#oh and also -- how did you do it on desktop maybe mine is just . hidden too???

[cnnamonrolls]

[elaboration on the process of getting a poll to you]

I went to make a post on desktop and found out that desktop polls are in a weird place that I hadn't considered, and that I do have them on desktop, they're just hidden. After doing this I went back to the submissions page on desktop to see if maybe I could submit one now, but-- still no luck. Weird. And that brought me down a research rabbit hole to see how other people were submitting polls, which in turn led me to remembering that the submission page has a link that you can get to it from.

That's how I eventually got it to work. By dm'ing your submission page to myself on discord I was able to open it on tumblr mobile, and from there it was simply a matter of a few button presses to get a poll to you. Hope you enjoy it!! Now that I've figured out the process I can keep submitting them without like any hassle so until you get them anytime you want a poll just say something and I'll get one submitted.

tl;dr Tumblr is a Functional Website TM

THANK YOU !!!!

[bittydragon]

Tired and Confused

Notes: Lookit! Sleepy bois meeting time! I may have wrote them a bit out of character, but who cares? Tommy and Tubbo don’t get much time in this one shot, I focused this one on the others. I have so many ideas for these as a whole AU. So it’s happening. And I got a couple things planned, one of which turned out a little angsty, whoops- ANYWAYS. Enjoy some sleepy bois with a tiny Wilbur! “You two sure you’re going to be alright while I’m out?” Tommy and Tubbo both looked at him, Tommy much more exasperated than Tubbo. Tubbo just looked apologetic for Tommy’s behavior. He still nodded with a wide grin on his face.

“We’ll be alright, Wilbur! I’ll keep Tommy out of trouble! Promise!”

Wilbur just shook his head and smiled. “That’s good, I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said, knowing full well that when he returned Tommy will have found some sort of trouble and dragged Tubbo into it despite what Tubbo said. There was no stopping that chaotic duo and genuinely, Wilbur didn’t want to. It’s what made life so much fun for them.

So, despite knowing full well the two boys were going to get in some form of trouble while he was gone, he left for his borrowing run. This run was most definitely not as essential as most of the other runs, he knew it was highly likely that Tubbo may yell at him for this run but he knew he could get back at him for all of his strange outings he would never explain. Seriously, Wilbur was scared that the humans were going to find out about them with how much Tubbo goes out. And Tubbo is far from careful, though Tommy is still arguably worse. Hence why Tommy has his borrowing rights revoked.

But strings and wire were far from the list of essentials in this moment. Wilbur just wanted to make himself a guitar. He had made one for himself a couple of years back when it was just him and Tommy. There was a human child in the house who had the strange instrument and played all the time. He even sang along to the sounds he made, which Wilbur later learned was actually called music. When he learned that Tommy really liked the music as well, Wilbur created a guitar and sang for Tommy whenever he could. He had to leave the original behind when the exterminator was called on them. 

Tommy had started getting stressed out lately. They’ve been in the same house for nearly two years now. They had never been in a house that long without being chased out. And Tommy has also begun to share Wilbur’s uneasiness over how easy it was to just live. Something was obviously off and Wilbur hated it. But Tubbo always insisted that the humans were just painfully oblivious so they continued their way of life.

Wilbur quickly snapped out of his thoughts when he realized he reached the entrance to one of the humans’ rooms. Well, this human was definitely less human than the other one but that changed nothing. He pulled back the loose pink wallpaper and slipped inside.

He began his careful trek to the desk where the string was normally located. He paused at every noise he heard before speeding up to finish his journey faster. When he reached the base of the desk he lifted his hook off his belt and threw it upwards only for it to fall back down. With an annoyed huff he threw it again. 

Only for it to fall again and clock him in the head.

“Ow! What the heck? Just latch you damn thing!” He muttered his angry curses at the hook while rubbing the sore spot on his head. He maneuvered the hook back into throwing position once more. “Third time’s the charm.” And with a hard toss the hook flew up, landed on the desktop, and-

Clocked him on the head again.

“Dang. You’re havin’ a rough time there, little nerd, aren’t ya?”  

Wilbur whipped around, eyes wide, to meet the rather amused gaze of the piglin hybrid. The owner of the room Wilbur was currently trying to borrow from. Oh gods, what will happen to Tommy and Tubbo? How will they know that Wilbur has been caught? He knows he can’t escape, especially not from this one. The other one Wilbur may have had a small chance of escaping but not this one. Not the one who fought other humans for fun. Wilbur hopes that Tommy and Tubbo can take care of themselves. Tubbo probably could, he could take Wilbur’s place. He could-

“Breathe, little buddy, breathe. You can’t do anything in a state like that.” Wilbur hadn’t even noticed how heavy he was breathing. His panic completely overwhelmed him in the moment. His lack of response did something for the human because the next thing Wilbur knew two large, pink tinged hands reached down for him. All Wilbur could do in his panic driven state was fumble backwards and let out a pathetic “stop” as they wrapped around him and lifted him upwards.

The fingers wrapped around him and Wilbur braced himself to have his breath squeezed out of him, but they only laid on him with enough force to keep him from falling. He could leave the grasp if he wanted, but Wilbur wasn’t keen on falling to his death just yet. He looked up to meet the gaze of the piglin hybrid. 

Neither of them spoke for a few minutes. They just remained in a silent standoff with no reward to the winner. The gaze of those red eyes was unnerving but Wilbur found no malice towards him. No greed, no curiosity. Really there wasn’t any emotion Wilbur could find other than the small crease of worry on his face. This piglin was good at hiding emotions.

“So what now?” Wilbur stared up at the hybrid, awaiting his response. He was met with a flash of shock on his face before he once again concealed it into a vague look of disinterest. But Wilbur could find a small hint of relief hidden there. Perhaps because he spoke?

“I’ll just let you go on with your day, I guess.” The hands suddenly began shifting again and Wilbur instinctively grabbed one of the fingers as support as his heart began racing again. The hands suddenly parted and slid him onto the desktop, his initial destination. The piglin then raised his now free hand to the back of his neck and let his gaze wander away. “And I apologize for scaring you. Was not my intention.”

Just as suddenly as he had arrived, he turned around and began walking back out of the room. “Techno, you idiot, borrowers are easily startled. Remember that!” He whispered to himself. Wilbur whipped around at the statement, he doesn’t think he was supposed to hear that. This human, Techno he assumed, knew about borrowers. Wilbur didn’t want to dwell on it for too long, so he quickly located the string and left as fast as he could.

---

“Phil. There’s more.”

“What?” Phil looked over towards Techno, completely confused at what Techno was so worked up over. “There’s more what?”

“Little guys. More borrowers. There are more in the house.”

Phil’s eyes widened. More borrowers? But wouldn’t they have noticed that earlier on? Techno took Phil’s silence as an indicator to continue.

“It’s not just one in the house anymore. Phil, I accidentally met another today. No clue on how many are here now, but the number is now at least two.” Phil mulled it over for a second before speaking. He then shrugged.

“I guess we have more friends to meet then, right Techno?” Silence. “Techno?”

“...Phil. I basically adopted the new one already. I have a new brother now, Phil. He is my new brother, Phil.”

Phil couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. Techno looked down, ashamed at himself. Phil walked over to his brother and put a hand on his shoulder, trying to stifle his laughter.

“You’re gonna have to tell him- ha- tell him that he’s your brother. And maybe introduce us- oh my god Techno I can’t.” And with that Phil dissolved back into his laughing fit. Techno could only look on as Phil laughed at him. He couldn’t deny that the situation was absurd, but the borrower caught Techno’s attention like nobody else ever has.

And in their conversation, neither of them noticed the shadow move across the kitchen counter and into the wall.

---

“My name is Wilbur, by the way. Just thought you should know your brother’s name. Cause it’s important, Techno.”

Techno could only stare at the borrower who just hauled himself onto the coffee table right before the two brothers could start their movie. Phil could only laugh at the situation playing out in front of him.

“Techno! He knows your name but you don’t know his! What an amazing brother!” Techno glared at his brother on the couch and elbowed him before returning his gaze to his tiny new brother on the table. Wilbur just smiled, and Techno could see the blatant look of no regret plastered over the borrower’s face

When Phil finished laughing, much to Techno’s relief, he turned to the borrower who was still waiting on the table. Phil noted that despite the playful behavior and act of courage, he was still nervously rocking back and forth on his feet. Phil sent him a small smile.

“Good to meet my brother’s other brother, Wilbur. My name is Phil. I’m your new brother’s other brother.” Phil smiled a little wider when Wilbur laughed.

“Don’t say it like that, it sounds weird. Just call me your brother and I’ll call you mine.”

Phil didn’t have a response to that. Techno nudged him with a look that screamed ‘see?’. Phil is also adopting this borrower as his next brother. It’s official, Phil has two brothers now. He snapped back into a more normal train of thought when Wilbur suddenly let out a large yawn. He reached up and covered his mouth with a nervous chuckle.

Techno went to laugh at his brother before getting cut off by a yawn of his own. That was then followed by Phil. They all looked at one another in shock. 

Phil broke the shocked silence. “I guess we are sleepy boys, huh?” That earned him the laughs he was hoping for. Phil noticed that Techno looked towards Wilbur and made some vague motion with his hands that Phil couldn’t decipher. After a moment of contemplation, Wilbur nodded and Techno reached forwards to scoop him into his palms and leaned back on the couch. He deposited the borrower onto his chest and Phil was gladly surprised to see Wilbur relax into it.

Phil was happy to have another member of the family.

Techno was glad to have someone other than Phil trust him like this.

Wilbur was excited to have two more people to call his brothers other than Tommy-

Shit. He still has to tell Tommy and Tubbo.

[96harmony96]

Chapter 17

I pushed to my feet in a rush.

“Don’t,” she warned in a dark purr. “You’re not running yet. We’re not done.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Being under someone else’s thumb—losing my right to say no!—was never going to happen again. “You know what I went through. I need control as much as you do.”

“Sit down, Camila.”

I stayed on my feet, just to prove my point.

Her smile widened and my insides melted. “Do you have any idea how crazy I am about you?” She murmured.

“You’re crazy all right, if you think I’m going to put up with being ordered around, especially sexually.”

“Come on, Camila. You know I don’t want to beat you, punish you, hurt you, demean you, or order you around like a pet. Those aren’t needs either of us has.” Straightening, Lauren leaned forward and placed her elbows on the desktop. “You’re the most important thing in my life. I treasure you. I want to protect you and make you feel safe. That’s why we’re talking about this.”

God. How could she be so wonderful and so insane at the same time? “I don’t need to be dominated!”

“What you need is someone to trust—No. Close your mouth, Camila. You’ll wait until I’m finished.”

My protest spluttered into silence.

“You’ve asked me to reacquaint your body with acts previously used to hurt and terrorize you. I can’t tell you what your trust means to me or what it would do to me if I broke that trust. I can’t risk it, Camila. We have to do this right.”

I crossed my arms. “I guess I’m dumber than bricks. I thought our sex life was rockin’.”

Setting her glass down, Lauren kept going as if I hadn’t spoken. “You asked me to meet a need of yours today and I agreed. Now we need to—”

“If I’m not what you want, just spit it out!” I set the picture frame and my glass down before I did something with them I’d regret. “Don’t try and pretty it up with—”

she was around the desk and on me before I could stumble back more than a couple steps. Her mouth sealed over mine, her arms caged me. As she’d done earlier, she carried me to a wall and restrained me against it, her hands banding my wrists and lifting them high above my head.

Trapped, I could nothing as she bent her knees and stroked my cleft with the rigid length of her erection. Once, twice. Silk rasped against my swollen clit. The bite of her teeth on my covered nipple sent a shiver through me, while the clean scent of her warm skin intoxicated me. With a gasp, I sagged into her embrace.

“See how easily you submit when I take over?” Her lips followed the arch of my brow. “And it feels good doesn’t it? It feels right.”

“That’s not fair.” I stared up at her. How could she expect me to respond any differently? As disturbed and confounded as I was, I was helplessly drawn to her.

“Of course it is. It’s also true.”

My gaze roamed over that glorious mane of inky hair and the chiseled lines of her incomparable face. The longing I felt was so acute it was painful. The hidden damage inside her only made me love her more. There were times when I felt like I’d found the other half of myself in her.

“I can’t help it that you turn me on,” I muttered, “My body is physiologically supposed to soften and relax, so you can shove that big cock inside me.”

“Camila. Let’s be honest. You want me to have total control. It’s important to you that you can trust me to take care of you. There’s nothing wrong with that. The reverse is true for me—I need you to trust me enough to give up that control.”

I couldn’t think when she was pressed up against me, my body achingly aware of every hard inch of her. “I am not submissive.”

“You are with me. If you look back, you’ll see you’ve been yielding to me all along.”

“You’re good in bed! And have more experience. Of course I let you do what you want to me.” I bit my lower lip to stop it from quivering. “I’m sorry I haven’t been as exciting for you.”

“Bullshit, Camila. You know how much I enjoy making love to you. If I could get away with it, I’d do nothing else. We’re not talking about games that get me off.”

“Then we’re talking about what gets me off? Is that what this is?”

“Yes. I thought so.” she frowned. “You’re upset. I didn’t mean—Damn it. I thought discussing this would help us.”

“Lauren.” My eyes stung, then flooded with tears. she looked as wounded and confused as I felt. “You’re breaking my heart.”

Releasing my wrists, she stepped back and swept me up in her arms, carrying me out of her office and down the hallway to a closed door. “Turn the knob,” she said quietly.

We entered a candlelit room that still smelled faintly of new paint. For a few seconds I was disoriented, unable to comprehend how we’d stepped out of Lauren’s apartment and into my bedroom.

“I don’t understand.” A serious understatement, but my brain was still trying to get past the feeling of being teleported from one residence to another. “You…moved me in with you?”

“Not quite.” she set me down, but kept an arm around me. “I recreated your room based on the photo I took of you sleeping.”

“Why?”

What the hell? Who did something like that? Was this all to keep me from witnessing her nightmares?

The thought shattered my heart further. I felt like Lauren and I were drifting further away from each other by the moment.

Her hands sifted through my damp hair, which only increased my agitation. I felt like batting her touch away and putting at least the length of the room between us. Maybe two rooms.

“If you feel the need to run,” she said softly, “you can come in here and shut the door. I promise not to bother you until you’re ready. This way, you have your safe place and I know that you haven’t left me.”

A million questions and speculations roared through my mind, but the one thing that stuck out was, “Are we still going to share a bed when we’re sleeping?”

“Every night.” Lauren’s lips touched my forehead. “How could you think otherwise? Talk to me, Camila. What’s going through that beautiful head of yours?”

“What’s going through my head?” I snapped. “What the fuck is going on in yours? What happened to you in the four days we were broken up?”

Her jaw tightened. “We never broke up, Camila.”

The phone rang in the other room. I cursed under my breath. I wanted us to talk and I wanted her to go away, both at the same time.

she squeezed my shoulders, and then let me go. “That’s our dinner.”

I didn’t follow her when she left, feeling too unsettled to eat. Instead, I crawled onto the bed that was exactly like my own and curled around a pillow, closing my eyes. I didn’t hear Lauren come back, but I felt her as he drew to a stop at the edge of the bed.

“Please don’t make me eat alone,” she said to my rigid back.

“Why don’t you just order me to eat with you?”

she sighed, and then slid onto the bed to spoon behind me. Her warmth was welcome, chasing away the chill that had brought goose bumps to my skin. she didn’t say anything for a long while, just gave me the comfort of having her close. Or maybe she was taking comfort in me.

“Camila.” Her fingers caressed the length of my silk-clad arm. “I can’t stand you being unhappy. Talk to me.”

“I don’t know what to say. I thought we were finally coming to a point where things would smooth out between us.” I hugged the pillow tighter.

“Don’t tense up, Camila. It hurts when you pull away from me.”

I felt like she was pushing me away.

Rolling, I shoved her to her back; then I mounted her, my robe parting as I straddled her hips. I ran the palms of my hands over her powerful chest and raked the tanned flesh with my nails. My hips undulated over her, stroking my bare cleft over her cock. Through the thin silk of her pants, I could feel every ridge and thick vein. From the way her eyes darkened and her sculpted mouth parted on quickened breaths, I knew she could feel the outline and damp heat of me as well.

“Is this so awful for you?” I asked, rocking my hips. “Are you lying there thinking you’re not giving me what I want because I’m in charge?”

Lauren set her hands on my thighs. Even that innocuous touch seemed dominating.

The edginess and sharpened focus I’d detected not long ago abruptly made sense to me—she wasn’t restraining her force of will anymore.

The tremendous power coiled inside her was now directed at me like a blast of heat.

“I’ve told you before,” she said huskily. “I’ll take you however I can get you.”

“Whatever. Don’t think I don’t know you’re topping from the bottom.”

Her mouth curved with unapologetic amusement.

Sliding down, I teased the flat disk of her nipple with the tip of my tongue. I blanketed her as she’d done to me in the past, stretching my body over her hips and legs, my hands shoving beneath her gorgeous ass to squeeze the firm flesh and hold her tight against me. Her cock was a thick column against my belly, renewing my fierce appetite for her.

“Are you going to punish me with pleasure?” She asked quietly. “Because you can. You can bring me to my knees, Camila.”

My forehead dropped to her chest and the air left my lungs in an audible rush. “I wish.”

“Please don’t be so worried. We’ll get through this along with everything else.”

“You’re so positive you’re right.” My gaze narrowed. “You’re trying to prove a point.”

“And you might prove yours.” Lauren licked her lower lip and my sex clenched in silent demand.

There was a brilliant depth of emotion in her eyes. Whatever else was going on in our relationship, there was no doubt we were seriously twisted up over each other.

And I was about to demonstrate that in the flesh.

Lauren’s neck arched as my mouth moved over her torso. “Oh, Camila.”

“Your world’s about to be rocked, Miss. Jauregui.”

It was. I made sure of it.

Feeling goofy with feminine triumph, I sat at Lauren’s dining table and remembered her as she’d been just a short time ago—damp with sweat and panting, cursing as I took my time savoring her luscious body.

she swallowed a bite of her steak, which had been kept hot courtesy of a warming drawer, and said calmly, “You’re insatiable.”

“Well, duh. You’re gorgeous, sexy, and very well-hung.”

“I’m glad you approve. I’m also extremely wealthy.”

I waved one hand carelessly, encompassing the whole of what had to be a fifty-million-dollar apartment. “Who cares about that?”

“Well, I do, actually.” Her mouth curved.

I stabbed my fork into a German fried potato, thinking that Peter Luger food was almost as good as sex. Almost. “I’m interested in your money only if it means you can afford to stop working in favor of lounging around naked as my sex slave.”

“I could afford to financially, yes. But you’d get bored and dump me, then where would I be?” Her look was warmly amused. “Think you proved your point, do you?”

I chewed, and then said, “Should I prove it again?”

“The fact that you’re still horny enough to want to proves my point.”

“Hmm.” I drank my wine. “Are you projecting?”

she shot me a look and casually chewed another bite of the tenderest steak I’d ever had.

Restless and worried, I took a deep breath and asked, “Would you tell me if our sex life didn’t satisfy you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Camila.”

What else could have prompted her to bring this up after our four-day breakup? “I’m sure it doesn’t help that I’m not the type you usually go for. And we haven’t used any of those toys you had in the hotel—”

“Stop talking.”

“Excuse me?”

Lauren set her utensils down. “I’m not going to listen to you shred your self-esteem.”

“What? You’re the only one who gets to do all the talking?”

“You can pick a fight with me, Camila, but it’s still not going to get you fucked.”

“Who said—” I shut up when she glared. she was right. I still wanted her. I wanted her on top of me, explosively lustful, completely in control of both my pleasure and her.

Pushing away from the table, she said curtly, “Wait here.”

When she returned a moment later, she set a black leather ring box beside my plate and resumed her seat. The sight of it hit me like a physical blow. Fear struck me first, icy cold. Followed swiftly by a longing that was white-hot.

My hands shook in my lap. I clasped my fingers together and realized my whole body was shaking. Lost, I lifted my gaze to Lauren’s face.

The feel of her fingertips brushing down my cheek soothed much of the vibrating anxiety inside me, leaving behind the terrible yearning.

“It’s not that ring,” she murmured gently. “Not yet. You’re not ready.”

Something inside me wilted. Then relief flooded me. It was too soon. Neither of us was ready. But if I’d ever wondered how deeply I had fallen in love with Lauren, now I knew.

I nodded.

“Open it,” she said.

With cautious fingers, I pulled the box closer and thumbed open the lid. “Oh.”

Nestled inside the black leather and velvet was a ring like no other. Gold rope-like bands were intertwined and decorated with Xs covered in diamonds.

“Bonds,” I murmured, “secured by crosses.” Lauren Jauregui. Crossfire.

“Not quite. I see the ropes as representative of the many threads of you, not bondage. But yes, the Xs are me holding on to you. By my fingernails, it feels like.” she finished her glass of wine and refilled both our glasses.

I sat unmoving, stunned, trying to take it all in. Everything she’d done in the time we’d been apart—the photos, the ring, Dr. Petersen, the replicated bedroom, and whoever had been following me around—told me I’d never been far from her mind, if I’d even left it at all.

“You gave me my keys back,” I whispered, still remembering the pain.

Her hand reached out and covered mine. “There are a lot of reasons why I did that. You left me wearing nothing but a robe, Camila, and without your keys. I can’t stand thinking about what could’ve happened if Cary hadn’t been home to let you in right away.”

Lifting her hand to my mouth, I kissed the back; then released her and closed the lid of the ring box. “It’s beautiful, Lauren. Thank you. It means a lot to me.”

“But you won’t wear it.” It wasn’t a question.

“After the conversation we’ve had tonight, it feels like a collar.”

After a moment, she nodded. “You’re not altogether wrong.”

My brain hurt and my heart ached. Four nights of restless sleeping didn’t help. I couldn’t understand why she felt I was so necessary, even though I felt that way about her. There were thousands of women in New York alone who could replace me in her life, but there was only one Lauren Jauregui.

“I feel like I’m disappointing you, Lauren. After everything we’ve talked about tonight…I feel like this is the beginning of the end.”

Pushing her chair back, she angled toward me and touched my cheek. “It’s not.”

“When do we see Dr. Petersen?”

“I’ll go alone on Tuesdays. After you talk to him and agree to couples counseling, we can go together on Thursdays.”

“Two hours of your week, every week. Not including the travel back and forth. That’s a big commitment.” I reached up and brushed the hair back from her cheek. “Thank you.”

Lauren caught my hand and kissed the palm. “It’s no sacrifice, Camila.”

she went into her office to work a bit before bed and I carried the ring box into the master bathroom with me. I studied it further while I brushed my teeth and hair.

There was a soft hum of need beneath my skin, a persistent level of arousal that shouldn’t have been possible considering the number of orgasms I’d already had over the course of the day. It was an emotionally driven need to connect to Lauren, to reassure myself that we were okay.

Clutching the ring box in my hand, I went to my side of Lauren’s bed and set it on the nightstand. I wanted it where I’d see it first thing in the morning, after a good night’s sleep.

With a sigh, I draped my beautiful new robe over the footboard and crawled into bed. After tossing and turning for a long while, I finally crashed.

I woke sometime in the middle of the night to a racing pulse and quick, shallow breathing. Disoriented, I lay still for a moment, gathering my bearings and remembering where I was. I tensed when it sank in, my ears straining to hear if Lauren was having another nightmare. When I discovered her lying quietly beside me, her breathing deep and even, I relaxed with a sigh.

What time had she finally come to bed? After the days we’d spent apart, it worried me that she might have felt a need to be alone.

Then it hit me. I was aroused. Painfully so.

My breasts were full and heavy, my nipples furled and tight. My core was aching and my cleft wet. As I lay there in the moonlit darkness, I realized that my own body had woken me with its demands. Had I dreamed something erotic? Or was it enough that Lauren was lying beside me?

Pushing up onto my elbows, I looked at her. The sheet and comforter clung to her waist, leaving her sculpted chest and biceps bared. Her right arm was tossed over her head, framing the fall of dark hair around her lavishly handsome face. Her left arm lay between us on the blankets, the hand fisted and bringing to relief the network of thick veins that coursed up her forearms. Even in repose she looked fierce and powerful.

I became more aware of the tension inside me, the sense that I was drawn to her by the silent exertion of her formidable will. It wasn’t possible that she could demand my surrender while she was sleeping, yet it felt that way, felt like that invisible rope between us was pulling me to her.

The throbbing between my legs grew unbearable and I pressed one hand against the violent pulsing, hoping to dull the ache. The pressure worsened it instead.

I couldn’t stay still. Throwing the covers off, I slid my legs off the side of the mattress and thought about trying a glass of warm milk with the brandy Lauren had given me earlier. Abruptly, I paused, riveted by the moonlight gleaming off the leather of the ring box on the nightstand. I thought of the jewelry inside it and my desire surged. At that moment, the thought of being collared by Lauren filled me with heated yearning.

You’re just horny, I scolded myself.

One of the girls in group had talked about how her “master” could use her body any time and in any way he wanted, for his pleasure alone. There was nothing about that I’d found sexy…until I put Lauren in the picture. I loved getting her off. I loved making her come. Just because.

My fingers brushed over the lid of the tiny box. Exhaling a shaky breath, I picked it up and opened it. A moment later I was sliding the cool band onto the ring finger of my right hand.

“Do you like it, Camila?”

A shiver moved through me at the sound of Lauren’s voice, deeper and rougher than I’d ever heard it. she’d been awake, watching me.

How long had she been conscious? Was she as attuned to me while sleeping as I seemed to be to her?

“I love it.” I love you.

Setting the box aside, I turned my head to find her sitting up. Her eyes glittered in a way that made me impossibly more aroused, but also sent a bite of fear through me. It was an unguarded look, like the one that had literally knocked me on my ass when we met—scorching and possessive, filled with dark threats of ecstasy. Her gorgeous face was harsh in the shadows, her jaw taut as she lifted my right hand to her mouth and kissed the ring she’d given me.

I moved to kneel on the bed and draped my arms around her neck. “Take me. Carte blanche.”

she cupped my butt and squeezed. “How does it feel to say that?”

“Almost as good as the orgasms you’re going to give me.”

“Ah, a challenge.” The tip of her tongue teased the seam of my lips, tempting me with the promise of a kiss she deliberately withheld.

“Lauren!”

“Lay back, angel, and grip your pillow with both hands.” Her mouth curved in a wicked smile. “Don’t let go for any reason. Understand?”

Swallowing hard, I did as I was told, so turned on I thought I might come from just the relentless spasming of my needy sex.

she kicked the covers down to the footboard. “Spread your legs and pull up your knees.”

My breath caught audibly as my nipples hardened further, causing a deep ache in my breasts. God, Lauren was hot as hell like this. I was panting with excitement, my mind spinning with the possibilities. The flesh between my legs trembled with want.

“Oh, Camila,” she crooned, running her index finger through my slick cleft. “Look how greedy you are for me. It’s a full-time job keeping this sweet little cunt satisfied.”

That single rigid finger pushed into me, parting the swollen tissues. I tightened around her, so close to coming I could taste it. she withdrew and lifted her hand to her mouth, licking my flavor from her skin. My hips arched without volition, my body straining toward her.

“Your fault I’m so hot for you,” I gasped. “You slacked on the job for days.”

“Then I better make up for lost time.” Sliding down into a prone position, she settled her shoulders beneath my thighs and rimmed the quivering entrance to my body with the tip of her tongue. Around and around. Ignoring my clit and refraining from fucking me even when I begged.

“Lauren, please.”

“Shh. I have to get you ready first.”

“I’m ready. I was ready before you woke up.”

“Then you should’ve woken me earlier. I’ll always take care of you, Camila. I live for it.”

Whimpering in distress, I rocked my hips into that teasing tongue. Only when I was soaked with my own arousal, creaming desperately for the feel of any part of her I could get inside me, did she crawl over me and settle between my spread thighs, placing her forearms flat on the bed.

she held my gaze. Her cock, feverishly hot and hard as stone, lay against the lips of my sex. I wanted it inside me more than I wanted to breathe. “Now,” I gasped. “Now.”

With a practiced shift of her hips, she rammed deep into me, shoving me up the bed.

“Ah, God,” I gasped, convulsing ecstatically around the thick column of flesh that possessed me. This was what I’d needed since we’d talked in her home office, what I’d craved as I rode up and down her steely erection before dinner, what I’d needed even as I climaxed around her thick length.

“Don’t come,” she murmured in my ear, cupping my breasts in her hands and rolling my nipples between her thumb and forefingers.

“What?” I was pretty sure if she’d just take a deep breath I’d go off.

“And don’t let go of the pillow.”

Lauren began to move in a slow, lazy rhythm. “You’re going to want to,” she murmured, nuzzling the sensitive spot beneath my ear. “You love to grab my hair and rake your nails down my back. And when you’re close to coming, you like to squeeze my ass and yank me deeper. Makes me so damn hard when you go wild like that, when you show me how much you love how I feel inside you.”

“No fair,” I moaned, knowing she was deliberately provoking me. The cadence of her raspy voice was perfectly timed with the relentless surging of her hips. “You’re torturing me.”

“Good things come to those who wait.” Her tongue traced the shell of my ear, and then dipped inside at the same moment she tugged on my nipples.

I bucked into her next thrust and nearly came. Lauren knew my body so well, knew all its secrets and erogenous zones. she was expertly stroking her cock inside me, rubbing over and over the tender bundle of nerves that quivered in delight.

Rolling her hips, she screwed into me, exploiting other spots. I made a plaintive sound, on fire for her, desperately infatuated. My fingers cramped with the grip I had on my pillow, my head thrashing against the driving need to orgasm. she could get me there just by rubbing inside me, the only person who’d ever been skilled enough to give me an intense vaginal orgasm.

“Don’t come,” she repeated, her voice hoarse. “Make it last.”

“I c-can’t. It feels too good. God, Lauren…” Tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes. “I…I’m lost in you.”

I cried softly, afraid to say the other L-word too soon and risk upsetting the delicate balance between us.

“Oh, Camila.” she rubbed her cheek against my damp face. “I must’ve wished for you so hard and so often you had no choice but to come true.”

“Please,” I begged softly. “Slow down.”

Lauren lifted her head to look at me, choosing that moment to pinch my nipples with just enough force to inflict a hint of pain. The tender muscles inside me clenched down so hard that her next thrust caused her to groan.

“Please,” I pled again, trembling with the effort to stave off my building climax. “I’m going to come if you don’t slow down.”

Her gaze was hot on my face, her hips still lunging in a measured tempo that was slowly stealing my sanity. “Don’t you want to come, Camila?” She purred in that voice that could lure me into hell with a dreamy smile. “Isn’t that what you’ve been working toward all night?”

My neck arched as her lips drifted across my throat. “Only when you say I can,” I gasped. “Only…when you say.”

“Angel.” One hand moved to my face, brushing back the strands of hair that clung to the perspiration on my skin. she kissed me deeply, reverently, licking deep into my mouth.

Yes…

“Come for me,” she coaxed, quickening her pace. “Come, Camila.”

On command, the orgasm struck me like a blow, shocking my system with an overload of sensation. Wave after wave of pulsing heat rolled through me, contracting my sex and tightening my core. I cried out, first with an inarticulate sound of agonized pleasure, then with her name. Chanting it over and over as she drove her beautiful cock into me, prolonging my climax, before pushing me into another one.

“Touch me,” she rasped, as I fell apart beneath her. “Hold me.”

Freed from her command to hold the pillow, I bound her to my sweat-slick body with arms and legs. she pounded deep and hard, driving strenuously toward her climax.

she came with a growl, her head thrown back as she spurted into me for long minutes. I held her until our bodies cooled and our breathing evened.

When Lauren finally rolled off me, she didn’t go far. she wrapped herself around my back and whispered, “Sleep now.”

I don’t remember if I stayed awake long enough to reply.

[survivorgalaxysedge]

Episode 5 | Forgive Me Cowtown For I Have Sinned - Ari

ohhhhh i found something JUICY tonight!!! so yesterday the hosts got tired of me constantly asking how many fuel i have and gave me the command to view it, and i knew i was outta points so i was like ok cool we'll check it out tomorrow. TURNS OUT the scorekeeper bot shows you not just your personal points.... but the points of everyone in the game.... and WHOM is number two on that list with 36 entire points? that's right. my best friend keegan. my first thought was wtf ew how did he already recover from my sabotage, i feel zero percent guilty about doing that now! and then my second thought was WAIT...... this is PERFECT. so you can bet i ran right to all three of my allies to be like "hey omg i found something shady :0 didn't keegan say all his fuel got blown up the other day? well i pulled some receipts and it turns out he still has all of it! why would he lie about that??? so sus!" and now i'm laughing because there could not be a more perfect excuse to get him gone!!! i'm not gonna push it any more than that right now - for all i know, we'll prob win the next challenge again - but i've tucked the ammo away in my pocket, planted the ari seed in jonathan and zoe's heads, and i'll let it sit pretty there until i need it. also, i ended up telling ali what i did to keegan simply because he is 100% not going against me and i needed someone to tell me i'm funny, so i also let him know about this plan o mine and that we could use this against sir keegan, which he's so down for. god. i cannot wait to tell mj about all this shit.

Jacob being voted out of NuTrian is the second best thing that could have happened. Preferably Nathan but my OG Andro and Jessie are safe so that’s very good. Now we’ve got a Guess Who challenge which is okay. I don’t care if we get first or second, I just really really don’t want to get last. Let’s keep the good vibes going and be safe for a fifth straight tribal council. Ali told me he scored 11 points, I scored 10. I hope Zoe can whip out her survivor magic with a score of 8 or 9. And then hopefully Jonathan can pull out a good score as well. Nathan and Zach have both scored 12 on this challenge before, so I can only hope they keep up with that and score high again. Gotta make sure those other tribes flop. I’m still incredibly uncertain about how to play this steal a player advantage. It’s possible we ride this 3 tribe split all the way to merge. My guess is merge at 11 or 10. That would be quite a few tribals to go without another swap but it’s certainly possible. Though I could absolutely see a swap now at 12. Two tribes of six, and then merge at 10. A final 3 with 7 jurors perhaps? Either way, I think I’ll hold on to this advantage until it seems likely that I’ll need it. No sense in causing some chaos if it isn’t necessary.

ok so i'm doing well in challenges rn, as best as i can at least, and i feel like that's the only thing keeping me alive bc.... nobody talks to me. i feel like i'm starting every one on one conversation and desperately trying to keep it alive and not be left on read. idk if they're like this with each other or if its just me but !!!!!! it doesnt make me feel good abt potentially losing a challenge. so i will just keep carrying my weight and keeping my cute little head down and pray im just being paranoid<3

WELL We lost the immunity challenge which is the first loss after four straight immunity wins. That was a nice little break while it lasted. The obvious choice right off the bat is to vote for Ali. Keeps the OG Andro tribe fully intact, and avoids the most possible drama. However, I worry he might have found the Circi idol from his original tribe. Plus whatever advantage he may have gotten from the first challenge of the season. So the alternate thought is to maybe vote for Jonathan or Zoe. I adore Ari would not want to vote them out. It's tempting to throw a vote on one of them in the event of Ali playing an idol, just to keep myself safe. But if Ali doesn't have an idol, that could cause a whole world of issues. On the flip side, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if some or any of my tribe mates decided to throw my name under the bus. I haven't been the most social person and while I have definitely pulled my weight in the challenges, I could see them having their own little group that's willing to throw my under the bus and make things as painless as possible for the rest of them, especially considering they've all said they like Ali a lot. Ahhh this is all so much worse considering I have the hidden immunity idol. I don't want to waste it, but I also don't want to pull a Kellee Kim and go home with it in my pocket. 

it's kind of ridiculous how well this is all going???? why havent they voted me out yet i am running this shit -talked to ali, told him he's gonna be fine we just need to get people to vote for keegan -talked to jonathan, convinced him keegan is the most logical vote "because he's shady" and because it also means we can vote ali easily next time (versus going down to andro 4 and having it get much more messy) -jonathan was like "should we tell ali right before the vote?" and i was like i think you should call him and see where his head is at and we can go from there, jonathan said ok good point, if he says he wants to vote keegan and he also tells you that without any prompting from either of us we know he's real about it -yeeted myself into ali's dms the very second jonathan hung up like OK LISTEN HERE IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY WHEN HE CALLS YOU, HE CANT KNOW I TOLD YOU ANY OF THIS -ali called me half an hour later like "omg we had such a good talk i love jonathan now deadass, i told him exactly what you said to say and he's so down" -presumably in the morning jonathan will call me and say "wow had a great talk with ali he seems cool and great and he said he'd vote keegan, what did he tell you?" and i can say "yeah same he mentioned keegan so i think we're good!" and jonathan will feel like we Did This Together and ali will feel like i Did This For Him and everyone will be in love with me -all i have to do tomorrow is make sure zoe is on board & that she doesn't feel pushed, and prob call keegan and make him some vague promises about working together long term, and then cross my fingers that i don't get blindsided during my editorial meeting at 9pm est i am having so much fun

i just keep thinking about how funny it’s gonna be when we get to merge and mj tells me to vote out all these people i’ve been making f2s with and i’ll be like “okay!!!!<3”

Not to go back to INV this round, but not much has been going on. I've been keeping up socializing but since we're not going to tribal it's been more quiet than it has been last round. I'm really glad we won though bc I feel vulnerable if we go to tribal again. Cindi seems close to Nathan, and Nathan and Jessie seem closer to each other than they will be to me so I'm worried I'd be an easy vote. So I'm really hoping for a swap or merge tonight, or at least a challenge we can excel in. Don't want it to come down to one point again.

^_^ Okay, so no important updates with this tribe! It's freaking QUIET. I haven't talked to Zach or Silver at ALL since being with this tribe. I've talked to Jules a lot and Asya some, though. I'd like to work with the two of them if possible and if we ever go to tribal here, which I don't want to do because uhhh it's worrisome! Anyway, the only actual update I have is that I found the legacy advantage!!! Randomly at like 2AM I found it. I don't remember what I was doing exactly... I think I just went to watch the Circi round 3 tribal and then the Trian round 4 tribal... and then I think I went to watch the Tribe Swap video to see if there was some sort of announcement made regarded the Oxygen Tank amounts because I was confused why that number was changed more than double. I guess I was also thinking that since the hosts didn't make an announcement that the adventure was resetting at the swap then MAYBE there would be a new twist/advantage inserted elsewhere for this next phase of the game? Now, being the crackhead that I am, of course back on original tribes, I SEARCHED everywhere on the blog that I could think of. Extenders URLs, the source code, hidden hyperlinks - everything. Nothing was there. But in this case, my brain said, hmm, let's just scroll down and see if there's anything in the description of the Tribe Swap Youtube video...and... there was!! I didn't really know what it was at first but when I opened it everything CLICKED! Finally the Reem Cameo from launch night serving a bigger purpose made total sense. After seeing this link in the description though and realizing it was calling back to something we were told about night one, I went back and checked to see if this had been hidden all along, and of course it's literally in the description of the Cast Reveal video!!! and every other video after that!!! Keeping in mind that I found this 11 days into the game, I was like, oh there's definitely some nerd that found this instantly on night 1 so I'm probably just gonna get a message saying nothing here or something like that. Obviously that wasn't the case though. I think nobody found this because I lot of people operate via mobile in these, and Youtube descriptions require an addition click to reveal what's there. Alternatively, for desktop users, who the hell is scrolling down for any reason while you're watching videos from your ORG?? It's nothing something anyone does naturally. So that explains that. Anyway, I'm happy I found it even though it has absolutely no use until Day 39. I will say though that having this and knowing that, it has really motivated me to get to the end of this game. Coincidentally, HOURS before I found this, I had a conversation with Jules about how quiet this tribe has been and that I'd like to start working towards bettering our positions moving forward seeing as there are people here with more/stronger connections than either of us. I just love that I found an advantage that motivates me to start playing this game, exactly how I'd voiced to Jules about feeling a desire to start doing SOMETHING. We love a live narrative!!!! Anyway, I'm not gonna tell Jules about the legacy advantage because it's an advantage that incentivizes people to vote out the owner and have it passed on. I trust Jules, we go YEARS back and have to successful runs as allies under our belts, but this is just something I'd like to keep to myself. Earlier today I also decided that I'm probably never gonna tell Ari about it either if our paths ever (hopefully) cross in this game. I wanna surprise my bestie! At any rate, Jules did tell me that Zach and Asya seem like the type of players that only play on tribal days (at least in this case of this game) which is fine, but I've played a few super intense, intimate, and high-stakes ORGs in the past couple of years which has made me prioritize personal relationships with people over barebones game relationships. This makes dealing with people who aren't that interested in getting to know me or revealing themselves to me a SUPER off-putting experience and a drastic change of pace from what I've become accustomed to. But I'm totally capable of adapting to this environment... I just don't necessarily prefer it. I feel like I have room to connect with Asya on a personal level if given the chance. Zach and Silver I don't know. Although, I do think that if we ever lose immunity here I could for sure spit some game to Silver that would make him believe I want to work with him. I already have an idea of how that conversation goes, and the potential negative consequence of it is practically non-existent on this swap tribe, whereas it could have backfired on me if original Trian lost that third challenge. Anyway, I'll get into that whenever we lose or if I get bored and initiate that chat just to feel something lol

No tribal ever again until merge or swap please. Jessie would be the one I'd want out and I assume Jay would as well but she has Nathan's shard so, like, he'd lose that and then I lose my hope of getting both their shards and misplaying my first idol because I'm not good at survivor

Yayyyy we won immunity. Idk what much else to say except that I got 40 fuel tanks

today i am mad and sad. lost the challenge, was my fault bc purple not pink. no i will not elaborate. now ari jonathan and i have decided to save ali and vote out keegan. i hope it goes well. i am filled with anxiety. i don’t even want keegan to go, we just have to make the decision based on the fact that we don’t want to be seen as a tight alliance going into merge, and keegan can make it look like there was a crack therefore not making us look strong. but he is just sacrificial unfortunately. but we’ll see how it goes. i’m still anxious

Wow we won what a concept See what happens when we don’t throw comps ? Anyways yeah that’s it I guess lol

Honestly I I'm done with these hoes I'm ready to vote off Keegan 

This is definitely a very stressful and emotional tribal. I hate that we’re voting for Ali because he is a genuinely fantastic person and under different circumstances I think we could have worked really well together in this game. But when there’s a 4-1 tribe swap and the four of us have absolutely no beef with each other, there’s not a whole lot that can be done. None of my other 3 OG Andro players come across as big move players either. So unless I’m being straight up lied to and am about to get completely blindsided, it’s looking like a unanimous Ali boot. Which is incredibly sad. I really wanted us to win out until merge so we wouldn’t have to vote him out. But such is the game. Keegan signing off (hopefully not for the last time)

[breadknight-likes-things]

Bread’s Game Journal 05/31/20: Wrath In The Frozen North: A Northrend Retrospective, Part 2: Borean Tundra

This is the post wherein I rant about how wrong people are when they say Borean Tundra is a bad zone, or call it names like “Boring Tundra”.  Why would do such a thing?  Because Borean Tundra rules, and is a far better introductory chapter to Wrath Of The Lich King than it seems like anyone wants to give it credit for!  This was the other of the two options available to players at the start of Wrath of the Lich King, and the one I originally chose because I figured it would be far less crowded than Howling Fjord, which had been hyped up by all the people on the forums at the time as the place to start your journey.  By comparison it almost seemed like most people had forgotten Borean Tundra was even an option presented to them.

The Magnataur dens would later come into play in some of the expanded universe books, but good luck finding any npc outside of this zone who seems to remember than terrifying threat even exists to begin with!

I knew right away that the lack of attention given to BT was wrong, because this zone hits you over the head with some pretty awesome stuff just as soon as you arrive.  Weather you’re coming in by boat (Alliance) or Zepplin (Horde), you’re immediately greeted with some epic sights.  Weather that be a half built castle under siege or an absurdly imposing iron fortress surrounding on all sides by nightmare creatures, it’s cool as hell.  The landscape is a barren, well, tundra, but that doesn’t mean it lacks personality, as I feel people often claimed of it.

In fact, Borean Tundra is easily on of the most diverse zones in Northrend visually.  The orange and red grasslands are a personal favorite of mine, the farms that the Horde and Alliance attempted to set up have been overrun, and the ridiculously big new Magnataur enemies are the only reason any patch of said grasslands remain free of the scourge to begin with.  Further north the geysers and salt flats add in a new flavor to the questing than you were introduced to with the grasslands.  Most notably, Coldarra exists off to the left side of the zone and it’s....sort of it’s own zone?  But also sort of not?  Coldarra is an interesting area, it more or less exists just to house a couple instances and a handful of quests.  From a lore perspective it’s fascinating, but there isn’t much to actually do there.

Draw distance isn’t great, but you can see a little of what I mean with the northern diversification of the zone with the geysers off to the right and the plains off to the left, leading down into Scholozar Basin.

Quest wise, Borean Tundra is far cooler, and quite a lot more diverse than I feel people ever mention!  In just this one zone there’s the beginnings of the war against the scourge, the introduction of Garrosh Hellscream as a major character, the introduction to the heel turn of the Blue Dragonflight, and our first look at how the Scourge actually operates in their Northrend strongholds, along with the first hint of their ultimate goals.  Also notable are some silly fun quests helping out a tribe of friendly Murlocs, working with the Tuskarr for the first time (Blizzard, allied race, please!) and everyone’s favorite NYC stereotypes, the goblins up to their weirdo schemes in the geyser fields! I remember this opening zone feeling truly special compared to Hellfire Peninsula before it.  That one actually had a lot of similar elements but it didn’t have nearly as strong of a sense of place as this zone did, and still does!  A thing I forgot to mention in the post before this one was that Northrend was really the last time Blizzard designed zones in a way that felt like they were really trying to sell this place as a world all it’s own.  I actually quite enjoy the theme park style zones we have now, which filter you through all sorts of great environments on your way to level cap, but this old style is really something to behold today.  Even more so than Outland, Northrend thrives on empty space.  Borean Tundra especially feels massive in a way zones just aren’t made like anymore.  That said, if you think this zone feels like it’s massive in scale....just wait until we get to Storm Peaks!

Bread’s Coveted Best Town Award: Warsong Hold

There’s really no way this would go to anything other than Warsong Hold.  Who would have guessed at the time that in just a couple short years, this absurdly imposing steel fortress would end up serving as the basis for the grand redesign of Orgrimmar!

Random Screenshot Of The Day:

Oh sure it looks awesome, makes for a great desktop background, but good luck enjoying it when dungeon finder throws you into The Oculus and you just.....hate everything for an hour.....the things we do to power level....

Stray Notes:

- Was gonna write a thing on Utgarde Keep tonight but decided to just jump right into Borean Tundra!  Maybe tomorrow!  Dragonblight is up next, that’s an extremely interesting (and ridiculously large) zone!

- Played a bit more of my second play through of Jedi Fallen Order today!  That hidden early double bladed light-saber kind of seems like it just uh....shouldn’t have been hidden?  If that makes sense?

[silvensei]

In This Mad Machinery

A human and an android swap bodies, resulting in identity crises, existentialism, philosophy with the boys, and fun!

Detroit: Become Human | gen | 20k | rated T | introspective comedy/sci-fi

Chapter 5 (2k words) | [AO3 link] | [first] | < prev | next >

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Once he pulled into their usual parking spot at the DPD, Connor let out a sigh of relief. He didn't realize he was holding the wheel in a death grip until he had to pry his hands off to kill the ignition.

It wasn't the driving itself. He knew how to drive. He drove better than Hank. But that was when he was an android. He could run his driving program while also holding a conversation with Hank and texting three others simultaneously. He obviously knew that he didn't have his programming to multi-task like that today, but he underestimated just how difficult it would be to focus only on one task. He didn't normally rely on multi-tasking that much, did he?

On the drive over, he would be focused on the road, then notice that the girl waiting to cross the street had a very nice dog, then he'd wonder what kind of dog it was, then he'd lament humans' inability to search the internet without a phone, then he'd considered taking out his phone—Hank's phone—to search it, then the fact that he hadn't payed attention to the road in a bunch of seconds slapped him in the face. Following that, he was glad Hank wasn't there to see his faux pas, reconsidered to think Hank might actually keep him on track, noticed the radio was playing one of Hank's least favorite songs, and screeched to a halt at a red light he hadn't seen. Or his eyes saw it, but the memo was in line behind all the other thoughts waiting to pass through his one-track human brain. It was... It'll take some getting used to.

No matter now. He's safe and sound and unmoving.

He took a deep breath. The cool air filled his chest, and it made him feel physically refreshed. There was no system-measured value of how it affected internal cooling regulation. Just a sense of lightness.

Too many senses to keep track of in his current head. He could go crazy trying.

Connor stepped out of the car. His hand automatically tried to adjust his tie like he did every morning before work, but it caught the collar of his T-shirt instead. He tsk-ed at his habit, locked the car, and zipped his hoodie halfway as he walked. His calves felt warm and uncomfortable under pressure; again, he admitted it wasn't his brightest idea to have the whole household sprint around the neighborhood a half hour before trading in his metal body for one just chock-full of pain receptors.

The next thought in line made him slow his pace: This wasn't his body, but Hank's. Therefore, not only should he try to talk like Hank, he should act like him, too, gait, posture, and all. Connor tried to pull up a memory of the lieutenant as reference, but it was so vague and unfocused that he couldn't make out every detail. Or even many details. In a way, he was watching a recording of an event, same as ever, but in every other way, he absolutely was not.

Instead, he resorted to adjectives. Keep it loose, yet confident. Lazy, yet deliberate. The lieutenant was an old pro at what he did but still dedicated to his purpose. Connor rolled his neck, loosening up his shoulders. Walk like you own the place.

He dug his hands into his sweatshirt pockets and strolled through the front door, hoping he had affixed the correct 'ready for bad news' almost-scowl and 'seen some shit' gaze to his expression. The woman at the front desk looked up. "Oh, Lieutenant!" she said, buzzing him in. "You're not usually here on Saturdays."

"Hopefully it won’t be too long."

“Shall I be expecting Connor to join you?”

“Shouldn’t think so.”

“Unusual.” Connor paused before the turnstile, hoping she didn’t suspect anything. He couldn’t see her LED, but she went back to work without comment. He let out a quiet sigh of relief before continuing through to the bullpen.

As a calm weekend in Detroit, there weren’t nearly as many people around as he was used to: Only two officers were at their desks, with a third wandering to the break room. The door to one of the conference rooms was closed, so more might be hidden away in a meeting. He would have been able to look up the room bookings for today if today were a normal day. Alas, he’d have to settle for mere conjecture.

Captain Fowler was in his office, leaning back in his chair, arms stretched overhead, looking for all the world bored out of his mind. He didn’t notice Connor approach until he was nearing the open doorway. “Well, shit,” he called. “Honestly, this is an hour or three earlier than I expected.”

Connor shrugged and closed the door behind him, if only to buy him another second to think. “I was out and about anyway, so might as well swing by and get this over with.”

“Is this proactivity I see?” Fowler smirked before leaning forward to get to business. He passed Connor a tablet lit up with forms. “I know the thirium meth case was only a few days ago, but the suits have been on my ass for the reports all day. You don’t have to finish it all right now; god, I wouldn’t put you through all that. Just get through the rest of the prelims so I have something to give ‘em and do the rest with Connor on Monday.”

He skimmed through the first partially-completed form. It was all basic facts: brief, location(s), culprit(s), suspect(s), victim(s), motive, DPD personnel involved, contact info, et cetera. “Yeah, alright, I’ll try to get through it quick,” he said, pulling out a chair to get settled and get started.

Fowler nodded. “Alright.” He turned back to his desktop, but not before Connor caught him giving him an odd look. “Where is the kid anyway?”

“Visiting a friend.”

He barked a laugh. “Really? Glad to know he’s not a perpetual stick in the mud anymore. Next thing you know, he’ll be at a rager, beer just staining his shirt.”

Connor blinked, caught off-guard. “At four in the afternoon?” was all he could say.

“You never know. I’m sure we wandered into one this early at some point or another.”

“…Heh. Yeah, probably.”

Fortunately, Fowler didn’t continue down that tangent. Connor leaned back and rested the tablet on his legs, selecting the first field Hank hadn’t already filled. His finger depressed on the screen, his skin squishing as he typed. It was something so slight, and yet it was so different than what he was used to. It was like he barely had to touch the keys for the screen to recognize it.

Focus, detective. Personnel on scene (in order of arrival). It was him and Hank first, then Allen and his team, then Wilson, Cao, and Silverman….

…It was simple, yes, but how he wished he could run this in autopilot and do something else instead. The amount of focus needed to stay on track doing something so mundane was unexpected. And not really all that fun.

Man, humans really have to run on sheer willpower, huh?

Much of the preliminary paperwork was already filled out, and many fields were repeated and could be autofilled, but it still took maybe fifteen or twenty minutes to get to the last form. It requested information of the person filling out report, which wasn’t exactly him at the moment. He didn’t know Hank’s badge number off the top of his head, and he couldn’t check his memory archives….

His back was beginning to feel stiff and uncomfortable; he tried shifting his position. He straightened up, hearing and feeling his spine pop twice, immediately making him grimace.

“What’s up with you today?”

“Hm?” Connor looked up.

Fowler had his arms crossed on his desk and his eyes on him. “I know it’s a Saturday, but you’re really out of it.”

“How do you mean?”

“Like that! Who the hell says that?”

Connor held his breath. Of course Fowler would notice his friend was different. And he did need to get some details from Hank anyway…. “Well,” he started, “to answer your rhetorical question literally, Connor would.”

Fowler stared at him. Connor had seen the man during some late nights at the office before. He was starting to look just as tired now. “The hell does that mean?” he sighed.

“Hank and I are assisting CyberLife with some research, so I am inhabiting his body for today, and he’s in mine.”

“…uh-huh.”

“Sorry for not informing you earlier, Captain.”

Fowler rubbed his eyes. “God damn it, Hank would never say that. Why is it always you two doing something crazy.”

“It’s only tempor—”

“I don’t want to know.”

“It’s been quite successful—”

“Don’t wanna know. Done with that paperwork?”

“I’m on the last form, but I need to ask Hank for some specifics.”

“Whatever. You’ve probably plagiarized it all already, but go ahead, call him up.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Fantastic.” Fowler pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering something as Connor found Hank’s phone. “The one time I get any respect from Hank fucking Anderson, it’s because it’s Freaky Friday, of all things.”

Connor was about to correct him on the day as his phone rang before he remembered Hank had said the same thing that morning. Was it a reference to something? The call connected, and his own voice asked, “What’s up, something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Lieutenant. I’m just filling out some paperwork for Captain Fowler and need some details. What’s your badge number? And dates of employment at the DPD?”

“0309—Isn’t that technically plagiarism?”

“You and Captain Fowler have been saying many of the same things today.”

Hank snickered. “Should I call a cab and come over or…?”

“No need; this is the last form.” Connor entered Hank Anderson, Lt., #0309 in the first field. “Employment date?”

As Hank supplied him with the missing figures, Fowler leaned back in his chair again, arms crossed over his chest. His behavior supported Connor’s earlier theory that humans must be uncomfortable with separating psyche from physique, although this is a much different reaction than Hank’s. Connor considered leaving him be, but he would be leaving the office once he’s done anyway.

It only took a minute or two to finish. He thanked Hank for his assistance, told him he’d be by in fifteen minutes, and hung up. He slid the tablet onto the desk. “Is that all for now?” he asked.

Fowler continued looking at the ceiling. “Yeah, that’s fine. You’re free to go.”

Connor rose and returned the chair to its original position. “Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Captain.”

He zipped his hoodie and was reaching for the door when he heard, “Hey, Connor?”

“Sir?”

Fowler sat up to collect the tablet, glancing over at his subordinate. “This’ll all be back to normal by Monday, right?”

“Yes, of course. It only lasts a couple hours.”

He paused. “What’s it like?”

Hm. What was it like? Once again, a hundred half-thoughts ran through his head, interrupting and overlapping each other. It was oversensitive—overstimulating—single-minded—emotional—overtly acute yet insufficient at the same time. The physical rush of emotions he felt in the first ten minutes came to mind. Various aches and soreness at random times. The brush of sunlight on his skin. The following prickling of radiation. Fabric rubbing on his skin at all times. Just how tactile his skin was—and taste and everything about it—and how he just took a breath—and how long it was taking to come up with an answer—

In summary: “It’s slow.”

Admittedly, his memory was compromised at the moment, but for perhaps the first time ever, Fowler laughed, a low, hearty guffaw. Startled and worried that it came off as a joke, he quickly added, “No offense intended, sir!” which only made him laugh harder.

After his initial shock, something about it seemed contagious. It lightened the room and made him relax. Were all humans susceptible to emotional contagions? “It’s a different take on a world I thought I already knew,” Connor continued. “There’s just…so much to notice, and yet the human brain has much less processing power than I’m used to working with.”

“Holy shit. Processing power.” Fowler devolved into a brief fit of coughs before he waved Connor away. “Alright, then, go live it up, kid. And tell Hank he ain’t off the hook, either.”

Connor pushed open the door, fishing his keys from his pocket. “Off the hook for what?”

“Oh, he’ll know.”

[next >]

[speaknowslut13]

Hi dearest Lauren! 💖

I sent an ask over the weekend but maybe tumblr ate it 🙃😅 if you didn’t get it, please let me know and I’ll do my best to recreate it haha.

In the meantime, how are you?? How was your weekend? Have you watched anything fun lately?

Do you have any favorite poems/quotes/song lyrics? And finally, what’s your favorite color??

Hope your week is off to a great start!! Xoxo 💖 Drew

Darling Drew!

The ADD is strong with this one, so I did in fact receive your lovely ask. I just... well quite honestly remembered I hadn't replied this morning. I believe I received it right before an appointment and I said "Oh, I'll get that once I get home!" and then the rest is history. However, I did manage to clean my side of the room.

I'm also obligated to mention the impressive (to me) alliteration in my salutation. Alliteration pleases me. You sure I'm not too weird yet? If I haven't scared you off by the end of this I will be thoroughly impressed.

However, let's celebrate that second dose of vax! In two weeks, you'll be a fully functioning human again! Hooray! My daughter currently has my phone, so I'm on desktop and I don't have access to emojis. You'll have to use your imagination for what celebratory emojis I'd use in this case.

Thank you for telling me your pronouns. I was telling my husband about my new friend and I was suddenly shocked to realize that I didn't know them. I'm trying to be better about that sort of stuff. I want to be respectful to the people around me as well as normalize asking it. Especially for smalls. I want her to grow up with fewer biases than I did. Its important if the world is going to change.

Many of my favorite poems are structured. I love sonnets. They're incredibly difficult to pace correctly. For a creative writing class in high school, we had to write one. I wrote more than one. They're not very good and I realized how difficult they were to write. I underestimated them because I've always read them easily. It is not the same thing. At all.

So, when it comes to giving you favorite poem or quotes or lyrics, I really can't chose. There are so many we'd be here a long time if I tried. However, its macabre, but I came across this poem in one of my books that I told my husband he had to read at my funeral with a straight face. My humor can be pretty dark sometimes. Its about the death of a cat. I tell him a lot that I'm pretty sure I'm part cat, personality wise.

I don't use the term dark humor lightly. I find that many people who say that their humor is dark are just masking the fact that they're actually assholes. Although I can be a massive asshole, I try hard not to mock anyone. Pardon my language.

As for business, I absolutely enjoyed a portion of business classes. I hate economics. Maybe its actually capitalism that I detest, but either way, when it came down to the economic portion of business I was out. There just isn't enough dopamine to keep me engaged in it. So, though I enjoyed those few classes, I couldn't actually make a degree out of it. If I ever found myself as a business owner, I'd have to have someone else take care of that side of things.

I hope that those credits are transferable. One, because my husband's Bachelors was from the Art Institute. If he ever decided to go back to school and finish a masters or get something else, I wouldn't want him to have to start from scratch. Secondly, if I wanted to finish that degree or even transfer some of the general credits someday I'd like to. However, it doesn't look good. I can't even get my financial records.

I played Gardenscapes for a little while. I had to uninstall it. I haven't' played it in a long while. Right now, on my phone there are a few games I play. I love this hidden object game. I can spend a lot of time there. I don't like spending money on these games, so I bounce around a lot.

Right now, I'm the bridesmaid for my sister's wedding next year and the MOH for my best friend's TBD wedding. So as for a vow renewal for myself, my brain short circuits thinking about it. I'd love to have a full on wedding dress again though. This time I'd like to find the one that makes me cry with joy. I love lacy dresses. And ones with more classic cuts. Ideally, I'd love to have a big reception and roses and cake. I never had a registry. It would be fun to get gifts. I would love to have it someplace with a garden. I like gardens. Our original date was supposed to be May 1st. I wanted a May day celebration. However, that's no longer an option. We'd probably just choose sometime around our anniversary now. It would be hard to have a ceremony on Valentines day.

My favorite place in my house changes with my mood. I love my computer and desk, but it gets incredibly hot. Our office/studio is great when its not messy and crowded. A lot of my books are in there too. And the pool is a favorite feature of mine because I like to swim. But, there is a chair that I've had for about ten years now that my perfect spot. Its tiny so I'm not engulfed in it. Its a lazy boy, so its super comfortable even though the fabric is warn. Its this beautiful blue color. I placed it next to my bedroom window. We have a TV there now too, so I spend most of my time in that little rocking chair. It'll be a sad day when I have to get rid of it. My mom had gotten it second hand. One night, while I was having a bout of insomnia, I pulled it into my room. It stayed with me ever since and when I moved out, I took it with.

I have three favorite colors. Blue, Pink, and Yellow. Sunflowers are so bright and happy. I associate yellow with Sunflowers and roses. Yellow roses are my favorite type or roses. Especially when they have pink tips. Blue can be such a vast color. It can be so dark and so bright. And Pink is such a vivid color. I love color so much. If an advertisement uses really bright and pleasing colors, I'm generally hooked.

This weekend I started rewatching H2O: Just add water. I love that show. Its pretty engaging and yet I love how campy it is. They use the same stock footage and same three songs. Its an excellent example of how media can be both great and terrible at the same time. Its cheesy but fun. I needed something I could watch without worrying about the kid walking in and seeing something inappropriate for her age. Its also something I can get up and walk away from, come back, and not be lost. I'm waiting on the hubs to get caught up on some other things. We still need to finish Falcon and the Winter Solider. I'm looking forward to watching Loki. I also have a lot of The Curse of Oak Island episodes recorded that I need to catch up on. However, the kid has the TV during the day and by night time I'm too wiped to do much of anything. She's been going to bed around ten pm lately. I can't seem to break her of that one yet. Its driving me a little insane.

My best friend stopped by this weekend. We're both fully vaccinated so we're excited to get to see each other again. We let our kids play together for a bit. So my weekend was loud, but in a good way. Kids can really make a lot of noise. I'm glad I only have one. It was good listening to the cacophony of squeals and laughs though. It made the kid happy, so it also made me happy. She doesn't get much interaction with other kids since this damn pandemic. It was nice getting to watch her just be a kid.

What are you up to this week? Did you get that chill walk you mentioned? I'm hoping your insurance sorts itself out and quickly! I hope you find something off Lorde's album you enjoy! I find that sometimes it can be really disappointing to be looking forward to hearing new music to only find that you don't like it. That feeling can be unsettling to me. Solar Power was definitely a departure from her typical sound. I was expecting something with more loudness. Instead it was surprisingly quiet. Interesting choice for a lead single.

Well, since it would be weird to end this reply to a complete stranger with "Good night, I'll most likely kill you in the morning" I'll end it with another great quote from the Princess Bride:

Anybody want a peanut?

[onenationprinc-blog]

Why just listen when you can play? How Moodelizer makes music malleable

Being able to stream millions of songs from the cloud to your phone is a fantastic aspect of the modern era, but when you really get down to it, the music-listening experience is essentially the same as it’s always been: You press play on a song or album, toggle between different tunes, adjust the volume, etc. Beyond those options, there’s limited interaction with the music itself. But, if Moodelizer has its way, that could all change soon. “Once you’ve experienced dynamic music it’s kind of boring to turn back to straight static music.” A Swedish-born company, Moodelizer Music Technology has developed a new way to interact with music called Dynamic Playback. Accessed via the Moodelizer mobile or desktop app, Dynamic Playback allows you to adjust the style, intensity, variation, and tempo of a new kind of audio recording, in real-time. With Moodelizer, toggling between which instruments play in the background of your selfie video can be as easy as dragging your finger across a touchscreen, and you can even shoot video and tinker with the music in real-time. Essentially, the interactive nature of Dynamic Playback puts creative control in your hands. That’s all well and good for spicing up Instagram stories, but Moodelizer has grander ambitions for Dynamic Playback which could allow it to one day replace ubiquitous audio formats like MP3s. Soon, Dynamic Playback could allow users to switch between multiple versions of the same song as easily as adjusting the volume — and that’s only the beginning. Moodelizer Digital Trends spoke to Moodelizer’s founder, Carl-Michael Herlöfsson, about how his company’s technology could revolutionize audio formats, its applications in augmented reality, and when we could start listening to music with Dynamic Playback. Digital Trends: How was Dynamic Playback created? Carl-Michael Herlöfsson: It was an idea of mine that has been milling around for quite some time. I experimented with a whole bunch of different methods trying to manipulate sound in real time. … But, there wasn’t any way to do [what I wanted] with the existing software that I had. I had every [type of] software imaginable. I was a sound engineer and music producer, originally. Then I hooked up with a really skillful coder who said that he and his friend had already written a sound engine and they were willing to try this whole idea out … . So, they wrote a prototype program and I dropped in some audio files … . The first time I tried it out I realized that it was very cool. So, I rounded up some basic startup money and I got it started. The first two years were mainly spent on trying to figure out how to compose and write music for this format. So, I worked with a network of 30-40 composers, producers and musicians, and people that I had in my sort of network around me. … We wrote music and tried it out and we did some more coding and did some more music. It was sort of a collaborative process. Finally we reached the point where we thought, “Here is the dynamic playback format,” which we then went onto seek a patent for, which we got. How is Dynamic Playback different from existing formats? “Dynamic Playback opens up the music. It makes it almost three dimensional, in a way.It changes what’s playing and what you’re hearing.” All the old kind of formats — if you want to call them that — like MP3, CD, and vinyl are just stereo files … You can’t do anything to it. You can turn it up, or turn it down, maybe add some bass. But, that’s it. Dynamic Playback opens up the music. It makes it almost three dimensional, in a way. It changes what’s playing, which instruments you’re hearing, which variation. Also, from the point of creation for musicians and the ones who are writing the music, they can open up the song where you can give the user access to sort of hidden gems within the song. How does it work? Why would listeners use this format? So, basically, if you have a song or a piece of music within the touchpad that is on the Moodelizer app, you can arrange the music, or decide which instruments you want to play. The interesting thing with Dynamic Playback technology is you do it in real time. Which means that you can [shoot a video] and you can adjust the music at the same time. It’s all instant, so you go from a single string line to a full orchestra  — anywhere in between — seamlessly, with just the swipe of the finger. … swiping up and down changes intensity, and swiping left and right changes variety, or distinct versions of it. But [it also works] diagonally. If you’re in the lower-left corner, you get the least amount of sound. If you’re in the upper right corner you get the most amount of music. You have thousands of different positions within that space where you can achieve different results. If you’re crossfading different versions of the same song, it’s like having five songs playing at the same time. Yeah. You can add different songs, as well. [But with the same song] you can have a techno version on one end, and a folk music version on the other end, and you can decide which one you want to listen to at any given time. Also, you can blend them together and get the techno-folk version … The Moodelizer app is fun, but we get the feeling that there are other applications that could benefit from Dynamic Playback. Carl-Michael Herlöfsson, founder of Moodelizer Music Technology. Wikipedia We’ve been experimenting heavily with different kinds of input modes. You can control the Dynamic Playback file, or a piece of Dynamic Playback music, with any kind of inputs like movement of the phone, face recognition — it recognizes your smile and plays happy music. We have isolated a few functions that we are going to slowly implement into the application. The first one we’ll be launching within a month or a month and a half (we’re in beta testing right now), it’s the [augmented reality] function where you are placing musical pieces within a room. You can kind of score the room in advance. You mark a corner of the room or beach, or wherever you are. You mark a place, and you say, “OK, this place is going to have this music,” and then you pan the camera, and you say, “OK, there’s my girlfriend, she’s going to have that piece of music [attached to her]. Oh, there’s my couch, It’s going to have this resting music.” When you start to film, the music will automatically change depending on where you point the camera. So you’re scoring your environment in real-time. We’re actually in discussions with pretty much all of the major social media platforms, and also with manufacturers in China and the [United] States. They are very interested in what this can do for them and how to bring music forward in new ways. You mentioned there could also be a geolocation component. Definitely. We have experimented with a maps function where you use the compass of the phone and the GPS location of where you’re at. “You mark a place, and you say, ‘OK, this place is going to have this music,’ and then you pan the camera, and you say, ‘OK, there’s my girlfriend, she’s going to have that piece of music [attached to her].’” So, say you’re standing somewhere and you mark a destination on the map, and you are listening to the music; when you’re heading in the right direction, the music gives you feedback telling you you’re going the right way. When you get closer to where you’re going, the music will give you musical signals. You pretty much can start it up, put the phone in your pocket, just listen to the music, and guide yourself to the locations on the map.  This can be used in geo-based games like Pokemon Go. Or, if you have a store or restaurant and you want people to go there, or meeting with friends, you can have two people decide the meeting place and then both of them are listening to the music to steer them to the same spot. That might be the most practical application. So many people lose themselves in their music and they don’t want to keep looking at their phones. Running is another thing we’re working with right now, using wearables like watches for pulse input. If you’re running you can program running intervals to this location. It will both guide you with the music to where you’re going, but it will also drive you. When your pulse hits a certain rate, it will increase the music accordingly to create a sort of musical boost. So, there are currently no notable artist or publisher using Dynamic Playback — the music in the Moodelizer app is all commissioned by your company. Are there any plans to change that? This is a disruptive technology in a way that brings a whole new way of looking at something. Obviously, there is a lot of work trying to help people understand what it is, and how they can use it. The interest has been so great already, both from the music industry and from the tech industry. There are so many possibilities for both parties with a format like this. So we’re trying to get someone really good both artistically and technically, or a good platform, to spearhead the way of using music to show people what you actually can do with it. I’m sure that there are circumstances that you can start drawing from there. But ultimately the goal is, you log onto Spotify, and you can choose if you want this catalog of Dynamic Music. In terms of the timing, this is the year when we’re actually approaching people. Last year we released our own applications to get a proof of concept and to try out the technology. We have like half a million people using the existing app. Could Dynamic Playback become the next MP3? That’s what we think. That’s my mission. Once you have experienced dynamic music it’s kind of boring to turn back to straight, static music. Editors’ Recommendations https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/moodelizer-dynamic-playback-music-carl-michael-herlofsson-interview/ https://blog.cyberprosocial.com/2018/04/06/why-just-listen-when-you-can-play-how-moodelizer-makes-music-malleable/