#which is SO MANY for how specific that is

[lost-technology]

You know what? I don't go to these specific headcanons first, necessarily, especially since I have only a passing knowledge of MLP, but, DAMMIT! It works! It totally works! I just had a flash to some of my very favorite characters and... all of them.... ALL of them! Like, dammit, Vash the Stampede loves Rainbow Dash, doesn't he? And Hordak probably likes Twilight Sparkle. His darling science-wife, Entrapta, doesn't actually favor a pony, but Chaos! Libra from Fire Emblem is a Fluttershy-enjoyer. WHY do I know this when I've seen all of TWO episodes of that show?

the first thing you should headcanon a character as is transgender. the second thing is that you should make them like mlp. the third thing you should do is think really hard about who their favorite pony would be. this is vital to understanding their personality

[monstersholygrail]

Home Workouts

Half-orc bf x fem!reader— groping, delicious sloppy sex, riding that dick, and some niiice after care

You honestly didn’t know what life would be like living with your half-Orc, half-Giant, boyfriend. The two of you have been together for so long but never shared your space for more than a week long vacation or a weekend sleepover at each other’s houses.

Of course, every part of his house was a little too big for you given his tall stature. But ever since the very first time you’ve slept over at his place he’s had an abundance of step stools and other little tools to help you move around the place with ease.

It’s been an adjustment but he’s done everything he can to make it an easy one for you.

There are many things you love about living your boyfriend but your favorite one is by easily by far watching him workout in his home gym. He has it all set up in the garage so it’s not exactly in the way of anything in the house. But accessible enough that even you can hear him in there if you’re downstairs.

At the first sign of his loud grunting your face brightens into an excited smile. You practically throw yourself off the couch and scramble your way through the house. Racing toward the doorway to the garage which always just so happens to be left open. Almost as if a certain someone wants you to hear him, wants you to watch him.

When you reach the doorway he’s right where you expect him to be, at the bench press machine looking way too good to handle. Your knees go weak at the sight of him and you have to lean against the door just to keep upright.

His large muscles ripple under the weight he’s pressing and saliva pools in your mouth, freaking drooling for your sexy hunk of a boyfriend. He grunts softly each time he lifts the weight and it does something to your insides. Making you hot and tingly all over, arousal gushing out of your pussy and soaking your panties.

You watch him work through his sets, your body growing hotter with each new machine he uses. You know he knows you’re there. And you know that he’s making all his work outs look even sexier because he’s trying to get you all hot and bothered. You hate how much it’s working. You’re practically itching to jump his bones.

It’s useless to try and fight it. The more he works out the more his light green skin glistens with sweat. You imagine yourself falling to your knees to lap it up, to kiss down his dark happy trail, and inhale deeply at that scent that’s specifically his and his alone. Fuck, you wanna devour him and he knows it.

He’s purposefully taunting you, egging you on, wanting to make a mess of you before he even gets his hands on your burning needy skin. You may be growing hazy with lust but you don’t miss the sly glances he keeps throwing your way or that stupidly smug smirk he’s been sporting since he was curling those weights. It shouldn’t make you hornier than you already are but it is.

Just as you think your pussy is throbbing so bad you’re about to cum untouched, he finally turns toward you with a raised brow and a classic ‘come hither’ look.

“Come over here and help me with these hip thrusts, pretty,” he says and you know it’s not a question. It’s a demand. Letting you know he’s been wanting you just as badly as you want him.

Walking closer to him in the gym you can see just how true that is. The thick outline of his cock pushing against the fabric of his sweats and just begging to be released. Even seeing it twitch once you finally reach him.

“I said c’mere,” he growls, claws gripping at your plush waist and dragging you against his sweaty stomach with a light smack.

The tension between the two of you is boiling as he swoops down and captures your lips in a ravenous kiss. You both groan as your lips meet in a sloppy needy dance, stumbling back until he’s lying down on the mat covered floor with you straddling his waist.

You press against him as hard as you can, hips already rocking, needing to grind against any part of him you can. He moans into the kiss, tongue dipping into your mouth just to get another taste of you. Claws run over your skin, making you shiver with anticipation as they dip lower and lower. Slowly pushing off all your clothes as they go.

“Look at you, humping me like a bitch in heat,” your bf rasps against your lips, pushing off your panties with a single claw and leaving your delicious curves open to him.

You gasp as your dripping folds are exposed to the cool air. He pushes you back down on top of him, his hands guiding you, rolling his abs all over your clit and causing your head to spin. He’s just so much bigger than you that he can easily jerk you around like his own personal fuck doll. Your toes curl at how damn good it feels and your jaw drops in a silent moan.

“Don’t act like you didn’t do this on purpose,” you accuse.

He chuckles, watching you get wrecked before he’s had a chance to really touch you. You don’t even realize when his hands drift off of you, too caught up in the pleasure rolling through your clit. He makes quick work of skillfully pulling his sweats down just enough to release his cock. It springs out of its confines, hitting your back with a fat smack.

“I can’t help it that you’re such a fuckin’ slut for me…” he purrs and you prove him right as you start grinding your ass along his length.

But it seems like it’s just enough to snap him into action. A feral glint passes over his eyes and his hands are on you in the next second. He pushes his massive pulsing tip through your folds, letting your slick coat his entire monster cock till he’s dripping with you.

He can’t seem to look away from it. Mesmerized by the image of your arousal soaking him. He doesn’t even care he just seems to want more and more of you. Low groans leaving him every time you flutter around his twitching head and make a bigger mess.

“God, you’re so wet f’me. So needy for my cock, you should be ashamed,” he scolds playfully, his smirk widening at your gasp.

You know you should actually scold him and you totally plan on it to. Mouth gaping at him like you’re really trying. But he just doesn’t give you the chance. On the next roll of his hips he catches his tip against your entrance, silencing you instantly.

After one more gloating chuckle your bf pushes you down and you go sinking onto his cock, letting out a pretty mewl as he stretches you to your limits. His cock splitting you open till you can’t even think. You’re a puddle by the time he bottoms out, your core squeezing him so tight like you never want him to leave.

“Baby— nngh— yes. Your pussy is being so good, sucking my cock in like she’s missed it. Show me how much, ride me hard,” he demands again and you’re in no state of mind to refuse.

The two of you work in total sync, starting at a frantic pace as you ride his cock like it’s been days since you’ve last got a taste instead of the hours it’s been. Meanwhile your boyfriend stays true to his workout, his hips thrusting out and plunging into your depths.

Your bf is entranced by the sight of you, completely lost in your pleasure. Head rolling back, your fucking perfect tits jiggling with the force of each thrust. His eyes trail down to where your bodies meet and his cock instantly jolts at the obscene way your fat cunt stretches around his giant cock. It’s a miracle you’re able to take him.

As your sweet pussy throbs and flutters around his girth he groans, his claws tightening around the soft rolls of your hips. His hips then move on their own, picking up pace and ramming his hard pulsing dick as deep inside your core as he can go, swirling you around his length and rearranging your guts.

Your loud shrieks of pleasure fuel him to fuck up into even harder, barely giving you a moment to adjust to each new sensation. You try and lift up to take a moment to breathe but he growls and slams you back down on his shaft, making you scream.

“Ah ah ah, don’t run from my cock. You’ve been droolin’ for it so be the good slut I know you are and take it.”

His hips are a blur as they pound into your messy cunt. Obscene noises fill the room with every snap of his hips, the loud squelch of your bodies meeting only sends you closer to your peak. It only takes one brush of his finger over your clit and your orgasm crashes into you.

Your bf groans at the feeling of you clamping down on his cock and suddenly he’s shooting spurt after spurt of hot cum straight into your needy womb. Grinding his length as deep inside you he works you through it till you both sag on the mats in total exhaustion.

His hands caress your back, smirking as aftershocks wrack through your spent form. He grabs handfuls of you, loving how you fill out his big hands and he drags you closer to him.

“What a workout, huh?” He asks with a big sigh, feeling very pleased with himself for getting you so fucked out.

The room stills and your bf fails to stifle his laughter, which only grows as you soon join him. Your happy and sated laughter rings between you both and at this moment you swear there’s nothing better than living with your bf.

[morrigan-is-a-real-girl]

I love how explicitly American this ideal is. This ideal that the Government isn't meant to spend money or what have you.

I love that the United States, specifically, as stated by Reagan, and so so many so called Evangelical Christian Pastors, is seen as the Shining City on the Hill. This ideal Christian Utopia, that lives by Jess' ideals, which is you know are making sure that we make kids pay for food at the mandatory place that we make them attend from the time they're 5-18, where we would rather an abandoned house in our neighborhood than homeless people as our neighbors.

The US has become such a joke.

It's so weird to me when people are like 'but that will cost the government money!' So what? They're the government, they're supposed to be spending money. What, you want them to take your tax dollars and then do nothing with it? Lock it all up in a big government vault and just look at it? Why are you so scared of giving a third grader lunch or a homeless person a house.

[sxhyunstoes]

"Kiss me, Hate me"

Triple S Sohyun x Male reader WC: 4.3k

A/n: Its a bit all over the place but I have been praticing and trying to find a format that works for me. Anyways enjoy!!

==============================================

Second term is finally over and I get to do what  I want for two weeks. I never thought that the term would be over, with how many tasks and activities our professors gave us, it seemed unending. There is also the fact that my academic life has been a series of unfortunate events ever since ‘she’ came around. 

Park Sohyun, the princess of the university. Pretty, popular, rich and worst of all, an insufferable woman who made my academic life the most miserable thing that I had ever experienced. Everyone wanted to be in her circle, everyone (not me) wanted to be her friend. 

Guys line up at her to bring her gifts almost every week just to get her attention. But she seems disinterested with them. But not me, she picked me over every one, but not in the good kind. Ever since she came to the school and became my blockmate, she decided to make my life miserable. Everything she did was seemingly designed to torment me and only me. 

She would push me around literally every time she saw me at the hallways of the university, or trip me over when I walked to class. Then there's this one time where she randomly smacked my face while I was studying in my seat. She would also make me do her homeworks and projects and if I didn’t do it she would tell me that I would suffer the consequences of being disobedient towards her. But today as the term ends, all of that will come to a halt for the time being, I get to rest my aching body from the schoolworks and bullying I receive from Sohyun. 

I am currently seated in front of my computer, playing games that I hadn’t had a chance to touch ever since the term started, trying to catch up. Then my phone suddenly rang. It was Xinyu, a part of Sohyun’s circle who I became friends with when we got partnered up for a school project. She gave me an invite to go to her birthday party that also served as a term-ender party, and said ‘everyone will come so you should too’. Everyone meant everyone so it’s not far off that Sohyun will definitely attend which made me not wanna go, but on the other hand I didn’t wanna disappoint Xinyu since it is her birthday that she invited me on. So I swallowed my fears and got ready to go to the party.

After some time, I got ready and hopped in my car to head to the mall first and got Xinyu a gift that she once told me she liked in a passing conversation. She said that she had liked perfumes of a specific brand and she is trying to collect them, so I got to the boutique of the said brand and bought a bottle of a perfume that had a hefty price tag that came with it. I got it wrapped and finally headed my way towards the party. 

The venue was no joke, it was a villa that had a overlooking view of the beach and I’m guessing that Xinyu’s family owned it. I could see the strobing lights from where I’m currently situated. I went inside the gates of the villa, and found myself an area where I could park the car. I finally got out of the car and went towards the entrance and saw that there was a man who had a checklist of the names who were invited to the party. When I got to the entrance the man asked for my name but luckily enough Xinyu walked by and saw me.

“Y/n! Oh my god, I’m glad you could make it!” said Xinyu as she reached for my hand around the guard’s body. 

“Yeah, I wouldn’t miss this for anything!” as I held her hand back to signify that we know each other.

Xinyu then whispered something to the guard and the man let me in the house without checking my name on the list. She then hugged me and welcomed me to the party. While initiated with the hug I wished her a happy birthday and then gave her the gift I had prepared for her.

“Oh my god, Y/n! You shouldn’t have!” as Xinyu grabbed the gift. She then opened it in front of me and the gleam in her eyes as she saw what my present was told me that she liked the gift I gave her.

“Oh my, thank you so much Y/n!” She then initiated another hug that was quicker than the first one.

“I had just run out of this one, you saved me the inconvenience of going to the store!” she continued.

“Well, I’m glad you liked it and I’m that I could be of service!” I answered. 

She then excused herself and had to go and welcome other people to the party, I let her be and then she went away not without telling me to enjoy the party.

So I did, I explored the villa and met some of the people whom I haven’t had the chance to interact with when we’re in school. There’s this girl Giselle, who had very striking red hair that greatly compliments her beauty. She told me that she just transferred to the university due to her parents moving to the country for business, when I asked her from where she was from, she told me that she was from Japan, which struck me a surprise because I was originally from Japan as well, we then code switched to Japanese much to everyone listening to our conversation’s chagrin, and we easily became friends. 

After a lengthy conversation with Giselle about our lives, I excused myself to go to the kitchen and get myself a drink. While getting a drink and some snacks, a familiar voice came from behind me that made my shoulders tense up.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

The voice cut through the party chatter, instantly recognizable even before I turned around. Sohyun stood a few feet away, arms crossed, her expression unreadable in the dim lighting.

I took a steadying breath before answering. "Xinyu invited me," I said, keeping my voice even despite the way my pulse jumped.

Sohyun's eyebrows lifted slightly. "Did she now?" There was that familiar edge to her voice, though quieter than usual. "Guess she's feeling generous tonight."

My fingers tightened around my cup, but I forced myself to relax. "Yeah, guess so," I said with a shrug. I hoped it looked more casual than it felt. "Have a good time, Sohyun."

I turned to walk away before she could respond, weaving through the crowd toward where some classmates were talking. The music and laughter helped drown out the tension still coiled in my shoulders, and for a while, I almost forgot about the encounter.

But when I glanced back across the room later, I caught Sohyun watching me with that same inscrutable look. She quickly turned away when she noticed me looking, leaving me to wonder what was going through her head.

At first, I thought ignoring her would work - that if I didn't react, she'd eventually lose interest. But Sohyun had other plans. Like a shadow I couldn't shake, she inserted herself into every conversation, every group I tried to join. The worst part? She made it look effortless. With her natural charm and social grace, she'd take over the discussion within seconds, leaving me standing there like an awkward afterthought.

Then came the interruptions. The subtle digs. The way she'd casually drop "loser" into conversation like it was my actual name, flashing that razor-sharp smile as strangers chuckled with uncertainty. Each time, I'd feel my face grow hot, my words dying in my throat as I mumbled excuses and retreated to another corner of the party.

This cruel dance continued all night - her pursuing, me retreating - until something inside me snapped. There's a strange clarity that comes when you hit your breaking point. All the embarrassment, the frustration, the swallowed comebacks crystallized into one undeniable truth: tonight, Sohyun had gone too far.

It was when I was talking to our senior, Yooyeon noona. 

It was quite tame at first, it was just her interrupting our conversations with her being loud. She kept laughing brazenly near me and she kept calling for my attention repeatedly. Then it escalated to her being quite touchy towards me. She kept touching my face, squeezing my cheeks with a single hand, and she kept exploring my shoulder with her hands. She kept shaking me, completely interrupting Yooyeon noona and I’s conversation. 

So I excused myself to Yooyeon noona and grabbed Sohyun by her arms and went towards a quiet area deep inside the villa to confront her.

“What the hell is your problem?!” My voice ripped through the air, raw with anger.

Sohyun just kept giggling, that infuriating, mocking sound scraping against my nerves. “Oh, come on. Don’t be so dramatic.”

“You think this is funny?” My hands clenched at my sides. “I haven’t had a single real conversation since you started this bullshit. Do you get off on ruining things for me?”

She tilted her head, a smirk playing on her lips. “Why would anyone waste time talking to a loser like you?”

“And besides,” she added, flicking her hair over her shoulder, “it’s not like you’ve got anything interesting to say anyway.”

Something inside me snapped.

“You know why nobody actually likes you, Sohyun?” The words tore out of me, sharp and venomous. “Everyone tolerates you because of Xinyu. That’s it. If she dropped you tomorrow, you’d be nothing. Just some bitter, lonely girl nobody wants around.”

Her smirk faltered, but I wasn’t done.

“What, did your parents not love you enough? Is that why you’re like this? Desperate for attention, even if it’s negative?”

Her face changed—the arrogance crumbling into something hollow, wounded. But my anger was a wildfire now, unstoppable.

“Or maybe you were always second best. Maybe everything you do is just you screaming, ‘Look at me! Pick me!’—”

“Shut up.” Her voice was low, dangerous. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”

“Or what?” I stepped closer, my pulse roaring in my ears. “You’ll punch me again? Go ahead. It’s not like you know how to deal with anything except violence and mmm—”

Her hands shot out, gripping my collar pulling me towards her—and then her lips crashed into mine.

I tried to push her off of me, but her grip was too tight—her fingers dug into the collar of my shirt like she was afraid I’d vanish if she let go. At first, I resisted, my hands pressing against her waist in protest, but the desperation in her kiss was overwhelming. The way her lips moved against mine, trembling and insistent, made my resolve crumble. Before I knew it, I was kissing her back, the tension between us igniting into something feverish and uncontrollable. The kiss was already heating up, but it became even more intense when she suddenly shoved me against the hallway wall, her body pressing into mine as if trying to erase any space left between us.

Then I noticed it—the dampness on both of our faces. At first, I thought it was sweat from the heat of the moment, but when I pulled back slightly, I saw the tears streaking her cheeks. She was crying, her breath hitching between kisses, yet she refused to break contact, her lips still clinging to mine as if they were her only anchor. The salt of her tears mixed with the taste of her mouth, and my chest ached with the weight of whatever pain she couldn’t voice. Why was she crying? Why did this kiss feel like a plea? The hallway around us blurred, the only thing real being the warmth of her body and the quiet, shuddering sobs she couldn’t hold back.

She then let go of our lips but she kept crying. 

“I’m so sorry, Y/n… I’m so sorry.”

Her voice was barely a whisper, broken and small as she kept her head bowed. Tears darkened the fabric of my shirt where they fell. I froze for a moment—unsure how to respond—before instinct took over. Gently, I pulled her against me, one hand cradling the back of her head while the other pressed protectively against her shoulder blades. She shuddered, her apologies muffled against my chest, her fingers clutching fistfuls of my sleeves like I might vanish if she let go.

Time blurred. The party’s noise faded into a distant hum, leaving only the sound of her slowing breaths and the occasional hiccup of fading sobs. When she finally lifted her head, I turned away, my jaw tight—but her fingers, warm and trembling, brushed my cheek and guided my gaze back to hers.

“I mean it,” she said, her eyes red-rimmed but steady. “I’m sorry for everything. The bullying. The teasing. The way I humiliated you in front of everyone—” Her voice cracked. “—even the kiss. That wasn’t fair.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but she pressed a finger to my lips. “Please, let me finish?”

I nodded, and her hand slid back to cup my face, thumb tracing the curve of my cheekbone as if memorizing it.

“I didn’t know how to talk to you,” she admitted. “With others, I could fake it—laugh, flirt, play the part. But you? You were kind to me from the start, even when I didn’t deserve it. It terrified me.” A faint, self-deprecating smile flickered across her lips. “So I teased you. Pushed you away. Because if I could make you hate me, then I wouldn’t have to face how much I—” She swallowed. “—how much I liked you. And the more I felt it, the worse I acted.”

My breath caught. She liked me? The confession hit like a punch to the ribs, leaving me lightheaded.

“But why not just talk to me?” I asked, voice rougher than I intended. “Why push me away if you wanted me close?”

Her thumb stilled. “Because you were right earlier,” she whispered. “About… all of it. My family. The attention. The way I—” She exhaled sharply, as if the words burned. “I didn’t know how to ask for what I needed. So I took it instead.”

Her words hung between us, raw and vulnerable. I couldn’t meet her gaze—not when my own guilt churned inside me like a living thing.

She’d liked me all along.

Sohyun, perceptive as ever, gently squeezed my hand. “Hey,” she murmured, her thumb brushing over my knuckles. “Don’t look like that. I’m the one who should be apologizing. I earned every bit of your anger tonight.” Her smile was small but genuine, the kind that crinkled the corners of her eyes.

A quiet settled over us, thick but not uncomfortable. The distant pulse of music and laughter from the party felt worlds away. I exhaled slowly, my breath ruffling her bangs.

“Sohyun… this is a lot to process,” I admitted. “It’s not every day your—” I bit back tormentor just in time, “—the person who’s been on your case for months confesses they like you. But I will give you an answer. Just… give me some time?”

Her entire face lit up—eyes sparkling, lips parting in disbelief. The anxious tension in her shoulders melted away, leaving behind a hopeful, almost giddy energy I’d never seen from her before. In that moment, with her guard down and her heart in her eyes, I finally saw her. Really saw her.

“Yes! God, yes—take all the time you need!” She released me abruptly, as if remembering herself, and took two steps back. The sudden space between us felt charged, electric. Then, inexplicably, we both laughed—a soft, disbelieving sound that dissolved the last of the night’s bitterness.

“We should probably get back before Xinyu looks for us,” I said, nodding toward the crowded living room.

Sohyun grinned—a full, unrestrained smile that transformed her face—and fell into step beside me. But just before we reached the others, she caught my wrist and spun me toward her.

“Y/n,” she said, voice dropping to a whisper. “Can I kiss you again?”

My eyebrows shot up. This girl…

But the teasing retort died on my tongue when I saw her expression—hopeful but uncertain, as if bracing for rejection. So instead, I huffed a laugh and leaned in.

Her answering smile could’ve powered the entire city. Then her hands were in my hair, pulling me down, and her lips met mine—softer this time, sweeter, but no less electric. When we parted, she lingered close enough that our noses brushed.

“For luck,” she whispered, then darted off toward her friends, leaving me standing there, heart pounding, as the party’s noise rushed back in.

It has been a while since the party and Sohyun’s confession and it has been eating at my mind. I had never expected for Sohyun to actually like me and her previous actions towards me didn’t help at all, and now I can’t get her off my mind, the way her lips felt on mine, the softness she hasn’t shown me from the beginning, now lingers on my face and my skin. It’s like she is still holding me and being vulnerable again and I can’t do anything about it. 

Now, the break is over and we’re back in school. Everyone who I met at the party became somewhat friendly and shared greetings when I made my way to the room assigned to me. When I got into the room, I was surprised to see Xinyu as a classmate this term, so I sat next to her and we talked about the vacation and the party. She then said something that caught me off guard. “So, I heard from the grapevine after the party that something happened between you and Sohyun. Mind expanding my knowledge about it?” My shoulders tensed, and when I looked at her, her eyes were showing curiosity, so I carefully asked questions as to what she knew.

“What have you heard about?” I carefully asked Xinyu. 

“Well, someone told me that Sohyun kept pestering you and then you walked off somewhere, taking her with you. That’s all I know.” Xinyu replied.

I took a deep breath and contemplated if I should tell her everything that happened after the confrontation, but after some thinking and since we were still the only people in the room. I decided to tell her some things not all but from what I think would satisfy her.. From everything that I told Sohyun and the confession that she had liked me for quite a while, and the kiss that happened between us. 

Xinyu started to squeal and hit my arms because of what she had just heard. She kept laughing and squealing and I can’t help but feel embarrassed. But then the door suddenly opened and a familiar voice called out to Xinyu. A voice I became quite fond of, Sohyun, who had walked in on the door.

“Hey guys! Oh hi Xinyu!” Sohyun voiced out and it seemed like she hadn't recognized me yet because I was facing Xinyu. But when I turned around, her shoulder tensed up and her face turned red as soon as she saw me. 

“H-hi Y/n.” greeted Sohyun.

A big smile was on my face as soon as I saw her. Not moments later, Xinyu decided to tease the both of us 

“Hey Sohyun! How’s your break? I heard it was quite eventful.” her smile sinister, while wiggling her eyebrows towards the both of us.

Sohyun turned even redder than she already is and it seemed like she had caught on quite quickly. She rushed towards me and she hit my arms but with less force than she used to do.

“YOU. TOLD. HER. WHAT. HAP—PENED?!!” her hits matching every syllable that came out of her. I laughed at her antics but caught her arms and held onto it. “Well, I figured that you’re her friend and it happened in her house, I thought she should know.” I told Sohyun while giving her a smile. 

She put her bag on the back of the chair in front of her and sat down on the vacant seat next to me, pouting while crossing her arms, acting like she hated the both of us. Nothing much happened after that, it was just Xinyu’s continuous teasing until the class filled up with other students and the professor started her lecture. During the lecture, while I was taking notes, a hand suddenly reached for my free hand, I looked into it and it was Sohyun, sneakily trying and failing to hold my hand, so I instead reached for hers and held it discreetly. Hiding it for the meantime. I thought we were sneaky but when I was trying to fix my hair, I saw Xinyu, grinning from ear to ear, teasing us, but Sohyun and I just let it happen and continued on listening to our professor while our hands joined.

After the school day, Sohyun asked me to join her to walk to our dorms. I agreed and we both said goodbye to Xinyu as her chaperone was already waiting for her outside. While on the way to the dorms, I had thought about ‘updating’ our ‘relationship status’, but I guess that the thought was also occupying Sohyun’s mind because she had beat me to opening up the topic.

“You know Y/n, it’s been a while since we last had a conversation with just the two of us. The last one was at–”

“Xinyu’s party!”

“--Xinyu’s party.”

We both looked at each other and laughed at what just happened.

“So I was wondering–” she continued.

“--if you already had your answer?” 

Silence had filled both of us as we continued to walk towards our dorms. She walked behind me the entire time, maybe in anticipation of my answer. I already had an answer, and I do like her as well. After she had been vulnerable with me, I immediately understood where the bullying came from. She hadn’t learned to express herself, and what she did was her way of communicating that she wanted people’s attention. Her past actions, though hurtful, now made sense—they were cries for connection, masked in defiance and aggression. It was as if a puzzle piece had clicked into place, revealing a picture of loneliness I hadn’t seen before.

When we finally got to the dorms, I walked her to her room, the quiet between us heavy with unspoken words. The moment I looked towards her, I could see that her eyes were filled with curiosity, anxiety, and love—emotions so raw and honest that they solidified the answer I had for her. My chest tightened with a mix of tenderness and resolve. I knew then that I wanted to be someone who could help her find better ways to be seen, to reassure her that she didn’t have to push people away to keep them close. The hallway light flickered above us, casting fleeting shadows, but the certainty in my heart remained steady.

“S-Sohyun?”

The name left my lips like a fragile breath, barely audible over the quiet hum of the evening. She turned, her dark eyes meeting mine—patient, curious, but with a flicker of something deeper. Anticipation? Fear?

“Hmm?”

I swallowed hard. The words had been circling my mind for days, clawing at my ribs, demanding release. Now, standing before her, they threatened to choke me.

“I… I have an answer for you.” My voice was steadier than I expected. “And it’s been living inside me for a while now.”

A beat of silence. The air between us grew heavy.

“At first,” I continued, watching her fingers twitch at her sides, “all I could think about was the past. The things you did. The hurt.”

Her breath hitched. The light in her eyes dimmed, like a candle flickering against the wind. She looked down, bracing herself.

“But then I realized something.” I stepped closer, my pulse roaring in my ears. “Maybe I don’t have to just remember the pain. Maybe… I can help you rewrite it.”

Her head snapped up. “W-What?”

“We can figure this out. Together.”

For a heartbeat, she didn’t move. Then—

A gasp. A tremble. Her lips parted, but no sound came out. Instead, tears welled, spilling over in glistening streaks.

“You—you mean—?” Her voice was a shattered whisper.

I smiled, soft but sure. “Yeah. I like you too, Sohyun.”

A sob broke free. She crumpled forward, her forehead pressing against my chest as her body shook. Instinctively, my arms wrapped around her, holding her together as she fell apart. Her tears burned through my shirt, searing into my skin. And then—I felt it. The weight of her regret, her relief, her hope. It bled into me, and suddenly, my own vision blurred.

When she finally pulled back, her face was flushed, her lashes wet. But she was smiling. A real, trembling, radiant smile.

Then—

Her hands gripped my collar. She yanked me down.

Our lips crashed together, fierce and desperate. I froze—just for a second—before melting into her, kissing her back with all the words I couldn’t say.

When we broke apart, she was panting, her forehead resting against mine. “Thank you,” she whispered, voice raw. “I swear—I’ll be better. For you.”

The conviction in her words sent a shiver down my spine.

I chuckled, brushing a stray tear from her cheek. “I know.”

She sniffled, then abruptly smacked my chest. “You—you made me cry, you idiot.”

I laughed, but before I could retort, she was dragging me toward her dorm, her grip ironclad.

“Wait, Sohyun—?”

She spun, her eyes blazing with playful defiance. “Did you really think I’d let you leave after that?” A smirk curled her lips. “Get in here, pretty boy.”

The door slammed behind us.

And just like that—the past was behind us. The future? Uncertain.

But her hand in mine?

That, I was sure of.

[prettiest-thing-in-the-morgue]

TIMELESS

summary: what if neglected character was well-loved in our universe despite being so hated in her own?

(spin-off neglected reader x batfam)

DC readers were eating up the comic run, but it really got a big hit when Batman, on one of his infamous runs, met this homeless family , neglected character's family, and offered to raise the neglected character till they were 18 out of false pity.

So this HC is essentially us , the readers; the 4th wall is essentially reading comics , specifically those about the Batfamily.

So the Batfamily comics are released by this huge company called DC , where a man named Bruce Wayne tragically lost his family one night and, filled with rage and vengeance, became Batman.

The comic's continued run continues on, and we, the readers, read how he met every Robin and learn about their pasts ,growths, etc, from Dick's tragic start to Jason's demise. Tim's rather conflicting start and Damian's controversial add-in.

The company hadn't expected so many readers (us) to like this seemingly normal person. I mean, come on, the neglected character can barely tie her own shoelaces properly and is literally so socially awkward.

This, of course, backfires immensely since a lot of DC readers really like neglected character because of how easily relatable they are to the big audience .

Neglected character was originally added to the family as, like, a punchline and for filler purposes, especially for Damian and Jason to appear more vibrant and more in touch with the audience and since they were running out of ideas and thought batman saving neglected character could be a moment.

There was also a whole separate run for Bruce and Tim with neglected character—they were talking about some complex time travel whatnots to explain a sudden time jump in the comics, and poor neglected reader was just there as a punchline because she was too 'dumb' to understand what they weee talking about .This backfired on them, of course—it turned into a massive meme about how 'shit is so confusing even our goat (neglected character) can't understand this shii.

At this point in the actual comics, things were getting frisky in the family. The Batfam literally starts despising neglected character so much. She's literally a nobody who doesn't even try to do anything like saving gotham like them, and they're so much better than her, so why is she getting all the love ?

Like, seriously, why would anyone want to like some lowlife who can't solve cold cases in two days, do crazy backflips, and knows ancient martial arts techniques and ancient languages? Oh! Did they forget to mention they can do anything? Side note: they can !

DC really tried to push the Batfam propaganda for a while, trying to manipulate us readers into liking them, but it's so hard too when we as the general audience can't even relate to them.

Thus, neglected character's fanbase grew exponentially—literally to the point where DC had to make their own solo because of the high demand .

Neglected character whose whole solo run was just them trying to find themselves and distance themselves from how hateful and harmful the Batfam are—especially Jason and Damian. Literally, their run was just them helping people, like a close friend getting over a bad ex, to helping this one grandma open a bottle of ketchup.

Their run made a big hit—loads of readers loved how normal and relatable the neglected character is! Especially how she grows to love herself for being normal and just living for herself, which touched a lot of readers' hearts.

Due to the neglected character's striking popularity , the company literally had to somehow mention her name or her existence everywhere in every run they make in order for it to be successful .

Oh, Tim Drake is getting a solo run? Let's put the neglected character in the background of the cover so people can pick it up to read. Oh, Damian and Batman are going on a duo adventure? Let's add a scene in the trailer where they mention the character's name once so people can flock to theaters to actually watch their movie.

Jason and Nightwing are getting their own animated series? Let's have a short ten-second clip of them discussing a plan and name-walking in the background so people can actually care about the series .

Literally the entire Batfam's popularity and relevancy are dependent on neglected character because whenever DC tries not to mention or include them, readers and viewers, respectively, don't engage with it, and it turns into a huge flop.

There are literally a hundred videos on YouTube where they all discuss who the strongest/best hero in the Batfam is, and the neglected character always wins , despite not even being a vigilante, because 'the goat (neglected character) just needs a bad day and a reason to crash out, and ain't no one in the Batfam can stop them' , ' Give my Goat (neglected character) a bat and a reason to crashout and she'd no-diff the entire villains cast in Gotham' , ' Personally if neglected reader was there , this situation would of never happened ' ,' TRUST NEGLECTED CHARACTER IS GONNA SHOW UP AND COOK JUST WAIT ' , ' NEGLECTED CHARACTER PLEASE SAVE US FROM WHATEVER THIS IS '.

Like, the Batfam is really starting to despise neglected character even more because, seriously, what does she have that they don't? And the neglected character couldn't give a damn because they are on their 20th comic issue where they are going to Spain with their classmates and they somehow save their airplane from crashing by accidentally falling into the cockpit and somehow hitting a random button that stabilizes the plane.

Safe to say DC readers and neglected reader fans are eating this shit up while Batfam seethes.

DC might have accidentally fucked up by making a run where Batfam gets so jealous they go out of their way to hunt neglected character and kill them, but due to leakers leaking the run and fans literally rioting, boycotting, and slandering the company, the company literally had to discard the whole issue and release an apology statement .

People took to the net by storm, even those who never read the comics in their life were leaving comments such as 'Ain't no way they tried killing my goat (neglected character),' Ayo bro, what is this ??,' 'LEAVE NEGLECTED CHARACTER ALONE,' and 'Tis pmo, man.'

It's safe to say DC indirectly created a literal icon of a character, and they can't kill them off or make any drastic changes to her character, or her fans will cook them alive.

Batfam slowly starts realizing their mistake in hating the neglected character and begins obsessing with her , trying to earn her favor, while the neglected character is just genuinely confused because since when do they check up on her?

ty for reading , pls comment , like and share !!

Taglist : @1abi

[tritoch]

it took me until the pelupelu quests to really get what dawntrail is trying to go for with the moblins of earthenshire.

the first time through MSQ, the feat of pots stuff really didn't land for me. a lot of emphasis is placed on the relationship between the helphands and the potsworn in a way that ends up being pretty straightforwardly and kind of boringly about the importance of artisans, craftsmen, and other skilled laborers to civil society. after the collapse of the yok huy empire, earthenshire used to abduct potsworn under exploitative terms, gulool ja ja shows up and says "not only will hiring and caring for living workers keep people from wanting to kill you, it will also lead to the production of finer arts and crafts," the moblins agree, there is much rejoicing. in the present day, wuk lamat favors gulool ja ja's "let's all benefit from peaceful urbanization and governance" approach while bakool ja ja reverts to direct violence. it's not a bad bit of story, i guess, but it's also not much, and it's soon overshadowed by wuk lamat's abduction.

but the pelupelu society quests highlight it in a different light. it emphasizes not just the potsworn, but the fact that the moblins are facing the question of how to handle a bounty of natural resources.

the moblins of earthenshire were previously oppressed and exploited by the yok huy specifically for the natural riches of southern kozama'uka. what kinds of natural riches? well, gulool ja ja specifically calls out "the quality of the materials used" in earthenshire's goldwork, so we can guess probably gold.

another big answer is staring us right in the face, in the form of earthenshire's architecture: high-quality clay (and feldspar) for ceramics, and probably a characteristic glaze known to earthenshire's artisans. the blue-green color and "cracked" quality of the finish makes me think FFXIV's writers and designers had celadon in mind, even if the final hue is heavier on the blue and lighter on the green than the color celadon is usually associated with in english.

we are told some of earthenshire's traditional industries: underground mining, fishing, alluvial (stream-bed) mining. under the yok huy empire, moblin society was focused entirely on resource extraction. the tour guide says that without the yok huy, the moblins were bereft of both "providers and protectors," suggesting that under the yok huy the moblins were neither producing their own goods nor exercising many traditional powers of government. in many ways, they still don't!

what gulool ja ja proposed, and the moblins have enacted, is now almost an inversion of traditional metropolitan-hinterland relations. under the usual paradigm, the hinterland, resource-rich but unable to resist the interference of foreign powers, is exploited by the metropole, both in terms of its natural resources (which are extracted and shipped back to the metropole for use in the production of goods, as luxuries, etc.) and its people (who are oppressed and forced to labor in extractive industries for the benefit of the metropole). and of course as is usual in colonial relations you expect the metropole to impose itself culturally on the territories it controls. that kind of exploitative relationship between foreign powers and indigenous labor & resources is exactly what some people feared in the run-up to dawntrail (if you weren't paying attention at the time, some of the initial imagery out of shaaloani made some fans leery at the possibility that FFXIV was about to do an "old west" plotline about ceruleum extraction by eorzean powers in turali lands).

by contrast, the moblins of earthenshire control their own natural resources, and the relationship is that they take skilled labor from the metropole (tuliyollal), assimilate those artisans culturally and economically into their society, mediate their access to the natural bounty of kozama'uka, and sell their wares back to the metropole as products of earthenshire. it's all a bit hand-waved in the classic fashion of ffxiv (where are all the moblin miners?), but it's clear enough what's intended. even with the yok huy gone, the moblins have largely maintained their previous way of life, but in a way that centers and celebrates their culture and allows them both civic control and a sort of intellectual property control over the products that result ultimately from their extractive labor. it inverts the traditional "resource curse" narrative in which small, resource-rich countries are "naturally" inclined to be colonized and exploited.

it also pushes back a bit on ffxiv's usual paradigm around resource extraction and arts production. disciple of the hand quests, outside of their specific storylines, often broadly celebrate the ingenuity and labor of the individual artisan. disciple of the land quests, on the other hand, are often about the relationships between labor and the land (with an emphasis on natural stewardship and learning respectfully from local cultures about their local lands) or the importance of extractive labor to broader society.

on the subject of art, what earthenshire does is uniquely honor the role that extractive and reproductive labor play in the creative and artistic process. though the craftsmanship is certainly exceedingly fine, that's not what is truly unique about moblin society or earthenshire's wares. ffxiv is well aware that art cannot exist unless we compensate artists properly (and the existence of the cracked cistern works to complicate our picture of earthenshire along these lines). but what earthenshire truly celebrates is all the labor that goes into the creation of the art that often goes unremarked: the labor of the miner and the porter, of the cook and the launderer. that is the labor which makes each and every good made there not just a product of the individual artisan, but a product of earthenshire.

[eanfee]

42 personal questions ask game

how many followers do you have? 46, yay!

when’s the last time you went on a date? I've never been on a date

how many posts have you made? 1452!

What type of shoes do you wear? Sandals!

what colour are the walls of your room White

where are you right now? (not exact location. ex: at a park) In my room

would you consider yourself good at art? Meh

who was your first kiss? I have never kissed

do you still sleep with stuffed animals? Sometimes

what’s your favourite piece of clothing you own? Dresses!

do you live in an urban, suburban, or rural area? Rural, we still have cows and carts around here

what’s your favourite store to shop at? (online or irl) Shopee

if you had to choose one POSITIVE word to describe yourself, what would it be? Creative?

do you collect anything? I wouldn't call it a collection, but I have some dolls

what’s the last thing you ate? Bread

if you go to therapy, do you like your therapist? I don't go to therapy

what’s one thing you want to buy, but don’t have the money or resources to get? Dolls and a Nintendo Switch

Who’s the first person you can think of? My grandma

how old were you when you found out santa wasn’t real? I never believed in Santa Claus

If you could revive one tv show that has been cancelled, what show would it be? The Dark Crystal, Age of Resistence!!!!!

do you consider yourself a part of any alternative subculture? if so, which one(s)? No, but I would like to be a part of it

who was your childhood favourite music artist? Xuxa

CDs or record players? CDs

Do you believe in any conspiracy theories? Yes, in theory we already have the cure for cancer in our hands, but the pharmaceutical industry doesn't want us to know.

would you get back together with an ex if given the opportunity? I don't have an ex

favourite kid’s show character? Princess Luna

is the person you call your best friend actually your best friend? I don't have friends

when you’re sad, do you prefer to listen to music to match your mood, or listen to happy music? Happy Music, I need something to combat my sadness, otherwise I will drown in it

what’s the last outfit you wore? A printed short-skirt and a short t-shirt

do you have any online friends? I have mutuals

least favourite clothing style that is currently popular Standard clothes, my God people all look the same! (and the clothes aren't even nice, but you're forced to wear them so as not to be socially excluded, especially in a small town)

how often do you do your laundry? Once a week

do you prefer silver or gold jewelry? Gold

what’s your book/movie/tv guilty pleasure? I didn't understand the question =D

if you could change your hair however you want, how would you change it? My hair is a dark blonde shade, so you can't call it blonde, but you can't call it brunette either, so I would like it to be a little lighter.

do you paint your nails? Yes

what’s an uncommon/specific /obscure topic you’re interested in? Dark Crystal

what’s the name of your first pet/what would you name your first pet if you had one? Pretinha

what’s one feature you would change on tumblr? Be able to leave likes on comments

what’s the most interesting item you own? I have nothing interesting

would you rather go on a date at a museum or a concert? Museum

what’s one regret you have? Of not having lived my childhood

42 personal questions ask game

how many followers do you have?

when’s the last time you went on a date

how many posts have you made?

What type of shoes do you wear?

what colour are the walls of your room

where are you right now? (not exact location. ex: at a park)

would you consider yourself good at art?

who was your first kiss?

do you still sleep with stuffed animals?

what’s your favourite piece of clothing you own?

do you live in an urban, suburban, or rural area?

what’s your favourite store to shop at? (online or irl)

if you had to choose one POSITIVE word to describe yourself, what would it be?

do you collect anything?

what’s the last thing you ate?

if you go to therapy, do you like your therapist?

what’s one thing you want to buy, but don’t have the money or resources to get?

Who’s the first person you can think of?

how old were you when you found out santa wasn’t real?

If you could revive one tv show that has been cancelled, what show would it be?

do you consider yourself a part of any alternative subculture? if so, which one(s)?

who was your childhood favourite music artist?

CDs or record players?

Do you believe in any conspiracy theories?

would you get back together with an ex if given the opportunity?

favourite kid’s show character?

is the person you call your best friend actually your best friend?

when you’re sad, do you prefer to listen to music to match your mood, or listen to happy music?

what’s the last outfit you wore?

do you have any online friends?

least favourite clothing style that is currently popular

how often do you do your laundry?

do you prefer silver or gold jewelry?

what’s your book/movie/tv guilty pleasure?

if you could change your hair however you want, how would you change it?

do you paint your nails?

what’s an uncommon/specific /obscure topic you’re interested in?

what’s the name of your first pet/what would you name your first pet if you had one?

what’s one feature you would change on tumblr?

what’s the most interesting item you own?

would you rather go on a date at a museum or a concert?

what’s one regret you have?

[dontheckinswear]

In this household, we love a good Star Trek AU 💙❤️

I will be chasing a starlight by @feyburner and @sundiscus is probably my favorite Wangxian fic ever and everyone should go read (or reread) it NOW !!!

[opbackgrounds]

since you brought it up, what is your ideal op video game?

Well, honestly, I don't think a perfect one piece game could exist. The charms of the series is the expansive world and its depth of story, and achieving both in a single game would be difficult, if not impossible. I also think there are way too many games rehashing the manga, and that's boring. So many possibilities exist beyond the Straw Hat's journey.

I do think it'd be cool if there existed a sort of build your own pirate crew game set in the op world. I'd actually set it in the past during Roger's last journey, with the goal of becoming the Pirate King. It gives a hard 3 year time limit to beat Roger to Laugh Tale. The Four Blues are the starting zones, and which ones you pick change certain bonuses you get at the start. Like, the East Blue has the reputation for being the weakest sea so combat would be easier but you'd have a higher chance of recruiting a crew member with a Dream at the cost of lower Reputation. Since it's pre Buster Call Ohara, the West would give higher chances of recruiting researchers, and the North would have higher science and military backgrounds, etc.

It'd be a mix of peocedurally generated locations and hand crafted islands, and as you go along recruiting people and fighting you gain Reputation, which in turn lets you fight and recruit stronger people. The bigger your crew the more you have to plunder to keep them happy, and if any of your crew have a Dream you have to help them achieve it or else they'll mutiny or leave the crew, but as Dreamers they're stronger with bonuses based on their skill or occupation.

Maybe how you resolve conflict also affects the type of people attracted to your cause, so if you gain a reputation for brutality more bloodthirsty pirates are more likely to follow you, and they get pissed if you go too long without letting them kill something. As you go along you gain maps, log poses, and other things to help survive the Grand Line, but if your Reputation gets too high a Big Player will come after you to knock you down a peg. Like, stay in the East Blue too long and Garp'll come knocking, and if you lose or fail to flee then he'll wipe out your crew and you have to start over.

Once you hit the Grand Line you gain a new Reputation meter specifically for the Grand Line. No one cares if you're the baddest dude in the East Blue once you hit Twin Capes, but if you find a merchant or NPC from your home sea then they'll know your Reputation and react accordingly. Same goes for the New World.

The end goal is to read the poneglyphs and reach Laugh Tale, whether by recruiting Oden, someone from the Three Eye Tribe, a member of the Oharan archeologists before they're blown up, or stealing the intel from another pirate crew. Should you achieve that goal, the game ends with an epic fight against Roger for the title of King.

There are enough canon characters from this era to make it recognizable (imagine fighting pre-Kaido Moriah!) while giving wiggle room for new characters, islands, and scenarios. I think it'd have to make the act of traveling on the high seas fun with hopefully some cool monster fights to spice things up.

Is this feasible? I don't know, probably not. But I think it'd be fun.

[buriedpentacles]

How to Work with Nature Spirits

Warning: Long Post under the Cut!!

Before getting into this, I want to preface that this is heavily based on my experiences and UPG. This is intended to be a helpful guide for anyone not sure on where to start but my Number 1 piece of advice will always be: Just go for it. Your experiences will be different from mine and that's a good thing! Be respectable and figure out what works best for you. With that in mind, let's get into it.

First, let's define 'nature spirits'. Nature spirits may conjure a number of associations and concepts depending on your culture, religion or practice! For the purpose of this post, 'Nature Spirits does not refer to any nature-associated deities or entities such as The Fae, Dryads/Naiads/Oceanids/etc, Elves etc - while many of these practices could be applied, each of these entities has specific cultural and religious etiquette attached that I'm not going to get into!

In this post, Nature Spirits are the spirits of all natural things, following the animistic view that everything has spirit. Plants, animals, rocks, metal, landscapes, etc. This is an incredibly broad definition, that can be narrowed or adapted however you see fit, nature is not an easily defined box. You can create your own categories or definitions, if that makes it easier to understand. For example, I may categorise certain spirits by a dominant element, or biome, or breadth, but these categories will always only ever be guidelines. (Note: at some point I want to make a post about different nature spirits along with some personal experiences. Will link here!)

Which brings us to the next point: accept that nature is not neat, and neither are the spirits. There is a level of overlap between different spirits that cannot be easily discerned - there is no clear, easily drawn line between the spirit of The Forest and the spirit of the Trees. The Spirit of that One Particular Crow is not entirely separated from the Spirit of Crow, but they are also not the same. The Spirit of the Stream will flow into the Spirit of The Ocean and you cannot pull them apart, yet you can still work with one but not the other. It is all a tightly interwoven web of spirit, it mirrors the balance and entwinement of the complex ecosystems all around us. Spirits and energies can shift and change with each meeting because of the changing seasons, the time of day, the influence of the landscape around it, or just because. Some spirits can be particularly variable, and it's important to recognise this! When working with nature spirits you must be open minded and adaptable, meet them as they are.

So how do you actually work with them?

This can largely depend on your goal, so I'll break this into two categories; A one time or "casual" relationship, or building a long-term relationship. I have both of these types of relationships - it would be impossible for me to have a long-term relationship with each individual spirit, but sometimes I want to ask them for help. My long term relationships are with Nature itself, and a handful of plant/animal/land spirits, the rest of my practice is made up of much shorter-term relationships that are made much easier by my long-term relationship with Nature. Again, figure out what works for you!

Working with Nature Spirits Once/Casually

Maybe you have a specific spell or petition that you think a nature spirit would be PERFECT to help you with. Or you want to add an extra bit of oomph to your spellwork by working with the spirit(s) of your ingredients. Or maybe, you just want to give (nature) spirit work a go. Whatever the reason, sometimes we just want a short-term relationship with a spirit. This can also be a helpful approach if you want to take something from nature* (i.e. a tree branch to be your wand, some flowers as spellworking ingredients, etc) and want to ensure it's permitted and you respect the spirit.

The best way to approach this, from my experience, is to be honest with the spirit, and respectful. Some Nature Spirits have no interest in helping someone they don't have a relationship with, and some spirits don't want to help period. Leave an offering for the spirit (expanded upon in the Offerings section further in the post), call upon them and ask them if they would be open to what you need. It really can be as simple as:

"Spirit of Oak, I ask you humbly if you would aid in my enchantment. I give you this offering and ask if I may take one of your many branches. I ask that you may allow your magic and wisdom to stay with it and empower it to be my wand. Thank you."

You may get in an answer through divination such as tarot or runes, through your clairsenses, or you can ask the spirit to provide a sign. If they say no, respect that. Thank them and leave. If you aren't willing to hear no, you should not be working with spirits.

If they say yes, but give certain requirements - i.e. "Yes, but only so much. Yes, but I want an offering of xyz in return. Etc" respect that and consider if you're willing to oblige. If not, thank them and leave. Spirits do have preferences and requests, and sometimes they change over time! I.e. in Summer, Oak may be happy for you to take one of his branches, but in Winter, when he and his wards (Oak, in my experience, is a very protective and familial spirit, often charging himself with protection of the land he lives on) are struggling, he may only allow you to take it if you agree to leave some extra bowls of water as an offering.

This doesn't just have to be a one-off, even for short-term relationships. If you are asking for quite a lot or something significant, you should leave multiple offerings over time before asking for permission - especially if the spirit you're working with might be a bit less welcoming.

*If taking something from nature, always ensure you are taking no more than you need and, if applicable, leave more than enough for that resource to survive (unless it is invasive to your area). Respecting the mundane balance of nature is the most important thing. Also, check any laws in your area regarding collecting feathers, certain plants, bones etc!!

Building a Long-Term Relationship

If you want to build a longer relationship with Nature Spirits, or connect more deeply with nature as a whole, there's a few 'steps' I would recommend:

Research and learn about your local area! What plants are you most likely to find? What animals and trees? How do the seasons change and impact the land? What patterns can you find? Do they align with your personal experiences? Join local Birdwatching or foraging groups, pick up localised wildlife books, take online courses! Learn about the world around you!

Get outside and experience it! Get a nature journal to record what you notice - when do you notice the bees coming back after Winter? What are the first plants to sprout in Spring? When do the first Autumnal leaves fall? What animals do you see most? What trees? Sit outside with no intent other than to *feel*. Sit in the forest and let your energy merge with everything around you; feel how the tree roots stretch beneath the soil, and intermingles with stretching mycelium, feel the flap of insects wings and the wind on your skin. Feel the energy of the spirits around you. Like when trying to befriend a crow or stray cat, you must give them time to adjust to your presence.

Leave offerings on a regular basis. This can be done on your altar at home, but often the most effective offerings are ones that aid the physical side of the spirits of well!

Talk to them (without necessarily expecting a response). Say good morning to the magpies on your way to work, tell the trees about your day. Even if you are trying to build a relationship with one specific spirit, it never hurts to connect to nature and its other spirits - sort of like being polite to the in-laws. All of nature is connected, if you're trying to befriend Lavender but throw litter out the car window, it's gonna be much harder to forge a connection.

Ask the spirit if they want a working relationship with you! And respect their answer if they say no. If they say yes, ask them how you've been doing so far - is there something you've been doing that they don't like? Or that they wish you would do more? Do they have any preferences? Requests? Some spirits don't like to communicate through tarot, others have specific times of day they prefer to talk. Some of this can be discerned through research (i.e. nocturnal animal spirits might prefer nighttime communication) but much of it can only be learned by *asking the spirit*.

Keep it up. This is it. This is what a relationship with spirits is: consistent communication and respect. What you choose to do with this relationship, and how it evolves and changes is entirely up to you! Nature is not a religion, these spirits are not a part of a specific tradition or culture (though you are more than welcome to incorporate your own culture/traditions/religions into your relationship with them) and so there are no pre-set prayers, offerings, rituals etc; it is up to you to build a unique and personalised relationship with them!

If you ever want to end it, be respectful and polite. Thank the spirit for everything, provide them a final offering and say goodbye.

Offerings for Nature Spirits

Here are some suggestions of offerings for Nature Spirits, but they are just suggestions and recommendations from my own experiences; come up with your own and figure it out *with* the spirit!! I've divided them into physical and non-physical offerings:

Water (a classic, hard to go wrong)

Wildlife Safe food (this will require research and will be very dependant on your area. HOWEVER, it should not be done regularly, and ideally should be in your garden rather than a public or "wild" area - bird feeders, feeding hedgehogs etc Feeding wildlife can cause more harm than help a lot of the time).

Coins, tobacco, crystals etc (some 'traditional' spirit offerings in many cultures. These are best for any indoor altars rather than outside.

Picking up Litter or other acts of service (an amazing offering, often highly appreciated)

Removing Invasive Species!

Physical touch (NOT for animals or potentially dangerous plants. Do your research. This may be a hand in the river, a hug to the tree, bare feet on the soil.)

Time (a simple, yet much appreciated offering)

A poem, artwork, prayer

Donating to their conservation/aid

Other parts of nature (laying flowers at the foot of the tree, berries for the crow spirit, dressing a fox skull in leaves)

In my experience, acts of service or creation are often much more appreciated than physical offerings! Art in their name, cleaning the local stream of litter, calling your PM to pressure more conservation policies etc are far better than leaving a - potentially disruptive and harmful - piece of food.

What NOT to Do?

This is also UPG based, but there are some things I would really NOT recommend.

Not doing your research. You wouldn't jump into a relationship with a deity without learning anything about them, why do the same for nature spirits? Just because they don't have specific religious lore surrounding them, doesn't mean you shouldn't learn. Pick up a field guide or book on local folklore.

Leaving human food outside. You baked a tasty brownie and want to share it with the Fly Agaric spirit you're building a relationship with? Great - leave it as an offering but TAKE IT BACK HOME WITH YOU. Let the spirit take the energy from it it wants/needs, and then remove it. Do not leave human food outside. If you INSIST on leaving a form of food offering, it MUST be safe for the local wildlife.

Littering. Doing a spell with Birch? Cool. Make sure you don't leave anything behind. Ideally, use compostable or wildlife safe ingredients (i.e. beeswax candles, toilet paper tubes instead of spell jars etc)

Graffiti/Carvings on trees/rocks etc. Sigils and art can be a great tool/offering but PLEASE don't graffiti or carve into trees/rocks/natural things. It does damage them. Write a with your finger in sand or on your palm or recreate it with branches instead.

Taking more than you need. Don't collect every shell you see on a beach, don't pick up every skull or bone your find in a forest, don't pick every mushroom or herb in a patch. Take what you need, ask permission, leave more than you take.

DO NOT GO INTO FORAGING/BONE COLLECTING/HIKING/LITTER PICKING WITHOUT PROPER SAFETY PRECAUTIONS. Know the laws in your area. Know the trails and paths. Have a map if the area if large enough. Know what plants are safe to touch, if you're not sure - DON'T TOUCH IT. Know what is safe to forage, ideally have an expert to confirm, if you are not 10000% certain, LEAVE IT (and I mean 100000% certain. Not 99%). Wear proper hiking boots, be aware of the weather and any risks in the area. Keep up with weather warnings. Know if there's any traps in the woods. Going litter picking? Make sure you're aware of any local vaccination attempts, as the devices used to help vaccinate wild animals may look like rubbish. Be sensible, be SAFE.

General Tips and Advice

Use common sense and critical thinking.

Notice how I kept saying "local" in this post? That's because it's ideal for a nature-based practice to be localised to your surrounding area! I live in the UK, so whats the point in me trying to build a relationship with spirit of Bald Eagle? It has no roots in my land, nor in my heritage or craft. It is much easier to connect to a nature spirit that you can actually, physically visit, or that has a deep connection to your culture/religion/heritage than one that you thought "seemed cool".

Take it slow, and take it easy. There are no strict rules besides don't be a jerk. The best expert on any particular spirit is that spirit!

However, its important to be safe. Know how to protect yourself and how to banish. Don't call on any spirit you can't get rid of. Not all nature spirits are friendly.

Nature spirits are also not a monolith. They overlap, they blur and twist together but working with Bramble is an entirely different experience to working with Lavender. Be prepared. You can typically get an idea of a spirit's personality through research - it peeks through in the science and ecology, as well as the folklore.

Practice energy work! Nature spirits, in my experience, love to communicate through energy. Sit with yourself for a while, learn what thoughts are yours, what sensations are your own, so that you can differentiate from others. Get used to the feeling of nature and its spirits - they will guide you and help you, they will teach you knowledge you cannot imagine.

You're allowed to say no, and so are they.

Do not be deterred by your circumstances. You live in a city? There's still nature spirits there, a lot of them. (Will link my post about Urban Nature Spirit Work here when posted). Struggle to get outside regularly? Get a Houseplant (will link houseplant post too) watch nature documentaries, find a way to connect to nature and it will find a way to connect to you.

Remember that YOU are a part nature. You are not an onlooker, you are not an outsider, YOU are a part of the ecosystem, apart of natural history and the complex beauty of evolution and change. YOU are an animal and you are so much more similar to the foxes and bears and flies and butterflies than you think.

I hope this post has been helpful to some! Please feel free to add any of your own points/experiences or ask questions/suggest future posts!!

Praise Mother Nature 💚🌿🪲

[darker-than-darkstorm]

Welp, no answer, so... infodump it is!

First off, his name is "Yankovic", not "Yankovich".

The following are also Werid Al originals, not parodies of specific songs: Your Horoscope For Today, Bob, Dare To Be Stupid, Everything You Know Is Wrong, The Night Santa Went Crazy, Close But No Cigar, I'll Sue Ya, and Genius in France.

The following are polka medleys, where Weird Al changed the arrangement but didn't write the music or lyrics: The Hamilton Polka, Polka Face, Now That's What I Call Polka!, The Alternative Polka, the Angry White Boy Polka, Pokamania, and Polkarama.

The following are not written or recorded by Weird Al at all: Rockin The Suburbs (which was written and performed by Ben Folds, though Weird Al did direct the music video), and Who Stole The Keeska (which was written in the 1940s and performed by, among many other people, Frankie Yankovic, no relation to Weird Al).

The following is not a parody and I'm not sure how much involvement Al actually had in writing it: Sir Isaac Newton vs. Bill Nye (from Epic Rap Battles of History). He performed on the song (as Newton) and it appears on the Medium Rarities disc of his boxed set, but the writing credits for the song are listed as Peter Shukoff, Lloyd Ahlquist, and Yankovic.

I'm going to the Hardware Store

[morlock-holmes]

Towards a Unified Theory of Conspiracy Crank Politics

I've been thinking a lot about what seems to drive the person I will call, for lack of a better term, the conspiracy crank world-view, and particularly, my feelings about the great crank realignment.

A lot of people have said, "It seems like 30 years ago conspiracy weirdos were pretty bipartisan people, but now they all seem to be Trump loyalists."

My belief is that it's not that the conspiracy cranks became more right-wing; rather, it's that the Republicans have largely stopped being a right-wing party and are instead now a conspiracy crank party.

So, I've said this before, and I'm not well enough read in the history of conspiracy thinking to bring up old examples, but as a kid I subscribed to Skeptical Enquirer, and I remember quickly coming to two conclusions:

The reason a lot of the alien conspiracy X Files stuff is so interesting in fiction is that talented fiction writers have used it as a jumping off point to make an interesting story; the primary conspiracy literature is often very poorly written, not very inventive, and frequently openly bigoted, which leads into my second discovery,

A lot of times there is only one degree of seperation between "Big pharma and modern living has severed our spiritual connection to our earth mother Gaia" and "The Jews run the world with the aim of keeping the white race enslaved". Like, the far right conspiracy people were often really willing to ally with and break bread with the far left conspiracy people, and vice versa, in fact much more so then the more grounded parts of the left and right.

And I think that's because the conspiracy theorists have a kind of common mindset with certain shared features, regardless of the specifics of their conspiracy.

These are things that I have noticed as commonalities, and they aren't limited to conspiracy cranks; in fact, probably the vast majority of people have these habits of thought to some extent. My argument is that they are often abnormally strong in conspiracy believers.

Belief in a just world. A lot of fringe types have a really strong belief that the world is fundamentally just, and that in the ordinary course of things bad things do not happen to good people. Bad things only happen because a personified force arranged for the bad thing to happen. The example I've used before is slipping and falling off a ladder. Many of us would attribute such a thing to pure chance; some people will take it as evidence that a witch or a demon has cursed them.

An extreme difficulty with feeling out of control. It is hard for them to accept that in some circumstances they may not have control. Things which make them feel like they are no longer in control are very often interpreted as hostilities against them.

A severe difficulty in actually putting themselves in another person's shoes. Often, the conspiracy minded person is incredibly judgemental about others, and particularly, they really, really struggle with the idea that something might be easy for them, but difficult for someone else, or difficult for them, but necessary to help someone else.

Like I said, we all have these habits to some extent, I just think they are often magnified in the conspiracy crank.

As an example of what I mean by these thought patters, I am in the middle of a podcast reviewing a crank movie about how germs don't cause diseases. And apparently, in this movie, they first have a heroic interview with a restaurant owner who not only never required his patrons to wear masks, he actually banned any mask wearing on the premises.

Which is followed immediately by a scene of a person getting kicked out of a store for not masking, and talking about how it's incredibly shocking that what should be a matter of personal conscience is being enforced by the government.

And there's just no sense that there is any hypocrisy or tension here.

What I mean is, a principled libertarian might say, "Each individual business can require masks, or require you to take masks off, or have no policy, according to their individual decision, and we should allow them to make those decisions and abide by them."

Another principled position might be that we have extremely compelling evidence for the pandemic, and maybe certain kinds of policies should be temporarily enacted to slow the spread, even though they infringe on what would be, in ordinary times, important liberties, because they serve to protect the collective greater good.

Either of these positions sort of takes it for granted that a choice that I, personally, might not fully agree with might still be important to other people.

But the crank mindset says, "I don't want to wear a mask. So forcing people to wear a mask is an imposition on important freedoms. But since I'm already comfortable without a mask, forcing people to take their masks off isn't any kind of imposition on anybody's freedom, that's ridiculous."

You can see what I'm talking about most clearly in certain right-wing Christians. I've seen Christians say that freedom is exactly the same as following God's will, and that disobedience to God is a form of bondage and slavery.

These habits of mind are not, themselves, partisan; the can be applied to any cause, right-wing or left-wing. I might just have easily brought up "Free speech doesn't mean tolerating hate speech."

But I would argue that the reverse is not true, that you can build a political party that caters primarily to people with these habits of mind.

These people tend to flock to politicians who simultaneously promise a strong government which they can borrow to reassert their sense of control in the world, but the actual specific politics of that government are squishy and malleable.

The government has to be strong and able to domineer others because the conspiracy crank understands that they are in opposition to some large portion of the population, and so the government has to be strong enough to say, for example, "We will make sure that no private business will kick you out for wearing a mask."

When the world feels out of control, the government will lend you the tools to reassert your control over the world around you.

But the actual political goals of the government have to be extremely vague and malleable, so that they can move quickly to maintain the illusion that good people don't ever really disagree about this stuff.

A government which is coherently committed to a libertarian project might well say, "Sorry, those businesses have every right to decide who they cater to."

You have to be a weathervane, once a majority of cranks decide that vaccines and mask mandates are bad, you have to swivel and take that position in order to maintain a sort of illusion that whatever freedoms your crank audience wants in the moment are inherently sensible and that no sane person could disagree.

My argument is that Trump has turned the Republicans into the crank party, the party that signals to cranks that it will have their backs, whereas thirty years ago, the parties were still committed enough to coherent political goals that neither one could make that promise, and so cranks had to be politically idiosyncratic.

[spidercatweb]

Perfect Match ★ Spencer Reid x reader

Warnings: fem!bau!reader, a little bit of jealous!Spencer 😊, plenty of nervous!Spencer, fluff, a tiny bit of angst i guess, happy ending, r uses dating apps, Garcia and r are besties!!, umm nothing else!

Description: Garcia's wonderful idea of getting r to use dating apps to find her perfect match is not working very well. Spencer gets a little distant when r mentions her plans for a date. r confronts him about this, which leads to confessions, a cancelled date, and a date to take it's place. <3

Word Count: 1,843

Request: "for spencer x reader? early spencer is too shy to ask reader out but reader starts talking about dating and dating apps and Spencer gets really jealous and ends up telling reader he likes them but hes a stuttering mess the whole time?"

A/n: oh em gee 😈😈😈 i enjoyed writing this... i have no experience w dating apps so uhh idk 🤷‍♀️ but i hope this is what you asked for! <3

You weren’t desperate for a boyfriend, you were just getting tired of waiting for the right guy to miraculously appear. So, per Garcia’s suggestions, dating apps seemed to be the best choice. She had also suggested speed-dating at one point, but that was definitely not your thing. So, dating apps it was.

For the past few weeks, you’d spent around twenty minutes a day on these apps. So far, you haven’t had any luck.

Boring. Gross. Likely to become an unsub.

These were the types of men you’d been seeing on the several dating apps you had downloaded.

Maybe the problem was that you were looking for perfect.

On a slow day at the BAU, you sat in Garcia’s office. Her chair was pulled up close to yours as she peered over at your phone screen. It was fun to look at different men’s profiles with a friend.

“Come on, he’s cute!” Garcia swoons.

“No!” He looks like that enucleator we caught last week.” You laugh, swiping left.

Garcia sighs dramatically, “You’re no fun. If you keep up with that attitude you’ll never find a date!” She nudges you with her shoulder while catching a glimpse of the new profile that appeared on your screen.

“I just have standards! Unlike some people.” You tease.

Your attention flashes back to your phone screen. You swipe through the man’s several photos. Attractive. And none of him holding up a fish he caught, that’s a good start. “Hmm.” You go to read his profile information.

“Enjoys reading, quiet nights in, and… horror movies. Okay…” You nod slowly, “Average height, same age as me. Aww, he has a cat.”

“Perfect! I don’t need to know anything else! Swipe right, give him a chance!” Penelope urges you to swipe right.

“Okay,” you giggle, “But if he’s a creep it’s your fault!”

“Oh if he’s a creep, I’ll find out before you do. I am definitely going to background check every single one of your potential partners. Only the best for my girl.”

Your investigation of another man’s profile is interrupted by a knock at the door of Penelope's office.

“Come in!” She shouts loud enough for whoever’s on the other side of the door to hear.

Spencer enters the room with a slight look of confusion on his face, “Hi. What are you guys doing?” He closes the door behind him.

Garcia cheerily explains the situation, “Well, I’m helping Y/n find her dream man. She’s very picky though, maybe you could help find her perfect match with that genius brain of yours.”

“Oh, um-” he laughs nervously, “how exactly are you finding her perfect match? And, statistically speaking, it’s incredibly rare for someone to find their so-called perfect match. There are too many variables to consider. You’d need a very specific set of traits, and of course, nobody is perfect-”

Garcia cuts him off, something she doesn’t do often, “Ah ah ah! You will not make her feel like this is useless!” She points a finger in his face. “And we’ve got her on a few dating apps, of course. Also, not that I don’t enjoy your company, because I love it very much, but why are you in here?”

“JJ wanted you to see her in her office, something about a new case, I think. She texted you but you weren’t answering.”

“Oh I’m so sorry! I guess I was pretty distracted. I’ll go see her right away!” She hops up from her chair and heads towards the door, “You two lovelies have fun while I’m gone! Don’t touch my tech!”

You both giggle as she leaves the room.

An awkward silence washes over the two of you as you’re left alone. You swivel slightly in your chair, phone in hand, your bright screen shows a photo of a man you and Penelope were looking at before Spencer came in. You catch Spencer staring at it from across the room, so you shut your phone off and laugh nervously.

“I, um- Garcia wanted me to try some dating apps, she thinks I’m lonely.” You laugh slightly, “I really don’t know how people are okay with just dating absolute strangers who they know nothing about. That’s really scary to me, I’d much rather date someone I’m already friends with.” You hope Spencer doesn’t think too hard about that last part. Because it would certainly be embarrassing if he figured out you meant him. You’d much rather date him.

“Romantic relationships started online do tend to have a higher failure rate than relationships started in person. And romantic relationships started with someone you’re already close with have the highest rate of success. I really don’t see how people could form a meaningful connection with someone they’ve never met or even spoken to before. I think I would find it hard, not even hearing someone’s voice.” Spencer fidgets with the sleeve of his sweater.

You nod your head, agreeing with him. “I don’t know why I’m using dating apps. It’s not like I have time to date anyway. I spend all my time here.” You huff out a sad laugh.

“No- you- you deserve to have someone, you shouldn’t say that.” Spencer strides closer to you, leaning against Penelope’s desk. “I’m sure you’ll find someone eventually. I mean, you’re incredibly intelligent, you’re funny, kind, attractive-” He pauses, stopping himself, “It’s really only a matter of time.” A slight blush tints his cheeks, he gives you a kind smile.

You look up at him, mirroring his smile. “I guess so.”

“I’m guessing you haven’t had much luck then? With dating apps, I mean.”

“No, not really. But there is this one guy I’ve been talking to.”

“Oh.” he nods, you notice something in his eyes. Disappointment? He was never very good at hiding his feelings. “What's he like?”

“Well, his name is Nick. We’ve been talking for about… a week? I think? We might go on an actual date soon, I think I’m going to ask him.” You grin, thinking about the kind exchanges you’d been having with the man.

“That- That’s really nice. I hope it goes well.” No extra statistics, straight to the point. Odd.

***

A conversation later that day led to you actually asking Nick on a real, in-person date. You only have so much free time, why not spend it enjoying yourself? So, that was it. You officially had a date scheduled for Saturday night. Only three days away.

***

Nothing of note happened for the next three days,though you did see Spencer acting differently. Less rambles, less conversations in the break room, more silent glances he thought you didn’t notice.

At the end of the day on Friday, you catch him before he gets to the elevator. “Spence!”

He turns around to face you, clearly a little startled, “Yeah?” He clutches the strap of his satchel that goes across his chest.

“Are you- Did I do something? Why haven’t you been talking to me?” You attempt to keep a neutral tone, but sadness seeps through.

“I have been talking to you, what do you mean? We talked about the case today-”

“No. You know what I mean, Spencer. You haven’t- went on a fifteen minute ramble about like- sea urchins and their contributions to the ecosystem- or whatever. You’ve been avoiding me.” You can barely look him in the eyes. He’s been one of your closest friends for years and now he’s acting differently. It hurts.

He rushes to explain himself, “Y/n, no. I- You were um-” He pauses. Lying will only make it worse. “You told me about how you were going on dating apps, and how- how you’re going on a date this weekend and-” He takes a breath, “It just really- I was jealous.” He sighs, his face reddens immediately.

“What?” Did I just hear that correctly? Jealous?

“I was jealous I-” He runs his hands over his face, “I am jealous. I’m sorry.”

“So you… are jealous… that I’m going on a date?” You’re still confused.

He nods slowly, avoiding eye contact with you. His face gets more red by the second.

“Because… you want to go on a date with me?” You feel your cheeks warming up, your tone is soft, you ask the question carefully.

“I-” He clears his throat, “Yes. I really- Yeah.” He sighs like he was holding his breath. “I’m sorry, that’s so unprofessional, and I know I shouldn’t treat you differently because of how I feel. I should’ve been thinking about how it would affect the team-”

It takes you two tries to interrupt his nervous ramble, “Spencer.”

His mouth hangs slightly open, you stopped his train of thought completely.

“If you really feel that way, then I’d love to go on a date with you.” You give him a reassuring smile.

He stays silent for a few moments, processing. “Really?”

“Yes, really.” You nod.

His smile grows, “Yeah?” he huffs out a surprised laugh. “But what about your other date?”

You giggle, “He- I think he’ll understand. I’m also pretty sure Garcia found some weird stuff about him while she was snooping around so…”

“Ah. Okay.” He nods, “So when… When were you thinking? I mean you don’t have to decide right now of course.”

You can’t hold back a giddy smile. “How about tomorrow? Lunch at the cafe by the used book store?”

“That sounds really nice.” He nods again, eagerly.

“Okay, great. Um- does sometime around twelve work? I can text you when I’m on my way?” You fidget nervously with your necklace.

“Yeah, of course.”

You both stand silently for a few moments, both in disbelief that this is actually happening.

“Um- I should-” Spencer points behind him to the elevator doors.

“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Your face warms even more, you’d forgotten he was about to leave, “See you tomorrow.”

He echoes back, “See you tomorrow.” He grins as he walks into the elevator. As the doors shut in front of him, you both wave happily at each other.

***

Penelope comes running out from the glass doors of the BAU, “What was that!?” She rapidly waves a pointed finger between you and the elevator.

“Nothing! It was nothing! I was just saying goodnight!” You laugh nervously.

“Liar!! I know that face!” She gasps, “You asked him out!? Oh my gosh! Finally!!” She takes your wordless grin as a yes, and catches you in a tight hug. “You two are going to be so cute, I just know it!” she lets you out of her grasp, “And I won’t tell anyone, pinkie promise.”

***

The Tuesday after your’s and Spencer’s date –which went extremely well, ending with a promised second date after your next case– you notice the rest of the team snickering about the two of you not-so-subtly. The next time you see Penelope, you give her a knowing glare, but you don’t scold her. Really, it’s better the team finds out now rather than later, in some horribly embarrassing way. Unfortunately, this means you’ll have to be signing some paperwork soon.

Thank you for reading! <3

Feedback is very much appreciated!

My requests are open!

🪻

[alexanderlightweight]

Thank you for all the amazing writing you’ve been posting! This prompt can be sfw or nsfw

Married on the battlefield. What better spoil of war for Magnus to claim than the highest ranked soldier of the clave on the battlefield. The Especially since commander Lightwood makes such a pretty bride

i'm glad you're enjoying and thank you for the ask!! I cackled gleefully when I got it.

sooooo I have a few battle-marriage fic's already and decided to try something slightly different with this one. specifically it's also one of @queensaryn's plots that they handed over to me with some inspiration. the title is also from them ^_^ which is great because I sometimes agonize over titles and sometimes I'm just 'this makes me happy so that's what its called'.

Saeth has a lot of reasons they can't write right now but is very happy to share with me from his little treasure trove of fic ideas and i hope you enjoy this. you can always send me another ask if sentinel/guide isn't your thing tho!

<3 lumine

-

gladiolus

They should have called a retreat the moment the High Warlock took the field. But Alec’s parents refused, too intent on keeping this stretch of land, unwilling to let any more of the leylines fall into downworlder hands.

The territory controlled by shadowhunters in New York gets smaller every year, the downworlders encroaching bit by bit, leaving them with less areas to safely patrol — and less power that the Clave can control.

The Uprising had done exactly what Valentine wanted and upset the balance of the Downworld.  

Just not in the way he’d intended.

When the treaty fell apart, the shadowworld had turned to chaos, downworlders no longer sitting idly by, no longer bound by a treaty where they had to let the Clave dictate what they could and couldn’t do. No, they’d risen higher than Valentine had ever managed they could and decisively ended the Clave’s stranglehold of power on the shadowworld.

And the shadowhunters — having grown from birth full of their own power and proud of it — none of them were prepared for the changes.  Still struggling in a society and culture split in two by a civil war while the world changed around them, a catalyst born from the Uprisng.

For once, it is the shadowhunters who suffer from their own hubris. 

So here Alec fights, on the battlefield that he knows holds no hope.

Alec knows that the High Warlock of Brooklyn has a special hatred for his parents, and every shadowhunter in New York has been paying for it. Their blood flows thick through the streets, their bodies clogging the sewers with angelic rot, unable to return to Idris let alone Raziel.

Alec grits his teeth as he fires another arrow. It sinks into the open maw of a werewolf and the corpse drops halfway through its leap through the air. Izzy shoves her hair out of her eyes as she nods thanks to him. Her braid is half undone. It looks like someone yanked on it or cut through it.

It’s shorter than it was when they both stepped onto the field.

He’s lost count of how many times he’s stopped his sister from getting overwhelmed by downworlders as she fights on the frontlines.

He wants to sound the retreat, but no one will listen to him over his parents. Alec might be a Sentinel, might be one of the most highly ranked warriors among his people but that means nothing in the chain of command. Not when he’s remained unbonded despite the numerous guides shoved at him, not a hint of a compatibility between him and any Guide he’s met.

So while he might not be outright ignored if he speaks, no one will follow his orders. After all, Alec isn’t an authorized Clave leader, blessed by Raziel with a proper bond and tied to his partner and the Clave with inescapable oaths.

No, he’s an unbonded Sentinel and useless for all but battle.

Here and now, Alec fights despite the hopelessness of it all.  The despair that constantly threatens to sink him into the mire alongside the bodies of enemy and ally alike. 

There is no other choice than to fight and to kill.

Until a pressure tears the field apart and as bodies drop around him Alec looks for the cause but as his sight connects with gold he finds that nothing else matters.

Except for the gold.

Consuming him.

—

Magnus can feel him.

Has felt him lingering on his senses, on the knife edge of the battle-awareness that fills Magnus’ veins with bloodlust.

It's a soul-deep lament, one that Magnus has rarely felt this strongly and never so sadly. 

 It’s not perfect, but it’s moldable.

A song begging to be taken and shaped into a smooth and lasting symphony rather than remaining untethered and adrift with chords that ring hollow and discordant.

It’s perfect in its imperfection.

“Take over for me.” Magnus doesn’t even look at Valois, ignoring everyone else as he focuses on the direction it’s coming from. “You will need to shield the reserves and be ready to protect those who fall.”

Valois says something, but Magnus doesn’t bother to listen knowing that his orders will be obeyed.

It calls to him, a siren song. 

Tempts him and pulls him closer and he watches and waits for a moment longer before he makes his move.

Pulling his shields down is a simple thing.

What is not simple is the way every single being on the field drops like flies, alive but overwhelmed with the might of Magnus’ stretching out his mind and power.

Except for one being.

One man who stays not upright, but neither is he sprawled unconscious in the mud. 

Instead he kneels in the battlefield, swaying slightly while enemies and allies lie littered around him.

Over eight centuries Magnus has gone without a Sentinel.

His powers woken as a young child defending himself from a man not his father by blood or deed.

Since then Magnus hasn’t met a single unbonded Sentinel who hasn’t been willing to beg him for a bond. Some called to him in turn, yet none had the disposition he required to seal his soul to another.

This one though, this one has no need to bribe, cajole or threaten.

Magnus can simply claim him for his own.

A bond between Guide and Sentinel does not need to be deep.  While rare, warlocks have been known to have both a consort and a pair bond before. But Magnus has always wanted a bond that would remake his Sentinel down to their soul.

And now, here in the midst of a war he’s found a soul that is willing to be branded with Magnus’ mark and power

As he gets closer it’s easier to see exactly why — even conscious — his Sentinel makes no move.  His eyes are large and focused only on Magnus, a sheen to his gaze that means one thing for a Sentinel and Magnus chuckles as he finally steps close enough to touch

“Did you zone out on my eyes, pretty boy?” Magnus murmurs to his Sentinel, his boy still kneeling in blood and muck and ichor and unresponsive except for a pleased rumble the moment Magnus’ fingers stroke up the bare skin of his neck and jaw. “Aren’t you delightful?”

Magnus tilts his Sentinel’s head up and leans down, coaxing a bloodstained mouth open and licking into his Sentinel’s mouth.

Sight. Scent. Hearing. Touch.

And now taste. 

A full imprint, and despite how simple of a ritual it is, the bond snaps fully into place with a ravenous greed that only proves how desperate both of them were for the hollow, gnawing ache inside them to end.

Their souls meld together and Magnus chuckles, throwing his head back in a riotous laugh.

Because the Clave has lost now that he’s bonded.

Once again their own hubris has failed for no Sentinel will stand against their Guide, even one who is a nephilim. 

And Magnus already knows that from this moment on, he will never need to restrain his own powers again.

-

AN:

in fanon it's typically the sentinels who are 'in charge' of the bond and that's not going to work for Magnus. especially with his position of power and personal trauma. he needs and wants a sentinel that will kneel for him and submit to him. not one that's going to be overprotective and try to boss him around 'knowing best for his own safety'. even the compatible sentinels who are not like that aren't willing to be claimed as deep as he wants or submit as far as he needs.

Alec's soul over here waving a flag and basically begging Magnus to reshape it as he wants as long as he never lets go.

Alec: this is hopeless. I am hopeless. life is hopeless. everything is... gold. everything is golden and bright and beautiful and i've never felt so at peace or devastated in my life

Magnus touching him.

Alec: I am no longer devastated just overwhelmed

[toyouhellohowareyou]

20 and Legend?

😘 Prompt game!

20 is Alone, Finally

***

The Chain, and Legend hated that name, and hated Four for coming up with it, and hated Hyrule's giggling every time someone said it, and hated—

And wow! Okay! Yeah! Maybe he was in a mood, huh? Even for him.

The Chain had been together for five days and Legend was slowly losing his mind about it.

There wasn't anything in particular wrong, anything specific anyone had done. It was just everything. It was so many people being around all the time, it was every task taking longer, it was waiting on people and being on their schedules, it was having to be switched on all the time in case someone talked to him, it was that they were strangers. Eight exhausting strangers meant someone was around all the time.

Fortunately for the sake of his increasingly threadbare nerves and patience, they had stopped early today to avoid arriving at whatever town Warriors was directing them to at an inconvenient hour. Which meant even with the endless cycle of chores and maintenance and 'getting to know each other' horrors, he finally had some time to fuck off.

And fuck off he did.

Alone, finally.

For about forty glorious minutes before Wind found him.

"Hey Legend, you busy?"

Din give him strength.

"Yes. " Legend was busy not doing whatever the fuck this was.

Wind decided he was not, "Can I borrow your fire rod? Wars said I can't use his."

He didn't want to know what that was for. "No."

"Lame. Hey, Time said he had an ocarina, did you want to come bug him to show us how to play something?"

Legend was going to kill a man. Legend was going to kill a child.

"No."

"Aren't you bored? Everyone is being so boring."

"No, Wind," Legend bit off, trying not to alienate the entire group he was now stuck with less than a week after meeting them by tearing off the head of the team baby, "I am not bored. I was having a nice time not being in each other's pockets for a single fucking hour."

"But it's great? Isn't it amazing! Meeting heroes from all over!"

Legend just glared at Wind and attempted to set him on on fire with his mind. Wind remained stubbornly un-immolated, and instead squinted back at him for a long moment.

"Oh, you're one of those people," the kid said with the deepest disgust.

"What the fuck do you mean—"

"It's fine, accommodations must be made," Wind waved haughtily, "I'll go tell Captain Teamwork we need to leave you your lonely horizon staring time or you'll murder us all in our sleep."

And before Legend could formulate an answer to that Wind was gone again.

[sxaymz217]

I have related heavily to everything that has been said on this post. I myself am a late diagnosed auDHD adult, and OP I think you are on to something with the communication angle. For my experience, there have been many times in my life when I rapidly came to the conclusion that I do not possess the ability to do, what appeared to me when I observed others, a simple task. There were/are several overlapping problems that made/make asking for assistance difficult.

One, there's been a delay in processing new information for me. When I was a child, or new at something, people would take a moment to teach me. For me though, even if I got it right away, I definitely need someone to repeatedly teach me until it becomes memory I can recall on my own. And of course, if I dont get it right away, I'm going to need quite a bit more assistance. This excess repetition of instructions, teaching and education, requires a great deal of time and patience. Things I learned very early in life, most people do not have in abundance. "Of course I'll be able to figure out this math equation Ms. Stewart, I just need you to explain it in as many forms as possible, and help me practice a dozen times until I can do it myself," which leads to the second problem.

Two, communication. I have rarely ever been able to choose the right words, the right order, the right cadence and tone of voice to get assistance. Or somehow even worse, I can't get the right timing. Say I needed help with that math problem from earlier, even if I chose different words, was incredibly polite, and managed to refrain from using my regular sarcastic tone of voice (read social armor I built for myself as a child), I could very easily still choose the wrong moment to ask the question. My early memories of raising my hand in class are blurry, but I remember quite a bit of laughing from the other students and things like "we already went over that," "God aren't you paying attention," and of course, "why in the world would you even ASK that question."

For me at least, it's almost like I was punished for not learning fast enough or asking questions that were too obvious. But it's more than just how other people react that makes me hesitate to ask for assistance. Not only do I need to keep track of how a specific person who has the information I need, communicates, I need to know how they respond to questions, what their teaching style is, and how to translate that into information I will understand and be able to repeat. I need to know how to construct the conversation in a way they will interpret positively so I can come back again, when I need more help. All of this is damn near impossible for me to keep track of in my head, and already pretty stressful, to say nothing of whatever it is I am asking for assistance on in the first place.

Depending on the level of emotional attachment I have to the task I need help with, that emotion alone can heighten my struggles with communication.

For example, learning how to fold clothes on a slow day in my retail job was easy for me to ask questions and learn. I had an established rapour with my manager, she was lovely, I mean she was also scary, everyone was afraid of her, but I'm afraid of everyone so it was easier for me lol. Anyway, I knew how to talk to her and learn from her, and the task itself was already incredibly repetitive so it didn't take long before I was self sufficient.

But asking for help when the task itself is already terrifying? Such as running the registers during a rush? Much more difficult to even begin to articulate specific questions about the technical aspects of a transaction when the customer is impatient and angry. Even if they're not angry and a very lovely person, I'm nervous and it's a lot for me to keep track of, I made way too many mistakes. It even occurred to me in the moment I needed help, that I absolutely could not do this alone, and even with an established rapour with teachers I was comfortable being ignorant around, I could not even formulate the questions in my mind. It's almost like, even in perfect ideal circumstances, the social and communication side of the task were insurmountable obstacles or outright distractions that made the technical side of the task impossible.

When asking for help, I worry. Afraid I'll get the words wrong, or somehow mess up the way I'll communicate it. I worry I'm overtaxing someone else's patience. If the task is too important or terrifying on it's own, asking for assistance becomes that much more challenging because now I have ignore not only the fear of having the conversation but also the task itself.

And well, like OP said, it's just easier not to watch TV no matter how badly you want to, than to have to deal with asking about the weird remotes 😕.

I realized the other day that the reason I didn't watch much TV as a teenager (and why I'm only now catching up on late aughts/early teens media that I missed), is because I literally didn't understand how to use our TV. My parents got a new system, and it had three remotes with a Venn diagram of functions. If someone left the TV on an unfamiliar mode, I didn't know how to get back to where I wanted to be, so I just stopped watching TV on my own altogether.

I explained all this to my therapist, because I didn't know if this was more related to my then-unnoticed autism, or to my relationship with my parents at the time (we had issues less/unrelated to neurodivergency). She told me something interesting.

In children's autism assessments, a common test is to give them a straightforward task that they cannot reasonably perform, like opening an overtight jar. The "real" test is to see, when they realize that they cannot do it on their own, if they approach a caregiver for help. Children that do not seek help are more likely to be autistic than those that do.

This aligns with the compulsory independence I've noticed to be common in autistic adults, particularly articulated by those with lower support needs and/or who were evaluated later in life. It just genuinely does not occur to us to ask for help, to the point that we abandon many tasks that we could easily perform with minor assistance. I had assumed it was due to a shared common social trauma (ie bad experiences with asking for help in the past), but the fact that this trait is a childhood test metric hints at something deeper.

My therapist told me that the extremely pathologizing main theory is that this has something to do with theory of mind, that is doesn't occur to us that other people may have skills that we do not. I can't speak for my early childhood self, or for all autistic people, but I don't buy this. Even if I'm aware that someone else has knowledge that I do not (as with my parents understanding of our TV), asking for help still doesn't present itself as an option. Why?

My best guess, using only myself as a model, is due to the static wall of a communication barrier. I struggle a lot to make myself understood, to articulate the thing in my brain well enough that it will appear identically (or at least close enough) in somebody else's brain. I need to be actively aware of myself and my audience. I need to know the correct words, the correct sentence structure, and a close-enough tone, cadence, and body language. I need draft scripts to react to possible responses, because if I get caught too off guard, I may need several minutes to construct an appropriate response. In simple day-to-day interactions, I can get by okay. In a few very specific situations, I can excel. When given the opportunity, I can write more clearly than I am ever capable of speaking.

When I'm in a situation where I need help, I don't have many of my components of communication. I don't always know what my audience knows. I don't have sufficient vocabulary to explain what I need. I don't know what information is relevant to convey, and the order in which I should convey it. I don't often understand the degree of help I need, so I can come across inappropriately urgent or overly relaxed. I have no ability to preplan scripts because I don't even know the basic plot of the situation.

I can stumble though with one or two deficiencies, but if I'm missing too much, me and the potential helper become mutually unintelligible. I have learned the limits of what I can expect from myself, and it is conceptualized as a real and physical barrier. I am not a runner, so running a 5k tomorrow does not present itself as an option to me. In the same way, if I have subconscious knowledge that an interaction is beyond my capability, it does not present itself as an option to me. It's the minimum communication requirements that prevent me from asking for help, not anything to do with the concept of help itself.

Maybe. This is the theory of one person. I'm curious if anyone else vibes with this at all.