#you gave it so much traction and i really appreciate that

[solalunar-eclipse]

Sonadow Snippets #2

In which Sonic returns the favor.

| One |

Shadow’s eyes were carefully trained on Sonic as the blue hedgehog raced through the forest, jumping over roots that sprouted out from the ground and spin-dashing whenever he could in an effort to gain momentum. Of course, Shadow was right by his side, the jets of his skates hissing in rhythm with his strides…but this particular time, the more serious of the two never pulled ahead.

For once, this wasn’t a race.

Instead, Shadow was following Sonic on a path only he knew, waiting to see exactly what lay at the end. After the time when Shadow had invited Sonic to come watch him skate atop a lake out in the middle of nowhere, it hadn’t taken long at all for him to receive an offer in return. Sonic had come up to him one day while he was out picking up some odds and ends for Omega as a favor (apparently his friend had gotten himself temporarily banned from his favorite hardware store but couldn’t handle going without his usual supply of materials to tear apart). Sonic had been his usual direct self, just asking “Hey, do you want to go somewhere with me this Friday?”.

Of course, Shadow had requested a few more details, preferring to know such things as “When, exactly?” and “Why?” before he agreed. Sonic’s response to the latter had more or less made up his mind, however.

“I really appreciated you showing me your skating spot the other day, and…I wanted to show you something too.”

After that, how could he say no?

Of course, this had all come after Sonic offered (seemingly out of nowhere, at the time) to take part of the massive stack of various wooden boards, pieces of plastic, and a strange number of PVC pipes currently threatening to fall out of Shadow’s arms. As an artificially engineered lifeform, he might have been stronger than most, but even he couldn’t hope to win a fight against gravity with a haul that unwieldy.

After that, Shadow had agreed to show up to Sonic’s proposed meeting place, but insisted that “you’d better not be late”, which of course set off a lighthearted argument over whether or not the famously titled “fastest thing alive” was in fact ever late to anything. (Sonic said no to preserve his pride, Shadow said yes based on testimonials he’d heard secondhand through Rouge.)

But Sonic certainly hadn’t been late for this. He’d shown up at the appointed meeting spot even before Shadow had, something that was quite impressive considering the alien hedgehog’s tendency to be almost frighteningly punctual.

And now, the two were running through the forest together, as Shadow awaited the place Sonic considered so important.

All of a sudden, Shadow saw brighter sunlight up ahead—and then burst out of the tree line just behind Sonic into an open field. His momentum sent him tearing past Sonic, as a matter of fact, who had stopped in the middle of the field, apparently having reached his final destination. Shadow quickly turned into a wide arc, slowly decreasing his speed as he looped out, around, and back towards Sonic, before finally kicking his skates forward and coming to a stop himself.

“Pff, show-off.” Sonic teased, smirking.

“I just needed to find a way to burn off my speed,” Shadow insisted, not mentioning that he did generally prefer to do so in an artistic way when possible. “It’s not my fault you stopped without saying anything.”

“I did so say something, you must not have heard me.”

Shadow sighed, before letting it go for once. “So, what did you want to show me, anyway?”

Sonic gestured out to the field, which Shadow hadn’t looked at properly yet, first blinded by the sun and then focused on stopping himself. He turned in the direction Sonic had moved, and…

…it really was a special place.

This was the kind of field he’d begun to suspect only existed in storybooks and paintings of days gone by, after several years getting used to life down here on the planet. Most fields were filled with grass so tall he could barely see, or were patchy with dirt and mud amongst the green. This one, however, was covered in lush green grass, among which grew a veritable bounty of wildflowers.

It took him a long moment to think of what to say, and even then, it didn’t feel like much. “It’s beautiful.” he said, and then tried to add something more. “I…appreciate you bringing me here.”

Sonic beamed at him, leaning forward eagerly. “And this is just the beginning! Come on, we gotta get further out!”

Shadow followed Sonic as he walked further into the field, occasionally spinning around and walking backwards just to get a better view of everything. He’d always shoot Shadow a smile whenever he did that, too, and Shadow would dip his head slightly in response. It became almost comforting after the first couple of times, a silent little call-and-response.

You still liking it?

Yes.

Hey there!

Hello.

Glad you came.

I am too.

Eventually, they found one particular spot (Shadow knew it was specific because he saw Sonic lining up his position with a couple of landmark hills and rocks), and both stopped right there, at the top of one of the low, rolling curves in the earth. Sonic sat down cross-legged, before falling backwards and lying down, kicking his legs out as he did so. After a moment where he looked expectantly upwards at Shadow, the alien hedgehog lay down delicately, easing himself into it a little more than his companion.

For a while, they just lay there together in silence, staring up at the vibrantly blue, cloudless sky. Shadow sighed, feeling the warmth of the sun as it rapidly soaked into his dark fur.

Soon enough, he closed his eyes, just basking in the heat and letting his breathing slow down. It was sometimes difficult for him to stay grounded in the present moment, always ruminating on the past or trying to plan ahead for the future. Whenever he could feel his thoughts starting to wind up, though, he would just open his eyes again, tilt his head to the side, and try to count all the different colors and flowers that he could see in the field.

After a few more moments, Sonic spoke up. “I knew you’d be the perfect guy to do this with.”

“Did you?” Shadow asked, his voice hushed. He didn’t want to disturb the stillness of the moment.

“Yeah. I know we hang out a lot because we can keep up with each other…but that goes for the slow times as well as the fast ones.” Sonic answered.

Shadow let out a slow exhale. “Indeed. It’s more difficult to slow down mentally rather than physically, but when I can, it’s very much appreciated.”

“Is now one of those times?” He heard a shifting over to his right, and turned to see Sonic’s eyes looking at him, somehow a more vibrant green than the grass beside him.

“I’m doing my best. It’s a lovely place.” Shadow said softly.

Sonic smiled, much more peacefully than his usual grins. “One of the best parts of saving the world is getting to enjoy it after. You made this place possible, just as much as I ever have. I appreciate that.”

Shadow felt his face soften and relax slightly, and though he wasn’t sure what it looked like, the way Sonic’s eyes widened told him that it was a rare sight. “Thank you, Sonic. For bringing me here, and for your words.”

“Anytime, Shadow. Anytime at all.”

[ilsanslut]

꒷♡꒷ STUCK!

♰ featuring: nagi seishiro + shidou ryusei (separate) [blue lock]

♰ note: thank you all so much for supporting my last work as much as you did. it really means so much to me that people genuinely enjoy my writing and my content! now, as my second-ever work, i would appreciate it greatly if you would continue to support my work by reading, liking, and reblogging! also, I tried to make their sections as even as possible, but i'm a ryusei simp so uhhh enjoy!

sypnosis: in which you find yourself stuck in a rather precarious position and your boyfriend decides to "help" you. not without proper payment first, though. wc: 3.4k content/trigger warning(s): 18+. SMUT. fem/fem-bodied reader. stuckage. shidou is a warning on his own. accidental choki abuse (nagi). dry humping. degradation. unprotected sex. rough sex. creampie/breeding. spanking. name-calling/dirty talk (ryusei). ꒷꒦

NAGI SEISHIRO.

It was a normal weekend, unlike any other. It was just before noon, and you were cleaning your and Seishiro’s shared apartment while he was at the gym with Reo. You were diligently working to remove the accumulated dust from your wooden dresser with a disinfectant wipe that had a coconut scent when, all of a sudden, your hand bumped into something rather hard.

“Choki!!”

You shrieked, watching in horror as your boyfriend’s beloved potted cactus flew off of the dresser and knocked into the wall behind it. Everything moved in slow motion, and you could only gawk in horror as the pot spun once, twice, and then tumbled behind the dresser. You grimaced inwardly, awaiting the sound of shattering ceramics and the dull shuffling of displaced dirt, but it never came. Instead, the sound of the pot sliding down the wall and "gracefully" hitting the floor was heard instead.

With baited breath, you grabbed your phone, turning it to flashlight mode. You used it as a visual aid as you peered behind the dresser to assess the damage, sighing with relief when you saw Choki, Seishiro’s child, lying almost undisturbed between the wall and the backboard of the dresser.

Now here comes the difficult part, moving the dresser.

Kicking off your fuzzy house slippers to give yourself some traction, you grabbed the back end of one side and mustered all of your strength to shove the heavy thing out of the way—slowly, of course. Choki’s life was at stake here. However, you were only able to move the heavy thing out of the way just enough so that you could slip part of your body inside to reach for the plant. It was still a very tight fit.

Getting on your knees, you maneuvered between the tiny space you created, squeezing your arms, shoulders, and ribcage between them until the tension finally gave way at your waist. Breathing out in relief, your fingertips finally managed to grace the pot’s edge, pulling it into your grasp.

“Got . . . cha . . !”

You tried to shuffle backward, but you couldn’t. Attempting once more, you would come to realize that the dresser and the wall had some sort of death grip on your hips, rooting you in place. You were stuck. Trapped. And Nagi wouldn’t be home for another 30 minu—

“Y/N, what are you doing?”

You breathed, overjoyed at your boyfriend’s sudden voice. He always had the habit of moving in complete silence, despite his massive size. You hadn’t even heard him come home.

“Sei, oh, thank god! C-Can you pull me out? I think I’m stuck!”

You could barely make out the sound of his soft footsteps padding against the wooden floor as he made his way over to you. You could feel the heat radiating off of his body as he stood behind you, yet he made no effort to save you just yet.

“How did you even manage to do something like this?”

His confused tone held an unamused lilt, one that made your cheeks burn with embarrassment.

“I was cleaning the dresser, and I accidentally knocked Choki over. They’re fine! B-But I can’t get out . . .”

Still nothing.

Was he mad? Disappointed? Since you could not see him, you could not tell. You were aware, though, that his gaze was "burning" into you. You shifted, partially in discomfort, as you made a point to wiggle your hips so that he could focus on the task at hand. As a result, you could hear him drawing in a sharp breath through his teeth. Before you could ask him what he was doing, you felt him kneel behind you. His two strong hands came into contact with the exposed skin around your hips, where your shirt was rising. He did not pull, though. The opposite happened; you felt him pressing against you, his bulge delightfully nestling against your folds through your thin pajama shorts.

“Seishiro?!”

He effectively silenced your confused warble in exchange for a surprised squeal when his open palm placed a firm smack on one of your cheeks. All the while, he shamelessly ground himself against your core, stating, “That was for Choki." You swore that you could hear the pout in his voice when he spoke.

“Removing you would be a hassle. Besides, I’m tired.”

B-But what about me?!

You wanted to protest, however, you refrained. You felt his lithe fingers pinch the fabric just over your clit as he pulled it to the side, resting it against your ass and exposing your pretty folds to his prying eyes. You heard his hands rustling with his sweatpants and boxers before you felt him tapping the pretty pink-flushed tip of his cock, which you loved so much, against your sensitive bud causing you to keen and your toes to curl.

“Wish you could see how pretty you look right now.” He mumbled, teasingly pressing the head of his cock against your entrance a few times, but never pushing in fully.

“I-If you got me out, Sei, then maybe I could . .” Your voice was unsteady as your anticipation began to build in the form of your puffy folds beginning to leak for him, the lewd sounds of it squelching around his tip echoing in your quiet room.

He answered you with silence and actions rather than with words. In one swift motion, he pushed entirely into you, and without waiting for you to adjust, he began to thrust his hips into you at a steady pace. You clenched around him, nails scratching against the backboard of the dresser, the wall, the floor—anything to brace yourself from your boyfriend’s fervent pace. Once he got started, he wouldn’t stop until he spilled entirely inside of you, filling you to the brim with his cum.

“S-Sei, it’s too much!” You mewled, yet your body writhed with pleasure. You always said this, and yet, he knew you could take it. You've done it many times before. That’s why he reached further into the space you had created to bunch up the back of your his shirt and used it as leverage as though he were pulling your hair to pummel into you faster and deeper. Your ass rhythmically pounded on his pelvis, sending a lewd ringing through your own ears as it echoed off the bedroom walls. Something about this precarious situation you were in mixed with the feeling of Seishiro’s cock hitting those sweet spots inside of you, enthralled you more than usual. You were close and he could feel it.

“Gonna cum f’me, already?” He grunted as his other hands squeezed your hip, their blunt nails digging into your flesh. His moans were heavenly, a sound you longed to hear, as your walls fluttered around him. The hand that was on your hip pressed itself against the edge of the dresser, shoving it effortlessly to the side and thus freeing you from your confines. Although he appeared so unsuspecting, Seishiro’s strength, when he decided to use it, was frightening. Your lower half fell to the ground, your breasts and cheek smushing against the wooden floors as you felt his soft fingertips rubbing fast, furious circles around your clit.

“Oh my god, S-Sei, I-I’m gonna—”

“C’mon, make a mess for me, pretty.”

You did exactly that, creaming delightfully around his cock while mewing in ecstasy. Before long, you could feel Sei's hot seed bursting inside of you and filling up your pretty pussy to the brim, as well as his hips stuttering against you. Both of you were panting as he pulled out of you, your releases dribbling out of you and pooling beneath you onto the floor.

You finally managed to get off your sore knees and elbows as you turned to face your lover with trembling limbs. It was at this point that you noticed Seishiro's eyes, which were burning with something fierce and unknown, were boring into your own. His eyes resembled that hungry expression he would have when his ego started to rule him on the field.

“Let’s do it again, Y/N. On the bed this time.”

God, he was going to be the death of you someday.

SHIDOU RYUSEI.

You had a rather eventful day. Starting off leisurely in the morning, you and your boyfriend Ryusei enjoyed a pleasant brunch together before deciding to head out to the beach that day. You had to pick a spot with some privacy because Ryusei insisted he was only there to “freshen up his tan”, which required him to be in the nude, while you were there to enjoy his prescene, the sound of the waves lapping against the shore, and the sensation of sand between your toes. Only a short while ago, the two of you finally arrived home. Ryusei was currently taking his own shower, as you had already finished yours.

Relaxing on the couch in nothing more than an oversized shirt and your panties, you had decided to turn on some Netflix with the intention of finding either a good or a fun-bad horror flick to watch, when all of a sudden, the slippery lotion residue on your hands caused the remote to slip from your grasp and tumble onto the floor and skid beneath the coffee table. You groaned, head tossing back with exasperation, as this minor inconvenience was nearly enough to ruin your entire night and make you not even want to watch a movie anymore. Nonetheless, you sulked off the couch and sank to your knees, searching for the offending culprit beneath the coffee table. Somehow, it had managed to slide to the other side of the room, mocking you as it lay motionless between the walkway in the middle of the coffee table and the television. Any normal person would’ve simply gotten up and walked around the table to retrieve it, however, you were not like most people. I mean, look at your taste in men, for starters. Not to mention, you’re incredibly stubborn.

Instead, you crept beneath the table's glass top and between the second shelf, stretching your slender fingers as far as they could reach until they touched the black exterior of the remote. However, it was a little too far away for you to grasp, and your touch, combined with your wooden floors, only served to push it further away from you. You swore, glaring at the thing as though it had just offended your loved one, huffing in defeat as you decided to rise and walk to the remote.

But you couldn’t.

Your brow furrowed in perplexity as you placed one palm flat on the ground and the other on the surface beneath you, attempting but failing to push yourself back. You were wedged between the table's glass top and bottom shelves, flat on your chest. The more you wiggled, the further you seemed to wedge yourself in between the two surfaces that held you taut.

You stopped, dumbfounded. As much as you dreaded calling Ryusei for help because you knew he would taunt you endlessly instead of helping you . . . you did not have many other options.

“Ah, Ryu!!” Your voice carried through the hallways, hoping that he was out of the shower to hear you yell.

“. . . Yeah, babe?”

His voice made your heart lurch in your chest. You were already debating whether you should just say nevermind and try to wiggle out on your own, or put your pride aside and ask for his assistance. In the end, the latter would be victorious.

“Could . . . Could you come here for a second? . . . Please.” Your plea was quiet, your cheeks already burning with shame as you awaited your impending doom.

You raised your gaze towards the master bedroom, where he was currently. How cruel fate was to put you in a position where you would be forced to watch him approach. Each second felt like an eternity until you heard the soft padding of Shidou's feet leaving the carpeted bedroom to shuffle along the wooden floors, only to abruptly pause.

Sheepishly, you peeked up at him through your lashes to where he stood, chest bare, droplets of water dripping from his unstyled hair and body, a towel that he used for his hair wrapped around his shoulders, and a towel wrapped dangerously low around his waist. His face was expressionless, his fuchsia oculars taking in the scene before them in silence. Your shy, embarrassed gaze, the position of you between the coffee table, and the cursed remote only inches away from his own feet.

“—You’re stuck, aren’t you?”

How you wished you were facing the other way to avoid seeing the way that maniacal grin that nearly resembled the Joker's formed on his face and how his cat-like eyes narrowed at you in amusement at your misfortune.

“ . . Yes.”

He barked out a laugh at you, his head tossed back in sheer, unabashed mania, much to your chagrin. Even though you knew this would happen, your cheeks couldn’t help but burn with frustration and shame. “I know, very funny. Now, could you help me out here, please? My knees are getting sore.”

Despite your whines, his mockery would continue, his large hands grasping both ends of the towel that rested on his shoulders as he waltzed over to you leisurely. “Hmm, I dunno, babe~.” He continued walking until he crouched right before you, his legs spread wide enough for you to see that he was already semi-hard beneath the fabric. Of course, he would be aroused by your misfortune. Tearing your gaze away from his manhood, which was only inches away from your face, you peered up at him only to see him grinning mercilessly down at you with mischief twinkling in his eye. “I gotta admit, I like this view of you. How’d ya know doggy was my favorite position~?”

Probably because you’ve put me in it multiple times before, asshole. You wouldn’t say that, though. You didn’t want to prolong your torment any further.

“Ryuseii.” You whined, mustering your best pitiful glance in an attempt to draw even an ounce of sympathy from your demon of a lover. “Please?” You tried with a pout.

You couldn’t tell if your attempt worked, however, with the way Ryusei’s feral grin would reduce to a playful smirk, you figured that you have gotten through to him. He raised his hand, patting your head twice and making sure to tousle your hair while he was at it. “I’ll see what I can do, cutie.”

He made a move to rise to his feet but paused mid-squat, “No promises, though.”

You waited until he was out of your view to roll your eyes at him, hands bracing themselves against the floor as you awaited to be freed from this nightmare. Ryusei sank to his knees behind you, humming aloud as though he were trying to make a big play out of figuring out how to get you out—or how you got there to begin with. His slender digits grasped at your waist, tugging halfheartedly. You knew better than anyone that Ryusei was capable of hoisting you into the air and tossing you around as though you were nothing. That being said, it was beyond obvious to you that he was obviously making a poor attempt on purpose.

“Wow, I dunno, Y/N. You see pre-tty wedged in here . . Maybe this’ll help.”

You had no idea when he had the opportunity to do it, but he had dropped his towel somewhere along the way, and you could feel him rubbing his semi-hard on against your panty-clad ass and making your clothed folds the focal point of attack.

“Ryusei—!” In frustration and arousal, you laboriously dragged out the syllables of his name. As much as you wanted to be mad at him, you knew that something like this was coming.

“Mm, yeah, keep saying my name just like that, baby.” He sighed blissfully, shamelessly now humping himself onto you until he was full mast, his hardened shaft twitching excitedly between your pillowy ass cheeks while his blushed tip beaded with pre. “Hah, shit, that’s it. ‘Could cum right now, all over ya’. You want that, angel? Want me to paint this pretty ass—” He paused, raising his palm high into the air before bringing it down unforgivingly against your rear to accentuate his point. “Look at that. Ya want me to paint this pretty ass with my nut, hm?”

"Yes, please, Ryu . . ?" You said against your better judgment as your thighs pressed against one another and your teeth dug into your bottom lip.

He chuckled throatily, already pulling your panties down your plump thighs until they rested on the backs of your knees. He lined himself up with your already drooling cunt, not wasting any time to push into you with one single thrust. He bottomed out inside of you, drawing all of the breath from your lungs. His pelvis pressed flush against you, blunt nails biting into the flesh of your hips and ass as he greedily pulled you against him. It was almost as if he were trying to force himself further into you than he already could. You whimpered beneath your breath, clenching around his cock as you felt his balls pulsing against your sensitive clit. He had only just entered you, and already he was about to cum.

“Greedy fuckin’ pussy.” He snarled through clenched teeth, picking up his pace. “Grippin’ me so tight, suckin’ me in so good, ngh—s-so desperate to be stuffed with a cock.”

His thrusts were sloppy and uncoordinated, but he did everything he could to keep bullying his cock into you, drool dribbling over his parted lips. It should be illegal for you to feel this good. It wasn't fair. He wanted to ravish you—take his time turning your cunt into his personal little pocket pussy, his perfect fucktoy, already premolded to the shape of his dick. But damn, he was about to bust, and you were approaching your climax too.

His pace grew relentless, barely giving you time to breathe or even think as he forced your hips to fuck back onto him, drawing a helpless gasp or delighted moan from your pretty lips with each impassioned thrust. You squirmed in his hold, your breath coming out in hot tufts as your end grew near.

“R-Ryu, baby, hah, mphf!!” You could barely get the words out as he fucked you within an inch of your life. “I-I’m close! M-My clit, please! I c-can’t reach it; touch me, plea—”

“No.”

His response was curt—simple, snarled out in what could only be described as a ferocious growl. His movements grew sloppier, his hips faltering in their pace as his cock throbbed heartily inside of you, ready to burst. “You cum on my, ngh, fuckin’ cock or not at all. Ya hear me, y’little cock-lovin’ slut?”

You whined in protest, to which the forward brought his palm down heavily on your already reddening cheeks from just his grip on you alone. If he could’ve reached you, he would’ve had a vice grip on your hair by now. “Answer me, bitch.” He spat with false malice, “Y’gunna cream around my cock? Make this fat dick a mess, hm?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Came your loud, unabashed chorus of unfiltered, unadulterated moans of sheer bliss.

Neither of you could hold back anymore. Ryusei spilled rope after rope of his hot, sticky seed into your abused cunt while your pretty folds creamed around his shaft in a way that could only be described as tantalizing. Silence, aside from both of your spent keens and blissed panting, filled the air around you. Once he was certain you were plugged full with his cum, Ryusei effortlessly snatched your body from between the coffee table, causing your exhausted body to collapse into his lap. As exhausted as he was, he made sure to cup your head so that it didn’t hit the ground too hard. He was always the sweetest when his post-nut clarity hit him. He took in your expression, noticing that your eyes were half-lidded and glassy with fat tears spilling from your waterline; your drool-covered lips were plump, red, and raw with the faintest of indentations along them from your pearly teeth; and your body convulsed and twitched ever so slightly from the sheer intensity of your orgasm. Not to mention the utterly fucked-out and euphoric look on your face.

. . . Ah, shit. He was hard again.

“Still with me, princess? . . Good. Come suck this cock clean and let me ruin that pretty face of yours even more~.♡”

ⓒ vampiie 2023 — all rights reserved. please do not repost my work outside of tumblr, modify, or translate my work in any form/means. please do not share my work to tiktok or any other site.

[stellewriites]

johnny x fat!reader based off of this post i did a while back

cw: unprotected sex, minimal prep, kind of public sex, johnny’s a biter, fat fem reader. it’s just 2.5k of fucking like idk what to say

you winced as you read over the messages once more, feeling your stomach drop at the most recent one sent.

> who am i speaking to? i’d like to be able to make a complaint

you hesitated for a second, wondering if you’d get away with giving a coworker’s name, specifically claire, the coworker that always gave you shit on shift. but as much as the thought tickled you, you knew management would only figure out it was you when they realised claire wasn’t covering for you today.

you typed and sent back your name and apologised again, hoping he didn’t really want to send in a complaint for your slip up. you needed this job and it’d been hard enough to get it despite being over-qualified.

you knew you were a sort of diversity hire for the gym, every other worker there looked like they modelled for gymshark and liked to run a couple miles every morning before breakfast; whereas you cringed at the idea of the friction burn it’d inevitably cause between your thick thighs after the first five minutes.

the rest of the staff were nice enough, friendly; though a few of them couldn’t help but throw comments your way about your weight. it was something you’d had to develop a thick skin to after the first month working there, spending your lunch breaks or the drive home in tears, your self confidence the lowest it’d been since high school.

once you figured out how to let their shit roll off your back like water on a duck, it all became a hell of a lot easier again. though your confidence had taken a hit you were still recovering from. and your current dry spell in the bedroom hadn’t helped.

you worked behind the welcome desk, admin primarily but you covered the IT side of things too, what little there was of it.

the little local gym had started to gain a bit of traction online on social media and the owners had decided to exploit the opportunity and create workout clothes with the gym’s name and logo on it. regulars seemed to like it and people online had started buying when you’d posted that they’d get 20% off their next order if they posted online wearing and using the gym-wear.

it was all going great; you organised the orders and got them sent out on time, arranged any returns or customer service questions without a hitch.

or you did until today.

you’d just been taken aback when you saw the photo the customer - soap141 - had sent in. you’d typed without thinking and now? now you might lose your job because that customer looked to be about five seconds away from busting the seams on his workout vest.

and what a sight that would be.

shit, fuck. you needed to concentrate. it’s been far too long since you last hooked up with anyone and you were always too tired to deal with your pent up energy after work so it had… been a while. you were rightfully and understandably flustered at this photo.

you clicked back on the photo and bit your cheek as you zoomed in on his hands.

you closed the tab with a shake of your head, desperate to clear it, and started working on replying to the emails of the day.

you’d gotten through the majority of them when you were interrupted by a knock on the front desk gaining your attention.

it was just before lunch, and most newcomers either tended to start early morning or in the evening after work, and everyone else was able to go through with their membership qr code with no need to speak to you. this visit was unexpected and not in your usual routine.

you looked up at the unfairly handsome man before you and smiled.

“hi, can i help you?”

“i hope so, hen,” he said and his eyes dragged over your soft body appreciatively before landing on your name tag and growing sharp. “need to make a return, vest i got was too small. lass i spoke to online was, uhh, nae so helpful.”

you flushed.

the name badge pinned on your chest suddenly felt like it weighed a ton as you did you best not to let your eyes flicker down or you hand rise to cover it. he’d spotted it already, you could tell by his meanly satisfied look that was pinning you to your chair.

“i’m so so sorry, sir—.”

“johnny.”

“johnny. i can get that return sorted for you immediately,” you said, visibly flustered. he watched you for a moment, seeming to revel in your nervous energy until you sent a wide eyed, skittish look over your shoulder, hoping none of your co-workers were near by enough to overhear how much free merch you were about to offer for him to not make a complaint.

johnny however thought you were looking for a way out, a coworker to back you up.

“hey now, there’s no need t’make a scene, ey?” he interrupted, his head tilted to catch your eyes quicker when you turned back to face him. “i’m sure you can find a way to make it up to me.”

oh thank god, you were on the same page, he just wanted a fucking bribe. that you could do easily.

“of course, definitely. follow me,” you said and stood up. you waved him behind the desk and pointed to the storage room behind you. “i can process your refund before you leave, and you can have a look at the sizes of the other items we have in stock. maybe a free vest and t-shirt for all the trouble?”

he winced.

“that’s not exactly what i had in mind, bonnie.” he crept closer, his fingers dancing along the surface of the desk, playful in a way you couldn’t relate to at that moment. “was real unprofessional what you said, but i have something in mind that you can do for me that might get me to forget it ever happened. would take my mind off it, if you catch my drift.”

close enough to touch, he let his hand drift up to cheekily tug at the hem of your shirt, his fingers making light work of burrowing beneath to find your soft, warm skin.

“are you fucking with me?” you demanded after letting his words sit in the air for a moment, holding his wrist still. you’d been a bit forward on the chat, sure, but if he was going to be a prick about it you’d rather face the consequences with your managers instead.

his face grew serious for a moment, all teasing sharpness gone. “would never,” he said earnestly. you looked at him and saw the genuine arousal he held in the lick of his lips, the puffed up breadth of his chest; genuine unbridled want.

fuck it.

your own shoulders relaxed and you nodded.

“well, first thing we’re taught in retail is that the customer’s always right,” you said as you walked back towards the storage room, your eyes flickered to the gym behind you but no one was looking your way. you kept his hand at your waist so he followed closely. “maybe i could show you something more exclusive back here, you can try it on for size.”

“i think i already know it’s goin’ tae fit jus’ right,” johnny grinned and kicked the storage door closed behind him.

he hooked his fingers under your shirt, dragging it up until he could take in his fill of your thick waist, warm and malleable beneath his rough palms. he was none to gentle but determined in keeping you close. he dragged his nose down your cheek and breathed heavily for a moment as you clung to his biceps.

“what do you want?” you asked shakily. you’d experienced your fair share of one night stands but it’d been a while since someone had been so openly wanting with you, it left your hands a little jittery at how quick everything was moving.

“what are ya willing to give?” he shot back, letting a wet kiss land next to your ear.

“customer satisfaction is high on my list of priorities, i’ll have you know,” you hummed, trying to calm down and let yourself enjoy it.

johnny laughed, a little too loud for the small room, and pulled back enough to wiggle his eyebrows.

“ah bet it is,” he snickered. “but ye cannae deny that happy workers keep a place running, and i’m all about giving pretty workers their due benefits.”

he tugged at the waistband of your sports leggings, dropping to his knees so quickly you felt lightheaded at the sight.

“take tha’ off.” he nodded up to your rumpled shirt and you moved without hesitance despite the bright, unflattering light in the centre of the glorified cupboard. you shed your bra without waiting for instruction next, letting it drop to the floor where johnny had haphazardly piled your shoes and clothes. he was currently mesmerised by the hang of your belly, and the wobbling clench of your thighs as you shifted in front of him. he ran his hands and lips ever so lightly from your knee to your hip before baring his teeth.

“hey, no biting!” you were quick to say, your hands going to frame his face, fingers tilting up his jaw so you could both hold him back and make eye contact to show him you were serious. you had a feeling he was the type to push boundaries and ignore you if you weren’t careful.

“a’right hen, not this time,” he agreed and delicately kissed the stretch marks there instead and then turned to kiss one of your palms. once you’d let go, he stood and bent his head low to kiss and suck at your tits, his hands unable to stay still as he plucked at a nipple before it roamed further down to squeeze at your arse or rub at where the thin cotton of your knickers dug into your skin.

you tilted your head back and let him explore freely for a moment before a heavy hand was dragging you forward by the back of your neck and his lips found yours.

you keened into his mouth as he kissed you deeply; licked at his tongue and lips lazily in turn. you pulled back feeling throughly ravaged and yet barely touched.

“you’re staying clothed? that doesn’t seem fair.” you pouted as you looked down at the shirt you held in clenched fists.

“fuck fair,” he panted into your mouth, grinning. “but maybe if you ask nicely i’ll tek it off.”

“please?” you begged immediately, delighting in the surprise on his face. “please take it off, want to see you. please.”

he snorted, eyes blown wide and nodded.

“ok, pretty thing,” he said indulgently and made quick work of his shirt and trousers. you gawped at his bare, hairy chest and the swollen cock trapped in his boxers. “c’mere.”

he tugged you forward again and kissed down your chest, light presses of his lips to soften the scratching trail of his beard, before dropping to his knees. you leant back unsteadily against the small table you used to put orders together, crammed against the wall.

his eyes flickered up to yours and you recognised a flash of mischievousness a second before he lent in and bit at your plush hip. his hands squeezed at the fat of your thighs as you gasped out a sharp moan, he hissed as he let go when you pulled at his mohawk in shock and slight embarrassment.

“couldnae help it, hen,” he said with a dopey grin. he wrapped his hand around yours in his hair. “do that again though, yeah?”

you barely gave yourself a moment to recover or think too hard about his blatant disregard of your earlier wishes and instead tugged lightly, a little hesitant now that it wasn’t instinctual, at his hair. you were spurred on by the pleasured crease in his brow as he pulled down your knickers and his groan from both the hint of pain and the sight of you bare before him.

“think ye might just be made for me, such a perfect body and yer not so sweet as ye let on after all,” he mumbled. unceremoniously he sucked on two fingers before trailing them between your thighs, bullying your left leg up onto one burly arm so he could gain better access to your slick pussy. you tried to balance on one leg and less so on the table but the feeling of johnny’s tongue on your clit, lavving like a needy dog, had you slumping back.

he let out a heady groan at the taste of you and knew just what to do to keep you dripping like he had you on tap.

“remind me ta get yer number after this,” he panted, fingers stretching you quickly and clumsily.

his words were the final nail in the coffin that confirmed he wasn’t just fucking you for the shock value or to tell his friends there’s an easy fat girl that works at the gym. his attraction was genuine and he didn’t seem ashamed of that, was eager with it even.

showed it in the messy way he ate you out, licking between his fingers and lavishing in the wet, sticky noises he pulled from you; hidden only when either of you moaned too loud. you tried to hide it behind your hands but johnny seemed to pull back purposely to keep them loud when your nails scratched along his scalp.

it wasn’t enough to get off though, and he knew it, didn’t care actually as he had wasted no time once his third finger was fitting snug inside your cunt to pull them all back out, deeming you stretched and prepped enough.

he kissed you, too open mouthed and all tongue - far from the best kiss, but one you’d not soon forget - once he was stood up and turned you around so you could bend over the table.

“yeah?” he checked in quickly, freeing his cock and giving it a quick tug with his sticky fingers.

you nodded eagerly and reached back to hold one arse cheek to the side, letting him look at your holes from the back.

“fuck me,” he swore, whistling until you let go to swat at him with a laugh.

“my fucking co-workers,” you hissed, biting back a feral grin. the idea of them catching you now seemed less daunting than it had at the start, not when the promise of johnny’s cock was so close.

“if they haven’t heard us by now, bonnie…” he slapped your other cheek and bit his lip as it sent a ripple across your body. “beautiful.”

he tapped his cock at you pussy, hissing at the tease of the wet heat he was seconds away from.

“johnny,” you groaned out as he lingered.

you winced as he pushed in a moment later, just this side of too tight given the rushed prep but you whined through it until he bottomed out.

“perfect fit,” he hummed.

you felt every inch of him, only exacerbated when he leant forward to lean on your back, kissing at your neck.

“steamin’ jesus, i can feel you clenchin’ ‘round me,” he huffed. he ran a hand down your side before shifting, starting a steady pace he seemed to lose himself in as the pleasure your body brought him had him seeing stars.

you gasped at an especially hard thrust, your breath knocked out of you even as you felt yourself grow ever closer to your orgasm. you knew it’d be a doozy after going so long without, but as johnny’s spongy head knocked passed your g-spot like he was being paid to make you cum in under two minutes flat, you knew you weren’t going to be able to be quiet about it.

christ, it felt like he was nudging at your cervix, something you knew wasn’t true but the thought had you clenching and creaming around him either way.

“h-harder,” you whispered. “god, harder.”

johnny complied immediately, readjusting his grip on your hips to get better leverage to fuck into you harder and deeper.

“gonna cum already, hen, can feel you pulsing around me so good,” he warned.

“let me— i wanna, i want,” you struggled to get the words out but the thought of johnny leaving you high and dry after getting his own, when you were so close, had you panicking.

“i know, beautiful, don’t you worry. you’ll get yours,” he promised, hefting you both back a step from the table, just enough so he could slip his hand around and let his middle finger rest over your throbbing clit.

you tried to stifle your moan at the welcome and necessary attention and knew johnny was grinning like a mad man behind you.

“There you go, wanna hear you so bad, s’fucking hot,” he encouraged. “fuck yer coworkers.”

you rolled your hips along with his thrusts and steady pressure on your clit until you felt your vision white out and your cunt clench viciously. you felt johnny huff and slap his hips into your forgiving arse until he moaned, not at all muffled like yours had been.

he slumped over you, doing his best to balance on shaking arms so he didn’t crush you against the table.

“you tell your managers that this customer is definitely satisfied,” he said, eliciting an unattractive snort from you. you giggled as you lightly shrugged and batted him off until you were able to peel your sweaty skin from the table and stand back up straight, rubbing delicately at the imprint of the table that ran across your stomach.

he winced and ran a gentle palm across it alongside yours.

“wan’ me t’kiss it better?” he offered, the look in his eye only half as teasing as you were expecting.

without a care, he grabbed one of the shirts off the shelf and wiped you down, keeping his touches efficient and tender when they drifted between your legs.

he passed you your clothes, smiling at your shy thanks and busied himself with getting dressed as you struggled back into your own clothes.

it should’ve felt awkward walking out into the gym; you were almost certain your coworkers would be waiting outside ready to catch you, or worse some of the gym users. but johnny made it seem normal.

as you went to take your seat behind the desk he slapped your arse one last time, giving you a cheeky wink when you hissed at him.

“prick,” you huffed with a smile, rubbing at the smarting spot, but he only cooed and leant in to steal a chaste kiss before rounding back to stand in front of the desk.

he leant his hip against it as he looked down at you, suddenly shy when he held his phone out.

“only if ya want, hen. no pressure if this was just a one time thing.”

you glanced at his hopeful puppy-dog eyes and reached for the phone.

fuck it, maybe he could be your morning workout.

[axel-ambassador]

2024 Retrospective

It's the big 2025, so I wanna just take the time and reflect on the past year. To start off, wow! What a year it's been. So much has happened, and I wanna talk about it.

First off, Ripaxel.

I feel like my account wouldn't be the same without Axel. She's my namesake, despite me not talking about her anymore. I still adore her and her relationship with Ripper, and I'm still happy with the art I made for them.

I wouldn't be remissed if I didn't talk about my first ever fic, Hanging Axe, an 11.5k word one shot full of pure Axel angst. It was my first indication that I could take all of my ideas somewhere, and that I had what it took to write an impactful story that people cared about and wanted more of.

Part of me wants to change my name since Axel isn't my focus anymore, but another part wants to keep it. It's the name I've had for over a year and where I really got my start on this platform. It's here to stay, at least for now.

And now onto my next hyperfixation. I adore Vaggie and Chaggie with everything I am. And I wanna thank my college buddies, whom I wouldn't have even watched Hazbin without so, thanks guys.

I'm very proud of how far my art has come. I've learned so much, and I'm still learning! Comparing these from May and October, just look! I certainly wouldn't be where I am now without her. Even when I was stressed, drawing her provided a needed outlet.

And as much as I hated summer school it really gave me the time to practice and hone myself so thanks summer school 😑

And now, my fics. Good Lord, my fics.

I never expected these silly (AND ENTIRELY SELF INDULGENT BTW) AUs that I made to gain so much traction, both here and on AO3 especially. I wanna thank everyone that's read them, left kudos, commented, bookmarks, etc. All of it means the absolute world to me.

I deeply appreciate everyone who's ever made fanart, sent an ask, or just simply engaged with me on here. You guys make it all happen, y'all are amazing!

I wanna give a quick section to Total Drama as a whole. I'm sure almost none of you remember my Total Dram Supers comic. I still love TDS as a concept, but idk if I'll revisit it anytime soon. I'd rather be posting other things and focus on what I'm really interested in at the moment.

That being said, I still love Total Drama! It's the reason I'm even on Tumblr to begin with! I don't talk about it as much as I used to, but I'll pump out some art for it occasionally. Long live Gwourtney.

And lastly, my Tumblr exclusives, as I've taken to calling them. Thanks everyone for indulging in my HP fixation. I love story crafting and I love what I've done with this AU so far, and there's more to come!

As for Hotel of Horror, believe me I've been meaning to work on it. It's not cancelled or anything, making that clear, I'll get around to it eventually, but it's like...not as urgent as my fics or anything. (Maybe I'll just wait till Halloween next year lol)

With all of that said, I'm very proud of how far I've come as both an artist and a writer. Thank you to my followers, my friends, my regulars, anyone who's ever left a note on my stuff. It means a lot to me.

Stay safe everyone, here's to another year!

[ascendingaeons]

The Story Behind My "Hymn to Sekhmet"

I was very surprised with how much traction my Hymn to Sekhmet has gotten… so I decided to share the story behind it. This might be quite long, but I think a lot of you would appreciate it.

I have been an eclectic pagan for most of my life. Heathenry was my focus in that sense that I worked with the Vanir and studied runology since I was fifteen. Kemeticism was my passion since childhood, but I was never formally a devotee. I pretty much worked exclusively with Set for most of my life. Our relationship is somewhere between father and son and student and guide. In the summer of 2020, I decided to finally set up a Kemetic altar.

It comprised of three statues and three candles on a small, very old nightstand and was otherwise unadorned. One statue was to Set, another to Bast, and the third to Sekhmet. I focused exclusively on Set and Bast for a while. I was afraid of Sekhmet. I read every book I could find about Her and they nearly all had one thing in common about a Sekhmet-based practice: if you cannot do it yourself, do not ask Her about it. That really intimidated me to the point I took Her statue down several times before it earned a permanent place.

One day in September of 2020 I finally prayed to Sekhmet with an offering of cold water. I felt a circular window of fire about 16 inches in diameter open up in front of my face just above my altar. It felt hot, like the heat of a campfire. I felt that She was looking at me. After a few seconds, the window disappeared. I didn’t interact with Her for a while after that.

In November of 2020, my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He was given six months to live and chemotherapy was prescribed. I was immediately thrust into the role of caregiver. I drove my dad to and from chemotherapy, gave him his meds and food, helped him to the bathroom, cleaned him up, and anything else I could do. I was awake for about 22 hours a day for six months, even with the help of a hospice company.

One night, when my dad was on respite (what hospice companies call when a patient is sent to a nursing home for a few days so the caregiver can recover), I felt… really bad. I felt alone, afraid, numb, and lost. Without any offering or formality, I prayed to Bast. I asked Her to just stay with me. I suddenly felt myself wrapped up in a blanket of what felt like bubblegum-pink energy. It felt like stuffed animals, cotton candy, a fuzzy quilt, and just… pure love. I later learned that this describes the higher heart chakra’s energy but to me, it was just Bast. She hugged me like that for about an hour until She decided I was okay, and then, very much like a cat, She left.

The days went on with barely any sleep, a lot of emergencies and scares, until one day my dad was finally asleep. It was around four in the afternoon. I was thinking a lot about Sehkmet at this point and Her domain of healing. It was very near and dear to my heart. At the time I was thinking of going back to school to finish my psychology degree and become a counselor. I took the time to get cold water in a nice glass and some fresh bread I had delivered that morning. I put it all on a golden plate I ordered for my altar.

I prayed to Sekhmet, solemnly and respectfully, naming Her Epithets and offering praise in addition to water and bread. I asked… that She let everything be okay and help me to be a better caregiver to my dad. The sad thing is, I was very hard on myself. I felt like I was not doing enough but I later found out that every nurse and social worker from the hospice company had, individually and separately, reported to the company’s administrator in high praise of me. I didn’t know then that some caregivers are really horrible to the point of neglect and abuse. I was doing the best I could in a situation that was out of my control and was given a level of praise that floored me.

After concluding my prayer, I lay down in my bed next to my altar. I was lying on my side when suddenly Sekhmet’s etheric body manifested beside me. I could feel it and somewhat see it with my third eye. She started to rub my back as I lay there. Her hand felt like the sun’s heat reflected off of water, a sensation I knew well from fishing in summer. It felt almost like fire but one that would never burn me. As She rubbed my back, I felt Her head come next to mine. I felt Her face, soft and bristly, next to my left ear as She began to speak words I couldn’t hear. I could even feel the heat from Her breath.

Unlike Bast, Sekhmet stuck around. She followed me everywhere for the next two days. It hadn’t really sunk in yet but I had received what, for me, was irrefutable proof of the Gods’ love. Set was with me my entire life, my teacher and friend. Bast and Sekhmet creaked open the door to theurgy a little bit more. It wasn’t until my Reiki Attunement ceremony that the door was blown clean off its hinges when over a dozen Netjeru physically manifested. During my Attunement, Bast held my left hand and Sekhmet held my right. By the end of the ceremony, the two were hugging me as I lay on my teacher’s table.

As I began working with the Netjeru in my shamanic practice, Sekhmet communicated something to me. She asked me to offer Her my pain and fear. And so I wrote that hymn on what was proving to be a very hard day.

I can never go back to a world where the Gods do not exist or do not love us completely, irrevocably, and unconditionally. My relationship with the Netjeru is one of mutual loyalty, love, admiration, and service. For all intents and purposes, I am a new Kemetic. I have studied Egyptology since I was seven years old and regarded Kemet as a far-flung home, a feeling that has never left my heart since it ignited there when I was a toddler. But that is a story for another day.

Well… that is my story. I hope it finds you well!

Dua Sekhmet! Dua Netjeru!

Image is “Sekhmet Devotional” by Valoreanthes. A Mother Lioness and Her cub, a side of Sekhmet far too often overlooked.

[couldawouldashoulda50]

How William react to Loren getting attention from guys in Sweden? I mean he got lots of love and attention during the summer so she needs some love too and get his ass in gear and make it official lol make him work

Nonnie - I like way you think.

Please don't get me wrong - I love William but I love the idea of someone turning the tables on him a little bit. Not maliciously - Loren is not an attention seeker…but William starts to notice that, whether she wants it or not, she’s an attention getter wherever she goes. I have mentioned before about reading about Taurus traits - they apparently can be a bit possessive and that's sort of how I picture William to be after he's spent more time with Loren.

This is what I imagined:

It was 3:22 AM and William was in a snit. In a mood. Pissy.

Beside him, Loren slept soundly and peacefully. She deserved it—she was completely fucked out. Loren often matched, or even exceeded William's sex drive, but tonight, his appetite for Loren was insatiable. After her last orgasm—where she spasmed so hard on top of him that she flopped over and clung to the mattress like it was her only saving grace—blissful exhaustion swooped in. She had almost passed out in that very spot but she willed herself to go to the bathroom first. The minute she returned, she kissed William appreciatively and fell asleep straight away.

William was tired but sleep wasn't finding him easily. A slew of thoughts began to weigh on his mind. Despite what most people assumed about William's cool and unbothered persona, sometimes things got to him, much like in moments like this.

The time Loren had spent in Stockholm was nothing short of perfect. Her presence was like a breath of fresh air—whether it was a family get-together, or a post-nap fika with friends, or even just the two of them out for a walk or lazing in bed—she just radiated goodness wherever she went. However, the one thing William noticed early on was that Loren stuck out in Sweden like a sore thumb. Her eyes were the colour of dark chocolate and her dark olive skin was that of a Mediterranean goddess. William saw it every single time they walked into a packed bar or club. He may be the reason they were escorted past the line-ups, but all eyes seemed to bypass William and fell upon Loren once they entered.

On one hand, the pride he felt knowing she was there with him… it wasn't just about her beauty. It was the way she carried herself. Her friendliness and kindness towards others. She could be reserved or be exuberant. Display her biting wit or be totally serious. How she could mouthed the words to Eminem and then gush about her love of Tchaikovsky in the same breath.

On the other hand, men, and in many cases women too, fixated on Loren. Women would approach her asking about her hair—her long, wavy mane that naturally gave off a sexy, freshly-fucked look.

But the men eye-fucked her over and over. Loren was slender with curves—seemingly a lethally magnetic combination that they could not avoid. William could mostly handle the gawking and the muttering under their breath about her tits and ass.

But it was when they approached her that he really got his back up.

It's not that he didn't trust her—he did implicitly and without any reservation. It revolved around his own hesitation about making things more official between them. He was still trying to navigate his meteoric stardom and worried about all the temptations that went along with it. So perhaps it was more that he didn't trust himself.

He didn't know what he was waiting for. Until he figured it out, she was very much fair game for other interested parties.

Which led to him sitting in bed in that moment, avoiding the hundreds of DMs and text messages that he received from the myriad friends, past hook-ups, and ones that hoped to be a future option.

Instead, he scrolled through the comments from one of Loren's segments that was edited for Instagram and TikTok. Her videos were picking up traction. Some of the comments were from her target audience, expressing appreciation for her love of languages and her easy-to-follow methods of learning conversational French.

But more and more, there were heart-on-fire emojis, fire emojis, and so on. There were offers to whisk her away for some "private lessons," some guy flaunting his yacht and asking "would she be his personal translator in Monaco," a smattering of marriage proposals, and a good number comments about her looks.

The thoughts of her being with someone else freaked him the fuck out.

William rubbed his eyes and set his phone down. He looked at Loren—she was stretched out on her back with one arm bent above her head. The sheet that covered her had slipped off, exposing her upper half to the cool air in the room.

William, who always ran a little hot, slid his hand along her midriff and then over her breasts. When she stirred from the warmth of his hands, he crawled on top of her, brushing his lips across her skin. Loren smiled and let out a soft moan as she wrapped her arms and eventually her legs around William's body.

She murmured responses to some of his lingering questions. Mainly "Do you actually know—or see—how men look at you?"

Her response was simple. "I don't care if men look at me like I'm this or that. I only care if you look at me that way."

He smiled against her skin.

Fuck, she really is a keeper, he thought.

[drivestraight]

5, 18, 30 ao3 asks !

from here

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

i was actually fully convinced that no one was going to read eat them alive (see: exhibit A)

and it in fact like. i think it got something like 200+ comments in 2 days. i remember watching all the emails come in like that one roman succession gif. complete and utter shock. it's all been so lovely and overwhelming and i feel like i didn't express my appreciation and gratitude when it was happening enough but. yeah. i wish i could fully communicate how much that all meant to me + how thankful i am for everyone's feedback + demonstrated interest in the fic. so. yeah, i was really shocked about the feedback for eat them alive

he turned in like i didn't exist, also, i wasn't expecting to get as much traction as it did. these also happened to be my 2 most popular fics of the year 😭

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

maybe a cheating answer but. i definitely had a lot of trouble writing lestappen this year. i'm actually writing them RN (but in a different manner/in a different role than i did before), so like - both of them, in a way. lando also is a bit difficult even ATM. mostly because it's new, and i want to not only get it right, but write him in an interesting way

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

well. i guess that i like landoscar now (i didn't particularly care for them in 2023)

ty for the ask ❤️

[n0tamused]

HSR: Writer from the Xianzhou

To: ▇▇▇▇, my beloved bride

From: Kaiya, Intelligentsia Guild HQ ▇▇

There is a certain writer on Xianzhou that has piqued the interest of many in the last several years. Under the pen name “WangWei” you can find quite a few genres of books, from children books to adult novels and even a few short poem booklets, but the most notable features of this anonymous writer is that he leaves pages blank in certain spots, and one of his books has several blank pages at the end, the story forever unending. Some claim this is a lame approach to story finale, others see it as poetic in a way, and others just see it as some marketing scheme to gain more traction to the books and the writer’s own name. But wherever people looked, WangWei was nowhere to be found, so his face remains a mystery..

I have read some of these books myself, and I have recommended them to my coworkers and my supervisor. By far, my favorite is the one named ‘The Games of Blood and Fire’, and it is the most complex piece of work I have read up to date. It is set in this old world, one not found even by the Traveling Nameless and their silver rails. They do not follow any aeons but their own gods, the old and the new. It has political conflicts as well as personal ones that string themselves together into this big image of the war where any small mistake can snowball into this big mess later down the line, and most special of all, they have dragons. And no, not like the Long of the Xianzhou Luofu, or some other place, these are real dragons.  I have recommended this particular book to my supervisor, knowing she likes such complex literary pieces and intriguing dialogue. 

She laughed at me when I gave her the book and told her of the author, saying how it is lazy work to leave blank pages, a waste of paper she says. I couldn’t really argue with her, but she told me she’d give it a shot later, and she did!  She read it quite quickly too, and we have been talking about so many theories and possible endings ever since, any time we catch a break, her knowledge on the series has quickly surpassed my own. It is good to see the supervisors smile a bit more often, she has really fallen in love with the series, maybe even the author’s other books too from the word of it. With all that in mind I now pack the same book for you, my dearest. I hope you will find joy in reading it as much as I did. I do hope the writer does decide to finish this series, I find the chapters quite inspiring. I look forward to hearing about your day, please send my thanks to ▇▇ for 

(the paper is too damp here and the ink has been smudged).

Take care.

-Kaiya ▇▇▇▇

Ⓒ n0tamused. Do not repost, translate, edit, and/or copy any of my works. Likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated.

[pucktoxicity]

https://www.tumblr.com/pucktoxicity/759190193092902912/spill-nico-hischier-tea-please?source=share

thank you for this. such a level headed "tea spilling". its so irritating how some other blogs report "likes" and the "bracelet" thing as fact when nothing means anything ahaha.

like yes, the boy hooks up, of course he does. doesn't make him a slut, doesn't make the people he hooks up with sluts. christ.

just wanna say, it makes me so sad that he was privy to the few morons on social media who were questioning his captaincy.

I think he's probably the most consistently beloved current Devil. like I know outside of the Devils bubble, he probably doesn't grain much traction, but the majority of Devils fans really understand what he means to the team. I've seen him adored and loved and appreciated throughout most of the social media platforms from all types of Devils hockey fans. Its just that the people that don't like him are so loud and it sucks that he saw all of that, but I'm glad he's using it to get motivated. thats our captain!

i appreciate being considered level-headed😌 tell my mother that pls! jk, but honestly the bracelet thing was fun, and funny to see because it gave ship tea page vibes (such as, like, that 2019 era of ethma tea being everywhere online lol), and it’s nothing crazy at all, but since i knew the answer, i wanted to clarify 😁 and the likes thing is a smidge crazy at times, but also just so girls being girls of everyone that i kind of love it?

and yeah, my heart breaks for him knowing he knows what was said. i do know that being so dominant at mens’ worlds was a confidence boost he desperately needed after past season, which makes me extremely happy, like nico, you were drafted first overall for a reason. you were made captain for a reason. i hope he truly never doubts that almost all devils fans**, and the team, and entire organization know he’s the perfect captain for this team. ❤️

** except for 40 year old incel men (who couldn’t even skate the length of the ice if they tried) that sit their unathletic, fat asses on a definitely crumb-covered couch and complain that professional athletes aren’t good enough at something they could not ever do 🙂‍↔️💋

[bisluthq]

also like, I'd argue eva mendes was zqually as famous as ryan g when she decided to slow down/stop the filming for him, whereas like ryan was always kind of a movie star and while Blake obviously had the massively successful gg thats only one project ane its from a time where tv was considered inferior to film in terms of Acting. Add to that the fact that Blake was quite young even for an actress when she got with Ryan and the fact that she seems to still want to make films, it does read like a career stunted a bit by a relationship which overshadowed her and which is filmed with growing imbalances, which is not the vibe with ryan and eva at all, like even having retired I feel like to this day if she wanted to start again she would have enough good will and respect in hollywood to make it work, and while it may have a bit to do ryan g especially after barbie it would mostly be on her own merit.

Sidenote, but blake doesnt drink??? how is she friends with taylor

but also I think Eva didn’t do it “for” Ryan like she’s given interviews where she’s very much said she just wanted to focus on the kids while they’re little and she’s in the fortunate position to have been able to afford to do that. She’s also said that in part that came out of deciding to have kids at a later point in life than a lot of other women (she was 40 when she gave birth to their oldest) and being hyper aware that she’s only got the one shot with them and obviously having achieved a great deal prior to that point like idk that it even felt like a compromise in any way. It’s what she wanted to focus on at 40. She does do some occasional things she’s interested in and she wrote a children’s book for example and she posts online and stuff which I think she enjoys doing like I think she has fun making her reels and shit. lol a bunch of her reels aren’t even brand deals, she likes making reels of old timey/Hollywood golden age actresses and literally I think she does this for fun and for no other reason.

Tbh Eva realistically could’ve stepped back from work even if she’d decided to be a single mum at 40 like that’s why idk that she did it “for” Ryan. Obviously it’s easier with Ryan, obviously it’s nicer for Ryan because they can and come visit him on sets and shit, so yea I think he’s very supportive of her decision but like she very much wanted to have sufficient time for her family because she felt she wouldn’t get a chance for a redo and she’d done stuff she’d wanted to for like 20 years before that decision professionally lol and in terms of partying etc so by that point like… she wanted to focus on being a mum.

she’s said actually she might go back to acting again when the kids are older and I agree that she has enough of her own traction that it wouldn’t be in any real tangible way related to Ryan and more like “Eva Mendes returns to the screen” 🤷🏻‍♀️ Like I’m sure she’s still getting sent scripts because she’s Eva Mendes and she could also phone around and see what’s cooking with past collaborators/people she admires or is interested in the work of. As I said, she did promote Barbie and I think that was really welcomed by the Barbie team/appreciated by Ryan because he’s the Ken to her Barbie and all the Kenergy stuff but I do also genuinely think she dug Barbie. She doesn’t generally speaking promote Ryan’s work otherwise. Not because I think she isn’t supportive but because like that’s not her role/job lol and fwiw Ryan’s also not out there selling her children’s book again not because I think he isn’t supportive but because it’s her thing not his thing.

Blake’s vibe does seem a lot more imbalanced, she does still seem interested in work, she had more than just GG but you’re right in that it wasn’t the sort of illustrious career that could see her ringing people up and saying “what do you have for me?” without - also because how entangled their brands are - the person on the other end being like “and so can we count on Ryan R being on board for this?” lol. And she does seem to have done it “for” Ryan rather than just because she wanted to focus on family.

[julymarte]

It is I the one who made the long reply! I'm glad I didn't upset you! But I totally get what you're saying and while Idk what happened with KoM I'm sorry that it hurt you so much. Unfortunately social media can be quite the hard crowd to please. But art is truly a wonderful thing that allows us to express ourselves in ways words cannot and I hope that one day you'll find that spark of joy to create things again! I know you've got it in you! But yeah it's really easy for a lot of artists to crumble under the weight of the internet's expectations and I know lots of artists have gave up because they get so little traction on their work and it's really sad to see. Social media truly is hell lol. For me I find that sometimes taking a step back from the story your making and coming back to it later with a fresh pair of eyes can really help. I've taken like multiple month long breaks because I just got sick of my story or the characters and when I came back it helped me figure out what I actually wanted to do, which is especially helpful considering how large my story is trying to be lol. Obviously I can't provide anything exact that'll help with your burnout but I hope that one day you get to fall in love with your characters and story all over again and that you be excited to work with them! It's hard to be an artist but it's even harder to be a storyteller. Either way I hope this helps a little and that you know people got your back. Sry for another very long reply and hopefully I didn't say anything mean!💖

-Your loyal Mr.Bubbles fan (I found his name! :D) (you can also call me long reply anon if you do anon names lol)

Tank you again anon i really appreciate your words, me not exploring the story is also a bit as you said here among all the other thing so hopefully that will help in the (hopefully not so) long run

[realstrap]

10/26/2024

25/450

Hey yall I really appreciate all the traction on this post but unfortunately we haven't made much progress on the goal (thank you to those who gave, it means so much)

Unfortunately I have had to miss work again bc I have no way of washing my clothes, I also didn't have enough to get to work. This is vital for us, I CANNOT lose this job, if I do I will have no way of taking care of our little family.

We're still very hungry with no food surviving off of whatever calories we can get and if I can't get this met it will be that way until next week. My partners health problems have been heightened by lack of nutrition.

Please do what you can. I don't have the energy to keep updating this post very often

10/23/2024

Please help my partner and I get groceries!

Almost a month ago now we tested positive for C19 and as a result I missed 2 whole weeks of work which means I lost out on a whole check and I have not been paid since then on top of the company shorting a previous check

This has left us with no money and dependent on crowdfunding for the time being, we've been skirting by on the kindness of friends but as it stands we've only been eating one meal a day for the past 3 weeks and this is not sustainable

We really need groceries and toiletries, we've run out of soap laundry detergent (I NEED clean clothes to be able to go to work) and hygiene products of all kinds and our fridge and pantry are bare

We can't keep this up, we've both struggled with lethargy and low blood sugar symptoms recently and my partner has been struggling with their health as a result

We'd need a total of $450 to cover everything including groceries toiletries and rides to work for the rest of the week

Anything helps, thank you

CA: $lezsalt or $sleepyhen

Vm: wildwotko

Dm 4 PPL

[hijinks-n-lowjinks]

hii ! for the fic ask game 8, 7, and 11 <3

Ooooooo thank you for the ask, I’m very happy to answer these!!!

8. Which three fics were the easiest to write? Why?

• It Had To Be You: this was the first real fic I ever wrote and I honestly don’t know what possessed me to write it as quickly as I did. I was deep in my haikyuu phase and didn’t have a job at the time so I started and finished it within 5-6 days (which is CRAZY to me as it’s like +40k). I also had the movie When Harry Met Sally to base it off so that gave me a good outline to work with without needing to change much.

• the only hoax i believe in: had a sudden craving for stsg angst and I cracked it out an a day. It’s one of my shortest fics so it didn’t take an especially long time to write, but I remember being super in the zone for this one

• you’ll always know me: this one had more of my usual update schedule of once/twice a month but it’s still one of my faster fics. I think I was able to finish it so quickly because the story was so important to me and it’s extremely easy writing from Oikawa’s perspective, especially as a closeted bisexual when it comes to family. I just needed to get this story out so chapters took about a week to finish.

7. Pick three fics that were a struggle to finish. Why was it so difficult to write?

• and i’ve been tryin’ not to feel it: honestly i think it’s because this is the first long form fic I’ve written that doesn’t have an exhaustively detailed outline. My outline for this is more of a basic plot point structure, but I’ve had to go back and rearrange a lot of the ideas I had for specific chapters which means writing those chapters takes longer. I also get distracted fairly easily from this fic (ie: vamp au and post canon fics) which is such a bummer because it’s easily my most popular fic. I’ve also really been feeling the burnout when I finish and post a chapter, so I’d rather give myself time away from this fic and enjoy it later instead of forcing myself and hating it.

• i guess this is the end: this was a part 2 to my stsg angst oneshot but gd did I drag my feet writing it. I thought I was gonna pop this sucker out like three days after the original fic but instead it took me at least a month to actually sit down and write it. The vibe just wasn’t right whenever I tried to take a go at it and I’d write a sentence before moving onto something else. I did finally finish it though lol.

• things i would miss from the other side: this fic isn’t even technically done yet but MAN have i struggled at times. I was really good about writing it for the first week but now it’s really slowed down to where I’m writing like a quarter to a half a scene each night where I used to be able to finish the entire scene. This is another fic where I didn’t write detailed outline but I didn’t even USE an outline for it, just a vague bullet point list of things I wanted to put into it.

11. Which three fics of yours are under-appreciated (whatever that means to you)? Write something lovely about each of them!

• washing what you know out to sea: I always talk about this fic when I mention underrated fics of mine, but it’s true!!! I think my prose in this fic was some of my best and it leaves the relationship between the main pairing in such an undefinable state that I love. I’m hoping it gets more traction once the chainsaw man movie and season 2 come out.

• kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again: honestly this fic has gotten a surprising amount of love. It’s one that will randomly get a bunch of kudos and bookmarks even though it’s a Christmas fic, but I did really like how I wrote bokuaka’s relationship. It’s definitely a pure fluff fic and honestly it’s one of my fics that I reread pretty often!

• the only hoax i believe in: I think my use of prose and angst really popped off with this one. I felt very emotional writing it and I think I thought it would get more love than it did, but I’m still very pleased with it! I think I wrote Gojo with some good complexity.

[woodviewcottage]

Why I went from being a minimalist to a maximalist...

Before the Farmhouse look was gaining attention, I really loved the primitive decor. My house then got full sunlight, so it didn't really seem so dark to me and I do love some vintage and antique pieces. But as the Farmhouse look started gaining traction in a big way, I just fell in love with it. It was bright, open, and looked so crisp and clean. So, I did away with all my primitive stuff, all of my antiques (including the very first tv ever made) and I decluttered everything. Went very simplistic with my decor and furniture pieces. I had pops of color with pillows and curtains -- really loved the pop of the teal-ish blue that got so big. It was very easy to keep clean. It always looked clean. It always seemed so bright.

I still loved the vintage and antiques but I only looked at and admired them. Never bought them.

After almost 20 years of living in the same house ad raising my children there on the farm, we moved. We bought another house a few miles away on the top of the mountain, back in the woods.

I tried for 2-3 years to turn this cottage into the same look. Over the past year or so, I realized that I really didn't like the fact that I had to dig out anything I needed bc I kept the countertops so minimal and clean. I started not to like my coffee table and bedside tables and countertops and walls being so bare. It started feeling stale and uncomfortable.

I hadn't realized before but I was equating a clean and minimal look to comfort. And it's really not the same at all.

Listen, I am a clean freak. Everything has a place, an angle in which it sits, has to be were it goes, cannot be crooked on the walls, cannot be dirty or dusty. I cannot go more than a day without vacuuming, no more than 3 days without mopping. I'm super weird about it. It used to dive my husband crazy wen we were first married, but he's since gotten used to it and has now crossed over to my OCD side.

Anyway, I missed my old pieces that had so much character, had their own stories, had a long life before I found them. I started looking up cottage designs bc that's what we bought and I wanted it to be true to it's personality.

What I absolutely love about the cottage core aesthetic are the colors, the different textures, wallpapers(!) -- love some wallpaper, the charm, the mixed patterns, the character, the story it shares with people. It's almost fairytale - like to me. With cottage core, you can do bright, you can do dark, you can do both. You can have each room tell its own story. You can be moody and sexy in the bedroom but bright and light in the living room. You can do golds and florals and pinks in the kitchen. You can do PINK, period! I love a light pink and my husband doesn't mind my love for pink at all. (I think since I'm home all day, he just decided to let me run with whatever if it kept me busy and made me happy.)

I love the sunlight (when it finally reaches my windows in the late morning) but I also really love keeping the house's character and surroundings in tact and complimentary to each other.

I was about to give up on this house. I prayed and prayed and prayed for us to find something else. Until one day I realized God had answered my prayers...just not in the way I asked. He gave me a renewed vision, a new inspiration for what this house could be, how we could have the added square footage and bedrooms we needed. He told me: you need to learn to love and appreciate what you have instead of wanting what you can't have.

Bc of His plans for me, we decided to build onto the house in an unconventional way. We decided to use wall mounted solariums, greenhouses, and conservatories for a new master bedroom, a "parent cave" to watch what we want on tv or read or to have gatherings or whatever, and a breakfast room on the backside of the kitchen. The cost is much less than building on. It gives the house a unique aesthetic on the exterior, as well as the interior. It adds much needed light to come into the house. And it almost doubles our square footage. A cottage home is such a lovely home to own. There's so much you can do.

And since changing from minimalist farmhouse to a cottage core aesthetic, I am once again surrounded by the vintage and antique pieces I love so much and have them all out on display -- like my three beautiful complete sets of gold lined china.

What's your aesthetic? Why do you like it? What about it gives you comfort or makes it feel like home to you?

[justanotherquinnfan]

So this beauty of an audio came out only a few days ago, but has already caught the Quinnisphere (is that a word? meh) by storm. Now, to be clear, when I thought about writing this post, I wanted to make sure that I am being as careful as possible with my language. Mostly because Quinn is so deeply personal for many, if not all, of the creators as well as the listeners. In no situation will I be yucking ANYONE'S yum and while I get one person's kink is another person's squick, this is not what it's about. Like what you like, it's stuff like this that is what's getting most of us through the day.

That all being said, I can't begin to describe the actual full-on joy this audio gave me. I often feel that the more produced audios don't get the same love as the more stripped down (hah, puns) stories that are more like the general friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, spouse experience ones. And while there is definitely a niche for those, the part of me that joined Quinn and immediately binged all of the originals feels sadness for the ones that actually have some real universe added to them that don't get as much love.

Which is why I absolutely LOVE that drRapture and Adrian's collab [It's Alive!] has gotten as much traction as it has. I took the screenshot above LAST NIGHT and you can see it has almost 1600 plays and nearly 500 favorites (one of them being mine, but of course). I think the main draw for many is the fact that it's a collab and a surprising one at that. Or maybe just surprising to me, even though it honestly shouldn't have been. drRapture is a phenomenal voice in this industry, bringing so much color to his audios, really working hard to make you feel like you're in the room with him. He is dynamic and natural and at no point is your suspension of disbelief broken around him. He is SO much fun to listen to and his curve appreciation audios are...hard to beat? Difficult to top? Hmm. Some compliment that doesn't IMMEDIATELY sound like a double entendre, I'll let you decide on one.

Adrian is also an incredibly unique voice as well. I will admit that at the time of writing this post I have not listened to many of his audios. A big part of that is that I am in the process of finding an entry point to his work. This has happened to me with a few other creators and it's just part of my journey especially when I find a voice so different from what I'm used to. If I could describe Adrian it would be, "Intense, SO INTENSE OMG" and I just need to ease into that. But despite my lack of experience with Adrian, what I HAVE encountered has fully cemented him as a fantastic and talented actor on this app.

So, to have them both in one was intriguing, to say the least. And as it dropped, to IMMEDIATELY make the Rocky Horror Picture Show connection, I went from somewhat interested to laser focused.

Now, normally, I like to give a first listen to these audios while commuting to work. Sometimes, it's the only thing that gets me actually moving to the office. But I decided to give this one the space and quiet of just listening at home and I'm glad I did. The production values on this particular audio are amazing. If I didn't already know that this was done in-house by the creators themselves, I would have thought this was an Audible-scale production. Though, honestly, just because some people call him Daddy Bezos, Amazon could never.

I am going to put the rest of this post under a cut, in case people haven't listened to it yet (WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR) and want to not be spoiled. But read on if you have!

We find ourselves in a waiting room talking to Nurse Joy, a character whom I adore both for the fact that her name fits in so well at drRapture's lab, but also for the potential Pokemon reference.

As an elder millennial, I'm not mad at it.

While we wait for our appointment, the Doc himself appears and he is just as delightfully unhinged as I would have hoped for. One minute incredibly serious, while the next cackling with unabashed scientific glee, he leads us through the facility, wherein we hear about all manner of...sticky situations happening. And we are finally led to the room in which our new friend, Adrian, is waiting to be booted up and tested. It then becomes one of the best binaural experiences I have ever had. With Doc in one ear and Adrian "in front of us" (you know what I mean), what follows is tremendously sexy with Adrian SO ready to please and Doc Rapture barking orders in the background. My favorite moment was just hearing him go, "Be. Louder." Like, damn ok, sure, doctor's orders and all that.

Adrian himself undergoes an evolution as the audio goes on, going from near-grunts to full sentences, showing how he learns as he...works. The effect is subtle, but undeniable, it creates this sense of "you're learning how to teach him and he is learning how to fulfill his purpose." And then, by the end, he even has a naughty sense of humor that we don't see at the start. This really underscores how incredibly tight the acting is. And yes, I know, another pun, I have fully given up on trying to find other phrasing. But the acting is, indeed, tight and at no point do I ever get pulled out of the story itself, even if I were getting swept up in other feelings. His character is not as fully fleshed-out, being that he is a Rocky pastiche, but despite that, Adrian can take the tiniest amount of character development and really go the mile.

Throughout the encounter, you also hear what sounds like muffled moans from behind what we know to be the one-sided mirror in which Doc Rapture is behind, "observing." This further adds to the environment that is created and adds the wonderful sense of reality to the whole audio.

I think, whether you're into any of the tags associated with this audio or not, it's absolutely worth a listen. It's funny and sexy and such a loving homage to both The Rocky Horror Picture Show as well as scifi campiness in general. I never thought, when going into this audio, that I would enjoy being the Janet in this situation. Columbia was always my favorite. But this feeling of being somewhat wide-eyed (I mean as wide-eyed as one can be given that they ordered a man to be specially created for their pleasure) and just going along with the ride, so to speak, was just so much fun, in a way I don't see as often. Don't get me wrong, I love the more serious, more straightforward stories. I love the Regency romances and the sweet girl-next-door moments and the darker, rougher stuff. But who says you can't have a good laugh while having a good time?

Dammit, Janet, I just love this so goddamn much! And I can go on, but I won't at the risk of Tumblr enforcing a character limit. But I would love to know what anyone else thinks of this audio because it's just so fucking good.

[mongen]

I’m 8 episodes into Hazbin Hotel

That is to say I finished season 1

It’s good.

From a top-down perspective, I always love to see animated series aimed at adults that aren’t just another clone of The Simpsons or Rick and Morty. This obviously isn’t the first (not by a long shot) but it’s definitely one of the first I’ve seen pick up this much traction with the casual viewing audience.

As I mentioned in my original post, there are a lot of really good changes from the pilot that help realize this concept in a way that feels like a better execution of the core concept.

The concept itself is nothing particularly new, but it will always be interesting to me from a philosophical perspective. The specific blend of The Good Place season 4 and This is The End that Hazbin Hotel employs is fun and interesting, and set up some good questions for season 2 (assuming we get one). I appreciate that the show never gives the characters a checklist of things they must do to prove they’ve become better people, and when someone attempts to make such a list, it’s a joke.

I love and appreciate the musical numbers,

even if the cramped pacing didn’t allow a lot of them to have the impact they should’ve had. In a perfect world, each song would’ve been the culmination of a single episode and there would have been enough room for some slice of life shenanigans. Unfortunately, the entertainment industry is a toxic wasteland, inhospitable to creative and original ideas, so the crew was told to cram all their ideas into 8 episodes. Not to say A24 and Amazon are solely to blame. If a writer is given 200 minutes to tell a story and chooses to still write 500 minutes of content for it, that’s on the writer, but there’s a push and pull there. From this point on, anytime I mention a character or idea being underdeveloped, it comes with the caveat that I know the creators were under time constraints they chose to partially ignore for the sake of their story and worldbuilding.

I will also say that both songs in episode 7 (out for love and ready for anything) didn’t sit right with me. The call-and-response with a chorus of cannibals is fun, but felt poorly set up, and the song about fighting well for the sake of love felt unearned because Vaggy was already doing what she was doing for love and Carmilla is a woefully underdeveloped character.

Lucifer and Alastair’s rivalry is well communicated visually, but the song lurches into motion from a standstill, which gave me musical whiplash, not unlike Poison, which also suffered from “we didn’t know how to organically lead into this so we’re just suddenly in a music video” syndrome. Both these songs - and in fact most songs in the series, especially Respectless - do a fantastic job of communicating a lot of information in a short amount of time without feeling bloated. Poison is a very dramatic look into Angel Dust, a focal character who previously lacked focus and sadly didn’t get the attention he deserved after the trial scene. Hell’s Greatest Dad plays up all three characters’ insecurities and motivations in both subtle and bombastic style that I love. I just wish Mimzy’s bit wasn’t in the album version, as she makes the song really annoying to listen to on its own, a problem none of the other songs have.

My personal favorite songs are Respectless and Loser, the latter of which is a beautiful use of Keith David’s powerful singing voice and is a great subversion of a tired musical trope of a character being at their lowest point and being told they’re actually doing fine. It does something I’ve seen more and more of lately by telling the characters (and audience) that misery loves company, and complaining about the shit you have to deal with can be cathartic with the right friend(s).

All these competing forces (good lyricism and instrumentation, solid vocals, underdeveloped plots and characters, poorly paced song lead-ups) culminate in one song, though: You Didn’t Know. It’s a beautiful song with a powerful theme and a dynamic tempo. The visuals are strong, from the reflection of hellfire in Sera’s eyes to Adam and Lute being seen from a low angle to the visual parallel between Charlie and Em - but this is where the pacing issue collides with the visual and musical quality. Em is nobody. At most she’s a fangirl with implied cosmic power, and her taking Charlie’s side seems to be due more to her naïveté than to a strong moral backbone. This weakens the impact of the otherwise bone-chilling line “if hell is forever, then heaven is a lie” and dampens the impact of the scene as a whole.

And sadly, that’s the state of the music as a whole, it’s really solid and well executed but ultimately undercut by the story being too much content for the given amount of time.

I wish we got to see more of the six month interim

At the very start of the series, we get a countdown clock, and then each episode skips huge amounts of time and development. It’s like trying to watch Avatar The Last Airbender but only watching the first, tenth, and last episode of each season. You miss all the hard work that it takes to improve oneself. There’s hints at it - the big moments, the revelations, the confrontation between a character’s new ideas about how they should be and how they used to be - but these big events are only made possible by the smaller moments we don’t get to see.

Sir Pentious’s development being marked by his ability to admit his feelings for Cheri Bomb is silly, and pays off well, but I want to see more of how he processed those ideas on his own.

Alastor’s machinations are hinted at very overtly but sadly don’t go far enough in this season to be properly interesting. They’re more like a character quirk than a functional part of the story, and it was weird getting nods to him using Charlie’s power for his own ends and making an ambiguous deal with her in the finale but not doing anything with it. On that note, if I hadn’t seen the pilot five years ago, i doubt the handshake scene would’ve had even half the impact it did. The function of deals within the context of this hell isn’t fully realized in Hazbin Hotel, which is a shame, because it means the audience is left to draw their own significance dependent on their knowledge of other mythology. Faustian bargains aren’t nearly as culturally ubiquitous as the broad concept of punitive afterlife, a concept that the show went to great pains to describe in its somewhat clunky opening exposition.

I want more Cheri Bomb. That’s it, that’s this whole paragraph.

The Vees are the best introduced characters in the series. It’s succinct, it’s easy to tell who and what they are within frames of seeing them, they’re not dynamic enough to need any more explanation than they get, but for all that solid introduction, they really don’t do much between episode 4 and the finale. They’re major players in the political landscape of the setting, but they drop out of the story until they’re neared as reaction machines in the final fight. Alastor puts Vox in his place within 10 minutes of them coming into conflict. Val makes Angel Dust’s life hard, which helps propel several of his big character development moments, but he’s just another bad boss character once he leaves frame after Poison. He loses a lot if his impact as an abuser character when Angel Dust talks about his job the same way an office worker talks about their overly demanding manager. Velvette has powerful stage presence but ultimately doesn’t do much to serve her own motivations. Instead, she answers a key question raised at the start of the show and fleshes out the Vees’ stance in relation to the more traditional Overlord hierarchy, but I have no idea what she wants.

Nifty sucks now. Not really. I still like her, but she’s just a “haha so crazy” character, rather than the more subdued and secretly sinister character she was in the pilot. I love that she got the last laugh in the finale with her Chekov’s knife, but it would’ve been more fun and interesting if she hadn’t been acting like that for 100% of her on-screen appearances.

I like Husker. He’s the most subdued character in the series. I still think he’s the most over-designed (only slightly edging out Alastor for the title) but I stopped caring about that about halfway through season one of Helluva Boss. His development and charm are subtle, and the overt difference in his behavior when Alastor pulls rank is fascinating. Unlike everybody else, he gets exactly enough screen time to get his character across and to see the challenges to his assumptions imposed by the rest of the cast. Keith David was also a perfect casting choice. I can’t get over hearing Doctor Facilier sing the phrase “You’re a power bottom at rock bottom.”

Charlie and Vaggie see the least development, understandable as they’re the paragon characters, but less understandable is the issue that their relationship feels underrepresented and understated. I just want to see them being happy together more, rather than mostly being presented as business partners with aligned goals who call each other babe (until the reprise of More Than Anything, of course).

All in all, the show has a LOT of content for all these characters across a long period of in-world time crammed into not a lot of episodes, and it mostly damages the ultimate theme of the series in having so much stuff happening all at once. I’m not sure if a story with this many moving parts could ever properly fit into only 8 episodes, though.

Things I’m glad they removed since the pilot and things I wish they’d removed more of

The Johnny-Test-esque overuse of expressive foley was the single worst addition to the pilot. I’m glad they didn’t use those in the final product.

The over-use of “fuck” is still present, and it comes across as forced in places, but it’s nowhere near as incessant as in the pilot or Helluva Boss. I get that the writers were edgy young millennials on Deviant Art in the 2000s, but just because I understand why a writing decision was made doesn’t mean I have to like it. Im not against the use of fuck, shit, damn, etc - I swear like an imagineer and I write like a terminally online nerd - but at a point it’s excessive. Judicious use of curses is just as important as careful use of any aspect of language.

The squash-and-stretch over-animation of faces in the pilot always bugged me. I kept hearing people say “oh the animation is so good! See how much everybody moves” and I just don’t see it that way. Quantity is not quality. Having a lot of animation isn’t the same as having good animation, just like having a lot of worldbuilding isn’t the same as good worldbuilding (looking at you, JKR). I appreciate the way the motion was toned down for the full production. It looks cleaner, more organized, less needlessly chaotic. It also means when powerful characters start distorting their form, it has more impact, which I like a lot. Alastor is a lot more intense now because he’s not constantly blobbing around like a Gumby character.

A correction/addendum for my original post

I appreciate the use of Adam as a stand-in for a patriarchal status quo, and his use as the head of the inquisitors makes more sense with the context that a majority of heaven’s residents are not aware of the annual exterminations.

I’m 3 episodes into Hazbin Hotel

It’s a lot better than I was expecting, but I have some criticisms:

1. The cast needs to stop acting like Angel is disgusting for being into what he’s into. Literally everybody they come across seems to comment on how gross they think it is, and it kind of clashes with how popular he supposedly is.

2. The songs need more breathing room. There’s 0.2 second of lead-in to some of them. I get that the snappy, overly energetic animation and editing is a rollover from the pilot, but it’s strangling the songs and preventing them from having the gravity they should have.

3. The plot progression feels like a list of bullet points. I’m not going to spoil it, but there’s a major mystery brought up in episode 1 that is answered in episode 3 very unceremoniously and with very little time for the mystery to stew. There’s potentially a very interesting intrigue plot going on, but it’s impact is damped by the fact that it’s delivered very matter-of-fairly by a bunch of supposedly very powerful characters who we haven’t seen before.

4. The spider dude who speaks in pseudo-Shakespearian English is very difficult to understand, and I couldn’t catch his many any of the three or so times it was said because I was trying to process the last thing he’d said. A lot of characters’ voice lines are mixed strangely, but his prose makes it almost impossible.

5. The animation and character designs are much better than in the pilot, but some of the steps they took to simplify the visuals backfired a bit. They cut back on the excess detail and over-animating just enough to make the style still distinctive, but ended up with some 3/4 perspectives that look real wonky. There are also a few shots where characters are forced into a perspective view and it shows.

6. Adam shouldn’t be the leader of the angels. Based on my (limited) knowledge of the worldbuilding, it’s based on 14th century occult appropriation of Jewish spiritual myths like Goetia (as described in the Lesser Key of Solomon) and concepts like the seven deadly sins, so by that token, the leader of the army of angels should be the angels whose name literally means “The Sword of God”: Gabriel. They could also have used the angels of death, Justice, light, or any number of other aspects. I get that they’re not being super strictly literal to those old times (and that’s for the best, Crowley, Aleister, and co were foundational to many modern antisemitic conspiracy theories), but Adam is a weird choice a leader of armies.

All that to say, I’m really excited to watch the rest of the series, but I’m not going to keep my expectations somewhat low.