#and less infidelity

[localplaguenurse]

Zhongli gets wifey pregnant for a sixth time, how is the main 5 reaction to their being unable to leave their mother's body alone? (Did I word that weird)

Also can I be Mistress/Lady Anon to make things easier?

100% honesty that was gonna be the original ending of the fic. Instead of them getting married again it was gonna be wifey telling Zhongli they're pregnant.

Depends on the ages I guess. If they were still relatively young (like the twins were still kids/teens) they'd be like "you don't have enough on your plate?" but obvs still very supportive because oh shit new sibling! (And also the oldest three would've been out of the house o y'know that does make things simpler.)

But if it's current genshin timeline oh god they would clown on the two so hard. Not even just that they waited like 1900+ years to pop out another (about 1983 to be hyperspecific, they had Yan two years after the end of the archon war and he was 15 when the twins arrived), but also that their literally newborn great grandchild is older than their sixth kid-

"You lot act like I'm some sort of baby factory. I was only pregnant four times, it's not as if we planned on having twins."

"Lmao are you saying this one's an accident?"

"This one's about to become my favourite child if you don't knock it off."

[camcorderrevival]

[theflyingfeeling]

hello and happy February!! I'm back with some pointless Olli/Allu poetry if any of you fancy some 💖

~

The first kiss was the easiest; it happened almost by accident, in the afterglow of a show. Olli was glowing and the sun behind him was glowing and maybe Aleksi was blinded by it all for a moment. Maybe that's why he didn't resist. 

(He knew that wasn't the reason, but he had to tell himself something in defence.)  

((Defence from the truth that he had wanted Olli to kiss him for so long by then, had thought many times he was going to, almost had done it himself just as often, under the most ridiculous of pretexts.))  

(((Homesickness? Loneliness? Heartbreak? Or simply because he wanted to know for sure?)))

((((Know for sure that he had fallen for someone he shouldn't have and that there might be no turning back if he didn't put an end to it before it ever even began.))))

After the second kiss, in the tour bus at 4 in the morning, Aleksi knew he had gone too far to back up anymore.

"You look cute when you blush," Olli told him, his eyes still closed (so how could he tell?) and his nose still touching Aleksi's (so Aleksi felt Olli's breathing on his lips), as if they were still kissing even with their mouths apart.

Which certainly didn't help at all. 

Then came the third kiss, exactly a week from the second one, the longest seven days of Aleksi's life, and it pushed him even deeper into his self-created despair while Olli was pushing him down on the tour bus sofa. It was funny how they were both sucking the life out of him too, in entirely different ways, of course; the despair with the way it kept casting shadows over Aleksi's daily thoughts (except when Olli kissed him), whereas Olli simply did it with his mouth on Aleksi's mouth and neck and cock (except they never got that far that time around, because Aleksi spilled in his shorts simply from Olli kissing him and moving on top of him). 

"That's okay," Olli whispered, and then hid his own moan in Aleksi's mouth. 

Or in his heart – same difference.

~ 

The first morning-after was the worst: remorseful and headachy and his ears ringing with self-accusations. It got easier after that; Aleksi hated how it did. 

(Hated how the night-before always overrode any common sense that threatened to break free from its skull prison to the rest of Aleksi's body.) 

((Which would have been a shot in the dark anyway, for someone who, more often than not, tended to dismiss his own head and instead allied with his heart.))

(((His heart, which was as incompetent as an organ could be, often only pumping blood to his veins when Olli flashed a smile at him from behind his acoustic guitar – and fuck, how much Aleksi wanted to be a guitar – or when Olli glanced at him mid-show while whispering something into Porko's ear – and fuck, if Aleksi had ever wanted to be a Porko in his life; yet, here he was.))) 

((((Or when Olli anything.)))) 

"Fuck you," Olli almost giggled one morning when Aleksi's hand travelled down and down and even further down but then back up again. 

It sounded nothing like the breathless 'fuck me' Olli had whispered him the night before, but it brought back the memories just the same.  

There were morning-afters that weren't mornings at all, really, because they were at an airport or in a plane where time didn't exist, and still Aleksi found the time to want Olli so much he considered missing the flight just to sit in the VIP lounge with Olli's head on his lap until the end of time. There were also morning-afters that weren't 'after' at all, because the two of them had never slept, because making out and making love had been more urgent than dealing with jet lag.  

"Morning," Olli would still say to him, even on those morning-afters when they had done much else but looked at each other and talked and talked and talked all night. 

And fucked, of course, but that was a given. 

~

For all that it was worth, Aleksi knew that keeping count on all the kisses and the nights they shared and the mornings that followed were nothing more but an excuse, a way to fool himself into a sense of control. 

For if there was a first time, there'd always be a last time, too. 

(For acknowledging it was easier than admitting he didn't want there to be a last time.) 

((For there had been signs for a while, like that time Olli had roomed with Niko instead and Aleksi would have sobbed his pillow soaked if Tommi had not been snoring in the bed next to his.))

(((For Aleksi had grown used to having Olli's sweet kisses for breakfast, and if there was a day he didn't, he thought he might as well have stayed in bed all day, until Olli would worm his way back to Aleksi’s proximity (and pants (and heart)) again and drag him into a hidden corner to crash their mouths together and suck the doubt out of him.)))

((((For a moment.)))) 

"Must there be a last time, though?" Niko asked him with a bottle of Heineken on his lips. Several empty ones stood on the table in front of them, already having served their purpose in loosening Aleksi’s lips. 

Aleksi glared at the bottles and at Niko, then at the bottles again, because surely they were to blame for Niko's failure in seeing the inevitability of it. Frustration (or intoxication (or just plain agony)) made Aleksi's head feel heavy when Niko sneered at him upon Aleksi telling him so. 

"Olli's just freaking out a bit," Niko's next words echoed into his bottle with a low-pitched snort, "and clearly he's not the only one." 

As if sensing he was being talked about – or perhaps finally noticing Aleksi's eyes following his every move – Olli held Aleksi’s gaze across the club while whispering something into Porko's ear, then shaking his head at something Porko whispered back, then rolling his eyes and shoving the guy's shoulder with a smile visiting his red (and soft (and sweet)) lips, then wriggling his way through the crowd towards Aleksi and Niko. 

Aleksi got drunk all over again on Olli's cologne as he found a seat next to Aleksi. He breathed in the scent and almost leaned in when Olli did, to speak into Aleksi’s ear. 

"If we leave now, we'll have the bus to ourselves for a couple hours.”

Niko said nothing, because he didn’t need to; the eyebrow he raised at Aleksi was enough to make him want to kick his friend in the shin. 

They walked back to the bus and said nothing, because Aleksi was just too damn stunned when Olli grabbed his hand. They undressed and said nothing, because Aleksi was just too damn scared, having stuttered in front of Olli's grace and made a lovesick fool out of himself enough for one lifetime already. They climbed to Aleksi's bunk and still said nothing, because by then they were in too much of a hurry to be skin on bare skin that there was no room for words anyway, no need for even those sweet nothings or bittersweet everythings Aleksi wished and feared to hear. 

(Nothings, although they meant everything to Aleksi.)  

((Everythings, in the sense that they could crush him.)) 

(((Sweet, like every single tiny (and not so tiny) bit of Olli was, melting right on Aleksi's tongue like sugar.))) 

((((Bitter, because how else was this all going to end?)))) 

"Hold me," Olli breathed into his ear. Aleksi would have done so without Olli asking him to, for there was little else he could have been holding on to with Olli on top of him, with Olli's chest rubbing Aleksi’s own although Olli's back was as good as pressed against the roof of the bunk. 

There was a new kind of neediness in Olli's voice as he rode Aleksi, a strange new urgency that made his whimpers sound almost like sobs. Aleksi held back his own cries, commanding all the doomsday scenarios off his mind, and guided Olli's mouth to his, into a kiss that felt familiar and reassuring in the middle of all that chaos Aleksi had been building up in his imagination for days. 

"Don't stop," Olli spoke into his mouth even with Aleksi's seed already inside him and his own having spilled all over Aleksi stomach and chest. "Take me again," Olli asked, his hips still rolling. 

'Take me, one last time,' Aleksi heard Olli's voice in his head, and flipped him over to his back.  

"Fuck me, Ale," Olli demanded from him, even though Aleksi was already balls deep inside him. 

'Fuck me now, because after this I won't let you anymore.'  

"Show me how much you want me," Olli pleaded, and Aleksi could've laughed against Olli's neck if he hadn't wanted to cry instead. 

His each and every cell craved for Olli; his every thought and action guided him towards the man; he was on his way to fill him a second time that night – what more could he have done to show him? 

'Show me how much you want me–’ Olli’s voice echoed in Aleksi's head. Just the sound of it was enough to help him climax again…

'–because you will never have me.' 

(...despite everything.)

~ 

Olli was still asleep next to him when Aleksi awakened the morning after. It wasn't the first time, but somehow it felt like it was. 

"No," Olli mumbled like a 3-year-old when Aleksi tried to climb over him and venture after the scent of freshly picked-up Starbucks. Instead, he was caught in the trap of Olli's mouth and in the hook of his arms and legs that wrapped around him, like they had done the night before, keeping Aleksi in place until he gave in, until he stopped fighting his head again.

In the pitfall of Olli's embrace, the sweetness of his poison having stunned him, it was too easy to not care if anyone still sleeping away their night-before might hear them move together, mouths locked and hands clasped and cocks grinding as if a new day had dawned just for the purpose of them doing so – what waste would it have been to not take advantage of it? 

Finally free from the siren's spell (although only physically), Aleksi headed downstairs and tried not to stumble on the scattered sneakers on his way. He didn’t want to be as weak as he was and kept his eyes on the sweaty shoes, just so he wouldn’t turn and see if Olli was still looking at him from the bunk corridor. 

He probably would have turned eventually, if he hadn't then felt a hand grasp his just when he reached the stairs. 

A quick kiss to the bone of his cheek, a nose to his temple, then a gentle push to urge him down the steps. A hand still in his; still when the others greeted them with sleepy g'mornings; still when they sat down across Tommi who barely even cared (Aleksi decided the subtle smirk that visited on the man's lips was about something else entirely). 

Olli's head was on Aleksi’s shoulder suddenly, and it took embarrassingly long for Aleksi to even realise. Tommi hadn’t, or at least he hid it well; Joel hadn’t, but he had his phone in his hand; Joonas hadn’t, unless he was psychic and could see things even with his eyes closed as he sat half-asleep beside them; Niko had, judging by the angle of his eyebrows and the purse of his lips holding back amusement, but he was a little shit anyway.  

Maybe, all those things considered, Aleksi could find the boldness it took to kiss the top of Olli’s head, and perhaps even let his nose be buried there for a little too long, just to make his point even clearer. 

(Maybe Olli would cuddle deeper into the sofa and under Aleksi's arm and the world would keep turning; Aleksi’s heart would keep beating instead of breaking, and no one would skin him alive for it.)

((And maybe it wouldn't all crumble and fall apart in Aleksi's palms like a broken tailpipe on whatever US highway they were driving down.))

(((Because maybe there were worst crimes he could commit than falling in love.))) And maybe, Aleksi thought as he felt Olli's silky curls on his lips, it wouldn't be the last time either.

[tennessoui]

i ALSO finished chapter 2 of a more perfect union so I’m on a roll today 🎉🥹

[menlove]

the other problem I'm having w d//aisy jones is they weren't brave enough to let them have a full blown affair....... #iloveadultery

[inkandpaintsnowleopard]

WEDNESDAY’S INFIDELITY-ESQUE CHESPINSES ARE FUN TO DRAW

Two versions

Been listening to Appetite of a People-Pleaser by Ghost and Pals. It’s pretty good. It sounds like a Wednesday’s Infidelity song

[ulircursed]

[ Grannvale ] [ Whisper ] "I heard something about you tonight, you know." Deirdre cannot keep the knowing grin from her face as she dances close to Andrei. The knowledge has powered the joy of her evening and even just thinking about it has kept her spirits high. It is a beautiful thing.

She leans in close to his ear and tries to whisper. It is an attempt at giving him some privacy in the matter but the longer she speaks on it, the more excited she becomes. And the more excited she becomes, the harder it is to control her volume. "My dear, dear friend, Lord Naesala, told me that the two of you accompanied each other to this ball! I am overjoyed for you both. My two best friends! Together!"

Lady Deirdre asks him for a dance, and of course, it would be Andrei’s pleasure.

(It is the correct answer, like clockwork. Even if they did not have any sort of personal relationship, his answer will not, cannot, ever change.)

Still, he can’t quite hide his surprise when Lady Deirdre leans in, the excitement in her tone not enough to erase the accusation that would come with such a claim. Perhaps she does not think of things that way, but the infamous stories of Duke Victor come to mind.

For the first time since the situation began, he thinks of Antares, of his station. He is, had been, the Duke of Yngvi.

(That life is in the past now. Is that enough to justify how easily he'd changed his life in the present?)

"I— I understand that it is... not the most appropriate of me," he says nervously, "To indulge in such dalliances."

(His blood, his position, had invited nothing but lies from the one he'd thought might bring about the renascence of the Yngvi bloodline. It's only here, when his bloodline no longer mattered at all, that he'd seen, in Naesala's eyes, something he could trust. Could that be enough?)

Andrei swallows hard. "It did make me happy," he says, barely above a whisper himself, "Being here with him."

[jadeofblades]

"God i hate shuichi SO much he's so pathetic and annoying i wish he died instead of-" 💥💥💥🔫

[lucreziaces]

so we can all agree we are getting last kiss (tv) as a surprise song in kansas city, missouri on july 8th in celebration of july 9th, yes?

[sapphicmicrofics]

fleur/poppy for @sapphicmicrofics ship challenge! may 10 ‘It was worth it.’, @microficmay moon & stars

“You’ll be working late tonight too? But it’s the full…”

She can hear the disappointment in Bill’s voice and it’s not that it doesn’t hurt her, not that she doesn’t love him.

It’s just that Poppy’s soft lips and gentle fingers drive all thoughts from Fleur’s mind. All but one.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

mastermind is the yoko song of all time

Bingo.

[theholidayslingerlikebadperfume]

How are you a gaylor and believe joe isn’t PR? You can’t believe both as technically Karlie and joe overlapped? The timelines don’t add up?

What the fuck are you talking about?

Yeah, if you're a moron who believes she dated Karlie until 2018, I bet the "timeline doesn't add up," to YOU.

But there actually is zero overlap between her dating joe and her dating karlie, please check your walls for mold.

[undeadlobster]

Hey man, I’m bi. That’s still cheating on your wife you fucker

Oh come on lady, you can't deny a man his gaycation

[chaoortu]

GOOGLE DOCS ATE MY WRITE UP!!!!

[samwisethewitch]

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"

Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!

[technobladebrainrot]

watching the resident, on season 2, and ngl I’m kinda here for Bell’s redemption arc