#now I'm going to rest with an audio book

[iplaywithstring]

All this week I've been going back to bed after I get my kid off to school. I'd sleep between 2-5 hours and then do whatever needed to be done for the rest of the afternoon. I've got no issue with naps, but for the past 14 years I've had chronic fatigue, it was typical for me to get things done in the morning, and then nap in the afternoon.

I was really starting to wonder if I was just being lazy - unmotivated, or trying to avoid doing things, or selfish, or something similar. I was half convinced some sort of personality flaw was causing the change in routine.

then today, I was all ready to go back to bed, but figured it'd be a good idea to do a bit of homework first so I didn't stress about it. Then some cleaning. Then I had some other stuff to do. Basically spent all my nap time doing things just because.

Once again I am reminded that I am actually chronically ill and that chronic illness has an impact on how I go through life and it is physical and not a character flaw. I am not bad, I am ill.

[totheblood]

begging for rain. (three)

󠁐# THREE; the harder that it takes to undo

PAIRING: ex!ellie williams x nextdoorneighbor!reader

SUMMARY: moving to a new town can be tough, especially as you are trying to hold everything in your life together. after you meet ellie, your life completely changes, but for the better? well that's still up in the air

WARNINGS: mentions of death, grief, related subjects; cursing, mentions of drinking/drugs, mentions of s*x,

WORD COUNT: 4.6k

A/N : ok this was the longest chapter i've written to date so... please enjoy.... ONE AI AUDIOS IN THE FIC ! please please please like and reblog/reply/send asks, comments, the whole nine yards… it is so appreciated!

TWO YEARS AGO

It felt weird to be in Ellie’s house.

Ellie opened the door to a cozy living room with warm beige walls and wicker furniture that had been well-worn by time. An old acoustic guitar leaned against one wall and a record player sat atop an end table, surrounded by piles of vintage vinyl. The air was thick with the aroma of coffee and old books, creating a comforting ambiance. Family photos and posters dotted the walls, giving an insight into Ellie's life that made you feel like a intruder but also made you want to know more. 

"Nice place," you said, removing your shoes at the door.

"Thanks," Ellie smiled, leading you to the living room. "You can drop your stuff there. We'll study at the table."

You took a seat at the sturdy oak dining table and ran your fingers over its smooth surface before settling into it. Scattered papers littered the table, some lined with handwritten lyrics, others with doodles intertwined in colored ink. You opened up your English books and laid out your homework, feeling a sense of warmth emanating from the room. The aged furniture added an air of familiarity, like you were being invited into Ellie's private world. Ellie seemed to be working on physics homework, while you had an English essay on Shakespeare to tackle. The juxtaposition wasn't lost on you—Ellie with equations and you with Elizabethan English.

You both settled into your work, the atmosphere tinged with concentration. Occasionally, your eyes would drift towards Ellie, watching her brows furrow in thought or her lips move silently as she read through her notes. Each time, you'd catch yourself and refocus on your own work.

"So, how are you finding the essay?" she finally broke the silence.

"It's... okay, I guess. Mrs. Porter has a way of making Shakespeare sound like rocket science."

Ellie chuckled. "Ah, the age-old struggle. To be or not to be confused, that is the question."

You laughed, and for a moment, the tension of the day seemed to lift. "You're not so bad at this, you know," you said. "Maybe you should consider a career in stand-up."

"And give up my dream of becoming a rockstar physicist?" she feigned surprise. "Never."

You smiled at her enthusiasm. "A rockstar physicist, huh? That's a first."

"Well, what about you? Any grand plans?"

You hesitated, thinking about your dad for a moment. You blinked, looking down at the book in front of you before looking back up at Ellie.  "I'm not sure. I used to think I had it all figured out, but now... everything's so uncertain."

Ellie put down her pen and looked at you, her green eyes softening. "Uncertainty isn't always bad, you know. Sometimes it's just room for something new, something better."

You looked at her, really looked at her, and felt something shift inside you. "That's pretty wise for a 17-year-old."

She blushed a little, turning her attention back to her notebook. "Well, don't spread it around. I have a reputation to maintain. Plus, I’m almost 18."

The rest of the study session went smoothly. You’d occasionally sigh and drop your head in frustration, making Ellie stifle a giggle and demand you get back to work. You had only known her for a day and was already falling into a rhythm with her. You didn’t want to go home, but the sun was beginning to set and you wanted time to rest. Time to think about the day you had and try to make sense of it. When it was time to leave, Ellie walked you to the door.

"Thanks for coming over. It was fun," she said, her hands twisting together.

"Yeah, I had a good time too," you replied, feeling a strange mix of happiness and reluctance to leave.

As you stepped out into the cool evening air, Ellie's words echoed in your mind: "Uncertainty isn't always bad... it's just room for something new, something better." And as you walked back across the dirt path to your house, you couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, something new and better had already begun.

You walked into your room, shutting the door behind you as if to seal off the world outside. It was your sanctuary, a little haven where you could breathe, think, and just be. You tossed your backpack onto the bed and sank into your chair, letting out a sigh as you looked around. Your room was still a mix of unpacked boxes and half-arranged furniture—a physical representation of your current state of mind, unsettled yet hopeful.

Picking up your phone, you noticed you had an unread Instagram DM. Your heart skipped a beat; could it be Ellie? Unlocking your phone, you saw the message was from Ingrid. Curiosity piqued, you opened.

ingrid.xoxo: Hey there, newbie. How was your first day?

You felt strange reading her message. Like it was something you weren’t supposed to be doing. Was she just being friendly or was there something more? You quickly typed back.

y/nsworld: hey! It was a little overwhelming but good overall. how was your day? 

Almost instantly, she replied.

ingrid.xoxo: Same old, same old. But seeing a fresh face around made it more interesting. 😉

The winking emoji caught your attention. Was she flirting? A little flutter of excitement mixed with confusion settled in your stomach.

Before you could process it further, the front door opened and closed loudly. It was your mom, finally home from work. You heard her footsteps coming up the stairs, and a few seconds later, she knocked on your door.

"Come in," you called.

The door swung open and your mom stepped in, her face tired but lighting up when she saw you. "Hey, sweetheart. How was your first day at the new school?"

You looked at her and smiled. "It was good, Mom. Made some new friends, and Ellie from next door is really nice. I went there and studied after school."

"That's wonderful," she said, her eyes shining with relief. "I was so worried you'd have a hard time adjusting."

"I mean, it's still the first day, but so far, so good," you said, shrugging. The relief on your mom’s face made you uneasy. You wanted to make this transition easy for both of you, but there was a newfound pressure building inside of you. You had to make it work here, even if you were unhappy. There was no escaping this place, and you suddenly felt trapped. Before your mind could go any further, she was speaking again. 

"That's my brave girl," she said, coming over to give you a hug. "I'm so proud of you."

As she left the room and wished you a goodnight with a firm kiss pressed to the top of your head, you sat back and sighed. Your phone buzzed again. Another message from Ingrid.

ingrid.xoxo: So, got any plans for the weekend? Maybe you'd like a tour guide to show you around. 😊

There it was again, that undercurrent of something more than just friendliness. You found yourself smiling, both intrigued and uncertain. It was as if life, in its own whimsical way, was presenting new possibilities, each more complicated than the last.

You glanced back at the door, then at your phone, then at the unpacked boxes still sitting in your room. Everything felt like a question mark, and as Ellie had wisely noted, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Lying back on your bed, you stared up at the ceiling, pondering your response to Ingrid, your new friendships, and the unpredictability of life itself. Uncertainty, as it turns out, could indeed be the room for something new, something better.

And so, with a mix of excitement and apprehension, you typed out your reply to Ingrid, hitting send before you could second-guess yourself.

y/nsworld: a tour guide sounds fun. i'm in. :) 

PRESENT DAY 

When Ellie's text popped up on your phone two days ago, you almost deleted it without reading it. The mere sight of her name on your screen was like a splinter you couldn't remove—small but persistently painful. She wrote that she missed your friendship, and though you wanted to scoff at her audacity, a part of you hesitated. Her words, "Can we at least talk? Just as friends?" echoed in your mind. Against your better judgment, a wave of nostalgia washed over you, and before you knew it, you found yourself typing, "Fine, but this doesn't mean anything." Now, as you stepped into the quaint coffee shop where so many of your past memories were brewed, you questioned that decision.

"You're early," Ellie remarked, her voice as flat as the expression on her face.

"I had nothing better to do," you responded, matching her tone as you stepped into the coffee shop. It was almost empty, the aroma of freshly ground coffee mingling with the subtle tension that had settled between you two.

"Of course, you didn't," Ellie sighed, sliding a cup of coffee your way across the wooden table. On it was marked with your order, two pumps of hazelnut, two pumps of vanilla, and one pump of almond, extra cream. 

You looked at the cup, then back at Ellie. "You remembered how I like my coffee."

"I'm not completely useless."

You rolled your eyes, taking a sip while simultaneously biting your tongue. You had every right to tell her she was useless, but you refrained. It was perfect, just the way you liked it. "What do you want, Ellie?"

Ellie sighed, looking uncomfortable for a moment before speaking, "I wanted to talk. About us."

You almost snorted into your coffee. "Us? There is no 'us'. Not anymore."

"I know I messed up, okay? But can't we at least—"

"Messed up?" you cut her off, feeling the familiar surge of anger rise within you. "You didn't just 'mess up', Ellie. You broke something. Something that can't be fixed."

Ellie flinched as if you had slapped her. The look on her face almost making you feel guilty. But she didn’t have that right anymore, and you weren’t about to let her back in.

 "I know. And I'll regret that for the rest of my life. But can't we at least try to be civil? For the sake of our friends, if not for us?"

You looked at her, really looked at her, and for a moment you were back in her living room, struggling with physics homework and discussing the uncertainties of life. Back when things were simpler, easier. But that was a different time, a different you, and most importantly, a different Ellie.

"Being civil is a far cry from what you're suggesting," you said finally, breaking the silence.

Ellie sighed. "I know I don't deserve a second chance. Hell, I don't even deserve your friendship. But can't we at least try to be... something?"

You stared at her, pondering her words. The Ellie sitting in front of you now seemed so different from the girl you had fallen for. And yet, there were moments, fleeting seconds, when you could almost see traces of the old Ellie—the one who made you laugh, who made you think, who made you feel like you were the only person in the world.

But those traces were just that—fleeting and insubstantial. The real Ellie, the one sitting in front of you, was a reminder of a chapter you had painfully closed.

"We can try," you said finally, "but I can't promise anything."

Ellie nodded, a mixture of relief and regret flashing across her face. "I guess that's all I can ask for."

As you both sipped your coffee in silence, the weight of what was left unsaid hung heavy in the air. And yet, for the first time in a long time, it felt like you could both breathe a little easier.

But as Ellie's eyes met yours, you couldn't help but wonder: in the quest for something new, something better, had you both lost something irreplaceable? There was something substantially broken between the two of you now, innocence on both parts lost. 

TWO YEARS AGO

You found yourself standing in front of your bathroom mirror, staring at your reflection as you pondered what to wear for this so-called 'tour' with Ingrid. You wondered if you should aim for casual or if Ingrid, with her meticulous style, would expect something more. After rummaging through your wardrobe, you settled on a simple pair of jeans and a loose-fitting white shirt. Casual, yet presentable. You threw on a light jacket, considering the morning chill, and took one last look in the mirror. Satisfied but not entirely confident, you grabbed your phone and headed downstairs. Your mom was sitting at the dining room table, bowl of cereal in front of her with her spoon in one hand and phone in the other.

"Going out?" Your mom looked up from her phone, her eyes scanning your outfit.

"Yeah, a girl from school is showing me around town."

"Ah, great. Text me if you need anything." Her eyes returned to her phone, but not before you caught the fleeting look of relief. There the pressure was again, and in turn your sinking stomach. 

"See you later, Mom," you said, heading for the door.

"Have fun, sweetheart!" she called out as you closed the door behind you.

As you approached Ingrid's car, you noticed her already leaning against it. She was wearing what could only be described as the epitome of 'casual chic'—ripped jeans, a designer top, and a pair of sunglasses perched effortlessly on her head. She looked up from her phone and greeted you with a broad, almost rehearsed, smile.

"Ready for your grand tour?" Ingrid inquired, her eyes lingering on you for a moment longer than you were comfortable with.

"Ready as I'll ever be," you replied, cautiously optimistic about the day ahead.

The interior of Ingrid's car was as meticulously maintained as her appearance. The leather seats were pristine, and the air was scented with something floral, bordering on overpowering. She started the engine, and you were off.

The first few minutes were filled with awkward silence. You sensed that Ingrid was waiting for you to initiate conversation, but you were too wrapped up in your thoughts to open your mouth to speak. Finally, she broke the ice.

"So, first stop, the infamous Longview Park. You'll love it—it's where everyone hangs out," she said, her voice tinged with enthusiasm that sounded slightly rehearsed.

"That sounds fun," you responded, forcing a smile.

As you drove through the town, Ingrid began to pepper you with questions. They started off harmless enough—questions about your old town, your interests, your favorite movies. But as the drive continued, the questions began to probe deeper.

"So, why did you move here? If you don't mind me asking," she added hastily, as though realizing she might be venturing into sensitive territory.

"My dad passed away. We couldn’t afford to live there anymore, so we had to move," you replied, trying to maintain composure. You had rehearsed this response, but it still felt like you were ripping off a Band-Aid every time you said it.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Ingrid responded, her voice softening for the first time that morning. But before you could reply, she was off again. "Are you seeing anyone?"

The abrupt switch in topic caught you off-guard. "Uh, no, not right now," you stammered.

"Really? Someone as hot as you? I find that hard to believe," she said, her eyes briefly meeting yours before returning to the road.

"Um, thanks," you muttered, not entirely sure how to interpret the compliment.

Ingrid seemed to take your discomfort as a cue to change the subject. "We're almost at Longview Park. It's truly the heart of our community," she declared, as if rehearsed.

As you pulled into the parking lot of Longview Park, you took a deep breath. It was time to see what this 'heart of the community' was all about.

he car rolled to a stop, and Ingrid switched off the engine, her eyes twinkling like she was unveiling a secret treasure. "And here we are—Longview Park. It's like the social hub of our high school world."

You opened the car door and stepped out, looking around. The park was sizable, dotted with large oaks and willows that offered generous shade. A playground occupied one corner, bustling with the laughter of children, while a pond shimmered peacefully in the mid-morning sun. People were everywhere—jogging, playing Frisbee, or simply lounging on the grass. It had a communal feel.

Ingrid led you along a gravel path, her steps confident and rehearsed as if she'd walked this path a thousand times before. "See that gazebo over there?" she pointed, "That's like the unofficial meet-up spot for parties and hangouts. And over there is the infamous 'Lovers' Lane' where couples go to... well, you know."

Her words were punctuated with a suggestive wink that made you feel slightly uncomfortable. You chuckled nervously, trying to dispel the awkwardness.

As you walked, you couldn't help but notice the way people looked at Ingrid—long enough to show interest but not too long to risk her noticing. She seemed to command attention effortlessly, and you couldn't tell if it was her charisma or if you were completely missing something

"Everyone loves to be here on weekends," Ingrid continued, her tone casual but her eyes scanning the area, as if looking for someone or something in particular. "It's a great place to catch up with friends or make new ones. Like we're doing right now."

She shot you a smile, the kind that was meant to be endearing but felt slightly off-mark. You returned it nonetheless. "It's a nice place. Very... lively," you said, choosing your words carefully.

As you neared the pond, you spotted a familiar face sitting on one of the benches—Cat. And next to her, unmistakably, was Ellie. They seemed engrossed in conversation, their faces inches apart. A pang of something—was it jealousy?—stabbed at you, but you quickly brushed it aside.

"Hey, look who it is!" Ingrid's voice brought you back to reality. She had followed your gaze and was now staring directly at Ellie and Cat. "Want to go say hi?"

You hesitated. The last thing you wanted was an awkward run-in, but before you could voice your concerns, Ingrid had already started walking toward them.

"Hey Cat, Ellie!" she called out, her voice unnaturally high. Both heads turned in your direction, and the range of emotions that crossed their faces in that brief moment was unsettling—surprise, confusion, and something else you couldn't quite put your finger on.

"Hey Ingrid," Ellie finally spoke, her eyes meeting yours for a fleeting second before returning to Ingrid. "What brings you here?"

"Just giving our new resident a grand tour of Longview Park," Ingrid replied, her arm casually draping over your shoulder. You felt a shiver run down your spine but chose to ignore it.

"That's nice of you," Cat chimed in, her eyes narrowing slightly as they settled on you. You couldn't tell if she was being sincere or just sizing you up.

"Yeah, it's been fun," you said, forcing a smile. But your eyes met Ellie's once more, and the unspoken words hung heavily in the air between you.

"Well, we won't keep you," Ingrid said abruptly, as if sensing the tension. "Lots more to see. Come on," she tugged at your arm lightly, and you followed her back to the path, leaving Ellie and Cat behind.

As you walked away, you felt Ellie's gaze burning into your back. You wanted to look back, to catch one last glimpse of her, but you resisted. Whatever was or wasn't happening between you and Ellie would have to wait. Right now, you were on Ingrid's turf, and you couldn't help but feel like a pawn in a much larger game.

"Shall we continue?" Ingrid asked, breaking the silence.

"Sure," you replied, but your thoughts were already miles away.

The door clicked shut as you slid into the passenger seat, your thoughts still reeling from the encounter at the park. Ingrid revved up the engine and pulled away, humming softly to the beat of the song playing on the radio. You looked over at her, everything about her seemed staged. 

"How did you like the park?" she asked, casting a quick glance in your direction.

"It was... interesting," you said cautiously. "It's a nice place, very lively. Lots of history, I imagine."

Ingrid chuckled. "Oh, you have no idea. It's like the theater of high school drama. Anything and everything happens there."

Her words hung in the air, and you couldn't help but feel like there was a deeper meaning behind them. But before you could ponder it further, your phone buzzed. Glancing down, you saw Ellie's name flash on the screen.

Ellie: hey. can we talk later?

You felt a mixed bag of emotions, but you were mostly nervous. You hadn’t taken the group's warning and hung out with Ingrid anyays. It wasn’t like she was two fingers deep inside of you, but with the way Cat and Ellie looked, it seemed that way.  You were about to type a response when you noticed Ingrid's eyes flicking toward your phone screen, then back to the road.

"Who's that?" she asked, her tone casual but her eyes betraying a hint of curiosity.

"Just a friend," you said, choosing your words carefully. "We're supposed to catch up later."

"Oh," she responded, but you could sense a change in her demeanor, a tightening around her eyes. "Well, I hope I'm not keeping you from anything important."

"No, not at all," you reassured her, quickly typing a response to Ellie. "Sure, let's talk. Text me when you're free."

As you pressed send, you couldn't help but wonder about the timing. Why did Ellie want to talk now? And what was it about? Your thoughts were interrupted by Ingrid turning up the volume on the radio, her fingers drumming rhythmically on the steering wheel.

"So," she began, breaking the momentary silence, "we've covered quite a bit today. Any highlights?"

You pondered the question. "Well, the park was a highlight, I guess. It's always good to know where people hang out. Makes me feel less like an outsider."

Ingrid smiled, but there was something about it that made you uneasy. "You're not an outsider, you know. You're just new, and new can be exciting."

"Thanks," you said, your phone buzzing again. This time it was a text from your mom asking about your day.

Feeling the need to switch gears, you asked, "So, how long have you been living here? You seem to know everyone and everything."

"Born and raised," she declared proudly. "It has its pros and cons, but I like it. And yes, I do know a lot of people, but it's not hard when you grow up here. Everyone kind of knows everyone."

"That must be nice," you said, though a part of you wondered what it would be like to have that much history in one place—so many connections, but also so many ties that could bind you.

"Yeah," she paused, her expression turning serious. "But it can also be a bit suffocating, you know? Sometimes you just want to break free, start fresh somewhere new. Like you."

You looked at her, intrigued by this sudden glimpse into her thoughts. "Well, starting fresh isn't as glamorous as it seems. It has its own ups and downs."

"True," she conceded. "But at least it's a blank slate."

Before you could respond, your phone buzzed again. Another text from Ellie.

Ellie: i really need to talk to you. it's important.

This time, you couldn't ignore the urgency in her message. Something was up, something significant. You looked up to find Ingrid watching you, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, but her tone suggested she already knew the answer.

You hesitated, weighing your options. "Actually, I might need to cut our day short. Something's come up at home."

Ingrid's eyes met yours, and for a moment, you saw something flicker in them—disappointment, perhaps, or maybe something else.

"Of course," she said, finally breaking eye contact. "Life happens. Let's get you home."

You stepped out of Ingrid's car, waving goodbye as she drove off. Your phone buzzed as you approached your front door, another text from Ellie.

Ellie: can you meet me at the grind? it’s about two blocks away from our house. i can drive us back. 

 You texted back a quick "on my way" and made your way over.

Ten minutes later, you walked into The Grind, the local coffee shop where the whole town seemed to be at this moment. As you scanned the room, your eyes met Ellie's. She was seated at a corner table, her phone face down and her fingers nervously tapping a rhythm against her coffee mug.

"Hey," you greeted as you approached, pulling out the chair across from her.

"Hey," Ellie replied, her eyes meeting yours briefly before averting. "Thanks for coming."

"No problem. Sounded like it was urgent. What's up?"

"I saw you today," she began cautiously, "with Ingrid."

A knot formed in your stomach. "Yeah, she was showing me around. Why?"

Ellie hesitated, looking down at her mug, and tapping the handle. She closed her eyes for a moment, choosing her words carefully. "Be careful with her. She's not what she seems."

"I mean I heard what you guys said about her at lunc but," you replied, taking a sip of your coffee. "She seems harmless."

She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. Cut right above her shoulders, the choppy layers suited her face. "Ingrid has a way of getting close to people, and it's not always for the right reasons. I just don't want you to get hurt."

Your eyes met, and you felt a strange warmth spread through you. Ellie was concerned for you. But why? She had only known you a day. You searched her face for an answer, for anything, but you came up short.

"Do you have something against her?" you asked, not hiding your skepticism.

"No," Ellie was quick to respond, "it's not like that. I've just seen her ruin friendships, relationships. She's manipulative."

"You seem serious," you remarked, detecting a tinge of something in her voice—was it jealousy?

Ellie looked down at her mug, her fingers ceasing their tapping. "I just don't want history to repeat itself, okay?"

"History?" you questioned, leaning forward. "What happened?"

She looked up again, her eyes meeting yours again, but this time they were vulnerable, exposed. "Ingrid and I had a thing once. And it felt more serious than her ‘things’ with Cat and Dina. And let's just say it didn't end well."

Now it made sense. The hints, the caution—it was personal for Ellie.

She held your gaze, her eyes searching yours for something you couldn't name. "Also," she paused, as if weighing whether to continue, "You’re my friend now. I care about you. And I don't want to see you get hurt."

For a moment, neither of you spoke. The air was thick with unspoken words.

You finally broke the silence. "Thank you for telling me, Ellie. I appreciate it."

She nodded, her eyes never leaving yours. "Yeah, yeah. Of course"

As you left The Grind, your thoughts were a swirl of confusion and clarity. Ellie's concern had added another layer to the already complicated dynamic of your new life. But through it all, one thing became clear—Ellie cared about you, maybe more than she was willing to admit.

And as you replayed the conversation in your mind, you couldn't shake the feeling that Ellie wasn't just warning you about Ingrid. She was also staking her claim, marking her territory in a landscape that was becoming increasingly complicated.

[wangxian2bunnies]

So I used to be super obsessed with The Untamed. I got so hyperfixated and obsessed that I actually stopped watching halfway because I didn't want the show to be over.

This was last year, and then suddenly I was like nope I'm gonna finish this, and in a week, I binged-watched the entire show, all 50 episodes and then the next day started the books and finished all five plus the extras in less than six days.

So yeah, now I'm just an empty shell. I loved loved loved the novels so much, literally so much. I know there's the donghua, the manhua, the audio drama that I can binge, and then fanfics, but I would literally give up my soul and more just to read Wangxian going through their daily lives.

I'm not even kidding—I could spend forever reading about Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan, whether they’re going on Night Hunts or simply existing side by side. I love them so deeply that it makes my heart ache. Every song, every waking thought, every dream revolves around them. All I want is for them to find happiness together, for the rest of their lives, and even beyond death. I just... love them so much 😭😭😭

[jamiekb]

Exploring the new Welcome Home Update

So here's my journey through the new update and the little details that it has, this will be a very long post and of course full of spoilers.

Look at the new design for the loading screen, so Christmas-y! I particularly love the antlers on Home's chimney.

Looking good Wally! And now we have new little doodles that seem to go with the holiday.

Ok so according to the admins no more bugs so wonder what will be different this time. Onto the news page then

Also I'm really digging the new background

Ok starting the FAQ now and some questions and answers are interesting. So they've been receiving more material covered in goop. They kinda adress in universe the move of the website, due to malicious material and in the code of the page.

And there is one new hidden message in the answers (I think) "The numbers are so hard to read. Sometimes I can't see them" So do we have to look for numbers now?

Took a detour through the stickers and they have new ones! There is Wally making a Home out of snow, sleeping Julie, I think Frank singing Carols to a butterfly, Poppy with a Jello thing, Eddie with a ton of presents to deliver, Howdy with some relatives, Sally as the star of a Christmas tree and Barnaby with a snowman.

Also with the "Welcome Home" banners two are a bit more desaturated now. And now that I think about it there are some stains in the main banner too

Neighborhood

Anyway unto the Neighborhood! Looks so cute although I'll be honest the clock tower is a bit weird and the trees feel a bit more intense at the edges or maybe that's just me

Eddie seems quite normal though now apparantly he has a mother, I'm confident that didn't use to be there. Is it weird that other than Wally hes the only one that didn't add anything new to his home for the season?

I think Howdy's description also changed a bit but nothing alarming. His store now seems to have signs welcoming his family for the holidays.

Checking Barnaby's description they seem to all have a bit more background info, since he apparently left his farm life to come to Home. Ok what does "Barnaby’s middle initial was often rotated in terms of what it stood for" mean???

Poppy is so cute! Is she holding cupcakes decorated like the characters or did she already do that? Ok but her new details feel very interesting: she claims to be able to fly but it's never shown and she never leaves her house to the point of being excluded from some events (like Wally's Homewarming party I guess)

Sallys is fine. She's besties with Poppy I guess and she can shine??? How do you make a puppet shine?? Were they roommates maybe?

Oh Julie got quite a backstory. Named siblings, she has paws and used to live in the forest on the outskirts of Home in a cave with her family. And she hibernates that's too cute!

Great my dear Frank still gets no background info (which is very interesting) but he goes get forced heteronormativity.

Ok and Wally is kinda similar, no background info just very dedicated to Home. And I''l see about coming back to the As above so below page since I can't seem to click it, might just be me. You can still see the goop at the doorstep though

Merchandise

Ok so first off the Merchandise page has a different background to the rest, some colorful static and took a bit to load.

oooh they even changed the layout for the phone since you could hear Wallys call, that's such a cool detail

Maybe I'll go back and see if Eddies or Sally's stories have been changed in the audio or transcipt but I'll stick to the new stuff for now. Now that i think about maybe Sally's doesn't have the bit where the transcript couldnt understand it.

Finally reached the wish book and I love it so much, this is so much work all around! My favorites are the Frank and Wally pillows, Eddie Dear Lil' Mailman's Kit, the Home Clock and specially the tree skirt! I now have to make those cute neighbors

Oh my god the record has the perfect Santa voice. And.. interesting that the ad cuts off when we get to Eddie. I'm not really surprised thought it would do something when it got to him or Frank, still suspicious.

Homewarming Story

The sound editing for all this new items is amazing!

I love the bit of the characters tripping up the narrators, this one just hasn't been able to get it right.

Hey is it me or in this one they've been a bit more insistent that Frank is a bit too literal but in a not so good way, not that much more intense but can't help but notice it. Seems a bit meaner

The return of Walliford!

Good to know Home uses he/him I guess

excuse me the fuck was that sound distortion???

and then it ends kinda abruptly, so that's that...

Where's my Eddie by the way, they didn't ask him and didn't find him while out on the town. I better hear him at some point or I will riot.

We have a code!

Ok so I was skimming the rest of the material before choosing what to listen to next and saw the cereal and craft at the back! So I guess now I have to find all the little drawings in the page and see when come from that

So I did listen to a few more songs, nice to see Eddie and Frank interacting as always, and noticed that in the transcript pages there are some entries for Mistery Audio, which are actually three of the previously hidden videos so that's interesting

Also not all the pages have four drawings some only one, so I've been trying to keep track which symbols i found where in case it matters. Still don't know what they're for just going around collecting them

Ok nvm I was doing things out of order and now that I got to media can see they are mentioned there

So after finally getting all the little things and going back to tumblr cause honestly I didnt really get what to do, I'm guessing it leads to a website, since one of the pages just has www as the code, so I'll try that I guess since I saw that there is a secret website somewhere. If it takes me too long I'll just look it up

Secret website

Nvm I'm too impatient at this point and I think i was missing a few letters so I just looked it up

Ok so that's interesting, so this person is kinda like the one behind the scenes talking to us along with whatever had infected the website before. They mention how the curator got sick (???) but is better now and that they'll try to update this website with the weird things they find

So the phone is one, like the weird glitched audio from Wally. This audio is interesting cause it plays out technically in real life but Wally speaks as if they are living out their lives...

And then moving on to the commercial they are speaking again of being compelled to know more, to see and wait. I'm sure some is curiosity but that can't be all

ohmygod this is more than 20 minutes long, the effort it must have taken Clown and team is monumental

that little animation is so cute!!!

fast forward many commercials and we have Eddie!!! And even a whole hand helping Poppy or something.

god the tobacco comercial of course they would have one

My poor Eddie boy is so anxious and depressed, why is no one talking to you bud? Like not getting him a present is a thing but not even Julie called him to play... and now is he's spiraling and even mad, that's unusual for sure. Also what's with the perspective of his videos, everything is a commercial or in the case of the secret videos it's interactions with other neighbors. This is more like the secret videos that we're seeing from someones POV, but not even that, we're observing him not looking through his eyes

Oh my poor Eddie is certainly going through it, who let them expose him to The Horrors? The horror aspect of this ARG sure has started to pick up speed, even I picked up some anxiety from that last segment

Also I did notice that Frank eventually dropped the Mr Dear for Eddie when he got more worried, almost like hes more worried than for an act that he has to put up huh?

So that was the newest Welcome home update. I can say it was everything I hoped for and more!!! The team behind it really gave it their all. From VAs for the audios to all the visual and graphic artists for the commercials its all so wonderful

[asexualbookbird]

insert Imagine Dragons Radioactive Gasp Here

Hi. Coming up for air. I'm surrounded by yarn ends and fabric scraps I'm sweaty and covered in paint. I was a tiny bit productive this July! Made lots of progress on the Irish Lullaby Blanket, painted our balcony, started a few projects I really shouldn't have, and oh yeah! READ EIGHT BOOKS?? Who am I. I'm twelve books ahead of schedule according to goodreads, eleven by StoryGraph standards. It's wild. It helps that my library is holding an adult summer reading bingo contest and I fully intend to fill out the entire board.

The City We Became by NK Jemisin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- WAOW. I initially rated this four stars, but sitting on it and coming back to it now, it was absolutely a five star read. I would love to reread it, the world was intriguing, and the AUDIO NARRATOR WAS STUNNING! I do try not to judge the contents of a book by it's narrator, but what a performance! When library bingo is over, I'm listening to book two ASAP.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Oh look! A Classic I actually enjoyed! I don't want to judge horror on whether or not I'm scared, because it IS kind of tough to get to me, but this was fun! I could see the spooks! Even if it wasn't spooky For Me, Personally, it was still a fun time!

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Oh. Ouchie. A shortie, but a goodie, I'm kicking myself for returning the ebook immediately because I would've liked to go back and reread bits of it if not ALL of it. A not exactly new take on fae, but an interesting one that I actually enjoyed.

Starling House by Alix E Harrow ⭐⭐⭐⭐- I did NOT intend to read this directly after Hill House but I am SO glad I did. THE PARALLELS!!!! The circular story!!!! THE STARLINGS!!!! I laughed, I cried, I yelled at Arthur, there were surprises I genuinely didn't expect, but made so much sense in hindsight. I don't exactly buy the romance, but I'll let it slide this one time.

Ghost Station by SA Barnes ⭐⭐- Two stars is Very Generous. And I'm sticking to it because the concept is still intriguing and if you squint there was some Leech stuff going on. Maybe I should just reread Leech. Sigh. Ophelia was hired to do ONE. JOB. To make sure none of the team members have Want To Murder Disease. And then Birch shows signs of Want To Murder Disease and she KEEPS IT QUIET BECAUSE *checks notes* HE KNOWS HER DAD HAD WANTS TO MURDER DISEASE. Everyone is stupid. They're scientists and everyone is fucking stupid. It wasn't scary, because EVERYONE WAS FUCKING STUPID. Biting all of them.

Thornhedge by T Kingfisher ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Oh T Kingfisher, you have never disappointed me, why do I read anything else. Another fun take on the fae! It's so hard to get me to like a fae book, so GOOD JOB KINGFISHER! I liked the new take on Girl Locked In A Tower, I liked that Toadling was surrounded by love and still encouraged to do what makes her happy. Again, I almost reread (listened. Whatever) this immediately just for funsies. Another banger from T Kingfisher.

The Sun and The Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro ⭐⭐⭐ - I've been waffling on this rating a LOT. Disclaimer that I haven't read any of Riordan's stuff since the OG Percy Jackson series, and that was ages ago so I can't compare this to that. This was a fun little book, but it felt a little heavy handed with the themes even for a middle grade. It doesn't make me want to read more, but I'm not mad I read it at all.

The Scapegracers by HA Clarke ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Okay. Listen. Look. Look at me. Was this The Perfect Book? No absolutely not. Was it a banger? Did I have fun? YES ABSOLUTELY YES! It's a book I could've needed in high school, but I wouldn't have been mature enough to appreciate it so I'm glad I have it NOW. Angry Queer Teen Girls will run the world. And I'm here for it. So looking forward to the rest of the series, I need to know what sort of mischief these girls get up to. I hope they curse another fuckboy. They deserve it.

BONUS! I also watched The Haunting of Hill House on netflix! One bingo square said "read a book then what the movie" and I really thought Mike Flanagan's Hill House was a movie but no it was ten (10) hours of spooky fucked up family dynamics. Also Nate Ford was there. Naturally. It was good! It was creepy! I wanna watch it again JUST FOR THE TREE HOUSE. I was skeptical when I first started because who the hell are you people (Steve, Shirley) but no it was fun! But also. Fuck Steven and Shirley. Congrats to Theo and moving in with her girlfriend of one week, peak lesbian stereotypes. Biggest complaint is with Mike Flanagan and his need to not only kill cats, but get close up shots of said dead cats. What's up with that my dude. What did cats ever do to you?

Plans for August (how am I saying that) are The Bone Season side by side comparison with the first edition and the tenth anniversary edition. I'm counting that as two books, I think, because it IS two books, and looking at them next to each other, there's a pretty sizable difference in page count! No clue about word count. This is part of book bingo (reread a book you didn't enjoy the first time), and this has helped me realise that I've been avoiding this for a Reason. I truly and surely did not enjoy The Bone Season and have no desire to experience that again. Don't know what to do with this information. So. I'm rereading it. Yay.

I have a few sewing projects I'm working on, and I am SO CLOSE to finishing the Irish Lullaby Blanket! It's exciting! So lets go!! Bring it on, August!!

[lets-just-daydream]

Whispers in the Stacks

You're a wizard's apprentice and you've been sent to the library for your reading materials. The hot librarian has other ideas for you…

This fic was heavily inspired by this audio.

Thanks to @zipzoomzaria for the image in the banner.

Warnings: female reader, exhibitionism, voyeurism, fingering, choking, spanking, praise, pet names

Late afternoon light filtered through the glass windows of the nearly empty library, the smell of musty old tomes filled your nose as you breathed in and sighed. The shelves were so stuffed with books that it looked like they could collapse at any second. 

Researchers, readers and librarians alike were dwindling in the lateness of the day and you let out a slight groan of frustration as you looked again at the long list of required reading as laid out by your master.  

Learning from a master wizard was not easy work but you were sure it would be worth it once your apprenticeship was complete. For now, you'll haul books, fetch bits and bobs and bring coffee as required on top of your studies. And right now you had a seemingly endless list of books in one hand and a small stack of books in your other arm. 

“Mysteries of the Weave: Understanding Magical Energy,” you mumbled to yourself as you read the list and glanced back up at the heavy wooden shelves. “Gods, I'm never going to find all of these books.” 

The sound of someone's shoes clacking on the wooden floor caught your attention as someone rounded the corner. You looked over to see a man holding a stack of books and replacing them on the shelves and your breath caught in your throat. His curly silver hair caught the light that filtered in through the windows and gave him a halo around his head. His pale skin seemed to glow and his red eyes were framed by a pair of gold wire-rim glasses. 

“Can I help you find something?” The librarian asked, looking at you as he continued to stack books. 

Your mouth went dry. He was gorgeous. “Um,” you said dumbly. 

He let out a soft laugh, smile lines and crow's feet defining his face. 

“Sorry, my name's Astarion and I work here.” 

You smiled and introduced yourself. “Actually, maybe you can help me, Astarion.” 

His name on your tongue felt tingly and you felt yourself leaning closer to him. 

“What are you looking for, then?” Astarion asked. 

You stepped next to him and showed him the list of books. He leaned over your shoulder, his breath tickling your neck and looked at the title of the book you pointed at. 

“Mysteries of the Weave: Understanding Magical Energy,” Astarion murmured, his head snapping up to look at the shelves in front of you. “Ah yes, we keep copies of this book with the other tomes on the Weave towards the back of the library. Come, I'll show you.”

Astarion beckoned you to follow and you did, admiring his physique as you tried not to stare too hard. You'd visited this library a few times but had never been to this section. You didn't even know it existed and while you were still a novice student, you could feel the slight crackle of magical energy from some of the books back here. 

“Wow,” you breathed. “I didn't even know these were here.” 

Astarion gave you a smile and rounded a corner past a shelf before he disappeared completely. Your eyes widened and you jogged to follow him, surprised to see that he was leaning against a panelled wall, completely obscured by the overflowing shelves. 

“How interesting,” you chuckled, looking back towards the rest of the library. “A little place to hide.” 

Astarion nodded. “I often come back here. I like to watch people. I like to know what they read, what they're saying…” Astarion trailed off and slowly walked towards you and catching a lock of your hair between his fingers and twirling it. “What makes them… tick.” 

You gulped at the sudden proximity between you and Astarion looked down at you past the frames of his glasses. “What makes you tick, little scholar?” He breathed. 

“I-I…” You stammered. 

“Dusty old books?” He whispered, backing you against the wall and pressing a finger against the stack of books in your arms. “In my experience, scholars make for the most interesting subjects to study.” 

“Is that so?” You breathed, your face and neck heating up. 

“Oh yes,” Astarion purred. “What's the phrase? Wise in the library, wild between the sheets ?” 

Your jaw dropped and you pulled the books up to cover her chest and face. Astarion let out a dark chuckle and took the books from you, placing them on the shelf beside you before placing his arms either side of you. 

“I'm not making you uncomfortable am I? If I am,” he said, dropping one of his arms and pulling away. 

“No!” You almost yelled, grabbing the collar of his shirt. 

Astarion let out a chuckle and caged you in again, dropping his head to your neck and inhaling. “Mmm, that's what I like to hear,” he said huskily. 

The way his voice rumbled sent jolts of warmth straight to your core and you pressed your thighs together. 

“I have another reason why I like to come back here,” he whispered as he pulled away. “Can I show you?” 

You nodded and he extended his hand to you, leading you to the shelves in front of you. “Look past the shelves. What do you see?” 

You glanced up at him and then past the shelves again. “The… library…?” You guessed. 

“Exactly,” Astarion purred, slotting himself behind you, his toned chest pressing against your back. “And they can't see us .” 

Astarion punctuated his sentence by bringing his hand up to your hip and sliding it across your front, his nails catching on the waistband of your pants. 

“Oh?” You sighed, your head falling back to land on his shoulder. 

Gods, were you really doing this? Somewhere so public with a stranger. Well, you'd seen him here and there on your previous visits so you did know he worked here. But… 

“Yes,” he sighed. 

Astarion’s cool hand slipped past your waistband and underwear, his fingers spreading your lips apart and his middle finger finding your clit with relative ease. 

You let out a soft gasp and he let out a muted tsk tsk . “If we're going to do this, little scholar, you need to be silent as the grave. Am I clear?” He whispered. 

You craned your neck and looked up at him before nodding. 

“Good girl.”

His finger rubbed gentle circles on your clit and your hand flew up to your mouth to silence the moan that nearly gave your debauchery away. 

“There's something depraved about doing this in a public place, isn't there? We're well-hidden here,” Astarion whispered as one of his fingers slipped inside of you, causing a soft mewl from the back of your throat. “But in reality, any curious soul could just round the corner at the wrong moment and we'd be discovered.” 

Your body tensed at the thought. What if you did get caught? What if your master found out about what you were really doing when you were supposed to be gathering your study materials? More importantly, did you even really care? 

“But don't be afraid,” Astarion whispered, his finger pumping in and out of you. “As long as you be a good girl and keep quiet, no one will find us.” 

You began to squirm and Astarion's other arm came around your breasts to hold you in place, flush against his chest. 

“Gods,” you whispered, trying to keep your voice low and level. 

Astarion kissed the shell of your ear and continued down until he reached your neck where he lathed the skin with a toothy, open-mouthed kiss. Tingles erupted across your whole body at the feeling and you leaned your neck to the side, desperate for more attention. 

You heard him breathe deeply beside you and felt his abnormally sharp canines drag across your skin before he licked and kissed you. He slipped another finger inside you and you felt his pumping turn into a come hither motion within you, his fingers pressing against your g-spot as his thumb continued gently against your clit. 

“Your cunt takes my fingers so well , my little scholar,” he breathed into your ear. “It makes one wonder what else it could take.” 

You keened silently and bucked your hips, desperate for as much friction as you could get from him. You felt like a bitch in heat, desperately rutting against some stranger in a public library obscured by a maze of bookshelves. But you couldn't lie to yourself, doing this in public was super hot.

Astarion's grip around you tightened and he pulled your body flush against his, his now apparent erection pressed against your ass. “Look, look over there,” he whispered, pointing his finger in a space between the books and shelf above. 

You looked at where he was pointing and you spotted your master looking through the shelves with purpose. Was he looking for you?! Gods, if he caught you like this, your tutelage with him would be over in an instant. Maybe he was here for books, you reasoned with yourself. Your heart beat faster and you let out a quiet gasp. 

“That's–” You whispered, turning your face into Astarion's neck. “My master– my tutor.” 

You felt Astarion’s throat rumble. “My, my, little scholar. You're a student of Gale Dekarios of Waterdeep? How very interesting,” he said with a punctuated thrust or his fingers inside you. 

His fingers sped up and you felt your body flush with warmth and your eyes squeezed shut. “I'm…” You whispered. 

“You're…?” Astarion teased, a soft lilt in his voice. “Don't tell me the sight of your master is what has you all hot and bothered. Not when your cunt was made to take me.”

You didn't trust yourself to respond. If you opened your mouth you were going to moan and it was going to be loud. But whether he was caught up in the moment with you or he just didn't care, Astarion kissed your neck and pressed against your clit in a way that sent waves of pleasure through your whole body. Your walls clenched around his fingers and you let out a deep moan and you felt his hand slap over your mouth harshly. 

“You little minx,” Astarion whispered against your ear, his breathing tickling the skin there. “What did I tell you?”

Astarion wasn't looking for a response. He kept his hand clamped over your mouth, his fingers digging into your cheeks. You opened your eyes slightly, peering past the shelves whilst still pressed flush against Astarion's arousal. You saw Gale looking around curiously, looking for the source of that noise he just heard to no avail and turning back to the book in his hand. You wondered if he knew it was you. You did speak everyday after all, and while he'd never made you moan , you did let out several groans of frustration a day. 

No. No, that was preposterous. 

The sensation of Astarion's fingers slipping from within you caused a low groan in the back of your throat. You turned to look up at him and he finally freed your mouth from his grip. It seemed he didn't trust you though, because he brought a slick soaked finger up to his lips in a silencing motion. 

“Shhh…” Astarion let out lowly, his eyes boring into yours past his fogged up glasses. 

He stuck his tongue out slightly and he slid his fingers into his mouth, licking and sucking off every bit of your juices before licking his lips. You gulped as your mouth went dry, your core beginning to burn with need once again. Astarion leaned down to kiss you and your lips parted easily, letting him slip his tongue inside your mouth and stroke against yours. 

You let out a groan and Astarion pulled away instantly, his hand snapping up to wrap around your neck. He glared down at you with half-lidded eyes. 

“I gave you one simple rule to follow and you couldn't even do that?” He hissed, his mouth coming down next to your ear. “Naughty girl.” 

Astarion's breath on your skin caused you to shudder and you heard his lips move into a smile beside your ear. “Do you want to know what I do to naughty girls, little scholar?” 

The pet name and the implication in his tone made your cunt throb and you turned to look at him and shake your head. 

“Well, you're about to find out,” he said, pressing a chaste kiss to your lips. “Make yourself decent and follow me.” 

You readjusted your pants, combed your fingers through your hair and fanned your face for a moment before you rounded the corner away from the bookshelves you'd just had your little romp behind to see Astarion walk past your master with a salacious smile on his lips as he turned back to look at you. 

You felt your face heat and you lowered your head as you slinked through the aisles of books, ensuring you gave your tutor a wide berth so as not to be spotted. You look around to see Astarion enter a room beyond the front desk of the library before he poked his head back out and nodded for you to follow. You nervously took another look around but no one was paying attention to you, so you cautiously stepped behind the desk and slipped into the room where Astarion was waiting. He shut the door behind you and locked it before turning to face you once again. 

“Hello again, little scholar,” Astarion purred, caging you against the door. He twirled a lock of your hair in his finger as he looked down at you past his glasses. “I’m so very disappointed in you.” 

Your heart dropped and Astarion tutted as he let go of your hair and pulled away, taking a seat on a leather sofa against the wall and leaning back, his legs spread. 

He made a very pretty picture. 

Astarion looked at you and curled his index finger, motioning you to him. You felt self-conscious but you couldn't bring yourself not to obey his every order. His eyes mesmerised you and your body burned for him. You walked over and stood in front of him, wondering what he wanted from you. 

You didn't have to wonder long because he tapped his hand on his thigh and you blushed, looking down at his toned thighs. But you would gladly sit in his lap and you stepped either side of his leg to sit. 

“Ah-ah,” Astarion hummed, his eyes boring into you. He gave you a smirk before he spoke. “You’re a naughty girl, and naughty girls must receive their punishment.” 

“Punishment?” You asked, biting your lip in nervousness. 

“How else will you learn your lesson?” Astarion asked, his fingers coming up to skim your thigh over the fabric of your pants. “Or course, if you'd rather leave…”

Astarion eyes left yours and he indicated to the door before looking back at you. There was no way in the hells you were leaving, and the way he sat there with his legs spread and hand on your thigh as he looked up at you past his glasses had you wanting to drop to your knees and please him however he wanted. 

You took a deep breath and gave him a smile before lowering yourself and bending over his thighs. You felt his instant erection against your side and his hand come up and rub your ass gently, as if admiring it. Not like you could see much of what he was doing but you could hear and feel everything. 

“A good start, pet,” he purred. 

You flushed at the praise and felt tingles across your skin when his fingers found the waistband of your pants and pulled them down with your underwear in one motion. The warm air of the library office danced on your skin and you started to squirm in anticipation. Was he going to please you again? This certainly didn't feel like a punishment. 

“You know,” Astarion began, his hand rubbing on the swell of your ass absentmindedly. “I've been working here a very long time. I've read more books in this library than I'd care to admit.” 

His fingers skimmed the crevasse between your cheeks and you let out a soft moan at the sensation. 

“I have an intimate knowledge of these books and their subject matter of course,” he continued, his fingers leaving your skin for a moment as he reached somewhere next to him that you couldn't see. “But I also know these sizes, the binding, the material. All of these mundane little things.” 

You wanted to ask where he was going with his little monologue. But you didn't have to wait long before the clap of a cool, hardback leather book met your ass. You cried out in pain, but mostly from surprise. 

“So that also means I know which book is perfect for carrying out your punishment,” Astarion said, his voice gravelly and husky. “Do tell me if you want me to stop.” 

Before your brain could catch up with your mouth you blurted out for him to keep going. 

“That's a good girl,” Astarion said, whacking your ass again, but this time slightly lower as it met the lips of your pussy. “I can see why that Waterdhavian wizard keeps you around. You're a good student. A good little scholar for your master, aren't you?” 

“Yes,” you whispered. You felt the need to prove to Astarion that you were a good student. A good girl just like he wanted. You spread your thighs wider, baring yourself to him completely with all of your shame and pride out of the window. 

Astarion adjusted his hips and you could feel his hips rutting slightly against your side, his confined cock begging for attention. 

“May I pleasure you?” You asked, craning to look up at Astarion. 

You were surprised to see his glasses slightly fogged, his cheeks red and his hair hanging over his eyes. He gave you a smile before pulling back and cracking you with the book again. 

“You sweet, generous thing,” he murmured. “Not today, but perhaps next time if you prove to me that you deserve it.” 

Your heart skipped at the thought of another rendezvous with the librarian and you nodded, desperate to please him. 

“I can't believe you let out such a filthy moan with your master right there ,” Astarion said, spanking your ass again, aiming for the swell of your cheek. You cried out at the sting and his other hand came down to caress the cheek he'd just spanked. “Does it hurt darling? That's what naughty girls who can't hold in their moans get.” 

Your core throbbed as his fingers gently caressed your ass and you were desperate for friction. But you didn't dare test him by trying to pleasure yourself so you gritted your teeth and tried not to focus on your neglected cunt. 

“I think five more spanks to make sure the message has really sunk in. I don't think you've quite learned your lesson yet, have you?” 

You shook your head in agreement. 

“Now, I'm going to spank you and you're going to count with me, okay?” Astarion said. 

You nodded your head and held your breath, waiting for the next smack from the book in his hand. 

The leather met your ass harder than any of the other spanks with a loud crack . Your eyes teared up from the pain but you held it together. 

“One,” you groaned, fidgeting and rubbing your ankles together. 

“Have you learned your lesson?” Astarion asked. 

“Yes! I'm sorry.” 

“Wrong!” Astarion growled, spanking your ass again. 

You let out a cry at the pain as your cunt throbbed in desperate need. You continued to wriggle in Astarion's grasp and his hand came around your neck to pull you up to face him. His cheeks were still flushed and his eyes were dilated as he stared at you. 

“What number was that, pet?” 

“Two,” you gulped, your throat bobbing in his grip. 

“Good,” Astarion said, lowering you back down. 

A smack on your other cheek. “Three.” 

“I think you're learning your lesson, little scholar.” 

Astarion pulled back and smacked your ass harder.

“Four,” you squealed.

Astarion put the book down for a moment as his hand rested on your lower back. Hadn't he said five spanks? He shuffled your legs forward and raised your ass higher. 

“Arch your back and spread your legs for me, pet,” Astarion said softly. 

You did as he asked, spreading your legs and arching your back, feeling very exposed and all at once very thankful he'd locked the door before baring your ass and pussy to him like this. 

“Last one. Are you ready?” 

You nodded, instinctively sticking your ass out more and wiggling it slightly. Astarion picked up the book, pulled back and landed a hard, loud smack right above your thighs. The leather met your cunt and you let out a moan before your final count. 

“F-five,” you moaned. 

Astarion tossed the book aside and his hand caressed your ass. “Such a good girl, such a good little thing,” he praised as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to each cheek. 

“I think you've learned your lesson now like the good little scholar you are,” he continued, his fingers sliding between your thighs and humming in satisfaction at the arousal he found there.

You sat up and stretched your sore limbs, watching as he licked his fingers clean once again. You could watch his tongue lick his long fingers for hours if given the opportunity. 

“Now, I hope you'll be back soon. We have many books here that I'm sure will help with your studies,” Astarion purred, his index finger coming to rest under your chin and pulling you towards him for a kiss. “And if not, I also provide one-on-one research services to very select clientele.” 

“Well then, I'm sure I'll be back soon,” you said, already trying to figure out when you'd need to come back for more books. 

You hoped these visits to the library weren't going to be a detriment to your studies. 

[pinetrees-in-the-water]

Slender mansion headcanons?

Aight anon you didnt mention who to write for so I'm gonna write about all my favs, also this will be infuenced by my personal rewrite so I hope you dont mind!!

(Charcters included: Jeff, Ben, Nina, Toby, EJ, Clockwork, Jane, Masky/Tim, The Operator and a hint of Laughing Jack)

I'll make a part 2 as soon as I can because I have way too many thoughts about the Mansion to fit in one post.

Thank you for the ask!!!

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

◇Slender Mansion Headcanons◇

◇Part 1◇

• Actual fucking chaos

• Thank god the Mansion is so deep in the woods because they would have been reported for SEVERAL noise complaints.

• Ben and Jeff usually play videogames late into the night (usually old PS2 titles, horror or multiplayer games) and Jeff has almost 0 voice control.

• So Tim (or Jane) usually has to barge in and yell at them to keep it down, not that he sleeps much anyways but theyre annoying and Nina is a light sleeper.

• Ben, Clockwork and Tim are all insomniacs so they usually all play board games or go for long drives together, Ben has successfully gotten them into dnd.

• Ben is pretty bad at taking care of himself because he just kinda....forgets due to his ADHD so everyone in the mansion gives him their little reminders or help out.

• Whether its Nina brushing his hair, Jane bringing him dinner when he forgot to eat or Toby essentially throwing him in the shower (never the bathtub his phobia of deep water is too strong and everyone in the mansion is mindful of it)

• Nina, Jeff and Ben all have movie nights every Tuesday. Occasionally the other members of the mansion will join them if the're free but they all have different hunting schedules set by The Operator.

•Nina screams at every jumpscare in a horror movie, her screams are so loud that EJ can hear it from the basement.

• The Operator himself doesn't live in the Mansion although it is his. Hes rarely seen or heard from, only leaving notes around the house. The only one really fond of him is Nina.

• The Operator usually leaves breakfast on the table in the morning for all of them, Clockwork has a small feeling that he doesn't like Jeff because his eggs are never done the way he likes.

• Speaking of Clockwork, the only people she really relaxes around are Toby and EJ, otherwise shes the resident strong, scary, silent type. Ben was low-key scared of her at first but theyre cool now.

• She has major anger issues so his fears are validated, she mostly does a good job of hiding it and generally is very friendly although her bluntness comes of as being mean sometimes.

• EJ and Clockwork usually give each other book and audio drama podcast reccomendations. They're so comfortable around each other that everyone though they were dating at first (They're not).

• EJ was studying to be a surgeon before he got into this mess, his skills carried over and he acts like the in house doctor for the mansion, frequently gets annoying at Tim's smoking.

• EJ honestly spends more time in his lab in the basement than his actual room, he doesn't let many people down there for "sanitation" reasons but everyone else knows its just to keep the teenagers from being more traumatized than they already are.

• Nobody goes into the attic as The Clown (Laughing Jack) lives there, they're all a little afraid of him but he only leaves and enters the room through the attic so hes never seen in the rest of the house.

• Jane had to go into the attic to speak to The Clown once on instruction of The Operator and acted out of character for the rest of the week, keeping all the cupboards and wardrobes in her vicinity open at all times.

• Jane and Tim are often regarded as "The Parents" of the Mansion as they're the oldest, both being in their mid to late 30s, everyone MOSTLY respects them enough to listen.

• Nina treats Clockwork and Jane like big sisters and often finds every excuse to tag along and spend time with them, usually ends up rambling about random fanfiction or a new show she's watching while they listen.

• Clockwork and Toby are like Ben and Jeff just older. Two peas in a pod, they go everywhere together and Clockwork becomes a little more unhinged around him. They've been hiding a stolen stoplight in Toby's room for 3 months and nobody has noticed yet.

• Toby and Jeff either get along a little too well or are fist fighting there is no in between. They're both loose canons. Nobody can tell if they're friends or hate each other.

• Toby and Nina both get along well as they're able to understand and read each other better than the other mansion members due to their shared experience having bpd.

• Toby often accompanies Nina on missions and looks out for her, similar to an older brother, and Nina goes on frequent trips with him to help bring firewood for the Mansion.

• They have their moments but overall everyone gets along pretty well.

[lurkingshan]

Breaking Down the I Feel You Linger in the Air Finale

Okay pals, I got some sleep and I'm ready to dig into this finale and all its beautiful messiness. I love this show and I'm frankly a little frustrated that we got such an incomplete resolution to the (hopefully) first season when there was ample time to do it right. As ever, pacing and time and information management continue to be major weaknesses for Tee Bundit. As I said last week, the writing for this show has been undeniably messy but it's still holding together on the strength of the production and the performances and the success of some of its big themes and character arcs; that take held firm through the finale and some of the baffling choices made about where to spend our time in this final installment. So, let's dig into it!

The Long Goodbye

I'll say upfront that this is my biggest beef with the pacing of the finale. We spent all of last week on a long and painful goodbye for Yai and Jom, perfectly executed, but for some reason we did another 45 minutes of it this week, not so perfectly executed. While I loved the covering of the mirrors, the saddest sex scene ever (complete with sex moans running as the audio over a memory montage how dare you show!), and the pain of Yai realizing he drew the final picture and watching Jom disappear, we didn't need to retread them saying goodbye to each other over and over again for two entire hours of story time, and we didn't need a long, sappy, on the nose speech from Jom saying things we already knew. As I told @neuroticbookworm, this might be my aro showing but I found the series of repetitive emotional goodbye conversations and memory montages exhausting and not in a good way. If I were the script doctor, I would have kept the mirrors, sad sex, and Yai drawing as the start of the episode and cut the rest, moving much more quickly into the next phase of the story.

Back to the Future

Jom returning to his present day life, trying to cope with his anguish and loneliness and adjust back into things, and further investigating the time travel mystery to figure out a way to reconnect with Yai should have been the main narrative of this episode. Instead, we got a truncated version of it that didn't have time to breath because we'd used up so much time on the above mentioned retread. For my money, Jom's devastation upon finding Yai's letter to him was the most emotionally resonant moment of the finale and the first part of the episode where I almost cried. But we had barely sunk into that feeling before it was abruptly cut short because we were out of time and Tee needed to wrap this baby up.

Eyebrow Scar Yai

Here’s where I get actually kind of peeved, because this final (pre-credits) scene was so poorly set up and executed that to even call it a resolution is a stretch. A modern version of Yai walks into the room, asks Jom why he's crying, tells him he's been waiting for him, kisses him, and then the credits roll!

Now I've been in the tags so I know this caused confusion for anyone who has not read the novel (me too, fam!). And that's because the show had not bothered to establish:

That Yai does in fact have a modern doppelgänger

Who the heck that doppelgänger is and how he’s connected to 1928 Yai

How that doppelgänger would be able to remember Jom when no other doppelgängers in the story can remember their past lives

Based on what we know, could we piece together a reasonable theory about who this man is, how he got there, and the final pieces of the mythology that make sense of it? Sure. In fact, bookworm and I pretty much guessed exactly what the explanation for this was after watching the show, and many of the elements at play here were theorized in conversations we had last week. Book readers like @tipsyjaehyun have now confirmed the full explanation for anyone who cares to go read it.

But the show did not tell us any of this information. If you have to read the novel or have novel readers spoil you on aspects of the story that the show didn't bother to cover in order to understand the ending of the story, the execution has failed. And given the pacing notes above, there is really no reason we couldn't have gotten a better set up for this ending with Eyebrow Scar Yai (yes I know his name but no I'm not using it because the show didn't bother telling me; I am petty like that). Jom could have found this descendant during his time of processing and the ending could have hinged on us realizing this modern Yai is a reincarnation who has his past life memories intact; had we gone into a final kiss between them feeling grounded in all of that knowledge, it would have landed so much better.

Hello Commander

And now on to the post-credits scene, where Tee puts a plea into the universe to give him a second season so he can play around in another time period and explore what is evidently the origin of this soul tie between Jom and Yai. I chose to read this episode tag as separate from the actual season 1 narrative, and I think that was the intention given its placement. If they secure funding for a second season, this tag scene becomes the beginning of that next story, with Eyebrow Scar Yai's kiss sending Jom into another time travel adventure. If they don't we can just ignore it and pretend the pre-credits scene was the end (which is why I'm not happy it was so poorly done). I, for one, would love to see a second season to explore another time period and give Tee a chance to clean up some of this mess he has made of the mythology and season 1 resolution. Shouts to @clairedaring for reporting back from the live showing of the finale on what the possibilities are looking like there. Fingers crossed we get a continuation of this story some day!

Tagging in @waitmyturtles and @twig-tea who also have linked posts above. And shouts to @blmpff @cankersoregirl @pharawee @wanderlust-in-my-soul @italianpersonwithashippersheart @bengiyo @dragonsareawesome123 @wen-kexing-apologist @junghaesin @stuffnonsenseandotherthings @slayerkitty @respectthepetty @chickenstrangers @sunshinechay @btwinlines for posting about this show every week and making it such a fun watch despite having a small audience on here. It was a pleasure watching this with you all!

[hopefulromances]

Could you do a fic with either Roy or Jamie with a female partner who’s a critical care nurse? Lots of fluff and comfort if possible 💜 no worries if you don’t want to write it!!! Thanks!

Yes, thank you for the request!

I have watched 17 seasons of Grey's Anatomy, so I hope I can do this justice. I'm also making this Roy x Reader.

Hope you enjoy!

TW: discussion of medical care, mentions of death, but nothing too in depth.

It came with the job, days like today. As a critical care nurse you saw people at their absolute worst. Sick and dying people were your patients and you had to do everything you could to keep them safe and heal them. Sometimes, you won and people made it through the day. Sometimes people got better and got to go home.

But then there were days like today. When it felt like every patient you touched got worse. You were just a nurse, not a surgeon or a doctor, all you could do was your best as you ventilated, took labs, and gave them the comfort they needed in their final moments.

The truth was by the time patients got to you they were usually in their final days anyway. The most you could do was provide peace and comfort as they passed. But that didn't make it any less difficult.

coming home soon?

It was a text from Roy. Roy who was your best friends brother. Roy who was the best thing to happen to you since starting med school.

soon, long day xx

You replied to him quickly before shoving your phone in your pocket. The sooner you got out of here the sooner you could get home to him. Everything was okay when you were with him.

You finished up your final duties for the evening. Signing charts, and final rounds before finally making your way home.

As you opened the door, you were bombarded with the beautiful smell of Roy cooking. You walked into the kitchen, placing your bag down and smiling at him.

He was completely engrossed in his cooking, airpods ins, clearly immersed in whatever audio book he was listening to. You could tell because of the way he his eyes widened occasionally, letting out a chuckle at the plot of the book.

You let out a sigh, letting the weight of the day dissipate as you walked over to him. He glanced up, noticing you as you came closer.

He reached up and took out one of his airpods.

"Welcome home," he murmured as you wrapped your arms around his waist. He met you in a brief kiss, putting on arm around you waist while he continued stirring with his other hand.

You leaned into his side, picking up his airpod to slip it in your ear.

“ 'The worm is now beneath the crawler,” Kynes said. “You are about to witness a thing few have seen.' "

Roy had been listening to Dune for what felt like months now. But it was a long fucking book and he was loving it. He read it next to you in bed, gasping and reacting all hours of the night. It was stupid how cute it was.

He held up his wooden spoon to you and to took a taste. Delicious as always. You closed your eyes and rested on him, enjoying the smell of the food, the sound of the book, and the warmth of his body.

You felt Roy's lips on your forehead and you hummed in appreciation.

"Long day?" he surmised.

"Yeah," you told him, kissing his shoulder. "Just happy to be home. How was yours?"

"Well, I wasn't saving lives," He told you. "But I did very nearly kill one."

You laughed as he went into his story about how Jamie had tried to trick Roy into only running 5 miles. He knew this was what you needed after a long day. Silliness, warmth and food.

Roy looked down at you as he told his ridiculous story, watching as you relaxed into his side. He held you closer to him, embellishing his story to get you to smile.

He was so proud of you and what you did. He just wanted you to relax at the end of a long day. And if he could do that by holding you close and feeding you food then yeah, he could do that.

[lowkeyrobin]

hii! i LOVE ur wirting so i was wondering if i could request a niko sasaki x reader? (fem or gender neutral) i dont really have a plot in my head but maybe reader is a ghost that kinda lives in/around jennys shop and after the sprite incident niko and reader meet?? i dont really know but im sure whatever you write will be AMAZING!!

ooo okay okay, I can try for you! ; so sorry if this took forever to post because I put this at the bottom of my priorities til i got an idea lol ; but thank you!! I appreciate it <3 ; thanks for requesting, hope you enjoy! ; also I'm so sorry this is highkey ASS I had zero idea what to do here ughhudhejwjwj

NIKO SASAKI ; a little haunting, solved

summary ; after niko's run in with near death, she can finally meet the ghost who's been haunting her apartment

warnings ; language

word count ; 511

masterlist

Niko had been hearing weird noises around her rented apartment room for months now. She always shoved it off, not really believing in ghosts, thinking it was just typical building noises. That mindset stood until mangas started falling from her shelves, and her laptop and phone would often glitch or turn off randomly.

She picks up a pile of mangas from her floor after they'd mysteriously been knocked off her desk. She cautiously stands back up, looking around the room. Her straight, black hair frames her face as she looks from one side of the room to the other.

"Hello?"

A knocking can be heard, coming from one of the windows beside her bed. She jumps.

"Is someone here?"

She feels a gust of cold air wash against her face for a moment. Shivers trail up her spine.

She quickly sets her mangas down, running downstairs to go to Jenny. Bothering her during work wasn't a great idea, but she didn't want to be upstairs right now.

'House noises,' Jenny said.

Yeah, totally house noises.

Niko rests on her bed, laptop on her lap, a bowl of popcorn beside her as she watches some ghost movie. The moon rests full in the night sky outside, a lamp illuminating the room.

As her movie plays, creeping up on a jumpscare, the screen glitches, stopping the movie abruptly, Niko being met with a black screen. She clicks the space bar, then moves her index and middle finger to the mouse pad, trying to click around to see if the screen would light back up.

The screen turns back onto a paused frame of the upcoming jumpscare, quickly scaring Niko. She sighs, guessing her laptop had glitched, and she'd paused right as the jumpscare was up in the screen due to her spam clicking space and clicking around the screen. She didn't know how to explain the muted audio. Maybe it was just a part of the glitching.

Though, this was weird, her laptop has never glitched before...

After her run-in with death, aka with sprites in her brain that wanted to implode her, she could actually confirm that Crystal's invisible friends were real, whom she'd begun to believe were real after time. Surprisingly, the ghost who'd she'd been suspecting that haunted her apartment also turned out to be real.

"Wait... are you the ghost knocking over my books and messing with my laptop?"

Charles and Edwin quickly turn around, seeing you stand behind them with a humorous smile. They'd certainly never seen you before.

"Maybe" you shrug. "What of it?"

"Were you trying to scare me?"

"Not really" you reply. "I was trying to get your attention and communicate, mostly. I took on that you couldn't see me from the jump. It's just lonely haunting this place with no one to talk to"

Edwin raises an eyebrow. "We've been here, Crystal has been here."

You look off to the side, shrugging. "I'm a little shy."

Niko smiles. "Do you wanna watch a movie with me?"

You smile. "Sure. Can we watch that one that had that scary nun?"

"Yeah!"

[v3nusxsky]

Have you heard the audio of Gwendoline saying “I like when you talk like that. It makes me want to destroy you.” ?

If possible could we get a Larissa x reader featuring this delicious quote? (I’m so gay for her)

If not feel no pressure to write it :) i <3 ur work sm

Talk dirty to me 18+

*Authors note ~ don't we all love this quote? And I'm so in love with this idea so I'm glad I had the opportunity to write it*

Trigger warnings~ mommy kink, dirty talk, dom l sub r toys oral fingering binding humiliation if you squint

Prompt~see ask^^^

+

tumblr anon~ Hello :) i love your work!! I have a larissa x reader request, it's nothing specific, just that reader can cum just by eating larissa out or the other way around, whatever is more comfortable with you Have a great day!

❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀

You'd been teasing Larissa all morning, you love your wife and with her looking so beautiful all the damn time made it hard to focus on your job. Luckily, you were just Nevermore's librarian which meant you were able to be on your phone more often than your wife. Most of the time you could be found curled up with a book, your ability of being a seer was particularly useful but incredibly stressful, you always found comfort in the stories the books provide.

Your phone vibrated next to you and you couldn't help the smirk that took hold of your lips. "I like when you talk like that. Makes me want to destroy you. Mommy is gonna make sure her dirty girl won't be able to do anything but plead with me to stop" holy fuck she was going to kill you. You quickly sent off another flirty message goading her into what was looking to be an enjoyable evening for you both.

You were getting to your favourite part of your book when you saw Larissa seemingly swapping and changing her course of action, seemingly that she wanted to keep you guessing, a small sigh left you, you're wife knew just how to get around your ability but you knew whatever's happened next you were safe.

"Hey you" Larissa murmured gaining your attention and a beautiful blush spreading across your cheeks. "Hi baby" you murmured marking your page and closing the book. A sweet kiss was shared as Larissa brought her hands to your hips to tug you closer to her body. "God I've missed you all day and those texts, you know you can't leave me all needy for the rest of the day right?" She murmured kissing your neck, sucking the pulse point into her ruby red lips. "Mmm Ris, room?" You murmured happily leaning into the older woman. "We may, but only if you say my name" she teased her hands now moving to palm your breasts through the clothing there. "Ris?" A nip to your collarbone indicated the wrong answer was given. "Mommy" you whined causing the shapeshifter to scoop you up bridal style and carry you to the bedroom.

It was rare you and your wife snuck off during work hours but when you did there was always a good reason and you were never found out. And even if you were, your wife is the boss so what would anyone be able to do? Nothing was the simple answer. You were immediately placed on the centre of the bed as your clothing began to be torn off your body. Your hands began pawing at your wife's clothing in a blind need to feel her soft silky skin.

You lay bare in front of your wife while she remained in her underwear happily laying kisses all over you. "Mommy" you whined squirming underneath her as teased you, spewing dirty words and thoughts of all the things she could be doing to destroy her princess. "Mommy has a good mind to go find her box of toys and pull out mommy's favourite one and then devour you till you're begging me to stop. Bet your whorish cunt would squirt all over the sheets just for mommy" she purred before doing exactly that.

After securing what she truly wanted she headed back to the bed and immediately began to bind your arms and legs to the bed frame. "Colour?" She murmured as you tested the bonds. "Green" you whimpered watching your wife now inserting her favourite dildo that would vibrate to stimulate her clit while letting her feel full. "Oh god so hot" you whimpered watching her set the pattern she wanted before throwing the phone else where. At least you wouldn't have to worry about finding a remote later.

The moment her mouth latched onto your clit you swore you were in heaven. Larissa knew just how much you enjoyed her mouth's attention, so any time she could she would put her mouth to work for your own pleasure. She knew that you could cum with just this simple act and that your orgasms were more intense this way. You always tasted delicious and she would happily lap up your slick and live between your beautiful thighs. Hell, Larissa never wanted to leave from her position.

You lost count how many times she threw you over the edge with her skilled tongue, all you could do is whine and mewl for her. A string of "fuck" "god" and "mommy" was looped around in between moans. You could feel the older woman's grin against your sensitive folds. "Mommy no more" you panted struggling against the restraints, "oh god mommy I'm gonna pee" you whined. Only then were you given your wife's long slender fingers into your tight fluttering walls. "Pretty baby you won't pee I promise, trust me baby, let go for mommy" she murmured not even bothering to wipe her chin free of your arousal.

You did just that, the sensations overwhelming you as white hot pleasure cursed through your veins. You squirted for the blonde, drenching the sheets before passing out. A first for you but Larissa helped your body back from the unimaginable high, then she undid the restraints to come and hold your sweat soaked body to hers. "You did so so good for me, so proud princess" she murmured stroking your cheek watching as you began to rouse again, "so good for me princess, mommys so proud of you." "What happened " you mumbled seemingly out of it. "You squirted baby then knocked out for a little, it's okay you're safe and I'm gonna look after you princess" she murmured kissing your head, "mommy you didn't?" "Oh you poor princess, mommy came dont you worry, how about a bath?" To which you nodded and allowed Larissa to run it and carry you into the warm water.

Word count~ 1131

[hufflefluff-stuff]

102 is quite a line 👀

Maybe an Ominis line 👀

tho I'm lost on a scenario, you got free reign on that!

Ooooo yes!! This reminds me of some angsty audio I heard on tiktok with Ominis saying "it's rotten work [about himself]" and MC replying "not to me" so that's the vibe we're going for.

MAJOR spoilers for endgame stuff ahead!

102) "I am damaged."

[Request more Angst/Horror prompts here!]

........

"I am damaged..."

That's the first thing you heard Ominis mutter to himself when he thought he was all alone in the Undercroft.

He hadn't realized you were there as well, quietly studying your books and trying to feel like a normal student for once.

Ever since you attended Hogwarts as a late bloomer, things were anything but normal from the get-go.

After saving the school (and more or less the entire wizarding world) from certain doom at the hands of Ranrok and Rookwood, you hoped to end this year on the best note possible. It was hard given all of the friends you've lost along the way, but a lot of good came out of it, too.

Ominis was one such example. Despite the rocky start you both had when he caught you sneaking out of the Undercroft that fateful day, you managed to make amends and grow closer together.

You never thought that same snobby blind boy who threatened to report you to the headmaster would be the one to confess his feelings for you.

It was in the days following you winning the house cup for [House], and when you finally had a moment alone to talk to him, he finally made his move. His way of courting you was so sweet and eloquent--fitting for the Slytherin from such a privileged class.

Of course other students had eyes for you, too, but Ominis loved you for who you are and not for your ancient magic and reputation as a "hero". Going on different adventures with you and Sebastian made him realize what kind of person you truly were:

An unreliable "acquaintance" of his best friend who reeked of distrust in the beginning, turned to a kind person who was always by his side through thick and thin in the end.

Now that you two have officially become a couple, you managed to coax him into accompanying you on more excursions both inside and outside of the castle.

Although he couldn't see the beauty of the world and all its magical creatures, you described it to him how ever you could--whether it's a Thestral resting underneath the ribcage of some enormous beast's skeleton, or the charred corpse of a spider you've just slain with Incendio. He loved how you spoke of them regardless of the scenario.

On top of that, you've taken up to helping more people in the local hamlets and villages, with Ominis reassuring them that he's not some cruel and mean Slytherin from the Gaunt family, and that he genuinely cared for their concerns.

However...your latest mission ultimately had taken a turn for the worst, and you had some serious regrets on taking your boyfriend along for the ride.

It seemed to be just like any other poacher camp you've shutdown. But the locals informed you that this one in particular was in charge of trafficking beast skins...or selling beasts to butchers.

You urged Ominis to discreetly free the creatures from their cages, taking out the nearby guards with Petrificus Totalus, while you ambushed the poachers on the other side of the camping grounds. But you both failed to realize that some of Rookwood's goons were among their midst, seeking to avenge him and make it very clear that you'll never be safe again.

He had every intention to murder you; you were just protecting yourself against his Killing Curse, though of course his gang wouldn't understand that. They just saw you and began throwing whatever spell they had at their disposal.

You took most of them down with ease, while Ominis finished freeing the last purple toad and rushed to assist you in the fight.

But then he stopped upon hearing three distinct things that would forever haunt him: A dark wizard shouting "Crucio", the sparks of electricity crackling in the air...

And your brief, yet painful, screams.

Despite his wand detecting only you and the one ashwinder casting the curse, he was frozen on the spot, unable to bring himself to move forward and save you. It was like somebody had casted Petrificus Totalus on him.

He could have taken them out right away, but...he was terrified.

Suddenly he felt like he was back in the Slytherin Scriptorium, where Sebastian had to cast the same curse on you in order to proceed forward--something Ominis had tried in vain to protest against.

He knew he wasn't there, it was all in his mind, yet all he could think about were your screams.

Then he thought about the screams of those innocent muggles he watched his family torture...before he remembered his own screams after they tortured him for refusing to use the curse, not giving up until he finally relented.

The rest of that moment was a blur, but at some point you managed to yank out a Mandrake from your bag and stun the ashwinder long enough to use Expelliarmus and lacerate their legs with Diffindo.

While that shrieking plant made Ominis briefly deaf, too, it snapped him out of his trance, bringing him back to reality as you rushed over to him. You fled the campsite together on Highwing's back, drinking some wiggenweld on your way back to the castle, not speaking until you were safely on schoolgrounds.

That all happened yesterday...and he was still quite distressed. He didn't seem comfortable talking about those events too much, and you couldn't blame him. So you left it be, apologizing for the stress you caused, and tried making it up to him with a trip into Hogsmede.

However, this morning you didn't find him in the Great Hall or anywhere in the Slytherin Section. Not even Sebastian knew of his whereabouts, assuming you "lost" him; fortunately there weren't many places that your boyfriend frequented.

The Undercroft was your next best guess.

Yet it was empty when you arrived, much to your annoyance.

You figured Ominis will eventually turn up here, so you transfigured a sofa out of some pile of armor and decided to catch up on your studies. But obviously it was hard to focus on the texts when all you could think about was him..

At some point he finally arrived, and you nearly jumped up to ask where the hell he's been...until he started mumbling rather concerning things to himself, apparently unaware of your presence.

Then you noticed he didn't have his wand in-hand, feeling the walls and eventually sitting down on the floor, leaning against one and curling up. He certainly knew the Undercroft's layout well enough to not need it constantly, but his behavior was still extremely concerning.

Especially his remark about being "damaged", which had you gravely worried about his physical well-being.

"Ominis, what do you mean by "damaged"? Are you hurt?"

"MC..?! Oh, Merlin..d-didn't realize you were here." Although startled at first, he quickly calmed down upon hearing your voice and approaching footsteps. "I'm alright. I was just...th-thinking up some poetry. You know, Thakkar has been giving me some really good advice-"

"Wow, you're a worse liar than I ever was," you chuckled lightly, kneeling down in front of him. "You know he's away on a family trip, right?"

"......."

"....Ominis?"

His silence worried you greatly, especially as he suddenly hid his face in his arms, now unwilling to look at you for some reason.

"If you wanna hide from me, love, Disillusionment is more-"

"D-Do...I even deserve to be called that anymore?" He mumbled in a trembling voice that made your stomach sink.

"....huh? Of course you do." Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What's going on? You can be honest with me. If...I did something to upset you recently, I'm sorry-"

"No. You...d-don't have to be sorry about anything. It's me who should be the sorry one."

"Darling, what do you mean-?"

"Stop. Please. I-I think the proper term is "bloody stinking coward". I could have stopped that ashwinder f-from using the Cruciatus Curse...he was right there and I could have done something! But I didn't!" Ominis began to ramble, unable to stop his voice from shaking and rising in volume. "I-I stood there like a bumbling half-witted mooncalf wh-while he tortured you!"

You frowned slightly, gently setting your hands on his arms as you finally understood why he was so distraught. "Ominis, you were occupied in freeing all those beasts. You can't be in two places at once, and I'm not angry at you for that. And besides, the curse didn't hurt me badly this time. I know it scares you, but...."

However you trailed off as he lifted his head, and your heart cracked in two upon seeing the tears streaking down his face like rivers of salt water.

Only now did you realize what he meant by feeling "damaged"---and it wasn't in the physical sense. But the emotional.

"That's exactly my problem...I was too scared to do anything." He shuddered. "Wh-Who just stands by and...and lets their fears of the past consume them?! And nearly gets the love of their life killed because of it?!! That's something only a broken person does, MC...someone who's far too damaged t-to stand up for-"

"Don't say that. Nothing about you is "broken" or "damaged"." You pulled him into your arms, feeling him fall completely limp against you. "You are the furthest thing from either of those."

For a few moments, he was silent as he absorbed your words. But when he tried to respond, all that came from his lips was something between a gasp and a loud sob. He choked out an apology for losing his composure so quickly, though you just hushed him.

"Shhhh, it's okay." You held him tighter than ever, keeping one hand on the back of his head. ''Just let it all out. I'm not going anywhere, my love. And I mean that..I still love you."

With trembling hands, Ominis grasped onto your cloak, tears soaking into your shoulder as he allowed all of his emotions to spill. His sobs echoed freely in the Undercroft, not caring about anything anymore; not even if Sebastian were to walk in right now.

After all that's happened this year, it was just too much for him to keep locked inside: he lost his oldest friend to the Dark Arts, Anne was likely never going to reach out to him again....all that he really had left was you.

Yet he felt like none of his experiences made him any stronger, unlike you--who also lost so much and, at the same time, gained great powers that allowed you to protect those dearest to you.

But who would be there to protect you?

That's where Ominis came into the picture, wanting to fight for you after everything you've done to save Hogwarts. His worst fear was losing you forever anytime you went off on a dangerous mission. So he actually insisted on going out with you more often to put his mind at ease..plus he wanted to be sure you're not doing something too reckless.

But if he was only going to freeze up every time some dark wizard merely spoke the incantation of a certain Unforgivable....then how could he ever hope to save you when you needed him most?

He felt pathetic and useless, essentially forcing you to figure out how to escape that situation yourself while he stood there like some idiot.

What if you didn't conveniently have a Mandrake tucked in your bag? What if you had been in too much pain to grab it?

What then?

At that point, he felt like he was too broken to be with someone as strong as you. This relationship was done for, he believed, and sooner or later you'd grow tired of his cowardice and resent him for not stepping in.

He thought you were going to break it off for sure now that you see how "difficult" he was being.

But that was far from the truth. You didn't shun him or demand an explanation for why he acted the way he did. Instead you let him cry in your arms--something that no one in his life offered when he was at his lowest--staying here in this safe haven together and reaffirming your love for him.

He didn't know whether to feel grateful or selfish.

"I-I tried, MC..I..I really tried to help you." He wept, his face now buried in your neck. "But I guess I'm...just doomed to hurt everyone around me. That's all I'm good at."

"You're not doomed to live that way, Ominis. You haven't hurt me at all, and I know damn well you'd never hurt anybody on purpose."

"Really? T-Tell that to my family...we were monsters who tortured and killed muggles for fun-"

"They did that for fun, not you. You're not a monster like them. I know this because you refused to follow in their footsteps. And by Merlin, I'm glad you were a stubborn child..even after all they put you through." You softly spoke, kissing his head as you felt his arms tighten their hold around you. "All I see now is someone who's even stronger than them, with a good heart that would've won him a spot in Gryffindor for sure."

"....w-with Prewett, Weasley, and all those twits? I don't think so.." He chuckled lightly, sniffling as he rested his head on your shoulder and fell quiet. He felt a lot calmer than before, sighing tiredly. "..I'm sorry. I-It was never my intention to burden you with this, love. You already deal with so much. I just wish I...could've been just a bit stronger for you."

"Don't worry about me, okay?" You smiled. Even though he couldn't see it, you hoped he'd at least imagine it. "I saw how sneaky you were around those poachers. You petrified them before they even knew what hit 'em."

"Of course. I had to do something, right?" He huffed, although he smiled a little bit.

"You did great, darling. If the beasts could talk, I'd say they'd be thanking you over and over. You saved their lives. They probably think you as their hero."

"I thought it was that Hufflepuff girl's job to be the "hero of beasts"...but I don't mind that title, too."

A calming silence fell over you two, save for Ominis' light sniffles. But eventually he was the first to let go, his hands reaching for the sides of your face moments later, wanting to ensure you weren't injured at all.

You helped guide him there, your skin growing warm at his touch. He felt around for any recent scarring or bruising across your flesh, being grateful that he found nothing of the sort.

Meanwhile, you kept smiling as you observed his own face. Although he looked like a complete mess after all that crying, he still managed to appear quite handsome in your eyes.

You knew he desperately needed that outlet, and you were happy he finally confided in you.

At the end of the day, you'll love him no matter what.

[astrumnihilum]

Keep watching The Edge Of Sleep even after release date!!

The goal for Mark's plan didn't stop at release date. The Edge of Sleep should stay in top 10 on

That site ^^ until November 11-18th!

You don't have to actively watch it: simply leave it going on another window/device and occasionally check in on it lt! I'm not sure what all they use for popularity, but watching it seems to work.

Also check out this article posted by The Hollywood Reporter:

This article really shows how hard Mark has been fighting for this show. It's a bit weirdly worded at some points, but it gets the main point across and is informative.

I haven't even heard of this! What are we talking about?

The Edge of Sleep is a horror/thriller story with an audio podcast, book, and now TV show. A perfect Halloween watch, the show features six twenty minute episodes all following Dave, the main character played by Mark, and his friends as they fight an epidemic that mysteriously killed the rest of the world. They must stay awake the entire time. Mark holds the important role of main character Dave and generously provided funds to the TV show.

Here's Mark's non-spoiler unoffical (better) trailer and the link to the show on Amazon Prime!

Happy Sleedging!!

[solitaire-addict]

A deep dive into Solitaire, its Characters and Relationships

Solitaire is a deep, complex and entertaining book. Once opened, it becomes very hard to put down and it is the type of book you would read multiple times, listen to the audiobook version, and create a blog fully dedicated to. Solitaire has that kind of seasonal feel like when it snows for the first time and your feet are cold no matter how many blankets you put on or you’re nose keeps running because you’re outside waiting for someone to come pick you up and you’re putting your hands in fists because they might just freeze off. Solitaire isn't romanticized winter, it's the gross parts that make people hate the cold seasons but you still like them because it still has a nice feeling to it, even though it may be the end of you. Personally I have read solitaire in every season but Solitaire can't be beat in January, when everyone is stupid depressed and there isn't a point to living anymore.

 Victoria (Tori) Spring portrays this deep depression and bitter feeling that everyone feels at some point and she is the embodiment of the term “pessimistic complex”. While being a relatable character to everyone, I've found that she really strikes a chord with the Asexual/Aromantic community. In recent events, it has become canon that she is Asexual and most suspect she is on the Aromantic spectrum which seems reasonable due to her behavior around one Micheal Holden. Micheal Holden, who is Tori’s friend and co-investigator in the Solitaire mystery, is (at first glance) an upbeat and strange character. Micheal holds the role of curious, and a bit mysterious and his and Tori’s friendship forms from the fact that they both got curious and did the exact same thing. In many ways, these two are very similar and when thrown together by some force, Tori ignores this and uses some freakish defense mechanism that (to anyone else) would drive away the opposing force, however, Micheal is not an opposing force, or any kind of force for that matter. He’s just a guy who happens to be a little strange and who ice skates and is secretly mad all the time. When Tori and Micheal first interact, Tori does not in any way want to talk to this guy, in fact i bet she would rather have thrown herself out the nearest window than exchange more than two sentences at once. Michel wants to be friends with Tori, so much so that he will not stop showing up out of nowhere even if he doesn't mean to. Keep in mind that Micheal has no friends and Tori has one friend and that isn't even going well.

 Becky (who has been Tori’s best and only friend for quite a while) is popular. Not in the sense that everyone knows her, more so that everyone knows of her and a couple extending details, this leaves her feeling alone in the world and her only support is Tori, who frankly, is not doing well in the slightest. And of course they’re drifting, not quickly but over time, like a call that gets worse in audio quality over time. When Becky seeks support from Tori and wants to share things with her, Tori is disengaged, I'm sure she doesn't mean it but that still sucks when you’re the one who needs to talk. There are many versions of the book and in the first one when Becky tells Tori that she just had sex with her almost boyfriend. Tori is disappointed, she even goes on to say that it made her respect Becky more for being a virgin up until now. Now remember that the first addition of this book was released in the early 2010’s so it's a bit desensitized and there are probably better words to put it other than not respecting her as much anymore but it's still a good example of Tori’s distance and self isolation from the rest of her public life, which brings us back to her relatable self destructive tendencies. 

When with Micheal, Tori continuously keeps him locked out of her life. When Micheal tells her that he wants to be friends, Tori goes on a tangent about how she doesnt know why he wants to be friends and says “i'm not some manically depressed psychopath” and they get into a fight that ends with michael saying “well maybe you are a manically depressed psychopath” and everyone ever is disappointed because Tori cant let people care about her. There's a point where Tori and Micheal finally accept each other as people and decide not to question one another, they both care and they both are okay with that, Micheal is there when Tori needs him and Tori is there when Micheal needs her, it's one of the most beautiful things and their friendship and care for eachother is deep and true and it's my favorite thing in the universe. When Tori is about to get killed by a firework, when she's literally standing on the edge of death, when she's sat at home after Charlie's relapse Micheal Holden is there. Micheals constant anger has noticeably taken a toll on him and he has said “i'm always angry, other emotions just overrule it” he means that Tori’s presence is the emotion that overrules, not in a cheesy love story way but in the way that when you’re having a bad day and then you go home to your bed and take an advil and drink some water, it makes you feel better. Tori is Micheals bed, Advil and water, no matter how cold the bed is, or how gross the Advil is or how unfiltered the water is. She’s still there, overriding the constantly lingering aggravation with himself. When Tori’s about to kill herself, Michael is there to save her, pull her back into reality and even though Tori isn't okay in the slightest afterwards, Micheal is still there, and they still care, even if the water is muddy.

 In between the 4 month gap between Solitaire and Heartstopper, nothing is technically canon on what happens between them but 4 months later Micheal has proposed the idea that they confirm their relationship status as girlfriend and boyfriend and this scared Tori. Not because she doesn't like him in that way, but because she doesn't want him to get bored of her. Along with Tori’s asexuality being confirmed, it's also confirmed that Tori and Micheal had sex and Tori was sent a confirmation email for her ticket for the asexual train. Charlie and Tori’s conversation about this is very touching, Charlie brings up that he once said that if Nick never wanted to have sex with him, he wouldn't want to either and it wouldn't change how he felt about Nick in any way. This is an example of why Asexuals FLOCK to Alice Osemans writing, it focuses on the emotional connection between characters, not the sex and tension between them. Charlie reassures Tori that Micheal will understand and he most definitely will not get bored of her (considering that they canonically stay together for at least like 10 more years) Tori’s fear of a labeled relationship is an important factor within the idea that Tori is on the Aromantic spectrum, as an aromantic person, when a relationship that I’m in is labeled, it stresses me out. It creates this internal fear of commitment and that might be what Tori is experiencing. At the end of the page, Tori and Micheal are shown talking probably about her being asexual. My hopes are that Tori and Michaels relationship remains unlabeled because it's very important that different types of queer relationships are shown in mainstream media, especially ones that aren't labeled or inside queer norms. There's nothing like queer erasure from other queer people.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

There is only one thing our bosses love more than the thought of not paying us: getting copyright on their products.

The relentless, 40-year campaign to extend copyright’s duration, scope, and penalties has vastly increased the profitability and revenues of the entertainment sector (even as creative workers’ wages have fallen).

Studio execs and other creative industry bosses would rather drink a gallon of warm spit before breakfast, every day for the rest of their lives, than give up a single molecule of copyright.

That’s where the US Copyright Office’s rule that AI-created works, just affirmed by a DC Circuit judge, comes in.

When faced with the choice of never paying us again, and having no copyright on the things they sell, our bosses will pay us all day long.

- Everything Made By an AI Is In the Public Domain: The US Copyright Office offers creative workers a powerful labor protective

THIS IS THE LAST DAY FOR MY KICKSTARTER for the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

Going to Burning Man? Catch me on Tuesday at 2:40pm on the Center Camp Stage for a talk about enshittification and how to reverse it; on Wednesday at noon, I'm hosting Dr Patrick Ball at Liminal Labs (6:15/F) for a talk on using statistics to prove high-level culpability in the recruitment of child soldiers.

On September 6 at 7pm, I'll be hosting Naomi Klein at the LA Public Library for the launch of Doppelganger.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

[partyhorn]

Have u ever posted your comic or animation workflow anywhere? Im super curious on how you tackle the process, especially not using a drawing tablet. I know you have a very simple (and adorable) style so that probably helps in terms of workflow -- Im just curious about the steps you take.

Thank you! With both comics and animation my key thing is to not spend too much time on any particular thing, just draw loose and fast. Honestly the only downside to drawing with a mouse is that I can tell my arm has extremely specific muscle memory regarding it- if my mouse breaks and I get a new one I have to spend a good month or so just letting my hand get used to it again lol. Same with if my setup gets readjusted too much- right now my setup is my mouse on one of those padded mousepads, on top of 2 books, with my elbow resting on my 3DS case (I'll get an actual pillow or something for it eventually lol). But luckily thanks to this I suffer very minimal wrist pain 👍

(...Okay I started to go really in depth in my process here, so sorry if this is way more than what you were asking. Putting it under a readmore just to save space lol)

With MFM in particular, I start by writing out the entire script for the next story arc, which really is just all of the dialogue and vague notes about any important actions. Then I do the paneling with very loose stick-figure like sketches of where the characters are and what they're doing. I prefer having very little planning when it comes to character poses and panel shapes, coming up with those on the fly makes things much more exciting and faster to make. But it's the opposite with dialogue... it needs to be 100% FINAL before I draw a single line lol.

That's part of my script for my most recent chapter, as well as what my extremely loose goofy thumbnail sketching is like. I write the script as one big thing and don't separate it into pages until I actually start drawing- then I go and color change it just to keep track of what dialogue goes on each page

After that, I go back and do the ACTUAL sketch, as well as the lettering (I don't believe this is how it's done professionally. I used to do lettering as the very last step in the process... but then found it hard to cram speech bubbles in the right places lmao.) After that is lineart, coloring, background flat colors, then shading/rendering for all of it. I do each step in batches, as in I sketch out ALL pages of a chapter before moving to lineart, I line ALL pages before starting coloring, etc. I find it way easier to be productive when it's broken up like that, though when I first started the comic I used to draw each page to completion before starting the next (but also, the comic's style was DRASTICALLY simpler back then haha)

(Unfortunately I merged some of the shading to the background flat colors so it's not entirely accurate... oops) FireAlpaca has a sand texture feature that I only found out about last year- adding that to the backgrounds makes them look 10x better with WAY less effort.

With animation, it depends on the project. For simple 5-10 second animation I make for fun, there's very little planning lol. I skip some steps in the process- I'll sketch out the keyframes (and maybe any difficult inbetweens if necessary), line those, then go straight into making linework inbetweens. I'm not a cleanup artist and have no experience in that, so I always find trying to line my rough animation makes everything jittery and wobbly. If I do it with a clean line from the start then I can avoid that and save a lot of time 👍

For my bigger projects (such as the Parvey cartoon and the MFM Kickstarter trailer), I do the whole animatic with final audio first and foremost, with the animatic being almost like the keyframes. I split them up into individual shots, .mp4 files anywhere between 1-30 seconds usually, and animate those one at a time. I'm a huge fan of free to use programs and try to use them as much as I possibly can, here's a list of the ones I use:

FireAlpaca- for the actual drawing part itself (storyboarding/animating/etc). FireAlpaca has a feature that lets you export every frame as it's own drawing, as well as an onion skin mode

Windows Movie Maker- for compiling all of those frames into video format, creating individual shots. If you upload all of your frames and set them to around 0.08 seconds, it equals about 12fps (I usually animate at 0.10 seconds/10fps, its a bit slower but looks nice)

Onlinesequencer.net- for making music. It's the place I've made all of my songs on, like the timeloop song, hyperworkaholic, and the background music for the MFM Kickstarter trailer.

Audacity- for editing audio/music. Also great for recording things directly from your desktop

DaVinci Resolve- for editing and putting together all of the shots into one big video. Can get kind of intensive on the computer during rendering, so watch out.

YouCut (app)- also for editing and compiling shots, I used this one a lot a couple years back but I'm not sure how well it holds up. Doesn't need much phone storage to download but needs a lot to render videos.

MS Paint (yes really)- for typing up text. FireAlpaca has a text option but I don't like it as much as Paint's.

...The only thing I genuinely can't do alone is voice acting. Luckily there's a big voice acting community on Twitter and they're all amazing to work with!

This got... way more in depth than I planned for it to be, so sorry if this is way more than what you were asking lol. But that's my general process when it comes to my art 👍