anealasaid

[anealasaid]

pas de trois

Rating: Explicit Wordcount: 9.1k Pairing(s): Tom Blake/William Schofield, Lieutenant Richards/William Schofield, Tom Blake/Lieutenant Richards, Tom Blake/Lieutenant Richards/William Schofield Tags: Threesomes, BDSM AU, Modern AU, and a plethora of sex tropes.

Summary: Benjamin Richards and William Schofield have a lovely Dom/Sub relationship well worked out, but they do routinely enjoy having a third partner: Will likes being exhibited and Ben likes to see others appreciating his submissive.  Tonight, newish Dom Tom Blake is their third partner, and the evening exceeds all expectations.

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We interrupt this lovely readalong for more HarperCollins union news.

Namely, the union is on strike. HarperCollins, the second largest publishing house in the United States, has made record profits (in the billions) but refuses to pay its employees a living wage or negotiate in good faith. Unlike the one-day strike earlier this year, this will be an open-ended strike, to last until a fair, good-faith contract is agreed upon.

I cannot overstate the implications here. HarperCollins is a 200-year-old behemoth with over 120 imprints, owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch. You have reads books from this company, I guarantee it. You have enjoyed movies and TV shows spawned by this company. The workers striking at the blood and sweat responsible for launching those properties you love. And as Harper goes, so goes the rest of the industry. If we raise the living standards for one, so the pressure increases on other companies to raise it for all.

The Harper Union need your support. They have a full thread here, but here’s the gist of what they’re asking:

EVERYONE:

- Donate to the strike fund if you can

- Politely email Harper’s HR (peopleteam@harpercollins.com) and the CEO (brian.murphy@harpercollins.com) to express your support for the strike and the union.

- Boost their message on social media and among your social circles (here are some assets you can use to do that)

- If you are in the NY metro area, come join the picket line at 195 Broadway in Manhattan!

BLOGGERS/REVIEWERS/BOOKSTAGRAMMERS/BOOKTOKERS:

- If possible, please hold all reviews of Harper titles until the strike is over. (And I would add, if you feel comfortable doing so, tell Harper why.)

FREELANCERS/INDUSTRY HOPEFULS:

- Don’t be a scab. Don’t take new freelance projects or temporary positions while the strike is ongoing.

BOOKSTORES/BOOKSELLERS:

- Share the “I Stand With” graphic

- Print and distribute the union bookmark at your store

AUTHORS/AGENTS:

- Do not submit or sign new contracts to Harper until the union’s own contract is finalized.

———

Please note they are not asking for a boycott on Harper titles. A boycott would harm the authors, who have nothing to do with this, so the union is explicitly requesting no boycott.

Also, please do not @ Harper social accounts to yell at them. Direct all feedback to that peopleteam email. The majority of folks watching those accounts are out on the picket line anyways, and their managers have already been warned that, as non-union members, they risk termination if voice any public support for the strike.

For more info, check out the union’s accounts on Twitter and Instagram. I also recommend this Twitter thread for some hard facts and figures.

Want something you can share on TikTok? Check out Carmen’s video here.

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I misspelled Papua New Guinea, but otherwise--!

by Ealasaid

On a trip to what is today known as Paupa New Guinea, Joe wakes up sans a body. Nicky gives him a hand.

Words: 1415, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova

Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova

Additional Tags: Cannibalism, Human Sacrifice, Blood Kink

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by AzzleDazzle

Trans/Genderqueer Nicky wants a baby, and their husband is more than happy to oblige.

Words: 1455, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 4 of Spooky top!Joe Bingo Fills

Fandoms: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova

Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova

Additional Tags: Breeding, Pregnancy Kink, genderqueer Nicky, Trans Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, nicky is mostly comfortable with his body, Comeplay, Come Marking, Multiple Orgasms, Riding, Window Sex

[anealasaid]

watching this show and LOSING MY SHIT about proto-hobbit society:

1. community based (internally, not externally) 2. "left behind" (how??? because you were dead . . . but that first one in the list -- the snow bank one . . .) 3. food

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wait now i need to know youre idea on silas attacking dylan

I’m going to actually put a read more here because this is wildly long. I have to establish the fact that Silas is overall pretty non-violent and all of the evidence for this, and then I have to actually explain my theory on Silas coming to the camp.

psst: I think it’s because of Dylan

Ok, facts: 

0) I've already mentioned this but pre-game we only know of Silas hurting one person, and that's Caleb, and it was under duress. Travis just says he knows of 'sightings', which is pretty neutral language even though he already hates the kid. I find it hard to believe that Travis wouldn't mention the white wolf murdering people up and down the coast even if he doesn't elaborate that much on the topic.

1) Silas doesn’t hurt Max and Laura. sure, he was on the road but he seemed distressed and then he fled. Eliza almost certainly had a hand in things once the car crashed, and again, I don’t think Eliza holds any ill will towards any non-Hacketts until late in the game, but considering Silas’ overall nature, Eliza was almost certainly protecting her son vs. protecting Laura.

2) Silas is notably the only werewolf active and free during one full moon while the summer camp is active, and there are no attacks and possibly no sightings. The spooky drawing could be based on Ryan’s story, or a camper sighting Silas or Eliza during that night. The latter is compelling evidence that again, Silas was in the area and did nothing.

3) Silas has a small active role in the game compared to the other werewolves, when you consider impact vs. active werewolf time. Until the final chapter, Silas is only responsible for one potential infection and one potential death, out of 5 active chapters. Kaylee is responsible for one potential infection and is only active as a werewolf for 2 chapters. Chris is active for ~1 chapter and is responsible for one potential death. I’m counting the final chapter in a different category because how much is Silas and how much is Eliza is unclear at that point.

Now, my wild speculation:

Silas dives into things during chapter 5, in which he goes to the radio hut. As far as we are aware, this is Silas’ first move ever at actively approaching people and attempting to harm them. A few things to consider:

Silas may have been influenced by the other werewolves in terms of energy, competition, ect. I’m under the opinion that he only made a move because the hunt was on and started by the other werewolves and he was in the area*

How much “plot armor” is justified in universe has an effect on things, but let’s say that it’s reasonably justified. At that point, Silas is the only werewolf that makes sense to attack Ryan in the event that Dylan isn’t bitten. Silas cannot kill Ryan here, and barely hurts him at all even with failed QTEs. I think Silas is still far less aggressive than the other wolves at this point, and thus it would make sense the devs put him here to attack Ryan without the potential to kill him.

Dylan is the only person Silas can infect during the course of the game. That’s BONKERS to me. For plot reasons, Dylan couldn’t be infected by Kaylee here, but Caleb was still active in the area and could have been used to infect Dylan story-wise. The above point lends itself to needing Silas having to be the one, but it’s worth noting the reason I’ve been diving into this idea.

*Silas was in the area. WHY WAS HE IN THE AREA? Silas has been back in the area for let’s say at least 3 full months, considering he had to rebuild his cage and move back in prior to the day Laura and Max showed up.

It’s not clear whether Caleb and Kaylee were locked up during the night Laura and Max arrived. I’m cynically guessing no, they rarely ever get locked up if they don’t have to. In that case, Jedediah and Bobby are likely out and about during at least that night, and didn’t see Silas near the camp. So, Silas probably stuck to his area of the woods prior to the main night of the game, and potentially the full moon before that.

So, hunting with the other wolves didn’t draw him to the area, because he would have been spotted previously.

Obviously, Ryan had to see him to incite the events of chapter 10. But it doesn’t really make sense UNLESS Silas is newly drawn to the camp. Has only been drawn to the camp since the summer camp started this year.

Full make-’em-up time:

Personally I feel like Silas has been in the area for a longer time, lending itself even more to the weirdness that none of the Hacketts had spotted him before. Or rather, the weirdness that Silas is at the camp in chapter 5.

I do think Silas was also there last full moon but only turned violent when influenced by the other werewolves. I also think that Silas was there in human form during some part of the camp.

I think a lonely albino boy in the woods would obviously look onto other people’s lives. And creeping on people from the safety of the woods was obviously something that Silas did to a certain extent in human form, because people spotted an albino child as well as a white wolf. But nobody in camp spotted him this summer, presumably because he’s largely quite careful.

but even though he came to the area, that still doesn’t really explain him being drawn to it though, because there would have been a ton of sightings if on every full moon he went to places that people frequently gathered.

[puts on tinfoil hat that reads: “I LOVE DYLAN”]

This summer, the radio hut up and running. And Dylan did the morning announcements before anyone was awake. And Dylan played music.

Silas liked the music. Silas liked being around the camp without having to fully hide himself away. When noone was around to see him, he was more free to relax and enjoy a tiny sliver of life that was taken from him. He was free to enjoy music often. Even if people occasionally play music near the woods or outskirts of town, Silas found a consistent source.

Peering in the camp, hiding, while everyone is in groups and chatting with each other is something that Silas probably did. But standing near the cabins, hearing an announcement and music before he had to be worried about everyone spilling out and seeing him and running him off, that was something Silas enjoyed.

Silas was drawn to the camp, and was drawn specifically to the radio hut. Because Silas is drawn to places that bring him comfort.

Had the other werewolves been locked up, Silas probably wouldn’t have hurt anyone. There’s genuinely no reason to believe he would have attacked the counselors even if he was nearby.

But Silas wandered into a feeding frenzy. It wasn’t enough for him to kill, not yet, not until later in the night. But it influenced his normally passive behavior.

Silas found a tiny bit of solace in his life, after all this time, and once again the Hackett children unknowingly ripped it away and ruined him.

(tiny extra point that I couldn’t really fit anywhere else, he doesn’t hurt Ryan but he bites Dylan. The difference? Dylan is in the hut when he’s attacked. Silas was protective of the building. before he fully gives into the bloodlust that night, he only gets really violent towards people inside the hut vs. outside of it. He doesn’t even go for Kaitlyn and the rest that seriously, let’s be real)

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The Quarry absolutely robbed us by having Travis/Ted wear long sleeves the entire game. Let his slutty forearms be free you cowards!

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It’s not a Protestant work ethic

That other post is hella long, so I’ll make this a new one.

The reason some barriers to entry—but not insurmountable ones—are desirable is because they make people behave better.

Basically, when a space is completely open, whether in a literal technical sense or in a cultural sense, it means that it’s likely to be overwhelmed with new people who don’t understand the local ways at any moment. Youtube comments are not only full of assholes having wrong political opinions but also people who just fundamentally don’t understand the video they’re looking at. I’ll get people going “I don’t remember this clip from the show” about a fanvid.

Human communities do not thrive in a fishbowl.

Tumblr fandom is all out in public, pretty much, since the site doesn’t really have privacy controls. Yet using Tumblr is such a labyrinthine process of figuring out the social landscape that it chases off the less dedicated. As a consequence, Tumblr feels very different from other sites, and people who like this particular culture tend to stay here.

Even though we’re in public, we feel a certain sense of intimacy, like we have some idea what sorts of people are listening. It’s closer to hanging out with your classmates or people from a club than to standing on a stage.

When you make a space too easy to get into, it turns into an “educate the newbies” space 24/7 with no room left for people who want to do something else. Poorly-thought-out “maximum inclusiveness” ends up excluding a lot of people, and they’re often the people who form the backbone of a community. Such an easily-accessed space also often turns into a place for drive-by rudeness from people who don’t actually care about the topic at hand.

Complete openness is very bad, actually.

–

This is not saying “You should have to work harder because work is moral”. This is saying “You don’t have default access to me.”

If you want to join my community or be my friend, it takes at least a little work because that is how social things and reality function.

AO3 is somewhat opaque if you don’t know the kind of fandom it was built by. That wasn’t intentional. To us/them it looked like the default and obvious way to do things. But to make it far more “accessible” would be to tell its core audience it’s for clueless outsiders and not for them.

The problem with algorithms, aside from the fact that they’re currently used for corporate evil, is that they replace the social connections that normally allow one access to a subculture. Trying to automate social ties and offload them to technology does not work.

An algorithmically-driven experience of fandom is one where there are Content Creators and Audience.

AO3, oldschool fic fandom, and any subculture I would want to spend time in are places where many peers share with many peers.

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Credo by Neil Gaiman.

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the take that “enemies to lovers doesn’t have to involve violence!!!” is so boring. knives to the throat or don’t bother

[anealasaid]

my favorite romance trope is like. you dont want to hurt me but i am asking you to hurt me. i need you to stab me. i need you to carve this out of me. i need you to cut something off of me. this will hurt both of us in incredible ways. yours are the only hands i trust enough to weild this knife. you do not want to hurt me. i am asking you to hurt me.

[anealasaid]

The fire in our eyes Has got us paralyzed Still, and yet impossible to hold.

It had been a long shift and his co-workers invited him to this bar. And I think we can assume he'll be coming back again after seeing tonight's performance 👀

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[anealasaid]

émile friant, les canotiers de la meurthe (1887)

[anealasaid]

DC Pride #1 - “Finding Batman” (2022)

written by Kevin Conroy art by J. Bone

[anealasaid]

alternate universe where it actually is bears attacking the counselors. the hacketts are undercover extreme bear trainers. they sic their bears on counselors once a year to keep their mysterious bear overlord satiated. the second half of the game is said overlord turning on them and the hacketeers and hacketts team up to take it down.

[anealasaid]

I'm really tired of the handwringing about age gaps all supposedly being inherently abusive. It's incredibly infantilizing to have an age of consent and then render adults into literal babies without agency because you have a personal bias against a particular type of relationship that exists as a subjective trope in your mind and occasionally coincides with reality

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