#some of these are things some people may have missed and some of these are just. (holds u at gunpoint) APPRECIATE THESE LINES

[cuubism]

Dreamling Olympic Equestrian AU, the Sequel (less Olympics, more Equestrian)

-

Hob wished he could say he took a ‘reasonable’ approach to dating Dream after the Olympics. In actuality he basically just went home with Dream and never left. He helped him get Jessamy settled in, and then Dream wanted him to stay over, and then Hob made him breakfast the next morning, and then—

He did eventually have to go take care of his own horses, and generally get back to his real responsibilities, but it was done with reluctance. Damn him, but he’d immediately started missing Dream. Too attached, too quickly, that was always his way.

And then not a week later Dream had invited him to bring his horse and go on a hack, and, well. Maybe Hob wasn’t the only one being unreasonable about it.

Safe to say they had never really gotten rid of each other after that.

By the end of the year Hob did very much the opposite of getting rid of Dream. Which was to say, marrying him. He was now the proud owner of some very cliche wedding photos of them leaning over to kiss each other while on horseback. He wouldn’t change a thing.

Afterwards, they’d both sold their respective properties, pooled their resources—mostly Dream’s resources if Hob was being totally honest—and bought a place together.

Hob still remembers finding the farm on the market and taking Dream to see it for the first time. He’d been so excited for Dream to see it. Dream had such high standards and Hob had been sure they were going to have to compromise on something, but this property had everything Dream had ever expressed wanting in a farm and other things besides. Rolling fields and connections to nearby bridle paths. A massive indoor arena for riding in inclement weather. Three-sided shelters in all of the paddocks. Automatic waterers. Heated wash stalls. The damn floors were heated too, not that they used the stalls much, but Dream’s geriatric ponies would surely appreciate it come wintertime.

(Hob had been extremely charmed to learn, upon first visiting Dream's farm, that Dream still owned the incredibly fancy ponies Hob had correctly assumed he'd grown up riding as a child. They were now ancient and feral and tended to bite anyone other than Dream. It was delightful.)

Hob’s favorite part of the property was the house. It was set a bit off from the main barn, close enough to be an easy walk but out of the way of the traffic if one was to operate the place as a full-service livery. Dream had loved the cottage at Hob’s previous farm, and this house was much the same, quaint and cozy with its own pond and meandering garden path. It even had a screened-in patio for Dream’s persnickety cats to sunbathe.

It was all perfect. Dream had actually squealed when Hob brought him to see it. It was lucky Dream had money otherwise Hob would have probably done something illegal to afford the place just to see that look on his face every day.

Six months and an amount of money Hob didn’t want to think about later, they had their own farm and had started taking on clients. It should have been idyllic. In many ways it was. Jessamy and Hob’s retired event horse, Ellie, were getting along swimmingly in their big field. Dream’s feral old ponies were rampaging about the place. The amount of space was a bit dangerous, as Dream kept sending Hob photos of pretty horses for sale, saying we have the space for it, Hob. He didn’t seem to care that the prices of said horses were upwards of one hundred thousand pounds.

It was both a blessing and a curse to have married someone who came from money.

All the better to get clients in so the stable was actually making some money instead of just bleeding cash in exchange for more horses. And this was where the trouble began. Because Dream may have been disagreeable around people but he had a soft spot for troubled horses. And when troubled horses intersected with the clients that made them that way, well. That was how they got this.

“I was led to believe I’d be getting results,” Roderick Burgess was saying as Hob stepped into the arena, leaning against the wall to watch Dream ride. “Surely an Olympian should be able to do better.”

Hob grit his teeth, but didn’t say anything, yet. Dream could handle himself.

“If you don’t like my methods, you’re free to take your horse elsewhere,” Dream said. He was trotting the horse—its name was Ruby—in a big circle at the far end of the ring, riding on a long rein, just trying to get it to bend and loosen up its neck. It didn’t seem to be particularly easy for the horse, which was troubling considering a horse that had had ‘a few years’ of training—according to Roderick—should be able to at least do basic flatwork. And should be less stiff about it besides.

“We both know that won’t happen,” said Roderick. He was probably right—now that Dream was starting to get a sense of the horse’s poor prior training, he wouldn’t want to send it elsewhere—but Hob nevertheless wanted to walk over to Roderick and toss him out of the ring. Wasn’t the point of owning your own place that you could kick out clients you didn’t like?

“Perhaps if you’d been honest about his issues, we’d have better results,” Dream said, turning across the middle of the circle to change the bend. Ruby tossed his head, struggling with the change in direction, but Dream persisted in asking him to bend and eventually got him to drop his head again, now stepping up into a canter. “I was promised a horse at at least third level yet you’ve brought me one that struggles with basic self-carriage.”

Hob thought expecting any results yet was unreasonable considering it was only the first time Dream had even gotten on the horse. He’d only gotten it in last week, and just lunged it yesterday.

“You have to be more aggressive with him,” said Roderick dismissively. “Just make him do it.”

“Am I paying you, or are you paying me?”

And on it went like that, Dream working through his usual regimen, slowly building up the difficulty, Roderick nitpicking and criticizing all the while. Hob didn’t know what he really wanted. Maybe he just got a kick out of being an asshole.

Hob did love watching Dream ride, though. Watching him work with an inexperienced horse wasn’t nearly as seamless as it was when he rode Jessamy, but his patience and light touch were always a delight to behold.

Dream eventually took up his reins, gauging the horse’s ability to go around in a more collected frame. That ability was dubious at best, but Dream kept at it, working in circles of various sizes, transitioning up and down the gaits. He would get the horse where it needed to be eventually, Hob knew. If Roderick didn’t keep interrupting with unreasonable demands.

“Are you going to do any lateral work at all?” asked Roderick with annoyance, predictably interrupting again, and Hob could almost hear Dream’s jaw clench.

“Yes, I am getting to it. It’s a horse, not a racecar.” He turned the horse down the quarter line, lightly brushing the end of his whip, which Hob hadn’t seen him use yet, against its flank to ask it to step sideways and under.

And at the first touch of the whip Ruby exploded.

If Hob had looked down for even a second he would not have seen it move, it was so fast—the horse bolted sideways away from the whip, head thrown up, legs scrambling. Dream pulled back hard on the left rein, trying to stop through a turn, but Ruby just plowed right through it, tossing its head. Hob heard the bang as they—or more likely Dream’s knee—hit the arena wall, and then Dream yanked harder and managed to turn, spinning the horse into a circle until it was forced by the tight angle to slow to a nervy walk.

Hob had automatically lurched forward to try to help, but realized fast enough that rushing over would only make things worse. He watched, tense, as Dream finally brought Ruby to a halt. A lesser rider would have been thrown; Hob was glad Dream’s seat was better than that.

“Ah, yes,” said Roderick nonchalantly from where he was still sitting, ankle crossed over his knee. “He does not enjoy the whip.”

“Were you planning to inform me of that,” said Dream, out of breath, “before or after we went through a wall?”

“I would have thought you could handle it,” Roderick said.

Hob kind of wanted to punch him in the face. Instead he went over to Dream.

Ruby was standing stock still now, breathing hard, and let out a loud huff, nostrils flaring, as Hob stopped at Dream’s side. Dream scratched the horse’s neck.

“Are you alright?” Hob asked quietly.

Dream nodded, handing the whip to Hob, though his expression was pinched, and Hob worried for his knee. “Once more and then we’ll be done. I don’t want to end on that note.”

“You cannot let him get away with that,” said Roderick sternly, seeing Hob take Dream’s whip. “He must tolerate the whip.”

“And I’m sure persisting now will teach that effectively,” Dream bit back. “Do you want an explosive horse, Roderick? Because that is what you have handed me, and if you insist upon pushing the matter like this, you will only make it worse.”

“I hired you to fix it,” Roderick snapped.

“Then let me.”

Dream brought the horse back up to a trot, did a lap around the ring and then came down the quarter line again, this time asking him to leg yield over just by bending him around his leg. Ruby was tense now, jiggling the bit in his mouth and fighting Dream’s hand, but he did move over, and once they’d reached the wall Dream let him drop back down to a walk, letting his grip on the reins slide down to the buckle. Ruby snorted loudly, dropping his head to the floor as he walked anxiously on the long rein.

“You do not have to beat him to get what you want,” Dream said, turning to Roderick.

“You care too much about their feelings,” said Roderick dismissively.

“Not caring about their feelings has gotten you very far indeed,” Dream said back.

He halted the horse by Hob and hopped down, stumbling on the landing and leaning hard on his left leg. Shit. Hob knew he’d hit the wall. Goddammit, Dream.

Before Hob could take the horse from him, Roderick’s kid, Alex, crept into the arena and came over, eyeing his father as he did. Normally Hob considered Alex kind of a liability to have around the farm—he was convinced the kid was going to get himself kicked in the head at some point—but now he handed him the reins. It was Roderick’s horse, the two of them could deal with it right now.

“Make sure to walk him out,” Hob told Alex, and then, ignoring Roderick, who’d already focused on Alex, presumably to berate him for something, he wrapped an arm around Dream’s waist and led him out of the ring.

By the time they made it into the lounge, Dream was leaning heavily against Hob’s side, limping on his right leg. God, Hob hoped he hadn’t broken something. He could only imagine how long that sort of knee injury would take Dream out.

Hob sat him down on the couch. “Can I take a look at your knee?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Dream said, even as the corners of his lips were still pressed tight in pain.

“Dream, I heard you hit the wall from the other side of the arena.”

Dream sighed, but finally started unzipping his boots.

“Breeches, too,” Hob said.

Dream gave him a look but, having removed his boots, started stripping off his socks and black riding pants as well. He looked small like that, perched on the couch in just his black boxer briefs and short-sleeve polo. Hob winced at the sight of his knee. It had already turned horribly purple from his impact with the wall. Hob crouched by him to look closer, taking Dream’s ankle in his hands, turning his leg this way and that, carefully testing the motion. “How much does it hurt?”

“Tolerable,” Dream said, watching Hob intently. Hob mentally increased all of Dream’s descriptions by several degrees of pain. “I don’t think anything is broken, or sprained.”

Having looked closer, Hob didn’t think so either; he was pretty sure it was just bruised. A nasty bruise, though. “Should keep off it for a few days, though.”

Dream sighed, put upon, but didn’t contradict him.

“I’ll get you some ice.” He had ice wraps in the freezer, and pulled one out, laying it over Dream’s knee.

Dream’s lips twitched up in a small smile. “That is for horses.”

“Well, now it’s for humans, too.” He sat beside Dream on the couch as he iced his poor knee. “We should get it checked out if it’s not any better by tomorrow. Don’t want to risk permanent damage.”

Dream touched Hob’s shoulder with light fingers. Hob was, unfortunately, speaking from experience on this matter. Though in his case it had been less ‘deciding not to get it checked out’ and more ‘completely obliterating the joint to the point that it was kind of moot.’ Hob had shown Dream the video of that fall a while back. It was not a pleasant video.

He still had a mostly functional shoulder, though.

Fortunately, Hob didn’t usually have to worry about that happening with Dream. Having a horse flip on top of you was the kind of thing that was more likely to happen when you decided it was a good idea to gallop at solid objects. Which Hob had done. Frequently.

He was kind of glad he hadn’t married a fellow adrenaline junkie.

“I can’t believe Roderick put you on that horse knowing it was going to react like that,” Hob said. He really should kick the guy out. Prick.  

“Roderick created that reaction,” said Dream. “He hardly cares if it gets someone thrown, so long as that someone is not him.”

“I care!” Hob exclaimed. “It’s our fucking stable. He can’t just use you as a crash-test dummy.”

Dream raised an eyebrow. “I am not easy to crash.”

“That’s not the point, Dream. I’ll kick him out, I swear to God.”

“I can handle Roderick Burgess. And the horse. You needn’t protect me.”

“Maybe I want to,” said Hob. He took the ice off Dream’s knee and took another look at it. The bruise only looked more hideous. “Maybe part of being your husband is that I get to protect you.”

Dream touched his cheek fondly, but said, “If we send him away, he will only take the horse to someone else, and nothing will improve.”

Hob knew it was true. He would have just bought the horse and given it to Dream just to get Roderick off the property, but he was pretty sure Roderick would just take the money and go buy another one so that wouldn’t really accomplish anything in the end.

Hob was always going to end up doing what made Dream happy anyway.

“Just…” he rubbed Dream’s thigh, careful of the bruise. “Be careful. God only knows what else he’s taught that horse to do.”

“We will find out, I suppose. Roderick will not be happy with me, though. I intend to take the horse back down to basics. He will doubtless be furious.” He did sound somewhat satisfied by the thought of it.

“Roderick can get on the damn thing himself if he’s so upset,” Hob said.

“That would be entertaining to watch, though less so for the horse,” Dream said. “Perhaps he will make Alex ride it.”

Hob rubbed his forehead in despair. “God help us all.”

“Indeed.”

“You should go back to the house and rest a while,” Hob told him.

“First I want to make sure they haven’t managed to kill Ruby,” Dream said. He levered himself to his feet, handing Hob back the ice wrap. “Besides, I am fine.”

The way he limped about while pulling on his breeches and paddock boots belied that, but Hob knew better than to argue further. At least he wasn’t getting back on the horse.

He went with Dream—only limping a little bit now—out to the barn, where Alex was getting Ruby settled in his stall. Alex looked distinctly nervous brushing the horse down, but hadn’t managed to get it—or, more surprisingly, himself—killed yet, which Hob counted as a win. Roderick was nowhere to be seen, which was probably for the best.

“Did you walk him out?” Dream asked.

Alex nodded anxiously. He seemed intimidated by Dream—which, to be fair, was a common experience for most people. Hob frequently had to remind himself that the version of Dream he saw every day—curled up in the kitchen alcove with his tea and a cat on his lap, chasing his ponies around the barn, resting his head in Hob’s lap for Hob to play with his hair—was not the version most people saw.

Ruby seemed little worse for wear for his ordeal. Dream pet the horse’s nose fondly, and it tried to nibble at his palm.

“We’ll try again tomorrow,” he said, to the horse, now ignoring Alex. “We’ll sort it out, won’t we?”

Ruby just tried to nibble on his fingers again.

With another pat to the horse’s nose, but no more words for Alex, Dream strode away again. Hob followed. Once they were out of the barn, he caught up to Dream and scooped him up in his arms, Dream clutching at his neck with a squeak.

“I’m carrying you home,” Hob said, starting off for the house. “You’re not walking.”

“I am not an invalid,” Dream protested.

“Oh, I should put you down, then?”

Dream clutched at him tighter. “You would not dare.”

“Thought so.”

And so he carried Dream down the short walk back to the house. After all, Hob thought, this was the whole point. He couldn’t necessarily prevent Dream from getting on insane horses or dealing with insane clients. But he could be there at the end of the day to carry him home.

[mywitchyblog]

I just wanted to say your takes on age and shifting have been really helping me. I didn't have the opportunity to enjoy my teenage years and I feel like everything is falling apart in my adult life, so I really want to age myself down and experience life as a teen again. However, tiktok constantly made me feel like a creep and I was even starting to doubt myself and my motivations, which is crazy. So thank you for standing your ground and having our back lol and stay away from shiftok yall

AS.YOU.FUCKING.SHOULD.

Girl, keeping your distance from ShiftTok? Absolutely the right call. That place is less of a community and more of a cult with a superiority complex, stuffed with self-appointed “moral guardians” who’d rather police everyone’s shifting practices than actually understand a damn thing about shifting itself 💅. They’re too busy gatekeeping, throwing their tired opinions around, and stirring up drama to realize just how hypocritical they look. Chile, the irony is thick enough to choke on, and trust, we see it 👀.

And don’t even get me started on the anti-age-change crew. These people couldn’t argue their way out of a paper bag without leaning on the same three tired-as-hell logical fallacies, dragging them out every time to keep shifters in check without an ounce of actual understanding or empathy.

Ad Hominem – This is anti-age changers’ go-to move when they’re out of actual arguments. They skip right over any real discussion and dive into calling people “pedo” or “creep” just to shut them up. Rather than taking the time to understand why someone might genuinely want to experience being younger again, they grab for the ugliest insults they can think of and throw them like confetti 🎉… only it’s confetti made of trash 💀. Example: A shifter explains, “I age down in my Desired Reality because I had a tough youth and want to relive a better version of it. Plus, I want to experience a healthy, innocent romance from my teenage years.” But instead of even thinking about the idea that there might be something healing and meaningful in that, here comes an anti-age changer with: “If you want to age down to date, you’re a predator—plain and simple.” Here’s the kicker: these critics don’t care about the reasons. They’ll weaponize shame to make shifters look like villains, ignoring the fact that not everyone who age-shifts and dates does it for predatory reasons. Many want to experience that sweet, teenage love they didn’t get in this reality, to relive the simpler emotions of that time without adult complications. But the anti’s? They’d rather throw accusations than try to understand even a sliver of the truth. They’re using the “pedo” card because they know it’ll silence some people, and honey, it’s a sad attempt at control through fear 🙄.

Straw Man Fallacy – Here’s where things get especially messy 🥴. Instead of listening to what you’re actually saying, they twist it into something completely off-base, creating a fake argument to attack. They don’t want to engage with your actual reasons; they’d rather paint you as something you’re not so they can feel good about their so-called “moral high ground.” 🙄Example: Imagine a shifter saying, “I age down because I missed out on a carefree youth and want to date someone my age in that reality. I want to experience young love in a non-sexual, simple way.” The anti immediately twists this into, “Oh, so you’re saying you’re an adult wanting to act like a teenager to date kids? That’s sick.” See the problem? They’re creating a whole new argument based on something you never said. This shifter just wants a clean, innocent experience of being young again, complete with those little flutters and first dates that only make sense at that age. Some shifters may even explore young relationships with some intimacy, but it’s coming from a place of reliving a time they missed—not about attraction to minors or anything predatory. These critics twist the intention, making it sound like a fetish when it’s about pure curiosity, nostalgia, or healing. They’ve crafted their own horror story and are trying to pin it on you 👑, and honestly? It’s lazy, transparent, and completely off the mark.

Hasty Generalization – This is when anti-age changers pull out the big, sloppy brush and slap the same, tired accusation onto every age-changing shifter. Because they’ve heard one example of someone age-shifting for sketchy reasons, they assume everyone who does it must have some secret, shady agenda. Girl, the logic isn’t even there 🤦‍♀️.Example: Anti-age changers will say, “Oh, I heard about this one person who aged down to act out some weird fantasy, so clearly all shifters who age down to date are predators.”This is their way of weaponizing a single, extreme case to invalidate every other shifter’s unique, personal reasons. There are countless reasons people age down and engage in romance, and most have nothing to do with predatory behavior. Imagine someone who wants to experience a first crush all over again, or who never got a chance to date as a teen and just wants that innocent thrill of hand-holding and kissing at a school dance 🕺💃. Some might even explore sexual intimacy because, for them, it’s about curiosity and filling in experiences they missed—not some twisted attraction.Let’s get real: most age-changing shifters just want to feel what it’s like to be young again, to make memories that heal, to have those butterflies and firsts they missed out on. The antis are so obsessed with scandalizing that they can’t imagine a reality where someone wants to age down without any creepy motives. This broad-strokes accusation is not only unfair; it’s lazy as hell. It paints every age-changing shifter with the same brush, and it does nothing but create stigma and misinformation. Like… maybe sit down and breathe for a second instead of trying to stir up a scandal? 😒

Here’s the reality: these fallacies are tools they use to twist, shame, and silence. They’re not here to have a real conversation about why someone might age-shift or date in that reality, or to understand that those desires can come from totally normal, even therapeutic places. They’re here to make it sound twisted, full stop.

The next time they pull out these tired arguments, just remember: they’re not about facts, they’re about control. They use moral panic as a blunt weapon, hoping people won’t look closer and see right through their paper-thin accusations. Keep doing you, stay fierce 🔥, and don’t let their fallacies dull your shine.

[various-things]

Another big thing is the likelihood of a negative rapid antigen test is notable! The tests are not great at giving reliable accurate negative results, but they are good at giving accurate positive results, which is to say that if you get a positive result you pretty much definitely have covid—but if you test negative while otherwise symptomatic there's a good chance you may still have it. If you have covid and test while not symptomatic (worth noting here that like, most things you can think of can be a covid symptom—digestive distress etc) your likelihood of an accurate result drops a good amount. Testing is still a very important precaution! Some things that can help are doing 2 tests (the recommendation is 48 hours apart, and tests can be costly, it's good to see what health care plans may cover or to look for local free tests, also https://special.usps.com/testkits if US-based folks haven't done that yet), and collecting a better sample (tl;dr swab the throat, cheeks, then nasal stuff). It's sure something that like, these posts are from 2022, a lot of what I'm linking to is stuff we've known for years at this point, but hellworld. It's also worth noting that while the flu or a cold can still be very dangerous for medically vulnerable people and we should care about and want to protect each other, covid is not comparable to either. For most people it is much, much more dangerous. (And we can reduce our risk by cleaning the air, getting vaccinated, and masking! It matters!!) 1 in 10 infections can lead to long covid, studies have shown that by someone's third infection the risk of long covid is up to the high 30%s. This video is a great breakdown of some stuff: https://www.tiktok.com/@jaydocovid/video/7327188297912995118 Covid raises risk for a number of other very serious health conditions like heart problems. Also, anecdotally: I do work remotely which helps lower my risk, but I have been masking in indoor public spaces (not always perfectly, but for an overwhelming majority of the time) and in outdoor crowds for nearly 5 years now and while I do have other chronic health issues, I have (to the best of my knowledge) had a respiratory illness ✨ once ✨ in the last almost-5 years, and that was covid*, which I likely got from some people coming into my apartment and not wearing a mask while I was in the middle of moving things and doing a lot of junk pickups. Masks work! Viral load matters! Before covid, I tended to get a cold a couple of times a year and because I have asthma it tended to kick my ass. I don't miss that. *I mean describing covid as a respiratory illness undersells its danger/vascular stuff but hopefully what I mean with that comes across.

weirdest side effect of the pandemic is how many people i know who get sick and say 'but my covid tests are negative so i should be fine' like you know other illnesses. exist. right.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Wearing their jackets (CRP) (Part 1/?)

Not sure how many parts this will make, maybe 3 at maximum hmm.. I'll rotate this between fandoms because I know some of yall probably don't wanna see the same prompt for the same fandom over and over LMAO

Characters: slenderman, splendorman, masky, hoodie, ticci toby

Notes: reader is gn, written on mobile.. admittedly admin may have written this or something similar for some of these characters but he's too tired to check + he generally loves rewriting older posts to compare and contrast stuff, written on mobile

CWs: none

SLENDERMAN

There aren't many pieces of clothing you can get off of him... but on the off chance that he takes off his coat and you can get your hands on it...

Doesn't matter how you're built, you're going to be practically drowning in the fabric... smells like the woods... earthy with pine... very comforting...

He's not used to having people stealing his clothing... if you're sleeping he's going to let you keep it for the time being

Why do you steal, though? Please explain so he can understand...... leaves his coat out unattended a little more often

SPLENDORMAN

You don't even need to steal anything! Just ask and he's going to give you whatever you want! His coat? His jacket? His bow? Whatever you want!

Thinks you look so so cute in them! Asks you to strike a pose in them! Trails behind you to make sure you don't slip or trip on the coat as it drags behind you

Doesn't matter the reason you want to wear his clothing, it makes his heart melt regardless

Starts shrugging off his jacket the moment you start shivering

MASKY

Honestly if you manage to get the damn thing off of him you're probably capable of everything you set your mind to... that's to say that it's not an easy task

WILL take it back from you when he finds you, but he MIGHT let you have it for a while if you explain that you just missed him while he was away from you... and the jacket

He doesn't get it, it's just fabric and he's here now so why do you still cling to it?

Leans into your side while you're wearing his jacket

TICCI TOBY

HOODIE

Very similar to Masky, getting his jacket is a feat in of itself... but he's more likely to let you keep it from the get go

After all why let your hard work of sneaking and stealing go to waste? No sense in that!

He.... starts wearing his hoodie less and less just so you get the satisfaction going forward, thinks its endearing how proud of yourself you look when you walk into the room wearing his stuff

WILL slip you in the hoodie with him so you can both wear it

His jacket is either going to be really soft or itchy... he... probably doesn't take the best care of it... so steal it at your own risk!

It's not that it smells or anything it's just that it's older and he's always running around with it on... at least he uses your place to wash it now!

Feels mixed feelings about you taking his stuff- he thinks it'd sweet that you want to wear it because you miss him or get comfort about it.. but he would prefer if you asked him first before taking it

Headcanoning that he's cagey of his belongings and is protective of them

[blackknight-kai]

I don’t talk about her much, because she changes based on the au I use. The art below for my OC is from the wonderful WKZ who is not on the platform anymore for reasons of their choosing - *Friend if you see this know I appreciate you and you are missed*

If you want more of her let me know 😊 I’m gonna write some fics with her.

OC name: Kavara

(I do have a monkey version of her written out 😊 just not added to this post cuz she’s special and I’m still working on her)

Mix of Modern/Ancient Era traits

- [ ] Shes 5’6”/167 cm tall , shorter than the monkeys, her forehead is at mouth height (I hc them kinda tall? Like 5’10” /177cm or so). She has nice curves/ not too skinny not too hearty and a c/d-cup.

- [ ] She has deep burgundy red hair due to fire based abilities (wip)

- [ ] Amber eyes / almost orange in the right light

- [ ] 6 little dark freckles/moles that are in a straight line all the way down her cheek starting from the far side of her left eye, almost like a tear left stain, like me, (lore thing I’m still thinking about)

- [ ] Depending on what I use her for she has short curly/wavy hair or long curls.

- [ ] Likes peach scented body oil. (😏)

- [ ] Used to look mean - but she is gentle inside.

- [ ] Has to touch everything that’s soft if she walks by it, soft blanket? Gotta touch. Soft monkey? Gotta touch. Also likes being wrapped in cozy soft things. (Likes lots of pillows and blankets on her bed - she runs warm though so likes the air to be cool)

- [ ] Seriously she loves petting his fur…would do it all day long.

- [ ] Doesn’t eat sweets often, too rich for her.

- [ ] Likes sweet fruits though like peaches, plums (likes the tart skin on these the best), and crunchy apples.

- [ ] Dances/wiggles in her seat a little if she likes her food a lot

- [ ] No matter what AU she always finds DO/WK (or his variants) handsome instantly- crush may take longer but she always finds him charming and interesting in his own way.

- [ ] Enjoys messing with DO-Wukong/catching him off guard. Shes a little menace too (especially to those she likes). Enjoys annoying people (but not too much- like if making a pop sound with her mouth repeatedly gets under your skin she’s gonna do it - not to the point of pissing you off but she’s gonna get on your nerves).

- [ ] Chews on stuff sometimes to alleviate aggression/help keep focus/lower anxiety.

- [ ] Not a big drinker but will have a drink or two. Doesn’t mind a drunk monkey.

- [ ] Likes to collect pretty rocks and smooth stones that feel good in her hand.

- [ ] Not big on fancy luxury. Or stuffy clothes.

- [ ] Her weapons are similar to Kratos, (dual blades that can be smoldering etc and have chains she can use to throw them and pull them back. She likes to make big explosions 💀

- [ ] She hides them as earrings so they are always with her.

- [ ] Under her outfit she wears chest wraps to keep girlies together and tight to her chest. She wears the equivalent of panties but a loincloth sash covers her ass and front- legs exposed - this way if she loses her outer wear due to her fire she isn’t nakey.

- [ ] Puts her friends first.

- [ ] Curses internally a lot- sometimes out loud.

- [ ] Again, seems tough/uncaring but she is the most accepting person (as long as you aren’t genuinely bad/do bad shit) and will be the mom friend.

- [ ] Enjoys taking care of DO/WK. wants always help him, he’s her best friend. (Eventual lover)

- [ ] Wants him to feel cared for - and that she’d be there for him.

- [ ] in alt universe’s she would fight the fuckers at the begin of the game for him. Or by his side. She would genuinely die to keep him from having to resign himself to dying just to be free.

None of this is fine tuned but it’s the basic of whatever I got. I changed some stuff to suit my needs so…so I’m sorry if it’s a bit confusing but here we go!

This is a version of her specifically meant to know Wukong before BMW events. (Other versions of her like modern au or whatever I need her for don’t follow this but have similar things)

She is an immortal, one birthed of fire, chaos, destruction, (rebirth if you think about how fire culls the land for new life to grow), the embodiment of the roaring fires on the sun basically.

So in her younger days she is not exactly well liked, shes strong and was someone who didn’t like to held down. She didn’t outright disobey or was rebellious but if something wasn’t right or if she felt slighted/felt someone was slighted she would make that shit known. Quick to anger.

Because of this she had pissed off the wrong person, they placed a curse on her - (again not fine tuned) and it basically is like a black tar root that starts from her heart and starts spreading and coiling around her body the more emotion she feels, specifically negative ones like (seen negative) anger, hatred, fear, all those kinds of emotions.

She can heal, but the pain and the curse will spread to such agonizing levels that if she pushes it too far it will take over her body and encapsulate her/put out the fire in her which keeps her immortal. She of course tries to break the curse but there isnt anything that works. It’s like a spore that is attached to her heart that has molded to her and wont go.

Unfortunately this makes her shut down emotionally, she doesnt have a support system so as much as she tries to fight the agony gets worse and worse. Her fire dims, not dead, just dims. Kavara at this point just does her duties, keeps to herself, and represses all emotions whatsoever. She’s free of pain and honestly doesnt have to worry about shit, so it becomes her new norm.

In comes Sun Fucking Wukong.

The charming egotistical chaotic monkey yaoguai that wants to play immortal. She hears of him mostly, but remains indifferent. Until one day they finally meet.

Probably the worst thing that happens to a lot of people actually…..because Sun Wukong is the first to make her laugh. Ever. Not one of those “haha i am victorious” laughs she might have had when fighting back in the day. No, a full on belly aching laugh. Tears down her face and a wide pretty smile, something she honestly wasn’t capable of/thought she had. (She’s beautiful but never thought about it I guess)

This is the first time she realizes that HAPPY or positive emotions dont make the curse spread.

Wukong of course takes this as his sign to KEEP making her laugh (when he isnt being a little shit in heaven and to others).

Over time they do become friends, he learns of her curse, she learns of his goals. Unfortunately for everyone else Wukong influences her to stop being an emotionless doll and she becomes his partner in crime. Best chaotic duo ever.

THERES MORE BUT THIS IS JUST SOME OF HER STORY!!!

I didn’t wanna give the WHOLE lore, if you want more let me know. It’s quite a bit and a mix of angst & happiness.

Same with a version of her that meets Destined One. It’s a different AU and one that is a bit on the angsty side but I will ALWAYS give a happy ending.

[vacz]

I still remember when I watched for the first time.

I was 9 years old back then, I saw the trailer in my tv on cartoon network's channel and in the first moment it captured me. The fairytale aesthetic of it, the voices, the colors and the design were like something mysterious but also something that for some reason I wanted to watch, so I did it when it first aired and oh boy, I love it

However, I was little back then and I didn't know what a fandom was, so looking back I felt like I just missed the hype of this series when it first came out, and couldn't truly enjoy it with others. For some reason, I have been obsessing with this series by a year now (On Wirt especially) and it was this year that I could finally re-watch the series entirely after so many tries to find it

And that causes me to want MORE, more of the characters and the story, I couldn't read all the comics that were out for the simple fact that I didn't find them (yet). But, with the ones I read... Some of them I didn't like very much. I mean, they are entertainment but nothing else, just 'little nice adventures of Wirt, Greg and Beatrice' that makes me realize that what I am looking for isn't just seeing them again but watching them in a story with the same weight and good writing of the original story, keeping it serious and mysterious aura... which I don't think I should ask

I see that some people have this problem too, because Over The Garden it's so good and at the same time it's so short, but it's perfect for the way that it is, it's not a series that has gone cancelled or anything but something with a ending

It lives in our memories, and the thing is that we crave for more because we miss the feeling of magic that gave to us the first time we watched. Not matter how many times it's re-watch it, people would like to see something new, not truly new-new but something more of these characters in this world and what mysteries have and what lessons we could learn, what moments of fear and reflection we could have again, a story so good as the first

Which may not happen again, not with this world and its characters. And in fact, maybe it's better but we think that because of the fear of the possibility that if something new comes, it may not be as good as the first one, and it ruins our perspective of how perfect Over The Garden Wall is

And yet at the same time people still re-watch it over and over again, in every fall and in every Halloween

I'm 18 years old now, and I wish to experience what everyone experienced when otgw first came out: talking with people about it, making drawings, seeing fanarts and edits everywhere and shearing ideas of the characters and the story, otgw being massively popular again like Gravity falls's was just right now, now that I have the knowledge to enjoy it completely and not back then when I was 9 years old

It's nostalgia, nostalgia make us crave for more But... Is it bad to want more?

It's natural, that's for sure. I rather think it's neutral, it can be good or bad but it depends on the creator's will

Over the Garden Wall 10th Anniversary stop motion short by creator Patrick McHale and Aardman Animations

[peacemaker-ic]

I know you don't do requests but I was wondering if you allow suggestions for your creative mind. I know the Life and Death pack just came out Thursday but there is something I think is missing from the pack and that is a sliding glass door. If you do start the idea I would love to see a sliding door for a balcony or patio. I also think it's missing some kind of interior door for bathrooms and bedrooms. And if I may make a even bolder suggestion I love the At Death's door double door so maybe make that into the sliding glass door. as for the interior I would like to see doors that are similar to the At Death's door. I would also love to see archways in the same design. Like I said I know you don't do request so that is why I am giving a suggestions. I would do these cc myself but sadly I am not smart enough to even follow directions to help me learn so I must rely on those that do know what they are doing and make suggestions when I can. I love your cc as they bring more life to my sims homes then if I was to stay with the in game choices. Happy siming

I am happy to take suggestions, but it does come with a caveat: I make no obligation to agree with, or act on the suggestion. So as long as that is clear for people, I have no issues hearing people's ideas. Since I make things for myself and release them, what I make not be representative of what everyone wants.

In this case, if I ever do an addon for the stone windows from the set, a sliding door doesn't really feel like the right vibe for the style. I would more likely see a glass panel door fitting the aesthetic, but whether I can make it from the base material is another matter. With addons, the base material very much dictates what I make, either stylistically or as a limitation.

Not entirely sure what you mean by interior doors though. The architectural style is very grand, but they did add smaller doors so not really seeing a necessity for extra interior doors. They are pretty good (and we finally got medium height interior door). Arches are definitely needed though. Often left out in a lot of packs.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

How to Use Absurdist Humor

I will often excuse away the “worst” of Marinette’s behavior with a very dismissive, “It’s an obvious joke, so there’s no point taking this as a serious character beat. Let’s not waste our time here.”

While I stand by that statement, I can see why some people struggle with this approach. Miraculous has made the unfortunate choice to tie the humor to parts of the narrative that have actual meaning to the audience. This undercuts the power of the humor, making it hard for some people to separate the humor from the actual character beats, so let’s step back and look at a show that did this right to show what I mean.

That’s right, folks, it’s time for more gushing about Kim Possible!

For today’s case study, we'll start with episode 17 of season one: The Twin Factor. In this episode, Kim is stuck babysitting her little brothers while on a mission to stop her arch nemesis. You may be thinking that Kim's "flaw" in this episode is the fact that she brings two 10-year-olds on a dangerous mission.

You would be wrong.

This is the lead-in to Kim bringing the twins along:

Kim: Er, speaking of forgetting, I totally spaced on the baby-sitting. Mrs. Dr. Possible: Kimmy, you made a commitment. Kim: Two commitments, actually. I'm suppose to go on a mission today. Mr. Dr. Possible: You'll just have to take the boys. Kim: Mom, can you please tell Dad that's a bad idea? Mrs. Dr. Possible: Oh, Kimmy. I'm sure Jim and Tim would love to visit a secret lab with you.

This is how you do absurdist humor. Is this technically horrible parenting? Yes, but there is no way that anyone is taking this seriously. It’s just so over the top that anyone trying to criticize the Possible’s behavior comes across as completely missing the point.

The other important factor is that Kim’s parents are played as genuinely loving and supportive parents, just in a really absurd way. This is a very natural bit of loving family dialogue about a totally ridiculous version of a normal family conflict. None of these three characters show off flaws that we expect to see address here save for their complete lack of concern about Kim’s life-risking adventures.

If Kim’s parents were shown to be genuinely neglectful or if Kim’s adventures were played more seriously, then this humor wouldn’t work anywhere near as well as it does. It would still be an obvious joke, but it would stumble the landing if you knew that the episode would go on to see Jim and Tim die. (They don’t, btw. The absurdist humor carries on, I’m just giving an extreme example of a plot beat that would kill – or at least weaken – this humor.)

Another example of Kim Possible doing absurdist humor right comes from the next episode in season one: Animal Attraction. In this episode, Kim is up against Senior Senior Senior, an eccentric billionaire who pursues villainy as a hobby, leading to exchanges like this one between him and his son:

Jr.: Did we not leave Kim Possible on a conveyor belt to her doom? Sr.: Yes. A proper villain always leaves his foe when he's about to expire. Jr.: Why? Sr.: Well, it would be bad form just to lull about, waiting for it. Jr.: Why? Sr.: Tradition!

This episode has a lot of moments like this. Moments where Jr asks why they don't do the obvious, more easy/effective thing and his father blows him off because that's not how villains do things! It's totally illogical logic and it's great. I love it! Perfect example of absurdist villains and a great way to keep the show from getting too serious. The writers never wanted you to feel like Kim was in over her head.

If you look at these two examples and compare them to Miraculous, you'll notice a big difference. While Miraculous does occasionally pull off good absurdist humor, a lot of the absurdist humor is more questionable because it's tied to the show's central conflicts.

As an example, let's talk about Marinette's inability to confess to Adrien and all the nonsense tied to that. Her many failures and attempts to know him better are clearly jokes, but they have this serious edge because the show has not set up the love square as nothing more than a source of humor. This is our end game couple. The audience expects to see their romance developed. The longer the show goes on without doing that and the more absurd Marinette's attempts get, the less the comedy works.

Another good example is Lila's lies. There is a solid argument to be made that the writers are trying to be funny with Lila's extremely obvious lies, but it doesn't work because the lies are a source of serious conflict. Lila is working with the villain! She gets Marinette expelled! We want to see her outed! Every obvious lie she tells just grates on our nerves because this is not the time for jokes!

To be fair, you can use absurdist humor in more serious shows. Another of my personal favorites is The Good Place, which relies heavily on absurdist humor, but has a very serious and heartfelt overall plot. The humor works there because the show knew when to use the humor and when to be serious and also because The Good Place is not a formula show. It's a serialized show. One big story told in 20-minute chunks. This meant that the humor had more room to breath and could be more closely tied to serious conflicts. When every story has to stand alone and be finished in 20-minutes, that blending rarely ever works. You're trying to do too much.

Kim Possible's writers knew this, too. The two tie-in movies (Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time and So the Drama) are still comedies, but they both have far more serious tones because they had the time to do that. While the episodes run about 20 minutes, both movies run a little over and hour which meant they could be more serious than in a standard episode.

So why did I write all that up? Because I was watching Kim Possible and thinking about how much better the humor generally was and I suddenly realized how easy it would be to be confused by Miraculous' humor if you didn't have this kind of background. I've seen enough absurdist humor to identify it with ease and even I struggle with Miraculous at times. Like I'm still not sure if Lila's lies are supposed to be a joke or not.

If you're new to absurdist humor or struggle to interpret less overt humor? Then I can see how you'd take Miraculous way more seriously than the writers intended because a lot of the absurdist humor simply isn't absurd enough. That doesn't change the fact that it's humor and I'm still going to treat it as such, but I can see why it goes right over some people's heads and leads to complaints like, "Marinette has his schedule for the next three years!!!" That was a joke, but I get why you're missing it.

[kaylaacutiepie]

ii. heaven to you ( gun x reader)

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this one-shot. All characters belong to Park Tae- jun, the talented creator of the manhwa Lookism.

This story may not meet your expectations, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. If you have any requests or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment below!

The night air was thick with music and the low hum of conversation as I sat alone in the corner of a bar I didn’t normally go to. But tonight, I felt restless, like something was missing, something I needed without fully understanding what it was.

And then he walked in.

Gun. I’d heard about him—a name that carried weight, whispered around town with an equal measure of awe and warning. He was the kind of guy who made people’s hearts race for all the wrong reasons, the kind of guy your friends warned you about but secretly couldn’t resist. He had that look, that intimidating, menacing aura, as if he owned every room he walked into. I was just another face in the crowd, but when his eyes met mine, I felt the spark.

He didn’t hesitate, didn’t waver. In a matter of seconds, he was standing at my side, leaning casually against the bar, like he’d known I’d be there waiting for him.

“You look like you could use some company,” he murmured, voice smooth as whiskey, low enough that only I could hear.

I raised an eyebrow, meeting his gaze with a challenge. “And you look like you have a habit of saying things girls want to hear.”

He chuckled, an amused gleam in his eyes. “I don’t say things just to be nice.” His hand slid onto the bar beside me, his fingers brushing mine ever so slightly, sending a thrill through me. I couldn’t deny it—there was something about him that made me want to lean in, test him, see just how far he was willing to go.

“Is that so?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady, though my pulse was racing. “What makes you think I’d be interested in the bad-boy routine?”

His eyes flicked over me, slowly, deliberately. “It’s not a routine. It’s just who I am.”

He was closer now, and I could feel the heat radiating off him. The scent of his cologne was intoxicating, dark and earthy, making my thoughts blur. Part of me wanted to pull back, to remind myself that I should know better. But a stronger part of me wanted to see what would happen if I didn’t.

“Bad boys are fun, I’ll give you that,” I said, trying to sound casual, though I could hear the tremor in my own voice. “But they never stick around.”

He leaned in closer, his hand brushing lightly over my waist, his fingers resting just long enough to make my breath hitch. “Who says I plan on leaving?”

My heart pounded, every nerve in my body on high alert. His gaze was intense, piercing, and I could feel my cheeks flushing. I swallowed, meeting his eyes with a confidence that surprised even me. “Actions speak louder than words,” I challenged, holding his gaze.

“Oh, sweetheart,” he murmured, a grin playing at the edge of his mouth, “I’m all about actions.”

And in one smooth motion, he took my hand, leading me out of the bar without another word. The street outside was dim, the faint glow of the streetlamp casting us in shadows as he pulled me into a secluded corner. My breath caught as he turned to face me, his hand sliding down to rest on my hip, warm and possessive. His thumb traced a slow, teasing circle there, sending shivers through me.

He tilted his head, his face so close I could feel his breath on my skin. His eyes lingered on my lips, his gaze flicking up to meet mine. “Still testing me, Y/N?” he asked, his voice low, a teasing glint in his eyes.

I felt my heart stutter, my pulse quickening as my fingers grazed his collar, pulling him closer, almost on instinct. “You’re the one who said actions speak louder,” I whispered, barely able to keep my voice steady.

A smirk tugged at his lips. “Careful what you wish for.”

And then he kissed me.

The world fell away as his mouth claimed mine, fierce and demanding, leaving no room for hesitation. His hand tightened on my waist, pulling me flush against him, his body hard and unyielding. My hands found their way into his hair, fingers tangling in the dark strands as he deepened the kiss, his lips moving against mine with a hunger that sent heat pooling low in my stomach.

His hands slid up my back, one slipping beneath the fabric of my shirt, his fingers warm against my skin, making me gasp into his mouth. He took the opportunity, his tongue sweeping against mine, sending a jolt of electricity through me that made my knees weak. His free hand cupped my face, thumb tracing my cheek, rough and gentle all at once, leaving me breathless.

The cool night air was a sharp contrast to the heat radiating between us, and I could feel every touch, every press of his body against mine, as if he was branding himself into my skin. His mouth left mine, trailing down to my jaw, his lips pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses along the sensitive skin of my neck. I could barely hold back the small, breathless sounds escaping me, my hands clutching his shoulders as he worked his way down to the hollow of my throat, each touch leaving a trail of fire in its wake.

His lips hovered just below my ear, his breath hot against my skin. “You taste even better than I imagined,” he whispered, his voice rough, a wicked promise in his tone.

I shivered, my hands clinging to him, desperate to keep him close. “Maybe I’ve wanted you to find out,” I murmured back, surprised by the boldness of my own words.

He grinned, pulling back just enough to look at me, his eyes dark and smoldering. “Oh, I plan to,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper, his gaze holding mine as if he were daring me to stop him.

But I didn’t want to stop him. Not now, not after feeling the heat of his touch, the weight of his gaze. He leaned in again, capturing my mouth in a kiss that was slower this time, deeper, his hands roaming over my body with a reverence that felt almost possessive. He kissed me like he wanted to consume me, like he wanted to leave no part of me untouched, no inch unexplored.

His hands trailed down my sides, his fingers tracing patterns that left me breathless, each touch deliberate, calculated, as if he knew exactly what it would do to me. My skin was on fire, every nerve alight with a desire that was quickly unraveling me.

With a smirk, he pulled back slightly, his lips grazing my ear. “I told you, sweetheart,” he murmured, his voice low and teasing. “Bad boys don’t just go to heaven. We bring it to you.”

I couldn’t help but smile, breathless and dizzy, and in that moment, I knew I was in trouble—the best kind of trouble.

[random2908]

Iowa has historically been a swing state! It went for Obama both times! It went for Gore in 2000, Clinton both times, and even was one of the few states to vote for Dukakis in 1988. In other words, in the past 36 years, it's only gone red three times.

More seriously, there are three big possibilities here.

The first, and possibly most likely, is that this poll is--unfortunately--just wrong. Selzer is reputed to be a high-quality pollster, but her polls tend to be pretty small; and so no matter how good she is, she's going to get wrong results sometimes.

The second possibility is that opinion is swinging really fast in Harris's favor this past week, and this reflects a real change in people's opinions.

The third, and most likely, possibility is what's called "bias". This isn't bias like it's used in common English. This is the data analysis sense of bias: something wasn't taken into account, so all of your results are offset in one direction or another.

What's interesting about the bias hypothesis, though, is there are so many ways it can go. Are people embarrassed to say they're Trump voters, so you undercount them? Are the people more likely to vote for Harris less likely to answer polls, so you undercount them? Are pollsters trying to take these things into account in their data analysis and accidentally going too far? Not far enough? So many possibilities, so many explanations, and we won't know until the election.

But. There's an interesting source of bias that Nate Silver brings up about once per election: herding. A poll comes out, and all the other pollsters are like, "Ok, this is the TRUTH. So anything I get that isn't similar to this must be bias." So then they reanalyze their data with this "bias" in mind, and then when they publish their poll results, their results look very similar to the previous poll. This is thought to be especially likely to happen if the previous poll showed an even split, because for some reason people tend to think that's a "fair" result so it must be true.

The pollsters can't help but put their fingers on the scales, because they KNOW bias is a thing they have to watch out for in their weighing of results. But they don't know what the bias is that they have to counteract in their weighting. So all they have left is their bias--in the regular English sense! their personal beliefs and assumptions--to counteract the technical bias. And there's no reason to think that's right, either, but what else are they going to do. The result may be that they tend to predict elections are going to be closer than they are, because they believe that's "fair" and "normal".

And then here a completely different poll comes out from a very trusted pollster, and maybe she's right. Or, maybe she just adjusted her biases differently in a way that was equally irrational. (Her claim is actually that she does a lot less bias adjustment than most other pollsters. Which is interesting, because you wouldn't think that's necessarily a good approach--after all, polls miss entire demographics of voters. And anyway, a lot less isn't none. That said, as a scientist, I agree: when you know, go ahead and subtract out all the biases; but when in doubt, it's always better to analyze less.)

In the end, though, whatever the answer is, we won't know until the election.

Reports are coming out that Harris is leading in Iowa.

So what does this mean for Iowa voters?

Iowa was red in 2020 and has historically been red. As someone who lives in AZ, a red state that is now a swing state, it is entirely possible to flip a state or at least make the Republican Party sweat. So if you are in Iowa and were considering not voting because “your vote won’t count in a red state anyways”, please get out and vote.

Obviously polls can be inaccurate, but how great would it be if we could flip a state that republicans considered an easy victory?

Iowa also allows same day in person registration!!! So if you are over 18 and a U.S. citizen who resides in Iowa it is not too late! Click here for info on voting in Iowa: https://voterready.iowa.gov/registertovote/

Link to article: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2024/11/02/iowa-poll-kamala-harris-leads-donald-trump-2024-presidential-race/75354033007/

[l1v1ngd3dgrrl]

Talkin' In your sleep [Daisuke x Reader]

AN: this is my first smut, so if it seems like I don't know what I'm doing I probably don't lmao (please forgive me if it's bad!) I'm kinda testing the waters a bit. Dorky guys that are sweethearts in bed just raaaghh. Love 'em.Y/n (you) and Daisuke are in their early 20's. Personally I imagine them being like 22 but anywhere from 20-23 is fine too. Implied Fem reader, but no real gender specific pronouns or language is used..I may have gone a lil crazy

MDNI divider is from cafekitsune

Word Count: 2617

CW(S): Somewhat of a slow burn, Wet dreaming, oral sex (male receiving), semi-public (oral) sex?, cum swallowing.

Being the two last minute additions to the Tulpar, you and Daisuke never got proper rooms. Both of you simply had makeshift beds in the Lounge area. The beds in question being just a couple of spare blankets laid out for cushioning. They weren't comfortable by any means.

Anya, being the kind soul she was, had offered to take two of the cots from the infirmary and lay them down on the floor for the both of you, which y'all declined politely opting to tough out this journey.

This was one of those nights where you mentally kicked yourself for declining Anya's offer. Surely the cheap, almost tarp like feeling of the mattress was better than laying down on metal with nothing more than a blanket and pillow. If anything you'd kick the person back at Headquarters who insisted that you two should go on this trip. Who in the hell sends six people on a ship only designed with four crew members in mind?

One of the few good things to come out of it was your friendship with Daisuke, being the two youngest crewmates you spent quite a bit of time together when you were able too. Nights like these you would often chat quietly about random things. Life back home, menial tasks you had to do that day, stuff like that.

Currently you lay awake staring at the ceiling. Trying to will yourself to fall asleep. Daisuke had passed out hours before, even though he was right there beside you, you missed his company. Swansea had him do some particularly heavy work today, so as soon as his head hit the pillow he was out. His soft snoring being the only thing breaking the eerie silence of space.

Not wanting to lay on the floor for much longer you got up quietly and made your way to one of the couches. If you were going to be awake you were at least going to be comfortable.

You sat down and rubbed your hands over your face, sighing quietly. You never really had trouble sleeping as bad back home than you did here. The soft blue glow of the night screen covered nearly the whole room, Possibly another contributing factor to your restlessness.

Damn you and your lack of planning Pony Express!

Part of you wanted to go check the medicine cabinet in Anya's office to see if there were any sleeping pills. That would require waking her up for something you didn't even know was on the ship.

With not much else to do you you grabbed your book that was sitting on the coffee table, the same one you had read at least 3 times since departure. The cover was starting to bend from how much it's been read. In your sleep deprived state you weren't able to focus on a single thing the characters in the book were saying despite having read it enough to have the plot memorized.

After about 20 minutes the silence was broken by Daisuke stirring in his sleep and groaning something incoherent. The sudden noise in the otherwise quiet ship made you jump slightly. You turned your head to look over at him to see if he had gotten up.

His form was still in bed, seemingly sleeping soundly.

"Daisuke?" You called out to him, voice barely above a whisper. "You up?"

no response.

Shrugging you returned back to your book. As you continued to read the plot made less sense to you, eyes growing heavy. You quietly rejoiced and closed the book, sluggishly making your way back to your bed and pulling the covers over your body.

You shimmied around to make yourself as comfortable as possible and exhaled quietly. Sleep soon drifting over you.

The slumber was short lived as Daisuke starting shifting around again. He was mumbling incoherently a bit louder this time. Thinking he was just having a bad dream you tried to ignore him, making a half minded mental note to ask if he was fine in the morning. Once again your eyes closed and you tried to fall back asleep.

"mmmf-fuck." came a soft gasp from your crewmate.

what the fuck?

Eyes now wide open you roll over and turn to look at him.

In the soft blue glow you could see his hair was splayed across his pillow, auburn and blonde strands going every which way. His eyebrows furrowed slightly as if he was concentrating on something, Mouth slightly agape and his breathing coming out in huffs.

Another quiet moan from him made your face heat up and it clicked instantly. You weren't hearing things-it was indeed a moan.

What little sleep you did have now left your body almost instantly, a conflicted feeling taking its place.

Letting him be and acting like you didn't hear him react to whatever dream he was having was an option, you could even wake him and lie that he was snoring too loud and it was disturbing you. Both options left you feeling awkward.

A slightly louder more clear moan left his lips, "y/n please."

Your skin felt hot after hearing that, the way he said your name was doing things to you and it felt like your brain was short circuiting.

Now you didn't exactly hate the idea that Daisuke was dreaming about you, quite the opposite actually. You weren't afraid to admit that you thought Daisuke was attractive. You just never acted on it because of the whole co-workers thing. Pony Express never really made an official rule against it so who knows, maybe something to look foreword to in the future.

Unfortunately for him, you were gonna have to cut his dream short. You quietly made your way over to his bed and knelt down beside him. Placing a hand on his shoulder you shook him slightly.

"Daisuke-Daisuke hey."

He woke up with a groan and rubbed his eyes. "Yeah?"

You pulled your hand back. "Hey sorry- listen you were being a little loud and I wanna sleep."

Daisuke sat up and stretched his arms out in front of him joints cracking slightly, hair still messy from sleep. "m'sorry-Loud?" he asked groggily. You nodded "Yeah, you were making noises."

"Noises?"

You tried to quickly come up with some excuse, but Daisuke caught on to what you really meant almost instantly. His eyes widened once he realized and buried his face in his hands. "Dude y/n I'm so sorry." With a groan he pulled his hands away and sighed. "I'm really sorry-I'll go sleep in the utility room or something."

"You don't have to be sorry." You said quietly. "I'm not like, upset or anything."

Daisuke finally glanced over at you, eyes meeting yours expectantly "You're not?"

"I'm just curious I guess." In a sudden burst of confidence you slid your hand over his. "I kinda wanna know what you were dreaming about."

Daisuke paused for a moment and sucked his cheeks in and nodded. "Well uh, I was dreaming about you-God this is embarrassing."

You began to rub circles over his hand with your thumb, a way to silently offer him reassurance.

"I was dreaming that we were back home and I had invited you over- one thing lead to another and you were giving me head." He stated a full blown blush now covering his face.

You could feel your face heating up as well, no doubt sporting a blush of your own. For the second time that night you made another daring move.

"I can make that happen."

"What?"

"I said I can make that happen, If you're up for it." you repeated gazing into his eyes.

Daisuke stared at you wordlessly for a moment, caught off guard by your suggestion. "I mean yeah-yeah I'm down..Wouldn't we get caught though?"

He had somewhat of a fair point, but then again everyone was asleep. The walls were pretty thick so unless he started screeching like a banshee the likely hood of being caught was slim.

"Are you able to keep it down?"

"I think so?"

"Then what is there to worry about?" You gave him a soft smile. He gave you a sleepy grin of his own. "Alright, I guess we're doing this?" He turned his torso towards you and searched your face intently. You leaned in slowly and pressed your lips against his.

The kisses started off slow, just chaste pecks here and there. It felt like you had a flurry of butterflies in your stomach after each one. Daisuke moved his hands to your back, slowly trailing his fingers down towards your hips as the kisses began to deepen.

Both of you pulled away briefly panting slightly. Daisuke was the first one to move back in for the kiss. He moved one of his hands and placed it behind your head, keeping the other one at the small of your back. You let out a contented sigh into the kiss, trailing one of your hands up is leg slowly.

He jumped slightly, letting out a surprised noise. You chuckled and pulled away from the kiss. Lips slightly puffy. "Sorry did I scare you?"

"You caught me off guard." He said. He threw the blanket off of himself and grabbed your hand and placed it on his erection. You gave it a brief squeeze which caused him to hiss his breath. Unsure if that had hurt him or not you opted to just run your hand over the bulge and locking eyes with him.

He stared back at you, dark brown eyes filled with lust. Closing his eyes he bridged the gap between the two of you with sloppy kisses. You continued palming him through his sleep pants alternating between rougher and softer movements to gauge and see what he likes best.

After a particularly rough rub he let out a similar moan like he had done while he was dreaming. You felt those butterflies from earlier return.

"I don't think I can wait any longer." He groaned as he pulled away. Agreeing with that sentiment you hooked your fingers in the waistband of his boxers and sleep pants and pulled them down. After some shimmying and tugging of the fabric his erection sprang up, tip covered in pre.

You ghosted your fingers along his shaft experimentally, drawing a soft gasp from him. "This is okay right?" You asked softly as you gathered some of the pre from his tip and slid it down the rest of his shaft.

"Yeah-f-fuck yeah it's okay."

You began to move your hand more purposefully now, tightening your grip as you reached the base. Daisuke let out a moan of approval, letting his head fall back. You repeated the movement listening to his huffs.

"Faster please." he managed to get out.

Wordlessly you began to move your hand faster, the sound of the slick seeming to echo off of the walls. Daisuke bit his lip and groaned.

You made a mental note of this moment, storing it for later use. Who knew watching him try and remain quiet could be so attractive? You'd like to have him return the favor at some point, but for now this was about him.

You felt him twitch in your palm and his hand shot up and grasped your wrist firmly. "Too much?"

He shook his head. "I didn't want to cum just yet."

You giggled and glanced towards his face and his dick. You scooted a bit further down and bent over so your face was right in line with it. You gave his tip a quick kiss, The flavor of his pre mildly salty but not unpleasant. You gave it a few more chaste kisses then enveloped the tip into your mouth fully.

Daisuke gasped and quickly moved a hand into your hair. Fingers gently weaving themselves between your locs.

You pulled off and bobbed your head again taking him a bit further into your mouth. Each time you moved his fingers tightened slightly. You let out a contended hum and continued bobbing your head.

Daisuke was panting, soft calls of your name between breaths encouraged you to keep going. His eyes were squeezed tight skin flushed and hot. Sweat beginning to bead on his skin causing some of his hair to stick to his forehead. It was a little hard to see him from the angle you're at, but what you did see of him looked like a work of art. This really wasn't helping your little blooming crush on him.

You went down further, nose touching the base of his cock and swirling your tongue as you moved back up. The whine that came out of Daisuke's mouth went straight to your core. He sounded quite angelic.

He shifted his hips slightly and tugged your hair. "I'm so close please." he whispered. You continued to bob your head, the occasional thrust of Daisuke's hips making your pace falter slightly.

After a few more times of you bobbing up and down he let out a strangled moan and came in your mouth. You slowed your movements, helping him ride out his orgasm. Once you were sure he was finished you swallowed. You noticed the slight artificial sweet taste that it had, a side affect of his bad habit of sneaking sweetener packets.

You wiped the corners of your mouth and sat up. Daisuke was catching his breath, looking at you like you had hung to the moon. He motioned for you to come closer, pulling you in to a kiss. "Thank you that was like, really awesome."

You snorted and pecked him on the cheek. "yeah that was fun" You brushed a strand of his hair away from his forehead. "Did you wanna do it again sometime?" Daisuke smiled at you and nodded. "hell yeah. I'd really like that."

You cleared your throat and yawned. "We should get cleaned up and go to bed." Daisuke had already began to pull his boxers and sleep pants back up. You were getting ready to go back to your bed before Daisuke held you by the wrist. "Wait don't leave yet stay here."

Confused you sat in place watching as he got up to the vending machine in the corner of the lounge. He punched in a few numbers and you heard the thump of something falling. Both of you winced at how loud it was. He returned with a water bottle in hand. He opened the cap and handed it to you with a boyish grin on his face. "I wish I could do a lot more but this is all I can do for you right now."

You took the bottle with a smile. It was a sweet gesture. You thanked him and drank. The two of you sat talking for a bit until you both couldn't stay awake. Eventually you both made your way to your respective beds and fell asleep.

Maybe this was the start of a new nighttime habit between you two.

[zippidi-dooda]

Dunno if this exists yet, but someone needs to write stories of twst clubs x reader, where members slowly become more attached and possessive of Y/N, could be mild or bordering on yandere actions, platonic or romantic. Includes all clubs, even the single member ones. They can also be set in the current NRC timeline or in the future or as a whole different AU.

Here's some examples and ideas to fuel you to start,

"Basketball Club × Reader" - Be ready to go pro with this ambitious group, Jamil, Ace, and Floyd. An unexpected turn of events is sure to ensue if the time is right, or wrong rather, but rest assured that you'll soon be set back on track by the level headed of the members. You say you don't like the spontaneity? Don't worry, me neither. But if I can, then I'm sure you could also find it in your heart to forgive and just go along with it, yes? Oh dear, don't you seem out of it today. Here, let us help. Just follow my every instruction ... yes, just like that ... it's good to know you're the most cooperative of us ...

"Pop Music Club x Reader" - Have fun jammin' out and sharing crazy stories with this energetic trio, Lilia, Cater, and Kalim. You'll always feel welcomed and noticed here whether you know how to hum a tune or have never touched an instrument in your life. Just enjoy the tea and spill your darkest secrets whenever you'd like, this group is patient and remembers every last detail, you'll never want to leave. Though, if the thought does cross your mind, you'll need to announce your upcoming absence so we can throw a goodbye party. But, maybe you shouldn't. We'll just remind you of all the good times you'll miss. For one last time, we'll laugh and joke about how horrible and destroyed your life would be without us. We know everything about you, even the diabolical. Why, if your secrets were to be spread through magicam like wildfire, it'd close so many doors for you, no one would ever look at you the same. You don't want that, right? It'd be best to just stay here with us where your peace of mind is secured, right? You're free to go, but please don't forget us. And don't forget that all it takes is one push of a button to push your life downhill ...

"Spelldrive Club x Reader" - Soar through the skies as you chase your victory alongside this competitive bunch, Leona, Ruggie, and Epel. You train hard everyday, but there's still time to get together during breaks, the chipper of your group bonding over your mutual desire to crush the competition as your captain snoozes. Other, bigger, teams want to recruit you which is a great opportunity. You're honored. And you should be, but don't you know you're the most valuable member of the team? We couldn't make it without you. Not to mention, we'd be heartbroken to see you leave. These guys are too proud to say it, but deep down you know it's true. Those other guys may be better against teams we haven't been able to beat, but they'll never support you as much we do. You wouldn't want to lose the people who love you most, would you? No? Ah, I'm glad. Don't worry, we're sure to win someday, just stick with us and you'll never have to worry about disappointing anyone again ...

"Equestrian Club x Reader" - Gallop through endless fields alongside your law-abiding yet tender companions, Sebek, Silver, and Riddle. Rest assured that with these three you'll have bushels of fun, but more importantly, you'll always be safe. Always. Perhaps a bit too safe ... but there's no such thing, right? Just follow our instructions quickly and obediently, quietly, and you'll never have to worry about the risks of riding through the wilderness again. We promise not to let you get hurt. If it takes being restricted to only the land visible to us, so be it ... hm? Oh, my apologies, I am simply running my mouth. Pay it no mind. Ah, hey, not that way. Why? Well, we haven't quite explored there yet and we'd rather not risk endangering you or the poor horses. Perhaps we can take a look at it tomorrow and see if it's fit for a trot, yes? I agree, now why don't we head back, I can guide your horse for you if you'd like. Just sit back and relax, you're safe with us taking the reins, I promise. The most safe you'll ever be ...

"Track & Field Club x Reader" - Live life fast and furious with this driven pair, Deuce and Jack. You'll always be encouraged to push your limits with their helpful hollers. You won't be upset long with their optimistic cheering. But make sure you show up for every meet, if not, they'll worry about you. They'll go looking for you. And they will find you. Hey, we haven't seen you around lately, is everything okay? Is now a bad time? I'm sorry, but we really missed you yesterday and just wanted to know nothing bad happened. Why don't you come join us for lunch tomorrow, we don't have to practice. We'll get you whatever you want, promise. Wait! You ... weren't planning on leaving me behind again, were you? Good. Ya had me worried for a second, haha. So, we'll meet up at 2:30? Great. Afterwards we can just hangout. And if you want to go for a quick jog again we'd be more than happy to. We've always been faster than you, though, remember? But, don't worry, we'll go easy on you if you ask. Just don't bolt when we're not looking so we don't have to worry and chase after you ... again ...

"Film Research Club x Reader" - Get ready to make strides in the acting business as you perform and work behind the scenes with model and tech genius, Vil and Ortho. Just make sure you aren't so distracted by the applause and spotlights that you forget to read the fine print of your contract. You wish to quit? I'm sorry, My Dear, but I'm afraid you've agreed to work with only us for xxxx amount of years and we need you to play this next lead in order to ensure our film trumps Neige's. Don't worry, we know all the right tips and tricks to secure perfection, just read the script as directed. Exactly. As directed ...

"Science Club x Reader" - Slip those safety goggles on and hold your breath as you run experiments with this curious pair, Trey and Rook. There's nothing better than getting your hands on new and exciting material. Not exactly sure why you're here? No worries! Not all of us are either, but we have fun here. Any experiments you've heard of you'd like to try? Only illegal ones? No problem we can get our hands on the items needed just tell us what they are ... a funny joke? No. I'm dead serious ... we've done plenty before ... ahaha! You look so frightened, lighten up, no one's died ... yet ... hey wait don't give that look. Sorry if that was too much. We're careful enough to keep things safe ... unnoticed ... what's that liquid? Oh just some juice for a friend using the fruits in here, would you like to try it? Here, have a sip ... what's that? It burns? Ah, I see let's write that down. What else are you feeling? What? Using you? No way, we'd never do something so cruel ... you're simply helping us learn as our lab partner ... oh stop that, no one else is here ... now tell me before things escalate ... what other sensations are you feeling ... fascinating ... it's different compared to last time ... too bad you forget after you wake up ... it's why we have to keep doing this ... over ... and over again

"Board Game Club x Reader" - Roll up thise sleeves and bring your a-game as you play with these competitive gamers, Azul and Idia. Have fun and forget the days worries as you make you way across the mat, never will these two give you a boring game. Though that doesn't mean we can't take things up a notch ... What say you we have a little wager? We beat you xx amount of times and you do us a little favor in return? I promise there'll be no foul play. You could ask a favor of us too if you win. In fact we can sweeten the deal even more if you're game ... no? Oh, don't tell me you're scared you'll lose ... you're not? Good. Then there's no issue making a harmless bet, yes? How lovely ... now, why don't we all sign this paper to ensure no one chickens out when they lose ... oh don't worry it's nothing serious, just a sheet of rules, standard club ware yes? Yes ... now right on the line ... good job. You agreed to sign this freely remember? Right. So don't go back on you word later ... nothing good comes of cheaters ... trust me ... I take care of all of them ...

"Gargoyle Studies Club x Reader" - Prepare to learn each and every random tidbit about each little stone as you explore the ruins with this wise companion, Malleus. Everything may go in one ear and out the other but this voice just so dreamy that you don't mind the rambles, right? But please do make an effort, no one likes a dimwit who can't tell the difference between a grotesque and a gargoyle. But, oh dear, it looks like you really are getting tired. Don't worry, I know how to care for my own, you can slumber for the next century safe at my side. I promise to be here when I let you wake up. At least then we won't need worry about those pesky mortals who wrestle your time from me. Hm, what was that ... you feel disoriented ...? Oh you needn't worry, that's a standard effect ... you won't feel a thing in a moment ... trust me ... your dearest friend ... I'll always be watching over you ...

"Mountain Lovers Club x Reader" - Embark on cozy and informative hikes through the mountains with your knowledgable partner Jade. But beware the trained smiles and pre-packed lunches, you may end up a little further out than planned. Oh, don't worry, the place I had in mind is just a little further along, I promise. You trust me, don't you? Good, then everything should go smoothly. Hm? You're not feeling well? Ah, perhaps you ate something you shouldn't have ... I do hope you were taking note of those wilderness survival tips I gave you ... though, they may not be of much help to you underwater ... hm? Oh, I wasn't saying anything of importance, don't mind me. You did say you trust me, yes? I'd like to find out just how much ...

Honestly, I had a lot of fun writing these ideas, even though I did forget about them for a while.

[beef-brisket]

Everyone was chatting and laughing. Some shared stories of Sir Pensious. Even Adam tried to recall one. He was having trouble, even though he fought him a lot, he couldn't remember a good story about him. But that time he tore his coat seed to have gotten a laugh.

A lot were talking to Peter, and how he actually managed to kill the first man.

Lucifer hadn't seen much of Alastor these last couple of years. Well, a couple of thousand years. He's had meetings with him, sure. But that wasn't the same. He wasn't his first man anymore.

Even though Alastor was a spre spot for Lucifer and he got shat he deserved, it still hurt watching everyone laugh and cheer his death.

He used to be Lucifer's best friend. And something more. But that was a long time ago.

He excused himself and left the room. He needed quiet.

Charlie: Dad?

Lucifer stopped on the stairs. He should have teleported.

Lucifer: Yes, hun?

Charlie: Are you okay?

Lucifer: ...I'm fine, Charlie. Don't worry about me! Just a bit tired from the cooking.

Lucifer laughed, but he knew Charlie could see through it.

Lucifer: Go enjoy your dinner, Charlie. Adam put a lot of effort into making it.

Charlie: Would you like me to bring some up for you, later?

Lucifer: Uh... yeah, thank you.

Charlie smiled and walked back into the dining room. Sighing, Lucifer made his way to his room.

As soon as his door shut, he felt himself cry. He mourned his best friend. His first crush. The things they used to do together in thag garden means so much to Lucifer. Sometimes, more than what he and Lilith did.

A few hours had passed. Lucifer was curled up in bed. The tears hadn't stopped.

He jumped at a knock to his door. That much be Charlie with his dinner.

Lucifer: Just- leave it at the door, please Char!

Adam: And let the hell bugs get it? Certainly not.

Lucifer sat up. Adam?

Wiping his face and snapping his fingers to fix his clothes and bedroom, he opened the door.

Adam: Well, don't you look like shit. May I come in? I would like to talk to you.

Lucifer blinked: Uh- yeah, sure.

Lucifer opened the door more so Adam could walk in. He won't lie. He's a little disappointed when he didn't see any food.

Adam: May I?

Adam motioned to the bed.

Lucifer: Sure.

Adam sat down, and looked around. It was a very grand bedroom, fit for a king. Adam chuckled at the thought.

Lucifer: Something funny?

Adam: Oh! Just an inside joke! Now. We slaved away over a hot stove for five hours. And you left dinner after 30 minutes. And I know it wasn't my cooking that scared you off. So, what happened?

Lucifer shut the door and looked down. The fuck was he meant to say? He missed the genocide maniac that tournamented his Ring and slaughtered his people? That he wished they were able to be friends again? That he wishes he fell with him instead of Lilith?

Lucifer jumped as he felt someone grab his hand. He looked and saw that Adam had walked over and now started leading him to the bed.

Once they sat, Adam fixed his glove and turned to Lucifer.

Adam: I know we're not friends. And I know you don't like me very much. But I'm here if you'd like to talk.

Lucifer nods. He does like Adam. He rubs him the wrong way sometimes, but he has a feeling that's not technically his fault.

Lucifer: ...I miss him...

Adam: Who?

Lucifer: Alastor...

Adam tensed: Really? And why is that?

Lucifer: I know- he's hurt a lot of people- and worse! But... I miss who he was. Who we were. I... I loved him once. He didn't understand love in Eden, but I know he loved me. I felt it.

Adam: ...What happened?

Lucifer: ...Lilith... she was made, and I fell for her instead... I left him in the dirt... I didn't even end things with him- I just... walked away...

Adam: ...That would explain his feelings towards you.

Lucifer: Did he say much? In Heaven? About me, I mean.

Adam: Oh boy, did he. If he got drunk enough, he'd go on little tirades about you and him. Then he'd cry about "those skanks". How dare they leave him? He's the first man! But I saw through him, very quickly.

Lucifer: What do you mean?

Adam: He's broken- or, was broken. He'd never let himself get close to anyone. No one even saw him without his exorcist uniform off. Especially his mask. He hated himself. He knew why you two left and took Eve, it was obviously Heavens fault for pressuring the poor man so much, but he wouldn't dare blame them. So, he blamed himself. All of his anger and pain, he took out on sinners. He hated you and Lilith. Sometimes Eve. But he hated himself more.

Lucifer looked away. He had a feeling it was all an act, his cockiness, his ego, his pride. But Lucifer had no idea how to break through. And when they had meetings, they were filled with Alastor talking, Lucifer sighing something, and then him leaving. Even when Lucifer tried to speak with him. He'd just leave.

Lucifer: It was my fault...

Adam: Yeah, it was.

Lucifer: ...not very comforting, Adam.

Adam: Well, it's true. All of you didn't know what you were doing, so you all got hurt. It all started with you, Lucifer. Alastor is dead. And trust me, that's a good thing. He was suffering. He was too far gone. Hopefully, now, he can rest.

Lucifer: Well, their won't be much rest when you're eating him...

Adam: Oh please! I was joking! I'm not actually eating the first man! You couldn't pay me to put him in my mouth! It's just exorcist angel meat, I promise... I buried him out back. Unmarked and all that. So you're welcome to pay your respects.

Lucifer quickly stood: Show me. Please.

Lowkey want an au where Adam has Alastors' powers.

The tentacles

The eyes

The changing size

The shadows

The sass

The deal making

Him owning Husk and Nifty

The musical numbers

The radio control

The tentacles- have I mentioned that before?

The rivalry with Lucifer

Maybe he replaces Alastor entirely. No Alastor. Only Adam. It's always been Adam.

Thanks for coming to my tedtalk.

Only Adam lol This is good! His Husk and Nifty could be Lute and Peter.

He doesn't have to smile all the time does he?

Yessss, and he plays rock instead of jazz lol And yes of course there is a rivalry lol

[luzon-dove]

okay i'm finally able to elaborate on my post where i asked "what is it about death note that makes it so compelling to people with ocd" and it's half personal headcanon half textual evidence, because quite frankly i don't think light yagami was written to be obsessive compulsive with any degree of genuine intention on the part of the authors. but like. he has, as they say, the vibes. severely. i'll explain.

but first, if you have ocd, please read with caution. i do talk about my personal experience frankly and in some detail; i'm not responsible if you ignore this warning and trigger yourself. please take care of your brain.

now for some background: i like to call ocd a disorder of delusions, not in the clinical sense of a delusion vis a vis schizophrenia, but in the sense that when you have ocd, the fundamental way you interact with the world is disconnected from reality. "i can't step on this specific part of the sidewalk with only my right foot, it has to be even, or something indescribably bad will happen. i have to check my stove isn't on before i leave the house for the thirtieth time because what if i missed it being on the last 29 times i checked. i need to make sure i don't look suspicious when i enter a grocery store lest they think i'm stealing, even though i have zero intention to steal, have never stolen, and never will."

it's a profoundly detached-from-reality way to move through the world. i am explaining this, of course, not to blame or shame but just to explain some context about what it's like having ocd.

there is nuance. often there's an awareness of how ludicrous the rules you're following are, because of course, stepping on a sidewalk in a certain way isn't going to cause a horrible curse to befall you and your loved ones. and you know this, but you do it anyway, because you feel inexorably that you must. compulsions can also start from a semi-reasonable anxiety, but are blown endlessly out of proportion. i have, for example, mild contamination ocd and i do research in a biology lab that handles bacteria. these are even harder to parse and resist because at the end of the day, worrying a little bit is reasonable, and so washing my hands a couple times per lab session is also reasonable; worrying that some bacteria has magically gotten into my mouth and considering drinking rubbing alcohol is not.

background out of the way, let's talk about light yagami.

this is a guy with scrupulosity ocd. it's a type of ocd concerned with religious or moral obsessions. "am i a good person? am i going to get in trouble? am i going to hell?"

this interpretation stems from light's constant paranoia about being seen as Good. this manifests in several ways. most obviously, the desk drawer explosion trap and the slip of paper/doorknob angle indicator so that no one "catches him" doing a Bad Thing. compulsions can be thought based, too--you can see this in his constant revisiting of "did i just do a bad thing" and his moral justifications in order to settle that anxiety. his cognitive gymnastics to justify murder read almost exactly like a compulsive thought spiral. sometimes, when an obsession is so beyond the pale, you have to come up with something equally beyond the pale to quiet the anxiousness; for light, this is his whole "i'm god, therefore it's okay that i killed people" thing. you can also see this in his obsessive checking of how people perceive him, in his constant awareness of how he presents himself, his constant body-checking--he is always, always trying to make sure he looks like a Good Person. this is compulsive! he can't stop.

you may argue that light actually is kira, so these are all justifiable precautious. this is why i brought up earlier that compulsions can come from initially valid anxieties. this is also why i said that light isn't written explicitly to have ocd, his neuroses just mirror ocd pretty strongly. because, you know, this is fundamentally a story about death gods and magic notebooks, and i'm less concerned about diagnosing a fictional anime boy and more concerned with answering the question of why death note is a compelling story to people with ocd.

anyway. i think that in many ways, the death note becomes the compulsion as much as it's the obsession. writing 500 names of criminals to justify 2 murders is the kind of disproportionate retroactive justification that you can fall into when you're having an ocd spiral.

there's just...so much. light's neuroticism about everything, from what he's allowed to think about himself to how he's allowed to act. his disconnection from reality--how he thinks he's acting normal and non suspicious. the perfectionism. the cognitive gymnastics. the way he reaches for the death note over and over and over.

and that's not even discussing the intrusive thoughts aspect of ocd, where your brain comes up with the most upsetting scenarios to horrify and taunt you. the difference is light justifies the thoughts of "what if i killed everyone who i thought was unworthy" with "i'm god, so it's allowed" instead of, you know, literally anything else. you're supposed to acknowledge an intrusive thought, remind yourself that it's not representative of reality, and let it pass through you; this is obviously not how light deals with it.

i think this is most visible in the yotsuba arc, when he ruminates on the idea that he could be kira, and how it upsets him. how he compulsively devotes every ounce of his time to proving that he's not kira, to catching kira, to denying the possibility he could be kira. it is a thought that consumes and spurs him to repetitive denial and evidence-based rebuttal. it's so very obsessive compulsive of him.

there are just so many ways you can take this scaffold of thinking about light yagami and run with it in both interpretive meta and fanfic. and i think, at the end of the day, the way he behaves is resonant in an uncomfortable and cathartic way to people with ocd, without explicitly being about ocd; i think that's fundamentally very compelling.

[gryffintheparrotcat]

Things in Veilguard that have annoyed me so far, in no particular order:

(I'm about to recruit Emmerich and Taash, if you're not there yet consider yourself formally spoiler warned)

1. Solas hates bloodmages now, this makes no sense.

2. Bioware still doesn't know people darker than #8D5840 exist. This is the fourth game, you'd think the devs learned this by now.

Player characters pass the paperbag test, that is not a good thing. I swear I've seen npcs with darker skintones but Rook can't have a slice?

3. Dalishs are just chill with their gods being evil and real and instead of addressing all that we just go and watch another elven community get massmurdered.

4. We're in The Elvenenslaver And Qunarihater City™ and there are 0 slaves and everyone is friendly to my elven and my qunari Rooks.

4. My Rook having an Elgar'nan vallaslin has not been acknowledged even once.

5. The qunari are going against Qun orders and are just cartoonishly evil now. Neither of these things align with previously established lore.

6. The Crows are all a big happy family. Sorry Zevran.

7. The Grey Wardens are incompetent. Again.

8. My Rook being called kid by Varric and others, that is a grown adult man.

9. Being called Rook. I didn't like that title much to begin with but the fact that it's not even earned this time makes it even more annoying. He has a last name!

10. The companions doing jackshit in combat. I'm a mage not a tank, can someone else kite the enemy?? I miss the pause button

11. The controls being different again. Why is spacebar a whole different button in each dragonage game? Were these ever made while considering people who may play one after the other?

12. Harding not being a romance option for the inquisitor. I never played Viviennes semiromance (i'm always siding with the rebelmages so we haven't exactly been getting along) so I can't say how deep that is and if she should be an option, but i will note that she is also not an option.

13. Harding saying she wasn't in the inner circle of the inquisitor. Harding darling I promise you inquistior adaar loved you dearly. I'm pretty sure I talked to Harding far more than I talked to Varric in Inquisiton.

14. "The previous games aren't relevant because they play in the South" WHAT ABOUT KIRKWALL? What about Navarran Princess Cassandra?? Dorian is here why not the others?? Not even mentioned once?? Cmon.

15. No proper wrinkle slider in character creator... again.

16. Not being able to resize eyes in character creator. Why??

17. No slider for the stomach to stick out. A for effort on even adding bodysliders to begin with but I was hoping for proper tummys for once.

18. The dialogue wheel. And more specifically how little origin/class specific options there are as a mage elf with a vallaslin specifically. And not being able to be mean, just a bit blunt. Meeting Davrin and him being a bit prickly at first was a breath of fresh air ngl. I don't need evil alright, I get it I'm playing a hero now. But let my Rook be a bit spicy sometimes. Neve complains about a Crow prioritising Treviso over Minrathos? Let Rook be an ass about it.

19. I brought Neve & Mage Rook to recruit "The Mage Killer" and neither have voiced any discomfort about that? Or acknowledged that at all? Neve has some party banner with Lucanis but even there it's more of a L "Are you scared bc of the title?" N "lol nope".

Hopefully I won't have to make a pt2 any time soon.

[kaythefloppa]

Wild Kratts - Bumblezzzz - Thoughts

This episode airs on TV tomorrow, but was released online in the PBS Kids Video App. So if you're planning on watching it on television, or unable to access the videp app, you may want to scroll off for spoilers

I was aware some bees come in blue (hi Martin). But GREEN???? The fuck?

The epitome of "waking up and choosing chaos."

I envy Chris's organized manner.

Bros went from Salamander Streaming to a Salamander Snack ☠️

This raises - so many questions and thoughts.

Apparently there is a "Villain Weekly" magazine that is sold in copies? I mean there's a Finding Your Inner Villain Seminar so I guess that tracks but... just how many people are stanning, supporting, and funding these villains who, I should specify, NEARLY FLATTENED THE AMAZON. You can't just... walk backwards from that without a serious career-and-possibly-life-ending PR disaster.

(Actually I just remembered that Elon Musk exists and has his share of supporters despite how awful he is to the point where it borders on cartoonish, which I guess kinda tracks here)

2. The magazine has a picture of Donita on it, which implies that it's about her. Why would Donita have a COPY of a magazine featuring her? Why would she have to buy it. Do I not know enough about advertisements in the magazine industry?

3. Why would Donita trust Zach with anything? ANYTHING? He regularly gets his inventory mangled by the enemy every week as a result of his own ineptitude and often steals whenever said inventory is too shitty for his own good. She really shouldn't be surprised that he forgot to give it back.

4. Donita canonically lives in New Hampshire. Zach lives in Massachusets. That is an hour and a half away just by driving. Even if Zach isn't by his mansion, still he could've just flown his plane over to Donita's mansion. Or if he was too lazy, he could've hired his bots to do so. Inversely, Donita could've just come and have the manequins collect.

5. DONITA THREATENING ZACH WITH MOB VIOLENCE BY SICCING DABIO ON HIM IF HE DOESN'T RETURN THE BOOK WHAT THE HELL???

I feel like I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, this is the same person who quite possibly forced Martin to undress and into new clothing whilst he was in suspended animation in her debut appearance (and also sicced Dabio onto him when he resisted), nearly drove lemurs to extinction all over a dress in the Season 3 finale, attempted to skin salamanders alive for a fire-proof suit in S5, and oh yeah, was instrumental in the attempted destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. But still, this was so out of nowhere, and the fact that Dabio smiles; (and remember, according to Season 3, his ancestors have been working with the Donatas for generations, so this shit was a family business) This one scene, if all others haven't, single handedly manage to show Donita and Dabio as arguably the most brutal, nasty, and vile villains. It's just one scene, but I see these guys in a pretty different light now.

Also, I mentioned this before. If she's willing to do all that previous stuff mentioned above for her own gain, if she's willing to do this to Zach over a petty book loan, what the heck is she gonna do to Paisley when she finds out about her betrayal? What's she gonna do to Rex if he eventually redeems himself?

As someone who has made it my legal obligation to analyze the timeline in Wild Kratts, I will definitely say that this episode takes place on June 20th, the first day of the summer season. That means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I don't even think I should explain how terrible of an idea this is.

This is plain biology and a fact of life, but since they missed the opportunity to make a Bee Movie reference, I will take this as such as compensation.

Because I didn't say it earlier, I'll say it now: Bumblebees are so. Fucking. Cute.

AAAAAH!!!!!!!!!

Not enough screengrabs to convey this but the brothers are obviously trolling Zach here and I love it.

For all of you angst writers, here's some new ammo. Because I'm fairly certain that this can unoequivically KILL a human being if bumblebees were as big as us. In fact between this episode, and the next episode, Chimpanzee and Me, I'm convinced that the only reason Zach's robots are henchmen is so that the brothers can get away with being as violent as fuck towards them in so many beautifully creative ways without any actual bloodshed.

The fuck even is this episode 😭😭

CONCLUSION:

PROS:

The humor, once again, is amazing. It didn't get in as much laughs as the previous one, but still.

The Bumblebee Suit. It's such a breath of fresh air from the more uncanny looking Creature Power Suits in the modern seasons

Bumblebees are indeed highly endangered. It's good that this episode brings light on that and how important it is to protect them

CONS:

This entire episode's plot goes by... way too damn fast. Seeing the bros immediately get themselves into the jam, and then also immediately seeing Zach, and even the brothers quickly explaining bee features to Aviva. It all feels like this episode is just on fast-forward, even though it's a regular-length episode. It really could've been paced better.

Zach's motivations are stupid as ever, and he is at his peak bitchiness here. But again, the fact that such cartoonishly bullshit evil like this happens in the real world (which WK cleverly delivers a giant middle finger towards), and the fact that Zach gets his ass kicked for his genuinely awful plan mitigates a LOT of damage.

Final Ranking: 7/10. Still pretty good. I've been anticipating a Bumblebee episode for the past year after seeing leaks of a magazine featuring the Creature Power Suit, and it did not disappoint.