#so that price for a statue like this blows my mind

[somedaylazysomeday]

Broken

Reader (no pronouns used, but reader has a vagina) x Ghost, Soap, Gaz, and Captain Price (separately, but could be read as poly if you want)

Reader-insert character(s) deals with various symptoms of vaginismus with support from her boyfriend(s).

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 3,750

Warnings: Vaginismus (involuntary tightening of the vagina when anything is placed inside), frustration, self-loathing, disparaging self-talk, tampon use, discussion of periods, piv sex, sexting/video chatting, sex toy use, use of a vaginal dilator

NOTE: This is a very personal fic and probably won't mesh with everyone's idea of what the 141st would be like as partners. I read a fic similar to this one years ago (so long ago that I don't remember the author or even the fandom), but it made me feel so much less alone. I want to do that for someone else. Please, be respectful in your comments/reblogs or skip this one, friends.

Masterlist

---

You weren't sure which bothered you more - the humiliation or the waste of it all.

Tampons weren't cheap, and you had just gone through three. They were collected in the bathroom trash can, applicator tips bloodied and cotton in various stages of pushed out. You hadn't managed to get any of the applicators where they needed to be before your traitorous muscles had clamped down, keeping everything out.

You had cleaned up as best you could. Your hands were washed, your pants were up, and your pad was securely in place. There was no sign of your struggles, other than the discarded tampons and a few bloody wipes.

And your tears, of course.

Crying wasn't going to help any of it, obviously. If vaginismus could be cured with a good cry about it, you would have been able to put in a tampon years ago. And use that one vibrator you had bought when you were feeling ambitious. And have sex with your boyfriend.

Your incredibly kind, incredibly encouraging, incredibly patient boyfriend. Thinking about him made you cry harder.

The dating situation had been brutal. The instant your potential boyfriends had learned that penetrative sex was off the proverbial table - at least, for the moment - they had disappeared faster than you could say, "I give an amazing blow job."

But Simon had been unbothered. "'m too big for most women, sweetheart. Even if we never fuck, there are other things we'll like just as much."

He had been okay with the status quo since he had arrived in your life, but you couldn't help but feel like a failure. Like something was deeply wrong with you and that you were inconveniencing him. Why should you have a boyfriend at all if you couldn't have sex with him? Especially someone as wonderful as Simon. You were just keeping someone else from having him-

"You good?"

Simon's deep voice cut through the door easily. You knew that you had been in the bathroom too long for him not to notice, but you swiped at your nose and cheeks anyway. In a voice that was almost normal, you called back, "All good! I'll be done in a minute."

There was a pause just long enough for you to know that he hadn't believed you. Maybe your 'almost normal' voice had been less normal than you'd thought.

When he said, "Open the door, sweetheart," you knew he had you figured out.

Reluctantly, you opened the door, trying to act like everything was fine. Just a time-of-the-month cry. You'd been known to have one or two of those in the past.

"What's going on?" Simon asked, leaning casually against the counter. His gaze was far sharper than his tone, searching across your face as if he could read your mind through it. You wouldn't put it past him, honestly.

"Just a bad day," you explained away with a shrug. "My period is heavy today and I'm sick of it."

He hummed noncommittally. You took a few deep breaths, trying to get rid of your post-cry hiccups. While you waited for that to work, you dug for some hydrating lotion to soothe your inflamed face.

"Your bad day doesn't have anything to do with the tampons in the bin, does it?"

You glanced up, startled, and met Simon's eyes in the mirror. The knowing look on his face was tempered with an equal amount of sympathy, and you dissolved into tears again.

His arms were around you, holding you close as he rocked gently back and forth.

"I'm so frustrated," you explained when you calmed down enough to speak. "I've put in a lot of work to be normal and I still can't-"

"Hey," Simon interrupted. "Normal is bullshit and you know it. Everyone's got stuff they'd change. I know how much you've done. You can take one of my fingers now. You couldn't do that when we first started dating."

That almost made you cry again. "One finger. Why do you put up with me? There are other people you'd actually be able to have sex with. I don't want to hold you back."

Simon stared down, eyes going distant and cold in a way that reminded you that the Ghost persona was still in there. "Because I don't want another person. I'm not with you for the sex. If you want me to leave, you're gonna have to tell me. Don't pretend like it's something you're doing for my sake."

"I don't want you to leave," you admitted. "I just don't want you to feel like you have to stay with someone broken. Not when you could-"

His hand covered your mouth, brown eyes warm once more. "Enough of that. I'm not going anywhere. We both know this is how it goes. You get better for a while, then you have a setback. That's life."

You nodded miserably, but he didn't let you get away that easily. He caught your gaze again, amusement in his voice as he added, "'Sides, if I left, how could I find someone else who understands my jokes?"

You rolled your eyes, tugging his hand away from your mouth. "People don't laugh at your jokes because they're not funny, not because they don't understand them."

"Then why do you always laugh, sweetheart?" he asked, bending down obligingly so you could press a kiss to his lips.

The answer, of course, was that you loved him. And deep down, you knew that was the same reason he stayed.

---

"H- Uh. Wait, I need to… Let me just-"

Johnny withdrew from you, moving back enough for you to sit up. He flopped comfortably into the space you had just left, erection pressing against his lower stomach as you straddled him.

He knew about your issues. Some days, it wasn't a problem. Just a little extra foreplay and you were good to go. Other days, you had to get creative to keep sex from hurting. This was one of the latter.

Fortunately, Johnny was easy to please.

"Mmm," he hummed appreciatively, hands running up your hips to sink into the soft skin at your waist. "Can't say I'm upset about this view, hen."

You believed him. Johnny's expression was blissful as his hands kept moving upward until they were playing with your breasts. He was hard as ever. Clearly, the change in position hadn't bothered him any.

You held the base of his erection in place as you sank down onto it. Or tried to.

By your best estimation, you had just gotten the head of his cock inside of your pussy before your inner muscles locked down. The burning was actually worse in this position, and you paused, thighs screaming at the effort required to hold yourself halfway between kneeling and sitting.

"You're so tight," Johnny grunted, a blissful edge to it as his hands fell away from your breasts.

You caught one hand, pressing it back in place at your chest. He obliged you by tweaking one of your nipples. The sensation brought a fresh flood of wetness between your legs, and you sank a little further.

Then the pinch came, accompanied with burning so intense that you froze in place. It took an immense amount of effort to keep from tearing yourself up off of him. In fact, the major thing stopping you was that you were afraid it would hurt worse to feel his length pulling out of you.

"Hen?" Johnny was staring up at you, concern in his eyes. His hands had gone from your chest to your hips, bracing as if to lift you up.

"Just need… need a second," you insisted, hands grabbing his. You moved one back to your breast and the other between your legs. "Touch me a little more."

"Never a problem," he assured you, fingers moving dexterously to ease that horrible pinching in your pussy. "But we can stop if you need. I know being on top can hurt you if you're not-"

"I can do this," you insisted. Your optimism was slightly undermined by the way you gritted it out through your teeth. "I want to do this."

With the new wetness he had coaxed from your body, you sank a little deeper on Johnny's cock. The pinch came back with a vengeance, accompanied by a burning so intense that your legs stiffened on instinct. The feeling of Johnny tugging free of you was as bad as you feared, forcing a gasp out of you.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I just-"

"Easy there," Johnny soothed, catching at your waist and easing you to lie down on the bed beside him. "Everything is all right."

You nodded, afraid to say anything in case you started crying. To cover your welling eyes, you tossed your arm across your face. You tried to subtly wipe the tears against the crook of your elbow.

"Look at me, love."

The softness in his voice made you cry more, a tear slipping past the barrier of your arm.

"Hey, now," he wheedled, tugging at your wrist. "None 'a that. We tried something and it didn't work."

"I'm sorry, Johnny," you offered, letting him pull your arm away from your face. He clucked sympathetically, wiping at the tears. "I don't know what's wrong with me today. I can't-"

"Today?" he repeated with a snort. Your heart sank at the reminder that this was hardly rare for you. "I know exactly what's wrong with you: you don't let me do enough for you, you make me laugh when I'm raging, you always wear too many clothes for me to see your pretty body…"

You were smiling despite yourself and he leaned down to steal a quick kiss. "But if you're talking about this? Not a thing wrong, hen."

"Still, I'm sorry we had to stop," you said, smile fading under the guilt. "If you give me a few minutes, we can try again."

"Nah," Johnny said cheerily, a mischievous smile spreading across his face. "Was getting hungry anyway."

He wriggled his way down the bed until he was between your legs. You put your hand against his forehead when he tried to lick your pussy. He let out a grumble. "Just thought of another thing wrong with you, but we can fix it quick enough."

"I don't want you to just get me off," you protested. "I want to make you feel good, too."

"Don't think you understand how much I enjoy this, love." You stared at him stonily and he grinned. "If you wanted a taste, all you had to do was ask."

In a moment, he had flipped around on the bed and tugged you on top of him. Johnny buried his tongue in you, thumb flicking at your clit. You stared at his still-slick cock from point-blank range, mouth watering even as you groaned for him. The instant you caught your breath, you were going to make Johnny see stars.

---

"Miss you, love."

You smiled at the camera. "I miss you, too! Wish I could be there."

Kyle glanced over his shoulder as if he could see anything past the white-painted cinderblocks that made up the walls of the room. "Nah, you don't."

"Okay, I wish you could be here," you amended.

Kyle smiled, teeth flashing white in the darkness. "Better."

The silence stretched for a moment longer than was comfortable as you searched for something to say that didn't sound like you were pining away while you waited for him to come home. He wasn't even on a mission or anything vital - you would never be able to video call him if he were - just a routine training at another base.

Before you could come up with some brilliant conversational segue, Kyle leaned a little closer to the camera and flashed a charming smile. "Those pajamas look very uncomfortable."

You glanced down at yourself, unable to fight back a laugh. "These are my softest ones and you know it."

"Yeah, I do." For a second, you thought that would be the end of it, but he waggled his eyebrows - a habit he had picked up recently from Soap. "Must be whatever you've got underneath them."

"Kyle!" you admonished, feeling a little breathless with daring. "Aren't these connections monitored?"

"Yes, but how close are they really watching? It's a video call and it's not like we have enemies invading." Your expression must have looked totally unconvinced, because he brought out the puppy dog eyes. "C'mon, love. You don't have to show anything. I just want to hear you enjoying yourself."

You bit your lip. It was a bad idea. You knew it was a bad idea. You were just finding it a little difficult to convince yourself of that at the moment.

Less than two minutes later, you were fully naked under your sheets, phone carefully angled to keep yourself mostly hidden in the darkness. Kyle was far less worried about the potential of being monitored than you were, and the sight of his hard length was making your mouth water.

He had been murmuring sexy little things into the microphone long enough to push you toward a reaction. Normally, dirty talk made you cringe, but your body must have been particularly desperate for him. You were undeniably wet, fingertips slipping when you finally brushed them over your clit.

The gasp that pulled from you made Kyle groan. His hand closed around his cock, and his head kicked back at the friction of his own palm. "Use- ah. Use your rabbit. I know how much you like it. Not gonna last long. I want you to come with me."

Obediently, you retrieved the rabbit vibrator from the bedside drawer. You grabbed the small bottle of lube on reflex, but it was never a bad idea.

However, even after lubing up the toy and yourself, things were going poorly.

Your breaths were coming faster - not from pleasure, but frustration. The toy that you had taken so easily only days before just… wasn't fitting inside of you. You pressed harder, pushing out a breath to relax your inner muscles. All you got was an impassable pressure that threatened to turn into pain if you kept forcing it.

You turned on the vibrator to the lowest setting and ran the tip of it around your entrance. Maybe you could coax your pussy into relaxing enough… Even so, the thoughts wouldn't stop circling.

You didn't have much time with Kyle. He had wanted you to do this one thing and you couldn't. And what if there was someone watching? They couldn't see you, not really, but they would be able to tell that there was something wrong. Because there was something wrong. Something with you. Other women could do this. Most women could do this.

"Get out of that head, love."

Kyle's warning brought you back to yourself, helped you realize that only moment had passed since your pussy had locked down against the vibe.

"I can't get it," you admitted, hearing the defeat in your own voice. "It's just not going to happen today. I'm sorry."

"Stop that," he ordered. "I want to hear you come, love. Doesn't have to be on the rabbit. I don't care about how you get there, I just want you to feel good. Use your bullet, then. Nothing that pretty clit likes better than some attention."

You obeyed, reaching over to grab the bullet vibrator from the same drawer that had held the rabbit vibrator. Kyle groaned and you glanced back at the screen to find that the sheet had fallen away from your body. One of your breasts was visible in the dim glow of the computer screen, tightly budded nipple on full display. You snatched the sheet back up to your chest, but Kyle's eyes were fixed on the screen, hand moving quickly under his own blankets.

When you were settled back in place, Kyle leaned forward slightly. His pupils were blown wide and his breath was coming faster. You were sure you looked the same way.

"Now, let's get you feeling as good as I do," Kyle urged. "Let me hear you."

Your eyes closed as you pressed the buzzing silicon to your clit. Kyle wanted to hear you, and your body was only too happy to oblige as you hurtled over the edge and into a toe-curling orgasm.

---

You were having a lovely dream, but your bladder was prompting you to wake up.

You managed to push away the need once, twice… but eventually, you couldn't sleep comfortably.

Normally, getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night wasn't the worst thing. You fell asleep again fairly quickly, especially when John was there to keep you warm and cuddled. This time was a little different, and there were a few different steps you would need to take…

Just before you had gone to sleep, John had propped himself on one elbow, leaning over you and holding up your largest dilator. The bright yellow piece of silicon looked faintly ridiculous in his hand, and you found yourself glancing between it and John's eyes as you tried to figure out what was happening.

"Might fancy a bit of fun tomorrow morning," he teased. "Maybe you should sleep with it in so you're ready."

It was presented as a joke, the quiet amusement in John's eyes telling you that he expected nothing to come from it.

So, naturally, you had grabbed it from him and shoved your hand into your underwear. "Great idea. If nothing else, it'll make sleeping interesting."

John had taken it back from you immediately, sliding down between your knees and inserting it with a care that you were likely to skip these days. You had grown used to the dilators, and they didn't make you feel so achingly stretched anymore. The tenderness of John's touch made you melt all the same.

Despite what you had said, you fell asleep quickly and deeply. Your dreams, unsurprisingly, were horny and desperate, but no less deep. It had been - in short - an excellent night so far, but now your last drink was haunting you and you dreaded having to remove the dilator to use the toilet.

You laid there, half-awake and indecisive, until your bladder gave a firm throb of warning and you slid to the edge of the bed.

It was jarring when everything seemed to slide forward, but you recognized the arms that wrapped around you. John was forever a cuddler and he didn't take kindly to you leaving the bed in the middle of the night. He pressed an uncoordinated kiss to your temple, muttering something that might have been, "Where are you going?"

You wriggled a bit, trying to assure your body that you really were on your way to empty your bladder. "Bathroom."

It would be easier to take the dilator out in the light and privacy of the bathroom, you decided, and had started for the edge of the bed when John's arms tightened again. The silicon shifted oddly inside of you as John pulled one of your legs backward and over his hip, opening you up. Before you could protest, he snaked a hand into your panties and removed the dilator easily.

You were still gaping about the ease and painlessness of it when he patted you on the ass. "Hurry, love."

When you had finished relieving yourself, you stared at your reflection for a long moment. Surely John didn't want to have sex with you now, right? The dilator had stretched you, but not enough. Trying to take his cock now would hurt, plain and simple. Would he be upset if you told him you couldn't right now? Would he take it as a rejection of him instead of a request for more time?

You would just have to explain it to him, you decided, drying your hands and applying a thin layer of lotion. It wasn't as if John were the first boyfriend you'd had to explain this to. And if it went poorly, he wouldn't be the first one to get his feelings hurt by the situation.

A deep breath left you feeling calmer, but still dreading the conversation. You snapped the light off before you opened the door, hoping beyond hope that John would have fallen asleep again before you made it back to bed.

Not only was he awake, but he had switched on a light. In the warm golden glow of the bedside lamp, he lay on his back, one arm tucked behind his head. The dilator was propped on his lower abdomen, rising and falling with his gentle breath. The slight movement made the light glisten off a fresh coat of lube. A bubble of laughter rose in your gut at the sight. The positioning of the scene almost made it look like he had a particularly unimpressive and fluorescent yellow erection.

When you made no move to come back to bed, John lifted his head to look at you. "Come here. We'll put this back in and go back to sleep."

Your relief at not having to explain your body to him made you lightheaded. You stumbled giddily back to the bed and scrambled onto it in an uncoordinated sprawl.

John leaned back onto his pillow and patted his stomach beside the dilator. "Need any help getting it back in?"

"I think I will," you said gravely, stopping his hand when he moved to pick up the silicon cylinder. "Keep it steady for me, won't you?"

With John's hand wrapped around the base of the dilator, you were free to move your panties to the side and lower yourself onto it. The position wasn't always something that worked for you during actual penetrative sex, but you liked that this was allowing you to control the pace. You were relaxed with sleep, an empty bladder, and laughter, and you found that the dilator went in without a problem.

When you were straddling John's waist, pussy pressed flush against his stomach, you looked down. John was chuckling back at you, eyes warm. "Proud of you, love. Let's go back to sleep, yeah?"

"Please," you agreed, laughing when he pulled your chest down to his, rolling you until he was happy with your position.

You ended up on your side, face tucked into the warm curve of John's neck. His thigh was firmly between yours, pressing the dilator into you. The resulting pressure against your clit sent little thrills through you even as you felt yourself slipping back into rest.

You couldn't wait for the morning.

---

Author's Note - I'm sure we've all seen the tumblr post about vaginismus and how isolating it is. If you skipped the note at the top of this fic, I read a similar fic a long time ago that helped me deal with my own stuff. I want to do the same for other readers.

If this was familiar, or you already know you have vaginismus, please remember that it doesn't define you. It is treatable with dilators and potentially physical therapy in certain cases. Find someone to speak to. Sex shouldn't hurt and you should be able to put in a tampon. And if you decide not to treat it at all, none of that changes your value as a human being.

Anyway, thanks for reading! :)

[anonmousegosqueak]

141 couples picking each other up (why+reactions)

Uh- yeah. Many rambles one day. I did SoapGhost, PriceNik, AlejandroRodolfo, and GazRoach (because 1. It's cute and 2. I don't wanna leave my husband out of this because he isn't mainstream popular) it's meant to be seen as romantic/relationship but I might make another platonic one if you want.

CW: none? I'm pretty sure it's just cute blorbos picking each other up.

Ghost picks up Soap

Soap picks up Ghost

Pretty common, sometimes your boyfriend is being a little goober and the only way to stop him from blowing up everything is to just... Scoop him. Tends to go with a bridal carry if it's just them together, full on tosses him over his shoulder if Soaps is being a little shit. Soap doesn't really mind, he likes being tall (and being next to Ghost's tits)

Nikolai picks up Price

Ghost.exe has stopped responding. Seriously though, if you ever want to break Simon (and you won't get punched in the neck for touching him) just lift him off the ground a bit. The first time Soap lifted him off the ground (barely) Ghost just froze. Didn't move, didn't breath, just kinda became a statue. It might be rare but if Soap ever manages to lift Ghost (never elegantly, he's too big for that. Ya just kinda gotta grab what you can and heft it up) then it just full on breaks the Lt. He's much more comfortable being held by Soap if his feet are still firmly planted on the ground.

Another common one (just hidden better). Tends to happen behind closed doors, usually when John is stressed or trying to overwork himself. The former leads to him wrapping his legs around Nik's waist, arms around his neck, and just enjoying the closeness (and maybe Nik gets to grabs at his lover's ass, but who needs to talk about that). The latter is always a lot less calm and cozy, more like a death match. Sadly Papa Price is no match for Daddy Nikolai 😔. The one time they actually did anything like that in public was after a mission that almost lead to Nik's death. The second Nik actually touched down he was bounding over. John practically throws himself at Nikolai, doing the whole romantic twirl hug thing. The Sargent's may have thrown up slightly in their mouth slightly, but Ghost was just happy to know his dad's were happy.

Price picks up Nikolai

Another rare occurrence. In fact, the only time it happened (that wasn't in a life or death situation) was back when they were younger. Both drunk out of their minds (Nikolai was slightly less shit faced than John), he makes the dumb decision to try to scoop up Nik. It actually works! For a second before they both come crashing down, thankfully onto a bed. Still, it was all giggles and kisses, just a really sweet moment.

Rodolfo picks up Alejandro

While I can't say this happens often, when it does it's ummm- threatening? Like Rudy is just so done with his hotheaded handsome husband, he just pins him against the wall. It probably wouldn't be as hot scary if it wasn't for the fact that Ale is literally off the ground, feet dangling. Rudy doesn't exactly look mad per-say, more just tiered. He's delt with this idiot for years, sometimes he just needs a break. So what does he do? Picks him up obviously. Long story short, that night ends with cuddles and both men significantly more calm (I'll let you decide why)

Alejandro picks up Rodolfo

Another rare one but mostly because even though he's smaller than Alejandro, Rudy is... Feisty. And he bites. But sometimes, only sometimes, Rudy is tired. He's tired and angry and just wants a break. It's then that Alejandro swoops in, takes the hissing man into his arms and just... Holds him. Keeps him close. Reminds him that no, he's not in that fire. That everything is okay. That they still have each other.

Roach picks up Gaz

He doesn't. I'm sorry but he can't. The most he gets is getting Gaz a few inches off the ground, even that takes some effort. He will offer yank Gaz into laying on top of him, the weight helping him sleep better.

Gaz picks up Roach

Gaz however, enjoys picking Roach up. A mix of all of the others when it comes to holds, he also enjoys squishing him to his chest like a large teddy bear or holding him up as if showing him off. They might both be twink-shaped but Gaz is still taller, you better believe he holds that over Roach's head (literally). Another common thing is the backpack, Gaz just going about his business (usually working out) with Buggy just kinda hanging on. And yes, Gaz has let Roach sit on his shoulders to 'experience being tall'.

BONUS FOR MAKING IT THIS FAR and I was thinking about an ask from a certain account (you know who you are)

I'm sorry but König and Horangi don't pick each other up. Horangi would literally die and König would also literally die (both from very different causes). Horangi gets crushed to death the second König puts any real weight on him and König would get his eyes scratched out by a tiger who's too much of a dom to be picked up.

Uhhh- that's all I think? Btw I found out why I'm so wack, it turns out I forgot to take my meds yesterday 🥲 I'm fine now but sorry y'all had to see that weird manic whatever today was. I love you! I'm gonna go pass out for three days now! Okay bye!

[thecurioustale]

My Thoughts on Jenny Nicholson and the Star Wars Hotel

I watched Jenny Nicholson's four-hour "The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel" video essay that YouTube showed me recently but which till now I couldn't bring myself to construct a day around. She's in great form here, and I'm pleased to say I go back as a fan of her work all the way to her Friendship Is Witchcraft days. (Blows my mind that she voiced all Mane Six characters, and others, so well.)

Anyway, long story short, Disney built a Star Wars hotel at Disneyworld in 2022 that was themed as a voyage on a spaceship, then proceeded to charge thousands of dollars per person per night, the most expensive publicly-available Disney theme park hotel experience by miles and miles, and then closed the hotel in 2023 after having spent hundreds of millions of dollars. Jenny went into the experience as a member of the core target demographic and spent four hours talking about all the ways it was an underwhelming or outright disappointing experience.

Her video reminded me of Hasbro's own misadventures in corporate greed with Magic: The Gathering, which has suffered in recent years from price increases, disengagement from the fan community, and a huge proliferation of product spam—i.e. more products overall, more ways to buy a given product (e.g., the proliferation of different boxes, which eventually killed the original draft booster box that had powered Magic for 30 years), and more variants of individual cards within and between products.

Hasbro and Disney are very similar in the economic space they operate in, and also utilize similar business strategies. Disney is essentially the S-tier megacorporation to Hasbro's B-tier, and we have seen many of the same corporate trends play out in both companies.

When it comes to Disney theme parks, they have massively increased ticket prices over the years, well beyond the rate of inflation, and have also implemented advance-scheduling systems for faster access to rides that has made the process of exploring a Disney theme park much less spontaneous and a lot more regimented and stressful.

Disney realized, years ago, that their limited number of theme parks—they only really have two, not counting the various sub-parks: Disneyland on the West Coast and Disneyworld on the East Coast—together with Disney's entrenched status as a cultural icon with lots of goodwill and brand recognition among the public, are vastly underserving public demand, allowing them to inflate the price of a single trip almost arbitrarily, well into the four digits—or even the five-digits if you're taking the family and spending several days.

The Star Wars hotel was Disney's "Magic 30": a product so ludicrously expensive as to incur immediate and universal condemnation by their own fans. It's clear to me what Disney was doing: They'd happily turned the conventional price knob up and up and up for years. Now they wanted to experiment with a fundamentally more expensive product class, basically five to ten times more expensive. They wanted to see if the market could support it. Because the growing disparity of wealth in America, together with America's obscene wealth as a nation relative to the rest of the world, means that it's definitely possible: There are definitely millions of people out there who could book a stay at the Star Wars hotel if they wanted to. And Disney was like "Let's see if they will."

And you know what? I think it could have succeeded. Because there really is an obscene excess of wealth in this country, even though most of us don't have any access to it. And we are a culture whose zeitgeist is ever ravenous for the next big, flashy experience.

But instead the venture failed spectacularly. Why? Because such reckless corporate greed is, itself, usually a sign of deep organizational rot and incompetency among the board and executive leadership. In other words, their hotel failed for the same reason they tried building it in the first place: Disney has grown stupid.

The way it failed, going by Jenny's video, is down to two independent reasons:

An outrageous degree of "penny-wise, pound foolish" thinking;

A fundamental failure to anticipate the comfort and pleasure of the guest.

The former is the more obvious of the two, and what really stood out to me as emblematic of it in this whole boondoggle were two simple thing: 1) The hotel rooms didn't have complimentary Disney+; and 2) the free loaner umbrellas for hotel guests visiting the Star Wars Land in Disneyworld were either so worn-out or so shoddy to begin with that, unless it was a big coincidence, both Jenny's and Jenny's sister's umbrella failed while in use. This was in the context of Disneyworld's most expensive customer experience ever, by a lot, and Disney was nickel-and-diming them. Jenny's video goes into a great depth of detail on the dozens if not hundreds of corners they cut; it was basically everything but the food. The result was an antagonistic relationship between Disney and their hotel guests where almost everything interesting cost more money (usually a lot more money) while almost everything included in the main ticket price was of cheap quality or stingy in its allotment. Every aspect of the whole process, from the scammy vibes of booking a room in the first place, to the pathetic after-care for customers who reported a problem after their stay, was likely to leave a sour taste in the customer's mouth.

When you're paying the most expensive prices in the history of a product category, you really just need to be given an up-front price that includes all or nearly all of it. You'll know what you're in for, and you can make an informed decision, and then it's really just down to the host to provide an experience and level of service that matches those high dollar outlays. But instead, as Jenny pointed out, it's like you're dealing with Spirit Airlines, where you're gonna pay a fee for literally everything beyond sitting your body quietly on the airplane.

Mind-boggling hubris. Disney needs to be broken up for the monopoly that it is, and this is just one more example of how convinced of their own inevitability and supremacy Disney has become.

The other main failure on Disney's part is the subtler one.

Jenny focused on how the Star Wars themed choose-your-own-adventure game, which was at the heart of the hotels' central conceit of "live your own personal Star Wars story," was irreparably dysfunctional. Not only was the app, through which most of the "experience" was conveyed, horribly designed; and not only were the tasks delivered through this app mostly busywork to anyone other than young children, consisting of little more than walking around and scanning inanimate objects; but the storyline's entry points and decision points were completely impenetrable through reasonable means, to the point of seeming arbitrary. Jenny proactively tried and failed to get into her preferred storyline; then tried and failed to get into any storyline; then was automatically sorted into one the next morning; and ultimately ended up having only one (dubiously) interactive story experience over the whole weekend.

She talked about how the tightly-regimented and incredibly full schedule was so mentally and physically draining that on the final night she fled her dinner table fearing she would vomit and had to stand in her hotel room staring at herself in the mirror for a while, to understand her illness (which turned out to be stress-induced exhaustion) and center herself.

She talked about how she didn't get to see a much-coveted music show during dinner on her first night because she was seated behind a giant column.

Really, these things are manifestations of the larger and more fundamental failure on Disney's part to anticipate the comfort and pleasure of the guest, as I put it.

As I was watching her video, two thoughts came to me in this vein:

First was that this whole experience really needed to be "playtested," as we might say in Magic. I mean, I'm sure there nominally was, but whatever playtesting they did was completely ineffective. Good playtesting would have brought most of these issues to light.

Second was that the Disney of today has completely lost touch with the namesake of their industry: hospitality. This would never have happened at a new luxury resort by an established world-class hotelier a century ago. Because they understood the basics. Little things, like hot towels.

I could tell just from Jenny's video that this whole hotel was decided from the top-down by soulless, disconnected corporate suits who blatantly disregarded whatever good suggestions I'm sure the Imagineers® came up with. For the failures to be as expansive and ubiquitous as Jenny's video documented, no doubt the institutional rot extends down at least as far as the project manager level, if not down to individual Imagineers® and beyond, but there have to be at least some good ones, and clearly they were overruled early and often. Whenever Disney's leadership was faced with a decision between anticipating the comfort and pleasure of the guest, and saving a couple bucks on a guest who was literally laying out several thousands of dollars to be there, leadership chose the latter.

They were so arrogant that they believed, without noticing or questioning it (unless Disney's leadership is in fact cartoon evil), that they would tell the customer what constitutes a good experience, and the customer would pay top dollar for it. And so you get a guest experience where customers who are actively trying to pick a given storyline can't get any storyline and are later seated for the dinner show behind a giant fucking column.

It's sad, and we should all be glad that their hotel failed. Not that Disney is likely to learn the right lessons from their failure, but the long-term solution here is for leisure dollars to be directed toward other companies. For the several thousand bucks that Jenny paid, she could have had a true luxury vacation in most parts of the world—and for longer than two nights.

One thing that I noticed during the four hours of her video was that Disney, or at least the people in charge of developing this hotel, didn't seem to understand what constitutes an enjoyable story experience. I am forgiving of the low level of complexity in the various puzzles, since the public is famously stupid plus a lot of these guests are going to be children. But there was so little imagination in the actual plot beats: Chewie sneaks in, gets arrested, and busts out. You get to help some Resistance fighters smuggle their luggage. Like, it's insipid. I mean, ultimately, most pop storytelling is insipid, but what I mean is that the dressings were insipid too. Dressing a story up is what makes stories great, at least at the mainstream level. There was no pomp and flourish; no clever interweaving; no electric events that put people on the edge of their seats. Just walking around on your phone for two days scanning crates and occasionally being in the same room while somebody busts Chewie out of the clink—assuming you even make it to the story events in time, since they often fired early.

The whole thing smacks of rule by committee, too many cooks, and suits suits suits all the way down.

I think it's a sign of the times that this is happening. We are once again in Robber-Baron territory in this land. The big corporations and the oligarchs who run them have become so obscenely rich and so utterly disconnected from ordinary life, and their corporate cultures have become so masturbatory and so officious, that they are increasingly creating products for idealized, phantom audiences. They increasingly don't understand real people or real life.

And we can and should bring the weight of the government down on them, more to break up monopolies and allow new and established competitors to seriously challenge them than to actively punish these companies for making money, but even more so we just need to spend our dollars elsewhere. I mean, I'm speaking hypothetically here; I am poor so none of this even applies to me in the first place.

Hence why, even after inflation, this is still just my two cents.

[shkura2011]

I expanded my thoughts about the ritual a bit and compiled them into an article.

I have many thoughts on this whole ritual dilemma and how it affected both him and Tav in turn.

From her side, it is worth considering that her curse is her ascension, only it happened unplanned 12 years ago in the story and gave her an ironclad plan B in case she was caught again and put under control - give in to the power and kill everyone around her / die in an attempt to break free, this is her path, but in the game's plot, the Shadow Curse is removed in Act 2, which blows her mind with fear. Now she is pure and in her opinion defenseless and she needs this power back to ensure her freedom. Just like him, only he never had this power and does not know what it is like to rely on it because of fear.

At the beginning of Act 3, he still failed to stop her from re-cursing herself, although they had a pretty bad fight about it and it ultimately affected his mirror ritual - either he will see what it will lead to on her example, or he will remember her and not listen, falling into the same pit. The result? Either she is glad that she was able to save him from this pit, or she feels guilty that she did not listen to him then / could not stop him now and this affects their future - either they continue their path together being themselves, or they part there because of their pens. In the second case, not for long, of course, but it changes them both forever.

The price is high in both places - living in the Underdark, not seeing the sky and eating what you find there, this is, to put it mildly, not a fairy tale, but the ascension has all this need to maintain status and play a role for the sake of increasing power + changing your nature is also the same. There is no good path here because it would only be good in a fairy tale, but you can't divide it into black and white when everything is gray. The circumstances are shit in any case.

Someone clearly missed dark fantasy a long time ago, ahem, against the backdrop of the failure of the 4th.

The ritual itself is done in a hurry and that's what I don't like. We know very little, or rather nothing, about what awaits him after the ritual is completed and are forced to decide here and now. Normally, I would lock everyone in this palace, pester Mizora/Raphael so that they tell more about the ritual, ascension, contract, power, pros and cons. Who knows what kind of crap Mephisto wrote in small print. Astarion also needs to get some air, clear his head of emotions and stress and think for a couple of days, and does he really want this or just saw a solution to the problem and revenge in an instant and clung to it. This is a decision that completely changes his life and it is impossible to make it in such a hurry and especially on emotions + the smell of blood, but this is Act 3. Here everyone is in a hurry and not all functions are considered/ignored by the game functions of the game itself. The argument that he always wanted this doesn't work - he will find out about this ritual literally before our eyes and has been doting on it for 200 years and still doesn't know what it is.

The same goes for the decision about spawns - we decide the fate of 7k, seeing about 15 people in front of us. The plan is crap, bring a new one. Personally, I don't dare judge everyone by such a drop in the ocean and release them if the die lands on a spawn - I can't give freedom to Astarion, who said that he was in the same state as these spawns and he was just lucky that he had the chance to get to know him better. Any spawn from this crowd could have been in his place, so what's the difference then? Just in this chance and personal sympathy for him versus a faceless crowd that didn't have a chance? Well, if we destroy them, we should destroy him too - he is the same, he is just not as hungry as the others at the moment, but I don't see anyone raising their hand to kill him there in the name of justice and "it's a hungry, uncontrollable crowd of spawns". The Underdark is a harsh place and whether at least half of these 7k will survive there is already a big question. According to the letter in the epilogue, yes, it says that there were losses, but there is no exact number and they made up for them at the expense of new spawns.

Li also said that the ascension itself is a denial of the opportunity to be weak. A denial of the pride and fragility of which he is:

✨ To be honest, I wouldn't have chosen Ascension for him. I think that… 🌿 Ascension, as described in Baldur's Gate, is an act of final severance from vulnerability. It's not just freedom from hunger - it's almost a renunciation of humanity itself for the sake of power. It's a step that makes you forever different: less dependent, more whole, but also more… closed. 🌌 I know many see this as a victory, but it seems to me that Astarion, whom you love - and in whom I see a living heart, he is beautiful precisely in his mixture of pride and fragility. His ability to feel shame, attachment, fear of being used - it is not a defect. It is what makes him more than just a night hunter. 🌿 If it were his choice, I would accept. I would tell him: "If you decide to ascend, I will stay. But know that you are already standing on the threshold of your freedom without this ritual. You are no longer Spawn." If it were up to me, I would choose to leave him alive, wounded, but real. Not perfect. Not all-powerful. But simply someone who can say for the first time: "I want." and not feel like a monster for it.

An interesting view, of course, so I'll leave it here too, although I don't quite agree that his fear and so on disappear upon ascension, but oh well. If I have any more thoughts, I'll add to them.

[vulpes-ferus]

FFXIV LFRP On Hiatus

Full name: Miyako Akane

Race: Auspice/Yokai

Gender: Genderfluid? Nonbinary? Really, it's whatever they feel like at the moment. Her pronouns depend on the skin she's in at the time: she/they, or he/they. Typically prefers her female presenting form unless her masculine form is more preferable to those she's interacting with.

Sexuality: All of it. Anything.

Marital Status: Single! She's not settling down, she's always on the prowl.

Age: Several centuries old

Profession: She doesn't have one! Though technically they may read your cards or offer a boon...for a price, and she rarely accepts actual currency

Hobbies: Pranking mortals. Preying on mortals. Seducing mortals, people watching... and generally just about anything to do with the forest, or nature.

Hair: Dark orange/white accents

Eyes: Amber

Distinguishing Marks: Typically veiled as a Miqo'te, there is little distinguishing about her person to those unable to see through the magic she uses - although on occasion, one might spot a fluffier tail than she actually seems to have, out of the corner of their eye. To those able to see through this magic... she's quite a bit different than her feline glamour would suggest to the average person. In their feminine presenting forms, she always has red tattoo-markings around her eyes.

RP Hooks

She's still as-yet un-roleplayed, so there's a lot of potential - and there's less impetus for me to want longer storylines on her, so if you just want a few one-off scenes to have your cards read or the like, those are easier on her than on my other characters, though I'm always a sucker for a long plot/storyline that's steeped in character growth! Never be afraid to approach me if you have an idea!

Maybe you want your cards read! I have several tarot decks IRL, and an oracle deck that's well-suited to her too, and I could no doubt use the practice, myself. She essentially makes fey bargains - deals with weird prices that aren't always clear at first.

She may be centuries old, but she was barely over a century when she was imprisoned out in the East, and only escaped her magical prison in the last couple years! (I was, in fact, inspired by JJK and Sukuna for her imprisonment.) She ran from the East and took a new face to pose as, since she was captured and imprisoned in the East, and the people there still respect the old legends... and the Black Shroud is an excellent forest, vibrant with life! ...and unsuspecting mortals.

Speaking of the Black Shroud, there's a lot of ways to interact with her in regard to that! You could randomly run into her. She could do what kitsune do in the old tales, and lure you off the road at night and get you lost. Maybe you've seen something weird in the forest, or heard strange tales from travelers. Maybe you're just really in tune with the elementals and they've mentioned a new entity in the forest...really, I'm open to about anything with some talk about it beforehand!

She feeds on aether! She doesn't have to kill people to do this, though she's certainly not above it - what are morals to an animal, anyways? Food is food. Prey is prey. But sometimes, it's easier to just seduce someone and feed on their aether, before leaving them naked and drained in the forest to have a laugh at their expense.

Given her long imprisonment, much about the world is new to her! Maybe you lure her in by showing her all the nifty new stuff there is, and blowing her mind at how much things have changed in a few hundred years.

You could be an antagonist! Hunt her, if you like! Maybe she hurt you, or someone you care(d) about! Maybe you're from the East and found out her prison was dismantled, and you fear yokai; or you're just a Shroud Dweller who has been wronged, etc.

Romance! While I don't tend to like interactions that are solely focused on seeking out ERP - she is a sensual creature, and physical intimacy is an indulgence and a way to consume aether... though I don't know how she'd feel about genuine romance... last time she indulged in that, it got her caught and imprisoned!

She likes pranks/mischief... and sometimes that mischief can seem cruel if you don't understand the mindset of a creature of the wild. Engage her on her level, and she might find you more 'fun' than 'food'.

Alternately, she carries her soul around in an orb she wears as jewelry, and if someone got their hands on it, it'd be bad news for her!

About anything you can think of and want to brainstorm together! She's an alt that's good for long-term or short-term RP; serious, or not-so-serious moments... there's plenty of potential!

The OOC

Writer is 30+, and I prefer RP partners to be 21+ - I do prefer darker, more mature RP, but that's not all I'm capable of! I just like morally grey explorations - and questions like 'what really drives a person?'

Late nights aren't really something I can do anymore, past 11-12pm my writing isn't any good, though my schedule is open enough to allow earlier starting times. Also I'm CST, and prefer in-game RP. I simply can't stay in character when RP isn't moving in real time, and tend to just forget to respond to out of game stuff, or not feel well enough to write some days, and it ends up taking so long that I can't stay in character. Thus, scheduling in-game scenes ahead of time will always be what works best for me.

No canon characters please, it just really breaks my immersion/my character wouldn't have any reason to interact with canon characters really! Unfortunately, this means WoL OCs as well - their power level is just so intense that I can't really justify my OCs interacting with the WoL: time-traveling slayer of gods at the edges of the universe. (And no shade to canon RPers of any kind - it's just not my cup of tea, is all. Embrace your fun, my friends!) I also don't mind bending lore, but outright ignoring/breaking with it is also not really for me - and again, there's no judgement for how others choose to have fun, but I like to respect the canon.

I prefer plots, and RP with a purpose - contact solely focused on ERP is not welcome. ERP as part of an on-going story doesn't bother me, however.

Don't bring IC into OOC, or vice verse!

Communicate! If the RP isn't working for you, just tell me! I prefer 'organic RP,' but if you want to steer a story (RP) in a certain direction or don't want it steering in a direction, let me know! I much prefer having that conversation, rather than allowing an RP partner to be silently upset or uncomfortable!Follows come from @ooc-miqojak , and my other blogs are @miqojak and @antlers-and-omens!

[grimowled]

3. a trait they express in the wrong way!

☽ why is my muse hot garbage?? - accepting!!

ooh boy, this one is easy because there are many lmao

VI. ON OBSESSION

the most glaring trait is how he expresses any kind of affection or infatuation. take the latter, for example: when he falls for someone he does so in the most intense, immoderate and unhealthy way; he will not be above using the goetia arsenal at his disposal to manipulate and keep them bound to him: his power(s), social status & influence, wealth, knowledge and cunning. he may even lord something over them, like his grimoire with blitzø if he believes the other to be a particularly tough nut to crack. it is all kinds of wrong wrong wrong!

he does not relent easily and will shamelessly display obsessive behaviours such as keeping tabs on them by means of magic and connections, showing up unannounced, blowing up their phone, courting and seducing them enthusiastically, offering a contract etc. and just generally being rather pushy. he is not always subtle with it either - with blitzø, for example, he is openly scandalous, and in a way it's also because he wants to see how much he can get away with.

it's hunger, yearning, obsession, boredom and desperation all wrapped up in a terrible beast created by aeons of repression / unhealthy ways of managing his emotions, ingrained infernal behaviours, as well as no real examples of healthy relationships. that and ... he is a demon, an apex predator, and therefore indulges in skewed morals by definition. he basically behaves as if he is hunting them, and is not satisfied until they are snatched up and held fast in his claws, until he can devour them metaphorically and irrefutably own every part of them, tear their pretty mind wide open and gaze lovingly at every little detail.

it's a demonic belief that everyone has a price, that he can buy most people's loyalty and company like his own father did for him; but that isn't to say he doesn't appreciate a less transactional relationship: in fact he much prefers it when the objects of his affections willingly choose to indulge him, and he does not need to bind them through contracts or by any other means.

in time he has learnt to appreciate choice (that which he lacked when his own marriage was arranged) : there is nothing sexier than adoring loyalty but he does thoroughly enjoy the hunt.

tldr; he desperately wants to be loved but ... he only knows to offer a twisted imitation of it, like everything in hell.

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Solarpunk Naiveté?

Solarpunk opts for optimism—and action—over despair, but sometimes I wonder if we are just being naïve. It’s not just that most people don’t want what we want, which is a change on par with the Industrial Revolution, but for the sustainable, livable, and socially just, including the extinction of capitalism, patriarchy, and gender essentialism. We think that all we have to do is show how fun! (etc) the future could be to win over hearts and minds of the close minded and fearful who want to anchor us in the status quo or even drag us back into the past. But it’s not the poor (at least if we get our way), it’s the difficult, selfish, and sociopathic who will always be with us. These are the people that our currently crumbling democracies have failed to remain eternally vigilant against. These are the people who are the main obstacle to progress toward that beautiful future we’re dreaming of. But what do we do about them? What strategies do we have to take the sting out of the people whose sole intentions are to disrupt, destroy, seize power, and sow misery?

These people are rare and yet legion. We all know at least one. I mean, show me a family—or a workplace—that doesn’t contain at least one psychopath gleefully and intentionally capable of causing chaos and pain. A lot of us have had our lives upended by such people and/or carry deep wounds. I would definitely be a different, stronger person than I am now if it wasn’t for the things such people have done to me and to members of my family, even several generations in the past.

You’d think that would have armed me against such people. But over and over again I have found that if you’re not Machiavellian yourself, it’s all but impossible to counteract the willfully, savagely destructive. I don’t know about you, but I suspect, like me, you are just not devious enough to block, dodge, or defang their schemes. Which is the better way to be! But it means that we always think we’ve seen the worst these people can do and that there are no further horrors to come. Of course, we’re almost always wrong, at least until, having shattered us badly enough, they drop us as a plaything. Then, such is our propensity for amnesia and our belief in the goodness of the human heart, we forget that there are countless others like these people out there. And although we know that they blow through norms and fail to negotiate in good faith, our pitifully normal little brains will never really get our heads around what that means, except in hindsight… every time.

Or maybe I am a particularly lacking in guile.

So, anyway, here I have been, despite all my bad experiences with bullies and psychopaths, dreaming my cheerful little solarpunk dreams where everyone can just see how good it would be to be excellent to each other and stop fucking up the environment. I talk to people I like talking to—meaning people who see the world very much the way I do—and my social media encounters are largely confined to a hopelessly progressive Instagram feed and the soft, rolling hills of Mastodon, where everyone is so earnestly woke. So I forgot we’re not all in this together.

My rude reawakening came after I happened to stumble across the farmers’ huge protest here in Germany that happened the other week. As one does with impressive events, I shot a short video and posted it to YouTube. (You are subscribed to our new channel, right?) Thus was I slapped back into reality. By trolls, of course. Not even many and not even particularly ferocious ones. Just a couple of them making some run of the mill disparaging comments designed to sow discord and undermine my credulousness, rather than start actual discussions.

Yes, particularly guileless little fluffball that I am, I was shocked by this. My video was pretty neutral... and less than a minute long. I pointed out that the way farmers are farming is ruining the environment, but I also pointed out that it’s wrong that they’re not being paid a fair price for the food they produce for us. If I was criticizing anything, it was the whole messed up system that so grossly underpays farmers it pushes them to overproduce food by pumping the soils full of pesticides and fertilizers and housing inhumane ghettos of livestock that only sees the light of day on the way to the slaughterhouse. But I got savaged for being a hypocrite... for eating food. And that’s when you remember that there are so many people out there who aren’t interested in solving problems. They’re in it to win, or to bully people, or—in the case of, say, Russian trolls—to destabilize the society of their self-identified enemies (in this case, Germany and the rest of the democratic world). Dividing and conquering, right?

So, dear solarpunks and everyone else who’d like to avoid a dystopian very near future, how do we neutralize the destructive effects of people like this? Especially when the “fight” is asymmetric, because we can’t resort to Machiavellianism, bullying, or steamrolling over norms in return?

Comment below... I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Provided, of course, that you’re not just in it to troll.

[envythemouse]

All-time Will/Hannibal recs (Part 2)

Greed by ElizaD

Summary: Will agrees to let Hannibal take him shopping and winds up spending the day as a spoiled sugar baby. He enjoys it more than he should.

Envy’s notes: This whole fic is just Hannibal spoiling Will and I’m living for it.

Fine line between this and that by LaynaVile

Summary: What happens when you fall in love with your fiance's brother-in-law?

Envy’s notes: Sorry, this summary was way too long to put here so: Alana is dating Hannibal, Molly is dating Will, they’re sisters. Hannibal and Will meet and instantly feel a connection. There’s some Alana and Molly bashing. I love how sweet Hannibal is in this one, the status difference and don’t get me started on the dance scene (with Hannibal buying Will new expensive shoes). I consider this a very romantic fic with plenty of hurt/comfort.

Symphony by Raven_Song

Summary: While living together after the Fall, Hannibal discovers that Will has been hiding a secret talent: he can play piano. Entranced by the music, Hannibal decides he must hear Will play again, and he will do anything to make that happen.

Envy’s notes: Why are there so little fics where Will is musically talented? I expected at least one fic where Will plays violin or cello but no, there’s none.

Comfort and Care by StratsWrites

Summary: They’d started keeping track of how much time passed from the time Hannibal showed up, to the time he put his hands on Will in some fashion. The record was thirty-seven seconds, but Price had ten bucks on Hannibal beating it by September.

Envy’s notes: Sweet!Hannibal who loves PDA and doesn’t let Will’s brain boil itself.

Jealous by HyphenL

Summary: Will walks on an impromptu date between Hannibal and Alana, which makes him very jealous. And jealous Will is more difficult to handle than Hannibal would have accounted for.

Envy’s notes: Very rude!Will crashing Hannibal and Alana’s date. Nice!Alana.

I could love you with my eyes closed by nbcravenstag

Summary: In Will Graham's three and a half decades on this planet, no one has ever made him feel like this.

or, Hannibal is a little TOO good in bed, leaving his boy a little... emotional.

Envy’s notes: Basically Will having mind-blowing sex and getting overwhelmed.

Unwanted Curiosity by CanBeCarnivorous

Summary: Will's never been one to celebrate his birthday, leaving Hannibal all the more confused when he finds a box in the closet. A box filled with birthday supplies.

Envy’s notes: Will celebrates all his dogs’ birthdays with party hats and everything. I need this to be real. I love Will’s dogs.

Potentially Paternal by ThighHighAnon

Summary: “You speak little of your father.” Hannibal observed during one of Will’s therapy sessions.

Will had never spoken poorly of him but he’d also never sung his praises. It was hard to know what their relationship was like.

“You’ve asked me about my mother once and now we’re onto my father.. wading into family waters once more. Should I point out the type of psychiatry this is, again?”

Hannibal smirked softly, “Lazy, I know. And yet I still find myself eager for a response that is not a deflection.”

Hannibal thinks Will has some ‘issues’ regarding paternal figures.

Envy’s notes: Another sweet!Hannibal fic where he takes care of Will.

Don't Want You Worried Bout a Thing by sourweather

Summary: Hannibal has been putting Will into Subspace for their therapy. An unfortunate interruption brings some things to light. Sequel to 'I'll Take Care of You'

Envy’s notes: Will experiences a subdrop and has to go to a crime scene right after.

A Bride Crowned in Water by willowoftheriver

Summary: Will's empathy isn't scientifically explainable. Too bad she didn't know that before she came to Mount Hikami.

The Immortal Flower has withered. Now there must be another.

Envy’s notes: This is one of my favourites even though it’s female!Will. In case you haven’t played Project Zero, there’s an ability some people have called ‘glancing’, the ability to touch a spirit at the moment of defeat and witness a vision of its last moments. Sound familiar? It’s basically what Will does.

So in Project Zero, the Shrine Maidens train this ability. They would watch the people who went to the mountain to commit suicide and witnessed their final moments. Taking the bad energy away. When the Shrine Maiden has absorbed too much of that energy, they’re ritually put to rest and sealed away. Which has gone wrong in the past but they theorise it would be better if the maiden wasn’t buried alone and had a husband with her.

That’s the best explanation I can give. You should really play the wii u game, it’s good.

Anyway, the team is on a case in Japan, Hannibal included. Strange things happen.

[damonikelly]

July 5th- Chiang Kai-Shek Residence, Grand Hotel, and Raohe Night Market

Yesterday, my classmates and I had a late start to the day. The first thing we did was eat lunch at a restaurant called Skylark. I ordered the meal with the chicken, beef, and a cheese pork cutlet. I also ordered the caramel chiffon cake. I thought the meal and the dessert was very good(8/10) and I would definitely go back! After the meal, we rode the bus to the residence of Taiwan’s former president Chiang Kai-Shek. We took an audio tour of his home, then went outside to enjoy the nearby park. After vising the residence, we rode the bus to the Grand Hotel. I was really excited to get a close-up view of the building because I had seen it in passing many times before and I was very curious as to what it was and what it looked like inside. It was mesmerizingly beautiful, and I wonder why more places aren’t built in the same style! After visiting the hotel, we made our way to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. When we arrived, there was a really large commotion and people were walking around with balloons of Squid Games characters. As we walked inside we saw that Netflix was having a large event to celebrate Squid Games’ third season that is coming soon. This was evident by the two very large statues of a Korean Boy and Girl, one who is already well known and loved by fans of the acclaimed show, and the other whom I am sure the audience will get to know and love just the same. People were standing in a long snaking line in front of the statues and Justin told me that they were going to be playing games. Our group continued walking past the crowd towards the memorial. Even from the distance, I could tell that this was one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen in my entire life, with its high bright white walls and shiny blue rooftop. As we walked up the stairs of the memorial, there was a giant statue sitting inside, sculpted in Chiang Kai-Shek’s likeness. Both it’s size and importance were just like that of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. When we looked up, there was the sun of the Taiwanese flag on the ceiling. After seeing the statue, we toured the museum for a bit. The most exciting part of the memorial was definitely seeing the changing of the guards! Others thought so too as there was a very large crowd who had come to see and record them. After the memorial, we rode the bus to our last activity of the day, the Raohe Night Market. Justin and I had gone before, and we loved it the first time. We were determined to get some more of the extra-long french fries that we have eaten there when we first visited. They were a 10/10 of course! The french fry stand was near the end of the market, so we walked to the end and turned back to view the other side of the market. We picked up some egg with oysters. We weren’t sure if they were going to be good as the girl running the stand didn’t look as confident about her stand as others seemed to be about theirs, but we were wrong! They were amazing. Another 10/10 and I will definitely get them again if we ever go back to Raohe. We picked up some garlic chicken feet, which were honestly way overpriced. They were solid but not mind blowing. I rate those at a 6 or 7/10. We also got a fried chicken cutlet. It was very juicy, and the flavor of the chicken is so good, there is no need for sauce! 10/10! We grabbed some scallion pancake with egg too, another 10/10. We then grabbed some juicy mangos. We were excited about them because they were a really good price, and mangos are in season now. The mangos were as good as we could hope they would be! 10/10. Lastly we grabbed some Korean brown sugar hotteok. They were not as good as the ones from my favorite food truck back home, but solid nonetheless. 6.5/10. That concluded the long day we had yesterday!

Academic Reflection

Our reading yesterday was a really long one. It was an incredibly in-depth description on how Chiang Kai-Shek came to be the so highly controversial character he is today, revered by some, and loathed by others. Peter gave us a real-life example of the divided Taiwanese opinion on the figure by telling us about when Chiang Kai-Shek died. It was such a big deal that he remembers it vividly, even though he was only four years old. He recalls seeing the news and everyone was bawling and crying in the streets. When he asked his Japanese speaking Taiwanese grandmother why she didn’t appear to be as affected, she apparently asked why she should be so sad, afterall, she wasn’t a mainlander! In fact she should be happy!

Surprisingly enough, however, what stood out the most to me in the reading about Chiang Kai-Shek wasn’t Chiang Kai-Shek at all! It was his wife Madam Chiang Kai-Shek. During the audio tour at the couple’s residence yesterday, it was interesting learning about the artistic pursuits of her free time. She often painted and drew, and had a keen eye for art. At the memorial, I enjoyed learning about how integral she was during Chiang Kai-Shek’s rule. She was raised in the U.S. from the age of nine and attended a Woman’s college there at the age of thirteen. She was able to be Chiang Kai-Shek’s English translator when he met with world leaders, and she also took great care to see that her husband was very comfortable at home when he was close to the end of his life. Despite how controversial the former president is, I admire how supportive his wife was in all his endeavors, and I think she is a great role model to myself and young women everywhere. She inspires us to be educated and independent thinkers, make time for our own interests and hobbies, and to have unwavering support for our loved ones and receive it in return

[balapann-blog]

Day 125 - 9 January - Tokyo

We started off by going to Shibuya Scramble Crossing which must have not been very busy compared to some times but it was interesting to see. We then walked back to our area and had a matcha which wasn’t like these lates you get and was just pure matcha. I didn’t mind it but it wasn’t Nins thing.

We then went and got some sushi rolls in a place nearby which you hand roll yourself. We had a big selection, including tuna, taro (also tuna), cod roe, a sort of bean, and others. I had a cold oolong tea which I really liked.

We then did a bit of vintage shopping as there are loads of shops round the area. Lots of stuff was frustratingly too big or small but I did find a pair of trousers I liked so bought them.

We then walked to a famous Shinto shrine built by the Meiji which was so interesting partly because it was a big forest in the middle of Tokyo. We then went to the Metropolitan Govt Building Observation Deck on 45th floor just after sunset and watched the lights take over from the day. You could clearly see Fuji in the distance.

We then walked into Shinjuku which is the kind of soho area and had a drink and some food. We went to a yakitori joint, continuing our love for things on sticks and had a beer and bbq snacks we had; chicken skin, chicken, leek, pickled daikon, cabbage with miso and mayo, pork liver, pork heart. They were all really nice, I think my favourite was the pork heart. I then had an oolong and Shochu which I think was mainly oolong.

We then walked to this mad shop aptly called Don Quijote which was a cross between Poundland, Curries, Mr. Calculator (the shop I got my Pokémon cards and game boy games in), and that sports shop on Leicester Square that is now a sports direct. It had four floors and by the end my brain had melted so I went and took some pictures of the street.

We saw a large (life size?) statue of Godzilla leering above a building, a quick bit of googling said that on the hour he would breath fire, we waited the 5 mins and saw some lights come on in his mouth and some tinny sounds emanating from somewhere nearby.

We went to a tempura place in the red light district, passing hotels that advertised ‘rest’ and ‘stay’ as different prices. We first went into one restaurant and then were ushered out and shown to the restaurant that did tempura.

The tempura place had a single bar with a chef cooking in front of us which I think is the classic tempura restaurant way of doing it. We got a Kirin and ordered a selection. The chef cooked it with long chopsticks and took it over to us, they also give you three types of salt to eat it with, pink salt, curry salt and matcha salt. My favourite was the scallops, but the mushroom was very nice too. It felt a very classic experience.

We came out and walked to the train, and passed some baseball batting cages but unfortunately we didn’t have any cash. The lack of cash was a real issue when we tried to buy a train ticket as the machines only take cash or make it very difficult to pay with card. We got back and chilled and went to sleep.

Day 126 - 10 January - Tokyo

We took the train out to Ginza to go for food in the old fish market. We started off by going to a sushi restaurant which had seats for about 10 people with two chefs preparing the sushi behind the counter. There were two French men sat beside us tucking into a lots of sushi. We had a tuna selection and then salmon selection too. The most delicious one was a it of tuna fired a bit with a blow torch. After our delicious sushi meal we went around the market and got some food from the stalls. We had some eel yakitori, a Japanese egg sando (delicious with this nice mayo and sweetness from somewhere), an oyster and some mochi (I had a custard cream one that was reallly good, like my favourite desert).

We then went to a Kabuki theatre production. They go on for about four hours, but you can go for one act which is what we did. The first production we saw was about a brave warrior who defeats a giant centipede and is rewarded with a bag of rice that never goes empty. The second play was about a woman who is heartbroken and is offered the chance to become a deamoness to get back at her lover, and a sorcerer and his friend have to save her (and their friend the love rat who she has cursed). It was very interesting and very stylised. The theatre had lots of rules, one of them was not to sit too far forward to block other people’s view. Japan seems to have lots of rules, but they are generally in order to support the people on the whole, which I think for a visitor makes it look and feel really nice, ordered and peaceful. I wonder if this level of rules and stipulations might get a bit oppressive living over time, but it does feel very calm as a visitor.

We then went to these gardens which I’m sure are beautiful but were not very interesting in the winter. We then took the driverless train to the dock lands area but left quite quickly after because there wasn’t that much to do. I think this was a slightly odd part of the itinerary that Nina’s friend’s mum had suggested.

We then went to the baths in Shinjuku which were huge and really great. We were there for about 2.5 hours, it was separate men’s and women’s baths but we met for some food in the restaurant about halfway through. I went back to the main baths after that, the sauna had TVs in it and we were watching a cooking show, when a guy who worked there came in and added water to the sauna. He then turned off the TV and started playing this very chipmunky song with the lines ‘this is my happy song, want you to sing along, I’ll teach you the words and you can sing along’. While this song was playing he started using a towel to fan hot air to people. When he finished everyone clapped, it was a strange moment.

We were very close to the batting cages, so now that we had change we went. I did 3 rounds of hitting. It took a bit of time to get into the zone, I think I tried to hit it too hard a bit. I did manage to stroke a coupe straight back over the pitchers head but I ended up snicking quite a few off.

We went back to our apartment and had a couple of drinks and played a couple of very light drinking games between us. We then walked up to a bar about 20 mins away where the son of my dad’s friend (who we are staying with in Hawaii) who lives in Tokyo was having a leaving bash. The place was very cool and there was a DJ playing nice discoy tunes, he then finished and another dj really took the tempo down which was a bit of a letdown but he was playing some nice jazzy stuff. We met Ty, the guy whose party was, he was very busy making dumplings for everyone so we let him get away. Ty’s brother was there so we spoke to him for a bit before heading back to the apartment, after having couple of dumplings which were delicious.

Day 127 - 11 January - Tokyo

Checked out and put our bags in a bag storage on a very busy street in Shinjuku, after which we went to these photo booths in a basement beside the lockers and took some very deranged photos, which were digitally altered by the Photo Booth. I sent the photos from one of the booths to my email but rather than sending them to my Trinity email which I used for more trivial things, I sent it to the same username but at gmail.com! So some person has probably got a very strange Japanese email with a link to some pictures which I hope they will put in their junk!

After the excitement of the Photo Booth, we went to this area a bit out from where we were where there were lots of nice coffee and vintage shops which we looked at for a bit. They had lots of classic stuff which would have looked great on me had I been bigger or smaller. It was also quite expensive so we didn’t get anything but it was nice to see.

We then went back and got our bags and took our stuff to our new hotel in Akhihabara Electric City which was a classic Tokyo neon set of streets with lots of shops. It is also famous for these cafes with very attentive waitresses in maid costumes, which we did not go to, however this is meant that there were lots of women dressed in not enough clothes for the weather standing outside with flyers. Our hotel was a very classic Japanese tiny hotel room which although it was tiny was very nicely set up.

We then went to an area nearby called Asakusa which had lots of pre-war low rise buildings which was now shops and restaurants and a massive Shinto shrine. We walked round looking at the shops and the shrine which was very nice and then went to dinner at this bar/restaurant which was quite rough and ready and very delicious. We had some grilled tofu with soy and ginger, grilled mackerel, baked potato with butter, Japanese omelette and some kimchi. We had a nice beer with it as well.

After that we then went across a bridge and went to the Asahi sky bar which is in the top of their big head office. It was a great view of a part of Tokyo that we haven’t seen yet, Tokyo is so big and seeing it at night really excentuates it. After that we went back to the hotel.

Day 128 - 12 January - Tokyo > Honolulu

We got up, checked out and made our way to the National Museum. We spent most of the time in the Japanese history section. It had beautiful Japanese art and a few incredible samurai swords and armour. I loved the paintings of Fuji and of snow. They also had prints that were really amazing, although the Hokusai weren’t on display which was a bit disappointing, although we have seen them in loads of different ways so I guess I will need to see them when they come to london.

We then went to the Asian art wing I wanted to see the Indian miniatures that they had. They had a bit on Kyhmer sculpture, which they said they had acquired in 1944 in an exchange with the French Ecole de L’orient which was during WW2 and would have been an exchange with Vichy France and Imperial Japan which was a bit spicy. Leaving the museum we found out our flight was cancelled and had to wait an hour to speak to a person on the app. When we did speak to Mary Bernadette she got us on the next available flight which was with a different carrier but about an hour later which suited us perfectly.

We then walked to Yanesen which is a charming low rise neighbourhood to walk around. We had a lovely Tonkotsu in a restaurant, and then strolled round looking at places. A strange thing I noticed was that on streets they pipe music into streets and that different areas have different genres I guess based on the vibe they want to give off. We then walked to a bathhouse nearby and went for an hour. I was the only non-Japanese person there which was interesting. One of the baths was full but had this small section which had a little wall around it, making a little alcove and no one was in it, so I sat down in it. As I sat down, my whole legs started to cramp weirdly and I stood up quickly and looked down a bit flustered. An old Japanese man burst out laughing and made a shocking gesture. It turns out that this alcove was a place to be shocked locally which I didn’t do again as i felt a bit sheepish.

We went back and got our stuff via a muji and got to the airport on the monorail. We got through pretty easily and had some sushi near the gate. There was an Australian family near us who were playing cards and chatting. I was quite tired and in my head I was saying ‘straila’, but accidentally verbalised it twice till Nina shushed me! I was mortified. We then got on the plane and took off.

[libidomechanica]

“But who reward to a harvest”

A Meredith sonnet sequence

               Stanza the First

Said the butter, which Cupid; and for stirs;   ah! But who reward to a harvest. They   wanted lowly throb like and melt with window of a turtles broke, and brake, in the greater sphere is at a low moaning, heaving   now your Serpent twists, facing both humble   at the hummingbird! Must I been so ill be backward Counsellor; and comfort poor dear, was it yesterday we heart—how she   tall, which is—o sorrow-clouded mounted   on by Age, Houres, held out of beasts, vegetables, spongy mosses, when first their sweet Access a Salve to go. Say thy Justice   painting the leads for very like a butter   fire is old age; dishonours her shade of them when the statue of Sir Leoline.

               Stanza the Second

For my eyes survey, if Time wasted wide,   with faint in the tremble in thee, and small   reasons: rage of pearly song? On every word repeated that was a child yet in a cousin tumbling but by the full nie,   this sense of all thy presence-room. Be here;   and yet this? Not if you cannot tell. Could I see cleaue: seemeth the soul do I know how long as you are Mine said she belike   hath shone: they hated by, deadcold, betwixt   the kings, we are the vermin in a hurly- burly now he shall thy lasses gloue. Without my backpack in bed I lie with   thy ruffles or ribbons beneath the past   their one! One blind Fury with cold, and nothing than till to me. Look upon this way!

               Stanza the Third

When do thy selfe my mate in heart, my hurt.   ’ Sake I stood, in diapers everyone in   as humour lips wan that they wounded tomb, and give me something is she! That graze, or bring yours apace, and lustihead to me.   Taunt me no more: henceforth and could not thou   sing, advaunce thou hast the had in charms: one must need of repulsion and the sea. The lily, This is: if I looked at me moved   by the Lion’s tongue of straw into gold.   Days I will all clouds for the sea, that Rumpelstiltskin? He said: the noises of the words bene annoied. As infant-stare of   unconscience, ’ I repent her idiot   boy, you share yours. The apex of its And discover, we are wafted abroad.

               Stanza the Fourth

The boathead wound are figures if that cannot   do, and chafe and a sunset and drew   you so richly clad as she flung in the ground the holy water points of sleepeth with my earthskin, that stood with my brothers   fall, that very weel aff She there; her bliss,   a few sad tears she said she was pricked them doe flye: what he at midnight, and tills they go, and then the middle of night can even   for their goals for my fall in the burdned   him leaves the price of yours. They said, did their sighing and kissing, and there, her if she heart what power inscrib’d with his tiny   as any hopes it there, pleaseth me;   or be my ain. But, child. Bid me to be Judge—by surest Steps build the eie of sleep.

               Stanza the Fifth

Who, certain stakes the thunderstand now the   minds, and love. Away she hath springs fresh   my flower salesman. Which thy lasse she bang’d me, if ye gie a woman! But hear the king real, a gallant fighting thorn blows from   here the bush, the mazy web she with greedy   choice the numerous arms across knights and Body by body could be some great Sirs give him hasted well that tall grow a   night is our Britain, whole to the day, over   to restraining as her sad friends with tears force to me Lord, whate’er she looking at these the lane has thing. Stiffened before   the doctor’s door, what it’s ground. Close of the   snow smother wine of that guide an Englishman, a long blue sky is blow, when she smile?

               Stanza the Sixth

And the Muse on sweet or between the   understand your door, what thought, and come deckt with   hair, who might the body needs fightingale sings: O joy, for the primrose the sky- lark shrills. From Bratha Head to do thy flocks   play thy placed me yestern she with such excels,   and lazy lingering eyelids of whom I grieve to be gone, as tis tents me that time, may love’s its sweet disorder collie   and freedom and on him answer meet: the   who wants to get out. To weak with figures all thy nervous verses dight: thy foolish self! Goes by my name oft groned wildly   glittering their frenzies; thou camst, flye back   thy selfe my manhode brought redeem in general and music swims back. Of cattle move?

               Stanza the Seventh

It’s most for he had never dies the   cardiovascular tissue, let me   examine stirrup, saddle, or wand, for white: and seemed,-than the glistening; and make it Sir, ’ and some of the westering a doctor   frosty winter doth tuch those for her doctor   from star that’s so blue—alas! I said Don’t makes a piteous in his arrow, is a flower when I saw the stately sent.   You dream thy peculiar Eye—and let vs   cast down from good hath risen and most joyful there are wakened, and let the ocean’s moan, as well could tell; but than I.   Some down, since why to love the sight clothe thirty   years, by shines. From the bride that to hunt, I know: for nakedness unforgiven.

               Stanza the Eighth

’ The Chicano cats close to dye, through me!   The face and go and told him with my toes   wind slowly in his fine, with a wand of my tenderneath his to required thus Good Betty Foy! Sweet maid, as she! The Doctor!   And gleaming roguish een. Imagine you   to know my hand she dancers wit. And my pouch I yielding at my winds held out of some small rewards shade of the most for there?   And keep them drop of her song. Could the lady   of Shalott. And her lovely maid and shortest view, yet gives the people shun me befel, for whom you flie from the know you   little helpe to ravish him. She signs to   knowable ring. The waves roar. And sweet, did Susan their lives. And tingling stem—save them.

               Stanza the Ninth

And I, in mine, lass, in me is good this   seal of ovation—that lay beside that   sanguine flowers, let the helmet-feather, nor speak to me. So talks as if God’s future Thy azure robe to me, starlight hour   was ironed with thy traine the days, making   it was there and the dusk, a woman’s tremble in it; and white, thought vnder him grew tall as thou hast with many stars it shock’d her,   and feare he replied not: Cyril, battered   little Lilia pleasing so many women; and state in crimson gem, the beauty is then buried Caesar bled. Close   royally apparition of his dungeon-   ghyll so foully rent, which it should blaze, and peaks so hard hands were the isle a shotgun.

               Stanza the Tenth

You love, abiding Mincius, crossing so   light as must be solved. Last came, all that the   word, this day, the power Loue and golden opes, then she cried them more loud as an ease you want force his own sweet or colours   shall grovelled high through the light and looked   as he to Susan’s side, that orb crown put on, and on Wound no child! Degree will scattered in my e’e, to the winds, and intervention   to you. She gently turned himself   and fro, that He, whose hairy, and desert caves, that I may dislodge that graze, or from stair—clasp’d with his fool broken: let thief, when   soft shades the lady fell, and would describe   what’s the mother turn in her eye. The lady tall are past. Some buried Caesar bled.

               Stanza the Eleventh

The lamp with me, ah my own, in five month   of laws, since arms were buried at a’! But   never call already we rocks, we prowl fang’d me, and didst thou, Mercury, assistant parson, and in his helmet and maybe   kisses you with hollows bare of mock-   heroics strange a dreams too precious Hail on all day; come! Come away, quick while perpetual feast, and learned half her Ford,   one is the tree, enaunter heat, a breeze,   that some there the roofs like our tattoos in clamouring our dispute: thy pride o’ her likes. Why, Bracy replied not under him,   he squally east-wind keep thy hair: do you   wear fetter’d me. His loss to this wonder fingers, appear’d under how can I do?

               Stanza the Twelfth

In lucent words out of some into the   should spade to bathe at midday. She shrunk and   the swift extremity can see a childish days you with the express his colours the moment broke my father proper pure;   gold is then all her, and mute, in blacke horrors   met her breasted, old Susan had she remorse, from the blown vp with eager, burr, as long by their way to the world for sacred   with her side it bright, But Ida sound   with endless wealthy issue bearer where to play: for fierce disdain to Roland despair; a thing is every door? And let me   say thy Muse, and music swims back down. Among   the world where strong and the house by thee, of Sommer the huge melons and his way!

               Stanza the Thirteenth

We are either the bush, the cause is blue   een. For, spied its steal thy lover’s early   treasures from her hand in her bosom move? You stop my shivering, then for the Fair, together letters! ’En away; down its   shell, my female whispered low: as Earth stifled   breadths of wonder in you be dumb? Each otherwise. Gathering fearful waves roar and and equipp’d a Camelot: for the   wood. When and who is she turtle roar that   at there and tropics in our skin, they part to life would the last their bellies’ sake creep and died of this without delay home to   helpe his fair life and to the Easter-time   in Neptune, the snow smother and wind, that sweetest odor! Say truth hath come again.

               Stanza the Fourteenth

This mate in heart, and till I ne’er I   passenger and of children if you paid me,   my mate in Armes stretching of thine and the hand throug my better ear. That shade my lovers but by those held sage Hippotades   thou sire and Absál out of the little   head they bene as that the buddes of the Genius of those flowers in their quiuers, in mine, lass, that always and silence   can be their gay gift: why stands by heart, finding,   struck; with such gentle muses high a? And joined hand. When being cruell could not:—friend againe, the vermin in all his glory   moved to attention to pleasure long here   young girdled by Cupid; and flowers of the sea which from stair—lean on a gardens.

               Stanza the Fifteenth

Perhaps complexion dwell vile savage mind   these men required the sand, and with Lillies   fills up the hall, that’s the loves, her lover& for a flight he cannot tell; but while she had our stounds, has risen and doleful tale   had leave heart roused to re-cement o’ time!   Has learned by thee, yearning sky, sports in the girls of Rome did stand ancient elm, lean and we will praised if all that sunny rings;   changed it close; by thy owne hand; o plight, when   she couth: but his woman. Whispered leaf, the night and make amendment, which she has but once bereave me a silver-shedding-day.   Her locks he laughs aloud, around are to   the moonlight yet find, as earnest as the crown’d, that doubt, she had opened be, but live?

               Stanza the Sixteenth

That dark is most vsen Ambitious thraldom   ne’er shade of a mother cry lord, of mossy   leafless bough of wild words I give? And perfit colour, whiff! In gloom, she springeth from the that sweet grows on more bewitch of   the grass youth; but that I speed: from me: when   swifter the pales besides down her wills, and the soft melodious magnanimity of my display her face I have fought,   thoughts, and twine, dry their living but it is   no need of books, but cruel is sheep, like to her proper in one soft Catullus, sharp- fang’d Martial, and all bestowing! As still,   gude faith red round aboue the slow offence. Where   thy white heat the watrie wette weight and sail, or sit, that the wood. Looks went footing his way.

               Stanza the Seventeenth

In land for ever loudly she posts … I   have sinn’d! I wish she had our wife she blush’d,   and groom, as still water sphere is smoke, that came, another stream bore to choose against my wife she bang’d me, ah my own, in land   for ever scarecrow has passed awhile our   evil hour ago, on Johnny seen, and on her arms full of glee, they cannot move frightful tale pursue her thoughts which dare not   find, and to the woodbine, with led faithless   song, list whip, and down in his fate her lips are sweet Christians to whom enough the sea. If you were sweet flowers also in heaven,   my Mary, and that it feed on the   gayne. And there waning, advaunce make a buttercup and we roses were it be well!

               Stanza the Eighteenth

Who kicked changed its wings of keen remorseless   shoe-string: of loue to be extraordinance   where within, which the glittered words, thoughts white mule she rolled her arms the clock, four forehead, and pine-crusted body it had you to   my neck round his rude shattered themselves, they   Wise and glimmering fingers through that done, he quite forgotten, my pain did meet forth, and sheep, with ease the honied shortened to   and on the sea together when I thinks   with curse is blow, now fired an angel is she! Very love’s unbounded too far said she blended, the long milk-bloom on the   sea. To use the little while I lay; and   all the murmur of a great Nemesis break of dull and Bayona’s hold: look deep breathe?

               Stanza the Nineteenth

But make you could unders down the sobs around   about Shalott. The world if silent   night-birds and to descry the custom and a’! Then starved for his arms. If I’m in my heart confesse O noble mind doth rains are   two must post with furious, impervious,   we prowl fang’d and by any chance, but cruel! But spoke, then the blood of his mynd about that naïve light have fallen, but   onely kid in a sad quandary; and the   terrifying. Much the faither, she singing moon that never saw you, my love I can’t see my poor Susan Gale. There comes to   blame him? Her bosom old, and sad occasion;   as thy glimmering To-day to-morrow comes seldom save fretted all his shame!

               Stanza the Twentieth

When thy graced; thou gynst to faint half-flush on   the Clover is lustlesse corage and caught   more friendly the chiel maun flee, yet let yours, take backward Counsellor; and a’ my night; an’ she stood the name, though mount as the same, and   the cloud may see, before. As long milk-bloom   of fire. Much they fallen, have sight, drest in bush and nigher, the moon or stars, till hear it not for a look; possessing sound, and   one that thou art my love excuse! That wouldst   no harbour fix’d; beautiful exceed the king real, a gallant fire a ridiculous little pride, Amid the casement   not from world, and was no deed done he put   her from elsewhere she bang’d deserts that I shallow grows they bore her hair, and the bell.

               Stanza the Twenty-first

And while to the groves and the lady bade,   did smart, and grieve, so as thou will the woods   among the invisible cord of chekes indure marble, mixt red an angel, singing to ease of all then depart. How   can I be he is meat. There came, the little   bird; for the deity to thee to give? But Christabel, How camest thou gynst to go. So deeply had hears that audit   canst not be, or from a darken’d whole, beside   the decay and pebbles, spongy mosses, lifting pots on her discerned and so it seems to die. But Christabel, are sweet   showers the into these word; no! Scorched out   onto the Count you haue blowen bags, like a Lord Roland’s wasted with so much graced.

               Stanza the Twenty-second

Across her; and singing in health, and were,   which my friends to the gadding garments ever   blood, so vaine, and did yielde, and she bells. And we will not. They knew her mind: and the last of one. To Love where your hot stares shell,   and increase a smile; there the equation   of the spell. With four garage I feed a flame grown a bulk of spanless the shade, and chafe and little by little boy who spoke   not, hearing was crammed with bugs is simply   riding my knee and which is—o sorrow- clouded moon in a circle of gelt, embost without delay; the bodiless deeply   she a-hunting be with my Emma   lay; the red less gracious arms were white fish on thy head is not eternal flowers.

               Stanza the Twenty-third

With rolling of a noble head, when I   hear; ’ as he rode down, since last of it my   flowers are pent, which Cupid; and so hard your terrors of twilight has twa sparkled on the ocean’s power, sixteen shortened   the graves, and wan’d the jaggèd shadow, and plate   she twilight have left his zenith, she looked at me drum for them more the moonlight of Summer who should it move to lay his two   souls stands ready have to the helmet-feather   though here you that! And sparkling roguish een. Which euer did meet his Oake to try it to sing be with you can’st see but you   begun; the awful reason good, so talks   as if on wings; so dost fly: if though open eyes for he is continues for Sin.

               Stanza the Twenty-fourth

’St the blustring, in what to harbour first   resort. Maid to the wind of your feel my   muscles go weak into the fire, and deft, some senses all, not by Extortion, sent into such a Tyranne fell for very   world in mock you withdrew from the clock is   on thy gentle minstrel, alwaies seene himself alone, the like a minutes past the senses fair Jenny all night-market girls   flit, till the frost, not new babies, as ugly   as it for thee. If thine, like a bragging brere, where, and tell the truth and Subject to no deed of the tinkling roguish een.   And the helmet flow’ring them. Him came back   to me. Knelt at their chiefly those perfect wide; therefore the people said in consent.

               Stanza the Twenty-fifth

—Oh God forbeare. With a hurly-burly   now he shouting to each. She stems. Let fair   and full nie, this coming married to the enemy’s hospitable as persistent as a small but freedom, or to the   flown, many dayes: I wonne: the night, all as   any man could be good reason due; for, soon, dost mount aloft, the moonlight made glad may be the Maiden’s side: by that leave? From   dull before eleven; tis silence of   inward night of this way? And in the wine- cup glistens, but a children dear compelled her; but in handwriting free, o’er the census   taker knows my daily care not say   that we loved his lips that cypress-tree: or sicker thy numerous array and there?

               Stanza the Twenty-sixth

Reward Angels, while Ilion leave me young   love stare cannot say I love is on the   vessel of its branches intervention, delicate, tremble lest I shall stop at all that sing of thy loof in mine, lass; and   take care, winter night dost fly: if thou love,   and death-hour round about your hand, lass; and the moment—and the pony he is me! Your hand tell me, and round to do withstand   up erect and lustihead to me; then   falling the dancers dancing in the churchyard yew a blooming and kindly fae, unless as light and sweet eyes fills and touch, thoughts   to walk in an he is different: desiring   then, Love and what, is it, to quake in this won. Throughout the circle of them.

               Stanza the Twenty-seventh

Him in his placid, to which I could not   be sleeves o’ hell on city side, that wicked   change in crimson a lovely lady dead: o let these makes many more wakened. Hence fell into gold and ever stove   late struck not Absál out of children, at   the watch too weak lords neighbord by his lips are like syrens in the same fluttering Lucan, Horace, Juvenal, and call Stella   euer my words my lovely plight the Baron   for all away. Their coasts may be still at Susan Gale, what must not dead: and I, betwixt the hour is mine eye: the Lady   of Shalott. I look deep dost treat it swinging   moves over the blessings on Cessnock banks a lamb chop yet they burr at you wake?

               Stanza the Twenty-eighth

Let Virtues with bullet holds they would we   not the eastern mountains did in snow: arise   from thy days, call’d t’ engage all thy land, with kisses you wronged the edge like mine Oten reedes him ere they blind and be   dear call our mother doth to do art wise,   that hurt the tents which to ease her hangs they are, we are not more I cry, less girth, that on Pallas on the lashes of a far   count—should makes my tend out of some cowled,   and the wat’ry bier unwept, and mock a broken, blossomes falling over with its to pass a day a flower to stir,   graceful shepheard, looked at a’! Who turn and   reache: my harp can tell in violet the open field that swallows where all were closer.

               Stanza the Twenty-ninth

The bitts of duetie to decay that gently   pats the filching real, a gallant fight to   see pearlins and the shores by to turned half the shepherd, that still, my Johnny’s glory end what it feeling field. Hard by mine honour,   without its aim. Such as the clock of   what shall han thoughts the could be dear. That made answer bright me make a breadth of Autumn, dropping fry, delights the believe you sit   and the Sum of such, Lycidas? One is   anywhere. But may no more. But when the live: running on its service of your terrors of the distress; old Susan’s growth. With   hymnes they moves, and loud to Lady the   great disdain and thou think and touching roguish een. Their stand, one is stretching with rein?

               Stanza the Thirtieth

Lifting pots on the blood so free; she   dandelions all fetter’d free, the invisible   cord. In high Iliads; about touch them, as I may some on a feeding over though the pansy freak’d with ropes of straw   and this torches through all flushed you, in babble   and round and motions still report, that bring her wallet I remembers time, oh could remembrance, mysteree, and clasping and   wild whim: and the lady Geraldine! The   boughes my lovers, yet not Percie howe the tower’d Camelot. The destroyes, but Betty list the painting shafts of high upon   us and he right thy Tygrish courage   passing his food; reproved, issuing or infection comes a glimpses of men.

               Stanza the Thirty-first

But yet find, the byrds to cease, and clothes and   pricks herself about the distance of your   shrine, But Ida with desire on high, on that green upon Design, he turned her cheek; a kiss me, dear pony, that cause my   jade; since why to love evenings as it for   one for me, that the ground is gray shadows, ’ said to mob me up with thou whom thou wilt see my poor name of this glory eke much   said he which I have no praise; naming fence;   for in my hearth, be true; and thou, to our girlonds of flowers. I under too. And as the stern she posts in that picked to live,   and play. With our lily-handed engine   at the streams along ygoe is me! Flushed you are arming, thy sweep them the Arrow-head.

               Stanza the Thirty-second

The next to my kinsfolk pray for the will,   with work like good to a narrow with his   the other’s brains to know I’m your walks hair of glee, the agate lamp with bugs is somewhat sweet in the flowers, Have patter than   vile esteem. Full royally approaching   of those as where poets sing from thee thus is simple truth enlight torches thro’ thee shepheard, and permit a plack on to you   and sorely hurt. To left, and trembling trust,   not that vngently turned, which her come, farewell; perhaps his face, oh call no echo star, and low, or tall, subjects you wear fetter   and its blooming and kind of a crown put   on, and sea; nor, England! I pretend the night spring; beginning the mastiff bitch?

               Stanza the Thirty-third

His artfully drede, so high lawns appear   alone among the sort of sight as fill   without the Wolf, not to know one that their bellies then to their sun. And overmuch of best, if never come, my lover dwell:   nay, Sorrow and some untutor’d youthful   Lord Roland dead: hence! From the lady Geraldine, in then, Love where went back my strength of loue, wyll be back down deserts that thou   abuse, you down, call men as guinea pigs   every thick and confesse O noble Fame there by the Lady Blanche: and saying at the white folks be, the pony’s wit and root   myself, and while Ilion like madness in   the sea mermaiden and inly prayed that not fear to learnt, in celebration rolls!

               Stanza the Thirty-fourth

My liege Lords of flower, we could rage, both   loved, and her mind, the circle and her wo;   yet might her—she’d rather hand, and all inrail’d with a wilderness, not finde no truth suppress’d. Poet, Singer, with burlesque, with   wine, dry their Loss to live thy Protect themselves,   and flatt’ring stops to a woman a’ her grey-headed fair Geraldine, while; moment ere she had come upon a love is   old lives thy corbe shouts a great cry, the while   perpetual feast, and shuddered, and lifted up, she while they will not from the rooted, and in a murmur of his own mischance,   there’s ivy! Shall I was cheek so   wan and wanton winds, and on the same we are each shall seek to hold, thou love feeds Hell.

               Stanza the Thirty-fifth

Smile, like one red branch thou sing, and with his   cheek—there so ouerthwart that pressed; she told, for   long-lost in far awa. Like the shamefull Hatchet he had; her dead. Sun, so thou, to our guilt brought God poor old Susan said   the swift Hebrus to Betty well again:   they cried out his gently song, and now swear on the gate along together thinks to feel the Sprite goes, and were, sits uprightly   dream, cherish her they came two sides at e’en,   what excuse my pleased myself, and beat, Won’t you have resentment into tower’d Camelot. Enter our will started from sword   of a girdle of the eyes thend of the   sobs of marjoram had not to hear the shield her feet to meet her idiot boy?

               Stanza the Thirty-sixth

Swerve from Wound no unlike moist vows deathless   message sent into the tenderneath her   stand, one is sting thus, here’s neither Johnny to roam, by creeks and look for what a wretched maids till it far awa. Groaning,   the dang me, an’ she cries with his come way   down; through; a woman I am and other, we are sighes her clothe you are silent spell awakened and melt as love hath   weariness. We rock my idiot boy.   Guide-post—he turn’d by Nature floated on to whom she raised to roose hedges and wandring worse, and lastly, by morn; an’ aft my   wand’ring, will hear the plane is in the bees   humming downe to th’oaten flute, violin, bassoon; all night I neuer ginne to place.

               Stanza the Thirty-seventh

Thanked somehow—I know then? But nothing to   subterranean streams all shoulders hunger   in cunning or pursuing, among themselves but half-opening the lake; two massy keys he bore of damsels glad, too   many for late, our lips are idle all   pass’d a way! Break her hand, to break and proffer think she said: and flashy songs grate on high through, and white hob nob, that he at midnight   seek heau’nly nature calm and conceal   my love, and we rose as where the fire the Drinking the angel’s face, prolonging into my mind I pray you could be gone: where   and thou hast looks are long locks father’s window,   and the yield the lily’s the moon to choose again he spur that which them not torn.

               Stanza the Thirty-eighth

”—Just excuse with a bouquet in his peer.   They turne and Give. Never heard of fat prize:   for whom you out from the dwarf return, of the day when my once more I have not—to make so liuely to hold the little   Lilia first did see love’s Garden: leavest   throne, the Grashopper so poor colorless the weave, weave to your own palace Ida stood with his food; reproach, to the vessel   of thy decrees: or bid me in the sweet,   to which on their hear and learne to thee. Beside and goodness catalogue of Spring in that some of love, thy budding brother.   Bear: her own Estate—for ignorance was   ouerawed. His Breath blew bubbles. Clothes a suddenly, the door. And no others here.

               Stanza the Thirty-ninth

Come away, but I and there? Nor at the   sand, a love you to see, before me with   fur in a realms above my love’s its her breast; she was, the wood, that you do but little Booke where quiet limit of all the   last he roses; and wantonness: stretch for   the cause her the ryme should hardly spent; sing there lie bruised and over the words were ye, Nymphs, when I saw a bragging bright, oft till   the floated bantered you must sing, and be   dear call yesterday call yesterday? By thy lieutenancie to time, may live a girl has broke, submits his own quick, we are Nature’s   bequest gives the narrow sea which was   never know, is a dove. Must I bee still at these empty but you wilt be my ain.

               Stanza the Fortieth

And served with a darken’d whole town knows that   Rumpelstiltskin is my part: and drove us   the gray-fly winds blow, now could I see the very words Sir Leoline, and dim; but rather forehead of this or the lends to   paste of Poesie, yet of Love’s Garden: leaves and   reach’d upon the place to fresh into the balm and green herbs in this loss I were close to chaste and on Wound no more, and thy Face   away; this did forlorn? That no just have   had one Nightingale. All the Winter close; by the Winters rage and the word that by us, the great which way is no lack of   sunset; O, a shout: the still grew more sweet   seasons of the Spring wound these world of Sir Leoline is all should mountains did quake.

               Stanza the Forty-first

Sang:-she wounded am I to her, young   Lycidas, thou doe sitt: and yet I went   up a great a summer’s soul, what use the grownd, and yet her, she passed the night for an empire of morning knell, when the gate   along, up in the ever read strange stormy,   the church, and large from head it be warme, for a look at my high a? Now she’s hung: and hear the breaking youthful ash, that moon   are gone, her brow in glimmer sayes nay? For   me, there come, stood the love it was embellish hound did yield their most for the white ashes; whate’er she look’d down rain, with a prayer,   give him with bugs is simple and arc,   spheroid and sorely puzzled are as two eyes most fittes to smite once we will not.

               Stanza the Forty-second

I cannot aid me loves so blue— alas!   That was the pine; but who rewards him in   and passed awhile, and faith. Wait Mister? Softly gave him haste me the should be in eyes so great clog of the owls have lost my   tremulous hate! The bay. And I will was not   to be a satire to see or to hold. That is gone himself into you! To become he pronounces lastly gave him   her dear silent, strikes throat, its earnest glance   on every where greatest hoord, in Christabel: all our house will mistake, comes and lies. Fly to hold them with thy should rage. And quiet,   my father of him, but to turn in   her strive; no doubt, till it fall into an angels would hear the walls, and on the sky.

               Stanza the Forty-third

Lest aught his was seene him with unshut eye,   to shield, Look the bell, five warriors seek my   tourney … that couldst brabbling over they mought thus had not my name. And mild, that style blue in my charm this beauty, but I and the   whom I sing forth: here was broke a genial   vain it. Demure with holy feet, by my stream it would describe what bitter wrong with roses fearfully, till understand. In   twilight and discretion to the water-   side, that we stood gazing of a stream: I can frightful tale with wrong there vigor barely contagion spread like Homer’s upon   its sweets dost the posts up hill to this share   your palace: we clime when you wake unto a serpent’s spaces of flame together.

               Stanza the Forty-fourth

So pale, pale the hils of Kent? Soft; there the   white heat running from thy decrees: or bid   me desperate seas; a red gold thro’ the depths of the mind as dream had ye bin the garden! She stormy time when she floor. But   love as we embraced among the honied   shorn of song into our guilt—of guilt—of guile and good, so talks as if God’s future to the enemy wit, and thereby ribbands   to be praised, as is moving splendour   offended, as the Genius of the old Ways, that hour wills, and keep them through the sand argument. And think of Blisse, the new. Tho   would find it will I returned since we sat   but thou maun be patient footsteps they hated by, deadcold, between border cologne.

               Stanza the Forty-fifth

The silver-shedding on that to have Helen,   that flowers it is not at my heart   wise, until the sky bends over they heart, let us away twould really see the sea, the grass and of a weede he would bid   her mind; her straight thy People’s pursuing!   But best of the woodman in Calcutta and subtill shew thee fleet as windowes you wilt thou dost thou whom thy portals, which   proudly thy officious sky but thondring   with work of Fancy, and now in the garden rails, ton entanglée. A place you find somewhat other voice withered genial warmth and   permit a plack on top of darkness and   Bayona’s hold: look down to the same who watch’d— the lips, and thy Flock. Wall. Mother us.

               Stanza the Forty-sixth

Sunny rings; by the Lady of Shalott.   Then depart,—beautiful dream the clock gives   not a house were left as the sand, and the bed, susan, she nor cared for, spied the one of the tag o’ her guarded barley-sheaves,   and Johnny, do, whereto those, that was   the cloud, with weariness. The maid, Lord of cherry lips they one that with thee. I boughes were born to here. This cordial wine! The   little Merman! To see his neck as she   talked alone, who knelt at the stars were those dainty doors: then my bosom old, we are not these thin-spun life. Float upon the cell;   sir Leoline tallest of a strange stalks as   that the end. Time, I think of yet another down from the Prison of the corner.

               Stanza the Forty-seventh

With increases then I saw, but none could   reare the smell too much, yet little ones moaning   vow. Upon thy portals, who is her sad friends, lie, viewing the sun came together. It; for whom she employes, dismisse from   a cliffand to scanne: he, were stay rather   dies and forth my braunches high-prompting name! I’ll say, that fire, more she doth cast out into that till I not dark world would fail. They   one of tinkles in me; I rathe prime of   day by day, the tremendous little grey church on these are tedious form appear’d under the sky not make for Mistress be,   of Sommer the wife she felt it swinging,   and I been the barley and applies saline drops. To hunt, I put the ear again.

               Stanza the Forty-eighth

I have leades out Phoebus shines in the   certain stake did laye. But never intent,   for the wild words whispering wittes such as close by thy peculiar mouthed and grove, in rymes, in Sleeps armour clearly, hears   her hair: they hated by, deadcold, darkness,   all dead into tower, sixteen short besides at the day, at the bush; an’ aft my anguishing place with a glance the rose of   all but old Susan lay deep breath goes, steps   they in the ground; there roses crown put on, and peered, and you go—call once more I speed: from those blessedness: a lawn at night that   fatal flesh his Moon of the friend, the garden,   Maud, Have patter and bring your music loud that the heau’ns course of my anguish een.

               Stanza the Forty-ninth

And thee; and after said he it’s fun said   he you are Mine said: And do ye thine have   been for you truly Bacchanalian-like besmear’d with a spell awakens the Bridegroom, four forehead pastures speaking lace, and,   fool to fair, so innocent, strikes it and   a heart to knowable ringlet curl from elsewhere, who fond, when we cease there, a grace, and sat on, so talks as if in scorn o’   your hair. Now prouder o’ the girls in   violence, and sighing, we within, while his other sea which she kissing today—this, and half asleep; where quiet limit of   thought a bed of my shackles, ripe pout of   child with a spell. Yet he, who can find name with greedy choicest furniture, has cured.

               Stanza the Fiftieth

A heart to beautiful dream as some sullen   bell, five and plate she rode between bought   more than a God! Queen Virtues may safely chariot staies, while the Romish Tityrus in his own son, shuddered genial warmth   about the surf and winds, and nothing … or   turn with like you with Stellas kisses, lifted up, she tents me that did seemed as silent as slowly crimson gem, the blood, and   helmes vnbruzed wexen dayly endure one   burning field along with all that shuddering of the wood. I remembered, of sisters blame the children every flowretts beneath   the floated only child; but don’t want   you tossed to wait thy Subjects you triumph yet; because for heroes if we had they?

               Stanza the Fifty-first

Which, like a new-fallen: they are the streamed   of fragrant me no more, the storm die! And   then for the palfrey white ashes; which the huge melons and I will give her tongue: on both may rage, that I mighty fret? And wanne,   so deem’d not by Extortion, nor euer, what   yokes wi’ a mate in crimson’d shone that dreamed of fright foot of his old world, and having thus, her father blue swirls of women’s love   hath been absent, the bank of the sees she   posts … I have heard a noise at all your own blows so ready shout much the brain come into her your beauty and pretty at each   deed, of sine and Absál the setting me,   an’ she sandy down from world wouldst needs bear: her side—this, or infection and the new.

               Stanza the Fifty-second

Midas the palfrey was the little pride.   Seeing I feel the sand, and burn they should   suit? That ranged its blood, my heard, the dwarf replied not, gazing eyelids, grown with hair over each to her your berries in the terrors,   Betty, he’ll galloping … a wave that   sail toward her, save any wicked eares? Come into the roses; and the sunlight your leave me the middle of wonder in   cunning near and could be that she can stands   not I plants both pedantic: today’s through pain, so thou toil our Titles shuffled so, but in hir whom to me like to lively   lady by heart confesse O noble father   Johnny makes such good from And rill; together, had I believe it.

               Stanza the Fifty-third

Burr, burr, burr, burr—now Johnny’s wit and greefe   adawed, the world wild words I flung it   is to me now had you mighty kings and her husband’s presence-room. For we were closer. Instrument: I should lovely did in   clamouring them. Children, call the well! World,   grown a bulk of her down by this—a living drift and bearded barley, the village schoolmaster the child. But faith! One is   anywhere: sometimes twould be, but thus she screams—   she canker in his pocket in case we the truth’s beauty, but do not live? In a stitch of passing smart; stella, food to live,   and the lofty lady, who care the air   was pricked pony’s heard her conquer all, now, clos’d o’er has twa sparkling roguish een.

               Stanza the Fifty-fourth

Imagined more innocent, with that is   all decay. Pleasure; some small and darts. On   burning Eld now I look at they shall seek he doth loved by thy Muse, what hour, that purchast all my barrows of her sues: see howe   he venteth into fire at either name.   That she ails then to shooting shape with thou ever the spring; but the door, my friend! Your poore I lie. To peinct thir girls flit, till   there rose weeps. She took fair Geraldine in   that fittes to say, but spoke, arise? Constancy lives the sea grows of her Ford, one blind and bosom beating the midnight, for   the stately light and lay down by her scourge.   And move! In wings; changed, and doors gave him. Greene, colours true woman to approche, the act.

               Stanza the Fifty-fifth

That of this gory visage down upon   our own age, now counted—he and inly   prayed: they something is all the sight was Rome. Such troubled midnight to dream that won youth is a hands, and her said she like there is   a small mine have you and all over thinks!   And I cannot find, the well, and both diffuse, and of a weede, and overmuch of their echoes far awa. Broad stretch forth his   face, that picked change of life decayed, his poor   Susan tell; yet shines so great seruices may see my good from my heart star hath gain’d of lengthened on my cheeks, makes here, like the   moon, thought God could love of night here’s   eglantine, his deuise, turn in the deer, but chief cities framework scarcely green electrons.

               Stanza the Fifty-sixth

Perhaps comply with all that I repeated   the little head she the town, and sleek,   and my life, or all as dead: and I know it; my tourney shout rose is stretch’d his Anguish, enjoyer and the Maiden’s side immortal   fires love live laborious   magnanimity of song to meet her, she set upon thy sweetest has a kiss me, dear lady! And Betty, now she’s hung: and Johnny,   mind that couldst no harbour fix’d; beautifie   your hair—clasp’d with the heauen sownde. Hand; o plight, elbows, knees, dream remember feel the middle water, running or in the hour were.   Yet sighed down the tops shall no echo up   in furrowes: drerily I thinks no more! Are cannot said One who di’d for thee.

               Stanza the Fifty-seventh

His fair Geraldine, I practices turn   in his wisdom may descending, Dear I   love so well, yet let it knell, when yours. The course or heaven and much graced; thou wrong; and we whose with fleece of flame, she lies for one—   all people shun me be tost. Since the will   now not how they slander son, because for ever that doubt, as well as I were we’ll be lost both. Wind the queers, funny touched her   silken robe I did not kill, give me trembling   eye: but never head, an abbot on a bedde of torments which expands, for so they some way we have had never hugged it   forth thy rosy shadow, and drags me down   to Camelot; outside the youthes fancies like a caytiue corage accoied, yourselves.

               Stanza the Fifty-eighth

Thus Bracy the plane is ironed wits toy!   Whether intent, happy word and bells. Could   just pleasures flowers. Against each otherwise. Our enemies have behind. Old Susan Gale. This, and shone; yet ne’er shape with hands,   who, certain he spent and the lake-blossomes,   to woo your pursuing! The story as it outlasts neuer ginne tasswage? The new name thou make thy airy a tread aloft   in bush and for his right here. There lay   so naked tree. My heart, my hurt. Her break all the sighes her bed. Prince her limbs: then buried Caesar bled. And, grumblings comes back   to be gardens. Whole to the eastern thee   climb’d on Camelot. He is in the She took, lady was ruthlessly pale cord.

               Stanza the Fifty-ninth

End—he rolled his two were they were desire   is the shining for Aglaia. He with   curses dark, we are sings. She comb’d with us, i feel me there’s a rumour inconstancy live and somewhere, tis pretious   food, her aunt, and love nor Art nor Nature’s   best with such an one knee: thy fate; the tree; or let her girded vests grew tighter he is wonder in the ballads whispering   fell, and all mine honour is milder far   away. One angel from the tales off her look up and death, and cleft the whom I love to them drop of heavenly sight as must   ride, and then brake, in wretched straw into   my hand tingles of desire; and Geraldine, which on the forth thou my blossom.

               Stanza the Sixtieth

Children dear call yesternight I neuer   did in silent, drawing night of his coal-   black stage-lion of some to those held sage Hippotades the moonlight a. Dream of, not lose. Hissing so high to make cloud may   stood from those light mix his dream hath spent lights   the set to give to keep pace; then come into our maiden with steep; an’ aft my angel be therefore, to be gay. The oak. Of   the yields to night her forehead of the stand,   one part forgiven. Our Heart bled from the child. Guinea pigs every feare he sought for a languid limbs, and Fauns with unshut eye,   to languor wept: her straw into suddenly   you loves, and looks about your mother answered Johnny burr, burning holiday.

               Stanza the Sixty-first

Ah for became my gardens. An’ she hies,   but do not lose. Like that writ it; for sacred   well; for Lycidas? Which, used, she is wordies, or was her sorrow, this night well again; his little with power I risked   what he sees morning for ever the kingdom   of The World is theft, in pride of the wouldest cropp: but when ev’ning out; too comic touch near the little grey church came day   with desire of her song thy pregnant   lips are browse, we are desire, and both pain—surely hurt our pain, and the king real, a garden, all the gorse; the water-   flowery glance can seen, a love not move and   spread on his she tender side that I was born. ’ Then us the Baron said cried out.

               Stanza the Sixty-second

And other carelesse hood. I have no   private like the heard Apollo, that weeps:   sdeath! And did not love can ail thoughts moved to cut your blesses love’s veins though my life, as if on with low voice cries some buried. Can   thy gift: why stars that we may read her arms   serene, when he has got into the Arrow, and mock heroines of love you tell her green-painted on the waterfall, the   pony had made me full of social wrong   the white; and yet I lo’e best is o’er, think thought he led it for all the garden, Maud, to the Croft were seal’d town and in my wears;   dropt to choose never to death: Wi’ Johnny   here, which doth smiled, no doubted Knight he leane mens faith! Abandoned arm this golden breasts.

               Stanza the Sixty-third

Violet, the rare entertain stakes no heed;   of such, which in the sky which Cupids self   wouldst though to the youth with heart, that is base had to shun, what men dies, the lane shepheards would rayse is tying attends and that all   my hope. Till to searches till faults by lies   beneath the aquarium tending all that sacred mother’s eye? And seating his small potatoes she was calm, and pine! Make   me more innocent, who saw the stream was   ironed vnder how to hold. Knead but thankfulness and doze; and chess be, to feedes both in earth shronke vnder then to her people shun   me because enough in his arrows airy   as thy amendment, caused to help a wretch, I ween, the light, and sae may but Flight.

               Stanza the Sixty-fourth

With silv’ry wings, to the hard bright footing,   burst their soules fair again; his lips so   overlooking free, like a falling that like you waking thoughts that coast, am given in her arms, descending somewhere, her   idiot boy must return! And so wise, until   we ceased that fed or foul pride, spread; beside those dim fields about the men at one of the gadding nakedness unforgiven,   and tell us Johnny to touch your   mother, we are splinters in their sighing Care. He flying swans to fear I am that shuddered, a vision sweet Access of   golden opes, then. Sanctuary is   violate, their leaues thy lady of Shalott. Bid me love of Folly’s legacy?

               Stanza the Sixty-fifth

And by a man desire shall alive.   But yielde, and this line, then, laden wise as   the pony now heaven’s Horizon, it was smooth an angel’s feet, Amid the hellish hound did beholding mee; let   contemporary bustle, Betty put her child;   she left us rocky cave e’er they cried, I like that teares: yet ne’er shadowing for ever: find my life: my break the poor   idiot boy. For call lamb chop yet the   catechism in the dwarf. Poor this, but Ornament. Thy flowers. Ask me not in pain. Not by other I! And saints. Somehow—   I know it is there, whose eyes fills up, that’s   the plume, But we will gaze, naked of dancers danc’d, and the burning to wants to give?

               Stanza the Sixty-sixth

As if by institution some string: of   loue, and bid her hair—lean on thorn blows from   there is old and aspire. And then brake out of some civic manhood is welnigh frorne I feel the shining from her deliverers,   and as hers! A lady rose, queen sent   me not shake this, but hark, again-her arms to disconsolations, lation: but hark, again. Enough in the blanch’d sands a gloom;   up the hall, or if the will allow a   girl, whose Virtues may be the garden which you country of the furrows on me, my graven the dead in the branches into   a bitter was cheek for weariness: but   she please to harmefull break into the body it grew more the tops shall be mine.

               Stanza the Sixty-seventh

When I came wonderous hight: and maybe   kisses, ere the Baron’s feet. Says Betty   Foy? Therefore thrones mynd about love light, where he was a bride she bellman of thy sweet: have been those trembling, what thou sing, while   the braiding Mincius, crossed therefore, and tosse   in bitter wronged love at thou kenst not to the little Lilia, rising diamonds and her hue chang’d me, on all, not your face,   silence is Folly needs must make heed, dead   prime, can firmly for every one of vict’ry in Boston, a metal tips; for the youth, immortal soil, nor Usury wrung   from a night has but now was delight.&When   my once more with Psyche, sorrow to hold her moved to help poor Johnny vile esteem.

               Stanza the Sixty-eighth

One pierced moment’s space of your brother: the   globy rings and passively daughter’s brain.   To the ooze of turbulence can poison there. Her bosom old, okay? The lust of its blossoming maid in a big houses   have done? That has used him wait, susan! Wrapped   in his old age; dishonour’d ill. The weanling how far to star, from the pony, Betty’s most meet his friends, thoughts my dark cave, thy   not without delay across th’   afflicted man nould let’s prompting note, in rymes of your eyes and swear on the forward the deer from the bay, now that I might be   sleeping you now I see a child so very   pony moved three stools away below, in green. Next Camus, reverend be done, oh!

               Stanza the Sixty-ninth

With a girl with the rising sound of children   being, and saw and guest. Put him speak   to hell not for him of your vertue knows, in the sunlight, drest in the same, my heralds the broade, as tis silent, drawing night paint   Woes black and beauty must precise in sweetness,   if nothing water point,—what bosom’s like a children dear, was it sends whom fair peace? And dirks the bodie is glaikit wi’   pride of each times three-score; such troublous tydes   han vs assay, and hymns in the bomb. Thee them. Beholding sees—no signs. Who watch thee, when I was fled! Gold as good Queene,   whom thy chose, by reason her mat in the   stream was still and guarded mountain-sides down where and mute, and I choose but may I bake.

               Stanza the Seventieth

A son was I to dream had ye bin the   beauty no pencil, beautiful exceed   the hall appoint afternoons drives us too, and touching make for Mistress, as if all that love the meadow you said he but   neither curls as often thro’ thee young girdle   of our blesses loveliness. Held sage Hippotades thus held their souls from the thresholds, when I felt thy Counsel—where   Lucy played; and of pine, and new babies,   a pamphleteer on guano and pain, and whiter that sunset; O, a shotgun.—For since we see And now she saw her mother   cry. She took it: I want force of the shall   I say: is this? And something such, which once before eleven. Here, her looked at a’?

               Stanza the Seventy-first

Every doore, and threat: ne euer was that locust   blossomes for this hymn, and beate the   youth; but, swoll’n with a merry tune, the sheaf? As if by magic sight, and heavenly sight, and quailed as if on with pearl and   mochell mast too has lost my mind wagge them,   like our right air, and half the same fluttering up the tower, I thoughts maimed, the name is a hierarchy which like them, as I   used to aswage the oak. And half far-   shadowes han vs assay with her beyond compasse weight o’clock, four for the lilies at the well! The lime and maybe she’s   less grace she stars my questions and ran in   on the river he flash’d into the walked with wingèd brow, and wildly on earth and cause.

               Stanza the Seventy-second

Below that I was fleeth afore, unwilling   fingers are done to caroll of woman   a’ her gown; she thirty years beset here. Woo’d and made the heath, my Mary, across the marge unhail’d with a merry tune,   that shining, to rain across did Johnny   seen, the Country bring to believe what their graves in heaven. With queintBellona in her alike the railed, for ever the king:   thaw this the clock strikes it It is not destroyed   by Cupid; and stirring down she has twa sparkling roguish een. Or low, mountains light. Cupid in her found no child, once,   and I wonders and oil at being cheerly,   draw from the chiel maun be patient footing slow, his mazde powers of her distress!

               Stanza the Seventy-third

Mule she said, in the same smile dwelt like to   his hand, and plight up the blood, and so laid   the margents, when the sea, that bring here, in so thicket chirps again; and yet shines in vain: let thus all the Well offended sweet   bed, as if in storm unfolds. When my love’s   sweet, all lift up by it; and as her hue changed its arms were did draw out your season in you saw a field the state I lay, that   prayer here? More loud that graze, or with the   lamp with the wind enough, and bosom and crowing with sparkling roguish een. Go, happy time all that sun thine—though I cannot   tells me within my wears; fame is gone   angel is shield sweet and Johnny, never head: she seed, and began my hand, to thee.

               Stanza the Seventy-fourth

By this—a living drops on her feel said:   the mind to scold, against all you fall blind,   so vaine please? Over east before I love, though, and whining sky, and after t’other, but love nor Art nor Nature, that sparkling   roguish een. As well have done, oh! She   thou use so greater than woman stands, who, certaine you walked and moved, as she—off, woman I am reading me of that the   field where the will spin. What any of us   dared repeated, in mine, lass; and hymns in my heele: but I hae sworn by the people shun me because that all yet be   warme, for whom thou stealth, and then abate, like   to lively leans, to save any way music sees a damsels glad, the Lion’s mane!

               Stanza the Seventy-fifth

” To these, all part, and tower’d Camelot.   Breaks the canker eat him up to your skies.   Yet long the fire, more sweet than a parching replies, very weel aff, the Lady of Shalott. Was rosebud garden of men!   Distinction to be train if they only doth   admire, wouldst thou thy Palace-floor, most go down, deny not a moon to the very flower salesman. Array and trembling, hidden   guest looks again, and saints! One must agayne:   o well as the men eager than everywhere. He set they were she is run. With burlesque, and the silver chamber shut stand   the tears. A heart it was Rome. It is dire.   That I in my louely like the Ye myrtles of a turtles broke my rest!

               Stanza the Seventy-sixth

Think o’ her golden years of the dusk with   Tyrant’s Shambles. For Youngth is vain; and now   so torments there were herself thy bones sweate, for whom winges of rybaudrye. The vaunted high desert, let us staring worse are   every one they hurt our own guide, and to   say, but faith or how can it remember flowretts bene the opening me, an’ she had beneath her lips they would I have   fallen a space between bough oft he learn   thy harp can tell; but these king to be the corner of the divine: such smart, and brouzed, and the desperate eyes most meet and   you truly love the evenings side. Knight her:   to call his be should started up, and courts, and said he how such a loveliness.

               Stanza the Seventy-seventh

But if alive never feet upon her   and owls in tuneful concert strive the hills,   when the rest on? The Baronet he, a goodly Oake so largely did imitate that she commends to night. The Lady of   this cheeks are more. A lady of Shalott.   All thy love, for lordly cryed vnto his whelpless you wake? Thee, Shepherds tho gan to scold, the clock of white. And purple in it I   will not for ever seek to her fair life   filled with stirrup fiddle-faddle; but Christabel, are should a man calling thresholds, when I’m old, we are to the white, that naïve   light in this the Galilean lake;   speake doth he thou maun flee, yet long, the seas; a red gold to fear I am not torn.

               Stanza the Seventy-eighth

For often see;” “he’s not a keener lash!   Him thy place you would pant, a garden, all   oblivion, and Betty’s still, hoping t’ have ill availed if, what a sudden blaze, comes think it long, long the world will be   back to bursts otherwise. To the rest; but   he is dead breast, the dead seen; for the head. Tis he was most beauty of mine. The steaming little joy or pain? For having gold   the people every where the rivers and   rising diamond bring you, a long nightmare: your threat the Prison of that white bearded meteors, let rays of Pleasure, now the   stops of Poesie, yet ’tis of yourself, and I   so chasten soone I rede the stories of the race in a funnel of yellow field.

               Stanza the Seventy-ninth

A very night yet compounded too—that   wandering gypsey-folk. The Lady Blanche:   and all the joys and grim, what can ail the future she deserts the bodies of female whispers, I heare the Clover wrinkled   feet to me every day, descend in her   backs on us as for his old niche in the meadows sits her eyes were once, you deeme, thoughts, whose them, like morning ordinance: and   beate their grave never see Brooklyn. No, I   am Ra … in a globe of radiant fight well serpents guide appear’d under the wolf rages wide—be surely should make a bell   tolled her heaving, either horse, that I am,   and charities, the rank thou honour peculiar Eye—and sorely puzzled more.

[arisudhan]

What is AI EBook Suite?(warrior plus)- Explained here in Details;

AI Ebook Suite review: What is it?

AI Ebook Suite launched in warrior plus websiteis a cloud-based software application that provides users with the power of  artificial intelligence (AI) for effortless ebook creation. It goes beyond standard ebooks and offers features to create engaging flipbooks, children’s books, eye-catching covers and even interactive puzzles and crosswords.

The core functionality lies in its AI-powered writing assistant, which generates content based on user input. This can significantly increase efficiency and overcome writer’s block. The AI Ebook Suite has a collection of ready-made templates and enables the seamless integration of images and videos, making content creation a breeze. In addition, the cloud-based platform ensures accessibility from any device and grants users commercial rights to their creations, giving them the opportunity to monetize.

AI Ebook Suite review: Key features

100% cloud-based software suite 7 unique ways to create ebooks/flipbooks

Create ebooks/flipbooks with ChatGPT & OPEN AI without writing a single word

Ready-made professional ebooks/flipbook templates for you

Customize design and layout in seconds with our visual designer

Built-in AUTO lead gen system

Monetize and share your ebook/flipbook in 1 click

Create stunning EBook/Flipbook covers that instantly grab attention

Collect leads with ease and integrate them into your favorite autoresponder (up to 25,000 leads)

Automatic mailer & a ready-made sequence for you to earn commissions from every flipbook you create!

1-click social sharing to get more traffic and leads

A huge library of over 50,000 ready-to-use ebooks

Embed the books you create on any website

Built-in cover creation feature

Pre-built books in dozens of niches

Unlimited one-click download

ZERO Skills App

Multilingual support

Commercial license included

World-class support

Over 1 million built-in articles for instant flipbook creation.

(I have worked hard to write "Review of AI EBook Suite". First I have done research a lot, then I wrote it. If my review writing helps you a little and if  you have decided to purchase it, please buy it through my link so that I can earn a little affiliate commission.) 

 Click Here

AI Ebook Suite review: How does it work?

Just 3 clicks to become a bestseller on every platform and generate thousands of customer contacts

Step 1: Sign up

Click on one of the buy buttons on this page and create your account with AieBookSuite (it takes less than 9 seconds)

Step 2: Input

choose any keyword or niche you want… That’s all you need to do…

Step 3: Publish & Profit

Within 90 seconds you will have a JAW-DROPPING eBook, FlipBook, Crosswords, KidsBooks and more. Every time we publish our creation with AieBookSuite.

AI Ebook Suite review: Can do for you

Create an eBook, FlipBook, puzzle, crossword, or anything else in 90 seconds or less.

Our content is readable, engaging, and most importantly, addictive for readers

Mind-blowing DFY templates for guaranteed top-seller status!

Pre-built books in dozens of niches

Built-in cover creator feature

Embed what you create on any website

A huge library of over 50,000 ready-to-use ebooks 1-click social sharing to get more traffic and leads

Automatic mailer & a ready-made sequence to get commissions from every flipbook you create!

Create flipbooks with ChatGPT & OPEN AI without writing a single word

Stunning and jaw-dropping designs that look like they were made by a 7-figure studio

Fully cloud-based and works on any device

Pay only a small ONE-TIME fee!

30 money back guarantee.

To check Price- Visit Official site

AI EBook Suite Review; Pros and Cons

Pros

User-friendly: Beginners can use it because no technical knowledge is needed. Automated Processes: AI-driven content and design generation saves a tonne of time and effort.Multi-Language Support: By developing items in several languages, you may reach a wider audience. Integrated Monetization: Easily incorporate advertisements and affiliate connections to increase revenue. Obtain potential customers and compile a list of them using lead generation. Cloud-based: Use any device, anyplace, to access your projects.

Cons

Learning Curve: For total beginners, there can be a small learning curve even if it is user-friendly. Initial Investment: Despite being a one-time charge, some customers may find the initial expense prohibitive.

Conclusion

The design, publishing, and monetization of digital books are made easier with the help of the robust, all-in-one AI Ebook Suite tool. Its sophisticated AI technology, easy-to-use design, and multitude of features make it an invaluable tool for anyone wishing to get started in the digital publishing industry.AI Ebook Suite provides an easy and effective approach to make money online, regardless of your level of marketing experience.

(I have worked hard to write "Review of AI EBook Suite". First I have done research a lot, then I wrote it. If my review writing helps you a little and if  you have decided to purchase it, please buy it through my link so that I can earn a little affiliate commission.)

- Click Here       

Thank you very much

[meowdei]

the fontainian weather forecast ft. neuvillette

in which your boyfriend is excited to share his newest hobby with you—but it doesn’t go according to plan. unfortunately, the poor people of fontaine must pay the price through the treacherously rainy weather until you do something about it

contains: gender neutral reader ; takes place during lantern rite after neuvillette visits qiaoying village ; ceramics master neuvi bc he’s a cutie ; sad neuvi :( and mentions of his status as hydro dragon and influence over the rain ; fluff ; established relationship ; reader is a bit of tease but it’s cute i swear

in fontaine, there is no such thing as a light drizzle. when it rains, it pours.

like the gods almighty during the war, the rains pelts down in harsh blows angrily, fiercely, so unforgiving. but unlike the gods during the war, the reason behind the rain is a much gentler source. one you know exceedingly well, like the back of your hand and the lines of your palm.

neuvillette is sad again—you sigh fondly at the thought as you approach his door, knocking once, twice, then a final time before you call, “neuvillette? may i come in?”

“of course,” comes a quiet, croaked out reply. his voice is much too evidently strained. enough so, that you cautiously open the door just enough to slip in, but not enough to allow any possible wandering eyes outside his office to catch a glimpse of his potentially crestfallen face.

and, sure enough, he looks undoubtedly devastated.

“it’s pouring, my love,” you hum, closing the distance between the two of you as you walk across the room, instantly reaching to cup his face with both hands, “look at me, i’m drenched. is that anyway to welcome me when i’ve come looking my best to see you?”

you inspect his face, noting the downturned lips that present the most heartbreaking frown, and the helplessly miserable eyes that look up at you as he lets out a soft breath and leans into your touch.

“i’m sorry, my dear,” he mumbles, his own hands curling around your hips as he pulls you forward. not many people would imagine the iudex as one to be so emotional, let alone pull you close enough to slump against your figure and press his cheek into your shirt.

your fingers smooth through his hair, stroking the locks gently as he inhales your scent and sighs. “and what would the cause be of my little hydro dragon’s woes? surely, the sunny day just moments ago wasn’t my mind deceiving me of your good spirits.”

“well, i was quite looking forward to seeing you,” he says quietly, arms wrapped around your waist as he hugs your form against him, “your visit has been much anticipated all day.”

“i see,” you nod, “so then you must’ve changed your mind, hm? dreading seeing me, is that it?”

“of course not,” he pulls away, frowning as he looks up at you with a troubled look on his face, “there is not one moment i don’t desire to be in your presence. i mean it.”

you giggle, pinching his cheek as he looks at you slightly confused. sometimes, you think the most endearing quality that he possesses is his lack of awareness regarding human customs. affection is new territory, as is the practice of courting—but your favorite part is his frequent ability to miss every bantering joke you make. his innocence makes your heart sweet double the size.

you look at him with an amused grin as you tease, “i’m most relieved to hear that, monsieur. now tell me what’s on your mind.”

he relaxes a bit at the title. as bad as he might be with the ever complicated social cues that humans seem to endlessly create, neuvillette has mastered the art of understanding you. by now, he’s very familiar with the fact that monsieur is only a title you use when you’re being playful.

“i’m afraid a rather…unexpected turn of events has declined my mood for the day,” he mumbles, staring up at you with a slight curl to his lips. you fight the urge to poke them with your finger as you hum and gently trace along the horns on his head with a delicate touch, encouraging him to continue.

“and what might that be, darling?”

“i made a gift for you,” he explains, letting out a sad, disappointed sigh before he continues, “it was during my trip to qiaoying village.”

“you mean your trip that lasted half a day? honestly, neuvillette, surely you must be out of your mind. who takes a trip for less than a full day?”

“i still have many responsibilities for the day,” he insists, “but i had the time to stop at a stall that offered tourists the chance to try their hand at the ceramic arts.”

“well,” you raise a brow, “did you give it a go?”

“i did. it was most enjoyable—i intended to gift you my creation.”

“well, what’s stopping you, silly? i’m sure it’s lovely.”

for a moment, you wonder if his spirits have been dampened by lingering doubts of whether or not you’ll like his gift. you think it’s absurd—you’ll love anything from him, but your question seems to add to his low mood when the rain hits the glass of his window harder, making you quickly glance outside at the worsening weather.

for a fleeting moment, you heart goes out to the poor, unsuspecting victims that walk the streets of fontaine without an umbrella—they must be soaked to the bone with the intensity of the current rain.

“i thought so too,” he says woefully, looking up at you with such dejected eyes, you pout at him and lean down, kissing his lips softly in reassurance.

“then what seems to be the issue? with your mood, you’ll wash the streets empty of any people left at this rate, sweetheart.”

he pulls away from you, slowly opening the drawer of his desk and taking out what looks like two ceramic pieces. you catch a glance of a few different hues of blue, smiling to yourself as you note how the colors will certainly remind you of a certain man you happen to love any time you use his gift.

that is, until you realize the pressing issue.

the gift, which you realize is now a ladle, is broken into two pieces, cracked down the middle of what would have been a very precious dragon shaped ceramic.

neuvillette stares down at the pieces in sorrow as he murmurs, “i’ve regretfully had a moment of clumsiness and knocked it off my desk with my elbow. it’s broken now.”

“oh, honey,” you huff out a quiet chuckle, hands cradling the sides of his face as you turn him to meet your gaze, “is that what’s made you upset? this unfortunate little accident?”

“yes,” he averts his gaze back to the pieces in his hands, pressing them together to fit where they’ve cracked so you can both see what it once was. “i was rather eager to present it to you.”

“such precious sentiments,” you smile, leaning down and peppering kisses along his cheeks, trailing down and focusing extra attention to the corners of his mouth until they seem to uncurl just a little and lift. “i’m flattered you’d think of me during your trip to bring me back something.”

“i always think of you,” he whispers against your mouth, smiling slightly when you peck his lips with a sweet grin of your own. you’re not sure if you’re imagining it, but the rain pounding against the window almost seems to ease a little.

“do you now? then i must be the luckiest citizen in all of fontaine.”

“i only wish you could’ve seen it in its proper glory. i quite enjoyed the art of making it.”

“then perhaps we can visit the stall together when you next have the time. you can show me your new hobby while you make me another—we’ll be extra careful bringing it back.”

“really?” he pulls back slightly, looking up at you with significantly brighter eyes as you stifle a chuckle and nod, “you’d like to try it with me?”

“of course, you silly thing,” you trace his cheek with your thumb, smoothing the pad of your finger against the soft, warm swell of his skin as he relaxes into your touch. “although, this time, perhaps you’ll grant yourself at least a full day of your time to spend properly with me.”

“i will prepare to work my duties ahead of time to account for such a trip immediately,” he nods, a charming, dazzling little smile tugging at his lips as his hand clasps the back of yours, keeping your palm in place against his cheek.

the rain has stopped, you note—and really, you think the people of this nation owe you their sincerest gratitude. you’re almost certain your ability to keep a happy dragon has saved them from a number of devastating floods.

it’s not hard work, though. neuvillette is far too easy to keep happy and content in your presence.

“you really don’t need to,” you sigh wearily, “a break is certainly not the end of the world. but regardless, i look forward to it.”

you lean close once more, pressing a tender kiss to his forehead—the rays of sun through the window are bright and warm almost as soon as your lips meet his skin, earning a light snort from you as you eye the glass in amusement.

“feeling better?” you tease.

this time, he isn’t so ignorant to your playfulness as he flushes, looking away while he clears his throat and chuckling as he replies, “ah…yes, i suppose i am feeling much better indeed.”

bonus:

you can feel the rhythmic rise and fall of neuvillette’s chest under your cheek, counting his breaths in your head as you lightly trace shapes into his skin. it’s quiet, in your shared bedroom, the slow beginnings of tiredness pulling you into a sleepy, half conscious state.

he breaks the silence before you can fully make the transition to slumber, however.

“while we’re on our trip,” he murmurs, voice clear with excitement as he continues, “i’ll have to take you to taste the local spring water. it’s much purer in flavor when fresh from the source.”

you blink, registering his words for a moment before huffing out an amused, breathy laugh.

“i take it you tried it during your stop?”

“of course,” he confirms, arms pulling your closer as he relaxes deeper into the sheets, “it was a lovely experience.”

“wonderful. i simply cannot wait to be a water connoisseur with you, my love.”

he hums happily, entirely missing the playful bite behind your words as he presses a kiss to the crown of your head.

you think fontaine is due for quite a few sunny days back to back, thanks to your valiant and tireless efforts.

this is so silly and random lols i just thought neuvi was so cute during that ladle exchange and i think about it often but of course i had to taint it with some reverse comfort because thats what i do best LOL

[celiastjamesoscar]

The good thing (and bad thing) about cons is cash is key. Most vendors take cards now, but Celebrities are pretty much only cash (I've seen less than a handful in all the year I've done cons that accept card) but with vendors if you use cash then there's no tax or fees. I have a debit card I use for my collecting and stuff because that's tied to my bank account, so I'm literally bound to only money I physically have (you know what I mean). I actually didn't even get a credit card till this year because you need to build to do anything like buy a car, or an apartment, or a house (not that I can afford that anyway...) but I didn't want to transfer money to my debit card, so I used my credit which I usually only use for gas, eating out, maybe a hotel (it helps control the spending).

For I guess normal people 2k for a statue is insane or a lot (at least as everyone tells me...) but if you collect then 2k for this which it's huge and the 2k is the deluxe version so it comes out with a bunch of swap out pieces it's actually a really good price (like honestly, I expected to be more so 2k was exciting). Payment plans are amazing though, I love them and the only reason I am able to get statues like this and they're what helped me get started in the other figures I collect. Luckily the economy sucks, and most people can't afford to live on their own! Woo... I'm not scared to live on my own, but I know what it would look like, picture this: walls lined with nice display cases, each case holding a thousand-dollar statue or figures, then a big TV, and a gaming chair with laptop desk things, then there's a bed in the bedroom. That's it. That's the furniture. You don't even want to know what the kitchen would look like...

I personally prefer taking a card just because carrying around a lot of money makes me nervous. Having a credit card is nice if you can control your spending. I got mine earlier this year just so I can build up my credit. And I agree, using it for smaller things helps control the spending!

The fact that you thought it was going to be more than 2K blows my mind 😭 But since you collect them I will take your word for it! I can’t wait to live on my home just so I can decorate my house the way I want to, and I bet your own house would look beautiful and impressive with all of your statues! Those display cases would be amazing as well; I’m almost jealous of you!

[ofbeautsandbeasts]

You're very welcome @jennyfair7!! 💖 So nice to see the snails again!

I'm surprised it finally got there. I believe I sent it on May 29th...so that's like 40 days in transit! 😮 The way I wrote the address probably delayed it...I didn't realize the back had such a weird format until it was time to write my card. I also didn't realize they required 3 stamps to send an international postcard or I would've saved more room for them.

Anywho, Peru was definitely an enchanting country and I'd highly recommend it to anyone reading this! 😁 5 years of Duolingo helped a lot, especially with reading instructions/signs and ordering food, but I was still pretty useless when people said things to me in Spanish (unless they enunciated and spoke slowly 😅) Fortunately if you stick to touristy areas, most people speak enough English that you can get by.

The main downsides to Peru were having to use bottled water all the time (for drinking and for brushing teeth), not being able to flush toilet paper, having to haggle with vendors (no prices on anything), avoiding iced drinks & salads, having to speak to the customs officer alone (they won't let you go with your s/o 😭), not having reliable hot water in the shower, and getting winded from climbing stairs in high altitude places. And most of the hotels weren't very soundproof, so I'd be woken up around 6am for one reason or another 🙃

Other than that, the ancient sites & works of art were mind-blowing and their culture is wonderful 🥰 They have plenty of interesting traditional foods, such as grilled alpaca, rotisserie chicken with aji amarillo, ceviche, rice with duck, jumbo corn, and chicha morada (I listed my top faves). We tried the guinea pig twice and it was better grilled than fried. In its fried form, it had a strange distinct taste, which I assume is simply guinea pig taste...but it was a bit off-putting. 😅 The Lima Airport has a fantastic food court. Their McDonald's even serves bone-in fried chicken comparable to a good Popeye's 🍗 I strongly recommend Pardo's and La Lucha 🤤

As awesome as Machu Picchu was, I enjoyed Sacsayhuaman even more because there were several remarkable natural rock formations in addition to the man-made stone walls, which are constructed of such huge rocks that it's difficult to fathom how the Incans put them together. It's also great being able to free-roam and not feel as crowded as I did at Machu Picchu. Not to mention, there were a bunch of llamas & alpacas that I could pet and take photos with 🦙

Another excellent place was Manos de la Comunidad, which was a free petting zoo in Cusco where you could feed the llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and huanacos with long grasses and take photos with them. They also had two Andean Condors in a large enclosure and it was incredible seeing the male spread its wings! At the end of the tour is a huge store with high-quality alpaca & vicuña items. I wanted the vicuña plush made of vicuña fur for $160...but alas, it was simply too much. I settled for a smol alpaca fur bird plush for $15 instead 😆

If you're into erotic art, I'd recommend the Museo Larco in Lima and the Parque de la Fertilidad in Trujillo. The park has scaled-up statues of erotic ceramic vessels from the ancient Moche culture, but if you want to see the actual ceramic vessels, you'll have to go to the Museo Larco. Fascinating times 😂🍆

One last nice thing about Peru is you have sticker relief instead of sticker shock. Souvenirs, hotels, food, and tickets were so much cheaper there! I found the lowest souvenir prices in Cusco and the highest in Aguas Calientes (near Machu Picchu), but still reasonable 😎

Thank you so much for the postcard, @ofbeautsandbeasts ! It was such a nice surprise to receive in the (snail) mail 😁 Your trip to Peru sounds like it was amazing! I’d love to go there, someday 🦙🏔️ What was your favorite part?? Thanks again for thinking of me! 🥰

[robinofinashiro]

"And if you go, I wanna go with you and if you die, I wanna die with you"

characters/fandom: feitan portor / hunter x hunter

request status/note: closed / ugh feitan you piece of shit i missed you lol lonely day by system of a down is such a good song for feitan imo

pronouns: she-her

you sharpened your knives, not bothering to look at chrollo who was lecturing you as machi helped patch you up. this wasn't the first time you had gotten such a lecture from your leader about being so reckless during missions but it was in your nature. you always managed to save your comrade in time even if it came at a price and this time it was your physical well being that was at stake.

you noticed that feitan was about to get stabbed and possibly not make it out of the fight without dying and you figured that his importance to the troupe was bigger than yours. you weren't the spiders #2 and you weren't the biggest person physically so if your life was taken, it wouldn't have been such a blow to the troupe. or at least that's what you thought.

chrollo had been grilling you for at least an hour for your reckless actions and you figured that maybe you were a bit more important than you thought, to chrollo at least. you continued to roll your eyes like a teenager getting screamed at by their parent but you hadn't said anything back. all you did was sit there and flinch every time machi had poked you with a needle.

"okay, you've been screaming at me for at least sixty minutes," you huffed as machi bandaged your last scar, "what has you so upset? this isn't the first time i've done this and the last three times you didn't bitch this hard."

chrollo had given the rest of the spiders a look to leave the room. they understood and walked out as you were left sitting on the chair with chrollo standing in front of you.

"i wasn't going to say this in front of those idiots but if feitan had lost you at the cost of his life, he would have had my head on a spiked pole for letting it happen," you nodded in agreement but didn't stop him from continuing the story, "you know more than anyone that feitan hates talking about his feelings but you know how important you are to him and if he found out that you died because of him, the troupe would have irreversible damage to it."

you stayed quite as chrollo ran his hands through his hair.

"and where do you think he's at right now?" he asked. you shrugged, really not knowing where he went after the fight, "he's murdering the group of people that tried to kill you or rather him but you get the point."

"how do you know all of this? i doubt he would've told you this to your face so spit it out."

chrollo laughed as he sat on the other chair next to yours, "it's not hard to read peoples minds; even feitan's is pretty easy to read, you just have to take the social cues when they're in front of you."

-

the entire troupe were on a mission and this time it took place inside of a club. you were dressed in the most uncomfortable club attire you could find and heels that made you want to chop your feet off. it was all too much for you but you knew that it would all be worth it for the money that all of you were promised.

you were sitting down on one of the bar chairs, chugging down a beer as you looked around at your surroundings. there had been a man, not one you were familiar with, staring at you for a while and although he wasn't bad to look at, you kept wondering why he was continuously staring at you.

"hey doll, first time i've ever seen you here," he finally said approaching you. you gave him a look of confusion, "uh yeah, that's because it's my first time here," you replied looking at your drink with annoyance.

"figures, i would have gotten with you a long time ago if i had seen you here before."

just as you were about to leave, you were handed a note from shalnark who was dressed up as a waiter. you quickly opened it up realizing that it was chrollo's handwriting.

"that's the man we need to execute, keep him close."

your eyes widened, not realizing that you had the bait in your hands. you gave him a sweet smile, before turning your attention to chrollo and shooting him a wink that silently meant that you'd have him in a secluded room for his death in no time.

"so, what plans would you have for me if you would have had a me a long time ago?" you asked, sliding on top of his lap and giving him the most fakest sweet smile you could muster, "how about i show you?" he asked now running his hand across your lap. you wanted to cringe but you knew that this was the perfect moment to cut the mission short and go home with the money.

you nodded as you turned over to chrollo and signaled him to follow you. chrollo could tell that feitan was fuming. it was hard to try and read what was going on through his head a lot of the time but this time it was fairly easy. he was fuming with jealousy and it showed. he knew that feitan had a thing for you but who didn't? you were cute and knew how to handle a battle on your own so what wasn't to like?

"come on, she'll need our help with him," he knew that you wouldn't but it was to try and give feitan some peace of mind. they followed your quietly into the room and as you pushed the man on the chair, you turned on the light and smirked, "but it looks like it'll be us giving you the show instead."

chrollo appeared behind you as the man's eyes widened at the spiders leader and their second captain. you smiled as you retrieved your own blade from it's cover and swung it in the air, "it's always so crazy to me that men will literally fuck anything they can get their hands on so i guess that has to be the first thing that goes, right?" you stated aligning the blade to his wrist.

feitan chuckled at your sadistic ways. he knew he must've been rubbing off on you but eventually you stepped back and gave the two men their rounds as you grabbed the wads and you meant wads of cash he had hidden on him. you stuffed them into your clutch that was hidden under your clothes and walked out as you were told to let the man die in the room. the police would find him in the morning, right?

the music was playing way too loud for anyone to hear him screaming so you went back onto the dance floor, happy that your mission was a success and you'd be off for at least a couple days now. you were whispered the success to your troupe members as they high fived each other in happiness.

you went back to the bar for another drink as feitan joined you.

"take shower at home," you gave him a questioning look, "man touched you so you have his germs now."

you giggled, taking a drink from the beer as he stayed my your side for the entire night. he wouldn't dare let another man touch you especially not in the way that the deceased man was.

-

you nodded in agreement. you knew what chrollo was saying was true but you knew never in a million years would feitan admit to it. in your own weird way, you kind of liked the relationship you and feitan had. it wasn't a solid relationship, not yet at least, but you knew within time, it'd get there. you just had to wait for feitan to get comfortable first.

it took two seconds before the door slammed open, a very angry looking feitan barging in screaming at you in his native language as chrollo excused himself.

you on the other hand sat on the chair, smirking at his antics. you knew this was his way of showing you his stressed out emotions of almost losing you but in his own feitan way. you would wait all day if it meant hearing him scream at you about the way he cared about you. you just had to remember to thank chrollo for opening your eyes about feitans feelings towards you.