#and a wwii sub

[shootingstarpilot]

Get attacked!! ✨🌈SEND THIS TO OTHER BLOGGERS YOU THINK ARE WONDERFUL. KEEP THE GAME GOING🌈

[lavenderpanic]

I JUST FOUND THIS PROPAGANDA POSTER FROM 1943???

[holy-shit-comics]

[jasposeyblog]

My acquisition of The Invaders sketch cover by Anthony Castrillo

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

.

[did-i-mention-the-shirt]

I wanted to die a day dreamer

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Someone converted this 1942 WWII coastal battery bunker on Sullivan's Island, SC and wants $5.3M for the 4bd, 3ba home. It has a lot of history: Part of the Harbor Defense of Charleston in World War II, the Battery 520 of the Marshall Military Reservation is a sub-post of Fort Moultrie built upon the ruins of the Revolutionary War and U.S. Civil War posts.

It's just one block away from the coast on one of the most desired residential beaches in South Carolina.

I mean, why buy one of these homes?

When you can live here, only a block away?

So, let's take a look inside.

Wow. Extreme open concept.

Wait. What's up with the floor in the entrance? Is it staying that way? It's just dirt and broken bricks. I'm gonna say that the light fixture on the right is the dining area.

Maybe this is the casual every day dining room? It's right outside the kitchen.

And, this is the galley kitchen. The upper cabinets look homemade. I guess the kitchen isn't finished yet, but the counter that's done doesn't look like granite or anything that would be in a $5M home.

Fancy light fixtures going down a vast, windowless hallway with a cement floor and some kind of future built-in. I think that these are going to be bedrooms & baths off to the left. They don't have many photos.

Looks like this is going to be the front porch.

Another part of the structure. Don't know what they're going to do with it.

I doubt if this scene has anything to do with the property- it must be a part of the other community.

I think that they would've been better off waiting until it was finished and landscaped before they put it on the market. There's a nice anchor by the flag. I assume that they're going to make a nice area there, but who knows.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3030-Brownell-Ave-Sullivans-Island-SC-29482/353742652_zpid/?

[wrishwrosh]

hey, i find your posts about historical fiction pretty interesting, do you have any recs?

anon this is the most beautiful and validating ask i have ever received. absolutely of COURSE I have recs. not gonna be a lot of deep cuts on this list but i love all of these books and occasionally books do receive awards and acclaim because they are good. in no particular order:

the cromwell trilogy by hilary mantel. of course i gotta start with the og. it’s 40 million pages on the tudor court and the english reformation and it will fundamentally change you as a person and a reader

(sub rec: the giant, o’brien by hilary mantel. in many ways a much shorter thematic companion to the cromwell trilogy imo. about stories and death and embodiment and the historical record and 18th century ireland. if you loved the trilogy, read this to experience hils playing with her own theories about historical fiction. if you are intimidated by the trilogy, read this first to get a taste of her prose style and her approach to the genre. either way please read all four novels ok thanks)

lincoln in the bardo by george saunders. the book that got me back into historical fiction as an adult. american history as narrated by a bunch of weird ghosts and abraham lincoln. chaotic and lovely and morbid.

the everlasting by katy simpson smith. rome through the ages as seen by a medici princess, a gay death-obsessed monk, and an early christian martyr. really historically grounded writing about religion and power, and also narrated with interjections from god’s ex boyfriend satan. smith is a trained historian and her prose slaps

(sub rec: free men by katy simpson smith. only a sub rec bc i read it a long time ago and my memory of it is imperfect but i loved it in 2017ish. about three men in the woods in the post revolutionary american south and by virtue of being about masculinity is actually about women. smith did her phd in antebellum southern femininity and motherhood iirc so this book is LOCKED IN to those perspectives)

a mercy by toni morrison. explores the dissolution of a household in 17th century new york. very different place and time than a lot of morrison’s bigger novels but just as mean and beautiful

(sub rec: beloved by toni morrison. a sub rec bc im pretty sure everyone has already read beloved but perhaps consider reading it again? histfic ghost story abt how the past is always here and will never go away and loves you and hates you and is trying to kill you)

an artist of the floating world by kazuo ishiguro. my bestie sir kazuo likes to explore the past through characters who, for one reason or another (amnesia, dementia, being a little baby robot who was just born yesterday, etc), are unable to fully comprehend their surroundings. this one is about post-wwii japan as understood by an elderly supporter of the imperial regime

(sub rec: remains of the day by kazuo ishiguro. same conceit as above except this time the elderly collaborator is incapable of reckoning with the slow collapse of the system that sheltered him due to britishness.)

the pull of the stars by emma donoghue. donoghue is a strong researcher and all of her novels are super grounded in their place and time without getting so caught up in it they turn into textbooks. i picked this one bc it is a wwi lesbian love story about childbirth that made me cry so hard i almost threw up on a plane but i recommend all her histfic published after 2010. before that she was still finding her stride.

days without end by sebastian barry. this one is hard to read and to rec bc it is about the us army’s policy of genocide against native americans in the 19th century west as told by an irish cavalry soldier. it is grim and violent and miserable and also so beautiful it makes me cry about every three pages. first time i read it i was genuinely inconsolable for two days afterwards.

this post is long as hell so HONORABLE MENTIONS: the amazing adventures of kavalier & clay by michael chabon, the western wind by samantha harvey, golden hill by frances spufford, barkskins by annie proulx, postcards by annie proulx, most things annie proulx has written but i feel like i talk about her too much, the view from castle rock by alice munro, the name of the rose by umberto eco, tracks by louise erdrich

[redgoldsparks]

August Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut.

Heavyweight: A Family Story of Holocaust, Empire and Memory by Solomon J Brager After listening to this excellent interview with the author on the Gender Reveal podcast, I was very excited to pick up Solomon Brager's hefty nonfiction comic about family history, Jewish identity, the Holocaust, and empire. This is an incredibly well researched and thoughtful book. The author grew up with outsized family stories of a Jewish boxing champion great-grandfather from Essen who punched Nazis, and a great-grandmother who carried her children across countries and mountains to escape to the US. But these stories became much more complicated when the author started digging for receipts. One factor is the immense financial privilege of the family which already had bank accounts and significant savings in New York. Another factor is the layers of violence and empire that build up the power of the countries fighting on both sides of WWII. The author's quest to research the family story is a major thread in the story itself and I am absolutely awed by the amount of work that went into uncovering and shaping this story.

My Dearest Patrolman vol 1 by Niyama As a delinquent teen, Shin was mentored and protected by a friendly patrolman, Seiji. Having one supportive adult in his life completely turned Shin's life around and he also decided to become a patrolman. Years later, Shin and Seiji meet again, and Shin decides to confess the feelings he's been nursing for a decade. Lighthearted dating hijinks ensue! Strikes a nice balance between silly, sweet, and spicy.

Go For It, Nakamura! by Syundei An extremely silly and cute high school rom-com. Shy Nakamura has a massive crush on his classmate Hirose. Despite the fact that they see each other every day, Nakamura has never introduced himself. What will it take to get him to finally speak up and try to befriend his crush??

Something Not Nothing by Sarah Leavitt In 2020, Sarah Leavitt's partner of more than 20 years, Domino, died with medical assistance after years of severe chronic pain and a rapid decline at the end of her life. Leavitt, a cartoonist and writer, tried to make sense of this decision through comics and abstract watercolor paintings. The result is a gorgeous, heart wrenching, deeply human meditation on love and loss. There were pages that lifted my spirits and pages that pierced me to my core. I sobbed through the majority of reading it, but couldn't put it down. Leavitt's mapmaking of the landscape of grief is a gift to us all.

Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb read by Elliot Hill What can I even say about this, the final novel of a 16 book fantasy series, which I have been reading and re-reading now for twenty years, other than holy shit??? I can't believe I've reached the end of Fitz's journey at last. This book is SO long (nearly 1000 pages) and much of it is brutal to read; characters we love are beaten, abused, tortured, and left in pretty hopeless situations for much of the novel. I think Hobb's insistence on revisiting almost every single character from the Rain Wilds and Live Ship sub-series expanded the first third of the book more than needed; had I been editing it, it would have been shorter. And yet! And yet! I was riveted by this too-long book, devouring it in big gulps, scream-texting about it to several friends who were reading the series along with me. The ending hit SO HARD. Its PERFECT, TERRIBLE, WRETCHED, one of the cruelest endings for several beloved characters and while also giving them a kind of grace and eternity I did not see coming, but should have. This book fulfills the themes of the entire series so well, completing repeated patterns, showing cycles that ripple through three generations, while also leaving a door open for the future that I'm already daydreaming about. Literally how did Robin Hobb come up with all of this. Its flawed but its perfect. I am in awe.

BL Metamorphosis vol 1 by Kaori Tsurutani translated by Jocelyne Allen An older woman picks up a BL manga by chance at a bookstore and discovers a new fandom late in life. She ends up befriending a shy high school girl who works at the bookstore and also loves BL, but has no one to talk to about it. This is such a freaking cute premise and I love the loose sketchy art style!

BL Metamorphosis vol 2 by Kaori Tsurutani translated by Jocelyne Allen Unlikely friends Urara, a shy high schooler, and Ichinoi, a widowed calligraphy teacher, bonded over their love of a BL manga series. Now they're heading to a doujinshi event to try and meet their favorite author. This brought me right back to my early days of visiting cons and meeting authors for the first time!

BL Metamorphosis vol 3 by Kaori Tsurutani translated by Jocelyne Allen Urara has been reading and loving BL manga years, but it takes a push from her older friend Ichinoi before Urara considers the idea of possibly drawing her own. Can she find the time to write and draw a story around her cram school schedule? This series PERFECTLY captures the BL reader to BL writer pipeline, I'm so charmed.

BL Metamorphosis vol 4 by Kaori Tsurutani translated by Jocelyne Allen Urara applies for a table at a comics festival, so now she has a deadline for her first original comic. Can she get it done in time? Ichinoi is there to cheer lead and support in every way she can (finding a printer, sewing a table cloth, agreeing to work the table, packing their lunches) but only Urara can get the comic done. This book contained one of my very favorite exchanges of the whole series, when Ichinoi asked "Is it fun to draw manga?" and Urara responded honestly, "No. It's hard to look at my own art for so long. But it feels like I'm doing what I should be doing."

BL Metamorphosis vol 5 by Kaori Tsurutani translated by Jocelyne Allen Urara and Ichinoi struggle through a long, slow day of trying to sell an original comic at their first ever comic event. Unbeknownst to them, their favorite author is there as an attendee. This book felt like one of the most relatable portrayals of the early days of a comics career I've ever seen. I'm obsessed with this series and definitely want to watch the live action movie adaptation!

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez This complex fantasy novel weaves together a multi-strand narrative of violence, love, and the end of empire in an original world of old gods and talking animals. In the main thread, two warriors carry the corpse of an almost-dead goddess across the country in a five day dash from the mountains to the sea. The goddess was once the Moon, torn out of the sky by her own desire for immortality. Her children became the despotic Moon Throne, a cruel dynasty which has repressed and punished the people and elements. The Moon Thrones' heirs, three brothers with extraordinary powers, chase the warriors and hunger for the last dregs of the fallen Moon's power. In another thread, an unnamed protagonist watches this drama unfold as a play being performed in a dreamy underwater sleep realm, while recalling the stories their lola told of the old country before the war. This novel is often compared with NK Jemisin's The Fifth Season in terms of scope, literary prose, and ambition and I can see why. This novel employs some very creative and unusual writing choices that make it more rewarding to read in print than to experience in audio. I had a content warning for gore and cannibalism going in, so I was prepared for the violence of the middle section. I really enjoyed this novel and I can tell I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

Horse by Geraldine Brooks read by James Fouhey, Lisa Flanagan, Graham Halstead, Katherine Littrell, Michael Obiora This book follows multiple different story lines, some of which captured me much more than others. In Kentucky in 1850, an enslaved black boy watches a new thoroughbred racing colt's birth and begins a lifelong relationship with the horse, who will go on to be one of the most well-known champions in the history of American horse racing. In New York City in the 1950s, a gallery owner known for her modern tastes falls for an equestrian portrait of the great Kentucky race horse, Lexington. And in 2019, in Washington DC, a Nigerian-American art history student and a Smithsonian scientist dig into the mystery of an unlabelled horse skeleton in the museum's collection- and its possible connection with several paintings by a Civil War era equestrian artist. I admired the amount of research that went into this novel, and the way the paintings of Lexington tied the different timelines together. However, I really struggled with how the interior emotional lives of several of the Black male characters in this book were portrayed by this author. When Jarret, the enslaved Black groom, is separated from Lexington and forced into plantation labor temporarily, Brooks writes of him gaining a depth of spirit and understanding for the human condition from this experience. This felt deeply weird to read from a white author! I'm not really the right reader to say whether Brooks did a good job or not, but it put me on edge. When the final climatic moment of the novel read like a heavy-handed lesson in how Black men are still at risk of police violence even in 2019, I wondered who exactly that point was supposed to be for, and if Brooks is the one who needed to make it. So, I felt very mixed as I finished this book. There's a lot to admire craft-wise, and I can understand why so many readers were impressed by it. But I honestly I don't recommend it, unless you want to read it in a book club setting and have a nuanced discussion about what works and what doesn't in this novel.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson A young girl named Sophie spends her summers on an island of the coast of Finland with her very present grandmother and her rather absent father. Each chapter tells of an incident experienced through the eyes of the very young and the very old- the growth of mosses and wildflowers on the island stones; boxes and bottles of flotsam and jetsam washing to shore; a great storm; an adventure in trespassing; an unexpected visitor; a night spent outside sleeping in a tent. Without much of an overarching plot this book is still a moving picture of living very close to and in tune with the seasons and elements in a very specific part of the world. It's brief and open ended but I really enjoyed it!

Delicious in Dungeon vol 14 by Ryoko Kui As the smoke clears after the explosive ending of the previous penultimate volume, our heroes gather themselves, check on the survivors, and set out on the most collaborative challenge: cooking and eating an entire chimera body. This is a satisfying and in some ways gentler ending than I expected from this series, but I really enjoyed it!

Notes from an Island by Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietilä translated by Thomas Teal  In the autumn of 1963, Tove Jansson, her partner Tuulikki 'Tooti' Pietilä, and their taciturn friend Brunström set about trying to finish a small cabin on a tiny Finnish island before the onset of winter (and possible legal delays of building permits). Tove and Tooti spent their summers on the island for the next 3o years. This book contains excerpts of journal and introspective writing on the nature of the island, the sea, the changeable weather, the futility of human efforts to shift the natural environment. These writings are paired with delicate prints Tooti made of water, stones, and ocean views. I read this directly after The Summer Book and after listening to a short biography of Jansson- this made a good companion to those other texts, but might have been a bit spare on its own.

[ketrindoll]

"Putin's War", they tell me. *smirks and rolls eyes*

This Putin is one hell of a guy, I gotta say. He's more impressive than Santa Claus who delivers presents to all the kids around the world in the dead of night before sunrise on Dec. 25.

In addition to being the president of Russia, Putin is also a foot soldier booby-trapping an empty home in occupied Ukraine, a fire controlman on a Kilo-class sub in the Black Sea launching Kalibr cruise missiles at Odessa's grain warehouses, a pilot of a Tupolev bomber launching a Kh-101 cruise missile from Russian airspace at the children's hospital in Kyiv, a "camp counselor" at a "summer camp" near Vladivostok for kidnapped Ukrainian kids, a smug civilian from the Russian hinterland who's moving in as a squatter into an evicted Ukrainian's apartment in Mariupol, and a military doctor harvesting organs from Ukrainian corpses.

When will enough Westerners wake the fuck up and tell it like it is that the invasion of Ukraine since February 20, 2014 has been the Russians' war instead of some one-man-show called "Putin's War™"?

It bears repeating:

● No one calls the German invasions of the rest of Europe in WW II "Hitler's War".

● No one calls the Japanese invasions of the rest of Asia in WWII "Hirohito's War" or "Tojo's War".

● No one calls the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 "Brezhnev's War"

● No one calls the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 "G.W. Bush's War".

● Even right now no one calls war in Palestine "Netanyahu's war"

Make it make sense how the Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2014 is "Putin's War"???

How come everyone else is collectively responsible, but not ruzzians who are committing horrible, incomprehensibly unhuman acts???

ALL RUZZIANS ARE GUILTY FOR GENOCIDE

ALL RUZZIANS ARE GUILTY FOR WAR CRIMES

ALL RUZZIANS ARE GUILTY FOR THIS WAR AND ALL OTHER IMPERIALIST LAND-GRABS

[floridaboiler]

Today is National Submarine Day. During WWII, 263 U.S. Navy submarines deployed on war patrols. This image of 52 submarines in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Mare Island in 1946 represents the same number of subs that went on eternal patrol after being lost in the war.

Source - https://twitter.com/NavalInstitute

[sureokyeahwhatever]

i finished vampire the masquerade bloodlines after chipping away at it for a couple weeks after work. Those first 2/3rds of the game are a genuine masterpiece, but man, that last third gets really, really weird and racist.

The thing is, is that I actually have very little to say about that first 2/3rds. It's just good. The design is great, it's well balanced, it's open ended, it has great characters. It's wonderful. This part of the game feels like a real, worthy successor to Deux Ex. There's just nothing more to say, I think.

...

And that's why I almost have a hard time believing it's written by the same people as the last bit. The whole game up to that point (up to just before chinatown) is pretty darn smartly written with some relatively cogent social commentary. The quality of the missions also takes a really, really steep dive in that section too (lots of run and gun hallways, lots of extremely buggy areas, shitty boss fights, etc. But that's honestly understandable because balancing the endgame of an ImSim is practically impossible). Idk, it feels like a totally different game. I could almost just forgive all of that though, if it weren't for the ungodly and seemingly genuine racism with regards to the east Asian vampires.

Like. Ok. If we're being VERY charitable and we just flatly forgive all of the misguided-though-not-malintentioned 2000s era attempts at humor-via-stereotype (dialogue options referencing "tentacles" directed at a young japanese woman; old chinese guys who are always loud and drunk; jingoistic WWII-surviving japanese soldier; Chinese businessman speaking in riddles and mentioning the I-Ching; so on and so on) the whole handling of the "chinese vampire" storyline is psychotically racist.

You first hear of these guys -- the Kuei-Jin, which I learn from the wiki is a portmanteau of the Mandarin word for ghost and a the Japanese word for person, which... ok. -- as being basically like animals. They slaughter who ever they see, lots of people in the bourgeois faction see them as a nuisance, the people in the anarchist faction see them as "invaders from the east," which already had me like "Jesus fucking Christ, maybe these anarchist guys aren't cool after all". But anyway, you go to Chinatown to talk to them and -- by my estimation -- they were basically the same as everyone else. They're protective of their territory, they're secretive, they're paranoid of outsiders... I mean, yeah, they're fucking vampires and apparently all the other vampires see them as sub-human, so yeah, I'd be paranoid and secretive around me too.

The thing is, is that you have this anarchist friend who you tell everything to -- Jack -- and I wanted to go tell him "hey, I don't think these guys are so bad. Maybe we misjudged them" or something like that. And there was a dialogue option along the lines of that, but when I said it, his response was something to the effect of "don't let them sweet talk you with their 'spiritual path' bullshit. That stuff ain't for /us/". Which, I heard and again, said "ah! Interesting writing decision! We're learning that Jack ALSO has flaws like everyone else! he's not just some perfectly cool, levelheaded badass -- he has unjustified prejudices just like everyone else!" So I continued the story under the assumption that, yes, while the surface level of the whole "Chinese vampire" thing was being handled in a really immature, racist way, and in-universe all the other factions seemed to see them as exactly that -- racist stereotypes of conniving, backstabbing Chinese mafia goons -- this was all setting up an interesting "let's all learn to put our cultural differences aside and defeat those rich assholes who want to rule LA"-style ending. This would not be the case.

There was a moment towards the end that I THOUGHT confirmed my suspicion. You are told by the leader of the bourgeois faction to convince the anarchist faction to ally with them so they can, together, take down the Kuei-Jin. Around this time you also are intercepted by the leader of the Kuei-Jin who straight up warns you "hey, that bourgeois guy set me up. He's about to set you up too. Be careful. I hope we can be friends in the future." So I get this information and go straight to the anarchist faction with the intention to say "Ok, bourgeois guys are obviously doing a power play. Now's the time to join with the Kuei-Jin and take them out. We'll settle our petty differences later." (Side note, yes, I understand they were recently at war, but war happens in these situations. The best way to prevent another war is actively making peace. Not by just constantly threatening to go BACK to war). But no such option was available. Instead, all the options were different variations on "Let's join with the bourgeois faction and kill those Chinese guys!" What? But I don't want to kill those guys! And I don't really trust either of these other factions either because the anarchists are racists and the bourgeois guys are, well, bourgeois guys.

So eventually the "ending-tron 3000" comes up in the form of a conversation with a taxi driver which, as far as ending-trons go, is pretty cute. If you decide to ally with the Kuei-Jin two things happen: one, everyone hates you because it's completely impossible to convince anyone that they are anything other than parasites, and two, they kill you in a cutscene and you die in the ocean, which, all things considered, is probably the worst possible way this whole story line could have been handled. There was an opportunity here to have an exceptionally interesting moment where you bring people together to fight in solidarity against those who seek to concentrate their power over the city and all it's inhabitants. There could have been an ending where you work together with the Kuei-Jin and the anarchists to get rid of the bourgeois faction, render the "anarchist" faction system redundant, and allow LA vampires to establish their own federated society where people can live where and how they please without the iron fist of some Ivory tower pretty boys telling everyone how to live their lives. You could establish a system of vampire democracy across LA, with all the benefits and negatives that it brings. Would LA then be crushed under the heel of the bourgeois faction coming in from other cities? Or would it be able to stand the test of time and serve as an example for other cities to rise up and do the same? There's some interesting stuff here, both politically and for individual characters as perhaps you have to work extra hard to get Jack and the rest of the anarchists to believe that the Kuei-Jin are, despite superficial differences, just vampires like they are and that they all share common interests.

Instead, the game goes hard in the other direction. It calls you an idiot for trusting those eastern invaders and basically says "you should have listened to everyone else when they were mumbling under their breath about how you can't trust those Kuei-Jin as far as you can throw them". i.e., you were an idiot for not being racist enough. Like, I can understand the general theme of "trust no one", since it permeates through the whole game, but to literally introduce a faction of "conniving foreigners" who everyone hates, and then to have that hate be perfectly justified just feels boring, hateful, and honestly like a waste of a third of what was otherwise a great, great game.

Anyway. The game is good. Great, even! It's really hard to make an ImSim, so even though the last third has some rough (ROUGH) design flaws and bugs, I'm happy to look past that. However, it's really easy to not just put Chinese people in your game and make them evil stereotypes that everyone rightfully hates, so that's harder to look past.

I would say the ideal way to experience the game is to marathon the first chapter up to downtown, play less and less frequently from downtown up until the end of hollywood or so, and gradually lose interest around the time that you're asked to go to Chinatown. I think if you did that, you'd end up remembering the game very fondly.

[bitchsister]

Stayed up late binging EYY last night. I LOVED IT! Any chance we’ll get more gale/curt in the next chapters? Or could you do some more blurbs on how their relationship progressed? Would love to see what happens in their tent after that shower 🫣

Thank you so much darling 💖 I decided to extend the tent after shower prompt, as I was not done with the “I follow you, Curt” bug crawling in my brain thanks to @125hr (I love you). Here you go.

Also! I have requests to cont. Gale licking the plate clean for the Lucky Charms au. Consider this a precursor. A little treat if you will.

🏴‍☠️Threesome-ish, voyeurism, lowkey sub space in WWII woo, shy Gale that Curt doesn’t mind taking advantage of

And follow him, Gale did. He followed him to dry off, to wrap towels around their waists, he followed Curt to their tent. He’d follow him to the ends of the earth.

But he had no idea what to do with his hands once their towels were around their ankles.

“Different from a broad, uh?” Curt was stark naked, stood in front of Gale with his hands clasped behind his back like he’d been presenting himself, all for him to touch and taste and see — but Gale didn’t know where to start. “I taste just as good as one, though.”

Curt took a step closer to Gale, pressing their bodies together, his chin resting against his chest, eyes staring up at him. “Probably better, actually.”

Definitely better.

Gale stuttered, his lips trying to find the words his brain couldn’t muster. He’d only ever dreamt of this and had truly believed before this moment that for the rest of his days, that’s as far as he would come to being this close. “Lay down.” Curt murmured, realizing if he didn’t call the shots then none would be taken.

Gale was hardly nervous about anything. He’d been in a lot of compromising and uncomfortable positions in his day — but this. This was something. It was the greatest thrill he’d ever experienced, the tingliest tingle, the warmest heat.

He laid down, and Curt mounted himself on top of him, leaned back with his palms splayed over Gale’s thighs, baring himself and all he was worth — he sucked a moan through his teeth, just at the thought of getting what he’s wanted for so long.

A pro at this, Curt had already dug his fingers in Vaseline, reaching between his spread thighs to play with himself. If Gale wanted to gawk, he’d let him. If he wanted to touch, he’d let him do that, too.

All he cared about was Gale’s eyes being on him.

He worked his fingers into himself, huffing softly as he tried his hardest to stifle the moans that would give them away. “Buck,” Curtis whined, unable to resist anymore the sight of Gale’s hard cock poking his ass. “Can I — oh,” he’d managed to find the spot Bucky could always find in a split second, though he’d always had trouble finding it on his own.

“Yes.” Gale nodded frantically.

He had no idea what he was giving Curt permission to do, but it didn’t matter.

He could do anything.

Anything at all.

Curtis scrambled to replace his fingers with Gale’s cock, his mouth ajar and his brows furrowed in pure bliss once he’d bottomed out, sitting there for a moment to adjust as Buck had finally allowed himself to touch.

This felt religious.

It felt divine.

It felt as if he’d been meant to be buried in Curt’s warmth all along, their lips slotted in a heated kiss once a bit of movement had been introduced — it wasn’t long before Curt had turned his back toward Buck. “Watch.” He murmured once Gale had reached forward, kneading at Curt’s cheeks that he watched his cock disappear between. “Don’t take your eyes off me.”

Gales chest rattled with a moan, “I hardly do, Curt.”

He worked his hips over Gales cock, sucked on his own fingers, bounced on him like he had no fears of anyone entering their tent, because he didn’t.

When the flap opened and a silhouette appeared beside their cot, Curt had fucked himself so silly on Gales cock that he couldn’t stop, and hadn’t even noticed it was no longer just the two of them. “This ain’t a safe spot, Angel.” Bucky’s voice swirled around his head, but it went in one ear and out the other.

Gale, on the other hand, had become a wreck. He was so close to coming, but felt like he should stop.

Bucky was right. This wasn’t safe — and — he didn’t seem mad, but was he?

He couldn’t be, because he knelt beside Gale to watch from the angle he’d been laying and where his cock was being used by Curtis who was a babbling, whining mess. “My baby feels good, don’t he, Buck?” Bucky’s tone was a low timbre, bordering a growl.

Gale nodded, the sweat that had gathered at his brow had migrated to wet his cheeks. He’d never felt so many emotions and sensations in all of his life. “Y-yes, Bucky.”

“Tell him, then.” Bucky slapped his hand over Curt’s ass, promptly grabbing handfuls of it after he’d spanked him pink. “He won’t cum until he’s full of you.”

Curt was a giver in that way, though it had seemed at the moment he’d been doing nothing more than taking.

Using Gale however he wanted.

“Fuck,” Bucks chin quivered, every inch of his body becoming overstimulated but in a way he’d give his soul to feel for all eternity. “You’re so fuckin’ beautiful, Curt.” He meant it. He meant every word. “Mm— M’gonna cum.”

Bucky wrapped a hand around the dampened, warm skin of Gale’s throat. “Ohh, y’gonna cum for him already, hm?” His tone had gotten even deeper somehow, each word muttered from lips pressed against Gale’s cheek. “Let’s see it, big boy.” He licked the sweat from his neck, all the way to his lips and down again.

Gale couldn’t contain it anymore, though he never wanted it to end.

Curt had been practically hysterical, satisfied giggles and moans erupting out of him once he felt Gales warmth fill him.

Eventually, Curtis opened his eyes to see Bucky had moved to lean in front of him, promptly attacked with sloppy kisses, a wet tongue, teeth, and pink lips that ached. “Touch me.” Curt whimpered into his mouth, his request granted right away.

It didn’t take much effort on Bucky’s end before Curt fell apart all over again, tensing around Gales softening cock that he had been more than reluctant to give up just yet. “Can’t leave you two alone for one minute anymore, can I?” Bucky mused, soaking up the sight of them — all golden skin, damp hair and rosy cheeks.

He grabbed Curt’s jaw with his hand, admiring the heavy lids he struggled to keep open and the blue eyes hiding beneath them that he forced to uncross and focus. “Fucked ‘em stupid.”

“He fucked himself stupid.” Gale corrected, not at all embarrassed to admit he’d played the role of Pillow Princess.

“You let me.” Curt mustered a voice, though he panted through it.

“I follow you, Curt.” Gale squeezed his soft hips. “I follow you.”

[gazs-blue-hat]

All Other COD Character Masterlists

Here's everything that doesn't include our 141 boys, or has more than one character in it.

KEEP IN MIND

Some of these fics are 18+ (My blog is 18+ so if you're a minor, you shouldn't be here.) Please read the original tags put by the author!

Alex Keller

Domino Effect- (Fic)

Guided Tour- (Fic)

Midnight in a Perfect World- (Fic Masterlist)

Crying Because of How Good it Feels

Puppy Dog Eyes- (Art)

Moving in Stereo- (Fic)

How (not) To Answer the Call Of Duty - (Fic)

Alejandro Vargas

Rodolfo "Rudy" Parra

Baby Blue- (Art)

They Don't Care About You- (Fic)

I've been waiting- (Fic)

Scary Dog Privilege- (Fic)

What Do You Want Me To Say- (Fic)

I'll Take Care Of Her- (Fic)

Konig

Rotes Madchen- (Fic Masterlist)

David "Hesh" Walker

Keep The Sheets Warm, My Love Is Coming Home

Crimson Fangs

Logan Walker

Works Masterlist by @bloodonmyhands-1221

Keegan Russ

This Time Of Night - (Fic)

Philip Graves

Vicious

Overstim

Medley Art

Roach/Gaz Kiss- (Art)

Soap loses walking privileges- (Art)

141 goofing off- (Art)

Ghost and Price at the Beach- (Art)

WWII Soap and Price- (Art)

Recon- (Ghost and Soap) (Art)

Sam and Barry arguing over Football/Soccer- (Tweets)

Christmas with Simon and Kyle- (Art)

Soap and Gaz Ty from @temeyes- (Art)

141 Magic Tricks- (Art)

Thank You For Your Service- (Graves Art)

Portrait Practice by @floweryanarchy - (Art)

True 141 Geezers- (Art)

Gaz Team- (Art)

First kiss- (Art)

Embarrassing- (Art)

Matching- (Art)

Trick Or Treating- (Art)

Fashion Sense- (Art)

Bento Box- (Art)

Handler- (Art)

Judging You - (Art)

No Milestones Between us- (Gaz/Price Art)

First One is For You- (Art)

Roach Car- (Art)

Don't Wanna Talk About It- (Art)

Off Duty- (Art)

Ooh Mister Ghost- (Art)

Selkie AU- (Art)

Peckish - (Art)

Local DILF Captain Done With His Sons Soldiers' Antics - (Art)

Trade - (Art)

141 Volleyball AU- (Art)

Ghilley Boys - (Art)

Simon's Home - (Art)

Rugby AU - (Art)

Friendship - (Art)

Civvies - (Art)

Medley Crack

Paranormal Activity

Bees

Tennis Ball

Medley Fics

Ravishing Alure - Nikto - (Fic Masterlist)

Engravings - Makarov - (Fic Masterlist)

Poly TF141 Omegaverse AU- (Fic Masterlist)

Sub HCs

Fear Not This Night- Poly!141

Breeding- 141 Boys

Name Calling

Mute!Roach

Pack Cuddles

Aquarium Dates and Cuddles

Power outage

Eldritch Reader

Let me At ‘Em

Yuri HCs

141 X Rich Reader

Crow Masterlist (Eldritch Reader)

Cumming Too Quick

Therapy Dog

Other Masterlists (Not series lists, just big lists in general)

[littlefankingdom]

All the plants are trans in French

So, the word used in Japanese isn't the word for "plant" as flowers, nature... It's a borrowed english word, "plant" (you can hear them say the english word "plant" in the sub) I don't know japanese but I can imagine that this is the word they use for nuclear plants, as it was brought to Japan after WWII, probably by the USA. We can talk another time about the implications and the meaning behind it.

How to do you translate "plant" in French? Well, because it's "plant" as in "power plant" and not "flower", they used "reacteur", which means "reactor", and not "plante", because we don't use it for anything else than vegetation. But French, coming from Latin, is a gendered language, and so, everything has a gender. "Plante" is feminine, using she/her and all the grammar's feminine agreements (nature is associated to womanhood in like every culture I'm pretty sure), but "reacteur" is masculine. Which lead us to the translation of Trigun, since it started in the very end of the 90s, to have every characters talking about the plants with masculine pronouns and agreements. They show you those creatures with a body similar to a female human body, that can get pregnant and give birth, and they use he/him. And nobody had an issue with that, as it is still the same translation in 2023. And I wonder if other languages have done the same, or did they stick to "plant" (French translation used to translate EVERYTHING, even names. It was an awful decision. But maybe other languages weren't that stubborn and proud?)

The power of translation! In the same way that destiel is canon in Spanish for Supernatural, plants are trans in French for Trigun.

[pynkhues]

hey i wanted to ask, do you have opinions or hcs on how knowledgeable is louis aabout BDSM? Do you think he read on subject or he just goes with a heart? How proper do you think his BDSM dynamic would potentially be? I mean, would it involve discussions, safe words, aftercare etc. Or would it be more on the spur of the moment?

It's just my brain was plagued by thoughts what would louis do if lestat accidentally sub dropped during scene. NGL I can't imagine louis handling it very gracefully (sorry, louis)

Also, ideas of louis experiencing domdrop are very delicious too. I doubt he actually feels guilt or shame for being dom, but domdrop would make him irrational. And lestat would be very alarmed and confused what's happening with louis.

Sorry for long ask😶 love your work!

Don't apologise, anon! It's actually been something I've been thinking about too, both as I've been writing this fic, but also just in general because I'm kind of fascinated about how the eras / times they live through both interact with and inform these parts of the their characters.

Because here's the thing: BDSM wasn't actually a term in the 1940s when Louis and Armand decided to explore it. That's not to say that people didn't engage in BDSM (there are plenty of examples of fetish artwork dating back thousands of years, and as I mentioned in this post, Marquis de Sade was writing in the 1700s prettty obscene and deplorable sado-masochistic work), but there really wasn't a shared language then in the way that we have now.

In fact, Louis and Armand entering that relationship in the 1940s in the aftermath of WWII almost feels pretty specific, given it was that post-WWII era that gave birth to the leather movement which in turn provided the soil for BDSM to grow into what we know it as today. The result is that that specific time period marked the shift of BDSM from a counterculture to a part of culture; however, it took a little longer to come back to Paris, which had a booming fetish industry in the pre-war period, but was traumatised from Nazi occupation and as a result wouldn't bounce back really until the sexual revolution in the 1960s.

Louis' hardly sexually naive given his past career as a pimp, but I do think it's worth noting that he became a Dom in a period where there wasn't the same degree of understanding there is now about the psychology of it all, nor a universal sense of what might be 'best practice', and he did it with someone he felt both a disconnect to and a resentment of (which 2.05 makes very clear), which - - y'know! Isn't the healthiest way to engage in that sort of dynamic at the best of times.

But in answering your questions more specifically - - do I think he read up on the topic? Yeah, a bit, but I think it'd be more likely he read older texts that probably....wouldn't be giving a healthy perspective on it by modern standards. Given his reading list in New Orleans featured books like Origin of the Species, Marriage in a Free Society and Madame Bovary - all books published in the 1800s despite it being between 1910 and 1940 - I do think he tends to lean towards older books that form part of cultural canons (it's the snob in him, haha). In which case I think he probably would've read some of Marquis de Sade's work (which, yikes) and probably Venus in Furs and The Romance of Lust.

Given most of the more classic modern BDSM books by today's standards were published really in the 60s and 70s, I kinda feel like Louis and Armand were probably too embedded into their dynamic to change it or be overly interested in reading about it? Which is all a round about way of saying that I don't think Louis would have great etiquette as a dom at all, no, haha, and I think he'd probably more just be getting a read of the situation and following his own instincts and perhaps Armand's too. I can see them buying things - the whips, floggers and cast iron dog bowl (the latter of which always gives me pause!) we can see in their bedroom, for instance - and leaving them out for each other to see as a means of discussion over, y'know, actual discussion.

I do wonder too in terms of the role Louis and Armand being able to read each other's minds plays too. If they can get a sense of what might get the other off that way which feels like its own type of discussion or consent (even if its not actually an articulated discussion or consent). It's interesting to contemplate what that might mean in terms of dom or sub drops like you said, and especially as a comparison point to it happening with Lestat and Louis who don't have the same capacity to know what's going on in the other's head.

I do think if Lestat and Louis were to explore that together, it would be in scenes as opposed to a lifestyle like it was with Armand and Louis though, which is a different dynamic in and of itself, and yes! Okay, your ask was long, but my reply has been way longer, haha, so I'll leave it there for now. It's a really interesting space to think about though.