#is it actually that big of a deal? no but the one for reed used she/her and that feels weird and bad to me

[bokatan]

thanks for the tag @kyberinfinitygems! picrew here and quiz here. no pressure tags for @fuzzydreamin @buthappysoverrated @blavatomanouche @darkfire1177 @newvegascowboy @voidthewanderer @wishbonemotel and anyone else that wants to join in!

Delta(FO3/FO4) - chaotic good A chaotic good character acts as their conscience directs them with little regard for what others expect of them. They make his own way, but they're kind and benevolent. They believe in goodness and right but have little use for laws and regulations. They hate it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. They follow their own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society. Chaotic good is the best alignment you can be because it combines a good heart with a free spirit. Chaotic good can be a dangerous alignment when it disrupts the order of society and punishes those who do well for themselves.

Reed(FO4) - true neutral A neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil-after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run.

Mercy(FNV/FO4) - chaotic neutral A chaotic neutral character follows her whims. She is an individualist first and last. She values her own liberty but doesn't strive to protect others' freedom. She avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, she would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from herself suffer). A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but her behavior is not totally random. She is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it. Chaotic neutral is the best alignment you can be because it represents true freedom from both society's restrictions and a do-gooder's zeal. Chaotic neutral can be a dangerous alignment when it seeks to eliminate all authority, harmony, and order in society.

[starlightsearches]

Yes, absolutely! So. Eddie x FemReader. They are best friends and have this special bond but all of a sudden Eddie pushes her aside for another girl he's dating or is interested in, letting her sit in the reader's seat, canceling traditions of years like movie night, etc. But somehow he wakes up and realizes he has been an ass to her (maybe because he actually wanted to get over his own feelings for her) but the reader isn't so quick to let it all go - she wants him to prove how sorry he is!

Jealousy, Jealousy

📼✨ mixtape milestone ✨📼 requests are open!

thanks for the request, bestie! and an even bigger thanks for your patience 😬 i hope you enjoy!

Eddie Munson x Fem! Reader

Comments likes and reblogs are always appreciated, let me know what you think 💖

Warnings: mostly just language and a little drama and angst and then fluff I think but let me know if I missed anything. I've always wanted to play around with POV switches like this, which is probably why it's taken me so long to finish this one 🙄

You're fuming in the front seat.

Eddie keeps his eyes on the road—more than he probably ever has while driving—afraid that if he even glances in your direction all the smoke you're letting off will start to fog up the windshield. Like he's driving around with a forest fire in his van.

"Listen," he says, even though he's not sure what's going to come after, "it's not even a big deal."

They're the first words out of his mouth since he told you, and they're definitely the wrong ones. Your eyes flash, smoldering at the center like cigarette ends.

Your look may be fire, but your voice is all ice.

"To you."

"What?"

"It's not that big of a deal to you, Eddie," you tell him, shifting against the dirty leather seat like you can't even stand to be near him, "but it is a big deal to me."

Valerie fucking Reed—just thinking her name has you seeing blood. Everything about her puts the wrath of god in you, from the fake-ass pitch of her voice to the way she flips her hair over her shoulder whenever she thinks she's said something clever.

You'd hated her from the moment you'd met her, after the painfully cliche the freaks sit over there cafeteria routine she'd put on for you your very first day in Hawkins. You were more prepared for that shit now—had educated yourself in the art of biting comebacks and fought only with words even when you wanted nothing more than to bash her head into the linoleum tile.

But at a brand new school when you were desperate to make friends? Absolutely devastating.

If you were held at gunpoint and forced to say one honest, nice thing about her, there'd only be one you could offer up: it was her fault you'd met Eddie. With tears still stinging in your eyes, you'd carried your lunch tray in the direction of her pointed finger, falling into the nearest empty chair and tucking your chin into your chest so no one would see you cry.

That was when Eddie swooped in, big doe eyes and denim vest rattling with pins, and a thousand stupid jokes—not exactly a knight in shining armor but you'd never wanted one of those anyway.

Now Valerie wants to take him away from you, too.

Eddie drums his hands on the wheel, fidgeting with the volume on the tape he'd let you choose to soften the blow. He let's Fleetwood Mac fill the empty space between you, all the words he should say replaced with Stevie's soft vocals.

He's not used to fighting with you. Your friendship has always been as easy as breathing—except when it's not.

. . . But you really can't be blamed for that. It's not your fault he feels all weird inside every time you smile.

He wishes you'd smile at him now.

"You know," you say, feet planted on his dash and your chair pushed all the way back, "I didn't say shit when you started ditching me at lunch to deal to her and her friends, or when you skipped on movie nights for all those parties she threw because I get why you had to go, but a fucking date?"

"She just needs a place to smoke . . ." Eddie mumbles, skin hot at the word date.

You roll your eyes with enough bite he actually feels the sting.

"Right. She just needs to get high with you at your place, because she has nowhere else to go.”

Your lips drip with venomous sarcasm—absolutely soaked through with the belief that he couldn't possibly sit in the same room as Valerie and not touch her.

Do you really have so little faith in him? Eddie's got way more self-control than either of you would give him credit for. There's never been a moment he hasn't wanted his hands on you, and he's alone with you all the time.

“Come on,” he says, swallowing so his voice won't crack, “we do that.”

“It’s different," you snap back quickly.

Yeah it fucking is, he thinks, but Eddie doesn't say a word. Maybe the silence will speak for itself—or maybe it could, if you'd let it.

You carve a frustrated hand through your hair, staring him down. “Like, how do you think it would feel for you if I went out with fucking Jason Carver?"

He resists the urge to gag. "It's not like that."

It's really not like that. Just the thought of it has Eddie feeling both sick and violent, unsure if he was more likely to throw a punch or throw up.

He takes the turn into your driveway, watching you collect your stuff with a brutal speed.

"Yes it is, Eddie," you tell him as you slide from your seat before he's even fully hit the breaks, "actually, it's worse. Because Jason is a dick to everybody, and Valerie's got some fucking target on my back. I wouldn't be surprised if this was all part of some evil plan of hers to make me jealous because—"

You cut yourself off immediately, words stoppered by some invisible dam, eyes wide. Eddie's body goes cold when you slam the door without saying goodbye, stomping off to your doorstep.

He scrambles for his seat belt, practically falling out of the van in attempt to catch up to you before you get inside.

"Wait a second," Eddie says, holding the door open with his hand and trying to catch his breath, "why would that make you jealous?"

You scuff the toe of your boot against the step. "Nothing, it's stupid."

Eddie raises a brow, but you can’t look at his big, brown, beautiful eyes right now, tracing down along his leather sleeve to where his hand is planted against the door, black-painted nails splayed wide and already chipping, although you only did them a few nights ago.

Rude that the only time you get to hold him is when you're doing him a favor.

"Stupid how?" he asks.

You shrug. "I dunno . . . she just thinks I have a crush on you or something."

It's a surprise he hadn't already heard; about half of the girl's locker room were still stripping out of their gym clothes when Valerie had to bring everybody's attention to your black lace bra, before sharing a few theories on who you were wearing it for.

"Like I said, stupid." You ignore the heat in your cheeks, gripping the door again and trying to force it shut, but Eddie's not finished.

You wouldn’t notice, but his chest is heaving under his black t-shirt, palm sweating against the door. A crush? On him?

Is Valerie as delusional as he is?

"Wait," —his mouth is on a roll before his brain has caught up— "do- do you?"

Your eyes go wide with surprise, and then shrink into slits as you push him back from the door, one hot hand planted against his chest.

"Fuck you, Eddie," —he catches the words just before the slam— "fuck you for real."

It wasn't a no.

He repeats the words in his mind like he’s casting a protection spell. Like it’s some kind of ward against your anger as he scales the tree outside your window.

It’s harder than it looks, and he’s already making it look pretty difficult—but one hand’s busy clinging to the greasy paper bag packed full with burgers and those crispy tater tots you love. He manages to wiggle his way up to your window sill without losing his pants, even though the tears at his knees got caught on every twig and branch he passed.

Eddie steals a glance of you through the sheer curtains, holding back his fist from knocking. Just so he can look at you properly, without all the static of having you look back.

You're stretched out on your bed, feet in the air and headphones caught over your ears while you flip through the pages of a book. He hasn't seen these pajamas before—the little shorts that just cup the edge of your ass, and a sheer tank top. His nails are leaving little indents in his palm.

Eddie hasn't made a sound, but with the way his eyes are tracing over you, you gotta feel it. You find him at the window, and he panics, rapping his knuckles against the glass a second too late.

You roll you eyes at him, but at least you let him in.

There are honest-to-god butterflies in Eddie's stomach when he flops beside you on the bed. And he wouldn't lie—at least not to himself—but he'd tried to feel something like this before, when Valerie first started paying all that attention to him.

Her manicured hand would brush over the sleeve of his jacket while he'd be getting her product and he'd wait for this same feeling, hoping he had a weakness for all pretty girls, that any attention would him stumbling over his words and these feelings didn't have to be the end of the best friendship he'd ever had.

But it's you.

You cross your arms over your chest, frowning. "What are you doing here?"

Eddie's smile is sheepish, but not nearly apologetic enough for your taste. He holds up the paper bag in his hand, dotted with dark splotches where the grease leaked through. It lets out the heavenly scent of fried food.

"I brought dinner, you know, for movie night."

He slips a tray of tater tots from the bag, and you're resolve falters. You hold back your hand from reaching for one even though you already know how incredible it would taste, the little rivulets of salt and shining grease coating the golden skin.

"What about Valerie?" you ask, stealing your eyes away from the junk food. You hate how petulant your voice sounds.

He just shrugs, pouring out some ketchup onto the tray, licking the excess off of his pinky finger. "Told her I had other plans."

Eddie pops a tater tot into his mouth and bites down with a heavy crunch, but it feels like your heart's the thing being popped between his teeth.

And what more were you expecting? That he'd tell her to fuck off and take her money and friends with her? She's the queen of Hawkins, and you're . . . not.

Maybe you and Eddie are both delusional—or stubborn—enough to pretend like you don't care about the politics of high school, but people had abandoned their morals for less.

“So you blew both of us off, then?”

He pauses mid-bite, like a prey animal, like if he doesn’t move you can’t be mad at him.

“What?” he mumbles through a mouthful of chewed-up potatoes.

You snatch a tater tot from the tray, chewing and swallowing even though your stomach is starting to churn because something bad is going to happen and you can feel it coming like a storm in the air.

“Why are you here, Eddie?”

“I- uh, to say sorry,” he stutters.

The food's getting cold in his hands before you respond.

“What’re you sorry for?”

What’s he sorry for? Eddie has a whole list: sorry for making a fool of myself, sorry for hanging out with Valerie because I thought it might make you jealous, sorry sorry sorry for trying so hard to get over you and doing such a bad job at it.

“I, you know . . . I shouldn’t have made other plans on movie night.”

Those were the wrong words again. Crazy how easy it is for him to fuck this up—like it was something he was born with.

For a second, Eddie thinks you'll yell at him, and he's comforted by that. If you yell at him, you still care.

You take in a deep breath, and Eddie braces himself. He can take whatever you give him, will shoulder any insults you hurl and forgive you for it the second it's over.

But your shoulders slump. You let out a heavy sigh.

And he knows he can't take that.

"I'm really, really tired, Eddie," —you won't even look him in the eyes when you say it, sliding the window open again,—"see you tomorrow?"

But Eddie doesn't see you for two whole days.

That's a fucking record.

He thought you might need space, you know. So he gave you Saturday to cool off, kicked around at the trailer and gave Wayne vague answers about why you weren't around and ignoring the look in the old man's eyes. Listening to sad records and getting high and trying not to stare at your smile in all the photos plastered on his wall.

Sunday, Eddie drove by your house with the volume all the way up on your favorite Rolling Stones album, windows down while he idled at the curb. There was a twitch in the curtains, but you weren't there to shout at him for all the noise before climbing in on the passenger side.

Eddie knocked at your door this morning, hoping at least you’d want a ride to school. Your mom opened it with a sad little frown, telling him you’d already taken your bike.

And really, the two days have only ended on a technicality. Eddie sees you right now, reading a book with your head bent low, sitting at the far end of another table.

"Hey—" Eddie twitches when the flying french fry lands against his cheek with a wet slap— "are you gonna go talk to her, or did you just wanna stare?"

Mike laughs at his own joke, and the other guys giggles along.

Eddie's used to the ribbing. He's never minded it—when you're not around. Kind of enjoyed it a little. Even with his heated cheeks and stammered shut ups that completely gave him away, he needed somebody to acknowledge what he was feeling. It made it more real.

But Eddie's not in the mood for jokes today. And he doesn't need anybody to remind him that he's in way over his head with you.

He shoots the freshmen a look that works just as well as throwing a hand over their mouths—without the risk of being licked—and brushes the potato chunks from his hair while the rest of Hellfire pick timidly at their lunches.

And Eddie goes back to staring.

This time, though, you're staring back.

He meets your eyes. Just for a second, wide with surprise before you snap your head back in the direction of your book, tucking your nose between the pages. Doesn't matter how quick you were though. Eddie caught the look you were giving him.

And his heart is beating hard, like it did on the day he first met you. His limbs all staticky and weird, palms sweating because even from the first second he knew you existed he's wondered what kissing you would feel like and the question never left his head.

Eddie's on his feet before he can think about how bad of an idea this is.

"Hey," Dustin calls to him through a mouthful of square pizza, "what're you doing?"

Eddie just shrugs.

"Probably something stupid."

You can see Eddie's long legs moving in your direction from the corner of your eye, and your stomach drops out of your ass like a dip on a roller coaster in the dark and you can't see the end. He says something to the guys—his lips are moving—but you can't make it out over the sound of the cafeteria rumble, the chatter of the other girls sitting at the same table as you, talking animatedly about all the dates they went on over the weekend and completely ignoring your presence.

You dip your head closer to the pages of your book, so close all the words blur together, trying to hide from Eddie like you've been hiding the past few days. You shouldn't have even glanced in his direction, should have let the burn of his presence so close and still too far away swallow you up.

It’s getting hotter with every step he takes toward you, and you’re getting smaller, body tight and your lips caught between your teeth.

He slides quietly into the seat beside you, fingers drumming against the table, and the sound feels louder now that the girls have quieted down, not-so-sneakily listening in on whatever's about to go down between you and Eddie—hungry like sharks for any new gossip, ready to spread the nitty-gritty about why the freaks are fighting.

Eddie dips his head down, eyes big and already so sorry it feels like a punch to the gut.

"Hey," he whispers, trying to smile and failing miserably, "come here often?"

You try to smile back, but it's not much better. "Hey, Eds."

It's quiet, but not the comfortable kind of quiet you're used to around Eddie. It's a hot and sweaty quiet, a trapped-in-a-car kind of summer burn that makes your lungs go shallow.

Eddie perks up, the first words he can think of spilling out of his mouth.

"The guys were thinking about going to the record store after school. Would you wanna come?"

You wouldn't have thought for a second about refusing an invite like that a week ago. Heaven was nothing compared to wandering around a music store with Eddie.

"I don't know if I can today," you say instead, and then when you see the look of hurt on his face, you soften the blow with, "I gotta go to the library for some . . . stuff."

He hums. "Stuff?"

You shrug, playing with the pages of your book. If you're quiet enough, maybe he'll give up.

But he doesn't go anywhere. His hands stay planted on the table, silent and still for once. The black nail polish is almost completely chipped off his nails—probably picked off and littered all over the linoleum.

Eddie's voice is a whisper when he breaks the silence. "Are we gonna talk about it?"

"About what, Eds?"

"Why you're so mad at me . . ."

You've seen Eddie through a lot of shit, but you've never seen a look like this on him—eyes like saucers and brimming with shiny tears.

And you thought being in love with him was rough, but hurting him is a thousand times worse.

"I'm not mad at you, Eddie," you admit, hiding your eyes in the palms of your hands and pressing down until you see stars, "it's just . . ."

You don't get to finish your sentence.

Valerie's calling Eddie's name from across the whole fucking cafeteria. You watch her waving, standing on her tip-toes like she's not the only place in the room anybody can look, like every facet of her doesn't already scream give me attention!

Eddie sandwiches his lips together, pressing until they turn white. You're not going to like whatever he has to say next.

So you slip the dagger from his fingers, standing from the table. He can't hurt you if you hurt yourself first on his behalf.

"Actually, we can talk about this later," you tell him, slipping your bag on over your shoulder.

"Hey—"

There's sparks in your hand where he holds you, an eruption of butterflies in your stomach. It's just your hand in his, but that's all it takes for you to forget yourself, eyes caught on his soft mouth and pink tongue.

Valerie's approaching. You can see her stalking toward you over Eddie's shoulder. There's no room for vulnerability within a mile radius of her. You've got to get away before she sees all the softest parts of you exposed and decides to go for the jugular.

The door's within reach when the room goes quiet. Quiet enough Eddie doesn't even have to raise his voice when he says your name.

He's no stranger to standing on tables, but it's the first time you've seen him look so awkward, hands swinging at his sides in tight fists.

"I- I think I might be in love with you," Eddie says, "and I'm really, really sorry."

There's a chorus of ooooooooooohs from the audience, and maybe a few confused whispers from all the people who passively assumed you were already dating. Then all eyes are on you, waiting.

It's too fucking hot in this room, and your vision's starting to blur at the edges, feeling like you're on a stage and you can't remember the next line after Eddie's verbal punch to your gut.

You mumble a sound, falling backwards through the door and into the safety of the hallway.

Eddie's down off the table as soon as you disappear from the cafeteria, totally ignorant to the laughter and the jeers from all the dickheads watching.

Valerie's in his line of sight when he hits the ground.

"That was weird," she says, and Eddie can't tell if she's purposefully getting in his way, or if she's just got that aura of somebody who could tackle you to the ground but would never bother because she doesn't have to. "I mean I always knew she was a freak but—"

"Fuck off."

Eddie really would like to get into it more with her, maybe mention that he's been up-charging Valerie every time she mentioned your name, or that half the stuff he's been selling her was mixed with ten-year old spices from the cupboard above the oven.

There's more noise, but nobody else trying to get in his way, the path clear all the way to the door.

It's quiet in the hallway, and that alone leaves Eddie disoriented, swinging his head wildly, unsure which way you went.

"I'm down here."

You're on the floor a few feet away, head rested back against one of the lockers, and all of the bad shit goes away. It's that simple—like a light-switch—Eddie's panicked, and then he's not.

You're looking up at him with a soft kind of smile, despite the tight look in your eyes and sheen over your skin.

He slides down to the floor, long legs stretched out into the empty hall, shoes leaving little scuff marks across the linoleum.

"I'm sorry,"—you tell him as soon as he hits the ground, "about, you know. It was just, um, a lot."

"Don't be," he laughs, "that wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had."

The smartest idea he ever had was talking to you that first day, snatching you up before anybody else could.

Your tongue snakes out from between your lips, and Eddie has to physically hold himself back from tasting you. Your eyes dropped to his lap, your voice is small when you ask, "did you mean it?"

"Yeah, honey,"—probably should've kept the nickname to himself— "meant every word."

He's about to mumble something like, but if you don't feel the same it's totally fine, even though it definitely wouldn't be, when your head drops onto his shoulder.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know . . . just felt like a personal problem."

You laugh, and the sound shakes through him.

"I dunno, Eds. You being in love with me kinda sounds like something that I'd wanna know."

"I'll keep that in mind, for next time," he whispers. You're looking up at him with those big, soft eyes, breath pillowing against his face.

"It's the same for me," you tell him, "in case you were wondering."

In all the time Eddie's thought about kissing you, he never imagined it happening like this—on the floor with somebody's combination lock digging into his back. With your hands in his hair and the dull roar of the lunchroom somewhere nearby and his thumb tracing along your jaw and you smiling against his lips.

He was definitely missing out.

There's the metal clank of the door, and a chorus of footsteps somewhere down the hall. Eddie recognizes Dustin's voice.

"Oh my god, dude. Fucking finally."

[angelicsjn]

how would the yanderes react if we gave them the silent treatment?

YOUR FIVE YANDERES.

— ROMAN CORNELIUS JAMES BEAUREGARD.

At first, he wouldn't react. He'd continue as usual, brushing it off as a bad mood.

Roman can deal with a bad mood. We're all human. He doesn't push it, and if you want to speak, he'll let you do it.

Until it turned into days of complete silence, he questions why and at first tries to pull you out of it. As you refuse, he gives up.

He can play at that game.

He's the one in control here, and if you want to act like a child, he will treat you like one.

He ignores you and walks past you without a single glance. Doesn't say good morning or good night. He acts as if you don't even exist. Placing your plate down without much thought towards you when he usually rubs your back or even has you on his lap.

If you keep up ignoring him, he will leave for work and even spend up to a week without any contact as he races, and the only interaction you have from him is watching him on screen, when usually you're there with him because he doesn't like being away from you at all.

You felt like it backfired way too much, that he stopped caring, and that's where the switch flicked. He didn't need you. You needed him.

In the end, it's you who crawls back. The silent treatment doesn't work with Roman because if you want to be left, he will leave until you beg for him to even look your way.

He may be petty when annoyed and the sweetest when happy, but his lack of emotion at times is borderline terrifying.

— LATEN REED.

He hates it. HATES. IT.

Laten won't leave you alone, telling you anything and everything, even brings up people you don't like to try and gain a reaction.

He buys you your favourite foods and puts on your favourite movies. Each day, he comes back with something he knew you'd like and nearly breaks everything with frustration as you completely ignore him.

He watches you like a hawk, more than usual. Why are you acting this way? He slowly backs away to see your issue.

But he misses you. He misses being close. So he tries other ways. Holding you extra tight on nights, staying in bed longer in the morning. Kisses you more, tries being more playful with you, maybe you're bored.

Your attitude pretty much takes the space in his mind to the point where his coach screams at him to focus.

His breaking point was your lack of presence or even care at his game. It was a big deal for him. You're his lucky charm.

He walked away from the game with a bloody nose, sprained wrist, and busted knuckles from pretty much fighting the opposing team rather than actually playing.

When he returned back in that state, he didn't even get dressed. Walked right back to you, and you saw his frustration and hurt, and worry took over the silence.

You gave in after seeing how hurt he was, physically and mentally, from your silence.

— JAE 'NIKO' LEE.

Jae is a wild card. At first, he uses his idol mask. Treats you as if you're a fan at a fansign, gentle and patient. Smiley and sweet.

'What's wrong? Did I do something?' With his famous sweet eyes and gentle touches.

When you refuse to even look his way, he quickly loses his patience.

He makes a scene, shouting, accusing you of hurting his feelings. He treats you so well? Why are you being so horrible?

He's risking so much being with you. He's an idol. If people find out he's done, career over, so why are you being so fucking ungrateful? You're so hard to deal with. You're so damn selfish.

He has sacrificed so much. He could have chosen anyone. Anyone. Yet he chose you. A childish brat.

He talks you to the ground, 5 trips you into believing your actions are all your fault rather than a reaction to his.

He holds you as you cry, saying sorry. Stroking your hair, kissing your cheek, wiping away your tears, 'it's okay. You'll learn, you understand I do all this for you. For us.'

— KAIDAN ALEXANDER WOLFE.

Heh, he's delusional. He doesn't even notice at first. To him, you're perfect, and so is your relationship. He does something wrong? No. He didn't. Huh. You're both so happy!

You're giving him silent treatment? No. You wouldn't do that.. would you? No. You're just ill. You're not well. Is your throat sore? Or maybe you're tired. That's probably it.

He makes every excuse to exist rather than see you're actually ignoring him. He will speak, even if you don't reply. He will kiss you, even if you don't kiss back.

You don't hug back. He hugs harder. You refuse to eat with him. He will place you on his lap and feed you. Obviously, you're too tired to eat. Poor baby.

If anything, he annoys you more. He babies you, does literally everything for you to the point where you feel suffocated and start speaking to shut him up..

He still then doesn't see how you were truly acting, he almost drives you insane with how delusional he was and even if you told him you were ignoring him he'd find away to refuse the truth and create his own story.

— HAYDEN WEST.

He picks up on the vibes before you even do it. He freezes up because why? Why are you ignoring him? What did he do wrong?

Hayden walks on eggshells around you, speaks carefully. Tries not to annoy you. Does anything in his power to make you like him again.

He doesn't see it as silent treatment. He genuinely believes you hate him. So he does anything and everything to make you like him.

As time passes, he doesn't change. He's persistent and wallows in the sadness completely. At some points, he joins you. Sitting there quietly as he wonders why, what does he need to do to bring you back to him?

He eventually cries. Literally begging you to go love him again. Saying he's sorry for everything and whatever he's done to hurt you.

He'll never do it again. He loves you so so much! Please, please love him again. Don't leave. Don't ignore. Speak to him. Hug him. Kiss him. Don't go. Please do not go!

You hold him and give in. Seeing his sweet face cry, his heartbreaking words. How could you? You end up feeling guilty for making him feel that way.

[billthedrake]

MY SON THE PORN STAR (PART FIVE)

I tried not to go wild. I still was married and still had my normal corporate guy life in Kansas City.

But doing porn turned out to be addictive. It was the combination of a deep exhibitionist streak I was discovering in myself and the access to incredibly hot men willing to suck me or get fucked by my big tool. It made me feel like a total stud... less middle-aged, I guess.

And work trips were the perfect cover. I really was doing the road warrior thing for my company, so I wasn't lying to Kate THAT much. But I did sometimes add a night to my travels.

Like the week after Easter. I had a business trip to Denver, but I added an extra evening and squeezed in a quick connector flight to San Francisco on my dime with miles. Muscle Pup Mike, my son's friend and escort/pornstar buddy, set me up with a versatile OnlyFans star there. I shot two scenes with him, actually, one oral, one with me masked as we had a nice, long 50-minute fuck scene. I didn't feel a deep chemistry with Kevin, aka "Jeff Reed," but I felt a deep chemistry with the two cameras that were on us. Besides, sex with a muscular 28-year-old hunk was hard to beat.

Turns out, the next night would beat it. I flew to Denver bright and early in the morning and had my sales meeting all day. I was rolling my business-style carry on into my hotel room right around dinner. I undid my tie and sat down to unlace my shoes before calling Kate to check in.

Yeah, I felt pretty bad knowing I was stepping out behind her back. I'd deal with that guilt later. Either stopping porn cold turkey or making a break or separation with my wife. At this point I wasn't ready to do either.

I wasn't a frequent poster, but managed a video every 2-3 weeks. And I had a growing following of fans willing to pay a modest subscription for just that. Sure, I got some comments complaining that I never took my mask off, but apparently I had the body and blond-furred looks a lot of guys went for. And my cock size helped - a lot. I was careful about not talking on camera, or I just edited those parts out, but I'd learned to be verbal with my grunts, to show appreciation for my sucker/bottom and to let viewers get that thrill. It worked.

I sat, alone in that quiet hotel room, thinking just how wild my double life had become, and I fiddled with my phone again. Chicago was an hour ahead and now would probably be a good time to call. I pulled up Travis's contact and FaceTimed him.

"Hey Dad," my son greeted.

"Hey," I said, leaning back and feeling my boner ride up in the crotch of my trousers. "I didn't catch you at a bad time, I hope?"

"Nah," he said. "Just getting back from the gym." Indeed, he had a workout zip-up on and I could see the familiar kitchen from his condo in the back.

"All sweaty?" I teased.

That got a laugh out of my son. He was surprised how horny I was sometimes, how much I'd leaned into this weird affair we had going on. "Something like that. How'd your shoot go?"

"Real well," I replied. "Kevin is a real professional. Made it easy."

"Just a professional?" Travis asked, with a teasing smile on his cute face.

"Just fucking," I said. "Not a ton of chemistry, I'm afraid, but I think I got some good footage for the next two vids." I'd always sent Travis the digital files via encryption, and he did the editing magic on the material. As amazing as my son was at being on-screen talent, he also had a knack for making great porn behind the camera.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Dad," he said. "But I think you're a natural adult performer."

I smiled. "Is that what the kids call it?" I joked.

That made my son laugh. I loved seeing and hearing his laugh. "OK... you're a natural porn star, Dad.... You know, it's really hot to say that. I get so hard watching you perform, you know."

My throat got dry. Travis knew how to work me up. "Jesus, Trav. You have no idea how much I've watched your videos."

That made my son laugh again, those dimples forming. "I have a pretty good idea, Dad. You've told me before."

"I lied," I teased. "I figured if I told you the real number, you'd get freaked out."

"Turned on is more like it, Dad," Travis said. "Why don't you show me how much you like em. You hard now?"

"Rock hard," I said. I turned the phone down to show off the rod forming a ridge in my trousers.

"Fuck," Travis hissed. "My dad has a real porn star dick. I have a shoot in a couple of hours. I'll definitely be thinking of your cock."

"Who's it with?" I asked. This was the wild phase Trav and I were at now. Father and son, lovers, flirts, and professional colleagues in the adult entertainment business.

"Bud and Spike," he said. I recognized the screen names of two muscle daddies from Dallas, into the more hardcore stuff.

I made a wince of an expression. "Go easy with those guys, buddy," I said. "For real." I felt strangely protective of my son. Which was weird, because in general he was the one looking out for me as I began doing porn more regularly.

Travis smiled. "I will, Dad. Promise. We're planning a more vanilla scene than they normally do." He gave me a wink. "Listen, I gotta go get ready, actually."

"All right, buddy," I said. I wished we had time for some phone sex because just talking to Travis was turning me on big time. "I can't wait to see your scene. And I'll be in Chicago in a couple of weeks. We'll catch up then, OK?"

"You bet, Dad," he said. "Love ya."

"Love ya, too, Big Guy."

We hung up.

I let out a hiss of air. I was horny now. Turns out "Jeff Reed" hadn't drained me. I did have a back up idea. There was some University of Colorado kid who'd been emailing me on the anon account Travis set up for me and linked to my OnlyFans. Call me a narcissist, but I'd been eating up the fan mail, and something about this college dude Bryan won me over. Maybe it was the pics he sent. Cute as fuck, brown haired, boy-next-door looks. And the nude pics that showed a surprisingly built body for a college kid - either a jock or someone who hit the college gym regularly. Smooth body with just a dusting of a treasure trail, creamy white skin, washboard abs, hard cock, amazing bubble ass.

Or maybe it was the request that I hit him up if I was ever in the Denver area.

So far I'd only done pro-amateur porn stars in the OF circuit my son and MusclePup Mike worked in. Some of it was the self-justification that it wasn't fully emotional cheating, just porn I was doing. Some of it was caution. All the arrangements went through Mike and because of my mask, no one knew my identity.

But I was horny now and sent this Bryan kid a message. I didn't expect a reply, but it was worth a shot. I set down my phone and undressed to take a quick shower. It was only 6:30, but it had been a long day.

There was a message waiting for me. "God yes, man," Bryan wrote. "I could be there in about an hour and a half," he wrote. Then almost nervously, there was a follow up. "God, I must seem overly eager. But fuck you're so hot. Let me know what works for you."

"How bout 8:30?" I typed back and gave my hotel name and room number. I wanted to get some food in me.

"Awesome. Yeah. See you soon," came the almost immediate reply.

I had only business casual clothes packed, so I got dressed to grab a bite at a restaurant near my hotel. I got back to my room with about ten minutes to spare. I brushed my teeth and checked my appearance in the mirror. I wasn't crazy about getting older, I had to admit, but I could see the "DILF" look that Travis and Mike were always raving about. Well-preserved was the expression, I suppose.

I was actually a little nervous when I heard the knock. I had no business fooling around with a guy like this. Not making a porn vid but actually having a cheating hook up. The messed up thing is that most guys would consider the videos a worse infraction, but this felt naughtier in a way.

Bryan looked great. Better than great. He was cuter than his pictures, and I think his nerves made him more attractive to me. He forced a smile but was shaking.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," I smiled. "Come in, bud."

He was shorter than me, and his size made his collegiate muscle look more compact on his build. Maybe not collegiate wrestler exactly, but definitely that wrestler body type. A little thick, even. MusclePup Mike would have called him a twunk.

"I didn't know what you'd look like," Bryan said softly. His gray eyes were taking me in.

I remembered now he'd never seen me outside of my videos, all masked up. "You came over anyway," I observed.

"Oh yeah," he enthused. "You're my favorite porn star, hands down." He blushed but didn't stop gushing. "You probably know this... I guess most guys don't pay to watch your videos, but I subscribed to your site so I could email you."

"For real?" I laughed.

"Yeah," Bryan replied, that nervous smile growing bigger. "You're not on Twitter or Insta," he explained. His eyes swept up and down my frame. "God, you're even hotter in person. I knew you'd be hot, but... wow."

I was eating up his flattery. "You're not so bad yourself, buddy... bring it in..." I held up my arms to gesture him to come in for a kiss. He did. He was nervous and that turned me on for some reason. But once we started making out, Bryan got real into it, meeting my tongue with his, before practically sucking me into his mouth.

His hands were feeling it up, tentatively at first, then all over. He chuckled as he pulled back so he could feel me up better. I stood there and let his hands roam over my button-down shirt and the gym-toned muscle underneath. At that moment I was VERY glad for the personal trainer Travis set me up with.

"I hope you don't mind my saying," Bryan said, "But it's so wild to be with a porn star."

"Don't mind at all, buddy," I hissed. I was now experiencing the other thrill of doing porn. I knew I was into the exhibitionism of it all, but now I was feeling the hero worshop, the adoration of a young guy like this. I was rock hard.

He gulped as I reached down to undo my khakis, unzipping them and reaching in to haul out my dong. "I guess you really like my cock, then, huh?" I growled.

This wasn't me. At least it wasn't Brad Connors. Married father of three. Road warrior corporate guy. But being MaskedDaddy gave me the sexual confidence and freedom to be someone else.

"Fuck yeah," Bryan gasped as he saw my prick. "That cock's so fucking big..." His eyes were wide, taking in my size before he looked up at me. "OK, if I touch it?"

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't, buddy," I said. "That's why you came over isn't it?"

He nodded, like a chastised kid. Then tentatively he stepped in again and reached forward, like he was afraid of being branded by a hot poker. But once his fingers made contact, the hesitation was gone. The college dude circled his fingers and round me, griping my hardon and gently stroking a couple inches of it to get a feel of the girth and heft. "You don't know how much I've jerked off to your videos," he said. "I wasn't gonna admit to that you, but fuck...." His voice was heavy in his ragged breathing but still had that frat-bro collegiate kind of tone.

"I think we talked about you sucking that dick," I grunted. In our texts, Bryan had offered a blow job, and his presence now was making me really want this. In a surprising way, his realness was making me click with the college kid more than I did with a megahot porn star. Maybe it was the opposite of what Bryan was feeling, where he was living out his porn dream.

"Yeah," he nodded. But he gave me a sheepish shrug. "I, um, don't have a lot of experience."

I patted his cheek. "Give it your best, bud. Please. Daddy's really fucking horny." Yep, this was porn me talking, but it was the magic words for Bryan, who couldn't get down on his knees fast enough.

The young stud actually whimpered as he pulled my dick to his face and began licking it. It was slobbery and impetuous, and his attempt to take me into mouth was more urgent than skilled.

"Easy, buddy..." I urged as he choked a little on my size. "Daddy's got a big cock... take your time."

He nodded and moaned around my prick, flashing those gray eyes up, a little teary. Fuck.

I wouldn't say he got the hang of, but he got a lot more comfortable. Slowly, he sucked me, a few inches at a time, working up the focus to get an extra one back into his throat. The young dude was so excited to blow me, and I was loving this. Slowly I stroked his hair and encouraged him. "That's it, sport... you don't need the training wheels do ya? You go right for the big ones. OH FUCK, that feels nice."

"Yeah?" Bryan asked as he spit out my cock and swallowed the excess spit. I could tell he wanted to make sure he was sucking me right, but more than that he struck me as a young man who craved positive feedback in sex.

"You're doing great, buddy," I said.

There was something about this connection which was night and day different than "Jeff Reed." Bryan was a real guy, a college stud eager for me and not just playing out sex for the camera. And yet...

"You interested in filming this, Bryan? It's SO hot to watch you, buddy."

I could see two reactions in his face at once. A fearful shock at the idea. And an excitement to even consider it. "Oh man," he responded, not giving me a hint which one was the bigger emotion.

I slowly stroked my rod in front of his face, working in his spit over my dong and letting it get steel hard for his gaze. I had toyed with using viagra for my shoots, but even with my size I didn't have an issue getting real hard erections like this. I just loved sex too much.

"If it helps, I packed a spare mask," I offered.

Maybe another dude would have wondered why I had a mask with me, much less more than one mask. But Bryan had been used to seeing me in one, so maybe it just seemed normal to him.

"This is crazy," he said, his fearful look breaking into a smile.

"Is that a yes or a no?" I asked, gently tapping his cheek with my dong.

"Yes," he muttered excitedly before taking ne into his mouth once more.

I let him work me for a few seconds then pulled back. I went to my carryon back and retrieved the masks. I wouldn't need one, I suppose, but I tossed both over Bryan's way while I got my portable tripod, a compact digital camera, and a spare cameraphone, an old Iphone I used for extra handheld footage.

I was worried I was killing the mood setting everything up and fiddling with the lights. But I loved shooting porn, and if anything my dick was harder in anticipation with shooting a different kind of scene. Me with an amateur costar. Even if Bryan wasn't an experienced I just knew this would be a hot video. And if not, I'd enjoy jerking off to it.

Fortunately, Bryan seemed excited too. I could see the excitement in his eyes, even behind the mask. He'd taken his shirt off, maybe to be less identifiable but was on his knees still, hands braced on his thighs. "I can't believe I'm going to be in one of your vids," he said. Yeah, the dude was into this.

I sauntered back, my dick leading the way. "If you're not comfortable with the results, we don't have to post anything," I said, remembering how important that veto power was for my comfort level for my first vid with my son. "Otherwise, I'll take this as your consent."

"Got it," he nodded.

The second his lips touched my prick again, I let out a gasp. He looked up at me, excited, and I took in his green eyes looking up through the mask holes. I pointed the phone camera at him to capture that. I wasn't gonna shoot that angle the whole time, since I preferred to enjoy getting head instead of playing cameraman the whole time. But the snapshots of him looking up would add to the effect.

Bryan's technique wasn't better this time, but his enthusiasm had tripled, at least. I set down the phone and eased my stance back, my posture upright. I was still in my business casual attire as this horny college kid blew me. I urged him to go slower at first with a quick deep grunt.

I heard the guy moan around my meat as something relaxed in his throat and he was able to more steadily take more of my dong into his throat. Working me up and down, I reached behind his head and massaged his scalp through the mask, gently urging him deeper.

"Yes," I choked in response. "Suck me." I'd gotten pretty good at deguising my voice. Using my porn voice. "Suck Daddy."

That did it. Bryan pulled off for a quick breath, then descended all the way down. I'm a big guy, and even some of the OnlyFans studs had a hard time swallowing my sword. But they weren't feeling the crazy sexual thrill this kid was.

He held a second then it was too much, and he pulled off with a sputtering cough. I could see his eyes watering even through the mask holes.

"Sorry," he breathed, as he tried to regain composure.

"It's OK... take your time," I said in my normal voice. Travis would have to edit that out. All for the best. I gave Bryan a second to catch his breath and then I leaned down and met him for a sensual kiss.

"You're doing real good," I said. Then leaning up, I offered my hard dong again. It had gone down a little, but was still pretty heavy. "Ready for more?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah," he said, his gray eyes looking back up at me.

His mouth on me got me rock hard once more. I pulled out some to let the camera catch my full hardon, then pushed back in between his wet lips. Bryan was novice, but that was OK. I was turned on from a change of pace from the OnlyFans dudes. This was a real guy, young and eager. I let him suck and get into sucking.

"Yeah," I grunted, I ran my fingers through his hair again and took the chance to push him down on my meat some more.

Byran was up for the challenge. He grunted around my prick but his throat relaxed and swallowed more of my thickness.

I started cumming. I wanted to ride out the orgasm in his college kid's throat but instead I pulled out and shot a couple of jets onto his mask and his lips before pushing back in just a few inches to let him suckle the remaining dribbles of semen.

I caught my breath a half second then picked up the cameraphone again. I hadn't taken too much handheld footage, so now I got a good view of Bryan slurping on my sated meat, licking up and down and outright worshipping my cock. Thankfully I wasn't too sensitive after nutting, and even if I lost a little of my rigidity, my dick kept a heavy firm meatiness that looked good.

I finally pulled back and turned both cameras off. "You were amazing, buddy," I said with a smile.

Already Bryan was pulling his mask off. I was glad. The guy was real fucking cute. "Dream come true for me," he said.

I could tell he was still horned up and at full sexual arousal from servicing me. "Get on the bed, kiddo," I urged. "Lie back."

He didn't seem to know what was going on but he complied. His body was shaking some as I undid his jeans and yanked them down.

"What are we gonna do?" he asked with some apprehension. Still he raised each leg to let me pull off his jeans. And his boxers showed a thick boner beneath the cotton.

"Your turn to get off," I said, not really answering his question.

Still, Bryan nodded and hooked his thumbs in the elastic of his boxers to slide them down. I let him take them off as I stepped into the bathroom to get lube out of my toiletties bag.

Bryan was now lying back on the bed, fully naked, his creamy white muscle looking even better than I anticipated now that he was stripped nude.

"You an athlete?" I asked as I flipped open the cap on the lube.

Bryan's eyes were nervously only the lube. I think I knew what he was worried about, and a part of me enjoyed playing with his nervousness. I'll give him credit, he put on a brave face as his eyes met mine to answer me. "Yeah. Wrestling.""

My guess had been spot on. "It shows," I said. "You have an amazing body."

"Thanks," he said, watching me get on the bed, me making a show of drizzling some lube on his hardon. His dick twitched, untouched, he was so turned on. "You have more the football build."

"Baseball was my sport," I answered. "And golf. But my trainer has helped me bulk up."

"You're my fantasy," he said softly. "The whole package. None of the guys know I'm into this, though." I could read in his face that he wasn't sure if he should be getting emotionally open like this.

I patted his thigh and set down the lube on the night stand with my other hand. I was fully dress, with my cock sticking out of the fly of my khakis still. I wasn't sure I wanted to get off again, but I knew I could. Bryan was hot as fuck, and I was grooving on his clear attraction to me.

"A shame," I winked, trying to make the conversation sexy again. "Maybe you could have some fun. With you coach, too."

That got a laugh from him. Bryan had a sexy smile. "I've definitely thought of Coach. A lot."

I rubbed his legs some more more, outright caressing them now. His quads were solid as fuck, hard brawn that contrasted with the soft collegiate fur. I copped a feel of his ball sac, lightly haired and ran my fingers up the lubey length of his shaft.

"Lift your legs, bud," I urged, my tone friendly even as my words were commanding.

He got that deer in the headlights look. "I've never done this," Bryan said softly.

I had a good idea what he meant. "You a virgin?" I asked. My eyes doing their best friendly look I could manage as I played with his hard dick and his balls. Not stroking him, more exploring his rigid younger dick. Getting him excited to play more.

"For fucking, yeah..." he replied. "Sorry."

I don't think I realized till then how much I wanted to tap this hot wrestler's ass. Maybe his innocence was fueling some of my desire, too. "Not gonna do anything you're not ready for buddy," I said. "Come on, just lift your legs for Daddy."

Maybe that was the magic word, because Bryan leaned back and raised his legs up.

"You can pull em back," I instructed, taking a good look before leaning forward and crouching down.

"Holy FUCK!" the kid gasped at the first swipe of my tongue. His hair down there was light, and I enjoyed the contrast with hairier guys or even the OnlyFans dudes who shaved smooth. It was a delight to lick up and down the trench and then focus more on his tight pucker.

"Jesus," Bryan gasped. He wasn't naturally verbal, but I could tell his mind was being blown. Surprised, maybe a little ticklish but he definitely loved getting rimmed.

I pulled back. That ring was drum tight all right. It made me realize I'd never eaten out a cherry hole before. My son's certainly wasn't virgin. "Go ahead and stroke off," I urged. I relished the ability to speak in my normal voice now that the cameras were off, even as some of my Masked Daddy persona came out anyway. "I want you to come kiddo."

I watched as he excitedly gripped his boner and start to stroke it. Then I dove back in. Not just rimming but fully eating him out, munching the tightness of his asshole.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck," the kid gasped. I knew his orgasm was starting. I held onto the back of his meaty thighs and even pushed back a little to angle him perfectly to got to town with my tongue and my sucking mouth.

"NMNGGH!" came the grunt of his cum. Bryan's whole body was tensing up and I knew he was giving up his load in a big way.

Indeed as I pulled back I saw that beautiful creamy white wrestler muscle sprayed with splotches of his sperm. I began licking it up off his abs and chest, saving it in my mouth before I finally met him in a kiss to share it.

The snowballing caught him by surprise but he was way into it, accepting his own cum then pushing it back into my mouth, our tongues working it back and forth and frothing it up with our own saliva.

He had a big, content smile on his face when finally parted, swallowing what little seed was left on our tongues. "I thought..." he started then stopped himself.

"I know, buddy," I said. I patted his chest gently. "I won't lie... I came THIS close to pushing your boundaries."

He nodded, emotionally raw. I could tell he half wanted me to. But only half. "I know. I don't know how, but I could tell."

His hand reached up and ran along my arm through my button down shirt. "I'll probably be kicking myself for not going all the way. But I wasn't ready," he said.

"It was all great, buddy," I assured him.

"I should go," he said. "I got a long drive back to Boulder."

I pulled back and gave him one last pat as I eyed up his nakedness one more time. Bryan was the real deal. Not a "jock" for pay. I felt a strange emotional connection even with the sexual chemistry. I'd have to process why I was feeling that.

For now, I let him up and I went to piss while he got dressed again. When I stepped back from the bathroom, he was mostly dressed again, and had a dreamy, moody expression.

"Thanks for that... fuck I don't even know your name."

"Will 'Daddy' do?" I asked with a wink.

"Guess it will have to," he said with resignation. "You've made my dream come true."

I stepped up for a final kiss, then I showed him to the hotel room door.

***

I was glad Bryan didn't sleep over. I needed a good rest and I had a busy schedule with my client visit the next day.

It felt like naughty fun messaging Bryan when I got a chance, though. It started off with "had a great time" kind of texts, but Bryan admitted how he wished he'd gone all the way.

"Maybe if you're in town again, I'll have the courage," he admitted.

"I'm in town another night if you manage to get that courage, kiddo."

There was silence on his end. Like an hour and a half before I got another text, and even then it was a half hour before I had a break after my afternoon presentation.

"Sorry," Bryan wrote. "Was in class and my prof goes apeshit if we're on our phones LOL."

I texted. "I worried I'd spooked you."

This time the reply was quicker. "Dude, you don't know how horny I've been all day. You're definitely not spooking me."

I bit my lip and looked around. I probably looked like I was doing business texts on my phone. But fuck I was getting horny too. Somehing about this Bryan kid got under my skin. "Is that a yes?" I wrote. "You gonna give me your cherry?"

I was pushing boundaries now for sure, but Bryan seemed up for it now, more than the previous night. "I wanna. Yeah."

"Daddy wants to get in your hole SO bad, buddy." Then, "I'll go easy on you."

"God yes," came his reply. "I'm hard as fuck now."

God this was gonna happen. One more boundary to push. "Will you let me fuck you on camera?"

There was a pause now. Then, "Masked?"

"As you like," I wrote, almost hoping Bryan wouldn't wear one, even if I knew he would. To coax him, I added, "I'll tell you my first name if you let me film us."

"Deal. LOL."

I looked up. Folks were filing back into the conference room. I hoped my chubbed cock wouldn't show. "I gotta go. But maybe plan for 8:30? I have a work dinner before."

"God yes. I can't believe we're going to do this."

"We're going to do it, Kiddo." I assured him. "I want you so bad."

I got a blushing emoji in return and had to smile. "All right," he wrote. "Talk later."

I went into my meeting and was able to get my mind off Bryan's creamy smooth wrestler build and his cherry hole. Somehow.

I checked my messages after we wrapped up, before heading off to a business dinner. It was close to my hotel thankfully and these things never ran late. I hoped to see a message from Bryan, but there was nothing.

I did google some instructions for preparing to bottom. With the OnlyFans guys and my own son, that routine was down pat, but a newbie like Bryan could use some guidance, and I wanted the ease and comfort of topping a clean hole. I forwarded the site to Bryan.

I held off to one glass of wine during dinner. I wanted a clear head for later. By 7:40 I'd paid the check on my corporate card and bid good night to my client contacts. I had to laugh at myself by how excited I was to get back to my hotel. I did have time to stop at an office supply store and pick up a spare small camera. I figured this scene would be worth the extra vantage point.

Bryan texted when he was on his way. I stripped down from my business clothes and hung them up in the closet. I was rock hard already, and dripping in anticipation. I hadn't felt this excited since my last time with my son. I took a quick shower and put on the plush hotel robe, tying it to cover up my midsection.

I spent the rest of the time setting up the cameras. The lighting wasn't perfect but it was enough.

The knock made me realize I was a little nervous myself. I'd gotten comfortable doing porn, maybe a little too comfortable, but taking Bryan's cherry felt like a certain responsibility. I wanted it to be an incredible experience for him, and I was realizing I was totally green when it came to easing a guy out of his virginity.

Still, the sight of him made my heart beat. He was just so fucking cute and hunky. Particularly was we realized each other was nervous.

"Hey, Daddy," he said stepping in.

"Brad," I said. "You can call me Brad. Or Daddy," I smirked.

Our kiss was soft, surprisingly soft given the act we were about to do.

"You good for his, buddy?" I asked, running my hands along his outer arms.

He nodded. "I'm nervous as hell, but I'll be kicking myself if I don't do it."

"You feel like stripping down?" I asked. "There's a mask for you on the table."

I pulled mine on and then went around made sure all the cameras were on. I was pleased to see Bryan's naked body, that thick muscle lean and compact with just a dusting of hair. God, even with that build he looked every bit the 20 year old he was. Like I say, the real deal.

And I was doubly pleased to see him throwing hard. That thick five spike standing up from his lightly furred crotch, nerves notwithstanding. I watched him pull on his mask. It was a shame the viewers wouldn't see how cute he was but his body rounded out that college jock look for sure.

I pointed the camera at him. "So... we're about to have sex for a video that will be released through OnlyFans. Do you agree for me to share what I film?"

I half expected some questions, but he just nodded. "Yes."

"Good boy," I said with a laugh. That made Bryan chuckle, too, which made me glad. "Why don't you lie on the bed, face down?"

I could sense his nervousness. Maybe he anticipated face to face for his first time. "Don't worry buddy, I'll ease you into this."

He nodded silently and then complied, walking over to the hotel bed, while I filmed him with his natural jock gait. It was hot as fuck, seeing him strut and that ass of his work. Then his full body stretching out face down.

The other cameras would get a good angle - one angled on each side nightstand, the other from behind where I stood, just a little off to the side. I held the camera phone as I stepped closer, letting the camera rove over his strong back and amazing ass, up and down his legs. Maybe more jock-worship footage than we'd use, but Travis could work his magic.

Finally, I stepped back and propped the camera phone off to the side. maybe it would work for another angle. Bryan turned back to look at me, and I got off on how his back muscle flexed with his motion. Stepping up, I ran my hands along his calves, working up the length as I climbed on the bed.

I knew I'd be in good view of the cameras now as I kissed from one side of his hamstrings to the other knotted leg. I took my time working my way up.

Bryan was ready for the rim job now. Hiking his ass up, he parted his legs enough to let me in. My hands gripped his buns and did the rest.

The college kid's sigh was deep and sexual as I began licking. I wanted to put on a show. I loved rimming a guy and sometimes felt there was never enough of it in porn videos. It was always a quick lick before the top was lining up. I went full in now, eating out Bryan for a solid five to ten minutes, alternating speed and tonguework. Sometimes Bryan relaxed and let me do my magic, sometimes he bucked up against my face to maximize the contact.

I pulled back and with a hungry growl gave him a light pat. "Turn over," I urged in my deeper voice. Spittle wetted down the chin of my mask. I really wished he and I could do it without these, but the masks allowed us to fuck on camera, both of us.

I was amazed to see Bryan's prick hard and leaking clear sap everywhere. He was majorly turned on. I pulled up enough to let the cameras get a good view of his ripped, modestly jacked body.

"How many guys have fucked you?" I asked tersely. I sure hoped the "MaskedDaddy" voice was enough fo a disguise.

Bryan didn't change his voice, but his soft response was sexy as hell. "No one yet," he said.

I leaned in and kissed him. Just enough sexual urge, and enough romantic finesse. Bryan responded in turn, sucking my tongue into his mouth and moaning against me. He was nervous, sure, but also getting the case of the major horns.

I loved this, putting on a show and yet connecting one-to-one with this fine young man. I pulled up and muttered, "nice," patting his chest. I rolled off to the side and undid my robe. My hardon bounded out and both Bryan and the camera could see my exposed body with its blond fur. I pulled him to me and we started making out again.

Silently I guided him down and the kid knew what to do. Slowly he began kissing and worshipping my big prick, wetting it down with his tongue before taking me into his mouth. Practice hadn't made perfect, but he was getting much more accustomed to my size and better at blowing me.

I was determined not to get overheated. I just lay back and enjoyed this, the sensation of Bryan's soft, slow blowjob and the view of his nakedness kneeling in front of me in servicing position.

Soon, though, it was feeling too good. I nudged him off. He came up to meet me for a kiss, taking the initiative now, until I regained the upperhand in rolling him back on his back, with me on top. I could feel his hardon against mine and the warmth from his body.

Placing my mouth at his ear, I whispered, "You like being a porn star too, dont ya kiddo?"

"Yeah," he grunted back.

I knew I needed to be a little verbal with him. If the camera picked up my words, Travis could edit them out. "You're just about the hottest guy I've ever fucked, Bry."

His body actually shivered at that. The time seemed ripe. I lifted off and leaned over to pump out some lube.

He let out a hiss of air the second my greased fingers touched his pucker but he didn't flinch. Instead he spread his legs and looked into my eyes. This was gonna be good.

I pushed a digit in. Bryan was real fucking tight. But I worked him slowly. Back and forth, in and out.

"Another," I said curtly.

"God," he hissed as I penetrated him with two fingers. It wasn't bad-uncomfortable for him, but it was certainly unfamiliar to him. We stood still eyes locked, him lying back, me between his legs. Until I started finger fucking him again. I applied more lube and fingered him some more.

Finally I pulled back and removed my robe entirely, slipping it off my body and tossing it aside. Bryan's hands were on me, excited to feel up my DILF body. I let him. Between his attention and the cameras I was getting real excited. I was the one dripping now. I caught a thick thread of precum in my fingers and brought it down to his virgin hole. I fingered him up with that too.

The third finger was slow going, but I got him to relax.

"No rubber?" I have asked and half said.

"No sir," came his excited reply.

I was gonna get blue balls soon if I didn't fuck. I scooted up and pressed my prick head in place. I pressed super slow against his ring, working against the spit-slick tightness and smearing my precum against him.

I could feel Bryan's body shake beneath me, and he looked up, a real deer-in-the-headlights look in his eyes beneath the mask. I worried if I waited longer his nerves would get the best of him. I pushed in.

"UNNH!" he whimpered loudly. I felt bad the entry hurt and bad that he was doing his bravest to pretend it didn't.

"Easy, bud..." I hissed, reaching down to run my hands along his hot body. This fine young man was giving me a major gift. My prick jerked an inch or two inside him, feeling the tightness of his ass clamping down on him, as I held still, then gave the shallowest of thrusts, back and forth more than in and out.

I looked at him, trying to communicate silently. Then I leaned in, pushing his legs back with my body. "You're doing good," I said.

We kissed. My cock slipped out of its toe hold but I didn't care. He needed this, and I wanted it. This was about the only time I lost track of the cameras. When I wasn't putting on a show. I connected with this college kid in a deep, soulful kiss. And kissed him som more.

I pulled back. This time I didn't rush, but I didn't delay. I pushed back into him. Bryan somehow trusted me, because his ring gave way more easily. He was virgin tight a few inches inside, but I gently thrust back and forth, working that knot inside him. I pulled out and added more lube. Now showing off for Bryan and the cameras both. Then I placed his ankles on my shoulders.

"OOH FUCK!" Came his cry when I broke through. But he wasn't in pain, just overwhelmed by feelings he didn't have word for. I plowed all the way in and held it. I could see his muscular chest rise and fall, taking deep breaths.

"Got your cherry, kiddo," I hissed.

"Thank you," he actually replied, his voice heavy in emotion. That got me going. My dick felt like stone inside his warm, tight guts.

"Feel good buddy?" My hands massaged his calf muscle as I looked down on him and restrained myself from just plowing his hot ass.

Bryan nodded.

I pulled and out thrust in. Then again. I was fucking for real now. Bryan's first fuck. Maybe more than he bargained for when he came over the previous night. But I knew this was his deep fantasy and why he reached out to me.

I wasn't hard or rough, but I fucked with a steady determination. I wanted to give this kid the best first time experience possible now. I puffed my chest and used more of a swivel action of my hips, in and out, in and out, as my eyes stared down at him. I'd probably read his facial reactions better without the mask, but his eyes and mouth were enough. I was getting to him, hitting that spot.

I paused just a second and reached to pump out more lube. This went onto his prick. He gasped as I slicked him up then got the picture once I pulled my hand away.

I grabbed a pillow and slid it underneath his hips. It made for the perfect angle, and I took quick advantage, resuming my steady plow of Bryan's no-longer virgin hole.

Turns out his masturbation was just what Bryan needed, flipping the switch to full pleasure now.

"Yeah?" I asked. Fucking heavier now.

"Yesss," the college hunk hissed back. He was jerking faster now, not frantically but eagerly and in synch with the fuck.

I saw his pisslit dilate and a clear spurt fly out. Not his ejaculation yet, but the prelude.

"Fuck yes," I grunted, throwing my hips into harder pounding. I was getting close to the finish line, and I wanted to speed up to catch up with this stud.

My harder thrusts felt amazing giving how much his ass was clenching and releasing on my dick spasmodically. But it really made Bryan's prostate sing. His pale skin grew pink and flush and his wrestler muscle tensed up.

"Shit!" he yelled and timed with each shove his nuts gave it up, and his prick spurted heavy ropes of semen over his perfect body.

I went at it even harder, leaning in some, powering my hips in rapid jabs. I didn't say anything but my grunt was unmistakeable as I shoved in and unloaded. My cum threw off my rhythm, but I held deep a second, then my hips jerked involuntarily for another hard shove to discharge my seed deep inside Bryan.

The kid winced at that one, which made me feel bad. I got myself under control and held myself steady, gently massaging his leg and then easing back. He'd been a trooper but now needed a break. I leaned back and showed off my slickened dong, though most viewers eyes would probably be on the cum-covered collegiate muscle of my bottom.

Leaning over I picked up one of the cameras. Time for the money shot.

Even if Bryan wasn't an experienced bottom, he'd watched enough porn to know what I was after. Rather than drop his legs down, he pulled them back, spreading them enough to show me and the camera his fucked and seeded hole. No longer drum tight, it has a slight gape and was thick with my cum. I'd shot a lot.

I got a good shot of it, then angled the camera up to capture his whole ripped and cum-wet body. Nothing would ever top watching my own son in porn, but Bryan was a close second.

I finally set down the phone and pulled off my mask. That was the cue Bryan was waiting for and he eagerly peeled his off.

"You OK, buddy?" I asked. My normal voice returning.

He nodded. "God yeah. I'm so glad we did that."

I gave a sly nod to the camera. "Your first time's preserved as a memento," I said. A little teasing in my voice, but checking in where his head was.

He smiled and god he was so fucking cute with that pearly white smile. "I didn't think I was gonna enjoy it at first," he admitted. "But damn..."

I ran my fingers through the cum that had turned liquidy on his chest. "You shot like gangbusters," I said.

"My cums are pretty big normally," he said. "But your dick did something inside me that made me go wild. I've never felt anything like that."

"I'm glad," I said. I leaned forward for another kiss, this one tantalizingly soft and slow.

Afterward, I let Bryan get up and shower off while I checked my phone. Then I figured I'd join him. The look on his face told me my presence was quite welcome.

"Hey," he grinned, shyly. God, he was star struck and that made me feel like a real stud.

"Hey," I said. Our wet bodies connected and we took the time to soap each other down.

"You married to a man or a woman?" he asked as he nodded to my gold band.

"A woman," I said. "I'm not the best husband."

He gave a nod of acknowledgment. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad you share yourself."

"I have news for you kiddo," I said, turning off the water and running my hands over his wet muscled body. "You've shared yourself now, too."

"Still can't believe it," he said. "When will you post it?"

"In a couple of weeks," I said. I wasn't going to bring up Travis or my process for putting the vid together.

His hands reached up to feel my body too, my chest but also my shoulders and arms.

"I'm hard again," Bryan said. "I can't believe it."

"You're 20," I joked. "It happens."

"Yeah," he laughed.

I patted his arm. "Feel like sleeping over?" I asked. "I have a morning flight to catch but you're welcome to stay."

He nodded, like an eager puppy. We dried off and made our way back into the room. I downed a bottled water to rehydrate and tossed him one. "Remind me to tip housekeeping extra," I said as I pulled down the sheets. "We made a fucking mess."

He slipped into the bed next to me. His body was cooler now, and felt great against my warmer bod. We made out. His dick was a spike and I got hard once more, but I wasn't eager for another fuck. And Bryan seemed to go with the flow.

"So..." I finally said. "No longer a virgin..."

"No sir."

"Any regrets?" I asked, leaning back in the bed against the headboard, pulling my hands behind me. Bryan nestled in, resting his head against my upper chest and running his hands along my fur.

"None. It was hot as fuck," he said. "But even if it hadn't been, I just feel relieved, you know?"

"Not exactly," I smiled knowingly.

"Ha," he said, picking up on my meaning. "I'm surprised your so good at breaking a guy in if you're cherry too."

"I'd like to say I had some secret," I admitted, "But I just did what felt right."

Maybe it was the sex. I mean it was getting late, but not that late. Bryan was dozing some as he rested up against me. I ran my fingers through his hair.

"Ready for bed, kiddo?" I asked.

"Yeah, Brad," he said and rolled off to the side.

***

My son did his magic crafting two separate scenes from the footage with Bryan, as well as a very hot teaser. "Taking College Jock's Cherry" was the title of the second. The on-screen chemistry was real, and it was clear that we weren't faking it. I really did take the young dude's virginity on screen.

"God, Dad, this is fucking incredible," Travis said to me on the phone before he posted the scene. "I've shot three times to it."

I smiled. I was in a semi-public place and had to be a little discrete. "I'm very glad to hear that," I smirked. "A little payback to the one you did the other week."

"Bud and Spike?" he asked.

That one was one was OK, but not my favorite. "No, the other one," I said, cagily.

That got a laugh from Trav. "Oh, MiamiMuscles... dude's a crazy power bottom, right?"

"Yeah," I said, my throat getting hoarse with lust I was trying to hide. "I like watching you in action like that."

Travis picked up on my need to be discreet, though he had no constraints on his end. "You prefer watching me fuck, Dad?"

God, my son knew how to drive me crazy. "I do," I admitted.

I detected a hesitation on his end, which wasn't Travis's normal response to anything. He paused. "Dad... you ever think about, you know, me fucking you?"

Just hearing those words were going make me go from chubbed to boned. "It's a little scary to think about," I replied. "But yeah... I do."

"Oh fuck," Travis hissed. Only then did I realize he'd been dreaming of that very act. Topping me. Taking my anal cherry, like I'd done with that Denver kid. It surprised me actually, given our bedroom chemistry with my son bottoming for me, eager for his dad's cock. "We'll talk about it next time, OK?" he said. Not pressuring me but letting me know this was on his mind.

"Yeah," I said. "I'll probably chicken out, son. But I wanna explore the idea." I was nervous just vocalizing this.

"Sure, Dad," Trav said. "God you know I love everything we'd done together. If I were there right now, I'd suck your cock, you know that." My son was getting into deep lust mode now.

"Fuck, Trav, I should probably go," I said. I knew if I kept talking like this, I'd get in trouble. "Later, son?"

"Yeah, Dad," he replied, his voice rich with lust. I knew he was probably going to jack off when I hung up. I was going to find the time myself at the first chance. Pull up one of Travis's videos where he topped and stroke off imagining him pounding me, too.

****

My Denver videos were popular. I wasn't surprised that my fans responded to the realness of them, but I was surprised by the messages I got. They changed my porn career and it's probably not an overstatement to say they changed my life.

The first one came two weeks after the video with Bryan dropped.

"Dear MaskedDaddy, I loved your latest video. God, it's like my deepest fantasy. I'm 23 and live in DC. I don't have that college jock's bod, but I'm working on it. I've been too scared to let a guy fuck me, but if you want to be my first, I'd love to star in one of your vids. I wouldn't even need a mask."

It was a wild email, and I figured the kid's horniness doing the thinking for him. I pawed my crotch and laughed at how forward the offer was. I started to send a polite thanks but no thanks reply.

But then I thought about it, and I figured what the hell. I asked for the young dude's pictures. He was cute as fuck. Not quite as twunky as Bryan but still good looking, kind of that boy-next-door type.

Travis handled the OnlyFans money my site brought in. I didn't do porn for the money, and in any case I didn't want my finances impacted lest Kate find out.

I sent two more texts that night. One to DC guy. "If you're serious, lets plan for something three weeks from now." I knew I had some work travel on the East Coast I could piggy back on.

My other I sent to Trav. "I need your help arranging a DC visit. Gonna pop another dude's cherry."

[leithanienwnt]

This is a big one. My very first time niching a CC, and I pushed it to the absolute limit. I'll break it down below:

So this is only 510, but it's way harder than the 620 I did with my full roster (and the 500 I did with the niche before this, but I'll go over that later). That's a common thing with niching because it just doesn't give you as many options (and honestly, that's kind of the point), but it's actually not just my operators that are different. The thing about niching this cc is that your niche can easily just lock you out of a huge number of tags. Without a vanguard, I can't take any dp related risks; without enough guards or casters to be able to just rely on one or the other, I can't take the class bans; without more than one unit that has offensive recovery, and relying on ranged units who have their non reed tiles banned, I can't take the sp down tags; etc. Add the fact that those things break set bonuses and lock me out of a number of other tags that my niche might be able to do, and I'm very limited in what I can take. Because of this, the only way I can maximise my score is by pumping as many points as possible into making the enemies as strong as possible. I took all the drone tags and all the car tags (though I took the non-invis option for them, since blocking them was a non-option, locking me out of another set bonus). I took the enemy caster buff tag, I added the extra evocators, and on top of all of that, I maxed out all enemies' attack, minimised my units' HP, and reduced my units' attack substantially. With all of this, there's little to no room for error throughout. But let's get to what I'm doing here.

So the opener is Bassline and Eyjaberry. Bassline cannot survive there on his own, with either skill, as the burn burst, the melee mobs, and the caster together all provide just too much pressure for him to heal through, requiring Eyjaberry. Then Lessing sets the tone for how tight the rest of the clear will be, by taking out the first enemy in the blue box. He goes really hard on this map, particularly on S2. Reducing the damage from the seeds, casters, and evocators lets him live things that no one else would manage. After that I activate Eyjaberry S3 to make sure Bassline is at max HP before I retreat her (and to leave him with some lingering heals from her talent), and I swap in regular Eyja to clear out the enemies that Bassline is blocking before I retreat him and place Vivi. (I can't open with Eyja, as she'll use all her S2 charges on the caster that's there, meaning she'll leak the melee mobs that open the map. Managing her charges is very important throughout the map, but I'll touch on that more as we go).

When I M9ed Viviana, I had no intention of using her S1 seriously. I just wanted to finish her M9 before I got to any of the more practical ones because she's my favourite character, and if I was going to invest those kinds of mats into any character, it was going to be her. I did not expect to then use it to AFK more or less an entire lane in a CC, especially not with the -30% attack that I took. It just happens that it works perfectly for taking each enemy out before they enter the reeds and turn invisible. The only exceptions are the first enemy that spawns before I can place her and the two that enter the map together. Her being able to do all of that is huge, as it lets me focus my five unit deployment limit to taking out the map's big threats, and means that I don't have to block/heal on that side beyond those two enemies that come together.

Next come Eben and Diamante. Diamante is my main option for dealing with the seeds in this map, and that first deployment is half to clear them out so that they don't expend Eyja's S2 charges, and half to deal extra damage to the rush. Meanwhile Eben uses his delta mod for extra damage to take out the rover, and Lessing takes out one evocator and more than enough of the next one for Eyja to deal with it later (again, I cannot stress enough how massive his damage reduction is on his S2. The fact that he survives for his full skill duration there is nuts). His placement is also really, really tight, as I want him to get hit by the second evocator right before he takes out the first. This means that he'll take that damage while blocking, reducing it massively, and giving him as much time as possible before its next attack so that he can maximise his damage. Though while I'm managing that timing, I miss something and make the one mistake in this run.

I was supposed to retreat Diamante the second that caster fell, so that I'd have DP to deploy Carnelian ASAP. I missed that by a few seconds, meaning Carnelian was just slightly too late. This almost cost me the run. A second or two later, and it actually prevents her from taking out the evocators and doing extra damage to the rover, meaning that it would move far enough to reveal Eyja, letting the caster that's walking down the middle take her out. In my desperation to let her get as much damage in as possible, I end up missing retreating her, costing me some valuable dp as the caster and seeds take her out. This ultimately works out still, but it makes everything else even tighter. One more missed retreat and I won't have enough for later.

After that is just setting up for the leak. Lessing and Eyja thin out the enemies on the left, leaving just the one that Bassline needs to block for the eventual invis drone leak. But I can't talk about the drone leak without talking about the 500 point clear I got before this. The difference was that I swapped the -20% ally attack for the -30%. That doesn't sound like much! But wow did it mess things up.

So most of my units do just fine with the reduction. I was a bit worried about Lessing and Eben, since they both scale so hard off of attack, meaning any decrease to that base attack gets magnified, but they were actually totally fine. The problem unit, however, is also the one that I lean on heavily to deal with all the seeds: Diamante. Without him dealing with the seeds, this is not possible. His +90 ASPD and hit-two from his S2 is desperately needed. With -20% attack, he two shots them, letting him deal with them efficiently and making the painful process of baiting out the last few seeds (including the ones that spawn INSIDE the blue box) doable. But with -30%, he needs three hits. This extra hit is the difference between him clearing them out and him getting overwhelmed. But I can't let that happen. Having only four ground units, baiting the seeds is really hard, and with all the attack up and HP down that I stacked, no one can live getting hit with three or more. Enter Earthspirit and Czerny.

Earthspirit was the only unit that didn't actually get used in my 500, and she isn't out for long here, but she is VITAL. She slows down the seeds, keeping them away from my ground units, and crucially gives Diamante the third hit that he needs to take them out, easing the pressure while he's off skill. But still, that can only last until they start spawning outside of her range.

Czerny, on the other hand, was used in my 500, but mostly just as a body. He still needed to do that first deployment to block the enemies in the reeds, and then I'd use him again at the end to bait some seeds. But here the margins are so much tighter that I actually need him to bait two rounds of seeds. The timing on this is incredibly tight, but with placing him at the right point, and activating Bassline's S2 at the right moment to get him up again in the moment between two seeds hitting him, he can live long enough to activate his S2, giving him +100% HP, and making him the only unit in my niche that, with Eyjaberry's S3 also giving him +30% HP, can tank more than one round of the seeds. However, the other thing complicating that is that his S2 blast going off would destroy the stall that I need for the seeds that spawn in the blue box, so the timing on it all is unbelievably tight. Actually, yeah, speaking of the stall, let's talk about that.

So leaking the drones is possible, but it's a major pain. I fully believe that HG did not intend for us to be able to leak them, as it's difficult enough to let them get to the blue box in the first place, but then they both spawn seeds INSIDE the blue box. Now, there are some units that, with some work, can attack/destroy them before they leak, but that wasn't really an option for me. Instead, I have to bait them, but the ones that spawn deepest in the box only have one tile in their range. And that tile is the bottom left, in the reeds. You know, where your unit is invisible. This means that to make the leak work, you need to stall an enemy on a blocker there to the end. But you also need to keep that blocker alive, so they can't actually bait a wave of seeds themselves until the ones that come from the blue box. This requires a lot of bodies. My niche, however, does not have a lot of bodies. That meant that there was no margin for error here, and that each and every seed had to be individually accounted for, especially to manage leaking both of the invis drones.

The second drone was much easier to leak in my 500. There, because Diamante handled the seeds just fine, I was able to save Eyja to deploy her where I have Carnelian here, and the splash damage from her S2 would take out the seeds that spawn in the blue box that time (though they would have been out of her range for the first one, and even if they were in her range, they spawn too close to the leak point itself for her projectile travel time to let her take them out before they leak, so I did still need to have Bassline stall up until the first drone leaked). (Also, no, Carnelian isn't doing anything here. She's just kind of an emergency button in case the seeds end up taking out Bassline and I suddenly need to get rid of the enemy he was blocking). But here I need her to replace Diamante, as even with skill, he won't be able to stop enough of the seeds from hitting my ground units. Because of this, I need to keep the stall going for EVEN LONGER, so that Bassline can bait the seeds from that one too. It's all so tight, and you can see that based on how much I keep the operator select bullet time going, as well as in me going back and forth on whether to place a unit or not at various points. Fun fact, this clear's recording is about two minutes longer than the 500 point clear, because of just how long I kept the bullet time going. Even after it works, I still place Eben and activate Carnelian out of paranoia for a potential extra seed spawn. But ultimately, it works out. All the things that I'd planned and theorised would work finally did. And Vivi even gets the final kill.

[bleachbleachbleach]

[Bleach 083]

I am not really someone who wants to get really in the reeds about spiritual imagery and motifs and pinning those down--that is most certainly someone else's excellent project--but I wanted to take a moment here to look at all the elements that go into Kuukaku's cannon (not to be confused with Yamamoto's Kidou Cannon), because it provides an interesting template one might work from if you wanted to design some other high-level Soul Society ceremony or kidou practice.

Some observations/potentials/headcanons:

It's dawn, and this is important. Maybe the ceremony Kuukaku is drawing on relies on relationship to/power from the sun, or the sun serves as an anchor that taps into the heartbeat of this world in general. It is something that is tied, in some way, to a universe beyond oneself. (I was going to say 'maybe it needs to be dawn so the shinigami are looking into the sun and it takes longer for the Seireitei to realize a gigantic blue ball is careening toward them,' but assuming the sun rises in the east in Soul Society, that actually does not help this, haha.)

The cannon is adorned with shide, the white zigzag streamers we see associated with Shintou over here in our world. Suggestive of holy places, purification rituals.

Kuukaku is also drawing a circle around the cannon with a huge ink brush, which is reminiscent of the Buddhist ensou (圓相). Ensou "express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create" (Wiki). A circle can symbolize wholeness, perfection, emptiness, Enlightenment.

Similar to all of the kidou chants (as formalized in the Academy curriculum, whether Kuukaku considers herself a kidou practitioner or the keeper of an art that pre-exists shinigami calling it 'kidou'), lots of colors and animals involved here. (Worth noting that Kuukaku does actually mention a monkey grabbing a star with his right hand, for the Renjis in the house.) Also requires use of a sword. Zanpakutou?

But only for the first part. Kuukaku's final role in this ceremony makes use of her own arm, not a sword, in ways that require wrapped cloth and burning power and that her vassals do not seem to think was going to be an automatic/expected success--this ceremony is a BIG deal and no easy thing. (One wonders if this is what happened to Kuukaku's other arm.)

[stesierra]

I'm writing a new book about angels and demons and the humans who have to deal with them because I want to and nobody can stop me. Here's the first chapter, which is pretty short. I have written this just now on my phone so live with any typos. There's no WIP intro. I haven't added to my Writeblr intro. I do what I want.

Let me know if I should write the rest of the book.

The Giant's Gamble

Chapter 1

Kirjath slipped through the ajar side door, contorting like a reed in a hurricane to clear the splintered doorframe. The nightclub music throbbed ahead of him, so loud he felt the vibration in his breastbone. To angelic ears, it was about as melodic as a jackhammer accompanying an angry toddler. But that didn’t matter. He wasn’t here to enjoy himself. Did he ever enjoy himself, really?

In the gloomy light, lovely young humans sauntered out of his way, half of them making cow eyes at him. The other half, mostly young men, did their best to puff themselves up, like offended cats. But the tallest of them didn't reach his shoulder.

He brushed past them all with a weary smile and pushed deeper into the club. Not towards the bar, which lay under a web of pipes that crawled across the unfinished ceiling like tentacles of some cosmic horror. Not towards the dance floor, where people who had, from his perspective, been born yesterday gyrated and swayed. No, his destination was at the back, through a door marked employees only. Locked, of course. As if it mattered.

With a twist of the wrist, he broke the doorknob off. It took only a second to dismantle the whole lock apparatus and squish himself through the too-small space. Nobody noticed, not with the music thumping overtime.

A dank narrow hallway greeted him on the other side, lit only by a bare bulb hanging from a frayed wire. It stank of black mold and piss. But at least he didn't have to look at the humans anymore. Kirjath hated places where humans tried to substitute alcohol for actual courage. And the music hurt his ears.

Down at the end of the hall, he found a crumbling stairwell leading down. Old leaks had scarred the cement with rusty water stains, as ugly as tear-stained mascara. No one had inspected this part of the building for decades. No doubt Camriel had ensured it. Well, he wouldn't be able to, after tonight.

He found his brother in the depth of his lair, sitting on a couch that had half-collapsed under his giant frame. Camriel wasn't actually his brother, for neither of them had ever been born. But the relationship was an appropriate shorthand.

The other grigori was staring up at a ceiling he'd plastered with pinups of anorexic teen girls. He looked almost skeletal himself, with legs so long the hems of his pants fell mid-knee. He stank of wine and too much cologne, the kind that claimed to be full of irresistible pheromones. His eyes were closed, but Kirjath couldn't tell if he was visiting the Intangible or just drunk.

“Camriel,” he said and drew his sword from thin air, which is where he kept it. People looked at you funny if you wore as sword these days. Especially one long enough for a giant.

The other angel opened bloodshot eyes and stared up at him. “Kirjath? Have you come to kill me?”

He nodded. Obviously so.

Camriel sat up, and the couch collapsed the rest of the way with a whump. “Why this time?”

This was obvious, too, but Kirjath answered, because he knew Camriel loved to live in denial. “You've been siring children. Triplets, all so big they had to be cut from their mother's belly. All unnaturally beautiful and strong.”

Camriel scoffed and scrambled to his feet from the ruins of the couch. “C-sections are routine now. Doesn't even kill the mother. What does it matter?”

“Nephilim are never routine,” Kirjath said. “Even if the mother survives.”

“Oh, like the modern world can't use a few more men of renown? They can get basketball scholarships. Life will be a cinch. Really, they should thank me.”

“Who should? The children you abandoned?” His grip tightened on his sword.

Camriel tossed his long hair over his shoulder. If he'd ever tried to comb it, the comb was probably still lost somewhere in there. “Heaven should thank me, for improving the gene pool.”

Kirjath nodded and offered his brother his most disappointed look. And then he stepped forward and rammed his sword through his brother's stomach.

“Ow! Fuck!” Camriel said, curling around the steel that had split his intestines. “What the fuck is your problem?”

Kirjath kicked his feet out from under him and ripped the blade loose, spraying the mildewed carpet with gore. He stood over his dying brother and said, “We were exiled. Because you couldn't stop breeding. Because you couldn't leave the humans alone.”

“It wasn't just me,” Camriel said, his tone utterly offended.

“The grigori,” Kirjath snarled. “Because they wouldn't stop. Because none of you would. And now look what’s become of us. I'm not going to let you keep breaking the law. Not that one. The only one that matters.”

“What are you, heaven’s watchdog?” Camriel spat. “They threw you out too, Kirjath! They threw us all out! So what if I broke their laws? Who the fuck cares?”

“I care,” Kirjath said. He lifted his sword.

Blood ran down Camriel’s lips and pooled in the hollow of his throat. “You think you're better than me?” he gurgled. “Better than the rest of us? Because you never knocked up some girl? You're not. Because you--”

Kirjath swung. And his brother's head rolled away, lips silenced, as the irony stink of blood overwhelmed the little room where his brother had spent his sad little life.

He'd be back, but not right away. And by the time he made his way back to the Tangible, perhaps he would have learned his lesson.

He turned his back on the headless body, dismissing his sword back to nowhere from whence it had come. And came face to face with a young woman. She stood in the doorway with a delighted look on her face, and she wore the sigil of Lilith at her throat.

“You killed him,” she said. “How wonderful.”

Tag list for everything

@anonymousfoz

@moremysteriesthantragedies

@elizababie

@sm-writes-chaos

@bellascarousel

@macabremoons

@the-dragon-chronicler

@teacupsandstarlight

@vorskra

@wrenofthewords

@amostdelectablescribbler

@mysticstarlightduck

@phantommill

@gracewritesbooks

@aziz-reads

@owlsandwich

@symbioticsimplicity

@squarebracket-trick

@fishythewriter

@koala2all

@rmgrey-author

@atomatowriter

@cheerfulmelancholies

@delusionisaplace

Just chapters and snippets

@da-na-hae

[reallyromealone]

Hi hello Rome! How are you?

Can I ask for Bonten dads with this "perfect" son, son is like a straight A, Gifted and Talented kid, with good personality. But son just feels like shit most of the time and beats himself up over any mistake.

One day son has a rough day and someone in Bonten starts giving him shit for just wanting to have a break, and son has a breakdown and Bonten dads comfort him.

I just need some father comfort. Thanks bro.

Of course dude I got you

Being the son of the most influential men in japan wasn't easy by any means due to their careers but (name) could deal with that...the real pressure came from his peers.

Everyone had expectations from him, he was the only child of Bonten so they had assumptions of him and he often had to prove himself every time to be perfect which lead to a complex with perfection.

Because of this he forced himself to be perfect at everything no matter what.

His grades? Perfect

His extra curricular activities? Perfect

He missed a word that was mispelt in his essay in English, the red circle from the teachers pen circling it and two points taken off, lowering his grade slightly and fucking up his grade point average even just slightly.

Instead of a perfect grade point average be was now at 98%.

This was just the tip of the iceberg.

Throughout the day, tiny things built up.

The reed on his sax broke and he didn't have a spare left.

A classmate spilt a drink over him by accident.

He forgot an assignment at home.

Basically everything was going wrong and he couldn't take it anymore.

When he came home Mochi made a comment about forgetting to make his bed and (name) just lost it, a heartbreaking sob escaping his throat as he felt himself breakdown and his dad's immediately began panicking as (name) pulled at his hair and crouched down.

"Shit kid, why are ya crying?! It's not a big deal bud" Takeomi said to the teenager as they began checking him over and soothing him.

It took an hour to calm (name) down before he eventually told them what was going on "I'm sorry.. I-ill do better..."

"Oh (name) we don't give a shit about that, we just want our kid to be alright"

And at that (name) cried again, sinking into kakuchos arms as the men looked amongst themselves "I'm just so tired..."

"You don't have school tomorrow right?" Ran asked his son who nodded "then let's go do something fun, you don't gotta think at all we will plan it"

"Aren't you guys busy?"

"Never busy for you brat"

"Ok..."

They ended up taking him to a Bonten owned junk yard, safety goggles and baseball bats "alright, tell us what is bothering you then hit the car as if it were the thing annoying you" Koko said, them all in casual clothing as (name) nodded "I'm really annoyed that... I got a bad grade" and then smashed the cars rear view mirror as his dad's cheered him on "come on you got more in ya!" Sanzu egged on and (name) nodded "I'm really annoyed that my peers demand more from me and have unreasonable expectations" and smashed the drivers window.

"I HATE THAT I FEEL LIKE IM DROWNING IN SCHOOL WORK AND I CANT HAVE A MOMENT TO BREATHE WITHOUT SOME GOD FORSAKEN CLASSMATE DEMANDING MY ATTENTION" and began wailing on the car as his dad's cheered him on "this is fun! I'm gonna smash more shit!"

They ended up smashing stuff all morning, leaving to go get a nice lunch and the Bonten dad's watched their son relax a bit more and actually smile.

They realized they hadn't seen him look so happy in a minute, hearts squeezing at the realization and made a new rule.

Once a week they went out and did stuff as a family, unwind.

It wasn't much but it would at least make (name) feel better as Ran would be teaching his son proper self care that night.

[twinanimatronics]

Kinda a rant ig? But I'm really tired of people saying SolarMoon is an inc*st ship. It's clearly stated in the show that they don't see themselves as family at all, not brothers, not cousins, not anything. I saw a post calling the ship disgusting and I want to correct them but I also don't want to be blocked by them because I enjoy their art. Sorry for the rant in your ask box I just needed to get this out there

Honestly whoever the person is I’m probably already blocked by them like I am by a couple people who used to like my works that commented how they wish me they never drew me fanart for “defending Incest” 🙄

When literally; Kat, Davis, and Reed know about the ship.

They, the ones actually playing the characters, DON’T believe it to be incest

And it’s why we got Kat as Earth saying things like how while they do consider Solar family via Found Family, Solar ISN’T ACTUALLY RELATED TO THEM AND SHE JUST LIKES GIVING PEOPLE SHE’S CLOSE TO FAMILY TITLES.

She even said in their reaction to fan animatics.

And literally they all make offhanded jokes about Monty being Lunar’s dad and Vegeta his brother but no one cares about the fact Monty’s dating Earth, Lunar’s SISTER, but when It’s Solar and Moon suddenly it’s a big deal.

Some say they consider it incest still cause of the fact they look alike, but no one’s going after Funtime Foxy or Lolbit when they’re basically identical animatronics that a few characters have mistaken for siblings on first meeting.

AND THOSE TWO ARE GETTING MARRIED IN THIS UNIVERSE.

[shuttershocky]

Any 4/5* you feel that are stuck between their stronger 6* and their more efficient 3/4*? I really like using Executor, but I often feel like Pinecone/Chalter (for a lack of better words) invalidate him.

Oh boy do I have some candidates

Reed

Reed has the great misfortune of being both an early, experimental unit, and being part of the Charger vanguards. Here's the thing, nearly all the Chargers are objectively great units with their high ATK, fast attack speed, and ability to refund their original DP cost. However, the issue is that no one really uses them, with the exception of Bagpipe, who acts as the mighty servant of the vanguard goddess, Myrtle.

Whenever a Charger DOES get used for actually doing their intended job of picking off trash for easy DP, the 3 star Plume does a swell job, while 4 star Vigna is just straight up hitting above her weight class by combining a big ATK buff with a crit talent.

This has made 5 star Chargers very sad as they're stuck between not being bagpipe while not being nearly as efficient as Vigna, but Reed is ESPECIALLY sad because the other two 5 star Chargers are both Free operators, and better than her. Grani can block 2 while increasing her DEF to make her decently tanky, while Wild mane has redeployment CD reduction on her module and synergy with the Dubstep Polish Horses team, while Reed has.... RES, and an ASPD bonus if she takes Arts damage, when her gimmick is that she's the Charger with Arts damage (enemies that deal Arts are likely to have high RES).

Glaucus

Unlike poor Reed, Glaucus isn't notably weaker than the rest of her Decel Binder class, but just like poor Reed, she's a weird, experimental unit that is sandwiched between stronger and more efficient options, namely Podenco for the 4 star and Angelina and Suzuran for the 6 stars.

Podenco offers a lot of versatility for cheap investment. She can heal allies with her skill 1, or throw a poison vial that constantly slows and silences enemies inside its range, very useful in IS. Meanwhile, Angelina and Suzuran are Angelina and Suzuran.

Poor Glaucus specialized in being an anti-drone unit when many flying enemies stopped being drones, while all the actually dangerous drones were Arts drones that had RES and needed to be taken down by Marksmen. She's still not terrible if you want to use her (the AOE of her S2 is huge), but objectively speaking it's hard to justify her most of the time.

Franka

Until the advent of modules, Dreadnoughts suffered pretty badly from an opportunity cost issue: their 3 star Melantha was way too fucking strong for her rarity, and could do most of what you would use a Dreadnought for anyway, so why would you bother raising the rest? 6 star Skadi was maligned as the worst 6 star in the game for this reason (though she still had her uses as a very big stat stick now and then) until even sadder blue girl Mostima came about.

But then modules and their upgrades arrived, and Hypergryph decided if they were going to be obvious about being Bloodborne fans, then they might as well go all the way and made the Abyssal Hunter squad one of the most bullshit busted teams in the game, with Skadi receiving massive buffs both from the modules, the upgrade effects, and the upgrade effects of the other Abyssal Hunters. She's now very strong when part of the AH squad. Dreadnoughts also saw another stupidly strong unit join their ranks with Nearl the Radiant Knight, whose ability to ignore deployment limit has led to her even being called a cheat.

Meanwhile, Matoimaru's stock rose with the module upgrades, with the upgraded stats both giving her more base HP, while increasing the HP gained from her talent, leading to a very cheap operator with a truly gargantuan HP pool, and thus gave her a special niche away from Melantha as a raw HP tank.

Add that to True Damage becoming a real damage type in the game (Franka doesn't actually deal True Damage, she just ignores DEF instead, which is an important distinction now that phys damage reduction and phys evasion are both things that exist) and Franka already struggling to justify her existence when an entire subclass of guards do Arts damage which also ignores DEF, and she's just not having a good time. Her best use case is as a counter to enemies with low health but extremely high DEF and RES such as the Originiutants from Originium Dust, or Plastic Knight and his shielded groupies, but then, you can just use actual True Damage to get around that too.

But there's one last operator I have in mind. Someone truly sandwiched between a rock and a hard place

Mr Nothing

Poor, poor Nothing. There are only 3 Merchants in Arknights, with the 6 star being an incredibly powerful counter to stun mechanics, and the 4 star being one of the strongest operators in the whole game.

Nothing has... nothing... going for him. He has the very baffling trait of having a gacha roll for his S2, where you can randomly get one of three different effects and if you don't get the right one you need to turn it off and reroll, while his S1 makes him stop blocking entirely and take a nap.

His stun from his talent can be useful now and then, and some dedicated fans out there have definitely found ways to actually make Nothing do something, but out of all the units I've mentioned so far, no one's as sad as Mr. Nothing.

[seriouslycromulent]

What I've Been Up To (Larroquette love)

A couple of weeks ago, I started watching a lot of films and TV shows centered around John Larroquette. This is not out of character, of course. If you've visited my blog before, you might know I spent a fair amount of time gushing over him in 2022 after I finally made my way through The Librarians series for the first time, and followed it with a re-watch of the original Night Court.

After that, I watched him in Boston Legal, only to get sucked into a vortex of awesomeness called James Spader. (What can I say? Like most nerds, I have an obsessive personality.)

I've since left that rabbit hole, and leapt into a few others throughout 2023. And now I'm back to gushing over JL.

Maybe it's the new Night Court TV series. Maybe it's the overwhelming increase in great fanfiction that I've come across recently. Maybe it's because the world seems to be constantly on fire and I need a salve to help soothe my psyche. Maybe it's a combo of all 3.

Either way, I'm still leaning in, and I just want to thank my fellow nerds for sharing sources and leads on where I can find more Larroquette goodness. I'm not blowing smoke here either. I truly appreciate this.

Not only because I'm slowly running out of things to watch, but because it's nice to know there are others out there who see what I see in him. You don't know how rare that is.

Anywho! Back to geeking out. Here is a rundown of films, TV shows and TV mini-series-esque things that I've watched starring JL in the past 4 weeks:

* Walter and Henry (watched on Tubi) It was ok. I didn't dislike it. I am a fan of James Coburn and it was nice to see John play a saxophone. I remember him mentioning that he played reed instruments in his musician days back in NOLA. So I'm going to assume that he didn't have to take lessons to sell those scenes.

* Some of the McBride film series (watched on trial version of UP Faith & Family streaming service) These weren't bad. Somewhat Hallmark-y, but I would actually like to see the rest of them, especially the ones JL directed. But about 4 or 5 of them aren't available for streaming, and those include the ones he directed. The ones I saw include - - McBride: Anybody Murder Marty? - McBride: Tune in for Murder - McBride: It's Murder, Madam - McBride: The Chameleon Murder - McBride: Murder Past Midnight

* Camera Store (watched on Tubi) I know JL said in an interview that he didn't like shooting this film, but I thought it was really thought-provoking. You can tell by the reviews on IMDB that some people didn't like the slow burn of the story. But for those of us who like day-in-the-life character pieces, it was very well done. One person described it as a modern-day Death of a Salesman. And I'd say that's pretty accurate. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's certainly worth a watch.

* The 10th Kingdom (watched on Amazon Prime) I think this miniseries was a big deal back when it came out in 2000, but I never saw it. I'm not sure why because I've always been a big fan of fantasy. However, now that I've seen it, I can't say I loved it all that much. So maybe that's why I didn't watch it back in the day. I think it had a great premise, and I loved how they wove a lot of different fairy tales into one big story that played out over 10 episodes (or five 90-min episodes on Amazon).

But I think I had trouble trying to figure out who the audience was supposed to be for this. I'm guessing they wanted it to be for the whole family, but some of the dialogue skewed far older at times and it left me wondering the rest of the series. Especially when it came to things on the topic of virginity, infidelity, and sexuality in general. It was just every now and then, the characters would say something that made me go, "What was the TV rating on this again?!" Also some of the scenes between JL and his daughter were incredibly dramatic, but very out-of-place with the rest of the series' tone. They were good scenes, but it's like it became a completely different series for like 20 minutes. But ... oh well. I'm glad I saw it and can now reference it in the future.

* Wedding Daze (watched on UP Faith & Family) Talk about Hallmark-y! Well, I think this one actually was a Hallmark movie to be fair. The subject matter definitely wasn't my cup of tea, but overall, the cast wasn't bad. Well ... JL, Karen Valentine, French Stewart, and the actors who played the daughters weren't bad. Everyone else was kinda ... m'eh. But it's not bad if you like these types of stories. Interestingly, one of the actors who played one of his daughters (Jaime Ray Newman) also played opposite him in one of the McBride films. It was the McBride: Murder Past Midnight one. In it, she actually came on to JL's character at one point in the story. I looked it up. She shot the Wedding Daze film first, so the McBride role came later. I'm sure that scene was interesting to shoot. All in all, I can't say I recommend Wedding Daze though.

* Chuck, ep. 202 and ep. 414 (watched on Amazon Prime) I've heard about these episodes for years, but I never took the time to check them out because I wasn't a big fan of Chuck. I basically gave up halfway through the 1st season. But for the love of JL, I made myself watch these 2 episodes where he guest starred as super spy Roan Montgomery. And what can I say? They weren't bad. I actually enjoyed them for the most part. It was also fun to see Lesley Ann Brandt playing another sexy badass. (Methinks, she's been typecast.) I also imagine John probably liked playing the scenes where he was tied up. To be fair, he probably enjoyed the whole thing. He looked like he was having fun pretty much the whole time. Still not a fan of the show though.

* Sanford and Son, ep. 505 (watched via a link provided by another fan) Having grown up on reruns of this show, I loved learning that JL was a part of it, even if it was early in his career and he probably has very little memory of it. After I watched it, I told my mom about it, and she said she remembered that episode after all these years. So that episode definitely had some staying power for a young actor, I think. I mean, how many actors can say they played a white version of Lamont Sanford? LOL! It was a funny episode that kind of gave you a behind-the-scenes look at what the TV soundstages of the 1970s used to look like. Plus, it had Robert Guillaume in it too. Thank you fellow JL fan for sharing it!

---

OK. That's it for now. As I mentioned before, I don't have a lot left to watch that's available featuring our guy. Madhouse and Richie Rich are both on Tubi, but I saw those back in the '90s when they came out, and I don't really think they warrant a rewatch.

There are a lot of things in the shared folder I could enjoy, but I'd have to download them and I don't know if my computer memory can take it. Which sucks because I'd really like to watch Baa Baa Black Sheep. My mom remembers that show too. We'll see what I decide next.

I'm sure I'll land on something else before this obsession quietly gives way to another one in a month or so. Until then, watch this space face.

[extra-vertebrae]

@mb-reed : Thank you very much, and you are most welcome!

In regards to environment and perspective - my awareness of how something sits in 3D / 2D space comes mostly from my understanding of weight and form gained from studying anatomy. How the meat of the muscle and fat of the body clings and drapes over the skeleton in perspective, and how it deforms when pressed against objects or itself is something that I learned a part from perspective (which I did study for a time). When doing studies, I have always tried to replicate the perspective, form, and weight to the best of my ability, even if I didn't include the actual environment in which that study subject stood in:

You can see in these older studies from years ago that despite being figures floating in space, they clearly occupy that space (to the best I was able to replicate at the time); the feet (or base, or wheels) are firmly rooted to the "ground". If there is ever a secret for convincingly putting something 2D in 3D space, it is the proper placement of the feet and the communication of the weight of the figure as it presses down on the pads of the toes and soles of the feet, flattening them against the floor. Consistency in curves in describing a shape in perspective is also a big factor.

The various parts of the body and the tools we use occupy a specific space around us, and communicating proximity, especially touch, is paramount in setting things where they are "in space".

How light hits an object or figure can also affect how it is perceived to sit in space. Same goes for patterning and colour.

Tying all of this together is AWARENESS. Even though I do not draw backgrounds and my technical grasp of perspective isn't very strong, I keep myself aware of all of my figures while drawing. I establish very early where everyone is sitting, how close they are to each other, how heavy, where their feet are going to be, how the rest of the figure(s) will be angled and placed to establish spacing, presence, and compensation for weight of clothing, tools, or any other forces present.

My personal studies into perspective and environment are pretty limited compared to anatomy, in part because I'm not very interested in backgrounds or environmental design. I do still consider it important despite this and do devote attention to at least the spectre of the idea where a figure is sitting and what they might be feeling or experiencing in this invisible location.

TL;DR - setting a form believably in space in a 2D illustration is a package deal of communicating form, weight, light, and awareness of what isn't included. Form is the biggest player in this arena, understanding form provides the basic tools to begin understanding how figures and objects occupy space in the real, which will inform how you translate that into your art.

If you're asking specifically on perspective and environment as separate from setting the form in space, what I would suggest is basic perspective studies to build a foundation of how we recognise depth and distance. The "box study" of setting various boxes in one, two, and three point perspective is a great place to start. If you hate boxes you can do what I did, which is turn something dorky into a box and use that as your challenge subject.

I had regrets doing this but it worked.

Another thing I did was draw subjects that benefited from perspective - vehicles, cutlery, and similar things. If I couldn't be arsed to draw boxes, I'd draw the next best thing. Same for environments. If I didn't want to draw a desert, I'd draw a cactus; if I didn't want to draw a forest, I'd draw a tree; if I didn't want to fight with rendering water, I'd draw the things that were swimming in it and pay especial attention to what communicated the presence of water on these figures without the water itself being present.

Perspective and environment is a little out of my wheelhouse, but I hope this was useful regardless!

[angelicsjn]

How would they react if reader had a stalker or another yandere?

YOUR SIX YANDERES.

— ROMAN CORNELIUS JAMES BEAUREGARD.

they're a nobody.

it's as simple as that. roman is confident, he is successful, rich, good looking, a relatively good person. why would you pick anyone else?

if they became a threat, they would soon disappear. roman has connections, every celebrity does. hollywood or formula 1 driver, they know people.

— LATEN REED.

due to his happy-go-lucky mindset, he would simply punch the person with a big smile.

honestly, they'd have to be one brave or silent stalker because many people are actually scared of laten due to his strength and size.

— JAE 'NIKO' LEE.

good luck with that.

jae is the most psychotic yandere here, and he will do whatever he can to remove this person from your life.

he will do anything to run this person out of the country and across the world. if that doesn't work? he's not afraid to get his hands dirty.

— KAIDAN ALEXANDER WOLFE.

they don't exist. it's that simple.

behind the scenes, he will do things and get rid of this person. use the power of social media to pretty much nuke this person's existence.

— HAYDEN WEST.

he's honestly worried.

he's worried you will get hurt, or that you will fall into this person's trap.

he is smart, he makes plans and becomes your stalkers, stalker. he will find out this person's routine and then remove you from their plans to create distance. he will take photos and collect evidence and even anonymously send it to the police.

hayden is extremely smart. don't ever doubt that. he will remove this person purely by his smarts. he doesn't even need to meet them.

— JOSHUA WHITE.

he will indirectly expose this person to the town. what a freak? antagonising this poor person! (yet he does it to you, too. but it's okay when it's him)

he's the type to have them sent to a religious retreat to 'find God'. really, he just wants them gone. God can deal with them.

[proton-wobbler]

Warbler Showdown!

All members of the New World Warbler family, Parulidae, fight for their chance to be called Top Warbler*! This will be a big mess of rounds and brackets, broken up by genus mostly. There's also an extra bracket of "used-to-be warblers"- any species which used to be included in Parulidae before various studies determined their place outside of this family group. (*of the Americas)

A summary of the brackets below and fully listed out at: Round 1

Brackets 1 & 2: Setophaga

Coming in at a whopping 36 species (depending on who you ask), Setophaga has been broken up over two brackets to help deal with the amount. For the special case of Yellow-rumped Warbler, it will be split into three subspecies, rather than being represented as a single, confusingly diverse species. These warblers are typically the most well-known in the states, especially during spring migration.

Bracket 3: Myiothlypis

The first group of a split South American genus. There are more species in this genus (seventeen total), which is why it comes first.

Bracket 4: Basileuterus

The second of the South American split- with only twelve species compared to the eighteen above.

Bracket 5: Geothlypis

The yellowthroats! All members of this species have bright yellow throats and underbodies, and are often associated with marshy, reed-y ponds.

Bracket 6: Myioborus

The redstarts! Well, the American redstarts. The genus name actually means 'whitestart', and sometimes these species are referred to as such, but for my sources they all follow the 'redstart' name.

Bracket 7: Leiothlypis & Cardellina

Our first combo bracket. Leiothlypis are generally more dull than the Cardellina, so they'll be fighting within their own genus at first before being mix-matched to fight each other in the second round.

Bracket 8: Vermivora, Parkesia, & Oreothlypis

Three genuses, each with two extant species. The Bachman's Warbler, recently declared extinct, will still be included this bracket, though, so Vermivora will be represented by three species.

Bracket 9: Odd Ones Out

There are eight warblers who stand alone, each in their own genus. This is probably the most diverse bracket, then, with a variety of habitats and ranges represented within.

Bracket 10: "Y'all don't even go here!"/Not-"Warblers"

At one point or another, each of these ten birds was considered a part of the Parulidae family. They now span six families, with some birds being the sole member of their new family. Changing taxonomy is familiar amongst birders, and including these not-quite warblers pays homage to that.

The tentative schedule is one bracket per week, starting in early November. My queue will likely be filled with warblers before that, though :)

Edit: forgot to mention, but Birds of the World will be my info source throughout the poll, but as it is behind a paywall it will not be linked to each post. It functions as a sort of encyclopedia for all birds and is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, with its own citations of scientific papers when applicable. I personally dont recommend it for casual enjoyers, but it has been really good for gathering concrete information to share with y'all via this page.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #308: JOURNEY

October, 1989

The life of an Eternal hangs by a thread -- and only one being on Earth has the power to save GILGAMESH!

It's just Gilgamesh though.

She-Hulk's concerned expression and raising one hand in concern looks more like she's shrugging confusedly about this whole situation. 'Some Eternal!'

Anyway.

Last times on Avengers: Captain America declared all Avengers were Avengers, there were no teams anymore just one big family, and he was in charge of it all. Then Lava Men attacked, lifted Avengers Island up on a big stone spire, and kidnapped the Avengers in a stone ball which rolled all the way to the depths of the Earth.

The Last of the Lava Men, Jinku, told the Avengers that when they killed a random demon in Inferno, it killed most of the Lava Men and turned the rest except Jinku into stone.

Jinku tries to kill the Avengers with a big lava monster he created and apparently succeeds in killing Gilgamesh. Then the Lava Men that turned into stone hatch into golden men and tell Jinku to cut it out. So he does.

And that brings us to now. And this cool airship.

Very shiny.

Inside the ship? The Avengers.

The ship was apparently made by the golden Lava Men to get the Avengers back to the surface, based on a design that Black Panther gave them.

But even though Captain America and Black Panther are sitting at the controls, they're not in control. The golden Lava Men are. Because the ship is them.

Pretty neat.

But that's looking a little bit ahead.

The reason this is all relevant is that She-Hulk frets that Gilgamesh is dying. Or dead? Something? He doesn't have a pulse but his body is still warm? Plus, Eternals have conscious control over every atom in their body so who knows what's going on with him?

Anyway, time may or may not be a factor. And the golden spaceship made out of golden people may or may not be going its maximum velocity already.

Meanwhile, hey, don't we need to finally resolve that thing where Avengers Island is up on an unsteady stone pillar?

Reed's plan worked!

He had Sue make a spiral invisible force field around the stone pillar so that as the pillar collapsed straight down as crumbling pillars are known to do, the island slowly shifted its weight to the spring-shaped force field, which had the same springiness as an actual spring, which gently lowered the island back to the ocean.

There's a lot about how this gets resolved that's questionable but questionable in a comic book science way so I don't even mind it.

I do mind the weird way this subplot had its time budgeted. Reed and Sue responded to Jarvis' distress signal and arrived without any equipment besides Reed and Sue's mighty brains.

Reed comes up with a plan to lower the island back to the water and has Sue do it. And then the issue ended and we get this curt wrap-up next month.

I don't know how much Byrne wanted this issue to deal with lingering plot threads from the previous arc but it feels like the subplot should have ended on more of a cliffhanger last issue instead of the problem being basically solved, we just haven't seen it resolve yet.

Maybe I'm nitpicking but it reads weird.

Anyway, the West Coast Avengers have landed on Avengers Island after Wonder Man helped hold up the island and nobody else did anything to contribute.

They stand around talking about how great the Fantastic Four are.

And there's also something odd here. A united West Coast Avengers team isn't something we've had since Byrne took over the book. US Agent isn't with them. Tigra is with them but doesn't seem like she's feral or horny (although she doesn't say anything). Maybe Wanda is distraught about her husband losing his emotions but she also doesn't have anything to say.

Do you know how with crossovers sometimes, a character or team will be written vaguely out of character because the writer isn't familiar with them or doesn't know what's happening in their book around this time?

This appearance of the West Coast Avengers has that feel but Byrne is writing both Avengers books!

Why do they feel like the vaguely wrong crossover version of the team?

Anyway, after they finish saying how great the Fantastic Four is, they all talk about how great Jarvis is. And Jarvis IS great!

Wonder Man mentions that Jarvis puts up with a lot for the Avengers, including losing his eye.

Eyepatch Jarvis, as he is back to wearing his eyepatch, explains that his eye is almost healed and he won't need "this rather diabolical looking patch" soon.

The book keeps going back and forth on it.

When he first got out of the hospital, it was mentioned he'd suffered vision loss after his beating at the hands of Mr. Hyde. Then the Jarvis-focused Inferno tie-in issue had his mom yell at him to take it off because he doesn't need it and it doesn't even make him look all that cool. And then Byrne has him put the patch on only to make a point that he won't need it soon.

Weird.

The West Coast Avengers take off without even waiting for the Avengers or going to help them (since last anybody knows, the Avengers got kidnapped by Lava Men).

Kinda weird but Byrne clearly does not want to actually write the West Coast Avengers in this book.

The Avengers spot the Fantasticar as they fly towards Avengers Island, noting that their reserve members came to help.

And I note that the Fantastic Four also left without finding out what happened to the kidnapped Avengers.

Look, I get it. They heard that Jarvis was in danger and came running. I would too! But they're less invested in the Avengers East Coast.

When the golden craft lands, Jarvis immediately and correctly guesses that this is the Avengers.

Ew. I don't love how a door sphincters open in the golden aircraft. The golden Lava Men already turned into a vehicle. They can't transform a door too?

Anyway, the Avengers tell Jarvis they'll Explain It All later. Now, they need to hustle Gilgamesh to the medical facilities.

Usually this is when Everyday Normal Doctor Donald Blake Just Passing By would show up to handle the Avengers' medical needs. But Odin took Donald Blake away from Thor so now Thor just casually mentions he's well trained in the healing arts.

But even though Thor is exactly as good at medicine as Donald Blake, for example, he can't do anything for Gilgamesh.

The man isn't dead and he's not alive, he's some secret third thing (called being an Eternal).

So Captain America has the idea that they should go ask an Eternal what the fuck is going on with Gilgamesh.

Most of the Eternals fucked off with a Deviant cube into space but luckily some didn't.

I'd say the cool ones didn't. The cool ones and Gilgamesh.

Meanwhile, Olympia. Hidden in a pocket dimension in Greece.

There's an old man shepherd who pauses in his shepherding for a minute to wax poetic about walking among the ruins of his ancient ancestors, where the gods themselves once walked.

I'm guessing this guy never bought into the Christianity thing. Good for him.

Less good for him, his sheep vanish into thin air.

And when the shepherd goes to investigate, he's pulled through thin air by a person wearing green and yellow but who isn't Loki.

It's Sprite! The eternal prankster kid of the Eternals.

Messing with this guy because fuck this guy.

When the guy confuses Olympia for Olympus (because, yeah) Sprite gets agitated that everyone confuses the Eternals for the mythological figures they inspired/were inspired by. Like, c'mon Sprite. You owe your entire existence to Jack Kirby's fascination with Chariot of the Gods. You don't get to be offended that someone mistakes Eternal stuff for something else. That's your whole conceit.

Ikaris soon shows up and tells Sprite to stop bugging the mortal for fucks sake.

Ikaris: "You have been cautioned about your notion of 'fun' in the past, young one! I remind you, these humans are by nature frail and easily distressed. You might have caused this man to have a heart attack with your foolishness!"

The man is very distressed.

Ikaris apologizes for Sprite, Makkari gathers up the straying sheep, and Ikaris escorts the shepherd back to the familiar hills, declining to explain how Eternal stuff works because the explanation would mean nothing to him.

He asks the man not tell anyone what he has seen. Which is pretty nice. Later Eternals would just wipe his memory without asking.

The shepherd is like who would I tell? People would think I was drunk or dreamed the whole thing up.

Of course, just when the guy is wondering whether he did just dream the whole experience, Sprite pops out of thin air to do the man a startle one more time.

Geez, Sprite.

Maybe Gilgamesh isn't the only uncool Eternal left on Earth. You're kind of an asshole.

Ikaris and Makkari scold him that Sprite's sense of humor will cost them some day, foreshadowing foreshadowing.

They let Sprite wander off so they can discuss how Olympia is weird these days, emptier than even most of the Eternals fucking off to space can account for.

Ikaris: "More than silence. There is a flavor of death on the once sweet breezes. I have tasted it often enough to know it."

Ikaris guesses that when the majority of the Eternals fucked off, it was like they took the majority of the city's soul with them.

Which, considering later revelations that the Eternals and their cities are all parts of one great machine what is Earth, might actually be right on the money.

But the sheep wandering inside was not Sprite's doing. The barriers that protect Olympia have weakened enough that it just happened randomly. Sprite just capitalized on the incident to mock a shepherd.

Ikaris and Makkari go to talk to Thena and Phastos. Where Phastos has just finished telling Thena that even if her bones are telling her something is wrong, he can't find any flaws with the machines that run Olympia.

Wow, this is a lot of information about Eternal Stuff if we're just dropping off Gilgamesh for medical treatment. I suspect this is our new arc.

Ikaris tells Thena that he hasn't found any force directed at Olympia from the outside. He thinks the call is coming from inside the house, so to speak.

Ikaris: "This city is as one with we Eternals. But we are greatly reduced since the departure of the Unimind."

He's really banging on about that.

I wonder if I'm witnessing snapback in action. Sending most of the Eternals into space was a tidy way to tidy them up since they weren't used for a lot. But now it turns out it was a big mistake so are the Eternals that went to space going to come back so we can get back to status quo?

Maybe.

Thena tells Phastos to bolster the city's defenses. Then they can look into Ikaris' theory.

But Sprite has been eavesdropping on the meeting. He decides Phastos is too unimaginative to bolster the defenses. And that he, Sprite, should do it instead. So that it's done with flair by a guy acting from a place of ignorance.

Look at this idiot. He has no idea what he's doing.

The Avengers don't actually go to Olympia. They go to visit Sersi first. She's closer and more interesting than 90% of the other Eternals. Also, Captain America knows her from his own book, sidestepping the question of whether Wasp or Starfox told him about the party they crashed.

Thor brings out Gilgamesh for Sersi to see and she reacts in shock horror that he looks as if dead.

She has them bring Gilgamesh into her tastefully decorated apartment

So tasteful.

Sersi asks what happened and Thor says Gilgamesh bravely fell in battle. Which Sersi calls bullshit on because Eternals don't fall. That'd be a misnomer.

Thor himself has a spell of wooziness which he dismisses as a passing weakness.

I wonder if the Lava Man Avatar of Cha'sa'dra had bonus damage against immortals.

Sersi examines Gilgamesh and finds basically the same thing that the Avengers already have. Gilgamesh has no pulse and no brain activity. He's basically dead but not. She's never seen an Eternal like this.

So she suggests that they take Gilgamesh to Olympia.

Except. Well.

I guess Sprite managed to blow up the city. With flair. And probably panache.

Also, Namor mentions missing Hercules, prompted by the Avengers flying over Greece.

I wonder if we're also seeing snapback on Hercules' fate in action. If so, good. The Evolutionary War ending was damn stupid.

Anyway. We seem to be piling on the subplots because that old man from a previous issue also managed to blow up his house.

He doesn't seem too put off that he blew up a small piece of New Jersey. Just excited that he's getting close to whatever scientific breakthrough he's working on.

I have no idea where this subplot is going.

But its probably going somewhere.

Follow @essential-avengers, which comes in regular and sour cream and onion flavors. Like, reblog, comment, ask what that last sentence meant. I'm open to various forms of engagement.

[pinkyjulien]

So- I just had my first Phantom Liberty "ending"... 👁👄👁 I had a lot of thoughts, might be messy and long

⚠ Spoilers ahead, obviously!

Holyshit. HGFHGHFH Where do I even START

I smelled it coming FROM MILES AWAY-- OF COURSE So Mi was somehow- tied to AI, tied to the blackwall, it SMELLED TOO STINKY FROM THE START! Holyshit

Going to share my live reactions that I had in my dev friend's DMS cause those were the raw reactions ghfhgf

I took Reed's side during the Kurt meeting

Of COURSE it would go to shit tho like- man OF COURSEEE she would know...

The Kurt boss battle made me sweat, that man s'quick! AND THE MUSIC... Always felt like it was tied to the voodoo boys somehow? Tho the vibes makes sense, considering it's kind of theeee Blackwall theme-ish

When Reed talks about getting against MaxTac my jaw dropped like-- ARE YOU FOR REAL RIGHT NOW.......

Also special kudo for this lil thing here I was really happy

Then came the battle against MaxTac- AND AGAIN... What a battle, I legit can't say right now which big fight I prefered outta the whole EP cause they were all so good

The game SLOWLY BUT SURELY got more and more spooky, into straight up TERRIFYING, I did NOT expect that at all, holyfuck!

And it worked SO WELL TOO, of COURSE anything tied to the blackwall would be horrifying

I LOVE horror- horror movie, horror games... But I don't like playing them 🤠✋ Because I'm a lil pussy HGFH who jump, who look away, who let go of the mouse when spooky thing happen

So LET ME TELL YOU When I started to grasp where the game was heading, I shat myself full time

Everything was PERFECT... The vibes, the lights, the set up, the sound design- the music, the different scenes/memories triggering over the place as you progress, just- fucking CHEF KISS

When I thought it couldn't get any better, any spookier- the game kept on delivering, somehow

It got really dark, stressful, gory, haunting

I decided to kill So Mi at the end

Seeing moments of So Mi's past, of how she got there- it was hard to not feel for her, even tho I never really trusted her, too many red flags and manipulation, V was just a token in achieving what she wanted, just like Myers was, just like Kurt was. But she didn't deserves to be kept as a pupet, a tool

The ride with Reed made me feel really numb, and so did the talk with Myers. Sittin with Reed and watchin him walk off in the distance....

I feel empty ghfhgf that one ending didn't felt satisfying at all- BUT I don't mean it in a bad way!! I like it, I think this was supposed to feel like this! So Mi is dead, whatever hope you had to deal with the Relic died with her, Reed wanted to save her, Myers NEEDED her alive- it's a miracle V can even walk it off freely even

-bear with me here as I'm gathering my thoughts as I type everything-

Little tidbits now, I didn't played through all of the new gigs either, so I'm going back to do these, as well as try all the other endings!

Sadly as expected, not a lot- if anything- new for us nomads lover 😞 I liked the cameo of Panam and Carol, sending Paco and Babs to the Aldecaldos to get out of DTown felt comfy too, as well as all the dialogue options! It felt nice to get those opportunities to bring our past! And we did get some crumbs of interesting lore

God and like- what I like the most in games are the Characters, and PL is up there with some amazing peeps! I'll try to rank them from most to least liked

Starting with Alex, probably my favorite of the 5 main! There were a lot of good moment with her, she felt the most... genuine? Might be naive, but I love good hearted, honest characters, and she felt the more "human" out of the bunch even if she did and does horrible things

Second place comes Kurt, man knows what he want and how to get it, can respect that. Wished we could learn more on him actually, maybe I missed a lot of content

Reed was interesting, too secretive for my taste- and that's normal duh he's a spy, but as expected I didn't felt too connected ( and just to be CRYSTAL CLEAR, that doesn't mean he's a bad character! Not vibing with a character doesn't mean they're badly writen or built)

SongBird started off STRONG at the top of my list, but the more she sugarcoated and smooth-talked V into helped her, the more a lot of red flags started to pop. Lot of lines reminded me of similar convo I had IRL with people that turned out to be shitty, so it send off alarms in my head 💀 NOPE...

and finally Myers, who I never trusted and rightfully so

All of them are incredible characters, made me parano on who to trust, who to believe

All of the minor NPCs are so memorable too? I absolutly loved Slider, the voodooboy dude? His design was insane! Loved meeting all of the different peeps during Kurt's party too, and LIZZY'S CONCERT??? AYO... Was simply incredible

This getting PRETTY LOOOONG I'll stop right here but yeah, raw thoughts after 3 days/nights of non stop playing 😩✋ UGGH...

Fucking love this game man. You can really see CDPR took their time with it, fucking nailed it too... Letting go of the last console gen was a good choice, Dogtown is gorgeous, all the visual effects are breathtaking--

I gotta STOP TALKING LMAO. ALRIGHT Back to it I go

AND. I will definitely rollback to a pre-PL save and continue the vanilla content, cause I feel like doing PL just before meeting Hanako gives a lot of interesting options :3