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best-underrated-anime · 10 months ago

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Best Underrated Anime Group C Round 3: #C8 vs #C2

#C8: Government employee and his white cat boss

#C2: High social anxiety girl has to befriend her whole class

Details and poll under the cut!

*Text in green indicates that something has been changed.

#C8: White Cat Legend 2020 (Dali si Rizhi)

youtube

Summary:

Chen Shi, a young man from the countryside, journeys to the capital in search of his missing older brother, whose existence he only knew about upon his mother’s death. He knows neither the name nor face of his brother, and after finally arriving at the capital, he runs out of money as well. One thing led to another, and he finds himself employed at Dali Court, where he works for Vice Minister Li Bing, a large white cat.

On the other hand, Li Bing is of royal blood who was imprisoned because of his family’s treason. Now, he has to work in the government to atone for the crime.

At Dali Court, they review court cases from all over the country. But when an incident involving the esteemed ministers of the royal court breaks out, Dali Court is called to help, only to find themselves entangled in political threads and hit heads with an eccentric demon.

Li Bing is determined to get to the bottom of this, but how far can he go when he could regress into a real cat at any time when left unchecked?

Propaganda:

I’m tired of writing new propaganda every round, so I’m begging you to just trust me that it’s GREAT.

Intriguing plot? Check. Complex and interesting characters? Check. Comedy? Check. Drama? Check.

The blend of comedy and drama is just so good. I started the show because I love cats and supernatural stuff. Who would’ve thought it would pull me into an abyss of despair of political intrigue. The cat demons turned out to be just the icing on the cake.

We have all these different characters brought up in different ways that their ideas of what is Right conflict with each other. None of them are exactly Wrong or inherently Evil (well, except for maybe one guy), and this makes it so much more difficult to choose who to root for. You’d think everyone against the protagonists are the Enemies, but turns out even the protagonists are limited by their biases and unintentionally harm others. Even the two protagonists themselves get into arguments because of their different standpoints.

And I just love this because it makes them realistic, you know? The characters don’t always agree with their friends, and their enemies are not completely hostile either. It really all boils down to what they believe in. Sometimes their beliefs align with existing comrades, and sometimes they find it on the other side.

Production-wise, this show also gets a check on everything. As an adaptation, it’s amazing. The original manhua has quite a simple style—kind of like comic book drawings, and panels are all rectangles in one straight line. Storytelling is also simple and straight to the point.

But the 2020 donghua? God, it went far and beyond that. The animation team does not cut corners at all, which is a feat considering the show has a low budget from what I’ve heard.

A short, simple scene in the manhua becomes an emotionally-devastating experience in the donghua. The animation choices, angles, music, and just everything else blend so well to deliver a STORY. This adaptation does not just copy frames from the source (like Blue Lock) or cut/reorder some of the scenes (like Horimiya and Sasaki to Miyano). White Cat Legend 2020 understands the material so well that it can creatively use the advantages of the animation medium to deliver an experience that exceeds even that of the source. Think Mob Pyscho 100 or One Punch Man s1 level of creativity. It even has mini stories at the end of the ending song. For s1, the mini stories are in stop-motion, while for s2 it’s formatted like a video game. You gotta appreciate the effort.

Please just vote for this show. It deserves to be in the Finals.

Trigger Warnings:

Cannibalism - There’s a cat demon who appears in human form, and he eats humans (it’s not shown explicitly, though).

Animal Cruelty or Death - said cat demon also eats animals raw (again, not explicitly)

Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore - There’s blood and fighting, and somebody also gets tortured in season 2. But again, nothing too graphic

#C2: Hitori Bocchi’s ○○ Lifestyle (HitoriBocchi no MaruMaru Seikatsu)

youtube

Summary:

Many of us know what it is like to transition to a new school with few to no friends in a new environment, going through the arduous process of getting to know people again. Bocchi Hitori knows this struggle all too well, having just graduated from elementary school and thrown into middle school. Unfortunately, she suffers from extreme social anxiety: she faints when overwhelmed, vomits when nervous, and draws up ridiculously convoluted plans to avoid social contact. It does not help that her only friend from elementary school, Kai Yawara, will not be attending the same middle school as Bocchi. However, wanting to help her, Kai severs ties with Bocchi and promises to reconcile with her when she befriends all of her classmates in her new middle school class.

Even though Bocchi has no faith in herself, she is determined to be friends with Kai again. Summoning all of her courage, Bocchi takes on the daunting challenge of making friends with her entire class, starting with the delinquent-looking girl sitting in front of her…

Propaganda:

This is a fun and lighthearted show. Watch it if you need something cute to chill out! The art is cute and colorful, the music lively, and the animation fine enough.

As it's adapted from a four-panel gag manga, the story is simple and focuses on the various characters. They all have pun-based names related to their main personality trait, so they're easy to remember if you know some basic Japanese (Hitori Bocchi means all alone, for example). The girls are all adorable and fun in their own quirky ways, and I loved seeing the heroine doing her utmost best to overcome her fears -and other challenges- to befriend them in the hope of fulfilling her promise. That's the power of the Do-Your-Best Fairy! They all care for each other (despite some teasing) and help Bocchi with her monumental task, never pulling her down for her struggles but gently pushing her in the back when needed.

But most importantly, Hitori Bocchi is a very relatable character. As someone suffering the same trouble, I related a lot with Bocchi, from her silliest worries to her escalating panic and weird schemes in an attempt to prevent anything wrong. Anxiety is faithfully represented, mixed with the right amount of laughing to how far Bocchi can get to avoid fearful situations in her very cute ways. It feels good to see a character like me in a such positive light! The struggles are real and acknowledged, and it’s really moving to see our heroine overcome them little by little in a very humanizing way.

This series has become one of my comfort materials, and I come back to it when I need hope and inspiration in everyday social interactions! If you need one last thing to be convinced, listen to that most adorable and silly song that will give you the Power of Motivation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGoGwlNmZUQ

Trigger Warnings: None.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

#anime #donghua #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #group stage #group stage round 3 #tournament polls #group c #white cat legend #大理寺日志 #dali si rizhi #da li si ri zhi #hitori bocchi’s lifestyle #hitori bocchi no marumaru seikatsu #hitoribocchi no marumaru seikatsu

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uroboros-if · 1 year ago

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Do you have/plan on making a Patreon or Ko-Fi?:)

Hi! I originally answered this post here!

I was uncertain because of the reasons outlined, but I decided I'd be open to the idea if I can donate 80% of what I make from Patreon/Ko-Fi towards charities/causes that I care about! The rest would go towards buying coffee outside once a month for myself, provided there is enough!

So I'm using this ask to pitch myself! Some ideas that are unlikely to hinder progress on writing:

Answering questions and scenarios similar to Tumblr, but with higher priority

Name/alias included in the credits inside of the game and on the itch.io page

Writing letters to ROs/parents/side characters, in the voice of your MC or as yourself, which will be answered monthly! (Just like poor mail service in historical times.)

Polling and suggestions for including content within the game; significant but would not compromise the story, like additional customization options

Blurbs, sneak peeks, and art commission work-in-progresses

Early access to future chapters, so the order of release would go supporters -> feedback form -> public

Probably just any silly things I create, like quizzes or short IFs for special occasions, but they'll be publicly released eventually!

Some extremely tentative ones, as I prioritize writing progress on the actual IF and its integrity:

Limited slots to create a minor deity within the game (but we will have to work closely, as I'm treating all characters with care!)

Personalized monthly short stories for a certain level of support (minimum 500 words, but again, I'll probably not include this until I'm confident I can write the actual IF consistently!)

This would still support me as this is what I would like my money to go towards, with my charities of choice likely being related to LGBT+, environmental justice, and poverty. However, I'll try to diversify this and even let others decide what I should donate to, provided they are well-trusted! I will also provide receipts or proof of these donations.

... I don't know if anyone would be interested, though, or if this is a good idea! If you guys like the idea, and it doesn't matter if you can/want to actually support me, then vote on the poll below! (If not, then obviously feel free to abstain!)

#uroboros-if #uroboros #asks #anon #patreon #kofi #will rb again at night for feedback 💕

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spyroid101 · 1 year ago

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may I ask if any of the demons have specific romantic preferences? I imagine most of them don't/don't care for parings at all but I'm actually very curious. I'm assuming parings like banbalena and banban were only because the summoners wanted to pair them, but It would be interesting to see if any of the demons actually have thought about and considered being in an actual relationship with another demon (or maybe even a human??? Not sure how that would go over, but it doesnt seem like all of them want to rip you into tiny bits so maybe?)

In world lore general? Oh, yes! Sapient Demons and Angels are fully capable of falling in love and forming relationships, among their own kind or others, along with some that just prefer to indulge their needs in casual flings.

Just in general long term relationships with Earthbornes is... kinda a dicey subject, since there's a 99.99% chance said Demon or Angel is gonna outlive that Earthborne... but hey, if one wants put up with a Long Distance Relationship on steroids that can only end in tragedy, there's no law saying they CAN'T, so long as they're still doing their job.

Now, in specifics...

-Characters I'm not touching on this subject with a 50 foot poll-

Jumbo Josh- Is a child. (What? You thought an ADULT Behemoth would fit inside a school building? OH, SWEET SUMMER CHILD)

The Naughty Ones- Are also children.

Castor (The name I'm going with unless they give the Opila chick a name in 4)- While their True Form is an adult, by contract, right now, they are reverted to both being physically and mentally a child, so I'm not gonna be opening that can of worms.

Tamataki & Chamataki- Not a sapient species.

ANYWHO! Besides those:

The Jester is bound to Queen Bouncelia. It is...absolutely NOT a healthy relationship...

Tarta and Opila by chance do happen to know each other from before getting summoned up. Their relationship is... complicated? Best way to describe it is "rival married".

Z̵̮̋ò̷̻l̶̬̿p̴͖̈h̴͉̾ï̷̩u̷͕͂s̸̙̅ ̶̞͐h̶̘̕a̷̽ͅs̵̘͊ ̵̙͋a̶̘͌ ̷̨̈́w̷͓͌i̸̠͐f̸̻͝e̷̹͐.̸̣̒

And indeed, Banban and Banbaleena are only "Together" in the in-universe made up mascot lore of the school, in reality she H A T E S him, and he's TERRIFIED of her.

On his own, though, Banban's been in a few relationships with humans in his lifetime as a Baphomet. Just a handful, though. That whole inevitable outcome of "You're gonna outlive them by a LONG SHOT" thing... hits him pretty hard when it does happen...

Banbaleena has no interest in romance outside of using it for manipulation to get what she wants, which absolutely is not limited to just other demons. The bonus of toying with Earthborne sinners is that they sometimes get so desperate with their short lives, that they'll literally sign a contract allowing her to crush their spirits and kill them at the end of it, after all~

Nabnab's fully Aro/Ace. His love is delicious delicious food~ (AKA bones of beings that are still alive)

Nabnaleena's solely interested in other demons in terms of relationships... and that usually doesn't last very long, since... she also very much loves food... and will happily see said relationship partner as 'food' before 'partner'.

The Fiddles are all a small part of a polycule that 99.98% of all Nightmares alive are in. Only Lucifer knows HOW that even managed to happen/keep happening, but no one questions it. Sometimes sleeping humans and other beings get pulled along with the ride for a bit. They're all very chill and free flowing about things, like the very flow of dreams themselves.

Flynn's open to relationships, Demon, Angel, and Human alike! ...Just the bar he has is set SO HIGH, the amount he's ever had happen are few and far between... And the few humans that have managed to catch interest ended up doing something stupid dangerous out at sea and dying as a result...

Seline's also open to relationships, just hasn't found the right one yet. Unfortunately, after all this, her considering humans with that is... unlikely, to say the least...

#garten of banban #garten of banban au #Hortus infernal #garten of banban rewrite

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sillylotrpolls · 5 months ago

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Well, this got popular. XD Lots of interesting things to say about this poll, so buckle in for a longer-than-usual results post.

Character Trends

Much as I want to properly analyze all the notes and make a lovely spreadsheet so I can see exactly how many of you monsterfuckers picked "fuck" for the Watcher in the Water, I am unfortunately constrained by personal limitations (a job, thyroid issues, re-reading all of One Piece, etc). Still, there were noticeable trends.

Many people judged on names alone. This did not work out well for Shagrat, but actually is in keeping with Tolkien's whole linguistics thing. Come to think of it, naming a baby elf must be absolutely agonizing. No wonder Elrond just gave up and named one of his kids "Elf-man."

On the other hand, even though many of the names were unknown to spinners, quite a few people looked up their character before choosing and wrote about their journey of discovery in the notes. This made me very happy. ♥

If you got a "good" character with whom sex would be dubious (an ent, the bird), you almost certainly picked "marry" and then commented about the wonderful new mode of transportation available to you.

If you got Merry, you almost certainly made a "marry Merry" joke. As it happens, there is a song about this.

The phrase "lavender marriage" is much better known on tumblr than I thought, and for some reason was used almost exclusively to describe an arrangement with Bilbo.

Many, many people were concerned about breaking up canonical relationships. I knew enough to specify in the notes not to worry about LaCE; it did not occur to me to explain that FMK is simply a game about how shaggable you find other people played when you don't feel like truth or dare.

Speaking of, quite a few people also upset there was no "just friends" option. It's FMK. "Friends" is literally never an option (especially because the game is usually about three people of the opposite sex; heaven forfend you do something so unmanly as suggest friendship with a woman) (no I do not wish to get into the heteronormativity of FMK at this time).

If you killed the Witch King, you made an "I am no man" joke. However, quite a few people still married or fucked the Witch King.

Quite a few people married not for love but for property. Fair enough.

Gender mostly wasn't an issue, which I thought was nice.

A lot more people married or fucked the spider than I anticipated. Still, Shelob generally prompted instant "kill" responses.

Also more not-killed than I expected: The King of the Dead.

It was occasionally difficult to discern a tag of #fuck as being "I picked fuck" vs "fuck I hate that I got this character."

All the characters that you would expect to be popular marriage material were, but anyone who got Eowyn was especially thrilled.

And finally, regardless of character or choice, a lot of notes were pretty funny.

Feel free to reblog with your own observations; this is but a paltry sample of notes.

Going (Semi-)Viral

First, I once again want to emphasize that I did not originate the concept for the "FMK Wheel." @pollsnatural has been using the Wheel of Names for polls for some time now, and I just happened to see one because @the-villainsandheroes occasionally inflicts my dash with Supernatural content even in this, the year of our lord 2024.

However, there's no question that between their poll and mine (both posted on June 3), FMK wheels took off. Like, seriously took off.

See for yourself

In hindsight, it's obvious why. In no particular order:

Spinning a wheel is fun.

Poll posts are short and easy to comprehend.

Everyone loves a "what would you do?" scenario.

"Fuck" option provides a bit of titillation.

Uncontroversial content (for tumblr) that everyone can enjoy.

Plus, depending on what you spin and your personal preferences, spinning the wheel elicits one of the following reactions:

Delight

Outrage

Sexy thoughts

Utter confusion

Hilarity

All of these are likely to inspire a comment or reblog, which causes the poll to be seen by even more people, and the cycle repeats.

HOWEVER.

The poll didn't remain popular forever. Much like a forest fire, it burned hot and fast, but within a few days pretty much everyone who was going to see and reblog the poll already had. In the last three days of the poll, it picked up less than a thousand votes a day (utterly paltry compared to days one and two).

Changes over time

The spread of votes for this poll changed greatly as it was reblogged. Unfortunately, it did not occur to me to take screenshots as I had no idea just how drastically it would do so. Instead, I have created some lovely artist's renditions for you.

Very early on, when the poll was only seen by terminally online followers of this blog and people who follow or frequently check the #lotr tag, "fuck" and "marry" were running just about even, with "kill" a distant third and basically no "but..." votes.

A little later, as more followers and tag-checkers had a chance to vote and the poll was spreading a bit, "marry" had a very large lead while "fuck" and "kill" were about even.

The poll then went semi-viral, and as it did the "kill" and "but..." options began creeping up largely at the expense of "marry."

This is almost certainly due to votes from people who didn't know the characters but who wanted to play the game and vote anyway.

To be fair, I generally wouldn't want to fuck or marry a stranger either.

Had it occurred to me, I might have included an option like "I don't know the character I got and don't want to look them up" but where's the fun in that? And it's not like FMK has ever been a game with objectively correct answers.

But, if you are ever running a poll and want to target a specific demographic, you should really consider adding an option for people who want to click a button even if they're not who the poll is "meant for." You can't fight human nature, so embrace it instead (and also get some extra data about who your poll is reaching).

Comparisons between fandoms

I initially entertained dreams of doing some data analysis comparing the ratios for various fandoms (aren't you interested in which fandom has the most fuckable characters?), but the number of FMK wheel polls quickly became overwhelming. Combined with my ever-fluctuating energy levels and a busy period at work, well. Still, I can't resist comparing just a little, so here we have a very small sample set to compare.

Links: Baldur's Gate 3, Dungeon Meshi, Shakespeare, Ace Attorney

These ratios are all pretty different! And if you keep digging in the polls, some are even more unbalanced than these.

Why? Most obviously, in most wheels, a main character is given the exact same weight (that is, chance of being spun) as a background character with one line. (For a weighted example, see this LazyTown poll.)

I don't think anyone would say Ace Attorney doesn't have marriageable characters; it's just that it has so many side characters and villains who are, shall we say, undesirable.

If you do any cross-poll analysis yourself, I would love to see it. (paging @poll-stats ...?) Drop a link, reblog this post with a comment, @ me, whatever. Same goes if you create a masterpost attempting to index all of the polls or whatever. I live for stuff like this.

In Conclusion

This was very fun! And if you enjoy this kind of analysis, stick around; it's kind of what I do here. But if my posts don't go (semi-)viral again for a month or two, that'll be quite alright with me.

Before voting, spin the wheel and get a Lord of the Rings character.

Not sure who your character is? You can look them up on this Tolkien Gateway character list, or just vote based on vibes.

For the purposes of the game, assume your vote is not "LaCE compliant." (That is, fucking an elf does not instantly mean marriage or death for that elf.)

Poll concept from @pollsnatural.

#results #commentary #long post #for reals #if you do ANY analysis on this stuff #I would so very much like to see it

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monstersandmaw · 5 years ago

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Embers - Male dragon shifter x reader, Chapter Seven (sfw)

I'm sorry it's so late tonight. I was reminded (again) that it’s Friday and that means it’s Embers day! It's a bit of a rollercoaster this one, and again, it's still double my intended wordcount for these 'short' episodes, at 1.6k.

No real warnings, but Mikaeïl 's past relationship is brought up...during date night... Happy Valentine’s??? And all I'll say is... I'm sorry???!

*flings this at you and then ducks and hides under a rock*

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six

A text from Mikaeïl drew a soft smile from you as you woke the next day, rolling over in the crinkly warmth of your covers and stretching your spine out with a grunt.

‘Morning beautiful,” his message began and you already found yourself grinning broadly. What a romantic… “I hope you don’t find this too much too soon, but I’d like to ask you out for a drink this weekend, tonight if you’re free. I know it’s short notice, but if you’re around, there’s a gorgeous wine bar in the old part of town. It’s run by this crazy old goblin, and I’d love to take you there.’

You actually squeaked and were very grateful that he had asked you via text and not phone call because you had enough butterflies to fly you straight back to high school again with the way you were feeling. With slightly shaking fingers, you messaged, ��Just woke up. I’d love to come out tonight! And no, I have no life - don’t judge me.’

‘Wouldn’t dream of it’ came his immediate response. ‘Besides, most of my Saturday nights consist of a log fire and a glass or two of whisky, so… who’s got no life now…?’

You snorted and rolled onto your stomach. ‘Log fires? Even in summer?’

‘Reptilian, remember?’

‘Ah, yes. How could I forget those beautiful golden eyes of yours?’ you messaged and then immediately regretted it for how sappy and gross it sounded.

Luckily, he didn’t seem to mind. ‘I’m flattered. Would you like me to pick you up tonight? I’ll book us a table because it’s usually busy.’

‘You mean you don’t know the ‘crazy old goblin’ personally?’

‘Of course I do. He’ll give me the best table in the house, I know it. But still, formalities and all that…’

‘XD. I’ll meet you there? Where is it?’

A short pause was swiftly followed by a message with a link to the restaurant, called ‘La Cantina’ and which seemed to be very fancy.

‘I feel like I need a top hat and tails to go to this place,’ you texted after scrolling through its web page.

‘Nothing so formal,’ he reassured you. ‘Actually it’s very much a case of ‘wear what you like’.’ A second later he added, ‘Within reason, of course…’

‘Got it. I’ll wear my favourite neon leotard with exposed nipples for a touch of class…’

‘Perfect. I knew I liked you for a reason.’

You spent most of that morning giggling over your conversation with him, but you did manage to catch up on a couple of bits of work that had been shoved to one side during the week, and when you left the house that evening, you felt pretty sure you’d look alright. A pair of dark jeans and a smart-ish top which had always been one of your favourites seemed to do the trick, and it wouldn’t crumple on your bus journey into the centre of Old Trollbridge either. You couldn’t turn up looking like an old paper bag if you wanted to impress your, what, boyfriend? Were you officially dating now?

That thought sent a thrill through you, and you had just taken a deep breath to try and regain some of your limited stock of composure when you saw him up ahead.

He was walking down the cobbled street towards you, his hands in his pockets, his head slightly downcast, and your breath caught in your throat. The last of the sunlight had vanished to leave the milky blue haze of dusk, settling lazily about the buildings and chimneys of the old university town, and he looked as much a part of the place as the gargoyles and grotesques looming above and the worn streets below. Slender, strong, confident, and yet strangely soft, almost serpentine you supposed, Mikaeïl approached and the hard lines of his pale face gentled visibly as he looked up and saw you standing there, watching him.

His long red hair was half drawn back off his face on his left, twisted once and pinned, while the rest of it fell in shimmering red down his back. His eyes glowed in the dim light and your heart skipped a beat or two at the sight of them, slit pupils widened to leave a halo of gold. When Mikaeïl finally drew level with you, he slowed and you tried to take in a bit more of his outfit. As usual, he was wearing very little colour: a crisp and beautifully fitted white shirt, sleeves cuffed back to the elbow, tucked into black pressed trousers, and black Oxfords that gleamed.

Then his hands had taken yours in his strong, cold fingers and he pressed a kiss to your knuckles. “You look lovely,” he said earnestly in his warm baritone. “I’m so glad you were free.”

“No life, remember?” you grinned and he laughed softly.

“Let’s see about changing that, shall we? For both of us. Come on,” and he held your hand as the pair of you turned and headed back down the street in the direction he’d just come from.

“Did you just wander up here in the hopes of meeting me off the bus or something?” you asked, looking up at him.

He nodded slightly. “Mmm. That, and I was hideously early for our reservation.”

He caught the endearing smile you offered him and he chuckled again, his cheeks flushing attractively. His eyelashes, you noticed were stupendously long and thick, and the most delicate shade of rose gold you’d ever seen. While you walked, he asked you how the commissions you’d been working on had gone, and listened quietly and attentively as you waffled on about how irritating one particular client was being. “Not like you,” you grinned, squeezing his chilly fingers briefly. “I wish everyone had the same reaction to my work as you did…”

His breath hitched slightly as you said that, but he made no response other than to tighten his grip on your hand for a moment.

The restaurant was one of those that only the real locals know about; darkly lit by candles, with old barrels dotted here and there among the tables, and thrumming with a strange sense of timeless age. It was as if it had always been here, unchanging, immune to the rhythms of the world outside.

You had barely descended down the well-worn, stone staircase into the aptly named cellar restaurant when a goblin gave a clap of their long-fingered hands and scuttled over to you, grinning broadly and revealing a row of perfectly pointed teeth. Mikaeïl bent nearly double to hug him fondly, careful not to knock his horns on the goblin’s long ears, and they exchanged a chaste but familiar kiss on the cheek.

“Ahh, Mikki,” the goblin said in a voice like a creaking tree in a gale as they drew back. “It’s been far too long. And who’s this! A human!” He shook his head in mock disappointment, and then held out a knuckly hand to you, the grin firmly back on his darkly weathered face. “My pleasure, my pleasure. Come on in. Best seat in the house for you both tonight.”

“You do us great honour, Kiriavin,” he said seriously, ushering you ahead of him to follow the goblin to your table.

The goblin merely waved a hand and thrust a menu at you without looking back. You just about managed to grab it from him.

“Wine’s on me tonight, my friends,” Kiriavin added as you settled at your table and Mikaeïl’s eyes widened. “No, no, no; don’t you give me that look, you great overgrown lizard,” the goblin snapped, waggling his finger in Mikaeïl’s face and making him lurch back to avoid being tapped on the nose by a sharp goblin claw. “I haven’t seen you in months, and then you bring this gorgeous human in here out of the blue… Mikki, I was starting to wonder if I’d ever see you with someone else again. I’m glad,” he said, laying his dark-skinned hand on Mikaeïl’s bare forearm.

Mikaeïl’s throat worked as he swallowed thickly, and his eyes darkened for just a moment, but he nodded and said in a slightly choked voice, “Thank you.”

When the two of you were left alone, you cast Mikaeïl a questioning look.

He sighed expansively as you settled down at the table and then looked you straight in the eye. “You want to know, don’t you?” he asked.

“There are a lot of things I’d like to know - and a lot of them are about you…” you said cautiously, a horrible feeling souring your stomach. “What exactly is it that you think I want to know?”

As he trailed a finger across the scrubbed wooden surface of the table, his eyes lost on the patterns only he could see in the movement, he said, “Well, it’s been about thirty-five years since I was last with someone. We’d been together…” he broke off and swallowed again. “… for nearly a century.”

“Holy shit,” you breathed, suddenly feeling utterly irrelevant.

His nostrils flared as he drew in another, steadying breath, still staring at the table. “It’s not really the kind of conversation for a first date. It’s a sad story. We… We were together a long time, but he… he got very sick.” A second later he did look up at you and added, “He was an artist too. Different style from you, but… you have something of his talent.”

“Oh,” was all you could find to say as a barrage of self-doubt crashed into your mind.

Part Eight

—

I really hope you folks enjoyed this one! Don’t forget to let me know if you did enjoy it by leaving a like and/or reblogging it!

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#dragon shifter #dragon shifter x reader #dragon x reader #exophilia #male dragon shifter #male dragon #embers

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gayregis · 4 years ago

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boppinrobin replied to your post: “Question. Part 1. Hi. I like your blog and your analytical analysis of books,”

aauuuughhh tysm for ur analysis as always

thank you for reading and liking it!!

arinasassymessi replied to your post: “Question. Part 1. Hi. I like your blog and your analytical analysis of books,”

Thank you again for your response! I wrote anonymously because I was a little embarrassed by my English, but to be honest, I've been reading your blog for a very long time, and I've always wanted to discuss some topics with you. Thank you, I feel more confident now. First of all, I apologize for the fact that I considered this scene pro-life.

The thing is, I've reread the witcher books countless times (mostly because of Regis, lol). And if in the first times I was so fascinated by the plot and characters that I did not notice any obvious sexist/homophobic moments, then after rereading the books more consciously, I caught very unpleasantly, conservative motives, which Sapkowski is not shy about.

I remember that the first time this scene, even though it caused a bit of misunderstanding, still touched me with its warmth and how Geralt emotionally supported Milva, helping her make a rather difficult decision. And the way Regis was pleased with his actions, smiling at him, awww.

But after studying the books in more detail and the messages that Sapkowski puts in them, it seems to me that I began to see a catch everywhere. At first, I was also delighted to learn about Ciri's relationship with Mistle, wow, progressive author, LGBTQ+ representation! But after seeing this relationship "live," I felt cheated, and since then, I have returned to this scene with Milva.

I thought, oh no, isn't everything here the same as I believed? Most of all, I was afraid of Regis because he is my comfort character, the voice of reason, and a progressive medic. Does Sapkowski put pro-life ideas in his mouth?.. After a couple of discussions with friends, this fear only took root.

However, after reading your in-depth analytical analysis, I agreed with it, looking at the facts in a new way, and was glad that my first guesses and feelings from this scene were close to the truth. Now I can rest in peace, lol.

About "medicament/medicine" and "agent." I have read books in Russian, and now I am rereading "Baptism of Fire" in English to practice. I think the difference between the words "medicament" and "agent" in English is somewhat unclear, and it is impossible to say precisely which of them has a negative connotation.

Both of them sound entirely neutral and normal to me, but again, I'm not a native speaker, correct me if I'm wrong. In Russian, instead of the word "agent," we have the word "snadobye" (the closest translation is 'potion,’ and in Polish, it is 'ziola’). And while "medicament" means only medicine, a remedy, the word "snadobye" can also mean medicine, but has more folk properties (?).

It is brewed from herbs and a synonym to a potion/drug — a poisonous, magical, and forbidden drink, usually attributed to witches and wizards. For me, Geralt's refusal to use the word "medicament" — neutral and scientific-medical — in favor of a word that has a more magical/negative connotation seemed rather strange. But again, this is just my guess.

I consider the Russian translation closer to the Polish one because it belongs to the same language group, but I don't have access to the original to check what words were used there. In any case, I think that since Geralt decided to use one instead of the other, they should differ in some way, but it is not known in favor of which word this works. I also like your version.

I also had a lot of questions about Milva and her actions. She's probably my second favorite character after Regis, and I didn't understand her actions until a certain point. She was not satisfied with a woman's position in her society, so instead of the usual role, she decided to participate in Geralt's journey?

I was also not very clear about their conversation and Geralt's conclusion: "someone else's child for your own, life for life." Why? After all, she could stay in Brokilon and give birth, but if she didn't want a child, she could have an abortion (for example, she rather cruelly compared her child to young wasps that eat caterpillar alive).

Recently, the Russian Witcher community posted a short theory that Milva was in love with Geralt and therefore went after him. Milva's thoughts in Brokilon speak in favor of this — she finds Geralt attractive (although she felt something similar for Cahir when they were waiting for Geralt and Buttercup to be released from prison at night).

*not Buttercup (have no idea what is it), JASKIER

Also, their conversation outside Regis' hut at night, when Milva bitterly remarked that Geralt needed another woman — a scholar, a wise one, a beloved one (Yennefer), desire to get emotional support exactly from Geralt and and insisting on his presence during the miscarriage, her further refusal to marry the baron, and perhaps Sapkowski's sometimes ANNOYING idea that any woman should go crazy in Geralt's company. But again, these are just guesses, and I would be interested to hear your opinion.

I also didn't know that tumblr has a word limit in comments, so my replays look pretty stupid now, lol.

yes!! i also read the books first just for the plot and then went back and later, when my mind was clearer, noticed a lot more of political views in the writing. it’s the fact that a lot of sapkowski’s other takes are shitty (re: feminity, lgbt individuals and relationships), or at least come off as shitty because they are not explicit enough to actually be a progressive opinion, compounded with the fact that the scene with milva is not very clear on exactly what regis is asking geralt, why he is polling them, why geralt is upset, or what they even intend to do. i think also, because the subject is so important and people have very intense opinions about it, it makes you nervous to see it come up in a fictional story, even if the author is promoting a good message - it’s the feeling you described of, “oh no, isn't everything here the same as i believed?”

and yeah, you’re right, in english i’d say medicament and agent both have neutral connotations, “agent” to me sounds more scientific, somehow? like it would be used in an experiment? i think i have usually heard it more in descriptions of products, like “cleansing agent” in relation to something dealing with chemistry... but then again, i am not a scientist, doctor, beautician, etc...

and about milva - agree, i love her too :D!! these are my personal opinions and takes on her character motivations but:

i think her ‘not being satisfied with a [traditional] woman’s role in society’ extends beyond not being satisfied, it’s being disgusted with it - in tower of the swallow, she describes how she as a teenager experienced sexual assault at the hands of her stepfather, and her mother didn’t do anything (assumedly because of the societal roles involved, and you can (unfortunately) see this occur in real life as well, mothers don’t protect their daughters from the men they stay with). milva beats him to death and runs away, and never goes back to that life. additionally, in baptism of fire, she talks about her name - milva, and why she changed it, and she says that her original name, maria, along with a lot of other “feminine-sounding” names beginning with M (this is at least what i got out of it, they sound like sweet names given to peasant girls), get your ass pinched in taverns (this is my best recollection of the quote).

it’s clear that she has not only experienced discomfort, but really just blatant violence at the hands of “traditional feminity/women’s societal roles,” and so she goes to rely on only herself at first, hunting in lower sodden, and then finally being ‘adopted’ (kind of) by brokilon and eithne, becoming affiliated with them and working for them and the scoia’tael. this makes sense to me, because of course brokilon is a matriarchy, and the elves are mentioned to raise (and thus, treat) male and female elves the same way.

i won’t rule out that sapkowski intended for milva to have romantic interest in geralt, but i think that even if he did, it wasn’t interesting and i disagree with that direction for her character. my takes continued are that:

re: "someone else's child for your own, a life for life." in this conversation, she talks to geralt about the differences between “milva” and “maria,” her two identities that seem to be at ends with each other. she didn’t want to stay in brokilon to have the child, because by societal means, she is no longer a “woman” in the traditional sense - she’s milva, not maria - she kills, she laughs as she pulls out the arrowheads from corpses, etc., like her chosen name, ‘milva,’ she is a red kite, a bird of prey.

she doesn’t fit the societal expectations of a woman, and was never trained in being a mother (she ran away from home as a teenager, she hasn’t done ‘traditional woman things’ like keep house and cook, raise and deal with children, weave (?) and work in a house since she was 16, and she is older than that now (i’d say she’s at least past her early 20s, because she is described as a “young woman” compared to angouleme’s “very young woman” in lady of the lake, and angouleme is approx. 18-19). but since she doesn’t fit these expectations, how can she expect herself to raise this child? thus, she likely wanted to drop the baby, but since she was raised in a conservative rural society in which women are expected to bear children and not have abortions, she may have felt guilt and shame for wanting to do so. thus, she wanted to follow geralt - although she would have intentionally lost her child, she would have intentionally saved another, absolving her of her guilt. it’s like as regis described to geralt in the middle of the book, about penance and running up debts, this is a large theme of the book - a baptism of fire, fire which not only purifies, but burns (a challenge which absolves one of guilt, but it is painful).

these are just my takes, i think sapkowski’s intentions were more along the theory that milva had a crush on geralt, but as i said i think that’s just boring and the “easy way out.” he also did that with cahir and ciri, making heterosexual love the motivation for a noble deed, and it’s just like... these characters have so much other depth and serious individual issues, and you want to reduce their motivations to just simply “they were in love”? okay... so yeah i don’t think sapkowski really may have intended any of the above, or if he did, it was to a lesser degree, but this is my interpretation of it.

#arinasassymessi #replies

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rwbyconversations · 5 years ago

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RWBY Volume 6 Vocal Songs review

Well, we finally have it people- the Volume 6 soundtrack is out. And hopefully this time Spotify mains won’t feel left in the corner like the Ladybug fandom does during the inter-RWBY shipping discussions.

I’ll say overall I adored the songs this year and there weren’t any duds- in fact this is probably my new overall favorite lyric soundtrack since Volume 4, which was just overflowing with bangers. This year was similarly jam-packed, with every new song being the usual outstanding fare that RWBY has become known for.

... and then there’s the remixes which continue to be absolutely awful and will never go onto my playlists but this is the token mention of the remixes. Why do they keep doing them, the only good one’s been Sacrifice.

But regardless, this is my review of all the vocal songs in Volume 6. Enjoy! (forward warning I’m not a music critic so don’t expect anything too deep here)

All GIFs were made by @edelblume, someone actually proficient in talking musical theory.

1) Rising

Rising was already one of my favorite openings to date for RWBY, if for no other reason than the superb opening animation itself. But fortunately, the song itself more than met my expectations. Featuring an incredibly strong riff from Jeff from Alex along with a surprising synth appearance in places, Rising kicks off the soundtrack with gusto, a defiant acknowledgement that their road is faced with a permeating darkness, but it won’t last, and much as nature simply knows how to be, they were born with the knowledge to do the right thing and stand against evil. For they are paragons, and death can’t hold them down for long. After years of ranking Time To Say Goodbye as my favorite opening of the show, Rising supplants it and takes its new spot on the throne.

2) Miracle

Miracle was a surprise- for the first time since Volume 3 and It’s My Turn, we got a new song in the premiere alongside the opening itself, capping off RWBY, Oscar and Qrow’s desperate struggle to buy the Argus Limited time to escape with its civilian cargo. It’s a much bleaker song than Rising, coming right as the heroes are about to have their senses of morality tested by the truths that Ozpin had been hiding from them for years. Miracle laments how they’re running out of time and that their own triumphs don’t matter- a reckoning is near and they have to answer the question of whether or not the path they’ve been walking was the right one, or just one made of lies. As the heroes scramble for a miracle, they’re dismayed to find that none’s in sight, but as they realize they’re fighting on the sight of light and all that’s good in the world, they’re determined to stand and fight until their miracle arrives.

Miracle can be seen as a proper theme song for the first half of Volume 6, as it more deeply examines the themes of the volume, especially the team’s inner conflict. The final verse especially can be seen as almost an abridging of the Brunswick arc, as the team reach their lowest points and despair at how nothing they do is worth anything before they take a breather and decide that even if the end time are coming, they’ll face it head on and give it a bloody nose before it consumes everything, still hoping for that miracle to arrive- just like a young silver eyed girl arrived in Brunswick to cleanse its tainted halls of apathy.

Miracle was a surprising song back in October last year, and now that it’s out in full it’s honestly my favorite song lyrically on the track. It’s a perfect assessment of the situation the heroes wind up in this volume, capping off with their blunt refusal to let the end take them quietly.

3) Lionized

I know they spell it Lionize but I don’t care, they say Lionized in the song for Christ’s sake!

I’ve been waiting for this song for nearly an entire year since RTX and the short that won me back onto RWBY, and fortunately Lionized didn’t disappoint. Adam finally got his solo song to bow out his character after sharing From Shadows with Blake, and much like his character short, it offers a compelling, if truncated, account of his rise and fall into darkness.

While Amity Arena’s bio had already revealed Adam’s early life to be horrific- born into slavery in an SDC dust mine, dreaming of looking up at the sky with his own two eyes one day- Lionized also makes no point of hiding the details, having the lyrics open with Adam reflecting on how he was “Insulted and reviled, Enthralled by human overlords since I was a child” (which gives off serious vibes of Adam being a sex abuse victim as a child to me and Jesus Christ). That punishment broke Adam and drove him mad in his desire to make humanity pay for what it had done to him and the hundreds of thousands of Faunus in those mines.

Jeff kills it in this song- it’s easily my new favorite solo from him as we get a deep dive into what drove Adam past the brink of madness, as his revenge dovetails into building him up and making him more of a figurehead than an actual hero- “Watch them fall as I am glorified,” “You’ll see, I’m their hero/I’m here, I’m your savior, I’ll be lionized!” And the guitars are something else, a constantly churning ripping and shredding beat that combines with Jeff’s voice sounds like a feral animal about to attack. And if there’s one way to get me hype for a villain in anime, grab some guitars and start shredding.

While Miracle might be my favorite song of the OST on a lyrical level, Lionized just knows how to get me hyped and this’ll probably be the one that gets the most replays on my playlist. It captures the old spirit of RWBY’s original music and delivers with a rip-roaring track that matches its narrators madness with shredding gusto.

4) Big Metal Shoe

I had no expectations for Big Metal Shoe. In fact I figured this would be the weak link of the soundtrack. Surely what seemed to just be a diss track at a villain I wasn’t especially fond of wouldn’t make for a good song, right?

And then we got Caffeine 2.0 and... it was actually kinda good. Again, I’m a simple man- throw some guitars at me and I’ll smile and nod like a kid watching fireworks. This sound wound up being a fun little darkhorse for the soundtrack, alongside a seeming self-imposed challenge by Williams and Abraham to make as many fairytale references in two and 3/4 minutes as physically possible.

There is one downside though- this song’s actually incomprehensible. I don’t understand half of it. Jeff and Casey have this problem a lot of the time where it’s hard to understand them but this is just peak “Are you even speaking English anymore?” And then Lamar shows up for the Token Lamar Rap Verse that every RWBY OST includes and then it gets even worse.

While I wasn’t expecting much from Big Metal Shoe, it still made for a fun few minutes. Now I can’t wait for Flynt’s lyric video so I understand most of the song!

5) Forever Fall

RWBY’s track record with ballads can be generously described as “hit or miss.” For every Cold or Home, we have Wings or All That Matters. Forever Fall has a crucial advantage over those weaker examples in that I actually like most of the characters featured in the song. Being about Pyrrha encouraging Jaune from beyond the veil while Jaune struggles to press on, much as she did in the Boundless Jaune Amity Arena bio, it’s a somber tune, and easily one of the better attempts Jeff and Casey have made at a slower, more quiet song. I’m not the biggest fan of how RWBY has handled Pyrrha’s death since Volume 3, sometimes it feels a little like they keep JNR around just to more easily have access to angst fuel for it, but Forever Fall definitely helped set the bitter stage for the statue scene, which does still stand as one of the better scenes of Volume 6 (even if it does lose some of its weight once you realize Pyrrha probably wouldn’t have actually liked the statue due to her hatred of being put on a pedestal). Casey knocks it out of the park with her voice and the piano plays a beat on many a fan’s heart.

I’m especially fond of the theory that this isn’t so much a Pyrrha singing to Jaune song as it’s a song that can symbolise both of them at the same time. Credit to the crew for that.

6) One Thing

Neo’s far from my favorite character in RWBY, and I’ve made no secret of how I think she’s dreadfully overhyped outside of being a good luck charm for well animated fights. Luckily for her and fans then, her charm status made it into Maya unscathed, and Neo was protected by the universal rule of soundtracks.

The villain songs are always really fucking good.

Casey finally lives out her dream of voicing Neo in One Thing, a bitter revenge fantasy where Neo makes no reservations about how much she’ll love putting down anyone and everyone responsible for Roman’s death. She talks (heh) of how she had nothing before Roman came- not a voice, not a home, maybe not even a name if I’m hearing that one line right. “Then a brand new flame brought a brand new name.”

Add in a badass as all hell chorus and Neo jumped up a few places in my personal RWBY polls thanks to the presentation of her musical debut alone, to say nothing of her fantasies about killing Cinder (can relate). One Thing shows just how effective a great song can be, setting the scene for a fantastic fight scene, a solid return for a fandom-beloved character and then even making someone who considered her the Boba Fett of RWBY start to like her. I’m eager to learn more of Neo’s past before she met Roman, whenever that day comes.

(btw is it bad if I kinda ship Neo and Roman now?)

7) Nevermore

I don’t have a lot to add that hasn’t been said since the finale aired- it’s a pretty great song and a fantastic closer for the volume, I hope Atlas means we finally stop getting Blake or Yang-focused credit songs because this was the third in a row and it’s getting tiring, the disconnect between the writers and actors calling Adam “the worst” while the songs and bios paint a far more complex picture is a bit of an odd disconnect that I hope doesn’t repeat if they ever remember that Cinder’s an abuser too.

8) Armed and Ready Acoustic

Nice song, shame it’s gonna get ruined by all the fucking Beehaw/Yorse jokes. You weren’t funny in February, you’re not funny now. You’re not even worth a comment about beating a dead horse. Not sure I like the acoustic going full country but whatever. Wake me up when I’m The One gets the acoustic treatment.

9) Indomitable

Indomitable was the song I was probably the most hyped for in the V6 OST alongside or even surpassing Lionized. Ruby’s Silver Eyes scene was a strong contender for the best scene of the season and single-handedly made up for what otherwise could have been a Breach-level anticlimax of a finale, and part of what made it work was Indomitable, the short but powerful song that played as Ruby gave Bubbles The Leviathan both ocular barrels. Ruby finally getting a song after five straight albums was ambrosia to my soul, after years of having to make due with “Maybe Ruby’s song is meant to be the OP?” as Weiss, Blake and Yang got song after song after song, oftentimes getting multiple songs in a single year (Hi Yang. Stop hogging the jukebox. Please.). Finally, I thought, she’d get a track, and one that appeared to be about her accepting her role as the light standing against the darkness, all capped off with a beautiful quiet tribute to Monty in the form of his old blog quotes about the human spirit.

So I must admit, when I listened to Indomitable proper, I was... disappointed on the first listen. It’s still a lovely song, but it wasn’t what I hoped and wanted it to be and it took a little while to appreciate it in spite of that.

Indomitable is a tribute song to Monty, a la Cold from Volume 3. But while Cold had a double meaning that made it work in and out of universe (being a song from CRWBY mourning Monty that could also reflect on Jaune mourning Pyrrha), Indomitable is far less connected to RWBY in-universe unless Ruby had a dream offscreen where she met a tired looking guy who made worlds based off his ketchup stains then woke up and made a Christian Rock song out of it.

Rather sadly for me at least, this also hurts the original Indomitable scene in question as well. It doesn’t truly fit the original scene now, as much as it did when we thought the song was about Ruby recognizing her spirit. It was a great way to cap off a volume that was overall great for Ruby. As she finally got to take center stage as protagonist in her own show, we finally got a new song about her standing unyielding against the darkness. What was a great character moment for Ruby has now rather sadly been hurt by the song. Not terribly, I still love the climax of Volume 6. But now the song just feels a touch out of place.

I know some people have already been rather critical of anyone who didn’t like the song because it wasn’t what they wanted (I’ve seen a fair few people express disappointment that the song wasn’t the Ruby-focused song the chorus and placement in the show led us to believe) and that tired old “subverting expectations” argument came up. To which I must reply that “What did you expect me to take from a song showing up during Ruby’s most powerful moment, that the song was actually about Port?” While what we got was still a powerful song that makes for an interesting trilogy of songs of RWBY dealing with Monty’s death in Cold, Let’s Just Live and Indomitable, I think Ruby’s fanbase especially are very fairly allowed to be disappointed that they were stripped of the chance to finally get her first focus song in half a decade. Instead we get another Ruby song where she’s not even the real focus (much like Blake’s trailers get hijacked by her supporting cast, Ruby’s songs get hijacked by anyone within a mile of the recording booth),

I still liked Indomitable, and it does become a stellar song after the first chorus.. It still has Ruby’s overall attitude and the lyrics do still allow one to reflect on Ruby and her growth over Volumes 1-3 and 6. It’s a lovely, touching and very emotional tribute to Monty and a rousing anthem to celebrate his legacy (wait does this mean Indomitable breaks the Monty Rule? ;) ) and had it been a simple bonus track that we only learned about when the OST dropped a la BMBLB or Dream Come True it would have been a lot better in my opinion. We still got a lovely song and in the heat of the moment, it worked really well for Ruby. But at this point, I really just want a new inarguable Ruby song above all else, and this probably should have been kept as a bonus song instead of being used in-show. Still good, but I’m just a bitter bitch and wanted something else

Conclusion and ranking

Volume 6′s vocal tracks were a near-perfect selection this year. After Volume 5′s tracklist was more comparatively disappointing (Smile and This Time are the only ones I’d really go back to at this point), the V6 tracklist was far more impressive and a near constant streak of home runs. While Indomitable wasn’t what I hoped and wanted it to be, it was still a touching tribute to Monty and proof that his soul lives on in RWBY. If Jeff, Alex and Casey are as on fire next year as they were this year, the wait for the Volume 7 OST will be even more painful. Round of applause for the music team this year, they did a stellar job and I wish them all the best for Volume 7.

1) Miracle 2) Lionized 3 One Thing 4) Rising 5) Forever Fall 6) Nevermore 7) Indomitable 8) Acoustic Armed and Ready 9) Big Metal Shoe 10) The music that played during Merc and Em’s scene in Lost. 10) The godawful Triumph and Path to Isolation remixes. Please. Leave the songs alone, I hate Volume 5 but even it didn’t deserve that torture.

Thank you for reading.

#rwby #rwby volume 6 #rwby volume 6 soundtrack #rwby volume 6 ost #rising #miracle #lionized #forever fall #one thing #indomitable #big metal shoe #nevermore #armed and ready #ruby rose #neopolitan #rwby analysis #rwby review

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akwelvhi · 5 years ago

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Transient transgressions that transcend time

I wanted to do something for Trans character day, but I couldn’t come up with something. Instead, this happened. Well -shrugs-.

“Trans-”

Short for transgender or transsexual

Trans also is sometimes used as a shortened term for Cis-trans isomerism, Trans-lunar injection, Trans-acting just to name a few.

Needless to say this word "trans" means a variety of things depending largely on the context of course.

Same can be said for the word "bi" or "poly" - especially when these words are being used within the R&D or Science departments of Q-branch.

Misunderstandings and mis-hearings is something bound to happen when you mix the staffs of the different levels and branches of MI6 into the one staff cafeteria (because MI6 will not part with the budget of paying for more catering workers who need to undergo such thorough clearance and briefings just to make food that feeds the humans who do Her Majesties important work)- anyway coming back from that tangent.

It happened one day in the cafeteria, that this person overheard that person say something bad-sounding about something-trans or so, as such the rumour was passed down that trans people and others in the LGBTQ+ community were treated unfairly in MI6. Which somehow escalated to Q-branch having yet another - small unimportant task which snowballed into an issue - piled on top of their ever growing list of technological related issues that IT department deemed "not my department".

The rumour in question had led to a staff generated poll, on one of those benign staff feedback portals, that had gained a viral response following. The strength and width in which the rumour and the poll in question had spread, had resulted in a portal crash so bad IT department submitted a request for budget approval of a new system because they couldn’t fix it. Which then became Q-branch's problem because well, Q was the youngest and smartest of all branch heads and that's just the way things worked much to Q’s annoyance.

The poll in question asked.

MI6 does not provide adequate support to staff belonging to the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

0 --- Agree

0 --- Disagree

0 --- Others. Please elaborate : ______________________________________

The idiot who created the poll made the mistake of not only allowing all options to be selected instead of one. But also allowed the maximum character limit for long-answer responses which was a 1,000 character limit.

The dear, poor, minion QB-X8 who was tasked to "fix that system, we don't have the budget for a new one. Q-Branch you fix it because of that 1.2 million project of yours." managed to uncover the source of the issue.

The 1,000 character limit, was long enough a character limit, for a single keyboard smash response to somehow be translated to a line of code that led to the system crashing. It didn’t help that the system was already glitching to begin with.

After going through approximately four thousand eight hundred and fifty two responses on LGBTQ related matters, in which over a thousand of them came from how they couldn't use the company medical benefits for LGBTQ+ related treatments. QB-X8 was understandably delirious enough that a loud branch-wide rant ensued.

[[Disclaimer: MI6 medical benefits does allow coverage of any and all medical treatments as long as it is prescribed and administered by a professional physician. This includes coverage for cosmetic plastic surgery. Though of course like all medical insurance coverage. There is a cap. The cap is also dependent on your salary grade.]]

This led to Q authorising QB-X8 to send out a MI6-wide email blaster - with monthly reminders which included a pop-up box which would last a whole year, especially for those who took the time to flood the poll with multiple responses or those who did not answer properly. It was only due diligence, if those responders did not abide by the basic rules of completing a poll, then they obviously needed additional reminders.

The email entailed, in detail, the medical benefits and HR staff entitlements document pasted out onto an email word by word format (no document attachment, because some people don't open attachments). Which amounted to three hundred and twenty one pages of words. In Comic Sans font 15. No fine print excuses now.

On the plus side. HR was glad that 80% of the staff were finally fully utilising the benefits of the company’s medical insurance coverage - which had the company paying a very large six figure number paid monthly for the premiums. Employers and people in general always lost money to insurance companies. Well this year. MI6 would say they gained - in the sense that their staff were filling claims to the insurance company. Their staff were happy and healthier, the LGBTQ community included. And thanks to the 10 year agreement they just signed with said insurance company. It was all good on their accounts end too.

On the minus side. Q-Branch was on the receiving end of random and frequent death glares whenever they were identified (should their staff pass be visible) when they visited the communal space which was the staff cafeteria. (So you see guys, this is where the hearsay that the cafeteria food is lousy came from. Q-branchers would rather just avoid the place, well at least for a year till the monthly emails stopped.) And medical's stock of hormone treatment suddenly depleted resulting in a month long waiting list for staff receiving timely service from medical. Thus irking their head to no end because medical has never failed to deliver.

Overall. It was all good.

The next poll that went up asking the same question (with the ' improved by Q-branch' modifications made so the system wouldn’t crash again) received an overall 87% satisfaction rating on MI6's staff benefits including support for LGBTQ+ staff.

All is well.

Now if only people just read the damn fine print and hundred page document on terms and conditions. None of this would’ve happened. To think these people work for the government of Her Majesty for god's sake!

A/N: The title may be a bit superfluous but it just wanted as many trans-words in it as possible, haha, sorry. XD

#007 fest #007 Fest 2019 #team civilian #QB-V4

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adanicole04 · 5 years ago

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Power to the People: An Ideological Analysis

**this is a paper I wrote in college about the ideology of democracy, and tied to current culture. It’s been a couple years since this was written, but I remember this being one of my favorite projects, and I believe it’s still applicable today. Hope you enjoy! But please don’t steal it ;)

Introduction:

NBC’s Parks and Recreation character Leslie Knope is a passionate bureaucrat who personally renewed my faith in what government is supposed to be by consistently reinforcing what democracy means to her. It may be a little pathetic in retrospect that it actually took a TV show to do so, but in light of everything happening today, it seems pretty understandable. Considering approval ratings of Congress have been at a historic all-time low for several years now, it should come as no surprise that “this more negative attitude toward Congress mirrors other indicators showing that Americans are at or near record lows in their confidence in the executive and judicial branches and the federal government in general” (Connolly, 2016).

The American people are losing (if not already lost) trust in their government, and really, who can blame them? We’ve been lied to, deceived, and had our money stolen from us to be blown on government officials vacation homes while the rest of us have the worries of our basic needs to live constantly hanging over our heads. We are a people in need of reassurance; not of what our government is doing for us (because who knows if we are ever told the truth about that), but what our government was founded on: democracy.

After Donald Trump was elected president, there seemed to be enough interest as to what “Leslie Knope” would say, that an actual letter was written up in her name (by the writers of the show). There is a lengthy story about democracy, the central idea of this paper, of which I will discuss later. For now, I will start with the proclaimed point of that story.

“People are unpredictable, and democracy is insane.”

Critics, like random Quora user Carl Hancock, argue that democracy should be considered a concept, and that the ideology of democracy is limited to the belief of one’s ideal form of government (Hancock, 2013). And even Merriam-Webster defines “democracy” as a form of government (Democracy). Should democracy be restricted to a concept and/or form of government?

Foss (2009) states that “an ideology is a pattern of beliefs that determines a group’s interpretations of some aspect of the world” (p. 209). Our government should be reflected on the beliefs and values our founding fathers had for America: that we are free people. By limiting “democracy” to a form of government, we eliminate the potential belief system that essentially directs our government. Using “Leslie Knope Writes Letter to America Following Donald Trump’s Victory” as my main artifact, quotes from Parks and Recreation (Parks & Rec for short) episodes, and ideological criticism, I argue that democracy is (and should be considered as) an ideology.

Foss (1989) also asserts that the goal of a rhetorical criticism is to introduce an artifact and essay that transforms the lives of the reader (p. 26). My goal for this analysis is to embody the persona of Leslie Knope herself, and inspire American citizens to engage in the idea of democracy. I know too many people who actively avoid anything political, because it’s not only an untrustworthy area, but it’s also confusing due to issues exactly like this essay: what even IS democracy? My contribution is to simplify the rhetorical foundation of what government is supposed to be to provide confidence the people should have about it.

Context and Artifact Analysis:

Parks & Rec first aired sometime in 2009 while interest in politics really sparked after the 2008 Presidential Election. President Obama based his political campaign on “hope”, creating a positive aura around Congress. The creators of Parks & Rec were inspired by this and with the success of the politically charged show The Wire to produce a comedy about an optimistic woman starting her career in politics while highlighting the general failure of local government (Weiner, 2009).

This government-loving optimist named Leslie Knope was born, and she reminded us every week why government is important, and what it stands for. She was always consistent in her views of democracy, women in government, and breakfast foods. All of the characters were impeccably cast, but Amy Poehler brought upon a certain charm and admirable trait to her love of government. Personally, I related politically more with the character Ron Swanson, a firm libertarian. However, I really loved Knope’s idea of democracy, and how often she talked about it.

For instance, when visitors from Venezuela came to Pawnee, Indiana (the fictitious location of the show) to financially help build a park, one of the men tried to trick Knope into taking their money, videotaping the donation, so they could humiliate Americans back in their country. Knope hilariously stood her ground by reinforcing her American values by telling him, “I am gonna build that park myself, and it is gonna be awesome. And it's not gonna have a fountain shaped like Hugo Chavez's head spitting water all over everyone. Unless that's what the people want. And that, sir, is democracy.”

When it came down to the recent election of Donald Trump, it was embarrassingly comforting to have that same reassurance by her. Honestly, there are more than enough quotes from the show itself to discuss, but her letter to America was classic Leslie Knope rhetoric covering a very real issue.

To make her initial point, she almost immediately began with a story. She was in fourth grade, and her teacher conducted a mock election in which two fictitious characters were presented. One character was cool, promised things like extra recess and pizza with a candy bar crust, and the other was “bookish”, and promised to take things slow to be able to evaluate the problems of the school in a careful, intentional manner.

But before they voted, one student (Greg) asked if they could nominate a third candidate. Her teacher replied, ““Sure! The essence of democracy is that everyone—” and Greg cut her off and said “I nominate a T. rex named Dr. Farts who wears sunglasses and plays the saxophone, and his plan is to fart as much as possible and eat all the teachers,” and everyone laughed, and before Mrs. Kolphner could blink, Dr. Farts the T. rex had been elected President of Pawnee Elementary School in a 1984 Reagan-esque landslide, with my one vote for Greenie the Tortoise playing the role of “Minnesota.”

Knope then went on to say, “Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried.” … The point is: people making their own decisions is, on balance, better than an autocrat making decisions for them. It’s just that sometimes those decisions are bad, or self-defeating, or maddening, and a day where you get dressed up in your best victory pantsuit and spend an ungodly amount of money decorating your house with American flags and custom-made cardboard-cutouts of suffragettes in anticipation of a glass-ceiling-shattering historical milestone ends with you getting (metaphorically) eaten by a giant farting T. rex.”

Even in her self-proclaimed despair, she finds a way to make us laugh. More importantly, Knope reminds us the importance of having our belief system of democracy serve as the foundation to how government operations should run, even if the results don’t sway in the direction we want or intend. Regardless, “democracy only works if people get involved” (Pilot Episode) because “the whole point of democracy is decisions are made by the people, as a group” (Canvassing).

There were also a couple of episodes in Season 6 where her idea of democracy was even further defined. In New Slogan, Leslie inspires the town of Pawnee to vote for a new town slogan. Obviously, she created most of the selections, and she encouraged the people to vote for one of the slogans. Well, matters took a brief turn for the worst when the local radio DJ “the Douche” suggested a write-in option of “The Home of the Stick Up Leslie Knope’s Butt”, and it led the polls. And why was there a write-in option you may wonder? “Because every election has a write-in option. That's how democracy works. I'm not a dictator. If I we're a dictator, I would throw the Douche in prison without a trial” (New Slogan). Once again, even though sometimes it makes her hysterically angry, her ideology of democracy guides practically everything she does, and every decision she makes.

Even when her archenemy Councilman Jeremy Jamm snuck in a meeting to vote on a bill that would take away voting rights to its new citizens (there was a town merger that joined the bordering town of “Eagleton” when their government went bankrupt) right before Knope’s recall election. Councilwoman Knope interrupted the meeting to filibuster it so it couldn’t pass. During the filibuster, she found out that the new citizens supported her actions, but would not be voting in her favor. She had to weigh the options out loud, but ultimately remained true to her beliefs. She could’ve stopped in order to have a better chance in the election, but instead she declared that “the right to vote is fundamental in any democracy, and this is bigger than me or anyone” (Filibuster).

Ideological Criticism:

By using the application of ideology to democracy, we can ensure a level of consistency that is desperately needed (and currently lacking) within political actions. As opposed to the restrictions the literal translation of democracy offers, the ideology behind it ensures that the “actions and their rationale are not isolated but woven into a broader fabric of understanding, anticipation, and value” (Brock, Huglen, Klumpp, & Howell, 2005).

During my analysis of the presented artifacts, it is clear that Leslie Knope has a deeply rooted understanding of democracy that is based on the idea of “the people”; that government cannot properly or fairly operate without the input of its citizens. The element that Knope presents is that we also need people within our governmental systems to uphold those beliefs and values. We need people to encourage group participation.

Although she explicitly speaks to females near the end of her letter, she acknowledges the misogyny protruding from Trump. Because this character is also quite the feminist, it probably would’ve been easier to cover this and other artifacts using a feminism approach. However, I’ve found that her hardcore belief in democracy is the basis of her rhetoric and actions. She encompasses the power within groups by simply using the word “we”; accomplished within this letter, and pretty much everything she does on the show.

“We will acknowledge this result, but we will not accept it. We will overcome it, and we will defeat it. Now find your team, and get to work.”

Democracy isn’t yet another form of government. It should be the idea behind every single decision made and action taken within the system. Political leaders and elected officials should stop and think, “Is this what the people want? AM I 100% SURE?” before signing or approving anything.

Using her anger as a tool, she encourages the beliefs behind democracy to fight the good fight in politics, and overcome this embarrassment that is our current president. When she says, “I work hard and I form ideas and I meet and talk to other people who feel like me, and we sit down and drink hot chocolate (I have plenty) and we plan. We plan like mofos. We figure out how to fight back, and do good in this infuriating world that constantly wants to bend toward the bad. And we will be kind to each other, and supportive of each other’s ideas,” she is literally describing her idea of democracy in classic Leslie Knope fashion. As the elected official in her town, she remains determined to improve lives through the power of the people, and through communication.

Conclusion:

Democracy shouldn’t be placed in a box, and set aside in politics. It should be the automatic default deciding factor for everything that happens in our government. Without the ideology of democracy, we have no real guide for how things are done. The values and beliefs behind it consistently point to the PEOPLE; not one person, not only elected officials. If anything, the elected officials should ONLY be acting in the wishes and demands of their citizens. No politician should have a final say in anything without the approval of the people first. Maybe that’s why our government is as screwed up as it is: because we have put democracy in a box, labeled it as a concept, and threw it in the dark and musty basement that no one ever goes in.

Politicians want us to believe that the notion behind democracy is some liberal tactic to take more of your money, and encourages welfare systems “for the good of the people”. This also discourages others to participate in government because people will blindly accept and trust that elected officials will do the right thing. Well, if there is no foundation of beliefs, morals and/or values, what (besides dirty money) is left to guide them?

Simple answer? Democracy. Myself, and others like Mrs. Knope (aka Parks & Rec writers) firmly believe that democracy is a set of beliefs grounding all political actions to be decided upon by the people. It is also the mutual understanding of myself and others like me that this can only be done through communication. Any politician has the “power” to draft a bill, and receive approval within the system, without ever reaching awareness of his or her citizens. In a fair and just democracy, that can no longer happen. Americans need to understand the true power of the people, and reconstruct our government to do the same. We are in desperate need of a government that works for us, not over us. We can only make this happen through the ideology of democracy.

#america #american #democracy #ideology #fourth of july #independence day #true democracy #parks and rec #leslie knope

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prettieparker86 · 6 years ago

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In The Bleak Midwinter || Part 11

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 12 & Part 13

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x Reader

Warning: Mentions of assault, flashbacks, threats

Gif Credit: @shesnake, @streitenfeld @sikanapanele @50feetwoman Thank you for letting me use your beautiful gifs!

Tag: @lainey-lane, @pindlemouse, @ thelastemzy, @helloandreabeth, @fandoms-broke-my-life, @shelbysbushblog, @accio-witty-username, @iamtheonewhocares, @infinitelycharmed23, @kingsmanstories, @shelby-gin-limited, @taylxr0, @sympathyfortheblinderdevil, @neversleeping4am, @icebluegriffin @johhnshelby, @ subhamamu @ unicorn-glitter-princess @thatsamegirl, @mafaldaz, @cafe-sabor-a-chocolate

Authors Note: This was a very tough chapter to write. As the previous one, but I tried to approach the topic with honesty. This chapter starts two weeks after the incident, Tommy and Fiona are having to deal with the aftermath. Tommy is a very tough character to write especially in these situations, but I felt he would feel a great deal of guilt for not protecting her and he would blame himself that it happened. And Fiona is battling her own mixed feelings of guilt and shame, while also trying so move past something that isn’t so easily overcome.

I want to thank everyone for all the support for last chapter! That was a really tough one to write and I’m sure read. So your support was amazing!

As always likes, reblogs and comments are greatly appreciated!

Tommy’s different. And if you’re honest, you knew in your heart he would be. Al took something that was his and tried to break it, and perhaps in Tommy’s eyes, succeeded. This is a man’s world. You remember your mother telling you that when you were a young girl, after you were caught rolling around in the dirt of the front yard with your brother Finn and his friends while your sister looked on in a huff, telling you to stop.

You didn’t know what she meant then, but you learned soon enough. What happened to you, what was done, that was a man’s price, and in their world, you as a woman pay it. Most men understand that, but few understand what it’s like. Some try, but unless it’s happened to you… Unless you’ve carried the burden of a woman… Walked in her shoes… it’s hard to imagine… Even harder when she said yes.

A place this small, a family this close, people know what happened. You did what you did, but it didn’t break you. That’s what you want them to know. You take great care to ensure you don’t appear troubled or afflicted. You refuse to be seen as weaker or lesser for what’s been done. It’s only at night the truth finds you. It’s only at night you can’t pretend. The pain in your eyes, it scares Tommy. He doesn’t say it, but you can see it. What happened that night changed him too.

Tommy never spent much time with you during the day. His lack of presence doesn’t appear out the ordinary. Only those who knew what you were up to in the dark notice the different. Only they would know Tommy no longer shares your bed, but hovers about you like a new mother waiting for you to fall. He won’t let you out of his sight and if he can’t be there, his most trusted blinders are, or Arthur, or Finn. But Tommy won’t touch you, not like before. And that’s the hardest part, because looking in his eyes, you can’t tell if it’s because he’s afraid he’ll make it worse, or because he doesn’t see you the way he did before.

You’re sound asleep, caught in the fight of slumber that only finds you in the dark, when your eyes close and your mind tries to rest. You’re fine, you tell yourself. You’ve been through worse.

Surely being disowned and sent away by your family in your youth, pregnant and grieving the loss of the only man you ever loved, must be far worse than this. That was months of pain, years of grief. This? This was one night. That’s what you tell yourself even as your dreams weave a different tale entirely.

He finds you in the dark. The musky scent of his pungent cologne and sweaty skin seep up your nose. The forceful grip of his hands on your compliant body, the weight of him pressing and pushing you as he pleased. He’s the one who finds you in the dark.

It’s been nearly two weeks and still he finds you. Your breath is heavy and rapidly, moving in and out of your chest at a breaking necking speed as your heart pounds with a fury and your eyes shoot open with a start in the dark.

You stare up at the old weathered ceiling, paint peeling and hanging above you as you try to catch your breath. You don’t know what you were dreaming, and yet you know exactly what was unfolding. Sometimes the details are murky once you wake. Brought on by any mundane reminder in your day.

You force your breath to blow out slower, heavier - thick and moist as it leaves your lips. You’re trying to calm yourself down before you wake Finn beside you in bed, but then there’s a shift in the shadows. A movement – a change of light.

Someone’s in the room with you, and instantly you’re sent into a raging panic as adrenaline floods through your veins. Your heart is pounding uncontrollably, breath shallow and rapid as you snatch the knife you now keep in the drawer of the bedside table and shoot up in bed ready for a fight.

“Easy Fee, easy. It’s me.” The familiar voice fills the otherwise silent air, husky and thick from a lack of sleep.

You’d know the sound of it anyway, even before you recognize his blue eyes as your trembling hand slowly lowers the knife back to the table.

It’s Tommy, you realize. You’re eyes squinting as you take the sight of him seated on an old wooden chair just a few short feet from your bed. The sight of him throws you off completely. He wasn’t there when you fell asleep.

Perhaps that’s why in all your panic you forgot that’s where he sleeps now. No, Tommy never leaves your side these days, but he won’t share your bed either. Hardly touches you at all. It’s the deepest kind of loneliness, when someone’s right next to you and miles away.

“You were dreaming.” Tommy tells you, as he leans forward in the chair, drawing closer to you.

Dreaming – the word bounces in your head like the hairpin trigger on an easily fired gun and suddenly a firing squad of flashes rapidly assault your mind. The feel of Al on top of you. Choking back your tears as you refused to break. His hand tightening on your neck, the pressure as you gasp.

The dangerous unforgiving look in his eyes as he squeezed tighter and thrust harder into you with no mercy. You swear you can still feel him there – around your neck, between your thighs, and suddenly your stomach is flipping violently, a wave of nausea hitting you as it all comes back to you in a crushing wave.

Covering your mouth, you push out of the bed and stumble past Tommy. Dropping hard on your knees against the unforgiving hardwood floors in front of the pot at the far wall Poll keeps in case the little ones have to go in the night. You lean over it just in time to feel a retch violently wrack through you. Shaking violently through your body as you cough and gag, emptying your stomach into the old brass pot.

You don’t hear Tommy move over the sound of yourself retching, but you feel him crouch down beside you in the dark. Feel his knuckles run hesitantly down the length of your arm as he whispers your name.

“Fee…” You can’t deny the concern on his breath.

Your heart is breaking in the dark. You feel so vulnerable and exposed as your wounds rip back open that as Tommy’s hand starts to pull away, you frantically reach for it, clutching it tight, needing someone to hold onto. But as Tommy squeezes your hand in return you remember, remember that he’s held you at a distance since the incident and you quickly jerk your hand back from him before he can pull away first.

“Mum?” Finn’s groggy voice suddenly fills the room at your back. “Mum are you a’right?” He’s scared, you hear it in his voice, you’d know the pitch of your child’s cry anywhere.

“I’m fine, baby.” You manage to spit out. Lying as you try to comfort him as best you can, afraid if you move from this spot another wave of nausea will hit you. You catch sight of Tommy rising on his feet out of the corner of your eye, before his voice fills your ears.

“She’ll be alright Finn. Why don’ you go sleep with Charlie tonight, ya? I’ll look after her.” You hear Tommy instruct your son as the pad of Finn’s little feet against the old wood floors fills your ears.

“Feel better Mum.” You hear him say as he slips out the bedroom, worry still thick on his breath.

The old creak of the door tells you he’s gone as tears burn in your eyes. You’re an emotional mess and knowing you frightened your child only makes you feel worse. Tommy’s steps are strong, his stride long as you hear him move back toward you.

“Should I call Pol?” He asks as he crouches back down beside you and you can hear it on his breath, he’s unsure what the best course of action is here, but his pity is the last thing you need.

Your fine, you tell yourself. You aren’t about to wake Pol over nonsense, you wouldn’t dream of it. Wiping at your mouth with the back of your hand, you shake your head no and brace your hands on the wooden stabs below. Digging your palms in, you slowly push yourself back on your feet. You sway, a little lightheaded at first as your reach for the wall for perch.

“I gotcha.” Tommy tells you as you feel him take your elbow.

Your eyes meet in the dark and the look on his face as he stares back at you is almost more than you can bear – Uncertainty. Tommy doesn’t know how to help you. He’s unsure of what to do. For a man who’s always so sure of his course of action, it’s almost startling to see such an emotion in his eyes. But for a man who has barely touched you in days, his sudden desire to help only irritates you tonight.

“I’m fine,” You insist, pulling from his grip. You’re fine, you tell yourself again as you move slowly to the basin of water on the desk by the window. Dipping and cupping your hands on the chilly water before you splash it across your face, trying to wash yourself clean. Clean of a stain you can’t quite see, but always seem to feel these days. You rinse your face and neck, splashing water into your mouth, before rising from the basin slowly.

Your gaze drifts off out the window in front of you as water runs down and drips off your face. You stare out into the rainy night, listening as the heavy drops pelt the window, watching the way the rain cuts through the light on the street lamps below like shards of glass.

Your mind wandering… just over two weeks ago you would have been tucked in bed beside him, safe in his arms. You don’t regret what you did for the family, but you blame yourself for the damage it’s done to you and Tommy, and your angry at Tommy for pulling away.

You’re not sure how long you stand there, before Tommy’s hands find your shoulders, rolling the muscle in his palms, and for a split second your body relaxes under his touch. Your tension melts away, the anxious tightness in your chest subsides as a quiet sigh eases off your breath, but then he stops as he starts to guide you away from the window and back toward the bed. Gone as quickly as you captured it, like a dream in the morning light.

“Let’s get ya back to bed now, ya?” Tommy directs on a low gritty breath, still thick and gravel from the night.

“I’ve got it.” You shrug off his grasp.

His fleeting moments of tenderness doing nothing to quell the pain inside your heart. It only amplifies the anger that’s been simmering in your heart for days. He hasn’t left you alone since it happened and yet he’s always kept you at arm’s length. When all your want is a moment of peace, and the assurance he’ll be there, really be there when you need him.

You move of your own accord, feeling Tommy at your back, but as you reach the bed that awaits you, the cold spaces that now fill it taunting you, you turn to him,

“You comin’ to bed?” You test him, already knowing the answer that awaits you. You’ve missed him so desperately, and you hate to admit that, but standing there, after another nightmare, feeling the distance he’s put between you, you find yourself so bloody angry with him for making things worse.

The faint hazy glow from the street lamp and light of the near full moon, illuminates the sharp features of Tommy’s face. He’s hesitant, resistant, you can see it in his eyes.

“You should get some rest.” He tells you, face set like stone and equally unyielding.

You can’t resist the sardonic laugh that spills past your lips in response as angry tears burn at the edges of your eyes. You’re exhausted, physically and emotionally, and his continued rejection is the final straw.

“That’s all ya wan’ me to do these days, aye Tom? Where was the concern for my rest when you were fuckin’ me nearly every night? Am I too broken for ya now? Too much damage for Thomas Shelby.” You raise your eyebrow in challenge at him as tears blur your vision and slowly begin to fall on their own accord. You try your best not to wake the others in the house as the venom building inside you for weeks finally spills free.

“Fiona…” Tommy breathes, his head shaking slowly, denying your claim.

The deep dark pits of his eyes twisting. The intensity of their blue, transforming into something more tortured, more guilt riddled as he reaches for you, trying to pull you closer. You shove his arm away, fire still burning in your belly as you rapidly wipe at your tears, angry at yourself for even crying.

“You think I liked it Tommy? Think I wanted him to fuck me?” You fire back, but the tears continue to build in your eyes and as they do Tommy grabs you, pulling you against him, tight against his chest. You struggle against him, trying to push him away, but he only holds you tighter.

“No Fee. Come on… come on.” He breathes out heavily against your hair.

For a moment you relent, surrender to his arms, finally feeling comforted. The familiar scent of Tommy filling your lungs, the smell of leather, whiskey, and smoke breathing life back into you. This is the closest he’s gotten since the night you came home.

Wrapped in his arms, pulled tight against him, you feel safer, but you’re too angry with him to be appeased so easily. Angry that he’s discarded you. Angry that you gave your body and part of your soul up to a monster, only to be treated like you have the plague afterward. Angry that you can’t even have peace in your dreams. Angry that you don’t feel the same inside yourself anymore. Shoving harder at him, Tommy finally lets you go and stumbles back as you push him away.

“I don’t want your pity, Tommy. I can take care of myself. I always have…. Get out.” You say crossly, but Tommy doesn’t budge. He stares boldly back into your eyes, shoulders growing tense, but he doesn’t move.

“No,” He tells you unequivocally.

“Get out!” You finally snap at him, your heart breaking, and Tommy snaps back at you just as quick.

“No! I’m not fuckin’ leaving!” Tommy erupts, his voice twice the volume of yours as he yells at you for the first time ever.

You stand frozen in place, your chest heaves, rising and falling heavily as you stare at him, Tommy’s deep tortured eyes staring back at you. You don’t know what to say as Tommy looks at you in almost disbelief before he drops down into the chair he’d slept on, lowering his face into his hands as he scrubs at his eyes in frustration.

Pulling the case from his waistcoat, Tommy clears his throat as he plucks a cigarette and places it in the seam of his lips before flicking his lighter. The room is suddenly eerily silent, except for the sound of Tommy pulling away at his cigarette – the deep inhale and exhale of his lips, the quiet burn of the paper as the rain carries on outside.

You stand there, not backing down, not charging ahead as you cross your arms against your chest and watch him. He takes a few more long pulls of his cigarette before letting out a long sigh and rising from his seat. Tossing his cigarette into fireplace, he turns back to you, suddenly taking your face in his hands.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at ya, but I need ya to get some rest and feel better, a’right?” Tommy tells you. His palms are rough, but his tone and words are softer than before.

You look into his eyes, the endless blue depths staring back at you, and for the first time since that night you feel like you’re staring into the eyes of the man you love. The man you’ve grown to know over these past few years. The tortured and broken man, who doesn’t speak softly to anyone the way he is with you now.

“Yeah?” He nods slowly, trying to coax your compliance as his thumb drags across your cheek. He’s scared for you and what’s becoming of you, you can see it.

The sight of him, the man you love only stirs a deeper longing and loneliness as you stare back at him.

“Are we done, Tommy?” You ask, exhausted and beaten down by it all. A life that’s been long, and seems to only steal your happiness as soon as you grasp it, every glimmer, every time, except Finn.

“No,” He answers, without hesitation, before he leans in and you feel his soft full lips touch your forehead as his thumb strokes at your cheek.

You glance back at the bed, the lonely confines that await you. Accepting you fate, you nod in agreement as you look back to him. But that tenderness you felt in his lips a moment ago, you still see it in his eyes now, as Tommy holds your gaze for a moment before he begins to shuffle off his shoes.

“Come on,” He says quietly as he moves you to the bed. You smile at him gratefully as you climb into it and watch as Tommy follows behind you. You roll onto your side and feel Tommy’s arm hesitantly wrap around your body.

“Is this- is this good?” He asks unsure, it’s then you can see he’s still afraid to touch you.

Unsure how to hold a woman another man has damaged. You reassure him quietly, wrapping your arm around his as your eyes close, but there’s still a nagging at the edge of your mind, an itch under your skin that never quite goes away.

You pray to the only God you’ve ever known to let this feeling pass and just let you be whole again. But as you drift away, into that thick space, hovering between here and the place you go when you close your eyes, you know in your heart nothing will be as it was before, as surely as you did the day you learned Tony was never coming home.

It was part of the deal, you knew that… But you had agreed to it before everything happened. And now you feel bound to follow through. Tommy is livid when he learns of the new clause in the contract. As far he’s concerned you should never be the same room with Al or any member of his fuckin’ family again.

His anger helps you focus, gives you something to think about and draw your attention to other than your own anxiety and fear. He wants you to break this part of the deal, call the whole thing off, but after everything that happened, you think it might be easier to just be done with it.

Maura, Tony’s mother – Al’s mother, she just wants to see her grandson again. She hasn’t seen Finn since he was just a baby and you were living destitute with your ‘aunt’ Brona. You know she misses him, misses what he represents, the last living piece of her dead son. As a mother, you don’t have the heart to rob her of that, so you agreed. To a meeting. To allow Maura to see her grandson. That’s it, that’s all it is you try to convince yourself and Tommy.

It’s Polly who brings sense to it all. A voice of clarity, she makes Tommy see there’s no reason to mix more bad blood into the business. This isn’t for Al, she tells him, but Tommy still hates it.

He only agrees if he can arrange everything. The whole fucking thing must be on his terms, where he feels you and Finn are safest or it’s off. Tommy can’t leave Small Health without being shot, so he has the lunch booked at the Midland Hotel. It’s just you, Tommy and Finn that attend the lunch, and every Blinder Tommy can pull away from other jobs to fill the hotel.

Your nerves are on edge, anxiety racing, you haven’t seen Al since that night. It’s been nearly a month and your stomach has still been in knots the whole ride, but you don’t let it show. You bury it deep.

After years of it only being you and Finn, your son has learned how to read you like a book. You know he’s nervous, meeting these people he doesn’t know, but if he senses any reservations in you too, it’ll only make matters worse. You stay strong for him as you always have.

Entering the Hotel lounge Tommy has reserved, you feel your fear and anxiety begin to peak. Your chest tightens, breath quickening, stomach tangling in knots, just a few more steps and you’ll be eye to eye with the man that terrorized you nearly a month ago, and yet it feels like just yesterday.

But as Finn’s big nervous eyes shoot up to yours, you find your inner strength, and push your own fears down as you force a reassuring smile across your face. No experience in this life has made you stronger than becoming a mother. The instinctual drive to keep him safe, knowing his very life often depends upon you, that experience has created a reservoir of strength inside you you couldn’t have imagined before him.

The knots linger down deep in your belly, but you wrestle to keep them down below. You decide then and there, Al doesn’t get to have any more of you. You learned long ago people can only take your power if you let them, and you’re not handing yours out to that son of a bitch.

You’re steadfast in your conviction until you turn the corner and there he is, standing tall and erect beside his elderly mother, suit just as clean and pressed as you remember. He smiles at you as if your old friends and the sight of it sends shivers down your spine.

Your feet stall for a moment, Finn’s eyes shooting back up to you when you abruptly stop walking. You will yourself to move, but god help you, it’s moments like these you’re painfully reminded… You’re only human.

Your feet are like lead on the plush carpet until you feel Tommy’s hand come to rest on your lower back, rubbing shapeless doodles into your spine, easing the tension. You feel his lips press lightly against the back of your head.

“Breathe,” Tommy instructs and you obey, slowly sucking in a deep breath, filling your lungs before you release it slowly back out. You glance up at him and he meets your gaze, reminded you’re not alone in this, you don’t have to be brave alone. His jaw is set, his face like stone, Tommy looks cold and uninviting, but you understand, that isn’t for you, it’s for Al and Maura.

He gives you a subtle nod and you begin to move again until you reach the table. You’d grown to care for Maura after Finn’s birth, but it’s been a long time and the air in the room feels thick and awkward as you try to start. The hotel is old and grand, held together by tall columns of mahogany and shiny marble floors.

The lounge is enormous with a beautifully hand painted ceiling, ornate crown molding along the trim and vast cream-colored walls cut apart by tall floor to ceiling windows that stream in light. You imagine this room is usually used for fine dining and important gala’s, but today it only holds your small group. Gangsters, mothers, a child and blinders at the door. The vast space seems to swallow you all up and only adds to the already palpable unease of the room.

Maura comes around the table slowly. It’s been so long and you sense she’s nervous too. She smiles at you kindly before her attention drops down to Finn.

“Hello Finn, I’m your nonna.” She says softly, reaching out her hand.

Finn’s giant blue eyes shoot up to you as you give him a nod of encouragement before he glances back down, extending his hand. “Hello,” He answers back, shaking her hand.

“Shall we sit?” Maura asks, motioning to the table.

You nod and begin to answer when Al suddenly clears his throat and sends your whole body filling with tension as your gaze involuntarily shoots his way.

“Mr. Shelby and I have a few things to discuss. Why don’t you ladies start. We’ll join you in a moment.” He suggests before he turns to Tommy.

“Mr. Shelby here doesn’t mind sharin’ his girl, am I right?” Al digs, like a screw turning just a little tighter. You can see it in Al’s eyes, that look – he loves playing games with people.

Your eyes shoot over your shoulder to Tommy. Your heart begins to race as you watch his jaw flex. He’s livid, but he’s trying to keep control. He knows just as well as you what Al is trying to do. His eyes meet yours and you plead with him silently not to take the bait.

Reaching into his jacket, Tommy promptly retrieves his cigarette case and has a smoke pressed tightly between his lips and sparked in seconds.

“Anything we need to discuss can be done in the back of the room.” Tommy finally answers, ignoring Al’s barb all together, but making it clear, he will not be leaving this room.

You take a seat at the table, motioning for Finn to take the one between you and Maura, as you glance over and watch Tommy and All walk steadily to the back corner of the large lounge. You heart begins to race, Tommy looks as calm as can be, slowly pulling away at his cigarette other hand in the pocket of his waistcoat, but he doesn’t know Al like you do.

He doesn’t know how cruel and manipulative he can be. And the sinking feeling in your gut tells you Al isn’t done playing games. You turn back as Finn tugs on the sleeve of your shirt. His big blue eyes stare up at you with uncertainty as his hand slips into your own and squeezes it tight.

You notice Maura has placed a toy truck on the table, a gift for him surely. The look in her eyes is suspended, awaiting his response as she tries to win him over. You can see it in your little boy’s eyes, he doesn’t know what’s expected of him. He’s smart enough to know this lady wants his attention, but he doesn’t know her either.

You explained to him the situation the night before, preparing him for who he would be meeting, but hearing it and fully understanding it are very different things to a seven-year-old boy who’s never really had a family before Tommy and Charlie. You smile down to your son, squeeze his hand in return, and give him a nod before he turns back to Maura and thanks her politely for the gift.

You gaze drifts back to the end of the lounge as you listen to Maura ask Finn about things he likes, trying to get to know the boy, but the conversation quickly fades away as your eyes zero in on Tommy and Al at the far end of the room. The tension on Tommy’s face is unmistakable even from across the room. Though you’re sure it’s not readable to anyone else.

You can see he tries to ignore Al, his gaze set squarely on you, but his shoulders are held tight as he puffs away on another cigarette. You smile weakly over at him as your eyes meet. Silently urging him to behave, keep this pleasant for Finn’s sake, but you can only imagine what game Al must be trying to play. Having been held captive by his manipulation on a night you’ll never forget, you’re certain he’s still trying to play.

As the lunch wears on and the minutes pass, your attention continues to be torn, between your son as he tries to get to know the grandmother he doesn’t remember and Tommy. Maura tries to make conversation, telling you she thinks he has Tony’s smile, making note of your current inability to leave Small Heath, how unfortunate the circumstance is, and the questionable company you now keep, but you ignore most of it, you have no intention of explaining yourself to her. That’s not what this visit is for.

She asks you about the boy’s schooling and you absently explain you’ve been teaching him at home yourself, when you notice Tommy’s muscles suddenly tighten, you see his jaw flex and fire ignite in his powerful blue eyes. Your stomach clenches, you can see this is about to go very bad and fast, as you quickly excuse yourself for a moment and rise from the table, moving toward him. It’s only when you grow near do you hear the conversation at hand, the taunts Al jabs and tries to provoke Tommy with.

“You see the key is you gotta grip her tight. Her eyes’ll water, mouth gasping like one of those fuckin’ guppy fish, but trust me, she fuckin loves it. Begging me to fuck her harder, till her eyes start to roll in the back of her head. Just before she’s about to pass out, that’s when you release her throat.”

His words sucker punch you in the gut as you suddenly think you might be sick on the lush carpet below. Your stomach flipping, but you have no time to focus on that as Tommy suddenly turns on Al. You find yourself having to push your way between them as you catch sight of Tommy reaching for his holstered gun.

“Tommy no!” You demand, the sound of your desperate voice calling his name breaks through his fury as his eyes drop down to yours.

“He’s not worth it. Please Finn is here.” You try to talk him down, your hand pressing against his arm that’s gripping his gun. Trying desperately to calm him down as the look in your eyes pleads with him. While your disgusted and revolted by what he said, your child’s in the room.

Tommy’s chest moves hard, the vein in his neck pulsing, but slowly his hand leaves his holster. Touching gently at your face as if to say – I hear you. His eyes shoot up pointedly to Al’s, the look in his gaze the kind of dark and deadly you’ve never seen him use before.

“You should watch your fuckin mouth. She’s the only reason your alive right now.” His voice low and gritty, but eerily calm in way you’ve never heard Tommy speak before. So foreign you hardly recognize it.

“An’ why do you think that is?” You hear Al jab, throwing one last knife at Tommy’s heart, but watching him slice at Tommy again is more than you can take as you finally snap. Hurting you is one thing, hurting the people you love is another beast entirely.

“Oh shut up!” You holler at him.

Turning back to face Al, you don’t know what comes over you. Maybe it’s all the pain inside you, or the fact that he’s now trying to hurt your family after trying to break you, but suddenly you’re moving in on him, jabbing a finger violently at his chest as you boldly glare into his eyes unafraid.

“Tony despised you. He hated everything you were. Used to warn me about you, because even then he knew you were a monster.” You hiss out, seconds away from slapping him across the face when you feel Tommy’s hand on your shoulder.

“Let’s go.” He directs, the even tone of his voice stabilizing you, bringing you back down, calming you.

“Yes, lets.” You agree. Sucking in a sharp steadying breath as you pull yourself together and turn to your son watching you with big worried eyes from the table.

“Come on Finn.” You call, motioning for your son. “I’m sorry Maura. We have to go.”

The older woman looks frazzled and confused by what’s unfolded as she rises quickly from the table.

“Can I see him again?” She asks, an air of panic on her breath as Finn leaves the truck on the table and runs to you.

“We’ll be in touch.” You nod steely, your arm wrapped protectively around your son’s shoulders.

But as you turn to go, you hear an ominous threat seep off Tommy’s lips, the low grit of his voice signaling these parting words are meant only for Al’s ears to catch.

“In business or in pleasure, one of these days I will kill you.”

#Tommy Shelby #thomas shelby #Peaky Blinders #tommy shelby x oc #tommy shelby imagine #tommy shelby fanfiction #thomas shelby x oc #thomas shelby fanfiction #thomas shelby fanfic #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinders imagine

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micropenisunveiled-blog · 6 years ago

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How Having a Small Penis Messes With Men’s Minds

I noticed my penis was one of the smaller in the bunch as a kid, when I used the communal showers after swimming, track and basketball practices. So for a long time public washing was strictly off limits—I'd rather drive home from the gym in my sweaty clothes and shower in the privacy of my own apartment.

My insecurities about his 3.3-inch erection affect more than just my hygiene habits. Condoms didn't stay on well, and that made sex more of an anxiety trip than it already was. In a recent bout of obsession, I gathered a "database" of scientific papers on penises and measured myself multiple times a day for several weeks to see how I sized up. Growing up, it shaped me socially, even when my pants were on. Because of teasing from my brothers and some team mates at school I became quite insecure. I had an ongoing fear that I would never grow up, never become a man. I feel that my low self-esteem, due to my size, was a main driver for this. I did an interview with Michelle Malia, freelance reporter on November 3 2017 that was published in Tonic.

I am reprinting the article here.

I suspect that lots of guys can relate to my story. It is part of why I started this website.

THE TONIC ARTICLE

Almost one in five American men are unhappy with the length of their erection, according to a recent study of more than 4,000 men, and another 15 percent have a problem with their girth. You won't be surprised to learn that the guys who thought their penises fell short had less sex than the penis-proud group. "Being small can be the heaviest of burdens. I'm genuinely afraid of everything and everybody alike," says David, 30. "I feel I just can't be truly sexually desirable to women with my size."

There's a lot of dick-shaming that perpetuates this idea. When Marco Rubio exposed Donald Trump's small hands, Trump felt the need to tell the whole country that his penis was perfectly fine, thanks. (On national television. During a presidential debate.) In a Fat Shack ad, a seductive blonde—lips parted, a trail of mustard dripping out of her mouth á la cum—holds a sandwich. "Four inches has never been so satisfying," the caption reads.

It goes beyond mainstream news and marketing and weasels its way into casual conversation. "A lot of the jokes we make in everyday life are often sexually related in one way or another," says Abraham Morgentaler, a urologist and the director of Men's Health Boston, whose practice focuses on the health effects of testosterone deficiency. "It's sort of standard humor for guys to josh each other about masculinity type stuff, including penis size."

Movies and television frequent take jabs at villains and characters by assaulting their masculinity. No one would consider making fun of a man with one arm, or a blind individual. When asked in a recent Bloomberg poll what bothered them most about Donald Trump voters picked one action above all others: when he mocked a reporter with a disability in November 2015. But no one winces when someone makes fun of a man’s small penis. Interesting!

Morgentaler calls men with dick fixations "peno-centric." The idea that the size of your junk validates you as a man might start as early as boyhood. "When we're younger and coming of age sexually, when there's a lack of sophistication about what it means, number one, to be a man, and number two to be a good lover, the thing that men can see and point to and certainly think about is really the penis," he says.

Boyhood is synonymous with inexperience, and sadly, we don't magically figure everything out as adults. Some guys may think they're small even when they're not, but for the ones who do fall left of the bell curve, the best way to get over it is by being realistic about what your penis "should" look like and how important it really is in the long term”, Morgentaler says.

Lots of people never have the chance to see other people having healthy, real-life sex, so they might base their expectations on the sex they do see, usually in porn. But—shocker—porn is not real life. Those macho men are more than well endowed and that can give off the wrong idea, that you need to sport an eight- or nine-inch shaft (also, ow—but we'll get to that later) to satisfy your sex partners.

"If a guy watches 50 or 100 of these video clips, he's going to feel inadequate because he may be smaller than every one of those," Morgentaler says. "But those men are extremely unusual." When researchers sifted through data on more than 15,000 men, they found that the average penis is 3.6 inches soft and 5.2 inches erect. Nothing like many of the massive dicks we see on our laptops.

On a purely biological level, it's also irrational to think size has anything to do with your baby-making skills. "If it matters from an evolutionary standpoint, the best question would be, does it increase fertility?" says Robert Martin, an evolutionary biologist and adjunct professor at the University of Chicago. "The testes size indicates the potential of producing sperm, but I don't see any connection between penis size and anything that would be important in evolutionary terms." There's no evidence that primates have ever used their penises as a power display, he adds, and it may even have little to no effect on how physically desirable you are as a man.

Australian researchers generated 343 life-size male figures that ranged in body shape, body height, and penis size. They projected these "men" on a screen and asked 105 heterosexual women to rate how sexually attractive they were. The women cared most about body shape, which was responsible for 79.6 percent of attractiveness. (They preferred a triangular torso with wide shoulders and narrow hips.) Height came next with 6.1 percent, and penis size fell by the wayside, accounting for only 5.1 percent of attractiveness. "It seems to be a male preoccupation," Martin says.

It's a preoccupation that can be debilitating. Andy, 24, has never heard complaints from sex partners about his 4.7-inch erection, but he still can't shake the feeling that he's coming up a half-inch short. "It lingers in my mind throughout the day on a regular basis," he says. "It causes great anxiety and depression most of the time." Andy started to notice he was smaller than average when he was 19. Like Jase, he also measures a lot. "There [have] been days when I find myself spending a huge amount of time with a ruler next to my penis."

When he's naked in front of sex partners, he often tries to cut through the awkwardness of the initial reveal by being self-deprecating—"It's small, huh?"—but nobody has ever complained or agreed.

It's not crazy that Andy's partners aren't throwing him shade. When it's part of the equation, the penis is an important part of sex—whether it's the real thing or the dildo equivalent. But it's not everything. "How we talk and behave in bed, how we touch, these are all important parts of what makes for good sex," Morgentaler says. "The hands and the mouth and the lips are all part of that. The penis is just one part of the repertoire."

Bigger is not always better, and that goes for anal, too. Research in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that 72 percent of women and 15 percent of men feel pain during anal sex. In another study, 76 percent of bottoms reported pain during anal, and for 23 percent of those guys, it was worse than mild.

Not to mention more than a third of women need clitoral stimulation, not penetration, to reach orgasm.

Jace told us that he wonders if he was born bisexual, or if his life experiences led him to exploring sexuality with men, specifically because of his fear of intimacy with women after bad experiences. In his relationships with women he told us that he had used large strap-ons, penis extenders, and sex toys of all kinds before he finally figured out all women need is need is clitoral stimulation to reach her oh-my-god moments. Now I helps her plateau using the basics: his mouth and, sometimes, a vibrator. In his relations with men Jace told us that he is exclusively a bottom, and has come to prefer orgasms through prostate stimulation.

Jace has three decades of life in the books, he's been married and in a long term dom/sub relationship with another man—that's a lot of time to figure out what is and isn't important in your relationships and sex life. Younger guys might need to live a little more before they figure that out. "Every time I hear stories about guys my age hooking up and having one-night stands and even being in relationships, it gets to me because I know I can't ever do any of those [things] because of my size," Andy says.

The peno-centric approach can keep you from engaging with others in all sorts of ways, whether fully clothed or bare-ass naked. Morgentaler recently saw a patient who was worried that he wasn't "developed" down there—despite his junk being "completely normal," Morgentaler says—and because of that, he was still a virgin.

Jace doesn't get regular checkups anymore, because at his last visit the doctor brought in several interns including a young woman to check him for a hernia. "I really thought that I was going to die of embarrassment right in the doctor's office," he says.

David doesn't like swimming or going to the beach because he feels exposed. "I can say with all my heart, I'd be way more happy and have a better life if I had a normal penis," he says.

It might seem like a huge deal when it comes to first-time hookups or one-night stands, but in the longer term, your penis does not take top priority. Most aspects of a relationship have nothing to do with what's in your pants—compatibility, mutual respect, and sense of humor, to name a few. Good sex is also high up there in importance, but using your penis is just one way to satisfy your partner, and it's naive to prioritize size over everything else.

"I would emphasize that this problem often goes away when a guy ends up in a stable relationship, because the couple figures out what they do that works, and penis size is usually not an impediment," Morgentaler says. "The quality of the man is not dependent on the size of his penis."

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bedlamgames · 6 years ago

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Q&A #94

Today we have various forms of removal, the new biomancy assignment, and corruption among others.

nh-maikochan said: Regarding the bimbo slave not being sold: Yes she did have bimboborn. Also, I think I may have sent a message like this before and have totally forgotten. If this is just a repeat, feel free to ignore it.

Thanks that really did help solve the issue. Should be sorted now as of the current update.

doof-ex-machina said: Hello! Could I ask some question about one particular problem I'm facing playing No Haven? The thing is, when I try to save a game and then load it, all the names of slavers and slaves in the boxes disappear, and that's just 'Slaver 1', 'Slaver 2' and so on that are visible in Inventory, Visible Characters and Room Objects boxes. I tried all the versions of RAGS available but none of them helped to solve the problem.

That’s a RAGS issue. Make sure you’re saving only when it is safe as detailed at the beginning of the game. Other than that if you finish day the names should update back to normal.

Anonymous said: I cannot for the life of me figure out how to remove someone from a current role in the camp on No Haven.... would you be willing to tell me? I am probably missing it because it's stupid simple.

No problems. Same way as setting them to the role so Right click > Talk to > Assign to an Encampment Position > -None-.

There’s a couple of positions like second-in-command where slavers will resist giving up power and for them you’ll have to use more nefarious methods.

Anonymous said: [NH 0.821] Bug / suggestion: My slaver has Dolled Up, and a ton of other corruptions, which is great, but the description is weird. Due to DU, it describers my slaver as having "dark crimson rubber skin[...]" and then "have eyes[...]covered up entirely", but the very next line describes my ponytail. Hair on red rubber is a weird mental image. Might I suggest that DU simply makes the skin rubbery rather than changing the color? That, and not replace the eyes? I miss my heterochromia. Thank you!

It is corrupted rubber of perversion and evil so is capable of having holes for hair :)

Also one of the risks with corruption is you can very much lose as well as win such is the risks of flirting with depravity for power be it traits, arms, or even your nice eyes.

Anonymous said: [no haven 0.843] so I tried to do basic bimbo training with a slave that had advanced obedience, selected 2 slavers and noticed it needed 3 so I clicked on slavers and then it began the assignment blocking the slave slot but not starting the assignment AND removing the slave permanently, seems like it is also overflowing because I'm getting "not enough to defend the encampment" while I have 6 out of 8 slavers in the camp.

Thanks for letting me know and will sort it for the next update.

Anonymous said: Love the new update, though I have several questions. A: How does one start the quest to gain better Biomancy? B: Say I had a Second-in-command who was set as my characters former owner. This seems to give the character massive bonuses to respect checks. My character has Dominator and Thrallforge, but I still cant succeed Dominating to get him to go nude, etc. Is it currently possible to succeed at such a check? C: Is there currently no way to force a 2nd out of their role via the respect check system? Surely we should be able to dominate or trigger them into giving up the post? D: On a related note, why is there no option to dominate when trying to force a merc to join the camp? E: Is there some kind of block preventing me from shrinking an Amazon Futanari's cock with Biomancy? I tried dozens of times, and never had any results. Anyway, thats all I can think of for now. Look forward to your answers. If I remember more Ill ask. Again, love the game and update!

The new assignment that will start the biomancy chain begins in the City of Aversol. It's a rare assignment, can be done by anyone with or without biomancy, and like bred to be broken you need a certain amount of gold in the stash to find it.

Theoretically I think? It’s going to be a long shot though unless you can mess with them like making them a bimbo through corruption or send them off on quick as you like.

Not currently. Will think about it.

Dominating is a short term will overwhelm so once it’s done the merc would just be unhappy and leave.

Futanari for plot related reasons which I swear I’ll get to eventually can’t have their cocks shrunk by biomancy.

Anonymous said: Since we already have Recruiter customization options for brother/sister, any chance we'll see father/mother or son/daughter added as options? I'd love to see that feature expanded on in general, especially if it adds more options for incest.

I’ll think about it. Not super into incest as it is, and the parental versions even less so. Saying that next update will have some implication in regard to one of the assignments so it’s possible as long as it’s not that much of a focus.

madron-fc said: Had the following happen to me in 0.843 of NoHaven, not sure if it is intended behaviour: I went on the Mountains asignment to catch the male drow after which I did get the request to fullfill. After doing some training on the new slave, I realised that the opportunity was no longer listed amon the asignments. I thought it might have just timed out without me noticing, but way later into that same game I got a notice for that very opportunity to soon time out. my guess is that when I completetd the advanced Sissy Training and the Slave changed name, the asignment disappears, but I do not have a save of that time so I cannot test this.

Huh, okay. That opportunity is timed in regard to expiry, but that does sound off. Will check, thank you.

And now some more from outside of the tumblr:

From Hypnopics: Is the demi Angel commission added to the game?

If you mean the four-winged Truly Divine one then that commission is being used for an assignment next update.

From Hypnopics: This game really needs a way to quickly and easily dismiss slavers and slaves you don't want. You should be able to immediately sell slaves taken as loot, even if only for 15-20 gold and able to R. click - dismiss slaves and slavers. I keep hitting a wall with content blocked because i have too many mediocre slaves/ slavers.

Update following the next one is going to be about having a more reliable way of freeing slaves than sending them to the whore makers. Slavers I always wanted to be one of your challenges to manage with more events coming involving them working to undermine your authority which is why you're limited to assignments like Sudden Betrayal. Saying that there likely will be more options to manipulate their morale/reputation to get them to bugger off coming in future. I'm also planning to introduce slave mines/farms/temples where you'll be able to parcel off a whole number of slaves and slavers at once for an ongoing bonus and the occasional choice/assignments to keep them going.

From TFGames: Loving the new update so far. I was playing with the slave mantras and really liking them, but had something happen. Had gotten two mantras on one slave, Obedience, which had fully embedded, and Sissy, which was at the advanced stage. I was planning on adding some more later, but wanted to finish his proper training first. I ended up getting a crit on Advanced Obedience training and giving him the Obedient trait (there's too many uses of the word Obedient in this paragraph). After that, I couldn't select him for hypnosis. I suspect because of the Obedient trait, it thinks that he has the Denial mantra embedded (which also gives the trait and blocks other mantras). Also, I haven't tried yet, but does the Bimbo mantra block Bimbo training? I had a couple odd situations in the previous version where traits gained outside of training blocked those associated trainings. Two main examples: Had a slave escape, recaptured with a crit, then escaped and recaptured with a crit again, giving them Obedient. However I couldn't do Advanced Obedience Training with them any more. Second was had a slave at Basic Sissy training stage and they got the Pretty Maid corruption result, switching them to the Sissy gender, but also blocking the Advanced Sissy training option. No I know these might be redundant, but the trainings alone add value to the slave, but then getting traits with shortcuts or luck could be a balancing factor, so it might be intentional. Anyway, this was in the last version so it might not be in the current one.

Those are both connected issues and kind of working as intended. If you get what the training/hypnosis is basically trying to achieve then that training/hypnosis becomes no longer available. Think about it as having different paths to the same result. Does mean that you don't get the same value bonuses, but I think I'm okay with that as it reflects how long you spent perfecting the slave and keeps them from being quite so similar in the long run. I do agree though that this can feel off and I'm open to other takes on this as it's feedback I've heard a few times now.

From TFGames: I voted Lamia because I feel like keeping track of all your slavers and all their traits is exhausting and starting with one fewer gives you a bit of time to get familiar with them before adding more.

There's also elitist and proactive under the full custom options if you want to start with less slavers. If you want to go full minimalist there's also the golem scenario where you start with only three slavers.

(This is in regard to the current poll running on the TFGames discussion thread)

From TFGames: Hello, I just spent about 20 hours playing this awesome game for the past 3 days!! It made me insane. I especially loved exploring the limits of corruption and biomancy. There is a lot of content with cum consumption, which is pretty cool =). There's one thing I didn't get: how to raise the encampment leader's tolerance for highly rated armors and clothes? I could wear a 55 rated item at most, but that's it. Oh and also, can the encampment leader get corrupted to the point of getting Babydoll? Or is that just for other players? I managed to inflict Babydoll on two slaves, but never on myself. Anyway, this game is awesome =D. Thank you for doing this.

Thank you, I'm glad you've been enjoying it! The clothing limit is in place to prevent you completely fucking your ability to lead by putting yourself in bondage. Then now the takeover options are included I may just remove it so you can see how long you can last while being in an armbinder and the like Babydoll for now is limited to others. Will possibly change this again given the takeover options as such a naive and gullible leader is also not going to last long at all. Though for that I'd want to include more personalization for the player to properly reflect that corruption.

#Q&A

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abarahman-richard-chignell · 6 years ago

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The Start is Always Difficult

It is always a little difficult to think of how to start anything and somewhat nerve-wracking putting yourself out there.

As a Muslim, we know that all good things start with Bismillah.

So, Bismillah.

Now I have the perfect start but then I immediately run into trouble knowing how to kick this new project off!

After all it is has been a long time since I used to write a fairly popular niche blog about trading. It had a decent readership mainly because of the series I conducted called the 'Pro's Process' which interviewed professional traders and investors from all different styles (33 to be exact). I have kept that available for free on Tumblr and you can find a link near the bottom of the page at richardchignell.tumblr.com. I still think it is a good resource and it is free despite others selling 'courses' with similar material - but those making money out of wannabe traders who can't trade their own way out of a wet paper bag is a topic for another day!

With my old Embrace The Trend blog I accidentally at first, and then as a kind of act of rebellion, had a policy that limited my readership. I didn't give 'hot tips' on stocks or make 'market calls' as to the direction of corn futures. Instead, I focussed on the part that makes or breaks traders and investors. The luminaries before me have often said that psychology is anywhere from 80% to 90% of what makes a successful trader. However, if you want readership of a finance blog then you definitely don't want to do as I did and actually point people to the area they will reap the most rewards. You do want to create a lot of hoopla about where things are going and how you made 1000's of percent with never an equity drawdown in sight. (My own edge in the markets is heavily due to my work in the area of psychology and thanks in a no small part to the wonderful mentors I have had along the way. Perhaps if people are interested I can go into my process for communicating with world-class mentors).

However, I seem to have digressed, but at least I have started. As I said it is always hard to start, so the fact that I have means I am beyond the first hurdle. After all, it is all about putting one foot in front of the other.

The main question at hand, is really, why am I writing again?

As I was just about to commence I found these Grammarly lines in their marketing emails that I thought were rather apt:

"Writing opens a line of communication between you and other people. And when you commit to improving your writing, you open yourself up to better conversations, remarkable accomplishments, and healthier relationships."

I'll certainly take that if it is the outcome of my writing to you.

However, actually I am writing for you first and me second. .......It turns out that a lot of people have been asking me to begin writing again. People ask me to talk to them and share about the same topics (being a revert to Islam, investing, start-ups, business, conventional vs Islamic economy, my perspective on the ummah as a revert, strangely for advice as if I am a Sheikh *I most definitely am not*, etc, etc). This happens so much that it has got to the point that doing so in one central place may serve people better (as there are only so many people I can talk to personally). This is also why I am playing around with a kind of spoken blog format. If we can't sit for coffee together, at least perhaps you can hear me. Plus I know how few like to read anymore! Yes, colleagues, I am referring to you!!

Also after my adventures, in the SE Asian start-up space, many perhaps also wonder if I dropped off the face of the earth, and I plan to use this blog to keep people a little up-to-date as to what I am currently working on.

So this is going to be inshaAllah a personal blog where I riff on topics that interest me and try to help others through sharing lessons I have learned as I approach my 40th year.

For those who don't know me at all and are reading this perhaps for the first time, let me give you a very rapid-fire introduction as to why I have a unique perspective perhaps on certain matters.

.....But first, let me tackle the inshaAllah above! Look this is going to be difficult to pitch correctly to all the potential people reading this. Writing as a Muslim I feel obliged to use all the terms such as inshaAllah (as God very clearly tells us in the Qu'ran that he controls the future, not us, and that we must thus say inshaAllah - if God wills it') but then it also makes for very clunky reading for those who are not Muslim or new to the faith. So for the hardliners out there, not that your judgement is relevant, every time you see me not using a term, think well of your Brother, because the chances are I certainly thought it and that I deliberately chose to omit it for the benefit of the nice people reading this. In contrast, my non-Muslim readers please bear with me as you come across unusual terms peppered through the writing (you've already had Bismillah - in the name of God - and inshaAllah - if God wills it) you are about to find out that us Muslims are a funny bunch and we like to remember God as often as possible, hence the terms. Don't you worry no harm will come of it and you will adjust to reading the odd term here and there as if it is commonplace, inshaAllah ;-))

.......Now, where was I? Unique perspective and all that.....

I'm currently approaching my fortieth year in this life and I reverted to Islam just shy of 3 years ago, Alhamdullilah (All Praise is due to God). I did this after a great deal of study and research, without really meeting any Muslims. I, of course, had met Muslims in my heart, those beautiful characters in the Quran and the Seerah (the life of Prophet Muhammad pbuh), and some of the great men of history as I am a voracious reader. But my acceptance of Islam was in no way from personal interaction with current Muslims. I share this as this is one of the reasons for the unique perspective. The Muslims we meet as newcomers to the religion, I have found this to be almost an absolute truth polling other reverts, basically, break our hearts! However, I have been blessed by God all my life by having a knack for finding excellent people to learn from.

Prior to Islam, after University I worked in a bank selling mortgages, went on to a graduate management business program, becoming a financial services headhunter, opening my own firm in Switzerland / Germany - losing my firm in the 2008 crisis, becoming a self-taught prop trader (specialising in commodity futures, spreads, and some options) and doing some random consulting along the way in everything from corporate structuring to alternative agriculture.

As the Muslims reading this will realise the last phase of my life as a trader basically meant that I specialised, and I was really good, in the haram (the forbidden). Interest (Riba) and derivatives in Islam are forbidden and that was my game!

......I am not a Brother that does things by half! The moment I said my Shahada (all that is required to become a Muslim) I stopped futures trading and faced a very uncertain future. Not only does a revert often lose family and friends (and if they don't certainly have major hurdles coming their way) but this revert had to work out how to make a living again!

When I decided to reinvent myself I quickly immersed myself in the Islamic Finance world, moved to Malaysia, consulted in the start-up space, and have been working towards bringing to life a number of exciting things that are Halal (pure) and I see as being much needed in this world: they range from Shariah-compliant Asset Management - to a Think Tank - to a new way of doing an old style of Philanthropy (waqf) - to real economy infrastructure work like building roads in the Philippines!!

......Even over this short 3-year journey, I have met such a variety of Muslim. They have been so diverse that a baby Muslim just having taken his shahada could never have imagined: I've met the least bending of Salafi, to the Sufi, to the 'claim to be Muslim but follow some really weird stuff Muslim', to the beer drinking for Iftar Muslim, the all too present Friday Muslim, a whole lot of "I don't really get what a wonderful Blessing it is to be a Muslim", to thankfully the majority of 'trying my best to make it in this wold Muslim', to the inspirationally humble pious Brothers and Sisters who are drawn to the masjid and charity Muslim and everything in between and from every colour and nation to boot. SubhanAllah (Glorified is Allah) the Ummah is diverse!!

The great blessing in this is the Muslims that stood out like shining gold and were there and many still are there for me in my development as a Muslim. Who I am blessed to have, for periods, travelling this journey with me. I realise that not many of my revert Brothers and Sisters have been quite so lucky to have Mufti's, Sheikhs, honest pious businessmen that they can ask any question to and receive legit answers. I also realise it is such a minefield out there with internet Sheikhs and community voices that really often do more harm than good and thank Allah swt for making my life filled with those who have actually studied this beautiful tradition and making them available to me to ask the many questions that arise.

.......It is my hope to address some of the challenges I faced, how I went about them, the advice I received or knowledge I acquired, as well as tackling some of the consistent ones other reverts face along the way - and I pray that it is of some benefit to even one of you. Please note that I throw in a very strong disclaimer that this is from my perspective, I am not a Sheikh, I am just a slave like everyone else, All Good that I say comes from Allah swt, and I ask forgiveness for anything that is misguided.

Oh and you never know since I have found that many born Muslims have a sort of rediscovery/reversion process, I hope that you'll benefit and enjoy what I share. Also please forgive me for any things that hit a sore spot when referring to this journey - it is inevitable I am afraid.

Let us remember that all Muslims are the descendants of reverts who had the truest of blessings to be in the company of Prophet Muhammad pbuh.

Oh, and this isn't going to be all Islam so don't freak out when I write seemingly unrelated things about Olympic weightlifting, business, investment performance, start-ups, surfing, books I enjoy, my love for Morocco, and other eclectic things.... since it's my blog I guess I don't really have to take permission!

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