#thread 14

[enduringdevotion]

Wedding Planning #1: Invite The Broker ||@hypnoticallycaucasian||

Nicholas had a list of things he needed to do for this big event of his life. One was invitations, not that there were many he wanted to reach out to, what with not being entirely social just yet. It worked out, made the event cozy and more intimate.

It's what he told himself rather than depressingly small.

He waited at the little lunch spot on the pier, wanting to hit two birds one stone by organizing other pieces whilst asking the broker. Perhaps it was too presumptuous for him to assume Badou even cared about his life, but they'd been through a bit and shared a few drinks around the Plant's birthday. Surely he'd at least come for the booze.

At least, to the killer, Badou was important enough to ask directly.

"Come on, Badou. I'm not interested in saving your ass right now." He was without his cross, uncaring of protecting himself in this place, he wasn't in the red district, he was on the pier.

[toa-masquerade]

So this is Pasithee's magic...

In a ballroom full of people, they look at no one in particular, a hand raised as if to touch the air itself. To their mind there is something different but familiar, like wading through water; to their senses, there is nothing. It feels like there should be.

Realizing someone has joined them, their fingers curl slightly as they turn their head. 

"Hello!" They extend a greeting and a smile. "Are you having fun?" There is warmth, almost, in the way they hold this- this nothing at all. And then a laugh. "This magic... Doesn't it almost feel like you can touch it?

[angelictragedy]

Not What is Expected ||@drunkelreporter||

Nai had gone into town alone to find things for his lover, secret gifts to surprise him, having reread his book on courting. Spontaneous gifts were a wonderful way to show your love you adore them and think of them regularly.

So, heading home with a backpack full of things and a few bags on one arm, he stops when a white form dramatically flops before him. He shifts, peering around the phone to see the shape breathing weakly. He slowly crouches, setting bags aside and pocketing his phone to inspect the creature, clearly dazed, looking up at him.

It was a small white bat, the nose shape and slightly sharpened fangs had him guessing vampire bat, the angled body clearly built for crawling around was however, not as defined. Interesting.

"You poor thing." His face softens, hands carefully cradling the tiny creature, tucking them close as feathers pried open a bottle of water and his hand took the filled cap to offer a drink.

He watched the little thing drink, relaxing in his kneeling position. They could drink, this was a good thing. However, the bushes hear him rustle, the little thing jerking up, clearly alert, though the tongue stuck out, revealing he wasn't in the best focus.

The bear nose is met with a calm tilt of the head. Even when it seemed to snarl, or perhaps it just looked unusually aggressive. Despite the massive size of the thing, the feathers remained only on his extended arm.

"Not for bears." It's a gentle scolding, one that showed he respected the animal but wouldn't let it have the bat.

The bat seemed to suddenly become animated, making sounds and the Plant simply watched, inspecting the creature who made a fuss, noting the flapping wings seemed to be begging for the bear. So, he stood, approaching the animal and holding out his hands, watching the bat scramble to splat squarely on the bear's head. It all seemed so silly, the Plant chuckling at the dramatics as the back tiredly turned to mimic the same frantic motions to him.

"Perhaps, for bears, it seems. Forgive my crude judgement." He bows his head, scrambling to catch the bat that threw itself to him, earning a warm, light laugh. "Alright, alright. Vampire bat, which means if I'm right you need blood. I have some at home for my friend should he visit me..." The smile wavers, a soft sadness there before he shakes it off.

"Come, your bear friend is welcome to join. I have plenty of honey and I am sure Legato's taught me enough about cooking to make something digestible." Or maybe there's some scraps of leftovers the bear will enjoy. "We have plenty of space at our home, against the forest where you can come and go as you please." feathers reclaim his bags as he looks to the bear, unafraid of it mauling him as he cradles the happy bat to his chest, carefully petting it's gaunt belly with worry.

"I'll tend to you and your friend." With this, he carefully continues home, acting as if the animals could understand him, his emotional support pup watching the bear, barking and wagging his tail.

"Gato, come. Let's not play with a hungry bear just yet." He chuckles as the pup scrambles to his side, the vest displaying it was a helper in training, falling back into the role of watching his owner and being careful to tend to the unseen needs.

[watfletcher]

{Text from Lily}: So you were right about rushing into getting married. Instead of saying I told you so could you buy me a drink instead?

[text] I can do that. And I'm sorry I was unkind to you then.

[text] I was jealous. And I think I was upset you never really mentioned him.

[text] Anyway, enough about him. Let's get you drunk.

@lilylynch

[fangsanddaggers]

Wasn't even swinging yet. That was the point, he was to hunt the bear before he could harm the youth. Not a kid, perhaps, but still young. Astarion was nearly three hundred, nineteen was a baby.

Still, he licks the blood from his hand lazily before marking a tree and finally wiping it off on the bear's fur when patting it. He listened carefully, relieved to note the poor thing was just asleep, a small blessing at least. He slips off, finally stepping into the sun again once he'd made himself entirely presentable at least, clearing his throat.

"Yes well, when this world strips you of your powers and weapons, you make do with what you have at your disposal. Claws, teeth, rocks, whatever you can." Granted, he himself had regained some of his powers by now, but even without them he'd have figured something out.

"And just to be clear, no, I didn't attack it because I thought you'd be useless against it, I attacked it for both a meal and because you shouldn't have to fight a bear when you're relaxing." He looks over at the thing, watching ribs slowly rise and fall. "Though, I'd suggest not being here for too many hours, she'll wake and be very mad." If dizzy, which is worse than a bear focused on the kill.

He focuses again on the human, bowing gingerly to him.

"Apologies for my crude comments earlier. Hunger does terrible things to my social capacity." He straightens again, moving back towards the city with a lazy wave. "Enjoy your training. And perhaps be aware that anything with a heightened sense of smell can track the smell of explosives on you from a mile away. Try a forest scented perfume perhaps from local ingredients to help mask it."

The woods are peaceful, for the most part. Peaceful and quiet, but for the sounds of his resumed training as he kicks and punches the logs he'd positioned in the clearing. However, now he knew for a fact there was a stealthy and irritable hunter around, and a good portion of his attention was on his surroundings as a result.

So he hears the crashing of a large body long before the bear comes barreling into his clearing, and he's already set his feet in a taijutsu stance when it rears to strike at him. It's just an animal after all, entirely normal and simply pissed off at him for some reason or another. It might even be a decent fight, for as long as it lasts.

But then it's attacked out of nowhere, yanked away, and then the hunter is practically climbing the damn thing to bite it. Which, while not the weirdest thing in the world, was not what he had been expecting from the fairly slight man. All he does is dance a couple of steps backward and tilt his head slightly, watching.

Definitely a dangerous predator, to be so easily able to take down a much larger creature with nothing more than his fangs. It's interesting that, despite the feral look and the face covered in blood, Deidara feels less of a threat from him now, not more.

"All good here, un. Wasn't even swinging yet before you climbed in, yeah," he says mildly, sweeping his hair behind his shoulder. "Not the method I'd have chosen, but pretty effective anyway, un."

The guy has nothing on watching Zetsu swallow a full-grown human whole, so he's not even disturbed. Pretty interesting how he'd managed to keep all the blood from even touching his clothes though.

[burstfoot]

[samstrifee]

i loathe real life men all day and then i log in here and look at pictures of the two somewhat offputtingly incestuous guys from supernatural and i am sane again..has anyone else tried this

[troythecatfish]

[fangsanddaggers]

Astarion wanted big ones. He had a plan for the day, energy zipping through his body like it hadn't since the moss. His eyes were alight, a fire reignited in them as he giggled at the kisses to his knuckles. Though he soon pouts as he's found out, chewing his lips as he fussed.

Before or after?

"After, darling. I don't want any distractions. Plus... It's not easy to simply talk about. Best sought out after a nice day." Lips curled as he twitched his wrist ever so subtly, mimicking a heartbeat best as his undead frame would allow. "It's nothing but good, my love. I promise." He pulls the human in closer, stealing a slow, passionate kiss from him, melting down at the touch as he's always want to do.

"Book us in as soon as possible. I'll go get cleaned up and ready." He eagerly kissed the warm cheek, pat his butt before skittering off. He slips into his special fridge in the room, snatching a blood bag on his way past.

It was his first meal in days and he was eagerly chugging it down as he padded for the bathroom humming. If he had a tail, it would be curling and sweeping behind him.

It hadn't been easy, getting Astarion even to this point where he was fussing instead of frantic and grief stricken and angry at himself. He didn't like to wander too far and getting him to eat had been a nightmare in of itself; thank goodness there was a butcher Roberto could buy blood from or he'd have to watch the vampire starve himself.

Wolfwood helped too. He seemed to know exactly what was wrong after a few minutes in Astarion's presence, and put up with the vampire's focus like a champ.

Roberto blinks at the sudden movement, huffing in amusement as his knuckles are kissed like he's some delicate lady.

"Three huh? Dunno if we even have any walls big enough for three tapestries to hang. I guess they might make small ones, it doesn't say what size they are or anything." Not that he has an objection to the idea; 'home' is different things when different people are involved. One for each of their separate homes and one for their developing home together, that sounded nice.

A turn of his wrist and he's the one kissing knuckles this time, dragging his beard over pale skin.

"Sure, sounds like a plan. Looks like we make appointments, since it'll be a thing that takes a bit. I'll go ahead and call them, see about setting it up." A small pause and he presses his thumb to Astarion's wrist, where his pulse should be but isn't. "I'm sensing a talk incoming. Before or after, hm?"

[episodes-without-incident]

6/18/2024:

6 episodes since Drawfee last referenced Cats (2019)

14 episodes since Drawfee last referenced Everytime We Touch (2005)

--

With that said, I went to look at Karina's recent Neopets tweets and this. definitely counts as something.

[gomzdrawfr]

[misty-wisp]

oh, love is blind, you forget...

a Loveit? redraw/slight tracing featuring mine and @mobtismsatelier's csm ocs, Vin and Kenji <3 the song lyrics actually don't fit them that well but listen. the vibe. the sick love between a devil hunter and a fiend. do you see my vision

alternate version:

[tortellinigirl]

i think the adult relationship to the childhood dog is something that is so tender and heart-wrenching and important. you are the last vestige of my childhood. you are the sacred keeper of the memories i hold dearest, but you can barely see or hear me anymore. who do i become once you’re gone? where do i turn to remember myself? you’re the last one sitting next to me at the door of a childhood home that no longer exists, waiting patiently for the return of a family that no longer exists. where can i live when you, too, no longer exist? i can’t let go. please don’t make me let go. i know you’ll leave soon. i wish you didn’t have to. but she’s just a dog. her life is short and i will witness her death and i’ve known this from the beginning. i didn’t think it would come so fast. am i ready? have i become someone yet? have i become unrecognizable to her yet? does she still see the child i was? i’m still the child i was. please, don’t forget the child i was. please don’t take her away from me.

[monards]

can we talk for a minute abt the fact alicia's room has presumably been 46 degrees consistently and she. thought absolutely nothing of it. like she never though ANYTHING about it? the exorcist? whose thing is finding signs of ghosts? can we talk about this guys

[itssovero]

07. Final Fantasy XIV Online: Dawntrail (Square Enix Creative Studio III, 2024)

I'm far from an MMO-focused gamer (I won't be talking about hardcore raiding as I haven't yet worked up the courage to take the leap into that content), but FFXIV absolutely stole my heart back in 2020 with its rich worldbuilding, incredible life-affirming storytelling, immaculate vibes and soundtrack, satisfying cooperative gameplay, and generally welcoming in-game community. With prior expansion Endwalker wrapping up a 10-year narrative saga spanning the game's entire history up to that point, this new adventure is poised to be the start of a whole new phase of the game, and in my opinion, Dawntrail absolutely starts that journey on the right foot (despite what media literacy-devoid outrage merchants on social media would have you believe).

The narrative revolves around themes of community, collaboration, and understanding, with the player character taking on a mentor role to the empathetic and sociable but inexperienced Wuk Lamat as she participates in a rite of succession to become the leader of her nation while coming to truly know the hearts of the people she would serve. She's not running unopposed, however; her journey pits her against a host of other claimants, including her elder brother, who harbors warmongering, expansionist intentions for the nation. With the legend of a fabled city of gold at the heart of this continent-spanning contest, thrilling adventure, heartwarming character interactions, and manmade horrors beyond your comprehension delicious-looking local cuisine are abound.

Without spoiling the twists and turns the story throws at the player as it wends on, Dawntrail in typical FFXIV fashion tells a fundamentally prosocial story that really made me want to connect with my fellow human beings. The story actually positions itself as a sort of companion piece to the critically acclaimed Shadowbringers, both expansions tackling the premise of making the world a better place for those who follow in our footsteps, but each from a different angle, with Shadowbringers focusing on taking back the world from oppressive forces while Dawntrail focuses on preventing such oppression from materializing during times of peace. The setting of Tural is a character unto itself, its lands lush and beautiful, and its peoples and cultures endearing. The revelations throughout also help further expand the scope of FFXIV's universe in ways that will almost certainly be relevant in future stories.

The dungeon and trial design is tight and streamlined, hitting upon what I feel is the perfect level of challenge for normal duties. The two new DPS jobs, Viper and Pictomancer, are both fluid and satisfying to play, the former focusing on pure selfish damage with a busy fast-paced attack rotation, and the latter requiring strategic timing of skills with longer cast times in exchange for absurdly high burst damage and strong party buffs.

The slate of announced patch content is massive, as well, with a large-scale Field Operation, a new roguelike Deep Dungeon, a new wave of multi-path Variant Dungeons, some new form of lifestyle content, and a new unique Limited Job gameplay style all being promised in addition to the usual 8-Player and Alliance Raids. We've seen a lot of these types of content before, but never all at the same time. Combine that with the start of a new story and the currently-ongoing graphical overhaul, and this new phase of FFXIV almost feels more like the start of a sequel than an average expansion release.

[wandererxiv]

Tsukino.