my powers to keep her mouth shut but they must have understood what was happening. Soon my mom came into the room with my sister behind her. My mom raised her hand and slapped me, tears springing to my eyes.

"You know better! If you let your disease control you then you will never be fixed!!" She screamed at me. "Now let your sister speak." She pulled Max up towards me. Her eyes were wide and scared but she also looked satisfied. She had pushed me to do what would get me in trouble.

 Serves her right. I thought, my anger still prominent. Hot tears left my eyes as I let her move her mouth again. It fell open and she whimpered and put her hands on her jaw 

"That hurt!" She cried and then pushed my back against the dinner table, before going to my mother who wrapped her arms defensively around Max. 

"Your deformity is hurting your family," my mother said to me. I could feel my face heat up in embarrassment and I ran to my room crying, wishing I was normal like the rest of my sisters. 

After that and a couple other instances where I couldn't control my temper my parents enrolled me in experimental mutation elimination programs. This is where I met Shaw, or Doctor Schmidt. And where I met Louise. 

My parents dropped me off at the White hospital looking building that was only one floor but seemed to wind around like a maze on the inside. I said a quick goodbye to my sisters before they rushed me into the care of the doctors and scientists there. They seemed a little relieved to be rid of me but I told myself that it wasn't true.

"Meet Louise, your roommate. Please let me know if you need anything at all, girls." The woman left the room, shutting the door carefully. 

"Hey, call me Lou," she said, holding out her hand. 

"May," I took her hand "nice to meet you" 

"What's your mutation?" She asked as I walked to set my bag down on the small wooden chair in the corner of the room. 

"Oh umm, I can control blood in a few different ways." I said 

"Like what?" She said, I explained to her that I could control people's body's by moving the blood inside them.

"Wow, promise you'll never use that on me. That's an ugly mutation." She told me 

"I know. I won't."

"Not as ugly as mine." She pointed to her face. It was littered with thick black stripes which I saw were on her hands and arms as well. 

"What can you do?" I asked carefully 

"Watch," she said. I looked around nervously. We weren't supposed to show our mutations to anyone. Or use them at all. But I watched as she bent and twisted into the most beautiful red and orange tiger I had ever seen. Her black stripes matched the ones that were on her human form. I blinked and in just a moment she had already changed back. 

"Wow," I whispered. 

"My mom thought I had been eaten by a tiger when she first saw me like that. It was only after she called animal control that I had changed back. Back then I hadn't started showing my stripes, kinda like baby tigers don't. Anyways after they got dark my mom couldn't hide my mutation anymore. We've tried a hundred different treatments to get rid of it."

"Nothing worked?" I asked 

"Nothing." She said. In her eyes I could see the exhaustion. "my mom doesn't even look at me anymore, my dad left the moment my stripes showed." 

I swallowed. "Maybe this time it'll work and we can be normal." I said. 

"I hope so." She whispered hopefully. 

Soon after this me and Lou became like sisters. She understood me. She never teased me for my mutation even though we both wanted to cure ourselves of them. We laughed till our ribs hurt in bed while everyone else slept. For the first week we only got to know the scientists and doctors working there. Shaw being the head of planning, I didn't see him much back then. The scientists were mostly nice to us. It seemed they wanted to help us just as much as we wanted to be fixed.

After that we began shock treatments. 

"May, please put your hands flat out on the table in front of you." I heard through the intercom. I did so avoiding the wires and straps that were attached to my body and temples. A man sat in front of me with his hands flat on the table like mine. He stared at me in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. 

"Jared, begin" the voice said.

The man across from me began tapping his pointer finger on the metal desk. 

"May, all we need you to do is use your mutation to stop his fingers."

"What?" I asked "I thought I wasn't supposed to use it" confusion fizzled in my head and I looked at the mirror to my right. 

"Please may, all you need to do is use your mutation and we will use the shocks to train it out of your body."

"Will it hurt?" I was scared. 

"..." There was a long pause before "if we want it to work, then it must." 

I took a deep breath before looking back at the man in front of me, his eyes were full of hatred. 

"Please begin." The voice insisted. 

I took another breath before using my hands to stop the blood in his hands. Fear flashes in his eyes as his fingers stop tapping. He glanced between me and his fingers. His fingers twitching slightly as he tried to resist my control.

Suddenly a jolting shock shook me out of my focus. Pain shot through me like a wave. I squirmed in my chair and my hips lifted from the seat to try and get the shock out of me. I whimpered loudly and my eyes screwed shut. It lasted only a few seconds though.

When it stopped I looked up panting at the man in front of me. His face was turned into a sick smile and his finger was tapping again. 

The voice returned, "Please go again."

[yakuzabrainrotlive]

I have started Like A Dragon! I've actually already made it to chapter 5.

Why hadn't I made a post already, then?

Well, there's no sugar-coated way to put this so... let's just rip off the bandaid now.

I haven't really enjoyed myself playing this game this far. Yet. Maybe I will at some point. But for now I honestly just haven't had much to say in terms of what's happened in the plot besides the beginning. I don't hate the game, it's just that it hasn't been able to really hook me in yet.

I'll keep going since I've heard this game is one of the generally more loved ones in the franchise. And I know RGG loves its slow burn.

I hate to be a Negative Nancy, but I wanna be totally honest. I doubt y'all would want me to lie about how I feel about the game.

More about all that right at the end of the post. I will list my positives and negatives when it comes to this game (and talk about the battle system) down there.

I know this type of thing is common in RPGs, but I like it all the same. Neat little game mechanic. There's quite a few different ones here, but it's cool.

An interesting background for a main character. Yeah, being an orphan is more than common. But being raised by the employess in a soapland and the townsfolk around him? That's really out there - in a good way.

This was very sad. Ichi lost 15 years of his life to the joint and got nothing in return. The shock and disappointment on his face when he was released and there was just. No one waiting for him.

And after that, all that awaited him was just... betrayal. That's just brutal. I fully understand why Ichiban went into Total Denial Mode for a while; it must have been a totally incomprehensible and shocking situation.

-He got out of prison after 15 years and where he expected to find his family waiting for him, he found nobody. AND he suddenly had the freedom of choosing what to do, when to do it and where to go after 15 years. That can be scary.

-He witnessed how much the world and general society had changed in his absence and probably felt very confused.

-He saw his home totally wrecked and abandoned.

And now his mentor and beloved patriarch, the one who saved his life. The man he would have happily been ready to die for at any moment. That man had changed completely and acted like he didn't know Ichiban.

Yeah... the denial, frustration and desperation are totally valid.

Oh dear. Well, Kiryu wasn't there anymore, the Tojo upper brass kept changing and there was constant conflict within the clan itself. It was just a matter of time before Omi would take advantage of the situation.

I hope Majima and Daigo are okay. Or at least alive ;-;

*Faint sounds of Majima cackling in the distance*

Oops. Majima better hope Ichi doesn't find out who the driver was lmao. I feel bad for Ichiban, but I also love how this single random idea of Majima's still has these consequences that are brought up, even after all this time.

God bless Nanba. He's a sweetheart. That's all I can say about him. I also kinda like Adachi. I'm not attached to these side characters yet, but they're neat. I think they'll grow on me eventually, it's just that I tend to be slow when it comes to becoming attached to new characters.

Legends say that if you pull this bat out, Shinada will appear in front of you and ask for some money....

I did play through the whole soapland thing and then some. I don't have much to say 😭. We do have a woman fighting with us, finally after all this time! #Girlboss

I would honestly happily die for Nancy. No questions asked.

OKAY UHH POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES.

Positives:

-Ichiban

-Interesting premise

-The different jobs satisfy my hyper-optimizing, excel-sheet-making, micromanaging self

-Funny enemy titles like "Piss Wizard"

-Free full heal spots my beloveds❤️

-Voice acting (in the Japanese dub at least) is excellent

-Substories have been fun!

Negatives:

-EXP yield is... not optimal; grinding takes FOREVER unless you go fight higher-level people than yourself, but then the battles can take ages. Job exp grinding especially feels about as pleasant as pulling teeth.

Am I supposed to grind in this game?? I've started to wonder about that since it's such a slow process. I have absolutely no idea. Have I missed a thing that helps exp gain??

-Unless you get lucky with the ability to find treasure, money yield can be tight at times, too. Which is rough, considering the cost of gear with 4 team members (and probably backup members later).

-The premise is cool, but the stuff I've played through in terms of the plot after leaving Kamurocho hasn't been very interesting to me this far (early-to-mid chapter 5) :/

-Substories don't give you EXP 😭

How about the elephant in the room - the battle system?

Well. I'll come out with it straight away; I'm very, VERY picky when it comes to turn-based combat. Shin Megami Tensei and Persona have unfortunately spoiled me too much, so this game had some unfairly MASSIVE boots to fill. And it didn't quite fill them. My bar is way too high and I acknowledge that 100%.

I get that they didn't want to make the system completely "passive" by just having to select moves and it all going smoothly from here. But I dislike the timing-based quick time stuff in the middle of attacks and perfect guard. I can pull off the attack dmg boost thing most of the time, but perfect guard is just... it feels way more difficult to pull off than Tiger Drop in any previous game. It's very frustrating. I frankly feel stupid, having this difficult a time with it.

Grinding is further hindered by spread moves being kind of unreliable - if the enemies are spread out, you're only hitting a single foe. For now. Maybe there will be better moves later on.

Idk if it's just me, but characters' MP pools feel very limited compared to the cost of the moves combined with how little damage you do at times? Maybe it's just the fact that I'm in the earlier parts of the game, but I feel like I have to be replenishing MP constantly.

I like how all the different types of gear can have additional special effects. It's neat.

All in all the battle system feels... very laborius. I can work with it! Absolutely. I'm just not the biggest fan.

God, I wish I could just gush about this game and sing its praises, but that's not happening yet by a long shot. This far? Maybe a 6-6.5/10. I hope my opinion changes for the better as I progress; I really wanna love it as much as other fans seem to.

[scentedsstuff]

We Free the Stars

By Hafsah Faizal

Rating: 2.5/5⭐️

The sequel to ‘We Hunt the Flame,’ a book which I have raved over and easily rated 5 stars was always going to have a lot to live up to, and the sequel, whilst enjoyable simply couldn’t do that.

Spoiler alert for any readers who have yet to read this and are meaning to, I will be discussing specific scenes and details within the books so beware.

Quick Plot Summary:

The Zumra have made it out of Sharr but the battle is far from over. Though Altair has been captured, time is of the essence and so Zafira, Nasir and Kifah must make their way to Sultan's keep if they wish to save not only their friend but their people.

With the stakes so high and an inevitable confrontation with the Lion looming near, Zafira and Nasir have to deal with far more than just personal trials and trepidations.

Thoughts:

Yes, we have our main band of characters whom I adore, and we've got a mission that has since expanded since the first book, but along the way it all became too much.

What I mean specifically is that there was so much happening in the book at the same time that I felt the plot was lost at times. The author dwelt on certain parts of the book more than needed and this was done multiple times which made it feel as though the book was dragging on, especially in the first half of the book.

All the drama and overall commotion seemed to overshadow certain revelations and plot twists. At some point I stopped caring and was just watching it all unfold. I still cared about the main band of characters, Zafira, Nasir, Kifah and Altair and side characters such as Yasmeen and Lana, but best believe when other names, characters and situations were being introduced I was not trying to retain any of that information anymore.

The romance: do I still enjoy the pair? yes, yes I do. My annoyance with them was the fact that it seemed like their problems were so repetitive and being dragged on for much longer than it needed to be (in my opinion). The book is already lengthy, and had so much going on, adding this onto it didn't help.

Another part of the book I just couldn't get into for some reason: Altair and his temporary villain streak. I don't know, I just couldn't buy into it, the whole time I was like 'ok do what you gotta do I guess, but he's probably going to go back to the Zumra by the end of this so....." Even with the whole "plot twist" of Aya betraying the gang, especially with her being Benyamin's wife and all, we had just met her in this second book so I honestly didn't care. In my mind all I'm thinking is 'man I feel kinda bad for Benyamin.' I didn't care that she did this due to her own personal pain, or that she still loved Altair or that Altair still loved her, there was not a single fiber of my being that cared for this plotline.

Nasir and Zafira are at odds for a good portion of the book whether its jealousy or unresolved feelings or fears. I would've cared more but again, so much was already going on. There is more time given to Lana (Zafira's younger sister) and her understanding of her gifts and talents and where she finds herself in the world. Through Altair's time with the Lion (who he's since found out is his father) we get a glimpse into his past, backstory and overall driving motivations. We get a glimpse into Altair and Aya (Benyamin's wife) and their whole situation/doomed lover's tale. The sultan (Nasir's father) is a reoccurring character and has moments where he is so petty (which at times entertained me because he was stirring up drama) but this ultimately sets up future reveals. Nasir's mother pops up again. Kifah's former troop makes an appearance and gets her thinking about her past and how that affects where she'll go from here. And so much more which I've probably failed to mention.

But it's all so much, and this is only the final book in this duology. To each their own, but overall, I was disappointed with this book. The concluding chapters were very sweet and there were moments found within the book that I genuinely enjoyed but not enough to warrant anything above 2.5 stars.

[thrilling-oneway]

Idk why but it feels like they’re dropping the ball with everything tsukasa related recently. Do they just not know what to do with him anymore?

Nah, I think the previous Tsukasa event was really good, I think this time they just. Needed an event here and he was the only viable option. They're doing two events for every troupe and Nene is obviously gonna be the opera house and they're clearly planning something with Rui too so yeah. Tsukasa. Honestly I think this event could have been really good for him if the writing was better.

Like. They say in i think it was chapter 1 that he needs to learn to act physically in character. Like sure he can run around and do stunts and swordfight but can he do all of that as someone else? It's a pretty interesting thing to look at. Only they rely heavily on plot convenience to show his development. Like they bring up core strength (this is consistent with past stories) and flexibility (this is not consistent at all) as things he needs to work on, then drop these in favour of parkour and how fast he can run?? I understand that the parkour was smth he needed to do for a show, but couldn't do so he was disatisfied with his performance. That's totally in-character and makes even more sense when you read his card story and realise he already lost out on the lead role (shaking colopale WHY DID YOU LEAVE THAT IN THE CARD STORY). But the running is literally Not Relevant at all and only exists as a conflict for plot convenience with the plot device thief charatcer.

The issue is that the thief thing is too... Plot device-y. Yeah yeah wxs typical funny shenanigans but ultimately Tsukasa doesn't really learn much because while he learns the stunt in the end it just... Is completely disconnected from his acting. He improves the running and the parkour but does it as himself, and while the people mistake it for being part of the show and he has to improv, this is after he did all that. So he didn't learn how to do physical theatre in-character... And if the writers decided that it was in-character for the role, Tsukasa has gone back to acting characters similar to himself so again not really learning anything new. There's a really good scene with Daigo in chapter 5 or 6 where he talks about how he figuratively hit a wall and that was kinda the highlight of the event for me (aside from emunene crumbs in Nene's card story lol, and this one shoutout to how much Tsukasa trusts his friends in ch7).

Also they completely forget the thief as soon he's caught lol. Turns out he was a kleptomaniac ex-troupe member but they literally don't bring it up until partway through chapter in in a scene that quite literally begins with "So did you find out who the thief was?". Or something along those lines I'm paraphrasing. It wasn't good asfhsgsdjsjks

I think they do know what they're doing with Tsukasa and what I have read of Star of the Story makes it pretty clear. Tsukasa's current thing is improving in different aspects, like playing smaller roles like in SotS (which he still needs to work on iirc), but it felt like they didn't really know what to do with this event specifically, well they did they just executed it badly and used plot convenience so it could even happen. Oh well maybe this will play into a future Rui event somehow considering he was the one who said he thought Tsukasa needed to work on his core strength for stunts like. Ages ago. Not that Tsukasa worked on his core in this event but WHATEVER I NEED TO STOP COMPLAINING.

Tsukasa6 will probably be in the next wxs arc so they'll probably be back to more relevant stuff for then. Especially since that arc will probably be the "Rui and Tsukasa realise they are going to graduate high school soon and Tsukasa has mentioned multiple times in supplementary materials that he wants to go abroad at some point and they kinda need to work out what they're gonna do and how this will affect wxs" arc (or as I've been calling it: wxs disbandment arc 2 <peggle 2 gif attachment>). So that's fun. But yeah I think they know what they're doing they just needed to pad for time here so Daigo's troupe got two events.