#then again most of the images I actually got from google images and when I followed the source it was Pinterest soooo

[imagoddamnonionmason]

I was tagged by the wonderful @alypink to do this mood board and snippet of writing tag game! So here goes!

Unknown Soldier

Before her stood the man that had been with her since she was a child. Eyes that had once regarded her warmly, fatherly, now did so with cold synergy. She did not know what went on behind those eyes, she could never read his thoughts, nor could she even begin to understand the complexity that was him, Perseus, and so had given up trying years since. That had been until she had come across a wayward file, written words never intended for her own eyes to see and it had been the first glimpse into the kind of man that he was, the kind of man that shaped a child into a soldier and promised her everything, but gave her nothing. 

Call of Booty

Admiral Adler was unable to hide his agitation when regarding his temporary position grounded at the base, worsened by his daily routine being confined to his office which overlooked the growing wharf and storehouse. He was always saddled with new documents, new charters, new paperwork, workers and soldiers coming to ask him question after question. It was his duty, for the time being, but he couldn’t deny that there was a desperate itch that wracked his body every time his gaze wandered from the task at hand, drawn back to the glistening sea. He swore that it beckoned him, whispered encouragement to go back to his ship and sail out to the horizon.

Smooth Operator

“Sure,” he said, his elbow now resting on the table and his knuckles just resting at his temple as he leaned, his eyes steadily watching how she moved. She was beautiful, in a way that seemed effortless for her, from her reddened lips, the long lashes, the slight creases of dimples at the corners of her mouth when she spoke. Even as she stood, hip cocked out to one side as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, all he could think about was how attractive she was.  What caught him the most, though, were her eyes. They were a dark brown, with small flecks of honey, and when they were on him he felt a warmth rush over him. They were soft, kind, with a slight sense of tiredness clinging to the hue. He didn’t want her to look away. 

~~~~~

Ok, so first and foremost, I would like to say that none of these images were made/taken by me and were also not edited by me in any way - I did find them on Pinterest/Google Images which had a huge lack of sources for them or sent me to Pinterest as a source. If these images are yours and you don't wish for them to be used then please dm me and I will take them down immediately. Likewise, if you are happy for me to use them, dm me so I know they're yours and I can put you down as credit!

I always panic when I have to put pictures/photos on a post and I can't find any credit- so please please... talk to me if they're yours.

~~~~~

With that said, I would like to thank @/alypink again for the tag! I really enjoyed showing you snippets of the upcoming writings that I have, which I'm hoping to put out soon!

I'm actually not sure who to tag- UH!

You know what, I'll tag you, the reader. If you've got some works that are currently in progress and you wanna show em off, then take this as a sign!

Please tag me so I can see what ya got!

~~~~~

~ Goose

[fandumb-whimsey]

Scarecrow Leg Observations/Headcanons

aka I thought about it too much and now it's everyone else's problem.

(important note: I am not in the medical field and I learned/looked up a lot of this with the help of Dr. Google)

The leg brace seems like a simple detail which can be overlooked in the larger design. On the surface, it's pretty straight forward: leg got damaged and now needs an orthopedic brace to function. This in and of itself is interesting since the artist undoubtedly referenced actual braces, specifically old ones, to fit Scarecrow's aesthetic:

This is a running theme with him; he seems to favor old, antique items and will repair things (like the use of duct tape or zigzag stitching for tears on his costume) before replacing them, which fits an image of someone coming from a background of poverty. Not entirely important to the conversation, just an interesting aside.

There is official material which states his leg is "permanently broken", which is probably the easiest, most succinct way to state this issue, but it's not entirely an accurate way to put it. If a leg is considered broken beyond repair, it's likely to be amputated. Bones which don't heal correctly the first time can be broken again and realigned to heal properly, often through surgery with the use of pins, rods, plates, and/or screws. However, "permanently broken" could also be implying he has suffered irreparable nerve damage which affects the use of the leg (more on that in a moment). One possibility: The bones in Scarecrow's leg do not heal properly due to the severity of his fractures likely needing surgery. Unable to access such resources after his run-in with Croc, this results in a malunion. In his case, the misalignment could be subtle as there is no obvious bend or twist in his leg, but still causes problems which requires use of a brace.

Another possibility: Perhaps he is lucky and his leg does heal well. Maybe there's no malunion at all. Unfortunately, whether the bones mend together well or not, evidence strongly implies that it was broken seriously enough that it damaged his peroneal nerve, leading to muscle weakness and foot drop, which necessitates the use of the brace to function.

If you look closely, you can see there is additional support around Scarecrow's ankle that would otherwise prevent rotation of that joint. You can see this in the game when he circles Batman on the airship:

When he takes a step with his good leg, the foot remains more parallel to the floor. Compare that to the foot in the brace, where the toes point upward with each stride due to being in a fixed position. I feel this is a strong indication of him having lasting damage here (such as foot drop) and part of why the leg brace is vital to his mobility (and undoubtedly one of many reasons why he's so furious at Batman).

Something like this often has trickle down effects. Having to compensate for a weaker limb can throw the body off balance, especially if it's a leg. This can create joint and back pain outside of (or in addition to) the issues related to the initial trauma. Combined with the other things he has had to deal with, there is something to be said of Scarecrow's tenacity. He is very driven and ambitious, even if it's the pure, seething drive for vengeance which causes him to persevere. It's a quality one can admire. :)

The rambling ends here, thanks for reading. And an extra big thanks to a very special someone who, without their help, none of this would be possible...I'm of course talking about my guy KILLER CROC for going absolutely feral in those Asylum sewers, really gave Jonny here a spooky glow-up, am I right?

Pictured: Scarecrow regretting his fear toxin frivolity into the sewers.

[yumeka-sxf]

Spy x Family Exhibition Pamphlet

I got my copy of the Spy x Family exhibition pamphlet! I wanted to make HD scans of some of the notable pages and try to translate if I can.

First off is this great "Main Character Correlation Chart" (sorry for my amateur editing, all I have is MS Paint!)

I love how Bond has a different "bofu" (woof) for Loid and Yor!

Several of the pages show the creation process of the manga, starting with rough sketches to final drafts, using chapter 1 as an example. There were a lot of pages for this, so I just scanned the ones that showed the end of the chapter.

Probably the most interesting pages of the pamphlet are the early character designs/concept sketches. Most of these have already been shared by @sy-on-boy on her post here, but I thought it'd be cool to have them in HD! Unfortunately, even with higher quality images it's very difficult to decipher Endo's handwriting. I could make out just a few words here and there, and Google Lens is very unreliable when the writing isn't clear.

The first page has early concepts for the Forger family, Loid, Anya, the WISE logo, and the Eden uniform.

Things to note are that "Oscar" was a working name for Loid, as was "Yolanda" for Yor. What's also interesting is that a beta version of Franky is shown along with the Forgers. Unfortunately I can't make out the notes about him, but I think this has significance because of a sketch on the next page...

Most of the next page shows concept designs for Yor, with a section for Bond and Yor's coworkers on the bottom.

However, what's really intriguing is the sketch in the upper right of the whole family, titled 疑似家族 (pseudo family).

Once again, a Franky-looking character is with them, and he has the title "Uncle" (叔父) Was an uncle originally going to be part of the main Forgers? Was he actually related to Loid or Yor, or if that character did eventually become Franky, maybe he would just pretend to be Loid's brother? I can also make out the word "otaku" (オタク) in the notes for this character as well as "enjoying life" (人生を楽しんでる) Also in the notes for beta Yor it looks like 最強 (the best/strongest) and バカ (idiot/dummy) All I can make out for Loid's notes are 孤独 (loneliness) I think? And what's up with the older and more sinister looking Anya? She really looks like Ashe there. But these are all just early concept designs/notes so I wouldn't take them too seriously.

The next page titled "East and West During the Cold War" has concept designs for Franky, Yuri, Fiona (referred to as a female WISE spy), a male WISE spy, Melinda, and various assassins from the cruise arc.

The first interesting thing to point out is the notes next to the very crudely drawn woman at the bottom of Yuri's concept designs. It says "Yuri's girlfriend?"(ユーリの 彼女?) though I can't make out clearly what the rest of it says. For the Franky designs, I could make out "tsukkomi or boke". So it looks like at some point Endo was deciding whether to make him more of a tsukkomi (straight man) or boke (wise guy) personality. There's also mention of giving him a high IQ (IQ高い). Also, the fact that the sketches include Melinda and the cruise arc assassins gives the impression that Endo had ideas for these story elements very early on.

But the character relationship chart in the lower left is really intriguing.

I'm not sure how accurate these translations are so take them with a grain of salt, but they do make sense to me. But I have to wonder why Anya and Becky are connected to Desmond. For Becky, it could be because her family has ties to the Desmonds, but why Anya? Could the "mysterious institute/lab" she comes from have ties to Desmond too? Again, these could just be early concepts from ideas that Endo is no longer using, so best not to take them literally. Also, the lack of Shopkeeper/Garden in the character relationship charts, the concept art, and the exhibition overall, really does portray them as a "mysterious organization" that Endo perhaps didn't plan out until later in the series' development and is still trying to figure out. But as far as this sketch, I have to say that despite how terribly crudely drawn all their little heads are, it's easy to identify every character...proof of Endo's top notch character design skills!

Another sketch that stands out is on the same page...

It's a very rough drawing of what appears to be either Loid holding Yor or Yor holding Loid with Anya next to them. But honestly it's such a rough drawing it could be any other parents+child. All I can make out of the text directly above is "My wife is stressed!? At this rate..." And the drawing next to it also appears to be two parents and maybe two children? I also have no clue what the "WJ4C 9/20, etc" at the top means. Very mysterious sketch, lol.

The next page has Eden related concepts, including Becky, Damian, George, and various teachers. The drawings in the bottom section appear to be an alternate/abbreviated version of how the Forgers met.

Pretty funny that an image of Franky is covering what's supposed to be a sketch of Demetrius. The text from Franky says "I can't show you this information yet" which is pretty solid proof that Demetrius will make an appearance in the series eventually. There's also nicknames for Damian and Demetrius in the notes - "Dami" and "Demi."

Some notes on the Eden page says there's 2,000 students in the school, with 13 grades divided into 8 classes/houses. The chart on the left is a list of teacher names and their classes, all of which are given names of colors. None of the teacher names have been used so far in the series.

And all that's on the last page of sketches is a continuation of the previous page with the early concept of how the Forgers started (it honestly looks pretty cute, wish it wasn't just rough sketches). And the following section looks like drafts Endo did for promotional material.

The final pages of the pamphlet are the new extra mission chapter which I already fully translated here.

And that's all I'm going to share for now from the pamphlet! I could spend more time trying to decipher the concept art notes but it was giving me a headache after a while, lol. But if anyone wants to try translating them, go ahead (I have higher quality png files of all the scans if needed...they were too big for Tumblr). And again, these sketches are just trial and error pre-serialization ideas that don't necessarily reflect Endo's final vision for the series, so I wouldn't dwell on them much other than for fun theorizing.

The pamphlet does have other interesting information, including an interview with Endo, a timeline of his work on Spy x Family and other manga, and his notes about random things from the series. So I might return to translating the pamphlet at a later date when I have time/motivation.

[faunandfloraas]

Aussie question time: when I find out an idol is American/Canadian, their image in my mind completely changes because now it’s like “Oh I know exactly who you are, I grew up with your type around me” there are subtleties that I’m going to understand that others might not. So with all that said, I’ve been curious about what that’s like (if you experience it) w the skz aussies (throw in a lily if you’re feeling it -v-) 🎤

this is wayyyyyy too long so I'm putting it under a read more- also disclaimer: i dont know these guys and these are just my opinions, dont take em too srs <3

Hmmmm... Well I guess I'll start with Felix- I've said it before a bunch but the whole "Felix is a tiny uwuw baby sweet summerchild who is just such a baby" etc. etc. has made me laugh from the get go- because Yep! he is incredibly sensitive and sweet natured and kind and he cries a lot- 100% that is true. Dont think I'm saying it's not. But like. He also grew up in western sydney, he grew up in a area that if you google it one of the first suggestions is "is it safe" but then at the same time he went to private catholic school im pretty sure. and i saw pics from back then that he'd posted back in the day of cool little felix with his gold watch and his fade and all his little homeboys looking rowdy on the train- I know that kid and while that kid can also be sweet and sensitive, he's not incapable and hes not a baby. Good recent example was when he went on that Jewel box show with the gay dudes and people were acting like he was *so uncomfortable* and sooooo out of his element and so this and so that- theres gay dudes all over sydney, there's gay dudes all over australian media- the idea felix couldnt handle that was simply laughable to me- but it kinda shows how many outside perceptions of him still very much fall into that vaguely infantalizing thing. Like when he was the one who was happy to go up to adam levine and dj snake in that skz talker while the other boys were much more shy? that didnt shock me at all. felix went to korea as a whole teenager laregly against his parent wishes- he's actually quite an outgoing and brave guy. Outgoing guys can still be sweeties, though- one doesn't negate the other.

One other aspect of Felix i think a lot of fans just gloss over but is easily noticeable by me is that he can kindaaaaaa be ... a lil bitchy? like he's never ever mean or cruel dont get me wrong- but he has a slight bitchy streak, he rolls his eyes AND he's actually much more sarcastic than people bring up? Again- he does it a lot with Chan and that doesnt shock me- they both are aussie boys, Chan will get it and I think Felix can very much be himself with Chan, he doesn't necessarily feel the need to put up an extra air of like... Sweetie boy-ness? bc when he calls chan a cunt on live chan just laughs and goes OI!! so yuh the main thing with felix is while i do think hes a little sweet guy, ive never from the get go had a hard time seeing him outside of that box, too. Also maybe that's a lil bit aussie humour slipping under the radar here or there 🤔

Chan to me from the get go too was pretty much like. Prototypical overachieving aussie Good Boy. Like, i had a drafted post i never posted bc it was too niche- but it was essentially about how he speaks about sports and the like, and it just said "We get it. You went to zone carnival" which was the sporting event that the kids who got gold or 1st place were sent to. If you went to zone, you were the Successful kid. I think these days most fans perceive him as... a bit of a goofy guy? but I have gone through the archives and i have seen the comments from people talking about how chans such a bad boy- thats shit is so funny to me bc you can show me every iteration of chan and I'd never, ever think he's a bad boy. Like he wishes he was a bad boy, he kinda cosplays a bad boy- even him referencing swearing bc of his australianess and shit over the years makes me giggle a little bc i feel like felix def 100% swears all the time but he doesnt like Smirk about it too much? he doesnt really bring it up? things like that stand out, it to me feels very like Oh yeah I'm this naughty Aussie boy who swears hehe and then all the australians are like ? Girl we all do huh lmao

Otherwise, I dont have as much to say about chan as i do about felix, funnily. Like idk people might perceive differently to me, but nothing too far off? I will say that given Chan's success and the fact he was seemingly a very well achieving kid too (maybe not debuting for such a long time is part of this) he is WAY more humble than I'd expect. Like not to besmirch Australian men but a lot of them can be really loud and cocky, especially the famous successful ones (any sport star) it's almost encouraged to be like that if you're a dude (but only to a certain degree, anything beyond a certain point and you'll be roasted lol) So I have to give credit where it's due and say that Chan *Seemingly does have a very good nature and I appreciate that about him! Its probably why I like him so much bc he actually very much doesn't give off those vibes- he doesn't seem like that overly macho cocky bloke I know very well. So that makes him good fun for me- he's very successful and he's confident and yet he doesn't activate any of my bitch instincts- thats impressive! I don't know him, so I'll never know for sure of course, i feel like i need to make that disclaimer but still I do believe he has a good heart, and he tries so hard! and I appreciate that.

Lily is weirdly like Chan. like she's hilariously like chan tbh- I wonder how they really get along sometimes bc I feel like they might look at each other and be like Hm... we the same............ ? Lmao I will say though, lily is a bit out of pocket and half of that I believe is her personality but half of it is just.... I think she's just australian 😭 like i cant lie you get me as a teenager to early 20 something and put me on a live and I can promise I would be saying as much ?? shit. Like, I do think Australians are a little loud and not necessarily always.... tactful (again Not everyone, but yk.) lily certainly fits that bill to a T. I appreciate that regardless of her idolhood she does still say things that maybe she shouldn't, she shrugs off a shoplifting confession, she says she'd murder someone if she had to, she bought and wore a shirt that fans quickly tracked down and found out all the proceeds were going to Palestine- she would have known what that suggested. she clearly had this goal of being an idol since she was a baby, like literal baby but she hasn't sacrificed her broader personality, even the parts that could potentially be off-putting to those idol fans that expect perfection and nothing else. I appreciate that in her! and I hope she never loses her little weird girl spark bc it does make her very dynamic! Her slightly gruff aussie girlness is very fun for me to see in the idolsphere bc it def feels out of place, but in a refreshing way...

so yeah. Idk if this was sensical, I was making dinner so I put my phone down a bunch and it's probably disjointed but thats my opinion... my thoughts, my ideas! Idk my take on them. Thanks for asking 🫡

[idontknowreallyidontcare]

Husband!König has many piercings, some he regrets some he admires himself from getting.

Getting in military after many years of bullying gave him lots of confidence, you can see it. From his lines in game you can understand how cocky and sure of himself he is. He’s a colonel now yes, but he was younger too. I believe he got to hookup more from his 19’s to his late 20’s, this gave him a possibility to discover himself, what he liked and to actually explore himself as a young adult. I believe he has had a brow piercing, the hole almost totally closed because he decided it was too risky keeping one on the field (image he actually rips it off because it gets stuck in something;-; ewwww) He just took it off and never really thought about putting it back in.

Classic but I do image him having a tongue piercing. Like listen, we know König eats pussy for pleasure, he would be okay with only feasting on your pussy for the rest of his life if he could choose to. So ofc, when he started to watch porn and noticed many actors having piercings, and how hot il looked while they ate pussy, he just went with it and got one. The fact that he actually went to a piercer instead of just asking Nikto for help by sticking a mf needle in his tongue and risking an infection, is actually pure luck, because our König is also a proud mf, he takes pride in being good at anything, And why wouldn’t he be able to stick a needle in his own tongue alone! (Thank god Nikto was the one to persuade him, he would’ve gotten an infection).

NOW, König has a big cock, we all know it, he knows it, everyone knows it. And how can his big attributes be highlighted if not by some downstairs piercings??? He’s got one on his tip, unfortunately removed due to the discomfort it gave him by constantly rubbing against his TOO TIGHT pants (whore). BUT DONT BE SAD! He once stumbled across a stack of porn magazines, they were old fashioned ones, probably from late 90’s, depicting naked man and women on each and every page (lol ofc they were porn magazine.)

A model in particular captured his attention, his soft dick resting on the side of a thigh, he could see the small piercings along the under part. Thank god König is also a tech genius, he works with advanced technology every day, so a silly and fast google search brings him to what he is looking for, that strange piercing’s name. Yes everyone, a Jacob’s ladder ;). He’s got one, his dick all hot and bothered form the moment he saw that model’s picture, because he was sure that it would feel SO GOOD to be inside a nice hot pussy, feeling how after each and every thrust the piercings would drag around the insides of a girl, making a moaning mess out of her.

Yes he got one, and he was very careful with it, König is a pretty clean lad, he may not have a skincare, may not use fancy lotions and shampoos, but he knows his routine, he keeps himself clean, even more now that he got the piercings. Well I think he got them in his 30’s, he was already mature enough to understand if he could or couldn’t take care of such an important body modification, and he went for it. He got it done when he knew he’d have the most time off from work, where he knew he could spent at least a few months outside the base and actually be able to care for the wound. Very sexy mature choice woof woof bark bark snarl gnawn

He has a failed lip piercing guys, if got ripped off when a bullet hit his face and scarred a bit of his lips, destiny wanted for the bullet to be deviated exactly by his lip piercing. He’s got a bit of a trauma now, refusing to get another one, but still grateful that the first one kinda saved his life and his face from the possibility of a fucking hole being planted inside of it. He was so sexy too, you have seen a pic (yes a pic, I never see anyone talking about how they actually have technology incorporated in their lives! They take pics guys! Like boomers probably, but they do!) you may try to convince him to get one again, and who knows, maybe he’ll actually consider, but only because YOU asked!! Image now the contrast of his tongue piercing and his lip one while he eats you out, woof woof bark, I’d faint.

[peterporkerfan]

sketchbook [earth 1610!miles morales x latina!reader]

word count: 1.2k

warnings: fluff, light cursing, kissing, relationship insecurities, lots of spanglish

a/n: my first language is spanish, so nothing here is google translated i promise 💀

It was a hot June afternoon, and the air was sizzling all over the city.

You and Miles laid on his bed, side by side, with his arm draped around your shoulder. The AC was on full blast, and Miles’ favorite album sounded all around the room. You were both humming and singing along contently. You looked up at him smiling every once in a while, and he’d look back, smiling even wider.

“Baby, do you hear this? No one does it like Kendrick. His music is on a whole ‘nother level.” He smiled back down at you, looking at you with sheer adoration.“You know, Gwen and I…we’d listen to him all the time when she’d swing by. I love his music.”

“Remember when your favorite rapper was Post Malone?” You joked, and he looked away awkwardly.

“Yeah…we don’t—we don’t talk about that.”

You laughed and you brought your hands to his cheeks, bringing him closer and kissing him deeply. He smiled into the kiss, bringing his hands to your waist and pulling you towards him until you were laying on top of him.

You pull away from the kiss, and look down at Miles while you smile.

“I’ve never met anyone like you, Miles. Eres otra cosa.”

Miles smiled back at you, feeling so lucky to have someone like you in his life. “Just wait until you meet Peter, Hobie, or Gwen…especially Gwen. She’s the coolest person ever. You two would get along really well.” Miles rambled.

“I’m sure we would.” You smiled back at your boyfriend, knowing how much he cared about his friends.

“Miles, mijo! Baja un momentito. I need your help with something!” Mrs. Morales shouted from downstairs.

“Coming, Ma!” Miles shouted back, turning his head in the direction of the opened door.

“A mi tú no me grites!”

Miles sighed, “I’ll be back ya mismo”

“I’ll be right here” You smiled at him. Miles smiled back and walked out, leaving you alone in his room.

When Miles shut the door, you stood up from your position, sitting with your legs crossed on the edge of the twin sized bed. You took in his room, and how much it reminded you of him. His collectible figurines, countless posters of his favorite rappers and albums, and the constant clutter on his floor. You spotted his sketchbook on the ground right in front of you, and felt a sudden urge to pick it up.

Miles was generally open about most things with you, however he kept his drawings to himself. You never questioned it as maybe he just thought they were embarrassing or too personal. You slowly picked up the book and started flipping through its pages. At first you were met with images of his uncle, his suit, and the streets of Brooklyn. You smiled faintly as you flipped through, appreciating how utterly talented your boyfriend was. However, you were suddenly met with countless images of someone whose name you’d never forget: Gwen.

Miles’ face would always light up when he mentioned Gwen. You never thought much of it, however, there were so many drawings of her in his sketchbook, which must’ve taken hours to make, with every little detail about her captured on the paper. You began to feel an unfamiliar pain take over you, and you put the sketchbook down where you got it from. God, she was gorgeous. And cool. Of course Miles liked her…I mean who wouldn’t? The way he described her made her seem so…captivating. Before the thought took over you completely, Miles walked into the room again, holding a large laundry basket and setting it down besides his bed. You tried to change your expression, looking up at your boyfriend like you usually would.

“That’s a lot of clothes to sort through. Que mierda.” Miles sighed.

“You need any help?”

“Yeah, actually. That’d be pretty good.”

“Cual es la palabra mágica?” You teased, batting your eyes at him playfully.

Miles narrowed his eyes at you, acting playfully annoyed. “Please?”

You walked towards him and gave him a kiss on the cheek, and leaned down to sort through the clothes in the basket.

“I think you might’ve outgrown this sweater a while ago.” You held it out so Miles could see. It was an orange cardigan, with patches embroidered into it.

“Haha, very funny, Y/N. That’s Gwen’s. She left it here last time que visitó.”

“Y tú—you wear it?” You asked, feeling the uneasiness you felt before come rushing back.

“Course not. Mami probably threw it in the laundry basket sorting through my room at some point.”

“Oh.”

“It’s nice to have something of her’s though. Just to remember her by.”

Some time went by and you continued to fold clothes while a question bubbled inside you. Finally, after a long silence, you asked.

“Miles, tú—do you still…”

“Do I still what, mi amor?”

“Have feelings for…”

Miles furrowed his brows. “For…Gwen?”

“I mean, you talk about her so much and I didn’t mean to violate your privacy or anything but I may or may not have looked through your sketchbook filled with drawings of her. And don’t get me wrong the drawings are really good pero—”

Miles interrupted your senseless ramble. “Mi amor…”

“Qué?”

“You don’t seriously think that I like her, right?”

“Well, I don’t know. I mean I wouldn’t blame you for it, you know. You did once before, you could again but—“

“Baby…those drawings are old, did you go through the whole thing?”

“No, not really. I guess I thought I’d seen…enough.”

Miles picked up the sketchbook off the ground and flipped through it. He handed it to you and looked at you with adoration as he did so (unbeknownst to you, as you were staring down at your shoes with shame). You flipped the page from a drawing of Gwen and saw it: countless drawings of you. All done when you thought he wasn’t looking. A drawing of you looking at the board in math class, sitting across the room from Miles (only because the teacher thought you two were “too chatty” when you sat together). A drawing of you sitting on your windowsill with headphones on, drowning out the world around you. A drawing of you walking towards Miles, smiling at him. The drawings continued for countless pages, and your eyes began to water as you looked back up at Miles.

“You did all these…de mi?”

“Claro, you’re my girl. Why would I not?” Miles’ brows furrowed as he looked towards you.

“Dios mio, I’m so sorry for thinking you liked her. Soy tan estupida a veces.”

“Nah, don’t be, and you’re not. Yo soy el que es medio pendejo every once in a while. That’s on me.” Miles laughed.

“Y Miles, these drawings are really good. Why hadn’t you shown me?”

“I thought you wouldn’t—ay, no se. I thought you’d think they were stupid or something, I guess.” Miles mumbled, looking down at his shoes.

“Stupid? Miles, these are…you’re crazy talented. Are you kidding me?”

“Thanks…” Miles blushed as he smiled back at you faintly.

“Alright, well… enough of this sappy shit. Where were we?”

“Laundry.” Said Miles.

“Right, laundry.”

“Do we reeeeally want to do the laundry though?” Miles asked, hoping you’d just say no.

“Fuck no.” You laughed.

“Great!” You laughed as Miles webbed you back to were you were before, laying side by side on his bed.

You looked up at him. “Can I choose the music now?”

“Fine, baby. Play whatever you want.”

You unlocked his phone and searched for a Spanish pop song you knew Miles hated.

He narrowed his eyes at you. “Seriously…”

“Miles, si no es así te vas a convertir en un gringo. Con esa B en español, imagínate…”

“Alright, alright…lo que tu digas, mami.” He laughed, kissing the top of your head.

As the song played and you sung along to each word, Miles became sure of one thing:

He’d never let you go.

send me requests for whatever (no smut and only latina or white/race not specified reader please)!! i’ll write mainly for miles morales but i’ll take requests for anyone else spiderverse/spiderman!!

[doctorbunny]

The mission to track down (most of) the locations in Ai Nan Desu Yo!

Firstly, I want to thank @archivalofsins /Gunsli-01, this whole thing started because of us DMing, wondering if we could use the background images in Mahiru's first MV to guess which university she went to, that started this whole adventure. By the end of this saga, the process truly was a collaboration too and i would've given up much sooner (sorry for taking so long to write this up!)

It started here. The caption says Mahiru is sat on the 大学のテラス (University terrace). So we figured this was the best shot to find her uni. Gunsli tried reverse image search but it just kept throwing milgram back at us. So I got an idea:

The magic of photo editing! it worked too and I got this back:

That's right! This isn't a university but a pizza place! Specifically one called 800 ディグリーズ ナポリタン ピッツェリア (800 degrees Neapolitan pizzeria) It is right next to two universities however:

Of these two, I speculate Aoyama Gakuin University is more likely to be Mahiru's as they have a large humanities department and an option to take Chinese language classes (interestingly, it is also a Very Christian university and we know from question 19 of Mahiru's trial 1 interrogation, she believes people go to Heaven when they die. There is also a lot of focus on international students and the campus nearest the pizza resturant has a 'statue of Love' in the Majima Archives building)

Inspired by this fruitful discovery I decided to try my method on other photos:

I jumped all the way over to day 13 because I felt like the sign would aid in my search. Before I bothered with any photo editing I just did some google searches "Tokyo Marun-" I got the autofill result 'Tokyo Marunouchi hotel' after investigating it wasn't the right place but we had a location name "Marunouchi" Trying again I typed "Tokyo Marunouchi Street" Autofill gave me "Marunouchi Street Park": Bingo!

This must be some kind of iconic sign because there were a ton of results for it. The bad news is that the sign was portable and only placed out for special events. So I introduce the next weapon in my arsenal: Google Streetview With a street to work with I walked up and down Morunouchi Naka-doori avenue until I got to a building with similar square pillars to the one behind Mahiru

This place is the MyPlaza, it's got a couple different shops, but importantly there is a function room you can rent out for events just like the wedding reception Mahiru attended here. This one turns out to be further away than some of the other discoveries but it makes sense because Mahiru is travelling to an event, not on a date.

Back to photo editing! This is one of two shrines I'll identify, they become important as they get special icons on google maps, becoming landmarks to search around later.

This is the Meiji Jingu Shrine

I was on a roll so quickly moved to day 14, however, my editing trick wouldn't work here so it would only be later that I uncovered the location of the park

Searching for day 11 was much more fruitful

I was really excited to track this one as Mahiru mentions it being the filming location for her favourite movie. So I thought if we could discover that, then we may unlock more clues about her as a person

I got about this far before realising I could try a different tactic. If this was a well known spot, surely in my broken Japanese I could google it right? So with a little help of my dictionary I spat out "Tokyo red hand railing movie". Somehow this barely worked

The movie? Your Name

At this point I was rolling on the floor laughing because I had been expecting some Japanese cult classic romance movie or a domestically popular but internationally obscure rom com meanwhile Your Name was a massive box office smash hit in many places. One of the few anime movies that even non-anime fans will be aware of.

Despite this, I hadn't actually seen it myself and wasn't really in the mood to watch it (I had more locations to track down, dammit) but fortunately Gunsli came in clutch, having previously seen the movie and also in the mood to rewatch it for clues about Mahiru.

These stairs are actually at a place called Suga Shrine, making this our second landmark. (Fun fact: if you look it up you'll find pictures of movie fans recreating photos of the place)

We were starting to build up an idea of Where Mahiru's world was, the border between Shibuya and Shinjuku ward. There were several parks in the area, so I figured I'd set out to find the day 14 park location by searching through each one. I was worried this would take a while but when I started with the biggest park, Yoyogi, I basically hit jackpot right away. Immediately upon seaching it, google recommended me results for images of the park at night. It turns out that Yoyogi had a large area used for concerts (that also may have been used for movie nights). By chance, I found this image from the park at night

which looks awfully similar to the lamp/benches seen in the background of day 14... According to Gunsli, the nearby yoyogi station is featured in an important scene in Your Name, so that's another thing pointing towards them being in this park. It's not solid evidence but we'll come back to this later.

At this point I'm both hyped up and bored, so to amuse myself and just to see if I can, I decide to search for the place Mahiru's boyfriend is working at in day 8

At first I had written it off as pointless to even try searching, but Gunsli noticed that in the top left corner you can see a hint of the store's sign. It is the same colours as a Seven Eleven (a chain that exists both in the US and Japan) This greatly narrowed down my search, as it ruled out the many Family Marts and Lawsons in the area (I cannot stress how many convenience stores there are in Tokyo) Unfortunately, there were still many 7/11s to search through and thus leads to the several hours I spent on google maps, individually going to each 7/11 in Shibuya and trying to look for those bike racks, floor tiles and old security camera. It was demoralising. But when hope was nearly lost and I almost gave up (there was a heat wave outside so my brain was melting during this). Gunsli reminded me of something very important. On day 8 we get two images, the above of Mahiru waiting outside the 7/11, and one of her sat on a park bench. If we were right about the day 14 park being Yoyogi, then surely our 7/11 would be in walking distance? The search began again. The third 7/11 I found near the park was it.

In one fell swoop I had confirmed both day 8 and 14. In celebration I made a tumblr post

Now, at this point I'm running out of images to search for because a lot of the locations in Ainan are indoors, meaning they could be taken from a studio or even one of the milgram crew's homes (which isn't actually uncommon) and thus, not a relavent location. I did half heartedly attempt to look for the day 9 bar, but as you can imagine, without any external landmarks it was even more of a goose chase than the 7/11...

The last location I decided to look for was all the way back in day 5

This edit was pretty tough to make so i was very annoyed when it didn't work. By this time it was late at night, but Gunsli had a hunch that this would be a well known running route, so started looking for those. By the time I'd woken up, she got it down to a route called the Imperial Palace Running Route, which is very popular (especially with tourists, it is recommended to give it a go if you're in the area)

I found it on streetview by following road signs seen in a video of someone running the route Gunsli found (the part in Mahiru's video appears at about 1:35)

It's an area called Takebashi and here is a screenshot both of what we saw in ainan, as well as what Mahiru would've seen in the direction she ran (the route loops back on itself)

Ok I'm tired it's 1 am, finally here's a really rough map of everywhere in relation to each other

An interesting thread throughout is that many of these places are sort of tourist-y, suggesting Mahiru's boyfriend may not be from Tokyo either. The university (assuming I'm guessing the right place) taking in lots of international students and Mahiru's boyfriend working at a 7/11 (which Japanese people can do but is also Stereotypically the part time job of choice for people from outside Japan while studying) could perhaps even hint to him not being Japanese, but it's all speculation right now

I hope you enjoyed this long rambly mess, I'm so sorry it took me so long to write it all up....

[strawbellery]

“our secret moments in your crowded room, they got no idea about me and you.”

genre: slight angst (not that angst, younghoon just acting cold towards y/n), fwb

pairing: kim younghoon (tbz) x female reader (y/n)

summary: younghoon is known for his tsundere image, surprisingly becoming the other students’ favourite senior despite being so cold and quiet to everyone. other than his tough and unapproachable demeanour, he’s also known for being the smartest one in his batch. most people have been confessing their feelings to him, but he rejected all of them, causing a rumour claiming that he has a high standard on his partner. little did they know, he developed a friends-with-benefits relationship with the most innocent looking 1st year student, y/n.

part i, ii, iii.

words count: 1,890

“awh, you’re so mean. why are you saying such mean words to me?” younghoon followed you from the back, keeping up with your rushed steps to nowhere.

right after the class ended with the lecturer wishing a sincere good luck to all of his students, most of them immediately packed up their stuff, including you. as you shoved your tab into your tote bag and tossed the bag strap onto your right shoulder, you headed out from the classroom, not expecting younghoon to follow like a lost puppy who just found his owner. 

halting your steps and turning to face younghoon, all you wanted to do was kick him on the balls right away. the way he teased you with such an innocent tone, you knew he was just messing around. he never felt bad with whatever he made you feel back then. “shut up.” you braced yourself from uttering those words.

“if you say shut up one more time, i’ll kiss you.” younghoon said, knowing damn well he was the one that held the power in the situation because he knows that you would do anything to keep your image of a pure girl inside the campus, wanting everyone to praise how sweet looking you are.  

younghoon actually cares less if his unapproachable demeanour broke off once he kissed you in public, as if he has nothing to lose since he wasn’t the one who decided to put on the cold image. but for you, it’s a different case. once you enrolled in the campus, you decided that it’s better off starting with a sweet looking girl-next-door image so people won’t take advantage of you for sexual purposes. 

which, in fact, failed. as much as you tried to put on the innocent looking princess on campus, younghoon would do anything to make your mission fail. let it be moaning on the top of your lung in his room, or biting on his inner palm as he tried to keep you quiet when both of you had fun at the janitor’s room.

from what you remember, whenever you both (most of the time younghoon) had fun with each other, he never tried to kiss you on the lips. sucking on your collarbone? marking your neck? oh hell yeah, he likes doing it. he likes seeing his territory on your body. the way you tried to cover them by putting your hair down? or when another male pointed it out? he feels like he owns your whole body.

but one question that keeps lingering in your mind is why wouldn’t younghoon kiss you on the lips? after all the naked bodies pressing against each other, what’s so bad about sharing a kiss? you never brought it up to younghoon but after asking google for answers, you figured out the act of kissing is quite intimate. it’s like a symbol of being attached to one person, and you know younghoon never looks at you in a romantic way. it’s always been you, and only you. you with that darn crush. 

your steps halted once you turned to face the taller man, whose face was filled with mocking expression. biting your inner lips so hard that you could feel the slight blood rushing in, you muttered a quick, “i hate you” before continuing your steps to wherever your feet took you, as long as you didn’t have to face the man again. 

it’s a fact check though, that you didn’t want your first kiss to ruin your pure girl image on the campus, especially by the hot tsundere senior that everyone swooned for, regardless of gender and age. 

seeing how frustrated you were, younghoon couldn’t help but to smirk. he knew how careful you were in protecting your image at the campus, and he also knew how you wanted your “first kiss” to be stolen by the special one, ironically when he became almost all of your “all”s. 

“oh, do you really hate me though?” catching up with your fast tracks, he made sure he still kept you on the tip of his finger. before he could say more, a voice calling you suddenly was heard, despite them being in an open-space area. 

both of you turned to face the owner of the voice, seeing jacob and his other male friend (whom you can’t remember who), came and approached you both. “you were here too, younghoon.” 

younghoon simply greeted jacob back with just a simple hum and nod, not even bothering to use his energy to say anything. jacob faced you with face full of excitement, “y/n! i made a friend who’s the same age as you. meet eric sohn, he’s also a foreigner, just like me!” 

that’s what you actually admire about jacob. he always makes new friends without any limitations. he wanted his circle to be as big as he could and when he meets a new person, he’ll introduce them to his friends and vice versa. well, he has always been told by his parents that connection is important, so here he was, instead of studying, he focused more on making new friends. 

“hey y/n, i’m eric! i’ve heard a lot about you from jacob,” eric introduced himself as he extended his arm out, hoping for a friendly handshake from you.

“nice to meet you, eric. i’m y/n.” you introduced back, accepting his hand for a handshake. younghoon was quick enough to catch the slight blush on your face, knowing it wasn’t the makeup that was reddening on your cheek. you were flustered over the fact that jacob shared little information about you to eric before setting both of you, wondering what he told eric to make him look so excited to meet you. 

“i… didn’t know you were this pretty. if i’ve ever known, i probably wouldn’t have to meet you in a simple hoodie with messy hair,” eric added with a shy smile. the boy was so cute for you to handle, especially when he tried his best to hide his reddening cheeks as well. 

“oh, it’s fine though. i think you’re pretty cute too,” you tried to lighten up the mood, not wanting eric to feel so little of himself. 

“blah blah blah,” a rather cold voice was heard before you no longer felt eric’s hand in your grip. looking down, you noticed younghoon was the one who held eric’s hand by now, “and i’m kim younghoon, your senior.” he emphasised on the nickname, wanting eric to know who’s much older and got the seniority in the campus world. 

apparently that’s how it works in the men's community. somehow someone’s age and seniority play quite a large role among men. 

“oh yeah, younghoon.” eric brushed it off with a slight laughter, not wanting to show his disappointment over the lack of your touch on his, “i’ve heard about you too.”

“i hope that information will stay in your mind,” younghoon partially threatened him, knowing what jacob probably described to the junior. 

cold, quiet and scary senior. 

that was the first time you’ve ever seen this side of younghoon. the jealousy in him, the possessiveness of him. it got more obvious when jacob decided for lunch with four of you at the nearby restaurant since the campus foods suck. once you were seated, younghoon took no time and immediately sat next to you, causing more confusion to jacob as he thought younghoon would sit next to him, as he usually does. 

the cute young man who sat across from you can’t help but to steal glances, as he found you very attractive. you were his type anyway, the one he’d been searching for his life. quite a metaphor but the moment eric laid his eyes on you, he couldn’t help but already arrange the whole future with you in his mind. 

even when the four of you were eating while keeping updates with each other's life, eric would do anything to make sure you’re engaged in his topic. which in fact, caused the inner jealousy of younghoon finally got the best of him. 

“i’m sorry but y/n have to go now,” younghoon said out of nowhere, grabbing your wrist and forcing you to stand with him. 

“where?” your eyes widened, surprised over the pressure he had on your wrist. “yeah, where?” jacob’s question followed along with the confused looking puppy of eric. 

“somewhere,” younghoon replied half-heartedly and when he was about to drag you out, you insisted on staying at the place. “when?! i never say anything,” you said in a rather loud voice, making sure you have the rights for yourself. 

ignoring your words, younghoon thanked jacob for the meal as he forcefully dragged you out from the restaurant as you struggled on keeping up with his steps, at least bringing your tote bag along. once both of you arrived outside the restaurant, younghoon immediately unlocked his car and opened the passenger seat, almost tossing you to the seat. closing the door rather in an annoyed way, he went to sit in the driver seat. 

“what were you doing?” he could hear the frustration from your voice, but he didn’t bother giving you replies as he pressed more on the car pedal, speeding the car’s pace. “younghoon, i’m talking.” 

still, no answer. despite how loud you were, he still gives no response. 

“kim you-”

the sudden brake caused you to almost jump out of your seat, all thanks to the safety belt that you managed to put on before the crazy young man started the engine. 

“what on the earth were you trying to do, younghoon?!” now it became a shout, as you turned to face him with your furious pair of eyes. you never knew you could be so frustrated over someone, not until younghoon steps into your life. 

“i was the one who should ask you that,” younghoon snapped back, turning to face you with a stern look. “what the fuck were you trying to pull back then?” 

furrowing your eyebrows, you can’t seem to catch on with what younghoon said. “what?”

“did you have fun flirting with eric?” younghoon added, “did you think i didn’t recognise those slutty sounds coming out from you? asking how’s his campus life so far?” 

“oh god younghoon, i wasn’t-” 

“yeah sure you weren’t, of course you weren’t, especially with those eyes that begging him to fuck you.” 

“yah kim younghoon!” raising your octaves, you were finally done with his retorts. his words never make sense to you. why would you flirt with eric? you were simply conversing with him, nothing more. or maybe that wasn’t what younghoon saw. 

before you could say anything to defend yourself, the grab on your chin was quite harsh, as younghoon forced you to keep eye contact with him. “what? you think you could fuck with other men as well?”

“how easy are you, y/n? to beg everyone in the campus to fuck you? at this rate, you probably would’ve sucked jacob’s dick too.” 

“hey, you are crossing the line.” you glared at him furiously, not understanding where this jealousy came from. 

“what line, exactly?” younghoon asked you, making sure his grip on your chin remained there, not even caring that he smudged your makeup on that area. “do we even have a line to not cross?”

[hoeratius]

okay, asking this question is maybe the dumbest i've ever felt bc it feels like there should be a straightforward, obvious answer here, but every time i've tried to look it up, i've found nothing but pages upon pages of what feels like people talking in circles and only serving to make me more confused in the end. since you're the most knowledgable person i follow when it comes to the Classics, i figured this might be a good place to ask and maybe get an actual answer? (that being said, it's fine if you don't want to/don't have the time to answer this! obviously!!)

where can i read about the older greek myths? as in pre-trojan war. mostly, i'm interested in theseus but also just pre-trojan war stories in general. i know not everything got the iliad/odyssey treatment and there's probably not any surviving text to point at in a lot of cases, but there must've been something. every time i try to look up where to read about the history of theseus, i'm being directed to a bunch of modern retellings, but google has gotten so bad as a search engine, i literally cannot find anything about the origins of this thing everybody's retelling

from what i understand, theseus was sort of everywhere sticking his nose in everything at all times, so i'm not asking for a comprehensive timeline of his whackass life and everything he ever appeared in or anything, but if you could point me in the direction of anything about him--actual plays or academic texts, anything like that--that's more credible than, like, a self-published, self-described "bold new reimagining" with a stock image of a dude in party city roman cosplay as the cover, it would be MUCH appreciated 😭

(again, sorry about how... basic this question is i guess lol? i'm very new to classics in general and still pretty ignorant about everything, so it's EXTREMELY likely that this is a very dumb question with a very obvious answer, but thank you regardless!)

Hello! What an exciting ask (and apologies for my excited and maybe incoherent answer)!

Since you seem to be most interested in Theseus, I’ll use him as an example but much of this can be applied to other Greek heroes/myths/stories more generally.

As you noted, few get the Iliad/Odyssey treatment. In fact, even Achilles and Odysseus don’t, considering the Iliad spans only 7 weeks or so, and the Odyssey misses out on Odysseus’s actions before and during the Trojan War, and after he came home – and he did a lot after he came home. So where to go to find all the other stories that happened?

Some things to keep in mind:

Writers assumed their audience was familiar with the hero’s greatest deeds already

The big boys – Achilles, Odysseus, Theseus, Perseus, Heracles, Oedipus – had their stories shared in many formats. Think of the Parthenon metopes, which show Theseus’s key deeds in sculpture, or vases, hymns, public performances, bedtime stories, etc. People would encounter these often enough that the outlines of these heroes’ stories were known to them from a young age.

One of the Metopes of the Parthenon, showing (probably) Athena and Theseus.

As a result, ancient texts never show the entire story; they select the moment they want to tell and focus in on that. Hence the Iliad focuses on Achilles’s wrath, the Odyssey emphasises his homecoming, and the Argonautica tells the story of the Golden Fleece. Similarly, tragedies will choose a meaningful moment: not all of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra’s struggles, but his return home in the Agamemnon, or the events that lead directly to Pentheus’s dismemberment in the Bakchai.

So finding one text that will give you a useful overview will be hard!

These heroes are often also connected to so many other famous characters, that sometimes they show up as a side character in their stories, so it depends on which stories capture your interest most.

Pre-Homeric texts are few and far between

But this is not to say there aren’t pre-Trojan-War myths!

There are loads! Anything with Heracles or Theseus is pre-Iliadic, and others, like the house of Pelops, link more to the Trojan War but are also separate from it. Plus, there is Hesiod’s Theogony (roughly contemporary with Homer), which tells of the births of the gods and goes all the way back to the start of the universe.

The Ovid situation

Many Greek texts are lost, and we’ve only got allusions to this or that part of the myth in the existing fragments, etc. etc. So how do we still know so much about so many of these stories?

Enter my fave: Ovid.

Far later than Homer (1st century versus 8th century BC), but with access to all the Greek texts and them some, he wrote a lot of fairly comprehensive stories. These include the Heroides, letters written from the perspective of female characters trying to connect to their male lovers, with letter 10 coming from Ariadne to Theseus, and Metamorphoses 8 with parts of Theseus’s story.

If you’re looking for a high-level overview of what was what in ancient myth, starting with the Metamorphoses will give you all the big boys and many of the smaller ones.

Theseus specifically:

I must admit that Theseus is not my strong suit, but sources I’m familiar with that I would recommend:

Hippolytus, by Euripides and Phaedra by Seneca: these both tell of Theseus’s second wife Phaedra falling for his son Hippolytus and causing his death

Catullus 64: A lament from Ariadne after Theseus has abandoned her on Naxos

Metamorphoses 8, 12, by Ovid: Snippets of Theseus’s life, incl the Minotaur

Ones I’m not as familiar with but might be up your street:

Life of Theseus, Plutarch: a historian/scholar’s biography. He had them in pairs, where he compared the two; Theseus is linked to Romulus

The Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodus: Follows Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece; Theseus is one of his heroes

Oedipus at Colonnus, Sophocles: apparently Theseus is a major side character here but I don’t remember!

There is also The King must Die by Mary Renault, a modern retelling from the ‘80s that blew me away. The only book set in ancient Greece I’ve ever read that doesn’t shy away from how alien their culture and values are to us today and doesn’t try to sugarcoat things.

And if you’re looking for more heroes: Wikipedia is your friend!

The Classics-related pages are pretty reliable, and they often mention the main sources per character.  

I hope this gets you started but please do hit me up with more questions, I always love diving into these things!

[beesmygod]

one webcomics trend I've noticed for a bit is comics where the creator casts a wide net and publishes to as many sites as possible, so like there's a tumblr mirror, a webtoons mirror, a tapas mirror, a twitter mirror, I've even seen one that has a tiktok mirror (god). Some of these even have the decency to actually have their own website

the idea was to cast the widest possible net in order to get the maximum audience possible, as this was the excuse for people using webtoons despite it sucking raw hot dogs but i dont understand how on earth this strategy could ever work lol

full lol i love to hear myself talk damn. fucking. subnormality webcomic behavior

anyway to highlight the uselessness of google analytics, these are my analytics arranged on "looker studio", a google product i guess they forgot about, in order to make sense of the useless shit they're showing me. you can see this enormous traffic spike from a traffic bot farm advertising their services by ruining your metrics. you can no longer filter these urls from your data.

full image

here's my google adsense conspiracy theory from me shedding light on why i think (STRONG EMPHASIS ON "THINK". IM HYPOTHESIZING) with commentary from someone who knows way more about the subject than my armchair observations.

my marketing strategy is to talk bullshit with people with similar interests while letting people know when my comic updates twice a week. if they want to read it, they can. they're not stupid, they don't need to be forced into reading it if they want to. i assume most of my readers are as broke as i am so i don't hound them to give me money they don't have. i'll never run ads again unless its like. for a friend's thing. hand-cultivated by me. im not looking for a wide audience, i'm looking for an audience of people who "get it" and can see an inherent value in what i create. if they have some spare cash, i make my barrier to entry on my patreon extremely low; 1 dollar a month and you can see things early and go through a backlog of author commentary and design stuff and rewards im sooo behind on im so sorry. im so sick i promise, im coming back!!! anyway i just want real human people to have a chance to see things and enjoy things without making it a fucking hassle, you know.

the most organic, actual traffic i got from my site is from a friend's webcomic that links to mine. 11 people read a lot of pages! that's genuinely making my head spin! that's great! i hope they liked it and will check in again. i love the comic they came from so they are clearly ppl of taste lol.

oh uh. and heres my comic lol. for any cantankerous gay old losers out there.

[cringelordofchaos]

random craig tucker headcanons

has level 1 low support needs autism

gay (not a hc bt whaever.)

special interest is star trek and space in general

watching red racer every day is a routine he mustn't under almost any imaginable circumstance break

got some peruvian ancestry (from which parent's side? heck if i know) + knows a bittt of spanish

his family mostly goes without saying a word to each other during meals

when hes waiting outside the counselor's office for flipping off someone again he sits and either thinks about space or looks at images of stripe on his phone to ease any tension that migth be there

barely ever smiles except when stripe, space or tweek exist

closer to thomas than to laura

his parents taught him everythin ghe knows <33 (emotional constipation and invlulnerability but breaking the ice every one in a while)

sometimes just randomly infodumps about random facts about star strek or space or guinea pigs at the most random of times (actually canon as briefly shown in TFBW)

likes to learn / memorize random facts abt red racer, space, star trek or guinea pigs

random fact i almost mispelled guinea pigs every single time wtmf is wrong with me

for birthdays he mostly gets space-themed stuff cuz everyone knows he loves it

if hes overwhelmed, instead of having a meltdown he'll usually have a shutdown instead

sometimes rants to stripe abt stuff like relationship drama w tweek lmao

he actually liked the clothes he wore during the metrosexual fad, (evident by keeping them in his closet as shown in TFBW)

most emotion he shows is anger/being pissed off

"sooooooo happy" is actually a stim of his and it feels satisfying for him to say it every time hes sooo happy

even when hes sooo happy the most emotion he'll show is a faint smile

doesn't really smile in any pictures unless hes forced to

flipping people off for him is kinda like pushing people away and making them pissed off at him so he wouldnt need to care abt what they think of him and that way he sorta protects himself (mostly saying this bc of one of his attacks in tfbw)(i swear im sane)

hes sometimes overwhelmed from his relationship w tweek but he fucking sucks at communicating (his kryptonite in TFBW is literally communication) he didnt communicate that to tweek just yet (this is mostly shown in buddha box)(NOT SAYING CRAIG DOESNT CARE ABOUT TWEEK HE LOVES HIM HES JUST OVERWHELMED SOMETIMES FROM FEELING LIKE HES COMPLETELY RESPONIBLE FOR HIM ANDN OIEAHDKKSH leave him alone) i like to imagine tweek and craig resolve this at one point cuz im pretty sure they get married in the future and they always push through their struggles together and they rly need each other so .

u can point to a star n hell name it

has space themed pajamas

(StOLEN HC IdK FroM whO) has those glow in the dark stars in his room

i googled it sometime ago n apparently he has blue eyes ? idrc

his childhood dream was to become an astronaut (I FORGOT HOW TO SPELL IT I LITERALLY HAD TO GOOGLE IT I HATE MYSELF) but when he grew up he probably settled for something less extreme. idk what though

either got diagnosed w autism at age 10, in his teens, in his young adult years, or far afterwards, or never at all. when he was told by someone that he migth be autistic he didnt rly even bother to look it up or anything but if he did he would go like "idk i dont really think im autistic i dont think i do (x symtom) all that much" and tweeks like "You do that literally all the time !!!!". but yeah even if he gets diagnosed he doesnt rly end up taking any medication or specializzed therapy but he does gain a larger understanding of himself and how to handle things like shutdowns.)

really picky eater (cuz sensory issues)

hates wearing jeans or similiar uncomfy clothing so he wears exclusively sweatpants (again cuz of sensory issues)

his whole family is autistic actually ive decided so when mr mackey brings up the possibility of him being autistic laura and thomas deny it cuz all the symptoms he shows are what they do as well, andthyere obviously not autistic so neither can craig be.

sometimes he goes over to tweeks house completely unannounced and so does tweek (actuallycanon as shown in put it down)

0verwhelmed by the concept of emotions in general but his relationship w tweek forces him to confront that part of him he tries to avoid and forces him to open up a bit which is actually rly important

since tweek is on meth, he heavily lacks appetite and sometimes skips meals or just doesnt take care of himself enough. craig learns abt this (not the meth part cuz tweek doesnt know that eithrer) so he helps him eat enough food throughout the day so he doesnt fucken starve to death

replies to tweeks texts instantly (actually canon)

tolkiens best friend (canon according to the official south park wiki). clydes a closee second

clyde annoys the fuck out of him but in a friend teasing way and they both care abt each other obvu

i actually dont rly have hcs for him n tolkien sryyyy

jimmy makes the best remarks abt creek (canon)(in put it down he asks craig (when craig doesnt know why tweek isnt in school) "uh oh. trouble in paradise?" and in TFBW during a battle tweek tells craig smth like "ill be right with you super craig!" and jimmy says "OK, i guess illbe the third wheel." anyway live laugh jimmy)

extremely blunt pessimist (canon)

despite his reputation as a troublemaker hes actually a decently polite kid (minus the constant flipping off)

barely goes out the house or does anything exciting. nice n boring. just the way he likes it.

hates changes or sudden surprises or his routine being broken

on the verge of being diagnosed w oppositional defiance disorder

sometimes wears black nail polish (again cuz in tfbw its kinda implied he liked the metrosexual fad n black nail polish migth be a more neutral form of such self expression)(mostly self projecting here)

tumblr user

during one pride month thomas went all out and bought craig a shitton of pride themed merch that he mostly doesnt use

he loves loves lovess seeing tweeks smile !!!1!! hes like omfg finally hes getting a fucking break (tweeks life is a fucking mess)

appears unphased by some stuff even when hes really uncomfortab;le

sometimes sleeps without pillow ehn he deems it more comfortable

deals w some form of small anxiety, not to a disordered amount thogh

maybee has depression ?!? idk

dated a girl in the past cuz he thought he was supposed to, but he felt like "she was holding him back". overall he didnt give a fuck abt their breakup cuz he didnt really care that much abt the relationship and when others questioned him abt it he was confused and didnt know most ppl were heartbroken after a breakup. (sorry i love early craig being a gay mess in denial)

sometimes cartman calls him a pocoyo rip off and each time he feels the strongest urge to either decapitate or defenestrate him

before he n tweek got together he would joke to tolkien abt how he was gonna propose to him when they grew up so he could live off his wealth and not have to work for any money. (SORRY i got this concept from a webcomic (the four of them))

he n tweek send heart emojis to each other (implied)

mostlyyy dry texter (he doesnt mean to)

at one point he n tweek buy a pair of guinea pigs for stripe to befriend and craig names them castor and pollux

he n tweek get married in the future

mostly likes dry, tasteless and cold food (There r obviously exceptions thats why i said mostly)

says and intreprerts things more literally than most

still sarcastic at times

hates huge social events with too many people and noiises

used to blend in well and fit in w mob mentality but doesnt really care anymore

it wont let me write anymo

[jeannereames]

In "Dancing With The Lion", you seem to say that Alexander was not handsome. But when I searched about Alexander's appearance on Google, I found that almost everywhere he was described as a handsome man. He was even called extremely handsome in a couple of articles. I have seen the copy of Alexander's bust originally made by Lysippus. It's said that Lysippus made the bust during Alexander's lifetime & Alexander looked like that. The bust doesn't look bad. Why do you then think that Alexander wasn't good looking enough? By the way, I loved the guy who seemed to represent Alexander on the cover page of "Dancing With The Lion". Alexander might very well look like that :-)

First, a comment on my description and why I made it, then some background on the history.

What Hephaistion thinks to himself is actually, “Only a flatterer would call him handsome.” He doesn’t say he’s ugly or plain. He’s just normal looking. I made that choice partly for historical reasons, but also because I wanted to humanize him. Same reason I gave him acne. 😉 I don’t see him as unattractive, I just don’t see him as especially handsome. (A link to the novels, for anybody looking, with the new covers.)

I would caution about taking seriously much that you find via a Google search. It’s kinda a dumpster fire, honestly, unless you know exactly what you’re looking for.* Always check who wrote an article. How did they learn the information they relate? That’s part of why I cite things here, even if I don’t load y’all up with citations the way I would in a scholarly article. But I want readers to be able to chase down references for themselves, even as, in our post-expert era, I also want readers to trust that I know where to look in the first place—what’s reliable.

Although it’s now 30+ years old, probably the best book on Alexander’s appearance is Andrew Stewart’s Faces of Power: Alexander’s Image and Hellenistic Politics (1993). I know it’s expensive (LOTS and lots of picture plates inside), but because it’s been out a minute, you can probably find it used, or in a library.

So, let’s look at the history. There are several things going on here:

The ancient Greeks conflated wealth, class, intelligence, and beauty with heroic status. So Achilles is beautiful but Thersites is malformed and ugly. This motif rolled over onto historical individuals, and the Greeks purposely practiced “idealizing” in their sculpture, especially of anybody presented as heroic. There’s quite a lot written on Greek idealizing, but again, beware a simple Google search; I just tried to find something useful and gave up by the time I was on page 6; the best thing was an article in the NYT, behind a paywall. I’d suggest grabbing an art history textbook, especially a specialized one, like Shiela Dillon’s.

The Alexander head on the Akropolis (which was used to find the model for the cover of Becoming) is a perfect example of Classical-era idealization. We’d call it Photoshopped. 😉 Yes, it’s recognizably Alexander, but his face is made to match the canon of Greek ephebic beauty. (The publisher liked it. ha)

Add to this the divinization of Alexander and its impact on his sculptures across time. See Stewart mentioned above for a great description of how his Successors molded his image for their own purposes. Generally speaking, his hair gets longer and flowier, his eyes get larger, and his face get softened until he looks feminized. The sculpture below, from the Capitoline Museum, is a great example. It’s Alexander as Helios (the sun god), a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original, and that original is speculatively dated to sometime in the late 200s or early 100s BCE, based on style.

We in the modern world are inclined to these same assumptions. We got it from them! I’ve noticed that most sketches (especially AI pictures) of Alexander on the internet turn him pretty. One (below, yes with 6 fingers) has him looking suspiciously like Henry Cavill! LOL

There have been some better attempts to use AI to render him, based on ancient statuary, but most use statues I’m less fond of. Yet the one that uses the Azara Herm is, I think, pretty close. I agree with Stewart that the Azara Herm is as near to a likeness as is out there; see Stewart’s discussion as to why. I believe it’s the bust you’re referring to in the ask. Below with link to Royalty Now, who made it. I want to be sure she gets credit. I bought myself a copy of this one. She did two reconstructions, but I don’t care for the other because of the statue used. Royalty Now may have airbrushed him a bit (he lacks scars, for instance—highly unlikely in a soldier), but at least in basic facial structure, it’s good. Note the long face. If a long face with sharper features is more accepted today—largely thanks to what photographs well—the Greek ideal was a rounder face, like the Akropolis head above.

So the real Alexander wasn’t an ugly man, no, but if you passed him on the street, you probably wouldn’t stop and stare. Unless he wanted you to. It was his CHARISMA that people noted, not his physical appearance.

That, I also tried to note in the novels. At one point, Aristotle remarks to himself that Hephaistion might have the looks, but Alexander would always be the one to draw eyes. 😊

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

* For instance, my educational website on Hephaistion appears pages and pages and pages down from the top on Google … even though it’s written by one of the two leading world experts on him (Sabine Müller is the other). Ergo, you have to wade through a lot of stuff put out by sites that know how to rank themselves higher before you get to the actual specialist. Once upon a time, btw, it popped up higher, but pay-to-play has changed search engines.

[doberbutts]

why do dobs have such curly tails? is there spitz in them?

No, but spitz aren't the only ones with curly tails, and even some spitz don't even have curly tails.

I was just discussing this with @elvenferretots last night because I get a lot of negative comments on Fenris' tail from doberman people. The issue is that the majority of dobe people in this country have no idea what their dogs' tails look like because they cut them off 🤷‍♂️ so they are unused to seeing a natural tail and somehow believe their dogs have german shepherd tails when breeding for an upright tailset.

Compare these two images of a fairly young Creed. His tail was docked, so it is impossible to know exactly how much curve he had. One of these looks far more natural than the other, no? If the docked nubbin is held up, the significantly more likely answer is that there is at least a moderate curve to the tail.

In this one, the curve is more extreme, but his tail is also being held higher. He may have had a looser curve than that, but the tail would still curl somehow.

Compare this to my natural dogs:

Fenris with his fairly high tail set looks like every other doberman with a docked tail. This is why I say when you breed for an upright nubbin like this, what you're breeding for is curly tails.

Phoebe has a lower tailset, but it does still curve and does curl in a wide arc over her back when she's excited about something (peep the old fencing solution lmao). When held loosely, it falls rather than curls in a tight arc over her back the way Fenris' tail does.

Technically none of these are 100% correct, but Creed's was the most correct as the tail is supposed to be a natural continuation of the spine rather than snapped up over the back or hanging freely between the legs.

This bitch, who I got off a quick Google, illustrates the "continuation of the spine" I'm talking about. Her tail still curls, but not to the degree of Fenris'. Again, she was produced in a country that has banned cropping and docking for quite some time, so there's a clearer picture of what tails and ears are being produced. In this country, as well as the country Fenris was produced, cropping and docking is still the majority expectation, and so it is significantly more difficult for breeders to actually know what these tails are going to look like. In addition, most people *prefer* the upright nub to one that sticks out of the spine line that, show and working breeders both.

Phoebe is working line, so "looks like a doberman" is the standard she was bred to rather than any nitpicking over tails. Fenris, as well, is half working line.

His father, Sarek- pure working line, also has an upright nub, which means his tail also would probably curl over his back to at least some degree.

And his mother, @themiscyradobermans's Elsa (super pregnant here)- American/Canadian show line and South American blend- also has an upright nub, meaning her tail would also curl, again the degree of which is unknown because these dogs are docked.

Fenris' tail is *really* curly for the breed (but not as curly as I've seen in other dobes), but at the same time some curl should be expected.

AKC vs FCI standard- despite the original standard stating the same as the AKC, once FCI ruled that dobes need to be natural all the time, the standard changed to define the higher tailset as correct since so many people had spent so many decades specifically breeding for an upright tail nub and thus immediately got curly tails when they stopped being allowed to dock.

[thefallennightmare]

Moment of Weakness-nine

*credit to whoever created the gif. found on google/Pinterest *

Pairings: Mob!Bucky Barnes x reader

Warnings: language, smut, angst, fluff, affair, cheating, violence.

Summary: Reader is the assistant to New York's most feared mob boss, James Buchanan Barnes. He had the picture-perfect life: status in the mob, friends, and beautiful wife. So why can't he keep his mind and eyes off of reader?

Authors Notes: Happy Birthday Bucky Barnes. We all love you <3

Tags(open): @splendidreads @sebsgirl71479 @mdpplgtz03 @pattiemac1 @unaxv @elizacusi-blog @alana4610 @broadwaybabe18 @themayzittcha @playboystark @raajali3 @ozwriterchick @ragamuffin285 @screamingdying @themorningsunshine @kenziekugler22 @calwitch @sebastianstansqueen @stanaddict @stucky-simp03 @sleyeveryday @loustan90 @lyra-black13 @valsworldofcreativity @cjand10 @tesseract69 @batprincess1013 @subwaysurf45 @arsonfrogger @winters1917 @yoruse @5moremin @lipstickandtanqueray @mandijo17

The office was eerily quiet, almost as if I was the only one here but I knew that wasn’t the truth. The closed door behind me said that he was inside with Steve, as they had their morning private meeting with each other. I didn’t let my mind wander too far from the work in front of me because I knew I would be here all day and night if I allowed that to happen. 

I had taken the last few days off after my night with Bucky because I couldn’t face him, afraid that my job was on the line. Thankfully it wasn’t, Bucky made sure of that when I returned to work this morning. We still haven’t seen each other, me coming in while he was in that said meeting with Steve, so I could breathe for a little while. He had a list placed on my desk this morning of what he needed me to do. 

-Pick up dry cleaning-done

-pick up lunch order

-reply to emails-currently working on

-file away papers

-meet with me to talk about what you missed the last few days. 

The last thing on the list I had purposely avoided, not wanting to face Bucky yet. He could have actually wanted to talk about what I missed, work wise, or he could want to talk about what happened between us. And that, I wasn't ready for. 

While I was home, “sick”, all I could think about was that night we shared. Bare, sweaty, bodies moving in tangent with each other. Our movements almost like a slow dance with our moans acting as the music. My entire body felt on fire as those flash images crossed my mind and I bit my lip, wanting to feel him inside me again. Bucky’s lips kissing every inch of skin and leaving his marks all over, days later they still shined bright. 

I did my best to cover them, however, the one on my neck was a bit hard to cover. 

The door clicked open behind me and I stood straighter, trying to block out those memories and continued my work. 

“Hey, you’re back.” 

I looked up towards Steve and gave him a smile, the guilt eating away at my heart. I knew how he felt about me and with how close we became, I couldn’t stop the way I felt so guilty with what happened. 

“Uh, yeah. I had a small cold but feeling a lot better,” I lied. 

Steve smiled while slicking his hair out of his face. “Well, let me know when you head out to grab lunch and I’ll come with you.” 

“Sure,” I nodded. “Oh, Sam is in your office waiting for you. Mentioned something about an errand you two had to run.”

Steve gave my shoulder a squeeze before walking into his own office and left the door opened ajar slightly. 

“Y/N?”

I turned in my chair towards Bucky and my heart began to beat so fast that I couldn’t catch my breath as he stared at me with his bright eyes. 

“Need something?” I asked. 

“How are you feeling?” 

Bucky knew that I had been lying about why I stayed home but didn’t bother to mention it, only keeping up my ruse. 

“Better, thanks for letting me take some time off,” I said. 

He nodded while stuffing his hands deep into his pockets. “Of course. Do you think maybe we could talk?” 

I quickly shook my head. “I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on. Can we do it later?” 

Bucky’s shoulders fell but he nodded again. “Sure. Over lunch?” 

“Yeah, lunch,” I muttered before turning back to my work and did my best to ignore Bucky’s intense eyes. 

With Bucky back behind his own desk, I didn’t miss the way he kept gazing out towards me every so often. There even had been a few times that our eyes would lock and I quickly averted from it. 

Before I knew it, lunch had approached and while I gathered my things to go pick up everyone’s order from the deli down the block, the door to the building opened and her happiness radiated the walls and I sucked in a breath, not thinking I would have to face her yet. 

“Natasha, hi,” I forced a smile. “I didn’t know you were coming in today.” 

Her smile only amplified her beauty and I felt jealous because I knew that I alone couldn’t be enough for Bucky. What we had was a one time thing, it would never be more than that. 

“I’m only here for a few minutes and I’m here to see you.” 

My heart began to beat faster and I swallowed thickly. “About what?” 

Fear set in that she found out about Bucky and I. 

“Bucky is having some of his mob friends over tonight and I thought it would be a great way to make it a party.  But then I realized it would be rude to not invite you,” Natasha said. 

“Oh,” I muttered. 

I racked my brain to figure out an excuse not to go tonight. The guilt I felt around her and Bucky had become a sharp knife in my back that I knew if I went tonight, it would only twist it deeper. 

“Thank you for the invite but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it,” I lied yet again. 

Natasha frowned. “I understand, I thought we could use this night to get to know each other better. You’re working with my husband and I realized that I know nothing about you.” 

My brow raised at her voice. There was something hidden underneath the tone that I didn’t quite understand. 

Was she jealous that I worked so close with Bucky? 

Did she think something was going on between us? 

Or did she know exactly what happened and she was using tonight to call me out on it? 

“Ready for lunch?” Steve walked out of his office but gave Natasha his attention. “Hey, Nat. Need me to bring anything tonight?” 

She nodded towards me. “Maybe Y/N. I’ve invited her but she said she can’t make it.” 

I bit my cheek at her persistence. 

“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of laundry to catch up on from being sick the last few days.” 

Steve gave me a look and I knew he saw straight through my lie. 

“Or maybe she has a hot date tonight,” Natasha observed while pointing to her neck. 

I quickly rubbed a hand over the mark on my own neck, embarrassed that she had noticed.

Steve shifted on his feet. “Do you?” 

“It’s nothing,” I shook my head while avoiding his gaze. 

Natasha snickered. “If you have a hook up planned tonight, Y/N, that’s all you have to say. You don’t need to lie. By the looks of it, it seemed like a good time.” 

“I should really go pick up our lunch,” I spoke. 

I refused to stand there any longer and get grilled by Natasha on what happened with Steve watching me with hurt in his eyes. 

As if the Gods above wanted to torture me even more, Bucky walked out of his office and looked between the three of us, questioning in his own eyes.

“What’s going on?” He wondered. 

Natasha placed a kiss on his cheek and I shifted uncomfortably, something Steve noticed immediately. He looked between Bucky and I, his lips falling open slightly but said nothing. 

“I wanted to invite Y/N tonight but she said she can’t come. I think she has a date planned and she’s keeping it a secret,” Natasha filled Bucky in. 

“Oh, you do?” Bucky questioned with brows raised. 

I rubbed at the mark on my neck. “I don’t.” 

“So come tonight! Steve will be there to keep you company,” Natasha nudged Steve’s shoulder. 

He refused to meet my gaze at first but eventually looked at me. “It’ll be more fun if you come.” 

“Steve’s right,” Bucky spoke. 

My tired gaze fell on him once more. 

“Come by tonight, even if it’s for an hour. Nat put this huge party together and it would mean a lot to her,” Bucky continued. 

I gnawed on my lip and reluctantly agreed. “Of course, for Natasha.” 

She beamed brightly while she clapped her hands together. “Perfect, it starts at eight and Steve will send you the address.” 

“Wonderful,” I grumbled as I gathered my things.

I didn’t bother to wait for Steve, who made no effort to follow, as I hurriedly walked away from the three of them, Bucky continuing to watch me intently. 

The bass from the outdoor speakers vibrated against the bones in my body as I took a small sip of my drink, eyes scanning around the small party. My interpretation of small was different than Natahsa’s. There had to be at least of a hundred people in the backyard of their mansion, not counting whoever was inside. 

I arrived almost twenty minutes ago and even with one drink in, I was ready to leave. This was the last place I wanted to be tonight. Steve wasn’t anywhere in sight and neither was Bucky. I knew no one here and felt so out of place. 

“Thinking of a way to escape?” 

I turned towards the deep voice and breathed in relief. 

“I’d be lying if I said this was my kind of scene,” I admitted to Steve. 

He took a large drink from the beer in his hand. “Let’s give it an hour then we can head to my place for pizza and a movie?” 

A smile broke out on my face. “I would really like that.” 

We talked, just the two of us, for a while and it helped keep my mind from wandering where Bucky was. I could have asked Steve but didn’t want to ruin the lightness of our conversations. At some point, Sam came up to join us and for the first time in a few days, I felt myself again. 

Goosebumps pricked over my skin as I felt someone staring and I peered over my shoulder and felt my breath hitch at the sight. Bucky was standing a few feet from us and watching my every movement with a small smile pulling at his lips. His jacket looked warm and inviting, almost pulling me towards him, but I kept my feet planted firmly by Steve and Sam. Even with his smile, the sadness in Bucky’s eyes made my heart fall. 

“I need another drink,” I said suddenly, hoping that the change of position would stop the burning I felt in my core as I continued to look at Bucky. 

I didn’t bother to wait for Steve and Sam and scurried over towards the outdoor bar and gave my order with a smile. As I waited, fingers drumming over the wood, a body slid up behind me. Warm breath fanned over my ear and I shivered with desire with his deep voice. 

“You look beautiful.” 

I did my best to hold my composure by ignoring his compliment. 

“Thank you,” I smiled at the bartender as he handed me my drink. 

I went to walk past Bucky but his vibranium fingers grasped at my hand to stop me. Our fingers linked for a few seconds before I removed them. 

“Don’t,” I warned in a hush tone in case others around us could hear. 

“Can we talk, please?” He begged. 

I motioned towards his right hand which held a cigarette. “Since when do you smoke?” 

He sighed. “Only when I’m stressed.” 

“What could you possibly be stressed out about?” I scoffed. 

Bucky nodded behind me to Steve and I gave him a firm poke into his chest. “You do not have the right to get jealous of me talking with Steve. I told you that nothing happened between us.” 

“I know,” Bucky said. 

“Also, I don’t want to be with anyone who smokes.” I stated with arms crossed. 

He tossed it to the ground, crushing the cigarette underneath his boot. “All the more reason to quit. But can we talk in private?” 

I shook my head. “There’s nothing to talk about, Bucky. What happened shouldn’t have, you’re married. It was a moment of weakness between us. That’s it.” 

“Not for me,” Bucky disagreed. 

“This cannot happen again,” I pointed between us. “You need to focus on Natasha.” 

“Doll,” he breathed. “You can’t tell me that night didn’t mean something to you. All I can think about is you and how I want to kiss you again.” 

“Don’t!” I seethed, gaining attention from a few people around us. 

I looked around and cursed under my breath, realizing that this wasn’t the place or time to talk about this, even if I didn’t want to. 

“I’m out of here,” I muttered under my breath, walking away from him. 

A bit later, I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, taking deep breaths to calm myself. This was the main reason why I didn’t want to come tonight. I knew that Bucky would want to talk and I’d eventually fall back into him because my feelings for him were that intense and deep. 

“Get a hold of yourself, Y/N. He’s a married man.” I groaned to myself as I shut off the light, leaving the bathroom. 

Suddenly a small yell from my lips as I felt myself being pulled into a dark room, body pinned to the wall behind me. Even in the darkness, I noticed the bright eyes immediately and let out a deep breath, knowing that he was the reason I was in the room. 

“Bucky-” I started. 

I was cut off by his lips attacking mine hungrily and after I froze for a second, I melted into him and both of our lips moved together. I moaned into his mouth when his tongue pressed onto mine, my hands snacking around his neck to bring him closer. 

His arms rested underneath the swell of my ass and lifted me into his arms, legs wrapping around him. I felt him leading me towards somewhere in the room and my body was gently placed on what I assumed was a couch, Bucky never breaking the kiss. There was a hint of cigarette smoke on his breath but it was overpowered by the beer I had tasted on his lips.

Bucky’s hips rutted into mine, the hardness of his cock pressing into my thigh, and I bit his lip, wanting more. 

“Stop,” I pushed him away, realizing what we were doing. 

He cupped my cheek but I rolled out from under him, standing to my feet. 

“God, why did you do that!” I bellowed. 

Bucky leaned back into the couch with a sigh. “I can’t stop thinking about you, Y/N. The first time I tasted you, I needed more.” 

“I told you, you can’t! It’s not right!” I yelled, the confines of the room we were in blocking it out from whoever was outside. 

“You want this too, doll. The way you kissed me said it all,” Bucky raised to his feet and reached for me. 

I smacked his hands away. “Of course I fucking want it, Bucky! All I want is you but I can’t because again, you’re fucking married!” 

He ran a hand over his chin. “Please stop reminding me.” 

“It’s the truth!” 

Bucky’s lips were on mine yet again but this time, I was stronger and pushed him off, smacking him in the chest. 

“Stop!” 

“I can’t,” Bucky almost whined. “I can’t stay away from you, Y.N.” 

I stared at him while my chest rose and fell with each deep breath as the decision mulled in my mind. 

“You need to try.” 

I left him behind, even if my mind was screaming to go back to him.

[americasass81]

Not Your Kinda Love

Warnings 18+ for the following:- Implied Stalking, Threatening Behavior, Non-consensual Sex, Dubious Consent, Implied Smut {m/f, oral f receiving), Implied Use of Sex Toys, Implied DBSM Dynamic, Use of Pet Names. Seriously do not read if any of this upsets you, the warnings are there for a reason. Feedback is welcomed and any mistakes are my own.

By proceeding you are acknowledging that you are over 18 and are consenting to the content below the cut.

Synopsis:- It might not have been your kinda love, but perhaps in the end it would be just what both of you needed.

Author’s Note 1:- Written for @caplanbuckybarnes Titles For Caplan Writing Challenge.  Thank you for hosting this fun challenge Caplan.  I really enjoyed creating this piece.

Author’s Note 2:- As usual all images have been found through google search.

Pairing:- dark!Loki Laufeyson X Female Reader

Total word count:- 4,134

Turning over in bed and reaching for the body beside you, you couldn't believe you were here ... again.  What was it about him that kept drawing you back night after night, heartache after heartache?  You knew he was never going to change given who he was.  Hell, he had all but proven as much that first night you had ended up beneath the sheets together.  And yet the more time you spent with him, letting him do the things he did, the more your heart still held out hope.  Still had room for the possibility that if you continued to give enough of yourself, he would hold you the way you now held him as your mind wandered back to when and how this fucked up situation first began.

Exactly three months previously and thank god the party was winding down.  Of course you loved being Tony Stark's personal secretary and knew any number of women that would kill for the job you now held and the opportunities it presented, but damn that man if he didn't take the 'personal' part of your job title far beyond the scope of what you had signed up for.  Calls at all hours of the day and night for stupid little things whenever a thought popped into his head as if he didn't have an array of virtual assistants capable of recording a quick email.  Work AND home things that Pepper insisted were not all your responsibility, which Tony continued to ignore to both her annoyance and yours.  And of course, there was the organizing of all those Stark parties.

Dressed up to the nines for every holiday event along with any other frivolous occasion the master of ceremonies decided was worth celebrating.  And you just had to be in attendance.  After all, not only were you a highly valued member of staff, but as Tony liked to remind you every chance he got, someone as wonderful as you deserved to have men and women falling over themselves to wine and dine you as they tried to prove themselves worthy of claiming your heart and where better to meet such individuals.  As if he'd actually stop pestering you long enough to give these potential suitors the opportunity to even talk to you.

No, picking up your latest drink from the bar now and taking a sip while looking at your watch, you promised yourself once the liquid ran out you were heading home.  Sure some of the women here had seemed interesting and hell having spent quite a bit of time in Stephen Strange's company you could certainly see the appeal where he was concerned.  But something wasn't right.  Maybe all your years working now as Tony's assistant had heightened your sense for trouble but you just couldn't get comfortable.  Then again maybe it was the trouble that followed the Avengers through no fault of their own that had you so on edge or maybe it was the eyes you felt tracking you all night yet never seemed to be there when you tried to zero in on them.

Yes, it was most definitely them you should have paid more attention to.

Raising your glass to your lips again to take another sip and just as you and the liquid kissed, all hell broke loose ... in a manner.  Shutting off the music and taking command of the sound system, Tony Stark’s trusted A.I. F.R.I.D.A.Y. clearly informed all those present that a minor emergency had occurred in the compound that required part of it to be locked down.  This meant of course that everyone, yourself included, was now expected to take up residence in an available room in the accommodation wing since all the main exits had been sealed.

So as you now downed the rest of your drink before heading off to find a bed for the night, you couldn't help but sigh at this inevitable turn of events while simultaneously grumbling at your lack of a family and the easy out that came with it.  After all, those people with kids had it all you now thought as you calmly passed some worried party goers making their way along the corridors or stopping for directions despite the fact that people were only permitted to head in one direction.  No, those lucky sods had shown up, enjoyed a few hours break and then headed back home at a reasonable hour under the guise of having been away from their little ones for far too long.  Hell it was even rumored on many occasions that Tony forked out for the childcare costs of those that attended these little shindigs.  Talk about having your cake, frosting and getting to eat it you thought.

Setting this aggravation aside and finally reaching the accommodation wing, you now let go of these jealous musings long enough however to claim the first open door you came across, stepped inside and closed it behind you before you realized none of it really mattered where you were concerned.  Here or at home, being the first or the last to leave, you worked too hard and too long to ever land a partner willing to slot themselves into your lifestyle and even if you did, Tony would probably still find some stupid reason to have you hanging around.

No, this was the job you ended up doing and there was nothing you could do about it other than quit … and even that hadn’t worked.

Sighing deeply now as you locked the door and began removing your dress and heels, the fabric pooling at your feet made you wish your resolve had been stronger.  So much stronger.  After all, was this not the reward the great Tony Stark had bestowed upon you the last time you had typed up your resignation letter and left it on his desk.  That and of course a fabulous week at a top of the range spa and the promise that he would also scale back his unreasonable demands on your personal time.

Yeah like that had materialized.  Two days back at work and all was as it was before.  He just couldn't manage without you it seemed.

Walking towards the bed now and slipping under the covers feeling totally exhausted, you were just about to close your eyes and leave Tony Stark and the rest of the compound to do whatever it was they were doing when a noise alerted you that sleep was not your destination just yet.  Sitting up in bed mindful now of all that might be going on within this private space, you thought about calling out to F.R.I.D.A.Y. but then thought better of it.  After all, the eyes you thought were on you all night never materialized and for all you knew F.R.I.D.A.Y. was busy elsewhere dealing with whatever problem had landed you and the other guests in your current locations to begin with.

Then again, there was also the real possibility that it was simply the night's drinks playing tricks on your mind.  After all, now that you thought about it, you couldn't accurately remember how many you had actually consumed and thanks to you organizing this blessed event, it had been one long week that saw you burning the candle at both ends and now found you beyond exhausted.

No, listening intently now a bit longer and hearing nothing, you reassured yourself the situation had simply heightened your senses while your imagination flew off to the land of make believe.  You were safe and everything was fine.  Holding onto this thought then, laying down on the bed again and closing your eyes to the world around you, sleep came to embrace you once more before it was cruelly snatched away again however ... you had most definitely heard something this time.  You were sure of it.

Cursing yourself now that you had not worn anything under your dress, but smart enough to know that you couldn't fight off a possible intruder with a massive sheet wrapped around your body, you climbed out of bed and called out for F.R.I.D.A.Y. as loud as you were willing to under the circumstances, but wasn't surprised when no answer was received.  It seemed you were on your own.  Listening out once more now but again hearing nothing, you slowly opened the bedroom door next and looking around the living area was a bit relieved at least to see that you seemed to be alone.

Now you just had to prove it.

Walking quietly over the threshold then from one room into the other you didn't need the missing dress or the altered lock on the main door however to tell you that something wasn't right.  You felt it in the chill surrounding you that had nothing whatsoever to do with your thoroughly naked form.  No, you were most definitely not alone.

Placing one foot carefully now in front of the other while picking up a heavy glass ashtray from the nearest side table you passed, it still surprised you when you made it to the other side of the room without incident.  Reaching up to examine the locking mechanism then and confirming that it was indeed open now, your hand moving down to catch the handle and pull the door open raised a whole different set of questions however as the door held firm.

Placing the ashtray on the nearest surface now and using both hands this time to pull the door with as much strength as you possessed, you finally had to admit defeat and accept that perhaps exhaustion had at last caught up with you and had now reached the level of paranoia however.  For certain facts proved your theory wrong.  The door for example, despite your best efforts, remained closed.  The room, both of them in fact, remained to the naked eye completely devoid of humans except for yourself.  And there was definitely no other sound other than that of your racing heart.  Even if there were other minor inconsistencies.

Okay so your dress no longer occupied a circle of the floor by your shoes, but walking back to the bedroom then, its shimmering fabric resting now across the back of the couch brought your feet to a total and shocking stop.  Had you put it there?  Reaching out to touch it, it didn't align with any memory you had, but then again you were the only one here.  Perhaps your memory was the altered factor in this situation.  It's not like this hadn't happened before where you and copious amounts of alcohol were concerned.  So picking up the dress and this time taking it back to the bedroom with you, you now closed and locked this door too and placed the garment on the only chair in the room before telling yourself this whole experience was all in your head.  Now if only you could convince your eyes of that exact same fact.  For their experience told a totally different story.

Turning now to face the bed, its soft sheets and embracing comfort should have been waiting to welcome you back once more, but it seemed you weren't truly alone after all.  Stretched out before you now, every bit as naked as yourself, Loki, the god of mischief, was unashamedly ogling you like a predatory animal ready to pounce and devour you whole.  And it wasn't a pleasant thought.

But it wasn't your only thought either.

Running back to the door now and finding it every bit as stuck as the main door you had just assured yourself was perfectly fine, you now screamed out for F.R.I.D.A.Y. but quickly realized you were on your own when a chuckle behind you reached your ears and two strong hands rested now upon your trembling shoulders.  You were cut off from the outside world it seemed.

Turning back around to face your captor now, for that's exactly what he was, you knew you stood no chance of fighting him off however and since running was clearly out of the question, it seemed logic, reason and conversation was now your only avenue to head off whatever sick and twisted scheme Thor's diabolical brother had concocted with you at its center.  So removing his hands from your shoulders then and walking towards the foot of the bed, you sat down and let out another deep and exhausted sigh before finally speaking the words that forced you to acknowledge his very real presence.  "Loki, what the hell are you doing in my room naked and why am I unable to leave?"

Moving towards you now but stopping abruptly however when you stared him down with an exasperated expression, he held up his hands in surrender and walked instead towards the chair that now held your dress.  Picking it up then and dumping it on the floor as you had earlier in the night, he then sat down in a manner that left his whole being on display for anyone to witness.  Which explained why your eyes remained laser focused on his face instead.  You wanted answers and you were going to get them.  So, with a calm breath, you asked once more what he was up to and waited for his answer.  One you absolutely did not like.

"Well pet," he started, as his fingers skimmed lazily along his thigh, "we're on lockdown remember.  I needed a bed, you're all alone, so I didn't think you'd mind sharing.  After all, that bed is big enough for two and I promise not to bite,” he finished with a devilish look that told you all you needed to know.

‘Unless you ask me to,’ your mind now heard, though those particular words never actually left his lips.  They didn't need to.  Loki was a trickster after all.  Hell he was THE trickster.  If a bed was all he wanted there had to be a vacant one somewhere in this whole compound and his answer only covered why he was here in your room.  There was still the question of why you couldn't leave, not to mention why his naked form was occupying your bed when the couch in the living room would surely do him just fine.  No, he was definitely up to something and you were determined to find out what that was despite your fear associated with any answer he provided.  So you soldiered on and reminded him again of the second part of your question.  And of course he had an answer for that too.

"Come on pet, we do not know what this emergency is or what terrible beast my dimwitted brother and his band of buffoons may have tempted into this building," he stated now as he rose from his seat and walked towards you before continuing, "no, my conscience could not allow any harm to come to one such as you.  Best to make sure you are utterly protected," he now finished as he stood before you, reached out his hand to take hold of your chin and run his fingers along your cheek as you imagined they had on his thigh just moments ago.

Leaning into his touch now as if he was somehow working his magic on you, you may very well have fallen for his charms if the memory of the party had not suddenly presented itself front and center in your mind however.  The eyes you swore were following you all night but could never find ... "it was you," you suddenly blurted out as you broke free from his hand and now scurried up along the bed putting as much distance as possible between the two of you in the process.  "You were watching me all night.  You planned this?" and though these revelations all came out as a question, you knew.  Even without a word passing his lying lips, the truth could not be denied.

This was all his doing somehow.

Standing before you now as a wicked smirk graced his features, you didn't need his following actions to know that you were screwed.  If you were being honest with yourself, you knew it the minute the main door of the apartment wouldn't open.  You knew it when you found him lying on your bed.  You were what he wanted, but he wasn't about to have his way.  Getting ready to move from the bed and at least attempt to fight him off this time, it seemed he still had the upper hand however as magic tendrils coiled around your arms and held you firmly to the bed frame before he spoke again.

"Now pet before you think about doing something stupid, allow me to paint you a picture so you are fully informed of all that your future actions will entail," and with that a series of images flashed along the wall off to your right in a show of horror that would keep you awake for many nights to come.  Walking from room to room, muttering words you knew you'd never understand over each peaceful party goer he came across, you didn't need his explanation to know their fate now lay in your hands.

But then again Loki wouldn't be Loki if he didn't love to talk, so he stuck the knife in and told you anyway.  Told you that if you should refuse him now or any time here after, one, more or perhaps all of those assembled before you would meet a horrible and untimely death.  Tell his bumbling brother, your boss or anyone remotely associated with the Avengers, law enforcement or earth's governments and again, you knew the consequences.  Try to warn any of these innocent people in any way and it wouldn't end with their lives.  Their families?  Their friends?  Hell tragedies could so easily befall entire neighborhoods these days without anyone ever knowing why.

Best to do as you were told it seemed.  But could you really do that?  Could you really just give in and give this madman what he wanted?

Lingering on this question while gazing once more now as the images wound down to end on one of Shona, a temp you knew that worked for Natasha Romanoff, your blood ran cold and a tear escaped your eyes as the reality of your predicament truly settled in your heart.  He really had left you with no way out.  These people were innocent after all.  They could not be harmed because of you.  And it was because of you you suddenly realized as a totally different image all your own crystallized into being before your very eyes and superseded all of those that Loki had created.

Falling farther into memory's flow now of a night before you had started working for Tony Stark, your life had almost been cut short by a drunk on a motorcycle but for the intervention of a mysterious stranger clad in green and gold armor.  Pulling you out of harm's way and making sure that not a single hair was out of place, he had offered to see you home safely … and how had you shown your appreciation?  You'd walked away and never thought of him again.  You'd never spoken to him, never danced with him whenever your paths crossed at any event both of you attended.  Hell you hadn't even stood up for him and protested that he wasn't himself when the attack on New York had marked him as public enemy number one.

No, you had simply gone on with your life like nothing had happened and forgotten all about him as everyone else had his entire life.  And now you wondered why he was seeking retribution.

Had you only just said thank you or accepted one of his many dance offers.  Had you badgered Thor into realizing just how far Loki had strayed from the boy he had played with as a child.  But no, you had treated him worse than dirt and now your fate was sealed.  Yours and countless others.  So who was the real monster here then?  The god who had been cast aside for doing something any decent person would have done or you, who may now be responsible for many, many deaths as a result of thinking only of yourself?

Pulling against your bindings again as you still refused to accept defeat, Loki laying down beside you and muttering some nonsense as a redhead began writhing on the wall before you suddenly forced the reality of your new situation upon you however in a way his words never really could.  You were all at his mercy.  Sitting back on the bed then and asking him to stop, you exhaled a sigh of relief at his immediate compliance ... at least until he made his true intentions known.

Situating himself between your legs as his fingers and lips now mapped out every mound and hollow of your glorious body, his tongue and shaft reaching places no one ever had before left you completely lost as to what was so wrong with what was going on.  And that was long before the orgasms started.  The orgasms that shook your body, stole your breath and made you realize your life as you knew it would never be the same.  For there was no backing out of this arrangement even if Loki reversed whatever spell he had placed upon the party guests.  You couldn't give this up.

Sure the god of mischief had forced himself upon you by threatening innocent people, but damn him if he didn't make it worth your while.  Positions and toys you never knew of.  Pleasure that bordered on pain.  A tongue ... oh a tongue that could do so much more than spew filthy words that turned you on and disgusted you in equal measure.  And how could you even forget what his godly equipment was capable of.  A human phallus could never compete with his impressive erections, though many had tried.  No, as each night after your initial encounter became a new adventure in what depraved sex act your body could tolerate, even him disappearing in the morning without so much as a kiss on the forehead or a kind word could not it seemed protect your all too human heart.

You had started falling in love with him to the point where very little else mattered.  Work for example now became nothing more than a means of wasting away the day until night fell and your dark prince appeared once more to take you apart as you screamed his name for all the nine realms to hear.  Sure you still worked just as diligently and no one close to you ever suspected what night time brought your way, but beneath the sheets, in Loki's arms, someone else it seemed had taken your place.

Someone who loved to be dominated.  Who loved to be spanked, marked and pushed to new heights of pleasure over and over and over again at the whims of her dark lover.  Who loved ice it seemed far more than heat.  And who, no matter how many mornings her god pushed her arms aside and reminded her she was nothing more than a warm place to stick his cock, was only all too happy to provide whatever small comfort his body was willing to accept when he finally agreed her frail human form couldn't handle any more.

Which brought you back full circle now to him sleeping in your arms while your left leg rested across those muscular thighs that proved every bit as skillful at getting you off as the impressive length currently recovering from yet another night of pounding your pussy apart.  Pulling your body closer to his then as your mind finally accepted what you allowed him to do to you, you now prepared to join him in sleep as your dreams replayed him fucking you to pieces and then putting you back together into this new being that longed to have him acknowledge your growing feelings for him while also admitting that perhaps he too had fallen victim to love's influence.

Admitting that such a thing was most likely doomed to failure given who he was, his arm unconsciously moving up to encircle your waist brought a glimmer of hope you desperately clung to however when his muttered confession told you that his spell had been removed weeks ago.  Bolstered by this new information, the path ahead looked very different now however as your bodies rested together until your carnal desires called out to each other once more and this new dance took both of you to higher plains of euphoria all over again.

[tenaciouschronicler]

August 2 and 3 2024 2009

I fear I really will need to put all my posts into a word doc.

Lets work through the lore shall we.

So, back on page 251 when the Kernel divided it 'hatched' upon arrival to The Medium. These Kernels, one light and one dark, upon situating themselves in their respective Orbs activate the Imps present giving them characteristics from the prototyping, in this case harlequin clothing.

Im gonna put the rest under the cut, this post got away from me.

Again working from top to bottom, These Orbs are situated upon one of Four Spires which make up the throne of either sides Sovereign Power; the Dark throne is purple while the Light throne is gold. The first Kernels arrival is the catalyst that starts the 'true game', increasing the board to a 12x12, adding more pieces and actually placing the kings on opposite corners. Light is also always destined to lose. Im curious if each game can only be played by four players or if only the first four are placed in the spires and subsequesnt players dont have any effect on the Sovereign Powers? Could you play with less than four players and how would that game play out?

John and WV both wonder what the point is then if Light always loses and Nanna says that is The Ultimate Riddle they have to solve.

This part made me remember way back on page 82 when the narrator said:

The game presently eluding you is only the latest sleight of hand in the repertoire of an unseen riddler, one to engender a sense not of mirth, but of lack. His coarse schemes are those less of a prankster than a common pickpocket.

His riddle is Absence itself. It is a mystery dispersing altogether, like the moon's faint reflection, with even one pebble of inquiry dropped in its black well. It is the most diabolical riddle of all.

At the time I wrote, "Googling Absence gives us "the state of being away from a place or person". So his riddle is a state of being away from others... I feel like the following statement gives more but I cant discern what." Could this be The Ultimate Riddle Nanna is refering to? I still cant tell what the riddle is, maybe after I put all the Lore together I can at least try to add more to this. (After stepping back and re-reading it I figured out the 'diabolical riddle'; the nature of Absence is transitory and evanescent, here one moment gone the next. Looking for answers only serves to hasten its absence, obscuring itself with more questions.)

For now, John has to climb towards Skia by passing through the gates utilizing the games building funtion to reach. In that way he can save Dad! And what about Earth?

Nanna drops the bombshell that Earth is done for, regardless of how well they do in this game.

Finally done with her duty, Nanna heads off to bake John cookies! For the first time we see her phase through the walls leaving blue goo on the Con Air poster. We didnt see her doing that earlier but maybe theres more goo around the house.

WV is All About them cookies and pushes John to pursue. We learn John hates any and all baked goods "totally abjur[ing] the hell out of that idea."

Roses Pesterchum image is annoyed now, having tried to get Johns attention this whole time and is now trying to use a box to the head.

Unfortunately for her I think this is Johns last straw and hes having a well deserved scream. After everything hes gone through and learned, I think he needs it.

In the meantime and probably against better judgement, theres still a fire raging Rose, shes gonna update the GameFAQ. And apparently get sassed by a dead cat. It's pretty much all his fault you're in this mess in the first place, so he can just button it.

Whatever you say Rose.