#found it in full with no writing!!!

[quicksilversnails]

Took some notes from the Wild Life retrospective episode of the Imp & Skizz podcast featuring Grian because I thought the behind the scenes info was really interesting!

(3:15) The wild cards were all kept totally secret from the players (apart from Grian), with the exception of the superpowers and finale (as they required the players to set keybinds)

(3:45) The players were given files containing the required mods each week, which were named things like "creeper rain" to throw them off

(4:12) Wild cards were a combination of data packs and mods

(4:38) Grian told them not to read the folder name to avoid spoilers (which is kind of impossible), so everyone fully believed there would be creeper rain lol. Grian was saying it in jest but everyone took it seriously and were apologetic about having seen it, to which Grian told them not to worry

(6:58) Grian originally contacted a data pack dev called Brace for help with programming the wild cards. Some, like the shrinking/growing could be achieved with minecraft attributes, but the snails were too janky and unusable. Grian still liked the idea though, so he reached out to mod developers Henkelmax and Breadloaf, who designed the pathfinding/behaviour from scratch

(8:49) They had a debugging mode used to test the pathfinding of the snails, shown in the podcast and in Grian's credits

(10:09) Grian wants most of the credit to go to the development team and artists, as he was mostly in charge of ideas & organization!

(10:39) Grian's only regret with the snails was that they were too fast in session 3, leading to unexpectedly many deaths. They were apparently not so difficult to get away from during testing, but perhaps the testers were more used to them than the players were

(11:44) Grian: "We did develop to the lowest common denominator" ie. prioritizing how players would struggle over how worrying about if players would do too well

(12:56) Oli's voice for the snails was iconic. It cost Impulse a life because he intentionally stayed closer to it to hear the voice lol

(13:42) Danny was in charge of the snail models and animations

(14:11) During testing, the snails just sounded like Oli, which made it feel weird. They pitched up his voice so that it'd be less immediately recognizable

(15:18) The snails' jumping attack was meant to be clearly telegraphed: they would stop, wiggle, make a "ooeee" sound before jumping. Many players had their friendly creatures volume turned very low/off (as cows and other mobs are loud), which made this attack much less obvious for them

(16:57) The growing/shrinking had the least testing done for it, as it was the simplest conceptually and to program. This meant that the falling off of blocks due to the shrinking hitboxes wasn't anticipated

(17:55) Before the 1st session, Grian told them that he didn't think anyone would die to the wild card. Pearl's death made Grian pretty nervous, as he didn't want everyone dying too early in the season

(19:29) 6 lives were given, knowing that many of the death to the wild cards were unexpected/unfair. The intent was for ~3 lives to be allocated for wild cards, and ~3 for PvP.

(21:13) The developers were all fans of the Life Series!

(22:43) The shrinking/growing was intentionally pretty simple to ease players/viewers into the concept and build up toward more dramatic wild cards like the snails

(25:38) In the hunger episode, Grian didn't know which foods would be good

(25:58) Grian thinks that "it's unfair that Grian already knows everything" is valid criticism, but that it's important for him to be involved with the ideas. Having someone else do that is like having someone else record his videos: Life Series is his brainchild

(26:35) Well before the season began, while they were still developing the concept, Grian asked the other players for wild card ideas that would meet a few criteria. All of them ended up being unused for one reason or another. Impulse thinks his ideas were very "inside the box" because he was viewing things through what was possible in vanilla Minecraft. His idea was to have a scavenger hunt where the players would search to find a relic. The first person to find it would get a buff. Skizz's idea was for every player to turn into a random passive mob for every given interval of time. They would have to find every other player of the same mob type as them or else the whole group loses a life.

(29:44) The food qualities were weighted by the rarity of the item, so very common blocks like dirt and cobblestone would never give anything good. The other items were randomly selected

(30:23) Regular blocks/items cannot be made edible normally, so they had to circumvent that and custom code a fix for items not stacking correctly

(32:41) While a lot of players do want to win, the main priority is creating entertainment, which prioritizes playing recklessly

(33:20) The food wild card wasn't included in the finale because it would've felt like "too much". There was a higher risk of technical issues since it changed the data values of items, and Grian didn't want someone's last death to be because they ate their sword. In his mind, it was a good and fun wild card, but didn't need to be repeated in the finale. Impulse points out that they all would have collected more rare items by that point, removing the incentive to search for blocks to eat

(33:46) The wild cards in the finale were nerfed from their original sessions. The shrinking/growing had a smaller height range, the snails moved slower, etc.

(36:21) The personalized snail skins were a late addition by Danny, who made 18 skins very quickly

(36:49) Grian did not anticipate the snails becoming as popular with fans as they were. After the session released, they had the idea to release the snail merchandise, which directly funded the rest of the season

(39:20) Grian spent what "felt like every day" testing with the developers. They'd record the sessions on Tuesdays, meet up with the dev team, talk about what need to be done, testing, bugs, etc, edit and upload on Saturday, and would get a few days grace before starting again

(40:01) After the snail session, Grian was worried that the season would be very short due to all the deaths. They were considering toning down the later wild cards but ultimately didn't change them too much

(40:36) The time wild card was carefully balanced. If it had gone even a little faster, many players likely would have died because they wouldn't have time to react to threats like baby zombies or creepers.

(40:57) While sessions normally run for a variable amount of time, session 4 was hardcoded at 2 hours. Grian ended the session ~10 minutes early, just after they hit max speed, because he felt like things were getting dicey

(42:46) When the wild card first activates, it looks a lot like the server had frozen or crashed. Grian told the players before the session started that it would look like the game was broken, but that it isn't broken. Skizz tabbed out anyway and missed the beginning 😔

(43:30) Having the rain start just as the wild card began was a good visual indicator of time slowing down. This was a suggestion from the dev team (probably Brace)

(44:41) Impulse and Grian "cheesed" the end of the session by going branch mining. Grian wanted players to take advantage of the wild cards (eg. mining quickly, helping to kill someone), and not have them just be an annoyance.

(45:30) Keeping the client and server-side time stay in sync was challenging. The sky's motion was changed to be smoother on client-side. The players were also not as fast as the server (around 2x faster), the server was going faster than that, and the time of day was even faster

(46:56) The sounds were pitched up/down based on the speed to add to the effect

(27:46) In testing, if the players were made 7x faster, it would be basically unplayable, which was why it was capped at 2x speed. This made mobs very dangerous, as they were now faster than players and could catch up to you and kill you easily

(49:01) On several occasions, they had to extend the fuse duration of creepers to make them more fair. In the time session, their speed was only increased by ~10%

(49:39) Usually, Grian was the one to test the wild cards and notice when things like creeper speed would be an issue, since he was the one with experience making videos

(50:50) A challenge with balancing wild cards is accounting for the playstyles of so many players: reckless players like Scar and Skizz, "kind and gentle" players like Bigb who would stay off to the sides, and "the sweat squad" (Scott, Impulse) who play very cautiously

(52:48) Trivia Bot was the only wild card that was not planned in advance. Grian was struggling to come up with a wild card for that episode, and wanted to have a wild card available that could give people lives in case many people died to early wild cards without it feeling cheap.

(53:33) Trivia seemed a little boring on its face, so presentation was essential

(54:34) This one made Grian the most stressed due to all the moving parts involved in making it (coding and pathfinding mostly by Henkelmax, visuals by Hoffen, audio/music, questions)

(55:08) Trivia Bot's design was based on Grumbot and Mettaton from Undertale. Hoffen drew concept art shown in the video

(58:32) They show Trivia Bot's custom animation for becoming a snail and it's really cool

(59:12) The music was the most stressful part of the project. Grian spent 2-3 days looking through Epidemic Sounds for a Trivia Bot theme song and couldn't find anything good. He commissioned Zera @hopepetal for a theme song, which is played in the podcast. However, Grian realized he needed a full audio package, so he commissioned Oli late in development, who created the final soundtrack and many audio variations

(1:01:38) Grian wants to send appreciation for everyone who worked on the project, even if their work ultimately went unused

(1:02:58) Skizz was happy to give back however he could by staying on standby in the final episode as a zombie, as the players were able to "reap all the benefits" of the hard work of the development team

(1:05:21) Grian didn't know any of the trivia questions beforehand, which were done by fans of the series. The goal was for ~50% of the questions to be answered correctly, which was approximately met

(1:07:11) Players couldn't get questions about themselves because it would be too easy. This would encourage players to leave their bot, allowing other players to mess with them

(1:07:57) Grian felt a little left out from the discovery element of the wild cards, and decided to mess with Scar by hiding his bot. He wasn't expecting Scar to die from it, and could tell that he was genuinely a little upset by it. Grian felt bad about it, which led to a genuine in-game alliance between them

(1:12:32) Grian was very close to letting Trivia Bot give lives as rewards, but decided it would feel too cheap

(1:14:38) Mob swap was slightly toned down, with more camels and sniffers spawning

(1:15:07) Evokers didn't drop totems anymore. Instead, there was a minuscule chance a warden or wither would spawn, which would drop a totem if killed. Grian was a little disappointed that the warden got cheesed in the end

(1:17:45) Having the mobs start passive and turn hostile was mostly for the presentation, building anticipation, and so players could predict where mobs would spawn and react accordingly, making things feel less unfair

(1:20:32) There was no superpower made for Skizz (or Mumbo presumably)

(1:20:38) The superpowers were another late addition. There was a large design doc where Grian created all the powers, which were handed over to Henkelmax and completed over 4 days

(1:21:42) Grian avoided superpowers involving strength, that could cause someone to die easily. Most of the powers were social or movement-based, which couldn't be used for offence as easily

(1:22:25) Some powers were randomly assigned, others weren't. Impulse's was random. Cleo's, Bigb's, Lizzie's, Grian's were assigned.

(1:24:25) Grian gave himself the mimic because it could easily backfire (like in Grian's fall damage death), and because it would've been confusing for a player who wasn't aware of the other powers. They likely would've spent the episode just figuring out how everything worked and not actually using the power to its best ability

Lots of discussion about the superpowers and how they interacted in the episode itself, go watch if you're interested :)

(1:33:38) Talk on how the series "standard" rules evolved since 3rd Life. There was no keep inventory, and no restrictions on enchanting levels or potions, which created slow or unbalanced fights

(1:36:23) 3rd Life was designed to be an experimental series, which made Grian eager to improve it. For example, some people just weren't dying in 3L, leading to the boogeyman in LL, and so on

(1:37:17) The goal with the seasons isn't to one-up the previous one, but to create a different experience every time, which keeps things engaging for the creators

(1:38:31) At the end of each session, Grian would ask the group if they had fun and how they felt about the wild cards. According the Skizz, the answer was "a resounding yes"

(1:39:08) Grian had moments throughout the season where he personally felt like things didn't go well for him, and was anxious for the rest of the group's episodes. Things worked out while editing the raw footage, though. His issues were never with the wild cards themselves, but his own actions (traps not working, spending too long branch mining), but would always find funny moments in his footage

(1:43:41) Everyone in the Life Series cast genuinely likes and genuinely respects everybody else in the group. This allows them to make the show and get mad at each other, because they know it's all just in-character

(1:44:50) It'd be hard to top Wild Life in spectacle, and Grian doesn't want to start an arms race with himself. The next season could potentially be closer to 3rd Life, but Grian's not sure yet. For Grian, Wild Life was the most enjoyable

(1:45:20) Grian: "As long as people keep enjoying [the Life Series] then I'd love to keep doing it"

(1:49:35) With the finale, Grian knew how the wild cards played out the previous sessions and was able to adjust them

(1:49:56) Grian's goal was to create safe chaos where everyone knew what was happening and wouldn't die to them, which didn't go entirely to plan. The snails were 60% of their original speed and people still died

(1:51:03) Grian made a precise timeline of when each wild card would start/stop, it wasn't randomized.

(1:54:16) All the superpowers were randomized, with Bdubs' power being removed from circulation because it didn't have much use in a finale setting

(1:56:10) It was important for Grian that in the final moments, the wild cards were removed, so there were no interruptions. The timing worked out well because there were a few people left and it ended within ~10 minutes (this implies that the change wasn't based on # of players alive, as people had speculated based on Gem's death)

(1:58:48) The players all randomly switched to zombie skins throughout the session to mess with people on NameMC. Well-played :)

[garuye]

Hiiii welcome to my cringe "jonadio are reborn as fairies in Pixie Hollow bookverse" au where I have an actual story I may or may not work up the energy to tell start to finish. The whole thing is kind of a disgustingly self-indulgent "they get a chance to do it right", while... still not being quite that easy. Sorry, Dio. It took a long time just to do the ref sheets because I was overthinking them so hard, but I had a lot of help from friends! If you're interested in deranged rambling, more under the cut!

Teehee irl size. Some extra context for what's relevant in this post specifically:

For those who don't know shit about disney fairies, fairies are born from a baby's first laugh. Neverland is a semi-sentient thing that travels and decides which laughs it wants and when. I'm taking it loose with what's canon and what isn't, because this isn't Peter Pan, fairies with talents is just a concept that for some reason I always love to come back to, and the books got a lot closer to what I loved about it than the movies did.

Whether it's handled well in the source material or not is another story, but an "incomplete fairy" is what they call one whose baby's first laugh was broken for some reason, and it's essentially an offensive term for fairies with any kind of disabilities. I use it because it resonates with my experience with developmental disability and want to be clear that there is not actually anything "incomplete" about either of them, it's just baseline prejudice (as I would very personally and emotionally like them to hear from Mother Dove). The Home Tree is a big friendly community, but it follows unspoken rules that can be harsh when broken. The way these two are treated for that is pretty close to how Prilla was in "Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg", except there's no grand, Neverland-saving feat they'll perform to earn everybody's special affections, they just have to do the best they can with what they're given. Jonathan will take more of the brunt of it, while Dio will mask over his instincts and blend in where he chooses.

Having two talents isn't just unheard of, it's not really possible, so fairies who can't accept what they don't understand will try to force Jonathan into a category that they do. As for why he does, it's because he practiced Hamon as a human— this ability bled over into his new life in a slightly more magical but not especially more functional way. More details I'd hope to explain more organically later. You can probably tell but I have uh. A tism. Thanks for coming to my TED talk!!

And yes, if any single soul noticed, I wrote Jojo's stupid book title in leaf lettering. Ridiculous thing that it is. "On Kyto the Dragon".

And the first post about them, for good measure!

(and a final, final note, I used the word "tampering" with the dust, but it's nothing like a Zarina situation, I actually really can't stand The Pirate Fairy)

[brainmuncher]

The emergency

A good number of members within the Justice League have children. Not all of those kids are biological or adopted but they are their kids nonetheless. Some of those kids are even old enough to be adult heroes of their own, but even then they are still their kids. And the other kids tend to take up heroism at a very young age to most people's chagrin. Although as shown by the original child hero, now going by Nightwing, it’s not as easy as telling the kids to stop.

It was learned through intense hardship that smothering the child heroes was just asking for trouble. Despite how much the older heroes wanted to stay close to their kids, it was seen as overbearing and a show of mistrust. They would act out with even less backup in retaliation, which would only bring even more stress.

So to satisfy the need for protection without stepping on any toes, two new emergency meeting signals were introduced.

One was for the kids to send off. Each one was gifted a small device that could be hidden in their person. The device had both a mic and a tracking chip that could be activated when they were in extreme danger. As soon as the device was active a signal would be sent to the league for an emergency distress signal with the details of who sent it. Due to an outcry from the kids, the device could not be activated by the guardian of the child. The mic and locator could only be activated from the device itself. It wasn’t nearly as protective as some of the more worried leaguers would like, but it was at least something. 

The second signal was one that the leaguer with a kid in danger could activate. This signal could be activated with a single code into the communicators that every member owned. If the member who sent out the signal didn’t specify what kid was in danger, every member would receive a generalized notification of the emergency alert for one of the kids. This wasn’t ideal, but it was learned early on that the guardian of the child was often too distressed to make the code more complicated. It was best to leave it simple and answer questions at the emergency meeting.

Which was great in all, until someone who doesn’t have a child involved with heroics in their care sends off a general emergency.

In places all over the globe, an emergency meeting signal message was sent by Hal Jordan, one of the lanterns. He didn’t include what child was in danger in the signal, meaning that it could be any of the underaged heroes. And considering he didn’t have a child in his care, that made multiple members panic.

When was the last time they checked in with the kids in their care? Who was the one he was sending the code for? What happened to the child he had noticed was in danger? Why is he the one that noticed? Where were their kids? Who was in danger?

Because of the nebulous nature of the call, it didn’t take long for multiple heroes to find the nearest transport to the watchtower and tumble in. What they didn’t expect was the absolute haggard appearance of their friend. He was standing in the meeting room looking like the world had been destroyed before his very eyes. The way he sat without even cracking a sarcastic remark made multiple members pause.

“Hal?” Wonder Woman called, her face pinched in concern. “What has happened?”

The aforementioned member looked over who had already arrived before settling on her face. It was at that moment she knew that he was only looking so collected through willpower alone. This wasn’t just any child of the league, this was personal.

“My nephew Danny has been captured,” He began, sending a wave of different emotions circling the room. “I’ve been trying to find where they took him for a week now and I can’t get any leads. I need your help.”

The unsaid questions and emotions were nearly palpable. Multiple members turned to one another or stared with a million questions. Nobody had known that Hal even had a nephew named Danny. Sure he mentioned someone named Jason at times, but he never indicated anything else. The fact that he hadn’t mentioned him or the fact that he’d been apparently searching for a week was strange.

“And why are you only telling us now? Why did you wait so long?” Superman asked, speaking up the question that was on multiple minds.

A fire of anger curled in Hal's eyes. It was fierce and protective. It was a mixture of appalment for being questioned on his decision and fury for the reasons why he had to do it in the first place. He stepped forward towards the center table, slamming his palms down and leaning into it.

“Because any person that goes against the group will be declared an enemy of the United States. I’ve already had my account and housing connected to Green Lantern seized,” He explained with a deceptively calm tone. “I also needed to make sure that they didn’t have any connections with the Justice League. They have their agents everywhere.”

Unsurprisingly, Batman appeared from the gathered heroes from seemingly nowhere. Despite the feud between the two of them, the Bat was completely zeroed in on the situation. While he had a decent amount of distrust in the lantern, mainly because of the parallax incident, he could tell that the man was genuine. And the Bat always did have a blind spot for children.

“Explain,” Was all Batman said, staring Hal down.

The lantern in question looked at him with a grim face. This was it. Now or never.

“They’re called the Ghost Investigation Ward, or GIW for short. They hunt down and either exterminate or experiment on anyone they deem ectocontaminated or a ghost,” Hal started to explain, his hand curling on the table in frustration. “My brother Jack faked his death and ran off to be with another woman. Those fucks deemed my nephew as ectocontaminated and tried to take him from his home. He ran from his family so that they couldn’t be arrested for knowingly harboring an ecto entity. Told me that he remembered my face from a photo his dad tried to hide in the attic and sought me out.”

If the fire in his eyes were any stronger, they would probably become physical and burn down the room. It was undeniable that Hal Jordan was understandably completely pissed off. This situation was terrible from down to the very root.

“I tried to hide him but they somehow found him anyway. Now my civilian name is being heavily monitored and Green Lantern is being hunted down,” He finished his explanation. “If you join me in this, be prepared to lose everything.”

This was so much worse than anyone could’ve predicted.

[mythalism]

genuinely curious how the writers and larger dragon age audience would treat thom rainier if instead of being appropriately* repentant and putting himself in prison he blew up a major orlesian government building to instigate a chevalier rebellion or tried to have someone do some necromantic blood magic ritual involving uncertain danger and possible sacrifices to bring the innocent children he ordered killed back to life

[crsssie]

ring - professor!simon riley x professor!reader

"Professor Riley, what's the story behind your tattoos?"

Simon raises a brow at his student, staring down at his sleeve as he hums.

"Most of them are from between the dispatches."

"Sorry, I meant to ask more directly. When did you get the bite tattoed onto your ring finger? It was not there before."

You choke in the back, coughing as you turn to the side to hold back a laugh.

"The missus got jealous."

"Hey." You point at him. "You asked for it. Sorry, he tells everyone it's my fault."

The student laughs, waving her hand. "It's alright."

"He wanted me to bite him on the collar." You click your tongue. "Said I ought to mark him so his students stop trying to hook up with him."

"Luvie, is this my office hour or yours?"

"Sorry." You snap your laptop shut, hopping out the door before he can grab you for good.

"Back to your question for the paper."

"Why the ring finger?"

"So even if I forget my ring, I'm married." Simon raises a brow. "Your paper?"

"Y-yes!" She scrambles to point at what she wanted to get his input on, a muffled chuckle slipping past his lips at her panic. "Oh, I'm sorry for asking by the way. The class bet me 20 bucks in the discord if I ask about it."

"Give me a five and I'll forget you ever asked."

"Bet."

He'll grab you a drink with it to tell you later.

[absoluteminimum]

Shockwave was doing his best to attend to Soundwave. His best was quite good.

The cables were hindering his efforts somewhat. They were quite… distracting.

[lochallthedoors]

You seem to be coming from a pretty optimistic place, though, with Council Skies. I guess it’s uplifting in the right places, and it’s melancholy in the right places. I think it’s quite an honest record. I don’t like to make the [songs] too autobiographical. I certainly wouldn’t draw attention to the parts of songs that are about me and my life. “Dead to the World” is very autobiographical. So are “Think of a Number,” “Council Skies” and “Trying To Find a World That’s Been and Gone.” -- noel interview, spin.com, may 25, 2023

noel interview in first and last gifs: radio x, 8 june 2023

bonus, liam when asked about the song: "It's all about me it always was and is"

[duu-kiwi]

I bet aziraphale wrote about the day the universe was made, about the angel whose voice recited the words that created the stars, about how bright they shone, and still shine, in those angel eyes✨🪐

Here you have some detailss and a cropped version with just!! them!!!

edit: prints link !

[urloversdreamgrl]

S4 should to start with Syd getting sloppy toppy and having the orgasm of a lifetime. But we, the audience, don’t know who. Boom— cut to the past, and we have to figure out over the course of the season who was the muncher

[bitingdrivers]

🫵🫵🫵

15 for june prompts,,,,,, skinny dipping in a stream/creek somewhere on daniels farm,,,,,

hi mars!! thank you for the prompt! i had fun with this, so i hope you like it!!!

15. stream

The back of Max's neck is sunburned from spending all day outside. He gingerly presses his fingers to the skin there and it feels sensitive, hot to the touch.

The sun had long since set below the horizon, the rusty dirt and yellow-grayish grass now bathed in twilight purple. Still, the heat hasn't left them, even the evening can't save Max from the hot Australian weather.

It's his first time visiting Daniel's farm. Daniel invited him before Abu Dhabi, had a long and elaborate explanation about spending some time during the winter break together before he moves to Renault. — an explanation that Max didn't need, he would've said yes either way.

Max is here only for five days, but it's the best five days he's ever had — alone with Daniel on his big farm in Perth, enjoying the weather and the sights: the streets Daniel grew up in, the race track he used to spend all his time in together with his father, the grassy plains and dirt roads of his farm where Daniel sometimes walks without a shirt on, all the smooth tan skin glistening with sweat.

"Are we there yet?" Max asks, dragging his feet through the orange dirt.

They spent their whole day outside, riding dirt bikes in the morning, hiding from the high midday sun on Daniel's porch.

Then, when the sun was already on its way down, Daniel said, "Come on, Maxy, I need to show you something," tossed Max his hat and a bottle of water, and started leading him somewhere in the far corner of the farm. At first, Max assumed it would be a simple walk, but it quickly turned into a small hike, walking through small hills and tall grass as the sun set beyond the horizon.

Beside him, Daniel smiles. "Almost there," he says, taking a drink from his bottle.

Their walk is accompanied by sounds of cicadas chirping in the grass, rustling of leaves, a distant thrilling of a bird song. The air smells of dry grass and dirt, and if Max focuses enough, he can catch a faint smell of sweat coming from Daniel and himself.

Soon, they walk up to a small gathering of trees — their bark is smooth and white, branches covered in long leaves and small fluffy flowers. Max and Daniel follow a path between the trees that leads them to a small creek. The stream is weak, water barely moving the shiny surface and the plants that grow by the grassy shore.

"Here we are," Daniel announces, gesturing around him.

"This is lovely," says Max. And it is, with the small breeze coming from the water and hidden in the trees' shadows, it's pleasantly cold, a reprieve from the humid air. It secluded too, with no one else around except for the tiny birds hiding in the sweeping branches.

Daniel smiles again, or maybe he hasn't stopped yet — since they both landed in Australia, Daniel's been laughing and grinning non-stop.

Max tries to remember that it's because Daniel is home, but when Daniel's eyes crinkle at him, it's hard to convince Max's heart it isn't because of him.

Max is startled from his thoughts by the sound of water splashing. He turns to where Daniel was standing a second ago, but sees only his shoes and the water bottle. Looking ahead, he spots Daniel standing ankle deep in the water, nodding to himself.

"Daniel?" he asks, when Daniel comes back to the shore.

"We can cool off, come on. The water is great." Daniel replies, then takes off his shirt and reaches for the strings of his shorts.

"Uh. But we didn't bring any-" Max starts, already reaching to take off his shirt, but his brain stutters when Daniel, all tattoos and toned skin on display, puts his thumbs under the waistband of his briefs.

Looking away feels laborious, like his eyeballs should've made the sound of scraping stones or creaking wood. Blush burns on Max's cheeks while he looks down, following Daniel's bare feet running into the water in the corner of his eye.

"Come on, Maxy!" Daniel yells from the water.

With slow, unsteady movements Max takes off his shorts and shoes. Then, reaching for the waistband of his boxers, he looks up. Daniel is on his back, floating in the water. His eyes are closed.

Weirdly, this feels like a test. Max could easily leave his underwear on and join Daniel, but that would break the atmosphere that has surrounded them all week: lingering touches and warm evenings carried on by whispered conversations.

With a steadying breath, Max slides off his boxers and quickly makes his way to the creek, feet tickled by grass blades. When the water reaches his waist, Max lunges forward, submerging himself under the surface. The water is blissfully chill, helping Max to cool off.

When he breaks the surface, water slides down his hair, rivulets getting in his eyes. Daniel laughs as Max wipes his face with his palm.

The creek is not very deep, Max stands on it's sandy bottom and the water only reaches his shoulders. Still, floating here together with Daniel, both naked under the water's murky surface, Max feels buoyant, unstable — like if the stream was strong enough, it would carry him away.

As if feeling the same, Daniel reaches his hand from the water and grabs Max's neck, gripping the sunburn-sensitive skin. Max shudders, feeling electricity travel from Daniel's fingers on his nape right to where he's naked and exposed underwater.

"Hi," Daniel says, reeling Max closer. His breath ghosts over the wet skin of Max's blushing cheek.

Max licks his lips to reply, but all words die in his tongue when he feels Daniel's mouth on his. With his other hand, Daniel grabs Max's waist, making him gasp into the kiss. Daniel giggles and bites on Max's lower lip.

When they part to take a breath, Max can't contain his smile. He feels on fire, cheeks flaming, and wonders if he should duck under the water to cool off again.

Beside him, Daniel is smiling too, curls sticking to his forehead with water, shoulders glistening under the rising moon.

[aimedis]

darlin' getting attacked by quinn while they're taking a late night stroll. he escaped his department cell somehow. they take him down but they're fatally wounded. blood everywhere, bones broken and fractured in every place imaginable and more. it's so bad that when the pack gets there and finds them laying in the grass, asher literally throws up. marie is on her way but sam and david are trying to help. it would never have been enough. david, sam, milo, and asher are just sitting over them, begging them to keep their eyes open.

"i took him down, sammy. all by myself..." they whisper, eyes focusing and unfocusing as they try to remain conscious.

"hell yeah you did, darlin'. tore his head clean off," sam responds, equally as quiet, "you did so damn good."

marie shows up then. and sam would never get the sound of his darlin's screams and cries while marie was healing them out of his head. or how they went deathly still when she was done.

they js fell asleep from the magic, it's okay i wouldn't kill them off (or would i?)

(bonus !!)

imagine darlin' waking up days later, still looping on all the healing magic in their system and they're just being sappy and giggly with sam. picture those "partner under anaesthesia" videos.

[javierduffy]

has anyone ever talked about how javier named his horse a name from the bible (“boaz” is a hebrew name meaning “strength”/“in him (is) strength”. also like. a literal guy in the bible.) or am i just late to this party

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Master manipulator vs Master manipulator

 [First] Prev <–-> Next

[actual-changeling]

Crowley screamed for Her when he fell because She wasn't the one who cast him out, she couldn't have been; the love so bright it blinded him whenever he reached for it was real, is real, it has to be.

He did not scream for God or the Almighty, he cried for his Mother, the one who had smiled at him with a tenderness unlike any other and named him Starmaker.

They rushed by him, his stars, when he fell, colourful streaks blurred by the tears in his eyes as the grace defining his every cell left him, scream after scream. Crowley called for Her, seeing blinding white taking shape, and he dared to hope, stretching out an arm right before the flames of hell swallowed him whole.

In his weakest moments, curled up on the concrete of his balcony with his face bared to the sky, he tries to believe that a hand, slender and familiar, had been reaching for him. Tries to believe that She still loves him, that She never left him even though he left Her.

Crowley stretches one hand skywards, watching the stars twinkle between his fingers, and all he has left to offer is a whisper, the same question that ripped him away from everything good, everything light.

"Why?"

Every time, he asks. Every time, all he receives is silence, and then he waits until dawn washes away his creations. Crowley unfurls his wings on those mornings, presses them to cold concrete and metal in a doomed attempt to try and soothe the ever-present burn caught in his feathers.

If he closes his eyes, dizzy with uncried tears and cramping muscles, the morning sun slowly warming on his face, it almost feels like it did back then when he was tumbling through nebulae and constellations; rage and disappointment both so laced with fear they became one and the same.

Sometimes, when the tethers connecting him to hell and earth are two shackles holding him down, he thinks about flying as high as he possibly can just to let go and feel the air rushing through his feathers - so he can pretend there is nothing waiting for him, nothing but stars and more stars, and empty spaces for him to fill.

When he inevitably moves, his wings stiff but momentarily soothed, he remembers that he doesn't need to do anything at all to reclaim that feeling. It is enough to drive too fast with too much fizzling rage only to let himself be broken apart by his longing when Aziraphale is always, always an arm's length away.

Crowley lies on his back, the Bentley cold beneath him, one hand stretched out to the sky, reaching for the stars, reaching for him, his eyes violet, his lips familiar.

Sometimes he still thinks he can see Her reaching for him as his wings wither and his stars burn.

Sometimes he thinks he can see his angel looking back, his tears blinking comets burning up in the atmosphere.

Sometimes he thinks he never stopped falling.

-

edit: now with amazing art by @ghoullerr 💚💚

[cowboyemeritus]

Can i request brat tamer aether pleasee 😩😩😩

why yes you can >:)

“This is for your own good.”

Thwack!

You jolt as Aether’s large, open hand makes contact with your ass. Mercifully, he’d removed his rings before starting, placing them on his bedside table, but the sting has tears pricking in your eyes nonetheless. Bent over his lap, you whimper, trying to wriggle away, but he holds you down easily.

“I’m sorry.” You’re really not, but it’s so much more fun when you play your part like this.

Aether shakes his head. “Sorry’s not good enough, love. You know better than to distract the boys while they’re trying to practice.” His hand comes down again, and, not expecting it, you yelp. “Damn near ruined rehearsal, you did.”

“It’s not my fault Dew can’t keep it in his pants.” You can still feel his (and Swiss’, and Phantom’s) cum leaking out of you. “If they didn’t want to be distracted, they wouldn’t have invited me to come wa-“ Another spank, this one harder than the last two. You cry out, the pain going straight to your center. He always makes it hurt so, so good.

The large ghoul huffs out an incredulous laugh. “Making excuses now, are we?” He strokes the welt forming on your buttock with his thumb, admiring his handiwork. “I thought I taught you better than that.” This time he goes for the other cheek. There can be no way for you to sit comfortably after what you’ve done. You moan, a tear finally spilling over. “What number was that? Have you been counting like I asked you to?”

You nod, sniffling. “It was five.”

He scoffs. “And now you lie to me! What’s gotten into you?” Two strikes come in rapid succession, and a sob wrenches itself out of you.

“’S not fair!” Not that you mind. “You’re punishing me for something that’s not my fault!” This time, Aether growls.

“I can’t believe you.” He grabs at your ass hard enough that the tips of his claws dig into the reddened flesh a little. With his other hand, the ghoul pinches the bridge of his nose. “We’re starting over. Count out loud, since you can’t be trusted anymore.” In your periphery, you see his hand wind all the way back. When he hits you, it echoes off the walls. You let out a strangled cry, thrashing in his lap.

“One,” you gasp, ecstasy twisting your guts. Aether hums, satisfied by this.

“That’s more like it.”

He’s able to keep you in line for another nine strikes, alternating between sides. By the time you call out number ten, your ass burns, radiating heat and no doubt an angry shade of red. You’re entirely too close from this treatment alone, sobbing and moaning and loving every fucking second of it. Aether runs his palm over your tanned hide, soothing the skin with the faintest trace of quintessence. You shift your hips in the hopes of getting a little friction and he takes that as his cue to keep going, clucking his tongue.

“There,” he says. “Was that really so bad?”

“Fuck you,” you hiss, eager for his response. He’s quiet for a moment, then sighs, exasperated. 

“Up. Hands and knees. You clearly need more instruction.” He swats at you one more time when you remain still, and you yip, like you’re a little dog he’s just stepped on. “I’m not asking.” On shaky legs, you comply, Aether threading his fingers into your hair to help guide you, positioning you on the edge of the bed. He takes his sweet time unbuckling his belt, and when you hear his pants finally hit the floor, it’s hard to contain your excitement. You wiggle your reddened ass for him, looking back with a smirk as he spits into his hand and strokes his cock a few times, rolling his violet eyes at you. As he lines himself up, teasing the head against your opening, his tail snakes up your body, wrapping itself around your throat and squeezing. When he finally pushes inside you, it takes everything you have to not fall over the edge. Your back arches as he starts fucking you at a punishing pace, hips slamming into your tender backside. 

“Really, this is my fault,” he mutters, watching your face contort with rabid pleasure. “I clearly haven’t given you enough discipline.”

You laugh. "Clearly not."

In truth, no amount of discipline could ever be enough. Both of you love this little game far too much.