#the cats get switched around a lot to different locations

[cowboycatss]

IRL PAWTY POISON?????

yes :3

i do volunteer work!! she was one of the first ever cats i was set to take care of, and while that entire group was very manageable (and thank god, cause i’ve never owned cats and i work alone, so this was all new to me), i ADORED her because of how affectionate and easy to handle she was. except for that one time on my second ever shift she escaped and i needed to ask an employee for help.

but i kept joking to dykobra that she was literally party as a cat. clingy. bonded to a sibling. would glare and meow nonstop if I didn’t take her out to play first. i don’t remember if the cat doodle came first, but eventually it became the silly ginger cat i draw now. she got adopted a few months ago and her owners surely have no idea the weird au she’s created

[thesafecafe]

BBHMM

Summary: Yuta hasn't been answering your calls. It seems like he's completely ignoring you, so you decide to pay him a little visit.

CW: 18+, MDNI, violence (a slap or 2), mentions of substances, (weed, alcohol, cocaine, etc), cussing, slight angst, illegal activity, strip club owner Yuta x black fem reader, serious conversation between parents, tension, (Yuta isn't exactly over the reader and is whipped), suggestive, smut, dom reader, switch/sub leaning Yuta, he cums quick, reader is called mistress, finger sucking, handjob, thigh riding, hair pulling, making out, slight degradation (giving), ass slapping, I think that just about covers it! enjoy! Feedback is appreciated! (apologies to any Prius drivers in the audience 💀✋🏾)

Disclaimer: I do not believe that the members of NCT would act in this way , nor is it a representation of their real life actions or personalities. This is a fictional depiction for entertainment purposes.

Words: 3,582

Yuta was ignoring you. You didn't think much of it at first. You knew he was busy with work most of the time, usually making a point to tell you he'd be busy or getting back to you later. But for the past few weeks, every time you would call, there was no answer. At first, you were concerned, since it wasn't like him to not answer. But it got to the point where instead of letting it ring, he'd send you straight to voicemail. That was what pissed you off. You couldn't stand not having good communication, especially since you had children together.

Your twin girls, only two years old, were always asking about their father. Constantly asking when they would talk to him, or see him again, it broke your heart when you saw their disappointment flickering across their faces when you would tell them he was busy at work.

And speaking of your children, you were also concerned for their needs. While you did work to support the three of you, your job only paid you enough to cover basic bills, clothes for the twins, and your groceries. Yuta usually covered everything else, from the rent and insurance to the twins daycare fees; he usually left a stack of bills on your bedroom dresser when he came to visit.

He insisted you didn't need to work, but you were stubborn. You felt you needed your job in case of emergencies. In case of times like these. While you hated to admit it, your babies depended on that money. Being an inconsistent parent was not going to cut it; you couldn't afford that. You didn't know what his problem was, but you were sure as hell going to find out.

You called your mother to watch the twins, leaving them in her care for the night. You waved one final goodbye to them before going back home to change. Your baby daddy had clearly forgotten who he was dealing with. If he thought for one second you were going to let him abandon his daughters, and only be a "sometimes dad," then he was sorely mistaken.

—

Club Highway to Heaven was packed. It was usually brimming with customers; slow days were rare. Due to its location, it was a popular nightlife spot, with minimal competition. Spotting that the line was wrapped around the corner as usual, you immediately pulled around to the back parking lot reserved for the staff.

No one would bother you about parking in the back, and there was a parking space Yuta had reserved for you. But as you pulled forward, you saw a car in the space next to Yuta's. A gaudy pink Prius with cat ears on top sat there, in your way. In your space. "Ohhh, I see what this is about." You laughed softly, shaking your head.

You chose a random space to park in, not far from the back entrance. You got out, quickly making your way to the door, and putting in the code. You knew Yuta never changed the codes to this place, in spite of your many warnings about safety. Swinging the door open, you step carefully into the club. Immediately, you are transported to a different atmosphere.

The purple lights of the club caress your skin, enveloping you into the overall ambience. As you walk to the main floor of the club, the strong smelling mixture of alcohol, sweat, and weed make you choke out a cough.

Passing through the main floor, you see many half naked women, some walking the floor while others slide down poles. A familiar Rihanna song blares through the club speakers. Bottle girls in outfits nearly as skimpy as the dancers run around with drinks, trying to service their sections as quickly as possible. Men and women alike were cheering and throwing money like there was no tomorrow.

'Business is definitely booming.' You thought as you crossed the floor, and walked towards Yuta's office. You stopped when you reached the door, guarded by a massive, familiar bouncer. "Andre, long time no see. How's it going?" Your tone was sweet, calm. It would put anyone who didn't know you at ease. But the giant man at the door knew the look in your eye. It meant business. "Not too bad miz' Y/N. Here for the boss?”

"You know it." Andre gave you a knowing smile and stepped aside, letting you pass into the office. You walked slowly inside, not wanting your heels to give you away. Inside the office, Yuta sat behind his desk. A woman, presumably a dancer, sat in his lap. Her hand was on his chest, as she laughed at something he said before you came in.

"Well what the fuck do we have here?" Your casual words startled the pair. Yuta jumped, knocking the girl onto the floor. You'd probably laugh if you weren't pissed off. "Oh shit, Y/N! What the hell are you doing here?" Yuta asked, quickly adjusting his coat over his chest, as if he hadn't just been being felt up by one of his dancers.

"What the hell am I doing here? Oh I don't fucking know Yuta, maybe checking in on my children's dumbass father, who apparently forgot how to answer a got damn phone call! You've seriously been ghosting me to try and get your dick wet?!"

You were yelling now, and you hadn't meant to explode like that, but it was the last straw. Seeing him sit there, seemingly enjoying himself, while you had been worrying yourself at home had pushed you to the edge.

You took a deep breath, trying to compose yourself. Yuta looked at the dancer, catching her eye. "Candy, can we get some privacy please?" The woman, who'd been sitting on the floor the whole time, quickly got up, fixing her outfit before trotting out of the room. When you hear the door close, you release the breath you were holding.

"Y/N, I'm sorry. Can you please let me explain?" Sighing, you nod, earning a gentle smile from him. He grabbed your hand, guiding you to sit down in one of the mismatched chairs he liked to keep around. "Don't think you're off the hook though Nakamoto. I'm mad as fuck, and I don't want excuses, I want answers."

"Okay Y/N, calm down, you know I'll give it to you straight. I wouldn't lie to you." You raised an eyebrow. "Okay maybe not all the time but- you know what, nevermind. I apologize for not returning your calls. Work has been busy." He gave a noncommittal shrug, but he wouldn't look you in the eyes. He was hiding something.

"So busy that you can't make time for your daughters? They ask for you every day. They haven't seen or heard from you in weeks Yuta! They ask for you all the time, and I have to be the bearer of bad news and hold them when they cry because their daddy is busy with 'work.' I've been calling, and you wouldn't know if they were sick or in need of something because you haven't bothered to pick up your damn phone.”

Yuta hung his head low, fiddling with the rings on his fingers. "You're right. I'm sorry. I was wrong for going off the grid like that, and you and my babies didn't deserve it. It's just been way harder lately to manage things.”

Yuta rubbed his face, and for the first time, you took in his full appearance. His coat hung off of his arms, exposing his tense shoulders. He looked paler than usual, and there were bags under his eyes, barely concealed by make-up. He looked tired. "Talk to me. What's been going on?"

"I... had to fire my head manager. He was sneaking in coke bricks for some of the dancers. And I've been trying to find the source, since every other day, a dancer is showing up high off their ass. I've got to hire new security, since some people like to sneak in." He gave you a pointed look. "And I'm not trying to 'get my dick wet' as you so nicely put it. I was trying to investigate."

You regarded him skeptically. "Getting felt up by your employees is what you call investigating? Okay Mr. Officer." Yuta rolled his eyes at you.

"Getting that close to any of the dancers is hard enough, but you just happened to ruin my meeting with one of the biggest suspects in here. Candy is a ringleader of sorts. She was fucking that manager, and I'm pretty sure he's still got her running coke in here out of spite. But I don't have enough proof, since the other dancers are scared of her. I needed to get the information somehow, but alas, here we are."

You thought back to the woman who'd been there just a few minutes ago. She didn't seem very imposing from the floor, (and clad in a skimpy pink two piece set with cat ears), but you knew you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Your eyes widened as you realized something. "So that's the tramp who was in my parking spot! With cat ears!"

Yuta's ears turned red. "You uh, you saw that?" He stuttered, embarrassed. "Hell yeah I saw it! It would be a bitch who drives a Prius. That ugly ass car." Yuta couldn't help the snort that passed his lips at that.

"In spite of all that though, I understand why you've been busier. But you still could've sent me a text back, an email, hell, a regular letter in the mail! Anything to tell me you were alright. You made me worried, Yuta. We promised to communicate, for the sake of our girls and to maintain a good emotionally safe environment for them. They need us both, and this inconsistent parenting can't go on. I'm willing to help you with whatever it is you need for this place but don't shut me out. That only hurts us all. Okay?”

"Okay. Again, I'm sorry. I'll do better Y/N, for you and my girls. You have my word." Yuta leaned across his desk, offering you his hand. Resting your hand on his, you held back a shiver as he kissed the back of your hand. His lips were warm and soft against your skin. The tension in your shoulders slowly melted away as he kept your hand in between his, rubbing it softly. It was a habit he'd learned, back when you were together, to help calm you down.

He committed all small habits of yours to memory, easily able to perceive your mood. Now, as he sat playing with your hand, his thoughts were whirling. He still felt guilty for the way he'd left you in the dark, and he felt extra guilty that you saw him with another woman on his lap.

Even though the two of you weren't together, he couldn't help feeling like he'd betrayed you. He suppressed the feelings that the ache of not being with you brought to the surface, opting to press on for the sake of his business. But the truth was that he wasn't over you. He hadn't been on the dating scene since the end of your relationship.

His dates with Candy were never anything physical. Tonight was as far as it had gotten. Internally, he felt repulsed at her constant advances; he was only trying to get information. But you weren't anymore aware of his lingering feelings than you were of his whereabouts the past few weeks. He wanted to make it up to you, and being the man he was, Yuta had an idea.

Bringing your hand up to his lips, he pressed another kiss against your skin, and another. "Boy, what are you doing?" You pulled back, but he gripped your hand. "I'm apologizing. Won't you let me show you how sorry I am, mistress?" A sudden, strong pulse thrummed between your legs. Your eyes widened, and so did Yuta's grin. Your cheeks warmed.

"Don't- Yuta, don't play with me like that-" You are cut off when he takes one of your fingers into his mouth, closing his eyes as swirled his tongue around it. He moaned, before sucking it deeper into his mouth. Your mouth hung open at his audacity. You'd forgotten how bold he could be; but your body remembered.

Your legs shifted on impulse, muscle memory betraying you. Yuta released your finger slowly, his tongue trailing the underside of it before letting it go. "Who said I was playing?" His voice was low, dripping in lust and desire. You felt another pulse, stronger this time, and the familiar, slick feeling of your arousal gliding down your thighs.

"Yuta..." You say his name in warning, but truly as an anchor for yourself. "Please? I promise I'll be good. I'll do anything you like. Whatever you want, I'll do it." You felt the temptation of his offer course through your veins for a moment or two, before you caved. "You'll do anything, hm?”

Standing from your chair, you walked around his desk. You straddled his lap, and cupped his face in your hands. "Yes. Anything." The words are barely out before your lips are on his. His lips were fervent against yours, and his arms slid up, trapping your waist against his.

You took control, pushing his head up for a better angle. Yuta let you use his mouth, letting you do as you pleased; sucking and licking your tongue against his, biting his lips, anything you wanted. Just like he'd said.

Breaking away from his lips, you pushed his jacket down, off of his shoulders. Taking the hint, he sheds the coat completely, and you run your hands along his skin. Your nails graze his stomach, earning a low groan from the man beneath you.

Grinning, you slide off his lap, shimmying out of your underwear. Sliding carefully back into his lap, you gripped onto his shoulders. Understanding your intentions, Yuta tensed his thigh, watching as you pushed yourself back and forth. His eyes glazed over. He loved watching you use him to get off. “I see you still haven't changed; begging me to use you like a whore.”

Yuta swallowed thickly, holding back a moan. He felt himself twitch in his pants. “What's the matter baby? You like being reminded how easy you are?” You looked down at him, but his eyes were locked onto your pussy, grinding into the leather material of his pants. You move your hand from his shoulder, up to his hair. You gently pull his head up until his eyes are on yours. “Eyes up here pretty boy. I asked you a question.”

It took a minute before he remembered your question, his eyes darting in confusion. “Yes mistress, I like it.” You chuckled, tightening your hand around his hair. He moaned, leaning into your touch. “Pussy makes you go all dumb, huh?” Yuta nodded, and you released him, letting his eyes fall back to you on his thigh. Eventually, you felt that familiar heat in your clit. Your eyes roll back as your orgasm pulses through you, and Yuta holds you tighter as you rock your hips through it.

When you stop, taking a few moments to catch your breath, you find Yuta staring at you. His gaze is heavy, intense in a way that has your breath catching. It was a familiar look. Your heart squeezed in your chest, but you ignored it, opting to distract yourself. “Your turn, pretty boy. Take those pants off.”

Yuta blinked, breaking his focus on you for a second, before his features shifted into a lazy grin. He picks you up, setting you carefully on his desk, before obeying your words. He unbuckles his belt with one hand, winking at you as he does, before sliding his pants off. “Show off,” You mutter as he picks you up again, placing you over the bulge in his lap.

You scoot back, giving yourself enough room to palm him through his boxers. “Aw, what's the matter, too scared to ride me?” Yuta bats his eyelashes at you, fake concern dripping from his words. You pull his dick out, not taking the bait. “The last time I rode your dick, you got me pregnant, and we don't need anymore surprises.”

Before he can come up with some snarky comment, you start stroking him, your hand squeezing up and down his length with just enough pressure to shut him up. Yuta threw his head back, moaning loud and unashamed. “Please, fuck, just like that.” He panted, feeling himself embarrassingly close to his high. He tried to hold back, wanting to savor the feeling of your hands on him.

But between the pent up frustration of the past few weeks, and his ever present desire for you, the sight of you focusing on his pleasure is too much; before he can warn you, his orgasm slams into him, crashing like waves. Your eyes widen a bit, but your hand doesn't stop, until you see his hips twitch, legs shaking from the intensity of his release. You move your hands, rummaging through his desk drawer for a towel.

His cum covers his legs, stomach, and your hands. You're sure some got on your dress as well, but it doesn't bother you as much as it probably should. You wipe your hands off before starting to clean him. “Easy there, pretty boy. Breathe.” You coach him gently, running a hand through his hair as his heavy panting slows to quiet, even breaths. When you're sure he's calm, you kiss his forehead, then his lips.

“I mean what I said Yuta. You'd better keep your promise or else I'll burn this bitch to the ground.” You poke his chest, and lean into his face. Yuta smiles at you, and for a moment, you're distracted by his beauty. “Okay, I'll be there tomorrow. I promise. I won't let you down, not again.” He slides his hand into yours, lacing your fingers together. He brings your hand up to his mouth, kissing the back of it.

Your heart flutters at the gesture. Your moment is interrupted however, by your phone’s notifications going off. “I should get out of here, I need to go to work in the morning.” You slide off of his lap, standing to adjust your clothes. You see your underwear on the floor, and you bend to pick them up. Before you can reach them, you are startled by a stinging slap to your ass.

You jump up, turning to glare at Yuta, laughing his ass off. “Sorry, I couldn't resist; it was in my face!” Your eye twitches, and the laughter in his throat dies. You decide to let him get away with it for now, opting to walk out of his office. “Wait! Let me walk you out at least!” You raise your hand to acknowledge his request, before stepping into the hallway to let him get dressed.

You are expecting to find Andre still outside, but instead of the massive guard, you come face to face with two dancers. One of them was the girl from earlier, Candy. “So this is the bitch Candy? He threw you out for her?” The other one’s nasally voice immediately makes you annoyed. “Yeah that's her.” Candy steps forward, getting in your face. “Look here, bitch, I don't-”

She is cut off when your hand collides with her face, knocking her backwards in her heels. She falls to the floor in a pathetic heap, before gathering her bearings. Shock paints her face. “Did you just slap me?” You tilt your head, looking down at her. “Nooo, I gave you a hug. What do you think?”

The other dancer stomps over to you, but before she can swing, you land another slap, knocking her to the ground with her friend. Just then, Yuta emerged from the office. “Y/N what's- going on…” His words die as he sees two of his dancers on the floor. From the expression on your face, he already knew what happened. “Yuta! She slapped us and we weren't-” He holds up his hand, silencing the lie about to spill from his dancer's mouth.

“Candy, Cherry, this is my children's mother. You will treat her with respect, and if I catch you doing otherwise, we will have problems. Is that understood?” Both dancers looked down at the floor, mumbling a weak “Yes Mr. Nakamoto.”

Yuta jerked his head, signaling for them to get lost. When they were gone, you turned to him, one eyebrow raised. “Sorry about them, like I said, it's been getting out of hand. Here,” Yuta took your hand, placing a large stack of bills in it, “let's get you home, so I can shut this place down.” He walks you down the steps, before a few members of his security team follow you through the club to your car.

Making sure you get in your car safely, Yuta shuts your door. You roll your window down to speak. Yuta beats you to the punch though. “Do I ever tell you how hot you are when you're mad?” You roll your eyes at him, and he laughs, taking your hand. “Tomorrow Yuta, remember.” You look at him expectantly. “Tomorrow. I promise.” He squeezes your hand, and all you can do is hope that he keeps it.

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

Tagging: @ddeonghwassimp, @nirvanawrites111

[l1ttles3am0th]

The Colorado Springs Pizzaplex in the Mothiverse

CWs: Animatronic Death, Mentions of Discrimination, Transphobia, Ableism, Neglect, Fire, PTSD, Shitty Corporate Practices

FE is a genuinely shitty company and I write about it in this post, so that’s why these CWs exist. This post is also a giant ramblefest that is in desperate need of sensitivity / beta reading.

————

In the Mothiverse, there are actually two pizzaplexes; one in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the other in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Salt Lake City location is the closest-to-canon one, but the Colorado Springs location was an experiment foraying into animatronics more advanced and more lifelike than the other location’s. We’ll be focusing on the Colorado Springs location in this post.

The Colorado Springs Pizzaplex opened on March 18th, 2016, starting with six animatronics: Glamrock Freddy, Glamrock Bonnie, Glamrock Chica, and Glamrock Foxy, Montgomery Gator, and DJ Music Man; all of whom were brought to life with a proprietary, hyperadvanced version of William Afton’s Animatronic Intelligence Framework. Due to federal distinction laws under the Animatronic Sentience Recognition Act applying to all Framework-based animatronics, however, Fazbear Entertainment had to differentiate them from the Salt Lake City location opened in 2015. These changes included giving them all fluffier, featherier, scalier, and furrier shells, distinct features such as different hairstyles, different hair textures, different clothing, etc., and in Foxy’s case, he was made silver instead of red, a controversial change for many.

As the Pizzaplex saw its first few months, problems began to arise around parents just leaving their children randomly, screaming toddlers disrupting the rest of the people, and more, Fazbear Entertainment decided to do something about it. A large area of unused space was renovated into what became the Superstar Daycare, a vast, fully functioning daycare program where parents could drop off their kids as they went to have fun or work elsewhere in the building. They then got to work on a pair of animatronics based on the Sun and Moon ones present at the other, and gave them distinctions too, including the sun animatronic being given heterochromia. After a bunch of last minute changes, including suddenly switching the plans from cat/dog animatronics to fully celestial ones, switching their body types around, switching features around and adding more for security purposes, it resulted in a lot of bugs and glitches that were never fully fixed, the ones on the moon animatronic so bad that they had to delay him by three months. They were given the names Sunrise and Moondrop respectively.

Sunrise was deployed into the finished Daycare on November 12th, 2016, and Moondrop was deployed as a double Daycare/Security Unit on February 15th, 2017. Problems immediately arose, with Moondrop appearing to despise the children he was caring for, being sensitive to light among other things, all of which were ignored. Sunrise began having frequent occurrences, including behaviors described by staff as “meltdowns, constant inattentiveness, hyperactivity resulting in mood swings, intense focus on a specific thing, and more.” among other things. Initially passed off as a glitch, someone eventually got a psychologist on site where Sunrise was diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. This shocked everyone involved, as this proved that animatronics were capable of neurodivergence. Many didn’t believe it either.

As for the others, Foxy began to feel deeply depressed and self-conscious for months, addressed around October 2016, and when it was fully looked into and all other possibilities were ruled out, both he and the others on the case concluded it was a result of gender dysphoria, even though Foxy new all along and had to fight for months to get it recognized. Foxy was temporarily decommissioned in order to transition, and when she came back in December, she had a new name, a new look, a new voice, and a lot more confidence. Her name was now Roxanne Wolf, shortened to Roxy, and her mood and demeanor IMMEDIATELY improved significantly. She was accepted by the others in her band, but many staff members were hesitant and some even downright discriminatory towards her.

As for Glamrock Bonnie, an accident in Monty’s Gator Golf in early 2017 resulted in his severe injury which he succumbed to, where it was later revealed in court that he was left to die by Fazbear due to “low ratings and low profits.” Not knowing the truth yet, Glamrock Freddy, his secret partner, was heartbroken and launched into grief for a long time when he was informed. Everyone was sent grieving at the death. Chica began to binge eat to cope, Roxy became a lot more irritable, Monty was unable to stop blaming himself for it, and Sunrise, even though they (he at the time) barely knew him, grew a lot more anxious. None of these were addressed properly or given the right counseling, thus allowed to get worse.

Back to the Daycare for a little bit. Sunrise and Moondrop initially disliked eachother, but eventually became friends thanks to Sunrise’s persistence. The two were never properly serviced, and with Sunrise, the staff saw it as a “nightmare” to do. The two were frequently brushed off, ignored, badmouthed, not accommodated for despite their needs, treated terribly by staff and managers alike, and never given the proper skills and tools to cope with their stress-inducing environment. Hell, with Sunrise, the staff started just throwing an iPad in their face to “get him to shut up.” Their autism was frequently used to infantilize them by certain staffers, and when they came out as nonbinary, they began to face the same gender-based discrimination and disregard as Roxy.

The Pizzaplex also had multiple safety issues, including a lack of sanitation practices, infrequent servicing for everyone, a lack of windows or fire exits, frequent bribery of inspectors and “internal investigations,” ignorance of any and all concerns, unaddressed fire hazards, and more, all of which would culminate in a fire that destroyed the place beyond repair on December 16th, 2020. Everyone got out except for Sunrise, and Moondrop, their now-fiancé, ended up diving back into the flames, saving them and getting them out seconds before the entire building collapsed. The fire traumatized pretty much everyone, and with Sunrise, their case was especially severe, resulting in their frequent hospitalization due to severe panic attacks and more as a result of PTSD. Moondrop later took Fazbear Entertainment to court for everything he saved, documented, and archived over years due to his top-level security access, and he not only won millions from the case, but got a criminal investigation opened into the company, resulting in the complete shutdown of the Utah Pizzaplex in 2024.

Nowadays, the animatronics live their daily lives according to their personal desires, and since 2021, have been free from corporate tyranny. Freddy bought a large house and everyone frequently gathers there, and he gardens, creating beautiful botanical creations. Chica is a large-scale social media influencer with an Indie-Y2K mix aesthetic. Roxy runs a bar and tavern, and lives her best life with Chica as her girlfriend. Monty opted to become the biggest Florida Man that Colorado has ever seen. As for the Daycare Attendants, both are happily married to eachother and live together in an apartment complex with their Maine Coon cat, Aurora. Sunrise writes a successful and popular fantasy series about two characters named Umbriel and Sol, and Moondrop has opted to live a completely private, normal life, with little to no media presence and caring for his spouse with not only his legal winnings, but his successful IT security job.

[lulusoblue]

give me your domestic gfs elizanor hcs

i have no idea how long this has been here but *cracks knuckles* you got it, anon

First meeting: 6'9" Eleanor Lamb activates Elizabeth's up-to-now dormant lesbianism so hard she forgets how to form words for a few minutes

Fast friends due to trauma interests in common and an interdimensional roadtrip is almost immediate, which slowly builds up to a romantic relationship as they tour the world(s) together

The domestication begins: they build a cottage, one where Eleanor won't need to duck so much, because from their travels they have found most cottages are small and short, but they want their shared living space to be cozycore. They build it in some idyllic woods or a forest clearing, just somewhere somewhat isolated without it being unsettling or creepy.

Elizabeth by this point has a good hang of her powers where she can pull a Howl's Moving Castle on the cottage doors and windows to just stop out anywhere like it's no big deal; streets of Paris? Relaxing country park? The Attack on Eden Prime? okay maybe not that last one

They think of places to revisit based on both location and date, because if they're both from different places in time and space they might as well travel the same way.

They have so many books. So many books. The "small" study has shelves hidden in hammerspace to store all the books. Why do they need all these books?

Out of the two, Eleanor gets hit the hardest when she falls sick. Her immune system has been screwed over after living in a fish bowl on the ocean floor her whole life, so she gets so much as a cold and she is bedridden for DAYS. Elizabeth's Nurse Nightingale mode gets switched on and she cares for/dotes on Eleanor the whole time. The latter complains about being babied but that's the general misery from being sick talking. (And somewhere under all the sniffling and groaning she feels so happy that someone is caring so much about her wellbeing.)

Unless one of them is busy elsewhere or sick, they tend to cook their meals together. Both of them were raised in circumstances where cooking for themselves never really came up, so it's a bit of them learning this life skill together and a bit of not wanting to leave the other to do all the cooking.

Eleanor visits Tenenbaum sometimes, usually to help with the effort of caring for the Little Sisters that her mother created. Locating their families is relatively easy thanks to the Thinker, it's undoing the mental conditioning that takes a while. Elizabeth offers to help where she can, knowing that this is something personal for Eleanor. Instant travel to drop off the treated girls and then leave without a trace makes the burden a lot easier on Tenenbaum as well.

Elizabeth sometimes wants to visit whatever Booker still survives in the aftermath of everything, but she can't bring herself to ever try and speak with him. If she ever checks on him, it's from afar, watching as Anna DeWitt gets to have a life that Elizabeth Comstock never got to have. Eleanor can see something's bothering Elizabeth when she gets back from wherever she's been, and eventually coaxes her into actually talking about her feelings, which are bittersweet at best.

Elizabeth discovers she's a cat person when Eleanor brings home a scruffy mess of a stray cat that kept following her. As soon as Elizabeth sits down to read the cat is on her lap before the book is open, he has claimed this human.

Eleanor discovers she's a dog person when Elizabeth brings home a stray mutt with the biggest "Can I keep him?" eyes. The dog was a her, and Eleanor quickly understood why people did the babytalk voice with their dogs because she adores this disaster dog.

There is a ladder for the shelves in the study, but Elizabeth always pesters Eleanor to lift her up for a book if the latter's around.

Eleanor gets lazy when it comes to grocery shopping and uses the above against Elizabeth so that she'll just tear a fully stocked fridge into their kitchen. Who wins here? Who knows?

Elizabeth loves dressing the both of them up. She loves making them new outfits to go out in, finding accessories on their adventures, teaching Eleanor about makeup and what to wear for what occassion because they can both leave the house and they will look good doing it dangit.

Eleanor loves to tinker with various gadgets and gizmos, and that might be why she's also taken to art, favouring mixed media and unconventional sculpting and metalworks. It was Elizabeth's idea that they build Eleanor her own shed as a space for her creativity, so the latter had full reign to get messy and come back into the cottage looking like a full-on blacksmith.

They know not to mess with the timelines. They know this. But that doesn't stop them from taking their combined works - Eleanor's art pieces and Elizabeth's paintings - and selling them where they could just to see where they would end up and what little instances of inspiration they caused.

Both of them have nightmares, not on the regular but often enough. Tossing and turning, mumbling in their sleep. Worst-case scenarios are one waking up and accidentally/instinctively pulling something into the room via tear or scourching the ceiling/wall with a fireball. They've learned each other's tells for nightmares and how to help calm the other down. Eleanor found that holding Elizabeth and talking to her in her sleep helps - a book she likes, what they could do in the morning, or just plain nonsense. Elizabeth figured out that ocean noise calmed Eleanor down, and changes the world outside their window to an undersea view until Eleanor stills. It's not a perfect system, they would rather be without the nightmares, but it's something that works in the now.

They're in no rush to get married, as neither really feel that it's something they need in their relationship. They know they're not ready for children yet, or if they'll ever want children. They're happy as they are in the present, with a cottage they built together for the life they built together and the cat and the dog they adopted and the art shed and a library hidden inside of a modest study and doors that can take them wherever and whenever they want. They were lost, but they found each other.

Eleanor has met the Luteces exactly once. She does not like them at all. She has promised them that if they ever show up to interrupt the peaceful life she and Elizabeth have for whatever bullshit quantum entanglement riddle they may want to bring with them, she can and WILL find a way to kill them for good. While the Luteces are certain she won't, the chance of third-degree burns and whatever half-finished art projects being thrown at them full-throttle is definitely not appealling.

[erisenyo]

Hello! You're like, the only author on ao3 who writes their stories in advance and who I follow, so excuse my whining here, please. Does it ever happen to you that you have a (conversation about the Thing here) in the first draft, and you just can't get around it? Because I'm feeling it very much myself and this is the first time I'm not doing chapter by chapter chaos and... well, I am missing the comments and losing the spirit. This convo is the base of all the other missing stuff, even if I try to move on, I'm still practically writing that one and. It shuts me down. Any ideas? Sorry for bothering you!

Hello anon!

So if I'm understanding your question right (and definitely let me know if I'm not!), you're asking how to plow through a stuck scene without the motivation and inspiration from the comments of posting as you go.

Which is a real struggle that I very much sympathize with! And I potentially have two answers, depending on if it's the stuckness that's getting you, or more the feedback side of things.

And in typical me-style, this answer is long, so I am putting it below a cut lol

On being stuck on a scene--if I truly can't get past it, it seems bogged down and boring and I'm just not excited for it anymore, I have a few strategies:

My tried and true is to go back 10ish lines or a few paragraphs before, even to the start of the scene, because a lot of times what I'm getting stuck on is that the scene needs a different narrative framing or lead-in (usually, for me, just starting more in the middle of things instead of giving all the exhaustive lead-in)

Sometimes a scene/convo flows better for me if I set it in a different location, between a different mix of people, or if I put some sort of action around it (a conversation between Sokka and Zuko about something purely plot-based can layer in lots of fun characterization if suddenly it's occurring while Zuko is trying to do work and Sokka is trying to get him to eat lunch at the same time)

A POV switch! Sometimes my current narrator is just the wrong one for this scene, because they know too much or not enough (I usually prefer the narrator who knows the least, so they can be learning along with the reader)

Sometimes I realize I don't actually need the scene, I just need to have the characters to reference or react to it after, and as long as I know that ABC happened I don't actually have to write it all out. (This can help make the pacing feel faster, too, and sometimes it feels easier and more interesting to fold the references and reactions into later scenes than to actually write it all out)

Specifically for exposition or something that's feeling infodumpy, finding ways to weave the information into other scenes can be really helpful. When I wrote To Open Every Door I worked a LOT at this, and I essentially ended up sketching out a chapter, having a list of like 10 or 15 or however many things I needed to convey by the end of the chapter (to establish worldbuilding, the status of interpersonal relationships, background, whatever), and then going through my rough draft and finding ways to drop those pieces into a character's reactions and thoughts, to fold them into dialogue, to have OCs saying things, basically weaving the exposition across the chapter instead of delivering it all at once

Talking it out! Literally just articulating what feels off or weird about a scene to someone (or like, your cat, or yourself) often helps me narrow in on what needs fixing, or start to form an idea on how to make it flow better (Thanks Ash lol, your support is invaluable even when you insist you did nothing)

This one is kind of silly, but...try working in a different format! I write in Word, but I plan out my outlines in a table, and brainstorm with bullets, and when I'm stuck I often break out Excel. Seeing the information laid out differently on the page helps me quite literally see it differently in a way that can help me think about it differently, too

And if at the end of all that I'm still stick...do I really need the scene? If so, why? What work is the scene doing (emotional, plot, characterization, worldbuilding, etc.)? A lot of times, understanding the purpose of the scene helps me figure out how best to convey the info, whether its another scene, a different version of the scene I'm stick on, or by refocusing the scene around some other element that's more exciting (like switching the plot into the background behind some characterization or interpersonal moment, or vice versa)

That was a lot! But if what's really got you losing momentum is the lack of feedback--that's totally understandable too! Writing can be a lonely endeavor, so some things I do...

Find a buddy to share it with, whether a hype man or a listening ear! Even if it's just on anon, feeding off of someone else's reactions and excitement can help me get excited and enthusiastic too

Did your commenters speculate and get excited for what was next in a way you found inspiring? Is there a way to replicate that by talking at a higher level about what you're writing so that people can get hyped for the scenario or talk about how it could go, or just add tags to a post that generate energy?

You can post updates along the way, like lines you're excited about or little scene snippets, or just talking about the fic in the tags where it fits. It can be a way to get little bits of feedback and engagement along the way (Meesh always with the eagle eye for my tags whenever I'm rambling about fics haha)

Share the things you're excited about! Whether it's a particular scene, a character dynamic, a trope, a bit of worldbuilding--it's a great way to find people who will get excited along with you, and it also helps me to focus on what got me wanting to write the fic in the first place. Sometimes I'm not the most enthused about writing another post-canon get-together requiring a bunch of setup exposition, but then I think about how fun the Zuko-Mai bestie dynamic will be, or the ridiculous angst of the boys pining for that one night stand they had at that masquerade that they don't realize is each other, and I get enthused all over again haha

And relatedly--hone in on what excites you about the story! Even if you don't share it, is there a scene you can't wait for? A particular interpersonal dynamic you can't get enough of? A twist or reveal you can't wait to share? Focusing on those exciting bits can help me keep my enthusiasm going

Mix up where you write--I rotate between writing on my commute, in my house in various locations, and in a coffee shop basically depending on how social I am feeling on a given day. If you're feeling a bit alone in the writing, maybe it would help to write in a library or cafe or park, or if you're feeling distracted maybe you need a quieter place, or pure just change of setting in general!

Maybe you post it! For me I need to write everything out beforehand, because the serialized posting format makes me hate writing in all ways, and also I get a lot of ideas as I go, where my first drafts very truly are working drafts and it's not uncommon for me to pause in the middle of like, Ch 12 to go back to Ch 2 to lay the groundwork for a scene, and then to Ch 5 to add the setup for a joke I'll land in Ch 14. (Or for me to realize as I edit that I included scenes with absolutely no follow-up that I can now add haha). But that approach isn't for everyone, and maybe you write a few chapters at a time and post them week to week, or maybe you post what you have now to get through this scene and then go back to writing all the rest out. Just cause you started thinking you'll write it all first doesn't mean you have to stick with it if it's not working and something about posting would shake you out of it!

That was...probably way more ideas than you wanted or needed, but let me know if any of them help! I'm crossing my fingers for you!

[tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang]

Since you only know about genshin from tumblr can you please explain it to us?

Ok this is genshin impact told by someone who has only seen the game on tumblr.

Alright let's start off with the plot. So there are these twins right? And they're going about their normal lives doing twin things when suddenly an evil guy starts doing evil guy shenanigans. The twins decide this shit can't go on so they decide to murder him. But he's like super duper powerful so they have to split up. One has to go and collect a bunch of wishes so they can wish him dead and the other has to go around pulling allies (making friends). But the friends twin isn't very good so they have to get people to like pity them just to be their friend (bad way to start a friendship btw). So they split up and that's where the game starts.

There are also a few different characters in genshin, we have these two as the main guys, the twins who crave murder. Though it should be noted that the girl twin (we'll call her genshin while the boy is called Impact) sometimes changes her hair into a ponytail and switches her outfit. Impact might do this too idk.

There's a guy called Child (why does his parents hate him with that name??) who is either very popular or universally hated, there seems to be a bit of a divide here.

There's someone with very long bunny ears.

There's the evil evil bad man with the big hat, this guy! He is the ultimate enemy who wants to end the world or something. Who if you call his name he immediately zaps himself to your location so y'know don't do that.

There may or may not be a venti guy (idk if that's someone's name or if someone likes coffee.

A library witch

An extremely pretty purple haired lady who appears to pull a sword out of her chest???

Zhongli (if I spent that right) I think he's like a demon??? I just know lots of people are in love with him.

This braids kid

There's also another child called klee who i see in YouTube adds all the time they're like "I'm klee and I'm a Knight" before jumping into a river. And I'd just like to add that I'm concerned about the child labour laws in the genshin universe.

Mona but she's not a vampire

There's a fish

One of them is apparently a lawyer???? Going by anime logic i bet they have pink hair and cat ears.

Someone called Cyno apparently

Razor who is a werewolf and probably quite edgy.

And then we have red haired man and blue haired man. They're brothers but they hate each other. The red haired one has fire powers and is the manager of the knights, he's the big boss. While the blue haired one owns a pub and appears to be a pirate. Oh and he has water powers.

And there we go that's genshin impact, a fun game for all the family to enjoy (or you know not cause of all the murder)

[inretrospectthatwasstupid]

Mum and the Cats

Let me start this with a question. Have you ever seen someone traumatize 97 cats at once? This happened when I was younger - probably around y’alls age. It was just after the 4th of July, around the year of '98, we had a massive dry spell hit the area. The dirt was so dry water would just sit on top of it, the grass was brown, the dirt was little more than brown dust, the air was brown… you get the picture. I still swear that had the deities not set the humidity to "make it feel like they're underwater", the heat itself would have set fire to the area. This is what's called the dog days of summer - the worst part to deal with if you need to be outside for any real length of time. And, on a farm, you've gotta be outside often, and for hours at a time. We've had to double the amount of water we're giving the animals. The cows aren't too bad, the four water troughs we had kept the load spread out enough that they never went thirsty. The cats, on the other hand, were a different story. We weren't lucky enough to have a stream, or creek, (pronounced 'crick'), on our property, so every drop of water had to come from a spigot and water hose located just in front of Dad's shed. With this in mind, we're having to water the animals and cats as well - by this point, we've got 97 feral cats that live on our 8 acres with us, and nary a rodent to be found in at least a five mile radius. (Cats are awesome like that). So, we're feeding the cows and watering them and the cats at dawn, and giving the cats a second meal and topping off their water dishes at around 5pm. Why 5pm, you ask? Well, back in the day when I was young, 5pm was when it started to cool off outside, and that's when the cats would begin to congregate for their evening performance of 'Cats: the Musical', where they would join in with the crickets and cicadas, yowling and screeching along with them until dawn. Unless, of course, we fed them. Cats truly are intelligent beings. Anyway... Part of making sure the cats were hydrated was switching up their food - mostly by adding in more wet food. We could've just mixed water with their dry food, (and we did,) until we realized that not only did wet Meow Mix makes better spackle and grout than just about anything we could find in stores, but the cats flat out refused to eat it. After many an attempt to get the cats to eat the paste (which they hated), and more than a few destroyed bowls, we gave up and switched to the small cans of wet cat food - kinda like the Friskies you can get today, but the much, much cheaper version, since farms cost a lot to run and we didn't have alot of extra cash just lying around. So we've added the wet food, Kiy and her colony have taken to it like a fish to water, and they're happy and healthy as a horse. So are the 80 some others - well, what of them we could catch were, anyway.  So it's a weekday, the day has been clear and hot, not a cloud in sight yet again, and it's now around 5pm. Evening feeding time. My brother and I were just coming back in from checking something - I believe we were checking the fruit trees that day, to see what was ripe and bring it in to be canned - anyway, Mum decides she's gonna feed the cats since we’re busy. Something to note about this woman: she stands 5 foot stone, and is so slim that a stiff breeze would blow her away. She also has… how do I word this.. She has bad luck when it comes to thinking. You'll notice this more as the stories go on.

She tells me later that she's on the back porch with these cans of wet cat food, and the cats are completely ignoring her - like she wasn't even there. She spots this cat - Foggy Wanderer was her name. Foggy was solid white, except for her tail and ears, which were covered in splotches of brown and black. (I’ll explain how she got her name in another story.) So Mum spots Foggy sitting on the fence rail grooming herself, and she gets this idea. (This is never a good thing.) Back to my bro and I - we're sitting beneath a tree next to the house when there's a rumbling like thunder, and the world goes quiet. For what feels like an eternity, (but was probably only a couple of seconds,) we stare in abject horror toward the house. I ask my brother what it could have been, and he shrugs. "No idea." The words had no more than left his mouth when a flood of fur and terror pours off the porch, ears laid back, and these cats. Are. Booking it. I mean, I've seen Nascar races that were slower than those cats. Minutes pass like hours as 97 cats stampede away from the porch, kicking up a cloud of dust in their wake. The last one off the porch, Foggy, leapt gracelessly off the porch and, after almost landing on her face, tried to go in three directions at once, as if trying to invert herself out of existence. She manages to squeeze herself under the porch after a few moments, and the dust begins to settle. The sound of coughing is the only sound as we stare in abject horror, waiting with bated breath for whatever had spooked that many cats. Mum staggers around the corner, arms outstretched, a can of wet cat food clutched in each hand. She lets out another cough, spots Kiy, who had decided to run to us for protection, and screams "Eat me! Eat me!" while waving the cans in front of her like a madwoman. Needless to say, Kiy booked it, racing around the corner of the house opposite Mum and disappearing. Mum stumbles forward, stops, looks at us and, in the most humble and sorrowful voice, says "I don't think they're hungry."

[harrison-abbott]

DR PAUL CHESWICK (1990)

I drove up to his house after I got the information. The location was in the suburbs but when I drove through the neighbourhood it was more like the countryside – lots of woods and narrow lanes, big houses spaced far apart.  

Said information sounded fairly typical. A neighbour had heard a gunshot go off. She was walking her dog by the house – had ran home and called the police. The house, being so distant from the city, took a long time to get to. When the police got there they had to break into the house. Because there was no answer on the doorbell, and they saw a body lying on the floor through one of the windows. Which gave them license to break in.

There was a girl in her mid-twenties lying on a handsome carpet before a fireplace. Shot through the head.  

I saw her when I arrived. She was pretty, blonde. What was she doing out here? Who was this man she was visiting?

We already had the man. He was a Dr Paul Cheswick. Was a professor in one of the city universities until he retired a few years back. 68 years old. Why was a young woman in his house? We initially thought she might be his daughter but we checked her wallet. Different surname on her credit cards.  

Cheswick was clearly wealthy. There were five massive rooms in his lower floor and he lived here by himself. There was one cat who scurried away from us nervously. I ordered the colleagues to take the cat off to the animal welfare people or whoever. We couldn’t let it starve here as Cheswick was never coming back.

I checked Cheswick’s mailbox. Scouted around. I went into his study. His office, a cold room wherein there were many papers on a desk. Just sifting through them, I found another address on a jumble of opened envelopes. Lower down the country, in the borders. I figured this might be his other house. He was wealthy enough to have another house. That might have been where he fled for now … I showed the address to two of my men and I told them to go down there pronto. The location was about two hours away. A chance that Cheswick would go there first rather than flee altogether was real.  

The policemen went away in the car and I was left alone in this big rich house. The ambulance had already came and taken the girl away so I was technically the only person left.  

I had an instinct that there was more to find here. We hadn’t checked upstairs yet. No lights were on upstairs and I flicked the switches on tenderly. I found a lavish bathroom, looked like something out of a TV advert. Then a huge bedroom with a king bed and golden-framed mirrors and taut carpets. Then another casual study with a fancy sound system and lots of vinyl records …  

What else? Why was the house so plain in its wealth? I went to the end of the corridor and met this little storage cupboard. Tennis shoes and rackets …  

I looked up at the ceiling and there was this door. A tiny string dangling from it. An attic, right?  

I was too small to reach the string from here. So I looked in the cupboard for something to stand on. I found an old sewing machine … No idea why Cheswick had one, but it was big and sturdy enough to give me a foot upward below the attic. And indeed I stood on it and could grab it from there. I pulled the attic door down.

The ladder came down. I turned my torch up and shone it up into a dusty darkness. I climbed up.

I coughed against the gnarly air. I was in a room filled with atavistic items; clocks, paintings, magazines, newspapers, crockery, suits and dresses even. All these suits and dresses lined up on hangers. Okay, so the suits were his, but who did the dresses belong to? They looked very old, in style that is. His ex-wife maybe? What a strange guy?

I discovered a light switch. When the attic illuminated I saw a whole other pile of junk the far end. Multicoloured stuff; kind of looked like old fashioned mattresses or bed clothes or something. Either way it made me uneasy.

But at the other end I saw a new door. There was a different room in the attic. A shed-sized room with its own door. I breathed differently.  

Then there came a muffled noise from within it, which made me flinch.  

I took my gun out.

A flutter of noise came again.

“Who’s there!” I shouted.

I heard a whining screeching sound. The door looked old enough; I aimed for the lock, and kicked it through. It swung out and I peered into a gloomy place.  

There was a girl, as in, a girl younger than ten and not the age of the dead woman from earlier, sprawling on the floor. She was hiding her face with a blanket. There was almost nothing else in the room save a mattress.

“It’s okay,” I said, and I put my gun away. “I’m a policeman. I’m Detective Walter. I’m a cop. I won’t hurt you.”

The girl just kept bawling under her blanket. I was scared of her. I’d never dealt well with kids before. I never had any siblings. Didn’t know how to deal with children.

“Listen, kid,” I said. “What’s your name?”

She didn’t respond.

“Here,” I said, and I leaned towards her with my badge. My police badge. I lifted up the blanket where I saw her fingers. I placed the badge into them and she clutched it. Then she went quiet. “You see? I’m a policeman. I’m from the law. I’m here to help.”

Her face popped up from the blanket and looked at me. And I was coy to meet her face.  

“You’re a policeman?” she whispered.

“Yes!”

“Leonard Walter.”

Then she started crying. A crying child is probably the most difficult thing to deal with. It’s like dealing with a bomb.  

She was tiny. I told her that if she came downstairs I could call her parents. That made her cry even louder. She was barely dressed so I came towards her. I wrapped the blanket around her and then I put my coat on her shoulders. And was glad because that kind of shut her up a bit.

“What’s your name?” I said.

“Emily.”

This clicked with a bit of knowledge. I remembered a case of a missing girl called Emily, very young. This was her.

“Just come down stairs, Emily,” I said. “And we can get you back home. You’re not in danger anymore. Okay?”

I went down the attic stairs and she followed after.  

We went downstairs and I directed her into the kitchen because I didn’t want to see the bloodstains of the woman in the living room … I boiled the kettle and found a tub of hot chocolate from one of Cheswick’s cupboards.  

Emily sat on one of the chairs by his main dinner table. My black coat hung down her, heavy on her shoulders. I had no clue what on earth Cheswick had been doing these last few years. But this little girl was alive and I had achieved something. I figured I could make her some hot chocolate before I put a call out to the police. That was about the only barometer I had with children, when it came to my profession.

I put the boiling mug in front of her. She didn’t smile or say anything. Only took it and slurped.

This man was going to be caught. Cheswick had a phone in his kitchen. I picked it up and put a call through to the station back in the city. Told them to bring in an ambulance and look up details of Emily’s family.  

That day still bothers me.  

Emily was returned to her family. And we caught Cheswick at his other address. He was old and stupid. But we never saved the woman in his house, the one he shot. There was never an explanation for it. Despite coming into the case half-way I still feel responsible for it. For her death.

And that attic too. For some reason I keep dreaming about the attic. That I’m back there. Seems that there were secrets in there which I chose to ignore. A lost place. Even though I found the little girl I still feel that I failed.

THE END

[pennycat83]

The (un)official Penny chan trivia page

keep seeing people making headcannons for characters so I decided to scratch that itch early

-struggles with ADHD and is in semi au at her own tism (is a master at normalising herself but struggles in the summer, mostly out of how much it gets to her brain)

-fluctuates her mental state meaning she can go from being overly manic and insane to being absolutely miserable and boarderline reclusive depressed

-no matter what state she's in she hates being overly positive and bland

-"A LIFE WITHOUT PASSION IS NO LIFE AT ALL" is her entire mindset with anything

-enjoys vibing in any area (is known across different dimensions thanks to this)

-despite her less slim appearance she's quite flexible and is great at running away from danger (is pathetic without her abilities tho)

-rarely cares about other people unless they look cool, she relates with them or they're her friends

-She has pets

she goes to the pond every spring

"adopts" the frog spawn

and keeps them until they're adults where upon she releases them in the wild

also has an axolotl named Mellow

-despite being so rambunctious she's the least likely to blow up in rage due to her quiet and chill attitude

-no part of her is a facade unless she's tryna play coy, be an anchor in a situation or brush off an issue

-loves the weirdest stuff 'cause it's "not normal", it isn't in a 'I'm quirky uwu' way either, she genuinely loves the bizzare and creepy since she grew up with the mundane for most of her life.

-it's been said it's impossible to know what she loves but this is due to her being passionate about a lot of things (e.g. music, cooking, urban areas, tennis, swimming, Halloween, horror, fall in general, winter, going around forests in winter with an ominous lamp on a pole to freak people out, baseball, video games, arcades, tropical urban locations, retro stuff, space...)

-hates being moved from one thing to another and wants to do stuff at her own pace

-rarely tries to make friends but when she does she either plays it shy or goes full insane to match said person's tone (sometimes she does her own thing)

-uses her skills to make stuff for her friends

-is shitty to everyone except her friends

-once got described as "If a cat girl did coke" and has never forgotten that

-keeps her personal life to herself quite well but mentally wants to tell her entire life story just out of loneliness

-is the most vicious audiophile, has a damn soundtrack for anything

"nah nah nah stop stop, MAKE IT FUNKY ain't loaded yet!"

-loves old tech the most and spends most of her free time on her old mac websurfing whilst playing Taiko no Tatsujin

-also enjoys burning stuff onto VHS tapes so she can watch them later

last and most important

-she's the most susceptible to going nuts over someone on first sight and can switch between a Morticia and Gomez style of flirting

-she's been dead for 4 years there's no way she is NOT touch starved to that degree of manic love over a person

(this is just the tip of stuff I got about her)

[ellaintrigue]

Underdog Addictions

First off, I'm not trying to body shame anyone. I don't think obese people are unaesthetic or anything and I used to date them. To me the turn-off is more of a lifestyle issue these days. I had one ex who would refuse to leave the house because it required moving around and he would rather sit.

In 2011 there was a security guard at the mall, a cute blond big boy about 300 pounds. He asked me on a date and I said yes. Right before we planned to meet he said his dog was sick and he had to stay home. I said I was so sorry and I hoped the pup would get better. Then I went back the work the next day.

Chris was 20 and I was 22. My boss Megen was 26 and very sweet and pretty. When I went in to work Megen told me that she had gone out with Chris for dinner the night before. I was like what time? Because he planned a date with me and then canceled. It turns out he was chatting with Megen while working the night before and ended up asking her out to dinner at the same time we would have met up for a movie.

Megen was surprised but even more so by the fact that she just seen it as going out as just friends. She viewed Chris as too young for her. In the end we were both unimpressed with him and gave him the cold shoulder. He pretty much cowered and avoided us before switching job locations.

Two years ago he sees me on a dating app and say hi. Now, I am on all of these apps to talk to everybody, alongside my online job. So I assumed he was saying hi based on our former friendship. And, of course, I let the dating drama go because it was so long ago and it's not like he hurt me or anything.

He expressed interest in me again and I was like nah. I did let it go but at the same time if you do me wrong on a first date I'm never giving you a chance again. That's a rule. That said, this man had gotten huge, which wasn't something I found attractive anymore. All of my obese (300+ pounds) exes struggled with walking, hygiene, and unhealthy binges.

Anyway that was 2 years ago, then yesterday he tries to match me again on an app and I declined to even talk this time. BUT 450 POUNDS? He was even bigger than before. Again, I'm not body shaming, but this is the issue I see: when we last talked he said that he no longer worked because he inherited a very large lump sum of money. He said that he played video games all day. I feel that's how he got to be 450 pounds. Again, I'm not calling him ugly, I'm saying that is too much. Like I know people who go around fat shaming others like oooh they're so unhealthy and disgusting. That's nonsense. If you don't like fat people then stay away from them, it's not your business otherwise. But I'm sure as hell not going to hang out with someone too big to function again.

Which is what brings me to addiction. A lot of these folks are already depressed, have physical health issues, or other problems that makes them prone to addictions like eating and gaming. Gaming triggers pleasure hormones which leads to people, usually men, into gaming for hours and hours while ignoring all else. I have seen it many times with people I dated as a teenager, one guy even lived in total filth and neglected his crying cat.

As a result, you end up with someone hardcore addicted to games, who would become very emotional and possibly violent if denied gaming. I had an ex who would scream and smash stuff when he tried to quit smoking cigarettes and honestly it's no different. Crack, heroin, and meth may be high ranking dangers but people get addicted to binge eating, gaming, cigarettes, and THC of any kind just as badly. And these things should be addressed more in society, especially the gaming. Video games are particularly evasive as they are not an actual dangerous substance in presentation so people don't see any harm in them.

[tachvintlogic]

Nightwing and Black Bat went down the chute and found themselves...

in the first room of this labyrinth Riddler had hidden the hostages in.

"Seriously?! We're back at the beginning!"

"No, it's a twice twice," said Black Bat.

"A what?"

"It looks like the same room, but it's not. There are... different traps. They take advantage of your knowledge... from the first room."

"Well, we should always be cautious of course," he said as he reached the checkerboard tile where pressing the wrong switch activated turrets. Without thinking, he stepped on the tile that had been safe before.

"Wait!"

But it was too late. His foot depressed the tile activating a trap. He dodged to the side anticipating a turret, but Black bat grabbed Nightwing and dove to the floor. He was about to shout a protest when he saw the thick metal beam swinging down from the ceiling just barely miss them thanks to Black Bat's quick thinking. Had he dodged like he had for the turret it would've hit him in the face.

"How did you know that was there?"

"I told you. It's a twice twice," she said cheekily.

He stood back up, "yeah, guess that means there's a different solution."

"Obviously," she said, looking at the ceiling. It was made of rows of steel metal beams. It hadn't meant anything in the first room, but now that design choice was clearly to disguise this new trap.

Instead of looking for a new solution to the tile puzzle, they located the joints that allowed the ceiling beams to swing down and got some stuck midswing to expose the plywood behind them. Breaking through the plywood allowed them to climb into the space between rooms and find both the hostages the Riddler at the end of the maze.

Nightwing grabbed Riddler before he could escape. "You were doing so well Nygma. What's the manner? Can't make escape rooms as deadly as you want them?"

"How did you see through my same room trap?! I specifically designed it to make sure anyone would get turned around! There's no way you could've known it wasn't the same room!" shouted the Riddler as Nightwing handcuffed him.

"A Twice Twice is a... classic troll tactic."

The Riddler paused and stopped struggling. "A what?"

"Check out mario maker troll levels when you can," she said.

"Oh, is that from the last game night? Sorry I missed it."

"No, from twitch streamers. We could play... some troll levels for game night. I'll have to pick them beforehand."

"Are they hard?"

"No, you just need... lots of patience."

------

Internet access at Arkham Asylum was incredibly restricted and always monitored. However, that had never been a problem for the Riddler.

He searched for "mario maker troll level twice twice" and found a video that seemed to be exactly what he was looking for: "Larl Does Everything Twice Twice (HOW DID HE KNOW?) | Troll Contest #2 Winner."

He watched the level creator masterfully troll "Larl" using the concept the Black Bat had recognized so quickly.

While objectively it was an evil level, this "Larl" was having fun. He was enjoying the level, even as it was killing him, even when he was forced to replay the entire level.

He watched other players play more troll levels. It was so antithetical to good game design... and yet they loved it. They were laughing at the level and at themselves for falling for its tricks. Even when it was diabolical, even when the level was so evil they banned the level creator from their chat, they were having fun.

It reminded him of his own game of cat and mouse with the bats, except here it seemed all the rules were known. The players knew all the mechanics, and the trolls would only utilize something truly outside of intended mechanics on rare occasions. The rest was just a masterful show of creatively from limited resources to craft the perfect trap.

In a way, it made some of his own traps look like cheapshots. Of course no one could locate the button hidden behind the fake panel that perfectly blended in with the rest of the wall. Meanwhile, every player knew exactly what an ON/OFF switch did, and if hitting it opened up a pipe that launched a winged muncher into their face, then that was on them. Of course no one would've guessed that unassuming floor tile was the entrance to an oubliette. Meanwhile, everyone knew what blocks were breakable and which weren't, but that didn't make new passages opening up any less surprising.

He wanted to do that. He already had some ideas using the mechanics he had learned just from watching, and there were some traps he had used against the bats that he was certain he could recreate for his own troll level.

These twitch streamers and youtubers seemed like they would be more appreciative of his art than the bats or those tourists who think they're clever enough for his puzzles, and unlike escape rooms, there were no limitations to how deadly he could make these traps.

He had to buy this game once he was cleared for release. No, he had to make his own game that taught the player all its mechanics that then turned evil in the later levels. He wanted to do both. The thought of making "Larl" scream his name in dismay made him positively giddy.

The Riddler as a Mario Maker player

I have seen posts about how the Riddler would love to be an escape room designer. It's a great outlet for him that lets him show off how smart he is, make people solve his riddles, and all without being illegal.

But there's another outlet that I think he would thrive in. One that would let him ramp up his deviousness.

Mario Maker Troll Levels

If you aren't familiar with the Mario Maker scene, the troll level is a level whose goal is to constantly trick, misdirect, and kill the player in fun and amusing ways. A good troll level strikes the perfect balance between mischief, deviousness, fun, and humor that allows the troll maker to kill the player over and over again while keeping the player from ragequitting and leaving them hungry for more.

The Riddler would probably love making troll levels, playing with user expectations to lay the perfect trap, to shove the player into the obvious death pit, to build the next diabolical antisoftlock, to create a labyrinth with so many twists and turns that the player doesn't even realize if they've beaten the level until they see that "Course Clear!" banner.

I think he would be the kind of Troll Maker that would get his account banned because his levels kept getting reported for glitches.

[digitalleslie]

Do you care if your cat drinks enough water ?

well,here are some tips.

8 tips to encourage your cat to drink more water

As with humans, water is a crucial part of a cat’s diet so it’s important that they have access to a fresh, clean supply at all times. Although cats are able to survive on less water than dogs – their desert-dwelling ancestry means they can adapt well to dry conditions – they are still prone to dehydration and this can lead to common health issues such as constipation, lower urinary tract disease and urinary blockages. Mature moggies (aged 11 or older) in particular will need to drink plenty of water each day as their kidneys will need a bit of extra help to function properly. It’s important to remember that milk, cream or any other liquid is no substitute for water in a cat’s diet. In fact, cats are lactose intolerant and have difficulty digesting dairy products, so drinking milk could make them unwell. If you’re worried that your cat is not drinking enough water, here are a few tips and tricks you can try...

1. REFILL THEIR WATER BOWL DAILY

The thought of drinking from a glass of water that’s been sitting around on the floor for a few days probably doesn’t sound very appetising. Your cat is likely to feel the same, so they will appreciate a fresh, clean bowl each day.

2. PLACE BOWLS THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE

Cats prefer drinking in different locations. Give them plenty of options to choose from so that a bowl of water is never too far away.

3. TRY A DIFFERENT WATER BOWL

Cats may also have a preference for a certain type of bowl. Plastic and metal bowls can taint the water, so try using a ceramic or glass bowl instead. Cats usually prefer wide, shallow bowls as it allows them to keep an eye on their surroundings while they’re drinking and keeps their whiskers from touching the sides of the bowl. Allow the cat to be able to sit behind the bowl of water so they can see all around them.

If there are many cats, can try a large contain of water feed machine.

4. TRY A WATER FOUNTAIN

Many cats are attracted by the movement and freshness of flowing water, which is why you may have witnessed them try to drink directly from the tap! There are many pet water fountains you can buy online or from your nearest pet store.

5. KEEP WATER AND LITTER TRAYS SEPARATE

Just as you would not want to drink right next to your toilet, cats aren’t keen on drinking near their litter tray. This is carried over from their African wildcat ancestors, who would toilet away from their water source to avoid contamination. Keep the two in separate rooms if possible.

6. SEPARATE THE FOOD BOWL TOO

Cats also don’t like to drink near to where they eat. This is also carried over from their African wildcat ancestors, as the gut contents of their prey could contaminate the water source. Place their food and water bowls in separate locations.

7. SWITCH TO CANNED FOOD

Canned food contains about 70-80% water so will help your cat get a good proportion of their daily water requirement just from eating. If they’re eating mainly dry cat biscuits, they will need to drink a lot more water. If you do switch your cat’s food, make sure you do it gradually as this will reduce the chance of loose stools.

8. ADD SOME FLAVOUR

Adding a few drops of tuna juice (from tuna packed in water, not oil) or chicken broth will make the water more enticing for your feline friend. Just make sure the flavouring doesn’t include too much salt, as this is unhealthy for your cat.

Why do cats stop drinking water?

Many people put their cat’s water bowl next to their food bowl, but cats like to eat, drink and toilet in different places. It links back to domestic cats’ evolution (they are closely related to African wildcats) as they don’t want to contaminate their water with waste from their prey.

Cats also like wide, ceramic or plastic bowls (although plastic bowls can taint the taste of water in the heat) – and often prefer running water.

If you are concerned about any change to your cat's behaviour, including changes to their normal eating and drinking habits, it can be a sign of a medical problem so please consult your vet.

[telomeke-bbs]

BAD BUDDY RERUN SEASON – EP.4 (NOTES ON THE REWATCH)

I've fallen behind Channel GMM25's rerun of BBS and I don't think it will ever be possible to catch up. Nonetheless, still continuing with my notes on the rewatch, even though GMM25's well past Ep.4 by now! 🤷‍♂️ (Links to my notes for Episodes 1 to 3 are at the bottom of this write-up if you're interested to read more.)

Episode 4 opens with the discussion between the Archi and Engine teams on how to co-ordinate while rebuilding the bus-stop. The shot is quite formally framed, with Archi on one side and Engine on the other. We are being given a smack of visual foreshadowing here – the conflict of Ep.9 (when Wai comes in between Pran and Pat) is quite literally echoed in the physical blocking:

So when the talks break down, we see Pat and Pran having several discussions in a staircase on how to get the best out of their workteams:

It's meant to suggest the staircase of their apartment building (because they're dressed so casually in tank-tops/t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops) but it actually isn't the same staircase – the railings, treads and risers don't match what we see when they race up to their apartments at Ep.3 [1I4] 9.58.

In the Behind-the-Scenes video for the rooftop filming (linked here: [Behind The Scenes] จนกว่าจะพบกันใหม่ครับเพื่อน! | แค่เพื่อนครับเพื่อน | BAD BUDDY SERIES, timestamp 1.29) Ohm and Nanon confirm that key scenes planned for the rooftop were rained out and had to be relocated indoors.

I think these were discussions at the rooftop, that then became these staircase discussions (Ep.4 [1I4] 2.58 and 4.22), since they show Pat and Pran at an intermediate stage of their relationship, between the first contact of their blind-date-gone-wrong and their Epic Rooftop Kiss – drawing closer but not yet (overtly) romantic in any way.

If these discussions had indeed been planned for the staircase of their apartment building, they would have been filmed in the same staircase at the Tinidee Hotel Bangkok Golf Club (where their student apartments are located); the fact that they weren't suggests that they may have been a last-minute switch-out from the rain-soaked roof.

So when Pat and Pran are startled by a bump in the night and proceed to investigate fearfully, it's not because our two brave boys have suddenly turned into total scaredy-cats out of character from their usual courageous selves:

In Thailand, and all across Southeast Asia, there is a strong belief in the supernatural as a very real, unseen part of everyday life. People grow up believing that malevolent spirits and beings are all around, which are to be given respectful distance, feared as uncontrollable forces, and appeased where necessary.

This is why there are shrines, offerings and talismans everywhere in Thailand – the supernatural world is as much a part of the surrounding reality as everything else that you can see and touch (and it is dealt with differently according to the different rules by which it operates).

Pat and Pran are simply doing the prudent thing here – you can't control the supernatural and you are at its mercy for the most part, which is why they're being so terribly cautious. If it was just a normal human intruder that they were worried about we know they would have been a lot bolder.

When Ink turns up characteristically flustered (BBS plays with this idea a bit) to photograph the Archi-Engine teams at the new bus-stop, Pran's expressions reacting to her appearance out-of-the-blue land quite differently on the rewatch:

What must have been going through Pran's mind is his mantra of “Things don’t end well whenever I’m close to you”, repeated at Ep.1 [4/4] 3.28 and Ep.2 [3I4] 9.01. Every time he'd allowed himself to get closer to Pat, something bad would happen (see this link here for more explanation).

Against the received wisdom of a hard lesson learnt time and again, Pran was all ready at the end of Ep.3 to stop pushing Pat away (when they talked in the corridor of their apartment building). But here at the bus-stop the universe is responding negatively just as before, and this time it is with the most epic smashdown possible.

Just as Pran and Pat are jibing and joshing at each other (Ooh your shoes are shiny! Ooh you smell nice!), in a demonstration of closeness visible only to them (a kind of mock-antagonism that masks their true relationship) – by some cosmic coincidence, the one individual whom Pran had seen Pat actively showing romantic interest in (and who beat him to Pat's affections in high school) suddenly bursts onto the scene.

So the expression on Pran's face (kudos to Nanon here) is not (just) because he's concerned that Ink is going to expose their deception (that they're not the enemy-strangers whom their uni friends think they are). What we're seeing is the realization sinking in for Pran that his old rival for Pat's love is suddenly back in their lives, and he knows (or rather believes) from experience that he has no chance against her.

Plus Pat whisks her away at first sight – to Pran it looks like Pat is grabbing the first chance to be with Ink again (even if it's really just action-man Pat stopping her from spilling the beans about their friendship in front of their friend groups).

Pran's expression at Ep.4 [1I4] 8.46 is also a parallel with his expression at Ep.4 [1I4] 8.25 during the high school flashback. That was the first time Ink appeared in their lives, and at timestamp 8.25 he showed he had already noticed way back in high school that Pat felt some kind of attraction for Ink.

Perhaps it was Ink's reappearance at the bus-stop that fully convinced him, but later we do get to see that Pran really does believe “Things don’t end well whenever I’m close to you” is some kind of sacred text to live by, when he repeats a version of it at Ep.4 [1I4] 12.09, after Pat steps on his lost earbud – "See? The two of us shouldn’t get close to each other."

So when Pran realizes that Pat had rushed out of class just to meet with Ink at the nearby café, shortly after he'd sent him a friendly little text message, this life lesson (“Things don’t end well whenever I’m close to you”) is cruelly nailed into his consciousness yet again – he is reminded of the time when he reached out to Pat (with some iced milk tea) back in high school, only to be knocked back by the sight of Pat flirting openly with Ink, in the flashback at Ep.4 [2/4] 0.35.

And then we see Pran getting hammered with reminder after reminder of Pat and Ink seemingly as a couple – when he finds out Pat's abandoned the bus-stop construction (their joint project, that he even sent a text reminder about) to be Ink's photoshoot model (Ep.4 [2/4] 5.27), when he sees them sharing a meal together (Ep.4 [3I4] 2.51), and when he sees Pat wearing the friendship bracelet Ink gave to him in high school (Ep.4 [3I4] 4.40).

The photoshoot was to thank Ink for keeping PatPran's friendship a secret, the dinner wasn't planned as a romantic date (nor did it turn out like one), and the bracelet was simply a platonic gift for Pat (and Pran would get his own too later). But I guess from Pran's POV it did look like InkPat was becoming a thing, whether or not he was overthinking it.

So now, a few observations about Pat's photoshoot with Ink (which as a scene is as important for InkPa as it is for Pat):

At Ep.4 [2/4] 4.37 we see that it was Ink's idea that Pa should enroll in the Faculty of Communication Arts – which she does.

There's a tiny continuity error between Ep.4 [2/4] 2.59 and 5.07 – Pran's white sleeves miraculously grow longer, and he's also lost his collar.

At Ep.4 [2/4] 3.49 we see that the seeds of Pat's romantic confusion are sown when Ink tenderly re-adjusts his stray locks, and he feels the stirrings of something. He misinterprets what he feels for something else (when she gently brushes some debris away from his hair), and perhaps misdirects the incipient feelings he has for Pran toward Ink instead. And of course BBS tells us that he and Ink are not to be, when this moment of tenderness is broken up by – who else? – Pa, physically coming between them with contact lenses for Pat.

The reference to Pat's contact lenses is a set-up for Pat's reference to Lasik in Ep.7 [1I4], which is a set-up for Pa's reference to her own contact lenses as part of her new look, which is in turn a set-up for her losing her contact lenses at the faculty and needing to be rescued by Ink in Ep.7 [1I4] as well.

At the photoshoot, the contact lenses (or lack thereof) are also a metaphor for Pat's shortsightedness vis-à-vis his feelings for Ink. He thinks he's seeing something, but he's not really (kind of like the way he was trying to model for the camera but unable to see exactly where it was). And it's Pa who holds the key to where his (and Ink's) true feelings lie, when she turns up with the remedy for his blurred vision, while at the same time personifying the answer to the question of who actually has dibs on Ink's heart.

This little scene also foreshadows Pat's ill-fated date with Ink at the dessert café in Ep.5 – there just as here, he leaves Pa with Ink after being presented with the gift of clear-sightedness (contact lenses at the photoshoot, while at the dessert café it's the results of Pa's love guru test).

Ink's heart is also symbolized by her camera (which lends extra significance to their Magic of Zero episode). She had her camera trained on Pat while he was modeling, but there was an awkwardness to him (Ep.4 [2/4] 3.07) and he couldn't see exactly where she was at (before Pa arrived and made things clear for him). This parallels how Ink's kind and friendly heart is open to Pat platonically, but is unavailable to him for a deeper (romantic) connection. And when Pat steps away, Ink then trains her camera on Pa, who has no problem posing for her, taking to it easily and naturally – for Pa is the real romantic focus of Ink's heart, and with whom it belongs.

One tiny detail later at the Flagpole Bar though – we see that Pat pulls up a chair for Pran (Ep.4 [3I4] 3.40), whereas he didn't do that for Ink when they first sat down:

Pran rebuffs the gesture, but what this seems to say is that Pat always unconsciously finds some way to tend to Pran.

Despite what Pat might have been thinking about Ink, when we see him performing acts of caring – the object for his bubbling emotions is Pran, not Ink. I think Pat can't help himself, and Pran is unconsciously the center of his world and the focus of his feelings. At Ep.4 [3I4] 5.51 he starts out delivering fried chicken (Ep.4 [3I4] 5.55), and then moves on to tendering kindness and ointment for Pran's injured shoulder. But actually, if you look at the preceding scene in the Flagpole Bar, Pran leaves before ordering any food and that means that Pat and/or Ink must have ordered extra fried chicken for him. I like to think this is Pat going out of his way to think of Pran, and also perhaps giving him an excuse to knock on Pran's door.

So when Pat asks Pran to show him his rugby injury, he's solicitous and insistent, but the one thing he doesn't do is touch Pran in any way until Pran himself has rolled up his sleeve.

I think this is BBS doing a tip of the hat to the idea of consent before intimacy, that has shown itself to be one of the problematic areas in BLs that have come before.

But remembering that Pran is in love with Pat – what a fine-bladed torture it must have been for him to have Pat tending to his injured shoulder like that.

Pat is ministering to Pran's outward hurts, but in blithe ignorance he's leaving Pran's inner, emotional pain (his unrequited love) still unalleviated, raw and bleeding – a hurt that he had unknowingly caused, and to which only he holds the cure.

And Pat is possibly making Pran's heartache worse here, since from Pran's POV he's undergoing a demonstration of love in action without any affirmation or possibility of love behind it (especially in the light of his belief about InkPat as a couple). To Pran it's an absolutely brutal reminder of a love that can never be.

I didn't notice it before, but Pran's t-shirt in this scene is about the only time that we see him with a smiley on his person.

Pat has several t-shirts that either depict or suggest smileys (see this write-up here), but Pran (at least in the earlier episodes) is always all buttoned-up in colorless long-sleeved shirts that are a metaphor for his repressed nature. Usually the smileys are around Pran (on his lamp, his mobile phone, his doorhanger, his posters), and I think they are a reminder to him of his sunshine boy Pat.

But Pat now seems to be spiraling further and further away from Pran, ever since Ink – an undefeatable love rival in Pran's mind – reappeared in their lives.

After the trauma of being pulled into thirdwheeling their intimate dinner, and being reminded of Ink and Pat's (supposed) couplehood several times elsewhere in this episode, Pran in this scene is going beyond just surrounding himself with reminders of Pat. He's consoling himself by positioning the symbol for his beloved Pat right at the center of his chest, where his broken heart is. 💔

Yes, the sequence with the Nivea Micellar make-up remover beginning at Ep.4 [3I4] 8.00 is more cringey cringe product placement, but BBS takes this necessary evil and makes something more of it.

It's impossible not to feel something when someone is tending to you with kindness in their physical touch – we saw Pat experience a twinge of that when Ink was adjusting his hair at Ep.4 [2/4] 3.49. So poor Pran must have been shredded to bits inside when Pat was applying ointment to his shoulder. But then we see that Pat – after proffering intimacy (with the ointment) – now offers himself up for the same from Pran, with the make-up removal.

The ointment application and make-up removal are really the two of them trading kindness and intimacy because they do care about each other, despite their outward jabbing and prodding. And Pat demonstrates he's happy to be on the receiving end of Pran's ministrations too. 

At the beginning of the scene Pran was all spiky and withdrawn, but Pat and his persistence keep chipping away at his walls, and by timestamp 8.20 we see that it's worked again and the genuine closeness (and heartfelt tenderness) between the two boys resurfaces once more.

In a sense this foreshadows almost all of Ep.6's story arc, when Pran withdraws yet again after the Epic Rooftop Kiss, and Pat is persistent in trying to draw him back out again.

So after the gentle closeness of the shoulder ointment/Micellar Water scene, the action moves on to the rough-and-tumble rugby game between Architecture and Engineering at SouthTechnology University.

Perhaps Pat is still high off the previous scene's intimacy and all charged-up from the close physical contact of the game, but we see that something has definitely changed for him, because he really lays the innuendo on thick with this line: "Are you afraid people would think I’m flirting with you?" (Ep.4 [4/4] 0.48) – before reaching out to touch Pran (having been given the message in the previous scene how closeness and physical touch between them was consensual and felt good, maybe).

Pat stomps off in a huff when Ink arrives and Pran sends him away; it looks a bit like he's hurt that Pran's chosen her over him.

And when he glances back with a smile at Ep.4 [4/4] 1.40, that look of longing is clearly for Pran. But I think Pran misinterprets this as Pat looking at Ink though (Ep.4 [4/4] 1.48).

Knowing how important competition is for Pat and Pran and how it represents emotions that are deeper between the two of them, it's hard not to see the rugby game as a stand-in for their repressed (romantic) passions.

Pat even goes "If you hug me this tight, you might as well take me as your boyfriend" (Ep.4 [4/4] 3.47). All of that sweaty huffing and rough body contact reads quite like a surrogate for something else – and both Pat and Pran are giving it all they've got:

(above) Pran gets atop Pat and they linger in the moment a bit too long

So on the rewatch, I think there are definitely signs that Pat feels the stirrings of butterflies for Pran in Ep.4, from his suggestive comments, his unexplained desire to spend the night (because he conveniently "forgot" his keys, twice), the tenderness and caring he displays, and the careful steps he takes to enter Pran's personal space after having learnt that consent was important (when Pran threw him out of his apartment the first time).

But our gold-hearted dumbass isn't used to looking inward or trying to process his emotions, possibly because he'd spent so much of his life directing his energies outward, living a life based on values and norms imposed from the outside (the definitions and dictates of his father), rather than as directed by his own internal compass.

I also think Pat may have shut down a lot of his inner emotional life after Pran was sent away in high school, hence the ineptitude that we see in Episodes 4 and 5 when it comes to him trying to make sense of the feelings that Pran's reappearance in his life has stirred up – he'd been out of practice for years!

So Pat's frown at Ep.4 [4/4] 8.31 is because he's jealous of Pran (apparently) flirting with Ink, and getting a friendship bracelet from her too.

But he's quite likely frowning because deep down his still unknowable heart is concerned at losing Pran to Ink, not the other way around. (This is echoed later in Pat's sigh of relief at Ep.4 [4/4] 14.57 – after Pran confirms he isn't into Ink romantically – it's less to do with Ink being available to him, than it is for Pran being taken.)

So the episode ends with Pat finally getting to bunk over at Pran's place, and this is when BBS really starts to roll out its big guns.

OhmNanon worked wonders here, shifting deftly from light comedy to heartwrenching emotional gutpunch and back again, and I was certainly left reeling (wasn't everyone?) from every actorly twist. Nanon exercised his dramatic subtleties to their finest, but in terms of impact Ohm's playful earnestness was not far behind.

To me this was the scene in BBS when you could actually sense a shift in the center of gravity, that the proceedings had begun to take on a certain emotional weightiness, without fully shedding their outward air of breezy nonchalance.

For the most part, this scene was played raw and real without the clever screenwriting winks and nods seen elsewhere in BBS – Director Backaof was relying on an uncomplicated recounting of the narrative with the actors delivering their lines shot through with honest emotions, and I think it paid off.

OK so there is one clear writerly flourish – Pat doesn't ask Pran why he thinks Ink should like him. He hypothetically asks whether Pran himself would like him (if Pran were in Ink's place), ignorant about what could be driving him to frame his question so oddly.

And then he lists out the reasons why Pran should like him (at Ep.4 [4/4] 15.45) simultaneously giving lie to his purported interest in Ink, while unknowingly twisting the dagger wrought of his innocent words even deeper into Pran's already wounded heart.

Other than that though, the scene plays out as a straightforward unfolding of the storyline, that could have manifested quite flat if it had been in the hands of a director or actors whose caliber was closer to average – but luckily for us we had Director Backaof and OhmNanon instead, and they pumped up all the quieter moments with emotions roaring into our headspace.

Similar to how the shoulder ointment application had made him feel, having Pat lying right next to him must have been just crushing for deeply-pining Pran. But he gave in and went ahead with it anyway, having been unable to toughen his heart and condemn his beloved, keyless Pat to a hard night out in the corridor.

And Pran hit the absolute rock-bottom of emotional devastation when Pat responded "Yes" to the question of "Do you like Ink?" at Ep.4 [4/4] 14.48 – his throat catching, blinking back tears and a side-eye at Pat were all wordlessly speaking volumes.

Pran then parries Pat's unwitting thrusts with more characteristic contrarianism when he goes "I… hate you" at Ep.4 [4/4] 17.08. And shortly thereafter we are pulled under, into the depths of Pran's sweet, longing sorrow when he turns to gaze upon Pat in the dark (at Ep.4 [4/4] 18.27), echoing Pat's words "You always look at me" from Ep.3. When you're in love…

The rest of the scene is just silent, unverbalized emoting – but it's pulled off so powerfully it takes time to realize how well it was done. Really, it's quite a marvel that it actually worked – there were no clever lines, nothing of the sort to build on. Just longing looks and a single tear, so kudos to Nanon yet again.

Fortunately for us, Director Backaof then lets us off the burner a little bit. We see Pran – made of tough stuff – pull himself together, and defiantly challenge Pat one more time by pulling the blanket off him, to end the scene on a wry note, a welcome (if rueful) bit of comedic relief winking through the tears.

So I found this final scene of Ep.4 [4/4] (especially when it showed us Pran's single tear) so memorable because it was the one that got me emotionally invested in BBS.

Pran's PP bag during their staircase race in Ep.3 [1I4] was the first detail that made me sit up and take notice of the cleverness encoded into Bad Buddy, but that was mostly an intellectual interest (see this write-up here for more elaboration). But little did I know that after Ep.4's raw depiction of feelings, the Epic Rooftop Kiss would be lurking at the end of Ep.5 to grab my intellectual interest and emotional investment, wrestle them to the ground and wring them out into straight-up adulation and obsession.

Once BBS started dealing out the emotional punches, there was no turning back. Not that I'd really want to anymore; I'm now an addict who loves his drug – but thank goodness my drug of choice (Bad Buddy) is truly a healing one. 💖

[Afterpost Edit: for notes on the rewatch of other episodes, see these links here: Ep.1,  Ep.2, Ep.3 and Ep.5. 😊]

[acepalindrome]

I’ve spent much of 2021 thus far playing Stardew Valley in the hopes of distracting myself from the horrors of reality, and I keep meaning to make a list of mods I recommend! Because I am running a truly embarrassing number of mods and there are some really great ones that really improve the gameplay or add fun content or just make everything look really pretty! So without further ado, here are some of my favorite mods:

- Lookup Anything: This is probably my favorite mod. It basically eliminates the need to have to keep consulting the Stardew Valley wiki while you play. The title says it all: this mod lets you look up anything. Need to know what’s a good present for Shane? You can pull up a list of all his loved and liked gifts, with items you have on hand highlighted for ease, plus his birthday, how many hearts he has with you and how many points you need to get to the next heart. Need to know if you should hoard that pine sap or sell it? You can pull up all the uses for it, items that can be crafted with it, anyone who might like it, community center bundles it’s used for, and how much you make by selling. How many days until your melons are ready to harvest? What items can drop from that stone in the mines? What are all the items you can make with the furnace? It’s such a fantastically handy mod and I refuse to play without it!

- NPC Map Locations: One of the most frustrating things in the game is trying to remember everyone’s schedule and then not being able to find someone to give them a birthday present or turn in a quest item. This mod shows exactly where everyone is on your map and solves that problem for good!

- Automate: This mod automatically pulls items from nearby chests into machines, so you don’t have to keep running back and forth to your furnace to pick up the finished metal bars and toss more ore in there...it just spits the finished item back into the nearby chest, pulls in whatever available items you’ve got in the chest and starts running again without you having to do a thing! Just be careful of where you place your chests and machines or you might end up processing items you didn’t want to. Luckily, you can set individual chests to not have items pulled from them.

- Fishing Made Easy Suite: I suck at fishing. I almost never bother with fishing if I don’t have a mod to make it bearable. I like this one because it has different levels of easy-ness, so you can make fishing just 25% easier, or 50%, or 75%, or 99%! And there are some other fun perks too. You want to catch all fish regardless of weather or season? Want to catch legendary fish multiple times? Want to catch prismatic shards? Go nuts.

- Stardew Valley Expanded: This mod is absurdly huge and adds SO MUCH CONTENT. New areas! New characters! New events! I was a little hesitant to start it just because I knew there was so much to the mod and was a little concerned of how well it would mesh with the rest of the game, but the characters and story and style fit in perfectly with the vanilla content. I could almost forget Andy and Sophia weren’t there all along! The purpose of the mod was to make the game feel fresh and new for people who had already played the game and that’s exactly what it does. I love it.

- Artisan Valley/Project Populate JsonAssets/Starbrew Valley: I’m lumping these together but this is a collection of mods that add a TON of new items, crops, trees, flowers, machines and recipes to the game. You don’t have to download them all! You can pick and choose the ones you want, or download the PPJA content pack to get the bulk of these mods all in one go! I personally really love Artisan Valley because it lets me make floral candles and soaps. And an espresso machine so I can make fancy coffee. And Starbrew Valley so there’s actually a fun variety of alcohol in the game.

I’m putting the rest under a cut because this is getting too long.

- Chests Anywhere: Lets you access all of your chests from the menu! You can add some limitations, like only being able to access chests in the same location you’re in, but I’m dumb and constantly forget that I was supposed to bring a present for a villager with me today, or that I wanted to upgrade one of my tools but left all my metal bars at home. So instead of having to run all the way back to my farm, I can just open my menu and switch through the chests until I find the item I need! Labeling the chests also makes this a lot easier for organization.

- Seasonal Villager Outfits: Finally, the villagers have more than one set of clothes! This mod gives them different outfits in different seasons, different weather and special outfits for holidays! It’s cute and really improves the immersion to see the villagers wearing tshirts in the summer and bundling up in the winter, and dressing up for special events! Some characters will change their hairstyle too, which I love.

- Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion: Gives all characters more stuff to say so they won’t just repeat the same lines over and over! Also gives them varied dialogue for festivals starting in year 2, so they don’t say the same thing every year at the Egg Festival or Spirit’s Eve.

- Immersive Elliott: Add more dialogue! Lots more dialogue! I downloaded the Elliott version of this mod because that’s who I plan to marry but I recommend looking up dialogue mods for whoever your favorite characters are (I think there’s one for almost all the marriageable candidates.) You’ll probably be chatting a lot with whoever you’re trying to woo and it’s nice to get lots of new lines!

- Stardew Foliage Redone: There are tons of mods that change the colors and style of trees and buildings and stuff but this one is my favorite. It’s very soft and earthy and pretty without being overkill.

- The Love of Cooking: Actually makes cooking fun in Stardew Valley! It adds a cooking skill, an upgradable cooking tool that lets you cook with more ingredients (at the start you can only make one ingredient dishes), a cooking community center bundle, star levels to cooked items, an animation when you cook...cooking was very bland in the base game, and this mod really spruces the whole system up.

- Medieval Buildings/Medieval craftables: Again, there are so many mods that change up the look of your farm buildings and stuff but these are really pretty and cool and absolutely my style. There’s a mod to make all the town buildings have this style too, but I kind of like keeping the town normal and just living on my mysterious and beautiful farm apart from the rest of the world. My sprinklers are magic moss covered rocks now!

- Elle’s Dog/Cat/Horse/Barn/Coop/etc animals: Super cute animal skins. They look so huggable and soft. Also one of the dog options looks like my real life dog and that’s very important to me.

- Adopt ‘n’ Skin: Pairs well with the mods above, this mod lets you have multiple dogs/cats/horses and lets you use as many different skins as you like. I’ve got four cows and they’ve all got different patterns and colors. I love it. Also Marnie starts taking in stray animals and you can adopt them from her, which is a really cute way of letting you have more pets.

- Seasonal Garden Farmhouse: Its a pinch overkill especially in the early game, but I really like this farmhouse layout. It gives you a small kitchen from the start, a bathroom you can use to restore stamina, big open windows that change with the seasons and time of day...it’s a luxury house and it’s very nice to live in!

- Industrial Kitchen and Interior/Industrial Furniture/Rustic Country Town Interiors: These mods give the interiors and furniture a more rustic style, and the last one changes the town interiors to match. There are many furniture/interior mods, so if this style doesn’t do it for you, check out some of the others! There are lots of very pretty mods!

And I’m going to stop there but that’s only the tip of the iceberg and I highly recommend looking around NexusMods or ModDrop and seeing what kind of stuff is available!

[pearl-blue-musings]

Time in a Bottle Chapter 9 You Lost Her?!

Hi y’all! Taglist is still open if you wanna join!

Pairing: Bakugou x fem!reader x Shinsou

Warnings: pet sitter au, aged up, quirkless, 18+, cursing, some angst

Written portions in this one!

As soon as you sent that last chat, you locate Bakugou and trudge up to him and show him your phone.

“Is this true?! Where’s Haru?”

The blond takes a deep breath before moving toward the door and switching the open sign to closed. “We’re trying to figure it out.” He places a careful hand on your shoulder. “Shinsou is checking the transactions for the day and we’re gonna double check our books but—“ His vermillion irises meet her gaze and he stops mid sentence. Slightly chapped lips part upon seeing the growing distress in your features. Your fingers fidget while your breathing shallows out. “Hey, we’re gonna find her.”

“Like hell we are!” The volume of your voice shocks the man in front of you along with some of the other cats in the vicinity. You pull your lips into your mouth and lower your shoulders. “Sorry, I just… sorry.”

“Yeah whatever,” he waves off. Bakugou scans the room and eyes the cats around him, noticing the different collar colors and shoots his business partner a message. He jogs toward the office to grab his jacket and keys before grabbing your wrist. “C’mon, dumbass. We’re no good here, fuzzy head is gonna stay here in case anything happens.” You nod slowly as the palpitations in your heart from your growing anxiety and the man holding your wrist get mingled in your mind. You follow him easily toward a parking lot and get in his car. You can’t help but fidget and bounce your leg up and down in his passenger seat.

Taglist: @frostthecupcake @andrastesbeard @unlogical-ella @zireaels-igni @fandomsgotmefucked @hunter-3000 @minninugget @hisgoodpuppy

[redpandaramblings]

Stardew Valley Bachelor Kinks Headcannons

OBVIOUSLY NSFW 18+ Minors DNI

Bachelorettes can be found here

Alex-

This boy.

This boy has been waaaay too focused on his sports to ever really explore kink before.

However, when kink is brought up he is intrigued.

He’s willing to try almost anything at least once.

He absolutely heavily leans submissive.

Having his control taken away is extremely relaxing for him.

He ends up loving pet/slave play.

This man’s favorite thing is being on his knees giving oral, with a collar around his neck and a leash attached to it.

He also really likes being treated as living furniture.

Being a footstool for a few hours tests his control and stamina.

He also has a massive praise kink.

Degradation makes him cry and not in a good way.

Elliott

Ah, my darling man.

At first he comes across as very vanilla and traditional.

But really, he’s a romantic who is into making sure boy he and his partner are having the best possible time.

He’s a switch, no question.

He’s big into rope play and loves the artistry and trust that come with it.

Similarly fond of light bondage and blindfolds.

Likes wax play for the sensory but also for the aesthetic.

He might do impact play, but it’s a complicated feeling for him.

He doesn’t really like hurting his partner.

However he really likes when he sees marks he made left on his partner and vice versa.

Absolutely would need aftercare after impact or intense scenes.

He has a breeding/pregnancy kink that he wouldn’t discover unless he got his partner pregnant.

Harvey

Harvey is daddy.

Sorry, thems the facts.

But seriously, this man is a dom top

Has a bit of a sadistic streak

Likes doing it in public and semi public locations

Likes “playing doctor” with his partner in the clinic

Harvey would like seeing his partner in tears during a scene.

He likes being called things like sir/daddy/master

Is into role play and costumes in the bedroom

Spanking his partner is one of his favorite things

Expert in aftercare.

Requires a lot of reassurance and aftercare himself.

Sam

Dude says he’s kinky, but he got his ideas about kink from popular media.

If his partner wants to explore kink they’d need to gently but firmly correct his many misconceptions

Was just as bad the first time he had sex because he was one of those guys who thought porn was an instruction manual.

Luckily he’s willing to learn.

He’s a top leaning switch.

Not particularly dom or sub, enjoys different aspects of kink.

Enjoys watching and being watched.

Likes threesome, orgys, and group sex in general

Has absolutely played around with both Sebastian and Abigail.

Mild cucking kink?

Doesn’t want partner to cheat but if Abigail used a strap on his partner while Abigail bragged about how she fucks better? Ooo he loves that.

Sebastian

Ah, the resident emo.

Poor thing tried so hard to lean into the aesthetic for a while.

He tried to get into edgy stuff like knife and gun play.

He couldn’t stand it.

Does like leather and lace.

Likes wearing lingerie

He likes playing with gender expectations in the bedroom in general.

His man gets pegged and he does so while wearing a skirt and cat ears.

He loves wax play.

Loves the attention he gets in threesomes and group sex.

He wants to be the one in the middle getting gang banged.

He wants to be spit roasted.

Bit of a pillow princess at times.

Likes being degraded.

Shane

Shane. Shane Shane Shane.

Sad husband needs cuddles.

Seriously, before any kink this man just needs positive touch.

But that’s why he absolutely melts for body worship.

He loves giving.

But if he’s receiving? Man needs a good hour to reboot his brain.

Denies it, but loves being praised.

He’s very subby at first, but I think he’d end up pretty firmly in switch territory.

He’s scared to dom at first, terrified of betraying trust.

But if things were taken slowly, practicing safe words, and paying lots of attention to aftercare and reassurance, he’d come to really like it because of the levels of mutual trust