#but the answers to the question may be useful for some of you as well

[rabbitwitch2poems]

Part 6 based off a prompt by @ready-to-read7

I'm going to keep posting on here as well as AO3, but if y'all think a preview plus a link may be better let me know ^^

  It was a cave... A wet, echoey cave with huge platforms filled with tech and random things Danny's baby mind just didn't have the processing power to deal with. Overwhelming was an understatement to what the child was feeling. But hey, at least there was a cool dinosaur and a giant penny...and a creepy puppet in the back that looked like a mobster... (Danny looked a little closer and noticed some ectoplasm glowing from within but ignored it; that was future Danny's problem)        

 

     "Father, why have you returned so early with Superman, Wonder Woman, and a baby in tow?" The voice was hard to pinpoint for Danny seeing as the giant cave made all noises echo outwards. Thankfully the source of the voice made its presents known by the squeaking of a chair by the giant computer (Danny for a moment wondered why a hero with all the technology batman had would have a squeaky chair, he had to figure it was cause of the cave)          

 

    "I really hope you didn't have another fling" the small boy in a red and black costume said hopping down from the squeaky chair. Whoever this boy was, danger seemed to follow him. This was Danny's first impression based on two things,

1. the kid in a mask had a large sword and what looked to Danny like a thousands knives all over his person.

2. the amount of ectoplasm that this kid was expelling could feed an entire army of ghosts.      

 

     Also, what did he mean by fling? Did this man have more kids? Did he think he was going to adopt Danny? Well he wouldn't allow that! Sure the man seemed like he would make a decent father (he was intelligent, knew what he was doing, and focused on helping people so Danny assumed that transferred towards parentage as well) but if he had to choose a father he would rather Superman be his dad and he would fight anyone who tried to take him away from momma!

 

      "And now the child's eyes are glowing like the Lazarus pits grandfather watches over," this was said so bluntly that it took a few seconds for Danny to even realize all eyes were on him. He tried his best to play it off by smiling wide but he had forgotten how his teeth get when his ghostly attributes take over only causing his mother's frown to deepin. Danny frowned "sowwy momma, will exwain as bewst I can." With a deep breath and a kiss on the childs forehead his mother nodded.       

 

     The time has come for Danny to tell his mother what exactly was going on. He started with the basic of how he chose this world to be in, how he admired the three immensely and thanks to Clockwork (who he explained was basically time itself given a form) he was able to be reborn into this world, though even he didn't understand how or why he was in his core and in the possession of Luthor. He told them how Clockwork watches over the timelines within the multiverse and how he makes sure no deviations that could cause either that universe or the entire multiverse to unravel.   

 

   "So...he is kronos?" His mother asked causing Danny to pause for a second, "huh...kindwa? Nevew awskd... Wait dwos dat mean kwolcwork is my..." His mother confirmed with a nod, "great grandfather, yes my little one; seeing as my mother is Athena." Danny jaw dropped at that, oh he was so going to call CW gramps as soon as he could. Somewhere within the ghost realm CW shivered and turned to look at his mirror he used to check on Danny glaring at it.      

 

    Superman was in full attention to the little child's words while Batman was focusing both on the words and on quickly typing things into his small wrist computer to send to the main computer for later; only briefly stopping to ask questions. "So this realm you come from connects all worlds and multiverse together?" He asked and Danny nodded in answer, "baswiclly." Batman nodded at Danny, his emotions were starting to show more (it seems he allows himself to show emotions more when he is relaxed; as far as Danny could tell) curiosity and some kind of obsession floated around the man like tiny bats of different colours... One of them looked like a bat wearing a disco costume which puzzled the young boy.   

 

     More and more questions were asked, mainly about the ghost realm and how it worked which Danny couldn't really tell them in detail cause even he didn't know. They asked him if he had a name beyond what wonder woman had given him and he confirmed that Danny was his name,   "Last name?," batman asked bluntly, Danny pointed at his mother "hew wast name," it was an obvious answer to Daniel but the smiles on everyone's faces (even batman was slightly smiling though Danny could tell from his emotions floating around he was genuinely pleased) his mother hugged him close and kissed the top of his head causing the child to giggle happily.     

 

   Then came the tough questions, of where he used to live, he didn't remember much still, he remembered a crazy rich guy chasing him and wanting him to be his son, (this caused everyone including the child in red and black to laugh hysterically as Batman scrunched in on himself only to be hugged by superman, calming him down), he remembered a clone of himself that the rich man made to replace him (this caused Superman's emotions to flare with sadness and understanding which made Danny think he had an experience similar to him). They asked if that clone would be a problem and he shook his head, "she twavels a wot and hewps othwers," superman seemed to calm at his words confirming Danny's suspicions.  

 

      "Constantine called you  quote "your highness" what did he mean by that?" Danny sighed, he knew that question was going to come sooner or later. So he explained, he explained how the ghost zone had a rule of battle, where one owns what their opponent had upon defeat and how the last king of the realms, who basically kept order in the entire multiverse, was a tyrannical monster who was sealed away only to be brought back by worshippers. He explained the fight that almost killed him, that through some way and will he kept fighting (he knew it was to protect peopled he cared for, he just couldn't remember who, it was starting to make him slightly mad but he figured if they needed to be remembered they will) and eventually bested the king, sealing him away forever.      

 

     Superman and his momma where trying to absorb all the info but Batman seemed to already figured everything out, "so your people just let you come here?," the man asked and Danny paused thinking how to respond. " Well, yes and no,  vey wanted me to take the trone immedwiantly bwut CW swaid dis was fow da bwest, so fwostbit took ovew as my we...veasion?" His mother patted his head and corrected him "liaison," and Danny looked up at his mother pointing at her with a smile, "what momma swaid."       

 

     After all the questions we're finally asked momma let Danny down to explore, reminding him to be careful of the edges of the platform, "even if you can fly I'd rather you not risk it okay little one? Now go with Damian and let him show you around while I and my friends discuss everything." Danny nodded and turned around slowly marching up to the larger kid. Damian, the kid who had a bird symbol on the right side of his  chest and a red hoodie, looked down at Danny with apprehension, Danny looked at Damian, wearing a cute superman onesie his momma got him, with unblinking, semi glowing eyes and smiled impossibly wide at him.        

 

     The dinosaur was even cooler up close! It looked like one out of the movies and it was robotic. Danny could see some bent parts and wires sticking out of the joints, he wondered if the Batman one day would let him repair it, It would make a great security device, could even make it scare people in the shadows like the hero himself.

 

     The penny was bigger than Danny expected it to be and gave him an off feeling; like it was waiting for him to turn his back so the giant piece of metal could flatten him like a cartoon. Danny stayed away from the mobster puppet, but just over to the side of it were broken apart metal teeth and a strange looking ball with a strange green liquid in it. It wasn't ectoplasm, that Danny was sure; but it was eerie looking.    

 

    The entire time the young child was looking with awe at all the cave had to offer, Damian was watching him (it creeped Danny out) his emotions were as hidden as his father's, but every so often light waves of curiosity and suspicion would make it's way out. After looking at a hat that looked like it came directly out of Alice in wonderland Danny got annoyed at the quiet kid,     

 

   "Why are yew stawing at me?" Danny finally asked staring up at the slightly taller boy his eyes knitted together. The hooded kid looked down at him, "you feel like my grandfather and suddenly appear with one of fathers friends, I do not trust you for now and feel you shouldn't be allowed here so I am keeping an eye on you to make sure you to not plant anything." Danny was confused by every word beyond not trusting him. He huffed, "imma be a hewo like momma! I wuldt dawe to pwant things, even if I cwould thews no diwt to pwant them!" Danny was slightly floating up glaring back at Damian's scowl before being shocked back by a laugh.      

 

   "You remind me of Jon, I will trust you, for now," the red hooded child responded after finishing his laugh. Danny was starting to suspect that anyone related to the batman was as batty (heh pun) as the man was. This suspicion was confirmed when he heard a squeal coming from the elevator located near where his momma and her friends were talking.       

 

  "Superman you had another kid! And didn't tell me!" A girl wearing a purple hoodie (Danny began wondering if everyone here wore hoodies but then figured they were in a cave, was probably a smart thing to do) and basic jeans was quickly walking up to him before scooping him up from the air. "He is such a cutie pie! Hello there small child, I'm Stephanie and I'll be your honorary auntie ok?"       

 

     Danny didn't know how to react, on one hand the emotions of this woman where of compassion and kindness and love. On the other hand a random stranger was holding him and pinching his cheek. Naturally Danny whined, "stawwwwp." Funny enough the person did stop, mainly because another person grabbed her hand. He expected it to be momma or even superman but instead it was another girl who was wearing a black mask shaped like a bat like batman, but with the mouth piece covered with leather lazily stitched over.      

 

   The woman who grabbed Stephanie's hand made a few hand signals Danny didn't understand before walking back. Waves of embarrassment and sadness came from the purple woman holding him; what was her name again? Stephanie? Danny was sure that's what she called herself. "Sorry, I tend to go overboard, thank you Cassie." Stephanie put Danny down and turned to the adults, all of whom had made their way over.     

 

     Danny's mother scooped him up and hugged him, "we will need to work on your freeze instinct but you kept calm, very good my little warrior," she kissed the top of his head as Damian nodded from behind everyone in agreement. Stephanie looked on with wide eyes, "ohhh he's your kid WW? Sorry for being so... Quick to judge..just the onesie... and the floating..." The girl was stopped with a wave of Diana's hand and a small smile, "it's ok, it was a natural conclusion to come to," she responded quelling Stephanie's worry, "though touch him again without his consent and you will be on the floor," and the worry was back again, Danny sighed, his mother could be a tad overprotective, but then again he was a baby so that was understandable.     

 

    To quench his mother rising anger he hugged her neck, "it okay momma, just supwized." That thankfully seemed to help as love radiated from his mother and the worry stopped from Stephanie, replaced by adoration from the display of affection.    

 

   The reving of an engine turned everyone's gaze to the red motorcycle currently parking next to the batmobile as a man wearing a large red helmet got off. Danny's eyes were wide, if the kid in the hoodie had ecto oozing out of him for an army this man was exploding with the stuff and it felt like it was rotting! He wiggled out of his mother's arms and ran up to the man patting his leg, "yew, yew fiwed with bad ecto, I hewp." The man with the helmet looked down at him, one of the eyebrows of the helmet raising (Danny had no time for confusion on how that could work) and crouched down and booped his nose before looking at the adults staring on with their jaws dropped.    

 

    "Who's the brat and what does he mean by bad ecto?," the man said causing Danny to pout and punch him (it actually hurt red a little which shocked him but he made sure not to show it) "not a bwat! Bad ecto from ghost wealm, wotten gween, wepwace!" Danny emphasized this by patting the mans chest and pushing some clean ecto into him. The reaction from hood was not what Danny expected, he was hoping for calmness, mabey joy, or even shock. He did not expect the man in the helmet to fall to his knees and vomit.       

 

     The three main heros acted instantly,  Batman ran over to the mans side expertly taking the helmet off. Superman was gone in a second and by the next had an old butler with water and a box with a plus symbol on it. His mother scooped him up and looked at him with furrowed brows, "Danny Prince you will explain right now what you just did." He had never seen his mom's anger pointed to himself before, it scared him and the child started to cry,  

 

       "I...I ju...juwst w...was hewping, hewmet man had b..bad ecto, ghost enewgy, I wepwace wif good ecto, did nowt get aww, shouwd feew bettew soon."         

 

       His momma patted his back holding him close and humming a tune, "there, there, little one, thank you for explaining, but know now not to do so without asking first, all actions have consequences, what was meant to be good caused a mess to need to be cleaned up, now once red hood feels better you will apologize and we will head upstairs to Bruce's home and have a moment to relax... I think we all need it"

 

*********

 

    Jason's head hurt and he felt like he just had fourth degree burns quenched with water from a glacier mixed with electricity; overall not how he expect his day to end, that was for certain. It had been an overall annoying day to begin with, first he wakes up early from a nightmare about that damn clown only to find out his safe house was out of cereal and coffee.     

 

   His afternoon was  decent, he stopped by some of the non profits he kept safe from bandits and assholes to check if all was going well and to donate some cash (which he may or may not have gotten from a drug den he busted up for dealing to kids) and was then off to the gym where he worked out for a few hours.     

 

     Wasn't till late into his nightly activities that shit went sideways, first black masks goons thought it would be a good idea to try and kidnap some homeless kids on his alley. Then a new crime boss tried taking over his territory so obviously Jason had to hunt him down and take out his goons. And now he is kneeling on a metal platform, dizzy as fuck, his skin both burning and freezing, and his stomach doing more flips than Dick during training.      

 

     When the world finally wasn't upside down he was alone with Alfred holding a glass cup of fizzing water.   "Its ginger ale master Todd, young Daniel recommended it to help with the... 'ecto sickness' as the young one calls it. Apparently whatever helped bring you back to us caused something to stick around."

 

     Jason drank the beverage with gusto as he slowly stood up. Making sure he wouldn't faceplant getting up was dear Alfred by his side. "do you need a moment to yourself? Everyone else will be waiting for you at the dining room area," Jason gave a short nod as he walked over to the batcomputer and sat down heavily, -man Bruce has to get a new chair- he thought to himself as he tried to make sense of whatever the fuck just happened.  

 

**********

 

     Danny had to admit, the house was far better than the cave below it. It was huuuge! A mansion to be certain, one that Danny was sure that if he had a chance to explore; would probably take him days to see it all. Currently they were in the dining room, a giant area with ornate carvings along the corners of the ceiling and a giant chandelier situated above the very long table currently filled with six inhabitants.   

 

     His mother had just finished a long lecture to him about asking before doing anything to anyone for any reason (unless of course they were super villains then all was fair game which caused Danny's prankster of a mind to be riddled with ideas) and the butler (who Danny learned was named Alfred) had just put down the last plate of dinner. Danny was nonchalantly eating a rib, bone and all, when the man he helped walked in.    

 

    He stopped and took in the sight, everyone was watching Danny with worry (besides his mother she had gotten use to this long ago) and coughed , "so .....what's the deal with the kid?" Everyone's head swiveled to look at the man as well as Danny; who stopped mid bite. Bruce gestured to a seat and explained what was going on as Jason went to sit down. "Danny here is a being from a different reality, one that connects all realities, after events that happened to him he chose this world to start a new in. Diana found him as a crystal and when he appeared as a baby decided to become his mother and take care of him"      

 

    Jason looked at Bruce, his eyebrow raised and a snort exiting his being, "well...at least he isn't another one of your forgotten children I suppose, we will have a deeper chat about what it is he did to me, for now I'm hungry and tired." Everyone around him nodded as they all went back to eating.     

 

    After the dinner was finished Danny got to explore the mansion, with supervision of course, red hood took up the task at hand not knowing how hard it would be. Within the first few minutes Danny was alone wandering giant halls filled with paintings and suits of armor. It honestly reminded him a bit of the palace in the ghost zone just less...colourful.       

 

     This mansion had pretty much everything, giant gym in the basement, theater in a side room that could be it's own house, even a room for playing bowling! Daniel realized rich people were a little weird when he entered a room covered in animal heads (a relic long since abandoned by Bruce and family it's still well kept and dusted regularly by Alfred); Danny didn't like that room and so moved on.    Honestly this place has everything a person could need to live a secret life which Daniel guessed was accurate seeing as who's house it was.

 

     Only thing missing was a arca... -holy crap they have an arcade!- Daniel thought to himself and it was huge! It had a vr setup with moving floor, arcade machines of old and new types, and DDR! Daniel was so preoccupied staring at all the machines he didn't hear the man come up to him and screeched when a hand touched his shoulder. Turning around he saw a large man with short black hair that looked like it took hours to get to look right.

 

     "Whoops! Sorry little guy, I guessed you would have gotten mesmerized by this place, Stephanie just loves her games and bruce loves indulging us sometimes," the man said, worry emanating off the man calming Danny slightly (but man, if he wasn't use to having his heart stop as a ghost he would have had a heart attack!)

 

     Slowly he breathed in, his mother taught him some techniques after a hectic tantrum over a toy. "Deep breath in, hold, slowly out" she would say, repeating it like a mantra to calm him down.  The man saw Danny breath deeply and cocked his head, "ya know...for someone who is barely a toddler you are very intelligent young man," Daniel giggled at that and the man smiled, "there we go all calm? Okay well I'm Tim, one of Bruce's kids it's nice to meet you."

 

     Tim gently ruffled the toddlers head, "let's get you back to the adults ok? They are a little worried about you...cept Diana but that's just her normal state of being," Tim stated and Danny nodded, "momma best wawwior." Daniel giggled at the man who picked him up with wide eyes.

*******

       It had been a fun day in Danny's opinion, he got to go to space, met momma's friends, answer some questions, and see a giant house that a man dressed as a bat lived in; Overall a good day. Sure he had to deal with his mom lecturing him again and yeah he felt embarrassed that he got caught, but hey for someone only turning one in a couple days he has had a lot of fun. He was sure he had made the right decision in living here. 

       After dinner his other tucked him into bed and read him a story about a boy who was the child of a god (his mother chuckled as she read it). After finishing the chapter and putting the book back Diana sat on the edge of Danny's bed and petted his head,

 

    "know this little one, no matter your situation , no matter your past, you are my ward, my child, I love you and will always be there for you, anyone who dares to harm you will answer to me."

 

     Daniel smiled wide, tears in his eyes as he held his mother close a warm spreading from both. Slowly the two separated, his mother tucking him back in and slowly  exiting leaving the door open just a crack after turning off the light. Danny slowly drifted away to dreams of his new life to come. 

[sailoryuns]

INAMORATA ─── PSH

genre. idol!sunghoon x model!f!reader | established relationship

warnings. angst, fluff (moreso towards the end), smut, accusations of cheating, hoon being lowkey toxic, cunnilingus, multiple orgasms, overstimulation, some mentions of crying, not proofread wc -> 1.5k

ps. the position i’m referring to is this (nsfw link), i usually hate vids but this was rly good imo.

“i think we should take a break...” you admit, voice growing shakier as you spoke. this was never something you wish to say in a million years, you wanted this relationship to work more than anything. but you were at your wits end with everything, talking to sunghoon was like conversing with the wall, never fully grasping any of your concerns.

you noticed the cracks beginning to seep in the midst of six months of being with him. he would often be dishonest of his whereabouts, saying he was out late due to “work” but was actually out drinking at some bar with jake or something. it made no sense for him to lie about such trivial things but he does it without even thinking. this was supposed to be a lovely vacation in paris together but lately you’ve grown tired of feeling like you’re unappreciated. a break from each other might be the best solution in getting his act together once and for all.

sunghoon felt his whole body turn limp as you uttered those words. not only was he blindsided by your decision, but you never indicated before to him that you were ready to propose such a drastic idea. “but why though? don’t you think this is a bit random? i mean this came out of nowhere y/n, i thought everything was good between us, why are you suddenly saying this now?” his thick, bushy brows furrowed in confusion, he wasn’t letting you off this easy and you know it.

“i just think it’s for the better right now hoon, we’re both so busy. we have a lot on our plate, especially you… and this relationship is just— it’s only putting more strain on everythi-”

“are you serious y/n? do you hear yourself? i knew what i was getting myself into the day i asked you to be my girlfriend. i’m well aware that i can’t be with you 24/7, and neither can you—however, i don’t expect that anyway. all i ever wanted was to have you by my side, i want to work through the hardships with you but if you’re so willing to give up like this then… i don’t know. i don’t even know what to say to this honestly..” sunghoon couldn’t help but cut you off, once his emotions take over, all sense of logic and reasoning is thrown out the window.

he was never one to question his worth in the eyes of his partner, but you were his longest relationship, he saw you as his first and only true love. it never occurred to him that he could lose you, the possibility of this break lasting long enough to make your love fade away was a scary revelation. there had to be a way he could fix this, he couldn’t bear to be without you.

“are you seeing someone else? maybe that’s why you’ve been so distant towards me lately…” he wanted to scream for saying that out loud but at least he got it off his chest. he knows how petty it sounds but he didn’t care, he wanted you to give him answers.

“no! i’m not seeing other people, i don’t have an interest in anyone but you sunghoon. i want to do this for the sake of us, we’re clearly not where we need to be and this break could help with getting us back on track and spending time apart could be beneficial.” you try your best to articulate your words properly but he remained unconvinced, he wasn’t on board with any bit of this.

how could you even be okay with something like this? spending time away from you drove him absolutely insane, he couldn’t fathom taking a break—not from someone as important as you in his life. he just needed to remind you that the love was still there, though it may be but a dull flame, he could ignite the spark again, with the little bit of hope he had left.

the foundation of your relationship was built from shared interests, since you both are part of professions that rely heavily on looks, you refused to see each other based solely off those superficial aspects. instead you got to know each other’s minds, your core values and beliefs, what mattered to you the most. you cherished every one of those deep conversations you shared together, it was a beautiful experience, an indescribable memory that shaped your bond forever.

so why is it now that you feel this way? was he really that oblivious to everything? he should’ve done more to prevent this but now he fears it’s too late. he’s faced with the conundrum of losing you and there wasn’t much time for him to stall or ask for a chance of redemption, he couldn’t waste another second.

“fuck that,” sunghoon angrily spat, his face contorting into a look of pure disgust. “you’re not going anywhere.” he reaches out to grab your waist before you could walk away, aggressively pulling you into his chest.

no matter how much you attempt to escape his hold, he’s not letting you go in the slightest. he’s much stronger than you, could easily lift you up without breaking a sweat. there was no use in fighting, you had no choice but to give in and let this conversation go. once his lips crashed into yours, everything faded to black. as if a simple kiss was the cure-all of mending this decrepit relationship.

sunghoon’s forehead pressed against yours as he pulled away, “shhh, lye down baby,” he hushes your quiet mewls, instructing you to do as he says. “gonna make you feel so good,” his hands slid under your skirt, gently rubbing over your clothed core “you’ll forget everything.”

* :.･ﾟﾟ･ ✿

“oh my- fuckk, sunghoon!” you cry out, almost on the verge of tears just from how skilled he is, rutting your hips upwards into his mouth as he devours you whole.

the pace of his tongue is relentless, roughly lapping up all your juices like he’s the most starved man alive. you’ve lost count at the amount of times he’s already made you come undone just from his mouth alone. your body’s buzzing with titillation, all you can do is scream and clench your pussy around nothing while he fiercely sucks on your clit.

you couldn’t stop twitching, feeling yet another orgasm approaching. your legs anchored over his shoulders, unable to think or speak coherent sentences as his face was fully buried into your sloppy cunt. he relaxes his jaw a bit more, going all the way from the bottom inching further up as he comes back in contact with your puffy clit. at any given moment it feels as if your heart’s about to stop.

“hoon-” your heads thrown back into the pillow, digging your nails into his shoulder blades from how overly sensitive you are. “n-need to cum.. can feel it. m’so close.” it surprises you when you’re able to even express such words.

a low grunt can be heard underneath, sunghoon loves hearing you— it’s arguably the best part about going down on you. the hand that wasn’t occupied went straight to gripping a fistful of his ebony hair, continuously moaning his name so loud that you genuinely feel bad for whomever the unlucky people that got to hear this.

just when you thought it couldn’t get anymore intense, he slips 2 of his slender fingers inside, making you gasp from the overwhelming sensation. flashes of white invade your vision, violently shaking as your lips form an “o” in the throes of ecstasy. sunghoon knows your body so well that this is nothing for him, he’s got it all down to a simple science. no one knows your body like he does, and especially no one can make you cum as hard as he can.

“go ahead, make a mess for me baby,” he strongly encourages, picking up his pace as his digits fuck into you faster. “just gonna clean it up with my tongue all over again.”

your eyes roll back to the depths of oblivion, feeling an out of body experience when reaching your climax. a string of curses leaves your shaky breath, limbs trembling and faint tears stain your flushed cheeks. sunghoon slows his movements, rubbing his thumb over your clit gently to make you even more sensitive. you love the way he calls you “good girl” and how proud the look on his face becomes while you ride out your orgasm on his fingers. he doesn’t stop showering you with compliments, only ramping up his affection as he plants fleeting kisses to your thighs, hips, and stomach.

once he’s finally come back up for air you grab his face to pull him into your lips again. moaning in his mouth while getting a taste of yourself was probably the hottest thing sunghoon’s ever witnessed.

“can’t believe this is all mine.” sunghoon whispers against you, gently massaging your aching thighs. “i love you so much, baby.”

“love you too hoon.” you instantly say back, feeling more at ease now that things are somewhat back to normal.

maybe a break isn’t necessary after all, how else would you be able to have such earth shattering orgasms?

- 完 ♡︎

[crimsonender]

A small but important announcement/update

Hi guys. As you may have known about three months ago I got into a public argument with Youtuber and music creator Patricia Taxxon. It was messy and angry and there was a lot of interpersonal conflict and issues involved. I made two videos relating to this because I believed that Taxxon posed an active threat to vulnerable people.

My feelings, right now, are a lot more complicated. I have in hindsight, developed some nuance regarding the situation. I am not renouncing Jules Hyde, or his feelings regarding their interpersonal conflict. But, I think that is largely none of my business and did not warrant making a video that amounted to a a massive callout.

I do not think it was the right thing to do. This goes beyond what happened between myself and Orchard, someone who I approached as a critic that was examining her creative works and has proven over and over again to be callous, using thought-stopping techniques and regressive tactics to control her fans, beyond just having skeletons in her closet. Those skeletons are not what drew me to Orchard nor why I criticized her to begin with.

Taking this argument off of Tumblr and onto Youtube was my biggest mistake in all of this. However, this goes beyond that.

I tend to afford people a lot of grace, at least when they're my friends. I have afforded absolutely none of that grace to Taxxon.

I would also like to acknowledge, of the troubling actions she has taken, all of these happened when she was very young. A person I would still consider a kid. That doesn't mean those actions were okay, but it does mean she should be given a chance to heal and grow and hope that she will never do something like that again. To my knowledge there is no proof of any tangible wrongdoings since she was young, or at least, none of the contentious nature in which I discussed on my video.

I do not agree with many of Taxxon's opinions. I continue to maintain that you should have strict boundaries with anyone you meet on the internet, including your favourite Youtubers and Artists. I think some of the things she has said in the past and the present disturb and make me uncomfortable. I have been asking myself "does this warrant a Youtube stream calling her out and the fuss I kicked up?"

The answer I keep coming back to is "no." Being uncomfortable is not the same as being hurt. I don't have to like what she said. I can even argue against that rhetoric and idea. That is the nature of the internet. But what I did and what I attempted are far too close to "predator hunting" for me to continue to let it stand.

I have spoken to several people that were involved in my side of things and have alluded to these things to them in private. But for pretty much everyone this is the first time I am revealing this: I reached out to Taxxon for a private conversation, over Bluesky. (She has me blocked on tumblr, so this could be considered block evading.) She did not ask me to do this nor alluded that she wanted to do this. No one told me to do this. She is aware that I am making this post and I have discussed with her what actions will be taken in the future. I will not show you these messages, not in private, nor in public. If Taxxon chooses to do this, that is her choice and I respect it. I will trust that she won't take me out of context and will present my communication honestly. She has no reason not to. Please keep in mind this situation is still in development.

A few questions I anticipate people asking:

What now? Well, I have unlisted the original stream. The document I used for notes and screenshots will have two changes: I will be altering the text colours and background to be more readable, but will change none of the contents, besides this second change: A note at the top detailing my current stance, along with a link to this post. I will likely be unlisting or potentially privating the second stream I did, or cutting the section covering Taxxon out entirely. My decisions regarding the second video are mixed. The actions I take following all of this have not been strictly ironed out and are currently in development.

So are you and Jules not talking now? No. I also spoke to Jules about much of this. I don't really agree with or like how Taxxon treated Jules but again, this stemmed as a conflict between friends. I also think it is well within Jules right to want to distance himself and his film from Taxxon. I also understand where she's coming from. Largely I think the festival fee issue comes from a misunderstanding and breakdown of communication, and from Taxxon and Jules viewing the project and festival in very different ways from one another.

So do you think Taxxon is innocent? It really doesn't matter what I think. The testimony I heard was from an event that happened back when Taxxon was a kid. To my knowledge, there are no other proven real "victims" of Taxxon. I think she should learn better boundaries and start age gating some of her hornier videos but I don't think that constitutes as ontologically evil in the way I was presenting her.

What about [x person who has been criticizing Taxxon that you have shown to have a friendly relationship with]? I think we all need to chill out a little about the pred hunting shit. I think some of the opinions that have filtered into much of the critcism border on transphobic and are things I would never agree with. I don't think it's constructive and its just getting everyone worked up, to the point we see things that aren't there and recognize patterns that don't really weave together into anything. I can't tell anyone what to do. I can teach, to a general audience, what good boundaries and internet etiquette looks like. I can demonstrate the importance of admitting when you were wrong or made a mistake. I cannot force anyone to do anything. I understand for some of my cohorts and audience that this may be a dealbreaker. I'm sorry I disappointed you. But I am more sorry for allowing my paranoia that made me frame Taxxon not as a person but as a Monster.

I will not be posting about Taxxon and her activities or opinions going forward. I ask that anyone in my Discord and other communities to do the same and not to ask me about her either. What happened here may be part of a larger conversation I will have going forward but for the forseeable future, I will be keeping Taxxon's name out of my mouth.

And finally, to address the trans stuff:

The capacity for someone to perpetuate harm, and the capacity for them to benefit from that harm are not necessarily congruent with one another.

Myself and Patricia are both trans. There are stereotypes about trans men and trans women created by cis people that hurt both of us. The only people that truly benefit from that are cis people. I fell for those stereotypes and perpetuated them in a way that caused Taxxon harm. Trans women are not inherently dangerous just because they have unconventional interests and to not give them the same grace as every other group is transphobic. Taxxon also perpetuated stereotypes about me created by cis people that caused me harm. Trans men deserve empathy and understanding and shutting them out of conversations that affect their ability to live is transphobic. Us hurting each other even if, largely, it was at the hands of our respective audiences, is not constructive. It benefits neither of us. It hurts us and it hurts the community at large.

I hope that Taxxon finds the space to heal and grow. She deserves the grace to have messy relationships and explore things as she figures herself out and finds her place in the world as a young person, without the internet breathing down her neck and demanding her to be held accountable every time she scratches her ass the wrong way. (EDIT: I mean to say, people are criticizing her reactions to movie trailers with the same weight as her contentious behaviour.) I'm sorry for making a mess of things. I'm sorry that I asked Patricia to be the perfect minority. I do not demand nor do I expect forgiveness but it is important to me that my audience understands my position going forward.

I will not be covering this kind of thing in the future. In the past 48 hours two people unconnected to my YT channel recognized me in unrelated spaces. I have to contend with the fact that as I grow as a creator, my words carry more weight. They can damage people in a way that an unknown can't. I don't get the benefit of shouting into the void as I once did. I will go forward interacting with other creators first and foremost as a coworker and a critic, not as a watchdog. Never again. No good can come of it.

Thank you for reading, and feel free to ask me questions in the replies of this post.

EDIT: I've gotten a lot of mixed responses to this post. Please understand that this is not my complete thoughts and I'm still working to present you with something that will hopefully, for all parties, be a more satisfactory end to this. This was an initial break of tension and an announcement that I am currently at this time formulating my thoughts into something cohesive and presentable. Not on the exact time table that I initially planned to start talking about this, but as I said, there is more to come. Thank you for your patience.

[maikelfist]

I've been coming across discussions about why Tommy calls Buck "Evan". The short answer to that question is probably just that the showrunners like using it as a shortcut to create a connection between people. Some may find that cute, others may say it's artificial. Ultimately, it's a matter of opinion.

Some people believe Buck is happy with Tommy calling him Evan because for the first time he gets to be called Evan without any of the baggage attached (which might be a naive and overly romantic take, who knows). Others argue that it's rude for Tommy to call him that, saying he's unaware that Buck prefers his identity as Buck to distance himself from childhood trauma, that it symbolizes that he doesn't really know Buck all that well (and, well, of course he doesn't. That's kind of how getting to know someone works. He literally says they practically know nothing about each other during the coffee date. He's aware, not at all pretending to know Buck better than he does. I also feel that with this take, one should be careful not to take agency away from Buck. I highly doubt he would just let it happen if he minded it).

Here's my opinion on the matter: I think both names are a double-edged sword for Buck. The downside of "Evan" is that it represents his time before he became a firefighter which unfortunately is linked to a traumatic childhood. The upside is that it also represents his softer side, the part of him that isn't just a tough firefighter.

The upside of "Buck" is that it felt like a fresh beginning. Not to mention that it sounds cool, the name of a badass guy, which is definitely something Buck wanted to be in S1 (1x2 "You just have to be particularly badass which, you know, I am."). But the name "Buck" also has its downsides. It's not a name he chose for himself. There were three other Evans in his class and he wasn't the main Evan, the one allowed to keep his name. He didn't even get a variation of it. He tells Maddie about it in a PS with an "I kinda like it." (4x5).

It seems like the nickname originated from him not being the first priority again, which is a pattern that has followed him his entire life. Luckily, it worked out well because he likes what the name symbolizes. To me, Tommy calling Buck "Evan" could represent that Buck is his first priority. He is the one and only Evan for Tommy.

As much as Buck loves being a badass firefighter, he also wants to have an identity and value outside of that role. Buck is badass. Evan is soft. Both are good. Regardless of how things end, Tommy is and will always be the one who made him realize that he's allowed to like both. I'm likely reading too much into it but it’s nice to think that these steps in Buck's journey are linked.

[pucksandpower]

This is gonna sound really weird, but is it alright if you give us (or me realistically) a crash course in ice hockey? I want to start watching it but idk where to start

Is it alright? I would love nothing more than to introduce everyone to one of my favorite sports. I find that fans of Formula 1 tend to really enjoy ice hockey as well because it has a similar feeling of speed and adrenaline, so there tends to be a lot of overlap between fans of the two.

The first thing you need to know is that the NHL (National Hockey League) is the highest level of hockey in the world. There are plenty of other high-level leagues around the globe with entertaining hockey and incredibly passionate fans, but the best of the best players can be found in the NHL.

The second thing you need to know is that, despite what the name may imply, the NHL actually spans two countries — the United States and Canada. There are 32 teams in the league, with 7 of those located in Canada.

Now, the answer to the question I’m sure most new ice hockey fans want to know is how do you choose what team to support? I can’t speak from experience because I was brought up a fan of my favorite team from a young age, but a lot of my friends have had success in joining hockey spaces on social media and finding what team’s fanbase they most vibe with. Some are crazier than others. Some are more laid back. Some are more traditional and conservative. Some are more progressive. This is a great way to get a feel for your fellow fans and see where you can imagine yourself belonging.

On that note, every team in the league is going to be in a different stage of an inevitable cycle. Some teams are contenders — those that have a realistic chance of winning the Stanley Cup. Some teams are in the midfield — they might make the playoffs, they might not. Some teams are in a rebuild, which means that they are playing some, uh, not so great hockey at the moment and giving up “present” assets for “future” assets like young prospects and draft picks.

And one of the most important things every new fan needs to know about (men’s) ice hockey is that fighting is an integral part of the game. Is it legal? No. Is anyone really going to break up a fight? You’ll be hard pressed to find a referee about to do that. Hockey is an incredibly physical game. Fighting acts as 1) a deterrent 2) a form of self-policing 3) a way to make sure what happens on the ice, stays on the ice so grudges aren’t carried over. In addition to fighting, there is an abundance of checking and plenty of hits.

To end this, I leave you with the single most important rule of hockey: never touch the goalie.

[milkweedman]

Given your url, I've gotta ask-- have you ever tried to spin milkweed fiber?

Of course ! The type of milkweed native to my area, asclepias speciosa (showy milkweed) has two potential kinds of fibers--the bast fiber from the stem and the fluffy seed pod fiber. The bast fiber is typically used for cordage making rather than being spun, but the seed pod fiber can be spun, if you are very careful and patient. It's incredibly warm and soft and shiny. From what I read the seed pod fiber from most, if not all, other milkweed species is not spinnable as it's shorter and has more lignin, which makes it less fluffy and more stiff, although I would say it's worth a shot and would try other species if I found them. I did find that younger milkweed fluff spun up much easier, and I hypothesize that it may be possible to spin the bast fiber of milkweed if it were young enough as well, or perhaps just extremely well processed.

So, I've spun some of the fluffy fiber and have twisted some of the bast fiber into cordage. Unfortunately processing milkweed is very physically intensive and not something that my progressive disability is allowing me to do anymore. But I'm looking forward to spinning some more fluff if I ever end up getting cotton hand cards, as I think that would make it much easier to spin the fluff.

I'm by no means an expert on milkweed, but I'm happy to answer any other questions if I can :)

[acti-veg]

Hey, I see a lot of your posts recently, and I've been scrolling back through your blog looking for answers to various questions, this really the first time I've ever really questioned my beliefs in regards to animal products and I've had several pop up, firstly, what about hunting? Deer have a habit of eating themselves out of a habit if left unchecked, and even in areas where we've reintroduced wolves and bears, it doesn't seem to be enough and I've personally known people that for them, hunting was the only way to ensure food on the table. Also I feel like a lot of vegan arguments try to remove humans from the category of animals, and it seems to want to put us above death and ignores some human features, like our mouths which resemble other omnivores, how do I handle these questions?

Hey anon, I’m glad you’ve approached this with an open mind, far too few are willing to do so. I’ll break this down into sections as it may end up being a long one.

Hunting

Deer don’t eat themselves out of a habitat when they exist as part of a healthy ecosystem. When we do introduce natural predators to keep numbers down, we generally only grant permission for far lower numbers of predators than the carrying capacity of the ecosystem.

This is largely due to public discomfort at the re-inclusion of predators, but the real political pressure comes from two parties - hunters and ranchers. Hunters want deer numbers to be large so that they can hunt them, and ranchers want predator numbers to be low so that they don’t interfere with their profits.

Keep in mind that these ecosystems existed for hundreds of millions of years before the arrival of humans and the mass culling of predators and prey. In a healthy ecosystem, as deer populations increase they can support more predators, whose numbers grow. If the predators become too many, there is not enough food to go around, fewer predators survive and litter sizes decrease to compensate. The balance is righted and maintained by natural systems, it is only when humans interfere or reduce the land available for wild animals (largely to make room for grazing land) that this becomes a problem.

There are vanishingly few people living in industrialised society who rely on hunting as a food source. For subsistence hunting communities, such as some indigenous groups and remote coastal communities, fishing and hunting may well be necessary for survival - I don’t know many vegans who have any problem with that.

Veganism is about doing what is possible and practicable to avoid animal exploitation, if it is genuinely not possible for you to survive on plants then that is very much covered within that definition. For people who recreationally hunt though, hunting licences cost money, weapons and ammunition cost money - for most people, the calories they could gain from cheap plant-based staples would be far cheaper than those they could gain from hunting.

Humans as Above Death

Honestly, I see this argument come from non-vegans far more often than vegans. Vegans are vegan precisely because we don’t believe we a separate to, or superior to, non-human animals. However, the idea that we’re in the same food chain and we’re just like non-human animals is a fantasy that hasn’t been true for 50,000 years.

The agricultural revolution removed us from natural ecosystems, and the Industrial Revolution that followed it removed us even further. It is hard to imagine being further removed from death than to buy the corpse of an artificially created species that was selectively bred, drugged and raised in industrial conditions, who you have not only not hunted but never even seen, wrapped in plastic by a large corporation.

Veganism has nothing to do with denying death or ignoring human features. Humans are omnivores, sure, but that is just an arbitrary species categorisation. It means we can subsist on both plant and animal matter Does the fact that we have canine teeth create a moral justification for causing harm to other animals, on the basis that the blind and amoral process of evolution gave them to us? Surely not.

Conclusions

Vegans know that we aren’t above death and we aren’t separate or above other animals. Humans are highly intelligent and technologically advanced apes, but we’re still apes. We seem to only want to acknowledge this fact when it suits us though, when we want to hunt or eat other animals. But we’re not hunter gatherers, we’re consumers who shoot animals with guns or buy their flash pre-slaughtered and pre-packaged.

However, that same technology and economy have now given us the option to choose to cause less harm. We know beyond any reasonable doubt that most humans can now be perfectly happy and healthy while never purposely harming any animal ever again. We can choose to not only survive, but thrive while minimising the impact we have on animals and the planet we share with them. So why wouldn’t we do that?

[littlxpxtal]

I wish I never met you

TYRANTS || STORY MASTERLIST

PAIRING: rafe cameron x fem!reader

WARNINGS: MDNI 18+ Content, swearing, sexual content, drug and alcohol use, violence

WORD COUNT: 2.5k

Mixing liquor and pot

Heard your brain cells can rot

If my memory was shot

I would like that a lot

I wish I could forget you

May

It was all a blur. The whole day. Zipping up my gown, putting the bobby-pins in my hair to situate the cap on my head.

I wish I could say graduation was the best day of my life, but I barely remember any of it. My name rumbled through the field, my legs moving without a thought. I moved my lips up on my face for the picture, shook hands with faculty that I had never seen or spoken to in my entire life.

The dinner with my parents was bland. They went on and on about college, asking me questions about what I decided to study. I don’t even remember the answer I gave.

I didn’t come to reality until the third time my phone rang while I laid on the edge of my bed, head hanging off the edge with my eye closed, a random record playing on my turntable was at the end and a soft humming noise filled the room.

I decided to finally check who it was, and to no surprise it was Sabrina.

“Hi” I mumbled into the phone, flipping over onto my stomach, one hand barely holding up the phone while the other dangled towards the ground.

”You done with family shit yet?”

”yes.” I answered simply, closing my eyes.

“Well I know you’re out feeling the best but, I really think you should come with me tonight.”

I groaned into my sheets.

“Sab” I whispered, my voice shaking.

“You can’t let this take over your life, y/n. We only graduate high school once.”

her positivity sickened me. I knew she was right. I didnt want her to be.

“Sab its the same shit we’ve been doing all year, what is different about tonight?”

“Well there’s no risk of expulsion”

”hah” it was her turn to groan in response.

“Y/N, im spending the whole summer abroad and I leave next week. I seriously need you to do this for me.”

”you cant pull that shit on me Sabrina its not fair.”

”but its true, y/n. You’re my best friends and I need you. You were a fucking zombie today. Snap out of it.”

there was a period of silence. I sat up in my bed and turned the lamp on.

“Well, what should I wear?” I can tell she tried to hide it, but I could hear her squeal on the other line.

“Cute top and a skirt.”

”I can make that work”

”fuck YA THERE SHE IS” she cheers into the phone. “I’ll pick you up in 15.”

We arrived to see the beach was already filled up, party in full swing. Sabrina gave me a reassuring look before we walked towards them.

”Let’s get some drinks. You deserve one” she says to me. I nod my head, following her lead.

We make our way over to the nearest keg, taking one of the many cups the boys were passing out.

“Grab me two” I whisper in her ear. She smiles wide and winks.

”That’s what im talking about.”

I chugged the first cup,passing it back to the kid who was pouring them out, he filled it back up and we walked with our cups to the dance floor.

“You gonna double fist all night?” Sabrina asks over the music.

”that’s the plan” I mumble back. The speakers are booming a new Metro Boomin song, and we make our way to the group of girls that are dancing.

I lose track of time, and snap back into reality when I notice Sabrina furiously texting on her phone.

“What’s up?” I ask. She hesitantly looks up, and locks her phone, sliding it back into her purse.

“Nothing, just, Toppers here. But, he’s with … his friends. So im just gonna stay here for a bit.” She awkwardly looks away, makes eye contact, then looks away.

“Sab, its okay, I would be an idiot to think he wouldn’t be here, especially with your boyfriend. Go say hi.” I give her shoulder a nudge and she shakes her head.

“No, im here with you.”

”im serious Sab.”

”just one more song. Who knows how long he’ll keep me on his arm if I go now.”

”you know I can fend for myself.” Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift starts playing on the speakers and Sabrina jumps up and down.

”I know, but I LOVE this song”

She starts leading us to the middle of the circle, and we sing to each other, as if we were the only two people on the beach. By the time the song is over, were doubled over laughing,our drinks spilt all over the sand.

“Im gonna go get another drink, you go say hi to topper okay?” She frowns and reaches for my hand.

”Fine, but I’ll be right back okay?” I roll my eyes.

”I told you I’ll be fine. Just go okay?” She smiles and skips away. I watch her walk over to the other side of the crowd, where a group of guys are standing, including Topper, Kelce, and, well of course, Rafe.

I notice everyone’s in conversation, expect for him. He’s just sipping from his cup, staring out into the sea.

I catch myself staring for too long, and realize i'm still in the middle of the dance circle, with two empty cups. I look around for the nearest keg and walk slowly over.

I made empty conversation with the girls standing around the keg while waiting in line, checking my phone every so often. The DJ continues to play songs I like, including pursuit of happiness, collard greens, Roll in Peace and more.

I find myself tipsy, dancing by myself in the sea of people. By the time I finally looked at my phone again, it had been an hour and I had a text from Sabrina.

were fuckin in my car really quick lol I’ll be right back.

that was from 5 minutes ago, so I probably wouldn’t see her for at least another half an hour.

I was tired of dancing, so I started walking towards the edge of the party, closer to the water.

The temperature outside was perfect. There was a slight breeze, not enough for me to put my hair up, but enough to get a whiff of the sea.

I pulled my phone out to take a picture of the water and the moon, before I heard a shout.

“Fucking BITCH”

I could recognize that voice anywhere. I whip my head to the right and see Rafe and another figure a few yards away.

everything in my mind told me not to go. But my heart was controlling my feet. I walked closer, and realized the other person was Noah.

“You ruined fucking EVERYTHING” Rafe growled.

“I didnt do shit expect tell her the truth man. She’s a dirty fucking shut,all you did was make sure I knew.”

I tensed up, and made eye contact with Noah. He smirked and looked back at rafe.

“Perfect timing, y/n, we were just talking about you!” Noah exclaimed, splashing the liquid in his cup in the air.

Rae whips his head back and stares deep into my eyes.

“Y/n,” he whispers. My body is still tense.

“Wh-whats going on” I ask

”your boyfriend - sorry I mean .. your confusing complicated situation ship over here is harassing me.”

rafe keeps his eyes on me. I cant read his expression, he looks empty.

“Maybe, if you just stayed in your place on the cut, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.” Noah shouts at me.

I open my mouth to respond, but nothing comes out.

I decide its just best if I leave. I start to walk away and hear Noah chuckling.

“This is all YOUR fault” Rafe yells, lunging at Noah. Noah swings back in defense, and I stop in my tracks.

“STOP” a scream escapes my lips and I run over. Rafe is knocked to the ground scrambling to get back on his feet.Noah kicks him back down, and I hear a sharp click, and notice something in Noah’s hand. The smile on his face is terrifying, and as I get closer I realize its a switchblade.

“My god Noah put that thing away.” I whisper.

“If rafe wants to fight, we can fucking fight.”

He points the blade down at rafe who is still struggling to stand.

“Noah, seriously,” I walk towards him and his eyes flicker towards me, down at rafe and back at me. He points the blade up at me, and I start to shake.

“You’re insane” I whisper, taking a step back.

While he’s distracted, Rafe takes the opportunity to pull Noah’s leg, knocking him to the ground. The blade falls from his grip into the sand, and I lunge to get it. He reaches after it too, our bodies colliding. Rafe pulls him away from me while I grab the knife, and he pins Noah down, punching him straight in the face.

“That’s ENOUGH” I shout at the two of them. They both freeze and look up at me. The knife is dangling from my hand pointed down.

“Noah get the fuck out of here. And don’t EVER pull this shit again. You’re just embarrassing yourself.” He scrambles to his feet, patting the sand off his pants.

“Give me my knife back y/n” he commands. I shake my head.

”I’ll give it to you when you’re sober.”

he looks over at rafe. Something in his face must’ve scared him, because he makes a beeline back to the party.

I walk slowly towards rafe and pass him the knife. He safely closes it and stuffs it in his pocket.

“What’s wrong with you?”

He huffs, brushing sand off himself. He turns to look at the water, and his shoulders slump.

”I wish I knew” he whispered. After a brief moment of silence he turns to me, with sadness in his eyes this time.

“Look, y/n, im really-“

”I don’t want to fucking hear it okay? How many times are you going to put me through this. Like seriously?”

His jaw twitched and he looked down, running a hand over his hair.

“It hurts. It hurts so fucking much to see you hurt” he finally says.

“Then why do you keep hurting me?”

the sound of the waves and music behind us fills the silence.

“I don’t mean to. I just keep fucking up.”

I sigh, unsure of what to say. He takes a step towards me, I flinch slightly, which he notices, and makes him sigh.

“Sometimes I cant tell” I start to say. He looks up at me and takes another step forward.

“Sometimes I cant tell if you like me or hate me” I whisper the last part.

“Neither” his voice cracks slightly, and he looks up at the moon.

“I don’t hate you. I could never hate you, y/n. And I don’t, I don’t just like you, okay? I don’t just like you I fucking-“ he stops himself, his voice getting hoarse. “I fucking love you okay? And its driving me insane.”

I furrow my eyebrows and let out an involuntary laugh.

”the fuck are you talking about Cameron?”

he looks back at me, his face hard and serious.

“I mean, im fucking obsessed with you. I can never get you up of my head, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. You’re always just THERE. All the fucking songs you’ve showed me, all my favorite shows and movies. God even my favorite color. Its just you, and its always been you. It’s fucking terrifying, did you know that?”

”I-I-“ I stammer. He takes a step closer.

“I think about you when is wake up, when I eat breakfast, when I work out, when I do homework, when im smoking, when im drinking, when im high out of my fucking mind, when im sober, when im driving around town. All I see is you. You’re fucking everywhere and I cant get you out of my head.”

”it sounds like you don’t want me there.”

”that’s the problem is I DO. I want you there, I want you with me. And I finally fucking had you, and I just-“ his voice breaks again and he closes his eyes.

“Just don’t know how to keep you.”

”rafe” I whisper, walking towards him to close the distance. “Rafe, why didnt you tell me?”

”god y/n, you don’t even know how hard it is. Im dealing with all this shit in my head, and I wanted to save you from it but you made your way deeper into my life than ever before, and I couldn’t hide you from how fucked up I am. I tied you into this mess, and it’s not good for you.”

”why did you tell Noah that lie about me and JJ?”

”I told him because he was bragging to everyone about taking you out. I was pissed that someone else was going to take you. I was jealous. I didnt think it was going to hurt you the way it did.”

”why didnt you just tell me before he even asked me out. We were seeing each other-“ he cuts me off

”because y/n, its easier for me to do shit like that than it is to express my feelings okay? I cant do this love shit easy alright? It doesn’t come naturally like it does some people. It’s fucking terrifying”

his breathing is ragged, and he starts to clutch his chest.

“It gives me these chest pains like I cant fucking breathe.”

he huffs out, trying to catch his breath. I notice his face is flustered.

”cmon, lets sit” I grabs his hand and pull him down onto the sand,

“its okay just breathe” his pants slow down, and I wrap my arm around his shoulders.

“It’s okay” I whisper again. He leans his head on my chest, and I hear a sob escape his mouth.

“Im so fucking sorry. Im so fucking sorry” he repeats this over and over a few times before going quiet.

”I know you are.” I finally say.

We sit in silence for about 5 minutes before its interrupted.

”Y/N! There you are-“ Sabrina cuts herself off when she sees us, Topper trailing behind her.

“I knew it” I heard him whisper to her.

”well, did you guys kiss and make up” topper slurs. She shoves his chest, letting out a giggle and a hiccup.

“You guys have been boning for hours now”i shoot back at them. Topper lets out a nervous laugh and Sabrina hides her face.

“Well, are you guys going to come join us or?” She asks. Rafe sits up and looks at me

“Can we start over?”

I smile at him, stand up and reach out my hand.

“Rafe?” I whisper, he takes my hand and stands up, his figure looming over me.

“Yes, pretty girl?”

”i Love you too.”

Previous Chapter | Instagram AU

Tags: @ltristessedureratoujours @davinashifts333 @tomholland792

[synnamon-hearts]

This is a bit out of left field. How is the fandom feeling for incubus! Josh ? 👁️

He still looks the same from the canon game, his form depends on your imagination once he comes at night to feast! I'll send in more details if I'm not tired. Love your worksss weewooo

𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭

Oh. My. GOD. Literally s-creaming right now because I used to write incubus fics in another fandom a long time ago and it was like one of, if not my most favorite trope, and I wanted to start doing it with Josh too but I wasn't sure how people would feel about it. Well, thanks to this request, my question was answered.

NSFW down below!

𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭

Incubus!Josh always appears at night when you are sleeping, just towering over the foot of your bed, watching you for a few minutes like a predator studies his prey to access the situation. Once he's got you somewhat figured out, he will wake you. Some days it can be by gently rubbing your thighs, or biting your neck hard. It really depends on his mood but he always has that same mischievous smirk when your eyes finally open.

I think his eyes are fairly emotionless, though like his smile, also hold something slightly dangerous and mischievous in them as a small warning sign that he has something planned.

Now Incubus!Josh's real face is hidden due to a collection of energies he puts around himself as almost a mask. They only allow you to see what you want to see. (See what I did there?) So every time you see him, he appears as what version of Josh you desire the most.

His voice is a bit more low and almost raspy as well, almost like if Josh smoked at least 4 more cigarettes a day than usual. He always greets you sweetly when you awaken to him.

"Hey, sweet little thing. Did I frighten you?"

Then chuckling, he would reach out and caress your cheek while fondly looking over your features. "Don't be frightened, little thing. I don't plan to harm you. I just need to feed. And my my, aren't you a delicious little late night meal?"

One part of you will feel frightened. I mean it's a natural instinct when you wake up to this mysterious man in your room who is talking about eating you. But most of that fear is driven out by something else: desire.

Incubus!Josh has a special aura that he can release into the air, it's to make people feel more safe around him. He doesn't want to hurt them. His main goal is to make them feel good so he can feed off of the erotic and arousing energies they produce while he does so. And this aura he puts off lowers their fear instincts by subconsciously letting them know this.

Now Incubus!Josh is really special because he can read minds as well as the subconscious thoughts that linger in the shadows of one's mind that they may not even know they have themselves. This allows him to seek out people's true desires.

He may attempt to get this information while you are sleeping, or when you are awake. If being awake is the case, for some, all it takes is some common foreplay of kisses and gentle caresses to get those juicy thoughts flowing.

Or for the more close-minded people, he may have to put a spell on you to put you in a temporary trance-like state to get you to open your thoughts to him.

𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭~𖹭

Incubus!Josh will always figure you out one way or another. And when he does, prepare of a full night of the most fun you have ever had. Whatever you both do, Josh is in absolute ecstasy. He moans so loudly whenever you cum, but not because he feels the same level of pleasure you feel. Because it's feeding him and making him stronger.

This fuels his need to continue and make you cum as many times as possible. I'm talking he gets so determined that he growls like a rabid beast as he fucks you. He will make you cum so many times until you literally pass out from exhaustion. He does this for two reasons:

1. He wants to milk you dry of all the sexual energies he can.

2. It makes it easier to disappear afterwards.

After you pass out, Incubus!Josh comes to a full stop. He may be a demon, but he respects that you are to a point of needing rest now. He will caress your hair and clean you up, even tuck you into bed afterwards.

When you wake up, you feel exhausted still. You will probably have to call in sick from work. Though you physically show signs of a rough night, your mind will simply play everything off as a dream. If that is due to the extreme exhaustion or something Incubus!Josh does to keep himself as just a mere fantasy in the minds of humans as a safety precaution is unknown.

For the first few hours of the day, Incubus!Josh will watch you from the darkest shadow in your room, thoughts that will never get spoken going through his mind as he studies you. Ah humans, what curious little creatures. Perhaps he will stick around to see what else makes this one tick?

[kradogsrats]

The Mystery of Blacksteel Sanctum: A Retrospective

So, I loved TDP: Xadia, right? And my no-question favorite region was the Border: best environments, best NPCs, best-ish puzzles (look that ones a close call, okay), and best, most lore-rich story... which, in true TDP fashion, winds up raising more questions than it answers.

This post, and the thought I've put into it, are kind of my love letter to that story... and the other people who loved it, or could have loved it.

So: let's talk about what was going on in Blacksteel Sanctum.

Catch-Up Summary for Non-Players

If you played TDP: Xadia during its brief lifespan, you can skip this section. But to bring anyone who didn't up to speed:

In the Border region, a joint effort is underway to establish and secure reliable routes for crossing between Xadia and the Human Kingdoms. This is challenged by two fronts of enemies—magma crawlers, an aggressive part-bug and part-crab pest species infesting the area, and Saranar and the Dawnbringers, a faction of rebel Sunfire elves hostile to the new peace. The missions for the region are thereby divided into two "plotlines" directed by accompanying NPCs: the crawler plot, led by human rogue zoologist Mervyn and ending with the Crawler Queen boss, and the Blacksteel Sanctum plot, led by Sunfire elf Knight Ravna and ending with the Blacksteel Forgemaster boss.

Got it? Okay.

Digging for the Truth: Blacksteel Sanctum Basics

After first encountering the (sealed) Blacksteel Sanctum beneath the surface of the Border, Ravna expresses shock that not only is the Sanctum here, but that it's even real. She summarizes its story as:

This is a fairly standard Atlantis-style story—a place of legendary technological or magical wonders, brought low by some calamity and its secrets lost forever. In this case, it's reportedly where the Sunfire elves started their journey as master smiths of magically-enhanced weapons and armor, but also largely considered to be a myth.

Knowing that Blacksteel Sanctum was real, can we determine what was actually being made there? Well, there's a prominent crossroads location in the Blacksteel Sanctum mission maps, a setpiece room featuring a massive, gilded statue:

(That's not the room, but it is the same statue. Because of the way the game's camera and controls were set up, the statue was excruciatingly difficult to get even halfway-decent screen captures of in its in-game setting.)

Between the statue and the prominent, repeated use of the rune from Janai's Sunforge blade sheath as a decorative motif, it seems likely that Blacksteel Sanctum is the place where the first of the so-called "Sunforge" blades were, uh, forged. That technique was then either passed to or replicated by the Sunforge smiths.

There's even an answer for how Blacksteel Sanctum could compete with the Sunforge in magical power: in one of the magma crawler storyline missions, Mervyn concludes that "the same primal magic that led the ancient elves to build Blacksteel Sanctum here has attracted the crawlers." That source, whatever it is/was, made Blacksteel Sanctum's forges powerful enough to craft the first of the ever-burning blades that would later only be achievable with the Sunforge.

However, what should be considered the real trademark creation of Blacksteel Sanctum (as we shall see) is one Ravna is entirely unfamiliar with: those autonomous combat golems. She initially assumes they are strange suits of armor, and is astonished when they are able to move and fight, which suggests that not only did this technology never leave the Sanctum, it wasn't even preserved in the legends... and may have been deliberately excluded. At the same time, the golems are clearly the weapons the Dawnbringers are looking for, with Saranar stating her intending to march an army of them to retake Lux Aurea (after eliminating the humans and loyalist Sunfire elves securing the Border, of course). This raises the question: how exactly did the Dawnbringers find out about them? (Put a pin in that, we'll come back to it.)

Bearing Her Mark: The Forgemaster

In what is learned from exploring the Sanctum, a single significant figure emerges: the Forgemaster. She appears in a couple of recurring murals (technically they're on the floor, probably since that's the easiest area for the player to see), depicted as a radiant, almost queen-like leader of legendary stature:

Who appears to even send her people into battle:

This could just be figurative, in that she's sending forth Sunfire elf warriors through equipping them with the best and most powerful weapons. It's also very unclear who the enemy they are fighting actually is—the blocky, hooded figures contrast with the horned elves in a way that suggests they might be humans, possibly including dark mages?

Possibly confusing the timeline even more, the clearest reference to the Forgemaster as an actual person is the Signet of the Forgemaster item and its text:

All of Lux Aurea knew that armor bearing her mark would be as strong as her will.

From this, we know that the Forgemaster lived at a time contemporary with Lux Aurea—which doesn't actually tell us a huge amount, given that Elarion stood for a thousand years or more and Lux Aurea is no doubt even older. Did she leave Lux Aurea to establish Blacksteel Sanctum? Was this before the Sunforge, or maybe before the Sunforge was an actual forge-forge? If magical smithing was unknown to the Sunfire elves before Blacksteel Sanctum, presumably the Sunforge either didn't yet exist or was used for other purposes.

The problem is mostly that we don't have any real concept of what "ancient" means to elves. If we the Blacksteel Sanctum murals depict dark mages, that would mean that it can't have been buried more than 1,000 years, unless we're going to reject the conventional understanding of when dark magic entered the picture. Is 1,000 years ago considered "ancient" for elves? I wouldn't expect it to be, but realistically we just don't know.

(That being said, for Blacksteel Sanctum to have been founded shortly after the continent was split for the expulsion of humans would explain things like the discovery of a buried source of primal magic, unearthed by the massive geologic shift. The part I can't wrap my head around is the idea that the Sunfire elves didn't discover magical smithing until the same time that humans were being given dark magic... but I could get used to the idea.)

Anyway, in addition to this mysterious figure of the past, there's also, y'know... this Forgemaster:

I.e., the "Blacksteel Forgemaster" golem, the first region boss encounter for the Border.

Story-wise, the Forgemaster golem is first referenced in an encounter with a Dawnbringer group that it exterminated, where the dying captain speaks of a "gleaming giant" defending the lower reaches of the Sanctum from exploration. Ravna confirms this account, and declares that the golem must be eliminated for further investigation of the Sanctum. Even at this point, it's not exactly a secret that there's a connection between this golem and the Sanctum's master smith:

This is made even more explicit after defeating the golem, when Ravna reveals that she went to inspect its remains, and it reactivated at her touch to deliver a message:

Now, Ravna seems to think that this was essentially a pre-recorded message stored in the golem, which is otherwise autonomous, but mindless. However, having played a video game or two with very similar plotlines... even if it's not where things start out, someone always eventually starts stuffing souls into these things. Personally, I have no doubt that this was the Forgemaster herself, or whatever shreds of her remained. This is also the first place we get an explicit reference to the Sanctum's downfall—that the Forgemaster herself went too far, and that horrible act, whatever it was, led to the Sanctum being abandoned.

Ravna is sympathetic to the Forgemaster golem's plea to let the Sanctum's secrets remain buried, and decides that once the scattered remnants of the Dawnbringers are cleared out, all exploration will end. She intends to return her full attention to the mission that really matters: securing the Border crossings and the shared future of humans and elves.

This is a fairly typical "act one" soft ending for a video game plotline that will be picked up again later—I very much doubt that it was intended to be the final, decisive ending of the story of Blacksteel Sanctum. My bet would be that the eventual TDP: Xadia roadmap would have included additional story arcs for each region, with new bosses and some new missions, maybe another mission map... something like that. These would be either a new story, probably sharing some of the same characters, or a continuation of the first "resolved" story from that region. For example, I would expect the Far Reaches to have a second act not centered around the Natamus, since that plot was pretty well wrapped up (though it could be opened again), but possibly following up on Zeph's mysterious backstory and departure at the end of the first arc.

For the Border and Blacksteel Sanctum, an obvious hook for act two would be for the Sanctum's true secrets, their awakening set in motion by the Dawnbringers, to finally started crawling up to the surface. Because I don't think the Forgemaster's golem was there only to keep intruders out... there's something down there that she was also intended to keep in.

Shadow and Flame: The Sanctum's Fall

(Oh, did you somehow think you were getting out of this without a Khazad-dûm reference? You were wrong.)

So the Forgemaster golem confesses to Ravna that she and her smiths did "something unforgivable," spurred by their own arrogance in considering themselves all-powerful, and their continued hunger for more knowledge and power in spite of that. However, there have also already been hints of a dark secret to the Sanctum, probably related to its decline and/or fall.

One is made nice and obvious in the form of the Sins of the Sanctum item, presented as a book and providing a one-line excerpt:

"... its moral heart did die and rot, but oh! Its fire and flames did not..."

Another, a bit more subtle, is the region armor set shared by Soren and Viren, which offers three ominous lines:

Something echoes in the metal. Does it sing, or does it scream? What did they bury down there beneath the earth?

Finally, and most importantly, there's what I'm just going to refer to as the "dragon forge." At the end of a story-oriented mission to escort Ravna herself while she explores the Sanctum, she calls out the final room in a pretty suspicious way:

Ravna links the Sanctum's most prominent forge with dragons, while Sins of the Sanctum links dragons, or a dragon, with the Sanctum's fall. There's also the reference in her original summary of the Sanctum's legends that one possible reason for its disappearance is that it was "destroyed by jealous dragons."

The draconic theme isn't the forge's only unusual feature, either:

It's worth noting that she delivers the line about its size immediately after you've defeated a giant mission-boss golem, so she's familiar with just how big those golems get. Based on the size and power of that golem, she also comments that her ancestors "clearly wanted this particular forge protected." We're meant to understand that whatever was made in this giant, dragon-themed forge was somehow special, and likely tied to the Sanctum's most prominent works... including the one that led to its downfall.

This is the room in question, by the way, or close enough to it:

I'm not sure whether the stuff around the very perimeter is the same as in the game, but the dragon-themed forge itself and the floor pattern are accurate.

Ravna doesn't comment on the floor pattern, but I'm going to, because that center floor image is the main section of another mural that appears repeatedly throughout the Sanctum environment. It's on walls, banners, and floors, basically anywhere that a space needs to be filled. (The Forgemaster murals appear far more rarely, really only in specific areas.) With screenshots being both difficult to frame and not the best resolution, this non-game render is the clearest image of it:

It's easy to look at this and say "well, obviously that's the confrontation between Ziard and Sol Regem," except... it's not. Or if it is, it's not a depiction that makes any sense at all. Because look, if Sunfire elves know how to represent one thing in their decorative and architectural motifs... well, okay, back up for a second. If Sunfire elves know how to represent one thing, it's the sun. However, if they know how to represent two things, those are the sun and Sol Regem's horns. So unless everyone down in the Sanctum somehow forgot what Sol Regem looks like, that's not Sol Regem.

(There are actually no visual references to Sol Regem's horns in the entirety of Blacksteel Sanctum, aside from statues of juvenile dragons with only two horns in the same shape. Considering just how many there are in all other Sunfire architecture we've seen? That's weird. Like weird to the point that I wonder if it indicates some kind of schism between the Sanctum and Lux Aurea specifically about dragons.)

Additionally, the mural shows a massive, jagged hole in the dragon's chest, which is not something that happened to Sol Regem in the confrontation with Ziard. It's not 100% certain, but it seems to me that it makes more sense to interpret the central orb as being ripped from it, rather than being thrown at it. This is the imagery that is centrally and visibly featured in the dragon forge.

So we have 1) some terrible act by the Forgemaster, 2) the Sanctum's most prominent and unique forge being dragon-themed, 3) depictions of a dragon rent asunder, and 4) references to something buried in the depths, with fire and flame persisting beyond mortality.

Just to seal the deal, we also, if you do the kind of extensive ArtStation dive that I did, have this piece of concept art:

As Ravna says, the dragon forge goes "beyond armor and weapons for elves," and in this concept we have what appears to be pieces of armor for a dragon. Obviously it would be a pointless exercise to arm a dragon with forged weaponry, but could they have tried to armor one? What would be so unforgivable about dragon armor?

But wait, what did Ravna herself mistake for armor, when first entering the Sanctum? That's right.

They built a goddamn dragon golem.

Furthermore, as with the Forgemaster golem, they definitely put some piece of an actual, living dragon into it. Whether that was its heart, or its spirit, or something else, it was torn out and caged in metal. This could have been a malicious attempt by the Forgemaster and her smiths to enslave a dragon into their own control, or it could have been an altruistic attempt to save the life of one that had been torn apart by something else (dark mages?) by playing god. Either way, it seems that it went... quite badly. Badly enough that the Forgemaster not only had the Sanctum sealed and abandoned, but also put herself into a golem the same way, so she could stand as an eternal guard against her creation ever escaping or being freed.

Unfortunately, I would bet money that the dragon golem has already been awakened (probably by the magma crawlers). Remember the question of how the Dawnbringers knew about the golems? Well, as Saranar lies dying, the golems having proved to be uncontrollable and turned on her, she says this:

Someone a) knew about Blacksteel Sanctum, a place Ravna wasn't certain was even real, b) knew about the golems still remaining there, something Ravna had never so much as heard legends about, and c) promised the Dawnbringers power and victory, should they breach the Sanctum and take the golems for themselves. This could be the plot of an unusually well-informed external actor manipulating the local gang as cannon fodder to access some heavily-guarded secret, except they already ran that exact plot in the Far Reaches with Vant and Margot over the Natamus. I think it's more likely that the dragon golem has found a way of communicating with the outside world, and brought the Dawnbringers to the Sanctum knowing that they wouldn't stop digging for more power and weapons until they inevitably went too far and unearthed it. With the Forgemaster golem defeated, the last true line of defense for either direction—into the Sanctum or out of it—is now gone. Like I said, it's an excellent set-up for a second act.

I mean, as the Dragonbreath Embers item puts it:

Go on. Let them out. Surely nothing bad will happen.

So yeah! We'll also probably never find out if any of this is correct, since even if the game never re-launches or continues, anyone who could tell us anything is almost definitely legally prohibited from doing so... but we may have been robbed of an eventual epic boss battle with a golem dragon, among the countless other things that were in TDP: Xadia's future. THANKS, NETFLIX.

—

Speaking of people under NDA, here are the TDP: Xadia artists whose public portfolios were invaluable to researching and making this post:

Marvin Tischler

Alice Cho

Jacinta Vu

Guillaume T. Delbarre

Margaret Dost

Nelson Dou

Rebecca Blessing

Sara Lansdell

[youngestthunderbird]

Three Bible verses that may be relevant here are 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10, and Romans 1 for starters. I’d like to specifically note that the word used in Corinthians and Timothy to refer to homosexuals (or ‘those who abuse themselves with mankind’ in some translations) is αρσενοκοιτες, a compound word derived from ‘men’ and ‘sex’, and is thus very unambiguous. Romans, being a longer passage, also uses very graphic sexual language in Greek and is very unambiguous about its meaning.

The Roman culture that Paul spent a great deal of his ministry inside did not condemn homosexuality as a sin, merely as something shameful or humiliating for the receiving partner (the penetrating partner had no stigma at all). Therefore, something other than culture was motivating the writer of Romans, 1 Timothy, and 1 Corinthians (let’s assume it’s Paul) to condemn homosexuality.

Paul also spent a great deal of time warning AGAINST the Judeizers, a sect of Jews who claimed to be Christians but also maintained that salvation was through the Mosaic Law, to the point of challenging another senior apostle (Peter) for eating differently in the presence of converted Jews. It would make no sense for him to bring this doctrine and only this doctrine in from the law, when he was so adamant about more commonplace things like circumcision and the mosaic diet being things that Christians are no longer bound to.

So we can conclude that this doctrine isn’t from a Roman bias, and isn’t from a Jewish/Levitical bias; the only remaining thing would be personal bias. This isn’t disprovable, except by believing that the Bible is the Holy Word of God, and that no personal bias exists in the text that is not God’s bias.

The oldest manuscripts we have come from the third or fourth century, but are still from well within the time that Roman sexual mores would have permitted homosexuality. In fact, Roman sexual mores became more and more contrary to Christian ones at the beginning of the third century, so far as we can tell. Plus, the codices we have come from all over the mediterraneans, from Rome to Alexandria. Honestly it would be harder to modify them than you’d think- you would have to modify the original or all the original’s direct copies.

A lot of your final questions are something that isn’t really answerable. The Bible is the Holy, Divinely Authored Word of God. To believe otherwise is to not be a Christian. Every sect of Christianity recognizes the Bible as the Word of God, and even the sects that have different books of the Bible recognize Romans, 1 Timothy, and 1 Corinthians as the Word of God. You can believe otherwise- that’s your choice- but please consider why you’re so adamant that God can’t forbid something that you’re willing to deny the efficacy of the Scriptures right in front of you.

I disagree with you in regards to the evolving nature of "sin"

Looking away from the homosexuality issue, most laws on marriage found in the bible are perfectly antiquated, seeing as we don't treat women as property anymore (for the most part)

Considering that levitical law is where the identification of (male) homosexuality as a sin can be found and it specifies a lot of things people don't really consider sinful (do you avoid mass when menstruating?), I don't find it wise to pretend it's timeless

And most notably, we're not part of a nomadic culture wandering the desert during the bronze age!

You are confusing law with sin. In Leviticus God was giving special laws to the Israelites to set them apart as a holy people. Yes, some laws have changed since that time but sins are still sins.

God gave the Israelites laws on homosexuality but he also described homosexuality as a sin. The Mosaic Law, which you are describing, is part of the old covenant God had with his people. Today, we are under a new covenant. Hence, the New Testament. But this is not an example of god changing his mind or the nature of sin evolving. Everything that happened in the Old Testament was setting the stage for the events of the New Testament. I mean, we can see God basically prophesying Jesus’s crucifixion as early as the story of Adam and Eve.

When Jesus was sacrificed that created for us a way to God without having to follow Mosaic Law. It doesn’t mean God changed his mind here or that the nature of sin evolved.

What is and isn’t a sin has never changed.

[angeliteeyes]

Tutor Jean x Reader

You receive a surprise visit from your tutor, but you end up with an entirely new problem to solve

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

"Are you sure this is okay? It's so late already."

She smiled at you as she sat down, though bags were already forming under her eyes. You were in the middle of studying for an exam (or rather, staring at a single spot on your notebook dazed and unfocused) when you heard your doorbell ring. Not expecting any visitors, you gazed through the peephole, only to find your tutor.

"It's not a problem at all. Your test's tomorrow, so I wanted to check how everything's coming along." You shuffled slightly to the side in embarrassment. When you two had first begun these lessons, you attempted to hide just how lost you were regarding the material. Obviously, you didn't do that great of a job. Her instincts had been trained to perceive those sorts of behaviors in students—pretend nods of understanding, incorrect answers to even the basics, and just about everything else you did during your first session.

Thankfully, Jean was the type who broke through those barriers with ease, using her reassuring tone and gentle pressure to encourage you to push through difficult subjects. If it weren't for her, you're sure you would've already failed this class months ago.

"Thank you so much, Jean. I've got the simpler questions down, but there was one I wasn't sure about." You spun your paper around to face her, a blot of red ink marking one section. She leaned over to study it, shutting her eyes for a moment.

"Right, we ran out of time before we could cover this. May I borrow a pen?" You reached out to press one into her palm. As you did, you sensed an unusual tremor coming from it, shifting your eyes to check the rest of her. Her eyelids repeatedly squinted shut, and her head swayed back and forth, hovering over the hard desk. Within moments, a bang echoed through your room.

"Jean? Hey, Jean!" You rushed to lift her head up from where it landed, finding her drowsy face staring blankly into nothingness. Her pale skin looked ghostly. You bit your lower lip.

"Why did you come over if you clearly weren't feeling good..." Despite chastising her, you couldn't help but think back to the numerous times you've spotted others bombarding her with petty help requests. Sure, she should take care of herself more, but it wouldn't be so hard for her if others gave her some space. That felt strange coming from you, though, given the circumstances.

To be honest, the guilt was starting to get to you. In your defense, it's not like you realized just how incredibly busy Jean was on a typical day. All you knew was you needed help, and when you asked a classmate about potential tutors, her name came up. When she readily accepted your request, you thought nothing of it.

But then you began to notice her more and more. Her blonde ponytail caught your eyes as it swished around from side to side. What truly got your attention, though, wasn't actually her at all; it was the people around her. Some appeared well-intentioned and considerate, but the majority acted as if she was a walking help dispenser instead of a tired, overworked woman.

And the worst part? She just let it happen. You knew from your time with her that she never intended to be such a pushover. If anything, she was rather strict in many regards. Whenever you started slacking off on practice sheets, she would be the first to point it out and force you into completing them. Even the amount of water you drank was scrutinized by her, but Jean refused to treat herself with that same level of care and consideration.

Thankfully, Jean appeared a bit more stable now, and her cheeks gained some of their color back. Her eyes, previously unfocused, were now locked with yours.

"I'm fine, really. I just didn't sleep great last night. Right, so the question you were struggling with—"

"Stop it." Both of you paused for a moment, surprised at your interruption. You cleared your throat.

"Jean... this isn't okay. You're going to get seriously hurt if you keep acting like this. I couldn't forgive myself if I let that happen. You matter more than some stupid test question, got it?" Her eyes turned further downward with each sentence. For several seconds, her throat and lips shifted around, searching for the right way to respond.

"You're right, it's just... I want to be someone people can rely on, no matter what they're going through. And people's troubles don't just go away because I'm a little tired.

You sighed. It was hard to argue with her about not overworking for the sake of others when you yourself relied on her. Jean's pure-hearted desire to act as a pillar for her peers wasn't exactly wrong, either. True, some took advantage, but many earnestly needed someone on their side, and their lives changed for the better after Jean took on that role. Would it be right of you to force her into not caring for others? Was it fair to those who benefitted from her kindness to strip it away from them? Silence permeated through the air for a few moments, before an idea hit you.

"Let me help you, then. I might not be as capable as you are, but I'm sure there's something I can do for you." Jean's hand immediately went up, her palm waving in dismissal.

"No, I couldn't make you do that. You're busy with your own matters, after all. It'd be rude of me."

Of course she would say that. Not only is her pride too big to blatantly accept such an offer, but you probably don't sound all that convincing either. The more you think about it, there's had to have been countless people in her life who've claimed they could be relied on, only to flake out when she actually needed it. In that case, wouldn't it make more sense to just... show her?

*

"We're already done, actually."

"Huh?" Jean stood in front of her teacher, arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed. Ever since classes began, she'd taken on the job of assisting with cleaning the rooms after the final bell rang. Initially, she and a couple of other classmates took part, but the numbers quickly dwindled down to one. It had become a guaranteed part of her daily routine. That is, until today.

"Another student came by while you were away and offered to help. Said they were a friend of yours? Let me think..." As the teacher described said person's features, it clicked in Jean's mind who they were. Concern wracked through her.

"Where are they now? Are they still here?"

"Oh, no, they already left. They did write a note for you, though. Here." They held out a piece of notebook paper, a design she recognized from your many sessions together. Curious, she quickly grabbed it and scanned the words written on it.

Don't bring lunch tomorrow! :D

"....Huh?"

[moontyger]

Other resources:

A journalist who is one of many reporters asking government employees who are willing to talk to contact her. You can ask to remain anonymous and stay off the record.

How to securely send anonymous tips to ProPublica

Info on how OPM handles severance pay

A guide to the first-day executive actions on the federal workforce (this has excellent, concrete advice for what federal employees should be doing right now)

What civil servants need to know in week two (this too)

A DOJ attorney’s guide to upholding ethical obligations and the rule of law

A civil servant’s checklist of current rights

Resources for civil servants (tons of useful stuff here)

How *you* can protect democracy (for everyone, not just federal workers)

Contact your elected officials

And I’ll just leave this here — a CIA guidebook that was distributed in Nazi-occupied countries with advice for office workers and bureaucrats on how to safely resist the Nazis without putting yourself or your family in danger (and here’s a link to it at the Wayback Machine instead if you’re concerned about viewing it on a government website).

[queer-omens-in-the-archives]

Have you noticed your style change over time?

Hi!! Thank you for the ask. <3

We haven't really noticed that, no -- we're aware our older fics don't read quite the same as our more recent ones, but we don't tend to notice the changes happening in real time and would struggle to pinpoint exactly what changed.

Part of that is plurality-related. We don't all write the same to begin with -- actually part of our editing process now, especially for longer projects, consists of getting as many of us rereading the text as possible (separately over a period of time and/or together at the same time), so we can smooth out differences where needed or (more rarely) exaggerate them when warranted (e.g. for added character flavour in subjective narration). In the past we didn't go through that Collaborative Smoothening step, and we did a lot less editing to begin with (we same-day wrote-and-published a lot), so many of our older works are more clearly One Guy's Writing. We can usually tell who based on the way they're written, but this isn't style evolution so much as like... us writing differently at baseline.

Part of that is that we have two types of approach to writing: either we write so rarely that too much time passes in-between for us to remember our previous writings clearly, or we write so often that any overall changes are too gradual for us to notice. Nowadays it's more the latter -- with the MelloNears, we've been writing/editing at least a few words every single day since November 1st, in mostly the same two AUs/series, so we're not really seeing the style evolution that is probably taking place because we're standing too close to see the big picture.

[fanfic/author ask game]

[dashcon-two]

DashCon 2 Venue Announcement, Vendor's Hall, and More!

The DashCon 2 team is thrilled to announce the concrete answers to all your biggest questions. Where it is, when it is, how to buy tickets, and more. You ready?

TL;DR

Where: DashCon 2 will be held at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in North York, Toronto

When: July 5th, 2025

What: Tickets will go live on February 22nd. Vendor Applications will be open on February 1st, and Panelist Applications on February 10th.

Our Venue!!

[6 Sakura Way, North York, ON M3C 1Z5]

Image belongs to Bartman905 on Wordpress

The JCCC has previously hosted plenty of other fan conventions, notably the Anime North Halloween Event and Pretty Heroes. Given their experience with convention hosting and gorgeous venue space, we think they’re the perfect fit.

So, why did this take so long?

Well… the JCCC wasn’t our first pick. Our first pick, who we won’t name, dropped us unexpectedly after months of negotiations. Why? Original DashCon’s reputation. We literally got DashCon’d before the convention had even started!!

While we were expecting this and had backup plans, we were blindsided by a rejection this late into the negotiation process. After reaching out to our other contacts, we settled on the JCCC, but we had to restart the entire process. So much of our planning had to be restarted or paused, which set us way behind schedule. Naturally, we didn’t want to say anything about losing our venue spot until we’d adequately replaced it.

We’re happy to say that the Classic DashCon Venue Struggle is over and done with - and our rental with the JCCC is paid in advance. No $17k hostage situation necessary.

However, all this provokes another obvious question: why did you go public with the project when you hadn’t signed with the venue yet? In short: Strange Aeons’ DashCon: An Extensive Oral History video. We were already knee-deep in the project behind the scenes before finding out she was making a YouTube video about DashCon, pushing the story into the public eye again. The team was concerned that declaring we were organizing DashCon 2 soon after Strange Aeons’ video would imply it was a rush-job inspired by her video. We were far enough along in the initial venue negotiations that we decided to go public with the video rather than after it.

Date & Time

DashCon 2 will be held for one day: Saturday, 5th July 2025. We alluded to using the same weekend as the original DashCon when we first went public, but unfortunately this date wasn’t available at our venue. This does mean it’s pretty close to the American 4th of July - in our defense, we didn’t really think of that, we’re Canadian.

The convention will open to the public at 9:30 AM and close at 9:30 PM. All this information and more will be available on our website.

(These hours may be subject to minor changes, please always check our website for our most recent info!)

Admission

Ticket sales to in-person DashCon 2 will open on Feb 22nd! Mark your calendars…

We’ll be processing ticket sales through Simpli Events, an all-Canadian competitor to Eventbrite. You can click here to find the events page.

We’re working on the feasibility of expanding DashCon 2 into a hybrid event, with live-streams of the most anticipated panels/events and some other informal online panels hosted on a private Discord. More information on those will come at a later date.

Vendor and Panel Applications

DashCon 2’s Artist Alley/Vendor's Hall is a space for independent artisans who create print media, handmade crafts, or other merchandise. If you want the opportunity to sell your merchandise at DashCon 2, then you’ll be excited to learn that vendor applications will open on February 1st!

Please see www.dashcontwo.com/dealers-hall/ for more details about tables, prices, and merchandise. The link to the application form will be posted there.

We’re also happy to say that we’re opening panel applications on February 10th! We have a few guest panellists already lined up (including a few we can’t talk about yet), but we’re excited to open applications to everyone with a good idea! All DashCon 2 panels will be moderated by our volunteer team, and we’ll put out more info soon about volunteer sign-ups!

[shhhhimwatchingthis]

Sort of bums me out that so many people didn't seem to Get the Cat King so here are my thoughts:

So let's start with Edwin's crime. He uses something the cat desires (a sardine) to lure the cat to him and then uses an enchanted string to trap the cat with magic. He demands the answer to a question in exchange for its release. Edwin knows it is dangerous to use magic on a cat, that it violates Rules but he does it anyway.

Binding a creature and agreeing to set them free under a certain condition is very Classic Fairytale. its also a favourite trope of Neil Gaiman's (he did not write this show but his influence is there). In both the Sandman and his novel Stardust (and the film adaptation) trapping a creature with magic and demanding a task/favour in exchange for their freedom is an extremely important plot point. Edwin binding a cat and demanding an answer in exchange is exactly in line with this Fairytale trope

And so is the Cat Kings response. The Cat King is a trickster. What he does to Edwin is exactly what Edwin did to one of his subjects. He entices Edwin, he binds him with magic and when Edwin demands to be free he turns his own words against him "why all the fuss for one little spell?" Edwin did something wrong. He imposed his will/magic on another creature and the Cat King is punishing him for it in a way that is poetic. Its fairytale. its trickster. its classic.

I've also seen people complain that the task Edwin was given 'count all the cats' is 'impossible'...except its fucking not. Edwin does it. He does it so well he actually BEATS the Cat King ("you didn't count yourself" Are.You.Kidding.Me. Classic!Fairytale!Vibes!)

The Cat Kings choice to bind Edwin to Port Townsend is good on so many levels. From a storytelling perspective it forces characters who can travel anywhere in the world to stay in one place, and increases the stakes for these characters who are supposed to be on the run. From a genre perspective...its an excellent use of fairytale tropes using both Rules of magic, a protagonist who is unkind to a seemingly weak creature who is punished by a more powerful law, a binding, a task to complete, etc

Which just leaves the character perspective which it ALSO does really fucking well and introduces the final aspect to the Cat Kings character. He's seductive. He is responsible for Edwin, 100 years old ghost boy, finally unpacking his internalized homophpbia. he is the catalyst (cat pun not intended)

He pushes Edwin, challenges him, at times literally forces the truth out of Edwin, but he really never does violate his consent. Significantly Edwin is attracted to him, like its an important part of his character that he is. He may not like the Cat King but he is attracted to him!

The Cat King is such a great example of a trickster, a morally grey character who imposes a sense of justice on Edwin after he crosses a line, but also has his own selfish interests and meddles. Hes so important to the plot of the show, to Edwin's character arc, to the genre.

And he's just fun. Unapologetically queer, powerful, complicated. Silly little outfits. Petty cat behavior. Deep heart.

Some of you just didn't get it. And I'm sorry for you. because the Cat King is Excellent actually.