#trust me when i say youll want to watch the whole thing its very worth it

[critter-catcher]

This turkey decided to stop by with her poults! Looks like she's got about 9 or 10!

[creetchure]

OH I WATCHED UNDER THE RED HOOD AND WOW I FORGET HOW HORRIBLE IT US WATCHING JASON GETTING BEAT UP W A CROWBAR

all of his actions! are justified i still do not think he was at all in the wrong w becoming like a sort of crime lord. red hood more like slay hood

i will say! that (and maybe the comics go into more depth w the backstory to why he even went after the joker) i kinda like the way they built up his death in the titans.

i will now explain bc it’s actually my favorite arc ever.

jason todd was tossed around in the system, yeah. obviously this causes mistrust w authority, duh. finally, fucking bruce wayne takes him in and suddenly he’s actually helping his community. the community he suffered in and saw others suffering around him and continues to see suffering!! so obviously that’s like so amazing and great.

except. then he starts feeling like batman is holding him on a leash. there isnt total trust both ways — he feels like he’s worth more than anyone is giving him credit for (teen struggles but ur a vigilante!! uh oh).

so when he gets sent to the titans he is really fuckin pissed. it’s just further proof that bruce/batman doesn’t actually believe in him as a proficient fighter (even though, while some of that might be true, im sure bruce wanted him to also gain new perspectives. not the point though).

and then of course he gets fucking traumatized to all hell from almost dying after running off on his own without thinking things through bc yet again he feels chained down. so he’s dealing w that when he gets back go gotham.

and bruce notices! and is like “hey you should go to therapy” but jason already lost some amount of trust so is like “hm no im *fine* let me *fight*” he sees therapy as an admission to weakness etc etc.

he eventually is kinda forced to go (no fight until therapy) and it helps for about a second until he just fuckin. convinces himself that it’s rigged against his favor. so batman totally grounds him and he then he goes to fight the joker alone and. yeah.

but it’s just so?? like?? idk it’s so. it makes so much sense. everyone’s side makes sense and i think that’s why i love it so much. idk how much of this correlates w the comics but the red hood movie did Not go into very mucb detail and i know that wasn’t the point of the movie but it was still a little disappointing somehow. i still super duper enjoyed it though. for sure very much super good movie/gen

and the fight sequences!!! ugh i love love love animated fights. how do they do that??? so much talent.

gotta say, i wasnt expecting so much from titans, fromwhat little ive heard about it. BUT. counterpoint. your honor, you should also watch Batman: Death in the Family. Goes into a lot of why jason went to ethiopia in the first plac e that ties in with him not knowing who he is outside batman, etc.

my main rec for post revival jason is teen titans #29 from either the 2003 or 2007 run i cant rmbr

OK spoilers for death in the family below, thoughPLEASE please pleaseread or watch it its SO worth it. its what shapes Batman into what he is now, changes a Lot of his motivations.

ok ? ok!

in comic canon, jason is a crime alley kid, that hasnt changed, but the difference i think is rhat its batman whi takes him in. he tries to steal the batmobiles tires, and bruce drops on him in full costume to buy him a hamburger and iffer him to stay.

one thing youll see people say is that jason was the angry/violent robin, and while i disagree on that whole thing, it is where most of his and bruces issues stem from pre-death.

he gets benched. he finds out catherine todd isnt his biological mother and in a fit of teenage angst and rebelion, decides flying to ethiopia is the way to deal with that, to try to find his bio mom.

and he does!! him and vruce find her!! only issue is: she sells jason out to the joker, who was blackmailing her.

so jason is there. he wat hed his mother sell him out. hes getting tortured nearly to death, and then you see what happens at the begining of under the red hood, except whatq not shown there is that jason died taking the burnt of thz blast for his mom.

tbe nextcomic is i thunk the ling halloween which introduces tim and a whole lot of iddues, superman has to stop him from killong etc.

what id rec for other post revival jason content is from the 2003 (i think, might be 07?? unsure) teen titans run, issue #29, which has a confrontation with tim that is so. so heartbreaking man. i love it but also holy fucking shitballs.

[dystopia-fantasy]

Always read the job description -Part 1

Max was a fit, well built man. He had been body building since he was 14 and now In his early 40s he has the body of a god, but is slowly getting to the age when he needs to find another way to make money. He knows he can't take part in his competitions anymore, and needs to take it easy. He got great grades in school and college, proving people wrong that you can't be a nerd in a jock body.

Max had some money saved and was able to keep up on bills for a few months but needed a job to keep his large house, in the rich area of the city. He got a call from a business he applied to a couple of days ago, telling him to go in for an interview tomorrow, and if it goes well he will be sent straight on a trip for the company. He gets his new blue suit ready to be worn the next day.

The morning arrives, it's 5am, and Max wakes. He does his normal morning routine, making breakfast, working out, taking a shower, then gets his suit on ready for his early morning interview. Driving to the office building in the middle of New York, it's at least 50 stories high, and is made of mostly glass, and is one of the newest modern builds in the city.

On arrival a large man in his late 60s wearing a suit greets him, "hello sir, you must be max, Sir Mammon is on his way down to collect you, may I say what an amazing suit you have on today".

Max looks the man up and down, seeing the man's huge belly flowing out from under his dress shirt, showing a massive W shape, "thanks mate, you might want a bigger shirt" then points to his belly.

"sorry if I offended you sir, but all clothing has been chosen by Sir Mammon himself" Mammon is the big boss of the business "if you would like to make a complaint I can print you a form".

Max laughs, "No thanks, I'm gonna sit over there, tell Mammon im there".

"will do sir, have a great day" the man says while max walks away paying no more attention to him.

About 15 minutes later a young handsome slender man walks over. "Max is it?" He says behind Max.

"yes.." max says confused.

"I'm Mammon, nice to meet you" he smiles holding his hand out for a shake.

"oh hello Mammon, is wasn't expecting someone so young, no offence of course" max shaking his hand.

Mammon let's out a little laugh, with a little grin "it's ok max, people don't expect someone like me to own such a remarkable company like this one would you like to follow me, we can go up to my office, this is Mark by the way, he's my Butler". Mark is another large man aged around 50, he has a massive belly stuffed into his suit, hes huffing and puffing, like he ran a marithon, "don't mind him, most of my staff are..."

Max cuts him off "fat?"

They both laugh, "you could say that Max" the elevator arrives and they all walk in, "now max, you did read the whole advertisement correct?".

Max didn't, it's was 48 pages long, who would read it all? He just looked at the wage he would get, it started at $100,000 per month. "Yes, I did".

"that's good, most guys are more keen to keep their body's but I guess if your struggling you'll do anything."

Max now confused just nod's and watches though the glass elevator as they fly up to the top floor.

"where here sir" Mark the butler says peacefully in his British accent.

They walk into the room, and Mammon sits at his desk pouring himself a glass of wisky, and Max one too. Max looks around in aww, the room was covered in art work, with the walls painted in golds and whites and had its own bar. "How do you have all this money?" Max asked.

"a mix of many things, this company, and a few investments paid for this whole building, I have many other ways but we're not here for that." Mammon points at the seat," take a seat max" Max sits the chair is made from leather and is very comfy. "So, max, I've gone through your file, I think you're perfect for the job."

"so, does that mean I have the job?" Max replies confused, expecting to be asked a question.

"well yes, if you agree to the terms"

"terms?" Max still confused.

"well yes, you expect to be paid 10times the amount the normal person for this job without any terms or conditions?"

"well I didn't know.." Max gets cut off.

"Max let me simplify them for you. You sacrifice your body to the company, and in trade you get, $100k X the amount you weigh paid into your account per month, So if you weigh 450lbs, you get $450k a month."

"what the fuck? That's sick, I'm not doing that, I'm leaving" and with that Max got up from the chair and stood face to face with Mammon, with the desk all that is separating them. "Your sick, you fa**ot".

With that Mammon's eyes glow a bright red. "I'm a what?" Max got through back against the chair by an invisible force. "Max you could have just left with your freedom, but now look what you've gotten yourself into".

"Let me go, What the fuck?" Max says while traped against that chair, it chreeking with the force of his muscle.

"I'm a fucking demon max, I'm never going to 'let you go'" he took a second break to mock max, "now, what did you say? Fa**ot, was it?".

"fuck, I didn't mean it" the force pins him down harder, trapping his arms against the leather chair arms, and pushing his legs against the underboard. "Please let me go home, I won't do it again."

"shut up max, the process is already starting".

Max looks down to see his body deflating, his pecs turning from mountain peaks to a flat surface, his giant powerful arms turning weak and light. And then looking up he sees a whole new man infront of him.

"Not as big as I thought I would get, but boy I'm big" he took a break to admire his new giant arms and pecs.

"what the?" Max looks in confusion, "how did you do that? Give me them back".

"what are you gonna do max? I'm an infinitely powerful being and you, your an old man, or at least your going to be."

"I'm only 42, what do you mean, going to be?"

"you see I don't have my infinite life span on earth, so to stay alive and in this fit body, I absorb anything a guy has and I want. In your case, these massive muscles, but then I need to absorb their life force as well, in order to make sure I don't age."

"what do you mean life force?"

"well, you have roughly 50 years, worth of life left, I'll drain about 20 years leaving you in your future crippled body at around age 60, force you to work for the company for another 20 years, then when your 80 drain the rest of your life, which after you get fat won't be much, then you got to hell."

"man your sick, let me go, LET ME GO!".

A bright red light shoots from Peters hand enveloping Max's whole body, and he starts to age, his face wrinkling, skin dropping, eye sight worsening, hearing getting muffled, and mind changing a little. "Max, you ok old man?".

"yes sir" max was confused in his mind, why did he say sir?

"max, you ready for your Cruise? You can have tones of food for the next 6 months."

"Yes sir, I'm ready" max lifts his head, opening his eyes to see a new blurry room from his new old eyes.

"you're gonna need these from now on" Peters eyes glow and a new pair of glasses appear on Max's face he can now see clear.

"thank you... Sir", max blinks seeing Peter infront of him, "what have you, done to me".

"Max, I've turned you into the perfect office worker, old, brainiac, who is soon going to get fat and live the rest of his life, in an office chair for me, don't worry for accomodation you live here now, we have apartments on floor 30 to 40, all workers live here, it's policy, we have also sent a team to your house to, well, blow it up, that way nobody is going to be looking for you, becuase we can plant a body"

"give me... My.... Body back, give me... My.. life back."

"Max we both know that will never happen, now enjoy a life of gluttony, and prepare yourself for hell, that's gonna be worse then anything I can do to you." Peter snaped his fingers and a red glow enveloped max.

Recovering from the glow max sees two men infront of him with a trolly of sorts between them. "Is he awake" one says,

"I don't know" said the other.

"im- awake" max said in a much older raspy voice.

"good we can now start the feeding" the man on the left said, his body as muscled as a god, ripped from head to toe, and we can see everything.

Max rubs his eyes under his glasses and opens them again, "Fucking hell, put some clothes on both of you".

Both men where nude, one a ripped god, another muscled up but with a big gut. "Clothes are banned here mate" the beefy man said in a type of Australia accent, "you cant say much fella, look at that tiny pecker".

The men laughed pointing at Max's shriveled up old cock and low hanging balls, "what the fuck"max tries to move his arm to cover him but his arm doesn't move, he looks down to see him stuck in a chair, with a cut out hole under his ass, and straps tying him down, trapping him. "What... Are you gonna do to me?" Max asked sceared.

The men laughed at him again, "no need to act to sceared, we're here to feed you for the next 6 months".

"but... Sir said..." Max get cut off.

"he said you'd be going on a cruise? Fucking hell are you dumb? He's a demon, you shouldn't trust a demon" The muscled guy says.

"bro let's start the feeding we have 50 other guys to see and I wanna watch football Tonight." The beefy guys says, and in unison both their eyes glowed a bright red, showing they where demons too.

The trolly between them had several items on top, one long tube, which floated in the air for a few moments before shoving itself down maxes nostril and deep into his stomach, his head flipped back trying to wriggle it out, but it was stuck. Another item moved into his frame, a IV bag holder, holding a giant barrel type object made of glass, and two large bags floated of the table again and started to drain into the barrel, and the tube connected itself to it, starting a flow of the liquid into maxes stomach.

"done" the beffy guy said. "Now we'll be back tomorrow to refill your barrel, and clean you up if you make a mess, but youll basically be unconscious for the next 6 months, due to the drugs were feeding you."

"so enjoy your sleep mate, you'll litterally wake up a different man." The two men laughed and walked out, max tried fighting the restraints but in his crippled form could do nothing. The door slammed and locked, and the room fell dark, max screamed begging into the darkness to be let free, and to have his life back, which he had only an hour before, but nothing happened, nobody came. He felt the drugs taking effect, but tried to fight back, but it was useless, his body slumped and loosened. His mind fell blank as he drifted of into his 6 month hibernation.

[mithranqueersmusings]

Before This Dance Is Through V

Chapter: 5/16

Rating: M (Smut Warning)

Summary: Ringo's being going through a dry spell for the last year or so and when he regretfully tells his best friend John, he insists on taking them to an all-male strip club for some "fun". Ringo isn't sure whether it's the alcohol, his desperation or a mixture of the two but he thinks he might be falling in love with a stripper.

Tags: AU - Strippers, Modern Setting, Smut, Slow Burn

Pairings: George Harrison/Ringo Starr, John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AO3 link here / Fic masterlist here

Despite what John had suggested, Ringo didn't go back to The Helter Skelter the following week; he'd considered it when John sent him yet another late night text but ultimately decided it wasn't the best idea. Spike had been playing on his mind daily and Ringo wasn't sure he was prepared to face him again. Instead he focused on his drumming and searched for a few more students to teach, which were fairly easy to find. Usually Ringo enjoyed his time off, he understood he was lucky that he didn't have to work a 9-5 job just to get by, but recently he wanted his fill his time up as much as possible, to distract himself.

One of his new students seemed incredibly interested in him, they'd spent an hour just chatting in his living room before they'd even moved over to the drum kit. Ringo wasn't too fussed, he was getting paid by the hour so wasting time was beneficial to him but he didn't want to give the guy the wrong impression. He was a little bit older and attractive enough but Ringo simply wasn't interested.

"Why didn't you just go for it?" John had asked him when they next met up.

"I dunno..." Ringo mumbled, but a part of him knew very well.

He'd given the guy another lesson since then and it became clear that the guy's interest in him wasn't going away any time soon. Ringo felt bad about the whole thing, wasn't he just doing exactly what Spike was doing to him? He tried to act as professional as possible the second time around in attempt to get the guy to back off, considering he hadn't heard from him since he was hoping it had worked. What was wrong with him? Was he really going to make himself suffer like this all because of one guy? And not just any guy, a stripper who had shown absolutely no interest in him at all. It was ridiculous, he kept telling himself, but no matter how much he tried to convince himself that he had to get over Spike, he would still think about him every day without fail. Trying to distract himself with clients had been working somewhat, but it had been difficult, especially when his best friend was John Lennon.

       youre gonna love me

The text came through when Ringo was sat in a café getting some lunch. He'd finished with one of his younger students, a sweet girl who's parents had tried to convince her to try a more 'ladylike' instrument but she had promised only to give up the drums if she was awful; much to her delight, and Ringo's for being able to prove the stereotypical parents wrong, she was pretty good. Seeing her always put Ringo in a good mood, the parents mostly stayed away partly due to the noise but mostly due to disappointment, which meant they could joke around together. Ringo could tell she admired him and he welcomed it gladly, one of the best things about teaching was inspiring others, at least for him it was.

        do i not already?

        well yes         but youre gonna love me EVEN more

        what have you done

        well i happened to stop by the club last night

        oh god what did you do

        wow is that how little you trust me

        can you blame me

        suppose not         ANYWAY i got talking to paulie

        surprise surprise

        do you want the good news or not???

        fine fine sorry

        AS I WAS SAYING i was talking to paulie         and he told me that your special little someone has an onlyfans account

        first of all fuck you for calling him that         second of all wtf is onlyfans

        oh sorry i didnt realise you werent living in the 21st century

        ......         care to grace me with your knowledge?

        basically its a website where you can post exclusive stuff for ONLY FANS to see         its not a porn site or anything but its basically where people sell their nudes         MEANING spike has an account so you can totally see loads of raunchy filthy perverted pics of him

        but i have to pay?

        well weve all gotta make a living

        i can basically see him naked for free

        but this way you wont get all freaked out and embarrassed         well you will but nobody will know at least         so do you want the link or not???

Ringo paused for a few moments, he was gripping his phone tightly in both of his hands as he unblinkingly looked at John's words. If his mind was going to decide to make him suffer by enabling his intense interest in Spike, he may as well get something out of it.

        fine

        where are your manners richard??

        can i please have the link to the strippers nude photos please john please

        alright calm down         let me know if its worth while i might have a look

        idk if im even gonna look at it         paying for porn is a little dated

        treat yourself ringo         id offer to pay but im broke

        if youre broke why were you at the strip club last night?

        well SOMEONE had to go

        they really didnt

        im supporting my local economy

        i dont think thats how that works

        sure it is         anyway here you go

Ringo stared at the link for a while, his eyes even began to blur, he didn't want to risk opening it in public even though he knew there was little chance of anyone seeing. He finished his lunch in a hurry and headed home quickly, only when he was in the privacy of his bedroom did he dare open it. First he had to make an account, when he saw the screen loading up asking for an email address and password he just turned his screen off and put the phone down. This was far too much effort for something he shouldn't really have been doing in the first place. But it only took a few minutes for him to pick the phone back up and begin signing up, he used an old email as it felt less seedy that way and he didn't want to risk his name cropping up anywhere for Spike to see. Now he could load up the link properly and take a proper look at Spike's profile.

Just looking at the small profile picture was enough to startle Ringo a little, the dark eyes looking into the camera with that unreadable glimmer behind them. He was shirtless in the picture, Ringo wondered why that didn't catch his attention first, with the frame cutting off just before it showed anything too explicit. The header was a photo taken from the club, showing him in tight, leather pants and tassels on his nipples which matched the whip he held in his hand. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. He'd spent so much time and effort trying not to think about this man, attempting to keep him out of his mind as much as possible. Ringo knew that if he went through with this all that progress would be lost, he'd be giving in to whatever strange obsession he'd developed for Spike, one that no doubt wasn't going to lead to anything good.

Ringo kept staring at the screen as though it was going to tell him what he should do. Spike's profile had no description, which wasn't very surprising, and it dashed any hope Ringo had of discovering something new about him. Right before he was about to put his phone down again, it vibrated.

        howd the wank go??

        john i dont care how long weve been friends asking how my wank was will always be weird

        youre right sorry         so how did it go???

        if you must know         i havent had a wank         i havent even paid for entry

        now whos the one being inappropriate??

        ha ha

        why havent you???

        feels weird

        oh i see         youll consume a bunch of unethical porn for free but god forbid you actually give sex workers any actual money

        you are the last person who can lecture me about unethical porn

        hey now watch yourself         ringo if you dont get a subscription I WILL

        go ahead

        and ill tell you every day what sexy sexy pictures hes posting         ill tell you EVERY SINGLE TIME i have a wank over them

        every time? i dont think youve got enough data for that

        im not joking

        neither am i         you wank A LOT

        ringooooo just buy it i swear to god         if its not worth it or you regret it or whatever ill give you the money back

        on top of the money you already owe me?

        have you always been such a capitalist

        youre not doing a very good job of convincing me

        fine         spikes cock         now are you convinced???

        maybe

        naked pictures of spike whenever and wherever you want them all for the low low price of 10 quid a month         convinced??

        fine fine         if itll shut you up

        im starting to think thats code for 'i really wanna do this but im too embarrassed to admit it'

        i hate you

        now that DEFINITELY code for 'john youre right'         anyway theres no time to be telling me how right i am all the time youve got dick pics to look at         even i wont stand in the way of a good wank         so dont bother replying to me until youve paid for that subscription young man

        im older than you

        DONT BOTHER REPLYING

Ringo let out a sigh and rested his head against the bedroom wall from where he was laying on the bed. He opened up the link again and his thumb hovered over the subscription button, why couldn't he just do it? The money wasn't an issue, it could've cost half as much or be double the price and he'd still be debating it all the same. Somehow it felt like an invasion of privacy, after all Spike hadn't told Ringo about it himself, but then again that didn't necessarily mean he didn't want Ringo to see it. After all it was like John said: everyone has to make a living somehow. Sometimes Ringo wished he could turn off that part of his brain that was so empathetic, so concerned about how everyone felt and what they were thinking. He knew that he wanted this, so why wasn't he allowing himself to have it? Ringo could see that he was being ridiculous, as he was with almost anything involving Spike, and after lying there for a while pondering and debating he decided to flip a coin. Heads would mean he got the subscription, tails that he didn't. He watched the coin spinning through the air after he flicked it upwards, then snatched it and slammed it down onto his forearm before slowly moving his hand away: it was tails. What a relief. Ringo chuckled to himself for being so foolish, settling down into his bed; it was still only around midday but he didn't have anywhere he needed to be.

So why didn't he feel relieved in the slightest?

This whole thing was getting tiring, the constant debate between what he believed he should do and what he wanted to do, and it seemed like it wasn't going to be ending anytime soon. Apparently he was in this for the long run, whatever that meant, but if he was going to turn down relatively attractive guys practically throwing themselves at him, he may as well go all the way. While he was putting in his credit card information, he stopped to think around three of four times, but once he'd finished and the images became accessible to him, his brain was barely able to conjure up a coherent sentence.

"Jesus..." Ringo breathed out as his eyes flicked across the plethora of pictures loading up on his screen.

There was a lot of them, and a lot of Spike was on display. Most of them were pictures taken at the club, either from a professional photographer in the audience or photos he'd taken himself in the mirrors backstage - Ringo could even see glimpses of Paul in the background of some of them. The ones that caught Ringo's eyes the most were those that seemed to be taken in his house, these also happened to be the ones in which Spike tended to be fully naked. It was very different experience to see him like this: a static image that he'd intentionally taken of himself and posted for so many people to see, an image that couldn't look back at Ringo and make him feel that strange mixture of excitement and shame. He began scrolling down the feed which only revealed more and more enticing photos. Ringo began to feel himself hardening, he suspected it had been happening for a while now but he'd been far too distracted to notice. He felt like a teenager discovering porn for the first time, it was difficult to remind himself that this wasn't anything new. Seeing Spike naked shouldn't have excited him so much, and yet it did.

One picture in particular drew Ringo's attention: Spike was stood in front of a bathroom mirror with a loose black tie lying against his bare chest, one hand was holding a phone and the other gripping his cock. He had dark eye make up on and his hair was messy. Ringo wasn't sure exactly what it was about this photo that was so enticing but he couldn't take his eyes off it. The prominence of his collarbones, the faint curls of his dark hair, how his slim fingers wrapped around himself. Slowly Ringo slid his own hand under the waistband of his boxers as he stared at the picture. At first he hesitated, his fingers stopped right above the base. It's not like this would've been the first time he'd touched himself while thinking about Spike, it would've been far from the last he imagined, but this was different. It was more concrete, more of an admission. Nothing felt quite as real when it's only being imagined, the haziness of lust fuzzing up the mind as it so often did, but now with a very real photo of Spike in front of him - which he'd paid to see - the feeling was far more tangible, far harder to ignore.

He'd come this far, he told himself as his hand sunk lower until his fingers were running along the length of his semi-hard cock, he may as well go all the way. To begin with Ringo stayed looking at this single picture as he slowly pumped himself, but as his lust began to grow he perused through more and more pictures: Spike kneeling naked in front of a mirror with a loose cigarette hanging from his lips, lying in the bath with bubbles only just about covering his nakedness, spread out on the bed with a gag in his mouth, handcuffs forcing his slim arms behind his back with his cock throbbing. None of this was anything Ringo hadn't seen before, like most people in this day and age he'd searched through the darker corners of the internet - sometimes willingly, sometimes John was to blame - but to see Spike in such a way was like an entirely new rush. Each picture drove Ringo further and further on, at times he almost dropped his phone with how sloppy his movements were becoming. Who took these photos? Ringo figured it was best not to think about it, the possibility that Spike had a boyfriend who took all these pictures of him would've been the quickest way to kill his erection.

Ringo began moaning and cursing wantonly as he got closer and closer to his orgasm, he had to stop flicking through the pictures because he could hardly concentrate on what his other hand was doing, so he settled on a final one to help him finish; it wasn't particularly strategic but he was definitely grateful that he selected the one that he did. In it Spike was looking directly into the camera, allowing Ringo to gaze longingly into the rich brown of his eyes and how his dark lashes curled beautifully around them. He was shirtless with nothing but a necklace on, the same necklace that Ringo had seen him wearing in the record store and Ringo couldn't help feeling a sense of satisfaction that he'd seen it with his own eyes, as though it meant something. Deep down he knew that it didn't but his inebriated mind was latching onto it. The nudity in the photo was hardly interesting Ringo by this point, although it would be wrong to say that he completely ignored the flatness of his stomach or the faint shadows of his ribs beneath his pale skin, it was the personal aspect which truly affected him.

This wasn't just lust. Lust Ringo could understand, he could compartmentalise it and give into it without much shame or a second thought. If this was just lust, he would've bought the subscription without a care and touched himself looking at the nakedness of Spike's body as though it meant nothing more than a way to get off. Yet here he was on the brink of orgasm looking into another man's eyes, eyes that felt like they were looking straight back at him as though they were sharing this moment together. It wasn't hard to imagine Spike's hand in place of his own, those deep eyes watching Ringo come undone piece by piece. Ringo's hip began to stutter, his leg twitching a little as he had to drop the phone down onto his lap as his head fell back against his pillow as his orgasm approached. It wasn't the image of Spike's naked body that filled Ringo's mind as he came, it wasn't his arse or his cock or even his chest, it was his face, his voice, it was him.

Ringo lay breathless on his bed for a while, the clarity that arrived as his orgasm subsided wasn't welcome in the slightest and he was reluctant to pick his phone back up to see Spike's eyes looking at him once again. There was no use in feeling ashamed about it, no point in trying to deny it any longer: his feelings for Spike were more than a mere passing fancy, that was clear. Exactly what he was meant to do about these feelings was far from clear but that wasn't something Ringo could figure out right now with cum on his stomach and the daylight seeping through his bedroom curtains.

When he'd picked up his phone he'd closed all the apps immediately, doing his best not to catch a glimpse of what he'd been so eagerly looking at before. Just as he was about to step into the shower to clean himself off, his phone buzzed; he almost couldn't hear it over the music he was blasting out. It alerted him for a moment as though it was going to be a message from Spike stating he knew exactly what Ringo had just done - it wouldn't have really surprised him had that been the case, Spike's face almost always looked like he knew something that nobody else did - but fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, it was John.

        sooo how did the wank go

         who knows          but on a totally unrelated note im about to get into the shower

         well before you do that i have even more good news 

         can it not wait?

         NO because you might cum just at the thought of it and then youd be wasting a good shower

         well arent you considerate          and unnecessarily graphic

         thats me          anyway im taking you to the club next tuesday whether you like it or not

         im still waiting for the good news

         well if youd let me FINISH          next week theyre doing a special event and we just have to go          youll never guess what it is

         what is it?

         guess

         you just said ill never guess

         youre no fun

         WHAT IS IT

         alright alright keep your hair on          its a crossdressing event          high heels make up probably a few wigs all that good stuff

         im still waiting for the good news

         OH COME ON youre telling me you dont want to see spike in heels and fishnets with some lovely lipstick on

Ringo gulped. It wasn't a difficult image to conjure up his mind, considering he'd been staring at photos of Spike for the past twenty minutes and it excited him to say the least. He did want to see that, very much indeed.

[paralysedbyts]

Bridges burn... ... at least I did one thing right

Taylor was right her bridges do burn, let us take a look at all of Taylor's burning bridges:

If you and I are a story that never gets told, if you and I are a daydream I'll never get to hold at least you'll know

You say that the past is the past, you need one chance, it was a moment of weakness and you said yes

The bottom's gonna drop out from under our feet, ill catch you, ill catch you, when people say things that bring you to your knees ill catch you, the times is going to come when you are so mad you cry, but ill hold you through the night until you smile

you played in bars, you play guitar, I'm invisible and everyone knows who you are, and youll never sing, sing me to sleep, every night from the radio

And ill scream out the window, I cant even look at you, I don't need you, but I do I do I do, ill say theres nothing you can say to make this right again, I mean it, I mean it, what I mean is

back then I swore I was going to marry him someday, but I realised some bigger dreams of mine, and Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind and we both cried.

hey Stephan, I could give you 50 reasons why I should be the girl you chose, all those other girls, well they are beautiful, but would they write a song for you

And there you are on your knees begging for forgiveness begging for me, just like I always wanted but I'm so sorry

Oh I remember you driving to my house in the middle of the night, I'm the one who makes you laugh when you know youre about to cry, I know your favourites songs and you tell me about your dreams, I think I know where you belong, I think i know its with me

its 2am feeling like I just lost a friend, hope you know its not easy easy for me

why do you have to make me feel small, so you can feel whole inside, and why do you have to put down my dreams so you are the only thing in my mind

you had me crawling for you honey and it never would've gone away np, you used to shine so bright but I watched our loving fade

he cant see the smile I'm faking and my hearts not breaking cause I'm not feeling anything at all, and you were wild and crazy, just so frustrating intoxicating, complicated, got away by some mistake and now

tonight we'll stand, get off our knees, fight for what we've worked for all these years, and the battle was long, its the fight of our lives and we'll stand up champions tonight

lets be real, every speak now bridge

this is the state of grace, this is the worthwhile fight, love is a ruthless game unless you play it good and right, these are the hands of fate, youre my Achilles heel, this is the golden age of something good and right and real

remembering him comes in flash backs and echoes ell myself its time now got to let go, but moving on from him is impossible when I still see it all in my head in burning red

two headlines shine through the sleepless night and I would get you and get you alone, you name echoes through my mind and I just think you should think you should know, that nothing safe is worth the drive, and I would follow you, follow you home, ill follow you, follow you home

and the saddest fears comes creeping in, that you never loved me or her or anyone or anything

maybe we got lost in translation maybe I asked for too much, but maybe this thing was a masterpiece till you torn it all up, running scared I was there I remember it all too well, hwy you call me up again just to break me like a promise so casually cruel in the name of being honest, I'm a crumpled up piece of paper lying her cause I remember it all all all too well, time wont fly its like I'm paralysed by it, id like to be my old self again but I'm still trying to find it after plaid shirt days and those nights where you made me your own, now I mail back your things and I walk home alone, but you keep my own scarf from the very first week, cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me, you cant get rid of it cause you remember it all too well

we made quiet a mess babe, its probably better off this way and I confess babe in my dreams I am touching your face and asking me if I want to trying again with you and I almost do

distance, timing breakdown, fighting silence train runs off its tracks kiss me try to fix it, could you just try to listen, hang up, give up for the life of us we cant get back

it was a few years later I showed up here and they still tell the legend of how you disappeared, how you took your money and you dignity and got the hell out, they say you bought a bunch of land somewhere, chose the rose garden over madison square, it took sometime but I understand it know, cause now my names in up in lights, but I think you got it right

like any great love it keeps you guessing, like any real love its ever changing, like any truth love it drives you crazy, but you know you wouldnt change anything anything anything

boys only want love if its torture, don't say I didn't say I didn't warn you

remember when you hit the breaks too soon, 2o stitches in a hospital room, you started crying, I did too, when the sun came up I was looking at you, remember when we couldn't take the heat I walked out and said i'm setting you free but the monster turned out to be just trees, when the sun came up you were looking a me

band aids don't fix bullet holes, you say sorry just for show, if you life like that you live with ghosts, band aids don't fix bullet holes you say sorry just for show, if you live like that you live with ghosts, if you love like that blood runs cold

youll see me in hindsight tangled uo with you all night burning it down, someday when you leave me, I bet these memories with follow you around

your kiss, my cheek, I watched you leave, you smile, my ghost, I fell to my knees, when youre young you just run, but you come back to what you need.

they take their shots but we are bullet proof, and you know for me its always you, in the dead of night your eyes so green, I know for you its always me

10 months sober I must admit just because youre clean don't mean you don't miss it, 10 older I wont give in, now that I'm clean I'm never going to risk it

I reached for you but you were gone, I knew I had to go back home, you searched the world for omethign else to make you feel like what we  had, but in the end in wonderland we both went mad

so it goes you two are dancing in a snow globe round and round, he keeps a picture of you in his office downtown, you understand now why they lost your minds and fought the wars, and I spent my whole life trying to put it into words

I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me, ill be the actress staring in your bad dreams

you make me so happy it turns back to sad, there is nothing I hate more than what I cant have, you are so goregus it makes me so mad, you make me so happy it turns back to sad there is nothing I hate more than what I cant have, guess ill just stumble on home to my cats, alone, unless you want to come along

I want to wear his initial on a chain round my neck, chain round my neck not because he owns me, because he really knows me, which is more than they can say, I recall late November, holding my breath, slowly I said, you don't k=have to save me, but would you run away with me yes

[190094]

so much of my future plans were predicated on you being a part of them. on the foundation of the kind of love ive never had for anyone before and god knows never will again, the kind of love that annihilated my fear of commitment, that unflinchingly made me want to swear myself to you alone, that made the word love stop sounding so terrifying for the first time in my life

losing you so suddenly sent me reeling and i feel so lost. i have to start my whole life over yet again and im so tired. whats the point. i know youll never see this but i just wish i could think of moving on the way you would want me to. such a huge chunk of my heart was dedicated to you. i was such an idiot, how could i not see that what we had wouldnt last forever, how did i not see from the start that all of this was built on a mistake, me, how could i not see that eventually all of this would hurt me in the end

all i ever wanted was to be careful with the trust you put in me. maybe its a good thing you were the one to leave me. i couldnt imagine doing it, not in a million years, not ever. i was so dedicated to you and you watched me tear myself, you watched me in torment, you watched me grow bitter from the lack of communication. how could i put that on you, how could you watch me become so miserable, knowing i would have denied myself every happiness for my dedication to you and you couldnt watch it happening. a mercy killing basically. how could i watch you be tormented by the distance that spanned our lives in so many ways

i was so fucking selfish. there were many reasons i should have stepped back in the beginning, from the first day we met, so many reasons i should have listened to the still small voice in the back of my head saying this should not be. i shouldve known that i was not the exception to the rule. i thought our love could overcome everything if it was pure enough, if i could be the perfect significant other, the perfect friend, if i could do everything right, if i could terraform my very existence for you, if i showed you places and packed every moment with as much joy as i could, if i listened to you and bent my every intention to your will, if i could protect you from the cold miserable dangers of the world and give you everything i wished id been given, if i could pour five times the amount of love and effort into you than anyone else i ever had. if doing my very very best somehow amounted to nothing but being a creep and a loser, nothing but a mistake, how can i ever feel worthy of anything resembling love ever again.

what is the fucking point of trying. im rebuilding, im trying, god im really trying to take the pieces i have left and make them into something worth living but so many days i feel like a low filthy disgusting person. sometimes i feel like the kind of person i would eliminate if i had the chance. looking back on everything we had that once emanated a glow of perfection and truly believing that the way we matched was cosmically statistically nearly impossible. how can i ever have the hope of finding someone like you. i felt something for you that nobody else could ever understand, looking back now everything is coated with judgement and shame. the very best years of my life, every happy memory seen through the lens of guilt and disgust. god i wish what we had didnt shame me into the ground. i must have broken your ability to trust and it hurts that i took that from you and im so so painfully sorry

i wish that every other song or picture or animal didnt bring you back blazing to the front of my mind, my heart still skips a beat when i encounter chow chows, or indie songs, or oranges, or anything houston-related, or movies starring ryan gosling, or jazz, anything about love, or los angeles, new york, old video games, miniature tigers and beach house and being a barista, nighttime views of stars and driving at night, hundreds of things surrounding me and drowning me when i just want peace, when i know having you on my mind must make you sick

since the beginning of the year ive tried to remove painful thoughts and negativity in my life, to release the unhealthy attachment, to drown them into alcohol and smoking. i know i can never have you back but god you were never just a crush but my best friend. its beyond my wildest dreams that you might be able to look back on us with fondness, for the good to so far outweigh the bad, the way it does for me

what is the point. why should i ever try. whats the point. why cant i just let go. ive been crying for days and im dehydrated

[topicprinter]

Hi all, I recently wrote this post about how Drip screwed over its most loyal customers and I thought perhaps /r/Entrepreneur would get value out of my lessons learned.----If you’re not familiar, Drip is email marketing software that’s pretty heavy on the marketing automation front. I won’t do them the courtesy of a link, so you’ll have to Google them if you want to check it out.They’ve been around since 2012 or so, founded by someone I trusted, but he sold the business to Leadpages a few years ago, and it’s been going downhill ever since.I’ve been using them for years as the backbone of two “side” businesses: IndieHive, which covers this website for freelancers and the related products and services that I sell, and Everleads, a curated lead generation site for freelance designers and developers.In 2016 and 2017, I really dug deep into Drip. I built out dozens of interconnected workflows to carefully shepherd my subscribers through various funnels and sequences with duplicate emails or annoying content that’s not relevant to them. I integrated my web front-end with their APIs so that I could customize the site for subscribers. I wrote bridging scripts to connect it to Mixpanel for analytics, and I used Zapier to hook Drip up to even more services. It was the heart of my entire business, and it was awesome.But throughout 2018, things started to go awry.I kept experiencing glitches in the workflows where people would get stuck on workflow steps that should be instant, like “remove tag”. Or people would end one workflow and start another, but not have any of the data that the first workflow had set. There were honestly dozens of these little glitches, but individually they were minor.Also troubling: deliverability started to slip. Not precipitously, and I can’t prove that it wasn’t just my emails, but I have heard from others that they were having issues with getting their emails into people’s inboxes in 2018.But the most egregious thing for all of this was that support was basically no help at all. I probably opened two dozen support requests in 2018 and I’m not sure they actually resolved a single one. We’d spend hours going back and forth so they could even understand the problem. Then they’d almost always say one of two things:“For a workaround, just insert a number of delays between steps in your workflows so that the system doesn’t get confused!” So all my workflows had little 5 minute delay steps to try and make sure things worked correctly. Which they still didn’t. Wtf.Or they’d just say they need to escalate to the developers and then I’d get an email weeks or months later from some random support engineer letting me know they were still looking into why the most basic functions of their software don’t work right. Awesome.Alarmed by this, I repeatedly researched alternatives throughout 2018, but nothing seemed worth going through the pain of migration and the risk of just having similar issues somewhere else. So I kept resolving to be patient with Drip and hope (pray) that they were hard at work at undoing whatever architectural disaster had led us here.And then…In early January 2019, while I was on a relaxing cruise with my wife for our 15th anniversary, I got an email from Drip:https://ryanwaggoner.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/drip-bullshit-pricing-email-2.pngSo basically: “Hey, we’re raising our prices in 12 days! You can keep your current price if you switch to an annual plan!”And if you read it carefully, there’s something pretty important missing from this email.It doesn’t say what the new pricing is**. Seriously wtf.**So I emailed to ask. They responded the next day (so now I have 11 days) to reveal they were doubling my monthly price.Drip raised my price from $184 / month to $368 / month with 12 days notice.That’s just about the worst way imaginable to treat your oldest and most loyal customers.And it was the last straw for me.Now, to be clear, I completely understand wanting to grow a company in a new direction, or thinking that you need to raise prices to reflect more value.But you don’t do it when your platform is half-broken, you don’t do it with 12 days notice, and you grandfather in existing customers, at least for long enough for them to migrate. Also, you tell them the price when you tell them that prices are rising.It’s hard to imagine how Drip could have been more disrespectful to their customer base than what they did here.So as of last month, I switched all my subscribers to ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign for Everleads and IndieHive, respectively. That’s thousands of dollars that Drip won’t be getting from me. I managed to get both setups completely migrated off just before their billing renewal dates, in one case with literal minutes to spare.It was a pain and required some late nights but it was worth it to deny them another penny.I’m not alone in feeling upset about this. Twitter was ablaze for weeks with people who were angry and bailing for greener, more respectful pastures. I’ve taken a sick joy in watching a lot of people migrate off Drip with much larger lists than mine.I also cancelled Leadpages in favor of Instapage. I was already unhappy with Leadpages, mainly because it feels pretty clunky and dated, they aren’t very responsive to user feedback, and they’re still missing some pretty basic things (like being able to pass form data to the thank you page. Seriously?).Side note: I was going to link to the Leadpages idea portal, but they apparently shut it down. Makes sense, since it was filled with hundreds of good ideas with many, many customer votes that had been ignored for years.Regardless, even if Leadpages was awesome, they own Drip and I won’t give another penny to such an unethical company that treats its customers so poorly.And this migration was a huge pain (which is what they were counting on), partly because of how complex my Drip setups were, but also because ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign are both pretty different from each other and from Drip. On the surface, they all do some of the same things, but once you dig in, things diverge, which made the migration especially painful.Drip is complicated. Stupidly so. In fact, it’s so complicated that there are a number of problems using it:It doesn’t really work. I mean, it does like 99% of the time, but that last 1% means that some of your subscribers are going to have a bad time. And it’s not just that their emails won’t show up. They might just get stuck in a workflow, or skip some emails in a sequence, or get things at the wrong times, or lose data, etc. And since this happens randomly, the number of subscribers who experience it accumulates over time.The customer support reps don’t really know how it works, because it’s too complicated. So you end up spending hours writing up descriptions of the problem and putting together screencasts to show how things don’t seem to be working, and the only response you get is that they’ll have to ask the developers.It encourages you to setup really fancy complex automations which, even if they did work, are way beyond what you actually need. Just imagine: you can do anything! You can track everything! You can have an unlimited number of tags and fields! Track and automate all the things!Your setup can end up being really brittle and deeply tied to the Drip architecture, which is a problem if you want to migrate off. And it’s hard to expand and modify over time without breaking all kinds of things for your subscribers who are in those automations.The setup is hard to document. It’s easy to end up with a large collection of documents and spreadsheets and screencasts to try and explain not only what you did, but why you did it.It’s hard to audit and debug when things go wrong. And things will go wrong. It’s hard to tell exactly what’s happening with your subscribers, where things went off the rails, and how to get it back on track without screwing things up further.In the end, Drip for me felt like a really shitty programming language. Technically possible to do almost anything, but so painful that in the end you wish you hadn’t bothered.By contrast, ConvertKit is simple. And yes, I think it’s too simple in places. I think there are some genuine gaps in the functionality that makes it a little too hard to get done the things you want.But I’m also aware of the fact that I’m coming from Drip and a really convoluted setup, so being forced to simplify is probably a good thing.And ActiveCampaign is not simple, but it’s powerful in a bunch of ways that Drip should have been. Additionally, it has the distinction of actually being, you know, functional. Crazy, I know.Also, ActiveCampaign apparently is more open to feedback than Drip. I posted a Twitter thread listing some things that I like about it and Jason VandeBoom, the founder of ActiveCampaign, setup a call with me to go over some of my feedback. And ActiveCampaign isn’t a tiny company; they have hundreds of employees and are much larger than Drip. It meant a lot to me that Jason would just jump on the phone with a random customer to see how they could improve.Meanwhile Drip’s emails aren’t even signed by an actual person. During this whole debacle, I don’t think anyone from Drip actually responded to anyone’s tweets or complaints. A couple days after the initial announcement when things were blowing up on Twitter, they sent this out another email that was basically "sorry, not sorry"Just like their price increase, all of their corporate communication just screams “We don’t care about you. Go away.”So I did.I’m actually really glad that I dropped Drip, after all that. Partly because of how much better ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign are as tools, but mostly because it taught me a lesson about how you need to be careful when you’re a small company about who you integrate with, because while your interests may align now, that could change at any point.But this rant has gone on long enough, so I’ll save that point for a future post.Disclaimer: just in case Drip decides to sue me (which would be so on-brand for them at this point), ALL the descriptions of Drip’s functionality, failings, and communications is to the best of my recollection and should not be taken as a literal word-for-word account.----Happy to answer any questions about my experience with Drip, ConvertKit, or ActiveCampaign. Would also love to hear anyone else's experiences with any of those (or others you'd recommend in the space of email-based marketing automation).Original post: https://ryanwaggoner.com/drip-pricing-review/

[dawnowar]

Rambling about racist uncles and HBO and my glasses.

and my foot, which i broke like over 3 yrs ago which they told me probably wont ever be right again and it took like 2 yrs but then it pretty much was so I was busy carrying on a normal active life when it swelled up again a couple weeks ago.

Not a big deal, I’ve been through this before and I know what to do but this time I don’t want to slow down and elevate it and spend a lot of time in a heating pad. Dammit.

I was VERY active the whole week it finally swelled up. From doing several workouts daily to going out nightly to rock and roll mosh pits and literally standing around for hours every day when it finally revolted. I’ve been not babying it enough and its not getting better so this week I decided to take some time. I have time this week. My work schedule is literally half normal this week. Coincidentally. 

So i got HBO this month and decided to get myself engrossed in The Leftovers, which I don’t know anything about except that I’m sure to love it by the reactions of podcasters I trust. Just finished Ep 1 and so far Im excited. Also ive been off my foot which is elevated and in a heating pad for over an hour. Which is probably the most time off its had since before it swelled up.

I havent’ had to deal w/my foot swelling in probably over a year now and I really thought I was good to go forever. But I guess not. Still i think I was active beyond the demands of most average people when it happened so I’m gonna nurse it back to normal and probably/hopefully have another good year or so before it happens again.

I’ve been making the mistake of arguing w people on facebook. Cause I’m tired of all these fucking racist uncles I seem to have. How is every rocker dude my age that grew up with me doing the same shit I did suddenly turned into My Trump supporting racist uncle? 

No wonder I’ve not been in a hurry to date lately. 

I’ve not been in any hurry to do anything lately. The shows are mostly crappy. Stoner rock or Black Metal. Thats all the choices. Stoners are boring af and Black Metal has a Nazi problem. These shows just arent fun for me anymore. May as well save my money and buy more glasses.

Thats my #1 hobby right now. I have a pair currently lost in the post office system somewhere. They can’t tell me when but they say it’ll probably arrive one day. I told myself id stop buying glasses till i get this pair, since they *should* be a pair I can see everything in and that matches what my other pair doesn’t. That *should* be enough pairs. But here i am waiting perpetually for what may or may not be the last pair I need. 

While I hold myself back from ordering more. Because I don’t have that pair and I need one more pair. and it may never come. I don’t know.... Maybe i should just order another pair.

Anyway. Fuck all these racist uncles on fb. Theyre all getting the big boot. Thought i got rid of most of them but it turns out theres still racist uncles on my friends list. Now and again they surface.

Today on a thread about how “Obama was the most corrupt president ever” I was told what a joke my political opinions are.... said something like old white dudes acting like racists uncles talking amongst themselves does not make fiction true. 

Actually i think i said something like youll all die one day and your opinions will die with you. Cause im convinced all the kids in america are all openly bisexual and in mixed-race relationships. I’ve just really had enough of old white dudes telling me Fox News is the only one that “tells it like it is” and I’ve decided I’m not putting up with any of this shit to keep peace anymore and I don’t care what bridges get burned in the process.

It’s not worth it to me. I don’t need any more Racist Uncles. Its been a process for me... how im gonna deal with these people in my life who have differing politics. I started out just not discussing news with them. But what happened was i didnt notice they were turning more racist/sexist/etcist daily until years later when I’m HORRIFIED to see the things they say.

Were these people like this always and I didn’t notice or did they just get this way recently? So i made peace with it for the last year or so I think basically by telling myself yeah well.. everyone has racist uncles... me too i guess even though they arent actual family.

But now, a year later.. im like.. i dont need any racist uncles. I’m good. Fuck these assholes. Burning that bridge. 

Maybe I’ll order another pair of glasses anyway. 

Or maybe Ill just watch another episode of The Leftovers. 

[critter-catcher]

The weather warmed up enough that the water finally unfroze, it seems the deer were very happy about that!