#mythology paperback

[book0ftheday]

Olympus: 17 Tales of Mythical Beings edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Bruce D. Arthurs, cover art by Jean Francois Podevin, published 1988.

[patroclusdefencesquad]

going insane over this a little bit. once again

[maverick-werewolf]

NEW NONFICTION BOOK - Sabine Baring-Gould's The Book of Werewolves, Annotated and Translated

Big announcement, just in time for Halloween! This source is useful not only on werewolves, but on many other subjects as well, including general shapeshifter legends and more.

Originally written in 1865, Sabine Baring-Gould's The Book of Were-Wolves is still considered among the best of sources in the field of werewolf studies, as well as folklore studies and the occult. A passionate dive into the folkloric and real history of werewolves, witches and sorcerers, and even madmen and serial killers, Baring-Gould takes a scientific approach to "proving" the reality behind werewolf legends. In doing so, he discusses werewolf legends across history, with particular focus on Scandinavia and the Renaissance / Early Modern eras, and even discusses other shapeshifter folklore from around the world, as well as providing trial accounts of famous killers such as Gilles de Rais. This book is a must-have for scholars in multiple fields and anyone interested in the history of the werewolf legend. The editor's contribution of annotations and translations provide further context to Baring-Gould's work, but his words in themselves are unabridged and uncensored from his original text.

This fully annotated edition of Sabine Baring-Gould's The Book of Werewolves includes:

Academic critique, comments, analyses, and comparisons to modern scholarship

Explanations of folklore and historical context

Translations of quoted passages

Bibliography and list of other helpful reading

Fully formatted and edited manuscript (with table of contents) updated to modern standards

Click here to purchase on Amazon.com, available in ebook/digital, paperback, and hardback!

If you haven't seen it, also be sure to sign up for my free newsletter if you want to keep track of my work, be the first to stay informed, and get free monthly folklore facts (werewolf facts, vampire facts, and more) in your inbox! You'll also get a free full short story and a long preview of my most popular work, the nonfiction book The Werewolf: Past and Future, for subscribing.

Website --- Patreon --- Wulfgard --- Werewolf Fact Masterlist

[wellspringofallagony]

Prince of Annwn by Evangeline Walton

Cover art by David McCall Johnston

[alicenskylark]

Hunting The Huntress

Millennia ago Zeus banished the lovers of his daughter Artemis to the stars.

Only one escaped this fate…

It’s love at first quip for Ancient Greek poet Sappho of Lesbos and the Olympian goddess of the hunt Artemis. For their relationship to persevere they must content with Artemis’s disapproving and intolerant father, the mighty Zeus—tyrant king of Olympus and all-around bad guy. Managing to avoid his wrath for decades, life is great for the poet and huntress until one day Artemis mysteriously goes missing.

Two and a half millennia later the reincarnated soul of Sappho, a Parisian musician named Sabine Moineau arrives in Toronto to continue her search for her lost love. Along the way she navigates the demands of Aphrodite, the goddess of love for whom she works as part of her deal for immortality. She performs at concerts, meets the taciturn gods and goddesses calling the city home, and encounters a sorceress, a nephilim, beautiful women and horrible monsters in her quest to reunite with Artemis.

A story of urban fantasy and erotic fulfilment, Greek mythology in the modern era, brimming with adventurous heroics in the depths of hidden sanctuaries and between the sheets, Hunting the Huntress delivers it all.

[licksofvenus]

https://www.amazon.com/Animus-Raine-Mitchell/dp/B08WZH8L3J/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

[ebonetnoir]

Introducing the Pandora Chaos Coordinator Paperback Composition Notebook! Unlock your creative potential and embrace the organized chaos of your ideas with this stylish and functional journal.

[esonetwork]

'Once Upon A Time Lord' Review | Earth Station Who

New Post has been published on http://esonetwork.com/once-upon-a-time-lord-review-earth-station-who/

'Once Upon A Time Lord' Review | Earth Station Who

In this episode of Earth Station Who, the crew reviews the Doctor Who comic book “Once Upon a Time Lord” by Dan Slott, discussing its storytelling, characters, and artwork. They have enjoyed the main story featuring the 10th Doctor and Martha but have mixed feelings about the portrayal of the 9th Doctor and Rose’s relationship, finding some elements repetitive and off-putting. Despite this, they recommend the comic to readers. The hosts also announce their upcoming panel at Pensacon and discuss other Doctor Who-related events. They tease future podcast content, including discussions on Big Finish audio dramas, new and classic series episodes, and more Doctor Who comics.

We want to hear from you! Please write to us at feedback@earthstationwho.com. Also, please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are found. Feedback is always welcome and much appreciated.

Links Listen to older episodes of the Earth Station Who Podcast ESW on iTunes ESW on Stitcher Earth Station Who on Spotify Earth Station Who on Instagram Earth Station Who on YouTube Make-A-Wish Foundation The ESO Network TeePublic Store The ESO Network Patreon Pensacon Once Upon A Time Lord On Amazon

Promotion Epsilon 3 Podcast

If you would like to leave feedback or comment feel free to email us at feedback@earthstationwho.com

[graphicpolicy]

Dark Horse reveals The Complete Norse Mythology

Dark Horse reveals The Complete Norse Mythology #comics #comicbooks

Neil Gaiman’s 2017 bestselling book, Norse Mythology, has been adapted into an 18-issue comic series spanning three separate hardcover volumes. Now, Dark Horse Books will collect the entire series for the first time into one oversized, deluxe collection! The Complete Norse Mythology will include Volumes 1-3 of the comic series, adapted by P. Craig Russell, the Eisner award-winning writer,…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Marshmallow Longtermism

The paperback edition of The Lost Cause, my nationally bestselling, hopeful solarpunk novel is out this week!

My latest column for Locus Magazine is "Marshmallow Longtermism"; it's a reflection on how conservatives self-mythologize as the standards-bearers for deferred gratification and making hard trade-offs, but are utterly lacking in these traits when it comes to climate change and inequality:

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/cory-doctorow-marshmallow-longtermism/

Conservatives often root our societal ills in a childish impatience, and cast themselves as wise adults who understand that "you can't get something for nothing." Think here of the memes about lazy kids who would rather spend on avocado toast and fancy third-wave coffee rather than paying off their student loans. In this framing, poverty is a consequence of immaturity. To be a functional adult is to be sober in all things: not only does a grownup limit their intoxicant intake to head off hangovers, they also go to the gym to prevent future health problems, they save their discretionary income to cover a down-payment and student loans.

This isn't asceticism, though: it's a mature decision to delay gratification. Avocado toast is a reward for a life well-lived: once you've paid off your mortgage and put your kid through college, then you can have that oat-milk latte. This is just "sound reasoning": every day you fail to pay off your student loan represents another day of compounding interest. Pay off the loan first, and you'll save many avo toasts' worth of interest and your net toast consumption can go way, way up.

Cleaving the world into the patient (the mature, the adult, the wise) and the impatient (the childish, the foolish, the feckless) does important political work. It transforms every societal ill into a personal failing: the prisoner in the dock who stole to survive can be recast as a deficient whose partying on study-nights led to their failure to achieve the grades needed for a merit scholarship, a first-class degree, and a high-paying job.

Dividing the human race into "the wise" and "the foolish" forms an ethical basis for hierarchy. If some of us are born (or raised) for wisdom, then naturally those people should be in charge. Moreover, putting the innately foolish in charge is a recipe for disaster. The political scientist Corey Robin identifies this as the unifying belief common to every kind of conservativism: that some are born to rule, others are born to be ruled over:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/01/set-healthy-boundaries/#healthy-populism

This is why conservatives are so affronted by affirmative action, whose premise is that the absence of minorities in the halls of power stems from systemic bias. For conservatives, the fact that people like themselves are running things is evidence of their own virtue and suitability for rule. In conservative canon, the act of shunting aside members of dominant groups to make space for members of disfavored minorities isn't justice, it's dangerous "virtue signaling" that puts the childish and unfit in positions of authority.

Again, this does important political work. If you are ideologically committed to deregulation, and then a giant, deregulated sea-freighter crashes into a bridge, you can avoid any discussion of re-regulating the industry by insisting that we are living in a corrupted age where the unfit are unjustly elevated to positions of authority. That bridge wasn't killed by deregulation – it's demise is the fault of the DEI hire who captained the ship:

https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2024/03/26/baltimore-bridge-dei-utah-lawmaker-phil-lyman-misinformation

The idea of a society made up of the patient and wise and the impatient and foolish is as old as Aesop's "The Ant and the Grasshopper," but it acquired a sheen of scientific legitimacy in 1970, with Walter Mischel's legendary "Stanford Marshmallow Experiment":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

In this experiment, kids were left alone in a locked room with a single marshmallow, after being told that they would get two marshmallows in 15 minutes, but only if they waited until them to eat the marshmallow before them. Mischel followed these kids for decades, finding that the kids who delayed gratification and got that second marshmallow did better on every axis – educational attainment, employment, and income. Adult brain-scans of these subjects revealed structural differences between the patient and the impatient.

For many years, the Stanford Marshmallow experiment has been used to validate the cleavage of humanity in the patient and wise and impatient and foolish. Those brain scans were said to reveal the biological basis for thinking of humanity's innate rulers as a superior subspecies, hidden in plain sight, destined to rule.

Then came the "replication crisis," in which numerous bedrock psychological studies from the mid 20th century were re-run by scientists whose fresh vigor disproved and/or complicated the career-defining findings of the giants of behavioral "science." When researchers re-ran Mischel's tests, they discovered an important gloss to his findings. By questioning the kids who ate the marshmallows right away, rather than waiting to get two marshmallows, they discovered that these kids weren't impatient, they were rational.

The kids who ate the marshmallows were more likely to come from poorer households. These kids had repeatedly been disappointed by the adults in their lives, who routinely broke their promises to the kids. Sometimes, this was well-intentioned, as when an economically precarious parent promised a treat, only to come up short because of an unexpected bill. Sometimes, this was just callousness, as when teachers, social workers or other authority figures fobbed these kids off with promises they knew they couldn't keep.

The marshmallow-eating kids had rationally analyzed their previous experiences and were making a sound bet that a marshmallow on the plate now was worth more than a strange adult's promise of two marshmallows. The "patient" kids who waited for the second marshmallow weren't so much patient as they were trusting: they had grown up with parents who had the kind of financial cushion that let them follow through on their promises, and who had the kind of social power that convinced other adults – teachers, etc – to follow through on their promises to their kids.

Once you understand this, the lesson of the Marshmallow Experiment is inverted. The reason two marshmallow kids thrived is that they came from privileged backgrounds: their high grades were down to private tutors, not the choice to study rather than partying. Their plum jobs and high salaries came from university and family connections, not merit. Their brain differences were the result of a life free from the chronic, extreme stress that comes with poverty.

Post-replication crisis, the moral of the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment is that everyone experiences a mix of patience and impatience, but for the people born to privilege, the consequences of impatience are blunted and the rewards of patience are maximized.

Which explains a lot about how rich people actually behave. Take Charles Koch, who grew his father's coal empire a thousandfold by making long-term investments in automation. Koch is a vocal proponent of patience and long-term thinking, and is openly contemptuous of publicly traded companies because of the pressure from shareholders to give preference to short-term extraction over long-term planning. He's got a point.

Koch isn't just a fossil fuel baron, he's also a wildly successful ideologue. Koch is one of a handful of oligarchs who have transformed American politics by patiently investing in a kraken's worth of think tanks, universities, PACs, astroturf organizations, Star chambers and other world-girding tentacles. After decades of gerrymandering, voter suppression, court-packing and propagandizing, the American billionaire class has seized control of the US and its institutions. Patience pays!

But Koch's longtermism is highly selective. Arguably, Charles Koch bears more personal responsibility for delaying action on the climate emergency than any other person, alive or dead. Addressing greenhouse gasses is the most grasshopper-and-the-ant-ass crisis of all. Every day we delayed doing something about this foreseeable, well-understood climate debt added sky-high compounding interest. In failing to act, we saved billions – but we stuck our future selves with trillions in debt for which no bankruptcy procedure exists.

By convincing us not to invest in retooling for renewables in order to make his billions, Koch was committing the sin of premature avocado toast, times a billion. His inability to defer gratification – which he imposed on the rest of us – means that we are likely to lose much of world's coastal cities (including the state of Florida), and will have to find trillions to cope with wildfires, zoonotic plagues, and hundreds of millions of climate refugees.

Koch isn't a serene Buddha whose ability to surf over his impetuous attachments qualifies him to make decisions for the rest of us. Rather, he – like everyone else – is a flawed vessel whose blind spots are just as stubborn as ours. But unlike a person whose lack of foresight leads to drug addiction and petty crimes to support their habit, Koch's flaws don't just hurt a few people, they hurt our entire species and the only planet that can support it.

The selective marshmallow patience of the rich creates problems beyond climate debt. Koch and his fellow oligarchs are, first and foremost, supporters of oligarchy, an intrinsically destabilizing political arrangement that actually threatens their fortunes. Policies that favor the wealthy are always seeking an equilibrium between instability and inequality: a rich person can either submit to having their money taxed away to build hospitals, roads and schools, or they can invest in building high walls and paying guards to keep the rest of us from building guillotines on their lawns.

Rich people gobble that marshmallow like there's no tomorrow (literally). They always overestimate how much bang they'll get for their guard-labor buck, and underestimate how determined the poors will get after watching their children die of starvation and preventable diseases.

All of us benefit from some kind of cushion from our bad judgment, but not too much. The problem isn't that wealthy people get to make a few poor choices without suffering brutal consequences – it's that they hoard this benefit. Most of us are one missed student debt payment away from penalties and interest that add twenty years to our loan, while Charles Koch can set the planet on fire and continue to act as though he was born with the special judgment that means he knows what's best for us.

On SEPTEMBER 24th, I'll be speaking IN PERSON at the BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY!!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/04/deferred-gratification/#selective-foresight

Image: Mark S (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/markoz46/4864682934/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[samwisethewitch]

Book Review: Freya: Meeting the Norse Goddess of Magic by Morgan Daimler

I just finished a reread of this book and realized I've never talked about it on this blog, even though it ties into a lot of my content.

I've talked about my relationship with Freyja here before. She is the deity I have worked with most consistently in my personal practice, and she's been a strong presence in my life since I was a child. Even before I was interested in witchcraft or paganism, I was drawn to stories and images of Freyja.

Unfortunately, quality books about Freyja are hard to find in English. A lot of the wonderful work being done by Scandinavian scholars and heathens is only available in their native languages. A lot of English-language resources are either very academic and prohibitively expensive, or they are books about goddess worship more generally that only mention Freyja on a few pages. Freyja, Lady, Vanadis: An Introduction to the Goddess by Patricia M. Lafayllve is a pretty good beginner's resource, but it's only available in paperback, which can be a barrier for some readers.

All of this is to say, I was very excited when Morgan Daimler put out this book. I've talked about how much I love Daimler's work before on this blog -- I think they do really great research AND do a really good job of making all that information accessible for a beginner. I have several of Daimler's books on Norse and Irish deities, and all of them are resources I reference often in my practice.

This book follows a similar formula to Daimler's other books on deities, like Odin or the Morrigan. Daimler presents Freyja's mythology, folklore, associations, and relationships. There is also an entire chapter dedicated to Freyja's connection to seiðr, which explains what seiðr is and why it is important in a very straightforward way. There is also an entire chapter dedicated to connecting with Freyja as a modern worshiper.

I like that Daimler includes a section at the end of each chapter about their own experiences with Freyja. I also like that they talk about the importance of actually experiencing the gods and trusting our experiences. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that anything that doesn't match up with primary sources is wrong, and I like that Daimler takes time to shoot down that idea.

I also really like that Daimler does not tell you how to interpret the lore. Daimler presents a story, explains the different ways it could be interpreted, and leaves readers to make their own conclusions. This is a style of teaching I try to use in my own work, and I love seeing it done well here.

If you know next to nothing about Freyja, I think this book is an excellent place to start. Everything you need to make that initial connection is here.

Even as someone who has worked with Freyja for years and done lots of my own research, I found a few things I didn't know here. This book also gave me a new perspective on certain aspects of Freyja's lore. This is why it's always great to compare notes with other people.

If you're interested in connecting with Freyja or just learning more about her, I highly, highly recommend this book!

[leannareneehieber]

GOTHIC & DARK ACADEMIA ENTHUSIASTS!

DARLINGS! Just noticed the double-volume revised edition of STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL via @torbooks is on super-eBook-sale right now. 684 pages! For only $3.99! Via Kindle, Kobo & Apple Books! Includes THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER and THE DARKLY LUMINOUS FIGHT FOR PERSEPHONE PARKER + extra scenes & content.

This book of my heart is: GOTHIC. It's Jane-Eyre-Meets-Dark-Academia+Hot-For-Teacher+GHOSTS+Greek-Mythology+Jack-the-Ripper+Found-Family

YES, there is a paperback omnibus edition, available via Bookshop.org (my favorite link to send folks to, it supports local bookstores!), B&N and any physical store can order it in. It's on sale too!

Please share? Thank you!

Kindle - Kobo - Apple Books

[kscheibles]

fall rendezvous (college bf! au)

content warnings: f! reader, fluff, smut, unprotected p in v sex, oral sex f! receiving

word count: 2.2k

The crisp morning air bites at your nose as you walk across campus after your 8 a.m. discussion class. You’re not used to New England weather; the chilly air causes your nose to run even when you’re bundled up in sweatshirts and coats as you are now. Matty makes fun of you every time, but his actions betray his true feelings. He always takes the opportunity to hold your hands in his and breathe hot air onto them. He likes being your solace. Your comfort.

As a matter of fact, that’s what you need him for now. Chase, the obnoxious legacy student in your Art History section, was insistent on devaluing the thematic interests of indigenous artists. Unfortunately, you’d had to take matters into your own hands when the TA looked as if it was too early for her to put a stop to his bullshit for the third time this semester. You’d ripped him a new one, but as a result, you were now simultaneously riled up, tired, and in need of a comforting hug from your boyfriend. You lug your book bag across the quad, texting Matty when you’re finally near his dorm.

You wait a few moments at the door, still reeling. As soon as the door swings open, revealing Matty’s crooked, slept-on curls and perfect, knowing smile, you can feel the anxiety in your body ease up. You run into him, almost knocking him off his feet as his arms come around to envelop you. The smell of his cologne and detergent and sleep fill your nose and seep into your brain, relaxing you like a drug. It’s instant with him. He gets into your bloodstream. 

“Mornin’ darlin’,” he mumbles into your ear. You smile into his navy hoodie, looking up into his sleepy eyes.

“Mornin’,” you coo. Matty grabs your hand and leads you up the stairs, unlocking his door and letting you in. You’re greeted by the smell of fresh coffee. Matty goes over to the coffee pot and pours you a mug as you toss your bookbag on the floor and take your shoes and socks off. You survey the place, taking inventory of the two beds, one belonging to his roommate, Ross, who has a 9 a.m. lab. He won’t be back for hours, bless him. Matty’s bed is at a different height than usual. He’s lowered it a bit, for god knows what reason. You chalk it up to a manic ADHD episode where he decided he had to rearrange his room in order to do his homework properly – you know this kind of thing isn’t uncommon for him. You love the ways in which his brain is different from yours. He sees and gets excited by things you never could and you admire him endlessly for it.

“What’s with the bed?” you ask as Matty passes you a mug of steaming coffee. You take another whiff – hazelnut, he must have gotten a new blend to mark the beginning of fall – before sipping on it, feeling it ground you back to reality. Matty quirks his eyebrows playfully, smirking as he does. 

“Well I wanted to try something actually,” he starts, cozying up to your side and resting his chin on the top of your head. “You know we were having all that trouble last week when I was trying to fuck you standing up?” 

Your head snaps around and you meet his eyes, smiling. What a boy, you think. 

“Anyways, I couldn’t stop thinking about it the other night while I was waiting for Ross to come back from the library so we could play Mortal Kombat so I crushed a Red Bull and adjusted the bed to be just a bit lower than my hips.”

You put your coffee down on his messy bookshelves filled with mythology volumes, dogeared paperback copies of Kafka, and plastic video game cases. You bring your arms up around his neck and kiss him softly on the mouth. 

“I suppose you wanna try it out then?” you ask, teasingly. Matty moans into your mouth and walks you back towards the bed until your thighs hit the mattress. You fall down onto your back and Matty’s instantly undoing the button of your jeans, pulling your pants and underwear off in one fell swoop. His head falls between your legs instantly, kissing your inner thighs, lifting your legs over his shoulders, and then licking you from your hole to your clit. 

You whimper at the contact. He’s so warm and wet and good. You squirm under his tongue, instinctively looking for friction. You swear you can feel his lips curl into a smile around your clit as you begin to buck senselessly, arrhythmically into his mouth. He captures your clit in his mouth, sucking at it devotedly as his left hand comes around to pin you down to the bed by your hips.

“God, you make me feel so good,” you moan as his fingers begin to swipe listlessly at your entrance. His head leaves your body long enough for you to read the need in his eyes. His pupils are completely blown out, lips glistening with your pleasure. “I love you,” you breathe. It’s the only thing you can think when you see the picture between your thighs: your sweet boy on his knees, cozy in his hoodie, and looking up at you for reassurance that he’s eating you right, even though he’s done it a hundred times before. He bends down, kissing your lower tummy tenderly.

“I love you, too,” he smiles up at you, “Can I fuck you now, sweet girl?”

You nod, intoxicated with pleasure and grinning. Faintly, you hear his clothes shuffling as he rids himself of his sweatpants and underwear, pumping himself a couple of times to be sure he’s ready for you. You hear the condom wrapper crinkling. Then you feel him, sinking inside you slowly. You feel dizzy despite having your eyes closed. Matty folds your knees into you and begins to push in and out of you slowly, rocking you into ecstasy. With your feet to the sky, you start to feel the chilly autumn air seep into you through your extremities and into your core, distracting and uncomfortable.

“Matty, I’m cold,” you whine, grabbing at your feet to warm them up. Leave it to your university to skimp on heating during the freezing Connecticut fall. 

“Oh fuck,” he mutters, pulling out of you briefly, “Can you stand up a minute, darling?” You do, hissing as your feet hit the cold, ground, and watching him dumbly as he unmakes his bed, fluffing his comforter up and holding in his arms. He wraps it delicately around your shoulders, holding you to him in a hug that feels like complete and utter safety. “You wanna lay back down?” he whispers into your hair. You nod and Matty helps you back onto the bed. You slowly lean back until your spine hits the mattress and plant your feet back on the flat surface. He notices before even you do, “Your feet still look cold, are you okay?”

You look down at them, realizing only now that they’ve gone completely numb. You meet Matty’s eyes bashfully. “Will I still be hot enough to fuck if you lend me a pair of fuzzy socks?”

Matty blushes and nods, kissing you sweetly on the forehead. “Always,” he assures you before padding over to his chest of drawers and finding a pair of wool socks to don you with. He puts them on you himself, rubbing your toes through the thick material to bring the weight back into your body. 

“I feel like Cinderella,” you quip. 

“You are,” Matty smiles, your feet still in his hands, “My perfect princess.”

“Okay don’t get too into my feet now,” you giggle and Matty drops them immediately.

“You’re right,” he turns fake serious all of a sudden, “Don’t even know how I was paying attention to them when you’re all spread out for me right here.”

You smile sweetly as he buries himself in you again, savoring that perfect, holy meeting that makes you see stars every time.

Your mouth falls open and your brows furrow inadvertently as you feel Matty fill you up. He touches every part of you, holding on to your tits and legs and anything else he can get his hands on as he begins to fuck you in earnest. He’s losing himself, grasping at any straw of reality that could keep him grounded. Your hand comes around to encircle the wrist of his hand that's bruising your right breast. You whine with each snap of his hips into yours but still manage to get his attention and talk him through it. 

“I’m right here, Matty,” you say, “I’m yours. Making me feel so good, baby.” His eyes meet yours, black with desire. Matty’s confided in you that he has a tendency to dissociate a little during sex. It helps when you touch different parts of him, stimulate him in new ways so that he stays present, and when you speak to him so he can remember that he’s doing it for you, too. He appreciates how seriously you take it and loves you even more in the moments he can tell you’re trying to care for him. 

Matty’s hand moves from your breast down to where his body meets yours, trapping your clit between his fingers and rubbing you in tandem with his thrusts. It causes another wanton cry to escape your lips.

“Please stay just like that,” you beg, “Please, please, I’m so close baby.” He nods, sweaty curls sticking to his forehead as he drags your body impossibly closer to his own. 

“Being so fucking good for me baby,” he manages, “Such a good girl. You’re for me.”

“All for you, baby,” you repeat, “I’m so fucking lucky you make me feel so good.”

“Gonna make you cum, baby. Can I?” he asks, leaning over you even further, chasing both of your orgasms. Your head falls back into the bed as he does. Like a marionette with her strings cut, your head bobs uselessly against the navy sheets as Matty rubs you and fucks you faster.

“I’m almost there,” you warn, “Stay just like that. Please, please.” You’re not even sure what you’re begging for anymore. Your brain is too far gone to be rational. You tense up as you feel your orgasm creeping up on you. 

“Relax for me,” you hear Matty’s voice in your ear, “It’s gonna feel a lot better if you relax, baby.”

You do. Instantly, you feel the band of pressure in your stomach snap as your orgasm washes over you from head to toe. You can feel yourself pulsing around Matty’s dick, over and over, beginning to feel overstimulated as he continues his assault on your used cunt. You swat tiredly at his hand on your clit. He moves it to your hip, holding on to you for dear life.

“Just another second baby,” he breathes, “You can be a good girl and take it a little while longer, yeah?” You nod uncontrollably, blissed out and needy. You need him to cum, need him to feel as good as you do. 

“Please, Matty, need you to cum inside me.” Matty slows to a stop above you, panting.

Matty falls onto your chest, bent over at the hips, panting into the duvet that cocoons you. Your hand meets his curls immediately, holding tight to what you couldn’t reach moments ago. You push his hair back from where it’s fallen onto his forehead, revealing his flushed face. Your thumbs ghost over his perfect cheekbones. You stay there, present for him, as he comes down, smiling at him when he finally meets your eyes. 

“Hi,” you muse.

“Hi,” he pants, letting his head touch the comforter again and pulling out of you. Your hands fly to his shoulders, brows furrowing as you try to still him. “Shhhh, baby, just a second,” he coos, standing up and tying the condom off before chucking it god knows where. He unwraps you and pulls the covers over the both of you as he nestles back into the comically small bed. He kisses the crown of your head when you find your way into the crook of his shoulder. 

“Thank you, I love you,” you say into his chest. 

“You too, baby,” he whispers, “Always look out for me you’re so good to me baby.” 

You lean up to kiss him, warm and sweet and soft. 

“This bed is really small,” you laugh into his mouth.

“That’s why I had to fold you up to fit,” he quips in return. 

“Will you take me to get a coffee, then? I think the one you made has gone cold.”

“Sure, baby,” he says, rubbing your bicep when you spring off the bed to get dressed. Matty gets up too, scrounging for his long discarded clothes. 

He chucks his blue Nike hoodie at you. “I know you were planning to steal that anyway.” You smile, shucking it on over your sweater. As you bend over to put your shoes on, Matty comes up behind you steadying you as you wobble with only one shoe on. You use his shoulders to steady yourself. He leans in, kissing you slowly and unhurriedly like he could do it all day.

“You ready to brave the cold?” he teases. 

“If I’m with you,” you pout. He giggles, pressing a kiss to the crown of your head and looping his arm around your neck.

“Come on then, baby,” he beams, “I’ll keep you warm.”

[instantpansies]

sometimes i forget how much of a masterpiece the episode "excaliferb" is. it's such a good fantasy parody. princess bride explanation (storybook read to sick person), including conveniently timed jokes for fourth wall breaks like a literal cliffhanger. arthurian premise with the lady of the lake pond, excalibur story, etc. lord of the rings references everywhere - most notably buford and baljeet as gimli and legolas ("traveling companions" i love them sm). the classic basic fantasy tropes: ridiculous landmark naming conventions (cave of ten thousand monsters, for example); the typical "heroes' party" ("a brute, a girl, two brothers, and a brain"); the epic monster battle straight off a paperback cover from the golden age of pulp fantasy. the mythology/folklore/legend callbacks. and maybe my personal favorite detail: in the final battle, the song is a pastiche of led zeppelin!!! famously known for writing about lord of the rings (especially battles) in their songs!! it's so perfect, i really shouldn't skip it when i'm looking for episodes to rewatch. a masterpiece fr

[bowldrips]

Verses of the Nine Worlds by Nico Solheim-Davidson is out now! @poeticnorth

PAPERBACK | E-BOOK | E-BOOK (Pay What You Can)

The poems are Homeric and Orphic-inspired, so the panels on the cover I did represent the Nine Realms of Norse cosmo/mythology in a style inspired by Greek red/black-figure ceramics, Viking Age knotwork and petroglyphs.

[jazzystudios82]

Webcomic Recommendation: ENNEAD ♡

Summary: "Nine powerful gods of ancient Egypt form the Ennead. When the god of war, Seth, kills his brother Osiris and takes over Egypt, he ushers in an era of chaos and cruelty. Centuries later, a new challenger appears: Horus, the child of Isis. Horus is not yet a full god, but he has the support of other deities to dethrone Seth. The conflict between Seth and Horus that begins as a series of trials warps into a complex web of deceit, obsession...and desire."

Distributer: Seven Seas Entertainment

Source: Tappytoon

Creator: Mojito

Genre: Mythology, folklore, drama, bl, dark romance

Status: Ongoing

Personal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars ⭐️ (So far)

Availability: Wherever books are sold

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

NOTE: For those wondering, the hardcover version of ENNEAD is the one with the mature content in it, while the paperback version is (I believe) the 'censored' one that's available to read on the mobile version of the Tappytoon app/website.