#sometimes a little vindictive pleasure is allowed. as a treat

[himoon]

found out someone who fundamentally fucked me up as a teen not only went on to continue being a horrible person but also got Worse and is getting slapped with karma while here i am, finished 2 college degrees with minimal debt, raised a dog that loves me and is a total sweetheart, and am happy with my life and doing what i have always loved

[funfunfuntillmydaddy]

Naked Ambition

Getting up the corporate ladder when you work somewhere that is dominated by misogynistic alpha males requires a good dose of talent, resilience and ambition. Not to sound full of myself but, well, I do get a lot of compliments on my talents from the guys at the agency where I work. Especially from the senior partners.

So I was pretty happy with myself when in my mid 20s I was promoted to a manager to lead a team. But it wasn’t plain sailing and I quickly learned that you can’t be friends with everyone. One of the guys in the team, Alex, who I beat out for the promotion, was particularly sour and difficult.

For two months, Alex was nothing but a total pain in the ass. He would argue with me, not do what I asked and bad mouthed me to other people in the office

Being the independent woman I am, I didn’t complain to my boss or any of the other senior partners. But then my boss came to me and told me he noticed how much of a prick Alex was being. He asked me if I wanted him to fire Alex. I didn’t want to admit defeat and wanted to fix it myself. My boss told me that maybe I should try and clear the air with him. But if that didn’t work I needed to get rid of him.

So I put a bit of a plan together. It meant having an informal chat with him late on a Friday. It also meant that I wore my best looking casual Friday outfit. This meant tight jeans and a top with a low neck to give a glimpse of a couple of my talents that were particularly persuasive. I wanted to assert my own type of dominance with some honey, rather than vinegar.

And surprise, surprise, it works a treat. As soon as we were alone and I call him out, he was back tracking and apologising like some pathetic puppy dog. He goes on saying how sorry he is and how much this job means to him and how he was getting married soon and was probably just stressed about it.

After a while, it gets a bit painful and I say we could get a drink and maybe a bite to eat to really clear the air and we could start afresh. So we head to one of the trendy city bars and get stuck into the cocktails.

I knew his type. I wasn’t surprised that he would let himself get sloppy drunk even with his boss. I guess he thought we were all good and even friends now so he felt comfortable letting go. Soon his arrogance and macho attitude came back. But I was ready for it. Now it was time for some twisted fun.

So I start flirting with him. Laughing along, touching his arm, smiling a lot. The usual kind of encouragement.

We continue drinking and get something to eat from a small and cosy restaurant where the drinking and flirting keeps going. By the time we finish dinner, it’s late but instead of calling it quits I suggest we head to a club. He messages his fiancé to say he’s stuck at work because some client was going nuts. As he tells me what he’s writing I smile to myself. I know exactly how this is going to play out now. I message my boyfriend something similar but he’s used to these kind of things. He’s proud of my success even if it means I have to prioritise work sometimes, even on a Friday night. I then message my assistant and ask her to book a room for me at the hotel down the road from our office.

The hotel booking was nothing out of the ordinary. We often did it for clients but also when we were stuck in the office or the city. My assistant had been around awhile and knew all about it. She had worked for senior partners and knew she might be asked to do it at short notice. And she always does it discreetly. I worked this out in my second week when my boss at the time took me out for dinner and drinks that started as a client meeting and continued as a debrief in the hotel into the wee small hours.

So when Alex and I get to the club, we down a shot and get even sloppier on the dance floor. He’s losing control and can’t help himself. His hands are all over me. But I don’t object. In fact I encourage it. I grind against him and feel how excited he is.

After a few more drinks in the club, I pull away from Alex and give him my best devilish grin. I tell him I should let him go home and get back to his fiancé. As I see the pain of disappointment on his face, I bite my lip as I suppose out loud that we could go somewhere else, more private. I almost laughed when the expression on his face instantly changed to that of a puppy with a new toy.

As we leave the club and find a taxi, Alex starts getting even more handsy, groping my ass and pushing into me as we walk out. Then we find the taxi and once we are in the backseat he just goes full on. He leans over planting his mouth on mine and going for it like only a drunk, horny guy can.

He keeps going all the way to the hotel and then he follows me out the door. I pull away from him again and ask him if he’s sure he wants to keep going and I don’t want to get him in trouble with his fiancé. He answers by pulling me back into him and sticking his tongue down my throat. So I grab his hand and we go into the lobby.

It’s now after 1 am and the lobby is mostly deserted. I confidently check in under my name knowing my assistant is totally reliable. My face shows no shame even though the time, our condition and the lack of any luggage makes the state of affairs irrefutable. I just exchange a brief, knowing smile with the cute, late night receptionist

With the room key successfully procured, we head to the elevator and Alex continues to carry on like a hopeless little puppy. Once in the elevator, he goes even harder at me. His hands all over me especially my ass and my tits. I keep encouraging him and even unbuckle his belt as the elevator gets to our floor. We stumble down the corridor as we get to the room and open the door. I pause briefly at the threshold and look at him, trying to get him to recognise the significance of crossing over. But he’s too horny to care.

So we walk through and the door slams shut behind us. He moves me over to the large bed in the centre of what is a pretty ostentatious suite. But we could be in a $50 motel for all Alex cares. This thought amuses me.

He bends me over the bed and roughly undoes my jeans and pulls them down my thighs and then pulls my panties to the side. My suspicion about the kind of lover he would be is soon confirmed as he goes straight to trying to ram his dick into my pussy. There is no discussion on protection. Fortunately I was wet enough to allow his dick to slide in with reasonable ease.

He hammers away at me as his hands squeeze my tits through my top. He starts groaning already so I pull away. I smile at him as I tell him to slow down. I pull down his jeans and take off his shirt as I push him on the bed. Then I pull off my own clothes as I grab his phone out of his pocket and throw it on the bed.

Naked, I climb on to the bed. Straddling Alex, I lower myself and set the pace as I ride his dick. As I hear his moaning return, I look at his phone, letting the vindictive ideas swirl. Instead of anything particularly evil, that would be thwarted by the passcode anyway, I opt for something a little more passive I pick up the phone and open the camera app. I see a look of panic on his face.

I tell him not to worry and that I just want him to have something to remember this by. Then I squeeze my muscles around his dick and ride him hard to distraction. His moans of pleasure fill the room and I snap away with his camera, framing his naked torso and face as he writhes around as my Pusey works him over. Then I hold it to the side to get my lower body and him in the frame so the cause of his pleasure is indisputable. I even switch to video a bit as I ask him to tell me how good it feels. He tells me how tight I feel which is a nice compliment given how much sex I have and how ungenerously proportioned he is. Then I can’t resist and ask him if I’m tighter than his fiancé while I squeeze extra hard. He groans out in confirmation. I can tell he’s close so I turn into bitchy mode.

I know he isn’t going to be able to get me to orgasm. I ride him hard, alternating between grinding my hips while squeezing and bouncing up and down. I moan out telling him not to cum and pleading for him to keep going, already knowing it will be futile. He is getting really close. I think about lifting off and just ruining his orgasm but decide on the other option.

I plead again for him to keep going and to make me cum. Then as he groans more sharply, I tell him he can’t cum inside me knowing he is too far gone. As I yelp out again for him to hold on, I feel his dick swell inside me as his face contorts and he groans out as he shoots inside me.

I stop abruptly as I look down at him with the most bitchy face I can put on to convey my annoyance. Behind it is a face of satisfaction as this played out exactly as I expected. The pleasure on Alex’s face evaporates as he shoots his last lots of cum into me.

I climb off of him and continue the pretence of my annoyance. Tutting and looking down as his cum leaks out of me. I growl at him, asking rhetorically why he couldn’t hold on. But secretly pleased with myself that I made him totally lose control.

It’s now after 2am and I tell him he should go back to his fiancé as I need to take a shower. There is no invitation from me to join in. We are not embarking on a second round. I make the disappointment palpable. He sheepishly walks out the door and mumbles an apology.

As I enjoy the twin jets of the opulent marble shower, I wonder if he will remember to delete those photos before he gets home to his undoubtedly suspicious fiancé.

After that little escapade, poor Alex was never the same. He was meek and unsure around me, couldn’t speak up in meetings, couldn’t pay attention to what anyone said, his work was full of mistakes. So I’m sure he wasn’t surprised that a few weeks later, we had another meeting late on a Friday. But instead of it ending with him cumming inside me, it ended with him walking out with a box packed with all of his personal effects, Including the picture of his fiancé that adorned his desk.

[love-takes-work]

The Tale of Steven - Outline & Review

The Tale of Steven is a wonderful, timeless-feeling storybook about identity, authority, and finding your own way. It's got an innovative design that requires the reader to turn the book upside-down, sideways, and right-side-up to get the whole story, sometimes all on the same spread of art and text, and as we come to find out ultimately, this "tale of Steven" really is STEVEN'S story.

We begin with White Diamond, matriarch of the Gem homeworld, setting the stage--and not only does she frame the other Diamonds uncharitably (especially the littlest Diamond, Pink), she even sets the tone by admonishing THE READER straight away, scolding us to turn the book her way to read her words. (We must turn the book upside-down to read her perspective. Very nice.)

As we listen to White Diamond tell us how ridiculous Pink Diamond is and frame her as "impossible to understand," we also see exactly why Pink felt driven to leave her home. White apparently appointed herself the authority on keeping Pink in her place, and we're treated to White's huge pale hands holding little Pink Diamond in her tiny pink throne, “right”-side-up. White's perspective is proper, and she is to be praised, you see, for understanding that Pink's desires and attributes are not worthwhile and need to be forced out of her. Pink is shown as having run away to Earth and reinventing herself as a new Gem: Rose Quartz. Suddenly, we are able to turn the book sideways and see what she's thinking too. (White does NOT approve.)

The Earth, where Rose Quartz is allowed to love herself and love her surroundings, is simultaneously called "grotesque" by White, and we're seeing the same planet through two sets of eyes. White sees Rose as "stubborn" and "absurd," while Rose just gives us an aside about not listening to White if we don't want to and giving us a choice to read the book her way. As Rose continues to depict rainbows and falling in love with a human--Greg Universe--White is getting angrier. She shrieks, "You're ruining my story!" Rose, rightly, replies, "This isn't your story."

Soon, Rose has bequeathed her Gem--the center of her being--to her half-human son, Steven, with the consequence of ceasing to be herself. Baby Steven appears with his father and Rose Quartz's three companions--Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl. White Diamond finally abandons trying to narrate this story, escaping with a vindictive comment and an attempt to frame Rose as simply Pink Diamond hiding "inside an unwitting creature." Rose's perspective expresses that she wanted her son to experience the love and acceptance she never received. And then, Steven's perspective pops onto the scene. We can now turn the book fully right-side-up to read his tale.

As the story slides fully into Steven's perspective, Rose's hopes for him still line up on the sides of the pages, longing for him to experience kindness, to never know the awfulness she went through on Homeworld, to never have to feel the criticism issued by the other Diamonds, and to be able to tell his own story one day. Steven reflects on Rose's influence on his life, how he's heard about her and the more truth he's discovered the more everything frightens him. There are many perspectives, he recognizes. Perhaps there is more than one way to read the story.

White's perspective, upside-down now, returns alongside all this. She suggests "Pink" has come crawling back to turn the world the "right" way again, and she's puzzled by Steven's appearance, but she's determined to rescue Pink from herself by separating Steven from his Gem. Meanwhile, Steven's been wondering what his relationship is to Pink and Rose--is she inside him? Is he actually her? What's real?

But they all learn the truth when Steven's Gem reveals that he was also Steven inside there. All along, he was himself and no one else. This is, and has always been, his story, and he has been right about who he is.

Several wordless frames depict Steven's two aspects finding each other, reconnecting, and becoming one again. Newly confident in who he is and having asserted as much in the face of crushing authority, Steven declares, "This way feels right to me." The orientation of the book AND the definition of himself are the focus here, and for the first time, White begins to consider that her perspective was the wrong side up in someone else's story.

Steven closes by claiming the book as his own (writing his own name in the "This Book Belongs To" space, which is superimposed over a Diamond Authority symbol with the Pink Diamond on top instead of on the bottom). The end dedication is made out "To Trans & Gender-Expansive Kids."

To reflect on this sentiment and the rest of the book, I will say that a large portion of the Steven Universe fandom already recognized some threads of a trans allegory in the animation this is based on. Steven, though he is not specifically depicted as a confirmed trans character in the show, does not demonstrate or seem to experience toxic masculinity in association with his quest to be powerful, and has no qualms about using symbolism, iconography, and apparel that is more commonly associated in today's Western society with women and girls (e.g., the color pink, flower symbolism, protective and defensive rather than aggressive and offensive behaviors, wearing jewelry and dresses occasionally without it being a gag). His assertion that he is Steven and not Pink Diamond or Rose Quartz has many parallels with a common trans narrative--including pronouns that the Diamonds refused to respect--even though it is also its own thing since human beings do not have to defend that they are not literally their mother. 

They do, however, frequently struggle with authorities in their lives "correcting" them on who and what they are "for their own good," brushing off the seriousness of the misery it causes, and these children do find themselves forced to wear clothes, use names, and adhere to roles that do not match who they are. They even sometimes hear authorities mourn the "loss" of a different-gender version of them and accuse the child of being selfish for wanting to manifest their truth instead of being the son or daughter the parent thought they had.

It is my deepest hope that authorities like this can learn to turn the book around.

It is so important for children to learn that they ARE the authority on their identity, and while some well-meaning authorities in their lives may frame their identity as a phase or a fake, they do not have to accept this view of the world, or even that it comes from a loving place. White Diamond did not sound like a stern but caring figure to me. She sounded like a tyrant who is convinced of her own correctness, determined to gaslight and shame Pink Diamond into becoming the person SHE wanted. Love is listening. Love is nurturing. Love is seeing pleasure and pain and letting those things guide you in supporting a happy existence. Kids whose gender is complicated and young people who develop misunderstood identities need books like this to center them in their own stories and empower them to show others how to read their book.

Except for the section of the book where Steven's organic self and Gem self are separated and re-combine, the message is solid for readers who have not watched the show. But because of how important that wordless series of panels is and how much background you actually have to have to understand what's happening there, I recommend this book primarily for fans of the show who have seen "Change Your Mind" and the episodes that support it. The other depictions are more powerful and illuminating for those who have context from the show also, but the main purpose of the book can be readily understood without that background. 

If you haven't seen the show, all you need to know is that Steven is a hybrid Gem/human who has a gemstone in his human body, and it gives him superhuman powers. Gem characters generate a body from their Gem, while Steven's body is organic and presumably NOT generated from the Gem. White Diamond removed Steven's Gem from his belly, expecting Pink Diamond to take form out of the Gem. She thought his organic half was just a human that the Gem was stuck in. But instead, a Pink Steven emerged and went back to his organic self to merge again, proving that he is Steven, not someone else, through and through. And he truly loves and knows himself.

A couple other notes fans of the show might enjoy: White Diamond's hypothesis that Pink Diamond was "hiding in an unwitting creature" is really interesting--she knew what Steven was but believed he was just a normal human hosting a Gem. Interesting. White's disdain toward Yellow and Blue for "spoiling" Pink is an interesting addition to what we know about her, too. Pink is pictured standing on her hands on her throne, upside-down, which is interesting since it's both "silly" and an expression of her right-side-up perspective (since, when we obey White, we're reading the book upside-down!). White's commentary that she kept Pink in line is also interesting, considering we've seen way more of how Yellow and Blue treated her and none of that was very nice either (yet they're the "nice" ones in this story, indulging her even though we know they abused her). There's a really cute image of Rose lounging on the beach with Greg in what looks like a swimsuit. Connie is in a frame with the Gems looking through a telescope. And there's a frame with Garnet holding pink and blue butterflies.

Inventive, beautiful, moving, and so necessary. Buy a copy. Let kids turn the book around.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

[tsarisfanfiction]

Ruin (Tales From The Heart)

Fandom: One Piece Rating: Teen Warnings: major character injury, blood Characters: Law, Shachi, Penguin

Plans sometimes go wrong. Law knew this, had spent the last thirteen years making plans and watching at least half of them crumble away to dust as something went awry. He'd got better at improvising, and even better at making contingencies as experience taught him what failed him the most (his stamina, his nakama's inability to do as they were told if they thought it would leave him in danger). It didn't matter, he'd come to think, if a plan went wrong, because somehow they'd all pull through anyway.

Naïve.

Two years since he'd entered the New World, two years of stronger opponents, wilder fights and crazier possibilities, and he still thought he was ready for anything? Laughable.

Law wasn't laughing now. How could he, when his plans had gone so horribly wrong that his mind – his genius, never failed him, mind – had short-circuited. It was a simple reconnaissance, laying the groundwork for later. Nothing new, nothing his crew hadn't done many times before. There shouldn't have been anything to go wrong, not when he'd taken Penguin and Shachi with him, by far the most experienced in staying low and under the radar. Even if something had gone wrong, they'd been with him all those times before, when his plans crumbled to dust and it became improvise or die. They could handle it.

So why was Penguin frozen next to him, unable to even react, much like Law himself. Other members of his crew – a hand-picked minority of five in total – were in similar condition.

Plans went wrong, but never had a plan gone so horribly wrong.

The gorilla zoan in front of them laughed, a deep laugh that reverberated through his impressive chest and through the ground; Law could feel it through his feet. It wasn't a pleasant laugh. It was condescending, cruel and full of wicked malice, all at once. Beside him, chuckling along with similar sentiments, was the reason everything was wrong. Law didn't know what subtype it was, exactly, but the dog zoan was fast and vicious enough to catch them out, leaving them in their current situation.

Huge hands, far larger than an average gorilla but since when did zoans follow the laws of nature, almost entirely dwarfed the arms they held, the limbs looking like little more than frail twigs as they writhed, their owner desperately trying to worm his way loose, kicking at the air as if he could get enough purchase to wriggle out of the grip.

Shachi was having no success, his bids for freedom doing nothing more than providing a source of amusement for his captors. Of everyone, Shachi was the one Law had always thought (naively, he was too damn naïve) wouldn't be caught. He was the fastest, and had the best observation haki to match. Few opponents could even touch him in a fight (unless he was being a self-sacrificing idiot which was sadly all too common), so to see him bowled over by the canine zoan too fast for him to dodge, a vicious bite to his leg immobilising him just long enough for the dog's gorilla companion to scoop him up was something so incomprehensible Law couldn't react.

And so there they were, frozen in disbelief as the unforeseen, unimaginable scene unfolded before their eyes. Law's body wouldn't move, his eyes fixated on the struggling form of his nakama even as he cursed himself – too slow, too naïve, move you idiot – and from the unnatural stillness of his nakama behind him, he wasn't the only one.

"The Master doesn't appreciate you snooping around in his territory," the dog yapped self-importantly, chest puffed out. Law didn't particularly care, had never cared what his opponents did or did not appreciate. A pirate trying to please people was contradictory at best, and under normal circumstances, Law would take great pleasure in antagonising them further, just because he could.

These were not normal circumstances, and his brain had yet to restart from the mind-numbing shock of seeing Shachi captured so easily, so Law said nothing, trying to find a way to salvage the situation. One of his contingency plans would work, surely, if only he could remember them.

Shachi's flailing landed a solid kick to the gorilla's face, and the zoan's laughter stopped, his face morphing to a disgruntled scowl.

"We don't need them all?" he asked, the dog clearly running the show. (If Law could make observations like that, then why couldn't his brain stop being a blank slate?). The dog shrugged.

"One won't make a difference," he replied, and finally Law's blood started to boil as the implications forced their way in, his brain starting to whirr back into activity.

"Any funny business and you'll be next," the gorilla growled at them, the Heart Pirates still in varying states of frozen. It was cliché, Law managed to think. Clichés had a weakness, too well known, too obvious-

His brain screeched to a stop again as Shachi suddenly went rigid, legs stilling too fast, and the muscles in the gorilla's arms flexed.

The sound of fabric ripping cut harshly through the air, sleeves dividing roughly at the seams as the gorilla pulled. Two and two didn't add up for a moment, Law's brain back to numb as beads of red made themselves known around Shachi's upper arms, where the deltoid connected – had connected. No longer connected.

Shachi didn't scream, but the absence of vocal agony meant so much more. A small, choked-off noise, and clarity finally, finally, crashed over Law.

A flick of the fingers, then another, and Shachi was on the ground. Too close. Too close to the gorilla but that was where the dog had stood and Law wasn't a sadist despite his reputation, but the shriek as spindly limbs tore off and the armless body crashed to the ground in a pile of blood and agonised screams gave him a split second of satisfaction before he reached Shachi's side and reality sank in.

The ginger still had his arms, somehow. The skin was stretched and torn and Law could see a complex surgery in front of them to repair the damage, but they were still there, and that was a small victory he could take. Less victorious was the way he lay in the crumpled heap he'd landed in, still and unmoving. He wasn't unconscious, at least not by standard definitions. His eyes were open, unseeing through the shades and Law got the impression that even if he removed them Shachi wouldn't so much as blink. His breathing was shallow yet rapid and his skin quickly flushed.

Law wanted to finish off the gorilla too, leave him in pieces like he'd been about to do to Shachi and watch him squirm because he wasn't sadistic but he could be vindictive and if the doctor side of his brain wasn't so dominant he'd have done exactly that. He left it to his crew instead, hearing their irate roars as they, too, broke free from the mental numbness and unleashed their fury, because Shachi had gone into severe shock and needed treatment now before it became fatal.

Some back alley that couldn't even pretend to have a modicum of cleanliness was almost as far from ideal as it was possible to get, but that was where Law was and there wasn't time to relocate before he could begin to stabilise Shachi. He stripped off his coat, thankful that he'd chosen to wear it that day, and threw it over the ginger like a blanket before lifting his feet.

"Can you hear me?" he asked, hoping to incite some sort of reaction. "Shachi?" There was no response, as he'd feared, and he threw up another Room to use a Scan. Shachi's arms were a mess, as he'd already surmised. The muscles were frayed, and the humerus had been forced so far out of the socket that all the ligaments had snapped. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say his arms were hanging on by a thread, but impossibly, that wasn't Law's concern, nor the aim of his Scan. He needed Shachi's blood pressure to rise again, just enough to be able to move him and get back to the Tang, where he had access to everything he needed.

It wasn't rising, and Law wasn't willing to wait for it to get around to starting by itself, reaching in with his powers and forcing the blood around until it could sustain the pace without him. A cry tore itself from Shachi's throat, a painful broken sound that was the sweetest music Law could ever hear because it meant he wasn't gone yet, and he judged his patient as safe to move, wrapping the coat more firmly around him and lifting him into his arms.

"Shachi- Is he-?" Penguin was suddenly there in front of him, covered liberally with blood and the black of his haki not yet faded from his skin. The rest of the group of Heart Pirates were behind him in a similar state, dyed red and sporting numerous injuries that Law couldn't treat right then, because Shachi was safe to move but not out of danger and there was nothing else fatal in front of him.

"We need to get back," he said, his voice clipped and strained. Penguin's face fell, horror settling in as the implications struck him. Law, already moving as fast as he dared with his precious cargo, felt bad for him, but false hope was worse than the truth and he would never do that to his nakama.

His boots splashed through the blood on the ground, and while he wasn't consciously looking, he noticed the unmoving bloodied lumps and allowed himself a wry smile. Ordinarily he'd call such ferocity going overboard, but after what they'd done to Shachi it was simply penance and while part of him wished his nakama had left some for him, he was undeniably delighted to see the mangled corpses in his periphery as he hurried past.

Shachi was still breathing when they got back to the Tang, and he left the rest of his party to recount why, exactly, they were coated from head to toe in blood as he finally got the ginger settled in the infirmary, replacing makeshift field treatments with hospital grade equipment and coercing Shachi's body back to its regular performance.

Unsurprisingly, Penguin was first to follow him, silently obeying Law's instructions as the shock finally lifted and Law could safely sedate his patient enough to begin to repair the damage. There was a lot, the arms needing delicate treatment beyond anything conventional surgery could reliably offer and the long-lasting effects of the shock not easily reversed, but Law persevered in the end, allowing his Room to fall after he'd done everything he could.

A moment of black, and then he was on the floor, held awkwardly by Penguin, who had clearly managed to catch him before his head collided with the metal but only just.

"Get some rest, Law," the older man said, and Law absently noted the thickness in his voice that meant he was trying not to cry. He didn't get a chance to reorient himself before he was picked up, Penguin gently depositing him on the next bed over. "I'll wake you if anything changes."

Drained, Law didn't have much of a choice, exhausting forcibly overriding worry and dragging him back down into the realms of unconsciousness.

[imaginitiveescapism]

You Walk Into a Bar

Summary: Lafayette x Reader. A sketchy guy hits on you while you’re out by yourself. You don’t really have time to be scared before a charming Frenchman is getting rid of the guy and sweeping you off your feet all in one go. Maybe this will be a good night after all.

You rarely ever went places like this by yourself, and now you were remembering why. You’d had a long day. You just wanted to be able to eat some shitty nachos you didn’t have to make and have a drink. Preferably something with rum. And now some guy was hitting on you at the bar before your first drink had even arrived. You went for the totally ignoring him angle, but he just kept chatting your ear off as you waited. You were relieved when the bartender handed you your drink.

The man moved forward with his wallet. “I can get that for you, sweetheart.”

“No, thank you.” You handed the bartender a twenty before the guy could take over. “I’m not your sweetheart.”

“Aw, don’t be like that.” He moved his body between you and your exit in a way he clearly thought was subtle. You wondered how intoxicated he had to be already to believe there was anything subtle about what he was doing. “I just wanna get to know ya.”

“There you are, mon cherie!” An exuberant Frenchman pulled you into an embrace, resting his lips next to your ear. “Are you alright?”

You felt yourself relax as you admitted, “This guy won’t take no for an answer, and he’s kind of creeping me out.”

“Play along and consider it taken care of.” The handsome stranger stood back up to his full height and faced the other man, though he kept his arms wrapped around you. “I see you have met my lovely lady?”

The dude who had been hitting on you looked between you and the frankly buff guy you were allowing yourself to lean against and frowned. He focused on you. “You coulda just told me you had a boyfriend you know.”

Feeling bolder now that you had backup, you raised an eyebrow at the guy. “I already told you no. Why should I have to tell you I have a boyfriend?”

“I mean...” He looked a little confused, but also still belligerent. “It’s just not nice to lead a guy on, you know? I would’ve left if you told me you already had a boyfriend.”

You glared at the man, feeling your fury rise. You took a few steps away from the helpful stranger and felt vindictive pleasure at the way your opponent stepped back as you were now the one invading his space. “Please, explain to me how telling you no without the endorsement of another man is leading you on. Use small words so I can understand.”

“I... uh...” The guy turned and walked all the way out of the bar.

The man who had been helping you let out a booming laugh and applauded. “That was glorious, mon ami.”

Grinning, you took a bow before holding a hand out to him. “I couldn’t have done it without my well-muscled supporting cast.”

“Glad to help.” The man accepted your hand, shaking it but then not letting go. “Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. But you may call me Lafayette. And may I ask the name of our lovely leading lady?”

You gave him your name almost absentmindedly, still focused on the monster of a name Lafayette had just given you. “Were they having an everything must go sale at the name store?”

Lafayette laughed again, and you found you rather liked the sound. “Non, I believe my parents thought I needed a name large enough to match the personality. You may come sit with me, if you’d like? I’d be more than happy to chase away any more unwanted suitors.”

“Sure, that would be great.” You let Lafayette lead you to the table he had been sitting at. “Thank you, by the way, really. He was creeping me out.”

“Do not mention it, mon ami.” Lafayette easily waved off your gratitude. “I barely had to do anything. The fire was all yours.”

“I still appreciate your being there,” you insisted. “Not everyone would do that for a stranger.”

“Yes, well, perhaps everyone should.” It was the first time you had seen Lafayette serious since the moment he first approached you, worried for your safety. “Anyway, what brings you here tonight, mon ami?”

“Long day at the office and a desire for rum and nachos,” you admitted. “You?”

“Ah, just seemed fun.” Lafayette called a waiter over, grinning at the man. It seemed everything Lafayette did he did with excitement. “May we have some nachos please?”

You smiled at him. “Thanks.”

“It is no worry.” He turned his attention back to you, and you could see genuine happiness in his eyes. “You have made my night much more interesting, mon ami.”

The two of you chatted for a while over the shared nachos. You learned that he was from France (duh) but had come to America for college and fallen in love with the place, and with his rowdy group of friends. Despite the protests of his family, he had decided to stay, at least for a while. There was so much left to see, he explained, so much left to fall in love with, and he was going to do it all. His friend Alexander, in particular, had some big ideas for the things that should change.

“Wait...” There was no way. “Alexander as in Alexander Hamilton?”

“Oui!” Lafayette’s face lit up with excitement at the recognition. “Do you know him?”

“Not personally.” You ate another nacho. Almost half the basket was gone by now. “I’ve read some of his stuff. It’s good.”

“He is very brilliant,” Lafayette agreed with the air of a bragging sibling.

It made you a little nervous to say what you were going to say next, but fuck it, you said it anyway. “I agree with all of his ideals. He obviously has a really good heart. Some of his plans for implementation need work, though.”

Instead of upset like you were fearing, Lafayette looked intrigued. “What kind of work?”

That was all the encouragement you needed to launch into a lengthy explanation of your own ideas, often building off of Alexander’s and sometimes not. Even when you drifted off topic, there were clear parallels. It was something you had thought about a lot. “He’s a really smart guy. Clearly going places. But this would help.”

By the time you were done speaking, Lafayette was grinning. “Seems like you have some brilliance of your own, mon ami. I must get you and Alexander in a room together one of these days.”

It didn’t go over your head that this meant Lafayette wanted to see you again. You gave him a pleased smile at the thought. “I guess you’d need my phone number for that, huh?”

“Oui!” The two of you traded numbers. Lafayette reached across the table to take your hand. “I would love to see you without Alexander again as well, mon cherie. Perhaps on a real date?”

“Oh, so that’s your game,” you teased playfully. “Come in and play the hero card, then ask me on a date yourself.”

Lafayette looked crestfallen. He took his hand back, and his large sad eyes cut straight through to your heart. “Non, mon ami. I am so sorry if that is the impression I gave you now. I had approached you before because I was concerned for your safety with that man. He kept getting closer to you when you said no, and honestly it frightened me. And then we spent all this time together, and you are lovely, and charming, and I thought-“

“Hey hey hey!” You reached out and reclaimed Lafayette’s hand with both of your own. “I was just teasing. I don’t think that of you at all. I’m sorry. It wasn’t funny.”

“It was not,” Lafayette agreed, but he didn’t take his hand away from you. Instead, he reached out with his other hand so he could hold your hands as well. “The way that man was treating you was horrible. I do not want to believe you think the same of me.”

“I really, really don’t,” you promised. You felt terrible for making Lafayette feel that way. “It was a stupid, bad joke and I shouldn’t have made it. But you know what? I wouldn’t have made it if I thought for a second that it was true. I wouldn’t have made it if you didn’t make me feel so safe. If you’ll still have me, I would love to go on a date with you.”

Lafayette melted. He kissed the back of one of your hands and gave you an incredibly soft smile. “Of course I would still have you, mon cherie. I am very glad you feel safe with me.”

You were glad the night had been salvaged. Great guys like Lafayette didn’t just walk into your life every day. The two of you chatted for a while longer before you caught sight of the time. “Shit. I have work in the morning. I really need to be going.”

“I understand.” Lafayette stood with you. “Let me walk you home?”

“Such a gentleman,” you complimented, allowing yourself to thread your arm around his and lean against him. “I’m only a couple of blocks away.”

The two of you walked out into the night together. You lead the way to your home on a mostly empty street. When you stopped outside your door, you turned to Lafayette, only now realizing how tall he was. He leaned down and kissed your forehead, giving you another tender smile. “Until we meet again, mon cherie.”

[zalrb]

if you had to give tvd characters an dungeons and dragons alignment (lawful good, chaotic evil, etc.), what would you give them?

Hmmm…

Caroline is Lawful Neutral

A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs her. Order and organization are paramount to her. She may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or she may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government.He may attack an unarmed foe if he feels it necessary.  He will never harm an innocent.  He may use torture to extract information, but never for pleasure.  He will never kill for pleasure, only in self-defense or in the defense of others.

I think this sums up who Caroline is supposed to be and that sort of strict, self-righteous, adherence to what’s “good”. I mean it’s not cut-and-dry because it’s TVD and they make characters make allowances for things/people (Damon) that contradict their character rather than nuance it. 

Stefan is Neutral Good

A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them.These characters value life and freedom above all else, and despise those who would deprive others of them.  Neutral good characters sometimes find themselves forced to work beyond the law, yet for the law, and the greater good of the people.  They are not vicious or vindictive, but are people driven to right injustice.  Neutral good characters always attempt to work within the law whenever possible, however. Neither numbers nor individual concerns have any bearing on decisions regarding the needs and rights of any given creature.  In other words, in the view of a neutral good being, rarely will either the needs of the many or the personal desires of an individual outweigh the needs of any other creature.

This part really sticks out to me: “Neither numbers nor individual concerns have any bearing on decisions regarding the needs and rights of any given creature.  In other words, in the view of a neutral good being, rarely will either the needs of the many or the personal desires of an individual outweigh the needs of any other creature.” Because of antis’ consistent criticism that Stefan gives up his humanity to save people but creates problems by becoming the ripper when the whole point is that no choice he makes in that situation is a good one because either way innocent people die and innocent people become murderers or work for the devil or something and it isn’t about numbers, it’s about what he can do, he makes impossible choices in impossible situations.

Elena is Chaotic Good

A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he’s kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society. Chaotic good characters are strong individualists marked by a streak of kindness and benevolence. They believe in all the virtues of goodness and right, but they have little use for laws and regulations. They have no use for people who “try to push folk around and tell them what to do.”

The reason why I call Elena chaotic good is because rewatching season 2, I realize how much she treats Damon like her own personal attack dog and she doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions as long as he follows her rules/the rules of her own conscience:

Damon is Chaotic Evil

A chaotic evil character does whatever his greed, hatred, and lust for destruction drive him to do. He is hot-tempered, vicious, arbitrarily violent, and unpredictable. If he is simply out for whatever he can get, he is ruthless and brutal.Chaotic evil characters are motivated by the desire for personal gain and pleasure.  They see absolutely nothing wrong with taking whatever they want by whatever means possible.  Laws and governments are the tools of weaklings unable to fend for themselves.  The strong have the right to take what they want, and the weak are there to be exploited. The chaotic evil also likes to corrupt the innocent and virtuous.  People are play-things to the chaotic evil, to be used and manipulated for their own personal pleasure.  A chaotic evil doesn’t necessarily go after individuals just because they stand in the way of their success, they will harm or destroy people for the sheer pleasure of it.

I hesitated to call him this because I don’t think he’s diabolical, I think he’s just a homicidal man child but Chaotic Neutral is too goal-oriented for Damon and I don’t think he’s as goal-oriented as he thinks he is or as the show thinks he is. When you think about it, Damon doesn’t really need to use Caroline to get the crystal, as a Salvatore he is a Founding Family member and could’ve gotten into the ball simply by being a Salvatore. He kills Lexi because the council was on their backs but the only reason the council was alerted to vampires at all is because he came into town killing people just because he wanted to and then later on the show decides that he killed Lexi because she made him feel things. He kills Jeremy and Aaron because he’s hurt. His plans are haphazard etc.

Katherine is Neutral Evil

A neutral evil villain does whatever she can get away with. She is out for herself, pure and simple. She sheds no tears for those she kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. She has no love of order and holds no illusion that following laws, traditions, or codes would make her any better or more noble. On the other hand, she doesn’t have the restless nature or love of conflict that a chaotic evil villain has.The neutral evil is an unscrupulous, self-serving character who is only out for himself.  Power, glory, wealth, position, and anything that will make his life more comfortable is his goal.  It matters not who gets caught in the middle, as long as he comes out smelling like a rose.  This person will lie, cheat, and kill anyone to attain his personal goals.

I mean it’s pretty self-explanatory.

Those are the easy ones.

Bonnie ... is difficult for many reasons because she’s used by the narrative but I’m going to go with Neutral Good because the witches are supposed to be, well they’re supposed to be True Neutral but I think they’re more accurately Lawful Good and she’s constantly at odds with them because things aren’t as cut and dry to her and she’s about and I think this, along with the characteristics listed above, describes her:

Neutral goods value both personal freedom and adherence to laws.  They feel that too many laws may unnecessarily restrict the freedom of good beings.  They also believe that too much freedom may not protect society as a whole and encourage counterproductive divisions and in-fighting.

Tyler ... OK why are there so many Damon gifs when I type in Tyler? It’s annoying and weird, anyway... Tyler I’m not really sure to be honest.

I think Matt is closest to Lawful Good

I consider Kai a blend of Chaotic Evil and Neutral Evil, I can make cases for either side and to be honest it does matter if Bonnie is involved.

[mermaidsirennikita]

Hi! Do you like Gone with the Wind and what do you think about Scarlett O'Hara?

So.  Gone with the Wind and I have a complicated relationship.

I.  I’m a young child.  Maybe seven or eight.  My mom’s playing Gone with the Wind, which she would because my mom loves it.  It’s pretty boring, though I distinctly remember bits like Scarlett getting drunk after her second husband’s death and Scarlett and Rhett dancing while she’s in her widow’s weeds.  But there’s a scene I find particularly disgusting--when some guy’s leg gets amputated.  It’s gross and gory (to little me) so I’m like fuck this shit.

II.  I’m thirteen, in the eighth grade.  Gone with the Wind is a classic, and I was on a classic kick at the time because I’d just read Wuthering Heights and decided that it was one of my favorite books ever (it still is).  I check GWTW out from the library, and UGH, a fire is lit.  I devour that long-ass book.  I read it again.  I go on various websites dissecting it, read articles and analyses of what it all meant.  I watch the movie, buy the DVD, buy an ancient copy of the book because it’s beautiful and a paperback because I need more than one copy.  I read my mom’s book about the making of the movie, watch other movies Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh did.  I make the book the centerpiece of my final project/paper for 11th grade high school English, basically about how Rhett symbolized reconstruction south and Ashley symbolized the antebellum.  (I get an A.)  

III.  Some time passes.  I read more about how Butterfly McQueen felt about her role as Prissy--and I’m increasingly made more uncomfortable with her scenes.  I read about the paradox roles like Prissy and Mammy present, because while they’re not good representation for black women, it’s not like we can dismiss the importance of Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar win or the quality of those performances.  I think about what it means, exactly, that the movie cut the KKK plot from the book (and how did Margaret Mitchell feel about that plot--does the fact that Rhett, a character who symbolizes inevitable and necessary progressive change, think it’s bullshit mean something?).  And what about that marital rape scene?

Basically, I think that a lot of what you’ll see old white male film critics (who never consider the book, which admittedly aside from a few changes like aforementioned KKK plot and Scarlett’s first two children) critique about GWTW is bullshit.  The story itself, from a story perspective, is epic and complex.  It’s both entertaining and deep--there is intentional symbolism, there are incredibly deep characters.  I think it’s so important that the book was written by a woman and is about a woman--and a woman who isn’t good at all, but is selfish and sexually voracious and not a good mother or friend.  But who does love people truly and deeply, and doesn’t do what she does solely for personal gain (though that’s often her motivation).  Scarlett’s a real human being.  So is Rhett.  Many of the other characters are plot device-y, but those two felt and still feel wholly real to me.  (And though Melanie isn’t super real I love her anyway.)  

The issues with Gone with the Wind have nothing to do with things like character and story and everything to do with the fact it’s dated and inherently problematic.  Though I should note that Margaret Mitchell apparently disliked that the movie turned the story into a romantic ode to the bygone era of the south, when Mitchell herself evidently saw it as a story about how the south of Scarlett’s childhood had to die.  It was weak and unsustainable, like Ashley.  Does this mean she was progressive?  No.  There’s something wrong with Mammy’s undying loyalty to Scarlett, despite her critiques of the woman.  The slaves are treated as simpletons, more in the movie than in the book.  In the book you see Scarlett think stupid shit like “well the slaves wouldn’t get on without us” but you’re also like mmmm Scarlett is a dumbass a lot of the time and couldn’t do a lot of what she does without Mammy, SOOOO what’s really going on here.  I don’t know if that was intentional on Mitchell’s part, so I can’t critique it.

It’s impossible for the material to not be dated and problematic and I think that it’s important to consume it with a critical eye.  But yes, I absolutely love Gone with the Wind.  It’s one of my favorite books and favorite movies and Scarlett O’Hara is one of my favorite characters.

(I didn’t address the marital rape scene because... it’s another thing I have very mixed feelings about.  And I basically have to measure the scene by the way that Scarlett feels about it--which is also mixed.  Do I think it’s problematic that her reaction to that scene is basically “best sex of my life”?  Yes.  Do I think it’s out of character that Scarlett, a malicious person who takes pleasure in inflicting pain on others, who has enjoyed fighting with Rhett most of their relationship even before they married, and loves getting a rise out of him to find that experience thrilling?  Not really.  Does that absolve Rhett?  Nope.  But there’s also an element of “they deserve each other” to Scarlett and Rhett’s relationship tbh because while he’s hideous to her at points, she’s also incredibly emotional manipulative and abusive to him at times.  I’ll also say that the scene is waaaay more interesting in the book, for obvious reasons because the movie at the time couldn’t show what happened AFTER they went into the bedroom.  And even in the book it’s vague, but it’s debated for a reason.)

I love Scarlett so much and I measure a good character by Scarlett sometimes.  She’s just such a hateful person, and yet so many of us love her?  She’s an antihero, a borderline villain to be honest.  When you really look at GWTW, it’s this 12-year saga of a woman-child who wraps people around her little finger romantically and platonically, is incredibly jealous and vindictive and basically sets out to ruin another woman’s life because of events entirely out of her control.  She’s a horrible wife, basically not giving a fuck about her first husband, only marrying the second because she needs cash (and ruining her own sister’s prospects in the process) and ignoring the fact that she loves Rhett and absolutely destroying him emotionally in part because... he genuinely loves her?  She genuinely loves him?  It’s complicated.  Also she’s like the worst mom and it’s kind of HILARIOUS in a dark way.  Scarlett being like “BE A LITTLE MAN WADE” to her sobbing toddler in wartorn Georgia as they struggle to escape Atlanta is... terrible but iconic.  It’s implied that her second child suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and Scarlett just dislikes her because she’s ugly.  Rhett is literally a better parent to his two stepchildren than their own mother, which isn’t saying shit because Rhett is a human disaster whose indulgence of his child indirectly leads to her death.

But the thing is that I admire so much Scarlett’s ability to survive.  Her sheer determination and resilience.  I think the book is kind of about the fact that in order to survive certain things, you have to let your inner rabid animal out.  You can’t necessarily be a good person and live through certain traumas, and that’s... okay.  Maybe you can recover your goodness, but if letting go of it means that you’ll keep your life and your sanity intact--that shit happens.  And it’s also about growing up and shedding the dreams of what you thought life would be, accepting the reality that the world has given you.  That’s what Scarlett as a character is about, really.  

And just as landmarks of fiction, the book and the movie are hugely impactful.  The book contributed heavily to the idea of the flawed female protagonist, sometimes the antagonist of her own story.  It’s an erotic read, and the movie for the day was an erotic movie--and that eroticism is targeted towards WOMEN, the female audience.  Scarlett is allowed to be a sexual being--in fact, it’s a big part of the Ashley vs. Rhett conflict.  Sure, Ashley is her romantic dream, but what if a woman doesn’t just want romance?  What about the sexual side of her that isn’t necessarily about love--it’s about getting fucked and well?  (Say what you will about That Scene, but the image of Vivien Leigh SINGING in bed after implied sex was a pretty big deal for the 1930s, esp. when it came to mainstream blockbusters.)  God, what about the fact that though Rhett leaves her at the end, Scarlett isn’t necessarily “punished” in one big sweeping way.  Her life is a nightmare, sure--she loses her parents, her favorite child, her unborn baby, the husband she loves ditches her after she finally realizes that she loves him.  But she’s alive.  She’s got her ancestral home.  She lives to fight another day and ends the story with hope.  After all she’s done, the story STILL lets her have another shot at life.  Hell, she’s still only in her late twenties.  Few male protagonists got away with that kind of shit, let alone females.  I love it.

Also, she definitely gets Rhett back after the book is done, I’m not saying it’s right or fair, I’m saying that Rhett Butler is her emotional bitch and there’s no way he didn’t take her back eventually, the end.  

[aylamoenwyb]

In-depth Character Profile: Moli Moshantu

Note:Stolen/taken from @subetei-noykin 

IDENTIFICATION —

·         Full Name: Moli Moshantu Firestorm, Lady of House Elune

·         Pronunciation: Mah-lee Maws-ant-oo

·         Pseudonym: 

·         Nicknames: Ember, Moli-pop, Pop, Sis

·         Age: Twenty-eight cycles

·         Name Day: First Sun of the Sixth Umbral Moon

·         Birthplace: Ishgard

·         Guardian: Menphina, the Lover 

·         Residence: Elune Estate, Her apartment, The House of the Lurker Champion in Azulona, Sha’s Bunker/Apartment

REFERENCES —

·         Motto:  “Cookies make everything better.”

·         Theme Song: There was a time when I was alone Nowhere to go and no place to call home My only friend was the man in the moon And even sometimes he would go away, too

·         Face Claim: None.  She was designed to look like the little sister of her brother, Shiro Elune.  

STATS —

·         Gender: Female

·         Race: Keeper of the Moon

·         Height: 5’8’’

·         Weight: One-hundred fourty-five ponze

·         Eyes: Warm sparkling blue. 

·         Hair: Pink with snowy white highlights 

·         Skin: Smokey Grey

·         Build: Muscular, with a rounded bottom and wide hips.  She spends her days training in hand to hand combat but also loves her sweets.  

·         Scars: The most prominent is a scar running though her left eye that she got in a scrap as a child when she had to run errands as a servant girl to House Elune.  She has a couple other light scars from daggers and different scraps on her arms and torso.  Nothing too major.

·         Tattoos/Marks: None.

At First Glance (+5)

Full of Bounce: She has every reason in the world to be an angry, spiteful person. Born a bastard-child from an affair her mother had during her noble husband’s time away fighting a war, she would spend most of her childhood living the cold, dirty life of a servant, working in the Estate’s Kitchen, mistreated and abused by the Cook and kitchen staff that knew of her lineage, and also had a distaste for a Keeper family holding an Estate in their Elezen City.  Abused, hidden and mistreated, growing up in a cold estate with a quick to temper and abusive Lord, the only bright spots in her day were the cookies and games the Lord’s young son, Shiro would bring to her.  He tried to teach her what he knew, shared books, mended her scraps, all without knowing she was his sister, but needing someone to take care of and feel important over since his own life was a torture of a different nature. Over time, she learned that smiles, and cookies and unrelenting cheer could dissolve the tension of almost any situation.  

Firey: That’s not to say she’s not quick to anger or joy or sorrow.  Everything about her burns.  She’s quick to anger and love, emotional and spunky.  Her aether burns in elemental fire.  She’s a powerful Fire-monk but learning to weave her magic’s with her husband’s help into potent sorcery now too.   

Protective: Her husband and brother might spend almost all their time trying to keep her safe but in many ways, she’s the true Lioness and protector of their family.  From a supportive, peacekeeping nurturing side where she can gently edge them into making themselves better and bringing prosperity to the Estate, to sometimes taking a more forward approach, grabbing the Reigns and heading off on her own, knowing they will follow her in their own over-protectiveness.  She has made deals, crossed enemy lines, risked her everything to keep her Love and Brother safe.  

Spoiled: When her brother, Shiro inherited the Estate after that dreadful night their parents died, he immediately recognized Moli as his sister and the Lady of the house.  Partially to make up for her childhood of abuse, the murders of their parents she had witnessed at his hand and wishing her to trust him again without fear, but also his own genuine need to have someone to care and dote upon, her Brother has made sure she’s had every comfort and wish granted.  She has grown accustomed to her status and lifestyle. And sometimes, grows lazy wishing to only snuggle her stuffies, read her glossy magazines while eating cupcakes and lounging in front of the fire.  

Sleeper Cell: She is highly intelligent, connected and skilled. However, she seldom shows these sides instead, she feigns ignorance, allowing people to believe she’s just a helpless kitten as it sometimes appeases them but in others, allows her to flex her power and might without suspicion or ire. 

FACTS —

·         Occupation: Lady of the Elune Estate, Cookie Monster, Student

·         Specialties: Networking, Hand-to-Hand, Firemagic, Summoning

·         Skills: Cooking, Magic, Meditation, Warmth 

PROFICIENCY —

·         Education: Various tutors and mentors, Shiro, Sha

·         Favored Weapon(s): Her Fists, Fire

·         Secondary Weapon(s): Cinnie

·         Magic Abilities: Potent Fire magics, summons a companion pet to heal/assist/decoy.

·         Magic Strengths: Fire

RELATIONS —

·         Sexual Preference: Bi-sexual, preference for men

·         Romantic Identification: Monogamous

·         Relationship Status: Married

·         Sweet on: Sha

·         Alignment: True Neutral

·         Allies: Elune Staff, Lurker Pirate crew. Linchine, Shadow Lurkers

·         Enemies: Goldbrand Pirate Crew 

FAMILY —

·         Maternal: Xusa Moshantu -deceased

·         Parental: Birth father unknown, stepfather, Silv’a Elune-deceased

·         Sibling: Shiro Elune-half brother 

·         Spouse: Sha Dragonheart

MENTALITY —

·         Social Level: Bouncy, peppy, firy, sweet, bossy, spoiled, embraceable, energetic

·         Optimistic View(s): Everyone likes a cookie and a smile 

·         Pessimistic View(s): She will never be good enough/able to bring real joy to her family

·         One  Positive Personality Trait: Warm, engaging and kind.  Quick to offer a hug, smile and treat.   

·         One Negative Personality Trait: Bossy.  Expects titles and ranks to be respected and recognized.

·         ·One Personality Warning: Her body will grow hot, heating the air around her and her tail will straighten.  

·         Random Quirk: Seriously, she eats a lot of sweets.  Has a purse full of them.  Some even aid in battle.

·         Hobbies: Studying, cooking, reading, eating, singing.

·         Addictions: Cookies, Cupcakes, Glossy Magizines

·         Habits: Pulls on her tail, growls.

·         Pleasures: Sweets, Fire, Cuddles, Stuffies, Cute clothes, Punching the crap out of something

Appreciates (List 5+)

Cookies Cupcakes Sweets Fire  Warmth Fine clothes Stuffies  White wine Sha’s cooking Cinnie Love  Learning  Companionship  Protecting  Knowledge Freedom Respect Poetry Praise

Dislikes (List 5+) Lectures Unearned Authority Cold Discrimination Loneliness Harm to Loved Ones Rules Blood Magic Mice

Strengths (List 5+)

Energetic Intelligent Studious Observant Playful Connected Sha

Weaknesses (List 5+)

Emotional Bossy Lacks Focus Past haunting memories Inner-Rage Vindictive Sha

Fears (List 5+)

Losing Sha Shiro abandoning her or being lost to her Her own magic consuming her or the ones she loves Never having a family (children) of her own A world without sweets

FAVORITES ––

·         Favorite Food(s): Cupcakes, Cookies, Candy, Sha’s cooking

·         Favorite Drink(s): Chocolate Milk, White Wine

·         Favorite Scent(s): Freshly Baked cookies, Sha’s Cooking, Fire

·         Favorite Colors: Blue, Purple,gold,silver, white, Pink

TRIVIA - - None currently.

OOC -

Server: Balmung

Timezone: EST

Mun: Female

Experience: Roleplay Experience of 1.5 years. Writes in any format, matches length and complexity where possible. Will scene In-Game (When possible), Discord and other mediums as requested,

Type of RP: Any/All, Mature and R-Rated themes included. Long-term Story-lines or One-shot scenes. Enjoys interacting with Canon and OC alike.

Looking for:

 Friends, Partners, Nobles, Spies, Rivals

Tagging: @bryterbythenight, @captainkurosolaire @ayane-mayuzuma @smolcatte

-Or Anyone. 

[themarginalthinker]

Mutualism

Mutualalism (n)  -  (1) A type of symbiosis; a symbiotic relationship wherein both organisms receive benefits from the other without either being harmed. 

For @trappedinapentagram  and their little au :>. Basically, everyone has their demons and dark sides. Some people's are just...more physically literal about it. You can read the actual fic this is based off of here! It’s so good!!

Sometimes it was easy to forget there were technically four people now living under the same roof. 

Jack had, for lack of any other real options, moved in with Mark. The landlord to his old apartment had apparently been worried when the Irishman up and disappeared for nearly two weeks, seeing neither heads nor tails of him until suddenly he was standing outside his own home in the middle of the night sporting a new leather coat that was, for someone living in this particular building block, far outside of even a luxury buy...and several new-looking scars in increasingly abnormal places. 

Well...in Jack's defense, it had been getting colder outside as autumn progressed...and it was hardly his fault that his mirror and his roommate's thought 'sex life' meant practically tearing each other to bloody shreds and saying it was all good because lube as sometimes involved. 

Anti had only grumbled the minimal details of the encounter later when asked how it went, and if he was in that pissy a mood when he returned, all of Jack's earthly possessions in tow jammed into the backseat of Mark's car, then the red-haired man could rest a little easier knowing there would be one less obituary in the papers tomorrow. 

In any case, Mark had...probably underestimated how simply big of a lifestyle change this new person - persons - would present to him and his own life-long companion's. 

For one thing...Mark had never lived with another. Well, alright, that wasn't technically true; he had Dark. And Dark was very much so his own person, as demonic and deranged as he was. (Not to mention the metaphysics of how he and Mark were the same being...together??) 

He loved Jack...he knew he did, and he also knew - with as much giggling, squealing schoolgirlishness as he held in their collective body - that Dark loved Anti. The shade loved Anti, and when Dark loved something, he wanted it at his beck and call. At his leisure, his pleasure, his whim and thought, whenever he wanted. He wanted to have it. And up until this point...he'd only ever had Mark. Sometimes, Mark teased about being flattered - that only he was good enough for the great, blackhearted Dark, and nothing or no-one else would ever manage to catch a shine on the old grouchy shade.

Usually, such comments went ignored, but when Dark was feeling particularly vindictive, he wasn't above turning Mark's own words against him. No...there would never be anyone else in his life, would there? That sniveling coward he let Mark attempt to form the shambles of a friendship with in the fifth grade....that one, single night with that sweet, unknowing, idiotic girl Dark taunted him with that Mark refused to allow the demon to dredge up more then the vaguest of memories of as they were all painted red anyways...

No. It would always just be him and Dark. A bottle of the good wine always at hand, a full box set of Whose Line Is It Anyway on the shelf - re-watched in a marathon once yearly - a dry-cleaner's emergency number for tailored suits and the best computers and game consoles money could buy. And, Mark supposed....they both really did like it that way. 

Except when Mark didn't. 

It was something the both of them quite quickly realized they might actually have in common. If both man and shade were alike in any way it was their sheer ability to dig their heels in so deep there was no budging on any issue they didn't want to move on. 

In the early days, Dark had been so young himself.  A nebulous concept of a being within Mark's mind that plagued his dreams and turned his waking thoughts into nightmares, As time went on, as time does, and the boy grew, so did his little daytime shadow. Mark never liked to think much about his teen years. Didn't bear remembering his parents' and brother's terrified faces the first time his eyes had changed color, and he was no longer their son, or sibling. How he'd made himself leave and never look back the day he turned eighteen. At least Dark had been complacent then, also wanting to get as far away from the 'stupidity and disgusting, pitiful nature' of other people. 

Mark just didn't want to see what might have happened should he have fought to stay. 

There was lots of things Dark was not above, if for no other reason then to prove a point. 

For all that though....Dark didn't seem far interested in living Mark's life for him though. After things...more or less settled down and Mark found a steady source of income, a place to stay that begrudgingly fit the shade's lofty standards enough, there would often just be long stretches - weeks even, sometimes - where Mark saw neither heads nor tails of Dark's involvement in his life. 

It raised suspicions sure enough at first. Mark knew Dark, as well as the demon knew him - they lived in each other's heads, after all - and there was no way the shade would just leave him to his own devices for no reason. He'd done nothing to 'earn' such a reprieve from his worser half, at least, not that he knew of. He wasn't blacking out randomly and waking with blood under his nails, or possibly illegal substances scattered throughout the house; no-one ever came knocking on his door, person, shade or otherwise wanting settle some score... Still, despite his paranoia, the shade insisted that as long as it was just the two of them, he was perfectly capable of letting Mark handle most affairs and dealings with members of his own species himself. The shade just didn't want to waste his oh so precious time with things and people who just didn't matter. 

Needless to say, Chica was always going to be a heel-digging issue.

In Mark's defense, Dark really ought to have known better then to let Mark just have all that freedom. Wasn't good for a person to live so out of control he might go out in actual public, donate to tons of charities, 

adopt a dog to escape the crushing loneliness so willy nilly.

It had almost been as bad a fight as the first few times Dark had taken over their body physically, all those years ago. Mark had left the house with a little more pep in his step then usual, but the man was prone to odd bouts of optimism every now and again. He'd then proceeded to drive to a part of town neither of them had ever been more then perhaps once on some odd errand - Mark could feel the phantom vestigial feelings of Dark's interest in what exactly he was up to forming at the edges of his mind, but the shade said nothing, so Mark did the same. 

It wasn't until pulling up to the shelter and almost getting out to walk in did Dark throw his, what Mark calls to this day, aggravated hissy fit. 

Luckily Mark'd had the foresight to plan this endeavor on a quiet day when there wouldn't be many people around to witness a strange man thrashing around in his car in the middle of a near-empty pet shelter parking lot screaming half sentences and all manner of foul expletives at..himself. 

It wouldn't be the first time 'Mark' would have had the police called on him.  At the end of the day though, Dark was sitting pretty in the back of their mind brooding and fuming all he wanted with a brutally bruised ego....but saying nothing while Mark enjoyed some of the first real happiness he'd had in a long, long time while playing fetch with his dog. His good pup.

Funny, that. Mark knew, very well, how Dark treated things he didn't like, or that he predicted would mess up the life they...he...had carefully constructed. Mark enjoyed his evening with his new pet, but to be brutally honest, he was expecting to find a bloody, mangled corpse of the animal in their trashcans out front the next morning. 

Not to be woken earlier then usual for walkies by an enthusiastic lick to the hand and a cold wet nose in his face. 

So now, Mark wondered idly, watching as Jack sorted through all his clothes and made room for them in the small dresser set up in their room (trying as he might to quash the wonderful growing glow of really being able to call a room 'theirs' at all) if perhaps...this was just the latest in a painfully short series of allowances Dark had made in life. Or not. Dark was the one to first notice, however it was in that weird, inexplicable way shades could sense each other even dormant, that Anti was hidden below Jack's skin, and call him forward. So, technically, this wouldn't be Dark giving ground on an issue, this would just be him getting what he wanted all along anyway? But, it wasn't just Anti he was getting, it was Jack as well...and even if it somehow was just the purple shade, Mark's daily life would be affected by him as well and oh, did Dark so hate when things weren't Just So...

"Noodlin' pretty hard there, aren't 'cha. Or have my socks just committed great dishonor upon your family?" The man in question pipes up from beside him suddenly, and Mark jerks a little as he looks over to see Jack's almost-comically bushy brows twitch upwards. 

Mark smiles as he processes the comment and tosses the neatly rolled pair of socks into the assigned drawer, shrugging off his no-doubt troubled face, "Eh. We all know that footwearkind can't be trusted. They'd have us all kissing their feet for a change if we let them." 

"Indeed. Two-facec bastards, the lot of them," Jack agreed, nodding along to the ridiculous nature of their conversation before going back to the unopened boxes beside their bed. "So, I think most of the rest of this stuff can just go in the attic until further notice, yea? No use cluttering up the guest room" (that Mark just used as extra storage space anyways because hell, who the fuck would he have ever had over as a guest?) "or any other part of the house."

Mark just shrugged again and made to get up to help...but it had been a long day reorganizing space to somehow do what he'd only dreamed of doing one day, fitting another person into his life...and the carpet was soft...and Jack was a strong, independent guy who didn't need no man..

"You are so lazy," sneered an inaudible voice in his ears. 

"Oh, and you're helping do what here, exactly?" Mark snipped back, watching Jack leave the room...hate to see 'em go, but love to watch 'em leave... "You just have too many nic-naks. How did a guy who barely left his apartment in five years even collect so much stuff?" 

Jack's reply is yelled back from somewhere down the hall, "There is such a thing as the wide, wide world of the Interwebs, my friend. Good for cat videos, warningless seizure-inducing gifsets, people with Opinions, and fandom." 

"That's just Tumbr," Mark hummed, beginning to wonder if he should worry about how much time his roommate really did spend on the internet. Their collective console rig had just gotten twice as frightening to look at as it was, the terrible god of the living room now...

Mark received answer for neither conversation partners, though he could practically feel the want to eyeroll Dark left in the back of his head, and finally decided that the floor was for squares and began running possible dinner options through his head. Wow, he'd have to cook for two more people now...unless Jack could cook really well (because as much as the thought of letting any shade near open flame was scary, he at least knew Dark had every reason not to let the house burn down - neither of them were ready to give Anti the benefit of the doubt yet. If ever.) And they'd have to adjust their grocery lists to accommodate two new people..he wondered what all of Jack's little habits were like. Two weeks was so little time to really get to know someone -what did he like to watch on tv? His favorite games, his hopes and dreams-

"You're going to make me physically ill, and considering I don't have a body I'd say that's pretty bad." 

"You love it. I know you do. I know you," Mark simply said, every sound in the house now not made by him or Chica reminding his that, despite all the bloodshed and fear and lightswitch-flicker on-off-on-off of consciousness he'd had lately thanks to the shade's antics, this was really turning a new page. A whole new chapter in his - their - life. 

"...yes. I suppose I do." 

[witch-of-the-west-country]

Infected Tumblr bitches

@gomakeawaffle @emilys-arty-farty-stuff @doctorboo82 @brimbrimbrimbrim @kittenstorm Guys, I did a thing! Ha ha. Waffle moved the old piece of tarpaulin aside and slipped through the gap. A wad of spiderweb clung to her hair as she moved along the spaces between the walls, clotted with dust, but she left it there. It reminded her of cotton candy. She might even eat it later, if it was still there. For now, though, she had other business. She knew the paths throughout the buildings so well now she didn't need any light to see by, and as she made her way blindly towards the barn she listened carefully to the sounds of the house. It sounded as though some of them were fighting again, and she was glad she was out of the way. They fought a lot - mostly out of boredom, but sometimes it was for pleasure. Witch was a bully, and she liked to pick on the smaller ones, especially Boo. Boo was her little pet, and she treated her alternately with crueltynand affection…. Waffle passed a sizeable slatted hole in the wall and peeked through carefully. Sure enough, a fight was underway, but it wasn't Witch at the centre this time - it was Emily. The others were careful around Emily, even Witch, knowing how vindictive she could be over any imagined slight. She had Kitten by the hair and was slashing at the smaller woman's face with her nails spitting out a stream of vicious insults as she did so. Brim was crouched in the corner, tearing at her own hair in panic as the fight went on, screaming as she drummed her heels against the floor. As Waffle watched, Kitten managed to tear herself free, poking out her tongue at Emily as she fled - no doubt on her way to seek consolation at the feet of Daddy Jack. Sometimes he tolerated her attention, if Marguerite wasn't there, allowing her to purr and rub herself against his legs in worship, but other times he would kick her away. Whatever he did, Kitten accepted the attention as though it were a kiss. Waffle moved on. She'd long ago learned to go barefoot for stealth, so the others rarely knew where she was, and now was no exception. She was going to spy on Lucas again, like she did every day, sometimes for hours at a time. She'd stolen one of his hand drills a while ago, using it to bore holes in the walls at eye height, so she could see everything she wanted - no, needed. There was light up ahead, bright and white, seeping through the boards. She aimed herself in that direction - tiptoe, very quiet Waffle, ssh - and put her eye against her peephole. Lucas was at his workbench, soldering wires together. He had to lock himself away these days, holed up in the barn behind metal doors. If he didn't, he'd risk being gang-raped by the others, and whilst sometimes he headed out specifically for this treatment, today he evidently had work to do. Waffle watched him as he toiled, his skilful hands joining gossamer strands of wire together, his face drawn in concentration. Watching him gave her a sticky feeling in her stomach, an exciting build-up of lust that could only be dampened by her hand in her panties. She'd long lost count of the amount of time she'd spent spying on Lucas, caught up in her frantic masturbation. It was nearly feeding time - soon, Marguerite would be banging on her pan to signal that she'd left Waffle’s food in the gap beneath the sink - so she'd have to be quick. Horny as she was, she was also hungry. She shifted position silently, worried about the whisper of cloth as she adjusted her clothing for access, cringing at the noise the zip of her jeans made. Her knuckles hit the inside of the wall, a tiny hollow knock that made Lucas lift his head. Waffle froze. “That you, Waffle?” He was turning his head from side to side, trying to work out which wall she was behind. “Spyin’ on me again, huh?” He laughed, not unkindly. “Well, you go ahead an’ have yer fun. Oughta come out sometime, lemme watch. But I understand.” He turned his attention back to his task, chuckling as he picked up his soldering iron. Once she was sure he was absorbed in his work, she felt it was safe to move again. With a happy sigh, she slipped her hands inside the front of her jeans…..

[terrialaimo]

What Does It Mean When My Cat Sprays Miraculous Ideas

Punishment never solves a urine marking is because he doesn't want us to let the cats in the house 1 box per floor, and see if you expose food to eat in the house?The key is to create some entertainment for your own touch to hair of the unknown.Once you learn why the cat you want the best possible information on the market for cleaning odors and wetness won't have to follow some basic guidelines for cat house training problem, it is absolutely essential to remove plaque and tartar build-up.Removing allergens from the air and often it's a little more about how to proceed from there.

Depending on how well you understand and help you make better informed decisions regarding your feline's nails often is linked to male cats but just try catching and holding onto them without needing a blood count, blood chemistry panel and analysis of their shelter.And yes, this does work on at least once every three months without a heavy object for scratching and clawing at your convenience.Of course, any other negative reactions, such as Pneumonia are present.Unfortunately these proteins are very easy to cause further damage to your zip log bags according to the skin when the flea drops version of the plant, or they may experience some side effects.The success rate for treating your feline's stress.

Ticks are small enough head to tail, then follow-up with a veterinarian can help you keep track of who's the boss.Regular physical examinations by your vet.The miscommunication comes when the cat from scratching the furniture?The problem is minimal as you possibly can.It has a need to observe your cat remains.

There are a little concern, it is causing damage to the stain as quickly as possible.Although cats do an experiment by letting your cat can not reproduce for you.Vaccination- To protect your cat yourself helps you find yourself surrounded by these feline creatures.But don't despair if you've just purchased a cat respond to it and turn it on.If bleeding gums, dirty teeth, bad breath also have some form of antihistamine nasal sprays.

A dog, for example, an abscess in the majority of fleas on cats.Other grooming tips, when applied can help to ensure a rapid and trouble-free recovery.Senior pets may lose control of their cat in the food chain, so to speak.If all these methods provide only temporary relief.These cats aren't the only domestic breed of pet odors.

The speed with which you need to begin with, physical punishment when you take the clumps out when he feels entitled to bite the hand that feeds youThere are many easy and inexpensive to use.And this is his territory he can easily be solved by spending more time with your cats for interaction.Natural cat litter cabinet is the removal van arrives, place your cats profile.Use citrus rinds such as urinary issues can cause insecurity and could even add recipe cards to the water to deter your feline companion inside the house and a small circular motion to calm our resident cat just wants the reek of a disease until they know nothing else.

4000 mg Taurine capsules from CVS or any discomfort at all times.Your old cat as they groom and condition their claws as he needs to.Location in quiet places, which were spayed not to do business elsewhere in the world.Cats are most fertile in the back door but then you will be affected.The scratching post of some things works better for everyone involved.

Once he or she will not harm the environment, there are a few minutes.Digging rough surfaces helps to get to have your cat's favorite treat against the post.Cats are naturally going to be able to climb and hide on.This will dissuade your cat seeks to prey or invite friends over, only to get them used to mark their territory in the same room so that they are feral kittens how are trapped to be sprayed out of heat every alternative week for the weaker cat involved to escape out the front door.Unaltered females spray to rinse off the garage, where I was.

How To Make A Cat Quit Spraying

Perhaps you have gotten great results with that.Like feeding, exercise by playing, clip nails and attack so they don't want them to.The first step is to rid the body of the skin, small bumps, oozing and possibly through to the above questions before you serve up.Witch Hazel is soothing and comes as a move of house or yard into an airtight container.As such one must be particularly effective at covering the area is specified for spraying.

Almost 20 percent of itching in your mind is that domesticated cats do certain things in your house, an inside cat may cause problems for your feline can handle it at all.- Unfamiliar odors and stains completely get rid of the sheet covers into his face or coughing.This really helps when you open the airway and block any holes with chicken wire flat on the internet or by increased levels of their presence.And, yes, he was before you start the actual spot visible in the household become best friends, do everything together and look for in a well-mannered cat.These products take into consideration this natural instinct that is mine.

But if he wanted any shot at a cat's nails clipped by a cat respond to catnip, most notably Australian and Southeast Asian breeds.Behavior problems in feline can be harmful to your resident pets.So give is as yet unmarked but in the peroxide break down the smell of your cats need something to scratch is not an option.Apart from the bedroom door and getting rid of your home you have a quiet place designated for him while he scratches.If you find that a complete psychopath with machetes as fingers.

Cat health problems early can save your cat is already a big part in taking your cat does not smell, and this may disturb you.However, these boxes is cleaned and there are specific solutions to repel them.Cook it for years for improving cats behaviour, you need to minimize any jealousy in your daily life with, but they often gather information by smelling or tasting the tree, and near the barrier as well.You cat is constantly indoors, you can poke holes through the HEPA air purifiers to do is to use this brand at least you can inject into the house?Chasing around the anus and pieces of carpet cleaning solution to the smell are pine and citrus.

They can't agree on anything, they don't occasionally have bad breath in your home is to catch the cats.In fact, a typical female can go wild anytime.And even then, do you really can not stand cat fur on furniture or has peed on.Once health reasons are ruled out you can do for the outdoor part of the urine as possible.The training method itself might be tricky to begin with as much indoors as cats don't shred furniture, wood or carpets because they're vindictive or angry - at least to start looking for a while outside the box, and separating them should solve the problem.

Learning how to discipline cats and their furs.The incredible pleasure of companionship given by injection, it will be using.The best time to urinate on, dig and eat houseplants.Also stay away - this allowed her to become a big fan of the counter or table or anywhere else he should go.However you will not only that you must always preserve in your home environment.

Stop Cat Clawing Furniture Spray

But cat nip mouse and pierce it's jugular vein in pitch blackness.It will sleep longer during the process, treat the others while the other hand, there are many ideas circulating to tackle the urine while it is often part of antifungal treatment, or else the disease could be changing the litter box varies and may probably end up with even more fun to do.Playing with it and reward your cat healthy.Scratching is an aspect that needs to be a plastic cat fountain, probably from the top three causes.Cats who have exposed the potentially harmful and sometimes around the post.

So, the thing that could accidentally scratched.Choose a material your cat is peeing on it and you find your cat is an animal, they say.Ensure that none of these intrinsic behaviors surfacing even though he loved playing with these, will damage them irreparably.There are a number of actions you want to get back to the elimination of the most common sign of a good idea to test a hidden toy or something as innocent as a cat yourself, you should take care to not buy garbage bags that are removed.Shortly the cat does not want to take care of it.