#look at those petite tusks | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

friendrat · 2 years ago

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I posted 2,995 times in 2022

That's 2,904 more posts than 2021!

169 posts created (6%)

2,826 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@taleweaver-ramblings

@kanerallels

@o-lei-o-lai-o-lord

@lady-merian

@so-prickly-pear

I tagged 2,539 of my posts in 2022

Only 15% of my posts had no tags

#dracula daily - 245 posts

#dracula - 206 posts

#bwahahaha - 166 posts

#miraculous ladybug - 159 posts

#art - 145 posts

#miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir - 118 posts

#adrien agreste - 100 posts

#memes - 100 posts

#language warning - 95 posts

#writing - 90 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#my husband wasn't able to join the military because doctors prescribed him a seizure medication to help him lose weight when he was a teen

My Top Posts in 2022:

Old theory I never posted here:

So my kids were watching the Magic School Bus. It happened to be the Inside Ralphie episode, and I noticed something a bit odd. Anyone who's watched that show knows that Ms Frizzle always dressed to match her field trip. And at the beginning of the episode, she is dressed just how you would expect for a day that they would be studying how the human body fights infection... except she was dressed that way *before* she got the call that Ralphie was sick! Which means she had to have known in advance that he was sick.

It reminded me of one of the books I read where she goes on vacation to Egypt, and hijacks the tour after the tour guide mysteriously and suddenly contracts laryngitis. She then proceeds to take the entire plane of tourists back in time.

All this makes it look suspiciously like she can make people get sick. And that means that she most likely made Ralphie sick for the purpose of the field trip.

135 notes - Posted November 10, 2022

My husband just pointed out that when referring to Adrian's different personas, we shouldn't call him "civilian Adrian", we should call him "House Chat", and I have never heard anything so brilliant before. Petition to call him House Chat.

198 notes - Posted February 19, 2022

Ok Tumblr, I'm in a debate right now about The Sea Beast.

A bunch of people are saying that it doesn't make sense how the royalty of the kingdom is making money of of the hunting industry, but I thought it was kinda obvious how it worked? I think it's twofold.

First, they are clearing trade routes. That opens up the doors to more foreign trade. Some people are arguing"well that benefits other kingdoms too". Which is true, but doesn't prove that they aren't getting rich from it. 🙄 History people. Open trade routes leads to wealthier kingdoms and better lives for the common people.

Second, I think the next logical assumption is that they are making money off of the sea beast horns. Yes, they tell the hunters to bring them back as proof of their kills, but what really happens to them afterwards? You can't tell me all of them end up in their museum/private collection. Not given the number that the hunters brought back from a single voyage. Also, look at how many real world species have been hunted to extinction over horns, tusks, and pelts. Add that to the time period meaning that they had inferior medical knowledge as well as more superstition (which is also seen in the movie, so I'm not just guessing based on the time period), we have a recipe for those horns to be used for any number of things including medicine and magical totems.

So there we have it. An exclusive resource (we don't hear of any other kingdoms being built up by hunters, although I could be wrong there... but we do know that they have the *best* hunters, which means they still would have the best supply), and clear routes to trade that resource (among other things). That's how the kingdom got rich on the blood of sea beasts. Am I off my rocker? Maybe. I just took the unanswered question in the movie and applied what I know about the real world to it. It made sense to me.

Any other theories? Am I wrong?

216 notes - Posted July 12, 2022

The pep talk I didn't know I needed today

348 notes - Posted September 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

All of the modern takes on Dracula really make me wish they would make a mostly true to book adaptation that is a horror comedy, with things like Dracula having sudden costume changes while pretending to be his own staff, trying to knock the crucifix off the wheel in order to steer the ship, and the people of Whitby chasing him around as a dog. Just all the collective hot takes on what's going on with this story that make us, the modern readers, laugh, presented in a glorious cinema quality film.

1,877 notes - Posted August 9, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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eveningoftheempires · 4 years ago

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if it's not too much trouble, could you tell us what the ROs look like?

Of course it is not! A post like that has been coming for some time now, thanks for motivating me to actually write it lol

I am also going to attach people whose looks remind me of the ROs - I am not going to call them faceclaims, because the visions I have of my characters tend to be very specific and therefore it is quite hard to find someone who looks exactly like them. However, I thought it would be nice to share those inspirations, so it is easier for the readers to picture them!

Laurent, standing at 6'3 feet, with a lithe build of a scholar, carries themself with a lot of regality and elegance. The loose strands of long, wavy hair that broke loose from their ponytail and surround their oval face are a touch darker than their golden brown, soft skin. Their hooded hazel eyes - separated by a long, straight nose - are always hidden behind glasses. Their bottom-heavy lips often form a mysterious, almost smile, as if inviting you to try and find out more about them.

Inspirations: Jeenu Mahadevan, Nidhi Sunil, Nikesh Patel, Pooja Mor

Seraphim is the most muscular of the bunch, and the second tallest one as well, reaching 6'8 feet. Their olive skin is marked with many scars, both new and old. Always alert, amber eyes are situated under black bushy eyebrows, of the same color as the messy, short hair atop of their head. Below a crooked nose are full, dark lips, with white, dangerously sharp tusks peeking from between them like a warning.

Inspirations: Katy M. O'Brian, Henry Cavill

Vael makes up for their quite average height of 5'6 feet with their attitude. Their unassuming, petite build can be quite deceiving, since they are no stranger to a fight. Their cyan skin, dotted with markings of gold, certainly makes them stand out in a crowd. Long, pointed ears point out from locks of ebony, silky hair, mostly tied into a bun. Rounded, deep brown eyes are full of life and determination - contrasting with their always displeased, downturned lips.

Inspirations: Jessie Mei Li, Andrea Kevichüsa

Min has a build of an acrobat, allowing them to be agile and swift - their unassuming height of 5'4 feet helps as well. Their tawny beige skin is marked by faint freckles, which intensify on their round face. Black, straight, jaw-length hair could be seen as practical, if it weren't for the loose strands of a fringe that keeps falling into their dark, narrow, mischevious eyes. Upturned nose and smirking, heart-shaped lips complete their troublemaker look.

Inspirations: Park Bo Gum, Adeline Rudolph, Emile Woon

Noor, as typical among the dwarves, doesn't exactly intimidate with their height, reaching barely 4'8 feet. However, they make up for that with a powerful, muscular build. Their auburn, coiled hair is cut shortly, mostly for convenience. They have black skin with warm undertones and a few notable, although faint scars - one crossing the left corner of their wide lips. A soft bridge of a nose, defined cheekbones and dark eyes so deep you could drown in them give them a rather magnetic quality.

Inspirations: Ronald Epps, Maria Borges, Farima Kone Kito, Xavier Roger

Orion is of the most ghastly appearance. Reaching 6'9 feet, with long limbs and a deathly pale complexion, they make quite an impression. Thin, down turned lips are always covered with a black paint - the same that is used to emphasize their wide open, light blue eyes. Layers of grey, velvet hair fall down their back, quite unkempt for most of the time. It is quite easy to get startled by them when you notice them - if you notice them.

Inspirations: Hunter Shafer, Paul Boche

Thank you for the ask! 💖💕

#evening of the empires #eote #hosted games #if wip #interactive fiction #cog wip #choice of games #dashingdon #worldbuilding #eote min #eote vael #eote laurent #eote seraphim #eote orion #eote noor #nik answers

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ladyvader23 · 4 years ago

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The School Play

For @slx99, who inspired me to write this little Dad Vader piece! I also have no idea if walrus’ exist in the Star Wars universe, but THEY DO NOW!

I also take requests!

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Vader stared in horror at the announcement slip his children had brought home from preschool.

Apparently, the children would be putting on a play--or, rather, a presentation, if the description was anything to go by. The school had the children research a topic, and the children would be putting on a dramatic retelling of what they’d learned. It actually sounded terribly boring, but he’d read in that parenting book the children’s pediatrician had given him that supporting their interests, including school activities, helped foster confidence in children. An important quality in the two most important children in the galaxy, even if his presence would terrify everyone else in the room.

The problem wasn’t the boring play. It was what his son was signed up to be.

A walrus.

Leia had a stormtrooper, which was normal enough. But Luke had a walrus? How in the galaxy had he even had the misfortune of getting such an unfortunate aquatic creature?!

He looked up at Miss Laena, who’d handed him the announcement slip in the first place. “My son will not play a walrus in front of a crowd of people!”

The school the children went to was full of senator’s children, as well as other important Imperial figures, such as Grand Moffs, generals, and the like. Vader doubted most of those important figures would actually be at the play; most likely, their partners or nannies would go. But it did not matter. Word would spread fast that the son of Darth Vader had played a walrus.

“Luke is very excited about the play, my lord.” Miss Laena said carefully. “It’s all he’s been talking about for weeks, now. I even helped him make the costume.”

His stomach dropped. “There’s a costume?”

It just got worse and worse.

“Yes, my lord. I might be able to pull together another one in time, but it will break his heart.”

Vader gritted his teeth. If this was any other assignment, he’d tell the boy to deal with whatever he chose for him, but he also didn’t need him crying on stage in front of everyone because he was unhappy.

He would need to convince him.

“Summon my son. I will speak with him.”

Miss Laena hurried to do so, and soon the tiny form of his son came running into his office, immediately climbing (uninvited) into his lap. Vader had no change to stop him before his little arms wrapped around his neck with a hug.

Despite the dire situation, he couldn’t help but melt a little under the embrace.

“Hi daddy!” Luke said, pulling away after a moment, settling in comfortably on his leg. “Am I in trouble?”

Perhaps that was the reason for the immediate hug. He would need to discourage such behavior in the future.

“No, my son.” He reached up and ruffled his hair. “I just wanted to know why you were assigned to be a walrus in this play.”

Luke brightened. “Oh! I’m going to be a walrus, daddy!”

“Yes, but why?” Perhaps he hadn’t understood the phrasing of his first question. He struggled to speak on a level the twins would understand, at times.

“Because I like them.”

Vader winced. That would make it harder to convince him to change topics.

“But why?”

Luke shrugged. “They look funny.”

And that was precisely why he didn’t want him to play a walrus in the first place. “Why don’t I help you choose something diff--” he cut off as Luke’s expression immediately began to fall, his eyes watering.

“No, daddy, I wanna be a walrus!”

Damn.

Already, just from his presence alone, Vader could tell it would be far more of a fight to force him to choose something else than to just do the walrus.

“...I will need to have a word with the school. But fine.”

Immediately the tears were gone, and Luke threw his arms around him again before climbing off and running to find his sister. Vader watched after him, wondering how his children had so thoroughly wrapped him around their fingers, before he pulled up his datapad to send a message to the school principal to order that no footage be allowed at the play.

If Luke insisted, he could at least make sure the incident was nothing more than a strange, unconfirmed rumor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The night of the play, he’d debated on pretending his schedule was too full to attend. That way, perhaps no one would notice that the son of Darth Vader was dressed as a walrus. It wasn’t like he didn’t have plenty of things to do instead anyway, but every time he thought about not showing up, the imagined disappointment in his children’s faces when they returned home was enough to guilt him into keeping the time reserved for the play.

That didn’t mean he didn’t show up at the last possible second before they closed the doors for the performance.

Naturally, the moment he walked in, a hush fell over the crowd of nannies and parents. He made a face when he recognized a few important officials there who were also apparently trying to be good parents despite their schedules. Normally he could respect that, but today of all days, he wished they’d remained at work.

The principal, a short, portly man, came rushing over not long after he’d found a corner to stand in. “I have issued a strict no recording policy as you wished, Lord Vader.”

“Good.” Vader crossed his arms, looking over his head to the curtained stage. “Because if there is any recording of my children distributed, I will personally pay you a visit.”

The man paled, gulped, and nodded. “Understood, my lord.” Then he turned and rushed off.

Moments later, the lights dimmed, and an announcement was made over a microphone to remind everyone of the very fact that no recording was allowed. He half expected them to use him as an excuse, but they mentioned nothing of the rule being a direct order from him.

Hm. He might have mentioned it just to make sure, but if he had to dispose of the principal, he would not lose sleep over it. His children barely knew the man and wouldn’t notice if he disappeared. Perhaps he’d do it anyway just for the fact that someone in his staff showed the boy a picture of the infernal animal in the first place.

Once the announcement was made, the “play” began. Sure enough, it was less of a play and more of various small children of different species in costumes reciting facts about whatever they’d researched for the parents. This was followed up by polite clapping, which he did not participate in. They were not his children, after all. He did not care, and he thought most of them were terribly boring anyway.

He was also certain that none of these children had actually done their own research. What a complete waste of time and resources.

But then came Leia. Somehow, Miss Laena had managed to help her construct an almost perfect replica of a stormtrooper armor set, fit perfectly to her petite size. The only thing that he could tell was real was the helmet, which she carried in her arms as more of a prop than anything else.

When she walked onto the stage...as he suspected she would, she immediately acted as though the entire room was there for her. She squared her shoulders, looking over the audience with as high and mighty of a look that an almost five year old could muster.

“Stormtroopers are soldiers who help protect the Empire.” She spoke clearly into the microphone. It was...well, as natural as a four year old could get, and a pang went through his chest at the thought of her suddenly looking very much like a mini version of her mother. “They serve over the whole Empire. They can be foot soldiers, or fly TIE fighters, like my daddy does.”

He wondered if that was something she was supposed to say, or if she said it just because she was proud of what he did for a living. Not that she knew the full extent of that, but...he offered a rare, unseen smile nonetheless.

“This is a real stormtrooper helmet. My friend let me use it tonight.” Friend? What friend? “Stormtroopers are not like clone troopers. They’re normal people like you and me.”

He refrained from snorting at that. In his opinion, Clone Troops were far superior, but the Emperor did not seem to care for that opinion.

“There’s also lots of types of stormtroopers. You can tell what they are because of their uniform. In conclusion, stormtroopers are pretty cool and I like them. They keep us safe, and are friends to all.”

That...didn’t really make sense. But she was four, and again, probably had her lines written by someone else. Still, when she finished and did a little curtsy, he clapped proudly for the first time the entire show, then watched as she practically skipped off stage.

Then...it was Luke’s turn.

It was an experience to have one child give a basic but Imperial pride-supporting speech, then directly afterwards have another child walk out wearing a walrus costume to talk about an animal he’d never even personally seen before. He was sure that anyone who knew Luke was his son probably had a lot of questions he’d never answer right about now.

But there Luke was, walking out wearing a well made, but monstrosity of a costume. He wore a dark gray, long-sleeved tunic that reached his knees, except that the sleeves ended well past where he knew Luke’s hands to be, and the end was in the shape of walrus flippers. A tail flopped around with each step Luke took, and his head was almost completely engulfed by a walrus-face hood. The face opening was framed by two giant tusks, what he supposed were whiskers, and at the top of the hood, giant eyes that Vader could swear were staring into his soul.

And underneath, Luke had obviously painted his face. Probably the same color as the tunic.

Half of Vader wanted to have the ground open up and swallow him whole. The other half was admittedly impressed with the lengths his son had put his nanny up to in making this costume. He was also dead certain that if Luke looked back on this costume as an adult, he’d be embarrassed beyond all reason.

“Walruses are water animals who live on water worlds like Mon Cala.” Luke began, just as confidently as Leia. It was also obvious he was very proud of the whole thing; he was bouncing a bit in excitement, causing the tail to flop around constantly. Nearby, Vader heard a few parents coo adoringly at the display.

He wondered if it would be noticeable if he used the Force to hold his son in place.

“They can dive deep in the water, but they like to stay near land. They are really, really fat. Also, both the girls and the boy walruses have tusks, like this!” He reached up and tugged on the tusks, earning chuckles from the crowd.

Well. Both of his children definitely liked to use visual aids. It was interesting to know, at least.

“They also live for a super long time. Forty years!” Luke lifted his flipper-hands up in excitement. “They also can live in the cold because they’re fat. They like to eat fish. And they make these really funny noises, like--” then Luke proceeded to demonstrate, and more laughter erupted around the room.

As well as Luke was doing, Vader couldn’t help but curse whoever had even shown the cursed animal to his son. He would definitely be finding a replacement for the principal after he was through with him.

What had he done to encourage such a fascination with the animal? He was from the desert, so this had to be something from his mother’s side of the family, he was sure of it.

But Luke seemed pleased by the audience’s reaction. He himself would have to ensure this incident never left this room, but at least his son was happy.

“So yeah, I like walruses. They’re funny looking, and that’s why I chose to tell you about them.” Then, with that said, Luke made a bow, and the audience erupted in far more clapping than had been heard the entire night. Luke straightened, grinned, then ran off stage, his tail and flippers flapping wildly behind him.

Well. It was certainly the most interesting part of the night, he thought as he clapped for his son. And despite being a walrus, his son was perfect. Just...had some odd interests that he sincerely hoped he grew out of.

When the show ended, Vader waited uncomfortably by the doors for his children. Plenty of parents and their costumed kids walked by, all giving him a wide berth. He ignored them all, scanning the crowd for his children. He could sense them coming, but for whatever reason, they kept stopping.

Finally, he saw the small figures of Luke and Leia pushing their way through their crowd, beaming smiles on their faces when they saw him.

“Daddy!” Leia crowed, and he quickly reached out to place his hands on their shoulders before they could try to hug him. He had grown used to their hugs in private, but they were still learning that it was not permitted in public. “Did you like my play?”

“You did well.” He confirmed, patting her head, which caused her to make a face and pull away.

“Don’t mess up my hair.” She muttered.

Luke had pulled the hood down and his painted face looked up at him. “What about mine, daddy? Lots of people told me they liked it.” He paused, frowning. “Did you?”

Vader paused, deciding how to phrase it. He did not like that he was parading around in a ridiculous walrus costume, but the whole point of him coming to this ridiculous excuse for a play was to support his children and build their confidence. He could not ruin it by telling his son that he hated the animal he was portraying. ��You played your performance well, my son. I am proud of you both.”

Yes. That seemed safe. And to his satisfaction, the twins beamed up at him. But the moment was ruined when Luke asked, “Can we go to Mon Cala to see the walruses?”

“Yeah! Let’s go, daddy!” Leia added.

He paused for a few breaths of the respirator. “Mon Cala...is not safe for humans.”

Luke frowned. “But my friend said he went, and--”

“Why don’t I take you to a zoo, instead?” Then maybe Luke would see a different, less embarrassing animal to portray next time. Or maybe he’d lose interest in animals completely.

Luke considered for a moment, then nodded. “Okay daddy.” He paused. “Can I be a walrus for Trick Or Treat?”

Again, he paused, trying to come up with an answer that would not hurt his son’s feelings. “Why don’t you wait until after we go to the zoo?”

Luke also seemed to accept this answer, and Vader took his children's hands in his own, and led them from the theater.

Vader made sure to give pointed glares at anyone who dared look their way.

#Dad vader #dad vader series #luke skywalker #leia organa #luke loves animals #vader is not pleased #he probably got an A on his performance though #do they even grade preschoolers?#i don't know how preschool works

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trials-by-blood · 4 years ago

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For the short story request: I would very much love to see Old Man Ki’lte and his favourite mate either as youths or in their old age. Or both?

Midway through the first phase of hunting season, Ki'lte's pack had not yet left the clan world. This was completely normal, for this pack was one which specialized in teaching the next generation. Teaching any skill takes time, waiting for gangly would-be hunters to finish cutting their adult teeth takes even longer. De'val-tu, current leader of the pack and one of Ki'lte's own former apprentices, may chose to delay departure up to the second half of the hunting season if their batch of students failed to pass their trials until such a point. After that halfway mark, any failures would be left behind so that the passing candidates could test their mettle against the kiande amedha.

This year's crop looked good, so far, and Ki'lte anticipated a sprightly bug hunt from the youngsters. Not yet, no, they were far from ready today, but soon.

While the leader, combat advisor, and the young ones slept under the shade of the great training arena, Ki'lte basked himself in the morning rays of heat and thought of his favorite companion.

Ah, Chiruli! The most lovely of Paya's blessed creations.

His admiring thoughts were crudely interrupted by the sound of water pit-pattering against sand.

Ki'lte glanced over his shoulder to witness an early riser who possessed the sense to step away from the resting area to relieve himself, but not enough to avoid pissing into the wind and misting his own shins in the reeking shower.

It may take longer than he thought to imbue the students with any semblance of common sense. Suppressing a snarl of frustration, Ki'lte decided then that he would visit his oldest and most trusted friend, Chiruli, today. This could be the last visit of the long cycle before the students were ready to taste the wrath of the hard-meat swarms. Maybe. Gods knew he needed his dose of conversation with someone of his own age.

So, the old one stood, began to gather his things, and called the one youngling who happened to be awake with an impatient growl.

Once decent, the student jogged over, keeping a respectable physical distance and dipping his head in submission.

"Shaman?" he addressed Ki'lte in question, waiting to be told the reason he was summoned.

"You will wait for our leader and Warku to wake, you will inform them that I have gone into the city and will return before two nights pass, but before anything else you will go wash yourself. You smell like piss."

A wizened crone sat outside on a great stone patio upon a mat as she scanned through her daily itinerary with her wrist computer display, checking off all that had been done and choosing what to relegate to another day. The list is never short, and there is never enough time to attend to every matter of daily life when you occupy the position of a family's eldest matriarch and a district council member, but today was a good day, no matter how busy or how short this period of rest would be.

Chiruli had spent the morning watching over her eldest daughter as she filled out her petition form to request a seat on the district council. Her eldest was a thinker, which came as little surprise. The male who sired that child also spent much of his time pondering morality and justice, perhaps too much for a hunter.

No matter, Chiruli did not concern herself much with the business males get up to during the hunting season. That was their business, politics was hers and her daughter's. It was their duty in society to write and define the law. Chiruli had hopes that one of her brood would take a position in the profession of arbitration, one who reigns in those who stray from the code. This would complete the four sides of her legacy as if it were a pyramid. Hunters, Matriarchs, Law makers, and Law Keepers. Skemtri showed promise in that area, though it is troublesome to mothers when their older children think so highly of themselves that they believe it is their right to punish their siblings themselves for perceived wrongdoings.

As if on cue, the sound of a child screeching in the secondary courtyard pierced the air. It sounded like one of the youngest grandchildren, so Chiruli chose to ignore the sound for now. Just a little longer and she could finish her itinerary and truly begin her day.

The squealing and screams of excitement only rose in pitch, the first cry joined by at least half the crèche within the span of only a few breaths. Why were none of her daughters handling the disturbance?! A matriarch must do what is necessary to maintain an orderly family, so, Chiruli stood, foregoing her list making to check on the children and quiet their squalling.

Through the commons, down the corridor, and out into the courtyard. The children flowed past her, each with sticky hands and naxa flesh on their breath if not the cool smooth fruits gripped in their hands. A few of Chiruli's daughters stood about looking amused at the victim the little ones had made a game of harassing.

There stood her favorite mate, cutting the last of his offerings in half for the final two children to share.

With a few raps of her claws against the keys of her wrist device, she cleared her schedule for the day.

"You disturb my peaceful morning, Hunter, and you've failed to save your offerings from the broodlings,"

"It was an ambush," he grumbled as the children, satisfied with their treats, left him on his own under her stern gaze.

"Is that your excuse?"

"Does it displease you that I dote upon our grandchildren?" Ki'lte challenged, boldly meeting her gaze from across the yard.

"You make it too easy for them, and remember that not all of them are of your line, Philosopher," Chiruli teased him, pleased to watch his jowls become hot with ire over the jest.

Ki'lte was too old to fall for such a trap with verbal retaliation, but he could not hide the grudge he still held toward her second favorite warrior.

"There is no ill will between Hap and I, and I would not fault his descendents even if there was," he half lied. Chiruli knew the second half of the statement was true.

"Enough meaningless niceties, come old hunter, you will make yourself useful in private."

That was the last of what was said within reach of curious ears. The male dipped his head respectfully and followed the matriarch to her chambers, and there, their demeanor changed.

"You're tense, Ki'lte," Chiruli rumbled warmly as she sat at the edge of her bed with both arms outstretched for him to join her, "cease all formalities and speak to me, Bright Mind. I've missed your rambling."

Chiruli, like most females, was a head taller than Ki'lte and perhaps twenty percent heavier than he was. She pulled him easily onto her lap where he may as well have melted with the comfort of her embrace.

"I watched one of my students piss all over his own feet today. My hope wanes, beloved one." he rattled with bleak amusement and so did Chiruli.

"Ah, then tell me all about them. Perhaps there's more potential in them than you realize. A comfortable rest in something other than sand might improve your mood as well."

Chiruli dragged her lower tusks against the thick tendrils of his tresses to draw an answer out of him. He trilled softly with clattering mandibles before making a quiet request.

"A rest first?"

"Yes, after you bathe. You're still full of sand, decrepit old man," she teased a final time before encouraging him off her lap with a gentle push.

Of course, he made a show of his protest but made his way out toward the bathhouse in spite of his lack of enthusiasm.

Chiruli only smiled and settled herself on her back in the neatly made bedding, awaiting a freshly washed mate to help her rumple it.

#predator #yautja #aliens versus predator #asks #Ki'lte

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darkestwolfx · 4 years ago

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Update #6 🦦🧸☘

Before anyone asks, there is no meaning behind these symbols, they’re just there to be eyecatching!

So you’re probably thinking... where has she been? Good question, and I did say I would let you all know before I dashed off again (and I didn’t expect to be at a time like this), but... surprise!

This is my current view and the reason for why I am posting now - times zones are playing havoc once again! Although I must admit I’m a little used to them now.

So this update contains next to no Thunderbirds content because I haven’t been able to make any. And if this is where you usually stop reading because you aren’t interested in my work posts - could you please, make a couple minutes spare to read this one? It’s actually pretty important. For those of you who do wait for my work related posts, then hopefully this will be a useful update for you! So, yes, the TAG Series 3 Re-Reviews had to be put on hold (and will be done at some later point), and the main reason for all of this is because (if you haven’t guessed from the photo) I am not in the UK!

I am on the Island of Borneo, which is in Asia.

How did she get out of the UK you may be asking? So, in short, I was allowed a trip out (but I have to quarantine when I return which I’m currently not sure of a date for) due to very important work reasons. You may remember in my previous update that I explained briefly (and it is staying a brief description for now - sorry to those of you who find curiosity a killer) a major work emergency? Well, my colleague was declared to be in a ‘critical’ state a couple days after that, and as the only member of the team in a country which would allow them a flight, I ended up flying here to take over correspondence between medical and legal teams.

Luckily, although not yet able to return home, my colleague is going to be okay and so we’re semi-lockdowned here (not on a jolly by all means), and we have insurance for issues like this so our medical and flight bills will be covered, but we are unable to catch the poachers responsible for the situation in the first place, which still leaves animals in danger and our insurance doesn’t cover that! Believe it or not the wild doesn’t have CCTV and without rangers, animals are dangerously vulnerable.

This is the first moment I’ve had to update you all as to where I’ve gone (the wifi is pretty poor compared to what we’re used to in the UK) and I’m sorry for just up and leaving, but as you all might have gathered, my work is really important to me (and so are my colleagues). I can’t say this is something I expected, and I’m hearing bits and pieces of news from the UK and I’m honestly not sure where I’d be better off being, but hey, I’m here now, and hopefully at some point I will be able to return to you all.

In the meantime, I’m going to echo my small ask from my previous update. Below are some links - donate if you can please? And if not, maybe read up, learn about the little things you can do, sign petitions, tell others to do the same. When you buy online, and it’s from overseas (especially for jewelry and clothing) check the reputation of the company - you can tell the dodgy ones, and it’s these that are likely to have bought materials such as rhino horns or other animals skins/tusks (an act of illegal poaching). Try to buy products without Palm Oil - I eat many of them and they don’t taste much different, the only problem is they’re more expensive, but if more people start boycotting palm oil, substitutes will become cheaper. It is possible to make a difference by just checking the small things and if you ever want help with anything like that, drop me a message or put a question in my ask box! I’ve been at this nearly seven years now and change is coming. If anyone ever needs any help to find their own ways to contribute that, then that’s what I’m here for!

So, have a little look, even if you just choose to donate for an animal you like or get together as a small group to sponsor an animal, it still makes a difference;

International Anti-Poaching Foundation - https://www.iapf.org/ways-to-give (fights against all kinds of poaching, all over the world, and is constantly petitioning to change laws. If you want to save a lot of animals in Africa and Asia particularly, this is the one for you).

Rainforest Action Network - ACT.RAN.ORG (support Sumatran Tigers for example, which is so important as their relatives, the Balinese and Javan Tigers were both left to become extinct and to lose them too would cause natural chains serious damage).

Regrow Australia - http://RegrowAustralia.co/ (support koala’s who lost their home in the fires, especially many young koala’s who were displaced or lost family). They also sell bracelets - which make beautiful gifts and you know the money is going to an excellent cause!

Save the Rhino - https:www.savetherhino.org/get-involved/donate (a really important one related to this post and a charity that has been fighting for years).

WWF - https://support.wwf.org.uk/donate-to-wwf (supports a wide variety of animals. If you go to their main page you can search exactly by name, e.g. elephant, panda, rhino, and read up on their bios and how your money helps).

Also, it was World Oceans Day on the 8th June! I know it’s hard to get to the shores right now to admire them, but you can still celebrate the fantastic sea life in your area! Also, to bring a little hope to everyone (because we need it out here) that maybe Lockdown has done us some good, this month for the first time in 2 years and in the largest numbers seen since 2008, the Spiny Seahorse was spotted once again in Dorest! Hopefully they too can be saved from extinction. And if you really want to treat yourself, buy some Guylian chocolates - they donate to seahorse protection charities! They may be dearer than Cadbury’s, but they are trying to do something good.

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tinytinyshorty · 5 years ago

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Athena lay flat in the grass, her stomach spreading the grass below her pressing it to the dry dirt. Her blue eyes squinted against the fierce rays of the blaring sun, both of them trained on the white book in front of her. Every now and then they would shoot up for a split second before throwing themselves back down to the paper.

The charcoal ran riot across the paper sketching out the body of a beast the towns people called a vicious demon. Athena refused to believe what they said, after all how could they say something about such a beautiful creature as this?

Athena perched herself with her sketchbook outside the cave of the beast. This was the closest she had ever got not because she was scared of it but because she didn't want to frighten it. She would never forgive herself if it ran off and she could never sketch it's beautiful features again.

The human drew long swirls for the hair that hung in long raven black curls. He had such a stern looking face and even as he slept it was cold as stone. He had a turned up nose which almost resembled something of a pig snout but on a much more petite scale. Large tusks protruded from his jaws like a tiger. A top his head lay two large curled ram like horns that were deeply scratched and chipped.

But by far this most intriguing detail about the beast was that he was impossibly colossal. When Athena had first stumbled upon the creature he stood at his full height, he was peaking at fifty or sixty foot tall.

But still even with all his terrible details Athena found herself in awe and fascination with it. Maybe it was the fact he looked somewhat human? She only felt fearful when she got too close, he had even spotted her a few times but he never made a move to hurt her. So why would she need to be fearful?

As the sun started to set over the landscape and Athena decided to call it a day. Once the sun had fully set he would awaken and she didn't want to be here when that happened. Closing her sketch book softly she began to sit up. As she stretched she screwed her eyes shut and when she opened them again she found the creature laying exactly how she was a few moments ago. His chin rested on the floor of the cave, his reddish eyes were surprisingly soft as they consumed her image.

Athena froze in his looming shadow, her muscles tensed and her blood seemed to freeze in her veins. The beast let out a puff of air which whipped around her small form, blowing her brown short hair in multiple directions.

Althea let out a breath of her own as she tried to make her body loosen up. "I'm sorry I disturbed you." The beast didn't say anything just continued to stare at her in bitter silence. "Okay. I'm going to leave now."

The beast narrowed its eyes but didn't make an attempt to strike her or prevent her from leaving. Athena didn't turn her back on the creature but stepped quietly out of sight backwards, once she felt far enough she turned and began walking towards the village.

She had a hard time reconciling why the creature hadn't attacked her. He had every right to as she was in his territory. But for some strange reason he didn't? Never before had she been afraid but being so dominated by his gaze was completely different from seeing him from afar. Those eyes, something was strange about them and it wasn't just their unusual deep red colouration. It was the depth they had to them, the foreboding layers of pain and loneliness that he had let her see.

Athena physically shook her head as if the action would wipe those mesmerising eyes from her thoughts. However they remained as stationary as ever, seemingly burned into the backs of her eyelids.

A short walk later she found herself at the kingdoms edge. She took in the sight alongside a breath of the mountain air. It was spring, the nature around the kingdom had started to bloom to life and not only that but the season marked the change in the kingdom too. Festivals and trading markets were in full swing and the air was alive with scents of aromatic spices.

Walking through the streets it was hard not to bump into other villagers or travellers. Athena took note of a man she hadn't seen before, he was studying some leather bound books on a market stall. He was finely dressed in a sharp orange embroided suit, he carried a brown sad looking case by his side. Whoever he was Athena decided he was of great importance and felt humbled a man of his standing had stopped in their little kingdom hidden from the world.

Athena's eyes narrowed as they targeted a young boy around five or six years old. She recognised him right away from his mousy features, Tobias was one of the well known pickpockets, a master of the art even though he was young. That's why no one took notice of him, everyone underestimated him and he used that to his advantage.

While the rich traveller didn't even notice as Tobias's slim nimble fingers graced the silky pocket lining of his coat. It was like watching a lion stalk its prey, Athena knew it wasn't her place to intervene but she couldn't help it. If a rich traveller had a bad experience while visiting a place word spreads quickly which can stop other travellers or markets meaning no trade will be done and the kingdom will fall.

Tobias snaked his hand out of the pocket undetected, pulling a tanned leather wallet out along with it. A sinister grin crept across the small boys face as he slipped the wallet into his pocket. Tobias second checked the area before heading towards Athena. Acting on impulse Athena reached out and snatched the boys wrist in her fist.

"Hey!" The boy cried trying to tug away.

"Give that wallet back, it isn't yours!" Athena snapped as she clutched the boy close to her body rendering him defenceless.

Athena routed around in his pocket to find it empty. Grunting she span him round and dug her hand into the second one where her slender fingers stroked the smooth soft leather. Snatching it up she waved it in front of the boys reddened face.

"Do you have any idea how this could have affected us as a collective?!" Athena hissed.

The boy's brow furrowed and suddenly he cried, "Oi Sir! Thief!" Tobias grabbed Athena's wrist and pointed at the wallet in her hand.

The rich man turned to gander at the sudden commotion, as did most of the market. The woman quickly pieced together what the boy was trying to do, he was going to frame her for his crime! Athena glanced around at the judgmental faces burning holes in her skin. A large man stationed on the butchers market pointed the finely sharpened tip of a knife at her.

"Don't just stand there, reprehend the little bitch!" He yelled which jostled the towns people in action.

Athena was quicker, turning on her heals she sprinted and weaved her way through the markets as the crowds behind her were quick on her heels. The woman was almost out of the kingdom when someone faster than her jumped on her back. Athena went down with a shriek. More people piled around her, all sneering at her and some spitting. The last burning image she saw as black splodges dominated her sight was a pair of two crimson orbs in line with the trees. They stared intently and frowned at the commotion. Letting the exhaustion get the better of her Athena gave into the demands of her body and blacked out.

The confines of the cold unforgiving cell closed around Athena, it felt like they were closing in to eat her alive. Loud thumping boots rang down the prison walk framing the deathly howls of the prisoners inside. The boots stopped outside Athena's cell and the dull sound of the key being turned in the lock echoed in her ears.

Athena glanced up at a well built guard, a pistol securely clipped to the belt of his uniform. His large hand rested of the body of it as an unspoken warning not to try anything stupid. The guard gestured to the open doorway and Athena followed obediently. Not one of the remaining prisoners chastised her as she walked solemnly passed to her fate.

It wasn't usual to be hanged for petty theft but the rich man turned out to be a duke, who had taken high offence to the fact that not only had he been robbed but robbed by a woman. He insisted on her death as punishment.

What seemed to be half the kingdom had turned out to the public hanging. Made public to warn future wrong doers. The sun was high meaning it was some time around noon, the fierce rays beat down on her deathly white skin. The executioner placed a gloved hand on the small of Athena's back as he guided her to the ominously swinging rope hung from the rafters, goading her so it may claim her life.

Though it wasn't her fault she was stood here, she would never plead for her life, her pride would not let her. With her head held high she stepped forward and looped her head with the rope. Everyone held their breath as the executioner got into position.

A high pitched scream of a woman rang splitting everyone's ears. All turned to see Athena but her lips had remained firmly sealed. Another scream from the back of the gathered crowed swivelled heads as a young woman ran through the crowd. Tripping in her panicked state a man managed to pick her up and get her frenzied eyes to focus on him.

"My God girl what ever is the matter with you?" He exclaimed. The woman's face paled another shade as she uttered the word so softly that it was barely audible. "Speak up woman!"

"Demon!" The woman shrieked and with that simple word uttered the town was thrown into pandemonium.

The beast emerged from the shadows, piercing blood red eyes glowed from the dark corners that it lurked in. The beast uncoiled itself and its body writhed and pulsed as it unravelled to reveal its full terrifying height.

The towns people all remained in a state of shock, not one person moved as the beast revealed itself, not even the hysterical woman from earlier. All breathing seized as the beasts eyes looked over every soul in the towns square. All met his gaze as his shadow engulfed them all to darkness.

The trance seemed to end as his eyes rested on the pale ones of the woman stood on the gallows. Her fists had intertwined with the rope, knowing if her knees gave out she would be hung. She slowly took the noose off her neck, her skin was slightly irritated by the frayed rope. The two held contact for a breath longer before instincts overtook Athena's body and she fled the square. The beast wasted no time either as he let out a howl that couldn't be from this realm.

The beast lurched forwards on all fours, claws digging into the stone cobbled streets and tearing it up as if it was nothing but dirt as he scrambled towards his prey. Athena ran down any of the small allies she could find hoping the beast would be halted or at least slowed but it didn't seem to deter it, if anything it encouraged him, adding more fun to the chase.

It used its size to his advantage and buildings were sent crumbling and got shoved into piles of brick rather than homes. As another house was sent crashing to the ground Athena noticed the dust clouds around her began to thicken and swirl around the pair. As the house caved Athena used the new swamp of dust to hide herself as she dived into the bakery. Hiding under the counter Athena pulled her jumper over her hands and tried to smother her heavy breathing with the thick wool.

Her eyes began to weep from the dusty air but also with fear. It was the same creature she had been sketching for all those months, but never before had she seen him like this, it was as the woman called him in the square, he had become somewhat demonic. Athena couldn't help but compare the soft gentle creature that she had so carefully drawn in soft detail and now how it had grown into this grotesque monster that she had come to fear.

The commotion had stopped outside. Nothing moved. All that remained was the panting breath with an underlining throaty growl. The beast had stopped chasing as he had lost sight of the prey. Athena, still with one hand over her mouth, dared to peak over the counter. Her frantic eyes were met with a pair that ached with hunger. They looked so soulless, so lonely.

Athena threw herself back to the dirty floor of the bakery, her hands cradled over her head as more rubble descended on to her small form. The beast stuck his thick arm through the door in an attempt to snatch her but had disturbed the building in the process sending some plaster and other rubble to the floor of the shop.

Turning her head Athena watched the hand blindly search for her. Why was he so fixated on her? As the hand felt its way through the shop Athena could only look on in pure terror. Slowly she backed herself up to the wall, she pressed her body so hard against it and begged that somehow she could melt through the stone.

The fingers snaked their way onto the counter and down it on the other side. The counter groaned under the weight of his wrist sitting on it and it made Athena marvel in how colossal this creature truly was if only his wrist was enough to make their furniture strain. The fingers glided over the floor, feeling every piece of rubble and groove made in the tile flooring. Athena clamped her eyes shut, no longer being able to stomach the sight of the hand creeping ever closer to her.

Something warm brushed over her leg, Athena let a cracked cry cascade over her lips as now she knew the beast defiantly knew where she was and was now at his mercy. Pinching her small delicate ankle between his first finger and thumb the hand started to retract and drag the small woman out with it. Athena yelled profanities and cursed her Gods as she desperately tried to grasp anything to stop her from being dragged to what she thought was her certain death.

The beast recoiled as his prey was dragged out for his eyes to devour. She was so small, smaller than he remembered. His head cocked to the side as she shivered below him, a meek little thing she was. Letting her ankle slip from his grip the woman stumbled to her feet once more and began to run. The beast remained stationary, he watched her head towards the square, her head constantly swivelling around to see if he had given chase. The beast crouched his legs then used them to spring after her.

Athena ran clumsily towards the towns centre, her body screaming in exhaustion but her will to live shouted back louder. Her calves burned and her eyes stung but she was alive and that was all she cared about. Her heart plummeted when he saw the giant give chase again, he was toying with her, like a cat with a mouse. She had made it to the edge of the square when the beast leaped over head and landed right on her path.

The beast lay his hands out like a wall but it was too late for Athena to stop her legs from running and she ran directly into his grasp. Villagers watched on from the square and close by houses as the beast bowed his head into his hands and emerged with Athena nestled in his lips.

Athena hung crookedly from his jaw, one hand lay on his tusk to steady herself, short screams rolled out of her mouth each time the beast moved his head. He seemed to look each villager in the eye before lurching his head back and letting Athena fall completely into his jaws. Snapping them shut the giant slowly exited the kingdom, leaving it in ruin. None of the village people tried to stop him, they all knew too well that even if they wanted to they couldn't.

Inside the maw Athena stole herself the moment to cry, knowing these were probably her final moments and in them she couldn't even confide in a death in the daylight. She was stuck in a fate that was far more undignified. Athena did her best to let her weary body relax, the confines of her new prison was wet and warm and it was almost comforting. She could hear the heavy panting the creature conducted as he ran towards where ever he was destined to take her. Athena timed her breaths with that of the creatures in an attempt to give her mind something to concentrate on other than gazing to the back of the throat and letting it come up with the many ways the beast would no doubt like to eat her.

The creature had pinned Athena to the roof of his mouth in order to stop her jostling around has he ran. She had a sweet taste to her, he would be lying if he said he did not enjoy her taste. The breathing slowed as he reached the cave, the same one the pair met by earlier that day. Ducking to get inside the beast curled up and carefully lowered his jaws to the ground. Letting Athena tumble out, drenched in saliva.

Athena spluttered and tried to wipe what she could from her eyes. The giant looked her over, she seemed okay, defiantly a little confused and dazed but other than that she had no broken bones. She was stood up and wasn't complaining of any pain. Grunting satisfied with his work the giant beast lay on his back and diverted his gaze to the ceiling of the cave.

Once Athena had cleared her vision she gasped as her entire view was taken up by the shear size of the monumental beast that lay before her. She took a few uncertain steps back wards towards the exit of the cave.

"You can leave by all means little one, but if they catch you I wont save you again." The beast grunted.

Athena jumped slightly at his deep loud voice that cut though the silence like a hot knife through butter. She had never heard it talk before, she assumed it didn't speak. Her face contorted into a frown as she considered his words.

"Save me?" She echoed. "You didn't save me at all! The only thing you saved me from was from a quick death. Rather than dying at the hands of my people I now have to suffer by the hands of you."

The beast shared in her frown as he sat up to see the woman. She was trembling but she held herself highly. He admired that.

"So, if you are merciful you shall grant me a swift death, do not drag it out." The woman nodded and met his gaze with unfaltering eyes.

"I do not wish to kill you my dear." The giant said simply. "Would I have desired to kill you I would have done so when I first laid hands on you."

Athena took this into consideration and shook her head in disbelief. So would tainted fortune have it. "If you are not destined to end me, then enlighten me to what?"

The giant scoffed at her, daring little soul to make demands to a beast like himself. Reaching behind himself and enveloped a tiny object in his large fist and dropped it at her feet. Athena yelped a little in surprise as his giant first overhung her but all stopped when she saw what he had dropped.

"A creature with such talent should not be hanged for crimes she did not commit." He said with a snide smile.

The book had landed open on the page she had marked this morning, it was the drawing of the beast in the cave dosing. She had completely forgotten she left her sketch book. "You noticed me drawing you?"

"It was hard not to. You intrigued me, you were the only human I have encountered to not run off screaming in fear and not only that but to seek me out time and time again." He remarked.

"You never gave me reason to fear you until you chased me half way through town and held me captive." Athena said timidly. "I thought you were going to eat me."

The comment earned a smile from the giant. "I had to make it look convincing. I am sorry if I scared you."

"Convincing?"

"If the kingdom thought you were alive, they would have come looking for you. So, you are permitted to leave any time you want, though I do advise you wait a few days for the kingdom to focus on rebuilding before seeking lands yonder. In that time you are most welcome to stay with me." The giant spoke so softly and elegantly Athena could have closed her eyes and swore she was speaking with a human of high standing. The only thing she did notice was he had a sort of a lisp on some words due to the tusks.

Athena bit her lip as she mulled over the offer. She had no reason to trust the beast but was left with little option. She was never good with survival out in the wilds and knew she couldn't return to the kingdom. Sighing she nodded reluctantly.

It was deep into the night, the giant lay snoring loudly which bounced off and echoed through the cave walls. Athena lay with the woollen blanket the giant had given to her tucked up to her nose. Her small body shivered as cold wind ran ramped through the open mouth of the cave. Athena wondered how he could sleep so soundly against the bitter cold.

Athena sat up and wrapped the woollen blanket around herself like a cape. Her bare feet creeping across the cave floor woke the light sleeping giant, he kept his eyes shut as he waited for the human to get closer.

"Is it wise to wake a slumbering giant Little one?" He grunted, his voice gravely from sleep. Still not opening his eyes he turned on his side so he was facing her.

"I am really... really.. cold." She whispered, her words were so faint it made the giant open his eyes ever so slightly.

About a metre away from him stood a trembling figure, her skin was pale as the moon and her lips were blue. The giant took in a sharp inhale as he saw her ghostly figure. Snaking out a hand he tenderly collected her up in his large fist. Immediately the small human curled into the heat of his hand, she was cold as ice. Laying on his back he placed the woman on his chest, wrapping her woollen blanket around her before pulling his own over her too.

Athena nestled into the warmth of his chest and soon she couldn't bare to carry the weight of her eyelids. "Thank you giant." She uttered.

"It's Matheus. And you're welcome human."

"Its... Athena." She managed to whisp out before giving herself into sleep.

Matheus chuckled at the small human. Placing a protective hand over her body he stroked down her back with his thumb. "Good night Athena."

#giant/tiny #giants #smol bean #g/t #gianttiny fluff #gt/tiny #gt community

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bloodywankers · 5 years ago

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Ｍｉｎｅ|| Yandere! Prince Warrior! Bakugou x Reader ||

WHEN THEY WERE 4 YEARS OLD

The children all ran together, some with wooden weapons while others with their fists up in the air. Boys and girls played alike, each had their own little groups.

"[Naaaaaameeeeeee]!" Shouted an ash blonde boy as he ran towards a group of girls no older than four.

A petite little girl looked towards the source of the noise. It was the young prince, Bakugou Katsuki.

"Bakugou?" She looked confused.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be training?"

"Heh, even my teachers thought that I was so amazing that I could take the day off today!" He grinned.

"So, what do you want to do then?"

"I know! Come with me!" He said as he roughly grabbed the little girls wrist and ran towards the forest.

The other kids just stared at the young prince as he dragged his best friend deep inside the forest.

"H-Hey, Katsuki, where are you taking me! You know it's dangerous to go so deep into the forest! We might be attacked by some wild animal!"Shouted the girl as the boy continued to run through the forest ignoring her cries.

"We're here!" He shouted as he finally let go of the small girl.

"What is this place?" Asked curiously as the (hair colour)-ed girl looked around her surroundings.

They were far away from their village right know, it was obvious because of the plants, they were different from the ones around their little community.

The children could see a waterfall surrounded by plants everywhere. The water was pure and crystalline, yet to be tainted by the likes of civilisation and the animals roamed the area freely, without a care in the world.

"Wow. It's so beautiful!" Exclaimed [Name].

"Yeah! I know, I found it yesterday when I was out hunting with the old hag!"

"Katsuki, you shouldn't call your mother that!" Scolded the young girl.

"Yeah yeah, I know!"

"Geez [Name], you sound like my father when I call her that!"

After their little chat, they both began laughing, it funny how they got along, the aggressive and egoistic prince Bakugou and the caring and shy [Name].

They both continued to play together for a while until [Name] spotted what seemed like a bear. It was small yet a bear no less. Its tusks were sticking out as it growled and ran towards the children. Just as the beast was at a hairs distance from attacking [Name] Bakugou stepped in and jumped on it.

The bear then proceeded to throw Katsuki off and try to attack him but the boy once more dodged his attack and then proceeded to jump on the ferocious bear and then jabbed a considerably large rock into the bears head. This left the creature wincing in pain and in a weakened state which, Bakugou took to his advantage and took the wooden sword he always had with him to play and stabbed the bear with it.

Both children sighed in relief.

"Are you okay [Name]?" Asked the boy as he stared at what he had done to the bear.

"Y-Yeah." She said slightly afraid at what had just occurred.

"Bakugou, your hurt, let's go to my house we can tend to your injuries there." Said the girl with worry visible in her eyes.

"Huh, I'm fine, I don't need help!" He shouted.

"But Bakugou, those injuries could get infected!"

After a lot of persuading, the boy finally complied as the children walked out of the forest.

Bakugou had his arm around her shoulder as a source of support.

"Mama, Bakugou got hurt, we need to tend to his injuries!" Cries the petite girl as she looked for her mother.

"It seems like she isn't at home right now."

"So, what are we going to do know?" Asked the young prince.

"I guess I'll have to tend to your wounds myself." She stated as she retrieved some bandages and homemade creams for her friend's bruises.

The boy felt a tingling feeling in his chest his friend tended his wounds. Her hands were soft and gentle, careful to not hurt him. The way she wrapped those bandages around his bare chest and the way she applied different sorts of fancy smelling creams to his cuts, it was hypnotising.

"Hay [Name]! When we grow up, you'll be my wife!" Demanded the ash boy, no older than for, as he looked into the [Har-coloured] girl's orbs.

"Okay!" She as a smile decorated her features.

Though at that time, she had no idea what she was promising the young prince.

WHEN THEY WERE 11 YEARS OLD

Bakugou had naturally always been aggressive but after his little confession to [Name], he had become more possessive than usual.

"Hey! [Name] want to play tag with us?" Asked some of her friends.

"Yea-."

"No she doesn't, we were busy anyway so piss off!" Shoted Bakugou, scaring off every single one of the children that had previously approached them.

This was just the beginning of his possessiveness. [Name] noticed how her friends slowly started to distance themselves from her, mainly her male friends.

The few friends she had often made fun of how close she was to Bakugou, teasing her relentlessly.

"[Name] and Bakugou sitting on a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love, then comes marriage..."

"Stop it, you guys!"

And one of her closest friends left her because of the jealousy she felt.

"[Name], I told you I loved him yet you still had to go and wrap him around your finger! I bet you're only using him! You're such a slut!" Shouted Camie.

"I never did anything I-."

"Just shut up! I don't want to hear it!" She shouted she left.

And when she tried to confront Bakugou about it he just got mad and made her regret talking.

"Bakugou, I don't think we can be friends anymore, I-."

"[Name] you fucking promised me you wouldn't leave!" He said as his grip on her wrist tightened.

"You can't leave! You won't!" He said as some tears trickled from his crimson orbs.

[Name] just stood there watching her best friend in tears. She wanted to leave him but after seeing this she just couldn't bear leaving him. She didn't want to hurt him.

She wouldn't dare...

... and Bakugou knew that very well.

#katsuki bakugou #bnha bakugou #mha bakugou #yandere #yandere bakugo #yadere bnha #farytale au #bnha #bnha fantasy au #bnha fanfiction #bnha famdom #fantasy au

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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 years ago

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The European Copyright Directive: What is it, and why has it drawn more controversy than any other Directive in EU history?

During the week of March 25, the European Parliament will hold the final vote on the Copyright Directive, the first update to EU copyright rules since 2001; normally this would be a technical affair watched only by a handful of copyright wonks and industry figures, but the Directive has become the most controversial issue in EU history, literally, with the petition opposing it attracting more signatures than any other petition in change.org’s history.

How did we get here?

European regulations are marathon affairs, and the Copyright Directive is no exception: it had been debated and refined for years, and as of spring 2017, it was looking like all the major points of disagreement had been resolved. Then all hell broke loose. Under the leadership of German Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Axel Voss, acting as "rapporteur" (a sort of legislative custodian), two incredibly divisive clauses in the Directive (Articles 11 and 13) were reintroduced in forms that had already been discarded as unworkable after expert advice. Voss's insistence that Articles 11 and 13 be included in the final Directive has been a flashpoint for public anger, drawing criticism from the world's top technical, copyright, journalistic, and human rights experts and organizations.

Why can no one agree on what the Directive actually means?

"Directives" are rules made by the European Parliament, but they aren't binding law—not directly. After a Directive is adopted at the European level, each of the 28 countries in the EU is required to "transpose" it by passing national laws that meet its requirements. The Copyright Directive has lots of worrying ambiguity, and much of the disagreement about its meaning comes from different assumptions about what the EU nations do when they turn it into law: for example, Article 11 (see below) allows member states to ban links to news stories that contain more than a word or two from the story or its headline, but it only requires them to ban links that contain more than "brief snippets"—so one country might set up a linking rule that bans news links that reproduce three words of an article, and other countries might define "snippets" so broadly that very little changes. The problem is that EU-wide services will struggle to present different versions of their sites to people based on which country they're in, and so there's good reason to believe that online services will converge on the most restrictive national implementation of the Directive.

What is Article 11 (The "Link Tax")?

Article 11 seeks to give news companies a negotiating edge with Google, Facebook and a few other Big Tech platforms that aggregate headlines and brief excerpts from news stories and refer users to the news companies' sites. Under Article 11, text that contains more than a "snippet" from an article are covered by a new form of copyright, and must be licensed and paid by whoever quotes the text, and while each country can define "snippet" however it wants, the Directive does not stop countries from making laws that pass using as little as three words from a news story.

What's wrong with Article 11/The Link Tax?

Article 11 has a lot of worrying ambiguity: it has a very vague definition of "news site" and leaves the definition of "snippet" up to each EU country's legislature. Worse, the final draft of Article 11 has no exceptions to protect small and noncommercial services, including Wikipedia but also your personal blog. The draft doesn’t just give news companies the right to charge for links to their articles—it also gives them the right to ban linking to those articles altogether, (where such a link includes a quote from the article) so sites can threaten critics writing about their articles. Article 11 will also accelerate market concentration in news media because giant companies will license the right to link to each other but not to smaller sites, who will not be able to point out deficiencies and contradictions in the big companies' stories.

What is Article 13 ("Censorship Machines")?

Article 13 is a fundamental reworking of how copyright works on the Internet. Today, online services are not required to check everything that their users post to prevent copyright infringement, and rightsholders don't have to get a court order to remove something they view as a copyright infringement—they just have to send a "takedown notice" and the services have to remove the post or face legal jeopardy. Article 13 removes the protection for online services and relieves rightsholders of the need to check the Internet for infringement and send out notices. Instead, it says that online platforms have a duty to ensure that none of their users infringe copyright, period. Article 13 is the most controversial part of the Copyright Directive.

What's a "copyright filter?"

The early versions of Article 13 were explicit about what online service providers were expected to do: they were supposed to implement "copyright filters" that would check every tweet, Facebook update, shared photo, uploaded video, and every other upload to see if anything in it was similar to items in a database of known copyrighted works, and block the upload if they found anything too similar. Some companies have already made crude versions of these filters, the most famous being YouTube's "ContentID," which blocks videos that match items identified by a small, trusted group of rightsholders. Google has spent $100m on ContentID so far.

Why do people hate filters?

Copyright filters are very controversial. All but the crudest filters cost so much that only the biggest tech companies can afford to build them—and most of those are US-based. What's more, filters are notoriously inaccurate, prone to overblocking legitimate material—and lacking in checks and balances, making it easy for censors to remove material they disagree with Filters assume that the people who claim copyrights are telling the truth, encouraging laziness and sloppiness that catches a lot of dolphins in the tuna-net.

Does Article 13 require "filters?"

Axel Voss and other proponents for Article 13 to remove references to them from the Directive in order to win a vote to remove them in the European Parliament. But the new text of Article 13 still demands that the people who operate online communities somehow examine and make copyright assessments about everything, hundreds of billions of social media posts and forum posts and video uploads. Article 13 advocates say that filters aren't required, but when challenged, not one has been able to explain how to comply with Article 13 without using filters. Put it this way: if I pass a law requiring you to produce a large African mammal with four legs, a trunk, and tusks, we definitely have an elephant in the room.

Will every online service need filters?

Europe has a thriving tech sector, composed mostly of "small and medium-sized enterprises" (SMEs), and the politicians negotiating the Directive have been under enormous pressure to protect these Made-In-Europe firms from a rule that would wipe them out and turn over permanent control over Europe's Internet to America's Big Tech companies. The political compromise that was struck makes a nod to protecting SME's but ultimately dooms them. The new rules grant partial limits on copyright liability only for the first three years of an online service's existence, and even these limits are mostly removed once a firm attains over 5m in unique visitors (an undefined term) in a given month, and once a European company hits annual revenues (not profits!) of €10m, it has all the same obligations as the biggest US platforms. That means that the 10,000,001st euro a company earns comes with a whopping bill for copyright filters. There are other, vaguer exemptions for not-for-profit services, but without a clear description of what they would mean. As with the rest of the law, it will depend on how each individual country implements the Directive. France’s negotiators, for example, made it clear that they believe no Internet service should be exempted from the Article’s demands, so we can expect their implementation to provide for the narrowest possible exemption. Smaller companies and informal organizations will have to prepare to lawyer up in these jurisdictions because that’s where rightsholders will seek to sue. A more precise, and hopefully equitable, solution could finally be decided by the European Court of Justice, but such suits will take years to resolve. Both the major rightsholders and Big Tech will strike their own compromise license agreements outside of the courts, and both will have an interest in limiting these exceptions, so it will come down to those same not-for-profit services or small companies to spend the costs required to win those cases and live in legal uncertainty until they have been decided.

What about "licenses" instead of "filters"?

Article 13 only requires companies to block infringing uses of copyrighted material: Article 13 advocates argue that online services won't need to filter if they license the catalogues of big entertainment companies. But almost all creative content put online (from this FAQ to your latest tweet) is instantly and automatically copyrighted. Despite what EU lawmakers believe, we don’t live in a world where a few large rightsholders control the copyright of the majority of creative works. Every Internet user is a potential rightsholder. All three billion of them. Article 13 doesn't just require online services to police the copyrights of a few giant media companies; it covers everyone, meaning that a small forum for dog fanciers would have to show it had made "best efforts" to license photos from other dog fancier forums that their own users might report—every copyright holder is covered by Article 13. Even if an online platform could license all the commercial music, books, comics, TV shows, stock art, news photos, games, and so on (and assuming that media companies would sell them these licenses), they would still somehow have to make "best effort" to license other user's posts or stop their users from reposting them.

Doesn't Article 13 say that companies shouldn't overblock?

Article 13 has some language directing European countries to make laws that protect users from false copyright takedowns, but while EU copyright sets out financial damages for people whose copyrights are infringed, you aren't entitled to anything if your legitimate posts are censored. So if a company like Facebook, which sees billions of posts a day, accidentally blocks one percent of those posts, that would mean that it would have to screen and rule on millions of users' appeals every single day. If Facebook makes those users wait for days or weeks or months or years for a ruling, or if it hires moderators who make hasty, sloppy judgments, or both, Article 13 gives those users no rights to demand better treatment, and even the minimal protections under Article 13 can be waved away by platforms through a declaration that users' speech was removed because of a "terms of service violation" rather than a copyright enforcement.

Do Article 13's opponents only want to "save the memes?"

Not really. It's true that filters—and even human moderators—would struggle to figure out when a meme crosses the line from "fair dealing" (a suite of European exceptions to copyright for things like parody, criticism and commentary) into infringement, but "save the memes" is mostly a catchy way of talking about all the things that filters struggle to cope with, especially incidental use. If your kid takes her first steps in your living room while music is playing in the background, the "incidental" sound could trigger a filter, meaning you couldn't share an important family moment with your loved ones around the world. Or if a news photographer takes a picture of police violence at a demonstration, or the aftermath of a terrorist attack, and that picture captures a bus-ad with a copyrighted stock-photo, that incidental image might be enough to trigger a filter and block this incredibly newsworthy image in the days (or even weeks) following an event, while the photographer waits for a low-paid, overworked moderator at a big platform to review their appeal. It also affects independent creators whose content is used by established rightsholders. Current filters frequently block original content, uploaded by the original creator, because a news service or aggregator subsequently used that content, and then asserted copyright over it. (Funny story: MEP Axel Voss claimed that AI can distinguish memes from copyright infringement on the basis that a Google image search for "memes" displays a bunch of memes)

What can I do?

Please contact your MEP and tell them to vote against the Copyright Directive. The Copyright Directive vote is practically the last thing MEPs will do before they head home to start campaigning for EU elections in May, so they're very sensitive to voters right now! And on March 23, people from across Europe are marching against the Copyright Directive. The pro-Article 13 side has the money, but we have the people!

Take Action

Stop Article 13

https://boingboing.net/2019/03/19/the-european-copyright-directi.html

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gasbossgatelightgirlkeep · 5 years ago

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The Broken Rose

Once upon a time, as all stories begin, there was a girl who became a princess, and a prince who became a beast.

As the story goes, the prince was cursed for his selfishness by an enchantress, that unless he feel True Love’s Kiss before the final petal fell from an enchanted rose, he would remain a beast forever. Then the one who became a princess found him in his ruined castle, and he took her heart, as she took his: or perhaps they each kept their own, but saw something of the other in themselves. Such areas remain ever unclear.

The final petal fell from the rose, but he was human, and all was done. The curse was lifted from the castle: the prince returned to humanity, as did all the servants also cursed.

Belle bid a farewell to her home village. With her impending marriage, her residence was now the prince’s castle.

Her hometown had never been her favourite place. A non-conformist, and one of those not won by Gaston’s ‘charms’ (nor willing to act as though she was), the years had not been easy.

Many fond memories were within those castle walls, however. She walked the halls, exploring the West Wing properly for the first time since she’d arrived.

It was still there. The rose within the bell jar: now no more than a green stem fallen atop crimson and wilted petals. It was almost amusing, to see it as it was now, when she thought of the magic it was responsible for.

The prince (Adam, as people would have to get used to calling him now) lay in bed, weak and weary. The transformation, though complete, was a magic it would take him time to get used to. It had been a while since he’d lived in a human form.

Belle kept him company: sat by his bedside, drank in the sight of him. No clothes fit him, now: there was enough gold in the castle to buy all the clothing and furniture they’d need, now, but they had none yet.

She hadn’t seen him like this. Human. He was attractive, certainly: there was very little of the beast to him, now. His hair was a long, dark red, his eyes (when open) a piercing blue. His features were soft: gentle, kind.

She took his hand. The prince shifted.

“My mother told me a story,” Belle said. “Years ago now, when I was just a child.”

“Did she?” the prince Adam said. His voice was hoarse.

“A selfish prince in a castle,” Belle said. “One who turned away a beggar, and was cursed for his apathy toward the needy. He was cruel, she said, a monster in human form.”

“Sounds familiar,” Adam said.

“I don’t know,” Belle said. “I can see a few differences,” she leant closer: kissed his cheek.

That night, a fiend came to the village that had once been Belle’s home. Those that glimpsed it could not describe it. Some said it was a bear, some said boar, some said wolf. It charged, shattered, devoured.

When morning came, a delegation (one on crutches) journeyed through the forest to the castle that was Adam’s, and would soon be Belle’s. The servant Cogsworth guided them up.

They told the story, and Belle’s expression turned cold.

“Why are you here?” Belle said.

“We fear…” one of the delegation said: and cleared his throat. A pause.

“You fear it is him,” Belle said.

“To be blunt,” another said, “Yes. He is a Beast, is he not?”

“He was,” Belle said. She stood from her chair; “Come with me.”

She walked out of her room, through the hall, and knocked on another door.

“Come in!” a low voice said: it was hoarse, could maybe have been mistaken for bestial. The delegation jumped.

Within, Prince Adam sat up, his features very human. The room was pristine. His bedsheets were scruffy, but all else was intact.

“My fiancée is no monster,” Belle said. “You may see for yourself.”

Chastened, the delegation left. When the next night came, the monster returned, as ferocious as ever. Belle slept soundly.

Many of those who had come to the castle before proved unable to return, the next day. More were chosen, more visited, and saw for themselves that Prince Adam was now as human as they.

“May we ask sanctuary?” one said. “The beast is clearly unable to break the castle walls.”

“We can’t,” Belle said. “There aren’t resources enough for an entire village. Truthfully, there are barely enough for just us and he servants, not yet. If we were in better shape, then perhaps,” Belle paused. “I suspect it is just a wild animal. It probably won’t come again. If it does, inform me tomorrow. I’ll ask the servants to prepare.”

“Milady,” the village bowed.

“You will need to bring your own food and possessions,” Belle said. “It has been ten years since any other than the Prince and, more recently, myself, ate or lived in any real fashion here.”

Night came, and the beast returned. None could say just how many of the village had died, after those nightly attacks. There was no respite.

The best fighters of the village had gone with Gaston, to target the Prince when he had been a Beast. Only a fraction of those who had gone out, had returned.

As promised, some messengers went out to petition Belle’s aid. Sympathetically, she received them.

“We are not yet ready,” she said. “Tomorrow, though, tell all who survive to come to the castle gates. We will offer what shelter we can.”

Night and the monster came.

As dawn approached, Belle awoke. She yawned: stretched, and walked out to the castle grounds. The first rays of the morning shone over the courtyard: and in the corner, there was a shadow: a shapeless mass, wet, soaked, and splashed with mud. Brown fur, tusks, and a fearsome jaw. It exhaled: a low, rattling sound.

Belle turned: faced it, perfectly still. The monster stalked closer, on all-fours. It neared, muscular frame shifting, preparing. When it was a step away, Belle extended a hand: stroked the side of its face, unperturbed by its salivating maw.

“Morning dear,” she said, and leant forward, planting one soft kiss on a spot of mud-free fur.

Where once there had been a beast, there now was a prince. He stood, exhaled: Belle embraced him.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Anything, dear,” he said. She leant up: kissed him.

“Clean up,” she said. “They’ll be seeking sanctuary in the castle, soon. We’ll have to be presentable.”

“Of course,” Prince Adam said.

Reluctantly, he departed. Belle left also, to change her dress. She chose yellow: one of her favourites of those in the castle’s collection. Respectable.

She found it amusing, in a way. She remembered how all the village had seen her: some bookworm, some oddball, unworthy of, well, anything. Now look at her.

Unfortunately, there were now no mirrors in the castle. She enlisted a servant’s aid, to ensure she looked presentable.

Some hours later, the people of her old home arrived. Belle and Prince Adam went out to greet them, and opened the castle gates for them all: invited them all to the largest chamber in the castle: the ballroom. Over the past few days, the servants had done what they could to make it a suitable sleeping area, as well as one for possessions to be left.

The West Wing was off-limits, belonging to Prince Adam and Belle. The irony appealed to her.

When night came, the village slept, content in the security of the castle walls. Belle exhaled, and smiled.

“My mother taught me many things,” Belle said. She ran her fingertips along the length of her husband’s broken rose. “Your story, for one. I never thought I’d meet you, or that you’d be less of a beast than…”

Her voice trailed off. Belle smiled, and lifted the green stem. She regarded her soon-to-be husband.

“Visit our subjects, dear,” Belle said. “I’ll lock the doors.”

“Of course, dear,” the Prince said, his voice gravelly.

Belle stood. A radiant smile remained on her face, as beautiful as she’d always been.

It was not ugliness that made a beast. It was people. They received what they put into the world: that was what had happened to Adam. A brief cruelty had made a monster of him. When Belle thought of the cruelties of her village, however, such a curse was not punishment enough.

Prince Adam walked to the ballroom: opened the door quietly, and stepped inside. Behind him, Belle locked it, and lifted the green stem of an enchanted rose.

She lifted her other hand, and ran her fingertips along it once more, focusing. She was not as adept as her mother had been, but she knew enough to work the latent magic already within the faded bloom.

Satisfied, Belle lifted her head, and pressed her ear to the door to the ballroom. She waited, and she listened.

——————————————————————————

I realize now that the “submitted by” portion will not show up in reblogs so, to be clear, this story was written by the lovely and talented @bijane

#i was digging through my drafts and found this #did i save a copy there or actually forget to post it?#HAVE I DEPRIVED YOU ALL OF THIS MASTERPIECE????#well its here now #submission #writers of tumblr #bijane

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wildtige429 · 5 years ago

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Crush

@lynea-kureji

This is how Toshi first met the girl of his dreams. I hope you would do some cute pics of the two together.

May contain references to Gravity Falls. And a touch of Jurassic Park.

--------

(Six Months Ago)

Toshi was hanging out in the lobby of St Olga’s whilst the other princesses show Star and Marco (as Princess Turdina, liberator of the oppressed princesses of St Olga’s), the new reform school that was once a prison and now turned into a place of self-acceptance, non-stop partying and brunching.

The young lizard hid from view because he felt embarrassed and nervous around so many girls of every kind, who are gushing and admiring him for his cool and good looks. He did stand out and gave them forced smiles at their way with some cool gestures pointing at them, spotting them swooning at how cool he is, and kept on walking out of the lobby. When he reaches the dining hall, he froze upon the sight of a very pretty elvish-looking princess.

“Oooh, a girl!” he shivered, temptation and delight swelling up and filling his brain. He realised what he is going through and took deep breaths to calm himself. He is going through what boy lizards, make it a Septarian or a Lacertian, are going through when they see a girl they like in coming of age.

The urge to mate.

“Calm down, Toshi,” he advised to himself, hiding behind a potted plant so the girl wouldn’t notice him, “Think normally. Don’t do anything lizard-related just like those lizard men from the anime, Overlord, cause it will make the moment super awkward, and be cool. Besides, what could happen?”

The moment the elvish girl stopped by the plant he’s hiding behind, he peeked through the leaves, wearing a calm (though really forced) grin on his snout. His sudden appearance was so sudden, the girl was taken back.

“Clever boy,” she whispered in fright.

“HI!” he greeted in a sudden loud voice, “NICE TO MEET YOU!!” He stuck out his hand to her for a handshake and he bared his sharp teeth through his creepily forced grin.

The girl’s reaction? She shrieked, threw the cup of punch she had in her hands at his face, and ran away screaming like a bat out of hell.

And Toshi’s reaction to his super awkward greeting? His face twists into a miserable frown and he moved back to hide behind the ferns so he can hide his shame and embarrassment.

However, unbeknownst to him, Marco and Star had witnessed what happened.

(Six Months Later)

“DUDE! YOU’RE SOCIALLY AWKWARD WITH GIRLS!!!!!????”

“Marco, please! Don’t shout like that,” Toshi whimpered, face buried into his pillow to hide his shame, “I don’t wanna think about that night.”

“How can you get so awkward with girls even though I’m a girl?” Star pointed out.

“If you were a Septarian or a Lacertian, you would understand!” Toshi cried, muffling his sob in the pillow.

“But still-! Dude, you need help on going out with girls! Or not you’re going to be single and awkward forever!” Marco suggested.

“HOW!?” the young lizard howled, lifting his head up and giving Marco the big sad lizard eyes that are brimming with tears, “I never been out with anybody for 20 years living like an outcast and fugitive from the law and treated like a villain like my DAD!”

The Hispanic smiled and rested his hand on his shoulder, “Tosh, you got me and Star. We’ve been out with a couple of people and we’ll help you get better in talking with girls.”

Toshi sniffed, rising up and wiping away his tears, “Thanks, guys. But I-I-I think it would be best if I ask my parents.”

“NO!” Marco and Star screamed, grabbing him and pulling him into a tight hold till their faces are squished side-by-side, “Toshi, if you want good dating advises -!” Star screeched.

“NEVER TAKE DATING ADVISES FROM PARENTS!!” Marco howled dramatically.

“Why? I thought and heard getting dating advises from parents will be better than friends’ dating advises,” he protested, pulling himself out of their hold, “I know, but sometimes dating advises from parents can get you into crazy trouble. I saw a friend did it by listening to his dad’s advice on how to hitch a girl and he ended up shunned by girls everywhere he goes,” Marco warned.

“And we don’t want you to end up in that same fate,” Star cried, hugging him.

“Speaking of my parents giving me dating advices, you should see this if you can trust them on giving me dating advices,” Toshi hopped off his bed and strode downstairs. A moment later, he came up with a family photo album and took out a picture from a page. He hands the photo to them, and they were stunned by what they see.

“WOAH!” they shouted in unison.

It was a picture of the young lizard’s parents together, when they were teenagers, celebrating a crazy party with the two in each others’ arms, their wide grins showing they are having fun.

“THAT’S your DAD!?” Marco gasped, pointing at the picture of Toffee as a teenager.

“HE’S HOT!!!” Star commented in stunned awe.

“I know, now you know where I got my good looks from,” Toshi rolled his eyes, dryly.

“Okay, we can trust you on getting help from your parents, but let’s just hope nothing bad happens, okay!?” Marco cautioned.

“Sure. Besides, sooner or later, I gotta take a drive on Razor in Mewni,” he said, “Need to.....clear my mind from all things.”

“Good thinking,” the two friends nodded in agreement.

------------

(In Mewni)

“Razor, if you ever meet a beautiful she-dragon cycle one day, would you do something casually until it ended up so badly? Well.....if that ever happens, we’ll be the only guys who are socially awkward with girls for life. Bu hey, we still got each other right?”

The cybernetic-looking dragon cycle chuffed and growled in agreement, nuzzling his owner in the shoulder. Toshi chuckled at the gesture and patted his head as the two watched the horizon of the desert, sitting on a hill to watch the view of the sun setting.

“I already talked had the dating talk from mom and dad and Marco and Star just now,” he said to his dragon cycle, “All I have to do is calm down, take deep breaths and approach the girl like normal. Last time, I made myself look like a creepy stalker to that cute girl back at St Olga’s,” he sighed at that memory, “I wonder if I can apologise to her for scaring her. Maybe she won’t know me. Marco’s advise is girls’ like boys who are cool and kind, knowing full well he gets that with girls. Star’s is show the girls’ my talents and tell them about what I like, no matter if they don’t like anime or not. I just hope they don’t say Kamen Rider sucks and super childish.”

“But for Mom and Dad’s, it’s just be who I am and be patient when a girl talks to me and when you feel like doing something for her, you have to show her through actions. I remember that story of how Mom first met Dad. She began to love him later after he treated her as an equal when he made her part of his posse, especially on the days of war, made her his second-in-command. And Dad also told me, loyalty is what makes a girl like in a boy. I’m loyal. So I hope she is too.”

Razor nodded in understanding and agreement. It was getting late, so Toshi was about to mount Razor when the dragon heard a faint vroom of another dragon cycle. He turned his eyes to the direction and was smitten upon what he saw.

Well I guess you'd say What can make me feel this way? My girl (my girl, my girl) Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl ooh)

A beautiful female dragon cycle with the most beautiful red and yellow scales came into view, sniffing a bush filled with sweet-smelling flowers. The female has dazzling green eyes, beautifully curved and arching black horns, a nice set of tusks, and a long tail that ends with a few spikes.

Hey hey hey Hey hey hey Ooh yeah

Razor knew what he’s feeling, even his eyes are showing signs of it. He’s in love with this beautiful she-dragon cycle. And without warning, just as Toshi was getting on the saddle, the dragon cycle zoomed off towards the female and the sudden action flipped his rider onto his back.

“OW! Razor!” he shouted at his dragon cycle.

“Oh, is he your dragon cycle?” a female voice surprised him. Turning his gaze away from his dragon cycle, approaching the female and giving out friendly chuffs and growls in greetings and getting the female dragon cycle’s attention, he saw a girl walk out from behind some trees.

And his heart just skipped a bit on the appearance of the newcomer.

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight It must have been something you said I just died in your arms tonight

She was the most stunning lizard girl she has ever seen in his life. Reaching to his shoulders, her scales were scarlet red, giving her the impression of a ruby, smooth yet wild white hair that streak down her shoulders and back, a pair of yellow horns protruding from her forehead to the back of her head, bedazzling gold eyes that pierces into your soul, and a long tail that ends with a flame on the tip. She was wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket, a white strapless singlet, a chain necklace with a lock on it around her petite neck, black fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back, matching jeans with one leg cut and short, matching heavy metal boots with silver buckles around the top and what caught his attention is that she’s holding a sketchbook, filled with anime character drawings on it.

I keep looking for something I can't get Broken hearts lie all around me And I don't see an easy way to get out of this Her diary, it sits by the bedside table The curtains are closed, the cats in the cradle Who would've thought that a boy like me could come to this

Be cool, Toshi, remember what everybody taught you, and don’t mess it up like last time, he reminded himself. Taking a deep breath, he got up onto his feet and approached the girl, “Hi,” he greeted. To his relief, she smiled, genuinely smiled at him, “Hey.”

He cleared his throat, “Yes, that’s my dragon cycle. Razor over there,” he swept the collar of his jacket to calm himself, “I see that he’s....interested with your dragon cycle.”

She giggled, “Valkyrie has a way with boys. Usually, she’ll scare them off if they get close to her. But somehow, your dragon cycle has gotten her attention and I’m impressed.”

They both looked to see the two dragon cycles rubbing noses in affection, purring. They couldn’t help but laugh that their dragons are in love.

“I’m Ruby”, she introduced herself, “Ruby Ryot. What’s yours?”

“Me? Uhm?” he cleared his throat when he felt his anxiety coming up, “Ahem. I’m Toshi. But my real full name is Shirogane Tytus Wyrmbane.”

Ruby’s eyes widened in amazement, “Shirogane? You’re named after Shirogane the Unbreakable!? That is AWESOME!!”

“I know right? My dad came up with that idea,” he spoke out in excitement.

“Your dad? Wait! Is your dad.....Toffee!?” she squealed in pure excitement, “Wow! I heard about you! Your the son who saved Mewni from Kurogane the Black Sail and was able to reunite with his dad! Is it true your dad and Kurogane are living with you now?”

“My dad, yes,” he nodded, “But Kurogane has became the kingdom’s guardian. You’ll see him roaming around sooner or later.”

The two lizards gazed at each other’s eyes for a few moments, feeling a spark happening between them, until they realised the time.

“I gotta head back home, it’s getting late,” he told her, fetching Razor, “So uhh, Ruby? When can we see each other again? I would like to know more about you.”

The lizard girl winked at him, making him blush as she fetched Valkyrie, “My dad’s gone off work tomorrow. So tomorrow?”

The two got onto their dragon cycles, revving them up in preparation for take off, “Tomorrow,” Toshi agreed. And with that, the two took off into different parts with Toshi using his dimensional scissors to open the portal back to his home and the girl flying off into the opposite direction of the desert.

Toshi could not believe it. He has finally talked to a girl, and the girl’s reaction was what he wanted and he couldn’t help but feel one thing.

He has a crush on her.

#rubyryot

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wildname · 6 years ago

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A Blade in the Dark

How many nights? How many sleepless and lonely nights had it been? Since those eyes appeared, since they've lingered. Always just out of direct sight, always alone, and always as the candles started to flicker and snuff themselves out. They were her's, Thalin could easily tell. Their shape, they way they watched his movements, and the color. A dull violet in the dark, brighter than the shadows around it, but never emitted it's own light. He couldn't take it.

This night, as a bright moon climbed into the sky, and a calm night carried the scent of fresh bloom and flowers, Thalin let his candle burn out. He sat in his chair, staring right at the eyes, those unblinking terrors.

The flame danced and stuttered, dimming slowly until only a mote of smoke was left. Dim moonlight let Thalin know he wasn't alone in complete darkness, that he wasn't going mad... Or maybe he was? They didn't move, and nor did they blink or adjust. Just stared.

"Ave..." he murmured. "What do you want?" No reply was made. Again he repeated his question. Still no reply. He repeated again and again, growing louder as a soft rage began stoking into his chest. He stood, steeling his shaky nerve. She was dangerous, but had yet to do anything in months of his staying in this room. What would she do now? The floorboards protested against his form moving closer to the eyes. The room seemed to scream against his decision, every little sound growing deafening, competing with the pulsing beat of his own heart in his ears. "Tell me."

You.

Darkness. There was a heavy weight over the man's body, it was hard to breath. No... No, it was impossible! The knight was submerged in water! How? When? It didn't matter yet, he was drowning. Thalin fought his armor, his panic, and the pull of the water itself to break the surface. He coughed and wheezed as he broke the surface. The air was hot, muggy, alive with the drone of insects and smaller wildlife. That wasn't right... "No..." Jungle. Towering trees lined the dark river, illuminated solely by an unnaturally large and pale moon. He coughed more water up, muddy and filled with Light knows what. He needed to make it to shore. Thalin pattled slowly, listening in the dark.

Caw.

He froze, mid-stroke. A raven?

Caw!

Another and more urgent call. Soon he heared the signal raised long and far up and down the river, maybe miles inward too! He paddled faster to shore, he was in danger anywhere but useless in the water. Hundreds of pairs of little purple eyes watched from the trees. He had eyes on him. They were watching. Then he felt the tug.

His ankle snagged on something, getting a curse from the man. "No!" he cried. Then he felt himself going backwards, the shore growing farther away. He was being pulled! He held his breath and went down, gripping at whatever held him below. It was slimey, without texture besides slick skin. There was nothing to grab, and nothing to see. Light help him. He broke the surface for air once more, barely past his chin. The ravens were laughing, mimicking the sound rather. Loud and cacophonous. The grip on him tightened. He had to fight it. He took a deep breath as everything swelled to darkness once more.

But now it was cool. Damp, yes, but cool. There was something solid beneath him. Stone? It had to be, there wasn't the creak of wood or softness of soil. What now? It was pitch black, no light, the soft drip of water, the quiet skitter of something insectoid in the dark. A cave? No...

He traced his hands along the floor, there were grooves, where flagstones would meet. He was in some sort of ruin. Gurubashi? His head shot forward, or... What he assumed was forward. There was a low drone, almost like voices, but too distorted to make anything out. He grit his teeth. He should turn away, go opposite of the sounds. But what if that thing that pulled him down was that way? What if this was a labyrinth?

He was cautious, feeling the wall's edge as he shifted closer to the source of the voices. Now and again he felt frescoes, carvings, creeping vines, and spiders' webs. He was in Gurubashi ruins, the carvings felt familiar. And his foot tipped something. Wood? Sticks and twigs, tied with vine... "Shit!" He hissed, pricking himself on a thorn. Thorn? He bent down and flet the object again, a headhunter's trap. A triggered one.

Thalin felt his heart stop. He knew this trap, he felt the wall. He knew that carving. His form slouched down in panic, hand grazing the ground and knocking aside some wooden pole. His torch. Light above, his torch!

The shadows hissed. He looked around the room, now dimly lit, but by nothing it seemed. His eyes couldn't have adjusted, they would've long ago. Then he saw the snaking trail of darkness. The chamber beyond. He had forgotten the voices. They were a chant now, in some dark and profane Zandali dialect he couldn't understand. Was it even trolls speaking?

Again he moved forward, less carefully. Sweat clung to his brow, despite the chill. His breathing was a panting, trying to calm himself as he turned a corner.

The chamber was large, filled with carvings of dark loa. He knew some, Hakkar the Soul-Flayer, Bwonsamdi, Shadra, and- "Cor'van..." A dark idol stood center of a massive altar across from Thalin. A mob of trolls of every tribe prostrating themselves before it. It was obsidian, impassively carved and even more impossible to hold in it's design. A raven who's wings were wrapped around itself, a troll's skull in its talons. But on the altar was a woman, petite and ebon clad, clearly not a troll. "Ave..."

Cor'van, heed the call of your herald!

The woman chanted, but how did he understand? The voice throbbed in his skull, like an intense migraine.

The man who has awoken you returns! As your prophet and herald had promised! Give thanks unto him! Make right unto your bargain!

A feather clad hand grasped Thalin's shoulder, earning a gasp and look from the knight. An aged troll smiled from his decrepit robes, a broken tusk capped with a similar obsidian as the idol. "It be too long, Thalin! Ya kept a poor old mon and girlie waiting! And... Our loa." Zaladrin warned. And without anything else to say, hands gripped and pulled on Thalin's body, dragging him before the altar. He fought, kicked, cursed, anything he could to break free, but to no avail.

Thalin was forced to his knees, staring into the idol. It hurt just to look at this close, but he was held. He couldn't turn his face away.

Son of Wildname

Ave removed her hood. Those unnatural eyes stared down to him, glee in them now. Her pale skin burned to look at, raven hair offering the only bit of relief from her visage.

Awakener.

Delicate fingers undid the man's gauntlet. Throwing the armor to the side without care, she caressed the flesh of his hand. It was intoxicating to her, no... Euphoric. Pale lips parted into a fanged smile as she lifted his arm. Why couldn't he fight her!? He could've easily torn his arm away from her!

This one gave of her flesh to me. You will do the same.

No! He panicked, watching her drag his hand to the idol. Agony ripped through his arm as it neared the corvid statue. Chilling and blazing, numbing and excruciating.

A Champion you shall be.

Thalin's eyes opened abruptly. The room was dark, still and silent. A soft mote of smoke escaped a nearby candle. His room? Lifting his right arm, he went to rub his eyes but jolted in pain. He screamed. It was like a thousand little needles all jabbed into him at once. Tugging his earring he shouted, "Gil! Help!"

Not a moment later, a ebon haired half elf crashed into the room, followed by Fairwind and Marigold. The room filled with violet light as Gil screamed, "The window!" There was an eruption as the pain subsided.

Thalin panted in his chair. Had he fallen asleep in that? He ignored that as he tasted iron in his mouth, his lips were bleeding he bit down so hard! His mind reeled as he watched the trio inspect the room and their commander. His shirt was stripped, garnering a shocked gasp from everyone.

Black and violet tattoos swirled across Thalin's arm. At the wrist were five raven feathers, arranged with the quill facing down to his hand. Evocations of mist and smoke created a helix up his arm to his shoulder, framing and wrapping around an avian skull in black ink. "Cor'van," was all Thalin could offer his friends.

#thalin wildname #world of warcraft #personal #character writing #the dark loa #his backstory comes back #finally got to this #update

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druzanrp · 7 years ago

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Taste of the North

Description: Kajetan meets a scowling troll from Zuldrak sitting in the entry way to an Inn in Silvermoon.

Kajetan cants his head to the side a soft smile touching his lips as he looks down at a huge troll, which was just weird. As such he crouched won just a little giving a smile to the scowling man. "Why hello?" He said raising a brow miffed as to why he was crouched there near the entrance. "Are you waiting for someone?" Riktavi shook his head, deep brown eyes locked on the comparatively petite elf. "Jus' sittin'," he said, turning his head to the right and gesturing a hand over towards the draped entrance before turning back to Kajetan. "Go 'head, Ah ain' 'ere ta block da way," he said, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the wall.

Kajetan rose back to his feet his eyes moving over the troll a note of curiosity still in his gaze. "You are not blocking the way though why are you sitting here instead of in there?"

Riktavi tilted his head, considering the question for a moment. "Ah like ta watch da people comin' in 'n' out, Ah guess." His answer seemed genuine enough, expression not hostile but mostly unchanging as he spoke-- though, perhaps his eyebrow tweaked more often than not. "Even dis late, people be passin' t'rough."

Kajetan gave a small nod as he considered what the troll said. He didn't seem bothered by the man wanting to 'people watch' though it did confuse him a bit. "You just like watching elves?" He said with just a hint of a tease. "You could watch us with a drink inside. Well I suppose that is only good if you enjoy a drink."

Riktavi shrugged lightly, reaching a large three-fingered hand up to idly pick at his left tusk. "Ah've 'ad some uh ya wine," he said, his hand falling back over his chest, "it ain' dat good," he told the elf, a small grin forming at his lips as he took a jab at their taste in alcoholic beverages.

Kajetan gave the troll a huge impish grin as one brow quirked upwards. Fingers moved to fish a small flask from the satchel at his should that he held out towards the man. "Wine is for parties where you are not suppose to get drunk."

Riktavi took the flask as it was offered to him, popping it open and squeezing a mouthful of the bourbon between his lips. He made a face at the taste, though ultimately decided it wasn't bad with a nod of his head. "Ah've 'ad some wine that gets ya fucked up," he said, passing the flask back to the elf. "Not'in' like it 'ere."

Kajetan gave a nod. "Most people here are not looking to drink themselves to sleep. A few but not nearly as many as choose to do it for social reasons. Might I ask what brings you here for I take it... that it isn't our alcoholic beverages."

Riktavi tilted his head once more, arms crossed over his chest. "It be coldah in 'ere dan out dere-- always warm ou'side." He nodded his chin upward, gesturing towards the elf as if redirecting the attention back to him. "What'chu 'ere fah?"

Kajetan tilted his head the opposite direction of the troll's realizing that he hadn't really answered the question. "Well to pester random trolls of course." he said with a warm chuckle as he held out a hand. "Kajetan. And who might you be?"

Riktavi narrowed his eyes at the elf as he responded, examining the elf's tiny hand for a short moment before reaching his large hand out to embrace it. "Chu find a lotta trolls ta pestah 'round here, eh?"

Kajetan couldn't quite make up his mind what to think about the troll who seemed to remain fairly expressionless. "Nope. Which is why this seems to be my lucky day." He gave the huge hand a small shake.

Riktavi's eyes stayed narrowed, his expression truly hard to read. "An' 'ow exactleh chu gon' be a pest, eh?" He asked, pulling his hand away after a few seconds of contact with the comparatively tiny hand.

Kajetan tapped a few fingers on his bottom lip thinking that question over. "Well I thought I was on the right track but you are doing pretty good leaving me in the dark. I could forgo all proper social conduct and act like a child and climb all over you till you either want to run me though or give in and smile?" He was clearly guessing unable to read much off the man.

Riktavi laughed at that, a small puff of air escaping his nose. "Chu wanna climb all ovah meh? Good luck tryin'-- chu gon' hit da wall behind meh 'foah chu can getcha 'ands on meh-- handshakes ain' coun'," he said, eyebrow perked at the peculiar elf.

Kajetan shook his head and let out a laugh. "Want... not particularly." He said giving the troll a wink. "I got a laugh." He held his arm out miming a clipboard and quill. "Appears to have emotions." He made a swiping check mark over part of the clipboard. "Still unsure if subject has a name."

Riktavi narrowed his eyes once more at the elf's actions, nodding as the other made his little joke. "Oh, chu a funneh elf, s'dat right?" He said, a small grin forming on his lips. "'Tavi," he simply spoke, shooting a look up at the elf. "Chu got some mess in ya 'air, pinkeh," he told Kajetan, referring to the flowers adorning the elf's golden hair.

Kajetan winked as his fingers smoothed out his own robe. "Not always. The stubborn elf willing to implore many tactics to acheive his goals." He added with a warm laugh. "Pleasure to meet you Tavi." His fingers moved slowly up to the flowers in his hair. Digits brushed lightly over the petals of the orchids. "My very own special mess." He said rather happy with it. Clearly, he hadn't done it for anyone else approval and was just fine with the other referring to it as a mess. "You have quit an interesting 'mess' yourself."

Riktavi stood himself up, the imposing figure now staring down at the tiny elf. The other's eye level was somewhere near Rik'tavi's midriff, most of his taut flesh and fur exposed by his minimal leather straps. In a quick motion, he reached his three-fingered hand out over the other's head, easily able to grab hold of it due to their difference in size. He did not grab his head though, instead merely opting to tousle his hair and the flowers into an actual mess, doing so moderately roughly for a few seconds. In a matter of seconds, the large troll had leapt forward, past the elf and towards the exit, pestering the elf as the elf had chosen to do to him. Once at the end of the hall, he stopped, turning around and facing the other, grin mad on his face as he was ready for the elf's next move-- was the troll going to run, fight back, or stay and continue to engage the elf? One could not say.

Kajetan blinked as the fingers moved up proceeding to leave his hair looking like a bird's nest. Kaj didn't stop him only laughed and rolled his eyes. A pink tongue poked it's way out of those lips as a hand went to smooth the worst of the mess before he put d hand on his hip giving the man across the way a huge impish grin. With that his form faded in a shimmering of magic before he appeared in front of the troll. He would have grabbed the man's tusk but the height difference would have made that rather difficult. Instead he reached out an index finger poking the man's bellybutton.

Riktavi tilted his head, looking down at the elf as he suddenly appeared directly in front of him. "Not bad," he merely spoke, standing there for a few more moments while looking down at the elf. With no prior warning, the troll turned to his right and leapt forward once more. When he was beyond the drapes and outside, he would immediately turn to his left. Potentially to Kajetan's surprise, the troll appeared to have simply vanished, not a trace of him near the entrance of the inn, nor even the sound of a hulking ice troll lumbering away.

Kajetan blinked as the man took off yet again. He took a few steps forward out of the inn his eyes looking around. Light, for a giant of a man he was sure good at disappearing... or had he just run that fast? Kaj thought it over for a moment. He glanced around a little and when he saw no sign of Tavi, he stopped. Settling himself down on the stoop he pulled a small case free of his satchel. Inside there was a quill small pieces of parchment and a tiny well of ink capped with cork. Fingers pried the cork out and he dipped the feathered quill into the black ink before writing something on the paper. Whatever he wrote took three times of dipping the quill to finish. When he was done he put the rest away except the parchment. Setting it aside, fingers moved to slowly work one of the orchids free of his hair. The stem twisted about in a wavy pattern. He punctured the parchment with the stem as to attach it to the flower. With that he left it on the stoop unsure if the person it was for would find it or if it would end up in the hands of another.

On the parchment in ornate scrolling handwriting was written: Tavi,

Keep smiling, it suits you well and welcome to Silvermoon.

Kajetan

#Kajetan #Tavi #Roleplay #WoW #World of Warcraft #Silvermoon #Elf #troll

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crayonlead2-blog · 6 years ago

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Brexit: Controlled Flight into Terrain

One has to admire the EU’s parry to Theresa May’s request for an extension to Brexit to June 30, which was to offer an extension to May 22 if she could get her Withdrawal Agreement approved by Parliament by March 29. If not, the UK would be out by April 12 unless it asks for a long extension and described how it would arrive at a different Brexit (“a way forward”) or revoked Article 50, and also agreed to participate in the upcoming European Parliament elections.

The EU faced a number of considerations in coming up with this counter, and don’t kid yourself that any of them were about being nice to the UK. The EU didn’t like the prospect of having to hold an emergency summit when May’s Meaningful Vote 3 failed and being made the bad guys if they denied May’s plea for more runway to flail about. This concern has little to do with the UK; the European press has been giving Brexit virtually no attention, plus for most EU pols, being mean to the UK is more of a vote-getter then being generous

Forgive me for quoting from Robert Peston at length, but he appears to have the most extensive network of EU political/diplomatic sources of all UK/Irish reporters. From EU leaders ‘want rid’ of ‘Brexit poison’ at ITV last Friday:

The big drivers for why the EU’s 27 leaders came up with their new formula for determining when and whether we Brexit are:

EU leaders had – and have – zero confidence that the Prime Minister will win her meaningful vote next week, and they quite rationally decided it was unreasonable for them to determine in conditions of extreme pressure in seven days whether we we are falling out at 11pm on the Friday.

Many EU leaders are utterly fed up with how our Brexit mess is infecting their domestic political debates and derailing their attempts to forge an agenda to address the huge challenges faced by the EU. “They increasingly see Brexit as poisoning the EU and European nations” said a participant in the talks. “They want rid of it”.

They did not dare set 22 May as the new default Brexit day, for fear that if the UK exited with no deal as late at that, elections for the European Parliament which begin the following day would be utterly overshadowed and skewed by the anticipated first-day no-deal chaos.

Significant numbers of EU leaders are admitting privately that the time has come to “cut the UK loose”, that the prolonged Brexit uncertainty is damaging both their nations and the EU, and that therefore a no-deal Brexit on 12 April may be the best of assorted bad options.

So the purpose of the concessions to the UK look to have been to make it as clear as possible that the UK was in charge of its Brexit destiny while cutting their losses.

As we said, the EU is still at risk of unwanted outcome of the UK coming back and asking for a long extension, with it too apparent that there isn’t a consensus on a different type of Brexit, just on “no crash out”. It isn’t clear what the EU would say if May were somehow cornered into seeking a second referendum, given that the risks are high that a second referendum fails to solidify a new consensus on Brexit due to the inability to reduce options to simple referendum choices, plus good odds of the top pick getting a plurality, not a majority. But various EU officials had told reporters earlier that a second referendum would justify a long extension; Tusk himself even said so.

But have no doubt the EU would not be happy to have the UK take them up on the extension offer. Again from Peston:

Be in no doubt that every EU 27 leader dreads UK participation in those [European Parliament] elections; they fear our involvement will corrupt the process, and taint the institution. The notion of Nigel Farage leading a new bloc of EurExiters does not warm their cockles…

To be clear, though, the EU’s leaders can’t and won’t say no if we insist on fighting them. But they would hate it and would say yes with the heaviest of hearts.

Public sentiment is moving more visibly against a crash-out… Via e-mail from Clive over the weekend:

Against my better judgement I went to London today to do that most nebulous activity, taking the mood of the country. No better opportunity, I thought, than on the “Put it Back to the People” march…

The stations and, especially, the underground (metro) were absolutely heaving. Worse, by far, than a typical rush hour. I’m quite used to shoving my way onto packed trains when there’s a 10-20 people deep queue on the platforms but I was lucky to get into the second train (I couldn’t get into the first) at Euston underground (a major transport interchange I unwisely went via, I should have stuck to my usual suburban feeder station). Even then, the train was full (each train has capacity for 700-800 and it was at that. It was a slow shuffle to clear the station and get out the exit.

The march itself was peaceful and jovial. Attendees were a mix, a lot of students, a few families and an awful lot of retirees. Keep in mind that I spent £35 on my ticket (I live 60 miles out from central London, that’s what an off-peak day return costs with an underground travelcard). A coffee, water and a pastry in a chain coffee shop (I needed something to keep me going, it was warmer than everyone had been expecting, too) took nearly another £10. Protesting is a middle class pursuit. No-one on benefits or minimum wage in the commuter belt, let alone beyond, would have the resources to do it. A couple would need £50, even if they lived closer to London than I did, a family of four could crack a ton…..

The speakers were pretty dull on the whole. But the audience of marchers were a forgiving lot and clapped or cheered appropriately. The mood, however, especially far from the podium in Parliament Square where I was was much more notable for the grass-roots quality. There were debates, ad-hoc, informal, shifting and sifting as people moved and loosely coalesced about what was to be done from here. A few wanted the softest of soft Brexits, recognising perhaps that the die might be cast and some sort of Leave was inevitable. There was also a smattering of Norways. But most simply wanted Brexit cancelled. If there was a vote, it would be a choice between Remain or Remain. Any mention of May’s Deal was derided.

I didn’t stick around to the bitter end…I sat opposite (on the train home) a couple who were fellow marchers. The bloke was a retired civil servant, the lady (they were married) had the slightest of slight European accents but had evidently lived in the UK for a long time (I didn’t ask personal questions to discover more; we just don’t do that sort of thing here). I made open and neutral enquires about there thoughts on Brexit and why they wanted to attend the march on Saturday. Familiar talking points emerged — how the UK is too integrated into EU supply chains for unpicking it all easily to ever be a possibility (the chap I think was something in logistics in the civil service prior to retirement). Attitudes to migration, specifically being anti-immigrant were deplorable. Economic injustice was rampant and rancid. The couple were middle to upper middle class (they mentioned cruise holidays on Cunard, trips to North America for long periods, how difficult it was for family to live nearby due to the cost of housing). They’d had the benefits of prosperity but were ashamed at the pulling up of the drawbridge by the current cohort of middle-class folk.

They got off at Woking (epicentre of, if not Middle England, certainly affluent London and South East prosperity)…They were the epitome of a metropolitan elite. My working class family in the North of England or Wales would have savaged their cosy and cossetted world — and world-view — with a couple of well-chosen words.

But there were many people there who either shared their outlook or had a different outlook which nevertheless led them to the same conclusions. The UK has to Remain. There is no alternative.

And from PlutoniumKun in response:

It’s always hard to call these things at the time, but from a quick online perusal of the UK Sunday papers I do wonder if this weekend has fundamentally changed the national mood. The interviews with Tory MP’s sound a little like those of an addict who has reached bottom and has finally accepted he has to change. There seems to be genuine surprise at the huge turn out with the march yesterday and the lack of any real response from the Brexiters. It’s a bad look for Corbyn that the mood of the crowd lumped him in with the Tory Brexiters. Plus, it looks certain now that May has lost the last of her allies – she really has to go – the only question is if she is pushed or jumps.

The Remain petition is now up to 5,340,000 signatures.

However, as encouraging as this may seem to Remain and softer Brexit fans, Richard North points out that MPs and the pundits are still refusing to deal with Brexit issues:

A huge segment of the population has also chosen to opt out of any serious debate on the post-Brexit future of the UK, preferring instead endlessly to churn over the conduct of the referendum campaign, and to agitate for another in the hope of reversing the decision – thereby saving them the effort of coming up with any positive ideas of their own.

The net effect of all this misplaced activity, therefore, has been to waste time – even more time. We went through the referendum campaign without a serious debate on what the UK should look like after Brexit, and the bulk of the nation has been avoiding it ever since….

And therein lies our problem – amongst the various actors, there is the dialogue of the deaf. Each have their own little mantras, which they trot out to suit, and none of them listen to anyone else….But when one has Peter Bone, who wants to be a “managed no dealer”, in the list of options offered by MPs as an alternative to Mrs May’s deal, there is not a single one that would pass muster. In nearly three years, between then, MPs have been unable to craft a workable exit plan. This is institutional stupidity at an extreme level.

…but the game will be play out between the Government and Parliament. And it’s not looking too good for things changing much between now and April 12. And the real deadline is not April 12, but some time earlier, since the EU Council would need time to consider any extension proposal by the UK.

First, May can’t be made to leave, absent a vote of no confidence, which would pretty much assure a crash out. Recall she survived an intra-party challenge, so the Tories can’t force her out for a full year from the last vote, in December.

Ironically, this is one of those rare cases where the Queen could play a decisive role. She’s the only person who could tell May she needs to go now and get May to accept that. But I don’t see that as likely.

Second, even in her badly diminished state, May is holding on. She has enough in the way of self-preservation skills not to put it to a vote if it would obviously fail, but she’s still trying to breathe life into her zombie. May is planning to hold a vote allowing Parliament to express views on a series of Brexit options. This is likely to show a lack of a majority for any particular choice.

Third, but even if May goes, what does that solve? A new Prime Minister won’t have May’s baggage with the EU, but EU leaders appear to have worked out that the UK is both divided and clueless about Brexit. A new PM can’t make a silk purse out of sow’s ear.

The reason May has managed to soldier on despite repeated political death events is that the Tory party is split between soft and hard Brexit factions. They would have gotten rid of her long ago if they had any alternative remotely acceptable to both wings. The Financial Times gave an update on the infighting. Note that pushing for a general election is a threat:

Theresa May fended off a challenge to her leadership on Sunday but struggled to win over some of her most ardent Conservative opponents to her Brexit plan….

Senior ministers rallied behind her in public appearances on Sunday, with MPs threatened with the prospect of general election if they supported rival plans for a soft Brexit this week when she makes a last effort to save her premiership and her plan for leaving the EU.

Possible successors — including the de facto deputy prime minister David Lidington and the environment secretary Michael Gove — said it was the wrong time to change leader.

Mr Lidington said that he didn’t have “time for plotting” and had been cured of “any lingering shred of ambition” for the top job….

MPs will decide on Monday whether to take control of the parliamentary agenda, allowing them to vote on alternative ways forward, such as a soft Brexit or a second referendum, as early as Wednesday. That could force the government to choose between a deal that splits the Conservative party or one that fails to win MPs’ approval.

Chancellor Philip Hammond raised the stakes by saying that another referendum was “a “perfectly coherent proposition” that “deserves to be considered”….

But Downing Street remains resolutely opposed to a second referendum or a softer Brexit. Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay said that there would be a “constitutional collision” if MPs backed staying in the European customs union or single market against the letter of the 2017 Conservative election manifesto.

In such a scenario “the risk of a general election increases”. said Mr Barclay. That view was endorsed by Downing Street officials, who hope Tory MPs will choose to back the prime minister’s deal if the alternative is an election.

Leading opponents of Mrs May’s deal, including former cabinet ministers Mr Johnson and Iain Duncan Smith, could lose their seats if a vote were called. But members of the Eurosceptic European Research Group sought to face down the prime minister, saying they, too, would prefer an election to implementing a soft Brexit.

Read this tweetstorm (hat tip guurst) for more color:

Sample of Tory MPs contacting me….

1. “No peaceful transition… whoever takes over 'immediately' becomes PM! – and will have a chance if delivering their type of Brexit .. big stakes.. will be brutal”.

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) March 24, 2019

Such as:

3. May loyalist Minister: “dark days for PM and party..authority got really knocked last week. But- change of leader does not solve the problem. fundamental divide between no deal/no extension group and those who now think only free vote indicative votes are the way forward”.

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) March 24, 2019

Forth, even if MPs do “take control,” of Parliamentary time, what does that solve? They don’t have time to forge a consensus even if they had sound idea, which aside from revoking Article 50, they don’t. On top of that, if the procedure changes fail to get rid of the ability of individual MPs to kill private bills by objecting to them, the Ultras can object to any legislation that would require the PM to act to prevent a Brexit on April 12, like revoke Article 50 or ask for an extension so as to hold a referendum. Recall that Parliament has no standing with the EU Council; only the PM can submit requests.

Brexit has looked like a controlled flight into terrain, where a pilot misinterprets flight information, usually altitude, and crashes the plane while in control. But another image that applies is operating a Boeing 737 Max, where the plane has gone into one of its programmed nosedives and the pilots are frantically trying to shut off the automated controls and right the plane. But in this case, some of the crew is part of a doomsday cult and are trying to confuse the pilots to assure a crash.

This entry was posted in Brexit, Doomsday scenarios, Europe, Politics, UK on March 25, 2019 by Yves Smith.

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Source: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/03/brexit-controlled-flight-into-terrain.html

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nicholas-martin · 6 years ago

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Is the Brexit Petition Gamed by Bots

A petition on Parliament's website calling for Brexit to be cancelled has now passed more than 5.7m signatures. The petition to revoke the Article 50 withdrawal process has gained more than one million signatures since the latest march calling for a new EU referendum.

Theresa May has stressed that the UK had already decided to leave the EU in the biggest ever democratic exercise. So she does not see revoking Article 50 and keeping the UK in the EU as an option. ‘If you look back to what happened in the referendum, we saw the biggest democratic exercise in our history. ‘And there was a clear result that we should leave the European Union. We said here’s the vote, what is your decision, and we will deliver on it. ‘And I believe it’s our duty as a Government and as a Parliament to deliver on that vote.’ But European Council chief Donald Tusk has said revoking Brexit was an option if MPs again rejected the PM's deal.

In recent years, automated programs known as bots have come to be used for artificially inflating Instagram follower counts, mining bitcoin or swaying online polls. Given the staggering speed at which the petition is racking up signatures, you may be forgiven for asking if the same thing is being applied here. Some commentators have even tried to suggest that people should sign up multiple times using the same email address.

Bots are automated programmes which can carry out a command thousands of times. But the petition's email validation process would be a deterrent. Each signatory has to supply a unique email address to which a verification link is sent before their signature can be accepted. UK-based signatories must also share a valid postcode. While email addresses are easy enough to set up, doing that in real time at high volume is less straightforward.

Additionally, while it is possible to buy lists of email addresses stolen in various data breaches on the black market, the owner of the list would still need to access those email accounts and retrieve the validation email before being able to sign in the name of somebody else. The email verification would be likely to deter bots. It would be hard to build a sophisticated enough programme to cope with the email addresses. Hackers would have to make a bot that signs up with unique email addresses, then clicks the unique link to sign.

The House of Commons declined to comment on its security checks but it did say the Government Digital Service uses "a number of techniques" to identify potentially fraudulent signatures and bot activity. It is not possible to use the same email address more than once to sign the petition.

However, bot activity could still be used to slow down or crash the platform, meaning that people wanting to leave genuine signatures could be prevented from doing so. This is known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The UK government's petition platform has crashed several times indeed under the weight of traffic in recent days. The petition launched on 20 February, but has now gone viral.

According to the rules of the site, anyone can submit a petition. If it gets 10,000 signatures it will receive a government response, and if it gets 100,000 it will be debated in parliament. Beyond that, the numbers don't make a difference. Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage suggested that "Russian collusion" was behind the unprecedented traffic towards the Brexit petition. While Russia is notorious for seeking to meddle in the politics of the west, on this occasion there is a question mark over what its intentions would be. All the evidence is that Russia was supporting the Leave campaign. So why would they suddenly be supporting Remain? While the petition data (which is currently not updating) reveals that signatures are coming in from all over the world - including small numbers from Russia, China, Iran and one from North Korea where it is unlikely the page can be seen - the UK government said that any British resident or citizen can sign, wherever they are.

It has been said that fewer than 4% of signatures are coming from outside the UK at time of writing. It is however not difficult to disguise or hide a location on the web. In 2016, an earlier petition calling for a second EU Referendum attracted 3.6m signatures, but was hijacked by bots. In January 2017 a petition calling for the end of "mass signings by bots" was rejected by the Petitions Committee on the grounds that it was unclear what was expected of the government.

#brexit #bots #petition

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