#i would love to play as a kobold

[imperatoralicia]

I absolutely adore the kobold characters in Baldur's Gate 3.

[lammergeierdust]

Accidentally put my whole post in the tags, so please refer to those.

✨ Golden Child ✨

I got into a new game and had to give my baby girl her first full reference ever! Lua is a Draconic sorcerer of the gold variety, may or may not have been part of a cult, and is the most babygirl ever

[escapistcatontheinternet]

i love the extras of dungeon meshi in how it fleshes out the world because they make it so much more evident how race affects every part of the story while avoiding the zootopia racism problem. like obv a main theme of the story is like, humanity and desire, 'to eat is to live', etc, but since the majority of it takes place in the dungeon isolated from society and thru the lens of laios, the racial aspects play out more like shadows on a wall for most of the story.

then in the extras we get comics like this

which at a glance fleshes out the racial aspects via a character explaining the racial rules of universe - humans have x amount of bones, while orcs and kobolds have more. however, if u take it less straightforwardly, it points out how the concept of 'human' is a constructed concept in the world. the fact that there are different categories of human in different parts of the world based off of what types of humanoids occur there is already a demonstration of this. in response, the bones explanation seems to kabru and the characters as an objective way of measuring humans vs nonhumans.

but obv, when the culture was deciding what humanoids were humans and nonhumans, they weren't blindly analyzing skeletons and then deciding. just visually, one can glean that orcs and kobolds look less like the ingroup of tallmen, elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. the bones explanation appears as a justification for that immediate prejudice under a scientific guise - I'm sure that one could come up with the same number of physical differences between a gnome and an elf that they would find between a tallman and an orc. it sounds a lot better to say 'well, an orc has 230 bones while a human has 206' then 'well, an orc looks ewwww yucky yucky to me while a human looks normal'.

and what i like abt the comic is that the characters take the explanation at face value for the most part. when a contradiction is brought up in the oni, kabru can neatly slot them into the predetermined number of bones framework. bc that's kinda how it works irl - there r cultural prejudices that we can posthumously justify, and if we find something outside of it, we can twist it to fit into our predetermined binary. however, since the reader does not live in a world where there are orcs and kobolds to be prejudiced against, we can see that flaw in the cultural logic. when the party encounters the orcs, the number of bones has no bearing on their humanity. They r shown to be cliquish and distrusting of outsiders, but not any more than the elves are later in the story.

tldr dungeon meshi worldbuilding is so good

[cavegirlpoems]

A story from back when I played D&D. It might have been 3.5 or pathfinder or fantasycraft or one of that ilk. Might even have been 4e. It was like a decade ago.

So. Standard D&D. A party of bold adventurers of diverse origins and skillsets gets together to explore a perilous dungeon and stop a cartoonish baddy. The usual.

I end up building a fairly typical character for me. A goblin Rogue/Assassin. A stealth/melee build designed to get the drop on an enemy, do a bunch of rapid damage, and then fuck off.

She was lawful evil, and firmly in the team-fortress-two-sniper school of "You know who has a lot of feelings? Men what bludgeon their wives to death with a golf trophy. Professionals have standards." school of being a mercenary. I think I even did an aussie accent.

Anyway her schtick was that she'd noticed 'Adventurers' got to do as much violence as they wanted without social consequences, and she loved violence! So she was gonna do a stint as an adventurer, so once she was done she could go home with a big sack of gold to spend on booze and cake and hot girls. But right now she was on the job, so she was an extremely professional team player with a strict code of conduct. Always be honest with the team, follow the plan, don't mess things up for the team, split the loot evenly. Standards.

Verna was a horrible efficient little murder gremlin who was also proudly guild-certified. * * *

Now, another PC was a chaotic neutral gnome bard who was leaning hard on the 'gnomes are amusingly racist to goblins and kobolds and think this is funny and endearing' thing. He teased Verna a bunch about being green and ugly, which she studiously ignored because - remember - she had Professional Standards.

Anyway, there was a human NPC we met that she didn't like, saying he was a bit stupid and very annoying. Our gnome bard decided it would be very funny to use one of his enchantment spells to make Verna suddenly horny for him and watch what happened.

Verna sees the gnome who keeps fucking with her walk up, wave his hands and babble some arcane nonsense, and now she has weird funny feelings she can't explain. She does some thinking and concludes that she'll pay the human for a snog later, because right now this guy's just obviously cast a spell to mess with her mind, which was Not Okay. Of course, she had Professional Standards, so...

She walks up to our gnome friend and basically informs him: "Hi! I know you just did some magical brainwashing on me, and I am not going to tolerate this! However, because we're in a team together, and I don't want this to become a problem, I am going to very generously allow you to settle the matter with me. We will have a bout of single combat to first blood, and then whoever wins I will consider the matter settled and my honour satisfied, and you won't do that again, and we won't mention it. This is a very kind offer of mine, because I have Standards; where I come from the normal response would be to say nothing and strangle you in your sleep tonight."

And our gnome, who is a spellcaster not a combatant, looks at this and decides he doesn't want to get shown up by her, and basically tells her that if she doesn't like getting messed with she can go back to the goblin village, and laughs at her.

So. Shrug. Quickdraw as a free action. I get a surprise round. You're flat footed, so it's easy to hit and I get sneak attack damage. 3/4 of his health is gone. Initiative. He says he wants to say sorry. I respond that he can say that when it gets to his initiative count, but right now it's my action and he's still flat-footed and here's my big pile of d6s for sneak attack and oh dear I think that's him on -10 hp, so he's not going to get the chance.

* * *

Anyway this kicked off a massive shitstorm ooc about how I just kicked off PvP and murdered a PC for no reason and the game fell apart because the gnome's player genuinely didn't seem to understand that 'mind control' is a hostile action. This was in the bad old days before safety tools and I was playing in a fairly neckbeardy group, so 'a man makes a woman horny against her will to humiliate her and laughs about it' was apparently not a deal-breaker while 'the woman stabs him for it' was.

I still think I wasn't the bad guy in this scenario.

There is no point to this story I just wanted to share it.

[eclipseslayer]

CURIOSITY GOT THE... DOG?

➭ LAIOS TOUDEN X HYBRID!F!READER SMUT ONESHOT

➭ Day 2 of Kinktober: Accidental Stimulation

➭ SUMMARY: Laios gets curious about his fuzzy party member and reaches out to scratch her ears, however, he wasn't expecting a certain reaction when he goes to scratch behind her tail.

➭ CW: Breast play/nipple play, Laios slaps one of your boobs, semi-public sex, fingering, penetrative sex.

➭ WC: 2.8k

➭ 18+ ONLY! MDNI!

You're the newest member to the party, one that everyone found a bit strange, as you were unusual to see.

You're a hybrid—similar to Izutsumi in the sense that you're cursed—part dog, part human, except, you're human for the most part. You're far from a Kobold, as you're not quite on that level of "dog", as the only dog part of you are your ears, your tail, and your keen sense of smell and hearing. The rest of you is human.

And of course, Laios is the one to find you the most fascinating.

He's the one who's constantly behind you during trips, reaching out to curiously pet your ears or maybe feel your fluffy tail, but by the time he's close to touching you, Marcille bonks him on his head with her magic wooden staff.

Though, now, as you're asleep, Laios remains awake, with a curiosity to be satisfied.

He sits upright, looking down at you as you're curled up into a ball, sleeping peacefully, snoozing away.

His fists are tight as he battles a mental block. He knows that he shouldn't touch you. Senshi, Chilchuck, and Marcille remind him every day, and yet, there's this urge deep within him that needs to satisfy his curiosity, and he hates that he couldn't, at least until now.

He sighs, hanging his head, knowing he'll just have to reap the consequences later as he's now decided he's committed to touching you.

So, he reaches out, slowly, not wanting to wake you and brings his hand to your ears. He smiles softly at how cute you look, sleeping so peacefully, and slowly, he begins to scratch on your ears. He tilts his head, trying to see if he'll elicit some sort of reaction from you as his eyes search your body. His eyes widen when he sees you begin to whimper and kick in your sleep, just like a dog would. He smiles, feeling pleased that he's getting a reaction out of you, so he keeps scratching behind your ears.

What he didn't expect, though, was for you to suddenly wake up, as you shoot your eyes open and give him a side-eye, which has him quickly retracting his hand. His face flushes a bright red in the act of being caught.

"I-I'm sorry... I was only curious..." He mutters slowly, afraid you'd get angry at him.

Though, opposite to Laios' thoughts, you're definitely not angry, as those scratches were very nice. You hadn't actually been scratched like that before, as usually you'd tell people to "fuck off" before they'd even get close to you, but, now... you're curious. You want more.

"It's okay," you mumble, also hating that you're admitting to yourself that you love it so much. You pause, and you sigh. "You can continue."

Laios' eyes widen. "R-Really??"

You huff, and you sit up. You lean your head forward to let him continue scratching. "Yes. Now hurry up before I change my mind."

Laios smiles from ear to ear, so he eagerly reaches out and starts scratching behind your ears again. He hums contently to himself as he scratches you, and finds it joyously amusing when you start wagging your tail.

"Aww, look at how cute you are! You're wagging—"

"Don't. "

Your words are sharp, almost grumbling under your breath as you grip your sleeping bad from underneath you. You huff.

"Don't say I'm cute or any of that stuff... just... scratch me," you grumble, as Laios' praise had you dangerously close to getting even more happy.

Laios' eagerness seems to fade away when you knock aside his praise, but, nonetheless, he keeps scratching behind your ear.

You feel content with just the scratching of his hand behind your ear, wanting to shake your leg like a dog, but you opt just for wagging your tail.

Though, Laios gets a bit more curious as his hand moves downward, a bit deeper into your hair but still scratching behind your ear, and, for some reason, this makes your eyes widen and it makes your leg jolt as this new spot has unlocked something inside of you. You almost bark from the feeling, but you settle for a whimper.

"L-Laios..." You whimper his name and he raises an eyebrow.

"You okay?" He asks softly and you nod. In fact, you're more than okay.

"Scratch that spot again, please," you beg, which has Laios's eyes widening in shock. That was the last thing he expected from you, but, he's certainly not going to say no.

"Alright," he complies with ease and continues to scratch behind your ears at that spot, and this time, he's more surprised to see you begin to suddenly act more dog-ish as you start whimpering, and your tongue hangs out, and your eyes cross from how good those scratches feel.

He smirks to himself at the sight, just finding your behavior entirely too cute. He chuckles and he tilts his head as he sees your tail wagging against the fabric of your sleeping bag, and as you let out soft whimpers.

His curiosity aches once more about your tail, and so, while you're distracted with the ear scratch, he uses his other hand to reach down to the spot just above your tail, where your tail meets your behind and begins to scratch there also.

Shocked, your eyes widen at this and you whip your head around to look at Laios as he scratches that spot. That spot where you're so sensitive that it stimulates something inside of you. You swallow thickly and you look up at the blonde man who contently scratches behind your ear still, while his gaze is fixed on your moving tail, unaware that you're staring at him.

"I-I... Laios..." You whimper, and you feel your face heating up because of that continuous stimulation.

Laios' head perks up at your whimper and he looks over at you, wondering if you're alright.

"Everything alright?" He asks softly, and continues to scratch despite your whimpering.

You nod and you give him shy, puppy-dog eyes as Laios continues to scratch your behind, as that spot creates a familiar ache inside of you. One with need that gets you all wound up. You swallow thickly.

Laios seems to take notice of this as you look at him with eyes like that. His eyebrows raise and his scratching comes to a slow. He looks around at the other sleepers beside him and then turns back to you. He pulls his hand away from your behind and offers it to you.

"Follow me."

You take his hand, and the both of you get up, carefully stepping over the other sleepers as you make your way to a corner in the dungeon, away from the soundly sleeping party.

You sit on the ground and you look up at him with a pouting lip, and fuck, does it make Laios' cock throb. He swallows thickly.

"What's going on?" He asks, and he takes a knee so he's stooped down to your level.

You reach out and you paw at his leg. This behavior is most unexpected from you, as you were never one to display needs of help or affection, and yet, here you were, basically begging for it.

"Laios you... when you scratched me I... something in me... I don't know but I'm aching. I need something to help..." You murmur a bit pathetically, and you curse under your breath for showing signs of neediness.

Twitch. There it is again. His cock throbs and twitches, hardening as you paw at him. He swallows thickly, looking down at you as you beg for him to touch you. He lets out a shaky breath.

"I think..." He swallow thickly. "I think you need something. Something like..." He reaches down for your hand that's pawing at his knee and he places it onto his hard cock. His face flushes as he watches your eyes widen in response. "...think you need this?"

Embarrassed, your face flushes and you look down. You know it's what you need, and yet, you can hardly bring yourself to admit it. You squirm in your spot and you look up at him.

"Y-Yes please..." Your words are shy, and so cute as you give him those puppy-dog eyes again. He smiles softly.

"Okay, pup," he grins, and he feels a sense of achievement as his chest swells, knowing that he's finally going to fuck something that's not human, or at least, not completely. "Let's get these clothes off of you, yeah?"

You nod once again, and shyly, you raise your arms up as Laios slowly pulls your top off, and then he pulls your bottoms off.

His breath hitches in his throat when he sees you fully naked. He hums, pleased with himself that he's gotten you to this point, and he once again feels his hard cock throb in his pants. He groans and he leans down, towering over you as he presses you against the ground.

You gasp at the coldness of the floor hitting your back, earning a chuckle from Laios.

He leans down and begins to press kisses down your body, starting with your neck. He huffs as he takes in your scent, smelling that familiarity of a dog, which has his senses pleased.

He goes down your body, and his hands wander over it, trying to pinpoint the spots that has you the most sensitive.

Although, what he doesn't know is that everywhere where Laios is touching has your body on fire. You're a whimpering mess as his hands wander your body, alongside his kisses that continue a trek down your skin.

His hands soon glide over your breasts, and his fingers tweak at your nipples, making you whine loudly.

He chuckles upon finding your sensitive spot, but he winds a hand back and slaps your breast which has you whimpering. Your ears fall flat as you look up at him, wondering what went wrong.

"No, no, bad pup. Can't be loud, okay? Don't need to wake the others," he murmurs into your ear, and he then leans back down to press a kiss to your breast to soothe it.

Luckily, the stinging sensation of the slap quickly dies down as Laios' tongue laps over it, soothing it warmly. You hum and you whine as you start kicking your feet when his tongue glides over your nipple, eliciting a feeling of lightning shoot through your spine as that's yet another sensitive spot Laios has found.

Your hands grip his hair in return as his mouth sloppily covers your nipple in saliva, sucking oh-so-earnestly, lips puckering and suckling around that hardened peak.

You're writhing in pleasure as Laios' mouth is busy, meanwhile, his hand begins a journey down your body and slips between your thighs. He blushes when he feels that you're wet, knowing that his scratches made your body so accepting and willing.

He slips two fingers inside of you and sighs as they're accepted so willingly. He begins to pump and curl them inside of you, earning him soft moans from you, and your fingers grip his hair even harder.

"Laios..." You whisper his name in a soft whimper, and your hips buck against his hand.

He watches, amused and enthused that you're taking his fingers so well, and that your tail twitches with each curl of his fingers.

"So... wet..." He acknowledges it as if it was a statement that came from his curiosity. He wasn't even sure hybrids could even have sexual organs, or something along those lines, and yet, here you were, sucking in his fingers.

"Laios..." You repeat his name again, and you tug at his shirt. "Need you. In me."

Laios raises his eyebrows. That was the last thing he expected from you, as he just figured he'd finger-fuck you until you're satisfied, but, fuck. He's surely not going to say no.

He starts pulling down his pants, but before he can finish, he raises an eyebrow at you.

"You sure?"

"Yes!" You whisper-shout, murmuring under your breath. Your tail twitches and your ears flatten, frustrated.

Laios senses your impatience so he quickly pushes down his pants, leaving them around his ankles. He moves to hover over you, but, before he can completely situate himself, his eyes widen when he thinks of another way he can fuck you.

"Wait," he stops himself and sits back on his knees. "Get on all fours."

You look up at him and narrow your eyes at him. Oh he's having too much fun with this. You huff.

"Really? You want me in doggy?" You almost sound like you're in disbelief, but, then again, it's Laios. Of course he wants you in doggy.

He scratches the back of his head and lets out a weak chuckle. "Heh... can you blame me?"

You mumble and roll your eyes, but, regardless, you entertain him. You sit up and shift so you're on your knees and your palms are on the ground.

You look forward at the cobblestone wall while you hear Laios shift behind you. Your eyes widen when you feel a fat head line itself with you. You swallow thickly and you let out a choked gasp as you feel him slowly push inside you.

He's thick, and he stretches you so deliciously as you feel him cling to your walls, pushing deep inside of you until you feel the fatness of his tip press against your g-spot.

You moan as it curves so perfectly, hitting that spot so nicely. Your hands curls into fists and you bite your lip while you get used to the amazing stretch that Laios gives you.

"I'm going to move now... alright?" His voice is gentle, and his big, rough hands grip your hips. He doesn't even give you the chance to respond as he starts moving, chasing after what he wants.

With the first thrust, you let out a moan when you feel his hips and stomach meet your ass, his fat cock instantly meeting your pleasure spot inside of you, making your eyes roll back.

Then, again, the second thrust, and the third, and the fourth and—your brain starts to go numb as you take his cock, his pace quickly picks up and the sound of his stomach hitting your ass fills the room. At this point, you don't even care if the others hear you and Laios. His cock feels way too good to care about the other party members.

He grips your hips firmly and he mutters curses under his breath while he moves in and out. Your pussy feels so good around him, so tight and needy as it squelches, singing it's songs of praise to Laios, telling him how good he feels inside of you. He grunts, and his thick hands grip your hips again, tighter this time, and he picks up his pace.

It's harder, harsher, and you can't suddenly seem to keep up. You whine and your ears twitch every which way, and so does your tail as you feel your senses start to go haywire.

Your sense of smell, your hearing, your vision, hell even your taste gets lost as your head goes fuzzy from taking Laios so deep within you.

"Hnnnghhh... Laios!" You moan out, and you hear him let out a dry laugh. You know he has to be trying to keep himself together from cumming so quickly, and honestly, you are too.

Flames are being lit within your stomach, kindling as Laios keeps thrusting, meeting that spot that creates sparks, thus making the flame only grow.

It's sickening, almost, for how quickly the flame in the furnace grows, and you have to burg your nails into your palms to keep yourself in reality, but that pain is short lived when it's overpowered by the pleasure that Laios is giving you.

"L-Laios..." You're almost there, you can feel it. You're hot, you're sticky, and your pussy is squelching so loudly from being so wet. "I'm..."

Laios feels your wet pussy tightens around his cock and he groans.

"Fuck, so am I," he grunts, and he starts breathing heavily.

Laios picks up the pace again. It's in short, quick bursts that have you moaning in every breath. Almost. You're almost there. Your stomach, so tight, so, so, so tight—

"Aaah!!"

Your moan rips through the air, soon followed by Laios' own moan. Your legs shake and your head falls dizzy as you fall against the cold, hard floor of the dungeon, and Laios quickly pulls out, as his hot seed pours out of him and leaks onto your ass, and onto your tail.

A long moment of heavy breaths and sighs are exchanged between the two of you as you try to collect yourselves.

Soon, Laios brings a hand to your ass and wipes up all of his mess.

"Sorry about uh... scratching that spot..." He apologizes softly.

You raise an eyebrow, and you turn your face to look at him. You give him a lazy smile and you giggle.

"Don't be sorry... I happened to like it."

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Golems, Orcs, & loser party that got TPKed by bugs (<3)

He's so competent, I love him. I really appreciate that post pointing out that this whole party is pretty near the top of the game in terms of genuine competency at adventuring. It's hard to tell when we rarely see other adventurers.

Just a few pages later, Senshi seamlessly takes out 3 golems on his own!

Water fountain shaped like a lion head!

.

Senshi has just been single-handedly keeping the dungeon from getting so dangerous that the Elves get to bully their way in, huh. Do you think dungeon experts have been wondering what's taking so long, and will one day find out that it's this one weird dwarf. I hope so.

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I like the dragon being so goat-like.

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HUZZAH!

Side note: I think an ideal live action Senshi would be played by Nick Offerman.

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Marcille and the orc chieftain fighting while Senshi pointedly makes bread gives me such "The Last Supper" vibes - that is, the song in Jesus Christ Superstar. Two people having an increasingly vicious argument over dinner while everyone else in the room says increasingly loudly, "Wow, this food is great!!"

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HEY LOOK THE NEXT CHAPTER STARTS WITH MY MAN!!

I'm sure this isn't novel analysis but man I like how directly Kabru's party mirrors the original Touden party. (Side note: I wish each party had a name that wasn't just the name of the party leader...)

Toudens':

6 members

3 fighters (Laiois, Shuro, Namari)

2 mages, 1 for damage (Marcille) and 1 for healing (Falin)

1 lockpick (Chilchuck)

2 long-lived (1 dwarf, 1 elf)

4 short-lived (3 humans, 1 halffoot)

3 men, 3 women

4 tall, 2 short

1 Easterner

leader is a mall tallman fighter

lockpick is halffoot

1 mage is tallman, 1 is long-lived magic-heavy race

1 fighter is a dwarf

Kabru's:

6 members

3 fighters (Kabru, Kuro, Daya)

2 mages, 1 for damage (Rin) & 1 for healing (Holm)

1 lockpick (Mickbell)

2 long-lived (1 dwarf, 1 gnome)

4 short-lived (2 humans, 1 halffoot, 1 kobold)

4 men, 2 women

3 tall, 3 short

1 Easterner

leader is a male tallman fighter

lockpick is halffoot

1 mage is tallman, 1 is long-lived magic-heavy race

1 fighter is a dwarf

A) it's obviously a solid party composition in terms of classes, and playing into D&D stereotypes (born of Middle Earth, as many D&D stereotypes are) of correlations between PC race and class.

B) Ryoko Kui was like, "There are going to be PARALLELS in this story and you are going to APPRECIATE THEM", and she was so goddamn right. Subtle themes are great but you know what's even better? Like 5 different really overt themes that are all happening all the time and interweave so constantly that subtlety is created in the infinite nuances of overlap. Eat or be eaten and to eat is to live is to want and understanding is compassion but it's also violence and we're all incredibly different and we're all incredibly the same and we're all trying to eat or be eaten in an elaborately connected web of life, and--

I want an orchestral arrangement of this story.

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I'm not carefully counting all winged lion motifs but I AM going to count the number of Kabru Winks(TM). We're at 3 in this chapter.

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EXQUISITE SMASH CUT

[mistercrowbar]

have you ever thought about if Aldiim had someone else's tav or durge along as an extra companion? is there anyone you think would have really interesting interactions with him?

Yup! Mostly with a couple friends and some mutuals!

@moonbasearachnos has a big buff drow spider lady tav, Nal’vyra who, well, scares poor little Aldiirn. She sees right through his cute act because he rarely interacts with her and she’s got Underdark Cred to know he’s not playing by topsider rules. Nal repeatedly tries to warn the other companions that they are being manipulated but she just can’t get through to them. Lunar wrote a little fic!

With Askilian’s tiefling smuggler-turned-warlock, we tend to have Aldiirn and Tav interact outside BG3 with the Halfsies trio, mostly unnerving the poor tief with Underdark customs. Cally’s just trying to help him out, swearsies! In a co-tav BG3 situation Aldiirn would likely still be overall leader but bring Tav alone frequently since he knows how to be discreet

@satanicspinosaurus has mentioned his Eilistraeean drow tav Zynn knowing about Aldiirn’s Vhaeraunite faith and being willing to keep the secret. If Aldiirn was the companion Zynn would likely be able to get him to open up about his secrets anyway through approval and asking the right things.

@bareee ‘s Mark is saviour of the little guys, check out this comic of him saving Aiden and Aldiirn from a bullette! I have a feeling fi they were co-tavs, Aldiirn would take care of running most of the logistical side of things but Mark steps in to bring nonsense to a stop when there gets to be too much of it. He’s got that dad energy I know he must have like a stern glare equivalent to Aldiirn’s big wet eyes.

@yoursummerfrost and I chatted about about Zebeystra being a client of Aldiirn’s pre-BG3, since their enclave that helps get drow from Menzoberranzan to the surface was really aligned with Iaurrhen’s goals! Aldiirn’s crew delivered regular supplies and Zebeystra’s signature hair dye, and would escort someone the next leg of the journey away from Menzo if needed.

lastly I still just love this art by @fandomantics because like, if you had both in a party Dom is totally comfortable in his asexuality while Aldiirn is very not — and while Aldiirn would be glad to have Dom to confide in how can you not see what the tadpoles are doing to everyone!! I’ve never seen a higher concentration of horniness it HAS to be the worms and WE’RE NEXT!!!!

[riainceol]

Dia daoibh, is mise Riain Mac Aoidh, I’m an independent musician from the North of Ireland.

Today is Bandcamp Friday and whilst I don’t have anything new to share today, did you know that my back catalogue contains a bunch of cool songs, and if you’re reading this post it’s about stuff you probably also care about?

Let’s take a look at a couple of my personal favourites.

Damocles is a song about the struggle of living under a society that wants you dead, as if the inevitability of the world turning on you is a constant pressure. I specifically wrote about my own experience with autism but we’re far from the only people who live with that pressure and doom.

Quite An Experience To Live In Fear was written about the “trans panic” in the UK and the US. While it is difficult to live with that spectre looming over you, the title is actually a reference to the people pushing transphobia. People like JK Rowling who have so much money and are granted ultimate security by capitalism are wasting their days in a quixotic campaign against normal people just trying to live their lives. They’re fascists, and fascists are ultimately cowards. They live in fear and drown in hate.

Dead Trees is a song about the older generations and their refusal to pay their lives forward to everyone coming after them. They stand towering over us in society in terms of wealth and influence and they might think they’ll be in that position forever, like towering pagodas, but wooden towers are just dead trees, and everyone dies.

The Kobold stands between you and your goal. He alone holds the key and in order to defeat him you must speak his name aloud for names have power, yet Kobold’s lie. I admit the dungeon music is very out of step with everything else on this list but it’s so fun to make.

I would have loved to have some new music available today but I recently relocated and am not set up to work. In fact I’ve been in this transition for a good couple of months now. If you’ve never supported my music before, now is a really good time to do so, as it helps this process go smoother for me and gets me back on track as soon as possible.

You can find these tracks and loads more like them here.

And if you can’t afford to buy anything right now, all of my music on my Bandcamp page has unlimited plays.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh agus Bandcamp Friday shona daoibh.

[room-surprise]

IS LAIOS A FURRY? AN ANALYSIS.

(Laios imagining himself transforming into a wolf in Marcille's mindscape.)

(SPOILER WARNING FOR THE ENTIRE MANGA! This is an excerpt and elaboration from The Essay about cultural and linguistic references in Dungeon Meshi)

WHAT IS A FURRY?

The furry fandom is a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animal characters. Some examples of anthropomorphic attributes can include human intelligence and facial expressions, speaking, walking on two legs, and wearing clothes, but not all of these traits must be present at the same time. Warrior Cats, The Lion King, Zootopia and Sonic the Hedgehog all have huge furry fandoms, to give a few examples.

Many furry fans feel a deep connection to these characters and desire to “become” one through designing their fantasy alter-egos (a furry persona, or fursona), making artwork, role-playing, and if they can afford it, building and wearing costumes called fursuits that allow them to dress up as their fursona in real life.

(Laios' ultimate monster design, you could argue this is his fursona that he's been dreaming about, and refining since childhood.)

Ryoko Kui self-identified as a furry on her blog a long time ago, saying that she “was a furry in high school.” I’ve been unable to track down the original artwork or blog post that states this in order to cite it properly, but I think by looking at Kui’s extensive history, interest, and skill in drawing animals, monsters, and anthropomorphic characters, one can clearly see the “furry” influence.

She has a very clear interest in the intersection between humans and animals, several of her characters are furry characters, and a lot of her work appeals strongly to furry fans in ways that work made by non-furries often does not. She even makes an extremely specific joke about the Japanese furry subculture in a comic about Lycion and Laios arguing about authenticity, which I will get to in a moment.

But whether or not Kui has ever considered herself a furry, I think it’s safe to say that she’s on the internet enough that she must be aware of the subculture, and so it’s possible that she wrote Laios with that in mind.

Laios’ intense desire to become a monster, the way he repeatedly fantasizes about being a dog or wolf, his fascination with all animals (but especially monsters), his skill at drawing animals (and lack of skill in drawing people, or anything else), his interest in becoming a beast-man, and his desire to visit a kobold country because they look like dog-people, all paint a very vivid picture of his interests, and his experiences match up astonishingly well with the experiences of many people who identify as furries.

Western fans often call Laios as a “furry,” or a “monster fucker” mostly as a joke, however I think this should be taken as seriously as interpreting him as asexual or autistic, which are other labels fandom commonly applies to him in a more serious manner… And, incidentally, there is a great deal of overlap between the autistic, asexual and furry communities, so if Laios is one of these things, it’s also very possible that he’s some of the others, too… Even if Kui didn’t intend it, and simply modeled Laios after “some people she’s known” without realizing they were furries, autistic, or asexual, or any combination of the three. This happens frequently in fiction.

I think the most accurate broad labels for Laios would be “therian” and “monster fetishist,” because I believe these two terms encompass the canonical behavior we see from him in the manga and extra materials in a way that I think “furry” and “monster fucker” do not.

JAPANESE FURRY FANDOM: KEMONO VS. KEMONOMIMI

Japanese furries use the terms kemonā (ケモナー) to describe themselves, or kemono (ケモノ) to describe the characters they create and love. Both words mean “furry,” as in, covered in fur.

In the What-If comic where Lycion and Laios meet, Laios awkwardly says that Lycion isn’t a real furry because turning into a beast-man didn’t change him into a wolf on the inside.

“Isn’t that just like wearing a pair of animal ears on a headband and saying you’re a beast-man?” Laios asks, to which Lycion derisively tells Laios that he is just a “beast-man wannabe” or “poseur.”

This is a direct reference to one of the major conflicts in the Japanese Kemono fandom: are characters who are mostly human, but have animal ears and tails really kemono, or do they not count? The general consensus in the fandom is that ears and tail alone are insufficient; these characters are called kemonomimi, literally “beast ears”, like the headband Laios references. Most “cat-girl” characters fall into this category.

A real kemono character includes a muzzle instead of a normal human face and/or an animal-like appearance on the body surface, such as fur, scales, or feathers. According to researcher Inokuchi Tomohiro, this is due to the recognition that "disconnection from humans" is a crucial factor that distinguishes between kemono and non-kemono. He then defines kemono as "an animal that is depicted as a non-human being, but with the potential for mutual understanding/communication with humans.”

By this definition, Izutsumi in Dungeon Meshi is a kemono (furry) and not a kemonomimi (cat-girl), since her body is covered in fur, and she doesn’t have human breasts, but a more beast-like torso. The Winged Lion, the Goat, Kuro the kobold, and possibly the orcs are all kemono (anthropomorphic animal) characters as well.

IS LAIOS A THERIAN?

Though the terminology is very modern, and wouldn’t exist in the Dungeon Meshi setting, it’s possible that if Laios existed in the modern world he might identify as a type of Otherkin known as a Therian. Otherkin and Therians are sometimes part of the Furry fandom, but the two subcultures do not overlap completely.

Otherkin are a subculture of people who identify as nonhuman. Some Otherkin believe their identity derives from spiritual phenomena (such as possessing a nonhuman soul, reincarnation, or the will of God), ancestry, symbolism, or metaphor. Others attribute it to unusual psychology or neurodivergence and do not hold spiritual beliefs on the subject.

Therian refers to people who identify specifically as a real animal of the natural world. The species of animal a therian identifies as is called a theriotype. Therians mainly attribute their experiences of therianthropy to either spirituality or psychology, and often use the term "species dysphoria" to describe their feelings of disconnect from their human bodies and their underlying desire to live as their theriotype. The identity "trans species" is used by some.

Therians may seek out opportunities to perform species-affirming acts like wearing costumes, adopting animal-like behaviors such as making species-specific noises, eating species-specific foods, or moving/performing actions that their theriotype would do.

For example, someone with a horse theriotype may experience joy from snorting and neighing, pulling a cart, stomping their feet, or having a vegetarian diet. Someone with a shark theriotype may want to swim every chance they get, or enjoy eating a lot of raw fish. They may have special accessories they like to wear that make them feel connected to their theriotype, like animal ears on a headband, an actual animal’s tail or a symbolic tail hanging from their belt, an animal tooth necklace, or even just a t-shirt that has an image of their theriotype on it.

In Laios’ case, we know that he likes to imagine himself as a wolf, and in the real world he enjoys/is proud of his ability to bark and move like a dog. He’s practiced and performed this dog impression so often and so well that Falin thinks it’s his most noteworthy and amazing skill. He clearly holds hunting dogs in high esteem and admires them, and says that he learned many important life lessons from spending time with them. He enjoys playing with leftovers from monsters they kill (bones, skin, seeds, fur, etc.) and sometimes tries to collect them for either practical or sentimental reasons… And at the end of the manga he takes the pelt of his ultimate monster form and chooses to wear it as a cape, something that he continues to do for the rest of his life, possibly just because he likes to wear it, or because wearing it eases the pain of no longer being the ultimate monster.

It’s also possible that he’s only wearing it because he thinks it is a pragmatic, politically expedient move, but I think Kui very clearly communicates to us that Laios likes his monster cape, and it is the one thing he immediately thinks of when he wants to try and be king “on his own terms.” He’s willing to accept being king… if he can wear his monster cape. Whether or not it’s a good idea to wear it is secondary to the fact that he wants to do it.

Otherkin and Therian are of course both modern names for this phenomenon, but the concept of people strongly identifying with and being fascinated by animals is as old as humankind itself, so it isn’t impossible that Laios may feel this way, since so much of his behavior overlaps with things a Therian might do or feel.

MONSTER FETISHISM

In English, the word fetish originally described an object believed to have supernatural powers. Fetishes are often used in a spiritual or religious context. However, over time the word fetish has been used so frequently as a euphemism to describe a type of unconventional sexual interest that “sexual fetish” has become the primary meaning of “fetish” in English.

Fetishism is a sexual fixation on an activity, inanimate object, living thing, or human body part that is not normally involved in sex. The object of this interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish for that object is a fetishist. The current medical consensus is that sexual fetishes are very common, and as long as they do not negatively impact a person’s life, they are harmless.

Like the English word fetish, the Japanese word 趣味 (shumi), has multiple meanings, such as “hobby”, “interests/tastes”, but it is also used euphemistically to refer to “sexual taste, vice, or fetish.” What meaning is intended must be intuited by the context surrounding the word. I believe the other words used to discuss fetishes are the loan words フェティッシュ (fetisshu) or フェチ (fechi), but these are extremely blunt and direct, and shumi is preferred in situations where polite euphemism, ambiguity or plausible deniability is desired, or is perhaps even necessary in order to make a joke.

Shumi is used throughout Dungeon Meshi to describe various people’s interests, including Laios’ interest in monsters.

Meanwhile Namari’s interest in race-specific weapons and gear is never explicitly identified as shumi as far as I’m aware, but she is called 武器マニア (weapon maniac) in the World Guide, and in the Bicorn chapter, Chilchuck labels her as 武具フェチ (armor/weapon fetishist), and uses the English loan word フェチ (fechi) which is very unambiguously “fetish.”

(The official English translation from Yen Press changed this to “armor fiend.”)

It seems odd to me that Namari’s interest in weapons and gear is identified by most readers (though not Yen Press) as a fetish, but Laios’ interest in monsters isn’t always, when their behavior around their special interest is shown to be the same in the manga:

Both Namari and Laios blush while talking about their respective interests, and get embarrassed and/or excited about the subject. In the post-canon comics, Laios blushes, hides his face, and has to be prodded to confess to Yaad, Kabru and Marcille that he wants to have his body eaten by monsters when he dies. He obviously finds the idea embarrassing and titillating somehow, and is too shy to admit it out loud until they force him to do it. He also blushes on several other occasions in the manga while thinking or talking about monsters.

I think this is because having a “weapons fetish” is normalized: many people have a fetish for weapons or armor and find it sexy. However the idea of a monster fetish makes people uncomfortable because in a story were monsters exist and are a type of animal, they assume Laios having a monster fetish must mean he wants to participate in bestiality.

This is not necessarily true. A fetish of this nature can (and most often does, for reasons of morality and safety) exist entirely in the realm of imagination, and the sexual fixation may not even involve the act of having sex with the fetish object.

WHAT IS A MONSTER FETISH?

In a world where monsters exist, a monster fetish could involve a sexual interest in the sight, smell, sound and feeling of a monster (looking at or creating artwork of monsters, observing monsters in the wild, wearing a monster costume, or owning monster pelts or body parts that can be safely touched, smelled, etc.), the experience of hunting monsters, eating monsters, the fantasy of being a monster, or the fantasy of performing sexual acts with or as a monster.

The fantasy element could be Laios simply wanting to be a monster, and that giving him sexual gratification without any further scenario being necessary, or it could be imagining himself as a human having sex with a monster, imagining himself as a monster having sex with another monster, or imagining himself as a monster having sex with a human.

All of these possible scenarios would fit under the “monster fetish” umbrella. We know Laios canonically does at least six out of these eight things, but we don’t know whether or not he derives sexual pleasure from them… However, we do know that talking or thinking about monsters makes Laios blush in a way that interacting with other human beings does not, and blushing is often a sign of intense emotion or sexual arousal. Kui’s meaning is intentionally ambiguous, but both meanings should be acknowledged: Laios might be emotionally excited, or he might be sexually excited and Kui is leaving it up to us to decide which it is.

This is, specifically, why I think “monster fucker” isn’t an accurate label. We don’t have enough evidence to assume Laios wants to have sex with monsters, or for monsters to have sex with him. All we can tell is that he becomes excited by the subject of monsters, and often times it is specifically the idea of eating them or being eaten by them that gets him the most excited.

VORAREPHILIA

Because so much of Laios' interest in monsters revolves around eating them and being eaten by them, and Dungeon Meshi's plot revolves around the very concept of eating and being eaten, let me make a brief side-bar to discuss the extremely popular, but niche furry sub-culture of vorarephilia.

Vorarephilia is often used as the butt of jokes on the internet, and very poorly understood by most people, so I felt taking a moment to explain it would be beneficial. Most people are probably not even aware that a fetish like this exists, and therefore aren't able to identify that the things Laios is interested in are something he shares with an entire subculture of real people.

Vorarephilia is a fetish that revolves around the fantasy of devouring or being devoured by another person or creature. The prey can either be swallowed whole and alive, or killed and then eaten... But the former is vastly more popular, and most fetishists imagine themselves as the prey, not the predator.

The fantasy of being eaten or eating someone else is just an extreme form of power exchange. Since vore is an impossible fetish in the real world, it exists entirely as artwork, writing, or verbal role play.

Like in most sex practices, the majority of people want to be the submissive partner, and have someone else do the work of pleasing them. You could compare the "predator" in a vorarephilia roleplay session to a "dom" and the "prey" to a "sub" in BDSM. Incidentally, most predators identify as women, and the vast majority of prey identify as men.

Kui's personal work seems to involve some themes that are similar to vorarephillic art.

And Dungeon Meshi features a lot of content which appeals to vorarephiles.

Meanwhile, the many tiny Laioses being eaten by the Ultimate Monster is a classic example of Macro/Micro, another niche furry sub-culture that sometimes overlaps with vore... A giant monster eating mouthful after mouthful of tiny humans is a classic theme.

The vore fandom is extremely diverse, some of them are furries, others are not, and the exact element of devouring and being devoured that appeals to every one of them can be totally different.

What the demon does to Mithrun and Thistle, and Laios does to the demon, is specifically a fetish called "soul vore", where someone's personhood/soul/awareness is eaten and (usually) destroyed by the predator via some kind of "digestion"... Often while the prey is conscious and aware of the process.

For many, the fear and pain the prey experiences while dying is essential to their enjoyment... And remember, most people want to imagine themselves as the prey!

The art on these pages is indistinguishable from things you would pay thousands of dollars for if you hired a furry artist to draw them.

It's also very important to note that on the other end of the spectrum, some vore fantasies revolve around the prey wanting to be loved by someone so much that they would devour them completely, so that they can absorb the prey and keep them with them forever.

Sometimes it's about wanting to become part of something greater that the prey admires or idealizes… the way Laios admires monsters. He explicitly states that when he dies, he wants to become a part of the food chain… While blushing furiously.

And although it isn't about Laios, I think it's important to note that Mithrun's desire was for the demon to finish eating him. A key part of his depression is the fact that he felt he wasn't good enough to consume, that the demon didn't love him enough to want to eat all of him.

I won't go further into vore or macro/micro, because I want to keep this post as simple as possible, and it's already quite long... But if one wanted to dig even deeper into what specifically Laios' interests are, beyond the very broad umbrella of "monster fetishism", I think vorarephelia would be worth considering.

DO OTHER CHARACTERS THINK LAIOS HAS A FETISH?

Characters frequently notice that Laios gets very excited when he’s talking about monsters: he talks louder and faster, his pupils dilate, he blushes, and he forgets what he’s doing, where he is, and what the appropriate behavior for his situation is. This behavior almost universally causes other characters to react with intense scorn, disgust and disapproval.

I don’t think it makes sense for everyone in the manga to react as negatively as they do to Laios’ behavior unless they think there is something off-putting, unsavory, or creepy about it. Their reactions mean they must think Laios’ interest isn’t innocent. It isn’t just a hobby, but of course none of them will say this explicitly, it would be much too direct and rude, and also it wouldn’t be funny if they started accusing Laios of wanting to participate in something as horrible as bestiality.

Part of the joke Kui is frequently making is that nobody says what they’re thinking out loud. For example, at the end of the manga, Kabru gives Laios a disgusted look and warns him to “not talk about your hobby (shumi)” while addressing the participants of the feast. I think we can intuit that hobby/shumi in this instance is probably meant as a euphemism for fetish, otherwise why would Kabru have such a disgusted look on his face? If he just meant hobby, his expression would probably be much more relaxed. Shumi being a euphemism is the joke.

Another example is the fact that Chilchuck frequently calls Laios a psychopath, sick in the head, etc. Those are extremely harsh things to say if he thinks Laios has a completely innocent interest in monsters. He doesn’t call Senshi a psychopath, even though Senshi is equally interested in eating monsters… Because Senshi doesn’t engage in any of the other, suspect behavior that Laios does. Senshi’s interest in monsters is perceived as innocent, while Laios’ is not.

For clarity’s sake: I am not arguing that Laios’ interest in monsters is canonically a sexual fetish, I am only arguing that there is evidence that it is, and that other characters in the story perceive it to be a sexual fetish, whether it actually is or not.

DOES LAIOS THINK HE HAS A FETISH?

People who have fetishes, especially extreme fetishes that are not normalized, often try to hide them. They do this out of fear of social disapproval, and feelings of shame, because they feel guilty for having abnormal desires. This is true even though the majority of fetishes are completely harmless, and morally neutral.

Most people also know that things which provoke sexual excitement are supposed to be kept private, and it’s not acceptable to express those feelings in public spaces, so even if they see something related to their fetish while in public, they will repress their sexual feelings about it.

Laios, who has difficulty understanding social rules and nuance, is aware that his interest in monsters is socially unacceptable, even though there are many other social things he is not aware of.

Laios has spent most of his life hiding his interest in monsters as much as he can, and it is only during the events of the manga that he starts to express himself openly, because his monster knowledge has become useful for their survival, because Senshi encourages him, and because Falin isn’t there to act as a social buffer for him.

But Laios knows people won’t approve, he knows something about his interest in monsters and the way he expresses it will cause people to react negatively, like in the post-canon comic where he doesn’t want to tell his friends about his desire for his corpse to be eaten by monsters, and the part of the finale where he is hiding in the woods, too ashamed to let people see him because they now know that his greatest desire was to become a monster, and not reviving Falin, which he thinks is the "correct" desire that he should have had.

(This of course ignores the fact that the desires the demon preys on are unconscious, and cannot be controlled by the victim.)

This likely means that Laios has encountered negative reactions to his interest in monsters so frequently, and they have been so intensely negative, that it has trained him to conceal his feelings. It is one of the social rules that he has learned.

Laios thinks there is something shameful, wrong, and inappropriate about his desires related to monsters so he thinks it is something he needs to hide.

IS ANIMAL/MONSTER FETISHISM ANACHRONISTIC?

Some may feel that being a furry, a monster fucker or a monster fetishist is something only modern people do, and therefore anachronistic for Dungeon Meshi’s setting. However humans have been admiring, dressing up as and pretending to be animals for rituals (including fertility rituals) since the dawn of civilization, and continue to do so in the modern era every time someone dresses up in a “sexy cat” costume for Halloween, or wears a multi-thousand dollar fursuit to a furry convention.

There are many instances throughout history of people wearing pelts, masks and tails in order to “become” animals, poetry and art of people fantasizing about either becoming a beast/monster (modern werewolf erotica), or having a beast/monster ravish them (the many, many times artists choose to depict Zeus turning into an animal to have sex with women), or coming of age rites that involve animal sacrifice and the adoption of an animal-like persona as part of the process of becoming an adult.

The stigmatization of this behavior, where “sexy cat costume” is normal and “fursuit” is weird, most likely originates from the disappearance of religious and social context for it. In the past, the admiration, imitation and idealization of animals by humans was part of many cultures, but the modern dominance of religions that forbid the worship of anything other than one, immaterial god has left no room for such things, and so society can only view it as the deranged behavior of abnormal people, who have something “wrong” with them, rather than a harmless, common human impulse to admire, fantasize about, and imagine themselves as animals.

[precambrian-sea-pancake]

Gonna infodump about my D&D character

(Sadly forced to keep things confidential because my party members follow me on tumblr…you know who you are 👁️👁️)

I’ve only had Gawain for a short time but OH MY GOODNESS I FUCKING ADORE THIS SILLY GUY!!

Also kinda shocked that the moodboard I made for him got that many notes. That’s a first…

Also please enjoy the drawing @hootbon made for me. I will never shut up about their art.

So…for what CAN post publicly…

Gawain is your token Lawful Good Paladin TM. Bonus points for being a protector aasimar I guess. (Though I might multiclass into a bard depending on how things go. It would fit him well. They’re my favorite spell caster.)

His personality is gonna be SO fun to play. Before I explain that, I should mention that he’s actually the youngest of the group at 24. The second youngest is the Kobold (Maran) who’s 37. So he’s a lot more naive and still understanding himself and the world around him. People often dismiss him due to that unfortunately. But, you know, imagine a dumb collage age boy and you get somewhat of an idea.

He’s a very sweet and compassionate guy, extremely extroverted and fun loving…maybe a bit flirty at times. Definitely cracks witty comments and one liners in battles ranging from something clever to “suck my dick” or something dumb like that. That doesn’t mean he can’t be serious, he absolutely knows when he should. Ironically he’s the most “normal” of the group, often being the straight man. Overall heart of gold and just wants to help people.

He has a bit of a rebellious and impulsiveness to him. As clever as he is, he’s mostly driven by his emotions. It’s always a “do what feels right in the moment” rather than logic. In general he’s just very emotional and struggles with hyper empathy. This also causes him to question a lot of the authority around him.

I’d also say he has that Disney Princess syndrome. Gawain is convinced that he has some grand destiny and is meant for more. He’s always wanted to explore and learn more about the world, meet new people and cultures, live a life of glory and adventure. Maybe he’s in over his head or maybe he’s not…we’ll see.

However, another big reason for doing all this is that he wants to understand who he is…more accurately WHAT he is. He was born to humans, raised by humans, and grew up in a mostly all human kingdom. So he grew up thinking he was one despite some strong differences between him and the others. Aasimar are VERY rare, and more like myths to most people, and others don’t even know they exist. So people either assumed he was blessed or cursed, some treated him like the messiah, and others thought he was a freak and dangerous. So yeah, he never felt like he belonged and wants to learn about himself.

Somewhere in his life he ended up becoming a squire and completed his training just before the start of the campaign…

And that’s all the backstory information I can post because my friends will see this.

I guess I can do a bit of trivia:

It’s still D&D lore, but the world itself is homebrew. Humans are actually not the majority race, far from it. Most humans live in a large archipelago with various human nations. I remember the DM said the estimated population of humans was 20,000 to 30,000. The two mainland continents are one dominated by dwarves and the other by elves, along with other races being far more common on the mainland. Not really about my character but I LOVE that detail. It’s somewhat relevant I guess since I said Gawain grew up in a human society.

The god he venerates most is Ilmatar.

His eyes reflect his emotions and power. When using any of his abilities or when under intense emotions (both positive and negative), his eyes will turn a solid gold color.

Prior to his training, he was a courier. His parents ran his town’s postal service and that’s one of the things that got him into the idea of adventuring.

He’s more of a cat person than a dog person. He likes both, but I feel like he’d go for the cat.

The first weapon he ever used was a bow rather than a sword. The specific sword he uses is an arming sword.

He is a wonderful singer, his voice is almost ethereal in when he sings (little aasimar headcanon of mine).

His favorite study is anthropology, but also really likes history and geography. He’s always collecting little souvenirs and trinkets from everywhere he visits.

He keeps a diary and loves to write stories and sketch things. A lot of story inspiration comes from his dreams, which are often very vivid…and he remembers them super well.

Neither of his parents have blonde hair, nor is it a recessive trait they had. It’s actually part of his aasimar traits.

He talks in his sleep because I think it’s funny.

If this wasn’t a medieval fantasy world, he’d definitely use Gen Z slang. Maybe even tell someone “L + Ratio” or “Skill issue” after besting them in battle. In that same hypothetical reality, his favorite band would be Starset and The Score.

He takes good care of his appearance and health, so he does enjoy certain beauty products. A spa day is his ideal day off.

He hates salmon. He thinks it tastes bad and prefers catfish. I don’t know why I even thought of that fact but it’s there.

[lediz-watches]

Oxventure

Because dammit, I need to smile today and no one makes me smile more than these people.

Oxventure is an amazing group of people that play tabletop roleplaying games on youtube and spotify. They are Chaotic Good in the best way possible.

And I think we all need more chaotic good in our lives today.

Okay, first off, I must show my colours: I have been watching their parent channel Outside Xbox almost since it began, and they are actually why I got a Youtube Premium account (Youtube, you owe these people more than 2/3rds of my subscription). They are my background noise. So obviously I'm biased, but this post is about the Oxventure channel and why I love it.

Lately, they've been marketing themselves as an actual play channel, technically rivalling Critical Role, but I don't like to think of them like that. To me, Oxventure is more storytelling improv that happens to use tabletop mechanics as a prop. And the reason that's an important distinction is because Oxventure is at its best when it's being silly.

So. Some background.

Oxventure is, in alphabetical order, Andy, Ellen, Jane, Johnny, Luke, and Mike, and a host of guests when they feel the need. It began as a one-off milestone celebration on Outside Xbox where everyone but Mike (he had a Car Thing) played Dungeons and Dragons--most of them for literally the first time--on camera. Since then, it has expanded into its own channel with six series of varying prominence and many one-shots.

If you want to see them at their most condensed and I would argue truest form, I recommend DnD but everyone is a Kobold.

Their shows can run the full gambit from silly (the kobold shows) to high adventure (Oxventure Blades in the Dark) to wholesome (Tea-Time Adventures) to absurd (DnD but it's Pokemon) to emotional body-slams (Oxventure Deadlands) to quietly creepy (Oxventure Wyrdwood). But at its core, whatever series you're watching, Oxventure is about friends gathering together to have fun as they make their way in a world that seems a bit insane.

The original game/series/what have you is The Oxventurers Guild, which remains my favourite. Their motto (seen in Latin above) is "Everyone Should Have Thought Of Everything", meaning that they have a habit of just diving into things without thinking and then being shocked Pikachus when the consequences arrive.

The characters (and world) are a mess, but the thing that was most wonderful is that the group were learning how to play DnD on screen. They screwed up the rules, they lost dice, they forgot about feats... a running gag is that Mike, playing a paladin, has only the loosest concept of his own abilities and will randomly read his character sheet to discover something that would have been useful last session. Meanwhile Ellen made arguably the most powerful character, with what should have been one of the most powerful spells, and yet was the first knocked out in their PVP session because of a few unlucky rolls.

Johnny is an amazing first-time DM, too, because they just... let the group play. They run with the rules until the rules stop being fun. And that's what makes Oxventure so enjoyable for me.

I remember trying to watch a few Actual Plays after the first episode of Oxventure, and I can remember the exact moment I checked out. It was when a player made a joke, and the DM gave her a very direct Look and firmly informed her that if she didn't immediately take it back, there would be mechanical consequences.

Compare and contrast Johnny, whose attempt to show the Oxventurers Actions Have Consequences nearly ended with a bunch of evil skeletons realising that actually, they didn't realise how hard it was to avoid evil consequences so maybe they should cut the players some slack and stop giving such horrible consequence - wait! No! Bad bosses no make skeletons behave!

(We love the Sixty Skeletons, Flaming Skull Foreman, and Skeleton Donkey) (don't ask) (it only kind of makes sense in context)

But that's not all on Johnny - a lot of it comes down to the beautiful muppets that are the original players, and specifically Andy, Jane, and Mike, who have been a chaotic force of good online since they joined together to form Outside Xbox in 2009.

These three, and by extension all of Oxventure, are a little silly, always snarky, incredibly good at what they do but always beset by terrible luck and worse technology. They are also incredibly well-meaning (and hilarious) even when they're actively trying to be horrible (unrelated to this post but PLEASE watch their Hitman videos for further proof of this). And that carries through to their characters, who can be card carrying evil and yet still care so deeply about their friends that you can't help but love them.

An example of their chaotic competence is in an episode of their latest series Wyrdwood. There was a short of Johnny and Producer Zack talking about how Wyrdwood is a very creepy series starring the human equivalent of the Muppets, which is so true, but I would like to draw attention to a specific moment to prove my point:

In this particular episode, Johnny has created a truly terrifying scenario: trapped in mist with music playing beyond their hearing, the team are being picked off one by one despite specific measures to the contrary, until the characters played by the Oxbox trio are alone in oppressive danger. Things look dire. They know they're in trouble and helpless. It's only a matter of time before they're all gone.

They promptly spend the next five minutes flailing, yelling at each other, completely ruin Johnny's nefarious trap, locate their friends, and set themselves up to win the whole day while seemingly focussed entirely on figuring out which of them should be blamed for screwing up.

Even Johnny doesn't seem to know whether to be offended their whole scary vibe was just destroyed or impressed by how effortless the trio made it look, and I feel like that's the correct response.

And I think that's what I love about this series, and these people. They give me a kind of... exasperated hope for all of us.

I have to admit, when I first heard about Wyrdwood and saw the art, I was worried, because I thought Oxventure were going serious. But then, only a few minutes into the first episode, Jane uttered the immortal words 'Luck Pervert' to describe Luke's newest character and I knew we'd be fine.

These people are silly. They tell silly stories.

But they are stories about love, and friendship, and trying even against impossible odds, and making tough choices, and growing as people. All while you and the world around you are a complete mess and everything seems insane. You can still be better, and make the world better, even if it seems like you're just making more of a mess right now.

You watch, and you cringe, and you sigh and call them all 'absolute muppets', and then you cheer as they come up with some insane plan that shouldn't work and yet always, somehow, without rhyme, reason, or explanation... works.

They are silly, and they are heartfelt, and I suspect I will binge-watch the entire channel all over again this Christmas break.

Because while the Oxventurers' motto may be "Everyone should have thought of everything", the fact is no one has. So just go with what you've got.

And it might work out okay.

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Chapter 10

Hey it's that guy!

Dungeon Meshi says "Drink water".

The first half of this chapter shows us what an ordinary adventuring party would do to prepare for a trip through the dungeon. Specifically, the issue of food supply gets brought up. The half-foot brings up how one week's rations are heavy so that would mean longer treks are going to be more exhausting on account of them having to carry more supplies. They also might not have room for other goods because they have to make room for food. And there is the risk like in chapter 1 that they can just be lost.

For a moment, I thought bringing a wagon might help, but I don't think that would fit in a dungeon.

Is this what everyone thinks happened?

Last chapter, kobolds were mentioned and we were given an image of one. So we already have the info needed to figure that one dog party member is a kobold. Still, Chilchuck and Laios's speculations about who Senshi would trade with in a dungeon makes me think that having a kobold party member is unusual.

Their miscellaneous discussions about the dungeon is for us. Something about the dungeon has been changing lately. I can't comment on the dungeon layout changing, but maybe the monster thing is because of the red dragon roaming about or maybe it's because adventurers are overkilling the monster populations and other monsters are trying to move in on the emptier areas.

And then they get wiped by bugs. This kinda reminds me of that one party from chapter 3, the one that got wiped by plants. This instance isn't being played for comedy this time. We're following an ordinary party's experience through the dungeon and it ends with them getting killed. Laios's party doing so well is not normal.

Adventurers can turn into zombies, huh? So if the corpse retrievers don't find you, you'll just rise as a zombie? I don't know the full details about how resurrection works, but I'm getting the feeling that if you're left alone for long enough, the dungeon just takes your body and soul and turns them into spirits and zombies. Is the magician some sort of lich and the entire premise was just a trap to lure people in so it could harvest souls?

The box of treasure insects was on a zombie. So that was probably some poor adventurer who fell for their deceptions just like the last party did. Or maybe it was someone from before the golden kingdom was taken over by the magician. It's outfit had the poofy shoulder pads you'd see on a stereotypical noble's outfit.

Did Laios's sword react to the treasure insects specifically because they're treasure insects or because it realized there was danger that the others didn't notice? If it's the former, then there are implications. Like, maybe treasure insects prey on Living Armor or certain ones like the pearl centipede can parasitize a Living Armor colony and take it over.

I love the little detail that a few locks of Marcille's hair braid popped loose when she saw the pearl centipede.

And she realized exactly what was going to happen when Senshi started sorting them.

I've never eaten bugs before, but I'm willing to try. I bet crickets taste pretty good if you fry them. I don't think I'd like centipedes though.

Mimicry in nature is wild. There are so many different types. And mimicry of other species is particularly crazy. I went looking into what type of mimicry treasure insects might employ and I learned about emsleyan mimicry in the process. It's where a dangerous animal mimics a slightly less dangerous animal. The goal is that if an animal is deadly to the point any potential predator is likely to die in an encounter with it, the animal doesn't actually benefit from its warning signs because nothing will get the chance to survive and learn that its dangerous. So it mimics something that is not nearly as dangerous and benefits from potential predators learning to not mess with the less dangerous animal.

An example I found of emsleyan mimicry is coral snakes. They are some of the most toxic snakes in the world and there's another species called a king snake which uses the same color patterns. Originally, it was thought that King snakes mimicked coral snakes. But it turns out there's another species of snake called the false coral snake that also has the same color patterns but is not as deadly as the coral snake. So one hypothesis is the false coral snake had the color pattern first and coral and king snakes are both mimicking it.

Anyway, the mimicry type that seems most similar to what treasure insects are doing is called wicklerian or aggressive mimicry. Parasites using this method attempt to mimic something their target host would find appealing. Usually, the parasite would mimic prey, but in this case they're mimicking coins and jewelry.

The end of the chapter reveals that some of the items were actual coins and jewels so maybe treasure insects can actively change their appearance to mimic specific types of coins and jewelry.

The anatomy of most of the insects are easy to figure out with a little creative thought, but the ring one is way out there.

The tiara being a giant nest is pretty cool. Are the treasure insects all living communally with each other and build and guard the tiara together?

Jam? How does that work?

Look at Marcille being so brave.

Senshi was about to tell Chilchuck that the inedible pile was actual jewels, but Chilchuck threw them away before he got the chance.

Laios named his sword "Sword boy".

back

[nicandragon]

Fem!Labru kid idea

Mickbell and Kuro are Laios’s kid honorary uncles and love him a lot.

Mickbell tries also to turn him into a copy of himself and Kuro would kill anyone that hurts his favorite nephew and teaches him about Kobolds customs.

OMG... CUTE...Mickbell absolutely denies caring for the kid that much but everyone knows. Laios is just extremely happy to see her kid playing with a kobold, and doesn't really know that her child is also learning the ways of a scam

generally for the au I've been genderbending everyone so I was also thinking about fem!Mickbell. Mickbelle if you will. But this doesn't change anything cuz they look and act the exact fucking same LOL same with Kuro

[sherrifdoggo]

Project Empire, What Is It?

I already summarized it earlier today on BlueSky, but I might as well do it over here too.

Project Empire is my Urban Fantasy TTRPG about planning and doing crimes in New York City. Sort of like a whimsical Grand Theft Auto, with some furries thrown into the mix for added flavor.

It's gonna be fully playable offline like any other TTRPG of course, but I also had the idea to do some Gmod integration, like how I did a D&D campaign with custom Garry's Mod maps a real long time ago.

So it will also be playable entirely (or at least mostly) in Garry's Mod.

More details below.

So, first. I started work on it around 2-3 years ago?, I can't remember the exact date and I can't be bothered to look it up right now. The first draft then led to the second draft, then that to the third draft and now i'm possibly refining that third draft into a fourth draft.

The gameplay basics are a mix of D&D and GURPS mechanics blended together to give it the gameplay depth and customizability of GURPS while not requiring you to take 3 turns to get up or to know Underwater Demolition. It's dumbed down GURPS is what i'm saying.

As for story, It takes place in my urban fantasy setting, the Staten Island Universe. A setting that I think I talked about here? (I did).

But the quick and dirty of it is that magic exists and it has always existed. But Magic is confusing, complicated, dangerous and incompatible with integrated circuits and other sensitive electronics.

Due to this magic has certainly played a part in history, but history went down roughly the same path it did in our world.

Why?, Well because I thought it would be cool and also because it gives me space to write really on the nose social commentary. Which all woke writers like myself love to do.

There's also a bunch of magical creatures that waltz around Earth added for fun, and six five more species of intelligent life that coexist with humanity. Dwarves, Elves, Cats, Dragons and Kobolds.

Also the Elves are monkies because I thought that would be a cool and unique elf design. Or at least more unique than pointy ear person #3,596,186.

Lastly, when it's out, it's going to come with a couple campaigns. But one of them is going to be the main one. This one's going to feature the most stakes and the longest playtime.

It'll also feature all of the important characters I've written for the Staten Island Universe's underbelly of New York.

Characters from the guy in my profile picture, a guilty FBI agent, a dwarf hacker, a funny lawyer and the biggest girl failure I've ever written.

I'll probably talk more about them at some point but I want to keep the spoilers to a minimum. The story for the main campaign has been my baby for longer than the project has a existed so I need to keep it closely guarded or it will all be ruined.

anyways thank you for reading all this bullshit, bye

[rotteneggssuck]

AAAAHHHH!!! Ok. I saw some TikTok videos saying “combine the last video game you played and last tv show you watched” and I was like “oh, that would be danganronpa v3 and dungeon meshi”. Now I’m going fucking insane over it.

Anyway, here’s what I think all the v3 characters, races would be in the dungeon meshi universe.

Angie-Gnome. This one is kinda weird to start with BUT, gnomes live side by side with nature spirits and ask them for help with magic and stuff. I think Angie suits being a long life race, idk why. Also she’s would looks so cute with the ears.

Gonta-Oger. Big. Need I explain more? He’s just a gentle giant, and I think the big horns and teeth would also add to his “people get scared when they see me” story.

Himiko-Gnome. It’s literally perfect, shut up. Magic being culturally significant, generally a pretty short race, even for a character design point! The sleepy droopy eyes!!!! AHHHH! Love her.

Kaede-Tall man. She’s just so!!!! That’s all I can say. I just think if she was made another race it would take away from her everything. Like I debated an elf but, it just didn’t feel right.

Kaito-Tall man. Are you going to sit here and tell me that kaito isn’t the most guy of men. He would 100% say shit like “I only have a short life, so I need to make the most of it!” Then run head first into a dragon fight without any plans.

Kiibo-Beast man. Specifically a werewolf, like just. “I know I’m a beast man, but I’m still just as human as anyone else!” And he would still get to contemplate his humanity:DDD. I can just picture kokichi being a massive bitch about it too.

Kirumi-Elf. She’s just hot like that. Also you know, the expectation of her being perfect and talented. I feel like at first she would pity short life races and fall into the “they are like children” mindset (obviously still doing anything they asked of her, she’s still herself) then after meeting the cast, would go “oh, wait. These are just people. They don’t need pity for just existing”.

Kokichi-Half foot. Ok this is another one that’s absolutely perfect. Like the lock-picking, them commonly being known for thievery, and he would absolutely use those big old ears for no good!!!! Literally just a perfect match.

Korekiyo-Kobold. Ok. This is going to be the first of a few “because I said so” he would just look so god dam good like that. It would just add to his “I’m mysterious and not much is known about me” vibe. Yes. I know kobolds tend to stay in there community’s, and can’t speak in the common tongue that well. Fuck you!!!

Maki-Half foot. I know some might question this, but hear me out! It would be so handy for her assassin thing! Like the hearing would be a massive help, her size would make it easier to go unnoticed, also she would be incredibly light footed.

Miu-Dwarf. They’re like the technology race! They invent shit! Also her brash attitude would just fit in most with dwarves, she’s probably a bit confused why everyone’s getting mad at her for being, well, her.

Rantaro-Elf. Because I said so #2. He’s just hot, I don’t think he would pity short life races tho. My mans is too well traveled for that shit to slide.

Ryoma-Dwarf. Ok yes. It is because he’s short. But also because of his demeanour, like he’s really gruff and stoic, I imagine his backstory would be much of the same, but with the added benefit of “I will outlive most of the friends I make, so why make friends in the first place”.

Shuichi-Elf. Pure fucking vibes. Just look at him. Also something something, his parents are probably these great Influential people or whatever, and he feels like all he’s achievement’s mean nothing….. something something.

Tenko-Kobold. Another absolutely perfect one! Like, just! AG! Look at everything we know about kobolds! It can be applied to Tenko!! Also she’s not immune to the “because I said so” argument. She’s my favourite. Kobolds are my favourite. Boom. Done.

Tsumugi-Tall man. Don’t even try to argue this one. Tall men are the “nothing too special about them” race. The plain race. Like I don’t know what you want from me.

Anyway that’s all. Maybe keep an eye out for some art of this crossover. Idk. Had lots of fun tho. Obviously if anyone wants to use this idea as a springboard you absolutely can, but please let me see!!! I wanna see someone going as insane as I am about my favourite game being crossed over with such a cool manga/anime

[thecampjuicebox]

Okay, but like- For Inferno (or something similar), what if Raphael ends up punishing Tav because Haarlep wouldn't be effected/as effected by receiving the punishment themself? (that also leaves the door open for Haarlep to give Tav post-angst aftercare once Raphael leaves - up to and including wrapping their wings around Tav like a security blanket) 🫣

Been trying to make another part for Inferno, thank you so much for the suggestion!! Let's see how this goooooes

Inferno Pt. 2

Pairing: Haarlep(m) x Tav(gn)

Rating: 18+ NSFW, Minors DNI

POV: 3rd Person

Warnings: ANGST, slapping, whipping, bruising, blood, yelling, lots of crying, aftercare

Heat trickles over Haarlep's face as Raphael moves in closer, little droplets of spit assaulting his forehead and cheeks. Haarlep has never seen Raphael so angry. He's absolutely seething, words spat like venom from a viper. Tav sits huddled in the corner, still wrapped in the towel Haarlep had fetched for them after their shared bath, hands over their pointed ears to block out the boom of Raphael's deep, furious voice. The way Raphael stormed into the boudoir still plays over and over in Tav's mind. His fury. His strength. The way he so easily tossed the two naked bodies from the bath and onto the marble. The way he spat at Haarlep in disgust. He'd watched them make love in the tub for some time before intervening. Watched as Haarlep did things to Tav that Raphael could only dream of, and how Tav willingly reciprocated.

"How dare you, Haarlep. You are for my use, and my use only. I created you in my image! Or have you forgotten?"

"Gods, Raphael. We've talked numerous times of your little stamina issue. Surely you can't expect me to always finish myself off."

Haarlep's words are no help to the cause, Raphael's face turning an unusual shade of red, much darker than anyone in the realms had thought possible. Had he been any hotter, the pair would surely see steam billowing from his ears and nostrils like a cauldron. Yet still Haarlep smirks, muscular arms crossed over his pectorals in a standoffish stance. His wings fold neatly behind him, tail swishing side to side. Tav blinks tears away from the corners of their eyes, knees tucked tightly into their chest to shield themselves. Was this their fault? Surely they should've known Raphael would be angry once he found out about the frequent meetings between the two. Part of them didn't care. Part of them feared for their life. They're right to. Raphael being as powerful as he is, Tav could become nothing but a blip in the weave, had Raphael deemed it a suitable punishment.

Raphael rears a hand back, throwing all of his body weight into the swing forward, the backs of his knuckles making contact with Haarlep's cheek with a earth shattering crack. The incubus stumbles sideways, one hand coming up to cup his smarting cheekbone, the other finding purchase on the bed to steady himself. Tav gasps and slaps a hand over their agape mouth. The room falls silent. Too silent. Surely the slap echoed loud enough through the House of Hope to silence every debtor and servant within its walls. Another hand reaches for Haarlep's harness, giving it a rough tug forward, the incubus falling to his knees in front of the livid cambion. They exchange glances, Haarlep's one of pure defiance, Raphael's one of unbridled rage. Haarlep's lack of response to being hit drives Raphael mad. Then a finger points in Tav's direction, a hissed "You.." making Tav's stomach drop deep into their bowels.

Like a feral kobold, Raphael charges toward Tav, hands grasping at their biceps to force them to their feet. A loud yelp escapes Tav's lungs as Raphael shoves them like a ragdoll over the edge of the bed, yanking the towel away to reveal their bare ass. Desperate pleas spill from Tav's quivering lips as they move their hands behind them to shield themselves in any way they can, Haarlep hurrying to his feet to attempt to intervein. Kicking and screaming proves pointless. Begging only fuels Raphael's fire as he reaches for the carefully coiled whip hanging from a golden hook on the wall to his left. Often used for pain before pleasure, Haarlep is all too familiar with the sting of the leather and chain resting in Raphael's shaking hands. He knows what the weapon is capable of, and how Tav isn't even the slightest bit prepared for its bite.

"You'll pay for this.. If Haarlep won't, you will."

"Raphael please.. This isn't their punishment to take."

Haarlep's voice wavers in.. Fear? Gods, he'd never been so afraid of something in his life. The devil turns to the incubus, face still hot with anger. He quirks an eyebrow and points the coiled whip in Tav's direction. "And yet here they are." he spits. With a loud thwip, he unravels the whip, landing a harsh blow across Tav's back without warning. The shriek that escapes their lips is enough to drive Haarlep to tears, hot and salty, streaming down his cheeks like rain. "Raphael please!" His pleas fall on deaf ears, two more lashes of the whip making a bloody red "x" across Tav's shoulder blades. And then another, electric pain making Tav collapse to their knees, knuckles white from their grasp on the velvet duvet of the bed. Tears flow heavily as they sob in agony, head thrown back, mouth agape.

"Gods, I'll have this painted and hung in the halls as an example!"

Raphael laughs out loud, rearing his arm back to land another lash across Tav's already bloodied and bruised backside. Tav collapses further to the floor, curling up on their side to shield the rest of their body from the assault of the whip, hands covering their tear and drool soaked face. Haarlep watches the display with a heaving chest. What could he possibly do besides wait for Raphael to tire of the beating and give up on his own? Raphael unleashes on Tav's broken skin, lash after lash after lash, and at this point they lose count. The skin of their back numbs from the constant attack. Consciousness threatens to leave them and they wheeze in pain, their ribs and throat sore from screaming. Three more deep red cuts from the whip line Tav's exposed thigh, blood bubbling up and over the swollen marks. Finally, the whip falls to the floor, and Tav has never felt such relief. Each new wound stings like hellfire. Blood pools around their back and down their abused thighs. A heavy boot lowers itself to Tav's shoulder, forcing them to their stomach on the floor, the rough grip of the bottom of the boot pressing firmly into their cuts and bruises. They cry out again for mercy, drool and spit coating their chin in a shiny layer. Raphael kneels down to speak directly into Tav's ear, doubling down on the pressure of his boot against their back.

"Remember this, little mouse. Down came the claw."

With a final shove of his boot against their back, Raphael steps away, turning to leave the boudoir without another word. The scent of sulfur and cherries makes Tav's stomach turn as they lie flat on the cold floor. In a blink, Raphael is gone, a bright cloud of red sizzling magic indicating his departure from the boudoir, and the House of Hope all together. Once Haarlep is sure the coast is clear, he rushes to Tav. The quick tap tap tap of his feet against the marble floor stirs Tav back into consciousness, the room spinning and swirling around them like a whirlpool. Their vision dulls. Their hearing fades in and out for just long enough to hear Haarlep mumble a soft "I've got you.." before everything goes black.

Pain isn't even close to the proper word to describe the agony Tav feels when they awaken. Each limb is stiff like oak, bandages holding their torn apart skin together as blood soaks through the fabric of each one, threatening to stain the silk sheets beneath them. Haarlep pats at their forehead with a damp cloth as their eyes flutter open. "Easy, now.." He says softly, the back of his hand coming up the quickly swipe a tear from his deeply bruised cheek. "How long have I.." Tav mumbles incoherently, a heavy gasp invading their lungs as they attempt, and fail, to adjust their position in bed. Haarlep grits his teeth. "Would you just.. Stay still, gods damn it." Tav freezes momentarily, eyes shooting a look of pain at the incubus. He sighs heavily and places the cloth back in the silver bowl of water he'd placed by his side. "Only a couple of hours. Raphael really did a number on you. You'd be smart to rest."

A trembling arm reaches in Haarlep's direction, begging for touch. For gentle contact. Anything to soothe the ache inside and out. "My love.." Tav whimpers. Haarlep's heart nearly bursts in his chest. Tav's words twist in his gut like tangled ropes and he closes his eyes. Gods, how could Tav love him? An incubus. A creation for pleasure and nothing else. Sitting down beside Tav in the large bed, his wings tucked tightly to his back, Haarlep faces his lover. Swollen eyes scan their mangled body. The black and blue bruises, the blood, the tips of the lashes poking out from the places the bandages simply could not cover. This was his fault. After a moment of silence, he chews his lip and shakes his head, loose brown curls falling around his horns and into his eyes. "This is exactly what put you in this state in the first place, Tav." Heat burns deep in Haarlep's stomach. Guilt. An emotion he's painfully unfamiliar with. An emotion he isn't even sure an incubus should be able to feel. Careful fingers search for Haarlep's thigh, and then for his hand, mustering as much strength as possible to tug his body downward.

Haarlep follows Tav's motion, a strong arm carefully draping itself over Tav's pelvis. Surely the one place Raphael managed to leave untouched. Thick red wings encircle the two lovers, a curtain of safety, even if temporarily. Nothing could hurt them in this moment. With a calculated shift, Tav manages to scoot closer to Haarlep's warmth, their own arm resting over Haarlep's hip, fingers tracing gentle shapes into the small of his back. All is calm. True peace. "We.. Need to be careful." Haarlep mumbles into Tav's ear. Tav yawns. The threat of sleep lingers on their eyelids as they nuzzle their nose into Haarlep's chest. "I'd have to kill Raphael myself if he touches you that way again." With a small chuckle, Tav shakes their head, nails digging into the incubus' thick skin.

"I'd take a thousand more lashes if it meant I could stay like this forever. My inferno."