#other half comes from a current source and google

[ebodebo]

Bite to Break Skin

—hear me out: simon as your new boxing coach…

current warnings: 18+ SMUT MDNI, fem!reader, p in v, mentions of evil nasty men, bad interruptions of boxing lol, cliche as hell, but cutie, boob play, teasing, ghost being a bastard, some fingering, making you be still idk the term, multiple orgasms, & nasty kissing through his mask.

"Goes by Ghost," Mac, the older man who owned the gym you frequented, said, leading you to the back section, where the boxing room was. 

"He's one of the best God-damn soldiers I've ever met, I'll tell you what. Saw him take out some insurgent with just his bare hands," he gruffly laughs out before glancing at your doe-eyed state.

His eyes soften, putting his hand on your shoulder lightly.

"He's a secret softie. He'll take good care of you."

You tightly grip the bag over your other shoulder as he leads you to the room this Ghost guy was in, your nerves getting the better of you. 

Mac grips the handle, but before he pulls on it, he turns to look at you. "He's not so good at casual conversation. Might be a little blunt, but most vets are. Just try to have fun, okay?" 

You nod meekly as he pulls the door open for you to step inside, closing it behind you as you fully step inside.

The room is dimly lit, with the only source of light coming from a few small windows high up on the wall.

You are in a relatively small room with punching bags, speedballs, and jump ropes neatly hung on the wall.

"You the new girl?" A deep, English voice boomed around the room in an echo.

You turn around quickly to be met with just about the hottest guy you've ever seen. 

He was tall, with a muscular build.

He wore a plain white t-shirt, dark gray sweatpants, a simple black Manchester United football cap, and a simple black mask covering his face's lower half.

"I—yes. I am," you stutter out, feeling a sudden surge of nervousness.

"Got gloves?" He gruffly questions, grabbing some focus mitts for himself and slipping off his cap.

"Yeah," you sputter, moving to set your duffle bag down to fumble through it before pulling out a pair of bright pink boxing gloves.

"Cute," he hums lowly as he sees you slip the neon gloves on, nearing back towards him.

You feel your face warm at his, granted dry compliment, but a compliment nonetheless. "Thanks," you murmur, now standing in front of him.

"Let's work on your stance." He demonstrates a broad, balanced stance. "A good stance gives you more power and speed."

"What if my stance isn't wide enough?" You question, awkwardly mimicking him, feeling out of your element. 

"You get socked," he says casually. "Widen your legs."

Oh. Oh no.

There was no flirty undertone whatsoever, though you couldn't help how your stomach fluttered at the ask. 

How the hell were you going to be able to work with him? 

"If you were to break like that," his voice is low, distinctly gravelly.

"Out there," he raises his hand to point out the window. 

"You're gettin' your ass handed to you." 

You nod lightly, inhaling a deep breath, determined to clear your mind and focus on the task.

"Focus," he rasps as you adjust your stance to widen your legs.

"Good. Now throw a jab," he orders, his eyes narrowing.

You raise a brow in confusion. "At what?"

"The air," he monotonously says, raising one of his brows. 

You turn to look over your shoulder. "The bag is right there?"

He lets out an irritated sigh. "And if I wanted you to punch the bag, I would have said so," he mutters in a sharp, caustic tone. 

"Just throw a punch."

You tentatively throw a jab, feeling an odd sense of adrenaline. 

"Rotate your hips," he commands. "Generates power."

You nod, throwing yet another jab, this time with a confident hip rotation, making your punch faster and more powerful. 

"Good girl," he gruffs. "Let's get you to practice your cross."

You spent the next thirty minutes or so reviewing various punch and foot techniques and only slightly googling him, growing increasingly impatient.

Hell, you didn't think you would be doing hard combat at the first go around, but you thought you'd be doing something a helluva bit more interesting than just punching some guys' hands. 

"Is this all this session is going to be?" You grunt out, laying a punch to his mitt. "Punching your hand."

There's a flicker of amusement in his eyes before he shakes his head from side to side. "You're not ready for more."

"Come on," you probe with a sly tone. "The whole point of this is so I learn self-protection. Some guy in an alley could try to rob me. I should learn something more practical."

He narrows his eyes at you before taking a breath. "Fine."

"Wait, really?" You ask with perplexity.

He shrugs. "You want practical? I'll give you practical."

You nod your head because hell yeah.

He's finally going to teach you something you can actually use.

"Block me," he mumbles, tossing his focus mitts to the side.

You let out a dry laugh. "I can't block you."

"Thought you wanted to learn more self-protection?" He clicks his tongue.

"Well, yeah...but I can't take you," you cross over your chest.

He lets out an arid chuckle.

"Sweetheart," he begins. "Most men that prey on women are built; they prey on women because they think they're weak. An easy target."

Your eyes shift to the ground, looking at the dark blue rubber flooring you stand on. 

"How bout' we show them you're not?" He tips his head towards you.

You bite your bottom lip in between your teeth until you taste a coppery liquid coat your tongue.

"Well?" He urges, crossing his arms over his chest. 

You glance up at him, inhaling a deep puff of air, before nodding your head and issuing a crisp, 'Fine.'

He gives you a curt nod, flexing his hands. "Gloves up."

"Don't take it easy on me," you say, raising your hands to assume a blocking position. 

He raises his hands. "Wasn't going to."

You puff out a breath, feeling confident despite your little training.

He threw a jab, precise and fast, to your left side.

You could feel the rush of air as his fist sliced through the space, the sound of his knuckles cutting the silence. 

You raised your arm to block it, but his punch was just a feint, and he quickly followed it up with a cross.

You tried blocking the cross, but his punch was too strong. 

His blow sent you stumbling backward, but you refused to give in, your arms flailing wildly to try and find balance, though to no avail.

As you fell, Ghost tried to grab you, but his own feet got tangled in ropes, and together, you both hit the mat, his hand extending out to rest beside you before his body weight fell on you. 

You both just lay there, panting and tangled.

Your nails dig into the flooring beneath you to suppress your nerves and the hoard of butterflies swarming in your stomach.

He has yet to look at you, his eyes wandering about the flooring as he catches his breath.

His eyes flick to yours already on him. 

"What?" He almost spits, the tension in his voice palpable.

"You—you have pretty eyes," you sputter out, your vulnerability laid bare.

There's a beat of silence.

With your eyes still locked on his, the air thickens, building an intense anticipation.

Until his masked lips, a tempting mystery, dip down and consume your lips in a passionate kiss.

You can feel the outline of his lips on yours, a tangible connection as you reciprocate the ferry kiss with equal fervor. 

Your skin is sizzling.

You're sure if someone took a match to your skin, you would be set ablaze. 

All you can hear is your own heartbeat as he pants through the mask, lips feverishly sucking on yours through the fabric. 

His fingers fumble with the hem of your shirt, pulling it over your head desperately as you throw your gloves off to the side.

"Christ," he mutters into your lips as he gropes your breast through your bra. 

You let out a whine at the contact, placing your hand over his, pawing at your breast, holding it tightly so he doesn't move it. 

His hand squeezes your covered breast before his fingers skim down to the band of your bra, slipping his pointer under to skim your sensitive nipple.

Your mouth hangs agape as his fingers prod the sensitive bud, flicking it and moving it against the rough pad of his finger. 

"Sensitive one," he tuts, taking his finger out and instead reaching to unclasp your bra, letting your breasts pour out freely. 

His coarse hand wastes no time fondling your bare breast, pointer, and thumb, going back to roll your nipple between the two fingers. 

You squirm under his touch, equal parts aroused and impatient. 

"You're impatient," he observes, his fingers still tweaking your nipple.

"I just—need you," your voice is already strained. "Can't wait."

The corners of his eyes crinkle, insinuating a smile—what a bastard.

"Oh," he hums in a condescending tone. "Thought you were going to be a patient girl," his finger skims down to the waistband of your pants before he pulls it away. "Was I mistaken?"

"No—no. I can be...patient," you force out, already mourning the contact.

"You sure?" He questions, his tone low and sultry. 

"Because only patient girls get to come."

You release an anguished moan at his words, issuing a hurried, breathless 'Yes.'

"You gonna be a good girl and let me play with you?" He brings his hand back to skim over your stomach.

Your eyes flick to his, full of irritation.

"I said yes," you say through gritted teeth.

He dips his head forward, eyes narrowing at your tone. 

"You're still impatient," his tone is low as he pulls his hand away again.

You shake your head from side to side, looking up at him with pleading eyes. "I—no. I can be patient."

His eyes glaze over your face—sincerity apparent in your eyes. 

He hums in acknowledgment, bringing his hand back to skim the warmth of your body. 

"Fuckin' perfect," he mutters under his breath as he drops to his knees so one of your legs is in between them.

His fingers move to dip under the waistband of your pants before gripping either side and slipping them down over your thighs.

He eyes the fresh wet spot on your underwear, reaching out to touch it with a finger. 

You let out a whine as your body thrusts forward at his touch.

His eyes snap back to yours in warning.

As his fingers rub easily over the fabric, you sink back into the floor. You suck in a breath, fingers balling into a fist as you close your eyes.

"None of that," he gruffs, gripping the sides of your underwear and slipping them off smoothly. "Open."

Your eyes snapped open to meet his dark ones, peering at you.

"Good girl," he praises, his pointer rubbing over your slit that was already coated with your arousal. "You're soaked, Sweetheart."

You hold a whine in your throat as his finger moves to swirl inside you.

He begins pulsing his finger inside you, prodding against your sensitive clit. 

You remain still as his finger moves against you, only moving your mouth to let out an occasional whiney moan. 

"Look at you," he coos. "Bein' so good for me."

His finger picks up pace, moving against your clit with much pace.

"Can you take more?" He grunts out.

You hastily nod your head—aching with the need for relief. 

When he adds his middle finger into the mix, you swear you see heaven—or something very near.

He's panting as his fingers move inside you with urgency, as you let out breathless wails and feel your lower stomach start to tighten.

"I'm gonna—come," you whine, head throwing back as you squeeze your eyes shut.

"Can tell. Squeezin' my fingers so tight," he groans.

It only takes a couple more pumps of his fingers for you to come undone.

Crying out in relief, chest heaving, legs shaking.

His name falls off your tongue as you come from his fingers.

Talk about a wet dream come to life.

You're still panting, coming down from your high, as Ghost reaches for the waistband of his sweatpants and underwear, tugging them down to unveil his painfully erect cock, the tip already leaking some pre-come.

"I won't last too long," you sputter with equal parts anticipation and excitement as he gives his cock a nice tug, hissing a little at the contact.

"Oh, trust me," he wheezes. "Me neither."

"But I need to feel you."

You feel your face warm, your stomach tighten, and your throat dry.

All of a sudden, you're aroused despite having just came.

He positions himself to line up against your entrance, eyes locking on yours. "Ready?"

You nod, gripping his shoulders tightly. "Ready," you affirm.

He pushes his cock into your already-soaked entrance with ease, grousing as his teeth clench.

"Shit. You're tight, Baby," he mumbles, pushing himself into you deeper—still not moving the entirety of his cock in. 

"Sorry," you murmur breathlessly.

"Don't apologize," he says instantaneously, hand moving to rest on the nape of your neck. "Feels fuckin' good."

Your eyes glint at the compliment, though squeeze shut as he starts pumping in and out of—feeling so full, yet empty.

"Need—need more," your voice is coarse. "Put it all in."

His eyes widen slightly. "You sure you can handle it all?"

You hiss out a breath. "I can."

He nods, pushing the rest of his cock inside you.

Your head falls back, mouth opening to make noise before he bends down to capture all the wines he elicits that slip through your lips. 

His mask is soaked.

You can feel the wet fabric against your damp skin. 

It's hot. Really hot. 

You could probably get off to just making out with him. 

The outline of his tongue moves under the mask to trace the outline of your teeth, fabric lightly snagging on them.

You groan into his mouth as you're wildly sucking at the fabric, franticly seeking his tongue and lips. 

"Fuck, Baby," he curses, his pace picking up. 

"You're so good—so good."

You moan into his mouth, mouth hanging open over his masked one, as you feel yet another orgasm approaching.

"I know—I know," he murmurs before you say anything.

He can feel you.

You press your mouth back to his, your tongue coming out to push through the fabric before you tighten around him.

He lets out a gravelly moan as he feels you come, gripping you tighter as he comes himself. 

He lets his forehead fall against yours as both your chests rise and fall almost simultaneously.

A curse falls from his lips as he pulls out of you, easing his underwear and sweatpants back up.

His eyes lock to yours. "Need help?" He asks with sincerity.

Your lip quips, shaking your head. "I can manage."

You pull your pants up, only slightly hissing, before gripping your shirt and pulling over your head.

He helps you to your feet, reaching down to grab your bra.

You shoo his hand away. "Keep it."

His eyes narrow as he smiles under his mask.

Grabbing your duffle bag, you sling it over your shoulder, shoving your gloves in it. 

"That was great—really great, but what if someone does try something?" You ask, your concern evident in your tone.

"Don't need to worry about that," he simply says, crossing his arms over his chest. 

"What? But what if—" You begin before he interrupts. 

"Just...listen to me. Yeah?" He murmurs. 

You narrow your eyes before your eyes soften up. "Yeah. Okay, okay."

"Come back tomorrow. Show you some new moves," he shrugs. 

"Similar to today, yes?" You cheekily ask. 

He lets out a dry laugh. "If you want."

"Can't wait," you chirp. "See you."

He gives a curt nod as you approach the door. You offer him a bright smile as you turn back, pushing the door open with purpose.

Stepping outside, you leave him to reflect on your interaction, giving him time to reminisce about the encounter for the next twenty-four hours until he feels you again.

You still wanted to learn how to protect yourself independently, but it didn't hurt that you had unexpectedly attained your very own guard dog, who wasn't scared to draw blood.

Just give him the command. 

a/n: i can’t believe i haven’t done this before...we also don't need to talk about the logistics of this, okay?

divider!

reblogs & comments are encouraged!

[avis-writeshq]

not me asking for it https://www.tumblr.com/avis-writeshq/744966259884556288/if-someone-asks-for-it-ill-write-a-fic-based-on?source=share

pairing: s9!spencer reid x fem!reader genre: fluff, established relationship, SMUT warnings: 18+ CONTENT; MINORS DO NOT INTERACT !! oral fem receiving, spencer reid is a munch, hair pulling, fingering a/n: a promise is a promise !! based off of this post <3 i hope this lived up to expectations !! first time writing fem oral ha h a ha wc: 1.1k

Honestly, if there’s one person Spencer can blame for the situation he is currently in, he blames himself. After all, he should have known that a ‘gathering’ at Rossi’s house that was planned by Penelope would only call for a lot of teasing, a lot of ‘get to know each other!’ games (despite the fact that he has worked with this same team for more than seven years. What else is there to know?), and a lot of alcohol. He didn’t quite realise that these games would be of the drinking variety. Alas, here he is, sitting on one of Rossi’s incredibly expensive leather couches and cringing at the horrid taste of whiskey. 

The game they’re currently playing is an alcoholic’s rendition of ‘who is most likely to?’, involving a thick stack of cards with different topics while each member of the team took turns reading out. Whoever ended up with the most amount fingers pointed in their direction was forced to drink.

Spencer hates this game. He has drank from his cup a grand total of six times, and he is not getting any more used to the spicy-poison-equivalent in his hand. 

“Alright, this is a good one,” Derek announces with a manic snigger. “Who here is most likely to be a munch?”

There is no hesitation in anyone’s answers, and all six fingers point into Spencer’s direction. His jaw drops at the betrayal, his head spinning from the sheer amount of shots he had to take but also what the hell is a munch?

“I don’t even know what that means!” He insists. 

“Oh–” Penelope wears a half delighted half pitying expression at his words. “We really need to get you onto the internet more. Reddit is probably up your alley.”

“Even Rossi knows what it means,” Emily cackles, gesturing to Rossi who looks all too pleased. “Hotch was my second option though.”

Aaron shrugs, sipping at his drink. “Guilty.”

A chorus of laughs and shrieks erupt from the group, leaving Spencer even more confused. “What?”

“Don’t Google it,” JJ chimes in. “Seriously.”

Spencer nods, and although he knows that he should have taken the warning seriously, the curiosity was getting to him and he had no choice but to search it up as soon as he got home. He gets the usual answers– the etymology of the word, what it means in the Oxford Dictionary, the popularity of the word since the early 1800s, and he really doesn’t understand what the fuss is. Does the team think that he eats loudly? Or that he chews with his mouth open? His brows furrow at the unsightly thought. 

His interest soon shifts to a different a different link, namely The Urban Dictionary. He blinks, clicking on the link without much thought and– oh. He does not get much sleep that night.

*** 

Your relationship with Spencer isn’t a secret. At least, it was never supposed to be classified as such. He is simply an incredibly private person that even his closest friends don’t know that you exist. It simply never popped up in conversation– or so he says.

The relationship isn’t necessarily new either. It’s nearing the one year mark and you have gotten to the point where the two of you have been more ‘experimental’ when it comes to sex. He finds it embarrassing. You find it unsurprising that he would. You find it even more surprising when he breaks a kiss halfway to lower you onto his bed, your head falling to one of his very expensive memory foam pillows. 

“I want to try something,” he announces softly into your ear, squeezing gently at your waist and looping his fingers into his shorts. “Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” you breathe, body hot with anticipation as he pulls down your shorts. It’s only when he brings his face between your thighs do you realise what he intends to do. “Spence, you don’t have to–”

“I want to,” he repeats softly, his fingers running up and down the lacy fabric at your slit. “If you want me to stop, you can tell me.”

You shake your head immediately at that, your hands moving to his grip his shoulders. “No, I don’t want you to stop but– but Spence, this is the first time you’ve done this. It’s okay–”

“Let me do this for you,” he says, his breath ghosting against the sensitive skin of your thighs. “I’ve done my research.”

“What–”

You’re silenced as soon as he presses his lips to your cunt, only separated by your pretty lacy underwear. He groans quietly at the taste of your slick seeping through the fabric, and his hands hold onto your thighs to keep them parted. It’s so good, so good, but it just isn’t enough. He pushes the fabric to the side, watching the way it clings and sticks to your skin. 

All it takes is one swipe of his tongue on your pretty clit for his brain to grow blank. The grip he has on your thighs grow firmer and his fingers dig in hard enough to leave little marks. His nose bumps against your clit while his tongue travels against your folds. 

“You taste so fucking good,” he breathes against you, lapping at your dripping cunt. “Fuck, angel, you’re so beautiful.”

Then, he’s on you all over again. His lips wrap around your clit and he whines into you as he sucks at the bundle of nerves. Each one of his actions has your back lifting from the bed and your hands tugging at his curls, to which he responds with a quiet moan. Amidst the pleasure, your mind nags you to be gentle, and you loosen your grip despite it taking all of your self control.

“Do that again.” He says it as a demand, guiding your hands back into his hair. “Do it again, angel.”

His head is spinning and he craves for more of you, his tongue flattening against your clit over and over again. He brings his own fingers to brush against your entrance, coating them with your slick before slipping his middle finger inside. It’s only the first knuckle but it’s enough to have you squirming beneath him. He pushes further until it reaches all the way, and Spencer groans at the feeling of you tightening around him. He kisses your clit again at the same time he curls his finger inside you and it’s all too much. 

“Spence–”

You gush around his finger and he licks and laps at your pussy like he needs it to breathe. His finger curls open and closed inside you while you rock your hips against his face, your grip on his hair tightening as each second of your high passes. 

“So good,” Spencer moans, kissing your clit. “Taste so good. You can do one more, right, angel? Just one more, I promise.”

reblogs are always appreciated !!

tagging the people who commented on the original post: @mosaicbrokenherz @doigettokeepyou @goblinintheblog @cassioxpeiaxmgg @daddytenebra @lilliumrorum @matthew-gray-gubler-lover @lightreiding

[nomsfaultau]

hi hello I am currently obsessed with shred your wings to make you ours, so if you want to go on a ramble session about that fic I am sitting attentively and cheering

OKay, so. Well disclaimer that I do not in any way think authors are required to be experts on the subjects they're writing like math physics astronomy whatever like we're not cinama sins in this household and the fear of incorrect facts should not hold people back from beautiful creativity. (personal petpeeve in writers circles)

however I'm autistic and love researching so this is ENRICHMENT FOR ME.

Biology

I cornered a paleontologist/ornithologist (Hereafter Dr. S) to try and get information about the evolutionary history of birds so that the fic would be more accurate. And you will have to forgive me if I am not understanding everything accurately, because that's not my biology specialty! And the convo was a week ago.

Specifically, I was trying to figure out the environmental conditions that could lead to the size of Elytrians we see (although it could very well be that Elytrians are human sized and Avians are just tiny!).

So, I asked about how climate impacts species sizes. Dr. S discussed how in a particular ice age, there was both mammal shrinkage and reptile enlargement in the same area, which is honestly fascinating! But no dice on birds temperature wise. Next I asked about oxygen content, since I know that it had an impact on insects at least, and figured the aerial aspect might be something? IDK again I'm not an ornithologist lmao. We had a fascinating conversation about not yet published findings about fossilized ostrich eggs (so sorry don't have a source). Essentially, there's holes in the eggs that allow for gas exchange with the yolk. So, hypothesis was that the oxygen content in the atmosphere would influence the size of the holes in the ostrich eggs! Except, uh, it kinda didn't. At which point Dr. S, who is QUITE the rambler, finally said that there isn't much crazy variation in bird sizes over evolutionary history (compared to dinosaurs and what not).

(Which threw out my next theory on legumes, because I know that was big for the explosion of diversity and size in mammals post (paper here since I'm just a silly tumblr guy and you should fact check stuff I say, unfortunately can't give the Dr. S source without doxxing myself (for the second time talking about Shred Your Wings) so- uh- homework time?)

At which point I was like aw :( maybe my bird hybrid people (already insanely speculative biology and absurd for earth's evolutionary history) are even less biologically feasible due to their size :(

....And then I looked up the largest bird in history. Maybe not that far outside of theoretical, actually! Remember kids, why waste time talking to a professional when you can just google that crap!

wait no I shouldn't promote that message to my followers I'm a bad influence

Anyyyway. Hehe. Um.

Other stuff I'm thinking about:

The reason they don't have feathers around their mouths is for hygiene.

Researching migration feeding and sleeping habits. Wait sick some birds can sleep half of their brain at a time while still flying?? Also a least part of my explanation for Avians having arms is to carry resources during oceanic migration, but there's also some studies about plummeting calorie requirements that's fascinating

Now the Eleonara's falcon also does migration but that would super duper get in the way of the plot/ending so I've decided to violate that. Because all this research is fun and all but the story comes first y'know?

I don't think Avian or Elytrian are species. Techno makes a comment about the falconiform language barrier, and so I believe the divide is actually along Orders. So, Avians being Passeriformes (most birds tbh, ravens, sparrows, robins, etc) and Elytrians are Falconiformes (falcons). Fairly recent common ancestor, potentially there's another group based on the other two idk.

Lastly. Their forward facing eyes T-T chat I'm cooked. Absolutely no reason for them to have forward facing eyes, ESPECIALLY for an aerial species! I tried to poke in the direction of maybe them evolving in a hella dense jungle like area that would require insanely good depth perception to navigate, but like. I mean parrots don't have it so like. Whah. And it's not even for a narrative reason so it's my cross to bear ig.

Culture

My next big world building question (that honestly is why progress has stalled) is what type of technological and cultural development these guys have.

(As a note the ideas of 'more advanced civilizations' get quick into things like colonialism or racism so I'm trying to avoid that quagmire and be conscious of my status as a sedentary agriculturalist).

Because Avians are migratory, I think that would have a big influence on things like, having agriculture, or certain types of technologies that are based on permanent settlements. But only partially, I picture them as having two homes, one north and one south, that they split between. Techno at least seems to be from a species that migrates solo, but I think other Avians do group migrations. Because part of it is instincts, magnetism, constellations, etc leading them back to specific breeding grounds, I imagine this has created a very funky kingdom/settlement arrangement, where things like borders and territory are REALLY hard to maintain what with everyone moving twice a year. Who knows? Imagine coming home after 6 months to figure out the neighbors razed your house before leaving to annex it. I'm imagining less of monarchy or democracy systems, and more like clans. Of course not all Avians migrate, which could lead to those stationary species having lots of trust/power due to taking care of everything while everyone else is gone....OR could be there are biannual wars as those groups take over while everyone is gone, take all their stuff, and then deal with hoards of angry Avians in a couple months time!

Trying to maintain a proper kingdom wouldn't work, because a large control mechanism is inhibiting im/emigration. If someone hate their ruler, they can just pick a new place to land when they migrate next spring/fall. So factions are constantly shifting around, and places change a lot every year depending on who got there first and how much fuss they intend to kick up about staying there. Avians move a lot and aren't really tied down to a particular home. There's a constant flux to these societies. Some Avians cope by forming close knit groups, and get entire towns migrating together, but others bounce from group to group.

I'm super certain wars are happening. But we also don't see Techno as being notably armed while migrating -which: this is Techno! If there are weapons he'd have all of them! Which might be oversight on my part tbh, but also I think in that case the Elytrian kill strat explains why: usually, Avians are either immediately killed, or can escape. So, not much use for a weapon there, especially against someone faster and stronger than you. And since Avians are trying to max out carrying food during migration, I imagine weapons aren't carried on them because every gram counts when you're flying across the ocean. So, weapons are for fighting Avians, running for your life is for fighting Elytrians. (Could've been a few centuries arm race between Avian weapons and Elytrian armor, but, speculation).

Most Avians are on the herbivore/omnivore spectrum, and since the migration means they have two growing seasons but also giant periods of time where areas are abandoned. So while I do picture them having farming, I think it's very different from human styles. Much much much less intensive, long fallow periods, potentially more diversity since you can also trade with an Avian with a different diet! Scavenging/hunting is still very large in the culture, because you WILL need it during migration at the very least, so you better not get rusty or you'll die! Also some people need bugs/fish/whatever in their diets. I think most of their clothing is made from cotton they've grown, and they get crazy dyes from all over the globe.

I also think that the ability to fly would vastly structure how things like towns are built because that's all about proximity, but the sheer distance anyone can cover means that I think they're less concentrated.....by species. Niche partitioning baby! And also some birds are very territorial compared to others who form massive flocks. So, big difference there again.

I gotta imagine their sense of ownership looks very different to ours too.

AS for Elytrians:

Imma focus on Phil's species that don't migrate cause I like the contrast! They are more firmly in one place for most of the year. They don't grow crops cause, well, carnivores. I can see an amount of animal husbandry for them though, which works for a mildly nomadic species since birds do tend to drift around even if not migrating. I think circling their herd overhead would also give ample opportunity for hunting, since blatantly Phil is still a predator. Particularly for his species, they eat insects and fish and what not most times of the year, but their chick season lines up with when a bunch of Avians migrate through because they make a fantastic source of protein.

Comparatively, Elytrians are far more invested in their one area than Avians are, who migrate frequently and mingle a lot. So I picture Elytrians having more complex architecture, and potentially inventions since you're not abandoning a project every half year to potentially never come back to again. Which honestly suits the Philza/Techno building philosophy divide....

Since writing systems were developed for counting agriculture stuff, I kinda see these guys inventing it and arithmetic as a way of marking how big their herds are, branding them to prevent thefts, stuff like that. Probably have things like literature being big hits in the Elytrian communities, especially since distribution is so easy. Passarines being more song birds I think have oral story telling traditions instead.

Now Elytrians mostly just use natural weapons for hunting evidentially since- I mean- can you throw a spear faster than a 200mph falcon? If it works it works! Their aerial combat with each other has got to be WICKED though.

As for general technologies: Clothing, basic tools, dying, stone/wood work, fire. I cannot for the life of me picture either Order working in mines but Techno has clearly forged pieces of copper/gold/metal worked into his clothing so I imagine it's happening. Nothing along the lines of industry. If that were to happen I think Elytrians are more likely, buuuut then they'd have to fly in all that smog so potentially that wouldn't go far.

uh. Good enough ramble session?? I hope? This certainly helped get my thoughts in order to continue working!

[archandshri]

23rd Feb '24 - [arch] OH RISO my beloved!!!!!! ft. cyberpunk hermitcraft soup group

A cliffhanger!!!! And now I have to wait a month for you to upload the second half?? How will I cope :’’0

For real, it’s so awesome to see your process and the sheer amount of inspiration you take! In particular, I thought ‘Sit on Two Chairs’ and ‘This Was Our Pact’ were particularly yummy. 

I think book covers are really hard. You have to sum up a book’s energy in one image, make it stand out and show just enough so people want more. Exploring the narrative through those full pages is really interesting - though this is something you did for fun, it could be a really useful technique for getting to know a narrative. When I’m designing my comic covers, I always do it last - that way I’ve had practice with the visual style and I’m thoroughly familiar with the themes, so I guess spending a bit of time with the characters and narrative in this way helps for standalone book covers too. Of course, it helps if you have the time for that XD

Okay!! Onto what I've been up to!!! [warning this is a beefy post I'm sorry for your poor reading brain]

The past two weeks have been really enjoyable! I’ve been playing a lot with slow world-building, in sketchbooks, google documents, and voice notes to friends. Letting myself really sit with concepts, think about the characters, let them play in my head with no expectations. With this relaxation and lack of pressure, some beautiful narratives and interactions have been developing. I’m starting to need a name for a world/ the story. I’m not quite ready to give them a full introduction to the internet - I know it doesn’t but it feels like there’s some accountability to *produce something* and this slow development is really important for the quality and my skill building. It’s really hard to take on, but we actually don’t have to make the perfect thing now! In fact, it’s impossible. Pressure on ourselves makes it so hard to make something good if we’re always grasping at the final result.  In the meantime, while those characters develop, I have been working hard on my basic skills. I wrote about characterization last post, but this week I focused on setting and colour. I was inspired (once again) by Hermitcraft. I’ve seen some really incredible illustrations of Minecraft builds in the fandom, and it seems like a great exercise.

Bdouble0's Season 10 Base illustrated by @applestruda [source] and The Red Zone, built and illustrated by Bdouble0 [source]

One of the creators on Hermitcraft, ImpulseSV, created this build in a recent episode. It takes inspiration from the last season of Hermitcraft, where he was part of the ‘soup group’ with two other players, and his current base concept - a cyberpunk city.  I also LOVE his new character design, so I wanted to place him in the scene.

Screenshot from Impulse's video and new impulse design by @maxx-doodles

Here are some initial thumbnails I did, trying to figure out the composition. I wasn’t sure of the vibe yet, so I tried some rough thumbnailing, and drawing on an isometric grid and other perspective techniques. I’m going a bit mad for characters at the mo, so I wanted to place some in the scene. I found the angle of the isometric grid steep to place characters comfortably, so decided against that.

Looking back at it, I love the second! But I believe I was struggling with the perspective. I decided on the last one eventually.

Now, I absolutely adore all of the players in the Soup Group, and I am BIG fan of redesigning their notable characteristics to suit different settings. So yes, I decided to put all of the soup group in the image.

PearlescentMoon (left) from my comic and GeminiTay's Hermitcraft Season 10 design [from this thumbnail] (right)

Here's the sketch of the final image. I really enjoyed coming up with cyberpunk versions of them all. I used the impulse design almost exactly, with a few extra interesting details since he's mostly viewed from the back. For PearlescentMoon (middle) I kept her fringe, dark hair and gave her a glowing moon symbol on her top. For GeminiTay, I kept her long ginger hair, antlers (but glowing!) and took inspiration from her new season 10 design - a dark blue jumpsuit to match her dark blue clothes in her new design, and the braids she is often drawn with. I also gave them edgy new hairstyles. And a robot arm. I don't have lore for that.

As usual, I filled each flat colour-to-be with black and lowered the opacity to play with the values. Then I added colours one at a time, aware might be riso printing it. Originally I stuck to trying to make it printable (making the colours out of ones I could make my layering 2-3 colours at different opacities), but as I went on, I decided to drop that and focus on the quality of the image in a digital format alone. I did keep the grayscale version above with all the separate layers in case I needed that if/when I came to riso printing it. Below are the main two digital colour schemes I tried out.

I settled on the one on the left, with the blue tones - the foreground characters really pop. I put a few details in Gem's hair, colour variations etc, and cropped it for Instagram. I actually much prefer the cropped version - it sits better in a rule of thirds.

Now the moment we've all been waiting for :'')

RISO!!!!!!!!!!!

I returned to Cardiff after a couple of months away and was delighted to spend my first day back at The Printhaus, an awesome shared print studio where I have basically made my home. A few of my awesome friends happened to be there, so I spent the day playing around with this image with their help! (please check them out they're very cool - Gavin helped me a lot (we hung out at Thought Bubble, remember? and Rhi gave good crits too!!)

For those who don't know, risograph is basically a shitty photocopier that can only print one colour at a time. However, you can play with gradients and opacities, and layer colours really nicely to combine. I've done a lot of single-colour tonal work with riso but this is my first go really layering.

First, Gavin showed me how to separate the channels in Photoshop, using the flat image uploaded to the 'gram. We copied and pasted these layers in grayscale and added blending modes to each layer to replicate what they might look like when printed.

With blending modes, the digital mockup looked like this!!

This bit goes into technical details for replicating what the print might look like for those who might want it - feel free to skip :)))

I copied and pasted the Cyan, Black and Magenta layers as greyscale (as you can see above)

I made all of the greyscale layers multiply layers since risograph ink is transparent and we wanted to see how it layers. The ink usually comes out a bit lighter than you think, so it's good to bear that in mind. I used a clipping mask over each greyscale layer and a blending mode. WHEN YOU PRINT, PRINT IN GREYSCALE, NOT COLOUR.

Here's how I split the colours from CMYK to the riso colours, their hex codes and the blending mode I used to replicate the colours:

Cyan - Mint [HEX#82D8D5] Screen Magenta - Fluorescent Pink [HEX#FF48B0] Screen Black - Blue [HEX#0078BF] Overlay Yellow - scrapped for colour scheme purposes

Blue, Mint and Florencent Pink layers in greyscale in Procreate.

Riso printed Mint and Florescent Pink layers on separate paper, followed by the two layered together.

We always start with the lighter colour inks first, because sometimes the rollers can pick up the ink and cause extra marks where you don't want them. The first two colours came out great!

The first time we printed the blue, it came out very dark (left, first image). I have had this issue before - my last book, Winter Wellbeing, came out much darker than I wanted. Now I realise that the blue ink is super sensitive. All the 'white space' that is covered by a low-opacity blue on the left is only 2%, and yet it has come out pretty strong. We tried printing it on one of the misaligned images just to see, but it took all of the brightness out of the neon soup sign at the top of the image (second image). So I changed the values and pushed them way lighter, so it just pushed the values of the darker bits slightly, and brightened some of the lineart (right, first image)

And this is the final riso printed version!! I'm so so happy with how this came out. It's so different from the original digital version, and I actually love that.

I didn't create new colours in the way that I intended to - I wanted to play with overlaying purposefully to create specific colours eg. orange for the hair etc. But!!! I'm really happy with how it came out. That will have to be a project for next time.

Also, many copies are slightly misaligned, so in future I think I'd do flat layers for the colours a more blobby style with the linework on one layer only so there's less of a chance for obvious misalignment. design for the riso, rather than riso the design.

Overall though, this feels like a super cool step up and a milestone for me. Super happy with how it came out!! And I'm excited to play with colour some more. Can't wait to see the rest of the Lionheart brothers! Enjoy your weekend :)))

Archie 🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺 <3

[clatterbane]

One of those conflicted moments: when your urge to de-Google and also a dislike for auto-craptions collide with your desire to make things more accessible.

Yeah, I went ahead and added that plugin for Twitch streaming. It's also not like I'm not sending the same feed directly to Youtube, which is already adding craptions by default. It just irks me that Google's API is really the only source for this type of capability currently.

At least, short of probably paying someone with the skill to sit through 4 hours of my blether to live caption it, several times a week. That is really not practical, though if I had the cash lying around on an ongoing basis? You bet I'd rather go that route.

I hadn't actually looked at the quality of the existing craptions on the Youtube end so far. But, on the plus side at least? When I tested the OBS plugin's output, it managed better than I was expecting even when I tried playing up my accent and mumbling more. (Though not at the same time.) That does seem to be improving, at any rate.

So, that should at least provide SOME kind of captioning. Which might come in extra handy besides for disability purposes, considering how few of what audience I've been getting do come from the Anglosphere. And even if the speech impediment and dialect have both toned themselves down over the years, my speech may not always be the easiest for non-native speakers to get their ears around.

Hell, that was a enough of a (sometimes mutual) issue in the UK. Though my half-deaf ass was much more used to listening to them than most of them were to me. I think it sometimes just surprised people when I opened my mouth and unexpected sounds came out. (Just getting on with your daily business, when suddenly: A feral hillbilly appears!)

Which really shouldn't be the same issue at all when you're checking out random game streamers.

[wild-aspen]

Gentile here with a good faith question. But also, please feel free to dismiss. Take care of yourself first. Sorry for the coming wall of text.

I’m shooting this your directly because I find your blog thoughtful and informative, and I infer you might have some pertinent knowledge based on your posts.

I see a lot of my (also gentile friends) engaging in activism that concerns me. I understand the desire to do something — anything — to help those who are suffering in Palestine, but their rhetoric is antisemitic, almost cult-like, and as several Jewish tumblrs have pointed out: is that activism actually doing anything to help Palestine, or is it just hurting Jews?

And, I’m not immune. Yes, there are avowed and self-aware antisemites and that’s not me, but I feel like a lot of us are getting swept up into it without realizing it. A wave of a wand, call it anti-Zionism instead, use rhetoric that resonates with leftists. Like, I’m very worried that some of that thinking has infected my own world view, even as I try to unpack and dismantle my own antisemitism.

Which is to say, I don’t know how to trust my own gut right now.

I want to DO something that helps those who are suffering, and doesn’t harm Jews. Ideally I’d like to find good aid organizations to donate too, I’m really not sure what else I CAN do.

But which organizations, that’s the rub.

Take Medical Aid for Palestinians, which I was looking into because I stumbled across a itch.ion bundle supporting them.

On a google search, most of the hits seem to indicate they’re legit. A notable exception was the NGO monitor, but as I looked into that site, according to some sources NGO monitor is a right-biased Israeli organization with links to the current Israeli government. Since they’re the only source I’ve found so far decrying MAP… does that mean I can disregard their complaints and safely donate to MAP? Or, is my reluctance to trust NGO Monitor unfounded, and routed in my own ingrained antisemitism?

And to make matters worse, hey this is all just text on the internet, fake sites can look very official, and ever robots are writing half of this shit now so what’s a queer to do?

So, how do I sift through the legitimate organizations that are providing aid and/or working towards peace, from the ones that are just fronts for terrorists?

More than just a list of ones you already trust. I mean, I won’t turn that down, but I want to learn how to figure this for myself to so that when I encounter things like this bundle, I know whether it’s safe to donate or not.

Thanks for reading this. If you’ve got some wisdom to share I appreciate it. If not, or if you don’t have the energy to spare, again, please take care of yourself first.

So I always preface these asks with the fact that I am only a convert-in-process, so I am still learning and I don't know everything. There are some things I will never know, not being a Jew from birth, not being Israeli, etc.

To your first question: does the antisemitic rhetoric employed by some pro-Palestinian activists help Palestinians? No, it does not. Being bigoted towards one marginalized group cannot benefit a different marginalized group. All it does is add more hatred to the world. The only thing antisemitic "pro-Palestine" rhetoric does is hurt Jews. Hurting Jews does not benefit Palestinians.

As for MAP... my advice is first to look at what NGO is saying is untrustworthy about MAP, and compare that to what the other sites say about it. Then you need to consider NGO's motivations and political leanings, which you've already started doing. Think about what reasons could they have for discrediting MAP. Do they have any Palestinian aid organizations they do support? What do the other sites you used have to say about those other organizations? If you're still not sure, it's generally good advice to go with what the majority of the charity ratings sites say. If NGO disagrees, and you've found reasons it might have its own biases, then you treat it like an outlier and depend on the consensus of the other sources.

There are right-wing organizations and people in Israel who hate Palestinians. There are organizations in Israel that are biased. There are Arab organizations that are biased. Country of origin means nothing. If multiple other sites are calling a particular org out, there's probably a reason. You will unfortunately have to put in the effort to double-check everything.

For searching news sources specifically, the MediaBias/FactCheck website is highly regarded.

Note that no source you use is ever going to be free of criticism; even MB/FC has detractors. Reliable sources can sometimes make mistakes. No one is perfect.

Media literacy is a huge problem right now and you're not the only person struggling with it. My best advice is to do exactly what you've done: read multiple sources, compare that information, and then make your decision. It is not your fault this stuff is difficult to navigate.

[kitkatrix]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @jazwritesalot. Thank you! 🥹🫶

1. How many works do you have on A03? 120!!

2. What's your total Ao3 word count? 497,454. I have over 25k I haven't posted on A03 though so tack that on and I'm looking at roughly 520k in total.

3. What fandoms do you write for? I currently write for BNHA/ MHA. I used to write for Durarara, HP, Fruits Basket but that was a looooong time ago when I was in my teens lol

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? Fair warning: most of them are NSFW. 1) Take a Bite of Me, 2) Another Day, Another F*ck, 3) more than a learning curve, 4) Need Your Touch, 5) Wrong Size

5. Do you respond to comments? I try to, but I get extremely lazy after a bit and then months later, I respond.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? It would have to be my MCD KRBK fic that I never posted on AO3. It's on Twitter in full but both of them end up dying in the end, one earlier than the other.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Almost all my fics have a happy ending but the happiest one I have thus far is "more than a learning curve". It's completely self indulgent so I wanted it to end in a cute way 🥺

8. Do you get hate on fics? I've only thankfully gotten it once and it was on a collaboration fic. I don't let that stuff bother me though 💜

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Absolutely. Almost 3/4 of my fics on AO3 and Twitter are explicit. I have the most fun writing them.

10. Do you write crossovers? Nope. I don't watch/read enough or have enough creativity to do something like that.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Once. I was very young and found it when searching for my fic title online. It was under a different name and everything. I was so upset that I deleted the fic on my end and stopped completely.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nada. But I would be over the moon if it ever happened. I would need to give approval first before anything, though. I don't want to come across it one day and nothing was said to me, y'know?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! I've done several actually. Some haven't ever been posted publicly but I have a few on AO3 like "Challenge Accepted" and "Pain and Pleasure" that I did with some mutuals on Twitter. It was very fun and I adore doing it 🥰

14. What's your all time favorite ship? KiriBaku! They have my heart in a chokehold. I'm trying to get into others from different fandoms but this one is hard to top.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Hidden Behind a Whisper. I loved loved writing this one when I started and I do go and add some from time to time but I've lost half the motivation I had when I first began. It's sad 😭

16. What are your writing strengths? Dialogue and action scenes. The way I write is like imagining a movie scene, and I write each movement someone makes and go from there. In example, Kirishima putting a hand around Bakugou's waist, Izuku kissing Ochako's forehead, things like that.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Repetitiveness. I tend to say the same thing over and over and have to copy paste my document into a website to see which words are used more than they should. Half the time it's either "that", "just", or "but".

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? If you feel it would add more to your story, speak to someone that knows and is fluent in that language and can read over the dialogue to be sure it is correct. Do NOT use Google translate. It's hardly accurate and a terrible source for translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for? HP. It was a Dramione fic and I was I think 14? It's still up online to this day 💀

20. Favorite fic you've written? "more than a learning curve" if we're talking mildly mature. "Need Your Touch" for Explicit.

I tag whoever sees this and would like to participate! 🫶🫶

[gacha-stims]

Intro/pinned/BYF post!

Gacha-game-specific blog for stim boards, moodboards, doodle requests, and music requests (outside of the original songs/OST of the source material)!

About us:

We are a polyfragmented, polyplex, traumagenic system of over 50+ headmates and fragments (mostly semi-introjects).

Right now our current fixation is Hypnosis Microphone, or Hypmic. We are also into Food Fantasy and Love Live! ! Currently we’re trying to get into SENGOKU A LIVE and Ensemble Stars!

Our collective name is Melvin, and also collectively go by (he/they) pronouns.

This blog is for requesting stimboards, moodboards, doodles (sketches), and music recommendations (outside of source material)! Anon is on and asks are encouraged! We will keep the request acceptance status up on our description/bio as timely as possible!

More info, BYF, Reblog and Usage Creiteria, DNI, and more below the cut ☆～（ゝ。∂）

Reblog and Usage Criteria:

Please refrain from posting any moodboards or drawings on any other platform without due credit (i.e. a direct link to the blog in the caption)! I also ask that when reblogging; if the original asker is not anonymous, meaning their blog is visible, please do not tag with kind/ID/system terms unless express permission is given by the asker!!

BYF and DNI:

BYF: I identify as a transmasc mlm, I prefer to consume male-centric media, therefor my knowledge and interest lies within that form of media. I apologize if my effort and enthusiasm levels are evident in the media or request i create or fulfill when in reference to masc vs. fem media. Not to say I can’t or won’t consume fem media, but my knowledge is limited. Google is my friend for most requests.

We are traumagenic, and believe that systems are formed by moderate to severe childhood trauma and CPTSD. We are also schizoaffective, so posting frequency may not be consistent; it may be sporadic. Stim boards are particularly hard to make, so they take the longest. First come first serve; we will go in the order we receive requests.

DNI:

Please do not follow if you are:

- transmed

- TERF

- anti-self diagnosis

- anti-introject

- fakeclaimer

- ableist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, things I shouldn’t have to say but some people don’t get the hint

Please don’t send:

- gore

- nsfw media (suggestive is okay)

- hate or “you’re faking/this isn’t a real disorder/too many headmates and introjects” comments

Frequent Fronters (and sign offs):

• Ramuda Amemura (hypmic introject) -🍬

• Lawrence Oleander (btd introject) -🪴

• Melvin (host) -🐱

• Sunny (non-introject) -🌸

• KK (animal crossing introject) -🎧

• Kuko Harai (hypmic introject) -📿

• Tetsuya Watanabe (non-introject) -📓

• Sal (sallyface introject) -📰

• Guy (half-introject (inspired by a lot of characters)) -🍥

• Ichiro Yamada (hypmic introject) -🎤

Thanks if you’ve read this far!! We plan on making original content alongside fulfilling requests, so be on the lookout!

Have a good day !!

チュウ~(´ε｀~ )♡

[seewetter]

Fact-Checking All I Post Since Dec 12, 2023

Hi.

This is a pinned post that explains my current ideal method of verifying information.

Firstly: I will always state what work I did (or didn't do) to fact-check a post.

This post will be pinned to remind me how to do my due diligence.

What to do to verify information?

Step 0: Notice suspicious aspects of what I'm reblogging

Calls to Action (can cause people to act without thinking first)

False sense of urgency: use of ALL CAPS as if people weren't going to read it otherwise indicates THEY ARE WRITING FOR AN AUDIENCE THAT THEY DON'T EXPECT WILL READ EVERYTHING including the fine print?

Judgemental statements: somebody is describing something by using insults, loaded language.

Factual errors

Jumping to conclusions

Step 1: Read beyond the Headline

If there is embedded articles, did I click through to read it?

How much did I read?

Who is the source? Do I know the source?

If I trust the source: why? What makes them trustworthy?

If I don't usually trust the source but am sharing anyway, why?

Step 2: Find a Credible Source

Did i check the web address (URL) to make sure the website is not impersonating another source?

Find other sources. I read in a magazine once that its recommended to have at least 3 separate sources confirm something. That way there is likely expert consensus and not a rogue editorial board or a compromised source.

Sometimes 3 sources agreeing might mean they are colluding, so the goal here is to document who is saying what and get a picture of where the information is coming from and how it's being shared.

Did I do a cursory check of the Tumblr user sharing the source?

Step 3: Verify Online Source is Authentic

I use startpage.com (a search engine that Google's things for me so Google doesn't know who is googling & thus won't tailor content to me)

As an IT student, I know that when links show up in purple in search engines that is a feature offered by my browser history, not by the search engine. So if I follow a link on Tumblr, then check with Google or Startpage (or Yahoo or Bing or DuckDuckGo), I can see if the website can be found normally through a web search.

I can also use Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) to check older versions of a story. So far, I don't know of any case where the Wayback Machine has deliberately censored or removed information.

Step 4: What else can I do?

read full article of each source

return to the article weeks later to see if corrections have been posted

check the website. Under "Contact" there should be information about the source. Who are they? I can look them up on Wikipedia to see if the source is known to have issues.

Step 5: Offer my followers some info on how they could improve on my work

Articles I haven't fully read can of course be improved by reading the whole thing

Sources can lie.

Read different opposite perspectives (use search engine to look up keywords that might pop up an opposing perspective)

Read primary sources. Did I reblog about a law being passed? Find the official government website where the law is posted.

If a story seems obviously favour one partisan group, then: A basic question for opposing groups or individuals is (A) did they read critiques of themselves (B) do they have a response (C) does their response contain a kernel of truth or is it appealing somehow (can it be steelmanned?) of maybe even they are more right than they seemed and (D) does their response feel sincere? (E) do they have a sense for what might go wrong with their counter-proposal (F) does their response need a better counter-response?

Step 6: Justify sharing things that I half-research.

For example: I shared this because the idea (perhaps mistaken perception / fantasy) of an internet censorship bill scares me.

Reason: My followers get an idea for why I think the information is valuable and can critique me better.

Step 7: Explain: Will I share more on this story or do more research?

In many cases, I reblog things and not think about them any further unless it circulates around and generates more conversation.

As a person with limited financial means and little interest in policy discussions, I want people who read my blog to like...know about (possibly) serious developments, but I'm convinced the main point of reblogging is to increase the statistical chance that it reaches people who are keenly interested and more dedicated than I am to doing something.

That's unfortunate of course (I always worry about how wars and other nightmarish things exit the media cycle even while still ongoing!) but I don't run this blog to be a downer blog and I also don't run it to be discussing topics that only interest me in that I'd like to see people (including myself, when that is feasible) work together to solve them.

Hopefully (if anyone even reads this) people can relate and won't think the worst of me. Not like I'm the best person anyway. Uh, thanks for reading.

[utmostopenmindedness]

In retrospect, yes, of course I should have clarified exactly how Dr Newsome's writings are connected to the claims in question, rookie mistake on my part. Here it is, step by step:

I browsed through the edit history of this wikipedia page, and here's what a February 11, 2022 version of the "Aftermath" section included, with no reference to Dr Newsome (probably because the book in question hadn't been published yet) but with other relevant works and specific pages:

"It is estimated 100,000 men were arrested and that half of these spent time in prison.{{sfn|Whisnant|2016|p=240}} Post-war attitudes towards homosexuality were influenced by Nazi propaganda associating homosexuality with criminality and medical illness.{{sfn|Whisnant|2016|p=240}} Once the war ended, men who were serving time in prisons and concentration camps had to serve the rest of their sentences.{{sfn|Storkmann|2021|pp=30–31}} Arrest and incarceration of men for consensual homosexual acts continued to be commonplace in [[West Germany]] and Austria through the 1960s;{{sfn|Jensen|2002|pp=321–322}}{{sfn|Whisnant|2016|p=242}} between 1945 and 1969, West Germany convicted about 50,000 men; the same number of men as the Nazis had convicted during their twelve-year rule.{{sfn|Schwartz|2021|p=379}}"

But current version of the article in the "Aftermath" section has an edited a sentence:

"Because the various Allied countries considered homosexuality a crime, those prisoners who had not finished serving their sentence under Paragraph 175 had to do so, but those who had never been convicted or who had already served the full time were released.[159]"

This link [159] leads to this source:

Newsome, W. Jake (2022). Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-6549-0.

From I understand, it is paywalled, so no way for me (being pennyless and living under a rock) to check the book itself on what material evidence, personal testimonies, and court records from 1945 it relies upon. So I googled the author's name and found his website, and checked the credentials.

If these specific wikipedia editors are to be trusted on this occasion, then Dr Newsome's 2022 book highlighted a somewhat more precise understanding, that not all "captives with pink triangles got sent to prison to finish their sentence because homosexuality was illegal" but those who were convicted and haven't finished the sentence - did. But then again, what of the arrests and convictions that continued even after the fall of the Nazi Germany?

[shootingstars-or-airplanes]

Book Review: Pieces of Me

Wow! A captivating story and kindle/audiobook combo make for a quick turnaround, huh? So we're back! I have a lot of thoughts about this one so let's get into it. Same as always: Thoughts, TL;DR, and star rating, then spoilers after the cut! Here is my review of Pieces of Me by Kate McLaughlin.

I initially found this book from a google search for novels about DID. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) has been a sort of special interest of mine for years now. I first began looking into the disorder in 2020, but it has remained a subject of interest for me ever since. I've seen loads of different youtubers with DID talk about their experiences, interviews with psychiatrists talking about the clinical details of the disorder, etc. And from all my knowledge of DID, this book actually seemed pretty accurate.

Full disclaimer: I do not have DID. It is just a subject of interest for me. So I can't speak from experience to its accuracy, but most of what was in the book seemed to line up with the experiences I've heard from others as well as the clinical stuff I've heard from professionals. I was actually really impressed with this and it definitely aided in my enjoyment of the book.

When it comes to the writing, however, I did have quite a few qualms. There were some small inconsistencies that I feel should have easily been caught in the editing process. For example, Bella is Dylan's half-sister, but towards the beginning she's referred to as a stepsister. This kind of threw me a bit given Bella's age and the timeline of everything. Her being a half-sister made more sense, so I was confused as to why she was called her stepsister. This was later corrected, but I feel like that first mistake should have been caught in editing. There were a few other instances like this that pulled me out of the story a bit.

Additionally, the dialogue felt very "hello fellow kids" if you get what I mean. One example that stuck out to me was someone referring to "not getting the text" rather than "not getting the memo" which I, as someone who is fairly close to the age of the characters, have literally never heard anyone say. There were some other interesting slang uses that again, took me out of the story a bit.

Overall, though, I think this book was enjoyable and seems to be a pretty good portrayal of DID, especially compared to a lot of the stories and media that we currently see regarding the disorder.

TL;DR A pretty good representation of DID with prose that can be a bit rough and dialogue that might make you cringe a bit. Overall definitely worth a read, though.

Rating: ⭐3/5

SPOILER WARNING

The only real nitpick I have regarding the DID representation is at the very end of the book. Within the last chapter or two, Scratch and Dali integrate. Which is fine and it makes sense. Dali even explains why it's happening. But it's presented as if it's a choice. From my understanding, alters don't choose to integrate, they just do.

Sure, this could have been the easiest way to explain to the audience why the integration was happening, but I feel like we could have gotten that explanation from an internal Dali POV as the integration had started. It just felt off that it seemed like they were making a choice rather than having those walls broken, forcing them together.

One thing I can greatly appreciate though is that in the acknowledgements, the author states clearly that all the research and information is from professional sources, but any mistakes present are all hers. As an author, I've wanted to write a book about a character with DID but I feared making mistakes and I think this is the best way to go about that while acknowledging your fallibility as an author.

[kisuthirt33n]

Just gonna get comfortable sliding back into the dusty blog I left for a while...

It seems like ages since I've been on this blog!

So I'm dirty 30 as of June 13, 2024 for everyone that has been waiting for my return. I did remain single, with several paramours that woo'd me as a friend until the sexual tension kicked in, my paranoia of my business being shared with others, and me not feeling like I have a friend in the world. I did attempt to date a guy though.

I called it on the three months mark lol

The past situationship came back.

Lost a guy friend who turned ugly in personality towards me when I didn't meet his expectations of me.

I'm partially horny with eye candy and my fantasies more than worrying about a relationship since most guys give the impression of being superficial.

With my mention on the eye candy, I don't mind looking but in general I am down for another round of years to wait for the real one. I did think about polyamory for a couple of months; still not something I would consider even though I have poked at the idea.

Even a blast from the past of a guy from high school getting one over on me by loaning him money he would pay back.

Dude that kept pulling heart strings to get money by stating he was trying to go to rehab for being an alcoholic, yet party hardying without any thought that you want someone to scratch your back and you send half nudes like that compensating becoming a friend. No thanks. You look great, but no.

Most of this year I stayed home and occasionally streamed when the energy was blossoming. Even then it felt better to be home, away from energy draining situations or just my mood getting the best of me due to the environment I chose to be in.

Through it all, I'm currently part-time/full-time employed at a warehouse doing retail production, single, working towards two new goals, and sticking this one out alone. So you can imagine my libido is shot, plus cutting out every single sexually pointless distraction. Ghosting is just not my thing.

Communication was dead on every end. So now that I'm tired of talking to people - moving forward is much easier with a smaller circle.

I've downloaded a few books on Amazon Kindle (mobile) so that I can regroup with my old story flings filled with adventure, and witty dialogue with heroic underdog tones, and replace the films/shows I've been watching.

So throughout this year, I started my small steps into stoicism by being consistent with 'The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and The Art of Living' Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman.

Today (19.Dec.2024) is Human Scale

"Think of the whole universe of matter and how small your share. Think about the expanse of time and how brief -- almost momentary -- the part marked for you. Think of the workings of fate and how infinitesimal your role" --Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.24

Even embracing my birth natal chart's horoscope message.

Don't let anyone come between you and your friends.

"Today your entire perception of reality is colored by your mood. You trivialize your emotions, let the nagging little voice in your head control you, and don't have the energy to suppress it. Describe as accurately as you can what a person has just said to you. Check to see if you are correct. You already know how to express yourself, and that's a start.

It can be hard to decenter yourself when you need attention. You're not a bad person for giving yourself attention. Practice being more creative so that you can shape your own future.

Your main challenge right now is to protect your heightened empathy by being intentional about the emotions you choose to prioritize. Loneliness is sometimes the result of an inability to communicate how you really feel. You can't be seen by another if you don't make your true self visible.

---source: Co-Star mobile app // Available on Google Play and Apple Store//---

To conclude this happy reunion ~ I have finally found the career path I wish to take in order to finally reach my financial peak. So I hope to journal more of my journey breaking into Technology and Engineering with more confidence than in the past.

Which path will I take? Stay tuned for the next update.

[lucyvaleheart]

reblogging this direct from source cuz it's such a long post but I got tagged by a bunch of people for this one!!

Thank you @black-eyed-seas, @cynthjam, @alicethebard, and @ladyofspoons for the ping <333

Last song: Technically speaking, last playing when I got out of my car was:

Just cuz it was running through my liked songs on spotify 👀 but the last one I listened to that stuck in my head (from the same drive this morning to work) was:

cuz I fuckin love this guy and I wanna learn the lyrics to this well enough to sing it by memory I'm SO CLOSE BUT HE'S SO FAST

Favorite color: Purple!! Probably a decently common answer, but it is SO FUCKING GOOD..... though there's also this specific shade of magenta I love, hang on I have a hex code for it: #FF3AF8

and here's a quick slice of it so you don't have to google that:

Last movie/TV show: Mmmm.... Again on a technicality, I watched casino Royale the James bond movie the other night 👀 my wife jade put it on the TV hehe

But the last one to stick in my memory as the actual "what have I watched recently" is probably Jujutsu Kaisen; me and jade got through all of season 1, the movie, and then more than half of season 2 (that's currently out) before taking a break and forgetting to go back to it LMAO

But it's so fucking good omg I'm such a sucker for good quality fighting animation and shit dude I love it

Sweet/spicy/savory?: All definitely have their place!! I think I lean most heavily towards sweet, with savory coming in at a close second; and I DO very much enjoy spicy (as long as it's flavorful and not just pure heat) but I am white and as much as I'm pushing my spice tolerance higher and higher I'm still pretty low on how much I can tolerate 😔

Relationship status: Poly as hell!! Married to @jadedkitteh, @ginny-erinschild is my girlfriend (!!!!) lots of gay kinky sex with like 18-30 other people; and fuckin.... I'm sure there's more on the way I've yet to meet 💖

Last thing I googled: another answer with a technicality; the last thing I googled was leather for leather working cuz I'm.

.....I'm meeting up with a friend soon and they do leather working projects and stuff and I kind of wanted to get them a gift but I cannot fucking tell what is good quality leather or not qwq so I'm thinking I'll go to a store irl instead

The thing I last REMEMBER googling is Minecraft server hosts, so I could check into the current market of them (over saturated and riddled with bots, just like I remember) and see how expensive decent hardware was so I could maybe set one up for my discord server 👀

Current obsession: ......aside from my lifelong obsession with swords (see #swordposting), rocks, and Minecraft?

... Probably a game called Spiritfall :3 holy shit I've been running it over and over and over it's SO fun

Still in early access, but it's like.... A fuckin.....

... I'll link a post by one of the people working on it in a second here, but it's like a platform fighter roguelite 👀 combat is so goddamn fluid and fun and enjoyable, the roguelike elements are VERY hades so if you're a fan of smash or whatever and also hades I heavily recommend it! I've put like..... Easily over 100 hours into it in the month I've had it, they're constantly updating it with more shit, there's so many cool weapons (except a sword..... ;-; there's technically twin blades on a string but I would give my damn soul for just a proper longsword with close-combat style moves, like fuckin. Uh... I dunno, claren from rivals is a pretty good base? 👀👀👀 Marth/lucina? That kinda stuff, yknow?)

... Anyway here's a post by @ayeforscotland with some of my tags ranting about it :3

Tag nine people: oh boy. uh...... let's see here.

@ginny-erinschild @junk-thunder @naughtyshucklebuck @jaxspades @genderless-slave @puppygirlcassie @puppygirlarson @sparklefawx @penelopix @irlactualhuman @kaitiekat @boyphrodite and also any mutual who sees this on their dash and manages to read this far. Love you :3

Nine people I'd like to get to know better

Tagged by @meghawhopp <33

Last song: Down by the River by Borislav Slavov from the Baldur’s Gate 3 Soundtrack (or more specifically the cover of Down by the River by Nerissa Ravencroft)

Favorite color: Blue and purple!

Last movie/TV show: Seinfeld, I’m currently on season four!

Sweet/spicy/savory?: I have a huge sweet tooth, so sweet things

Relationship status: Single

Last thing I googled: I searched up the show “Arthur” because I was trying to find that one meme where Buster was like “You really think someone would do that, just go on the internet and spread lies?”

Current obsession: Fragaria memories and tears of themis mostly^^

Tag Nine People: @kyaruun @xinieeee @deadmansbistro @florapot @hunita812 @scuffle-with-spirals @rexonalapis @maxellera @manicpixiedoomedgirl

[cogitoergofun]

Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war that started on October 7, the number of casualties in Gaza has been a subject of heated debate. 

According to the Hamas-run health ministry, the number now stands at more than 30,000 dead, with no distinction made between civilian and combatant casualties.

In previous rounds of fighting in the Strip, the total number of deaths reported by the Gazan authorities have been found to be broadly accurate, not differing significantly from estimates produced by the UN or IDF. There have, however, always been disputes over the civilian/combatant split.

The latest war in Gaza provides a different data challenge. As noted in a recent report by “The Washington Institute for Near East Policy”, the scale of the current war has forced changes in the way data is collected by the authorities in Gaza. 

While in previous rounds of fighting, the numbers were based on official hospital records, this time an increasingly large percentage of reported deaths are coming, not from doctors, but from what the Health Ministry refers to as “reliable media sources”, as well as reports submitted by Gazan citizens via a Google Form.

At the time of writing, the authorities say there have been a total of 32,414 deaths. About 54 per cent of those are from hospital records, with 45 per cent coming from other sources.

In December, a widely shared letter published in Lancet argued there was “no evidence of inflated mortality reporting from the Gaza Ministry of Health”. The authors came to this conclusion by comparing total claimed deaths in the strip with a separate database detailing the number of UNRWA workers reported killed.

Because the work was published as correspondence rather than a formal study, it was not peer reviewed and the authors themselves acknowledge that the UNRWA database is not likely to be exactly representative of the wider Gazan population.

But is their conclusion right? Casualty data shared with The Telegraph by UNRWA suggests that there are significant discrepancies between the two datasets – discrepancies that may tell us something about the conduct of the war and the accuracy or otherwise of the Gazan authorities reporting.

The UNRWA data provided to The Telegraph covers the period between October 7 and January 4 and documents the deaths of 150 UNRWA workers in Gaza. As previously reported, it shows that half of those deaths occurred in the three weeks immediately following the Oct 7 massacre and before the Israeli land incursion into Gaza started.

But perhaps the most notable feature of UNRWA casualties dataset is that men account for 62 per cent of the deaths, despite representing only 41 per cent of the UNRWA staff in Gaza.

In other words, male UNRWA workers appear much more likely to be killed than female workers. For women, one in every 132 workers have been killed, while for men the chances of being killed are more than twice as high – one in every 57. 

This pattern is not replicated in the death data reported by the Gazan hospitals. According to that data, men in Gaza do face a higher risk of death than women, but by nothing like the extent found in URWA’s data.

[molsons112000]

So meteorologist can have sample collections of the rain end of snow end of the atmosphere. Then they can break down these samples to figure out the chemical content of each. Here, below is how to do a water sample of the rain. Now, this is just to take natural water Samples of lake water or any water source, but rain is a water source.

Here do you see the eastern third of the united states is affected by acid rain. Now, where this asset rain moves is over the Atlantic and towards Europe. Remember the golf pushes up the atmosphere northern. Then you have the jet stream which goes from west to east. So we are not getting acid rain from the east coast. But we can give acid rain to the east coast. So they would be a receiver from everything from the west and remember the pacific is the most polluted ocean in the world. So that means we get rain from the Pacific at certain times of the year.Other times we get it from the Gulf and atlantic. This is what people in california and on the west Coast their rain is very polluted. We get most of our moisture from the gulf which is from the atlantic side which is much better. But we have a problem because the East Coast is dumping unbelievable amount of toxins from their rivers. Cause the rain comes down, goes into their waterways and those waterways go to the Atlantic feeds. The Midwest, mostly with its moisture and so if we don't take care of things on the East Coast we can have a serious problem. The Pacific is not as much of a worry for us. But definitely the atlantic.... And thank God the canal is only one way, but the Panama canal can take ships 2 ways and that's where they make a mistake. Because if we could move goods coming from california through the lock to the atis thick faster to asia. Faster to the East Coast, so a problem with the system. Is we don't have something going from the Pacific to the Atlantic, only from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Is the lock only goes in one direction. So the second lock that is more towards mexico can be the reverse lock so they don't compete. It takes goods from the pacific like this would help hawaii as well. So they can ship out things to the East Coast of America and to Eastern or what you would say.Western europe are east their west..... So that second lacter building they can reverse the direction not going the same way as the panama but going the opposite way from the pacific to the atlantic and this way they don't compete...... So this is better for Latin America than Panama continues to get its revenue.And the new one creates its own revenue ships returning..... So yes we need a new canal going to opposite direction....

Affected areas. Places significantly impacted by acid rain around the globe include most of eastern Europe from Poland northward into Scandinavia, the eastern third of the United States, and southeastern Canada. Other affected areas include the southeastern coast of China and Taiwan.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org › wiki

Acid rain - Wikipedia

The worries from asia is more the water current that goes to the east coast and this is why the pacific is the dirtiest ocean.

Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org › wiki

Kuroshio Current

Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Kuroshio is a powerful western boundary current that transports warm equatorial water

So you'll see with the wave pattern.It moves the top half of the water from asia towards california. And the evaporation from the ocean comes from the top half of the ocean. Now the bottom half runs the opposite way away from California. Yes, the ocean runs the undercurrents.Run the opposite way of the winds.Remember the winds bring the waves in while when they wash in they wash back out. So when the water reaches California, it turns around and heads back. So depending on the particle weight of the matter going into the ocean. And atomic particles are very light. This is my nuclear waste from japan ended up in california. And so the fish that are at the higher level eat the nuclear waste. Now whatever california is dumping into the heavier particles come back towards california and end up going and polluting the atmosphere of california and going westward. But the heavier particles that go deeper into the water those go eastward. So we're both playing a role in hurting each other. It just depends on the type of waste that's being dumped and who's getting more of what type of pollution....

This is why I tell you.You have to go down in the ocean and grab the sediment samples at the bottom of the ocean. This is what's heading back towards asia from the united states. And if any of the shipping Is dumping heavy waste while that waste is going back towards asia ... It will initially move westward until it gets deep enough and then it will move back eastward. Remember this was the problem with finding the plane.They don't understand at different levels.The current moves at different directions. So yes there's a middle park that's moving and it's own direction as well.

The direction of an undercurrent is typically opposite to that of surface currents, and the strength of the undercurrent varies, depending on the situation and the circumstances.

https://waterhappy.net › the-power...

THE POWER OF UNDERCURRENTS

How does the ocean change with depth?

Conditions in the ocean change with depth: pressure increases; temperature and light decrease; salinity, oxygen, and micronutrients all change as well. There are five different Pelagic layers encompassing all open waters beyond the coastal regions.

https://www.globecomposite.com › ...

Exploring the Ocean's Depths - Globe Composite Solutions

So the high tide and low tide affects the speed of the undertow of the water of the ocean.....

How many times does the depth of the ocean water change per day?

Because the Earth rotates through two tidal “bulges” every lunar day, coastal areas experience two high and two low tides every 24 hours and 50 minutes. High tides occur 12 hours and 25 minutes apart. It takes six hours and 12.5 minutes for the water at the shore to go from high to low, or from low to high.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov › tide...

Frequency of Tides - The Lunar Day - Tides and water levels

Ocean water moves in horizontal and vertical directions, so it's turning. So, yes, it does bring up matter from the bottom of the ocean.

National Geographic Society

https://education.nationalgeographic.org › .

Ocean Conveyor Belt - National Geographic Education

Oct 19, 2023 — Ocean water moves in two directions: horizontally and vertically. Horizontal movements are referred to as currents, while

WIRED

https://www.wired.com › story › t...

The Physics of Scuba Diving

Nov 26, 2022 — Since the pressure is greater the deeper you go, the water underneath pushes up more than the water above it pushes down

And I told you the ocean has a natural divide.

University of Michigan

https://glisa.umich.edu › NCAPDF

Historical Climate and Climate Trends in the Midwestern USA

by J Andresen · Cited by 167 — Average summer rainfall exceeds 12 inches across

So if you see the area of tornado ally from the coast of Texas and then upward, this is the jet stream movement through the United States, which is very valuable to us in the Midwest.It protects us both from the east coast and the west coast. But if texas and others are polluting like in mexico are polluting into the gulf heavily then we're screwed..... So Is protecting the gulf is very vital for the midwest of the united states.... So remember our rivers flow into the Gulf.And so what we do with our rivers affects us because what goes out comes back.... So if we don't make sure our rivers and waterways flowing in like the Mississippi into the Gulf. Are good nutritional, healthy pollutant. Free water, then we're f***** in the Midwest. So that means from texas all the way up to canada because they get snowfall in their midwestern from the gulf as well. Yes, warm dry warm.I should say cold dryer comes down and then it meets the water from the Gulf.A gulf goes all the way up into canada and beyond actually.... So depending on the gulf depends on snowfall up north..... So as we've been polluting the Gulf, we've been devastating our ecological climate in the Midwest.All the way up and this leads all the way up obviously the north pole or arctica.....

The current flows northward into the Gulf of Mexico, then loops southeastward just south of the Florida Keys (where it is called the Florida Current), and then just west of the westernmost Bahamas. Here, the waters of the Loop Current flow northward along the U.S. coast and become the Gulf Stream.

https://www.wunderground.com › l...

Gulf of Mexico Loop Current Explainer - Weather Underground

Warm, salty water is carried by the Gulf Stream from the (much deeper) Atlantic Ocean into the Arctic Ocean. This warm water collides with cold water east of Svalbard where the seafloor rises steeply, making this warm water come to the surface.Jun 11, 2015

https://arctic-news.blogspot.com › g...

Gulf Stream brings ever warmer water into Arctic Ocean

[ofnightshadeandthornyroses]

Hey there! I was wondering if I could get your thoughts on the lost boys and an s/o with an iron deficiency, please? How would they feel about their blood considering their lack of iron? Would they even drink from them considering how easily their s/o gets lightheaded? I'm very curious as to how you would give this.

Thank you! -🦝

They are definitely curious about your medical situation. Especially because it has to do with blood .

An aspect that definitely intrigues them is how it affects you blood.

A certain two boys are intrigued with the difference in shade, almost obsessively so. ( Marco and Paul)

They're all interested with the difference in smell though. Of course all blood has it's own smell, the metallic scent mixing with the hosting humans own, but this smell differs from them. The lack iron affects the smell and leaves more of you, and they can't find reason to dislike it even if they wanted to.

If for any reason they taste your blood they're once again taken by how it tastes more like you than anything else.

They wouldn't actually drink from you unless you practically force feed it to them for what ever reason (Marco getting a free impalement by the Frog bros.)

Other than wondering how your condition affects your blood they also were concerned on how it how it affects you.

Throughout their adventures on the boardwalk walk they soon find out one of the common side affects (fatigue) and though at first they may be a little down that they can't wreck havoc with you as much as they wanted (Marco and Paul(Dwayne likes to start shit from the side and butt in when he wants), they're more than happy to take you back to the cave or if you still want to stay around the board walk, take things at a slower pace.

If you're dizzy they're quick to find you somewhere to sit or lean, staying close to check if your doing okay or need any thing.

They keep snack and water on them just incase

Need a snack sweet thing? No problem, Paul's got you. Has them jam packed in the pockets inside of his jacket like a kid sneaking a boatload of candy into a theater.

Need a water? David has a few in side of his as well.

They make a game of hiding them throughout the cave so no matter where you are in it they just reach around and grab something out for you.

Random containers of peanut butter/fruits

Brittle nails, Paul, Dwayne and Marco definitely have nail painting sessions so you can put that can put that coat of protection on in any pretty color or haphazard/horrendous design they come up with. David has even been known to participate.

Sorry this took so long, tests and Tumblr being on crack. I hope you like this.