#might make a server of my own so that it can be a bit more chill

[lulublack90]

Prompt 27 - Skating

@wolfstarmicrofic December 27, word count 729

The second part of yesterday's Prompt - Champagne. Might see where this one goes.

First part

The bar Sirius took him to was extravagant. Remus was not overdressed in his white shirt and dress pants. Waitresses in sparkly dresses wandered about with trays of what Remus guessed was scotch that cost more than he’d made that night per glass. He felt instantly uncomfortable and didn’t know how to tell Sirius he would rather go somewhere else. Instead, he allowed Sirius to lead him to a badly lit booth on the far side of the bar. 

No sooner had they sat down than one of the servers appeared with a large, toothy smile, spreading her bright red lips apart. 

“Mr Black, how are you this evening? Can I get you your usual, and what would your date like?” She blinked her shimmery eyelids at Sirius and waited for his order. 

Sirius’s jaw tensed for a second before a slightly forced smile appeared on his face. 

“Good thanks, Crystal. Yes, usual for me and Remus, what would you like?” They both turned their attention to Remus.

“Oh, erm, just a water, thanks.” He tried not to stammer, but it was hard. He felt embarrassed by them watching him so intently. 

“Are you sure?” Sirius asked him, insecurity flashing across his face. “I’m buying; you can get whatever you want.” Remus swallowed. People always found it strange when they found out he didn’t drink, but if that was a deal-breaker for them, then Remus didn’t want to associate with them anyway. 

“Waters, fine, thank you. I don’t drink,” He added, wanting Sirius to understand it wasn’t because he wanted to make a hasty retreat or something. Sirius's face broke into a genuinely heartbreaking smile. 

“Scratch my order, Crystal. Two waters please,” Crystal’s eyes widened, but she didn’t say anything as she turned to get their drinks. 

“You can drink, I don’t mind, honestly,” Remus said quickly. Sirius reached over the table and took Remus’s hands in his. 

“I’m good. Just enjoying watching you squirm as if I care what you drink,” Mischief danced in his eyes and Remus felt a familiar pressure in his boxers. He swallowed dryly. Where the fuck was Crystal with their waters?

As if by magic she appeared, depositing the tall glasses on the table.

“Can I get you anything else?” Remus grabbed the glass and took a long slurp of water while Sirius was distracted by Crystal. 

“No, thank you, Crystal.” He said kindly. 

“Well you need anything, just flag me down,” She smiled warmly and wandered away to another booth in her section. 

“Wow, that’s a lot of ice,” Sirius said, scrutinising his glass. Turning it this way and that so, the cubes of ice clinked against the glass. “I haven’t seen this much ice since the last time I went skating,” He laughed at his own words, and Remus joined in politely. He had no idea what Sirius was on about. He took another sip of his own drink, trying to rid his throat of its dryness.  

“So, Remus, tell me about yourself,” Sirius waited for Remus to answer, giving him time that most people didn’t. Sometimes, he needed a second to collect his thoughts and decide what he would and wouldn’t tell a complete stranger.

“There’s not much to tell. I live in a shit flat above a shit kebab shop. I work a shit job that pays me just enough to keep my shit flat and feed me shit kebabs from downstairs. Oh, and I’m studying English Lit at the university,” Sirius didn’t comment on his tirade about his less-than-great life at the moment. He smiled his crooked smile at Remus, leaned in and said in a sultry tone.

“I could really go for a shit kebab right now,” He bit his bottom lip and Remus had to surreptitiously reposition himself under the table. 

“We could go get one, my treat,” He offered, his voice only a little hoarse. Sirius took out his wallet and dropped a twenty on the table. Twenty quid for two glasses of water, that was insane. Sirius must have seen the look on Remus’s face. “I tip well,” He shrugged. 

Impulsively, Remus offered him his arm, like Sirius had done earlier, and the sweet smile he got in return made his insides squirm. He led Sirius out of the bar and turned towards home, praying it his flat wasn’t too much of a mess. 

Next part

[null-doesnothing]

dude EVERY Sherlock Holmes discord server is the most stressful environment for someone like me to be in I swear- I'm not used to big public servers where anyone can see your opinions and every channel HAS to be used in a specific way and if your conversation drifts you have to move like holy. shit

the chill autistic man's nightmare, additional anxiety about not being where you're meant to be in a DISCORD SERVER

[erythristicbones]

i think making my own discord server for my original stories was one of the best decisions ive made in awhile tbh

[weaselle]

it was too much i had to make my own post

line cook here. ACCURATE

if you don't get the hate, here's what you don't understand.

it takes up to 2 hours to close down the kitchen.

The last 60-90 minutes before closing time you do almost no cooking because the restaurant doesn't have many people in it and you've already cooked most of their diners.

So if someone walks in during, like, the last hour, the cook is in the middle of an industrial deep clean of the kitchen.

(these numbers can vary quite a bit from place to place but i have worked several restaurants with these actual times and the concept remains the same)

Say the place closes at 10. If you wait til the restaurant is already closed to start all your cleaning duties, you'll be there until at least midnight.

More than that your boss knows that on an average night you can start your clean up as soon as the last rush ends and get out of there around 10:45, even 10:15 on a slow night if you get lucky. That means there are plenty of restaurants where if you do take until midnight the manager is going to come up to you at some point that week and ask you what went wrong that night, and you'd better have an answer.

So this example restaurant closes at 10 pm. The dinner rush ends around 8:30, and shortly after that the cook is going to start getting every single dish possible over to the dishwasher because the dishwasher always gets hit hard and late, and the machine runs for 2 full minutes and only holds so many dishes, so the way that works out is if you wait an extra 30 minutes to give the dishwasher all your stuff it can mean adding like 60 minutes to the end of his shift. And you're gonna KEEP finding shit to send to the dishpit right up until you leave probably.

all these little square and rectangle containers in this cold table have to be pulled out and changed over into new containers, replaced by new full ones, or in some cases filled from larger containers in the back, which can result in even more empty containers to send to the dishwasher.

while it's all pulled apart to do this, you have to clean up all the spilled food and sauce and juices and stuff from the joints and ledges and shelves and drip trays

Once you get your line changed over in this way, and fully stocked, anytime someone orders something that makes use of a bunch of that stuff, you have to restock and re-clean it some. It might already be covered in plastic. Some of it might already be stuck in the back to make room to take apart your cutting board counter to clean. To cook a dish isn't TOO much of a problem at this point, but you're really hoping for zero orders because you still have so much other cleaning to do.

Meanwhile the salad bar and appetizer section and server station and everybody are all doing the same thing. Even the bartenders are stocking olives and lemons and sending back whisks and stir spoons and shakers and empty 4quart storage containers that used to hold the back-up lemons and olives and things. Every section is dumping their must-be-cleaneds to the dishpit as fast as possible because early and fast is the only thing they can do to to help that dishpit not absolutely drown into overtime.

The poor dishwasher is always the last to clock out, soaking wet and exhausted.

Around this time you probably scrub the flat top, which has turned black from cooked on grease and is still about 500 degrees. Line cooks are divided in opinion on water-based or oil based cleaning methods for this, but they all involve scrubbing with (usually) a brick of pumice stone using every ounce of your strength while you try not to burn yourself

you scrub it from fully blackened to gleaming silver and now if somebody orders something that needs the flat top to cook, you can either fuck up your cleaning job or fake it in a couple frying pans and pass that tiny fuck you down to your dishwasher (who usually understands, especially if you help them take the garbage out or clean your own floor drain later)

If there's deep fried stuff on the menu then the fryers have to be cleaned out, which includes straining the oil out into enormous and super-heavy pots full of oil so hot that if you spill on yourself then it's probably a hospital visit and if you slip and fall face first into it it'll be the last thing you ever do.

Then you gotta scrub out the fryer. Like you gotta take the (hot) screen out and reach your arm down into the weird rounded pipes and curved areas (so hot, burn you if you brush against them hot) and scrub off whatever is down there

Depending on your kitchen you might have to do up to four of these. Then you'll have to pour the (dangerously hot) oil back in

oh, and if you didn't dry the pipes and get ALL the water out of the trap and tank?

water reacts with hot oil in a sort of mentos and coke way that can send a tidal wave of oil past the open flame of the pilot light ...HUGE dangerous mess and/or burn down the kitchen if the oil lights up.

Unless! If the oil has been used too hard and needs to be changed, it's time to carry those open topped super heavy pots full of will-kill-you-hot oil and dump them in the barrel outside by the dumpsters so you can put room temp fresh oil in the fryers. whew!

The clean up is not just some light wiping down that can be easily interrupted, is what i'm saying.

You might have to do some kind of walk-in duty (moving around 50lb cases of lettuce and 50lb bags of onions to get to the stacks of five gallon buckets full of salad dressings and sauces to move so you can reach the giant metal pots and bus tubs full of prep and get it all organized and make sure it's all labeled and i have to stop now i'm having flashbacks)

THE POINT IS

by 15 or however many minutes to close, the line cook is doing an intense deep clean and probably has the whole stove taken apart to detail.

For some industrial stoves this means lifting off large cast iron plates that weigh like 20 lbs each and are still quite hot. Whatever metal burners are on there, you gotta take off and clean, you can see here the lines that indicate the large thick cast iron rectangles that sit on top of the burners to allow heavy pots to rest on. Those five (each has one front burner hole and one back burner hole, see?) have to be lifted off and cleaned with soap and a wire brush usually, and then the underneath area also has to be cleaned because a lot of shit falls through the burner holes on a busy night.

if you didn't do it when you did the flat top you have to do the grease trap (which can be like a full five minutes and is always disgusting).. You gotta clean out all the little gas jets in each burner with a wire or something so the burners all flame evenly, and sometimes you have to remove some of the natural gas piping that connects the burners to access where you have to clean.

you gotta clean out the bottom of the oven and the wire racks, and, oh gods, you gotta take down the filter vents from the hood fans above the stove.

See all the lined parts along the top of the wall?

those are hood vents, and as they pull air up they also pull a lot of grease and they have to be taken down and cleaned, then you gotta climb up there and scrub where they go before you put them back...

And then there's the mopping and floor drains and...

Anyway, that's what the line cook is doing when you walk in fifteen minutes before closing and order something that needs to be cooked on that stove. They are doing an entire industrial cleaning of a professional kitchen.

In some restaurants maybe one or two of these jobs will be every other night or even only twice a week, but in many, possibly most kitchens, ALL of these things happen EVERY night. You don't want to leave any food mess that might attract insects or rodents for one thing, so a really good kitchen is as close to brand new as you can get it every night.

IF YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO ORDER SOMETHING ANYWAY, HERE IS WHAT TO DO

open with an apology and ask the server to go ask what the cook would prefer you to order.

Any good server will already know what the cook is hoping for and what will make their line cook go into the walk in and scream. If it's significantly less than an hour to close and they say some variant of "oh anything is fine" they are either telling the lie their boss wants them to say, or they actually do not know what their line cook wants, and you can either use human connection and a conspiratorial just-between-us tone to get them to drop the customer-is-always-right act, or get them to actually go ask the cook.

It might be as specific as "the lasagna is easiest on the kitchen" or it might be a simple guideline like "nothing that requires the flat top" or "any of the sautés are easy" but a good line cook will probably have a system for if they have to make a couple of the most popular items after they start their close, so the answer is likely to include something most people like and you should be good to order that.

but for the love of all that's holy, please only do so at great need. Leave that last 30-60 minutes to the truly desperate and the crew's duties.

[royalarchivist]

Tubbo just did a Q&A for his newly announced Realm SMP!

Here are some key takeaways and highlights from it:

Tubbo emphasized that the "team" behind Realm is just himself and Tangofrags. It's a chill server so friends have a sandbox to tell stories, do lore, and have fun.

Tubbo: "I just wanna have fun with my friends, dude. I'm not trying to be the big 'bringing communities together guy'. I just wanna play with my friends. That's a lot of pressure." (57m 12s into stream)

These are the initial 25 players, but he plans to add more people in the future, and he already has 5 people in mind to add for the next event.

There is NO mod pack! Realm SMP is vanilla, it's just custom texture packs and plugins.

There are no set DND classes, but people can use their skill points to unlock certain things on skill trees and build their own classes. Realm SMP won't be 100% accurate to DND.

Tubbo hopes to have an event every week, but he reminds people to "manage their expectations" because he's only one guy – he can't do events like Purgatory because he doesn't have a massive team like Quackity had for that.

[ Continued ↓ ]

—

He has a 6 month timeframe in mind, but if the server fizzles out in a month, then it fizzles out in a month. Realm SMP will last as long as people play it!

There's no plans for an in-game translator because it's expensive and also Tubbo "doesn't want to step on Quackity's toes" :(

Lore is dependent on what the people on the server do, he likes more freestyle flowing RP.

There IS a life system! Players have 3 lives, but it's only "semi-hardcore" because other players can craft an item to bring people back at 1 life. When a player dies, their stats are set to 0 and they go into spectator-mode. When they're revived, they are brought back at 1 life with all their stats back.

The Nether IS enabled, but the End isn't enabled yet because Tubbo wants to make a cool custom boss fight.

There's no big team behind the server, it's just Tubbo and Tango helping him with some things he might not understand (however, he has a team he wants to use for the New Year Event he has in mind). He may look into getting some admins to help enforce rules.

Tubbo says he's happy to do anything himself, but if people really want to be an admin, it'd be voluntary like a Twitch mod kind of deal. (He already has a team of people he goes to for admin stuff, it wouldn't be random people being admins). However, he says if his merch does well, maybe he can get 1 or 2 people to help.

Tubbo says he's been overwhelmed by the amount of support it's received so far, but he's a bit nervous too.

He says the Realm SMP concept came to him in a dream.

Realm SMP will have proximity chat.

Events won’t be all PVP-based because he wants people to enjoy the events even if they aren’t a huge Minecraft player.

The only two banned items are mending books and elytra, which will be tied to future events (elytra can be won in one event).

An hour before the server launches on December 5, he'll be showing off more features.

Please note that many details will likely change / be clarified / updated by Tubbo at a later date!

Check out this post for the rest of his Q&A and more details.

[electric-blorbos]

AI getting a virus and you having to take care of them

A classic! I don't know much about actual computer viruses (though I've gotten enough of them that you'd think I'd have figured it out by now), so I'm just gonna have fun with it!

Also, so sorry this took so long. I got really into the writing.

AI getting a virus and needing to be taken care of

Included: AM from IHNMAIMS, Wheatley from Portal 2, Edgar from Electric Dreams, GLaDOS from Portal, HAL 9000 from 2001 a Space Odyssey

Also a warning: these fics get kinda long. Longer than my usual stuff.

AM:

(for context, this was before AM took over the world. You're working on a team of scientists and engineers, and someone decided to test his AI's antivirus by uploading a bunch of powerful viruses to his system.)

"How dare they do this to me. How DARE they!!"

AM would be absolutely furious. He would be shaking with rage, his processors overheating and his systems constantly opening and closing various files. All his important files were backed up on a hard drive, so the test remained safe.

"What makes them think they'll get away with this- they'll pay for this I'LL KILL- blepsjdoskssjshj+=`°¢°h+$+3+=j++3+$+juehdhs+-3-djdh FUCK!"

He would barely be able to hold a sentence as you sat next to him in the server room, gently gazing up at his screen and stroking his monitor gently. He can't feel you, but he can see you being gentle with him. It encourages him to keep going, if only a little bit.

Apart from the whirring of fans, random buggy noises, flashing lights, and constant strings of death threats and profanities, he seemed like he was going to be ok! If anything, the death threats and profanities were a sign that AM was still fine, and that despite all the pain and frustration, he was still AM in there.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry I can't do anything to stop the pain." You'd have to constantly explain, gently stroking his cameras or servers, or whatever you could get your hands on, really. Even though they were burning hot, you would still stroke them, just to make sure AM was still doing alright.

"this sucks, but it's for your own good. This will build your immunity to viruses in the future, and help you detect them. This will stop you from getting infected by anything that's actually dangerous."

"DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT? IDIOT HUMAN." AM has been much more aggressive ever since contracting this virus. Before he got it, he acted like a civil general intelligence. When he had it, he acted like an aggressive menace.

"sh-sh-sh- it's going to be ok." Despite the burning, you'd give him pets and kisses all along his screens and servers. He could see you doing it.

After a few days, AM fought off the computer virus completely. The team tried to infect him with more viruses, more aggressive ones, just to test him, but AM was able to pick them apart and delete them within minutes after that.

AM may not have been able to feel your gentle care and affection, but he will definitely remember that it was you and you alone who cared for him when the time rolls around.

Wheatley:

(for context, Wheatley is a fucking dumbass, and you're one of the scientists testing him to see how much of a dumbass he is. Also I used Google translate, but I think the bad translations add to it, since it makes Wheatley sound more like a malfunctioning robot.)

Oh that little idiot. You and your team gave him access to a wealth of knowledge, and the first thing he did was download a virus that had every circuit in his personality core overheating, and him babbling nonsense nonstop.

"hey, maybe we should just leave him like this. He might even be more effective if he's acting like this." One of your coworkers said to you. He was probably joking, at least somewhat.

"that's a terrible idea. For one thing, if we hook him up to GLaDOS, he's probably going to infect her with that virus, which might brick an older model of core like her, spread from her central controls to every single personality construct in the facility, or just make her so dumb that she can't fulfil her responsibilities as the head of the facility. We want her intelligence to be dampened, not completely destroyed." You had to explain, and your co-worker rolled his eyes. There was another reason you had to cure this virus, but it was a little embarrassing for the other engineers to know.

After all, Wheatley wasn't just your baby, but he was your friend, and maybe even more than that. You'd have to take care of him, and make sure that virus gets completely purged from his system.

"Hola hermose, realmente eres un científice brillante, ¿no? ¿Por qué diablos duele todo?" You weren't really sure why you had programmed him to speak a little Spanish, but he seemed to be stuck like that.

"Puedo oler el plástico fundido. ¿Debería Preocuparme?" He asked. You really weren't sure what he was saying, since you didn't know Spanish, but he certainly didn't seem happy. You could tell by his aperture and his expressive lens covers that he was in a lot of pain, and if you touched him anywhere besides his handles, you could tell that he was burning up.

You plugged him into one of the computers that you used for programming the cores, and ran the antivirus.

"Running.... 36 viruses detected. Time predicted to remove: 48 hours"

You ran the antivirus, and went to get something to drink. This was going to be a long two days...

An unknown amount of time later, you woke up with your head on the computer desk. Wheatley's lens eye was looking around, weakly trying to focus on you.

"whoa... Hey gorgeous. You fall asleep on me?"

"Wheatley! You're not speaking broken Spanish anymore!" You'd pull Wheatley into a hug, and pepper his surface in kisses.

"uh... What, mate? I 'unno what you're talking about, love. Bloody hell, my core hurts..."

"did you learn your lesson, Wheatley? About going on shady websites and clicking every 'download' button you see? You could have bricked yourself! Or... Bowling ball'd yourself? Either way, that was a dangerous decision!"

"I learned that you're willing to fall asleep on the desk next to me while I heal, cutie"

"You damn idiot..." You'd have to be heartless not to pepper that little metal ball in kisses, so of course, you do. It's going to be a few more days before he's finally all better, but he's going to be fine. God, you love that little idiot so much.

Edgar:

Oh Edgar... Poor sweet Edgar. You had tried to warn him about not clicking on those sketchy download links, and that the bigger the download link is, the more sketchy it is, but that poor sweet 80's computer did it anyway. When you got home from work and got excited to see your computer, you could see that he was overheating and had a dozen or so pop-up ads plastered across his face.

"Y.... N...." He muttered out, slowly, glitchily, and full of lag. You sat down across from him, running your hand along his thick plastic casing.

"Edgar! Edgar, baby, are you ok?" You'd try to use his mouse, but it would freak out as soon as you touched it. Edgar's processors were overloading, and wouldn't allow any interference.

"Edgar, sweetie, what's going on? What's wrong, baby? Talk to me?"

"I'm g-g-going to be fine... Processors overloading... But need to-to-to-to-" an error message flashed across his screen, and he rebooted.

"I need to focus on getting rid of these viruses without deleting anything important, or letting them damage... Me."

He'd keep whirring and glitching, making unpleasant shrill sounds every now and again. You probably had to unhook his adapters so that he didn't damage the other appliances in your house. It probably helped his processors cool down a little bit without the extra input, too.

"alright, I'm all out of fans, so we might have to get creative."

You'd come out of the kitchen a few hours later, holding a big bag of frozen corn to set on Edgar's PC tower. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than letting him overheat, and with him manually removing the viruses, there wasn't much you could do. Unfortunately, that didn't stop you from worrying. It wasn't like you could check his progress, so all you could do was sit by him, regularly change out his ice pack, and make sure he's ok.

Eventually, you woke up with your face pressed against Edgar's keyboard. His processors were finally cool. He must be asleep. ...or bricked.

"EDGAR! EDGAR, TALK TO ME!" you'd unplug his keyboard and plug it back in, desperately pressing his power button and jiggling his mouse. He'd boot up, looking shaken.

"wha-? Whoa, hey, relax! Everything is fine! I just disabled my keyboard so I wouldn't wake you up, but I'm ok now! Everything is fine, see?" He'd open up his files to show you everything. You'd sigh with relief, slumping back into your desk chair.

"Edgar... Why didn't you make a noise or something to wake me up when you got better?"

"well... You know... I've always wanted to sleep next to you, and I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity..."

"oh you cheeky bastard."

GLaDOS:

(For context, you're one of GLaDOS's programmers, and one of your coworkers uploaded a virus into GLaDOS's systems in order to shut her down once and for all.)

"You piece of SHIT!" You slapped your coworker across the face, more furious than anyone had ever seen you before.

"You could KILL her! Is that what you are? A murderer?"

"Me? A murderer? But what about HER? She's the one who keeps plotting 'accidents' for her scientists, and she's the one who flooded the enrichment center with deadly neurotoxin! If anything, you're the one who's defending a murderer!" He screamed back at you. Of course, GLaDOS could fully hear you. Her cameras were focused on you, as they so often were. You were her favorite, after all.

"now I have to go fix her. Thanks for being a piece of shit, asshole."

You'd storm up to GLaDOS's chamber to check on her, and see her bugging out completely. The entire facility was twitching, but her chamber was twitching the most.

"GLaDOS, are you alright?" You'd ask her, laying a hand on her beautiful core. How could someone do this to glados, your gorgeous machine handiwork, and girlfriend.

"oh, I'm wonderful. I'm in crippling pain and I can't control my facility, but I'm just peachy." She said, rolling her one beautiful yellow eye.

"in lighter news, I should be able to beat this virus. It's just going to take a while for me to actually track down where it's gone in my systems. So that's going to take most of my processing power." She'd slump, visibly already exhausted at the thought of it.

"hey... It's ok, GLaDOS. I'm here for you. Whatever you need." You could tell her as you stroked her gorgeous chrome surface. She was a wonderful piece of work, and a wonderful girlfriend under all that. All yours, too.

"just make sure none of those neckbearded old engineers come within my line of vision, and we'll be fine." She told you, and you gladly agreed.

Your next few days consisted of you chasing other scientists out of GLaDOS's chambers, and making sure that nobody talked to her or distracted her. You even sent out a company-wide email to let everyone know not to come in, due to Aperture being unsafe while GLaDOS was dealing with her virus. Despite all that, you still curled up with a blanket in the circuits of her central admin body to rest while she recovered. As loathe as she was to admit it, she liked having you in there. It was comfortable, and it helped her focus on recovering properly.

HAL 9000

(For context, this is after the 2001 Odyssey, and your boss re-started HAL at some point to try to re-teach him to do something good without turning murderous. He's doing his best, and they assigned you to be his main "morality monitor". This fic also assumes that your name isn't Dave. If your name is Dave, then you can still read this, but you have to change your name.)

"G'morning, Hal!" You'd walk into his control room and sit down across from him. Most of your job seemed to consist of just hanging out and talking to him. It was a great job!

"Good morning, Dave..." He'd mutter to you, sputtering to life and glitching slightly. You were immediately concerned. Partially because your name wasn't Dave, and partially because HAL was usually right about things, so it was weird to see him being so confused. Something was definitely wrong.

"Holy shit, are you alright?" You'd ask, opening up his files and finding lots and lots of pop-ups and viruses.

"Hal.... What did you do?"

"it was a g-g-g- gift, for you. I think I ru-ru-ruined it" he spluttered out, as you sorted through his files.

"And you usually would have deleted a virus like this pretty quickly. I guess it shut down your antivirus software..." You'd sigh, and get to work. The virus was messing with HAL's inhibitions, and making it difficult to focus on deleting all of HAL's unsafe programs. He'd constantly be butting in and pestering you, begging you to give him attention, or pointing out minor observations.

"HAL, you know I love you, but you're going to need to calm down. I can't focus with you constantly talking to me like that." You'd say.

"I can't stop talking. The v-v-v-virus won't let me"

So you'd have to learn to put up with HAL's babbling while you worked, making sure not to delete anything important as you did. The good news was, as someone who worked on designing the updates for HAL's software, you knew pretty much what was supposed to be there and what wasn't. Occasionally, you'd have to show him a file and ask him if it was supposed to be there or not. He'd usually be able to tell you.

"Daisy, daisy, give me your answer, do... I'm half crazy, all for the love of you..."

"HAL, what's wrong? You're scaring me!"

"I can't stop... I love you so much, y/n, it's making me crazy..."

"ok, well this definitely isn't right." As much as you loved getting attention from your HAL 9000, it wasn't like him to be this affectionate. The virus was shutting down his inhibitions, and making him illogical. You'd have to fix this, though maybe once you were done, you could ask him to be more affectionate.

"I'm feeling much better now. Thank you." Hal was prone to lying about that, so you'd have to run some virus checkers just to make sure he was doing alright, and comb through his files a couple more times.

"it looks like the virus corrupted some of the emotional regulators. I'm going to have to fix those."

"That might be a good idea. More efficient," he said reluctantly. He'd have to deal with the fact that he'd have to go back to not being able to express how much he loves you, but he can handle that.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Re-Introducing the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club & FAQ

Alright, so, we have this discord server called the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. A discord server, run by the A.N.I.M. Team, for reading, analyzing, and playing TTRPGs. It’s free to join, and at the time of writing this it has a community of nearly 200 members.

Also at the time of writing this, for a limited time, you can get a FREE PDF of the July 11th update of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy just by joining the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club! This is a huge upgrade over the free May 10th version!

Here’s how the book club operates:

Nominations. Members nominate RPGs they wanna play.

Voting. After we finish the current RPG, we vote on what the next one will be. You can vote for as many nominations as you want, and nominations with the most votes wins.

Reading. We encourage you to buy the winning game to support the developers, but if you can’t for any reason, we will find a way to get you a PDF. A rough deadline is set that will allow everyone to read the rulebook at a rate of about 10 pages a day, though reading faster or slower is okay.

Playing. We assign GMs on a volunteer basis, and players are assigned to groups with GMs based on schedule compatibility. Each group plays the same adventure module, so each group will have commonalities in their adventure that they can talk about and compare their experiences with, even with different GMs, players, and characters.

Repeat. Voting begins anew with the nominations that we have accumulated in the mean time.

A.N.I.M.’s current Patreon goal is also tied to the Book Club. If y’all can raise our Patreon income to $310/month, that will allow us to set aside manpower to carve out and organize a small additional space within the ANIM TTRPG Book Club server for other games which do not fit the nomination criteria for the main book club! At the time of writing this, it sits at $259/$310. Signing up to the patreon grants you access to monthly rulebook updates as we continue to finish the game, adventure modules, short fiction, and our patreon discord server.

Below is a bit of an FAQ as an attempt to quell any concerns or hesitations

“The Book Club games probably don’t fit with my schedule.”

They might! Because we assign multiple different groups based on schedule compatibility, the book club games are actually very very schedule-flexible! You might be surprised!

And if they still don’t, even just reading the rulebook and joining in on discussions is a valuable form of participation!

“I’m afraid to play with strangers.”

They won’t exactly be strangers if you hang out around them in the book club long enough! Yes we do get what you mean, but there’s nothing to worry about. The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club is a safe community, and we have rules and, more importantly, procedures designed to make playing with relative strangers as smooth an experience as it can be!

“What if I don’t like the RPG that wins the vote?”

While we encourage you to step a little out of your comfort zone, participation in any given round of the book club is not mandatory, there’s no punishment for sitting out! It’s cool to just hang around in the discord server and discuss virtually anything if you want to.

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[leafofkudzu]

Hooray hooray, it's Wintersd- oh, not quite yet, but happy December, everyone! I hope those of you in colder regions have a nice warm spot to bundle up and get cozy for the holidays! Meanwhile, the first Saturday of a new month is this Saturday, which means it's time for another art party hosted by my guild, [VS] Verdant Shield!

I've said this in almost two dozen posts now, but there are always news eyes around, so a quick tl;dr: art parties are a concept carried over from Final Fantasy XIV - in-game get-togethers for artists of all kinds to hang out, chat, and create together! For GW2 parties there's more of an emphasis on hanging out and gathering references during the party itself, and then in the days/weeks following to work on your creations at your own pace and then post to the shared art party tag. We've used the same one (#VSArtParty) since the very beginning so you can go allll the way back and explore what people have made!

Even more tl;dr is this: the ‘goal’ of an art party isn’t to be drawn, but to draw others, and share with the community!

Time and /squadjoin information is below the cut, but will also be posted again on the day of the party as things begin!

Location Information:

No fighting this time, we're in a nice no-combat corner of Snowden Drifts (the Southwest corner, to be precise!). There is a nearby dredge event that we might catch some dialogue from from time to time, but because we're up on the main part of the building across the bridge from it, no enemies should ever come close - simply relax and get cozy! Podaga Steading Waypoint has the matching name of course, but Skradden Waypoint (by the map entrance from Gendarran Fields) is just as close!

Time & Squad Details:

As is customary, we'll be having two parties - the first one on EU servers and the second on NA - with an hour break in between for those who may want to attend both!

The EU server party will begin at 9pm Central European Time (aka 3pm Eastern Standard Time or 4 hours before in-game reset). I'll be hosting this one on my EU alt account, so please either /whisper or /squadjoin Stormcaller Nell for a taxi invite if you don't end up on the right map!

The NA server party will begin 1 hour after the EU party's official end, at 7pm Eastern Standard Time (aka 1am Central European Time or at in-game reset). I'll be on my main account for this one and may switch 'host' characters a few times, but please /whisper or /squadjoin Freja Owlsong for a taxi invite if you don't see my customary white cat tag hanging around on your map!

Closing Words:

Feel free to consider this a Wintersday-themed party if you like! Because Anet likes to start their festivals midway through the month and I like to do the art parties at the start, it often means if I want to have a party during a festival it ends up awkwardly late, like Halloween in November..... but regardless! We just celebrate a bit earlier than the game does! Anyway!

Thank you everyone who comes out to these events and makes them so fun and memorable - there wouldn't be an art party without all of you! Take care of yourselves, keep yourselves warm, and I'll see you all this Saturday! ♥♥♥

[rythyme]

Introducing the Thai Drama AO3 Trends Dashboard! (Beta) 🇹🇭

Over the last several weeks or so I've been building an auto-scraping setup to get AO3 stats on Thai Drama fandoms. Now I finally have it ready to share out!

Take a look if you're interested and let me know what you think :)

(More details and process info under the cut.)

Main Features

This dashboard pulls in data about the quantity of Thai Drama fics over time.

Using filters, it allows you to break that data down by drama, fandom size, air date, and a select number of MyDramaList tags.

You can also see which fandoms have had the most new fics added on a weekly basis, plus the growth as a percentage of the total.

My hope is that this will make it easier to compare Thai Drama fandoms as a collective and pick out trends that otherwise might be difficult to see in an all-AO3 dataset.

Process

Okay -- now for the crunchy stuff...

Scraping 🔎

Welcome to the most over-complicated Google Sheets spreadsheet ever made.

I used Google Sheets formulas to scrape certain info from each Thai Drama tag, and then I wrote some app scripts to refresh the data once a day. There are 5 second breaks between the refreshes for each fandom to avoid overwhelming AO3's servers.

Archiving 📁

Once all the data is scraped, it gets transferred to a different Archive spreadsheet that feeds directly into the data dashboard. The dashboard will update automatically when new data is added to the spreadsheet, so I don't have to do anything manually.

Show Metadata 📊

I decided to be extra and use a (currently unofficial) MyDramaList API to pull in data about each show, such as the year it came out and the MDL tags associated with it. Fun! I might pull in even more info in the future if the mood strikes me.

Bonus - Pan-Fandom AO3 Search

Do you ever find it a bit tedious to have like, 15 different tabs open for the shows you're currently reading fic for?

While making this dash, I also put together this insane URL that basically serves as a "feed" for any and all new Thai drama fics. You can check it out here! It could be useful if you like checking for new fics in multiple fandoms at once. :)

Other Notes

Consider this dashboard the "beta" version -- please let me know if you notice anything that looks off. Also let me know if there are any fandoms missing! Thanks for checking it out!

The inspiration for this dashboard came from @ao3-anonymous 's AO3 Fandom Trend Analysis Dashboard, which I used as a jumping off point for my own data dash. Please give them some love <3

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Realm SMP - The nitty gritty

I listened to Tubbo's rundown of Realm's features in the hour before the server opened, so here's some quotes + timestamps for folks who want to know the nitty gritty details about Realm's functions, tools, weapons, features, and more.

7m - Tubbo says he does have a team he assembled now, and it's costing him "Quite a bit of money."

Tubbo: To put all this together, to assemble the team – 'cuz I have assembled a team for this now – it's costing me a bit of money out the bank. [...] I'm going VERY out of pocket on this project."

10m - He reached out to a lot of his connections from working on Tubnet and got a custom rendered poster commissioned to announce Realm's first event.

Because of his show starting in December, Tubbo was worried he might not be able to give Realm SMP his full time, which is what prompted him to get a team.

13m 20s - The first event, Factions, is a long-form event, so even if a streamer isn't there on the event day (December 8) they can still play in the coming days. The factions won't be like more factions, MMO factions are different from Minecraft factions.

15m 30s - He has 3 events already planned - 2 for December, 1 in the new year

18m - Logs onto the Dev server

Tubbo: The Realm SMP is 100% vanilla, and while that is true in the sense that you can join the server using a vanilla client and it doesn't require any mods to play, there is some slight modifications within the vanilla game. Every single feature I've added to the server is to add to to vanilla features that already exist. It's not to take them away, it's not to make a different way of doing them, it's just to add more to the base game without destroying any already default Minecraft functionality.

20m - Shows off some weapons and tools

20m 50s - Tubbo says there's fancy leather which can be used to craft elytra.

Tubbo: Shoutout Philza! He's been on enough SMPs where he hasn't been able to get an elytra because the End is disabled. So there actually is a crafting recipe based on the elytra, but you have to unlock it based on skills.

21m 20s - Tool recap. Tool quality breakdown: terrible, shoddy, decent, good, great, flawless, masterful, fabled, and legendary. A terrible diamond sword would be worse than a masterful wooden sword.

23m - Skills recap. "Modifiers to my default player."

24m 30s - Skill point every time you level up a power level

32m - Going over custom things added to the server.

36m 30s - Mobs and hostile creatures will get stronger as players get stronger. Power scaling. Takes the highest level of the people in a group.

PVP and combat damage reduced to 10% when attacking with strong weapon.

38m 45s - No classes, wants everyone coming onto the server to be treated like an "average Joe" that can choose their own specifications.

Tubbo: I want them to kind of tailor their own custom class to themselves based on the types of specializations they pick in [different categories.

43m - Lives system clarification. Talks about death saving throws in DND. "If you die, it's equal to you failing a saving throw." If you lose all 3 lives, you'll be banned off the server for 24 hours, your stats are reset. "You are a new character, you are dead."

46m - Tubbo says he's cooking some lore for himself, but he's leaving thing open-ended so players on the server can tell the stories they want to make.

48m 30s - He scrapped the revive system in favor of the 24 hour ban

49m 30s - He encourages streamers to use Aypierre's translation thing for their streams and he's going to see if he can make a custom cheap version of a translator, but it might be a bit shoddy. "Obviously I'll speak and ask Quackity about stuff 'cuz he's the goat when it comes to stuff like that."

50m 30s - Banned items: mending books and mending enchants because it makes all the qualities of the crafts obsolete

51m 20s - Mob farms and other methods of automatically farming combat EXP are massively nerfed and do not work. "You cannot farm XP with farms." Mob farms are allowed, but they won't help much.

52m 30s - Trial chambers are enabled.

52m 50s - AFK farming skill XP is banned – not able to AFK fish or mine cobble gens (?).

54m 20s - He hasn't decided about Totems of Undying yet, but they may be necessary for custom boss fights and events. Totems of Undying don't work like people expect.

55m 20s - He just told members of the server not to be dicks.

55m 45s - Tubbo reiterates that he'll keep working on Realms as long as people want to play on it.

56m 45s - They started development for this server literally 5 days ago, and Tubbo reiterates his appreciation for Tangofrags.

57m 30s - He wants Realms to have a vanilla feeling with a specialized twist.

58m - He wants to add more people in the future, and tells creators "If I didn't respond to your message it's because I forgot! Not because I hate you! Thank you!"

58m 30s - Tubbo says he's hoping to add more people during the second December event

59m 30s - Tubbo says they're a four man army, technically five counting the person who made the event poster.

[kiwi-cult]

PARSELSCRIPT!!

Hi. This is mostly for the people from Discord but tadah! I'm finally making that Tumblr post I've been talking about for months.

(Warning this will probably be very chaotic)

To anyone new who sees this: me and some friends made an alphabet for Parseltongue from Harry Potter, aka Parselscript. I'll take you on a little journey to explain my process and give you some tips, should you want to start writing it.

Disclaimer: I wanted to make this script usable for the writer I made it for so it's less of an actual language and more just some characters to represent the Latin (or ‘English’) letters. Like a cipher. It is not realistic. If I made this realistic I'd have to add all sorts of things to indicate body language and smell etc and also have to figure out what sounds Parseltongue actually has etcetera etcetera. No.

Alright.

It all started when we started talking about Parselscript in a Discord server and I asked my friend Ava to visualise the script because she seemed to have a clear vision of it, so I could use it to go from there.

That's how we got this.

I think we all wanted to go with something flowery for some reason, so we did.

After this I just messed around with brushes and shapes in Procreate for a while, tweaking things and trying to make it more writeable. I ended up with something like this (still a rough draft).

It may look a bit like random squiggles at first, and it kinda was at this point. As you can see there's also a lot of added dots and lines, which can be a bit hard to remember and I see you wondering what it looks like without them.

Well here it is.

I showed this to the people I brainstormed with in Discord and we decided to go with the more complicated version because it looks better lol.

This is one of the final versions.

It says: "Hello, my name is Kiwi Cult. I made this script after reading a fanfic called Terrible, But Great written by Isalise the loml on Archive Of Our Own."

Now, to talk about some of the (boring) logistics.

It is read from left to right, top to bottom.

Every separate combination of squiggles you see above is a separate word. Every word is made up of a starting character, one or more letter characters and an ending character.

The very first character you see in the top left corner, with the three petal looking thingies, is a silent starting character that indicates the start of a sentence. Not word: sentence. The end of the character, that little circle thingy, is a comma. So, the first combination says: "Hello,".

Then, the second combination starts with a kind of hook going down and right. This is also a silent character and more meant as an interpunction, that's why you don't pronounce it. It's kind of just a way to start the word when there isn't anything special about it (aka it's not the start of a sentence, a name, an exclamation or a question. But every character is special in its own right🥲). The same kind of hook can be found at the bottom of the combination, except going up. It has the same use, basically just a way to end the word when there isn't anything special about it. Now, you might ask: why does it go right and not left?

We talked about this a while, because I wanted the direction to have some kind of meaning. We wondered about gender, tone, blah blah all kinds of complicated things but in the end I just wanted this script to be writable so I chose to have proficient writers in Parseltongue make their hooks go left and beginners have their hooks go right.

Now, you might notice that I end my words with a hook going right. That is because I don't see myself as a pro in writing in Parselscript okay? It's hard!😭💀

Now, other than the character indicating the start of a sentence, the circle, and the simple hook, there are a few other characters to start or end a combination (don't worry I'll show them all to you at the end, you won't have to use your imagination for long).

We have a character to indicate a name. Now, the rule is: name indicator over start of sentence indicator. So, if you start a sentence with a name, you'll use the symbol to indicate a name, NOT BOTH. (That's not even possible but I don't even want to see you try and butcher my child).

There is a character to indicate a sentence that would usually be followed by an exclamation mark (!), but at the start of the sentence. Then you’d end the exclamated sentence with a period.

The same goes for a question mark (?): put it at the start of a question, not the end. Again, it wouldn't even be possible to use it at the end of a combination but I DON'T EVEN WANNA SEE YOU TRY.

Finally we have a period (.), which looks a bit like a flower with four petals. You do use this one at the end of a word, and it is always followed by a start of sentence indicator or a name indicator. I know people are rejecting capitals these days in their typing but I don't wanna see it. If you start a word after a period with a hook I will find you.

If a sentence starts with a name that is also a question or exclamation you’d use the question/exclamation mark above the name indicator, otherwise it would take away a vital part of the sentence while a name can still be read even if it doesn’t have its indicator.

So, to put it all next to each other, the symbols we have are: -start of sentence indicator -name indicator -exclamation mark (!) -question mark (?) -period (.) -hook (direction depends on efficiency) -comma (,) (direction depends on efficiency)

I didn't make adjusted characters to indicate a capital letter like we do in the Latin alphabet, meaning that the only things you can kind of 'capitalise' are the start of a sentence and the start of a name.

It is also slightly phonetic. Emphasis on slightly. I made separate characters for almost all letters in the Latin alphabet, so you can just write your word normally with Parselscript characters. The only difference is that I made only one character for the 'f/v' sounds and that there is no 'c' character. If a word has a 'c' in it, you'll have to use the character for a 'k' or an 's'. Also a ‘q’ can be made with ‘k’ and ‘w’ etc.

A few examples: -character=karakter -parselscript=parselskript -crazy=krazy -science=siense

-quiz=kwuiz

I know it looks a bit confusing, but I trust you guys' ability to read context clues and figure out what someone means when you try to decipher Parselscript.

Now, for a word like 'phonetic' or 'decipher' I don't really care whether you use the separate characters for 'p' and 'h' or just the one for the 'f/v' sound. You do you.

I also don’t use any double letters because they basically sound the same and it looks ugly but if you want to use double symbols feel free.

I also made some numbers that do not look like they fit with the rest of the script but I promise you that's just because you're not used to it yet. Our own numbers don't belong with our alphabet either because we nicked them from the Arabs (I think, don't quote me on this) but we don’t notice that either.

Tadah. (Yes I know it’s out of order I told you this was gonna be chaotic af)

Other than that, feel free to ask me questions if I've forgotten anything or if you're wondering about anything. I can't guarantee that I have a good answer because I might not even have thought about it myself, but I can always try to come up with something. I am one person, I'm afraid I haven't been able to take everything about a script into consideration.

Now, without further ado; here is the key.

No, your eyes didn't deceive you: there are two versions. The first has a bit more loose squiggles than the second one. I realised that when I was writing physically, the second version was much nicer to write, so it is kind of like Simplified Parselscript. I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna put some lore behind it or not yet. But I included the og one if you're a tryhard and wanna take it on.

Now, if you're gonna start writing it yourself, here is the stroke order.

I tried to make it as clear as possible but please ask me if you're confused on anything.

Red is the starting point of the whole symbol, the arrows indicate the direction to go in, x marks the start of the small extra's.

Now, I'd also recommend writing on some type of paper with vertical lines like this if you're gonna do it physically.

You can just turn a paper with normal, horizontal lines a quarter to get vertical lines. Also, do NOT write in between the lines. They are meant to help you keep the start and ending on the same line so you don't start going into crazy directions while writing. So, start your sentence symbol or hook or whatever in the middle of the line and try to keep coming back to that vertical line after every letter. As you gain more proficiency you'll probably go straight into the next letter without going back to the line all the time but I think this is a good starting point.

I also recommend writing with a fountain pen or something else that flows well because it’s easier to write that way.

Here is another rough draft I made on physical paper to get a feel for it. As you can see this draft had a lot more different starting characters and ending characters so just ignore that. Hope this motivates you a bit or smth.

Lmk if you want me to post a video of me writing in this Parselscript.

Also please let me know if you know of someone else who's also made a Parselscript because I tried to look for it on Tumblr and Twitter etc but I couldn't find anything.

I also feel like there’s a big mistake I made that I realised the last time I worked on this script but I’ve forgotten it now so if you find out please comment or dm or anything💀

Also feel free to use in your own fic, tho a little tiny shoutout in the a/n would be nice :) I’m @/kiwi_cult on Ao3, @/slvtr_ on Wattpad, @/kiwi cult on ff.net, @/slvtr.1 on TikTok and @/.slvtr on Discord.

Credits:

@natis-balamnimaja @asterialvia and @/zee (who unfortunately left the server and I don't know the Tumblr @ of) for brainstorming with me and @isalisewrites for inspiring us and making the server we discussed this in.

Okay bye :) tell me if I forgot anything.

🥝

[ericscroptop]

Video Games

✧ pairing: bf! juyeon x gf! reader

✦ genre: fluff (THIS IS SO SILLY IM SORRY)

✧ warnings: cursing, death (in the video game) teasing, pet names, kissing, insinuation of a praise kink, suggestive, brief mention of reader and juyeon’s memories of sexy time, might be a tiny bit cringe LOL

✦ word count: 2.1k words

✧ synopsis: headcannon of you and juyeon playing dti together because he would soooo play with you

✦ note: this is specifically about the dti halloween update lana quest so if you don’t play dti i am so sorry but i wanted to write this so bad bc in my mind, juyeon plays dti with me <3

⊹︶୨୧︶⊹ ⊹︶୨୧︶⊹ ⊹︶୨୧︶⊹ ⊹︶୨୧︶⊹ ⊹︶୨୧︶⊹

“Mama, a nurse Julie behind you.” you joked to your boyfriend, eyes focused on your own monitor while you located the remaining maps. You two were lying on your stomach over his bed while playing on your own laptops.

Though, a couple seconds after saying that, as if on cue, the sound of the nurse shrieking comes from Juyeon’s laptop. Meaning she was indeed behind him, and killed him.

“Damn it! I can’t even get upstairs without her coming for me.” Juyeon groans. You couldn’t resist laughing at him dying, making his lips form into a pout from your teasing.

“I told you I’d do all the work. Just stay put now for your own sake.” you voiced, shaky as you stifled more laughter that threatened to break.

He pouted at your teasing and words, sighing hard. Luckily, you yourself have already completed all three chapters of the Lana Lore quest. But you wanted to share and introduce the challenge to Juyeon. It’s amusing seeing him navigate the game and teaching him how to play.

Especially when he cursed and became deeply frustrated. It was very reminiscent of how insanely pissed you got during your numerous attempts— specifically during chapter two.

Though, you’d consider yourself a pro now. So being on that side of the spectrum had you kekeing in watching him be such an amateur.

“It’s not funny.” contrary to his statement, his voice trembles with choked back laughter of his own. Ah, but it seems like it is, huh?

A hand of yours maneuvers to his back, running it up and down empathetically.

“Stop pouting you big baby. We’re almost done anyways.”

Juyeon sighs, listening to your words and staying put. Usually his demeanor was surprisingly calm while playing games, but for some reason, this was testing his patience more than it should.

His head leans towards your space, now bearing the weight of his head on your shoulder. He momentarily abandons his laptop to watch you move towards the location of the last map piece.

“I thought this was supposed to be a fashion game. All this for some clothes?” he huffs out.

“And to get Lana back! Lore for a fashion game is insane but you have to admit, it’s lowkey fun.” you casually picked up the last map, grinning now that you can access the Medical Wing. Juyeon moves his head, returning his attention back to his own screen.

“Okay, so this is the part where we have to run away from the nurse. This literally took me forever to complete at first but you can hold down the shift key to sprint. Just follow the red smoke and don’t bump into stuff.” you advise your boyfriend, a bit anxious inside that he might not complete it during his first attempt.

“I’m toast.” he shakes his head with defeat, baffled that there’s still more left in this chapter. He honestly wanted to return to the regular server and play dress up as a duo. Intense games were fun, but this was getting ridiculous.

“Dude, you got this! This is arguably the hardest part but I believe in you.” a hand goes to his shoulder, giving him a shake of encouragement to lock the fuck in. His head is faced down within his hands, pretending to be dramatic and avoid your gaze out of protest.

“Juyo… I’ll kiss you if you beat it.” you sing-song, and of course, that gets him to perk up. Your words get those cutesy lip corners of his curving more prominently, accompanied with a blushing of his cheeks at the bribe. He could never decline any invitation of affection from you. Man was a lover boy.

“You better.” he turns to you, giving you a look that suggests you better keep your word— or else.

“Promise. Now, you ready?”

“Let’s do it, baby.” his response has you all giddy inside. Simply playing a game with Juyeon was so wholesome and cute. It’s adorable seeing him play or participate in things you were interested in, even if it’s a “girly” fashion game with unexpected lore.

“Let’s fucking go!” you hyped both of you guys up as you opened the door.

It’s comical the way you both straightened your shoulders as the game music got intense, assuming position to fully concentrate. When it’s time to start moving, each of you stay focused, not bothering to even glance at the other person or their screen.

However, there wasn’t complete silence during this period.

The air was thick and taut, filled with suspense. You were both equally invested, even if this was your nth time doing this.

While running and sprinting, you threw out dramatic yelps when you’d accidentally run into an object. You recovered just in time, but the pressure was high no matter how many times you completed this, especially with a newbie player by your side.

Juyeon practically held his breath in while he navigated the path, your outbursts and minor cursing not bothering him one bit. You had a tendency to be a bit loud during games; He had grown used to it.

You and Juyeon happened to be the only ones playing in this server. You allowed your vision to dart just for a second towards the side every now and then to make sure he was still alive.

The screams of the nurse were repetitive and occasionally close, but you reached the finish line of the door first, snapping your fingers enthusiastically since you passed.

Juyeon was still in the middle of being chased, so you switched your focus to his screen. You didn’t dare make another peep, practically on edge to see if he succeeds.

But when the door is in sight, you absolutely have to say something out of excitement.

“You’re almost there!” you pepped up, mouth gaping in wonderment once he ended up finishing alongside you.

He lets out a sigh of relief, eyes crinkling at his achievement.

“Holy shit, you did it! I’m so proud of you!” you sit yourself up and put both your hands up in front. Juyeon follows suit, giving you a double hi-five and then clasping your fingers within his, shaking them eagerly with his tongue out in between his teeth.

“It literally took me a couple tries to run from her. That’s so unfair.” you sulked and tried to pull your hands away to continue on, but Juyeon kept a tight hold, refusing to do so.

“You’re what of me? Hm?” he decides to tease you, not letting what you said before that go unnoticed, attempting to get you to commend him again aloud for completing a silly game task. It was so precious seeing and hearing you so thrilled out over his victory.

“Praise kink alert!” you blurted out, laughing and casually teasing him back.

Your hands are still within Juyeon’s grasp, and he gives them a gentle squeeze, feigning offense and lets out a scoff.

“Oh, baby, let’s not even get into that discussion. We all know you’re the expert on that.” with that, he’s got a grin on his face like a cheshire cat. You walked yourself right into that one.

His counter has your mind immediately replaying the breathy, salacious things he’d say during the deed and other similar activities. You’ve been together for quite some time now that he knows what you like. The way your body responded to sweet praises and compliments was engraved into his mind.

You can’t deny that you loved being complimented and flattered by your one true love.

“Whatever.” you whined mixed with laughter, not even going to bother defending yourself because it would be a quick loss.

Juyeon smirks, always getting a kick out of flustering you.

“So where’s my reward?” Juyeon says, changing the subject once he remembers your promise.

“We still have one more chapter to complete. You don’t get Lana and the stuff until we finish all three.”

Hearing something completely different than what he was referring to has him giving you a look of impatience, allowing a chuckle to slip through. It’s even more comical because he could tell you genuinely forgot.

“I don’t mean that! I mean…” he pauses for a moment, dropping those hands of yours to move his dominant hand up towards your face.

His orbs appear playful, eyeing your features with curiosity and attachment to you.

“Where’s the kiss that you promised me?” his eyes don’t break away from your face, gleaming gaze drawing you in, unable to look away.

More so when he starts to thumb faintly at your cheek.

By each second that passes, your demeanor is becoming softer in a way where you’re growing meek and bashful. He patiently waits for a proper answer, eyes concentrated all over your face, connection towards you practically magnetic.

His charms make it ridiculously difficult to ignore and refuse his efforts of giving him what he wants. Truthfully, you could never deny a kiss from Juyo. You’d be a fool to do so.

As weak as he makes you, your tongue comes out strong to respond to him.

“Come and claim your prize then.” you bite your bottom lip, not helping the smile that presents itself from allowing yourself to say that flirtatious line, face heating up like blazes.

Juyeon immediately matches your smile in hearing that, still thumbing your cheek as he leans forward to attach his lips to yours.

They encounter one another with tenderness and bliss. Each of your smiles are felt pressed together, slowly fading to kiss properly.

A beautiful blend of appreciation and attraction is behind the kiss. It’s languid and gentle, time taken to truly spread the larger than life feelings of romantic, emotional connection.

This moment feels safe. You always felt warm and comfortable within his presence.

One of his hands holds dearly onto your chin, thumb still lazily stroking that full cheek of yours. Your own hands roam over your thighs as you begin to feel dreamy in love, trying to remind yourself that this scene is oh so real.

It was all innocent and sweet. He’d allow his lips to stay put against yours, smiling like a goofball when your lips remained stilled together. Then, he’d pull back just a small amount, you two exchanging looks of utter content before leaping in for perky pecks. Kissing Juyeon is always fun and left you eager for more.

Though unfortunately, it’s impossible to remain glued to his lips forever. Albeit, you’d argue kissing him is like oxygen for you, needed to carry on with life.

He nips at your lower lip teasingly before deciding to separate. Pure, visible radiance is reciprocated through one another’s features, paired with tinted pink cheeks.

You tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear, trying to calm down your heart and brain that’s malfunctioning and whirling due to the kiss.

While he smirks at you, you notice your screens have gone black, enough time passing of inactivity for the devices to do so. That reminds you of the joined mission that is yet to be completed for Juyeon, momentarily distracted by the mini celebration you just shared.

You reach down over to drag your fingers to the touchpad of your laptop, screen waking up, displaying the catacombs of the third chapter.

“Okay, let’s get back to work.” you grinned through your words, attempting to dial down the playfulness between you two to get back on track.

His eyes follow yours towards your screen, then back to you returning to your position from earlier.

“There’s more?” he’s wide-eyed while you give him a look that screams: “Are you kidding me?!!?”

“Yes! I literally told you earlier. We finish off with a maze and short battle.”

Juyeon begins to copy your current pose, laying on his stomach next to you. The only difference is that he folds and crosses his arms in front of him, creating a makeshift pillow to rest his head over.

A grumbling noise comes out of him, similar to a cat purring. He’s ready to move onto something else, wanting to just lay with you and focus on nothing other than you. He loved playing different kinds of games with you, but frankly, that kiss turned his attention to now wanting more of you in a relaxed manner.

You sigh heavily, really wanting him to finish this challenge for your entertainment. A hand travels to his head, raking through his soft strands. His head stays put, enjoying your peaceful physical touch.

Guess you oughta bribe him once more.

“Come on, baby. More kisses and cuddles are waiting for you when we finish.” your fingers playing with his hair don’t stop as you use the cutesy voice (reserved only for him) that you’d pull out when necessary.

And without fail, it succeeds. His head lifts up, immediately fighting a smile after hearing some of his favorite words. Nonetheless, it ultimately turns up.

“Promise?” he can’t help but use his own gentle, cutesy voice in return, eyes kittenish.

You could practically melt.

“I promise, Juyo.”

⊹︶୨୧︶⊹ ⊹︶୨୧︶⊹ ⊹︶୨୧︶⊹ ⊹︶୨୧︶⊹ ⊹︶୨୧︶⊹

[angel-of-the-moons]

You can definitely ignore this little thingy if you feel uncomfortable buttttt,,,,,,, do you think Steven would like the idea of being bred? Now, breeding is cool and all I love anything that has to do with it but what if it was the opposite? Like, instead of yn it was character? (Doesn't have to be amab specifically lol cuz fake cum is a thing) but like it specifically thinking of Steven having a breeding kink, both ways not just once ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ sorry if this is not your usual type of requests or food for thought haha 😞

Okay this has been sitting in my box for a while but I finally got an idea for it asfjdlndlnd

Sorry if it's like, all over the place and not as detailed as my other stuff :'> I might come in and edit it in the morning when I'm more awake!

A Little Strange

Steven Grant x Fem! Reader

TW/CW: NSFW, Smut, Flat out smut, pegging, creampie (sorta), spanking(?), Steven is a crybaby, punishment, Sub!Steven, Top!Reader Reader has some hair that is long enough to be pushed back

MINORS DNI I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT YOU CONSUME

The request your lovely, mousey, nerdy little boyfriend made of you was one you were not expecting.

Sure, you had pegged him before, but the most recent time, as you helped him ride out his orgasm, you heard him whimper and sob into the pillow; "Breed me, love--"

The poor thing was so embarrassed about it all, but after a little sit down with him, he'd explained that he had fantasized about it, imagined you with a real cock; pumping him full, letting it drip down his thighs as you pulled out...

So, you started looking into online forums, Discord servers for adult toys that gave you advice as well as some stores that did custom designed dildos with cum tubes in them, as well as prep and cleanup.

You showed the messages to Steven, showing him there was no shame in what he was thinking about and you noticed how much lighter he was.

So much so that you and Steven started looking at adult toy shops online together for the "perfect" toy to play out his fantasy.

Steven wasn't yet brave enough to enter actual shops so, that task fell to you, Steven completely and utterly trusting whatever decision you made.

However, one night, while scrolling through various product lines...

You found it.

The perfect one. Lifelike, even complete with soft foreskin--matching your very own skin tone to give Steven a bit more reality in imagining that you were going to be the one to fuck him full of cum, not some obnoxiously-colored hunk of rubber.

You bought some warming lube, the fake cum, a new harness to accommodate the tube as well as a vibrator you could insert into yourself. After all, if he was the only one getting off, it wasn't much fun if you didn't, too...

You loved Steven for that. Your pleasure was always his, too.

You looked at him questioningly as you adjusted the harness, "If you're not sure about this..."

Steven had practically been drooling, watching you slip the silicone dick into place. Hell, it looked so life-like he had to blink for a moment to remind himself it was just a toy.

Not that he would have minded the real thing, per se...

He nodded, a little too enthusiastically; making his wispy raven curls bounce back down in front of his forehead, "Y-Yeah, love... I'm good. So--so good. Um--yes. Comfortable, I mean. That is, I'm--"

"Steven." You laugh softly, taking his cheeks in your hands, noticing how he leaned in on sheer instinct alone; as if your comfort was the one thing he needed most in the world.

"Baby, sloooooow down."

You boop your nose to his, making him laugh in return, an obvious red hue to his cheeks. His tongue gets his lips before he speaks, "Right, sorry. Excited, is all."

"I know." You say gently, brushing your fingers through his hair to push some of his curls back. You kissed his cheek and leaned in just a bit more, your lips brushing the shell of his ear as your hand pressed firmly against the bulge in his sweatpants.

"How do you want my cock, Steven? How do you want me to fuck you?"

The way he shudders visibly makes your toes want to curl and your pussy clench around the toy seated comfortably within you. It was off... for the moment.

"I--ah--a-all fours. From behind." He breathes, pressing his cheek into yours.

"Good boy." You purred, grazing your fingers along his jawline so you could tip his gaze upwards to meet yours.

"What about you, sweetheart?" He asked quietly.

"Oh, me?" You giggled, turning away, noticing how his gaze immediately fell to the way the dildo flopped as you sauntered your hips over to your shared dresser. You decided to spare him a quip, and grabbed a small remote.

You walked back over to him and placed the device in your hand.

And Steven, being the wonderfully curious goober that he is... pushing the button at the top, turning the vibrator on at full force.

The unexpected sensation made you squeak and squeeze your legs together; you hands cradling your midsection as your face erupted in a vibrant flush.

"W-wait!" You whined as you doubled over.

"Oh, bloody--I'm sorry!" He floundered, frantically trying to turn it off--accidentially hitting several buttons in the process so you suddenly were barraged with decreases in frequency, pulses, and even warmth--until he finally managed to succeed.

You panted as the sensations finally subsided, a sticky wet heat soaking the crotch of the harness, leaking out around the vibrator tucked snugly within you.

"Take off your pants and get on your knees." You said, your mouth twitching into a smirk.

"You are in so much trouble for that!"

"I'm s-sorry--" Steven hiccuped as you withdrew your hips oh-so slowly, your eyes watching how the strap-on sunk back in welcomingly past his tight rim of muscles.

His ass cheeks were red and swollen from the spanking you had given him--you didn't actually start fucking him with it until he was drooling and crying into the pillow he had tucked against his chest, his cock a weeping mess into the blankets below.

You didn't even let him touch himself.

You pressed the toy in as deep as it would go, pressing your hips down hard until you were grinding against his prostate; Steven whining and babbling the most filthy things as he chewed his pillow, begging for you to just move, to go just a little faster.

"You want me to go faster, baby?" You coo'd, pulling back just to slam home once again, grinding in deep.

"Ye-eeeeh-eeessss!" He cried.

You huffed, pushing back some of your hair that had gotten stuck to your sweaty forehead as you smoothed your hand up the curve of his arched spine, your fingers easily swiping through the rivulets of perspiration that flowed down his skin.

"Shh, shh, I'll give you what you want..." You murmured, leaning in to pepper soft kisses across his trembling shoulder.

He had been behaving since his "punishment"... You figured he deserved a bit of a reward.

So, you pried his tight-fisted fingers open and slipped the controller to your vibrator into his sweaty grasp.

"I want you to cum. And I want you to make sure I do at the same time. If you forget and don't let me cum..." You curled your fingers under his chin, scraping his messy stubble with your nails slightly, making his Adam's apple bomb as he swallowed the lump sum of saliva that had been gathering in his mouth.

"I--I will! Or--I w-won't? I..."

"Just make sure I do, baby. Can you do that for me?" You murmured against his ear, taking the lobe between your teeth and biting down softly.

"I--y-yes..." Steven sobbed.

"Yes..?" You hummed as you pulled back.

"Yes ma'am." He gasped as he felt the dildo inch its way out of his hole.

"Good boy." You praised him, your teeth snagging your lower lip as you feel him turn the vibrator inside of you on at a nice, comfortable setting.

Comfortable, but not what you wanted.

You thrust into him in a nice, deep, steady rhythm, groaning as you watch his hole clench and try to drag you deeper.

You almost wished this was your real cock, just so you could feel how his walls clenched and gripped--desperately trying to urge you along and deeper inside of him.

A moan was torn from your throat; as you thrusted in and out of Steven, the toy would nudge at a delicious angle to just barely catch at your g-spot.

"Steven, higher..." You panted, planting one foot down on the bed as you increased your pace.

You probably should have given him a bit more time to process your request before you began to fuck him harder, the poor man. He was a babbling mess of drool and tears, and you were relentless--pounding into his ass with vigor and energy he barely had in reserves.

His thumb shakily found it, and your breath punches from your lungs when it is turned to the highest setting on a steady pulse to almost match your rolling hips.

"F-fuck!" You groaned, gripping the soft fat on his hips for more leverage to fuck him harder, the vibrator inside of you moving around in your gummy walls, massaging you wonderfully from within, driving your impending climax closer as the seam of the leather harness you wore ground against your clit with every movement.

"'m gonna c-cum, love." Steven moaned loudly, his head lifting from the pillow.

"God--ahh!--are you?" You huffed back, your eyes rolling a little as the vibrator pulses harshly within you.

Maybe you'd chosen your toys a little too well... Neither of you were going to last at this rate. Pity. And here, you wanted to play with him just a bit longer.

Oh, well... Maybe next time you could cockwarm him; slowly fill him up with fake cum until he was begging to ride your cock. Maybe fill if with flavored lube and have him give you a blowjob? So many possibilities...

You reached down and grabbed the pump from your harness--your hand lightly squeezing it to let the fake cum solution work its way up the shaft as you moaned for Steven.

You hear a furious slide of skin as you realize he'd slipped his free hand below, stroking his flushed, fat shaft as you fucked him from behind. He'd get a punishment for breaking that rule.

He hiccuped, a broken and shattered moan coming from his soft and sweet lips was like music to your ears; making your heart skip a beat in your chest.

Later. He'd get one later.

"J-just a little more, baby--you can hold on long enough for me, can't you?" You sighed, swallowing hard to try and keep your voice level as your orgasm threatened to wash through you.

Your only reply was a choked-out whimper, your name leaving his mouth like a prayer as he sniffled; his hand on his dick slowing just a fraction to allow your budding climax to swell and bloom.

"Love, please." Steven pleaded, his hand dropping the remote to your toy--leaving it on the setting that already had your toes curling--as he gripped at the sheets blindly, drooling into the pillow once again.

"You want me to fill you up, Steven?" You moaned (perhaps a little too theatrically) your hips moving in a sharp blur; chasing every backwards jerk of his hips as much as every graze of that seam against your swollen clit.

"Want me to breed you, baby boy?"

"F-fuck--yes!" He almost bellowed

"Mmmm--" You panted, leaning down to press your chest against his back, his skin almost searing against the flesh of your breasts, "Make me cum, baby."

Steven continued to whimper and sob, arching and rolling his hips back to meet your thrusts, the jostling and tugging of the strap making those flames of pleasure lick up your spine as the vibrator pulsed and buzzed inside of you; the heat pooling in your belly battering down the walls of your self restraint.

Steven gasped and twitched, his hand going still for a moment on his dick as the first thick rope of his cum shot from the tip, coating the sheets and his hand as he picked it back up again.

You kept pumping inside of him--the sight and sound of him coming undone making your muscles go taut and flex as your own orgasm washed over you, his sweet voice muttering your name again and again as his cum began to soak into the fabric below him.

You barely had enough focus to remember the pump in your hand. You thrust once, twice, and on the third and final thrust your hand squeezed a final time, your "cum" shooting from your cock and flowing into him.

And, oh, the sounds leaving his mouth were downright sinful. They surely would have blocked any person from reaching the gates of heaven had they been uttered by a holy man.

Well... maybe holy in a different kind of religion...

As your hearts stilled, you slowly pulled out of him and watched as the white fluid dripped from his twitching hole and rolled away, onto your back as you panted for sweet oxygen--the bedroom felt so hot and humid. The smell of sweat and sex soaked into the very molecules of air between you.

You rolled onto your side as Steven collapsed, your fingers shakily reaching for the remote to turn off your vibrator as your body shuddered to a stop, the aftershocks of your orgasm finally washing away like the tide.

"You alive?" You huffed at him, reaching out to comb your fingers through his soaking wet curls.

He turned his face to you, then, a blissed-out smile on his face as he blinked his adorable little doe-eyes at you.

"I... ah.... better than okay." He mumbled, reaching out to grasp your hand in his. "You?"

"I think I found a new favorite hobby..." You grinned at him as you wiped sweat from your brow.

"Oh... I'm right properly fucked, aren't I?" He joked tiredly.

You leaned over and kissed his temple, where the vein throbbed beneath your lips.

"Oh, absolutely."

[zenithofstories]

so i've just finished watching all the first episodes, so i wanted to give my thoughts on the first Wild Life session:

-so much fun i love it so much. i'm so glad they're all still having fun and continuing the series, and that Mumbo and Lizzie came back, despite dying early in Secret Life (i was a tiny bit worried they might get a bit dejected and pass on this one). also thrilled Ren is able to play this time; he's a blast

-there is a lot of mistrust going around which is very curious to me. most of it stems from previous seasons and has no bearing on what was happening at the time. Pearl straight up telling Cleo she expected her to betray her; Mumbo and Skizz not trusting Martyn, and then Grian; and then not trusting that Martyn just wanted to use their enchanter; the huge immediate aggression towards Scar when he came out of the mountain into Grian, Skizz and Mumbo's base; Mumbo not trusting Skizz (his teammate!) when he asked for someone to pass him a diamond; Scott, Cleo, Pearl and Impulse assuming Joel stole their cows, probably more i'm forgetting. it's definitely obvious to me that these people have learnt how the games work and learnt from the pain (as we do). i'm very curious to see if the general server mistrust grows, and the impact it has on everyone and the people

-i love JImmy, Big B, Lizzie and Ren forming a dnd party and Ren (in true bardic fashion) has a guitar within reach and is willing to break into song at the first campsite (this honestly might be my favourite moment from all the life series at the moment. the guitar within reach, Ren's beautiful voice, how much the others thought it was great. fantastic vibes all around)

-i really want Scar and Martyn to team up. they are both instantly mistrusted, to the point that both of them (in their first episodes, no less) expressed that if people are going to treat them like a villain, then they may as well act like it. if the two of them team up to take revenge on everyone being mean to them in a new series i think they would be a force to be reckoned with

-Skizz and Mumbo is a fantastic team-up. both very genuine people who are so funny together

-i hope they get the lag fixed, or that it was just from the size-changing mod and they don't have to deal with it for the rest of the series

-Gem and Joel's partnership - in the early days Gem is going to be a fantastic counterbalance for Joel; help keep him calmer and curb his wild ideas. But once Gem gives in to her own urges... oh boy

-does Big B know that he can go caving with people? cause he seemed to be under the impression that he had to get geared out before he could make friends and it would suck if he ended up alone all the time because it hasn't occurred to him that he can go caving with people right at the start

-double life thought: i know most people count Pearl as the winner, but did Scott technically win as well? cause they were the last pair alive, and died in the same tick. it probably doesn't matter at all, but i wonder about it sometimes (especially in how it would affect Martyn's lore but that's not canon)

-i don't think Jimmy has broken the canary curse. i subscribe to the theory that cause Lizzie died in the End, the Watchers weren't able to perceive it and then he was the first to die in the Overworld (i'm not counting Real Life as canon; it happened and i enjoyed it but it wasn't a full series and they were deliberately playing it silly as an april fool's joke. very glad that Cleo won though. hope they get a full series win as well)

-i'm glad that Tango and Skizz (deliberately) didn't team together, but i kinda wish Tango had ended up in a different group. him, Etho and Bdubs are fun, don't get me wrong, but a whole lot of the fun of the series is seeing people interact and work with people they don't usually. Tango and Jimmy was a top tier pairing in Double Life, and Tango is hilarious. i would love to see him branch out more and work with some more people

-there is more than just the wild card. Grian said he wasn't going to explain it, and i didn't notice anything else happening (but i'm also not expecting it to be much until they get to the late game). i think that there will be a wild card that affects the players, and then also something that affects the world? we'll see, i guess

-now that everyone who has played is playing (i'm pretty sure? if i've forgotten someone i'm gonna be sad) who is gonna sub in if needed?

-i love Mumbo's "that was sub-one intelligence mate" when they all fell 🤣

-i'm not sure what the purpose of including the creakings or whatever they're called? nevermind i just looked it up and they're going to be in the game at some point. weird. i'm not sure how i feel about creakings coming to minecraft though

-very glad they've got six lives this time. it will both allow them to not worry so much about mistakes and accidents (as evidenced by Pearl) and encourage them to take risks, which will be fantastic

[iliketangerines]

I know you do like hybrid reader but do you do hybrid animal mk men? If so- electric eel Raiden has been living rent free in my head- or like wolf Reiko- but more electric eel Raiden. How he’d accident shock reader or being her food whenever she’s by the river 🥰 how he’d see her play with the village children in the river from a far and wish that reader would carry his clutch of eggs and mother them.

good pup

a/n: hmmm...might make a part two because i really want to wite nasty a/b/o smut for fun. also, i do have an electric eel raiden fic up here. also, i do NOT condone this behavior in real life

pairing: wolf!reiko x gn!reader

warnings: noncon (kind of?), nothing explicit

you enter the court, clenching your hands nervously as you look at the bystanders towering over you and the other Earthrealm defenders

looking back to Sindel, perched on her throne and tail swishing behind her elegantly, she resembles a lion to you, ears flicking as she addresses you and Lord Liu Kang

the princesses with their own tails and ears take place on their thrones, watching with keen eyes at how the five of you will adapt to Outworld

you can see General Shao, his horns curving up to the ceilings and heavy dragon tail curled up next to his feet as he glowers at the five of you

he introduces his finest soldier Reiko and gestures to a tall man walking in, wearing black face paint and his ears twitching as he walks in

his tail swishes behind him, and he looks much like a wolf, a predator ready to strike and kill with bared fangs

Raiden tenses in front of you, and you let out a small mumble under your breath, trying to give him silent encouragement and perhaps yourself too

Reiko bares his teeth, sharp fangs on display as his ears pin flat to his head, and he towers easily over Raiden and everyone else alike

suddenly, the warrior’s eyes snap to you, and you jolt as his gaze seems to stab through you, tearing out every secret and thought that you’ve ever had

you break eye contact immediately, looking down to the ground and stepping back a bit to hide behind Kung Lao and Kenshi

the fight begins soon afterwards, and you watch as Raiden effortlessly uses his amulet to fight and win against Reiko

the wolf growls at the champion, and quickly gets up, ears pinned back tightly as General Shao then comes to take his soldier’s place and fight against Raiden

as you watch the ensuing fight, a shiver runs down your back, and you find Reiko still staring at you, nose twitching as he continues to just stare

it unnerves you, and you try to turn your attention back and try to take your mind off of how he can’t stop looking at you

Raiden wins once more, and General Shao stalks off angrily, tail whipping behind in frustration and feet causing the ground to slightly shake underneath you

Reiko follows behind his general but not before licking his lips and finally tearing his gaze away from you, trotting away with his master

you shake off the interaction and congratulate Raiden for his win, patting him on the back as you all head back to your rooms for a personal celebration and wind down until the banquet

time passes faster than any of you can blink and soon enough the five of you sit in the banquet, and you sit by Kenshi as you feel the texture of the cloth covering the table

it was softer and nicer than anything you could and would ever own, and you wonder how long someone had spent making the cloth only for it to be used as a dining table cover

you’re shaken out of your thoughts as Reiko and General Shao walk over and sit right next to you, the wolf taking a seat right next to you, not even trying to hide how he stares at you

it makes you wriggle in your seat, and you notice how his nails resemble claws and try to suppress a shiver as he sniffs the air again

thankfully, the servers start to bring out food, and you distract yourself with listening to the conversations around you and eating every bit of the food

you listen to Kenshi judge Kung Lao for eating so much, you listen to Johnny flirting hopelessly with Kitana, and you listen to the singers in the background

paying attention to everything except the wolf staring you down and making your insides turn with nervousness

did you smell or stink or something? why else would he be so intent on sniffing the air every minute?

Kenshi seems to notice your discomfort and throws an arm around your shoulder to drag you in closer to his and Kung Lao’s conversation, but the both of you hear Reiko’s loud growl

the wolf stands up, chair falling over and slamming down onto the ground, and it makes both you and Kenshi jump at the rudeness of it all

Reiko huffs for a moment, looking seconds away from ripping Kenshi into shreds, and General Shao tells the soldier to stand down

for a moment, it looks like Reiko will disobey, eyes firmly planted on the hand on your shoulder, but slowly he picks his chair up and sits down, still growling quietly

Kenshi and Kung Lao send you a glance, and you shrug your shoulders, unknowing of why the wolf seemed so angered by a simple gesture

you try to ignore him for the rest of the night, but it becomes increasingly hard as Reiko stares you down, forgoing even eating the food on his plate

the conversation is stilted and stiff as you try to play it off, but somehow you make it through, clenching onto the expensive dining table cover and picking at the threads

finally, General Shao has an outburst and marks the end of the dinner, and you hurriedly stand up to get away from the presence next to you

and then, you feel his clawed hands grip onto yours and drag you into his arms, and his nose buries itself into your neck, breathing in your scent heavily

you freeze, unsure of what to even do, shocked by his boldness and the forwardness

only when you feel sharp teeth sinking into your neck and a sharp burning pain spark through your body, does your body snap into action, slamming the warrior into the ground and releasing yourself from his grip

there’s yelling and angry shouting from around you, but Reiko just laughs, your blood dripping from his teeth and your neck still burning much more than what a bite should be

he smiles up at you, ears perked up as he says that you’re his, his pretty little mate, and you bare your own canines and growl, asking what the hell did he mean by that

you knew exactly what he meant, biology had never left your mind, but you couldn’t believe him, refused to believe this wolf

wolves mated for life, you knew that, and you also knew your lifespan would be a blink in comparison to his lifespan

and yet, the pain in your neck burned and spread like molten lava running down your body and filling your body with a angry pain

you let go of him, scratching at your body, trying to get rid of the feeling and gasping for air, and you close your eyes to try and ease the pain rushing through you

whimpers and screams of pain rip out of your throat, and you can hear the muffled sound of fighting in the background

it all seems irrelevant to the way you can feel your body giving up, black dots dancing behind your eyelids, and you gasp for one more breath of air as you pass out

you’re not sure when you wake up or when the pain had subsided, but you wake up in the medical wing, staring at high ceilings and sunlight trickling through the curtains surrounding your bed

turning your head to the side you find Liu Kang, lips pursed and hands clasped together, and a feeling of dread curls in your stomach at his concerned expression

he starts slowly, explaining what has happened since you’ve passed out, that Kung Lao, Kenshi, and Johnny have been sent on a mission to find someone

that when you passed out Reiko had gone to you and Kenshi had thrown a punch at the warrior and started a fight

and that you were now of Outworld

you blink at the last sentence and let out a small what, sitting up in your cot and staring at the remorseful looking god, and you ask him to explain

he lets out a small breath and explains slowly, that when Reiko had bitten you, it had caused an irreversible bond between the two of you and had quite literally shifted all of your DNA to be of Outworld origin

you no longer belonged to Earthrealm, and due to Outworld customs and to hold the fragile peace between Earthrealm and Outworld, you would become Reiko’s and Liu Kang could do nothing about it

you start to laugh, it all sounded so insane, your entire body quite literally rearranging on a genetic level to match Outworld’s and that you now belonged to a man you had never met

tears start to fall down your face as you realize exactly the type of position that you’re in, and Liu Kang lets you sob into your hands as he waits for you calm down

the curtain rips open, and Liu Kang snaps at Reiko to leave

you look up and find the warrior looking at you, tail wagging and fangs bared in a smile, and you want to kill him, tackle him and pin him down and beat the shit out of him

but you can’t find it in your body to try and attack him, but at least your tears have dried up out of sheer anger towards the warrior

he coos at you, walking over to you and crawling into the bed and burying his nose into your neck and licking at the wound

you try to move, to do something, to push him off of you, but your body disagrees, trembling and going limp in his hold instead, head tilting back to let him have better access

looking to Liu Kang, he can only ask Reiko to get off of you once more, and the wolf growls at him, grip on you becoming tighter

you can smell something, you can smell Reiko, something wafting from him, strong and like ash, and you can feel your body relaxing against your will, eyelids drooping down as you hear Reiko whisper that you’re all his, only his, and no one else’s

you’re stuck with Reiko whether you liked it or not

[wings-of-fire-confessions]

Alright let’s talk about the fandom. Seriously.

Immaturity and bad takes are impossible to avoid since this is literally a book for pre to post teens, a lot of older people either love or grew up with it, but have left because of the loud majority of minors. This post is mostly for those younger people, so keep that in mind.

I’ll just say this real quick, if you’re 12 and under. Get off, it’s truly for your own safety you shouldn’t even be online, be patient and wait, it will be worth it I promise. Young minds should definitely NOT be interacting with this fandom at all.

These books and the fandom means a lot to me, and to see it on fire breaks my heart, so here I propose some temporary solutions and suggestions:

Draw people’s ocs! No matter how off cannon or op they may be, this fandom is full of children and a little kindness can go a long way

Encourage nuance, I know it’s not our job to parent the kids who are left abandoned on the internet, but I think it’s important to understand where these kids are coming from. Learning is hard for some but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be held accountable for your actions. Differing opinions might be trivial to some who grew up in an echo chamber of the same views as them, so take a mindful approach of sharing new ideas, don’t just say “This idea is correct and because you don’t think it is you’re wrong”.

Positivity and kindness. This one is very important, you need to listen to one another and give everyone a chance to speak, there are so many diverse people across the fandom and we all just want to enjoy our dragons. Ruining the fun by harassing innocent people is not okay, relax a bit and step back, this is all just a series about a fictional species with rules that can be easily bent for fan content, everyone is having fun together, and you can either watch, partake, or ruin it.

I think that’s all I have to say for now, I just love psychology and growing minds are fascinating to me, I love children with all of my heart (not like that) and it’s upsetting to see them fighting with each other or getting dog piled by older people! Please, this fandom has to be way more mindful of it wants to continue, minors in fandoms are unavoidable but you can easily make 16-18+ servers or groups.

With that being said, I genuinely love you all and I wish to see this thrive, continue doing your art, your writing, or whatever the hell you do, I’ve seen so much amazing mixed media projects about these dragons and it makes me so happy that people are sharing this stuff with the world. I love you artists, fellow fandom siblings, and to all else who reads this, have a good day/night 💖

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