#but this was seeded a while ago tbh

[slutfactory]

‘MILKING’ COW. ★ w. ushijima x m!reader. [requested!]

request by anon. “Ayo, idk if ur reqs are open, but can i request a cow Ushijima fic? Kinda down bad for him. Nothing specific so do whatever! Ty!

warnings. cow!ushi + m!farmer!reader, animal features (cow ears n horns), light overstimulation. nothin much tbh, just soft(?) sex w ushi. <3

author's note. same, anon. same. we love ushi gushi on this blog. also, soft boi hours + horny hours actually go pretty well together?? who would've thunk it?

<500 words yeh kinda short

you couldn't quite put your finger on it, but something about this felt oddly.. backwards..??

ushijima, as he had been doing for the past fifteen minutes, whorishly bounced up and down on your cock. even after both of you having orgasmed not too long ago, he didn't stop—

—oh. right. he was milking you. that's what it was.

wet plap noises, along with wakatoshi's mewls of pleasure filled the room, echoing against the walls. feeling a bit too sensitive, you stopped him, holding his hips in place when he lowered himself. the sight of your beloved, prized cow breeding himself on your cock and moaning like a slut was almost enough to make you cum again. right then and there.

the olive haired man looked at you, eyes filled with pure lust and desire. “i wan’ more.. please-.. ” he whined, squirming on your lap—you stifled a groan at this. “milking master feels so good.. ”

your dick twitched, hearing ushijima's pleas. he was so cute, and that made you want to ruin him. but, he wanted to be the one to do the milking this time—and after hearing him beg, you just couldn't say no. honestly, how could you? why would you?

releasing ushi's hips, you gave him an approving nod. he let out a few whines, quiet at first, but slowly increasing in volume, as he began to move again; at the same speed he did before you stopped him. you in turn, let out your own share of grunts and moans, much to his pleasure.

apparently, ushijima was also sensitive after orgasming earlier– or at least you assumed that from how his inner walls twitched and tightened around your shaft much more than before. adorable. “gonna cum already, baby?” he nodded, holding onto your shoulders a little tighter. “me too. let's cum together, 'kay?” you purred.

about thirty seconds of sloppy riding passed before ushijima came, spilling his load on his and your stomachs. this did not stop him, though—he was overstimulating himself now, but he wanted you to cum inside of him.

you of course granted his wish, as his cunt tightened around you as he continued riding you; which almost immediately brought you to orgasm. a strained groan left your lips as you did so. wakatoshi let out a broken whine as he felt your hot seed filling him up inside. “'s so hot.. ngh.. ” he muttered while trying to catch his breath. “master felt good too, right?”

also breathless, you chuckled softly and kissed his forehead. “of course, honey.” again, you chuckled, seeing his ears twitch slightly as his face lit up—seemingly with happiness and a bit of embarrassment. ushi buried his face in the crook of your neck, and you tried to ignore one of his horns lightly stabbing at your skin.

“c'mon. we have to clean up. i'll make your favorite food for dinner, alright?” you pat him on the head. a content 'mm.' was all you got in response.

[sugawarassoulmate]

More of shitty boyfriend daishou?????

tbh i didn't think anyone cared about him!! i never get requests for daishou 😅

words: 725

cw: fem!reader, cheating, unprotected sex, minors dni

he's still around, being the world's worst boyfriend. and honestly, reader's probably getting fed up of it at this point. he's never breaking up with mika, no matter what he whispers in your ear when the two of you are together.

you start to pull away a bit. you brush off his advances, laughing them off a simple joke, and you're making sure you're never alone with him for too long. he tries to put the moves on you but you're out the door before he can fully sink his teeth in. he tries to walk you to your dorm one night but you tell him you're meeting a friend instead.

after a while, daishou stops trying and you think he's gotten the hint. you wondered if the two of you could ever become friends once the awkwardness died down but the guilt of seeing mika's sweet face whenever she kissed her boyfriend killed that thought for you.

everything seemed fine. no more late night phone calls or sending nudes through snapchat. you and daishou could stand to be in the same room without palpable tension. his words to you were brief and while it hurt at first, you figured it was best than to continue the mess you were in before.

so when daishou approached you at a party — a get together between some of his teammates and other friends from campus, really — you didn’t think he had ulterior motives. his girlfriend was here and gave you a big hug. "it's been so long! we should hang out," she said, giving your hands a firm, loving squeeze.

you accept when daishou asks to talk somewhere quieter, thinking that he deserves some closure too.

"fuck, i need you to be quiet," he breathes, clamping his free hand over your mouth while the other keeps you pinned to the wall of the upstairs bathroom. you hadn't slept with anyone since giving daishou some distance all those months ago. the feeling of his long cock bruising your cunt had you shaking with pleasure.

you wanted to shout, to cry about how good he was fucking you but it all came out as a babble under his palm. it's probably for the best, you can only hope mika isn't getting suspicious downstairs wondering where her boyfriend ran off to.

"you can't deny of me of this like that again," a cocky grin slithers across daishou's face as he latches as the skin of your neck. "went fucking crazy not being in this pussy."

it's hard to ignore the tight feeling in your stomach when you hear those words, trying not to put so much weight into them but you've missed him too.

you didn't give much thought to date someone else — not like you and daishou were dating anyways — but you had given him so much of your attention, you didn't even know if you could flirt with another person.

there was no one else that caught your interest, just him. and it felt pathetic to admit it, having feelings for some guy that would rather juggle between two people than commit. but you can enjoy being a selfish person at least for now if it meant getting to enjoy the feeling on him.

knowing that time isn't on either of your sides, daishou fucks you harder. his hand drops from your mouth to lightly squeeze your neck, the dizziness only adding to your euphoria.

with your fingers in daishou's dark hair, you cum around his cock. any feelings of guilt you had wash away as you're overcome with the thought of "just daishou" over and over again.

"that's my girl, you're gonna take my cum, yeah?" he coos. "don't let a single drop go to waste."

even after he cums, daishou doesn't stop his pace, fucking his seed deep inside you. "ahh sugu, it's so much," you whine, feeling his cum running down your thigh when he finally pulls out.

daishou does his best to clean you up with toilet paper, flushing away the evidence.

when the two of you finally make it back downstairs, mika seems blissfully unaware that daishou had been gone for so long. she pulls you into a conversation about her classes and you try to follow along, ignoring the feeling of her boyfriend's cum pooling in your underwear.

©sugawarassoulmate 2024 all rights reserved - please do not repost/translate my work on other platforms!

[tomorrowsgardennc]

it's (a little overdue but still) time to...

✨️ plant garlic ✨️

good news is with garlic's extremely long growing season, there is a lot of buffer to when you can plant your garlic. october through december, actually - as long as it's a few weeks before your first frost. BUT, a long buffer also means a lot to do to prep for it and a longer time to keep them happy. so let's break down how to keep garlic fed for the next few months.

🧄 step 1: compost

because of garlic's long growing period, it makes them heavy feeders of nutrients. along this growing journey will be many steps to giving them fresh nutrients, but step one is making sure they get a small but steady supply as they grow. wherever you plan to plant the garlic, top it off with a small compost lasagna. since this is an established bed (my oldest bed, actually) i kept my compost lasagna ratio a little on the lightsr weight side-of-things. very thin layer of tree mulch on top of the old soil, kinda mixed in even. then a layer of green (i took the sweet potato vines as i harvested the potatoes in the bed next to this one) and waited about 2 weeks to let them de-moisturize and also because of health reasons but whatever. on top of that, i added a mix of green and brown grass cuttings, some fallen leaves thrown in there too. this was the thickest layer at about 3 inches. the penultimate layer is about 2ish inches of a mix of old soil and peat moss. after planting the bulbs, i added the thinnest layer of leaf mulch, but this is not necessary. the only reason i added this last layer is because we have been going through a prolonged drought, so i wanted a layer that will keep that soil moist as long as possible.

🧄 step 2: fertilizer soup

now for me, fertilizer soup is a diluted fish emulsion solution. that's it, mostly because i am lazy and also because it's the most common method. @gardening-guy is trying out a banana peel fertilizer soup when they started their garlic (oli got the bulbs from my shop, so tbh only difference so far is the fertilizer soup recipe. and oli started a month ago. not a competition.) oli's garlic has already started to pop up, so that means the fertilizer soup did it's job - penetrate the tough outer skin the garlic bulbs got when curing and gave them a burst of energy to get things growing. let me know if you use a different fertilizer soup recipe. as long as it's high in potassium, you'll be good to go. oh, and make sure it soaks for 24 hours. that cured skin is pretty thick.

🧄 step 3: companion planting

while garlic is a heavy feeder, that doesn't mean they're introverts. a lot of websites will tell you garlic deters pests from other plants, but legit for real right now go out to your garden and tell me if you smell garlic once it's planted. you don't, and the bugs sure don't. so ignore that part and plant winter vegetables alongside your garlic that wants nitrogen AND grows above the soil line. garlic wants all the potassium, and you don't want to disturb the garlic bulbs under the soil line. winter vegetables you can harvest by cutting are the best. i have pink celery that i am btoh harvesting and letting go to seed in one bed, so no disturbance there. this bed i seeded with all the viola seeds i have hoarded over the years alongside beets i am letting go to seed. beets are NOT the best companions if you are going to harvest, but since i am using them as seeders then it is fine. i haven't figured out what the companion plant will be in the third garlic bed, but other choices are lettuce, cabbages, collards, broccoli, kale... anything leafy, really.

ok, remember when i said make sure the companions are ones where you can harvest above the soil line?? it's because once you do so, those roots left behind will decompose and give the garlic another slow feeding of potassium! the plant gobbled up all the nitrogen, and because their roots are relatively thin they are quick to compost and add potassium back into the soil. crazy, eh??

🧄 final step: waiting

and honestly... this is the hardest step. especially for me, the world's most impatient farmer. but the good news is that while you wait there are two more key points of when to refeed your garlic:

between bits of heavy frost - typically around end of january or february - water the garlic with a ton of that fertilizer soup recipe you used before. the bulbing hasn't started yet, but this will keep those roots growing despite the soil temperature. and if you are more up north than me, add a thick layer of mulch or straw to help keep that soil temperature from going too far past freezing.

the last time you'll want to feed your garlic will be the end of winter. this is when the garlic bulbs really begin to bulbate... bulbge? bulb out?? none of that sounds right... either waaaaay. to get the biggest bulbs possible, you want to give them the highest dosage if potassium possible - and that's in the form of ✨️potash✨️ which... turns out to be just a fancy word for wood ash. burn some wood in a fireplace or firepit, burn your unpaid medical bills, burn your student loan reminders, burn anything that is paper or wood. don't mix with anything else, and REALLY DO NOT use the leftover charcoal from a grill. this potash needs to be as pure to potassium as possible. so no burning your yaoi/yuri mangas to hide from your partner, either.

and before you know it... those 3/4lb of garlic bulbs you started with turn into 5lbs of garlic. we shall meet again next year around april or may to discuss ✨️ the curing of garlic for long-term storage ✨️ until then, happy winter!

[thebluester2020]

[SDV] Infection AU

Summary: It was supposed to be another day on the farm. You'd wake up, check the mail, feed the animals, maybe even go into town to pick up some new seeds! But...when the wizard suddenly appears at your door to tell you that a mysterious plague had fallen upon Pelican Town and Ridgeside Valley, causing the townspeople to morph into hideous flesh-eating creatures while also emboldening the monsters of the Mines and Ridge to come out and attack all who aren't affected, you and your spouse stand as one of the few who aren't amongst the affected but...how do you both survive such a horrid new reality?

Warning(s): Some explicit character death (I've played Dead Space y'all, I'm not holding back on kids being man-eating monsters), Some good ol' angst, the Farmer really shines as a monster-slayer here, Y'all are gonna hate me for Shane's part and I'm not elaborating on that,

Note(s): I've been CRYING out for someone to make an Infection AU of Stardew ever since I saw it trend for MLP on TikTok. But hey, as they say, want something done? Do it yourself ig. I decided to only include three bachelors because A. I want to make a part 2 sometime since it's way too long as it is tbh and B. I NEED TO MAKE FANART OF THIS AU DUDE. I LOVE ZOMBIES AND DEAD SPACE MONSTERS

MINORS AND AGELESS BLOGS DNI

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About a week ago, Marlon had told you that an emergency commission had come up, one that was apparently so important that it needed to be put as your main priority over any other commissions you may have had at the moment. At the time, you didn't have a mind to think much of it when he explained the nature of the commission, that it was brought forth to him by an anonymous source. The commission spoke of a monster, one that displayed an "Alpha-like" nature over the rest of the monsters and was far more aggressive than the others.

Since the moment you took on this commission and began searching for this mysterious creature, you had a mind to think that Marlon was finally beginning to lose his sanity as you hadn't once spotted this mysterious creature...at least, until it was too late.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ

Sebastion : "The Long Walk Home"

You couldn't sleep.

You had been tossing and turning in your bed for hours before you finally decided to get up and go to the mines. And the culprit for your sleepless night? The emergency commission that was thrown to you by Marlon around two weeks ago. The fine details of the commission were forgotten by you by now but basically, the older man had went on and on about how this creature was a major threat to not just the region of Stardew Valley but potentially everywhere close to it!

The monster was described to be as big as a fully-grown Pepper Rex. Thankfully it was unable to breathe fire but it came with a different quirk, which was the fact it had a disgusting ooze about its skin. One that was rumored to make you dizzy and eventually burning with rage if you breathed in the smell for too long.

If you were to be honest with yourself, you thought Marlon was exaggerating a little.

And that thought only grew more and more as you continued to search through the deeper levels of the cavern with your poor spouse trailing behind you.

"What's this monster called again?" Sebastion said from behind you.

The two of you had been searching for hours now, looking under every rock and peeking into any crevice you could find in hopes of at least getting some type of hint as to what this creature was and where it may have been. "Don't know," You yawned. "Marlon didn't give me a name, just a description." You said, patting your cheeks to try and keep yourself awake as you started to feel a bout of sleepiness wash over you.

"It's really important and really dangerous as well." You added on before you looked behind you. "You know, you didn't have to come...you know that right, Sebby?"

Your husband flashed you a shy smile. When he had drowsily woken up to the blurry sight of you putting on your boots and clothes, grabbing your weapon from the weapon's rack. He stopped you and insisted on coming along with you. It wouldn't have been his first time venturing into the mines, especially in regards to the deeper levels, and he was good with a sword as well! But, more than anything? If this creature was so dangerous...he couldn't bear the thought of you facing it by yourself, even if he wasn't up to your level in terms of swordsmanship.

He at least wanted to offer support.

"I didn't have to but I wanted to. I won't let my spouse face a boss-level monster alone." The joke made you giggle a little before you stopped in your tracks and sighed.

"Well..." You took out your phone to check the time.

It was going on three in the morning and you had a busy day tomorrow. You had planned to visit the Skull Cavern in search of more iridium as well as buy some more Starfruit seeds from Sandy! "Think we should call it a night? I'm getting sleepy and I want to take a shower."

Your husband's brow rose a little. "You sure? You've been at this commission for around a week now, right? Maybe tonight is when you can finally finish it."

As he sheathed his sword, you snickered teasingly as you pinched his cheek, resulting in the man's cheeks beginning to tint ever so slightly. "I've taken longer on other things, besides, I feel bad making you trail after me. Plus, I don't think it would be a good idea to face a boss level monster while we're both tired as shit, right?"

Sebastion nodded his head in agreement before the two of you started off in the direction of the ladder. He never minded following you, no matter how long it took, in his eyes? Spending even a single millisecond longer around you was much more preferred compared to spending that time all by himself similar to how he did in the basement. But, once the two of you were out of the mines and felt the cool night air on your skin once again...immediately, you felt that something was...off.

When things suddenly became too quiet in the mines, you knew that there was something dangerous in the air.

The same could be applied to the outside. More or less, you don't think you'd ever felt unsafe out in the town but...tonight was different.

So, you slowly unsheathed your sword. "What is it?" Sebastion said.

"Something's not right- GAH!" You suddenly shouted and dropped your weapon when the wizard suddenly appeared in front of you, making you fall to your bum as your chest heaved up and down in fright.

But as you quickly picked up your sword and got up, about to tell the man off. Your words caught in your mouth when you noticed the wizard's appearance. He looked...bloodied and bruised, scratched in some places too. A stark difference from the typically noble and wise air he gave off. "Farmer, are you and your spouse okay?" He quickly asked as he checked you over.

Your eyes widened as he took your arm and looked you over. "W-We're fine..." You answered before he then walked over to Sebastion, looking over him like a worried mother hen. "Why? What's wrong? Why are you bloody?"

"Something's happened," He said. "The townspeople...they're-"

Your blood ran cold. "What happened?" Sebastion asked for the both of you.

"The townspeople-" A shrill yet guttural howl rang out through the air, interrupting the wizard and causing him to suddenly raise his hand before a strange see-through rune appeared out of thin air near the entrance into the mines.

"Why did you-"

"Half of the town is dead," The wizard said, a little bit more quietly this time. "There's some type of...virus going through the air. It's turning the townspeople into twisted versions of themselves."

Your breath caught in your throat as your mind immediately went to the monster you and your husband were just searching for a few minutes ago. "I-Is it...is it related to the-"

"No," You let a sigh of relief. "The virus is related to the Shadow people, however, that creature that you were tasked to kill may have been a variant of them."

A guttural roar from outside made all three of you jump, your heart pounding in your chest as you took Sebastion and tried to lead him to the train cart. "Well then, as fun as it is to talk to you wizard...we need to go-"

"I wouldn't recommend the train cart." He said.

Sebastion looked back. "Why?"

"Because the creatures are fast enough to keep up with a moving train cart."

You clenched your free hand, exhaling through your nose. "Then what do we do?"

"You sneak back to your farmstead. I have placed a barrier around your farm, protecting your animals and eventually you and your spouse's until you return."

"What about the monsters?"

"The barrier seems to have made the area invisible to their eye. So far, they haven't gone near."

Your attention then went to Sebastion as the prospect of sneaking back to your farm to avoid a horde of monster-turned-villagers was...frightening to say the least. Sure, you've had moments in the Mines where you've snuck past monsters and managed to somehow fool ghosts but this? You couldn't help the chill that went throughout your body, especially seeing as your spouse was going to be right there beside you. "Sebastian." You said.

Although he didn't look at you on account of looking down at the ground, his brows furrowed in thought. He at least hummed in acknowledgment of his name. "What are you thinking?" You continued.

"This is dangerous."

You scoffed, that was putting it mildly. "No kidding, but...I'm worried about you. The quickest way back to our farm is past your family's home and-"

Although you didn't continue with your sentence, Sebastion understood what you meant. You were afraid for him, you were afraid for his family and the potential happening that they were...not human anymore. You didn't wish that type of pain upon anyone, especially your husband. And if the both of you needed to take a longer, more dangerous route to hopefully keep his sanity safe. You were willing to make that sacrifice.

Eventually, Sebastion sighed. "I'm fine," He said before fully turning to you. He rubbed his hands up and down your arms. "Right now? You're my most important family, so long as you're safe? I'll live, I'll be okay."

"That's not what I meant-"

"You two," The wizard interjected gruffly. "The night wears on, it grows more dangerous by the minute and I need to try and secure as many more areas as I can. You must leave."

You both nodded in his direction before you looked back at Sebastion. "Ready?"

"No," He dryly chuckled before his hand rested on his weapon. "But, I have your back."

"Good luck you two, I'll make sure to check back in with you both in a few days."

When the wizard disappeared, so did the rune that was on the exit of the cave. Allowing you and Sebastion to quietly tiptoe out of the cave and...out into the silent night.

And by Yoba's name, it was eerie. You wanted to suspect that the Adventurer's Guild would be hustling and bustling by now, maybe Marlon would be attempting to gather as many weapons in a bid for them to be readily available for anyone who would need them. Maybe he'd be trying to make sure Gil was safe but...as you slapped a hand over your mouth to withhold a gasp, you saw the blood splatters on the ground.

Had he...

Sebastion came up behind you to gently shield your eyes away from the sight, gently urging you to keep walking. "C'mon," He whispered as the two of you made your way to the steps where the blood splatters continued to grow in frequency as well as the amount of blood that was shed until...you started to spot oddities with the blood.

On the side, there was purple blood, the stench was terrible. Like cow dung mixed with charcoal. A little further up near the curve of the path next to the bridge that lead over the small stream was a weapon, Marlon's sword no doubt, before more blood splotches started to appear again only...slowly but surely, they morphed into a more purplish color- "Hide," You whisper-yelled as you dragged Sebastion into some bushes the second you heard a deep clicking from up ahead.

Quickly the two of you crouched down, you took up the task of just barely peeking out from behind the bushes to get a good look of what was making the sound until...you saw it.

Easily, it stood as tall as a fully grown Pepper Rex and it walked on four legs like one too.

Its entire form was the shade of a raven's feather and it hulked with muscle lurking underneath its seemingly armored skin. Yet a peculiar detail to note was its lack of a mouth before your eyes trailed down to its paws where claws as long as your forearm lay, bloodied and some even having remnants of skin still stuck to the tips of them.

But...when you looked back at the face of the stalking creature.

Then you noticed the scar over one of its glowing purple eyes.

'Marlon...' You thought as your eyes started to brim with tears.

But the creature- or...Marlon didn't stay around for very long. He only looked side to side with a hiss before it stalked onwards, its thudding footsteps slowly fading away.

You and Sebastion waited a few more minutes until you finally decided it was safe enough to keep moving. Your hearts pounded in your chests as you made your way across the small bridge, each squeaky step setting off an alarm bell within you that screamed out that you were going to get caught any second. But, thankfully, the next long stretch of road was where Robin's home was.

Maybe- "Hey," Sebastion whispered before he pulled you to the side, around a corner where you both were decently hidden from sight.

"Should we stop by my mom's house? Maybe-"

"Of course," You didn't have to be convinced to see inside your in-laws house. Though, for whatever reason Sebastion wanted to, you yourself just wanted to check up on his parents and his half-sister. If everything hadn't gone to complete shit yet then...they'd still be alive and you could take them with the both of you and let them live on your farm.

"We'll need to be careful though." You sighed as your mind flashed back to Marlon, taking out your weapon.

"Y/N, they haven't-"

Your eyes narrowed. "I thought that way too, with Marlon." Sebastion huffed. "I'm keeping the weapon out," You pressed before you resumed taking the lead, your weapon out in front of you as the two of you lightly jogged until you were at Robin's house where...everything seemed to be fine.

Aside from the lights being out that is.

"Maybe they're sleeping?" You said, hopefully.

"We can go in through the garage." Without another word, your husband crouched down and tried to gently open the garage, the harsh squeaking making him and you freeze in your places for a second before he continued a little more until it was high enough for the both of you to squeeze under. But, once the two of you were in you slowly opened the door to the inside of the house.

Still, it was so eerily quiet...like death was waiting just around the corner.

"Get some food from the kitchen, I'll watch-"

"I'm fine," Sebastion said, gesturing to the sword on his hip. "I'll see if there's anything just...please, make sure my mom and sister are okay. Wake them up, anything."

You nodded your head before you walked off and looked around the house.

Your first stop was Sebastion's old room. You slowly creaked open the door and all you saw was nothing, nothing but Sebastion's old things and the smell of growing dust in the air.

So, you turned your attention to upstairs.

All before you stopped the second you heard dripping sounds upon the wooden floor. Your breath caught in your throat and your mouth went dry the second your mind immediately flipped back to Marlon and his monster-turned state, if it could happen to him then...it was obvious it could happen to anyone. But, for the sake of your husband? You prayed to whatever god was listening to you at this moment that his family hadn't experienced a similar fate.

Yet as you followed the noise all the way until you reached the end of the hallway, where you could see Robin and Demetrius' door slightly ajar. You tried to quietly tiptoe your way to the door before your jaw nearly dropped to the floor. An organ hung from the top of the door, the dripping noise being the- the blood...a gorey trail of flesh, blood, and even more intestines trailed all the way to the bed where...there Robin and Demetrius' bodies lay as a monster feasted upon whatever was still left inside of their cracked open stomachs.

What do you tell Sebastion?

Do you even tell him at all?

He couldn't know about this...you saw it in his eyes, the worry and concern he had for his sister and mother.

He'd be beyond heartbroken and you didn't think you had the strength to tell him, not right now when...maybe, j-just maybe you were seeing things. And you, oh so desperately, tried to convince yourself that you didn't see Robin and Demetrius' crops as you slowly continued to back up until you were in the kitchen once more where Sebastion was currently putting different canned foods in a backpack he must've taken out from his room.

"Did you see anything?"

You immediately tried to wash off the horror on your face. "N-Nothing," You stammered. "Just...nothing, it was dark."

As Sebastion slung the backpack over his shoulders, his brow quirked up a little. "Are you sure? You look like you saw something, you can tell me."

You shook your head again, placing your hands on his arms before you gently leaned your forehead into his chest. A heavy sigh escaped your lips as you shook your head. "No...I-I'm fine, I promise. I'm just still- I'm still thinking about e-earlier, M-Marlon and all."

"Oh," He gently rubbed his hand in a circle on your back. "Everything's going to be fine." He said. "We'll always come out on top, okay?"

Although you nodded your head to try and get him to follow you out of the house quicker, you couldn't help but doubt him just a little.

Robin and Demetrius were gone and his sister was turned.

You don't think that image would ever leave your head, those familiar traits of Maru still present despite her warped form. Like how Maru's form still had traces of that familiar purple undershirt she'd wear over her overalls or how there seemed to be cracked pieces of glass on her face, illuminated by the faint light of the moon.

However...one day you'd gain the courage to tell your husband what you really saw, for as you slowly approached the end of the path that led onto the farm.

Your only focus was making sure the two of you survived from now on.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ

Sam : "Pack Starter"

How did the apocalypse start?

A seemingly simple and straightforward question. But in truth? Depending on the person at least, it was rather broad and filled with so many possibilities, all depending on where you were personally from the start.

For some? They may have not first noticed that anything was amiss. Perhaps they were out in the woods taking a hike or maybe at home sleeping, looking at a movie rather than trying to watch the news! It would be a normal day or not until all they saw was...carnage.

Others, their start may have been more brutal. Being out in the city or in a place where a lot of people gathered was a rather "in your face" start to the end of the world. People would be screaming in terror as they ran for their lives, trampling happening at every turn as everyone would quickly turn to making sure they stayed alive and worried about other people last.

Perhaps some would take the new world and quickly decide on doing the essentials.

Rushing for weapon stores and grabbing anything that they could.

Food.

Maybe even to see their families.

All valid but...completely unlike how your introduction to the end of the world was for the apocalypse came to you last. It was peaceful in Pelican Town, about a few hours away from the nearest city! Nothing extreme happened here unless you wanted to count your trips to the Mines, the Skull Cavern, or even Louis and Marnie's not-too-secret relationship.

Of course, that was until tonight happened.

Where you were rushing door to door with Marlon after he woke you up by pounding on your front door and screaming to get up and grab your weapon.

You didn't need to be told the exact details to know that it was bad.

Despite your groggy, freshly awoken state. You made the immediate moves to barricade and secure your farm from whatever threat made Marlon's hair turn grayer than gray, but...when you had spotted one of the monsters outside of your farm. Your memory of your commission flashed back to you, of what you were supposed to do but the monster was as elusive as a slippery fish. The creature seemed to size you up and down almost, all before it slipped away and rushed to terrorize someone else.

"Fuck," You had whispered after locking the last barn door before your legs carried you back to your home to see if your husband, Sam had waken up yet. "Sam!" You cried out as you slammed the door open, expecting him to still be deeply asleep in your bed, ready to be woken up by you until...he wasn't.

Panic immediately filled your being as a cold sweat broke out on your forehead.

He was just here.

The both of you were cuddled up beside one another until you got up to open the door.

"Sam?" You went to another part of the house, upstairs this time. "Sam!? Sam! Where are you!?" You cried out. As you rushed all around the house like a headless chicken, you felt like a madperson. You were cursing at yourself, you should've checked on him first before anything else! Yet as you tried to slow yourself down and think, consider the options of where he may have gone, your mouth became dry inside of your mouth as you thought of the one place you knew he'd most likely immediately go the second anything went wrong in this town.

Home.

And with your answer, you took the extra few minutes to shuffle into clothes more suited for running rather than your bedtime clothes before you dashed in the direction of town. And when you arrived...the sight of multiple fires and the scent of ash filled your senses as you looked around.

Monsters that resembled four-legged versions of shadow people roamed the cobblestone streets. Howling in triumph as some carried bodies within their large jaws whilst others tried to scratch and claw their way into homes that seemed to be locked and barricaded securely. However, as you quickly crouched behind a bush, a creature stomped its way by.

You got the faintest peek at its claws.

Like daggers, you thought. Sharp enough to cut straight through a tree without even breaking a sweat. And as your eyes continued to tail the creature, it walked through fire without even seeming to let out a noise resembling pain.

The lava katana that you tightly gripped within your palm.

You couldn't help the slight feeling of fear that began to grip you at the thought that a powerful weapon like yours couldn't even think to burn it at the very least.

But, you shook the thought from your head as you pressed forward, sneaking down the same path you would've usually taken to get to Sam's house until you heard a shrill scream, causing you to pick up the pace every so slightly until...your stomach lurched at the sight of blood and innards.

Blood flooded the once heavenly green grass and intestines littered the streets, walls of homes and dangled from the tops of fences. Effectively turning the town into hell on earth until you finally reached the street Sam's home was on, causing you to stand up straight and- "Sam!" You screamed before you could think when you saw him kneeling, his body shaking ever so slightly here and there until you quickly slowed down when...

When you saw Jodi, her ribcage was exposed and cracked open as she was feasted upon a smaller version of the monsters you saw earlier.

Yet...you recognized that yellow and red striped shirt- or at least, the tatters of it that hung off from the creature. Its smaller yet nonetheless sharp claws bloodied as the body of Kent lied not too far away from his wife's.

"S-Sam..." You said gently, almost a whisper as you both tried to get to him first as well as not disturb the monster from its meal. "Honey, l-let's go. Please."

"Vincent..." Those were the first words he uttered, his voice shaky and clearly holding back a sob. "Vincent." He repeated.

This time, the creature looked up with a tilt of its head and a strange insect-like chitter. All before it slowly moved away from its meal and started to stalk towards Sam.

You readied your weapon, your eyes narrowing as you recognized that hunter-like crouch from similar monsters, both in the Mines and the Skull Cavern.

"B-Buddy?" Sam said, hopefully. "Vincent, we can fix this. Y-Y/N can help fix you, they know a lot of things! They can help, we can bring Mom and Dad-" Before you knew it, the monster launched itself towards Sam with a high-pitched snarl, causing you to spring into action and shove Sam aside before you swung your sword.

"NO!" You heard Sam scream from the top of his lungs, your eyes wide and your sword dripping with black blood as the monster hung off the end of your sword for a moment before...it fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

Still.

Dead.

"S-Sam." You said once the shock started to wash off from you. "Honey, that-"

Sam answered with a sharp inhale as you could've sworn his normally soft blue eyes turned red when he glared at you, tears streaming down his face before he looked back at the creature. You were about to crouch down and try to comfort your husband, make him see where you were coming from and your reason for doing what you did until...you heard snarls from the distance.

You'd have to put your emotions to the side for a little while longer.

Sam, he was allowed to be upset at you for as long as he needed to until he understood.

And until you both got out of this situation alive.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ

Shane: "Supplies"

It was a hot summer's day today. The sun was beaming down upon you and the cicadas were screaming out for water like they've never had before, but while you would have welcomed the arrival of summer in the past. Nowadays? You couldn't help the sour taste it left inside of your mouth! It was harder to grow stuff, crops were dead and there was no longer a place to readily buy season appropriate seeds.

You had to make weekly rounds back to the old supplies store just to try and keep your family of three, plus the pets alive and that alone was a trip!

The monsters that had arrived a little over a year ago were vicious, hungry creatures that spared no mercy whether or not you were a child or an adult.

Too many times did you toss and turn in your sleep at night when you remembered the scratched up and limbless body of Vincent outside of Sam's house on the night everything started, how he cried and begged for his brother to wake up despite...well...everything.

Since then, you haven't seen Sam in a while.

Or anyone else for that matter.

The town was quiet as there was nothing but abandoned buildings and homes. Everyone had already left a while ago, hoping to escape the monsters and their terror but you- well, your spouse insisted on staying, stating that the two of you had a lot to live for here and that there was no point in moving away from everything you had worked so hard for! And to a certain extent? You agreed with him, your farm and animals provided more than enough food for the both of you.

There was still plenty of supplies to be had so long as you knew where to look and every now and again? When you went to the Mines, you were able to find lost items that helped in fortifying the area around your farm just a little bit more from the creatures!

But then again-

"Y/N," A voice chirped from below. "It's hot."

"It really is, isn't it?" You agreed with a sigh before you took off your sun hat and handed it to Jas. "Maybe this will cool you down? Sorry I don't have anything better Jas," You smiled sheepishly, the little girl only smiling gratefully in return as she proceeded to put on the hat that was far too big for her then.

Then again...Jas was still here.

Marnie died at the beginning of the attack upon the town. When you had defeated the monster, Shane had rushed into the farmstead and found Jas hugging her stuffed animal in the corner crying and wondering where Marnie was, from what he told you. And although the little girl had her moments of sadness...all things considered, she was taking things well.

Her new reality with monsters and not being able to go outside as she pleased anymore, at least, beyond the boundaries of your farm, she was taking it well.

"Alright Jas, c'mon." You crouched down to allow the girl to climb onto your back before you carried her the rest of the way to Pierre's shop. It was both a way of making sure she didn't get tired as well as a way that...if something was here, you'd be able to run as fast as possible without worrying whether or not she was keeping up. But, thankfully, the two of you reached Pierre's abandoned shop without too much of an issue, causing you both to go in through the broken window you've both been using for a while now before you rummaged around the shop.

Although it was easy to take as much as you could from the store and haul it all the way back home, safely avoiding multiple trips off the farm.

You thought it would be good for Jas, now that Vincent was no longer around due to...reasons. It was good for her to get off the farm once in a while with supervision. Not to mention, after you finished your "shopping", the two of you made it a routine to go the beach if you could! Anything to hopefully keep Jas' childhood as intact as it possibly could be.

"What do you want to eat tonight?" You asked after letting out a frustrated sigh after seeing the summer seeds in the back of Pierre's supplies were all crushed.

"Pizza!"

Did you still have tomato seeds? You were growing some in your greenhouse so there wasn't too much of a fear of running out of the produce anytime soon but...

"Alright," You eventually caved in after deeming it not too much of a waste of resources to make the item.

"I think...I think pizza would also make Uncle Shane happy too."

You sucked in your bottom lip at the mention of your husband. Before everything went to hell, you and him were dating, the two of you even discussed getting married at one point! Shane was getting help for his alcohol addiction and was going to therapy regularly! Everything seemed to be going nowhere but up for him and you couldn't be happier, yet...as of lately? He had been in a stump.

There was no more therapy.

No more avenues to find a healthy substitute for drinking.

You'd never seen someone crave the taste of a beer like Shane had and it was only your luck that you had a few forgotten cans in your cellar. It was keeping him sane for now but, you worried for him. You'd have to figure something out quick, for all his hard work to be crushed just because the world decided to end at an inopportune moment...not only would it crush you, you knew deep down that it would silently crush Shane as well.

Yet, you tried shooing those thoughts away from your head as you zipped up your backpack and waved your hand for Jas to follow you. "Good idea Jas," You smiled. "I'll make you and Uncle Shane the best pizza ever!"

.

.

.

You were glad that Jas had gotten distracted by a mother hen and her chicks when the pair of you arrived back to the farm.

You planned to call her back inside when dinner was ready.

But...as you gently closed the front door behind you, your eyes trailing over the path of destruction inside your house. The worse immediately came to mind.

A monster attack possibly, but...there would've been blood and most smashed items rather than just bottles.

Shane wasn't exactly the type to leave your home a mess, he was good at cleaning to the point you joked about him being better at cleaning than yourself!

So, as you flicked on the lights downstairs. There was only one possible answer- "Where is it? Where'd they put 'em?" You could hear Shane mumbling as he searched the corners, nooks, and crannies of the cellar.

The scent of alcohol was heavy in the air as the spilled contents from the kegs were all over the ground. Shane's speech was slurred and as he moved around, not even taking the time to notice your presence, he more so limped like a shot dog than walked! You tried to cool your simmering rage, biting your lip and clenching your fists as you wanted to scream every possible curse word in the book at him.

He destroyed weeks' worth of supplies.

Ruined the house.

Ruined your hard work in this cellar...

All for a drink.

"Shane," You said.

No response.

"Shane." You said again as you slowly began to make your way to him.

Still, he didn't dare to give you a response. Not until you stormed the rest of the way to the man and slapped a hand on his shoulder to get him to pay attention to you. "Shane!" You screamed into his ear, your chest heaving up and down as tears brimmed your eye line."

"H-How could you?! Our- my hard work...everything, why-"

Shane grumbled as he half-hazardly pushed you away. "Where did you put it?"

"What?"

"The rest of the drinks, I need a beer."

"Shane, please." You begged as you followed him around the room, both trying to control your surging temper as well as to get his attention. "Fucking goddamn listen to me!" You roared, your hand grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to turn around.

"Why, fucking goddamn tell me why you did all this!?"

"I need a drink." He repeated, slower than last time.

"You already tore into my kegs!? How much more do you need?!"

He didn't respond, going back to ignoring you but instead opting to go upstairs.

It seems that the end of the world had taken more from you in this very moment than anything else had in your entire life. Supplies, as well as a partner you thought you'd call your husband one day.

[sotteoks]

Just Touch | 🔞

──★ ˙pairing: Kihyun x Fem!Reader ──★ ˙warnings/contents: SMUT, p*rn with just a crumb of a plot, a tiny bit of angst at the end, established relationship, friends with benefits trope, lowkey toxic relationship tbh, soft dom!kihyun, sub!reader, some cockwarming at the beginning, slight overstimulation, light dirty talk, like a sprinkle of dacryphilia, let's assume reader is on some form of contraception bc of the multiple creampies and orgasms, ... please let me know if i missed anything ! ⸜ (｡˃ ᵕ ˂) ⸝ ──★ ˙word count: 2.5k ──★ ˙summary: the boundaries of your relationship with Kihyun always seem to get a little blurry in the heat of the moment. ──★ ˙ a/n: chances of this story having a second part are highly likely. i just need time to brainstorm. keke

When the night is over, where are you going?

It’s a simple arrangement, really. There’s a mutual understanding that no love is involved so there shouldn’t be any sadness when the two of you part. Emphasis on shouldn’t. Though Kihyun knows that neither of you have any romantic obligations toward each other, he does hate the way that he can’t ask you to stay for anything longer than a couple hours. It’s not like he wants you to stay the night because he wants to fall asleep in your arms and wake up to your beautiful face then make breakfast after some tender and slow morning sex. 

Absolutely not. 

That would be crossing into territory that both of you know better than to explore.

Kihyun just hates that as soon as the two of you finish the deed, you run away from him like the two of you weren’t good friends prior to deciding to add some fun benefits to your relationship. You were like Cinderella, running off before the clock hit midnight and always leaving something behind as if you were asking him to chase after you. 

But tonight, he was going to try and keep you around for as long as possible. Even if it was just a few seconds longer than usual.

“We’ve been at it like rabbits and you’re still horny?” You tease Kihyun, albeit a little breathless as his lips press light kisses along the expanse of your chest. At the sound of your words, you feel his lips curve into a subtle smile against your skin. Peeking up at your face through his lashes almost demurely like the gorgeous human he was, Kihyun notices how radiant you managed to look with your makeup streaked and smeared in your post orgasm haze. Just the sight of you in your current state made his cock twitch as it remained buried within your sensitive pussy; pulsing ever so slightly around his length as you were trying to calm down. You lost the energy to keep your legs wrapped around Kihyun’s waist a while ago, but it seems like he’s unphased by that and intended on making himself a home between your spread legs anyway.

“You just feel so good.” Kihyun murmurs in response. His kisses had finally wandered up along your neck and jaw until his plush lips were gently brushing against yours as he wondered if kissing you during sex like this was an act of intimacy he could engage in with you. Not even five minutes ago, he had filled you with his seed; why was there so much debate on whether or not he was able to kiss you on the lips just because of the nature of your relationship?

Before Kihyun could fall victim to his habit of overthinking, the sensation of your walls easing up on him and making it possible for him to move again grounds him back into the moment. Sitting up straight and creating some distance between the two of you, fingers clad in silver rings are digging into the meat of your thighs as he pulls your lower half flush against his hips. As your body slides against the sheets toward him, a small yelp of surprise escapes you at the aggressive action.

The first few thrusts start off slow, but incredibly deep; making your eyes roll back as you feel Kihyun fucking his previousload deeper into you and it’s almost like a knee jerk reaction for you to throw your arms around his shoulders to satiate this overwhelming desire to be close to him once more. Your walls once again start to clench around him trying to hold him in place however it only encourages Kihyun to pick up the pace as a countermeasure to the way you just kept sucking him back in. 

“So cute,” He comments with a sly smirk as he starts to piston into you. “It’s almost like your pussy doesn’t want me to leave.” 

“Just shut up and fuck me.” You groan out, feeling your face start to heat up in embarrassment which prompts you to shyly avert your gaze elsewhere.

It was as clear as day that Kihyun had some stake over your body if every time he called you to come over and fuck, you would literally drop what you were doing. A measly kiss from him was literally all it took to ignite the flames of lust and get you hot and bothered for him. 

But of course, that was something you wouldn’t admit to out loud; the physical reaction he was able to elicit from you should have provided him enough gratification.

However, when it came to you Kihyun tended to become a bit greedy. Being just friends stopped being enough at one point. Then sneaking around having quickies whenever you saw each other at social events didn’t cut it. Currently, Kihyun was in the process of deciding what to ask of you next since having you come over to hook up on the regular was slowly starting to feel stale. Not because the sex was getting boring, the sex itself was amazing, but there was just something missing from the relationship.

The rough thrusts keep coming as Kihyun loves the way your body responds to it. In the moment, it warms his insides with this sense of pride knowing how much you loved the way he fucked you. From the way obscene moans you can’t control pour from your lungs and how you let out little whimpers of his name to the way your tits bounce with every snap of his hips against yours or how your eyes watered whenever you were about to cum; it was all the encouragement he needed to fuck you until the sun came up. When you dig your nails into his shoulder blades the same time he changes the angle of his thrusts, the tip of his cock pressing against your g-spot, it’s like a nice extra treat to him.  

“A-ah, fuck!” You cry out, squirming about and whining as Kihyun’s hips move rapidly with precision; continuously stimulating that sensitive spot within you until you feel tears pricking the corners of your eyes. Through your slightly blurred vision and your hazy brain, you can see Kihyun looking down on you with a smug grin on his face. 

He knows you’re gonna cum again. And he knows your orgasm is building up significantly faster than the last few he blessed you with. He even knows that you’re trying oh so hard to stave off your climax; your body could never lie to him.

“Cum for me.”

Three simple words posed as a demand is all it takes for you to come undone again, your nails raking across Kihyun’s flawless skin and leaving bright red scratches in their wake. Your walls clamp down on his fat cock for the third time tonight, trying to milk for all its worth; but Kihyun’s desire to be with you just a bit longer outweighed his want to cum. 

You hope that Kihyun isn’t too far behind and he’ll finally give you a break. But his movements are relentless and don’t seem to falter one bit despite your pussy desperately trying to hold him in place as he fucks you through your orgasm. Your head is so clouded, it’s hard to get anything out besides broken moans and whimpers. Struggling to find the words to express what you wanted, salty tears stain your cheeks as the sensitivity really sets in; but it barely registers in your mind that you’ve started to cry as you can only focus on the sensation of Kihyun rearranging your insides. Every drag of his cock against your walls sends you stumbling toward another fast, mind-numbing crescendo of bliss. 

“Is it too much for you, baby?” He leans in just to whisper into your ear, grounding you back in reality. You’re suddenly aware of the soaked sheets beneath you. The lewd squelching sounds paired with the sound of Kihyun’s balls slapping against your ass fill the room like some kind of sinful white noise. It’s all so erotic and stimulating, it becomes very clear as to why you filtered the sounds out of your mind. 

“Answer me.” He commands you as one of his hands leaves your thigh to find your clit, the pad of his thumb pressing against the small bundle of nerves and causing your inner thighs to involuntarily tremble every time he applies pressure.  

“Just hurry up and cum.” You whine, feeling your eyes to start to water again. Even in this state of being lust drunk, you know that the words you just uttered aren’t going to do it for Kihyun. “Please, cum inside.” You hastily add on. 

It wasn’t often that you begged for Kihyun. You knew he had a weakness for it but you rarely exploited it to your advantage; even if the little devil on your shoulder constantly encouraged it. 

The movement of Kihyun’s hips fall out of rhythm and become more erratic as your words seem to be enough to push toward the edge. As worn out as you were, watching Kihyun on the brink of an orgasm was something you could never tire of. Head tilted back with soft groans falling past his plush lips as he gets closer and closer until it’s like a dam bursts within him. The most melodic moan leaves him as hips stutter, filling you up with his cum once more. And much to your surprise, watching him orgasm was enough to make you climax for the last time tonight; perfectly in time with the moment you felt the first spurt of his seed splash against your walls. 

Your plans to make a hasty getaway were shattered as you remained under Kihyun, letting yourself be completely carried away by the waves of your intense finish. Finally pulling out of you after what seemed like eons, Kihyun lays down and fills the space on the mattress beside you. A quick glance at the clock on his nightstand lets him know it’s half past one in the morning.

With how tired your body was, you didn’t feel like moving too fast but the mere action of you trying to sit up prompts Kihyun to reach out to you and pull you in to cuddle with him. The layer of perspiration that once covered both your bodies had now dried down to this sticky atrocity, and factoring in the mixture of your cum and Kihyun’s cum decorating your thighs, to say you were uncomfortable would be an understatement. Wriggling out of his hold, you quickly get up into a seated position but remain in the same spot on the bed.  

“What are you doing?” You question him, feeling equal parts confused and annoyed by the clingy behavior he’d been exhibiting all evening. 

“Stay the night with me.” He tells you like it was the most simple thing in the world. 

But it wasn’t.  You could admit that there were some things that you did that blurred the lines of your relationship. Just like how right now, Kihyun was doing something that made the agreement more difficult than it needed to be. It was mutually agreed that if things strayed outside of those boundaries, your only two options were to try and sort it out or call it quits. Yet the two of you just loved to dance around those fine lines and see how much you could get away with before things came crashing down. 

“You know I can’t do that.” You respond as you finally get up and start searching the floor for your clothes.

“We have a relationship based on sex. You think having sex all night is too romantic?” Kihyun laughs, getting up as well and walking over to his dresser to pull out a fresh pair of boxers and sweatpants then quickly throwing the garments on. 

As you pick up the pieces of your outfit you had been wearing before it was hastily pulled off your body upon arriving, Kihyun’s words cause you to freeze in place; taking a moment to not only process what he said, but also think of how to respond. He laughed, so it makes you think he’s joking for a bit. But you also know that he loves to give you a hard time and joke with you as an attempt to lighten the mood during touchy situations. 

You dwell on what he said a bit longer as you take time to redress yourself before you turn around to face Kihyun; finding him stripping the sheets off of his bed.

“I think...” You start off slowly, trying to piece together the ideas in your head. “You secretly want the intimacy of having me as your girlfriend but there’s something holding you back from pursuing a real relationship with me.”

For a minute, you think you have Kihyun figured out. Then you realize you know you have him figured out because prior to this, you considered him your best friend. He wasn’t just a hot stranger you met somewhere and decided to pursue a physical relationship with. You knew every detail of all his past relationships, why they didn’t work out and what standards he had set for future relationships. Despite knowing a bunch of fun facts about him, how he reacted in certain situations, you couldn’t figure out exactly what it was that hindered him from dating you.

“Nice try, but that’s not it.” He scoffs, sounding like he was trying to convince himself of something more so than you as he busied himself with getting new bedding out of the storage closet and dressing his bed in fresh sheets.

You did know that he would deny what you said; which is exactly why you were reluctant to voice your thoughts out loud.

“We used to be friends, you know?” He reasons, continuing to avoid looking at you while he shoved one of his pillows into a clean pillowcase. “You’re always in a rush to leave like you don’t wanna hang out with me if we’re not fucking.”

There aren’t any lies in his statement. In fact, it would be an even bigger, fatter lie to say that you actually did want to hang out with him as just a friend after how intimate the two of you were. In your defense, it felt like it should have been obvious why you couldn’t stick around like he wanted.

Rather than try to explain to him why you felt the way you did since you know...Feelings weren’t really a part of your arrangement with him, you bid Kihyun goodbye and see yourself out without another word. 

Even if the night ended on a slightly awkward note tonight, Kihyun would call you again. You would end up in his bed. And the two of you would have this conversation over and over until one of you realized that things could not continue like this if you truly wanted to keep seeing each other in any shape or form. 

Until then, the single bobby pin you left behind this time would suffice as a conversation starter for when he wanted to see you again.

[mightbesmall]

No, Bad Pets!

Genre: Fluff, Crack.

Characters: Most students.

Warnings: Swearing, weird creature flirting.

Summary: You… turned into a pet?

Additional Notes: Based on this post by twst-drabbles on Tumblr, love their house pet au, janitor au and- their work in general tbh.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The most angriest, low but somehow high at the same time, chirps were heard. Crowley was sweating buckets at this tiny creature that could fit in one hand. It was trying to look intimidating and it achieved that, Mr Crowley was shaking in his ridiculously expensive boots.

This small, angry creature is you. 

You see, you were chasing down some entitled prick who drive his motorbike riiight next to your house despite the obvious signs and spooked Azul and the Tweels'. You quickly calmed them down, placed them in wet towels for extra comfort and went outside. The jerk was looping back 'round the neighbourhood so you took your chance. Which leads to a few moments ago, you cornered and scolded the biker whilst pointing to the big, bold and blaring signs that clearly say "NO VEHICLES." He saw a Crowley storming out of his mansion so as a distraction of sorts, the asshole NPC blasted a spell right at your face. It was as if time stopped, Crowley certainly did.

A puff of smoke appeared as the biker scattered off somewhere, the oldies will certainly deal with him.

"Caretaker?" Crowley called out as the smoke cleared, where you stood was... nothing. "Huh?" The scattered brained male looked left, then right before down when he heard a piercing chirp that somewhat sounded like you somehow. 

"Great Sevens!" He cried as in place of you was a small, cute harpy... or a siren? He cannot really tell. You actually bore a lot of resemblance to the caladrius with your snow white feathers and comforting aura, despite the threatening chirps and squawks.

Anyways you were tiny yet you have already bitten Crowley thrice, he is now bleeding a tad. He just wanted to bring you to your house and figure it out from there but you were making it quite difficult!

...

He bribed you with food. As soon as he even uttered the first few syllables of your favourite food, you were chilling on his shoulder as docile as a mouse, apart from that squawk that he just knew was you telling him to hurry up. 

He barely got through your front door before a certain siren swooped in and snatched you off of his shoulders. He quickly followed you two to the front room where what Crowley can only describe as a council meeting was happening. All the pets were in the same room, how rare. Even the tweels' were on their little skateboards while Azul was perched on your coffee table. Spray bottles at the ready. 

Vil gently placed you down before setting beside you. Crowley took a seat on the chair. 

You chirped rather harshly at Floyd who was starting to glide towards you. He shrunk back in surprise before giving a toothy little grin. Jade chirped in a way that sounded like laughter.

Vil cooed at you, lightly brushing his wings against your rather pretty ones. You were rather beautiful for a harpy, though once upon a time they were known as elegant and refined creatures, not as much as sirens though but you get the idea.

Ace marched up to you with Deuce trailing behind him. They couldn't get that close before Vil squawked at them before resuming grooming you. Huh. It felt quite nice, you almost became putty in his talons. 

Ace huffed defiantly, stomping his foot before Cater dragged him back a bit. Deuce took some rather hesitant steps towards you, not wanting to disrupt Vil's hard work. He then plopped in front of you, with some soft chirps. What a sweetheart, keeping his voice low as to not hurt your most definitely sensitive hearing. He can relate, a new body isn't fun to your senses. 

Trey has a similar approach, he even offered you a seed. How... intimate. It's a clover seed and all. 

And so 36 minutes passed with Vil combing through your new feathers, highlighting your beauty and chatting with the others. Mainly Trey, Deuce, Jack and Epel. Vil wouldn't allow anyone else close. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were flattered but Riddle had to stop. You do not want to hang out in his rose, you made yourself a pretty nice nest on your bed thank you very much. You chirped at him, it came out like a little coo, and gently rejected his offer. 

He wilted, very much pouty. But with his prideful nature, he stopped insisting and instead gave a little nod. You sighed as best you could with your tiny lungs and flapped your wings twice before you took off. You gently picked Riddle up, being mindful of your claws, and flew him to your room. Not caring for the way he shrieked and gripped your legs.

You hope he enjoyed your nest, it was mighty comfortable and you didn't want to share. Just this once though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another sandstorm, caused by a certain spirit. Leona was flying overhead displaying a beautiful masterpiece of his hard work. It was a rare sight to behold, oh and the art as well. 

When he was finished, the sand art dropped to the floor gracefully, showcasing its beauty. He then turned to you with a proud chuff, waiting for praise. You raised a brow at him before giving a small, drawled coo of approval. Bad idea, he practically inflated from the ego boost. 

You rolled your eyes at him, little attention seeker.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were starting to see a pattern here.

Azul was trying to drag you to his cave. You can’t quite breathe in the water and he seems to forget that. As of right now Azul only succeeded in having you dip a claw in the tank. You chirped at him.

He understood now. He huffed and pouted in annoyance, even more so when Jade and Floyd started to laugh and cackle at him. He then took off to his cave before swimming back and produced a shiny golden coin to you. He seemed rather proud of himself when you inspected it. You didn’t take it though, instead you rolled your eyes before giving him a forehead kiss. Oh how he loved affection.

The tweels’ started to chirp in jealousy so you quickly took off before they could try nipping at you. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jamil was cuddling up to you, you were wrapped in his tail. You couldn’t fly away, not that you would anyways. Affection from Jamil wasn’t that common. He had you in a secure grip, though it doesn’t hurt. 

You gave a tired coo that the naga replied with a soft hiss. He was making sure you fell asleep here. In his bed. Wrapped up in his tail and his arms. You would’ve found it amusing if you weren’t just so tired, Kalim came over and was all over you. 

You swear you would’ve exploded from him trying to feed you crackers if it weren’t for Silver stepping in. God bless his beautiful soul.

Your eyes were starting to droop when you felt Jamil hiss. The little plant nymphs were back and trying to nab you from his clutches. Unfortunately you don’t exactly trust Ace to be careful with your feathers and you didn’t want Cater or Riddle to fuss over you so as soon as Jamil’s grip lessened, you flew up in a flurry of feathers. Off to your bed you go. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was nice. Vil was behaving like normal, performing his elegant dances to you like usual but you couldn’t help but have an inkling feeling that he was putting extra effort in this one.

What a minute…

You gave him a dead eyed stare. He paid no mind and continued on with his prancing and display of his tail feathers. He then finished and was about to fly off when you gave a chirp. It was one that read, I am fed up with this bullshit. Vil was quite offended, thinking you disliked his dance, so he turned to you only for you to give another chirp.

 Oh.

So the others tried their hand at trying to seduce you as well, no matter. Vil is confident that he will be the best suitor, you two are similar in species and he is of course the most beautiful. 

You huffed before lightly whacking him with your wing and flew off, on your way to bother Crowley. It was feeding time for everyone after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What a pretty sight.

The display of rainbow lights reflected quite well off of your white feathers, enhancing your curious but adorable situation. 

Idia was giving it his all, choosing the most vibrant colours, making sure to dazzle you. He made sure to really give his all when it was your favourite colour, illuminating the pond with the vibrant and wonderful colour.

Not too bright to flash bang you but bright enough to light the whole place up.

You just sat there, admiring the pretty colours as one does before patting Ortho on the head. He was snuggled up next to you. Idia should be mad that someone stole your attention away from him but it was Ortho so he’ll allow it. 

He turned to you, waiting. You gave a little hum before curling up with Ortho, who had found his way on your lap and is now enjoying you wrapping your wings around him. You were like a big blanket, very comfy.

Idia deflated a little at the lack of attention but it was Ortho… he soon joined you two as well. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You let out an undignified squawk. Malleus, the little devil, just picked you up out of your nest and flew off. He was taking you to his nest. While you have admitted to it looking comfortable, you’d much rather be in your own nest. You were in the middle of napping as well.

He plopped you down before sitting next you, clearly pleased with himself if his smile was anything to go by. 

You rolled your eyes before averting them to Sebek who was at the base of the tree. Conflicted. He doesn’t know if he should start yelling at you for being in the same nest as Malleus or leave you be because you are in the same nest as Malleus. You just raised a brow at him.

Lilia flew over before plopping down on a close branch, making it his duty to mess up your newly groomed tail feathers. You whacked him in the face, chirping at him when he started to laugh and mess up you wings.

Malleus meanwhile was just watching it all unfold, very much amused. He blew a small puff of fire in front of you, finding pleasure in the way you didn’t even flinch but instead gave him a narrowed eye stare. You weren’t mad but more so questioning as to why? He just gave a smile in response, covering your wings with his own.

Little shit. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were finally alone, Ace thought as he snuck into your room only to receive the jumpscare of his life when he saw Cater, Deuce and Trey dog piled on top of you. Cater turned to him before giving a shit eating grin, relishing in the way you patted his head. 

Deuce and Trey also turned to him. The little lily nymph giving him a deadpanned stare before sticking his tongue out and went back to napping on you. Trey however gave Ace an ominous look before slowly shaking his head and turned away. Ace rolled his eyes, these guys can’t keep you to themselves, he wants attention too!

It then dawned on him that someone needs to attend to Riddle and the garden still. He gave the three a heated glare before giving you his best puppy eyes, he’s seen them work for others so he might as well try. You were not impressed and just, laid there. It was then that Ace knew he can’t get out of this. 

So begrudgingly, he sulked back outside. Next time he swears! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He snuck back into your room, the other nymphs are busy so he can have all your attention on him. 

He entered your room only to be severely annoyed. There was Ruggie and Jack, napping away with you lightly scratching their scalps. 

Ruggie opened his eyes before nudging Jack, both of them staring at the nymph at the doorway. You also looked up, not looking impressed in the slightest. 

He huffed before storming out, he couldn’t push his way into the napping circle as Ruggie will get him back and Jack honestly kinda scares him. He fears you most though, doesn’t want you to be mad at him. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He swears he’s going to start hitting something.

Ace once again invaded your room only to find you missing, he searched high and low before sneaking his way into the only place he hasn’t checked: the Octavinelle tank. Low and behold, you were sitting at the edge of the tank with Jade and Floyd squeezing you. Not to hard but just enough to restrict any movement. 

He didn’t even bother to linger, those two scared him shitless. 

Next time for real this time. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Never has he felt the immense urge to beat a human since he first met you. Kalim wasn’t even in the garden this time!

The rich boy was pampering you in love and care, it was heartwarming to see but dammit when will he get a turn?!

You were just sitting there, waiting for Kalim to finish to probably nap. He was presenting tiny clothing for you, an assortment of wondrous food and sparkling jewellery. You know just rich kid things. 

Ace sighed in defeat and wandered off, ready for his next attempt. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And once again he was beaten. By a dryad and a creepy Frenchman no less. You were sitting on Rooks lap, combing your taloned hands through Epel’s hair, a bit like how Vil would. The fancy lad you were using as a chair was almost vibrating in excitement, gushing about how he’s never seen such a beautiful and exquis harpy before! He tried brushing his fingers along your wings but you bit him, he only chuckled at that before fanboying about such a display of strength and power, making you look oh so féroce!

The dryad was humming in content, he would hate for anyone to touch his hair to make him look cute or whatever but it feels real nice when it’s you. His little branches were swaying lightly in content. How precious.

The forgotten nymph only sighed deeply before turning and walking away, missing Epel’s teasing smirk. 

He is going to cry. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He walked into another cuddle pile, didn’t even need to invade your room to find you. 

You, Silver, Sebek and Lilia were all having a nice nap on the sofa in the front room. Sebek was even curled up into you.

It was unfortunately so heartwarming, Ace had to step out in defeat lest he puke from how fluffy it is in there. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ace will commit mass murder.

You were even cuddling with the weird cat before him! The weirdo was even purring as you laid on his back.

You two had an intense battle as he tried to eat you before you swooped down and hit him on the nose. You two then got too tired to continue so you just napped. 

At this point Ace was losing hope in being able to have your sole attention. A shame really. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The nymph was all depressed and sighing a lot as he tended to his duties. It annoyed Deuce so he kept his distance. 

There was then distant chirps, Ace thought it was just Vil before something swooped in and grabbed him causing him, Deuce, Trey, Cater and even Riddle to panic. There was a long coo that calmed them all down, it was only you. Wait it was you!

Ace was so happy he could finally get your attention on him and only him. He didn’t even notice that you bought him to your room before you dropped him into your nest, sitting down beside him. 

It was cuddle time, something Ace has never felt so excited before in his life.

[alarrytale]

I couldn´t help myself but when I heard/read what Shawn said about his sexuality, my mind immediately jumped to what H said 2 years ago about his sexuality. I mean their words are similar, the only difference is that H between the lines said he figured it out already (and it´s no secret for his family and friends) while Shawn´s words sounds more like he´s experiencing with it. And I can´t help myself but it reminds he how B*llie E*lish came out just before her new promo started (or maybe it was already her promo season, idk) and kind of made it her whole personality which is fine until she later said she regrets it now. So I won´t be suprised if this seeding that Shawn is queer started right now before his (delayed) album release and it will become his personality as well and tbh I find his latest posts as hinting as well and I think he might be in a relationship with Mike Sabath? Anyway I hope his mental health struggle will be over with this soft hint of coming out and won´t stunt with women again ´cause idk....like yeah, bisexuality exists but what is the point of realizing your sexuality but keep stunting dating the opposite sex.

Hi, anon!

Yes, there are similararities between Harry's statements and Shawn's. The difference is that H is going for a mysterious image, where he doesn’t want to be forthcoming with his sexuality, while Shawn is frank about being in a process of trying to figuring things out.

If this is the start of seeding for Shawn then it's a good start. He's doing a lot right now to put the spotlight on his queer presentation and being close and tactile with men.

I hope this will help his mental health and make things easier for him. I hope he doesn’t have to have more beards and PR relationships.

And that's a good point anon, if the narrative is that you're figuring out your sexuality you can’t only date women. He needs to experiment in order to figure it out. So that's a set up for Shawn dating a man.

[featheredadora]

hello! hope you're having a nice day

i have been interested in keeping a pet canary for a bit, but i don't know about any good care guides for them, do you perhaps know one? (it's aight if you don't or if it's too much information to write)

Hi there!

I think canaries are wonderful and really sweet little birds, so it is nice to hear people appreciating them!

That said, I'm afraid I don't really have a specific guide to point you to, sorry! I remember before I got Sunshine for my nan I spent a few months reading just a ton of different guides about canaries (I found it quite overwhelming combing through so much info tbh) but that was more than three years ago now, so I don't really remember which resources I found particularly helpful.

In any case, if you are interested in some thoughts from me personally, I've put some stuff beneath the cut:

In terms of info I have from my personal experience (you might already know all of this, sorry), a lot of the care is not dissimilar to other kinds of birds. Sunshine eats a diet of canary seed mix, superfine pellets, and a range of veggies (he in particular likes to have a piece of tenderstem brocolli clipped up every day. But he also loves romaine lettuce, and chop made from kale, peppers, carrots etc).

Cage-wise, the bigger the better, with an emphasis on length over height - but super important to get very small bar spacing, because canaries are so small that there is a risk of them getting their heads stuck otherwise. Lots of natural perches of differing widths too, and I would personally include a flat perch as well, for variety.

But my experience with Sunshine has also been different from my other birds in lots of ways too! My other birds like to stay out of their cages basically all day, whereas Sunshine prefers to stay in his cage for the bulk of the day. He asks to be let out (usually just a couple of times a day) and will then fly and play around the room for a while, but he then returns to his cage and is happy to play about in there for a bit.

In terms of toys, I have heard that canaries 'don't really play with toys', but this hasn't been my experience with Sunshine. He needs lighter, easier toys though - his favourites are a string of sola wood discs, a paper pinata toy, and a willow ball stuffed with crinkle paper which he likes to pull out.

I've also found that his nails grow a LOT faster than my other birds, so we take him to the vet for a nail trim every few months (if you can do this yourself at home, that's probably better, but Sunshine gets super stressed out if ever we try to grab him). Oh and one last thing, he LOVES having baths. More than any other bird I've known. Annoyingly, Sunshine refuses to use a proper bird bath and will only use his water pot (so I have to clean and refresh it multiple times per day), but I would still say getting a nice little bath for your friend is important!

So yeah, sorry I couldn't be of more help! As with any bird, the best possible advice I can give is to get them registered with a good avian vet for their regular check ups, and also to make sure your house is bird proof (safe for them during out-of-cage time, but also safe from items which could give off fumes, like spray deodorant, candles, most non-stick cooking stuff, etc).

This ended up being both super long, and super basic, sorry! But in any case, thank you for giving me chance to talk a bit about Sunshine (who I love and adore), and I hope you and your future little friend will be really happy together!

[thelustybraavosimaid]

It always surprises (and annoys tbh) me that Jonrya is consider a crack ship on the same level of Jonsa when it's obviously something that George has thought about and been watering the seeds for. I don't think it's guaranteed to happen but the groundwork for it is obviously still there and it's crazy that people just ignore it. Them being close is always the excuse for why it won't happen as though that wasn't George's intention in his outline, and that could still be the plan

Yes.

Jonrya is not "Jonsa with another sister."

Jonrya has actual contextual evidence.

I really want someone to look at me in my (virtual) face and tell me that Jonrya is a crackship when we have:

*excessive longing. (too many to name, but my favourite is: oh my god, look at my hideous burnt hand. I really wish I could touch Arya's hair right now, but I can't, and now I'm sad [Jon II, ACoK])

*"I am her home!" (Jon XI, ADwD)

*"she is my heart!" (Jon VI, ADwD)

*comparisons between potential lovers (there are five passages I can name off the top of my head, but know that Arya does this with Gendry and Jon does it with Ygritte)

Also a friend pointed it out to me a while ago, but One-eyed Yna speaking about The Sailor's Wife wanting to search for her lover and praying to gods to get him back is pretty curious since it could very well easily apply to Jon.

"She thinks that if she finds the right god, maybe he will send the winds and blow her old love back to her," said one-eyed Yna, who had known her longest, "but I pray it never happens. Her love is dead, I could taste that in her blood. If he ever should come back to her, it will be a corpse." (Cat of the Canals, AFfC)

*"you will marry a king, Arya" + king foreshadowing for Jon + "different roads lead to the same castle" (too many passages to apply here)

*"bastards gets the swords but not the arms"

*"I want my bride back"

*THE ORIGINAL FUCKING OUTLINE, WHOSE BEATS ARE STILL IN THE FUCKING STORY

Etc!!!

There's so many seeds. Too many seeds to ignore imo. What is there for Jonsa? Jonsas see this and say "Arya is mentioned, but it's Jonsa foreshadowing in disguise," which is...fucking wild to me. Jonryas literally don't have to do that. The importance Jon and Arya have to one another is not something I have to make up.

Of course, I can't say for sure that George is going to go through with this. But for real? If he wants to take it there, he's got more than enough foreshadowing to make it happen, captain.

[jeanmoreaux]

top 9 books

tagged forever ago by @doctorsrose & @rosesau (🫶🫶🫶)

tagging: @lvnchs | @permanentreverie | @tolerateit | @speaknowtv | @henwilsons | @newtmsa | @greenribon | @brimay | @hollyfhumberstone | @tbosas | @alinastarkovz (ofc no pressure <3 would love to hear about your fav books in whatever way you wanna share and if you don't then that's okay too!)

rules: list your top 9 books obviously. like the people before me and probably most people who did this i cheated and put series or several books by the same author as one thing bc rules are made for breaking <3 this is very much both an 'off the top of my head' as well as a 'laboured over this for hours' kind of list that's heavily biased to the present moment.

(1.) all for the game by nora sakavic; i don't even know what to say about this. either you read it and Get why this is on my list or you Don't. and if you haven't read it this is not a recommendation btw. this is just me saying these books did irreparable damage to my developing teenage brain. hit me like no other series probably ever will again because i read this at the Right Time while being the exact right amount of Insane. and just like seed mentioned in her list if you want to know Me and Understand Me then you need to know this series. i am sure there are traces of it in my dna by now.

(2.) the raven cycle by maggie stiefvater; same goes for this one tbh. if you want to know Me and Understand Me then you need to know this series. another instance of Right Time and Right Me. these books burrowed themselves deep into my bones and became a part of my dna. they shaped soo much of my taste in prose, storytelling techniques, tropes, and dynamics. this story and these characters took me apart and put me back together again but rearranged some essential parts inside of me. much like with aftg, i came out of this series irreversibly changed and drenched in blood final girl style.

(3.) frankenstein by mary shelley; a beautifully written story with soooo much room for whatever literary lens you want to apply to it. i know i answered an ask once where i talked about my love for this book in detail but i can't find it. but i found this rant on frankenstein and the creature. i think a lot of my love for this story comes from the fact that i had the chance to work closely with the text several times. but also it's just a heart-wrenching tale about how we define humanity and how love is essential nourishment for the soul. it reminds me of that one quote from the good place: "people improve when they get external love and support. how can we hold it against them when they don’t?" because frankenstein basically answers the question what happens when someone gives you a life you didn't ask for and then opts out of any (emotional) responsibility and leaves you desolate and utterly forsaken.

(4.) the green bone saga by fonda lee; an epic family saga i still think about A Lot. kinda succession without logan but make it fantasy mafia. sibling relationships are a big part of this story too. which if you know me. big fan of that. it's also a series that grows in scope (world building wise) and keeps adding complexity So Naturally it's impressive. amazing storytelling craft at work fr. definitely an underhyped series in my opinion.

(5.) the sword of kaigen by m.l. wang; another fantasy story focusing on family dynamics but also functioning as a character study. it's a self-published work and it shows in the BEST way. there's just something about it that makes me insane one a storytelling level because it breaks so many conventions and you either hate that or love that but no matter your opinion on it i think it's undeniable that this book has some of the best character work written in recent years. i desperately need to reread.

(6.) on earth we’re briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong; another book that fucked me up with its beautiful prose and incredibly gut-wrenching emotional honesty. it really feels like you're reading about someone ripping out the most vulnerable and messed up and complex parts of their soul and laying them bare for you to see expecting nothing but acknowledgement in return. and while my own lived experience is nothing close to ocean vuong's the emotional core of this book rings so true. also i just have to say it again. the prose fucks severely.

(7.) the grisha trilogy & the six of crows duology by leigh bardugo; another (two) series i read in my teens that shaped my taste to a drastic degree. the crows are just forever ingrained in my brain. alina's story will forever fuck me up. you all know. you all understand. w're not getting into it. i think the fact that tgt is so misunderstood and undervalued just makes me love it more. because if you get it. damn. devastating. if you don't. so sorry for you because you're missing out.

(8.) the song of achilles & circe by madeline miller; tbh both of these retellings did something to my brain. you all know these i don't have to elaborate. it's very typical queer of me to fawn over anything to do with greek mythology and retellings but. these two just HIT different. also, the prose? makes me a little insane.

(9.) giovanni’s room by james baldwin; this book has some of the most insane prose i have ever read. baldwin's grasp on language is uncanny fr. every other sentence packs a punch in one way or another. he manages to capture some aspects of the queer (specifically the bi) experience in a way that felt so familiar to me and put words to so many of my internal experiences. it's about the self and identity and being lost and refusing to let yourself be found. it's also about human connections and how you'll wither when you deny yourself to open up to the people closest to you. it's about so many things without being about one think in particular. like all the other books on this list, love and belonging are at the core of it, but in a very distorted way. i don't think you can really understand unless you've read it. it's So Good.

honorable mentions; emma by jane austen (cunty women RULE), wuthering heights by emily brontë (severely fucked up in the most entertaining way. that's how you write drama.) east of eden by john steinbeck (cain and abel shit and deranged women? sign me up), these violent delights by micah nemerever (be gay do crime in the most mentally ill way possible), if we were villains (love it when characters haunt a narrative. also definitely a book about the gay sex that is not happening), women in love by d.h. lawrence (still currently making my way through this one but it's so deliciously messed up and queer i am almost certain it will leave a permanent mark)

[sanderssidesthehouse]

I'm going to try pumping out the next chapter tomorrow, but I don't want to make any promises. I have somehow become a person who does things and it's been really good for my mental health but it means I've been writing less (plus this chapter was already kicking my ass). Part of what's been taking so long is that by necessity I've been writing this chapter in congruence with a future Royality chapter to make sure everything is cohesive bc they have their own subplot going on (that I cannot tell you about yet) and I'm trying to work it in naturally. I have only planted a single seed so far and tbh I don't think anyone noticed it, but the foreshadowing will get more obvious as time goes on and there's plenty of time before the pay off.

When I do update next I'll be giving you two chapters bc the one after this one is ready and has been since a few chapters ago. The majority of it was written before the fic went on pause so it's been around a while and just required some updated interaction.

I think at some point I would like to go back and re-edit the first chapters bc when I have to read back through them it drives me crazy how much they do not sound the way I want them to. I know what my original thought process was behind why they (and particularly Logan) talk like that, but I've decided I'm not into it anymore and I very much did not stick with it after I came back.

That's all the updates I have on it right now, thank you for your patience!

[shinysamurott9]

2024 Games: Pokemon Sword

So this was a bit of a weird time. This is a pretty long read as after playing this game after so many years that, along with the borderline nuclear fallout that was the fandom reaction to it, was a major contributor to me kind of falling out of active interest in pokemon, my ultimate takeaway was that the game was actually not that bad. It was pretty fun, a little underrated even.

My history with this game starts around 2018ish. USUM had come out and I really liked that game. Gen 7 was an all around good time overall which I still appreciate today. The release that year was Let's Go, which I'll be real, I wasn't a fan of it in premise, I'm still not tbh. I could go into that but, in short, it was a game I had little to no interest in and I ultimately decided to skip it to see whatever was next. I bring this up because I think this was the start of me falling out of interest in pokemon, at least for a while. But while Let's Go may have planted the seed, SwSh was what solidified it.

Enter the announcement of Sword and Shield, my friends and I were pretty excited for it, the game looked pretty interesting, a region based on England? That's pretty neat. The new pokemon looked really cool too, we were genuinely excited about it. But if you're familiar with this game's history, you know exactly what happened. In the middle of the game’s hype cycle, GameFreak announced the titanically controversial decision to not include roughly half the existing pokedex in the game meaning that many pokemon would simply not exist in Pokemon SwSh. This was probably one of the biggest Internet shitstorms I've ever been witness to, and the whole thing, both the actual decision and visceral reaction, only made worse by bad actors in the community fanning the flame, just really turned me off SwSh and Pokemon as a whole in a way. In some ways it was a good thing, in the time I wasn't playing Pokemon I was exploring other series I was less familiar with like Devil May Cry, Zelda or Xenoblade or further exploring series I hadn't fully played yet like Metroid or Mega Man, most of which are series I absolutely adore today.

I still kept up with Pokemon to some extent, mostly playing the games while keeping my distance from the wider community. I played BDSP when it released and was not as disappointed as everyone else while still feeling fairly apathetic to it. Played Legends Arceus when it came out and genuinely loved it for it's fresh take on pokemon while also offering a ton of history and lore on Sinnoh that I really appreciated and I played Scarlet and dropped it a couple days in after discovering Pokeball warps and absolutely breaking the game letting me do a lap around the whole region and getting a lvl 40 starter before ever entering the school. Yhe vast majority of my time with pokemon was playing older games in Gen 3 or shiny hunting. That was til about 6 months ago. I had been playing Emerald and I wanted to take on the Battle Frontier and get the Gold Symbols. While I was prepping to do this I was watching a couple videos on the Ribbon Master Challenge and since I was already doing the Frontier and with the looming closure of Pokemon Bank, I thought that I wanted to take that on. And it's been something I've been working on the past few months. Massive shoutouts to CannedWolfMeat and SirToastyToes for their excellent videos that inspired me to do this. And now I'm here basically at the end,prepping to play through Scarlet for the the last few Ribbons in that game.

Of course though, In order to get the ribbons in Sword, I had to actually play through it for the first time. The playthrough, while really easy Leon and early Klara not withstanding, was extremely strong in terms of options for team members, especially with Isle of Armor options thrown in. I love pokemon games that offer a large variety of team members to use, it's a big reason I enjoy XY more than most. I found myself using 10 whole team members by the end of the playthrough. Would have had more but I literally never found Applin and Cursola is Shield exclusive. Many of these were new Galarian Pokemon which are for the most part fantastic. Galar imo has one of the strongest lineups of new pokemon in the series, though I feel Alola did regional forms better. Seriously though, I was using all these guys by the end.

Something thatvalso surprised me was the locations. While the Wild Area is a little boring, I found myself enjoying many of the locations. The two big cities, Hammerlocke and Motostoke are cool and feel very large, Ballonlea and the Glimwood Tangle are actually really great areas visually and Wyndon is imo, one of the best cities we've seen in a Pokemon Game in terms of both scale and looks. While I do like these areas, I will say progressing through them is extremely linear, it feels like there's very little opportunity to go off the beaten path. It's a pretty big shame when even more linear games like XY or Gen 7 had at least a couple of optional areas to explore.

I will say the main story isn’t great. I enjoyed some of the characters. Bede had a neat story with him basically trying to get validation from a father figure who doesn't seem to care much about him. Marnie was an all around good character with some fun interactions who genuinely is just doing her best for her home town and much of the dlc cast like Mustard, Klara and Peony were genuinely entertaining. I did enjoy some of the main game side characters too like Bea and Piers.

Where the plot falls is, well, the plot, not a lot really happens. The game does build up Rose's plan with Eternatus, but you're kept out of the action for most of the events leading up to it. The game basically doesn't have an antagonist until right at the end, where it just kinda feels forced. Everything with Macro Cosmos at Rose Tower only happens because Leon was meeting Rose and we didn't like that for some reason? And of course there's the climax with Eternatus, where as everyone and their mother has pointed out, Rose basically unleashes the apocalypse because he couldn't wait one day to solve a problem 1000 years away. I do like how nonchalant he is about it though, that's kind of funny and Eternatus is actually a pretty cool legendary, though there really isn't much on it storywise beyond the fact it crashed to Earth 3000 years ago and it is the source of Dynamax.

The DLCs though do have more interesting stories. With Isle of Armor focusing on Klara and her being humbled through the dojo and then bonding with Kubfu to raise him to his ultimate form. And Crown Tundra was actually really interesting as you have Calyrex be an actual character. The king of the land who lost his power over time, seemingly losing faith in himself and subsequently losing the people's worship and his steeds. Heck the fact that Calyrex properly talks to you really helps make him and his story stand out from other legendaries and is really neat I think.

I will say, there may be something to be said about how many of the best parts of this game are locked behind DLC. I don't think that's inherently a bad thing, the DLC itself definitely justifies its purchase, but I do agree that the main game is a little lacking in some areas that the DLC does help make up for but that of course has the price tag attached. I also have to say the way the DLC is designed is a liitle strange. While Isle of armor does a decent job being something you can do at any point. Having access to the Crown Tundra as early as the Wild Area is extremely weird. The levels don't scale like the Wild Area or Isle of Armor so no matter when you go there you'll be fighting stuff in the high 50s or low 60s. While this does mean you can't catch anything in the wild, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing the Dynamax adventures and catching not just a massive variety of overleveled fully evolved mons but basically any legendary from the previous generations. And with that stuff, it's not unreasonable to be able to do literally everything in the Tundra after that except for catching Calyrex. While I would agree this is a fair decision, when you're already handing me literally anything I could want to steamroll the game, blocking off Calyrex and only Calyrex just seems weird.

For some other Miscellaneous stuff. The Battle Tower: It's pathetically easy, especially by previous Tower standards. The NPCs are limited to the Pokedex available at launch and you have no restrictions on useable mons. I'm not really complaining about this as it felt good to have a Facility that was basically just a victory lap after doing every other Tower in the past 6 months or so, and it is very worthwhile to do for rewards like Bottle Caps, Candies and the Nature Mints. 50 BP for one mint sounds like a lot but it's really not as bad as it sounds. But it is slso incredibly funny that shit like this is allowed.

Speaking of, the Nature Mints, those are a genuinely fantastic addition to the series. I'm very happy to see how accessible optimising pokemon has become since Gen 7. Between Hyper Training, Very easy levelling with jow many candies you can get through Raids, Nature Mints, easily accessible EV Training through the dojo and items like the Ability Capsule and Patch (Even with how expensive the patch is in SwSh), you can make pretty much any pokemon perfectly optimised for competitive use with, for the most part, not much time investment, it's genuinely great.

One thing I have to say as someone who enjoys a bit of Shiny Hunting, SwSh are kind of a slap in tge face with how many mons are shiny locked. Stuff like Type Null which was huntable in Gen 7, the starters which are a cardinal sin to shiny lock imo, and Cosmog who has literally no practical reason to be shiny locked when you can get Solgaleo or Lunala from the Max Lair with massively boosted shiny odds. It only really reinforces how little reason there actually is to shiny lock stuff imo and SwSh has among the most in the series. It's extremely annoying. Doesn't help that the game’s shiny hunting method is kinda eh, and wasn't properly figured out til ages after it's release.

So overall, I do think SwSh is a pretty flawed game, but I feel like it has a lot of strong aspects that get overlooked due to how initial reactions colored people's opinion on the game. Is it the best pokemon game? Not by a long shot imo. Is it still good though? I would say so yeah. I'd put it around B Tier I think. It has made me pretty interested to get to SV, which I'll have to do soon for the last few ribbons.

[saladsquid]

Ant Empire Rising: Food System, Environments, and Ants!

The first AER Tumblr post! These will be large progress updates that show off what I've been working on for the game as of late.

If you missed it, check out my previous post, or the TIGForum devlog for more information about what Ant Empire Rising is. In short, it's my indie ant-themed RTS video game. Passion project!

Today, I wanted to reveal the current food system, PLUS the newly revamped art of the field map Hills & Pits and some previous work on the ants themselves. Lets get into it!

Food System

Let's start with a treat; the food system! In the game, food is the main currency and you need it to make more ants and sustain the colony as a whole.

There are two main components to the system; the Queen Hunger bar, representative of the ant queen's own survival, and the Food Storage bar, representative of how much food you have. There is a maximum amount of food one can have, which is dependent on your colony's population. The more ants you have, the higher the maximum is.

Over time, the Queen Hunger bar drains. If the Queen Hunger bar is at 0, the colony dies and you lose. How to keep this from happening? Collect food! The hunger bar increases when you have food, slowly taking from the stores to fill itself. When your food stores are at 0, the bar starts draining.

It's a simple system, but with the right balancing, it can be a challenging one. I'm still working on getting the right balance for how quickly the bar drains, among the other variables, like max hunger and how much you get at the start (right now, it's half).

Queen bar in red, food bar in green

So, in essence, you NEED food for survival. How do you get it?

Collect it from the map! Currently, there is only one food type to collect; seeds. They spawn infrequently across set points around the map, plus there is plenty of seeds to collect at the start of the game. There's also a fun new feature called randomized food; the food that spawns at the start is randomized instead of set.

There are different types of seeds to collect. Right now, there are three types: wheat seeds, sunflower seeds, and milkweed seeds. There will probably be more in the future.

Wheat seeds currently give the least food. BTW, to collect food, you just need your ants to collide with it!

Better Biomes

The first, and currently only, map in the game has gotten a bit of a revamp! Hills & Pits, set in a Mongolian field in the middle of nowhere, though it looks more like a desert, USED to look like this:

There's nothing really wrong with this look tbh; you get used to it. It's a simple design that can still offer a lot of variety in playstyle. However, it's not necessarily cut out for what it's supposed to be, which is why I gave it a remaster with some new art that I personally think looks a bit better:

Hills & Pits 2.0!! It's still a bit janky, of course, but that's to be expected.

The land is no longer shaped like a square but has a more dynamic outlining; there are gravel patches around the map with unique assets; pebbles and tiny bushes are scattered as small props.

Plus, the new map uses a better system than the old one: tilemaps. They were implemented into GDevelop (AER's game engine) a while ago, but up until a few days ago I had just been using classic sprites. Tilemaps makes things a LOT easier though, and because of that I can finish up on maps much faster now.

All told, it's a better implementation for the long run.

Ants & UI

The Ant HUD in-game has changed a bit from it's last appearance:

Old vs New

The new version is a lot better, for a couple reasons; firstly, I managed to shrink it, which was a pain to deal with but made it less obstructive during gameplay. Second, there is now space for two more additional castes, one that can go above ground and another that stays below ground (like the queen).

And of course, it's just better looking, at least in my opinion.

In case you're wondering, each 'aa' is a text box that can robustly change depending on what I need it to say. From left to right, they are: "Z", "X", "Queen" "Worker" "Soldier" "1" "2" "3".

Z and X are hotkeys for zooming in/out and 1, 2, 3 are hotkeys for waypoints. They'll probably be replaced by something else in the future but it was the easiest way to communicate these things in this early of development.

Next Up: The General Stuff

So with those new features and whatnot, my next plans are fairly simple; I want to finish development on black garden ants (the first ant species) and add customizable hotkeys.

For BGA, they need a lot of work on their animations in-game and adding their stats. For hotkeys, it's mainly so I can remove them from the Ant HUD and put more practical features there.

I also technically need to finish Hills & Pits but that won't happen for another week or two. After that, I'll move on to enemy creatures, technical stuff, and then the first demo of the game!

See you all around in the future,

-saladsquid

[smolwritingchick]

The Bangtan Gal Chapter 58- Fan Sign

Chapter Summary: BTS attend a fansign and Jennie deals with more discrimination as OT7 supporters skip and ignore her during the fan sign. Jennie meets and hangs with Sam Okyere

Words: 5,000+

Genre: Some angst due to mean words from anti fans towards Jennie but ends in fluff!! 

Author's Note: Not sure if they are still active on Tumblr but years ago the outfits were made by Darling-Illustrated! So credit to them! Thank you again for your creativity :) @darlings-illustrated

------

Jennie sat near the end of the table, in between Rapmon and J-Hope for another BTS fan sign. The American had a love/hate relationship with fan signs because there were bad seeds that didn’t like her and only wanted to support the boys. Over the years she has tried hard to make a name for herself. She did not want to be some forgotten member of the group. She seemed to have done well, making an impact as an African American in Seoul but it was inevitable that people just did not like her.

Most of the time, she did not like attending these fan signs and wished that there could be a way that she didn’t have to go. There were usually some OT7 supporters that tended to ignore her and skip her at fan signs, making her feel some type of way.

It sucked and it hurt.

It is 2015. 

Why are you still bitter that a young woman is with a group of guys? Professionally performing?

She didn’t do anything wrong but there were a bunch of antis that just did not like her because she was a girl in BTS.

What can you do?

It was the same reasons.

It’s a dumb idea, why would anyone want this?

This should not happen, it isn’t realistic.

No way in the world they would put a black person in K-Pop. 

Jennie had a hard time putting on a poker face as it clearly looked like she didn’t want to be there and was mentally preparing herself for those who were going to skip her during the fan sign. Most fansites of hers would film her reactions and express concern that she looked somewhat troubled when fan signs are supposed to be a happy time.

The members would notice and give her reassuring smiles, hand squeezes and place a hand on her shoulder for support along with encouraging words, which helped her out.

While signing autographs, there were written questions for her as she wrote down answers on sticky notes.

‘On ALLKpop, there was a poll for who is the best looking foreigner in K-Pop. You weren’t on the list. How do you feel about that?’

Mentally preparing for social media to give their opinions on her answer, she wrote, “Honestly, I’m not even surprised but in reality, who cares about a poll about who is the best looking? As long as you know that you’re beautiful, that should be all that matters. No need for a poll to prove that. I wish they’d stop that, tbh.” 

Some would probably say that she’s saying this out of spite because she wasn’t on the list, while others would agree and support her answer.

‘What male K-Pop groups have you been listening to lately?’

“I really like GOT7, they’re really cool and make some great music. Also, Monsta X and Seventeen. Ever since I came to South Korea, the members have been getting me into good movies, shows, and music.”

BTS had some unique fans and from time to time fans would like to ask Jennie this question, “Can I touch your hair?” and she would always respond with the same answer with a smile, “No, you cannot, hon.”

Jen liked to see male supporters of Bangtan come to the fan signs. Mainly groups have a bunch of female fans and it was a nice change to see guys pop up at fan signs. And those who were not from Korea. She loved the diversity.

“Jennie! Are you looking for any guys, yet?” one guy had asked her, intertwining his fingers with hers.

“Waiting for one to sweep me off my feet. Perhaps, it’s you?” she teased, making him feel shy.

“I-I hope so! Can we have a staring contest?”

She leaned up close to his face, staring closely into his eyes. As they stared each other down for a few seconds, Jennie ended up blinking and the guy happily celebrated.

When another male fan approached her, she sweetly asked questions like if he had eaten today and how he was doing.

“I heard you like to work out with Jungkook. Let’s arm wrestle to check out your strength.” he proposed

“All righty, you’re on!” she put her arm out, clasped his hand and they began. 

Slowly, she brought his arm down and gave herself a pat on the back.

“Ahhh, you’re stronger than I thought. Jungkook will be proud.”

“I hope so too, I’ll be sure to let him know.”

As the fan sign went on, Miss Bangtan continued to write down answers to questions on sticky notes.

‘Who do you think is improving the most in BTS?’

“Jin.” she wrote. “He deserves more recognition. His vocals, his dancing. I’m very proud of him.” 

‘Jennie, how did it feel to be a trainee for a short amount of time? Did you feel ready?’

“It was surreal for them to announce me as Miss Bangtan. I did feel ready because they gave me a chance and believed in me to be here. I won’t take it for granted. I will work hard, so keep being a great supporter and give BTS lots of love, mkay?”

When the next fan shifted over to her, Jennie smiled and greeted her. But, the fan rolled her eyes and went to Hobi instead.

‘And here comes the BS...’ she thought with annoyance as her doubts came back. 

Jen had heard Hobi ask why the fan skipped her and the fan bluntly replied that she just didn’t like her at all.

“Well, clearly you aren’t a true BTS fan if you don’t support all the members.” Jen bluntly pointed out, causing the girl to get annoyed and toss the album she was getting signed at the table, storming off. 

“Wow, really?” she frowned while the rest of the members looked irritated at the fan’s disrespect. 

Everyone around them wasn’t too pleased with the behavior either.

“Sorry, munchkin.” Hobi smiled sadly, giving her hand a gentle squeeze

“It’s fine.” she shrugged.

When given another written question that asked, ‘What do you have that is better than the members?’

Jennie wrote, ‘A big booty. Lol.’

‘Ennie-ah! When are you dying your hair?’ was the next written question as she chuckled at the next common question she was asked ever since debut. 

She wrote, ‘Good things happen to those who wait. I’ll dye my hair when you least expect it. Soon. I know everyone is anticipating it. It’ll be a color that’ll suit me. Please be excited!’

‘What’s your pre-concert ritual?’

“I used to do cartwheels but now I make sure to eat smarties and do jumping jacks to get the blood flowing. It calms my nerves. I also try to warm up my voice and pray before going on stage.” she wrote on the sticky note.

“I know you get flustered with things like this but I think you’re so cute when you attempt to do it. Can you show me some aegyo?” the next fan requested.

“Ah...” Jennie cringed. “Do I have to?”

“Yes, you do.” the fan giggled

“Okay. Fine.” she made a cute face which made the fan laugh.

When given another written question which was, ‘Would you date a fan?’

Jennie wrote, ‘Love is unpredictable. So yes, if someone catches my eye.’

‘Out of all the members, who would you date?’

‘Jin. He always takes good care of me and cares a lot. His cooking is great, who wouldn’t want to date him? Hahaha, we getting some serious SeokJen today, huh? Hope this feeds the shippers. I know what y’all are up to on Tumblr. Y’all crazy, lol.’

“Jennie, are you dating, right now?” another ARMY asked. When Jen shook her head, they added, “If you liked someone, how would you confess?”

“Hm...I think I’d be in denial first, thinking my mind is just acting silly. But I do want to be straightforward with the guy. I’m not quite sure how yet. Next time I’m asked, I’ll think of a better answer.”

“Who would you marry in BTS?”

“You,” Jen answered with a sweet smile, causing the girl to feel flushed.

The question, ‘Is it true you’re an advocate for Taehyung-ah being in Cypher PT4?’ was written on another sticky note

‘I’m REALLY trying to convince Yoongi but he’s not having it. I’m still persistent.’ 

‘Have you thought of marriage?’

Everyone liked to ask people this type of question, but Jen honestly did not have a solid answer and wrote, ‘Uh...not really. I'm trying to enjoy being young and getting my life on the right track. I'm not thinking of marriage right now.’

‘Do the members get mad at you if you don’t call them oppa?’

‘Nah. They’re cool about it. I feel weird calling them that. Plus a little disrespectful? But they’re understanding. I don’t like saying that word.’ 

The next fan approached her as Jen smiled and started signing her autograph.

“Can I ask you a question?” The fan asked

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Can you leave BTS?”

“What?” she looked up in confusion, after signing her autograph.

“Can you leave the group?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you left a group before. You can do it again. Please do it again. For everyone’s sake. The members don’t even like you. I bet they’re so happy when you’re not around.” the female anti glared at her.

Hobi turned to the anti and frowned. “Hey, that isn’t true. If you have nothing nice to say, you should leave.”

“No, I won’t leave.” she turned back to Jennie. “Truth is, no one likes you, here. You are so irrelevant in the group. It’s so stupid to have a girl in this group. Coed groups never work. It should be seven guys and that’s it. And before you even think about calling me a racist, I’m not. I have black friends. You don’t bring anything to the table. Your singing is annoying, you will never be able to join the rap line, you can’t dance half as well as Jin or Rapmon and your guitar skills will never be great. You are slowing BTS down.”

Security stepped in, to try to escort the girl away but she stood her ground. “If there was going to be a girl in the group, it should at least be an Asian girl. Not no American. You stupid Americans take over everything! Now you wanna come here and take over K-Pop? Just leave K-Pop alone and go away! You are too dark to be in K-Pop. Americans shouldn’t even be in K-Pop. Leave already! You already did once.”

Jennie exhaled slowly, trying so hard not to slap the girl. It wasn’t worth it. But lately, people have been testing her patience. 

“Exactly what did I do so wrong to you?” she looked at the Anti fan.

“You’re breathing.”

That was extremely uncalled for and not cool at all. Jennie became so upset that she was this close to grabbing the anti by her hair and dragging her across the table. But that wouldn’t be a good idea for the sake of Bangtan’s public image. She couldn’t do that to the members, no matter how much she wanted to beat the girl’s ass. 

So much for positive thinking...

The members began to get upset at how rude the girl was and started to speak up, while the security guards escorted her out.

“I agree with her.” the next fan approached Jennie.

Wow, so this was all planned out?

Jeez. The Lord was testing Jennie today because she really wanted to attack somebody.

“Joining BTS was a mistake for you. I hate how you want everything to be in English.” They went on

‘I never said anything like that.’ Jen thought with annoyance.

That was just another bad rumor to make her look bad. Antis even had #MissBangtanIsCanceled trending on Twitter a few weeks ago.

“You are so rude, you don’t even call them oppa. You think you know everything. It’s like you want to be Korean but you’ll never ever be Korean. And I hope you don’t think you’re going to be dating anyone around here because why would anyone want to date a pig like you.”

“You done...?” Miss Bangtan raised a brow, trying to keep her anger in check.

“No, I’m not done! You don’t know anything about our culture. You are hopeless. I give you until the end of the year before you decide to leave Bangtan. Because all that you are is a weak little girl that decides to leave when things don’t go her way.” the girl stood up from the table and started to yell at her while security interfered. “How dare you waltz into K-Pop? You had such a short training period and that is unfair to all those trainees that worked hard for years and still don’t have a spot in a group. So what did you do to get a spot in Bangtan? Did you have to pay Big Hit for a spot? How can Big Hit choose someone like you? They should’ve made you leave after the whole GLAM scandal in the company. You should go back to your country! Go back to Africa or whatever ditch you came from! I don’t get why anyone would have a black bastard like you in K-Pop.”

It took the strength of God for Jennie to not punch her in the face. That made her angry and it got under her skin. It was also hypocritical of the anti to say that she didn’t deserve the spot in Bangtan when other idols had shorter training periods than her and still gets embraced by fans. For instance, Yeeun from Wonder Girls and even Baekhyun. 

What was wrong with people these days? All of this for what?

What was the reason?

They had no solid reason to act this way about her. It was sad and pathetic.

“You know what? You’re making me upset. Take a chill pill.” Miss Bangtan responded. “You have no valid reason why you hate me. I bet the reason you’re doing it is because you’re following what others are doing and it shouldn’t be like that. It’s quite sad you’re acting this way. It’s also unattractive. You are so beautiful but no one is ever going to want to date someone with such a disgusting personality. I’ll be praying for you. I hope one day you can support all of Bangtan and not just seven members. Now, I highly suggest you get out of my face and have a blessed day.”

The girl didn’t have anything to say after that, stunned by her response and was kicked out of the fan sign. The members felt extremely bad about how much discrimination she was getting from those two antis.

Jen was so angry, that some tears began to fall and she quickly wiped them as the fansites continued to film.

“Jennifer.” Namjoon placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Are all Koreans, like this?” she asked and shook her head in disappointment. “Is this going to happen every time we have fan signs? ‘Cause this is very tiring and I don’t feel like catching a case on some of these bad seeds because one day I’m going to snap and beat someone’s ass. And I don’t want to do that but they really trying me, Namjoon. I’m so over this. If they think I’m going to leave because of a few bad seeds, they’re wrong. But this needs to stop, like, now. This has been happening for a couple of years now and I can’t take much more of this. I get it, you don’t like me. I don’t care, it’s reality, and not everyone is going to like someone. But do you have to be this unnecessary?” 

As she ranted, Namjoon gave her a pep talk which helped her cool down. After a while, the next fan who approached her looked sympathetic and wiped Jen’s tears from her eyes. 

“I apologize on behalf of those rude antis. They are not BTS fans if they can’t support all eight of you. Please don’t let it get to you. I don’t want to see my bias mad or upset.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it. I won’t.” Jen began to feel calm as she kept her head up high. 

As the fan sign went on, Jennie continued to be in a better mood, having some stickers on her face thanks to some fans, and even was given a Captain American themed headband to wear, which annoyed Jungkook.

“Are you ever going to do any solo work? Like, create a mixtape or a mini album?” she was asked.

“I have a bunch of songs on my laptop that I made over the years but I want to rerecord them when my vocals get better and then I’ll think about releasing them. As of right now, no plans anytime soon. I personally feel like I am not ready for that, yet. I don’t want to release half-assed music for ARMY. Maybe in a few years.”

The next fan had given her a written question and once Jen read it, she chuckled softly. 

“Wow. You guys are bold today, aren’t you?” she asked with amusement.

The question was a personal one. Extremely personal. It boldly asked if she was a virgin. 

“You don’t have to answer. I just saw this all over the internet and was curious.” The fan responded nervously.

This has also been over social media ever since she debuted. All the assumptions are that she sleeps with the members since she lives in the dorm with them. It was just too much. So, hopefully, this will shut everyone up with the rumors and accusations.

Jen wrote, ‘Yes and I’m aware of all the not safe for work comments about me on social media. Y’all thirsty af. I also have seen the various assumptions about me. The first and last time I am making it clear that I am waiting for someone special instead of hooking up. Hooking up is not my cup of tea. I want an emotional connection with someone. Not something casual. And it is sad to see people look so shocked when they hear that someone like me is a virgin. I don’t think me being a virgin is a big deal. Honestly, who cares? I wish people would stop hypersexualizing black women.’

“Can you speak English for me?” one fan who approached her asked, shyly.

“Thank you for supporting Bangtan. It’s people like you that are the reason that Bangtan is here, today. Also, have you tried smarties? They’re absolutely delicious!” she responded.

“Ahhh your voice! It’s so different from when you speak in Korean. I love you, so much!”

“Aw, thanks, I like to be loved.” Miss Bangtan grinned and shared a laugh with the fan. 

The fan had also given her smarties which made her day better.

Another question someone had written was, ’Would you ever get plastic surgery?’

'Nothing against those who get it but no, absolutely not. I don’t want to change anything about myself. I love how my body is, even with the flaws. I’m glad Big Hit loves my natural beauty, unlike one of the other K-pop companies that I auditioned for. One day I'll spill the tea. I'm glad I chose Big Hit, I’ll just keep it at that. To be blunt and honest, the beauty standards here make me sad. We should embrace our natural beauty and not feel obligated to change our looks because of what others want us to look like.’

‘Favorite brands?’ caused Jennie to smile.

‘Nike is my LIFE. It’s a must! As long as you buy me Nike stuff, I’m happy. I also like American Eagle and Forever 21. Oh, and Victoria’s Secret. I love how I look in their expensive af underwear, despite their prices being an arm and a leg. And I like how my butt looks when I wear them LOL. I dunno why but for some reason, I like how some of their red, black and yellow underwear looks on me. I look cute in them. My skin color looks great in those colors. Especially black, I love black. Oh jeez, I think I just gave you Tumblr imagine ideas. Should I be concerned? LOL. It’s cool, I don’t care what you do.’

“Hi, Jennie!” the next fan sweetly greeted her in English, with a bright smile on her face. 

The fan looked about her age and was American, which pleasantly surprised her.

“Girl! You came all the way from the USA to see me?” Jennie couldn’t stop smiling at her.

“Of course! I finally get to meet my favorite idol! You are way prettier in person. And I am so happy that I get to tell you how you made me start believing in myself. Thank you for being you 100%. You are so real and I hope you never change. I hope you continue to work hard in Bangtan and stay in K-Pop. True ARMY loves and supports all members. We love you! I hope you know that.”

The fan's words almost made her tear up as she nodded and held her hand. 

“Always.”

------

A few days after the fan sign, Sam Okyere, whom Jen had been following for a few months now, reached out to her on Instagram via comment about wanting to meet. She immediately responded that she would love to meet him and quickly DM’ed him to figure out a good date to meet. Within the next day, she made her way to a private place where they wouldn’t be disturbed by any fans

After a few minutes of waiting, she felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned to look up to see Sam smiling.

“Jennie, hello!”

“Hi! It’s so nice to finally meet you!” she embraced him. She felt so happy as she felt a rush of positive vibes when in front of him. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you. I really enjoy watching you on Korean TV.”

“Really? Wow, thank you!” he sat down with her.

“I’m glad you reached out to me. I’ve been wanting to for a while but kind of chickened out.”

“We’re here now. Don’t ever hesitate to message me.”

As they got into conversation to get to know each other, Sam brought up, “I heard about what you went through at a recent fan sign. I’m sorry to hear about that.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what I did so wrong. I thought they would be so much more mature than that. The hostility is brutal. It often angers me and I want to yell and scream but public image is everything. How do you do it? I get so angry about this stuff, it’s really frustrating. I know racial discrimination is everywhere in the world. But is there advice on overcoming it?”

“I always think it’s best to try your best to know about the culture and language. Koreans think you’re standoffish if you don’t know Korean. How did they react when you spoke in Korean?”

“Boy, they were pretty surprised, I’ll tell you that. I would get compliments on it and everything. Some even talked to me more once they heard me speak their language. Normally people would hesitate and ask me if I know Korean because most don’t know English, just their primary language.”

“You see that they tend to open up all of a sudden when you know more about their culture.”

“Mm-hm. What’s the hardest thing you faced in Korea with racial discrimination?

“When I attended college, I really didn’t know much of the language then. I didn’t have any friends so I did feel lonely and upset. There was this black music club at the school and I joined as the first black person.”

“Wow.”

“There was this guy I knew and he said that he had studied abroad in Canada and he told me that he understood how I felt here in Korea. So he wanted to treat me better. He wanted to work on assignments with me that I had struggled with and wanted to eat together.”

“That’s really good that he feels like that,” she responded. “I always feel lonely when I don’t see someone who looks like me. Someone that I can relate to. But I do have friends who accept me for who I am and never treat me differently because of the color of my skin or being a foreigner. I hope that people here can learn more about the world and other cultures.”

Sam nodded. “I understand how you feel. It is frustrating. Although I experienced racism here in Korea, people ask me why do I stay. I say that it’s the word, us. Despite the bad experiences, I had good experiences, too. I made tons of amazing friends. Whenever I’m going through a bad time, they tell me, ‘Don’t worry, you can get through this because of us.’ Around Christmas do you ever feel lonely?”

“Lowkey, yes because I’m not with my family.”

“That is also how I feel because I get reminded about my family. Foreigners in Korea, they get the most lonely during Christmas. My friend, he asked me what I would be doing for Christmas and I would tell him that I want to go back to Ghana but the airfare is too expensive so I’ll be staying in Korea. My friend offered for me to spend Christmas with him and I was planning on leaving after the meal but stayed for three days.”

“Wow.” she looked on in amazement. “That is so sweet of him. With Bangtan...” she started chuckling and began to tear up.

All those pleasant memories she spent with BTS hit her hard as she tried to blink the tears away.

“People have no idea how those boys have made my experience in Korea so...painless. Taehyung was the first person I met when I came to Korea. I was a trainee then. He took time out of his busy schedule to hang out with me, show me around places in Korea, and even got me into trying various Korean foods. He is so incredibly sweet and welcomed me with open arms. Supported me while I tried out to try to be the Bangtan Girl of BTS, too. And Christmas with Bangtan...I miss my family but they make me feel like I’m at home. We exchange gifts, fight over who puts up the decorations for the tree, we make a mess, it’s just...pure happiness.” she explained. “And I’ll always cherish that. They always tell me that I’m never alone even if I’m in another country, away from my family. That I have them and good friends who love me for who I am and won’t discourage me. It makes me feel less lonely. “

As they continued to talk, Sam brought up, “I cooked some Ghanaian food.”

“Oh snap, you have? Right now we’re gonna eat that?”

He nodded and smiled. “Let’s bring it out.”

Plates of various foods were in front of them and she smiled. “All of this looks so delicious! Wow. I never tried African food.”

“Really? You are African American?” He asked

“Yes, born in America. All I really had was American food and the soul food that my family makes. I do enjoy eating different foods from other cultures as well.”

”I’m sure you’ll enjoy all of this. Have you learned of your ancestry from black racial groups in Africa?”

“I haven’t but would love to know actually.”

“I can help you look into that.”

“That would be great.”

“Let’s dig in. This is Jollof rice and fufu. But try the soup first.” he pointed out as she took a spoon and tried it.

“I like it.” she praised and took her chopsticks to pick up some meat to dip into the soup. “What type of meat is this?”

“It’s goat meat.”

“Ooh, first time trying this.” she took a bite and nodded in approval. “I like that kick.”

“Yeah, it’s a little spicy,” he responded and ate some goat meat with her.

“And what about this? Finger food?” she pointed to another plate.

“Yes, you eat this with your hands.” He responded and she took a piece and ripped a piece off before placing it in her mouth. “You have to swallow it.”

“Not chew?” she asked, surprised.

“Nah.” He chuckled. “We don’t chew it, just swallow, right away because it’s a soup.” he demonstrated and she mimicked his movements.

“This is so delicious! Thank you for this. I’m definitely telling my mom to try to make all of this.”

Sam licked his fingers clean and she did the same. 

“My mom always tells me to not lick my fingers and to just wipe them off with a towel because it’s not polite,” Jen added. “But how can I not with this soup? It’s so good. I still act rebellious towards her and lick my fingers anyway when I eat.”

“I’m sure your mom won’t mind this time.” he laughed

Sam gestured to her to try the Jollof rice next, letting her know that it was somewhat similar to Korea’s kimchi fried rice. Jen took a bite, eating it with him while sighing in delight.

“Is there like some way you can come by Bangtan’s dorms and cook for me?” she teased and they ended up laughing. “Cause this food just reminds me of home. Like I never ate any of this but I just feel at home. It's so good!”

“I’m very happy that you do.” he beamed as he ate a small chicken leg. “With the chicken, sometimes I even chew the bones because it has flavor.”

“Oh, I have some family members that chew bones too. I never actually chewed on the bones. But I’ll try it today. My mom is a dentist so she was always up my behind on making sure my teeth were well cleaned. I’m sure eating a bone won’t crack my teeth.”

“She sounds very passionate about good teeth.”

“Trust me, she is. It can be so annoying!” she groaned.

“How are you in K-Pop? Are you held to unfortunate high standards?”

“Yes, sadly. I remember wearing a traditional Korean Hanbok and I was so nervous because I knew I would get a wave of criticism about it. And like I predicted, I did.” she shook her head. “Before I came here, I tried to make sure I was prepared and knew a lot of the language and culture. And of course, some claim I’ll be prettier with lighter skin. I will always be respectful here and respect their culture. But I refuse to live up to their beauty standards just because they don’t think darker skin is attractive. I won’t change myself for someone else.”

“I’m glad you have that mindset of not changing for anyone. Keep that. How are you in SOPA? High school in Korea hard for you?”

“You know it took a while for me to transition to their school system but overall, I’m one of those people who enjoys learning in school, so it isn’t that bad. But I still do get stared at all the time, no matter where I am. Being abroad, you learn about yourself and learn how capable you are. It’s a challenge. But I hope that my tolerance will grow as I continue to be here in Korea.”

After their meal, the two embraced, took a few selfies and she posted them on Twitter, ‘Thank you for everything!! It was so nice meeting you! I’m looking forward to hanging out with you again. #Jen’

After meeting Sam, Jen felt her loneliness and doubts decrease and she went back to the dorm with a positive attitude. She was eager to tell her family about learning more about African foods so they could enjoy it together when she was able to go back home.

[birdsquirrel]

creature concepts for a minecraft pokemon-like mod

a while ago, i made a post about how there should be a creature collecting/battling mod for minecraft that has its own, minecraft-inspired creature designs, instead of pokemon.

i think this would be good both in terms of "fitting" into the game better AND keeping out of the attention of a famously litigious game company.

it also would be a chance to give the creatures uses in the game outside of battle.

here are a dozen ideas for creatures i've had:

a dirt themed doggy - somewhat inspired by a dachshund, though bigger and more front-heavy. outside of battle, it occasionally digs up items - things like plants, seeds, saplings, bones, and rotten flesh. rarely, it can dig up ores.

a panda guy that plays instruments, a banda - i'm imagining a different variant for each vanilla panda variant. outside of battle, it plays little tidbits of song. if there are multiple bandas around, they play together :)

cherry bee - a little pink bee with cherry blossom wings and green antenna. it bone meals crops when it flys over them.

a leaf sheep. a leef - it's a sheep that looks like it's made of wood, that grows leaves instead of wool. there's a variant for each vanilla tree, found according to which biome it generates in. you can shear it for its leaves, but you might not want to - the leaves allow it to tank the first hit it receives in battle.

a kelpie but it's nice :) - a horse with a kelp mane, found on beaches and in shallow oceans. it has a few color variants - black, dark grey, light grey, white, and bluish green. you can ride it and not only will it swim, it does so at a good pace and gives you water-breathing while you're mounted on it.

flying pig - come on, you gotta have a flying pig. it's tiny and round and gives you luck.

a giant rooster named buckawk - i'm gonna be real with you, this ones mostly so people can make immature jokes about having a huge cockerel. yeah, children play this game, but this is exactly the kind of humor 12 year olds love. he gives you feather falling.

an aurochs themed around ore. an ore-ox, if you will - has variants for all the vanilla ores, possibly with built-in support for common modded ore such as osmium, aluminum, and platinum. occasionally sheds raw ores.

an electric jackalope - this one comes from when i was thinking maybe you could craft the creatures, and he would've required a lightning rod. tbh i can't think of a use for him that would NOT result in players hitting themselves with lightning, but im still enamored with the idea. maybe he can just press buttons like a copper golem :)

salmon dragon - you know how the magikarp/gyrados line was inspired by the legend of carps jumping up a huge waterfall and turning into dragons? and you know how salmon migrate upriver and undergo a strange metamorphosis to be able to do so? yeah. salmon-dragon. idk what this one would do either, the concept just rocks.

lava llama. llava - it'd look cute and the pun is solid. you can ride it over lava like a more-easily controlled strider and it gives you fire resistance.

bottle axolotl. axobottl. - yeah i know axolotl wasn't originally supposed to be pronounced like that, but consider - a little guy that you can give a potion and then he gives you that potion effect for much longer than the potion itself would've.

[blazehedgehog]

Considering your financial situation, wouldnt it be justified to just pirate the big releases especially when they often leak/the fact that you wait some time anyways before making a video?

Ofcourse I understand supporting indies and other smaller games, but I think sonic games will survive one less sale tbh

Working for TSSZ kind of broke me of my habit of pirating most games. I didn't need to pirate games anymore. Tristan was a consummate professional about that kind of stuff. If I wanted to write about a game and did not own it, I'd put in a request and it'd get bought for me, or I'd even buy it for myself and expense it to get that money back.

Here's the deal about pirating big new games: my computer is from 2015. My faith in capturing video from PC games, especially brand new PC games, is not very strong. Even if it's something like Sonic Superstars, a game that seems to be targeting lower spec systems than most.

That is why you see me holding a PS4 copy of Superstars and not just buying it on Steam. On PS4, I'll get consistent performance and consistent video capture.

It's also just a different world out there. The last time I was into pirating PC games, torrenting was a lot safer and a lot easier to do. I've got accounts at a couple of private, invite-only trackers, and both of them straight up say "Hey if you're torrenting files, either from us or anywhere else, you should be using a VPN bare minimum."

And I don't. Nor do I want to use a VPN. It's a lot of hoops to jump through just to get a game, what, a few days early?

And then there's the other headache: I mentioned having accounts at a few private trackers, and those places will crack the whip on you pretty hard if you don't seed. To give you a peek behind the curtain a little bit, during the Sonic Frontiers review, for the pinball segment, I was debating on how to get footage of "real" pinball. Do I borrow somebody else's video?

Then it dawned on me: No, Farsight Studios made a bunch of really great pinball conversions via Pinball Arcade. One problem, though: another developer named Zen bought out the rights to most of their library and as a result Pinball Arcade lost like 70% of its tables. So, I figured I'd have to pirate them. It was also a good excuse to get the PC version of Addams Family Pinball, which I bought and paid for on my phone years ago.

So I grabbed a torrent from one of these private trackers. All seven seasons from before the Zen Pinball buyout. 8, almost 9gb. Something like 100 pinball tables total. I was literally in the process of scanning the rar files for viruses when I realized: wait, I'm an idiot, I bought Pinball Arcade Season 7 on the PS4. There was a pricing error when it launched and they were selling the whole season for like $6, when normally a season would be closer to $30.

So I fired up the PS4, captured my video from that, and that's what is in the final product: me playing Pinball Arcade Season 7 on console.

So now I have this torrent of all of Pinball Arcade on my PC and I'm not sure I want to risk installing it. It seems clean, but there's always that worry. I have bricked a PC once from playing illicit software.

And clearing that torrent with the private tracker? They had me seed that thing every day for two months before they took me off the "Hit & Run" list (meaning my account was potentially up for deletion). All the while they're saying "Hey, protect yourself, use a VPN when you torrent from us."

All of that is just one big bundle of nerves and stress and work that is solved by just waiting for it to officially release and buying it normally. It is the ultimate in convenience.