#alli blathers

[arthurwilde]

Sam is the earnest straight ally who strenuously keeps up with every letter in the LGBTQIA+ acronym and continually corrects actual bisexual Dean when he uses the wrong terms.

Cas is canonically In Love With A Man

Gayest Supernatural Character, Quarter-Finals

[itwasntimethatdidit40]

Eyes on the Mirror - part 1

Pairing: neighbor!Frankie Morales x f!reader Rating: +18, NSFW Words count: 2631 Summary: You're at a turning point in your relationship with Frankie, he tells you that his mother insists on meeting you. Tags/Warnings: POV second person, no use of y/n, reader wears dresses, heels and uses make-up, no other description of her is given, no mention of her skin tone and she doesn't blush, no description of her hair, Frankie can lift her but he’s a hunk of a men you know, mention of food, established relationship, enemies to lovers, smut, fluff, kissing, mention of unprotected p in v, nipples play (f receiving), oral (f receiving), fingering (f receiving), panties in mouth (don't know how it's called in English, I just know that I like it lol), Frankie is our canon PEK and also the perfect boyfriend okay, mention of being caught (well, to be more specific, to be heard lol), pet names. Let me know if I forgot something and I'll add it right away. A/N: This has been a long journey and I think it took me longer than expected. Second part is coming tomorrow. It's an emotional work, it's smut, but it's smut with feelings and I think I put a lot of myself into it. So I ask you to be especially delicate. This Frankie is the same guy from You look like a fun place to sit and Give me more Anyway, let me say a few thanks because I can't believe I had two people volunteer to be my beta, I'm very lucky. Kate @aurorawritestoescape and Ally @arcanefox207 The fact alone that you took some time to read and proofread my stuff is so important to me and you have given me so many helpful suggestions and advice, I am very grateful ❤️ Thank you Odi @joelmillerisapunk , to let me blather, to cheer me up, to always have the right words, I don't know how you do it, you're literally a gem ❤️ We’re going back to the emotional unavailable men agenda asap but for the moment I hope you’ll enjoy my lover boy neighbor!Frankie who is crazy about his girl 🥰  English is not my first language, any mistake is still on me, so if you come across one I’m very sorry. Frankie Masterlist ⎮ Masterlist ⎮ part 2

You and Frankie have been together for four months now, and you’re incredibly happy. Your neighbor, the man you spent a year hating, revealed himself as the best man you’ve ever been in a relationship with. 

You haven't said “I love you” to each other yet, you're taking it slow and you're perfectly fine with that, you know you have strong feelings for him but you don't know if he's ready to say it and the last thing you want is to ruin the best relationship you've had because of words said too soon. 

So you respect his timing without forcing his hand. And still you often think you don't even really need to say it, all you really want is to keep being with him, the man who can make you laugh in a second, with whom you like to do everything from the most mundane things like grocery shopping and running errands, to talking for hours and sharing everything with him, cooking, going to parties and concerts, even bickering. 

And sex. 

Oh, Frankie is a fucking magician. 

The most shockingly fiery and at the same time sweet lover you've ever had. 

You feel you can be yourself at all times with him, he knows your flaws and frailties and accepts them. And from where you were starting out it already feels like a considerable accomplishment. You never thought that the man who used to spend time judging you, once you penetrated his armor, was actually such a tolerant and nonjudgmental person.

You haven't moved in together, but you spend almost every night together, and yet, you are still trying to navigate your relationship without making the other one run off before taking the next step.

So when Frankie tells you that his mother would love to meet you, you get a little scared but you try to put on a good face.

"You really don't mind?" he prods you. 

You can never hide anything from him; Frankie has an ability to read your mind, the talent that you had never found in a man. 

His eyes scan you and he has a cunning little smile as he’s standing on the other side of the table, eating the eggs you prepared for him. 

“Yeah, don't worry, it's okay,” you nod, your movement a little forced, and Frankie notices it. 

“You're nervous, huh? Look it's normal,” he tries to reassure you, his hand slides across the table until it meets yours. 

He squeezes it gently and then intertwines his fingers with yours. 

“I'm sorry, she's been nagging me for at least a month now, I've managed to keep her at bay until now but she grilled me yesterday and told me that she was expecting us for dinner on Friday.”

“Yeah...I just feel a little pressure, you know, but it's okay,” you admit.

“Babe, she will like you very much, I'm sure.”

You look into his eyes, those big eyes the color of coffee and chocolate, and the comfortable glow they give off immediately takes away part of the weight you feel on your chest. 

“Are you sure?” you murmur.

“Of course!” he smiles at you, ”Well, you're a little sassy but...”

You slap his hand “Frankie! You're not helping me!” you complain. 

“Come on, I'm kidding. She’s going to adore you, I have no doubt about it,” he chuckles.

“Mmmm we’ll see” you still mumble with uncertainty.

"Come here," he says softly. 

You get up and walk over to him before he welcomes you on his lap and you wrap your arms around his neck. He rests his forehead on yours looking into your eyes and repeats softly, “she will adore you…not as much as I do but she sure will”

The thing is this with him, he's been circling around that word for weeks, so you're pretty sure he's going to confess sooner or later.

"What if she doesn't like me?" you ask him and bite your lip, looking at him expectantly.

“Uh, I don't want to stop fucking you, you know... so, you'll have to stay in a clandestine relationship while I'm dating a woman, personally chosen by my mom.” 

You kiss him, muttering “god, you're so...” 

He giggles and asks "what am I like?" tightening his grip on your waist a little tighter and pulling you closer to his chest, your tits pressed against him. 

“An incredibly lovely fucking bastard.”

________________________________________

You are in the kitchen preparing dinner, which in your case means putting take-out pizza on plates, as you hear Frankie come in. 

“Hey, are you here?” 

He gave you his keys a few weeks ago to make it easier for you to get around.

“In the kitchen!” you shout to him. 

You hear his footsteps approaching from the hallway until he comes in with a bag. 

“Hey, baby.” 

You walk up to him to give him a kiss, he immediately puts down the bag and hugs you tightly. “mmm I missed you. What's for dinner?” 

“Pizza,” you tell him smiling through your eyelashes and stealing another kiss, his beard tickling your cupid's bow pleasantly “And I was thinking about…uhm…your cock for dessert.”

He squeezes your butt, chuckling, “So eager, huh?”

“For you? Always,” you purr, looking into his eyes, veiled with desire.

His stomach grumbles slightly making you giggle, “Do you want to eat first?” 

“Uh, no,” he whispers, and as he does so he slips two fingers under the straps of your dress and pulls it off, letting it slide to the floor. 

You're in your panties in front of him, no bra, he looks at you spellbound with a smirk that unknowingly puckers his lips, "do you know how beautiful you are?" 

His eyes move from your face down to the crease of your neck, your cleavage, your breasts, your stomach, slowly, as if he is drinking from your body, the source that keeps him alive. 

He takes his time, still hasn't touched you but you'd swear you've never felt more caressed than now, nurtured, sensed, accepted in your body's every disheveled and flawed manifestation.

You could swear you could moan from that alone.

When his hands approach your hips you want them so badly that you instinctively lean into them to meet his palms, the warmth of his skin welcoming you.

You cling to his broad shoulders, bringing his body closer to yours.

He lifts you up as if you weighed nothing and lays you on the kitchen countertop, next to the sink. 

Your legs hang over the edge as he commands, “open wide, baby,” and settles in between, still fully clothed. 

“Frankie, please.” 

“You know what I like?” he asks with a smirk, ”the way you light up as soon as I touch you. God, it drives me crazy the way you instantly become a needy little animal, you know that?" 

You feel your eyes heavy and your voice shaky as you repeat his question, “You know what I like? The way you know exactly what I need.”

He smiles, leaning down to your neck to bite the soft skin over your pulse point and soothing it right after with his warm tongue. 

He lowers himself onto you, leaving a trail of kisses on your beating chest, pausing on your tits and spreading his lips over your nipples, first one and then the other, caressing them with his tongue, swirling it around. You moan with each touch, tilting your head back as he sucks them harder, his beard pinching you gently, his warm lips enveloping them.

You pull his cap off and sink a hand into his dark curls. 

He knows you so well, it is as if he has memorized your every little reaction and in his mind has written himself a manual on how to make you completely lose control. 

He continues to work on your nipples, grazing them with his teeth, licking them up and down with his tongue, sucking them between his lips, hard and covering them with his saliva. His tongue goes around your areola, returning to your little pebble every time you pull his hair a little harder and mewl.

He suddenly leaves your tits and returns to your neck, you groan in disappointment but his tongue immediately soothes you trailing up to your jaw and licking over your lips, inviting them to open for him and dragging you in a sloppy, feral kiss that leaves you breathless.

His hips are rocking into you, brushing over your damp underwear while you wrap your legs around his waist, pushing him against your core.

His eyes are dark with lust as he moves one of his hands over your soaked underwear, brushing your folds with his knuckles, “I’m going to make you scream my name so loudly, baby”

“That’s exactly what I want,” you prod him, biting down softly on his lower lip. “Do your magic, Morales.” 

You loosen the grip of your legs, gently pushing his shoulders to invite him to lower himself, and Frankie grumbles jokingly, "bossy". 

He kneels in front of you holding his hands down on your back, just above your butt and pushes you toward him, you falter for a moment balancing on the edge of the counter but his grip is strong and secure.

You run a hand through his curls, tugging slightly.

He licks a strip over your panties, taking the fabric between his teeth, without stopping to look at you. 

A fucking tease. 

He stills for a moment and then kisses your clit. 

Then he moves his flat tongue flat down, almost to your tight hole and then back up, again and again, lingering on your clit with quick flicks of his tongue.

The fabric of your panties is wet with his saliva as a new stream of pleasure floods you, soaking them even more.

“Oh fuck, yes,” you holler.

He looks at you mischievously. “Thinking about it… we should take some measures to make sure you stay quiet, honey, you know?” he nods to the half opened window right behind you. 

You glance back and then blurt out, “oh, whatever, let them hear us.”

Frankie chuckles at your impatience. “Do you really want to put on a show for the whole neighborhood?” 

“There are curtains, they can't see us,” you frown

“But do they need to hear us?” he says as he pulls off your panties, sliding them down your legs.

He sniffs them for a moment- “fucking sweet, darling” - while you wonder what he's going to do, then rolls them and stands back up, sneaking his hand behind your neck and looking at you authoritatively, his lips pursed in a smirk. 

He runs his thumb over your mouth, stops in the center and pushes gently, silently commanding you to open it. The moment your lips part he thrusts your panties into your mouth. “That's it, good girl” he coos.

It’s so wrong, keeping your panties in your mouth like that, your tongue numbed with the taste of it and your body tense under Frankie’s gaze. But also fucking right. 

He graciously holds his power over you, always considerate of your need while he plays with your mind in a delicious nasty way. 

He caresses your cheek, moving down to the column of your neck, wrapping his fingers around it, “Don't try to take them out or you won't get what you want,” he gently orders.  “Can you behave for me?” 

You nod.

He gives you a smirk and gets back on his knees and admires your glistening pussy for a moment. “Always so fucking wet for me,” he whispers before sinking into you again, licking and sucking on your clit and down on your folds, his nose hitting your most sensitive part. 

When you’re basically dripping on your inner thighs, he slides two fingers inside you, so easily moving over the spot he knows makes you see double.

His fingers are inside you up to his knuckles when he curls them, pushing and grasping.

You are thrown into a frenzy almost immediately as he gently hits you with his fingertips again and again, sucking avidly on your clit as you’re stifling your moans by clenching your teeth on your panties.

He laps at your folds so thoroughly, then goes back on your bundle of nerves, sloppy wet noises fill the air mixing with your gasps as he scissors and pushes into you.

He hums against you, whines evenly, you watch him through your eyelashes as he palms himself from above his jeans, seeking some relief.

He doesn’t stop until he feels your legs shake and your stifled mewls trying desperately to get out of your throat. 

Your orgasm crushes over you like a wave, leaving you quivering and breathless.

He gets back up and removes the panties from your mouth, kissing you with his mouth still smeared with your essence. 

 “You’ve been so good, baby.”

You pull him by his shirt protesting, "You haven't got anything yet, though.”

“That’s not a problem, hun, we can eat something and then you’ll eat me. Dessert, remember?” 

You giggle “deal.” 

You steal another kiss from him before slipping your dress back on and setting the table. 

As you eat you notice the bag he left in a corner by the kitchen door.

“What is that?” you ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, I almost forgot, it's a gift for you." 

You squint your eyes “For me? You didn't have to!”

Frankie smiles “I saw it in a store and thought of you. Open it.” 

You get up and go for the bag, not before giving him a kiss.

When you open the bag you find a dress. 

Very simple, black, not too low-cut, with a tulip skirt. 

As you're looking at it, leaning it over your body to see the length, Frankie suggests that you could wear it to his mother's. 

____________________________________________

“Are you ready, honey?” 

Frankie's voice is muffled by the bathroom door as you're finishing putting on your lipstick.

“Almost, you just need to help me with the zipper.”

Frankie opens the door and peeps into the bathroom.

He stops behind you, admiring you in the mirror as you stand there with your lips parted, leaning slightly over the sink, your legs slender from your heels, you wear the dress he bought you, unzipped at the back.

“Jesus, you’re a vision,” he breathes. “Maybe we should skip dinner at my mom’s.” 

He approaches you and settles his big hands firmly on your hips. 

“Come on, Frankie, be serious,” you giggle.

“I'm serious,” he replies in a rough, deep voice.

He leans down to leave a trail of kisses down the exposed skin on your back, his soft lips send shivers down your spine and you are almost on the verge of giving in. 

You set your lipstick down on the sink countertop and turn to look at him pouting

"You can't do this to me now, you know we can't skip it.” 

“Well, it might help you relax though,” he continues to flirt, his lips curved into a little smile.

You’d fall for it any other day but not now that you’re trying to figure out how to impress someone you don’t even know. 

Frankie told you something about his mom, how protective she is and overall pretty conservative, you’re the exact opposite. 

You don’t know why he stays so positive about the dinner, you’re pretty sure she will hate you.

One look from you is enough to let him know how nervous you are.

Frankie leaves a light kiss on your shoulders and says. "Okay, I'll behave, turn around." 

He pulls up his zipper looking at you in the mirror, “Anyway, I wasn’t lying, you look really beautiful.” 

You smile softly, feeling your heart fluttering.

general tag list: @baronessvonglitter , @milla-frenchy , @thundermartini , @harriedandharassed , @almostempty let me know if you want to be added or removed and I’ll do it right away.

Archive tag: @pedrostories💗

Thank you so much for reading!

[mariacallous]

Last week, President Donald Trump finally unveiled his tariff policy — an incoherent bolus of sky-high taxes on goods from every inhabited country and some small islands which are home only to penguins.

The tariffs are so high, and so obviously nonsensical in development and implementation, that they caused a terrifying stock selloff. The market lost $6.6 trillion in two days, the biggest two-day wipeout on record. (And the selloff is set to continue this week.)

Trump’s tariffs will cost the average American family $3,800 a year. They are set to devastate supply chains for small businesses. As other countries crank up retaliatory tariffs, farmers are going to face major barriers to selling on the world market. The administration’s conflicting messages about why the tariffs are in place, and under what conditions they will remain, have only added to the chaos and confusion.

The only thing that seems certain at this point is the likelihood of more, and escalating, economic devastation.

Trump’s decision to single-handedly hobble the world economy and immiserate tens of millions of Americans has presented his fellow Republicans with a stark choice. Do they continue to kiss his orange butt and slavishly nod along to every nonsensical whim of their idiot Golfer King as he leads them into a recession and almost certain electoral apocalypse? Or do they defy him, splitting the party and opening themselves to a primary challenge … and possible electoral apocalypse?

The good news is that some GOP senators and members of Congress are actually disturbed enough by the prospect of their voters starving in the street that they have taken steps to push back against this grotesquely self-destructive trade policy. The not so good news is that the pushback is hesitant and half-hearted — and the majority of the party remains ready to torture and impoverish their constituents for the greater glory of Trump.

The tariffs, and the quick slide into economic calamity, have sparked real resistance. They’ve also demonstrated just how craven and/or hypnotized the GOP has become, and the extent to which most Republicans would do anything — literally anything — rather than point out that the emperor is wearing a grotesque meat suit made of the skin of his constituents.

Revolt of (a few) Republicans

As they are wont to do, many Republicans have gotten on their bellies to grovel and spout the usual Trump-flattering balderdash, either because they are desperate to propitiate their master or because they are genuinely fools.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been leading the charge of the sycophants. In interviews he’s blathered that Trump’s trade policy would force other countries to “stop picking on us” and bleated, “Let Donald Trump run the global economy. He knows what he’s doing.”

Some of Lutnick’s fellow Republicans do not, somehow, find his mix of whining and wheedling persuasive.

Shortly after Trump announced his one man assault on the world economy, the Senate passed a bill on a straight majority vote to end the 25 percent emergency tariff declaration against Canada, which Trump had already announced before his latest round of additional bonus tariffs.

The bill was sponsored by Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky and Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia. All Democrats voted for it, as did Republicans Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski. It passed 51-48.

“We're not at war with Canada," Paul said, sounding about as sensible as he ever has. “They're an ally that buys more of our stuff than almost any other country in the world.”

The vote was largely symbolic. Senate Democrats, led by minority leader Chuck Schumer, cravenly caved and gave Republicans the votes they needed to pass a continuing resolution which funded the government, but also stripped Congress members of the ability to bring bills to the floor to vote on repealing presidential emergency declarations.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson, the high priest of Trump enablers, will almost certainly prevent the bill from ever coming to the floor. Even if it were to pass, Trump could veto it — and it’s very unlikely Republicans could find enough votes to overcome a veto.

Despite these barriers, Democrats — and some Republicans—are trying again. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley — whose farm state of Iowa will be devastated by the tariffs — has joined with Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell to cosponsor a bill that would claw back the oversight power Congress has recklessly ceded to the president on trade over the decades.

Per the Grassley/Cantwell bill, the president would need to notify Congress within 48 hours of new tariffs, explaining the reasoning behind them and estimating economic impact. Congress would have 60 days to approve the tariffs; if they failed to do so, the tariffs would expire.

In addition to Grassley, the bill is cosponsored by four other Republicans: Jerry Moran, Thom Tillis, McConnell, and Murkowski. Add in Paul and Collins, who voted for the Kaine/Paul bill, and that’s at least seven Republican votes — enough to pass the bill on a simple majority, though not enough to overcome a filibuster.

There have been other signs of Republican unrest too. Nebraska moderate Republican Rep. Don Bacon has said he plans to introduce a House version of the Grassley/Cantwell bill. Normally solid Trumpists like Ted Cruz and billionaire executive branch arsonist Elon Musk have also both expressed skepticism about Trump’s tariff policy.

Profiles in (not quite) courage

Republicans are publicly criticizing Trump. They’re also introducing and voting on bills to curtail Trump’s tariffs. This matters. It means the media has more room to portray the tariffs as actually bad, rather than simply defaulting to easy “R said/D said” both sides narratives.

In addition, open dissent by a significant number of Republicans helps break the collective action problem. Trump can target one or two GOP dissenters, but it’s much harder to excommunicate nine or 10, including co-president Musk. A quorum of people speaking up makes it possible for even more people to dissent. This is how you build up to effective resistance.

But while effective resistance is dimly visible somewhere in the future, we have not arrived there as of yet. Again, there aren’t enough Republican dissenters to pass Grassley/Cantwell over a filibuster, much less a presidential veto. And it’s unclear that the GOP anti-tariff caucus has the stomach for more aggressive tactics.

Would the GOP anti-tariff caucus be willing to join with Democrats to sink the Republican reconciliation bill with all its billionaire tax cut goodies unless and until it includes provisions stripping Trump of tariff power? Would Bacon and other anti-tariff House Republicans withhold their votes in the House?

Given that we’re facing what could be the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, you’d like to think that the answers there would be an easy “yes”. But, considering Republican fecklessness, it seems more than likely that Grassley, Paul, McConnell, Tillis, and the rest will throw away their leverage the minute they have to actually oppose Trump directly.

Congress has a great deal of power to restrain the president — in theory. In practice, many congresspeople and senators are true believing cult members, and those who aren’t are extremely risk averse. They don’t want to take controversial votes or be responsible for anything. They certainly don’t want to oppose the president of their own party even when that president is obviously a callous fool hellbent on demolishing the economy and with it farms, small businesses, and consumers, all for reasons he and his minions aren’t able to articulate coherently.

Republican dissent is a hopeful sign. The hard limits on it, though, given the magnitude of the crisis, are a bleak reminder of how we ended up in this nightmare to begin with. Any successful resistance is going to require a fair number of Republicans to abandon their orange idol. It’s good to see them starting to do that. But it’s undeniably grim that the fate of the nation rests to any degree at all on these, gutless, spineless, christofascist quislings.

[carrymelikeimcute]

No cis actor should ever play queer/trans characters, I do not understand how you can continue to champion ONeill for this.

If he was the amazing aware ally the canyon is making him out to be, then he would have reflected before taking this role and instead of profiting of the trans community done the actually supportive thing and let a trans actor have the role. (I’m not saying that he necessarily had bad intentions but to be a good ally wanting to do good is not enough, you have to actually put the work in and educate yourself!)

Go support trans actors of color and trans women instead of simping for some straight-passing cis guy!

0/10 rage bait.

Must try harder.

What is this word vomit? Why are we pretending that being 'queer' means NOT being cis???? The majority of queer (gay, lesbian, bi, pan, ace/aro etc) people ARE cis????

We don't even KNOW Con's identity because he's private and other than coming out as being part of the queer community, we have no idea what that looks like or means for him.

What character is even being discussed here? (Possibly in reference to Val, a character with no concrete gender identity, who often went by male pronouns and was never confirmed to be trans or anything other than VAL).

Trans actors of colour?? Wasn't aware Con had ever taken a role as a POC?? What are you even blathering about?

'Straight passing' - absolutely laughable. Say you think all queer men should be femme stereotypes without saying it.

Also, lolling at the 'canyon' mention - because it shows whoever wrote this 1. is in the ofmd fandom and 2. likely stans Ed and Stede - two GAY characters played by STRAIGHT, CIS, MEN. (Rhys has also done roles in drag and made debatably transphobic jokes in his stand-up ("I like transformers...chicks with dicks") but obviously, they can do no wrong. Because they're the straightwashed, comfortingly non-sexual gays.

Critical thinking skills of a lemon.

[lunaatthezoo]

She'll Wait No Longer- Chapter 10 (The End)

SURPRISE, BISHES! I had to rip the band-aid off. I was losing my mind. Here is the final chapter of the work I have been pouring my heart and soul into. I hope you love this HEA for our Seer and Shadowsinger as much as I do. You can read my blathering weeping thank yous in the notes on the chapter, but an extra thank you to everyone here on Tumblr who has shared, reposted, liked, commented, supported me with kind words, etc. etc. You all mean so much to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I am not done writing- not even close! Preview below.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60399079/chapters/155939557

The moment Azriel winnowed into the Townhouse foyer, Rhysand stepped into his path. 

“Get out of my way,” Azriel snarled at him.

“Do not do this, Azriel,” Rhys said in his cool, collected voice.

Azriel felt something snapping within him again. Shadows whirled violently around his shoulders and head.

“Why? Why should that prick sit beside her in her most vulnerable state? How many times does she have to say that she doesn't want him, Rhys? No one has ever listened to her.”

His brother’s face was the immovable mask of the High Lord.

“This Court needs it's allies in-”

“Fuck you ” Azriel seethed.

Rhysand had the good sense to look taken aback.

“Fuck you for saying that, Rhys. This Court needs allies? Elain needs allies. She needs her family to hear her, to support her.”

Rhysand looked stricken at his words, but as Azriel made to step around him he blocked his path again.

Azriel bared his teeth at his High Lord.

“You're such a fucking hypocrite, Rhysand.”

“What,” his brother responded with menacing calm, his voice now edged with violence. Tendrils of darkness were leaking from him now, challenging Azriel’s roiling shadows.

“You heard me. You spout your bullshit about dreamers and freedom and choice to anyone who will listen. But when it comes to your political games, our right to choose doesn't really matter to you, does it?”

[kings-highway]

Your writing is so amazing..... do you have any tips on writing character arcs and plots?

Ooooooooooooohh okay okay what a fun question. It’s a little bit broad, so I’ll do my best not to blather on for too exceptionally long, but you know me. First, my usual disclaimer for all my writing advice - dismiss anything I say that makes the experience less enjoyable for you. If I say something that totally conflicts with the way you want to write a character arc or plot, and you really, really like what you had, then I am wrong. That is simply how art works. This, however, will be me providing some advice as it relates to how I myself construct these things and what I think makes the best story.

What comes to mind first as my biggest piece of advice for character arcs and overall plots is to THINK SMALL.

Seriously. Now, that does not mean “write small” or write small scale or little plots or anything like that. I mean, in your own mind when you talk about what your character arc is, or what the plot is, it should only be one line, or a few points. Ideally just a single concept.

Example: If someone were to ask you “what is your main character’s arc” you should not be responding with “Oh, she discovers that her mother was a magician and that she has secret magic, but in discovering that she gets swept up in a plot to steal all the magic in the world, so she travels to another kingdom to meet other people like her and has to hone her magic and then connect with an even older magic and bring it back to her home kingdom where she uses it to fight off a cruel dictator and liberate the magicians of the land and establish peace” <- that, my friend, is neither a character arc or a plot. That is a synopsis. This could be the entire plot of your story, your character arc is “oh, she learns to trust the judgement of her allies.”

And then you write the story. You can write this grand, sweeping story about this girl’s magic and her hero’s journey and her saving her land - take the time, take the agonizing time over multiple chapters to tug-o-war with this character’s ability to put control into someone else’s hand. For the first 20% of the story she gets in trouble and causes huge problems and gets kidnapped because she refuses to let anyone else plan or aid her, and this is why she has to flee, because her own arrogance causes her to misjudge a plan, and nobody is there to help her. For the next 20% she is fighting with her allies and really being forced to contend with her beliefs about other people, seeing how much skill they have that maybe she doesn’t, considering that they might actually be able to protect her, help her, maybe she doesn’t always need to be in control of everything. The next 20% of the story proves her wrong, she gets saved, she still fights, she still hates it, it makes her very being itch to put herself into someone else’s hands, but it works. On a small scale, in little ways. She trusts someone to make her dinner, and use that weird spice she doesn’t know, and it tastes delicious. She learns a new fighting technique, and unlocks something incredible important that will help her save the day. In the next 10% an ally betrays her, and she’s suddenly questioning all her learning and her own change of heart. She’s about to go into battle, and an ally has gotten killed because she trusted someone and was wrong about it. What if this whole plan falls apart because of that? The next 20% has her slip into her old habits, chase down the dictator on her own, return to her own kingdom and - get destroyed, collapse, the dictator is going to kill her because, yet again, her own folly has led her to ignore anyone else’s plans but her own. This is the final hour, the hardest moment for her. The last 10% has her rally, has her realize that it’s not, actually, her final hour - it would be her final hour if she was alone, but she’s not. There are people she trusts, people who are good, and maybe she doesn’t even kill the dictator. Maybe, since he’s so focused on her, she plays the puppet and distracts him, while someone else’s plan is executed perfectly, and she watches someone else kill, the man she swore vengeance on.

THAT is a character arc. It’s a character arc told entirely through the tiniest of concepts: Trust. And if you focus on that tiny, single concept, that one line of an arc, you can write an entire, incredibly interesting story with all of you fun magics and cool worldbuilding, but while it remains grounded in the character. And you’ll find that your character arcs and your plots are, of course, deeply intertwined - if you write this way, all your scenes become about building that character arc. Maybe you were going to have a big sweeping adventure but realize that entire excursion she was going to take to a third kingdom isn’t conducive to her character arc, so instead you rewrite it, and keep her at home and really focus in on that internal conflict. The story will be better for it, when you formulate your events for the needs of the character arc rather than what looks cool on paper. I mean, my initial pitch for this story idea is really boring and simple, isn’t it? That second one about the character arc is where ALL of the interesting dynamics kick in. You can try as hard as you want to say “no this story is really cool because she has to discover this intense magic and do all this training and come back and it’s a really great story about never giving up and not bowing down to dictators and it’s commentary on not letting-” irrelevant. It’s a story about admitting that you’re not the only person in the world. It’s a story about loving someone enough to let them save you. Don’t justify why your character arcs are cool, just write them.

But write them small. Someone should be able to get it in just a line.

“But Kings! What if my character arc ISN’T simple and I want it to be complex where they have to go back and forth-” that’s plot, my guy. That’s a synopsis. Boil it down. Boil it the fuck down. Not necessarily on the page, of course, write with your brilliant purple prose and complicated worldbuilding. But in your own mind, for your outlining. Keep it simple for the purposes of planning.

---

And of course, the same applies to plots: THINK SMALL. The above plot, that entire thing? The rambling synopsis? The plot is “a hero defeats a dictator.”

Of course there’s room for nuance and extrapolation, but really trying to cut any fat off the concept helps keep the story streamlined and focused. Yes, you can have asides to B-plots or cute fluff scenes or fun worldbuilding moments, but if you find yourself 15k in a side plot about animal husbandry in the fantasy world you invented, maybe remember that this isn’t a big, rambling story about the world and its citizens. It’s a story about a hero defeating a dictator. (Who learns to trust her friends along the way.)

Im not gonna use any original works as example bc there's be no way to see what im talking about but my longest fic to date is “This is Not the End,” which, of course, isn’t done, but to explain how big, sweeping stories can have really simple plots, the CORE idea, when I tell anyone about it, is “it’s about rebuilding society after an apocalypse has ended, with an emphasis on the preservation of knowledge.”

Everything else be damned. If they ask they can hear a bit about how I tell that story, but that’s the story. That’s the whole story. Everything else that happens in it is just… features of how I think that would go, features of interest that relate to that idea, that I think are interesting.

Paranormality was “the captain squad goes ghost hunting”

Time Enough was “time stops for one person without explanation”

Soulmake Adventures was “people join a singles club in a soulmate au”

DO NOT overcomplicate your plots!!! If your initial concept is overcomplicated, you’re going to get a messy, confusing, difficult story, your character arcs are going to be impossible to tell, and you’re probably not going to finish writing it. But if you can really pick just one simple thing that your story is about, and accept that it doesn’t have to have all that nuance crammed into it’s very core (the nuance can occur in other places, but not in its core) EVERYTHING ELSE about your story will fall into place, and people will be able to fucking taste the throughline that connects it all. Everything you write should serve that one little concept.

Anyway I hope this was at all helpful?? I know I am a bit of a yapper but I do like getting to talk about writing because it is my most favourite thing so thank you for the ask!!!

think small

[weclassybouquetfun]

Post-Oscars blathering.

-Host Conan O'Brien had treats for attendees.

-I felt bad for Jeremy Strong who lost out on Best Supporting for his incredible job as Roy Cohn in THE APPRENTICE. But I had far greater sympathy for the poor dog during the SNL 50th skit who just wanted petting from Adam Driver's huge paws. I mean, I yearn for Anora/Ani and Igor

but the dog really yearned for those huge mitts.

-Rumoured divorcé Dan Stevens made the rounds with Natasha Lyonne, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hari Neff and his CUCKOO costar Hunter Schafer. I'm hoping he sloppily made out with Hunter and Hari.

He has great taste, ladies.

-Oscars night was a time for reunions

Last year Best Actor winner Cillian Murphy was able to present to his one-time PEAKY BLINDERS costar Adam Brody.

Cillian was so happy to escape the press line and just present!

Little did he know that Brody would give the longest speech in Oscar history.

At least you looked good, Cillian.

GHOST costars Whoopi Goldberg and Demi Moore.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK costars Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg.

Garfield and rumoured paramour Monica Barbaro afterwards.

THE LITTLE MERMAID's Halle Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King.

CONCLAVE's Carlos Dietz with Isabella Rossellini (and Laura Dern).

Oscar presenters WHEN HARRY MET SALLY costars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.

Brady Corbett and his THE BRUTALIST composer Daniel Blumberg.

Blumberg looking like the twin cousin of ANORA's Yura Borisov.

Isabella Rossellini reuniting with her potion prop from DEATH BECOMES HER.

Isabella Rossellini is a "nepo" baby, but here are some of the latest scions.

Milo Manheim - Son of Camryn, star of Paramount+'s SCHOOL SPIRITS.

Charlie Foster - Son of Jodie Foster. He will appear in the upcoming Amazon Prime series SCARPETTA starring classic nepo baby Jamie Lee Curtis and Nicole Kidman.

Kidman recently worked with the daughter of her MOULIN ROUGE costar Ewan McGregor in the film BABYGIRL. Esther McGregor played Kidman's oldest daughter. Esther can also be seen in Pedro Almodovar's THE ROOM NEXT DOOR.

THE WHITE LOTUS S3 star Sam Nivola (son of Alessandro (The Brutalist) and Emily Mortimer (Paddington in Peru). He is dating Iris Apatow (daughter of Judd and Leslie Mann). Sam and his sister May were also in Noah Baumbach's WHITE NOISE playing the children of Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig; and Sam played son of Bradley Cooper's Leonard Bernstein in MAESTRO (which also starred Maya Hawke, son of Ethan and Uma Thurman).

There's also Asa Germann of Amazon Prime Video's GEN V (son of Gregg German (Grey's Anatomy, Ally McBeal). The series also featured Patrick Schwarzeneggar.

A sure entry to the entertainment industry for many a celebrity child is modeling. That's the path Deva Cassel (the eldest daughter of Vincent Cassel (who has just had his latest child; a boy, with partner Narah Baptista) and Monica Bellucci) forged after years of spending time with her mother on photo shoots.

Now she is acting. She can be currently be seen Netflix's IL GATTOPARDO/ THE LEOPARD; a six-part adaptation of the classic Italian novel, which was made into a three-hour film starring Burt Lancaster.

[hero-israel]

Breathe.

It is normal to feel pain, alarm, and sorrow, as we see what our world has turned into, as we hear what so many want to do to us. It wouldn't be human to feel any other way. I've been deeply involved in this issue for many years and truly did not expect so much of the goyische world to immediately go full werewolf on the thrill of seeing Jews tortured and massacred in high-res. Many of them are lost to us, and as far as I am concerned, there is nothing they could ever, ever do to regain my trust. They would never even think to give an apology, and even if they did, I would never accept it.

It makes matters all the worse that Israel - this age's morph of the reason to hate us - has for the last ~16 months been run by objectively evil and horrible people. A few of them have talked publicly about "encouraging voluntary resettlement" or claim to have held negotiations with African states. In all cases, less vile people from the same government have immediately denied those stories and said there is no such policy, no such talks, it is all just suggestions. When you have a government run by Internet trolls, criminals, and terrorist sympathizers, that is how they talk. There is no imaginable mechanism for any of this - it is impossible to believe any country would go along with it, or that it is taken seriously by anyone beyond whichever racist asshole is thinking out loud next to a reporter at that time. But even as idle blather, it is immensely dangerous. It represents a threshold we cannot cross. We cannot - as you said - "make that look good." The best we can do is recognize that this particular evil racist doesn't actually have the authority or method for doing it, he's just jerking off, the Attorney-General told them to shut up and stop advocating crimes.

There have been so many times when the world went utterly batshit about Israeli actions that were totally innocuous, about rumors that never even happened. I talk about it here all the time. Part of me is hoping that is an element of this case, even as I'm afraid, this time, it might not be.

And as I'm also afraid that things will get even worse for us if, as looks very likely, Trump wins next time.

So it is okay to feel utterly terrible about things.

And yet, we still have to breathe.

We are alive because Jewish people got through much worse times than these, with far fewer resources and allies than we have today. Everything we know, everything we worry about now, exists because even though They Tried To Kill Us, We Survived.

Confront reality - without despair. We are facing bad times and they may get worse, but we will get through them.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kurt Eichenwald at The Threats Within:

During a Republican debate in 2015 - back when Donald Trump’s candidacy was widely considered a joke, he spewed some evil nonsense that, if there was less ignorance in the world, should have ended his candidacy. “People that work for me, just the other day, two years old, beautiful child went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later, got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic,” he said. When the debate ended and Trump galumphed off the stage, the person - not people - who worked for him was so angry he got in the candidate’s face, balling him out for what he had said. “I was furious,” the former Trump ally told me years later. “The case he was talking about involved friends of mine. And not only did he invade their privacy, he lied about what happened.” Yes, the ally told me, the child had the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (better known as the MMR vaccine.) And yes, the child was autistic. But there was no “tremendous fever.” The child did not become “very, very sick.” The symptoms of the child’s autism showed months before receiving the vaccine. The family had the diagnosis of probable autism long before the vaccine. And after the child received the MMR, the already-present symptoms didn’t accelerate. Nothing changed in the child a week later, a month later, six months later. Eventually, the diagnosis changed from probable autism to autism - long, long after the MMR. Trump never apologized for intruding on this family’s pain, lying about it, or deceiving the scientifically illiterate. Instead, he has continued to ape the blatherings about childhood vaccination from.

[...] But one thing was keeping the coals of a future career burning: The praise of people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaxxer whom Trump has nominated as Health and Human Services Secretary. At a 2015 event where Kennedy appeared with Wakefield, our possibly future head of national medical issues proclaimed to the assembled crowd, “In any just society, we would be building statues to Andy Wakefield.” Trump also jumped on the bandwagon. After his lie during the Republican debate and the resulting condemnation of his repeating the then-disproven link between vaccines and autism, he doubled down as is his wont. In 2016, he invited Wakefield - literally, this universally condemned fraud! - to a meeting to discuss vaccination policy. Wakefield emerged from the meeting saying not only that Trump believed vaccines cause autism, but that he promised to do something about it if elected president. In his first term, as we all know, Trump had a number of intelligent people around him to block his worst impulses. His head of HHS was a former deputy secretary of the agency (and former drug company executive, but what can you expect?) It’s also difficult to believe that he is an anti-vaxxer, given his push to develop a COVID vaccine and his own use of it. But remember: This is not about vaccines for adults like those for COVID. This is about childhood vaccination (Which Trump opposed for COVID.) This time around, with Kennedy, Trump has gone full-blown anti-vaxxer which, if Wakefield is to be believed, is a reflection of the president-elect’s views. Kennedy is just the vehicle reflecting Trump’s own uneducated, uninformed and ignorant beliefs about childhood vaccination. He tipped his hand during a recent interview with Time magazine. It started when he said, “The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there's something causing it.” Why? Well, we should be looking at vaccines, Trump said. And he’d make sure that his people, led by Kennedy - an uninformed, intellectually lazy anti vaxxer - would form a team to look into it. He said his administration would conduct “very serious testing,” on the link between vaccines and autism, after which “we will know for sure what's good and what's not good.”

The normalization of anti-vaccine politics, fueled by Donald Trump (even though he helped get the beginnings of the COVID vaccines off the ground) and RFK Jr., is a disgraceful sight to see. One of the lies anti-vaxxer extremists traffic in is the debunked myth that vaccines “cause” autism.

[semperintrepida]

States of Resemblance [Chapter 1]

States of Resemblance - Chapter 1: Kyra

Rating: E Archive Warnings: Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings Category: F/F Fandom: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types Relationship: Kassandra/Kyra (Assassin's Creed) Characters: Kassandra (Assassin's Creed), Kyra (Assassin's Creed), Deimos (Assassin's Creed) Additional Tags: Kassandra is Deimos (Assassin's Creed), Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, Evil Twins, POV Multiple, Swords and Conversation, Deimos Thinks About Doing Terrible Things Language: English Published: 2025-03-16, Words: 4,922, Chapters: 1/5

In which Kassandra the Eagle Bearer comes face-to-face with her evil twin Deimos after Deimos is mysteriously transported to Kassandra's world.

Featuring mistaken identities, a battle between demigods, and a love/hate triangle between Kassandra, Kyra, and Deimos, this novella was based on a prompt for Fandom Trumps Hate 2024.

~~

From the rooftop terrace of Alkibiades's villa in Athens, Kyra watched the setting sun paint the Parthenon in a golden glow and resolved never to come back to this wretched city again.

Kassandra poured her another cup of wine. "I know they're hard to work with—"

"More like impossible. They refuse to hear anything that won't fatten their own coffers first." Kyra accepted the cup gratefully and pressed it to her forehead, the silver cool against her skin, trapped as she was within the stone walls of a smoky, greasy city filled with too many people. Once again she missed the sea breezes of Mykonos, the open space. "I'm not here to make Athenians rich. If they want an alliance, they'll have to make it worth my while."

"Keep holding the line. They need you more than you need them."

Kyra took a long drink. Their host, Alkibiades, was one of those rich Athenians, and she was happy to keep drinking his expensive wine while he wasted her time with lengthy negotiations. "Keep holding on to my patience, you mean? I don't know how much longer I'm willing to wait for Alkibiades to bring his allies to heel."

"His time's running out," Kassandra said mysteriously, taking a long drink of her own that left Kyra to guess what she'd meant. "I've found where Hermippos is hiding."

"Really? And you let me blather on and on about—"

Kassandra moved behind Kyra and pulled her close, whispering into her ear, "I like listening to you talk about politics."

A frisson of pleasure ran up Kyra's spine. "You hate politics."

"Not when it's you doing the politicking. And you've got all the aristoi in Athens watching your every move."

"You're welcome for the distraction," Kyra said drily. "So where is he?"

[Click here to find out!]

[atrueneutral]

What about our favorite cambion, Raphael, and his favorite misadventurer, Tav, having ended up in a 'friends with benefits' (allies with benefits?) thing with each other—no strings, no contracts—but then- Whoops! Romantic feelings developed! Now what? But what if it's Raphael who ends up being the one yearning and longing to pursue something more (Tav would be open to pursuing something romantic with Raphael, too, but they were also convinced that the fiend would never be interested in them that way so they didn't dwell on it or get their hopes up, just learned to be content with what they did have with him).

This arrangement between the two of them was meant to be a simple transaction: once a week, he would meet his favorite misadventurer at the Devil’s Den and they would partake in the mutually beneficial act of coitus.

It started three months ago; an unknown person (with a suspiciously-on-the-nose name) had made a late-night appointment, and it was a tipsy Tav who showed up for said late-night appointment. She threw herself into the room with the loud announcement that she would be entreating with him - not Imma Moussé. She went on to further blather that she ‘needed something specific’ and was ‘sober enough’ to make the ‘sober decision’ to ‘seek a certain devil in an official capacity’. When pressed for what it was she so fervently needed, his mouse replied with a less-than-sober sultry stare and made the slightly slurred declaration that she needed him, in bed - raw and undiluted.

It was his infernal nature that took advantage of the offer before him, and it was his infernal goodwill that provided her with what she needed; a raw and undiluted fucking with his infernal cock. He, too, profited from the session for he got to fulfill his own deep desire of laying with the woman he secretly craved (an opportunity he could only previously partake in through Haarlep's ownership of Her form).

In the hours after, when Tav suggested they perhaps make ‘this’ a ‘regular-thing’, Raphael supposed he forwent a contract as a favor for the mouse he was too damnably fond of; she’d given him the Crown, after all, but now that they were months into ‘this’, he could see he made a mistake.

A written agreement with stipulations should have been created and signed! Were it so, she’d have rules to adhere to as much as he! 

And what was meant to be simple wouldn’t be this chaotic, complicated mess!

What began as a scheduled, single night of the week was now two nights - at her roundabout request…

Where she would sheepishly and quickly leave afterwards, she was feeling emboldened to stay longer - to talk about things that did not at all pertain to what they were there to do and what they had recently done…

She touched him, caressed him too frequently these days! And he allowed it!

At least she had the wherewithal to not kiss him before they began and after they finished…

But sometimes she had that look, like she wanted to… (he wanted her to)...

(No, what he wanted was to own her and keep her to himself!)

It was an aggravation and a distraction to sit and wonder each day if there were others who she had similar arrangements with…

That vampire spawn, the Ravengard boy, the wizard, that druid who slept with everything and everyone in his path… (He should stealthily inquire about any past and present beaus…)

Yes, there should have been a contract! The stipulations being: she would meet him, they would fuck, she would leave, and that would be the end of it until the next scheduled date and time!

A knock at the door stirred Raphael from his thoughts, and he fixed himself to pose charmingly to accept his visitor.

The door to the Den opened and closed as Tav strode in without a care.

“I know, I know - I’m late! Got held up by a brawl that more and more people were becoming involved in - whether they liked it or not…” his mouse said exasperatedly. She spared him a smile and a glance before dropping her pack and beginning to undress. “I narrowly avoided getting involved myself, but one good hook laid the guy out, and his inebriated friends didn’t see who struck him, so they ended up jumping the person behind me...” Tav paused the unbuckling of her breastplate and worry flashed on her face. “Uh oh, I can’t recall if the person behind me was a gnome or a child…” The worry left the moment her fingers resumed their task. “We’ll go with gnome to make me feel better about not stopping to help...”

Oh, she amused him, and he enjoyed her company.

And the contract that didn’t exist would have stipulated: The devil known as Raphael agrees to not enjoy the person known as Tav too much, and the person known as Tav will be responsible in being not at all likable outside of the likable use of her body. 

“I’m talking too much, aren’t I?” she asked with a nervous laugh, standing there with her half-naked, likable body.

Blood flowed to his cock.

“I’m keen to hear more, yet why don’t you save any additional details you may have for after our appointment?” he asked, his hands coming up to undo his doublet.

Her expression brightened before being covered by something more seductive as she shimmied out of the rest of her clothes.

“Then let us commence with our appointment,” she purred. “Come take me, devil.”

The devil shed his doublet and strode to take his prey… his mouse…

(Maybe after, and just this once, he would ask her to stay until the morning…)

(Maybe, one day, ‘this’ would be more…)

[The Prequel]

[snugglesquiggle]

Thresholding Across My Personal Multiverse

Read the full article on my neocities page.

What is a Thresholder? 

Thresholder is a fantasy series by Alexander Wales. The premise is simple: chained isekai. You step through a portal into another world, then a book’s worth of plot happens, then another portal opens, and you get to keep some of the powers and loot you earned from the plot. In each world, you’ll find allies among the locals, some power unique to the world, and sooner or later you’ll encounter another person who stepped out of a portal, just like you.

Except they’re not like you. If you believe in equality, they’ll think it’s acceptable to do the bidding of slavers and bigots. If you fancy yourself a free market entrepeneur, they’ll be a communist who wants to saddle your efforts with labor law and insidious union talk. If you see no issue with eating meat (if “in this world, they butcher and eat animals” doesn’t even occur to you as a observation to make), then you’ll meet a vegan willing to treat carnists with that same callous regard.

Even if the differences aren’t philosophical, you just won’t be able to stand them. They’ll be reckless if you’re careful, blathering if you’re quiet, and don’t even ask their opinion on pineapples on pizza.

You can‍ ‍—‍ must‍ ‍—‍ suppose there’s an intelligence behind the portals. (A guardian of the threshold, if you will). Of all the uncountable places in the multiverse, they’ll plop you down where there’s air to breathe and proteins that don’t prion‍-​ize your biology. The people will speak your language, they’ll probably even be human.

If it can select for all that, of course it can select just the wrong person, whom you’ll have no choice but fight‍ ‍—‍ kill, even. And if nothing else, they will have been through more portals than you, and it came to blows in every world. Why wouldn’t they expect you to be the same as all the monsters and wretches they’ve faced before? Why would they even give you the chance to explain? The portals can turn anyone into a thresholder.

After all, the next portal won’t open until one of you beats the other. If you find yourself in a world of post‍-​nuclear desolation where acid rains from the sky, the only chance of seeing air conditioning again is to kick some ass.

What Is the Squiggleverse? 

Thresholder is inspired by jumpchain stories. Jumpchain usually focus on established franchises. It’s an exercise in a particular kind of power fantasy‍ ‍—‍ what if you could get Naruto ninja training and have a Star Wars lightsaber and team full of Pokémon beside you? How unstoppable could you become after five jumps?

Thesholder is all original worlds, though. (And quite creative ones, I’d say.) Still, it’s the sort of premise that invites you to imagine your own worlds, your own adventures‍ ‍—‍ and I dare say it makes for more interesting hypotheticals to consider than your average jumpchain. Certainly the engine for ever‍-​escalating conflict keeps things moving.

I’m not sure how far most get in those sort of daydreams, though I know of at least one Thresholder fanfic. Personally, coming up with weird and magical worlds is something I’ve spent a good fifth of my life seriously pursuing. I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it, but if nothing else, I certainly have something to show for it.

So, I decided this could be an interesting exercise: how would my original settings stack up as thresholder arenas?

But first, a gesture at ground rules. The number of worlds I’ve “properly” “written” about is rather modest‍ ‍—‍ half a dozen, or more depending on how you count. But there’s a plenty of settings I have detailed notes about it despite having never committed to final draft prose.

I’d be remiss to include the (frankly underbaked) setting of And the Darkling Reefs Abide yet neglect the much more mechanically interesting world of, say, Running Out of Skin & Time.

Will I be dedicating paragraphs to every figment I’ve had a fleeting thought about? No. The loose standard I’m operating off of is I’ll list a setting if I could (or better yet, have) given a thousand word‍-​long rant about its lore purely off the dome. Not rigorous, but ultimately, who cares.

More importantly, if the idea is that I could talk at excessive length about any of these worlds, how do I stop this document from being exponentially excessive in its own length?

I’ll just have to cleave to the essentials of each world. A brief description of its look and feel, and then a rundown of what sort of powers you’ll gain and what sort of dangers you’ll contend with. (In the case of worlds that have changed substantially throughout their history, I might note when there’s distinct “eras” to consider.)

This page will mostly be protracted exposition about my own magic systems, intercut with occasional commentary on the worldbuilding implications of the grand spell. Let that be a warning or invitation according to taste.

Now, let’s get on with it.

...However, I think posting thousands upon thousands of worlds to tumblr is a questionable idea. I don't want to keep this post updated with typo fixes and further edits, and I have a cute little footnote system that tumblr can't support at all.

So you can read the rest on my site.

[eisforeidolon]

Hellers are twisting Jensen's words around because they don't like what he said,

"He doesn't think Cas's confession is something that needs to be solved. Cas said what he needed to say. It was a long time coming, it was heartfelt and beautiful. But there's nothing to solve. Dean took it in and then lost one of his closest allie and friend. The acceptance of that happened when Dean sat on the floor. He lost one of his brothers in arms and one of his closest people. When they come back, it just understood."

First, a sampling of posts with screenshots and links of some of the creative reinterpretations they're already self-soothing with, for context: [X][X][X]

It's bad enough now, because we already knew they were obsessed with cherry-picking things completely out of context and twisting themselves in knots to insist D/C, a totally real most epic romance ever was obviously happening off-screen the whole time. Because that's totally how storytelling works!🙄 So why wouldn't they insist Jensen saying Castiel's dying blather doesn't need a resolution means Dean already turned into the YA romance protagonist from their fanfic realized he was totes in lurve with the angel and reciprocated offscreen! See, no resolution needed! The thing is, though, I believe Purcon is one that has a stricter video policy so I expect this to end up even more broken-telephoned in a couple of months when there's no video to dispute whatever they're making up by that point, which I expect to be pretty wild.

What Jensen reportedly said fits exactly into what Castiel actually said in Misha & Beren's tapdancing on the line of legit queerbaiting the audience Castiel's goodbye speech. The whole climactic reason the Empty could come take the angel away was because he realized that just ~*feeling feelings*~, without having anything come of it, was enough. Regardless of whether you interpret those feelings as romantic love or the kind of all-encompassing self-sacrificing love the Winchesters have, feeling that way about somebody is happiness in itself (even if they don't feel that way about you). So yeah, whatever kind of love you read that to mean? There's nothing to inherently resolve there. Castiel put his feelings out in the universe, and Dean listened and moved on with his life. The thing that was "a long time coming" was Castiel's resolving his struggles as an angel living among humans trying to understand emotions and friendship. It's "clear text" that Castiel said I love you (whatever kind of love you interpret that to be).

Hellers are the only ones who desperately need there to have to be a resolution to that scene, because the only interpretation in which a followup would be necessary? Would be if Castiel's speech was romantic AND Dean also had romantic feelings. They can pretend they suddenly don't understand what a resolution is or that one magically (like the entire rest of their supposedly canon ship) happened off-screen so it'll be already happening in the revival as much as they want. It doesn't change what the scene actually was or what Jensen actually said, any more than the rest of their waffle ever has. They're just happily lying to themselves and each other all over again, setting themselves back up for more eternal disappointment. It's like a Peanuts comic strip, except they are both Charlie and Lucy with the show and creators as the football.

They want to crow about Jensen not explicitly saying the scene wasn't about romantic love somehow being him changing his mind (again), but that's absurd. He knows some people interpret Castiel's feelings as romantic and are very invested in the angel being a queer character. Putting aside whether what's in the text deserves that, going out of his way to tell them they're wrong about someone else's character? Would be a really bad look given the sensitivity of the topic. And he doesn't need to do it anyway, because whatever Castiel's ~*feelings*~ are, it says nothing about what Dean does or doesn't feel. Which he directly says is that Dean lost "one of his closest allies" "one of his best friends" "a brother in arms" "one of the closest people to him". It's pretty clear - if you don't tie yourself in knots pretending he's sending you secret signals about what he REALLY means if you only listen to half the words he said.

[forthegothicheroine]

If I may blather about my own OCs, I never got very good at Warhammer 40k, but I made very detailed stories for my Sisters of Battle army. One character, Cannoness Tamora, had been a female Bill Sykes, raised on Necromunda by a mean old lady loan shark to be a petty criminal, ending up her brutal enforcer. And then, of course, she got religion.

(Me being me, my Sisters army, The Order of the Spectral Flame, allied with the Salamanders, was obsessed with the works Shakespeare, whom they believed to have secretly been the Emperor. Tamora believed the surviving text of The Merchant of Venice to be highly bastardized, because "Old Meg would have taken another pound for back-talk!")

[universalzones]

"I'd say ye be scally wag bilge daughter of a seadog," Marine said, then motions for Tangle to counter.

"...Ya lost me after bilge. I thought we were supposed to be playing something called vinegar talk." Tangle honestly had no clue what it was, though it sounded cool.

"Do ye Mobian's not play vinegar talk? I even went easy on ya and gave ye a simple one. I think ye folks call it 'trash talk' or somethin."

"Oh, uh, is it friendly to trash talk to friends in the Sol Dimension?" Tangle asked, not sure how that could be seen as a friendly game.

"It is not, it's just a common way pirates banter with one another. Marine isn't a traditional pirate, though she says she is one. Simply without the plundering and hurting people. She is a great ally."

"Blaze, ye mumbling seaweed-slurpin sack o'maggots! How ye been?" Marine asked as Blaze walked over.

"I am fine you blathering knuckling-dragging cabin boy."

"That be fair enough, though methinks ye be a sheep-brained cross-eyed waste of skin!"

"And I believe you to be a pin-headed scurvy-ridden bag of vomit."

"Ay, that'd be a good one. You're a cricket-sized clam-tongued piece of filth. Top that one."

"To retort, you're a pig-breathed yellow-bellied anchor-head."

"Ye haven't been slackin. I ain't got nothin ta top ye, though I'll come out with the victory next time."

"Wait, what? Blaze won the game? I'm completely lost." Tangle didn't understand any of that so was left confused.

"Vinegar talk was rather hard for me to understand as well, though you get used to it over time." Blaze was rather confused herself the first time Marine wished to play. "Though it's all in good fun. Even if it doesn't sound like it." The feline herself was offended when she was explained she had been insulted, at least until the raccoon said it was just good fun between good friends.

"Yeah, some friends do be like that. Had a couple friends that I greeted with by calling them losers and they'd do the same. Vinegar talk sounds way harder. Though nice to have ya helping at the new base Marine."

"I be happy to help ye crew you cross-eyed whale-fart!" Marine then walked off to introduce herself to others.

"She's really about that vinegar talk, huh?"

"You shall grow used to it, and it really is a part of her charm. Despite her rather brash nature she is one of the kindest souls I've met."

[typh0nas]

The Language of Flowers

NijiEN Fantasy Otome AU

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Content Warnings: will be added to each chapter if there are any trigger warnings.

Character(s): GN!Reader(no pronouns mentioned), Vox Akuma, Ike Eveland, Luca Kaneshiro, Shu Yamino, Mysta Rias, Fulgur Ovid, Uki Violeta, Alban Knox, Sonny Brisko, Yugo Asuma

Authors Notes: It’s here, it’s here! Sorry for the long ass wait HAHA. I have a lot of projects for now, so I’ll try and add everyone’s route as time goes on. 

11/14/2023: Currently have Vox and Mysta’s chapter 1 out! Will add everyone else’s when i have time :)

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You, a royal and the crown heir to the Ninisani Empire. You answer to no one and make your own rules. However, war ravages the country, causing chaos and turmoil. Left with little choice and with much urging from your council, you ultimately decide that the best course of action is to ally yourself with the neighboring Luxiem Regency to help strengthen your army. 

Now, what exactly might you do now?

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You stand tall, faced with a less than appealing choice. But the council is unyielding and unwavering and their decision stands firm. 

"Your highness, you must understand that this is what we have determined will help ensure the longevity of the Empire. As the current acting ruler, you must think about what is best for the people...YOUR people.”

You massage your temples feeling a headache coming on. “I don’t understand why I must be wed to Lord Akuma, are we not merely strengthening our army?” Members on the council look around, and you can hear their whispering from where you stand. 

“This is a matter of politics. This alliance will help strengthen our empire and can ensure that we will have the support we need in the coming days of the war. You have seen the effect it has had on the people. Your Highness...they’re terrified, this is for the best. At most, your marriage with Lord Akuma is only on paper. He has already agreed to these arrangements. Must you be so stubborn?” The head councilman shakes his head at you. 

You feel your irritation grow as you stare down the head councilman and he squirms under your gaze. The silence grows in the room as everyone stares at you with bated breath, awaiting your decision. 

“Fine.” Your voice rings loud and clear within the hollow chamber, and you can hear sighs of reliefs from some of the other council members, but you choose to ignore it.

The head councilman rises, a smile on his face, “Oh wonderful Your Highness! We’ll make arrangements for the wedding immediately.” You wave your hand in his direction, tired of his blathering as you turn back towards the door to leave. 

“Do what you must.” You close your eyes, the weight of your situation sinking in. 

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Who will you choose?

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Vox Akuma {👹🧧}

The one you're betrothed to

“As the current acting ruler, you must think about what is best for the people...YOUR people” Those are the words the echo back to you repeatedly, the head councilman’s voice ringing in your head. You weren’t happy with the council’s decision by any means, but if it meant ensuring the safety of your citizens and it truly was for the greater good then you had no choice but to reluctantly go with his decision. Although this arrangement isn’t what you thought you would end up engaged to someone, you find that Vox is gentle and kind. There appears to be more to him then what first meets the eye.

“That blush on your face is absolutely adorable...it makes me want to ravish you. ....I'm kidding! Naturally I wouldn’t do anything unless you were okay with it.”

VOX’S ROUTE: {RED SALVIAS}

{Vox Chapter 1 - [UNLOCKED]} (CW: mentions of being intoxicated)

Mysta Rias {🕵‍♂️🦊}

A lesser lord of the Luxiem Regency, and Vox’s right hand man

It seems that wherever Vox goes, Mysta seems to follow behind him. He’s sort of an odd fellow to you, with the way his gaze lingers on you. But when you catch him staring for a moment too long, he quickly looks away coughing into his fist or brushing his hair back, a faint flush on his face. When asked about it, he deflects with some lame excuse and immediately tries to change the subject. Even with his prickly exterior, Mysta has never seriously pushed you away from him. 

“I guess your company isn’t so bad. Huh? You’re telling Vox about this? N-no wait!”

MYSTA’S ROUTE: {FORGET-ME-NOTS}

{Mysta Chapter 1 - [UNLOCKED]}

Ike Eveland {🖋🔷️}

The court scribe

The ever quiet but meticulous scribe of the court. Ike mainly keeps to himself, whether it’s writing away some important on a piece of paper or his nose stuck into some book. He's can be found in the library copying and translating old texts that practically crumble at your fingertips when picked up. If not there, he could be found seated several seats down from you during council meetings to record each and every word uttered out. Though the two of you haven’t spoken much, you secretly admire how hard he works.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to go through someone’s personal things without asking first?”

{Ike’s Route Not Yet Unlocked - English Ivy}

Shu Yamino {👟☯️}

The powerful sorcerer of the court

The mysterious sorcerer that managed to charm you with his spectacular display of magic. You initially scoffed, thinking it was nothing more than a show of sparkles and nothing more. But to your surprise, he manages to find ways to prove you wrong. On more than one occasion Shu has used his abilities to cure your citizens of what ails them, from an normal everyday fever, to even fixing up an elderly council member’s bad leg. You begrudgingly admit that maybe he is someone that you could rely on.

“Want me to show you something cool? No? Well your loss then.”

{Shu’s Route Not Yet Unlocked - White Jasmine}

Luca Kaneshiro {🦁💰}

Your childhood best friend who has a penchant for getting into trouble

Your ever loyal best friend, a notorious playboy with a string of broken hearts left in his wake, even if it’s unintentional. Maybe it was because of his blinding personality and charming demeanor. You’ve always joked that while Luca is the sun, you’re the moon, the counterbalance to his outgoing nature. 

“Hey hey! I know how much you love the flower fields when they’re blooming, but since you’re so busy and can’t see them yourself, I brought them to you!”

{Luca’s Route Not Yet Unlocked - Yellow Acacias}

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Fulgur Ovid {⚡️🐏}

The local bounty hunter who comes and goes as he pleases

There isn’t much that you know about him, only the rumors that circulate around the palace grounds, and that he’s one of the empire’s most renowned bounty hunters. From what you’ve gathered, no one knows too much about his personal life. With each lead that you pursue, you find that you’re led on one wild goose chase after another. 

“You’re a strange one. Tell me, why are you so insistent on following me and trying to get to know me?”

{Fulgur’s Route Not Yet Unlocked - Edelweiss}

Uki Violeta {🔮🌌}

The peculiar psychic from the market

One of the best fortunetellers in the city, and generally one of the calmest people that you know, with a soft voice and gentle eyes. You’re a regular at his tent every time you sneak down from the palace. He can see things that others can’t and every persons’ future that he’s read seems to have come true in one way or another. Uki can always be found in that same purple tent in the same spot at the market, tarot cards spread over the table. You curiosity to know more and more about him grows with each visit.  

“Come see me again, I’ll show you more about what your future holds~”

{Uki’s Route Not Yet Unlocked - Pink Honeysuckle}

Alban Knox {🎭🕒}

The cunning thief you found, trying to steal from Vox's treasury

You couldn’t deny that Vox’s treasury was indeed very vast. You happened to come across him one night while you were trying to deposit some of your own valuables for safekeeping. One step into the massive room and you’re making eye contact with a very smug-looking thief. Before you can yell for help, he leaps across the room without making any noise, coming face to face with you, pressing a gloved finger to your lips, shushing you. You’re left dumbfounded and shocked as you watch him bound back across the room, snatching up a few gems in the process, and then swiftly slipping out the window as if he was never there in the first place. It seemed almost as if that was the last you would see of him. Or so that’s what you thought.

“Hehe you’re an interesting one, maybe I’ll just steal you away instead!”

{Alban’s Route Not Yet Unlocked - Morning Glories}

Sonny Brisko {🔗🤲}

The captain of the royal guard

When Sonny became captain of the royal guard, he never expected to become your personal bodyguard, so to speak. But as the acting ruler of the Ninisani Empire, it was only natural that the council would want you to have someone looking out for you at all times, and who better than one of the best guards. And so Sonny would follow you wherever you went, standing silently off to the side. Unassuming until he was required to step in. He would stand guard outside of your room at night keeping an eye out for threats but not daring to step one foot inside for fear of intruding on your privacy. And so he always keeps an eye on you, even if he has to physically restrain himself from chasing after anyone he deems a threat to your safety. 

“It’s my job to protect you and I intend on doing just that. No matter what happens I’ll always be by your side.”

{Sonny’s Route Not Yet Unlocked - Coreopsis}

Yugo Asuma {🎧🎶}

The bard at the local tavern

On one of your regular nightly escapades, find yourself seeking shelter at a local tavern to shield yourself from the rain. The bar, although of modest size is lively and it appears to be a hotspot for all sorts of people from the city. Feeling overstimulated and maybe even a bit overwhelmed, you make your way to the back corner where you feel you won’t be bothered. It’s just your luck that you make eye contact with the bard seated on a stool atop the dingy stage.

“I haven’t seen you before. Mind if I play you a song?”

{Yugo’s Route Not Yet Unlocked - Blue Hyacinth}

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{Tags!}

@hiqhkey @angelkazusstuff @emissaire 

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