#i do think there is something to be said about stuff that's like... incredibly graphic or extremely cynical in a way that encourages apathy?

[runawayfuture]

The "they can't comprehend it properly" argument is so stupid. Like, did I get as much out of The Count Of Monte Cristo when I read it at 14 as an adult reading it would? Definitely not. But did I think it was epic and awesome and thrilling, and did it make me consider things I'd never thought about before? Absolutely. And it's not like reading something when you're too young for it somehow prevents you from coming to it back later - if you didn't like it, or just felt like you weren't getting everything, you can always wait a while and try again!

It's so lame when people tell teenagers not to read ~adult literature~ as in literature for adults (to be clear I am not primarily talking about erotica.) because it's not written with them in mind as the primary audience or considered too high-brow for them or whatever it is. if you're a teenager you should read whatever you want forever

[sneefsnorf]

OH HEY!! do you have final thoguhts on ultrakill and gabriel and the v's and everything :333333 <- my agenda

machine. ive spent my life loved and revered by my people and my church. i trusted my institution and my Father because i never had a reason not to, machine. the council and the people had such high expectations of me and i always rose to meet them. my achievements were many. everything was perfect. and then you took it all from me, machine. i failed ONCE. i wasnt what the church wanted me to be exactly and they tore their love away from me. its not fair. not in the slightest. ive been thinking a lot. ive been reflecting on the churches and the institutions of mankind. so many of them have warped the word of the Father into whatever will give them the most power. they use his teachings to break down and bully those they hate. they grind them into the ground and humiliate them as much as they can, not just for their own self-gain, but for the sake of hatred. this is what the council has done to me, machine, and now i have joined your ranks. all their love for me revoked as soon as i couldnt be what they wanted, thrown from the gates of heaven like the queers and the freaks. i've joined your ranks, machine. i'm less than a person now. and i am filled with so much rage.

anyways thanks for driving me to the abortion clinic machine i really appreciate it

[ravenstargames]

✦ LOST IN LIMBO — 2024 WRAP-UP + 2025 MILESTONES

And here we are, after the holidays! Another year has come to an end and this one was simply incredible. You can anticipate what our most important milestone was for 2024, but there has been a lot going on this past year that maybe we all have forgotten. So let's see what these four friends have accomplished this year, and what's coming for a 2025 that already looks promising!

Good news is that we achieved every goal we set up for this year! Isn't that awesome?! We published our first demo, hosted our very first casting call (and it was nuts!) and so much more! Let's see it :3

✦ OUR STUDIO, RAVENSTAR GAMES, WAS OFFICIALLY FOUNDED ON JULY!

Let me tell y'all that when you finish college, keep studying because it turns out the job market is absolutely devastated and cannibalized, and then have an existential crisis, the last thing you think about is saying "fuck it we ball" and open a studio. I mean, we are literally four people with no stable jobs (well, Kayden is an exception) and with no previous experience making a game entirely by ourselves.

So this was a huge step for us. A scary one. A terrifying one, and still is. But we've survived so far, so let's hope we can still do just that—survive at least long enough to start living. Calling this our job would be a dream come true, but there's still a long road ahead until that!

✦ WE SUCCESSFULLY FUNDED LOST IN LIMBO ON KICKSTARTER!

And you were right if you thought this was our most important milestone of the year!

Honestly, I low-key thought we weren't gonna make it. As I said—four people with no budget, paying for what we couldn't do ourselves with what our grandmas give us on Christmas—what were the chances anyone would be interested in helping us fund our game?

But we still had to do it, because making it this far and not risking not being funded would be madness. So there we were, opening Photoshop with tears in our eyes, watching our mediocre bank accounts get obliterated and working on the Kickstarter graphics with nothing but glitter and Jesus.

Also, we were asking for a lot of money and it was our first project. We've seen firsthand a lot of projects fail, a lot of people being scammed, and a lot of projects not going like the audience and devs wanted. So I thought we were a bit doomed.

Well, turns out there are people who believe in us and our project, so I was proved wrong. Maybe our graphics were really cool in the end, huh? I worked my ass off on those! /silly

So 980 people donated almost 60k euros and on September 27th, Lost in Limbo became officially a thing. Which is wild. I don't think I believe it still, honestly.

Of course, not everything went smoothly! As first timers we made a lot of mistakes, but we knew we were going to mess up something. Sometimes it was us, sometimes it was Backerkit or Kickstarter...Truth is watching a million YouTube tutorials, reading articles or learning about other devs' journeys doesn't make you ready to run a Kickstarter. There's some stuff you can only learn while running it!

So we ordered our merch, had our 🎉first delay🎉 because we made a mistake with our pins, and managed to deliver our digital goodies to our backers without blowing up (almost) anything.

✦ WE FUNDED OUR VERY OWN SOUNDTRACK!

And it'll consist of 19 original tracks by our wonderful composer Tomás Palazzi! 💜

✦ WE RELEASED OUR FIRST DEMO!

And overall, people seem to enjoy it! In fact, we recently reached +10k downloads and +71k views on itch! T^T

Of course, getting our demo out there was nerve-wracking, but we received a lot of love, and that includes wonderful and constructive feedback from a lot of folks who love our project and want it to succeed in its best form. Incredible content creators played our demo, reviewed it—and we've met amazing and stunningly creative people in the process!

However, as with anything you publish for others to see, not everyone is going to like it, and I think as a team we needed to also be exposed to that. There have been negative reviews that have helped us improve, and some others that have made us realize that our game, just like any other, isn't for everyone, and that's okay—our game isn't perfect and it won't ever be, and that's okay. As creators and creatives, accepting the critiques that help us improve is as important as letting go of the ones that contribute nothing, and to accept there are some things we don't want to change.

Of course there have been nasty or rude reviews, (most of them private) and albeit there were very few of them, but that was guaranteed. We try to have a few laughs at those!

✦ WE CREATED OUR OWN DISCORD SERVER!

And it's brimming with life!? We are almost 400 members and I may be biased, but it's full of amazing, supportive, and incredibly creative people. It feels so strange to see people talk daily about your game, about your characters—theorize, laugh, ask stuff...I can only hope our members feel at home as much as we do, because even if we can't interact with everyone all the time, just reading y'all makes us extremely happy :')

✦ WE STARTED WORKING ON OUR EXTENDED DEMO!

And it's going great! The script is doing better than expected, even if I'm editing more stuff than I originally planned. Implementing feedback we received during our survey is helping me improve the pace, storytelling and dynamism of the script. I'm an overthinker so I know I'm most likely editing / adding more stuff than I planned, but so is the way of the west.

Raquel has (as you all know) been working on the reworked sprites, and for now there's 4/7 done! 💜 We also have finished one of the new backgrounds and one is close to being done. That's 2/3!

Also, thanks to y'all buying extra stuff via Backerkit, we've managed to raise a bit more money and have been able to commission Airyn for help on the extended demo, as well as Allie (our editor) and the wonderful, the Ren'py Jesus, Feniks, to help us with our programming adventures! So technically we didn't reach our second stretch goal (outsourcing) but the extra coins have allowed us to hire some help!

That's all for 2024! Phew! Now, our plans for 2025 are quite simple (me when I lie).

First of all we want to ship our Kickstarter merch (more on that on a Kickstarter update coming soon!)

Finish production for our Kickstarter artbook

Release our Extended Demo

For now, we are aiming for a June 2025 release of the prologue, and the first chapter of every route will follow soon after.

Open our Patreon!

We have to think about this thoroughly, plan it, and make sure we can offer quality stuff worthy of your support. Some of you have asked a lot about a Patreon but we want to make sure we make it right!

On a personal note—this year I have been working on my OCD, as last year, and booked with two therapists. My therapist (the one who diagnosed me last year), and a different one specialized in OCD. This year has been full of highs and lows, but I'm in a much better headspace than I was last year, to the point of my meds being lowered! ✌️

I also enrolled for my PhD program like a month ago, and I got accepted after a lot of college shenanigans that almost became my villain arc. So this year is going to be funny for me!

Every member of the team has had their personal issues to deal with this year. Mental health, family, etc. It hasn't been an easy year for us, but I'm happy to say we've been there for each other.

And I think that's all! Overall it has been an insane year. Very productive, very nerve-wracking, and incredibly awesome. We can only hope this year is as good as 2024 if not even better, both for us as people and for our game. We hope your 2024 has been good, and we also hope you are excited to make 2025 a year you can be proud of; but most importantly, a year in which you can take care of yourself, be at peace with who you are, discover new things about yourself, and crave a path to the future you want to live!

Talk to you all soon! 💜

[kedreeva]

Any bird artists/graphic designers/photo-editors out there that might be willing to make a logo and/or a merch design for our local small game bird association, after the new year?

Story below the cut if you want more info

I'm currently in the process of taking over my state game bird association's website stuff, to help them recover after incredibly bad leadership did their level best to wreck it entirely. It's a "State" association, in that it's for people in this state but isn't run by the state, it's just like. a few people who like game birds who have made nonprofit (like an actual 501(c)) club for other people that like game birds. There's less than 100 members in it according to the registry I saw, to give you an idea what it's like. I'm dealing with one 70+ year old lady, one Older Mom (who isn't even in the association anymore) that helped transfer stuff out of her name, and one Other Lady (who is apparently the sister of one of the hospital board members, but who lacks her sister's desire to watch the world burn I guess) that I've only had phone conversations with so far. I've so far been able to get their website under control and I'm working on getting their facebook back into their hands (it's still being held hostage by a hostile board member they're trying to get rid of), and to try to help them all limp into being a functional association again, like it was when I first started interacting with it 20 years ago.

That being said, in the transfer of the site, the previous site is 100% lost, including all old graphics. No one still in the association has any of the old graphics saved. That's fine, they were.... terrible. Like, this is an old preview pic of the site banner

Truly terrible. So, not gonna lie, kinda glad it's gone forever.

There is an OLDER banner, from before dickhead mcfuckface took over the association, and it's "better" but it's very clearly got an 80s vibe like you would not believe

But, the old lady that is running the association now asked me about having a header on the front page, so here I am. I told her that there were a TON of talented artists that would be happy to be paid (all of the following would be PAID work, if the association can afford it and if not they will just do without, I was VERY clear about needing to pay artists for work) to design a logo and/or some kind of graphic designer that could help with a little banner for the website. She also asked me about selling t-shirts and hats, since some people at the swaps have asked for them. I told her that a nice looking logo would be a good start for that kind of thing, but that I could ask around and see if anyone wanted to draw a game bird design to sell at their bake sale table or maybe redbubble or something similar so people can just get what they want.

I'm sorry that this is vague, but beyond the logo/site header, I'm not sure exactly what they are going to want, just that they are going to want An Artist Or Three. You'd be dealing with me once I've wrangled them into telling me what they exactly want for anything outside the website.

As for the website, I actually don't mind the basic design of the second banner (the 80's one, a rectangle, circle badge logo in the middle, game animals to either side), and I think it would be good to bring back that general feel, but cleaner and brighter on colors, and different animals. The club does not really deal with deer or raccoons regularly, and pheasants are not the only game birds. I was thinking maybe just doing birds on both sides. Peacocks, pheasant, chicken, turkey, ducks, quail, and dove(s) are the most common at swap meets, so some combo of those would be nice (doesn't need to have all of them), as that's what members will mostly be raising.

If that's something you feel you might be interested in, and can provide your pricing & an example of your style so I can bring it to them and tell them I want them to pay you to give me things for the site and/or association at large.

For the laughs, here is what I "mocked up" for them as an idea

But they also liked the idea of a plain badge logo like this one (because they don't live and breathe peafowl I assume, it's the only explanation)

anyway. if you have the art skills and wanna help a bird nerd group out, please let me know!

[baldursgate3tempobsessed]

Hey!

Just read „Mirror Mirror“ and I saw that you‘re still taking requests so here’s something! :))

I saw a fanart of Ascended Astarion smoking and blowing the smoke seductively into Tavs mouth, who’s sitting in his lap and I swear, that’s some hot stuff!

So I‘ve been thinking about Astarion sitting in his study, still all dressed up in a fancy outfit, doing some important paperwork (he is such an important politician now after all) and smoking a cigarette or cigar with a nice glass of whiskey, looking so powerful and then Tav comes in and sees him, finding all of this incredibly hot and takes her rightful place in his lap…. ;)

I see your vision and I respect it. One small change is his outfit is fancyish but a lil on the casual side since he's at home. But still scary prettyman!

TW: Graphic smut, spoilers for the game with embellishments, ascended astarion acting like himself, though in a mild form since this is mostly just banging and fluff.

~

Astarion sighed as he set the paper down, rubbing at his temples as he considered his options. The letter from Mizora was tempting, to say the least. A personal assassin that could materialize out of thin air obviously had its perks. But... the terms were concerning, solely for the fact that they were too simple. A year of her services in exchange for a place to stay in Baldur's Gate, at his home.

He was tempted. But the thought of that devil having such clear access to you was non-negotiable. Especially when he had no insight on her motivations. No, he'd have to find another way to get rid of his political rivals, preferably without getting personally involved. He did so love the heroic image he had cultivated amongst the common folk, one that would be hard to maintain if he was caught with his fangs digging in the nape of the Captain of the Guard.

What a headache.

He leaned back in his chair, thoughtful as he took another drag of his cigarette, his drink in his other hand. No one said that regional domination would be easy. He just wished it wasn't so irritating. Maybe they shouldn't have gotten rid of Gortesh after all, he was a backstabbing little weasel but at least then Astarion wouldn't have to deal with pesky things like ethics. But that was too little too late. It's not like he could un-decapitate the man.

Astarion paused his musings when something started to tickle at the back of his mind. A presence, lurking in the darkness. Astarion smiled to himself as he set his whiskey down, calling out into the black hallway, "I see you over there pet."

Astarion grinned as you came into view, already relaxing at the mere sight of you. You leaned against the doorway, clad in nothing but a thin nightdress. Thin enough for him to nearly be able to see through it, your feet bare. You looked delicious, the perfect distraction from his troubled thoughts.

"Am I disturbing you?" You asked coyly, fully aware that you never could. There you were, the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him. His favorite pet, his most precious treasure. How could you ever disturb him?

Astarion chuckled as he leaned back in his chair, "Would you care?"

"Not particularly," You sighed as you waltzed into the room, "Especially considering how I'm the one who has been kept waiting."

Astarion rolled his eyes, ignoring the little dig as he patted his lap, "Come here my love, let me get a better look at you."

You went easily, settling into his lap with a happy sigh. 

"Such a pretty thing," Astarion murmured as he looked you over, his dick already twitching at the sight of you; your nipples pebbling in the cold air, completely visible through the light cloth. You looked divine. 

Astarion let his hand creep up your thigh, playing with the hem of your short slip as he took another drag. One that he decided to share. Astarion gripped you by the chin, a soft order escaping his lips, “Open up darling.”

You popped your mouth right open, so obedient it made his heart sing. He breathed the smoke into your lungs, pressing a barely there kiss against your lips before he pulled back; happy to see the way your pupils were already dilated. 

"What are you doing out of bed my sweet?" Astarion asked, only a touch of discontentment coloring his voice. You knew how he felt about you wandering around at night, even in your own home. He liked to know where you were at all times, no ifs, ands, or buts. Though… looking over you once more, he supposed he could make an exception.

"No reason in particular," You said, an obvious lie. One that Astarion would be able to parse out even if he didn't have full access to your mind. It wasn't helping that you were already squirming in his lap, seemingly trying your best to discreetly arouse him even more.

Astarion set his cigarette down on the ashtray, moving to run his free hand through your hair before gripping it harshly, chuckling at the way it made you gasp.

"We talked about lying pet," Astarion murmured, the hand in your hair tightening, "Unless you're looking for a punishment?"

"Maybe I just missed you," You tried again, your breath already quickening. Astarion wouldn't be surprised if you were already dripping into your panties. You did love it when he got rough.

Besides, at least that was closer to the truth.

Astarion's hand crept further up your leg, caressing your inner thigh as you shuddered, "Have I been neglecting you pet? How inconsiderate of me. But I did warn you that it would be a busy week."

"But you seem tired," You mumbled, leaning in to start kissing up the line of his throat, your hands running up and down his chest, "You've been working so hard lately. Don't you think you've earned a break?"

"Kingdoms don't build themselves darling," Astarion shot back half-heartedly. But you both knew he was already sold. You had won the second you came into view, "But perhaps I could be convinced. Did you have something in mind?"

"Mm, I'm not sure," You said, like you weren't the one grinding your perfect ass against him like a whore, "But I'm sure we can think of something."

That was enough of the coy act. Astraion wretched your head back without warning, sinking his fangs into your neck. Perhaps you could have done with a warning, not that it would have mattered. He had earned the right to do with you as he pleased. You yelped at the unexpected pain but he could taste your arousal on his tongue, spiked through your blood. To this day it continued to be the sweetest thing he'd ever tasted.

Astarion popped off of you with a smirk, near giddy at seeing that hazy look already in your eyes. He trailed bloody kisses up your throat, "Good girls ask for what they want, don't they? Unless you're looking for a punishment."

You were nearly panting as you writhed in his lap, frustrated desperation seeping into your voice when you begged, "Fuck me? Please?"

It was a good start, but Astarion knew that you could do better. He laughed, his voice rough as his fangs scraped against your delicate skin, "I think you can try harder than that, darling."

You were gripping at his shoulders, your nails digging into his skin as you whimpered, "Please my love? I’ve missed you all day. Don’t make me wait any longer."

“Have I been neglecting you, my treasure?” Astarion murmured, his hand trailing down from your hair, moving to slip the thin straps of your dress off of your shoulders. 

“You have,” You whined as he tugged on your dress, watching with rapt attention as he let it fall. He wasted no time in leaning forward to wrap his lips around your nipple; tasting you as you whimpered, “I-please Astarion. I need you inside me. It aches without you, I can’t take it. Please.”

Perfect words from perfect lips. That was the end of his manufactured patience. Astarion was already tearing your nightgown off completely, rendering it to tatters as he feasted on you with his eyes. He could buy you another, one in every color if you wished. But for now it was just in the way. 

He lifted you up onto the desk, ignoring your surprised gasp as you set you on the edge. His eyes were already narrowing downward, your cunt bare and glistening before him. 

Astarion ran his finger up the seam of it, grinning when he realized you were already dripping, “No panties tonight darling? Naughty girl."

"You don't like it?" You coyly asked as you worked to undo his belt, making quick work of getting his cock out, “I figured it was more economical to not let you tear apart everything I own.”

Astarion laughed as he spread your legs further apart, clever fingers working over your clit as you moaned, “Perhaps we should forget about clothing entirely then for you. It certainly would be more convenient.”

A complete bluff, one obvious enough to make you giggle. Though, it was a fun thought, one that Astarion would actually consider entertaining if he wasn’t so self-aware. No, it would take less than a day for him to rip out the eyes of the entire staff for seeing you like this, gorgeous, bare, and his. 

Your hands were shaking as you rubbed the head of him over your folds, your head thrown back as you moaned. He pushed into you hard and fast, groaning at how wonderfully soaked and tight you felt. There truly was nothing better. He gripped your hips, hard enough to bruise as you pulled you on and off his cock; your eyes rolling back into your head at the impressive display of strength. 

“T-Thank you, thank you,” You mewled as you wrapped your arms around his neck, tugging him down closer, “Feels good. So good. Love you so much.”

Astarion couldn’t help but smile at that, feeling just as lovesick and obsessed as the day he made you his. There really was nothing better than this, making love to the brightest part of his soul. You clinging onto him for dear life as he fucked into you, completely uncaring for the books and papers he was spilling onto the floor. Whispering sweet nothings into his ear, your legs wrapped around him; always trying to pull him closer.  

He wasn’t going to last long like this. But he’d be damned if you didn’t reach your peak first. He snaked a hand between the two of you, roughly rubbing circles onto your clit before capturing your lips in a deep kiss. 

You gasped as he played with you, your pussy clenching around him as you came. It felt divine, the perfect sensation to tip him right over the edge, coming deeply inside you while he panted into your mouth.

"I love you," You whispered against his lips, your voice still slurring as your body twitched from the aftershocks, “Love you so much.”

You were running your fingers through his hair as you lazily kissed each other, holding him so closely that it made his heart sing. 

“I love you too pet,” Astarion murmured back, meaning every word, “More than you’ll ever know.”

"Tired now,” You sighed as your nails pleasantly scratched his scalp, “Carry me upstairs?"

Astarion was already hefting you into his arms before you could finish the question, tucking himself back into his pants before lifting you up completely, "Of course my love."

As he walked you upstairs, Astarion was struck with the realization that he could barely remember what he had been worried about in the first place. He smiled to himself as you cuddled against his chest, leaning in to press a light kiss to your hair. 

You always knew just what he needed.

[716chr]

Chihiro Natsuyaki SR - “From Now, The Two Of Us” (Part 2)

Location: HAMA House - Rooster Room

Tao: Amazing….!

Tao: Even though this room was so empty before, now it feels like a store has opened up in here

Chihiro: Well? Well? Isn’t it, like, mega adorbs? Chii puts all the efforts into decorating this room to match Chii’s fav aesthetics ☆

Chihiro: …..Erm, do you…. like it?

Tao: Yeah. It looks really flashy, but…..

Tao: You arranged these furnitures with me in mind, right?

Tao: You even took the time to put on the sunglasses-wearing sunflower that was lost inside my luggage

TL Note: Tao named this decoration グラサンフラワー. He used グラサン, which is slang for サングラス (sunglasses), just by saying it backwards. It’s kinda a pun too bc SUNglasses-wearing SUNflower, hence グラサンフラワー (with サンフラワー being self-explanatory “sunflower”)

Chihiro: Ain’t it adorable~? ♪ Can Chii stream with this cutie next time?

Tao: Of course

Tao: You didn’t just only put your hobbies first, but you also considered my feelings…..

Tao: You do have a kind side to you after all

Tao: Thank you, Chihiro. You’ve worked hard

Chihiro: …..Ehehe, you’re very welcome!

Chihiro: Hey, hey, guess what? Chii got a game that Tao-Tao will for sure love! Check it out!

Chihiro: Chii was like, “Reprint Edition? What’s that?”. Chii just thought that the design was, like, totes adorbs and seemed interesting

Chihiro: So Chii consulted with the store clerk and got the game along with everything else too!

TL Note: In this part, Chihiro used “ソフト”, which by default means “software” but games that required consoles in Japan are also referred to as “ソフト” (short for ゲームソフト/game software aka video games), i.e: Switchソフト is Switch Games. Which means that when Chihiro said “got the game along with everything else”, it’s referring to how he got the the game and the console as well, and later on Tao talks about cables so safe to assume he bought the console for sure lmao

Tao: Woah, this brings back memories…..! I used to be obsessed with this!

Tao: Looking at it now, the 3D graphics looks super blocky and the movements are choppy, but this was considered cutting-edge at the time

Tao: To think that they could turn flat pixel art into something with depth using CG. Stuffs like this really amazed me

Chihiro: Hehe, is that so?

Chihiro: Then, tell Chii all about the rest of it when we play

Tao: Of course!

Tao: Woah, even the cables are like how they used to be. They’ve done an incredible job recreating this!

Chihiro: Chii’ll get the snacks and drinks ready! Tao-Tao, can you handle the preparations on your end?

Tao: Yeah. Leave it to me

Chihiro: (…..At first, I was really nervous. I wondered if I could really live with someone besides my own family)

Chihiro: (But…..)

Tao: …..Connection all set. Oh, it’s on, it’s on!

Chihiro: (Living here together with Tao-Tao…. This is going to be fun)

Tao: Alright, Chihiro. I’ll show you how to play, and then we can have a match later

Chihiro: You bet! Chii’s definitely not gonna lose!

Chihiro: (Nope, it’s definitely gonna be fun!)

Part 1 | Part 2

[poppetsisters]

Now that my rage over the Doomcasting has simmered down, I just wanna gush over the Fantastic Four comi con stuff.

I'm not joking, when I heard that Michael Giacchino was doing the score, I SCREAMED. Not only is he famous for scoring The Incredibles, but he also did Speed Racer from 2008 which, if you haven't heard that score, it is one of the best scores for any film I've seen.

The period accurate footage is such a treat. I figured Matt Shakman's work on Wandavision was going to be indicative of what the Fantastic Four was gonna look like and yet it looks even better. I was nervous that Shakman's lack of feature film experience was gonna be a detriment, but his decades of work on TV gives him amazing instincts for character dynamics, which is one of the most important assets when making a Fantastic Four movie.

A lot of what we saw is pre-vis and may not actually be in the movie, but the retro-future vibe of the movie is perfect. The fact that MCU Fantastic Four is taking place in its own separate pocket away from all the bullshit really helps me feel excited for this movie. For once, the disconnectedness is something I'm EXCITED about, go figure.

Again, because it's pre-vis, not a whole lot of glimpses at The Thing's rocky form, in fact none of the powers were shown off for understandable reasons. I have no worries that The Thing is going to look good. As bad as Fant4stic was, The Thing looked pretty good in that film. Korg also never looked outright bad to me either, and they're probably gonna put more effort into how he looks anyway. Sue's powers are probably gonna be represented well seeing as invisibility is a really easy power to do VFX for. Fire graphics have come a long way as well, and that concept art makes me thing they may take a very stylised approach to his flame effects. Reed however is the one I'm really worried about. The only time stretch powers looked good was The Incredibles 1 and 2, but those were both stylised 3D animated filma. Live action has a much higher bar to clear with a heavy risk of uncanny valley Pedro Pascal. If you can make that man look bad, then you know you fucked up.

The Fantasticar is nice. We had the Dodge in Rise of Silver Surfer and the Bathtub in Deadpool and Wolverine, and though I like the Silver Surfer one (despite the shameless product placement) I get that they wanted a car that looked like a mid-century man's idea of what a flying car looks like. The only think is that I wish it could split apart into four sections, it doesn't look like it can do that. Oh well.

The spacesuits look good, the colours are exactly what I imagined they'd be on the concept art, but I'm waiting for the proper super suits to be shown off. Hopefully they have less interlocking parts and resemble the slightly thick and comfy spandex we saw in the concept art.

It looks like Pedro is keeping the moustache, which normally I'm not a fan of Reed with facial hair, but I also think it gives Reed a sorta Howard Hughes look that helps him blend in with the aesthetics of the world. The grey around the temples is good though, and it seems like he's also doing a transatlantic accent which frankly is very surprising.

I thought that Ebon wasn't doing an accent until I rewatched him during an interview. He appears to be toning down his natural tendency to draw out his A's and E's. It was only two lines of dialogue so I don't know, but what is very apparent is that he's not going for the outrageous brooklyn accent The Thing is legendary for in the comics, but something a little more subtle and believable.

Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn are both different flavors of British, and though Joseph only says one word, it's pretty clear both are foregoing their natural accents. That said, Vanessa's choice of, what I can only guess is a slight mid-western accent, is very interesting. I was not expecting that choice.

They added a subtitle to the movie. Fantastic 4: First Steps. I think they didn't need to add a subtitle, but since they did. I'll just give it a cursory analysis. I think you can derive FOUR meanings from the title: First Steps calls to mind humanity's first steps on the Moon, fitting for a space age tale. First Steps also feels like a good title for their first adventure. First Steps works metatextually as their first steps into the MCU (which isn't technically true with those two cameos in MoM and D&W), but the most important theory I have for First Steps is in relation to a baby's first steps. I think that Franklin is going to be in this movie as a major plot point. Serving what purpose, I'm not sure.

To finish things off, we only get a look at Galactus through a window, so not much I can comment on in terms of appearance, but I'm very happy that it's an actual dude and not shadows within a cosmic cloud. He looks very imposing and I hope we get more perspective shots like that to sell how big this guy is.

[starstruckunknown-princess]

Hellebore - Dieter Bravo x Reader

Hellebore (Helleborus) - Meaning: We shall overcome scandal and slander

Summary: Dieter has a slip up. You, his personal assistant, have to deal with it now.

Pairing: Dieter Bravo x PA!Reader

Word Count: 1295

Warnings: Drug use/abuse discussions, Dieter is a Sad Raccoon, shower scene (but not the spicy kind), inappropriate thoughts, soft moments, a little hurt/comfort, but mostly fluff

In Bloom Masterlist

Day 9 is for our Sad Boi Dieter! I just want to hug this man and tell him it's gonna be okay, so this is a little self-serving.

The house was dark when you arrived - not incredibly unusual for Dieter to sleep in, but this darkness felt different somehow. You let yourself in and heard the upstairs shower on so you knew at least someone was awake. 

“Dee?” you called, announcing your presence in case he had company. Something in your gut twisted at the thought, but you shoved the feeling aside and made your way upstairs. It was unprofessional to have feelings for your boss. You were his longest-lasting PA, but only recently had these feelings started popping up as he exposed more of his softness to you. 

You’d learned early on in your employment with Dieter to always, always knock or announce yourself, so you knocked on the half-closed bedroom door before peeking your head in. “Dieter? You in here?” 

The bedroom was empty, the bedding mussed and the TV on but the faces of the TMZ “reporters” paused over a graphic that read ‘Dieter Bravo’s Night on the Town!’ You groaned and rolled your eyes. 

Now that you were closer, you could hear Dieter’s discontent groans mingling with the shower sounds, so you knocked on the ensuite bathroom door. 

He didn’t respond, so you entered the luxe bathroom that was bigger than your bedroom at your apartment. You didn’t see any coke residue on the marble countertops, no other drug paraphanelia laying around, which was momentarily reassuring.

You gasped when you saw his feet sticking out past the privacy wall of his walk-in shower. Shit, had he overdosed? Drowned? 

When you were hired, you’d been adamant about him remaining California sober — spending your formative years taking care of an opioid-addicted mother only to have her OD while you were away at college had left you unable to tolerate being around those who were using the harder stuff. Dieter happily accepted that provision, being in recovery and not eager to start the hiring process with yet another PA again. 

From inside the shower, Dieter moaned and you rushed over, bracing yourself in the opening, ready to perform whatever first aid you could offer. He was splayed out on his back so the spray hit his bare chest, his ubiquitous green robe and a pair of boxer briefs the only things he wore. He was completely soaked, his normally fluffy hair slicked back against his scalp, one eye peeking open as he heard your long sigh — relief upon discovering he was okay. 

“Fuck, Dee, you scared me,” you said, “What are you doing in here?” 

“Hiding.” 

“From what?” 

“You’re gonna leave me. So I’m hiding.” He explained, leaving you more confused. You stood over him, avoiding the spray as you reached down to him with both hands to help him up. 

“Come on, let’s get out of the shower.” 

“Promise you won’t leave?” He asked, face like a kicked puppy as he looked up at you. 

“I promise, but you’re gonna have to explain why you think I’ll leave. Okay?” You cajoled, something twisting in your chest at the pain in his face. 

Only responding with a nod, he sat up and reached for your hands, letting you pull him to his feet. You looked into his eyes and saw no evidence of hard drugs, so you reached behind him and turned off the shower. You could feel the heat radiating off his wet body, and you raised your hands to push his sodden robe off his shoulders but paused, looking at him to ask permission. He granted it with a little nod, dark eyes fixed on you. The robe flopped against the tile below and you walked over to the closet to grab a fresh towel. You could feel his gaze follow you, like he was truly afraid you would bolt out the door and couldn’t bear to look away. 

You wrapped a fresh towel around his shoulders and handed him one to wrap around his waist. He did, and you took his wrist in your hand and led him into the bedroom. 

You sat him on the edge of the mattress and ducked into his walk-in closet and grabbed him dry clothes. The sad, desperate look in his eyes followed you all the way back to him. He’d at least rubbed the towel on his hair because it now stuck up in several different directions. 

You put the clothes on the bed and sat next to him. “What’s going on, Dee?” you asked quietly, keeping your tone low. 

“I fucked up. Last night, at the wrap party, someone had coke and I was already drunk so I took a bump and then there were some paps outside that caught me stumbling out of the place and I knew you would be mad cuz you won’t put up with me doing the hard stuff and I swear I haven’t but I slipped and I-” 

You put your hand on his cheek to stop him, “Hey, hey, no. I’m not going anywhere. Look at me,” you asked, pulling his face toward yours, and he did. You saw a thick line of unshed tears along his lower lashes. He blinked and they fell. You brushed them away with your thumb. 

“Are you mad at me?” he asked, voice almost a whisper and so pathetic-sounding your heart cracked. Without hesitation, you shook your head. 

“No, of course I’m not. You’re an addict, you had a slip. Shit happens. But that’s all it was, right? Just a slip?” 

He nodded vehemently. You nodded along with him. “Okay, good. I’m really glad you told me. Thank you for telling me.” 

He smirked and you saw the normal Dieter coming back. “I promised I wouldn’t lie to you when you started, remember?” 

“Yeah, you did.” You said, smiling as well. “And I promised that if you were honest with me I wouldn’t quit.” 

He looked up at you, face full of hope for a moment before turning into a scowl. “Now everyone’s gonna think I’m off the wagon, no one’s gonna wanna work with me again…ugh!” 

He fisted his hands in his hair and fell backward onto the bed, letting out a loud groan. 

You’d be lying if you said you didn’t take a moment to appreciate the lines of his body all stretched out in the messy sheets. His golden brown chest looked so warm and inviting, just begging to be marked up by your lips, teeth, tongue as you made your way to the little patch of dark hair leading under the towel. Not for the first time you wondered what would happen if you made a move, placed a gentle kiss to his clavicle or neck, made your desire known…

Flinging his arms out to the side, he looked at you again and you snapped out of your daze. Awkwardly, you cleared your throat and forced yourself back into Personal Assistant Mode. 

“I’ll call Paula,” you said, referring to his publicist as you pulled out your phone. “She’ll handle it.” 

You stood up to walk out of the room and give him some privacy, but a large hand on your shoulder stopped you and pulled you back down

“Hey,” he said, quiet again, “We’re okay, right?” 

The insecurity in his question was palpable, and you couldn’t help it anymore. You wrapped your arms around his chest and rested your head against his shoulder. 

Part of being a good PA was knowing what your client needed before they needed it, and giving it to them without them having to ask. At that moment, Dieter needed more than words to confirm the two of you actually were and would continue to be okay, so you held him tightly for a few moments longer than necessary to make sure he got the message. 

“Yeah, Dee, we’re okay.” 

[honeybeezgobzzzzz]

🔱 On the Beach Chapter One

On The Beach: Orm has spent the last year staying with you, Arthur’s best friend. Part of his sentence is to learn about surface dweller culture from a surface dweller, and try to understand that not everyone above the waves is bad. With the year up, and Orm comfortable with a lifestyle that consisted of just you and him, how will he feel when his half brother shows up, and jealousy rears its ugly head? To put it simply, not very well.

Warnings: Explicit Language, Explicit Content.

To Note: Orm Marius x NAMED!FEMReader, dividers by @firefly-graphics.

Word Count: ~6.3k

Masterlist | Next

"Are you going to behave tonight or do I need to get out the squirt bottle from storage?" You asked while neatening up the collar of Orm’s button-up. Orm’s blond eyebrow lifted as you finished smoothing out his collar and looked up into his eyes.

"I thought you got rid of that incessant thing months ago?" He questioned you, a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Snorting through your nose, you patted your hands against his chest, smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles.

"I put it on standby in the event you decided to be naughty." Your answer had him smiling down at you with a gleam in his eyes.

"I do believe I haven’t warranted getting sprayed by your little squirt bottle recently. Why do you feel the need to remind me of its menial existence?"

"Because I like it when we talk about ocean stuff and you aren’t giving me your royal attitude." You responded before poking him in the chest with your pointer fingers. "But seriously, this is for your mother. At least try to be civil with Arthur. You’ve been up here for a year. I’d hate for them to think that you haven’t been trying when I know you have."

Orm had spent the last year staying with you and learning about surface dwellers properly. It was his sentence for trying to start a war with the surface. At first, he was rude, arrogant, and quarrelsome. You didn’t hold conversations; you held arguments. That’s when you had bought a squirt bottle, and reconditioning started.

A few months went by with you spraying him with water every time he was rude, did something you disapproved of, or you were just fed up with him. He caught on fast, but stubbornness had him getting sprayed for several more months until he finally was nicer to you.

Eventually, the squirt bottle went away to storage and the two of you formed an odd friendship… and that’s when you started forming feelings you shouldn’t. But you never said anything. You were content to be a close friend and someone Orm actually trusted to be around.

Trust, that was the most important thing between you at the moment. You trusted him; he trusted you.

So now after the full twelve months had passed, a small gathering was going to be held at your cottage, mostly for Atlanna to hopefully see that her two sons could get along and be in the same room for more than five minutes without trying to kill each other or picking a fight.

Now you were getting ready for the Atlanteans, along with Tom, to show up. You had stuffed Orm into a button-up and shorts, trying to get him to look at least somewhat cleaned up. Well, he looked incredibly handsome in his outfit, and your heart was sighing out in lovelorn.

Orm gently took your hands, gazing down at your face.

“I promise to behave myself, but I cannot speak for my brother.” Rolling your eyes, you curled your fingers around his larger ones and gave him a reassuring smile.

“You leave Arthur to me. He knows not to start anything in my house. I may be tiny, but I know just where to kick him if he misbehaves, and if I have to, I’ll squirt him with my squirt bottle.” That put a smile on Orm’s face. “Can you please go down and make sure I have enough blankets in the closet while I get changed? It’s supposed to get cold again tonight.”

“Only because I favor you,” Orm told you as you slipped your fingers from his and he started heading for the stairs.

“Thank you, you’re my favorite Atlantean!” You called after him as his enormous figure disappeared from view. Humming to yourself, you turned on your heel and headed for your room. You had to get cleaned up yourself. You highly doubted that meeting Atlanna wearing an oversized, stained lounge shirt and comfy shorts would be appropriate. She was a queen, after all.

Changing into nicer clothes, you pulled on white shorts and a green tank top; it was still warm out during the day and you didn’t want to overheat yourself. But just as a precaution, you grabbed one of your big button-ups to wear over your tank top. If you got cold, at least you had something.

Walking for the stairs, you quickly braided your hair back to keep it out of the way, tying it off with a hair band. Just as your bare feet hit the main floor, Orm appeared.

“There is enough in the hall closet,” Orm announced. “And you know us Atlanteans don’t get as cold as you surface dwellers.”

“More for me and Tom then,” you replied as you slipped past him, heading for the back sliding glass door. “And it means I get to snuggle, so that’s a bonus.”

You had actually got Orm to let you snuggle up against his side a few times when you watched movies. He never actually said anything about it or made notion of acknowledgement, but man alive was he a comfortable pillow. Yet another thing you would never, ever, say to Orm’s face, or anyone’s, for that matter.

You just hoped you hadn’t drooled on him when you ultimately fell asleep.

Unlocking the sliding glass doors, your eyes brightened up at seeing several figures rising from the surf and making their way up the path to your cottage.

“They’re here!” You called over your shoulder before opening the door and pulling it aside. Leaving the door open, you darted barefoot down the path and took off running. “ARTY!”

Arthur laughed and opened his arms seconds before you were jumping up and launching yourself at him, wrapping your arms around his body like a koala bear on a tree.

“You know you could have visited!” You scolded Arthur as Mera snickered and Vulko looked on in amusement. “You know, stop by and say hi? It’s not that hard to do, you overgrown sea monkey!”

“Overgrown sea monkey?” Arthur repeated with a small laugh. “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously!” You responded before dropping to your feet. “But really, you could have visited.”

“He cause you any trouble?” Arthur asked, his eyebrow raising. You shook your head as you started heading up to the cottage.

“No, I conditioned him.” You announced proudly. Vulko and Mera looked positively confused, and Arthur snorted in laughter.

“What is that supposed to mean?” He asked as you reached the patio. You gave him a sly smile, not planning on revealing anything.

“Oh, you know, he figured out a few things about the surface world,” you replied vaguely, twisting your hands behind your back. “But enough about that. When are Tom and Atlanna coming? I need to know when to order the pizzas…”

Pizza boxes were scattered around the kitchen, the haunting smell of gooey cheese and pepperoni filling your nose, along with the anchovy variation you had discovered Atlanteans loved. Tom and Atlanna had arrived only a few minutes after Arthur, Mera, and Vulko, and after chowing down on pizza, Atlanna was grilling Orm on his year-long stay with you. It thrilled you that he looked like he was enjoying telling his mother about his year with you.

Mera and Vulko had gotten into a debate of feasible pizza toppings, leaving you to goof off with Arthur. You were currently seeing how many coasters you could balance on top of his head before the tower fell. Your current number was 11.

“Would you stop fidgeting,” you huffed at him as you carefully slipped on coaster number twelve. “You’re going to make my work fall.”

“Have you tried staying still for this?” Arthur griped in return. “I have a crick in my neck!”

“Stop being such a baby!” Tom, who had been watching you, let out a snort of laughter and shook his head. Picking up coaster number thirteen, you slowly stacked it, your fingers releasing the cardboard ever so slightly as the tower wobbled slightly.

“What are you doing?” Mera asked, her bright eyes staring at the stack of coasters on Arthur’s head.

“Trying to see how many I can stack before they fall,” you answered with a cheeky grin. Arthur rolled his eyes.

“These two have some crazy stories of what they used to get into,” Tom spoke up as Atlanna scooched over on the bench seat and snuggled up next to him, her eyes sparkling with happiness. “I’ve never seen two people with such a close bond of friendship.”

“Best friends forever, Eve,” Arthur crowed with a big grin, holding up his hand. Not breaking your concentration with coaster number fifteen, you clapped your palm against his with a grin of your own.

“Yes, yes, now stay still, I mean it, I want to break my record,” you commanded as the fifteenth coaster made it onto the tower.

“How long have you two known each other?” Atlanna asked, her head tilting to the side as she smiled.

“Since second grade, he punched my bully in the nose,” you said as Arthur laughed.

“Oh yeah, I did, little brat wouldn’t stop yanking on Eva’s braids, so I took it upon myself to be her knight in shining armor,” he chuckled, as if reliving the thought. “I got suspended for that, but Eva and I have been best friends since then.”

“I’ll say, you two were practically inseparable,” Tom commented, a smile on his own lips. “And it seems you still are from the way Eva gave you that lecture about not visiting.”

“What can I say,” Arthur said while you carefully lowered coaster number sixteen onto the precarious tower. “Eva and I understand each other.”

Rolling your eyes, you were about to place coaster seventeen on the wobbling stack when Orm rose to his feet, his chair scraping on the floor as he did so, and quickly strode from the kitchen. The stack on Arthur’s head fell as Arthur turned his head in the direction Orm had disappeared.

“What’s got his trident in a twist?” Arthur grumbled, preparing to get to his feet. You put your hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

“Let me handle this,” you said quietly, getting to your feet.

“You sure?” Arthur asked, his eyebrow rising once more.

“I’ve spent a year with him, Arthur. I think I know him far better than you at this point,” you told him before stepping around the table and following Orm. Exiting the cottage, you spotted Orm walking down the beach, heading around the curve to the part that was hidden from view. “What is going through your head right now, Orm…”

Jogging to catch up with his long stride, you only made it to him when your cottage had disappeared from view and nothing but beach, rocks, and ocean could be seen.

“Orm!” you called, your feet digging into the sand as you trotted up to him. Orm turned around in surprise, his eyes mirroring his body language.

“What are you doing here?” He asked crisply, his lip curling in distaste. “Shouldn’t you be with Arthur? Your best friend?”

You blinked up at him, surprised at his sudden hostility. You thought you had conditioned all of that out of him… apparently not.

“He might be my best friend, but that doesn’t mean I can’t talk to my other friends, or to you.” You answered evenly. “And as a concerned friend, I want to know what is currently running through your mind.”

“Leave, I have nothing more to say to you.”

Oh, hell no.

“I know you did not just use that tone with me, Orm Marius,” you growled at him, your eyes narrowing. He huffed at you.

“And what if I did?” He shot back sharply, towering over your smaller frame. “What? Are you going to squirt me with that little toy of yours? Go back to Arthur, Eva, he clearly intends to take everything I have, and that includes you.”

His last words were spat out with venom. But you could pick up on the hurt behind those caustic words, and that had your eyes going wide as you froze. He thought Arthur was going to take you away from him? That everything you had struggled to build and then worked towards with him would be reduced to ash in a single moment?

While you were standing frozen on the beach, dumbstruck at the implication of his words, Orm turned back around and started stalking away. Blinking yourself out of your trance, you lurched forwards, your hand shooting out to grab his shirt.

“Orm wait!” You called out only for your foot to catch on a chunk of driftwood you had failed to notice. Letting out a startled shriek as your clumsiness struck again, your fingers released Orm’s shirt while you flailed your arms. You were going down, hard. Orm was whipping around, his arms going around your body to stop your downward movement, but at that point, it was already too late.

Your flailing limbs struck an unprepared Orm, and you both went down. Back hitting rough sand and your legs tangling with Orm’s, you let out a shuddering breath as you realized he had prevented you from face planting. Despite your less than graceful fall, Orm had slipped a hand behind your head to protect it from smacking the sand, and then had used his other arm to prevent himself from completely falling on top of you.

Cheeks flushed from arguing and the embarrassment of wiping out while taking Orm down with you, you stared up at Orm’s face, which no longer held anger but concern. Your heart thundered in your chest from his proximity and from the rush of adrenaline from falling.

When it became apparent that you were unharmed, Orm let out a small breath of relief, but still continued to hover over your body, keeping you pinned to the sand.

“Orm,” you started, his name soft and warm on your lips. What could you say to reassure him that Arthur wouldn’t take you away from him? You had to say something. “Orm, I’m not going anywhere, you still have me.”

Burning intensity and lust filled his dark blue eyes, and in return, a shiver went up your spine from heat and electricity that suddenly ran rampant in your veins. Your words had made an impact, but you weren’t sure how.

Staring up into those eyes you had seen every day for a year, you hadn’t noticed until now just how much Orm hid behind his icy blue irises. You would have kept staring, mesmerized by the color, but Orm clearly had other ideas running through his mind. Moments later, he was pulling your head up and his lips were roughly smashing against yours, possessively moving against your lips with hunger and fervor. You let out a small noise of surprise that was quickly swallowed by his hungry mouth.

Your mind went blank for a few seconds, needing time to catch up to the moment, and when it did, your hands, which had been resting on the sand quickly reached up and sunk into his hair, pulling his mouth infinitely closer to yours. His mouth commanded yours, running across your lips with dominance, nipping and tugging at them until soft moans had your lips parting.

Orm didn’t waste one second. He deepened the kiss, sucking on your bottom lip slightly before thrusting his tongue inwards and tangling with yours. Arching your back and pressing yourself further against his chest, you found yourself on a new high you had never felt before. Threading your fingers further into his hair, you tugged on the strands and hungrily nip back, wanting so much more.

The raging energy between you was like a game of tug of war. Every time you thought you had the upper hand, Orm refused to concede, smothering any ounce of control you tried to enforce. He was insatiable, dominant, and everything you wanted. Nothing like the gentle giant you had been living with for the past year.

Well, you couldn’t exactly label him as a gentle giant. He was probably the deadliest man you knew and could wield a knife in the kitchen better than you could. But that was not the point. Your point was that despite all of his hostility and resistance to surface living, he hadn’t ever threatened you.

Orm continued his onslaught with his mouth. His hand left the back of your head, running down your back until his fingers reached your shorts. Letting out a growl of discontent from the large button-up you were wearing over your tank, Orm fisted the material before yanking it up, jerking your body a little.

Gasping against Orm’s lips as your tank rode up and your lower back hit sand, you couldn’t help but drag your nails down his scalp and neck, the feeling of his large warm hand pressing against your back euphoric. But it did not satisfy Orm to only have your lower back exposed to his hand. Abandoning his hovering position, Orm tore his mouth from yours as he reached for your denim-clad waist.

While his fingers viciously tore at the buttons holding the shorts together, your own fingers slid down his shoulders to his chest and grasped the material of his shirt. Breathing heavily, you wiggled and lifted your hips to make the process of him dragging your shorts and underwear down easier, faster, quicker. You wanted them off now; you needed to feel him against your skin, in your body.

Electric blue eyes bore into yours, nearly glowing in the twilight sunset on the horizon. One more trembling breath and he was moving again.

Orm’s mouth came back down, landing on your bared neck and pressing a trail of open-mouthed kisses that ranged from simple teases to full-on bites. Exhaling a small whine as his mouth skipped the section of your chest that your tank top bunched at, you felt Orm pull your shorts and underwear off your legs, tossing them to the side with little thought.

Now you were getting somewhere.

Expecting Orm to make his way back up to your mouth so you could kiss those incredibly sinful lips once more, your jaw nearly dropped open when his hands latched onto your thighs and he yanked them up. While your calves were awkwardly tossed over strong shoulders, your wide eyes watched in enthrallment while Orm ran his lips along your inner leg, starting at your knee.

Every inch that lips covered was soon tingling and begging for more. Even Orm’s shaved jaw gliding over your skin felt euphoric and twisted your thoughts to one burning word. More.

“Orm, stop torturing me.” Your whimper was met with curved lips and a Cheshire smile.

“You and I have very different ideas on what torture is, Eva,” Orm murmured against your skin before taking a sharp little bite out of your skin. You sucked in a breath from the little bite of teeth. “I am appreciating the beautiful creature before me.”

Your cheeks burned as if you weren’t already bare-ass naked from the waist down beneath him.

“And I am still hungry.” Those words caused your brain to short circuit for a few moments, and that was all the time his mouth needed to reach your pelvis. Your eyes nearly rolled back the moment his tongue lashed a line right up your center to your clit.

Biting down on the cry of pleasure that came crawling up from your throat, your left hand latched onto his blond hair while your right slammed to the coarse sand next to your bodies, your nails sinking into the soft yet grainy material. Within a minute, he had you squirming underneath his bold and possessive lapping. You curled your fingernails into his hair and pushed his head further down.

It was absolute torture for you and Orm seemed to feast like the King he had been, noises of approvals echoing your choked gasps and soft cries. Every lick, kiss, and suck stole the very breath from your lungs and made your back arch off the sand. Your body writhed against his iron hold, torn between wanting relief and wanting more.

You had guiltily imagined this at least a thousand times while lying in bed at night. You wondered what it would be like to be lavished by him, by a king, and nothing quite prepared you for just how intense Orm would be. Sand dug into your back and hands tightened around thighs as your thrashing increased. It was practically carnal the way Orm worked your body to the point of writhing uncontrollably beneath his touch.

Your heels were digging into his back, and your knees were shaking against his shoulders now. A strangled sound then caught in the back of your throat when his tongue delved deeper, your twitching hand half buried in the sand curled, your nails making claws. No other man had brought you to the brink this quickly or this skillfully. It was nearly embarrassing.

“Oh God,” you breathed out, your entire body trembling as the fire in your belly raged uncontrollably. “Jesus Orm, you’re seriously going to make me—“

A particularly well-placed, and timed, flick of his tongue had you cutting your words off and crying out once more. At this rate, this man was going to pull an orgasm out of you like no other had before, but just when you thought he was going to push your body past that point, he pulled back. Legs flopping to the sand like limp noodles, your brain finally caught up.

Your mouth gaped open as you sucked in oxygen, reeling at what just happened while your heart raced. Hand falling from his hair and onto your bare stomach as you panted, the sound of him unbuckling his belt and pulling down his own shorts and underwear hit your ears. You were still staring at the darkened sky, dumbstruck and dazed by the edging he gave you, when one of his arms snaked around your back and pulled your upper body up so you were face to face.

Your face was beyond flushed from pleasure alone, and still trying to catch your breath from his teasing, you stared wide-eyed into his blue stormy eyes, your arms scrambling to latch onto his shoulders, your fingers clutching at his shirt.

“You are mine, Eva, all mine,” He darkly stated, his eyes telling you he meant every word, and in seconds his mouth was back on yours while his hips thrust forward, every inch of his already hardened cock sinking into your ready and waiting body.

Your back arched, and you groaned into his mouth at the feeling, and for a moment all your mind could think about was how full you felt, and how incredibly heavenly and toe-curling Orm made you feel. It was serendipitous. But it didn’t stay that way. The fullness disappeared before reappearing seconds later, Orm’s hips thrusting against yours.

Your hands slipped underneath his arms and clutched at his shoulder blades as his thrusts quickly fell into a rhythm that matched his words. Passionate, possessive, and above all else, ravenous. Not once did he falter, or break from the tongue-tying kiss he had you wrapped up in, and as the fiery burn quickly returned in your body, your nails clawed at his cloth-covered back, desperate to sink into flesh.

Letting out a guttural whine, your head dropped back when Orm pressed more open-mouthed kisses against your jaw and neck, giving every inch of your skin his full attention. With your pelvises crashing together with every powerfully thrust, your heels wrapped around his waist and dug into his ass.

Abandoning his quest to kiss every inch of your exposed skin, Orm’s mouth trailed up to brush against your ear, his teeth grazing against the outer edge.

“Orm,” you panted out, your nails digging into the fabric of his shirt. Another growl of satisfaction left his lips before he was pressing you back down on the sand. This gave him an all-new angle to thrust into your body, increasing both his pace and the pleasure he created.

Tongue-tied and on cloud nine, you pressed your head back into the sand, many whimpers and moans intermittent with your heavy breathing. Each calculated thrust drove you higher and higher until you couldn’t take it anymore.

Letting out a cry, your body twitched beneath him as you came. Your eyesight blurred and energy crackled in your veins. You slowly came down from your high, Orm cupped the side of your face, his eyes burning into yours.

“Mine,” He growled, full-on possession burning clear as day in his eyes. You couldn’t help but return with the appropriate answer.

“Yours,” you hoarsely panted back as his rough thrusts faltered. “Only… yours,”

That did it. His hips slammed against yours one more time before he groaned out his own pleasure and his own orgasm brought forth a fresh wave of heat that had your body twitching beneath his. Dropping his body to the side so his weight wasn’t completely on you, you turned your head to look at Orm while you both caught your breath.

It had to have been a full minute that went by, him still very much in you, and both of your releases dripping down your inner thighs. Your mind was still locked up in your whirlwind of pleasure. You were having a hard time remembering why you had been arguing in the first place.

“What were we arguing about again?” you questioned in slight confusion, your eyes searching Orm’s blue ones. His lips curved slightly as his fingers brushed against your cheek, gently stroking your skin.

“That doesn’t matter, you’re mine.” Your lips, slightly swollen and stinging from your fevered kissing, curved upwards at the idea.

“This is probably a little late, but I think you fell in love with me a long time ago,” you murmured, briefly closing your eyes and enjoying the way his fingers glided across your cheek. “And I’m pretty sure I’ve been yours for a while now…”

“I could say the same about you, beloved.” Your cheeks flushed a darker pink at his words, and you promptly buried your face in his chest with a wilted moan. You felt Orm’s chuckles as he ran his other hand up and down your back. A minute ticked by with you just lying there, and when you had finally caught your breath, you spoke up again.

“As much as I would like to stay with you here on the beach, the others might come looking for us to make sure we haven’t killed each other yet, or haven’t thrown any punches at least…”

“It would be wise to return. You are for my eyes, and my eyes only.” Orm responded, making another rush of fire flow through your body. Good lord, this man was hot, in an authoritative way… when he wasn’t being a complete ass.

“As you wish, my king,” you whispered lightly. In response, Orm pulled your head in for one last impassioned kiss that once again sent your brain spinning.

With a little help, since your legs were a little shaky from your fast-paced tryst in the sand, Orm helped you get cleaned up in the cold ocean before helping you back into your underwear and shorts. You still had sand everywhere. It certainly clung to the places you were wet, but at least it no longer looked like you had made love right there on the beach.

It was going to take a while for your brain to fully compute that you had done that, if you’ll be honest. Sand isn’t exactly the most comfortable of surfaces.

So, walking back towards your cottage, you stayed close to Orm, wobbling slightly on shaky legs and trying not to continually blush at your previous animalistic actions. Orm, however, still had a streak of possessiveness and kept his hand on your lower back, slipped between your button-up and tank top.

By the time you got to your back patio, you were half hopeful your cheeks were no longer red with embarrassment and arousal. Patting your cheeks with your hands, you shook your head to clear the indecent thoughts and images of Orm from your mind, lest you end up broadcasting what was really running through your mind. A thought crossed your mind.

“Wait, you didn’t leave any marks… did you?” you questioned, panic building in your veins, slapping a hand on your neck as you turned and looked up at him. His eyebrow rose, and he gave you a half-smirk, his eyes burning with lust once more.

“Worried that they’ll see? They should. It will tell them you are mine, Eva.” Your face burned crimson, the exact color you were trying not to show on your cheeks at the moment. You swung your fist up and hit him in the chest.

“They don’t need to see anything!” you squeaked out as he let out a small laugh and reached up to grab the fist you had hit him with. His fingers threaded with yours as he pulled you forwards. You stumbled up against him, your remaining free hand pressing against his chest.

“With reluctance,” Orm drawled out, his eyes sparkling down at you with mirth before he pulled your hand up and pressed his lips against your knuckles. “I’ll admit that you look untouched, save for the fact that you look like you rolled around in the sand.”

“Oh thank God, the last thing I need and want is Arthur’s teasing,” you sighed out relief before Orm’s arm wrapped around your waist tightened.

“But that doesn’t mean next time I will be so gracious to your wishes.” He added, a clear warning for what was to come. King Orm was a possessive Atlantean and liked it when everyone knew exactly who put the marks on your neck. You nodded meekly before looking at the sliding glass doors.

“Really though, we should probably head in, you know, before Arthur gets curious and comes looking?” Orm huffed at you before releasing your hand and body from his hold.

“You are lucky that I respect you and your wishes, Eva, otherwise you wouldn’t get away with talking to me like that.”

“Whatever, your majesty,” you threw back into his face as you turned for the patio door. “Come on.”

Trying to walk as normally as possible, given your sore body, you sauntered over to the doors and pulled one aside, Orm following behind you.

Stepping into your living room, your eyes scanned the room, seeing that everyone was still present but had moved into the living room. Tom and Atlanna were sitting on the loveseat next to your couch while Vulko inspected your bookshelf.

Arthur caught your eye, and his eyebrow rose.

“You two are looking quite sandy,” He commented before getting elbowed in the side by Mera and receiving an equally sharp look.

“I tripped,” you stated as Orm came to a stop next to you, sand covering parts of him too. “And clumsily took Orm down with me as I went, end of story.”

Arthur snorted at you and shook his head, a grin clear on his face.

“You know, I would have thought you’d outgrow your clumsy days, Eva, but I guess not…” Narrowing your eyes at him, you raised your right hand and presented your middle finger to him, making him laugh at you.

“Not everyone gets to be as graceful as an Atlantean, Arthur,” you snapped at him before looking around, your eyes settling on the stacks of DVDs you had left on the coffee table. “Did everyone decide what movie we are going to watch?”

Mera held up a DVD, and squinting at it, you recognized it as Finding Dory. Your eyebrow shot up to your hairline, and you bit down on your lip to stop the giggles that wanted to crawl up your throat and burst from your lips. Oh, this was going to be funny watching with a bunch of Atlanteans. You had already made Orm watch it along with Finding Nemo months ago, and his reaction was hilarious.

You might just spend the entire movie laughing from their facial expressions alone.

“Alright, Arthur, get out the disc, will you? I need to wash my hands and get the popcorn going. I am not going to miss this,” you said as you started heading for your kitchen. “Oh, and will you get the extra blankets down from the closet? I can’t reach that far up…”

Arthur grunted at you before going to do as you asked. Entering your kitchen, you washed your hands free of sand before grabbing your canister of popcorn kernels and the biggest pot you had. You dished out several scoops into the pot and turned the stove on.

While the kernels were heating, you pulled out the popcorn bowl and set it down next to the stove. Knowing Arthur’s voracious appetite and that you had several Atlanteans who had never tried popcorn before, it was better to make more than needed than not have enough.

“You know you cry when you watch these types of movies. Especially this one.” Looking over your shoulder, you saw Orm leaning against the kitchen counter near the fridge. He looked hotter than ever, hair mussed, arms crossed with his muscles on show, and that delicious little smirk you wanted to kiss off his lips.

You shot him a dirty look.

“I do not,” you huffed at him with a scowl. His eyebrow rose at your blatant denial, and pushing away from the counter he had been leaning on, Orm slowly walked up to you, towering over your smaller frame. You shrunk where you stood. “… it was one time, and I was feeling emotional…” you finally admitted, puffing your lip out.

“And yet I feel like it is a common occurrence.” Huffing again, you continued to give him a look, daring him to outright say that you were a crybaby with children’s movies. He was saved by the popcorn rattling in the pot, making you jump in surprise.

Grumbling under your breath, you turned around to check the timer you had set up for the popcorn. Well, by both the time left, and the sounds coming from the pot, it was almost ready.

“Do you mind saving me a seat on my couch?” you asked, keeping your back to him as you tapped your fingers on the lid of the pot. “Arthur likes to hog the couch, and I want to at least have some leg room… you both are freakishly tall.”

For a moment you thought he was going to state that he was a prince, and princes didn’t take orders from commoners, least of all a surface dweller (that’s what had been thrown in your face the first couple of months he stayed with you, he still had a stubborn streak that cropped up sometimes), but he didn’t.

Hands landed on your hips, sliding around to brush the front of your thighs. Orm then pressed his body up against your back, his nose brushing against your neck.

“As my beloved wishes,” Orm purred into your neck, both his lips and his breath tickling your skin. Heat crawled up the back of your neck as the hairs raised. The hot bastard was pressing a kiss to your neck right here in the kitchen! Shivering from his words and touch, your jaw nearly dropped when he expunged himself and walked out of the kitchen.

“Oh, that is so mean,” you whispered to yourself, leaning forwards and banging your fist against your forehead while his incredibly soft chuckle echoed in the kitchen. God, he could be such a smug, hot bastard sometimes. Moaning to yourself for a few more seconds, you finally cleared your head long enough to finish preparing the popcorn and pour it into the serving bowl.

Giant bowl in hand, you headed back into the living room. The menu was on the screen, and the movie was ready to be played. Arthur, luckily, had confined himself to one section of the sofa, with Mera at his side. Trying not to walk oddly in front of the Atlanteans who were none the wiser about what went down after you had run after Orm, you handed the bowl over to Arthur with a command to share before carefully climbing across the longer part of the sofa and settling down next to Orm who held out your favorite blanket.

Taking it, you stretched out your legs next to his, which were noticeably shorter than his. Unfolding the blanket, you covered your legs, making sure that your feet were properly covered before looking at Arthur.

“You got the lights and remote?” you asked. He nodded his chin, holding up the remote before stretching an arm out and flicking the light switch, sending the room into darkness save for the television. Arthur hit play, and the movie started.

With a tired sigh, you rubbed your face. After the little tryst on the beach, you were feeling exhausted and tired, and without a doubt, you might fall asleep before the movie ended, so you might as well get comfortable.

Under the cover of darkness, you twisted onto your side and snuggled up against Orm’s side. He kept his eyes on the television screen, but the corner of his mouth twitched into a partial smile as he slipped his arm around your back and underneath your blanket to rest his hand on your waist.

It had been a long year, a very rough start at the beginning, but slowly you had gotten to see the real Orm, and that’s when you fell. You still had a long way to go with fixing the relationship between Atlanteans and surface dwellers, but if Orm could come to see that not every surface dweller was mean and cruel, others could too.

Date Published: 11/8/20

Last Edit: 4/28/24

Masterlist | Next

[max1461]

Ok, ok, I'd like to try to get at an aesthetic idea that I think is really important. I'm gonna lead with an example: sometimes, in Minecraft, people will decorate their houses with combinations of blocks designed to look like furniture. For example, a fence post with a trap door on top looks like a table (you can probably find pictures by googling "Minecraft table" or whatever). I really... well, sometimes I have a hard time with this. This particular example isn't too bad, but there's something about it that rubs me the wrong way. I think it's as follows.

When I look at Minecraft, I am already suspending my disbelief about the visual design of the world. Like the game presents you with a cube covered in a pixelated texture and says "this is a piece of wood" or "this is dirt", and you have to accept that, ok... that is a piece of wood, and this is dirt. That's the conceit you have to buy into to play the game. The way my brain wants to understand this is as something representational. The world of Minecraft is a symbol system, where those pixelated cubes represent dirt and wood and so on. And the actions a player can take in Minecraft-the-game are representative of actions a character is taking in a far more detailed and realistic Minecraft-the-world, which can at best be imagined. Right? Like maybe Minecraft isn't the best example (I chose it because of the table thing), but take another game, like... Final Fantasy VII. When you play FFVII, do you imagine that the characters in this story are meant to really look the way the game shows them to you? No, the game shows you representations of the characters, symbols, and you parse them into a narrative which you imagine to be happening to real, flesh-and-blood people, right? Or at least something close to it. That's how this business works.

So back to the table thing. When a Minecraft player makes a table out of a fence post and a trap door, even though in the game's graphics it looks to me like a table, I can't ever really parse it as a table, because all these things in Minecraft-the-game merely representative of things in Minecraft-the-world, and in Minecraft-the-world it looks like... a trap door sitting on top of a fence post. Why do you have that in your house?

You get what I'm saying?

To me this way of interacting with fiction is like, well it's the only way I can do it. It's where my mind automatically goes. And something like a table made of a trap door and a fence can be incredibly jarring to me for this reason. As I said, that's not the worst example, because like... at least in theory you probably could use that as a table. The worst is like, when people decorate their houses with like, a dead shrub with a leaf block on top as a house plant. Because as soon as you parse the symbols into a coherent object that makes no fucking sense.

Ok, but, clearly my view here is unusual, because most people seem fine with this stuff.

And anyway, my thesis here is that the broader culture is suffuse with stuff that feels out of place to me in exactly this way. Things where different degrees of referentiality are mixed and matched without regard for a coherent meta/object distinction. And it drives me nuts, it bugs me, it feels... I think more than anything it feels tacky. Confused about the difference between being and looking-like. I don't know.

Anybody else get what I'm talking about here?

[girl4music]

It really is interesting to me that the most multi-dimensional characters in ‘BtVS’ to me are the ones that are most known for their performative behaviour as opposed always authentic: Willow. Spike. Buffy.

Or rather - it’s the characters that have an arc where the theme of identity is incredibly significant for them to the point where their usual attire and choice of dress every now and again away from their usual attire reveals something juicy about their characterization and therefore gives greater character representation.

I am not usually a person particularly interested in image or appearance on the outside unless it informs who the person is/isn’t on the inside and provides depth of character in such a way that feels divine.

The times when the external affects the internal. Even if not intentionally. Subconsciously and indirectly.

And I haven’t seen a show do this better than ‘BtVS’. I haven’t seen another TV show that knows how to fuse the use and purpose of the narrative, the theme and the characterization as well as this show can. And as pointed out below by @spuffybot’s meta, that may be because it wasn’t intentional at all. It was either fate’s intervention or just a happy accident. And sometimes some of the best TV art/entertainment comes from the fact that nobody ever actually intended anything… rather everybody just interprets differently and adds on to what was already there. Making it insightful.

This is why shows like ‘BtVS’ are timeless shows.

Because technically… the show is still being created. I’ve said this before in a Xena post but no one goes to see the Mona Lisa to learn what da Vinci intended.

They might think that’s what they’re doing but they’re not. What they’re actually doing is still painting it.

We can give the creators of any TV art/entertainment that provided the scope and space for the audience to be able to do this all the credit if we want. But I think we should start considering and acknowledging that we have a lot more to do with why and how a TV show thematically resonates with us than them at some point. Because WE are actually the reason why all this stuff matters so much to us. We put it there ourselves. It has nothing to do with the original creators really…

All they did was allowed their creation to breathe so that it could have a life of its own. But we’re the ones actually keeping it alive by throwing our two cents in. I absolutely understand appreciating and praising the original creators for all of this stuff we come up with in regards to our favourite art/entertainment but the fact of the matter is they never intended any of it. We should be appreciating and praising and crediting ourselves on our creative abilities of using the high skills and qualities of attention to detail and passion.

Whether it’s writing meta, making videos, graphics designing or any kind of artistic or creative contribution we assign to our favourite TV shows/movies or books or video games or comic illustrations.

It’s really all us. Especially with a TV show like ‘BtVS’.

And we’re teaching each other so much every time. I don’t know about you guys but I think it’s fucking incredible the power a fandom can have in this way.

[ganondoodle]

feeling much better now having gotten some sleep (the dont trust how you feel about yourself past 9pm is good advice no joke)

of course all my criticism of totk still applies but im feeling less depressed about it, tho i will say its honestly kinda baffling how many times the game actually got me interested and excited about stuff and then just kinda drops it in a dead end, of course they were those kind of things in botw as well but it seems much less .. balanced in totk

(not even just the big things like making me want to actively do something to help zelda turn back when it just gets solved on its own in the end, but also some lil things like the fact that so many NPCs tell you about that newly discovered animal species and when you find the dongos they are just gem vending maschines)

in the end i can say, no, i dont like totk, tho i still love the graphics and the way the world is made ( botw showed me jsut how immersive and alive a world can feel i love it to death), i liked the gameplay and that it kept the freedom botw had established, the bossfights are mostly fun (tho i wish you could refight more of them), i LOVE the yiga and im glad they got more of a spotlight, the music is FANTASTIC i keep catching myself humming along, alot of the sidequests are much bigger and feel like you are actually doing something, i like how the sages are a bit more integrated into the story, the majority of the new designs are great, both the japanese and german voice acting is great, and the end fight has some of the best build up i have ever experienced, my heart starts to race when that music build up starts even tho i have beaten it 3 times already-

however, the story is both simple and incredible flat with lots of stuff that doesnt make sense especially when it was said to be a sequel, the zonau should have stayed a mystery imo, they failed to make me care about them even a little bit and often felt forcefully crammed into the world and its history, i think you could have told an incredible story taking place in the present and leave the past be the past, you easily could have connected botw and totk in a much better way than they did, i dont like how it changes aspects about botw all the while nigh ignoring it ever happened, it still feels like it was trying to be a replacement and not a sequel and all the referencing and callbacks to the old titles may have been done in good faith but that and including time travel yet again ultimately lead to people ripping each other to shreds over trying to prove its placed in the old timeline despite it making no sense at all and confusing people even more; often when the game made me care or be excited about something it was dropped in a dead end, there was a ton of missed opportunities and lost potential to tell a much more nuanced and interesting story/lore, and thinking about it only makes me sad for the things that could have been

overall i think my disappointment is outweighing my fun and the only way i can keep playing it while having fun is ignoring everything that isnt, which works quite well most of the time since im pretty much done with all story stuff but i keep slipping into my little rants nonetheless; i will say its making me a little worried about the future of the franchise, but i know im in the minority and maybe i will just have to accept that the new stuff wont be for me anymore and i should not hope for anything that interests me xD

except for some meme material or specific characters i love i dont think i will make much use of anything totk tried to establish, and i hope thats fine with the lot of you (<3) hopefully that also means my ranting days are over xD

anyway, back to making niche art i go! (sorry for making you endure these long ass rambling posts :,) )

[beatriceeagle]

i wanted to send the part where bren tried to seduce beau and her reaction but it’s a bit longer than 500 words. so instead i’ll ask some questions (though feel free to talk about other aspects!!)

how did you come up with bren thinking that they were romantically involved?

what was beau thinking while they were dancing?

what do you imagine bren’s training was regarding charming and seducing people?

I have a million things to say about this section, so I'm gonna go ahead and give you the full essay, and make sure I answer those questions along the way. Heads up that there is non-graphic discussion of sexual abuse below the cut.

This was a scene that I actually went back and forth on a lot. I wasn't sure I wanted to include it, for a number of reasons: it's very sudden, and doesn't obviously play into the broader plot; it alludes to a very thorny aspect of Caleb's backstory that I knew I wasn't going to have space to fully unpack; and probably most of all, I kind of thought (and still think) that Beau would probably actually be aware of that aspect, so I was kind of suspending my own disbelief by having her go into it blind.

(I could probably have made the scene work even with Beau being aware, but it would have significantly changed the tenor of it. Also, a fun fact about me is that if I really like a joke and think it's in-character, I will fudge other aspects of canon to preserve it, and “If you’re secretly attracted to me, you have to tell me. It’s the bro code, I think," may be my favorite joke in this fic.)

I ultimately kept the scene because it's pulling weight in a lot of different ways. It puts the idea of sexual abuse very vividly in Beau's mind, which helps to prime her for the letter she discovers in the next chapter. It lays groundwork for the Essek plot line. And most importantly, it creates a foundation of trust between Bren and Beau, because Beau establishes a firm boundary in an area that Bren has been taught that his boundaries do not matter, and begins the process of establishing that her friendship and support are not transactional.

The answers to your specific questions, in order:

1. One of the fun parts of the very early chapters for me was digging into Bren's basic (extremely wrong) assumptions about the world. Among other things, it gave me the opportunity to imagine how Beau and Caleb's relationship would look to him, and the idea that he would mistake their relationship for romantic was the first thing I thought of. Their incredible closeness and affection is visibly obvious, and Bren believes them to be partners in capture and interrogation—and he is, after all, in love with both of his capture and interrogation partners.

2. As I said, I think in actual canon Beau would definitely be hearing alarm bells when Bren asked to dance. In this fic, however, she doesn't know about the seduction element of his training, and to her, dancing with Caleb is in no way romantically or sexually charged. It's something they've done many times before (as I allude to in the party at the Lavish Chateau). So Bren asking her to dance probably strikes her as, at worst, an avoidance strategy to deal with his feelings about having seen how different the dance hall looks. Which it is. Just not in the way she thinks.

3. Okay, this is basically all the stuff I didn't have space to unpack in the fic itself. I imagine that Ikithon's training covered, broadly, four subjects: magic (self-explanatory), history (propaganda), interrogation (torture), and spycraft. They all would have overlapped, but those would've been the four big areas. And what Bren thinks of as "spycraft" training was really an exercise in the systematic breaking down of his personal boundaries and sense of self.

Yes, they were taught all the things that Bren mentions when he talks to Beau about spycraft: ingratiate yourself with the subject, find commonalities and leverage, figure out what they want and present it to them. I'm sure they learned a lot about rhetoric and body language and tools of persuasion. But the actual key takeaway of those lessons wasn't any of that: it was that in order to do those things, they should be willing to go to any length, make any sacrifice, and cross any line. Their feelings shouldn't matter; their safety shouldn't matter; certainly the feelings and safety of their targets shouldn't matter. Only the mission should matter.

So I think that the lessons probably involved sexual abuse, not necessarily in the form of sexual contact, but in the form of overt and intentional boundary-pushing on topics of sex and romance. In fact, I think that there was probably overt boundary-pushing on a lot of topics. (I've thought a decent amount about how Eadwulf's religion could be transgressed in similar ways, for instance.) Because ultimately, the primary goal isn't an education on any particular topic; it's the systematic erosion of the concept of boundaries themselves.

[archoneddzs15]

Sega Saturn - Sonic R

Title: Sonic R / ソニックＲ

Developer: Sonic Team / Traveller's Tales

Publisher: Sega

Release date: 4 December 1997

Catalogue No.: GS-9170

Genre: Racing

Sega's most impressive Saturn title released as far as graphical capabilities are concerned and it was all down to Liverpool-based Travellers Tales. Makes you wonder why Sega themselves couldn't come up with something like this.

For those new to the Saturn you may not know what Sonic R is. Sonic R is a 3D racing game starring characters from the Sonic series. But this is a racing game with a difference. You actually have to collect Sonic rings to open up secret areas within the track to gain access to the emerald stones. The action is fast and furious in this racer/platformer. The only problem I have with Sonic R is the control system. At first, it all seems too loose making you fly off course quite easily. I seriously recommend that you persist though. You will be rewarded in the end. There are four worlds for you to race in plus a secret dare I say "Mario Kart" rip-off Radiant level which is a fully transparent rainbow-like track. Like all good games, Sonic R has many secrets that will have you coming back for more. There are only five characters to choose from at first, being Sonic, Miles/Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Dr. Eggman/Dr. Robotnik. You don't think Sega would be happy with only five characters, do you? Better get playing and find those secrets.

At the beginning of this article, I said that Sonic R was Sega's most impressive Saturn title released as far as graphical capabilities are concerned. But why is this? Well sit tight and read on. Sonic R pushes the Saturn to do EVERY special effect it's capable of plus many it's NOT capable of doing. Sonic R gives us real transparency, shading, light sourcing, reflections, and partial dust build-up. This basically means that the background doesn't pop up out of nowhere like many Saturn 3D games. The levels appear from nothing to sold through what's best described as a cleaver transparency effect fading in from the background. This looks much better than the "fog" effect that plagues the N64. Not only does Sonic R manage to give all of these amazing special effects but it does them running at a solid 30fps !! This is quite a feat when you consider stuff like Sega Rally which was the standard runs at 30fps with none of the above special effects in operation. Many people who saw Sonic R running for the first time just couldn't believe it was a Saturn powering the game. Travelers Tales has performed pure magic with Sonic R. Just a shame nobody else used the technology.

I've gone on quite a lot about Sonic R's incredible looks but we mustn't forget the incredible soundtrack that goes with it. Sega hired their European music master Richard Jacques for the music in Sonic R and he has done it again. Europeans and Japanese alike love the Sonic R soundtrack with its dancey upbeat tracks with vocals (karaoke versions are available). Best described as a more modern Sonic CD soundtrack (Japanese and European versions that is).

Oh, and this game supports the Saturn's analogue controller.

[emblemxeno]

Xenoblade 1 DE Main Story/Game Thoughts

Finished the main story! I didn't go full completion but I got full affinity for all areas and saw every Heart-to-Heart. More detailed thoughts-including spoilers-under the cut!

-For starters, DE is a great update to the original. Many QoL improvements trims the extra menu time down a lot (inventory management, art books, equipment/gems, etc.), especially swapping gems. Also hell yes to including the appearance feature from X, as someone who prefers the default outfits for everyone!

-Same applies to battle stuff and general gameplay. Quest tracking, gauges on things like Break and Topple, clearer status effects, chance arts being highlighted, even something as small as the scroll between Talent Arts/Running/Chain Attacks being more streamlined had many great returns on me not pressing the wrong thing.

-However... why did they not just go all the way with more changes? The two big ones that come to mind are trading and Colony 6 collecting. First, why can you not bulk trade? It is such a time sink having to constantly open the menu again and again. And since trading and skip travelling share a button, I clocked probably over a hundred instances of opening the damn map menu instead of trading since there's a second of cooldown before the option appears for the NPC again! It's an annoyance that is easily ignored once or twice, but absolutely brutal after the tenth time.

-Jumping ahead a bit, but I speak not just criticizing DE but XC1 as a whole. It's probably an unpopular opinion but I don't like the ongoing Colony 6 reconstruction sidequest. The first time I completed it-about half a decade ago I think-was magical! Seeing a ruined home blossom into a lively city due to my hard work was something I'll never forget as an RPG fan. But I don't have that kind of time on my hands anymore (or I simply have better management of time now that I don't stay up til 4 am playing video games anymore lol). Exploring Bionis and Mechonis is an undeniably wondrous and beautiful experience, but only when doing normal quests (well most of the normal quests) and progressing the story. Jogging around places trying to find each item is incredibly unfun and tedious. The big offenders are typically Ice Cabbages (luckily I got all the ones I need by playing through the Valak portion of the story), Rainbow Slugs (I spent an entire hour on the Fallen Arm ugh), and the Black Liver Beans. The last one was the breaking point, I can't stand the Bionis Interior and after an hour in there just trying to find one, I said fuck it and did the Time Attack trials to get them that way. It was just not... good! I don't like it a bit.

-Last thing on DE specifically, I found that the graphics are apparently controversial among fans? I'm understanding of the position, as there's definitely a charm that the original artstyle had, especially being on the Wii. But to me the original has more issues in its visuals than just being a different artstyle. Poor resolution, blocky models, souless faces when not in an important cutscene, absolutely diabolical pop-in. And some say that the original gave its characters more personality during cutscenes, which... I don't get whatsoever. Did we watch the same scenes, cuz it's very hard to distinguish emotion in the original, whereas DE has better mouth, eyebrow, and facial movements. Certain scenes may "look" more emotional in the original, but things get exaggerated all the time to compensate for poor resolution or graphics.

-Now on to the just XC1 in general! Holy fuck the main cast is better than I remember. Shulk, Fiora, and Melia were already my favorites, but honestly... Dunban is probably my absolute favorite out of all of them now. His story is just so succinct and he's just so cool and hot and kind and just ughhhhhh!

-Egil is still best villain in the game, no surprise. Revisiting this game honestly made it really fucking clear why I loved Dimitri from 3H so much cuz the two are so similar (to the point where you can pull line's from the game about Egil and put them in 3H). The others fair less well. Metal Face/Mumkhar is delightfully hammy and an amazing threat for the first half of the game, but is as deep as a puddle. Dickson and Lorithia I found I dislike even more, for the wrong reasons; they lack charisma, and it's noticeable in places where the game gets really anime in its hammy villainy, but they're written and played a bit too straight for it to come off as anything other than lackluster. Though at least Dickson has presence as Shulk's caretaker and the guy who everyone knows and respects; Lorithia though? Throw her away. Honestly if Yumea took her place and retained the bigotry against Homs it'd be much more entertaining IMO.

-Zanza himself is a definitive mixed bag. Were I ignorant to Klaus' entire story from XC2, I'd honestly write him off as a by-the-numbers arrogant (but secretly imperfect and prone to "human" folly) god figure that happens in many, many RPGS. But I can't dislike him because I do know the entire story, and Zanza being an utter dickwad is explained in great detail and makes sense. Honestly, he does work for the story that XC1 is telling without playing XC2 as well, but ehhh. I guess it's just really difficult to be the main villain after Egil does such great things in a limited time.

-Narrative is great, just as it was the first time I played. Highlights for me:

Singlemindedly fighting for revenge is destructive not just to your enemies, but to yourself and your friends. Ignorance and unwillingness to look beyond your own world or history means you may be hurting innocent people without realizing it. Chaining your life to the deaths of others rather than supporting the survivors is unhealthy and can lead you down a path of misery and disaster.

Ether is not just analogy for carbon/other base elements in our world. Philosophically it's analogous to light and fate as well. Shulk unlocks the Monado's powers when he stops treating it as a tool with functions, but rather as an extension of his will. He wills his wishes into his heart, and they are made manifest. He protects Reyn with Shield not cuz the Monado lets him, but because he desired it. Same with Sharla and Speed, and it's how Alvis taught him to unlock Purge. It's how he resists Apocrypha, and later gains Cyclone once the Apocrypha is destroyed. His will is so strong, it becomes resistant to Zanza's influence, hence why he starts suffering the more he learns of Mechonis' history. The truth being brought to light is painful internally and externally, as Zanza physically rejects anything that challenges how he sees the world. Shulk brings himself back to life, begins having visions without Zanza, and gains his own Monado-which looks purely made of ether and light-through pure willpower and the desire to create his own future.

Shulk's duality and inner turmoil when he realizes his yearning for revenge is destructive; Fiora's endless strength of heart when dealing with a machine body and carrying on Meyneth's wishes; Melia going through hell and back trying to find a balance between her sense of self and sense of duty (I imagine Future Connected is gonna touch on that more as well); Dunban grappling with his moniker of being a hero and mentoring the party despite being imperfect and lamenting his disability; Reyn's goal of being a protector developing into being a supporter once he becomes insecure over his strength and character compared to Shulk; Sharla trying to keep hold onto a sense of hope that her love is alive before coming to terms with the fact that she needs to cherish her life and love those within it; Riki just being the fucking best dad and friend in the world.

Having played XC2 and XC3 makes all these things even richer as well.

-Last but not least, gameplay:

-Most quests are good. Most. The generic quests weren't ever fun for me, and they cause significant bloat that could've been trimmed IMO. Especially since lots of quests ask you to kill monsters and collect items anyway.

-The method to get quests started though? Awful. I know that things like Community in Torna and Field Skills in XC2 are hated, but man I can't stand having to change the clock and track the damn NPCs in XC1. Especially since there are many areas separated between towns/villages and "wild" areas (Colony 6 and Bionis Leg, Frontier Village and Makna, Alcamoth and Eryth + Valak), it just makes things so drawn out. Going back and forth, changing time and all that, is a sour point on this game.

-Like I said a few weeks ago, the Xenoblade series as a whole is unmatched in gameplay story telling. Beautiful and large environments make curious exploration a treat, especially as you start getting pieces to puzzles that can get completed later. I payed a lot more attention to the High Entia and Giant related sidequests due to the fascinating lore, for example.

-The fights are great, if a bit centralizing. Shulk, due to Monado arts, is the best character to have in the party and is sorely missed when switched out. I have pretty standard opinions on the rest of the characters, so no need to speak on each individually. I will say though, holy fuck is the AI just as bad as I remember. Shulk wastes his Monado gauge, Sharla is terrible at using arts and always puts herself into cooldown, and Melia for the love of god, stop firing elementals as soon as you summon them you're made of tissue.

Topple locking is deffo the prime strategy, cuz there were fights I wouldn't otherwise have won were it not for it, and thankfully Reyn and Dunban have pretty good AI.

Two major gripes though. Spikes are a terrible mechanic, gross. Second, I hate that the enemy tags affect accuracy, it makes certain quests extremely brutal to complete without grinding. And I just hate having to fight tough/overlevelled enemies as a whole, it becomes routine and simple after a while.

As a whole, I like the gameplay still, but it feels very restrictive going back to it after seeing all the crazy tricks I could do in 2 and 3. And also auto-attack arts > timer arts forever and ever.

-Overall a very great experience getting to replay this game like this. Though more rough points than I remember, and with certain things that have not aged well whatsoever , XC1 is still a good game that I'm glad introduced me to this series. I'm taking a break before playing Future Connected.

[child0feden]

34, 28, 23, 7 & 4

Picked a few, hope you don’t mind :)

🦚

another couple of questions from the ask game, yay! and from my lovely little peacock anon! i do not mind at all, you guys can pick as few or as many as you would like! i love answering questions for you all <3

share some personal lore you have never posted before!

when i was still in middle school, we had a cooking class and within minutes of being handed a kitchen knife to cut up some vegetables, i had accidentally cut the side of my thumb, right next to my nail! it was only a small cut but it bled a whole lot and i have a white scar there now, it was actually one of the reasons they put down for me needing to be taken out of school, they said i had done it on purpose to hurt myself which was actually not the case! but a pretty unsurprising accusation and i do believe they meant well… kind of…

my mother thought i was going to be born a boy! when she was pregnant with me, her bump was crazy big and supposedly that was meant to mean she was having a boy but then i came out and… yeah, not so much a boy, just a big baby girl lolol!

i have two middle names that are related to other people in my family! vera was the middle name of my great grandmother who i look a freakish amount like and share a lot of mental similarities to, jane is my second middle name because my uncle jay was the only person strong enough to stay in the delivery room with my mother, the rest of my family were total wusses…

once, when i was very young, probably around three? i was in my pram, my mother pushing me, when we passed a cat that had obviously been run over, guts exposed and eyeballs popped out, just nasty and gory! but i decided that i wanted to pet the kitty and leaned out of my pram to try and stroke it! i do not know why, it was obviously dead, looked disgusting and now my mother loves telling this story to people lolol!

do you have any reoccurring dreams?

honestly, i have a lot of really fucking horrible dreams about teeth! like they make me wake up all sweaty and gross, so i suppose they are more nightmares than dreams but still… i have the most horribly graphic and real feeling dreams about my teeth being pried out with pliers, falling out into my hands as i catch them and blood drips outs onto my skin, having them smashed with a hammer and all types of nasty stuff! they’re always so vivid, i think dreams about teeth are usually because the dreamer is nervous about something but i have had them so many times despite me not being nervous… very strange and i wish they would stop, they fuck me up really bad, sometimes i can really feel the pain and taste the copper in my mouth!

what do you think says the most about you as a person?

hmmm, gosh i hate complimenting myself and stuff but i would probably say my respect for things… i think… despite not being a religious person myself, i do not advocate for the destruction of historical churches, not at all! it makes me incredibly upset to see beautifully built churches from centuries ago with broken windows and messed up stone work because of vandalism… there are many better ways to deal with the wrongdoings of religions such as christianity and all of that as opposed to destroying a building that has been standing through so many centuries and so many wars, you know? i appreciate the general beauty of churches so much, not what goes on inside of them, despite not being religious, i respect the effort that went into building them, especially old ones! i could never look at a beautiful stained glass window and think of smashing it into pieces simply because of what people do inside and what a book says, not at all… take the problems you have up with the people, not the building!

so yeah, i suppose i am pretty happy with how i respect things and go about things despite them being very different to my view of the word, you know? i have never felt a true, major hatred towards something simply because i did not particularly like it or agree with it, unless something is actively hurting someone or something, just leave it alone…

what is the best compliment you have ever received?

honestly, any compliment on my writing skills is always an all time favourite compliment for me! i still get a little nervous about my writing ability from time to time but then you guys come in and compliment it so beautifully and i just get all warm and fluffy inside!

thought one compliment that has really stuck with me so much is actually one i received on here, someone sent in an ask telling me how they thought i had a similar soul to pelle and they thought we would probably get along well and it just… completely destroyed me in the best way possible! i think about it all the time, i wonder if that really would be the case, if i have a similar soul to pelle, if we would have a quiet chat about music and art, if we would become casual acquaintances and all of that… pelle is somebody that i did always feel very similar to in the way that we view death the same way and many other small things like that but being told that by someone else just meant a whole lot to me because i appreciate pelle so much as an artist, i appreciate him so much as a person…

what is something upcoming that you are excited for?

again, i am not religious at all but i am pretty excited for christmas this year! i do not get to see much of my family all that often but christmas is the one time i am guaranteed to see almost everyone who lives in the same town at least, we get together at my grandparents house for dinner and small gifts, it feels good to see them, to talk to them about life and interests… at least until my social battery runs out and i just want to go home lolol! i’m especially looking forward to it this year because i am the healthiest and happiest i have ever been this year, my mental health is the best it has been in… just about forever, i think…

another thing would probably be the game awards in december! nerdy, i know, but i just love seeing all of the developers, voice actors, soundtrack composers and just everyone involved in creating these beautiful pieces of playable art get the recognition they deserve! i love voting for my favourite games this year, watching who wins and seeing any new game trailers that get shown in between… this year is going to be especially exciting because it has just been such a wonderful year for video games that i have no clue who is going to win all of the awards, there are so many deserving this year! my mother likes to watch with me too because she just enjoys seeing what the voice actors look like and such lolol…