#rocket town will be very interesting in part 3 i think

[dangoulains-devotion]

every time I have to wade through inane ship wars where people are willfully ignorant to the depth and facets of cloud strife's character, circumstance, and story just so I can find some cool screenshots or fanart my 'cloud is ace' agenda simply grows more potent out of spite

[arikad0]

just from this description alone it looks like Cid's character is being reworked quite a bit for FF7R

[glon-morski]

After months (years?) of tumblr inactivity, I am finally back (we'll see for how long, though ^^'). What brought me back? The need to talk about FF7 Rebirth, that's what. Figures it would take a brand new obsession to get me back to gushing on tumblr LOL

As the game only came out two weeks ago - MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

There is a lot - and I mean a lot - I could talk about regarding Rebirth, and especially its ending. There will probably be a massive meta coming up on how I interpret what happened in it in detail another time, so look forward to that! But this time, I'd like to focus on a different part than the most obvious "so... what happened to Aerith?" Namely, what I think is being set up here for Part 3.

Going back in time a bit, FF7 Remake already ended in a way that kinda-sorta promised deviation from the OG - an idea that was welcomed by some, and despised by others, as these things always go. Those who never played the OG obviously wouldn't have as much sentimental attachment to it as those who did and are "long-time fans", but even among this second set, there were those who would prefer a 1:1 remake with no changes to the story, and those who were looking forward to some things going differently.

At first glance, Rebirth listened to those who yelled for no changes. Zack should not join up with the party. Aerith must not survive. The OG story must remain largely untouched. And for better or for worse, Rebirth seemed to do just that save for a few rearrangements here and there (like the fact we skipped Rocket Town's first visit altogether for example) and some additions that didn't so much change the story, as they expanded it and tied some lose ends from Remake. But was it really all it did? Did it not set up for part 3 to possibly break free of the OG script as Remake already indicated might happen?

I think it did, in more ways than one. I think the last leg of the game is, in a very meta sense, the devs telling the players "we gave you what you wanted, and now we'll do what we want". Allow me to elaborate.

To start, let's once again look at how the "multiverse" works here. This is not the kind of multiverse we usually see in Western media, or at least not yet. Its creation began with the destruction of the Whispers in Remake - the destruction of Fate and the Planet's iron hold on the plot of the story. Instead of the Planet, it is now the characters choices that shape the story, and since they can make different choices, each one always creates a branch leading to a different world and a different outcome. We've seen that with Zack, as the devs promised he would be the one to show us what the world in Rebirth is governed by. But while the Whispers' destruction happened in the Singularity, a place outside of usual space-time, Rebirth reveals that the effects did not, in fact, affect the past, or at least not much.

I can already feel your skepticism here. What am I talking about? Zack still survived and that's a change in the past, isn't it?

Well technically, yes. But there's something very interesting about the whole thing.

First of all, how did Zack survive? Unlike what the rules of different worlds clearly are later on, it wasn't a stroke of luck, a different possibility or any conscious choice he made that affected the outcome. No. When he talks with Biggs about his last stand and his survival, he felt "wind" and we, the players, see the Whispers interfering so that one bullet grazes his cheek instead of hitting him dead between the eyes. And interestingly, it's the only time in Rebirth that we see Whispers as they were in Remake. Not the black ones with a creepy white glow under their hoods that Sephiroth controls. Not the white ones that clearly have something to do with Aerith. The regular, gray Whispers of Fate. (Incidentally, this is also one of the first times we see the rainbow-color-effect that later gets associated with the creation of a new world. More on that later.)

It was not chance or any conscious choice that saved Zack. It was the Planet, presumably right before Fate got nuked. Why? We can only speculate based on what we saw in Rebirth, but my bet is a last ditch attempt to raise the Planet's own chances at survival despite no longer being able to guide the story and characters on the known path that would lead to... well, maybe not a "happy ending", because there's plenty of tragedy incoming, but at least an ending where the Planet survives, humans do as well and Sephiroth is largely taken care of (even if he keeps coming back and annoying people LMAO).

Here's where Zack's survival becomes interesting in how it's handled in Rebirth. In your usual multiverse (at least the way we know them in the West), you would expect this to have a butterfly effect that would, in sum, amount to "Remake can't happen as we've seen it" because Cloud is no longer alone, no longer wakes up, doesn't meet Tifa or the rest of Avalanche and thus wasn't there for the first reactor bombing. But... that isn't the case. We see this already in the beginning of the game, when Zack sees the news of the collapsed express way. It becomes obvious to us, players, that this is right after Remake, and the troopers remark that "one suspect is missing" - i.e. Cloud.

This is something that shouldn't be possible, because Zack sees this news report pretty much as soon as he enters Midgar. Except... Zack died at the end of September [ ν ] – εγλ 0007. The first reactor bombing was in December [ ν ] – εγλ 0007. The end of Remake was somewhere mid-December [ ν ] – εγλ 0007, as we know everything in it only really took a few days, a week or two at most. Even if we assume it took Zack a while to drag himself and Cloud the remaining way to Midgar in the state he was in, it's difficult to believe it would take him a whole-ass month (+/- a few days). He wasn't that far from Midgar at that point. That was the whole tragedy of it.

But then that would mean that somehow, for some reason, Zack skipped ahead in time. Which he also seems to indicate even if he doesn't realize that's what happened. "One minuted, I'm outnumbered. The next, I'm alone." If we assume the Whispers saved him and something somehow made him (and his version of Cloud) skip a month, that would make sense. There would be no Shinra troopers in that spot a month later. And that something might have been either the Whispers themselves, or a side-effect of the Singularity (again, singularity is a point that warps space-time outside of its usual norms and is, in a way, outside of it). Similarly, Biggs "miraculously teleports" from the Sector 7 Support Pillar to the orphanage (since nobody can tell him who brought him or how he got there, that seems to be the implication). One of them travels in time and skips a month ahead, the other remains in the correct time, but skips in space to a different place. Similarly, Biggs's recollection of his survival is also full of the "new world rainbow effect"... but the interesting thing is that despite how it seems to work later (one choice leads to one new world), they both end up in the Terrier world. There was no butterfly effect. The past didn't change. And yet these two men, who should both have died, meet in the same space and time, both remembering their miraculous survivals.

If you're still not convinced, here's another thing: as Marlene points out, Zack was still not there in November or the beginning of December when the bombings happened. And they still happened. We know this because Biggs still knows Cloud as the "badass mercenary" . He still remembers meeting him for the first bombing, even if his memories are getting weird. ("How long ago was that again? [laughs] Weird. My internal clock's busted." "Yeah. Mine too.") And yet, Cloud was not on the express way when everyone else from the party was. He was looked for, but not found. He didn't appear anywhere afterward. There are no two Clouds in this world. There is only the mako poisoned Cloud Zack brought to Midgar. It's almost as if the Planet wanted to save him from being taken by Shinra in this weird world so it still had the Champion that can beat Sephiroth in this off-shot world, too; so it saved Zack to achieve that. (Why did it pick Biggs, though? That we don't know yet. Given his fate in one of the worlds, he almost seems to have been brought back just so the devs can kill him again, but hey, that was only one world, right?)

So. We have a mutliverse that starts off with two worlds. The world of OG/Remake (the "Beagle Stamp" world, where the main party remains) and the world where they lost against Sephiroth on the express way but Fate/the Whispers pulled a couple last strings before it/they disappeared (the "Terrier Stamp" world). But it doesn't remain at only two worlds. We later see a world in which Stamp is a Pug, a Shiba and a Spitz (I assume one of the larger breeds of German Spitz, though I'm by far not a dog breed expert LOL). Of note is that two of these words are Zack's, created by his own choices - the Pug, where he went after Biggs to reactor 6, and the Shiba where he couldn't decide where to go and who to save because he wanted to save Biggs, Cloud and Aerith, so he went to the church first. I assume the world in which he went to Hojo is the Terrier world, but we can't be sure for certain. [edit: Actually, we can. When Zack is pointing out to himself which road leads where in the tunnel, there is a Terrier Stamp drawn on the wall behind him.] As for the German Spitz, this is the world where Cloud and Aerith have their "dream date", and as far as we can tell, Zack is not alive (or at least not around) in this world. It's either that, or he's went off somewhere else entirely, and apparently so did Marlene and Elmyra. But it's not any of the worlds we've seen Zack in thus far.

(I can already imagine you wondering what any of this has to do with "the devs telling us they gave us what we wanted and will now do what they want". Bear with me a little longer. I'm getting to that.)

The particular Spitz World is important for two reasons. On the more obvious side, it's where Cloud gets a working White Materia from Aerith so that Rebirth's main Aerith can cast Holy. On a more subtle side, it shows a limitation to how far this multiverse can go, because in that world, none of Cloud's choices matter. There isn't a world in which Cloud gave Aerith a hair ornament, a world where he gave her a bracelet and a world where he gave her a pendant. There isn't a world in which he chose to pick the different snacks at the food stall. No matter what he chooses, he gets steamrolled into a fourth option, as if the world itself rejects his choices because he's technically not a part of it. He belongs in a different world.

And as we later find out, he can make a difference and create new worlds there. This is exactly what we see when Cloud attempts to save Aerith and when we see him parrying Sephiroth's blow to save her. Remember how I mentioned the "rainbow effect" being indicative of a new world being created? That scene is full of it... right up until Jenova's interference starts playing up.

So. Here we finally are at what I was trying to get at: the devs giving us the message that "they gave us what we wanted". For those fans who wanted Aerith to die, well, they now got to see it in high res. She died. There is a world in this multiverse in which she died. That's the world of the OG. That remained unchanged as they wanted. But... I do not believe this is the world we're in at the very end of Rebirth, nor the world in which Part 3 will take place.

Take another good look at the Pug-Stamp World. More importantly, listen to Zack's lines. Every single line of his in this particular world makes as much sense for him to say as it is a meta-commentary on things. "Fate has a twisted sense of humor, and I'm always the punchline." - this is Zack's character and the summary of the plot of both CC and his appearance in Rebirth to a T. "Well, I'm sick of its bullshit. This is my life! I make the rules!" - I don't know about you, but this really feels like the devs saying "this is our game. We make the rules." Couple that with the back and forth of Aerith's death and the final message at the end of the game: "No promises remain at journey's end", and that message only seems to be driven home even further.

Fans wanted Aerith to die? Well, she did. In one world. The OG world.

Fans wanted Zack to get out of Aerith's way because she's supposed to have moved on? Well, he did. In one world. The world where he asked Marlene about Aerith's feelings for Cloud, got a childish response that still hit him hard and took Aerith's ribbon - which was basically her one memento of him - as if to remove everything that could remind her of him, and himself, from the equation. The world in which he went to Hojo.

Fans wanted Zack to still die? Well, he did that too! Arguably in more worlds than one, even! The world where he went to Hojo for sure, and possibly the world where he went after Biggs and jumped into the dried-out reactor.

The devs have given the fans who screamed for no changes all that they wanted. They kept all the promises from the OG and not changing things too much and then some. Now, no promises remain. Now, unlike Remake where it was still difficult to picture, there is a very real chance that the main party (and the main story) is no longer the OG world, but the world Cloud created when he saved Aerith. Now, the devs can do whatever the Hell they want. This is their game. Their story to tell. They make the rules.

And honestly? As far as I'm concerned, I hope they go for it! I already know the OG game. I can always replay it (or failing that watch the cutscenes or a let's play on YT) if I want the "original experience" and original plot. So can everyone else, really. I don't need for the story of the trilogy to be a one-to-one recreation with no major changes. Changes is what makes it interesting in the first place. The changes and the possibilities. Like Aerith surviving. Like her reuniting with Zack. Let them have a happy ending where they both survive. They honestly deserve it. And personally? I hope they get it, too.

[beomglocks]

happy (very) 'belated' father’s day

summary : the only father willing to come to the dinner

pairing : dilf neighbor!soobin x (legal)!reader x beomgyu (?)

warnings & other: i wrote the day after fathers day, the title is edited bc im posting this like WAY later LOL, threesome (?), degradation, some beomgyu (no incest), sub!beomgyu if you squint like really fucking hard, definitely not a normal relationship, slight exhibitionism, some possessiveness, DON’T read if you’re uncomfortable with age gaps, edit: REwriting this, this one is for the dilf soobin stans, eat up, don't say i don't feed yall, enjoy <3, kind of proofread

w/c : ~4k

you realize it now.

after living side by side with mr. choi soobin and his son, beomgyu, for a couple of weeks, you’ve started to realize something quite interesting.

1. your mother has a liking for tall lean men.

2. she also has a liking for trying to set you up with the tall lean mens’ son.

now, you wouldn't say you're exactly opposed to getting close to beomgyu. he's conventionally attractive and he seems like a nice boy but you're very much more attracted to the one who created him. it made sense after all.

"give these to mr. choi for me?" your mother all but shoves the roses and chocolates in your arms. you look down quizzically at such gifts. "it's not valentine's day.." you trail off.

you have a strange feeling that soobin would be put off by such acts, not seeming to be as out there as your mother. she doesn't care.

"it's fathers day..well it was...yesterday," she shrugs, fixing her bombshell red lipstick. why was she doing herself up? well a certain mr. choi was coming over.

despite the fact that your own father was out of the picture, that didn't stop your mom from wanting to celebrate every holiday in existence. unfortunately, the only willing father in town to partake in your mother's antics was mr. choi.

he liked to rile her up, you notice. soobin liked to toy with your mother's clear affection towards him, just as he did you. he also liked to throw it in your face sometimes. you didn't say what you observed but you knew he liked to make her feel wanted by a much younger, much more handsome man.

without another word, you decide to give the outlandish gifts to your neighbor. you sigh, looking down at the gifts. some assorted chocolates, nice flower arrangements, and what seems to be a sealed note? you want to roll your eyes but a part of you wonders if soobin would really like these kinds of things.

when you get to the door and ring the bell, the door swings open and there's stands the man himself. he's more put together than you at the moment so you feel out of place even at the front step of his house.

"always a pleasant surprise~" he smiles. his eyes trail down to the gifts in your arms. "for me?" his eyes grow wide and his pouty lips, the ones which you suddenly can't stop staring at since they seemed to be stained cherry red, lay slightly agape.

"from my mom," you deadpan, holding the gifts out. "she's generous~" "overbearing," you correct. "we seem to have different views then," he shrugs. "where's my gift from you though? this can't be all," he ponders in faux thought.

you smile shyly, looking down in embarrassment. "what did you get me baby?" he teasingly leans down closer to you to properly see your face. "could it be perhaps-"

before soobin can place a hand on you, beomgyu comes from downstairs. he's looking sharp, which suits him a lot, you admit. his hair is parted, giving you a teasing view of his forehead. regardless of the fact that he's wearing casual clothes, a stark contrast from his father who dawns an all black attire, beomgyu still manages to make it work for him.

"we'll be seeing you at the dinner," soobin clears his throat, noticing your apparent staring at his son. you can tell that he feels off put by your slight attraction to beomgyu. however small or minuscule it may be its still there to him.

the dinner goes almost exactly how you thought it would. soobin and your mother hit it off, talking about whatever they could to distract themselves from their children for a while. to your surprise soobin barely interacts with you. he seems too occupied with entertaining your mom to pay you any mind.

you're not sure why but this bothers you. beomgyu is occupied in the bathroom at the moment so you can't help but glance in their direction every couple of seconds. your mom is currently leaning against soobin's broad shoulder, laughing at something he's previously said. so he’s a comedian.

you watch as he looks down at her with a satisfied smile on his face. you bite the inside on your cheek and as if on cue, soobin looks up in your direction and smirks. it's almost as if he's taunting you. you bite down harder until you taste something metallic in your mouth.

you're not sure where this feeling of jealously is coming from and you know it's not healthy but you can't help it. maybe you've gotten too attached to your older neighbor in these past couple of weeks.

beomgyu comes out of the restroom with a sigh, walking back into the living room where you are. he can feel a weird tension in your general area but decides not to comment on it. suddenly you stand up, catching beomgyu off guard.

"come on beomgyu!" you say loud enough for everyone to hear especially soobin. the man in question practically pauses in speech midway to look over at you and his son. he eyes you both, mainly giving you a glare that will be engraved in your mind but you don't care. he needs a taste of his own medicine.

"come on let's go to my room, i need to show you something~" you urge him along. meanwhile, you say those words while staring straight at soobin. you hear your mom assure him that it's ok, "the kids are doing their own thing." you knew you were being childish and petty but if soobin wanted to fuck around with you this is what he would have to deal with as well.

you drag beomgyu along to your room who seems quite eager to be in this position. all he knows is that there's a weird tension between you and his father but that's as far as his knowledge goes.

when you both arrive at your room you close the door behind you and lean back on it. "is everything alright?" beomgyu hesitantly asks. you sigh, ushering him along to sit on the bed with you. he looks around subtly at all the little items in your room. everything seems to reflect you well, in his opinion. "well.." you try to stall.

you look up at him through your lashes. "you like me right?" beomgyu stares at you with wide eyes, "i-i mean yeah?" he stutters at your boldness.

"then lets try something," you smile at him, casually pulling your shirt over your head. "let's see how long it takes for your dad to come see us in this position," you say to yourself.

soobin doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to know what's going on here. he knows you're being a brat on purpose but he doesn't care because it makes it all the more fun. he will say he's surprised that you're using beomgyu, his own son, to get to him.

at first, he was getting annoyed with how you seemed to take a liking for his son which is why he wanted to rile you up by seeming extra interested in whatever your mom had to say. now, however, he knew he had a plan for that. you were not going to outsmart him, he wouldn't allow it and he would just have to put you in your place.

"excuse me but i need to use your restroom," soobin makes up a bullshit excuse to get to where you are. "oh of course!" your mom nods at him, instructing him towards the one upstairs. perfect.

"ill just finish up the dinner then!" your mother offers. "great that's enough time to put this slut in her place," he thinks. he smiles at your mom heading for upstairs.

"beomgyu you look like you just saw a ghost," you chuckle lightly, looking down at him. "y/n," he groans at the sight of only seeing you in your bra. he reaches up to grab your breasts, fondling them as delicately as possible. "you can be rough," you offer.

without even bothering to knock on the door, soobin opens it to see you both on the bed in a lewd position. you shirtless on top of beomgyu. he sucks his teeth when you both look back in alarm at the door being burst open. "y/n," he chuckles, almost sadistically.

you can already see the look in his eyes and suddenly you feel bad for not only yourself but beomgyu as well. you try to subtly grab your shirt again in shame but soobin's glare stops you. "what do you think you're doing little slut?" he folds his arms over his chest. not even caring that beomgyu is in the room, he walks over to you and grabs your hair causing you to yelp in surprise.

"s-sir.." soobin narrows his eyes at you then they flit over to beomgyu. "sit over there," he motions to the beanbag in the corner of the room. "i want you to learn something from this." without another word, beomgyu scrambles over to the seat, his heart beating in fear and excitement strangely.

you feel heat rising up your neck and to your cheeks as well as your dripping pussy. "don't be embarrassed, im sure this was your plan all along," soobin tsks, shoving your face down into the sheets. you breathe out when he rips the skirt and underwear from your body without a second thought. the racy thong that was supposed to be his surprise for father's day discarded in a second.

"soobin-" a smack to your ass. "that's not my name."

he doesn't even give you a chance to correct yourself, messing with your sticky juices before entering his cold fingers into your hole. you try to stifle your moan by burying your head further into the sheets.

"god you're so wet," soobin comments. he slowly moves his finger in and out for a while, practically torturing you with how meticulous and slow he's being. "please," you whine pathetically. "please what?" he slows his movements to stare at you with a raised eyebrow.

"please f-fuck me, please, i need your cock," you beg shamelessly. beomgyu breathes heavily, trying to forget about his growing boner but not being able to ignore it. he painfully wants to do something about it but he's not sure if he's allowed to touch himself.

he opts for subtly dragging his hand to his clothed crotch and palming himself through his pants, as uncomfortable as it is. in the meantime, soobin rids himself of his own pants, shaking his head.

he lightly smacks your throbbing pussy and you jolt. "do you seriously think you deserve it? fuck, look at you, can’t wait to be fucked like a bitch in heat~" you whine, wiggling your ass wordlessly in his face to hopefully get what you want.

soobin rubs your clit with narrowed eyes, making sure beomgyu is watching. he could care less that beomgyu is touching himself. he drags some of your cum from your hole to your clit and sighs. "alright then.."

he aligns himself with your hole and without another word slips his cock in with ease, completely bottoming out.

you want to scream at how big he is but you're only left with ragged pants as you know you're unable to make any loud noises. it seriously feels like you could be torn apart at any minute but you love the feeling of soobin’s cock filling you out.

"you're so tight seriously," soobin breathes. he can barely move at first. the way his dick fits inside of your pussy perfectly. he almost wants to comment about how you were practically made for him. he's sure if he flips you over right now, he would see the outline of his cock in your womb.

after waiting a bit for you to adjust to his length he finally starts moving. "shit-" he breathes. you have to grip the sheets to stop yourself from yelling. soobin's hands find their way to your waist and when you look to the side just for a split second you can see beomgyu fighting for his life to not moan out loud.

"look beomgyu-" soobin says in between jagged breaths. "if you wanna fuck around with his pathetic slut this is how you treat her." a moan gets caught in your throat when soobin pounds into you at once. "ah- i-" a part of you wants to apologize and is trying to but he won't give you a chance to speak.

"isn't that right my slutpuppy? did you have something to add?" at the sound of the nickname your walls tighten around him and he sends a harsh smack to your ass. "you're enjoying this aren't you?" he rolls his eyes and sighs heavily.

soobin thrusts start getting faster and faster, beomgyu watching with his mouth agape at his father kissing and sucking at your neck to muffle his own moans. beomgyu can only bite his lip and noises from his throat barely pass his lips as he reaches his high.

soobin growls at seeing your eyes focus on beomgyu so he starts slamming his cock into you at an animalistic pace and you think you might break.

beomgyu bucks into his hand as he cums from the sound and sight of skin slapping added with the tiny noises you'd make. not too long after you feel yourself shudder, unable to warn soobin that you had come you squeeze your eyes shut and let out a whine instead.

"fuck- ok baby," soobin understands as soon as your walls squeeze around him. he pants a couple a times and as soon as he reaches his high he pulls out, pumping his cock to let his cum shoot out on your ass.

"s-sir," you moan. "shhh it's ok." soobin sighs heavily, coming down from his own high to tend to your broken state. he looks over at beomgyu, who's head is lulled to the side as he gazes at your sweat and semen covered body.

soobin sucks his teeth deciding not to say anything to the boy and let him chill for a minute. he shrugs his pants back on and carries you in his arms to the nearest bathroom.

you cozy up to his warm embrace, letting out a sigh. "baby we need to clean you off.." you hear him whisper. you almost completely forget that there's a dinner that's supposed to be happening and you cant just go to sleep with soobin like you'd want.

a sudden coldness hits your body and you shiver. "ok," you agree. his cum is already starting to dry on you and you want nothing more than to be cleaned like he offers. you're not sure how you'll explain your change of clothes to your mom but you're sure you'll come up with something later.

no words need to be spoken after what happened and you're glad because you're not sure what to say. soobin doesn't seem keen on talking at the moment either, too focused on cleaning you off, so you decide to stay quiet.

it's silent in the bathroom until you both hear your mother all out. "dinner's ready!"

you chuckle, breaking the silence as soobin looks up at you with a questioning eyebrow. “happy father’s day.”

[crystalelemental]

“hamofjustice: i've definitely wondered if i've poisoned my own experiences by having the "i'm just running through this to get to postgame" mindset and exploring+remembering pretty much nothing on the way there, when imagining oneself in the pokemon world was the most fun part as a kid. it is a little disappointing that you kinda still have to go out of your way to smell the roses and use your imagination though, still towns of 4 houses with people who say 1 line each in 2022.”

I dunno, I prefer it over the opposite, which I’m going to start calling the Breath of the Wild effect, since it’s the only open-world game I’ve directly experienced.  When everything open and there’s technically tons to do but it’s all very repetitive and boring, that’s way worse to me.

I think the real hit has been...as I’ve gotten older, I feel like I’ve had less time for fun.  I can experience older games with the same excitement because I have established concepts and ideas within those games, and that carries over.  But a new game needs that time and energy devoted, that I’m not always willing to invest because I’m tired, or pulled in too many directions by life, and don’t feel like I can dedicate, and then it feels hollow because yeah, it’s four houses with people who say one line each.  It doesn’t feel like as much.  There are also legitimate changes that do simplify things.  Gen 8 is actually a smaller world.  Each route is much smaller that previous games, there are fewer trainer battles, and a lot less side stuff to explore, because the game wanted to streamline its experience to facilitate EXP All by removing situations like Gen 2′s Team Rocket segments that go for 40 minutes of fighting the same four Pokemon.  I can’t say it wasn’t well intentioned, but it does leave a gaping hole where an interested spooky Fae Forest should be, you know?

“3 minutes devoted to a character's vibe is pretty cool in comparison! actually putting stuff like that in the game would be a pretty welcome thing i would not complain about online for wasting my time and would make me enjoy every time i encountered them later more (also, i like that the elite four have been characters you actually know in the games lately, instead of four themed weirdo strangers. sometimes even the champion is some rando who said one line to you before)”

Just calling Diantha right out, huh?  But yeah, I like getting to know these characters.  I think the inverse is also fine though.  Like, FRLG kept the same structure where you really don’t know the E4, but your post-game had stuff like the Four Island bit with Lorelei, and I think that’s great too.  I don’t have to know them at first, but there should be something.  I do like the idea of getting some time to know the gym leaders, and I think the best example we had of that was probably Gen 5, where you met almost all of them in advance of their battle, or their battle was immediately followed a segment learning about their character.  That was great.  I think it’s part of why Gen 5′s cast shines so much.  If they could produce something comparable again, I think people would respond positively.

“(and in the language of pokemon tropes a rando saying one ambiguous line to you basically gives away that they're the champion. if i knew i'd have this much to say i'd just have reblogged it oops)”

You’re fine.  But you’re right, I think it was probably a good move on their part to just...announce who is the Champion.  The mystery was pretty easily solved early on.

“megazardx2: @hamofjustice Well, only Diantha was ever really a “rando” as far as Champions are concerned.”

Hehe, we all know about that one.  Poor Diantha.

“Anyways, I agree; they’ve been putting a lot more effort into making Gym Leaders, E4 members and Champions into actual characters for players to engage and fall in love with for reasons outside of design, which is something I very much appreciate. I mean, the existence of Pokémon Masters is proof!“

I definitely like having character, but on the Masters note...I think it’s nice to have gaps too.  I don’t need to know everything about a character, just enough to work with.  Like...part of the fun of a character like Jasmine or Caitlin for me is that we don’t know everything about them, and have some room for interpretation.  I know some find that bothersome and lacking depth, but I think it can be a nice experience at times, too.

[acetrainermags]

Pokémon Adventures Chapter 1-5: The Journey Begins

Our journey begins in Pallet Town, and right off the bat, we’re introduced to our protagonist, a boy named Red. He shows a group of children how to capture a wild Nidorino by battling it with his Poliwhirl, and they’re all amazed. One child asks him if he’s ever talked to Professor Oak, but Red writes him off as just some “weirdo.”

I always thought it was interesting that when we first meet Red, he already has one evolved Pokémon, Poliwhirl (as opposed to Poliwag). We get the story about this later, but still, this is pretty impressive for a boy who’s seemingly never left his hometown. It makes sense that he’s a little cocky because of it – and that’s why he doesn’t care for Professor Oak’s advice at first. Red doesn’t think he needs it.

This is also as good a place as any to mention the Pokéball design used in this manga. I always wondered how trainers differentiated between their Pokéballs, and the solution in Pokémon Adventures is a translucent top half, allowing trainers to see which creature is inside. I really like how this comes into play throughout the series.

We also see trainers using other types of Pokéballs, like this Team Rocket grunt. I find it fascinating when these earlier chapters still have “remnants” of the early Pokémon days, like these Great Balls with the “S” on them for “Super Balls” (the Japanese name).

I don’t really have much to say about these next few scenes: Red sees the legendary Pokémon Mew in the forest and has a brief encounter with his soon-to-be rival. Next, he meets Prof. Oak, accidentally releases a bunch of Oak’s Pokémon, and goes on a brief quest to recapture them. Oak gives Red a Bulbasaur and a Pokédex, and Red sets off on his journey.

Chapter 3 gives us a proper introduction to our second main character, Blue. You might also know him as Green, but to remain consistent with the translation I’m using, I’ll refer to him as Blue (see more about that on my Notes page).

Honestly, Blue’s attitude toward catching Pokémon is very relatable. I too ignore every Pokémon once I catch one.

I also think it’s funny that Red is just absolutely ready to throw hands at any given time.

And we finally get Blue’s name, after Red practically begs him for it. I feel like this sums up their dynamic rather well, actually – excitable golden retriever boy and arrogant serious boy who just wants to be left alone. Has Blue ever actually had a friend before?

(I also feel like this interaction has some material for the Red x Blue shippers out there. My ship name knowledge is lacking. I think this one is OriginalShipping? Someone correct me if I’m wrong).

And if you didn’t get it through your head that Red and Blue are rivals and character foils, here’s a panel to explain to you just that:

In all seriousness, I do like the dynamic between Red and Blue. They definitely get on each other’s nerves at first, but over time, they really come to balance each other out. But more on that in future chapters.

And then we get to my FAVORITE part of this volume, which is: CHONKY PIKACHU. Look at him! Look how Round he is! I want to hug him!

Anyway. It’s a crime against humanity that TPCi redesigned Pikachu later on. Round Pikachu is Best Pikachu and I will not be taking any criticism at this time.

After capturing Pikachu, Red challenges the Pewter City Gym and its leader, Brock. Red finally breaks through to his ornery new Pokémon after he risks himself to protect Pikachu, and Pikachu returns the favor by zapping Brock’s Onix into oblivion. Obviously this bends the rules of Pokémon lore a little bit (electric attacks shouldn’t affect a ground-type Pokémon like Onix), but it’s a cute bonding moment so we’ll let it slide

And that brings us through the first five chapters of Pokémon Adventures! Next stop: Cerulean City.

[13uswntimagines]

Under the Stars (Mal x Reader)

Request: Mal Pugh imagine where the reader is her childhood best friend but they've never admitted their feelings for each other but it comes out when one of the youngin's start to hit on her when Mal introduces her to the team?

Special Thanks to @literaryhedgehog​

You had known Mal for as long as you could remember, and for as long as Mal could remember you loved stars. You had been obsessed with them since you could walk, so it wasn’t a shock when you had decided to study astronomy. 

It wasn’t often that you and Mal could go stargazing together, with you working at the science center and her being a soccer star, so when she was in town, it had been a no brainer for her to take her friends to see you (Lindsey would argue that staring creepily at a random tour guide wasn’t “seeing” but the ticket lady said you had to finish your 3:00 before you could take them around. You were just too pretty to ignore anyway). 

Mal watched as Lindsey and Rose checked out the coin racing game at the entrance, waiting near the poster that said “tour starts here” for you to show up. She wiped her palms on her jeans, thinking about how long it had been. Was it really three years since you had actually seen her in person? And then she saw you. 

You were walking down the hall talking to your 3:00 tour group. You were walking backwards, of course, telling the group about the regularly scheduled events at the planetarium that they could sign up for. Mal remembered how last time you saw her, you had challenged her to a backwards race, “the first race I have ever won against Mal Pugh.” You were so excited, that Mal didn’t even mind being the designated driver that night (the loser’s prize for the competition), even though it was one of the few chances to go out with friends between seasons. 

“Did you already call dibs, or is she up for grabs?” Emily asked, nudging Mal out of her reverie. 

“First, gross. She’s a person not a seat in the car or the last Oreo. Second, She’s my childhood best friend,” Mal scoffed. Then she elbowed Emily sharply, noticing where her gaze had gone. You were still walking backward, and Emily had noticed. 

“So, single childhood best friend or…?” Emily asked distractedly. 

“You’re not asking her out,” Mal said again, as Lindsey and Rose returned from their game. She tried to say it like Carli said “do it again”, with a tone that allowed no argument. But it came out a bit more defensive. 

“Why? Sonny’s well within her rights. There’s not like a rule against it,” Lindsey bit her lip. Even in that terrible museum polo, you looked hot. 

“I’m with Linds on this on…” Rose shrugged with a smirk, more interested in annoying Mal than anything else. 

“I hate you all,” Mal hissed, turning and moving to stand in front of them, blocking their view of you. Lindsey and Emily each just smiled and took a step to the side, presumably so that their view was no longer blocked. Assholes. 

“Well, I certainly hope you don’t hate me!” Your voice came from directly behind her. 

“Y/N!” Mal cheered, whipping around and throwing her arms over you. You pulled her into an equally tight hug, throwing your arms over her shoulders and pressing your cheek to hers (completely missing the mischievous look the other three women shared). 

“Hey Mal, are you going to introduce us to your lovely friend?” Emily began, in a falsely sweet voice. 

“Or are you just going to keep using her as a teddy bear?” Lindsey finished, quirking her eyebrow up. Mal’s cheeks flamed red. If she didn’t think this tour was going to be interesting before, she knew now. 

****

Mal could already see the headlines now. 3 USWNT players murdered with a model rocket. Or Murder at the museum- the forward who snapped and bashed her teammates with the scale sun. She was going to kill someone if they made another pass at you. 

“So in this display here you can see what is left of a meteor that fell downtown. Now meteors are made of stone or iron, and they typically burn up in the atmosphere. This one must have been very large when it entered earth’s atmosphere because it was still two inches long when it landed on Elm street in 1976.” 

“Well, maybe you’re a meteor then because I’m burning up around you,” Lindsey smirked, bumping your side. You sent a glance Mal’s way, glad to see that she was interested in your many factoids. She seemed way more engaged in the tour than last time, and was listening to every word you exchanged with her friends with rapt attention. 

“No, it’s the earth’s atmosphere that causes the meteor’s to burn. You see the layer of molecules making up the Earth’s mesosphere rub against them, generating heat through the friction generated by the meteor’s speed. I suppose it is a little warm in here though, the next room should be better. It’s the largest model of a rocket west of the Mississippi,” Your hands waved wildly with your excitement. The rocket room was your second favorite in the entire museum. 

“Well I know a thing or two about friction, and I even brought my very large rocket with me. I could show it to you if you want,” Emily saddled up beside you, throwing an arm over your shoulder. You shrugged her off, beginning to walk backwards out of the room. 

“So as you can see, this room was designed to look like a miniature set up of the launch of the Friendship 7, the rocket launch that put John Glenn on the first man-piloted orbit around the Earth.”

“I would love if we could rocket past the friendship orbit” Rose said salaciously, blatantly ignoring the hole Male was staring into her head.

“Oh but it’s a really interesting piece of history, and was actually showcased in the recent film Hidden Figures. The Apollo 11 mission is more famous of course, but the Friendship 7 mission actually was a large part of the space race. The Friendship orbited the earth three times with an autopilot failure, so John Glen had to manually pilot the spacecraft-” you started.

“I could show you how I manually pilot my spacecraft,” Lindsey winked, her lips twitching before she could school her features. Mal glared at her. It wasn’t fair that they were using your obliviousness as entertainment. 

“You have a model too? And it flys?” You asked, mouth agape. Models like that were not cheap, even if you got them secondhand. “That’s not fair. Is it like a USWNT thing?”

“Oh yeah, we women’s soccer stars have some amazing remote control shuttles,”  Rose nodded, somehow able to keep a serious expression. 

 “Mal, why haven’t you ever shown me yours?” Emily suddenly had a ‘coughing fit’ and Rose patted her on the back as they both hid their laughter at your phrasing. You were too busy glaring at Mal to notice. “I thought you were my best friend.” 

“Trust us, she wishes she could, but she’s just too chicken to admit it,” Lindsey mumbled under her breath, but you heard it. Your head snapped in her direction. What was Mal too chicken to admit, that she liked rockets too? What was the worst thing that could happen? You would probably tease her just like she always teased you. 

“Ok, that’s enough,” Mal said, giving the finger to Lindsey out of your line of sight. 

“So I’m kinda confused,” you said, looking at Mal. Wait, was she blushing?

“They’ve been flirting with you to mess with me,” 

“Oh…” Mal cringed at your voice, the way you somehow clipped the word short, but also seemed to fill the silence following it. Your cheeks heated with embarrassment. 

You brought your hand up to rub the back of your neck, as you stared at the suddenly interesting ground. “So, you’ve been listening to me ramble just so you could tease me later about how oblivious I was?” you asked sadly. You had really wanted this to go well. To impress the girl you had been in love with for as long as you could remember, and your geeky interest in space had fucked that up. 

“No, they want to tease me about my massive crush on you,” Mal rolled her eyes, stepping a step towards you and cupping your still red cheeks. 

“How massive?” You asked like a two year old, licking your lips. 

 “Think Jupiter sized.” 

“That is pretty big,” You said, nodding your head thoughtfully, “More than three Earths could fit into its red spot alone.”

“Hmm,” Mal hummed, her lips mysteriously getting closer to yours, even though you hadn’t moved. 

“The gravity machine is in the next room if you three wanna go ahead,” You waved your hand in that direction, never taking your eyes off of Mal. 

You heard Emily whine out a “But this was just starting to get good,” and Lindsey’s responding “Shut up Disani and keep walking.,” 

“Now that they’re gone, I can do something I’ve been waiting to do since we were kids,” Mal’s breath fanned against your lips a second before her skin touched your own. It was slow and sweet and made even more perfect by the fact that you were where you had always loved being with her. Under the stars.

[yamithediaperdork]

A simple misunderstanding (Harry potter)

In many ways what happened on may 19th, the one year anniversary of Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter having started dating could of been avoided.

Had either of them ever admitted they're full fetishes is just one example. If Harry hadn't of just gotten too curious to see what was the big surprise and snuck into Draco's room while the latter was out to snoop was anther example. (the boys had a bedroom they shared but each had their own study/room for just themselves that the other technically wasn't suppose to enter..But Harry had never really been one for staying out of trouble.)

Of course If Draco hadn't mentioned a big surprise and then went tip lipped about it then harry might not of been prone to trying to snoop, but sadly Draco just loved how childish harry could act when he wasn't in the know.

In any case, what follows was above all else.. a simple misunderstanding that somehow escalated.

Harry knew he had to be fast, Draco had only gone out for a pint with some of his old friends from slytherin and wouldn't be gone for too long since he wasn't much of a drinker.

He wasn't worried about triggering any of the detection spells or minor traps Draco had put up in his private room due to having to dispel much worse and much stronger at his own job.

In comparison to his own study, Draco's was tidy and clean though Harry suspected a house elf was behind it while his own was tidy and had papers and books stacked everywhere.

The house elf wasn't around though so Harry didn't worry about that and figured his best bet for finding Draco's surprise was a chest that had almost perfectly been covered up with a active invisible cloak. But as muggles say: Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

One small spot on the left front bottom corner was showing and so Harry tugged the cloak off and after studying the locks for all of 12 seconds, used a simple spell and the tap of his wand to unlock the chest.

He had mulled over what the present could be, Knowing Draco wasn't found of muggle electronic gaming devices and the chest wasn't big enough for new broomsticks. what was in the chest brought a blush then a smile to Harry's face.

"How the bloody hell did he find out I'm a daddy dom?!" Harry asked softly, looking in the chest that was stuffed with baby powder, wipes, bottles, dummy's, stuffies and lots and lots of DIAPERS!

Harry had gotten into to teasing and babying other boys after his first time coming to the Wesley household where all the boys were still in nappies when home. It was Mrs.Wesley's way of helping them relax and the twins took took it with delight while Percy had declined that year, and Ron had tried to beg off in front of Harry.

Harry himself was offered nappies but expressed more of a interest in helping with the babying and well from then on he was hooked. He had never even hinted at those feelings with Draco, having figured there was no way his blond prince would ever wanna be a helpless little guy.

'He must of gone to Ron for help with a gift idea! Heh.. Can't say I mind....For the most part.' Harry mused mentally, noting that the nappies were all plastic disposable ones while he was more of a fan of terrycloth and rubber pants. 'Still, I'd have to be a awful git to refuse to put him in them since he's gone to all this trouble'

Closing the lid and resetting the locks for now, Harry adjusted the cloak back to where it had been exactly and made his leave of the room.

'I wonder if he's a full on big baby, a diaper boy or just trying this out for me? that was a awful lot of nappies for just a trial phase.' Harry mused, never once thinking there could of been anther explanation.

Draco chuckled as he made his way back from the market. After all this time and Potter could still be fooled with such a dumb lie. Draco would of never gone down to a pub for a pint, if he was going to drink it would be something more to his standards and taste. Still, it was a good go to lie and Harry fell for it every time and if it wasn't broke, don't fix it.

under his one arm was a larger then normal self assembling high chair that would have restraints built in and be big enough for Harry or himself for that matter,

He had of course known all about the Wesley's being nappy boys, and a normally vengeful Ginny had been delighted to till Draco all about how much Harry loved being a big baby.

'Heh, she likely thought it would scare me off.. still pining for him.' Draco thought.

No, if anything, finding out Harry like to be teased and humiliated in nappies just made Draco love him even more, he had after all inflicted more then a few cases of nappy humiliation on students at Hogwarts. (ironically Raven Claw made the best blushing and submissive big babies, hufflepuff's just made it clear they'd report you since they didn't have anything to lose, being in the worst of the four houses.)

Still having a boyfriend with a great job, a awesome house and was a rocket in the sack that he could also tease and dominate in nappies? Uh, yes please!

the thought that Ginny might of been lying to him never crossed Draco's mind and he made use of a magic breath mint to give him breath a touch of ale on it as he came home.

"Hey luv, I'm back." He called, not seeing Harry in their shared living room or the kitchen, taking the chance to stash the box in the closet.

"Already? Harry called, then appeared as he came into view from the hallway that lead to the studies. "What happened, Crab started chugging beers again? I know how uncomfortable that makes you." Harry added, coming over and wrapping his arms around Draco.

"Someone's in a good mood." Draco chuckle, then returned the hug and added a smooch on Harry's lips, making the more strait edge wizard pull back a little.

"Brush your teeth then get a nap in luv, I have a feeling it's gonna be a long night~"Harry coo'ed.

'Heh, you don't know the half of it~' Draco thought but then out loud gave a little pout. "Awww, a nap? alone? sure you don't wanna join me?"

"..That can be arranged, but first, your teeth. I think I'm getting a buzz off your breath." Harry said and pulled away, and then slapped Draco's butt.

The slimmer blond blushed, but didn't say anything and headed for the washroom.

After a little something to tired them both out the pair of wizards conked out in each others arms, a alarm set for 5 pm sharp which meant they would have in theory a 3 hour nap.

Of course in practice it was actually Harry who would wake up first with use of a little charm he had cast on himself to wake him up 20 minutes sooner and as he slide out of bed he both shut off the alarm and used a sleeping sleep to keep Draco dead to the world.Leaving Draco sprawled out in the bed Harry went and gathered up their clothes they had left on the floor before the love making and found to his amusement a recite from a bondage shop in town for a high chair.

"Oh my, you don't do anything half ass do you my love?" Harry chuckled, though the only response he got was a soft snore from the snoozing blond.

Moving from the bedroom after donning his clothes Harry's first move was to check in the closet by the door, the only place that Draco could of hidden the high chair and grinned ear to ear as he found it and removed the pieces from the box.

Apparently whoever gave the command for the high chair to set up would retain the control over it, control only shifting if it was ordered to dismantle again.

"Simple enough. Set up time." Harry said and watched with mild amusement as the white wooden pieces quickly fitted themselves together. "Blimey, I'll have to see if they got a crib.. this kind of magic would save A LOT of time."

Setting the chair up by the dinning room table, Harry made his way back towards Draco's study and once again let himself in with ease as he went over to the chest.

Peering inside and tapping his chin he had a bit of unexpected trouble..Draco had chosen so many cute outfit's Harry was having a hard time picking what to put him in.

"Well I suppose a pair of those locking booties and mittens, a nappy and bib will work for now. we are gonna eat right away and little guys are SO messy when they munch." Harry said, fishing the items out and chuckling softly then noticing a pacifier gag. "Oh Draco, you ARE a kinky one~"

Coming back into the room and setting down a pair of green mitten and booties with dark gold frilly trim on the ankles and wrist and a bib with the same color scheme plus a cartoon snake on the front forming a S, harry still had the thick white nappy with a nursery print and the paci gag in his hands when he looked at Draco and almost squealed.

the little blond cutie pie was nursing away on his thumb and had a line of drool going down his chin! the only thing keeping him from replacing the thumb at that very moment with Draco's paci is once he did that he would of wanted to get him fully dressed, and Harry still had to get the baby food in the chest out and get a ba-ba of formula ready.

"Truly, Heavy is the burden I bare."

Draco was dreaming about spanking Harry with him over his lap, till the boy who survived was bawling like a baby and had tinkled all over Draco's lap.

Draco was in the middle of scolding Harry in his dream then suddenly his mouth stopped working right, his words muffled! Looking down Draco saw that a dummy had been popped in his mouth and it was Harry now who had him on a giant changing table and was dressing him!

the more dream Draco tried to fight this attack off the bigger dream harry got till he towered over Draco as if he was just a real 2 year old and one solid swat to his rump stopped his fighting in a instant.

'No! this is just a dream! wake up!' Draco willed to himself, and poof!

His eyes were opened, and he went to relax..only to find his mouth was still gagged.

"Mmmmph!?" Draco tried to asked what, but the fat nipple of the dummy filled his mouth even as he looked at Harry in shock.

"Welcome back to the land of the living little guy!" Harry chuckled and leaned down kissing Draco's forehead. "I was getting worried my sleeping charm was too strong."

Draco felt himself being picked up and stood up on his feet and knew even before he was stood in front of a mirror what he would see, his face going crimson as he heard the crinkle, felt the bulk between his legs and could feel his hands and feet encased in the soft cotton of the mitten's and booties.

"Aww is somebody all shy? It's ok Draco, Daddy is SO happy you decided to be his widdle guy for our special night!" Harry was saying and then kissed his cheek.

Draco opened his eyes, turning his head to glare at harry but then caught his reflection and stared in shock. He want's JUST in a nappy, from the looks of it Harry had gone and put in at LEAST 3 of them! he hadn't felt the bib before and naturally couldn't of known which of the booties and mittens Harry had picked out but now he could tell and assumed it was because of the green dummy in his mouth, with the dark gold straps that went around his head to hold them in.

He turn his head fully to Harry know and tried to tell him off, but all it did was make him mumble and drool flow down his chin.

"Hmm, what's wrong buddy?" Harry asked, raising a eyebrow then smiled. "Ohhh I see."

'Thank god, the stupid git figured it out! I'm the da-' Draco was thinking but Harry interrupted his thoughts.

"Your mad because you wanted to surprise me. I get it. Daddy WAS a bit of a bad boy huh?" Harry chuckled.

'...Fuck my life.' Draco mentally groaned as harry droned on.

"Welll I just couldn't help myself from looking around , and I just couldn't believe you found out how much of a daddy dom I am, and you were willing to play along. I never pegged you as a little so wasn't gonna bring it up."

'...Mistakes have been made.' Draco thought and suckled fast.

Clearly Ginny HAD been telling half truths,and with Harry being the snoop he is Draco was paying for it BIG time.

"I know I got carried away with the nappies too, but I just love a thickly diapered baby boy..Plus when I found those poopie pills in the chest as well.. your gonna be making me a BIG present soon and I didn't wanna leak a leak."

"MMMPFFFH!?" Draco cried out into his gag, eyes going wide as they could.

there HAD been a dull pain in his backside but Harry had been highly spirited during their love making and just figured that had been it. He could even feel them starting to work now, a cramping starting up and Draco whimpered and shook his head no over and over.

"ah ah ah, you were gonna be my little stinker anyways, I'm just making it happen sooner. what can I say, I love feeding a smelly boi~" Harry chuckled and kissed Draco's cheek then scooped him up, carrying him with Draco's front to Harry front as the unwilling big baby tried to think of a escape.

Sadly, without his wand he was pretty much SOL.

Harry was loving how much Draco was playing the unwilling baby when they both knew the truth. Like, why else would of Draco had all of this ready to go?

truth be told Ron had been his favorite big baby out of the Wesley boys because of how embarrassed and unwilling he was to have Harry babying him and if anything this cemented that Ron had clued Draco in.

'I'll have to send him a thank you basket.' Harry mentally chuckled.

Patting Draco's bottom he knew any second now his amazing boyfriend would be loading his nappies to the brim.The packaging on the pills had claimed one was enough, but harry wasn't going to chance it and had used three of the large pills, musing how easily they had slid into his love's backside.

Coming into the dinning room/kitchen, Draco took one look at the high chair and then looked back to harry and shook his head no over and over again, which was just frankly ADORABLE!

"Now now, your the one who brought it, I'm just helping out." Harry said, getting ready to set Draco in the high chair when Draco's struggles managed to get the blond big baby free of Harry's arms.

of course this just meant that Draco fell on his rump on the floor, though with all the padding he had on Harry wasn't too concerned.

"Well what are you gonna do now? you can't get that outfit off yourself, and your free to run out into the yard dressed like that." Harry said, stepping back and crossing his arms. "I'm sure we'll be the talk of the street."

Draco whined and glared up, then turned pail, a ominous rumbling coming from his tummy.

"Oh Present time already?" Harry asked.

The cramps had been getting worse and worse, but what Draco knew that harry didn't was the highchair had a unadvertised extra feature in it. Anyone who was restrained in it was looking at a HOUR minimum stuck in it!

It had been Draco's own little added feature and he was about to get to enjoy the fruits of it, unless he could SOMEHOW get out of this, or failing at that..convince Harry to change him before being strapped in.

He knew there was no way in hell he could get to his feet and waddle to his study, when he MIGHT be able to write out a message to Harry...But maybe if he swallowed just a smidge more pride he could maybe avoid much much worse.

Getting on all fours he had the idea to crawl to his study but the act involved basically presenting his puffy nappy clad rear to Harry who was chuckling in amusement.

Operation: crawl for freedom also died right then and there as the movement had pushed his cramps to the limit, Making him push his forehead to the push and jut out his butt as all hell broke loose.

As the contents of his bowels (and a few bones and/or internal organs from what it felt like to him) pushed out into the seat of his diapers Draco suddenly realized why all those Raven claw students had broken down crying.Filling a nappy to the brine didn't exactly feel all that nice if you weren't into it.

'Karma is a fucking bitch!'

On a scale of 1 to 10, Draco was a total 100 at playing the big stinky nappy bitch game, and despite the horrid smell that filled the house Harry had little hearts in his eyes.

the nappies had to of been enchanted, there was simply no way they would of held up THIS well as the back of the diapers ballooned out like you'd see in a cartoon.

'I'll have to get the brand name from him I can totally see this happening more and more often.' Harry cheerfully thought, then chuckled. 'Good thing I didn't put him in a onesie though.. the buttons would of flown off and might of taken out a eye!'

when he judged the mess to be over after about 15 minutes (mostly from Draco just laying there panting, eyes glazed and and beads of sweat dripping off of him, Harry helped the stinker up.

He was going to wait to remove the dummy gag until he got the big baby in the chair, but with such a cute display he just couldn't wait.

Draco wasn't even aware as the gag came out, though there was a soft steady mutter of 'da da da da da' escaping from his mouth. wiping his chin with bib, Harry then mouth in and gave Draco a hot kiss, shocking Draco out of his stupor but not fast enough as Harry pushed Draco back into the chair and cried out resistant as he did so.

instantly the tray came up and over Draco's head, sliding in and locking in place and pinning Draco's arms under the tray instead over in the arm restraints though his feet were locked in.

The feeling of landing on his muck butt had stopped whatever Draco was about to say, at least till he was secured in place.

"I'm sorry, you were going to say something?" Harry chuckled, about to turn and get Draco a bowl of baby food.

"POTTER YOU BLOODY GIT!! THIS WAS ALL FOR -YOU- TO WEAR!! I'M A TOP!" Draco bellowed.

Harry froze in his tracks and locked eyes with Draco, it was pretty clear this wasn't big baby regrets.

"Ummm..Oops?" Harry said sheepishly. "I'll um.. just get you free an-"

"I'M STUCK IN HERE FOR A BLOODY HOUR YOU WANKER!" Draco growled and then as he went on ranting, Harry couldn't help but think of two things.

1. He had screwed up BIG time and maybe should stop snooping around and

2. since he was already in the dog house, maybe popping the dummy gag back in till he could release Draco might be a good idea.

The end.

[clareguilty]

Follower Giveaway Fic :)

This is my last fic for my most recent giveaway! I’ll have to come up with a title at some point so I’m very open to suggestions Pharah/Reader Rated: M | No Warnings Word Count: ~1500 (woah i didnt go over this time pls be proud of me)

Fareeha: I’m out front whenever you’re done <3 no rush!

You smiled at the message. It was the first time you and Fareeha had been in the United States at the same time, and she was excited to take you out and show you Grand Mesa.

Apparently she had spent a lot of time at the watchpoint when she was growing up. When you told her your research project would be taking you there for a few months she could hardly contain herself, gushing about how gorgeous the mountains and the forests were.

“It’s nothing like Europe or Egypt,” she had said. “There’s so much sky- so much horizon! And the colors of the forest!”

You had fallen even more in love with her as she described the landscape. You were more skeptical about the states, having heard how they handled the crisis and everything after. They had never seemed appealing, and you only ever went because business required it.

But your heart beat a little faster as you shut down your workstation and hung up your lab coat. Just because you had only seen the underfunded laboratory and the sprawling but austere watchpoint didn’t mean that Fareeha wasn’t going to show you something wonderful.

You stepped out of the doors to the lab and there she was. Faded jeans, even more faded band tee under a well-worn leather jacket, leaning against a sleek black motorcycle. A motorcycle?! She grinned at you from behind a pair of sunglasses. “Baby,” she she gestured to the bike, “meet my baby.”

“You have a motorcycle?” you asked in disbelief.

“Only when I’m on this continent,” she shrugged. “It’s no fun riding anywhere else really. McCree gave her to me when I finished basic training and I’ve cherished her every day since.”

“Sounds like I have some competition,” you teased.

She laughed and pulled you in for a kiss. “You’ll love her too.”

She procured two helmets, and you couldn’t help your blush when you realized she had gotten your favorite color. You let her help you put it on, a little nervous as she swung her leg over the bike and instructed you to to the same. You slid up until you were flush against her back, squeezing tight with your thighs and wrapping your arms around her waist.

“I won’t let you fall off,” she promised. “You ready? We’re just going to ride into town first and then I’ll show you the real adventure.”

You nodded, squeezing her tight to let her know.

Fareeha revved the engine and took off towards the gate. While she may have spent most of her days in a rocket suit, you were more accustomed to office wheely chairs, and you held on tight as she raced through the open gates and down the mountain to the small town.

The ride was exhilarating, and you could see how Fareeha could love this. It was so close to flying. You looked out over the valley, watching the rocks and trees race by.

You hadn’t been to town yet, having only landed on base two days ago. Usually, you made it a point to check out the local area when you traveled, and you were glad you had Fareeha to show you around this time.

The town was quaint, a few roads with low, scattered buildings. The usual chains and stores gave way to a main road with small, unique shops. Fareeha parked her bike outside of a well lit restaurant, patting the top of your helmet playfully. “I’ll be right back,” she grinned.

Not even three minutes later she was back with two white paper bags. She carefully tucked them into what you discovered to be an insulated saddlebag. “Alrighty,” she clapped her hands. “You ready for the main event?”

You nodded. “I can’t wait to see where we’re going.”

Fareeha took off out of town, racing up a different road into the mountains. You clung to her tightly, watching the shadows grow long and the light disappear behind the peaks. Riding in the twilight was even more exhilarating, but you trusted Fareeha as she easily navigated the winding roads.

She slowed after you passed a roadsign, carefully turning off the road onto a path you never would have noticed even in the daytime. It was much slower going from there as she pressed on through the trees on a gravel path.

And then the path ended. A wide line of white stones at the edge of the treeline reflecting the evening light. A beautiful shallow lake, just at the base of the mountains, surrounded by quiet forest. Fareeha helped you off the bike and took your helmet. “What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful!” The mountain peaks reached so high, but the sky still looked so wide beyond them. The lake was so still and peaceful, hidden by the trees. “How did you find this place?”

“Jesse brought me out here when I was young. He found it on his own bike and snuck me out  when mom was away on a mission.” She pulled a thick blanket from her pack as well as a field lantern to keep the both of you warm. You grabbed them from her and set them out on the soft dirt and pine needles while she got the food. “Southwestern brisket and scotch!” She presented you with a takeout container.

“Real fancy,” you grinned. 

“It’s the true Grand Mesa experience. I’ll take you to some fancy restaurant when we’re back in Europe, but tonight we rough it.” She cracked open the bottle and took a long swig.

“I’m a scientist, Faree. I don’t really ‘rough it.’” You rolled your eyes but you took a hearty bite of your food. It was delicious. Fareeha was a hardened soldier, used to a life of travel and survival. She could spend a night in the mountains no problem. You were used to labs and fancy research facilities and had only camped occasionally. But it was nice to see this part of Fareeha. She was usually so stoic and professional. It was only when you were alone that you got to see this side of her, and now she was really in her element.

You snuggled up into her side, watching the stars crawl across the sky and the moonlight ripple on the lake.  

Fareeha listened as you explained the research you were working on, pretending to understand the technical jargon and sympathizing when you complained about the poor management of the American labs. You, on the other hand, were very excited to hear about all she had been doing recently and didn’t need to feign interest. She had been all over the world in the past month it seemed, heading the new Raptora program and working between the Egyptian army and the UN as well as the corporate side of things.

“You do too much,” you pouted. “I never get to see you.”

“Aww,” she leaned in to kiss you. “I miss you every day.”

You had long since finished your food, and the bottle of scotch was nearly empty. The summer night was perfectly warm between the field lantern and Fareeha’s arms around you.

“You know,” you let your hand slip under her jacket, “I’ve never had sex outside before.”

Fareeha laughed -- threw her head back and howled. You smacked her arm. “I was trying to set the mood!”

She pulled you in close by the hips, still laughing as she pressed her lips to your cheek. “You did great, babe. The mood is set.”

You settled on her lap, straddling her thigh as she kissed down your neck, pulling your jacket off and pushing your top up. She had to stop kissing you in order for both of you to take your shirts off, but she was absolutely delighted to be able to squeeze your tits.

“I wanna eat you out,” she said, pressing her thigh up against you.

You were already reaching for the fasten of your pants, shoving them down and off as Fareeha climbed over you. It was uncoordinated, a little desperate. As though you were two clumsy teenagers and not a leading scientist and a high ranking military officer. It was something you had never had before.

Fareeha kissed and nipped a path up the inside of your thigh, holding your legs apart. You wound your fingers in her hair, grinding against her as she ate you out. She slipped two fingers inside you and curled them just right to have you gasping and moaning. The sound seemed to carry so far in the woods.

She didn’t stop until you had come twice, and then you returned the favor as the moon climbed higher in the sky and shone down on the peaceful lake.

“Thanks for this,” you kissed her as the two of you curled up to sleep.

“Of course, I’m glad I got to bring you up here. This place is really special to me.” She squeezed you tight and looked up to the stars.

“You’re really special to me,” you said.

“Ugh, you’re so cheesy!” she groaned, but she was smiling.

“I can’t believe you have a motorcycle. That’s so hot.” You looked over to where the bike was parked, gleaming in the moonlight.

Fareeha followed your gaze. “Yeah. My other lady love.”

You looked up at her with a wicked gleam in your eye. “You know… I’ve never had sex on a motorcycle before.”

[fictionadventurer]

Top 5 unpublished stories (unfinished, in-progress, etc. yours or others' - things posted on tumblr fit, but not indie or traditional publishing)

To be clear, I’m limiting this to:

Works that have at least a partial scene drafted. If it exists only in outline or in idea form, it’s ineligible. There has to be some writing for me to reread and like.  

Stories that are not current WIPs.

So, in no particular order, here are five favorites that I’m fond of.

(Warning: Very Long Post)

1. Airship Sleeping Beauty.

In this world, parents buy fairy gifts for their children at birth. Most people are limited to two or three. Seraphina Crowne (please call her Sara) was gifted with twelve. Her impoverished parents had friends among fairy kind who were able to bend the rules to give this child enough gifts to survive in their harsh environment. Thus, Sara has everything from enhanced beauty and grace to strength and speed and musical skill, which makes her an unstoppable force of (super)nature. She loves a challenge and decides to support her parents by becoming a sailor on a flying sailing ship, where she rockets up through the ranks.

Our POV character is Jack Sanders, who serves under her as second lieutenant. Jack has spent years struggling through the ranks with only one unsuitable fairy gift. The father who chose his gift was an insomniac, and gave his son the gift of helping people fall asleep. Surrounded by people with more useful skills like strength or navigation, Jack languished as a midshipman for years until he served under a captain who realized the greater uses of his gift. Jack hates Seraphina Crowne, assuming that she’s the daughter of a rich man who has enough money to bend all the fairy gifting rules for his precious princess.

As they travel through a tropical land, they run into many adventures, and Jack starts to respect Sara. He learns that she comes from a much less privileged background than he’d assumed, and they slowly become friends. Then one day, they’re taking a day of shore leave on a flying island when they get into a fight with some local ruffians. Sara falls over the edge and is impaled on one of the metal spikes that serve as a barrier between the island and the open sky. But she doesn’t die. She climbs up with a gaping hole through her torso, and the should-be fatal wound heals within hours.

Sara is forced to tell Jack her greatest secret--she actually has a (highly illegal) thirteenth gift. Her mother’s greatest friend among fairy kind was a fairy who was banished from the guild for giving gifts that were too powerful. This fairy wanted to make absolutely certain that her friend couldn’t possibly lose this child at a young age. Her gift to Sara was that she would die by being pricked on the spindle of a spinning wheel--which means that nothing else can kill her. Not disease, injury, old age--she is invulnerable as long as she stays away from spinning wheels, which is easy to do in this industrialized age when your average person has never seen such a thing.  

Jack promises to keep Sara’s secret and they return to the ship. But Jack isn’t the only one who heard her confession. There’s a local airship pirate who supports his business by adopting infants and getting them the illegal fairy gift of being able to transform into birds. One of these bird-children also heard Sara’s story, and they inform their pirate father, who make plans to attack the ship and take out its most powerful asset.

I never finished the story because the climax falls apart. The pirates were going to attack and stab Sara, but Jack is able to stall her death by putting her to sleep--and I could never figure out a way to save Sara without it feeling cheap and predictable and/or detouring into a completely different plotline that takes us away from the story. But I think of the rest of it as one of the best fairy tale retellings I never wrote.

2. Faraway House

This one is my middle-grade portal fantasy for adults. Mara meets Adrian, a mysterious, magical man whose house sits in a space that connects to three different universes--ours, one that has a more medieval fairy tale vibe, and one that’s more steampunky and involves lots of chimeras and people with animal traits. People in need of help tend to fall into this in-between space, and Adrian lets them stay at Faraway House for as long as they need.

There are tons of characters who drop into this story and provide little subplots, but my favorite part was an overarching plotline involving Adrian and Mara. Adrian, who was originally from the fairy tale world, was the evil magician of every childhood nightmare, a powerful man who did all sorts of horrible things to people. He became obsessed with immortality and eventually got it--at a great price to the rest of the world and to himself. He was caught, stripped of a lot of power, and left to live his long life and see the consequences of his actions. He spent a few centuries wandering the three different worlds and undergoing a ton of character development. As a newly humbled man, he was given charge of Faraway House, since his magical talents would be valuable to keep the area and the portals stable. Now, he’s the nicest, sweetest guy you’d ever want to meet. He rarely tells anyone about his past, and most people wouldn’t believe it if you told them.

Anyhow, after Mara’s been staying at Faraway for a long time, she and Adrian go through a portal that links to Adrian’s home universe. They soon realize that it links to his world several centuries in the past, when Evil Adrian was at the height of his power. And he’s very interested in Mara, because her adventures in Faraway have given her some kind of magic that will help him reach the Well of Immortality (or something like that--it’s a very nebulous, fairy tale idea). Unfortunately, taking this magic will kill Mara, so Older Adrian does all he can to save Mara. He succeeds and gets her back home. But his younger self is still on the lookout for her, and he eventually makes his way to Faraway, where he drains the magic and escapes, leaving Mara dying.

And I know this is the most cliche way to end this, but I like my stories predictable and cheesy, and Older Adrian ends up saving Mara by giving up his immortality, which kills him. It’s all very Disney-moving. The story ends with Mara being made the new caretaker of Faraway. And I give away the ending because I’m never going to write this, but I’m still fonder of this story than it deserves.

3. The Island

Anne of Green Gables meets fairy tales.

The Island is a place full of magic. Amphibious mermaids swim along its shores. A fairy forest fills the heart of the Island. Selkie live on the tiny islands off its shore. Pixies cause trouble in the farmyard’s back garden. It’s amazing to the relatively low-magic areas of the rest of the world, but it’s all part of daily life to the farmers and fishermen who live here.

The Fairy’s Daughters, a retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”, had the most words written in it, but I think I’m fonder of some of the shorter sketches set a generation earlier that highlight little bits and pieces of the world. I started with the tale of Lizbet, an ordinary orphan girl living with her aunt who befriends Gideon, a half-fairy boy who eventually becomes the town’s magical doctor. Their friends include the widow lighthouse keeper who tries to adopt an orphan boy and is surprised to get Amy, who’s a girl--and a mermaid. There’s Captain Avery, a fierce-looking old sailor with a gentle heart and a surprising amount of experience with magical creatures. There’s Auberon, a fairy prince and eventually king who’s racist against humans, spends some of his younger years traveling in human lands to import human-made products, and becomes even more racist because of it.

I think my favorite thing in this universe are the sylphs. I borrowed Andersen’s idea of the “Daughters of the Air”, and made my sylphs into invisible, benevolent creatures who do good deeds for people, and can accomplish magical feats far beyond what any fairy can do. The sketch I reread most often is a scene where Amy, out for a swim in a storm, is rescued by a sylph who has taken a human (though translucent) form, and gets invited in for tea by Amy’s grateful friends.

It’s a fun universe to play in, but not one that I’m very good at finishing stories in, so I think it needs to stay as a pretty aesthetic and a fun sandbox.

4. Clever Anne

A retelling of ��Kate Crackernuts” set in a non-magical Regency-esque setting. Anne is the beautiful, intelligent daughter of a duke. Kate is her bold, daring stepsister. They are deeply devoted to each other, but Kate’s mother hates Anne for being so much more beautiful than her daughter. She gets one of the servants to push Anne into the embers of the fire, leaving her face badly burned. Kate throws a veil over Anne’s face and gets her out of the house, insisting they’ll go off to make their fortune.

Anne was childhood friends with a young man who, through a convoluted succession crisis, unexpectedly finds himself on the throne. They stumble upon him in their travels, and find themselves able to help him by investigating the mysterious behavior of his half-brother, who resents that he was passed over for the throne and may be plotting something sinister. I was never able to figure out a good political-intrigue parallel to the “dancing all night with fairies” portion of the plot, so it never got written. The only really good scene I wrote from this story was the moment where Kate finds out about Anne’s injury and insists on leaving the house. But even in that one scene, their relationship is so strong and so vivid in my mind that I love their story even if I never finish it.

5. The Beast’s Mechanic

This is the one on the list that’s closest to being a WIP. I actually edited some of the beginning in March. It’s a sci-fi take on “Beauty and the Beast” set in a world where two planetary empires are at war. The war destroyed Monique’s father’s shipping business, forcing the whole family to move to a desert planet where they run a small spaceport. Monique is a top-notch mechanic, her sister Gemma is a pilot, Gemma’s twin Joanne stays at home to take care of the house and the two youngest siblings, and Leo is a seventeen-year-old rapscallion who is desperate to join the war as soon as possible.

Their world is upended when, for the first time in years, their mother wants to meet with them. A former starship captain, she and her husband disagreed over the war, and she left the family years ago to join the war effort. But now her starship is in for repairs and she wants to take some time to reconnect with her family. There’s some controversy among the family--do they really want to open these wounds again when they’ve finally moved on?--but Monique the peacemaker insists that, even though it’s impossible for the whole family to make the trip, her father should take the chance. He goes to meet his wife, but on the way there, his spaceship breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and he’s rescued by the Beast, an infamous cyborg outlaw. He also breaks important equipment on the Beast’s ship, and is only able to keep from being thrown out of the airlock by insisting that his daughter can fix it.

Monique nearly does, except that the authorities show up just before she’s done with repairs, forcing the Beast to take off with her in the ship. She comes to learn that the Beast is far from an evil criminal and has been helping people wronged by the government, and she helps him get home to his family (in the enemy empire), but her patriotic starship captain of a mother takes all of these events in very much the wrong light.

I’m very fond of this story for the ways that it avoids some of the usual BatB retelling tropes. There’s much more to this story than the romance, and little focus on the mystery of how the Beast became a Beast, and there’s much more focus on family. The Beast hasn’t even shown up yet, but I’m just incredibly fond of Monique’s family and their everyday working-class life on a desert planet. I hope I can make more progress on it someday.

[shyrose57]

2: Upon first glance, no. Though they do tend to avoid the subjects of parents or siblings, and also try their best to avoid conversations that lead into sharing their past. Their also not so pushing about knowing the brothers past relationships and their childhood. Ranya and Seth are the brothers parents! Ranya is their mom who is 20% enderman, and Seth is their dad who's fully human.

3: But is there any proof of it being bad for you? That's exactly what it is, its just Team Rocket but switched if that makes sense. Raq's trying so hard to capture Ran and now Ranbob, he's planning so many plans and coming up with so many unique ways to capture them. But the groups dumb shenanigans and the fact most of them just kinda flop around half the time SOMEHOW manage to foil every plan he has and its pissing him off. But now I also have a angst idea that features Raq getting his hands on a potion of blinding and using it. 

4: He was screaming because he was trying to escape the others and resorted to trying to make himself seem big and stronger than them, like a animal sometimes does to escape a predator. And also he was screaming because Cletus grabbed his arm and was trying to keep him from moving, and Ranbob's brain sadly registered the touch as painful. 

6: Benjamin does actually just carry around blankets, mostly just in case someone gets cold or someone gets wet and need to be dried off. But he also does carry a special blanket only for Ranbob, its a very fluffy blanket, is a bit heavy (which helps ground and reassure Ranbob), and is big enough to cover the top half of his body. But they don't carry around tea or anything for Ranbob to drink when he gets sad, mostly cause the times they tried to do that either it got spilt or Isaac drank it. 

10: I have developed the town a bit further. The town has a population of only 300 (may change though, but no matter what it's going to be a small town), and is situated in the Crater, where homes and business are built into the side of the Crater, with overlapping bridges, stairs, overhangings littering all around the Crater (if anyone is having problems imagining it tell me, I have some pictures I found that fit what I'm trying to describe pretty well). Wilburs decendent shall be called Lucia, and some residents of the town are Siren-the towns only blacksmith and armourer, also one of the most knowledgeable people in the town due to their great fascination with history, Adler-one of the only remaining Clerics that actually make all possible potions and even new ones at times, and almost freely gives them out, Atlas-the towns trouble maker, and the one who goes adventuring, but he also has a great interest in astrology, and can read the stars to figure out locations of things or upcoming events, Josh-He's just Josh, no one's quite sure what he does, Atlas suspects he has a secret mob grinder since he has so many mob parts and seems to have whatever someone needs, and Lucia insists that he's the one that does the communication and trading with big cities but no one believes him (spoiler, he's the redstone expert but since redstone isn't used a lot in the town he hasn't actually told anyone), Asidi-town guard, mostly just checks on the residents, though is also greatly defensive of his home, and Mripat-the towns mayor/leader, though she mostly lets people do what they want to do, its only when people want to build new things or have suggestions, or break a law does she actually act like a mayor/leader. The town itself doesn't have a set name yet but im thinking maybe Kelalen Kepungkur (Forgotten Past), but just Kelalen for short. And its mostly forgotten by other kingdoms and towns, because it doesn't belong to any certain kingdom, and due to them being forgotten, their incredibly nice and tight knit, but also suspicious of new comers. Infact Ran and Ranbobs groups where going to be chased out of the towns property until Lucia stepped in, saying how he recognizes the black and white skin. 

11: It is! He figured, hey the memory book seemed to help Ranboo, who says it won't help him? Though it only slightly helped him at first. Eventually he'll get hugs without pain, I promise you.

12: IN MY DEFENSE, you never told me not too.

13: Ok so this is the additional fluff, this is not canon to the story at all, as it just simply seems to out there to actually fit in the story. But anyway, I was thinking that upon returning to Mizu, Ranbob finds a hidden room. And in one of the rooms there's a sort of ghost box type thing, where people can hear and even see nearby ghosts (that is what immediately got it out of the story). So Ranbob manages to get the box to work, and when it finally starts up, the ghosts of his family is actually behind him cause they've been following him the whole time. At first Ranbob is horrified and quickly backs away from them, borderline breaking down crying at seeing them again, cause he's gotten overwhelmed with grief. At first the ghosts don't follow him, but suddenly Memi runs out after him, and Ranbob has to fight the instinct to protect himself, and instead leaves himself vulnerable to whatever they want to do to him (which he imagines is degradation and even hitting). But instead Memi just hugs him tightly and cries into him, saying how she missed Big Brother so much. And Ranbob can feel this, and this wasn't what he was expecting, so he's left shocked and frozen. Until Lias also approaches and hugs him too, saying how he's so sorry and how he missed him too. Then Seth and Ranya both join in on the hug, saying how their so sorry Ranbob had to suffer alone and how they failed him because they didn't protect them. Meanwhile Ranbob is shocked, but he soon gets over it and hugs them back just as tightly. Repeatedly saying how he's sorry and he didn't mean too, all while his family comforts him. In the end, they manage to convince Ranbob they have no harsh feelings towards him, comfort him, talk to him about what to do with Ran not trusting him, say how their so proud of Ranbob for growing so strong and breaking Dreams hold on him, and listen to Ranbob share stories of his haunting. 

2: First glance, huh? How about further glances? Also, how did Ran get so much Enderman blood in him if he had a human father and a mother with only 20% in her?

3: Yeah, actually, I think they have medical studies on it? Something about blood loss, or infection, maybe? Idk the specifics, anon.

Okay, so I’m not sure I read this right. The group’s shenanigans accidentally defeat his plans? Is that right? Or do his plans just flop on their own? Also, oof. Can’t wait to see how bad that goes. Which poor Ender boy is subjected to blindness?

4: Hahaha, ouch, ouch, ouch. So, like Endermen screaming? Also, he registers touch as painful? That’s...not good. Is that something that happens often, or just during his relapses?

6: Benjamin just carries around blankets. He’s a fluffy blanket dealer. You come to him looking even slightly in need of a hug, and he burritos you in blankets. Payment is self-care. 

Also, Isaac drinks it? Is he like a tea gremlin? Locates tea and drinks it no matter what?

10: Sounds like a lively little place! And quite frankly, I already love Lucia. For what reason do the townsfolk have towards being suspicious and chasing people off though? Have they had trouble before? Also, Lucia recognizes Ranbob as Ranboo’s descendant? Or just that he looks similar? How does everyone react to the sudden hostility, and then being allowed in?

12: EVERYONE KNOWS YOU DON’T ADMIT TO A CRIME, ANON, GOODNESS! Also, fair. Mean, cruel, and sadistic, but ultimately fair. I did not say not to. That is true.

(Still mean, how dare-)

13: Anon, how dare you call this fluff, just. This is so bittersweet, I’m literally crying. I can’t believe you’ve done this. 

[theglguidetowebcomics]

Full review: Girly

What’s Pink, insane, NSFW, hilarious, and somehow heartwarming at points? This comic is a ride and a half, and I’m genuinely surprised more people haven’t heard of this one… I’ve been wanting to talk about this one for a WHILE. 

So let’s talk about the elephant in this room… Because I think it just ate someone’s couch. 

Slightly NSFW review with spoilers below.

Girly, by Jackie Lesnick was a webcomic that ran between 2003 and 2010, (and really has some of those early webcomic hallmarks). Its monochromatic pink, vertical, with a poppy early cartoon feel. It’s also listed as a romantic comedy, which is… correct, but cuts a whole lot of what makes this comic good, short. 

This review was always going to be one of the 4 I really struggled with. And not just because I lost it the first time without a back up in a code glitch, got distracted by a pandemic, then procrastinated my way to finally making a second version in my new backup folder… No, well also yes but no. This was a comic I read when I was younger (and should NOT have read  when I was younger), and have always had a soft spot for. I’ll admit as much as this comic has its flaws or weird moments or just weirdness in general, its one of the few comics I’ve found myself rereading in its entirety more than once. And no matter how much I know it's coming, find myself sobbing, uncontrollably, at the final panel. There’s surprisingly a lot of heart in this comic, and a whole lot of honesty in just the direction the author took this weird little thing. But, first let me take of those rose tinted glasses as much as I can… (actually that might not work too well with a pink comic seriously whats with all these early 2000s lesbian comics being PINK?). And give this old comic a look and a bit of a dust. but , first...

Sex.

Getting to the point - page 3 of “Girly”

Girly is a NSFW comic. It’s not shy about it either. It hits the audience (and the main character) over the head with it literally in the first pages. It has sex positive characters, a sex positive world, some characters with… sex powers almost, and Dildos, a whole lot of dildos. Some even with smiley faces on them. It’s a pretty unavoidable part of the comic that makes up a large core of it’s humour and is baked into its wacky world. So if that’s not your thing, and it’s not really skippable in this case, you won’t like this comic.

But, if you’re alright with that part of it this might just be a hidden gem. Moving on.

Art

Artwork is always interesting in webcomics. They’re usually one man shows, have a weird niche / strong influences, and or usually go on massive journeys as the art improves. Girly is no different here. 

Girly starts out rough. Some poses are wonky and its a bit scratchy. Technically speaking it has a few issues, which is fine. Its a free webcomic, from the 2000s that didn't copy and paste faces. (Won’t name names, you know who you are). You can’t be too harsh on a free comic, though.

However, what the art style does, even early on is set the style and feel of the comic. Anime inspired faces, bold outlines, and blocky silhouettes that were really popular with 90’s and 2000s cartoons. It has a newspaper, manga comedy strip vertical style, too. It fits the style of story well as a poppy wacky story. It's the perfect art style it could take.

Its rough in the beginning, but moves on from its scratchy days, to loose pen brush, to finally a polished free hand poppy style. It gets more technically advanced as it goes along, but it keeps its core style throughout. It’s fun, a little unhinged, and just pares perfectly.

The one issue I have with the art is it comes off as a bit cramped. It certainly matches the energy of the story, but it also feels like it doesn't let the characters have any breathing room in the frame. It comes off as squashed, and can make some character poses hard to read. That’s the only complaint I can find though. The issue even fixes itself later in the story, but just very very close to the end. It looks great there, but the majority of the comic is a little cramped. Still that’s just a small complaint.

Nitpicking here but some panels need a lil more room

This a humour comic foremost. It's the biggest part of what makes Girly specifically Girly.

Humour

The humour is mostly wacky nonsense, playing off its insane characters, physics defying world, everything being dialed up to 11. It also works a lot like satire, poking at what influences it, and playing with cinematic expectations. The first page has Otra shooting someone into space on a rocket because they annoyed them, the first “adventure” the character’s go on is stealing everyone’s pants because they couldn’t find anything else to do. Then there’s the kidnapping adventures, knight trials, and slice of life shenanigans that happen. All of it as wacky as the last. I haven’t really found any other lesbian comics like it. Its not everyone’s tastes, but it is certainly unique.

If you’re into a willy wonka tunnel of over the top characters and plots, you’ll like Girly.

Characters

Girl is a LONG comic, it ran for 7 years. The art evolved, the story writing, jokes, and themes along with it. It was originally meant to run for only 50 strips... and it ended up with 764. 

so, there’s a lot to unpack.

Firstly, the premise of the story is somewhat simple. It focuses on Otra. The kinda straight man to the entire universe. She starts out almost depressed, out of place, and bored of the wacky inhabitants of her world. Until one of those wacky residents smacks her over the head with a giant dildo and won’t leave her alone for the next 7 years of run time. 

What follows is the sullen Otra being pulled around by the always cheery and zany nonsensical Winter as the sidekick for bizarre adventures. Otra’s depressive grounded view keeps the bizarreness funny, while Winter cuts through her negative attitude and causes a lot of the over the top plot. Leaving Otra to warm up to the world, and Winter to get less reckless as they balance eachother out. It’s a fun dynamic, and works as an emotional core of the story. No matter how weird the plot and rules of the world are, their relationship keeps the story somewhat focused and rewarding to see develop.

An example of bold wacky character designs from even early on

The comic isn’t just about them, though. As an ensemble comic there's plenty of side characters that go through arcs and beats as well. From el chubacabre, the man that woman find so irresistible that they sleep with him as soon as they see him; detective Clapjaw the street wise detective who is very bad at his job; Officer Hipbone and police guy from the cute P D; captain fist the ever popular bad at his job superhero who gets all the credit; the news reporter obsessed with captain fist; the woman with babies; Steak;  the elephants that just… appear and eat buildings; among many many others. A lot of whom also have nicely written character arcs and depth in later chapters. Many of the character however are simple and remain simple, which isn’t a bad thing. For such a large cast, having a diverse range of strange characters with strong identities and looks even if a bit simple stops it from getting bogged down. It strikes a good balance. Plus there’s plenty enough of characters with more depth later on. 

 All the character’s are insane, and over the top in a way that really sets up the world they live in and how it works... as dysfunctional as it is. There’s something very Cartoon Network about all the characters, but with some wider influences. something about  dumb characters, with very specific goals and quirks that work on their own physics to feed into the high energy insanity of the world. Its entertaining to read, and leads to a weirdly charming feel of the comic. 

Story and plot

For the bit people actually want to know about. What is it about?

Just a little bit of influences...

For the style itself the comic comes off as a mix between early 2000s slice of life-y anime, 2000s cartoon Network, and a dose of 2000s webcomic sarcastic action/adventure flare. It definitely has one of the most pronounced styles that I’ve seen, and even if it's very much a webcomic of it’s time it also goes a bit beyond that into something that feels personal to the author and honest. Its a batshit comic. But, it wears its influences on it’s sleeve and really plays with tropes and ideas the author found engaging at the time. It somehow comes off as refreshing in just how willing it is to go weird or niche for no other reason but because it wants to. It's what I appreciate most about the comic. It’s honest.

The overarching story of the comic is without a doubt about Otra and winter growing together as people. But with a comic that’s run for 7 years a little bit more happens in the journey, at least you hope it would. Girly runs on chapters, 15 in total (with 15 having sub chapters due to being the story’s climax), and each one of those chapters follows a different plot or adventure with Otra’s and Winter’s developing relationship gluing them together. 

The plots themselves are wild and vary a bit in quality. But for a long comic that’s understandable and expected. They go from solving elephant problems, super villains, body swapping, fantasy parodies, and all sorts of strange things. Sometimes a few plots drag and a few character arcs feel a bit bland. It still manages to be entertaining all the way through though. The plots themselves work to get the character’s to play off each other and explore the strange world it takes place in. Exploring evil teddy bears, or an entire town devoted to cheap gags. No matter what, all the plots work in fleshing out the world and pushing character’s out of their comfort zone or forcing them to change. There are some that are less fun than others, but none of them manage to be boring or useless. Which for a long comic such as this, is quite an achievement.

Conclusion

Girly is a hidden gem, Its an insane sex positive comic. A loose style and even looser physics. It’s bold and unabashedly itself. But, at its core it's about the love story of Winter, the wacky insane woman needing to slow down and open up, and Otra, a sullen woman who’s deemed herself only worthy of being on the outskirts of society. It’s two people growing together in a world that’s up to its ears in care bears, sentient dildos, earth shattering cloning, and jabs at 2000’s paste it comics. And somehow it all sticks together.

The characters resonated, at least with me, which may be the nostalgia talking. But by the end of the comic I can’t help but  think back on how long it took them to get there. The bits that made me laugh (a lot of them), the stupid parts, and the character’s arcs, as over the top they could be at times.  It may not everyone’s cup of tea. But it has a lot of heart at its core. (If you get past all the dildos). 

For all it’s flaws and weird bits. I still find myself going back to Girly. 

Maybe now, some more people will too.

[random-thought-depository]

So, in my last post I wrote this:

“Like … right now I’m planning out a story I intend to write in January; it’s supposed to be a kind of deconstruction of the Fremen mirage, and very much one of the thoughts going into it is “yo, a Proud Warrior Race would be a horrible society to live in or have as neighbors, we shouldn’t romanticize them!” and yet … I feel that the “bad guy” culture in it is much better, from a literary viewpoint, for me having given some thought to the material base of their society and how that would shape their culture. I could have just written them as flat edgelordy-grimdark barbarians, but thinking about their culture in materialist terms gave me a more complex and nuanced picture that I think will make for a more interesting and nuanced story and a fictional society that feels more interesting and human and alive.”

So, I want to infodump a little about this fictional culture I’ve thought up! I’m splitting this up into two posts because otherwise it’d be long in a way my Tumblr’s format is not kind to; in the first post I’m going to talk about the material base that defines this fictional society I’ve thought up, and in the second post I’m going to talk about more historically contingent features of their culture.

Note: for a lot of what’s in this post, I tried to make something hard SF-ish, but much of what I’ve written was the result of kind of “working backwards” from the sort of culture I was imagining to a material base that might create such a culture. So this is more playing with an idea than an attempt at anything particularly realistic.

Material base:

The basic political and economic unit of this society is the semi-self-sufficient space habitat community. These communities are about the size of a small town, I’m thinking thousands to tens of thousands of people (though I haven’t quite fixed it firmly, and anyway there’s wide variation; more successful communities are bigger). This town-size community lives in a semi-mobile space habitat, which I’m thinking is more-or-less a hollow cylinder spun for centrifugal gravity attached to a central spindle which is spacecraft construction facilities, engines, etc.. This space habitat contains enough hydroponic gardens, industrial machinery, etc. that the habitat can sustain itself completely independently for at least a few years. The space habitat has a rocket engine and a hyperspace engine, so it’s mobile, and these people are at least semi-nomadic, often moving their habitats when faced with opportunity or danger. The space habitat carries smaller spacecraft that can be detached and sent out to mine asteroids and KBO-type bodies, scoop helium 3 up from gas giant atmospheres, etc. and return these resources to the main habitat. Along with a closed life support system and efficient recycling, this makes such a community almost self-sufficient (though the almost qualifier is important, as I’ll discuss later).

People who are remembering Brett Devereaux’s last essay here may have noted a certain parallel with steppe nomads, with the main habitat being kind of analogous to the mobile but vulnerable main nomad camp where the non-combatants, livestock, and valuables are kept while the smaller resource-gatherer etc. craft are kinda analogous to the highly mobile horse-mounted war parties.

The reason these communities are so small is that their economies are not resource-limited but machinery-limited, labor-limited, and skilled specialized labor limited. Most raw materials these people may need are super-abundant to them, the bottleneck is transforming those raw materials into air, food, machinery, furniture, useful energy, etc. and maintaining efficient almost-closed loops of recycling. Sustaining a space community requires lots of complex machinery and lots of specialized skilled labor, and maintaining and replacing the machinery often requires more complex machinery (tools to make the tools) and more specialized skilled labor. Keeping humans alive in space is hard, so the return on investment from this is low. Therefore, these communities generally try to make efficient use of labor and maintain more-or-less the smallest viable population.

This implies reproduction within communities like this will probably be carefully controlled. A community like this must stay within a delicate balance; they must have enough people to do all the necessary labor with a comfortable safety margin to avoid situations like the only person with some important skill dying unexpectedly before they could train their replacement, but they must not have so many people that they strain the life support capacity of their habitat. That suggests reproduction usually tightly and deliberately controlled to stay at more-or-less replacement rate and no more.

It also implies a community like this will probably be quite communitarian and disciplined. Consumption will have to be tightly controlled. The means of production will probably be directly controlled by the political leadership. Its economy would probably look communist-ish to us, or maybe like a Bronze Age palace economy, with most necessities and luxuries being distributed basically as rations. Commercial transactions will be marginal to the internal economies of these communities; they’ll probably exist, but only in the form of informal mostly small-scale barter (think something similar to the cigarette economy that may exist in a prison), and they will not be anyone’s primary occupation or source of subsistence or power. Internal economic inequality within a community like this will be mostly a matter of status, not wealth; if somebody eats better it’s because they receive more and better food as an entitlement associated with their political office and/or social status, not because they own a big pile of gold that they use to buy food or something. Probably a community like this will be fairly economically egalitarian even if it is socio-politically unequal; if there’s a king he might have a somewhat bigger apartment, somewhat more and better food, a nice wardrobe of good-quality clothes with lots of bling, etc., but the difference in access to resources between him and one of his servants would be trivial compared to the difference in access to resources between me and a billionaire.

OK, but these people are supposed to be “bad guys” and a “Proud Warrior Race,” so where does that come in? Well, now let’s look at the economy of a community like this and ask: what might they need to get from other communities, and by extension what might they want to violently steal from outsiders?

Certainly not raw resources! If they want water, nitrogen, deuterium, iron, copper, platinum, etc. they can just send out a mining ship to an asteroid or KBO-like body to get some and bring it to them. If they want helium 3 they can just send out a scoop-ship to go down into the atmosphere of the nearest gas giant, gather some up, and bring it to them. And so on. Raw resources are mostly super-abundant to a culture like this and it would make no sense to risk injury or death stealing them from armed outsiders (there are a few exceptions to this that prove the rule, more on that later). So, if not raw resources, what?

Remember that their economy is machinery-limited. They need lots of complex machinery to survive, and then they need more complex machinery to repair and replace that complex machinery (tools to make the tools), and then sometimes they need tools to make the tools to make the tools, and so on. If each community had to be completely self-sufficient this might spiral out unmanageably. But it becomes much more manageable if they are just mostly self-sufficient and tap into larger commercial/industrial networks, e.g. a mostly planet-dwelling society with some orbital infrastructure and asteroid mining that has millions of people. Then if there’s the occasional hard to make spare part they can’t make themselves, it’s not a big deal, they can just send a trading expedition to get some of those parts from outsiders every ten years or so. Or if there’s some hard to make anti-viral drug they can’t make themselves, again, no big deal, they can just send a trading expedition to get some of it from outsiders every few years. A trading expedition ... or a raiding expedition.

Probably they would usually prefer to trade, humans usually prefer sharing or trading to violent theft because it’s less risky, violent theft means the possibility of injury or death (plus in this case complex machinery would be likely to get smashed up in a violent heist). A mutually beneficial trading relationship between a culture like this and a planet-dweller culture would be quite natural; to these people a planet-dweller society is rich in labor but poor in mineral resources such as platinum, while to planet-dwellers this space-dweller culture is rich in mineral resources but poor in labor and certain kinds of machinery and high value added finished goods. But here we have a potential basis for a culture that follows a Viking-style strategy of “if they outgun us, trade, if we outgun them, raid,” with the consequence of this culture’s relationship to other societies being a mix of trade and war.

Some raw resources may be worth stealing here; exceptions that prove the rule that for a space-dwelling culture like this raw resources aren’t worth stealing but value-added finished goods may be. For example, it’s theoretically possible to sift small quantities of naturally occurring antimatter from gas giant magnetic fields, and that stuff might be valuable for catalyzing fusion reactions. That might be worth stealing, because in a sense it’s a raw resource that’s kind of like a finished good; the difficulty is concentrating the very diffuse stuff; an antimatter capture facility with its Penning traps almost full might be worth raiding in the same way a big hoard of gathered acorns might be worth raiding for hunter-gatherers (this resource is abundant but diffuse, somebody else has taken the trouble to gather a lot of it into one spot, you can effectively appropriate their hard work by stealing the hoard). Similarly I could see this culture opportunistically intercepting freighters carrying helium 3, mined semi-refined asteroid material, etc., not so much stealing the resources as functionally stealing the labor of gathering and refining the resources.

There’s another thing a community like this might want to take from outsiders: people.

The economy of a community like this is also skilled specialized labor limited. In fact, that’s probably the more fundamental bottleneck: they can’t build and operate all the machinery they need to be truly self-sufficient because they don’t have the skilled specialist labor, and this is an equilibrium trap because trying to create more skilled specialist labor has a low return on investment for them; keeping a human alive in space is resource-intensive, and a new human probably won’t begin to give them a return on the investment for at least 15 years or so, likely longer (skilled specialized labor, so think e.g. doctors and engineers and literal rocket scientists; training them will take time). One way a community like this can adjust the equation to be more in its favor is to acquire skilled specialized laborers who have already been raised and trained by a different community; then they can skip all the investment in the child and go straight to benefiting from the labor of the fully trained adult.

There’s another reason a community like this might want to take people: genetic diversity. We’re talking about a small community, maybe a few tens of thousands of people, that is somewhat isolated. Inbreeding and lack of genetic diversity can kill small and isolated communities. As I said earlier, reproduction in a community like this will probably be extensively controlled, and I think one aspect of that might be controlling marriages to eliminate or minimize the risks associated with inbreeding. But it would be helpful if a community like this could assimilate some outsiders every generation, to increase its genetic diversity. So the community may want to assimilate even outsiders who don’t have any particularly in-demand specialist skills, to boost its genetic diversity.

Note: while this is a setting where aliens exist, it’s one that’s demographically dominated by humans, so most of the foreigners these people interact with will be other humans. This is significant here.

These two motivations synergize with each other. Most obviously, assimilating a skilled specialist outsider increases the community’s skilled specialist labor pool and also the community’s genetic diversity. But also, because of dynamics adjacent to Baumol’s cost disease, even relatively “unskilled” labor would be valuable in a community like this. Somebody who cleans toilets frees up somebody else to be e.g. a doctor or a nuclear engineer, in a much more reliable and direct way than is the case in a high-population capitalist society like ours. So even assimilating a relatively “unskilled” outsider could both increase the community’s genetic diversity and give it a real economic boost (as with a skilled specialist, compared to creating a new worker through natural reproduction and education, it’s a significant savings to the community if the new worker has been raised to adulthood by a different community).

I’m putting “unskilled” in quotes here cause I think when people say “unskilled” when talking about labor often what they are really talking about is “skills that are taught outside formal school institutions” or “skills that are transmitted but not taught.” I think “unskilled” in this sense is often a political term used to devalue people’s labor and justify people being paid little, worked hard, exposed to unpleasant working conditions, etc., so I don’t like using it ... but I can’t think of a better word to quickly communicate the concept I want to communicate here; I must work with the language my culture has given me. But I’ll put it in quotes here, to indicate I’m not using the concept uncritically.

Aside: you might think that a labor-limited community would make lots of use of robots and other automation, but I’m not sure that’d be true of these people. You’d think a futuristic super-Roomba would be a labor savings compared to a person with a simpler hand-pushed vacuum cleaner, but what about all the labor and machinery needed to make the Roomba? A Roomba represents a strategy of investing secondary sector labor to save tertiary sector labor, and that makes sense if you’ve got a big population and can build big factories so you can benefit from economies of scale, but it might not work as well for almost-self-sufficient small communities. A Roomba factory may be worth it if it saves the labor of a million human cleaners, but what about if it saves the labor of 100 human cleaners? A human is a very useful general-purpose gadget that can replace many specialized gadgets. So I think, counterintuitively, in a community like this you might actually see a lot of theoretically relatively easily automated manual labor being done by humans. This would synergize with a strategy of assimilating some relatively “unskilled” outsiders to increase genetic diversity; these people must be fed, given air to breathe, etc. like everyone else, so it would make sense to try to take advantage of their “as a human, they are a very useful general-purpose gadget that can replace many specialized gadgets” feature. Remember, this is a community that would want to make efficient use of labor and that would want to maintain approximately replacement rate reproduction.

As I said, humans generally prefer sharing or trading to violent theft, because violent theft is risky, and I think that would probably apply here too. Space communities like this would likely have traditions of peacefully “trading” people with each other. One relatively nice way this might happen is e.g. every ten years communities exchange groups of young volunteer emigrants. A less nice way is something like a political leader selling another community’s political leader a doctor and receiving as payment two relatively “unskilled” but young, pretty, and fertile women to be brides for his sons. But again, where trade is a possibility, violent theft is also a possibility. So along with stealing machinery and value-added finished goods, a primary goal of raiding may be capturing people; especially skilled specialists such as doctors, nuclear engineers, etc., but anyone who looks like they might make a good slave might be opportunistically abducted.

If this is starting to sound like nightmare fuel, you’re not wrong, but there is one significant mitigating factor. Remember that the most high-value and sought-after captives would be skilled specialists such as doctors, nuclear engineers, etc.. This is the kind of work where trying to extract labor from people by simple brutality doesn’t work well. You can’t just whip a computer programmer to make them code faster, and you really don’t want to anger the person who fixes the machine that makes the air you breathe, one of the people who tend the nuclear reactor that creates energy for your community, or the person who might do surgery on you. So the experience of being captured and enslaved by these people will often be less chain gang or Gor novel stuff and more “You are given a small but comfortable apartment, decent food, and moderate work assignments. It is made clear to you that bad things will happen to you if you make trouble or don’t work. If you obey your captors and do the work they tell you to do, they will be nice to you and treat you well. Their ultimate plan is to get you to become accustomed to your new life, make friends, get a boyfriend or girlfriend and make a child or three with them, and in this way become sufficiently invested in your new community that you wouldn’t want to go home even if you could.”

Of course, let’s not be too charitable to people who are basically enslavers; that’s how relatively high-value captives are treated, less valued captives are at much more risk of physical and sexual abuse, reproductive coercion, and unsafe and unpleasant working and living conditions.

If you’ve read James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed and Against The Grain, this may remind you a little of Mr. Scott’s thesis that for much of the history of civilization states were labor-limited, not land-limited. Mr. Scott’s work was a big inspiration to me when I was imagining this culture. Someday I might make a post talking about how I think “the purpose of war isn’t to acquire resources, it’s to acquire people, infrastructure, and machinery” is one of the more plausible paradigms for war in space, but this is long enough so I’ll leave that for another day.

Earlier I drew an analogy between the resource gatherer ships of these people and the war parties of steppe nomads. The context I’ve described here makes the analogy much better. Communities like this won’t just carry resource gatherer ships, but also raiding ships, built for raiding and heavily armed. This also implies violence will be a substantial factor in the life of a community like this; either they will have a significant class of professional warriors, or raiding and preparing for raiding will be a significant part of the average person’s life. I’m going with the first option, which is how you get a Proud Warrior Race instead of weekend-warrior types; as is usual in cases like this, the “Proud Warrior Race” is actually a specific privileged class within this society, and when you read that they are proud you should think of it in that context. I’ll talk about that a lot more in my next post, in which I’ll talk about these people as a culture instead of just as an economy.

[noboo98]

http://www.madamepickwickartblog.com/2011/08/smile-happy-days-were-once-again/

THIS logo was used on a very popular little (3/4″) button that was a very trendy item worn in the punk scene in seattle. it gradually was lifted and used on a tshirt for the band nirvana, around the time of the release of their record ‘bleach’. i remember watching lisa orth paste it together in the production room at the rocket, where she had just quit as the art director. i’m not sure who picked the image – the band or lisa. i’m not even sure whether they altered the image or not. but, it was classic ‘sub pop’ marketing move of the time – appropriate an interesting piece of local weirdness and then exploit the hell out of it. that image became synonymous with nirvana and was a huge hit . they probably sold a million of those tshirts alone. who knows what else it was used on. AC:...haven't really looked at that nirvana logo in over a decade or more. i remember discussion about using the logo straight across and the risk of lawsuit. so, lisa may have altered it to avoid that. but the lusty lady logo was the idea. that's undeniably the case. i was there. the result is that most people around the world think of this blissed-out happy face as the ‘nirvana’ logo. go figger. in reality it was a promotional branding icon thingie used to promote the notorious ‘lusty lady’ strip club on seattle’s first avenue. every cool punky hipster in seattle wore one of these things as a sort of ironic joke. the popular story of the lusty lady is as peculiar as their logo’s morph into pop celebrity. as the story goes, the place existed as an act of defiance by the owner of the building (situated directly across the street from the glamorous new robert venturi-designed seattle art museum main entrance). in an attempt to expand the area into a yuppie upscale fern bar sort of neighborhood the city supposedly attempted to use “emminent domian” laws to acquire the building (condmnation) for development. the owner fought them hand and foot and eventually won. so the story goes, the landlord, in an act of apparent retaliation, began to rent out the space in the building to the sleaziest worst tenants he could find. the basement was rented to the First Avenue Service Center – that charity who tended the needs of the street homeless with food, medical, counceling and even shelter. the main first avenue street level was leased to the lusty lady ‘exotic private dance’ club (aka – strip joint front for everything imaginable). the top stories were apparently left vacant and were notorious ‘shooting galleries.” so, the building was a huge festering eyesore int he middle of the seattle power structure’s attempt to railroad the downtown into microyuppiedom. the lusty lady maintained this attitude for years by boldly placing clever off-color slogans and jokes on their reader boards poking their filthy finger into the eye of the seattle art/downtown/political power structure. (i wish i could remember some of them, but they were so wink wink naughty naughty that they often get displayed in the local news. anybody out there remember any of the slogans?) this button (later nirvana logo) was just one of their many many PR campaigns to stay as public and visible as possible in the battle against the city. everybody loved it! in fact, when the lusty lady announced they were finally closing down (after a couple of decades of this) the entire city seemed to mourn the loss. but, the lusty lady also has another rather sordid chapter to add in the unwritten history of seattle underground culture. for one thing, the lusty lady seemed to maintain a lot of goodwill among the hipster bohemian community because it was ‘women owned’. all that means in my book is that there was a female face on the front of the power structure – a “front” for much darker ownership. but, the hipsters thought that it meant it was some feminist defiant re-interpretation of ‘the oldest profession’. so, it became a badge of honor to actually dance there (believe it or not). many women in the scene proudly let i be known that’s where they worked. everybody was usually dully impressed. one seattle documentarian photographer even did a well-received book about the club that resulted in an exhibit inside the seattle art museum itself (the across the street enemy of the club). many of the ‘girls’ working there behind the scenes and the ‘art of erotic dancing’ became synonymous with ‘outsider’ art (or something.) at any rate, the result was a sort of “acceptance’ of the lusty lady as a sort of ‘outsider art palace.” pretty strange. but it was thought of as as ‘cool’, where every other dance club in town was ‘sleazy.’ the truth was, that the place (like most of these places) was a front for extensive prostitution and drug-abuse lifestyles. it was as bad (or maybe even worse) than any strip club. turning tricks was the unspoken part of the duties there. ‘wom wned’ and ‘art museumed’ or not, it was the same old shit. so it goes. the other little dirty secret of the seattle rock scene is that many of the bands (some of whom went on to stardom) were supported by girlfriends who “danced” there. it was so common to have a girlfriend dancing at the lusty lady associated with a band and financially helping to support them that it was almost a standard accessory. hooker money helped feed and house and clothe man many ‘grunge rockers’ over the years. without the girlfriends’ selling their bodies, the rock stars boyfriends would have had to get jobs and sacrifice their futures (as they hopefully imagined them). so, the loving gal pals hit the streets to support the rock star redemption fantasies that kept them going in the form of their personal rock god boyfriend. it’s a sad dirty little ignored fact that never seems to make it into the pop history books. most of those rock stars never were, they never made it. most of those girl friends became professional sex workers for their entire short lives. most of those dreams of salvation never materialized. the bottom line is that every time time i see that nirvana tshirt with that blissed-out happy face logo, i think about those pathetic little girls turning tricks to keep their rock star boy friends in cigarettes and beer. i think of the amazing amount of damage the rocknroll fantasy has done to everybody. sometimes i think poor little curt did, too. ADDENDUM: AC:i remember back in the mid-80’s, interviewing a guy while i was working on that old “instant litter ‘ book i did about seattle punk posters. this guy was a fixture as a manager of several dozen rock bands over the years. the whole time i interviewed him, there were rock stars hanging out around his house and these beautiful scantily clad young women cruising about. he kept interrupting the interview – which consisted primarily of me holding a poster and asking, “who did this?” and him answering, oh, i dod that. turns out, he never designed a poster in his life. – to answer this portable phone (it was a briefcase phone, no less! just like maxwell smart.) he’d mumble into the phone and he’d point at a girl and give her a slip of paper and she’d leave. he was running an ‘escort’ service to support all the bands. i guess the ‘guys’ got ‘bennies’, too. apparently, eh was also the first local pimp to utilize early computer online services to run hi biz, too. he’d get busted and the cops would take his portable phone and his computer and then try to find names. they couldn’t because they had no idea how the internet worked. the pimp would just get a new phone, contact his server and be back in biz. it took the cops a few years to figure out his game. i guess he went tot the big house,eventually. all those bands collapsed in flames. so, this was not a new phenom in the scene. it may be a part of every rock scene that ever existed. there would be a greta book about this stuff you could write…. Related Posts in the name of love… some kind of wonderful? history is written by the whiners This entry was posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Marketing/Advertising/Media, Modern Arts/Craft and tagged art chantry, Courtney Love, Curt Cobain, lisa orth, lusty lady, lusty lady seattle, Nirvana, nirvana bleach. Bookmark the permalink.

[cateringisalie]

Tagged by @fury-brand​ - thank you! I stole some questions back from the previous post...

Name: Sanctum

Fandoms: Final Fantasy VII and associated spin-offs; Bravely Default, Legend of Korra, Final Fantasy VIII, Grandia

Most popular oneshot: In terms of hits - Words Are Important Too (FFVII Cloti smut, which is not wholly surprising). It’s another version of the Highwind scene. Not sure if appreciably different from any other one. I did get a complaint in Spanish about Tifa hooking up with OCs. In terms of Kudos it’s surprisingly After the Wedding (Legend of Korra)

Most popular multichapter: In terms of hits and kudos its Healing (Legend of Korra AU) which I wrote with @danseru-kun. For me solo it’s Modern Love (FFVII Clerith smut)

Fics Nervous to post: the smut. Also the Cloti fics where they didn’t interact once

Coming Soon:

More (untitled) Clerith smut! (I am so sorry)

The unexpected spin-off to said Clerith smut! (wherein I think I can second-guess the first comment I will get and thus produce the seemingly obviously far more interesting theoretical fic with a flourish. Lot of assumptions on my part there and there’s little other reason to tie the things together)

Aeris as a scavenger! (which is now in two chapters and the second one is currently in pieces and I need to actually fix that and its in need of a title)

Resident Fantasy: Nemesis! I would very much like to do something far more with the obvious idea thrown up by the modded Resident Evil 3 Remake/Aeris has a gun and fuse Resident Evil and Final Fantasy VII together but whether this is going to work at all remains to be seen. Also getting past my inclination to make it more RE2, but recognizing RE3 offers an easier objective and reason for plot momentum and not having to get into why this art museum is now a police station.

Favourite things to write: alternate universes and/or what-ifs. Unconsciously? (since someone needed to point this out) Lots of missing scenes.

Actual worst part of writing: Forcing writing at a slower pace so everything doesn’t happen in a rush. Which I’m pretty sure I still do anyway. But the not being in the right mindset or not caring about *this* bit, but with it being vital to everything else and not wanting to makes it a real slog.

How you choose your titles: sometimes suggestions, sometimes lyrics, sometimes it just clicks when outlining, sometimes its desperation while staring at the relevant field on ao3, and sometimes generic-y what happens in the fic. A few times (with permission) someone else’s fic title.

Do you outline: Almost always. Except for the last few where I have the idea clear in my head and then try and bash the words together.

Ideas I probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice?

An Annihilation/FFVII fusion is appealing but hard to marshal into something doable.

I re-watched Slayers last year and near immediately leapt to an obvious parallel of high-powered sorceress and her long-suffering blond swordsman companion, but trying to write that turned into a Slayers rewrite but with some cosmetic details amended. I have asked for this twice on fic-exchange occasions to no avail. It feels like it should be possible, but it needs to be different enough otherwise reading Slayers fic would save a lot of time (admittedly, I have not even looked there).

The other, other AU where Ifalna and Aerith successfully flee Midgar and make it to Cosmo Canyon. Aerith befriends Nanaki. As she grows older she chafes at the restrictions (don’t leave the settlement) and Shinra’s increasingly blatant destructive practices – not least secure in the knowledge that the White Materia can fix the situation but not wholly sure on how. So. She runs away, Nanaki going with her. Her various searches for a way to make use of the materia land her in Rocket Town eventually where Cloud having changed his mind about the whole SOLDIER thing after loudly announcing he was going for it has been working as an apprentice to Cid for a number of years embarrassed to go home. He winds up joining Aerith and Nanaki on their quest to clearly the saving of the world but the whole rest of this is completely vague. I have the whole first sentence as a wip at least (which I think is 2000 words).

Callouts @ Me: So many starts, so few continuations and even fewer endings. Occasionally no middle either.

Best writing traits: Fulfilling a writing prompt that, if not the inverse of intended tone then, is at least spun off in a complete other direction while still conforming to the working of the prompt (or simply: bloody-mindedness)

Canon adherence when necessary (or appropriate) and flippantly disregarding it when its an issue or canon is actively terrible.

Spicy Tangential Opinion: Not sure if spicy (I am old), but I miss the days of bizarre crossovers, Avalanche living together and strange fic.

Tagging: @danseru-kun, @effortlesslyuncool, @splinteredstar, @rentfreecat, @auncyen, @komatsujo and anyone else who wants in.

[tvandenneagram]

Twin Peaks: James Hurley - Type 4w5

James is broody, sensitive and caring. He is a hopeless romantic and wants to find the perfect partner to spend his life with.

At his best, James is focused on finding out about the death of Laura and becomes more principled and less emotional while trying to solve her murder. He begins to be more realistic and accepts that Laura had secrets that he didn’t know about and that while he had feelings for her there was a lot going on in her life that he was unaware of.

At his worst, James has a tendency to withdraw from others and dwell in his feelings. Sometimes he will remain despondent and melancholy while he is trying to work through his feelings. This can be seen when he leaves school after hearing of Laura’s death as well as with Donna at times in their relationship.

James is very creative and artistic. He has strong interests in music and is shown to play the guitar and sing. He enjoys having an artistic manner to share and keep memories that are special to him as it is a way for him to express his deep feelings towards others. This can be seen with filming Laura and Donna as well as with the songs he sings to Donna and Maddie. The locket he gives Laura is also another example of this as it was a token of his affection and love for her that he wanted to give to her as a reminder of their relationship.

James is a bit of an outsider who mostly keeps to himself and wants to escape the small town on Twin Peakes. He had a turbulent childhood and sometimes feel as though he doesn’t belong and believes that he could just ride his motorbike to a better place that he will fit into. It is when he meets Laura and later Donna that he starts to sense a connection and feels like he can be himself with these people. He becomes very attached to Donna and is very romantic towards her. He shares inner parts of himself and believes that while they have fallen in love under unusual circumstances, the love they share is deeper and more unique than what he had with Laura.

James has a wing 5 as he is very withdrawn and will be quite detached at times. He is also more analytical, logical and reserved than a typical wing 3 would be.

Tri-type: 4w5 - 6w5 - 9w8

Some quotes to describe James’ motivations:

“You always hurt the ones you love”

"When you love someone it's like this bright light is shining on you all the time."

“It’s not really a place it’s a feeling. Sometimes riding at night, I punch off the headlights and roll the throttle in just rocket blind into the dark.”

"I'm only quiet on the outside."

"I want to make the way my heart feels last forever."

"It doesn't matter if we're happy and the rest of the world goes to hell."

"Sometimes I think I should just get on my bike and go."

"I went for a ride this morning. God, the engine sounded like a thousand people singing."

“It all makes some kind of terrible sense that she died… that someone killed her. I don’t know. I can’t explain it.”