#and also just see. child character hair variants. i have to admit i think i like fates more but awakening has the vastly more

[waywardsalt]

.

[op-sheepy]

ok so I'm particularly interested in

Bellamy Law

Law and Bible stuff

Law is a substitute kindergarten teacher

shichibukai applications

reverse hanahaki disease (?? do u spit out flowers when your nemesis walks by?)

if you feel like elaborating on any of these!

This is gonna get long and I actually contemplated posting them separately but would that have been more work? Yeah, that felt like more work so for anyone interested, check under the cut. :D

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Bellamy Law

Hm… This would be an attempt to explore the parallels and contrasts between Bellamy and Law. I've always found it fascinating that the former was a foil to the latter.

They both come from well-off  towns in the North Blue.

Bellamy left because of boredom. Law had no choice because Flevance.

Both ended up seeking Doflamingo  because of  his notoriety as a pirate. Both admired him initially

Doffy favored one over the other though. Bellamy always sought his approval but was never really part of the inner circle Doflamingo cared about.

Law got the dubious privilege of being part of the family despite being absent for so long. Even offered one of the highest seats by Doffy's side for seemingly nothing.

Law had no trouble turning his back on Doffy once he realized the man's nature. Bellamy tried to stick to his principles until the end despite admitting that he new he was wrong.

Bellamy can (and did) quit piracy after his ordeal with Doflamingo. Having the option to live peacefully, perhaps a return to his previous life (the one he considered boring). Law can't do that quite as easily what with his Devil fruit and his reputation.

I thought it would be interesting trying to explore what Bellamy was thinking. Did he hear the Donquixote Pirates talk about their missing 'family'? Did he get to see Doffy be amused at Law's rise as a Supernova while he kept being reminded of his own status? Did Law save Bellamy partially because he also saw what he could have been had Corazon not saved him?

On principle, Bellamy should have hated Trafalgar Law. Does. Bastard even saved him without him wanting it. But there was something about the shadows haunting those eyes and Bellamy started to wonder.

He had heard the family talk about Law before. The child personally taught by Doflamingo, chosen to be his right hand. Never was he compared to the man because Law was just obviously better. Smarter. Stronger. Bellamy was ever just an uncouth thug.

He was allowed to 'borrow' Doflamingo's symbol while Law had an empty seat waiting for his return–a seat Bellamy had wanted enough to risk everything for.

Maybe he had resented, Trafalgar Law for carelessly rejecting the things he had that Bellamy had always desired. In the end too, Trafalgar Law did prove to be better. He'd done as a child what Bellamy had trouble doing even as he was now.

But having been given the chance to observe the other man as they all recovered, he wondered, perhaps for the first time, whether despite Law being better than Bellamy, Bellamy had had it better–barring the poor life choices.

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Law and Bible stuff

This is just me wanting to know how many biblical parallels and themes I can draw from Law, the Donquixote brothers, the characters associated with them, and his backstory. Honestly not sure whether this would become a fic and in what style or I'm gonna give up and just make it a post.

Not gonna elaborate on them much but here are the ideas in more bullet points (yay):

Law gets familiar with all four horsemen of the apocalypse: conquest, war, famine, and death. He even survives them.

Law is like the son in the parable of the prodigal son to the Donquixote pirates. Except the themes are inverted.

Doflamingo and Rocinante -> Cain and Abel

Ope Ope no Mi -> Granting eternal life by sacrificing one's own life

Gods descending or living among humans. Also, Homing and his family being prosecuted for other people's sins.

That scene where they were hanged by their arms outstretched looks like a crucifixion. Also, Rocinante was on the right while Doflamingo was on the left. Similar to how the penitent thief was on the right and the unrepentant one to the left.

Flevance being considered a paradise with walls/fences/gates and somewhere Law cannot return to.

In the panel where the Donquixote pirates are seated at the table, there were thirteen of them with Doffy at the center. Same as The Last Supper

There are a lot more of these (David and Goliath, Solomon, Jonah, Job, etc.) but I kinda lost the notes and some are more visual so I can't really explain it too well. This would is a drabble series to emphasize or highlight the parallels so no proper snippet for this one.

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Law is a substitute kindergarten teacher

Originally an idea to get around most of the Heart Pirates being nameless but evolved to include other characters as kids. Chopper is a kindergarten teacher and he convinces Law to take over his class for a week because somehow Law has the qualifications to and free time. Naturally, he wasn't able to say no.

Unfortunately, despite not being terrible at handling children, Chopper's class is filled with menaces. Also, despite not being terrible, Law can still be awkward so...

"Mr. Trofao–fargar—"

"Trafalgar."

The kid—which one was this one again? Shit, he should really get them name plates or something—scrunched up his face and tried harder, "Tar-pal—"

"Law. Just call me Law."

"Mr. Low"—eh, close enough—"can I go to the bathroom?" Wide imploring eyes stared up at him.

"Sure, go ahead." Law gestured towards the exit of the classroom with his head.

The kid just stared expectantly at him and he tried to suppress the need to narrow his eyes.

"Is there… anything else?"

"Mr. Chopper always comes with me to hold my hand."

Really?

"Mr. Chopper isn't here. You should practice doing it on your own now." He said after a deep inhale.

"But the monsters might get me…"

"No, they won't."

"You don't know that."

"I do." Before the kid could open his mouth again to argue, he added, "Besides, children taste terrible so you're safe."

The kid looked stricken and took a step back from him. Uh oh. Glistening eyes, wobbling lower lip… "Alright! I'll go with you." The kid did not look reassured. In fact he looked like going alone with Law was the last thing he wanted to do. Guess, he kinda implied that he ate children didn't he? Oops.

Well, the kid needs to go and he's not going to be cleaning up after him if he wets himself.

Law glanced at the rest of the children. It was Arts and Craft time and they seemed preoccupied enough. Still, Law doubted Chopper ever left these kids alone–already he could see some of them glancing up at him, waiting for him to leave no doubt to cause trouble. That Monkey kid in particular looked extremely suspicious.

He stood up from his crouch and clapped twice to get everyone's attention.

"Alright. Fall in line. Single file."

There was some grumbling and questioning directed at him. "What's going on?"

Law shrugged. "You're all going to the bathroom."

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Shichibukai Application Forms

Crackfic where the World Government and relevant parties review various Shichbukai Applications. Most submitted by the pirates applying themselves, some produced by their own staff. They discuss and debate. As well as judge pirate resumes.

She scanned the document. Terrible format, really. If you fail to impress within the first page, you've failed entirely. There just wasn't anyone promising enough in this batch of applications or any of the other ones before. The last one had been that clown. "Apprentice to the Pirate King," was a pretty hefty credential.

"Oh, how about this one? Three years experience pillaging, and they even listed all the towns they looted." One of the newly transferred administrative staff said.

"None of these are worth considering at all. You know, when Mihawk was asked to submit his application, he hadn't bothered with all of this. He just sent us a card with his name on it and the title "World's Strongest Swordsman," underneath."

The staff perked up. "Oh, there was an application like that." There was scramble and some shuffling before a plain white card was produced. "Here."

"'From Trafalgar Law'. What does this even mean?"

"Well, it did come with a big box..."

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Reverse Hanahaki Disease

(?? do u spit out flowers when your nemesis walks by?)

Haha. At first it was going to be that way (because it is hilarious) but the inflicted would probably choke to death too soon. Or if both enemies had it, they'd end up just coughing flowers at each other until they stopped being enemies.

The version I ended up going with was that this variant of Hanahaki, instead of afflicting those with unrequited love, affected those in denial instead. The reverse part comes from the original idea that this would usually happen if you somehow fell in love with your nemesis (someone you originally hated). So it's not the thought that the other person can't love you, it's that you can't accept that you love that other person. You get cured by confessing to the person sincerely.

This is actually another KidLaw (surprise!). And the flower coughed up directly represents the person they're in love with (I went with Oda's flower representation for them because I found it funny for plot)

So the idea is that, you get sick but you don't automatically know (maybe) who it is because that's part of being in denial. Kid and Law have many enemies after all. In this story they both get it though not exactly at the same time and not known to the other.

He survived Amber Lead Syndrome only to be killed off by a stupid flower disease that apparently knows more about his own feelings than he does.

He glared at the petals. Tulips. Red.

An image of a cocky grin and a shock of red hair flashed through his mind and—nope. That's not right.

He coughed harder, tears stinging his eyes with the effort. More flowers. Now he has enough for a bouquet.

Alright, he was a doctor. He could do this. Differential time.

First, which variant does he have. He doesn't particularly feel unloved or hopeless. There wasn't anyone he wanted in particular to love him. Ok, nothing. It was maybe safe to say he had that other variant.

Which was stupid because Law had many enemies and he hated all of them.

And cue the racking coughs. More red. He was very familiar with that particular shade.

New theory. This was a new variant that somehow makes you sick when you think of the person you hated the most.

Yes, that had to be it. He thought as he all but collapsed on the floor from the sudden paroxysm.

I knew this was gonna get long. :) Oh well...

Thank you for playing. :D

[anakin-skybreaker]

A Brief Analysis of Clone Wars Characters Via Knights Radiant Orders

Ahsoka Tano:

It’s been stated that the Edgedancers are the most religious of the Knights Radiant orders. Faith, I believe, is a cornerstone of Ahsoka’s character; faith in the Jedi Order, losing that faith and gaining it in herself, not to mention her faith in Anakin.

A good chunk of her character arc is centered around the common man, learning the plights of the disenfranchised and living up to what the majority of people believe Jedi to stand for without the restrictions of political alignments. Edgedancer ideals fit Ahsoka’s overall arc.

Second Ideal: “I will remember those who have been forgotten.”

Third Ideal: “I will listen to those who have been ignored.”

Edgedancers have the ability to ignore friction which I feel would be well-suited to Ahsoka’s fighting style.

“...they were elegant things of beauty. They could ride the thinnest rope at speed, dance across rooftops, move through a battlefield like a ribbon on the wind.” – Edgedancer, page 4.

“When Simol was informed of the arrival of the Edgedancers, a concealed consternation and terror, as is common in such cases, fell upon him; although they were not the most demanding of orders, their graceful, limber movements hid a deadliness that was, by this time, quite renowned…” – Words of Radiance, page 20.

Captain Rex:

This might be a controversial choice considering what we know of clones, but Rex is a bondsmith. Sure Honor is a whole, veritable, god on Roshar but Rex is a bondsmith and you can pry that from my cold dead hands.

What do I have for evidence of this? Why, the Second Ideal of course.

“I unite instead of divide. I will bring men together.”

Rex watching his brothers being forced to break their oaths of honor and kill their spren all for Palpatine’s agenda. That hits different, bro.

Honestly, I don’t think I need to go any further but for the sake of it I will.

Having a clone, who many consider to be less than, climb the ranks and become a must in terms on long term warfare just feels good. Long story short, Rex is irreplaceable and he deserves an order which maximizes how irreplaceable he truly is.

Commander Cody:

Here we have our first windrunner proper.

Cody is a good man, a loyal man, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t suffer the same ideological differences and hypocrises that plague the Republic. The side he serves condemns slavery and yet he himself and his millions of brothers are a slaves. He is a tool for war yet trying to bring peace. He fights to end the war and yet the Republic refuses to open peace talks. 

He’d be the closest to Kaladin, in terms of practically everything; Cody is a child of Honor.

Cody knows how the universe works so he settles on his own code of honor. He will protect those who cannot protect themselves, regardless of his personal feelings toward them. He knows he can’t save everyone, but what’s most important is that he try. Somebody needs to.

Padme Amidala:

Like Rex, Padme would be well-suited to the bondsmiths. She aims to unite instead of divide. But given her role in TCW, however, and her role as the one who steps up to call out people and be the one to spend her life trying to better society, Padme is an elsecaller.

She’s a diplomat at heart, individualistic and esoteric. Padme follows her own logic and goes out on the front line when she deems it necessary. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what Anakin or the Jedi or the Republic says, Padme abides by her own moral compass and what makes sense to her.

“...the Elsecallers were prodigiously benevolent, allowing others as auxiliary to their visits and interactions; though they never did relinquish their place as prime liaisons with the great ones of the spren…”

She is a senator who creates connections between peoples.

Queen Padme Amidala and Queen Jasnah Kholin, while having a lot of political differences and different approaches to warfare, would get along famously.

Padme contributes to the war effort by soulcasting food, medicine, and other necessary materials.

Anakin Skywalker:

Here’s where things get complicated.

If we’re going purely by plot, then Anakin is a skybreaker since that is one of the only orders that suit his personality which would still allow him to “fall to the dark side” while maintaining his oaths.

Also, I’m not going to slide past it. My URL is anakin-skybreaker for fuck’s sake. It would be a crime against nature for a man named Skywalker not to have gravitation manipulation like come on, he was born to fly. 

It’s just too good, too fitting. I can also see Anakin saying some variant of Kaladin’s line in Words of Radiance, but during a version of the Rako Hardeen arc. “You sent him to the sky to die, assassin, but the sky and winds are mine. I claim them, as I now claim your life.” Though entirely separate, the two have roughly the same amount of melodramatic entrances.

On the other hand, if we’re going for what’s best for Anakin as a person then he’d be either a windrunner or a dustbringer (releaser). The Fourth windrunner ideal says more than I ever could. “I accept that there will be those I cannot save.” Anakin is fueled by ambition so there’s no way he wouldn’t make it to the fourth ideal and then be forced to come to terms with himself and his fears or risk stagnation (or worse breaking his oaths and killing his spren).

As a dustbringer, Anakin would be taught how to control and channel his destructive/violent impulses. Dustbringers get a bad reputation because of their capabilities for mass destruction and because of that shared prejudice, I feel that might help Anakin settle in even quicker than he would in the other orders. Like if he were a windrunner, Anakin would be forced to confront aspects of his personality and truly learn restrain and responsibility.

“Most Dustbringers were tinkers who liked to take things apart to see how they work.”

Dustbringer spren canonically love to break stuff. So, Anakin making friends with a spren that wants him to break stuff because it wants to know what’s inside? 10/10

Obi Wan Kenobi:

A lightweaver in personality and a windrunner in mentality.

It hardly needs saying that Obi Wan is an honorable man. It would come to the point where, even as a renowned lightweaver other people would make comments on it. How he’d be better suited to the windrunners, how “I could’ve sworn you bonded an honorspren” and stuff like that.

Lightweaver ideals are tailored towards the individual, but generally follow the pattern of admitting personal truths. Obi Wan has more than a few truths to admit to himself. He and Anakin would be having an argument, only for his liespren to chime in to call him out going, “mm, lies” and forcing the two to actually talk out their feelings.

He would be Grand Spymaster of the Republic. Obi Wan is already known as the Negotiator, so he’d arrive at the palace of a government he needs to win over for the Republic dressed to the nines, positively glowing, standing at imposing six foot five, where underneath the lightweaving he’s going on three hours of sleep, is wearing yesterday’s clothes, and hasn’t combed his hair in three days.

He’s a lightweaver, but for the life of me I cannot get the image of Windrunner Obi Wan vs. Skybreaker Anakin, battle of Mustafar style, out of my head because the concept of them both being able to control gravity while representing opposite ideologies slaps okay?

Plus, Obi Wan would look immaculate in Kholin blue.

Anakin being busy blowing stuff up, turning canons to dust while Ahsoka skates past him as if solid ground were made of ice cutting through squads of droids while Obi Wan wears the face of the enemy leader and convinces them to surrender? 20/10

Maul:

This one is a lightweaver too and for the same reasons as Obi Wan.

He’s a charismatic bastard and he’d used his abilities to their maximum destructive potential. Just like in Clone Wars, he’d topple governments and overtake civilizations from the inside out. 

Lightweavers are not bound by honor so Maul can pretty much do what he wants so long as he’s able to admit truths about himself. Whether he’s successful in doing so remains to be seen.

An important sidenote, Maul has Nightblood.

Maul would have Nightblood and everybody would be in danger.

[dtrhwithalex]

TV | Loki (104)

104: THE NEXUS EVENT

D: KATE HERRON. W: ERIC MARTIN. Original Air Date: 30 June 2021.

Non-spoiler-free recap and review of the fourth episode of LOKI, which airs every Wednesday on Disney+.

RECAP

As Loki and Sylvie watch the world around them slowly but surely fall into complete destruction and collapse, the TVA is scrambling to locate the two and recapture them. Ravonna Renslayer especially is desperate to have the two variants located, being put under pressure by the Time Keepers. It is also revealed that is was Renslayer herself who was the one to pluck Sylvie from the time line and declare her a variant -- when Sylvie was merely a child, still on Asgard. It is also from Renslayer that Sylvie subsequently escapes and, as she reveals to Loki, has been on the run and in hiding ever since, growing up in apocalypses which were the only place her mere presence did not cause any nexus events.

Sharing a heartfelt moment as Sylvie recounts her life, she and Loki create enough chaos to spark a nexus event even within an ongoing apocalypse, allowing the TVA to locate and recapture them. Once captured, they are separated, with Renslayer forbidding anyone to interrogate Sylvie, while Mobius has Loki thrown in a time-loop -- where he is repeatedly threatened and beaten by LADY SIF (JAIMIE ALEXANDER) in a memory from Loki's earlier life on Asgard, where he as a joke cut off Sif's hair. After finally admitting that he played jokes out of loneliness and a desperate need for attention, Mobius retrieves Loki from the time-loop and takes him back to one of the TVA's interrogation rooms.

Loki tries to make Mobius understand that everything about the TVA is a lie -- as Sylvie has told him -- but Mobius does not trust him. He baits him into revealing what caused the nexus event on Lamentis-1 by telling him Sylvie has been disintegrated, and gets Loki to admit that he cares for her. Accusing him of such narcissism that he fell in love with himself, Mobius closes the case and has Loki returned to the time-loop.

Despite his distrust in Loki, Mobius questions Renslayer about what had happened to C-20 and her intentions behind not letting him talk to Sylvie, and eventually steals her TemPad to investigate the matter further. He learns that C-20 confirmed what Loki had tried to tell him: everyone at the TVA is a Variant, plucked from the timeline and brainwashed to serve the Time Keepers. Returning to Loki's time-loop he admits that Loki was right and wants to help him, but they are quickly found out by Renslayer, and she disintegrates Mobius.

Meanwhile, Hunter B-15, despite Renslayer's orders, went to see Sylvie and took her back to the apocalypse they had found her in. Questioning her about her powers, B-15 reveals that she, too, had been having memories of another life since Sylvie had controlled her. Sylvie shows her the memories again, effectively gaining B-15 as an ally.

Following the disintegration of Mobius, Renslayer takes Loki and Sylvie to see the Time Keepers who wish to witness their destruction. However, once in their chambers, Loki and Sylvie are freed from their constraints by B-15 and a fight between them and the TVA ensue. Gaining the advantage, Loki and Sylvie eventually find themselves free of any enemies, and Sylvie attacks one of the Time Keepers with her sword. The Time Keeper is beheaded and, as the head falls to their feet, Loki and Sylvie realise that these three beings are merely robotic avatars and not the real Time Keepers.

Without any way to destroy the Time Keepers and the TVA, Sylvie is lost. Loki, reminiscent of their moment on Lamentis-1 and Mobius' accusation of romantic feelings between the two, tries to communicate to Sylvie whatever it is he is feeling, but before he can make her understand, he is disintegrated by Renslayer who turns out to be alive, still.

The mid-credit scene reveals that Loki did, in fact, not die, but finds himself in another realm where he is greeted by various other incarnations of himself. Prominently among them: CLASSIC LOKI (RICHARD E. GRANT), KID LOKI (JACK VEAL), and BOASTFUL LOKI (DEOBIA OPAREI).

FAVOURITE MOMENTS

Loki is back in Mobius' presence and we are immediately back to bantering like an old married couple and I very much appreciated that. These two have such a lovely dynamic, I adore it. Never thought I would say that, but I really do. I love Owen Wilson in this role very much and he and Tom have such great chemistry.

I also really liked Hunter B-15 taking Sylvie back to the apocalypse they had found her in, and asks her about C-20 and the memories the both of them have lived while Sylvie controlled them. Her chocked back sob and then the "I looked happy" was just so nicely done. I was very happy to see that B-15 was immediately ready to team up with Sylvie and drop the TVA at a moment's notice.

The same goes for Mobius. I loved that, despite Loki's betrayal and the fact that he was so set in not wanting to trust him again, Mobius still couldn't shake the feeling that Loki's comment was more than just a quip and went to investigate. He is not just a mindless follower of orders and I love that very much about him.

FAVOURITE CHARACTER(S)

My main man Loki, always and forever. I adore this version of Loki so much. He is so much fun! I love that we get this actually, truly mischievous Loki, this chaotic mess. He isn't brooding and full of evil plans. No! He wants shenanigans and fun. I love it. And I love that we get to see more of his vulnerable side too.

But also, Mobius! My man! He's back!!! If this man doesn't get to ride a jet ski at least once I will be very upset. I will also be very upset if he is actually gone now. (Cannot believe I am saying this about an Owen Wilson character. This is new. Good on you, Owen, good on you.)

QUESTIONS, CURIOSITIES

Less a question and more a demand: if the mid-credit scene means Loki exists somewhere after being disintegrated, Mobius better be alive somewhere. I want that lad back, whole and in one piece. You hear me, Marvel? Otherwise you might have yourself another CoulsonLives on your hand, you just watch.

I've already seen a bunch of reactions to the whole Loki/Sylvie thing and most either go with happily shipping along, or being very against this concept out of some sort of incestuous concerns. And I feel like, am I the only one who watched that scene as neither romantic nor incestuous as such, but more as Loki being very confused?

Apart from Frigga, and possibly, to some degree and especially earlier in life, the brotherly love of Thor, I don't think Loki has ever felt love. And for the first time there is someone who not just understands him completely, but also accepts him exactly as he is. Especially following their conversation about love in 103, I think what was between Sylvie and Loki on Lamentis-1 that caused the nexus event, and makes Mobius accuse Loki of being in love with her, is not a romantic sense of love, but in a way a certain self-acceptance?

I'm sure Loki has some kinds of feelings but he doesn't know what they are or how to categorise them. And he is very confused about liking Sylvie and caring that she is alright. But I don't think he would have understood it as romantic love without Mobius' accusation of it. I don't think it's narcissism either. What I saw, was a glimmer of Loki realising that he can love himself, he can accept himself. If Sylvie, who is him, understands and accepts him, then so can he. But yeah, I'm curious to see where they're gonna go with this, certainly.

OVERALL IMPRESSION

Generally, this episode was absolutely amazing. Every week I keep finding myself becoming the shocked Pikachu meme while watching the episode, but this week especially. I can't wait to see what next week brings, and I hope very much that we find out Mobius is, in fact, still alive somewhere.

[still image taken from the episode's imdb page]

[goldenlaquer]

Speaking of Toyo's breeding kink... Do you have some hc's (sfw and/or nsfw, as you wish) for him reacting to his s/o announcing they're pregnant ? And do you have some for Naoshi as well ? It's a big contrast with their characters, but I thought it could be interesting: :-D

yesssssssssssssss

but imagine being pregnant in drifter setting?? in a war with no pregnancy tests, modern medicine, disposable diapers, and every modern comfort that makes our lives so much easier   

Drifters Headcanons (sfw and NSFW) 

Shimazu Toyohisa: 

When you tell him, everything halts, down to the last strands of his hair as he stares at you, wide-eyed. Toyohisa blinks and starts again, flashing you that quick, boyish grin of his that has you wondering if you’d see the same smile on your future child. He reaches to cup the back of your head for heated kiss. 

“A little runt running around, eh? That ain’t so bad,” he pulls away to look down at you for a moment, his dark eyes twinkling, and leans back in for another. “It ain’t so bad at all.”

Toyohisa’s got no clue on raising a kid, but he’s excited, often brushing his hand on the growing swell of your warm stomach. And when you’re far along to feel and see the baby kicks, Toyohisa laughs boisterously, pleased by the restless activity of his child. 

“Still in the womb, and yet so strong already!” He boasts proudly, affectionately patting back at the baby. 

Of course, Toyohisa will do whatever it takes to get you as far from the battlefield as possible. But he also exhibits extreme protectiveness in the normal setting, snarling at anyone who accidentally does something so little and harmless as brushing against your shoulder. This may lead to some fights between you, but in the end, Toyohisa learns to loosen up his nerves a bit with the help of Nobunaga and Yoichi, lest he tries to attack his own troops for even looking at his baby mama the wrong way. 

will carry you every time you complain about the strain on your swollen feet, stopping all matters just to hoist you on his broad back, paying no mind to any onlookers and protests you may have.

One of the perks of pregnancy is the extra boobage, and Toyohisa is more than ready to test out the increased sensitivity of your nipples. He gives small, soft licks to the peaks, pinching them until tiny beads of white milk comes out and he takes a taste. It’s deliciously sweet and his eyes swivel up to meet yours, taking a pleasing note of your flushed face and swollen middle, as he takes a rosy bud between his lips and sucks, his hips coming down hard to grind in between your thighs. 

Kanno Naoshi:

“Fuck.” Realizing that his reaction may have come across rather badly, Naoshi tries again. “Shit,” he says.

As always, Naoshi has a potty-mouth reaction to everything, so don’t take it the wrong way. Fatherhood has always been a pipe-dream for him,  something associated with a civilian’s life, and the mortality rate of a soldier doesn’t exactly help either; but here he is, looking down at the love of his life and the future mother of his child, and he can already see the babe, stumbling towards him with chubby hands outstretched, gurgling happily- fuck, he didn’t plan for this baby, but he sure as hell wants it. 

As sappy as his thinking is, they instantly turn to more serious topics, starting with the realization that y’all were in the middle of bumfuck nowhere! There’s no midwife, no doctor, and the beastmen are too different of a species to really understand the human physiology. Naoshi will consider moving you to the other Drifters, but at your insistence with staying with him, he starts a correspondence between the weirdo Saint-germy or whatever. 

He watches your belly with curious eyes, the lines on his face softening as he observes each day the growth of his child, asking surprisingly thoughtful questions in that brusque voice of his about how far along will you be until the kid’s heart beat? or when does the morning sickness end, up until the kid’s birth?

Yeah, Naoshi’s referring to his fetus as “the kid”, there’s just something so endearing about it. And also, he’s talking to the belly more often than he’d admit, telling your future child to stop being a shithead and stop kicking your mother

The beastmen are his servants; Naoshi’s barking up every tree just to get them to find the finest game, the sweetest berries, and the freshest vegetables, to give you the needed nutrition.  

“Figure out how to stop cursing?” Naoshi stares down at the bump underneath his palm, feeling the subtle kick from within. “Yeah, maybe I fucking will.” Spoiler-Alert: He fails miserably.

Naoshi is happy to find out that sex isn’t off the table until the birth, and is even happier to find out that with pregnancy, comes hormones. He likes to make comments about it while his fingers are collecting the copious slick from your slit and his thumb is ghosting your clit as you cry and arch your hips against him. “Damn, I should’ve gotten you pregnant sooner,” He snarls. “Your little cunt is practically drooling for my cock, and I haven’t even done anything yet.”

Writing for Naoshi is always fun because I can write ‘fuck’ or some variant of it  in every line and get away with it. 

[justkeeponsimming]

Sims 4: Journey to Batuu - CAS Overview

Ol'val! (That’s Old Corellian for Hello :D)

Welcome to my Sims 4: Journey to Batuu CAS Overview. This is just an overview of some of the assets, as we do get a lot of them in this pack! However, there’s some...ehh...disappointments. I’ve put a few links into the post in case anyone is interested in the “real world” inspirations behind the CAS assets or some of the alien species themselves! There’s always lore to learn when it comes to Star Wars! See below the cut for more :)

Masculine and Feminine Frame Hairs:

The hairs in this pack are kinda cute! We of course get the Rey Skywalker triple buns and Solo “Swoop” hair for masculine frames. The first female bob comes in an ombré version with some fun colour variants. The swept back hair, on the masculine frame sim pictured here, is actually a low bun with braids, available for both frames. Child sims of both frames get access to most of these hairs. Toddler feminine frames get access to the “Rey Skywalker” triple bun hair, but the “Solo Swoop” wasn’t converted for masculine frame toddlers, which is a real shame! 

Masculine and Feminine Frame CAS:

There are...so many clothing assets in this pack. This is great for immersion into the world of Batuu and does fit in well with aesthetic of Galaxy’s Edge! (Click here if you’d like to see some of the character costumes from the staff that work at Galaxy’s Edge at Disney World.) I am impressed with how well the Sims team have managed to replicate these! 

Costumes of note are Leia’s Endor Costume from Return of the Jedi (but no hat :( ) and Rey’s costume from the Last Jedi. We also get access to Kylo Ren’s costume (with and without helmet) from across all of the sequel trilogy! It would have been nice to see a Ben Solo costume as separates for masculine frame sims!

Masculine and Feminine Child/Toddler CAS:

I have to admit, the toddler costumes are super cute! I like that they converted the Rey Skywalker triple buns hair to toddler children, but this does feel like a bit of an afterthought considering that other masculine frame hairs were not converted. (Toddlers with the “Han Solo Swoop” - how cute would that have been?!)

Child CAS is ok, but there’s not much of it. The Jawa outfit definitely steals the show. It’s too cute and I did get a good chuckle when I saw it! Would have been great to get some tusken raider costumes too! Togo Togu!

Not My Near Humans/Aliens: 

I don’t think this image needs a caption, but I suppose I should write something anyway. 

This was very disappointing. When the trailer dropped, I was so excited to see so many species in the trailer! Zabraks, Bith, Mirilians, Twi’leks, Weequay and Abednedo were all featured! I was both apprehensive and excited to see how these species would be handled. 

All “near-human/alien” CAS assets are under the “hats” category. Zabraks (with their crowns of horns) work well! There’s three varieties of horn sizes and styles. Twi’leks are a different model to the Aalya Secura costume we got in the game a long time ago, but with colour variants which are canon skin colours to the Star Wars story! These have no issue when being applied to sims, but you do need to select the “hat” under every clothing category! The skin tone of the hat swatch you select appears all over a sim’s body. Biths, Weequay and Abednedo are another story. Just...ugh. I wish these had been skin details! 

I wasn’t expecting new alien species, but I was expecting something different to this...

Mirilians, meanwhile, can be found under facepaint. There’s a variety of diamond ‘tattoo’ swatches which is nice! However, what’s going on with the eyebrows? I’m not sure if this is a glitch or deliberate to make it look like your sims are covered in face/body paint. As per my CC Mirilian, Verdian Nova, on the right hand side - this is how Mirilians should look! I HIGHLY recommend the Mirilian Facial Tattoos by Voidfeathersims which can be found here, over the face paint in Journey to Batuu!

Overall Thoughts:

Tl;dr: aliens - why not skin details?!. CAS clothing assets - pretty good and lots of options! Hairs: eeeeehhhh! (why can’t toddlers have the “Solo Swoop”?) :(

[figureviews]

Review: Nendoroid 803 Conan Edogawa

For some people anime conventions are a chance to have fun... for my wallet they’re the reason he’s emptied due to me getting new Nendo in my collection.

Conan Edogawaf rom the popular anime series "Meitantei Conan" based on the homonym manga, came into my collection exactly when I spotted him (along with other Nendos I’ll talk later on) in an anime convention... (below in an official photo).

I’ll be frank, I was a little hesitant in getting this little guy because I love the manga but I wasn’t sure a Nendo version of Conan would work well since Conan is... well, already chibified so I feared it would simply feel like having a copy of him more than a cute Nendo.

Well... copy or not I’ll admit his Nendo version is still adourable so I’m happy he came home!

His package is... of the old standard size but with a larger window showing him compared to the old standard model. It not only has the Good Smile logo but also the made at GSC's 'Lucky Factory' in Tottori, Japan logo. I guess they were afraid if they were to make it in China there would be too many bootleg of such a popular chara. Try to avoid them as well, the original is so much better.

If you’re not familiar with the old package here there’s a comparative image.

They’re not terribly different but still you can see how the window showing Conan is larger. I wonder if this is the standard package for Nendo made in Tottori as Chris Redfield which I previously reviewed, also made in Tottori had it as well and the same goes for Tanya Degurechaff and Sakura Miku Bloomed in Japan which I’ll review in future and which are also made in Tottori.

Anyway, going on, let’s give a look at Conan’s blister pack.

As you can see the plastic wrapping is the same of the other blister pack, here, look at him without all that wrapping for a better view.

As you can see already he comes with a good amount of spare parts. Nothing over the top but it’s clear they gave him many options for posing.

The stand and the brace (let’s get over with the boring part immediately) are the standard ones.

Of course we’ve instructions in English and Japanese.

And now let’s move to more juicy stuffs, let’s look at all of Conan’s disassembled parts!

Quite a difference in amount compared to Okanehira, isn’t that right? Really, if I compare him and Conan I feel sorry for him.

So, going with order we’ve:

Legs first.

Conan comes with a total of 5 legs, which are meant to be 3 right legs and 2 left legs.

Although you can see bent legs they aren’t actually for sitting, just for kneeling. They don’t really work that well on sitting due to Conan’s short which hint at how his legs are in a straight position. In fact the only slightly bent leg is the one on the left (which Conan uses to go on the skateboard) which, to work, has on its top an extra part that hints at how the fold of the pants get bent.

As I was pretty curious about the working of that leg I couldn’t help but immediately try it out.

Uhum... up close you might notice how the folding of the pants on the leg doesn’t perfectly match with the pants (unless I had a defective leg?) but it’s still something that can work.

Anyway 5 legs are a good selection which gives him mobility options.

Arms and hands now.

6 harms, 3 right and 3 left but with an addition of 2 extra right hands and 1 left hand for definitely A LOT of posing.

It’s also worth to note that you can detatch the bowtie from the hand holding it so you can use that hand for other posing.

As it happens often with chibified figures, proportions of objects change according to the characters holding them or wearing them. While hats or helmets become much smaller when a Nendo hold them opposed to when he wears them, in the bowtie case, the bowtie Conan hold is much bigger than the ones he wear... in fact this Nendo comes with two different bowties, one for wearing and one for holding.

In fact if you look at the upper part of his body...

...you can notice the bowtie can be easily detatched so that Conan won’t look like wearing his bowtie while holding his bowtie.

As the position for speaking in the bowtie still covers the part where the bowtie is, it succesfully hids the slot in which the bowtie would need to be inserted.

The photo don’t really do justice to the colour of Conan’s clothes but they’re bright and ‘television-like’. Sure, they’re very simple and essential but I still love how they come out.

Faceplates now!

They’re the standard amount, 3. The interesting part is that, apart from the serious version, they’ve a sideway look, a hint that Conan is normally better when displayed not straight but slightly turned.

And, of course, Conan has his eyeglasses.

The shape of Conan’s hair allows the glasses to remain firmly on Conan as the tips of the frame can attach to the frontal part of the hair, while the frontal part of the eyeglasses is further insured in it’s stillness by both by standing on top of Conan’s nose (they don’t quite rest on it but if they come slightly lose it would stop them from sliding down) and also by having the hair covering them slightly. Mind you, it isn’t pressing them down, it’s just stopping them from getting distant from the face.

So let’s look at the hair.

If you want the hair isn’t really shaded, they’re mostly a single colour but it’s also a faithful and good reprodution of Conan’s hair. And yes, if you need to, you can detatch the strand of hair at the top of the back part of the head.

Oh, I forgot to mention, Conan also comes with his skateboard which is really faithfully reproduced.

In case you’re curious this is the original.

And with the skateboard we’ve finished Conan’s accessories.

If I’ve to be fully honest I wish they had given him a soccer ball and a pose for him to kick it as not only Conan often uses a soccer ball to knock down escaping culprits...

...but playing with it is also is favourite method to relax himself.

An alternate pair of glasses with the radar included would also be nice.

... while I think it would have been difficult to use the pose for when he’s using his watch (in his small Nendo size the watch is not even visible)....

but well, although I’m saying so, I still think Conan has enough parts that allow him to make enough poses. So while extra would have been welcomed, he’s already a fully furnished Nendo.

So let’s look in deep to those poses. Conan has many poses that are recurring in the series... but in many variations. Due to this I couldn’t quite find the perfectly matching pictures.

For example the first pose Good Smile proposes is a mix of this two poses.

The bowtie pose is performed actually in various way during the series which include kneeling but also standing or sitting.

As for the skateboard pose... both the manga and the anime presents us with some HIGHLY dynamic skateboard poses so the pose Good Smile suggests feels rather tame but it still works.

The “Only one truth prevails!” pose also comes in many variations.

And the dumbfounded pose also comes in many variants.

Overall the poses are all good and you can vary them to make them more appealing as Conan, as said before, comes with many spares.

Overall I think it’s a really good and well furnished Nendo.

Would anyone who’s not fan of the series, want to buy him?

Hum... maybe.

While I think Conan is really good as a reproduction of his own character, on the whole he comes as a Nendo with the body of a child and with clothes a bit peculiar. You might want him if you plan to custom make a child... otherwises... hum... I’m not sure.

Still, I love this little one!

On an interesting addition I’ll mention Re-ment too also released a Meitantei Conan set, the small day collection.

Accessories don’t involve just Conan but also the rest of the cast... but if you want to give a better look at the Conan accessories here they are... and they include the soccer ball!

[coolpunkparadise]

Art Tips!

Hey, so recently I’ve been getting a lot more into art and I’ve found some tricks to help other artists improve! I’m still new, so it might not be the best, but I figured it might help someone. I’m gonna separate these by types of art so that its easier to read. Hopefully this is helpful!

Section 1: Supplies

Supplies are a great way for physical artists to improve art. Good art suplies feel better to use, and also look a lot better to use! However, it can be hard to afford some supplies. If you’re in this boat,

too bad for you, lol.

Section 2: Art Programs

Art programs are also very important, so here’s some good options for beginners.

Cheap:

-MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint  -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint -MS paint 

Thats all you need.

Section 3: Inspiration

Inspiration is a useless thing, but of course, you must need it. You must crave it. You see no point in mindless creation for the self, in creation for the sake of creation, but all things must have a purpose, a point, a use. You feel, as an artist, you have no use on your own, so you must create for others, but is this life? Is this a job you love?

You want to be successful, but you can never draw. You know you have to practice, but you never draw. You stare at the blank canvas, white and glowing, and find it hard to breathe, the infinite possible variants of color and shape unfolding in your head. You see all art and art-adjacent things, all lines, all shapes. Some are beautiful, wonderful and colorful and expressive and real, taking you in and not letting your mind go until you find some way to appreciate it.

Others are creative, weaving imaginary worlds full of life and objects we on earth can never understand. You desperately want to get lost in them, to hear what they sound like, to feel the strange terrain, to taste the food, to smell the market on a good morning, and you know you never will. You are stuck with only the what-if, the bewilderment created by these images only you could see, only you could create.

Still others are simply madness, colors splashed randomly in infinite assortments, pointless. These anger you. These are meaningless. Meaningless. It cannot be meaningless. You try to fly past these in your thoughts, but they stick to your mind like burrs to a dog, and when you try to face them again you only get angrier and more focused on what you hate. You want to end this madness, these pointless colors, but they won’t leave until you’re done with all combinations, so you must let them stick in the back of your head.

You keep gazing at the possibilities, taking an eternity to admire each (aside from the madness), appreciating every minute detail. You don’t think there can be a greatest one, until you see it. The best piece.

You see a woman. She is beautiful, at least, to you. She is faced to the left, with only half of her face visible. Her skin is soft, and you can see a slight blush on her face. She has a cunning smile, and she is looking off somewhere out of frame. She has a red dress on, and a golden crown sits on top her head. She stands in a wooded area, the sky a dark blue. There are stars out, illuminating a river in front of her.

You are awestruck. You stare at the piece for hours, and start to notice little things. Flowers of dark colors are growing in the grass, and if you look carefully at the trees you see they aren’t empty, but there are creatures, small and alive. You notice patterns in the linework, too subtle for most to see. The woman’s blush has several small flowery shapes hidden inside, and you also notice a subtle shape of a handprint on the side of her face. No one else would see this, you tell yourself. No one else would know to look. Only you could appreciate this.

You can see the individual hairs on her head, the fiber of her dress. When you focus, you can see the flowers on the rest of her skin, spreading all around her. After enough of this, you see them even when you aren’t focusing, they are a part of her now, as much as the picture is a part of you.

You find the creatures in the woods are not animals. No, they are not anything of this earth. One of them is a small, curious thing with a triangle head. It has fleshy blobs covering what you can see, and it appears to have something in its spider-like “hands”, but you can’t tell what.

You look back to the woman, and her head has moved. She’s turned to you slightly, her eyes turning to face you. Her cunning smile is now a more sincere, wholehearted smile. You can’t see the flowers in her skin at first, but when you look back, you see they have been replaced with twisting lines that seem to weave around and over eachother, creating intricate designs far too varied and detailed to MOST people to appreciate, but of course, not you. You can see them all. You can keep them all. You notice, again, a subtle handprint, and find it brings a smile. Of course you would notice that.

You look at her again, and see the lines. You smile, reflecting hers, and you see her chuckle slightly, knowing that only you two can know the secret of her skin. She gestures for you too look around, and you notice something new on the ground. A letter, opened and on its side. You get at an angle where you can read it, and it briefly fills your canvas.

You belong here, it says. You belong here. Look at the flowers, my dearest. Look at what you’ve made, what only you could appreciate.

You look, and find the flowers are now filled with images of a great war, the story of the ups and downs weaving between the petals. You watch with delight as the winning side fluctuates and characters fall in love and become friends, and, of course, die in war. You smile when one side finally wins, and the city is burned, because you were always rooting for that team. You see a mother ripped from her child, but, of course, the mother deserved it. She was on the villain’s side, remember? This is justice.

“Darling,” The woman whispers, her voice soft and caring, “Your work is most impressive.”

You look up at her and smile sheepishly. “Thank you, dear,” You say. You realize now that you can talk to her, something you never thought possible, and your heart soars. You think of all the things you can ask, all the things you can talk about, all the things she can tell you. You decide to start simple, though.

“What is your name?” You ask.

She laughs, and you find yourself entranced. “That’s up to you,” She says, “But I’ve always liked Stella.”

“Stella it is, then,” You say.

She smiles at you and reaches for your hand. “Walk with me,” she says. “I want to show you something.”

You take her hand, and its as soft as it looked. You can feel the patterns on her skin, weaving and winding around. She leads you through the woods, and you find that the roadblocks like roots and overturned trees move to avoid you. Of course they do. Of course they respect you, the creator, the only one who could see this beauty truly.

You find yourself by a much larger lake now, and she brings you to the side of it and sits with you. You look over the water, and you see shapes inside that, zig-zags moving across the water. You see the grass is full of words and stories. You look up to the stars, and see constellations, perfect to connect for you, the mind who could come up with this.

You turn your face to Stella, and she puts a hand on your face gently.

“You’re blushing, darling,” She says. You look away quickly, but she moves to see you again.

“It’s okay,” She says. “You aren’t the first one to be nervous.”

You find the words calm at first, and then you realize- not the first. Not the first.

“There have been others?” You ask.

“Yes,” She admits. “Truthfully, this is not your creation, but I didn’t want to tell you that at first. I feared you would leave.”

You’re silent, letting your anger burn within you, but a question comes to your mind.

“Where are they?” You ask.

“Don’t worry about that,” Stella answers. “It’s just us right now, okay?”

She puts a hand on your face again, and you start to calm down.

“Okay,” You say. 

“Good,” She says. You feel her hand move slightly, and you take a breath. You notice how tired you feel, and think of how nice it would be to sleep. You rest your eyes for a second, and you feel Stella rub your face.

“You can rest,” she says. “I’ll wake you in the morning.”

While you appreciate the kind words, you’re tired enough that it wouldn’t matter. You fall asleep, and when you do, you dream of the most wonderful things. You dream of shapes and patterns, small at first, but eventually growing across your mind. At first, you see some people in the distance, noisy and out of place and annoying, but they’re overtaken by the patterns. You look around and see how beautiful it is, but one thing is wrong.

You. You are not the pattern. But you feel it, then, the patterns washing over you, and you see it overtake your body, turning it into nothing. You breathe a sigh of relief, happy that you’re now perfect, happy you can see the intricacies, and you realize that this is inspiration. This is what you needed. This is how to make true art.

You can’t wait to wake up and create it.

[scarlettlawyer]

Part 10 of my reaction/commentary to the Phantoms & Mirages fanfic series by @renegadewangs

(Chasing Phantoms): Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

(Haunted Specters): Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

(Vanquishing Mirages): Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9

So moving forward, as I continued to read on, there was a backdrop of salt, apathy & hurt overshadowing everything as established in the previous post. But I was still reading on because “might as well see what happens I guess”. Starting Vanquishing Mirages chapter 20, I was also nervous & intrigued. Nervous about how the narrative was going to go about this and what the result was going to be… So I read on kind of with bated breath.

And it just remains in that interesting stage for a little while, the uncertainty stage where I don’t really know where it’s gonna go, for those first few paragraphs, as I’m waiting and reading on to see how it turns out… and then it takes a downturn when the negative emotions just start POURING in tsunami style and everything just starts crashing down horribly. I go quickly from nervous/intrigued to kind of horrified as it strikes me just. How. Traumatic and overwhelming the entire experience would be for someone who has never really had to deal with emotions of much severity their entire life. I’m just oh no… oh no…….. oh nooooo….. I didn’t foresee this at all, so distracted by so many things up until this point, and yet it makes perfect sense. But it was a real punch huh. This was awful, what a disaster. This was not good… Which is basically what Simon says:

What a mess. What a complete, total and utter mess. […] Perhaps this was punishment for playing god. Perhaps they’d flown too close to the sun. Perhaps they were Frankenstein, responsible for giving birth to a failed creation.

Me:

[hides away in a corner because I think we broke him lads]

Vanquishing Mirages, Chapter 21

The Phantom blinked, shedding a few more tears as he did so. Perhaps he hadn’t quite processed Simon’s words. Perhaps he hadn’t quite processed the situation in general. He swallowed and sniffed, then tilted his head backwards.

Am I meant to be picturing this in anything less than stunningly beautiful and fluid animation? Because I am not picturing this in anything less than gorgeously rendered animation.

Whatever it was that’d held Bobby back from touching the Phantom before, it was gone now. He placed a hand atop the Phantom’s clenched fist, hoping it might soothe him. “Whoah, it’s okay. It’s fine.” “It’s not fine! How dare you claim that it’s fine?! YOU did this to me!”

AAAAAAND WE’RE BACK LADIESANDGENTLEMAN HELLO THERE NARRATIVE FRAMING OF HIM AS A CHILD: ACTIVATE

HELLO! this is exciting and new!

“Calm yourself.” “I can’t! I CAN’T!”

He really wouldn’t know how to or be able to!

AND THEN AT THIS POINT IT JUST HIT ME

THIS MAKES PERFECT SENSE

HE ACTUALLY WOULD HAVE THE EMOTIONAL MATURITY OF A CHILD BECAUSE HE’S NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO MATURE EMOTIONALLY, DUH, CAUSE HE LACKED EMOTIONS SO MUCH, THIS IS BRAND NEW TO HIM H

Narrative framing of him as a child during Haunted Specters REALLY paying off even more right now! We’ve already reaped so much from those seeds. But now! Oh boy!

“We would not honor such a request even if it were within our capabilities. Congratulations, Phantom. You are now free to tussle with emotions just like every other human.”

MY FEELINGS/REACTION TOWARDS THIS WHOLE SITUATION CHANGED SO FAST IT WAS LIKE:

“Oh noooo… this is so awful and terrible for him this is too much I can’t handle th… W-wait. Phphhw. Heh. Hah. HahahaHAHAHA MUAHAHA YEEEES ONE OF US ONE OF US DEEEEEEEAL WITH IT HAHAHA SUCKERRRRRRRR!”

The Phantom’s wide eyes followed Fulbright out the room. Apparently, his departure served to rile the man up even further. “Get back here! Bobby Fulbright! You get back here and end my suffering RIGHT NOW!”

This is just so good this is just so good hohoooh!

The Phantom sniffed and huffed. Flinched and scrunched his eyes shut, his breathing turning to more helpless sobs. Tears continued to run down the side of his face, disappearing into locks of hair just above his ears.

Hey yeah just saying it again. This is nothing but pure unadulterated animation mode for me. With REALLY GOOD animation. A really gorgeous 2D anime style.

Simon hesitated for a moment, then placed a careful hand atop the Phantom’s closed eyes. They felt soggy and unpleasant to touch. “Focus on the sound of my voice and nothing else. Focus on my voice and breathe.”

IT’S WEIRD CAUSE LIKE. I HAD VERY FRESH PHANTOMQUILL WOUNDS AT THIS POINT OF READING BUT. Right up until The Kiss prior to the surgery I had been very firmly in the parental-child dynamic mindset camp and thoroughly enjoying myself. It was the kiss and stuff that I found jarring at first BECAUSE of that before getting up and moving over to phantomquill mode, only for it to turn out to be fake phantomquill. You’d think it might actually be hard for me to go back to “Oh the phantom is a child and Bobby and Simon are his parents” after the phantomquill fiasco but in terms of mindset, it really wasn’t difficult because I’d only been in Phantomquill mode comparatively VERY briefly before it got destroyed. I was already thoroughly versed in the ways of the parent-child dynamic heh and had spent waaaay longer enjoying that lens. Being so used to it, it was easy enough to switch back over to it.

Do NOT get me wrong, I was still VERY upset over it, yet somehow I could still deeply enjoy the familial dynamic between Simon and the phantom in this moment.

So I basically was still grumbling angrily about phantomquill under my breath while somehow simultaneously excitedly going “OMG SUPPORTIVE DAD SIMON!!!”

Me: yeah. Yeah. You’re really just Piling On that family dynamic after that huge mess with the kiss and the baiting??? Just showing me blatantly to my face how wrong I was to ever read romance into anything? You have the gall to?

Also me: …I still love the parent-child dynamics from this series so FIIINE I do appreciate this scene. I appreciate it a lot, actually. HMPH

Talk about being of a conflicted mind. But there’ll be more mention of that to come.

…Oh, and yeah, I have still been referring to him as the phantom, haven’t I? Well that’s simple: it’s what the narrative is still calling him, so I continue to call him by that title until it is dropped by the narrative itself

Besiiides, for all intents and purposes, during this small gap of time until it changes, he is NOT quite Lex yet, because he has not yet accepted the name and nor has the narrative itself.

So we get this awesome little window which is just, he’s still “the phantom” if that’s the only title we have before “Lex” is accepted and taken on. Pure, unfiltered “Phantom” + Emotion and it’s sooo special. Which… yes… Phantom + Emotions = becomes Lex but… argh, it gets confusing very quickly for me. :P

The question seemed to startle the Phantom for some reason. … No, not the Phantom. It was Lex, now. That notion still felt foreign. Perhaps Alexander would be more suitable. More formal. Less personal.

I WAS SOOO THANKFUL FOR THIS ON FIRST READTHROUGH. I was thankful for how jarring Simon was finding it too (because in that respect he certainly wasn’t alone lol – I wasn’t alone). I was thankful that the narrative hadn’t immediately switched over to saying “Lex” after he woke up from surgery. Oh, and I’d even been thankful waaay back when his name being Alexander Luster Jr was first revealed that the narrative switch hadn’t been made then either. I mean, it wasn’t for OBVIOUS reasons but like… Technically that’s his name. So the narrative could have tried making an attempt at it and I was just glad he was still always “the Phantom” even when we knew what his name was when he was born. Cause he sure as hell didn’t accept the name back then.

But I was SUPER thankful for Simon deciding to call him “Alexander” too. It was kind of a real godsend BECAUSE LIKE. The name “Lex” was so heavily entrenched and still attached in my mind to that super mean bald dude that got killed off. It was a name that therefore felt “ugly” that had been attached to a man with an “ugly” personality. And whoever this man was that woke up from the surgery, it sure as HELL didn’t feel like his name. I was kinda like “buddy. If you want me to start calling this character “Lex” you’ve got another thing coming.” So having “Alexander” instead was a relief that helped A LOT at the time lol. It was sooo much easier to switch to. And Simon going for the more formal variant is such a Simon thing to do anyway. XD

Also???? Alexander… Alexander Luster… felt like such a pretty name actually???? BUT I MEAN. I am the first to admit that I am probably extremely biased on that front. And that I’d probably just. End up thinking just about any name applied to him was “pretty”. LOL.

But yeaaahhh although I kinda had a hard time with the “Lex” business at first, after a little bit of time it became easy to accept, as it usually goes with these things. Now I’ve got 0 problems with it. Lex is Lex!

“That makes you nothing more than an ungrateful child,” Simon grumbled, finally stepping away from the window to take his own seat.

Every time the narrative makes a DIRECT reference or draws a DIRECT parallel to him being a child it feels like it adds another 3 years to my lifespan.

“Ahahahah! I-I c-can’t! Hahahahah! Ahahahahah! Irony!~”

…

MEOWZY. YOU. YOU. DID THIS. YOU MADE THE CONSCIOUS DECISION TO PUT A TILDE THERE. H.

I.

TH

You did that. You did that on purpose. What did you doooooo. What’s HAPPENING

I can’t… I… just needed to point this out and take you to task over it. GOSH

The i-intent… the intent of this in the narrative

As if to say,

Look… Look at how… endearing

As if to say,

“Yes, you not only can, but SHOULD find this endearing”…………

Ohooooh it’s too much IT’S.

It’s death by tilde is what it is. You didn’t. Need to. You could have just left the words and such as it was. But you threw it in, intentionally showing off how we’re supposed to take this just in case there’s any mistake.

You’re under arrest.

Vanquishing Mirages, Chapter 22: Epilogue

Still, as he raised the headphones to his ear, he heard enough. It was indeed playing music- and what horrid music it was. “-When skies are grey. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.” “Where the devil did you get this?” he demanded, virtually throwing it into Alexander’s lap.

BRO THIS IS SO UNREAL.

The sheer image of the (former) phantom listening to music was so wild and then it jUST

Alexander’s fingers began to play with the headphones, twirling them around in his hands as he spoke. “You know, it’s funny. I’ve listened to music before, but it’s like I’ve never really heard it. …Does that make sense?”

OH MY GOOOOOSH. THIS REALISATION HIT ME LIKE A TRUCK. THIS HAD NOT OCCURRED TO ME… AT ALL! BUT IT’S SO…! :D HE CAN LISTEN TO AND ENJOY MUSIC NOW. Get immersed in it. That was the most fantastic realisation to me. No, you don’t understaaaand, you see, as a child, getting immersed in listening to music was so central to me that as a kid I’d come up with a bunch of story ideas involving things like other planets/alien creatures that would revolve their entire society around music, or alien creatures that have no concept of music and get introduced to it and subsequently immersed in it for the first time. This just hit so close to hoooome, oh my goodness, I hadn’t remembered or thought about those memories/story ideas that kid me had for maybe a good ten years, and this fic suddenly reminded me with the headphones business. It’s really not related to the fic to mention but I’d looong forgotten about all those scenarios I’d thought about and it was so cool to be reminded. :’D

BUT ANYWAY BACK TO THE FIC-

Me like three chapters ago: WAAAAH, NOTHING THIS SERIES COULD EVER DO COULD EVER MAKE ME HAPPY AGAIN!

Me reading this chapter not too long afterwards: HMMM OKAY I AM KIND OF VERY HAPPY RIGHT NOW.

Oh and it just occurred to me: my guess is the person who “overslept her own execution” was Cammy Meele!

And now, I’m gonna start talking about Lifting Spirits! But at least just for this post, I’m gonna change things up a little and not segment my comments chapter-wise or comment on little things, but rather talk about stuff pertaining to the earlier parts of the fic as a whole. This is necessary because my thoughts were an unbelievable mess and were so terribly bunched together – that is, thanks to reading through it relatively fast, I guess everything got kind of mixed together, so individual reactions to individual parts of it are a little less well-“defined” than was the case with the prior fics at the point of reading.

...I don't know if I could ever do Lifting Spirits justice. I CERTAINLY don't do it justice in this post. Believe me, I want nothing more than to just sit down and gush endlessly about it because that's what it warrants, but for the time being this post seems to be too busy trying to outline just how much my own disposition threatened to botch and ruin it for myself. XD 

But it will get better in future review posts, I promise!

Yeah, my thoughts were a contradictory, convoluted, conflicting mess. There was SO much going on at once for me with regards to how I was responding to the text on first readthrough. It’s hard to know even where to begin. So let’s try and tackle some things in Lifting Spirits:

1 - The Transition from The Phantom to Lex

…It does such a number on my brain on multiple levels. XD. IT MESSES WITH ME SO MUCH, it’s a straightforward concept enough in theory but my brain overloads and threatens to shut down when I try to wrap my head around it. XD

I love the phantom, so my instinctive bias at first was to try and cling to the label of “the phantom” as long as I could until it’s finally surrendered.

So, I’ve said already that I was kinda nervous about how this transition was gonna be pulled off. There’s always SORT OF a risk involved when going ahead and giving the phantom an identity and making them no longer the phantom – it kind of wanders straight into the Original Character zone. This New Character who used to be the phantom, in such cases, does get a bit of a complimentary “boost” of my investment in them by virtue of having been the phantom, but beyond that, the new character in the phantom’s place must learn to pull their own weight in the story. They cannot purely rely on having been the phantom – they must develop on their own and give the audience due reason to be invested in the new character. And/or, they must still have some ties connecting them back to having been the phantom too, even with their new characterisation and personality.

So yeah, I had literally no reason to be even remotely nervous. Lex is fantastic. And can very VERY easily stand up in the narrative on his own accord. Not only that, but it’s just… genius… the extremity of his emotions is, ironically, the very thing that connects him back to having been the emotionless phantom…! Because it drives home repeatedly that he really has had NO experience with this level of feeling due to his past. It’s a total pendulum swing to the other end of the spectrum and I love it SO damn much.

Regardless of whether he’s Lex or the phantom, he’s still my favourite character.

1.1 – The phantom as Lex/the phantom becoming Lex

Man, this fic.

I swear to god.

I keep trying to type out my thoughts and it’s so hard to be coherent about it.

Lex is… “the (former) phantom”. So I’ll use this phrasing to really drive the point home. Because such a huge amount of what happens, of what’s going on… derives its impact from this very important fact. From the unbelievable contrast. The seeming absurdity of EVERYTHING given who he was.

The former phantom laughs at stupid jokes, gets given a stash of sweets and a Jokes & Riddles book thanks to Bobby, gets goofily absorbed in a phone game………… The list just goes on.

You are doing this. You are making me read all this stuff involving the former phantom with my own two eyes, I… I…… This flippin’ portrayal. Almost feels like it should be illegal xDDDD

1.1a - YOU ARE WHAT IS KNOWN AS AN ENABLER

I have been… a fan of the character known as the phantom for many years now… I started playing through the Ace Attorney games in December 2014, and played Dual Destinies in the first half of 2015. I’ve had years to jokingly talk about the phantom ironically in an “awwww just look at them, awwww how innocent/”cute”” way, obviously knowing damn well they’re not.

And I basically went into Chasing Phantoms with, on some level, an attitude of “haha you can TRY to make me hate the phantom, I know you will, but I won’t let you”

Big mistake, to head into this series stubbornly guarding a totally opposite area of phantom perception compared to what I SHOULD have been guarding against.

And then you just

Came along and took the character

And did this.

It was fine at first in like, Haunted Specters and then Vanquishing Mirages. It was a big joke that everyone was in on. It was a joke and it was funny and I was laughing along with it. Albeit. An evolving joke.

And then Lifting Spirits just

It jUST

All of a sudden I had to be like wait a minute. I was just like whoa, whoa. Hold up. You can’t – WAIT a minute. No WAIT

I walked into this trap with no defences prepared. I’d walked into this series going “I’d like to see you try and make me truly hate this man, but it won’t work, I’ll make sure it doesn’t work out of spite” and now all of a sudden this was all happening at once and I had to suddenly try and backpedal dramatically out of the trap and be like wait wait wait no this is, this is, he was?? A bad guy was he not? Wait what are we-

The scales were tipping too far for my liking – too far in a direction I was ALREADY biased and predisposed towards and I wanted to stop it but what defence did I haaave

It’s like the narrative was poking me and going “Hey. So. Your favourite character. He’s pretty great, right? Right?” and I’d shake my head and try my best to go, “No… No! He isn’t – this isn’t right! What! There has to be some kind of mistake! This is a thirty-seven year old man who has killed people WHAT IS GOING ON”

And this is also, at the same time, set against a backdrop of me still stubbornly trying to cling to a mindset of not wanting this man to be able to cheat death or the finality of execution.

So here’s the first of many contradictory feelings I was having at once:

“This man must be punished and therefore I can’t abide by such a lighthearted portrayal” vs “I love this man so much and every single moment of this lighthearted portrayal is GOLD and I love it sooo much”

2- The Phantom VS Lex

The portrayal of my favourite character was making me rather pleased, but it felt way too good to be true on three different fronts. Firstly, the amusing absurdity in and of itself made it hard to process this was Really Happening, the levels of it feeling “unreal” were so much and I was so stunned and I was sincerely struggling to process it at first. Secondly, it just felt so catered to me (LOL) and “too good to be true” that I felt like. Like. The narrative surely couldn’t be doing something so great. A similar kind of inability to believe this was “really happening” which had cropped up during Haunted Specters. And this was heavily fuelled by, THREE… My pesky little reactions to our old friend, Fake Phantomquill.

The hurt that I was feeling over the phantomquill unfortunately seeped into and tainted my perception of other parts of the story and caused me to get irrationally defensive in many respects at the time. See, as I’ve implied, part of what was so very appealing to me about Legit one-sided phantomquill coming to fruition just before the surgery is that it felt like the final step in taking the phantom further down from his pedestal and that much closer to “joining the ranks of humanity” just in time for surgery that would have “the phantom” cease to be altogether and allow him to make the full transformation. It wasn’t so much about phantomquill itself as it was about the notion of the phantom being attracted to someone and causing such a big, stupid mess as a result, of being a fundamentally flawed human being but flawed in a vulnerable-

who claimed to be made of nothing but pure logic only to, in his final moments as the phantom act in the most illogical-

It’s silly, I know. First of all, if anything, it can be kind of arophobic, depending on how it’s done, to use “attraction to another person” as a proof or demonstration of a character’s core humanity. It’s just… That’s what I’d tricked myself into thinking the set-up was for, I guess. So when the set-up got so thoroughly negated and didn’t come to fruition, it felt like it had intentionally done the opposite with a bait and switch, and that instead of showing that even the phantom can fall from his pedestal in his final moments before “the phantom” ceases to be, it then seemed the goal was to demonstrate with a great sense of finality that actually, he is despicable and will never be anything but despicable and that we never should have expected anything more up until the very end.

Except… it was silly of me to feel like this first of all seeing as the phantom had already demonstrated during the narrative plenty that he very much does have the capacity to care about other people in his own very odd way. He DID go through character development. Just because none of the feelings he demonstrated were based on attraction doesn’t diminish what he did demonstrate. The Fake Phantomquill Kiss in and of itself is proof of caring because he was ultimately trying to protect Bobby.

But at the time it was hard for me to see that through my hurt. It’s an irrational perspective to take but I wasn’t being rational because of that hurt, and I was distrusting as a result. So, strangely enough, the phantom “dying” as the “filthy criminal he is” after the little show he put on, and then becoming Lex and waking up from the surgery with all these emotions kinda felt to me almost like it was throwing “the phantom” and all the progress as a character he’d made under the bus – of all the potential he’d shown prior to surgical interference.

There was just so much emphasis in the narrative on separating “the phantom” from “Lex” which was fair enough, but it felt to my irrational wounded self like “the phantom” was suddenly being characterised as “Pure Evil” in order to further the ends to which Lex could then be set up as “good”, when we’d previously spent around 2 fics delving into how, while the phantom is very much a villain and none of his crimes can be negated, there is more to him, and he’s, at the very least, not Evil 24/7. Almost like “the phantom” and “Lex” were being pitted against each other which I realise is stupid because c’mon, how can Lex as a character throw the phantom under the bus when Lex was the phantom? When he is merely another huge step – leap – in the character’s evolution? The transformation into Lex can’t negate any of the character development HE made prior to that point, prior to the surgery.

Another important thing to note, which I am extremely grateful to the narrative for, is that Bobby cared about the phantom not only before the surgery, but before the bone sliver was even discovered in the first place. And Simon had also been slipping back then, although he was not nearly as far-gone as Bobby was. But such a thing really helps acknowledge the phantom as a character… and does help reiterate that he wasn’t completely worthless and/or “not worthy of anything” prior to becoming Lex.

I did come to realise that I was, in fact, just needlessly worrying over pure semantics and that there was no point in doing such a thing. Regardless of how one might construe it, this man, Lex, was the same person in the sense that he has all the same memories. There is still a continuity of existence. The "death" of the phantom was only the death of the label itself, the mindset, but the man who had carried the title had still lived on. It allowed, helped that man to shed the worst of what had been part of him before and opened up so much for him.

It's just, the notion of a character actively striving to be good and overcoming themselves vs a sudden fix that gets externally applied, and it felt like any previous striving, however miniscule, threatened to be rendered obsolete by it.

But this was a misplaced notion of mine if there ever was one because not only does it not override previous character development, but the previous character development was necessary for not only making the surgery and its outcome possible, but also a crucial part of the character's arc that can't be overlooked narratively speaking. It is not Lex that characters like Bobby and Athena abruptly start believing in. They'd already believed in him before he was Lex, and they are who campaign for the surgery in the first place. And it is the phantom himself to give the final push and the go-ahead to make it happen through his consent, a vital component to it being made possible. It wasn't erasure, it was never about erasure. It was about continuity and expanding and developing on what was already there. (And I know as well as anyone that the extent of the outcome, and this progress wouldn't have been possible without some form of external interference. It was necessary.)

Whenever I did manage to reconcile it, it was just about the best thing in the world haha.

So yeah, most of this was basically me outlining my distortion of the text and then debunking myself…

I swear my opinions/thoughts/feelings had just about splintered in a million different directions mostly thanks to the shadow cast by my stupid phantomquill pain. XD. My mindset almost threatened to regress to harbouring that foolish unfounded sense that the author didn’t truly care about “the phantom”, and only cared about the person who woke up after that surgery instead. Which is nonsense because Haunted Specters & Vanquishing Mirages clearly indicate otherwise. Why bother spending two entire fics focusing on the phantom so much if the author didn’t care about the phantom? If they wanted to just do away with the phantom and replace him with someone new that they did care about, there were way shorter ways to go about it. I mean, I knew that it was the dumbest concern and that it was incorrect to even consider at this point, but that didn’t stop me from foolishly wasting time on it. It was so hard to believe & trust the story was so attuned to me after being “betrayed” that I semi-adopted/saw the more “hurtful” interpretation as the more “realistic” one.

But reading Lifting Spirits over again so far only reiterates what I realise was the case back then: I only had myself to blame, I was the one vastly exaggerating the perceived distinctions that were being made between Lex and the phantom in the text not only because of my own latent concerns but because of how personally mindboggling I was finding it.

And all the while, I’m SIMULTANEOUSLY borderline scolding the text for how seemingly soft it’s being on the (former) phantom and thinking that the author’s phantom bias is showing. Talk about doublethink!

I had been thinking this entire series that I was perfectly safe to “gush” over this man, because at least the author knew what was what, at least the author still had her senses about her and wouldn’t let it go too astray or let it get out of hand. IF THE AUTHOR IS TREATING HIM LIKE THIS AND I’M TREATING HIM LIKE THIS… THEN WHO’S DRIVING THE PLANE?!

And keep in mind too that I read through Lifting Spirits… Rather quickly. So I’ve got all of these tangled thoughts I’m trying to process at once meanwhile I’m just breezing through the chapters, not really giving myself any real chance to sort through my thoughts and untangle the messes that had formed.

I was somehow managing to feel overwhelmingly thrilled and yet hurt by the narrative at the same time. AAAAALLL the contradictory thoughts and feelings. Contrarian mode was on, it seemed, as I tried to juggle so many opinionated stances and arguments at once that cancelled each other out:

“The phantom was a human being too, with his own issues and he ALSO had (limited) feelings DON’T IGNORE THIS” vs “how dare you portray someone who used to be the phantom, a remorseless killer unworthy of a second thought, in such an endearing manner” vs “ohhhh I love this endearing portrayal so much it’s pure SUSTENANCE to me it’s so entertaining & amazing & makes me so happy” vs stubborn attempts to still cling to “make sure that execution goes ahead, this man still isn’t allowed to escape death” with a slight backdrop of that phantomquill salt-fueled apathy & denial. I was somehow now on the defensive and trying to argue that the phantom hadn’t been 100% despicable and yet also trying to retain the stance that the man in his place still needed to die because the phantom had been 100% despicable. YEP. Walking contradiction. Absolutely wild.

Oh also I just loved Lex in his own right too on top of all this, not just because he used to be the phantom. But because he’s LEX.

It’s all very confusing, I hope I didn’t confuse you too much. XD

Oh, also:

When it came to me feeling that the phantom – or rather, the person who used to be him – was being portrayed too lightly by the narrative given his history – Chasing Phantoms renders completely obsolete any possible argument about the series “skewering one’s perception of the phantom too far off-base”. It renders completely obsolete any possibility that the author was not “aware” of the true depths of his despicableness when going for this angle.

Chasing Phantoms’ existence, to me, makes Lifting Spirits all the more awesome, and strengthens its power. “The Phantom that Lex used to be was ruthless and terrible and awful and caused so much damage and destruction” is not just an offhand acknowledgement that gets referenced back to – it was portrayed firsthand in the first fic, in the series itself. It’s like it goes out of its way to drive home that undeniable fact that the phantom REALLY sucks, and yet Lifting Spirits exists anyway, even with FULL acknowledgement of that. I love that sooo much. It just straight up embraces it and doesn’t try to hide a damn thing. This was who he used to be. This is who he is now. That’s just how it is.

As already established, Chasing Phantoms felt like another universe when I read Lifting Spirits – way before then, even. It was SO hard for me to remember that, he was in fact, actually portrayed in a negative light. It’s actually really great to me that the series didn’t start with Haunted Specters – it did not seek to make the phantom sympathetic or whatnot from the start. He gets to clown around as the villain he truly is for an entire fic before any transition over to protagonist even begins to take place. The story doesn’t briefly go “yeah so we all know the phantom is bad and all obviously but…” and moves straight on, it spends a LONG time elaborating on HOW bad the phantom is back at the very start before proceeding on to anything else.

By the way, I’m aware it would be stupid to make arguments about “not knowing the full extent of how sucky the phantom is” purely on the basis of it not being demonstrated firsthand if that was the case, because like, everyone already knows, so we don’t need to be shown. But I’m merely pointing out how cool I find it that this series does demonstrate it firsthand anyway, because it just further crushes such potential arguments.

If Chasing Phantoms did not exist it would be almost easy to trick oneself into thinking that the full extent of the phantom’s villainy was not truly being acknowledged by the story, given Lex’s portrayal by the narrative (despite him being a “new person”, the fact remains that he was the phantom.) The Phantom is – was - very much a villain, and we know very clearly that the current portrayal of that man who used to be him doesn’t minimise that.

There was another big thing I wanted to talk about connected to much I’ve discussed in this post, but I’ll have to leave it for the next one! I had to cut sooo much from this I’m sorry, I actually did have a bunch of small comments from the beginning of Lifting Spirits. Well, until the next post, which will also get to the middle of the fic too. ^_^

[loganssweettooth]

Age Regression in Fandom

Alright, so I’ve been thinking about this for the past few days, and I want to get my thoughts out.

Earlier, I went on AO3 and searched just the key term “Age Regression” to see what popped up. I had a fairly good idea of what would pop up, aaaand I was correct. When you search for “age regression” there are two things that pop up 1) De-aging fics or 2) Age play. And those are fine in their own right, but neither of them are regression. De-aging is when a character is both physically and mentally reverted to a child, and age play is a kink encompassing things like c/g/l and its gendered variants as well as a/b/d/l; it usually goes hand-in-hand with daddy kink.

The problem with these two things being the only things you find when searching the term, actual age regression no where in sight, is that it paints a bad picture of regression and adds to the stigma.

You have to admit that there is a stigma around age regression. Hell, this is a blog dedicated to it, and I don’t use my real name or tell you what my main blog for this fandom is because of it. When you try to find shops and things online to buy things for your regression (pacis, bottles, sippies, onesies, etc) it is extremely difficult to find a shop that doesn’t say “18+” somewhere on it. There are people that completely write off regression when it is brought up because they think of age play instead. The stigma surrounding this healthy coping mechanism is astounding and a bit disheartening.

What does this have to do with fandom? Absolutely everything. It’s no secret that media shapes our opinions and ideas, and with k!nk or kidfic being the only thing you find with this tag search, that, in a way, invalidates age regression in fandom. However, if regressors have fic to look at, it lets them know this thing they do is OK. I’ve had several asks telling me that this blog has helped people with their regression, and it has even helped a couple people discover that they regress and didn’t even really know.

That’s the effect your fanfiction can have. People want to read about their favorite characters being like themselves, and this includes regression. It’s nice to see a character that you see yourself in portrayed with things you go through and experience. It validates them and helps people come to terms with what they experience, and for those that don’t regress, reading this cute story of a caregiver and their little hanging out with no sexual content at all and no implications or dom/sub dynamics present can teach them what regression is and normalize it.

That’s what needs to happen: normalization. Because as it stands right now, I know several people in this fandom (as well as myself) who are scared of others finding out about all of this...but it shouldn’t have to be that way. Regression items shouldn’t be treated any different from fidget toys, and littlespace shouldn’t be considered taboo while literally any other coping mechanism is championed on tumblr simply because age play communities are more present and skew people’s opinions.

What would it be like if regression communities were more present? Would it be normal for someone to carry a paci in their bag and pop it in when they’re feeling overwhelmed? Would it be OK for someone to carry a teddy bear around with while their hair’s in pigtails and they’re wearing overalls? I think it would be more acceptable, because people would understand what it means. 

I think that’s something I would like to see, so I’m doing my part. I have a whole blog dedicated to age regression in a particular fandom, I discuss headcanons for the specific character I hc as a little, and I write fic for that as well. I encourage others to start blogs if they want, and I’m very pleased to see this community growing in our fandom. It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this pick up any sort of traction, but what I’ve noticed is several smut blogs still interacting with this content that has nothing to do with any n/s/f/w. It’s to be expected, obviously, and I only mind it a little (haha) bit.

I think we need to portray age regression so much more in fandom, because it will help. Even if you just have a side blog and don’t tell anyone who you are, writing fic and plopping it in the main tags and just talking about this out in the open will go a long way to normalizing age regression and help scrub away the stigma and dirty implications people think are there. I want to be able to go on AO3 and search “Age Regression” and find people like me.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Let me know what your opinion is.

(Also, as a side note, I think changing the tagging system from using the same thing that has been taken over by the smut blogs - “little!character,” “daddy/mommy!character” - it may be more worth it for us to using “agere!character” and “cg!character” but that’s just my opinion. I get tired of the recommended blogs on mobile being smut blogs, and it’s because of the tagging system *sigh*)

[words-writ-in-starlight]

UH tell me everything about the star wars au immediately

So this is the OTHER Star Wars AU.  It was the second variant I came up with and,while it ruins fewer childhoods (this is the one with Prince Cesare of Alderaan and Lucrezia as the first of a new Jedi Order), I feel like it’s much truer to the characters.  Plus Lucrezia still gets a lightsaber.  This time with 2x the Dark Side!  It’s been a million years because HA I forgot this was done and I didn’t want to work on it anymore.

Cesare, no last name because slaves don’thave them, is a very small boy on Tatooine when a pair of Jedi Masters and theirpadawans show up with a child-queen. Cesare is only nine, but nine is already nearly an adult among the slavequarters, and he brings the whole lot of them back to his mother before theycan get in trouble.  Queen Bonadeo isshy.  She doesn’t matter in thisstory.  One of the padawans, a fiercewoman named Sforza, is almost through with her training, but the other is apretty girl like a shaft of sunlight, just a little younger than Cesare.  The Jedi, Padawan Sforza’s Master and MasterFarnese, want Cesare to come with them, to be trained as one of them, and hegoes for the sake of the golden-haired girl who promises a better life.

When they return to the Core, they aregreeted by a man just beginning to pass middle age, steel-grey hair and asteady, trustworthy voice, who is very interested in Cesare.  Cesare has never been interesting to anyonebefore.  It is incredible.  The man introduces himself as Senator Borgia,and tells Cesare to keep in contact. Cesare does.

Padawan Sforza becomes Cesare’s Master afterher own Master is murdered.  She andMaster Farnese could not be more different—Caterina, which Cesare is forbiddento call her, is fierce and military, while Giulia is gentle and fluid anddiplomatic—but their opposing styles are beautifully complementary, and theyare often put on missions together. Cesare comes to know the golden girl as Lucrezia, and they are best friends, as like as two halves of acoin, and as they grow up, they train together, fight together, live together,until the entire Temple speaks of them in a single breath, as Cesare-and-Lucrezia.  

Lucrezia is the only one who knows about howoften Cesare and Master Sforza clash, about the times that they shout at eachother until Cesare is screaming and Master Sforza is all but glowing withrage.  If Cesare cannot control hisemotions, cannot master this lightsaber form, cannot do this simple Forcetrick, cannot be a Jedi, Caterinashouts, then what did her master die for? Lucrezia is furious—she is shakingwith it, she has never been so angry in her entire life.  She destroysGiulia in a sparring match and is advanced to her Knighthood trials at sixteen,the youngest Knight in living memory. And living memory stretches back quite far, with Master Innocent beingseveral centuries old.

That’s not quite true.  One other person knows.  Senator Borgia.  Hedoes not think Cesare is a failure, hedoes not think Cesare was an ill investment, he thinks Cesare is bright and clever and strong and full ofpotential.  Cesare tells him everything.

Despite Master Sforza’s endless criticism,Cesare is right on Lucrezia’s heels, earning his Knighthood at eighteen, aprodigious rise through the ranks for anyone and downright unheard of forsomeone who started training at nine.  Hestares down the same Masters who tried to cast him out nine years before, andthis time it is not Cesare who looks away first.

The two of them, two orphans with no lastnames, are turned loose on the universe when the galaxy goes to civil war.  They are each handed a regiment of clonedsoldiers and told to keep the Republic safe, and Cesare-and-Lucrezia turntogether toward the stars.

The clones are identical, or they’re supposedto be, but life has its influences, little quirks of the worlds they’ve servedon.  The commander of Lucrezia’sbattalion, the 212th, is darker than any of them with sun exposureand never quite manages to shake it off. He is soft-spoken but efficient, with a mind for espionage that clickswell with Lucrezia’s talent for negotiations—both of the genuinely diplomaticbent and the more violent variety. Lucrezia fights with a joy and brilliant ferocity that makes somethingin Cesare’s chest ache, and he thinks that her commander, the one the clonescall Paolo, agrees with him.

The commander of Cesare’s 501st isnot sun-darkened at all, but an encounter with a chemical bath has turned hishair from the clone-standard black to a rusty red-brown-yellow, and he wearsscruff on his chin and jaw.  He is akiller, born to it and made for it and thriving on it, and Cesare could—andhas—put his lightsaber to the man’s throat without seeing a single flinch.  No one knows where he got his nickname ofMicheletto, but he did.  The popularstory is that it’s the name of the first man he killed, and that he liked it somuch he kept it.  Cesare doesn’t give adamn, honestly, as long as Micheletto continues to be brutally, ruthlesslyefficient in everything he does.

Cesare knows that Lucrezia is sleeping withPaolo.  He is happy that she ishappy.  He is so bitterly angry it makesbile rise in his throat.  He pinsMicheletto under him with the Force and kisses him until there is someone’sblood on their lips and Cesare cannot hear Master Sforza’s voice in his headanymore—let go of attachment, attachmentleads to the Dark Side, be a Jedi, be worth what you cost.  Micheletto, loyal, fearless, lethalMicheletto, does not stop him.  He doesnot stop him again, and again, and again.

It does not cure the wanting under Cesare’s ribs, no matter how many times he falls intobed with his commander.  He is guiltilyrelieved when Paolo dies in battle, saving Lucrezia’s life.

This is the first thing in his life thatCesare has not readily, gladly told Chancellor Borgia.  

Chancellor Borgia finds out, eventually.  Not about Micheletto.  Plenty of things happen among the military,it would be easy for Cesare to write that off. No, Chancellor Borgia finds out about Lucrezia.

Here is how it happens.  It begins, as these things so often do, witha fight.  Lucrezia is captured, andCesare feels her vanish from the Force. Not dead, he realizes after nearly destroying the nearest bank ofcomputers, merely muffled—Force-blocking instruments are rare, but theyexist.  This, whatever it is that isblocking Cesare’s link to his—to Lucrezia, will not exist for much longer.

Cesare takes Micheletto and a handful of hisbest soldiers and cuts his way through to the heart of a Separatiststronghold.  They leave a trail of bloodbehind them.  Cesare finds Lucrezia.

Cesare also finds Giovanni Sforza, theForce-neutral brother of his old Master. He is…a casualty of the situation. But Cesare leaves with Lucrezia safe at his side and therefore does notgive a damn about the Separatist fuck who kidnapped her to leverage the Jedi.

Lucrezia slips silently into Cesare’squarters that night and sits down on the end of his bed, twisting her handstogether as he sits up and rests a hand on her shoulder.  The quiet stretches, until Cesare thinks hecan hear her heart beating in time with his, and then it breaks all at once asshe twists around, sinuous as wind, to slide into his lap.  She twists her hands into his hair and hesettles his hands on her hips and she kisses him, and presses him down onto hisbed, and Lucrezia is warm and alive and here and it is the best thing that hasever happened to Cesare.

Micheletto knows.  He still does not stop Cesare when Cesareends up in his quarters, tips his head in concession, and moreover he does notchange his treatment of Lucrezia—Micheletto might not allow Lucrezia to holdher ‘saber to Cesare’s throat, but he wouldn’t stop her from doing it tohim.  Cesare thinks some of the rest oftheir respective battalions are aware, but they would rather die than betraytheir generals, to a man.

It makes them overconfident.

Because, you see, Caterina Sforza knows howher brother died.  It makes its way toher, and for all her insistence on the dangers of attachment…she can’t bear thenews.  

But she doesn’t set out to kill them.  She wants to ruin them first.

Cesare doesn’t know how she gets thepictures.  They’re from one of their fewdays off, in a hotel on some remote jungle moon, taken through a window.  Lucrezia’s head is tipped back, Cesare’s lipspressed to her neck with his arms around her bare waist.  It’s an intensely private moment, but moreimportantly, it is two of the most famous Jedi generals in the galaxy, havingan affair.  The Jedi are supposed to beabove these failings of the flesh.  Theonly way this could feasibly get worse is if they were related—and, Cesareadmits to himself, he has no idea who his father was, and Lucrezia was afoundling.  For all they know, they couldbe.

Caterina Sforza sends them one of thepictures with a demand that Cesare meet her, in person, or face theconsequences.

Cesare goes alone.  It is, he thinks numbly, fitting that thismeeting take place on Tatooine, among the slave quarters and dunes that made uphis life for nine years.  He rememberslittle of their meeting.  He remembersthe yellow rage that rose through him when she mocked that they would takeLucrezia away from him, that he would prove he was never really worth the timeand blood put into him.  He remembers thehumming of his lightsaber between his palms and how quickly her voice cut off.  He remembers the fury of the battle, and thesearing pain of losing his left arm at the shoulder, and the tacky feeling ofher blood on his hands—and then there’s nothing, for hours.  

Micheletto came to find him, Cesare laterdiscovers, and carried him—alone—back to Lucrezia.  Caterina Sforza, Master of the Jedi Order,vanishes without trace, and five shiny new ‘troopers are lost in the samebattle that officially costs Cesare his arm. Micheletto’s lie is ironclad, bound in blood, and Lucrezia kisses theknuckles of Cesare’s black and silver prosthetic, unflinching as he cradles hercheek.

Cesare and Lucrezia carry on.  For a year, it’s almost like they were neverfound out.  They kiss and Lucrezia leavesnail marks on his shoulders and Cesare leaves handprints on her hips andMicheletto serves them with the same undying devotion as ever.

That doesn’t destroy the records.  The holonet is forever, et cetera, et cetera,but it lets them grow comfortable, confident, complacent.

“Cesare,” Chancellor Borgia says in a deep,resonant voice, reaching out to touch Cesare’s dark curls with something likesadness.  Cesare swallows and looks down,waiting for the lash of disappointment—bea Jedi.  “Why didn’t you feel youcould tell me, my boy?  You know how Icare for you and Lucrezia, like you’re my own children.”

“I—It’s not suitable for Jedi to haveattachments,” Cesare says, hating the way his voice cracks over the firstword.  

“But you would do anything to keep Lucreziasafe and happy, wouldn’t you?” Chancellor Borgia asks, and the right answer isobvious and true and right there on Cesare’s tongue.

“Yes,”Cesare breathes.

“And me?”

“Of course, Chancellor,” Cesare says, andit’s so honest it makes his skin prickle. Chancellor Borgia smiles.

He never thinks to ask how Senator Borgiafound out.

The nightmares, Lucrezia’s blood spilled outover the sand and Micheletto’s hand limp with his blaster tossed aside andLucrezia’s long lovely hair no longer sunlight, only a dead thing on theground, start not long after.  Cesarestruggles to manage them, to control the universe and protect them, and whenChancellor Borgia casually suggests other ways to use the Force that mightserve better, Cesare takes hold with both hands.  How can he do otherwise?  He can’t let Lucrezia’s light be taken fromthe galaxy—it would make every star seem dim and cold.  He’ll do anything.  And Chancellor Borgia is a good man, withtheir best interests in mind, loyal to the Republic.  Cesare trusts him.

When Chancellor Borgia turns out to be DarthSixtus, the Sith Lord that Master Innocent has had the Jedi hunting acrossstarfields and planetary systems, Cesare runs.  The name Chancellor Borgia—Darth Sixtus,would-be-Emperor Sixtus—called him pounds in his ears and in his blood to thebeat of his heart.  Vader, Vader, Vader, Vader. Each beat sounds more like my boy.

Lucrezia finds him on the furthest planet hecould find, Mustafar, and he sits huddled on a rock bridge like he did whenthey were young, one leg pulled up and his arms wrapped around it.

They don’t fight.  Cesare murmurs his discoveries to Lucrezia asshe kneels beside him, her hair billowing in the hot updrafts from the riverbelow.  Her hand smooths a circle betweenhis shoulder blades.

“He’s been teaching me the Dark Side of theForce,” Cesare says, slow, and waits for the punch of disgust.  It doesn’t come.  “It’s been—it worked,” he says, desperately waiting for Lucrezia to tell himright from wrong.  He catches her handsand she lets him, looking into his eyes, her face solemn and almostchildlike.  “What do I do?”

Lucrezia’s hands tighten hard aroundhis.  “I will be with you,” she says, lowand fierce.  “Cesare, Vader,whoever.  We will be together.”

“My dreams tell me you’re going to die if Idon’t do this,” Cesare whispers.

Lucrezia kisses the knuckles of hismechanical hand, then his matching skin-and-bone one, the brush of her lipslike a benediction.  “I’m not going todie,” she says, getting a hard look in her eye. “And neither are you.”

[rohitkkumar]

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Mary had never had this problem with Michael's three sisters. They weren't jamming their hands down their pants every free minute they got. Mary, herself, had certainly never done such things. She was sure that her John had not, as well, when he was alive. How else had he gotten her with child in such quick succession? A family of four children in four years was the sign of a truly moral man.

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But Michael kept masturbating despite the impending doom it implied. He did his best to hide his activities. But once Mary knew the signs - the closed door, the loud music, the mysteriously sticky underwear and the vast consumption of tissues - she was always able to catch him.

Mary started off being kind. She patiently explained that it was natural for a boy Michael's age to have urges, but that God wanted him to remain pure. Then Mary threatened her son, telling him that every ejaculation would lead him one step closer to eternal damnation. She even tried punishments, ordering him off to bed without dinner as soon as she saw what he was up to. But everything she tried only seemed to make him do it more.

With nowhere left to turn, Mary went to talk to their family priest. She was embarrassed, of course. Admitting that she couldn't control her son, keep him on the moral path, made her feel like a failure. But Mary needed Father Donovan's wisdom more than her pride.

They met in his private office. Everything smelled slightly of old books and fresh potpourri. Sitting on the far side of Father Donovan's oversized wooden desk, Mary told him everything.

"I'm sorry Mary," Father Donovan said, "I know that losing your husband so young was hard for your family. Michael in particular. But masturbation is a sin. God is very clear about this. Man is only permitted to ejaculate inside a woman's vagina. Not in his underwear, a tissue, his own hand, or... Well, anywhere else he might think to put it."

"But he'll go to Hell," Mary said and sobbed.

"That's why he needs your help."

*

The long drive home gave Mary plenty of time to think about her problem. Could she wrap Michael's penis in something that kept him from touching it? What if she made sure someone was watching him all the time? It all sounded so stupid and ridiculous. Mary was failing her son and she knew it.

And then it came to her. Father Donovan had not said that Michael couldn't masturbate. The act itself was fine - it was the result, and what Michael did with it, that was the problem. Mary simply needed the appropriate receptacle for her son's spend. And wouldn't you know it? She had three of them just waiting for her at home.

*

Mary asked the entire family to join her around the kitchen table. The first to come down the stairs was her oldest daughter. Hope was 21, tall and thin with dark brown hair that she always kept tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing a pair of sensible slacks with a sweater over a button-down shirt.

Her middle daughter, Chastity, came down next. She was 20 and about medium height with bright blonde hair that ran in rings to her shoulders. She had a broader build, like her father's. Chastity was wearing a light blue sun dress that probably showed a bit too much of her large chest and shapely legs.

Finally Tabitha, the youngest at 18, entered the room. With light brown hair down to the middle of her back, she was a bit shorter than Chastity and a bit curvier than Hope. Especially in the hips. She was wearing a t-shirt with some cartoon character on it and a pair of ripped up jeans.

All three were very pretty girls - bright. Hope and Chastity were both top of their classes at college nearby, and Tabitha was in line for a scholarship to Villanova. And all three of them were single. It wasn't appropriate for such young women to have boyfriends. But Mary knew each would make an excellent wife sometime in the future.

Once everyone was seated, Mary called Michael into the room. At 19, he was tall and muscular, though often clumsy - like a boy trapped in an adult's body. It didn't help that it seemed like he'd outgrown his clothes overnight. Everything was just a tad too tight on her son's body.

Michael's unruly, curly brown hair bounced as he flopped into his seat. He clearly thought he was in some kind of trouble. Mary smiled - he was going to feel much better once she told him the good news.

"As all of you know, I've been struggling with how to deal with your brother and his little problem."

"Moooom," Michael said, burying his head behind his muscular arms, "Why are you always talking about this? It's so embarrassing."

"If you could control yourself we wouldn't have to talk about it," Mary said.

"It's OK, Michael," Hope said, kindly. She had stepped in as a surrogate second parent for her younger siblings after their father had died. "It's perfectly natural to want to do things like that. Especially as a young man." As always, Hope had a serious look on her face. The archetypal first child - driven and deliberate.

"I agree," Tabitha said, "I've read a lot about it." She was the smartest in the family, though also the most innocent. Tabitha spent so much time behind a screen, she often struggled when she stepped out into the real world.

"Yeah," Chastity said, "Everybody knows boys have to pet the one-eyed snake once a day or they, like, die." That was Chastity - always teasing. She wasn't mean, but Chastity wasn't exactly kind to her kin, either.

"Some people clearly think this is funny," Mary said, "But I know better. At first, I thought that you were innocent, Michael. Naive. Then I believed that you were doing it on purpose. Trying to hurt me and the family. But I've come to understand the truth: you cannot control yourself. And it's my job - the family's job - to help you. To keep your soul safe. That's why I've been talking to Father Donovan."

"Oh my God. Does everyone have to know?" Michael asked.

"Yes God," Mary said, "That's exactly the problem. Father Donovan made it very clear that you will be damned forever if we don't stop you from spilling your sperm all over the house. And unlike some people, I know that Father Donovan isn't the type to say things just to jerk me around."

Chastity giggled.

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Chastity burst out laughing. Her face bright red.

"It's not a joke, Chastity," Mary said, "We're all going to have to work together to make Father Donovan's solution work."

Well, it had been Mary's solution, really. But she felt like the family was more likely to listen if she put a bit of priestly guidance behind her thinking. And Father Donovan had given her the seed of the idea. The room went silent. She had their attention.

"Father Donovan reminded me that the problem isn't Michael's horrible addiction to self-pleasure..."

"Mooooom," Michael groaned.

"...it's what he's doing with the results."

"Look, Mom," Hope said, "We all want to help Michael out, but shouldn't this be a conversation between you and him? I'm not sure why we need to be involved."

"Because you're the ones that have to help him," Mary said.

"Wait," Chastity said, "You want us to like, jerk him..."

"Oh my Lord no! You can't do that to your brother. That would be terrible!" Mary said, shocked. She felt the whole room seem to sigh in relief, "Michael needs to ejaculate in your vaginas, not your hands."

All three sisters went stiff. They looked at each other side eyed. No one breathed, let alone said anything. Mary saw that Michael, however, was staring straight at Tabitha. He was making a very strange face that looked almost like desire.

"Isn't it the perfect solution?" Mary said, "God wants Michael's sperm to go inside a woman. So long as he does that, it's OK."

"You want us to fu... I mean, have intercourse with Michael?" Hope asked. Her voice slipped out like a whisper.

"Oh no, honey. Not at all. Michael will do his thing as usual. When he's ready to go, he'll just finish where he's supposed to. That's all."

"Oh, well if that's all," Chastity said.

"See," Mary said, "Your sister gets it."

"But Momma," Tabitha said, "None of us are on the pill."

"That's exactly right, honey," Mary said, "Birth control is also a sin. No pill or condoms or any of that. But there's such a thing as the rhythm method. Your body is only fertile for a few days each month, when you're ovulating. And we'll know when that is because we can track it on the calendar. Plus there's other signs too. So when you're not safe, Michael will simply use one of your other sisters, instead. That's why all of you have to work together."

"I'm so confused," Hope said.

"It's easy," Mary said, disappointed that her eldest daughter, of all people, didn't get it, "But if it makes you feel better, I'll supervise the first few times to make sure we get it right."

"Mom," Hope said, "I get that you're trying to help. But I don't know..."

Mary's patience finally snapped. "I have had it up to here with the entitlement in this family!" Mary jumped out of her seat, waving her finger at her daughters as she spoke. "I work so hard to provide for all of you. But I ask you to make one little sacrifice, one, and it's too much to ask. Clearly, I've raised selfish, spoiled little brats. If you're not willing to do this for your brother, maybe I should stop doing things for you. College, cell phones, clothes. I don't need to pay for those things. Maybe when you're working three jobs instead of going to class, you'll understand what it means to make concessions for the people you love."

The three girls all looked at each other with scared, tiny eyes. They tried asking more questions, but Mary made it clear that this was the only way forward. Finally, she extracted a promise from each of them that they would help their brother, no matter what. God, what was so hard about assisting a sibling, honestly?

As everyone left the room, Mary realized that her son hadn't said anything at all about her plan. He'd just nodded when she asked him to promise to use his sisters from then on. She supposed that Michael was so ashamed that it had come to this he couldn't say a word. Or perhaps he was overcome with happiness.

After all, Mary had just saved his soul.

*

Mary bought a big calendar and tacked it up on the fridge. Then she made each of the girls mark down their cycles so that they could determine their safe days. You'd think she was asking them to choose which finger they wanted to cut off, for all their complaining.

Mary knew better than to ask Michael to be regular about his activities. They would all have to play by ear and figure things out as they went. Fortunately, all three girls lived at home and they all had different schedules with school, extracurricular activities and, of course, church. That meant at least one sister would be available at all times.

With everything set up, Mary wanted to get things started as soon as possible. Fortunately, her son was on the same wavelength. That very next evening, after dinner, she heard music blaring in Michael's room. Her favorite scented hand lotion was missing from her bathroom. All the signs were there. Mary opened the door and, sure enough, there was Michael lying back on his bed. Pants around his ankles. Penis in his palm.

Mary had heard boys liked to look at pictures when they did it, but her son just had his eyes squeezed shut. His body twisted in rising pleasure. He was whispering a word that sounded a bit like 'Tabitha,' but Mary couldn't be sure.

Michael's eyes popped open when his mother walked in the room. "Holy... Mom! I told you not to bother me when I'm... When my door is shut."

"And I told you what to do the next time you masturbate," Mary said. She crossed her arms with disdain. Michael lay back, looking shocked. His penis was still in his fist, pulsing and purple.

"Well, come on then," Mary said, "Let's get this over with. Unless you need more time."

"No! I mean. No - it's pretty close."

"Good," Mary said, "Let's go find your sister."

"You mean Tabitha?" Michael asked, hopefully. Mary eyed him warily. One sister shouldn't be any more desirable than another. In any case, Tabitha was at volleyball practice and Hope had a night class. But fortunately Chastity was in her room and almost certainly ready to help.

"Maybe I'll wait," Michael said, "I'm pretty sure Chastity hates me."

"Chastity doesn't hate you," Mary said, "She just has a unique way of expressing her feelings." Michael looked ready to protest more, so she grabbed her son by the arm, dragged him out of his room, and marched him down the hall.

"Chastity is going to be so mad," Michael said.

"Of course she won't. If anything, she'd be angrier if you didn't let her help you. You'll see." Mary knocked on Chastity's door (a courtesy she hadn't given her son) and then opened the door.

Chastity was lying back on her bed, reading a book. She was wearing a conservative set of pajamas - red black plaid with long sleeves that almost looked like a little bedroom business suit. Chastity's golden curls splayed out on the pillow behind her.

"What we talked about," Mary said, "It's time." She shoved her son into the room. Michael was completely naked. He kept his head down, avoiding everyone's eyes. He held his erect penis in his hand like it was something that needed carrying. It looked to be about the same size as her husband's, Mary noticed. Perhaps a bit longer and definitely thicker. A very nice penis that would someday give Michael's future wife a lot of healthy babies.

Chastity looked up at her brother in shock. Her mouth moved, like she was trying to spin up a sassy retort, but no sound came out.

"Well, get on with it," Mary said. The siblings stared back at their mother. "Must I do everything? Fine. Michael, you said you were close, so get moving. Chastity, take your clothes off. You need to be ready when your brother is, or this will all be for nothing. Don't just stare at me like idiots. This is what we agreed to - get going!"

Michael began rubbing his hand up and down his member lightly. It didn't look to Mary like he was doing much, but she was willing to concede that everyone worked differently. Chastity lifted her pajama shirt over her head. Her large breasts spilled out.

"Holy fuck, sis!" Michael said, "Nice!"

Chastity gave her brother a look - it was supposed to be nasty, but it came out as kind of pleased. Mary had to admit, her daughter's breasts were quite big. Yet they still had the perkiness of youth. Her little pink nipples poked outward.

It occurred to Mary that her daughter didn't actually need to take her top off for this, but it was too late by that point. Plus it seemed to be working for Michael. He was rubbing himself much faster.

Chastity slid off her pants, then she lay back on the bed.

"Spread your legs a little, honey," Mary said. She stepped forward and pulled Chastity's knees apart. Her daughter's sex was as purple as her son's - her labia hung open and wanting. The strong scent of female arousal filled the room.

"You getting turned on by your sister, Perv?" Chastity asked.

"Oh yes," Michael said, like he couldn't hear the insult. His whole body turned red. He was breathing like he'd just run a race. Michael started to rub even faster - completely focused on his sister's naked body.

"OK, Michael. When you're..."

"Oh FUCK, I'm going to..." Michael tried to jump forward but it was too late. His semen spurted onto his sister's stomach and chest. He groaned as his body jerked, every ejaculation slowly covering his sister's ample chest.

"Ewww, gross!" Chastity said as she was splashed with her brother's sperm.

"You need to cum in your sister, dear, not on her," Mary said, not unkindly, "Don't worry. We'll keep practicing and you'll get it right eventually." She rubbed his head lovingly. Michael looked down at what he'd done.

"Sorry," Michael said, "I'm so sorry." He ran out of the room.

Mary glared down at Chastity. "That wasn't exactly what I meant by being supportive."

"It's not my fault he shot his spooge all over me," Chastity said.

"You didn't have to make him feel bad about it, though, did you?"

Chastity got up and started to wipe herself off with a tissue. She sighed. "Stupid, useless brother."

"We're all learning here," Mary said, "I expect you to be more encouraging next time, OK?"

"You mean, like, beg him to stuff my aching pussy with his huge, hard cock until he blasts me full of his hot, sticky cum?"

"Well, maybe not that encouraging," Mary said.

*

After a little time had passed, Mary went to her son's room and talked to him. She told him that no one was upset. He just needed to learn to time things better.

"With Chastity there naked and watching me. I'm sorry, Mom. I lost control," Michael said.

"I understand honey. And now we know how to fix things for next time," Mary said.

Michael nodded. She thought, for a moment, she saw him smile.

"Chastity is very beautiful, isn't she?" Mary said.

"She's OK."

"And Hope," Mary said, "Don't you think she's pretty?"

"Sure, I guess. They're my sisters. Chastity's so mean and Hope's always being bossy. It's hard for me to think of them that way."

"And Tabitha?"

"Oh, Tabby's gorgeous. Everyone knows that," Michael said.

"Mmhmm," Mary said, "You're a very lucky boy."

"I suppose I am."

*

After the previous day's debacle, Mary knew she needed to adjust her idea of how things would go. Just randomly selecting a sister in the moment was too complicated. They needed to make the process as easy as possible to start with. Later, once they had a system, they could be less organized about things.

She also decided that Michael may have been right. Mary had no doubt that Chastity would be fine in the long run, but she probably wasn't the best choice for a first try. And if the 20-year old blonde had struggled with doing things right, then starting things off with baby, brunette Tabitha was out of the question. Plus Michael's own reactions to his little sister were a bit troubling. This was supposed to be functional, not fantasy.

So, Mary made Michael promise the next day to masturbate at a certain time. He grumbled and complained but he agreed. Then she made sure Hope would be around at the right moment and ready. Mary told her oldest daughter to wait in her room, already naked. Then she went to Michael and told him he could begin.

Mary waited in the hallway while her son went to work. She thought it would be a few minutes, but a good amount of time passed before she heard her son's door open. He was naked again and cradling his penis the same way he had before. It looked a little larger this time, somehow.

Mary led him back to Hope's bedroom. The tall brunette knew to expect them, so Mary didn't bother to knock. She opened the door and shoved Michael inside.

Much like her sister the day before, Hope lay back naked on top of the covers. She was long enough that her feet hung off the end of the bed. Hope was very thin with tiny, barely-there breasts. Her brown hair was still neatly tied back in a ponytail. Hope was very beautiful - all my girls are, Mary thought proudly - and she could see by Michael's reaction to his naked sister that he found her attractive as well. Despite his earlier denial.

[randall-lloyd]

so uh if you want character questions, how did you come up with the basis for your characters? i think they're really unique and i like their designs a whole lot /g :] if not character questions, what are some of your favorite games?

I dont have a proper answer when it comes to Admin and Mango because they were designed when my brain was too soft to register what I was doing

But if I had to guess, I wanted to personify things you didnt often see personified in 2007/2008. I saw a mango once and went "I want that to be a pretty lady" bc i wasnt always the gay boy you know me to be. I also once got the unfortunate blue screen of death on my stepdads miniature laptop and went "ooh. another lady"

Mod and Leonard, as well as Aliyah, Robert, and Derrick, were somewhat recent installations and I wanted for Mod to be the most human, while looking inhuman. Leonard came to me in a dream one time, and it's actually inspired by several people I know, including but not limited to Jace, my friend Patience, and several people in Bo's server in terms of personality.

Derricks design was inspired by the cotton candy garnet variant from SU, mainly in terms of bright, pastel-y hair and being a person of color. His personality was just "guy who tries really hard." Robert was inspired by the token "good dad who would do anything for his child" but then I sprinkled in "but morals are twisted, and he refuses to admit hes wrong." Aliyah was inspired by several strong women I know including Patience again, one of my cousins, and multiple strong fictional characters, male, female and otherwise. Her design was meant to mimic Human Admin's design bc I designed human admin first.

Basically my brain was huge when I was 3 or 4 and I did some cool shit that everyone likes now that I'm 17.