#literally covered - though still looking natural (ish)??

[byakuyasdarling]

I find it so funny (sad) overhearing my dad talk about me on the phone to a friend. He’s like “she’s 18 and 3/4 now” (I assume that’s in relation to my lack of motivation), “what she feels is different to what I think.”, “I snap sometimes but it’s only because x, y, z” (didn’t hear it), “can’t get her up in the morning” (not true, I just prefer to get-up late as opposed to my old 6am start, “she relied on school to validate herself” (genius /s), “she really hates herself” (not really. I guess in comparison to who I was, yes. But I still think I’m that same person mostly).

[serafilms]

just some of my fav content that kpop (boy) groups have put out (very specific!!!)

i spend many an hour on it (like actually just one hour) because i don’t want to work on my wips!!!

nct 127 hit the states: haechan x dallas

HAECHAN SILVER HAIR HAECHAN SILVER HAIR i will never shut up. this and purple and we go up brown/rainbow are his best looks idgaf. they’re just soo cute here and having so much fun and i can’t even believe how fun it looks :(( i wanna have a day like this

nct 127 hit the states: mark x vancouver

such a beautiful scenery and seeing mark be so happy in his hometown w the rest of 127 is so cute. taeil and jungwoo are so funny here too

boynextdoor pretty u cover

SLAYED! nothing more to say. i love bnd performances they ate down period.

beomgyu kids’ café on workman

the editing is so funny in this video PLS and the way the little girls all hated him but the boys were obsessed with him 😭 the café staff are so fun and nice too 👍 i love beomgyu sm

nct dream candy mv

no explanation required. once you candy you never stop candying. the cutest music video EVER i love it so much. nct dream mv’s always EAT. hello future, we go up, chewing gum, go, life is still going on (track video but still cute), hot sauce

txt lo$er=lover office attack version

so creative and fun and they look so good 😋

nct dream rooftop fight

so glad they actually did this bc i was waiting for it for so long 😭 they hyped it up for so many years did NOT disappoint. nct will never not be funny.

stray kids fancy cover

THE WAY I ACTUALLY FORGOT THIS HAPPENED UNTIL JUST NOW WHEN I WAS GOING THROUGH MY YOUTUBE PLAYLIST. omg we moved on too soon

boynextdoor funnextdoor

i’m actually in the process of watching it rn but i’m actually so amazed at how genuine and funny they are?? usually a lot of groups (excluding survival show groups) take a while to warm up to the cameras and talk to them and be natural around them and their members in front of them, but you can really tell how comfortable bnd are with each other and even though they’re warming up the the cameras, they’re so cute about it and so natural and outgoing that it’s not awkward at all and so fun to watch! and on that note….

boynextdoor what? door!

they’re so funny omg also bc why are hybe editors so slay?? will never stop promoting bnd (+zb1!!! love riize too but they have sufficient hype tbh i need bnd appreciation!! 5th gen boy groups let’s gooooo)

zerobaseone zbtv

ok so this list actually isn’t specific anymore but can u blame me. they’re so funny in all of the episodes how am i to choose just one. zb1 are quite literally one of the absolute funniest groups I’ve ever seen. love them sm PLEASE stan before they disband 😞

eunchae star diary with sunghoon and heeseung

EUNCHAE !!!!! she’s so cute i love eunchae star diary 😭 this was more awkward than the jake ni-ki one tbh but it was really cute too 👍 and the way sunghoon kept trying to weasel out the tea from her like leave that girl alone hoon 😭😭

honourable mentions to the kyujin and hiyyih episodes too!! bc it’s so fun to see eunchae with her friends

en o’clock episode 12

the one where they did like the high up line training course thing idk what it’s called and they were wearing camo print like military ish stuff idk man but it’s so funny and their early days r so cute

en o’clock episodes 32 and 33

the irl among us episodes 😭😭

boys planet jelly pop

MY GODDDDDD JELLY POP ZHANG HAO I LOVE U SM. i wish he liked women and was 4 years younger and went to my uni. i purchased many zhang hao pc’s recently. jelly pop my #7 most played song in spotify. i watched it too many times. saved so many edits. ilysm king.

txt idol human theatre when they went to that house

the way the managers lifted taehyun out of the pool gets me every single time 😭😭😭

txt idol human theatre during blue hour era

my fav idol human theatre episode EVER. so funny and i love blue hour era sm‼️

stray kids family 3rd anniversary

skz with wigs will never not be iconic. and why did jeongin and felix lowkey devour acting elderly like???

to do x txt flying yoga episode 83

i love this episode so much actually omfg PLEASEE they’re so funny 😭 kpop idols doing any kind of strenuous movement exercise is my favourite content ever

to do x txt self defense episode 104

this one is CRIMINALLY underrated actually. wdym both parts don’t have 1 million views at least? can’t tell you how many times i had to rewind bc i was enjoying it so much 🫶🫶 i have plans to rewatch this soon so i also can learn some self defense moves.

run bts episode 55

this whole trip starts from ep 53 but them slapping each other’s asses and trying not to laugh is one of the funniest things i’ve ever watched actually,, this was one of the first run bts vids i watched on vlive and it brings me back when i see clips of it 😢

the nct show (nct 2020 but in 2022)

i love LOVE when nct all gets together :( nct 2018 and nct world 2.0 !!!! everything happens for a reason and sungchan and shotaro belong in riize but this video is so fun and they’re all so cute together!! field day episodes!!!!!! this and hybe game caterers fr

007” 00” the nct show

same as previous with extra emphasis on I LOVE THE 00 LINE HOKY FUCK. yangyang ❤️❤️❤️ i need to watch more wayv content i miss him

upper side dreamin’ halloween version behind the scenes

sunoo dancing to mama at the end is peak editing. enha vs ghosts let’s go!!! they’re all so cute and funny in this 🥳🥳 the way ni-ki abandoned the camera man bye 😭

txt magic island mv

words cannot express how much i miss the dream chapter: magic era. how i wish i could find a song that makes me feel the way run away and magic island do. the things i’d do to listen to that album for the first time omfg!!!! anyways this mv and the run away mv make me so emotional like 😭😭😭 also old bts txt lore used to be so confusing to me like i would spend soo so long trying to figure it out

anyways that’s it bc youtube search and sorting history filters are ass so i can’t find many more but i hope at least 1 person finds a new video to watch from this.

[omnipenneartblog]

AU thing where Owain (Adonis) ended up in Remnant, on the run with his child from some really bad wizards for book spoiler reasons. After getting stuck there, he decides to make the most of the situation and raise his kid in Remnant.

Beacon Academy: Professor Owain Tyto - Dust Sciences

Semblance: ??? - He has convinced everyone that he had a semblance that lets him see the composition of dust at super high magnification and clarity. In actuality this is just a natural thing all humans from his world do; he's a literal wizard.

A strict yet effective teacher who tailors his teaching for every student. Comes off as aloof but he really does care about his friends and colleagues.

He recently became a teacher at Beacon because his kid, Shea really wants to hang out with other kids. Though Shea is about 13-ish, they insist on going to a huntsman Academy to prove that they can look after themselves. So Owain was like "Ok, I suppose it would be good if you made friends."

Secret: He arrived in Remnant some hundred years (lifespans of Magusian humans are crazy long) before the main storyline. He and Ozma are long time friends. He is the oldest surviving member of Ozma's inner circle.

Thanks to him, technology has greatly advanced to the point where Dust is harnessed so effectively that it's almost like the good ol days when magic was a common thing. Owain may have had a hand in this by teaching and influencing many scientists over the years in secret but he won't admit it.

The Grimm threat is greatly reduced but ever present. He may or may not be the reason why Salem is trapped in ice.

Still, there Salem's presence is felt through her doomsday cult and they are the main threat of the story. They intend on someday freeing their queen and using the Grimm pools to continue her experiments. There is also a really big Grimm that has been kept hidden over millennia - Salem's masterpiece.

Owain has been researching the Grimm pools in secret to figure out how to kill Salem. He might have been infected by the pools (hence him covering one of his arms with his cloak).

He prefers to lay low and stay in the background (despite what his outfit might have you think). He can't let people know he has otherworldly magic since it'd cause people to panic. Ozma is the only one who knows.

[scribble-dribble-writes]

hiya! ive been reading ur work and i gotta say im in love wtf it made my Obi phase worst in a good way 💀

I was wondering if you could do like i guess a cottage core ish theme where you lead Obi to a little tree you hang out in to just escape and then uhm *cough* you braid obi's hair and *cough* put lil flowers in it

IM LITERALLY BLUSHING AT THE THOUGHTABDJDJDJ

Hi! Thank you for the request and sorry for the delay

But here you go!

Put a bit of a magical spin to it haha, hope you like it 💖

---

Faerie prince

You were weaving handles for your picnic basket when you caught a glimpse of a blue satin handkerchief. A gift from long ago, a promise that was forgotten but you kept in anyway, because it reminded you of a person who had disappeared too. A man who once visited this planet so rare that the inhabitants here believed him to be a creature of the woods, a magical being that the world around listened to him. His hair so golden that it was sure to have been strings of sunlight, eyes so blue like the gift he had given you, that every time you touched it, you remembered how soft his lips were.

But that was then, a chance encounter with the mystery that haunted these woods, the very same that was now your home. You had met him a few times or maybe he revealed himself to you, you weren’t sure. But there was this gentle peace that enveloped you when you were out berry picking by the old willow tree. You had read about how faeries lived in places like these, hidden to the naked eye, so when you heard the snap of twig, you turned, hoping it would be a deer or a nymph but it was him. You stayed still, watching him as he made his way towards you.

His hair long enough that it touched his soulders but it was his smile that you could never forget.

“Are those for your famous jams?”, he asked and your brows furrowed.

“The ones that grow by the tree are sweeter.”, you mumbled when a question formed in your mind.

“You know me?”, you asked to which he laughed. The sound reverbing through the forest as though he were it’s rightful ruler.

“Of course. I often buy from the market.”, he shrugged his shoulders and it only ripped away your fantasy. He was just another ordinary inhabitant whose reclusive nature turned him into a folklore.

“So you’re not a faerie prince?”, you asked again. Just to be sure. To which his expression turned quizzical.

“I don’t think so.”, he gave you a playful frown.

“Oh.”, you settled into the grass as he joined you.

There began this friendship. Where everyday you would meet under the willow tree to exchange jams, home baked cookies and books. He would sing songs on his little harp that he carried, his voice so angelic that you could not quite believe that he wasn’t a mystical being. But just as he had appeared, he vanished from your life. The willow tree sat alone and flowers never bloomed, so you stopped visiting.

But today, your batch of jam you were preparing for the moon festival needed those berries by the tree. You threw on your hood and picked up your basket. The directions to this place was a little hazy but if let to walk in your sleep, you could always find the spot with your eyes closed. The path that had been well worn was now covered with ivy. But as you emerged through the thicket, the willow tree was there. Larger than before, it’s leaves lush and thick as it drooped down. But the scene around you was different to what you had thought would have been. The flowers were in full bloom, the grass green and soft. This place had come alive. And as you stood in awe, the sound of a little girl’s laugh broke through the silence.

“Obi wan, look.”, she exclaimed.

When you turned towards the source of this squeal, you saw a girl dressed in a linen dress with her hair put up into two buns on either side of her head. But behind her stood a gentleman, whose features you can never forget. His eyes found yours and his lips parted, almost as if he was about to whisper your name. But your empty basket hit the forest floor as you ran towards him. Throwing your arms wide, enveloping him in a hug.

“You came back.”, that’s all you could say as your fingers dug into the back of his head. His hold tightened around you.

“I told you I would.”, his breath was warm in the crook of your neck and there was that peace again.

So as he helped with picking berries, he shared his reasons for leaving, he had been called back to work in the Republic and that now he had to care for his niece, Leia, while her parents were busy in the Senate. You listened to him, feeling a little silly, remembering your theories and daydreams believing he was made of magic.

He said your name and you felt a tug in your heart, as though he had said a command. Your hands half way over the opening of your basket.

“You never reveal your true name to a fairy.”, he smiled and your cheeks burned.

“Spells are very easy to cast you know.”, he traced his finger down your cheek.

"Some make you fall in love.", he whispered and it was a new high.

“You said you were human.”, you retorted, your eyes hooded.

“Did I?”, he teased, his eyes turning darker as he edged closer, his niece far away playing with the butterflies.

Your hands abandoned the task at hand as though your actions were summoned. Your palms dug into his beard and he hummed, the sound intoxicating you.

“You never said goodbye.”, you leaned in.

“I never wanted to.”, he said softly.

His eyes falling to your lips as you did the same but his niece ran towards you with wild flowers in her hand so thrilled with her find, but the moment between you had passed.

“My mother used to place these in our hair back home.”, she said and an idea flashed.

“What do you say we give your uncle a makeover?”, you took the flowers from her hand as she approved of your idea with excitement.

“What are you girls up to?”, Obiwan looked between the two of you.

So you settled on a low hanging branch of the willow tree as he sat between your knees. Your fingers working with practiced flair as you braided his hair. Then placed the wildflowers around his head like a victor’s wreath. His cornflower eyes found yours as he tilted his head up leaning into your lap.

You pat his shoulder and he gets up, Leia approved of your work.

“You look like a faerie.”, she exclaimed and you hid your smile.

“I’ve been told before.”, he remarked, which was for you.

But before you could slip away, he caught your hand so you wouldn’t escape. He encased you within his arms, as you fought a laugh.

His gaze was filled with longing, that he had missed your presence and you wanted to tell him you did too.

“Kiss her, uncle.”, Leia exclaimed and you froze.

“You told me you would kiss the willow tree pixie, if you found her.”,

“This is her, is it not?”, Leia questioned but his gaze was fixed on you.

“This is her.”, he whispered as he braced the back of your neck and in a second his lips were on yours. The warmth, the softness, all the same, your body slumped into his hold as your eyes fluttered to a close.

The legends were real, there had once been a faerie prince who ruled these woods, the very same you had fallen in love with.

[icedcoffeeandsunshine]

Could you do a sting eucliffe character analysis?

hello and yes ofc i can! i’m so sorry this took so long to respond to, i’ve had board exams so it’s a little bit all over the place 😅 but i hope you like!

Sting Eucliffe Character Analysis - Requested

CANON ANALYSIS

one word to describe this man ; COCKY.

but sliightly lesser so after the events of the grand magic games.

sting is definitely sometimes overconfident and arrogant however he does have an insecure side to him, as seen specifically during the alvarez arc. from believing in fighting to win, after the gmg arc, sting has been influenced to fight for his comrades and not just for the sake of that sense of victory. he also has seemingly gotten rid of his sadistic side (displayed when minerva beat lucy). throughout the anime, it’s made clear that he’s developed a caring, empathetic, protective and cheerful nature towards others and also feels a sense of responsibility as the master of his guild.

MY HEADCANONS FOR THEM

in my version of events, rogue becomes guild master instead of sting, i really feel like sting wasn’t fully mentally prepared for the responsibilities and the challenges that come with holding that title.

or maybe both become co-masters, to balance it out?

sting doesn’t like wearing full shirts (like fully covered) simply because he feels hot (temperature wise) in them, so he wears crop tops

a modern au! one is people come up to him randomly on the street and ask if he’s a kpop idol because dude literally looks like one

OH a cute one is that sting has an earring collection for his piercing but the crystalline one was a gift from weisslogia so that’s why he wears that specific one most of the time (fav one tbh)

i think sting either has some sort of adhd or is just hyperactive in general honestly

in my version of events yet again, sting is not natsu 2.0 because he’s taller one natsu is enough

i don’t think i have much for him? more so for rogue honestly, i find him to be much more interesting (don’t @ me i have a thing for broody dark haired emo-ish men)

STING IN LOVE + FRIENDSHIP

since sting is kind of insecure, i think he’s gonna have some form of communication or commitment issues simply because of his negative thoughts (“everyone’s gonna leave me one day etc”)

his love language is definitely words of affirmation

i think he’d be super protective of his loved ones

again, the insecurity plays in with when someone he loves gets hurt, he’d blame himself for not protecting them or not being strong enough to protect themselves

otherwise, this man is quite confident and low-key horny most of the time

ithink he’s like a best-friend type of lover, in the sense that the relationship would be easygoing fun and serious but at the same time unserious if that makes sense

he is, and i know i’ve said this word 25757 times but COCKY however will be the softest, sweetest, most caring boy if he truly loves you.

WHO DO I SHIP THEM WITH?

though i definitely think minerva is attracted to women, stinerva as a ship kinda makes sense to me, it works wayy better than rogue and minerva. stingyu isn’t my cup of tea really.

stings heart yearns for natsu so honorary mention to stingsu here.

as for stingue, i can see the appeal but at the same time they just give me very brotherly vibes and as someone on tumblr mentioned (can’t remember the user) i ship stingue PLATONICALLY in a context that doesn’t stem from homophobia.

sting x gray is a funny crackship honestly.

but overall i don’t think i ship sting (atleast concretely) with anyone really. i forgot to mention in my headcanons but he really just strikes me as either aroace or demisexual/ demiromnatic or JUST simply not actively looking for a relationship or a partner.

PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT THE CHARACTER

it’s not that i dislike sting but i used to find him somewhat annoying and a rip off natsu and in some aspects, i still think the same but his character development was one of the better written ones in the series. personality aside, he’s one of the hottest characters in fairy tail. he’s not my favourite character but he’s not bad either? i just want him to not be natsu 2.0-esque honestly, that’s one thing i cannot get out of my mind.



[helpimstuckinafandom]

Next up on a tsats post I read got me thinking: Will Solace again

Because (again) good stuff in tsats got lost in the repetativeness of this book. Someone pointed out that Will's character wasn't changed, people just think he's calm and collected on the outside and in this book we see his pov and see him with someone he's closer/more vulnerable with, and dude is riddled with anxiety that he hides. And like..... yes. Yeah. That's it. That's literally it.

Being calm and collected and bossy in his element and completely petrified outside of it? Real for the medic who's great plan in the Seige on Camp Half-Blood being to run/get chased (and do the demigod art of insultsTM) Feeling like shit to be taken care of and thinking yourself useless because of it? So real for a medic who has previously bemoaned his lesser musical ability and combat abilities, who is now unable to do the one thing he IS good at

Personal bias here but I am called the "chill one" in my family. My dad says it almost constantly (especially in comparison to my siblings) that I'm more relaxed and don't get all anxious and have it under control and just don't sweat it. I'm not as academically smart as my siblings or anything and my relaxed nature is the number one thing that gets noticed about me

But I'm not

I am scared all the time. I feel sick to my literal stomach with anxiety multiple times a month going to bed or waking up because of.... life. Do I let a single person know that? God no. What if they need me? I live a good life all things considered, how could I ever compare the small shit I go through to someone's break up or family trauma or depressive episode?(Got a little bit of the "i'm not diagnosed so I'm invalid" thing going on) How could I ever put my needs on the front burner when I need to help people or spend time with them at their beck and call.

One of the other things I'm called/get compared to is a Therapy Dog. Because people find me comforting to be around - I listen and do my best to help - I am a friendly face.

I have literally told myself some days where life just keeps coming at me that I won't cover it up and I will actually look sad. I repeatedly tell myself to do it, and then the instant - the very second - i'm in front of someone I feel it naturally pack itself into the back of my mind and feel a smile pull at my lips. I literally can't do it. I don't want to worry them, I don't want to disuade them from telling me something because I look sad.

I think about the way my failures will impact everyone else but me. Like right now I think I'm gonna fail a course and it frightens me, but my priority is my mother who is stressed from family issues and my dad who trusted me - how my grades will worsen their lives. I'm like that for everything.

Basically, if I can't make people feel better, what good am I? What good am I TO THEM?

So Will Solace. I've always really liked him and related myself to him - even from Last Olympian, believe it or not. The brief moments with him back then had him be that random background character I latched onto. And then there was HOO (and later TOA) and I loved him even more. Partly because I could see him sharing opinions I do, but they weren't completely unfounded, but still his chill-ish nature and lack of other godly talents other than healing resonated with me. And then in tsats I remember several times going "bro he's literally me somehow". Somehow, being the key word, because even though I didn't think he was too different, since we didn't have much content of him before, I could still recognize a sort of shift. And this post I saw made me realize what it was:

He is the "chill one" - he is the "therapy dog". He knows how to take care of people and he likes nerd shit, and outside of that he is scared. He hates being taken care of because it makes him feel useless. He's worried he's loving/caring wrong and that it will lose him people - lose Nico. And we see it now because we get his thoughts - we see him completely out of his element with someone he's far closer to and can let his walls fall a bit, but still not completely. He's being unravelled by the Underworld and tries to downplay it. He's just like me fr.

[savior-of-humanity]

Thinking about details for a Las Plagas infected verse for Leon/Ashley..

(putting this under the cut because This Is Going To Get Fucking Long)

So, the verse itself ('glorias las plagas; infected verse') wouldn't be just for the Las Plagas parasite, as it'd also cover AUs involving the other viruses in the RE verse like the Golgotha/G-Virus, but for the sake of this post we're gonna be focusing solely on Las Plagas itself. But first I'm going to ramble about the parasite.

In the events of Resident Evil 4, both Leon and Ashley become infected at the hands of Los Illuminados. And their symptoms actually get pretty severe into the later part of the game, signalling the significant progression of their parasites.

Right up to when they finally manage to remove the parasites, I think they (or at least Leon, considering that he was infected first before Ashley) were literally on the verge of losing their humanity and succumbing to the parasite - mainly due to the severe hallucinations Leon's getting at this point as he quite literally shambles into the lab with Ashley in his arms. Relevant scene for context/visual example.

I don't really know how the Las Plagas parasite mutates its hosts, but I would imagine the mutations it creates aren't just physical extensions of the parasite's body but actual mutations to the host's body, with prominent examples being El Gigante, Del Lago, Colmillos, Jack Krauser, and Osmund Saddler. There's also the fact that human-animal hybrid monsters like Novistadors and Verdugo exist, which interestingly enough are human-insect hybrids controlled by Las Plagas. I'm not exactly sure what sort of DNA went into the creation of these two in particular but I would imagine there would've been some tampering with the DNA of the parasite.

Something to also note is that there are actually different strains of Las Plagas canonically; the "submissive" strain, which is the original/natural strain that most enemies in the game (such as the Ganados/villagers) are infected with, and the "dominant" strain, which seems to be an altered version of the parasite that allows the host to control those infected with the submissive strain. To my knowledge, Krauser, Saddler, and Salazar were infected with the dominant strain.

So, anyways, back to the actual verse itself.

Since we know that the parasite induces mutations into its host, the "default" version of the verse would mainly consist of the idea that, while Ashley + Leon are free from the parasite's influence, it still left something behind in their bodies due to the infection having progressed so far. Specifically, DNA 'packages' - full of genetic material that the parasite would have used to twist their bodies as it deemed fit.

Whether from outside influence or on their own, these DNA payloads would activate, releasing a huge surge of genetic material that would, of course, result in significant mutations. There's actually a lot of takes on what a Las Plagas-infected Leon would look like (which you can find pretty easily if you search for it on tumblr) so I want to try and be unique-ish in my own take on him (and Ashley).

Since there's no parasite trying to control them, they'd actually have control over how their mutations present themselves - but they aren't going to get the hang of it from day one. I imagine it's a gradual thing; the first few times they mutate, they're basically going to be manifesting the full potential of their genetic potential. Obviously, since it's not only extremely painful but also turning them into walking killing machines, it'd only really occur in a high-stress life-or-death situation. After that though, they get the hang of it over a long but gradual process, until eventually they can reach a point where they can just spontaneously mutate whatever they want (granted that they are able to mutate it in the first place), whenever they want.

As for what these mutations would actually look like; I don't feel like drawing full-body references right now so I'll try and give a brief summary of the most significant features in a "full-manifestation" state of mutation. Maybe with some sketches thrown in too.

For Leon;

He'd have two sets of large insectoid mandibles within his mouth (normally folded against the actual jawbone/teeth), which are capable of protruding quite far out for serious chomping action. Think of it as a weird cross between the mandibles of Elites/Sangheili (Halo) and the mandibles of tarantulas. When they're folded up, the tips of the fangs stick out from his lips a little bit.

There's a lot of thick, chitinous plating on his body. While it doesn't cover his entire body, it's mainly present along his spine, the ribs, his outer thighs, and along his arms. Everything below the knees and elbows, however, become almost completely chitinous. He gets toe/finger beans however.

He gets a tail. It's basically a cross between the tail of a Verdugo and the tail of scorpions like the thick-tailed scorpion. In its 'default' state it's about 6 feet in length, but it can actually stretch to as far as 13 feet long - the chitin does not stretch along with it, though, so there's a lot of sections of exposed muscle that can leave it vulnerable to damage.

He gets an extra pair of mantis-like pincer-limbs that normally lie at rest folded up on his back, but can spring out into action for gripping onto surfaces or stabbing enemies.

The hands and feet remain human-like in structure but the digits become a lot stronger and somewhat elongated. Combined with him getting straight-up claws and he can climb walls with no issue most of the time.

For Ashley;

She'd basically get a lot of the same features as Leon; chitin plating, a tail (though hers is much smaller, can't elongate, and lacks a bladed stinger), extra limbs (which are, again, smaller and not so deadly), and claws. She lacks the mouth-mandibles however, and gets a pair of wings that resemble that of a moth's but are much more durable in comparison.

[hirazuki]

Tag game: Tour my bookshelf!

Thanks for the tag, @general-illyrin!

An estimate of how many physical books I own: Including those in storage, probably over 800 by now. Those physically with me, currently, in my apartment: 267.

Favorite author: It's a tie between J.R.R. Tolkien, Paul Scott, and Dorothy Dunnett. They are my holy trinity ♡

A popular book I've never read and never intend to read: Hm, probably one of the YA ones floating around, with the courts and roses in the titles? Or the book with Gideon and Harrow. Those just don't appeal to me, particularly in terms of writing style ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (idk specifics, sorry y'all, I don't really keep up with literature past like. mid-ish 20th c, and even that's super late for me. It's 18th/19th c. gothic all the way for me XD)

A popular book I thought was just meh: Mmm, again, I don't really know what's popular tbh despite working in a library lmao; if it doesn't concern The Hyperfixations, it literally does not register in my brain XD. So probably some assigned reading in school, like Catcher in the Rye or The Great Gastby. I was an extremely unimpressed teen/young adult with most of the 20th c. American literature we were given to read.

Longest book I own: Of the ones in my apartment at the moment, just doing a quick visual scan, it looks like it's The Dictionary of Mythology; though tbh, I suspect my BHS probably has significantly more pages, despite it looking so tiny in comparison. But I'm too lazy to actually go look XD

Longest series I own all the books to: Depends on what we mean by "series." If it's strictly linear plot, then I think it's The Lymond Chronicles, by Dorothy Dunnett. If it's just same universe/same characters, it's definitely Agatha Christie's novels. If we're including comics as part of books? It's Lucky Luke, sitting at 82 issues yes I have all of them XD

Prettiest book I own: A New Treasury of Poetry, it has a beautiful cover and includes really lovely plates interspersed throughout the collection.

A book or series I wish more people knew about: Ahaha, none! I used to have one series, but then; well. Let's just say that, while I am firmly against gatekeeping, I can't help but notice that popularity sometimes does spoil some things ^^;

Book I'm reading now: Re-reading The Silmarillion, and making my way through History of Middle-Earth and Nature of Middle-Earth.

Book that's been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven't got around to it: The recently published Fall of Numenor is next in line for me to read.

Do you have any books in a language other than English: Yup, plenty in Greek, some in Spanish, and a handful in biblical Hebrew.

And lastly, paperback, hardcover or ebook? Oh, paperback for sure. I can't stand ebooks for my own personal use -- it's a great concept and I love the accessibility it provides, but it's just not for me; unless I'm reading fanfic, I require a physical item in my hands in order to be happy. Hardcovers are gorgeous, but I primarily read lying down on my back and they are very cumbersome in that respect. Paperback is cheaper, lighter, and there's far less guilt attached if you're a messy reader like me (pen/pencil notes, folded pages, reading in the bathtub/on the beach/while eating lunch or dinner, art/craft projects involving glue and paint everywhere in the apartment, keeping tons of plants on the bookshelves, etc.).

Tagging, no pressure: @ruiniel, @baked-hylian, @cruelfeline, @dear-kumari, @nomadicism

[venalos]

miraruinada

Today, Robin felt like stirring up trouble.

Unfortunately for literally everything and everyone alive, Seregios are a naturally belligerent and confrontational species. They go wherever they please (or are forced to by the rare moments of fear), and they pick fights with basically anything that has committed the unforgivable crime of existing within their general presence. That, and Seregios are fiercely territorial, too. One would be forgiven for believing that Seregios genuinely love fighting the same way other animals enjoy play behaviour.

Thank the Heavens, then, that Robin was an obvious outlier in the fact that he rarely, if ever, went out of his way to attack something/someone minding its/their own business. Still, in true Seregios fashion, he felt compelled to make himself a thorn in the side of all life. Thus he had perched himself on one of Dundorma's many tall(-ish) buildings, the saddle on his back the only thing signifying that he was not some wild Pokémon intent on making a meal out of the town's inhabitants.

Still, those passing by below could not help but throw the occasional nervous glance up at the golden wyvern.

Dundorma was, and still is, a surprisingly popular tourist destination for foreigners. What with its uniquely gorgeous architecture and rich history, as well as being utterly massive for a Venalosian town -- thus far its only rival being Loc Lac City -- many people arriving from outside regions would naturally be drawn to it. Along with its reputation as being frequently targetted by marauding Elder Dragons, the town was also quite attractive to thrill seekers. However, even some of said thrill seekers were starting to grow anxious, what with Robin peering down at them like a hungry bird of prey. Sure, other tamed Pokémon endemic to Venalos were also present, though none of them were quite as big nor as intimidating as a mature Seregios.

There! Robin spotted something with his keen gaze.

He dove down from his perch, his wings tucked in tight, lunging down at the crowds like a golden missile. Some people shouted in alarm, others dove for cover, his form passing so close to the ground as to nearly graze them with his razor-like scales. Then his wings flared, Robin's talons skidding across the ground, coming to a perfect stop that would have earned top points in any acrobatics competition. In one parrot-like foot, pinched between two talons, was an ill-gotten prize.

Robin flared and rattled his countless scales, now looking not too dissimilar to a pine cone, his beady eyes peering at the victim of his crime as he chittered. Said chittering sounded far too similar to a mocking laugh.

[trouticecream]

Re: Stonehenge / Choices

Bits of warm sunlight gently reflect off glittery blankets of snow.  A state of water which covers the entire ground in a moderate layer as far as the eye can see, an almost uninterrupted continuum save for several breaks provided in the form of  large stone formations set in a circle; two vertically positioned ovoid forms held together by another placed horizontally overtop the others, per each individual formation.  There is a distinct sense of resolute calm to the area overall, as though frozen (literally and figuratively) at a particular point in time.  Perhaps… a little too resolute.  Too quiet.  Not even the routine sounds of nature, subtle overlapping sounds serving as mild background noise, pierce the ironclad stillness of the space.  In the place of it all, rather, is a very quiet–almost impossible to catch without enhanced hearing like his own–sort of buzzing emanating from a point central to the circle of rocky formations; the entrance to a major base of operations during the second invasion, currently obscured by snow, but nonetheless making its presence known anyways.

Nothing had happened as of late.  Several months had passed since the conclusion of the thwarted second invasion.  But, evidently… the events that have elapsed in conjunction with the residual oddness of the setting–caused by the base of operations itself, even though it should technically be inactive–were so impactful that, even in the absence of overt physical devastation, barely any life would even dare to make any noise near it much less approach it anymore.  Not now that the strangeness of the wave, which he had projected over the area back then, had worn off.  The entire span of a moment is spent staring at where he instinctively knew the entrance to be, as if deliberating something, before ultimately relenting and moving a bit closer to it.  The Psion bends down as a piercing and frigid wind abruptly rips through the whole area, the nearby rickety branches of winter-battered trees whipping about wildly (but never snapping, oddly enough) while Gregory himself remains unmoved.  Underdressed as he is in little more than a bright yellow sweater… his form is not as soft, fragile, and vulnerable as much of the life on this planet; one of the few benefits to originating from a species that routinely conquers worlds of varying sorts across the universe.

As soon as the wind simmers down in its impromptu rampage, he extends a small hand out unfalteringly into the snow and proceeds to neatly wipe it from the entrance point into the defunct base.  A small and seemingly plain-looking earthy circle with no apparent way past it.  But, somehow even through the fragmented bits of memory surrounding much of both invasion attempts, he knows better.  It’s like an impression or ‘muscle memory’ (if he physiologically had muscles to begin with), but on tinkering with the entrance point a little with clawed digits, suddenly the snowy setting around him vanishes and is promptly replaced with almost complete darkness.  A rudimentary and earthy-looking space that would otherwise be completely engulfed in darkness, were it not for the flickering remnants of purple-ish light up ahead past the entrance space.  A light which had been out for quite some time, but somehow found the strength to try at illuminating the area anew upon its creator’s return.  He frowns just a bit, a touch of sharpness and maybe even some derision entering his otherwise void gaze.

What had he been thinking… making it a colour like that?

While nowadays he is a bit more open to a colour scheme other than muted neutrals… that was only directed towards more personal visual customizations.  Stifling an exasperated, maybe even a touch embarrassed, sigh he slowly proceeds with walking forward, past the dingy starting point and into the smooth metal-encased hallways illuminated by fading purple light; a sense of stillness and consequent unease saturating his very being as the same faint buzzing from outside plays back at more clear intervals.  Objects of utility should only ever be what they need to be, in accordance with purpose; anything else is a waste of time.

But then, he wasn’t really thinking much at the time, was he?

Is that even… ‘fair’…?

Judging by the extent of the damages done throughout the base… simple to complex, dealt by blunt force to the utilization of PSI or invented weaponry, the walls of the hallways and rooms themselves to the broken bits of various mechanical (augmented or otherwise complete robots) soldiers scattered across the floor to be forgotten and collect dust… there was no small amount of suffering dealt to others.  He had always had a general idea of what happened, but details like these had been scattered to the proverbial winds; blotted out and forgotten, due to how heavily damaged he ended up being due to the corruption.  Gregory stops for a moment to more closely examine the glinting remains of a soldier–likely smashed to bits by the Chosen Ones–and makes a sincere attempt at trying to think about what happened.  Not what happened here exactly, but to glean more of what the Psion himself had done exactly…. only to find the effort ultimately fruitless.  There’s haphazardly placed and sequenced bits and pieces set to a hazy overtone–like peering at something through especially murky waters–but ultimately torn by the many holes which pepper otherwise complete memories; perhaps even the very moments where he’s reasonably certain to have been at his absolute worst.  Holes that might not ever be filled.  Holes which maybe must exist by the very parameters (or almost lackthereof) which now define his existence.

Is that fair to the life-forms that he has harmed as a result of his previous actions on this planet?  Is it fair for him to not have a complete or entirely reliable account of what happened?  To just know the general schematics of the timeline associated with the second invasion in particular?

Gregory moves on from the rubble he had been examining and continues along his path.  He has somewhere to be.  The primal reason for which he had even bothered with coming here was to completely dismantle this base, retrieve all components and other discarded technologies, and reboot the original space back to its base settings; no trace of there ever having been anything more to that space.  In order to do this in the most efficient way possible… he needs to retrieve some data from the primary control room; a map of this base–he doesn’t trust his memory in full–and full schematics of its build beyond his own assumptions on it, so that he can devise a plan on properly dismantling and subsequently collecting from it.

Is it fair that everyone else has to live with the full set of memories of what horrors have transpired while the Psion himself, the arbitrator of it all, does not?

And yet… against his otherwise resolute focus… something scratches at his mind anyways.  A sensation which twists oddly in a mildly uncomfortable way; never painful, but not exactly easy to ignore either.  It is like… an insatiable itch.  Like a wound that is freshly healed as the skin overtop acclimatizes to the environment.  An overall sensation which, if he had to offer an educated guess, must be some sense of… bother.  He scrunches up his nose, inexplicably uncomfortable, at the notion.

Yes.  It… –’bothers’ him.

It is bothersome in a way that he cannot shake.

Bothersome in a way that he’s certain he would not have thought twice about before.  Small hands start to, with a faint sort of nervous energy, fidget with the hem of his sweater as he continues along his path, making sharp twists and turns through the mostly defunct hallway every so often.

Is this what it means to have some innate sense–even if only a sliver–that something is wrong?  Or rather to start to develop it… even if only a little?

One last turn and he appears to reach a metal-plated deadend of a wall.  Or so it seems… until the Psion ceases fidgeting and extends an arm out towards it, moving his finger over it in a peculiar pattern–one which appears to almost resemble constellations–over invisible controls.  Maybe it would be more ‘correct’ to recall particular details, but it is ultimately little more than an involuntary consequence that comes with the choice to completely eradicate the very embodiment of his corruption; his very own Nightmare, one could even say.  A choice that he… supposes… that he… ‘feels’... is ‘correct’ or good too.  He can hardly express it very well, but in the end, power is not worth it if it puts others at that extreme a risk, irrespective of how much ‘good’ it can potentially do if redirected in the right way.

He would not take that choice back, even if he could.  It was his to make.  And even though there is a kernel of doubt in there somewhere–an unsightly itch that insists that maybe, because he can’t recall this properly either, it’s entirely possible that he made this choice because it was ‘easier’–about his own motivations, he supposes that it does not really matter because right now, he is trying to do what he thinks is ‘good’.  The very least he can do–with clear memories to back it up or not–is remove any traces of his previous invasions on Earth so that these things no longer bother the life-forms on this planet and so that these places can just be ordinary places on Earth anew.

There is nothing ‘easy’ about this now for there is much work to complete.

A moment or two passes and slowly the metallic plating of the wall warps to form a small entry into what is finally, the control room.  He hesitates none in walking straight through and making a beeline for the control panel up ahead.  In contrast to the surroundings from before, the hidden room has a monochromatic color scheme–mainly a mix of pale greys and whites–with a seemingly ‘blank’ stone-like rectangle up ahead, all sharp edges and overly smooth as if it had never once seen the genuine hardships of repeated use.  The control panel.  One which, upon making physical contact, immediately projects up a white holographic screen spanning its length but far exceeding its height.

Gregory pulls up the sleeves of his sweater a bit before peering up at the gigantic screen with a glint of determination in otherwise dull pupils.

Time to start extracting data.  It is the least that he can do for her planet.

[looseferrets]

A Raccoon's Fragmented Audiobook Reviews 2023-ish: Part 1

[My raccoon self Geo Holms listening to audiobooks apparently. Art by @QuaggyArt]

The last year or so, my job has consisted of work that affords me time to listen to stuff. At first, was listening to podcasts. Good light background listening content as I went about my day. Then I signed up for the various local libraries within close proximity to me, and then discovered Libby, an app where I could check out both eBooks AND audiobooks with the use of my library card.

My check outs started slow at first, then increased as time went on, sometimes listening to 2-3 books in a week. Sometimes revisiting some books from my youth. Sometimes trying a book I'd always meant to read. Sometimes just wandering into something with a neat cover. It has been a treat to sample more books than I have in years.

In some ways, I worry that I don't connect with the books in listening to them instead of physically reading them. I am, after all, usually doing other stuff while listening. However, there's also cases I'll stick out a book based on the narrator alone, who will give a book more personality than I would reading it myself.

I do find myself wanting to read more books in this coming year, I have many physical books and digital books hoarded away after all, but also find great value in listening to more audiobooks. Unfortunately, my job has shifted in a way that haven't been able to do either as of late. But hopefully will settle enough that I'll be able to scamper back into my extensive list of audiobooks I wanna check out from my local libraries.

In the meantime, wanted to take a look back at the books I've listened to the last year or so, give a brief rundown of what I've sample. These are out of listening order and some I may have forgotten the specifics but will do my best to give my honest thoughts.

Peter Grant Series (1-3) by Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers of London

Moon Over Soho

Whispers Underground

Premise: Peter Grant, a London cop, gets pulled into the weird/mythical division to solve supernatural crimes, and become a wizard.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Haven't dug too far into this series and there was a long gap between books. 'Tis a fun take on urban fantasy from a fresh perspective though.

Recommended for: Personifications of bodies of water.

The Shadow Glass by Josh Winning

Premise: A guy dealing with the death of his father, also has to deal with his dad’s fantasy world bleeding into reality.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Revisited this to share with my husbando and it still be a treat. Really love the fox-like species characters who are a main part of the cast. Makes me wish that The Dark Crystal had more fox creatures (which is literally the world this book imagines). This has some fun takes on the nature of fame and fandom and one of my favorite twists near the end that I ought to make a fanfic related to…

Recommended for: Those who think Jim Henson dark fantasy needed more anthro foxes.

Murderbot Diaries (1-7) by Martha Wells

All Systems Red

Artificial Condition

Rogue Protocol

Exit Strategy

Network Effect

System Collapse

Fugitive Telemetry

System Collapse

Premise: A security robot breaks its programing. Hijinks ensue.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Speaking of a fun perspective, Murderbot is a great one. It just wants to enjoy its soap operas with its newfound independence, and keeps ending up in situations where it needs to be responsible for humans. UGH! I love Murderbot and its adventures, especially Network Effect, which is a novel that serves as culmination of all novellas before.

Recommended for: Would-be murderbots with social anxiety.

The Misewa Saga (1-3) by David Robertson

The Barren Grounds

The Great Bear

The Stone Child

Premise: Two Indigenous children find a portal to another world, complete with talking animals.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Mixed feelings on this one. Love the premise and some of the characters (Arik the squirrel = <3). The execution is a bit mixed at times. However, no matter what, 'tis a series I'm glad exists for YA readers.

Recommended for: Kids who need a break from their well-meaning foster parents.

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

Premise: A man is abducted (by humans) and brought to a strange new planet.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Been a while since I read this one! I mostly remember how much C.S. Lewis was enamored describing how handsome the otter aliens were.

Recommended for: Otters seeking insight on Christian philosophy.

East by by Edith Pattou

Premise: A girl is taken away from her family by a polar bear. An adaptation of an old Norwegian folk tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon".

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: This caught my eye long ago because "prince cursed into being a polar bear" content and in finally reading, I think I would have appreciated more if I'd read in middle school. Still! A neat Arctic romp with plenty of unexpected twists and turns.

Recommended for: Those trapped in an ice castle with a polar bear.

Relic Series (1-4) by Maz Maddox

Smash & Grab

Sink or Swim

King & Queen

Lost in Amber

Premise: A series of books about queer dinosaur shifters who supposedly protect fossils, but mostly just fall in love.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Very silly. Very queer. Very fluff. I find it funny how all these shifters keep going on missions and falling for the first polar opposite character they're thrown together with. But does make me smile. The audiobook narrator does top notch job with giving each POV character their own voice.

Recommended for: Gay secret dinosaurs.

A Shady Hallow Mystery (1-4) by Juneau Black

Shady Hollow

Cold Clay

Mirror Lake

Twilight Falls

Premise: A vixen reporter solves murder mysteries in a sleepy little town.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Enjoyable and cozy, even if the mysteries are pretty clunky at times. Another where the audiobook narrator adds enough charm to each character that I enjoyed myself overall. HOWEVER, the warning at beginning of each book about the book having GASP TALKING ANIMAL CHARACTERS is super weird and distracting. Trust your readers to accept such things.

Recommended for: Someone seeking to cover up a murder from a nosy fox reporter.

Wish You Were Here by Rita Mae Brown

Premise: Murder in a small cozy Virginia town, with talking pets.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Wish I'd read this while living near the place it took place. Alas, now that finally visited, was a quintessential cozy murder mystery about a mail-mistress and her pets solving a murder mystery.

Recommended for: Bored talking housepets.

Dragons at Crumbling Castle by Terry Pratchett

Premise: A series of short stories by Terry Pratchett.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: The titular Dragons at Crumbling Castle was fun, but I can't recall the rest of the stories much. You can see hints of where he'd go, but Pratchett hadn't quite found his voice yet.

Recommended for: Civilizations living in the carpet.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett

Premise: An intelligent cat, his educated rodents, and a kid, set off to fleece a small town with a Pied Piper scheme. Nothing goes according to plan.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: One of my favorite Pratchett books, lovely when read it as a kid, lovely to revisit in audiobook now. Will absolutely read again in my future. Also, a brilliant standalone Discworld book. Love love love this book.

Recommended for: Fans of Mr. Bunnsy Has An Adventure.

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

Premise: Kids intersect with the hijinx of Mrs. Dowdel.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: These books charmed me as a kid. They charmed me now. Grandma Dowdel is a larger-than-life character who just does her own damn thing.

Recommended for: Grandmas with shotguns at the ready.

Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez

Premise: A raccoon god of luck couch surfs at new followers' house.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: The premise is GREAT! Lucky, the raccoon god of luck is GREAT! Quetzalcoatl, Lucky's best friend, is also GREAT! The execution of the story is...rather mixed. Lots of great ideas that don't quite all come together.

Recommended for: Lovers of raccoons in Hawaiian shirts.

Rats, Bats, and Vats by Eric Flint and Dave Freer

The Rats, the Bats, and the Ugly by Eric Flint and Dave Freer

Premise: A vat grown clone human, and gang of genetically elevated rats and bats, go to defeat an alien bug army, then human bureaucracy.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: This first book is a hell of a fun ride. I never got into military sci-fi, but adding goofy rats and bats characters made this entertaining. The second book is...a lot and have some Very Mixed Feelings on some parts. The charm of the books is when the group is together and knocking off each other, and the second book removes that factor, downgrading it a lot. If you do pick this up, just read the first one.

Recommended for: Revolutionary bats or drunken rats.

Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn

Premise: Kitty, a werewolf, unwittingly starts a late-night mythical advice radio show.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Liked the premise. Didn't like the werewolf dynamics (and the terrible ending).

Recommended for: All those monsters out there on the late-night airwaves.

Enchanted Forest Series (1-4) by Patricia Wrede

Dealing with Dragons

Searching for Dragons

Calling on Dragons

Talking to Dragons

Premise: Adventures in the Enchanted Forest following Cimorene and friends.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Pretty mixed bag of a series. Dealing is GREAT (because Cimorene is the BEST). Searching is fun. Calling is...pretty insufferable. And Talking is fair enough. Maybe reading would be better than listening to audiobook, because there are some TERRIBLE voices for some of the characters, especially notable in Searching.

Recommended for: Princesses who just wanna hang out with dragons.

Penric and by Lois McMaster Bujold

Penric’s Demon

Penric and the Shaman

Penric’s Fox

Premise: Penric gets possessed by demon, Desdemona.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Entertaining enough, though not sure if I'll continue on with this novella series. I do love Desdemona and there's some top notch world building at play. However, not quite capturing me. (I fully admit I sampled this because of possible possessed fox in fourth novella. Sadly, did not lead to a talking fox. :<)

Recommended for: Alternatives to Catholic church for dealing with demon.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Premise: Body-swapping time-loop murder mystery.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: In some ways, I love how this is an Agatha Christie murder mystery turned up to 11 and the truly original story telling at play. However, totally have mixed feelings on the conclusion ...still, will highly recommend.

Recommended for: True Crime fans stuck in a Groundhog Day situation.

The Clockwork Crow by Catherine Fisher

Premise: A girl dealing with Gothic mystery nonsense and a jerky clockwork crow.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: I love the clockwork crow too much and think this almost pulls off the Gothic mystery nonsense. I'm totally here for the jerky clockwork crow no matter what. <3

Recommended for: Those cursed into the form of a clockwork creature.

David and the Phoenix by Edward Ormondroyd

Premise: A kid meets a phoenix.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Charming and pretty funny. The phoenix is juuuuuust on the edge of insufferable, but not enough to wreck the book's charm. Totally a classic of "kid being pulled into series of hijinks by mythical creature".

Recommended for: Kids dealing with a new mythical creature "friend".

Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce

Premise: A girl comes to terms with her wild magic powers.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: I read this because there was a badger on the cover. The badger in question was not in the book nearly enough. So I am inclined to dislike this book. But it was actually pretty good so I'll just leave it as "good book, not enough badger". (Which I suppose could be my review of any number of books.)

Recommended for: People not expecting a badger as main character.

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Premise: A coyote shapeshifter mechanic deals with supernatural hijinks.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Enjoyed reading this series years back. Revisiting the first book was a fun urban fantasy romp. Mercy is a neat character.

Recommended for: Shapeshifters dealing with B.S. werewolf politics.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Premise: A colorful cast of characters attempt to solve a mystery.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Perhaps could be considered more of a character study than mystery, the game shifting the courses of all the characters’ lives. Made me cry at the end, so it must have done something right.

Recommended for: Would-be puzzle solvers.

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Premise: A princess plots to save her sister from a jerky prince.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Ursua Vernon's take on fairy tale tropes is always a treat, and this no different. Especially adore the fairy godmother lore at play in this one. And the bone dog~ <333333

Recommended for: Owners of undead pets.

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani (unfinished)

Premise: Fairy tale retellings.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Each ensuing story made me more and more angry. Maybe some of the stories are fine, but the ones I listened to were absolute junk, the only one with some merit being the one with a gay vampire (???).

Recommended for: Fairy Tale Edgelords (?????)

Skellig by David Almond

Premise: A kid dealing with trauma finds a raggedy winged man in his family garage.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Trip of a book. Don't know what to make of it.

Recommended for: Chinese food takeout connoisseurs.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Premise: Two rival time travelers flirt across time and space.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Lyrical and beautiful. Deeply interesting take on time travel and unconventional relationships.

Recommended for: Those sending love messages via owl pellets.

From the Mixed Up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

Premise: A brother and sister run away from home and hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: The title of this book has intrigued me since elementary school, and in finally visiting it, and finding out eponymous "mixed up files" are barely a factor in main premise confused the heck out of me. Also Basil E. Frankweiler is barely a factor either! (Though she is great in brief time she actually appears, and she does serve as a fun narrator.) My imagination thought this would be a sci-fi/fantasy romp and it is neither. Still a good book, but my childhood imagination stewing for 30+ years left this book with waaaay too high of expectations.

Recommended for: Kids plotting to run away from home to live in a museum.

A Wolf for a Spell by Karah Sutton

Premise: Baba Yaga body swaps with a wolf to bring down a king.

Brief Raccoon Thoughts: Of the three perspectives at play (a young girl, a young wolf, and Baba Yaga), the wolf stuck in Baba Yaga's body is by far the best, trying to untangle some nonsense WAY above her paygrade, and finding herself in the process. Pretty neat take on Russian fairy tale elements.

Recommended for: Those dealing with Russian fairy tale nonsense

Continued in Part 2 because darn it I decided to put more than 30 pictures in a post. >.>

[junniepop]

JJK men and a male reader

So I died and came back. Now my inbox is filled with a lot of Jujutsu Kaisen stuff with a male reader, so I looked around and noticed there aren't a lot of male writers or even gender neutral ones, meaning that's what I'll be doing for awhile. This first request is...

before I get started, if you'd like to request something, then please see my masterlist

JJK boys with a male s/o

Warnings: aged up and language oh and some nsfw stuff cuz that's what they wanted.

Characters: I. Yuuji, F. Megumi, G. Satoru, N. Kento, R. Sukuna, T. Aoi

I. Yuuji

Isn't hung up by you being male, I feel as Yuuji got older, the more open minded he became. His sexuality was something that evolved as he aged and had a big change in his mid teenage years when he was exploring himself. Into his late teens he began seeing people of all types of representation, he simply did not care how they presented themselves.

That leads us to you, our gorgeous male that has Yuuji simping. All seriousness, this man loves entirely, some might even find it to be smothering. He is the type to text you paragraphs of good morning and goodnight texts, always leaving something for you to eat in the fridge, brings something home because it reminded him of you, and always always makes time to call you before a mission.

Yuuji always has random thoughts about you. Like, "Should I make his favorite tonight?" "I wonder what he's doing." "Oh....that would look so cute on him, should I get it?" "AH this charm has our initials on it! that means it was meant to be!"

If you're a sorcerer, Yuuji d e m a n d s to be your partner on missions and he will have a fit if someone says no. Is constantly stressing himself out over your well being, even if he knows you can handle yourself. always asking about your technique and is amazed every time he sees it. Very protective, stands in front of you a lot and when he see's you struggling he doesn't hesitate to get the curse's attention regardless of his own situation.

Also just because I feel like he would: Yuuji gave you a promise ring when he realized you were the one he wanted to be with for the rest of his life.

He has this need to prove to you that he is a fit partner, Like showing you he can cook, has his own place, very responsible with his money and what not.

The type of guy to send you a million snaps a day. He will literally show you everything he did that day and wants the same in return.

Every date with him somehow includes a physical activity. Going out to dinner? chances are Yuuji will see an arcade and more specifically the DDR in the background.

NSFW

In terms of sexual stuff, Yuuji seems like a top, but has definitely thought about bottoming and upon trying it- was not into it. Does not matter if you're much bigger than him or not, he will top you. However, Yuuji is rather submissive when it comes to his partner, he will say yes to whatever it is you want. You want him to be soft and gentle, he'll do it. You want him to absolutely wreck your ability to walk, he'll do it.

The first time Yuuji tried stuff with a guy, he for sure looked up if it would hurt and read that anal could be very painful, was TERRIFIED that he would hurt the guy. Definitely was asking with every movement if he was okay. With you he's more confident, but still askes if you're okay throughout the event.

Man is simple, likes very intimate positions where he can see your face. Heavily into pleasing you, he tries any kinks you're into even if he's not that into it. Loves being praised, it just does something to his brain, in that same line- any sounds you make go straight to his dick. Really enjoys marking, is proud to cover you in them too.

The type of guy to enjoy eating you out, like fully sit on his face. Plus it helps his dick slide in smoother.

Yuuji will lose his mind if you say you want to milk him. Yuuji usually never thinks about his own pleasure, so when you want to pleasure him until he's empty, mans is not readyyyy. Just stutters out an okay and proceeds to go stupid when you start.

Conclusion

Yuuji loves you entirely. Trusts you 100% and would do anything to keep your life stable and happy. Yuuji just wants to grow old with you tbh, so in love with the idea.

If you were to break up with him, he would be devastated, unable to continue on for a long time. I mean he placed his everything into you, why would you do this to him?

all in all, it is a very stable relationship as long as you don't take him for granted because he is prone to letting people use him.

F. Megumi

Definitely did not care you were male. Megumi cares about a person's mentality, their goals and dreams, the way a person carries themselves. When Megumi met you, he found you quite attractive, your drive is what lured him in and from there his feelings developed.

Megumi is subtle in showing his affection. Little touches here, sticky notes meant just for you, always carrying 'extra' snacks. It actually might take you awhile to notice his affections for you, simply because it is so subtle. Megumi seems like the person to wait until you confess. However. Megumi would confess if he gets pushed to or knows he won't get rejected.

Once he confesses, his love is soft and soothing with a hint of awkwardness. Megumi in the beginning would be showing affection through words and small acts of service, always telling you how much he appreciates you and doing things for you. Some of these things would be things like picking up snacks for you, doing your laundry, leaving you some of his clothes. He likes to do these things without you knowing because I think it lessens the embarrassment he feels doing it.

Even if you are in a long term relationship with him, he always gets flustered by you. Megumi is naturally reserved, so telling him I love you with sincerity will cause him to malfunction. Poor boy freezes and stutters around his words while avoiding eye contact.

Now, physical contact in this relationship is a tell tale sign of how much Megumi trusts you and loves you. Megumi is the type of person to reserve physical touch for someone he completely trusts, so with you, this will let you know his true feelings.

Touch would start with closeness at first, just grazing hands or bumping knees, but would develop into hours of intimate cuddling because he's touched starved. KISSING, oh my lord- his kisses tell you everything he feels. so intense, no matter how soft he kisses you.

if you're a sorcerer, Megumi is the type to go on missions with you, but doesn't complain if he can't go with you. However, worries a lot and contemplates going after you. Unlike Yuuji, who would go to literal war, Megumi trusts your strength a lot. The only time he is like yuuji is against a particularly strong curse. Loves fighting together though, it shows how much you trust him.

NSFW

Megumi gives me verse energy. Like he was a top for a long time, asked you if he could bottom once and was surprisingly into it. So now when the mood arises, its whatever you guys are in the mood for. You guys often take turns.

His first time was with you- Megumi just seems like a late bloomer and you were the only person he did stuff with. He's very gentle because he knows it can be painful, I think sexually his fear is not being good enough for you, so give him as much reassurance as you can.

Now this boy is rather kinky despite his personality. Loves when you beg, drives him mad to hear your pleas and whimpers. Likes the pain of you needing something to hold onto when he tops which results in scratches down his back and the pulling of his hair. Doesn't think condoms are necessary because you're the only person for him in his eyes- aka likes breeding. When he bottoms, he enjoys riding and wants to see your face as he does. Do not get it twisted though, he's very much into you messing him up and railing him.

SEND THIS BOY NUDES. DO IT. Mans will sprint home if he has to. Don't do it too often or he'll get used to it. Maybe like once every two-ish weeks. Or better yet do it while he's on a mission. Megumi always tries to answer you, so expecting something serious, he short circuits when its just a pic of you in some underwear he thought he ripped the last time you guys were intimate.

Conclusion

Shy boy into some kinky things with his partner. It might take him some time to develop a deep relationship with you because he's scared you'll leave, but as long as you provide him the security he needs, he'll stay by your side indefinitely.

If you were to break up with him, you're just like his dad in his eyes and the betrayal would result in him locking many people out. Unlike Yuuji, who's emotions pour out of him, many wouldn't know Megumi is barely scrapping by.

G. Satoru

Gojo doesn't give a rats ass how you present yourself, he lives by the motto "a hole's a hole." What truly would make Gojo invest in more than casual hooking up is your personality. Gojo needs someone who doesn't need him and doesn't care about who he is in the sorcerer world. Someone like that would capture his eye rather quick and this man is like "Eh? I'm GOJO SATORU, you know top dog?" and you would just blink and go back to whatever it was you were doing.

Shows off so much trying to impress you. "ne ne (Y/n) did you see me squash that special grade into dust?" *sigh* "Yes Gojo, I also saw you split one into a thousand pieces and turn another into a ball." so unamused by his abilities.

The one time he saw amazement cross your features is when he was playing the piano (I feel Gojo's other talents were never looked at and everyone saw him as this god like being, all he wants is someone to look at other things he can do.) and his heart skipped a beat. Because his first goal was just get into your pants, he was quite surprised you were more interested in his normal talents. This is where he begins showing you his real side, still a teasing man child, but he begins asking you about your interests and seeing what you have in common.

The more he learns, the harder it is for him to find a way not to commit to you. You see Gojo subconsciously looks for a reason to leave, he hates being tied down and is super flighty. Then there's you, ticking all his boxes without even knowing it. There's only been one person to do that.

So he takes a leap and goes for it. He's still scared that he'll get burned like last time, but he's willing to try.

One of the requirements to being with Gojo is you need to be strong in your own right. Gojo is an extremely powerful man with many enemies, so his partner must be able to handle themselves. Being a sorcerer, Gojo would B E G you to go with him on literally every single mission and would throw the biggest tantrum until you say yes. Sometimes when he's being particularly childish, he'll stop fighting the curses to watch you do it. "You can do it (Y/n)-chan, if you win I'll give you kisses." Takes everything in your power not to launch your technique right at him as he sits there with his shit-eating grin.

This man in the beginning of your relationship is immediately extremely handsy. Just all up on you all the time, but little do you know is, this is really a protective measure for when you're out of the house. At home, he's still handsy, but you can just feel how different it is. He'll come and fall asleep on you, stand behind you when you're doing your skincare routine, always following you around the house.

Overtime, you'll become his place to rest when he needs to recharge. You're the only time Gojo gets a break from being at the top. It makes you wonder if he ever truly gets to be normal.

Overall, Gojo's love is deceptively delicate because his personality is quite childish, he uses it as a mask to hide how he's really feeling. So you might think everything is going swimmingly until he ups and leaves you. Once he starts showing you that real side of him, that's when you have him wrapped around your finger.

NSFW

This man is incredibly horny. His stamina is very high and he's very kinky. Gojo is a dominant verse whore. It doesn't matter if he's taking or giving, he's always in control. Honey you were not first and you might not be the last, this man is very confident in pleasuring you.

Gojo like I said, is incredibly kinky. He enjoys degrading you, overstimulating you until you beg him to stop, he wants to break you and make you only crave him. Seriously, you might want to think about a safe word because this man won't stop until you're not even speaking coherent sentences. In saying that there are somethings that you can try (key word 'try') to do to make him lose his mind. One of those things is a blowjob, his dick is incredibly sensitive in certain areas, so he'll become a mind-numbed mess if you're good enough. Another is softly begging in his ear and saying how he's the only one who makes you feel this way aka call him your god in bed and he'll bust right then and there.

Phone sex. Legit will call you if you guys haven't been together for a few days and all you hear are his whines and groans. "Guess what I'm doing cutie~"

THIS MAN- you're never safe to answer your phone because one time you opened the snap and it was him lazily jacking his dick. You have a small heart attack every time the notif is a snap from Gojo, just praying you can open it in public and 9/10 you can't.

The type of guy to get handsy in public places. Just in your ear like "Baby pleeeeasssseeeee can we fuck in public, I promise you'll still be able to walk when I'm done."

Conclusion

Gojo is a rollercoaster of a relationship that needs it's rider to be okay with a lot of distance for awhile and sudden disappearances. Without the right criteria, the relationship is doomed to fail.

If you were to break up with him, he would immediately sleep with as many people as he can to numb himself from the pain of having a hole ripped right through him. He'd go back to that childish personality, but you can feel the edge in his words despite his tone.

N. Kento

Nanami gives me 'gave up on the sex of my partner ages ago' energy. Like he has tried relationships with a lot of people and realized all people suck. So you being a man means nothing to him, you just have to prove to him you're not shitty like everyone else.

The type of guy that takes you out on proper dates in the beginning. It's usually dinner because of his job, but sometimes he'll ask you to lunch. Nanami will bring you small gifts like flowers or Knick knacks he thought you'd like.

Nanami likes someone a little younger than himself, probably around 23-24, they still have that idealistic thought process but with realistic foundations. He likes someone who can be serious, but still enjoys things like joyrides or going out bowling.

Nanami is a very uptight guy, so you're going to have to work to get him to relax. When you do, this is when he starts to see you as long time partner rather than someone who is just for fun. Literally goes from stick up his ass, to a big softie that just wants to curl up in bed with you. He'll start smiling more and doing intimate things like bathing together.

Nanami would probably rather have someone outside the sorcerer world so he doesn't have to think about work when he sees you. He wouldn't complain if you were though, gives him a lot less to worry about since he knows you can handle yourself. Doesn't even stress when you go on missions by yourself, he respects your strength.

NSFW

Now Nanami is moderately kinky. He's definitely a top and will not change. He's into ddlb (dom daddy and little boy for my innocents out there.) Very much into control and making you take it, he's not one for brats and will tame that shit right out of you. Doesn't need a safe word, he's very good at gauging your reactions. Really really into deep throating and you better learn how to breathe or you'll be struggling. Likes breeding, so he would be glad you can't have children.

Conclusion

Nanami’s love is traditional and straight forward. He likes routine to a certain degree and that degree ends at stable relationship, everything else is not that fun without a level of risk to him, but he likes that when he comes home, you'll be right there.

if you were to break up with him, Nanami would sigh and say he told himself so. He's hurt, but it'll solidify that people are still and always will be shitty.

R. Sukuna

Sukuna does not do love. period. The only way I could see him giving notice to someone is if they are powerful, someone who can bring him amusement. Sukuna only does thing for his own entertainment end of discussion.

I’m going to be using post-Yuuji Sukuna, so he’s restricted by Yuuji himself and can’t outright cause chaos at all times. This way Sukuna has to spend more time with people than he’d like to, normally he would just kill something once he’s bored, but now he has to deal with them.

Noticed your technique through Yuuji and was amused, much like Megumi, he thought your curse technique had a lot of potential to be devastating. As Yuuji spent more time with you, Sukuna began noticed more things about you, like that you cooked better than Yuuji, were extremely versatile in battle with your technique and so on.

The type to notice your attraction to him and act on it. He can’t really do much since he’s in Yuuji’s body, so he’s going to work with what he’s got. Didn’t care if you’re male or female, he just likes a strong partner so he can go harder during sex.

Your relationship would start with being his toy, something to bring him pleasure that is all. With Sukuna, you must both respect him and not fear him. He’s very big on respect and trust, but hates when someone he views as ‘important’ fears him because they’ll betray him the second they can. Everyone else can fear him, he doesn’t care.

Sukuna is also highly unpredictable and unstable, be prepared for death at a moments notice tbh. He’ll kill you if he feels like it. In a deeper relationship, Sukuna is a hard pressed tsundere, saying things quite harshly. Saying things like, “Here brat, I don’t need you breaking just yet.” “Dumbass, that curse was stronger than you.” “I took care of them because you’re weak.”

Trust between Sukuna and you is a game of high stakes chess, one wrong move and you’re nothing but trash to him. However, succeed in earning his trust and you’ll be rewarded with a loyal man. Though Sukuna hates showing vulnerability, so he’ll treat you the same in public places that he would treat anyone else. Alone, he’s alright with whatever as long as it doesn’t annoy him.

Surprisingly protective. He’ll kill curses he deems are a problem to you or rip a person limb from limb if he found a hair missing from your head. Doesn’t understand why you don’t let him handle it, he’s way stronger than you.

Is almost never soft with you unless he’s extremely tired or just waking up. Holding you as close as he can and telling you not to go. Don’t bring it up either, he’ll end you if you tell anyone.

Will never tell you, but likes touching you, you’re very soft compared to him. He’s the type of guy to have callous from years of fight and doesn’t really care about his skin to much because he’s a God in his eyes.

Would rather surrender himself to a church than admit he gets slightly giddy when you remember small details about him. Like this man has a lot of history, so when you know a tiny random detail about him, his non-existent heart shutters a little.

Nsfw

This man is extremely kinky during sex. I pray for your well being because honestly I don’t know if you’re going to live through sex with him. A dom top period, that last person to even insinuate they could top him was added to his innate domain permanently.

He’s into completely dominating you and make sure you know he owns you. B I G into impact play, slapping you a lot until you’re a beautiful red. Degrading and humiliating you, honestly would let people watch so they know that you’re his property.

Actually really likes his partner to be a brat, man loves breaking you and turning you into a submissive bunny just for him. Honestly he just likes pushing people beyond their limits, like really into emotional play, he wants to see your expressions when he does something. Ooo objectification, will use you like a foot stool and sit on you. Man in general will work you hard.

In saying all that, immaculate aftercare because he knows your mind is too far gone to remember him being this caring and soft for you. Literally bathes you and gets you into bed curled up on him. Also makes sure your body didn’t sustain a lot of damage during sex.

Do. Not. Taunt. Sukuna. It will not end well. “Huuuh? You think you can handle more little boy?” Eyes narrowed and smile too tight. You’ve awoken the beast and he’s not going to leave anything unbroken.

Conclusion

Sukuna’s love is... well a bike ride through hell? To be honest you’ll never know if he loves you. Everything about him is highly unpredictable and dangerous, you could end up as worm food in seconds.

Breaking up with Sukuna... you’re joking right? You don’t have the balls to tell a man who could split you into a million pieces with a flick of the wrist, you’re breaking up with him , right?

Seriously he’ll kill you, no hesitation. It’s either realize you’re stuck with him or die. I think most people would assume he never cared at first, but he did care and now you want to leave him? Absolutely not. He set everything down for you and he’ll be damned if he lets you live without him.

T. Aoi

(First and foremost- why is it so hard to find Toudou headers.)

Okay, I’m sorry but Toudou to me is a straight guy, so I can’t really see him with a male. But, if it were to happen, I think it would go like this:

Being childhood friends with Toudou, you were used to his eccentric personality and sometimes extreme antics.

This man is EXTREMELY comfortable with you. You guys grew up together, so some of the things you guys do together would definitely be seen as way too much for friends. I’m talking sharing the same bed, bathing together, using each other’s things without permission. To you guys, you’ve been doing this since you were little, so neither of you think twice.

I think there would be a trigger that would make Toudou realize he’s more into you than being friends. Like maybe someone flirting with you, he’d at first think he’s being replaced as a friend, but it’s much deeper than that. Definitely debates in his head about what he’s feeling toward you. After going back and forth with his type of girl in his head, he’ll come to terms with it.

This is when he’ll start noticing things he’s never payed that much attention to before. Things like how small you’re compared to him, the way clothes fitted to your body, how pretty you actually were and most important difference- how he’s never noticed you have the fattest ass he’s ever seen.

Seriously this man’s sexuality went from women to women + you.

Toudou isn’t the type to wait either, as soon as he knows how he feels, he confesses. He’s the type of guy to say “take it or leave it, that is how I feel.”

You kinda just stand there. Like, huh? Toudou are you feeling okay? Have- have you been cursed? There’s no way, Toudou middle name pussy pounder Aoi just said he was into you romantically... right?

After the shock, you reciprocated his feelings and began dating.

Now, this man- S U P E R affectionate and devoted. Always wanting to hold hands or link arms. He loves cuddling and playing with your hair while you sleep on him. Puddy in your hands if you give him a massage.

Toudou is immensely dedicated. He knows your favorite foods down to the amount of salt you use on your fries, knows what sizes you prefer for hoodies, shirts, button ups and so on, and this man knows your favorite movies by heart.

He’s the type to buy you something simply because you said it was starting to give you problems.

Lovvvvessss dates. I mean he’s a hopeless romantic, he wants to take you on really cheesy dates that you’d see honeymoon couples go on.

The type to want to match clothing or jewelry.

If you’re a sorcerer, he’s wanting to train everyday, he likes seeing you in action. Double points if you can match him in strength too. He respects your strength enough to not worry about you, he’s confident in his S/o’s abilities.

NSFW

Top. Enough said. Ok but seriously, he wants to clap you cheeks so bad.

Toudou has the biggest size kink too, I’m talking like he’s the type to point right at your navel and say “I’m right here baby~ can you feel me filling you?”

His definitely into railing. His favorite position is the mating press, allows him to hit deeply and as hard as he wants.

Lovesss when you whine and beg. He wants to see how much you can take before your begging him to let you cum.

The type of guy to leave your ass a nice reddish purple color. Just two big ass hand prints on you ass and hips.

✨i m m a c u l a t e✨ aftercare. It’s almost like he’s worshipping you when he’s cleaning you up and making sure you’re taken care of.

Conclusion

Being with Toudou is like being with an Aries, he’s high energy and can get easily bored. He enjoys someone who excites him both mentally and physically. Loves a challenge. Toudou’s love is like a concentrated ball of sunlight, it’s hot and bright. He’s overly devoted to you and tells you how much you mean to him all the time.

If you break up with him, he’s the type to hold his head high until he’s alone and then he breaks down, crying into his hands. Thinking, “Was I too much?” “Maybe I wasn’t enough?” He’s confident, but he’s still a person with insecurities.

[based--ball]

planning -> more of it. or maybe it isn't planning i'm just rambling tbh

ok so i have the most glorious collage idea and of course i have this glorious idea right when i absolutely have to be going to bed so that's sick and twisted and evil tbh. claimed a new prompt (that i prompted lol) for it. sorry to the 3 prompts i already claimed and am not working on. but there is a 4th now. i will almost certainly get that out by the deadline unless i have massive school or personal catastrophes (which is very possible)

i have started and gotten pretty far (1.4k ish words, i'm guessing it'll be in the 2-2.5k range by the end) on a fic that was not one of the things i expected i would be working on anytime soon but well. it haunts me. and so i write it even though it's a follow-up to a fic from ages ago that literally nobody except me cares about lmao. that will probably be done for the 29th? idk if it's weird to post it to the collection if the first fic wasn't? i think it could stand alone ok with a small amount of context though so i think i will.

i still have that pending collage that i am almost ready to post (and i am excited) it just needs a few more things to sort out

i have not started planning the embroidery and also i went on a bike ride and now my wrists and hands hurt (i have Bad Wrists) so i will not be starting that in the next few days

in news related to things for time begins but not related to new posts: i have discovered that my collages look better if i take photos of them in natural light in the daytime rather than taking 3 am photos in the basement when i finish them and i am insane and covered in glue and paper and ideas and i'm about to pass out and also scream about baseball and the tragic beauty of nepo baby baseball. so i will try to take better pics for the collages i have up already and replace the shit ones cause wow.

ok yay that's my latest updates that nobody needs but that i like writing out now apparently <3 now it's bedtime or else i will start collaging and then never stop and then not sleep and show up to solid state physics in a sleep-deprived fog and covered in gluestick

thanks bo, good take:

(This is literally just going to be rambling about my writing/creating plans for time begins because if I write my goals down maybe I'll actually do them)

Ok so a few days ago this was my plan:

So since then I have posted that fic that was nearly done and also I just posted a weird poem like an hour ago so thats my 2 written things done already. I have a collage almost ready to go but I have one last thing to sort out first so hopefully before the sept 29th soft deadline it will be ready to post.

New goals for before the 29th:

- another collage by the deadline? Maybe I can do it? A small one? Probably yes unless I have a lab project disaster which is very possible

- another fic either posted (if my current ideas stay small) or with big progress made (if they expand)

- plan out my embroidery a little more because I've been leaving that on the back burner for a while

I am starting to get swamped with homework and stuff, and turns out physics is hard, so i will sadly have so much less time to rpf it up. Which is tragic. Basically I will probably be collaging less and staring at textbooks more.

[kunikidas-lost-glasses]

Random appearance hc's for some BSD characters

Tw: Dazai typical mentions of sewerslide and sh, mentions of sh in general

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Nikolai has a slightly pointed nose. It isn't very noticeable but if one looks closely at his side profile it's definitely visible.

Fyodor has a slightly crooked nose and hates it

Sigma literally looks like some angelic creature. He has soft perfect skin which has some kind of shine/ slight soft shimmering on it, he has beautiful long soft hair, skinny hands with long fingers and usually his eyes look like the eyes of a very kind and trustworthy person. There are a lot people who have been crushing with him

Chuuya has thousands of freckles in his face (mostly on his cheeks), on his neck, his arms, his shoulders, his upper back and his legs. Dazai loves to kiss the ones on his face, back and his neck

Dazai has very messy fluffy curly hair which is like nearly impossible to brush or style in an way. It's always a mess

Chuuya has heavy wavy hair. His hair is basically wild red waves which frame his face beautifully

Fyodor's fingers/ mostly his finger tips are always somewhat reddish even though he is pale like a corpse because of the scarring which is caused by him regularly biting his fingers all bloody.

Fyodor has a small bump on one side of one of his middle fingers from writing so much with his quill and his pen

Fyodor has callouses on the finger tips of his right hand from playing the cello

Atushi has sharp, fang like canines

Poe has millions of small freckles on his cheeks and nose. He hates them but Ranpo adores them and told him once that they look like a galaxy with thousands of starts

The eye which Nikolai usually covers is actually blind and due to this white blue-ish. (I wrote this before the trailer for S4 got released so I thought Nikolai would have one gold eye and the color of the other eye wasn't know yet and I always thought that it looked kind of pale)

Dazai often sits like a shrimp after sitting straight for a while because he has a long term injury on his spine/ thoracic spine from a failed attempt and sitting in a straight position for a long time is uncomfortable for him or painful

Dazai has chapped lips

Poe's lips are often bitten bloody because he starts biting his lip when he's feeling anxious

Kunikida is actually very muscular

Chuuya is very muscular too. He is just not that broad build/looking like Kunikida. He still has a very petite statue but his muscles are there and definitely a bit visible. Especially if he tenses them

Q looks sickish from being locked up so long and from constantly hurting themselves. They are pale and boney and have a fragile statue.

Fyodor's hair actually isn't greasy at all. It's just very straight and also very thin, the latter is because of his anemia, but it isn't greasy

He usually isn't dirty in general and being clean/ hygiene is very important to him

Yosano is definitely ripped af. Look which kind of weapons she lifts

Sigma has a a little bit more defined body figure (hips, waist) and at first he was very insecure about it because he thought that males shouldn't have curves.

Nikolai has naturally a small waist but he also wears a corset which is why it often looks very small

He also has some barley visible stretch marks on his thights

Fyodor often wears a cross necklace in silver

Nikolai often wears black or black reddish lipstick and deep red/wine red nail polish

Fyodor is very skinny/boney. One can literally feel and see a bit of some of his rips, his spine and his pelvic bone

Nikolai is very tall build

Dazai sometimes wears black nail polish which is always kind of damaged and has bobby pins in his hair to keep it out of his face

Mori is the one with greasy hair. Not Fyodor. Fight me.

Dazai's hair gets even messier and fluffier when it's hot and he hates it. Chuuya loves it though

Sigma's hair gets a bit fluffy and sticks up in all directions when he is very stressed or angry

Nikolai's hands are full of scars

Bram had long claw like fingernails when he still had his whole body

Shibusawa has a bit sharper teeth because he is half dragon and all

Shibusawa's hair is very soft and very thick

Nikolai wears colorful socks with random patterns on it like rats or dots or stripes. Idk it just makes sense to me

He sometimes draws a club, a spade, a heart or a diamond (card game symbols) on his cheek under his eye with red or black eyeliner

[hyunjilicious]

a helping hand [henry cavill] - part 2

A/n: I’m sorry it took me so long. I don’t like how this part turned out, at all, but I rewrote it 3 times and I can’t even think about these scenes anymore without getting annoyed. I’m just happy it’s finished and that I can start working on part 3 (that is, if you like this one enough to want to keep reading lol)

Summary: After you post on onlyfans a video starring another man, Henry decides to take matters into his own hands. (cameo: Steve Rogers) KINKY 4k

Warnings: spanking, daddy kink, dirty talk, mentions of smut and masturbation (male), humiliation/degradation kink, groping, mentions of porn and filming pornographic material, stalker-ish/obsessed Henry. (also tumblr crashed when I first tried to upload this so maybe that a sign this sucks)

You can read part 1 here!

-

The sight brought down a storm upon Henry's mind. He stood there, mouth agape, watching the screen, unable to believe his eyes. It was one thing to post videos of yourself on the Internet, but to have someone else take part in them was too much. At least for Henry. Still smart and composed, he realised there wasn't anything he could do about it, but nevertheless, he was determined to not let this shit slide for much longer. 

As much as he wanted to hunt down that man who dared put his hands on you, Henry gathered himself, took a deep breath and closed the onlyfans page. He was perfectly aware that just the right amount of you could get him to lose his sense of control and do things he'd later regret. Still, in desperate need to see you, he grabbed his phone, eyes scheming over your socials, only to see that the last time you had been active was 7 minutes ago. So, without much consideration, he started typing.

"You up?"

"Yep. Finishing up an essay. Coffee in 30??"

Oh, and how deeply that hurt him. "Of course" he sent you, and then checked again the post you made at 3am. '...I'll go to sleep right now, edit it for you when I wake up...'

You were lying? Why were you lying to him? It drove him insane. Henry felt like he couldn't sit down anymore, like he had no chance to catch his breath. He couldn't think straight, so he wasn't really to blame for what he did next. 

Henry's fingers flew over the keyboard, accessing Facebook and logging into your account, desperate to see whether he could find out who the man in your video was. And it was as easy as it could've been, considering your last 5 conversations were with the girl friends he already knew about. But somewhere among them, he spotted an unfamiliar name - Steve R., and instantly clicked and opened the conversation. His blood started to boil when the multitude of emojis you sent reached his eyes, but he scrolled up, until he found the beginning of yesterday's conversation. 

It was started by you, and with a request. You were blunt and went straight for it, asking him with just one message to be in the video with you. There was no trace of your relationship with him on the Internet, so Henry had no idea regarding the nature of yours and Steve's connection. Judging by the way you addressed him, he could easily assume the man was nothing more than a fuck buddy. Even though it angered him, Henry kept his calm and decided to go about this with care. It would only be a matter of time until he removed Steve from your life. But for now, he just had to keep digging for information. 

Steve R.: "Exactly what do you need me to do, baby? Spank you? In front of the camera? Are you serious?" 

"Yes, Steve. Come on!! I know we haven't seen each other in a while, but still... 😇 when it comes to these things, you know me better than anyone"

Henry scoffed. Who the fuck was this guy?

Steve R.: "I know, baby"

Steve R.: "What's in it for me?"

Smoke came out of Henry's ears, and the fact that you acted so sweet and innocent made him want to smash his keyboard.

"Whatever you want! Just do this for me!!! Please!!!! 🥺😊😋"

Steve R.: "Ofc I'll do it, sweetheart. I got you"

"Thank you thank you thank you 😘"

Steve R.: "I should be the one to thank you"

Steve R.: "Send me the location and I'll be over there asap"

After that, your address followed and then that was it. Determined to dig deeper, Henry started to scroll up again, wanting to find out as much as he could about this mysterious man. He didn't get a chance to lurk too much before this computer alerted him of a notification, the onlyfans tab glowing orange. His attention was instantly won, smiling devilishly as he checked the content.

Posted 30 seconds ago, was the new video. Ready to kick back and enjoy, Henry pressed the play button, ready to go at it with an open mind. 

He reluctantly accepted the fact that there was another man in it with you, but he decided to enjoy it nevertheless. The video started, displaying Steve seated on the couch, thighs suggestively parted. He had a pair of black dress pants on, dangerously stretched over his massive thighs. A white, elegant shirt hugged his visibly sculpted torso, the top two buttons undone to show just a hint of chest hair. Quite a sight, but all Henry saw was trash. With his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a silver watch on his wrist and a pinky ring on, Steve patted his thigh, cueing your entrance.

When Henry saw you, he felt his breath reach a new, sudden level of difficulty. With the shortest of skirts barely managing to cover your ass and a mostly see-through shirt on your top half, you made your way to him in such an angelic way that Henry couldn't believe his eyes. 

You looked like happiness personified, and it came in such a painful contraction to what you were about to do, that it twisted Henry's mind in such a perverse way, his cock nearly twitched just by seeing you. 

When you were about to bend over Steve's thigh, he grabbed your chin and stopped you mid action, his lips slamming against your as his free hand lewdly caressed your ass. He flung the skirt over your hips, your flimsy underwear on full display. 

Attentive to the events unfolding on the screen, Henry found his cock, teasingly rubbing it over the material of his pajama pants. His mouth watered when he felt the sensibility in his tip, actually believing this would be easier than he initially anticipated.

"Are you going to be Daddy's good little girl, or do I have to make this fucking hurt?" Steve asked and Henry almost threw up. 

"Yes, Daddy. I'll be good" you mewled, wiggling your feet. 

"Let's see" the man menacingly chuckled, releasing a sharp slap against your ass that made you yelp out in pain.

At this point, about 30 seconds in that was, Henry was already losing his mind. It was as if you took a trip inside his dreams and decided to play out his fantasies. The only problem was that you did it with another man. It was next to impossible for him to keep this going.

"Can you count?" Steve taunted, his hand traveling all over the back of your thighs, your exposed ass and between your legs. 

"Yes, Daddy" you eagerly nodded and Henry almost threw up.

"I wouldn't be surprised if a dumb slut like you didn't know how to" Steve chuckled, "But it's ok, that's how we like our girls. Dumb and pretty"

"Thank you, Daddy"

Henry couldn't believe his eyes. He refused to accept the fact that a random man got to play with your innocence like that. You were his sweet little girl. And if until now he pushed through heroically, when literal yelps of pain started erupting from your lips as the blonde man slapped your ass hard enough to rock your whole frame, Henry's blood ran cold.

But no matter how hard the jealousy had hit him, the video was still pushing his limits of self control. It was still what he always wanted to see. When he reached inside his pants and grabbed his cock, a low grunt of early satisfaction left his lips. He once again found himself picturing you, willing to please him, but this time, he didn't get to go too far. The buzzing sound of his doorbell rang through his apartment, and he never stood up faster.

Cock still hard and completely visible through his pants, Henry slapped the pause button and minimized the browser, before springing to his feet and rushing to the door.

"Henry!" you exclaimed as soon as he came into view. He looked somehow tired, but it was easy to tell there was something else bothering him. "You didn't answer your phone" you pouted.

"Yeah, sorry" he shook his head, a few sweaty curls falling against his forehead. "I was busy with something. What's up?"

You raised your eyebrows and pointed to the door of your apartment, "You said you'd come over? Coffee? Remember?"

"Oh, shit, yeah" Henry cringed, rubbing his forehead. "I'll be over in 10 minutes, that ok?"

"Sure" you beamed, completely oblivious to the way he just tried to get rid of you. With utter nonchalance, you pushed your way past him and strolled into the kitchen.

"You wanna wait here?" he muttered.

"Yeah... Is that a problem? I can leave..."

"No, no" Henry eventually sighed and rushed over to you. He cupped your cheeks and kissed your forehead. "Wait here, I'll be right back"

And that was what you did. You silently sat down, grabbing a bag of chips you found laying around, and settled to wait. And maybe, a few seconds passed where nothing devious came to mind, but as time ticket itself away, boredom got to you. First you stood up, and padded to the hallway, looking around. There was almost nothing new over there, but it still felt so homey you absolutely loved to inspect every detail. The TV in the living room was turned off, a couple of pizza boxes on the floor and his DVD cases laying around - absolutely nothing interesting.

You sighed and plopped down on his couch, folding your legs under your body, ready to flip through the channels on TV until he'd decide to join you. Nothing seemed of interest, being bombarded with news and fishing programs. "Old man" you thought to yourself, before opening up the menu in search for something less depressing. A wave of nostalgia hit you when you came across a Spiderman marathon, and you were done for. Maybe one full episode passed until Henry walked out of the bathroom, but you were nowhere near ready to leave.

"Look what's playing!" you beamed, pointing to the screen. Henry raised his eyebrows in amusement, his shoulders shaking as he softly laughed at your unusual choice of entertainment. 

"Are you serious? Cartoons?"

"Yes!" you scoffed, extending your arms and gesturing for him to join you. Although reluctant at first, Henry agreed to sit and watch the show with you, but not before brewing some coffee first.

When he returned from the kitchen, two steaming mugs in tow, you shuffled to the side and welcomed him on the couch. He brought you close against him, draping his arm around your body. With your head resting on his shoulder, you sipped your coffee, eyes glued to the TV. "You seriously never watched these as teen? You were 11 when it came out."

"I did" Henry laughed, rubbing his hand up and down your side, "I was in love with Felicia Hardy"

"MJ was so much better!" you shook your head disappointed, "You have no taste"

"No need for that" Henry threatened, his fingers exploring their way down your body. The way he trailed his hand across your hips and thighs made you squirm, smiling to yourself as you shuffled closer to him.

Henry was more than happy to reciprocate, kissing your forehead and squeezing you tighter. 

And just like that, you didn't care about Spiderman anymore. You flung your leg over Henry's lap, all but crawling on top of him. The episode was still playing in the background, but none of you was paying attention anymore. Henry wrapped his muscular arms around your frame, eliciting a soft moan from your lips as you pushed your hips down against his thigh. His hands traveled lower, exploring your body with delicate but greedy strokes. 

As you let yourself get carried away with absolutely no worry in mind, Henry knew exactly what he was doing. And considering how easily you let your guard down, he had you right where he wanted. 

When you hid your face in the crook of his neck, your nose rubbing across the slope of his collarbone, Henry's right hand found your ass. You froze for a second, but his gentle caress helped you relax again in an instant. With his lips against the top of your head, he allowed his fingers to sink into your flesh. Your whole frame stiffened as you gathered a handful of his hoodie into your fist.

"What's wrong?" Henry cooed, grabbing your chin, "You ok?"

"Yep" you whimpered, and then winced again as he squeezed your ass once more. "I'm good-" you lied, cupping the side of his neck into your palm as you crawled higher up his body, your lips right against his ear. 

As weak as he was for you, Henry stood his ground. If you wanted to play this game, he'd do it, but he wouldn't let you win.

"Does this hurt?" he asked, roughly groping your ass.

Jumping slightly from the pain, you still managed to shake your head, blurting out another lie. "... no"

"What about this?" Henry teased, grinning widely as he shoved his hands inside your leggings, under your panties. 

The urgency of his touch made your eyes open wide, your back arching as you tried to push yourself off of him.

"Does it hurt, darling?" he continued, keeping you in place with ease. 

Defeated, you sighed and lowered your gaze, "A bit" you mumbled.

"Just a bit?" 

"Henry-"

"Did he fuck you good?" 

Your mouth fell open. "What- no, I didn't- we didn't do anything-"

"Didn’t do anything?" Henry grinned, his perfect teeth showing as he proudly pried information out of you.

"I just... fuck-" 

Seeing no way out of this one, and eager to stop hiding, you pushed yourself back. Henry's hands left your body as you sat beside him, and he watched you curiously, patiently waiting for you to word your thoughts. "I just filmed a video for my page, that's all" you bowed your head.

"What kind of video?" Henry questioned.

His demeanour was so relaxed, he was right in his element, unlike you, who were riled up to the extreme. "A spanking video-" you cleared, awkwardly fidgeting with the hem of your shirt. 

"Did he spank you good?" 

His hand found your hips again, and you leaned into his touch, nodding your head yes as you were too embarrassed to actually word your answer.

"Then show me" 

He was dominant and stern, and even if you wanted to, you felt like saying no wasn't an option. Henry didn't wait for your permission as he grabbed your waist and pulled you up to your knees, chuckling softly to himself when he saw you shyly smile down at him. 

His fingers curled around the waistband of your leggings, forcefully pulling them down your thighs. "Come on" he urged you, softly guiding you to lay down across his lap, your ass barely covered by the pinkish and slightly unflattering underwear you had chosen for the day.

Henry's breathing picked up at the sight, and so did yours. You watched him over your shoulder, his fingers tracing over the bruises Steve left on your bum the night before. 

"Henry-?" you whimpered, the anticipation building up in the pit of your stomach becoming too much to bear. 

"Yes, darling?" he cooed, leaning down to the side to kiss your cheek. His stumble tickled your skin and you whimpered when his hand made its way between your legs.

You felt his fingers against your opening and involuntarily clenched your thighs around him, hiding your face in the cushions of below your head.

"Tell me" Henry pushed, teasing your folds and clit over your underwear. 

"Nothing, I-" you cried, making him chuckle.

He loved giving you a taste of your own medicine. He straightened himself up and grabbed your ass into his hands, squeezing until you yelped out in pain. A soft laughter of approval escaped his throat as he bent down and pressed his lips to one of your cheeks, applying lingering kisses over each and every single bruise. 

The way he took control of the situation and handled your body, turned you on to no end. For whatever reason, being exposed like that for him, waiting for any kind of judgement to leave his lips, you were getting more and more riled up by the second. You were done for. You did your best not to moan with need, but little did you know that was exactly what kept you from being thrown onto the floor and fucked into oblivion. Just one single sign was all you needed in order to break his self control, but you didn’t have it in you to do it. 

But he didn’t say anything, instead just keeping you on your toes as he had his way. You were dripping through your underwear, and judging by the bulge in his pants that pushed up against your belly, you knew he was on the same page as you. But again, he didn’t allow things to go further. Everything about this moment pointed in the right direction - the teasing, the touching, you were all but whimpering in his lap, but he cut the moment short with a sharp slap against your ass before he helped you up. Henry acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened as he pulled your leggings back up, but this glare became colder when he found your eyes.

He bent down and spoke into your ear, "He could've done a better job"

Completely under his spell, you bit your lip and furrowed your eyebrows. "I don't think I would have been able to take any more"

"That's not what I said" Henry shook his head.

"Look at you being an expert" you teased, relishing in the fact that he seemed eager to keep things going. 

"All I'm saying is that if you had asked someone else-" Henry laughed, stroking your cheek, "Things would have turned out much more different"

"Oh" you pouted, ready to tease him further. "Who should I have asked-"

Just when you started getting comfortable and confident enough to push things further, Henry's phone rang. "I don't have to take that" he shook his head when he heard you stopped talking.

"Just see who it is" you giggled, slapping his shoulder.

Before doing so, Henry grabbed your chin and kissed your forehead, his touch drawing you in like a magnet as you leaned into him when he pulled away. With a sigh, you eventually crawled off his lap and then your face fell with disappointment when Henry showed you the screen of his phone. 

"Yeah?" he huffed after picking up, his boss being the last person he wished to talk to right now. 

You watched him closely as he listened to whatever the man was saying, and almost whined out loud when Henry frowned annoyed.

"I'll call you back in 5, ok?" he asked and after a couple of seconds hung up.

"I'm so sorry-" Henry sighed, turning to you, "I gotta go take this, there's a problem with one of the radars, I need to go see if I can fix it remotely"

"Sure thing" you shook your head. "But please tell me you don't have plans tonight"

"I don't" Henry leaned towards you and again, kissed your forehead. As much as you loved the sweet gesture, it was now more than ever that you craved something else entirely. 

"And please don't forget about me again" you giggled, grabbing his biceps and stopping him from leaving without a promise.

"I won't" he sighed, "I'm really sorry about that. I'll make it up to you"

"However I want?" you beamed and licked your lips.

"Absolutely" Henry smiled, sweetly embracing you before walking you to the door.

You had his word now, and you were planning on making it count. There was no way either you or Henry would act as if nothing had happened, and you couldn't wait.

Once alone and seated at his desk, Henry opened up the text editor associated with the code he wrote months ago. When his screen was flooded with errors and his chat popped up with three different messages asking for help from his colleagues, Henry all but yelled out loud in frustration. Not only did he wish to be with you, it was also Sunday, one of his days off. But he couldn't just text the pilot of the plane whose radar went berserk and tell him to wait. So he got to work, determined to get this done as soon as possible. 

But unfortunately, that 'as soon as possible' turned into 3 hours of continuous work. He didn't even stand up to go to the bathroom until he made sure everything was on point. It was about 4pm when the program started running smoothly again, and seeing how he had a few more hours to waste until he had to see you, Henry decided to make the best of them, by getting a head start on his tasks for the following day.

Productivity flowed through his fingertips as he solved the first issue he had been assigned for the day to come, getting ready to start working on the second one when a call caught his attention. He didn't recognize the ring tone, and it only dawned on him that he was still logged into your facebook account a couple of seconds after it stopped ringing. 

Still curious, Henry switched the tabs on his computer, noticing that the chat with Steve, which he left open hours ago, showed that there was an ongoing video call. His jaw fell. Henry tightened his hands into fists, fuming with anger. First as you for doing this, and then at himself for allowing you to believe this was an ok thing to do. He knew there was no way to eavesdrop on your conversation even if he had the password, but that didn't mean his curiosity died down. No, it only grew stronger.

He felt lost for a minute, but then he thought of something. On his dresser, right next to his winter gloves and under his favorite jogging hat, laid an extra set of keys. Henry remembered the day you gave them to him, saying something along the lines of 'I feel much safer knowing that if something were to happen, you could always get to me, Henry.' and then remembered how you stuffed them in his pocket, and kissed his chest before stepping back. Such different times. 

There was no trace of hesitation inside his mind as he grabbed the keys and made his way out of his home. He passed the hallway in less than a second and pressed his ear to the door. It was perfectly quiet, and through the peephole, he couldn't see any light. You weren't in the kitchen or living room, so he felt confident enough. After putting his phone on vibrate, Henry ever so gently pushed the key inside, turning it inside the lock with the most meticulous movement his wrist could muster. The sound of the door knob being turned was so faint he barely even heard it, but his pulse skyrocketed when he heard the click that signaled the door was finally open.

With small, careful steps, he made his way inside. The entire apartment was dark and quiet as he made his way in, stopping just outside your bedroom as the relaxed, deep voice of a stranger became audible through the wall. “Trust me, sweetheart. Just relax, I got you. You’re all tense, I can see it from here. You know I have more experience with this than you do, just do as I say”

With one hand on the doorknob of your bedroom, Henry was ready to put an end to this whole charade. He knew he might regret it later, but he didn't care. The image of a so called friend, pushing you to do anything that you seemed to have clearly stated your discomfort about, flipped a switch inside his brain. There was no stopping him because no one, no one got to push you around like that. Not while he could do anything about it.

[audreydoeskaren]

Abridged history of early 20th century Chinese womenswear (part 4.2: 1930s-hair, makeup & accessories)

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Previous posts in the series:

Part 1: 1890s

Part 2: 1900s & 1910s

Part 3.1: 1920s-silhouette

Part 3.2: 1920s-design details

Part 3.3: 1920s-accessories, hair & makeup

Part 4.1: 1930s-silhouette & design

A super late Happy Chinese New Year to all fellow humans who celebrate it!! I’m going to discuss hair, makeup and accessories of the 1930s today in no particular order.

Undergarments

At one point between 1932 and 1934 women in China decided to ditch the breast binders worn since the 1890s and wear brassieres instead. This allowed the natural shape of women’s breasts to show and the contrast between the bust and waist lent the dresses of the mid 30s a soft hourglass shape. The brassieres of the 1930s didn’t have stiffening, boning or foam and relied only on their structure for support, so the shape of the breasts looked very soft and rounded.

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30s Du Barry lingerie sewing pattern for brassieres and drawers. This may not be very representative because brassieres made by different companies looked different, but they usually looked like modern bras with vertical darts and no wires or foam cups.

I must again redirect you to this article on breast binding in China, if you can’t read Chinese Google Translate works just fine. There’s one thing that I’d like to comment on though; the author named breast binding as the sole reason for the small bust measures of women at the time and argued that it caused health problems and hindered the growth of the chest. I think this is true to some extent, but other reasons for the generally small stature of women in this period (and indeed the centuries before) included malnourishment, bad healthcare and lack of exercise. Women weren’t educated about healthy diets and the importance of physical exercise before the 30s, not to mention the non-existent healthcare they received, so they were much shorter and skinnier, and suffered from more illnesses than the average modern woman. Before industrialization, food production was also often insufficient so a lot of women were malnourished.

As popular as brassieres were, some Chinese women chose to go braless. However, I have usually seen braless women in advertisements/pinup posters, so I suspect this would not be very socially acceptable on a daily basis.

Source: lai yiching0926 on Pinterest. I get so many primary sources from this person y’all may as well check out their board on Chinese calendar painting it’s bomb. I also have a Pinterest board where I collect primary sources if anyone is interested, my Pinterest username is also audreydoeskaren.

However, being braless doesn’t mean wearing nothing underneath a cheongsam. Camisoles were worn on the upper body and drawers (which were becoming proto-panties) on the lower body; alternatively a slip could be worn. 30s drawers are really pretty in my opinion, they were high waisted and had an a-line shape, decorated with lace.

To my knowledge, Chinese women in this period did not yet wear girdles, corsets or any other kind of shapewear to take in the waist, at least I have never seen their edges peeking out from underneath the cheongsam. I guess this was also unnecessary as the cheongsam was a light one piece dress and didn’t require any support at the waist.

From my observation, stockings were kind of optional in this period. In the early 20s and before, Chinese women wore short stockings tied up by garters at knee level, but as the skirt hem rose to knee length in the late 20s they probably stopped doing that as the garters would show when they inevitably flash their knees. I assume longer, nude stockings would be worn, held up by a garterbelt or something, but a lot of images of this era showed women with no visible stockings. Teenagers and younger women could wear low knit socks like Western children, but these were not acceptable on grown up women unless they were doing sports. Tights were not yet a thing either.

On top of these undergarments, some women chose to wear ankle length petticoats or pants underneath the cheongsam. This was especially the case around 1934 when the side slits were mid thigh or higher and constantly showing your drawers was likely not the most respectable thing. These petticoats and pants were most commonly white and had decorative trim. Petticoats could have slits down both sides like the outer cheongsam or a flared hem. Pants were straight cut and wide legged. Later in the decade the slits became lower so petticoats and pants weren’t that necessary anymore but many women still chose to wear them, which is fine by me because I think it’s a cute look. Likewise there were many examples of women around 1934 wearing high slit cheongsam without petticoats or pants, especially if they were dancing, so this was likely a matter of personal preference (Western dances like tango, waltz, foxtrot, charleston and swing were introduced to China and popularized in the 20s and 30s. The Paramount dance hall in my native city of Shanghai is a monument to that).

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Mid 30s photograph, high slit cheongsam with pants.

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Later 30s fabric ad, low slit cheongsam with flared petticoat. 

Outerwear

A noteworthy development in the mid 30s was that wearing actual, full blown Western fashion became popularized, but only as outerwear, sportswear or eveningwear; Western day dresses were not often seen on Chinese women. In regards to Western outerwear, a variety of them could be worn over cheongsam. In addition to the fur trim wrap coats popular in the late 20s, women wore capes, vests, suits, coats, knit cardigans and others. It was completely ok to mix and match Western accessories and jackets with cheongsam.

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Short cape.

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Early 30s women’s suit. I know I use this image a lot, it’s just really useful and beautiful :)

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Early 30s fur trim wrap coat.

Source: Sayuu G on Pinterest, link

Long coat with lapels.

Source: Yuan Li on Pinterest, link

Cardigan and jacket. This kind of short sleeved, straight front, collarless jacket on the left was very popular in the mid 30s.

Another cute mid 30s accessory I’m very fond of is the gauntlet glove i.e. gloves that have a very wide trunk opening. I think they have an equestrian flair and look very badass.

Source: Yuan Li on Pinterest, link

1935 cover of The Young Companion. (Why are the useful images always so small? Woe is me)

Earrings were really common in the 30s, you could see them in almost all of the reference photos in this post. 

Hairstyles

Since around 1930 the history of Chinese and Western women’s hairstyles had almost completely synchronized so if you know about vintage Western hairstyles you’re welcome to skip this part.

In the beginning of the 30s the most common hairstyle was a short bob with optional fingerwaves (called waterwaves in this period? I’m not great with terminology). Some bobs in the late 20s/early 30s could be so short that they look like buzz cuts. The defining feature of the fingerwave was the shimmery wave-like pattern in the hair created by pinching and combing the hair while it’s wet with setting products. Just a side note, the way fingerwaves are done in most Chinese period dramas nowadays, uh, leaves much to be desired. That’s because a lot of hairstylists just attach a wavy extension (which you can easily purchase from Taobao...) to the actresses’ forehead and call it a day, but that doesn’t really replicate the structure of the fingerwave and makes it look like the 铜钱头 in Kun Opera instead.

Source: Helen Xu on Pinterest.

Early 30s very short bob.

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Early 30s fingerwave

Another very common hairstyle in the 30s was this mid length bob (either side part or middle part) with a lot of volume at the bottom. I am so puzzled as to how this is achieved, maybe with teasing or curling only at the bottom? That sounds odd.

Source here

Mid 30s fabric ad.

This ad is forcing me to go on a tangent about fabric dyes. This label, Indanthren, sold fabrics dyed from a range of blue or blue-ish colored synthetic dyes made by the German company BASF (which was merged into IG Farben at this time). Because of the introduction of synthetic dyes to China, almost all colors under the sun could be produced or imported so there weren’t really any specific color limitations to the clothing of this period.

Back to hair. Contrary to popular opinion, fingerwaves were not in fashion throughout the 30s, let alone the entire republican era. As the 30s progressed, the fashionable hair length became longer, making it more difficult for fingerwaves to be performed; they were replaced by roller sets and pin curls which are more suitable for longer hair. In the mid 30s, brush out curls with a side part were extremely popular. At this point bangs kind of became a Chinese cultural heritage and a lot of women would wear brush out curls with bangs. There are literally a million patterns for setting brush out curls and every woman probably had her own tricks, so everybody’s hair looked a tad different but the overall idea was the same as Western brush out curls: women would set the hair in the night and sleep with the rollers/pin curls to let them dry, then in the morning they would brush them out until the desirable wavy shape is achieved. Many women also used curling irons to achieve the same hairstyles with heat, which was faster and didn’t require waiting overnight. With that said, the fingerwave didn’t just disappear either, it was often used in conjunction with brush out curls to sculpt specific hairstyles. I’m not a professional vintage hairstylist so I can’t always clock if a hairstyle is done with fingerwaving, brush out curls or both. From my own experience with brush out curls, they are usually more voluminous and have more fizzy ends and the waves don’t line up so perfectly like with fingerwaves because the process is more uncontrollable (or maybe I’m just clumsy).

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Typical mid 30s curls.

The fashionable hair length grew longer toward the end of the decade, with the finished curls reaching either the shoulder or the nape of the neck. Hairstyles became kind of rectangular in silhouette and flat at the crown. They were often pulled back at the sides to create a more rectangular shape for the face.

Source: lai yiching0926 on Pinterest.

Late 30s hairstyles.

Shoes

Again, full westernization here. 30s shoes had higher and thinner heels than 20s shoes, although they were still thicker and lower than modern stilettos. The heels were usually curved Louis heels. 30s shoes often had a single strap across the foot and a wrapped design at the toe. Spectator shoes and Oxfords that covered the whole foot were also worn. Likewise, strapless pumps were fashionable too, sometimes with an open toe design, especially toward the end of the decade. 

Source: genibee on Flickr, link

1935 Sears catalogue. Maybe not very representative since shoes made by different companies looked different, just showing what was possible.

Interestingly, I have never seen an image of a 30s Chinese woman wearing boots or booties outside of an equestrian context. I guess boots either weren’t feminine enough or were too inconvenient under the long cheongsam.

Sportswear

A very interesting development in the 30s was the popularization of sportswear as a result of women doing sports. Wealthy or aristocratic Chinese women have been riding and hunting in an attempt to emulate European lifestyle since decades, but these sports remained elite and untouchable for common women; in the 30s however, more accessible sports like swimming, volleyball and tennis became in vogue. The popularity of swimming was in large part due to the influence of female swimming champion 杨秀琼 Yang Xiuqiong (her name is spelled differently in Cantonese because she was from Hong Kong), who was seen as a national hero for winning a ton of medals in international swimming competitions and breaking records. China began trying to participate in Olympic games around this period and there were also many other women athletes competing in different sports, so sportswear became a necessity.

The design of swimwear in this period followed closely the design of Western bathing suits, usually a tight, short, one piece bodysuit.

Source here

1933 cover of The Young Companion featuring Yang in a swimsuit. There was a stigma around female swimmers at this time though, mostly because of the revealing clothing they had to wear to allow freedom of movement. Many press reports called Yang a “mermaid” because of her physical beauty, trying to reduce her to a sex icon instead of the glorious athlete she actually was. All of the whack rumors about her being a concubine of some rich dude was also really disgusting and distracting from her achievements.

I’ve also seen multiple times this two piece design with shorts and a modernized 肚兜 dudou (a Qing Dynasty undergarment with a function akin to that of a corset cover).

Source: EMKAY on Pinterest

30s pinup girl in two piece swimsuit.

For land sports, women usually wore a short sleeved open collar shirt with shorts, short knit socks and flat pumps.

Source: Jason Tse on Pinterest

1933 cover of The Young Companion featuring a tennis player. 

Makeup

The makeup look of the early 30s was almost identical to the late 20s look, with the thin, elongated eyebrows, large oval shaped blush and delicate red/mauve lips. This continued all the way until around 1938-39.

Toward the end of the decade, the eyebrows started to return to a normal thickness and became kind of arched instead of flat. Eyeshadows became lighter or non-existent. Women used cake mascara to darken their eyelashes, which were separated and evenly spread out. The location of the blush moved slightly downward. Red lipstick was still the most popular but the lips were plumper than in the early 30s. Overall very subtle and small changes to makeup. There were a bunch of Western and Japanese makeup companies trading in China at this point, I couldn’t name any specific ones beside Nivea which was quite popular for affordable skincare products like cream and sunscreen. I assume that actresses and pinup girls would also use Max Factor, but I’m not sure how widely used his products were among the general population. The Hong Kong brand 广生行 Kwong Sang Hong (whose Shanghai branch was called 双妹 “Twin Sisters” and whose advertisements we have seen too many times in this series) was also really popular.

I know I promised to talk about makeup more in this post but unfortunately there really isn’t much to talk about :( So see you next time when I dig into the 1940s!