#me: want a 10 page thesis on them????
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squarebracket-trickster · 2 months ago
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Actually, you know what, fuck it, I do have some writing advice:
Some things to try when you are so stuck it's eating you alive:
The "Autofill" Warm-up
I don't actually know if this has a proper name, but this is what I call it:
pull up a blank page and just start typing the first words to pop into your head.
Don't care if it's coherent or in any way related to your WIP. Just type. Pretend you are pressing the autocomplete option on your phone over and over again just to see what it types out.
Do at least 200 words of this. Do it until you get "in the zone" and the words start coming without trying.
If your paragraph doesn't read like it was written by a rather incoherent autocomplete by the time you're done, keep going until it does.
You can use this "warm up" before you start a writing (drafting or revision) session, and/or any time your writing starts to feel stale, or you just can't think of what to say next.
This probably won't give you any ideas, per se, but it will get you thinking faster and outside the box. I find it helps my prose flow more naturally, and I think up more interesting ways to say things.
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The "15 ways to say it" Strategy
Again, this one probably has a proper name, but I don't know it. I learned this in high school for coming up with good thesis statements for essays.
This one is for when you know what to say, but you have no idea how to phrase it, and you hate everything you've come up with:
Come up with A sentence (or two or three) that gets the idea across. Doesn't matter if it's the choppiest, jankiest, most awkward or dull, gramatically incorrect nonsense you've ever laid eyes on. Write it down.
Rewrite the damn thing 5, 10, or 15 ways, depending on what you have the patience for/how much you care.
Don't worry about making it sound nice or about grammar or anything. Just think of 5/10/15 ways to get the same idea across off the top of your head.
They don't even have to be full sentences, you can write more than one sentence, and if you start an iteration and hate where it's going you can leave it half done and start another.
DELETE NOTHING!!!! You may want to see that version again!!
Eventually, you will start seeing combinations of words you like.
If you suddenly come up with the perfect phrase. Great! You can stop. Otherwise, once you have enough fragments you like, try stringing them together.
If you still don't like it but feel you are getting close take the new strung-together sentence(s) and start again, rewriting it 5/10/15 times.
Keep repeating until either you are happy, or you've hit your goal (5, 10, or 15 iterations) and still don't see anything you can work with.
If you get stuck before you hit your goal, try any of these:
rearrange a few words or replace a word with a synonymm
reimagine it in the voice of Shakespeare, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, some condescending guy on Reddit, or whomever sounds fun
Get out your frustration. Write the damn thing in ALL CAPS. Swear. Sound condescending and angry. Don't censor yourself.
The "tell me without telling me / imagine it's illegal to say what you mean" method (i.e. write around the meaning). Also, the "how can I use setting/character description, actions, to show this without directly stating it" method.
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The "Turn off your brain" Strategy
Another one of my names, and a distant cousin to the "Autofill Warm-up".
Stare blankly at your page. Let all thought leave you. You must not think. Thought is the inspiration killer. Thought is the little box full of nothing you haven't already tried.
Now, place your hands on the keyboard and press a key, or grab your pen and write a random letter.
Add another letter, mostly at random, but make sure there are actually words that start with those two letters together.
Let your brain autocomplete the rest of the word.
Repeat 2-4 with each subsequent word, but make sure they all make at least some attempt at gramatical sense when put together.
2-5 are more suggestions than hard rules. If your brain autocompletes a whole phrase use it if you like it. If you don't like the word your brain came up with, pick again.
Eventually a word or group of words may appear that might actually sort of fit in the place you are stuck, albeit with some major tweeking.
There. Now, you have a new idea you've never had before.
Sometimes I will write paragraphs expanding on an idea using this method, and then I will put those paragraphs through a few rounds of "5/10/15 ways to say it". These always end up being my best paragraphs for some reason.
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simplymarr · 1 year ago
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Chapter five.
warnings: +18 smut; fingering, penetration, kinda praise kink?
notes: FINALLY i was so nervous but excited to write this. i know some of you were waiting for this so this chapter is long af. enjoy.
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Head buzzing. Cheeks still warm. Heart racing.
As i went to bed that night i couldn't stop thinking about it. That kiss. My skin still shivered just thinking about his touch. His hands cupping my cheeks, his warm lips against mine.
He'd be the death of me.
One side of me was completely mad about him, and the other side was just as concerned.
What would we do now? What if someone found out? My heart almost hammering in my chest as i thought of my classmates' faces if they found out. I didn't want them to think i was trying to seduce him to get my thesis done, i didn't need to do that. I wasn't that kind of person, and he knew it. Or i least that was what i expected.
Thursday morning was already slamming at my door. All my thoughts still rambling through my head as i entered the classroom, and then there he was.
Formal but simple clothes as always, his hair always in-between of being put together and decontracted, his characteristic front strands fell on his forehead.
He looked at me stealthily among all the people during all class, and i could sense that he was thinking about it too.
As the bell rang, always at 10 am, i hessitated. Should i go and talk to him? should i go? All my doubts vanished as i saw him slowly walking towards me, as he was doing time while all those people left the place. Hands in his pants pockets and a side smile. Oh my fucking god.
"Hey".
"Hey".
Silence; the tension almost intoxicating the two of us. He broke it first:
"Listen, i was thinking about last tuesday and-"
"You don't have to worry about it, you know?" I said, stopping him mid-sentence. "You're my professor, i'm your student, it's all clear". My tone trying to sound convincing as if we didn't just made out in his car two days ago. Obviously, it wasn't that clear.
He smirked confidently, looking at me. "I know that".
I looked at him quite confused; Was he the same man that acted all nervous an hessitant last week? Didn't he care at all?
"Well, okay then".
"I've read your progress on the thesis, it's going very well" he continued like nothing happened, though i sensed some tension in his tone. "Though I have made some corrections starting from page fifteen that i would like you to look at".
"Oh, okay." I didn't even know what to say. "I will look at it when i get home then".
I looked at him, batting my eyelashes nervously as he kept watching me stoic, almost analyzing my movements.
Then, all of the suden, he grabbed me from behind my neck with both hands and pushed me against a near wall where nobody that would enter the room could see us. He kissed me hungrily, breathing heavily due to the fast movement that he had recently made. I responded quickly, closing my eyes and grabbing him from behind his neck as his hands traveled from my own neck to my waist, bringing me closer to him. Our mouths devoured each other, this kiss was not like the previous one. This was a hungry, sinful one, as if neither him or i could wait any longer. As if we both knew that all this could only bring trouble.
Heat starting to fill my body and his when suddenly a loud noise echoed the space, like a door slamming in the distance, not the one in this room but it felt like it.
We both broke the kiss in a heartbeat as a instinct reaction. Chests coming up and down quickly, eyes filled with unsatisfied hunger.
"I want to see you again". I whispered to him. If it was still a bit of shame left in me, it was already gone.
"Would you like to come home? you could bring all your drafts"
I laughed at his innocent proposition, given to what just had happened.
"I would love to" I said, smiling at him.
"8 pm is alright? I could pick you up if you want"
I looked at him, smiling nervously.
"What? it's not like you haven't been in my car before" He said, with a smirk.
I laughed and gave him a playful hit on his arm. "8 pm is just fine".
He smiled, quite hessitant. I could sense that he was just as nervous as me.
I mean, the damage was already done, right?
-------------------
Nighttime had already come beneath us as he parked outside his house. A big, but modest one. Light grey walls and big windows, now covered by dark blue curtains.
The inside felt very cozy; warm lights, a round, wooden table at one side with a brownish sofa and big book shelfs.
A few wall paintings and a wine cellar from where he picked a bottle and two wine glasses. I looked at him almost blushing at the whole situation.
He was wearing a grey sweater and dark jeans, a bit more casual than what he'd wear at class. Silver hair perfect as always, the lines forming in his mouth as he smiled and handed me the filled glass.
"Thank you". Our fingers touching so slightly as i took the glass. He sat besides me at the sofa.
"Well, how did you do?. He said as he pointed at the drafts and papers on my hands.
"Pretty well, i would say. What do you think?" I handed him the papers as he put his glasses on.
He observed them in silence with a hand in his chin as i looked him with doubt. He chuckled to himself as he read them.
"What?" I said, opening my eyes to him.
"You are very incisive" He said in a playful tone, french accent dripping deliciously onto each word.
"I thought you already knew that".
He smirked as i continued: "Takes one to know one, right?"
The warm, subtle lights carressing his features as he drank the red wine.
"What makes you think that?"
"It just seems that you always know what you want".
He stayed in silence and sat closer to me. One hand on the sofa backreast, behind me. I continued:
"Do you?". Maybe it was the wine, already starting to hit on my words, or the way his eyes looked darker in the night. He smiled softly at me.
"I don't always know, no" I looked at him over my eyelashes, silence echoed the room as he continued. "But i think i know what i want just now".
He carressed my cheek with his fingers, the touch so tender but intoxicating. I needed his touch, his mouth on me again. I couldn't wait any longer.
"Vincent" His name coming out of my mouth as a pathetic moan as i begged to him. "Please, kiss me"
"How could i ever refuse?"
He then broke any remaining tension grabbing gently my cheeks and kissing me deeply. Slowly this time, as we had the night to ourselfs. He tasted like the sweet red wine we just drank and so was i. His perfume smelled, in fact, like a classic one. Wooden but not too harsh, just perfect on his skin My fingers ran into his silver hair as we kept deepening the kiss, both now lying down the sofa.His warm tongue intertwined with mine as his hands ran through my waist and i could feel the heat coming down my body.
He broke the kiss, heavy breathing as he whispered near my mouth.
"Are you okay with this?"
I nodded at him and attempted to kiss him again but he insisted:
"I don't want you to do anything you're not comfortable with, baby"
My entire body shivered just hearing the petname coming out of his mouth and his tenderness at each moment made me feel secure.
"I need you, Vincent. Please" My words coming out as weak whispers as my head buzzed, i needed his touch more than anything in that moment. His eyes getting darker as he was hearing me beg. He lifted me up softly in his arms and carried me into his bedroom.
The room was dark as only the weak, pale moonlight entered through a window besides de big kingsize bed. We were standing at the edge of the bed as i could feel my cheeks getting warmer and warmer under his touch. His hands slowly taking up my shirt as he stared with devotion at my body. His eyes wandered at each mole and each mark. Then he slowly kneeled in front of me, leaving a trail of gentle kisses down my stomach. He looked at me from below with greedy eyes.
"Can i?" He whispered to me, touching the button of my jeans. I nodded slowly as he began undoing them. My body now covered only by black lace underwear and bra.
"Mon Dieu" He whispered, still on his knees. "You're beautiful".
I carresed his chin with my hand as he stoop up slowly, without breaking eye contact.
"Now it's my turn" I said, as i took his sweater and the rest of his clothes off.
His skin soft and warm as we kept kissing deeply on his bed, the air so intoxicating as his touch. Wet kisses on my neck and collarbones. His hand slowly playing with the hem of my panties as i cursed under my breath.
"What's the problem, dear?" He whispered in my ear with a cheeky tone.
"Vincent, please"
"Give me words and i'll give you what you want" His fingers almost touching my aching flesh.
"Touch me, please" My words almost tripping.
He smiled and ran his fingers into me, playing with my clit as i left out a pathetic whimper.
"Merde, you're so fucking wet" He whispered to my ear as he kept touching every fold. He then slid two fingers into me, almost making me lose all reason.
"Oh, Vincent" I kept moaning his name, my core aching under his touch as i could feel his bulge growing against my leg.
"Yes, chérie?
"Please, fuck me." I begged to him, leaving all sense of shame behind. I needed him so badly, like i never needed anybody.
"I love it when you say my name like that" He said as he slid my panties down my legs and freed himself from his own underwear, his big length against my stomach as he pumped himself a few times.
He then stretched out an arm to reach the drawer of the nightstand from where he picked a condom. His firm body glistening as he put it on and then positioned himself between my legs, grabbing them firmly.
He sank into me slowly and i could feel every inch inside me, his head resting on the crook of my neck. He stayed still for a moment, feeling me warm against him.
" Putain. You feel so fucking good" He said as he began thrusting me, slowly picking up a pace.
My nails against his back as i could feel him so big inside me, my head buzzing as i heard the sinful sounds of his thrusts getting more wet and more sloppy.
"Fuck, Vincent" my moans getting more and more out of control. "Keep going, please".
He smiled and then bit my lower lip. "You're taking me so fucking well, baby"
Then he rolled me over the bed. My face now against the pillow as he began thrusting me from behind, hands grabbing my waist as he fucked me deeper and faster.
"You're being such a good girl. Just look at you"
I turned my face so i could see him while he kept fucking me, his silver strands of hair falling into his glistening forehead and his eyes dark and seductive. I started feeling pleasure waves getting bigger and bigger, my core aching for a release.
"Fuck, i really want to ride you" I whispered to him as i could, with half my face still resting on the pillow.
He smiled at me and slid himself out. I whimpered instinctively at sudden lack of contact.
"Go on, then. Show me how good you can fuck me" He said as he lied on the bed.
I climbed on top and sank into his length slowly, almost painfully slowly. My eyes pierced at his as i did it.
"Putain, tu vas me faire jouir" He moaned, almost cursing, under his breath.
My movements took a faster and faster pace as i felt closer to my orgasm. He grabbed firmly my breasts as i went up and down, playing with my sensitive nipples.
"Oh, God. Vincent, i'm gonna cum"
"Go on, chérie. Go on and cum all over me".
My body trembled as i felt closer and closer, i tried to close my eyes but he stopped me.
"No, no. Don't do that. Look at me, i want to see your pretty eyes"
Those words sending me even closer as i felt my orgasm reaching every part of my body, trying to keep my eyes opened. His eyes filled with magnetic lust.
"Fuck, Vincent" I moaned with the little energy i had left as he pushed himself one last time, cumming inside me.
"C'était tellement bon, chérie" He whispered into my ear as i lied on the bed besides him, totally surrendered by his words. I loved it when he'd speak to me in french.
He gently kissed me on the forehead as he put his arms around me. My head resting on his chest as we instantly fell asleep in the still warm bed.
next chapter soon
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lagunaseca2013 · 1 month ago
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pecco/luca #14
prompt from here! dearest anon thank u for prompting me. u are the only person who did so that actually means a lot LMAO. struggled profoundly with this which is why it took me over a month and it's 3k long and it's also inexplicably a soulmate au. i hope u enjoy ur library sex!
QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT — pecco/luca, 3k
Maybe elbow-deep in the gnarliest of the rat cages hadn’t been the best time to bring up Marc, but, well. Pecco had also been more sleep-deprived than usual after the several all-nighters he’d pulled, trying to finish the new section of his dissertation that Valentino had proposed before he ran out of steam. Neither of them were exactly their best selves. And it wasn’t even their lab. 
Pecco was getting paid two hundred euros to clean the cages every three days, while Dr. Stoner and all his—hah— lab rats attended yet another conference. But he wasn’t sure what Valentino’s excuse was, considering he complained pretty regularly about Dr. Stoner getting preferential funding because of STEM privilege. Pecco wasn’t exactly sure how helping out in his lab fit into that equation, and he wasn’t about to ask. 
All Pecco had wanted to know, really, was if Vale could still feel him at all times. If the throbbing in Pecco’s skull was ever going to go away, if notoriously pain-averse Valentino had somehow learned to live with the ache.
“Well you see,” Vale had grumbled, scolding #93 when it tried to nip at his fingertips through the gloves as it settled into its new bedding, “I do not think the bonds, they are—” he gestured vaguely, nearly knocking over the stack of ungraded reports piled on Dr. Stoner’s desk, “not so rigid, right? I think they are a bit, allora. . . .” he trailed off, staring somewhere in the middle distance. “I think they are often deceiving.” He’d said, finally, punctuating it with a spritz of the expensive unscented cleaner that Dr. Stoner insisted was the only one that didn’t aggravate his migraines. 
“Ah.” Pecco had responded, lamely, staring down at #10 as it slept quietly in its little holding tupperware. “I think I understand.” 
The thing is, Pecco doesn't even really know when he figured it out. Maybe he always knew what the deep thrumming in the back of his skull was, what the tight aching feeling in the pit of his stomach meant. Why he was always sort of looking for Luca, regardless of time or place or reality. He doesn’t know why he thought asking Valentino about it would bring any clarity, but well. Luca was still his brother, technically. Even if he had gone down a path Valentino didn’t exactly approve of. 
“It’s just a good opportunity,” Franky tells him, when he brings it up again over lunch. He’s hunched miserably over his protein bowl, texting with one hand under the table. For some reason, he thinks they don’t all know it’s Álex Marquez on the other end, when he hides his screen from them and grins all dopily at his messages. Pecco isn’t an idiot, but he isn’t cruel, either, so he says nothing, picking at his own cold chicken. 
“Of course, Maro knows that Vale would fund his research until the end of time,” Franky continues, placing his phone facedown on the table. “But Dr. Hernandez already has the grants and the equipment. He’d be stupid not to take Marc’s spot! Plus, they publish all the time, and you know he’s been wanting to get more exposure.”
“Yeah,” Pecco hums, downing the rest of his now-cold espresso and grimacing when the grounds stick to the back of his teeth. “A very good opportunity.” 
Pecco is still stewing about it when he shoves their apartment door open with a grunt, three books falling out of his bag in the process. Bez and Cele make no move to help him from where they’re sequestered on the couch, the entire living room littered with pages of Cele’s senior thesis, marked up in what looks like sparkly purple gel pen. 
“ Ciao , Pecco,” Cele sighs dejectedly, against Bez’s shoulder. 
“ Ciao , my roommate who lives here and pays rent,” Pecco groans, leaving the books in the doorway and making a beeline for the mokapot. He briefly considers suicide, when he finds it unwashed in the sink, then grabs the scrubber brush with a sigh. Bez comes up behind him, a moment later, draping his long arms around Pecco’s waist until he reluctantly leans back into his embrace, closing his eyes so none of the tears he’s been holding in all day leak out. 
“What’s the matter with our Pecchino, huh?” Bez asks, pressing a kiss to Pecco’s cheek and then releasing him, leaning back against the counter with a tilt of his head that makes him look just like the puppy he’s been trying to ply Pecco with pictures of, lately. “Did one of Dr. Stoner’s evil rats try to bite you again? You could totally sue him for that, you know, let’s call up Mig and—” 
Pecco waves a hand at him with a sigh. “Leave Migno alone, you know he’s been too stressed studying for the Bar. And I’m not going to sue Dr. Stoner, the rats were fine. Allora, one of them did try to bite Vale but he—” 
“ Vale? What the hell was Vale doing there?” Bez interrupts him. Behind them, Cele pokes a curious head in the doorway. He’s wearing Bez’s boxers, Pecco notices belatedly. That probably explains the state of the living room, he realizes, resigned. 
Pecco shrugs, giving the moka a final rinse. There’s a stubborn burnt patch at the bottom which probably means that Cele was the last person to use it, but it’s the least of his problems right now. Everything feels like burnt espresso to him these days, it’s nothing special in the grand scheme of things. “I don’t know if they’re back together, honestly. They’re probably just fucking again.” 
Bez shakes his head with an exaggerated grimace. “I don’t know how Vale manages to bone so many of his colleagues,” he says, pulling Cele in with an arm around his pale neck. “Don’t the faculty meetings get awkward? Surely he could find someone he doesn’t work with to take on a date!” 
Against his will, Pecco thinks of the lab coat Valentino had been wearing when Pecco had walked in, the little Australian flag embroidered on the cuff of his sleeve, nearly invisible unless you were looking for it. These days, Dr. Stoner walks around in lab coats with the flag embroidered proudly next to his last name, impossible to miss. Vale must have been wearing an old one. Where he’d found it, Pecco didn’t really want to know. 
“I don’t think they’re doing much dating,” he sighs, dumping the espresso powder in and snapping the lid shut with a loud metallic clang. 
Cradled in Bez’s arms, Cele bursts into laughter. 
Pecco doesn’t know why he was the last to know that Luca was leaving them. The weeks leading up to Luca’s departure had been—euphoric, almost. If he ignored the sense of impending doom, which he had become very good at. They had been spending a truly unreasonable amount of time together that semester because Luca had still been living in the apartment, sharing his car, sleeping, working, eating together. 
Pecco had woken up from an involuntary library nap, one day last March, to find one of Luca’s jackets draped over him. He’d moved into the carrel next to Pecco while he was asleep, apparently. Valentino found them slumped over each other, napping on the couch in his office so often that semester, that he’d started calling them i dormiglioni , like they were little kids. 
It was easy to ignore, at first, because Pecco had been ignoring it for what was probably years, at that point. Since at least their second year of Laurea , when they’d been assigned partners for a semester-long project in Professor Nieto’s Modern Philosophy class. Pecco had known who he was, of course. Not even the different last names could hide that Luca was Dr. Rossi’s younger brother, quietly accepted into the Physics and Philosophy department an entire year earlier than they usually let undergrads declare. 
Luca wasn’t particularly popular, really. Whatever magnetic charm that Valentino, known mostly around campus as il Dottore , walked around with must have come from Graziano, because Luca didn’t attract the same kind of attention everywhere he went, and he’d kept to himself, mostly, their first year. Pecco couldn’t help but notice him. He was much quieter than Valentino, of course, but he was still every bit as beautiful. Pecco had never dreamed that Luca would ever pay him any attention, even after they were assigned partners. 
It turned out he was wrong, about Luca, anyway. He was just like Valentino, in all the ways that mattered. It was kind of impressive that people who studied their field so closely could be so blind about it. 
Or maybe, Pecco had thought, watching Luca leave, inevitably, after everything—that was the caveat. 
Pecco had spent so long ignoring it, that he didn’t understand what he was feeling, the first time Luca intentionally tugged on the bond. He was on the fourth floor of the stacks section of the library in late May, enjoying the sunlight peaking through the skylights while he combed through the shelves. Choking on dust and trying not to make noises every time he encounters a dead spider, on some fruitless mission from Valentino to find the original copy of Bell’s Inequality he swore was hiding around there. Pecco was beginning to suspect he was just trying to get him out of his office for an hour so he could hook up with—whoever it was who’d been leaving ribbed condom wrappers in the Philosophy Lounge trash all year. 
Then, all at once, he felt the little ember he’d kept tucked away, all this time, a little shard of glass pressed up against his heart. It was like all of his muscles and tendons, bones and sinew, every part of his body could feel it. Feel him. Luca, reaching through.
In a lot of cultures, soul bonds were likened to strings, in mythology. When Pecco let himself wonder what theirs might feel like, he always pictured something like a ribbon or a cord, their connection loose and free-flowing. When Luca touches their bond for the first time, it feels nothing like that. It doesn’t really feel like anything else, or anything he could describe with words, though his whole job, his whole life, he’s been trying to describe what this moment might feel like. It’s not accurate, but he pictures himself getting struck by lightning through the library skylights, instantly engulfed in flames.
Luca finds him like that, rounding the corner of the H-K shelves, his eyes bright. A strange, manic energy to him that Pecco has never seen before. It’s hot, watching Luca stalk towards him like a predator, every nerve ending in his body lighting up, the closer he gets. Suddenly, Luca is right in front of him, breathing a little heavy, caging Pecco in, against the hard metal of the shelves. If soul ties were visual things, Pecco thinks theirs would probably be a neon red cloud, hazily encompassing them. As it stands, the only proof Pecco has that this is real, that Luca is going to stop pretending he doesn’t know and finally fucking do something about it is the tension he feels flowing through his body. It’s their bond, it’s Luca , wrapped around his chest like a vice.
Pecco’s always imagined their first kiss being a little awkward. Maybe a peck in the back corner of the campus cafe that Cele works at, or tiredly making out on the floor of Luca’s bedroom, where they both prefer to study at home. Something slow, intentional. The weight of the bond unburdened.
There’s nothing slow or soft or sweet about the way Luca kisses him for the first time, almost bruising. His tongue is hot and slick in Pecco’s mouth, brushing against the back of his teeth. Pecco whines into it, helpless, a hand finds purchase on his waist, the other tangling in his hair. He can barely tell if he’s kissing back, so lost in the sensation. He only realizes when Luca pulls away, ducking his head to suck marks onto Pecco’s flushed neck, that he’s been holding his breath.
“ Fuck, Luca ,” he gasps, his hips twitching up involuntarily when Luca finds a pressure point. He’s half hard just from kissing, but Luca’s no better. Pecco can feel the heat of his length straining against his thigh from where Luca had wedged a leg between them. “I need—” he cuts himself off with a hiss when Luca grinds them together.
“Shh, Franci,” Luca whispers, a little meanly. “You don’t want anyone to hear us, right?” Reaching down between them, he pops the button of Pecco’s corduroys with deft fingers. Pecco jolts forward, muffling his moan with the soft collar of Luca’s shirt between his teeth when Luca wraps a calloused palm around his weeping cock and gives it a dry tug. It’s equal parts pleasure and pain, and Pecco can’t help but sigh in relief when Luca pulls back just far enough to spit directly on the leaking tip. His breath catches at the sensation of it, Luca dragging his hand up and down until he’s wet everywhere, saliva and precum dripping down his balls.
“Luca we can’t —” Pecco gasps, when he brushes a blunt, dry fingertip against his hole. His whole body shudders as Luca does it again, circling and stroking until Pecco is clenching down on nothing; he can feel himself soaked everywhere . 
Luca drags his fingers down through the stickiness between his thighs, chuckling. “So wet, Franci, like a girl.” 
Before Pecco can even react to that, Luca flips them around pressing him against the cold metal of the shelves with a firm grip. His pulse is hammering in his throat and he wonders, absurdly, if Luca can feel it, every erratic beat. 
Luca is everywhere on him, all at once. His breath is hot against Pecco’s ear, his fingers digging into his hips, both grounding and overwhelming. The bond thrums between them, heavy, tightening around Pecco’s rib cage. It feels like a separate animal, alive and red and wild . “Tell me now, if you want me to stop,” he murmurs against the back of Pecco’s neck, his lips brushing against his skin, teasing.
Pecco whimpers again, pushing his ass back up against where Luca is hard. “Please.”
Luca pulls away, this time to fumble with his belt. The clink of the metal buckle as he undoes it rings louder than a gunshot in the stillness of the library. Pecco keeps forgetting they’re in public , that any moment someone could walk in and see him bent over the periodicals, squirming as Luca feeds his cock between his slippery thighs. Whimpering as Luca drags achingly slow up against the sensitive skin of his balls. It’s filthy , the wet heat of it, the lewd slide of skin on skin. Luca fucks between his thighs like he doesn’t care if Pecco gets off, like he’s just a means to an end.
His hips stutter, his grip turning bruising on Pecco’s waist, like he’s afraid to let go. With a grunt, muffled against the damp curls at the nape of Pecco’s neck, he spills onto the shelf beneath them. He doesn’t even glance down, uncaring of the carnage. He just flips Pecco around, still panting, eyes blown, looking like he wants to run or maybe sink his teeth into Pecco’s throat.
Instead of softening, instead of giving either of them a breath, Luca crushes their mouths together. The bond between them is electric, fraying, tightening—too much. Pecco feels like he’s being squeezed from the inside out, like something is about to snap in his chest. For a brief moment, he thinks, hysterically, maybe he wants it to. 
Luca is still hard against his thigh, still wanting, still taking . His hand snakes into Pecco’s hair, pulling, tugging, keeping him exactly where he wants him.
“Luca, this—” Pecco gasps against his mouth, fingers twitching at Luca’s wrist, nails biting into his skin. “This isn’t—I don’t want. . . .”
He bites down on Pecco’s bottom lip, just enough to make him flinch. “ Tesoro .” His voice is low, almost coaxing. “We don’t have to.”
As if they haven’t already. As if Pecco can’t look down between them and find Bell’s Inequality , covered in the evidence of their desperation.
But the thing is, Pecco still wants . He wants Luca to get him off in here, the AC blowing dust around and the motion sensor lights flickering off every ten minutes. He wants to see Luca’s face when he finishes, this time. He wants Luca to kiss him, gentle, and be there in the morning when he wakes up. It doesn’t feel anything like Pecco imagined, holding Luca in his arms. It feels like the end of something, instead of the beginning.
The bond isn’t soft, like threads of fate weaving them together—it feels like a chokehold, also, like a noose. Luca presses him back against the cold metal shelves like he wants to imprint him there, leave fingerprints on his soul as much as his skin. Pecco wants to do anything in his power to keep Luca here, in this moment, for as long as he possibly can.
“Say it,” Luca murmurs, dragging his lips down Pecco’s jaw. His hand tightens in Pecco’s hair, yanking his head back so their eyes meet. There’s something frantic in his gaze, something uncertain and desperate.
Pecco swallows, pulse jumping under his skin. Heat and hunger and fear tangled together. “I can feel it,” He whispers into Luca’s open mouth. 
Really, Pecco had thought, as Luca had sunk to his knees on the faded carpet, pulling Pecco’s pants all the way down with something like reverence , that zing at the base of his spine practically singing when he’d taken Pecco into his mouth. He’d known then, that it was a feeling you could only get when you were physically, mentally, emotionally connected to your soulmate.
It kind of just felt like Luca was running away.
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fancyfade · 11 months ago
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Damian's intro in Batman and Son analysis
Okay so. This will be shorter than my Lonely Place of Dying meta (link) because rather than focusing on multiple story elements, I want to just focus on how Morrison presents Damian to the audience.
Again - this is not me saying this comic is bad (I mean. The treatment of talia definitely is bad but this post is about how Damian is presented) or 'you can't like this comic'. Just an analysis of what the audience sees.
General thesis: Morrison doesn't try to make Damian likeable, and does what they can to make him unlikable, but he is not presented as a villain, even though he does villainous things. He's presented more of an obstacle, a spoiled kid who happens to have assassin training.
Okay so let's start with his very first appearance.
Damian is obscured in shadow, or only a small portion of his face is visible, for the first two issues he appears in (until the very last page of the second issue) to keep a mystery on who he is. This is a pretty common technique for hiding character's identities in comics. It's also what the artist does for Talia, though we see her face a little earlier than Damian's.
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We don't see Talia's face until Batman recognizes who is behind it, and even after that Damian is in shadow (clearly visible to Batman, but Batman doesn't comment on him) until Talia introduces him.
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This is the first time we see him fully on panel.
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Okay, so we've covered how Damian is presented on panel before we know who he is. Now lets get to what information is presented about Damian?
From the first thing Talia says about Damian to Batman, Damian is portrayed as out of control, something that continues into the next comics.
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When Damian gets to be Batcave he:
Is generally unimpressed with the Batcave
scoffs at the idea of fighting crime
starts touching Bruce's unfinished projects
Clarifies his mom was not present in his childhood and let him do whatever he wanted
Tries to fight Bruce
Dismisses Tim
Cusses out Alfred
Then in Wayne Manor
Demands a laptop
Implied to have been insulting Alfred this whole time ("My patience for colorful insults is wearing thing")
Throws food at the wall
I think any one of these things might make the presumed comic reader slightly predisposed to disliking him. All of them at once is like. "He doesn't have the morals that the rest of the cast does (they want to fight crime, he doesn't). He wants Bruce's approval but does not verbally respect him. He has no regard for fan-favorite characters like Alfred or Tim". Pretty much trying to make him unlikeable for many readers.
It's also notable that even though Damian is a jerk to Tim and Alfred, the author never presents it as being justified. It's not like "this new character is a jerk to fan-favorties because I don't like them and want to put them down".
one complaint I often see is "Morrison doesn't like Tim", but I think it's notable that Tim is portrayed as someone who's supposed to be reasonable here. He tries to be friendly to Damian when Bruce introduces them, he offers to spar with Damian and "go easy on him", even if behind the scenes he does express frustration to Bruce.
Damian also isn't really portrayed as utterly trouncing Tim. Their actual fight scene:
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Only lasts three pages, and for most of it Tim is not actually trying to fight back.
For a "Character is beat up by a 10 year old" that's a pretty gentle scene, in terms of competence of the character. He's trying to help. He's not fighting back seriously because he views Damian more as a kid than a threat. He's concerned about Alfred. I'm like jeez I wish the writers who hated Damian would be that gentle with not disparaging competence, putting in extenuating circumstances and him being genuinely concerned for people when something that wouldn't normally happen has to happen to further the plot.
Anyway - then when we do see injured Tim, the focus seems to be on the severity of the act. There's no downplaying it.
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When Bruce finds Tim, he's horrified and angry at Damian ("You did this"), he keeps Damian with him because he's too dangerous to be left alone.
So it's pretty clear that Damian beating up Tim and intending to replace him is something intended to make him more unlikeable, not something to besmirch Tim.
Okay, so why is Damian an inconvenience rather than a villain?
Damian in general lacks the motive to be a villain here. He's not framed as someone who has a big master plan - that's Talia (framed badly by Morrison who retconned a lot of her character - but that's another post).
Meanwhile, this is what Bruce says about Damian
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And when Damian is yelling about wanting stuff:
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Even when Damian does attack and assault Tim, it's clearly not due to some larger plot, or even that he genuinely hates Tim and wants him dead, but the fact that in the place he was raised, that's what you did
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And Damian is instantly ready to be on Bruce's side after his attempt to replace Tim fails:
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Yeah you're not seeing a supervillain begging to be useful to Batman. It is pretty clear he's supposed to be read a disruptive, amoral kid.
Anyway, so comparison to Lonely Place of Dying:
Both comics start with the premise that the reader presumably likes the established characters. I already got into how much LOPD relies on the comic reader being a fan of Batman and Robin, but I think it's clear here that that's the case as well. Morrison does make plenty of references to the past (whether they understand them or not is a discussion for a different time) with Bruce's previous LIs, mischaracterizing Talia and Bruce's earlier relationship, the man-bat characters, what Bruce has been up to in the one year since Infinite Crisis. They also portray Tim as someone who is generally trying to help and competent, with 1 or 2 bits of realistic pettiness or annoyance thrown in (like him saying (privately, to Bruce) that Damian should earn Bruce's love and respect like everyone else - interestingly enough, a premise Damian does not disagree with), just not the main character of the narrative. And if you include this to other things that Morrison wrote with Tim (like some of the Black Glove plots) its clear Morrison is not trying to 'depower' tim or anything.
So Damian beefing with Tim and assaulting him and Alfred is another thing that makes him read as less likeable to the audience, rather than something that puts Tim and Alfred down. This contrasts greatly to how much Tim respects and admires Dick in LOPD. In both cases, the established character (Tim for Damian, Dick for Tim) has other things going on that justify why a new character might show them up or be useful/a threat. (I got into my post in LOPD about how they were careful to not let Tim 'show up' existing characters).
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kcrabb88 · 1 year ago
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Quinlan Vos and Obi-Wan Kenobi Are Not Normal About Each Other (A Thesis Statement)
Fandom: Quinlan and Obi-Wan have had sex, but it’s a reach to think they could be in love and/or care deeply about each other in some manner, it was just physical (this is not me saying I don't think they have sex I HELLA do and I've written a lot of smut to prove it, but I've seen wayyyy too many posts that basically say they can only be romantic as Padawans and NEVER as adults and/or were just fooling around as teens and didn't have deep feelings in some way whether they're FWB or romantic partners or whatever you like)
Me: *unrolls my scroll* I'm here to make a POINT as an addendum to this post I made recently.
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Look at these little darlings! They just met and Quin's already trusting Obi-Wan, and Obi-Wan WANTS Quin to trust him. In another panel from this same comic, Quin helps Obi-Wan with his anxiety and it's very sweet.
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Quin's been struggling with the dark side while undercover, and everyone thinks he's really truly fallen and can't be brought back except for Aayla, Tholme, and, YOU GUESSED IT! Obi-Wan. He goes looking for Quinlan on his own and finds him and they chat. Plus, look at this flashback of these little nerds flirting. Quin literally falls into the river and almost dies trying to flirt with Obi-Wan.
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What do I even say about this panel??? Look at them!! Look at Quin trusting Obi-Wan with the dark parts of himself and Obi-Wan believing in him? Look at that hand clasp? Like shut up I can't take it.
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Obi-Wan refusing to leave Quinlan behind and Quinlan, stubborn Quinlan, listening to him.
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Their banter here shows how well they know and play off each other and that joke in the last panel SENDS ME.
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This is from the new comic that came out in September, and this is just ONE instance of several of Quinlan mentioning Obi-Wan, who only appears in this comic via a psychometric vision, but Quin keeps bringing him up anyways.
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I mean this is. THIS is what made me WANT to know more about Quinlan in the first place! It's not in this gif, but the way Obi-Wan smiles in this scene? The way his eyes light UP? That's love, babey.
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I could literally paste so much stuff from Dark Disciple, which to me has always been a QuinObi book in addition to Vostress. Quinlan has fallen (pretty much without understanding he has because he so badly wants to uncover Sidious) and missing his check-ins with Obi-Wan, but Obi-Wan keeps going back to their bar over and over again and he's been waiting for like, two hours at this point when Ventress comes in.
"Not him." Okay, buddy. Okay. Obi-Wan has like three panic attacks and outright defies his fellow council members at various points through this book because he believes so hard in Quinlan. He is INSISTENT that Quinlan can be brought back to the light.
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These two pages made me SOB.
"She saved Quinlan" in italics. Not just his life, but his spirit. Those italics speak for themselves. And "Vos knew he could never repay Kenobi for that, but he has the rest of his life to try." Do ya, Quin? The rest of your life, huh?
Anyhow, truly, this is just me scratching the surface as I was limited by only being able to use 10 photos in a post. I’m leaving out sooo many other examples. You don't have to ship them! But these guys care a lot about each other and saying that it's just, impossible for them to have romantic feelings on posts or fics where the creator is, indeed, shipping them is ... weird. So is trying to overlay other ships onto specifically QuinObi content.
This has been a PSA.
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hollow-lime-green · 2 months ago
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ive been sitting on my 2sorcs thoughts for so long and i just have to pop in to say….talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, showstopping and everything else lady gaga said. was expecting that last chapter to hurt but golly gee did not think the shit would be hitting the fan at such treacherous velocities. amazing work.
a few questions: will we be seeing suguru’s perspective of that clown show of a date in fellas? did he know it was a date? was he picking up what satoru was putting down? why did that go so badly for everyone involved 😭
obsessed w u and ur work. hope you’re doing well!!
💜💜💜💜💜
you are so sweet! this ask made my day :)
when you're gojo satoru, you gotta go all out. shit hit the fan at mach 5. (stay tuned for more under the cut)
we most likely won't see suguru's pov in fellas, but it might be a fun side piece tbh. i may have mentioned this in a different ask, but the whole final chapter (with some diff scenes) was originally written in suguru's pov, so like, the words are there (well i may have deleted them but they're in my mind).
suguru absolutely knew/thought it was a date, he was very much picking up what satoru was putting down, and he was indeed actively flirting and trying his best to boyfriend at any given moment (holding doors, sharing jackets, paying for food, offering to beat a guy up). we know why it went bad - because we are in satoru's head and satoru is IDIOT DOOM SPIRAL. but suguru doesn't know that, so imagine what he thinks... (he's definitely going to blame himself)
i am doing unwell, but somewhat intentionally, so it's fine. i got my first round thesis revisions 2 days ago and have blasted through them. i should be finishing my 90 pages of edits today if all goes well, which is a pretty blazing pace. the good thing is that it's mostly text/formatting/phrasing edits plus some procedural stuff (caption format, etc), and i didn't get very much criticism on my science! yay! that means i did it right! unfortunately now i have to do the word > LaTeX conversion, which I have been avoiding for a reason... (readers call in if you want to vent about LaTeX)
i'm defending on 4/10, which gives me a ton of time (most people here have about a 3 week turnaround from thesis completion to defense, mine will be about 7 weeks - my advisors are extremely hard to pin down and get responses from, so i have to compensate by having my shit extremely together)
once this is over, i can take a deep breath and go full tilt back into fanfic writing, healing my body from this, and learning french 🍁.
p.s. (secret bonus info if you made it through my ramble) if all goes well, i think you're going to get the first chapter of fellas very ahead of schedule. for reasons i think i want to post it before some of the side pieces, i think it'll set up those very well. but it means there will be a big gap between ch 1 and ch 2, so i was like, unsure about that. but i reaaaaally wanna post ch 1 so. :)
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thedreadvampy · 1 year ago
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I'm trying to give Conflict Is Not Abuse a fair shake because I think it's important to unpick overstatement of harm.
and the introduction felt really clear and coherent and strong in laying out the thesis; acts of harm occur when one of both parties construe the other as having threatened them, and often that threat is not real and could be avoided through reflection and communication.
so she swings into chapter 1 with the idea that we're all responsible for reflecting on conflict rather than immediately jumping to the worst case We Are Enemies Now scenario
ah yes. I agree.
she chooses to illustrate this idea in several ways:
If I flirt with someone I assume she might interpret it as harassment, but she should consider that we're both fine actually because Actually she's probably interested in me but struggles to recognise her own feelings.
A friend is under huge pressure and has to cancel plans last minute so she sends me an email, but I don't WANT an email so she should be understanding and spend 5-10 minutes on the phone so I feel better, and the fact she doesn't means she doesn't care about me
Sometimes Women Say No But Mean Yes
A woman I went on a date with didn't text me back. I'm going to devote 2 pages to how she's clearly full of rage at me because she's unfairly judging me for being overbearing, which is very short sighted of her. At no point in that do I offer any possible explanation for not texting other than She Despises Me.
My most charitable response here is yeah Sarah you're right we should reflect on whether we're assuming harm in arguments. Can I suggest you start by turning the mirror around real quick? cause not one of these examples involves the possibility that she might be making some assumptions of her own.
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circeius-invidioso · 1 year ago
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👏🏻 Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.👏🏻
Those 4 Liber books. Which ones you may ask.
These ones.
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Now that we are all in the same page.
✨️Let's talk about them.✨️
Not good enough to be collected.
Not bad enough to be forgotten.
And not forget them we shall.
The tall and short of the story:
They are expansion packs to the main tabletop rpg game. And you guessed correctly it add daemons etc etc.
That etc etc is.
Liber Ecstatica : Slaanesh and horny on main cults.
Liber Infectus : Nurgle and dirty plagues.
Liber Mutatis : Tzeentch and birdy mutations.
Liber Carnagia : Khorne and angy serial killers. (No the spelling error was on purpose. Cause our boy real angy)
+ an adventure on theme with the above.
A solid 3/ 10.
Unless you are a writer and need basic descriptions of daemons and fluff then its a decent 3.5/ 10.
Now.
Now that we dealt with that.
Its time.
For the tall and longer.
And in depth analysis and my personal ice cold takes and my thesis of - this would have been lit if we played the villains pov.
I could be talking about the latest books, hell I could be talking about dnd. But no me and you we are here and we are stuck and for the next 5 minutes I am the captain and I will take you on an adventure.
🐙Liber Mutatis - feat Dj BoBo and the Mutants are Alive🐙
Nothing gets me more going than referances that weren't funny even in 2007.
What the book adds to gameplay?
Mutations. From bird beaks to tentacle limbs in case you decide to multipraise Slaanesh on the side.
Because you aren't just a chicken worshipper, you are a wizard and what best way to show it that gaining an additional 30 eyeballs for all those books you want to read.
This book is your one stop to fond some very basic mutations to add to a game.
And when I say basic. I mean basic, don't expect great stuff. But I guess this might have been part of the plan...
What's the included adventure like?
You team goes in a town to find why all those apprentices have been taking such a long unauthorized day off.
Well they were kidnapped by a cult with a ringleader being a shop keeper with a Lord of Change tranformed as a parrot named Bobo that births pink eggs.
Then they feed those pink eggs to create mutant bird people.
Your job is to stop it. Not the most original ideal... but what would it be if you played the adventure from the cultists pov?
Dj Bobo and his gang of squidmen
You heard the adventure of the heroes. But how would it be if you were the bad guy?
🐙 One player would pretend to be the shopkeeper with his pet parrot that births oversized pink eggs and you have to smuggle them and hide the fact from the people who came to stop you in the city.
🐙 The second will be the immortal nun with only her face intact in the soup house cooking for the poor and using the eggs to create mutant by trying to convince the people that those pink eggs are totally edible what do you mean eggs are not pink. Maybe you are seeing things...
🐙 The third one is squidward at the gates. Basically a war veteran that lost his legs. But jokes on them. The big bird man gave you tentacles and you will be wizzing throught the sewers like a getski.
🐙 The fourth will be the person kidnapping those student wizard kids, bagging them up and send them to the ritual site alongside your grizzled unshaven gang of pain assistants.
🐙 Finally someone can even take the role of the bird. Blasting eggs before the time of the summoning happens when they will be blasting magic and turning the whole city into a lethal rave.
🪲Liber Infectus- Grandaddy Nurgle's Black Death Clown Parade🪲
If only I was joking... stick around and find out more...
What the book adds to gameplay?
A wide selection of how you and your players can seriously get down with the sickness.
Besides that all the basic nasty descriptions about the warps most unwashed denizens. Basic. But we all start from somewhere, like how a rash develops into a mouth and eats the person living next door.
What's the included adventure like?
Evil doctor spreads a plague you are there to stop it etc etc. You can see where this goes from the words "initial symptom development".
Those sick clowns I mentioned
On the final part of the adventure a clown parade, with music and performers and everything. Pops in town and is ready to kick pc ass.
And the only thing I got to say is.
Why can't I play their pov.
The idea of five sick honk honk clowns in a cart playing music and spreading the literal word on nurgle with a mutant strapped on the back. Sounds like a wild adventure.
It sounds a lot more enjoyable than sitting around asking people "so when did the first symptom begin and how are you feeling?"
Give me the clowns. With their dancing plague and their bouncing nurglings on a wacky adventure to evade the law.
Fast and furiously popping knees and bursting shins.
⚘️Liber Carnagia- Renaming Khorne into Gandhi ⚘️
Again. Wait and I will explain this as well.
What the book adds to gameplay?
Nothing. Of value. Is it obvious that this one was my least favorite?
Whats the included adventure like?
Theres a magical angy spear and your job is to be beaten down and not kill anyone. Just sit with your thumb-tacks up your ass and do nothing.
That's what the adventure is.
In the book of Khorne what you are asked to do is not fight anyone.
The irony is so deep, I screamed that's deep bro and a lovecraftian horror responded from the chasm "I know".
Putting the K of Killer back into Khorne
A murder hobo adventure. That's it. It's a lot better than going to a besieged nun house and sitting on the grass asking those raiders to pretty please let go of the hostages.
Chaos, mayhem. If I was the dm I'd put everyone in a nonr stop 4 hour rollercoaster of blood, guts, bullets and norwegian death metal music playing in the background before they all die gloriously into a massive raid burning imperial churches.
Then go to hell, become daemons and be yeeted back into the mortal world to kick even more ass.
🪷Liber Ecstatica- And the Dick Measuring Olympics 🪷
The title will again make sense soon I swear.
What the book adds to gameplay?
Cults, anything you need to know about a basic degenerate cult. From poison chuggers to vape huffers and even vegetable shovers.
This is your one stop to make a bare bones cult for your games.
What's the included adventure like?
A girl is being chased after many eligible bachelors of the city.
And your job is to stop them from doing so.
How did this adventure start?
A rich old dude didn't like that an "average" in his eyes poor, low noble had admirers. So obviously its witchcraft.
The reason is as sound as an airplane made of shredded cheese. And the book is weidly mean about it.
Like the girl is fine. But everyone is like "she is not a busty noble that cries gold so obviously theres foul play, also have I told you that she is average".
Oh the crimes against humanity. If the adventure began and the noble was like "yeah my son flayed himself while screaming her name" then sure. I'd be calling foul play.
Busting a Nut not Busting a Move
The same but instead of having 10 men fighting over a decent, everyday girl its Danny Devito art critic and the whole team tries to complete the ritual and avoiding the witch hunters from burning their "beauty".
We are already dealing with a daemon that has magically roofied the local men in order to be freed from a magical mirror. We might as well make it into a comedy skit.
This is a game about the ultimate degenerates, extreme is the only word we must know. And you know what would be even better.
All of the players are grade A spandex bdsm supermodels and have to promote gollum as a drop dead nuke level bombshell.
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thirdnap · 1 year ago
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Hello,
Here is the life update of my past 4 years.
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I began this blog many years ago in 2012 when I was only 14 years old, and I then slowly gained the courage to start posting art at 17 when I joined the K fandom. It's wild to think that I am now 25!
I was never quite consistent in posting since I only shared my art here whenever I felt like it, but it slowed down ever so gradually to basically 1 post a year for Yata’s birthday. This blog helped me with my fear of showing my art to others as I was incredibly embarrassed of my work for a really long time.
I soon moved to the USA from my homeland and attended animation school for 1 year, and then studied illustration and visual development for 4 years and I managed to accomplish many things I never could have imagined. I graduated with honors this past May, was selected by the faculty and head of department as my major’s trustee scholar, completed my 84-page art book thesis, got a few pieces into the Society of Illustrators, and my school even shot a mini docu-film about me, my art and my life where I got to share my upbringing. Art school was very demanding and at times tough but I managed to get a lot out of it :)
In July of this year, I moved to California from Florida and I’m much happier than I’ve ever been. I come from a very small country so I never expected to get this far in the art world. I drew Yata for fun in my bedroom whenever I wanted to and now I’m in LA breaking into the animation industry (receiving my first credit too!)
the drawings I share here are a very very small part of the illustrations I make weekly. I wish I could share them with everyone as I’m very proud of them but I enjoy separating my fandom life from my real life a little too much! Surprisingly I am working as a background artist at the moment despite never drawing backgrounds in this blog lol. I think many of you would be surprised at how different my work is from irl!!
It hasn’t always been great, so I don't want to make it seem like it's been all perfect. I’ve had many hard times too and at the moment I am extremely homesick since I haven't returned home in a long time but I think these are needed sacrifices.
However, I'm excited for 2024. I'm looking forward to growing as an artist and my goal is to continue to have fun with art as much as I have right now. I think I’m lucky to have a great support system including my best friend @fuurais who has been by my side for 10+ years and I managed to convert into a K artist too <3
Thank you for the support, for the kind messages, and for the excitement every time I post. I am always happy when I think of this blog and the friends I made. I unironically think about Yata every day as he is past being my comfort character tbh. I am currently writing this with full-on orange hair that I've had for a few years now lol.
I don’t think I’ll be as active as I was at 17 but I will try to not ghost this blog completely. There are a lot of things I haven’t drawn yet that I really want to do and I'd love to share those drawings with everyone.
Lots of love -
Tael <3
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apinchofm · 27 days ago
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9 + Jane and Guildford
Using your partner's phone and discovering a note that has all of your likes/dislikes/food orders etc. written.
Requested by @angel-starbeam
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Jane knew that Guildford could be a little wild. He was charismatic, and he was her first real relationship. But he was always eager for her to be comfortable.
They were hanging out at her flat, an old TV show on the TV when Jane wondered if he was hungry.
"Sure. Want to order in? Just use my phone." Guildford said, handing it to her.
Jane smirked, "You know, you don't need to let me make every decision."
He shrugged bashfully, "You always choose the best food. I'm going to the loo." He jumped up from the couch and went to the home page.
She noticed that there was a notes icon, with Jane underneath - that was curious. She pressed it and was surprised by what she saw. It was all about her.
Jane
- Loop earplugs for when we go out to gigs. She gets overstimulated.
- Pre-order The History of Faeries in Scotland, second edition (06/10)
- Make sure there are no raw onions in the burger. Caramelised only.
- Inhaler - remind her to refill before Peak District trip.
- Really adorable when she blushes.
Jane smiled to herself. She didn't realise he noticed these things. Wrote them down so he would never forget. It was so sweet.
She left the notes page and ordered from the Thai place they both liked and put his phone down on the coffee table when he returned.
"Uh, food is on the way." Jane said, a faint blush on her cheeks "Thanks."
"No problem." Guildford replied, sitting down and throwing his arm around her shoulders, "So, I recorded the documentary series on the history of witch trials. We can start if you like?"
"It's a study thing and I'd like to watch a film you like." Jane insisted, "Really. Explain to me why Fight Club is amazing."
He raised an eyebrow, "Only if you want to? I know how important this chapter in your thesis is." .
Jane kissed him on the cheek, "We can put aside study for one night."
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midoribleak · 19 days ago
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While you're at it, can you elaborate on tier S?
Brilliant idea while im here
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Most of S is tied in quality besides TPWHIWIM, which is an alright book but im biased toward because of Colettes appearance. I already elaborated on why I like deluxe so much in a different post!
You can bet on that:
I’ve probably talked about why I like it before, but if you know me, I love jamie and angeline’s dynamic in the books. This book plays on both their respective personalities SO WELL it’s the whole plot basically, it’s a FUN plot. Angeline has to be mean, Jamie has to be nice. Isabella is a riot as an outside force pushing them to their limits. It’s really just the best book for showing off the three girls’ bases. S tier because of the title, memorability, jokes, plot twists, and everything is tied up nicely. 10/10. Im a little sad by how Jamie treats her mom but alas she is just a girl
Live each day to the dumbest:
This book is one of maybe two or three that deals with a serious topic!! Jamie’s grandma dies and her family is grieving. Her and Isabella get to read her grandma’s (Spoiler its actually her grandpas) diary. Angeline is only a small part of the story, but it’s still a really good story. I actually really like Hudson and Jamie’s moments here, one of Hudson’s better appearances for sure. Jamie learns really important lessons and it feels like she definitely grows up a bit. The art also depicts her slightly older somehow i swear. It’s S tier because I just like how it handles everything. I don’t remember AS many jokes but it’s really interesting and it’s also… the first time she left pages blank in her diary. I’m also a sucker for when the DDD books break their mold, so.
That’s what friends aren’t for:
I could NEVER get my hands on this book when i was younger bro. But i love the small insight of Jamie being jealous of Isabella and Angeline hanging out together. This book is hilarious, and also introduces lots of characters. The art definitely has a play in the jokes, Emmily kills it as always as a supporting role, and there’s a funny bit I’ve reposted before where Jamie writes Angeline’s name like this the entire time because she doesn’t want to admit they’re friends yet. I can’t explain why but this book just has another really good situation that explores all three girls’ characters and there’s some cool Aunt Carol and Uncle Devon cameos too. For some reason this book feels really humble but I also can’t articulate why HAHA
The worst things in life are also free:
SUMMER BOOK!! Theyre hanging out in da summer. Emmily has a bigger role, and Isabella works SO WELL off her. I love Angeline being miffed about Isabella abusing Emmily. I like them all trying to work together to earn money to go to themepark, and this is an one-sided early truce between Jamie and Angeline where she tries to be civil. Makes for some funny internal conflict to read about. The humor carries this book hard. Always will make me giggle. Also Ang Jamie and Emm all get haircuts.
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Nobody’s perfect, I’m as close as it gets:
I always have trouble finding this book when I need it, but if I remember right Isabella and Jamie join a bunch of clubs to pad out their permanent record. I like Angeline feeling left out, the scheming is a cornerstone for Isabella and it’s cool to see Jamie being dragged along when we usually only hear about her bastardly plans. I like Angeline saving them in the end from being caught, I like the background plot kind of with the meatloaf and it’s super cool that there’s ratifications for the rest of the series. It’s a simply book, but sometimes simple and funny is what makes the series so good. Classic Isabella and Jamie adventure.
The problem with here is it’s where I’m from:
Colette is a GREAT anti-thesis for Angeline. Imagine combining Angeline’s looks and Isabella’s wits. I’m so sad she never appears again because she’s from a different school. I love how she plots to take away Angeline’s title and how well she gets along with Isabella, and then isabella being the one who ultimately sniffs her out??? Such a cool character man. Jamie really doesn’t do much in this book HAHA she’s kind of just observing the chaos, but that’s fine. This book would probably be B tier if it weren’t for Colette—-but then again, Colette *is* the book.
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podraje · 4 months ago
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It's 4th of January, I am still away and that's what's been keeping me from doing a 2025 goals list, but I'd love to finally do it.
In 2025:
🐍 I want to buy a hanging calendar (monthly) and put it over my desk. Writing monthly goals with deadlines works wonders for me, and I want to be able to see them at all time.
🐍 I want to get rid of my old notebooks from Uni, and buy a beautiful one, to keep my writing notes and ideas in, so I would have it all in one place while writing on my computer. Because now I have some in my phone notes, in google docs, on pinterest, in old notebook that is not aesthetically pleasing and full of ripped pages, etc. This technique worked well when I was writing my master's thesis.
🐍 I want to have at least as good of writing year as I did in 2024 (my best year writing-wise [propably ever]). I hope my calendar will help me with this.
🐍 I want to read more books that'll keep me inspired (remember how reading Lockwood and Co kick-started my 2024 writing? That was incredible feeling 😭). I just want inspiration ✨️ I love how new worldbuilding ideas are coming to me, I love this so much, I just need to figure out the plot, cause it's not going where I wanted it to and I need to get back on track, without going back and rewriting 10th chapter again (since there isn't much to change, just like, four lines, but I like them and that's the problem).
🐍 Honestly? I don't want a busy year. I barely noticed and celebrated 2024, I felt disconnected to it, to the natural cycle. I want less work related travels. I want to spend more time with family and friends - so more home related travels (2024 was lacking in that department) and I want to be able to have free weekends in the summer to go for swimming and go for walks, and ride a bike 🌊🚴‍♂️🚶🏼‍♀️
🐍 I want to have summer vacation abroad with my bf (we never had a chance to go abroad together). If this LONG stay in his home village taught me anything, it's that I hate leaving home for too long. So I guess a 5 days vacation will be the best option. Maybe a city break? Cause I like those the most.
🐍 I want to go ice skating (with my bf, because WE NEVER DID IT TOGETHER, which is insane to me, because in my hometown there was an ice skate rink, and I was skating with everyone all the time. And we have been together for almost 6 years, and never went ice skating!!! 😱 [because in the city where we live, ice skate rink is expensive and used to have crazy skating times, and you had to book them and it was a whole thing, and I was pissed off at this. Thank God they changed it]).
🐍 I would love to go skiing! I have been skiing since I was 10, mostly because my hometown is near mountains, and now, my beloved city is far away from everything (!!!!!), so a mountain trip would have to take a whole weekend. But I (after almost 6 years, good Lord 🙈) found out, that in my bf's home region there is ONE (1) ski slope and this is the closest one --- wait I just checked it in google, and IT'S NOT THE ONLY ONE, I AM PISSED. But tbh, even If I knew about it before, we didn't have a car, so we wouldn't be able to go skiing either way. Owning a car does wonders. Too bad we didn't have the time to use it too much (for fun things) in 2024. I WANT TO GO SKI!!! (I also want to take my bf, because he never went skiing, and I think he will propably hate it, because he has knees issues, but I would love for him to at least try/be with me).
🐍 We will start the process of apartment hunting, so by the end of the 2025, I would want to have at least a clear situation - will we be buying off the one we are currently renting, or will we be buying something new? Some verbal agreements with the potential seller would be nice.
🐍 I wish to get engaged this year 🙈🙉 I am not getting any younger, and I am the type of girl who needs to be married to have children. And I would like to have a child sometime around 30.
🐍 Last but not least, I need to start going to the gym. I have a sitting lifestyle and it took a toll on my health and condition. I want to start running and gain some muscle, because I am the weakest bitch you know. I tried running outside, but it's just not for me. I used to go to the gym when I was a teenager and I liked running on the threadmill (also my friend inspired me, she only goes to the gym for the threadmill, and for some reason I thought you can't do that 😅). Also, I want to start going to the pool. Same thing as the ice skating - used to go very often, but now in my city there aren't a lot of cheap, city pools, and most of those are on the other side of the town. Once again the car will help me move around the city more quickly.
🐍 OH! Also I forgot - I need to take care of my guitar. I haven't played it in around 2 years, and it sits sad in the corner. My resolution is to play it at least a little this year. Maybe replace the strings, because they have ~10 years 😅 Maybe buy a guitar stand. If it's out of the case, it would take less effort to take it and play 😅
I think that's it? It seems like a lot, but many of those will be accomplished right when I'm back home (ice skating, calendar buying, notebook). And most of those are just a lifestyle plans. I want to take things slowly, appreciate the cycle of the year and the nature. Spent more time outside and have more free weekends to do fun shit.
-> A bonus wish would be to go camping once this summer, but that might be a difficult to accomplish, since we don't own a tent (and I'm not sure if anyone we know owns one).
Everyone is making new year's vision boards, so I will make emoji board, cause I'm lazy and don't really want to do a vision board. But like, emojis that would encapsulate the vibes I want, seems like fun idea.
❄️🌬⛄️⛷️⛸️🎿✒️📚🎸📸🌻💍🎬🌲🏕🌿🌊🚲🛤☀️🏊🌄
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friend-of-wisdom · 8 months ago
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100/100 days of productivity
Friday, September 27th 2024
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WE DID IT!!!!! After almost two years, I got to the end of this challenge!!!! It really motivated me, to be real. Thinking about writing for myself as well as telling yall about my daily achievements motivated me to finish writing assignments, not giving up reading research papers, reading books... And now I also have a written online diary of all of those moments that I can be proud of! I can read them and feel motivated again, see how much progress I've made.
I do have more things to say at the end of the post, but let's take a moment to see what I've done today!
worked on burocracy
finally went to the medical lab to do another round of medical examinations
read 2 whole articles!!!! they're part of the articles I needed to read for my research. The first one was only 6 pages, but the second one was 21 pages and they both were REALLY helpful for my thesis. I made so many relevant annotations that I'll use!!
wrote a whole page of my thesis (now i have 10 pages in total!! which is so good!!)
studied japanese for around 30 minutes
I wanted to write more today but I was already so tired! So I rested by playing a bit of Papa's Freezeria, watching one episode of Grey's Anatomy and a few episodes of Winx. I also played with my cat and spent some time with my bf (i actually went to his house to read articles lol but we had lunch together as well).
I want to thank you all that have been following my journey in this blog, that have liked and reblogged, or commented. It's really nice to have interactions with other studyblrs or just people that are interested in academics in general!
I have some plans with my friends for this weekend. Also going to take some time to dye my hair and cut my bf's hair. But the studying never stops! I'll come back with a new challenge, or a new type of posts that I have yet to decide. Anyways, I'm so glad I got here!!!
Remember, productivity can be tiring, and you all deserve rest and fun. Don't worry too much about being productive all the time - enjoy life. Doesn't matter if it takes 100 days, or 1 year, or 2, or 3 years to complete a challenge like this 100 days challenge. It's your pace and you should respect it!
xoxo, Liz 📚✨
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chaotic-history · 10 months ago
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"While waiting [for Émilie], [Voltaire] seemed attached to several horses, for he had made the little 'abbé' Linant come to Rouen and even offered hospitality to another young man named Lefebvre, a budding poet aged 20 like the other, and like a certain Lamare, the third ephebos that he cosseted and who was also an abbot. The first had already made a trip to Paris to keep his acquaintance with [Lord Bolingbroke]. This boy seems to have had equivocal relations with Cideville, which makes this phrase from a letter from Voltaire from May 29 to this advisor, a letter prior to the return of the 'chubby abbot', amusing: 'When he wants to come back to Paris, I will rent him a hole near my house; he will furthermore be the master of dinner and supper every day in my retreat.' He practically offered him to share his bed. The presence of these two young men by him distinctly reminds one of the young 'writers' that the abbé Desfontaines, the famous pederast, had had near him for so long, and who served at once as mignons and secretaries. Even if he did not take up with them the liberties that he had formerly had with Thieriot in M. Alain's study, he still cherished this extreme familiarity with young people." - Voltaire et Frédéric II by Roger Peyrefitte.
FIRST off, why are we stating as fact that any "liberties" happened with Thieriot. There is zero proof. There is circumstantial evidence in that you could interpret V's letters to Thieriot as being kinda gay and then infer that "liberties" occurred, but even if we are interpreting the letters as gay, that's still a big jump to make from 'V felt more than just friendship for Thieriot' to 'they definitely slept together', which there's no real evidence for.
Second of all, there is no evidence of anything going on with Linant. Nancy Mitford suggested it as well, with the reasoning being that Linant was stupid and useless and why else would V keep him around, which is the same argument that's been used for V and Thieriot being gay. But a relationship between V and Linant being a possible explanation for something does not mean that that's evidence for a relationship, and Mitford doesn't cite anything V wrote as potential proof. And also like. The man resorted to full-on referring to his plays + la Henriade as his children to an extent and (unofficially) adopted Marie-Françoise and pretty much Reine Philiberte and Villette as well. And reading the letters about Linant from V to Cideville, and V talking about Linant's improvements in writing, it very much sounds like he's just proud of Linant and sees himself as a father figure. Again, also just a possibility, but it works equally well as an explanation and it fits into an already established pattern, plus it's based on what V actually wrote.
Thirdly, I would like to emphasise the "aged 20". "Aged 20" is not the same as what the "famous pederast" was doing.
Fourthly, saying that that quote about Linant coming back to Paris is "practically offering him to share his bed" is the single most batshit far-fetched gay interpretation I have ever seen in my life, and I was in the Hamilton fandom for three years. Genuinely how do you even get there. Bitch could've invited Linant to stay with him but he specifically said he'd rent him a different place. How does that equate to inviting him into his bed. This part alone is what's gonna convince me of Peyrefitte's bottom V thesis cause I can interpret two letters in that way and I can no longer be self-conscious about how I interpret literally anything, because it's still gonna be 10 miles more sane and evidenced than anything Peyrefitte's said.
@enlitment I apologise deeply for making you read this, but here's a taste of why the book sucks... Turns out I actually stopped reading on page 20 lol cause that's where my yelling at Peyrefitte in the margins stops.
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fluentmoviequoter · 1 year ago
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hey I have another request since you asked to keep them coming. how about academic rivals with victor vale (lockland era) turned to allies (*cough* lovers) fighting against eli? it would be also awesome for reader to be an EO <33
I am so so so sorry about the long wait, but thank you for being patient! This request is amazing and I hope I did it justice; it's my first time writing rivals to lovers allies, so I hope it's okay! Please feel free to leave feedback and let me know what you think. Thanks again for the great requests!🤍
Warnings: angst, fluff, discussions of death and EOs, reader's ability is discussed (it's controlling vehicles), reader and Victor call each other stupid/just are generally mean to each other, spoilers for Vicious. I think that's all?
Word Count: ~4.6k words
A/N: We need more Victor Vale gifs.
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10 Years Ago - Lockland
You’re sitting in the quiet library, tapping your pen against your lower lip as you look back and forth between the open textbook and your nearly full notebook. The Comprehensive Science Seminar is ending, and it’s time to declare a thesis. You’ve been fighting through this course and are struggling to find the perfect topic. An idea pops into your head, and you scribble it on the last page of your notebook. As you pull the pen away, someone drops a paper onto your book.
“Wow, 95. You must be so proud,” you say emotionlessly, pushing the paper across the table as the owner, Victor Vale, sits across from you.
“It’s alright. What’d you get?” Victor asks, and you swear you see the hint of a smile.
“I don’t know, I haven’t been in to see Professor Lyne yet. No doubt it’s a 96 or higher.” You send him a fake smile before looking back at your notes.
“Hmm. And your thesis?”
“Yours?”
Victor stares at you before shrugging. “Coming along nicely.”
“Mine too. Now if you don’t mind.”
“Right, right. I wouldn’t want to bother Lockland’s number 2 student. See you tomorrow.”
“Not if there’s any hope in the world.”
You pinch the bridge of your nose and groan quietly. I need a better thesis if I want to beat him, you think, and open a different textbook.
14 Years Ago - Lockland
“Mr. Vale, you will be paired with… your neighbor, nice planning,” the professor announces.
He continues down the list as you look over at Mr. Vale.
“I’ll handle it,” he mutters, reaching for the worksheet.
You slap a hand onto it, stopping him as you argue, “That’s not gonna work for me. I don’t really need the fate of my GPA in… those hands.”
The corner of his lip twitches up for just a moment. “Well these hands happen to have a better GPA than you. So, if it works for you, I’ll give yours a little boost. They love charity work here, it’s like an extracurricular.”
“Well, as much as I appreciate that,” you bite out, “I don’t trust you or your high GPA hands. So we do it together, or I take the A and tell everyone that you didn’t demonstrate the signature ‘Lockland Teamwork.’”
Victor cracks his neck before pushing the paper toward your side of the lab table. “Fine. But if we don’t do well on this I will make sure you never show your face at Lockland again.”
“Yeah, we’ll see how you feel after you lose your title of highest GPA, Vale.”
10 Years Ago - Lockland
“All right. It’s time to declare your thesis,” Professor Lyne announces.
You stare at the back of Victor’s head, two thesis options on a notecard on your desk. Are you waiting to see what he picks? Maybe. But you’re one or two higher grades away from taking Victor’s class ranking, and you will do it. If it’s the last thing you do.
Professor Lyne goes through his warnings about what makes a good thesis, and then you drown everything out. Bouncing your leg, you hope this goes well.
“And you, Mr. Vale?” Professor Lyne asks, pulling you from your thoughts.
You see Victor look at Eli, then he turns and glances at you. Your brows furrow as he answers, “Adrenal inducers.”
Professor Lyne begins to argue, and Victor adds, “Adrenaline and its physical and emotional inducers and consequences. Biochemical thresholds. Fight or flight, That kind of thing.”
Watching with bated breath, you’re surprised when Professor Lyne nods and says, “Don’t make me regret it.”
You can practically feel the victory radiating off Victor as Professor Lyne turns his attention to you, sitting between Eli and Victor, a row behind. You state your first thesis idea, and Professor Lyne tilts his head as he nods.
“Excellent choice,” he says. “Eli Cardale.”
You take a deep breath, a small smile on your face. This smile, however, falls as Eli answers.
“EOs,” Eli says calmly.
You don’t hear the rest of the conversation until the end when Professor Lyne concedes with a simple: “Fine.”
Fine? you think. He’s going to kill someone; he’s insane.
Victor follows Eli outside, and for a brief moment, you’re concerned, then you realize that his concern for his psycho friend may give you the advantage you need.
You can win even after sacrificing a pawn, after all.
With your entire focus on beating Victor, you hardly notice that you haven’t seen him around as much. At least until you learn he tried to kill himself. After an internal war, wondering if you should visit him, you get in your car and drive to the hospital where he is.
When you find his room, you knock on the door. “Hey.”
“What are you doing here?” he asks.
“Wow. Great to see you too, oh, it was no problem to come down and see you,” you respond.
Victor shakes his head. “Thanks, I guess. Why are you here?”
You shrug. “I figured I could apologize, since my amazing thesis drove you to such lengths.”
Victor barks out a harsh laugh. “You wish this was about you.”
“Then what’s it about?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Right, because I’m just a stupid girl whose GPA isn’t as high as yours and my mommy and daddy don’t write self-help books that end up with cryptic, messed-up messages.”
“See? Don’t understand.”
“Well, then, in that case, I’ll get going. I’ve got an ‘excellent’ thesis to work on. See ya, Vale, unless they finally see that it’s not just smart up there.”
You walk out, fuming. Victor is a lot of things, and infuriating is at the top of the list. He thinks you’re too stupid to understand? You’d bet money you know what happened.
In your car, you look down at your phone and find Eli’s number, prepared to check your hypothesis that he was involved. It rings as you drive, and you hear Eli answer just before you see a truck swerve into your lane.
10 Years Ago - Lockland Medical Center
You gasp for air when you wake up. Doctors and nurses are surrounding you; one pulls an adrenaline shot away as the others keep you still to tend to your wounds. Losing control is something you don’t usually feel, and you don’t like it. Their voices fade as your blinks grow slower, control slipping from your grasp.
The light in the hospital room is not helpful in your battle to open your eyes. When your surroundings become clear, you see the date on the wall. Your thesis is due tomorrow.
“Um, excuse me?” you ask a passing nurse. “I really need to get going, I have a thesis due.”
“Someone is on their way to talk with you,” she says kindly before hurrying out.
Professor Lyne’s assistant knocks on the door a few minutes later, sorrow and hurt in his eyes. “I was sorry to hear about your accident, but I’m glad you’re doing better. Modern medicine is something to behold.”
“Right,” you mumble. “And my thesis?”
“You’ll receive full credit for the course and have an indefinite extension. Professor Lyne…” His voice catches, and he clears his throat before continuing, “Professor Lyne had an accident at the school. He passed away yesterday.”
“He’s gone?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I reviewed your thesis draft with him the previous day and he was very impressed, so when you are able to submit it, I have no doubt you will receive praise.”
A tear rolls down his cheek, and he hastily excuses himself. Professor Lyne was impressed; you wonder if he reviewed Victor’s work. Or if Victor even did any work after his “accident.”
“Hello?” you ask, answering your phone.
“Hey, it’s Eli. Victor tried to kill me,” Eli says quickly.
“Eli?” you ask after a moment. “When did Victor get released?”
“Focus! Vic. Tried. To. Kill. Me,” he repeats slowly.
You probably deserved it, you think. Instead of saying that, you ask, “But you’re okay?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Victor is messed up though.”
“Eli, why are you telling me this?”
“Think about it. He tolerates me, but he hates you. Just be careful.”
Eli ends the call, and you decide he’s crazier than you thought. You glance around the hospital room, stopping to look out the window and feel a strange buzzing sensation as a truck passes outside. It swerves onto the curb, then the buzzing fades, and the driver corrects his mistake and keeps driving. Weird.
“Ma’am, I have the paperwork here if you’re ready to leave,” a nurse informs you.
“Oh, I am,” you answer, reaching for the pen.
9 Years Ago - Lockland
You walk the stage and accept your degree. The small class in your Comprehensive Science Seminar receives a special ceremony. Except for the two who didn’t submit their theses: Victor Vale and Eli Cardale. You thought that if either of them went to jail, it would be Eli. After hearing what Victor did to Angie Knight, you realize that maybe your academic hatred for him stemmed from a deeper understanding of his character.
It happens again when you leave the ceremony to enter the next part of your life and start a new job with your new degree. You look at a truck and feel a buzzing before it swerves. You step back, and it doesn’t stop; at the last second before impact, you flip your hand to the side, and the truck rolls over, stopping in the middle of the road.
You look between your hand and the truck, and worry fills your mind as you realize Eli was right.
Two Weeks Ago - Wrighton Penitentiary 
“Who’re you here to see?”
“Victor Vale,” you answer.
The disinterested guard taps a few keys on a computer. “He was in solitary for a long time. Folks like that don’t usually get visitors.”
You nod. “It’s been a long time. He’s not in solitary anymore, so I can see him, right?”
The guard huffs before pushing a clipboard through the small opening in the bulletproof glass. “Sign these, then go through the metal detectors. They’ll show you where to go.”
“Thank you.”
You rush through the paperwork and then through the security checkpoint. Sitting in front of the bulletproof divider, you tap your fingers on the metal table, glancing between the phone and the door. When Victor enters, his eyes land on you, as cold and hateful as ever.
“Hey,” you say into the phone after he picks the other side up.
“What do you want?”
“That’s your go-to line, isn’t it?”
“It’s been years,” Victor spits out your last name, “why now?”
You look around before lowering your voice to say, “He was right and you know something.”
“Who?”
“Eli. Who else, Victor? The guy you… injured.”
“What exactly do you want from me?”
“Answers! And don’t tell me that I won’t understand, I’m the one with a college degree and you’re in a jail cell,” you snap.
“Top of the class?” You nod, and Victor mumbles, “Just because I dropped out.”
“I would’ve beat your little ‘flight or fight’ thesis and you know it. Now tell me what happened.”
“Nothing happened and nothing is going to happen. My time’s up. Bye.”
He slams the phone and storms out, not sparing a glance over his shoulder. The ache you refused to acknowledge disappears as he does. That’s what I thought, you think.
You spend the next few days trying to figure out what power Eli has. If Victor attempted to kill him and failed, then Eli must be invincible. There’s a way around that; there has to be. Staying near the prison wasn’t a conscious choice, but you’re less than a mile away, just in case.
One Week Ago - Wrighton Penitentiary 
Reading on your porch, you don’t expect to witness someone trying to steal your car. Focusing, you rev the engine and flash the headlights as you walk toward them.
“I knew I was smarter than you, but I didn’t think you were this much of an idiot,” you tell Victor.
“How did you do that?” he asks.
“I already told you, I know more than you think.”
“We need your car,” Victor says.
“Not without me. You can take it, on the condition I go with it.”
“Absolutely not. Give me the keys or we’ll take it another way,” Victor threatens.
You square your shoulders and look into his eyes with the same tenacity and stubbornness he hated in college.
“How? Gonna hurt me again; use the pain to distract me? Is that your thing?”
The man with him looks back and forth between you.
“You don’t know half as much as you think you do.”
You rev the engine and watch Victor’s eyes move to the car. “I know that you and Eli are EOs. And I know that you’re both crazy, but you’re not quite as crazy. Now, do you want to stand here until you get caught or take me up on the offer and get out of here?”
“I don’t want you coming with us,” he snaps.
You see a police car approaching and direct it into a U-turn to send it in the other direction.
“You’re-”
“An EO? Thought you were smart enough to notice, Vale. Last chance: car or no car?”
“Fine,” he concedes as sirens grow louder. “But I’m driving.”
“Not a chance. Besides, I can control it from the passenger seat, idiot.”
Victor rolls his eyes as he rushes to the passenger side, sitting low in the seat as his (friend? acquaintance?) lays down in the backseat. You introduce yourself quickly.
“Mitch,” he answers. “Thanks for covering for us.”
“Mostly you, Mitch.”
“So I’ve heard,” he mumbles.
“Where are we going?” you ask.
“We can go to my parents’ house. They’re on a book tour,” Victor answers.
“Of course they are. Then what?”
“We find him.”
You nod, directing police cars past you as you turn off of the main road.
“And kill him, I presume? Since you failed last time,” you add.
“How do you know about that?”
“He called me. Warned me that since you hated me more than him, I was probably next.”
“And you didn’t care?”
“I was in the hospital, so yeah, it wasn’t really a top priority.”
“How’d you die?” Mitch asks. “Sorry, is that insensitive? I’m new to the Extra-Ordinary thing.”
“It should be insensitive, but it’s fine,” you answer gently. Softer than you’ve ever talked to Victor. “I was in a car accident after I visited Prince Vale over here after his overdose. A failed attempt at getting superpowers, I realize now.”
“You were in a wreck? I didn’t know,” Victor says, pulling himself up into the seat.
“I’m shocked,” you answer sarcastically, “because you always cared so much about me. We hate each other, Victor, I didn’t expect flowers.”
Victor nods and tells you how to get to his parents’ house. Mitch sighs after each of his hurtful comments, but you’re immune to them.
10 Days Ago - On the Road
“They’re back,” Mitch says, looking at the armored truck out the back window.
“I can get them off our trail, for good, but it will put a target on our back,” you offer.
“Not alone, you can’t,” Victor argues.
You nod. “Then what do we do?”
“Stop the car.”
You do as he says, telling Mitch to get down as you and Victor get out of the car.
“I am smart enough to do this by myself,” you whisper.
“Sure you are,” Victor replies. “Flip it and I’ll finish them off.”
“Okay,” you breathe out before focusing on flipping the vehicle end over end into a roadside ditch.
You watch as Victor approaches the cracked windshield. Closing your eyes as if it will protect you against the pained screams, you hear the last officer take his final breath before Victor returns to the car.
“Let’s go,” he hurries you. “If it helps your conscience, you didn’t kill any of them, just hurt them.”
If only you could believe that.
One Week Ago - Vale House
“Is that who I think it is?” you ask, looking over Mitch’s shoulder.
“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him,” Mitch answers. “Is it? This just says ‘Civilian Hero Saves Bank.’”
“Yeah, that’s Eli Cardale. He hasn’t aged a day, though.”
You’re leaning over onto the table, reading the article when Victor enters.
“What’s so interesting?” Victor asks.
“Mitch found Eli,” you answer.
“Where?”
He joins you, his arm brushing against yours, and for once, you don’t immediately pull away.
“Merit,” Mitch says. “He’s some kind of vigilante.”
You and Victor make the same sound: muted amusement covered by exasperation. Mitch looks at you, then back to the screen.
“The article doesn’t say his name? I thought he’d want the fame,” you add.
“He doesn’t. He thinks God sent him back to take care of EOs.”
“Eli Cardale thinks he’s God? That makes sense.”
“Ever. He changed his name to Eli Ever.”
“Someone was jealous of someone else’s alliteration, Peter Parker,” you point out, smiling as Victor sighs.
The night before you leave for Merit, you ask Mitch to find Victor’s records, reading the reports of both deaths - his overdose and the one he caused. After his overdose, no one told you he died, and you had no idea about what happened with Angie.
“What are you doing?” Victor asks, suddenly behind you.
“Getting answers,” you reply, turning the computer off and walking away.
Victor follows you through the large glass doors onto the deck.
“So it’s okay for you to go digging around in my past when you won’t answer a single question about yours?” Victor snaps.
“What do you want to know? That I got hit by a truck and brought back to life two times? That I put everything I had left into that thesis? That the first time I realized I had a power was because of you?”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone? You knew Eli and I were looking into EOs.”
“This isn’t my fault, Victor!”
“You were being reckless! Still are!”
“And you’re still stupid! Who in their right mind kills themselves, not once, but twice, just to get superpowers?” you yell, stepping closer to Victor.
“You have powers too! And we both know I’m not the stupid one here.”
“Are we seriously arguing over who’s smarter? We just killed several people, Victor!”
“We? There was no we when we had that group project and you deleted my work to replace it with your own.”
“You were wrong and you know it,” you reply, rolling your eyes and crossing your arms.
“My GPA begs to differ.”
“You didn’t even graduate and you’re still infuriating.”
“And you’re smarter than you think, just won’t apply yourself like I do!”
“Shut up, Victor.”
“Make me.”
You grab his coat and pull him in, crashing your lips against his. His hands meet your waist, and he slows the kiss, moving his lips against yours. When you realize what you’re doing, you pull back.
“We- uh- we can’t stay here forever, your parents have to come back eventually,” you say quietly, Victor’s coat still in your hands.
“I know, but I don’t think we can do this alone. I can turn myself in and get another guy. Someone who can kill the unkillable.”
“That’s an incredibly stupid idea, Victor.”
“Do you have a better one?” Victor asks sharply.
“A few, actually. And they don’t require you to go back to prison and leave me here.”
“I’m not pulling you into this, too. If Eli kills me....”
“That’s not your decision, Vic.”
He takes a few deep breaths before nodding. “Okay,” he whispers.
Six Days Ago - Merit
You and Victor walk out of a store with several supplies, including Mitch’s chocolate milk and a first aid kit for Sydney’s gunshot wound. She’s only been with you for a few hours since you drove into Merit, but you feel attached to her already. Suddenly, you drop the bags as an intense pain overwhelms your senses.
“Vic?” you ask, looking up at him.
You watch, helpless, as he calls the police with an anonymous tip that escaped convict Victor Vale was seen in Merit.
“You lied to me!” you accuse through your tears. “Don’t do this!”
He kneels before you, brushing his finger over your cheekbone and kissing your forehead. “I’ll find you when I get out.”
“I’ll find you if you don’t. Please don’t be stupid about this,” you beg.
“See you around. Maybe study biology to pass the time and we can have a rematch test,” Victor says before standing and approaching the curb.
He raises his hands and falls to his knees as the police descend upon him and handcuff him. Even though you could stop it all with the wave of a hand, you watch, vowing to keep your promise or die trying. And you would have done better in that biology class if your teacher had been a fair grader.
You return to the room at the Esquire, tears still running down your face.
“What happened?” Sydney asks, rushing to your side when you enter.
“That idiot got himself arrested just to break out again with more help,” you answer, no emotion in your voice. “So we have to do something.”
“Okay, this is when Victor would tell you not to be stupid,” Mitch interjects.
“Well, Victor thinks I’m stupid all the time. Let’s prove him right,” you reply, shrugging.
“How?” Mitch asks.
“Sydney Vale here is going to visit her big brother, I’m going to crash a truck into a wall and we’re going to make sure Eli is ready for the taking as soon as Victor is out. Maybe not in that order.”
“Meaning?” Mitch asks carefully.
“No time for questions. You stay here and send me layouts of the jail and Sydney and I will bring Victor back soon.”
Sydney wordlessly follows you, more than happy to help you get Victor back. 
Five Days Ago - Merit Police Department
The time and place have been set: Midnight at Falcon Price. Now, to get the last member of your team back.
You and Sydney sit across from Victor, pretending to be checking on him until you create an excuse to leave.
“Is she okay?” Victor asks.
“Cover your head,” Sydney whispers.
Victor’s eyes widen when he hears brakes squeal and horns blowing, but he covers his head like Sydney asks. When the front end of a semi breaks through the wall before reversing out, Victor turns up the pain around him to distract everyone as he gets Sydney over the bulletproof divider and outside.
You rev the engine of the car you’re in and smile as Victor and Sydney climb in.
“I told you to wait,” Victor admonishes.
“We found him and we have a meeting. Four days, so find a new partner.”
“We need to figure out how Eli is finding them,” Victor mumbles.
“Mitch is working on it,” you reply.
“You know that was stupid, right?” Victor asks, changing the subject.
“Isn’t everything I do?”
“Maybe not everything,” Victor answers slowly, thinking about what happened at his parents’ house.
“Maybe not,” you agree, smiling.
10 Hours to Midnight - Merit
“You’re not going,” Victor repeats.
“Yes, I am. You need backup and I’m not just going to sit here,” you argue. You lower your voice to add, “Sydney may buy your promise that you’re coming back, but I’m not stupid enough to trust you again. At least not yet. So I go, or no one goes.”
“This is prison break day all over again,” Victor mumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Is that a yes?”
“It’s a hesitant yes.”
“Perfect. Then let’s finish this, Victor.”
“And then what?”
“Biology test then a shot at freedom,” you answer. “In that order.”
Midnight - Falcon Price
You promised you wouldn’t interfere until you had to, but you can’t watch Eli touch Victor again. The building isn’t solid, yet you stand as you hear a large truck nearby. Directing it toward the building, you hope it doesn’t hurt Victor any more than he already is. Angling it so it affects the side where Eli is pacing more than where Victor is kneeling, bloody and bruised, you increase the speed and run it straight into the south corner of the Falcon Price project.
The building tilts and drops several feet as the load shifts onto the truck wedged in the load-bearing beams. Eli stumbles backward as you rush toward Victor.
“I should have known,” Eli says with a dark chuckle. “Although I wish I’d thought to recruit you before you two realized the line between hate and tolerance is so thin.”
“You would know,” you snap, wrapping an arm around Victor.
“But you see,” Eli continues, moving to the edge and looking over. “A truck isn’t enough to stop me. I’m invincible because God isn’t finished with me.”
“And when He is?” you ask.
“He’ll find a way.”
“How do you think you get to heaven, Cardale?” you ask, stalling.
The light of a plane catches your attention.
“It’s Ever,” he nearly growls.
“I’ve always wondered if it’s a plane that takes you to heaven,” you continue, willing yourself to control more than just trucks.
“You are as stupid as Victor said,” Eli mutters before raising his voice to ask, “What’s with the heaven questions? Didn't get an answer when you died at Lockand?”
“Yes or no on the plane, Eli?” you yell over the growing noise of the plane engine. “Because I think it’s time to board!”
You toss yourself over Victor as the plane crashes into the edge of the building, pulling Eli out of sight. Holding onto the chair bolted to the ground, you keep Victor from sliding over the edge as he tries to remain conscious.
“Was that a plane? I thought it was just trucks,” he mumbles as he pulls himself up.
“Apparently not. Now we need to get out of here before all those cops get here.”
“Didn’t think of that when I killed Serena.”
“Don’t think about that, Vic. Let’s focus on getting back to Sydney and Mitch; you have a promise to keep.”
After Midnight - Vale House
“Hey,” you call as you walk onto the deck and close the door behind you. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Eli survived, but Snell took him in for murder. Serena was really powerful," he answers, turning to face you.
“You did it.”
“You did most of it. Without the truck and plane, he would have killed me.”
“Maybe. What now?”
“I don’t think this will ever be over,” he says, sighing. “But for now…”
He leans in, and you lay your hands on his chest as you ask, “Biology test?”
“Depends. What does the winner get?”
“Hmm. Two days without the loser calling them stupid,” you suggest.
“That’s it? A make or break biology test and that’s the prize?”
“The title, bragging rights, what more do you need, Vale?”
He gets closer before answering, “I think you know.”
“Ah, you want to read my thesis. Well, I’m sure we can work something out.”
Victor presses his forehead against yours. “I’m going to win, so how about I pick the prize?”
“At the rate you’re going, softie, it’ll probably be a prize for me too. If you win.”
“We’ll see.”
Victor steps back, and you take his hand to lead him inside. He watches you and mumbles, “I’m not sure there is a punishment with you, stupid.”
“Heard that!”
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semper-legens · 5 months ago
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126. A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women, by Emma Southon
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Owned: No, library Page count: My summary: Ever wondered what the women of Ancient Rome were up to while the men were off stabbing each other and stabbing themselves and becoming Emperor? Want to know about a middle-class Pompeiian woman making a living by her own means? How Rome both began and ended with a woman? The only woman who ever claimed the title of Roman Emperor? All of this and more are inside this book! My rating: 4/5
Ancient Rome! As you might have noticed, I've been on something of an Ancient Rome kick of late. It's not my fault if one of the Worst Places Ever is so interesting to read about from the perspective of someone far in the future. Anyway, this book is of course about the women of Ancient Rome, or rather some of them. It's from the author of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a book analysing the role of death in Ancient Rome, which I have previously read and really enjoyed. Actually, this was recommended to me by a friend who's a Classics nerd, after I recommended the Wolf Den books to her, and I am happy to say that it did not disappoint! I liked it a lot, although there was one thing I have issue with that stops it being a full 5/5.
Overall, it's a really good book! Southon's chatty, informal narrative works just as well here as it did in Forum, and you can tell there's a real passion and joy in learning this knowledge for her. She has opinions about Emperors and historical figures, pet theories and points of interest; she admits she doesn't like battles but recommends a place that readers can engage with them if they want, that sort of thing. Her voice is 90% of the reason that this book works (the other 10% being, like, the actual information) and it's so enjoyable. Now, the thing I took issue with as I mentioned in the opening was how she talks about Elagabalus. For those of you that aren't up on your Ancient Roman emperors, she became emperor as a teenager and was assassinated young because everyone hated her. She? Yes, looking back on her life and what we know about her, historians have hypothesised that Elagabalus was a trans woman - she was on the record as wanting reassignment surgery, among other things. You'd think a recently-written book about women in Ancient Rome might address this. But no, there's no mention of the possibility that Elagabalus might have identified as a woman. Which is disappointing to me - Elagabalus was a Roman Emperor, she did a lot of bad stuff, but I think her identity bears a mention at least, given that talking about women was the thesis statement of the book. Disappointing, but overall this was a good read, and really interesting if you're into the subject matter!
Next, back to the Roman Mysteries, and it's time for dolphins.
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