#also note to the author:

[wi11owbird]

Please read this book oh my gd I love it so much. The art is lush and well-researched, the story and characters literally moved me to tears the first time I read it (and came pretty damn close even on a second read), which is an accomplishment for me. It’s just such a pleasure to read. Heartrending and heartwarming both.

The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya {about the webcomic}

Historical romantic graphic novel epic about an Ottoman Turkish carpet merchant's life and love, fatal encounter with a vampiric djinni, struggle to reconcile his transformation with his faith; and as he migrates to the West, his interaction with the emerging phenomenon of Orientalism, while the spectre of his sire haunts his every step.

The story is complete and free to read online (on the original website and ebook). The English print edition is also available, as well as the upcoming French edition.

[pxpecxdy]

You have altered the chemistry of my brain with talks of blowing Pope… can’t stop thinking about it

After the first time, he’s obsessed, addicted, etc.

Do you think he’s too shy to ask for his girl to blow him again? Like he’s trying to be polite and stuff?

Or would he flat out just ask? In the most blunt, Pope way possible?

So much to ponder…

AN: Anon I don't know what kind of drugs you put in this ask cause I don't know how this got this long! I could write about this all day every day for the rest of my life. I just love giving head! Also I will refer to Pope as Andy in every fic.

Warnings: Detailed description of oral (m! receiving), mild hair pulling

Word count: 1k

He doesn't want to be rude. He won't ask. Sex isn't about him, it's about you and he just happens to feel good too. He can't stop thinking about it. Every time he's with you he thinks about it. Each time you speak he just stares at your lips. When he's not with you, he's thinking about it. Nothing compares to the way your mouth felt on him. He didn't know it could feel like that. It's only happened once. It's beginning to turn into an obsession. When is he going to feel that feeling again?

There's little moments here and there that he thinks you'll do it again. It's the soft moments. When everything goes quiet and it's just the two of you. He thinks it's about to happen when you're trailing kisses down his chest, hands fumbling with the button on his jeans. Andrew's fingers thread through your hair. His eyes squeeze closed when you finally manage to pull his pants off of him. He can feel your hot breath against him. It's finally going to happen after weeks of waiting.

You look up at him, he's wrecked. Your thighs press together harder. He looks so angelic when he's like this, makes you forget about all the sins of his past. Your lips kiss up his thighs before finally pressing a kiss to the aching tip of his cock. It's obvious he's not going to last long, you know him well enough to know the signs.

It maybe lasts 5 seconds before you pull away. A groan tears through him when you do. You pick yourself up and crawl up to where he lays. "Need you, Andy." You whine as you grind against his lap. It's not what he wanted but he doesn't complain, especially when you sound so pretty with your pussy stuffed with his cock.

The next time is in the heat of the moment. Neither of you are big on quickies, it's not what either of you seek out. But when the time arises, sometimes it's a need.

There's a party at the house. Drinks are flowing. Everything is good for once. It's rare for both of you to be enjoying yourself while surrounded by the chaos that is the Cody household. You're laying back on one of the loungers by the pool. Pope is sitting next you, his hand trailing up and down your leg. Every time it moves up he goes further up your thigh. There's some conversation but if you were interrogated on it neither of you would be able to come up with any details. The tension is undeniable. The fuse is growing shorter and shorter. His eyes are on you. They're always on you.

You slide your legs over the edge and push yourself up. Your hand slides across his chest as you lean in and whisper in his ear, "Be right back." You make your way into the house, not before glancing back at him. He watches you close the door to the bathroom behind you.

A minute passes. The knob turns. He doesn't say anything when he closes the door behind himself and locks it. His chest is heaving as he steps closer to you, pinning you to the sink. Suddenly, his lips are smashing against yours. It's hot. It's heavy. It's a fight between you two as you're both seeking control. You both want this. You both want each other.

His tongue is down your throat, his hands gripping the counter behind you. Your hands make quick work of his jeans, yanking them down just far enough to free him. There's a moment when he thinks it might happen. Your hand wrapped around his cock as he pulls his mouth away from yours. Pope's mouth drags down your throat.

Your hands pull away to shove your own pants down. He takes a deep breath, trying to not mess this up. It's not what's on his mind. Your wrists are grabbed tightly before you can finish pulling them down. He's staring at you but not the usual eye contact. His gaze is only your kiss-swollen lips.

"I want you to suck me off." He says bluntly in the way only Pope can do. His hands let go.

You smile at him and nod. He never asks for anything. It's like pulling teeth to get him to answer anything. His wants and needs are buried deep within him.

"All you have to do is ask, Andy" you whisper as you slide down the counter and onto your knees. Your hands are back on him. His hand rests on your head. He's urging you forward but there's not much pressure, there's still a chance for you to pull away if you. But you don't want to. You'd do anything he'd ask of you.

Your tongue swirls around the tip a few times. Up and down his length. You finally stop your teasing before he rips the hair from your skull and take him in your mouth. You bob your head up and down his cock, taking him all the way with every pass. It's taking all your concentration not to gag when your face is brushing against the harsh denim. But the grunts and groans make it all worth it. His hips buck against you, burying himself down your throat when he cums.

You cough a bit when you pull away. A goofy grin plastered on your face, drunk on his cock. He's looking at you like he'd just gone to heaven and was pulled back down. Pope helps you stand back up, his hand pulling at the waistband of your pants. You grab his wrist before he can finish pulling them down.

"Later." You whisper as you press a kiss to his pinkened cheek. He pulls his pants back up and fixes yours. You're fixing your hair in the mirror when he unlocks the door.

"Thanks."

[fandomhorde]

In the beginning, there was an author with a dream.

But the dream grew legs.

And when it did, I grinned.

Oh, the way I grinned.

Mwahahahahahaha (Boss music starts playing)

[wowthatsextra]

I think the realest thing in Good Girl Bad Blood is that Pip is the fourth most hateable person in the poll- just after the three involved™. Because ofc a teenage girl asking questions and challenging the system and disrupting the small town bubble is the most annoying in the sea of rapists and killers

[satorusluver]

Sorry but "slightly evil" canon L is just so interesting to me.

The L who calls himself justice, but the real reason he's spent his life catching criminals isn't out of a sense of justice; it's because it's fun for him.

The L who's willing to lie and cheat and break the law, to use thieves and conmen to achieve his goals. Because it's all a game to him and he'll do anything to win.

The L who's incapable of trusting anyone, perhaps partially because he projects his own sly nature onto others, and because he's had no one get close enough to him to change his mind.

The L who doesn't know how to love in a healthy way, or how to love at all, and isn't sure he's even capable of it, but who knows that he feels something for you he's never felt for anyone else.

The L who would have no idea what to do with the emotions he feels for you, who wouldn't know how to open up his heart and his life and be vulnerable with another person, but who finds himself for the first time in his life wanting to try.

The L who knows he is a monster, and has always been content with being one, until you managed to work your way into his heart.

[stephgingrich]

anyone who's talked to me for any length of time in the past month knows i've been inflicted with spider elphie disease and brother it is terminal. go read the fic if you havent!

[canon-gabriel-quotes]

Transcript:

Machine, I just got back from therapy.

I accept I am not papa's special boy, but I'm still going to kill you.

Audio source

[tea-cat-arts]

Shen Yuan getting transported into pidw isn't "the system punishing him for being a lazy internet hater," but instead representative of "step 1 of the creative process: getting so mad at something you decide to go write your own fucking book" in this essay I will

[mxystan]

taiwan travelogue by yang shuangzi tr. lin king is indeed an award-winning banger and perhaps the first time in my life i've ever felt vindicated for dual-wielding a novel with its english translation because the act of translation itself is such a big theme in the novel. big win for metafiction-obsessed himejin everywhere!!

[nellasbookplanet]

Mentioning Tusk Love and the potential of other independent stories set in Exandria reminded me of an old discord conversation about how they could Fix the courting of the crick for publishing (seeing as it's canonically a Bad Book due to being super dry and also racist towards drow) without breaking canon:

Rename it 'The Courting of the Kryn - a Reimagining of the Classic Story, by Jester Lavorre'

Present it as an in-universe fanfic-ish rewrite. There's a foreword where 'Jester' elaborates on the inaccuracies of the original, the impact the story had on her, and the importance of Dynasty-Empire relations. There's an acknowledgement section where she thanks Caleb and Beau as 'consultants on Empire culture', as well as an unnamed/under fake name/clearly Essek as an 'expert on the Luxon, dunamancy and Dynasty culture'. All his information on spy networks is eerily accurate and has his former co-workers scrambling. (He makes her keep all the dry historical accounts, but now it's accurate (with added dick-related puns)). She mentions that she reached out to the Bright Queen who reluctantly (after 5 messages in a row) gave some pointers. In her frantic research she possibly made some breakthroughs on the nature on the Luxon that has Essek reeling (there's a 'further reading' section where she lists the academic paper he wrote building on her discoveries and an entire list of the sources her consultants used).

For extra fun and meta-ness, include footnotes where she comments on things she changed/removed from the original and why, how various scenes may have been inspired by a real life couple or events, etc. Some of the footnotes are written by her consultants. Caleb and Essek get into arguments on dunamancy theory which is actually thinly veiled flirting. There's anatomically accurate drow sex (it's unclear whether the consultant was Essek or Caleb or possibly a certain brother, who was also consulted on Dynasty military practices).

[jestarcana]

couldn't work on my other projects today, so silly ship chart!

[ template from here ]

[far-away-from-tulsa]

confession time: when i was reading dally’s death scene i was so screwed up from johnny’s death that i read dally as darry the whole time. i full heartedly thought that darry got himself shot up and was SO CONFUSED

[blaiddraws]

an art for @cuz-reasons ' How to Fix a Temporal Mistake!! it's verrry sweet <3333 time travel shenanigans are fun! also convenient timing of me drawing this 'cause they just updated it today lol

[applestorms]

L can be such a possessive character at times. he always strikes me as the type of person who is deeply aware of everything that he owns, both in a more literal sense and metaphorically-- like, he knows what money he has and how to use it, what resources are readily available to him and what he has to be sneakier to utilize, the habits and tendencies and emotional states of individuals and world governments both. the DN musical really puts an emphasis on the more computer-y aspects of how his brain functions, which isn't as obvious in the manga/anime but i think still works well as a way to follow his thinking. it's kinda what near does too: everything is a factor to them, every tiny detail a new opening to optimize for the best results, every person and location and object a part of a puzzle waiting to be solved. and as a part of that, L is deeply aware of every and any little thing he may or may not have control over, and exactly to what degree.

his habit of stealing titles as depicted in the LABB murders novel is such a good example of this. ryuzaki, eraldo coil, deneuve. he eats people alive and then takes their names for himself like some kind of fucked up fae or trickster god, creating new masks and personas to hide behind from the remains of the people he's devoured. i have to wonder if he would've used the title of KIRA for himself had he won-- i can hardly imagine what kind of power such a title could hold if held in his hands. of course, he could've just used the defeat of KIRA as a way to build up the L title even further, offering up the body of a dead god like perseus showing off the head of medusa. but L is so emotionally attached to the kira case, i struggle to see him allowing it to fade from existence so thoroughly as near does, even if it is only kept close on a private level...

this is part of why i think it genuinely makes a lot of sense that L's ultimate win state would include capturing light to some degree. even if the memory of KIRA somehow manages to fully disappear from the public consciousness, there is no fucking way L is letting light yagami out of his grasp. honestly, the moment that L truly loses this game is not when he starts investigating misa while still under rem's watch, not when light gets back his memories, not even when he dies, but the moment when he allows light to be freed from the handcuffs. the moment when he allows the other members of the task force to turn off the cameras and keep him from watching light and misa talk in the lobby. the moment when he gives up, lets light yagami go outside of L's personal sphere of control, is the moment when L starts the clock ticking down to the end of his own life.

this is one of the key ways in which i see light as a true equal and parallel to L, as after L's death he, intentionally or no, continues the same tradition and takes L's title for himself, twisting the two sides together into the L-KIRA amalgamation. only, the L title functions a little bit differently than every other persona or title that we see in the series-- because L's true name is L. that's all that he is. on a literal, legal, and emotional level, i don't think that L is anything more than L. he is the world's greatest detective, he's an incredible, weirdo super genius, but he does not afford himself much more than that, barely allows himself personhood or humanity outside of his work. light was the one to ultimately defeat L because he did not just put a stain on his character (as BB attempted), did not just kill him, but stole his very identity and took it for himself.

one of the biggest contradictions of L's character that i think you must accept should you attempt to portray him accurately is that he is both deeply detached from humanity while also having all of his work and effort and life be focused around saving it. it's one of the ways in which he is an exact opposite to light-- where light relies on humanity for external validation, to be Seen, while also looking down on it as dumb and immoral and spineless, L is so separated from it that he barely exists as a person, all the while dedicating almost every action he takes to helping it. remember: for all the emotional turmoil that wammy's house and the legacy of L may put on the kids living there, ultimately it's entire existence is nothing more than L's logical solution to his potential demise. if he dies, the world goes down with him, all of the cases that are yet to happen and he is yet to solve being left in the air. he has the foresight to set up a fail safe, but not to consider the emotional implications of what being that fail safe might feel like, how high the price of your own humanity is if you are not already alienated from it, the inability to have your own name on your gravestone-- though perhaps some of the blame also falls on watari's shoulders in this case, philanthropic old bastard that he is.

imo, playing his game really got it right in presenting L and light as one and the same, synonyms on either side of the mirror. in every action they take they are both so selfishly selfless, playing the game for themselves and their own pleasure but plastering the needs and will of humanity on top of it. L isn't invested in saving humanity for the sake of humanity-- he just likes the thrill of having the stakes raised so high. hard to shit on ryuk for wanting entertainment when the humans he finds are just the same as him.

[rivetgoth]

I know I keep saying it and other people keep saying it but what’s so unbelievably frustrating is that MENA people, Palestinians, Iraqis, Persians, Muslims, Arabs… are just people. Like they’re literally just people. They drink, they party, they have sex, they like the same fandoms as you, they can be gay, they can be trans, they can have all the same existential fears, the same mental illnesses, the same infinitely nuanced and complex opinions and frustrations about topics like religion, morality, politics. They’re doctors, lawyers, teachers, actors, scientists, musicians, artists. And because people can’t process this, MENA people are left having to fucking spell out their humanity to people who consider themselves otherwise bleeding heart liberals. It’s insanity.

One of the best indicators of the lack of knowledge people have of Arab people to me is the existence of arak. It’s the Middle Eastern liquor. It’s produced across the region. It’s considered the national drink of Lebanon. Production of arak in Palestine is internationally recognized and has won awards. This seems like a tiny thing, but it’s actually crazy how many westerners truly believe Arab people don’t drink, that they follow religious law with such strict adherence that their behavior is just unrecognizably foreign, and they live in some state of austere repression beyond which the average westerner could even imagine. They have no idea this even exists.

Shortly after the onslaught post-Oct 7 I remember following updates from a Palestinian girl on Twitter who, in between sharing fundraisers for herself and her family (who, thankfully, did manage to evacuate safely, although not without needing serious medical attention) and updates about the broader situation, logged online after a few weeks of silence to lament the fact that she had missed her favorite anime character’s birthday and was sad she hadn’t been able to celebrate it with her mutuals. Her friends drew pictures of him for her.

And like, I truly believe that people are deserving of life even when they are quite different from us. Nobody deserves to be murdered en masse by the imperialistic machine as a display of power, over land, over resources, etc. But people aren’t even able to NOT dehumanize MENA people and realize that they AREN’T that different!! You’ve been fed propaganda your entire life that has convinced you that MENA people are just so deeply foreign that you couldn’t possibly understand or relate to them. Steve Jobs is Syrian. Shakira is Lebanese. Rami Malek is Egyptian. Salma Hayek is Lebanese. DJ Khaled is Palestinian. Freddie Mercury was Persian.

I honestly think at this point it’s partly a coping mechanism—If many westerners were actually to conceptualize the literal millions of human beings, people just like them, their friends, their loved ones, their heroes, their family, as burning unrecognizable bodies left charred in their homes they would just fall apart. So the only option is to insist until you’re red in the face that they couldn’t possibly be the same as you.

[skyyknights]

Part of an extremely belated gift exchange for @dubiiousfood; you can read the corresponding fic here! (Instagram)

(Alternate versions of Link's expression below the cut)