#observable just in this one image:

[3liza]

men when they are being size inclusive :)

[hballegro]

the ideal way to watch quantum leap is actually via following me and watching clips i post with no context or clarifying details whatsoever, up to and including the actual plot of the show

[frojdh-art]

”Then again, he was a pirate, and not only that, but a captain. And he was a lot older than her. This was probably all par for the course for him—a new port, and a new girl smitten out of her wits. It wasn't like he was oblivious to the effect he had on people.”

Inspired by @missmungoe’s story Heed the Siren's Call

[klwl-truck]

When he’s a wet cat and a baby cow and the most pathetic man all wrapped up in a little babygirl package

[sporco-filth]

Om a different note, has your tumblr banner been changing? Every now and then I look at the picture of the amazingly filthy room, and I swear it got messier/dirtier the last time I looked at it

No, the image has not been changed since this blog was made (I mean the file on my computer, and so the image in the banner can't be different either).

BUT... this actually alludes to something and I will reward your question with a sneak peak. Because, you see, this picture is from my still-in-development slob game (it's fallen to the wayside over the holidays but I'm planning to start work again soon). And in that game, the room actually does in fact start out neat and becomes messier. The version shown is the end result.

The image though is based off this shot from this episode of Portlandia:

In the game, everything starts out clean:

And then if you lower the cleanliness points to 0 it looks like this:

I'm still working on the in-between stages though.

There are other rooms (lounge, bedroom, bathroom) but those I started from a clean room and am building up to a messy room, so they're relatively cleaner currently:

(this is the messiest one so far, but it's still got a long way to go. It's not even halfway yet)

I know I said I wouldn't spoil things by showing my work in progress but eh... you lot have been waiting too long for me to draw these things so at least you can see I've made some progress.

[thelonelynindroid]

Trobed I drew through genuine tears while i had a 24 hr migraine and my good old pal dys for ya 👍

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

i appreciated this study: "They Can't Read Very Well: A Study of the Reading Comprehension Skills Of English Majors At Two Midwestern Universities"

[ETA: if you are somehow finding your way here pls note some - not exhaustive!!!! - follow up notes in this reblog. sorry again i mixed up megalodons and megalosaurs]

essentially, a pair of professors set out to test their intuitive sense that students at the college level were struggling with complex text. they recruited 85 students, a mix of english majors and english education majors - so, theoretically, people focusing on literature, and people preparing to teach adolescents how to read literature - and had them read-while-summarizing the first seven paragraphs of dickens's bleak house (or as much as they made it through in the 20 minute session). they provided dictionaries and also said students could use their phones to look up whatever they wanted, including any unfamiliar words or references. they found that the majority of the students - 58%, or 49 out of the 85 students - functionally could not understand dickens at all, and only 5% - a mere 4 out of the 85 students - proved themselves proficient readers (leaving the remaining 38%, or 32 students, as what the study authors deemed "competent" students, most of whom could understand about half the literal meaning - pretty low bar for competence - although a few of whom, they note, did much better than the rest in this group if not quite well enough to be considered proficient).

what i really appreciated about this study was its qualitative descriptions of the challenges and reading behaviors of what the authors call "problematic readers" (that bottom 58%), which resonated strongly with my own experiences of students who struggle with reading. here's their blunt big picture overview of these 49 students:

The majority of these subjects could understand very little of Bleak House and did not have effective reading tactics. All had so much trouble comprehending concrete detail in consecutive clauses and phrases that they could not link the meaning of one sentence to the next. Although it was clear that these subjects did try to use various tactics while they read the passage, they were not able to use those tactics successfully. For example, 43 percent of the problematic readers tried to look up words they did not understand, but only five percent were able to look up the meaning of a word and place it back correctly into a sentence. The subjects frequently looked up a word they did not know, realized that they did not understand the sentence the word had come from, and skipped translating the sentence altogether.

the idea that they had so much trouble with every small piece of a text that they could not connect ideas on a sentence by sentence basis is very familiar to me from teaching and tutoring, as was the habit of thought seen in the example of the student who gloms on to the word "whiskers" in a sea of confusion and guesses incorrectly that a cat is present - struggling readers, in my experience, seem to use familiar nouns as stepping stones in a flood of overwhelm, hopping as best they can from one seemingly familiar image to the next. so was this observation, building off the example of a student who misses the fact that dickens is being figurative when he imagines a megalodon stalking the streets of london:

She first guesses that the dinosaur is just “bones” and then is stuck stating that the bones are “waddling, um, all up the hill” because she can see that Dickens has the dinosaur moving. Because she cannot logically tie the ideas together, she just leaves her interpretation as is and goes on to the next sentence. Like this subject, most of the problematic readers were not concerned if their literal translations of Bleak House were not coherent, so obvious logical errors never seemed to affect them. In fact, none of the readers in this category ever questioned their own interpretations of figures of speech, no matter how irrational the results. Worse, their inability to understand figurative language was constant, even though most of the subjects had spent at least two years in literature classes that discussed figures of speech. Some could correctly identify a figure of speech, and even explain its use in a sentence, but correct responses were inconsistent and haphazard. None of the problematic readers showed any evidence that they could read recursively or fix previous errors in comprehension. They would stick to their reading tactics even if they were unhappy with the results.

i have seen this repeatedly, too - actually i was particularly taken with how similar this is to the behavior of struggling readers at much younger ages - and would summarize the hypothesis i have forged over time as: struggling readers do not expect what they read to make sense. my hypothesis for why this is the case is that their reading deficits were not attended to or remediated adequately early enough, and so, in their formative years - the early to mid elementary grades - they spent a lot of time "reading" things that did not make sense to them - in fact they spent much more time doing this than they ever did reading things that did make sense to them - and so they did not internalize a meaningful subjective sense of what it feels like to actually read things.

like, i've said this before, but the year i taught third grade i had multiple students who told me they loved reading and then when i asked them about a book they were reading revealed that they had absolutely no idea what was going on - on a really basic literal level like "didn't know who said which lines of dialogue" and "couldn't identify which things or characters given pronouns referred to" - and were as best as i could tell sort of constructing their own story along the way using these little bits of things they thought they understood. that's what "reading" was, in their heads. and they were, in the curriculum/model that we used at the private school where i taught, receiving basically no support to clarify that that was not what reading was, nor any instruction that would actually help them with what they needed to do to improve (understand sentences) - and i realized over the course of that year that the master's program that had certified me in teaching elementary school had provided me with very little understanding of how to help these kids (with perhaps the sole exception of the class i took on communications disorders, not because these kids had communications disorders but because that was the only class where we ever talked, even briefly, about things like sentence structures that students may need instruction in and practice with to comprehend independently). when it comes to the literal, basic understanding of a text, the model of reading pedagogy i was taught has about 6 million little "tools" that all boil down to telling kids who functionally can't read to try harder to read. this is not productive, in my experience and opinion, for kids whose maximum effort persistently yields confusion. but things are so dysfunctional all the way up and down the ladder that you can be a senior in college majoring in english without anyone but a pair of professors with a strong work ethic noticing that you can't actually read.

couple other notes:

obviously it's a small study but i'm not sure i see a reason to believe these are particularly outlierish results (ACT scores - an imperfect metric but not a meritless one IMO for reading specifically, where the task mostly really is to read a set of texts written for the educated layperson and answer factual questions about them - were a little bit above the national average)

the study was published last year, but the research was conducted january to april 2015. so there's no pandemic influence, no AI issue - these are millennials who now would span roughly ages 28-32 (i guess it's possible one of the four first-year students was one of the very first members of gen z lol). if you're in your late 20s or early 30s, we are talking about people your age, and whatever the culprit is here, it was happening when you were in school.

i think some people might want to blame this on NCLB but i find this unconvincing for a variety of reasons. first of all, NCLB did not pass because everyone in 2001 agreed that education was super hunky-dory; in fact, the sold a story podcast outlines how an explicit goal of NCLB was to train teachers in systematic phonics instruction, because that was not the norm when NCLB was passed, and an unfortunate outcome was that phonics became politicized in ed world. second, anyone who understands anything about reading should need about ten minutes max to spend some time on standardized test prep and recognize that if your goal is truly to maximize scores... then the vast majority of your instructional time should be spent on improving actual reading skills because you actually can't meaningfully game these tests by "practicing main idea questions" (timothy shanahan addresses this briefly near the top of this post). so i find it very difficult to believe that any school that pivoted to multiple choice drill time in an attempt to boost reading scores was teaching reading effectively pre-NCLB, because no set of competent literacy professionals would think that would work even for the goal of raising test scores. third, NCLB mandated yearly testing in grades 3-8 but only one test year in high school; kansas set its reading and math test year in high school as tenth grade. so theoretically these kids all had two years of sweet sweet freedom from NCLB in which their teachers could have done whatever the fuck they wanted to teach these kids to actually read. the fact that they didn't suggests perhaps there were other problems afoot. fourth, and maybe most saliently for this particular study, the sample text was the first seven paragraphs of a novel - in other words, the exact kind of short incomplete text that NCLB allegedly demanded excessive time spent on. i'm not really sure what universe it makes sense in that students who can't read the first seven paragraphs of a novel would have become much better reader if everything else had been the same but they had been making completely wack associations based on nonsense guesses for all 300 pages instead. (if you read the study it's really clear that for problematic readers, things go off the rails immediately, in a way that a good program targeted at teaching mastery of text of 500 words or less would have done something about.)

all but 3 of the students reported A's and B's in their english classes and, again, 69% of them are juniors and seniors, so like... i mean idk kudos to these professors for being like "hold up can these kids actually read?" but clearly something is wack at the college level too [in 2015] if you can make your way through nearly an entire english major without being able to read the first seven paragraphs of a dickens novel. (once again i really do encourage you to look at the qualitative samples in the study, lest you think i am being uncharitable by summarizing understandable misunderstandings or areas of confusion that may resolve themselves with further exposure to the text as "can't read.") not to mention the fact that most students could not what they had learned in previous or current english classes and when asked to name british and american authors and/or works of the nineteenth century, roughly half the sample at each college could name at most one.

the authors of the study are struck by the fact that students who cannot parse the first 3 sentences of bleak house feel very confident about their ability to read the entire novel, and discover that this seeming disconnect is resolved by the fact that these students seem to conceptualize "reading" as "skimming and then reading sparknotes." i think it's really tempting to Kids These Days this phenomenon (although again these are people who in some cases have now been in the workforce for a decade) and categorize it as laziness or a lack of effort, but i think that there is, as i described above, a real and sincere confusion over what "reading" is in which this makes a certain logical sense because it's not like they have some store of actual reading experiences to compare it to. i also think it's pretty obvious looking at just how wildly severed from actual textual comprehension their readings are that these are not - or at least not entirely - students who could just work harder and master the entirety of bleak house all on their own. like i don't think you get from "charles dickens is describing a bunch of dinosaur bones actually walking the streets of london" to comfortably reading nineteenth century literature by just trying harder. i really just don't (and i say that acknowledging i personally have had students who like... were good readers if i was forcing them to work at it constantly... but i have also had students, including ones getting ready to enter college, who were clearly giving me everything they had and what they had was at the present moment insufficient). i think that speaks to a missing skillset that they don't know are missing, because they don't have any other experience of "reading" to compare it to.

just wanna highlight again that although they don't give the breakdown some of these students are not just english majors but english education majors a.k.a. the high school english teachers of tomorrow. some of them may be teaching high school english right now, in case anyone wishes to consider whether "maybe some high school english teachers can't read the first seven paragraphs of bleak house?" should be kept in mind when we discuss present-day educational ills.

[romanromulus]

joyce carol oates I rebuke you. I rebuke you

[chesters-ocs]

Sylvester: *hisses at Stone*

Stone: My husband hates me. :( :(

He sounds like a kicked puppy in my head, but he's following the warning Sylvester gives and leaves him alone. ...He's sitting on the couch like a lost puppy, staring out into space.

sylvester: wait, no. fuck!!! arghh!!!

he's just all over the place mentally right now, but he ends up sitting on the opposite end of the couch. he wants to interact w his loved ones but oh boy is socializing hard when youre exhausted 24/7.

he'll just sit there in silence for a while. maybe sloooooowly inch his way over to stone when hes no longer overstimulated by the universe itself

[nasa]

Seeing the Invisible Universe

This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black hole’s event horizon, beyond which no light can escape the massive object’s gravitational grip. The black hole’s powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as it skims by the black hole. You might wonder — if this Tumblr post is about invisible things, what’s with all the pictures? Even though we can’t see these things with our eyes or even our telescopes, we can still learn about them by studying how they affect their surroundings. Then, we can use what we know to make visualizations that represent our understanding.

When you think of the invisible, you might first picture something fantastical like a magic Ring or Wonder Woman’s airplane, but invisible things surround us every day. Read on to learn about seven of our favorite invisible things in the universe!

1. Black Holes

This animation illustrates what happens when an unlucky star strays too close to a monster black hole. Gravitational forces create intense tides that break the star apart into a stream of gas. The trailing part of the stream escapes the system, while the leading part swings back around, surrounding the black hole with a disk of debris. A powerful jet can also form. This cataclysmic phenomenon is called a tidal disruption event.

You know ‘em, and we love ‘em. Black holes are balls of matter packed so tight that their gravity allows nothing — not even light — to escape. Most black holes form when heavy stars collapse under their own weight, crushing their mass to a theoretical singular point of infinite density.

Although they don’t reflect or emit light, we know black holes exist because they influence the environment around them — like tugging on star orbits. Black holes distort space-time, warping the path light travels through, so scientists can also identify black holes by noticing tiny changes in star brightness or position.

2. Dark Matter

A simulation of dark matter forming large-scale structure due to gravity.

What do you call something that doesn’t interact with light, has a gravitational pull, and outnumbers all the visible stuff in the universe by five times? Scientists went with “dark matter,” and they think it's the backbone of our universe’s large-scale structure. We don’t know what dark matter is — we just know it's nothing we already understand.

We know about dark matter because of its gravitational effects on galaxies and galaxy clusters — observations of how they move tell us there must be something there that we can’t see. Like black holes, we can also see light bend as dark matter’s mass warps space-time.

3. Dark Energy

Animation showing a graph of the universe’s expansion over time. While cosmic expansion slowed following the end of inflation, it began picking up the pace around 5 billion years ago. Scientists still aren’t sure why.

No one knows what dark energy is either — just that it’s pushing our universe to expand faster and faster. Some potential theories include an ever-present energy, a defect in the universe’s fabric, or a flaw in our understanding of gravity.

Scientists previously thought that all the universe’s mass would gravitationally attract, slowing its expansion over time. But when they noticed distant galaxies moving away from us faster than expected, researchers knew something was beating gravity on cosmic scales. After further investigation, scientists found traces of dark energy’s influence everywhere — from large-scale structure to the background radiation that permeates the universe.

4. Gravitational Waves

Two black holes orbit each other and generate space-time ripples called gravitational waves in this animation.

Like the ripples in a pond, the most extreme events in the universe — such as black hole mergers — send waves through the fabric of space-time. All moving masses can create gravitational waves, but they are usually so small and weak that we can only detect those caused by massive collisions.  Even then they only cause infinitesimal changes in space-time by the time they reach us. Scientists use lasers, like the ground-based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) to detect this precise change. They also watch pulsar timing, like cosmic clocks, to catch tiny timing differences caused by gravitational waves.

This animation shows gamma rays (magenta), the most energetic form of light, and elusive particles called neutrinos (gray) formed in the jet of an active galaxy far, far away. The emission traveled for about 4 billion years before reaching Earth. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected the arrival of a single high-energy neutrino. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed that the source was a black-hole-powered galaxy named TXS 0506+056, which at the time of the detection was producing the strongest gamma-ray activity Fermi had seen from it in a decade of observations.

5. Neutrinos

This animation shows gamma rays (magenta), the most energetic form of light, and elusive particles called neutrinos (gray) formed in the jet of an active galaxy far, far away. The emission traveled for about 4 billion years before reaching Earth. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected the arrival of a single high-energy neutrino. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed that the source was a black-hole-powered galaxy named TXS 0506+056, which at the time of the detection was producing the strongest gamma-ray activity Fermi had seen from it in a decade of observations.

Because only gravity and the weak force affect neutrinos, they don’t easily interact with other matter — hundreds of trillions of these tiny, uncharged particles pass through you every second! Neutrinos come from unstable atom decay all around us, from nuclear reactions in the Sun to exploding stars, black holes, and even bananas.

Scientists theoretically predicted neutrinos, but we know they actually exist because, like black holes, they sometimes influence their surroundings. The National Science Foundation’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects when neutrinos interact with other subatomic particles in ice via the weak force.

6. Cosmic Rays

This animation illustrates cosmic ray particles striking Earth's atmosphere and creating showers of particles.

Every day, trillions of cosmic rays pelt Earth’s atmosphere, careening in at nearly light-speed — mostly from outside our solar system. Magnetic fields knock these tiny charged particles around space until we can hardly tell where they came from, but we think high energy events like supernovae can accelerate them. Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from cosmic rays, meaning few actually make it to the ground.

Though we don’t see the cosmic rays that make it to the ground, they tamper with equipment, showing up as radiation or as “bright” dots that come and go between pictures on some digital cameras. Cosmic rays can harm astronauts in space, so there are plenty of precautions to protect and monitor them.

7. (Most) Electromagnetic Radiation

The electromagnetic spectrum is the name we use when we talk about different types of light as a group. The parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, arranged from highest to lowest energy are: gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, microwaves, and radio waves. All the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are the same thing — radiation. Radiation is made up of a stream of photons — particles without mass that move in a wave pattern all at the same speed, the speed of light. Each photon contains a certain amount of energy.

The light that we see is a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, which spans many wavelengths. We frequently use different wavelengths of light — from radios to airport security scanners and telescopes.

Visible light makes it possible for many of us to perceive the universe every day, but this range of light is just 0.0035 percent of the entire spectrum. With this in mind, it seems that we live in a universe that’s more invisible than not! NASA missions like NASA's Fermi, James Webb, and Nancy Grace Roman  space telescopes will continue to uncloak the cosmos and answer some of science’s most mysterious questions.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[reasonsforhope]

"During an archaeological dig in a desert area north of Jerusalem 40 years ago, a seed was discovered which was determined to be in pristine condition but had obviously seen many a year.

Now, despite falling from its parent 1,000 years ago, it has grown into a mature tree, and botanists examining it believe it may be an extinct species that was used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years—even receiving a nod in the Bible.

Neither Israeli botanists, nor Dr. Sarah Sallon, a physician who founded the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, could determine what species it was from simply from the seed covering. So they did what nature intended—they planted it.

Using a well-documented technique that saw 2,000-year-old date palm fruit pits germinate, Dr. Sallon soaked the seed in hormones, liquid fertilizer, and water, and then planted it in a pot of sterile seed; then waited.

Despite its genetic code being exposed to environmental stressors for over 1,000 years, the seed sprouted after 5 weeks. The shoot was protected by a caplike feature called an operculum. As the shoot grew, the operculum was shed—leaving something for the team to radiocarbon date. It narrowed down the age of the almost 10-centuries-old seed to between the years 993 an 1202.

Fast forward 14 years and the plant has become a 10-foot-tall tree. Dr. Sallon shared images of the tree, its bark, and its leaves with botanists around the world. One expert suggested it belonged to the genus Commiphora, found across the Arabian Peninsula and parts of Africa. A genetic analysis subsequently revealed this was the case, but a perfect match was lacking.

Pictured: The tree, now 14 years old.

Dr. Sallon and her team thought it was an extinct species known from history as Judean Balsam, but the best way to confirm that suspicion would be to have some aromatic traces similar to the resins of the myrrh tree to which it is related. However, no such fragrant compounds were detected.

Instead, the chemical analysis of the leaves identified a group of phytochemicals known as guggulterols which have been observed in a related species called Commiphora wightii that’s known to possess certain cancer-fighting properties in its resin.

A medicinal balm, the origin of which is not known, is mentioned in multiple historical texts including the Bible as ‘tsori,��� and rather than the fragrant Judean Balsam, it’s this tsori that Dr. Sallon and her team believe they have found.

They must wait until the tree, now 14 years old, produces flower or fruit to know for sure if it’s an extinct species, and if so, how to perhaps keep it alive.

Dr. Louise Colville, senior research leader in seed and stress biology at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London who wasn’t involved in the research, told CNN that it was a major accomplishment to grow a seed that old and possibly lead to a resurrection of this Biblical botanical.

“What’s surprising in this story is it was just a single seed and to be able to have one chance for that to germinate is extremely lucky,” she said.

“Working in a seed bank, seeing the potential for that extreme longevity gives us hope that banking and storing seeds that some at least will survive for very long periods of time.”"

-via Good News Network, October 8, 2024

--

Note: This is such a good demonstration of why seed banks are so important!! They give us such real and massive hope for deextinction and the revival of endangered species.

[boy-gender]

I'm probably not the best person to make this observation bc I am White TM and not especially well-versed in rap music's history, but what is this phenomenon going on in my notes about Kendrick having the red/white/blue dancers stand in a trans flag formation?

So many people are like "i doubt this was on purpose" girl. it's Kendrick Lamar. He is known for being extremely involved in his dancers' choreography, having multilayered symbolism in his performances- which this entire show was full of- being an activist, winning a fucking Pulitzer, being tightly in control of his own image and how he presents himself to the media, and has trans family members that he has not only openly spoken about but has an entire song about.

You think every single thing about his superbowl performance was intentional except this one thing? You think the dancers just happened to sort themselves out in the unique 5 bar gradient formation that literally only the trans flag has that no other flag has? Why? Why the fuck would that be? You think they all just did this by divine coincidence?

Why is it so unbelievable to y'all that a known activist, with known support for the trans community, would show the trans flag on purpose? Why is it so unbelievable to y'all that a Black man would care about trans people? I didn't see this "oh they don't care, oh all celebrities are fake" shit getting thrown at Lady Gaga or Chappell Roan two weeks ago at the grammys. Yeah they're both queer, but they arent trans. Why is the reaction to two cis white celebrities "omg they're so brave, this is so important" -which, btw, is the correct reaction- but to a Black dude it's just doubt, squabbling discourse, and crickets?

And I'm not even posting the vile racist filth I've been getting in my inbox, straight up confirming this pattern. Like someone please correct me if I'm overstepping but I am fucking flabbergasted by this reaction to Kendrick's allyship and it disgusts me.

[zapsoda]

hajime its a helicopter what did you expect...

[nynnph0]

Hhhhhhgg ive been fixated on bioshock for well over a year that when i inevitably let go of it, im gonna feel so empty </3

[cyofii]

⩩﹕IN WHICH Phainon finally works up the courage to confess his feelings for you. He’s prepared for the worst, but his overly enthusiastic and hilariously awkward confession turns out to be the very thing that melts your heart.

wc: 2.7k 𐔌 ᯓ fluff + crack, reader is a member of the astral express, english is NOT my first language, probably ooc, i might disappear again after this helpp

It all started with a simple glance. The moment you, Caelus, and Dan Heng arrived at Amphoreus and were saved by him, something shifted. He couldn’t help but take notice of you the instant your eyes met. Was it the way you stood your ground against the Strife Titan’s soldier minions? The steady strength in how you cared for your comrades? Or perhaps it was just you, intriguing in a way he couldn’t quite place.

The first time Phainon spoke to you, he found himself trying his best to impress you with his words. Were you the type to be drawn to intelligent people? The kind who could be charmed by facts, theories, or well-timed historical references? He wasn’t sure, but he wanted to find out. So he made it his mission to impress you with what he knew, slipping little details into conversation about Amphoreus’s ancient architecture, the myths behind its sky, or the lesser-known mechanics. His voice would drop to soft, thoughtful tones whenever you were near, as if every word he spoke was carefully chosen just for you.

Tribbie noticed it too. There was a subtle difference in Phainon’s voice whenever he spoke to you. It carried a softness, something warmer, something more genuine than the way he spoke to anyone else. On the way to Okhema, Tribbie couldn’t help but sneak glances at the two of you, quietly cheering for Phainon in her head. Even Dan Heng, ever observant, seemed to sense the way Phainon’s attention lingered on you a little longer than it should.

"Have you eaten anything yet?" Phainon asked, his gaze settling on you.

Fate must have been on his side when he asked if you wanted to ride the dromas with him, and you agreed, especially since Caelus and Dan Heng were already sharing one.

"I haven't, actually," you replied, your eyes drifting over the unfamiliar surroundings, taking everything in.

"Then once we reach the city gates, we can go eat. My treat, of course!" he said, his voice laced with excitement.

You could almost imagine a pair of puppy ears and a wagging tail behind him as he spoke, the image bringing a chuckle out of you.

"Sure, I'd like that," you replied, accepting his offer with a warm smile.

Because of the battle against Nikador, the little ‘date’ Phainon had planned was postponed. A week had already passed.

Now, Phainon stood outside the room you shared with Caelus and Dan Heng, quietly muttering to himself as he worked up the courage to knock. He kept rehearsing the words in his head, wondering how he should invite you to eat. Was he always this nervous? Or was it only like this when it came to you?

Trying to steady his nerves, Phainon took a deep breath and knocked on the door, his hand hesitating for just a second.

There was a long pause before a voice called out, "I’ll get it."

The door creaked open, slow and unhurried, and Phainon felt his heart climb all the way to his throat. For a moment, he was sure it would burst out of his chest.

But when the door finally opened, it wasn’t you standing there — it was Dan Heng, his expression calm but curious. The sight brought Phainon a small wave of relief, his tense shoulders relaxing slightly. If it had been you, he swore he might have collapsed right then and there.

Dan Heng raised an eyebrow, studying him for a second longer than usual. "Looking for someone?" he asked, though the knowing tone in his voice suggested he already had the answer.

Phainon cleared his throat, trying to piece together his scattered thoughts. "Are they here?"

Dan Heng glanced over his shoulder toward the room before stepping aside. "They’re inside. I’ll call them."

As Dan Heng turned to call your name, Phainon felt his heart pick up speed all over again. No matter how much he tried to prepare himself, it seemed that just the thought of seeing you was enough to stir something deep in his chest.

You heard Dan Heng call your name from inside the room, his tone as calm as ever. At that moment, you and Caelus were in the middle of teasing each other over some silly in-joke, the kind that only the two of you seemed to find funny. He nudged your shoulder with a grin, and you rolled your eyes playfully before excusing yourself.

As you stepped toward the door, still smiling faintly from the banter, Phainon felt his breath catch in his throat. Even though he had spent a whole week trying to find the right words, now that you were standing in front of him, his mind went completely blank.

You tilted your head slightly, noticing the way his gaze flickered away for just a moment. "Hey," you greeted, your voice light and easy, unaware of how much weight the simple word carried for him.

Phainon rubbed the back of his neck, forcing out the words he had practiced so many times. "About the meal... I was wondering if you're still up for it. I mean, if you're free, of course."

There was a pause, short but enough for Phainon’s heart to hammer against his chest all over again as he waited for your reply.

“Oh! I almost forgot!” you said, a small spark of realization flickering across your face. You looked at him with an apologetic smile, your tone light but warm. "Yeah, I'd like that."

Phainon felt the tension in his chest ease, his lips pulling into a bright, genuine smile. Without wasting another second, you turned your head back toward the room.

“I’m heading out with Phainon,” you called out, making sure both Caelus and Dan Heng could hear. Caelus gave you a playful wave from where he sat, and Dan Heng gave a small nod, his usual calm expression softening just a little.

Once you had said your goodbyes, you stepped out of the room and walked alongside Phainon. His steps felt lighter, and the shy glance he gave you couldn’t quite hide the excitement flickering behind his eyes.

“Snowy!” Tribbie, Trianne, and Trinnon all called out in unison.

There stood Phainon, his face redder than Mydei’s robe.

“What happened, Lord Phainon?” Castorice asked, a polite smile resting on her face.

Before Phainon could even try to answer, the sound of armor echoed through the bathhouse as Mydei strolled in, adjusting his gloves. His expression held the usual sharp edge of someone who knew far more than he let on.

“Oh, I can answer that,” Mydei said, his tone light and teasing. He stopped just a few steps away from the group, crossing his arms. “Deliverer here is fresh from a little outing, aren’t you?”

Phainon’s shoulders stiffened as Mydei glanced his way, that playful glint dancing in his eyes.

“Such an adorable sight too. Sharing a meal, walking side by side, and that little moment where he almost looked like he could steal the whole sky with one smile.” Mydei paused, clearly savoring the attention of the room. “Who knew the Deliverer had it in him?”

The room went silent for a moment, all eyes on Phainon, whose face somehow managed to burn even hotter.

Phainon opened his mouth to speak, maybe to deny it or maybe to change the subject, but all that came out was a strangled, “I—”

“Didn’t expect that, huh?” Trianne whispered to Tribbie.

Phainon turned away, covering his mouth with one hand in a poor attempt to hide the shade his cheeks had turned. He could still hear Mydei humming behind him, clearly enjoying himself.

His thoughts flickered back to just a short while ago. After their meal, the walk back had been warm, soft, and a little awkward, but in a good way.

“You didn’t have to walk me back, you know,” you had said, glancing at him from the corner of your eye as the two of you walked along the path leading to your room. The sky above Amphoreus was still the same as ever.

“I wanted to,” Phainon replied, not quite looking at you. “It’s only right to make sure you got back safely.”

You had chuckled at that, a quiet, content sound.

When you reached the door, he lingered for just a second longer than necessary, and you noticed.

“I’ll see you soon?” you asked.

Phainon nodded quickly, trying to look composed even as he backed away. “Y-yeah. Definitely.”

The memory dissolved the moment Mydei spoke.

“Speaking of,” Mydei said with a smirk, glancing toward the lift. “Look who decided to join us.”

Phainon turned around and froze.

There you were, walking in alongside Dan Heng and Caelus, your eyes scanning the room. Dan Heng gave a polite nod to the group, while Caelus stretched his arms up with a dramatic sigh.

“Apologies, we’re late,” Dan Heng said. “Aglaea asked us to come too.”

Phainon blinked, his mind short-circuiting. “Oh. You’re... here too?”

You tilted your head slightly, amused. “Didn’t expect us?”

“I, uh, well, I just—” He rubbed the back of his neck, laughing nervously. “I thought you’d be resting. After, y’know, earlier.”

Caelus narrowed his eyes in mock suspicion. “Why does that sound suspicious?”

Mydei let out a low hum. “It was suspicious.”

Tribbie giggled behind her hand, and Trianne barely suppressed a laugh.

You glanced at Phainon, your expression unreadable for just a moment, then a small smile tugged at the corners of your lips. “You didn’t tell anyone about the part where you almost tripped over a bench, right?”

Phainon let out a groan, covering his face as the others erupted into laughter. “Please don’t.”

The market was buzzing with chatter, and the air smelled faintly of roasted nuts and fresh bread. Tribbie was holding a small pouch of star-shaped candies, but her focus was far from the snacks.

“So…” she began, tugging lightly at your sleeve as you walked. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with Phainon lately.”

You glanced down at her, amused. “Have I?”

Tribbie grinned up at you, swinging her arm slightly. “Don’t pretend! He’s always sticking close to you — and I’ve seen the way you smile at him too.”

You paused, pretending to study one of the stall’s trinkets, though the question sat warmly in your chest. After a short moment, you finally answered.

“I guess he is interesting,” you admitted. “He’s smart, funny... and honestly, kind of charming when he isn’t trying so hard.”

Tribbie’s eyes sparkled with curiosity, clearly delighted by your answer. “And handsome?” she asked, her voice full of playful innocence.

A soft laugh escaped you. “Yeah, that too.”

Tribbie let out a happy little giggle, skipping beside you as the two of you continued walking. “I knew it! I knew you thought so.”

Tribbie, still beaming from your little confession, skipped ahead a few steps before turning on her heel to face you, walking backward with the confidence only a child could manage.

“You should tell him, you know!” she chirped, her voice light as the breeze. “I bet he’d be super happy.”

You shook your head, amused at her boldness. “It’s not that easy, Tribbie.”

She tilted her head, puzzled. “Why not? Grown-ups always make things more complicated.”

Before you could answer, your phone buzzed softly in your pocket. You pulled it out and saw a message from Dan Heng:

Dan Heng: Caelus is getting hungry. You heading back soon?

You smiled to yourself, typing a quick reply.

You: On my way! Tribbie was stalling me.

Sliding your phone back into your pocket, you turned to Tribbie. “Come on,” you said, gently taking her hand to guide her away from the crowd. “I need to head back before Caelus starts eating my secret snacks.”

Tribbie skipped along beside you, humming happily under her breath. But even as you walked, your thoughts lingered on Phainon — the way his voice softened whenever he spoke to you, the way his nervous smiles felt so genuine, and how his whole demeanor seemed to ease the moment you were near.

Unspoken feelings hung in the air, light but impossible to ignore, and you couldn’t help but wonder if, somewhere, Phainon was thinking about you too.

The sun hung high in the sky as you and Phainon found yourselves standing by a quiet corner of the bustling marketplace, far from the noise of the crowd. The moment felt like it was meant to be, but Phainon looked a bit too tense for it to be anything “casual.”

He shifted on his feet, clearly unsure how to start. You raised an eyebrow at him. “You alright?”

Phainon’s face turned a little pink, and he cleared his throat awkwardly. “Uh… so... you know how we’ve been spending a lot of time together lately?”

You nodded, trying to keep a straight face as you could already sense where this was going. “Yeah, I think I’ve noticed.”

“I’ve been thinking... a lot.” Phainon scratched his head nervously. “And I just... I need to say this before my brain explodes. It’s important.”

You couldn’t help but chuckle at his serious tone, though you kept it to a smile so as not to interrupt his flow. “Alright, lay it on me.”

He took a deep breath, staring at you like you were the most important thing in the world, even if his face was all sorts of red. “Okay, here goes... I like you. Like, a lot. And I’m not talking about, like, ‘Oh, I like you as a friend’ type of liking you. I mean, I like you like you. Like, if liking you was a sport, I’d be the world champion. That’s how much I like you.”

You blinked, trying to suppress your laughter. “Phainon, are you... are you trying to tell me you have a crush on me?”

He nodded vigorously, still rambling. “Yes! But it’s not just a regular crush, okay? It’s like... the kind where I’d write you a song if I knew how to play an instrument. Or maybe I’d bake you cookies, but only if I had a recipe. Which I don’t. But, you know, the point is — I like you. A lot. And I can’t keep pretending that I don’t. So there, I said it.”

There was a brief silence, and you stared at him, blinking slowly, trying to make sense of his very enthusiastic confession. Then, you burst out laughing.

Phainon’s eyes widened, his face going even redder. “Wait, wait! Is that—was that bad? Did I mess it up? I can try again—”

You waved your hands, still chuckling. “No, no! It’s just... I wasn’t expecting you to be this nervous about it!”

Phainon gave a weak laugh, scratching his head again. “Well, it’s not every day I tell someone I like them, you know? I mean, this is serious stuff. It’s like, ‘here’s my heart, don’t drop it’ kind of serious.”

You put a hand on your chest dramatically. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not gonna drop your heart. I mean, you’re not that bad. You did make me laugh.”

Phainon sighed in relief, a little grin appearing on his face. “Okay, so... you’re not running away screaming, right?”

You grinned. “Nah. But only because you said it in such a funny way. You’re lucky I find that charming.”

Phainon blinked. “Really? You find me charming?”

“Sure,” you said with a teasing smile. “For a world champion overthinker.”

His grin grew even wider as he nudged you playfully. “Well, if you ever need a partner in crime for overthinking things, you know where to find me.”

You laughed again, shaking your head. “I think you’ve already got me.”

Phainon blinked, then broke into a big smile. “Wait, did you just say yes?”

You gave him a wink. “Maybe I did. But you still owe me those cookies.”

“Deal!” he said, a little too enthusiastically. “I’ll start baking immediately... once I find a recipe.”

[cherrygirlfriend]

✶⋆.˚꩜ .ᐟ polaroids

pairing: stepbro!rafe x reader synopsis: stepbro!rafe blackmails reader into letting him use a vibrator on her warnings/tags: smut, STEPCEST, DUBCON, blackmail, MDNI! wc: 1.5K a/n; i’m not sure if this would be classified as dubcon or noncon but please read the synopsis before reading! originally posted 10/19/2024

stepsis masterlist ♡ rafe cameron masterlist ♡

"rafeee, can you get my charger? it's in the top drawer of my nightstand!" you called up from downstairs, making your stepbrother roll his eyes.

"fucking get it yourself!"

"the food's gonna burn!"

despite you being on the first floor, rafe could hear the whiney tone in your voice, and almost picture the way your lip bottom lip would be pulled in with that despicable pout that managed to get you everything from both his father and your mother, and so, begrudgingly he opened the door to your bedroom.

he rounded the corner of your four-poster bed, bending to open the top drawer of your nightstand, spotting your charger on top of a bunch of your other shit, and letting out a small scoff as he threw the charger onto the bed.

but when rafe spotted a small key peeking out from underneath some stupid fashion magazine, his interest was piqued; he didn't even need to pick it up to know what it went to. it was the bottom drawer of your nightstand, him having an identical nightstand in his own bedroom, and knowing the almost scandalous contents of his own bottom drawer made him curious as to what you could be hiding in yours.

he picked it up, observing it for a moment before slamming the top drawer closed, swiftly putting the key in the lock and twisting it open. when he pulled it open, at first it appeared as if nothing was in it, but he knew better. he pulled the false bottom off, throwing it onto the bed, and when rafe's eyes fell onto what was in your nightstand, he couldn't help the grin on his face.

some of the contents were pretty tame; a pile of notebooks that he assumed were your old diaries, some weed, and some adderall that he knew you used to pop like fucking skittles back when you were in high school and had a big test coming up.

but his eyes widened slightly when he spotted the bottle of lube and the small, pale pink bullet-shaped vibrator; sure, he knew you had your vices and you weren't an innocent girl like you led your mother to believe, but you'd always been kind of a prude; you'd never let any of your old boyfriends mark you up even back when you'd been in high school like most girls that were too horny to even realize, and even now, he saw your face flush whenever there was a fucking sex scene on television and you conveniently looked down at your phone for the duration of it.

what really struck his eye was the stack of polaroids he knew you'd taken with the instax mini camera ward had gotten you for christmas, and when he picked up the stack and turned them around, only the first image was enough to cause his jaw to slack slightly.

it was taken on a timer, and you were kneeling on your bed, your hand splayed on your neck, wearing a sheer pink lingerie dress, lacy pink panties covering your pussy while your nipples were covered by red, heart-shaped pasties.

he went through the polaroids, his eyes widening and his shorts tightening with each picture, shots of you wearing different lingerie sets, ones of you looking over your shoulder seductively while you were kneeling on the bed, showing off your ass in a pair of thongs, pictures taken where your tits were soaped up and just covered by your arms, ones-

"rafeee! did you find it?!"

he chuckled at your called-out question, so unaware of the things he had found, putting the polaroids back in the bottom drawer, "yeah yeah!" he called back out, but as he was starting to put the false bottom back in, he got an idea.

and so, before he put the false bottom back in the drawer, he slipped the bullet-shaped vibrator into his pocket.

you could feel your heartbeat in your throat; you had no idea where it could've gone, having used it literally that morning. even though you remembered putting it in its usual spot in the bottom drawer of your nightstand, it was nowhere to be seen.

you thought that maybe you'd accidentally left it on your bed; your bedding, now on the floor. maybe it was on your top drawer instead, the contents dumped on the floor next to it. now you were going through your bookshelf, your teeth biting into your bottom lip so harshly you could taste blood in your mouth.

it wasn't only that you didn't want anyone to find it; it was also that you were so fucking sexually frustrated. you'd already gotten yourself off in the morning, but still, everything even slightly sexual had caused you to press your legs firmly together to seek some relief.

you nearly jumped out of your skin when you heard someone clear their throat, and when you turned to look at who it was, you were faced with your stepbrother, a smug smile on his face.

"looking for something?" rafe said, holding up the pink device you'd been looking for, your eyes widening when they landed on it

"did you go through my stuff you psycho?!" you stomped to him, rafe holding the vibrator over his head and out of your reach when you tried grabbing it. "give it to me!"

"i don't think that's how you speak to someone when you want something from them." rafe tsked, his jaw clenched as he pressed you against your bedroom wall, his hand on your chin, making you look up at him, "see, you're supposed to ask nicely. didn't mommy teach you that?"

"what do you want, rafe?"

"you know, when i found this little thing," rafe tapped the small vibrator against your cheek, "i found some really interesting pictures." he grinned, your eyes widening, your heartbeat picking up, immediately knowing the pictures he was talking about.

rafe turned on the vibrator, letting it travel down your chest, until coming in contact with your clothed nipple, slowly, involuntarily pebbling under the vibrations, your stepbrother's breath hot on your face, an obvious tent in his sweatpants. "it would be such a shame if your mom saw them, you know?"

"they don't show my face..." you said with a small sniffle, your eyes starting to sting with tears, meanwhile you felt your cunt starting to get slick with arousal from the stimulation to your nipple.

"aw, she might be stupid but she's not an idiot. you really think she won't recognize that pretty little body? all those pretty marks and dots on your body. are you willing to risk it?"

rafe's hand started traveling lower, the vibrations trailing down your ribs and abdomen, causing you to tense up your muscles as you spoke, your teeth gritting together, "what do you want?"

"to own you."

rafe had you pinned down on your bed, your hands gripping onto your already crumpled sheets; your lacy panties clinging to your pussy, thoroughly soaked in your arousal, and you knew they were beyond saving.

your flimsy top had been pushed up to reveal your breasts, and he'd been using the vibrator on your poor pussy for an hour now, and somehow it had been the most excruciating yet exhilarating hour of your life.

"i can't..." you whined as rafe brought the vibrator to your clit, and even though it was covered by the soaking fabric, it felt as if there wasn't any barrier at all, the stimulation bringing you closer and closer to your third orgasm. "'s too much... feels too good…"

rafe let out a cruel laugh at that, only bringing up the volume of the vibrator, pressing it even firmly against your clit, causing you to let out a yelp that turned into a moan, roughly grabbing at the fat of your breast as he brought his face closer to your face.

"you're gonna take it." he smiled, pressing a small kiss between your breasts, before standing up. "keep it in place." rafe commanded, and you brought your hand to weakly hold the vibrator at your clit while he walked around your room, in search for something.

"what... what are you doing?" you mumbled, your mind hazy from the pleasure coursing through your body, your eyes widening when rafe turned around, holding your polaroid camera. "r-rafe?"

rafe walked towards the bed, turning on the camera as he kneeled over you, swatting your hand away from the vibrator, replacing it with his own. "this is gonna be your best picture yet."

before you could protest, you were blinded by the flash, trying to use your arm to cover up your eyes, the picture slowly coming out of the camera, and rafe set it down next to you on the bed while it slowly changed from black to a picture of your body, showing your bared tits and the soaked panties that had molded to the shape of your pussy, rafe's large, ringed hand holding the vibrator against your clit.

rafe turned off the vibrator, throwing it onto the bed, grabbing the photo, and shoving it into the pocket of his sweatpants, before leaning closer to your ear.

"i own you." he whispered roughly, tapping your cheek before standing up and leaving your room.