#learn first is so much harder to learn because of accessibility to lessons and just people who can teach it in general and also school lol

[evafhernee]

I love love love that the ccs will be forced to use the translator in order to communicate with the new ccs joining qsmp because that’s what it’s there for!!!!! it’s a translator!!! use it to translate, even if both of you are able to speak the same language!

I don’t see enough people use the translator, especially when the ccs are both able to speak (usually) english, and it’s still great that they can speak easier if they speak the same language, but the language barrier is one of the causes for the creation of the qsmp! Let the language barrier be a barrier in the first place, and let the translator do the work it was meant to do!

Let people who physically can’t speak the same language interact! It’s part of what makes qsmp qsmp, and even though it has impacted hugely just from adding people who generally create content and talk in different languages, I do think it somewhat lacks in the people speaking different languages category, because while that is true, it is also somewhat untrue in that all of the ccs can speak one of the same language (usually english), even if they’re not a natural at it!

Now, that’s not a bad thing at all! But, it does blur the speaking different languages problem that was meant to occur in qsmp. They speak different languages! Let them speak whatever language they want and let the translator do the work! Again, that is what it is there for! It is a translator! (I’m looking at you twitter)

And even if it takes a million repeats of the same sentence for someone to finally get what another person is trying to say, a hundred fuck-ups of the translation or a thousand language barrier/cultural miscommunications, again, qsmp was made for this to happen! It was made so people who come from different backgrounds and are usually unable to interact because of cultural/language barriers can interact, whether it start out negative or positive!

And I trust them (the ccs and fans) to communicate if controversy/confusion happens culturally and language-wise, and (hopefully) for the fans to not turn anything minor** into a huge drama, so I am extremely excited to see the ccs be forced into using the translator!

[quinloki]

Kinktober 2023 - Day 10

Whether you like it or not, this will leave you in... Suspense.

Character: Eustass Kid Reader: cis!fem Warnings: Suspension bondage, degrading talk from Kid, reader giving oral, dirty talk, Reader calls Kid Master, begging, messy oral, 18+

Summary: Teasing Kid comes with a price, and more so when you risk flashing his friends in the process. Loosely a part two to Naughty Mouse -:- 1489 words

-:- Part 1 -:- Part 2 -:- Part 3

Knotty Mouse

Your breath came out heavy, and you couldn’t stop the needy moan that escaped you every time he tightened a knot.

“Listen to you, little rope whore.” Kid teased, tugging the rope against your slit and watching you squirm. “You’re ready to pop just from getting tied up.”

“It’s… it’s not just the rope.” You whine. Your outfit from earlier was still mostly on you, shoved aside and bunched up in places leaving all the parts Kid intended to utilize easily accessible. The thick knit sweater was bunched up so much that it was almost hard for you to see around it.

Your lacy bra had been pulled down enough to free your breasts, and the ropes had been run under your skirt and over your thigh highs.

“I still can’t believe you went the whole night without anything on under the skirt. Mouse.” He grabs the rope harness and pulls you close. “If someone else had seen…”

You were suspended off the floor just enough to be waist height with Kid. He was bent low so his warning went straight into your ear, his hot breath rolling over your neck.

“N-No else would’ve dared,” you insist.

Your arms were folded behind your back, anchoring ropes were connected from your shoulders, hips and thighs. The harness and the other ropes gave enough control to Kid, but not any to you. All you could do was squirm and dangle.

“Not on purpose, no.” He agrees. There’s a loud crack and a sharp sting as his hand connects with your ass. You yelp, more in surprise than anything else. Leave it to Kid to suspend you from the ceiling and still leave himself enough room to smack your ass. He slaps the other cheek just as heavy as the first, and your yelp is more pain than surprise this time, as your body twists a little in the ropes.

“Some parts of you are really only for my eyes, Mouse.” He clarifies.

“Y-you always threaten to ta-take me in public, or in front of the guys.” You whine, face and body hot at the thought of both. Your current predicament adding to the thrill running through you at the thought of it all.

“Arguing with me right now? That’s pretty ballsy, Mouse.” He says, voice heavy on your pet name. When he hangs on the word it almost makes you feel like you’re being hunted.

“Not arguin-HAA-SHIT!” You swear as he twists your nipple roughly. “Not arguing!” You cry out and he lets up. “Just… just sayin’.”

“Mm, if I put you in those situations, it’d be because I put you in those situations.” He says, his voice right by your ear as his fingers tease your nipples. “Not because you decided it.”

“S-Sorry! I’m sorry!” You cry out as he slowly starts pinching your nipples a little harder. “Please, please, Kid I’m – hnnngh – sorry!” He’d given you one last harsh twist before letting go.

“Learned your lesson then?” He prompts, and you nod, tears in your eyes even as the stinging sensation in your nipples shifted to more of a throb that was making your body hotter.

You gasp, trying to keep your need under control. “Yes.”

“Yes what?” He prompts and your mind stutters. Kid’s never had you use a title for him before.

“Yes… sir?” You try.

Kid snorts. “Try something with more grit to it.”

“M-Master.” You almost mumble the word.

Kid’s hand tangles into your hair, tugging on it roughly and pulling your face up to his. “Again.” He commands.

“Master.” You say more clearly.

Kid licks his lip a little, gnawing on the bottom of it for a quick second, before a devious grin splits his face. It’s obvious he approves.

“If that’s the case, then you can apologize properly for teasing me earlier.” He says, standing up.

He undoes his belt and unzips his pants, pulling his thick cock from his boxers. He pulls his goggles off, adjusting them a little smaller, and puts them on you, using them to keep your hair back in an impromptu kind of headband.

You never would’ve thought the first time you were going to be wearing Kid’s prized goggles, it was going to be during suspension bondage, but you weren’t complaining. He grabs the rope harness at your shoulders, lifting you up just a little bit and making it easier for your mouth to be where he wants it.

“Show me just how sorry you are for teasing me.” He prompts, rubbing the stiff tip of his cock against your cheek before letting you get to work. “Do a good enough job and I’ll even let you swallow.”

You feel a shiver ripple through you that you know he can feel through the ropes, and open your mouth, licking and wetting his shaft, teasing the stiff flesh with kisses.

“You like that, huh? You’re more of a freak than I thought, Mouse.” He muses, pulling away from your mouth a little and lifting you up more, bringing your gaze up to his. “I really like that.” He admits, kissing you roughly before lowering you back down.

You find yourself hungry for him, as close to a declaration of love as you ever expected to get, licking and kissing the tip of his cock before you begin to suck it in earnest. He’s a goddamned beast, thick and long and you know there’s no way you can deep throat this – heh – cocky bastard, but you can lavish attention and pleasure on every inch you can manage to take in.

He helps you, lifting you and lowering you by the ropes of your harness. He holds you in place a couple times and thrusts into your mouth, pushing himself so deep you can’t help but gag. He gives you time to recover each time he does it, praising you in his own way every time you go right back to sucking him off.

You can hear him hiss, his hips coming forward a little before he stops himself, and you know he’s close. You keep trying to do the same things that make him groan, wanting him to cum sooner. There’s a time to drag things out and tease him, but now’s not the time.

You press your tongue against the underside of his shaft, humming against him. You could hear the ropes creak as he tightens his grip on them, his hips swaying despite his efforts, pushing a little further deeper each time, slowly working further into your mouth, giving you half a chance to adjust.

You try to let your jaw relax as you take more and more of him in, a mess of drool and precum dribbling down your chin. You gag as he goes deeper, but it’s not too bad, just watering your eyes slightly. You urge him on by humming a little, and when he pulls back, you turn your head to look up at him.

“More, more please,” You beg, letting words roll off your tongue. The faster you talk the more you can say before embarrassment will eventually stop you. “Master, fuck my face and cum in my mouth, please, please. I want you to, I swear, I can take it, please, Kiiiiiid ❤️.” You know your face is a mess, slobber and tears have certainly just wrecked your makeup, but the look on Kid’s face was exactly what you had hoped for. It made the begging worth it.

“… I’mma have to fuck you up more often, Mouse, that’s hot.” He nearly groans the word. “Open up. Don’t do anything else, just open that pretty little mouth of yours, and stick your tongue out for me.”

You do as he asks, looking up at him expectantly as he runs his tip against your tongue. “Fuckin’ hells, Mouse.” He growls, pushing in deeper. “Looking up at me like that.”

He pushes in further, using the ropes and his hips to keep control of everything. “Keep lookin’ at me.” He commands, pushing in deep until your eyes squint and start to water. He seems to use this as a guide, fucking your mouth with a steadily increasing pace, breath getting heavier and heavier.

“Shit.” He growls, pulling back just a little, pushing against your tongue as he cums into your mouth. You break his earlier command, closing your mouth enough to swallow. He pushes in after the first swallow, swearing again before he pulls back reluctantly. He lets you swallow again before you lick and suck on his tip for a minute.

He leaves you to it for a minute, running his tongue over his lips before he steps back, and kneels in front of you again.

“Good girl,” he grins, bringing your head up with a finger under your chin. “We’ll work on that deep throatin’ you were trying to do.”

You smile in response as he leans in and kisses you.

[primordialsoundmeditation]

"Pema Chödrön’s 3 Ways to Transform Your Emotions"

(from Lion's Roar Magazine, May 2014)

At the root of our suffering are the destructive emotions that Buddhism calls the kleshas, or poisons. Pema Chödrön teaches us a three-step practice to transform their energy from a cause of suffering into a path to awakening.

1. Drop into Your Body

“Start with physical sensations because they’re relatively straightforward and provide a good access point to the emotions. Notice how your body is feeling.”

The dharma tells us that all our experiences of discomfort, anxiety, being disturbed, and being bothered are rooted in our kleshas. This Sanskrit term means “destructive emotions” or “pain-causing emotions.”

The three main kleshas are craving, aggression, and ignorance. The first two don’t require much explanation. “Craving” becomes a destructive emotion when it gets to the point of being an addiction or an obsession. I was once given some Asian candy whose brand name was “Baby Want-Want.” That sums up craving quite nicely, I think. We think something will bring us pleasure or comfort, so we become obsessed with having it or keeping it. “Aggression” is the opposite: we want to get rid of something that we perceive as a threat to our well-being.

“Ignorance” as a destructive emotion is a little harder to understand. It’s a dull, indifferent state of mind that actually contains a deep level of pain. It can express itself as being out of touch, being mentally lethargic, not caring what we’re feeling or what others are going through. When this state of mind dominates us, it can turn into depression.

These three kleshas are often called the “three poisons” because, as the Tibetan teacher Anam Thubten says, they kill our happiness. This often happens to us in two ways. First, we suffer while we experience anger, addiction, depression, jealousy, and the rest; then we continue to suffer as a result of the harmful actions they provoke.

You probably have firsthand experience of being unhappy when these poisons arise in your life. But how exactly do they kill your happiness? According to the Buddha’s teachings, it’s not the emotions themselves that make us suffer. In their raw form—before we start to struggle with them and before our thinking process gets involved—they are just sensations or forms of energy. They are not intrinsically bad or good. This is important to remember. The destructive aspect of aggression, for instance, is not the sensation; it’s our rejection of that sensation and what we then do as a response. The culprit isn’t the basic energy but the spin-off, what the Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg calls “the add-ons.”

Trained in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition, Pema Chödrön is one of the world’s leading Buddhist teachers. A fully-ordained nun, she is committed to helping establish the Buddhist monastic tradition in the West. Photo by Margie Rodgers.

When klesha energy arises, we tend to react in one of a few ways. One is to act out—either physically or with our words. Another is to suppress the emotion, to go numb around it; this may involve diverting our attention elsewhere, say by zoning out with Netflix.

A third common reaction is to get mentally wrapped up in some kind of storyline, one that often involves blame. All these reactions are based on our not being able to bear the discomfort of the energy. We have a propensity to be bothered by this energy, so we try to escape our discomfort by getting rid of what’s causing it. This approach is similar to that of the tyrant who kills the messenger bringing bad news instead of relating to the message. But when we indulge in any of these reactions, we only strengthen our pain-causing habits and perpetuate our misery in the long run. Somehow this is a hard lesson to learn.

Everyone has these habits. There’s no need to blame ourselves or anyone else for this process. Instead of blaming or feeling helpless, we can apply time-tested methods for working with our emotions constructively. Like everything else in the universe, the kleshas and our reactions to them are impermanent and insubstantial. This is what makes it possible for us to change our habits.

In general, lack of awareness is what gives our emotions their power. Bringing awareness to them is the magic key. When we’re aware of what’s happening, they lose their ability to make us miserable.

The first step in every method of working with emotions is simply to recognize what’s happening. One of the characteristics of the kleshas is that they tend to go undetected. We only notice them when they’ve become full-blown. We’re unaware of the emotion while it’s just an ember; by the time we smell the burning or feel the fire’s heat, it’s too late. We’ve struck out in words or actions, or we’re already on a binge.

Here is a fairly common example of the life cycle of a klesha. You catch a glimpse of someone in the hallway, someone you have issues with. You experience a faint tension in your shoulders or a subtle tug in your chest. This is the ember stage.

Next thing you know, you’re having judgmental or resentful thoughts about the person. This stage is like when logs in a wood stove have caught fire. There’s a lot more heat than at the ember stage, but at least it’s still contained. Even this level may go unnoticed. But if you keep unconsciously escalating your storyline, it’s as if you’re pouring kerosene on the fire.

Eventually it will be too much for the stove to contain and it might even burn down your house. At that point, you and everyone else will notice, but it will be too late to prevent a great deal of unavoidable pain. The damaging text message has been written, you’ve already pressed “Send,” and there’s no way to take it back.

Even then, there are ways of making the situation better and ways of making it worse. At every moment, we have these two basic alternatives. We can escalate or deescalate our misery. We can strengthen unhelpful habits or ventilate them. By becoming more conscious of what’s happening, we can put out the fire at the ember stage or the wood-stove stage and save ourselves and others so much grief.

Having a regular meditation practice makes us more aware of what’s happening in our mind, the mental undercurrent that tends to go unnoticed when we’re caught up in our daily activities and interactions. With meditation, we begin to catch some of the ember-like thoughts and subtle emotions that, left undetected, escalate before we notice them.

2. Bring Your Attention to Where You Are Right Now

“The trick is to stay present with the energy without acting out or repressing.”

Once we’ve become conscious of the klesha, the next step is to let ourselves feel it—to feel what we’re feeling. It sounds very simple, but for many people, this is quite challenging. Some people have difficulty because they’ve been traumatized. Others have certain emotions that, for whatever reason, they just don’t want to face. But, like all the other instructions in the dharma, feeling what you’re feeling is a practice. There are ways to train in it, to make gradual progress.

First, start with physical sensations because they’re relatively straightforward and provide a good access point. How do you feel physically? When we’re out of touch with our body, our kleshas have a greater opportunity to run rampant. On the other hand, when we’re present and embodied, it’s easier to be in touch with our mind. So notice how your body is feeling—the aches and pains and itches, the sensations of heat and cold, the places where you feel tight or relaxed.

Then look at your state of mind. Is it discursive or settled? What kind of mood are you in? What emotions do you notice? Here it’s very important to have an attitude of curiosity and openness rather than judgment. Different things can come up when we allow ourselves to feel what we feel. We may have painful memories or intensely unpleasant emotions. That’s to be expected and is no problem. But don’t push too hard and make this into an endurance trial. The training should take place, as much as possible, in an atmosphere of acceptance.

To grow in the ability to know what to do when an emotion grabs you, it’s helpful to remember three words: embodied, present, and kind. Drop into your body, bring your attention to where you are right now, and be kind. When there’s an upsurge of emotion, these three words can help you to deescalate. The main instruction is to stay conscious and, as Tsoknyi Rinpoche has said, “You have to be willing to feel some discomfort.”

3. Be Kind to Yourself

“I’ve discovered that when I’ve allowed myself to feel what I feel, I become more patient with myself and more forgiving.”

I’ve discovered over time that whenever I’ve allowed myself to feel what I feel, I become more patient with myself and more forgiving. Each time, I find myself able to relax with the feeling a little longer. And here’s the thing: while kleshas cause pain, the klesha energy itself is a limitless source of creative power, like an electric current. It’s not something you want to get rid of. The trick is to stay present with that energy without acting out or repressing. Doing this—or rather, learning to do this—you might find out something remarkable. In the basic energy of the kleshas, we find wisdom—ungraspable, egoless wisdom—free of grasping and fixation.

One of the most important ways to work with our emotions is to use them as a path of awakening. The idea is to allow ourselves to experience the energy of the kleshas fully and directly. In doing so, we discover that they contain all the wisdom we need to wake up. An unshakeable confidence comes from this experience.

We all come into this world with co-emergent unawareness, which is a basic misunderstanding about how things are. We believe we have some kind of stable identity, something that makes “me” me—something separate from the rest. Based on this misunderstanding, we find ourselves constantly getting hooked by the myriad pleasures and pains the world has to offer. Our mind gets completely wrapped up in kleshas and all the trouble that goes along with them. The teachings say that this painful process will continue until we wake up from our unawareness completely, until we see ourselves and all phenomena as they really are: fleeting, insubstantial, and wide-open with possibility.

The term “co-emergent ignorance” is interesting because it implies that ignorance doesn’t appear all alone. The Buddha taught that wherever there’s confusion, there’s also wisdom: “co-emergent wisdom.” Whenever we get hooked, whenever our kleshas get triggered, whenever we temporarily lose our bearings and act out in destructive ways, we are in the grip of confusion. But that very confusion is inseparable from our deepest wisdom. In the traditional analogy, confusion and wisdom are like ice and water, which are both made of the same molecules. The only difference is that ice is frozen and water isn’t.

Confusion is based on having a frozen view of ourselves and the world. It’s a product of our discomfort with the groundless nature of how things are. Most of us experience that wide-open space as groundlessness. Anger, craving, jealousy, and all the other kleshas are part of this discomfort. If we don’t have effective means of working with them, they can ruin our state of mind and harm not only us but the people around us. This is why we learn to work with our emotions.

Using our emotions as a path of awakening is based on simply letting the emotion be, just as it is. I say “simply,” but letting anything in our mind simply be is easier said than done. The ego feels at home only when it’s meddling, trying to fix things. It’s always telling us that we can’t leave anything alone. So we need patience and courage if we want to learn how to let our kleshas be.

We first have to give the klesha enough space so we can actually see what’s happening. We need some perspective on our emotion. This doesn’t exactly mean distancing ourselves from the klesha; it’s more like positioning our mind in order to see clearly. Doing so requires us to practice refraining. It requires a mindful gap before we speak or act. It’s hard to have any perspective when we’re activated.

Then They Become a Path to Awakening

“When we allow ourselves to experience the energy of the kleshas fully and directly, we discover that they contain all the wisdom we need to wake up.”

Having a clear perspective, we let ourselves experience the emotion as fully as possible. This is similar to letting ourselves feel what we feel, but it goes further. In this practice, we want to learn what the emotion really is. Instead of putting it into a category such as positive or negative, we try to contact its energy directly and intimately, to get to know its very essence. We want to know it, not merely with our conceptual mind, but deeply, with our heart and our full being.

Anam Thubten makes the distinction between ordinary kleshas and conscious kleshas. Ordinary kleshas are what we’re familiar with. For instance, when we’re in a state of craving, it feels unpleasant, we lack perspective on it, and we usually react in harmful ways. Conscious kleshas are where the wisdom lies. When we go beyond our propensity to be bothered by craving, when we come to experience it as a form of wakeful energy, then the emotion loses its power to disturb us. Instead it becomes something precious, part of the preciousness of life.

By relating to our emotions in this way, we discover their enlightened aspect: the wisdom that is co-emergent with ignorance and confusion. It is always present, in each and every one of our kleshas. To contact it, we allow the klesha just to be what it is. Then the ice will melt and we will experience the open, flowing quality of water.

This isn’t easy. Not only does it take practice to contact the wisdom in the kleshas, but it also takes practice to distinguish between the two, between wisdom and nonrecognition. How can we tell whether we’re experiencing the neurotic aspect of the energy or the wakeful aspect? Often the clearest evidence is found in our body. Generally, our ordinary kleshas correspond to some form of physical contraction. We feel a tightness in our stomach or jaw, or, perhaps more subtly, in our heart or solar plexus. When our emotions are in the ember stage, this contraction may be hard to detect. But if we practice tuning in to our emotions and our body, then physical tightness can serve as an indicator of when we’re caught in ordinary kleshas.

By getting in touch with the physical sensation of our neurosis, we come to know the feeling of wisdom as well. From this point of view, wisdom feels like relaxation, expansion, openness. Instead of fighting with our emotions, we let them be. We don’t act them out or repress them. We simply let them be. We simply connect with what they feel like. Instead of tightening up with our strong opinions and storylines, we relax and allow the co-emergent wisdom in our kleshas to speak for itself. If we practice in this way, our emotions themselves will become our most direct path of awakening.

Adapted from Pema's book "How We Live Is How We Die", by Pema Chödrön. © 2022 by the Pema Chödrön Foundation. Reprinted in arrangement with Shambhala Publications.

[ronqueesha]

3. How did your oc discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know?

Thank you!

Ask me some pride themed OC asks!

I'll answer for some OCs I feel like have interesting answers.

Not long ago, Blizzard made the official statement that Azeroth does not have any institutional bigotry against people for their identity/label/orientation. Maybe some individuals are bigots, but not entire kingdoms or political entities.

Dairon Garrick grew up without ever having to question or second-guess her equal preferences for any gender. While her first romance was in her teenage years with a boy her age, it was not forced on her, nor did she feel strange when that relationship ended and she found companionship with a woman shortly after.

In fact, it was probably a boon in her short time in the Stormwind military. Her first assignment was guarding the food storage in Valiance Keep in Northrend, shortly after the heroes of the Horde and Alliance stopped the Lich King. It was an intensely boring assignment, broken up by rowdy times in the barracks during off hours. Free spirits like Dairon were free to pick whoever she wanted to bed, and she became very well loved by her peers.

Sarit Ramesh grew up very sickly, her lungs permanently scarred by the toxic industrial air that filled the underground environment her impoverished family lived in. Because of that, she spent most of her youth bedridden, with an old second-hand 'Net terminal as her only window to the outside world.

All those years spent browsing the 'net gave Sarit unprecedented access to information she might otherwise never have had. As she got older, a lot of confusing questions and strange feelings became crystal clear. Soon, the sick young boy sitting in a dirty bed realized that there were things he could change about himself. To be the person she always knew she really was.

It took time, and her parents could only support Sarit's transition so much because of their immense poverty. But as she grew older and established herself, Sarit was able to use the early lessons she discovered while stuck coughing up blood in bed, and become the woman she always was.

Iona's story of discovering herself is a bit sad.

She grew up in an orphanage, having been literally dumped on the doorstep in her infancy. Her youth was spent being mocked and ostracized by her fellow orphans and even some of the orphanage caretakers. Her deathly pale skin, her fangs, and especially her lisp because of those fangs were things she was constantly harassed and bullied over.

She was 13 when she first ran away from the orphanage, and quickly realized she needed to make money if she was to survive. And at that decidedly uncomfortable young age, she took an older man into an alley and earned her first ever coin. Iona did not feel disgusted or exploited, instead she felt rich and powerful. And she quickly realized she was fine with anyone, regardless of their identity, age, or preference, so long as they paid her.

When she got older, Iona learned her unusually vampiric features were the result of being a dhampir. And that because of that, she could expect to live for 1000 years or more. This caused an icy pit of dread to drill itself deep into her heart, and Iona has been running from this eternal burden ever since. She threw herself even harder into sex work, drugs and multiple vices just to ease the pain of an unnatural half-dead lifespan. It helps that she has very few limits or preferences, which means she can constantly dull the pain through endless new experiences.

[honestmouse20]

Okay, personal thoughts on dragons rising under the cut. Spoilers ahead!

I didn't care too much about Wildfyre going into part 2. she was cool but not really a character I was fully invested in. That is, until her and Kai went on their little quest/mission to get the dragon energy core. They were so Sweet! I loved how Kai had to be the responsible one and how Wildfyre had to learn how to thikn before she acted. They're a really good dynamic and I their relationship growing during this season felt very natrual and good!

Zane! also not one of my favorite characters. But him speaking to a broom with Pixal's photo taped to it got to me okay? I do wonder now where she is.

Mr. Frohicky (idk how to spell things, i've been up all night. give me a break lol) I did Not expect him to return after the crossroads episode back in part 1. He's actually grown on me a lot. It's still kinda weird bc the tone of this show is just a Bit different than previous Ninjago. But it's not bad and I wouldn't hate seeing more of him in the future

Lloyd. God he got so much character develepment this season but especially in part 2! From him trying to do everything on his own to upkeep the Monastary and then finally excepting help, to getting much better at teaching the new ninja. I really loved all the scenes with him an Arin and how their relationship has gone from Arin being a fanboy, to genuine respect and friendship. 10/10

Speaking of Lloyd. What on Earth was all that stuff he saw Again when he acted as the conduit again? I really hope we get more info on those vision in the next season. That's the one big mystery that they havn't really touched on

last lloyd thing, mayeb it's just the angst lover in me, but I really hope there's some kind of conequence to him acting as the conduit. Maybe it starts really draining him or maybe it just makes accessing his power a little harder. I hope they explain it or at least like, mention it.

I'm actually kinda glad they didn't go the whole route of having Nya distrust the Djinn guy who'se name i can't remember lol. It was a nice expectation subversion. Bc my first thought was that he was gonna be evil/ have heard that *she* was the one who tecnically destroyed Djinnjago. I really like that they helped him the way they did and the lesson it taught Sora

Speaking of Sora. I love her. I still fully belive that her power is creation but if it is just 'tech power' i really like how they're handling it. LIke we all Knew it was never Ryu's power she was using but the moment *she* figured that out still felt genuine and deserved because we saw her go through the process of realizing whta was holding her back. 10/10. no notes

Freaking COLE! So him and Lloyd are tied as my favorite charaters bc yee. But holy shit even tho it was 5 am when i got to his episode and i was exhausted. I sat up on the couch and just lost my shit. One, he's still so good at finding people in trouble/captured and deciding he's their protecter. I love him so much. and two. was it just me or was that whole episode so freaking queer coded it isnt funny? Like, even more so than his true potential episode back in S1.

Shipping aside, I really like how on par with his character his episodes were. Even tho they were short and I really crave more about him, they did a good job of leaving just enough questions to keep us interested while also showing us the important parts. Plys the new ability rock monster thing is cool

in that same vein. what the fuck does 'the earth is screaming' mean? hello that shits terrifying? My theory atm is that its' the realms fighting the merge bc it's like unnatural or something. but idk. i would have liked to hear more about that

Zane's car!!!! I own that set and holy fuck it did not dissapoint! At first i was kinda bummed it didn't do Actual spinjitzu, at least I don't think so. But him spinning wildy and saying 'this is adequate' or whatever, is so freaking funny! also it's super fast and looks epic. no notes lol

and Jay! we see him! I'm not really a big jay fan but I am curious what theyr'e gonna do with him next season

and finally, i Really liked all the references to past seasons/events! Even if it wasn't in your face, it was still really nice to be able to see all the pices of the past sprinkled throughout. It was also funny to see Sora being surprised Lloyd is the FSM's grandson. 10/10

If i think of more I'll make another post lol

god i need to re watch the season already

i have SO many thoughts. HOw am i supposed to go to work later and be an adult while ive got these little plastic ninja running through my head at full speed

[anthonybialy]

Kamala Needs Your Vote, Eventually

Vote as you’re told for democracy.  Enduring a Kamala Harris presidency is off to an appropriate start.  The party deeply committed to countering fascism is full of surprises.  They appointed their choice by removing that very thing.

Kamala tells the inspirational story of someone who didn’t even need to get a vote to become a finalist.  The 25th Amendment comes with an asterisk, but at least it’s not the only part of the Constitution Democrats violate.

It’ll be racist and sexist to not vote for the vice president selected based on race and sex.  Kamala used multiple definitions of the latter.  Accessing power through a reciprocal trade will be billed as judgmentally icky close-mindedness.  There was no sleeping to the top: who slept?

Kamala’s hagiography will make the media’s treatment of Obama look like how they portrayed Mitt Romney.  The eternally fair press will have to try even harder to make her seem like a kindly savior factoring how she herself contributes precisely no persuasion abilities.  Democratic policy is based in forcing you to buy a timeshare.  The charisma it takes to sucker marks is a recessive gene for her.

Liberalism’s embodiment thinks she’s being complimented.  An ideology that spreads misery and poverty as it claims to respectively create love and wealth would be funnier if we weren’t enduring it.  The ethos remains amazing in the minds of adherents, who are far more dedicated to a faith that never pays off than the religious people at which they scoff.  That reality part is the sole problem.  Just like how printing money made everyone poor, Kamala is an inspirational visionary until she speaks.

Identity politics are especially appalling for someone without one.  Substituting superficial qualities for an appealing personality is how to flaunt progress.  Harris is trying to take her status as the prototypical DEI politician to the next level.  Someone else will still have the opportunity to be the first good female minority president, so it’s nice of her to selflessly leave that opportunity.

It beats Trump if she beats Trump.  Republicans would finally have to nominate a competent adult following such a shameful adult.  Dreamers might even hope things could get fixed.  Not wanting to binge a repulsive series we already hate watched is trying to justify what would be a slightly more obnoxious version of the Biden presidency.  An obviously awful opportunity with zero changes from the wretched notions of her ostensible boss means doubling the rottenness that’s already happened.  The only equally nauseating notion is the doing the same with an intermission.

It takes childish delusion to think one of these parties nominating an adult one of these elections.  The legal right to vote as a result of being born at least 18 years ago doesn’t affect the poetic sense of maturity.  

Republicans can finally learn not to attach themselves to a mouthy showman who spends like he’s still a Democrat.  The same professional shyster who repulsed voters so much that they chose the present technical incumbent over him keeps the election competitive, and nobody wants some boring predictable race. 

Anyone who thinks a quintessential dunce shouldn’t get promoted will hate politics.  Democrats hate corporations because they presume they’re run the same way.  Their quite taxing philosophy is most valuable for learning a lesson about why idolizing a preposterously warped perception of an inspiring savior who’ll usher in a new era of communal bliss might make life tougher.  My historical research indicated Bill Clinton may have been a bit insincere about all that hope jazz, too.

If we’re replacing candidates, text Ron DeSantis.  Kamala’s greatest strength is not being Trump.  An era of politicians infiltrating life features the last humans you’d want doing so.  This would’ve been the best time to not bring back a mouthy conman who sure wallows in misery or someone whose shtick is based on his wholesale success.  The slightest bit of positivity would bury a mere landslide.  Instead, try your hardest to enjoy another election where two energy vampires drain the joy out of life and the country.

Elections keep providing examples of why to minimize them, which voters keep disregarding.  You’re right to feel tired of placing faith in preserving the nation on the willingness of Supreme Court justices who both have read and respect the Constitution.  Pondering the steps that got us to this rather untenable point might just be worthwhile.  

It’s the obligation of liberals to not think ahead.  We try to get them to envision about what happens next, but they worry that foresight would alter who they are.  Why bother to plot when you can scheme?  Just force through the latest daft plot to seize money and rights before proclaiming nobody has to pay.  That’s why everyone’s rich.

The charming refusal to realize there will be a tomorrow is how they ended up with the most dreadful contender today.  The emblematically empty-headed present competitor replaced the nasty geezer who screwed up the nation after the loudmouth who was the less worse option triumphed against the shrill schemer who followed up the all-star charlatan.  There’s your brief recent political history.

Anyone enjoying this environment is bound to be excited by a potential Kamala term.  Decent humans by contrast should start considering what curse led us here.  Voting like this led to a pending nomination coronation for the least worthy queen.  Kamala’s so awesome that there’s no need to confirm it with some runoff.

[emiliosandozsequence]

i stole this lol but it seemed fun so <3

What was your first ever story idea? What happened to it? it was a fantasy novel about an elf girl. i've never read a book where the main character is an elf, so i decided to write one myself. i did actually end up writing it; it was the first novel i ever wrote and i was 14 when i did it (still proud of that; it was 230 pgs in a word document btw). anyway, i ended up losing access to the manuscript, so rip, but i'm fully intending to rewrite it someday and make it a lot better than it was when i was writing it at 14.

What’s your writing routine? usually i'll put on music and just start writing whatever comes to mind for whatever scene i'm trying to write at the time. whenever i can't figure out what to do next, i'll go on tumblr and scroll for a bit until it comes to me. it's pretty effective, though my editor literally thinks i'm doing nothing all day bc of this even tho i Promise him i'm Working On It 😭😭😭

Are you a plotter, a pantser, or something in between? in between for sure. i plan things as i go. i start with an overall idea and then just...start writing and plan for the next chapters as they come to me. with the novel i'm currently writing, i've only planned up through chapter 8 and i'm currently writing chapter 4. i used to plan everything, but for some reason that made it so much harder for me to actually write the novels, so i don't do that anymore.

Do you try to tell moral stories throughout your work, or any other life lessons? What are they? there was a time where i did that, but the older i've gotten, the more i've realized a solid plot is a lot more important than telling any moral story. whether you like it or not, people are going to remember your book for the story you tell, not the reason you're telling it, and as a reader, i tend to go for stories with more solid plots than morals anyway.

What do you prefer, character development or worldbuilding? Why? both?? idk they both come very easily to me. to the point that there's been times where i think i haven't done enough of either and people have read my work and told me the opposite. i guess worldbuilding is more fun, but it's harder, which i think is probably why i like it more than character development bc that comes even easier to me than worldbuilding.

Do you have any tips for budding writers? i'll tell you exactly what my editor told me in the first class of his i took when i was 12: write like a shark. whatever you're writing, write it until it's done. go back and edit later. i've learned you can do a little bit of editing as you go once you've finished a few novels because then you know you can do it (speaking from experience; i've finished 7 and self-published 2 and am working on my 8th), but if you're new to writing and you haven't finished a book yet, don't do it. you will get caught up in it otherwise. especially if you have adhd (like i do).

Who inspires you to write the most? at the moment?? probably tamsyn muir. we have a shocking amount in common (our birthday's are literally a single day apart, though she's older than me by several years) and her books are exactly the kind of books i want to write. but also mary doria russell (duh) because we have very similar writing styles; ellen hopkins because she really was who really taught me (through me reading her books) how to write emotional stuff really well; brandon sanderson bc nothing is ever going to beat how i felt at the ending of the mistborn trilogy; and marie lu because her characters from the legend trilogy live in my mind rent free still and i can't help thinking of day every time i create a new boy.

tagging @thinking-in-broken-scenes @naysaltysalmon @the-lisechen and anyone else that wants to!! i just tagged people i know are also writers <3

[casspurrjoybell-22]

Master - Chapter 39a

*Warning Adult Content*

- Kalem -

"Hi everyone," I say with a wave as I press on my toes so I could see those in the back. 

More people than I thought would come showed up earlier, so sadly, I had to make some of them go away.

Which I still felt bad about but if I did it such a big group then I would never learn everyone's names and I really wanted to, so I promised the ones that had to go that I'd do another tomorrow and they could come to that one instead.

The ones who were allowed to stay smile back at me as they give me my very own wave, making my smile grow even wider because smiles were always a good sign. 

I say very seriously.

I didn't want anyone getting tired from all the walking and since I didn't have their super fast speed, I couldn't do it quickly.

"Oh and I'll try my very best to answer all your questions but I may not have all the answers, I'm still a bit new."

"And that's fine, cause we're new too," someone says and I giggle when I see Raven waving at me beside all the other friends I made at dinner yesterday.

"We're just excited for the tour and to get to know our Plyen's to be pair-mate."

Pair-mate.

Master said that's what we'd be when I got full control over my magic since it would link us together forever.

It made me want to work even harder to be the best Elf I could so that that would happen soon.

"Yay," I say, only letting myself jump a bit to get my excitement out.

I really wanted to pop around but that would be naughty so I hold it all in.

"Let's start with all the places Master said that you have 'access' to."

Everyone nods and it gets even harder not to pop as I turn around and lead the way.

Leaving the area of the castle where they all lived, I lead them to the main castle library which was far bigger than the one Master had just for himself which meant that it took so much longer to clean up.

That day had been amazing.

"Lincoln has put books in here from as many years as he could," I say as I stand near the door while they all have a quick look-about with their fast zooming. "There are all types of books for everyone to use, you just have to make sure you put it back when you're done."

That was one of their rules and rules were important.

"And we're free to read anything in here?" one larger man named Theo asks.

"There is no system of rank that allows one access to certain material but doesn't another?"

Theo spoke funny.

I remembered Theo's name because he was so big that when I first welcomed him, I'd been afraid of him but I wasn't scared anymore because Theo was really nice and had spoken softly to me.

"It's free to everyone," I say with a little frown. "If you get the book first, then you get to read the book first. That shouldn't change unless Master says you can't for some reason but Master's really lazy so I don't think you have to worry."

Theo's eyes go super wide as he looks around the room cautiously.

"What's wrong?" I ask, looking around for something bad but not seeing anything.

I'd been doing lots of training with Master so if it was that meanie, Diablos, I wouldn't have to pop away.

"Is it fine to say that?" Theo asks quietly. "About the Plyen? To call him lazy?"

I giggle.

"It's the truth and it's good to tell the truth."

I giggle again when I think back to the lesson Master learned about what could happen when you lied.

"Lies can lead to naughty things in a car."

Everyone stares at me with confused faces, which was okay because they weren't in the car so it made sense why they didn't understand.

"Naughty things in the car you say," Sin says as he peeks his head out from one of the book aisles. "What type of naughty things."

Would Arias get mad if I told them?

I knew Master definitely would, so I make a motion of zipping my lips to keep the secret in and Sin laughs and so does everyone else.

I was making them laugh. 

It was only the first room and we still had many things to see and I was already making them laugh.

I hope they tell everyone else so they know that Kalem Tours bring joy. 

While everyone keeps looking around the library, I say...

"Arias' Malcolm said there is lots of history in here about vampires and that newborns especially should take the time to learn it," I say repeating the words he'd told me earlier. 

A few people groan including Ophelia and Raven but everyone nods and does that little bow that made my cheeks feel so hot I thought my face would melt off.

I didn't want that to happen so I turn around quickly and rush out of the library.

Everyone follows after me, each looking around the pretty hallways with wide eyes and open mouths which Malcolm says was dangerous since flies could fly in.

That hadn't happened to me yet luckily, so I always made sure to be cautious of how wide I opened my mouth when I was shocked.

"Can I ask you a question?" someone near the front of my tour group says. "How long have you been living here...um, sorry...?"

I couldn't help but dance on my toes just a bit, I had my very own tour group.

"Kalem," I say as I turn so I can see her better, she had pretty golden hair that Arias called blonde but I liked golden better, so it was golden hair.

"My name is Kalem."

"I know," she says while she does another bow. "I just wasn't sure if you preferred a title to be used."

I shake my head quickly as I stop walking and so does everyone else, I swallow with all their eyes on me but I push through it.

"Please just call me Kalem," I beg as I look at everyone with the kindest smile I had so they didn't feel like I was some meanie trying to trick them.

"I'm not like Master or Arias or his Malcolm, I just want to be your friend and make you all feel at home. And friends call each other by their names right?"

That's what Arias had told me anyway.

But they all nod so Arias was right.

"So Kalem," I say with a bigger smile. "Just Kalem."

"Okay... Kalem," the girl says, she didn't sound like she wanted to say it and I hoped really really hard that she didn't hate my name.

Stepping to her, I take her hand in mine slowly.

"What's your name?" I ask as I pull her with me so that we could talk side by side.

"Daliah," she says as I tighten my fingers around hers. 

She looks down in surprise and I hoped that this would help so that she wouldn't feel so scared talking to me.

Her fingers were cold like Master's but I warmed them up with my hands and she smiled as we walked.

"Lincoln says I've been here for almost a year now," I say to answer her question from before. "But it feels so much shorter."

I didn't bother being louder since I knew how sensitive vampire ears were now which meant that they could hear me unless I made myself super super super... super quiet. 

"And it's just been you and the Plyen, in this massive castle, for this last year?" she asks sounding scared at her own words.

"Yup," I reply with a smile. "And it's been amazing. The best year of my entire life and it's going to be even better after my first birthday because next year it'll be me, Master and all of you."

Daliah watches me with wide eyes before she smiles, like really smiles at me and then she tightens her fingers in mine too.

[crazyblondelife]

10 Things I Learned in my 50's That Changed My Life

Of all the decades I’ve lived, I learned the most significant life lessons in my 50’s! Clearly, the Universe was speaking to me! It wasn’t that the decade of my 50s was any harder or easier than others, it’s that I was finally in a place to be present and let the lessons land. It was time…time for me to be the next version of me!

In honor of my upcoming 60th birthday, I thought it would be nice to look back and narrow my life lessons from my 50s down to the 10 most significant things I learned!

Everything I need is inside of me…

I’ve spoken about this many times, but I believe we are each a unique reflection of the Source of all things…the Universe, God, whatever you call a higher power. This means that we have access to that power if we choose to align with it.

As I was growing up, I was taught (or I understood) that the opposite was true. I was taught that there was some powerful entity that could judge me at whim. There certainly isn’t much hope in that and I rejected the idea early on, but…I didn’t replace it with anything until I started really searching in my 50s!

I now know that I have access to the power of the Universe when I choose to. It sounds easy right? Well, I’m sure you all know that it’s not so easy because we’ve been conditioned for many generations (especially as women) to think we don’t have any power. All of the societal beliefs, as much as we reject them, can still play a role in the voices that live in our heads. We have all believed things about ourselves that aren’t true, and some of these things came from well meaning people.

The idea of external power is about control, not true power. True power comes from a deep place of love and respect for who we are and for others…it comes from within and it never involves fear.

If I Don’t Love Me, Outside Validation Doesn’t Really Matter

It can feel so good to have people give you compliments, but if you need those compliments to feel good about yourself, then it’s time to take a look at what’s really going on.

For many years, I didn’t like myself very much at all and craved outside validation. I was angry at the world for the bad hand I’d been dealt, and had no idea that I chose the cards! Feeling good for me was almost totally about what was going on outside of me. Now I know that I am worthy just because I’m here on this earth and I don’t need outside validation…although it does still feel really good! When you know you’re worthy, the anger and anxiety tend to melt away.

You Can’t Trust Other People, You Can Only Trust Yourself With Other People

This is a hard one, but ultimately, everyone is the star of their own show (yes, even you)! I learned the hard way as I’m sure most of you have, that everyone is about themselves…including me and that’s really the way it’s supposed to be…

More about self love at the end, but you can be all about yourself in a powerless way, or you can be about yourself, knowing that when you do what’s right for you in a really healthy way, the people around you benefit and as a result, the world benefits…because it’s all about the energy.

Everyone has insecurities and “stuff”, no matter how far along on our spiritual journeys we are. Our egos keep whispering in our ears about how we’re not ready, not good enough or not enough at all. Unless you’ve ascended more than most, you will still hurt people you love, you will still get angry and you will still do and say things that you wish you hadn’t. Being able to trust yourself with others simply means that you are aware that everyone is human and you must be your first priority, because when you are your first priority, everyone else benefits…period.

The Journey is Lifelong

When I was much younger, I thought that by the time I got to be 60 years old, I would have figured things out. Just writing that makes me laugh. I can apply all of the spiritual principles I’ve learned, I can meditate, I can journal, and some days, I’m still very perplexed about what just happened and about which direction I should go. This is where trust comes in…trusting that we are on the right path, knowing that we’re doing the inner work and…even on the days when it doesn’t look like it - the Universe really does have our backs!

Life is Supposed to Be Good!

Notice I didn’t say “life is supposed to be easy”! I remember years ago hearing people say “life is hard and then you die”. How absurd to believe that! If you believe in love, if you believe that you are here for a reason, if you have any kind of faith at all, how could you possibly believe that! Life is what you make it! I’ve spent the past 8 years turning my pain into purpose. The story of my life, even though it’s been hard at times, has become my gift to share with the world.

I’m sure that life is hard for some and then they die, but I’ve overcome so much and if I can share it all, then possibly I can change that for a few people. That’s why sharing is so impofrtant!

I Am the Writer and Director of My Own Life

It’s kind of a hard pill to swallow, knowing that I’ve created everything in my life! Who wants to believe they’ve created hard times!

When you don’t know, you keep doing the same thing over and over. When you do know, you create an awareness that can be the catalyst for the biggest changes in your life. Like I said before, I wasn’t taught any of these principles growing up, but I’m grateful that I was curious enough to start the search!

Learning Is Lifelong and Curiosity is Everything…

Around 2015, when I was at my wits end and so miserable I didn’t know how I would go on, I remember falling to my knees and asking for help. Looking back, I can see very clearly how things started slowly changing. I read a book which led me to find Abraham Hicks, which led me to discover many more teachers that have helped me so much along my path. I can clearly remember hearing Ester Hicks say “you create your own reality” and that phrase made perfect sense. I had to create the life I wanted…it wasn’t going to just happen. I had to be curious enough to learn more, to try things out, to be open to new ways of doing things. Of course, things didn’t change immediately, but something in my mind and in my heart changed and that was the beginning…the spark. Today, there are so many things I still want to learn and understand and it’s exciting to keep growing and being curious!

Confidence is Courage Compounded…

I cannot take credit for that statement, I’ll give my mentor Melanie Ann Layer the credit, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s true! The more you step out in courage, even when you’re scared, the more confident you become. Our egos offer a false sense of protection and try to talk us out of things that aren’t familiar. When we learn to feel the fear, step into the unknown and do the thing anyway, confidence comes more quickly. And the more you step, the more confident you become.

People Will Talk…People Will Talk

Someone is going to have an opinion no matter what you do so you may as well do what makes your heart sing and let them talk!

Self Love Is the Most Important Thing

And…the hardest thing at times.

In my life, until I was in my late 40s, I never heard anyone talk about self love! I heard other’s talk about people who thought they were “too good”, or people who thought they were better than others, but that’s not what I’m talking about here!

Last summer, I had someone argue this point with me and it was very disheartening. If we are creative expressions of the Source of all things, we are responsible for letting our lights shine (that is God within us). If we doubt that we’re good enough and dim our light, the world doesn’t experience our gifts, which come from God and are part of us. Self love is knowing that nurturing ourselves and seeing ourselves as unique expressions of God is our gift to the world.

It’s taken me so long to get to the point where I really love who I am most of the time. I still mess up and let my ego take over, but when I’m aligned and doing the work I know I was put here to do, I feel so good! Just imagine what the world would look like if everyone followed their God given passions, knew about their authentic power, stayed curious, was passionate about learning and believed in their responsibility to shine! That’s the world I want to live in and I believe that one person at a time we can create that!

Let’s teach our children and grandchildren at a young age how fabulous they are and that their interests and desires are there for a reason! Let’s teach them that they have the power to make a difference just by being who they are. Maybe then, life will be easier!

Mind your mind…because, one thought can create a feeling, which can create a desire. And…if you act on that desire, it can change your life. Don’t waste your time thinking about all the things you’ve already thought about…keep the good memories, take the lessons and then…think a new thought! Let that thought guide you to a new place and make more memories! Live life on purpose! The End!

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

The Mirror Match

The Advanced Player of the Tutorial Tower (APTT) has reached a trope that shows up with a lot of powerful characters, particularly if they’re cocky.

A favorite line on the topic comes from Minmax in the comic Goblins! where he says, “Oh god, it’s the one guy who’s butt I’m not sure I can kick!”

To some extent that sums it up, right? The reason behind your Negaducks and other shadow selves is sometimes to delve into a “there but for the grace go I” scenario, but also it’s kind of a chance for the series to delve into or reveal its core philosophy.

If it’s a true Shadow Self instead of just a pure copy, it often wins at first. The lesson expressed is that from a logistical standpoint evil, cruelty, and violence can be powerful but burn through their resources too fast. The support of friends, belief in something greater than oneself, or desire to protect, meanwhile, can be slower to come to full power but reaches a greater height.

It’s honestly hard to tell how much writers want to express these ideas as philosophies, because there’s a natural tendency to write the scene this way anyway, because having the hero lose a bit at first and then have a come-from-behind win is good storytelling.

Another benefit, back to what Minmax said, is that it neatly gets around the typical issue of the OP Protagonist; That is, the “being OP” part. The reason I said it can reveal the underlying philosophy is that it removes a lot of the more mundane comparison-points, math-style, by putting them on both sides of the equation so you can zero them out. Your hero can punch for 22.3 mountains worth of damage? The same is true of the mirror. He can access Lightning Force? Also true of the mirror. You have to then work out what makes the hero a winner independent of those physical attributes. If you don’t have an answer yet, this may be a case where the shadow wins the scene, and your hero has to back off, lick his wounds, and learn something better. 

I’ve talked about a few ways copycat characters can go awry before, when I watched the Copycat Ken episode of Ranma 1/2, but you definitely have to be careful about weird edge cases to avoid making some kind of on-the-spot rule for a neat individual scene that then spreads like ink to ruin your whole worldbuilding tapestry. There was a filler episode in Naruto where the villains made perfect copies of some of the heroes who could use all their moves. After a bunch of nothing back-and-forths with bad animation (it was a filler episode, after all) the conclusion was the heroes won because they could learn and get more skilled over time, and the copies couldn’t. As an idea this is actually pretty cool. The problems are a) This was merely told to us. The movements don’t reflect the idea that the heroes have gotten better at anything; We don’t have a sense that their movements are more considered, or their blows any sharper. b) Almost all of the heroes copied had moves they could use to burn themselves out for temporary extra power. There isn’t a sense that the copies had agency or a strong desire to survive after killing their originals. So why wouldn’t Evil Rock Lee immediately use the gates to power up and either win or force Good Rock Lee to use the same self-damaging power just to keep up? c) It was far less interesting to have the mirror copies split up and fight their own originals only. The team was supposed to be a team, so why didn’t they fight as a team? Given the horrible animation, this answer at least is clear: It would have been harder to animate, and they didn’t have budget for that during this episode.

But yeah. By removing the idea of one side or the other winning because they can punch through walls or whatever, the mirror match trope gives the writer a chance to essentially have one side win on philosophical grounds. They won because they’re always improving themselves. They won because they have friends who can cover for their own weaknesses. They won because they actually have something to fight for. They won because of some immutable qualtiy about who they are that can’t be copied and have the copy remain antagonistic. There’s all kinds of neat ways to go with it.

[dzuraw3000w23]

Prompt 3: Privilege

As we discuss privilege in our modern world I think it is prudent to include the discussion of intersectionality. I define privilege as the absence of barriers based on identity or race. Everyone has barriers they face, there are just some people who face more for discriminatory reasons. For example, I am an able-bodied person, and I have no barriers when using public transportation, but someone who uses mobility aids will have a much harder time getting on and off the bus especially if the stops are not well maintained in the winter. There are so many things we take for granted simply because the world is built for able-bodied people in our capitalist, white, patriarchal society. This is an example of intersectionality because although I face discrimination because of other aspects of my identity, I will still have more privilege than someone who is disabled. This is a key point that I think can be missed, especially in social media. 

As in all aspects of life, privilege plays a big role in who has access to nature, who can be a nature interpreter, and who can experience the lessons being taught. Something that comes to mind when talking about privilege in nature interpretation is the very first unit on CourseLink. It asked us to do a google search of “nature interpretation” and notice that most of those photos include mainly white, able-bodied people in temperate climates. Is this an accurate representation of how the majority of the world interacts with nature? Of course not, I think you would be hard-pressed to find a consensus on how people should experience nature. As a white person, my experience with nature has been through things like school field trips and summer camps, learning about what leaves I shouldn’t touch, and leaving animals alone in the wild. It wasn’t until last year that my perception of the natural world drastically shifted. 

I took a conservation course, BIOL*3130 for anyone interested, and one aspect of the course was learning about indigenous conservation efforts and the relationship indigenous people have with nature. We read an article about a woman who was rekindling her relationship with her indigenous roots and talked about how everything has life, from the biggest mountains to the smallest bugs. What stuck out to me was how even abiotic things had their own power and place in the world just as biotic things do. This puts into perspective just how interconnected the natural world is and how, in modern environmentalism, we can sometimes lose sight that we are a part of the natural world, not an omniscient being who has ultimate control over what our great planet provides for us. This changed my view from very logical to more compassionate about how I interact with nature.

I am so grateful that the course included this unit because it helps western scientists to expand their minds on how to think about sustainability and not separate people and nature. And this is a perfect example of how diversifying our learning curriculum to include different perspectives is integral to a more empathetic and enthusiastic next generation of environmental scientists. This all leads back to the privilege to choose what is taught in our curriculums, those in positions of power will continue to stick to the status quo to ensure their power is protected. Diversifying our education will lead to experiences like my own, learning to connect with nature on a deeper level and now advocating for those people to continue to bring new perspectives and knowledge into modern western practices.

[ravensraven]

Due to popular demand: the "Everyone is forever tied to their story" theory!

My theory goes like this:

In Ever After there's this magic, let's call it Destiny Magic, that is responsible for the retelling of the fairytale stories, and it's devided between the character that plays a role in the story and the Storybook of Legends.

The book is in some way capable of storing the magic and releasing it to each student once they sign.

I think joining the magic from the book with the magic from the person makes the stories happen - we know the book gave Raven access to her full powers and made her evil, just like a higher yeah witch that is mentioned in the book The Storybook of Legends. Still, in some way it could be controlled (some examples are Raven becoming good again, Red and Wolf's whole romance, the slight tweaking of the story so the Candy Witch wouldn't die, and of course the Evil Queen's rebellion after poisoning Snow White)

But when Raven destroyed the book that magic became harder to control and instead of following the direct path it had been doing for years it became unpredictable.

Now here are the clues I used for my theory:

Darling and Apple

Apple's whole journey during Dragon Games is more or less what Snow White goes through on her story:

She gets into a confrontation with the Evil Queen, which results on her getting banished from her castle/school and seeks refuge in the forest with the help of the forest creatures. After learning she survives, the Evil Queen tries to poison her with an Apple (don't take my word as fact but I think in some versions she sends a bird instead of going herself, so we have more parallels there). Here is where Snow White begins her eternal sleep until the Prince Charming awakens her.

Sidenote: in the Brothers Grimm version Snow White chokes on an actual piece of the apple, just like Apple does in Dragon Games.

So yeah, even if their stories start differently it's pretty clear that this was meant to be a recreation of the original Snow White.

Daring and Rosabella

Another obvious parallel; Daring's whole arc is learning that external beauty isn't everything with the help of Rosabella.

I won't make a direct comparison since with these two is mostly about the morals of the The Beauty and the Beast story, but I'll mention that both started with the Beast getting turned into a beast by a magical being wanting to teach them a lesson; the rest is pretty self-explanatory.

Justine

Since she was first introduced during Dragon Games there isn't much information about her, but I noticed that in the webisode Moonlight Mystery her sleepdancing is treated as if it was a recent thing, which I want to believe might be because of the Destiny Magic making her dance all night like in her story.

There's also other points in eah where the Destiny Magic appears, these don't happen after Way Too Wonderland so I only count them as evidence that, at least at some point, the characters were tied to their stories.

Holly and Poppy

The book Truth or Hair was released after WTW but it doesn't give any indication of actually following the movie storyline so I'll be counting as part of the pre-WTW evidence.

In this book, Holly's hair starts to get shorter and shorter and Poppy's doesn't stop growing and has returned to her natural color. They (and I) believe this is because of the Destiny Magic.

Cerise, Cedar and Daring

In the book A Wonderlandiful World all the characters except the wonderlandians get turned into objects or animals that resemble their name or have some significance in their story.

I want to focus particularly on these three because I think there's more than just pure coincidence in their transformations.

Cedar turns into a real girl, it's kinda obvious considering her story but I'd like to believe this also proves that the magic inside of her turned Cedar into a real girl because that's her happily ever after. They could have chosen to turn Cedar into an inanimate object, a literal puppet, like they did with other students like Apple or Ashlynn, but instead she became a real girl like in her story.

In Daring's case, he turned into a monkey-like beast. This can be a cleae foreshadowing of his actual destiny as the next Beast.

In this book Cerise gets turned into a small wolf, I think the writers wanted to hint to the idea of Cerise actually being the next Big Bad Wolf and I wish we could've seen more of it.

Duchess

When she was a kid, her swan transformation started appearing; instead of being cursed by a wizard, the transformation appeared randomly - maybe this also has to do with the Destiny Magic.

I still think they can controll this magic, like the twins did in Truth or Hair or even Briar and Faybelle during the dream secuence of Epic Winter; it'd just take more willpower.

[dr4cking]

Tutor

draco malfoy x reader | smut | fluff

"miss y/n, this is getting horrible, you have been failed at my class so many times, your grades isnt doing better, now all i can do is to suggest you by getting a tutor" professor slughorn sighed handing y/n her last test disappointedly.

"im sorry professor, i promise i will try harder and get better" y/n took her paper and going back to her seat.

"im sure you're a great student, you just need some help. uhm- mr. malfoy? do you mind tutoring your classmate here, miss y/n? its only you who is the bestest in my class" the professor asked to one of the best students, the famous draco malfoy, y/n gulped and waiting nervously for his answer. she had this little crush on him since they always had classes together and she's in the same house as him, but they were not exactly 'close'.

"oh i dont mind, professor. its my pleasure" draco answers politely, taking a look at y/n making the girl look down and blush, a smile appeared to his face. little did she know, he has a big crush on the lovely girl who seemed clueless about all the hints he gave her almost everyday.

professor slughorn just nodded and dismissed the class, everyone packed their things and left, y/n look at draco who's already staring at her with a genuine smile plastered in his face, motioning her to follow him. she feels like her heart jumped out of the place, she follows him behind as draco walking them to his room.

as they arrived in draco's room, y/n admires the design, it was elegant and neat. typical rich slytherins room.

"it looks nice" y/n said opening the conversation.

"thanks, put my hardest work to make it look the best. here, take a seat beside me" draco patting the side of his couch, there's a small table in front of the couch.

y/n took a seat beside him, and placing her books to the table, the tension was so awkward that she wished she was a talkative person.

draco started the lesson, y/n learned faster from the way draco explained it than in the class, but she would be lying if she said she hasnt lost her focuses a few times to studying draco's face, he's just so beautiful. she thinks he didnt noticed, but he did, he just keep it to himself.

after hours studying, y/n feels like her head will going to explode in a minute, she decided to take a break.

"god can we take a break, draco? this is so stressing, why cant i just be smart like you, dont get me wrong you're a great tutor but im just too dumb" y/n protested, massaging her head and rubbing her face in frustration.

"oh y/n dont say that! we can take a break of course, but to make you feel better, i promise you, you're doing so great now, you've improved a lot, im so proud of you" draco said cheering her up, his hand goes to tucked her hair behind her ear reassuring her.

y/n look up to draco, giving him a sweet shy smile and her cheeks turns red as draco keeps complimented her, before they know it they were leaning into each other and their lips met, the kisses were soft and lovely, draco cupped her cheeks caressing it gently while y/n wrapped her arms around the back of his neck pulling him closer tugging at his hair deepening the kisses making both of them let out a small moans.

as the kisses turn into a full makeout and got heated, draco lays her down gently on the couch placing soft wet kisses on her neck, sucking on it, marking her causing her to let out a soft moan, he placed one of his hand on her thigh rubbing small circles until his hand got higher, he pulled away.

"do you wanna take this further, love? we can stop now if you dont want to" draco asked and y/n shakes her head no and put his hand back to her inner thigh.

"no draco please keep going i want you, i need this" draco groans and he continues rubbing her clit from her panties feeling the wetness that already make a spot on her panties, soft whines escaped her lips as draco keep teasing her clit, he pushes her panties aside and insert one finger inside her making y/n let out a constant squeal and she covered her mouth quickly, her eyes rolled back at the pleasure.

y/n's moans were muffled by her hand, draco cant help but getting harder by looking at her expression, he still cant believe he finally got the girl he always adored like this, he added another fingers into her cunt, curling them inside her making the girl squirmed under his touch.

"dont cover your mouth, let me hear your beautiful voice, show me how good i make you feel, love" draco said as he takes her hand off of her mouth and intertwining their hands instead with his free hand while his fingers still working their way in and out of her tight hole getting faster each time, he stares at her in awe, how gorgeous she looks right now, mouth hung open, eyes rolled back in pleasure and all because of him, he feels butterflies filling his stomach.

"yes- yes draco, oh god.. you make me feel so good" draco go down to her pussy, pulling off her panties, putting her thighs on his shoulder and positioning his face in front of her glistening cunt and started to eat her out making y/n a moaning mess, he let out a moan too at the taste of her, getting addicted to it, he can even eat her out for all day if she let him.

"do you like the way my tongue plays with your pretty pussy, love? mhmm you taste so fucking delicious baby" draco keeps sucking on her clit, its like he was making out with it, his tongue going in and out of her hole his fingers going with the same pace as his tongue.

"ah- yes draco i love it, oh- please im so close" y/n keep moaning uncontrollably while her hand grasping tightly onto his hair.

"yes baby, let it out, cum on my tongue, let me taste you, darling" draco wants nothing more than to pleasure her right now, making this moment unforgettable for both of them, and within seconds y/n screams his name and cumming hard on his mouth, laying breathlessly still steadying her breath after her intense orgasm.

draco pulled away and y/n blushing madly looking at his face, his mouth covered in her juices, he smiles proudly at her, sucking his fingers clean, and hovered over her, reconnecting their lips, y/n hummed at the taste of herself on his tongue. draco started to unbuttoned her shirt, taking her bra off too and throw them to somewhere, he hungrily kissing her breasts, playing with her nipples causing y/n to get wetter while her hands working on his belt and taking his pants off, his erected dick slapped up to his lower stomach, she took it in her tiny hand and stroking it massaging the tip, making him groans.

"god.. you're so beautiful y/n.." y/n mumbles a quick 'thankyou' at the compliment getting impatient, wanting nothing more than to be taken by the blonde guy.

"draco, please, i need you so bad" she cant take it anymore, she wanted to feel him, wrapping him inside her tightly, she whimpers at the feel of his hard dick rested on her thigh.

"your wish is my command, princess" draco lining up his dick on her cunt, rubbing his tip up and down on her clit lubricate it before slowly pushing in, they both moaning each other names out loud at the sensation, both of their heads thrown back and eyes screwed shut in pleasure, y/n wrapped her legs on his waist pulling him deeper, draco paused a moment as he was fully inside her, letting her adjust to his size.

"you can move draco, god you're so big" y/n dug her nails onto his back as he slowly made a move, pulling out until its just his tip inside and slamming it back again, making y/n bites her bottom lip.

draco started to pick up his pace, pushing her legs to her chest making more access as he continues to thrust in and out deeper and faster inside her, he put his hands next to the side of her face to support his weight, y/n runs her hands on his chest, scratching it, her breasts bouncing up and down under him.

"merlin, you're so tight baby feels so good, fuck- how can someone feels this good-" draco said as he kissed her lips, his lips trembling against hers, he bites softly on her bottom lip to hold his scream as he feels her walls clenching around him, squeezing him tighter.

"oh my god- draco, right there, holy-" y/n cant even finishes her words as she screams louder when draco keeps hitting her spot, going deeper and faster each time, bringing her to her high.

"baby, are you close?" y/n nodded at his question, cant even answer him as she was too focused as the coil started to tighten in her stomach.

"good baby, cause i cant hold it much longer, now cum love, cum for me" draco rubbed a circle on her clit, his thrusts getting sloppier, y/n screamed his name out loud seeing the stars as she finally hit her orgasm, harder than the first one and draco cant help at the feeling of her walls clenching really hard around him after her high, he spilled his thick cum inside her, painting her walls white non stop, making both of them groans, his vision going blurry, he collapsed on top of y/n, burying his face on her hair, running out of breath, their bodies started to shake.

"fuck y/n that was amazing, you are too good for me, love" draco kiss her lips again as he finished, he pulls out gently, but before he can stand up he falls to her side, both of them laughs.

"look at what you did to me, y/n" draco laughed as he slowly standing up to get the towel and clean her up.

"if this is how the tutoring ends, i wouldnt mind doing it again" y/n said, smirking to him confidently as draco helped her up to his bed, giving her a cheeky grin.

[xoxo-teddybear]

Whatever Katsuki Wants - Bakugou Katsuki

Bakugou x f!Reader

Warnings: ANGST, violence, blood, cursing, lowkey little yandere Bakugou, smut, toxic relationship

Request: can I get Bakugou comes across a criminal on one of his bad days and he goes straight feral with an insane satisfied smile as he beats the shit out of them till they die. (Dark Ik, sorry😂) but as he beats the man, a video is taken of the scene and instead of posting it the anonymous person sent it to quirkless!FemaleReader. How would that play out?

BAKUGOU’S MASTERLIST

“Fucking hell!”

Bakugou ran through the dark city chasing an annoying ass criminal. It wasn’t even a villain per say, more like a petty thief wanting to ruin someone’s day. His day. Now usually, the number 2 hero wouldn’t be pursuing this type of crime, but the damn prick ran into a bank, held hostages, and got away with over 5 grand.

The pro was already have a pissy day from the second he woke up. He couldn’t wake up next to his Teddy Bear because you had to visit your parents for something that started before even Katsuki had to wake up, then he burned his breakfast because a damn bird flew into the kitchen window, he was late to work and got put on night patrol, he probably wouldn’t get to see you when he got home before you knocked out because you also had a night shift, and now this.

Every second that passed caused his damn blood to boil. He was mad at....well, existence. Not his, just existence in general. For everything. He was so close to catching this damn bastard that when he finally pounced the guy, he didn’t realize there were footsteps coming his way.

Bakugou pinned the criminal to the ground in an alleyway and completely disregarded his quirk. He needed to take his anger out on something and this poor man happened to be in his grip. Bakugou threw punch after punch, kicked the man in his stomach until he coughed up blood, he stomped on the man’s head, threw him against a wall, etc. He ended it with a strong and fiery blast at the unconscious body. Finally, after 2 minutes of silence, Bakugou began to sinisterly laugh. A psychotic laugh with a crazed look in his eye. He was hunched over with his arms loose as he walked towards the dead man, picking him up by his skull.

“Sorry buddy, you caught me on a bad day,” he laughed out and whispered into the lifeless body’s ear. He threw the body into a pile of trash cans before walking out of the alleyway. When he turned the corner, he took notice of a trembling civilian, holding a camera at him. “The hell?! THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT DAMN CAMERA?!”

Bakugou barked at the random person with devil eyes before sending a blast to the phone. The person ran away screaming, pissed at the hero for doing that. To be petty, the “extra” (as Bakugou would say) wanted this video to be exposed. Not to the media, this person wasn’t cruel enough to destroy someone else’s career, but he wanted to send it to someone to have the hero learn a lesson.

Now it was no secret that the pro was in a relationship. In an article, it was revealed that the two of you had been together for the past 4 years. With that in mind, the damn hacker found Dynamight’s longtime girlfriend’s number and sent the video her way.

—

At Bakugou’s nice home, his perfect little oblivious girlfriend hummed a tune to herself as she made some spicy curry for her precious Suki. Now it’s not that Y/N was dumb. She was actually very intelligent. But when it came to Katsuki, she was just a cute little “housewife” that loved him.

Flashback

When Bakugou first met you in the grocery market, he couldn’t help but notice your tiny but voluptuous figure, you were struggling to reach a box of cereal until Katsuki came along and helped.

“Here you go, Short Stack. Maybe next time you should ask your mommy to help you reach the high shelves.” He teased with a wink to the nickname.

You looked at the handsome blonde with a blush at first sight but when he teased you, your blush grew more ferocious with a pout and pointed brows. “I don’t need my mom to help me in the grocery store. I’m 22 for God’s sake!” You said, reaching for the box that he now held over his head.

“Hm, woulda said 17.” He teased again. You ignored his jokes and jumped to reach the box and take it out of his hands. You failed multiple times and he still stood tall with a smirk as he looked down at you.

‘Now she’s fucking cute’ he thought to himself. His eyes traveled down to your busty hips and tiny waist, then taking notice of the way your chest bounced around when you jumped and reached for the cereal. ‘Pretty damn sexy too.’

“C’mon little bear. You can do it.” He said with a shit eating grin. You pouted some more and stomped your foot before coming to a realization and began smirking. You dropped to the floor and swooped your legs to kick at his ankles and made him drop to the floor. As he fell, he let go of the box and you caught it midway before turning your back to him. Usually, Bakugou would be a little pissed, but his anger died down at the sight of your juicy ass.

“Yes!” You cheered.

“Woah..” Bakugou said in a trance. You turned to him with a confused look before he quickly hid it with a scowl. You giggled at his place on the floor and stuck out your hand to help him up.

“Sorry, but maybe you should’ve just given me my cereal. Anyway, thanks for the ‘help’ I guess..uh..” you asked, hinting for his name.

“Bakugou.” He answered and you nodded and gave a soft smile before speaking.

“Bakugou.” You said, finishing your previous sentence. “Well, I’ll be off now,”

You began to walk away but felt Bakugou tug on your arm. You looked back at him with another confused look but was only met with a cute smirk.

“Hey, I helped you with that cereal, the least you could do is give me the pretty girl’s name.” He said. You blushed a bit more before giving him a dumb look.

“Who? Me?” You teased.

“Nooo, the old hag at the cash register,” he joked. You both laughed at his comment as you settled with his hold on you, not minding the contact at all.

“Y/N L/N.” You said.

“Alright Y/N L/N, was nice meeting you.” He said with his hands in his pockets while holding a smile. A real smile and not a smirk.

“I know.” You said with a cocky smile that he could only chuckle at. “Was nice meeting you too Bakugou. I’ll see you around,” you said walking away with a waving hand.

As you walked, Bakugou couldn’t help but admire your curvy body and drool at the sight. He didn’t know what it was but something was pulling him to you. He wanted you. He needed you. That little interaction was not enough. It’s not even that he wanted to fuck. Sure you had a banging body, but your playful self caught his interest. He wanted your mind, body, and soul. He wanted to make you his.

Through the help of technology and his access to police files and hero reports, he was able to find your name, address, where you worked, and all that. He worked hard to “coincidentally” run into you constantly, up until the point where you two became quite acquainted. You eventually asked him to hang out (as friends) and that’s where the relationship grew. A few months had passed before Bakugou successfully asked you on a date, and that’s when you both found love within each other. Or more so, you found love in him. He loved you at first sight and he knew it for a fact.

After a year of dating, Bakugou asked you to move in with him and you of course said yes. Once settled in, he worked even harder to constantly fuck you stupid, break you down but build you up at the same time. He made it clear he was in charge and you were his little toy. A toy he loved with his entire being, but still a toy.

You became his dumb little girl. You had a job but Katsuki encouraged you to not work so much. “I don’t want you to raise a finger pretty girl. Just let Daddy take care of you,” he would say as he bounced you on his cock.

You had a little dance hobby that Katsuki also encouraged you to take a break from. “You don’t need to put on a show for anybody else but me, Princess. Daddy’ll give you all the attention you want.” He’d say as he kissed your cheek and finger you in front of a mirror.

You used to have friends before Bakugou found out they were trying to warn you of his abrasive behavior. Growing pissed at that, he convinced you they were against you and were no good for you.

“Those little friends of yours could never make you feel as good as I do, baby. They’re no good for you. They just want us to be apart. They’re jealous. They want you to leave me, but you don’t want that, right princess?”

“N-No daddy!”

“That’s right princess. You definitely don’t wanna leave me. Because no would could take care of you like I do, right? No one could. Nobody but me,” he would say as he pounded into you and whispered in your ear.

Eventually, Katsuki became your whole life. You would work one day a week so that you had more time for Katsuki. You would wake up next to him and cuddle with him until he had to leave for work. You would clean the house and cook for him, and you would wait for him to come home during the late hours of the night so you could smother him with love. Often times, you guys would fuck. Matter of fact, the day you first moved in, you Christened every place and piece of furniture in his house. It was the same routine that you learned to love. Wake up, cuddle, clean, cook, love, fuck.

Being Katsuki’s precious dumb baby girl, he couldn’t let his baby bear see all the damage he does as a hero. Oh no, that would scare you way too much. Your precious little self wouldn’t be able to handle it. He would tell you he was a pro hero, the number 2 hero, saving lives, and he was satisfied every time he saw the sparkle in your eyes as you looked at your hero boyfriend with a proud look. He never told you about the dark side of hero work though. The bloodshed, the kills, the deaths. Horrid things your sweet baby mind wouldn’t be able to take. He would keep his princess oblivious to the terrible things he has to do as a hero and you being his dumb little bear listened when he said you wouldn’t be able to find any videos of him. Why bother to check if he was right? Your Katsuki would never lie to you. He would never do wrong by you. All and all, Katsuki can’t risk her getting scared and leaving.

That was until....

—

Ding!

You were busy finishing up dinner when your phone went off. You looked down to the screen to see a random number had sent you a video. From the preview of the video on the banner, you took notice of that easily recognizable tuff of spiky blonde hair. You grew excited at the small sight of your boyfriend and swooned before you watched the video.

After you pressed play, your smile remained as you watched your boyfriend. However, as the video went on, your smile slowly dropped and became replaced with an open mouth. Your eyes became filled with fear as you watched your “sweet” boyfriend ruthlessly murder a man in an alleyway. You listened to his crazy laugh and felt your heart skip a few beats. Your mouth became dry and your palms grew sweaty as the video continued to install fear in you. Finally, your boyfriend threw the dead body into a pile of trash cans before you saw him look to the camera with those eyes. Those ruby gems that you used to love turned into blood drops as he gave the camera a scary glare. He barked at the man behind the camera before aiming a blast his way. The blast came at the camera and made you jump as it felt like the attack was going to hit you. You flinched and dropped your phone as the video finished and your breath grew heavy as you began to sweat and look around.

You immediately ran to your shared bedroom and pulled out your laptop. Katsuki always said you would never find anything about Dynamight online, but all you had to do was type in his name to find multiple videos of his deathly battles. You watched countless recordings of him mercilessly killing people left and right with his quirk and bare hands. Your body began to shake as your pupils dilated with fear. After a terribly gruesome fight video, you threw your device aside in fear and ran into the living room. You settled the slightest bit before growing nervous once more. All around the house were pictures of you and Katsuki. He was everywhere in the house. And those dangerously red eyes followed you everywhere. You began to hyperventilate until the sound of jingling keys invaded your ears.

You looked at the door in fear and after a few seconds, the main man walked in. Katsuki Bakugou. He seemed exhausted but once he took sight of you, he visibly became at ease.

—

Bakugou walked into the door, pissed off and tired as fuck. Luckily, that all changed when he noticed his precious Teddy Bear in the living room. He assumed you came to greet him again like you always did and he smiled at that.

“K-Katsuki! Hi..” you nervously said but Bakugou was too intoxicated with you to even notice. He walked to you with a smile and wrapped his arms around your waist before peppering your face in sweet kisses. You flinched due to his touch but Bakugou just assumed it was because of his stronger caramel scent. He did use his quirk a lot today after all.

“Hi baby,” he said. He didn’t stop his kisses as he spoke in between them. “Had such a bad day this mornin’.....was so upset......missed you a lot baby...did you miss me?”

“Mm..y-yes.” You once again said in fear. You definitely missed him throughout the day, but now with this new information, you wanted nothing more than to get away from him. Bakugou moved his kisses to your lips and placed a long, loving one on you. He had his eyes shut and so did you, but his were shut in content and yours were scrunched in fear. The entire time, you could feel your rapid heart rate pulse all throughout your body.

Bakugou started a heavy make out session with you as his hands traveled to the swell of your ass and gave it a grip and smack. He spoke to you throughout the kiss and kept his lips hovering when he spoke before diving right back into it. “Not my best day today......but you can make it better, right baby.....you wanna help Daddy feel better?”

“Mm!” You didn’t say yes but you couldn’t say no either. You didn’t know how to. Not when it came to Katsuki. At the cute little sound, Bakugou picked you up and placed you down on the couch, too eager to dive into you right away.

He placed you on the wide couch and began grabbing at your body. Your tiny waist, your curvy hips, your pretty titties. That was when he finally felt you tense up. A few nervous thoughts infiltrated his mind. Did you not want this? You never said no to him though. What was going on? He pushed those thoughts away as he continued. Maybe you were just extra sensitive today. Things were starting to change when he moved his hand down into your panties and you tried to squirm away from him.

“Baby?” He asked you as he separated from your lips and gave you a confused puppy look. He finally took notice of your nervousness and looked at you with worry. “You okay, princess?”

“Umm, yeah! I’m-..I’m okay it’s just, you don’t wanna take a shower before we do anything?” You asked as an excuse. Bakugou chuckled and a few of his nerves began to settle.

“C’mon princess, I know I just got off of work but it’s always just smoke and caramel with me. Besides you love it, I know you do.” He said and smirked as he began to lick at your neck. You nervously laugh and pushed on his chest to back him up.

“Aha, yeah, but don’t you wanna be a little more comfortable?” You asked again.

“I’m already comfortable right here. If anything, I’d be really comfortable if we were both bare already.” He said against your neck again. You pushed him off again and placed a soft hand on his cheek while giving him the sweetest smile as you spoke.

“Please love, for me?” You asked. You watched as Bakugou gave an exasperated sigh with a smile and roll of his eyes before leaning down and giving you a sweet peck.

“For you.” He said before pecking your cheek. “Everything for you, baby.” He said and finally got up to go wash up.

Once he was out of sight you released a relieved sigh. With him gone, you felt yourself began to shake again as you crowded into a corner on the couch and held yourself. You covered your mouth as you began to silently cry and sob. That-..that killer was so close to you. He was pressed against you. His once loving and comforting presence now became dangerous and scary. You didn’t know if you could take it.

—

As Katsuki walked up the stairs to the master bedroom, he couldn’t help but feel the nerves begin to bubble back up again. Why were you acting so...disobedient? It kind of irritated the blonde but he settled nonetheless. Maybe you were just having an off day. Bakugou walked right into the room and went straight for the shower after tossing his phone on the bed. The sooner he washed up, the sooner he could get to ravish you. He was quickly in and out of the shower and once he went back into the room, he threw on a pair of Gray sweats. Before leaving, Bakugou went to grab his phone but noticed your laptop opened. He looked to the screen in curiosity and felt his heart drop to his stomach once he saw what he did.

‘PRO-HERO DYNAMIGHT’S MOST LETHAL ATTACKS’ was the video you were watching. Bakugou took notice of the setting and remembered that battle. The battle where he grabbed a villain by their neck and blasted off into the sky before using an explosion to hurl them down to the ground again, killing them in the end.

Why the hell were you watching this? How the hell did you find this?! Why did you even think of looking for this video?! Bakugou felt his heart rate increase as his breath became huffs of frustration. His eyes grew fierce as he grabbed the laptop and ran downstairs. Once he walked in, he saw you cornered in the couch, hugging your knees with your head down. “Y/N!”

You immediately looked up when your boyfriend called your name. He finally saw your teary eyes and feared face when you looked to him. Then it finally clicked. This is why you were acting so off. You found him. You found the other side of him. The Katsuki you knew was sweet, teasing, loving, and a romantic. The Katsuki he hid from you was ruthless, violent, feral, and borderline insane. And you were acting off because you finally found out.

“Mind telling me what the fuck this is?!” He shouted. Now this wouldn’t be the first time Katsuki’s yelled at you. While he was in the process of breaking you down, he had to yell to let you know who was in charge. It’s not like he was heartless though, he hated it every time you forced his hand and made him yell at you. He felt so guilty and made sure to cater to your every need after he would freak out on you. Thankfully, you were a quick learner and it’s been years since you’ve gotten reprimanded by him.

You stood to your feet to try and defend yourself and get a grip. “K-Katsuki! I-..I swear it’s nothing! I wasn’t doing anything!”

“You’re gonna fucking lie to me now, Y/N?! Why the hell did you go and look for this video?” He fiercely asked. You remained silent as you were terrified and just trembled at you chewed at your lip. “ANSWER ME!”

“I-...Someone-..Somebody sent me a video...of you...and what you did tonight.” You hesitantly said. Bakugou slammed to your laptop shut and threw it to a wall, destroying it in the process.

“Show me the video.” He demanded. You were still shaking as you looked to him in fear and shock at what he just did. “NOW!”

You scrambled to get your phone and give it to Katsuki. He watched the video with a numb expression but his grip on the phone gave away all his emotions of anger and fury. Once the video was done, he looked at you with an insane smirk. You stared at him in fear as you watched his every move and right then and there he crushed your phone in his hand.

“K-Katsuki!” You shouted as you looked to your now destroyed devices. He dusted off his hands and walked to you. You tensed up at his approach and when he raised a hand to cup your cheek gently, he felt the way you shook in extreme terror.

“It’s okay, baby. You can tell me whatever you’re thinking right now. I won’t get mad.” He softly said with a smile. He was so close to you now. His hand was caressing your face oh so sweetly that it made you believe him the slightest bit. You don’t know if it was love or fear that caused you to tell him but you did.

“I-..I’m..I’m scared of you Katsuki.” You said with tears in your eyes. Katsuki just continued to softly stroke your face with his gentle smile as he nodded his head and encouraged you to go on. “You didn’t tell me..about anything of that. You told me you saved people..but you were..killing them.”

“It’s how I have to save people baby. People who become too dangerous need to be put down. It’s my job baby, you understand, don’t you?” He asked with his gentle tone. You shook your head as he still held it softly.

“No..I- I don’t.” You looked at Katsuki with hurt eyes and you took a small breath before you boldy said the next words. “I-..I think we should take a break.”

At that, Katsuki tensed up again. His eyes went wide for a second and his smile dropped before he shook his head and the kind eyes and warm smile returned. He stared at you for what felt like forever before his sweet face turned into a scary look and his hand quickly wrapped around your neck to put you into a small choke hold. Bakugou flipped you onto the couch and pinned you there. You began to scream and squirm but he covered your mouth and held you down with his legs to keep you steady.

“Careful Teddy Bear,” he said with a maniacal look, “shout and scream too much and you might just lose your breath,” he said and tightened his hold the slightest bit. “And we wouldn’t want that now, would we?”

You began to silently sob as his hand covered your mouth and you stopped moving under his hold. You nodded your head as tears began to spill down your face. Katsuki pouted at you before leaning down to lick away a tear. “Awe, don’t cry baby. There’s nothing to be scared off.”

At his words, your eyes grew angry and you bit his hand to remove it. He shouted at the bite and removed his hand as he looked down at you in anger. “You! That’s what I’m scared of Katsuki!” You said with anger and sadness.

Bakugou didn’t take too kindly to that and clenched his fist before he smacked your face. Your head turned to the side at the hard slap as you gasped at the contact. Bakugou grabbed your face with his large hand and made you face him.

“Dirty fucking bitch. You fucking love getting smacked by me don’t you?” He said with a crazed look. “Listen to me very carefully Y/N. I’ve loved you since I first laid my fucking eyes on you. So you’re not allowed to leave me. Understand?” He asked. You began to squirm again and he smacked you again to get you to stop. “ENOUGH OF THAT! You’re not leaving me Y/N. If you run, I’ll find you again the same way I did in the beginning. If you hit me, I’ll have to punish you. You remember all your punishments, don’t you? So stop fighting it. You love me and I love you. We’re not splitting up.”

You narrowed your eyes at Bakugou before spitting on his face. His eyes grew feral as his hold returned to your neck to give it a squeeze. You could still breath..but barely. “Answer me this baby. Answer wrong though and I’ll do what has to be done. Do you want to leave me?”

You looked at his eyes to find any hints of danger. Sadly, everything about this whole situation screamed danger. You still had love for Katsuki, you knew you did, but this was a whole different level. You didn’t know who this was. “.....Yes.”

“Wrong answer.”

With that, Bakugou began to rip your clothes off along with his own. You watched in fear as he did everything. The entire time, he had this excited grin on his face with insane eyes.

“K-Katsuki! What are yo-“ before you could finish, Bakugou had taken your panties and used them as a gag for you. He shoved them in your mouth and you made muffled sounds. You were both now completely bare on the couch, just like he wanted when he first came home.

“Relax baby,” he said before kissing your cheek softly as he pulled you to him. “I’m gonna make you feel so good..I’m gonna do something so nice that you’ll never want to leave.”

You shook your head with tears in your eyes. You tried push him away but he pulled your hands down. “Stop that. I’m not a heartless monster baby. I promise you’ll enjoy it.”

He grabbed both your hands and pinned them above your head in the couch. Both your tiny hands were able to be held by his one giant palm as his other hand traveled to your lower region and began rubbing soft circles on your clit. You arched your back at the pleasant feeling. As much as you didn’t want this, as much as you wanted to run away and leave, your body couldn’t deny the pleasure he gave you. He knew you inside and out. He was able to break you from a single touch.

“Feel good?” He asked with a smirk. You shook your head in disagreement. His smirk fell into a determined frown. He knew you didn’t want this now but he would make sure you would soon enough. His movements picked up speed and your legs began to shake. Katsuki finally shoved two fingers in, causing you to shriek with the muffled sound.

His pumps gave no hesitation with their speed as they went in hard and fast. You were practically screaming behind the panties once he gave in another 2 fingers. His thumb played with your clit as he continued to whisper dirty things into your ear.

“My little slut really thought she could leave me? Huh? Cant you hear the sounds your pretty pussy is making. Your mouth may say you don’t want me but your mind and body says otherwise.” With that he slipped in his thumb and you’ve never felt so full. You had his entire fist pumping in and out of you as your felt your legs growing weak. “Fuck baby, look at you. Taking my fist so well. Feel good? Feel full? Hm?”

This time, you moaned in agreement. You couldn’t help it. This was going to be your last time with Katsuki, might as well make it last. However, that was never Bakugou’s plan, no. He loves you too much to let you go. You aren’t leaving him and he’s making sure of it.

As he continued, he felt you tighten around his fist. He smiled once again and sped up his movements. “C’mon baby, let me hear you.” He leaned down and pulled the panties out of your mouth with his teeth. He tossed them aside and allowed you to voice your thoughts.

“F-Fuck Katsuki! M-More! Please!” You begged. He only looked down at you with wide eyes and a grin.

“More? What more could I give you baby?” He said, leaving down to you. “Tell me what you want Y/N.”

“I-...I-“

“You- you- you what teddy bear? Tell me. Do you want..me to stop?” He teased.

“N-No!” You cried out.

“Do you want me to slow down?” He asked.

“No!”

“Then? What do you want, baby?” He asked.

“Mm! I- I want you to fuck me Katsuki! Please! Fuck me with your cock!” You cried out and Bakugou’s fist came to a stop.

“Good girl.” He then pulled out his fist and quickly replaced it with his dick. You both cried out in euphoria. He wasted no time in ramming into you, using a quick speed. He held onto your hips as you velvet walls swallowed him in. “S-Shit baby! Fuck, after all that you’re still so- fuck! So fucking tight.”

His fingertips had a grip on your hips that was sure to leave bruises. The way he was pounding into you caused your breast to bounce and dance right in front of him. Not that it wasn’t anything Katsuki hasn’t seen before, but it’s the fact that he loves the scene so much. He licked his lips at the sight of your voluptuous mounds before taking one into his mouth. The feeling of his teeth sinking in had you gasping and your hands found way into his hair, pulling him in closer.

“K-Katsuki!” You cried out. He smirked at the sound and released you from his mouth.

“You don’t even know how good you look. How good you will look when I knock you up and fill you with my kids.” He said against your bare skin. This made your eyes pop as you looked at him in fear.

“W-what?! No! Katsuki! Please, I don’t want thi-“

“Shut the fuck up!” He screamed over you. He placed his hand around your neck as his cock completely took over you. “Yes you do! Don’t you remember baby? You always talked about starting a family with me. Now you can have it!”

“K-Katsuki..please! Please stop, this is rape!” You urgently whimpered. Bakugou merely ignored your cry as he continued his motions.

“I said, SHUT THE FUCK UP! It’s not rape if you enjoy it baby.” He said in response. He continued to touch you in the dirtiest of ways, bringing quiet moans out of you no matter how hard you tried to fight it.

“No! I don’t want it anymore! I don’t want you Katsuki!” You cried. Tears now flowed down your face in fear. You’ve always wanted a family with him. But that was before you knew how he truly was. Your words only angered Katsuki and so he punished you with a harsh smack to the face. Your head turned to the side as you gasped at the stinging feeling that almost felt like pleasure in a way.

“I’m gonna give you brat, and you’re gonna stay. You’re gonna stay with me and we’re gonna be a happy family! Because I love you and I know you love me.” He said. Your legs were growing weak as his relentless thrusts never stopped.

“P-Please. Please, I’ll stay. But I don’t want this. Not now.” You whimpered. At your soft voice, Bakugou slowed down the pace but his hard thrusts continued.

“Sorry baby, but I want this. I’ve spoiled you for too long. I give you everything under the sun and you reward me by trying to leave. Especially over such a small instance? I don’t think so. The least you could do for me is give me the family I want with you. Don’t you agree?” He sweetly said with malice intent.

You only continued your whimpers as you allowed him to do as he pleased. You weren’t getting out of this. Katsuki gets whatever Katsuki wants. If he wanted to fuck his child into you, he was going to do so, one way or another. Katsuki allowed his moans to fill the room as the once sweet sound of skin slapping grew louder and louder, coming faster and faster. Eventually, you reached your release and even squirted all over Katsuki’s chest. He very much enjoyed that and it brought him closer to his climax. He kept to his word and filled you up to the brim. You both threw your head backs and cried out in ecstasy.

Once he was done, Katsuki remained inside of you as he laid on top of you. He peppered your face in kisses as you continued to make soft sounds. You both remained on the couch for some time before he pulled out and walked to the kitchen to get a rag and clean you and himself up. Once done, he picked you up and brought you to the bedroom where he placed you down under the sheets and joined you. He cuddled with you in bed feeling happy and joyous while your head was stuck in thought.

‘If his plan worked, I’ll be a mother soon. There’ll be a baby growing inside of me.’ You silently thought. Bakugou snapped you out of your thoughts with a kiss on your lips before he began speaking.

“..I know what you saw on the footage was scary, but that’s not the only part of me. I’ve shown you every other me. The me that loves you and wants to be with you forever, Y/N.” He said and picked up your hand to give your knuckles a kiss.

“....I understand that your job isn’t the purest. I understand that sometimes, a life will be lost. But the video that was sent to me, showed you killing a petty robber. You took it too far.” You argued quietly.

“Tch. Whatever. He deserved it anyway-“

“And it’s not only that, but you’re the reason why I have no friends, no job, no money, no family, no nothing. In the beginning, it was amazing because I thought I knew you. But now, I’m just scared of you Katsuki and I have no one else to go to.” You began to get choked up. This was the man you loved but you felt like you didn’t know him anymore. Right now, in your eyes, he was a killer. A scary monster.

“If you left me, who would you go to baby? You’re absolutely right. You have no friends. No job. No home. You have nobody but me. You need me. Say it.” He demanded. You remained quiet to rebel against his wishes until he took hold of your face and squeezed it tight. To stop the pain, you forced the words out.

“I-...I need you!” With that, he released his hold on you and his hand rested on your cheek. He stared into your eyes and you looked at him with the sad and confused look you had on ever since he came home.

“I love you Y/N. Do you still love me?” He asked.

“......I do.” You said. A smile grew on his face.

“Then we can make this work,” he said and pulled you into his chest, holding you tight. You whimpered into his chest but nonetheless held onto him tight as well. You did love him. You knew you did. But you didn’t love who he truly was. Or at least, what part of him was. A killer. A murderer.

He was right though. You had nowhere else to go. Katsuki really was your everything. And so, you were going to allow this relationship to go on. His child will come from you and you will start a family with him. Whether you want it to happen or not. As long as he wants it, it’ll happen.

Whatever Katsuki wants.

A/N: THE ENDING IS SO RUSHED AND HORRIBLE! IM SORRY!

Tag list: @sxcker4you @aomi04

[apolybird]

Advice for polycule home-buyers/household consolidation

So... we are at about the two month point on consolidating our polycule and buying out house. It’s been amazing. AMAZING. I love having my people just a room away. No more traveling and scheduling. We just get to exist together. I get to cook for everyone! It’s magical. 12/10. Would recommend. But it’s not been without its pitfalls and lessons learned. So I thought I’d put forth some advice that I’ve garnered on the road to polycule cohabitating bliss. There have been no major mishaps, but we’ve had a few difficulties and a few instances of “Whew... glad we did this like we did.” And of course... this advice won’t be for everyone. It centers around us purchasing a home together and I get that won’t be everyone. But that said... there’s a few ideas in here that are universal, I think. ------ -First and foremost... be not afraid. I SAID BE NOT AFRAID! But okay really... it can be tempting to assume that everyone is anti-polyamory. And while socially, you're guaranteed at least a raised eyebrow or two, legally and economically no one gives a shit. And if people do give a shit, walk out the door and go find someone else. I promise... you’ll have your choice of companies and people. I can say this with confidence because I live in Alabama. No one gave a shit. Not so much as a comment, question, or weird look. The only time it came up was when we were planning for what happened to the house if one of us died and the lawyers were just asking “Split three ways or split between the married couple and the other guy?” The only positive thing I have to say about capitalism is that it is at least is a-moral enough to not be conservative in this regard. They want to do business. If someone buys a house, everyone makes money including them. Doesn’t matter who’s doing the buying. Queer money spends just like everyone else’s. -When you decide to move in together, set up a group email account and make sure everyone has easy access on all their devices. Do this before you start the buying process or at least before you start consolidating services like utilities, internet, and anything else where having a collective point of contact will make things easier. We have had a lot of re-work to do regarding connecting our services to a place where we all have access because since I took care of setting up a lot of contracts, services, and appointments, they’re all defaulting to my account. That means any changes have to go through my private email. Not ideal. And this leads me to... -Before you start setting up payments for things like the mortgage, utilities etc, get a collective bank account. Do this after you make your household email so security codes and such go there. You can go back and do actual budgeting later, but trust me... it will be so much less work if you have this set up ahead of setting up services. And a sub-point on this one... go for a large chain bank. They are better for things like integrating with Quickbooks, money transfers, and auto-payments. There are a lot of times I champion going local... this is not one of them. Small local banks don’t have the manpower to sustain integrations like that. -Before everyone moves in together, it’s not a bad idea to have a decent guess of some of the harder-to-track expenses like groceries, subscriptions, etc. I’d suggest using a tracker like Mint to see where everyone’s money is currently going. Some things will consolidate... others might not... but you’ll be able to take a stab in the twilight rather than in the dark. -Financial conversations are hard, but it’s a good idea to have the sit down to talk about goals before digging in together. Go ahead and rip the bandaid off at the beginning. And if you’re all flailing madly and don’t know where to start, get someone to help facilitate the conversation. If they’re a friend, you might be able to pay them with dinner, but you might have to invest in some expertise. Do it. Don’t be embarrassed. I promise, no matter what your questions or issues are, rest assured that you’re not the first to ask. And don’t feel like you have to go to some big fancy accountant or investment firm... I’m serious when I say you might be able to find a friend who can just help facilitate the conversation. Who do you know that has their shit together financially? Just ask them what they did and that might at least get you started on your own conversation. But either way... do it. And if that’s impossible because of your anxieties, really interrogate that. It’s less harmful with one person or maybe two... but with a group working together, it’s important to be able to converse about the subject of finances, financial goals, and such. If everyone can talk openly it removes a lot of instability and the issue of inequitable players.  -Similarly to the above, a regular family meeting time is not a bad idea. We do it once a week on Sunday mornings. It doesn’t have to be anything formal or long. Just a sit down to talk about goals for the week, make requests for help, and just generally catch up. Again, it keeps things open and equitable. We use an app called Clickup to help facilitate our conversations... the house we bought is a fixer-upper so there are a lot of projects going. If there is resistance to the idea of taking 15-30 minutes to catch up as a group... interrogate that issue. It’s going to seem like you’re making a mountain out of a molehill, but better to deal with a molehill than a mountain.

-Also it’s going to seem at first like “quality time” will just happen because you all live together. It doesn’t. Make sure you still set aside some time for each other, however that needs to look for your arrangement. For us it’s easy to spend time one on one, but as a group, we have to do that on purpose.  ------ So that’s it.  We’ve had such a blast getting settled in. Sometimes it feels like we’ve always lived like this and sometimes I can’t believe it’s already been two months. Hope some of our lessons learned help future polycules! 

[dickwheelie]

jmart fic prompt: there's a piano in the safehouse

sorry for how long this took! but here it is :) hope you like!

__________

"Of all the people I'd expect to have an old Casio keyboard in their basement," Jon said, grunting a bit as he dragged his end of the keyboard up another stair, "Daisy would be last on the list."

"What about--huff--Elias?" Martin said, pulling his end up and onto the ground floor of the safehouse, carefully setting the keyboard down on its stand.

Jon followed him out of the basement and stretched, with several noises of complaint from his back (though Martin had been doing most of the heavy lifting). "Hmm, touche." Jon turned eagerly towards the keyboard. "This old thing . . . I haven't seen one of these since uni, and even then they were vintage . . ."

Martin hummed with interest. "Vintage, you say?" He poked a couple of the plastic keys, but no sound came out.

"Oh, do you play?" Jon said, as he began searching for an outlet for the power cord.

"Ah--no," Martin said. He glanced over at Jon. "Do you?"

"Yeah, of course. Ah-hah!" Jon had moved aside a dresser to reveal an outlet. "Why else would I make you drag this up here?"

"I didn't know you played keyboard." Martin sat down in the nearby armchair as Jon approached the stand again.

"I took piano lessons as a kid. Or, my grandmother dropped me off at piano lessons, and I usually disappeared somewhere between the end of the driveway and the front door of the piano teacher's house." Jon laughed at the memory. "I still managed to learn, though, because I'd take home the lesson books and teach myself, on my own time."

Martin grinned. "You were such a precocious kid."

"I was a weird kid."

"Nah, I bet you were adorable," said Martin.

"You can be both adorable and weird."

"I was a weird kid too," Martin said. "Maybe we would've gotten along."

"Maybe," said Jon. "Did you like sitting and reading in total silence for hours at a time?"

"Nope. Did you like playing video games?"

"I . . . I'm not sure. My grandmother never allowed them in the house."

"I would've let you use my Nintendo."

"I would've refused. Too pedestrian for my refined young taste."

"God, I would've hated you," Martin said, laughing.

"So would I. Good thing we met when we did."

Martin smiled at him lopsidedly. "Yeah. Good thing."

"Anyway," Jon said pointedly, turning back to the keyboard, "let's see if I can remember . . ." He ran his hands over the keys, playing a few scales as though testing the waters. He tried a few chords, and, apparently satisfied, started the beginning of what Martin recognized as "Killer Queen."

"Hey, you're good," Martin said, leaning forward. The old keyboard itself sounded tinny, but Jon's fingers moved smooth and sure over the keys.

Jon snorted. "Try not to sound so surprised."

"I just didn't realize you were so talented."

"I'm rusty. And I was never amazing to begin with."

"Better than I could've done," said Martin.

Jon finished the first verse with a little flourish and paused, fingers hovering over the keys.

"Do you take requests?" Martin asked.

"Hm. Alright, try me," Jon said with a smile.

"Do you know . . ." Martin thought for a moment. "Can you do 'Rocket Man'?"

Jon's brow furrowed in thought. Hesitantly, he placed his fingers on the keys and began feeling out the melody, growing in speed and confidence as he went on. "There we go," he murmured to himself as he reached the first chorus, which he played perfectly, at least to Martin's untrained ears.

After a couple choruses, Jon stopped again, and Martin clapped. Jon took a few exaggerated bows in his direction.

"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week," Jon said.

"You really are good," Martin said. "I don't know how you just . . . hear the music and then recreate it like that."

Jon shrugged. "It's just a lot of shortcuts, really. Once you figure out the chord progression everything else comes pretty easily. It's harder to learn songs by heart."

"Alright," said Martin, settling in, "do you know any songs by heart, then?"

"Well . . ." said Jon, the picture of innocence, "there is one . . ."

Martin motioned for him to continue, and Jon placed his hands on the keys once again. Out came the same tinny sound as before, but with a much richer melody, both of Jon's hands moving over the keys in a complicated dance.

And then Jon started to sing. It was a lilting, slow melody to match the accompaniment, with lyrics Martin recognized:

By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes

Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond

Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae

On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond . . .

Martin felt his mouth drop open. Jon had a nice voice. Which made sense, he supposed, since he already liked Jon's speaking voice so much. He just hadn't expected Jon's singing voice to be so . . . soft. It reminded Martin of when Jon would get quiet late at night, only speaking just above a murmur, as though he was afraid of shattering the peaceful nighttime of the Highlands.

Martin listened quietly as Jon sang the final verse:

O ye'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road

And I'll be in Scotland a'fore ye

But me and my true love will never meet again

On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

"Jon, that was gorgeous," Martin said softly, once Jon had played the last note. "You've got a really nice voice."

"I've always really liked that song," Jon said. "It's sad, but beautiful. And it seemed appropriate, given our location."

"Yeah, good choice."

"We should try to visit," Jon said. "Loch Lomond. It can't be far, we can go by train."

"We're supposed to be in hiding, remember?"

"Oh, right. Damn," said Jon, and Martin smiled.

"Maybe after this all blows over," Martin said after a moment. "We'll go see the bonnie banks for ourselves."

Jon grinned. "High road or low?"

"Your pick."

"Generous of you."

"Yeah, well," said Martin, "small price to pay for the private concert I'm being treated to."

"For you, it's free admission. With an all-access pass."

"To what?"

Jon looked at him incredulously. "To me, of course."

Martin barked a laugh. "I'd hope so!"

"It looks like I'll be giving a lot of private concerts in the near future," said Jon, fingering a few keys. "I've got a lot of catching up to do."

"Well," Martin said, as Jon started the first few bars of what Martin recognized as "Come On Eileen," "good thing we've got plenty of time."