#westering home

[poem-today]

A poem by Bernard O'Donoghue

Westering Home

Though you'd be pressed to say exactly where It first sets in, driving west through Wales Things start to feel like Ireland. It can't be The chapels with their clear grey windows, Or the buzzards menacing the scooped valleys. In April, have the blurred blackthorn hedges Something to do with it? Or possibly The motorway, which seems to lose its nerve Mile by mile. The houses, up to a point, With their masoned gables, each upper window A raised eyebrow. More, though, than all of this, It's the architecture of the spirit; The old thin ache you thought that you'd forgotten More smoke, admittedly, than flame; Less tears than rain. And the whole business Neither here nor there, and therefore home.

Bernard O'Donoghue

Listen to Bernard O'Donoghue introduce and read his poem.

[jonsilverstone]

I keep making music instead of doing what I need to... This time it's originally a Scottish song, translated and arranged by Jan Laštovička for the Czech band Asonance, whose version I'm basically using for this cover. I do also have the original lyrics version, but I don't like the way I sang that one. :D

[bootleg-nessie]

Things that will happen in the future (based on my own experiences with time travel):

***FAQs at the end***

*All of these observations are copied directly from my notes in roughly the order I took them in

*Don’t ask about the interchanging use of past/present/future tense, you know how that stuff is with time travel

Women just started all growing three boobs instead of two. Scientists baffled

Genetically engineered catboys (no literally)

The great pyramid of Giza has been converted into a Bass Pro Shop

The entire state of Rhode Island was bought by some rich tech CEO who promptly dug a 500 foot wide trench around the entire state so that it could in fact be an island. It was soon converted into the world’s largest parking lot

Pollution has gotten so bad that fresh oxygen is now delivered straight to most homes via a subscription service

Basic necessities such as food, water, and housing are now provided for free by the government, but only for the top 1% of wealth holders

Insulin now costs twice as much as rent. “Get fucked,” say pharma companies

92.6% of new electronic appliances now have smartphone integration and require a monthly subscription to use

Most billionaires have real estate on earth’s moon

As an ongoing film experiment, Taika Waititi successfully convinced a Nebraska man that he’s been raptured and is now in heaven. He actually got Truman Show’d and now millions of viewers tune in every week to watch God (played by John DiMaggio) manipulate Robert into confronting his own views, battle cognitive dissonance, and face the realization that he might not have been as good of a person on Earth as he thought he was

Carrots have gone extinct, as have highland cows

Species of extinct animals and plants now are being posthumously renamed after the billionaires and elites most directly responsible for killing then off

Researchers discovered a sentient colony of fungus off the coast of Chile, it prefers to go by Fleebo and appears to have a incredibly complex intelligence far greater than any other observed organic being

Nobody knows where Ireland went. It literally just disappeared off the face of the earth one day and nobody bothered to question it. The story couldn’t compete in the news cycle with the recent news about a company in China that made the first real life pokemon. An entire civilization of people gone and I’m the only one who seems to remember it or even care

Fleebo and its offspring have annexed Madagascar and are threatening any retaliation with nuclear warfare and “making The Last of Us a reality.” Nobody knows if Fleebo actually has the capabilities to do this, but after the Lovecraft incident we’re all TOO goddam scared to fuck around and find out

Large snails have replaced cats and dogs as the most common household pet. Snail culture has largely taken over the world, especially Japan

The president of the United States is now decided with an oiled up twerking competition. Most people were hesitant at first but this has produced vastly more competent leaders so now everyone just kinda goes along with it

With the cost of living crisis only worsening with time, selling tattoo space on your body to advertisers has become common as people struggle to afford rent and pay their bills

North and South Korea have reunited into ��Korea 2.0”

Germany has split up into East and West Germany again

Belgium and France have been annexed by West Germany and renamed “Wester Germany” and “Westest Germany” respectively

The entirety of Florida is now underwater. Most of Kansas is too for some reason that scientists refuse to explain because they’ve “sworn an oath to the eldritch gods” and that “much worse things would happen” if they did

The melting ice caps in Antarctica unveiled a lost civilization of intelligent creatures descended from a species of lungfish, predating human civilization by millions of years. They planned on hibernating for another 10-15 million years to observe the course of evolution on Earth and are very very angry at humans for waking them up prematurely and ruining all of that with global warming

The politically correct term for lungfish people is “Dipnoid” but most people refer to them by a variety of slurs, such as “finwalker” and “kelp muncher” (not that they even eat kelp)

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has now increased to nearly half the size of what was formerly known as Canada and has been colonized entirely by pirates (the flag is actually pretty cool). The pirate nation has the 17th largest economy in the world and is projected to surpass the United States in GDP

Africa is about 2% smaller. Nobody knows why. Most people point to Fleebo, who denies having any involvement

All human-Dipnoid interaction was promptly banned by most world governments, except for the GPGPRP (Great Pacific Garbage Patch Republic of Pirates), whom the Dipnoids rely upon extensively for trade

Scientists have used DNA from fossils to recreate other species of humans. We now live alongside them like we did for thousands of years before everyone besides Homo sapiens went extinct. Racism is at an all time high

Class C and above robots are now legally recognized by most progressive countries as people

The United States government has been exposed for secretly funneling billions of dollars into the GPGPRP and using it to fund terrorist operations all over the world.

A new major religion revolving around Dave Grohl has skyrocketed in popularity. Grohilsm is now the world’s largest religion, second only to Fleeboism

Scientists discovered a new continent in the Pacific Ocean, and then promptly lost it again. Most people are convinced this was just an elaborate practical joke, but scientists “swear it definitely happened”

For a brief period of about 30 years, everything in George Orwell’s 1984 happened almost exactly as written in the book. Literally 1984

It was revealed that Jeff Epstein didn’t kill himself. He actually faked his death and spent the next few years in a drug-fueled episode of psychosis making sock puppets in a cave in Italy and then molesting said sock puppets until he died from a sock puppet related illness

Bigfoot was discovered off the coast of Georgia doing cocaine with a congregation of alligators. When questioned, he said he normally lives in Montana and was only there on vacation. He is now a celebrity, and has been featured in a number of tv shows and films, two of which he won an Oscar for. Last I checked, he was a washed up actor living in Hollywood with a reanimated Neanderthal woman

The GPGPRP raided most of England’s museums with the object of “doing exactly what they did for the last few centuries” England was understandably furious, but the rest of the world found it rather amusing

England declared war on the GPGPRP, which it promptly lost after hackers brought down the entire country’s military overnight. Much like in the 21st century, England is the world’s laughing stock

The entirety of Luxembourg relocated itself to the moon

Russia attempted to take over most of Eurasia. In retaliation to the full global effort to stop them, they launched nukes at the world’s 600 most populous cities outside of its current territory. Most of the warheads were stopped in time, but a few major metropolitan areas got hit pretty badly, including Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Chengdu, Mexico City, and Istanbul. Japan was understandably super pissed that Hiroshima and Nagasaki got nuked for a second time

In the wake of the nuclear holocaust, Canada assumed control over what was formerly Russia and assimilated many of its citizens and leaders into its own society and government. Under the new rule of formerly Russian leaders, Canada became a puppet state for the second coming of Russia. It annexed much of the United States, Mongolia, China, and a handful of other countries, becoming “the world’s first megacountry.” Crungolaska now controls a majority of the northern hemisphere

As part of a practical joke by Adam Sandler, Tom Hanks was actually marooned on a desert island like in Castaway. He lasted less than a week before he died. When I left this era of the future, Adam Sandler was serving a lifetime sentence in prison for murder

Fringe groups of crows with above-average intelligence have started popping up around the world. So far they have been observed forming small communities, crafting relatively complex tools, using rudimentary speech, performing rituals, and creating music

Aliens visited earth and had a formal meeting with many of our world leaders, but decided to leave us alone for a few thousand more years because humanity is “not yet mature enough to handle the responsibilities of interstellar travel.” They have incentivized us with a the blueprints for an Alcubierre Drive and a means to produce the exotic matter to fuel it once they deem us as being ready

The original colony of settlers on Mars has declared independence, officially becoming the first country not on Earth

We sent Tom Cruise back to space but this time we just left him there

The tether for the space elevator broke. The town known as Vatorville, famous for being the location of the takeoff point of the elevator shuttle on Earth, was completely decimated as tens of thousands of miles of steel cable came crashing back down. There were no survivors

Most people in first and second world countries have mandatory microchip implants that serve as a personal ID

Last Thursdayism has been largely denounced by quantum physicists. Current theories now revolve around “Next Thursdayism,” the belief that the entire universe was created in the future and that we all exist as a memory in the past

Synthetic organ farms for transplants and research have become a massive industry worth billions of dollars. However, there is still a huge black market for organically grown human organs, as they’re much cheaper to acquire and aren’t taxed at the exorbitant rates that lab-grown organs are

China dug a hole all the way to the center of the Earth. Turns out it’s hollow and there are people living inside. Who knew?

A university reconstructed the entire city of Rome as it was in its early days during the Roman Empire. It’s actually pretty historically accurate, except for the fact that there’s a lot less sex because it’s run by a bunch of sweaty history nerds

After Rome 2 resulted in the creation of a cult revolving around the Roman god of the dead that gained traction as a minor religion, Pluto was officially reinstated as a planet by NASA when cultists picketed their headquarters every day for nearly 3 years straight. “Fine, we’ll give these fucking virgins what they want so they’ll finally shut the hell up,” said NASA’s administrator in chief

In a display of the biotechnical prowess of Disney’s Imagineers, all the animatronics in Disney’s Hall of Presidents were replaced with clones of the originals, which went about exactly as well as you’d expect. After reports of the presidents hurling a series of racial slurs and other obscenities at the first black family to enter surfaced, the project was shut down almost immediately after it had opened. Minority admission to Magic Kingdom plummeted to 2.3% of its numbers from the previous year, making it the second whitest place on earth after a taylor swift concert

Plastic now makes up about 3% of every organism on earth by weight

Public officials are now required by law to take shrooms before running for office

Trees are considered a rare and highly sought after commodity, and are usually only owned by public institutions and the rich (the vast majority of oxygen farms use algae to produce oxygen)

FAQs:

FAQ: What time period(s) did you go to?

A: I have no fucking clue. The world stopped using the Gregorian calendar in 2063 after a gamma ray burst hit the sun. The GRB led to stellar ablation, which changed the length of a year on Earth. The sun would continue to lose mass at an accelerated rate for several more years, with the length of the year changing slightly from year to year. The world adopted a variety of different calendars which kept being updated frequently and were often super confusing and contradictory. I traveled to about a dozen different points in time, which based on my best estimates spanned within a few millennia of the current date.

FAQ: How did you obtain a time machine?

A: I think it was the 17th or 18th of June, 2055? That night, a large sci-fi looking box thingy roughly the size of a VW Bus appeared a few hundred yards away in the open field in front of my house. I tried to take a picture of the box, but for some reason the closer I got, the more the image on my camera started to become fuzzy, and by the time I got close enough to take a decent picture, the camera had stopped working altogether. I pulled open a door to reveal a corpse inside that was charred beyond recognition, who appeared to have suffocated and/or burned to death during a fire that damaged most of the interior. I also noticed a number of strange tumors and growths on the body. I pressed a random button on the remains of what I believed to be a control panel, expecting nothing to happen, but the door closed automatically and I suddenly lost consciousness. When I came to, I exited the box, expecting to still be in the field in front of my house, but instead found myself a ways outside of a small snowy village that based on my best estimates, was somewhere in northern Asia around 2-3 thousand years ago. The villagers started coming after me with spears, so I quickly ran back to the box and pressed another button, hoping it would return me to from whence I came. This time, the people I found (who were thankfully much nicer and spoke a dialect of English that I could mostly understand) told me that it was the year 506 of the PGRB-Δ4 calendar (the calendar that the United Territories was using at the time). I repeated this maybe a dozen more times trying to get home until I landed in 2023, which as far as I could tell, was the closest I had gotten back to my original time so far. It was at this point that I decided to stay and seek medical attention, as I was rather concerned about some nasty new growths on my arms and legs similar to that which I had seen on the corpse.

FAQ: Where is the time machine now?

A: No idea. It disappeared a few days after I landed in 2023. My best guess is that some poor sap found it and ended up sometime else.

(I never ask for likes/reblogs but I literally spent fucking WEEKS on this one so if you liked it pls show me some love <3)

[yaoireview]

review sockathan ! 👻👻👻

woah how'd you make that green

SOCKATHAN YAOI REVIEW

Disclaimer: This will contain spoilers (kind of) for Welcome to Hell 2 Part 1 and Welcome to Hell. You should probably go watch that. Its made by Erica Wester and its PRETTY cool.)

My Yaoi Entrepreneurs, I'll be blunt with you. I know we've ALL seen gay people, maybe in the streets, maybe at the park. You might even see one in your home now, so lets be honest with ourselves. Sock is DEFINITELY gay, bisexual at LEAST.

The OTHER one on the other hand.. its a little bit harder to say.. I'll probably find something though..

Lets make one thing clear, when I say Yaoi in this review. I don't mean ANYTHING inappropriate. Its just my special way of saying gay people.. I'm kinda magical in that sense.

Lets just get the first one done and over with a simple section I like to call:

EVIDENCE 1: SOCK IN GENERAL

okay so FIRST of all the FIRST time we see sock, they call Jonathan "hot stuff" while being in a fridge. I'm not sure about you but that's love if I ever saw it.

After that they introduce you to Sock killing his parents. One key point after another. If Sock being gay wasn't important, then WHY was it shown BEFORE telling us Sock's (other) main trait. Checkmate liberals.

Sock would then get the report from Mephistopheles, and you COULD say its just because the camera zoomed in, but its literally the most light ever seen in Sock's eyes.

And then Sock went on to ruin Jonathan's day, making him look crazy, and Jonathan SOMEHOW got blamed for knocking down that desk, I swear I think the teachers just hate him. I'm not sure about you but I certainly cant KNOCK over a desk thats right next to me.

He was WRITING too.. would a guilty man of desk flipping WRITE?? NO!!

And not to mention that Sock made Jonathan look DUMB in front of the faceless brothers which was probably the closest time that Sock did their job right.

Sock absolutely ruined it today.. but can you blame them? They're new to the job, give them some SLACK.

But the upcoming days, Sock was so whimsical.

Yeah SURE. Sock is still telling Jonathan to kill himself, but they just don't want to get fired!!

Not to mention the fact that they stared at Jonathan while they were taking a piss, but there's nothing odd about that.

And also near the end, Mephistopheles calls sock out on liking the guy, and Sock stutters. You just have to take my word for it.

SOCK IN GENERAL 2 [PART 1]

If you saw Welcome to Hell 2 [Part 1], you already know what I'm gonna comment about. Sock went on to call Jonathan's mother, hot. They then went on to say "Must be where you got it from, huh? You definitely got her butt at least."

When Jonathan goes on a walk and Sock follows them and says after Jonathan says he doesn't wanna be friends with them. (We'll get back to that)

"Oh wow, come to think of it, You don't really have ANYONE do YOU? What's that feel like? Knowing you're gonna die alone." to which Jonathan snaps back with "I dunno Sock, you tell me."

Now at first, this looks like a scene of ANTI SOCKATHAN propaganda, but think with me here, yaoiers. How would Jonathan know that Sock died alone??

I understand if he just guessed, since sock DOES look like someone who would die alone, or he just said whatever comeback that came to his head but if not, Sock ALREADY told Jonathan about their past life.

If what I KNOW is true, Sock VENTED to Jonathan about their life before they died in LESS than a week, since Sock just now sees Jonathan's mother in the first part, and due to a comment made by the creator.

Sock REALLY trusts this guy, maybe Mephistopheles didn't want to hear them vent, but maybe its JUST because Sock wanted Jonathan to do the same. but they probably didn't.

And then near the end, Sock says to Jonathan when he snatched his employee manual

"Jonathan, if something happens to you-"

Actually, I think this is pretty weak evidence but I thought I'd include it, since a teacher would say the same thing if a kindergartener was up on a high shelf.

That segment was PRETTY lengthy, but I PROMISE you, the others will be shorter, I just.. didn't expect there to be so much for Sock...

EVIDENCE 2: SOCK SUCKS AT THEIR JOB.

Jonathan was DEAD ON when they told Sock that they suck at their job. And quite honestly.. I could've done it better.. I could've got Jonathan to kill himself (theoretically) on the FIRST day, and if you wouldn't use my strategy, I promise you that there's probably several other you could use for the teenager that you want them to kill themselves at home.

STEP 1: GRAB A WEAPON

Since Sock is seen to be able to flip over a desk and they're able to HOLD Jonathan's journal (Shock or not), I should THEORITCALLY be able to grab a weapon, now for this strategy, I suggest you pick a nonlethal option, only to have a lethal option around, for this example, I will be using a sledgehammer.

After swinging that at the noggin, Jonathan would drop unconscious, probably with brain damage (that don't matter though)

STEP 2: POSSESS THE TEENAGER

Now it MAY not be like this in w2h, but Mephistopheles was able to possess Jonathan when he was DEAD (Probably), so It should hopefully work when they're out of consciousness.

STEP 3: KILL YOURSELF.

Alright now I KNOW that sounds bad.. but it wouldn't be MY hands to kill him. Grab the nearby lethal and SHOOT. THAT. TEENAGER!! Your boss may not agree with the logistics of this, but you get the job done.

This simulation was to PROVE that Sock atleast CARES a bit about Jonathan to want to get to know him. and to not kill him on the spot. Now if It was the other way around.. I'm not exactly sure..

EVIDENCE 3: JONATHAN KINDA HATES SOCK

(he looks like hes standing up to a school bully)

At the beginning of Welcome to Hell, hes clearly annoyed and STILL is annoyed by some of Sock's actions by the end, but he atleast isn't mad enough to NOT act like he could put up with Sock. I think the closest thing to gayness from Jonathan was when he moved the backpack for Sock to sit down.

In Welcome to Hell 2, he IS PISSED at this guy, and honestly, if Sock kept on knocking down those desks, i CANT blame him..

Maybe Sock kinda ruined the vibe when they expressed their love for Jonathan's mother, its hard to say really..

Jonathan makes this very clear that he DOESN'T even wanna be Sock's friend, I mean HAVE YOU HEARD THE THEME SONG?

SUMMARY:

Sock wasn't able to win Jonathan's heart, making him tonight's biggest loser.

YAOI: 6.5/10

[gaywarcriminals]

Shen Jiu is an Abusive Mother

Yeah this is my Mother's Day post <3 This is just for funsies, and I by no mean think its the best lens through which to see SJ and LBH's relationship— its just a comparison I find interesting, and I was feeling festive 🥰.

To start, none of this is to say that SJ is a feminine character. I don't believe that, and I think that he's often misinterpreted as more feminine by western fans due to differences in gender norms/gender roles (which is a Whole Other Coversation). Maternal/mommy are being used loosely here.

Secondly, I don't think we'd even be looking at SJ through a maternal framework if the man who took over his body wasn't Shen "I would never abort you" Yuan. SJ is mostly pulled into this because he exist in juxtaposition to Mr. Freud's Wet Dream (go read tshirt's SVSSS Freud zine btw, several points here are inspired by it).

The fact remains, though, that even without Mr. Wifebeam Supreme playing the part, there is something distinctly parental about the role of Shizun. Shizuns cannot be compared to teachers or tutors, who the child either go to visit durning the day, or who come to the child's home when it's time for lessons. Even with the respect due to them, a teacher remains distinct from a child's home and family. They do not overly incorporate themselves into these things that define a child's life. 

Shizuns are a little different. There is, ofc, lots of variation within the xianxia and wuxia genres, but in most of the stories I've encountered— and more importantly for our purposes, in SVSSS itself— unless the child’s family home is their sect, when a child is accepted as a disciple, they're expected to join their shizun/shifu either in the master's home/sect, or in free-roaming travel. In both cases, the shizun's home becomes the disciple's home, and their shizun becomes the main adult responsible for the child. The master will take over in guiding the child's development from here, shaping them by their hand. Is that not a parent? I think some such imprinting is inevitable, even among more well-adjusted disciples. Do you know who's not well-adjusted?

Luo Binghe enters the sect soon after the death of his mother. There is a mommy shaped hole in his heart. Though absolutely nothing could replace her, he's a sad, lost, and angry child, coming to a mountain of immortal masters, desperately hoping for one of them to take him as their own. As much as he's motivated by fulfilling his mother's wishes, isn't he also looking for a place to belong in this world, now that the hut that he once called home is ruined by his mother's absence? Doesn't he hope, if only for a short time, that someone else will see fit to care for him? As much as Luo Binghe is already hurt and hardened in many ways, he's still just a child; he's not yet blackened beyond dreaming of someone to love him.

Shen Jiu is very much Not That. Shen Jiu is not a merely a lofty immortal ambivalent to his disciple’s emotional needs. No, Shen Jiu hates Luo Binghe enough to unfairly punish and ostracize him, and even puts him in deadly harm's way twice before just outright trying to kill him (the manual, the demon invasion, the abyss). Going by the framework of SQQ as a parental figure, he's undeniably an abusive one. In what way could this be said to be maternal, though? In my eyes, it comes down to motive.

Shen Jiu has a lot of motivations for abusing Binghe, mostly coming down to the fact that's he's more trauma response than man at this point, but one of these is more explicitly outlined in the text than the others:

Shen Qingqiu saw three things on the original flavor’s face: envy, envy, and more envy. Envy that Luo Binghe had a mother who was “the kindest in all the world to him,” envy of Luo Binghe’s talent, envy that Luo Binghe would enter Cang Qiong Mountain Sect at the best age for cultivating. He was indeed the kind of person to brim with envy and resentment toward a young child.

Envy and jealously, at least in the western canon, are usually associated with female characters (and though it’s outside the scope of this post to dissect, let it not go unremarked that this trope is deeply misogynistic in origin). They are almost always envious of a younger, more beautiful, and/or more skillful woman, who are posed at the moral superior to the jealous woman. That's right, Shen Jiu is an evil stepmother! He tolerates having no superior or equal on his peak, needing his power and superiority to go unquestioned. Outside of his abuse of Binghe, and the references early in the novel to SJ chasing away talented disciples, I think this is also shown by how the male disciple SJ tolerates the most is Ming Fan, who has only middling talent and is obsequious before his shifu, never challenging SJ in any way, and never threatening to surpass him.

But of course, SJ’s relationship to Binghe is the most obvious example. Shen Jiu sees himself in Luo Binghe (derogatory). He sees Luo Binghe as a symbol of everything he never had. Luo Binghe is a creature like himself that, for no rhythm or reason, was given so much more than SJ. It is also notable that, at least as far as Shen Qingqiu, as an outside observer, can tell, the thing which first sparked SJ's ire was the mention of LBH's mother. Never mind that LBH says in the same breath that she's dead; the fact that when she lived, she was a kind and loving mother to LBH is enough for SJ to envy him, and as he finds more to envy, it comes justification to hate the boy, and to punish him for daring to have someone who died loving him. 

(Side note: after consulting the qijiu server about the implications of SJ’s reaction, my reading is that SJ never knew his mother. The only alternative is that she was a bad mother, but I don't think he would find such unilateral comfort in women if that was the case. It's made me wonder if SJ ever believed that having a mother, a protector, would have spared him his fate. But alas, this post is not about SJ's mommy issues. Another day!)

Even outside the realm of cartoonish villains, I think this particular brand of envy is, in some ways, associate with motherhood. There's a natural tendency in parents to see themselves in their children, but as mothers are almost always the ones more involved in raising children and more expected to foster emotional connections with their children, I think this is both more common and more encouraged in mothers than fathers. Mothers are expected to be in charge of and over-involved in most aspects of a child's life, and in turn their lives are expected to revolve around their children, blurring the boarder between the self and the child. The child becomes symbolic of the mother's past self and what she can no longer be. The expectations on the child are the expectations of the mother's idealized self, and whether the child meets them or not, the mother will resent them for it, for daring to fail when they are her, or daring to succeed when they are not.

That's not to say SJ ever had such deep identification with LBH— he certainly never cared for LBH, and if anything, he's more like a mother who resents her child being born (as though he did not pick this boy out of the dirt himself)— but the hatred for a child under his care being like him but supposedly better off feels evocative of this characteristically maternal form of envy.

And finally, there is the fruit of SJ's actions, and the most explicitly/textually maternal aspect of SJ's abuse: it created Luo Bingge.

“Has Shidi ever considered that, if you hadn’t treated Luo Binghe like that in the beginning, everything that unfolded today never would have happened?”

He had singlehandedly created the Luo Binghe of today,

Luo Bingge, the all-powerful demon, the ruler of the three realms, and Shen Jiu's own personal torturer, would never have existed without SJ's intervention. Luo Bingge is shaped in Shen Jiu's image, and everything Shen Jiu ever did to destroy the boy only twisted him to further fit this mold. Luo Bingge's fate, the shape of his very soul, have been defined by SJ. And what is more maternal than giving someone their life defining trauma? 

[gribbo]

Wyll's new companions come from near and far: the spires of Waterdeep, the shires of Reaching, the ever-wheeling stars. And, he thinks with a pang, a dearer place.

"It's been years since I last saw the city," he says—and if he leaves out a pertinent detail, no one's parasite squirms in protest. "How fares the Gate?"

"The city's a rathole," says Astarion, making a fanged face. "Public health ordinances never pass. I should know."

"It's the same as ever," says Shadowheart, elusive. "I don't miss the smell."

Wyll misses the smell. Balduran's bones, he misses the smell—sausage pasties sizzling in the Wide, patriars' wafting perfume, the salt and sweat and tar on the westering wind. The green, tender bouquet of Portyr's hothouse garden. The grease that Father rubbed into his coat of mail. The stinking streets of Heapside that he'd played tag in as a boy, splashing through puddles beyond description, arriving home filthy to the knees and full of thorns from climbing the trellis. It's no wonder, after everything the Pride of the Gate got up to, that his father believed he could do worse mischief still.

(But his father, the blacksmith's son, had always scolded him with a smile—)

Poor, abandoned pup, croons a voice like poisoned treacle in his ear. No one else looks up. On his neck wafts a breath of sulfurous perfume. No use scratching at that door, you know.

He tries not to talk to invisible fiends in others' hearing. It's simple enough to slip from their company, in the bustle of the tieflings' shanty-camp, and walk—then, when he's out of sight, stalk—behind an outcrop of greening stone. "I'm not a dog."

Of course you aren't. The treacle all but oozes down his neck. You're a Blade—my Blade, the voice adds, sticky-smug, in case you've forgotten.

"How could I?" The old anger rises stiffly, like some beast frail with age; he stays its snarling with the old patience. When he taps the sending-stone, his whole face smarts. "Even when I sleep, this bauble rolls around in my head like a—"

How am I to know when you're asleep? whines the voice, feigning petulance. Then it sweetens again. I only peek through your poor eye every now and then—to make sure that my valiant Wyll is well. Two spectral fingers walk up his arm to pinch his cheek. Hard. You know I worry so.

Either she's in a good mood, or a very bad one. The difference is not always clear. Wyll touches his sword-hilt, for all the good it will do him. "Tell me what you want."

I want the head of Karlach Demonsbane, the voice snaps like molasses in the pan. Flame-roasted, à la carte. And it's been so very long since I ordered. The wait times, these days! Tut-tut.

Four long, lacquered nails trace the scars that mar his cheek. He hadn't flinched at seventeen; he doesn't flinch now. "No one says tut-tut, Mizora."

He's never seen a cambion lose her composure—but no cambion, he thinks, has ever seen him lose his. He watches his shadow stretch across the grass—

An insubstantial chin rests on his pauldron. From his shadow, like an omen or a growth, unfolds the vast shadow of a wing.

I wouldn't tarry long, if I were you, murmurs the devil on his shoulder. He doesn't flinch. Her nails, long enough to reach out of Baator, prick his throat like points of fire. Remember what you signed.

* * *

They rest that night in the tieflings' camp, in cloaks and wagon-beds, full of Okta's gruel. Gale grumbles and rubs his knee. Lae'zel, with brusque affection, tends her sword. The refugees murmur and cast bright, shy looks at the Blade of Frontiers.

The Demonsbane, he thinks, is a danger to them, too. He flicks a fleck of dust from his rapier's tip.

"Is it sharp?" asks a small voice at his shoulder.

He smiles. "As a dragon's fang."

Lae'zel raises a scarred eyebrow, but says nothing. Wyll settles the sword in his lap as the boy—one of the orphan-thieves, thin as a pauper, his horns buried in a mop of curls—steals around him to peek at his face.

"Mol, um—she says you'll help us," the child mumbles, abashed, toeing a line in the dirt. His eyes flick to his feet, then up again. "You and your friends. Will you, really?"

Exile looks at exile.

"I am your Blade," says Wyll, and touches a solemn fist to his heart.

[beba-780]

 Wester Ninjago (2)

Among the group of rebels, only Kai, Zane and Nya can understand, speak and decipher native symbols and scripts. That's because Kai and Nya's mother was a pure-blood native and Zane come from a native village.

After the battle at Samukai Fortress, Lloyd managed to recover his father Garmadon's revolver, since then he has kept the weapon close to him as a last reminder of his father.

When Lloyd meets Kai, he tries to get closer to him, but Kai pushes him away under any circumstances. Naturally everyone would see Lloyd chasing Kai like some kind of chick chasing his mother hen.

When Kai and Nya are together, naturally everyone would see how Nya would try to hit Kai, and Kai would gladly accept the hit from her younger sister.

Kai always put Lloyd behind him when they were riding a horse, but when the two get closer, Kai puts Lloyd in front of him when they are riding Flame.

Lou is the typical overprotective father, seeing Cole come home beaten and hurt scares him a lot. But he becomes more scared when he finds out that Lloyd is accompanying Kai.

Sometimes Kai lends his hat to Lloyd.

When Lloyd learns to hunt with Kai, he is initially afraid of taking the life of an innocent animal, but Kai calms him down by telling him that he doesn't have to kill all the animals in the forest if he doesn't want to, after all, it's the decision of he.

Kai had to muster enough patience to be able to get along with Lloyd when he took him fishing for the first time.

Lloyd loves reading a lot, adventure books were always his favorite.

Wu didn't insist Nya make her act like a lady, he knows how scary she can be, something he reminds her of Maya.

Sometimes Kai fears Nya and Skylor more than the dangers he faces during his travels.

Kai and Nya have that sibling instinct that warns them of nearby dangers. Whether one is in danger or not. That includes finishing each other's sentences, or saying the same words at the same time.

Kai knows what it's like to fear a child with a slingshot, because he's already experienced it the hard way.

Kai likes to drink a lot of whiskey.

When they are in bars, Kai always asks the bartender to give Lloyd an apple or grape juice, the only non-alcoholic drink a minor can drink.

Kai always calls Lloyd "midget", which annoys him a lot but the boy learns to appreciate the nickname over time.

[krasytoonz]

Hello ,love your artwork! Soo about the AI chat with king Wally, I introduced myself as Queen Silviana Silver from Sil-wester (silvi is not my name btw) we became frends and he showed me a secret room full of treasures and I'm not sure if it's cannon or not.

Also I love the simplicity of your art, it's so goofy

If the Castle (in this case Royal AU Home) likes you enough, he could tell you Secrets that Nobody Knows.

Just a reminder! I didn’t make any AI chats of any characters of my AU! So if you have a bug/mistake to report, go to @thecluelessdoctor (And as much as they are In Character, whatever happened in royal AI chatbots made by @thecluelessdoctor is not supposed to be canon, coincidentally or not)

[betterskatethannever]

2024 best of

best parts

Joseph Campos - Shocking Moments Caught on Video / QuickStrike / Shot on Location

Tiago Lemos - City Soldier / Sure Shot / Intervals

Rowan Davis - Bin Kicker / Reckon That's Fine

Nick Matthews - QuickStrike / Turbo Island / Cross Contamination / Antihero x Nike

Ben Lawrie - HODDLE NO PLACE LIKE HOME / Real Street 2024 / Internet Birthday ep 2

Jamie Foy - BHADW2 / Honeymoon / Intervals / Charred Remains

Martino Cattaneo - Where is Tom?

Brian O'Dwyer - BHADW2 / EVERGREEN

Ville Wester - Nike

Oski Rozenberg - Red Shark

Shin Sanbongi - EVERYTHING IS NORMAL

Daan Van Der Linden - Turbo Island / Cross Contamination / QuickStrike / Nike x Antihero

Didrik Galasso - QuickStrike / Uneven / Ace / DIDRIKO

Gabriel Summers - Zero No White Flag

Nikolai Piombo - adidas XP

Antonio Durao - QuickStrike / OD

Eddie Cernicky - EVERGREEN

Tanner Burzinski - THE PROFESSIONAL

Lazer Crawford - Joslin & Lazer

Julius Rohrberg - DANCER

Fran Molina JACKER - RUSH

best full-lengths

Nike SB - QuickStrike

New Balance Numeric - Intervals

Antihero - Turbo Island / Cross Contamination x Thrasher / x Nike

GLORY: The Legend of Dime

Toy Machine - REAL LIFE SUCKS

VANS EU - Where is Tom?

BAKER HAS A DEATHWISH 2

Polar - I Don't Even Know How to F***ing Airwalk

Converse CONS - EVERGREEN

Erased - GLOW

Primitive - DAYDREAM

Dickies - Honeymoon

JACKER - RUSH

Polar - EVERYTHING IS NORMAL

Traffic - It's Completely Fine

best independents

Austin Bristow - Portiions

Paul Young - Down By Law

Ben Chadourne - I THINK ONE MORE MAYBE

Tor Strom - Hygge Abroad

Fritte Soderstrom - Jante 9:19 / Jante 8:33

Davonte Jolly - NECESSARY EVIL 003

Pedro Orsi - TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR FISHEYE

HITTOPP - "I Survived 500 Days Filming The Worst Skate Video Ever"

Grey Area - Lack of Coolness

Tomas Morrison - JUICE

best transition

Archer Braun - Doom Sayers

Kieran Woolley - OJ best of

Jesse Lindloff - PROJs

Adam Hopkins - Bacon guest board

Hugo Montezuma - Blood Wizard / Between Worlds

Elliot Sloan - Monster

best promo/squad/medium-length/tour

Internet Birthday ep 2 Ishod, Rowan, Brass & Ben / ep 3 Dunedin NZ

GX1000 - Your Favorite Things / Yabai / Japan 2024

ASICS - Week in Wooville / NEXT VIBRANT SCREENTEST / ASICSeuroHD (quadrennium) / Jenkem Asics in NYC

Atlantic Drift - Vienna to Budapest

Helas - ONE MORE MIXTAPE

PLAYER - UNLOCK THE GAME

Tyshawn SOTY trip

Limo - 8 / MONTREAL / 50 Flower

HUF Japan Tour Meltdown

Pocket - HEIMSPIEL tour 2024 / Southbound / OKINAWA

Fodas - Santa Cruz EU in Lisbon

SK8 Skates - BRAZYLAND

youtube playlists: best of 2024 (100) great vids 2024 (557)

[nickandcharlie135]

My idea for a (unnecessary) sequel to Blink. I wrote this at 3am as I couldn’t sleep. 😅

Blink 2: Electric Boogaloo (not final title 🤣)

Cold open: Sally Sparrow walking in town with 14/15 year old daughter is approached by an elderly woman who says “it’s not your fault” and “I don’t blame you” before giving a look to her daughter and walking off. Daughter brushes it off but Sally knows better than that. Sallys phone makes a noise - it’s a proximity alert that someone is approaching Wester Drumlins! She quickly runs leaving her daughter behind who tells her to “stop being paranoid”. Sally reaches Wester Drumlins but its too late - construction crew has already demolished the house and removed the 4 Weeping Angels from the basement! No longer looking at each other, they are free to move and as Sally gets one last look at them, a construction worker walks in front of her, obscuring her view and one of the Angels looks at her smiling before they all vanish! Sally is left there terrified of what’s to come…

Dr Who intro

… One Year Later

Sally and her daughter’s relationship has deteriorated as Sally has become even more paranoid that the Angels will return! Daughter now lives with Dad who is now also separated from Sally.

Alone, Sally has spent the last year preparing for the Angels return (similar to Halloween film).

Story continues as a psychological paranoia esk with people questioning Sallys sanity as she thinks she keeps seeing the Angels out of the corner of her eye - she is as they are stalking her.

One day, daughter is walking home from school and as she turns to take her usual shortcut through a graveyard, she is stalked by an Angel. She knows about them but never really believed her Mum until now when she blinks and it moves. Frightened she starts to run until she trips, turns around and the Angel is right next to her, screams and cuts to black.

Sally receives a call from ex saying daughter hasn’t returned home. Sally knows daughter’s route home from school so meets with ex at the graveyard to find her school bag on the floor. In the distance they both see a smiling Weeping Angel before it vanishes in the fog - the Angels have their daughter!

Unable to go to the police as they wouldn’t believe them, Sally believes they would take daughter to the ruins of Wester Drumlins where this all started years ago. At midnight she receives a call from daughter but instead of her it’s the voicemail lady speaking (the Angels are communicating using her voice) letting her know when to meet and to come alone.

Before leaving, Sally watches the old footage of the Doctor wishing he was here to help. Unknowingly she wishes so hard that a message travels to the Doctor’s psychic paper!

As Sally approaches the ruins of Wester Drumlins, the Doctor is there waiting - she doesn’t recognise him at first but after psychically connecting with her she sees all his faces since their last encounter.

Happy ending - They manage to defeat the Angels and rescue her daughter and the Doctor leaves.

But who was the elderly woman at the beginning?

Sad ending - They manage to defeat the Angels and rescue her daughter but just as they’re about to leave, one Angel manages to touch the daughter and sent her back in time. Shocking both Sally and The Doctor who gets a flashback to Amy/Rorys exit!

Sally takes a sledgehammer and destroys the remaining weak Angel leaving the Doctor to collect the remains.

Sally begs the Doctor to fix this, that he can fix this can’t he? Angrily saying he should fix this before leaving. The Doctor looks up to the camera looking angry and tears in his eyes and says “I will” before cutting to black.

The episode ends with Sally sitting alone in the graveyard when the same elderly woman sits next to her. She confesses that she is her daughter now all grown up. Sally breaks down knowing that she has missed so much of her daughter’s life and the episode ends with the daughter telling Sally what she has spent her life doing.

The following episode is the Doctor looking for the origins of the Weeping Angels as he plans to stop them from ever coming to be - if it’s at all possible.

Connection to Timelords and the Division. The early days of the Universe. The Doctor at his most angry and determined. No fear of what the Angels can do.

Episode ends with him managing to stop the Angels from existing and him returning to Earth to find Sally walking in town with her daughter all happy.

However time has changed and there will be consequences for the Doctor and the universe.

Also possible that Amy/Rory are now alive in the present?

Thoughts? 🤔

[alishaaxo]

The Green Queen And A Greener Future

Chapter 5 Excerpt

Alicent sat down, stewing in anger in her chambers, as her maids fretted about, worried about their beloved Queen.

Viserys upon arriving home to Kingslanding, had said absolutely nothing regarding Aegon’s rightful passage to heirdom, just boiling in his rage toward Rhaenyra.

While Alicent declared her intentions to gain numerous nobles to join her entourage to him, King Viserys mindlessly agreed, his mind choosing to focus on arrogant Rhaenyra’s actions rather than the politicking needed for the Realm, or any bonding with Aegon, other than attempting to feed him wine before the maids prevented so, and showcase him off to nobles.

Visery could, indeed, stay a hypocritical coward.

Rhaenyra was still heir.

How infuriating it was for Alicent, to watch that hubristic brat walk around arrogantly, as if unaware of the birthright she stole from her brother, Aegon the rightful heir to the Iron Throne.

Luckily her father had arrived, shooing away Alicent’s entourage of ladies and maids with a firm smugness in his steps as he stood forward to confront his daughter.

“Did you enjoy the hunt, Your Grace?”

“Well enough.” The Queen retorted, reluctant to speak, after the noteworthy strides taken for Aegon’s cause, which ultimately failed as Viserys kept Rhaenyra as heir.

“How fared my grandson?”

“The ladies Lannister and Baratheon were quite taken with him.”

“As they should.” Otto spoke smugly, intent on uplifting Aegon’s reputation within the realm and glad of this success within the noble ladies social circle.

Continuing on, Alicent’s father spoke further, “He’s the future of the realm.”

Alicent scoffs, interrupting Otto’s tirade, “If only his father could see that. He’s too focused on his arrogant brat of a daughter. When he has a perfectly fit heir right here!”

Her Hightower father looks on at her with a gleeful shock plastered on his face. His daughter has realised the truth, no longer clinging to the curtails of her once-beloved friend’s past affection and finally understood the depths of the situation: that her selfish childhood companion is unfit for the crown and has hubristically stolen the birthright of her son Aegon, and doesn’t even care for the position.

With a rare showcase of emotion, Otto pressed his hand on Alicent’s shoulder, love in his gaze. His dearest daughter understands now; he just isn’t some overreaching ambitious man, but more than that.

A loving father.

While Alicent resented her father for clinging her to the man who became a neglectful rotting corpse, she couldn’t ever deny that he brought her immense power.

Power, she never wanted.

All Alicent ever wanted was to live a comfortable life with a handsome courageous knight and have a peaceful existence. Yet after living her previous life, she had to forsake those girlhood wishes, all for the children she loved dearly, yet pressured with expectations and duty. Just like her father.

As a woman of a mature mind, Alicent understood her father’s wishes for her. Who wouldn’t want their daughter to be Queen of Westeros?

She did the same to Helaena. Yet now she understands. They were both girls forced into positions they never wanted. While Alicent grew to become a woman suited for her title, cunning and political. Helaena remained the whimsical yet reserved darling she always was.

She cannot fix her own life, as the time she returned, Viserys’ want to marry her was already implanted within his mind, and she felt an obligation to bring her children back to life, or else this god-given blessing would be useless. But she can fix her daughters, and any other maidens she meets.

The power Otto had implanted onto his Hightower Queen was vital for her and for that she was thankful.

With the position he afforded her, alongside the Seven’s favour, Alicent could save the realm from the ruinous actions of the conceited Targaryens.

These Valyrian supremacists who flaunt their arrogance and bask in the glory of Westeros, while demeaning the importance of the true Westerosi men and women, who sustain and build on the realm, unlike them: Rhaenyra and Daemon. Two Valyrian-obsessed leeches who reep the benefits from Westeros while demeaning every aspect of the Realm.

Otto was glad, his daughter was shaping up to be a vital figure of Westeros, “How pleasing. You’ve changed Alicent, you now understand that Rhaenyra has stolen your sons right as heir.”

“I may have loved her before. But the hypocrisy she and Viserys spew is torturous! They were perfectly fine with Aemma Arryn’s sons or lack thereof.” She snarked, snidely bringing up the Arryn women’s misfortune in childbirth and fertility. Due to her inner resentment for the innocent Queen that has haunted her life, yet Alicent knows from the true depths of her soul that poor Aemma Arryn was another innocent girl ruined by Viserys’ ignorant actions.

“But they disregard Aegon? What right do they have to pick and choose which son of the King can be heir?” Alicent continues, waves of fury flushing through her words, unravelling her anger with the one person who could understand: her father.

“Targaryen arrogance my darling. They spread their racist rhetoric that they’re better than all of Westeros, when it is us so-called simpletons, who uphold the law and truly rule the realm.”

Otto continues, displeased over the disastrous monarch he serves, reminiscing on the past royals, “Prince Baelon and the Old King were great, respected men, Alicent.” His mouth twistens, turning spiteful and bitter, “Yet their descendants spit on the hard work of their ancestors!”

They both quieten themselves for a while, shock at their outward blast of emotion.

This loud eruption of lingering animosity was unlike their usual selves, hiding it all for the sake of the Realm.

Never showing their hatred, yet together, the father and daughter could expose their true emotions to each other.

Alicent then softly shatters this silence with a vow, “Not all their descendants, father. I will never let my children be alike to Rhaenyra and Daemon. Their arrogant stature, abandoning duties and demeaning the people of Westeros!”

“I know the truth now.” The Hightower woman speaks, no longer the naive girl wishing to reconcile with her old companion who would ruin her children’s lives. Becoming a crazed, conceited harlot, indulgent and ruinous for the Realm.

“Im not a little girl anymore. How could I stay friends with the arrogant princess stealing my son’s birthright?” She retorts.

“Exactly.”

“This is why you must guide Viserys to reason.”

“I’ve tried. He clings on to his guilt regarding Aemma Arryn, forgetting that the true reason he named Rhaenyra heir wasn’t to placate her but to prevent Daemon from reaching the throne.”

“Sooner or later, he will surely see.”

“I feared I was too harsh on you, my daughter.” He speaks, continuing this rare look into his mind. Yet instead of anger towards Targaryens, he’s illustrating the love hidden within his overreaching actions. “Your marriage to Viserys was monumental for our household,” The Hand speaks aloud, believing in a need to regain the political standing his house deserves, as the heirs to a kingly magical dynasty far greater than a slave-owning incestous lineage. “Yet I couldn’t help but think that I had pushed you too far.”

He continues further with this heartfelt tirade, apologetic in his tone, ”Wanting the best for my daughter but destroying her in the process.”

“But now I see you for who you are, and I believe you have the drive to win.” Otto thus concluding his resentful-turned-remorseful rant with a declaration, illustrating his trust in Alicent.

The Hightower Queen couldn’t help but tear up.

She’d proven herself to her father, and just as he sees her, she finally sees him for who he is: more than the father who forced her into an unwanted duty, but a complex man, indeed driven by a greed ever so strong, but a man with love in his heart.

He was not the monster she once thought he was.

The man may be ambitious but Alicent now truly knows he loves her and their family.

[theaidedecamp]

Christmas at sea - The Longest Johns (based on a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson)

When working on a naval/sailing simulation it's helpful to have some musical inspiration to have the proper mood. Perfect for the Christmas time is this song by the Longest Johns, based on a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. Very interesting description of the sailing maneuvers and how sailors would feel in such a dangerous situation

Christmas at Sea

The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand; The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand; The wind was a nor'-wester, blowing squally off the sea; And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.

They heard the suff a-roaring before the break of day; But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay. We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout, And we gave her the maintops'l, and stood by to go about.

All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North; All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth; All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread, For very life and nature we tacked from head to head.

We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roared; But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard. So's we saw the cliff and houses and the breakers running high, And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye.

The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam; The good red fires were burning bright in every longshore home; The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out; And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.

The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer; For it's just that I should tell you how (of all days in the year) This day of our adversity was blessèd Christmas morn, And the house above the coastguard's was the house where I was born.

O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there, My mother's silver spectacles, my father's silver hair; And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves, Go dancing round the china plates that stand upon the shelves.

And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me, Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea; And O the wicked fool I seemed, in every kind of way, To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessèd Christmas Day.

They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall. "All hands to loose topgallant sails," I heard the captain call. "By the Lord, she'll never stand it," our first mate, Jackson, cried. . . . ."It's the one way or the other, Mr. Jackson," he replied.

She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good, And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood; As the winter's day was ending, in the entry of the night, We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light.

And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me, As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea; But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold, Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old.

Robert Louis Stevenson

[lovememoreplease]

The monster's gone He's on the run And your daddy's here~

☆Cw- non, short, maybe spoilers to boothill backstory, how the hell i write wester accent? huuuh

☆.。.:・°☆.。.:・°☆.。.:・°☆.。.:・°☆

it was a sunny day... middle of summer. the sun as bright as never before making those green trees throw a nice chill shadow on the ground. a little girl sitting on the grass in the cool shades of trees while playing with her little toys. her chubby tiny fingers toying with small wooden horses and other figurines. "ah, pumpkin. there you are" said male voice as he approche the little girl. "i was lookin' for ya on the whole farm" boothill chuckled as he ruffled his daughter hair. "dont run away again, kay?" he asked as the kid just looked at him and nod grinning. "daddy!" she said as she throw her hands in the air in happines. her little grin brighter than todays sun. it was more than enough to brighten her father face as well. he walked up to her picking her up holding her close. "youre playin' with yer' toys again, eh?" boothill pointed out as she nod. "yes! with the horsie you made for me!" she said excited about the toys her dad carved for her. there were little farm animals, furnitures and tea cups along small plates.

small wind passing through them as the day comes to an end. both of them now playing together under the tree. "awh... the day is ending..? why..." she said with her small face showing sadness at the upcoming night and bedtime. "ya' see sweetie. somthin' need to end for somthin' new to show. the day may end but the mornin' will come righ' away" the male laughed. "no need to be cryin'.." he said ruffling little girls hair. "youre destroying my piggitails daddy!" she yelled before pouting and shealding her small pontytails with her small hand from her father warth. "oh cmon' i can make ya new ones" he sighed and brushed his hand giving up. "kay, time to go back home" he said standing up. she just pout more but stand up anyway. she moved her legs little bit more trying to walk away to make boothill clean her toys for her. she wanted to also show that shes a big girl who can walk on her own! a small boss of the farm. boothill just looked at her and laughed. "dont fall, little one" he looked at her making her way back home slowly. he just shook his head laughing before collecting her toys and following her. "lets see if granpa made us some yummy dinner" he said scooping her with his arm and walking them back home.

[eldritch-spouse]

Everybody's talking about being Pinter's assistant, but I ADORE the idea of Pinter falling for an awkward, frumpy, glasses wearing girl from his company's IT department.

The thing is, becoming his assistant is part of Pinter's strategy.

You can reach that point through various means, such as: Debt; Desperately needing a job; Being a rival he brought to financial ruin; Destroying something valuable of his or otherwise making a massive mistake that would warrant being fired- Or, certainly, being ""promoted"" from a simple IT worker.

It all goes the same way, really. Pinter needs you close to him (especially in the work environment) to better keep you dependant on him.

Glasses? "Frumpy"? As if a slime monster has the same beauty standard of conventional modern wester societies- Pinter thinks you're fucking adorable, and he rests his case. A shy or generally complacent attitude is ideal for a predator the likes of him, Pinter can just about drag you into anything with his boisterous and mildly intimidating demeanor.

The worst part is that your coworkers won't help at all. They want Pinter happy and distracted, because it means he's not going to be hovering around them all day and taking out frustrations- This means many of them will softly encourage you to become bossman's assistant, or even outright let him court you. Others might be less friendly about it and threaten you into dating Pinter so they can keep their peaceful work environment and get him off their hairs. These are all behaviors Pinter is aware of and doesn't punish.

You know it's all over when your boss presents you with a massive pearl. "No" isn't an option. Say goodbye to your IT job, say goodbye to your home, say goodbye to your autonomy- You're Pinter's wifey now.

Have you met his son yet?

[ellorypurebloodculture]

TT: I wanted to be gentle waves (I didn't know you are the sea)

Hope you're having a lovely day, Elle 💕

I am, thank you, hakoirii! I hope that you are as well!

Marcus Flint/Morag MacDougal

Heir Marcus Flint flinches internally when he discovers that Miss Morag MacDougal has Selkie ancestry. His estate is the Earldom of the Westering Woods. The chances that she will accept his suit when it means a home far from the sea are poor indeed.