#but…that feels like an odd discovery to make now all of a sudden

[vydumaj]

I’m currently going through a minor identity crisis after, like, two weeks ago, at the age of 23, realizing I’m lactose intolerant. I drank some hot chocolate, got a really bad stomach ache, and thought to myself “it’s nothing, I always get a stomach ache after drinking hot chocolate”, remembered I got a stomach ache after eating ice cream two days before and then realized…maybe getting a stomach ache every time you drink hot chocolate (regardless of how little) isn’t…normal. it’s been like that for at least half a year, up to like 2-3 years… I guess I should’ve expected this since my stomach is super sensitive and my dad is lactose intolerant and also Thai (84-96% of Thai people are lactose intolerant depending on which study you look at) … at least lactase enzyme pills seem to work for me so I won’t need to give up ice cream lmao

[syluslnd]

If you're still taking requests, I really wanna see how you'd write this situation. Sylus' s/o is visiting the mansion one day. Sylus is in the room when Luke or Kieran (it's probably Luke) accidentally discovers one of her sensitive spots; he poked a random spot on her back to get her attention and she barely holds back a moan.

sylus learns a new discovery about you

your attention fully on sylus while he lays on the bed sprawled out, watching you with that familiar intense gaze.

You were rambling on about something, your words tumbling out in an effort to distract yourself from how his presence always seemed to consume the space.

Sylus had a way of making the air feel heavier, as if every word exchanged between you carried weight. But right now, you were doing your best to ignore that pull.

Luke and Kieran were also in the room, leaning against the far wall, barely acknowledged by you. They hadn't said much and you hadn't felt the need to involve them in your conversation with Sylus. It wasn't unusual-you always focused on him and the twins usually stayed in the background.

But then, without warning, you felt it—a finger brushing down your spine, light but deliberate, starting at your neck and trailing all the way down. The touch was so sudden, so unexpected, that your body reacted before your mind could catch up. You flinched, your breath hitching and then, to your horror, an involuntary moan slipped from your lips.

The room went dead silent.

Your heart pounded as you froze, feeling heat rush to your face. Every nerve in your body was suddenly on edge and you became painfully aware of how every eye was on you. Luke's finger still hovered at the small of your back but your mind couldn't focus on anything but the sound that had escaped you. A blushing mess, you struggled to regain composure but it was too late. The damage was done.

Sylus's expression darkened immediately, his gaze narrowing as he shot a look toward the twins. "Out" he ordered, his voice low, dripping with authority.

Luke and Kieran didn't hesitate, quickly leaving the room, though you could still feel the heat of their lingering stares as they exited. The door clicked shut behind them and now it was just you and Sylus. The tension in the room became suffocating.

Before you could even speak, you felt a shift, a pull. Sylus's evol had kicked in and suddenly you were dragged onto the bed, your body moving against your will. You gasped as you found yourself straddling him, your knees pressed into the mattress on either side of his hips. His power forced your arms to wrap around his neck, pulling you close until your face was inches from his.

"Sylus-" you started but your voice caught in your throat as you felt his fingers, cold and deliberate, start to glide up your spine.

Slow. Painfully slow.

He dragged his fingertip over your back, tracing the same path Luke had touched moments ago, only now it felt a hundred times more intense. The gentleness of his touch was at odds with the dark, predatory look in his eyes, and your body tensed with the growing tension.

"You flinched when he touched you" Sylus murmured, his voice dangerously low. His finger made another slow pass down your spine, making you shiver involuntarily. "But that sound you made... that was for me, wasn't it, kitten?"

His words sent a chill through you, your breath coming in shallow gasps as your body responded to every calculated movement of his finger. He knew exactly what he was doing, toying with you, making you squirm without even needing to move more than a fingertip. It was maddening, the way he maintained control over you, even now.

You tried to speak but the words wouldn't come. Sylus tilted his head slightly, his lips curving into a dark, knowing smile. "You're mine and I don't like sharing." His finger paused for a brief second before continuing its slow descent down your back, dragging out the sensation. "I think I'll remind you of that."

Your breath hitched again as he leaned in, his lips brushing against the side of your neck, teasing but not quite touching. You could feel the tension radiating from him, the possessiveness behind every subtle move.

His evol kept your arms locked around his neck, keeping you trapped against him, powerless to resist. And despite the darkness in the air, the intensity of his touch, you felt your body betraying you, drawn to him in ways you couldn't control.

"You like this, don't you?" he whispered, his voice rough, his finger finally reaching the small of your back before trailing up again at an agonizingly slow pace. "I can feel it. Don't deny it."

You whimpered, the sound escaping before you could stop it, your body reacting to the tension he was building with such little effort. Sylus's smirk deepened as he leaned in closer, his breath hot against your skin.

"Good girl."

There was no escape. His evol had you trapped and you were completely at his mercy and the worst part was-you didn't want to get away.

[marble-anime]

Lollipop

Pairing: Juuzou Suzuya x Reader

Summary: You explain to Juuzou what a blowjob is after he asks you about a joke that he didn’t understand. Of course, Juuzou being Juuzou, wants to know what it feels like.

Disclaimer: Minors DNI

Warnings: groping, mentions of castration, blowjobs

Word Count: 1.7k

“Can you take my shoes off?” Juuzou asked, plopping down on the end of your bed.

“Sure,” you said, shrugging off your work clothes.

After you changed into more comfortable clothes, you made your way to the bed and kneeled in front of him. Your boyfriend tilted his head, quietly admiring you as you untied his laces. You’d been together for roughly around six months. In that time you taught him about traditional relationship customs such as holding hands, hugging, kissing, etcetera.

He found that doing these things with you filled him with that same pleasant tingling sensation that he would get whenever you were around him even before you started dating. Although being with you helped him sort out his feelings, both about you and in general, he still had a lot to learn about his own self-discovery. He remembered something he’d heard earlier. “What’s the difference between having the same job for 20 years and having the same wife for 20 years?”

You raised a brow at the odd question but didn’t think too much of it. After all, with his lack of understanding of basic human emotions and behaviors, he didn’t really filter anything he wanted to say. “What?”

“The job still blows,” he finished the joke in his usual cheery tone.

You froze midway through sliding off his shoe and slowly glanced up at him. Sure he’d said some inappropriate and offensive things before, but never anything sexual like that. Honestly, you weren’t even sure he knew exactly what sex consisted of. Seeing the confusion practically plastered across your face, Juuzou explained, “Seidou told me that joke today.”

He nudged your thigh with his foot, urging you to finish removing his shoes. “I didn’t really get it. Do you?”

You pulled off his shoes and set them to the side, unsure of what to say. Figuring there was no way to sugarcoat it, your answer was blunt, “His joke was about blowjobs, Juuzou.”

He stared at you, big crimson eyes resembling that of a confused puppy. “What’s a blowjob?”

“Um,” your face flushed, “a blowjob is like…”

He nodded for you to continue, not understanding why you were so shy all of a sudden. You hesitated, not sure how he would feel about your next words. “It’s when someone sucks your dick.”

“Why?” he asked.

Damn him, you thought, couldn’t he see how uncomfortable you were? Your voice wavered as you answered, “Because it feels good.”

“Oh.” He seemed to drift away in thought which made the situation feel even more awkward to you. God, you felt like you could die of embarrassment. You debated getting up and leaving the room, avoiding him and pretending like this conversation never took place. While you were wallowing in humiliation, a subtle blush adorned Juuzou’s face as he leaned back on his palms. “Do you wanna give me a blowjob?”

His question washed away your unease but now a new nervousness was growing inside you. “Do you want me to give you one?”

He smiled boyishly and shrugged, “Sure.”

“Okay.” Your eyes trailed down between his legs.

“So,” he drawled, trying to relieve the tension, “How do we do this?”

“I mean,” you paused, “we have to get it hard first.” Your hand settled on his knee. “Can I touch you?”

“Yeah,” he nodded.

With his permission, you slid your hand up his thigh. Just as you were about to touch him, you stopped for a moment. Your gaze flickered back up to meet his eyes, to make sure that this was okay.

“Hurry up,” he whined, impatiently.

Leaving your doubts behind, you pawed at his clothed cock. His breath hitched at the feeling of your palm gently rubbing him. He couldn’t think of the words to describe what he was experiencing. This new feeling was strange and foreign to him but he couldn’t deny that it was very pleasant.

Meanwhile, you felt very discouraged. Between his sudden inhale and lack of an erection, you were starting to regret even entertaining the conversation, much less engaging with him physically. With the embarrassment creeping back in, you went to pull away. But before you could get too far his hand, pale and covered in red stitches, was placed over your own. “Don’t stop.”

His stitches brushed against your knuckles as he pressed you into him harder. You continued to grope his cock, this time with a lot more pressure. You were filled with mirth and excitement when you felt him harden in your grasp. It seemed he just needed a little more effort than most.

Once he was fully erect, you undid his pants while he pulled his suspenders off his shoulders. He lifted his hips so you could pull down his pants enough for his cock to spring free. When you finally saw it you froze. The problem wasn’t his cock itself, in fact, it was quite pretty. But the lower half of his anatomy was missing, replaced with a scar. You went to say something but you couldn’t find the right words.

“It’s not a problem, is it?” Juuzou asked, painfully aware of what caused your reaction. Although he expected as much, it hurt him to think that you may be disgusted by him. He had been hoping that you wouldn’t even notice even though he knew it was unrealistic.

You snapped out of your daze and shook your head, trying to seem unfazed. “No, of course not.” You meant it, you loved him in any way he came, it was just a shock at first that's all. But now you wondered if going further would be cruel. Would he be able to reach his peak or would you just be teasing him the entire time? Suddenly it made sense why he was having trouble getting hard. “I just don’t know if I’ll be able to make you cum. I don’t want you to be in pain if we start something we can’t finish.”

He was relieved that you didn’t think he was a freak. And the fact that you were concerned for him made his skin burn and his head go fuzzy. This time it was his voice that was shaky as he spoke, “Well, there’s only one way to find out right?”

You leaned in and pressed a kiss to his pink tip making his cock jump. “Oh!” You licked a stripe up his cock before engulfing it in your hot mouth. “Ooo.” Juuzou giggled in delight when you began to bob your head. His stomach and thighs tensed involuntarily at the feeling of your mouth sucking and squeezing him.

Soon his moans changed from surprised ‘ohs’ to pleasurable ‘ahs’. When you looked up you realized why. His head was thrown back but you could still see his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. You wondered if he knew how feminine he could be sometimes, or if it was just a force of habit. As he rolled his head forward, drool dripped from the corner of his lips to his jaw and down his neck.

His crimson eyes met yours and he smiled seeing your mouth stuffed with his cock. He gasped when you swirled your tongue around his tip. “Oh! Do that again!” You dragged your lips up his cock and stopped at the tip, gently sucking and swirling your tongue. Then you dipped your head until your lips reached the base, using your tongue to massage the underside of his cock.

You settled into a slow rhythm, taking your time to stroke and slurp his cock. He brushed a piece of your hair behind your ear in an affectionate manner. “I really like the sounds you're making,” he said in reference to the sucking and slight gagging noise that echoed through the room. You hummed as if to return the compliment, the vibrations you sent through his cock drew more pretty moans from him.

His hips jerked as he felt a fire building in the pit of his stomach. “I-I think I might be close to cumming.” He was unsure but he didn’t know what else it could be. The pleasure he felt was now electric, almost becoming too much to handle. “It feels really good.”

Instinctively you brought up a hand to massage his balls before you remembered the scar. So instead you wrapped your hand around his cock. Pumping your fist around the shaft while your mouth worked at his tip. You found your answer when your mouth was flooded with his cum. It was very runny and you couldn’t tell if it was because of his castration or if that was just the way it was.

You pulled off his softening cock, swallowing his release and collecting what dripped from the corner of your mouth with your thumb. Before you could lick it off Juuzou grabbed your wrist. “Can I try it?”

With all of his oddities, you shouldn’t have been surprised. You let him wrap his lips around your finger, getting a taste of his own essence. His face scrunched up. “You drank all of that?”

You laughed, even in his after-sex glow he was still so unapologetically himself.

The next day when you both arrived at the CCG everything seemed normal. Until the elevator doors closed and you two were alone. He stared at you deep in thought. “What’s on your mind ‘Zuya?”

He leaned his body into yours, effectively pushing you against the wall. Before you knew what had happened his fingers were shoved into your mouth. Desire stirred within him as he watched with dark, lidded, eyes while your lips were wrapped around his fingers. A shiver ran up his spine when your tongue traced his stitches. When the elevator doors opened again he pulled away, a string of spit connecting from your lips to his fingers. Juuzou suggested with his usual peppy tone, “You should give me another blowjob sometime.”

[simpcityy]

My Little Spawn Pt.3 (Dadstarion X Child!Reader)

Summary: Astarion was finally free from Cazador after being kidnapped by a mindflayer but he was stuck with one annoying task, you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Baldur's Gate 3 or any of its characters.

Word Count: 2.1k

Warnings: Use of (Y/N), Cazador, language, violence, spoilers for those who haven't gone far in the game, mentions of blood, animal death...Uhhh...I think that is all.

Authors Note: Thank you all so much for the support! I am so glad you are all loving this series so far! As always please, like, reblog and comment if you are loving this series and hopefully others would like it as well. Also...THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 500 FOLLOWERS. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST. Since we reached this number, I would do another father figure series because I feel I'm much better at that than a romance x reader version. Who should it be? Gale? Wyll? Rolan? Gortash? So many choices!

  Astarion leans against the rocky wall watching you get swarm by the female druids and Tieflings coddling you from how adorable you are. He lets out a small smile seeing you pout as the ladies coo at you. He thinks back to the discovery he found out 2 nights ago. Dhampir, when has Cazador ever been involved with a human. More importantly which dumb female wants to be in a relationship with Cazador. He looks at you seeing you trying to squirm away from the ladies. He sudden thinks back how protective Cazador was with you. Never letting you step out of the palace even at night….no…he wasn’t protecting you but rather himself. He’s raising you as a spawn to conceal the reality of your powers. What a bastard but then again Astarion is not surprised, it’s Cazador after all.  

 You finally had enough of this ladies and burst out crying “Astarion!” You wail feeling overwhelmed. He sighs and walks over “Excuse me Ladies, I think the little one has enough and I hate for them to get cranky.” He picks you up walking away from the pouting ladies. “Now, now, there is no need to cry” He sighs and rubs your back as you whimper clinging on to his armor. “Don’t like the attention or what?” He asked as you only kept quiet whimpering a couple times laying your head on his shoulder trying to relax. He leans his head back trying to look at you, “Are…you okay, so odd of you to be quiet.” He mutters trying to find the group in the grove. “I just miss home…I miss papa…and everyone else…” You mutter. He sighs “there, there but you have me no?” He hums walking through the grove enjoying this simple conversation with you. “I want to go home…my clothes don’t fit much…it hurts me and I miss my toys!” You whine. Astarion lets out a chuckle “Oh what a spoiled little spawn…well creature…eh, you’ll always be a little spawn to me.” He puts you down looking at you, it was true, he did notice you were an inch taller than yesterday and your clothes did look a bit tight. “Oh you weren’t kidding…” He thinks looking around “Dhampir do grow faster and mature faster….” He mutters to himself before going to a trader seeing if they have anything in stock, fabric even. 

As he was busy, you stray from him as you spotted a few tiefling children playing. You ran over smiling “Can I play!” You stood in front of them. “Sure! You’re from Baldur’s gate aren’t you by the way you talk and dress?” One of them smiles, “What games do you play at home?” One asked. You think carefully. Games, well you play ball by yourself, Cazador has you learn reading and writing. “I…um…I don’t know…usually papa has me studying and sends his people to play with me.” You held your hands behind your back and kick your feet in a shy manner. “Oh…you’re those kinds…Um….I think I heard my mom calling” They quickly left as the others give other excuses and leave you alone. You only look down and grab the ball they dropped bouncing it on your own. “What’s the matter?” Gale walks over seeing the scene. You look up, eye glossy trying not to let tears fall down. “Making friends is hard…” You whisper “Back home there is no other children playing with me…” Gale looks at you thinking back to himself as a young child. “It is isn’t it?” He smiles gently grabbing the ball from you and tossing it to you playing. You smile giggling and toss it back to him. “I don’t have any friends at home to play with, papa never lets me leave the big castle…” You catch the ball as it was tossed back. “Is that so? I know how it feels to be lonely…how about this.” He catches the ball and placed it down as he squats to your height. “(Y/N) would you like to be my friend?” He smiles as your eyes widen gasping. “You mean it!” Your little body bouncing with excitement. Gale nods waiting for your response. “Yes!” You bounce happily “ I have to tell Astarion!” You ran off to find the pale elf. Gale chuckles watching run off to bother Astarion with a big smile on your face.  

The next day You were told to stay in the grove. Shadowheart chuckles watching you pouting away eating whatever was given to you. “I want to go out too!” You look up at her. She only sighs “How do I deal with children…you want to go out you say? I guess we can outside the gates and collect some herbs. I know everyone is going to need healing after this battle.” Getting up, she held your hand and walked outside of the grove. You ran around happily collecting flowers for everyone. “What am I supposed to collect?” You asked her. She smiles fixing your hair “See this herb right there, that’s what we need.” She points as your eyes follow the direction she was pointing at. You ran over picking it up smiling and collected more. She only sits by the rock watching you over as you collected whatever caught your little eye. You hum the same tune Cazador would hum to you. Collecting flowers you stopped seeing a bunny hop around in the distance. Shadowheart was busy playing with the artifact like a rubik's cube only to look up hearing the poor bunny squeal in the distance. She panics not seeing you and gets up putting the artifact away. “(Y/N)!?” She follows the sound before going down a small path behind a rock wall seeing you drain the blood of the poor bunny. You look up at her blood soaking your shirt and your lips stained. “What…are you doing?” She slowly walks over to you and kneels by you. You look at him “I…I didn’t mean to…I wanted to play with the bunny but…” You began to wail feeling overwhelmed by these urges. “Oh please don’t cry.” Shadowheart panics looking around, not knowing what to do in this scenario. “Where is the Spawn when you need him…okay. Let’s clean you up and a nap will help” She holds your hand ignoring the blood and toss the rabbit on the side into a bush for a wolf or other animal to chow on. She walks to the river and makes you wash your hands. “Relax, everything is going to be okay.” She whispers as you whimper. She collects water into her palm and rubs off the blood from your shirt the best of her ability. She sighs seeing the shirt to be now discolored into the blood stain. “Your bag is in the grove….we can’t let them see you like this.” She wipes your cheeks clean as well. You look over hearing the bush rustle behind her. Shadowheart quickly picked you up and took out her mace. “Who goes there!” She glares. You cling to her only to tear up seeing Astarion walk out of the bush. 

“There you are, I thought I smelled blood near the gate.” He was out of breath and bruised from the battle they came back. His hair was all over the place and had a panicked look on his face. Shadowheart puts her mace away “Don’t scare me like that! I could’ve swing!” She scolds at him. He paid no attention to her as he walks over seeing your face stained in tears and a scared look. He noticed your clothes stained in blood. He took you from her arms and held you close, his hand on the back of your head. “What in the hells were you thinking?! I thought it was your blood I smelled all the way from the gates! I thought you got hurt!” He yells but not loudly knowing how much you hate it. You only laid your little head on his shoulder crying into his shoulder, your fist clinging on to him. He softens a bit feeling your little shoulders shake, you were scared. “What happened?” He looks at Shadowheart ready to pin this on her. “What did you do to them!” He glares at her. Hearing the commotion, Tav found them along with the others following. “What’s going on? Why is (Y/N) crying?” Tav walks over ready to stop Astarion seeing the murderous glare at the young woman. “What did you do!” He repeats to her, holding you close. “Their Dhampir side came out…” Shadowheart looks at him, feeling a bit speechless seeing him get this overprotective. She snaps out of it and points to the bunny in the bush. Gale walks over but turns around quickly “If you have a weak stomach…I suggest not looking” He covers his mouth. Tav walks over and looks at the bunny. “Gods…its in pieces….” They whisper. Hearing their comments made you tear up. They think your a monster, they won’t be your friends anymore…they won’t take you to see your home and papa anymore. You only hide your face more, letting out choked sobs. “Enough! Think before you speak.” Astarion held you close “We just hide the damn bunny and do our best to cheer them up…they are feeling overwhelmed and not themselves…gods do you people ever use your brain?” He walks off holding you close. 

  Night fell, you were in Astarion tent, in the corner. The pale elf walks in holding food, “Your still human…you need to eat this….we can start implementing human foods more than blood to control that urge.” He sits by you. You only look at the plate, hugging your knees and shake your head no. “(Y/N)...it was okay what you did…it’s in your nature…and I know your scared…I was too…when I first became a spawn….” He whispers softly and scoots closer only for you to scoot away. “ No…I don’t want to you…or anyone…like I did to Mr.Bunny..” You tear up. “Is that why mommy didn’t want me…am I a monster…they…probably won’t be my friends anymore” You whispers thinking back their reaction to the bunny. Astarion looks at you before grabbing your arm, you gasp and try to wiggle away, scared to hurt him only to feel a warm embrace. Astarion held you close, planting a kiss on the top of your head. “By hells, you are speaking nonsense little spawn.” He rubbed your back. “If they thought of us as monster, we wouldn’t be here now…they…are odd in their own ways you know so no one is perfect.” He grabbed the plate “Now eat up” He feed you a piece of fish and sat you on his lap, making sure you ate. You happily munched feeling slightly better. 

  After finishing your food, you laid your little head on Astarions chest as he held you close in one arm while the other was busy reading a book about Dhampir’s he found in a box. Your little doe eyes look up seeing everyone walk to Astarion’s tent. You cling to him feeling anxious only to calm down as Astarion rubs your little arm, “Relax, they come bearing gifts” He hums. Gale was the first one to talk “(Y/N), it was rude of me to…you know…having a weak stomach but you have nothing to worry about, I will always be your friend.” He smiles and leans down leaving down a purple wrapped gift on the ground for you smiling. He rubs your head “Sleep well” He whispers before being pushed back by Karlach, “Hey little soldier! Look what I got you” She smiles placing the small stuff bear in your arms which you happily accepted. “Thank you” You whisper shyly hugging the bear. Shadowheart smiles as it was her turn. “I got you some pretty flowers and made a couple of bracelets, we both have one. “ She shows off hers and place the other next to Gale’s gift. Tav walks over smiling and crouched next to you and Astarion. “Mine…you’ll have to wait because I promise…I will take you back home” They pat your head. Upon hearing this, you gasp. “You mean it! I get to see my papa soon!” You sat up. 

Astarion leans back watching you interact happily with everyone, that fear gone. He chuckles seeing you yawn and rub your eyes. “Alright little spawn time for sleep.” He looks at the others shooing them away from his tent and picks you up, fixing the bedroll and lays down, holding you close. He wasn’t going to let you go through this alone, not on his watch. You’re his little spawn after all.

[tobysbliss]

22 (“What do you think you’re dOHOING!”) with lee!alastor and lee!charlie? Pls? :3

(Ik u meant ler charlie dw ^^)

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Alastor was just minding his buisness, as one does.

He stood ominously, observing what was happening in his surroundings: Angel flirting with Husk.. nothing new. Niffty running around the room, yelling “Stab! Stab!” while stabbing the bugs that speedily crawled around the floor, fruitlessly attempting to evade the blade in Niffty’s hand. Lucifer was asleep on the floor, of all places. ‘Such a strange man..’ Alastor thought to himself. Vaggie was nowhere to be found.. Typically normal; She has off days and avoids the group for a break sometimes.

But Charlie was nowhere in sight, either.

That was odd.

“Hm.” Alastor hummed, his eyes expressed his slight confusion, his smile not once faltering. It never did. He had to rely purely on his eyes to show his true emotions.

A set of arms wrapped wrapped his torso. His eyes widened and he couldn’t help the way he flinched. He was startled by the sudden contact, though he quickly relaxed once the one hugging him finally spoke.

“Alastor!”

Charlie.

The one person he feels he’d begun to trust, as much as he’d rather die (again) than admit it. Though, it is quite obvious how he feels about the princess.

“Ah, Charlie!” Alastor exclaimed, turning himself around and gently pushing Charlie off. “Where have you been? I don’t believe I’ve seen you since this morning.”

“I’ve been with Vaggie,” Charlie craned her neck to look Alastor in the eyes. “She said she wants to be alone for a little now, so I came to see how everyone’s doing!”

“Oh, trust me, my dear, everyone’s doing just fine!” Alastor kept his usual cheery tone. “Well, maybe aside from Husker; Angel Dust has been pestering him the whole afternoon.” The deer chuckled, the sound of his radio-filtered voice filling the room. It always made him stand out; you could always tell whenever he was around whether you could see him or not.

He liked that.

“Okay, so, I had an idea.. or, a theory, earlier, and I want to try it!” Charlie grinned, seemingly excited. This behavior from the princess was nothing new.

“Well, as I have said before, I am happy to fulfill your bizarre requests, my dear! What is it that you’d like to try, must I do anything to help?” Alastor leaned forward on his microphone, which he typically treated as a cane.

“Okay, close your eyes— You have to trust me, okay?” Charlie put her hands together and bounced on her heels. Alastor chuckled, and closed his eyes.

“My dear, what exactly are you doing hERE!? Chaharlihie!?” Alastor’s eyes shot open, radio static escaping him as his ears pinned down against his head. He looked down at the girl infront of him. “What do you think you’re dOHOING!?”

“Tickling you! And my theory was right; You are ticklish! Oh, this is so cute, why did you keep this hidden!?” Charlie almost squealed from her excitement at this new discovery, her fingers scribbling up and down the deer’s sides.

“Dohon’t be so lohOUD ABOhout ihit, my dehear!” Alastor lightly grabbed onto Charlie’s hands, though he didn’t make much of an effort to push her away.

“Aww, Alastor!” Charlie cooed, “You’re so ticklish, this is adorable!” She brought her hands up to his ribs, eliciting radio static followed by a fit of loud laughter.

“ChahAHARLIE! Ohoh, nohot thERE!” Alastor doubled over and his knees buckled. Charlie caught him before he hit the ground and gently layed him on the floor.

“Oh, is this a good spot?” Charlie teased and vibrated her fingers on the spaces between the bones. “I can’t believe how ticklish you are!”

“Okay, okAHAHAY! Mehercy, CHAHARLIE! PLEASE!” Alastor pleaded, and Charlie obliged.

“You know, you didn’t really ask me to stop during that..” Charlie smirked as she noticed Alastor’s eyes widen for a quick second. “Did you like that?”

Alastor stayed silent for a moment before speaking. “You tell no one, or else I will not have mercy.” He warned, leaning forward to taser Charlie’s sides. The look on the deer’s face went smug as she squealed.

“Point taken! Your secret is safe with me..” Charlie put her hands up in surrender.

“Good girl.” Alastor patted Charlie on the head as he stood up.

“Well, my dear, as much as I’d love to continue this interaction, I do have some errands to run,” He brushed his hands on his coat, smoothing it out a little before placing his hands behind his back. He turned and made his way to exit the hotel before calling out behind him, “Tell Vaggie I wish her well!”

Alastor’s secret was definitely not safe with Charlie; She immediately went and told Vaggie about what happened.

She was sure she’d be fine, it’s not like Vaggie would go around saying anything.

Right?

[thatfeelinwhenyou]

HANDS ON YOU — 044

IN WHICH; ILAND 2 happened and you debuted first place as the leader of LUMIÉRE. Having been told that your group is involved in a lore crossover with ENHYPEN, you navigate work, friendship, and love while trying to make it in an industry filled with animosity and condemnation. When life throws you lemons, you gotta make lemonades chuck it right back!

smau + written (2.2k words 💀)

❥･• chapter 44 - i will go to you like the first snow

With a soft smile playing on your lips, you stroll at the back, quietly observing the girls as they excitedly chatter among themselves. Your heart swells with affection as you watch their camaraderie, their bond shining brightly like a beacon of hope. There’s an undeniable warmth that fills the air, a sense of accomplishment and victory that lingers around your team.

As you make your way to the green room, anticipation builds within you—tonight is the night of your collaboration performance with ENHYPEN. Moments ago, Lumière, against all odds, stood on the grand stage of MAMA, accepting the prestigious Rookie of the Year award. It's an honour that can only be claimed once, reserved solely for those who are still on the path of discovery, brimming with untapped potential. You find comfort in the fact that the seven of you persevered, managing to come out on top of all the shit and drama that threatened to break you apart.

Clutching the trophy in your hand, you find reassurance in its weight. It serves as a tangible reminder—a testament to your capabilities as Lumière's leader and how you haven’t somehow already managed to fucked things up completely.

In fact, it's proof that you've flourished—a growth that can't be measured by external validation alone. It's a sense of resilience, unity, and growth within the team, forged through fighting on the front lines of a glorified excuse for a brutal industry. You are convinced that this is the reason that your team emerged victorious in the face of adversity.

As you revel in the victory, a sudden yelp escapes your lips when an unknown force pulls you to the side, leading you into a dimly lit room. Panic washes over you, momentarily clouding your senses, but just as quickly, a familiar voice pierces through the darkness, soothing your racing heart. "Hi there, Princess, it's me," he utters, his voice a gentle caress.

Your eyes gradually adjust to the dimness, revealing the captivating sight before you; Heeseung, your now-boyfriend, stands there, his doe-like eyes filled with an affectionate glow. Your racing heart settles, and a smile graces your lips. In the dimness, his features become more defined, and you're captivated by his tender expression. It’s almost as if right behind the door you are currently being pinned against aren’t a myriad of people who could and would bring you and Heeseung’s careers down with ease if they so desired to.

However, in the intimate space, time seems to suspend, granting you a stolen moment together. His presence is a sanctuary, a refuge from the chaos of the outside world. His hand reaches out, his thumb gently tracing circles on the side of your ribs, his touch sending shivers of anticipation down your spine. The room becomes a universe of its own, where only the two of you exist. In his arms, you feel safe and cherished.

"I wanted to steal a moment alone with you," he whispers, his voice full of tenderness. "Congratulations, Y/N. I’m so proud of you…” Heeseung trails off as his gaze finds its destination on your lips; the corner of your lips twitches upward, and a flicker of amusement dances in your eyes as you catch on to his intentions.

“Are you really here to congratulate me?” You tease, raising an eyebrow in playful scepticism. Heeseung lets out a mock scoff and mischievously pokes your sides, knowing damn well that you were ticklish. You let out a sharp scream, and Heeseung internally panics as he quickly covers your mouth with his palm. Your wide-eyed gazes lock as the both of you try your hardest to hold in the urge to laugh, though you fail miserably after a few seconds.

"They're probably searching for me right now, but I'll catch you later?" you say, flashing a warm smile. Reluctantly, Heeseung releases his hold on your waist, but not before placing a gentle, chaste kiss on your cheek. The touch of his lips sends a delightful shiver down your spine, and you playfully smack his chest, cheeks flushed with a rosy hue. Glancing around the empty room, though well aware that no one is watching, you can't help but feel a shy thrill in the air.

A wild surge of confidence courses through your veins, emboldening you to lean in and place a mischievous peck, this time not on his cheeks but on his lips. The brief contact sends a jolt of electricity between you, and Heeseung's mind struggles to catch up with the sudden intimacy. Before he can fully comprehend what just happened, you swiftly dart out of the room, leaving him standing there, his heart racing and his lips tingling with the lingering warmth of your kiss.

As ENHYPEN wraps up their performance, your heart races, only this time from the excitement of your impending collaboration stage. Not even for your own group’s stage were you this nervous. Standing with the rest of the girls backstage, you anxiously wait for the slight intermission as the boys hurriedly change into their stage outfits for "Twilight," perfectly matching the aesthetic of your own.

In the midst of the backstage chaos, your eyes lock with Heeseung's, and a mischievous spark dances between you. He flashes you a cheeky grin—an unspoken invitation laced with playful intent. You try your best to ignore it to maintain your composure, but a subtle smile unconsciously tugs at the corners of your lips.

The intermission seems to stretch on forever as anticipation builds, amplifying the energy pulsating through your veins. Every passing second feels like an eternity, and you can't help but steal glances in Heeseung's direction, his presence becoming a magnetic force drawing you closer.

Finally, the stage lights dim, and the familiar opening notes of "Twilight" fill the air. It's time. With synchronised precision, you and the girls take your positions on stage, your hearts pounding with a mixture of nerves and exhilaration.

As the spotlight finds you, casting an ethereal glow, you catch Heeseung's gaze once again. There's an undeniable connection, an unspoken understanding that transcends the boundaries of the stage. The music swells, enveloping you both in its enchanting embrace, and you allow yourself to surrender to the magic of the moment. In perfect harmony, your voices intertwine, creating a symphony that resonates deep within the souls of everyone present. The chemistry between you and Heeseung is palpable, a magnetic pull that draws the audience into your world, captivated by the raw emotions you convey through your performance.

With every step and every note, you communicate a hidden language, expressing emotions that words fail to convey as the distance between you and Heeseung diminishes until you find yourselves standing face to face, your voices harmonising in perfect unity. The stage fades away, and it's as if there are only the two of you, suspended in a world of music and unspoken desires as you lean into the ending pose of your solos.

"Thanks for bringing us back, Manager-nim," you say, bowing respectfully as you watch your team's father figure drive off in the van that had brought you home. The atmosphere is filled with a sense of serenity as the girls process their whirlwind of emotions, almost as if they were still trying to distinguish between the realms of dreams and reality. Reality is—you, the girls, and ENHYPEN absolutely broke the internet after your collaboration stage.

It’s not like you did not expect this reaction, but when you see your name trending right beside that of Heeseung, you can’t help but feel scared. God, you couldn’t even bring yourself to click onto your name, in fear that the hate comments would be too much for you to handle. Despite Heeseung reassuring you multiple times that he didn’t care what people had to say about you, hate comments are still hate comments. To be frank, it doesn’t even bother you. What bothers you is what people had to say about Heeseung; how him being around you is going to eventually end up ruining him and his career. Times like this, you curse at your altruistic nature for caring too much about the people around you over yourself. Unbeknownst to you, it’s actually one of the few attributes that Heeseung admires about you.

Your gaze shifts to Ray, who clings tightly to Aejeong, lost in her own thoughts while marvelling at the Rookie of the Year trophy that the team had miraculously secured. You’re reminded of the whole messy ordeal three months ago, and you release a sigh of relief that the two girls are now as close as they can possibly get.

In the frigid winter night, with the cover of the night and temperatures well below zero, it's no wonder that any passerby would be puzzled to see you all just standing there. Yoon breaks the silence, voicing the sentiment that's been on everyone's mind. "Gosh, I can't believe it's over," she says, her words hanging in the air.

“Three months of hard work for those three minutes is actually mind-blowing,” Minjung adds, though her soul didn't seem fully intact. You were all exhausted, and it shows so evidently in the way you spoke and walked, but your spirits remain high, resonating with vibrant energy. With a chuckle, you sling your arm around the youngest member, bringing her back to the present. "Let's go inside, shall we? It's freezing!" you suggest, and the other girls nod instinctively as the voice of their trusted leader fills the air.

Just as you're about to step into the warmth of the dorm, your phone chimes, followed by a message from Heeseung.

*more text below*

You cautiously scan your surroundings, ensuring that you're alone as you slowly approach the obscure spot atop a small hill just off the main roads of the Han River. As Heeseung had said, there wasn’t a single soul present in the vicinity, and you figured that no sane person was stupid enough to sit by the Han River at 2 a.m. in the morning, in the middle of winter at that.

You look around for Heeseung, but he is nowhere to be seen, and you wonder if he really froze to death before you got there. You chuckle as you spot the familiar silver hair peeking out behind a tree, which did not actually do much to hide his huge frame.

“Hmm… I wonder where Lee Heeseung could be.” You taunt, injecting a hint of sarcasm into your voice, as you stand by the tree.

“Haha, you’re so funny.” Heeseung pouts, revealing himself and immediately enveloping you in his embrace. He gently rests his chin atop your head, reminding you once again that this man effortlessly towers over you, in contrast to the multiple times he had his head nestled in your chest as he slept. Leaning into his warmth, you press your cheeks against the sturdy frame of his chest, listening to the rhythmic beat of his heart. This is real, and Lee Heeseung is unquestionably not a mere figment of your imagination.

“What’s gotten into you? You’ve been so clingy lately.” Your words were muffled in his chest but still audible for him to hear.

“I don’t know… Every time I have a moment to breathe, my mind just wanders off to you. It makes me wonder what it would be like if we weren't idols—I could see you more often and wake up by your side. No need to constantly worry about dispatch or sasaengs, just you and me," he confesses, his voice tinged with conflicted emotions, hinting that this has been weighing on his mind for longer than he let on.

You pull away from his embrace before bringing your hands up to cup his cheeks in your palms, tip-toeing to place a tender kiss on his forehead. “Lee Heeseung, this is your dream. I don’t want you second-guessing yourself when you worked so hard to get here. No matter what, it will always be you and me—just against the world.”

With those words, Heeseung pulls you in, his lips meeting your own in a soft, syncronised chaconne. The intensity of the moment threatens to escalate into a passionate makeout session if it weren’t for the cold sensation of what felt like a snowflake landing on the tip of your nose.

“Look! It’s snowing!” You exclaim, stretching out your palm towards the sky with childlike excitement. Heeseung watches fondly, his gaze filled with nothing but utmost affection for the woman he never imagined he’d be with at the start of all this.

“Now you have nothing to worry about, Hee,” you reassure him, your smile so gentle that it melts even the deepest crevices of his heart, instantly warming him up.

“You know what they say, that witnessing the first snowfall with the person you like ensures true and lasting love.” Memories of your mother's wise words flood your mind, harking back to a time when you were oblivious to the concept of love as you frolicked in the snow. Now, you can confidently say you know what it feels like to love and be loved.

Lost in the enchantment of the falling snowflakes, you stare wistfully at the sky, unaware that Heeseung has swiftly snapped a photo of you; capturing this moment he did not ever want to forget. He found his place in your arms, as you have found yours in his. For as long as the universe permits, he’ll keep you close, his hands on you, shielding you from the world's adversities. As you said, it’s just you and him against the world.

“Y/N,” Heeseung’s voice breaks the serene silence of the night, and you turn to face him.

“Hm?”

“I love you.” With that, you know instantly you’d forever and always go to him like the first snow, telling him over and over again that you love him too before it manages to melt.

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♡。·˚˚· ·˚˚·。♡

authors note: i hope y’all enjoyed reading this chapter because this took me forever to write 😭���� anw we’re reaching the end soon!!!

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[fizzyfizu]

Accursed in the Lake’s Depths

THE ARCHIVES ₊˚.༄

(MASTERLIST)

Prolouge:

      It is common knowledge that at the start of every term in Hogwarts, a short speech is held by the headmaster to welcome back students.  But one thing that the students have noticed is that ever since Armando Dippet was headmaster—it is always mentioned that if you're looking for a place to study or hang out, the Black Lake is a great place to do such things; since then the Black Lake has become even more littered with students.  But the sudden mention of the lake caused the rise of rumours related to it on why the sudden interest, courtesy of bored students.  One of the most popular rumours involves a girl who disappeared from Hogwarts grounds in her 4th year decades ago.  The tale goes that the girl has been bound to the bottom of the lake as punishment for something she had done, what she did is still speculated though, and that Dippet encourages students to congregate around the Black Lake to further punish her—as if to show her what she is missing out on if only she didn't do what she had done.

Chapter 1.1 - A Late Start

Summary: - After being woken up by Dobby 10 minutes before the start of the 2nd task, Harry finds himself rushing to get to the venue. The venue being the Black Lake, otherwise known as the Great Lake. Once again thanks to Dobby, Harry is now in the possession of more than enough gillyweed to last him the full 1 hour limit.

Chapter 1.2 - A Cold Reception, Literally

Summary: - Professor Moody approaches Harry to ask for an update on his game plan, and much to his pleasure, Harry has one. After Bagman's count, Harry enters the cold, freezing waters. For a moment he panics, but after a few moments he finds himself mentally thanking Dobby profusely.

Chapter 1.3 - An Odd Discovery

Summary: - Harry finds himself in a thick grove of seaweed and murky waters. Yet, even with low vision, he saw glimpses of multiple merpeople who were clearly guarding something. Wrongly assuming the merpeople to be guarding the task, he ventures deeper, eventually finding himself in a clearing. What he found made him question the clue given to him, but he pushed those thoughts aside and went to retrieve his discovery anyways.

Chapter 2.1 - The Taste of Freedom

Summary: - You have finally been freed from your temporary prison. While being carried by Harry (who thinks you are still unconscious), you decide that you cant wait to feel what it feels like to move again anymore and stop the act. The two of you exchange incredibly awkward greetings for the first time.

Chapter 2.2 - Thanks & Introductions

Summary: - After Harry helps you to your feet once more, you find it within yourself to be the icebreaker between you two as the situation gets increasingly awkward. After exchanging names, you offer your thanks, during all this you notice the student-packed stands in the near distance. Harry is immediately surrounded by his friends and Dumbledore requests that you make a visit to his office soon.

Chapter 3 - Fawley? F-A-W-L-E-Y

Summary: - After being dismissed, you finally get to buddying up with Harry's friends. After a short introduction from Ron, Hermione bombards you with questions, some being concerningly..close. She decides to wrap up her ramble after Ron's interruption, and it's decided that the four of them will make their way to the great hall for lunch. Guess you'll have to postpone the meeting with Dumbledore..

Chapter 4.1 - Navigate Through Hogwarts

Summary: - You excuse yourself from the group as the four of you near the great hall, you start to navigate yourself through Hogwarts, during the process you run into Peeves (and get drenched). You also run into the Fat Friar, who helps lead you to Dumbledore's office.

Chapter 4.2 - Discussions with Dumbledore

Summary: - You are finally going to smoothen things out with Dumbledore. After admiring his office for a few moments, you start discussing future plans now that you are no longer restrained in the Black Lake.

Chapter 5 - Trouble with the Caretaker

Summary: - After taking your time to freshen up in your new dorm room, you decide to roam around the school to refresh your memory. You end up getting caught by Hogwarts' caretaker.

[curiousquirks]

How About A Little Game? (Shota Aizawa x GN!Reader)

Content Warnings: DUB-CON, Gags (cloth), Bondage (chain, handcuffs), Aphrodisiacs, Sex Toys, Oral (male receiving), slight Forced Orgasm, Gender-Neutral Reader (fic is mostly center on Aizawa)

Word Count: 2,636

A/N: This was a request for @princeasimdiya12 ! This took longer than I expected BUT I hope the length of it will make up for that <3 First Aizawa reader insert so please be kind aha ʕ´•ᴥ•`ʔ

Summary:

“We’re gonna play a little game. I’m sure you can feel the effects of my little secret helper already. I’d let you figure everything out on your own but I’m getting a little impatient.” You began explaining, a grin spread across your face. Shota felt a pit in his stomach, which is not a feeling he likes being accustomed to. “I want to test your willpower. Your resolve. Your limits. But once you give me what I want, I won't let you go.”

Heavy footsteps roused Shota from his dizzy haze, his eyes were heavy as he tried processing his surroundings. He lifted his head slowly, spotting your blurry form approaching him. He willed all his strength into activating his quirk, his eyes straining as his hair started lifting up off of his shoulders. 

“There’s no need for that now.” Your voice echoed in his head, as the adrenaline shot through his body fully rousing him into alertness. “It’s not going to help you much.”

He kept his eyes locked onto you, not trusting any words out of your mouth. He quickly assessed his situation. He pulled his arms towards his body, figuring out that they were handcuffed behind his back and attached to the chair he was stuck in. A quick tug on his feet told him something heavy was attached around his ankles preventing him from lifting his feet too far off the ground. A cloth wrapped around his face proved a simple gag method, but he knew there had to be more to it than that. The strangest discovery in this was that he was stripped nude.

“This will be enjoyable for you, don’t worry.” You began explaining, moving closer to him. Your hand carefully reached out, cupping his chin as you turned his face side to side like you were studying him. “If you play along, of course. More so if you lose.” 

Shota tried snatching his face away from your hand, a growl slipping through the fabric covering his mouth. Your grip tightened, holding him in place, as you clicked your tongue in disapproval. You heard the metal handcuffs clank loudly against the chair he was in, his desperate but useless attempts to free himself just amusing you further. You roughly shove his face away from you as you move behind him. His head struggled to follow you, not able to keep his eyes on you from the angle. 

After a moment’s pause, Shota tried to prepare himself for whatever it was your sick head was planning, before his eyes shot towards the movement he caught in the corner of his eye. He watched, confusion filling his head even further as you wrapped another cloth gag around his face. 

“Wht ah yw ghng?” Shota’s muffled voice came through the fabric. "Ltt mh gh!”

You continued making sure the cloth was secure around his face, ignoring his pointless struggles against you. You reached back, picking up another cloth before reaching around to tie it around the back of his head, just like the last one. He had lunged himself forward, trying to put distance between himself and you. He jerked his head to the side, before your hands slammed him back against the chair. He paused, the sudden action jarring him for only a moment. That’s when he picked up on an odd scent.

Something was wrong.

You immediately picked up on the change in body language. “You noticed it.” You said, slightly praising his ability. You thought it was more subtle. “Now if you’re willing to listen, you might find a solution. But you won’t know unless you listen.”

You heard the chains move on the ground, your eyes instinctively moving to look at the chain attached to his feet. You didn’t worry for a second, especially since it was bolted to a piece of large and heavy metal. “If you play along, I’ll be sure to let you go.” You informed him, knowing how skeptical he probably was. “It’s pretty simple. If you get out, I’ll let you go free without any more complications.”

Nothing leaving your mouth sounded truthful or good to Shota. This was a sick and devious set up and he still wasn’t sure how he even got caught to begin with. He needed to come up with a way out of here. Fast. Something was starting to affect his body, it had to be something laced in the cloth you were wrapping around his face. He could tell his breathing was getting faster, it wasn’t because of the cloth either. 

Something was wrong.

Your hands reached forward with the cloth again, knowing that it was no doubt taking effect by now. You wrapped it around his face, tying it behind his head. Your fingers snaked through his hair before you gripped a section tightly, forcing his head back. His eyes locked with yours instantly, a slight wince on his face as his eyes burned. You took a second to admire how his hair felt, as it tried to maintain its composure despite your resistance to it. 

“We’re gonna play a little game. I’m sure you can feel the effects of my little secret helper already. I’d let you figure everything out on your own but I’m getting a little impatient.” You began explaining, a grin spread across your face. Shota felt a pit in his stomach, which is not a feeling he likes being accustomed to. “I want to test your willpower. Your resolve. Your limits. But once you give me what I want, I won't let you go.”

You shoved his face forward, letting go of his hair as you grabbed the final cloth you wanted to wrap around his face. You quickly laid it on top of the others and went to tie it behind his head. This was laced with more aphrodisiacs than the others. 

“I want you begging. Desperate. I want you to come for me, but if you don’t, I’ll let you go free.” You said, making sure the fabric was tight enough. You leaned right next to his ear, your hot breath nearly causing a shiver to run down his spine. “You feel it, don't you? Doesn’t it feel good?”

You glanced down towards his lap, watching with glee as his hardening cock twitched with the same intensity as the muscles in his legs. It was pulsing and already starting to leak pre-cum. A thin layer of sweat was coating his body as he struggled to breath clearly, the scent filling his lungs with a severity he couldn’t keep up with. Your footsteps on the stone floor echoed heavily in his head as you moved around in front of him. He struggled to keep his eyes open, maintaining just enough of himself to keep his quirk on you. 

“Th– Mm ehngh!” He yelled through the fabric. He knew he’d eventually have to choose when to conserve his quirk, knowing that he couldn’t keep it up forever. Who knows how long he’d be stuck here with your sick games. 

You watched him for a moment, crossing your arms. You propped your foot up onto the edge of the chair, dangerously close to him. He tried scooting back out of instinct with a beautiful mix of anger, hatred, and pure lust swirling in those dark eyes of his. You had a primal look on your face as you ate up his slowly collapsing willpower. You just knew that if you touched him right now he’d make the loveliest sounds. 

“I aim to keep my word, Eraser Head. I always keep my word. I’ll free you, if you play along correctly but I will have a little fun first.” You explained, lifting your foot up before pressing it against his cock. You slowly pressed your foot down, forcing his cock to lay against his stomach. The pressure had him hissing beneath his cloth gag. “You should be thanking me for forcing you to have some quality time for yourself. You’re not a man who lets himself have any alone time to take care of all that aching.”

He scowled, his brows furrowed as he listened to you explain this like you were a concerned lover. He felt sick. Whatever you were drugging him with started to make him lose his focus, though. It wouldn’t be long before he started to lose all of his common sense, something he was dreading. He wouldn’t be thinking straight and that was bad. Surely you’d just kill him after you had your way with him, there’d be no way that you’d just let him go. Maybe you’d slip up at some point and give him an out. He wasn’t going to just give up that easily.

You moved your foot back onto the ground before you had crouched down in front of him. You gently placed your fingers along his skin, watching as he jolted back against your touch. Surprisingly enough for him, he wasn’t doing it out of disgust but because the gentle touches felt electric against his skin. He bit his tongue to stop a moan from escaping his throat as your fingers wrapped around the base of his cock. You slowly pumped your hand around it before running your thumb over the head. You rubbed the beads of pre-cum against the underside, looking up in time to watch Shota’s hair slowly collapse around his head again. He tried preventing it but the sensations buzzing through his lower body caused his eyes to close. 

“Ghleehsh…” He barely muffled through the fabric, his eyes fluttering back open. “Sh–”

A choked noise interrupted his own pleading as his head shot forward when you squeezed an excess amount of lube over his cock. You pumped your hand a few times, thoroughly coating his cock before you stopped abruptly. You stood up and his eyes slowly followed you as you walked somewhere nearby and brought some object back over. His eyes widened as he watched you hold up a tubed silicone sex toy in front of his face. 

“You didn’t think I’d go easy on you, did you?” You laughed, watching the horror wash over his face. You know he didn’t have any chance of actually getting away from you, but the little bit of fight he had in the beginning before the aphrodisiacs kicked in was too perfect.  “Now just relax and let me take care of you.” 

“Mmph!” He shouted through his gag as tried again to foolishly pull back against his restraints. His brain was heavy as he tried desperately to get some sense back into his head. Part of the toy wrapped around the tip of his cock before quickly engulfing it causing Shota’s head to spin. He bit the inside of his cheek as he laid his head back, trying to see if there was some way to get his hands out of the cuffs. 

You moved the toy up and down on his cock, the slick noises echoing throughout the empty warehouse. “It’s foolish to try and get away from me. Once you finally see how good I can make you feel, you’ll stop fighting.” You told him, quickening the pace.

Shota didn’t realize that he had stopped fighting against the restraints or that his eyes had closed. His breathy groans were hot against the inside of the fabric wrapped across his mouth. Warmth bubbled in his core, his legs twitched involuntarily as he struggled to maintain any hope left in him. You were out to get him finished as fast as possible. And it was working. 

“Mngh…shtt ngh.” He moaned, the metal chains around his ankle scraping against the stone ground as shoved his feet down suddenly to buck his hips up. 

“That’s good. So fucking good.” You praised, watching with pure lust of your own an equally budding warmth in your core. “You’re close aren’t you?”

You didn’t even need to ask, watching his hip buck up against the toy as he has lost all composure. You wondered if he would finish this quickly if he wasn’t under the effects of an aphrodisiac. You’d get to test that later all you wanted, especially since he was about to finish. You decided at the last minute that you wanted to do something different though. You stopped suddenly, right before he finished which forced him to lunge forward. His heavy breaths muffled next to your face as his eyes pleaded silently to you with anger and frustration. It was such a pretty combination of emotions.

You grinned again, placing the toy down before placing your hands on his thighs. You rubbed your hands up and down his warm and sweaty bare skin a few times as you leaned impossibly close to his face.

 “I’m sorry, did I stop too soon?” You asked, your voice full of venom as you toyed with him. “I thought you wanted to get free. Do you wanna come?” Your hand wrapped around his throbbing cock, pumping slowly as you alternated with different pressure. “Come on, tell me. You look miserable, I bet you just want to come huh?”

He gritted his teeth, his anger quickly subsiding with the building pleasure again. This damned drug affecting him is making his thoughts disappear just as quickly as they appear. He didn’t care about anything else other than pure lust filled pleasure. Your teasing and jeering was even sending jolts of pleasure straight to his pathetically painful cock right now. Shota wasn’t a man who liked begging but fuck he’d do anything to ease this aching. Anything for you to keep touching him. Just don’t stop.

“Mngh… Ghleeh—Nngh!” He started trying to plead with you before your hot mouth had wrapped around his cock. “Mmph!”

His eyes fluttered shut as he melted into the chair beneath him as his head hung heavy with a hazy cloud. No coherent thoughts passed through head as his body only thought about how good your mouth felt around him, your skilled tongue flicking against the vein along the bottom of his cock. His moans filtered through his gag were music to your ears as you savored the salty taste of his pre-cum and the tangy taste of the lubricant coating him. You moaned against his cock when you felt him twitch eagerly in your mouth. 

Your fingers dug into his bare skin as his legs twitched beneath them, his hip bucking one last time up into your mouth. Hot cum shot into your throat, your gagged moan against his cock forcing a strangled whine from Shota’s throat. You pulled your head off quickly, with a loud pop before you greedily swallowed every drop of his cum. You used the back of your hand to wipe away the saliva starting to drip out the corner of your mouth. You looked down at his still hard cock, which started twitching from the cool air hitting it suddenly. 

You stared at his shaky and breathless form as he struggled to control himself. Despite finding release his body just as quickly ached for more. It was more intense this time. He needed it. You placed your hands on your knees, pushing yourself up into a standing position. You leaned forward, your hand snaking its way back into his hair again as you forced him to look at you. His eyes were glassy and completely dilated. Sweat was coating his body even more now, dripping down off of his forehead.

“Such a good boy, you tasted delicious.” You praised, smiling down at him. His fucked up mindset couldn’t even see how predatory you looked, everything felt genuine as had him instinctively bucking his hips up as his cock begged to be touched by you again. “Do you want more, hm? Do you want to stay here and let me make you feel so good~? I’ll even let you touch me.”

“Ysh, ysh mnhm!” He immediately answered, his eyes widening at your words. He finally caved, the hit of euphoric pleasure had finally drilled away at his last reserve of willpower. You grinned at him, letting go of his hair and laughing as he whined when you moved away from him.

“Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of time together.” You said from behind him, preparing more aphrodisiac. “I don’t intend to stop anytime soon.”

[heliads]

everything is blue • conrisa space au • Chapter Fourteen: Dancing in the Moonlight

Risa Ward escaped a shuttle destined for her certain, painful death. Connor Lassiter ran away from home before it was too late. Lev Calder was kidnapped. All of them were supposed to be dissected for parts, used to advance a declining galaxy, but as of right now, all of them are whole. Life will not stay the same way forever.

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Risa isn’t sure how long this is going to last, but stars, she hopes this sort of feeling sticks around forever. She hasn’t been happy like this– effortlessly, unchangingly happy– in a very long time. Risa was happy in the Graveyard, of course, they all were; they were groundsless who weren’t dead yet, who wouldn’t be? There was always a slim undercurrent of fear running through every one of their conversations, though, the knowledge that even the brightest moments could be swiftly brought down by their eventual discovery.

Now that trap has been sprung, yet Risa still managed to make it out alive. She’s still with Connor despite no longer being in that safe haven. They might be flying straight towards their deaths, but for right now, they are together, together and happy. The little victories are worth twice the big ones, Risa has learned that since she ran away. This one feels like it might be worth her whole life.

That, perhaps, is why she’s okay with the fate that awaits her on the distribution colony. Risa doesn’t want to die, obviously, and she will be fighting tooth and nail to keep herself intact even while she’s breaking her friends out of the colony, but she can take this risk because she trusts Connor with her life. Before this, Risa would have stayed on the ship and never meddled with a danger like this. If she’s got Connor, though, Risa can do anything. Even beat the odds by dragging a small army of Deadmen out of their looming distributions.

Risa never thought of herself as a hero. No one is, not here, not in these worlds. When she was escaping the StaHo shuttle that should have taken her to a similar harvest colony, Risa didn’t stop to usher any of the other kids out. When she and Connor were running through the collapsing corridors of the conquered Graveyard, they didn’t help any distributes they saw. In a survival setting, you have to put yourself first.

Now, though, they finally have the chance to do something good, something that won’t just directly benefit them. There is, of course, the looming threat that the runaways Connor ran into could cancel his fake grounds license, but both of them know that’s not the real reason they’re doing this. Over the course of that year spent in the Graveyard, they made friends, true friends. They can’t simply abandon those friends to their fates just because she and Connor have already gotten themselves out of trouble.

Thus, they’re shipping out to a distribution colony to spare as many kids as they can from dissection. It took a little while to find out the right place to go– the amount of distribution colonies in the galaxy is sickeningly high, even higher than Risa was expecting– but eventually they stumbled across a few mentions of a sudden mass influx of distributes into a particular colony not far from the Graveyard and they knew they had their target.

Now all that’s left to do is to pass the time until they get there at last. Stars, she can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when they touch down. The guards will see some nice ship on their scanners and assume it’s, like, a Centerworld official or something come to see the progress of that particular harvest colony’s child dismemberment systems. They’ll all file up to receive their guests and then two teenagers will file out, an escaped StaHo ward and the Akron AWOL. 

Talk about a surprise. Nothing about this arrival will be good by Centerworld standards. Imagine for a moment that you work for a harvest colony, that you’ve already thrown away enough of your morals to work for a harvest colony, and one day you get visitors. Two visitors exactly, two visitors that are, in fact, Deadmen, and their ship– their ship, it’s called the Unwind. 

Suns, Risa had to practically force that little bit of information out of Connor. He’d been hesitating to tell her the name of the ship like he’s been hesitating to tell her literally everything else, probably out of fear of her judgment. And why shouldn’t she judge? Unwinding is the derogatory term for distribution. Only Unwinds ever use it, because why waste breath on the proper way to call a process designed to end your life in the most horrific way possible? Connor naming his ship, the guardian angel of those fleeing distribution everywhere, after a revolting slang term only used by the damned– Risa can admit it’s something. Stupid or brave, she’s not sure yet. But it’s something.

Risa is wandering around the ship as she is prone to do, taking in every corner and crevice lest she forget what it was like to briefly rule every square inch around her. She’ll miss this later, maybe, having all the open area to herself, knowing that the only other souls aboard were her and Connor, or maybe what she’ll long for most of all was still being alive and knowing the heart beating in her chest was her own.

Regardless, Risa is happy for it. The closer she meanders towards the nav center, the more aware she becomes of a distant sound. It starts off quiet, gradually growing louder as she creeps closer. It’s a gentle rhythm, an occasional melody. The pianist in her simply has to investigate. Eventually, she pokes her head through the door of the nav room to discover Connor messing around with one of the many instrument panels. Each time he presses a button or directs one of the many holodecks in front of him, speakers embedded somewhere in the floors and ceiling change their tune from happy to sad to anything that Connor’s heart desires.

He looks up when he sees her, grinning with excitement. “Did you know they’ve got music in this thing? Tons of songs, old and new. Crazy.”

Risa lets out a slow, disbelieving laugh. Although it sounds insane, she genuinely cannot remember the last time she listened to something like music. Every now and then, Hayden was able to intercept a signal or two with radio frequencies bearing songs, but they were always a little too glitchy or staticky to fully enjoy. They pretended otherwise, of course, anything can pass for greatness in the Graveyard, but they all knew it wasn’t quite the best. What Connor’s playing is perfectly crisp, though, every beat on time, every note in tune. As a musician, albeit a former one, it makes Risa’s heart soar.

“What songs do they have?” She asks, drawing closer so she can check it out.

“Anything,” Connor says, “Come on, let’s pick one.”

They scroll through aimlessly, playing a few seconds of this track or that so they can giggle at the absurd melodies. Rich people have terrible taste. At last, Connor gasps in delight and points at one song title in particular.

“What’s that one? No, it can’t be– Dancing in the Moonlight?”

Risa cocks her head curiously at him. “Do you know it? It looks old.”

“It’s super old,” he says, smiling fondly at some memory or inner thought, “It reminds me of one of my old teachers in school, though. She used to play it on the days I didn’t skip class. Or maybe she played it all of the days, I just didn’t know it because I skipped.”

Risa laughs at that. “Come on, then. Play it. We’ll see if it’s good enough to stay in school.”

Connor rolls his eyes, but he does as told and queues the song. A few seconds later, it starts to play, billowing around them in clear, rolling measures. She taps her foot a little, trying to sense the beat. Connor grins at her, stepping side to side in exaggerated motions. 

Risa grins. “Just as good as you remember?”

“Even better,” Connor tells her. “Come on, dance with me.”

They start to move side by side together. Risa spins a little, just because she can. When she turns back around, Connor is beaming ear to ear. On a whim, she grabs Connor’s left hand with her right, placing his other hand on the small of her back. Two teenagers, swaying together to an upbeat song. It’s been done a million times before all across the galaxy but it still feels like such a startling and sweet surprise for each new couple. Every pair of young souls feels as if they’ve come up with something extraordinary. And, for them, it is.

“Are we waltzing?” Connor asks, wiggling his eyebrows a little to be annoying.

“We are,” Risa decides. “Come on, it’s easy. Box step. Step forward, then to the side, then back again. Simple.”

“Simple,” Connor agrees. She expects to have to lead him a little more, but his steps are easy and assured, and Risa realizes a little too late–

“You know how to do this, don’t you?” She asks.

“A little,” he admits, but he keeps dancing with her anyway. “My parents used to dance like that. I learned along by watching them. Figured it might come in handy sometime. You know, for picking up girls like I do all the time,” he says, flashing Risa an obvious, terrible wink. She laughs anyway and lets him spin her.

This time, when she comes back from the twirl, he’s a little too strong and she ends up closer to him than expected. To catch herself, Risa presses a hand against his chest, but she forgets to pull it away again. She can feel his heartbeat through his shirt and skin. They stop moving, just breathing together there, in and out. Risa is certain that he must sense the way her pulse is pounding.

“Risa,” he whispers. 

She doesn’t pull away. His hand slackens from the small of her back, moving slowly to her waist. He isn’t pushing her away, but he’s giving her an opportunity to leave, if she wants it. Risa doesn’t want it. She only wants him.

She looks up at him. Connor’s eyes are half-lidded, and meet hers as if on the other side of an unfathomable distance. Risa doesn’t think she could say half what she wants to right now, doesn’t even know if she could fully think it, so all she can do is look back at him and hope he understands.

Connor has always understood.

Even now. Even when it’s the one boundary they have yet to cross.

He crosses it. She meets him halfway.

The kiss is a long time coming, Risa thinks. It’s the product of more than a year of endless pining and secrets kept for the benefit of a friendship both of them were scared to lose. However, it turns out there’s something far more valuable than a perpetual friendship, and that is the love that both of them have been hiding behind half-closed doors for almost as long as they’ve known each other. Risa doesn’t know how long Connor has been holding back, but it must have been almost as long as her.

Connor pulls back slightly, tilting his head down so the crown of his head touches her forehead. “Y’know,” he says absentmindedly, “You could have told me you liked me any time back in the Graveyard. You didn’t have to wait until we were about to storm a harvest colony to let me know.”

Risa laughs quietly. “You could have told me, too. Besides, I thought you liked it when I had a flair for drama.”

“I do,” Connor smiles, and kisses her again to prove it. It is just as exhilarating and earth-shattering as the first time. Risa wonders if each and every kiss will sweep her off her feet like this, and immediately wants to test that theory again and again, just to make sure.

Just as Risa begins to think that she might want this forever, an alarm goes off, the piercing klaxon rattling off of the fine walls of the spacecraft. She flinches against Connor’s lips, and he draws back at once.

“That’s the alarm I set to warn me when we were within an hour’s distance of the colony,” he whispers in a daze. His lips are swollen from the kiss, his pupils shot, but the look on his face is nothing short of horror, no sweetness of new love there. “We’re close. It’s coming up on us now.”

Risa draws in a sharp breath. “I thought we had more time.”

Connor looks at her, and the expression on his face is nothing short of heartbreaking. “So did I.”

Is that not what they have always wanted, time? Just when they finally find each other again, when they finally manage to confess the truth that’s been weighing on both of them all of this time, they are interrupted. Risa has no idea if they will survive this. She can hope, of course, but hope is a feeble thing to rest one’s strength on. Hope will always disappear when you need it the most. Hope is no excuse for reality.

Slowly, they make their way to the cockpit. Along the way, they make final preparations to hold a host of newly free distributes. Risa doesn’t ask him if he thinks they’ll survive this, and Connor pretends as if they will. When the colony comes into view, Risa almost doesn’t want to look. She realizes belatedly that this might be one of her last sights, though, so she forces her eyes open again, and what she sees is empty, unearthly stillness.

She tilts her head to the side, considering it. “I don’t see a whole lot of movement on the surface.”

Connor frowns. “Well, maybe they’re keeping all of the kids inside? I mean, they’re probably not letting them run around all the time. Wouldn’t want one of their prisoners to accidentally break a leg or something and ruin their profits.”

His tone is bitter. Risa can’t help but match it. “I don’t even see lights. Surely they want them to be healthy, right? They wouldn’t keep them in total darkness.”

Connor leans forward to get a better look, then points out one particular part of the harvest colony. “No, look over there. That’s light, right?”

Risa peers at it, then nods. “Faint, but yeah, it is. Maybe we angle towards that?”

Connor nods in agreement, manipulating the controls to accordingly change their trajectory. They stand in silent union, hands interlocked, watching the distribution colony loom ever closer. Risa waits for some alarm to be triggered, some sentry ship to be sent after them, but nothing happens.

“I don’t like this,” she says uneasily. “They should have seen us by now.”

“We’ve got good cloaking technology,” Connor mentions hesitantly. “Could be that their scanners just haven’t picked us up yet. To be honest, the fewer confrontations, the better. The element of surprise is best when it’s on our side.”

Risa shrugs, accepting this. Sure, she’s glad not to be fired on immediately, but something about this whole affair still seems off somehow. She can’t help this uncanny sense that something is terribly wrong, and more so than just the fact that they’re taking a crazy risk.

“Five minutes to landing,” Connor announces. “Strap in. I’ll try for a clean landing, but I’m still not an ace pilot yet.”

“You’re excellent at bedside manner, though,” Risa quips.

Connor glances up just long enough to shoot her a wry grin before returning to his controls. Risa takes a seat, buckling herself in just in case. To Connor’s credit, his landing is quite smooth. The second the ships start moving, they’re instantly hurrying to the escape hatch. They won’t have long to make this work, they’ve got to make every second count. Connor tosses Risa a tranq gun then takes one for himself. She flashes him a smile right before they open the hatch.

“We can do this,” she tells him. “We’re getting out.”

“We’re getting out,” Connor agrees, and opens up the hatch. Risa has no idea if they’re lying or not. She supposes she’ll find out soon enough.

They run out as quickly as they can. Risa can see the tower of a security station not far off, which isn’t great. As they hurry towards the doors leading towards the heart of the harvest colony center, Risa waits for Juvey-cops to run out and start shooting at them. Maybe a colony like this, with this many distributes all waiting for their end, would even have hired private soldiers, just in case.

Still, nobody comes. No klaxons blare even despite the obvious intrusion. Risa exchanges a nervous glance with Connor. “Someone should have noticed by now,” she whispers.

Connor nods his agreement. They arrive at the tall gate leading to the center. Connor reaches towards the control panel, but, as it turns out, he doesn’t have to. It’s already been shot to pieces, a small ribbon of smoke rising from the destroyed controls. The doors are cracked open; Connor kicks one open and it falls to the ground completely, the resulting clang echoing off of empty walls. They freeze, but no one comes.

Connor moves to go inside, but Risa holds out an arm to stop him. “Do you smell that?” She asks.

He pauses, then frowns. “Smells like smoke. A lot of it.”

A terrible idea is occurring to Risa. “You know the light you saw when we were nearing the colony? What if it wasn’t the light of a building?”

Connor turns back to her, ignoring the empty doorway behind him. It won’t matter, actually. No one will come to kill him, because no one is here at all. “What if it wasn’t a light?” She repeats, “What if it was a fire? A fire that consumed everything here?”

Connor’s eyes widen. He turns back to the doorway and carefully steps through. Risa joins him a heartbeat later, and together they stare at the empty grounds. Bullet holes riddle the walls, the windows, the ground beneath their feet. Risa hears no sounds save for the wind whistling through holes in the complex and her own harsh breathing.

“Connor,” she says unsteadily, “I think everyone here is gone.”

unwind tag list: @reinekes-fox, @sirofreak, @locke-writes

all tags list: @wordsarelife

[ravenpie52]

Hypothetical Superchargers Season Thoughts

I have been spending some time off and on thinking about how an additional season of Dinotrux would progress. Imagine if the confrontation with D-structs and D-stroy when they took over the crater got pushed back a bit and another season got slipped in. What developments would happen in a season 1.5 of sorts?

As I’ve written about before, the show puts a lot of focus on technological progress and discovery. Now, as much as I’ve thought about it, I just don’t know enough about construction machines to come up with a new dinotrux species.

However...

I do have an idea regarding further refinement of industry. In Supercharges (mostly season 3) there was a sudden leap when it came to mechanical engineering. I found the scuba gear and nightvision goggles to be kind of a stretch (as well as the hidden base’s mechanisms), so it wouldn’t be that kind of advancement. No, what it would involve is bringing in more new types of materials and techniques. Something to balance out the raw power (and McGuffin narrative role) of the superchargers.

The reptools made a hot air balloon out of leaves, but the use of leaves->fabric was never fully utilized. I say the reptools learn to sew. And you know what could work alongside that? New reptools perfect for more delicate materials. I’m talking staple guns and tape dispensers. Mixed with the preservative properties of a lightly painted layer of tar and coated with powder or something to make the outside not sticky? Well then....

The show was heavily themed on construction, but what if it broadened the horizons to plain craftsmanship? What if, instead of just using logs, they made planks? (Splitter exists as inspiration after all.) Reptools have already shown to be using bamboo. Think of all the need for lightweight construction and how leaf cloth, woven vines, wood planks, how all of that could be utilized? What if they discovered a prehistoric facsimile for rubber?

Yes, it could be an odd clash with the “cobbled together” aesthetic that the builds have going on, but I honestly think it could work with how builds were going in Superchargers. (They used glass as a containment unit for the superchargers THEN found out what glass is? Please, that’s just messy.) In fact, this hypothetical season could have made the transition into Supercharger’s advancements feel smoother. There is an argument that builds need to be the way they are because the dinotrux are so big and heavy, but that’s not necessarily true. 

The show did a fantastic job in making the builds relate to the “action” plot of the episode, but I can’t help but think there was massive potential to explore the prehistoric artistic capabilities of the dinotrux and reptools. A lot was placed into function over form in this show, why not spend some time on the design element of things?

Stained glass, painted leaf-cloths, building decorations, bungee cords in moving parts, the possibilities are astounding if they chose to add delicacy to their refinement process. Imagine if they made another boat, but this time with massive sails to catch the wind? Such little changes and developments could go a long way.

The only twist is that they don’t work on these while under attack.

I’m a sucker for taking concepts and trying to figure out just how far they can go, how they can impact other aspects of the narrative, setting, characters, etc. The dinotrux of the crater are all going to be an intermingled society. Just imagine what kind of culture can grow if the behavior of Ty’s group spread around. Small art installations spread around by dinotrux, the stories that could be made.

The show had such a focus on the dinotrux being able to build things bigger than themselves if they work together, but I feel like the things they create don’t necessarily have to be so tangible. Many little things creating something so big you can’t even see it.

Then. Picture this. The thriving community, the culture, the art. Now reduced to rubble with D-structs and D-stroy taking over. The toppling of the community would hold so much more weight. It would be a tragedy. The destruction of the slide but on a scale of so many tiny, delicate, precious things.

[talenlee]

We Don't Need An Animorphs Reboot

We Don't Need An Animorphs Reboot

It seems that every time a piece of nerd media comes out, other people in other nerd media spaces surface declaring that now, now is the time that our nerd media thing is ready to strike while the iron is hot. It doesn’t matter how unrelated it is. One of those spaces where I think I comfortably belong is the Animorphs fandom, even if I think I must come across as being so utterly negative all the time.

Whatever the current context, there’s always some reason that now, here, Animorphs is due a comeback. With the backlash against Hogwarts Legacy, there was a push that hey, now, now is a great time for us to make sure our Young Adult Fiction media property from the last millenium gets to take prominence and become the new thing everyone talks about with its own theme park! Then it was Goncharov, where the sudden thirst for creative element that encouraged people being able to make new Animorphs books and pretend they were always part of the canon as a great way to tap into that community! And then most recently, the fact there’s shapeshifting in the Dungeons & Dragons movie and an actor who’s a jerk —

Why, this movie is proof that we could totally have a great, successful, reboot movie for the Animorphs! You know, a movie! For that set of forty plus books!

Problem: This is completely unfeasible.

Part of it is just that the Animorphs books, for their own sake, are just impressively dated. It’s not just that the books are of a particular style or time or place, but the way they are is part of how they exist. The late 90s was a period when portable phones and secret communication networks and maintainable online conspiracies were a different species to what they are now.

If the Animorphs kids existed in the smartphone age, they could be tracked by the fact they were the only teenagers in town who didn’t want to carry smartphones around. And these aren’t small questions, these are questions that would fundamentally alter the world of their existence: How is the movement of Andalite spaceships going unnoticed in a world where everyone has cameras? How is there not a graphical database of everyone in town being surveilled from every diverse avenue by a conspiracy of Yeerks?

The world of the 90s was smaller. It was less connected. There was simply less surveillance, a conspiracy took a different form, the Yeerk’s avenues of attack were limited to needing a lot more material presence. It’s not like you’d need to answer all of these but these things would present questions that would need addressing to address the concept of the Animorphs at large in the newer world.

In 2020, if the Yeerks were invading, they would have Alex Jones telling you about themselves. They would advertise the idea of shapeshifting monsters and mind-controlling slugs, because we know there’s a population of people who can be mobilised and weaponised in a way we really didn’t anticipate in the 90s.

The whole idea of a reboot seems to be built out of a want to have more of it. The idea that Animorphs is good, and that means more of it would be better is at odds with my opinion that we’d be better off with less of it.

Some of Animorphs is effectively filler. Some of it is contradictory. Some of it is extremely silly. Some of it – like, y’know, the Ellimist and Cryak story chunks – can feel cheap in the context of a story that starts out as a science fiction fantasy narrative. The Megamorphs and other game material, that stuff isn’t really ‘part’ of the Animorphs narrative and it can feel really weird and wrong compared to the core material. Just having a clear vision of how important the mystical elements would become compared could make that eventual discovery a little more gentle.

What I would really like, if the idea was to create a new Animorphs product, for the vision of the fans of the 90s work who want some way to bring the product back, is an immense editing parse designed to attain the following goals:

Restructure the narrator order to give those picky fans the right number and sequence they say they want.

Diminish a few inconsistencies from early in the story that wound up being unimportant to the later stories.

A few added scenes or sequences to mention or explicate what happened to some minor characters that people like.

A single, standardised collection that lets people like me buy the whole set in a nice, readable form in a way that gets money to KA Applegate and the other contributors.

Problem: This is completely unfeasible.

What’s on the page is on the page. The people who made the books have moved on, they don’t get the money from reprints of the books, they don’t get to benefit from our desire to turn their existing, successful, good media, into another, different, differently available media. The last thing in the world we should want is ‘Animorphs Media’ being produced because it’ll all be just the same thing we already have, fan media, but being made by people who are going to make us pay for it.

Make fan content. Make Animorphs stuff. Share it with friends. Make reading lists. Make editorial revisions – show how you’d trim things or change them. Make fan comics. Sure, even use whatever dumb image tool you like to make fanart, 3d rendered or whatever.

Right now, Animorphs is a rare and precious thing in that it is widely available. You can get digital ebooks reasonably easily without spending money. You can find the books second hand if you want physical copies. The people who are sitting on the rights for it are not trying to monetise it, and the people who made it have moved on. We are free.

I get it.

I really do.

But stop thinking of the companies as sources of what you love.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Media

[weaverscape]

Ever since the discovery of Mana and how to obtain it from nature, people managed to overcome even their most basic needs. Mana could supply the body with all the energy and nutrients it could possibly need. Because of this, humanity put away the habits they needed for survival in favour of this new method. They needn't sleep anymore, so they spent all day doing what they wanted to do, fulfilling all their wonderous ambitions with no fatigue. Food was still used as a pleasurable experience, however they didn't need to pay mind to what was good or bad for you or what they needed more of to maintain a healthy diet. They just freely ate whatever they wanted. In the view of many, this was nothing short of evolution. Humanity had ascended beyond their worldly needs and went up to achieve greater things using the power of Mana. Many Years Later... Young Malcom was just an ordinary novice scholar. He had yet much to learn in how to use Mana before he could use it to his full advantage, but he was content with putting in the hard work to learn. Malcom loved reading, and alongside his normal studies, he also partook in reading other topics such as history. One of his favourites was called "Humans Before the Dawn of Mana". It spoke of the habits and methods used before Mana took over their lives. Malcom would never resent Mana, because it helped society in more ways he could ever count. However, he did find some interest in the traditional activities done in the past. On a whim, he decided to spend an entire day replicating a basic schedule humans would use back in the old days. He slept for 7 hours, woke up and washed his face, ate a balanced breakfast dish, and then took a 10 minute jog. From then, he went to his daily average work. For lunch, he ate a special dish he found that consisted of a sufficient amount of all food groups and nutrients. He took a 1 hour nap in the afternoon, again returned to his work, and later took an hour long walk in the evening. He had a light but hearty dinner, and then went to sleep just before midnight. The next morning, he felt really weird. His body felt more... energised. It was a bizarre feeling. All this time he used Mana and it never felt like this. Now he spent only a day and felt this good? The scholar he was, Malcom couldn't just let go of such an odd occurrence. Perhaps it was just a coincidence. He needed to make sure. So he repeated the schedule once more. The next morning he felt even better. Day by day, he felt stronger. More capable. And it wasn't limited to his physical status, either. He felt great. More cheerful. More motivated. He used every second he had to study and practice. Even his magic became more powerful and efficient. His teachers and mentors and colleagues were bewildered by his sudden change. They couldn't believe how much he was improving over the short span of time. Many asked how he did it, and he was more than willing to share. But no one was willing to believe he was telling the truth. 20 Years Later... Sylvia had been the protégé of "Malcom, the Seer of Magic" for only a few days now. She had been instructed to follow an odd plan that involved not a single bit of Mana in it. She was very skeptical at first, but she knew better than to so quickly challenge the most powerful mage in the land. In a matter of days, she too saw an amazing spike in her capabilities. Utterly confused, she went to her mentor and asked him how was such a thing possible. "At first, I was just as confused as you were, dear student. Mana could give you all you could ever need, so how is it that such a obscure list of habits could make you so much stronger? Over time, I started to realise a potential explanation. This isn't simply about what you need or don't. It's about discipline." "By eating correctly, you gain better self control. By exercising, you attain resilience against hardships. And by sleeping, you have a moment to ease your mind and regather your thoughts. All together, these things help you forge yourself into a more capable being."

nobody believes you. They all think you made some sort of bargain or deal. Maybe even consuming souls… but the truth is that you became the most powerful mage in the world by getting enough sleep, studying, and eating right.

[dashawfrostart]

This Month In "Time & Again" #19: The Prints Have Been Shipped!.. (possibly an insubstantial post)

Hallöchen!.. All of a sudden, almost a month has passed. And I didn't even notice... Wait, I'm having a rather strong feeling of déjà vu here. Oh ya. The previous post starts the same (well, almost). Some (namely myshelf) might want to go ahead with the joke and say every day is exactly the same (oddly, even as of 2024, I still manage to mix up the title of the song with the title of that short indie game called Every Day The Same Dream). ... But that's probably enough of Nine Inch Nails references for now.

So! The awesome news!

The print-friendly versions of "Time & Again" for the Chapters 1, 2, and 3.1 have been completed, and the prints have been ordered, and now they're already on their way to me! Yaaaaay!

I had troubles with the printer's website, unfortunately, which prevented me from finishing up this giant, outstretched-in-space-and-time project as fast as I [thought I] could. But now it's all done, and all that adding full bleed hassle is over, and I'm not going to bother doing that for chapters 3.2, 4, and 5 for now, because they're not gonna get printed yet. Next time I'm gonna be working on print-friendly iterations of "Time & Again", it's most like going to be once the complete edition is on its way. And I still have ways to go. ... without simple and fast ways of automation, and without assistance of smart AI algorithms that might help speed up the process of flat colouring based on the creator's predefined palettes - I definitely got long ways to go. 😑 *sigh* (yes, yes! I still hope that somebody makes a plugin for Krita that will be able to do exactly that, because that would've been wonderful and SUUUUPER helpful for me! For now though, there's only but nobody came).

And aside from that... I actually don't even think I've done much. Most of my latest accomplishments - including the creative ones - were not "Time & Again" related, to better or worse. Or not quite, let's say.

However, I've started working on an alternative cover art for "Time & Again" - the one that I had in mind for quite a while; the one that's been lurking around somewhere in the perils of my pencil sketch dump for long, that has appeared perhaps around the time of development of Chapter 2. Currently, it's missing proper shading and a background.

Also, following a suggestion of my friend, I made a cute comedic artwork that will eventually end up as an art print for an artistic event I'm planning on participating in later this year. Yaaaay!

For now, I refrain from showing any progress because of some certain reasons, so I'll share the final versions later on.

That's very funny and weird how it turns out sometimes!.. Thanks to one of the minor characters in my story (and spoiler: they will appear in Chapter 6! 😉🥳) I've made a discovery that I quite enjoyed! To get a better understanding of the aforementioned character, I started listening to vaporwave. And I must admit, I'm enjoying the genre through and through. Not exactly your elevator music type thing, but at times not too dissimilar. Or at least it feels soothing and meditative to me, in an odd and crooked way. And hey, lots of distorted samples from my favourite gems of ye olde good 80's. A music nerd such as myself simply cannot cringe at that, for sure. Good job, my character. You must be proud of yourself, you sleek and fixated, yet somehow adorable genius. Now get in the f***ing robot (I wish I didn't say that; it gives me an incredibly unsettling wrong association now... 😅). That very same character is also the reason why I'm intermittently playing Broken Reality now - and also enjoying it through and through. Very inspirational and quite relaxing. Really looking forward to play the anticipated sequel, too!

Alas, there's a little confession to make.

The problem is that, right now I'm not yet certain how to approach Chapter 6. And no, I am not talking about the form of it (however, the visual representation of that giant pile of Lothar's self-hatred should be taken into GREAT consideration as well, indubitably - but that is a rather impressionistic question, methinks).

What I cannot deny right now is that I don't feel like I'm in the mood. "Why is it so important, and why is it such a big deal?" you ask me. Well, first of all, as a content creator, I truly believe that you have to be in the mood in order to create quality content. Second, because of a specific nature of Chapter 6, it's incredibly important to get myself into a certain mood prior to working on the final writing (for even the script is not yet complete, although the substantial majority of it is certainly done, and it's even overflowing in specific spots 🤣😅 dammit, Lothar, you think too much). I could possibly say I'm a little scared to delve into it, because it might turn into a descent into an endlessly black pit with no light anywhere around, even from above. I need a certain mood that is best described as Traurigkeit und Weltschmerz (and virtually anything along the line).

And this is the feeling I'm lacking right now. Perhaps, too much stuff is going on in real life right now, or maybe I simply allow myself to distract from being "Time & Again" productive a little more than I should've... Or maybe the simple answer is that I'm a happy and cheerful person by nature, but to write a proper Lothar I need to become a very dark and grim dude, dammit! 🤣

I also realize that I'm behind on my creative schedule, too. Which is probably not helpful. But, as I said earlier, I'm not exactly scrunching myself into strict timeframes either.

But at the end of the day, albeit slowly and with a certain degree of uncertainty - I'm getting there. Medicated Lothar and his personal problems are definitely not forgotten by me. I'm letting it flow freely, to ensure the greatest result to be achieved.

That's all for today. No illustrations, but that's how it has to be for now! See y'all later! 👋🎨

[marthabeingmartha]

When was the last time you felt a real connection with someone?

This morning. Making the realization that my friends are not just friends, but my “relatives.”

I avoid the phrase “my friends are my family <3.” It’s really overused and when I use it, it really just does not roll off the tongue.

Prior to my parents divorce, I would say “blood is thicker than water.” Keep in mind, I’m an only child (maybe a contributing factor in my ability to be incredibly self absorbed.) My parents are all I had, they moved like 7 hours away after I graduated from highschool. My roommates were related, and I was isolated.

We were a tight knit family. We laughed a lot. I was adored and cared for by both parents. Yes, I can look back in hindsight at some things I normalized, that were not normal at all. Comments made, that should have never been uttered. Yet, I grew up in a very privledge way, I had stability, support when I needed it, two people pushing me to excel in academics and extracurriculars. Unlike most, I had a father who repeatedly explained to me what you should never tolerate from a man in a relationship, my mom has given me the distinct gift of loving to read/thinking of reading an act of leisure, they laughed A LOT (I remember thinking that laughter in a marriage is something I couldn’t live without), and I was let known often that I was loved by both of them. I was extremely fortunate.

They did have where they were not always right, or in a position to comment on certain things. Such comments are long lasting, and feel as though, are branded onto my body, defining me. In my case, this particular comment(s) and my parents encouragement to excel in my life, I became intense. I still am. It is a double edged sword.

I never saw them as deeply flawed people until I watched them undergo an extremely ugly divorce. It was my father’s infidelity that broke us as a family, and then, his inability to admit to his actions (really stuck to the Irish Roman Catholic value, which equates to sweeping it under the rug); despite the fact, I saw text message,which he even knew then. Really stuck to his story, he told me once about this to this day. It took me a year to forgive him.

Moreover, my mom is no mother Teresa. Certain comments made were made in a meticulously phrased manner that have stuck with to this day.

Both of them have new lives. In some ways, it was like I was not their daughter. They were there for something heinous that occurred several years ago and it involved going to court. Once THAT ended, they quickly dispersed. Almost as quickly as they had arrived. When you are half way through your life, the idea of “starting over” is terrifying and I do not fault them for that. I don’t fault them for their new lives, or their sudden lack of interest in mine. Seeing them in a new setting with a new partner is so foreign to me, however, the most unsettling thing regarding this whole thing is how little they want me to participate in their lives. Negating 25 years of their life is easier than facing the reality of a failure of a marriage. A discovery, my dad was an alcoholic at the age of 20. An epiphany, rather, the harsh reality that my mom was opposed to the notion of me before I existed.

Granted, they are severely technologically impaired, so the relationships I have now are much easier with their understanding of an iPhone. Prioritizing my friends has created such a different attitude when it comes to friendship.

To answer your question, I told my friend to go to the Dr this morning and in an odd way, that minor interaction was an act of love and genuine concern. I root for people that I love; instead, of feeling as though life was one big competition.

Maybe one day I will completely cut them out, but not today. I will admit, I do miss the closeness of our family and the memories of the past.

Bottles hidden under the garage stairs, the early bedtimes, and all the prescriptions under the sink genuinely make me curious how much of my life that my dad was there for. My mother’s “mistakes” make me think, and hurt. But love is all around me with the relationships I have cultivated in the years after the divorce. A bond I have had since 7th grade and one that is a newish several year friendship have provided me with love, encouragement, and even the truth- even when it’s the last thing I want to hear; especially, when I’m wrong.

My boyfriend has seen the good, bad, and the ugly between all of us (my parents, and I). He’s heard some ugly exchanges, and childish behavior on both sides. Yet, has remained a kind, sincere, and loving presence. And I couldn’t be happier. There are more friends, but these are the ones I consider to be most valuable.

[falling-pages]

Bend the Knee: Kyoya x Reader

Thanks @ouranbound for the idea <3

-

“I fear I’ve been so busy planning our future that I did not give time to notice how they were exploiting your present."

-

Sometimes Kyoya's betrothed needs help adjusting from their commoner life to one of splendor.

-

Kyoya Ootori x gn! Reader

Genre: Fluff, established relationship, arranged marriage, Commoner! Reader

Warnings: None

-

“Quit.”

“What?”

“Quit. You complain about that job every night, so just resign.”

You sit up on the couch, gasping to even begin to make the young heir understand how preposterous his words were. He barely even noticed, just kept his eyes glued to his novel as you were having a crisis. Just another normal Tuesday in this household. “I can’t quit just like that, without two weeks’ notice.”

“The other employees did.”

“But I’m their best,” you scramble, “I can’t bail while they’re still looking for two more people.”

Kyoya scoffed, licking his fingertip and turning a page. “Is that how they treat their best? Overworked and underpaid? They don’t sound like very good bosses to me.”

“It’s not that, it’s…”

It was that. It was exactly that, which made his smug smile all the more frustrating, igniting that fire under your nails to just punch his lights out. But then you’d have to admit it’s bothering you, and he would win, and even though you were engaged to marry this man, you just couldn’t have that.

You ran your hands through your hair, dropping back down onto the couch. His office futon wasn’t comfortable in the slightest, perhaps to discourage relaxation during work hours, but it’s what you dealt with in order to spend time with him in the evenings, a change you would certainly implement once your name was on the deed and in the will--a revamp of his working space was imperative.

But you supposed you couldn’t complain. It was your little life together, where he manages a multi-billion dollar empire and you whine about your job, where he pretends to not pay attention while you spill your guts. What was the sense in commenting when he knew you wouldn’t take his advice?

“I’ve worked hard for this position,” you settle on, closing your eyes and letting your brain do the work. “I’ve climbed the ladder and gotten promotions and I used to feel so important, and it isn’t my dream job, sure, but I’ve enjoyed the process.”

“Then it’s time to move on to something different,” he suggests, and his tone is softer than usual, though still careful to sound detached. “You know I have more than enough money to provide for you and our family someday. Is that not enough?”

You open your eyes when the voice sounds closer, right above you, and you see him kneeling down beside you on the couch. You start to sit up, but he pushes you back down, helping you stretch out your spine, shake out the stresses in your limbs. And when he takes your hand, drawing his long fingers over the arch of your wrist and against your palm, you were startled to see him at eye-level.

Kyoya Ootori bent his knee to no one except you, and only once, when he slipped that pretty gold ring on your finger. But here where you lay, your faces were on the same level, and you felt like an equal.

“The world I come from isn’t black and white, Kyoya,” you say, as he strokes the back of your knuckles. Such tenderness was seldom seen from him, but you revel in it, grasp onto it with dirty fists and brazen recklessness. To have him so attentive to your needs and listening to you was rare. It was a privilege, a standard you would soon be held to, as well. “To be just...launched into fame because my dad won the lottery is hard, I still need to adjust. It can all be gone in a second, so I can’t just drop something. I can’t...sever the safety net. They need me to keep the place afloat, and even as tough as it has been, I can’t leave on such bad terms. They need me. Just for a little bit longer.”

He sighs your name like the afterthought of a prayer, settling his other hand beside you on the couch. His fingers dig into every indentation, as if joining your discovery of its stiff cushions. The sheen in his glasses signaled he’d look into it, but there were more pressing matters to attend to at the moment.

He remained silent, odd for a man with all the answers, but he continued to look at you, not like he was trying to drill a hole through your head, but like you were a puzzle he was just beginning to figure out.

“Have I really been so absent, my love?” he whispered, raising his hand to your face. One finger stroked along your cheek, slowly, lulling you into peace. “I fear I’ve been so busy planning our future that I did not give time to notice how they were exploiting your present. Please, forgive me.”

All of the air was knocked out of your chest as his gentle words, so soft that you almost didn’t recognize him. When your parents betrothed you, and when you fell in love with him, agreed to marry him, even, you knew that he would always be an Ootori, with every string attached. You were ready for the challenge, ready to be with this man no matter what--but his sudden kindness was unexpected, the poetic words unfamiliar in your ears.

“Kyo, you think I wouldn’t forgive you?” you ask, taking off his glasses.

He let you, and when you set them on the nearby stand, his dark eyes glittered with something you had never seen before. Deeper than love, deeper than compassion, a feral protectiveness mixed with sadness skating across his face. It was so rare you saw him without this shield of his, you had almost forgotten how his eyes were like galaxies, like the murky night sky, expansive, swallowing everything in its path.

“If I had been suffering so, I wouldn’t forgive my partner had they not noticed,” he said.

“I’m not suffering...”

“Mmm-mm.” He shuttered your lips closed with his finger, and you couldn’t help but return the affection and press a kiss to it. He smiled, softly, and you thought about how long it had been since you had seen that smile, and how long it had been since he’s seen yours, too.

“I know I’m not the best at expressing my feelings,” he said, and when you snorted, he rolled his eyes and leaned away. “See, this is exactly why.”

You leaned up and kissed his cheek, giggling. The feeling was foreign in the pit of your chest, drumming near your spine. “I’m sorry. Please, continue.”

“Thank you.” He cleared his throat, softly wiping where you had kissed him, a repetitive, soothing motion. “I’m not the best at expressing my feelings. I’ve been raised to think that if you throw money at something, it will go away. It’s a powerful position to hold, knowing you can change everyone’s fates on a whim, but…” he swallowed, breaking eye contact, and you felt his energy shift into something vulnerable. “But you changed that. You make me feel...you make me feel. And at first I didn’t like it. I loved you, but I didn’t like what you did to me. I didn’t like how you made my world shift off-balance, until I realized my world was no longer my family’s company or stocks or what other stiffs thought of me. It was you.”

You tried to lean up and kiss him, but he grabbed your hands and held them in his own. “Please, let me finish, I want...I want you to know. We’ve been betrothed for so long, but I’d like to think we were only truly engaged when I bowed to you with that ring.”

“Okay,” you breathed, shallowly, taking it in, squeezing his hands to help him along.

“Because that took everything in me,” he continued, and his voice shook, his hands shook, and all you wanted was to gather him in your arms and hold him till he relaxed. “I was raised as a superior, but I’m not. Not with you. You are my equal, and I love you, and there’s no future with us if I can’t look beyond my own problems to see yours.”

Your stomach quelled in light of his confession. The life of luxury and fame you had so recently come to know was a blur compared to his childhood swathed in privilege. Only six years ago you were waiting tables to save up for college when your dad bought a lottery ticket for the hell of it. Now you were attending charity balls and engaged to the son of the richest man on earth.

He took a shaky breath and kissed your forehead, seeming to only find the courage once his lips met your skin.

“I notice. I swear I do,” he said. “I tried to act disinterested when you vent to me because it was a protection, it was a way to stay cold, because that was all I ever saw from my mother and father. They were separate people who happened to live in the same house. That’s not us. I’m not my father. I swear I notice. I notice your tired eyes and your tense shoulders and your fake smile and I want to fix it, but I don’t know how, so I clam up. I shut down. And I’m sorry. I truly am, my darling. I don’t know how you put up with me.”

It was an absolute miracle that you could even breathe at the end of his speech, panting almost as heavily as he was. And when you leaned forward to kiss him, this time he didn’t object, but pulled you even closer, shrouding your body with his, his sharp scent overwhelming your senses, clouding the air around you, even when there was no distance between you. His mouth was hot with passion, yet reserved, and though it wasn’t the first time you kissed, it was the first time you thought he meant it when he told you he loved you.

“Kyoya, I love you,” you whisper against his lips. “I have for so long. I wouldn’t have stayed with you if I didn’t, no matter what our parents said.” He laughed, nipping your bottom lip lightly. “And I don’t want you to change for me. You’re under so much pressure, I understand why you act like you do. But our home isn’t Wall Street. My heart isn’t some business bargaining chip. You don’t need to fight your nature to love me. It’s one and the same.” One of his tears splashes down onto your face. “So just see me. Love me. Choose to be vulnerable. I promise it won’t scare me off.”

“I will. I promise.”

He kissed you again, burning his brand against your tongue, hard like a handshake to know he meant it. You wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him even closer, like you were breathing the same air, using the same lungs, the same heart beating in tandem.

When you let go, his forehead remained pressed against yours. His eyes were slightly open, watching you, eyelashes fluttering against your skin. He was so soft, like this. You wanted to hold him forever.

“Come to bed with me,” you whisper, trailing a hand through his hair. “I just want to spend time with you.”

He kissed your forehead, rubbing his nose against yours in compliance. “I’ll spend all the time in the world with you, beloved,” he sighed, capturing your lips once more. “For as long as you’ll have me.”

-

Kofi

[chaoclub]

A beginner's guide to planning a DND campaign

If you're staring at a blank page and have no idea where to start... here's some tips on what you should be doing!

First thing's first: You need to start with your players. It may sound obvious, but it's going to make your campaign feel much more natural. Get a concrete number of players, and make their character sheets and backstories. If you don't have time for character sheets, simply learn their races, alignments, and classes. (There are tons of good guides out there on that info and how to choose!)

It's always good to know these things beforehand so you don't walk into your first session and realize all your players chose the same class or race, too.

Once you have your basic information, jump to the very end of your campaign and answer the final question: What is the end goal? What is the final thing that your players will be working towards? An example I'll use is the defeat of a crime boss. The campaign will end when the characters defeat the BBEG (big bad evil guy). But it doesn't have to be a BBEG- maybe the end goal is to find a missing relic or loot a dungeon. For the sake of this I'll be using "BBEG" to describe the final boss, but keep in mind that you don't need a real character to oppose your players.

Once you know the endgame, start again at the beginning and figure out where your players tie into it. Why are they trying to defeat the BBEG? This is where you look at the player's backstories and alignments. Maybe one of the characters lost their family in a house fire and lived as an orphan in a religious temple; you could say that your BBEG, the crime boss in this case, was the one who started the fire because the character's parents were in debt to him. And maybe another player has a past shrouded in mystery and a lawful-neutral alignment, making them the type of person who can't stand injustice. Maybe a third player doesn't have any ties, but is simply along for the ride with the party.

Don't worry too hard about this, though: most players don't need a motive to start attempting to dethrone your BBEG once they get a whiff of adventure.

Work your way forward, then. But be careful with how much you plan, because your players don't know what the plot of the story is, and they can entirely throw away that plot if they feel like it. Don't plan seven sessions into the future, just write out some ideas.

For example, begin with your first event, location, or clue. It should be unavoidable, like a murder or disappearance of a prominent figure, or in their faces like a large "WANTED" poster with their faces on it in the middle of the bar the campaign begins in. Begin with a good hook that catches their attention. Let them begin by exploring the town or room, talking to a character or two, and then drop the inciting incident on their heads.

Build this way until you have an outline of plot points. In our example, let's say we start with a sudden death of a very old member of the city council. Then the next plot point is the discovery that it's been a murder. Then the next comes when the characters are offered payment in return for discovering the killer. Then the next is a threatening note written in blood, hung on a character's bedroom wall with a knife. Then the players find a lead by analyzing the odd spelling of a certain word.

The story continues on like this. Notice how these plot points are, for the most part, not triggered by any actions a character makes. That gives you, the DM, a way to push your players back on track when they get distracted by a side quest that you didn't plan for. (Of course, let them have their fun, but not for longer than a session or two without advancing any of your story arcs!)

You'll find as you build the plot points that an idea for the locations start to form. Which shops there are, where the players will spend their time, etc.. Now you can begin to plot out these things and make a simple map of the area.

Finally, plan various monster encounters, NPC encounters, artifacts, quests, and discoveries! Your world should feel like a real place when your players interact with it.

This is an easy cheat, too! If your players go into a shop and- for whatever reason- end up in a fight with the shopkeep, you can simply pull out a pre-written NPC sheet and begin!

Same with monster encounters, quests, and discoveries. You don't need to write the details about every little tiny thing in your world... but you want it to feel like you did. From a tiny amulet hidden under a creaky floorboard to a mineshaft infested with tiny monsters, your world will feel rich wherever your players step if you've prepared things that can be used in multiple situations. (Plus, it makes them feel smart when they think they found a secret... when in reality that "secret" didn't have a location attached until they rolled high on an investigation check for a room you just made up.)

My last piece of advice is the one that's the most important: Do not fully plan your campaign... ever. You should not decide small details that won't matter for several sessions unless they're plot-relevant.

So, move with your players! Sometimes, a player will make a guess in the dark about some random NPC or a closed store, and it's so good that you decide to use it. Plan each new session after the previous one ends, keeping in mind your predetermined plot points (which are also, surprise surprise, subject to change!)

The real trick is that your players don't know what will happen three, two, or even one sessions into the future. If you change a part of the plot, they'll have no way of knowing. So have fun! Run wild, add and subtract as much to the plot as you'd like, and prepare to be driven up the wall by your players.

Good luck!