#There was a game that was like that on Steam awhile back by like an Australian dev and reading this event reminded me of it

[laguzmage]

The thing about Rhine Lab/Columbia in Arknights as a stand in for america that really gets me is how it has a lot of nuance. Something that's true for Arknights writing writ large of course but it makes their potshots and criticisms of the US that much meatier and more intelligent I think.

The bit about Parvis that's an obvious potshot about nazi scientists in NASA in their early days, talking about The Ubermench directly contrasting with not only Silence arguing that science belongs to the people, but Ferdinand actually acting on it by making sure all the scientific breakthroughs Kristen is taking with her on her spaceship are documented and published.

The way Rhine Lab is entangled in military funding, the reasons why the military is so entangled with military R&D being related to their own running around unchecked and doing coups contrasting with Kristen effectively embezzling all that money to...build a spaceship and explore.

The fact that Kristen tossed aside all morals and ethics to build this spaceship and leave. The child soldier bioweapons, all of the stuff in Dorothy's Vision wrt using undocumented/lower class workers as test subjects that she signed off on. But in launching her spacecraft she quite literally tore down one of Terra's greatest lies, inspiring artists and scientists everywhere.

Idk, I feel like Hypergryph gets it in a way that like, european dev making 'Murica Simulator VR that's just a long gun violence joke won't ever get

[astro-art-archive]

ms paint (scrapped)

2/6/2019

[patchiko]

I support the virgin Jason agenda so how do you think Jay would react to receiving head for the first time 👀

OUUUUHHHHHHHFUFHFIFHDJ HES ACTUALLY GRIPPING ANYTHING HE CAN

tags: @millyhelp

AK!Jason Todd Gettin’ Head For The First Time

(NSFW EXPLICIT / DETAILED)

‘tis unda da cut!

LOVE-HATE relationship with getting head.

like it feels so good and the way he feels drives him insane

but also getting that close to him without being the dominant one makes him uncomfortable

its a little rare you give him head, its when he wants to be taken care of or hes super tired but horny

it definitely takes awhile for him to be okay with it still

but for the first time hes still horrendously whipped

the entire time hes going crazy

like as soon as your head gets close to his cock his mind is going blank

JASON sits in a chair in front of you, he just got home from his mission. The weariness in his eyes was very obvious when he barely got through your window, almost crashing that night on your floor; He had been tracking a gang that was dealing poison. Problem was, they put a lot of time into being hard to trace, he spent a good month tracking their warehouse. He spent way too much time running around Gotham for interrogations and not enough around you. Solution was, when he did find them this night, they focused a lot more on their secrecy and not enough on their own protection so it was a quick fight for him. Still, the mental drain had his feet dragging, and way too much steam in his pants; Nights like this he would’ve just jacked off in the shower and went to sleep. Would’ve. But, Jason comes home and you’re still up. You just finished some last-minute assignments from your professors, if he wasn’t so busy he would’ve gotten them done for you the day they were assigned. But here he is, slipping behind you, pecking kisses to your neck, you feel his hot breath on your neck, Oh, this poor guy… One pretty little question leaving his lips —and.

Oh. <3

Now, he’s sat up on your couch, pants just pulled down, you look up and ask him one more time.

“Are you sure?” His eyes already drawn on you.

“Please.”

He just barely chokes out, voice hoarsely struck an octave lower then his usual tone and slightly cracking towards the end; the sound pitch change flowing like honey from his lips.

Oh, this poor guy. You nod, keeping your eyes on his before moving down, pecking at his happy trail, drifting down to his inner thighs, softly sucking at his skin. His eyelashes fluttering as you trailed closer to the base of his cock. He was far from small. Definitely above average, 8 inches even , and thick, really fucking thick. (Shower not grower, feeding myself sorry).You move your hand to his dick, softly pumping his twitching cock up and down, pressing tender kisses on his tip before looking up into his eyes and lapping at the vein that travels from the base of his cock and up. Your eyes fell on him, staring down on you, both of his hands propped up on the pillows around him, taking deep breaths through his nose. Barely keeping it together. Barely. You then take as much of him into your mouth as you can, moving your other hand to his balls (HAHAHA BALLS sorry), and start sucking him, jerking off the parts you didn’t take. He dropped his head back and started open mouth panting, maybe if he wasn’t tired he would’ve been able to keep himself quiet. Maybe. But, Oh, this poor guy needed this sooo bad. He’s gripping those pillows like they’re the only thing keeping him down as you take your tongue to the slit of his tip.

“ughh—“ his hand shoots to his mouth, (insert that 1 arkham voice line from game IKYKIK) ,”—Mmmh” ‘s start slipping from his mouth instead. His mind is so foggy, all he can focus on is the wet warmth around his dick and the lewd sloppy noises you’re making. Jason’s strangled grunts made you whine out your own, the vibrations around him made his head shoot down to watch you. He’s losing his grip at the sight, he moved his hand from the pillow to your where your jaw and ear meet. Brushing his hand against your skin, “Keep going,,” he let out a soft exhale, drawing circles on your skin,”Just like that…” His voice was starting to crack . Watching your pretty face he couldn’t help bucking his hips into your mouth before pausing. Jason lifts your head with his hand that was on your jaw, Breathlessly he asks, “Is that alright… Sweetheart?” He’s trying to hold it together, really fucking trying to hold it together; but his voice is so cracky and whiney right now, and he needs to make sure you’re not being hurt. But, you nod to him sweetly, with those swollen lips and those teary eyes, ”Atta’ Doll.” Barely managing to deepen his voice before starting to pump his hips, making sure to keep his pace bearable for you. Jason husked out praises every chance he got. Every jolt of his hips had him seeing stars, he just couldn’t last long.

Jason felt the base of his cock and balls (HAHAH BALLS) tighten, he furrowed his brows and let out a string of strained curses. His hips got sloppy, breath hitched before he dropped his head back and his hips stopped entirely. His pelvis perked up and body tenses as he let out sputtered moans for every pulse of thick hot cum and pleasure that roll from his cock . His eyelashes fluttering and his eyes rolled to the back of his head throughout his orgasm. Jasons body slowly slacks, after a few seconds he reached up and brushed his hair out of his face.

He panted out treble, “Mh,” ‘s and, “Ah” ‘s while he settled from his high. He reached to his mouth to sloppily wipe the bit of drool that he prayed you didn’t see. Rolling his head forward to look at you, he took his cock out of your mouth then pressed a hot kiss to your lips. Jason brought his hand to the back of your neck and continued to peck at your face. He stopped and whispered airlessly,”Thank you.” You were close enough to feel his breath panting on your face and see his hair sticking to his skin from sweat. The pleasure and exhaustion in his pretty blue eyes making him look so needy. Oh, this poor guy! You need to get him asleep ASAP!!

literally he fell asleep open mouth drooling. snoring a little too!! literally my pillow princess !!

so many kisses while you two were falling asleep, legitimately had a hard time prying himself off you

so vulnerable this night inlove so bad

him fighting to come of dominant so bad but it feels so good and he wants to be taken cared of sooo bad

he was fighting to keep his voice at a normal tone BUT HIS DRAMA QUEEN ASS!! COULD NOT KEEP QUIET!! EXPECT NOISE COMPLAINTS!! ITS 4AM GTS !!

im so down bad for the way his va had him talking HHHHH

inbox is open if you wanna rq anything or just wanna yap!

[zweiginator]

need to be long term with frat art… like maybe it’s the most brutal situationship known to man maybe y’all are actually in secure love but either way you definitely act like you’re in love and you’re fucking like you are and you’re always together bc neither of you can function without the other. it’s obsessive

need it to be one of those heart-wrenching loves that always feels unrequited—at least by one party. you’re both so young and immature and scared of commitment and as soon as one of you gets fed up with the other and moves on, maybe finds someone else to hang out with and date—the other gets obsessive and it’s always a push and pull, cat and mouse chase. always a game, and never an easy one.

even the beginning of your situationship with him was messy; art had been going on dates with a girl in the sorority paired with his frat. she was cute and sweet but art was drunk one friday at a party and there you were sucking a lime and downing bitter tequila shots. your face winced, and excess alcohol dripped down the valley of your tits and art was just drawn to you. he slurred in your ear about how fucking hot you looked and how he believed in love at first sight now and the alcohol in your system had made a bee-line to your libido. you were horny and art had heart-eyes and you grabbed him by the collar and kissed him hard against the wall. and the girl he promised would be his girlfriend within the next month watched with tears in her eyes.

every part of your relationship with art was fueled by passion, lust, instant gratification. it was easy to stop by art’s apartment and ride him in a frenzy to blow off steam before a big test. and art, needing to rid himself of excess energy after a big tennis match could text you that he was coming over, fuck you from behind and leave without overflowing expectations or an excess of emotions. just a peck on the cheek and a see ya later would suffice.

and it did suffice, until you broke things off with him one saturday morning in early spring. it was still cold outside, and art saw his breath as he tried to steady his breathing. he wasn’t supposed to feel like this. like his fucking chest was constricting as you explained to him that you met somebody. that you were going to be with him and you couldn’t talk to him anymore.

“sorry artie.” you said. you rubbed his shoulder and gave him a hug and you swore you heard a sniffle but art swallowed the lump in his throat and left. why would you say sorry?

you did date that guy for a few months. and art even found a girl to go out with for awhile. she was sweet, and looked a tad like you.

but it just didn’t feel right. it was secure and happy. safe, healthy, committed. but it didn’t fuel a fire. it didn’t leave scratches on art’s back and burning handprints on the fat of your ass. it didn’t excite either of you. and you both bit your cheeks and feigned smiles. pushed the food around your plates for a few months. and then tennis season was in full swing and you went to a match with your boyfriend.

art looked up at the two of you from the court. he stopped practicing, stopped serving, stopped functioning. he just stared and bit his lip so hard it turned white and simultaneously drew blood. how fucking could you.

because there his own girlfriend was, swinging her legs in the front row. confused about what had just shifted the mood.

you pretended to get sick and art feigned a fever when he should’ve been celebrating his win. all excuses to get away from your significant others—well, that wasn’t a good term for them.

but art found himself in your driveway and he didn’t even have to knock on the door before you were outside on the porch. and then you were in his arms, backed against the front door. there wasn’t time to go inside. there was never enough time. art kissed you like it would be his last chance to—because maybe it would be. and you returned the sentiment. you both felt horrible. unfaithful and disgusting and selfish. but that wasn’t enough to make either of you stop because neither of you had felt that forest fire in your stomachs when you kissed your respective partners. but here it was, blazing up your throats as you yanked art impossibly closer. you saw your boyfriend’s car pull up next to art’s. you saw his silhouette in your peripheral vision, and art felt his phone vibrating with a call from his girlfriend. but neither of you stopped.

you both got dumped that night. the same night that art fucked you like he loved you. he even said he did.

but next week you saw him on a coffee date with a girl on the track team and you gave him a tight smile. of course that would’ve been too easy. you needed to stop being so naive.

[ihavethedreamies]

First Kisses | NCT 127

NCT 127 - All Members

Rating: E for Everyone

Word Count: About 300 for each, so about 2.4k total

Pairing: NCT 127 x GN!Reader (Separate)

Genre: Reader-Insert, Drabble, Fluff

Summary: Your first kiss with each member of NCT 127!

Author's Note: I have never wrote drabble-length things before, so I am proud of myself I kept these so short.

I tried to keep these gender-neutral, so let me know if I didn't, but it might still be slightly implied in these the reader is AFAB, I don't think so though…

PS. Mark's and Haechan's are different from the ones for Dream…

Edited (8/28/24)

-> NCT Dream <-

-> WayV <-

I am cross-posting this on Archive and Wattpad. Please reblog! If you know anyone that would like this or future fics but they aren't on here my name and icon are exactly the same on the other sites. Happy reading!

Taeyong

You chewed lazily on a strand of licorice, chest pressed to the back of the chair Taeyong stole from Doyoung's room. While you were by no means a noob when it came to video games, you knew little about battle royale shooters. However, Taeyong wanted you to watch while he played. You didn't mind, you constantly watched YouTube games, but not games like that. Not really caring about what he was doing, you found your gaze drifting to his face. He really was so freaking gorgeous. "Did you see that?" His question snapped you out of your daze and you quickly looked back at the screen. Replying with a vague hum in agreement, the pause menu flashed over his screen. "You okay?" Taeyong turned to you fully, looking over your face. "Y-yeah, why?" "You're really quiet today, you normally comment more." "Oh, yeah, just…thinking." "About what?" HIs foot rested on the base of your chair, pulling it closer, only the backrest between you two. HIs concerned look had morphed into something more playful. You licked your lips, trying to think of a lie, not about how hot he was. You tried not to reel back when he brought his face closer. Why was your friend so- "Thinking about kissing me?" He smirked and your face erupted into a blush. You nearly went cross-eyes when he leaned in, "Hm?" You took the chance, closing the distance, softly pressing your lips to his. He smiled against it, kissing you back, deepening it. When you separated, his fond smile floored you. "Been thinking about that awhile."

Johnny

You could feel his eyes on you, but you chose not to acknowledge it. Continuing to chop up the various ingredients for the fried rice you were preparing, his eyes followed. But he wasn't watching what you were doing, Johnny was staring at your face. Why? You weren't for sure. "Everything okay?" You finally asked him. "Yeah, why?" He rested his chin on his palm. "You're staring. Again." "You're just so pretty." Johnny smiled. It wasn't his, 'I'm sexy and I know it,' smile; it was warm and soft. Like when he sees a puppy; it was pure. That's what threw you off. To the point that you halted all action, paddle held over the steaming rice in the cooker. "Huh?" "You're beautiful." He had no room to talk. "Is that why you've been staring at me?" "Of course." You balked at his response. Your friend was an amazing flirt, but that's not what he was doing. He said it like he was informing you of something you should already know. "You think I'm beautiful?" You put the rice paddle down. Johnny sighed dramatically, getting up off the stool, coming around the counter to your side. He cupped your cheek in his big hand, and before you could question him further, he leaned down and kissed you. Johnny swallowed your gasp, deepening the kiss. You gaped at him when he pulled away. "(Y/N), you're the most beautiful person I have ever seen." He had no room to talk.

Yuta

Your eyes fluttered open, trying to recognize where you were. The TV was on, the sequel to the movie you had put on playing. Still trying to form a coherent thought, you heard a soft grumble behind you, an arm wrapping tighter around your middle. This sensation brought a flood of recognition over your mind, realizing you were in Yuta's living room. You must have fallen asleep together on the couch. You startled when you felt him sigh behind you, his warm breath ruffling the hair on the back of your neck. The arm of his you were laying on moved under your head as he brought his hand up. Yuta's hand rested on your forehead, which he used to pull you back into him more along with the arm around your waist. "It's late, just stay the night here." His voice was rough from sleeping. Were you two dating? Pretty much. But sleeping over? You haven't even kissed yet, still transitioning from friends to something more. "Stay over?" We haven't even kissed yet." You huffed, letting out a nervous chuckle. Yuta hummed in response, then your view of the room spun as he rolled you to face him. You barely got to see his cocky, smug grin before he closed the distance, lips sealing over yours. When Yuta pulled back, you whined in protest, making him chuckle. "There, now you can stay over."

Doyoung

You shuffled out of your room, rubbing sleep out of your eyes. The morning light shining in your room had no access to your living room, keeping it dark. Your guest was still asleep, wrapped in your spare comforter on your couch. Smiling to yourself, you padded softly toward him, sitting on the floor to get a better view. It was late after you two finished your dinner and movie date, so you let Doyoung stay the night. Ever the gentleman, he insisted on the couch. You smiled, only his face was visible out of the blanket cocoon. So cute. You felt a bit like a creep, just watching him sleep, but he was just too precious. Gently, you brushed some errant hairs from his forehead, looking at every detail of his face. Flinching back when he groaned a bit, you held your breath, worried you had wakened him. "(Y/N)?" His voice was quiet, eyes still closed, you didn't know if he was still asleep or not. "Yes?" You whispered in reply. When he didn't respond back, you assumed he was still asleep, or had fallen back to sleep. Carefully getting up so you could let him continue, you yelped dramatically when his hand grabbed yours, yanking you down onto the couch with him. He had sat up as he pulled you down, so you ended up in his lap. Doyoung wrapped his arms around you, laying his head on your shoulder, cheek on your collarbone. "Morning, precious." You kissed the crown of his head. He pulled back after this, frowning slightly. Before you could ask him what was wrong, he clicked his tongue, kissing you back, but on the lips instead. When he retreated, he flashed a sleepy grin. "Morning, love."

Jaehyun

Slamming the door to your car, you sat back in the seat with a huff, fuming. You thought girls bullying other people over boys stopped in high school, yet here you were, in college. You know about Jaehyun's not so little fan-club but had been able to avoid them. But they had learned that not only were you two friends, that there was something more going on there. God forbid they learn how long it had been going on. Not wanting to drive while angry, you just sat in your car. You jumped when your phone started to ring through the car speaker when you started it. "Hey." Your voice was obviously strained. "Where are you?" Jaehyun sounded out of breath. "In my car-" "Don't go anywhere." He hung up. You blinked in shock at the call-ended flashing on the screen. Your attention was pulled away by someone knocking on the window. It was some girl, and two others were behind her, arms crossed. You sighed, rolling the window down just enough. "You're (Y/N)?" You hummed and she scoffed. "You need to leave Jaehyun alone-" "And you need to leave." You sighed as he arrived, opening the passenger side door. After he was seated, you pulled out of the parking spot, leaving the girls gaping. Neither of you said anything till you parked again at your apartment complex. He took your hand in his, "I'm sorry." You met his guilty gaze, then shook your head. "It's not your fault." He stroked the back of your hand with his thumb. Instead of replying, he leaned over the center console, capturing your lips with his. You smiled when he pulled back, "do that again and we'll call it even." So, he did.

Jungwoo

The show playing was one you had seen many times before, but since Jungwoo never had, you were rewatching it with him. Your elbow was rested on the armrest of the couch, cheek resting on your fist. Your other hand was stroking Jungwoo's soft hair as he laid on your lap. He was getting over being sick, but since you were the one who gave him the cold, you didn't mind him being all over you. He was normally clingy, let alone if he didn't feel good, like a small child. It was fine to you though; he was too cute to not let him get away with just about anything. "(Y/N?)" His soft voice was still a bit nasally. "Yes?" "I'm sorry I ruined out first date…" "What do you mean?" Your hand halted, looking down at him. He rolled over so he was laying on his back, letting him look up at you. "I nearly passed out when we were walking to the restaurant…" He drifted off, fingers coming up to nervously fiddle with your hoodie string. "Jungwoo, you had a fever, its fine." You huffed, shocked that he felt guilty about that. You were the one that got him sick. "Still… We had finally decided to go for it, then…" "Jungwoo-" He continued to ramble, apologizing, and complaining about himself. It was getting on your nerves, there was no reason for him to feel so bad. Wanting him to stop, you leaned down, lips briefly pressing to his still moving ones. You sat back up straight, face pink from the act. His was as well, but it already was from the cold he had. You flinched when his hand rested on your cheek, pulling you back down. "I can’t give this cold back to you, right?"

Mark

"Can I get this?" Mark asked, coming up to you with a frozen cheesecake. You glanced at it, not liking that he asked you as if you were his parent. "Sure? Why are you asking?" You shook your head as he put the dessert in the cart. "J-just making sure." You rolled your eyes, continuing down the aisle, glancing at your shopping list to make sure you got everything for the meal you were going to prepare. Having to buy enough food to feed nine ravenous young men was a little pricy, but everyone agreed to split the cost and send you the money, so it didn't matter what extra stuff Mark wanted. As you traversed the next aisle, you noticed his gaze focused on something on the shelf. He halted in front of it, so you turned to look at it. It was a candy necklace kit. "Let's do this!" He grabbed it and you chuckled, nodding for him to put it in the cart. "B-but just us…" He added and you raised your eyebrow. "Just us?" "Not the others. We can just make them for each other after they leave…" "You want to make me a necklace?" You teased, the tips of his ears turning red, his characteristic laugh leaving his lips. "Yeah… and I don't want you to eat it or take it off!" Mark's determined look went to your face, and you had a hard time not guffawing. "Okay, Mark." "I'm serious, don't take it off." He reiterated as you got in the car to head back to your place, the box in his hands. "I won't." "Promise?" He held out his pinky and you shook your head but completed the hand motion. Before you could your hand back though, he used your linked pinkies to haul you closer over the console, gently pressing his lips to yours. You sat back slowly, gaping at him, face equally as red. He raised an eyebrow.

Haechan

"I'm getting tired of this, (Y/N)." Donghyuck huffed at your side, and you tilted your head, confused. When he noticed your glance, he sighed, stopping. Holding your linked hands up between you two so they were in front of your face, he sighed. "This is about as far as we've gone." You looked around, wondering what the hell he was going on about, you were only halfway to his place. "This, (Y/N)." He shook your hands to draw your attention there. "What do you mean?" "We've only held hands! You've kissed my cheek and that’s about it! I'm tired of it!" If it wasn't for the silly whine of his voice, you would think him genuinely upset. "What are you getting at?" You continued your questions and he groaned; you were very smart for being so dense. "Kisses! I want you to kiss me!" Donghyuck whined louder, it nearly echoed off the stone walls of the back road you were walking. His frustration took you aback. "Why do I have to initiate?" You nearly shouted, annoyed with his dramatics. He immediately quieted, blinking at you, so very pretty- "Fine!" He yelled back and hauled you even closer with your linked hands, his soft lips touching your chapped ones. As soon as he tasted the lip balm you had put on just minutes earlier, he groaned and deepened the kiss. You squeaked a bit when your back hit the stone wall, trying to match his pace, but he was fervent. When he finally stepped back, you were almost panting. He nodded with a satisfied nod and continued on with your walk like he hadn't just swallowed your tongue.

-> NCT Dream <-

-> WayV <-

Master-Master List

NCT Master List

[honey-minded-hivemind]

Groundskeeper Reader being dragged into the Mansion for the first time and feels so embarrassed. Logan has them by the scruff of their neck, and everyone is dressed so nicely while they are soaked to the bone in muddy, old gardening clothes that they work in. Everyone is staring at them, and they just want to shrivel up and die.

Someone tries to bring a little levity by suggesting a game (its Peter) but Reader just quietly asks if there was a guest bathroom they can wash up in. Apparently not quietly enough as Logan's daughter, Laura, shoots up and says she'll run them a bath. The man in the wheelchair dressed like a WW2 soldier tells Logan off for holding Reader like that, saying

"You're scaring the poor dear to death holding them like a cub!"

The girls with red hair, sunglasses guy, the twins, the boy in a circus uniform and the two girls in Y2K fashion are raiding a closet for clothes while the Cowgirl gently leads Reader through a master bedroom to a bathroom with the biggest tub Reader has ever seen, filled to the brim with steaming hot water.

While Reader washes up (and probably has a good cry), everyone else is running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They're trying to pick out a nice outfit for Reader, but not so nice that they'll be suspicious. They need to hide any particularly haunted items that could give them away, and they need to keep the house itself from reacting to a living being to not scare them away. They still want the night to be enjoyable for Reader, so someone has to dig up the old card deck and ancient monopoly board.

By the time Reader comes out of the bathroom and Master bedroom, in clean clothes and feeling only slightly better, it's a miracle the hallway is clear. They try getting back to the entryway, but turn a corner to run face first into the one other person they haven't seen tonight, their other boss.

Victor has always been a rough man, but now as Reader apologizes and rubs their nose from running into a giant brick wall of a person, he looks like he's seen a ghost.

Its because he feels like he has.

Reader is dressed in his kid's clothes. Long-sleeved blouse, old pair of pants with worn areas, and they have the same sad eyes his kid did.

It's enough to make him falter for a minute, giving Reader enough time to apologize, then dart around the corner, not wanting to feel more embarrassed about running into their other boss.

The night is a bit... tense. But it fades away for awhile as they play old games, some with dice, or tic-tac-toe, or some old monopoly board that Kitty had. It's nice, at least in that moment. Warm fire in the fireplace, old blankets and curtains draped around, everyone making teams and seeing which ones win. It feels... it feels really swell.

It gets a little odd when it's time for bed, and Reader is directed to an old room a bit farther from the main hall than they like. But, it's not the room that was odd. It was the painting half-hidden in shadows, a sheet fallen from it, depicting someone, a young teen, perhaps, who looks just... just like Reader...

[bowandcurtsey]

Hwllo I love your pregnancy simulator headcanons you did for zora and nozel

Could you please do one for fuegoleon too?

Hiya sweetie! Thank you for requesting this! I foresee I have a mutual that would love this too hehe. I'll add in Yami for this too, cause I'm missing him a little. Haven't done his request in quite in awhile. („• ᴗ •„)

Here's the link to the request for Nozel, Patri and Zora There's another one for Finral

Fuegoleon | Yami x f! reader

Fuegoleon Vermillion

Being the righteous gentleman he is, he agreed to it immediately. Salamander shook its head. He felt that he should know exactly what kind of pain you were going through, since you had your third child on the way.

You paste the stimulator on, for him. You started at level 3.

"I don't feel much honey. Feels a little ticklish."

You pressed level 5. "This is where the dilation starts, how is it?"

"okay. bearable." He walked around with the stimulator.

You pressed on 7. "we're now waiting for the right time to push~"

"Mhmm." he grunted a little, starting to feel the pain, "I think I need to sit down a little.."

He sat down with a huff and took deep breaths in and out.

You pressed 8.

"are we pushing yet, honey?" he said in between his breaths.

"nope. we're only at level 8, Fue. The dilation is not enough yet."

"Level 8?!"

You pressed 10. Fue had to sit forward and clench his fist and clutch the arm rest of the chair.

"Now you push!" you exclaimed

"honey.." he groaned, his breathing becoming laboured. "how do.. you-"

His hands reached to grab on the stimulator.

"how long-.." his sentence was more incoherent now, but you understood what he was asking

"er. usually the contractions come every 10 minutes or so and it stops after awhile..."

He was huffing and puffing, meaning that the contractions were off for now.

"And it childbirth could last like this for hours~" you reminded him.

You told him to lay down on the bed. As the contractions came, he curled his body a little.

"That wouldn't do, honey. You have to open your legs to push!" you teased him.

He tried to roll back on his back, his face muscles squirmed and tensed up. You could even see his forehead covered in sweat.

You turned the stimulator off when the contraction subsided again.

"Honey. I'm sorry you're going through this for the third time..." his face was so guilt stricken, "You're amazing for giving me 3 beautiful kids. I promise to never let them misbehave or bully you. They have to be nice to you at all times."

You laughed. Well, it gets easier one after the other, love." You grabbed a handkerchief to wipe off his sweat.

"I love you wifey." He caressed your face.

Yami Sukehiro

"no. I ain't doing that baby." he gave you the look.

"yes. you're doing it." you insisted.

Of course Yami Sukehiro could never say no to anything you wanted. He was wrapped around your pinky.

He gave a sigh as you paste the stimulator on him.

"baby. How about you press 10 right away?" Yami challenged. "Just get it over and done with."

"no?" you raised an eyebrow at him, "you have to experience the slow and gradual pain"

"you sound sick in the mind when you say that out loud, baby" he gave you a dead panned face.

"Excuse me, we woman experience this for hours. Some take 12 or more hours! I'll just let you feel the pain for a few minutes."

"okay, okay..." he was defeated, once again.

You pressed 4.

"You feel anything?"

"nope."

You pressed 6. "Dilation starts about now."

"So we're going push now?"

"no? Just a waiting game."

"I feel like might punch someone in the face if they made din right now"

You gave a little laugh, but you were impressed by your man's tolerance.

You pressed on 8.

Yami took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.

"Painful, huh." you cocked your brow and tilted your head to the side.

"I could understand why you women get upset randomly feeling this. I feel like yeeting Asta Luck and Magna right now just to let off some steam."

"Yami!" you rolled your eyes at him, "anyway, you can lie down if it's uncomfortable."

He lay down on your bed making himself comfortable. You were really impressed. This man had high tolerance to pain.

"ready for 10?"

"You mean it's not level 10 yet?"

"no?"

"what the fuck." he cursed, "okay just go."

You pressed on 10. Yami spewed a chain of curse words as the contractions came on. He scratched his head roughly.

"I don't get it, baby." he grunted.

"Get what?"

"You cry and yell at all the fuckin roaches and you go through this?"

"Hey!" you smacked his biceps

"Yeah, you can hit me now, cause I ain't feeling anything except this fucking shit."

You laughed. He must be really feeling the pain now, seeing the amount of vulgarities he was spewing.

Whenever the contractions went off, he relaxed awhile and when it came again, he was grabbing at the pillows and cursing.

"Get this damn baby out already." his face looked like he was having a bad constipation.

"Baby, remember when we had our first child, I took 8 hours?"

He eyes darted to look at you, realising all the pain you were in for that long back then.

"Yeah." you nodded your head at him, seeing that he understood what you were getting at.

"I'm sorry princess. From now onwards I'll yeet them if they misbehave, god damn it."

"You'll yeet your precious d/n?" you gave him a smirk, knowing that his little princess was his weak spot.

He paused to think for awhile, "okay you can yeet that little monkey and me out together."

[atelieronthemoon]

I'm back with our September devlog and oh boy, where to even start... well there were some terrible lows regarding scam donations which truthfully demotivated me for awhile, but hanging out with friends lightened my spirits 🥲 With that said, please don't donate if you're going to charge back, it negatively impacts the game and me 😭 

September was a slow month in terms of development because writing is the main focus right now. We'll be writing until December (we're avoid crunching!)... wish us luck 🥲

Art: Kickstarter rewards are done! I need all the keychains and photocards... 😳

Programming: We're back in business. Our programming duo will be working on the updates and changes to the game in preparation for the extended demo.

Voice acting: The most exciting thing that's happened to us this month is our casting call. We've finalized our amazing voice actors whom I'd like to introduce and welcome!

Corey Wilder as Ivan

Harold Ingram as Oliver

and Jason Hall as Joseph

I'll be posting the role announcements on social media soon 🤗 Speaking of social media, we're now on Tumblr and Bluesky, so follow us if you'd like!

And lastly, we're launching a Patreon (will make a separate post) to help us fund some things such as a game trailer for the KS and Steam page while giving you access to our project's behind-the-scenes and the beta build to the extended demo. There is no obligation to join—only join if you want and able to! I'm grateful for everyone's support regardless ❤️

Next month I'll announce the demo's potential release date wohoo! Thank you all for your patience 😘

[sunnydayroleplay]

What is your headcanon on what Joseph Cullman was like before he was trying be a better person? Was he doing illegal activities or something bad? What was his day to day like as the old Joseph Cullman? What was the old Joseph Cullman like as a person and wat made Joseph want to be a better person?

Before I continue this head-cannon, yes I am back loves! And for good this time. It's been awhile, I've been super duper busy, but that's not gonna stop me from now on. I'll be posting on the weekends and the occasional Friday! (Or whenever I feel like it during the week) Thanks for the continuous support despite all that!! Now with that said...

Contents Inside: Joseph Cullman, Mentions of Drug/Substance Abuse, Alcohol, Child Abuse, and other sensitive topics.

18- DNI, this is a NSFW post and so is the game it is based off of. This is an 18+ community. It is for your own safety, and you interacting not only jeopardizes that, it jeopardizes mine, and the creators of the games.

---------------------------------------------------------

From what we can interpret in the video tapes of his interview, we learn that he was a "rebellious" child in his high-school years. Getting a tattoo, a few for that matter that are rather obviously large. It'd be surprising if his parents didn't notice a thing.

But before we can ask why that is, we have the question of:

Why is Joseph so rebellious and reckless in the first place?

Any good ol' fashioned Southern American family would teach their children some common manners, right? Or despite the undertones of possible racism and homophobia that were very common and still undergoing a "wipe-out" in a time where that would occur, children were still taught to treat their own kind how they'd want to be treated.

Now, I have talked a tad bit about Joseph's childhood and backstory before, which can be found here. (I also already sorta answered half your questions, but I wanted more detail in this post.)

To sum it up, I suspected that Joseph wasn't always this "bad child" that he always seems to hint at. He had good loving parents, a good school life, and plenty of good influences on his young, curious nature. He was nurtured but protected against the world that young children don't need to know about yet. But like an unfortunate amount of marriages, they all lead to disaster. Financial struggles appear. Maybe some ongoing infidelity, addiction. The marriage just got rocky, and the moment the curtains were closed, it was just one argument to the next.

"His parents couldn't afford to have a kid anymore. So they started neglecting him. Putting him up for adoption was a no-go. What would their parents think. Or all their peers the next time they got a job and suddenly everything went alright? They'd be right back to where they once were."

The moment Josephs parents began to neglect and ignore him, Joseph was oh so young, but old enough to comprehend that this is a life or death situation for him. He learned this via abuse. Whether it was his mother belittling and destroying anything that made Joseph chuckle remotely, or his father coming home from work drunk and letting off some steam on him.

"With the constant shitty home life, his school life was affected enormously. His grades went down, and he just got around with the wrong people. He was like any "out of place" child. All he truly wanted was attention and some sort of leverage to lean against. Someone to just listen because he's used to being ignored."

(Read the post, because I now realize I don't know how to summarize)

With that "summarized", we now know what his childhood was most likely. Take this with a grain of salt.

In the "Bad Yogurt" Ending, Jack says “You’ve changed. You’re clean now. You can be whatever you wanna be.” Leading me to believe that Joseph followed after his fathers footsteps. Alcohol and addiction to drugs. In the interview where we learned about how Joseph got his tattoos, which was in his high school years. Because of this I've come up with another headcanon/scenario.

Because Joseph was forced to grow up too fast, and practically raise himself, he's a smart kid. He doesn't believe he is, but he's truly a smart and talented kid. Though papers and his grades say otherwise, Joseph could turn everything around in a minute or two if he chose too. However, due to the gravitational decline on his mental health and home life, he started to underage drink, and get his hands on any drug that was available for him.

One day, Joseph and his 'crew' got invited to a house party. It's late, there's drinks, lights, music, and everything is fired up. After long joyous hours and a couple twenty shots, Joseph is fuuuucked up. Passed out on the couch. You wanna know what people do when they're young and drunk? They do irreversible stupid shit. Joseph got his lovely arm statements by either being so passed out that his friends decided that this would be a perfect canvas to paint on, or he was "consciously" agreeing to this work of art we see on his character sprites.

With a soft opening to the wounds of his childhood and teenage years, how was adulthood like? I doubt it wouldn't be easy, or that he could get away with more things as easier. I feel like Joseph chose to be a better person compared to his old self because of the fact that life would be even more shittier as it continued and that despite saying he wishes he would die, he's just as afraid of death as his 10 year old self. So, if he wanted to live a better life for himself and regain his sensitivity of self again, he had to fix himself up.

To answer your question of "Was he doing illegal activities or something bad?" Your answer is yes, and here's a list.

-As said before, alcoholism starting at age 16.

-Drugs, and at some point did attack people because he couldn't get said fix.

-Would sell himself for money.

-Robbed local stores just to have something in his system for the week minimum.

Joseph knew he had to better himself, and comparing all of this to the interview tapes-- If you didn't know a thing about him beforehand, you would've thought he was a perfect guy.

But we all know that no one is perfect, ain't that right?

[hollowtones]

hi Holly, this might be a little goofy or too sincere for tumblr but oh well.

like maybe a year or two ago? I came across a link to (i think) the gnome stream and I was sick and bored, so I decided to watch it. I have to keep my hands busy while I watch stuff and I was watching it on my phone, so I couldn't use my knitting app to count rows, so I picked up an embroidery project I'd started awhile ago and set down bc I lost steam on it. I ended up watching all of the half life stuff, then the elden ring stuff and kept working on my embroidery. you and your friends have kind of become my "soundtrack" for working on knitting or embroidery. anyways, bc I watched you guys, I ended up messaging someone to thank them for putting your stuff on my dash, which led to me getting introduced to Outer Wilds (which I'm still forever crying about) and then eventually I got Bloodborne (which I'm also crying about forever)

long story short, watching you guys got me working on a project I kind of gave up on and led me to discovering two of my favorite games. actually, it's led me to doing a lot of things I probably wouldn't have. I know watching you guys (mostly you and Mira) made me want to try streaming (which I'm having fun with). I know you don't want people sending you pictures on here, so I won't but the embroidery is the outline of a dragon in glow in the dark thread and it looks very cool and every time I look at it (even though it's not done yet 🥲) I think of you guys.

basically I just wanted to say thanks. for being the reason I found some favorite games, getting me working on some projects again, getting me back into writing, and for all the laughs. watching you guys play games, together or apart, has been great and sometimes makes me laugh so hard I cry. sorry this turned out so long, i just kept meaning to say thanks whenever i see you on my dash and then it kinda snowballed into this. but really, thank you.

This made me real happy. That's what it's all about, bud. Thank you for the kind words & thank you for tuning in.

[goatpaste]

Heyo, I saw your post saying you started on psychonauts! Idk if ya aware, but I think steam bundles one and 2 together and there's a physical copies of 2 that come with one, but I do think it's the collector's edition however, so the price is a little high, but it's probably cuz of the other stuff included . Would like to gift ya the first game(or both!) on steam once I get out of my current financial troubles as I know your bday is coming up! The 2nd one has a very cute bear couple I think you would like cuz there's a section where you go inside one of the dude's minds and you get to see enviroments and memories based around their wedding.

On a side note, do you still like the Silent Hill series? If so, could you draw Maria with a bisexual background (let's hope her and Angela aren't done dirty in the upcoming remake, amiright?)

wah!! someone already bought me the first two psychonauts awhile back!! im still working through the first one but veRRRY much enjoy it so far!!

and YESSSS I doOO love slunt hill, and Maria is one of my fav characters despite being in my least favirote SH gameee (was just playing as her in DBD last night hehe)

I wanna hope the SH2 remake is at least interesting, but I wont lie im already very disappointed with Marias redesign, i feel like it came from the place of 'were modernizing games and trying to remove the sexualization of female character designs' which is fair and i get, but totally missed the point of Maria lol. also i think her new look sucks sorry. Love her tho, the remake better have an ending were maria and angela get to leave slunt hill together and adopt Laura lol

icons free to use with credit!

Buy your local Bitrans Man a Kofi!

[zeondraws]

So, every game gets patched at some point right

Each version changes something inside the game and when the option exists- you can switch back to an older version of the game to check for stuff that got removed.

Unfortunately for Still Wakes The Deep there is only ONE previous public version you can switch to.

(basically you need to type in a command inside the steam console, grab app id, build id and manifest id and let it download and you manually replace your current files with those downloaded ones- ofc making a backup of your files before you do. There is a very easy to understand guide on youtube on how to do it)

The previous version is 1.2, in comparison to 1.3 (the current version which was released on the 16th of July, judging the steamdb page) has minimal differences.

I did notice the previous version had more soundfiles in the media folder. Roughly 83 of them, but most of those are Rennick body sounds, helicopter blade sounds, gloves rubbing while sitting near the heater and some environment sounds. It also includes one Trots voiceline, but it's one we already know. But these files got removed in 1.3 (the patch doesn't mention this I think, which means there could be differences inside the game files nobody knows about. But I don't know what else it could be)

Main reason I was suddenly sooooo interested to check for previous versions... is because Axol found a video on YouTube from a person called Mkiceandfire- and this person plays the game in version 1.0 which bewildered me a ton. Apparently a few folks already saw this video awhile ago. I somehow didn't?

But this game has quite a few differences inside the dialogue. Like Caz even says something when Roper grabs him with the tendrils "AAARGHH Get the fuck away from me! Aargh fuck!" for example.

Or the infamous Davros on the deck subtitle. The McLurg talking to Bruce was once titled Davros, which in turn got killed by Muir on the deck. And if you remember, Davros would later call you on the phone saying he's near the lifeboats. So it makes a lot of sense, that the name got changed. Otherwise you would have a random plot hole, or Davros is so strong and survived the attack for some reason-

However they may have forgotten, that there is already a McLurg with Boyd, so no clue why he's there twice.

I know the "McLurg/Davros" model is named Bruce so it's like... Bruce talking to Bruce which gives me a total ANEURYSM.

Trots even had a different VOICELINE before he gets crushed by debris!! And while Caz walks up to Accomm roof he still seems to be alive like, huh.

I haven't noticed any other major differences aside from different subtitles and some alternative voicelines. Which I found interesting, in version 1.0 Caz seemed more angry towards the infected (even getting pissed at tendrils grabbing him in Admin). But there must've been some early version where he was more sympathetic towards them, judging gamefiles. And currently he seems more "neutral"

I have no clue when the new patch comes out (the new patch will include an edit to the credits, which finally adds Innes' VA), on the steamdb page it seems there are tons of private patches done this month. The page even lists other builds, but normal people don't have access to those. But it lists beta, alpha and developer versions for example. God imagine seeing those, the story must've been so different in beta. Or maybe these soundfiles are from alpha, I don't knowwww.

I might need to check everything inside the files of 1.2 in hopes of finding something that got removed. But at first glance, it all seems the same.

But before I even do that, I want to finish listening to the soundfiles this weekend (I am over 12000 now). I discovered an interesting soundfile from Admin too. It's probably Archie's voice?? I'm not sure, either him or Scooby. But he's saying "Get off him" before screaming (it triggers when you leave the room with the flickering TV).

I really wanna finish this Muir video, I want to focus on other stuff. I started fleshing out another drawing for the AU too.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[withlovefromsimtown]

Lifa's Life Update (+Sims Progress)

Well it's been a minute, but We're still here & I don't mind.

Things roughly in order:

I fully remapped onto a custom SC4 terrain & rebuilt an entire Sims 2 BG neighborhood to update it to UC (any guesses?), started working on clothing defaults for the aforementioned neighborhood.

Started 2 huge TS2 projects that I may someday finish, completely unrelated to all of that, because I was in Milkshape & I can't control myself.

Had my partner's friends over A LOT, like it seemed like every couple weeks for awhile someone would be crashing in the guest room. (They're my friends too they just... started off as partner's friends lol.)

Barbecued & grilled a lot, because friends & food.

Went to a VNV Nation show with my friend (things that are on the Elder Goth Bucket List lol), made a whole Yeet Weekend outta it & also went to Ikea, Fivebelow, Spirit Halloween, a local outdoor market, & a snowcone stand.

The fucking holidays.

Got sick, part 1.

Surprise, my cat has diabetes & needs 2x daily insulin shots!

More of the fucking holidays.

Got sick, part 2.

2x/month cat checkups to check blood sugar & adjust the dose, for like 3 months.

TX freezes, local friend doesn't have sufficient insulation or central heating in their home to deal with the temps, because TX, & comes to stay with me (with their cat) for a week because I have central heating.

During that week that my friend was here, Mr Diabetes Cat decided to a) eat all the dry kibble out of every bowl, b) refuse wet food at shots time because he was full of dry kibble, & then c) throw up kibble & turn around & pee all over my carpet right after throwing up, which resulted in him not getting his shots that night--they have to be given with food---& getting scheduled an urgent vet visit in the morning. (He's fine, just expensive.)

On the day it actually warmed up outside before it went back to 20 degrees, friend & I did a mini-hike together. We also had food from the Generic Asian Cuisine place (yeah I know, it's Texas though) where we got Pho, Lumpia, & a tofu stir-fry.

I regret having to work during the freezy times, unfortunately.

Partner obtained me a uhh... knockoff Steamdeck handheld? Rog Ally? so I can keep Win7 on my monster computer & also play my dumb ancient murder-aliens 4x RTS game on Steam that I like, but I haven't fixed my mods for it to play it, because I...

Got sick, part 3.

While sick, took Mr Diabetes Cat to his very last 2-week checkup; we're on 3-month checkup schedules now! Because he's stable! Yay!

The entire house is a disaster & I'm still not 100% but I'm back to cooking/cleaning a bit between work at least.

Working on more of the necessary clothing defaults for the TS2 neighborhood I redid.

Planning for March when the entire zoo needs to be vetted again for vaxxing, just gonna wrap the diabetes checkup into that & do everyone's bloodwork at that time also unless something drastic happens. (We do like 2-3 cats at a time over the course of 2 weeks, & then the dog on her own, we're not like... hauling a van of animals to the vet all at once...)

Need to get some of the soft mesh transportation prisons for the cats before then, because the big crate with the lid is about to disintegrate.

[patchiko]

Your AK HC were on POINT 👌👌👌 literally everything you said was so right. It was really refreshing seeing this kind of take on AK Jason.

AK Jason is a cat that’s been feral for most of its life and you just gotta approach him gently and be patient 🥺

I also agree… this boi is a VIRGIN 👏 this man had no game and wasn’t even seeking anything (cause 1) his mind is entirely focused on one goal atm and 2) all his trauma 😞 ) he’s prob like a deer in the headlights for any first time physical intimacy wether that’s holding hands or sleeping together (poor baby)

I want to give AK Jason a nice blanket, a cup of tea and his favorite book 🥺 I doubt it would help a lot though. I just want to shower this boi with love

literally jumping up and down. for so long i was nervous to post my takes on him hcishskshd.

psps also i see yall in my inbox dw imma get to you all :]

but your so right, ak!jay is so a feral dog/cat to me. I say dog because of his implication throughout the arkham comics and mainstream ones, that robin to jason was seen as bruces lap dog.

So i’ve always seen AK!jay as a “runner dog.” You know? The type that sees an open door and runs out of the house, wont come back for nothin.

But feral cat so describes his personality, the just standing and watching, and slowly warming up, is so him coded ,, anon ur soOOO right.

nsfw under da cut (light / not detailed :] ) ((also soft and warm hehe))

ill die on this hill,, he had NO interest in sex for so long, barely slipped his mind with training. Only got off to break off steam and he would just take his ass to bed.

and like anon said, even for basic things like holding your hand on his shoulder he gets so tense.

Subconsciously he’s waiting for something bad to happen, for it to be a trick, so it takes a really long time for him to weed those distrusts out :(

luv him soo bad needa hold his hand and feed him food.

his first time hes so quiet and stiff. hes not mentally freaking out, but again subconsciously hes expecting something bad to happen.

he feels like theres something under his skin tingling, the sensation that made him pull back many times before.

but nothing bad is happening, and it takes him awhile to accept that too.

The possibility has never seemed completely unreal to him, but really experiencing that kind of intimacy and love was so surreal to him.

When its over, he’s looking at you with big blown out eyes, and his mind is so quiet, in a good way, but most importantly that fog, that darkness he has felt for so long isn’t there. He feels so real and present in the moment.

He’s touching your skin, actually feeling and processing the way you feel against him, the texture of the cloth you two lay on, and your face.

Falls asleep, doesn’t dream. a peaceful night. he wakes up, the fogs back but he feels a little lighter when he walks :)

ak!jay dealing with everyone (including you and i my friend) thats in his tumblr tags ((link))

my rq are open im so happy people wanna hear me ramble abt his crazy ass fuckdjskbdkssndj !!!

[annakie]

I do not, in fact, have the power.

You may have heard there were pretty bad storms that camd through Dallas Tuesday morning.

I haven't had power until about two and a half hours ago... about 125 hours.

Warning: Very, very long.

TUESDAY

First of all, I was dumb. I was real dumb. I got woken up by the cats and a neighbor's dog at about 5am Tuesday morning, but I mean, that's not unusual. I came out to the office, did a little gaming, and was going to head back to bed around 6.

I heard a little thunder when I was about to head back, and then the warning sirens going off.

I checked text messages/phone calls/emails for any of the THREE weather warning services I use to see if I'd missed any notifications. I hadn't.

I then pulled up the actual weather report just as the winds really started slamming into my area.

A minute or two later, when it was already hitting in force, I started getting notifications. I peeked out a window and holy shit.

I grabbed Fry and threw him in the hall bath. Pemily figured out something was up and ran under the couch. I spent the next like two minutes trying to get to her. Just as I grabbed and started lifting her, the lights flickered, then went out. Plunged into total darkness.

I managed to grab her and my phone... and then in trying to get us INTO the hall bath, in the pitch black, Fry got out. And when I tried to get him to come in, Pemily almost got out and... I settled on hoping he'd run under a bed or do something safe because I could only get one or the other in there. The wind was RAGING and the house was creaking a little. I heard cracks and booms booms that weren't thunder.

I was seriously scared that the roof would fly off. It's old, and was going to need replacing soon anyway.

And there I was in PJs and no shoes with just a cat and a phone in the bathroom. Not exactly the model of preparedness.

After awhile, the wind subsided. I crept out of the bathroom and looked through a few windows. I used my phone flashlight to look for ceiling damage/water and thankfully saw none.

After a bit I put on jeans and shoes and went outside.

Tons of shingles all of my yard from my house.

Then looking up... the one remaining tree in my yard was uh... angled. Greatly. Resting on the chain link fence between me and my neighbhors yard. It had taken down a big branch on one of their trees and... oh great.. the top branches were tangled in the power wires.

In addition to this, I had a couple of lines yanked partially from my house and laying across my yard, with some of it still attached to my house.

My neighbors across the street had their big tree in their front yard laying into the street and covering one of their cars that they street park.

I texted/checked in with my neighbors, and everyone was OK. I put in a ticket with my city's utility company, though that took about a half hour to get through. I logged onto Teams on my phone and told my bosses and team what happened and sent pictures. I expected it might be awhile til I got power back.

I would have no idea how long that would be.

I contacted my handyman and he said he'd be able to get some guys to help with the tree when it was safe to do so.

I'd needed a plumber to come out for a couple of days and confirmed with them that they can't come out til we have power.

I texted the roofer my parents had used a year or two ago and he said he'd be out the next day to take a look.

Annnnd... then I waited. Ate some protein bars, didn't open the fridge. Internet sucked so I played on my Steam Deck some.

After the Great Freeze of 2021 I'd done some stuff to be more disaster prepared including buying a 500w high capacity rechargable battery, some LED headlamps, an extra phone charger, etc. I could run a small hotplate that I bought off of the big battery and recharge most anything.

Day one passed, the 5G was terrible on my phone since everyone was using it, but that's fine, still no power. Our city utilities has a power outage map that I started refreshing nigh constantly. I started playing Hades on my Steam Deck and sat outside for awhile..

Eventually it was bedtime. It wasn't too bad, though I missed my white noise. Kept the spare bedroom window open for air and got through it.

WEDNESDAY

Day two the 5G was better. I spent a lot of the time sitting outside letting my big battery recharge via solar panel.

I felt pretty genius for thinking that far ahead. It worked pretty well. Played more Hades, the roofer came and evaluated things. Helped me file a claim with my insurance.

I started trying to figure out a solution for the two lines laying in my yard, still attached to the house.

Eric helped me figure out via pictures that they were old telephone and internet lines and were no longer in use. I called the power company, they said they didn't own them and couldn't touch them.

So I called an electrician to come out and take a look. He wouldn't get there til Friday.

The other thing that happened Wednesday was that... during the storm my cattycorner-alley neighbor's fence blew completely down in the storm. And then... he just left it there.

Look, my tree was half blocking the alley, but I was told by the city not to touch it. But like... this guy's fence was laid out in the near-center of the alley. and he Did Not Care to move it I guess. Like my dude, take some pictures for insurance and then stop blocking shit. You Could drive around/next to my tree OK, it was very difficult to ignore his fence. You can kinda see it in the solar panel pic a little bit above.

There are only 2 or 3 houses that use that alley, I had driven down it maybe once or twice in the 21 years I've owned this house, but those couple of houses NEEDED IT for access.

So like, the white truck that I most often see driving by it stopped on Wednesday night, and just picked up this dude's fence and moved it himself. And he was not gentle. There was wood cracking and the fence was pretty much non-functional.

I was outside for the whole thing and heard the homeowner come out and start yelling at him.

My next-door neighbors had their generator going and it was kinda far away (and in Spanish which, well, I am not so good at anymore) but the argument was pretty clear.

Bonus appearance in the pic by my feral friend Peter.

About ten minutes later... they were laughing and slapping each other on the back. I had to leave before it was all over but it was an entertaining few minutes.

That night I went to my buddy Eric's place. He let me store my meds in his fridge, throw a protein shake in there to cool as well. He let me leave my Steam Deck charger there to charge and lent me his phone charger.

I stopped and got fast food for the first time in awhile on the way home. Grilled chicken, but still. I was tired of plain Protein food.

THURSDAY

Thursday it was overcast. But it looked like a HUGE number of people had gotten power back in the last two days so I was hopeful.

Got some well wishes and funny memes in Teams when I didn't make our Thursday staff meeting.

And then it started raining at 10 and didn't stop til 4.

Not a lot got done that day. From the city or from me. There wasn't much to do. I mostly sat/laid in bed. Played Hades a little, but mostly scrolled Reddit and checked my city's Twitter.

Two great things happened not long after though. First, my boss told me that he and his boss had talked and told me not to put in PTO for this week. It was out of my hands, they didn't want me to stress about it. I just got the week for free. I love a lot of things about my job, tbh.

I'll be honest, I'd started feeling pretty low that day as the rain went on and I knew that not much was getting done in the city. Most people who live here have municipal power, including me, so I just kept refreshing the map and taking screenshots two or three times day so I could see progress. I cried when my boss told me that, it was so kind and such a relief.

And then, an hour or so later, the Conviction happened, 34 for 45... it turned out to be a pretty great day after all.

And our across the street neighbors got their power on Thursday night! I was very happy for them, but sad ours didn't come with it. I knew for sure the Tree was the problem.

On the way to Eric's I saw work trucks in my neighborhood for the first time. I took pictures and texted both sides of my next-door neighbors. They didn't come to my house, though.

I left my big battery at Eric's overnight to charge since it couldn't solar charge. I also went to Sonic and got a Big Bag of Ice and a little food I did not enjoy. But the ice kept the freezer at refrigerator temperatures and I filled all my smaller thermal mugs with ice, so I had cold water with no worries from then on out.

By then I'd maxed out my Data plan for the month and the rest of the data would be free, 5G was working great by then, so I just watched the Taskmaster Season Finale and TMAustralia S2 E2... ending the night on a high note.

Until it rained for several hours at night and my across-the-alley neighbor let their dog bark for two hours straight because its terrified of lightning.

FRIDAY

Surely, I thought, today would be the day.

I was wrong.

Anyway, Friday I had an electrician out to the house. The city twitter said that if there was damage to the meter, that we had to get that fixed first. I had also been hoping he could help fix the two downed cable/phone lines running through my yard and all yanked out at the house.

First, he said that my power lines are completely fine. He also took a look at my neighbors who's yard my tree is in and he said theirs are fine, too. He also said he couldn't help with the lines, but to call my phone company. I've literally never had a landline, at this house, he said to try Verizon since they serviced the area when I bought the house.

Kindly, since he did no actual work and said I had enough to deal with, he didn't charge me. I plan on giving him some work later, anyway.

Called Verizon, they no longer operate in Texas.

I called my current internet provider, they have someone coming out this Wednesday, hopefully they can fix them. And by fix I mean just remove completely.

It's a mess. And still Like That.

Well that was a project that took like half the day. At least it was something to do.

When he left, I went to Eric's and spent about an hour working. Convenient since Eric and I work at the same place. We've worked together at four jobs since 2020. Basically my career path is "Eric finds job, Eric convinces people to hire Tori". We met at the first job in 2020. He left in 2006, I stayed. In 2012 he got me a job that we were both at from 2012 to 2018. I had a job I got WITHOUT his help 2018 to 2020, and then he and our old boss got me a job where they were. Then Eric left job #3 and in 2023 got me to move over to where we are now. He also lives like a mile away.

So after working I got lunch, got to keep the leftovers in the freezer-fridge, and cleaned out the fridge a bit. I need to do more of that. It's super annoying because trash day is Tuesday and ours didn't get picked up on Storm Day Tuesday so now my trash can is very full and I don't feel like I can put any more fridge stuff in there. Bleh.

I truly cannot think of anything else that happened Friday. It was in the high 80's and I mostly just closed up the house early (because it's actually well insulated) and stayed in bed all day refreshing Reddit.

I went back to Eric's that night to swap batteries and grab a protein shake I'd put in his fridge and on the way out there were a ton of work trucks in our neighborhood. I took pics. I texted people, I showed Eric and his family, I was SO excited.

SATURDAY

SURELY, I thought, Saturday would be our day for power. The power outage map said all of the big outages were taken care of, there were just a couple of medium sized ones left and a bunch of small ones like ours... about 5 - 10 house outages. The nicer neighborhood to the west now had NO outages big or small, and there was ONE small outage in the north side of our neighborhood now (also nicer than our side. Hmmm...) THIS was surely OUR DAY.

I spent a couple of hours that day out of the house. I met my friend Stephen for lunch and to loan him a bunch of D&D stuff halfway between his house and mine.

When I left my house to meet him it just started raining.

I drove up to meet him in the rain. It rained the entire hour+ we were in the restaurant. It rained most of the way home.

Not much got done in the nearly 3 hours I was gone.

I got home and drove around the neighborhood when it hadn't been raining in awhile looking for work trucks and there were none.

I'd gotten like 4, maybe 5 hours of sleep every night that week.

I was hot, tired and exhausted. I felt very... done.

I looked for work trucks when I left to go to Eric's and only saw a couple of brush clearing trucks trimming trees in an area that had no outages.

I was tired, y'all. Real low energy when I got to Eric's. They were really nice to me.

I went home, got more Sonic ice and cried as I refilled the stuff in the freezer with it.

Pretended I felt fine when I gave my updates to friends and family that night and that all was well. Truly, I didn't feel all that well. And there was one friend kinda snarky, saying more or less that I was soft and asking why I didn't go to a hotel. I was just like... find me a nearby hotel where I can take my cats and OK. Maybe. I'd looked into a few. Then he wanted me to abandon my cats there and just go myself.

No, I don't think I'll do that. I wasn't even whining in that chat, just giving updates as to the power situation in the city and me specifically. Pretty rankled about that still.

But I didn't feel like arguing, I didn't feel like gaming. I just caught up on Hacks, glad that even after maxing out my data plan the free 5G was holding up well, and went to sleep right after.

ANNND I finally slept decently even though it was the hottest night yet (high 70s which still... wasn't bad.)

SUNDAY

Woke up around 8 and felt... better.

I just spent the morning in bed, not really hoping, watching the map, seeing that some of the outages near me had been resolved. Wondering if my job would be cool with me missing more work and now thinking about tethering my phone to my work laptop, or just seeing if I could work half the day at Eric's tomorrow.

And then around 11 I heard work trucks.

Not unusual, lots had driven by my house many times a day almost every day.

But these were close. And they stopped.

Hoping against hope I looked out my back door and... there they were.

The most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

I put on shoes and went out to ask them if they needed anything from me. They said nope and that they'd have us back up soon. I thanked them from the bottom of my heart.

I went inside. Texted people. Cried a tiny bit in relief.

About twenty minutes later, I felt a cool breeze... and heard a buzzer going off.

Air conditioning and haha.. my stove timer. I turned it off then went back outside and thanked the workers again, sincerely. I wondered if they were just happy that they weren't being yelled at.

After getting my PC and internet back up and letting just about everyone know the situation, I headed to Eric's one last time to get my meds and shakes out of his fridge and give him his charger back.

It's over, here I am, sitting enjoying the full spoils of civilization again.

So here's a few lists.

Things I'm grateful for:

Eric & family, first and foremost. This would have been a lot rougher without having him to rely on for even the small stuff and he really helped keep my spirits up.

Honestly, the Tree situation could have been worse in SO many ways. It's something I'm still dealing with and will be for a couple of days -- the workers detangled the branches IN the wires but the rest of it is still there. But it fell on the shared fence and not into the alley, not onto the neighbor's shed, not on anyone's house or other people's property except that most of the tree is, ya know, IN their yard.

The roof looks ROUGH, there are a LOT of missing shingles and damage but it's still whole, as in, no leaks into my house. That is a FREAKING miracle to me. I've checked the ceilings and see no damage and I think by now I'd know. IDK if it'll withstand another storm like that but... it's fine for now.

I have good tradespeople who were helpful and I think will do a good job when I can employ them fully soon. My parents really liked the roofer and if my dad likes him, he's a good one.

My neighbors are being very kind and patient about the tree. I am of course going to take on all the expenses above what the insurance will pay for (and will be paying out of pocket for it and getting reimbursed for a lot of it.)

TBH I've been wanting to put up a sturdy wooden fence for as long as I've owned the house. Now I have a reason to and hopefully at least some seed money to do so from insurance.

The weather could have been a lot worse. At night it was in the low 70's most nights and stayed in the 70s until late morning almost every day. Today it's 86 out but overcast... this is the hottest day we've had I think. Maybe Wednesday it was like 88? But not that bad, for Texas this time of year. We could have done without the extra rain delays but... at least the temperature was decent most of the time.

Like I said earlier my house is well insulated so it never got too bad even on the hottest days. Later this week it's getting into the 90's though. Hopefully EVERYONE is back up by then.

I had plenty of nonperishable food and water to get me through the week if I wanted... and more. But honestly, gladder it didn't have to.

Lessons Learned:

Even when you look at the tree and think "Nah it's fine, it doesn't need to be trimmed this year." maybe think again. Of course... that no longer applies to me because I now have ZERO large trees on my property. When I bought the house I had... four. I'd like to plant another one where that one went down and one in my front yard to replace that one I had cut down several years ago but just... keep them relatively small this time.

Had to order batteries for the headlamp Friday. Keep more batteries in stock. The LED Headlamp is extremely useful and maybe I should order another one or two.

Keep rechargeables charged. I mean, I did well with that this time! Also I still have plenty of candles. Probably need another lighter.

I definitely needed to be more prepared at the very beginning. I didn't really take action when I heard the sirens go off for too long. I think I could have gotten both cats in the hall bath, clothes on, shoes on, supplies and a heavy blanket in the bath much sooner. In fact, I should keep some supplies under the cabinet in that bathroom in the future, and maybe a collapsible cage so I can get one cat secured while I go get the other one.

Stuff to do:

Call Plumber. The sewer situation isn't great but it's still moving. That just added to the stress this week but it was manageable.

Get garage door serviced. I didn't realize how much I needed to. My garage door is solid wood with real glass windows and it is FREAKING heavy. It's not bad when it's serviced and the springs are tight, but nigh impossible to open when it's not... and right now it's not. I can barely lift it. And now I can't get it back on the track to lift automatically.

Have already texted my handyman to take care of the tree, idk when he's coming though. May be a day or three =\ I don't love that.

Insurance called like Friday just to tell me they got my claim and are assigning an adjustor, but since my house is habitable and I'm not in immediate distress, I'm lower priority. I get it, but I don't love it because another bad storm and I may be in distress. But for now, just deal with all that.

I need to talk to my neighbors about the fact that I'm going to get a wood fence put up to replace our chain link one. It's time. They are lovely but I want the security of having my back yard fully fenced in. I've never done much with it back there and have shitty furniture because I'm like ehhhh.. it'll just get stolen if I put anything nice out there. I want the security and privacy of a full heavy fence. Gotta find someone to do that, too.

Get the electrician back to wire up the house for a generator.

Buy a generator (and gas cans) to run the fridge, an outlet for charging things, and either a window AC unit or space heater depending on season. That's all I need.

Clean out the garage, for real. This might wait until fall when it's cooler out. I can park my car in it but it's otherwise filled with clothes and just... stuff. I need to do a major wardrobe purge soon anyway. Need someplace to store the generator that I can easily pull it out and get it to the porch next time this happens.

So yeah, there's still a lot of work to be done.

This week sucked, but also it coulda been much worse and I had a lot of people being very cool with and/or concerned about me and that made it a lot easier.

And now I'm tired of typing. I hope anyone who actually read all this had a much better week. :D

[knockouts-medibay]

Rant time

so, awhile back I had an idea for an AU that sorta played into Fnaf, but also with the DJD. And today, while walking to school, I had a thought regarding the AU I pretty much abandoned because I ran outta steam for it quickly as neat of a concept as it was.

So, for a bit of background, the AU is supposed to play sort of like a free roam game similar to BATIM, or Fnaf: security breach. It takes place in like an old factory or smth and you, the player or reader or whatever are supposed to go look for a friend who went missing and then multiple other people went missing (adults, mind you). So you go into this factory warehouse thing, fight withered versions of the DJD and boom bam, it's done.

But this morning, I was listening to music, and a thought popped in my head: "What if instead of running around like I originally intended, each member had their own gimmicks to fight (for example, the main one I thought of was with Kaon and him being hooked up to the main electrical system of the factory, and the player has to overload the systems, probablt about six of these systems, with their taser to stun the ever encroaching Vos in the vents, in order to kill/disable Kaon. But you have to be silent while walking through knee deep water with Vos on the prowl and cant make a sound or Kaon will find and kill you)

I think that if I were to revamp the AU, I'd focus more on like the designs and fights themselves. Like maybe for Helex, he's literally on fire burning from the inside out, and you have to douse him in water or like a extinguisher (each use disabled the hose/extinguisher)

But if they're withered, and based on FNAF 2's withered animatronics or the Ignited Animatronic from the fangame Joy of Creation, then at least SOMEONE has ro be done Mangle Style. I'm looking at you, Vos.

Btw in this AU, Vos doesn't really have functional legs, rather opting to drag himself around similar to Ennard or The Blob, but he could walk if he wanted to. You can find him hiding in the vents and you have to jab him with a taser to make him leave as mentioned before. He's a literal rat. Ill probably rant more to someone whose interested in DMs about the whole revamping of the AU