#you people are the worst i have to wake up at 7 tomorrow you are enabling bad habits

[moonkhao]

hi.

[mychlapci]

Op anon here, I have returned from a stressful few days of work SO enjoy some more Oppy kink stuff 🫡

While Optimus isn't the one sparked, Magnus having the best record for it, the prime isn't to jealous about it, he's a prime and needs to get his work done, that being said, Maybe he goes into heat? The mech gets fragged by his now mate, Ratchet, and winds up sparked...again

He isn't complaining, it's a joy to bring life and give hope for a new generation of Cybertrionans, now I'd like to think until he's bed bound he does what he can, when he can, and may have had a chassis adjustment for the titties, to which he is greatful for, 100% Ratchet is protective because duh that's HIS prime full of a litter of bitties, there bitties and he'll be damned if the prime tries to overwork, one rough frag and Ops off to bed.

But, what if while "alone in base" the two are going at it, Optimus highly unaware his waste tanks full already because he swore he emptied it not 30 minutes ago, and he assumes that constricted feeling in his lower abdomen is a overload, it's not, and it's to late when he realizes, he overloads hard, Lubricant and Piss both coming from him and he can't stop, the primes flustered, apologizing but his stud doesn't seem to care and resumes pounding, until a click is heard and two swelled breasts are leaking, a mess everywhere, imagine if someone happened to walk in, maybe wheeljack tryna bug the medic ajd seeing the two going at it

mhmmm more piss stuff... i can never get enough of a heavily sparked Optimus, clutching the bedding as he gets fucked, pissing himself overloading, all flustered and apologetic, telling Ratchet to stop, they have to clean it up, but Ratchet keeps going, insanely turned on by the sight of Optimus' valve still squirting as he loses control- maybe it's a sick kind of satisfaction, but it has Ratchet pounding harder, faster... Optimus has had such a long break he doesn't have to wear the pump all the time, so when his titties spill out and start overflowing, energon stains the bed alongside his waste, his waste tank pulses again, still not empty...

it would be really shameful for the Prime if someone walked in on him pissing himself and leaking all over- Magnus, certainly fine, Predaking, of course, but anyone else? Optimus barely gets the order for them to leave out of his mouth, valve twitching in voyeuristic pleasure... maybe Ratchet quickly yells at them to bring the breast pump, they're gonna need it again...

[barbieaiden]

1. [A month ago]

2. Jordan: Hey, Sam. How are you holding up?

3. Jordan: ...I brought you coffee.

Sam: Thank you.

4. Jordan: Do you want to go home for the night? Sleep in your own bed? I could drive you home, pick you up on my way to work tomorrow.

Sam: I think I'll stay here.

Jordan: Alright.

5. Sam: I keep thinking... [Sigh] It's so stupid.

Jordan: Go on.

Sam: I keep thinking I should call Aiden. So he can help. But obviously I can't, because... I just... I don't know what to do. Nothing feels real. It's been two days and it feels like ten years.

6. Jordan: The waiting is the worst part. I waited for my mom's death for months. You can't cope when you don't know what you're coping with.

Sam: Months?

Jordan: She wasn't in a coma, just terminally ill. For all we know Aiden might wake up tomorrow.

Sam: Or die.

7. Jordan: As much as I wish I could I can't tell you that he's going to be fine. And I can't replace him, obviously, but I am here if you need anything.

8. Sam: Thank you.

10. Aiden: Jordan, you can't tell me you spent a whole day with a man you're not interested in. That is not friends with benefits, that's practically married.

11. Kell: I'd tell you and Zach to get a room but you already have, like, a million fucking times.

Jordan: What I'm getting from this conversation is that neither of you have ever had any friends.

Aiden: It's true. The only man I've ever spent time with is Sam.

12. Jordan: Even if I wanted to I don't have time for a relationship.

Kell: Dude, you are literally already spending, like, all your free time with him.

Aiden: If you and Zach get engaged we can have a double wedding!

Lucas: You should become a tattoo artist instead, Jordan. No 55 hour shifts and you still get to stab people with needles.

Jordan: I happen to like my job.

Lucas: You complain about it every single time I see you.

Jordan: I find your obsession with needles slightly disturbing.

Lucas: I guess I like the artistic part too.

Aiden: That's why I let Michael do all my piercings.

Lucas: I'm such...

15. Aiden: Sam?

16. Aiden: Are you okay?

Sam: Mhm.

Aiden: Are you sure?

Sam: Just... tired.

Aiden: We can go home if you want to.

Sam: It's fine.

Aiden: I wouldn't mind.

Sam: Really, Aiden, it's fine.

18. Kell: You two are literally worse than that one high school couple making out in the corridors.

19. Aiden: You can't say that, that's so homophobic.

Kell: Your dad didn't think I was very homophobic.

Aiden: [Exaggerated gasp] Kell!

Kell: Too far?

Aiden: No, Kell, by all means, if you want to go over to Nettlefield right now and have sex with my actually homophobic father, go right ahead.

Kell: Dude. I'm sorry, okay?

20. Kell: Find something to eat with me? Please?

Aiden: Sure.

Kell: Sam, don't look at me like that, we're not going to smoke weed.

Sam: That was not my issue with this conversation and you saying that unprompted makes me think you are going to smoke weed.

Aiden: I've never even seen weed. Drugs are bad, or whatever. And so illegal.

Kell: Exactly. We're law-abiding citizens.

21. Aiden: Seriously. No weed. Promise.

Sam: Okay.

22. Aiden: Are you sure you're okay?

Sam: Yes, Aiden.

Aiden: Just... tell me if you want to go home. Okay?

Sam: I will.

[s0ulsniper]

I wanna be yours

Flamingo x gn!reader

Request:

"hello! Can you write a flamingo x female reader with prompts 30 and 50? ❤️❤️"

@alexisisgonnabefamous18

Here it is, thank you for requesting :)

*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩

You and Albert have always shown a close bond to each other since your meeting in high school.

Even in his worst times, and his best you were always there for him. And the same for you of course.

When he was with Kristen, you kept your boundaries and talked to him even when he got distant.

The same for when he was going through the break up.

You drive as fast as you could to his house to comfort him and be there any way you could.

Today was a particularly hard one for the both of you.

He felt abnormally down and unmotivated to the point he laid on the couch for hours on hours not getting up for anything except food and hygiene.

For you, you had a horrible day at college and we're ready to end your shift at your half-time job as quickly as possible. 

You had been texting all day, and planned that you would stop by his house after your shift ends at 7.

👤

Albert <3

"You're still coming right?"

6:34 pm.

Y/n

"Yeah of course, I'll be there in 45 :)"

6:46 pm.

Albert <3

"Alright, love you :)"

6:49 pm.

Y/n

"love you"

6:56 pm.

______________________

Although you were almost sure he was saying "I love you" in a friendly way, you still grasped onto the chance it was more than that, and so did he. 

You put your phone in your pocket and cleaned up the tables, there were only 4 people in the dinner and more than enough waiters to serve them.

You grabbed the pen to sign out and said your goodbyes to your coworkers, specifically your one friend there.

"Bye, Luna! Have a good night." You call and wave to her while walking out.

"Bye, see you tomorrow y/n." She smiles.

You grasp your backpack on, walking towards the nearby parking lot a couple blocks down the road.

As soon as you inch into your car you turn your heat on, desperately trying to gain heat from the cold air outside.

You text Albert that you're on your way over and turning your radio on, turning it to your favorite station.

As if in no time, you feel yourself pulling into Albert's driveway hoping his house would be warmer than your 40 degree car.

Then suddenly the thought of cuddling up close to Albert grazes your mind.

You shudder that thought away quickly and grab your bag, getting out of the car.

You grab your keys from your pocket and walk up the driveway mindlessly finding the key to unlock his door.

A wave of heat and familiarity hits you as you walk in, bringing a warm smile to your face.

"Albert? I'm home." You call out trying to hear any room he might be in.

You walk towards the kitchen but you're stopped when you hear the tv on.

"Albert?" You call out again as you walk into the living room, setting your bag and keys by the table.

You peer over the couch to see Albert curled up with a blanket, dead asleep.

You smile and take your shoes off, placing them beside the couch.

As silently as possible you walk to the couch, sitting close to him flicking the remote to a channel you like.

After around 20 minutes, Albert starts to stirr, probably waking from his sleep.

"Y/n?" He asks half awake.

"Yes? Sorry for waking you." You answer.

He shakes his head, and runs a hand through his hair.

"No you didn't, I promise." He reassures me. 

"I'm gonna go get some snacks and drinks." You tell him and he nods, sitting up on the couch. 

You make your way to the kitchen, grabbing yours and Albert's favorite drinks and snacks, and then scurrying back to the living room setting the snacks on the coffee table.

"Here." You tell Albert handing him his drink.

He thanks you and pats the spot between him and the couch, making you look at him with a confused face.

"Cmonnn, it's cold." He pleads.

"Well, that is true." You reason but that doesn't stop your face from heating up in the dark lit room.

You crawl over to his side and plop down halfway on him, figuring why not make yourself comfortable.

"Mmm, you definitely are warm." You admit and he laughs that precious laugh looking down at you laying on his chest.

After a couple minutes of watching you feel Albert get far more comfortable. Moving his hand to wrap around your waist and moving the blanket on top of you guys.

But all of the sudden, he grabs the remote and mutes the tv looking down at you.

"What's wrong?" You ask him while he seems to be at a loss for words, trying to find the right thing to say.

But instead of saying something he brings his hand to your cheek and kisses you passionately.

As you pull away you search his eyes for context you so desperately need.

"Please be mine." He asks.

"I wanna be yours." You answer and bring your lips back to his, his hands starting to roam your body.

As things get more heated, you feel him flip to where he's hovering over you, with your back to your couch.

He pushes your hips down, positioning you in a comfortable spot.

He pulls away making you groan with the lack of touch but he reconnects his lips to your neck, leaving you satisfied.

You felt his body weight on yours, knee between your thighs and pushing up, causing you to moan into the kiss giving him a chance to slide his tongue into your mouth.

Your hands roam, feeling them to lower down his torso and under his shirt feeling onto his muscles making him groan.

You can tell there are gonna be spots left on your neck in the morning, hoping they're just light enough and low enough to be unnoticeable.

You both are definitely having a better day.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩

[ironychan]

A Little Human (as a Treat)

Part 1/? - Un Voluntario

Part 2/? - Un Escursione

Part 3/? - Una Complicazione

Part 4/? - Una Famiglia

Part 5/? - Una Aiutante

Part 6/? - Una Ricerca

Part 7/? - Un Confronto

Part 8/? - Un'Emergenza

Part 9/? - Una Speranza

Part 10/? - Una Sera

Part 11/? - Un'Interruzione

Part 12/? - Una Fuga (Prima Parte)

Part 13/? - Una Fuga (Seconda Parte)

@dysphoria-sweatshirt @writer652 The squid is a Dana Octopus Squid, chosen because they're large, their range includes the Mediterranean, and they're really freaky.

Much like Flavia, Luca was already falling asleep as he walked back into the ocean. He could see that Alberto and Giulia were also yawning, and he expected they would return to his house, curl up among the seaweed, and drop off right away. Tomorrow would hopefully be less exciting.

As they crossed the moonlit seagrass fields, however, he started to realize that there were an awful lot of people out and about at this time of night. He could see sea monsters with glowing jellyfish lanterns beating at the seaweed and looking under corals as if to flush out a shark. That thought gave him a momentary rush of adrenaline, but it wasn't enough to really wake him up again. A rogue shark was bad, but it was something the adults could deal with while he slept.

At least, that was the way it seemed until Atinnia Trota swam frantically up to them.

“Oh, thank goodness you're all right!” she exclaimed. “I stopped in at your house and when I saw nobody was there I feared the worst.” Signora Trota turned to Arturo, who was following behind her – he looked almost as tired as Luca felt. “Go tell the Aragostas I've found the Paguros and they're all right.”

“Yes, Mom,” said Arturo, rubbing one eye. He headed off to do so.

“What's going on?” asked Lorenzo.

“You haven't heard?” Signora Trota asked. “There's a squid!”

Daniela grabbed Luca and pulled him close. “Another one?”

Now Luca's heart beat a little faster. He'd only been three or four years old when the community had their encounter with a giant squid, and he didn't remember anything from the time, but he'd heard the stories. It had helped itself to everybody's livestock, culminating it tearing the roof off Old Man Cormorano's barn to get at his groupers. Terzo Cormorano himself had been nearly killed, and was supposed to have had nightmares for the rest of his life.

“Not a giant squid proper,” said Atinnia. “It's half the size of that one, but that's plenty big enough. We were afraid it had eaten you all, and you know they eat things alive!”

Daniela's eyes went wide. “You said there was nobody home?” she asked.

Signora Trota nodded, and without a word Daniela let go of her son and darted off.

Still tired, it took Luca a moment to realize what had upset his mother. Then suddenly he was wide awake. “Grandma!” he exclaimed, and followed his mother. Lorenzo, Alberto, and Giulia were close behind.

They arrived at the house to find all the jellyfish glowing, and Daniela was at the table with Nonna Libera, who was thankfully just fine. She was merely a sound sleeper, and hadn't even heard the neighbours calling out to her.

“Honestly, Mom,” Daniela said. “What did you used to do when I was a baby and cried at night?”

“Your father handled it, dear,” Nonna Libera replied, looking up as the three children entered the house. “I think tonight would be a good night for you three to go sleep up top.”

“Oh, yes, definitely!” Daniela agreed. “Luca, you and your friends go right back to town, now. Your father and I will help hunt down the squid, and you can come back when it's safe. Mom, you go with them.”

“Wait,” Luca protested. He was starting to wake up a little more now, although his eyes still itched. “What about Ciccio? His Dad said he didn't know where he was staying.” If Ciccio had gotten hurt because they'd talked him into doing this today, Luca would never forgive himself.

“I'm sure he's fine,” said Daniela, “but that's not our problem right now.”

“But...”

“No, Luca. Go to the surface.” Daniela patted him on the head. “Now, look me in the eye...”

“I know you love me, Mom,” sighed Luca.

“That's my boy!”

“Come on, Luca,” said Giulia. She was worried, too, but the odds that Ciccio would be attacked by the squid were slim, surely. “We can camp out in the treehouse. That's always fun.”

“I'll go with them,” Lorenzo said.

Heading back to shore was a very different journey than going out to the house had been. Luca was still tired, but he was now far too terrified to nod off. Every shadow, every glint of moonlight flickering across the bottom, and every fish flitting through the weeds made him jump. He, Alberto, and Giulia stayed close as his father led the way and Grandma brought up the year.

“Do squid really eat things alive?” Alberto asked.

“They sure do,” said Giulia, and Luca nodded. Squid wrapped their catches up in their tentacles and then ripped chunks out of them with a sharp beak. Luca himself had never been bitten by one, but Cosimo Pianuzza had. The older boy had a wedge missing out of the fin on the back of his right arm, and that had been only a tiny squid. A giant one, or even one that was merely big, didn't bear thinking about.

“How do you catch a giant squid?” Giulia asked Lorenzo. “When Papà wants to catch the little ones he's got special lures with lots of hooks.”

“I wasn't there, but I think they got its arms all tangled in a net,” Lorenzo replied. “If even one tentacle is free, it can still attack you, and...”

“Hello! Lorenzo!” a voice called out. “I'm so glad you're all right!”

“Oh! Hello, Vittoria,” said Lorenzo, waving to Signora Aragosta. “Yes, we're fine. I'm just taking the kids and my mother-in-law up to the town. No squid up there.”

Signora Aragosta must not have thought of that. She was startled by the idea, but it was an illustration of how much the community's attitudes towards humans had changed that, after a moment's thought, she said, “would you take my twins too? I think the older girls can hold their own, but Gianna and Giola are so small.”

“Of course,” said Lorenzo.

“I'll be right back,” the neighbour promised.

“No, we'll go with you,” Lorenzo decided. “We don't want to just float around out here waiting for the squid to find us.” He began to follow.

“I'll only take a moment,” Signora Aragosta promised. “The last time anyone saw the quid it was over and the old Cor... I mean, at the Donzella's place.”

That got the children's attention. “That's where Ciccio said he was going!” Alberto remembered.

“Are their guests okay, Signora Aragosta?” Luca asked.

“I don't know anything about them having guests,” Signora Aragosta replied, “but I'll bet Silvestro and Giorgia are re-thinking their plan to move there if the place attracts giant squid.”

“Come on!” Luca said to his friends, and took off towards the Donzella home. Alberto and Giulia were right behind him, while Luca's father shouted for them to stop.

“Get your tail back here, young man!” he called out. “Your mother told me to take you somewhere safe... you can't go towards the squid! Come back!” He swam after them.

Signora Aragosta didn't know what to do about this. She looked at Nonna Libera, who smiled gently and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Let's go get your girls,” she said. “I'll take them up to your aunts' place.”

“Thank you, Signora Gambero,” Vittoria replied.

Luca shot across the fields like a sailfish on the hunt. He would be in trouble when his mother found out, but that didn't matter. They had to make sure Ciccio was okay. They'd gotten him into this – if he got hurt, it would be their fault. More important yet, the book of magic said that both parties had to be present in order to switch back. If they couldn't find Ciccio, Flavia would be stuck out of the water instead of stuck in it.

He was gasping for oxygen as he arrived at the Donzella's house, and felt a little sick as he surveyed a scene of considerable chaos. The row of kelp behind the house was shredded and partially uprooted. The barn, which had been recently repaired, had lost its roof a second time and one wall had partially collapsed. There was no sign of a squid, but there was also no sign of Ciccio.

Signora Donzella was swimming back and forth between the barn and the house in an indecisive panic, while her husband sat quietly on the rubble of the barn, staring into the distance. A half-dozen neighbours were gathered around, trying to comfort or clean up, while others swam the perimeter looking for the marauding cephalopod.

“Signor Donzella!” Luca approached the community blacksmith. “What happened?”

It seemed to take Signor Donzella a moment to realize Luca was there. “I'm sorry,” he said, “what did you say?”

“What happened here?” Luca repeated. “Where's Ciccio?”

“We woke up when we heard the boys shouting,” said Donzella. “We saw the roof cave in and the squid swim out of the mess, and then it was gone.”

“The boys?” asked Giulia. “More than one?”

“Yeah. Silvio, Ciccio, and Ciccio's friend.”

“Which friend?” Alberto asked. They only friend they'd known that Ciccio would have had with him was Giordana, but she was definitely not a boy and nobody was likely to mistake her for one.

“I don't remember his name. The babysitter. The boy with the whiskers,” said Donzella.

Luca looked to see if either of his friends had any idea who that might be. Neither of them did. The only boy with whiskers who they associated with Ciccio was Ercole, but they didn't hang out any more. Even if they had, it wouldn't have been possible for Ercole to be down here... and he wouldn't have been babysitting young sea monsters under any circumstances.

Giorgia Donzella came darting over. “Your friends came to us looking for a place to stay the night,” she explained. “The one with the prickles said he'd had a fight with his father. Silvio was going to keep them company sleeping in the barn. He volunteered.” She was lacing and unlacing her fingers and playing with her fins, distracted and helpless.

“When we got outside, we found this,” her husband added. He gestured to the wreckage of the barn. People had been taking it apart, looking for anyone trapped in the ruins, but they had found nothing.

“They must have escaped,” Luca said hopefully. “We can help look for them.” As tired as he might be, this was clearly something that needed doing.

“Oh, no, you don't, young man!” said Lorenzo, panting as he finally made it to the group. “You three are getting out of the water, remember?”

From the row of damaged kelp, a teenage boy called out. “Signor Donzella! We're done checking the sponge beds, they're not there, and they're not at the Haunted Fish Graveyard! Mom and Dad are still going through the Kelp Forest.”

Giorgia nodded. “Thank you, Basilio!” she replied. “Oh... I hate just waiting here. We should be doing something... our son is out there somewhere.”

“No. We need to stay in case they come back,” Donzella told her. “If Silvio arrives and finds us gone it'll be him panicking.”

Giorgia nodded, and then perked up. “Wait! I bet they went to the forge!” she said. “Silvio knows that we stayed in the forge with his egg before, because giant squid don't like hot water!” Her face then turned from hope to horror. “This is a different type of squid, though! That's what people are saying. What if it doesn't mind the heat? I'm going!” She turned and swam off.

“Giorgia!” Signor Donzella rose from his seat to go after her. “Wait! What did I just tell you?” He sped after her.

Lorenzo tried to herd the young people back towards the shore. “Come on,” he said, “we're doing what your mother said, remember? We're going to dry land where the squid can't find you.”

“Yes,” said Alberto, “we are!”

“We are?” asked Giulia, startled. She'd expected Alberto and particularly Luca to insist on staying and helping to search for Ciccio and Silvio.

“Yeah, I have an idea,” Alberto told her. “I've seen your squid lures. We're going to the Island.”

“Daniela said to take you to the town!” Lorenzo protested.

“The Island will have to do,” Alberto told him.

-

Twenty minutes earlier, Silvio had told his guests that they needed to get to the forge, but there wasn't going to be time. The squid was remarkably fast for such a large creature, and by the time Silvio finished speaking, it was almost on top of them. Ciccio swam up again, while Silvio dived through the bar door past Ercole and slammed it shut. The squid collided with the doors, but the door was one Signor Donzella had made out of a section cut from a ship hull, choosing the solid metal specifically to keep such dangerous creatures out. Silvio had just barely had time to slide the bolt into place, and while the door shook, it held.

The door was not the only way into the barn, though. There were also a couple of windows. These were quite small, and for a moment Ciccio was reassured that the squid would not possibly fit – but its boneless body was almost infinitely malleable. The only hard part of it was its beak, which was easily small enough to get through. The water temperature seemed to drop almost to freezing as the rest of the animal squished and squeezed to get through.

Ciccio knew he had to do something. He could see where the fresh stones had been added to the roof just that day. How fast did barnacle glue set? Could he get one free to let Silvio and Ercole escape? He went to the base of the repaired area, grabbed the edge of a particular stone, and with his feet braced against the older wall below, pulled with all his might.

The stone shifted, but did not come free. Ciccio looked around for a tool and found the broken shaft of Silvio's pitchfork. He stuck that into the gap he'd made, and pried. This time, he managed to lever the piece to the side. The big stone didn't come out, but a dozen smaller ones that had been sitting on top of it were jostled enough to drop into the interior of the barn.

There was a startled shout, and for a moment Ciccio worried he'd buried Silvio and Ercole. Then they wriggled out the hole, panting and covered in scrapes, but alive and whole. For a moment, all three boys hovered there in the water, staring at the hole in the roof as a few more stones dropped out of the edges of the hole and vanished into the darkness. Had the squid been buried? Was it dead?

“Mom and Dad are gonna be...” Silvio began.

His voice was drowned out by the sound of the rest of the roof collapsing, and then the squid rose out of the billowing silt like a monster emerging from the crater of a smoking volcano. The light at the end of its tentacle was now blinking with regular, brilliant pulsations like a heartbeat, but with an odd quiver underneath them, giving the impression that the animal was shaking with rage. It only had one tentacle with a bulb at the end, Ciccio managed to notice. Was it injured? Had it come here into the shallows searching for easier prey?

Then Silvio grabbed his hand and shouted at him, and he managed to take in the fact that this creature was rising towards him, furious and hungry.

“This way!” Silvio shouted, and took off, leading the way into darker water.

“What about your parents?” Ciccio panted, as he and Ercole followed as fast as they could.

“They'll be fine!” said Silvio.

He might have been right, because the squid was determined to follow them. Ercole, not a good swimmer, was now having trouble keeping up. He could go forward, but he hadn't quite mastered steering at high speed and kept having to correct as he drifted to one side or the other. Ciccio grabbed him by the back of his shirt to drag him along.

Silvio led the way into a shallow trench that kept getting deeper and deeper – the ravine where the sea monsters set their eel traps. It would have been a creepy place on an ordinary night, with the glowing algae lighting it up just enough to make out the shapes of weird corals and many-legged crustaceans lurking in the cracks. With the flashing of the squid's single bright tentacle close behind them, it was terrifying. Dark shapes and black-edged shadows appeared and vanished out of nowhere, and Ercole kept yelping and whimpering every time.

“Shut up!” Ciccio told him. “Shut up!”

Ercole was not listening.

Ciccio had of course never been to the forge, and he had kind of wondered what such a place could look like underwater. He'd never been a decent mental picture of it from any of Arturo's mentions, and since Ciccio was usually wanting Arturo to go away so he and Giordana could spend time together uninterrupted, he'd never asked for one. It turned out to be very deep in the trench, where the walls were at least fifty metres high – looking very far away and ominous when silhouetted against the blue glow of the algae. The water was warmer here, and continued to heat up as Silvio led the way, until they found themselves outside a structure built of piled-up boulders.

Unlike the sea monster houses, where the stones were glued tightly together to keep out the currents, these had been chosen and piled in such a way as to leave wide gaps between them so that light and water could enter the forge – and the heat could leave. The centrepiece of the space was a chimney belching out dark, hot water from a point halfway up the wall of the gorge. This billowed up into a chimney of close-packed stones that directed it up and away.

“It won't come in there!” Silvio declared.

Silvio slipped easily through one of the openings. So did Ercole. Ciccio had more trouble. He was a lot wider than the other two, and some of the openings were not going to admit him. There had to be bigger ones somewhere, though, because Signor Donzella himself was much bigger, and he must be able to get in. Ciccio passed by several that were too narrow, and then found one that looked right. Silvio and Ercole took his hands and helped him through, then dragged him over to the far wall, the hottest place in the forge.

It was a deeply uncomfortable place to be. The water shimmered a little as it flowed up, and there was a smothering feeling that Ciccio didn't know the cause of. Had Luca been there, he could have given the answer, as it was another thing he'd learned in a book: hot water couldn't hold as much oxygen as cold. It made breathing hard work, and when Ciccio looked at his companions, he saw their gills flexing hard to get the water through them.

There was more light inside the forge than out. All around the chimney was a faintly bioluminescent slime that fed on the minerals in the outflow. Higher up, the softly glowing jellyfish sea monsters kept in their houses were also shedding a faint pink light. The boys were not able to make much use of this light, however, as it was entirely drowned by the angry strobe-like flashing of the squid's photophore outside. This flicked on and off with the regularity of a lighthouse, coming from a different place each time as the squid investigated the openings.

“What do we do if it comes in?” Ercole whispered.

“It won't,” said Silvio, but his confidence was a little shaky. “Anyway, we must've woke Mom and Dad up. They'll get help.”

“Will they? I've heard that some fish eat their young,” Ercole said.

“That's fish! Not people!” Silvio scolded him.

The squid flashed again, this time revealing several tentacles feeling around the rocks, testing the opening Ciccio had come through.

It was no good, Ciccio realized. Maybe this was a different kind of squid, or maybe it was just that desperate, because it wasn't going to let the hot water stop it. It found an opening it liked, and started squeezing through.

“Down the bottom!” Silvio ordered.

They swam down to the bottom of the forge chamber. The water was cooler here, which was a relief, but there was also an opening to a smaller cavern. This was lined with more glowing algae, and divided within into several rooms. Ciccio dimly remembered being told that the Donzella family had used to live here at the forge, but Giorgia hadn't liked how far it was from any neighbours. This must be their old house. It had several windows bigger than the ones back at the barn, but unlike those, they had thick metal shutters on them. Silvio darted inside, and began banging these shut.

Ercole went after him and dived under the overhanging shelf of stone the family had used as a kitchen counter, where he curled up with his hands over his head and his tail wrapped around himself. Ciccio came last and turned to shut the front door, which he assumed would also be made of salvaged metal.

There was no front door. The rocks showed rust staining where hinges had once been attached, but now there was only the yawning opening.

“Silvio!” he said. “There's no door!”

“What?” Silvio looked, and even in the wan greenish light of the luminescent algae, Ciccio could have sworn he saw the boy go pale. “Dad took it out to put on the new barn! I forgot!”

Flashes outside told them the squid was coming, and now they were cornered. Ciccio's stomach turned inside-out. For a moment he was frozen, unable to even think for fear.

Then, suddenly, he knew exactly what to do.

He had no idea where the urge came from, but he swam back into the opening, turned his back to the outside, and started sucking in water. It was like taking a deep breath, only instead of letting it back out again, he just inhaled more, and more, and more. His skin began to feel tight, and the waistband of his shorts cut into him until it became painful. Within a few seconds, he felt the button pop and the seams begin to stretch.

It belatedly occurred to him that maybe this hadn't been a good idea, but by then he couldn't stop. He swelled up until he filled the entire doorway, and then the fit got tighter and tighter. The stitches tore on his shorts. When he opened his eyes, he saw Ercole and Silvio staring at him and hanging on to each other in terror. A moment later, he was forced to close them again as his face, too, began to swell.

Ciccio had the poison spines of a pufferfish. Apparently he could also do this.

Finally, he reached a limit. He was well and truly wedged in the doorway now, incapable of moving even if he'd tried. With his eyes closed tight, he had to rely on hearing to tell what was going on around him.

There was plenty to hear and most of it was Ercole, wailing in terror. “I don't want to die! I don't want to die! Especially not as a sea monster!”

“Shut up!” hissed Silvio.

“It's going to eat us! There won't even be bones!”

“Shut up! It'll hear you!

“I wanna go home! I wanna... OW! Did you just bite me?”

“Yes! Now be quiet.”

It was too late, though. Moments later, Ciccio felt the questing tentacles. They wound around a couple of the sponges still on his spines and pulled them off, then retracted, not wanting to get pricked. Then the squid started feeling along the edges of the doorway, hoping to find a gap or perhaps a protruding limb so it could pull Ciccio out. He gritted his teeth, hoping it didn't find anything – and hoping it wouldn't actually prick itself on a spine, because he didn't want to know what that would do.

After what seemed like way too long, the tentacles retreated. Was the squid leaving, or was it only considering its next move.

“Ohhh, that's weird,” whispered Silvio.

“What's weird?” Ciccio asked through clenched teeth.

“We can see your bones when the light comes through.”

A few more moments crawled by in silence, and then Ciccio heard the rattle of metal on stone. Ercole let out another wail of despair as the squid moved along the row of windows, trying them one by one.

“Dad put the shutters in just in case we ever got another squid,” Silvio said quietly. “I hope they hold.”

“If won't matter if they hold if Ciccio can't,” Ercole said. “Ciccio – how long do you think you can stay... allora... inflated?”

“I don't know,” Ciccio replied. He was already finding it tiring and it was starting to be painful. He hoped it would be long enough.

Suddenly, the rattling stopped. Ciccio felt something brush against his over-stretched skin, and would have shuddered if he hadn't been wedged in far too tight to move. He started hearing what sounded like distant voices. Could this be a rescue?

-

Having gathered the stuff they'd need to carry out Alberto's idea, the kids plunged back into the water over the continued protests of Luca's father. They left Nonna Libera sitting on the beach with the two Aragosta girls, one under each arm. Luca at once set out for the forge, hoping Signora Donzella had been right about Silvio wanting to go there.

Signs were good. Halfway there, they ran into Signor Pianuzza, carrying his daughter.

“Don't go that way!” he called to them. “The squid is in the ravine! Vittoria told me she'd sent the girls up to Alberto's Island to keep them safe – I'm heading up there with Alessia.”

“It's okay!” Luca said, “we're going to catch it!”

By the time they arrived at the forge, there were at least a dozen people there ahead of them. Most of these were gathered around outside the big forge cavern, watching or throwing objects. It was uncomfortably reminiscent of the crowd that had been following the kids through San Giuseppe mere hours ago. That gave Luca a moment of pause, but he reminded himself that he and his friends hadn't gone to that town to hurt anybody. The squid had tried to hurt people already.

“Stay back!” one of the adults told them. “It's in there!”

Luca went and looked inside anyway.

It was difficult to see what was going on inside. The squid's single large photophore was flashing like a strobe, making things seem to move in jerks. There were three people Luca could see, and he managed to make out that one was Signor Donzella, the second was Niccolò Branzino, and the third Luca's own mother Daniela. The two men were holding sharpened spears, while Daniela had a harpoon Massimo must have given her. They were circling the squid, jabbing at it and then darting out of the way of the tentacles.

“Mom!” Luca shouted out.

“Luca?” she looked up in horror and surprise. “I told you to go to the town!”

“We've got something to catch it!” Luca replied. He moved aside, and let his friends bring up the item they'd hastily put together on the Island. Using Alberto's extensive collection of Human Stuff, they'd made a Christmas-tree-shaped cluster of ropes, cords, and nets with a fishhook on the end of each – a giant squid hook. Now, they just needed to get the squid to attack it.

Right now its attention was elsewhere. When it realized Daniela was distracted, it wrapped a tentacle around her ankle. She cried out, and the two men hurried to help her. Daniela jabbed the harpoon at the only part of the squid she could see for sure in the flashing – the bright bulb on the end of its tentacle. The sharp point pierced it, and glowing goo burst out into the water, coating everything and suddenly making the inside of the forge very visible.

Tools and half-finished objects had been scattered around, and part of the chimney that produced the hot water had collapsed so that the vent was now spewing out into the room rather than up towards the surface. Stones had fallen to land in a pile around the cave where the Donzella family had used to live. The windows there were shuttered, and the door was blocked up by something with long spines, like a giant urchin. Were Silvio and Ciccio hiding in there?

Alberto and Giulia helped Luca thread their giant squid lure through one of the openings and let it dangle, and then called out to the three adults still fighting the creature.

“Up here!” Alberto shouted. “Lead it up here!”

“This way! Careful of the hooks!” Giulia agreed.

By the glow in the water the three adults could see them waving, but did not understand the strange construction they were gathered around – except for Daniela, who had spent enough time in the Marcovaldo house to recognize it at once. She turned and swam for the opening, darting around the dangling hooks. The squid, furious and in pain from its burst photophore, gave chase. Signor Donzella and Niccolò followed it on either side to herd it towards the lure if it got distracted.

Daniela wiggled out, and the squid reached for her, only to get a tentacle caught on one of the many hooks. It reached with another to free the first, and the second arm caught, then a third. Daniela joined the kids in jiggling the ropes to get more hooks moving. Before long the squid's arms were hopelessly tangled, but it could still swim by squirting water out of its siphon. When it realized it would soon be helpless, it released a cloud of gooey ink and then took off into the bottom of the trench. Daniela and Luca had to let go of the ropes in a hurry so they wouldn't be dragged along with it.

It took a minute or two for the ink to disperse, but eventually the moonlight started coming through. Giulia and Daniela had gotten the worst of the blast, and both were covered with dark stains. Daniela's hands and arms were also splotched with phosphorescence. She tried to wipe some of it away on her clothes, but soon gave up and gathered all three kids in for a hug.

“You brave, amazing, brilliant... I am so proud of you, and if I had my way you'd all be grounded for a season! Why don't you do what you're told?”

“It was Alberto's idea,” said Luca.

“Wait'll I tell Uncle Massimo I helped catch a giant squid!” Alberto grinned.

Daniela shook his head. “Young man, I hope your uncle...”

“Get out of the way!” Giorgia Donzella interrupted. She pushed past the group, and she and her husband entered the forge and began calling out. “Silvio!”

“Junior! Where are you?”

“We're down here!” came Silvio's muffled voice. “We're okay!”

The Donzellas went down to get their son, while Luca wriggled out of his mother's grasp. “Is Ciccio with you?” he asked.

“Yeah, he's fine,” Silvio said. “At least... I think he's fine.”

That didn't sound good. Luca and his friends followed the Donzellas to see.

[softsky-daily]

7/17/2024

It was an inside kinda day.

Positive thing: I got a lot of sleep.

I ended up not getting much done just because I was exhausted, and also stressed thinking about internship tomorrow. Going to bed and waking up early and being there all day is just the worst. I'm hoping it won't be so bad this week since our supervisor said she'd take us on field trips to different internship sites, but she might still be sick, and either way she's canceled on stuff before.

I really need to get ahold of her so I can tell her I'm quitting early. Going there the past few months has just been draining away my willpower like a huge motivation vacuum.

Man. I thought I'd be over working at places that make me feel shitty ever since I quit my last job, but it had to be baked right into my program (which, for the record, has also been making me feel shitty). I was talking to a classmate friend a bit and she said she could see her future so clearly once she graduated, becoming a private practice counselor straight out the gate. I think that made me realize I am just in a whole other universe compared to that. My mind is focused on being anywhere else, doing anything else. It almost breaks my heart because this is what I wanted to do since I was little, and certainly I think I'd be a very good counselor.

But not here. And not like this. I need a serious break regardless, and it is just not being given to me. I can take a lot but I'm at my limit and it's terrible that the overarching message in this field I keep hearing is that we don't rest. Whatever self care we tout, we don't actually follow through with that. We have to push through because our clients need us and nobody else can do it.

And I think it is true to some extent. Our system just doesn't allow for better, accessible mental health services, and it falls to those willing to sacrifice a lot to be able to help. Another classmate friend told me he's seen so many counselors who have just lost their humanity over the years trying to stay and help at these places. I know what he means. Especially at internship - the softness and gentleness is just not in them anymore, even the ones who stay generally kind. I can understand why. It's a tough job. Even I can feel some of my gentleness leaving and I hate that more than anything.

I remember feeling frustrated because people have said "this career just might not be for you." And if it isn't? What would you have me do? I still need to finish my degree. The feeling of being trapped is so palpable I could almost reach out and shake the bars of my cage for real.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll just get myself through internship, and then the next day the same thing, and then I can sleep in on the weekend. On Sunday I'm volunteering at a dinner for Japanese students visiting from Takasaki High School (which I believe is in Gunma Prefecture). I'm excited for that. And hopefully somewhere in between I'll be able to flag down my internship supervisor and tell her I'm quitting early.

[emmieblueeyes]

Let me introduce you to my inner voice. She is one serious bitch! She's cruel, violent and she hates me.

At my worst moments of failure and personal recognition of lameness, she is there to cast a shadow over me. She tells me that I am disgusting. She tells me that I am a mistake. That I am ugly and that no one would miss me. She twists harmless comments made by the people in my life into cruel proof that if I was to die today, people would move on. She tells me I am a coward. She tells me everybody, especially me would be better off if I wasn't here.

She makes me cry. She also makes sense to me. I know her, she's been around for a long time and I secretly believe she's right.

Positive mental health has been made into a morbidly obese happiness eater. People are applauded and heralded as positive role models when they tell you on various media platforms how to keep smiling, how to chase your goals, how to be happy in spite of your traumas, and road rage at traffic. Most of all, these welfare and mental health gurus tell you various steps on how to have a positive or solution focused mindset that will eradicate the toxic inner voice.

I am going to a funeral tomorrow. For a client that I cared about and I want to honour them. I work in social work. I bought a dress. My boyfriend asked to see pictures that he could look at from across a different time zone. The evening descended into chaos. Seven months ago I was 24 stone. I am now 17 stone. I wasnt always big. Five years ago, I had a wonderful body that I wasn't grateful for and judged. I used to wear dresses everyday. Now I rarely wear them because my big belly and tree trunk calves cause me to wince and so I wear clothes that are strategic in what they highlight and hide. I go to the gym every day. I have cut out wheat, sugar and I live in calorie deficit. It works. Week on week, I lose pounds, small and great. But when I wear the dress, there is still mounds of fat everywhere. I can't send any photos to my boyfriend. He's not going to be turned on by my morbidly obese backside and bouncy castle physique. I am not turned on by it. I have another 7 stone to lose to be at my target. I look terrible in the dress. I look terrible full stop. I look as large as I did at 24 stone. I don't look normal, I look like an eye sore.

That's when the bitch serves me her best hits. She unleashes such torment that I want to die. I truly want to close my eyes and not wake up. I don't think I would really be missed for long. I am a blimp. Remembered and then forgotten. Not truly needed by anyone that couldn't replace me. I am temporarily suicidal. Seriously and not.

I say this as someone who not only works in mental health but as a trainee therapist about to qualify this year.

Good mental health is not the absence of toxic thoughts or never having a desire to die or to hurt yourself. It is the ability to know how to make sure that you around tomorrow and the day after. To continue even with a bitch throwing shade. To try again, even when you believe her. Good mental health is being able to hold a state of hope and hopelessness - waiting for the choas to quieten and move towards a kinder reasoning.

I want media platforms to talk more about the bitch. Maybe if we talked more honest about her and her long-term stay in our own lives, more suicidal thoughts would stay temporary, and we wouldn't hide this bully so effectively. We could help each other wait it out. Like strangers at the bus stop during a storm. We talk, and we joke because together, it feels a little less shit and the bus seems to get there quicker.

[arlechinav-blog]

Helpful guidelines for trancework:

Just some general suggestions. 1. Do not trance without a monitor. Have a designated trance buddy to watch over your body while you go on adventures. Bonus points if you equip your trance buddy with all the tools they will need to make their life easier. (Flat sheet, water, snacks, scented wake-up oil, medications you may need, etc.) 2. Do not touch or talk to the entranced while they are doing their thing. If it is important, talk to their monitor. No touchy without prior consent. 3. Establish a safe space to do your trancework on that is nowhere near that big ol' bonfire--or any fire. Use a rug or a large mat of some kind that you can feel the boundaries of with your eyes closed. 4. Take the time to talk to your monitor about your needs and have a plan of action for anything you know could be an issue. (Like asthma, allergies, medical conditions, or your rude ex showing up demanding to talk to you at the worst possible moment.) Minimize the unexpected. 5. Go all the way or not at all. Going into and out of an altered state repeatedly in the same night is just asking for pain tomorrow. Get in there and stay in there, you goof. You are going to give your whole body whiplash for a week if you keep playing with it. 6. Do not use a catalyst to achieve an altered state without the consent of the space/ other people involved. That produces a different kind of trance and the people who have to take care of you should have a say in how the rest of their night is going to go. 7. Do not invite yourself into someone else's trance ritual. Just because they are doing something that looks interesting, it doesn't mean they have signed up to watch over a complete stranger. The stuff below is not essential but it is still helpful and can make everyone's life easier. 1. Wear clothes that you can depend on. I recommend wearing trance whites--all white clothing picked out for the rigors of trancework. If you decide to trance out in something flimsy, do not be surprised when that article of clothing rips apart or abandons you. You can always bleach and blue your whites. This also identifies what you are doing to any onlooker who has an understanding of trancework and helps to nonverbally communicate intent. You have fewer awkward conversations that way. 2. Please do not try to do this. (See below.)

Respect the process, the skills, the gear, the commitment. There are a lot of moving parts to spiritual trancework and you will get way more out of the experience if you take your time and do the work.

Much love and good luck with your magic floppy time.

[h0rnyv01d]

0: Height

1: Virgin?

2: Shoe size

3: Do you smoke?

4: Do you drink?

5: Do you take drugs?

6: Age you get mistaken for

7: Have tattoos?

8: Want any tattoos?

9: Got any piercings?

10: Want any piercings?

11: Best friend?

12: Relationship status

13: Biggest turn ons

14: Biggest turn offs

15: Favorite movie

16: I’ll love you if

17: Someone you miss

18: Most traumatic experience

19: A fact about your personality

20: What I hate most about myself

21: What I love most about myself

22: What I want to be when I get older

23: My relationship with my sibling(s)

24: My relationship with my parent(s)

25: My idea of a perfect date

26: My biggest pet peeves

27: A description of the girl/boy I like

28: A description of the person I dislike the most

29: A reason I’ve lied to a friend

30: What I hate the most about work/school

31: What your last text message says

32: What words upset me the most

33: What words make me feel the best about myself

34: What I find attractive in women

35: What I find attractive in men

36: Where I would like to live

37: One of my insecurities

38: My childhood career choice

39: My favorite ice cream flavor

40: Who wish I could be

41: Where I want to be right now

42: The last thing I ate

43: Sexiest person that comes to my mind immediately

44: A random fact about anything

oop this is long so

1: yeah lol

2: 6

3: nope, gotta keep them lungs healthy to stay slutty

4: nopity nope, i’m so scared of saying something i’ll regret while drunk

5: again, nope 😭😭

6: recently people have been offering me kids menus at restaurants? it’s odd, idk how old they think i am but

7: no :(

8: i wanna get a star pattern on my collarbone at some point, and maybe a jellyfish on my upper arm

9: yep! regular lobe, and a cartilage piercing on my right ear

10: i wanna get a bunch of piercings, but just on my ears, i’m getting a conch piercing on my left soon

11: probs my friend sophia but you wouldn’t know her obv lol

12: it’s complicated- we’re both into each other, and weve dated in the past, but neither of us is willing to b like “let’s get back together”

13: men just casually hinting at something they’re into. it just makes my brain go WILD with possibilities

14: being mean outside of sex

15: cinderella (1950)

16: i’ll love you if you’re sweet (my standards are so low i’m sorry)

17: my friends i don’t talk to anymore

18: i’ve had two seizures, and those were probably the worst moments of my life

19: i’m clingy but i won’t admit it

20: my chin and my need for attention

21: i got that hourglass figure <3

22: i wanna be an author!!

23: i have one little sister, i love her, but she’s nuts sometimes

24: no father, and my mom is more like a big sister than a mother to me

25: any date is perfect as long as i’m with someone i love. but if i had to pick, watching fireworks together

26: people pronouncing my city name wrong, idk why

27: he’s a lil short, he’s got curly blonde hair, and he’s so sweet, he wants to be lawyer someday

28: the person i dislike most has greasy brown hair, is 5’6, and looks like he doesn’t shower

29: protecting feelings, and also i’ve lied if i thought it’d help repair friendships

30: waking up early!! i hate getting up at 6

31: “will you wake up if i send you more pictures of cats i like, or should i wait until tomorrow?”

32: ‘we need to talk’

33: i’ve gotten told i look like cinderella twice today :)) that made me feel so amazing

34: i��m more attracted to men than women, but i’ve noticed that whenever i’m into women, they tend to be really strong

35: brunettes for some reason

36: tbh i’m perfectly fine in florida

37: my laugh

38: i used to want to be a marine biologist, and while that field is still incredibly interesting to me, i think i’d rather write

39: vanilla, i’m a basic bitch <3

40: adelaide kane, shes dropdead gorgeous i’d love to be her

41: greece, because apparently there’s a ton of cats!!

42: i had a banana a few hours ago

43: chris hemsworth. on his poster for thor: ragnarok, he literally fits leonardo da vinci’s idea of perfection, so i will unapologetically be saying this

44: the blue whale is the largest animal to have ever lived

[clarktooncrossing]

Giraffe's Eye View: Christmas Specials Special (2023) | ADVENT INDEX

Chestnuts are roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost is nipping at your nose. Mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again. All the dogs in the neighborhood somehow learned to bark Jingle Bells in sync. Yet retail workers are still more annoyed with Mariah Carey. Snow is getting shoveled, tossed, and formed into sentient beings leading parades without permits. It makes for an excellent distraction as the Krampus abducts children for bad behavior. Fruitcake is exchanged only to find its permanent home in the garbage. Terrorists have hijacked the Holiday office party right before your boss can give you a Jelly of the Month Club membership as your bonus. And of course, the Turducken has returned to wreak its fiery vengeance upon an unsuspecting world! If all this doesn’t put you in the Christmas spirit, perhaps these following Holiday specials will!

Greetings people of today and robots of tomorrow! It is I, Santa Clark, your geeky giraffe friend with a deep love of Christmas! My obsession for the yuletide is rivaled only by Maleficent’s hatred for it, which is saying a lot considering she once teamed up with Mad Madam Mim to kidnap the literal Spirit of Christmas. Yes, that really happened. I know this due to my annual pilgrimage to the Island of Misfit Specials, home to obscure or nerdy festive media ranging from movies, TV episodes, and comics. It’s no easy journey. Constantly I find myself confronted by sinister snowmen, genocidal gingerbread men, and worst of all, crappy commercials. Getting stabbed in the foot by a candy-cane wielding cookie is one thing, but I swear I’ve seen that ad for Wilbur’s White Elephant Gift Emporium more times than I’ve seen Miracle on 34th Street! Sometimes at night I catch myself reciting that jingle. Wilbur’s White Elephant Gift Emporium: Where Christmas meets Convenience! Huh, maybe Maleficent had a point.

Nah, my deep-rooted appreciation for this time of year can weather even the most moronic marketing! It helps that most of the merry media I’ve seen have put me in the perfect Holiday mood! Examples include the time a Ninja Turtle found himself trapped in a truck full of stollen toys, a drunk department store Santa stumbling onto a wish-granting magic bag, Big Bird nearly becoming a popsicle, Gwenpool waking up in a world where Galactus took the place of jolly ol’ Saint Nicholas, a terrifying tree stump trying to slaughter some saps over a stupid ship war, and the year when Death gave the Little Match Girl the greatest gift of all. Needless to say, I thought I had seen it all. That is, until I took my friends on a trip to the Island, tasking them to find me new, strange, seasonal specials to review! Some of them were fair, finding me festive favorites as comforting as coco in front of the fireplace. Others were fiendish, wanting to feed off my misery like Gremlins after midnight. Regardless of how naughty or nice my companions were, I’ve compiled all of their suggestions into a makeshift advent calendar! So stay tuned everyday until Christmas to see how badly my buddies can shred what little sanity I have left.

DAY 1: Barbie in Nutcracker (Suggested by Molly)

DAY 2: Care Bears Nutcracker (Suggested by Your Clairy Godmother)

DAY 3: Equestria Girls Holiday Special + Holidays Unwrapped (Suggested by @foxhatart)

DAY 4: The Flash: Running to Stand Still + Justice League: Comfort and Joy (Suggested by Zephron)

DAY 5: A Christmas Special: Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (Suggested by xXFluffyPachirusuXx)

DAY 6: Klaus (Suggested by Void-Android)

DAY 7: Sakura’s Wonderful Christmas + Komi: It’s Just a Merry Christmas (Suggested by Alice2Rose)

DAY 8: Christmas with the Kranks + Tokyo Godfathers (Suggested by @burningthrucelluloid)

DAY 9: Come back tomorrow to unwrap The Christmas Tree!

DAY 10: ???

DAY 11: ???

DAY 12: ???

DAY 13: ???

DAY 14: ???

DAY 15: ???

DAY 16: ???

DAY 17: ???

DAY 18: ???

DAY 19: ???

DAY 20: ???

DAY 21: ???

DAY 22: ???

DAY 23: ???

DAY 24: ???

To tide you over until then, Santa Clark's gonna regift some older reviews from years back during #ThrowbackThursday, so be on the lookout for those as well. Until then, HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

[jvstheworld]

The Buffy Re-watch: S1E10 (part 1)

Nightmares

We are going to get spooky in here tonight.

We start this episode of people's worst fears with a premonition from Buffy going own to The Master's lair, which is really just foreshadowing for episode 12.

The mix of Buffy screaming in the dream and her mum trying to wake her up thinking that she is protesting going to school when she has no idea what is really going on in her daughter's life. Ouch. Then Buffy covers to try and not worry her mum.

Buffy's dad is visiting. The mysterious estranged father. So I don't actually know why Joyce and Hank divorced and I can't remember if they ever say why in the series or in the comics (I need to read them at some point). In season 3 'Lover's Walk' Joyce tells Spike that they both just grew apart. In season 4 'Fear Itself' Buffy thinks she was part of the reason why, but Joyce shuts that down and says she didn't. Then in season 7 'Conversations With Dead People' Buffy tells Holden that she thinks he cheated. Despite all of the possible reasons and Joyce trying to tell her otherwise, Buffy still believes she was part of the reason why her parents divorced. Especially after all she has done since she became a slayer, that could have exacerbated it. It would make sense that she would blame herself.

Can someone please explain teenage boys to me? Especially Xander remembering what type of jumper the teacher was wearing but not the lesson itself even though he took an active part in it?

Awww, cute non-threatening kid. How do I know he's non-threating? Because he is wearing light coloured clothing. Unlike the Anointed One where he is wearing dark coloured clothing.

Everyone screaming at the spiders? Tarantulas? This is one of the few times I will agree with lots of screaming, I have arachnophobia so I would be running out of that classroom not giving a fuck about my education.

The kid is sorry about what happened. See, non-threatening.

The Master and Spike are the only vampires I can remember that willing touch crosses despite all the burning the suffer.

Hank Summers adores his daughter. Oh sure he does. Yet he's barely around, ditches Buffy on her birthday in season 3, and did he do anything when Joyce was ill or when she died? Did he even go to her funeral? That's bullshit that he adores his daughter.

Giles nightmare #1: getting lost in the stacks in the library. As nightmares go, that's fairly tamed.

Buffy nightmare #1: surprise history test. That's what happens when you skip so many history classes to go train with librarian. Seriously needs to mix up which classes she skips.

I feel horrible for Wendell. He really cared for the creatures he kept and someone else's negligence killed them, but he's the one with the guilt.

Whoa, ugly dude! Lucky 19, that's definitely gonna be relevant later.

Part 2 tomorrow.

[teenaan]

actually so strange how i feel about my pop dying my nan died last year but she had been battling dementia for years but i wasn’t told she had it til 6 months after she was diagnosed because my dad is hopeless .. i’m seeing my dad for the first time in nearly 3 years tomorrow (i saw him at my nans funeral in october last year but i didn’t sit in his row and at her wake we only had one conversation) and i don’t know how to feel thoughts idk… like i hate my dad i resent him i don’t even call him dad i just can’t forgive him for how he’s treated me but i thought my nan dying would at least bring us together but it didn’t.. i hope my pop can i just don’t have the time or energy to carry the relationship all by myself i try to call him and i text him most days but he acts like it’s a chore he has to do not something he wants to. he moved to the other side of the country and didn’t tell me til 3 days later he just frustrates me i’ve always been kind i rarely hassle him for money even though he’s so well off i just don’t think i can ever be enough and so many people think it’s because i’m gay but he isn’t homophobic his oldest sister is a lesbian and everyone’s been so supportive of her i think it’s just because he had other kids that loved sports. i played rugby for 6 years to try and have a relationship with him and he came to 2 of my games the entire time i played that was when i first realised at around 7 years old i wasn’t a priority in his life he had a new wife and new kids i was just thrown aside.

i just really want to be enough for him one day i’ve alway acted like it doesn’t affect me but it really does my mum was as supportive as a teen mother with substance issues could be (bless her heart but she struggled) but also she definitely has some mental health issues from her own childhood that i think have just been the next victim of the cycle of abuse and neglect . i just don’t know anymore life hurts too much and i try to find the beauty in it but i can’t spend all my time at the beach getting high and drunk i have to work at this stupid fucking dead end job and the worst part is all my issues are my fault i dropped out of school i got a credit card but i didn’t have a single responsible role model growing up my mum a substance abuser, my nan also a substance abuser, my grandfather a substance abuser, my dad absent and a gambler, my nan who passed was a major drunk and she loved gambling and same with my pop i just want to do something with my life i want to escape the cycle i want to move from this fucking place my entire family has lived here it’s full of drunks and junkies i can’t do this i need to be somewhere where i feel free to explore and live my life and have opportunities but no the best i can have here is a dodgy apprenticeship or a fast food job…

i don’t even know what i want anymore i want happiness but it seems so unobtainable i live in a house surrounded by manipulative people who have just belittled me i want to leave my family but there’s no way i can afford it ever unless i have a stable job which is so hard to do . everyone i know is in university and i’m not doing anything i just want to get my life together but everything i do i just fail . i really truly think that is my destiny to just fail everything i do and life with my family forever . it’s selfish but i thought what if i get left some money when my nan died and i had that same thought earlier today after ruminating on my thoughts about my pop i could maybe do something with my life move somewhere experience life and not be a shut in is that sociopathic i don’t know i don’t feel guilty about it i don’t know how to healthily greave i’m so drunk writing this bc i’ve been trying to drink away my feelings sorry guys this is so long damn.

and i keep remembering when people would tell me stuff like i can’t see you in a relationship that really fucked me up there was 2 other gay guys in my high school and i was the only one who was fully publicly out and i felt like there was no teen love for me i still haven’t really had one all my failed talking stages and situationships feel so one sided it makes me feel unlovable the only time i get attention from men is when they want sex and i’m so over it

sex isn’t even good i hate it. it makes me feel so fucking sick 90% of the time but that’s probably unresolved childhood trauma tbhhh

i’ve really been wanting these prada sunglasses but they r so expensive but my mum wants them too so i think we could share

i have always been really insecure about my family and our finances we’ve been homeless before and my mum and i lived in a rehab and a trailer park so i really get anxious when it comes to money in either too irresponsible and reckless or i stress about it to the point i have a panic attack it’s so fucking embarrassing when i’m out with people who have never had to worry about their housing or food or even christmas they always had stable lives. but recently we built a house that we can barely afford the bills just pile up and i can’t help because of my new job it’s so horrific the wages the can pay you.. but due to my new house people always go around calling me rich when they have lived in the house their parents have owned their entire life i have moved 15 times i am 18 i have moved schools many times it made my life so unstable i never had friends and i was so severely bullied for being gay that i developed bulimia at first it was so i could leave school early from how bad people treated me then i started getting comments about my weight and it’s really fucked me up for my entire life and it eventually turned into binge eating issues making me feel like the fucking whale and now i’m on a hunger suppressant because of how shit and horrible i feel i’ve tried working out and eating healthy and it helps but i barely lose weight

tldr: i hate my life

this is so ramble but it’s my personal diary basically ijbol

[radiant-reid]

hey cate, so im in a crisis pls help, so basically today i was supposed to wake up for school, but i missed the bus and i was telling my mom to drive me there but my brother is violently vomiting so my dad had to take him to the hospital and he decided to take HER car and decided to leave his phone here😭 and now im telling my mom if we could take a taxi or something and now its 7:30 am which means my classes have started and ive been sobbing for so long bc i have this huge fear of just being left out in general, so ive been sobbing and i genuinely think i need to go get therapy but i was looking forward today and i just hate being left out on things

-🫂

Firstly, 🫶🏼🫶🏼 I’m so sorry your morning isn’t going to plan, sending you some virtual hugs. I know that with my anxiety that unpredictable events like that are so hard to deal with. I promise that it will all be okay, even if you don’t make it to school today, you can still have a good day tomorrow.

My therapist always used to make me think of the worst scenario and then decide how likely that is to happen so worse case, a new inside joke between your classmates/friends happens and you don’t know it. And that’s fine. You’re in school for so many years that there’s going to be so many moments and bonding experiences and you’ll miss some sometimes, but so will everyone else. And it’s okay because there’s so many that you’ll get to be part of the majority of them and that’s really what matters

It’s so good that you’re excited to go to school, I always feel so proud of people when they say that because it can be really challenging to find that drive but you have it and that’s what should matter and make you feel proud of yourself. There’s no shame in going to therapy and you’ll learn so many helpful tips.

Take a mental health day today, it’s a situation out of your control and even if you get to school, you’ll still be stressed about it so take today and do something you love, watch a movie, read a book, make something nice to eat, just something that’s good for your mental health

Also, I love you, you’re doing amazing, and you’ll be okay 🫶🏼🤍

[rozieramati]

7/16/23

i like to write more than anything else these days, apart from making music. i can’t make music all the time though. i have to finish my album first. so i’ve been writing to cope. there’s a face i saw in my dream last night. dark brown eyes full of craze. when i saw them in real life a while ago i was afraid. but last night it was warm. it was excitement. it was sweetness. it was all a dream though. i think i’ve pushed him away to the point of no return. everything happens for a reason, i tell myself. i’m my own worst enemy. but who cares? anything meant to be will be. 

i’ve lost hope in being happy. i’ve lost hope in love. i’ve lost all hope. and i put myself here. i’ve dug my own grave. i’ve isolated myself. i’ve done this. and it’s all been a reaction to last year. i can’t be close to anyone anymore. i don’t have that luxury. i must persist in the emptiness. it’s the price i pay for the music. 

i just want someone to talk to. someone who understands. but no one does. what’s even more sad is when people want to help, and want to understand, but they simply can’t. every glimmer of hope has been just that, a glimmer. i cannot be subject to another glimmer. i cannot be subject to anything at all. and it’s all because of last year. 

i had to go through it alone. i couldn’t say a word. and i had to pretend i was okay amidst it all. and i did. 

love would be nice. walks in the park would be nice. waking up in the mornings would be nice. would be nice. i do that anyway. but it’d be nice with someone else there. a battered romantic is dangerous.

still, i don’t need love.

still, i run away.

i’m a contradiction. i want simple things. i want to share a life, and i want to live mine. 

cry cry cry.

i cry i cry i cry. 

i wish to be high right now. i never wish to be high but the pain is getting worser. it’s reaching beyond repair. suspirium by thom yorke just came on. someone is laughing. 

some people will never know the pressure it takes to get to this point. i’ve molded myself out of fragile ice and have somehow come out on the other side sculpted to almost perfection. almost. i’m almost there. i’ll probably be there within a couple months. 

why didn't you handle me with care? you want me to hurt. you do. i saw it in your eyes that night when i lost my phone. i should have left it there, maybe then i would have forgotten you. i don't know why that would help me forget. i’m sure you’ve forgotten. i’ll forget tomorrow.

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week?

Superman: Lost #5 - Oh Priest, you sure know how to piss people off don't you? The craziest Clois fans, the Wonder Woman fans who were already unhappy with him, he doesn't care at all about pissing them off. Good for him, with how happy the main Superman books are right now, I'm open to trying an Elseworld story that puts Clark and Lois through hell and portrays them as fallible. Was wondering how he would keep Clark on "Kansas" now that a GL has shown up, and surprise, she's a psycho. I'm seriously wondering if Priest would actually have her rape Clark, to justify why he's so messed up beyond just the years he spent away.

Superboy: Man of Tomorrow #4 - Love the twist, the Cosmoteers aren't new friends for Conner. They're new foes, a dark twist on his YJ comrades. Trav himself is an excellent foil because he is a dark reflection on Conner's two drives here. On one hand Conner feels nostalgia for his past, and Trav represents the worst of the 90s "heroes" which is the era Conner is from. Trav also represents the darkest path Conner could take to "make his own way" and build a name for himself. Finally Trav envies Conner his powers, he looks at Conner and sees what he could be, the same way Conner has struggled to deal with Jon and Kara taking his place as Superman's heirs. Porter did good work here, and the art evokes Dragon Ball to a Z.

Unstoppable Doom Patrol #4 - Happy to get a brief overview on the continuity for the Patrol, as someone who has only read Morrison and Way's runs there's a lot I'm missing. Beast Girl has a pretty straightforward X-Men backstory, but I like it because it makes for a good contrast with how weird the rest of the Doom Patrol are. Rita's struggle to accept being happy, and the question of if she would better serve the team if she were unhappy is interesting, hope Culver gets to explore that. The new Chief seems to be keeping Jane locked up, maybe Jane is dealing with the same question as Rita from the opposite angle. Is it worth it for Jane to sacrifice her own happiness by letting the Chief take charge since Chief is a good leader? Of course when it comes to the Doom Patrol, Chiefs are never what they seem.

Knight Terrors: Zatanna #1 - Solid, Zatanna and Robotman have a fun buddy cop dynamic, but it was disappointing that Zee was reduced to daddy issues once again. They badly need to do another big story with her that doesn't involve her father.

Spirit World #3 - Never expected to see Shiva in that outfit again, God the art is amazing.

WildC.A.T.S. #9 - Grifter's a fucking dick man.

Danger Street #7 - Still good! Still no clue where this is going!

Scarlet Witch #6 - One day I really need to read Young Avengers so I can care about Wiccan and Hulkling, but good issue nonetheless.

Loki #2 - Man Loki is such a shit. Even when they're trying to fix their own mess they can't help leaving bodies in their wake.

Immortal X-Men #13 - Shit is hitting the fans folks. Given the comment Stasis made in last week's one shot about Righteous being popular enough to get elected to the X-Men, I'm wondering if Gillen is actually going to have her get elected to a position of power in Krakoa (if it sticks around).

[mariacallous]

Of the 20 games Australia played on its journey to qualify for this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, 16 games were held abroad. Australia has been a member of the Asian Football Confederation since 2005, and its players’ passports include stamps from Kuwait, Taiwan, Jordan, Vietnam, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. But several members of the Australian team can claim an even longer journey to the tournament.

“Pressure is me as an 18-month-old baby fleeing a war. Pressure is me as a 6-year-old being in the middle of a war. Pressure isn’t a must-win football game because you can win or lose, but I don’t think anyone’s going to die,” defender Milos Degenek told ESPN before Australia’s Nov. 26 group-stage game against Tunisia.

Degenek was born in Knin, Croatia, in 1994. The city was the self-declared capital of the unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina during the 1991 to 1995 conflict that led to the breakup of Yugoslavia and was taken by the Croatian military in 1995. Degenek’s family fled to Belgrade, Serbia, in 1995 to avoid the worst of the war before immigrating to Australia as refugees when he was 7 years old.

“I can remember pretty much everything from that time,” Degenek said in a 2017 interview with FIFA.com. “Not knowing if you are going to wake up tomorrow because of the bombings. You would see a lot of crazy things the next morning when you woke up. A lot of things in flames. And a lot of things that a normal human mind can’t comprehend. You just have to deal with it at a young age.”

Australia’s national soccer team has long revealed the country’s migrant history. Its teams of the 1960s and 1970s featured mostly first-generation migrants from Europe. At the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, Australia’s squad included a roll call of immigrants from England, Scotland, Germany, and then-Yugoslavia—with Australian-born players a minority. Decades later, Australia’s 2006 “golden generation”—who reached the World Cup knockout rounds for the first time ever—included just one player born outside Australia, New Zealand-born Archie Thompson. But the team nevertheless championed its multicultural origins. Soccer was a constant presence in migrant families, and Australian-born children and grandchildren played soccer rather than rugby or Australian rules football. Media coverage at the time celebrated how this particular team reflected Australia’s makeup rather than the cricket or rugby teams.

Australia’s 2022 squad is diverse once again. And if the results of today’s group stage matchups hold, the team may also advance to the knockout rounds. Four players were born in Africa, and three of those were refugees. Forward Awer Mabil was born in 1995 in the United Nations-run Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya after his family fled war in Sudan. Mabil lived at Kakuma until the age of 10, when his family received asylum in Australia. Defender Thomas Deng was similarly born in Kenya in 1997 to parents who had fled Sudan and moved to Australia in 2003.

Garang Kuol is the third Australian player with Sudanese heritage. Kuol was born in Egypt to South Sudanese parents in 2004 before moving to Australia with his family at the age of 6. Twelve years later, during the closing minutes of Australia’s 4-1 loss to France last week, he took the field to become the youngest player to represent the Socceroos at a World Cup. After Australia qualified for the tournament in June 2022, Mabil said the country had given him and his family “a chance of life.” In January, he will join the English Premier League Newcastle United.

“On the journey my mum and her parents went through to reach the camp, many people died,” Mabil told the Guardian in an interview. “They were captured by the rebels trying to leave. The way they escaped, we could talk about it all night. It sounds like something from a movie, but it’s something they actually went through. The war, the journey, what they faced. For me, hearing it, it’s like: ‘Woah.’ What people do to keep their kids safe, what they sacrifice to give them a better life. They didn’t know how long they would be in the refugee camp; they thought they would return home. But there’s no returning home.”

The racial makeup of Australia’s 2022 team reveals an uncomfortable truth about the country’s immigration history. In 1901, the Immigration Restriction Act became one of the first laws of the new Australian federation. Alfred Deakin, then attorney-general and soon-to-be prime minister, said the new law “means the prohibition of all alien colored immigration … the policy of securing a ‘white Australia.’” It was not until 1975 that the Gough Whitlam government formally ended the policy with the introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act. Local Black faces are rarely seen in mainstream media in Australia, and while Australians with Indigenous or Pacific Islander heritage have played prominent roles in the sport, it is only in recent years that African Australians have stepped into the spotlight.

Australia’s more recent policies toward refugees and asylum-seekers have also been mired in controversy. Players like Mabil entered Australia through formal offshore refugee application programs, but informal arrivals to Australia face huge hurdles that have often proved insurmountable. The government began detaining asylum-seekers who arrived on the country’s shores by boat in 1992. The policy was politicized and hardened by then-Prime Minister John Howard, who governed from 1996 to 2007, and had a no-compromise approach to asylum-seekers who arrived in Australia by boat.

In 2001, in the run-up to the federal election, Howard’s government refused to grant permission to the MV Tampa, a Norwegian cargo ship, to enter Australian waters. The Tampa had rescued more than 400 mostly Afghan refugees from a fishing vessel stranded in the Indian Ocean. Australia’s stance sparked a diplomatic incident among Australia, Norway, and Indonesia over which country had responsibility for the initial rescue and subsequent destination of the asylum-seekers. Ultimately, New Zealand accepted many of the refugees with the remainder detained by Australia on the Pacific island of Nauru. In another incident in 2001, top officials in the Howard government claimed refugees had thrown “children overboard” when a Royal Australian Navy ship intercepted another boat carrying asylum-seekers. An Australian Senate inquiry later found the story to be untrue.

“We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come,” Howard said in 2001, announcing what would become known as Australia’s Pacific Solution. It included establishing an Australian-run offshore detention center on Nauru, the third-smallest country in the world, and on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island. The Manus Island facility became infamous for its brutality—in 2014, an asylum-seeker was murdered by facility workers during a riot protesting living conditions, and in 2015, detainees held a hunger strike by sewing their lips together—and was briefly shuttered between 2008 and 2012. In 2021, the Australian government handed control of the Manus Island facility to the government of Papua New Guinea. Nauru’s detention center remains open.

The Pacific Solution has remained popular with the Australian electorate even as asylum-seekers are held indefinitely without charge and criticism that conditions are inhumane remain. Detention centers on Australian soil have also been criticized for being dangerous; asylum claims take an average of 761 days to process, and asylum-seekers are held in what are effectively jails for that time. The new prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said he’s investigating alternatives.

Australia’s soccer players put a positive face on the refugee experience in Australia, and Mabil acknowledges that his story is alluring to the media.

“I’ve got that title now of ‘oh, refugee kid,’” he told the Guardian. “It’s more for the headlines, for people to try to feel sorry for me, but they never try to understand who I am. … I want to tell that story too, inspire people from my country, my mother’s country, around the world.”

Mabil, Deng, and Kuol are prominent positive examples of African Australian success. Since the mid-1990s, approximately 30,000 people identifying as South Sudanese have immigrated to Australia. The community has produced top athletes in multiple sports, fashion models, musicians, and prominent lawyers. It has also been marginalized, associated with crime and violence in the media, and subjected to racism.

“There were times where I’d play for [Melbourne] Victory [his local team] on the weekend, then I’d be walking through the shops and there will be security guards looking at me strangely or following me around, thinking that I’m going to steal something,” Deng said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “I’ve had that multiple times in my life, but I’ve just learned to ignore it. … I’ve tried to block it out.”