#so i'm not interested in learning about how to talk about them in enough detail to appease an examiner

[mrfoox]

.... OK I really hope I can keep this dude ♥

[exhaslo]

Kinktober Day 18- Master!Miguel x Maid!Reader

"Did you hear? Another maid got fired for trying to flirt with the master." One of the head maids whispered. Another sighed,

"That's five this month. When are these young girls going to learn?"

"What about (Y/n)? She's been here for a while, has she made any comments about our master?"

"Thank goodness no. She is so focused on work that the poor girl might never get a boyfriend!"

        You frowned as you listened to the head maids chatter. You moved away from the wall you were hiding behind. You had no choice but to focus on work because of your bills. It would be a lie if you said you were not interest in the master of his household. Your master, Miguel O'Hara, was a wealthy man who always disappeared for business work. No one questioned anything. You were all hired to keep his mansion clean and tidy.

        Your job was to clean the main dining room. Due to other young maids, no one but the head maids were allowed to clean the master's bedroom. It was too dangerous. It was obvious as to why. The master was tall, toned and handsome. The only time you truly got to see him was when he returned home. Everyone in the mansion greeted him. You always tried to glance at him any other time, but you were afraid of getting caught and fired.

        A soft sigh escaped your lips as you thought about what the head maids said. You wanted a boyfriend, but it felt impossible. Every time you went on a date, something would happen to the person you were seeing. You started to wonder if it was you. As you walked down the hall, you heard a low grunt. Confused, you followed the strange noise and stopped in front of your master's room. You were told to stay as far away from here.

"Um, M-Master, are you okay?" You hesitantly asked, more worried about getting fired.

        It went silent. Taking a step back, you looked around to make sure no one saw you. Perhaps now would be best to leave? Right as you were about to turn your heel, the door opened.

"(Y/n)?" Miguel groaned lowly, leaning against the doorframe. You gulped, staring at him since he looked like he was in pain,

"Are you okay, master?" You asked.

        God, he looked so sexy. His shirt was undone, exposing his toned chest. Miguel was panting for air and sweat was rolling down his forehead. Realizing that your master was in pain, you immediately panicked.

"Master, shall I fetch you some medication? You don't look well," 

"It's just a headache," Miguel told you before sighing, "How are you with head massages?"

"Excuse me?" You were caught off guard by the question. Miguel faced you,

"Medicine won't work, but I'll be better with a head massage."

"Oh, um, I can try. If not, I'm sure one of the head maids ca-"

"I'm asking you. Not them."

        You flinched towards his demand. Agreeing to his request, you followed your master into his bedroom. The one place that all those other maids had failed to enter. You hesitantly followed him, taking in every little detail. The room smelled so good. Hopefully, this won't get you fired. You watched as Miguel laid against the couch, patting the space above his head. 

        You were nervous. What if you did a horrible job? Sitting down, you scooted closer and gulped as your master placed his head on your lap. He was so close! You inhaled softly before starting to rub your fingers against his forehead. You're watched enough videos, so hopefully you could copy what you saw. Hearing his rumbling groan, you bit your lower lip. God, he was so hot.

         Miguel groaned lowly as he relaxed to your touch. His headaches have been getting worse with his workload lately. That and the fact that you kept trying to date men who weren't good enough for you. With all the drama with other maids trying ti flirt with him, Miguel never had a chance to talk to you. You, the most beautiful women he had ever laid eyes on. You, the determined worker. You, the woman he wanted. Miguel was thankful that you passed by his door. This was pleasant.

"Is this alright, master? Am I doing okay?" You asked.

Master.

        That word rolled so nicely off your lips. Miguel lowered his hand to hide his growing erection. Oh how he wanted to hear you cry for him. To drill you with his dick as you called him, master.

"Si. I'm feeling better already," He lowered his voice.

        Miguel was just happy to have his head on your lap. Like a soft cushion. He needed you to keep visiting him. He may be the master of this mansion, but he was still a man. Closing his eyes, Miguel relaxed under your touch. He was going to get used to this.

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

        You tried to hide your smile as you hurried to Miguel's room with his dinner. Ever since he had you massage his head, Miguel had requested you to do for stuff for him. It made your heart flutter that you were getting close to him. All of the head maids shook their heads towards ypu getting cozy with the master, but hell! He requested you!

"Master! I've brought your dinner!" You chirped, knocking befoer entering. Miguel was sitting on his couch,

"(Y/N), you look awfully cheerful today." He said, adoring your smile. You placed his meal in front of him, "Do tell," Miguel loved to hear you ramble about your day.

"Well, I finally paid off one of my bills!" You chirped before hesitating, "That and...my last date asked me for another date. I was kind of wor-"

"Que?" Miguel stopped you in your tracks, "He asked for a second date?"

You could hear Miguel's angry tone, "Um...Yes?" You flinched as Miguel stood and approached you.

"You're not going out with him," He said firmly and stroked your cheek, "You're too good for him."

        That and Miguel was mad that the fucker dared to contact you again after he paid him. Miguel made sure to keep you single so that he could have you to himself.

"M-Master?"

        You glanced up at Miguel, leaning your head into the palm of his hand. They were so big and warm. You could feel your heart race as Miguel moved his hand to your waist. You could feel the tension. Miguel pulled you towards his bed and sat down. His grip still tight against your waist, your uniform blocking his touch.

"(Y/N), tell me what I am to you." Miguel's tone was needy. It made you melt.

"My Master."

"Mhm, you do as I say, right?" He started to draw circles around your waist, "You're not going to date anyone because you're going to be mine. Understood?"

"Y-Yes, Master," You bit your lower lip as he lowered you to his lap.

"I want you to take care of, (Y/N)." Miguel whispered in your ear, "Let me hear your voice."

        You started to tremble as Miguel stroked the outline of your dress. He leaned forward to kiss your neck, removing your collar with his teeth. You let out a small whimper as Miguel sucked on your neck. Heat started to form between your legs as you felt his erection grind against your panties. Tingles shot up your spine as your head flung back from pleasure. Miguel hummed, enjoying your body riding against his hips. Your damp panties starting to stain his pants.

        It was still not enough. You moaned lowly as Miguel brought his hand to your cunt, moving your panties aside to rub your folds. You moaned, wrapping your arms around his neck as you began to ride his hand. His long fingers teasing your entrance, making you clench nothing but air. His hot breathe against your ear as you whimpered from his teasing.

"You have to ask for it." He said with a smirk.

"P-Please, Master."

"That's right, keep begging me." You moaned as Miguel entered two fingers into your pussy, pumping them against your tight gummy walls, "Look at you, about to cum on your master's hand."

"Master~" You tensed as his fingers curled against your pussy, causing you to orgasm, "Hah, Master!"

"Good girl, (Y/N). Always a hard worker," He praised, removing his hand to undo his pants, "Will you continue to work hard for me?"

"Yes, Master."

        You took a moment to catch your breathe as you positioned yourself above him. You moved his hand away from his cock, grabbing it instead. You were hesitant, but after seeing the lust in his eyes, you folded. Pumping his dick a few times, you cried out as he started to stretch your pussy. You were slow, but you kept going down on him, shaking from the intense feeling. Your hands rested against Miguel's chest, trying to finish putting his dick inside you.

        Miguel let out a grunt as he helped. He thrusted upward, causing you to cry loudly. His cock shoved so deep inside you that it made your vision blur for a second. He demanded that you move, to which to listened. Your cries became loud moans as you bounced on his dick. Your body leaned back as you rode him, pleasure overtaking you. Miguel held your waist, one of his thumbs rubbing your clit in the process. This made you cum again.

"Master!"

"Don't stop until your work is done," Miguel gave you an order.

        You whined, slowing down from your high. Miguel gripped your waist, rubbing your clit harder as he started to thrust. Your moans were music to his ears. No other man was going to have you. Not when you worked for him. Not when he was fucking your pussy this good. Changing positions, Miguel had your stomach against the bed, drilling you from behind. The strings of your maid uniform giving him even more of a high.

"Fuck, look at you taking your master's dick so well. Does it feel good? Being fucked by your master?"

"Yes, Master~! Please give me more, Master~!" You begged, gripping onto the bedsheets. Miguel pounded your pussy, making sure to fill you with his cum,

"You'll listen to your master's orders then, right? No dating anyone. This pussy is mine."

"Yes, Master!" You trembled as he kept slapping his dick into you.

"You're my personal maid. I'll take care of all your bills and you. You deserve everything, mi amor (my love)." He groaned, watching your pussy suck his dick more, "Fuck, you look so good with my dick in you. My perfect girl."

"Master!"

        Miguel had you working hard throughout the night. He made sure to take care of you and your issues. You were his personal maid, making sure to take care of all of his 'issues'. Eventually, you graduated from his maid to his wife. 

"C'mon, baby. Say it for me." Miguel groaned as he had you on your back, his dick pounding your pussy, "Just once more."

"Master~" You purred, arching your back as you orgasmed. Miguel moaned in response, giving you his fill,

"That's right, baby. I'm your Master."

[kaijutegu]

Happy Valentine's Day! When you think about love and the animal kingdom, are alligators an animal that comes to mind? No? Well, they should be, because they have some of the most interesting courtship behavior of any non-bird. (Bird displays are something else entirely.) I think it's time that you all are introduced to the Big Gay Alligator Sex Study, more properly known as Courtship Behavior of American Alligators (Alligator mississipiensis), written by Kent Vliet. You can get the paper at the link below!

This was a study done over a 3-year period in the 80s with a population of captive American alligators to look at how they interacted. Alligators are incredibly social and have complex behavioral dynamics, and their courtship rituals and routines are pretty dang interesting. In general, crocodilians spend a great deal of time interacting with each other when compared to other reptiles, and the courtship behavior of a few species is well-documented. But in this post, I'm mostly going to talk about the American alligator (with a quick detour into Cuban crocs).

Why Do We Care About Courtship?

So before I dive into talking about this study, let's talk about why we care about courtship (the social behavior that leads to mating) and mating (sexual interaction that could, hypothetically, lead to reproduction). Courtship and mating are extremely important when studying animal behavior- honestly, they're extremely important when studying zoology in general. In some cases, understanding this behavior actually a major conservation concern! For example, the Cuban crocodile is an endangered species. They're largely constricted to two swampy areas of Cuba, both of which also have American crocodiles present. And unfortunately, the female Cuban crocs find the male American crocs really, really sexy. This is a big problem, because with only about 3-4,000 Cuban crocs left in the wild (possibly even fewer), they need to be breeding with their own species to make more Cubanitos.

These. Make more of them.

But what scientists have found is that not only are there hybrid crocs in the wild, the Cuban population of American crocodiles is more closely related to Cuban crocodiles than other populations of American crocodiles, suggesting this has been going on for a very long time.

You can read more about that here if you want, but back to the gay alligators.

Alligator? More Like Alli-GAY-tor, amiright?

(actually that IS wrong it's more like alli-bisexual-tor, but that doesn't sound like alligator)

So how does a study like this happen? Back in the 80s, the American population was Feeling A Way about alligators. Something that you gotta understand when you're doing any kind of conservation is that people protect what they love, and they love what they understand. Alligators are a major conservation success story today- there's millions in the wild- but they were in serious danger of extinction in the 1960s, and it was a combination of legislation, awareness campaigns, and captive breeding at both zoological parks and commercial gator farms that helped bring them back. As a result, they were one of the first species to be de-listed from the ESA!

All of this attention meant that alligator science was flourishing in the late 70s and 80s, and that's where this study comes into being. This post is long enough so I'm not gonna go into all the details and methodology- you can find that in the paper I linked up top!

However, there is one piece of methodology we should talk about, and that's the choice of study population. It's part of what makes this particular study so interesting!. See, in a lot of cases, captive behavior really differs from wild behavior. This can be impacted by captivity conditions- what other animals the study animal has access to, what behaviors the animal has learned in captivity, even down to things like how the animals are fed. For example, some courtship behavior in captive animals can be the result of unnatural habitat conditions or limited social groupings. If you only have access to a couple of conspecifics, you don't have the same choices that you do if you have access to something closer to a wild population. If you've got a breeding group with one male and a handful of females, you can't ask or answer any questions about male/male interactions! Crowding is also an issue- too many animals in a space can be stressful, and lead to atypical sexual behavior.

But that's one of the cool elements of this study: the alligators in question live in a large social group in a lagoon that's basically just natural habitat with a boardwalk going around it. It's about as close to studying a wild population as you can get, with the advantage that it's far more accessible. And what this leads to is that that the researchers were able to see a really wide range of behavior, because all of the alligators had lots of access to lots of different mates. They were able to make choices that you wouldn't see in a smaller group. There's a trade-off that Vliet notes, and that is the population density and captive situation means that results might not quite work out the way they do in the wild- but in the years since, the results of the study have been vindicated with research into wild populations.

So, what are alligators into? Gay sex, group sex, yelling real loud, and lots and lots of... gentle caressing.

that's not a euphemism they spend a lot of time gently rubbing each others' faces

So first things first, it turns out that the vast majority of alligator mounting, which occurs after courtship behaviors like jaw rubbing, bellowing, head rubbing, and swimming together is male/male. Over the three year study period, an average of 68% of all sexual interactions were male/male. However, what they don't really notice is exclusivity, because when it comes to the sex of their sex partner, alligators... well. They aren't all that picky.

Another fascinating aspect of alligator courtship is what's called courtship groups. These are readily observed in captive settings (and in the wild, too, as mentioned in Dragon Songs), and are mixed-sex groups that spontaneously form. As other alligators approach a mounting pair, the original pair will happily split up and switch partners. Usually what happens is that the alligator on top slides off to initiate courtship with a newly-arrived individual. What's really interesting here is that, as the author notes, "males engaged in courtship with a female readily terminate that interaction and initiate interactions with males." Another fun element of alligator courtship is that while in most vertebrates, males approach females, alligator females often approach males. Usually it's the males approaching, but for many crocodilians, courtship initiation is an equal-opportunity affair.

Alligators are also really vocal during courtship! This is pretty unusual for a reptile- usually they're a quiet bunch. But crocodilians are pretty chatty. And during the breeding season, something pretty spectacular happens: infrasonic communication, better known as bellowing. This is sometimes called water dancing, due to the ripple patterns it makes. It's a loud, low-pitched rumble that conveys information about size and location, and is used for territorial displays and as a mating call. During the not-breeding season, a bellow means "stay away!" During the breeding season, it means "HOT ALLIGATOR SINGLES IN YOUR AREA."

Here's some pretty spectacular videos showing you what this looks and sounds like. The vibrations make the water above their backs splash up.

Alligators are also extremely tactile during courtship. The study has detailed analysis of touch in specific tactile zones along the head and neck of the alligators. Vliet notes "These sites have increased numbers of swollen pustular scale organs, the function of which is unknown."

What's kinda funny about this to me is that now, the functions of these organs are known- they're highly innervated tissues that help alligators detect prey in murky water. An alligator's jaws are more sensitive than a human fingertip due to the sheer number of nerve endings! So of course these areas are going to be highly sensitive, and to me it makes perfect sense that they feature so heavily in courtship.

So what can we take away from this 40-year-old study? Quite a bit! First, it's a great reminder that humans aren't special. We see same-sex mating behavior in pretty much every species we look at. We see it in cockroaches, spiders, and butterflies. We see it in sheep. We see it in alligators. We see it in every other species of great ape. Of course we also see it in humans! There's nothing that special about same-sex sexual behavior. It's a part of... pretty much everybody's evolutionary history.

Another thing I think is really important is that while this is an old study, it was absolutely pivotal as a turning point in helping people understand alligators. Remember how I said earlier that we protect what we love, and we love what we understand? This study showed the world that alligators weren't just mindless eating machines. They're socially complex! Understanding alligator sociality and how they choose mates and interact helped us care for them better. It told us more about how to keep them happy in captivity. Alligators are smart, communicative creatures. They don't always get along, but they don't always fight, either. (Don't get me wrong: they will fight each other, and they've actually evolved some pretty specific anti-other-alligator defenses... but they don't always fight, even during the breeding season.) This is interesting to me because in mammals, it's hypothesized that same-sex sexual behavior may have evolved for prosocial reasons; that is, it helps reduce conflicts. Perhaps it does the same for alligators.

In conclusion:

If you want to know more about alligator courtship and mating rituals, I can't recommend Vladimir Dinets's Dragon Songs: Love and Adventure Among Crocodiles, Alligators, and Other Dinosaur Relations highly enough. I know I talk about this book all the time, but it's easily the most accessible writing on crocodilian social behavior. It will change the way you think about and understand these animals.

Another phenomenal book is Alligators: The Illustrated Guide to Their Biology, Behavior, and Conservation by Kent Vliet. (Hm, wonder if he's written anything else...) This is basically the Bible for gator behavior. The photographs are absolutely gorgeous, too.

[mpchev]

Dissertation on Fanfiction Bookbinding — Looking for participants! [EDIT: Thank you so much, participants found!!!]

[Edit continued: I'm still sorting through emails and setting up meetings, will reply to everyone very soon, I can't even begin to thank everyone enough for the visibility that's been given to this 💜 I'll keep the updates coming as I work on the dissertation (and learn how to bookbind), in case anyone would like to follow along. For any questions about the research or comments/suggestions/resources about ficbinding, my asks are wide open. Thank you thank you thank you!!!]

Hi! My name is Marie Chevrier, I’m currently doing my postgraduate dissertation on fanfiction bookbinding, and I’m looking for people to talk to about it!

If you’ve ever taken a fanfic from somewhere online and turned it into a physical copy, either for yourself or as a gift, I’d love to know more. From printer paper stapled together to typesetting and painted edges, nothing is too simple or too complex — I’m interested in the whole process, what motivates readers or authors to bring the story to a different format, and how it’s one more way to interact with stories actively and creatively. This will be the final project of my MLitt in Folklore and Ethnology with the Elphinstone Institute (University of Aberdeen, Scotland).

What to Expect

To participate, you must be 18 or older and speak English. I’ll give you more details and answer any questions you might have via email, and will then set up individual video calls with participants (if you happen to be in North-East Scotland, we could also meet at an agreed public location). I’ll tell you more about the dissertation and explain how what you share will be used, which depends entirely on what you agree to, including if you would prefer your contribution to be credited or anonymised. I will ask you about your experience with fanfiction bookbinding and if you have some examples to show me, I would love to see them! Meetings will last approximately 45–90 minutes and take place in June 2024. You have the right to withdraw your participation at any time.

Contact Information

If you’d like to participate or have any questions, please send me an email at m.chevrier.23@abdn.ac.uk

To know more about the Elphinstone Institute, please visit https://www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/

To know more about me, here's an intro post for you.

If for any reason you don’t wish to participate but still have comments/suggestions/resources/musings you’d like to send my way, please do!

[ficretus]

Blake ships problematic things

*teams RWBY and JNRO in Vacuo cafeteria*

Jaune: So what are you up to these days?

*scroll rings*

Weiss: I have to excuse myself, SDC related business. *walks away from table*

Yang: Well I am mostly killing Grimm VB. Although I did pick up some sweet lasso skills.

Ren: That's bit odd.

Yang: I got inspired by that girl from that crossover I'm not allowed to talk about anymore due to copyright reasons. I asked Ilia for a help since she is a whip user. I guess you can say she... showed me the ropes.

*audible groaning*

Yang: As for the others. Weiss is trying to keep the company afloat, Roobs is probably doing weapon maintenance.

Ruby: My baby is not gonna clean itself.

Yang: Nora and Ren are helping refugees settle.

Nora: I also picked up an electric guitar... not as exciting as I thought.

Yang: Oscar is trying to stay alive and Blakey is back to writing.

Ren: Blake is a writer?

Blake: Not professional one, I mostly write fanfics.

Ren: What kind of fanfics do you write?

Blake: Mostly romantic ones. I usually delve in more sensual aspects of love.

Ruby: She is writing filth.

Yang: Don't be like that, lot of them are sweet. I almost cried when I read her fanfic about us.

Ren: You write fanfics about people around you?

Blake: Yeah, I wrote at least dozen fics about all of you.

Nora: *stands up* Who do you ship me with?

Ren: Nora, you can't just jump Blake like that...

Blake: Ren.

Nora: *giggles*

Ren: *groans*

Ruby: Blake, I hope you are not making me cheat on my beloved Crescent Rose.

Blake: I ship you with Oscar.

Ruby: That's... acceptable.

Oscar: YES! I mean... very interesting.

Yang: Let me guess, Weiss Cream with Vomit Boy.

Blake: No, that one makes no sense.

Jaune: Fair enough, I was obnoxious to Weiss back in Beacon.

Blake: Oh, that's not an issue. I usually ship things like that, but both of you have better partners.

Jaune: Wait, then who do you ship me with? Emerald? That girl from crossover we are legally not allowed to talk about? Cinder?!

Blake: Oh, that last one might work. Need to write few fics about it.

Yang: No offense VB, but I personally don't care who you are shipped with. But what about Weiss?

Blake: Weiss with Whitley.

Everyone: Wait, what?

Blake: There is nothing more beautiful than relationship between siblings. It's both pure and dirty at the same time.

Ruby: I might puke.

Jaune: Wait, you ship me with Saphron?!

Blake: I ship you with all of your sisters.

Jaune: What the hell Blake?! Is that why you kept asking me details about my sisters?! So you can turn it into smut fic?!

Blake: Ugh, it's not a smut fic, it's a beautiful story about people growing closer before crossing the taboo line.

Jaune: *looks at his scroll* Latest story is titled "7 inches, 7 sisters," how the hell is this respectable?!

Blake: It was a conservative estimate.

Yang: VB don't make this about accuracy of your dick size, there are more pressing matters. Do you ship me with Ruby?!

Nora: Wait, is that why you ship me with Ren? You said we were like siblings back in Beacon.

Blake: I don't ship you with Ruby anymore, I wouldn't want you to cheat on me.

Yang: Anymore?!

Ruby: Yup, here it comes. *pukes*

Ren: Look Blake, you can't ship people with their siblings, it's wrong on so many levels.

Oscar: Oz says it was normal back in the day.

Jaune: Not now Oz.

Ren: Imagine if someone wrote about you having an explicit relationship with your parents. How would you feel?

Blake: Ew, that would just be weird. Those two things are not comparable. Sexual relationship between parent and child would be gross violation of trust. Relationship between siblings is pure.

Yang: IT'S THE SAME! But because you are the single child you don't see anything wrong with it.

Weiss: *walks towards the table* What did I miss?

*five traumatic minutes later*

Ruby: *puking*

Weiss: *crying*

Ren: So Blake, what did we learn today?

Blake: Titling the story "Little brother, big problem" is highly offensive?

Ren: Go on.

Blake: Brothers don't jump their sisters whenever they have their back turned to them?

Jaune: Or in any other circumstance.

Blake: Inbreeding is not funny and "we must ensure our babies have Schnee Semblance and blue eyes" is not good reason to do it?

Yang: Or any reason for that matter.

Blake: You are right, this whole... bro x sis thing was mistake on my part. I'll no longer write stories like that. Sorry Weiss, sorry Jaune.

Ren: See, there is nothing constructive conversation can't fix.

Blake: From now on, I am shipping Jaune with Cinder...

Jaune: Sigh, tiny step forward...

Blake: And Weiss with Winter! I can already imagine it, forbidden love and neither can let it go.

Yang: AW COME ON!

Ren: This might take a while...

[candlewaxandp0lar0ids]

How to Leave Comments on Fanfiction

So, I recently made a poll to know if people might find it helpful to have a list of things they could talk about when leaving comments on fanfictions, be it on Ao3 or on here. A majority of people were interested in seeing the post so, well, I'm making it. I started writing and posting stuff online when I was a teenager, on a website where leaving constructive criticism was the norm. It's by far the place where I've gotten the most feedback and it was an incredibly formative experience for me as a young writer — and it taught me how to leave detailed comments.

Writing comments doesn't necessarily come easy. It's something that you may need to learn how to do, but the good news is that you can learn how to do it, so don't worry if you don't know what to say at first. Hopefully this list will give you some pointers on how to do that.

This is more or less the list I go through when I want to leave a detailed comment. Even if I don't have a specific idea at first, I'll go through the steps and I never come out empty-handed.

Comment etiquette:

What became apparent with the poll I made was that a lot of people worry about how they'll be perceived by the writers if they leave a comment. Now, obviously, writers aren't a monolith, but 99% of the time writers will be thrilled that you took the time to leave a comment to let them know what you enjoyed in their fic. I cannot stress this enough. We're not going to judge someone based on a positive comment they leave.

As it stands, on Tumblr and Ao3, it's seen as rude to leave negative feedback, unless the author has explicitly asked for it/agreed to it, so that's what I'll be going over here. Since quite a few writers did say on that post that they would like to get constructive comments as well, stay tuned, I'm trying to get something together to do that for authors. Other than that, you're good to go.

The main ways to let an author know your thoughts on a fic on Tumblr are:

reblogging a fic with your thoughts underneath it

reblogging with your thoughts in the tags, which is often less formal

leaving a comment as a 'reaction'

sending in an ask if they're activated on the blog (which means you can stay anonymous, if anon asks are allowed)

Reblogging means that your followers will see the post as well, and is therefore really appreciated on Tumblr.

As a note, you may find different systems work for different fics! Maybe leaving tag rambles works for you when commenting on drabbles, for example for me it's the system I use to leave comments on smut.

General advice:

Everything I'm saying in here is for people who want to be able to leave longer/more detailed comments and don't always know where to start. If, for whatever reason, you're not comfortable or you don't have time to do it at the moment, a simple "I love the fic, thank you for writing it" always goes a long way for an author.

The key thing to keep in mind if you're trying to find something else to say, I think, is to try making the comment specific to the fic you're leaving it on. It shows the writer what you took away from the fic and the fic's strong points, which is both meaningful and helpful to an author.

Comments don't have to be long to be meaningful. Don't stress about writing a ton; a one-sentence comment highlighting the fic's humor or how emotional it made you can be incredibly impactful.

With this out of the way, I'll go through things you can talk about in a comment, starting with what I think is the easiest and moving on to things that could require more thought. You don't have to do all of that. You may never use some of the things on that list. Leaving comments should not be a source of anxiety. So take what you want from the list, maybe come back to it if you need more inspiration, and don't worry too much about it :)

Favorite line(s) : pull from the fic to let the author know what your favorite line was. If you wish, you can expand on that by saying why it was your favorite: did it make you laugh? Did it make you feel something specific? Did the author nail the characterization with it? Was there some incredible metaphor? Did you find it beautiful or poetic even if you can't go into detail? Is there one line in particular at the beginning of the fic that hooked you in and made you want to keep reading?

All of that is very valuable for a writer to know. Some of my favorite comments I've gotten were a list of a reader's favorite lines from a fic with one or two sentences to explain why they liked them, so don't hesitate to do that more than once if you can!

Emotions:  if there’s one thing I know about writers, it’s that we’re thrilled when we’ve made you cry. So tell us: how did the writing make you feel? Did you laugh out loud? If you did, was it the dialogue, or the narrator? Did it make you cry? Which part? Could you relate to one of the characters? Did it make you feel seen? Did the fluff make you feel all fuzzy inside or did the angst twist knots in your stomach? This isn't an exhaustive list, and emotions are great to draw from when you're leaving a comment!

Favorite element of the writing: Is there one thing in the writing that struck you as being particularly good, or what was your favorite thing to read? Is the author a master at writing dialogue? Are their descriptions so good you could see the whole scene? Are they really good at getting in a character's head and describing their emotions? Were you hooked from the start and couldn't stop until you reached the end?

Characterization: Now, this might be less instinctive, but if you've been in a fandom for a while, you'll probably be able to identify these things fairly easily. You can tell the author if you think they've nailed one aspect of a character. Did you have a favorite character in the fic? What did you think of them? Did the author manage to capture their voice? Was the attitude spot-on? Which parts of the character, if you can name them? Were there aspects of the character you particularly enjoyed? Did the author shine a light on something you hadn't considered or on something you don't think is highlighted often enough? Is there one thing from the fic you can actually picture/hear a character doing/saying in your head?

Style: I'd argue this is the hardest part, and you shouldn't feel bad if it's not something you can really comment on. As someone whose first language isn't English, I know I struggle with it. Style can be perceived as the way the author's voice comes through in the text. It can come through in punctuation, in the way sentences are formed, in the choice of the words themselves. If, when you read, you feel something intangible that doesn't fit well in the other categories, it just might be the author's style.

Here are some things (non-exhaustive list, of course) you could say about an author's style: it can be direct, straight to the point. The author doesn't bother with ornaments. Every sentence feels impactful. Maybe the writing feels intense. You're overwhelmed by the characters and their feelings and you feel truly engulfed in the story. Maybe the style is light and airy. It's so easy to read you don't even notice you are reading. Maybe the writing is intricate. Going through it is like piecing a puzzle together, sentences are foreshadowing and metaphors reveal deep truths about the characters. Maybe the style is rich. While not always the easiest, it's a pleasure to read through it, the author has a wide vocabulary, and you might want to compare it to a well-written novel.

If you identify specific elements of that style (metaphors, interesting use of punctuation, etc.), don't hesitate to point them out and let the author know you enjoy them!

That is it for this post, hopefully it doesn't look too daunting — again, you absolutely do not need to do all that in any comment, but maybe going through this list can help you leave comments for authors you enjoy.

I like to end my comments with 'Thank you for writing and sharing this with us', so I'll tell you thank you for reading, I hope this was helpful, and please consider reblogging if you'd like to save this or if you think it could help someone else!

As a bonus, my friend @elidebrey and I (but mostly her) made a 'checklist' for commenting, to help remember all this if that's something you'd like, so use at will!

A big thank you to @elidebrey, @yoongihan and @antoniorhinothethird for their precious opinions on this ♥

[brucewaynehater101]

I have a really soft and cute au for Lesbian Janet that could work in any universe but I think works best in the Young Justice TV Show Universe.

See, everyone gets really confused when Tim talks about his Mom, sometimes referring to her as Mama. Tim thinks that using two different titles like that should make it Obvious that he has Two Moms but well. The Bats may be Super Geniuses but they are still Idiots. Tim is also an absolute Mama's Boy with Both his Moms. He loves them both So Much.

Oh, where is Jack you ask? He doesn't actually exist. He's the fake name and personality that Tim's Mama came up with and used Magic to disguise as so they could get Legally Married For Tax Benifits. Also to get his Mama a legal identity. Why would she need one of those? Well... as was mentioned, Tim's Mama has Magic with a Captial M. This by extension means Tim is Magic With A Capital M as well. Totally has nothing to do with Janet and his Mama sculpting him from clay and breathing life into him. Woes of pregnancy who? Not Janet that's for sure.

Also Tim does Not tell anyone that he has Magic and he doesn't show it off. The only reason the Bats found out about it is because Tim came to a meeting with Bruce and Diana went "you. Your Magic is Familure but I don't know from where." And Tim was sweating while saying, "Magic? What magic??" And after getting questioned by Diana and Bruce he Caves and tells them a half truth, "fine. I was made from Clay, like you. My Mom didn't want to go through the struggles of Childbirth but still wanted a child. Instead of adopting like any sane and rational person, she made a deal with a God or Godess. I don't know all the details but she owed them something in exchange for Me. I do know the debt has been paid already though."

The debt was simply a tea spoon of blood for the ritual and A Kiss. Janet over paid the second part by a lot.

As for how Janet met and wooed A Goddess? Well, she was on a dig in Greece when her boat she was using to get to another island was caught in a storm and washed up on a different island. The Goddess was expecting violence or anger at being stranded, perhaps even Sorrow. But no, Janet took one look at the Temple in the distance and was pushing past her saying she needed to get to the Temple because it's clearly in *amazing* condition and could bring So Many insights into Ancient Greek culture and building practice. For the first time in decades, as this Random Woman ran her hand along a pillar and started rambling about the design and what the type of collums were called, Circe felt herself blushing.

CIRCE?!?!?

FUCK YEAH.

Anyways, this is absolutely adorable. Fuck. I would love an entire fic of Janet. Here's a general plot line:

Janet hasn't ever really been interested in romance. She's tried dating a few guys in high school for appearance sake, but she usually broke the relationship off when they became too affectionate.

This is when others started referring to her as "cold." She wasn't, but few people got close enough to her to listen to her rambles about ancient civilizations, archeology, and sociality impacts of culture. She enjoyed other stuff, but nothing quite lit her up like those topics did.

In college, she did find and make a few friends with similar interests. This is where she figured out she was into women and not men. The relationships lasted longer, but she was single by the time she graduated with her bachelor's.

Her master's ends up as some sort of work study where she travels the world. She's more invested in her studies and work than relationships at this point. She enjoys learning about people's lives and cultures but doesn't seek out more than friendship.

I'm not sure if Janet has already or is working on her doctorate by the time she ends up lost on an island (or really how archeology even pays bills).

When she arrives on the island, there's a beautiful woman there as well. Janet notices this, but doesn't give a flying fuck in comparison to the architecture.

And Circe? Finds herself amused and confused by this woman who, although is into women, doesn't care about Circe's looks. Janet just keeps asking questions about Circe's life, the temple, the plants, the culture, etc. It becomes endearing watching her work late into the night with her research.

Janet is so enthralled in all that is going on that she doesn't notice Circe's continuous flirting. It's so fucking frustrating for Circe, but makes her unbearably fond as well. Janet starts to consider this drop dead gorgeous woman a close friend of hers as they "work" late into the chatting about ancient Greece, their past experiences, and their lives. Janet, who has some experience with romance but not much, even flirts back. After all, women call each other beautiful all the time and hold hands and shit. Surely Janet can platonically cuddle with her friend while Circe compares Janet's eyes to the night sky.

It's only when Janet is ready to leave that she realizes that she's willing to give up everything she's worked for, all of her findings and education, to have more time with Circe. Janet is in love with her best friend.

Also, Circe is able to get a fake ID as "Jack" due to magic and Janet's connections

[emphasisonthehomo]

Twitch Streamer Tommy, because apparently I still have thoughts on him being one of those dudes who's into Flight Simulator.

Buck mostly starts out watching the streams because Christopher watches streams. Buck and Eddie have had discussions with Chris about how much info he should be sharing with strangers on the internet, it was a whole thing. Chris can watch them without being monitored, neither of them are helicopter parents, but Buck does in general keep tabs on them. Because he's constantly reading shit about someone w/ fame on the internet taking advantage of it.

There's a variety to the ones that Chris watches, but all of of them are for games that he already plays. Except one. Some guy called REMOVEB4FLIGHT and it's straight up just Flight Simulator content. There's not a ton of consistency to when the guy streams, it's all over the place schedule wise. Maybe once or twice a month, and he's clearly not a Professional Streamer™ so much as a guy with a hobby. His set up is crazy though.

And sometimes Christopher watches them when Buck is in eyesight, and yeah. Buck won't lie. He's interested. He became legitimately invested when REMOVEB4FLIGHT sat down and simulated a flight from JFK International Airport to Singapore Changi Airport, and it was just under 19 hours.

Buck didn't watch the entire thing, don't be stupid. But he did watch the last 4 hours which... Shut up. It should have been boring, but there was enough going on between the chat and REMOVEB4FLIGHT that it wasn't.

And it was also cute. The guy was cute. He was already obviously tired by the time Buck and Christopher started watching, and as he got more tired he got gigglier and gigglier. Explaining that "No. No pilots will ever fly 19 hours straight, I'm just doing it because I thought it'd be a fun challenge and oh nooooo do I regret it. My only goal is to be coherent enough to not crash land this A350."

The plane does not crash land and at the end, REMOVEB4FLIGHT runs his hands through his curly hair, laughs in exhaustion, and says "Great, I'm gonna go sleep for 12 hours because I've got a shift in 14. BYE."

And Buck keeps watching after that, when he can. There's something calming about it, in a weird way. It's both is and isn't ASMR. Any ASMR is absolutely on accident, but the guy has a really nice set up, a really nice mic. And a really nice voice. And a really nice face. He explains in detail what he's doing and why, like he's giving a casual lesson on How To Fly.

Buck learns that the his name is Tommy, and he is actually a pilot but he flies helicopters and that's "-the only other information you need about my day job."

Not all of Tommy's streams are 19 hours, though they're still long. A lot of them are him being like "What's the weirdest place I can land this thing?" or messing around in multiplayer. Maybe something where he tries to recreate relatively famous crash landings, like one day he goes "We're Gimli Gliding it today" and he does crash pretty badly the first time, but he gets it on the second.

It becomes a thing Buck and Christopher talk about, because they both keep up with it. Chris starts pestering Eddie to get him a joystick and pedals to play Flight Simulator, but those aren't exactly cheap so Eddie promises it for xmas. Buck is already stewing over how to potentially adjust settings and shit to make sure that the inclusion of foot pedals isn't an issue for Chris, etc etc.

Sometimes when Buck is part of the Chat Conglomerate Tommy comments on something he's said. It makes him giddy. It's difficult to describe. He just likes this guy. This guy's cool. Buck's getting attention from someone on the internet, sue him. He likes it.

And then the drama with the cruise ship. Buck doesn't think anything of it when Chimney reaches out to an old friend named Tommy, because why would he? It's a common enough name. But then Buck walks into Harbor Station and comes face to face with REMOVEB4FLIGHT and oh. Oh shit.

[mylifeisfruk4ever]

"What the fuck?"

Selina felt that those three words were enough to describe her whole relationship with Bruce Wayne. First as Batman, then as Bruce.

She had thought there might be something between them. Luckily it had passed, and a weird friendship had developed between them. Which might make some people turn up their noses since she was a thief and he was a vigilante but Bruce hasn't been so uptight lately and as long as Selina didn't kill and steal only who deserved it, they were fine.

Still, what the heck?

"Oh, Brucie is growing up," Harley said, all too pleased.

She was upright on the bed, while Pamela sat on the other side trimming her nails, seemingly ignoring the ongoing conversation.

Fuck house arrest for both of them. Why had she accepted? Oh yeah, they were friends.

Alsp, Bruce hoped that with her, Pamela and Harley could direct their impulses towards more correct forms of fighting for their principles, without involving innocent people.

So far it wasn't going to be great, but at least Harley had dumped her clown ex, for good this time, so it was a win.

(Probably more thanks to Pamela than her, but details.)

"Let me get this straight…you, mister, I don't look anyone in the face and if you talk to me for more than five minutes I'll start crying, you want….I can't believe I'm about to say it…learn how to seduce a man."

"Exactly," Bruce replied, as he petted one of Selina's cats.

"Just…why?"

"Who cares?" Harley broke in.

"He finally wants to step outside his boundaries! You have my respect!"

"It's not about going outside my boundaries. It's about planetary security."

"Really?" Selina said, half joking.

"Superman is powerful enough to destroy the planet."

This knocked Harley over, and Pamela finally stopped pretending not to pay attention.

Selina didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or slap him on the head, "Do you want to seduce Superman?!"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"To discover his weaknesses and use them against him when his powers drive him insane."

"Wow, talking about trust issues," was Harley's comment.

"I like to be prepared," Bruce said.

"What did the boy scout do to make you fear that he might become world dictator at the slightest provocation?"

The man pouted adorable, and grumbled. Selina still wasn't an expert at translating each other's mumbling but she swore it was something like smiling too much, and I don't trust him, he's got something to hide.

Harley said, "Isn't Superman having an affair with that reporter? Lois Lane?"

"She is General Lane's daughter. A close relationship is not advisable."

"She seems to know him well. Why don't you ask her?"

"She wouldn't answer me, so as not to betray him. Everyone says he's a hero."

"And you obviously don't believe it," Selina suspected.

"No."

"What makes you think he might be interested in men?" Selina asked him.

Harley laughed, "Cupcake, no completely straight man would wear pants that tight."

"Same conclusion I came to."

Oh good. The fate of the world was entrusted to a pair of tight trousers.

"Besides, I've done some research on him, and I might be his type. At least physically. What I lack is the ability to seduce him to lower his defenses and believe me harmless."

"Ability you think we have?" Selina asked, not sure whether to feel offended or not.

"Gotham is very sexist," Bruce said.

"You did your best to manipulate men who thought they knew better."

Pamela smiled, "I'm liking this one."

“I told you Brucie's one of the good ones,” Harley genuinely smiled as she said it.

"And he's a weirdo, like us."

Selina wanted to moan. This is what happens when you make friends with strange vigilantes. She said, "So Superman has a thing for brunettes. Good to know. Have you thought about what to do in case your brilliant plan fails?"

"It won't fail," he said confidently.

"You don't know," she insisted, trying to give him some common sense. A futile undertaking, it was Bruce she was talking to.

"Superman is overconfident. He will fall into the net."

"Definitely not dressed like that honey," Harley commented, taking a long look to Bruce.

"What's wrong with the way I'm dressed?"

"You look like a creepy stalker," Selina said. Army jacket, hat, scarf to cover her face and mascara for her eyes. Bruce was a walking fashion insult. They're definitely going to have to fix his wardrobe, make him wear things that flatter his body and…

Oh god, she was totally on board with that plan, right?

Read more

[lu-is-not-ok]

Sonya themed ask jumpscare

Of his design, there are a few things to note. First is how he wears a strap full of bullets on his leg [though he hasnt yet been seen with a gun to my knowledge, its in his bag maybe?] but bullets in The City are notoriously expensive, and while Hermann did mention how he 'burned all that cash' I must wonder why he wanted them in the first place is he already carries a perfectly suitable weapon.

Smaller details that stuck out to me are the eye like pattern on his goggles, and his hair. Namely the lite specs of blue in it and how it was described as 'hyaline' - a word both relating to a form of cartilage and a way to describe something with a glassy appearance.

Onto his role in the story going forward: I believe that cantos 1-3 all set up the three major forces we shall be dealing with for the remainder of the story. N corp with canto 1, Demians group in canto 3 and the Yurodiviye in canto 2. Now at first it was unclear how exactly the YRDY would be able to have as much influence as the other two, but TKT sorted it all out. While Hermann represents the power held from corporations and Demian the power gained from the outskirts/stars/things that aren't fully understood, Sonia then stands as the representative for the power of people - namely in terms of tenacity and shear staying power.

He very clearly has connections to both Hermann and Demian, through both the chat at the end of canto 2 and the fact he's got the mark. This puts him in the position that oddly enough many though Asaeh was in before his icon was fixed, as one wearing multiple hats for his own gain. He does not hide his cause.

He actuallt reminds me a lot of Ayin. However this is already quite long and my brain is currently a plate of scrambled eggs so I shan't elaborate further. Plus I am not sure if what I've got is actual analysis or my desperate want to talk about Ayin again.

Only tangentially related but the author of C&P has also written a book called 'White Nights'. Neato.

That's all for now, we got like 2 hrs til we hopefully get a teaser and I'm bring so normal about it. I swear.

Ok let me go through this one paragraph at a time because Sonya is one of those characters that makes me go a little insane as well. Read more because. Yeah.

Point 1 - The Bullet Strap

The design detail of the bullets strap on his leg is intriguing and one I didn't notice initially. I went through to look through Canto 2 CGs of Rodya's flashbacks and all the Yurodiviye related character sprites in the recent Intervallo to check if this is something that's a part of the standard Yurodivy uniform and what I've found is... interesting.

For Canto 2 Yurodiviye, the only one whose legs we see clearly is flashback Rodya, and she doesn't seem to have that same strap as Sonya.

However, for TKT, something interesting happens. All of the Yurodiviye in District 20, including the Detective captain of their group, wear straps on the same leg as Sonya... except instead of bullets, the straps have a bag attached.

That difference in uniform between Rodya and this branch of the Yurodiviye is notable because of how differently they see Sonya. Rodya sees Sonya as someone with big ideals but not enough initiative to actually see them through, meanwhile the District 20 Yurodiviye look up to him so much as to call him a Saint, a term which we recently learned can refer to the most high-ranking members of the Dieci, the association that deals with knowledge (thank you Dieci Meursault uptie story). This difference in opinion would explain why these Yurodiviye are more invested in mimicking Sonya's uniform more closely, whereas Rodya's seemed more distinct and thus more distant.

Of course, the difference between the straps holding bags for the Yurodiviye while it holds bullets for Sonya is not lost on me. As you mentioned, bullets are expensive, which means it makes sense for the District 20 Yurodiviye to not be able to afford them and thus resort to using the strap to hold something else to have it still serve a similar function. Though it does bring up the question you posited: how was Sonya able to afford his own bullets?

It's important to note we don't ever get to see whether or not Sonya had the bullet strap before Rodya left the Yurodiviye. The only CGs we get to see his legs in are ones where his current self invades the flashback Rodya is having. If he got that after she left, it's possible his cooperation with N Corp granted him enough support to get the ammunition. Note that if Hermann is to be believed that Sonya would burn any and all cash he was granted, it's not impossible for N Corp to just give him bullets out right instead.

On a more symbolic side of analyzing his design, the bullet strap is a subtle way to show Sonya's own turn towards more direct action after Rodya left, while also emphasizing how he goes about that more direct action.

Just like a gun firing its bullets, Sonya's "direct" action is him telling people around him to do the deeds for him. Whether it's through inspiration like the District 20 Yurodiviye, or whether it's through networking and sending his people out to take money from the rich like we see in Canto 2. He's not the bullet actually breaking through a wall, he's merely the finger pulling the trigger. He aims and gives command to fire, but that's where his involvement ends.

Point 2 - The Goggles and Hair

This is something I touched upon in another post I made about Sonya, so I'm gonna be brief. Sonya's visual design with regards to his eyes, hair, and accessories, has a dual purpose.

For one, it implies that Sonya is albinistic. The color of his eyes, the lack of pigment of his hair to the point it's described as glass-like, and the inclusion of eye protection and gloves (accessories that is lacking in other Yurodiviye) points towards that idea.

This directly correlates with his own tendency to try and avoid the spotlight and redirect it to others whenever possible, see my point earlier about how his direct action involves sending other people out to do his bidding + his actions before and during the game in Canto 2 are all in favor of pulling attention away from him, such as deflecting Aida's comments about him by calling her the protagonist of life, or constantly asking Rodya questions to put the spotlight on her.

For two, it makes his design a direct opposite to Rodya's, matching with their opposite tendencies with regards to being put in the spotlight. Rodya's design is notably plain for what you'd consider a Slavic woman, with wheat brown-blonde hair and blue eyes, whereas Sonya's is extremely distinct with his purple eyes and hyaline hair.

And yet, like I mentioned earlier, Sonya is the one that wants eyes off of him, while Rodya is constantly trying to be the center of attention whenever possible. They're major foils to one another down to their visual designs.

Point 3 - Sonya and Yurodiviye's spot in the story

Ever since the first batch of Cantos, Sonya struck me as a sort of double agent between the New League and Demian's Blue Man Group. We know that he clearly has connections with both, but the fact that the color his name is put on in the dialogue box is purple, the mix of red (associated with the New League) and blue (associated with the Blue Man Group), only further adds to that idea.

Plus, I feel like his attitude towards Mirror Worlds and their usage should also be pointed out. Whereas Demian directly states he wants the Mirror Worlds to be left alone, comparing their exploitation to that of stealing chips from a bag, Hermann is on the other spectrum of that through wanting the desctruction of all Mirror Worlds.

Sonya is somewhere in between, clearly wanting to make use of them to bring about what he sees as his ideal world, but not wanting to touch them beyond that.

I think the above fact combined with how he acts in the Canto 2 post credit scene is leading to the possibility of Sonya outright betraying Hermann and the New League, which would make sense with how his side is meant to represent the common people. Project Moon ain't subtle about their critique of capitalism, so it only makes sense for Sonya to eventually turn on the representation of the power the Wings hold.

Which, speaking of that, I want to note how Hermann manipulated people to her side through exploiting Mirror Worlds. Yes, her main goal is to destroy all of them, but she's willing to twist the truth when trying to get other people to her side. With her and the New League representing the power of the corporations, those empty promises and white lies feel especially fitting. That sort of "Well if you join us we will keep This One Specific World You Want alive just for you" and "Well since we're already destroying them wouldn't you like to destroy this specific part of each of them with us" shit she's been pulling.

Point 4 - WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHITE NIGHTS IS ALSO A DOSTOYEVSKY REFERENCE-

Ok. No. Anon, you can't drop a bombshell on me like that. WhiteNight is one of, if not the most important Abnormality to Lobcorp and thus Project Moon lore. It's one of the Carmen abnos. It's the final Abno boss alongside Apocalypse Bird. It's symbolically tied to the White Nights and Dark Days event through its name, one of the most important events in the fucking series.

And. Here's the thing Anon. If that's true, then that means Dostoyevsky's works being consistently important to PM lore is no longer just a coincidence, it's a pattern.

You see, there's another important Crime and Punishment reference in this series outside of Rodya's existence, it being the other abno tied to WhiteNight.

One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds.

You see, this abnormality's name? It's a reference to a fucking quote from Crime and Punishment, and a pretty notable one in that!

Now, mind you, the exact wording in the version of the quote is a bit different, likely due to differences in translation, but it's pretty fucking close don't you think?

One Crime, One Sin. Thousands of Good Deeds, Hundreds of Good Deeds.

Add to that the fact that One Sin is always the first abno you get in every LobCorp playthrough AND acts as an instant alternate way to defeat WhiteNight, and the fact that these two are both named after Dostoyevsky references should start raising some eyebrows.

With all of that pointed out, I'd like to adress the potential importance of both Sonya and Rodya in the wider plot of Limbus Company, based on the fact that Dostoyevsky references have been highly important to the lore from the very fucking start.

Let's start with Sonya. He and the Yurodiviye are in a bit of a unique spot compared to all the other factions Limbus Company is contending with. While sure, both the New League and Blue Man Group have a leader who is directly tied to one single sinner (Hermann tied to Gregor, Demian tied to Sinclair), we see that it's not an exclusive connection.

We know from Canto 5 that Rim, someone from the League of Nine, is definitely a part of the Blue Man Group, and the New League has not only two former members of the League of Nine (and is named to be a replacement for that group), but also Jia Huan of Hong Lu's family fame is there too for some fucking reason.

Sonya and Yurodiviye are thus far the only faction that is only connected to one single Sinner - Rodya, and thus only connected to a single source - the works of Dostoyevsky. The fact that Sonya is all but stated to be the connection between the two other groups and the effect he's had on the City thus far only add to his future importance. I don't think I need to go on about that for much longer.

That only leaves Rodya's importance undiscussed. Thus far she's the only Sinner to have recieved a "second Canto" in the form of TKT heavily focusing on continuing her character arc, but that doesn't really say much. For all we know we could see something similar be done to both Gregor and Sinclair at some point in the future. No, there's something a bit more subtle potentially going on with Rodya.

However, to explain this, I need to go on a tangent.

Let's put this out here: The Little Prince is the single most important book with regards to Limbus Company's running themes and motifs.

The "Seeing with the eye vs Seeing with the heart" motif is the single most long-running and important theme throughout the work. Demian directly says the fucking quote at the end of Canto 3 and consistently references the Little Prince whenever he appears. Blue Man Group is set up to be the ones who see with the heart, while the New League and N Corp as a whole are set up to be the ones who see with the eyes. Eyes and Hearts keep coming up in random places all over Limbus. The fucking name of the game and company itself, Limbus, can refer to two different parts of the body - corneal limbus, a part of the eye, and limbus of fossa ovalis, a part of the heart.

Why is all of this important? Because two of the Sinners explicitly have their symbols be a Heart and an Eye respectively, that being Rodya and Hong Lu. Add to that the fact that, similarly to Rodya and Sonya, Rodya and Hong Lu are essentially foils of each other with regards to how they view the world , and the fact that they're assigned the numbers 6 and 9, which in numerology are associated with yin and yang, which we know PM loves making references to spirituality and religion, and all of this is just a big ol nothing Game Theory that I'm just spitting here.

The rundown is this: Rodya and Hong Lu are both associated with symbols that are seemingly tied to key motifs and themes of Limbus Company and PM games as a whole. Rodya's focus through TKT and her connection to the one faction that isn't tied to any other Sinner makes her stand out. PM seems to fucking love making Dostoyevsky extremely important for some fucking reason.

All of this to say I would not be surprised if Rodya turned out to be one of the most important Sinners out of the cast.

...This post was supposed to be about Sonya. Whoops.

[riality-check]

for the mini fic thing! 17 with Steve & Eddie? i love your drabbles!!

This is exceptionally late, and I'm slightly adjusting the prompt, but here you go!

17. "Things I wish you hadn't said"

"You know you gave me the nickname, right?" Eddie says.

He does that a lot, Steve has learned. Starts conversations in ways that sound like the middle of them. It's one thing among many he's noticed about Eddie, since March '86.

"What?" he says, half to make sure he heard him right, half because he's a little slow from the joint they've been passing back and forth.

"The Freak," Eddie explains. He says it like he's talking about the weather and takes another drag of the joint before he passes it back to Steve. "You regretted it right after you said it. Well, right after Carol shouted it loud enough for the whole cafeteria to hear. Could see it right on your face."

Steve remembers that day. His sophomore year, so Eddie's junior. Daniel McCain had gone up to Eddie, angry as anything about something Steve just had to know about.

He's glad he's not that guy anymore.

"Do you know why he came up to me? Danny?"

"No," Steve says. He interrupted that would-be conversation before he could hear any of it. He had to make himself the star of the show, all the time.

A sophomore, and already king.

He was such a prick.

He passes the joint back to Eddie without taking another drag.

"Do you remember my nose being broken?"

Steve has a flash of a memory, of a younger Eddie with hair curling just under his chin, bandages on his bruised face.

He nods.

"I kissed him the day before," Eddie says. He extinguishes the joint in favor of picking at his fingernails instead. "He didn't take too kindly to it."

Oh, shit.

"And you asked him what he had to talk to The Freak about."

For probably the hundredth time in his life, Steve hates the person he used to be. Because not only did he give Eddie the nickname that stuck with him all through the rest of his high school career, not only did he add insult to literal injury, but Steve couldn't even remember this particular cruelty in a sea of cruelties.

He wants to go back in time and shake that kid by the shoulders until his head's back on straight.

"I'm sorry. I wish I hadn't said that," he says, and it doesn't sound like nearly enough.

Eddie waves him off. "Can't go back. Besides, if you didn't say it, someone else would have. Probably me, to be honest."

Steve leans back, propping himself up on his elbows on Eddie's bed. He looks up at Eddie, sitting near his nightstand, cross-legged and still in a way that he never is when he's sober. The way he's backlit makes his hair seem like a gold halo, makes every stark detail of his silhouette stand out in a way that keeps Steve from looking away.

Not that he wants to.

He doesn't think that logic holds up. It's not worth thinking about "what-ifs," but he can't help it. He can't help the thought that if he had watched his mouth for once in his life, Eddie wouldn't have been tormented with that particular phrase.

Eddie doesn't seem to resent him for it, though. Robin always says that no one is as hard on Steve as he is, and this seems to line up with that.

Still.

"If you're not mad about it, then why-"

"I couldn't think of a better way to tell you I like boys," Eddie blurts.

Oh.

Steve has had plenty of people interested in him. He knows how to flirt back, even when they're as awkward as Eddie is, eyes burning a hole through his mattress.

It's not often that he's interested back. Really interested back.

Huh.

Guess I like men, he thinks to himself, and while thinking can wait for the morning, when he's sober, he knows that what he feels isn't going to fade along with the high.

And he knows exactly which moves to pull.

He sits up and moves a little closer to Eddie.

"Why do I need to know that?" he teases.

Eddie's head snaps up. He studies Steve's face with slightly reddened eyes, and when he finds, or doesn't find, what he's looking for, he relaxes. "Because I like you."

"You gonna do anything about it?"

"Yeah," Eddie says, leaning closer. "I'm gonna kiss you, and I hope you won't bre-"

Steve runs out of patience. He grabs Eddie's face with both hands and pulls him in.

It's a good kiss. Definitely not one worth punching over.

"You asshole!" Eddie laughs when they break apart. "You didn't let me finish my line!"

"Are you mad about it?"

"A little!"

"Too mad to kiss me again?"

Eddie pauses, grabs Steve's face, and kisses him fiercely.

Something tells Steve the answer to that last question is a resounding, "Not at all."

Prompts here.

[arecaceae175]

I’m rewatching Phineas and Ferb (it’s my fav comfort show) and it’s SO full of autism. SO FULL

Ferb is autistic

Phineas is autistic and ADHD

Candace is autistic

Dr. Doofenshmirtz is autistic and ADHD and has CPTSD

Their dad is autistic

Their mom has ADHD

I will not be taking criticism. My qualifications are that I'm autistic XD

I can go into detail AND I WILL

Ferb

Nonverbal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Non!!!!! Verbal!!!!!

In the episode where they make an animal translator Phineas talks about how Ferb has a lot of thoughts, he just can’t say them out loud

Special interest in engineering and building and such

Incredible imagination

He can’t show emotions on his face

He doesn’t respond to social cues

He and Phineas are each others special interest person

In the Aglet episode when Candace is making fun of their dad for not looking up “aglet” on the computer Phineas explains to Ferb that “removing prepositions makes it more condescending”

“The cartilaginous fibers from the bovine patella structure that gelatin’s extracted from gives it that fun, bouncy quality.”

When he does speak, it’s monotone and often a fun fact- perhaps because he doesn’t know how else to connect to people through his words

He’s nonverbal!!!!! 😄😄😄😄😄😄

Same routine every day. They do the same things at the same time (different inventions but same routine) and even have their alarms set to 7 in the summer

In the bully breakup episode he has trouble with the routine change. He tells Phineas he felt like he would scream if he couldn't build something

In the episode where they all try to figure out where their inventions go every day, at the end of the episode Candace is really upset because it disappeared and she doesn't know why. Ferb realized she's upset but isn't sure how to help so he says a science fact "Well, we were all watching it. And quantum theory states that the mere observation of an experiment changes its outcome."

He's nonverbal / semi-verbal and it makes me so happy

Phineas

Hyper verbal

Candace’s busting attempts go completely over his head

Special interest in engineering and building things

Incredible imagination

He talks over other people a lot and doesn’t notice

He and Ferb are each others special interest person

Special relationship with animals, specifically Perry

He repeats the same phrases every episode

Has trouble recognizing sarcasm

He doesn’t really have social awareness

His voice is very often monotone

He hyperfocuses on the inventions

Same routine every day. They do the same things at the same time (different inventions but same routine) and even have their alarms set to 7 in the summer

In the bully breakup episode he has trouble with the routine change. He keeps suggesting things to build to get back to their routine

But despite the routine he doesn't know what they're building until the day of because he also needs spontaneity

Candace

Has trouble focusing except when focusing on busting

Can't focus on other things when focused on busting

Special interest in busting Phineas and Ferb

Other special interest Ducky MoMo and collects items for it

Hyper verbal

Very focused on routine

In the episode where she’s sick and she tries to get Stacy to bust Phineas and Ferb, but she isn’t able to let Stacy take the lead and ends up getting out of bed when she isn’t really well enough to do the busting

VERY black and white thinking

Candace stims a lot!!!!!

She has trouble learning to drive (which is very common in neurodivergent people)

Has trouble making friends

She scripts conversations

Repeats the same phrases every day

Overanalyzes social situations because she has trouble understanding them

She’s obsessed with being cool and fitting in because she doesn’t naturally understand social cues

“I calculate that soon must mean first thing in the morning, since ‘soon’ can’t refer to a period in excess of or equal to 24 hours give or take a 59 minute cushion of time on either side of the event in question.”

Has a lot of childhood toys that she refuses to get rid of

She mentions in one episode that she feels like her room is too childish and she isn’t as mature as others her age (difference in maturity to neurotypical peers)

She doesn’t join in when her friends play with Phineas and Ferb because of her rigid thinking that she has to bust them. Even when they want her to play or hang out with them, she often doesn't realize it and can't let herself

When she reads Sherlock Holmes she copies his personality and phrases

Hyperfixated on the book series and read the whole thing in a single night

She plays every instrument that starts with B

Grilled cheese safe food

Goes into the panic room when overwhelmed or something is outside routine

Dr. Doofenshmirtz

Special interest in making evil scemes

He monologues to Perry every day about his special interest

Bad posture (common in autistic people)

Stims a lot

Repetitive thinking (inators)

Echolalia

In one episode Vanessa is trying to talk to him about something and he keeps getting distracted by echolalia and stim-speaking his words

He only interacts with animals on a regular basis and when he has to talk to people he is very socially awkward

Inattentive, forgetful, unorganized

A lot of his inators have to do with his childhood trauma

Norm the robot helps him with home tasks

Face blindness- he can’t recognize Perry unless he’s wearing his hat

Dad

Vocal stimming!

“Fossils! Bum bum bum.” (fun fact this is a vocal stim of mine!!!!!)

Special interest in antiques and gladiator movies

He has a huge collection of gladiator movies

In the lake nose monster episode he’s telling phineas and ferb stories and completely unaware of anything else happening while he’s talking (infodumping)

Hyperfixated on buying stars and buys a TON in one day

Also gives someone a star as a tip and doesn't realize why that might not be appreciated

Mom

Different interest/activity every episode

She gets hyperfixated on the activity and has trouble leaving it to come home or answer Candace's calls

Oblivious to the boys' antics

I’m gonna keep coming back to update this as I rewatch so it will eventually be the Ultimate List of Autism ™.

[pinkthrone445]

hii i love your fics so much. i wanted to request a melissa x reader. where they both work at abbott and have been dating for over a year now. they are somewhat private about their relationship but the abbott crew want to surprise them for their anniversary together.

maybe lots of fluff and some smut when mel and reader get alone time

-Since words are not enough to explain how much I love you, let me show you-

Pairing:Melissa Schemmenti x Reader

Gender:Smut, fluff, soft sex

Warnings:explicit sex, detailed oral(Mel Receiving)

Summary:When you celebrate a year as a couple, your colleagues at Abbott decide to surprise you two with a party to get to know you better.

Au:Hi lovely anon, I'm so sorry for making Melissa and reader like a married couple and not like they'd been dating for a year, I misread and before I knew it, I had already written everything. I hope you still like it and enjoy it. Remember that petitions are still open

Undoubtedly, being a teacher was a remunerative job and at the same time very tiring, there were days when you see them learn new things and get excited about that, it made you very happy, and other days when they didn't pay attention to you at all and there was no way to control them and that was very tiring.

The good thing was that your wife was also a teacher and that she understood your situation very well and always gave you very good advice since she had more experience than you.

You and Melissa were about to celebrate a year of marriage and more than three years of living together, at school you were quite private about your private life, if someone had not paid close attention to you two, they would not have realized that you were wives.

The only ones from the school who were invited to the wedding a year ago were Barbara, who was Melissa's maid of honor, and Ava, who was your maid of honor since she had known you for years, got you the job at Abbott and was a very close friend of yours, also she was the first one who introduced you to Melissa when you two first met.

The others had not yet come to work at Abbott's school at the time the two of you were being married. A month later they started working so they didn't get a chance to attend the wedding. They had already found out that you and Melissa were married, but they had no idea that your anniversary was approaching.

As you walked down the aisle with your purse on your arm, you were talking to Ava, who seemed very interested in remembering your wedding and how beautiful it had been. Remembering how at your wedding Barbara dedicated a song to you two and Ava dedicated you a dance, a loud laugh escaped your lips just as you entered the teachers' break room where everyone else was already there. Ava pretended to be offended by jokingly slapping your shoulder when you teased her by repeating her dance, which would have been great if Ava hadn't already been drunk at the time of doing it, tripping over her own dress.

Everyone followed the interaction with their eyes, but especially your wife, who every time you laughed was entranced and couldn't stop looking at you adoringly. When your laughter died down and you were able to breathe normally, you greeted everyone and sat down at the table with the redhead and Barbara.

When your wife handed you your lunch box, you thanked her and kissed her forehead briefly, the redhead smiled and continued to eat, glad that you were by her side, while the three of you talked about what had happened in the day.

That kiss on the forehead and holding hands at the time of leaving work was the greatest sign of affection that your co-workers could notice at school. At home you were both very affectionate, especially Mel who needed to have her hands touching some part of you at all times, Barbara and Ava knew how affectionate you could be, even cloying, but the other teachers, especially the new ones, had not seen that part of you, and since they loved the couple that you and Mel made, they were always paying attention to the minimal love interaction that you and the redhead had.

While Mel, Barbara and you talked, the redhead caressed your hand gently without realizing it, you knew that these days she had been more affectionate at school because your anniversary was approaching, as it didn't bother you, you let her do it enjoying the extra attention and her caresses

-"What was it that you were talking about with Ava that made you laugh so much?" - Barbara asked, and you laughed again at the memory

-"We were remembering the dance she did at our wedding"-you said between laughs and your wife also started laughing, Barbara tried to control herself but couldn't do it

-"I still have the video saved on my phone" - Melissa commented, pulling out her cell phone to look for it, and Barbara shook her head

-"I can't believe it's already been a year since the wedding, time goes by so fast... And you look even more in love than you did that day" - Melissa's friend commented and you looked at the redhead who already had her eyes on you making you blush a little, you were about to answer but Jeannine's voice cut the moment short

-"What?! What?! You are about to celebrate your first wedding anniversaryand we didn't knew? We should all celebrate together, since we couldn't be at the wedding, it would be something nice to share and also get to know more about you two as a couple"-The young woman commented with a lot of emotion and Melissa rolled her eyes

-"No thanks, I'm okay with no one else meddling in our life as a couple" - She said seriously and you squeezed her hand in warning not to be aggressive, you knew that Jeannine was saying that with good intentions. Carefully you got up from the table grabbing your purse because your students were about to return to the classroom and you had to be there before them, before you left, you grabbed your wife's jaw carefully but firmly and looked her straight in the eye

-"What have I said about aggressive comments to people who just want to do something nice for you or someone else?" - You asked your wife and she sighed, avoiding your gaze

-"That I shouldn't respond in a bad way and appreciate their good intentions even if it's something I don't like" - She muttered under her breath and you smiled kissing his forehead

-"Alright, remember that next time... See you later"-You commented before you left the room. Barbara laughed seeing her friend

-"Only one year of marriage and she already got you around her finger, Schemmenti" - Her friend commented, sipping a new cup of coffee

-"Shut up Barb" - The redhead commented seriously and then laughed.

The next few days no one talked again about the anniversary. But at home, you and Mel started making plans to celebrate in some way.

The two of you were sitting on the couch in the living room, Mel was behind you and you were sitting in front of her with your head resting on her shoulder, one of her hands was on your abdomen and the other inside your bra grabbing one of your boobs. It wasn't sexual at all, the two of you were watching a movie and the redhead just put her hand in there as always to keep you close and because it conveyed heat, you let her do it.

The movie was interesting, but your head was somewhere else

-"Love, what do you want for our anniversary?" - You asked her looking sideways at her as she thought

-"I don't think I need anything... I don't know what you can give me"-She replied truthfully and you rolled your eyes

-"We've been living together for almost four years and whenever I ask you what you want, you always say the same thing" - You complained and she laughed

-"It's just that it's not that easy to think right now about it, let's see, tell me what you want"-She challenged you

-"Easy, I want you on our bed or right here, completely naked with just a gift bow on top" - You responded by laughing at the sight of your wife's face, no doubt she wasn't expecting that answer

-"Now that you say it, I want the same thing too"-Your wife responded by making you laugh, you kissed her and continued watching the movie.

A couple more days passed and the date of your anniversary arrived, Mel and you had planned something quiet, you would go out to dinner, go to the movies and then at home you would see how things progressed. You were really excited about those plans, you couldn't see the time when the doorbell would ring and you could go home with your wife.

When the bell rang, you grabbed your purse and excitedly walked out into your wife's classroom. Mel was still saying goodbye to some of her students and you waited for her leaning against the door frame, when she saw you, her eyes lit up and she walked over to you as she said goodbye to her last student. You briefly gave her a kiss on her lips and held her hand smiling

-"Ready to go?" - You commented and she nodded walking to the exit, but before she could open the door, Barbara called out to you

-"Girls! Gerald and I wanted to invite you to dinner for your anniversary, do you want to go with us? Or did you already have plans?"-Melissa looked at you with a big smile when she heard her friend's invitation, she loved going out with the couple, to tell the truth, you liked it too and you always had a great time together.

-"We'd love to"-You confessed and saw Melissa smile grew even more

-"Send us the address, we'll change and we'll meet you there"-Your wife commented, and Barbara nodded, sending her the address. After an hour, you were already changed and in the address Barbara sent you. You were a little surprised to notice that it wasn't a restaurant, but a party hall. Taking your wife's hand, the two of you entered finding everything off, when you were about to turn to ask Mel if this was the right direction, the lights came on showing about 60 guests who all in unison shouted happy anniversary very excited.

You were surprised to see Barbara, Ava and the rest of the Abbott crew there, they had also invited your family and Mel's. After you had greeted everyone, you approached Ava and Jeanine, still holding hands with your wife

-"I thought you'd give up on the party after Mel's answer at school" - You commented looking at the younger one and she laughed a little, blushing at the attention of you and your wife

-"I thought you wouldn't like it, but after Barbara and Ava joined the plan, there was no turning back"-Jeannine commented, and you saw Melissa get closer to her, intimidating her a little

-"I love this, thank you, everything is beautiful and I appreciate your efforts, especially for inviting our families"-The redhead commented, and you, Ava, and Jeanine were surprised by the affection her words held. Jeanine smiled a lot and Mel excused herself to go with Barbara, Ava came closer to you smiling

-"No doubt you've tamed her, it's rare to see her so kind and without sarcasm. It's scarier than when she is aggressive"-Your friend commented, making you laugh as you watched Mel from afar.

The party lasted several hours, there was delicious food and sweet drinks, funny anecdotes and good music to dance to (if there was one thing you loved about Mel it was how well she danced), the others had chosen the waltz you had played at the wedding to recreate the dance, thing that made you very happy, reliving how your wife looked at you adoringly as you danced with her, feeling safe in her arms. By the time it was getting very late, several of the guests had left and only you and your fellow Abbott were left, playing trivia couple games.

-"Who started the first kiss?" - They asked and you both replied that it was you remembering the moment

-"Who said I love you first?" - Again, you both agreed, saying that it was you because Mel was too scared to say it first

-"Who cooks better?" - you both replied that it was Mel, a fairly obvious answer

-"Who gets angry the most?"-Ava asked, and you and your wife held up a sign that said Mel on it

-"Who apologizes first after a fight?" - You and Mel said it was the redhead, mainly because she was the one who started the arguments in the first place

-"Who is the neatest?"-They asked, and again and you both raised your name. Melissa was neat and clean, but she preferred to leave things in their original packaging so she didn't have to clean up so much, instead you liked to tidy and clean more than she did

-"Who's the horninest?"-The two of you held up the sign at the same time, agreeing that you were both like that.

The reason you and Mel were quite secretive about your relationship at school is because at the slightest temptation or insinuation, you would both get very horny and needy jumping on each other, specially you being younger and having such a beautiful woman by your side.

-"Who's the loudest in bed?"-Ava asked again, and Mel held up a sign agreeing that it was you making you blush.

Then followed a game of truths, it was all an excuse to get to know you more as a couple, and since you and Mel had already had several drinks, you were answering very sincerely.

-"Favorite thing to do when you're alone?" - First question

-"Snuggle and have sex or cook together" - Mel replied and you nodded

-"(Y/N), what is your favorite physical part of your wife and vice versa?" -They asked, and Mel smiled at you letting you answer

-"Her mesmerizing eyes... And her breasts, I could spend my life with my face between them"-You replied by looking at Mel with desire and love, the redhead hurried to answer as well

-"Her thighs, especially when they're around my head" - Your wife replied and you blushed laughing when you heard everyone's screams, especially Ava that loved kinky stuff

-"What's the most daring place you've ever had sex?" - You heard the question and answered

-"At the cinema" - Your short answer raised more questions

-"What? How?" - Jeannine asked in surprise, but your wife shook her head

-"You only asked where, we won't give any more details" - The redhead replied and you laughed

-"Favorite memory together?"-They asked and you smiled, there were so many

-"Our first new year together with our families" - You replied and Mel nodded in agreement

The game went on like this for a long time, until it was very late and it was time to go home. After saying goodbye to your friends and thanking once again, you and Mel went to the car, you let the redhead drive because she hadn't drunk as much as you.

While your wife was driving, you looked at her silly and smiling, especially when you felt the gentle caresses that Mel gave on your thigh

-"I had a good time tonight" - Your wife spoke and you nodded

-"Me too, I had a lot of fun, I like to remember our magical night and see you happy"-You answered and watched as she parked in the house. As soon as Mel opened the door, you walked straight to the couch and sat there doing little hands for her to come with you. Honestly, you had had a great time, but dancing and laughing so much had exhausted your body and you didn't even feel like going up the stairs to your room. Your wife sat on the couch next to you and you smiled at her sitting on her lap, the redhead placed her hands on your hips, smiling. Carefully you began to open the buttons of her shirt, slowly as if all the time in the world was for you two to enjoy. The redhead's breasts, restricted by the bra, were fully visible and you began to salivate. You very gently gave small kisses on your wife's lips making her smile, then on her neck, and also on the valley of her breasts as you completely removed her shirt and threw it to the ground. Her skin was soft under your lips and tasted a bit like perfume and sweat from dancing all night. Her skin, white as the moon, was tinged a little red from the soft bites you took here and there. Each gentle bite was accompanied by a small moan that escaped from the redhead's lips. The room was almost completely dark, only illuminated by the small light that came from the hallway of the house, just a ray of light hit her eyes and extended to her chest highlighting her beautiful skin, her hair in this light seemed to be even redder than normal.

With skillful and soft hands, you detached her bra leaving her breasts completely bare, her pink nipples stood proudly at the slightest touch you gave to her skin. The redhead looked like a vision, her head thrown back against the couch, her breasts bouncing gently with every deep breath she took, her neck decorated with tiny marks you made, her soft abdomen and warm skin under your hands, the little moans and insults that her thick lips let out. Everything was perfect, she was perfect.

Your kisses continued to run down her body, there was no rush at all, Mel wanted to savor the moment and you wanted to savor her.

Your lips rested on one of her breasts, you licked it slowly, sucked on her nipple and gently bit it and suck it again, then repeated your actions on her other breast until all her skin was glowing with your saliva.

Your kisses continued to descend reaching her abdomen, which you filled with kisses, Melissa was a few years older than you and without a doubt her body show it, she was far from being a teenager, but every mark, every stretch mark, every soft part of her body, only drove you crazier. Your lips clung to her soft abdomen, biting and leaving marks there while you peeled off and removed her pants. The redhead lifted her hips slightly so you could remove the garment. With gentle hands, you guided her to the edge of the couch and removed her wet underwear as well.

Immediately her scent reached your nose, that scent that drove you crazy and made you lose all sense of decency, that scent that made you want more and more of her. Your kisses spread across her thighs as you took her legs and put them on your shoulder, caressing her soft skin with your fingertips while still kissing her legs.

Melissa didn't take this as a never-ending temptation because of how slow you were going, but she took it for what it was, a complete adoration of her body.

Finally you dared to look at her crotch and moaned as you saw her juices glistening in the little light that reached the room. Usually, because of her age, it was better to use some lubricant on the redhead, especially when you used toys, but that night she was so wet that she was even dripping a little. She was even clenching around noting.

Almost no words were said at that moment, the room was just filled with moans and heavy breathing, everything you wanted to say to her, the love you wanted to show her, you were doing it with your actions and gentle caresses and your wife was understanding it perfectly. It was a rare occasion when everything was so slow and delicate, consuming her being with passion but also with love.

Finally your lips reached your wife's crotch, your hands positioned themselves on her ass bringing her closer to your face, your tongue played gently between her folds, a moan in unison escaped your lips and hers, Melissa tasted intoxicatingly good, you'd never get tired of it.

Her hands went to your hair, tangling delicately, without making too much force and letting you go at your own pace, she only did it to somehow feel closer to you. Her other hand went to the cushions, squeezing harder and harder as you sucked on her delicate button.

Finally your tongue went to her entrance and you slowly made your way in, feeling her body hug your tongue. Your nose was pressing against her clit and your tongue was slowly dancing inside her. You were moving slowly but strongly, you didn't expect the redhead to come fast with this rhythm, but when you started lapping with more strength, a high-pitched scream came out of your wife's mouth, her nails scraped the back of your neck, and her hips rose against your face, her thighs trapping you in place and their juices bathing your chin without warning. You followed your movements for a few more seconds, amazed at how fast she had come, opening your eyes to see the sight of your beautiful wife enjoying her orgasm bliss while one of her hands massaged her own breasts. One of your hands moved up her body positioning itself over hers and also massaging her breasts with your intertwined fingers, while you still savored and cleaned her swollen crotch with your tongue.

Mel continued with her eyes closed and head back savoring the sweet sensation after the orgasm, her breathing was still altered but slowly calming down, you could feel it in the way her chest moved, her legs were still shaking a little as you gave her soft kisses on her thighs. Carefully you got up from the floor and returned to your original position by sitting back on her lap, with your fingertips you caressed her cheek and arranged her hair a little, especially the small strips that were stuck on her sweaty forehead. You gently gave her a kiss on her forehead to stop her from frowning and relax her body completely, you also kissed the tip of her nose making her smile and gently kissed her lips making her taste herself on your lips, the redhead moaned as she felt herself and grabbed your waist again, giving small circular caresses on your abdomen under your blouse. Her hands went to undo your pants but you stopped her grabbing her wrist, you just wanted to see her like this, calm and relaxed for a longer. Your wife barely opened her eyes and looked at you confused, making you smile tenderly

-"I'm fine Mel... I just want to be like this with you for a little while longer..."-You said lying on her bare chest listening to her heartbeat, she hugged you tighter against her body

-"But I want you to enjoy it too, I wanna taste you too"-Your wife replied in her hoarse but still a little agitated voice 

-"I know, but I want to enjoy this moment as it is, we will keep going when you recover your breath, or tomorrow, there's no rush, it's just you and me"-You whispered in her chest, feeling your wife kiss your forehead and close her eyes again, resting her head on top of yours, enjoying having you close.

-"I love you so much..."-Melissa whispered with complete sincerity, without even having thought to say it, she didn't think about it, but she felt it with her whole being, she in did loved you with all her being. And after how you had treated her, she knew that you loved her the same way.

[commodorez]

What is the appeal of vintage computers to you? Is it the vintage video games or is it the programs? If so, what kind of programs do you like to run on them?

Fair warning, we're talking about a subject I've been passionate about for most of my life, so this will take a minute. The answer ties into how I discovered the hobby, so we'll start with a few highlights:

I played old video games starting when I was 9 or 10.

I became fascinated with older icons buried within Windows.

Tried to play my first video game (War Eagles) again at age 11, learned about the hardware and software requirements being way different than anything I had available (a Pentium III-era Celeron running Windows ME)

I was given a Commodore 1541 by a family friend at age ~12.

Watched a documentary about the history of computers that filled in the gaps between vague mentions of ENIAC and punch cards, and DOS/Windows machines (age 13).

Read through OLD-COMPUTERS.COM for the entire summer immediately after that.

Got my first Commodore 64 at age 14.

I mostly fell into the hobby because I wanted to play old video games, but ended up not finding a ton of stuff that I really wanted to play. Instead, the process of using the machines, trying the operating system, appreciating the aesthetic, the functional design choices of the user experience became the greater experience. Oh, and fixing them.

Then I started installing operating systems on some DOS machines, or playing with odd peripherals, and customizing hardware to my needs. Oh, and programming! Mostly in BASIC on 8-bit hardware, but tinkering with what each computer could do is just so fascinating to me. I'm in control, and there isn't much of anything between what I write and the hardware carrying it out (especially on pre-Windows machines)! No obfuscation layers, run-times, .dlls, etc. Regardless of the system, BASIC is always a first choice for me. Nova, Ohio Scientific, Commodore, etc. I usually try to see what I can do with the available BASIC dialect and hardware. I also tend to find a game or two to try, especially modern homebrew Commodore games because that community is always creating something new. PC stuff I focus more on pre-made software of the era.

Just to name a few examples from a variety of systems: Tetris, terminal emulators, Command & Conquer titles, screen savers, War Eagles, Continuum, video capture software, Atomic Bomberman, demos, LEGO Island, Bejeweled clones, Commander Keen 1-3, lunar lander, Galaxian, sinewave displays, 2048, Pacman, mandelbrot sets, war dialers, paint -- I could keep going.

Changing gears, I find it funny how often elders outside of the vintage computing community would talk about the era I'm interested in (60s-early 90s). [spoken with Mr. Regular's old man voice]: "Well, computers used to be big as a room! And we used punch cards, and COBOL!" I didn't know what any of that meant, and when pressed for technical detail they couldn't tell you anything substantial. Nobody conveyed any specifics beyond "that's what we used!"

I noticed that gaps remained in how that history was presented to me, even when university-level computer science and history professors were engaged on the subject. I had to go find it on my own. History is written by the victors, yeah? When was the last time a mainstream documentary or period piece focused on someone other than an Apple or Microsoft employee? Well, in this case, you can sidestep all that and see it for yourself if you know where to look.

Experiencing the history first hand to really convey how computers got from point A to B all the way down to Z is enlightening. What's cool is that unlike so many other fields of history, it's near enough in time that we can engage with people who were there, or better yet, made it happen! Why do you think I like going to vintage computer festivals?

We can see the missteps, the dead-ends, the clunkiness, the forgotten gems and lost paradigms, hopefully with context of why it happened. For the things we can't find more information on, when or documentation and perspectives are limited, sometimes we have to resort to digital archeology, and reverse engineering practices to save data, fix machines, and learn how they work. The greater arc of computer history fascinates me, and I intend to learn about it by fixing and using the computers that exemplify it best, and sharing that passion with others who might enjoy it.

[nanabansama]

Inspired by colowallocake's post, I searched through various Japanese legends about human sacrifice and wanted to offer some of my own suggestions as to the identity of the infamous "Pit God," as I like to call it.

First, let's recap what we know about it.

The god is heavily associated with water. The kannagi are sacrificed by being forced off cliffs and into a water-filled abyss. These kannagi wash ashore to a reservoir below the Red House, which was built on a well that taps into said reservoir. And when Tsukasa sacrifices himself, the God talks in watery speech bubbles:

It seems that whoever this god is, it's some kind of water god (水神 Mizugami) that dwells in Kamome.

And that's actually a common thing! After pouring through a few different articles about human sacrifice in Japan, I found that many of them are done to appease water gods. This is both a good and bad thing; good because there's so many and it's easy to find info, and bad because it doesn't really help us narrow it down.

That said, I have a few different stories I'd like to share with you. The first will be Mitsumata-fuchi.

Mitsumata-fuchi's story is remarkably similar to how the sacrificial ceremony works in TBHK. A beautiful maiden or otherwise a kannagi, aged about 15-16, is thrown into a pool of deep water for a festival thrown anywhere from once yearly to every 12 years to quell the anger of a wrathful god. That's crazy similar, isn't it?

And this "Mitsumata" is a real place! It's where the Numakawa and Wadagawa rivers in Japan join together. It's located in Fuji City in the Shizuoka prefecture. The Wadagawa river is also called by the name "Sacrifice River", funnily enough...

Anyway, there's another story about the Mitsumata I found interesting. A group of 7 girls were passing by when one of them, Oaji, was selected by the villagers to be sacrificed. The other 6 girls were spared and escaped, but feeling bad for the friend they left behind, they end up drowning themselves in a lake.

...But in an ironic twist of fate, the villagers had let Oaji go. Oaji ran after her friends, but when she learned they drowned themselves, she grew so sorrowful she threw herself into the water with them. Thereafter, the evil god was said to never demand a sacrifice again...

I'm not sure if AidaIro will ever reference this particular story, but I found the fact that 7 girls were sacrificed very intriguing in the context of TBHK.

Anyway, there are some interesting things in this legend that haven't been addressed in TBHK. For one, the god here is either a dragon or a giant (sometimes poisonous) snake.

We do have an illustration of this Pit God, which...

...was probably heavily stylized by some in-universe artist, but it is a valuable frame of reference nonetheless. Honestly, it really just looks like a nonspecific supernatural monster to me, but to call it a dragon or serpent isn't a far reach, either, I think...

Something about the multiple mouths reminds me of another story, though. And while I can't really get a specific name or detailed description for the Mitsumata-fuchi god, I do have one for this next one.

Yamata-no-orochi!!!

This tale is a lot more famous, so I'll be quick. Yamata-no-Orochi is an eight-headed serpent legendarily defeated by the brother of the great Amaterasu, Susanoo-no-Mikoto. When Amaterasu's fail brother was kicked out of Takamagahara, he wound up in the land of Izumo and met a crying old couple and a young girl. The old couple explains that they once had 8 daughters, but Yamata-no-Orochi devoured the other 7. It comes down once every year to eat one of their daughters, and soon enough their last daughter will be eaten, too.

Hearing this, Susanoo agrees to help them under one condition: that they let him take their last daughter as a wife. They agree, and Susanoo turns their daughter into a comb and asks them to prepare 8 tubs filled with sake. They comply, and when the serpent comes, each one of its eight heads greedily drink up the sake. Now drunk, the serpent is easily slain by Susanoo and his mighty blade.

...it kind of reminds you of how Minamoto no Yorimitsu got the oni Hakubo lived with drunk and slaughtered them, doesn't it? All these stories and making me afraid to drink sake... *shiver*

Anyway, Orochi is also a Water God, and probably the most famous of the ones that eat young maidens. While I'm unsure if our Pit God is Orochi, it wouldn't exactly surprise me! The fact that Yamata-no-Orochi (八岐大蛇) has eight heads while our protagonist Yashiro Nene (八尋寧々) has the kanji for 8 in her name is also an interesting connection.

As for our last story, I'll try to keep it brief. This one involves a dog, though, so I hope that keeps it fun and fresh for you.

This is the story of Shippeitaro, the legendary dog who, spoiler alert, saved a village from an evil spirit that demanded human sacrifices. In this story, girls are chosen to be sacrificed by a white arrow, and whoever's house is hit by the white arrow has to offer up their daughter. The girl is then sacrificed by being left at a shrine inside of a box/cage. Hmm, intriguing...

Anyway, long story short, the dog hides inside of the box instead and when the evil spirit comes to eat it, it springs out and defeats it! Good boy.

One of the interesting things about this story is that there are many variations. You'll notice I said "evil spirit" instead of something specific. That's because the spirit takes many forms. One of the more popular variations is that of a cat, but it can also be a monkey, fox, wolf...mostly different animals, from what I'm seeing.

Overall I think this story has a weaker connection than the other two, but on the whole, it wouldn't surprise me if AidaIro is taking inspiration from multiple stories instead of any specific one. Which brings me to my next point...

It's totally possible that our Water Pit God is just an original creation by AidaIro! In case you're not in the know, Japanese kami (gods) are basically infinite. Considering TBHK takes place in a made-up town, it's not too surprising if this kami is made-up, too, hm? :)

But hopefully you still found this post to be of help. I had a lot of fun researching for it. And if any of the stuff I mentioned here ever happens to show up in TBHK, that would be really cool! Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading. ☆

[eldritch-spouse]

HI AGAIN. Ever since I found your blog and also sent a totally normal ramble abt cannibalism I've been just. Gently tossing your guys back and forth in my head. You're a wonderful writer and I'm always excited to see you on my dash!!

Gonna throw my hat in as asking an actual question- How would your guys fare if their obsession had a particularly weird or morbid interest? I get the vibes that some of them would most certainly encourage it but I also feel like Vinnel would hit me with a hammer if I panic infodumped about ebola-

[Hellow, glad to see you again! Also, I know you probably just forgot, but "your guys" encompasses way too many characters to talk about at once, so I'll assume you were going for TCE staff.]

Morell especially likes hearing about your cannibalism infodumps. They're actually useful to him, since he's going to be living with you, and he needs to know what he can and can't feed you, as well as a possible child between you. It's actually interesting stuff, he'd like it if you talked about it to his family too, you're a smart piggy. Any other topics are usually met with less enthusiasm (unless kitchen/food related), and he'll ask you to quit it if you start talking too much about mushrooms. Overall, it's nice background noise to work to.

Patches is all about infodumping. In fact, you're subjected to it often too, even if he doesn't always stop to explain basic concepts you'd need to understand his rambling. He'll give you a recorder he has, so he can keep the sound of that boundless enthusiasm in your voice forever. He's much more participative than the others, asking various questions and tossing random scenarios at you that'll prompt you to learn even more. There's a potential he'll get distracted and stop working to just research this with you the whole day.

Gallon loves a weirdo -No offense- Feel free to dump all that morbidity on him, he soaks it up like a sponge (so does Martin, be careful). Although he prefers to let you speak unhindered, only egging you on when it seems you're getting passionately angry about things, there's a chance Gallon may begin his own little tidbit sharing regarding a variety of poisons and toxins. He's selective with what he lets slip, but figures it could interest you.

Santi likes listening to you. Doesn't matter what it's about. There's only one thing he doesn't want you to morbidly talk to him about, anything featuring kids. Other than that, you think a rant about the intricacies of cannibalism's effects will kill his mood? Hah, nice try. He usually doesn't have anything smart to say, but may actually pitch in with some first hand details if you mention something sexual and morbid.

Let's face it, this is going in one of Grimbly's eardrums and out the other. Unless, you can talk like you're in a true crime podcast, then he's all ears. Grimbly typically responds to these interests by bragging to others about how his Mommy's "so smart" and "cultured" and he learns so much with you! You should start a YouTube channel!

Nebul likes to hear what you think is morbid. He'll let you ramble when you've been good enough to earn his attention, or if it allows you to keep obeying him. He has his own morbidities to share with you, as a wraith who has seen the darkest parts of many a mind. Surely, you of all people would be fascinated to know how the brain reacts to very invasive types of trauma only some monsters can inflict...

Vinnel will use this to his advantage during shows. You're placed in dangerous games where the whole goal is for you to explain said morbid concepts to the audience while Vinnel or Jingles try to destabilize you so you'll fall into painful contraptions or get cut/bruised/undressed. Sometimes Vinnel pays attention to your infodumps, other times he openly doesn't, it's a coin toss.

Belo sincerely discourages you from seeking such dark information in your brain. A lesser's mind is like a canvas, and it shouldn't be furnished with such desolate knowledge... If your morbid interests somehow can shine a glimmer of positivity or utility, the angel will be a little more inclined to letting you keep pursuing these topics. Otherwise, Belo actively attempts to distract you.

Sybastian doesn't understand about 80% of what you're about to tell him, but he has all the time in the world to sit and listen to his favorite person spit words. He's not verbally communicative during these episodes, but he may clap depending on how impressive the information is, and he remembers things you say enough to sometimes present you with paraphernalia vaguely related to the topics of your morbid interests.

Fank-e is a good bet because he can add onto your information in real time, or correct small detail you may get them wrong. He's generally happy to give you links to more information sources and try to match your level of knowledge, uncaring of how dark the subject theme may be.

If there's one thing you can infodump to Krulu about, it would be diseases. Plagues and ailments of several types are his specialty, the chances of him imparting bits of knowledge you absolutely should not possess on this matter are high. Another thing you may infodump to him about is corvids. It gets him in very favorable moods, surprisingly.