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corpsebasil · 2 years ago

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hi!! since your requests are open I was wondering if you could write a nikolai x a grisha reader that can summon the dead -> when someone from the palace finds out they try to kill her/get rid of her and nikolai tries to keep her safe since she's not evil or harmful <3 tumblr sadly won't let me make this post anonymously idk why though

I can indeed bestie

The Grisha had never seen such power.

They murmured curses and prayers under their breath as she passed in chains, her head held high, refusing to do anything besides look down her nose at the people she’d saved in the battle against the Darkling.

Hundreds. Hundreds of people still lived and breathed thanks to her gift of Summoning. Sure, the Sun Summoner was a Saint thanks to her light, and the Darkling had been revered for centuries for his darkness. But she. She was something different, and had never used her power as a weapon before that day.

“Witch.” A Grisha snarled as she passed, no matter the fact that the word in itself was derogatory towards the Grisha. She turned her head slowly, locking eyes with the man.

“What did you call me?” She asked, voice heavenly in its softness, and his face blanched.

“Y/N—” a hand grasped her arm, the guards around her bristling as the intruder interrupted her path to the dais. Towards the execution that would surely follow. “I’m going to get you out of this. I swear it.”

Prince Nikolai’s eyes were desperate as he stared at you, but a lethal calm had settled through your body, your soul, the minute you had stepped out onto the battlefield. He’d been your lover for the past several months, the fling beginning the moment he’d seen you hiding in the garden, secretly bringing a hawk back to life. The poor thing had been injured and fallen out of a tree, the fall too far for survival, but your steady hands guided it gently from the Afterlife, your heart breaking at the unnecessary loss. The bird loved you, even still, and had perched on your shoulder as you went into war, it’s battle cry vicious when it dove for the enemy Grisha.

“I will accept punishment.” You informed the prince, unused to any show of wild emotion from him. Sure, he’d flirted with you since he’d met you, and was a merciless tease, but the bedroom is where you got the know His Highness very, very well. Hours and hours of lips and tongues and hands, although you always kicked him out after, to his chagrin. “Do not insult me by causing a scene.”

He looked hurt, watching with a panicked expression as you stepped closer to the Queen. She still had the authority until the prince was crowned and, though he had sway, the ultimate decision would be her own. Her last decree, if anything; a last stand to power.

“Do you admit to the crimes against the world you committed during the battle against General Kirigan?” The queen demanded, watching with a sneer as the guards forced Y/N onto her knees.

The girl cocked her head, as if listening to something. She’d always heard the whispers of the fallen, and now they urged her on. Gave her strength.

“I do.” She said calmly, too calmly, and the queen shifted in her seat.

Y/N had walked out onto that battlefield, hawk perched on her shoulder, and Nikolai had balked. He felt fear, genuine fear, when the girl had clasped her hands together and then threw her arms out, raising them above her hand with a clawing motion. As if she was pulling something out of the ground. As if she was Summoning—

The Grisha had screamed, some even wept, as hands shot from the Earth, dragging themselves free from the dirt’s confines. And Y/N had moved forward, flanked on each side by an army, an army, of over a thousand dead Grisha, still able to use their power against the enemy. The opposite side of the war had balked; most ran in outright terror, some fainted, but a few brave souls tried to stand their ground.

But how can you kill the dead?

Afterwards, amid the silence, Y/N had stood still as her army of undead warriors dipped their heads to her, grateful for one last chance to defend their country and home. And when she blew a magic enhanced breath towards them, her hands guiding the air, they vanished in a cloud of smoke and ash, their journey back to the underworld commenced.

She’d been arrested the moment she arrived back at the palace, not even allowed the time to clean up before she was dragged into the throne room. Dark magic, they claimed. Forbidden. Nevermind that she had saved their sorry asses.

“And what—” the queen asked, glaring down at her. “do you think is an appropriate punishment for your…heresy?”

“Is it heresy to save your Grisha?” She mused, eyes narrowing further. “I have used my gifts to defeat the Darkling. I am—”

“Your gifts?” The queen’s tone was mocking and Y/N bristled. “I hope that you mean your curse.”

“It is a gift, Your Majesty.“ She insisted, even as she met the queen’s hateful glare with her own. “Do not mistake me for weak. I do not apologize.”

The queen thrust her hand out abruptly, pissed, and pointed to the nearest guard.

“Bring her head to me.” The queen snarled, and Y/N, despite herself, tensed with fear when the guard approached, sliding his sword out.

Her heart stopped as she swallowed, trying to ignore the blade and what it would feel like striking her neck.

“You will not.” Nikolai lunged forward out of the crowd, stepping into the guard’s path. “She protected you. Defended you.” This he said to the Grisha, his savage glare upon them. “You would allow one of your own to die over—over fear?” He spat on the floor, at the queen’s feet, and his mother recoiled. “The gift for saviors is death, is it?” His tone became deadly, eyes narrowed even as Y/N gaped up at him in surprise. “Then kill me, too. Because I have known of her power for months, and have never feared it.”

Y/N knew that was a lie, knew that he’d flinched when she’d summoned the Grisha, but… could he mean it when he said he believed her innocence? Could the prince of Ravka somehow save her?

“This witch has blinded you.” His mother said, glaring down at the pair. “You do not know what you say.”

“I know she saved hundreds of Grisha.” Nikolai pushed, voice hard. “I know that she hasn’t used her power, has repressed it, until it was completely necessary. I know that I care about her, and if you kill her, you will not have a king to succeed you.”

The queen blanched, Y/N’s mouth hanging open in shock, as Grisha murmured to themselves in the crowd. Nikolai turned and met his lover’s stare with a look of sorrow, before glaring back up at the queen.

“Kill her,” he warned, pointing a damning finger at the queen. “and I’ll follow right after her into the afterlife. I will not live in a world without her.” Then he smirked, half-heartedly, tossing his eyes to his Grisha lover. “Perhaps she’d pull us both back from death if she tried.”

The queen’s face was red hot, but she stood, waving the guards away. When she spoke, her voice weakened, and something in Nikolai relaxed. He’d almost seen the love of his life’s head taken off, for Saints sakes.

“I see you have chosen your side.” She accused him, her expression tight. “Fine. Spare the girl. But if she’s caught meddling with the dead again…” the silent threat was enough. Y/N bristled but stood, inclining her head in the most insignificant motion of deference possible that the queen almost changed her mind.

And so Y/N stood, head high as the guards unlocked her binds, before she strode quickly and stoically out of the throne room.

She’d taken one step into her room before her face crumpled, her knees giving out as she slid onto the floor. Her hawk, watching from its perch on the windowsill, clicked its beak at her as if in question.

She wiped her tears away with her hands and heaved for breath, her fear of almost being beheaded gripping her entire body. And then a knock sounded, the door opening slowly as a person moved into the room. He sat on the floor beside her, not speaking, just offering her his company as she calmed herself down.

“Thank you.” She whispered, sniffing as she turned her head to look at him. Nikolai’s expression was pained, full of sorrow and something warmer, and her heart seized a bit inside her chest. “For…saving me.”

“Thank you for saving us.” He murmured, reaching out to hold her hand in his own. He took a deep, steadying breath, before looking up at her. “I will find you somewhere. Somewhere nice to—to live.” He swallowed. “Did you know I own a house not even half an hour away from here? Lovely place. There’s even a small pond you could swim in.”

“Nikolai, I cant—”

“You don’t have to stay here. Not after being so thoroughly disrespected.” His blue eyes were sad, but a small smile still appeared on his face. He had threatened to…to follow her if she was executed. She felt her breathing grow shallow as he spoke, still holding her hand in his own. “Although I will miss you. But I can visit on weekends, or—”

She moved forward, gripping his jacket as she pressed her mouth to his, a tear slipping down her cheek as she kissed him. And when she pulled away, running a thumb down his cheek, she shook her head.

“Where you go, I go.” She promised, absentmindedly wiping the moisture off her face. “If you want to stay here, to live here, then I’ll stay with you.” She smiled shyly, absorbing the look of adoration he was giving her. “You’ll be king. No one can hurt me but you.”

“Never.” He swore, tugging her close as he placed a soft kiss to her mouth. “I’d never hurt you.”

She believed him. And then her thoughts turned mischievous.

“You know what you can do to console me after my near death experience?” She teased, amusement washing over his features as he raised an eyebrow.

“What might that be?” He asked, feigning confused even as he pulled her onto his lap. So she leaned in, murmuring a couple of words into his ear, and the mumbled curse that left his lips made her laugh. And then she squeaked in surprise as he lifted her, locking the door before tossing her onto her bed.

hello I hope this is something like what you wanted

#shadow and bone #nikolai lantsov #nikolai lantsov x reader #nikolai x reader #wattpad #shadow and bone imagine #fluff

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sneakydraws · 1 year ago

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Ok so! As per the wishes of @chernychnyi and others and also myself, here's a little analysis/rant about the boreo front bottoms lyricstuck thing I did. Because of tumblrs 30 image limit I had to fuse some of the frames and also couldn't fit in the unused frames I really wanted to mention - so those will get plonked down in a separate post I think. Ok let's roll

To begin with, the pov - I didn't exactly plan ahead on this regard, I kind of just listened to the song and experienced visions of tgf scenes to go along with the lyrics, but once I picked this project back up after half a year of letting it sit in my procreate files I definitely saw a sort of narrative form around it. Most of what I had was very much from Boris's pov and about Theo. The tone was sort of protective, sort of desperate, sort of penitent, sort of possessive? I'll elaborate on it later but I basically ended up exploring a lot of the ambiguous or unhealthy elements of the boreo dynamic, and realising that when I was maybe 70% done made me lean more purposefully into that angle in the remaining frames. So for example in this frame, even though they're both indisputably wiry and broke down, I choose to make this about Theo because Boris is the worldly, knowledgeable survivor to Theo's harrowed newcomer. There's a fragility to Theo that's less visible, and maybe less present, in Boris.

Like in this line, which has a great air of warning or instruction to it, like the singer is trying to brace their friend for what's to come. I actually struggled hardcore with this frame! Because I knew I wanted this image of Theo reaching toward the surface of the pool, but it arguably made more sense in the "jaws theme song on repeat" lyric (since it's Boris pulling Theo down)... I ended up sticking it here because I wasn't sure what else to replace it with but I think it's kind of a happy mistake because it right off the start showcases the dichotomy in Boris and Theo's relationship and its more toxic aspects - Boris pulling Theo down visually in one frame, but promising to help him swim in the lyrics in the next.

I don't think it came through so well but I wanted the previous panel to have a bright sun streaming light through Theo's fingers, and the blazing desert sun in this frame to echo that - the sun as the element of danger, Boris's opposite. The positioning of light as danger and shade as safety is a trope I sometimes drift towards in queer narratives and it definitely goes back to that heartbeat short film I didn't even like that much...

Maybe my all time favourite scene to depict with teenage boreo - Boris dragging a dead drunk Theo off the street... I love it because it's so rarely we see Boris be the responsible one, the one doing what's Supposed to be done

I really wish I'd had the time and the motivation to spruce this up really well because in some points I envisioned really clearly the kind of transition I'd want to have... I would have loved for the camera to swoosh down and do a little overshoot into this frame, so some of the dynamic of the punch is carried into the visuals. Oh well! Apparently this line (like the song itself) is actually about heroine usage, but here it's Larry and Theo - I feel like a snakebite is an apt metaphor for this punch, with its sheer unexpectedness

The nightmare comfort is a must have of course... I was kind of afraid I was repeating myself with how often I use this kind of scene with this exact framing ahahaha

Massively difficult shot to pull off because I wanted the distortion to be prominent and for Boris and Theo to be really small in the frame but for it to still be mostly readable!! Anyway this is their weird drunken hookups, which I think fit this line not because secret teenage hookups are inherently evil or anything but like. I do think the way they're never ever addressed and the shame associated with them in Theo's narration give them a definite air of unhealthiness. A red flag... A warning sign, if you will

I actually think at one point the drunken teenage sex went here, with the undertone being that Boris realises there's something wrong about it but doesn't stop anyway? But that's kind of muddled, and the much more obvious choice is the theft of the painting. And the "amount to take/reasons to take more" plays well with Boris's habit of stealing random shit from Theo already before moving on to the big fish

The reunion! I play Boris as catching on well to the inauthenticity and comphetness (as well as comp-normie-ness) of Theo's little life - and reminiscing, I suppose, on how unsurprising it is that he'd end up pulled in this direction, trying to run away from the trauma and shame of his real self. There's also a little guilt here on Boris's part, a little bit of a feeling of culpability - carried over from the theft of the painting and the never-addressed sex, and echoed in a second in the guilt or regret of letting Theo leave like he did, betrayed and deceived.

This line maybe doesn't ring one hundred percent true because neither of Theo's Vegas guardians really gave enough of a shit about him to "pray he would change", but they do judge and shame him occasionally for his weakness, his trauma and so on, so I think it works. And (although I had to push this line onto Boris's frame simply to have an excuse to show his face) they "close their eyes" to Theo's real self and the sheer horror of his experiences... Hm

Of course Theo cuts his own hair and sends himself away before anyone else can but you know. Too perfect of a fit

Definitely my favourite and cleverest moment - theo "stops by Boris's house", i.e.by their common home, the night he escapes... Boris begs him to stay (another day so he can get the painting)... And the omitting of "I love you but" from Theo's written dialogue, with the massive conspicuous gap in the word bubble, was something I thought of early on. The unsaid "I love you"? Too fucking good not to exploit. And NGL it feels good to be like ooohoho I'm not just matching visuals to existing lyrics, I'm manipulating them to fit my own narrative and engaging in a dialogue with the lyrics or whatever... Hehe

This is the scene where Boris announces he'll run away and Theo immediately says he'll come with. But the important thing to note is that I found out about different shoelacing techniques and made Boris ladder lace his jungle boots

This and the previous lyric, although the visuals show two different scenes, both relate to Theo's apprehension about how following Boris around will surely lead to no good, especially without a plan. Boris through the lyrics is saying don't worry about it, we'll figure something out!

Umm so I drew this with lighting speed as I was editing the whole thing lollll I totally forgot about the instrumental parts and just how LONG they were... I needed something to fill up the space ahahaha. But it's vaguely supposed to hark back to the scene after Mr pavlikovsky beats up Boris, what with the bottle of vodka and the bloody nose and the unconcerned laughter

The pool frolic! Very appropriate. We've got the obligatory moon cameo, and I made sure the pool and the sky were the same stark shade of black so it feels like boris and Theo are hanging between two equally real worlds, plunging into the starry night...

I just remembered that Boris's bracelets pop in and out of existence a lot ahahaha oops! But this is of course essentially the same scene as the "it's gonna look like mud" lyric, only more literal this time. Admittedly this lyric is moreso from Theo's pov, which is a bit out of place here although I do play around with the pov a little later

One of the first frames I'd envisioned I think! I mean come on. And a great example of how the singer really emphasises certain words, so I punch them up a bit by capitalising them

This was actually a struggle because Boris is such an action oriented character - the stupid shit he says doesn't actually have that many consequences! But eventually I thought it would be fitting to show one of the scenes where a semi malicious joke or a mostly innocuous remark activates Theo's internalised homophobia - i ended up going with his comment about Hobies letter.

More timeskip normieness! The spark and look of Theo's I consider artificial, like the flash of the cameras poised to capture the kiss between the engaged couple's, and the look hidden behind the anime shine of Theo's glasses... I could have spent more time showing that but I'll be honest this was one of the last lines I had to illustrate and I was getting impatient. The "I will not be brave" was a tricky one - I kind of wanted it to relate to Boris's selfishness maybe, in taking Theo away from his fiancée? Like, he will not do the noble thing by stepping away and instead Will try to drag Theo back into his life... Though that itself is motivated by a sort of penitent guilt

Again, Boris trying to find a space for Theo in his life - maybe Theo can work for him! Or with him! Anything, god, just forgive me!

I'm a little annoyed because I remember having a good idea for these lines and then I forgot it!! But with this I ended up gesturing vaguely to some reasons why Boris acts like he does - taking control of the life seemingly subject to his dad's whims and work travel, rebelling by imitating his father's worst habits - something something the paradoxical repulsion towards his father and need to imitate or one-up or outdo him...

For a while these lines were both on Boris's back as he stands in front of Hobie's shop. Then I ended up splitting them in two, but they're the same theme - Boris taking responsibility for his actions and trying to atone for his betrayal of Theo. First by tracking the painting down and coming, drenched, to inform Theo of his progress (that scene is one of my favourites between theo and Boris actually) and then by desperately running after the boy when it seems he might carry it off and destroy it forever (another favourite because it showcases Boris's desperation to earn back Theo's trust).

Also, didn't fit it here but the second instrumental section has Theo's face on it - to make a set with the earlier Boris drawing, and they're opposites because Boris's eyes aren't visible while Theo's are the only part of his face visible, and Theo's worried frown suggests that he sees through Boris's jolliness somewhat, and also! It signals a switch to Theo's pov for the final few lines!

Another line that leapt out at me from the beginning - xandra's ominous yet oddly romantic prediction that Theo will follow Boris wherever, even to a prison cell. This is actually kind of funny because initially I thought a twin sized mattress was a mattress for two - and I connected this to xandra's belief that Boris and Theo will always be a set of two, connected at the hip. It wasn't until I googled the lyrics and read the genius annotations that i realized it was the exact opposite - but luckily for me, the connection still kind of works? Maybe not so well for this panel but for the next two for sure:

Like, my initial thought was that they were both cursed to sleep on a two-person mattress alone, with an empty space next to them - but the literal half-empty double bed can also work as a metaphorical single bed, so... Win? And of course there's complicated messaging going on because, like, their sharing a bed is simultaneously something too adult for their teenaged friendship and something from their childhood to haunt them into adulthood, causing them to never "graduate" into a typical adult relationship no matter how hard Theo tries... And the "somebody's attic or basement" fits in with Theo settling in to weltys bedroom... And of course Boris sleeping in Theo's bed after xabdra takes pity on him, an idea I'd touched on before... Not to mention the "let's go home" "home?" "My place. Whatever" exchange that I loooooooooooveeeeeee

And the final frames! I had to consult @frozenladybug for some storyboarding help because while I knew what theme I wanted I couldn't think of a scene... The idea is that Theo will forever be haunted by his past - hence the nightmares - but that now Boris is there to support him, happy end. Flb came up with the "standing by the window" idea which I love because!!! First of all, dawn is breaking, which signals the end of the troubled night but also brings forth the antagonistic sun - almost as a symbol of the night of Boris and Theo's early relationship, dark and dangerous but full of an odd camaraderie and haunted by the Boriscoded moon, ending. But what comes after that night is a different relationship, with its own challenges but maybe changed for the better... And in this scene Boris comforts Theo by physical contact and a cup of tea (hehe) instead of the desperate clutch of their early years - less intense and physical but maybe healthier and less codependent? I'm kind of freestyling but there's something there. I had thoughts during this project about how Boris calming Theo after his nightmares is almost more parental than romantic and how it allows Theo to cling to boris one-sidedly and how it might change with time... Idk, some personal musings played a part as well and it's definitely a reach but that's what was on my mind. Either way, happy bittersweet boreo ending and lemme go and make that rejected drawings post real quick now

#the goldfinch #boreo #theodore decker #boris pavlikovsky #abuse tw

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carawenfiction · 1 year ago

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Will we have an update soon?

Tumblr won't let me make normal posts for some reason, so the update will have to be in form of an answer to this ask smh. Anyway:

Hey everyone!

This post is long overdue, I know. I’m really sorry to those who have been worried about my wellbeing, as well as those who have been waiting around for an update for so long.

I’ve put off writing here because this “update” is something I’ve been wrestling with for a long time. But I can’t keep going back and forth on it forever, which is why I’m now letting you all know that the Shadow Society is officially discontinued.

I know that this might not come as much of a surprise to anyone at this point. I’ve tried to salvage the story by remaking it into something I’m happy with through a rewrite. But I’ve rewritten the rewrite itself more than once, and no matter what I do, I’m just not happy with the result. Rewriting something that’s already published with all the coding it involves is a lot more tricky than I initially thought it would be.

This is not a case of me being needlessly harsh on myself, however; it’s simply a truth I’ve come to realize after struggling to find a way to keep going with the story. I’ll never be fully content with it, or even content enough, unless I’d be able to completely remake and rewrite everything from scratch – and consequentially, I will never find enough motivation to continue because of how unhappy I am with it.

I’ve seen some speculation about my reason for rewriting the story and my long absence, and that they’ve had to do with comparisons to other IFs (well, you know which one). This isn’t entirely the case. While the comparisons did happen and probably still do, and while they were discouraging in the beginning, I can definitely understand where people have been coming from when making them. I talked about this more in-depth in the forums right after the release of TSS.

The main reason for why I can’t continue is that it’s not a series I feel passionate enough about to work on. My tastes have changed, and so has my writing to some degree. I’ve tried to convince myself that I am passionate about it. It’s hard to admit that you’re not when it’s been in your head for so long, when you’ve tried for so long to make this work and when you know that one part is published and that some people are anticipating a continuation. But it had to be done sooner or later.

Other reasons:

-While I don’t think that my writing style has changed drastically, I feel like it is somewhat different from how I wrote back in 2018 (which is a GOOD thing). Whenever I tried working on the rewrite or second book and attempted to emulate the writing of TSS, it just didn’t sound right anymore, and that took a lot of fun out of it.

-With everything that has happened with CoG over the past few years, they are no longer a company I want to write for.

Please know that none of this has discouraged me from writing in general. I still love doing it. If anything, this has taught me a lot about what I actually want to write and the writing process in general. Whether I end up publishing anything else in the future or will simply do so for my own enjoyment we’ll just have to see, though.

I still have the idea of a shadow-like world in my head, and maybe it’s one I will revisit at some point. Maybe there will be another version of TSS someday, albeit very different from the original one.

But for now, I can only thank you all for the overwhelming love and support over the years, and apologize for any disappointment this has caused. If people are interested, I’d be happy to share parts of the rewrite and unused ideas. The Tumblr page will still stay up at least for some time, but I will probably not be answering any asks from here on out.

EDIT: Forgot to add, but if anyone wants a genuinely amazing IF read you should check out my friend's wip here: https://uroboros-if.tumblr.com/ ❤️ Play the demo here: https://mistyriousness.itch.io/uroboros

#the shadow society #tss #carawenfiction #interactive fiction

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birdofprey1234 · 9 months ago

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Hello all. In case you've been unaware, recently tumblr has begun rolling out a partnership with Midjourney to scrape the entire website and its users' posts for their AI training. This includes peoples art, and probably also writing and photography. Anything you've posted the company may use for training, and you are opted IN by default.

Obviously this blog has been inactive for quite a while now, and no new art has been or will be posted here, but this puts me in a difficult position. I'm not sure exactly what I'm gonna do with this blog from here on. Some people have recommended editing posts to put a glaze filter over old art so that it's unusable, but I have many hundreds of posts, not all of which are tagged, and I'm unsure whether the AI training has already gotten a hold of them or not, making the potential filter useless. Not to mention the reblogs that already exist of the old un-glazed artwork.

I considered deleting everything, maybe even the blog itself, but that idea...sucks. I like the idea and the feeling that though I'm not active, my art is still out in the fandom tags somewhere, and that I have had an effect on the fandoms I was in and shared my art with. And again, the reblogs still exist, so I'm not sure what that would mean in terms of AI scraping. My worry is that deleting my blog would only relinquish any control I do have of what is done with my art.

As it is I'm kind of at a standstill. I was recently thinking over sharing my art again on other blogs, since I do miss being a part of that creative space. But now this change has kind of crushed that idea entirely. All this, plus the extreme transmisogyny apocalypse happening on here in the last month, and the seeming silencing of important movement tags like palestine, it really makes me want to ditch tumblr altogether. I've seen many people considering switching platforms. There's been a lot of markiplier mutuals specifically who have encouraged me to join cohost, I also have seen pillowfort as an option for others. But those platforms are new, kind of janky and will be hard to get used to for me. Plus, idk if I'm using them wrong but there's like...11 posts in each tag that I've seen so far, which kind of kills the feeling of being a part of a big open fan community I really love. Cohost seems like a nice platform, but if only 30-35 people move over, then it's really going to be a moot point. I wanna be where everyone else in the fandom is. I worry that this mass migration will only splinter communities, as we're all going to different places. I don't want to make 500 accounts on different platforms just to stay active and feel aware in the community.

My entire online social life up to this point has basically been on tumblr, I have a lot of blogs with a LOT of memories attached to them, and it would hurt to just drop them and move away.

Overall I'm at a loss. I enjoy sharing my work, my ideas and thoughts, I like being a part of these creative communities. But it seems like everyday the online space becomes more and more hostile toward creatives and fans, and much more advertiser friendly. One thing i never ever wanted to happen was for my art to be used for AI, and I naively thought that tumblr would be safe in that way. Guess not. I sometimes wonder if eventually all large social media will crash down and The People will dedicate to going back to personal websites and forums. I would enjoy a space where I could share my art on my own terms, and not have other peoples interaction with it overshadow everything else.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. For now I will be staying on tumblr until I figure it out, but definitely no more posting creatively. I want to try to keep my work up if I can. I would recommend on all your blogs going to settings and toggling ON "prevent third-party sharing for this blog", as that will let tumblr know you wish your work, including reblogs of it to be excluded from the scraping. I'm unsure how actually useful this will be, or how much the company will respect these wishes but. It's there. I would also love for you to come talk with me @boobookiss and, hey, maybe make a cohost account. I'm on there as boobookiss as well. I hope to keep touch with you all and see this little community stay together.

#markiplier #markiplier egos #myposts #ok to rb

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front-facing-pokemon · 8 months ago

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To be fair, while bulbapedia is just one source, it does tend to be a relatively solid one, and often does include notes about official design statements (there’s a note about the designer of the swords of justice intending for terrakion’s horns to resemble hatchets, for example!), so I don’t think it’s a bad source of info just because it tends to use the term “seems to be based on”. In fact, while many do make fun of the “polteageist seems to be based on a teacup” thing (and it is funny!), I think it’s better that they word things like that, because what Pokémon are based on can often be up to guesswork and interpretation!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still entirely possible that Naganadel is inspired by xenomorphs! And that would be very cool! I just wanted to add that there are other things it can be based on as well, and that I personally haven’t seen the xenomorph thing mentioned anywhere before.

well of course bulbapedia isn't a bad source. it's my primary source of information on pokémon and shit. i've used it my whole life and it's the one i know how to navigate. the main problem i have with it is all the fucking ads. that site is designed to Look like wikipedia while being littered with so many ads that it becomes nigh unusable on mobile. it's encouraged me to learn a different pokédex site but none of them seem to have all the same information that i want in the same easy-to-access (somewhat, not considering the ads) place. sure, i have ublock origin on desktop, obviously. but when i'm out and about, it's not exactly Easy to find ad blockers that work on my particular mobile browsers of choice, which means i just end up going to serebii or something, and the only reason i still go to bulbapedia on desktop is because i have an ad blocker. now, i know they have a tumblr blog here and everything (i even follow them!), and obviously i doubt lisia themself is personally littering all the ads on the site, cackling "this is gonna make the site so unusable" or some shit. but it's spawned lots of criticisms from me of the site itself, where i wouldn't necessarily have had them before if it hadn't left a sour taste in my mouth. which is all to say: if you find another site that has all the same information as bulbapedia with less ads, i'd love to know about it. i've tried serebii, zukan, pokédb, even the official pokémon website. but bulbapedia continues to be the most comprehensive source of information, sprites, game data, trivia… et cetera

#not pkmn #in other news‚ galar has already started getting difficult as the model for coalossal was skipped for no reason #oooooooohhhh babey!!!!!!#really loving running this blog right now!!!!! (lie!!!!)

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tavyliasin · 7 months ago

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The Scent of Cinnamon 5 - The Night, The Incubus, and The Empty Bed

Raphael has left Haarlep to the Boudoir, settling to go over some contracts. The incubus, on the other had, is restless, unused to their new shape... 4,893 Words AO3 Link Click Here or Tumblr Masterlist for SoC Here

--- Summary: Haarlep takes the time to get to know their new body, much to Raphael's frustration... Pairing: Raphael/Haarlep SPICE Rating: 2/5 Content Warnings: Mild Power Play, Mild Angst, mild emotional hurt/comfort, Mild Use of Safe Word, Masturbation, Edging, Teasing, Massage, Maybe DubCon if you really squint at it.

Spoilers Vague House of Hope and Act 3, but most of this series is focused on what came before. Canon Compliance The deal itself shows as fairly similar to how Tav experiences it in the game. But a slight twist. In my HCs, the connection is stronger with proximity, so that will affect things going forward too~ Other Notes: I don't know if this quite counts under DubCon, given that the contract was clearly negotiated and agreed between them, but the safe word is still respected even when not used sincerely. With thanks to beta readers and others from my beloved House of Hopeful Sinners Discord, as well as to everyone who has commented on my works on AO3 or in other discord servers. Your support means the world to me, loves, it really makes this all possible.

Song Pairing Find Me Out by Hollywood Principle "It's a secret Hear my plea Don't you see I need you And you need me So worn down Turned around I never Had a doubt I'm choosing Words wisely now I'm praying You don't find me out You can take anything you want Because I would trade it all To have it back To have you back You can take anything you want Because I would trade it all To have you back" FULL CHAPTER - SMUT BELOW THE CUT --- ---

The Night, The Incubus, and The Empty Bed

Raphael left the incubus to the Boudoir. They had permission to leave, if they wished, but he also ensured that whatever they needed for the evening would be provided. He was… exhausted, and in no mood to continue entertaining their games - particularly when they had the power again.

The cambion sat back in the chair in what was a spare room, a desk hastily moved in to serve as his office for a time. Papers - stacked neatly and pointedly being ignored - held plans, contracts, letters that needed to be sent within the tenday… But for now all he wanted to do was rest.

Part of him regretted the hasty choice to allow Haarlep the use of his own master bedroom. Initially this room was to be theirs, and whilst it was hardly the expansive bedchamber that he had given up it still had plenty of comforts within and a large bed to accommodate whatever lovers they might wish to take. Raphael just didn’t expect…

—

The incubus stretched out on the bed. The borrowed clothes itched and chafed, even loosening the shirt did nothing to ease Haarlep’s discomfort. Silk sheets still bore the scent of poorly mixed perfume, despite having been changed in their absence. It clung to their skin, too. Their crimson hued skin, covered in unfamiliar ridges, light hair covering several areas in regular patterns- They sighed and got up again, pacing the floors, tail swishing behind them as if still testing the weight of the limb as they moved. The clothes soon ended up thrown over the back of one of the couches in the room, discarded and unwanted, as the naked incubus stood before the pool.

The waters moved without being touched, gentle ripples of unseen currents shifting the surface in imperceptible ways. Haarlep gazed at their reflection, how it warped their appearance even more. It was…

They ran their hands across their body, at last having time to truly examine themselves. They had, of course, memorised every part of Raphael - as intimately as they had ensured he would memorise their body - but that was different to wearing his shape. Long fingers took an exploratory touch of their chest. Strong and well chiselled with muscles that were likely more for looks than strength. Not that it mattered, they were capable in any form they took. It was the ridges that felt more alien to their caress. Harder than skin, but a little softer than cartilage, there was a slight give as they pressed along them but not such that they would flatten.

Their raised blood vessels also stood out from their skin, but far softer. And there was the skin itself - smooth yet upon close inspection it appeared to have an almost scaled texture. Typical of cambions, to have the cracked surface like the hardened crust that could form above the lava fields of Avernus, the palpable heat reminiscent of the same liquid fire that burned beneath.

Their reflection shimmered and shifted again, as if mocking them in its refusal to settle - perhaps it was indeed a more fitting mirror for the inside than the outer veil of calm that still sat placid upon their features. His features. His features on their face…

Their head began to spin. Taking the form of another had always been shorter, temporary, before now. It was a pleasure to test out the bodies of others, to watch their reactions to feeling the link the deal provided, to find the limits of each form they could inhabit…

That was, of course, an option… There were no clauses preventing them from using this form for pleasure whenever they wished, and even if there were, this room was the one they had control within. It would be a better way to pass the time than allowing the shadows of doubts creep through their thoughts any longer. Besides, they were already undressed for the occasion.

—

Raphael found himself holding the contract from the night before. Haarlep was bound to him twofold now, both as Mephistopheles’ gift, and by their deal that defined the relationship they would have beyond owner and spy.

The terms should have been simple, easy to define, and they certainly should have been thoroughly reviewed by a contract negotiator. Yet the heat of the moment had caught Raphael in their claws, just as he sought to wind his own chains around the incubus to further his goals… Giving up his own room was just the first of those mistakes.

Perhaps it was simpler this way, to maintain the ruse that the body in his bedchamber was his own. That way, those who were granted entry might not question a less decadent venue for illicit liaisons designed to lure them in to signing away their freedoms - or whatever else it was that he demanded of the debtors he planned to ensnare. Still, he would miss his own bed, the balcony and its view…

The cambion continued to check every detail that was written, cursing himself for missing some of the small print. If only they weren’t so efficient at getting under his skin, under his belt-

His line of thought came to an abrupt end, punctuated by a short gasp. He looked down at his chest, almost expecting to see hands upon his body, or at least a hint of the weave toying with him, but there was nothing there but his clothing. Exactly where he left it, and certainly not exposing his-

“What in the-” Raphael bit his lip as a phantom caress drifted over untouched skin, still covered by silks. “Impossible…” And yet there it was again.

—

Haarlep took their time, as if meeting the body of a tentative new lover, testing each and every nerve with a soft stroke here, a light pinch there… They wondered if he was feeling it, if he noticed. The hallways echoed only with silence, however, and no demands to cease reached them either.

Perhaps this might be fun, to see how long he might hold out.

The incubus padded silently back to the bed, searching the drawers for oils or any other items that might provide more entertainment-

“Nothing? Really?” They huffed their disappointment, reaching for the only bottle of oil that was available and taking a tentative sniff of the bottle’s top. “We shall have to acquire more, Raphael, and find what it is you want most. But,” they continued, speaking quietly into the empty room, “my own hands should be more than enough to rile you up for now.”

—

Raphael leaned back in his chair, loosening his shirt collar which somehow felt suddenly too tight. The lines on the page before him revealed the nature of the trick, though he decided not to give in to the teasing - surely that would only prove his own lack of self control, and give the incubus another win to laud over him.

Another fastening of his doublet was swiftly undone before his mind could unravel any further, but it did little to help. His breath was quickening against his will, the unseen pressure of fingertips teasing at his body was impossible to ignore.

He pushed his hair back from his face and tried to calm himself. He was the master of his own house, of his own body-

—

Haarlep could tell that the nerves in this body were more sensitive than many of their prior lovers. They felt the heat rising within them, the swift and powerful building of arousal with little stimulation. It was almost too easy to begin to feel pleasure’s swell urging them onwards, before they had even allowed themselves direct contact with the source of that urge.

There was no chance in any of the hells that Raphael wasn’t feeling this by now, and yet still not a word filtered through to their ears or to their mind with a sending. Neither encouragement, nor a demand to stop… Was the cambion testing them? Or was this becoming a new game between them… If he wants to play, he had better be prepared to lose.

The oil was easy to spread across their body, allowing their fingers to glide over every contour of muscle, the edge of their claws teasing at the edge of pain. Between their healing and their appreciation of many sensations, pain was not in the least bit off putting to Haarlep. Many partners enjoyed it, and the moment earlier when Raphael had whipped their leg confirmed a lingering suspicion. But that was a thought to keep tucked away for later.

They brought their tail around in front of them, lamenting for a moment the prior shape their own had taken, but contemplating the further possibilities of the narrow and smooth tip of the prehensile limb. Oil slicked easily across it, and another shiver of pleasure travelled along its length all the way up their spine.

—

A shudder rippled through Raphael’s tail even as it draped on the floor behind him. Haarlep was up to something, and a long list of alarming options flew through his mind like a flock of particularly lecherous imps. He curled his tail around his own ankle as if to secure it in place and prevent the incubus from utilising any of those lascivious ideas that were likely filling their thoughts.

He would have to find a way to tame them, to deal with their-

He groaned at the phantom of touch beneath underclothes that still remained securely in place, and not at all filled with a pair of hands that were tracing pathways that hit every nerve that made him shudder. They were neatly avoiding the most pleasurable areas, taking their time to test his patience. Resistance was becoming harder by the moment, as was he.

—

The heat was rising in the main boudoir as Haarlep curled their tail higher up their leg, one hand still testing the sensitivity of their torso, wings, and even their horns, while the other was stroking a leisurely pace along hardened ridges. Even those were unexpectedly easy to get a strong reaction from, several droplets already pearling at the tip.

The oil was warm and slick, making it easy for the slender end of their tail to spread it around their entrance, toying with several ideas as they brought their knees up to improve their angle. The first inch slipped in with a fair amount of resistance. They were loathe to do too much this way, far preferring to only give , but they needed to know Raphael’s body. Inside and out.

—

Raphael gasped at the intrusion. The feeling of being open and exposed in a stark and uncomfortable contrast to how he sat, tense, upon the chair.

The cambion weighed up his options swiftly, choosing to ease his discomfort rather than to fight the undeniably pleasurable feelings seizing control of any sense beyond touch and need.

His clothes lay discarded on the floor as he barely avoided falling to join them several times in his haste to strip and reach the bed. Slipping under the sheets, Raphael closed his eyes, his bottom lip soon marked by teeth that sought to use the pain to hold back from audibly expressing how he felt.

His wings stretched beneath him, tail twitching indecisively as he hesitated to add to the transferred sensations with direct physical touch. Soon his hand had another use as it clamped down over his own mouth, stifling the noise threatening to escape his body as the incubus found precisely what they were looking for.

—

Haarlep sighed with satisfaction as they strummed a new chord against the devil’s copied nerves, testing the finer movements of their tail with a slight vibration. They knew there was no way he could be ignoring this. Even the incubus themselves had to take a tighter grip around their base to hold back the waves threatening to overcome their usually robust stamina and control.

So…you like that, do you, Raphael? Even the thought in their own mind sounded smug, the only place they still sounded like themselves. You’re not stopping me, nor are you rushing in to join me… Just what are you up to?They quickly looked around the room, they needed something as a focus for the spell… Ah. There it was. A small silver hand mirror on a side table, easily retrieved by a simple mage hand. They continued to grip and stroke with one hand, tail still pressing within them to torment the centre of pleasures inside, while their free hand worked to cast the spell.

They knew Raphael had the choice to resist, if he had enough sense to notice the casting at all. And yet… If he tried, they couldn’t tell. Instead, Haarlep was soon gazing down unseen upon the cambion laying in a smaller bed, undressed, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.

Hmmm…so you do feel it, and it has already drawn you away from your desk, yet you don’t seek your release? The incubus laughed as a new idea formed in their mind. We shall see how long you can keep that up.

—

Before he could reach the peak of pleasure’s inevitable end, Raphael felt the sensations subside. He almost mourned the lack of touch, but the pressure was becoming almost unbearable. Curling his wings around him, he stretched his legs out flat once more, sighing and attempting to relax in the cool silk sheets.

As soon as his eyes began to close from the weight of exhaustion the day - and indeed, the night before - had piled upon his brow, the whisper of a caress moved over his thigh. He shivered, pulling the sheets closer around him and deciding that it was nothing but the wind this time.

Sleep’s tender embrace was once again disrupted by a firm grip on his hip, a gentler touch massaging along the nearby tender ridges. Lower, he felt pressure both in his tail and in his-

If you must pleasure yourself, then get it over with. He hissed in his mind, taking matters into his own hand for a brief moment before realising this room had none of the oils or lotions kept in the master bedroom. The friction of a dry palm was only a partial antidote to the slicked tail that caressed his body’s copy, it would not be enough to douse the heat of arousal, nor would it allow him to finish on his own terms.

Again, just as the sensations built up, they subsided once more.

Three more times he was brought to the edge of damnation, and thrice more thwarted from release.

Raphael was almost certain he could hear their laughter echoing from the walls, feel their eyes bearing down on him as he lay in his bed, skin slick with sweat, hair fallen from its neat stylings into a tangled mess across the pillow’s mockingly cool silks. No amount of luxury could lull him to sleep, not while the bitch in the next room had their claws in every nerve of his body.

—

Haarlep couldn’t stifle their amusement any longer. Seeing the cambion throw aside the sheets and almost walk into the halls before remembering to dress and cover himself from the debtors’ wandering eyes was just too much. They stretched out, taking a relaxed pose facing the door propped up on one elbow, the scrying dismissed with a simple motion.

It didn’t take long. The slap of bare feet on stone floors approached, betraying the fury of their owner before the door slammed open to reveal the storm on his features. “Something troubling you, Raphael?”

Even the use of his name was calculated in how casual the greeting was, and oh how delightfully his brow twisted into a deeper scowl at their words before he replied. “Playing innocent does not suit you, Harlot��.”

“No? Well, what is it that brings you to my domain?” They watched the lines on his face deepen further, new wrinkles already creasing smooth skin as he seemed to be torn between holding his place by the door and storming over to the bed. “Cat got your tongue?”

“Insolent creature, this is my house, and that is my body you have been toying with.” Raphael took one step closer then halted once more, tail swishing furiously yet his wings were curled and folded defensively close to his body.

Haarlep took a long moment to sweep their eyes across him again, taking in how tight the simple trousers were. Poorly laced and straining still, the haste likely leaving no room to include undergarments, just as any kind of shirt had remained forgotten as his bare chest heaved with frustrated breaths. “So many bold claims, this room belongs to me as per our contract, and I will use it as I see fit.” They slid their hand beneath the sheets, keeping burning eye contact with the cambion as they continued. “But, I might be willing to indulge you, Master , if you tell me what it is you want.”

—

Raphael was torn between the desire to rip off his clothes or to rip the very smile from Haarlep’s impudent lips. He kept faltering as his feet refused to obey him any more than the incubus would, but at least his voice had not yet decided to take leave of him - though he had a suspicion his senses would soon prove themselves deserters. “What I want…is a good night of sleep. Yet here you are, misusing our deal for your own ends.”

“Oh come now,” Haarlep grinned with far too much emphasis in their words, “you gifted me the room to myself - a body, too - is it so unusual for me to make myself at home in both of them? It will be quite a long few centuries if I am not even permitted to discover the limits of the pleasure at my fingertips~” Those very fingertips must have still been oil slicked as Raphael felt the intrusion - it was even stronger now there were no walls between them. His knees buckled as he tried to catch himself with his tail, wings spreading and fluttering awkwardly to keep his balance. “Limits, Harlot,” he gasped as they clawed at the copy of his nerves, “don’t seem to be in your vocabulary.”

“There’s one little word that seems conveniently far from your own tongue, is there not? Do you remember it?” They grinned wickedly. Testing him. Again.

“Angel.” He muttered, and Haarlep’s hands appeared above the sheets in an instant, all whispers of touch echoing across his body falling silent just as swiftly.

“There, now. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Haarlep’s gaze flickered lower for a passing moment. “Well, perhaps it was. A problem that is just as easy to solve, by your choice.”

“Is that so? I do not recall choosing to feel you indulging in your base urges.”

“And I do not recall you asking me to stop. A simple cast of sending, one of your debtors as a messenger, anything would have sufficed. Yet it took you this long to show yourself here, and still you do not know what it is you want~” Their eyes almost looked green again, despite the clear orange fire reflecting his own devilish hues…

“I…” He faltered. Again. He didn’t particularly find himself lusting after physical pleasure, but it was impossible to deny the simple fact that the sensations were not distasteful. Nor, truly, was the concept of being able to experience pleasure without having to directly involve himself in the messy business of partnered sex. “What should I want from this? Is it not reprehensible for someone to lay with their reflection?”

“Only if you wish it to be~” Haarlep purred, however despite their playful tone they sat up a little, smoothing the sheets over and indicating the space beside them. “Sit with me a while, perhaps I will know this body best by learning more of its owner.”

—

The incubus watched the cambion as the tensions left some of his stance, though his muscles still clearly held a lot of his conflicted feelings within them as he walked towards the bed with a hesitant air of false confidence in his stride. “I will not touch you that way - nor indulge you with the feeling of our contracted connection - unless you give your permission.”

Raphael sat on the edge of the bed, wings folded flat and neat against his back, hesitant to lay as he was bidden. “This is…unusual.”

“Is it truly so bizarre? To sit with someone with whom you have made a most intimate contract, in a bed you have already shared?” Haarlep moved a little closer, unable to see his face nor divine what he was thinking from his tense shoulders alone.

“The connection. I did not know what exactly I should have expected, but it is… vivid , almost overwhelmingly so.” His voice grew more steady again, now they were no longer intent on teasing him.

Hell had its laws, and so did Haarlep. They would not resume anything in his body until he was ready, now that he had uttered that singular word. Even though it wasn’t spoken in earnest, they had pushed him to use it on purpose, to prove to the cambion that even when they were in this room, even in the heat of lust, a single breath could stop it all. “Do you dislike it?”

“Yes.” Raphael hesitated. “No.”

“Which is it?” The incubus inched closer still, curling their tail around to lay next to his hip. Not touching, particularly not whilst still glistening with the scented oils they had used earlier, but close enough to make their presence felt.

The cambion turned, brows knit together in a frown. “I don’t desire it, I don’t need it, I certainly do not yearn for the instinctive pleasures of mortal flesh…” “But?” Haarlep prompted him, laying one hand tentatively on his shoulder. When it wasn’t shrugged off, they began to gently massage the tension from the muscle.

“But…” Raphael was still lost for words.

“There will always be something undeniably satisfying in giving yourself over to those base urges, a purely physical reaction if you must boil it down to that.” Haarlep took the lead in the conversation as well as in their…well, they couldn’t call it a relationship , but perhaps partnership was a term that suited a pair bound in contracts, indelible ink coursing in their very flesh. “There is no shame in indulging those curiosities, particularly with someone who has a very thorough knowledge of bodies and how to draw the most pleasure for them possible.”

“It’s different, you feed on this. It’s more a necessity for you than for any other.” The cambion leaned his neck back a little, inviting Haarlep to continue the massage.

“I do,” they conceded, “but even I am capable of enjoying the simple nature of the body’s pleasures. It is not always to devour. Consider it the difference between eating because you are starving and tasting samples of treats to enjoy the flavour alone.”

—

Raphael thought over their words, though he did note how their voice wavered when speaking of starvation. There was likely a reason they had ended up barefoot in his halls, having sold even their name for a chance to earn his father’s favour. “That does little to change the fact that you are touching me with my own hands, that if we are to lay together now all I will see is my own shadow looming over me.”

“Is that so? Do you truly hear your voice now?” they leaned closer, their breath tickling the pointed tip of his ear.

“Yes…no…” He pressed the heels of his palms to his forehead as if the pressure could untangle the warped realities of the deal’s terms. His fingertips could feel the whisper of touch that even now continued to work the tension from his shoulders, identical hands behind him controlled by identical arms, and yet- “It’s not the same.”

“It is not.” Haarlep agreed. “I have not felt such a bond from the other side, but I am well aware of the effects.”

Raphael lowered his arms again, gazing at his palms as if they were no longer his own. He moved his fingers in an imitation of Haarlep’s massage, mimicking them as he felt the pressure even in empty hands. “How does this usually go?”

The incubus paused as if contemplating the question as well as the nature of the asking. They moved to run their fingers through his hair, claws gently raking along his scalp which made his whole head feel somehow lighter as they answered. “Few desire the use of their own form, but there are some who do. Either way, I rarely wear a body for longer than it takes to use it as I please~” “And I assume that use is-”

“Anything from an hour to a whole night, depending on the occasion of course.” Haarlep spoke in a detached way that at first surprised the cambion, until he remembered how this was as simple for them as talking of using someone else’s kitchen to cook a meal.

Raphael almost wanted to see their face, to know what their expressions were when they talked about themselves. Because as insistent as they were that he forget not one single freckle on their physical form, they were not forthcoming about anything beyond. He let his head lean forwards a little as they moved to his neck, firm thumbs gliding carefully either side of his spine, teasing out more tension from muscles he didn’t know were knotted.

—

The incubus could feel the cambion relaxing further as they soothed him. It would take time. Their first night was… intense . It was aided, of course, by the impatient nature of both fiends needing to establish the hierarchy between them, to secure their deals and know where their own ambitions fit within each others’ plans. Their boredom had led them to haste, and now they were forced to slow their pace. Moving back to his shoulders, they kept quiet in their contemplations. The initial idea had of course been to come here and act as a spy, to report back their findings, and earn Mephistopheles’ favour - that had not changed. What they could not have anticipated, however, was the contradiction in front of them. Raphael was, by most standards, impatient and impulsive. He was filled with pride - and some measure of inadvisable hubris - and yet when that slipped away he could soften. Even the wickedly sharp contours of his horns looked less jagged as they watched his head fall slightly forwards into an ever more relaxed state. The way he had sought some measure of comfort as he drifted to sleep…

The cambion was, upon closer inspection, lonely . Although at least he seemed to be placated from the frustrations he had entered the room with. Well, most of the frustrations.

Haarlep continued to caress Raphael’s body, moving from his shoulders to the join of his wings, waiting for resistance or arguments yet hearing none. “Would you like to find out,” they tentatively broke the weight of the silence with half the question, allowing him to stop them before its completion, “to find out how the contract’s link between us will feel?”

“Are you suggesting you sleep with some pitiful debtor whilst I watch?” His tail twitched, but he didn’t move away from their touch.

“There needn’t be any other in the room.” Haarlep curled their arms around him now, pressing their chest to the warm of his back and resting their chin on his shoulder. It was both a reminder of their power, that they were still above him, but also of their willingness to compromise. Their partnership would come to a swift and unsuccessful end should he decide to end it. Or worse, he could still keep them, but deny them the promised reward should he succeed in his goals, or prevent them from being an effective spy and earn them his father’s ire instead. They shuddered. “So you are suggesting we lay together again, already?” The cambion leaned his head back to look at them directly, a frown creasing his brow. “How about tonight, I will allow you to suggest what you wish.” They held his gaze, seeing their own reflection in the dark centres of eyes that were as ever alive with infernal fire, even when his expression might have sought to extinguish it. “Do not get used to ordering me around, nor think of me as ceding my control to your whims. You may be where you wish, and tell me how you would like me to use your body whilst you grow accustomed to the bond that now binds us.”

—

Raphael hesitated. Had he not known better, he would’ve thought the offer born of consideration - but this was just another game to them, to their wicked green- Their eyes weren’t green. Their hair was not long and midnight-hued. Their body was no longer lithe and tan with softer curves. But their voice held the echo of allure in their cadence despite being carried in his own tone, and the cinnamon scent was still drifting into his senses when they were near… His body and mind briefly struggled and came to the same conclusion. “I agree to your terms.” --- --- ENDING NOTES --- ---

I'll admit some level of guilt for edging the reader as much as Haarlep is teasing Raphael here, but there feels like so much importance to these early interactions. Both have to find their place right as their lives have taken a sharp turn in ways neither could predict. There will likely be some more time skips as the story progresses, but at least in the beginning I'd like to give proper weight to these interactions. Besides, it's fascinating - even to me as I write it - to see how their early dynamics were formed.

Continue to the next chapter below~

#baldurs gate 3 #bg3 fanfiction #bg3 raphael #haarlep #the sc #the scent of cinnamon #bg3 #fanfic #bg3 prequel #Spotify

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oneefin · 2 months ago

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galactic puzzle hunt 2024 was amazing

our team (huh?) got 128th place with 360-ish (!!!) puzzles solved. in the end there were over 400 but it would've taken a lot more of our team to keep up with them

i'll keep this post relatively spoiler free - mainly wanted to write something because there's a looooot of puzzles here and i wanted to highlight the ones that really stood out to me, because really they were all really good but there were a few that struck me extra hard. even then, i can tell i'm going to run into tumblr's image limit with the number of puzzles i want to talk about, so this won't even be all of them

all of the puzzles that i will discuss here are available to solve at https://2024.galacticpuzzlehunt.com/ btw - and the puzzles that i will name are all pretty small and self-contained, so you could attempt them on their own without having to commit to a full hunt solve

anyway with that said, i'll split these into a few categories:

gimmicks i enjoyed a lot

get home!: i recognized what this was referencing very quickly and then confused the living daylights out of luny trying to explain it to him. the solution page for this puzzle is pretty s-tier

riddling: this was such a clever setup and i wish i thought of the answer sooner!

needle in a haystack: the gimmick of this puzzle should be pretty self-evident :)

i wrote a crossword clue like this but it wasn't nearly as long. i knew from that experience that i would have to actually parse all of it, so when i did i'm glad that i saw it the first time through

the hope pool: interesting mechanic...

what's this hercip?: there's a bit of hunt meta that makes this puzzle funny, but to team constellation prize: well played.

waiver and release of liability for trial by combat: niv got the aha here. impressive commitment to the bit from team "by occupying the leaderboard spot above or below this team, your team hereby agrees to enter trial by combat with the other team adjacent to this one. if we are in first place please disregard", and props for making the answer really cool out of something you couldn't directly control

angkor what: this puzzle speaks for itself really

stuff that's just so god damn elegant for no reason

towers ii: one of those puzzles where it feels like the answer was made for this idea! this came after a puzzle called "towers i", but you don't need context from that to solve this one.

generational gifts: this puzzle seemed pretty unassuming to me, but after finding the aha i thought it was clever!

unnamed star 22: the "22" was a different number for everyone, but the puzzle looked like the above - it's not hard, but i thought the idea was super cute

obligatory wordle puzzle: wordle puzzles are a drag sometimes, but this was such a nice idea and i love the simple aha in it and the way it's clued

morse code: the fact that this puzzle works at all is insane. mad props to the genius on galactic (presumably the author chris jones) who saw that this could be done

xxcxxxxxx: sneaky! "i'm thinking of a word" puzzles can be made arbitrarily hard, but this one is actually extremely gettable if you think of the right idea

countries (4): i didn't catch who on our team actually solved this, but i tried it and although i knew what it was going to be, i couldn't find it. knowing the answer, though, i do concede that it's clever and fitting

three crosses: i really liked this idea, and i love that none of the points on any of the three crosses are unused - very satisfying!

edge case: a wonderful, wonderful gimmicked mini sent in from the insane minds at ecs of r/picturegame. (i'm very looking forward to y'all's hunt next)

unnamed star 34: and this one from team not a hunter was clean and pretty as well!

oki! write centred letters, capeesh?? tnx: lmao so there's nothing particularly clever about this puzzle because they clearly cheated a lot in the title, but the moana screenshot makes it work anyway. thanks team shower pomelo 🍈

team-specific shenanigans

unicode puzzle: this gave me a huge "god damn it" moment when niv gave his guess for what this would be and i confirmed it in a unicode table.

our team submitted an amogus ("ඞ") for our first guess, followed by "i hope somebody at gph hq was mildly amused"

unnamed star 28: so for context, luny and i have a mutual friend who always claims as a bit (?) that the best three note melody is <the answer to this puzzle>, so in a stroke of extreme luck our initial guess based solely on the fact that there's three notes missing was exactly right! then we back-solved what was actually going on here.

unnamed star 40: our team is collectively ashamed that we didn't figure this out without a hint

short answer: musical intuition: this puzzle made the rounds in a music server i'm in that has nothing to do with puzzling! how it worked is you had to submit a long-form response that they then grade and hand back to you. i love the amount of nuance that this question has

our team scored 4/10 points, for the record

c/r/o/s/s/w/o/r/d: my teammates told me that this seems like something i would do. i agree

eth rodwhistm: nothing super crazy here, i'm just a bit peeved because i had the central aha for this, but i couldn't close out the solution because when i tried extracting it just wasn't working. then niv looked at it and noticed a miniscule detail that i had overlooked >:( dang it man

and if you look to the right...: the story here is that luny, our team's resident geoguessr expert, identified where this is, looked to the right, and saw an answer that fits the enumeration but is completely wrong. i have no idea if that was an intentional move or not lol but that gave me a window of time to zoom out a bit further and snipe the solve from them :) sorry luny

and finally, some stuff that was genuinely kinda hard

three-by-three: this was a meta puzzle for a group of puzzles all titled "five-by-five". i had a lot of fun solving the individual five-by-fives, and i think this meta tied it all together really well! if all of them were bundled into a single puzzle i could see it succeeding in a conventional format - but i liked this presentation all the same!

unnamed star 15: this minecraft puzzle was crazy, it had so many pieces to juggle and you had to know mechanics pretty well to get everything. we spent a buuuunch of time on this only to have it get backsolved later lol

the most ambitious crossover in the history of cheryl's birthday riddles: our entire team collectively and silently decided to nope out of this one lol - it combines hard "common knowledge" logic with media research, and none of us are super into both of those things

maybe i would have found it fun if i tried it though! it was just late in the hunt (ie after we finished it) and i didn't feel up for it

big branch: we had so much fun with this celestial puzzle, but it was hard! the mettle required to piece together each cell on the tree one by one, as well as the complexity of the extraction mechanics at the end, all felt like the sort of thing you'd see in a proper mit mystery hunt level puzzle. very cool

#puzzle #puzzle hunt #galactic puzzle hunt

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pauls1967moustache · 5 months ago

Note

Iasip thoughts? Thoughts on macdennis?

randomass ask for the sideblog but sure.

i like macdennis in theory but everyone on tumblr going johnlock mode over macdennis like two years ago was so fucking annoying. here's me in the iasip tumblr tags looking for gifs of jokes to reblog and all the crazy people are making it unusable. stop moaning about queerbaiting!! it's fine!! EYE think it's funny even!!!!

in general, i love the show although recent seasons aren't hitting like they used to. idk if that's just me or the show itself. last season was too short imo, and it felt like it got cut off just as it was hitting a really consistent stride? idk.

#asks

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davepaste · 1 year ago

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GazaFunds

Pfp done by @pimp-sempai

Updated 10/23/2024

I'm not on BlueSky, but you can interact with me through Fediverse bridges. Here's my bridged account and here's the bridge itself. You do need to follow both for us to see eachother.

Here's a direct link to my Fediverse page for those already on Mastodon or similar.

I've got a bunch of extra steam game keys. <-(link)

If you message/ask the name of game and I'll respond with steam key. No strings attached; You don't have to follow or know me. Use a throwaway sideblog if you must.

They're rotting away!! literally. several of them have become unredeemable due to age i think

btw

You can remove undesirable parts of Tumblr from the app on android (ads + more) using ReVanced, an app which is primarily known for patching ads out of YouTube

Revanced is no longer my recommendation for YouTube however. That belongs to GrayJay, which supports much more than just YouTube. Ad free, background playback, downloads, and more is available for supported services.

They also make nifty accessibility apps for voice input and auto captioning that runs locally on device. All features are free, but you should buy a license if you can. Futo is a good company.

They also just added Spotify support!!!!!

(Sorry if those read like ads im just passionate)

If I add a comment to a post instead of just tags you should assume it's accidental and please for the love of god tell me.

I'm willing to host project sites/do the technical work for mutuals. Understand this requires a level of trust. This ranges from galleries, blogs, forums, federated sites, etc. Constrained primarily by drive space. Reach out to me via tumblr or discord.

If you have your own domain you want to use that's awesome. Otherwise I could offer a free subdomain on one of my own domains;

skibiditoi.Lt (currently unused, soon to host a private Rabb.it Clone)

taffytavern.com (currently hosts a handful of things, including my own akkoma instance, fourm, and Minecraft servers— I can host those too*)

rakwai.com (mostly hosts my private stuff)

*reasonably sized Minecraft servers, playercount depending on mods & load. Nice gui for management.

The above mentioned forum and akkoma instance, are free to join for mutuals. Don't expect anything I run to be very interesting or busy.

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stevetown · 1 year ago

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On The New Tumblr Desktop Dash

I've been using the new Tumblr desktop dashboard for a few days now and I have some Thoughts that I thought would be useful to put out in to the wild. Most of the reaction I've seen has been...abnormally harsh about this UI update, so I think it would be interesting to actually go through the changes and point out what I like, what I don't, what I think could use some improvement, and maybe break down a little about why those Twitter comparisons are way off the mark.

More below the fold, but the tldr for me is - I think it's great! At the end of the day, I feel like I use the desktop version of Tumblr more and more since the change. Whereas before I used to just pick up my phone and refresh the app, now I get a hit of dopamine flipping over to the Tumblr tab when I need a work break.

The change is clean and logical, and as someone who came to Tumblr a year ago and still never quite grokked what all the icons at the top meant, having them spelled out is much nicer than guessing what they mean, even for someone who has become more familiar with the site. And to be clear, from what I can tell that's the goal of this change - to make it easier for newer people to use Tumblr and find their way around. Despite all the hate this change is getting, that is an unabashedly good thing.

The Left Nav

It's really, really clean. The old dash had a lot of unused space on the left, it makes sense to carve some of that out to have a menu that actually lays out what each icon means. The font size and style is comfortable without overcrowding. It just feels more...confident? Like these are the features Tumblr has. Use them! It's also just a more familiar web browser experience for anyone who has been using web apps since the dawn of email.

The badges also fit much nicer with the left nav. They don't float above an unclear icon, they're right next to what it says on the tin. You got 20 new posts to read, buddy. 5 new notifications. 1 anon ask. It's just better on my eyes.

I do understand the gut reaction that things are "too" cluttered. One of the first things I did was snooze Tumblr live and that helped me out a lot. Just removing all of the noise of live tags and loading-in thumbnails of people I'm not interested in watching went very far. It brought the post content further up on the screen.

A little before and after snoozing Live:

Explore

I didn't even know what Explore was used for before. It was a compass icon. I think I thought it was some kind of search? I can't remember if I ever clicked on it before. Explore is much more interesting to me. It makes me curious. For a site that struggles with getting new users to find new content, it's a beacon that says "Find some cool new stuff!"

My problem with Explore is that clicking on it...doesn't get me much. The landing page just takes me to a feed from @todayontumblr that almost never has any content that I'm interested in. The "For You" tab on my regular dash is where I go mining for new blogs, along with "Your Tags." If Staff finds this change leads to more Explore click-throughs, I'd love if the tab itself get some love and made it a hub for finding new content easier. Maybe mixing up a feed of any tags you're following, trending posts, and other algorithmically sorted goodies that I'll want to take off the shelf and put in my chronological dash. I want it to be a place with the goal of encouraging me to follow new blogs.

Live

The transition to the Live page doesn't feel good to me. You're taken to a totally different kind of page, and the UI jumps all the way to the left. It feels like you're going to a separate site. At least when you snooze Live it also removes the menu item. That's really nice! But I'll save Live thoughts for another day.

Activity/Messages/Inbox

I never knew how much I suspected these things were a bit redundant, but I'm glad now that they're separated and labeled correctly. I don't have to remember what the face icon/mail/lightning bolt all mean or why they're different. Things are much cleaner in that regard.

I don't really care for the popups when you click on them. Those do feel cluttered to me, like I'm going to lose sight of my dash, or the notifications. I don't have much UX advice here, other than to say I think I prefer how the Inbox is handled, where you're just taken to a full page view of the page. However maybe another solution would be how the Account and Settings icons are conducted...

Account/Settings

This is the section that sold me on the new dash. On the old dash, I found navigating the Account and Settings options...ephemeral. I was afraid I was going to lose my place if I didn't find the menu I needed. Here, having them slide out as a drawer, keeps me in place and lets me orient myself easier. It's made exploring settings overall frictionless. I've changed dash palettes like ten different times just because I could and it was easy to find. Maybe something similar for inbox/messages/activity would make the UI feel more consistent and less overcluttered-feeling?

I do notice that the Account dropdown adds a new scrollbar which makes things like the t logo and badges jump to the left. That can be a bit disorienting.

TumblrMart/Get a Domain

The Get a Domain menu item is fine, but TumblrMart feels like it needs some love. On a new refresh, clicking the icon loads for a total six seconds before the mart pops up. By this point, if I wasn't intentionally testing, I would have just moved on. Again, I also just don't like pop-ups like this. Feels loosey. Much prefer the full-spread domain page you get.

Create

This is maybe my least favorite change. Every time I switch to my Tumblr tab, I see it in the bottom left and think it's the "Where were we?" button. When I do want to create a post, it feels like I have to travel far to get to the button, and then I have to travel again when the dots come up to select what type of post I'm making.

I wonder if just tucking it at the bottom of the menu under "Get a domain" would be better? Or at the top of the menu? Not sure. I feel in my jellies there's a better spot for this one.

On Twitter

If I can address the most frequent criticism I see on this site, which is that @staff are trying hard to "ruin" Tumblr by "turning it into Twitter," I understand that gut reaction.

But I'd encourage folks to think about that for a minute. UIs change, and a left-aligned nav is extremely common for a reason. Since the dawn of email, menu navigation has been relegated to a left sidebar. Twitter is not "burning to the ground" because their nav bar was on the left. Having a left sidebar means literally nothing in the grand scheme of what makes a website what it is.

What, truly, has this nav update changed? It does not change the functionality of the site at its core at all. It doesn't change what you can post, how you can post, what content you find, reblogs, or tags. For a site that struggles with new users "getting" the site and finding their way around, this nav change makes it much easier to settle in with something a bit more ubiquitous to the modern browser-viewing experience.

Thus leading me to believe the only reason people hate on this change so vehemently is they don't want to see new users or any effort at all to attract them at all, and I think that's exclusionary crap. Knock it off.

Change is Scary!

That said, the change is scary! Having your muscle memory interrupted isn't fun and can take a while to get used to. Every change has a growing period. I get that. For me, I got over that period fairly fast, but I recognize this process is different for everyone, especially those who have been around here for a lot longer than I have.

The change is also open for valid criticism. There are usability and likely accessibility concerns for sure. Staff needs time to iterate, and they need to know what problems are actually worth fixing and addressing. "I hate it turn it back" doesn't help anyone - it doesn't help Staff, and it doesn't help new users who are trying find a new place on the internet to call home after *shakes fist at the rest of the internet.*

I really like this change as a starting point, and I can't wait to see it iterated on further.

And on a small end note, if you also have thoughts and opinions that you want to tell Staff, please, please, please remember there are other human beings on the other end of line.

#tumblr #dash #tumblr dashboard #dashboard #I get dispirited when I see prominent blogs reblogging metaphors about sandwich shops and Radio Shack.#They're not being made in good faith.

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