#edit: it did indeed show up in the tag

[starmansymphonyarts]

Doing my part to get aromantic trending again on Valentine's this year by holding out one of my many aro headcanons where I just shot my aro beam at them because I like them.

Also! A couple of years ago I wrote a thing about this specific headcanon - you can read it here (on AO3) or here (on my Neocities)! I consider this piece as a sort of follow up to that :3

[wolfcracker]

OK so I don't know if anyone has pointed this out already but

This is how the screen looks like for the most part of the show:

It's not at the aspect ratio of 16:9 so there's this black bar on top and below throughout most of the show (when the coven is not stuck in a trial and on The Road)

BUT the show would shift into "fullscreen mode" closer to 16:9 (without the black bars) in these scenes:

ONLY when the coven is going through their trials in the houses

The weird thing about today's ep is that during the trial the aspect ratio did not change at all (you can still see the black bars!):

so my theory is that MAYBE today's ep was never a trial but could be a trap, an illusion set up by the Salem Seven? Especially since the witches have crashed into the creepy bug lady which could explain why they got captured into Salem Seven's trap

TLDR: the aspect ratio in today's ep could be hinting that our dysfunctional coven might still be on The Road, trapped by Salem Seven, but not inside a trial

AND most importantly if this is all Salem Seven's doing, then maybe Alice is indeed still alive!! I am not delulu I swear!!!

Edit: and yes this could also explain why everyone is acting so weird in this ep because it could be agatha's illusion and she's reenacting her trauma of being abandoned & betrayed by her original coven with these new people she met (except for Rio of course because they're wives)

Edit 2: fixed some wordings because apparently when I wrote this I wasn't in the right mind and forgot the phrase "aspect ratio" exist💀 thank you reblog tags

[venusbyline]

Whore ࿐ྂ Kinktober. 21, oct.

(late post) ♡ Whore's Mouth part 1

— pairing: Spencer Reid x girlfriend!reader

— type: smut, Kinktober (Criminal Minds Edition)

— kink: edging play

— summary: You are tired of Spencer's brat behavior and decide to give him a taste of his own medicine. After all, despite everything, he will always be your little whore at the end of the day.

— word count: 2.2k

— tags/warnings: kinktober 21st day, female!reader, boyfriend!Reid, edging play, orgasm denial, degradation, praise kink, drunk sex, reader is a member of the BAU, argument, handjob, jealously, cock worship, body worship, slapping, punishment, crying, dacryphilia, semi-public sex, teasing, implied/referenced cheating (BUT NO REALLY), drunken flirting, relationship issues, trust issues, BAU Team mentioned, minor JJ x Prentiss, minor Reid x JJ (BUT NO REALLY), lesbian!JJ mentioned, brat!Reid, brat tamer!reader, light sadism, light hurt/comfort, masochist!Reid, sub!Reid, dom!reader, long hair!Reid/Jesus!Reid. no use of y/n. english is not my first language.

— tagging list: @thatredlipped-classic @purplehaze206 @ehedrick012110 @hotchsmutrecs @slutcakes00 @emma-e-a @helo1281917

— crossposting: AO3

Going to a pub with the rest of the BAU team had been a bad decision. A decision that Spencer made by impulse, always enjoying making you jealous when he was a little bored. He had promised that night you two could finally finish watching the new TV show released on Netflix, but instead he convinced you to go with him to drink with your friends.

Despite the slight disappointment of having to change your schedule for the night, you did not mind too much. You loved having fun with the team and you were almost sure Spencer had learned his lesson after the last punishment when you sat on his face for hours, riding him and using his lips to reach your orgasm, as if he was nothing but your favorite sex toy. And indeed he really was and loved to be that for you.

However, Spencer was also a spoiled little whore. Accepting Morgan's invitation to go with the BAU friends to the pub was supposed to be a true fun time. If he had not fucked up everything by flirting with JJ, you really could have had fun with all of them instead of spending every fifteen minutes drinking a new glass of wine. He wanted to get a reaction out of you, something that would make you mad at him again and making him receive the best orgasm of his whole life, as always happened.

At first, you tried to ignore it. JJ distanced herself from him, also not really liking his not-so-innocent flirting. She did not want you to think she was actually interested about your boyfriend. JJ was the type of woman who was more interested especially about Emily, but also about Garcia and even you sometimes. Reid was not even interested in his friend too, it was all only to tease you. But it was still uncomfortable and no one of the group wanted to be in the middle of the possible argument that would ensue if Spencer continued acting with that childish behavior.

When JJ began to ignore the flirting, Spencer sighed with frustration, drinking his whiskey and looking around the establishment. He saw a beautiful curvy woman sitting alone, also drinking the same whiskey. Noticing his gaze, she smirked, fiddling with her long blonde hair before waving at the shy Spencer.

Morgan's attention immediately went to Spencer, noticing how he giggled at the woman's invitation and handed the promise ring to Morgan, who put it inside his jeans pocket before snorting. "Fuck. That's enough, Pretty Boy. You're really crossing the line now."

Morgan knew about Reid's way of attracting your dominant side. He did not think it was all bad, but he also knew that sometimes his friend crossed some limits. And this was something much more serious than the last few situations. "It's just harmless flirting, dude. You know I love my darling more than anything and anyone in this whole world." Spencer defended himself, really annoyed that Morgan thought he was thinking about cheating the woman who had his heart in the palm of her hands.

"Anyway, Reid. This isn't cool, man. You're already making things tense by trying to flirt with JJ in front of everyone. And now you're still gonna do it while your fucking girlfriend's in the bathroom? What kind of gentleman are you?" It was Prentiss's turn to argue, crossing her arms disapprovingly. "It just makes you look like a terrible boyfriend. Actually, it's a real shame for us, for her and for yourself..."

Spencer's eyes widened with shock. He had never seen things this way. He knew he was acting bratty and spoiled, flirting for fun just to get your punishment. Most of the time, Spencer thought you liked the adrenaline rush. However, looking at the real view, he was starting to worry that you were actually hurt by him. Anyone who did not know the two of you well would think he was an cheating man who did not even respect his own girlfriend in public.

"Oh, holy shit..." He sighed in frustration, rubbing his hand over his face, trying to ward off the effects of the alcohol. Spencer looked at each of the older agents, the slight anger in Morgan and Emily faces, the disappointment in Hotch, Garcia and Rossi eyes, and the clear discomfort in JJ's flushed cheeks, which most of the time was the focus of his annoying advances. "Damn, Jen. I sure I'm just-"

Spencer was about to apologize to his friend, but stopped when he heard laughter. A laugh he knew all too well. The entire team looked back, Spencer's face turning pale as he saw a man with an arm around your waist as you two walked to the table. He tried to say anything, anything at all, but all he could think about was how much stronger the man was than him, practically the same height but with a huge difference in muscles, his large hand clasped around your waist as if you were a little doll.

"Guys, this is Nicholas. Or Nick. As I prefer to call him. We met at a coffee shop a few days ago. Nick, these are my teammates at the BAU." You smiled, hands on his strong arm that was bursting out of his white shirt.

"Hey..." The man said with an attempt at a friendly smile, but he did not quite manage it. Spencer was profiling him too well to know that Nicholas was trying his best not to let his arousal show through the shorts he wore, due to your warm hand on his skin.

Spencer waited for you to introduce himself as your boyfriend, to tell the stupid boy that you were his girl. However, the brief look you gave his empty finger was enough to let him know you were nor going to do that. Spencer internally cursed himself for taking off the damn ring and giving it to Morgan. That stupid plan to flirt with the blonde girl in the other part of the pub had already evaporated from his mind, but the consequences were just coming.

After some more time of small talk, Nicholas finally left, saying he needed to get back to the house because he had to study for a casting audition the next morning. The agents said goodbye to him with friendly waves, while Spencer continued with that angry stare, his bad mood only getting worse when Nicholas gave you a brief grab on your ass and a soft kiss on your cheek, humming something like "See you another day, princess" and coming out as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

The atmosphere became tenser after the same moment that the pub bell rang to announce Nicholas's departure. "Well, I guess my girlfriend's nothing but a fucking greedy whore..." Before anyone could argue, you grabbed Spencer's arm without any usual tenderness. Morgan even tried to get up to help both of you resolve the situation, afraid that it would escalate into a violent argument. Even though he trusted his best friends, the thought of a stubborn couple fighting after drinking so much whiskey and wine made him apprehensive, but Hotch motioned for him to remain seated, indicating that the argument was none of their business. The entire team knew Spencer and you well enough to know what would happen in the pub bathroom.

"You really think you've any right to call me a whore?" You growled, your hand unbuttoning the khakis that Reid was wearing, listening to him whimper and try to cover the damp spot on his white boxers. He wanted to keep arguing. He wanted to stay angry as hell after your intentional flirt with that idiot playboy. Spencer really doubted that Nicholas was as smart as he was. Or that Nicholas had as many bachelor's degrees and doctorates as he had. "You think you've the right to call me a fucking greedy whore, when you're the one who's always teasing me, hitting on all the women just to piss me off?"

Your fist closed around his cock, already turned on and sensitive just from the tension of the fight. Spencer tried. He really tried hard to take control. But that had been impossible after you dragged him through the halls while he was calling Nicholas a "stupid actor" and saying you were a cockslut desperate for male attention. Anyway, the wiser reaction was being pushing him against the wall of the women's bathroom — fortunately empty thanks to the few people in the establishment.

"And you are, darling. You're a little whore..." Spencer growled, closing his eyes so he would not watch how your hand moved so quickly on his cock, pinky and needy of your touch, already dripping and proving that he was your little whore, and not the other way around.

"Oh, am I?" You increased the speed, the natural lubrication that dripped from his glans not being enough to stop the slight stinging that came with the friction. It was like rubbing himself raw, and yet Spencer moaned, rolling over his eyes with the ache, whimpering for more. “You look like a noisy slut.” You spat on his cock to ease the pain he was enjoying. On the one hand it was good, as the burning subsided and your saliva was cold from the wine you drank before the argument. But on the other hand, Spencer pouted at the lack of agony and the way you began to rub him slowly. "You like it when it hurts so bad, don't you?"

Your mockery made Spencer bite his lip and smirk, his cheeks flushed with a look that indicated how much he always enjoyed suffering at your hands. He lifted his hips forward and you watched with a raised eyebrow as he fucked himself inside your hand, his hips starting slowly and enjoying the way you let him use your fist to pleasure himself. You did not even need to move, seeing his slutty smile and head arched back, his jaw line forming such a perfect angle that you had to stop yourself from moaning at the sight.

When Spencer's hip movements started to get faster and more erratic, you huffed and took your hand away from his crotch, the soft sound of his cock hitting back against his own thin stomach mixing with the sound of your boyfriend's whimpers.

"You see now? You're nothing but a brainless brat, Spencer. Can't you even ask me to cum? You always have to make a mess? Can't you do anything right?" You practically yelled and he sobbed, squirming against the wall and ignoring the cold tile pressed against his pretty ass.

"I'm so sorry, darling..." He sobbed again, one hand trying to touch himself and the other running through your hair as a way of wanting to beg you for forgiveness, but without saying that.

"Yeah, you should feel that way."

The sad pout appeared on Spencer's lips again. He should not have called you a whore. He should not have arguing with you for letting Nicholas flirt right in front of him, when he teased you like that all the time too. In fact, Spencer had realized that he should not have extended this kind of teasing for so long. He had crossed boundaries and made your relationship stressful. Spencer knew you were hurt by this now and he could not blame you.

"Darling..." He tried to touch you, but you pulled away, spitting into your palm and wrapping your fingers around his girth for the third time, hearing his eager whine. You knew he was just jealous, actually always feeling insecure and wanting punishments. However, you did not want to hear anything right now. You pulled his shirt up, forcing the fabric over his mouth, which he bit against his will, despite the tears in his eyes. Tears that were both of relief at being touched again and sadness at knowing that you did not even want to hear his apologies.

"Stay like that. Like the jealous and needy little slut you are." You ordered, kneeling on the floor in front of Spencer and staring at the sight. His wide teary eyes, his teeth biting into his shirt, his flushed cheeks and his long hair damp with sweat... And most of all, his skinny body and belly contracting in anticipation, your nimble fingers caressing the reddish head of his cock with a smirk on your face, lightly licking the tip and hearing a muffled whimper escaping from those pretty swollen lips. "I'm gonna tease you for as long as I want. And you can just cum when I tell you to, you understand?"

The sharp slap you gave his thigh made Spencer sob with both pain and pleasure, pulsing in your hand as he nodded with some desperation. He needed this. He needed to cum. He needed to be a good boy for you. Your own little whore.

"That's it, my good boy." Despite your anger, you actually smiled for the first time since the whole damn mess started, pressing a soft kiss to the red mark on his skin where you hit him. And Spencer's cheeks flushed, not just because of the horny, but also because he loved you so much. He would be your good boyfriend again.

Criminal Minds Edition - Masterlist

HOTD Edition - Masterlist

Venusbyline's Kinktober 2024 - Masterlist

[katsutora]

a/n: yes, i edited this because this post refused to show up in tags. this writing is for my best best bestest best friend @yeosatinyngz who has been with me since my bllk days. thank you for being my xavier, who waited for me all throughout my hiatus lmfao.

⋆˖ ࣪⭑ xavier —

who only ever had a single fear, realized that he might have developed another one after an argument with you.

what initially started with “what if he lives to see another day, only to find out that there’s no you waiting for him in the future?” was now accompanied by “what if he loses you before he’s supposed to?”.

he hates it. hates the way you’re giving him short replies, hates the way you chat and laugh with other people but not with him, hates the way you seemingly refused to acknowledge his presence.

xavier hates the fact that you didn’t drop by his place earlier. hates your cold treatment. hates that you didn’t share recipes with him or cook for him this morning. hates the happy look on your face when you talked with that doctor. hates your sudden interest in paintings. hates how you disappeared for a few hours to visit the N109 zone without telling him first.

he hates everything.

he hates himself more than anything.

he didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry because he’s been given a chance to fight with you. in the past, your life kept on slipping through his fingers before you both could even find something to disagree on.

xavier can afford to lose everything else but you. never you.

still, despite everything, he dutifully accompanied you on your way back home. the single shadow casted on the ground suggests that you’re both one entity, and yet he couldn’t seem to ever close this actual distance in between the two of you.

you’re right there in front of him, but you’re going somewhere he can no longer follow. he doesn’t want you to hate him. it’s unfair that this version of you are not so kind as to wait for him to catch up to you.

then again, you’re an endless galaxy, and he’s merely one single star in the sky. losing him would not be significant to you whatsoever. you have a life here in Linkon that does not always involve him—doesn’t need to. you’ll be just fine even if he doesn’t exist.

it’s alright, he thought. he’s willing to immerse himself in the pain as long as he’s allowed to see you. he will leave Linkon, he will move out of his apartment, he will keep looking out for you even if you don’t want him anymore. he will find the goddamn protocore. he will hunt every single wanderer in the world. he will risk everyone and everything. he will-

for a guy who’s always been about living in the present and cherishing every moment, he’s reading the last line first and determining the ending for himself before things could play out.

“xavier?”

he’s strangely jittery today, isn’t he?

your voice broke him out of his reverie. it took him a few seconds to regain some semblance of composure. when he did, the first thing he did was confirm this uncomfortable tension lingering in the air.

“are you mad at me?” his eyes were glued to the ground. he had a vivid imagination of your shadows never coming close to become one ever again.

“huh?” he saw you blink, and noticed that there is, indeed, a slight irritation on your face which was directed at him.

xavier abruptly stopped near the apartment gate, failing to realize that he was invading your personal space a little. you could feel his cold fingertips pressing against the back of your hand like a silent plea.

he absentmindedly traced the outline of his future with them, and it’s the shape of you.

“xavier?” you tried again.

“you’re mad at me.” he said.

his grip was loosening slightly before tightening once more. he simply fears a world where he has to live without you. xavier knows that he was running away from this confrontation. god, he’s such a coward for dreading your answer.

“you’re mad at me, aren’t you?” he repeated himself.

winter was two months ago, but xavier has been frozen in time since the day he had first lost you.

“what? no!” mildly annoyed would have described the situation better. “i-it’s just that you kept refusing when i asked for a turn on the claw machine! not to also mention that you didn’t get us a single plushie. i could’ve won us five in a row!”

...

xavier let out a breath that he had been holding these past 214 springs. he closed his eyes for a moment to let it all sink in. slowly, life started moving again.

it turns out that he doesn’t need a visit to the hospital, or to the art studio, or the N109 zone. he should probably call jeremiah later to inform the poor guy that he doesn’t need help moving out of this city any time soon.

the wanderers lurking around the area too, will live to see another day. he made sure to cover your hunter’s watch as subtly as possible, so you would only focus on him.

“i’m sorry.” he pulled you closer, his arms wrapped tightly around you like an orbit. “i’m sorry. i’ll buy you a membership at the arcade to make up for it.”

© katsutora ; do not claim, repost, translate, and/or modify my works.

[hypnoneghoul]

Have I used this joke already? Yes. Will I use it again? Absolutely.

KKEENNDDRICK!!! DROP ANOTHER DISTRACK (GHOUL ORGY) AND MY LIFE, IS YOURSSS /ref /pos

Oh please great father I BEG OF THEE

Not Alive For Anyone

WC: 3,1k

Relationship: Dewdrop/Mountain/Swiss/Phantom

Tags: Foursome - M/M/M/M, Transmasc Dew, Free Use (kinda), Cunnilingus, Anal Fingering, Oral Sex, Objectification, Anal Sex, Vaginal Sex, Pressure Kink (is that a thing?), Edging, Degradation, Creampie, Aftercare

Notes: Combining with a commission from @jazz-bazz :3 Beta read and edited by the lovely @mac-and-thefox <3

Read under the cut or on AO3.

The rehearsal today was particularly hot.

The air conditioning went out and Copia ordered some people around so it would get fixed and they did, but it died again just as the band started playing the first song, to their collective annoyance. Papa was obviously frustrated, too, but decided to use this as an opportunity for them all to build up some heat resistance—as if they hadn't already played countless shows in horrid heat fully costumed.

This led to everyone being as snappy as they were horny, due to them sweating bullets and scenting the windowless room with it.

Dewdrop, though, had no issues whatsoever.

He does sweat, yes, but his fire nature makes the heat itself not much of a bother and still, the rehearsal was nothing compared to some shows they had played. So while everyone just wanted to get it over with and go shower and fuck, Dewdrop was having actual fun, as usual during a practice.

He doesn’t really understand why he got jumped by three of his packmates the moment he put his guitar away. He’s hardly ever going to say no to a casual orgy, though, so he didn’t protest being picked up and thrown over Mountain’s shoulder. There were fingers in his cunt and asshole before they even reached Swiss’ room. There he got thrown onto the bed and stripped with no regards to what he wanted or didn’t want.

He thinks he should be grateful that they decided to finger him open—just enough so he doesn't bleed when they spear him on two fat cocks. He’s on his hands and knees with his throat filled by Mountain’s cock as the earth ghoul licks into his cunt to loosen him up while Swiss is behind him, stretching his ass with near clinical precision; poking and prodding as if he’s nothing more than a doll to be inspected prior to using.

Oh, how Dewdrop loves being used.

“So cute,” Swiss hums, adding another finger to the two already nestled inside the fire ghoul’s warm hole. Obscene noise reaches his ears as the multi ghoul thrusts the digits in; Dewdrop has been leaking everywhere since Mountain has picked him up.

He has nearly forgotten about the fourth ghoul that’s in the room with them. Phantom is kneeling by Dewdrop’s head with a tight fist around his cock, slowly stroking himself to the sight of the fire ghoul choking on Mountain’s cock.

The earth ghoul wants to cum first before they really start so that he might have a chance of lasting for long enough. He never can on his first. Shooting down Dewdrop’s throat is a great way to start, indeed, and the fire ghoul’s enthusiasm when it comes to sucking dick is unmatched; Swiss knows he doesn’t have that much time to work him open because of that.

Sure enough, the multi ghoul pushes four fingers into him just when Mountain lets out a nearly guttural groan as Dewdrop makes him cum. Phantom keeps watching; he even dares to reach out, wipe a drop of cum that leaks out of the fire ghoul’s mouth with a finger and bring it down onto his own tongue.

Mountain stays on his back and once he gets the go-ahead, Swiss wastes no more time before grabbing the fire ghoul and sitting him on the other’s cock, hard again. Dewdrop doesn’t even have the time to register the fullness as he is being pushed down—back to Mountain’s chest—and then Swiss is moving Phantom to his liking, too. Suddenly he is sliding the young ghoul’s dick into Dewdrop’s cunt and bending the young quint over him so Swiss can prepare him for his own cock.

Phantom moans and drools onto the fire ghoul’s chest as it is his turn to get stretched out and treated like an object. His hips keep giving light twitches seeking friction instead of just sitting idly in the glorious place that is Dewdrop’s pussy, but Swiss allows no such thing. He holds him still with his free hand and threatens with his claws every time the quintessence ghoul tries to hump into Dewdrop.

“You’re gonna move how I want you to and that’s it, Phantom.” Swiss’ tone alone makes Phantom shudder and whine; it’s cold, the warmth and affection that’s usually dripping from every word Swiss utters is absolutely gone. The quintessence ghoul thinks he shouldn’t be as turned on by it as he is, but alas.

“Swiss–”

“No, shut up,” he snarls and Phantom moans in reply. Swiss chuckles cruelly at how much of a mess he is as he finishes stretching his ass. He smacks his cheek just hard enough to leave a mark before wiping his hand and shoving his cock into him in one swift thrust with no more preamble. Phantom whimpers at the sudden fullness and his own dick kicks where it’s still nestled in Dewdrop.

The fire ghoul himself is way past incoherent at this point, stuffed full and squeezed, and nobody has really moved properly yet. He doesn’t even pay much mind to how he thought it would be Swiss and Mountain fucking him; not that he doesn’t enjoy having sweet little Phantom in his pussy.

He really fucking does.

So if someone were to ask him how exactly he ended up in his current predicament, he would not really know how to answer. Don’t get him wrong, he is enjoying himself immensely, but at this point the others have him so brainless he genuinely can’t remember what led him to…all of this.

“How does his cock feel, huh?” Swiss asks, probably referring to Phantom. He can’t be sure considering Mountain is also buried inside him to the hilt, of course. Either way, they both feel divine. “Hm, kitten?”

“‘S good,” Dewdrop slurs, high on sensation already, and the multi ghoul grins as he thrusts roughly into Phantom where he’s glued to his back. That makes his own dick slam deep into Dewdrop’s cunt, filling him to the brim with the help of the big earth ghoul cock in his ass. “So good, fuck.”

Their position is rather complicated, but they are making it work.

Swiss grunts into Phantom’s ear with every thrust, sheathing himself inside him over and over again and making him do the same to the fire ghoul. The room is filled with filthy sounds of slick flesh against slick flesh and various noises of pleasure falling one by one from four mouths.

Dewdrop is the most lost one, of course.

He’s not really registering what’s happening anymore, he just knows he’s warm, full, and nicely squeezed; the waves of pleasure that are washing over him every second have him out somewhere by the orbit. His eyes are glassy with it and unshed—for now—tears and his pupils are blown so wide the embers of his irises are nearly gone.

Swiss regrets he’s too far to really look into these pretty eyes and see how empty Dewdrop’s brain is.

Mountain isn’t doing much at the bottom of their sweaty fuck-pile; he is holding both of Dewdrop’s wrists in the circle of one of his hands and toying with the fire ghoul’s clit with the other—not with the intention to help properly stimulate him, no. Mountain is doing it for himself, all but fidgeting with the little thing as Dewdrop’s wet hole squeezes his cock over and over again. The earth ghoul is simply content with being cockwarmed and occasionally clenched around if he flicks the fire ghoul’s cock in the right way or if Swiss makes Phantom hit that good spot inside him.

He nuzzles his nose against his shoulder and neck, licking over the scars that are left of Dewdrop’s gills and enjoying the smell he loves so much—of a bonfire that has just been put out with fresh water—being so strong right there. He thinks about what he would do if the gills were still there, how he’d lick inside and suck on the pretty fins surrounding them. Alas, he only worries the delicate skin of the crook of Dewdrop’s neck between his fangs and resists the urge to pierce it just yet; there will be time for that later. 

“Mounty–” Dewdrop moans; being beyond any words but their names. The earth ghoul in question presses a fang to a bumpy scar and chuffs in acknowledgement of whatever it might be that Dewdrop was trying to say. Not that it matters much, anyway.

Phantom is nothing more than a two-in-one dildo and a fleshlight as Swiss controls his every movement with a big, warm hand sprawled out over his chest—the other one dimpling the skin on his hip in a possessive grip. It’s Dewdrop that is completely immobilized and reduced to a whiny mess, even though the quintessence ghoul has no control over himself either. He loves it; he’s not even addressed as much as Dewdrop. Swiss is nothing but vicious and the only comfort Mountain has to offer—at least for the time being—is the fire ghoul’s to take.

They should have invited Rain, Swiss thinks. As far as he’s aware the water ghoul got snatched by the ghoulettes after the rehearsal, but Swiss can’t help but wonder how much more wrecked Dewdrop would get if Rain were with them. The power he has over the fire ghoul is something as impressive as it is scary.

They will definitely invite Rain next time.

Phantom’s moans are the loudest and the highest and Swiss absolutely cherishes them. He prides himself in being able to pull all those lovely sounds out of the young ghoul and he knows them so well by now he could categorize them precisely. That’s why he knows exactly when to shove his cock into him harder, when to do it faster, and when to pull out completely just to hear Phantom cry out for it, hating the sudden feeling of cold and empty.

But then Swiss slides back in and all is right in the world again.

Yes, all four of them are enjoying themselves immensely.

Dewdrop tries to arch his back against the onslaught of sensation but Phantom’s hands that are planted firmly on his chest and his—or rather Swiss’—rhythmic thrusts effectively keep him from it. The fire ghoul is literally stuck and he drops his mouth open in a wanton moan at the realization of just how helpless he is right now.

Phantom lets out a similar noise when Dewdrop squeezes around him and Swiss chuckles cruelly behind him. “Two little whores made for being used, how pathetic. Isn’t it, my love?”

Dewdrop’s entire body vibrates with the rumble that comes from Mountain’s chest. “I think it’s rather adorable. It’s like they were made just for us to use.”

He squeezes around the fire ghoul’s slim wrists for good measure; as if to show off just how perfect of a fit they are. Swiss chuckles and nods in agreement.

Dewdrop whines loudly and wiggles his fingers in an attempt to…they’re not sure, really, but the next sound that comes out of him is too close to a sob for Mountain’s liking. “P–please…”

The earth ghoul hums and both lets go of his wrists and pauses toying with his clit. He drags his big hands over Dewdrop’s small body, tweaking his nipples on his way, before he wraps them tightly around him. He squeezes the remaining breath out of him and drills his cock into his hole as the fire ghoul clenches around it at receiving even more of that grounding pressure he craves so much. He flops his half-limp hands back down and grips Phantom’s wrist with one and Mountain’s forearm with the other in a silent plea of keep me close.

Even though they were all happy to reduce him to nothing but a few holes for them to fuck for the time being, he is still their beloved Dewdrop.

“It’s alright, fire lily,” Mountain rumbles into his ear, “I’ve got you, make us feel good some more and it’ll be your turn, I promise.”

Seeing Mountain take on the task of assuring the fire ghoul’s comfort, Swiss smirks; intending to take his cruelty up a notch before they finish.

“Useless without us, both of you,” he spits out with another forceful thrust into Phantom. “Fucking each other and being fucked by us is the only thing you’re good for.”

The quintessence ghoul moans all whorish at his words; a slut for cruel degradation that he is. He pants hard with his head hung and his eyes glued to where Dewdrop’s cunt is being stretched open on his cock, leaking more and more slick with every thrust. It’s an addicting sight and feeling, truly, and Phantom feels a dangerous swoop low in his stomach.

“Swiss–Swiss, I’m…I’m close, ‘m gonna–” he whines as his body moves of its own accord to search for something that will bring him to his orgasm. Swiss, though, doesn’t let it get too far.

“No, you’re not,” he snarls, “not until I tell you.”

Phantom whimpers but there’s nothing he can do about it, really, and everyone involved knows he loves it.

“How’s it going down there, my love?” the multi ghoul asks Mountain. “As hot as up here?”

“Hotter,” he admits, making Swiss chuckle. “I’m close, too, darling.”

“Alright then.”

Swiss groans as he picks up his pace and slams into Phantom with enough force to make the entire bed rattle against the wall.

“You can cum,” he whispers into the quintessence ghoul’s ear and cums deep inside him, grunting. The feeling of the multi ghoul’s cock slotted right against his prostate and the warmth filling him makes Phantom grind into Dewdrop for the last time before he tips over the edge, too.

Dewdrop cries out as he takes his second load of the night. Mountain presses down on his stomach and lets out a growl as he feels Phantom’s softening cock and his own through Dewdrop’s flat tummy. The earth ghoul bucks up into him and finally allows himself to sink his teeth into his shoulder and then he’s gone, too, spilling into Dewdrop’s ass.

Phantom goes completely boneless once he goes down from his high, flopping down onto a very fucked out but still very desperate Dewdrop. He would cry and beg for them to make him cum if only he weren’t squeezed so hard there’s no breath left in his lungs. Swiss somehow holds himself up behind Phantom, pulling out as he breathes heavily and folding in on himself where he kneels.

He knows he’s the one who will regain his composure the fastest and that means he has to switch his semi-cruelty off and give Dewdrop his release; preferably before the poor ghoul drops and descends into real panic.

It’s easy for him to roll Phantom off of him, the bed is big enough so that he can pick Dewdrop up and lay him down next to the quintessence ghoul with Mountain still taking up the middle. The fire ghoul cries out in desperation as he gets manhandled and spread out on his back for Swiss to do whatever he wants to him. 

“S–Swiss, pl…please, I–I can’t, I need–please,” Dewdrop babbles, flopping his arms around as if he’s trying to claw his way to getting his release.

But he is completely at Swiss’ mercy; he couldn’t fight him even if he wanted to.

Maybe he does, a little bit—too brainless to realize how much gentler Swiss is now and that whatever he’s going to do is finally going to be for Dewdrop, not someone else.

The multi ghoul lays on his front in between his legs and cannot waste any more time—not only because of his affection for Dewdrop, but also the delicious display of the fire ghoul’s holes all puffy and leaking his packmates’ cum right in front of his face.

Dewdrop must be cleaned up, of course, so why wouldn’t Swiss do it with his tongue?

He descends and plunges the appendage deep into the fire ghoul’s cunt and he absolutely wails; loud enough to wake the dead, probably. Without ghouls bigger than him on and under him, Dewdrop writhes in oversensitivity. Swiss only holds his hips, keeping at least that part of him still enough so that he can enjoy his dessert.

Neither of them notices Mountain gathering Phantom up and off of the bed and taking him to the bathroom to clean him up. They’ll be done before they come back, surely, just in time for a post-coital cuddle pile.

It’s obscene how the multi ghoul eats Dewdrop out, alternating between sucking on his cock, licking Phantom’s cum out of his cunt and doing the same to Mountain’s in his ass. It’s all sloppy and Swiss is all but drowning, but he doesn't ever want to stop.

He will, though; causing the fire ghoul actual anguish is not the plan. Swiss lets go of his hips with one hand and brings it down between his legs. He pushes two of his fingers into Dewdrop’s asshole, his thumb into his pussy, and closes his mouth around his clit.

He sucks and the fire ghoul is gone.

His holes squeeze around Swiss’ fingers and his thighs around his head as slick gushes out of him and absolutely drenches the other’s face and neck. He pulls away immediately, knowing that after being edged for so long, Dewdrop would fall into overstimulation that much faster and that much more intense than usual.

Swiss rests his cheek on the inside of the fire ghoul’s thigh and breathes in the smell of sex hanging in the air; so beautifully concentrated just between Dewdrop’s legs. He’s gasping for breath, laying sprawled out like a wet noodle with no strength to move even an inch. Swiss rubs his warm hands over his skin, wherever he can reach, to ground him and help him come back down smoothly.

Swiss’ eyes close at some point, but he can’t bring himself to care; he’s comfortable snuggled between Dewdrop’s legs. The next thing he knows a blanket is being thrown over him—still there—and there’s another warm body cuddling up to him and the fire ghoul. Phantom shoves his face into Dewdrop’s tummy and wraps his tail around Swiss’ waist. Mountain joins them a moment later, laying down in the other direction and manhandling Dewdrop so that his head is pillowed on his stomach. 

Their position is rather complicated, but they’re making it work.

[utilitycaster]

The thing I've realized, in the broader Actual Play space, is that a lot of creators are trying to turn Actual Play shows into TV shows.

You mentioned Kollok in your tags, and the creator of that has mentioned creating Kollok in a way to try to appeal to the Netflix audience.

And I'm all for experimentation, but tbh if I wanted to watch a TV show, I would go watch a TV show. That's not what I'm looking for in an Actual Play and over editing and gimmicks actively turn me off from it.

Folks creating Actual Play seem to put a lot of weight on it, but I don't know if it's that important from an audience perspective.

Hey anon,

Huge same - I've been thinking about this for a while, especially in regards to choices I didn't like (notably on D20, though the Candela split screen in chapter 3, while relatively minor, felt like part of the same trend and I'm really interested in seeing whether they keep it). I actually did mean to write more about this not in the tags of a reblog, so thanks for this ask because it gives me that motivation to do it!

Earlier this year I was at an event and someone who to be totally honest I found kind of annoying was talking about Dimension 20, and I decided to keep quiet and listen to what other people had to say, and another person (whom I respect and specifically know to be like, left-leaning and inclusive and not gatekeeper dudebro type, which is relevant to the next statement) who is solidly in Gen X and has been playing D&D since at least 2e mentioned that he doesn't like Actual Play at all because he is from the era where D&D was frequently played in third person and is somewhat of a purist in that sense. Ie, this guy would say "Gawain pulls out his sword and smites the dragon, with a 24 to hit", rather than "I'm going to pull out my sword and smite the dragon." He described his idea of D&D as being very much collaborative storytelling in the sense of a bunch of third person narrators who happen to be the storytellers for one specific character, not a first-person acted scene.

I happen to like both forms of narration and am not a purist either way, and indeed use both third person and first person myself as a player (as do many actual players; you see this on CR and D20 all the time). But I think this does show just how broad this spectrum is. You have people all the way on the "I am narrating an improvised story, I am the storyteller puppeting my character and I am not trying to be immersed" side and then you have shows that are trying to push this into full immersion...but so long as you have dice rolls, you'll never achieve it.

I prefer something in between: I do love watching people act, but I really like the gears and wires! I love mechanics! I think people who say "I love actual play D&D but I don't really care for combat, only RP" don't actually like actual play D&D! This is a specific format and I do not want people to hide the fact that they are using the rules of a game and are at a table, because they are and we know it.

This came up when I and others talked about the Legend of Vox Machina adaptation: they're probably going to have to find a way to convey the same tragedy and gravity of Scanlan's ninth level counterspell that doesn't require viewers to know the mechanics, because if you watch that scene as actual play the meaning of Sam saying "Nine" is immediately apparent. It hits hard with that one single word, but that won't be the case in an animated adaptation where no one is rolling a D20. Mechanics are in intrinsic part of actual play. You can enjoy actual play without that knowledge, but a solid grounding in those mechanics will only enhance that enjoyment (well, unless you're one of those rules-lawyery weirdos who gets bitter about any GM rule of cool/homebrew that they couldn't predict from the rulebooks but those people will never be happy).

The more general context of "being in a game", not just mechanics, is also in my opinion valuable. Brennan, on a Worlds Beyond Number fireside chat, referred to certain NPCs like Caramelinda as "furious that they are in a D&D game" and it's a funny and true statement. I feel like trying to push actual play into the realm of scripted shows is that: it feels like you're trying to hide the origins, and I think the quality of the show will ultimately suffer when you do that. It feels almost ashamed of what it is, and I don't think you can make something that transforms a medium/genre/thing in between the two without having a profound love and respect for the original, even if you also find it flawed. (This is also, tbh, how I feel about a lot of attempts to divorce D&D from the fact that it is ultimately a game influenced heavily by sword-and-sorcery fantasy, or about attempts to turn high or heroic fantasy into something that neatly affirms all of one's 2024 real world political beliefs, but that's another post).

I also think that the out-of-character element of actual play is a big draw. I have been open about having complicated feelings about the parasocial and projection aspects; but those feelings are "hey, this is still a show that is a source of livelihood, you are not hanging out in someone's living room and getting weird about the fact that the CR cast no longer responds to every tweet is dumb" and "you have not been betrayed by the creators because you didn't get the plot you wanted," and "the fact that two actors sit next to each other is not, in fact, a solid basis for shipping." I am equally opposed to the idea of "the actors do not exist, only the characters do," put forward in that attempt to make actual play Netflix-ready. It's fun to watch the CR cast rib Travis for turning bright red for, as people said, pretend kissing his real wife. It's fun to watch the Intrepid Heroes heckle Brennan when he plays a villain. It's fun to hear Aabria and Erika scream at WBN plot developments and for the McElroys or the NADDPod crew to wheeze with laughter and all of these shows but CR are to a degree edited, and all leave that element in, which I think says something really important about what actual play is understood to be!

It does not escape me that the seasons/shows using heavier camera edits have often, in my opinion, sacrificed story quality for a visual style I don't even care for. I do watch prestige television, and one of the more striking cinematographic choices I've seen lately are the extremely long single take shots used on both Succession's final season (Connor's Wedding, 4x03) and The Bear's first season (Review, 1x07). Prestige TV is not doing the glitchy Neverafter stuff. Hell, I liked Sagas of Sundry: Dread and never finished Madness before it went offline and haven't made an effort to seek it out specifically because the black box theater feel of Dread felt fun and new but not too removed from actual play vibes, whereas the higher production values of Madness, ironically, made it feel too artificial and stilted to keep my interest.

Actual play is its own beast, and in trying to appeal to a new audience you're probably going to lose a lot of the one you have. A big part of why I haven't been motivated to check out Kollok is that everything I hear about it, even positive reviews, makes it sound like it's missing the things I like from actual play and doesn't achieve the level of scripted shows. Honestly I think the REAL answer here is that if you want to find a space between a Netflix drama and an Actual Play show, ditch the rules and make stuff like Midst, which is as discussed inspired by ttrpg/actual play spaces, but is broadly plotted out in advance. I think that approach can combine the best of both worlds, whereas I feel as though attempting to be a Netflix show will usually spend so much time trying to hide the fact that there's a table there that it will detract from the actual story.

[bleeding-star-heart]

These tags on a reblog of my Anders analysis are another problem I have with DA:2's writing

#god i have so many feelings about this#cuz i romanced anders my first playthrough#and i hated that our relationship did a 180 as soon as I was like#“im not gonna let you gaslight me into doing war crimes”#was it OOC?#i don't know#I can't say#I haven't studied anders as a character or taken the time to contemplate him enough to speak on it#but i just know it was such a turn off that i started a new game entirely EDIT: I have removed the word "gaslighting" from this meta owing to the fact that technically, Anders isn't gaslighting, because gaslighting is something different. Gaslighting being trying to make someone doubt their perception of reality, among other things. What Anders ACTUALLY does falls under emotional manipulation. I would say to the OP that yes, indeed, this is VERY "out of character", so to speak. Most definitely for JUSTICE, the spirit inhabiting Anders's body. But also for Anders as well. Think about it: emotionally manipulating one's romantic partner is an inherently unjust thing to do. It is not something two people who respect and love each other do. Yet the spirit of Justice is completely silent when it happens. A being that supposedly embodies nothing but Justice simply...allows his host to guilt his lover into doing something they disagree with. He does not protest or try to stop Anders from engaging in a truly toxic form of emotional manipulation. If written properly, Justice should immediately have called Anders out on this. Which should prompt either an apology from Anders or a long, seemingly one-man argument between the two. But that doesn't happen. In fact, Justice only shows up if you, as Anders's rival, manage to turn him AGAINST blowing up the Chantry. And then, only to railroad Anders back into the role of terrorist. This, combined with Justice's general lack of reaction to any injustice or violation of rights that DOESN'T have to do with mages, causes him to become little more than a cheap plot device. Now as to why I don't believe a properly written Anders would do it, either. Anders at this point in the story is a revolutionary, yes. He is passionate about his cause. But he is also MORE than that. And part of that 'more'-and also WHY he's a revolutionary-is that he was a victim of a controlling, emotionally manipulative institution. One that bombards people like him with all kinds of unhealthy messaging. Messages like: the outside world is guaranteed to hate you, your (unchangeable) nature is inherently wrong and sinful. As well as: you can't trust yourself at all, you are one bad day from being a monster, you need to let us control you for your own good. Anders probably saw more than one person like Keili-that girl in the Mage Origin who actively believes she's evil and prays to 'not be a mage'. He probably encountered a lot of mages with varying degrees of religiously based self-loathing. He probably had some himself. And he lived in the Ferelden Circle. He's also a person who not only left a toxic institution, but actively sees and complains about how toxic the institution is. People who've suffered from toxic environments/relationships and RECOGNIZE how toxic those environments/relationships were, tend to value healthy relationships/environments. They try and work on themselves to remove any lingering psychological effects of that toxicity. It is highly likely that Anders would NOT want to repeat the kind of emotional manipulation he and others were subjected to. While he might not agree with Hawke about methods, Anders would not believe guilt to be a good tactic because guilt is one of the very tactics the Chantry used on him! Guilt about being a target for demonic possession, guilt about what the magisters did, guilt about being a mage in general.

Guilting his partner into agreeing with him, is, essentially, him doing what the Chantry did to him. And if the writers had put any thought into his character, they would have realized that too. And thus, if they were smart, or and simply give the player the option to permanently decline the quest with no negative consequences. The other option is to lean into that, and purposefully make it a character flaw, that he's too blinded by trauma to see that. But the writers did NOT have the time to be able to successfully pull that off. Thus, yeah. They make Anders, who suffered from religious based emotional manipulation...into someone who emotionally manipulates his partners. Which is yet another thing done in the name of a less-than-stellar ending and plot beat. EDIT: I have removed the word "gaslighting" from my part of this meta owing to the fact that technically, Anders isn't gaslighting Hawke, because gaslighting is something different. Gaslighting being trying to make someone doubt their perception of reality, among other things. What Anders ACTUALLY does falls under emotional manipulation. Which I still don't believe a properly written Anders OR Justice would do, for the reasons stated above.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Down in the (link)dumps

On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine. On October 2, I'll be in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab.

Back when I was writing on Boing Boing, I'd slam out 10-15 blog posts every day, short hits that served as signpost and public notebook, but I rarely got into longer analysis of the sort I do daily now on Pluralistic. Both modes are very useful for organizing one's thoughts, and indeed, they complement each other:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/

The problem is that when you write long, synthetic essays, they crowd out the quick hits. Back in May 2022, I started including three short links with each edition of Pluralistic, in a section called "Hey look at this" (thanks to Mitch Wagner for suggesting it!):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/01/reit-modernization-act/#linkdump

But even with that daily linkdump, I still manage to accumulate link-debt, as interesting things pile up, not rising to the level of a long blog-post, but not so disposable as to be easy to flush. When the pile gets big enough, I put out a Saturday Linkdump:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

All of which is to say, it's Saturday, and I've got a linkdump!

First up, a musical interlude. I've been listening to DJ Earworm's amazing mashups since 2005 and while I've got dozens of tracks that shuffle in and out of my daily playlist, the one that makes me wanna get up and dance every time is "No One Takes Your Freedom," a wildly improbable banger composed of equal parts Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, George Michael and Scissor Sisters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaboIeW1A_4

I defy you to play that one without bopping a little. I think it's the French horn from "For No One" that really kills it, the world's least expected intro to a heavy dance beat.

Moving swiftly on: let's talk about fonts. I remember when Wired magazine first showed up at the bookstores I was working at in Toronto, and my bosses – younger men than I am now! – complained that the tiny, decorative fonts, rendered in silver foil on a purple background, was illegible. I laughed at them, batting my young eyes and devouring the promise of a better future with ease, even in dim light.

Now it's thirty years later and I'm half-blind. Both my my decaying, aging eyes are filmed with cataracts that I'm too busy to get removed (though my doc promises permanent 20:20, perfect night-vision, and implanted bifocals when I can spare a month from touring with new books to get 'em fixed).

Which is to say: I spend a lot more time thinking about legibility now than I did in the early 1990s, and I've got a lot more sympathy for those booksellers' complaints about Wired's aggressively low-contrast design today. I'm forever on the hunt for fonts designed for high legibility.

This week, Kottke linked to B612, a free/open font family "designed for aircraft cockpit screens," commissioned by Airbus. It's got all the bells and whistles (e.g. hinting) and comes in variable and monospace faces:

https://b612-font.com/

B612 arrived at a fortuitous moment, coinciding with a major UI overhaul in Thunderbird, the app I spend the second-most time in (I spend more time in Gedit, the bare-bones text-editor that comes with Ubuntu, the flavor of GNU/Linux I use). A previous Thunderbird UI experiment had made all the UI text effectively unreadable for me, causing me to dive deep into the infinitely configurable settings to sub in my own fonts:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/UserChrome.css

The new UI is much better, but it broke all my old tweaks, so I went back into those settings and switched everything to B612, and it's amazeballs. I tried doing the same in Gedit, but B612 mono was too light for my shitty eyes, so I went back to Jetbrains Mono, another free/open font that has 8 weights to choose from:

https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/

Love me a new, legible font! Meanwhile, a note for all you designers: the received wisdom that black on white type is "hard on the eyes" is a harmful myth. Stop with the grey-on-white type, for the love of all that is holy. This isn't 1992, you aren't laying out type for Wired Issue 1.0. Contrast is good, actually.

Continuing on the subject of software updates: Mastodon, the free, open, federated social media platform that anyone can host and that lets you hop between one server and another with just a couple clicks, has released a major update, focusing on usability, especially for people unfamiliar with its conventions:

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/09/mastodon-4.2/

Included in this fix: a major overhaul to how you interact with posts on servers other than your home server. This was both confusing and clunky, and the fix makes it much better. They've also changed how sign-up flow works, making things simpler for newbies, and they've cleaned up the UI, tweaking threads, web previews and other parts of the daily experience.

There's also a lot of changes to search, but search still remains less than ideal, with multi-server search limited to hashtags. This is bad, actually. Thankfully, we don't have to wait for Mastodon devs to decide to fix it, because Mastodon is free and open, which means anyone with the skills to code a change, or the money to pay techies to do it, or the moral force to convince them to do it, can effect that change themselves:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/23/semipermeable-membranes/

Case in point: Mastoreader, a great new thread reader for Mastodon:

https://mastoreader.io/

Every time that guy who owns Twitter breaks it even worse, a new cohort of users sign up. Not all of them stay, but the growth is steady and the trendline is solid:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/of-course-mastodon-lost-users/

It's the right call: while there are other services that promise that they will be federated someday, promises are easy, and there's world of difference between "federateable" and "federated." As GW Bush told us, "Fool me twice, we don't get fooled again":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/06/fool-me-twice-we-dont-get-fooled-again/

One big difference between the kind of blogging I used to do in my Boing Boing days and the long-form work I do today is the graphics. When you're posting 10-15 times/day, you can't make each graphic a standout (or at least, I can't). But I can (and do) devote substantial time to making a single collage out of public domain and Creative Commons graphics every day:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/25/a-year-in-illustration/

I am not a visual person – literally, I can barely see! – but my daily art practice has slowly made me a less-terrible illustrator. I got in some good licks this week, like this graphic for the UAW's new "Eight-and-Skate" work-to-rule program:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/21/eight-and-skate/#strike-to-rule

That graphic was fun because all the elements were from the public domain, or fair use. I love it when that happens. I've spent years amassing a bulging folder of public domain clip art ganked from the web and this week, it got a major infusion, thanks to the Bergen Public Library's Flickr album of high-rez scans of antique book endpapers. 86 public domain textures? Yes please! (Also, the fact that Flickr has one-click download of all the hi-rez versions of every image in a photoset is another way that it stands out as a remnant of the old, good web, not so much a superannuated relic as an elegant weapon of a more civilized age):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bergen_public_library/albums/72157633827993925

Speaking of strikes: there are strikes! Everygoddamnedwhere! After 40 years in a Reagan-induced coma, labor is back, baby. The Cornells School of Industrial and Labor Relations' Labor Action Tracker is your go-to, real-time observation post as hot labor summer turns into the permanent revolution. As of this writing, it's listing 968 labor actions in 1491 locations:

https://striketracker.ilr.cornell.edu

There's no war but class war and it was ever thus. Brian Merchant's forthcoming book Blood In the Machine is a history of the Luddites, revisiting that much-maligned labor uprising, which has been rewritten as a fight between technophobes and the inevitable forces of progress:

https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/

The book unearths the true history of the Ludds: they were skilled technologists who were outraged by capital's commitment to immiseration, child slavery, and foisting inferior goods on a helpless public. You can get a long preview of the book in Fast Company:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90949827/what-the-luddites-can-teach-us-about-standing-up-to-big-tech

Merchant also talked with Roman Mars about the book on the 99 Percent Invisible podcast:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/blood-in-the-machine/transcript/

If that's piqued your interest and if you can make it to Los Angeles, come by Chevalier's Books this Wednesday, where Brian and I are having a joint book-launch (I've just published The Internet Con, my Luddite-adjacent "Big Tech Disassembly Manual"):

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/chevaliers-books-8495362156

Where is all this labor unrest coming from? Well as Stein's Law has it, "anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop." 40 years of corporate-friendly political economy has lit the world on fire and immiserated billions, and we've hit bottom and started the long, slow climb to a world that prioritizes human thriving over billionaire power.

One of the most tangible expressions of that vibe shift is the rise and rise of antitrust. The big news right now is the (first) trial of the century, Google's antitrust trial. What's that? You say you haven't heard anything about it? Well, perhaps that has to do with the judge banning recording and livestreaming and not making transcripts available. Don't worry, he's also locking observers out of his courtroom for hours at a time during closed testimony. Oh, and also? The DoJ just agreed that it won't post its exhibits from the trial online anymore. You can follow what dribbles of information as are emerging from our famously open court system at US v Google:

https://usvgoogle.org/trial-update-9-22

If the impoverished trickle of Google antitrust news has you down, don't despair, there's more coming, because the FTC is apparently set to drop its long-awaited suit against Amazon:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftc-poised-sue-amazon-antitrust-163432081.html

Amazon spent years blowing hundreds of millions of dollars of its investors' cash, selling goods below cost and buying up rivals until it became the most important channel for every kind of manufacturer to reach their customers. Now, Amazon is turning the screws. A new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance details the 45% Amazon Tax that every merchant pays to reach you:

https://ilsr.org/AmazonMonopolyTollbooth-2023/

That 45% tax is passed on to you – whether or not you shop at Amazon. Amazon's secretive most favored nation terms mean that if a seller raises their price on Amazon, they have to raise it everywhere else, which means you're paying more at WalMart and Target because of Amazon's policies.

Those taxes are bad for us, but they're good for Amazon's investors. This year, the company stands to make $185 billion from junk-fees charged to platform sellers. As David Dayen points out, Amazon charges so much to ship third-party sellers' goods that it fully subsidizes Amazon's own shipping:

https://prospect.org/power/2023-09-21-amazons-185-billion-pay-to-play-system/

That's right: as Stacy Mitchell writes in the report, "Amazon doesn’t have to build warehousing and shipping costs into the price of its own products, because it’s found a way to get smaller online sellers to pay those costs."

Now, one of the amazing things about antitrust coming back from the grave is that just the threat of antitrust enforcement can moderate even the most vicious bully's conduct. Faced with the looming FTC case, Amazon just canceled its plan to charge even more junk fees:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/amazon-drops-planned-merchant-fee-ftc-lawsuit-looms-bloomberg-news-2023-09-20/

But despite this win, Amazon is still speedrunning the enshittification cycle. The latest? Unskippable ads in Prime Video:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-22/amazon-prime-video-content-to-include-ads-staring-early-2024

Remember when Amazon promised you ad-free video if you'd lock yourself into shopping with them by pre-paying for a year's shipping with Prime? The company has fully embraced the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further."

That FTC case can't come a moment too soon.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/23/salmagundi/#dewey-102

[midgardian-witch]

mirror with steven😭😭

I am so sorry for taking so long to respond to this, anon. I do hope you'll enjoy this even though you sent in this request a while ago. (This drabble did turn out slightly longer than my usual ones. I just got really inspired by that prompt apparently)

Mirror, Mirror

tags: established relationship | self-image issues | innuendo | sub!Steven and Dom!Reader if you squint | gn!reader

ships: Steven Grant/Reader

AO3

Edit: added AO3 link

[MIRROR] Person A puts Person B in-front of a mirror and points out each part they love about Person B. 

I wish you could see yourself the way I do - you've heard that sentence many times, in rom coms, in song lyrics. It's a bit sappy to be fair. It's certainly not a sentence you'd ever thought you would ever use in your life. And yet it does feel rather fitting right now.

Here you are, watching your boyfriend get dressed for your date. You’re almost salivating at how adorable and cute and fucking hot he looks. At the same time you can hear Steven muttering to himself, how he doesn't look good, how he 'looks like a knob', getting more and more frustrated with himself. 

Steven is the type of person that just doesn’t see himself the way others do. And it perplexes you time and time again. How can he not realize how gorgeous he is?

Swiftly you push yourself off of the chair you’re sitting on and make your way over to Steven. You don’t let his muttering perturb you as you lay your hands on his strong shoulders and look over them into the mirror in front of him. He startles for a moment before he realizes it’s you and his lips that a moment before were turned into a displeased frown curl into a soft, besotted smile at the sight of you.

“Heya, love. Just give me a moment, I’ll be ready as soon as I get this done,” he says, lifting the half-done tie up a little for emphasis. You hum thoughtfully, your hands kneading his tense shoulders. He leans into your touch intuitively before he gently swats your hands away. “If you distract me then we won’t be on time. I know I am not much to show off but I want to at least try,” he mutters and then tries to play things off with a laugh. His smile is strained and it almost breaks your heart.

You shake your head, unbelieving. What happened that he would even think that about himself? You wrap your arms around his torso, pulling him back towards you. “You’re wrong. And this won’t do,” you say as your hands take hold of his tie and undo what progress Steven had made thus far. He opens his mouth ready to either complain or ask what you are doing but you don’t let him get far enough to know for sure. “No. It’s my turn to talk now, baby,” you tell him in a stern voice you usually reserve for more intimate scenarios. Steven clears his throat and you can see his cheeks start to flush at your tone of voice. With a pleased smile on your face you continue to unravel the tie and then continue by opening up the first few buttons on the crisp white shirt he had put on for tonight. 

“You know you look amazing, right?”

Steven waves you off. “Of course you say that. You’re biased, love. I will admit I don’t know why you went for this,” he gestures towards his own body before continuing “But I am happy for it. Doesn’t mean you have to lie for my sake.”

You can see Steven struggling not to comment on your actions, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion by what to him must seem like you undoing all the work he has put into, well, looking put together for you.

You enjoy the sight for a moment: your loving boyfriend in your arms, cheeks flushed and shirt undone. With all your willpower you drag your thoughts away from how much prettier he would look if you tussled him up a bit further and instead focus on your initial, if not at all well-thought out plan: Show Steven that he is indeed a very attractive man. 

“So this is how this is going to go. I will talk and I don’t want to hear another bad word about yourself.”

Steven swallows hard and nods hesitantly, his eyes focused on your reflection in the mirror. You grin, your hands gliding teasingly over his (for now) clothed torso before you wrap your arms fully around him and pull him into your embrace once again. 

“Let’s start with your face,” you begin. You’re describing your favorite parts of his pretty face: how his eyes have this beautiful deep brown color that you just want to look into forever, how his nose scrunches up so adorably when he dislikes something, how his full eyebrows remind you of a muppet and you think that’s cute. At that last comment he gives you the aforementioned nose scrunch of displeasure but doesn’t say anything in protest. You continue talking about every small detail that you like about his face: the shape of his strong nose, his very kissable lips, the way he blushes so beautifully, his jawline that is cut like a greek statue and even his ears. With every new part you mention you can see his cheeks flush even brighter.

Your hands travel over his torso up towards his shoulders. You make a show of looking thoughtful for a moment before kissing his cheek. Steven turns his face towards you, his teeth worrying his bottom lip, just begging to be kissed. You smile at him and lean forward, capturing his full lips in a kiss. Meanwhile your hands make quick work of his shirt, opening his buttons with skilled fingers and finally pulling it half way off of his shoulders. As you pull back from the kiss Steven lets out a confused whine. It takes him a moment before he realizes that you have slowly undressed him while you had him distracted with that kiss.

At the confused look on his face you give him a small laugh. “Oh baby, we are not done yet,” you say teasingly, “There is so much more of you that I love besides your face.”

You continue talking about the different parts of Steven’s body that you adore: his strong shoulders, his arms that feel perfect around you when he hugs you, his hands that just fit perfectly in yours, his chest which is the ideal pillow to fall asleep on, his nipples that are so responsive to your touch. Steven gasps, holding back a moan, as you tease his nipples gently for emphasis. You decide to have some mercy on him at least and drop your hands from his chest towards his stomach. “I love that you’re still soft here even with your muscles. Makes cuddling so much better,” you admit before your hands travel down even further.

Steven keens as your fingers glide over the slowly growing bulge in his pants. You lean in closer towards him, your lips all but brushing the shell of his ear. “I love this too, but I think you know that, don’t you, baby?” you whisper as you cup his clothed cock in your hand. “You have such a pretty cock. It’s the perfect size. And you make me feel so good with it too.”

Steven moans, unable to hold back anymore, as his hips start to move without his permission. You see that the flush of his cheeks has long since traveled down further and you are sure that if you were to take off his pants you'd see his cock flushed just the same. He whimpers in protest as you let go of his erection and instead grab his very shapely ass with both hands. “Oh and this too. Your ass is fantastic, baby. Nice and round, soft yet firm. Not to mention all the fun things we can do with it too.”

As you look back into the mirror you can see in his reflection that Steven is ready to just bend over and let you have him. Gone is the look of utter defeat and displeasure with himself. Instead before you stands a gorgeous mess of a man, skin flushed, cock pressing painfully against his pants and eyes so full of adoration, love and lust that it takes your breath away.

“Do you see it? Do you see how beautiful you are?”

Steven squirms against you, mouth opening and closing uselessly before he nods. “Y-Yes, love.”

Slowly your hands find their way to the front of his pants again. “I don’t want to go out for our date anymore. How about we stay in tonight?” you offer with a grin as you pop the bottom of his dress pants. Steven nods frantically. As you take off his pants and underwear with one swift motion you take a moment to admire the beauty that is your boyfriend before you eagerly drag him away from the mirror towards your bedroom.

[frodothefair]

Mr. Nisile and I watching Bridgerton: the season 3, part 2 edition

@konartiste

Episode 5:

Mr. Nisile: Kate looks so much like my former classmate, it's uncanny. Me: Yeah, and Anthony looks like my weird friend from med school. Mr. Nisile: and they both had a propensity to share really awkward things with us. Like, didn't (the weird friend from med school) once text you "just had sex"? Me: I don't know. If he did, I probably repressed that.

Mr. Nisile on Anthony, Benedict and Colin talking: Ok, this whole scene is just collars talking to collars.

Daphne the cat is on Mr. Nisile's knee during the mirror scene: Daphne, we must look away for scenes like this. (And then, Daphne actually does look away :P)

Mr. Nisile: You know, this might have been said before, but Penelope probably actually fit the beauty standards of the time far better than most of the people cast in this show. Me: Yes, indeed. There is fatshaming of Penelope even in the book, but in fact, it's quite anachronistic. It was not until the late 19th century that thinness became chic because... *goes off on a tirade that is far too long to document here*

Mr. Nisile: It would've been funnier if Lord Greer had announced his conditions backwards: if he had led with the 4-5 children and Cressida was like, "ok, ok, this I can do," but then only one ball per month, and Cressida is like "shiiiiiiiit" and then the coup de grace is the grey and brown dresses.

Episode 6:

When John Stirling announces his and Francesca's engagement, a few of the chords in the music that follows sound suspiciously like the Fellowship theme from LOTR. Mr. Nisile upon hearing this: NO, NO, NO! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! Me: wha, did I just hear what I think I heard?! Mr. Nisile: You can't SHIRE THE TON! YOU CAN'T FELLOWSHIP THE BRIDGERTONS! Me: what are you talking about, that was excellent! Mr. Nisile: THAT JUST RANKLED ME IN THE RELIGION! Me: Ok, that is one for the Mr. Nisile-isms post, once my nails dry. Mr. Nisile: Ok, fine. But I'll be right back. I need to use the bathroom -- when you get rankled in the religion, it tends to loosen up the bladder.

Mr. Nisile on Cressida Cowper's red dress: That dress looks like a red spinnaker. Me: what's a spinnaker? Mr. Nisile: (looks is up and shows me -- it is a type of sail) Oh. Yeah. Ok.

Me when Cressida Cowper shows up at a ball after she reveals herself as Lady Whistledown: And all the while, Ms. Malhotra is in the background going :D, and that is my favorite thing in this episode so far.

Episode 7:

All of the below are from Mr. Nisile:

You know, Cressida needs some better editing. I could write better than her. I could be Lady Whistledown, that could be my new drag name.

The schism of the ton!

Well, at least this Lady Whistledown is better composed than a crummy tweet.

That outfit is like a Rorschach test for flamingoes.

You know, with how autistic-coded Stirling is, I'm glad the Bridgerton brothers didn't try harder to convince him to "declare himself" by throwing rocks at a window. He might have gone and actually done it.

You know, carriage drivers probably have the best gossip. I wonder why no one thought that Lady Whistledown was a carriage driver.

Ok, you want to talk about anachronisms? Colin's black light vest. It looks like it came from a laser tag studio. (This is in response to me having eagle eyes for any part of a period piece drama that is anachronistic).

Episode 8:

Mr. Nisile on Colin's home decor: Those houses have co-lors.

Mr. Nisile on Colin and Eliose talking: I would be more comfortable wearing what she's wearing than what he's wearing. I mean, he's got like two cravats and three collars, and a woolen coat. I would be sweating like a pig in July.

Mr. Nisile on the introduction of Michaela Stirling: wait, are they (Eliose and Francesca) just in awe of her overwhelming femininity or something? Me: (sitting on my hands and aggressively not saying anything because I have read the books and he has not, and I know what the deal is with Michaela Stirling)

Eventually, I did tell him about Michaela Stirling, and then he felt vindicated because he thought he saw an intimate moment between Francesca and Penelope in the first part of the season, and thought they were trying to code Francesca as queer all along.

[appelsiinilight]

Finally got around to binging Centaurworld season 2;

so he like literally just started beef with his own damn self for no reason at all, like LITERALLY ASDFGHJKASDFGH, FUNNIEST tragic villain backstory of ALL time

like the whole thing with the elk half was indeed very fucked, but he Literally Just Decided To Do That To Himself For No Reason, like you can’t even do the whole “sure [villain] did bad things, but they were traumatized by [someone more evil]!” thing ‘cause HE DID THATTTTT

and the split itself took place IMMEDIATELY after he first cut off his antlers which the crush he did it for FLIRTED WITH HIM ABOUT LIKING THEMMMMM

and a few scenes later HE HIMSELF goes “hey that was kinda a very drastic and entirely unnecessary measure”

also the fact that he was a dickhead before any sort of sad tragic backstory at all occurred ASDFGHJKASDFGHJK it may be tempting to slip into the line of thought that he split into the good (elk) and the bad (guy) personalities of the og elktaur, since the elk ends up such a poor little mewmew, but i think it is pretty clear textually that they were exactly the same at the start, and whichever one ended up with the human body would’ve doubled down on the oh-god-what-the-fuck personality trait sdfghjkldfghjk

also, in the context of the show, it kinda looks a lot like the general strove to fuck over the elk not so much out of self-loathing or anything even subtextually like that, but because he (all of him - the elktaur, and the people he split into) is just not into treating people well, TO THE DEGREE that even a person who used to be His Actual Self stopped mattering to the him that had the upper hand and to whom that person’s existence was inconvenient

edit: ok i browsed the tag a little and i’m seeing some fantasy racism angst ascribed to the elktaur, and like, yeah, the show did insert a few “elktaur experiences a microaggression” moments, BUT, ASDFGHJKL, this is one of those “fantasy racism catastrophically fails as a racism metaphor” moments because unlike in real life, citizens of the Centaurworld do act fucking insane all the time compared to humans. Like, that’s the premise of the show: Normal Horse Enters Fucking Insane World. You can’t just pull a “but acting like centaurs are different is basically bigotry and it drove the elktaur into the deepest pits of self-loathing :)” 9/10ths into the “look at the fucking insane creatures” show ASDFGHJKASDFGHJK

like i’m with the humans of the Centaurworld flashbacks on this one, if I existed in that universe I wouldn’t touch the in-universe centaurworld with a 10 foot pole because I barely suffered through watching these characters. HORSE barely suffered through interacting with them through season 1!!!

Textually, elktaur just acts weirdly human compared to Literally Every Single Other Centaur ASDFGHJKASDFGHJ

basically it does not appear that Centaurworld (the show) executed any real themes, at least where the elktaur and his iterations are concerned, but that’s not a criticism (unless the writers did actually try to do some themes and fucked up so bad, in which case, LMAO) - the story doesn’t have to have them to be very fun. having a very fucked up guy just start shit for no thematically cohesive reason is still a very fun story to experience asdfghjksdfghj

[thatiranianphantom]

On Ch*ni And How This Version is NOT An Ode To LGBT Representation.

Oh, folks. We've hit that time. We've hit the time where I have to say something aloud, aware as I am that it's RD and criticizing it for being tone deaf and offensive is somewhat pointless.

I have edited the name so that this hopefully doesn't show up in the tag, trying to respect keeping that tag a positive place here. But I gotta say something. And for once, it's not on Madelaine and Vanessa, it's on the writers.

The way that they are portraying Ch*ni is anything but positive LGBT representation.

It's been canonically established that Toni and Cheryl do not know each other in the 50s' verse. Like Toni had never spoken to Cheryl before 701.

And yet somehow, Toni has decided that she knows Cheryl, a stranger's, sexuality. Not only did she decide that, she has decided Cheryl needs to be open about that and come out. Here's a few issues with that, in the form of some lists.

Here are things Cheryl has never done in this verse, up to the end of the current episode:

Confided in Toni that she was struggling with her sexuality

Asked Toni for her advice

Asked Toni what sexuality she'd identify Cheryl with

Requested Toni help her come out

Sought Toni's opinion on her life and her relationships

Told Toni that she was a lesbian.

Here are the things Cheryl did do:

Told Toni more than once that she did not know the inner details of Cheryl's life and explicitly said Toni should stop acting like she knew Cheryl

Made it very clear that she was uncomfortable with Toni's advances.

Show us, the audience, that her family is abusive and unsafe.

And yet, Toni feels it is her personal responsibility to remove Cheryl from the closet, and "play the long game", implying she plans on being with Cheryl once Cheryl has come out. This is....not good. Disclosure of one's sexuality is an incredibly personal process, and one that can only be done by the person themselves. As a bisexual person, I would be incredibly not okay with someone outlining the steps they feel I should take in my own sexuality. That's to say nothing of the fact that it may actually be unsafe for Cheryl to come out.

In the last episode, Toni stated "I was you." She indeed was not, given the fact that she and Cheryl have had maybe three conversations and again, Cheryl has never expressed to Toni that she is requesting her help to come out. The 704 content was, at best, none of Toni's business. Nor was it her place to overtly make Cheryl uncomfortable with her advances. And I am super not okay with the last CH scene given how Toni had been acting thus far, and the show portraying it as empowering or feminist.

The thing is, while I don't think the show has ever been good about LGBT representation, their s2 plot wasn't like this. It never felt like Toni was trying to pressure Cheryl into anything. You could say a lot of things about them as a couple but it didn't feel like Toni decided Cheryl's sexuality and took on the role of the sexuality police.

Anyway. Let me know y'all's opinion. Looking forward to anons calling me a homophobe. Or a racist. Or oftentimes, both!

[read-and-write-]

Get to know me, double edition

Two tag games running around at the same time so I'm copying some people and doing both at the same time, and for the people who tagged me in one, this is your tag for the other.

Thanks to @myheartalivewrites @happiness-of-the-pursuit @littlemisskittentoes @heybuddy-drabbles @suseagull04 @14carrotghoul for tagging me in this! I finally did it!

There's two versions of this so this is a double tag game, reduce, reuse, recycle and all that, answers under the cut

First Set

Last song: María La Curandera - Natalia Lafourcade

Last film: I can't remember which basically tells you everything you need to know about how many movies I actually watch

Currently reading: Gideon the Ninth bt Tamsyn Muir, and I'm rereading Loveless by Alice Oseman because I want to anotate the physical book that i got half a year ago

Currently watching: Interview with the Vampire, I'm in episode 6 and seriously considering just putting all my tbr aside to read the novel

Currently consuming: Chocolate Ice Cream and a cheese sandwich (✨girl dinner✨)

Currently craving: This specific fries with pulled pork and cream cheese and BBQ sauce from this specific place that are bomb every single time.

Next Set

1. Were you named after anyone?

My great-grandfather, Manuel

2. When was the last time you cried?

On friday my cat needed to get surgery done, needless to say I cried more than once during that day.

3. Do you have kids?

i am just a baby (no)

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

I did Artistic Roller Skating for a long time, branched out to Figure Skating for like two months but tropical country couldn't keep up and went back to my roots until around two years ago when I started having Adult Schedules for Work. I have also done Gymnastics.

5. Do you use sarcasm?

Yes, and also suffer the "everything I say sounds serious" sindrome

6. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Hair generally, if we are speaking in Spanish, accent.

7. What’s your eye color?

Brown that leans to black.

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings, I am a coward and proud.

9. Any talents?

I am very good at knowing things, I am a fun fact girlie, if you have a random question ask me because 8 times out of 10 I have the answer, if I don't just give me 2 minutes and I'll have it.

And I also sing.

10. Where were you born?

Medellín ✨en la playa con la oriental✨ if this means something to you seamos amiguitos

11. What are your hobbies?

Writing, reading, singing, spending my money in silly little gadgets, walking around a mall just looking (o lolear, my mom would call it)

12. Do you have any pets?

My soulmate, best friend and child, a cat named Iglesia.

13. How tall are you?

1,56m or for my american friends 5'1

14. Favorite subject in school?

English, Spanish, Art and Philosohpy, long ago the four nations lived together in harmony-

I was indeed a humanities nerd.

15. Dream job?

Right now? mantenida, now if I had to chose and ignore if it's possible or not I'd love to work in the production crew of Doctor Who or any other big fiction TV Show, turning your hyperfixations into profit and all that.

OKAY now tagging some people, no pressure y'all, if you have already done it I apologize @raysletters @ssmtskw @rmd-writes @gayrootvegetable @gay-flyboys @firenati0n @anincompletelist

[slimy-vore-bog]

WARNING: groomer in the SFW vore community (serious)

Content/Trigger warning: discussions of grooming, mention of incest, and sexual and fatal vore

I am posting to tags to try to keep people safe!

This specifically occured in the Owl House corner of this community, but everyone should be warned

I will put the rest of the post below keep reading, but for now the person I'm accussing is known as "les-the-mess" on here and "LesTheMessy" on DeviantArt (I do not remember the discord name) and she is 23/24 years of age

And lastly that a real minor has been contacted by said person and made very uncomfortable (url will not be stated for their safety)

Remember to check everything I say for yourself, if you don't believe me; I would not accuse this person publicly if I didn't consider them a real threat All except the minor's statement are available online

I am feeling sick to my stomach that this happened and I don't know how to handle this. I'm going to tell this a bit more like a story so I can get it out easier

I was on DA (DeviantArt) when I saw something odd pop up; a vore edit of Catra and Adora with Luz and Amity as prey. I looked at it, because I am always up to find more sfw safe vore creators, but it was neither safe or non-sexual

There were clearly comments engaging with the art in a sexual way and the creator didn't discourage or delete said comments and the description itself mentioned how the vore was going to end with both prey characters dying.

This person had an identical avatar and near identical username to their URL here on tumblr and I was horrified as I knew that this person had interacted with a minor despite having "minors DNI" and that already gave me a slight prickling suspicion something was wrong (later learned she has even DMed them on discord...)

They had both minors and NSFW in her DNI so I didn't have anything to go after, as they didn't have any post with suspicious stuff here or followed any weird blogs and I brushed it off initially

Her posts on DA however... Very fucking damning: almost all their edits are of minors and adults in vore or of the character The Collector (Which is a child who is also a god; he is immortal, but at the point we last see them is mentally an 8-10 year old)

Now I didn't pick the most damning thing to screenshot, as it was too gross (unbirth incest between Luz the main character, her girlfriend and Luz's mother Camila) but here is one example of one of their posts:

Odalia/nickname Mamadalia is an antagonist of the show and an adult woman

Here is a screenshot of her account on tumblr:

Very lousily taken, but I was too distraught to care

I contacted the minor (who I am already friendly with, since I wanted to support the growth of their blog) as soon as I deemed this person to be a threat and the minor has told me that she has indeed acted weird towards them, but it only clicked now after I shared what I did...

The minors own words when I asked for details:

"I can't remeber what we talked about exactly since I deleted my discord in a panic-

But it was first of with the collector, at first it seemed harmless, but I started getting uncomfortable when it entered into the vore Stuff, like, I dont why but it rubbed me the wrong way but I didnt say anything since it sorta felt…uneasy to say the least, and i feel stupid because i never said anything about it

She also talked a lot about digestion aswell, and when I brought up the no minors thing- she said it was because she managed and 18+ discord server and it was okay for us to talk, and I feel this is extremely important to mention- she reposted your art to me without credit, I cant remeber everything but i hope this is enough"

Now the last thing I will say I don't have much of an opinion on, because of how severe the situation is, but I wanted to include the full message (Split up into paragraphs for easier reading)

I might have forgotten some stuff, but this is all I can think of right now

Please just stay safe, stay away and block/report this person!

[neptoons1998]

Summary: Riri doesn’t believe in string of fate after all she doesn’t have one or does she?

A/N: this edited and polished version 🖤🖤 Imma post the next one tomorrow 🤞🏿🤞🏿 @shuriris-stuff thanks for the idea.

Tag list: @pantherheart @somethingcleaverandwhitty @mal-urameshi

The concept of soulmates was stupid in Riri’s opinion. Anyone with eyes would know it’s just corporate interesting people to buy their products to “The One.” She knew her mom believed in soulmates, Riri remembers the two red lines wrapped around her mother’s left pinky.

And look where that got her, Riri thought, both of her mom’s soulmates died. And based on what Riri knows from an earlier age.

She never wanted to experience that type of heartbreak as long as she lived. So, the young scientist threw herself into the only love that would never hurt her.

Fate must have heard her desperate plea from a nine-year-old girl, Riri had never gotten the thin line on her left pinky. Sharon, her mom, was so worried that it would cause the young girl to go into depression. To Riri, she was fine being alone after all what else can she do?

Well, who knew she was right that love would cause her pain, she thought as she felt herself swinging on the hammock counting the glow worms suspended in the air. She knew one day she would be noticed by somebody, but not like this.

Before Riri could think deeply about the mistakes she made up to this point. She heard the soft crunch noise from the rocks, there stood Shuri, who looked deep in thought.

“Well,” Riri stumbled out of the hammock to get closer to Shuri, “How did it go?”

Shuri picked out her nails, “I learned I am not as persuasive as my brother once was.”

It was like a stone stuck into Riri’s stomach, “Oh my god. I’m going to die.”

Shuri quickly shook her head, “No, no. Maybe I should have said that. It was a joke.

“Don’t quit your day job,” Riri mumbled as she sat herself down on the cool stone ground. Shuri could only smile at her, “I won’t. I can’t have my soulmate dying on me before I get to know her.”

“What are you talking about,” Riri said looking at Shuri. Shuri grabbed her hands staring deep into her eyes, “You’re my soulmate. And as my soulmate, I’ll keep you safe.”

Riri laughed like Shuri told the best joke since why did the chicken cross the road. As the college student calmed down she saw that Shuri was staring at her straight face, “Oh you’re serious.”

Shuri smirked, “Indeed.”

“Well that can’t happen,” Riri said standing up from her crossed-leg position. Shuri looked up at her,

“Why not?”

Riri twisted her fingers, “For one you’re royalty and I’m not about to Megan in this relationship.”

Shuri scoffed at her, “Wakanda will accept you. What’s the other reason?”

Riri bit her lip, to be frank, she didn’t have another reason just that. She was banking that the royal family has some type of law, but based on what she researched about the small mighty nation they were more welcoming to gays and they than most “progressive” nations.

“If you give me a minute I can think up some more,” Riri stated. Shuri just smiled at her as she took her hands again forcing the short woman to sit on the ground again.

“Have you slept at all?” Shuri asked, closing the space between the pair. Riri felt sleepless trying to wrap around her, but she had many questions.

“How do you know I am your soulmate?” Riri asked as she felt Shuri lightly pushing her head to lie on her lap. “ I don’t have the red string on my pinky. Mama was so worried something was wrong with me.”

As Riri looked at Shuri’s eyes she noticed the royal’s iris had a light gold hue to it. Now that she is looking at Shuri, how come she didn’t notice her jawline? Riri shook her head to make herself stay focused on the problem at hand.

“I’ll show you, once we get out of here,” Shuri stated.

Shuri watched as her soulmate fell into a deep sleep. Riri Williams. That’s what her soulmate’s name was. Shuri smirked, “You couldn’t show up earlier?”

Riri continued sleeping without a care in the world. Shuri knew one day she would meet her soulmate; she thought her future soulmate wouldn’t be to her level.After alll,l was she genius when she was five, but Riri was not only on her level but at times ahead of her. Shuri loved that.

She took Riri’s left pinky, true to the college student's words it seems like she didn’t have the string wrapped around her finger, Shuri knew once they get back home. Riri would believe her.

Shuri had to talk to Namor once more, she will do anything to protect her soulmate.

[libroseitm]

Can you guys stop doing this under promotions for black shows and movies, especially queer black focused media

First and foremost: thank you for bringing this up. It needs to be talked about.

Second most important: I am in no way qualified to comment on this, like, at all. I was raised in a racist environment and while I have removed myself as far as possible from that, I still have a lot to learn. Can someone else please weigh-in on this??

Third: What I do feel qualified to comment on is HBO's mlk post, only because I was involved in that. A lot of the comments were either or both:

. From international fans that have never heard of mlk day, and know nothing about it. (speaking as a uk person myself, this is not in any way a thing here)

. From fans who were on autopilot and commenting without even thinking/looking at the post.

Should we be excusing that behavior? No. It was thoughtless and dumb and even international fans should have been able to catch the vibe and message of the post. However, no one should be condemned for making a mistake either, if their comment was indeed a mistake. I personally have tried to get as many fans to take down their comments as possible. This was worded badly, please see the comments.

For future posts on streaming service socials: can someone with more gravitas in the campaign bring this to the wider fanbase's attention? I will tag @renewasacrew but I'm a small blog so a bigger voice or more voices may be more helpful? Is this something that should be said on a more official basis, do we need stricter guidelines from campaign runners on which posts to comment on?

I hope that was answered compassionately, anon, that was my intent. And again, thank you for sending this.

EDIT: I just realised that I did leave a comment on a recent most (netflix) post which may have been inappropriate. I have taken it down. I personally need to reflect more on this, even if it isn't addressed by renew as a crew.