#maybe my favorite submission on this blog so far.

[cantheykillmacbeth]

Could Goncharov kill Macbeth?

Okay, I'm really glad you brought this up, since this is a topic that has... kind of come up before on this blog (See: Steven Universe, Zagreus from Hades) but not exactly so I think this is a great moment to address it:

I think that if being a C-section baby counted towards the Unconventional Birth Clause for MacDuff, then it should count for it when a character is delivered posthumously. Since Goncharov is this sort of situation, with his mother Viktoria having died during childbirth (the wording implies that she died slightly before childbirth, but either way it is explicitly said she died in the hospital), he would count towards the Unconventional Birth Clause.

As for the Gender Clause, I know someone is going to bring this up, so let me make this clear: Goncharov saying "I can no longer look in the mirror and see a man" in the balcony scene with Andrey is just him dramatically saying that he is disgusted with who he has become at that point in the movie. He's not saying that he's trans, he's saying that he's a monster/inhuman. You can headcanon this however you want, but the fact of the matter is that in canon, he's just saying he can't live with himself after what he did to Antonio. So, no, Goncharov does not apply for the Gender Clause.

So, long story short: Yes, Lo Straniero aka Goncharov from the eponymous Goncharov (1973) could kill Macbeth!

He applies for the Unconventional Birth Clause.

Thank you for your submission!

[artificial-transmutations]

Your stories and images are beyond incredible. My favorite blog on tumblr BY FAR. Truly incredible work. I guess it’s kind of selfish, so absolutely so absolutely no worries, at the very least I got to tell you how much I appreciate and love your content. But I’m a short, nerdy, thin, art student in college right now. I’m tired of being in the closet, I’m tired of being a push over, Im tired of being weak and submissive, I’m tired of being a virgin, and I wanna change. Maybe you could help with a story by turning me into one of those jaw dropping beautiful confident men that you make the pictures of, I would very much appreciate it. But no worries if you can’t, I just love your content!

Confidence

Nathaniel sighed quietly, as he came over his hairless stomach. Of course, he had to be quiet! The dorm walls were paper-thin, and he certainly didn't want the guys from the neighboring dorm rooms to hear him. He looked at the website once more, with the story and the hot buff men before he closed the incognito browser tab and proceeded to clean himself up.

When he looked into the bathroom mirror, he sighed again, but this time, it was a sigh of sadness. There really wasn't anything remotely impressive about him. He was thin and weak, and pathetic really. If it wasn't for his lack of boobs and his sorry excuse for a dick, he could very well pass as a woman. In fact, he had been mistakenly called "Madame" more than once, and one time, he had even been asked "how his transition was going".

No, Nathan was a cis man, just not a very impressive one. He was gay, of course, and loved to look at 'real' men while jerking his small cock. Most of the time, he fantasized about some hairy brute rough-handling him, pushing his face against the bed and fucking his tiny ass into submission. However, even though the thought was exciting to Nathan, he even more wished to *be* such a man. The rational part of Nathan knew that both fantasies would not happen anytime, though. It was physically impossible to just *become* a 'real man', and it was impossible for Nathan to even admit to anyone that he was gay. So, he would probably just stay a closeted virgin forever - doomed to masturbate to some kinky stories he was so embarrassed about that he only dared to look at them from an incognito browser tab.

He sighed a third time when he crawled into bed. Perhaps someday he would accept his fate.

Nathan was already almost asleep when he heard the firework starting outside. Right. It was New Year’s Eve. What a way to start the new year.

The next morning, Nathan was feeling a bit better. Of course, his deep-rooted unhappiness still lingered within him, but Nathan decided to try and enjoy the day. He liked new year’s days. Everyone usually was at home after having celebrated the whole night which meant that the world outside was very quiet. Not much happened on New Year’s Day.

Nathan decided to go to a nearby cafe. There, with a steaming mug of hot chocolate next to him, he got out his drawing utensils and looked around the place. There weren't too many people. An older couple sat together, the man reading a book, and the woman reading a magazine, while an elderly lady sat at the counter. She was probably the owner. However, there was one more guy, a young adult like Nathan, who sat on a nearby table all by himself and was playing on his phone. He had his chair tilted back a bit, stabilizing himself against the wall and rocking a bit. He had earphones in his ear, so he was probably listening to music while doing so.

Nathan's first instinct was to draw the old couple, but then he looked at the other young man again. He looked a bit like one of those men from the internet, the kind that Nathan would fantasize about. Just a bit. The other man wasn't burly and muscular and assertive, but instead he had a lean, fit build. Nathan was a bad judge of character, especially without having spoken to the person in question, but the young man didn't look particularly assertive or dominant either. So, all in all, not too much like the men Nathan longed for on the internet. But still, he had a certain charm to him. Nathan liked the fit, lean body and the aura of positivity the man seemed to exude and wanted to capture that on paper.

Nathan began sketching the man, while occasionally looking up, making sure the man wouldn't notice. However, it was hard to keep his eyes off the guy. Every now and then, he would laugh a bit or make a funny face when watching something on his phone, which Nathan couldn't help but find very attractive.

He was just working on drawing the man's hands, when Nathan suddenly heard someone address him.

"Hey, what are you drawing?" The voice didn't sound rude or unfriendly, but plainly interested. Still, Nathan flinched visibly. The attractive man on the other table had removed one earplug and turned towards Nathan.

"Uh, sorry?" stuttered Nathan, not quite sure how to react. The guy pointed at Nathan's drawing pad and smiled: "You're an artist?"

Nathan could feel the blood rushing to his face. The drawing pad was tilted towards Nathan, so his unvoluntary model could not have seen what exactly Nathan was drawing. He could - no, he should - just lie and tell him he was sketching something in the room. But he just couldn't think of anything and the time for a good answer was running out. Almost involuntarily, Nathan stuttered, with his head red like a tomato: "Uhm, yeah, kind of. I was sketching you, actually."

The guy laughed a short and friendly laugh: "Really? Cool! Can I see it?"

Nathan could feel his heartbeat quicken, and his face got even redder. This was so embarrassing! But he couldn't very well refuse now, could he? So, he placed the pad flat on the table, just as the guy came over and sat himself down on Nathan's table.

"Oh wow!", he sounded impressed. "You're really talented! It's like looking into a mirror."

"Thanks" - Nathan hated getting compliments. Not only didn't he know how to react to them, but he also found them mostly fake. He was an art student, but he wasn't that good really, at least in his own opinion. In the dictionary, there was probably a picture of Nathan right next to the entry for "Imposter Syndrome".

"But why are you drawing me?" Although Nathan had feared that this question might come up, he didn't have a good lie to answer it. It was almost as if his mouth was acting on its own, when Nathan heard himself stammer: "Uh, eh, it's because I... I find you quite handsome actually. Good-looking I mean."

Nathan wished for nothing more than to be swallowed by the earth here and now. But to his big surprise, the guy just laughed again and said: "You think so? Thanks! The name's Oliver by the way." Oliver had, apparently, much less of a problem taking a compliment.

"Nathan." said Nathan and started to relax a tiny bit. However, the situation suddenly got even worse, when Oliver continued, in the same light-hearted voice. "Nice to meet you, Nathan! Are you into guys?"

Nathan froze solid. He hadn't expected that. And even worse, the answer was, of course, yes. But there was no way he could say that, was there? So, instead, he just stared at Oliver with his eyes wide open and a deer-in-headlights look.

"I mean, I'm gay - are you as well?" Oliver explained. "With the whole drawing dudes and all."

Nathan's brain had stopped working properly, so he couldn't help but nod and mumble a faint "yes".

Oliver's smile broadened and he said: "Really? Cool!"

Nathan's mind was racing. He had just admitted his homosexuality. To a complete stranger. Out of the blue. He didn't plan to come out that way, it just... happened.

A moment of awkward silence radiated from Nathan, but, thankfully, Oliver salvaged the situation pretty elegantly.

"Listen Nathan, I'll have to run now. But are you free tomorrow around 2? We could grab a coffee and you could show me some of your drawings if you like."

A spark of bravery, completely foreign to him, awakened in Nathan and he answered: "Y-yes. I think I would like that."

Oliver smiled another of his broad smiles. "Awesome! Let's meet here then tomorrow!"

With that, Oliver nodded at Nathan and left the cafe, putting in his headphone again while humming happily.

Did that really just happen? Nathan looked from the unfinished drawing towards the cafe door. Did he really just... got invited to a date? With a handsome guy named Oliver? Nathan wasn't sure whether to be happy or not. On the one hand, it was a miracle, a once in a lifetime opportunity. A cute and hot guy was actually interested in him! But on the other hand, there was no way he could make a good impression. How desperate had that Oliver guy to be to actually ask *him* out?

A small voice in his head insisted that he could just not show up tomorrow and avoid the whole disappointment. But the spark of bravery was still there, and Nathan fought down the feeling. No, he was going to show. If it turned out to be a disaster, he could still flee the scene - it wasn't like Oliver knew literally anything about him.

Nathan quickly packed his things and returned to his dorm room. Once he arrived, he noticed that he was completely covered in sweat of fear. His shirt showed wet spots under his arms and felt cold to the touch. Disgusted, Nathan immediately went for a shower. Only there, standing under the hot steamy water, Nathan could appreciate what happened. He got *asked out*. On a *date*. With a *guy*. Yesterday he had been certain he would die alone and lonely but then, today, he got *asked out*. Was this really a thing? Did it really happen?

He wasn't sure. He had a hard time believing it. Perhaps the whole thing was just a weird dream? A figment of his imagination. But no. The half-finished drawing was proof enough that Oliver really existed.

When Nathan exited the shower cabin, the whole bathroom was covered in steam, blinding the mirrors. Perhaps this - or the spinning of his thoughts - was the reason that he didn't notice that his hair had changed. Instead of his usual medium length brown-ish hair, he now sported a much shorter hairstyle - in a much darker color, almost black. Be it as it may - Nathan had other things on mind than checking his hair. He spent the whole afternoon and even the evening researching on how to make a good impression on a first date.

The next morning, Nathan slept in, which was pretty unusual for him. His whole frame felt weird, when he crawled out of bed. It wasn't too late, either - he had a comfortable 3 hours until the date. When he passed the bathroom mirror on his morning routine, however, he stopped for a moment. Something was... off about his face. His hair. It looked kind of... different?

Nathan stared at his reflection for a few seconds, straining his mind. Somehow, the shape of his jawbone seemed unfamiliar. And was his hair always that dark, almost black?

Finally, he shook his head. No, he was just seeing things. Of course, that was as it always had been. After having finished his bathroom business, Nathan went for a shower and prepared himself.

An hour later, he stood in front of the mirror, trying out a bunch of outfits and felt slight panic rising inside of him. None of his clothes fit very well, it was like he was cursed! It wasn't that his shirts and pants were much too big or much too small, but for some reason none of his clothes really felt comfortable. Both his favorite shirt and his usual jeans felt somewhat constricting today. Finally, Nathan just put on an outfit, and left his room.

When he entered the cafe, Oliver was already sitting there, two coffee mugs in front of him. He smiled, waved and gestured for Nathan to join him.

"Hello, Nathan!"

"H-hi." said Nathan, his nervousness returning.

"Here, I bought you a coffee!" Oliver pushed one of the mugs over the table.

"Thanks." Nathan was somewhat distracted by the ill-fitting clothes, and he could pretty much feel the nervous sweat practically pouring out of his pores.

"No problem!", said Oliver. "I was early, anyway. How are you doing today?"

"Fine." said Nathan and took a sip of his coffee, trying to hide his nervousness. He vividly remembered all the good advice he had read yesterday, but all that felt just impossible to him.

"So, you're an artist? What do you do?" Oliver asked with genuine interest.

"Well, I study art, I guess. I want to be a concept artist, you know, for games or movies or so. But, eh, right now, I'm just a student, and I'm not really that good."

"That's not how I remember it!" smiled Oliver. "Can you show me more of your work?"

Nathan nodded as he got out his sketchbook. Talking about his art was something he was comfortable with and allowed him to warm up somewhat over the course of the conversation. Oliver appeared to be quite a nice guy and had a lot of questions about drawing, so, Nathan, in turn, started to relax and talk more freely. He found out that Oliver was a veterinary technician and had a part time job at a dog shelter. That, combined with the fact that he was, in general, a really nice and positive guy, made him incredibly appealing to Nathan.

After the two had talked for a while, Oliver suddenly remarked: "You know, I really like your stubble! It really suits you!"

Stubble? What was he talking about? Nathan rarely needed to shave, but he had done so this morning, so, it was absolutely impossible that he should have visible facial hair. And yet, as he felt his chin, his fingers met with bristly short hair, so dense and long that there was no way he could have missed it this morning. Nathan found it strange, to say the least, but didn't want to make a scene in this situation. His spark of courage was a small candle flame now, as he just smiled while he felt his chin and said "Thank you!"

The two continued to chat a bit. While doing so, Nathan tried not to think too much about the fact that his clothes were, somehow, tighter than before.

Finally, Oliver's phone buzzed, and he looked at the screen.

"Damn, it's that late already?"

"What is it?", asked Nathan.

"Oh, the dog shelter. I have a shift soon, I need to go!"

Nathan sighed inwardly. He was really enjoying the date and didn't want it to end. He was pulled out of his thoughts by the feeling of Olivers hand on his. It felt... good. Good and strange, like the texture of his own hand was somewhat wrong, somewhat rougher than before. When he looked up into Oliver's eyes, he found the other man smiling.

"I really enjoyed this. You are a wonderful person, Nathan. We should do this again."

Nathan nodded. He didn't trust his voice right now.

"How about... tomorrow?", Oliver continued. "There's an art exhibition in town, perhaps you would like to go there with me?"

Nathan's heart jumped a beat. He didn't have time or courage yet to go to the exhibition and the prospect of seeing Oliver again so soon was wonderful.

"I would very much like that", Nathan replied and smiled.

"Great! Let's meet there, say at 5?"

"Sure!"

Oliver smiled his beautiful, broad smile, and stood up, leaving some money for the coffees on the table. Nathan too got up, but before he could leave, Oliver stopped him with a warm expression in his eyes. "You know, I really think I like you a lot." He said, and his hand touched Nathan's somewhat bristly cheek. Almost automatically, both of their faces drew closer to each other, until their lips met with the slightest touch. It was a chaste, short kiss, but Nathan could feel Oliver's lips smile when they broke apart.

"See you tomorrow!", said Oliver and left the cafe.

Nathan's knees felt weak, and his heart was beating rapidly. There were a thousand feeling, all happening inside him at once and Nathan needed a moment to sort through them before he was able to move again. There was a part of him that couldn't quite believe what just happened, but the biggest part was just euphoric. He basically jogged back to his home, full of a never experienced energy.

When he arrived in his room, his body was feeling even weirder than before. All of his clothes were way too tight. It was not just that he felt constricted, no, the clothes actually were much too small. He quickly got rid of them, noticing that, again, he had sweated like a pig. As Nathan glanced down on himself, he could almost see that his body was somehow different. Fitter, healthier. It was probably just his imagination, though, caused by his ecstatic mood. He briefly considered taking another shower but postponed it to tomorrow. There would be plenty of time and Nathan felt really glad and tired for today.

Nathan woke up from two different feelings the next morning. First, he felt itchy and sweaty all over his body and was subconsciously scratching himself in his sleep. Second, and perhaps even more importantly, Nathan was experiencing a severe case of morning wood. His manhood was rigid and pulsating under his sheets and was begging for attention. Nathan had a hard time remembering when he last experienced such an urgent urge to jerk off. He wasn't sure, but the memories of their kissing yesterday came to his mind as soon as he woke up, so, he couldn't resist closing his hand around his hard cock and started pumping. His hand felt rough and big, and Nathan couldn't be sure, but both length and girth of his tool seemed increased, too. However, Nathan could hardly concentrate on that due to the waves of pleasure washing over him.

It didn't take very long for Nathan to shoot a big load onto his stomach, with a moan. It was a big and sticky load, too, mixing with the little dark hairs on his stomach and chest. Nathan blinked in post-nut clarity. Hairs? He didn't have body hair.

Nathan got up quickly and went to the bathroom. Something about his perspective was off, too. It was like the ceiling was closer than it was supposed to be, and the ground further away. Once Nathan had used some toilet paper to wipe away most of the cum, he took a look at himself in the mirror. There was no denying that he looked different. He was definitely somewhat taller and broader than before. He didn't have a scale, but he was sure that he had gained quite some weight as well - not only due to the increased height and broader shoulders but also because his previous stickman-like appearance had been altered quite somewhat. All over his frame, a lean definition was visible, hinting at muscles even. His chin was covered in visible stubble and there was a bit of body hair visible, mainly on his chest and stomach as well as peeking out under his armpit.

Speaking of which, as Nathan raised his arm to look at his pits, a certain smell reached his nose. A musky, manly, slightly sweaty odor that wasn't quite unpleasant but was certainly unfamiliar.

Nathan had a hard time wrapping his mind around what he was seeing. There was no denying he looked *good*. He just didn't look exactly like *himself*. And for some reason, this didn't bother Nathan quite as much as it probably should. He should be panicking or calling a doctor. People didn't just grow taller overnight or put on definition without working out. And yet, Nathan only felt a slight bit of curiosity and a weak impulse that he probably *should* work out then.

Nathan shook his head and went back to his bedroom. He didn't bother putting on clothing and tried to pass the time until afternoon. The only thing that he *really* regretted about his sudden changes was that his favorite shirt and jeans would definitely not fit anymore.

He ended up watching a bit of TV and browsing the internet, before he decided it was time to prepare himself. Finding clothes that would fit now proved to be quite a challenge, but in the end, he settled on a plain t-shirt and some cargo pants. He had bought both of them a number too big by mistake, which came in quite handy now.

Walking through the city was a strange experience. He felt good about himself and held his head high. Combined with the fact that Nathan's head was, indeed, higher than before, it was like seeing the city in a whole new perspective. Less looking at the ground and more looking straight ahead.

His new posture seemed to have another effect, too. Where before he had to avoid people, trying not to get in their way, now they seemed to be stepping aside for him, which was a foreign but not unpleasant experience.

Finally, he arrived at the exhibition and found Oliver already waiting for him. They greeted with a hug and a short kiss, both fully reciprocated by Nathan, and went inside. Although Oliver seemed to notice something was off about Nathan, he didn't mention it and apparently forgot about it quickly.

Today, Nathan found it much easier to talk to Oliver and brought up topics by himself.

The exhibition however was kind of a let-down for Nathan. Although he could judge on a rational level that the art presented here was really well-done and interesting, on a purely emotional level, Nathan found it mind-numbingly boring. The conversation steered away from the art quickly, and more towards personal matters, which was a relief. So, even though they didn't care much about the paintings around them, the two of them ended up wandering around the exhibition for hours, talking and having a good time.

During the date, however, Nathan was quickly experiencing an unfamiliar feeling. The company of Oliver was... exciting. Exciting on a sexual, primal level. Nathan's larger manhood grew semi-hard in his underwear quickly, so Nathan had to readjust himself more than once. At first, he was very self-conscious about it and tried to be as subtle as possible. However, with every push his cock needed in order not to be too obvious, Nathan actually cared less about who saw him readjust himself. He was a guy after all, and all big-dicked men had that particular problem from time to time.

Besides forming a bulge in his groin, however, his constantly semi-hard cock did one more thing: Nathan was leaking precum in his underwear. First, it was just a drop or two on an involuntary throb, but it quickly became more. His underwear was feeling damp before long, and a faint note of sexuality mixed into his still present smell.

After a while, Oliver even commented on it, in his usual upbeat way: "Hey, Nathan, I have to say, you smell pretty good. Are you using cologne?"

Nathan hadn't noticed his own smell too much. His first impulse was to apologize, but the burning campfire of courage inside of him quickly told him otherwise. Oliver didn't complain. In fact, he liked it.

So, Nathan answered with a grin: "Nope. That's just how I smell."

Oliver took another whiff of the mixture of sweat, dried cum and precum and smiled. "Well, I like it!"

Nathan wasn't quite sure how to react, and just said: "Thanks!"

The exhibition was closing down soon, and Nathan offered Oliver to accompany him to the train station, which he gladly accepted. When they parted, they kissed again. This time, it wasn't a small, timid kiss like before, but a long, sexual one that made Nathan's dick twitch like mad in the confines of his pants. Since their bodies were pressed closely together, Nathan could be sure that Oliver felt the movement against his own groin.

Only after they broke the kiss, Nathan noticed that he was now looking down on Oliver slightly. He could have sworn that Oliver had been slightly taller than him yesterday.

There was no telling on how the evening would have continued hadn't it been for Oliver's train to arrive just then. Before Oliver could board the train, however, Nathan grinned at him and said: "Dinner tomorrow? The Italian place downtown, at 6?"

"I would love that!"

They kissed again and Nathan watched as the train pulled out. Then, he went back to his dorm, whistling a happy tune. It didn't even occur to him that he had taken the initiative in asking Oliver out for a third date. The fire of confidence was burning bright inside of him.

When he came home, Nathan immediately stripped out of his clothes. Even the larger shirt had become somewhat tight. He took a short look at it. There was a wet patch under both arms from his constant sweating, and the t-shirt had adapted his smell. There was something else in the smell, though. At the chest region, there was a medium sized stain, machine oil from the smell of it. Nathan wondered briefly how he could have missed it this morning but then diverted his attention to more pressing matters. His cock was fully hard and was poking out from the waistband of his briefs. Nathan hadn't had an erection like that since puberty and, if he was honest with himself, the feeling was rather nice. Without hesitation, he closed his hand around his hard meat and gave it a few experimental pumps. A low growl escaped his mouth, and a shiver went through his body. He didn't want to go slow, he wanted to fuck. His mind was focused on the task at hand. He didn't even bother to close his curtains, as he went for it. Nathan was jacking himself off, fast and hard, growling and groaning, until he finally exploded all over his chest and face, shooting multiple loads of thick white cum everywhere.

As Nathan was catching his breath, the smell of cum was heavy in the room. God, he needed that. Ever since he met Oliver today. He wiped his face and chest with his discarded t-shirt and briefly considered if he wanted to take a shower. The smell emanating from him was rather strong now, but still, he didn't want to. Oliver seemed to like his body odor, and, if Nathan was being honest, he did so himself, too.

Nathan was woken by his alarm the next morning. As his mind came to focus, his hand reached for the smartphone automatically and dismissed the alarm. He yawned and stretched. He was really looking forward to today. Given, it was the last day before classes started again, but he was going to a third date with Oliver this evening!

When Nathan crawled out of bed and went for his bathroom, however, his body felt weird again. The muscles had become more defined over the course of the last two days and now, the whole body structure felt *strong*. The few hairs from before had become a small forest of body hair and the stubble had grown thicker. He still didn't feel the need for a shave, though.

Nathan wasn't quite sure about the whole situation. Of course, he was enjoying the change. On the other hand, ... No, fuck the other hand. This was great, plain and simple. He finished his morning business standing up while peeing, which he usually never did. But right now, it just felt *right*.

After that, he inspected his wardrobe. He had half-feared that he would need to go and buy new clothes, but apparently, overnight his wardrobe had changed as well. It was filled with sturdy cargos or work pants as well as simple shirts and the occasional overall. Good!

His underwear choice had also changed. Instead of briefs or boxers, the drawer was now filled with jockstraps. That made sense, of course - only a jockstrap would set his large dick in the right scene.

None of the clothes qualified as "clean". Sure, they had been washed before they went into the wardrobe, but permanent grease or oil stains had permeated the fabric just as Nathan's manly stink - both marks no washing machine could ever erase entirely.

Nathan grabbed one of the pants and smelled it. He couldn't help but smile. This was his smell. This was *his* smell. His manly, sweaty, dirty, horny smell. He even felt his ever-present dick twitch a bit at the smell. Nathan wasn't sure if he would ever get used to this new reality. Or if this even was the final reality.

The hours passed quickly. Nathan was keeping himself busy, playing games or listened to music. Not once did it occur to him to draw something or even look at his art. This new him wasn't particularly creative, it seemed.

Nathan's mind wandered back to the date this evening. He couldn't wait to see Oliver again. In fact, he couldn't wait for more than that. It was a third date and Nathan wanted to go all the way with Oliver. He wanted to take his ass and fuck it into oblivion.

At around 5 pm, Nathan stood in front of the Italian place, waiting for Oliver. When Oliver finally arrived, the two men greeted each other with a passionate kiss. Nathan could tell that the kiss was having an effect on Oliver, as his breathing was quicker than usual.

They went inside and sat down on a table. Almost automatically, Nathan's legs spread wide, taking up space, establishing presence and, most importantly, giving his equipment the necessary space. The *old* Nathan would have sat with his legs closed or even crossed, in order to not draw any attention to himself. However, the new Nathan didn't want to draw *less* attention.

The two chatted a bit, with the main topic of the conversation being the menu, before ordering. When he spoke, Nathan noted that his voice had dropped an octave, making his voice gravely and his laugh a low rumble. When Oliver had chosen, Nathan summoned the waiter and ordered for the both of them, his lower voice full of confidence. For Nathan, it was a large meat pizza and a beer.

"You know, I have never seen you drink before", remarked Oliver.

"I don't usually", replied Nathan. "But I thought I'd have a beer today."

"You're not driving, are you?"

"Na, I'm here on foot."

Oliver smiled his usual smile. "I'm here by car, so if you like, I can give you a ride home afterwards."

There seemed to be some subtext to this offer, but it went over Nathan's head. Not that it was necessary, because he had the exact same plans, anyway.

"Sounds great!"

A couple of minutes later, their pizzas arrived, and the two dug in.

"I really like your style, Nathan." said Oliver after a while.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, the way you dress. The way you talk. The way you act."

"Oh. Thanks."

Nathan thought for a moment before he added: "You know, I go by Nate these days."

"Nate, eh?", smiled Oliver.

"Yeah. Fits better, you know."

"I guess so. I like it a lot!"

"I like your style, too."

"What do you mean by that?", Oliver laughed.

"Just, the way you talk, the way you walk. Everything. You're cute, you know."

"Why, thank you!"

The conversation was definitely a lot more flirtatious than yesterday. When they had finished their meals, they didn't linger much longer in the restaurant but got into Oliver's car.

Nate proceeded to give Oliver directions to his home. However, at a certain crossing, he had to stop and think for a moment. He knew for a fact that his dorm was to the left. But he also knew for a fact that his *home* was to the right. Nate decided not to overthink it and directed Oliver to the right with a firm voice.

They didn't get very far from that point, when suddenly, the car stopped with a jerk.

"Damn, sorry!" said Oliver. "The engine is acting up again. It's probably too cold or something like that. I'll just try to start it up again."

When after the third try, the engine didn't start again, Nate laid a hand on Oliver's. "Let me try." he said with a confident voice and left the car. When he opened the hood, the problem became clear to him right away.

"The carburetor is a bit clogged, I'll unclog it real quick and we're ready to go."

While Oliver was staring at Nate in surprise, as the latter quickly and with trained skill removed a few parts and then, with a flex of his mighty arms, applied percussive maintenance to the part in question. After Nate had reassembled the engine, he cleaned his hands on his pants and got into the car again, filling out the passenger seat with his presence.

"It should work again for now, but I'll have to clean it thoroughly tomorrow. The thing is just old and worn down, it needs replacing soon. Just try starting the engine."

Oliver was still staring at Nate with a disbelieving look on his face. Finally, however, he tried starting the engine again, and the car did indeed start running smoothly.

"Wow, Nate, that was amazing! Where did you learn that?"

"What do you mean", grinned Nate. "That's what I do!"

Oliver stared at him for a moment. "Wait, you're a mechanic?"

"Yeah, sure, didn't I tell you when we met?"

Oliver seemed to think about it but then slowly nodded: "Yes, I... think so. Weird. I could have sworn..."

Nate shrugged and pointed down the road: "Shall we go?"

They arrived at Nate's place shortly after. He had a cheap apartment directly over the car garage where he worked. Nate did try to clean up a bit the afternoon, but the place still screamed "Manly bachelor" all over the place with the occasional beer can or jockstrap scattered around.

Neither of them had time to care, though. As soon as the door closed, the two kissed. It wasn't just a chaste, romantic kiss. This was a heated, passionate kiss, full of desire and lust. Nate took Oliver's body and pushed him against the wall, grinding their bodies together. Both were hard and their breathing was rapid. Nate's hands wandered up and down Oliver's body, squeezing and grabbing his body. His fingers were strong and forceful, and he squeezed the smaller man's buttocks and his dick with the same intensity. Oliver responded by moaning and pushing his groin against Nate's, humping him.

Suddenly, Nate broke the kiss. "Oliver, I... I want you. I want to fuck you."

Oliver didn't answer, but kissed Nate again, harder this time. Nate's tongue invaded his mouth, and the bigger man's hands were ripping Oliver's shirt and pants off him. Once Oliver's dick was free, it was enveloped by Nate's big calloused hand, and Oliver's breath hitched in his throat.

"Oh god, Nate, yes!" he moaned.

Nate had enough of foreplay, and he wanted to fuck, now. Without wasting any time, he quickly pushed his pants down and pressed his dick against Oliver's. It was massive, even compared to Oliver's not insignificant size. While Nate's balls were big and heavy, his cock was thick, long, and veiny, with a fat mushroom head. It was also rock hard, and the head was already drooling precum.

With one hand, Nate stroked the two cocks together, rubbing them and smearing the precum all over his dick and Oliver's. With the other hand, he pulled Oliver close and kissed him again, a long, sensual, passionate kiss, which made Oliver moan into his mouth.

The two stood like that for a while, but finally, Nate's need to fuck was stronger than anything else.

"Bedroom. Now!" he growled and dragged the smaller man with him. Once there, Nate simply tossed him onto the bed and followed quickly, his cock pointing up. He positioned himself on top of the other man and kissed him again, their tongues dancing in their mouths.

When the kiss broke, Oliver was panting.

"You really are a big boy, huh?"

"Damn right I am."

"Oh god, I need your big dick inside of me!"

"Yeah? You want me to fuck you?"

"Please! I've wanted to feel your huge meat in me for days."

"Fuck yeah. You're gonna get it."

Nate reached under his bed and produced a bottle of lube, which he applied liberally to his dick.

"You're ready?"

"Do it, big guy."

Nate placed the head of his massive cock against the tight pucker and started to push. Slowly but steadily, his dick invaded Oliver's ass.

"Oooooooooh god, Nate, yesssssss!" moaned Oliver.

The pressure around Nate's dick was unbelievable. Oliver was clearly tight, and the way his asshole was massaging his dick felt heavenly.

Finally, Nate's dick was balls-deep inside Oliver. Both were breathing heavily, and Oliver was moaning incoherently. Nate gave him a moment to adjust and then started moving his hips, first slowly, but increasing his pace quickly. Soon, he was slamming into Oliver's ass as hard as he could, pulling almost completely out and then thrusting back inside the smaller man.

"Fuck yeah! You like that? You like my huge dick pounding your tight little ass?"

"God, yes, Nate, fuck me, fuck meeee!"

Nate was groaning and growling, a sound that came deep from his chest and made Oliver moan even louder.

"Oh shit, Nate, I'm so close! Don't stop, please don't stop, don't st- ooooooooh gooooooood!"

Nate felt Oliver's muscles clamp down on his dick, and that sent him over the edge. He buried his dick as deep as he could and shot a big load of cum deep into Oliver's guts.

The two of them collapsed on each other, spent but happy.

A lot had changed for Nathan in this new year. He had gotten a new body, a new job, a new identity even. But most importantly, he had found love. Nate the manly mechanic sighed. If he were to describe his feelings, looking into the future, there was only one fitting word: Confidence.

I actually generated a ton (okay, 50) of images for this story. If you want to check out the alternate versions of the different stages of Nathan/Nate, check out my tip jar, where I posted them!

[idkman-ijustwannamakeatournament]

Hi! I'm M, and I plan on making multiple tournaments on this blog, this being the first of (hopefully) many.

I've always thought that characters that seem so incredibly different, maybe even seeming to be each other's antithesis, yet have a common thread that makes them two sides of the same coin. Maybe they have similar childhoods, traumas, motivations- yet their personalities and the way they act and the ways they chose to live their lives are so distinct. It's always fun to see.

Share with me your favorite duos that fit this description and let's make a tournament out of it! I'm going to allow 64 duos max and I'm going to require a minimum of 3 submissions. I'll close it off before I get more than 64. If I don't reach that amount of duos by next Friday, I'll shrink it down to 32 or lower the required amount of submissions.

(either romantic or platonic is fine) (they do not have to be enemies as long as they fit this trope) (I'm free to not include duos if they're from media I'm not comfortable with since I'm doing this for fun) (please don't submit the same duos multiple times)

(Submissions are closed)

This is a spread sheet of all the characters submitted so far and how many submissions they've gotten (and also if they have propaganda)⬇️

other tournaments/poll stuff that helped motivate my brain to actual doing this:

@who-do-i-know-this-man @fave-fight @green-nerd-showdown @monster4monster-bracket

[lilac-hecox]

Ian's Day 2024!

Last year was the first year our fandom did Ian's Day and it is something I would very much like to do again as a fandom whole. Here is the run-down for it, if you’ve never heard of it!

What is it?

If you remember, in September, we as a community did Anthony’s Day as a way to celebrate Anthony’s birthday! Well, now that it is November, I wanted to announce that we’ll be doing Ian’s Day as a way to celebrate our favorite submissive and breedable boy’s birthday.

It is meant as a creative way for our fan community to celebrate Ian's birthday. It is not limited to just fan fic authors or fan art creators, but also editors, gif-makers, web-weaves, moodboards, etc! Anything that celebrates Ian!

The fun thing is to build up the aspect of community (and I feel maybe we need this now more than ever) the joy is that we can collaborate by the accepting and sending of prompts for these fics/art/creations from each other. If an author, artist, creator, wants to take prompts between now (November 1st) and Ian's birthday (November 30th) just make a post letting people know you are accepting prompts (for fic/art/creations relating to Ian's Day!

What can be posted?

I don’t want to restrict anything as far as what can be paired, prompted, written, drawn, made, etc. Any pairing that involves Ian or even platonic ideas with Ian involved are fine! You can of course have the very popular Ianthony but, hey, if someone asks you to write Chanse/Ian and you want to try that out, that’s good too!

Prompts

As mentioned the prompting can begin any time between now and November 30th. The sooner you get the prompts the sooner you can get your work done if you need extra time!

Posting

The only thing is please try and not post what you create until Ian's actual birthday date so it goes along with the celebration of him on his special day! If you won’t be around on his birthday and need to post a day earlier/day later feel free!

Tag

So people can easily find all the works that will (hopefully) be created on that day we’re suggesting the tag of ’ian's day 2024' or 'ian's day' so your wonderful work can easily be found! I personally try and reblog anything under those tags when it comes to the day of!

Other

This is all in good fun and meant to be an interesting and collaborative way to celebrate one of our favorite Smosh boys so please don’t link or spread anything to actual IRL Ian unless you have the creator's permission or you are the creator and want to do so. But this is meant for the fans mainly!

Any questions, concerns, ideas, feel free to hit me up! And the absolutely STUNNING image was made by the ever lovely and wonderful and handsome and cool: @xxmoonch1ldxx so go and throw him some much deserved compliments as he did this as a favor for me and absolutely blew it out of the water!

Additionally, if you'd like to peruse the Ian's Day tag from last year, at least, what I have on my blog, you can find it here!

Reblogs are appreciated to spread the word for this!

[empresskadia]

I am honored that I got a meme for my submission, and that I got someone else to be as flustered as I was when I imagined the pinkie promise. But, it is time for Round 2! Hear me out:

Linda-058 loves having a competition at the firing range with her s/o. It doesn't particularly matter what weapon you use, but she's a sucker for the sniper rifle. If you can keep up with her and try firing from unorthodox positions, she will practically have hearts in her eyes. Once, you had hit a headshot on one of the targets from 150 meters from a somersault and she nearly told you she loved you right there.

-

Kelly-087 loves to link her arm with her partner's. Being the fastest Spartan-II, she often forgets to slow down, relax, and just enjoy the little things so it kind of forces her to slow down and take it in. The first time you did this, it was in the park on the Infinity, and the way the light illuminated you and the way you looked at her made her fall in love all over again. Maybe slowing down every once in a while isn't the worst thing.

-

Cal-141 is by far the most physically affectionate of all the Spartans. If she's not holding your hand then she's thinking about it, and her favorite way to sleep is with her head to your chest while she's hugging you. The sound of your heartbeat lulls her, and she feels safe with you enough to be vulnerable. And if you run your fingers through her hair? She's out like a light.

-

Sarah Palmer is near-impossible to fluster. This woman was an ODST, and while she loves you in ways she can't put into words, she is immune to most of your attempts at flirtation. The one and only time you've successfully flustered her to the point she couldn't speak, you had simply asked if you could kiss her while addressing her by her rank. Something about "May I kiss you, Commander?" made her brain shut off.

The pinkie promise is the cutest thing ever. I feel like Naomi-010 would also be into it like Cal.

'Hear me out' is this blogs meme now because you know I will hear you out and love every minute of it and want more.

ROUND 2, you are spoiling me. This is my post-workout meal, thank you. [I was seriously responding to this at the gym, I couldn't wait.]

Linda and her partner go on shooting range dates, it's canon. And if you propose a sniper rifle for shooting that day to her as the chosen weapon, yes, she will marry you. During missions, the both of you will figure out who can make the most shots from unorthodox that Fred's like 'Why are we here? Those two will get this mission done before we blink.'

This for Kelly is seriously the cutest thing, especially if her partner does it to slow her down and enjoy things. Sometimes you have to live slowly and Kelly's never had to do that for herself or someone before, but watching her partner literally glow while calmly strolling, just clicks something in her mind.

Cal's partner is her safe space. You hold her hand after a mission and she knows everything is okay. She sometimes thinks of Maria-062 and how her sister-in-arms wanted to retire with a family one day and Cal starts thinking about just waking up every day together during retirement. Just having a soft morning with her partner keeps her spirits up for days.

This. This for Sarah. You are a genius and I'm fangirling at this thought. Just flirtatiously calling her Commander after this gets her almost everytime. Her cheeks will go a pale pink but that's the only reaction you will get from her now unless she's had a drink or two and then she sticks her tongue out at her partner. Roland has never let her live this down.

[gascon-en-exil]

(Further) Beyond Dream Daddy: A Year of More Gay Dating Sims

Last year for Pride I made a video sharing my thoughts on a selection of gay dating sims, among them Dream Daddy - by far the most well-known title in that genre. My opinion of that game was rather unfavorable, to say the least, but nonetheless I had a lot of fun discussing the topic. Dating sims rarely get any significant analysis or consideration, so it was a novel experience on that basis alone.

Recently, a patron of mine expressed a desire to see me talk about dating sims again. To save myself some work on a project when I've already got so many others going on at the moment, I've opted to do so here on my blog rather than on my channel this time. This also has the added benefit of giving me more latitude to discuss the NSFW qualities of these games without needing to censor myself. When the majority of the titles in this space are explicitly erotic, that's kind of a big deal.

Anyway! Here's a selection of games that I've played in the past year that I thought were worth looking at in some more detail.

Dear Monster

As the title suggests, this one is for the monsterfuckers out there.

This is, sort of, the second time I'm discussing a project by Y Press Games. I've touched on an earlier game of theirs, To Trust an Incubus...but I found it so unimpressive that I never bothered to review it in-depth. In several ways you can tell that Dear Monster comes from the same creative team: there's a similarly large focus on plot with a bunch of variable endings including some very dark ones, all the characters are vers despite many of them playing into familiar top or bottom archetypes, and most obviously the main theme is monsterfucking.

In this case the selection is much broader, as instead of a single species of pheromone-emitting aliens you get your pick from a variety of fantasy creatures. I say "creatures" because Dear Monster isn't afraid to shy away from furry/scalie erotic content for certain scenes, although most of the time the love interests stick to their humanoid forms. There's

a Western dragon as the violent bad boy love interest;

an Egyptian-flavored god of the dead, whose alternate form resembles Anubis and who plays the standoffish tsundere role;

a kitsune for the mischievous and overtly sexual option;

a unicorn who comes off as the caring submissive choice...mostly;

and an orc, who's had a route announced as free DLC later this year but who currently exists only as a recurring NPC

As I said, like To Trust an Incubus there's a noticeable focus on plot here, with the protagonist being a young man newly introduced to the world of the supernatural and trying to locate his mysteriously vanished grandfather inside an obviously magical mansion. Also like their earlier game, there are some unexpected plot twists that I won't spoil here, and overall I'd say this game pulls them off more effectively even if the ending feels a bit unfinished currently. Maybe they're waiting for the orc character's route to properly tie off the story? In any case, Dear Monster is better written than its predecessor and comes with an appreciable variety of kinky scenarios, and despite the lack of voice acting (a very hit-or-miss topic when it comes to dating sims, as I've discussed) the production values are overall quite good. The animated character portraits have been advertised as a highlight but frankly don't contribute to much, and they have a tendency to slow down my computer. Luckily though, they're easily turned off.

Favorite route: A hard call. They all have their highlights, and I'll probably enjoy Slagathor (the orc) when his route comes out. Hikmat (the god of the dead) probably comes out a bit ahead of the others both for his story and for some unexpectedly adventurous sex scenes, like one that incorporates a variant of tentacle porn - points for creativity there. Faeryn (the unicorn) is the one I find least appealing sexually, but on the flip side his route has some of the most unexpected twists and is probably the most helpful for understanding the game's premise as a whole. There's not really a bad option here.

UPDATE: Now that the final route has been released, I can talk about it. It's fine enough, following similar tracks for its good, neutral, and bad endings. Slagathor is vers, just like every other guy in the game. As for the main plot, it does have a resolution once you've gotten satisfactory endings with all five characters, but because it has to be integrated into all of those route endings and doesn't actually impact any of them it feels rather inconsequential as a result. A bit of a shame, really, but I do respect the boldness of some of this game's narrative chioces.

Camp Buddy

Oh, dear. There are some things I need to make clear with this one from the start...stuff I definitely couldn't talk about on YouTube.

To state the obvious first: yes, the characters are all 18+. It's in their in-game profiles, on promotional material online, and on the disclaimer you have to click on whenever you boot up the game. The main character and all his love interests are specifically stated to be 18-20 years old. However...that doesn't always bear out in the writing. The premise is that they're all campers at a scout-themed summer camp, i.e. not something you'd expect of legal adults, and more than half the time these characters are written with the emotional maturity of boys in their mid-teens. That doesn't extend to the sex scenes, beyond most of them being virginal and clueless but somehow still capable of having mind-blowing sex with no lube and simultaneous orgasms and so forth - all of which is pretty standard for these sorts of games. It doesn't consistently affect their storylines either, as they range from adolescent issues like anxiety over losing a close friend to more young adult material like deciding on career paths and moving on from a bad breakup. Having spent a good bit of my own adolescence in an all-male environment, I found most of the character behavior relatable for that demographic. Outside the sex scenes, Camp Buddy is a sweet and sometimes heartwarming story about friendship and making good memories...but the sex stuff is still there, and I can understand why this game isn't listed on Steam based on the premise alone. It is not, as some online have hyperbolically dubbed it, a "child porn" game, but it can be awkward all the same, and if you, like me, are not into twinks/twunks those scenes aren't going to do much for you.

Leaving that aside, it still took me a while to get into Camp Buddy. I was mostly interested in its sequel, which I'll talk about later in this post, but I wanted to play CB in case I missed out on any context with the second game. This one does feel like a first project; the artwork isn't as clean or varied, the voice acting has some standouts but is overall just average, and the script occasionally reads like it was written by someone whose first language isn't English - where the writing isn't incorrect, exactly, but rather worded in ways that don't sound natural. Not all of the scenes are fully voiced, but I really have to wonder how some of those that are got through all those people without anyone realizing how inorganic the dialogue sounded. The humor at least is pretty consistently good, with a highlight being the one major female character who is an affectionate parody of yaoi fangirls leading to a lot of fourth-wall-breaking jokes. As I said some of the storylines work well, even if the main plot is a clichéd and sometimes treacly "save the camp" routine for most of its run. If you can accept the handwave on the characters' ages for the sexual content, it's not a bad time. Given my familiarity with Fire Emblem and its love of underaged-looking dragon girls, and knowing that there are surely far more dating/porn games that use a similar handwave for female characters, I can give CB a pass. I've never cared for how media directed at straight men never warrants more than a moment's worth of moral outrage while everything else gets endlessly scrutinized.

Favorite route: Yoichi is the twunk-iest of the love interests, and his route is easily the darkest as well. Surprisingly he's not the sole total top option...but the guy who is barely grasps of the concept of masturbation and needs to "research" sex after he fools around for the first time. I suppose someone must be into that. Taiga has the most distinctive route as it was added last and has the largest amount of story variance as well as both topping and bottoming variations, but I find the emotional beats of his story (both in and out of his route) to be paced a bit too oddly for me to give him first prize.

Camp Buddy: Scoutmaster Season

This is why I played Camp Buddy, because I saw its follow-up advertised on Steam and was impressed enough by the production values to check it out. I still bought it from developer BLits's website though because certain scenes are removed in the Steam version (for reasons similar to why Camp Buddy isn't there at all). Anyway, Scoutmaster Season is in just about every way a vast improvement over its predecessor:

Most obviously, the characters here look and act unambiguously like adults. Their storylines are also more mature, as is that of the main plot which concerns the camp expanding after it received a new wealthy investor at the end of CB. This maturity extends to the sex as well. These characters aren't experimenting adolescents but rather men who've been casually involved with one another for some time already (heavily implied in the first game) and whose romantic development thus concerns their relationships becoming grounded in emotional support instead of only hot NSA sex.

Camp Buddy is a decently kinky game in its own right, but the sequel takes advantage of its older characters and really runs with the concept. There's bondage, leather, voyeurism, softcore daddy kink, public sex, several varieties of costume role play including two that verge on pony play, threesomes, and a few types of size kink thanks in *ahem* large part to one of the love interests having such a comically oversized cock that in some encounters it can be seen distending the main character's stomach during penetration. I'm...pretty sure that's not physically possible, but I know it's a fantasy that exists. SS is just as unrealistic when it comes to things like (lack of) lube and refractory periods, but that's to be expected at this point.

I didn't talk about CB's minigames because they're frankly not that impressive, but SS's are both a bit more challenging and, in the case of the foreplay minigame, hotter and more interactive.

The writing is much improved, and flows more naturally. The voicework is overall of a higher quality as well, even with many in the cast reprising their roles. Particularly, the same voice actor plays the main characters of both games, but he sounds much more natural as the deeper-voiced lead here, in contrast to CB where he has to work to sound like a teen. The comic relief is about on par, so it's as entertaining as usual. There's even a yaoi fanboy in this one...who funnily enough never actually gets laid during the story, although the artists threw him a bone or six with a bukkake party crack scene in the extras.

SS's antagonist is both more compelling and more entertaining even though she never becomes a romance option - as should be evident from the pronoun alone. I predicted where the story was going to take her arc the first time I played, and while I was proven right the game didn't follow that thread to its logical conclusion. A bit disappointing, but I imagine that that would have obliterated the tone for the rest of the game and prevented it from ending with fluffy romance or celebratory sex.

There are enough small callbacks to CB that I'm glad I played the first game, but not so many that a newcomer would feel completely lost. As this is the only gay dating sim sequel that I can even think of, I appreciate the attention to continuity.

BLits is currently working on a third game called Jock Studio, unrelated to Camp Buddy but already looking to be an evolution of what they've learned from their first two games. The athletic university premise appears to be a self-indulgent excuse for porn - but I'm more than okay with that seeing how much the quality of their work has improved.

Favorite route: There's only two here, so naming one would be suggesting I dislike the other. In fact, both routes are really solid. I would say that Aiden's story hangs together a little better and feels stronger in its emotional moments (helped greatly by the best vocal performance in either of these games), whereas Goro's route appeals to me more based on raw sex appeal. He's a kinky daddy, what's not to love? Either way, SS is a ton of fun, and of the games in this post it's the one I recommend the most strongly.

Errant Kingdom

I'm of two minds about including this game. I really wanted to have one that would be drastically different from the others I've selected, but at time of writing I haven't done everything there is to do in Errant Kingdom. That's not for lack of time, as it's been released in chapter increments ever since last autumn or thereabouts and finally finished up in February. I've currently completed two of its stories so I feel like I have a solid grasp of what's on offer, but I realize that I haven't seen everything yet.

However, I had to keep pushing myself to play this one. It just doesn't have a very strong hook, in my opinion, but let's talk about the positives. If your main complaint about Dream Daddy is not the lack of hardcore gay sex but rather the inauthenticity of its representation then Errant Kingdom will be more your speed. Your character can be male, female, or nonbinary, and there are two love interests of each designation available. (That both nonbinary options are supernatural non-humans might arguably be a bit of a copout...but I'm not really in a position to judge.) There are also two options for poly relationships, as well as asexual dialogue options although the way the story is set up does still lend itself toward monogamous romance with occasional, vaguely-described (and never visualized) sex scenes. I'd also note that unlike every other visual novel with romantic elements I've ever played, dialogue options are explicitly marked as being romantic, asexual, or poly when applicable. This does make it much easier to get a specific outcome if you're looking for one, but in my view takes away some of the fun of these sorts of games.

Errant Kingdom's story is quite linear regardless of which if any romantic relationship(s) you choose to pursue, with the largest variance coming not from your choice of love interest but from your choice of one of three origins when you're creating your character: an ambassador, a knight, or a nomad. Having played through two of these, this decision greatly impacts the game's opening chapters but ultimately leads into the player characters being three different points of view on the same story, with all the same major set pieces. Errant Kingdom is occasionally clever about this, with the other two PCs popping up in each other's paths every now and then...unseen of course, because this is a game where the main character's physical presence is left entirely up to the imagination. On the other hand though, the different perspectives converging toward a single climax has the clunky side effect of dropping certain NPCs into the story lategame and acting as if you know who they are even if you've never met them in that playthrough.

The story itself isn't terribly fascinating, being a medieval fantasy conspiracy plot involving gods and magical weapons and an 11th hour Chosen One reveal (that isn't the player character, shockingly). If we're talking pseudo-medieval/early modern romantic visual novels, I find I prefer the Chess of Blades approach where each love interest gets his own storyline and so there's more overall variety and less tangled continuity. I've read in places that the later chapters suffered from deadline and creator burnout issues during development, which wouldn't surprise me with how much the pacing speeds up after a certain point.

Favorite route: For origins the ambassador angle suited me better and would probably be my pick overall. The choice of love interest is, as mentioned, actually not all that important, but disgraced former knight Erik hits most of my buttons. It's a shame his poly option is with a woman, because while Maja is my preference of the two female options I wouldn't be invested in her like that. This is the trouble for me with stepping outside the bounds of strictly M/M games.

[tsbs-shipfessions]

Hello local Sun Simp multi-shipper Degen here,

First of thank you for the opportunity to talk about my favorite ships and making this blog! I've been having tons of fun reading everyone's ship confessions (everyone has good taste 👌😋) and honestly can no longer resist sharing mine

I love pretty much Anyone x Sun 😂 I like it most when he's a bottom but like it's maybe a teeny eensy bit toxic. Especially if there's a bit of brat taming or just dicking down. He needs to be dominated and wrecked as a treat. I like it when they get a bit freaky with it.

So far I think my favorites of this are Solar x Sun and Eclipse x Sun. They bring out the best and the worst in each other and I love it when Solar's inner eclipse comes out just for Sun or when Eclipse is like "I know you in and out" and then one sexy brawl later he proves to Sun just how much he knows. There's also a really scrumptious BloodMoon x Sun series with plot and angst and so much sauce. I've also been convinced of Molten x Sun but that leans more in the wholesome platonic realm.

I see Sun as a bottom in most relationships but he's not necessarily submissive, like hear me out- he spent 5 years fighting with Moon everyday of his life and then did the same with Eclipse. He's a fighter in my mind so I like to pair him with someone who can absolutely wreck him. (As a degen if it's physically AND emotionally it's even better good food).

I also don't mind when he tops, Eclipse Meets his Match is literally peak top Sun.

Do you have any recommendations for good Anyone x Sun content?

Unfortunately I don't have any good recommendations on hand, my mod is slacking when it comes to reading fanfics, but if anyone seeing this post does, I encourage them to share their favorites around.

[dcviated]

MUNDAY: GETTING TO KNOW YOU

Respond to the following prompts out of character, then tag others you'd like to get to know a little bit better!

ROLEPLAYER NAME: bear! or will, I don't mind being referred to by my real name but even my wife calls me bear most of the time, so-

ROLEPLAYER PRONOUNS: he/him

MUSE NAME: I feel the mainstays will always be Wylan, Raguna, and Eira. But many many others-

PREFERRED COMMUNICATION: As needed. I'm low maintenance while still considering us 'in contact'. But I do love getting sent random bits as relevant and commentary on threads. I can be short or slow on replies at times though. Discord all the way over tumblr IM.

EXPERIENCE: Back when I was 15 or 16 on forums. I did some avatar games that had roleplay baked into it as well that were good. Did a lot of RP in warcraft back during BC to WOTLK, but could not get into it in FFXIV. Tumblr has been my favorite place to write, by far. I love getting into longer form. On that note-

PREFERRED ROLEPLAY TYPE: Literate paragraphs! I can't stay bantering in short stuff to save my life. Like a leak I inevitably switch over to having a paragraph. Then two. Maybe three. I'm pretty comfy around the 300-500 word length on my replies. I get intimidated when they get consistently longer and writer's block starts to lay its bricks.

PET PEEVES & DEALBREAKERS: An inability to meet halfway when plotting is brought up. I don't like being waited on like it's my responsibility to come up with a compelling plot that I suspect you'll half-ass reply to. Have some advocation for what you want. Otherwise ... yeah.

Also an overabundance of context-less dash commentary. Particularly connected to their discord happenings. Some blogs feel less 'indie' and more pseudo-group related. And if you're not involved good luck.

PLOTS OR MEMES: I like to think I'm pretty good rolling with the punches! I can do memes, random asks, and memes and ad-libbing a situation out of a few back and forth banters is really amusing. It's also easier than front-loading a ton of plotting that may or may not be realized anyway. Letting events happen off the cuff feels more dynamic and allows more surprises for both writing parties. <:

That said, don't mind plotting whatsoever! So long as the other person actually wants it and isn't going through the motion of it because it's 'what people do'. Also... I hope they're ready for the long game if so? Like they want to let the plot play out and not just making a plot and then jumping to the end of it.

Pre-establish-jutsu is not plotting!!

LONG REPLIES OR SHORT REPLIES: Middle?? Both?? There's a time for everything but like I said before I'm a fan of 300-500 words for my replies. Sometimes I like them shorter, others longer. But we're biasing towards the 'long' given when a lot of what's in vogue as of late.

BEST TIME TO WRITE: Whenever I can put my adhd into proper submission. I like writing at the office (after I have my work for the day handled) because it separates me from the usual distractions but we can only be so strong...

I like writing earlier in the day! I feel like my best work is done in the mornings, after all. And the head is clearer before I've hit lunch. So on weekends where I don't have plans and I can make myself sit down at a keyboard before everyone else is around, that's just great.

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSES: Like any good oc writer, I pull out little pieces of myself and cram them into other beings to irreversibly corrupt them not unlike a certain villain from a certain manga. People have called me dad in the past... perhaps that fits better than I thought.

tagged by: @triinitas (thank!!) tagging: gosh this one has gone around a few times, steal it if you like!

[jmdbjk]

Hi there! Baby army here. Recruited by Jimin during his ON MV and can never JIM-OUT afterward.. I swear hes making me scratch my head. Since i gotta know him and like him, i cant live a day without checking his news from whichever platform.. youtube, twitter, tumbler, tiktok..

But love your blog about his dynamic within the maknae line. Can you also do one with the hyungs? I just feel sometimes hes the glue in the BTS group but maybe its just me projecting because hes my ultimate bias within the group.

Many thanks before

Welcome to my blog, MissLauwie!

And welcome to the world of being obsessed with all things Jimin. It's crazy. We’re crazy. And there's a lot of us out here. And “ON MV Jimin”... yes, yes, yes... body roll, runs his hand down his body, crotch grabbing, silver-haired, expletive deletive facial expression Jimin. Yes. What a fine Jimin that was. I can relate to total submission and complete obsession. Same, same. 

Jimin’s appeal is unexplainable. His gracefulness, the way he dances, he is the finest living sculpture and beautiful to watch in motion as well as mesmerizing in still photos. The man is just super photogenic from head to toe. His face is the most beautiful face I've ever seen. He’s a chameleon. He can look so young and with a change of makeup and hair, he looks like some mysteriously sensual creature of undetermined gender that gets under your skin and won't leave. His visuals just never quit. Oh, and he’s hot. I mean... how is this the same man in all of these images?

His personality...he’s complicated. He has a lot going on in that pretty head. Knows what he wants, sets goals, works hard, achieves them. Yet he always seems to be there for everyone. He tries to see situations from different points of view. He is keenly observant of the tiniest details. Which drives his desire to do take after take after take when shooting music videos and rehearsals for performances. 

Anyway. I already said most of that in another post.

To answer your question about doing a dynamic about Jimin and the hyung line... 

As far as Jimin being the "glue" of the group...I think he contributes a lot in the way of interpersonal relationships between all the members but I wouldn't say he's the center of it all. I am not sure if any of them fit that description. But if I were to pick someone who is the “glue” it would be our fearless leader, Kim Namjoon. Because he IS the designated leader and he's the one they look to for guidance when necessary. He’s been the one to rally them when they were bone-tired and worn raw. Could Jimin pick up the reins if necessary? I think he could, but I don’t think that’s where he wants to be. I think Hobi could be a great leader too. 

I think one thing that Jimin DOES bring to the table is his emotional quotient or emotional intelligence. People speak about it all the time. Jimin has the ability to understand and use emotions in a positive way.  He has great empathy. He’s not perfect, no one is, but he can see when others need that extra help over rough spots and is there to offer what he can. He’s great at communicating on an emotional level. 

Though all the members have a very close relationship, Jimin’s relationships with each of his hyungs might be like this:

Jimin and Joon: I think they connect on an emotional and intellectual level. I think Joon totally understands what motivates Jimin in his work. I think Jimin offers some emotionality to Joon’s outlook on life. I think they both like simple, uncomplicated things because they have so many complicated thoughts going on in their heads. 

Jimin and Yoongi: They adore and respect each other. Another thing is Jimin has a voice that Yoongi loves and Yoongi raps like Jimin wishes he could. They do act like very close siblings. Jimin’s voice has that poignancy to it, something that just pulls at your heartstrings. Yoongi says that Jimin’s voice is his favorite:

Jimin and Jin: Jimin being the older brother in his family, I think he revels being in the role of one of Jin’s younger brothers. Jin’s playful teasing and Jimin’s hugs just scream loving siblings to me. Jin has admitted he was just floating in life with the least ambitions but here’s Jimin to say “hyung is the best older hyung.” Family is family.

Jimin and Hobi: Best of friends. Ride or die. Period. I know people tout Jimin and Tae’s soulmates label but Hobi and Jimin are on a different level. Super tight relationship. Super supportive of each other. Being the main/lead dancers they take the group to that sky-high level that no other group can even dream of attaining. Sometimes the looks they give each other... Y’ALL NEED TO LET US IN! 

Jimin brings a lot to the BTS table. I have heard several of the others say that BTS isn’t BTS without Jimin. Of course BTS isn’t BTS without any of them. BTS is 7 and always will be. But Jimin is like icing on the cake, right? Extra creamy, extra rich, exotically colored and the best tasting. Okay that sounded x-rated so I will stop here. 

I hope that somewhat answered your question, @misslauwie!

[phatburd]

violence!: 4, 14, 22

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

If we’re talking about my most recent block, it was on Reddit where the dude tried to argue gender essentialism at me. Basically, he asserted that my call to write women like people was bullshit and that women should be written like women (weak and helpless). Yeah, I did not and do not have the emotional bandwidth to deal with that shit.

Even better though, when other people in the thread brought up Ellen Ripley as an example of where a role was originally written for a man but Sigourney Weaver was cast instead. The dude then stated he had never watched any of the Alien movies, but he read the Wikipedia article on Ripley and assumed she must be a boring and poorly written character because she was a woman.

Yeah, dude … delete your fucking account. All of your accounts, everywhere.

Tumblr blocks? Yeah, it was the Nth blog that posted the TOG van speech verbatim and declared JoeNicky to be the most perfect thing ever. Went into the blog, found their AO3, blocked that, then blocked their Tumblr. Because clearly this person and I have nothing to say to each other, and I’m tired and I get petty when I’m tired.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

Making the bottom in an m/m ship extremely feminized, sometimes straight up infantilized. This isn’t to say there aren’t feminine gay dudes in RL, because there are. I’m talking about fan works.

I don’t know if it’s out of ignorance, sexism, misogyny, or just boring-ass heteronormativity, this idea that someone has to be the “girl” in a same-sex pairing. And every time I see it, I’m reminded of this little cartoon:

I don’t really get top/bottom discourse and especially the need to assign specific personality traits to the top or the bottom. It was something I set out to not do in my m/m Bessimu fics. I wanted to write them as equals, and I think I succeeded.

(FWIW, I see Bessimu as both being switches, because that’s more fun. I also find it hot to write Bessières as a power bottom dom and Murat as the submissive service top, and it’s not what one would expect when judging them by their public personas.)

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

From The Old Guard? Those three and a half thousand years that Andy spent alone as the only immortal on the planet (as far as anyone knows).

I’ve been wanting to explore that period and, yes, it’s fucking intimidating. Historical documentation is more miss than hit once you start going back to certain points in human history.

Three and a half thousand years is a really fucking long time. What did Andy do, where did she go? What did she see? There’s a lot of potential to mine there, and maybe I’ll do it someday.

For the Napoleonics? Joseph Fouché is a fucking amoral bastard, but I think people forget he tried to save Marshal Ney. Ney, being Ney, was either politically naive, stubborn, and/or he just wanted to fucking die already when he refused Fouché’s offer of fake papers and an passport to sneak out of France in the aftermath of Napoleon’s second abdication.

(I’ve also read that Laurent de Gouvion St. Cyr was the one who offered the passport and papers, so take the above with the proverbial grain of salt. St. Cyr did vote for exile in the final trial, which lends weight to that too.)

I also have a shitload of question marks around Bessières’ final years and the way it gets treated by academics, but that may be better off in a post of its own.

For Star Trek ... no one ever really talks about what kind of influence Sisko might have had on the Bajorans other than just being the Emissary/Space Jesus. Like, did baseball become a national sport and baseball leagues spring up all over the planet? Is there ticky-tacky Emissary merchandise one can purchase, like humans have in real life of the Pope?

(Sisko did show up on a pack of Bajoran tarot cards in Lower Decks, and I squealed over that, ngl.)

Thanks for asking! 😘

[omo-queer]

if this is too far, I apologise and just ignore this ask, but I just find it so impressive that your able to keep edging yourself. It just kinda shows how strong you are when you can go so long without getting off and it's going to be so worth it when all the weeks are up and you finally get that release. I've tried edging myself but I can't do it, like everytime I maybe last once before I just can't restrain myself and just the neediness. Which makes me all the more impressed by how good you are at denying yourself, I might have to try harder next time. :)

- 🦊

it's definitely not too far! thank you for sending this in!

i definitely haven't always been this good at edging myself. as soon as i understood the idea of orgasm denial, it was really appealing to me, maybe literally my favorite kink. but when i was less experienced with it, i would struggle just to edge, go to sleep, and then not immediately get myself off when i woke up.

but a big thing about me is that i will make self-control as much as i need to if i want something bad enough. and funny enough, not getting off is something i want pretty damn bad. so with practice i did my first week, and eventually i made it a whole month. that was a while ago, and then i took a break from doing denial longer than 72h just bc i wasn't feeling it—i had a lot of other stuff going on and i just didn't have the time or mental bandwidth to be like. so horny i start to shake a little twice or three times a day.

but then i got back on board with it a couple months ago when i started this blog, and i figured i would try out letting tumblr notes decide when i get to come, which turned out to be 1) way hotter and 2) even more motivation not to go over. it turns out your body can do some incredible things when you don't have a choice in the matter... i do sort of wish i knew someone in person who i could have this sort of dynamic with, because i think that might be even hotter still.

i don't really have sex dreams and i haven't ruined yet so it's been a really high intensity period of absolutely no release... so i can't exactly say it's easy, but it is surprising to me just how doable it feels to just keep edging.

another consideration is (and idk if anyone else thinks this way. lmk if you do!) when i'm denying myself it's almost like my body is the submissive entity and my mind is dominating it? i rationally know that my brain and my body are one thing, but it's sort of the dominance of my conscious mind over all the pathetic needy stuff my body tries to do to go over the edge. maybe that's weird, but it seems to work for me pretty well. i think this is a big part of why i don't get much subbier when i deny myself—if someone else were denying me, i could be submissive to them about it, but i'm basically just denying myself. and in that scene i'm at least as dominant as i am submissive.

there was a blog on here a long time ago, i think it was significantly pre-purge, where the person running it would deny her followers but she also did long-term self-denial. and she never framed her own denial as submissive, even though everyone she kept denied was very submissive to her about theirs. some part of me wants to be like she was—knowing what it's like to be denied helps better get into the heads of submissives who themselves are denied.

anyway! big thanks for the ask, it was a good one... if you do deny yourself, let me know how it goes! especially let me know if you're ever edging to my posts. maybe i could even help push you a little bit further than you've gone before, if that's something you're interested in.

[karimac]

Turn of the Wheel: Ghosts of Christmas Past

Warnings: Pretty much none on this one. This is the Christmas just before Kari and Bucky decide to give it a go, otherwise known as the Christmas the Hawkeyes went to town at Rockefeller Center.

Although none of the stories so far have ventured into smut, I do consider these 18+ because of violence in other stories.

A/N: This is a submission for @arrthurpendragon's OC Ficmas 2022 event. Please check out her blog to see all the authors participating this year.

Not beta read. All mistake are my own.

Word count: Approx. 4.8K

Banner artwork credit: Image by Robert Jones from Pixabay

The photo is of the Christmas display at the McGraw Hill Building near Radio City Music Hall. It is one of my personal favorites!

If anyone wishes to be added to my taglist, please let me know.

Thanks for reading! Comments and reblogs are most welcome and appreciated!

Happy Holidays!

And here it was, another Christmas Eve, and you were so lacking in holiday spirit that most people would have stuck you with the Grinch or Scrooge nicknames used so often for those who, more likely than not, felt lost or alone this time of year.

You had done your very best to put on your “holiday face” at your bakery, and everyone except for your closest staff members probably bought your acting job this festive season.

You still didn’t feel connected to anyone, especially Bucky, Sam and his family. You felt like a fraud, but you also didn’t want to drop your massive amount of home truths on them until it was well into the New Year. Like maybe next July? Yeah, that could work, right?

Once the doors on Cutie-Pie-Tutti were locked for the night, you put in your AirPods and found the one holiday tune guaranteed to lift your spirits as you wandered around Manhattan.

“On the High Line I see the skyline Snow falls down on me As I hail the taxi, roll through the city To see the Rockefeller tree”

 “The tree? Sounds like a good idea, Liz,” you said as you looked at your iPhone and saw the smiling face of Elizabeth Chan, singer and composer of “Christmas in the City,” staring back at you.

Once you got there by foot, you didn’t expect to find the tree suddenly falling down onto the ice skating rink below and several crazed Russian men in track suits descending on the fallen evergreen.

A group of cosplayers or LARPers seemed to have joined the fray, as did a man with a sword and a female archer dressed in black and purple. The trick arrows she was using were all too familiar.

“Clint’s arrow? What in the world is going on now?” you muttered as some maniac in a track suit came running toward you, hell bent on making your evening even worse with the baseball bat he was swinging wildly as he ran. “Not so fast, tovarisch,” you said as you threw up your hands and pushed him backward into the side of a car with a magic blast. “Not going to ruin my night, or anyone else’s either.”

“Yo! Avenger! We’ve got another Avenger in the house!” one of the LARPers yelled as you turned to see where the young archer had gone or, better yet, where Clint might be.

You looked down onto the rink, and you noticed a petite blonde, dressed in what looked like the uniform of a Black Widow, talking to Clint, but she ran off just as quickly as you saw her. Then you saw the purple-clad archer running toward Clint, and you decided you had better get down to the ice before any more idiots decided to join this party.

As you ran down the stairs, more of the track suit interlopers were making their way onto the ice in a delivery truck, but one Pym particle arrow took care of them. Or maybe it was the owl that hauled the tiny truck away that did the trick?

Oh, how you wished Steve, Tony and Nat were here to see this. Christmas still wasn't the same without them.

“So, Clint, care to introduce me to your protégé? And how in the name of Heaven did you knock over this tree of all trees? Who were the goon squad in the track suits?”

“You didn’t tell me you were calling in the rest of the team! I’m Kate Bishop. People say I’m one of the greatest archers in the world. And I’m lucky Clint is letting me partner with him.”

“Partner? And here I thought you were retiring, Clint. What does Laura have to say about all this?”

“Very funny. Why did you show up now anyway? Not that I’m not happy for the assist, Kari. Kate, this is Kari MacOrish.”

“Nice to meet you, Kate,” you said as you extended your hand. “Now, maybe I can fix your tree trouble. Can you guys step back a bit? And let me know if Damage Control rolls up. I do not like those jokers, and I do not want to spend my Christmas Eve in one of their detention centers.”

“How are you going to fix this tree? Do you need to call Strange or Wong? I know no one knows where Wanda is,” Clint said as your hands were bathed in green light. You winked at Barton and smiled as you unfurled your wings and took to the sky.

“Unraveling time would probably work best, but I really don’t want to deal with that much hassle. It would undo all the battles you just won and make those bozos come back, and once tonight is enough, even for me,” you replied as you sent a wave of light toward the tree and its broken trunk, slowly lifting it back into place. It hurt like hell, but you were not about to let all these locals and tourists lose the chance to have this tree as the center of their celebrations this night.

Many of the lights were shattered, and some branches seemed broken beyond repair, but the star miraculously survived the fall when it landed on a bale of hay near one of the entrances, a sign to you that this might work out after all.

This was not the first time you had rescued a fallen tree, but this was likely the largest one you ever hoped to put to rights with magic.

“Is it straight?” you asked Clint and Kate as you hovered in the air, the sound of sirens in the distance making your timely completion of your task a necessity.

“I think so, but Laura says I’m not very good with stuff like this,” Clint said as you landed and ran to the base, a final touch of the splintered trunk the deal maker to keep the Norway spruce in place until it would be removed in January. You dug in your pocket and found a ribbon you had taken off a present you got from Cristiano, your head baker, and as you placed it on the trunk, it grew in size and wrapped around the damaged base. It was red and gold and glittered as you magically tugged at the ends to make sure it was snug.

“Clint, ambulances are on the way, so here,” you said as you grabbed both Bishop’s and Barton’s shoulders and started a very rudimentary healing of them both. “Just gave you a head start so you aren’t in a hospital bed for the holiday. Kate, it’s been a pleasure,” you said as you gave the young woman a hug, “and Clint, Merry Christmas to you, Laura and the kids,” you added as you hugged him as well. “Tell Ms. Bishop about the café. Card’s in your pocket, Kate,” you yelled back to them as you ran off the ice and back toward Fifth Avenue, the choir of Saint Patrick’s filling the night with song as you went to the subway to head back to Brooklyn.

It was just too bad your holiday blahs returned as soon as you got back to your apartment. Sure, you had a tree there, and Hickory was still wearing his festive red and green holiday bow tie on his collar, but things just felt off.

Maybe it was because you and Bucky were seemingly on the outs for what must have been the fifth time this month.

Or it could have been the disappointment expressed by Sarah, Cass and AJ when you declined an invitation to Christmas dinner.

This year just did not seem like the best time to be mingling with anyone.

As you looked at the packages under your tree, you noticed the one for Bucky right away. It was metallic royal blue with big white snowflakes all over the paper, and the silver and white bow gleamed in the light of your tree. You’d gotten him a new leather jacket because his had been trashed during a fight with some Flag Smasher sympathizers, and he wouldn’t let you magic up a fix for it. So finding him one as a gift was the only way to go.

You’d also gotten Alpine a gift or two while you were at it. You were thrilled when Bucky had gone to the local no kill shelter’s cat café to see the felines up for adoption there, and the white Angora he brought home was too cute for words. So you got her a new bed and some treats you knew she liked. Hickory was a tuna fancier, but Alpine seemed to enjoy salmon more.

And a pile of gifts for the Wilsons sat directly behind Bucky’s box. You found some great, tenderly-loved old Motown records in a store in Detroit. You also found some wonderful souvenirs to give to Sam from one of the old recording studios used by the soulful songsters back in the 60s.

The boys wanted nothing more than video games, but you knew Sarah was not the biggest fan, so, along with some new headphones and controllers for each of them, you registered the boys with an “experiences” camp out of New Orleans. They’d have two weeks away this summer at a camp of their choosing, be it space academy, inventors’ workshop or outdoor adventure base.

And Sarah? A week or two away from the boat while the boys were gone was what you thought she could use, but you knew she would likely not accept the present. So you opted for some very thoughtful jewelry made by local craftsmen in Baton Rouge. The pieces were African inspired and screamed “strong, powerful, caring, friend” when you saw the necklace and earrings.

Now you just hoped you’d get to give them their gifts sometime in the near future. Just not tonight.

“Well, Hick, looks like it’s you and me tonight,” you said as you sat down on your floral sofa and invited your orange tabby to join you there. “Merry Christmas, fuzz meister. I just wish I knew what was wrong with me.”

As Christmas morning dawned, you went into your living room and noticed Hickory had been snooping in a bunch of boxes that were at the back of the tree. You had bought them ages ago and tucked them away. Frankly, you’d shoved them back there because they were too painful to look at.

One was addressed to someone named MJ, and another to a person named Ned. There was another to a woman named May, and the final one was ready to give to someone named Peter, but for the life of you, you could not remember who in the name of the Goddess any of them were.

“I guess I’ll donate these, Hick, because I have no idea why I bought them,” you said as you sat down on the stool in your kitchen, trying to recall any of these people as you made a cup of coffee. But every time you tried, you saw purple lights and felt like hell. You’d been feeling that way since the start of December, but you didn’t want to tell anyone about it. You should have talked to Wong or Strange, but the new Sorcerer Supreme was in Kamar-Taj, and the disgruntled former Sorcerer Supreme was likely holed up in the New York Sanctum and being a bit of an arse about it all.

Nope, those two were a no-go this holiday season.

And Wanda, the one person you likely would have chosen to talk to in the first place, was still off the radar. That didn’t make a damned bit of sense either.

You started to zone out a bit as you drank your coffee, wincing as more weird images popped into your mind. The splintered parts of you in other realms were likely pushing back at you for a reason, but you were not about to deal with them today.

Meanwhile, down in Delacroix, Sarah was probably ready to toss rolls at her brother and his new “bestie,” but that would have been a waste of perfectly good food. She could hear them getting into it in the living room as she put the finishing touches on Christmas breakfast.

“What do you mean Kari isn’t talking to you? Or are you just mad at her for some stupid reason? What did you do this time, Krampus Claus?”

Poor Sam didn’t know what he was getting into when he decided to find out what exactly was going on between you and Bucky at the moment.

“What does that even mean?” Bucky sat down in one of the overstuffed chairs in the Wilsons’ living room. “Krampus Claus isn’t a thing. Even I know that!”

“Cass and AJ wanted to watch that Christmas horror movie with that German monster guy last week, but Sarah yelled at me because she thought I was encouraging them to watch it. First damned thing that popped into my head, Buck.”

“Of course it was. And I have no idea why Kari isn’t talking to me. And before you ask, I talked to Sharon. She has no clue either. And Sarah doesn’t know, so who next?”

“What about Bruce?” Sarah yelled from the kitchen.

“He’s visiting his cousin in California,” Sam yelled back. “Jennifer. The lawyer. As far as I know, Bruce and Kari haven’t spoken in weeks.”

“Great,” Sarah said as she walked in and looked at Bucky. “You two get this close to each other, and then you repel like a couple of magnets. You are both making me and Sam crazy. Now, which one of you two wants to help pour the coffee while we try to figure out how to fix this mess? On top of the mess about Kari and her crazy past, I mean. Or do you think they’re related?”

“Sarah, if I knew, I’d tell you. Kind of makes me wish Loki were still around,” Bucky said as Sam almost dropped the coffee pot. “They actually got along, and he might have been able to help. I know. I sound crazier than usual.”

“What do you mean she won’t open the door? Just cast a spell to open the lock!”

Devnet Casey and Enya Sun had been alerted by Darcy Lewis that you had been less than peppy this holiday season, and because she could not be there herself to see what was up, she asked your two oldest friends to check in on you. So now they were more or less bickering at your Brooklyn apartment door.

“Enya, do I look like I haven’t tried that? Herself warded it pretty well. I even called Mina to get her fanged face over here, but she said to leave Kari alone. She said we all know why Kari gets weird at Christmas. Unless you think she finally got pissed about what we are all doing that is technically behind her back? I’ve tried to stall everyone until Kari gets the nerve to explain it all, and it is driving me mad. I thought telling her would help, but no…”

Devnet was referring to the group trying to figure out what was wrong with you and your magic, but she had made sure not to introduce herself to Sam or Bucky just yet. The same went for any mention of Enya, your first husband Galen’s sister.

“Mina said. Mina thought. Blah blah blah. I don’t care if Mina is Thom’s sister. She has no idea what is going on because she was not one of us way back in the morning dew of it all,” Enya said as she tugged on your door handle yet again. “Wait. Is this about that stupid tree?”

“I’d hardly call the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree a stupid tree. And no, it isn’t about the tree as far as I know. At least that’s what that pixie working at her bakery told me. Then again, Kari is probably not telling anyone anything of great value. There is something weird, though.”

“Weirder than the two of you?” a third female voice said as her footsteps came to a halt. “I thought I asked you to leave the lady alone?”

“And are you ignoring your own advice, Mina?” Enya growled as Kari’s other sister-in-law, Mina O’Malley Harkness, stood before them, red scarf tossed casually around the collar of her black coat, black hat and dark hair framing her face, and a tiny drop of blood near her bottom lip.

“You didn’t snack on a taxi driver, did you?” Devnet asked as she crossed her arms and looked up at Mina.

“No, of course not. Dorian and I made a stop at a local blood bank a few days ago. The one near the Village where all the vampires go. I am not going to ruin your holiday. I promise. Now, did you see the lights in the harbor earlier this month? The purple ones? When I called Kari, she told me about them. She…something about them bothered her.”

“And she told you and not us? And not the assassin? Seriously?” Enya asked just as a neighboring door opened, and the trio stepped back into a piece of shadow so they would not be noticed. “Do you have a key, Mina? We can’t stay out here all day.”

“Can’t you just spell it?” Mina asked as the ladies turned in unison at the sound of a click, and the door opened enough for Hickory to pop out. He pawed Devnet’s leg and asked to be picked up. As she scooped up the orange tabby, the trio stepped inside the apartment and saw you just sitting there in your red and green pajamas, coffee cup in hand.

“Sorry I didn’t open up sooner, but things are just…not right,” you said as you set your mug down. “And doing the ‘three spirits visiting you this night’ part is a bit old hat, isn’t it? Do you really not see the ghosts from Dickens’ story when you see the other three of us gathered round this night? Or the ghosts of those we have lost? I do. And to top it off, I know you’ve been hiding things from me, ladies. I’ve been hiding them from you, too. You’d think we’d all learn by now, but we never do, do we?”

“What do you mean you keep getting into more fugue states?” Mina asked as she sat down in your sage green chair and fiddled with one of the decorations on your side table. It was a small snowman with a cardinal perched on its arm, and it seemed to amuse the vampire a bit. “Your other parts start intruding more? Is that normal?”

“No, it isn’t,” you replied as you looked at Mina. “And it makes things complicated. A stray thought can trigger it, and so can a smell or some particular setting. It’s getting to the point that I don’t want to leave this apartment, and I really can’t live like that.”

“And you haven’t told anyone except us right now?” Dev asked as she finally set Hickory down. “I mean, not Sam or Bruce or Bucky?”

“Not a soul, but I have a funny feeling the Masters of the Mystic Arts might be watching me from a distance. They mean well, but at times, well, it gets annoying.”

“And so do your ‘out to lunch’ moments, Kar,” Enya noted as she walked around your tree. “No offense, but they do get scary.”

“None taken,” you replied to her comments. “I just wish I could stop them.”

“And why the hiding nonsense?” Mina asked as Hickory finally made his way over to her. He had never been too fond of vampires, and you chalked that up to the fact he had never met your brother Ewan. “Go. Have fun. Please, for all our sakes, go down to Louisiana and have a good time. Whatever the purple lights are can wait for a day or two.”

“Mina is right, and you know how infrequently I admit to agreeing with her,” Enya said with a smirk as Mina laughed. “You don’t hate Christmas. You never have. You are just being you again. Taking all this on your back.”

“But,” you started to say before Dev shot you one of her usual withering glares. “What, Dev?”

“Did you get spooked again? About Bucky and that damned dagger you hid in your vault? You said ages ago that Loki looked at the stupid thing and had no idea what it was. Please, for your sake even more than ours, even on your worst day, you would not kill Bucky Barnes. If you were meant to do it with that dagger, you would not have missed the first time. He was brainwashed when he stabbed you, so I am trying to be a bit less judgmental about the man. I truly am glad he got help.”

“Ladies, I am not just showing up on their doorstep. I told Sarah no, and I am not going to mess up her plans. She has enough to handle with her boys, and Sam and Bucky, bless them, are not always jumping in to help her in the ways she might need most. She told me Sam was encouraging the boys to watch Christmas horror films. I’m hoping it was just a misunderstanding. They do not need to see “Violent Night” or “Silent Claus, Deadly Claus” or any other film like that. At least not yet.”

“I am sure Sarah would be more than welcoming,” Dev continued as she grabbed your now empty coffee mug and took it into your kitchen. “Now, out of the chair and into the shower. And what are those things you are wearing anyway? Ugly Christmas pajamas? Seriously? With cats all over them?”

“A gift from my staff at the bakery here. Fine. I’ll shower and get dressed, but I’m still not…going…”

After you showered and changed, you still resisted Dev’s urging you all to go to Delacroix and forget about the drama for one day. Right now she was acting more like her dog Tyrone with a huge bone. She would not take no for an answer, so down you all went via portal, with Hickory in tow. Mina had bagged up the gifts you needed for the Wilsons and Bucky and handed them to you before Enya literally pushed you from Brooklyn to the Wilsons’ front porch, hitting the buzzer for the doorbell for good measure.

“Kari?” Sam said as he got to the front door, opening it a split second after your friends vanished. No trio from the past. Just you, Hickory and a ton of gifts.

“A few old friends kicked my arse for not being more social this year. They were right. Merry Christmas, Sam.”

Cass and AJ came running up behind their uncle and took the bag of gifts inside. Hickory sniffed around and was happy to see Alpine was there as well, and the two scampered off to make mischief as you turned to see Bucky standing there with a big grin on his face. “So, Cris finally get you to leave?”

“It was another group of old friends. You don’t know them. Not yet anyway. I’ll explain another time,” you said as Sarah came in for a holiday hug.

“I think I know why you’re off,” Sarah said as she looked at the gifts Cass and AJ were digging into. “Darcy told me about her friend Jane. She mentioned you couldn’t help with Jane’s cancer, and that got you pretty bummed. No wonder you weren’t in a party mood. You could have told us.”

With the purple light nonsense you had pushed the Jane Foster fiasco to the back of your mind. Her cancer was too advanced for you to be able to help kick start her own healing abilities. Jane was a wonderful woman and a truly talented astrophysicist, but most of all she was Darcy’s best friend. That was why the whole “Jane story” stirred up so many emotions for you.

“Even people like me have trouble when we hear we can’t do something to help others,” you said as Sarah handed you a cup of coffee. “Thank you.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about Jane?” Bucky asked as he nursed his own mug of coffee. “Is it a big secret? Maybe Doctor Cho could help?”

“I was just trying to respect Jane’s wishes about not making a big deal out of her illness. I’m not even sure Thor knows, and they were a couple. I did not want him hearing from anyone but her. And there is some other magical woo-woo stuff going on, but I don’t think I want to get into that until I've done some more recon. I’ll talk to Stephen and Wong after the holidays. I promise.”

“You better,” Sam said with a slight scowl. “Or your presents go back to the North Pole. I’ll call Santa personally.”

“Oh, Nick? He’d never do that. He’s a sweetie. And the reindeer love me. I make them snacks with carrots and other veggies baked in. Cranberries, too. ”

“Of course you know Santa Claus!” Sam replied as Cass and AJ laughed loudly. “What did I say this time?”

“I was kidding, Sam. Are my jokes falling flat already? That goes for any regional or national version that is not called Santa Claus. Like Pere Noel.”

You kept smiling as you thought back to your actual friend Kristopher Nicklaus Kringle, the sole proprietor of a now massive toy workshop in the northern reaches of the world just past the Canadian wilderness. His space was close to The Rift but not physically in it. It was in a pocket dimension all its own. He was indeed an immortal like you, and he and his family had made Christmas their business for centuries. But you were not about to tell that tale today. Nick needed his day off, too.

“So, can I be of any help?” you asked before you turned to see Cass and AJ checking out their new gaming gear. “There’s more to it than the tech, Sarah. That part comes later. Boys, maybe we should eat first since your mom went to all this trouble?”

As the boys begrudgingly left their pile of gifts and went to the table, Bucky pulled you aside for a minute. “You sure you’re OK? Need to talk?”

“This nonsense can wait. And before you ask, I’ll tell you the Santa story another time. Now, did you eat Sarah out of all her beignets today? Did you try that turducken recipe this year, Sarah?”

“Do not mention that word,” Sarah grumbled as she looked back toward the kitchen. “Regular old turkey for us. That other thing was a nightmare.”

“Marvelous, delicious turkey you mean,” you replied as Sarah just smiled and shook her head. As you looked at her, you started to see the damned purple lights again, and now they seemed to touch everyone in the room. You blinked and pinched the bridge of your nose for a minute to get the visuals and the sick feeling they caused you to pass. “Sorry. We had a few celebratory drinks last night before we closed the bakery. Whatever that was at the end had a kick to it. It was the fairy equivalent of a bar mat shot.”

As you took a deep breath and concentrated on the eggs, bacon and beignets before you, you hoped that the rest of the gifts would be as much of a hit as the gaming gear was for Cass and AJ.

You also couldn’t shake the feeling things were going to keep getting less settling as the purple lights became more and more frequent.

“How do you say Merry Christmas in Irish, Kari?” Sam asked as he grabbed more bacon from the platter. “Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Duit. That’s Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I pray that the next one is a good one for us all.”

Back in Brooklyn, Enya, Dev and Mina had long since left your apartment and locked things up behind them as they did. They had flicked off the lights on your tree, so the only lights visible were the ones in and around the apartment building across the way and in the street below. The streets were fairly empty for a Christmas night, so no one likely saw the lingering purple light dancing near your balcony window. A figure appeared there briefly and just as quickly vanished. A wisp of shadow form hovered in the air for the briefest of moments before the purple lights blinked out.

Taglist: @arrthurpendragon, @historygeekfics, @starryeyes2000

[luminaryofthetks]

I haven't been on this blog in forever okay cool you guys want some OC content you get some OC content because I am in the mood for that

Lee "headcanons" for my OCs that are lees except they aren't really headcanons at all because they're my characters okay cool let's go

First, fandom OCs

Valentin Flamel(lee-leaning switch)(Twisted Wonderland OC)

Valentin is in DENIAL that he's a switch in general. So much denial. Like "de nile is a river in egypt, your husband is gay" levels of denial from him. As far as he's concerned, he's a straight up ler and will not take any other answer as truth.

.. For a little while.

Because the revelation that he isn't just a ler comes in a way he wasn't expecting, even if he probably should have: Floyd.

Floyd's habit of squeezing people was how it was discovered. On complete and total accident, one misplaced hand on Valentin's side decimated him.

It seems that when you deny it for so long, you get really sensitive to it. And to Valentin's horror, that was exactly what had happened.

He almost broke his streak of not making a deal with Azul just because he didn't want that to be a well-known fact about him. He didn't, but he got really close.

His genuine laugh is different from his half-hearted chuckling. It actually makes him seem like he's not an asshole for a little while! This, of course, is a wonderful thing when someone wants him to cooperate- just tickle him into submission

His worst spots are his sides and hips, which are pretty accessible in most of the school uniforms, difficult if he's just in his favorite outfit because of the layers it has.

He gets tickled pretty often by Floyd once that discovery was made, though he's actually in preference for when Jade is in the mood to tickle him, because at least Jade's tickling doesn't hurt. It's embarrassing either way, but the guy can have preferences.. even if those preferences aren't exactly obvious.

Artemis Wonden(lee)(Twisted Wonderland OC)

Artemis, on the other hand of Valentin for my TWST OCs, is pretty accepting of the fact he's a lee.

He's not gonna be out in the open about it, but he's not really gonna deny it either. Being ticklish is normal, after all! And besides, he doesn't really have reasons to tickle other people. Especially in Royal Sword Academy, where most of the time a conversation or flick of his UM can get people to comply with his authority again.

A lot of people in his dorm are aware of it, and even some aside from that like Neige. And Artemis is okay with this. It's not like he's really getting ganged up on, tickling is harmless!

At Night Raven College, however.. it's different.

Being a transfer student, especially from the rival school, meant that he was getting picked on pretty often regardless of his former authority as one of RSA's dorm leaders. And it wasn't long before it went from intimidation and some minor violence(like being pinned to a wall,) to being messed with and tickled because the prior tactics weren't really working on scaring Artemis. He's dealt with far worse.

But.. that did lower the value of such a cute act like tickling for him, for a little while.

The more he got comfortable with the Heartslabyul dorm, though, the more he warmed back up to it.

The occasional scribbles on his spine when he was making a mistake from Cater, Ace trying to convince him to go cause trouble in spite of the fact that Artemis was trying to stay on Riddle's good side.. as the intimidation from other students wore off for him, the warmth of interactions with his newfound dorm-mates was enough for it to become a nice act again. Maybe even nicer than it was for him before.

The people that tickled Artemis most often at RSA were Che'nya and his older brother Minerva, whereas at NRC(at least for the wholesome interactions,) it'd be Ace and at some points Riddle being the constant ler.

For the above, Artemis has a complicated relationship with Riddle at first, being former rivals due to opposing dorms at NRC and RSA respectively. And now that Artemis is in Heartslabyul, Riddle relished in the opportunity to use some of those weaknesses he knew from their rivalry to his advantage for a while, usually when it came to the rulebook. Riddle knew that, judging from how Artemis' dorm was in comparison, the shift was going to be major. So to help him learn it, tickling was used as a "punishment" for forgetting them until Artemis eventually got them memorized. Artemis genuinely tried to learn that rulebook front to back, and didn't just focus on the important ones like others may. And even if he isn't a total stickler for the rules, whenever Ace is up to no good and he's around, Artemis tries to gently nudge the underclassmen away from dumb ideas because he knows that Riddle is a stickler for those rules. It's more good natured, gentle/friendly authority now that he's just a normal student.

His worst spots are his spine, ribcage, and knees. He's ticklish everywhere, but those ones in particular make him laugh harder. However, there is also a little divot between the ribcage and his armpits that end up making him shriek. It's one of the few things that will make his voice raise, in any sense of the term.

Wow I spoke a lot for Artemis-

Emeir Sandoval(switch)(Genshin Impact OC)

Emeir doesn't really expect people to tickle him, nor does he tickle people often.

A lot of people find him intimidating, and his friends are few and far between.

However, if he is close with someone, he'll let them tickle him to their heart's content. He's not too sensitive, so he can last a while and someone can explore all his weaknesses.

At least, he's not too sensitive unless someone uses their nails on his tummy.

His tummy is probably his worst spot in general, and he found out about that specific weakness to nails one time when one of his co-workers that he's friendly with suddenly dug their fingers into his abdomen. The noise he made was priceless to them, but due to Emeir's introversion, it's a relatively kept secret among those two.

Cyrus Fleur-de-Lis(lee)(Pokémon OC)

Cyrus is arguably the second most sensitive to tickling in this post, only coming behind Artemis.

My boy is TICKLISH.

And it's not like it's hard to figure out, either.

He crumbles to gentle brushes to his body, and it's not exactly subtle how he tenses and blushes each time.

Sometimes, with friends who are more lively than him, once they figure it out they don't even bother to ask and just wreck him.

His worst spots are his navel and ribs, but those are by slim margins. You could essentially try to tickle this guy anywhere and you'd have him giggling.

Also tracing his top surgery scars or his stretch marks will make him snort-

His sister(see the next set of headcanons) is his worst ler by far. No competition.

Sidra Fleur-de-Lis(ler-leaning switch)(Pokémon OC)

Sidra, in comparison to her twin, is not very ticklish at all. Even as kids, she found herself rarely having moments that touch made her react positively, and tickling seemed to be off the table.

However, I have a little headcanon that before Lysandre(the twins' known parent) went all crazy and formed Team Flare, he was friends with Olympia and occasionally, when she had the time, she took care of them.

This was roughly between the ages of 4-9 years old for them btw

One of these instances, Olympia wanted to do a "palm reading" on the twins. She wasn't actually going to do anything, it was just a fun activity to keep them invested and teach them something new.

Cyrus was super okay and sat perfectly still, learning about all those different lines on his hand with a bright smile on his face.

Sidra, on the other hand, was giggling like crazy whenever Olympia tried to do the "reading" on her. And that was how it was figured out that Sidra wasn't ticklish in the conventional places like her brother was.

Her palms are awful for her, even as a grown adult. But also, if someone just prods in between her ribs or neck a couple times, it makes her super flinchy and squeaky.

Cyrus is the only one who knows so far, but if Sidra ever gets a girlfriend.. you bet that info's being shared the first chance he gets. He'll let her friends figure it out for themselves.. romantic interests are fair game to embarrass his twin.

Then the non-fandom OCs.. Aka the ones for my fic/book I'm writing(which began as a danganronpa fangan, therefore that tag is there)

Trixik Osama(switch)

Trixik wasn't aware of what tickling was for most of his life.

The first instance he got with it was with Lisa(who is also on this post).

He accidentally tickled her, and he genuinely thought she was hurt when she suppressed her laughter, and as a result kept trying to find out what was causing her such reactions..

He's quite dense when it comes to tickling.

She had to sit him down and explain to him what was going on, and when he sat there all confused, thinking the concept was completely absurd, Lisa proceeded to pin him to his seat and wreck him.. which definitely showed it wasn't absurd at all.

He's sensitive, very much so in the spots that he is, but he doesn't squirm or thrash around a lot. This makes him quite good at those "stay still" tickling games, even if his muscles are quivering from laughter. Plus, he's very used to following orders. So unless he physically can't do something anymore to play along with those games, he's going to try his best to win them.

His armpits, back, and thighs are ticklish for him. It may not seem like he's ticklish judging by his softer laughter, but believe me, it's sensitive for him.

And.. also his scars. Trixik has a lot of scars, way too many scars. And tracing them causes his breath to hitch and for him to blush.. eventually turning into nearly silent giggles and a few squeals depending on how sensitive the scar is.

He doesn't really have a constant ler, aside from maybe Lisa. But tickles aren't frequent for him to receive, due to his reserved nature and embarrassment towards the topic.

Lisa Anamor(switch)

Lisa ADORES tickling. Both giving it and receiving it.

If she's comfortable enough with someone, and they're known for being a ler, she'll intentionally mess around to try and get some.

Most of her ler friends have figured her out at this point, they just do it to have fun now. The ones who know each other have a little pact to just.. not tell Lisa that it's obvious she's asking to be tickled. The first one who tells her has to give the entire pact 50 dollars each. And anyone after that who does it, the price is raised by 25 dollars. It's like a game of who's gonna be broke the fastest.

Trixik is the only one who is completely unaware of Lisa being obvious with asking. Some of the pact members have tried to tell him.. he's just clueless enough to not realize what's going on regardless of if someone attempts to mention it. Most of the time he doesn't even tickle Lisa when she's pulling that stunt anyways, so it's not like there's a reason for him to know what she's doing.

Her worst spots are her knees and generally her waist. But her neck is also quite sensitive.

Her sister is her constant ler, at least if she's in a good mood. If not, it's probably one of the pact members(specifically Vara or Glory.)

Tohi Carimo(lee, maybe switch?? Haven't decided yet he's wreckable regardless)

Tohi is a wallflower in general. It's hard for someone to really get a good look at him, always tending to prefer the shadows of a room, or corners of areas.

But they are ticklish. And the few he really knows how to talk to are well aware of this fact.

It's not uncommon when he's with their friends that some tickling is in order. Particularly if he's having a rough day.

Gentle tickles always cheer him up.

He doesn't have any particularly bad spots, everywhere is just moderately ticklish for him.

And his most frequent lers would be his friend group(Kiran, Jackie, and, Glory.)

I'll probably make a ler version later for now take some crumbs <3

[incorrect-ace]

Not a qoute

[adobe-outdesign]

What are your thoughts on the newly revealed starter pokemon? I personally feel like some changes coukdve been made to really polish Fuecoco's design (omitting the second smaller stem-thing, adding more teeth, longer lower jaw), but otherwise I think they're fairly good! I like the homosexual duck

(Note: Pokemon reviews on this blog typically go in order of submission, but I'm nudging this one forward in honor of Scarlet and Violet's announcement. Reviews will return to the regular order after this.)

Sprigatito (btw, can we talk about what a fantastic name that is? actually all three of these guys have good names) is pretty good and very cute. I like the expression--this definitely looks like a capricious attention-seeker--and the way the fur on the head is stylized, which is accented by the loose fur on the tail. The dark green accents are well placed and draw the eye through the design nicely as well.

I don't even have much to nitpick about it, aside from the fact that I wish the pattern on the face had another point to match the leaf mane's shape.

However, I do feel like it suffers from being pretty plain. This is more or less the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a "grass-type long-haired cat". It's not bad, but it lacks flavor, having neither a unique body shape or a distinctive theme yet.

With that said, sometimes starters start off bland before they get interesting. Fennekin and Litten are both in Sprigatito's ballpark, and both don't start to get a clear theme until the second or even third evo. I'm not saying Sprigatito here needs to become bipedal (though for the record, I don't really care what it does as long as the design's good), just that the plainness might not be a problem if the design becomes more interesting down the road.

It's also one of the harder Pokemon to guess what direction the evo's going to go in, given the lack of theme. Personally, I would like to see something lynx-esc, both because they're present in the region's area and because we don't really have a lynx Pokemon (other than the Shinx line, but those don't actually look like lynxes visually). You can kind of see how the face fur would lean into the lynx's tufts, as would the leaf collar:

The description mentions it being attention-seeking, so maybe something with a prima donna vibe, like Serperior? Or something with a stage theme, more along the lines of Primarina?

Anyway, the point is that Sprigatito’s a solid start, but I hope it gets more unique as it evolves.

Fuecoco’s my personal favorite so far. It’s kind of the polar opposite of Sprigatito, having a very distinctive body shape and theme right off the bat. Chili peppers are a legitimately great concept, both tying into the region and providing a fitting type.

In terms of what I like, the white on the face is very distinctive and invokes the idea of a pepper well, as do the “stems”. The colors are nicely balanced throughout and the body shape, as mentioned previously, is a unique one. In other words, it’s pretty visually striking.

There’s only a few nitpicks I have. I don’t mind the second stem visually, but I don’t think it’s needed, especially because peppers normally only have one. The square on the chest looks a bit off; I would’ve like to see the underbelly come up and become rounded to match the face instead. And finally, I would’ve liked to see a bit more anatomy here and there, mostly in the legs as it’s hard to picture this thing walking (just give it some haunches and put the claws underneath).

And when it comes to evolution, while everyone is focused on Sprigatito saying quadrupedal, I’d kind of like to see Fuecoco go that route personally. We already have an alligator in Feraligatr, so it dropping onto all fours would be a way to easily differentiate the two. The hot pepper thing could be worked into more, with it gaining leaves and becoming part grass type, and maybe the tail could become bent up like the end of a hot pepper or something.

I’ve also heard the idea of a chef evo tossed around due the food idea, and I’d certainly be down for that; the white could lead into a chef’s hat of sorts, for example.

I’ve also heard some people suggest that the starters could share each other type’s as secondary’s this time around due to fire/grass being the obvious choice here. Not sure how likely it is to happen, but it would certainly be interesting.

As a whole, it’s a solid and memorable design that just needs to get a bit more definition to the anatomy as it evolves.

Finally, Quaxly is still pretty good, but it doesn’t stick out in my mind as much. I think it’s because it looks a bit too muck like Ducklett to me. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not that similar, but the faces in particular bear some resemblance, and then take into consideration that they’re both ducks and they just start to blur together a bit for me.

In terms of the design, the teal color is pulled through well and I like little beret, as well as the general design of the face. The only things I’m not big on are that curved line on the chest (I guess it’s meant to be chest feathers, but why only one and why is it shaded like it’s indented?) and the weird little squiggly line on the hat, which I can only assume will play into something in the evos becuase it has no reason to be there otherwise.

Not much else to say beyond that; much like Sprigatito up there, it’s a bit on the bland side at this point, not helped by the fact that a water-type duck is inherently a straightforward combo. However, the difference is that Quaxly has just enough in the design to hint at a potential theme, rather than being completely up in the air.

The mention of it being earnest and tidy, combined with the hat and the X in the name makes me inclined to believe with the idea that it’s going to gain some kind of conquistador theme to it; the hat becoming one of those metal ones with a big feather, the tidiness lending to a military-esq strictness, ect. Many conquistadors traveled on ships, so the water theme would fit.

Though personally, I hope it does something different, or at least goes in more of a pirate direction; conquistadors are kind of known for ~~enslaving and murdering people~~ so I’d rather not have the charming little duck turn into that. Of course, this is only speculation anyway.

As a whole, these starters feel a lot better than Gen 8′s in my opinion. Whereas Gen 8 had a bunch of near-identical body shapes, there’s a good variety on display here; one cat quadruped, one chunky bipedal reptile, and one bird. Each silhouette looks distinctive and there’s already some interesting themes and design elements at play, so I’m excited to see how these guys evolve. A solid start.

[ggukkiereads]

I posted 1,937 times in 2021

928 posts created (48%)

1009 posts reblogged (52%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1.1 posts.

I added 3,987 tags in 2021

#🌷 chats - 804 posts

#ggukkierecommends - 751 posts

#anon - 574 posts

#jungkook x reader - 516 posts

#fichunting - 305 posts

#jungkook - 244 posts

#jungkook fanfic - 229 posts

#asks - 206 posts

#m:jjk - 182 posts

#jungkook smut - 176 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i feel like i spent more time with the banner than putting all the fic recs because i drooled over bangtan photos i couldn't make up my mind

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

(navi)

🌷 some semblance of organization🌷

Ultimate Favorites - #holygrailfics 

Fic Recs / Reactions - #ggukkierecommends

prefer to read drabbles? - #drabbleslikedbyggukkie

Masterpost of Fave Fics per Member - ot7 but only posted two members so far 😥👉👈🌹

Yoongi - series

Jungkook - one shot | series

🌹 sadly not updated because #lazybish me won 😔 sucks I wasn’t able to update my lists when that is the main purpose of this blog. Feel free to send me a message if you want to chat about fics though!

The Type of AUs I enjoy  - I usually get asks on AUs but there are themes/genres I don’t read much on

🌷 fic recs based on ASKs | #ggukkiereadingcollection

🥕 - personal favorite 

Author Recs

Author Recs | SMAUs 🥕

Author Recs | Fluff/Angst (Non-Smut) content - Taehyung & Jungkook 🥕🥕🥕

Fic Recs | Fic List

Werewolf AUs - Taehyung  🥕

Werewolf AUs - Jungkook  🥕🥕

Mafia AUs, Supernatural/Fantasy, Secret Agents/Spy/Assassin AUs   🥕

Established Relationship - Jungkook  🥕

Recommended Angst, Smut, Fluff, E2L - Jimin  🥕🥕

Witch or Vampire Jungkook (similar to ADOW)

Vampire AUs - Jungkook

College AUs - Yoongi  🥕🥕

Extreme Angst Edition - Jungkook  🥕

Infidelity AUs 🥕 + Part 2  ⭐new*

Enemies to Lovers - Yoongi

Sports, Jock AUs - Jungkook 🥕

Chubby or Curvy Reader

Submissive - Jungkook

See the full post

1636 notes • Posted 2021-01-13 07:30:37 GMT

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#4

hello gukkie I'm trying to read aus other than college / fwb, f2l. What are your go to aus or tropes and fics to recommend? do you have aus you don't like too? Am I the only one tired of pwps 🥴? By the way thank you for your fic recs

🌷 Hi there, anonie! I actually read variety of tropes/AUs but I have limited exposure to the ff.: idolverse (I find it too close for comfort), hogwarts (probably just read four or five fics), not much poly fics yet. 

I also had a phase of Hanahaki AUs/ Soulmate AUs and Dystopian AUs / Sci-fi / Alien AUs. But will only put my Top 3 AUs below, in order of obsession (lol). 

Mafia/Gang/Mobster AUs

Supernatural & Fantasy

Secret Agent AU, Assassins, Spy AUs, Heists

The fic recs per AU are also top of mind; but given much thought, there are more fics to recommend.

note: mostly mature | m x f |

These fics are not mine. Credits go to the authors and I’d like to thank you all for sharing your fics 🥰.  

See the full post

1665 notes • Posted 2021-02-02 18:49:11 GMT

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#3

What are your favorite established relationship jk fics? Can u recommend me? ❤️ Maybe husband or dad jk too haha

🌷 Hello! Sharing fics that are memorable to me. Hope it satisfies your Jungkook needs 😉.

Please note that the fics are NOT mine. Please show these authors love by reblogging their fics, giving them feedback, and engaging in any positive interaction you can think of! 🥰

Established Relationship | Jungkook

@angelguk ’s drabbles + scenarios 

Jock!jk drabble series

On My Mind

Breakfast in Bed

In Your Arms Tonight - the one where he has a thing for you in his clothes).

She also has a dad!jk drabbles (just Jungkook with his daughter)

@kpopfanfictrash sequels or drabbles - read the original fic first

The Art of More Sequel + drabbles -  L is for Lunacy +  The Party + S if for Sexy - ^

Over the Edge - sequel to Ruin the Friendship

The Next - Dad!JK + pregnant reader

Taming of the Flu - sick OC

Click 

Together (boyfriend series) @httpjeon - collection of their “firsts”  

And a Hard Place drabbles (ongoing) @minloop - angsty, idol!au

Appetence @jiminimoon - idol!au, imagine boyfriend!jungkook dancing for you

Aurora @/mintseesaw - secret love affair, princess!reader, general jungkook, historical au (I really love this)

Bare Necessities @gguksgalaxy - Disneyland date

Bicker @littlemisskookie - sequel to Banter; Superhero AU

Bounce @jeonsweetpea -  workout session 😉

A Call + All Mine @follovvthelight - idol!jungkook, secret relationship, OC gets hit on by others because they thought she is single, fluffy smut but real relationship talk

Come & Come Again @/jjungkookislife - drabbles based on real time jungkook (Not Today!JK & Blue-haired Drummer JK)

Doxology @dark-muse-iris - pwp in a church (sorry 🙈)

Dungeons and Dick @jungkookiebus - OC killed his character lol (cute)

Edacity @jjungkooksthighs - college au, jungkook making food 😋 (I actually read this on AO3 and was checking my bookmarks when I remember this)

Empty Stalls @bts-bookstore - boyfriend au, pwp, public place

Everything’s Alright + Sweet Saturdays @guklore - quarterback!jungkook who is so sweet and reassuring. Plus, the use of the sappy Still Into You by Paramore as a ringtone is a big plus 😂 Let’s not mention whipped cream slight smut 🤤

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1865 notes • Posted 2021-02-04 23:56:21 GMT

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#2

hi! can you list your recommendations for enemies to lovers with jungkook? thankieeee 💜💜💜💜

🌷 Hello! This has actually been requested but for all members (see pinned note 📌). Since I have read/reblogged a lot of Jungkook E2L fics throughout the years, I’ll create a separate list (this has around 70 fics at least 😨)

Credits go to all the writers 🥰. I love this trope, something I easily and happily consume so thank you for sharing these stories.

If you’re a 💜reader💜 who found this list helpful, you can show appreciation by reblogging the fics or commenting/letting authors know how much you like their stories 😊.

Enemies to Lovers | Jungkook

S - smut | F - fluff | A - angst | mostly Mature, minors DNI

fics are listed per category (college, slice of life, fantasy, etc)

there are other fics I haven’t included/reblogged yet plus there are new fics I‘ve yet to read 🥺 (I will just update this or I might add it to the all-member’s version)

if link’s not working, click on author’s name and check their masterlist 👍

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2178 notes • Posted 2021-06-10 10:30:49 GMT

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#1

Fics Recs | Werewolf AUs - Jungkook

Decided to post a list of werewolf aus based on an ask received by @joonkookiemonster​ (who also has an amazing werewolf fic and it’s included in this list🥰)

Please note that the fics are NOT mine. I’m just a reader and I love collecting (if you’re familiar with Strengthsfinder by Gallup, "input” is one of my themes 😬)

DO show these authors love by reblogging their fics, giving them feedback, and engaging in any positive interaction you can think of! 🥰

S - smut | F - fluff | A - angst | 🥕- personal favorites

Note: if link to fic doesn’t work, click on author and go to their masterlist

🌷 I sometimes post a reaction/commentary in case reading reviews help  though not all because I’m a lazy blog writer 😭 so I just reblog on another sideblog of mine

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2893 notes • Posted 2021-01-12 18:11:41 GMT

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