#this is also an invitation if you just want to recommend what you consider MUST READS™

[3-oclock-tea]

Any recommendations of fics on the longer side of Mulder and Scully falling in love/realizing they are in love with each other?

[just-a-ghost00]

Which spirit animal wants to reach out?

Decks used : self made spirit animals deck, Crystals oracle deck, Below the surface oracle deck. Feedback is highly appreciated. Cover pictures were found on Pinterest.

Group 1

The spirit animal you got is the german shepherd. You could extrapolate to dogs in general, especially big ones or dogs that are generally misunderstood. What does this spirit want to help with? -> 1 Great White Shark - Go for it : strike when the iron is hot. This spirit wants to help you with decision making and acting upon your desired reality. The go-getter energy of the German shepherd is encouraging you to move forward with confidence and determination. The number one is symbolic of self and individuality. So this animal clearly wants to help you with embracing your power and expressing your sense of self. Figuring out who you are and what your place is in the big scheme of things.

-> 8 Olive Ridley Sea Turtle - Out of your comfort zone : you know what inevitably must be done. This spirit also helps you with risk taking, which seems logical. If you're gonna move forward with confidence, you ultimately have to take risks to reach your goals. A lot of work on your fears will be done. I feel like situations will be presented to you where though you may feel uncomfortable, you will want to challenge yourself and one step at a time will change the way you present yourself or react to things. For instance, let's say you tend to be a couch potato because you fear people's opinion of you. You could be making new friends that invite you to go on a trip with them. If the old you would have found an excuse not to go, the new you will consider it and find ways to make their schedule lighter so that they can have fun. You may not go all the way, like you might say "okay I'm not against going but I have to be back home by this date" or "okay I'm going but just so you know I am not comfortable with taking the plane". And so on.

How can you connect and work with this spirit? -> Turquoise - Speak your truth. Who needs it? Anyone whose voice has gone AWOL. When to use it? When you feel disconnected from the things that make you human. When you've got something to express. Of course it had to be Turquoise. Wearing this color or using the stone during recommended situations written above is one way to do it. You can also be closer to this spirit when you are being unapologetically yourself.

-> Bismuth - Rewrite your code with rainbows. Who needs it? The easily distracted, burners, people who are overly bored. When to use it? For those looking for some psychedlic influence -without taking the red pill- lie down and take ten deep breaths with Bismuth placed on your forehead. Using Bismuth is a first approach. You can also connect with them doing breath work. Rainbows can be a way for them to connect with you and let them know they are watching over you.

-> Aquamarine - Keep your cool. Who needs it? Those who run hot, fire signs, anybody hanging onto an unspoken burning desire. When to use it? When you've lost your voice. When it's past time to let it go. Or when you're feeling too en fuego for polite company, ice yourself down with Aquamarine's cold-shower vibes. Using Aquamarine could also help. Listening to your deepest desires will also make them more present in your life.

Note to user : a lot of emphasis is being put on the throat chakra in this reading. If you're constantly dealing with throat soreness, coughing, inflamation of the throat it means that there are things that need to be said. As long as you don't speak your truth, you will be struggling with those. Another thing is to learn when to speak up and when to use body language instead. Especially for those of you whose job requires to speak in public. Work on throat chakra balancing.

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Group 2

The spirit animal that wants to connect with you is the snake. It could be either sea snakes or land snakes. You could extrapolate to reptiles.

What do they want to help you with? -> 39 Moorish Idol - Unchangeable devotion : where do your loyalties lie? -> 31 Flying Gurnard - Emotions are running high : ask yourself if it is worth it. The snake spirit wishes to help you with connections, with the feeling of love and your emotions in general. They want to help you work with self love and self care. With your perception of yourself and the value you give yourself. They wish to help you identify commitments that are beneficial to you and differenciate them from those which bring you down. You may have struggled with unhealthy attachments in the past. Snake wants to free you from codependency and help you heal trauma related to intimacy.

How to connect and work with them? -> Lepidolite - Enter your chill zone. Who needs it? the perpetually frazzled, the oh-so cerebral, type-A workaholics. When to use it? When freaking out. Put your phone on do not disturb and let yourself be for five mintues. Let go of all the drama. It was not yours to begin with, anyway. Another message is coming through that the snake wants to help you with setting boundaries. Too often have you been overgiving and taking as yours responsibilities of other people. Too often have you been excusing peope's misconducts, thinking that they were meant for you. Snake wants you to be prideful and ruthless. It's like they're saying "do not let yourself be walked over". To connect with them, they want you to first detach yourself from social media and your phone in general. Then they also want you to take time for yourself, away from the drama of other people.

-> Honey calcite - Break through your limits. Who needs it? Anyone with a job to do, the brilliant but lazy, any Taurus. When to use it? When the barriers of abundance feel too big to power through. When it's time to stop waiting for your turn and stop waiting until tomorrow. Wearing honey calcite could be helpful. Putting yourself first will also make them more present in your life. They wish to say "stop waiting for others to take care of you, you are your responsibility". They tell me that a lot of you have often been in third party situations. Have always been the one that was never chosen, or chosen last. You often felt left out by others, by life. Snake is saying "take the reigns, let yourself be known and seen but most importantly don't settle for less than you deserve".

-> Meteorite - Connect to your star stuff. Who needs it? Children of the stars. When to use it? When you're looking to conduct more spiritual energy. When you're looking to connect with a friend in another galaxy. When you want to feel aligned with the universal flow. Manifesting your soul tribe would bring you closer to the snake spirit. Finding people that match your vibrations and interests. Lucid dreaming or energy work related to the stars could also be helpful. I feel like the more you will connect with this spirit, the closer you will be to meeting your counterpart.

Note to user : there's a theme here about soul connections and starchildren. But there's also an underlying energy of abuse. The energy feels heavy here and could be a bit triggering. Snake is not one to hold their tongue. They like to speak the truth, no matter how ugly it may sound, because they know you can take it. I feel like a lot of you long for deep and soulful connections. And you feel like you haven't found those and are desperate to get to meet your soulmate or your destined lover. Everything has a purpose and in due time you will be perfectly aligned with whoever you're supposed to meet. Snake is here to help you slither your way through illusion. You might want to work on your root and sacral chakras.

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Group 3

The spirit that wants to reach out to you is the Unicorn. You may extrapolate to horses.

What do they wish to help you with?-> 15 Ocellaris Clownfish - Protect your home : take care of your sacred spaces. -> 8 Olive Ridley Sea Turtle - Out of your comfort zone : you know what must be done. Unicorn is here to help with boundaries and grounding. They wish to help you see the good in you and what's around you. To tame your fears and feel more comfortable in your own skin. Specifically, Unicorn will help you love your body and nurture it. "Your body is your temple" is a saying that holds Unicorn's energy and wisdom. Unicorn wants to help with self love and self care as well. Especially if you tend to be harsh on yourself and self sabotage. For some I'm hearing something very specific : "don't make a clown of yourself, you are not a fair beast to be put in a cage and prompted to entertain". "You are not a trophee either".

How to connect and work with them?-> Carnelian - Go with your guts. Who needs it? the understimulated, anybody looking to get acquainted with their fears. When to use it ? When you find your creativity and/or sex drive on sleep mode. -> Tiger's eye - Balance your whole being. Who needs it? The currently overthinking and moodswinging, Geminis, Virgos. When to use it? When your thoughts are not your friends. When you're all roar and not enough purr. When only equanimity of mind, body, spirit, left brain and right brain can get you square with the universe. -> Amethyst - Get drunk on your highest self. Who needs it? Trainwrecks who go off the rails on the wet-and-wild route to Bacchanalia, any Pisces. When to use it? When it's time to give up the victim routine and start living with purpose. Wearing one or a combination of those three crystals will help you channel Unicorn's energy. Wearing pinks, purples, oranges and yellows. Tuning into your sensuality and doing creative work is another way to connect with their energy. Going to therapy or working with any spiritual practitionner to figure out your purpose in life. Doing Ikigai or holding a self growth journal. Using writing prompst to shed light onto your shadows.

Note to user : to me the unicorn is a symbol of the LGBTQIA+ community. If you have been struggling with your sexual and gender identity / preferences, Unicorn spirit is here to help you with figuring out where do you lie on the spectrum. Speaking of spectrums, it can also help you with anything close to ASD or mental illnesses. If you were hesitating to make your coming out, Unicorn will give you a nudge. It might sting a little. You might want to work on your heart, crown and third eye chakra.

[antimony-medusa]

hi saw your daddy kink post discussing the phenomenon of giving grown characters surrogate parental relationships, and I understand where you’re coming from, but i really feel like it’s just a matter of the circles you run in, and the assumptions that you might make because of that. you mention how platonic reads of these dynamics are more uncommon than kinky reads, which i just don’t think is the case, and I think that arguing that people don’t even realize that they’re writing a kink is a little bit bizarre, and sort of assumes that you know more abt them than they do by projecting your own experiences onto them.

it isn’t inherently sexual to crave protection or a parental relationship that you may have missed out on, and it is certainly not universal. in my own family, my “grandpa” isnt my biological grandfather (nor do I really consider him to be my grandfather), but he’s my mother’s surrogate father and has been since she was in her twenties. an adult. he sees her as a daughter. she sees him as a father. there’s absolutely nothing kinky about it. and anybody who automatically assumes that must have their mind deep, deep in the gutter and/or the stranger side of the Internet. really, i find it a bit of a strange argument to randomly post in the first place—as if it’s a problem that so many people enjoy non romantic and non sexual relationships, and that these people must, in fact, have a daddy kink that they are unaware of.

that said, i do absolutely agree that fans bringing any part of that into phil’s chat is weird and they should Not do that, and that infantilizing characters is also very weird, and personally i dont even see him as being father figure to anybody on that island except his eggs, wilbur, and MAYBE an argument could be made for tubbo (which other cc’s on the island have joked about), but to each their own and all that.

sorry this is so long. TLDR, i get where ur coming from in terms of “warning , some people might read your stuff differently than you want here” but really not everything is a kink and paternal dynamics can easily happen in regards to adult characters, particularly young adults, without there being any inappropriate connotations. i know nothing i said will change your mind, obviously it’s set, but ykno diff perspectives and all that. hope ur doing well

Thank you for the ask! I see you were on mobile, I believe. :D I am also going to push the character limit with this response, I fear.

I agree that it isn't inhernetly sexual to go after a parental relationship that you missed out on, and there are many such cases. I'll even go so far as to say that it's not inherently kinky to go after a parental relationship that you missed out on, because there is such a thing as non-sexual kink, and heaven knows that MCYT writing is full of non-sexual kink. Lots and lots of stuff that is platonic that is kinking on fear, or being drugged, or kidnapping, or hypnosis, or familial relationships, etc— there's lots of people who aren't doing that. There are tons of people out in the real world (and in fiction), who are simply just expanding their family as an adult, and that's awesome. When I was in college there was this older couple who kind of adopted me and invited me over for thursday dinner, and they were awesome. There was nothing untoward going on there.

But look. I am an emduo fan who likes to see my guys be murdery, and because of that, I've ended up reading a bunch of Dark SBI. I've ocassionally gone "this cannot be what everyone is doing" and I've read stuff tagged as "family fluff" that I find recommended. I am aware of where the genre is going, particularly with the rise of "dadbur" and "dadnoblade" interpretations.

And look, you have just got to trust me on this one. People are writing stuff that in any other fandom I would be recommending they put kink tags on the work so that people who liked that trope could find it and people who didn't like it would avoid it, but that comment in DSMP would just lead to people getting doxxed, so I just grit my teeth and go "i guess that's baked into Dark SBI or Tooth Rotting Fluff now, I sure hope that doesn't hit anybody's triggers".

Like I PROMISE you. The first draft of this response included excerpts of fics that I've read and I was like "can YOU pick the ship fic from the /p fics here"? But I have a horror of ever leading to someone getting cancelled on twitter, so nothing that could possibly be identifiable of these writers. But like—

Some of the ways that Tommy gets treated in the narrative are almost indistinguishable from a bodice-ripper romance. Some of the tropes being used— within DSMP we've all clasped hands and agreed to interpret it being platonic, but in any other fandom, you are going to start getting comments that you might not want to get. The tag is FULL of stuff that is DD/LB in everything but name. Maybe my mind is in the gutter here, but if you move out of this fandom, you are going to move into circles where a lot of people's minds are in the gutter, and you are going to get a very different response from your comments!

And I was talking about daddy kink here specifically, because I see that one come up a lot and it's gotten egregious lately, but this also applies to dehumanization, and fearplay, and predator/prey, and "instincts" (in every other fandom that's gonna get people in a mashup of A/B/O, Hypnosis, and sometimes Agere responding to it), and kidnapping/drugging, AND the way a bunch of "piglin instincts" stuff is just a BDSM au now where the Brute (dom) needs to be callmed down by their Runt (sub). The SBI tag is super kinky right now. And I don't have a problem with that idealogically, write your truth, but a) please don't bring that up in front of the streamers, b) if you move to another fandom you have got to be prepared that not everyone is doing their kink platonically.

Like I'm assuming that people don't know what tropes they're playing into, they're just building them from first principles, because the other alternative is that they are deliberately and knowingly writing kink and posting it in the & relationship tag with insufficient trigger tags, and I prefer to believe that people don't know.

I'm glad we agree about people bringing that into Phi's chat, or Pol's, or Luzu, or any of the other streamers that people have decided is So Old. A lot of people aren't comfortable even being assigned dad, as we saw with Felps, so bringing it even further is just— uh oh, no.

I do not have a problem with people liking non-romantic and non-sexual relationships. I find it a bit odd that much of the fandom can't concieve of a non-romantic and non-sexual relationship without making it familial and specifically lately father-son— don't you have close friends?— but I am fully in support of gen writing. I primarily write gen! I'm an avid commentor on gen fics!

But some of the tropes at play in the fandom are kinky, there is no way to avoid that. The fact that they are set in a familial relationship doesn't negate that. Some of the ways that the DSMP characters get treated would be distinctly non-familial if you ever brought it out of that context. And I am just warning people, if you bring it out of that context, be prepared for the response you get.

You cannot take DSMP tropes and apply them one-to-one in other fandoms, with other streamers swapped in, and expect them to be read the same way. Like i'm sorry, but that's just true. If you are posting the same sort of stuff that for Cellbit & Phil that you would post for Tommy & Phil, people will assume that you have a daddy kink, because usually when a relationship between a adults that are actually similar in age is refered to with paternal language it's a kink thing. That is how the broader internet works. (And anon, if I had a daddy kink, would I be complaining about the fact that I can open any SBI fic and have about a 40% chance of hitting it and I'm seeing signs of this appearing in QSMP? I assure you I'm not "projecting [my] own experiences onto them" here.)

[suzuran777]

Review: Ooe -Zenpen- (Adelta)

The first part of Adelta's new BL visual novel "Ooe" was finally released on the 25th last month! The second part is scheduled to be released in winter, but the first part was already so good I highly recommend playing it. I’ve been waiting for this game for a long time and also wrote some general information/theories about the game on this blog some years ago, as well as a review of the trial version. I won't mention any big plot-related spoilers, so if you’re waiting for an English version or are just curious what the game is about, you can still check it out!

Synopsis 30th year of the Showa era (1955), our protagonist Oosaki works for a small detective agency and one day receives a strange request from a client. He's asked to attend a memorial service on behalf of his client, which will be held on the remote island of Ooejima. During his stay on the island, a series of strange events happen, and the ship that was supposed to pick them up never arrives. The organizer who invited them is not there, and shortly afterwards they also lose all contact with the outside world. Stranded on this ominous island, ten people unravel the mystery of their shared pasts and the death of the actress An Ooe.

This version of the game focuses on three different routes, Ariake, Shimbashi and Aomi. Similar to previous Adelta games, you play all of the routes in a pre-decided route order, and with each route you finish, a new choice will show up allowing you to proceed to the next route. As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, each character was assigned one earthly desire/mental factor that kind of describes the character, so I will also include this again below. Now I've played the game I know that these factors are definitely not their only personality trait, but some parts of it definitely show up in the story eventually.

Ariake -  Disregard (Anapatrapya 無愧): A mortician who likes helping out those in need. After injuring his dominant hand, he has been receiving a lot of help from others. He's immediately very fond of Oosaki and wants to follow him everywhere. His mental factor pretty much indicates that he doesn't consider his own actions 'bad'.

Shimbashi -  Stinginess (Mātsarya 慳): A screenwriter who speakes in a rather strange way, combining overly-polite speach and insults. When he first meets Oosaki, he doesn't seem to trust him at all and doesn't want to tell him anything. His mental factor refers to him only wanting to satisfy his own desires, and doesn't intend to share anything with others.

Aomi -  Envy (Īrṣyā 嫉): A quiet music teacher who doesn’t talk a lot, and when he does speak, it’s limited to short sentences only. He doesn't like small talk and sometimes when Oosaki asks him something Aomi simply ignores him. His mental factor doesn't need much explanation, but even though it's envy I must say that he's not the overly-jealous type (?). It kind of refers to something more specific in his route which I can't really mention without spoiling.

I don't think you really need a guide for this game as it's pretty obvious when new choices unlock, just start a new game after finishing the first route and you'll see! Ariake does have an alternative ending scene, so during your second playthrough don’t immediately pick the choice that leads to Shimbashi’s route, and return to Ariake’s route one more time. Afterwards you can proceed as usual. Sometimes a few choices pop up, but selecting the wrong choice has no consequences and you’ll just be re-directed to the choice menu. The wind chime sound effect indicates which one is the correct choice, but I kind of enjoyed seeing everyone’s nervous reactions while falsely accusing them of something, so I recommend that too since there really are no consequences. By the way, important items are easy to notice because of their red color, like the record in the record player you can see below. Same goes for any text written in red, it might become relevant later (maybe even in part 2).

Introduction to the story Oosaki lives in a boarding house in Suga, a short walk from Hiratsuka station near Kamakura. His boss Shinkiba, who runs the detective agency, informs him about a request he received from a client. The client, a man who calls himself Shizuma Daiba, asks Oosaki to attend the memorial service of actress An Ooe on his behalf. According to Daiba, it was his father who received the invitation, however he fell ill shortly afterwards. Oosaki assumes that the person who invited him is a relative of the actress. Even though Oosaki never met her, he remembers reading news about her death. which shocked him because she was quite young and died by setting herself on fire. Even though it's a rather strange request and Shinkiba warns Oosaki, he still decides to travel to Ooejima. The island belongs to the Izu Island group and is located near Hachijojima. Originally, it was used as a military base during the Second World War, however after this it became uninhabited. Even though he has never been there, Oosaki knows about the island because his grandma who raised him was originally from this island, and he always felt like he'd travel to the island some day.

On his way to the island, he meets one of the other main characters in this game, Ariake, who’s also travelling to Ooejima for the memorial service. He’s surprised to find out Ariake’s grandmother is also from the island. After arriving at the Mikazuki inn, he receives a warm welcome from a trembling man with a knife (??), who later introduces himself as Funeno. He also meets Shimbashi who's staying at the same inn. The other characters are all staying at a different inn, but Oosaki meets them pretty soon too (Takeshiba, Shijoumae, Hinode, Aomi and Shiodome). The final character, Toyosu, appears a bit later and mentions he's in charge of the memorial service because the individual who invited them all (who nobody seems to know) couldn't come after all, which leaves everyone confused.

Since this is mentioned in the promotional material and also happens in the trial version, I think it's not really a spoiler to mention that Funeno is the first character who gets killed shortly after this. They decide to perform a ritual to put his spirit to rest, which involves burning a straw figure, though when they finally burn it they discover someone swapped the straw figure with Funeno's body and they end up burning his body instead... Afterwards, Shiodome reveals that they didn't just receive invitation letters, but they also got a letter describing the crimes one of the other attendees committed. They were all swapped, so everyone has a letter that belongs to someone else and knows about their crimes. The orders is as follows: Funeno > Daiba > ??? > Shimbashi > Takeshiba > Aomi > Toyosu > Hinode > Shijoumae > Ariake > Shiodome > Funeno. I guess now we know why Funeno acted so nervous around Oosaki, as he introduced himself as ''Daiba'' and Funeno got Daiba's letter...

Oosaki didn't receive any of these letters from Daiba though, so after they all return the letters to each other, Shimbashi is the only one who doesn't get his own letter, and let's just say he's not too happy about that. This also means that characters who had each other's letters know about their crimes, which is why some of them seem to be rather uncomfortable around each other. Most of the routes branch off a little bit after the scene where the trial version ends, and then the real murder mystery story starts in which they try to figure out who killed Funeno. Someone also destroyed the phone, so now there's no way to contact anyone anymore. At this point Oosaki's of course also suspicious of his client Daiba, because it's clear he was hiding something from him and sent Oosaki to the island without telling him important information.

Personal thoughts Since it’s a murder mystery game you never know which characters to trust, and because characters do die and will be absent throughout the entire route, it was a really suspenseful experience. I was interested in the story from start to finish, which is why I finished it so fast... I can't explain the feeling of dread every time one of the characters announced that something bad had happened, and you're wondering how bad it could really be. Even though the game doesn't show any super gory CGs (the most they'll show is blood), the descriptions are very detailed, so I think even without that it's easy to understand what happened to them. I also liked how the characters who die and survive are different depending on which route you play, so the game really stays interesting in all three routes.

Even though we know a second part of the game is coming, part 1 doesn't feel incomplete at all and the routes work very well on their own! So if you can read Japanese or want to use translation tools, I highly recommend playing this. It took me over 30 hours to finish the game, including the common route which is about 5 hours long, but I do play pretty fast and am already replaying some scenes, so it might be even longer. Also according to a message that came with the game, part 2's data will be free for everyone who buys part 1, so you don't need to buy them separately. I do want the physical version of the game, but I don't mind spending a bit more because the game's only 4400 yen (unlike most VNs which are about 8000-9000 yen).

My personal favorite character is Shimbashi because of his cat-like characteristics and short temper, I guess he's a bit of a tsundere now I think about it, but I also really like the abnormal way he speaks... he's super polite and extremely rude at the same time and I am curious how this would get translated in the English version. My second favorite is probably Ariake, and because he was the first route I expected his route to be good too, since it's the first experience anyone will have with this game after all. The final route is Aomi, who I was pretty neutral about when they showed him in the promotional material, but I really liked him... I should really not underestimate any character in this game because they will prove me wrong, and so far I really like everyone. I suddenly remember when the game was announced they said all the characters are ''straight'' lol, but as expected, so far it just means they haven't been together with another man before. They do not seem to care about Oosaki's gender at all and don't make it a big deal (I also like how there's multiple lines in this game acknowledging other gender identities btw... it's mentioned out of nowhere but I love to see it). If you didn't know btw, the protag of this game is a top, all of the previous Adelta game protagonists were bottoms.

I've always liked the Adelta game artstyle and character designs, but somehow the art in this game looks even better. Every CG in Ooe just looks so beautiful and I can't stop opening the CG gallery to look at it over and over again. As for the eye color... I also have my theories because in previous games this was an important plot element, and even by just looking at the promotional material, it's clear that those with ties to Ooejima are the only characters who have red eyes, so maybe that will be mentioned in the next part? Also every character has their own ending song, similar to what they did with Uuultra C. The game actually has no opening song/movie, but they might be saving that for part 2. The ending songs are so good though at this point I will not even complain.

The references to existing literature in this game are also comparible to the older Adelta titles, for example the caves on the island kind of remind me of the novel "Kotou no Oni" and the game sometimes references Agatha Christie’s "And Then There Were None" too, with Oosaki even owning a copy of the book, and eventually comparing the people on the island to characters in the book. As I mentioned in my first blog post about this game, some of the characters' first names also reference other novel characters. For example, Shiodome’s name is Michio, which is also an important character in "Kotou no Oni", Daiba’s name is Shizuma, which seems to be referencing a character in "Inugami-ke no Ichizoku" or "The Inugami Family" (this applies to the names of his brother and father too), and Funeno’s first name is Kureichirou, which is the name of one of the main characters in "Dogra Magra". In part 1, we learn the first names of a couple of other characters too for the first time, and I do have some theories what these could be referencing, especially Takeshiba's... I also want to know more about Shiodome because I mean, from the beginning it's clear the way he behaves isn't exactly what one would consider "normal", so I wonder how he would interact with Oosaki... Cool-B did preview one of his 18+ scenes and I have many questions. Then of course there's Daiba... he's so suspicious and the promotional material keeps referring to him as a ''side character'' even though he was literally on the cover of Cool-B magazine combined with Oosaki and Ariake, so I have my doubts about that.

Honestly there's so many things I could write about but at this point I might be theorizing too much and not actually reviewing the game, but I really don't want to spoil, so I think that's it for now! Part 2 is scheduled to be released in winter, though I'm not sure if that means December, January or later. You can buy part 1 here though! Please support them. It was mentioned that they are planning to release an English and Chinese version, though any information about that will have to wait until the release of part 2. When part 2 is released I'll write a review about that too!

[arc-misadventures]

The Fashionable Date

Jaune walked to a dorm room used by one of his upperclassmates. He knocked on the door with a hint of hesitation. He wasn’t worried about talking with her, but considering the nature of what they were about to talk about he couldn’t help, but be a little worried.

The quickly door opened, and he was face to face with one roughish smirk from one hell of a beautiful gal. The one, and only, Coco Adel.

Coco: Well, well, well, look at who we have here? Hello handsome, what can I do for you~?

Jaune: Hey, Coco, are you busy today?

Coco: I’m free as can be. Why do you ask?

Jaune: Well, after recent events I need to buy some new clothes. And, since I’m more, or less a fashion slob, I thought I should ask, Beacons fashionista for some advice. So what do you say, Coco; Want to see how well you can dress up a dragon?

Coco: Oh hell yeah I do! This is going to be so much fun! Now, how can I dress up a handsome blond like you? Oh so many choices, so many decisions… Well, regardless of whatever choices I make, I will have to factor in those horns of yours. Can’t wear anything like a teeshirt anymore; You would probably tear it up trying to put it on…

Coco: …

Coco: Wait… Horns…? When the hell did you get those?! They’re quite fetching~!

Jaune: Oh thanks… I got them yesterday after we did some tests to see how effective my fire breath can be.

Coco: And, how did those tests go?

Jaune: Well… considering how… devastating my flame can be… honestly I’m hesitant to use it on, Grimm.

Coco: So since you were testing your ability to breath fire, does that explain why you were walking around, Beacon with nothing but your breast plate, giving everyone such a tantalizing view of your body~? Because I must say, you really filled out~!

Jaune: O-Oh… T-Thank you… But, uhh… It’s, Weiss’s fault all my clothes go incinerated.

Coco: Oh, really?

Jaune: She helped test my ability to withstand fire, and extreme heats. So, she set me on fire…

Coco: She did?

Jaune: Yeah, she incinerated all the clothes I had on during the test. All that survived is my armour, but all the leather straps have burned up as well, so I might as well replace my armour while I’m at it. So… you know anywhere I can find some, Fire Dust fused clothing so that doesn’t happen again?

Coco: I do, but it’s gonna cost you.

Jaune: I’m one of the richest men in the world; So long as they’re functional, I’m good.

Coco: Oh yes, you mentioned you were a rich dragon when you showed off all those gems of yours. Tell me, Love, how rich are you? I want to know what our spending range is.

Jaune: Ehh… I’ve never looked to see how much money is in my account. But, I know my, Net Worth is an estimated 787.5 Billion.

Coco: 7-787.5 B-Billion?!

Jaune: You can make a lot mining raw metals, gems, and dust. Also, constructing infrastructure, military bases, machinery, aircraft, armour…

Coco: Y-You’re rich! You’re filthy stinking rich! You can but anything you want, and you dress like a country bumpkin?! WHY?!

Jaune: Comfort over style?

Coco: This is a crime against fashion! Come on, Arc! It’s time to get you some style!

Jaune: Whoa, HEY?!

~~~

Jaune was standing in the open doorway to a changing booth, giving, Coco a spin as he showed off the apparel she recommended to him.

Coco: Oh yeah… Mama likey~!

Jaune: It’s pretty nice, but it’s rather tight.

Coco: Just like, Mama likes~!

Coco raised her hand up, and brought it crashing down upon, Jaune’s tight butt.

“Smack~!”

Jaune: AHH! Hey?!

Coco: Gotta say you got one hell of a nice ass~!

Jaune: Only because these pants are so tight…

Coco: Why do you think I told you to wear it?

Jaune: To check out my ass?

Coco: And, loving it~!

Jaune: Haa… They’re nice… Everything looks great. But, my hair… Did they really have to cut my hair like this? I didn’t invite you out to get a hair cut.

Coco: What’s wrong with it? It’s a shaggy brush cut, simple, stylistic, and really fits you. Plus it really shows off your horns.

Jaune: It does show off my horns… Glad the sash I found matches them.

Coco: You know, I’m usually against sashes, but that white, with golden fringe really blends together nicely.

Jaune: And, you said I didn’t have any style.

Coco: And, I stand by those words! You were dressed like an absolute slob!

Jaune: But, now?

Coco: But, now after some proper guidance from yours truly you look ready to slay ‘em with your handsome looks, and winning smile~!

Jaune: I don’t think my looks will help me kill, Grimm, Coco.

Coco: I wasn’t talking about, Grimm.

Jaune: Then what are you talking about?

Coco: Haa… Still as dense as ever, Handsome.

Jaune: What?

Coco: So armour, any plans for that upgrade you mentioned?

Jaune: Something more form fitting, that covers more of my body. Something I can put on without worrying about my horns. Going to get some gauntlets, but they’ll probably be fingerless so I can retract my claws. I probably should get some measurements done for that soon…

Coco: Most likely, you’re not your lanky self you were when you first came here. Hence the tight pants.

Jaune: No, that’s so you can stare at my butt.

Coco: Still loving the view.

Jaune: You’re just jealous you don’t have a butt like mine.

Coco: Excuse me?! I have a great ass!

Jaune: No, pretty flat looking.

Coco: You wanna go bud!

Jaune: As in go into a arena for a fight, or go into a supply closet like you did with, Pyrrha?

Though most couldn’t see it, Jaune’s enhanced eyes could easily see the brief moment of shock that flashed in, Coco’s eyes. Just as easily as he saw the lighest of blushes that was spreading across her face.

Coco: What are you talking about?

Jaune: Don’t play coy with me, Coco it’s not going to work.

Coco: I’m not playing coy, I have no idea what you are talking about.

Jaune: Oh, so nothing happened between you, and Pyrrha in the supply closet outside the biology classroom then?

Coco: Wait?! How did you know he had sex there?

Jaune: You had sex? I thought you said nothing happened.’ Does that mean something did happen?

Coco’s face was flushed red as she looked around for an excuse to draw his attention away. But, finding none she finally relented, and told him the truth.

Coco: Okay… After you left, Pyrrha asked if I wanted in on your little harem thing, and I asked if I joined if that meant I could also sleep with her… So we went into that supply closet… and, had some fun. There, happy?

Jaune: I’m surprised you were so hesitant to tell me. I thought you would brag that you banged the, Invincible Girl.

Coco: I’m a kiss, and don’t tell kind of gal. Spoils the mood if you go about bragging about it.

Jaune: Plus it’s polite. Though, every faunas I’ve met knows we did it… Faunas stuff.

Coco: Yeah, I remember, Velvet glaring daggers at her. But, how did you know we did it? Did, Pyrrha brag about us having sex?

Jaune: No, Pyrrha likes her privacy more so than you do.

Coco: Hold on; if, Pyrrha never told you about us, then how did you find out about us?

Jaune: Oh, that? Quite simple really.

In a flash, Jaune reached out, and grabbed, Coco’s ass, pulling her close to him until their bodies were flush with one another. Coco yelped as he grabbed her ass, and was about to yell at him, to slap him, but his grip tightened upon her ass as she stifled a moan at his touch. But, before she could make another sound, Jaune’s head dipped lower until he growled softly in her ear, and simply said:

Jaune: I knew you two had sex, because I can still smell her on you.

A wildfire being propelled by a strong breeze was slower than the deep blush that quickly spread across, Coco’s face.

Coco Adel was the one whose teased others into a blushing mess. She could flirt one into a stubor. She new how to make anyone, man, or woman utterly flatfooted with her seductive teasing. But, she had never been put on the backfoot like, Jaune had done with that simple sentence.

Coco: Y-You could smell us?!

Jaune: Shhh… You don’t want others to hear us now do you?

Coco could only stifle a moan as, Jaune pulled her closer, giving her ass a tight squeeze in the process.

Coco: S-Sorry… B-But, you can really smell her on me? We did that a week ago?!

Jaune just smiled, showing off his fangs as he chuckled as, Coco’s composure was swiftly crumbling.

Jaune: Don’t worry, only I can smell it. No one else’s sense of smell is strong enough to pick up such subtle smells. But, I can easily pick up, Pyrrha’s sent from all the time we’ve spent together. And, there is only one person I know that smells like mocha, and gunpowder~!

Coco’s face was flush red as her voice fled her. He mouth hung agape as his voice echoed in her mind.

Coco: T-That’s what I smelt like to you; Mocha, and gunpowder?

Jaune: It’s quite the tantalizing smell. However, you’ve recently acquired an all the more intoxicating smell upon you.

Coco: Oh, that’s just some perfume I put on earlier…

Jaune: No, not that. That barely has any noticeable scent to it.

Coco: Then… was is it… what do you smell?

Jaune’s eyes look around behind her, before he pushed her inside the changing booth, he quickly shut, and locked the door behind him. As, Coco righted herself she felt, Jaune’s hand grab her, and turned her to face him as he pushed her against the wall. His hands holding her tenderly, one along her waist, while the other cupped her cheek, forcing her to stare directly at, Jaune’s predatory expression.

Before she could utter a word, Jaune used his finger to pull of her glasses, letting them gently fall to the floor with a dull thud. Her face was red, her breathing was heavy, and her eyes were lost in his. All she could do was stare on as, Jaune smiled at her, and spoke those few simple words she never wanted to hear.

Jaune: I smell desire, hunger, and lust… It’s such a tantalizing smell~!

Coco knew, Jaune; If she said the word, just one word, he would pull off of her apologizing all the while for what he did. Just because he had a throng of woman willing to throw themselves at him at the drop of a hat did not mean he would just bed any woman. He would treat them with respect, and he wanted to know if they truly wanted this. So if she said the word, just one word he would back away, no questions, no pleas, no begging. He would just leave her be, and that would be that.

Those were the thoughts running through her mind as she grabbed his golden locks and pulled him into a deep, searing kiss.

Coco had fun with someone in a changing room before. They we’re usually girls insecure about their sexuality, or curious what it would be like. So since she was up for a little tumble now, and then she helped them find the answers to these burning questions of theirs. However, when these little escapades happened, she was in control; she set the pace, she set the mood, she was the one in control. And yet, she was completely helpless under the onslaught, Jaune wrought upon her. And, she was loving every second of it.

Jaune grabbed, Coco by her waist, and pulled her in for a hungry kiss that dominated her lips causing her to moan in wanton lust as her fingers intertwined with his hair as she pulled him closer, deepening their kiss.

Jaune soon pried her mouth open with his tongue, shoving his tongue into her mouth, and her in turn. Their tongues swirled around one another as they duelled for control. Coco relished in the icy cold flavour that hung about his mouth, while, Jaune in turned savoured the sweet taste of coffee that hung about hers. The duo were falling into a drunken stupor as the drowned in the pleasure of one another’s mouths, but it was soon brought to an end as, Coco remember something very, very important about, Jaune’s tongue.

It was long, incredibly long at that.

In order to stake his claim, Jaune pushed his long tongue deeper into, Coco’s mouth, at first she gave a squeak in shock as she felt his tongue seemingly coil around hers, and push deeper into her mouth as a guttural moan escaped her lips between baited breaths of air. Sadly their fun was brought to a swift end when, Jaune’s tongue had pushed just a little too far, and, Coco started to gag from it.

Jaune quickly removed his tongue from the depths of her mouth as, Coco reeled back, and coughed almost roughly from having the invading organ within her.

Coco: “Cough, cough!” Holy hell… Did you literally shove your tongue down my throat?

Jaune: Haha… Sworry…

Jaune’s tongue was hanging several inches from the bottom of his mouth before slurping back inside. Coco could only wonder in shock how he hid such a massive appendage.

Jaune: Pyrrha likes it when I do that to her, I got so into the kiss I forgot I wasn’t with, Pyrrha. Or, you for that matter. I just fell into the moment of it all.

Coco: Well… If I didn’t start gagging on it I don’t think I would have minded really. But, you better be careful with that thing; you’ll break a girl if you’re not careful.

Jaune: Oh really now~?

Jaune licked his lips with a predatory gaze as he moved closer to, Coco.

Jaune: In that case, lets see how hard it is to break you then~!

His hands reached for her belt, and undid the buckles, the buttons, and lastly the zipper before kneeling down before her as he dragged her pants, and her underwear down in one swift motion until she was bare before him.

Coco’s heart was racing, her breathing heavy, and quick. She knew what was going to happen, and just like before she knew how to stop it, and as she looked down at those deep blue eyes staring back at her she said the words she had to say.

Coco: Please… Please break me…

Jaune chuckled as he got to work. Coco’s hand immediately cover her mouth to stifle the yell that threatened to escape her lips. A yell that swiftly gave way to deep, gasping moans of pleasure as he began to eat her out.

Coco could barely contain the guttural moans that escaped her body as she bucked against his face. She bit her lips to hold them back as her hands grabbed a hold of his horns to steady herself, and pull him deeper into her welcoming opening.

Coco: MmmMMM~! How… Ahh~! How are you…?! Mmm~! So…! Ahhh! Good at this~?!

Jaune laughed softly as he pulled away, licking his lips with his long tongue before smiling up at, Coco’s blushing face.

Jaune: Most people don’t know this, but Pyrrha wasn’t my first time.

Coco: S-She wasn’t?

Jaune: Nope~! Case in point…

Jaune drove his head back, and went to town on, Coco. Her hands quickly cover her mouth as, Jaune attacked every her lower lips, basking her in unending pleasure of the body.

Coco: Fuckfuckfuckfuckfucyk~! Who taught you how to eat out a girl like this, a lesbian? Only girls are this good at eating out other girls! MmmmH~! I should know, I’ve… Ahhh~! Done it myself~!

Jaune: Actually yes, a lesbian did teach me. Well, she wasn’t a lesbian by the time we were done.

Coco: You turned a lesbian straight with your tongue?!

Jaune: She was more of a bisexual than a lesbian, I just made it a fact. Now, if you’ll excuse me; my meals getting cold.

Coco really shouldn’t interrupt him anymore, every time she interrupted him only denied him that exquisite tongue of his from caressing her body. And, to emphasize that he picked up his speed, and ravenously ate her out.

A hand clamped over her mouth while the other held him by one of his horns keeping him in place. Behind a flush face she looked down at him to see his deep cerulean eyes giving her a dangerous, and mischievous glint to his eyes.

She would swiftly learn how dangerous that glint in his eyes is.

Both of her hands were on her mouth covering up the guttural moan that if she removed her hands would be a moaning scream for all to hear, and all to be envious off as she felt him insert his long tongue into her precious depths. There are things in life you never expect to experience; the mind numbing pleasure of a faunas with a long tongue have a meal with you was something profound to experience.

She could feel his tongue swirling around her depths, mapping her insides out with his tongue for minutes that felt like they lasted for millennia’s. At long last she felt a quack in her hips, and she would relish it’s arrival. And, when it did she awoke with her butt on the ground, staring at, Jaune’s cocky smile as he licked his lips.

Jaune: Well, looks like I broke you.

Coco panted heavily as her mind raced to find where it had fallen off. And, she knew precisely where; At her peak, as soon as she had her mind numbing orgasm she blacked out, and was left here in a dazed state, but thoroughly satisfied state of mind.

She told him to break her, and good gods, he broke her.

Coco: I said that tongue of yours would break a girl… But, gods… You can break a girl…

Jaune: I aim to please~!

Coco: That’s an understatement if I ever heard one… H-How long was I out?

Jaune: Not long, about a minute, or two.

Coco: And, while I was out, you didn’t decide to keep on having fun?

Jaune: You wouldn’t be around to enjoy it; where’s the fun if you’re not enjoying it too?

Coco: Well, in that case…

Coco slowly rose on shaky legs, shaking from the unbridled pleasure, Jaune just assaulted her with. As she stood up, she turned around, and pressed her body to the wall, shaking her tantalizing round butt towards him, inviting him in.

Coco: Shall we continue~?

Jaune laughed softly to himself as he stood up, and stood behind, Coco’s plump rear, caressing it softly with his hand.

Jaune: We shall, butnot here.

Coco: What?! Why?!

Coco nearly shouted, but this time she remembered where they were. She look over to, Jaune, and saw him giving her an amused smile.

Jaune: Because, as nice it was hearing you trying to stifle a moan like you did, but what I really want to hear… Is you screaming my name~!

Jaune grabbed, Coco by her neck, and pulled him flush against her hotly whispering into her ear those few words that brought her over the edge again in seconds.

Coco: T-T-Then what are we waiting for; come on, make me scream~!

And, that is what she did, scream his name until she could scream no more. And, she loved every agonizing, intoxicating second of it.

~~~

Juniper: You’ve got to tell her to reel it in; Jaune doesn’t like a girl who screams at him to give her his babies, he finds that extremely off putting.

Kali: I’ve been trying to tell, Blake. But, does she listen? Noooo… She all about him pinning her down, and knocking her up on the spot. Where is the fun in that? I blame her choice in literature, there’s nothing romantic in her books, it’s just kinky self indulgence for inexperienced lovers.

Juniper: That’s my daughter’s target audience after all. You have to go with the easy marks.

Kali: Yes, but their not, Jaune’s type. I sear, if I could I would chase after him myself.

Juniper: What’s stopping you?

Kali: I’m a happily married woman, but if I wasn’t, I would be pregnant with his first child right now~!

Juniper: Second actually.

Kali: He’s already a father?!

Juniper: He’s the donor actually, they say it wasn’t him, but I know it was him. It’s cute they think I don’t know, but I…

Juniper: Hmmm…?

Kali: Juni? Is something wrong?

Juniper: My grandmother senses are tingling…

Kali: Well my aren’t! Ahhh! That means it’s not, Blake getting any! Haa… Best get, Sienna to get his kids then. One of my kids is going to give me adorable grandchildren, I don’t care which, but I damn well will get them!

Juniper: I know in mixed faunas families the baby’s faunas traits are a roulette wheel of possibilities, but I really want blond cat eared grandchildren.

Kali: Me too! Oh they would be so adorable~!

Juniper: I know right~?

[misc-obeyme]

unchained - chapter two

masterpost read the chapter on ao3

recommended music: Seven Devils by Florence + The Machine word count: 2526

GN!MC x Arsenios [demon OC] a/n: The brothers all make an appearance in this chapter. And then there's a TIME SKIP lol. Because I just wanted to skip ahead to season four, so that's what that's about. Things get more interesting after this chapter, but the real action doesn't start until chapter six. Warnings: Lucifer being a little threatening, but that's about it lol.

You were sitting at the dinner table with the brothers, not really listening to the argument of the night, when you interrupted them.

"Hey, do you guys know a demon named Arsenios?" you asked.

Everyone stopped talking.

"Who doesn't know him?" Mammon asked. He had a genuinely perplexed look on his face, as though this was a strange question.

"I mean I don't know him personally," Belphie said. "That's what you mean, right, MC?"

"Well, I guess just anything you know would help," you said. "Is he famous or something?"

"Not exactly," Mammon said.

Asmo leaned forward across the table. "He's in a band, MC," he said. "That's how most people know him! They're called Angel's Temptation."

"Like the flower," Satan added.

"Right!" Asmo said. "They play at The Fall sometimes. Arsenios is the lead singer and guitarist. He's amazing, of course, it's kind of his thing. I can take you to see them sometime if you want!"

"He also plays the piano at Cafe Lament," Satan said. "I've seen him there a few times."

"It's more like background music, though," Levi added. "But he is really good. He must have amazing hand eye coordination. I bet he's really good at playing video games."

You blinked. "Okay, so none of you actually know him personally," you said. "You've just seen him around."

Asmo looked offended. "Please, MC! Arrie is one of my fans! And as such, I have made the effort to let him meet me personally!"

"Wow, how nice of you," you said, smiling.

"I've met him, too," Mammon said with a shrug. "He goes to RAD so it ain't like we haven't all had classes with him at some point. Me and Asmo have hung out with him a couple times."

"Let me guess," Levi said flatly. "You owe him money, too?"

Mammon sat up straight. "No! 'Course I don't!"

There were a lot of general sounds of disbelief from the table at large.

"I've met him," Beel said.

Everybody looked at him in surprise.

Beel shrugged. "He's friends with Barbatos. I've seen him at the castle a few times when Luke invites me over to try out his baking."

"I have met him as well," Lucifer added. "In a similar situation."

"You don't like him," you said to Lucifer, picking up on the disdain in his words.

"I don't know him well enough to say," Lucifer said. "He only attends RAD because Barbatos asked him to. My understanding is that he doesn't care much for school."

"I get that," Mammon muttered.

"Maybe I'll go to Cafe Lament sometime," you said. "I'm curious about him."

"Hang on, MC," Asmo said. "I saw you with him at the dance! You obviously know him, too!"

"I don't know him very well," you said. "I was curious, that's why I asked."

"You were at the dance with him?" Satan asked.

"He saw me there and asked me to dance," you said with a shrug.

Mammon suddenly gripped your arm. "Did ya dance with him?"

You tried to shake him off, but found yourself unsuccessful. "Maybe I did, so what?"

"You ought to be careful, MC," Lucifer said.

His voice was serious and his tone caused everyone at the table to fall silent. Even Mammon let go of you and quieted.

"Why?" you asked.

"I don't know Arsenios's entire story," Lucifer said. "But he is dangerous. From what I've heard, he spent a considerable amount of time in the human world, making pacts. He seems to be retired now, but ancient demons like him see humans as prey, not friends."

This made you shudder a little. You hadn't considered what kinds of things Arsenios may have done in his past. He was nice to you, but what did that really mean?

"I'll be careful," you assured Lucifer. He seemed content enough with this response.

You questioned Asmo further after dinner. While it seemed he and Arsenios were friends and had spent some time together, he didn't know anything more than what Lucifer had said. Apparently, Arsenios wasn't exactly forthcoming with information about his past. You didn't really hold that against him, but it was something you would keep in mind.

-

After the dance, you had so much going on, you weren't able to focus on anything else. With Lucifer losing his memory and the chaos of your magic and the ring, you were simply trying to make it through each day.

Soon enough, you found yourself preparing to return to the human world. You had only days left now that you had the Ring of Light to control your magic.

In a moment where you had a little time to yourself, you found yourself in the House of Lamentation's garden. You were simply sitting, thinking about everything that had happened.

Your mind wandered back to the dance, remembering the way Arsenios had kissed the back of your hand. You wondered what he was doing. You had ducked into the darkened dance hall when you had a chance, but it wasn't often. You hadn't seen him at all recently.

Your thoughts might as well have been broadcasting a signal of some kind because the demon in question made an appearance on the path to the House of Lamentation's front door, right where it connected with the cobblestone street outside the gate.

He stopped when he saw you, surprise in his eyes. And then he smiled, slipping into the garden by opening the gate as little as possible.

"Hey, MC," he said.

It was exactly what he had said when he first found you at the dance.

"What are you doing here?" you asked, which was exactly the first thing you said to him when you ran into him at the Demon Lord's Castle back in your first year in the Devildom.

Arsenios sat beside you on the bench. "Looking for you."

You were surprised to hear this, but you waited for him to elaborate.

Arsenios leaned back against the bench. "You know you're the talk of the Devildom? Again?"

You frowned. "I didn't know, but I'm not exactly surprised."

"They're saying you wear Lucifer's Ring of Light now," Arsenios said.

You lifted your hand so he could see the ring, snug around your finger. It glinted slightly in the Devildom starlight.

"Do you feel like the ring that connects the worlds?" Arsenios asked. His voice was quiet, but you could hear an underlying pain in it.

You put your hand down and twisted the ring slightly. "I don't know. But I'll do my best to help with uniting them."

Arsenios chuckled softly. "You and Lord Diavolo. He's eternally optimistic about it. I'm not so sure."

"You don't think it will work?" you asked.

Arsenios shrugged. "I think there's a lot of pain and prejudice to get through first. Anyway, I came by because I wanted to see how you were holding up. You look like you're doing all right, though."

"You were worried about me?" you asked.

Arsenios stood up and turned to face you. "Sure," he said easily. "Can't I worry about the human that always listens to my music?"

You shook your head a little. "Don't underestimate me."

Arsenios grinned. "You're right," he said. "It won't happen again. Take care, MC."

You watched him leave the garden, losing sight of him the moment he passed through the main gate. He was only there for a brief moment, but somehow the garden felt empty without him. There was a lingering tension in the air, like the string of a harp wound too tightly and left unplucked. It left you wondering why such an ancient demon would take the time to check in on you.

-

Arsenios made his way down the street from the House of Lamentation. He was glad to see that you seemed to be doing okay. He had heard a lot of rumors swirling around RAD. He could have asked Barbatos about you, of course. He knew that the butler would have told him the truth of things. But he somehow admitted to himself that he wanted to see you with his own eyes.

Arsenios was highly aware of you these days. Every time you stopped in the dance hall to listen to him play, he noticed. He felt your eyes on him, knew you were listening to every note. He had played in front of large audiences, allowing himself to step into a performance persona so he could entertain the masses. But when it was just you, he was always still himself.

An audience of one, something he never thought he would want or need. But now that he'd experienced those moments - the ones where he was playing for himself, creating songs on the fly, letting his heart and his fingers find the right keys, all the while having you as witness to everything he inevitably put into that music - he found himself missing you when you weren't there.

And you weren't always there. In fact, most of the time you weren't. He would never admit to anyone - not even himself - that he perhaps played that piano at RAD more than he would have otherwise. Waiting for you to hear him. Waiting for you to slip inside, to linger in the shadows.

Arsenios wasn't a fool. He knew that even if he didn't go inside the House of Lamentation, Lucifer would know he had been there.

And sure enough, the next day, Arsenios found himself confronted by Lucifer in a hallway at RAD.

"Stay away from MC," Lucifer said to him, not even bothering to pretend at politeness.

Arsenios smirked. He couldn't help himself. "Feeling threatened?"

"By you?" Lucifer let out a little laugh. "I'm unconcerned. But MC has a tendency to think all demons are their friends."

"And you think I'm not MC's friend?" Arsenios asked.

Lucifer frowned. "I am aware of your history, Arsenios. I don't trust you near them."

Arsenios found he was actually offended. He folded his arms and cocked his head. "You know perfectly well that I don't mess with humans anymore. You also know that Barbatos trusts me. Are you saying you know better than he does?"

Lucifer narrowed his eyes at this, as though he was displeased with having been confronted with this fact. "What are your intentions, then?"

Arsenios snorted. "You're dodging the question. But I don't have any intentions."

"Then why ask MC to dance?" Lucifer asked. "Why show up at the House of Lamentation?"

Arsenios paused. Memories flitted through his mind - the first time you listened to him in the dark hall, your serious face whenever you were concentrating in class, your cautious acceptance of his invitation to dance, the way you held up your hand to show him the Ring of Light. He couldn't exactly tell Lucifer that he found you compelling - that there was something about you. He tried to feign nonchalance, shrugging slightly.

"I like MC," he said easily. "That's it. Do I need to have an ulterior motive?"

"If I find out that you do," Lucifer said, his voice low and ominous. "You will regret ever coming near them."

Arsenios laughed. He knew that wasn't a smart response, but it came out anyway. Lucifer's glare deepened. Arsenios put his hands up in a placating gesture.

"I'm sorry," he said. "But I promise you there's nothing else going on here. You really don't need to go out of your way to threaten me."

"That human is under my protection," Lucifer said. "And I still don't trust you."

Arsenios was about to say something else, but Lucifer had already left, stalking down the hall and disappearing into a classroom.

Arsenios made his way to his next class, deliberately sitting down next to Asmo who happened to have that class with him. Asmo was busy checking his reflection in a little compact.

"Hey, Asmo," Arsenios said.

Asmo snapped his compact shut and looked at him, then smiled brightly when he recognized Arsenios. "Arrie! I haven't seen you around in a while! You're always skipping class, but I suppose you missed me, didn't you?"

Asmo leaned in toward Arsenios and ran his fingers up Arsenios's arm.

Arsenios laughed and caught Asmo's wrist gently. "You got me," he said. "I woke up today and went you know what I miss? Asmo's constant flirting."

Asmo nodded. "I knew it. Don't worry, hon, I'll flirt with you relentlessly for the rest of class."

"Really? You'd do that for me?" Arsenios asked. "And here your brother was just threatening me. Are you sure it's okay for you to be so chummy with me?"

Asmo gasped. "My brother? Let me guess. Lucifer?"

Arsenios let go of Asmo's wrist, leaned back in his seat, and frowned. "Is he really that worried about me? He seems to think I'm likely to eat your human."

Asmo huffed a little. "Don't worry about him," he said. "He's just protective of the exchange student. I know you would never eat MC."

Arsenios smiled. "Thanks, Asmo."

True to his word, Asmo flirted relentlessly with Arsenios for the rest of class. Arsenios didn't mind, but his thoughts kept wandering to you, sitting there in the House of Lamentation's garden, wearing the Ring of Light.

Lucifer was right, in a way. Arsenios should stay away from you. But it wasn't for the reasons Lucifer was concerned about.

There were other things Arsenios had to consider. But for now, letting you listen in when he was playing only for himself didn't cause anyone any harm. And checking in on you from time to time was also safe. He knew to be careful. He knew not to let you get too close.

-

You never did get the chance to go to Cafe Lament when Arsenios was playing there. In fact, you always seemed to miss him any time you found yourself there for other reasons.

And then it was already time for you to return to the human world. You didn't know it yet, but you would be spending quite a bit of time there. The brothers would come to visit you as you went through the tasks to become a sorcerer.

You thought of Arsenios every once in awhile, but as that time passed, he mostly faded from your mind. There was too much going on elsewhere in your life and there simply wasn't space for someone you no longer saw on a regular basis.

And then you were finally back in the Devildom, ready to start another year at RAD. You had forgotten about the way you used to hover in the darkness of the dance hall, listening to a demon play the piano. It had been so long since you had seen him, he simply slipped from your mind.

You didn't notice. You had so much to do. There were the brothers needing you, your studies with Solomon, your regular RAD classes, and now you were working to be able to join the student council, too. Every once in a while, you might remember those quieter times you spent listening to the piano. But for the most part, it was forgotten.

Until you couldn't help but remember.

masterpost | chapter one | chapter three

taglist: @avalordream @lonely-north-star @expressionless-fr comment to be added or removed!

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[fanchonmoreau]

Second round Cabaret let's goooo

It's deeply funny and probably not great how Schneider and Schultz seem to exist in a whole different production than Sally and Cliff. The Emcee provides a little connection thematically, but it's nowhere near enough. I want to lop the two of them off and do a separate show charting their relationship from beginning to end. Part of this is just casting: if you're hiring Bebe Neuwirth and Steven Skybell, everyone needs to get on their level. As is, they leave everyone else in the dust.

I saw Ayla Ciccone-Burton as Sally, who was better than Gayle Rankin but was still hampered by direction. I think the note for Sally for this production is just do whatever it takes to get to breakdown in the title number? And then the title number gets too big and too messy. Ayla played up the delusion and self-involvement, and that worked better than the bored and disaffected tack Gayle took. She also made Sally a bad performer by having her overplay and overact her club numbers, and that allowed her to do great vocals. It actually made Maybe This Time, which is (hot take alert) a song I don't think fits in the musical, tolerable.

It also gave her a way into the title number because she can start big and then have her real grief and resentment come forward and recede throughout the song. It's an interpretation with potential on its own, but it's still stuck in a production that provides no clear path for it.

I think the difference here with Schneider and Schultz is that they are also under-directed, but Bebe and Steven are so seasoned and so good that it's fine for them. Steven is remarkable because you see and understand his fear beneath his insistence that the Nazis will come and go. He believes that because he has to in order to get through the day, and it makes him more outwardly stubborn about his place as a German Jew. Yes, he will pursue the woman he loves. Yes, he will woo her with an overly expensive gift. Yes, he will throw her an engagement party and invite everyone in vicinity. But at the same time, you see him cornered and helplessly scrambling during the Nazi song that closes act one.

Bebe's take on Schneider is fully on a different planet than anything I've seen of this character. Usually, she's self aware enough to know Schultz's little fruit gifts are tokens of romantic interest. But this Schneider has no clue she is falling in love with Schultz (or that he's in love with her) until he presents her with that pineapple. And then it's three delightful minutes of seeing her gobsmacked, fully charmed, flustered, and then unmistakably turned on (Bebe ilu). It's similar for Married: she has no idea she's in that deep until Schultz puts his cards on the table. She is giving a full 404 do not compute.

That surprise compounds the loss and danger when it comes. She is just as surprised when Ernst tells her not to marry Schultz because he is a Jew. And she reads this as a threat. Not just that the Nazis will come for her and Schultz, but Ernst will personally make sure that happens.

It makes "suppose you're one frightened voice/being told what the choice must be" in "What Would You Do?" hit like a fucking freight train. And throw in Bebe's slow and wide vibrato which makes her extended notes in that song ring out like a siren. Consider this: Bebe is 65, just a little younger than Lotte Lenya when she originated the role (Lenya was ~68). Vibrato becomes wider and slower as you age, unless you are really training to keep the cord muscle toned. These songs were written for an aging voice. It's not always pretty, but it's not necessarily meant to be. It lets Bebe tap into that anger, and she's the first Schneider I've seen who reaches full-out rage. It's ugly, and it's electrifying. I didn't think Schneider was capable of it until now.

Anyway. I had a great time at the Bebe Neuwirth and Steven Skybell show. I recommend the Bebe Neuwirth and Steven Skybell show, even though I can't say what's happening around it is fully coherent. Just as well. If you go in for these two and these two only, you'll get two greats at the peak of their powers.

[ggebba]

I’m not the anon who originally asked in your latest post,however it’d be amazing if you did more content similar to the ask about Russian culture, specifically the dating and social normalities. I loved your advice! I’m going to spend my summer in St. Petersburgo next year with a sports program I applied to and I found your advice to be extremely helpful! It seems as though Russia has such distinct social aspects that if you are unaware can possibly give others a bad impression of you and it actually reminds me of the way things are in my culture 😁

Once again, a very interesting question. I have thought it over and decided that it is possible to highlight some "wishes" for foreigners coming to Russia. Russia is not such a harsh country that there is something very different from good manners in any other country, but there are certain "unspoken rules" and recommendations.

1. The most important and amusing item on this list is "don't smile for no reason". Russians "give" smiles to their friends and family members. Therefore, you should not accidentally smile at strangers when you are in public transportation or shopping. Russians have a saying, "smiling for no reason is a sign of stupidity." Just like we have no such thing as “small talk”. For a Russian person, it is not considered polite, rather you are invading personal space or taking up time. Be polite, but do not violate the personal boundaries of strangers.

(This is no time to smile 😁)

2. Russians themselves do not mind saying a few unflattering words about our country and the authorities in it. But this does not mean that such a thing will be forgiven to anyone else but the locals themselves.

In general, the topic of politics is very complicated and it is better not to bring it up.

3. In Russia, you should always carry an identity document. As a foreigner, you must carry a passport with a valid visa.

Random checks by the police are not uncommon, especially in Moscow. If you do not have your identification document with you when you are stopped by the police, you are in serious trouble.

4. In Russian apartments and houses it is customary to take off your shoes at the threshold and change into slippers or simply walk around in socks. In any case, do not walk inside the house in shoes.

5. This is closer to the advice. Do not buy food at train stations or nearby stalls. Because you do not know what you will get in the next station stall with pirozhki: whether the food of the gods for ridiculous money, or a severe test for the entire digestive system. Experienced travelers advise not to take risks and buy food only in chain establishments/cafes/restaurants.

6. Do not shake hands with gloves on unless you want to offend the person you are greeting. It is considered extremely impolite to leave your gloves on when greeting someone with a handshake. Also, never shake hands over the threshold, as Russians see this as bad luck.

7. You should never make jokes about mom (your own/other people's) in any context. It is considered highly offensive.

8. Do not go to a guest's house empty-handed. If you are invited to someone's home for dinner or a visit, it is considered very rude to show up empty-handed. Bring a small gift-a bottle of wine, flowers, a dessert, or a small toy for the children. Russians pride themselves on preparing exquisite meals for their guests, and showing up without a small token of appreciation is a sign that you don't care.

9. Flowers are given in odd numbers. Never give a dozen roses, for example. Even numbers are for funerals.

10. In cultural places (museums, exhibitions, galleries, theaters, etc.) try to choose more strict clothes. You simply may not be allowed into the museum if you are dressed too revealingly.

11. Do not disrespect the church/religion. Russia has a law protecting the feelings of believers. Religion is taken seriously here. Any religion.

12. In Russia, medicine is free (ambulance, doctor's appointments, etc.). But often, if you have a minor illness, such as flu, you can simply go to a pharmacy and ask for flu medicine. Many of our medicines are sold without a prescription.

When you walk around Russia, people may seem unfriendly to you. They tend to walk without a smile and look straight ahead, but if you get to know Russians, they are the friendliest and most hospitable people you will ever meet 😁 trust me)

Please, try to learn basic words in Russian "thank you", "please", hello, bye, etc. If you ask for something, always add the word "please". Without it, the sentence becomes orderly and people may not like it very much. Politeness is the key to everything! 🥰

And don't be afraid to ask passers-by for help. In big cities, a lot of people know English. If anything, they'll explain everything to you with gestures, and sometimes even walk you to your destination. In 2018, during the World Cup, I myself often helped foreigners with advice. With some of them I went as far as Luzhniki Stadium. We had fun chatting with guys from Germany. It was a fun time.

I hope I have answered your question 😊

Good luck with your studies and I hope you enjoy Russia in general and St. Petersburg in particular!

[thelaurenshippen]

Hey Lauren! I've just finished writing my first novel, I'm also the writer/creator of the audio series Life & Death on the Rim (Star Wars fan audio drama), and I've started my own company Galactic North Productions. What I really want to understand is how other writers/creators who are successful and profitable got there. If there are any insights you can give me I'm all ears, whether that's associations, conventions, marketing, etc etc I just really want to learn. Very determined. Thank you!

hey!!! first off, HUGE congrats on finishing your first novel, that's an incredible feat and you should be unbelievably proud!!!! secondly, I hadn't heard of this podcast before but as a huge fan of both star wars and fan works, I am absolutely putting it on my tbl list right now!!!!

so. this is a great question. and a hard question. and one that I'm probably going to spend way too many words answering, if I know myself at all.

I think this question, in part, depends on what you consider successful and profitable! for me, it's meant being a jack of all trades - a lot of my work has come from being someone who knows how to make a podcast from soup to nuts and from being a person who a lot of people know. you've already done the hard thing: making something. that's your resume, now get the resume out there!

I wish I could give advice about marketing and finding an audience, but honestly it's changed so much since I started out that I hardly know how to find an audience anymore. but the basic approach always stands I think: don't promo, build community. be authentic and enthusiastic, and hang out in online spaces that you're already excited to be in. share your passion with people. clearly you already know how to do that, making a fan podcast!

in terms of getting to know your peers, I always recommend people join the WGA Audio Alliance discord to get to know who else is working in the space and hear about events. I did meet a lot of people at events early on, but unfortunately a lot of those things don't exist anymore (or were one-offs to begin with) or were smaller, invite-only things. if you're in NY, LA, Chicago, or London, there are vibrant AD scenes, so seek those out and go to (or organize!) a meet-up.

knowing your peers is the single most important thing for getting jobs. with the exception of one cold outreach, every job I've ever gotten has been because I met somebody and vibed with them. stay in touch but not too much - don't email your industry contacts all the time, but every 8-18 months, reach out to folks and do a catch up zoom or coffee. but don't network just to network! get to know people whose work you really like. getting to know peers at your same level is just as - if not more - important as networking to those who are further along in success than you.

be incredibly findable. having the facebook page, instagram, etc. is great, but if you're a production company hoping to make money through providing services like producing, directing, writing, etc. (which is primarily how I've made a living - I don't really make money directly from my original podcasts), having a website is a must. if you don't want to pay for squarespace or wix, you can make a website through tumblr and then just buy a url and have it redirect (I wrote about this a bit in my production guide). same deal if you want to be hired as a writer - having a website or some kind of resume is huge. I'm not saying you need to have an instagram detailing your personal life or anything (for me, I get personal about my thoughts on social media, but I never post my family/partner/non-industry friends/etc. some creators have had massive success building mystery (lemony snicket, the team behind midst), but I have no idea how to do that lol

this is already too long, so to summarize: build a community, both in your audience and your colleagues, be very clear and open about the skills you have/services you provide, and, ideally, do a lot of different things that put you in front of a lot of different audiences. try a lot of things and stick with what works.

to speak more on my personal journey, just briefly: 90% of being successful in the art and entertainment industry is luck. I know that people always say that, and it sucks as advice because it's not advice at all, but it is just true. luck and timing. the only way to improve your chances are to make stuff, meet people, and be easily accessible.

I know that's all exceptionally broad advice - if you'd like to share more specifics about your career goals, I'm happy to get more specific too!

[another-lost-mc]

Reading Zee's sugar daddy post and think it must be the most angst nsfw fic ;-; i can imagine reader trying to hide their affection toward him but failed ‘cause it hard to hide the overwhelmed feelings when he’s that close.

I wrote those hypothetical sugar daddy situations to show the differences between the OCs but I wouldn’t suggest going that route for any of them, especially Zee.

Zee is very good at compartmentalizing so if you're in some arrangement with him for sex only, that’s exactly what you’ll get - no more, no less. He could just as easily find sexual relief with patrons at the club without all the unnecessary complications. I do not recommend pursuing that with him at all, unless you're an emotional masochist.

The best way to catch his attention is simply showing genuine interest in him and carefully skirting the line of being persistent without being annoying. Respecting whatever boundaries he communicates along the way is essential if you want him to learn to trust you.

Zee's more insightful than you might realize. If he knows you’re not the club-going type but you accept Asmo's invitations to The Fall every weekend just for a chance to see him or talk to him, he’ll notice.

If he texts or calls you to ask about your well-being, those short conversations eventually grow longer. He can’t claim they’re strictly professional anymore, not when you start asking him more personal questions and he doesn’t mind answering them. He gets curious and wants to learn more about you too.

If he doesn’t think Lucifer and his brothers do a good enough job taking care of you, he may offer his assistance or company in their place. He learns your schedule at RAD, where your part-time job is and what time your shift starts and ends. He can escort you home just as well as anyone else can, and it doesn't interfere with his own work schedule because he makes room in his day around those times, just in case you need him.

Above all else, Zee is still a demon and he’s not afraid to be a little manipulative. At some point he's going to wonder how deep your feelings go. Does it bother you when he pays attention to other patrons at the club as closely as he does to you? What if you catch him in a compromising situation with someone else? He’ll be able to sense your anger and your envy if any of those things upset you, and it might be the push he needs to consider progressing your relationship from friendship to something more.

Also! If you’re crushing on him with enough genuine lust and affection, Asmo and Azra will both know it. Asmo won't say anything but his invitations to join him at the club are his own subtle way of encouraging it. Azra might encourage it too, but only if he’s certain you’re not thirsting after Zee for a cheap thrill.

[mt07131]

book recommendation tag game!!

rules: recommend as many books as you like. please include genre and some basic information on it (either your words or a copy+paste synopsis). feel free to include cover art, a personal review, trigger warnings, and anything else! just don’t spoil the book!

tagged by @dekarios and hmmmm if anyone sees this and wants to do it, consider yourself tagged by me <3

Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Sci-Fi)

The Emperor of the Nine Houses has invited the necromantic heirs of each house to participate in a test to join him in immortality. Every necromancer needs a cavalier, however, and the only way Gideon Nav will earn her freedom from the Ninth House is to pick up a sword.

I want to say more about GtN SO BAD but I can’t because spoilers. This book quite literally fundamentally changed me, I think about it at least once a week. This was the book that got me back into reading more consistently so take that as you will.

A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson (True Crime)

Five years ago, Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend Sal Singh, and everyone knows it. At least, everyone thinks they know it. When Pippa Fitz-Amobi decides to investigate the case as part of her senior project, she begins to unravel dark secrets that will change the case- and her life- forever.

Another one of of my absolute favorite books and favorite series that I will always recommend. I really love how AGGGTM dives into the collective obsession with true crime and how it actually affects people who are involved.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (Sci-Fi)

Being a Chrysalis pilot in Huaxia is a boy’s dream and a girl’s death sentence. But when Wu Zetian kills the pilot responsible for her sister’s death through the Chrysalis’ mental link, she is labeled an Iron Widow and paired up with the strongest yet most controversial male pilot to tame her. She will not give up her power so easily though.

I was excited for this book and it more than exceeded my expectations. I love Zetian as a character, and the worldbuilding is excellent. I won’t lie when I say I’m foaming at the mouth for Heavenly Tyrant.

Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (Fantasy)

Kaz Brekker has the chance to pull off the heist of a lifetime that will make him rich beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, but he can’t do it alone. He must gather a crew of Ketterdam’s most talented to succeed- as long as they don’t kill each other first.

The crows!!!! I love them!!!! I liked the grisha trilogy set in the same world, but I loved the crows duology SO much more. All of the characters are fantastic but Kaz and Inej will always have my heart.

We Are Watching Eliza Bright by A.E. Osworth (Thriller)

Eliza Bright is living her dream as a coder at Fancy Dog Games. When a workplace harassment incident goes unresolved, Eliza takes her story to a journalist to bring light to her situation. Unfortunately, this also makes Eliza a target for the violent collective of male video game players, who threaten her life not only online, but in real life.

I am not normally one to read straight up thrillers, but this one was disturbing yet fascinating enough that I read it all in one day. While it is a fictionalized dramatization of Gamergate, what Eliza faces can feel all too real to someone who knows how game fans can be.

Warcross by Marie Lu (Sci-Fi)

Teenage hacker Emika Chen, desperate for cash, takes a chance and hacks into the international Warcross Championships, accidentally glitching herself into the action and becoming a sensation. When Warcross’ creator offers her an official place in this year’s championship to uncover a security issue, she uncovers a sinister plot that could bring Warcross as the world knows it to its knees.

I’ve read quite a few of Marie Lu’s books, but the Warcross duology was SO GOOD. Another book with stunning worldbuilding that also doesn’t feel so far off from our current technology, I’d highly recommend to anyone who loves sci-fi.

[toushindai]

Life-Sized Blogging

toushindai / 30s / cis female (she/her/hers)

A known bisexual. Administrative coordinator by day. Writer also by day. Asleep by night, unless something’s gone terribly wrong. Autistic, at all hours.

My special interests take the form of serial fandom obsessions. It’s currently and very narrowly whatever the fuck Rauru and Ganondorf have going on in Tears of the Kingdom right now. If you followed me for (counts backwards on fingers) Hades, Transistor, Baccano!, Soul Eater, or any other fandom I don’t post about anymore, sorry about that. I do not have any control over the direction of the special interest.

I write a lot of fanfiction, specializing--I may as well cop to this, I think it's been the case since I was in college--in what we'll call eroticized power dynamics. You can find me on AO3. You'll also find me occasionally peddling my wares on my nsfw twitter. My main twitter, wallofillusion, should be considered defunct at this point.

Below the cut, I'd like to highlight a few of the fics or fic series that I'm proudest of for each fandom.

Tears of the Kingdom

Questions of Kingship: Two PWP one-shots followed by a multichapter plotted work. Elements of dubcon and noncon throughout. Recommended if you like made-up politics, think TOTK maybe should have thought a little harder about the implications of its made-up politics, or just want to see two horrible men who hate each other fuck about it.

Following Ganondorf's oath of fealty to Hyrule, Rauru "invites" the Gerudo chief to stay at Hyrule Castle while Gerudo's subsumption into Hyrule is negotiated. It's a strategic action; Rauru does need to keep an eye on him. But his frustration with Ganondorf's false humility hides a desire that even he is not comfortable with, and Ganondorf has his own plans for the self-styled king of Hyrule.

Hades

Hello it is I a megzag main. reach out and grasp will be your best starting point. It focuses on Megaera's friendship with Thanatos and how it is affected by her (and Thanatos's) relationship with Zagreus. This series is available as a pay-what-you-want e-book at itch.io. From there, feel free to branch out; there is a lot of porn here and some things that are not porn. A further guide to my Hades fic can be found here.

Transistor

Not so much of the power dynamics in this fandom but I love Red/Boxer so much. I am not immune to a sword with a gentle voice. Here's the two of the on the verge of becoming a couple; here's what was as far as I can tell the first Red/Boxer smut on the entire internet even though I showed up three years late. Here is a post-game fic in which they finally must discuss the final act of the game.

Baccano!

Maskmaker trio my beloved. I've written over 100k across two separate "Monica is alive" AUs and my sole comfort is that I could never be as obsessed with this thought as Huey is.

Mad Religion is a one of my masterworks: set in the 2001 of an AU where Monica never died, Huey and Monica stumble upon a branch of SAMPLE only to discover that Elmer has already stumbled upon the cult on his own and is trying to make their sacrifice smile. Because that's what he's for--isn't it? If you like writing dealing with unnamed religious trauma, this one is for you.

Other than that--wow I cannot even begin to summarize my work in this fandom. Here's Ronny and Maiza getting to know each other in 1711. Here's Huey being the worst father imaginable to Liza. Here's a lil tone poem of Huey thinking on Monica and Elmer in the 1930s. Conversely here is Fermet leaning real hard on Huey's boundaries. There's more out there, my friends, but it's so scattered. I'm not even mentioning Ronny/Lucrezia here.

Soul Eater

Hello it is I a Medusa/Stein main. And also a "Stein's relationship with Lord Death/authority" main (I was working through some things at the time).

What it Means to Lose Control: When Stein has to give up control in order to fight, some are more than willing to step in and claim it from him. A Medusa/Stein divergent AU. I turned this into an e-book, with some side stories included; you can get that here (mobi | epub)

A God without an Ego: An examination of the relationship between Stein and Lord Death—where it works and where it falls apart. Looks like I never put this one on AO3... well, I'm not linking each piece individually on ff.n. The best way to read these ones is on e-book (mobi | epub)

Prior fandoms

If you want to go further back than "the tail end of my college years" godspeed and for god's sake please don't tell me about it. WallofIllusion on ff.n, you'll find some The World Ends With You, some Ace Attorney (original trio), some Death Note, and some Yu-Gi-Oh!. Also more Soul Eater than I transferred over to AO3.

[thommi-tomate]

Interview with Robert Andrich

By: Sport1

Mr. Andrich, there is currently a more positive mood around the national team. What is your impression?

I have a good impression of the team. The team spirit was never a problem anyway. We've also got a few new boys - older and younger. We are now trying to work out a game idea and hope that we can achieve our first successes in the game against France on Saturday. The big goal, of course, is to deliver at the European Championships. We still have four games before that, which are very important for our development.

The focus is currently on Toni Kroos, who is returning. What has changed with him? What does he bring to the table and how does he lead the team?

I haven't been around the national team for that long myself, but of course I've known Toni a bit longer through his brother Felix, with whom I'm very, very good friends. Toni isn't some kind of zampano (pompous and overbearing) who comes here and wants everything to go his way. He does exude authority, but in a calm way. That's what sets him apart. He simply tries to use his footballing quality and knowledge to make the team better. I am sure that he will succeed. On top of that, we have other good players who can contribute to a good overall picture.

Kroos wants a midfield center that includes all facets. Strong tackling and healthy aggression should also play a role. You fit the bill. It sounds like we'll soon be seeing the Kroos/Andrich duo in the DFB squad. How does that sound to you?

It's great to be mentioned in the same breath as Toni. It used to be the Andrich/Felix Kroos duo, now it might be Andrich/Toni Kroos. (laughs) That would be a good number. I think it's important that it works between the two of us, but also for the team. It's my job to present myself in such a way that the national team coach will consider using me. Everything else is not up to me. But basically it could be a good fit.

What individual qualities would you like to particularly recommend yourself to the national coach? Where do you see your strengths?

Of course, I know that I have my qualities when it comes to tackling and mentality. It's also important that we have a certain stability in defense. These are things that I can and must contribute. But that's not all. The days when you just needed a kicker in the six-man position are over. I can also play the odd good pass. But yes, first and foremost it's about providing stability and having a good feel for dangerous spaces.

There are some "loudspeakers" in the squad - where do you currently see your position? Have your successes in Leverkusen helped you to move up the hierarchy?

Success at the club doesn't really help you in the national team hierarchy. But of course they make you self-confident. You certainly don't have to hide. The basic character of a player doesn't change just because of success. I bring a lot to the table just because of my age and experience. I'm a guy who likes to be loud on the pitch and likes to talk. I try to help my teammates accordingly. But it's important to find the right mix. It's not about shouting in every situation just to get loud.

Your self-confidence is also based on your very successful season with Bayer Leverkusen so far. How is the exchange with the Bayern players here with the national team?

Of course, the one or other funny remark is made in turn. Thomas Müller is also a guy who likes to tease and perhaps wants to make us Leverkusen players a little nervous. From time to time we talk about the constellation in the Bundesliga, but at the moment the focus is on the national team. That's why we mainly talk about football here - that's more important than club football right now.

You became an international player relatively late. Is it perhaps an advantage that you joined the DFB squad as an "adult", so to speak? Is there less pressure on you than on a very young player?

Basically, I would have liked to have been invited to play for the national team as a 19-year-old. (laughs) But of course, all those years as a professional have certainly shaped me and contributed to my development. Some of the steps I've taken in my career weren't ordinary - but they've helped me as a person and brought me to where I am now. I now perhaps know more about what football is all about. I value things differently.

How have you personally experienced your previous appointments to the DFB squad?

I was called up to the national team for the first time when my limited playing time didn't really suggest it. I might have wished for a call from the national team coach a little earlier. But it was meant to be and I've earned my place in the squad. I've resolved to prove myself again and again and to keep at it in order to be nominated. Since the international matches in November, I've played more games in Leverkusen and earned the invitation

You mentioned your physical presence and your mentality. You are often referred to in the media as a "plow horse" or "chain dog". Are these terms you can live with or would you prefer a softer image?

Because of the way I play and all my tattoos, I can probably say goodbye to a soft image. Journalists are welcome to come up with nicknames, but I don't really care about that. In any case, I've never come up with a nickname that I'd say is absolutely great.

You didn't only have good times in Leverkusen and were injured in between. Nevertheless, you never complained, but subordinated yourself to success. To what extent can that also help you with the national team?

It's not easy when the team is warming up and preparing for the game and you're sitting outside in your winter jacket. You can't help much at first, but you can try to support your colleagues with little things and motivating words. With regard to the European Championship, it's important to have a positive squad beyond the first eleven players, in which everyone wishes each other only the best. That's the key to a functioning team - one is sporting, the other is human. It should never be the case that you hope for a yellow card for your team's rival so that you are more likely to play yourself. I've often had the experience of sitting on the bench in recent years, but in the end, the success of the team is the decisive factor. It's above everything else.

What influence does Xabi Alonso have? What is his message to the players, who are not having an easy time at the moment?

You can't always have lots of one-on-one conversations and give everyone a big hug. You don't have time for that in the football business. Xabi Alonso always says: "I'd like to field 22 players. So give me arguments that I can no longer do without you." If someone were to make a fuss if they didn't play, they would stay out all the more. That's how he manages to spur everyone on to top performance. That is the key to success.

What makes Xabi Alonso tick as a person?

He thinks about football 24 hours a day. He is incredibly meticulous and focused. He always radiates a hunger for success.

Leverkusen have been unbeaten in 38 competitive matches. Was there a point in time when you knew that anything was possible this season?

The first moment I believed in the realistic possibility of the championship was after the win at home against Bayern. We knew that if we won the game, we would be five points ahead. That's quite a house number. But it's more of an ongoing process in which the belief matures that you can win everything. One thing is certain: no matter how much we rotate, and we did that to an extreme at times, we have the belief that it will all work.

With Leverkusen, you have the chance to win the German championship, the DFB Cup and the dream of winning the Europa League is still alive. Where do you place the European Championship in your personal ranking?

I'm now here with the national team and have two games ahead of me. I want to prepare and present myself in the best possible way. My full focus is here. Then it's on to the really, really hot phase in the championship, the cup and the Europa League. And then the priority is completely on club soccer. In the end, I just want to hold up a trophy again. The last one was the championship in the 3rd division. That could be very special this season. I'll give it my all, both in Leverkusen and here with the national team.

You're a very fashionable guy yourself. What do you think of the DFB's new away kit?

I was a bit skeptical at first, but now it's slowly becoming normal. Every time I see it, it gets better. It's definitely something different. I'm still a fan of the home jersey though.

[the-cybertronian-insertable]

Info:

List of known Cybertronian Reader-Insert Tumblr Writers (WIP) List of known Cybertronian Reader-Insert AO3 Writers (WIP) Recommended Reads (WIP)

/CR Posts Collected: 580

Recommended method of searching for specific content utilizing this blog: Pick out a writer from the list above, select the spyglass next to 'posts', type in the username of the writer then whatever character and/or 'rating' (modesty panel [sfw] / valveplug [nsfw]) you're looking for. This isn't a fool-proof filtering method, but it's the best I have to offer.

-Hypothetical FAQ-

What’s this blog about?: Reblogging and sharing links to cybertronian (or cyberformed/techno-organic) reader-insert fiction. Posts regarding rare-paired (possibly obscure) canon characters may also pop up once in a while (ex: Mainframe x Jackpot).

Is this an NSFW blog?: Not entirely, but there will be NSFW literature shared around (due to this, I’ll be auto-blocking minors despite barely being an adult myself; irony will be the end of us all.). Sexually NSFW posts will be tagged with ‘valveplug’ while SFW posts (labeled as such for a lack of sexual content - this doesn’t mean they’ll be free of adjacent mature themes) will be tagged with ‘modesty panel’ to make it easier for y’all to find what you want using the blog’s tag search. 

I don’t see ‘x’ writer’s; who’s made ‘x’ post; works anywhere on this blog but I know they make related reader inserts-?: Recommend them, then! The ask box is open for more than just questions! Hell, recommend writers/works from external sites (AO3, Fanfiction.net, Etc..)!

Can I become a member?: I’m not  really looking for members right now but if you’ve got a blog dedicated to writing /reader-inserts I may consider inviting you if you ask (I won’t go out of my way to ask, so you're gonna’ have to take the initiative here chief). Though, I haven’t thought through how that’d work yet so you’ll probably be  left as an option pending until I get.. I don’t know, rules? Sorted out.

What if I’m a writer for the related topics and don’t want my works shared here?: Aye, you just let me know pal’, I’ll remove what references to you I can find and slap your usernames on a blacklist. (In the case of external accounts, I’ll ask for a bit of non-intrusive proof so I know it's you asking and not someone who dislikes you for some reason or another. Ex for AO3 users: A short clip of you scrolling up and down on your dashboard profile while logged in).

Who runs this blog?: @slug-gore-bug / @notoriousslug

Disclaimer: I, slug, won’t be reading through all the posts I reblog before I do so as I lack that kind of time on my slime. If I reblog something ill-fitting of this blog, just lemme’ know and I’ll look into it. On that note, though: don’t bring interpersonal drama to my doorstep. I don’t participate in ‘cancel-culture’; this is a library, not a courthouse, xir.

Transcript:

-Galvatron and Sixshot stand Infront of a command console. Galvatron brings a picture of Unicron onto the console screen. -

Galvatron: This is Unicorn -referring to the picture of Unicron/'Grand Galvatron'- the earth will soon be a part of me.

Sixshot: *moans in awe of rotund girth.*

Galvatron: But before I can fulfill my ambitions, I need a lot of transforming parts, they are very vital to my final transformation -turns towards Sixshot- the weakest part of my body is my head, I can't just have any transforming parts I must have the best parts and thats from the best wARriors-

Sixshot: *voice muffled and nasally* of course my lord.

Galvatron: Now besides myself -points at Sixshot- I consider you to be the next best warrior Sixshot, your transforming technique and your parts are some of the best in the GAlux-C. -screen pans towards a silent Sixshot- Do you understand that? -screen pans back to Galvatron- Well of course there are many others who would sacrifice themselves to serve me bUT your my first CHOICE Sixshot *begins laughing manically* -screen pans to a pissed off looking Sixshot with a laughing Galvatron still in frame-.

[gospexchange]

Good Omens Song & Poetry Exchange About & FAQ

[this post mirrors the About page for mobile users]

All asks are tagged #FAQ

Event Schedule

The event will run from December 2023 to March 2024 as follows:

Sign-ups Open: December 15th Sign-ups Close: January 15th Match-ups sent out by: January 28th Participant Check-in: February 18th Final Pieces due: March 15th Gift Delivery: March 15th-25th

If any any point you think you will be unable to adhere to this schedule, including meeting the check-in, final submission, or delivery deadlines, please inform the mods as soon as possible.

Event Mods

Shanimal (shanimalx) Dash (Dashicra1) Caddis (contritecactite) Betty (BasketcaseBetty)

Contact & Social Media

Email: gospexchange@gmail.com Twitter: @GOSPExchange

What exactly is a song and poetry exchange?

It works just like a regular fandom exchange– fans are matched up to create fanworks to gift to one another. What makes this one different though, is that the gift prompts will be in the form of our participants’ favorite songs and poems! If you’ve ever wanted to read a fic based off of your favorite Shakespeare sonnet or Hozier song, now’s your chance!

It is not required to create a song or a poem for this event.

What kind of songs or poems can I request?

The only requirement is that whatever song or poem you request must be publicly available to read or listen to online. This ensures that our gifters know what to base you gift off of!

If you are having trouble deciding what to request, feel free to check out the #library-and-playlists channel in our Discord server for suggestions [Invite Coming Soon!]! There will also be space in the sign-up form to submit three different requests, though only one is required to submit, and only one will be used as the basis for your gift.

What kind of fanwork can I make as my gift?

Whatever you like! It can be about any character or pairing, and be any medium! Part of the reason behind making this exchange song- and poem-based is that it allows our gifters to interpret lines in lyrics in different ways and produce a wider variety of works!

We only ask that whatever you make, it relates to the requested song or poem assigned to you in some way, and that an appropriate amount of effort is put into it. It should be something you would be happy to get as a gift too!

What happens if my giftee doesn't like their gift / I don't like my gift?

Unfortunately, this issue is something that comes with the territory of participating in an exchange. Since the prompts for this event are songs and poems, they are even more open to interpretation than usual, and you may end up creating something that isn't well-received, or receiving a gift that you weren't expecting. This is a natural consequence of anonymous matches that is hard to combat in an objective way without dramatically changing the nature of the event.

The only thing we can recommend is to be as specific as possible when it comes to listing your No-Gos when you sign up. We cannot account for things you don't like if you don't inform us of them, and we will not be asking your gifter to change or remove things that were not listed.

What happens if my gift includes something I listed as a No-Go?

Please bring it to our attention as soon as possible so we can contact your gifter to change it. However: we will not ask them to change something that you did not inform us about. This is not a commission event, and we will not be asking creators to make unexpected changes to their finished work.

To avoid this happening in the first place, please be as specific as you can when listing No-Gos in the sign-up form. Both canon and headcanons can be very open to interpretation, so avoid using umbrella terms or generalizing statements. A good practice is to take a brief moment to consider how your phrasing could be interpreted by someone else, or even to ask a friend how they might interpret it! You can also make a note in your sign-up form that you'd like a second opinion from the mods, and we can help you clarify your wording!

[inariedwards]

Second panel from the ICOM-IMREC seminar.

I really really recommend watching the third presentation by Roshi Naidoo, which begins at timestamp 29:30. Below is a transcript of it, because the automatically generated captions on YouTube are bad, and also in case anyone is not in a place where you can watch a video or don't have the time or such. But if you can, please do watch her give her presentation in her own voice. All errors in the transcript are my own.

-

Hello everyone and thank you very much for inviting me to this very important conference. My paper is called "Let's Go Around Again: The museum carousel and its Others."

I sit down to write a conference paper on the above subject. I've written this paper before. Well not exactly this one, but variations on the theme of how institutional cultural policy around decolonisation and diversity in the UK museum sector regularly falls short of addressing its own structural racism, favouring instead the performance art of showcasing their latest flagship initiative. They are initiatives which speak to the issues, yes, often very convincingly, but they also deliberately and skillfully elide key questions, such as the positionality of its leaders, policy makers, or curators, the ways in which white supremacy lurks in its funding-outcomes-evaluation project cycle -model, or how the complexities and nuances of Black subjectivity, creativity, agency, and joy are sacrificed on the altar of neat deliverables and social media-friendly posts, aimed primarily at legitimising the museum as a force for social good, rather than dismantling power hierarchies.

What should I do? Make these points again and update them for 2023 and the current decolonial turn? This would be a valid way to approach this, but I'm uneasy, and must address why. Being told that this time is different, and that the museum carousel at least understands the circular motion of the ways in which it addresses and engages with its others. But do they really understand? This is how I see the dance.

When the funding runs out for the project perpetually situated at the edges of museum concerns, and they move on to the next "issue," the kind folk who populate the museum wring their hands in frustration, agreeing that this cycle is terrible, and ask "but how can we stop it?" Museum folk are nice, we know that. They want to change, we know that too. And nice people who want to change can't be part of the problem, can they?

The activists, outsider curators, consultants, academics, etc. say the following:

-Make changes at the core of museum work. -Forensically consider what is being said in these projects and the theoretical ideas behind them. -Learn about the cultural politics of race and representation, and about intersectionality. -Understand the breadth, depth, and complexities of our colonial past and present. -Consider your positionality and anxious responses when confronted with calls for powershifts. -Stop funding short term projects and fund structural change. -Do your "reaching out to communities" -work in tandem with considering how you recruit for actual paid jobs in the sector. -Stop instrumentalising our artists, historians, creatives, etc. for your own institutional self-aggrandisement. -Concert(?) that we may have no interest at all in reforming the museum and may go elsewhere in search of cultural, political, and social liberation.

I could go on, and the list of recommendations, reports, and interventions spanning decades, which attest to this, are lying still in filing cabinets of many museums.

So there is an answer, but when we furnish them with this, they become like the wise monkeys, and they speak over us to ask the question again, this time formulated with an intellectual and critical paradigm that fits the policies, processes, and practices that they've always worked within. Now back in their comfort zones they will suggest their own answer. We are met with a white noise of babble, and can just pick out the names of strategic reports and government policies couched in excruciatingly dead sector speak, along with references to communities, and phrases such as "lived experience" delivered blandly and without context or understanding. The slogan is that "Museums Must Decolonise." However, the message also is "but the museum will tell you how to do it."

We come back and try again. "There's a huge body of work that can help you," we say, "but it has to begin with you considering your fragility and the responses you bring to the table whenever we bring this stuff up. Maybe start with this YouTube clip, it's only an hour long." But this is already too much, and no one is listening. Museums instead will do the same thing over and over again, yet expect a different outcome. Or maybe the outcome they get is actually the desired one.

I too am on this roundabout, and also complicit in keeping it going. In this circuit then I know the role I must play. There's a wave of interest in all things decolonial and anti-racist comes into being. It means I can earn a living and someone might look at my apparently fractured CV and understand the thread of continuity that runs through it. I phrase things in sector-friendly language, hold my tongue when asked what I think of a project, which is at best just barely acceptable but at worst peddling homogenised essentialist myths, grateful that at least - as always - it is only a temporary exhibition, and will be gone soon.

I will accept that museums are on the beginning of a journey, and must be treated with patience, and will therefore sit on the knowledge that endless white innocence is a historical trope, which is enacted to maintain power. I will appear unthreatening - to an extent - but not unthreatening enough to be offered a full-time senior job in the museum to address the things I've raised - the things that management has assured me is so important to them and key to their strategic vision going forward.

There is a game being played. A set of rules and gambits to observe, and I too am part of the problem. As I star in my own microcosm of these cyclical events, I know what will happen. I will be applauded and commended for my provocative, thought-provoking paper. People will ask me afterwards to discuss things at the break. I will be invited onto an advisory board or to a confidential meeting with a high up somewhere - usually for no fee. Then we will hit a wall, and I will go away again until the next time.

So in response to that, and as a small attempt to break the cycle, I'm not going to give a traditional paper of the sort I've always given. Instead I'm going to present you with three small vignettes of what life working on the ground in the UK museum sector is like, and show how an understanding of what is happening in these interpersonal, anxiety-ridden, multi-layered moments may be more helpful than what I have presented to the sector in the past. I've merged and anonymised incidents, but each reflects a plethora of other identical moments. And all examples describe a climate that mitigates against change, despite claims to the contrary.

So, vignette 1:

The meeting decides that, although they recognise that there is a lot of theoretical work in the field of decolonisation, that what people in the sector really want is action and guidance on practice, help with the doing, not so much for the thinking, self-reflection, which is just holding things up. The inference they never spelt out is that you're a bit too academic and out of touch with the on-the-ground museum folk. We're just keen to work with local communities, to reinterpret their collection, change the racist label on an object, and open up their doors to more people.

Your suggestion, that a bit of thinking before this process may be essential to the success of this venture, has not gone down well. Besides there isn't the time or the money. You've subtly been labeled as over-intellectual and weirdly positioned as too white-identified and middle class as a result - despite being a working class person of colour - and therefore in opposition to the communities they're working with. They don't need a politics of nuance to be brought to bear on the knee-jerk essentialism that accompanies their project.

But, to express oppositional thinking and awareness of how structures of power confine and define us is part of the DNA of minoritised groups, and to dismiss this discussion as elitist, academic, or ivory tower in nature woefully misunderstands the intellectual traditions and resistance that we inhabit. Soon the self-same community is going to tell the museum that they're sick of being used as a resource and will bring the same critical skills to bear on the mooted project. The relationship will break down, resulting in the shedding of well-meaning tears of regret, and bafflement about what went wrong. Rather than learn from this though, do the reading and self-reflection, they will repeat this mistake the next time.

This is white supremacy at work. Not as visible as a hateful comment on the website, true, but part of the same network of thinking that refuses to see people in all their complexity, and as having value and identity outside of racism's structures, and totally unaware of the histories of agency and resistance that people of colour inhabit.

Vignette 2:

The museum consults a community about their gallery reinterpretation, and makes changes based on this. Other people, from what the museum understand as the same community, points out that the new display is rubbish. No one in the museum has thought about what expertise was actually needed for the refit, and that not everyone who is a person of colour will think the same thing or have the same response to the artifacts on display. There has been no respect paid to the expertise on colonial history or the politics of representation. "But we did really extensive consultation," they retort. The subtext and the silence in the meeting is "you can't please these people." This then becomes an issue of racial "infighting," not an issue of white supremacy at work again.

Vignette 3:

A senior museum person, signed up to all the diversity, decolonial, and anti-racist initiatives, confides that in the current museum climate, there is nothing that speaks to him as a straight white man. He also complains that "ethnic minorities" haven't applied for posts, so how can museums be berated for not recruiting more widely. It is a familiar moment in both your years in museum work and in life in general. You're being asked to actually reinforce this: to shrug and agree that identity politics has gone too far, or to telegraph your sympathy through silence. You have two moves here. One is to do just this and deal with the "why didn't I say?" later. The other is to speak. The fiction in the sector is that these moments or "difficult conversations" can always be embarked on. They can't, and I really admire those who have the tenacity and/or use their privileged position to do this.

My experience of this moment is that once I say, for example, - kindly, usually - that:

A) Whiteness is an identity politics, albeit rendered invisible, and that you need to understand your anxieties, or B) What else is decolonisation about if not about understanding the workings of straight white men? or C) Why does other people expressing their agency and subjectivity oppress you? or D) Where is your sense of solidarity or even curiosity?

...a familiar pattern of attack both in content and affect will ensue, no matter how nice the person in question is. Before I've got the first words out and it becomes clear I'm not agreeing, I'm spoken over. Immediately I'm accused of misunderstanding. The hurt party is now the man, who I've unfairly labeled as racist - even though I have not - by not understanding what was being said. A long list of mitigation engulfs me, and even though each confirms the view that white fragility is at play, I cannot speak again, and small fractured parts of sentences emerge from my mouth and disappear into the air. There is no listening, no desire to learn, no humility in these moments that so many of us endure. The psychic damage done to us is not an issue, and the fact that this is a scene that I've played over and over again can't be discussed.

This is not simply a recollection of one incident but of many, and all from people who are not culture warriors or rabid fanatical right-wingers attacking the museums through concerted political campaigns. It comes from nice, liberal, kind people, who would be welcoming to a Black person in their museum, and would bend over backwards to accommodate their needs, or to discuss an issue of the provenance of an artifact with them, people who are keen to do decolonial work with the local community. But this mismatch of such people enacting decolonisation work as merely procedural, without doing the most important decolonisation work, which happens between their ears, is one of the keys to unlocking this problem.

So, in conclusion, if my readings of the sector here have any validity, then there are various ways in which we can interpret these patterns. We can see this as evidence of the endurance of the bedrock contradictions of Enlightenment ideology, which historically has always been able to hold together the notion of "freedom for all" while oppressing the majority. Are we being managed as troubling others, in ways which may both give voice to us, but also seek to contain and limit those voices? Is the museum attempting to manage a fear of its own engulfment and loss of authority through hysterical reactions to the fact that we are not coming for inclusion but for power? Are museums hiding behind institutional speak as a means of avoiding the messy emotional labour that comes with genuine decolonial work, which confronts those deep circuits of economic, social, political, and cultural power, and white authority in particular?

Recently I went to see The Procession at Tate Britain in London, a piece of work by the sculptor and contemporary artist Hew Locke. This spectacular, vibrant, colourful, detailed, thought-provoking, large-scale installation - set between the classical pillars of the gallery's foyer - echoed with the centuries of labour, misery, and resistance that lives in that structure, and in the built environment of our colonial cities. Perhaps this is just a thread that can't be pulled on.

Thank you very much and I look forward to hearing your questions.