#Comparison Of The Models Project Help

[wowserb0wser]

“Tornado Wrangler”

A/N: Watched Twisters last night and I was literally drooling in the theaters for David Corenswet and Glen Powell. But Glen my boy has many fanfics written for him, not so much for David!! I am here to change that!! Was like crazy horny when writing this, I should be ashamed but I am not.

Paring: Scott x AFAB reader

Description: you work as a lab tech for one of the companies suppling the "storm par" with money and having to check that everything was going to plan. You expected the tornados to be the most interesting part while being in Oklahoma, but a certain science engineer catches your attention and you catch his. Kate’s not in this one :(

WC: 7.5k (I GOT CARRIED AWAY)

Warning(s): MDI!!! Scott being a meanie-weenie at first but he warms up quickly. Nervous!F!Reader, Smut ahead!!! 18+ Size kink, Dry humping, Dirty talking, Finger sucking, Oral (f receiving), Reasonable age-gap (Scott is 26, reader is 23), Pet names = baby, big girl, Kinda degrading/Not really??, Protected penetration (PinV), Slight!DomScott! + Slight!Sub!Reader!, Scott actually never shuts up during sex. MY BOY IS VOCAL🗣️

You've known Javi ever since he left the military. He was looking for grants to fund his "science project". You just happen to be working for one of the businesses that agreed to give him and his whole team equipment, his pitch was impressive and your boss sent you out to know exactly how their money was spent for this experiment. At last that's what they told you, now being in the field, it seemed more like a punishment for you. Not that you didn't like tornados - you did… but only from behind a computer screen. You were a scientist that primarily worked inside of an AC’ed lab, not the blistering heat of Oklahoma and especially with chasing tornados in person and close.

Now here. Faced with an awkward car ride with Javi to meet the whole team. It wasn't completely awkward with Javi, it's just that you haven't spent such a long time alone with him before this moment. At least he tried to make small talk.

It wasn't much further to the meet up spot. And it was clear that every other person who wanted to chase down a tornado was also meeting at the same spot as us.

Javi parks the truck next to an exact same model and makes it as the one you're in, the only difference was the tag line that separates them from each other, the other was “Scarecrow” while yours was “Lion”. That's when you looked around and saw them. They wore matching white button downs with the small label that was wrapped on your truck and the matching one next to you. It read "Storm Par". You've heard of the company, but it wasn't the company you work for, it must be another company that was lending them money.

One particular team mate stuck out from one another. He was tall - tall as in towering over everyone else in the group.

Javi was quick to get out of the car and open your door, lending you his hand to help you get out and stepping straight into loose dirt that went everywhere. You were truly out of your lab.

You follow closely behind Javi while passing through the crowd, people shouting over each other and country music blasting in every direction. You saw some people gather into a set-up booth with merch that had a specific saying, but couldn't tell what it said from your distance. All you could see was a man standing on his truck with sunglasses and a cowboy hat that covered a good portion of his face. You can hear him riling up the crowd. As you get closer to Javi’s group, you can tell who's in charge already. That person being the same tall man that caught your eyes first.

The closer to the man you pick upon what he looks like, he wears almost blacked out sunglasses and a faded blue baseball cap. His dark hair slightly peeking out the corners of his hat, his eyebrows quite hidden behind said sunglasses and a straight smile that barely showed any interest. It was such a night and day comparison to Javi and everyone else on the team as they put on their bright smiles for you as a warm welcome.

Both of you reach the "Storm Par" group of men. Javi welcomes you to the group all-whistle introducing everyone's names and where they went to school. Stopping before the tall man. Giggling to himself before introducing the man, "And this is Scott. He went to MIT-" Javi giggles again at how Scott's reaction hasn't changed. "No, no, no - He makes up for it. With his beautiful, amazing, personality!” Javi praises and justifies. The stoic deadpan faced man. Javi’s hand resting on Scott's shoulder. A quick smile flashes you clean bright teeth. He looks sharp. The clean white freshly ironed button down compared with the other "hillbilly's with a camera" more dirty and not freshly pressed shirts. Javi pats quickly on Scott's shoulder and puts his hands back down. His earbuds still in his ears, you couldn't tell if he even heard your name. Dark aviator sunglasses hid his expression. His jaw clutches down on a piece of gum.

There was an aura about Scott. Nonchalant, unfazed, calm facial expression that draws you in. His tall figure, being around 6’4ft. His arms pulled together crossed against his chest. His forearms stretching the fabric on the short sleeved buttoned shirt, his skin glistening in the hot Oklahoma sun, he was just lightly tanned. You saw how those arms were built and your eyes started trailing down his torso….

Quickly you blinked away from that thought and continued to focus on Javi's words rather than standing and practically drooling over this guy's physique that you literally just met. But you could feel Scott's eyes lingering on your face for a second longer.

After Javi finishes his mini speech he pulls you to the side. "Look, if you're too nervous about going out there then you can just wait at the motel while me and the crew go out." He offers with a sympathetic smile. You were about to accept his offer but remembered why you were out here in the first place. “No, I think I'm ready to see what our money supports." You retort back. Once hearing you, he laughs and slightly shakes his head, “You're never ready for your first tornado.".

You looked towards the group again and saw Scott and some others looking at yours and Javi’s direction. You knew what they thought. That you weren't up for a challenge, time to prove them wrong.

“So when do we head out?" You say with a smile.

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You sit in the "Tin-man" truck along with Javi and Scott, they both sit in the front seat while you were directed to specifically sit in the back. You were quick to put your seatbelt on and Javi slammed on the pedal to start on their chase. A few minutes pass. The music is barely audible and occasionally Scott said to turn either right or left. While on a straight dirt road you muster the courage to start asking questions, “So what exactly does Tornado chasing intel?". Javi once again laughs, simultaneously thinking about how to explain it as simply as possible. Scott doesn't seem to mind or acknowledge your question. Javi responses, “Okay. We start with looking at our data, thank you Scott, and see where a tornado could possibly occur." He taps on the steering wheel to focus. “What do you mean "possibly occur''?”. You expect Javi to continue answering your questions, but Scott's voice pierce the air.

“It all depends on if the seal breaks by the anvil. Warm air goes up and cold air goes down, this continues to build and some other factors that's hard to explain quickly. " He looks back at you, his blue eyes stare down at you. This was the first time seeing his face without those sunglasses and you surely weren’t disappointed. It causes your cheeks to flood with warming. Hopefully the two men didn't notice. Scott turns his head back to the laptop seated on his lap.

The laptop starts beeping, the screen showing bright colors swirling. Both men start smiling at the screen and start hyping each other up for this tornado.

This was so different from being in the lab.

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You shook in the truck's backseat, hearing Javi and Scott yelling over the roaring tornado that was getting closer by the seconds they were outside. The faint snaps of the radar planting into the ground and heavy footsteps rushing back to the truck. Scott reaches for the middle console and holds a walkie-talkie to his mouth, Javi is already putting the car in drive to get away from the approaching tornado. “Our’s is set. We're coming back! Over!” He quickly speaks into the radio and refocuses back on his laptop to see the already updating data scans.

Scott fists his hand together and cheers a little for the successful radar. Javi joins in and whoops the same. Scott's chest puffs in and out, trying to calm down the adrenaline rush that just came washing over his whole body. A big toothy smile shines, he quickly glanced behind to see if you’re sharing the same amount of enjoyment in what they accomplished. Anticipating the same range of emotions as them. This was your first tornado chase and it being so successful out the door was a great performance.

He was shocked to see you clenching the doors handle for dear life with your eyes shut. At first he thought you were hurt but then realized that you were scared of the tornado that is several hundred feet behind you, still chasing you, but from a safer distance. He snaps his fingers and quickly thinks, “Hey!” Snap. “Look at me. You are safe, we are getting out of here.” His quick words make you open your eyes and lock into his, his calm exterior puts an odd sense of ease in your nerves though you know you weren’t completely away from a dangerous tornado. Again, those dark blue eyes barrow into yours. “Okay.” You softly respond back and slowly pull your fingers away from the door handle.

Steading your hands with some deep breaths. Javi also comforts you, “That was just an E-F 3, that was easy peasey! Nothing to be scared of! We’ll be with the rest of the gang in a few minutes.” He smiles in the reflection in the rear view mirror, still focusing on the road ahead of him. You just nod along and breathe deep. Scott watches you for a little long to make sure you don’t work yourself into a panic attack, partially because he really doesn’t want to deal with a stranger going crazy but because a small part of him doesn’t want you to have a panic attack.

Thankfully it wasn’t long till you all were back to a shitty Motel which was the meeting spot to review their new information being downloaded and importing it into a 3D model. Which happens to take a couple of hours to do so, but this Motel happens to be next to a little Ma and Pa diner. Many other tornado chasers ended up at the same Motel, there was already a crowd forming and music playing when you stepped out of the truck to get fresh air.

Without another word, your feet start moving to the Diner. Food and some soda should help.

You were a couple of feet away from the entrance when you heard running footsteps, looking back to see if you needed to move out the way for said runner but was pleasantly surprised to see Scott rushing over to you. Once you make eye contact, or suppose eye contact because he was wearing his sunglasses once again, he started to slow down and his long legs didn’t take long until he was close enough to speak.

His face is still straight and unbothered, he pulled his earbuds off to the side, “Was wondering where you were off so quick.” Was there some cheeky tone laced in his question? You look back forwards the Diner and smile back at Scott. “Maybe a greasy burger will put my mind to ease.” You quip back and turn your heels back in the same direction as before, “Want to join?” You ask as you're already walking to the entrance.

After ordering entries and drinks you both sit at a booth that sits next to a picture window that looks out to the mostly plain fields and hanging decorative lights connected to posts around the Diner. This town in Oklahoma was quaint, without the tornados you would consider this to be perfect.

Turning your head to face Scott, he took off his glasses and placed them in his shirt pocket. His eyes drift towards yours once he notices that you were looking at him. “I don’t think you're made for this.” He shamelessly speaks, unsure why his words hurt you more than when Javi accused you of the same. But hearing it after the chase stung more. A small frown on your lips. Scott was quick to speak up again before you could respond. “Not saying this to be mean or rude, but what we do is dangerous and I can’t have someone freaking out all the while. I can’t focus on our job when you’re having a panic attack in the back seats.” He explains with some condescending attitude but mainly because he was still frustrated with caring slightly about you.

He couldn’t deny it. He found you rather attractive, your demeanor being a little shy but he could tell you’d warm up quickly. First introduction catches him so off-guard, your smile so bright and your voice as you say hello to everyone. ‘Such a pretty girl’ he thought as his eyes looked you up and down quickly. And he swears he thought he caught you checking him out as well. But seeing you so scared made him nervous to be in the truck, he wanted to grab you and comfort your worries away.

“Wow. No sugar coating for me huh?” You softly giggle an exhale. You knew he was right, it sucked to hear it though. “Cut right through the bullshit.” You further say and stretch your arms out to find some sort of relief. He laughs at you cursing, it was the first time hearing you curse and to be frank, it wasn’t threatening whatsoever. He found it amusing, you were cute. Especially because from his outburst your cheeks are flushed with pink embarrassment. “I don’t mess around.” He tries to play, a sly smile on his lips but you groan and put your hand on your head without seeing it. “I thought I could handle it.” You mutter into your hands, your voice sounding disappointed. Now Scott felt bad for speaking.

Quick on his feet, “Remember what Javi said; “You’re never ready for your first tornado.” You just needed to experience it.” You drop your hands down to the table and look back at the man across from you. His jaw goes up and down while chewing the same piece of gum. Staring at his lips for a few seconds before your eyes trail back to his eyes but there was a certain glimmer when your eyes connected, a smile curving his lips.

Gosh. You had no clue why every single thing he did made you have a visceral reaction. Simultaneously he knew what he was doing.

Food is placed down on your table and your mouth watered at the sight. Before you could reach out and take a bite of your anticipated meal, Scott’s voice speaks up again. “Be honest, why did you agree to come out here?” He manages to say before grabbing his hamburger and taking a greedy first bite. You shove a couple of fries in your mouth before answering. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Tornados, I find them so interesting and a strange natural occurrence. But from a safe distance, in my lab where I can do research rather than going out in the field.” Your stomach growls at you for not taking a bite of your burger that sits so patiently on the plate. “I totally agree on what you guys are doing, I want to help people too! I just don’t think I was built for wrangling tornados like you. Plus my boss dragged me out here.” You chuckle while biting now at your food. Already feeling better or maybe it was the company of Scott that put you to ease.

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On your way out of the Diner you are met with boots taking a long stride towards you and Scott. Those boots belonged to a flannel clad gentleman with a cowboy hat tilted slightly out of his face. He was clearly built and flashes a dashing smile in your direction. You could practically hear Scott rolling his eyes before the guy even got a word out. “Clipboard! I didn’t know they made scientists so pretty nowadays.” The man lowly whistles at your appearance, you quickly caught on to the ‘Clipboard’ nickname he gave Scott. “Get back to your YouTube channel Tyler.” He puffs out while sliding back his sunglasses. The cowboy named Tyler stops in front of you, quickly glancing between the two of you. “What’s your name little lady?” His voice is oddly sweet and not patronizing. You tell him your name and he softly repeats it back with a smile.

“Well then, come find me when you’re done working with a bunch of pencil pushers.” He lowers his sunglasses and sends a wink your way before walking back toward the Diner.

It was so quick you hardly noticed how Scott stopped chewing his gum and clutched down hard on his jaw, teeth slightly grinding. Turning to face Scott again, “Who the hell was that?” Your laugh pulls Scott out of his train of thought. Hearing your soft giggles at the interaction makes him almost forget why he was even frustrated in the first place. “Just one of those Hillbillies with a YouTube channel. He especially likes to throw fireworks for theatrics.” His sigh was heavy as he continued forward back to the Motel and not answering any other questions you had about Tyler.

It wasn’t long before getting back to your room. Scott dropped you off and went back to the rest of the team to discuss the 3D model, he hoped it was long enough to fully process and get a look at the models.

Following the next few hours held up in your Motel room, it wasn’t anything fancy. A small TV that frames the adjacent wall from the bed and a dingy chair and desk, the bathroom was next to them and was brightly lit by yellowed lights. Definitely not dreamy, but this was a company's purchase for the crew so you couldn’t complain.

You slightly jump out of bed when you hear a loud bang from your door. It started storming a little while ago and just thought it was a branch slamming on your door but then you heard another knock. You weren’t going to sleep but put on your pajamas and laid down to doom scroll on your phone. You're fast on your steps as you reach the door and open it slightly to see who was knocking. You were so surprised to see Scott behind the knocking.

“Well welcome back.” You greet as you open the door for him, gesturing for him, “Come in, come in.” You smile at him. You turn to go back to lounging on your bed. While doing so, Scott gets the chance to take on your appearance. A matching set of pajamas that fit your body perfectly, he swallows heavily at the sight. It was possible that he was so pent up from being out in the field for multiple weeks and hadn't been with a woman during that time either, now here you were. So sweet it’s sickening and so pretty sitting down on the corner of the bed, looking up at him with almost doe like eyes. It’s driving him up the wall.

His hands rest on his side while stepping in your room, closing the door behind him. He was slightly damped by the rain and wind outside, he breathed in the air around him. “So what brings you by? Is there another Tornado that needs to be chased?” You ask, slightly anxious to hear his response. He sees your hands fidgeting in your lap. “Oh, no. I just wanted to let you know that the model is up and running. Plus, my room’s power went out.” He explains, in the meanwhile he looks around your room, he also seemed nervous.

You nodded and were about to respond but he cut you off, “And I wanted to check up on you.” He stretches out the “and” like he was contemplating on finishing his sentence. You were pleasantly taken aback. It was nice that he was seeing if you were okay. You were flustered nonetheless and blushed. “Oh mister big and stoic is concerned for me?” You playfully jab at his demeanor, he’s quick to your mocking behavior. Again he slides off his sunglasses and places them in his shirt pocket, he hangs his head down and laughs. “Alright I’m going to go now then.” He teases back, there’s a small panic behind your eyes, you didn’t want him to leave.

“No- I mean you can hangout for a while if you want. I’m not doing much. You can wait here till your room gets power again.” It sounded just as pathetic in your head as it came out of your mouth, desperate to get more time for him. He caught on to it, “Yeah?” A small smirk crept on his lips. His figure coming closer to you, his large frame tower over you. It did something to you, “Yeah.” Your breathing hitched in the back of your throat, causing you to swallow down hard.

He was taking so much space, almost suffocating. “Tell me, were you checking me out when we first met?” He was testing the waters, what kind of response were you going to give him. Either it would be welcoming or dismissive, but the way blush started creeping up your neck to your cheeks he could tell. “What? No, I mean- no. Why are you asking?” You clearly flustered at his question and lied right through your teeth and it was so obvious. “Okay.” He bites down on his gum and smiles down at you. He quickly sits next to you and faces the TV. Ignoring what just happened between the two of you, riling you up in the process.

Ignoring the building tension, “What are we watching?” He nonchalantly asks, his gum smacking in his mouth. A smug look plastered on his face watching you try to regain your composure. Skipping over his previous statements. “Um… T- The news about the weather tomorrow.” You blink. He then reaches up and takes off his baseball cap, his hair ruffles out in some crazy hat hair before he shakes it out with his other hand. His brown hair flows softly down. It’s then you take in his scent, slight sweat lingers but you can smell his cologne, it smelt like an ocean side with a hint of sandal wood. It fit him perfectly and drank up the scent to fill your senses. This man was something. His cocky attitude, his demanding presence, oddly quiet demeanor. Everything about him was causing your brain to lag. His clothes cling slightly to his body due to them dampening from the outside weather.

You tried your hardest to pay attention to the television ahead of you, you really did. But with Scott next to you, the storm outside, y’all’s conversation. It was too much for you to handle. His white button down was a bit dirty from the chase earlier from today and now cling wrapped around his arms, chest, thighs. Your mouth watering again while you ogle the man before you, it was wrong, so wrong. Hell you were technically his superior as he worked for your company, but right now it felt like he held all the power.

Then boom. A loud bang crashed against the ceiling, the storm getting heavier. It spooked you enough to jump beside you, trying to find some sort of comfort and gladly Scott gave you that. His rather large hands are quick to rest on your shoulder, sliding up and down to ease your concerns, “You’re alright, it’s just the wind. Nothings gonna’ hurt you.” He shushes in a low tone which calms you down. Though his clothes are wet and cold, his body is hot. Feeling how warm he was as you pressed deeper to his touch.

Your eyes shift from being closed to looking up at his, then glancing down to his lips. He mirrors you, both of you leaning in closer. "We shouldn't." You aimlessly try to guide yourself back into reality but your body caves. His lips ghost over yours, “Can I kiss you?” He softly asks for permission, his whole body aching waiting for your response, but didn’t have to wait any longer as you pressed your lip to his. His other hand reaches for your face, cupping the back of your neck while his other latches to your waist. Practically pulling you on top of him. You gripped his collar to stabilize yourself and followed his direction.

He pulled you on his lap, finding it comfortable. Your hands continue to grasp on to get some leverage but find it futile in the long run. The kiss begins to become heated by the seconds, occasionally breaking it to pant out quick breaths. He was taking over all your senses. Making it hard to focus on anything but him.

Scotts lips leave yours and make their way down to your neck. His attention to make you feel more than comfortable was overpowering. Your hands have a mind of their own, snaking up to his head and gently pulling his hair. Your eyes screwed shut, he watches your reactions - to see what causes the most pleasure. His hand moves around your body, around your hips and butt, around your chest groping your boobs. That seems to get some whimpering out of your lips. "You're so pretty like this." He tells in your ear, causing a shiver to go down your spine. Your legs squirm around his, trying your hardest to find some pressure to grind down on. Your head rushes with blood, finding it hard to wrap your head around pleasure. "I mean you're pretty regardless, but fuck." He groans through his teeth.

You moan into his mouth as he captures your lips for another kiss.

“Be honest with me again.” You nod, slightly still ditzy after that heated kiss. “Were you staring at my arms earlier?” There’s a slight teasing tone- actually, more like a cocky tone. He was still on about this. You nod your head a little sheepishly, having to admit it made it feel shameless. “I knew it! You were checking me out! Thought I caught you, but I wasn't sure I was making things up in my head.” He barks out a quick laugh and continues to kiss up your neck, drawing more airy moans and some giggles.

“What, no smart-ass response huh?” He teases. And he was right, you couldn't think of any kind of response, your mind is fogged up. Mewing out was the only response as he found the spot on your neck. He continues to work you up, all while dry humping him, your pajama shorts riding up in the process. His clad trousers gave the perfect mount. His growing erection being more prominent and pressed tight in his boxers and pants, now with you moaning in his ear and grinding on him shamelessly.

You did try your best to quiet down, even with the storm outside these walls were thin and god forbid if any of you teammates heard what noises were coming from in your room, there would be no question what was happening between the two of you. But his hands and mouth on you made you uncontrollable. He thought quickly to fix this predicament. "Shush, baby, no more whining. Here - here" He coos, moving one of his hands and sticks his index and middle finger in your mouth. Shutting you and your withering moans up. Your mouth drooling over his digits. Your eyes are half glazed over, if you had the consciousness to see what you looked like you’d be ashamed how easily you were subdued. Falling under some sort of submissive headspace. It was so quick you hardly noticed it happened, but maybe you wanted this for a while now. Especially after the rough and exhausting day you had, you just wanted someone to take the reins in for you.

And now the pet name, you wanted to hear him call out for you with that every time from now on. "Look at you, such a desperate thing you are, huh? Isn’t that right baby.” You nod aimlessly, his fingers pressing down on your tongue. You were putty in his large hands, not that you were complaining. Your hands fumble with his shirt's buttons, at a sad attempt to take it off yourself. He thought of mocking you once again for this poor attempt but chose to lend a helping hand. Assisting with the majority of buttons you and him manage to take off his uniform top, catching a look of his chest you moaned again. He was cut with a light amount of chest hair, your sounds muffled with his fingers. It was hard to calm yourself, you were like a dog in heat, nothing was quite satisfying your needs yet. You needed more - more of him. "Fuck'n hell. You are just so needy." His hair crazed by your frantic hands, lips were bright pink, and eyes half lidded. Talk about needy, he wanted you with the same amount of passion.

He pulls his fingers out of your mouth, a groan of frustration comes out of your mouth. “Please, please, please.” You aimlessly beg. For what? You and him knew, for him to finally fuck you rather than all his teasing. But Scott needed you to verbally admit it to him. “Huh? What do you need? Spit it out.” Again the condescending tone loud and clear, he does this to rile you up. For knowing him for such a little amount of time, he knew how to press all the right buttons. "Please, I need you." you mutter in his ear while closing your eyes and pressing your head between his shoulder that meets his neck. It was more like a whimper than begging but the overloading sensations were driving you in a haze. Still humping his leg, it was quite a sight that even left Scott to groan. But he can’t let you off that easily, that would be too nice. He kicks off his shoes and socks, preparing for the inevitable.

"By “I need you”, that really means that you want me to fuck you.” Taunting you even further, you squirm under his grasp at the boldness his words were. You nod your head, knowing your voice would betray you.

He acknowledges your approval and lays you backwards towards the bed. Your head close to the edge and him by the pillows, he rests on his knees. His body still covered most of your space, he was just so big. "First we're going to take off this little matching set." His voice sounds airy, your legs spread open to invite him to get even closer to your body which he gladly scoots in. His hands reach for the hem of your top and pull it flush off your body. Your nipples harden from the cold air hitting your hot body. Closing your eyes at the sensation, you were quick to discover that Scott leaned down to give each of them a kiss. His hot tongue swiftly swirled around your left one, but he didn't stay long as he gave the same treatment to your right. You watch him, his eyes never leaving your sight.

His lips travel down your sternum to reach your belly, he peppers kisses along the way, all while giving you short praises. All of his words make you pant.

Reaching your matching shorts, he slips both hands up your thighs and grabs the hem to pull the shorts off of you. Once off, you were left only in your panties. A small spot clearly dampened in the center, it would be embarrassing to you normally but you were so aroused. He practically moans at seeing it. Knowing he worked for you enough. He continues to scoot back so he could comfortably lay his head on your thighs. He takes in your scent, fingers loop and starts pulling your panties off. You throw your head back from the anticipation, then a sharp swat on your inner thigh makes you pop your eyes down back at him. "Eyes on me, you better watch me eat you out." The tone being similar to the voice he had in the truck when he calmed you down, it was assertive and demanding.

You clench down on nothing and start to squirm, he rubs the spot he smacked and gives you a soft kiss, it felt like an apology. He breaks his gaze and looks at your cunt. It makes you a little nervous at first, closing your legs at first, but he tells you off. "What? You're shy now?" He tisks, looking back up at you. Almost like a warning. "You were just begging for me to fuck you." His words made you gush, you could feel how hot your cheeks were burning. Your voice squeaks, "I'm sorry." This apology makes him stop, "It been a while since she's gotten some attention huh baby?" He questions but already knows the answer, yes it has been a while. Referring to your pussy as "she". You nod as an answer.

"Don't worry baby, I'll take care of her and you." That cocky attitude shines bright while he begins his work. His lips kissing the skin around your desperate cunt. Some dragged out moans are flying past your lips, it really had been a long time since being with another person, especially someone who knew how to get you this excited.

Unwarranted your hips buck at his face, your body was fed up by all this teasing. His hands pin down your thighs, stopping you from future bucking.

Those pink soft lips finally make contact with your most sensitive part of your body, causing you to yelp. He found this adorable, already moaning. It was blissful, he knew what he was doing. Circling his tongue. Now and then flickering down to your cunt, your hips try to wiggle but his strong grip holds you down at his mercy.

Your hands go from covering your mouth so you didn't tell from the pleasure, to the comforter, to his hair to pull him closer. You continue to stare down at Scott as he does his work, trying your best to not thrash your head back and groan. But by keeping your eyes open you can see him grind down on the bed, he was getting off from eating your pussy. And rightfully so in his opinion, you tasted amazing, if he could he would keep you here for an eternity without any complaint.

While tongue fucking your hole, his nose brushes against your clit. Sending shock waves throughout your body, making you a moaning mess. Chanting his name with pleas and curse words. A tightness builds in the pit of your stomach, your thighs close his head between them. Keeping him in this position. Your back to begging, babbling out slurred sentences barely coherent with moans breaking mid way through and you losing your train of thought.

It was almost amusing to see you this unwired, usually you were a very punctual person. Now here you were cumming all over a man's face that you met less than 24 hours ago. A man you only know his first name, but Scott was something over worldly. Your voice pinches in a high note as your climax racks through your entire nerve system. Screwing your eyes tightly, blinding white light flooding your vision.

Hell, he almost came in his boxers watching you cum. Watching tornadoes for a living was thrilling but seeing you come undone with just his tongue was 10 times more exciting for him. Now he needs to see you cum again but this time in his dick.

Fluttering your eyes open to your own personal show, Scott lifted back and sat up right. He's focused on unzipping his pants unaware that you lifted yourself on your elbows to watch. Once he spots you, he pulls out his wallet from his pants and takes out a condom that was tucked in a sleeve. 'How cliché' you think. One hand pulls down his pants and boxer while the other rips open the condom wrapper. A simple act being so seductive when he did it.

Your eyes could contain themselves from peaking down at his dick. The tip was hot pink, pebbling pre-cum down his shaft. He was a big boy. You were practically salivating at the sight, he almost laughs at your drooling. He rolls the condom on swiftly. "How do you want to do this?" His voice piercing your ears, looking back at his blue eyes. You were puzzled at the question, he simplifies for you. "What position?" He states it obvious, but not rude.

Without a second thought, "Can I ride you?" He groans loudly at your words. But regains his composers, "Of course you can baby." He smiles, his gum still smacking against his teeth. You had completely forgotten he was even still chewing gum. He lay down on the pillows beneath him. His teasing manner doesn't affect you as much, you were determined to give him a good show. Meanwhile you crawl your way between his legs and settle to ride this tornado wrangler.

His chest heaves, he was so much larger than you. Your legs just about wrap beside his hips as you position yourself. Bending over his tall torso you plant a kiss on his jaw, leading to his lips. He kisses you with a passion similar to a fire, your hands drop to his chest to steady yourself. Pulling away and reaching below you.

A sharp hiss slips past his closed teeth, your hand wrapping itself around him. Your hands were soft, unlike his, the feeling being unfamiliar to him. You found pleasure from watching his face scrunch up. Lining yourself and making your way down. His large hands grip on your waist at the contact.

A choked moaning rips through your throat. Fuck it had been a while since you had a dick up in there and the stretch was unwelcoming with a full sense of pleasure. "That's it." He groans while his head is pressed down on the pillow.”Holy shit baby! You are squeezing the shit out of me.” A mixture of a chuckle and moaning follows behind his words. "Relax baby, let me in." He breathes heavily, lifting his head up. Scott's hands grip harder on the small fat on your hips. Stilling your moving till you start relaxing your muscles.

“I know, I know. Just a little more baby, c’mon you’re a big girl." His voice is hoarse. You could have come from that voice alone. You slow your movements, focusing on your breathing and closing the gap between the two of you.

Once your body's are flushed, your eyes roll to the back of your skull. You couldn't make a noise. Now was his opportunity to be a moaning mess. The way your cunt swallowed his cock was velvet, you were causing so much pleasure, he was almost lost of words. Almost.

"You better ride baby." It almost sounds like a threat. His unwavering pissy personality showed true and you couldn't say no, you did as you were told.

Lifting yourself up and letting gravity do the rest of the work. You started slow at first. You were still adjusting to his size, he was heavy in your cunt.

That slow pace was short-lived as Scott's hands dragged you back and forth. His grip was bruising, his jaw clenching down while watching how his cock is meeting together with your pussy. You looked quite spectacular from his laid position, your palms flat to his stomach, your tits bouncing up and down with you. The faces you make, filled with nothing but unadulterated bliss.

He's held on for the best he can, letting you get a couple of minutes for you to be doing mostly all of the hard work. But his knees bend behind you and he lifts you slightly above his hip. Then he begins his own rhythm to fuck into you, thrusting his hips and greedily taking you. Not that you were complaining. The air is knocked out of your lungs, ending up at a silent groan, helping with your noise control.

The incessant, slapping noise of him rutting in your cunt was loud. Though you tried to contain yourself, it was impossible that the rooms parallel to each side of you didn't know what was happening. The small room is filled with flesh meeting, heavy breathing, groans and moans. "Feels fuckin fantastic, you love this big dick in your little pussy." He can't help but voice his thoughts, unwavering. You wordlessly nod as he continues, "Huh baby? Fuck'n shit. This pussy is going to be the death of me!" He rolls his head back, stalling his thrust momentarily. Soaking in the way your cunt squeezes him.

Gaining more air to your lungs you can finally moan out his name, sounds like the angels from above calling out to him. if he could hear his name come out of your mouth continuously then it might just be heaven.

Again that tightness is winding up quickly. Even more intense than your last orgasm. Trying to shut you up now was going to be an impossible hop to leap through, yet at this point both you and Scott were so focused on each other and blocking the outside world, you could care less when your combined moans.

As your own orgasm was approaching, you could tell Scott's wasn't that far behind as you. His movements become irregular and his knees start to buckle from losing momentum.

It was all a blur when your second orgasm ripped through your whole body. You collapse on the 6'4ft man, your whole body shakes above him. Your head spins, it feels as if you were drunk. Definitely drunk on his cock.

When you come to, he is lifting you back to the side for him to pull out. His condom partially filled with his semen, he knots it before discarding it in the small waste bin by your night stand. The storm outside still roars loudly, you're glad you're stuck in your motel room with him.

He lays back down on your bed, "I think I just died a few seconds ago, I've come back to life." Scott exclaims, his pupils expanded to almost cover the blue hue, rather they were almost black. He really was coming down from such a high.

Shallow breathing through your nose before turning to face Scott. His face looks so fucked out, no doubt you look the same. His hair is wild and there are faint lipstick marks on his face and neck caused by you. "I haven't came that hard in months." You were still breathless from what he had done to you. "I can say the same." Dry and quick laughs come from both of you. “You made me swallow my gum.” You still try to compose yourself.

Both of you lay down under the covers of the Motels comforter. Lazily turning your head in his direction, you could easily fall asleep in his arms right now. He holds you close, his body warm surrounding you in a comfortable state.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Stay the night?" You ask, similar to a plea. And how could Scott say no to that face? That was short lived, "I need a big strong man to protect me from the storm." He watches you giggle, amused by your own joke. It was laced with faux concern. "Only because your room has power." He pokes fun back. You were giggling at his joke.

Your laughter comes to a halt when the lights above you and TV shut of. f all of a sudden, causing you to jump back into Scott's arms. He's once again amused, "You know you're really jumpy for a tornado lab scientist." He quips back. You try to act hurt by his comments in hopes of retracting his statement for an appraisal instead, but he saw right through your act and gave you a small kiss on the forehead.

You stayed together until the morning.

[johnwickb1tsch]

lessons in anatomy XV

a yandere art professor John Wick x drawing model muse! reader AU... (also featuring Matt from River's Edge. If you haven't seen the movie that's ok, I will fill in the gaps as we go...) warnings: dark adult themes, violence, sex, drugs, obsession, yandere shit. plz don't read if u can't handle it ->chapter map

XV.

You stare at each other in perfect stillness for what feels like an eternity, a sparking live wire in place of your spine. Adrenaline sings through your veins; is he angry that you invaded his space, or contrite at all about this obvious fixation with you? You cannot read him. 

He hid it all so well. 

“John…what is this?”

“An art project?”

A total body of work, was more like it.

“Why?”

He looks down at the floor, his hands in his pockets. 

“I can’t…stop looking at you, y/n. Since…the moment we met.”

He raises his gaze to meet yours; his glittering black eyes shining dark pools of agony, and your heart breaks for him, even if deep down you know this is probably a cause for alarm.

Your pulse thunders in your ears. He takes a step towards you, and out of pure instinct you back away. 

He holds up his hands in a gesture of peace. “Please, don’t be afraid. I would never hurt you.” 

“John…” You look around at the scope of this body of work again. “This is a lot.” 

“I know.” He lets out a shuddering breath, looking to you like you could be his salvation, or his absolute damnation. “I’m sorry. I…I know.” 

He takes another step towards you, as though he can’t help it, drawn to you like a magnet. But again, you retreat. 

Some of the sketches feel more like scenes from your day to day, rather than what he could just concoct in the studio. There’s the coffee shop you frequent.

There’s the dress you wore last week. 

A cold dread worms through the marrow of your bones. “Have you been watching me?” 

He tilts his head, and you can tell he’s gauging how to answer this. “I see you around the neighborhood.” 

“We don’t live in the same neighborhood.” 

He answers this with silence, and your heart falls. 

Again, you look around at the staggering quantity. It could amount to a drawing a day, since the start of the semester. But you have to admit…they’re stunning. You hardly even see yourself, in the way he’s arranged your form and lines. He’s transformed your paltry flesh into something wonderfully other. 

“This is how you see me?” you dare ask, your voice small and fragile as hand blown glass. 

“I told you, y/n. You’re beautiful.” 

You’re not the sort of girl who could ever be on the cover of a fashion magazine. But to you, this is infinitely more beguiling. To be the muse of an artist like John Wick is a certain form of immortality the likes of which you thought you could only dream. It’s disturbing and flattering, all in the same package. 

Yet you remind yourself that just because he likes to draw you…doesn’t mean he cares for you.

“Do you even like me, John?” 

It sounds so third grade, but in the moment you don’t know how else to voice it.  

“Like you?” he scoffs. “I adore you, y/n. Isn’t it obvious?” He gestures around the room agitatedly, like he’s trying to tell you something but you’re too thick to grasp it.

Yet you can’t help but think about how distant he was in class, after the Jackalope incident, and then your little blowup about Matt’s critique. 

“It didn’t feel like it.” 

His bottom jaw juts as he grinds his teeth thinking about it. “I…may have overcompensated a bit.”

You narrow your eyes. “What, like…when a boy likes you on the playground he pulls your hair?”

He frowns at the comparison–but he does not negate it. “I knew it wasn’t…appropriate. I tried to stop.” He shrugs, looking around the room, and he doesn't have to say it aloud. See how that worked out? “I never thought I’d feel this way about anyone, after my wife died, y/n. At first…I didn’t want to.”

Your heart aches for him at that moment; you understand that all too well. Love is wonderful…but it’s messy, and it hurts, and it requires regular offerings of blood, sweat, and tears to keep it alive, much less to make it grow. It makes life worth living–but one way or the other, it always takes its pound of flesh in the end. After enduring such a loss, you sympathize that this poor man didn’t want to open himself up to all that again. 

And yet, here you are, in a room that almost feels like a sanctum, and somehow you are his icon of devotion. 

You should be on your guard, for surely this is a form of mental illness–and what does it say about you that you assume a man must be ill, if he is this into you?–but no one has ever wanted you so completely, so obsessively, before. 

It’s more titillating than you’d like to admit, and you have to mentally knock yourself upside the head not to give in to this. 

You wonder if he's been with anyone since his wife passed, and your heart breaks for him all over again. How much of this has to do with that, you wonder? Again, you find yourself assuming this fixation isn’t actually about you, but some external circumstances that makes you convenient to him. It's how most of your relationships have started, looking back, and it never ends well for you in the end. You look around at the shrine he's constructed in this studio. So he likes your shapes in their particular order. But what does he even know about you? 

You don't realize the answer is far more than you want to know. 

Then another thought occurs to you. “Were you cruel to Matt…over me?”

A sigh escapes him that seems to come from the bottom depths of his soul. “I wasn’t cruel,” he grumbles, looking away at a drawing of you. 

“You were definitely extra.”

He growls at this, a primal sound that more belongs in the time of the caves than here in this elegant old house. It lifts every hair on your body. 

“Fine.” He approaches you with one slow step, hoping not to spook you. “Maybe I was mean to him, but I was never dishonest.” Another step, and you can only watch as he approaches you like a slow-stalking predator on those impossibly long legs, looking at you like he might like to eat you if he catches you. 

“It drove me mad, thinking about you together, when I knew that boy had no idea how to handle a woman like you.”

He keeps advancing with that hungry look, and finally you remember how to move, scrambling backwards until your butt bumps into something solid. Too late, you realize he's backed you into his paint-stained worktable. You regain some sense, skittering around it just as he tries to close the distance between you. 

He’s being lazy about it, you realize. A man built like that could snatch you up in a second–he is but a panther toying with a mouse. 

“John…wait.” 

“I’ve been waiting,” he grouses, leaning on the table, letting you put it between you. He grips the edge of it with those huge hands as though holding himself back, the muscles playing in his bared forearms, his cuffs rolled up from doing the dishes. You cannot help but stare. This man should not be allowed to be so ridiculously good looking, when he is possibly so very unstable. 

He’s so beautiful. Fuck is he beautiful, but this…is borderline insane.

When he speaks his voice is low and full of gravel, rough with desire, the sound of which makes you press your thighs for some relief. “I know I’m not a good man, y/n. But I would be so good, to you.”

After the magic of earlier in just sharing a meal with this man, talking easily over food and wine with his dogs at your feet…you're afraid you believe him. There's a part of you that wants that, so badly. The logical part of you, however, cautions that it’s surely too good to be true.

You’re afraid you’re like a moth to the flame, unable to stop yourself from self-immolation. You just barely escaped something terrible happening to you via Matt’s friends. You have got to be smarter than you were then. 

“John…maybe…I should go home to think about all this.”

“Don’t go home,” he pleads, though it somehow also sounds like a command. “Stay here with me a little longer. We were having a nice time.” 

It’s true. You were, while blissfully ignorant of this smoking gun just down the hall. With your heart in your throat you know you shouldn’t even be entertaining the thought…but here you are. “What happens…if I stay?” 

Like…do you want to wear my skin? 

“Anything you want,” he answers gently, doing his best, you can tell, not to scare you. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m a patient man.” 

You were smart enough not to go to Matt’s apartment where his predatory friends hung out, and your instincts were right. You know you should listen to your instincts now. Why is this harder? You shake your head, at yourself as much as him. 

“No. No. I'm going.” You turn to make for the door, and you were right about him. He is fast as lightning, and when he grabs you up the most embarrassingly girly little squeal escapes you. You flail, knocking a stack of papers askew, some fluttering to the ground. His arms are like iron bands around you, not hurting you but there is no escaping his hold. All you manage is to turn, so that your back is pressed in an agonizing line against the solid wall of his front.

He is warm, and strapped with muscle, and it should not feel this good to be engulfed by his larger frame. 

You push on his arms around your waist, to absolutely zero avail. 

“Y/n, please, calm down.” 

You scan the worktable, hoping for some tool to help you that might startle him without doing any real damage. You don’t want to hurt him. You just want him to let you go. Your eyes settle upon one of the unearthed papers, and that’s when you freeze in your struggles, going still as a stone. 

“Oh my god.”

It’s a paper filled with sketches, of the sort a sculptor might make before executing a project. It has views from the front and sides, various variations of designs.They’re plans for a mask–in the shape of a wolf’s head. The same stylized masquerade style half mask that you’ve been seeing in your fractured memories and your hazy dreams. 

Exactly like the one that still rests on your nightstand. 

“It was you.” 

You cannot raise your voice above a whisper, your fingertips like claws digging into his arms. You don’t know why you go limp in his grasp, your head rocking back on his shoulder. Shock, surely, or a reluctant acceptance. His voice is a low grumble beside your ear, his nose nuzzling in your hair.  A wave of gooseflesh erupts across your body, and the most shamefully delicious thrill shoots down your spine. 

“You’re finding all my secrets tonight, aren’t you Little Red?”

Your Lone Wolf has got you, and you’re afraid there’s no escape.

TBC...

___

->chapter map pinterest board/ photo credits

[onelongsound]

Demon Slayer: an Internal Family Systems perspective

⚠️ Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen or read the Infinity Castle Arc!

This has been swimming around in my head for a while so I’m just going to get it out here! If you find this interesting or helpful in some way, great! I want to preface that these are emphatically not headcannons... but in a certain sense they kind of are, as all psychological takes are subjective and ultimately biased in some way. If you have some familiarity with IFS and have a different take on the breakdown, by all means I’d love to hear your perspective if you’re drawn to share.

What is IFS?

Internal Family Systems is a model of psychotherapy developed by a man named Richard Schwartz in the US in the 1980s. You can find lot of info about it on Google but here’s the really quick intro:

The model of IFS posits that each individual’s psyche is made up of “parts”, all working in tandem like a family, whether functionally or dysfunctionally. 

It’s similar to parts work in the Hakomi Method (the practice of mindful somatic psychotherapy that I’m trained in) which breaks down the parts a little more simplistically.

So the parts are:

The Protectors (in IFS, further divided into Managers and Firefighters)

Managers work hard to keep the Exiles safe, setting boundaries and rules through control and planning, and making sure things run smoothly.

Manager behaviors can include perfectionism, people-pleasing, caretaking, overthinking, and self-criticism. 

Firefighters are a bit more reflexive. They are quick to respond to real or imagined threats, usually by turning towards addictive behaviors or substances to keep the overwhelming feelings of the Exiles at bay.

Firefighter behavior can include eating or drinking (or Doom / Tumblr scrolling!) too much, or any kind of obviously addictive behavior.

The Protected (in IFS, often called the Exiles, or Vulnerable/Wounded Children)

These are the rawest parts of our psyche which remember and hold our wounds. Exiles are often quite young, and experience behaviors like dissociation, poor self-esteem, self-loathing… or just a lot of terror, grief, confusion and pain! The overwhelming nature of these painful experiences are what conjure the Protectors into existence and action, usually without the individual’s conscious awareness. In extreme situations, the Protectors can even turn against the Exiles, and then you have a bad case of “feeling bad for feeling bad”!

The Self

This is the “true self” which embodies qualities known as the “8 C’s”: 

Compassion Curiosity Clarity Creativity Calm Confidence Courage Connectedness

The Self is not thought of as a “part”, but the truest expression that each individual is capable of. One of the main objectives of IFS / Parts Work is to untangle the Protectors and Exiles from the Self, so that these wonderful qualities can shine again in the individual’s present and future experience, undistorted by the traumas and pressures of the past.

Demon Slayer Characters via IFS

If we were talking about real-life people, we can assume that each individual embodies “moments” of all three parts to some degree. I will do the same with each of these fictional characters!

I’ll include the Hashira, Tanjiro and the Kamaboko squad, and some of the mentors (Kagaya, Urokodaki, Tamayo, Ruka, Yoriichi).

The Hashira

Rengoku

Initially we see Rengoku leaning more into Protector-behavior wanting to execute the Kamados on the spot. (This is when the "protectiveness" is projected outwards, towards others.)

But by Mugen train, many Self qualities shine through, especially as he nears death. He encourages Tanjiro and the others to keep going, and also doesn't make any stringent demands on how his younger brother Senjuro should proceed in his own life.

He’s strong on many of the 8 C’s. If there are any that are low (only by comparison) it might be curiosity, as he’s more inclined to give direction than to do a lot of listening—but that’s me being nitpicky. In a way it would make sense that he's heavy on action-based behavior since he's having to compensate for the emotional and functional absence of his alcoholic father.

Tengen

Manager behaviors: puffing himself up, being ostentatious (flashy!). Being tough or driving towards his subordinates. Firefighter moment: grabbing Aoi completely without consent!

Exile: feeling inadequate or “basic”, as compared to Rengoku, Gyomei or Muichiro. A deep sense of guilt and shame about his family of origin and their savage way of life.

Self: Compassion really shines through in his vision for a life of peace amidst the violence of growing up. Connectedness and clarity is also a strength of his, as he's quick to see the bottom line of most situations and open his heart to folks like the Kamados.

Sanemi

Probably the most obvious example of Protector-behavior!

Couldn’t be more clear the pressures and traumas this person has gone through, to have to rely so heavily on Manager and Firefighter reflexes.

Many of the positive Self qualities are co-opted by his Protectors, like creativity and clarity in his fighting ability.

So you know they are there: IE the compassion he feels for Genya and his mother, but is withdrawn when facing perceived threats like the Kamados, initially.

Courage is obvious in his life as a Hashira, but calm and connectedness is where he struggles in most of the series.

All this suggests the presence of a deeply suffering Exile—probably one that’s made to feel bad for feeling bad, as is the case when the environment growing up is just too hard on a person. Most poignant moment: the double bind of having to kill his mother in order to keep the rest of the family safe (or what’s left) but doing so also condemns him.

He’s such an interesting and enticing character for this reason!

Obanai

Very similar to Sanemi in that he’s mostly bound up in Manager behaviors, most notably his perfectionism and tremendous demands on others.

Though, he shows strong signs of connectedness in his relationship with Mitsuri, who is such a balm for his Exiled parts which have been through so much!

Shinobu

Notably Manager behaviors: trying to be nice and people-please!

Her Exiled part, which feels weak and inept—especially about her size—struggles with confidence and also feels compassion-fatigued towards the demons.

But she remains steadfast in her courage, which is the vehicle for her drive to avenge her sister’s death.

Giyu

Giyu is interesting to me because he’s very well rounded, lol.

Protector/Manager energies: withdrawing from others, being tough on Tanjiro initially, quick to draw (often negative) conclusions about himself and others—the certainty of negativity is safer than the uncertainty of possible goodness.

Exile: his obvious self-loathing and feeling inadequate, imposter syndrome, at the core of which is his deep guilt for existing (because existing = being protected and a burden on others, which also endangers others and then leaves him isolated... a vicious cycle!)

Self: compassion towards the Kamados, calm (or… Dead Calm? sorry lol), connectedness that’s brought forth by his conversations with Tanjiro, and maybe also clarity in his vision of what's possible witnessing Nezuko's atypical behavior as a demon.

Mitsuri

Mitsuri can be interesting in the IFS sense because she’s strong on Self AND Exiled part, which her character gives permission to be and express: her sense of isolation and neediness, and feeling different or “other”.

Compassion, curiosity, creativity and connectedness are strong suits for her, and we see her apply these towards herself through the series, to cultivate the other qualities of the 8 C’s: courage, calm and confidence.

The one bit of Protector behavior I see here is self-doubting and self-criticism, but not much is directed outwards. I guess that explains her openness—which could also be an Exile quality: naïveté and denial to some extent.

Muichiro

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Muichiro is definitely strong on courage, calm and confidence.

Like so many others, his connectedness and compassion is sparked by his encounters with Tanjiro. 

His Exiled part reveals itself through dissociation and memory loss—just completely checking out, which is also a Protector ability. In a way, what he says about taking on his late brother’s personality, is a sort of Firefighter defense that kept his psyche safe and coherent through the tremendously overwhelming loss of his whole family in a short period of time.

Gyomei

Like Rengoku, strong on many of the 8 C’s. 

His suspicion of people could be thought of as a Manager behavior—conversely it can also be seen as clarity, or discernment, if it’s separated from his traumatic experience of being wrongfully incriminated by the children he was protecting.

So the Exiled part here would be one who feels misjudged or misunderstood, as it seems was his experience growing up as a blind, but very capable and gifted person.

The Kamaboko Squad

Tanjiro

Strong on the C’s—confidence being the main one he’s cultivating through the series.

He’s very similar to Mitsuri, seen through the IFS lens. 

And it’s interesting that he’s also kind of the other side of the same coin as Sanemi—both are actively working to protect their family, but one (Sanemi) is covert about it, which to me speaks more to a generational difference.

Inosuke

Lots of Protector energy!

The Exile here may be a child who’s just really confused, from lack of direction and guidance, especially about his own feelings—both positive and negative ones.

I’m not sure by the end of the series if much of Self is online (not that that is necessarily important or an objective, especially for his character), but he does appear to learn the value of connectedness.

Zenitsu

Exiled part is very obvious: feeling alone, unloved, unworthy, and scared!

And then Protector parts come online very quickly: the Firefighter response to cling to other people (usually girls, or his friends), and the Manager response to quickly identify with compliments from Tanjiro.

But he does demonstrate clarity in key moments and the death of his mentor spurs him towards more courage.

Like Inosuke, not sure if much Self by the end, but Zenitsu will be Zenitsu! 

Nezuko

Nezuko is interesting to me because she actually feels more like a Mentor in that she mostly embodies the 8 C’s, but she’s muzzled or sleeping most of the time. I'll talk about this symbolism in the Mentor section next.

Like Tanjiro, she’s developing confidence to demonstrate her other positive abilities through the entirety of the series. For me the most salient moment of this is where Tanjiro sings her the song she grew up hearing their mother sing for her. Many themes of connection and safety here for a character who stays mostly in her child form through the series. Interesting that it's when she turns adult (and maybe not so vaguely sexualized) that she's at her most "Protector"-ish, and projected outwards, too. There's something here about feminine rage, for me, which I also see for Tamayo and Shinobu.

The Mentors

Urokodaki

Mostly strong on Self qualities, with a tiny bit of the see-saw of Manager/Exile:

He’s tough on Tanjiro for being “too kind”, when he masks his own face which seems “too kind”. Can’t be a more concrete representation of the symbiotic relationship between Protector and Exile.

Like in Sanemi’s case, I think this can speak to men (of earlier generations?) who were crucified for showing vulnerability and tenderness.

Tamayo

One of the incredibly strong female characters in the series. I mean she broke the Muzan code!

Strong on the C’s, but to me she represents the burden of the system/history on the female body. When she finally shows her rage and intensity in its truest form, it’s at her (very violent) death where she basically martyrs herself. (Shinobu, too.)

Kagaya

Like Rengoku and Gyomei, strong on many of the 8 C’s. 

I group him with Ruka and Yoriichi—they’re near perfect, but either absent, gone too soon, or soon to be gone. To me, they symbolize how the Self can seem so distant or unattainable so often in daily life. Or, how a healthy and balanced parental figure can seem in such short supply in so many people’s lives.

Ruka

Another strong female character in the series, and pretty wholly embodies the 8 C’s.

Kyojuro is truly lucky to have her as a mom! Gone too soon, but the show must, and does go on.

Yoriichi

To me he’s a very interesting expression of the Self.

We can surmise he embodies much of the C’s, but for a man of his time he is given the space to openly express his vulnerabilities and sense of inadequacy in protecting the ones he cared about. Like Mitsuri and Tanjiro, we get to the witness the active alchemization of his Protector and Exiled parts.

As I’m writing this I’m realizing this also symbolizes the ever-evolving nature of life itself… even for a balanced and gifted individual like Yoriichi, life is still full of challenges and loss. Truly, there is no cosmic finish line!

Concluding thoughts...

What seems recurring through all these characters is the Exiled part's sense of powerlessness and inadequacy. A universal human experience to be sure, but I think it's important to also see it in context.

Demon Slayer's author, Gotouge, is in their mid to late thirties now. They very likely had at least some contact with their grandparents, who we could assume were living in Japan at the time of the Second World War. Many (if not most) manga or anime series are in some way processing these themes of powerlessness amidst great violence, loss and denigration of human life.

We even see the mushroom cloud making an appearance during the explosion of Kagaya's mansion—no doubt an image seared into the collective Japanese memory for generations to come.

I'm offering a bow of respect to the many across the world fallen in times of war, and the many Protectors that have arisen to make life bearable for so many who were truly powerless and vulnerable during these times. May each of them (and us!) continue to find direction, resource, and liberation.

[theme-park-concepts]

I know theme parks are a lot more expensive to make than movies and tv, however when I see the overall scale of the film industry and how small themed experiences are in comparison - can’t help but think there’s massive untapped potential even just within the states.

Like it’s not uncommon for a SMALL movie to cost 5-10 million these days. small production companies will make several of these a year. And big companies hell - these days a 100 million dollar movie is cheap. You could absolutely build GOOD themed entertainment for these costs

And honestly I’d argue the potential return is even greater considering most films don’t make their money back. Just need the people with money to see it.

Every once in a while I think about how the real barrier to more themed entertainment is just how complicated it is to get a project off the ground and those startup costs and complexities. And maybe there’s a world where a theme park could follow live theatre model

Like a main company builds the park itself and infrastructure, maybe even show buildings, but individual smaller business endeavors do individual attractions - not unlike a fair, worlds fair, or even how Knotts became what it is.

[lacking-artdration]

more on the out of bounds au, and more of my experimentation with sfm n stuff.

(more yammering about making this video below)

i initially was just curious if i could edit yes man's screen texture to more closely resemble how I draw the broken down version of him in my art for oob.

it was surprisingly easy, and i am really proud of how the textures actually came out, especially when rendered on the model.

for comparison, the original texture, and my edited version. i just used brushes in procreate to make the cracks, scratches, and stains. (and i gave him a tooth gap n lashes, like god intended) and it turned out pretty good on the model.

i ended up attempting a walk cycle, which is both really easy and really hard with this kind of thing to be animating/controlling. and after i'd made it, i just figured i'd put it to good use. so I found a nice desert map n got to work. I had a bunch of audio i'd ripped from the game for another project for this au that i'd never finished, and that helped me make all the foley for this video...

really. really. proud of myself. it's 1am. good night. i love you

[silverskye13]

Silver I know next to nothing about the alien franchise and movie, I am giving you full permission to use this ask as an opportunity to spread propaganda to get me (and anyone else) to finally watch it

So it's, so like, the thing is, right. I'm not a movie tech kinda person [though it is technically impressive, the funny little tricks they did, like not having the budget for a Big Space Ship Derelict so they are a scaled down model that the director's kids in space suits walked up to so it would look bigger, and it was shown to the audience on a shitty CCTV because they didn't do a big matte painting of the set they filmed the tiny one, projected it onto a wall, and then filmed that.] So my rant isn't going to be about how technologically cool the movie was for 1979 on a less than optimal budget. But what I do like, what I excel at, is breaking down themes and tropes. And my god. My god. Just. Ugh. [Flails my arms.]

So a basic rundown for the movie, spoilers ahead, and my analysis of how fucking cool it is:

Basic gist of the movie: The crew of the commercial mining vessel Nostromo are awoken halfway through their trip back to earth by a mysterious signal, calling for help on a far away planet. Upon going down to investigate, one of their crew members is attacked by a strange alien parasite which attaches to his face. This kicks off a tale of increasing horror as the new alien kills off the crew one by one, culminating in Ripley [the main character] blowing up the ship and fleeing in an escape pod, not sure if she'll ever be picked up in the vastness of space -- with the ships cat, who miraculously also survives. [We all know Jonesy is the real main character 💜.] Along the way a plot by the Weyland-Utani corporation is revealed, one of the crew is discovered to be an android, and there is a lot of alien screeching.

Now! The themes that I go absolutely feral over can commence.

The horror of the movie, the reason why the alien is scary, and lethal to humans specifically, is it is a creature built for efficient survival, and this is a trait that Ash, the ship's science officer [and resident hiding android] highly praises in the critter. He describes it as beautiful, elegant, pure in its efficiency. The perfect organism. Efficient.

Humans, by comparison, aren't efficient. We are social. And efficiency preys on social needs. For example:

The xenomorph eggs can survive for ages [in the derelict they're found on, the dead alien who drove the ship is described as fossilized. These eggs have been here for thousands of years. But they activate immediately when a curious human pokes around them. It isn't a fast process. Kane is poking around for a few minutes, looking at the movements of the creatures in their eggs, making observations. Curious. Curiosity is an inefficient trait -- he would have survived if he had climbed out of the hole the eggs were in and left, or even waited for the rest of his team to enact quarantine and investigation procedures.

Speaking of quarantine! When Dallas and Lambert bring Kane, newly infected by an alien parasite, back to the ship, Ripley locks them in the airlock. There are quarantine procedures. We can't risk the whole crew. But they are scared for Kane's safety. He might die without help. They break quarantine. If they hadn't broken quarantine, the baby alien would've been born in the airlock, where it would get spaced the moment it was born.

When the face hugger parasite dies and Kane seems to return to normal, what they should have done to attempt to reinstate quarantine was put him in hyper sleep. His body would have been frozen in a stasis which might have frozen the parasite or, if it hadn't, would have left the new baby alien trapped in a stasis pod. But Kane, haggard and scared from his ordeal, asks can we please have one more meal together before I go to sleep? And that one meal is long enough for the new xenomorph to be born, and release terror on the ship.

There is more. Parker would have lived if he hadn't gone to find the cat by himself, leaving the safety of his group. Dallas would have lived if he let Ripley go through the vents, but he was the captain and he didn't want to risk someone else's life so he went instead. Brett would have lived if he'd left Lambert behind when she was being attacked, or if he'd hit the xenomorph with the flamethrower instead of insisting Lambert get out of the way first. And Lambert would have lived if she'd run instead of being paralyzed in fear by the creature killing her friends. And the xenomorph? Wasn't even eating it's kills. No gore. Little blood. It was killing them because it knew they would kill it, and it was neutralizing threats. Efficient.

The xenomorph is very clearly engineered for survival, and it's survival depends on killing the inefficient organisms around it. Even it's acid blood is described as a survival mechanism, not an offensive mechanism.

Okay Skye, we hear you talking about how scary the critter is because it's not a social creature. That's an interesting observation, but it's still just a monster story, right?

Well, let me tell you an alternative story. Just a little to the left of the original, but one I would argue is still very very canon.

You are an android built by Weyland-Utani, a company which is jealously hunting alien tech to use for its many space programs. You are placed on the Nostromo because there is a known anomaly in the area, and they want to find it. Your job is to get a specimen back to the company, all other protocols expended.

You are programmed to be efficient, so you get to work.

You wake the crew when you find the signal. You give them only the information they need to investigate: it is a signal that repeats every 12 seconds. You let them make the conclusion it is an SOS. Humans are social creatures. They want to help other social creatures in need. There is some arguing about whether they should go, but in the end an extra push from you sends them. Ripley, one of the more efficient members of the crew, keeps asking you why you haven't decoded the message.

"Mother [the super computer running the ship] is still working on it." This is true. She has only translated part of the signal. By the time Ripley realizes it's a warning, the crew is already on the way to the derelict. You tell her if she walks out there, they will have already figured out if it's a warning or not by the time she makes it to them. She agrees.

When they return with a specimen, Ripley [efficient, following protocol] doesn't want to let them on. But Ripley doesn't know you're an android, so when you break quarantine, and you tell her you just wanted Kane to be safe, she begrudgingly believes you.

When the alien is loose, it is easy for you to keep them from killing it. Humans are social, inefficient creatures, and you feel no empathy for their deaths. You do pity them though. Between you and the alien, their chances of survival are slim.

If only they were more efficient.

The horror in Alien is not the xenomorph. The horror in Alien is when anything, primal creatures, androids, a particularly greedy corporation, preys on human social needs in order to get what it wants. There is significance in that Ripley, despite everything, chose to save the cat. She needed companionship. All humans do. She needed to save that cat. A cat that was cantankerous and mean, and hissed whenever it was held, was better than the cold efficiency of empty space.

Any system that prioritizes absolute efficiency will be inhospitable to human life.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #54 – The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

I try to read a piece of somewhat respectable nonfiction every month or so, which means I’m always vaguely on the lookout for titles that seem interesting and which aren’t either inspiration porn or just some random New Yorker’s collection of personal essays. I first heard of Design in an editorial in a local paper, which described it as a ‘seminal read’ – the basic conceit and title both seemed interesting so I through it on the list and, however many months later, finally got around to read with it. It was interesting, but altogether a more dense and technical read than I was at all prepared for when I picked it up.

The book is about what it says on the tin – looking at the processes and practices of industrial design and how it can be best applied to create useful, pleasurable tools. It is very much written for an assumed audience of at least interested amateurs or casual practitioners, with lots of specific practical tips and guidelines for the working designer to apply to their own projects. For the same reason it isn’t at all shy about the jargon or business-school models and charts.

Design, from the book’s perspective, covers an extremely broad field – everything from the physical structure of a tool to the systems and procedures that should be followed for its safe operation to the aesthetics and layout that give the most enjoyable and frictionless user experience handling it. The book considers its principles equally applicable to designing physical products and bureaucratic systems, and is mostly even convincing as it says so. That said, it absolutely assume that whatever is being designed is being designed by a large, multi-team project with budgets and stakeholders, and designed for sale on the private market, both of which do shape the advice given quite clearly (the entire final part of the book is about ‘designing in the real world’ and about these exact conditions).

The prose is written with the precise tone and cadence of an above-average but not great professor giving a long, rambling lecture that illustrates every single point with a tangential personal anecdote – though my mind may only jump to that comparison because that’s basically what this is in book form. It is not, being honest, ever exactly gripping or a page-turner; this was probably the book whose reading felt most like homework of any I’ve opened so far these year. Something not at all helped by the fact that the field of industrial design does the same thing as every other slice of academia and redefines a bunch of very common nouns to be very precise and occasionally very counterintuitive terms of art (though in fairness the book could have been much worse about this).

That aside, I did find the jargon mostly helpful, in terms of clarifying and separating out concepts. The distinction between capabilities (what a given device can be used for) and signifiers (the implicit or explicit ways a device presents itself to be used) is useful and pretty easy to keep in my head, for example.

The initial chapters of the book are primarily about the theory and best practices of designing specific, physical things – for example, how it represents a shameful failure for a door to ever require a sign or instructions on how it should be opened. This was probably the roughest part for me to get through, just because I felt like I should be taking quizzes or filling out worksheets to make sure I remembered everything correctly as I went – the sections get dense. It was fascinating reading to bludgeon through though, if only as a collection of the most practical insights yet provided by the study of human psychology. None of the best practices and recommendations given – never require the user to input more than a few commands without feedback or guidance, map the layout of controls to correspond to the physical ordering of the things they control, mechanical commands should feel like they have some sort of intuitive relationship to their effect, that sort of thing – exactly blew my mind, but it was helpful to see them laid out. Also interesting how much a lot of them contrast so strongly with the minimalist, ‘clean’ aesthetic which actually governs the design of so much these days.

The sections on mistakes and accidents were probably the most interesting and compelling in their own right. Maybe because I found the examples more intuitive, or maybe just because industrial accidents and airline disasters are more attention-grabbing examples than confusing and inefficient light switch layouts. In any case, the typology of mistakes versus errors (basically: whether you are trying to do the wrong thing, or trying to do the right thing and just failing in execution) and their subcategories seem genuinely quite useful, as do the various meditations on how to make both types less common.

This is also the section that has stuck with me in the most detail, if probably just because it seems like it might have some direct relevance to day-to-day life. Most especially the idea that focusing on how to assign fault or blame is the most useless possible thing to do when trying to investigate an accident – it only makes everyone motivated to hide any involvement they might have had, and lets you stop thinking about it as soon as you decide who is responsible without ever digging into the actual causes of the mistake. ‘Human error’ is, in Norman’s view, a mirage – if people are making dangerous or expensive mistakes at any appreciable rate, then that is axiomatically a failure of the systems which should be supporting and guiding them.

The fact that airline disasters are drastically overrepresented in the case studies used because the investigative infrastructure for them is uncommonly (almost bizarrely, really) well-designed and diligently maintained in the US is also just a fun bit of a trivia.

The third part of the book is about the actual process of designing something in a large organization. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is mostly about bureaucratic politics and navigating frictions between, say, the design and marketing teams – the offered distinction that design is about making things that are useful and good whereas marketing’s input on the process is ensuring it is something that people will be willing to buy is pithy and memorable, if perhaps one that people on the marketing team might not be entirely happy with. This, along with terms like ‘the double-diamond design process’ and the oft-repeated saying that ‘the day a project starts it’s behind schedule and under budget’, and the gratuitous use of Japanese, all left me with the uncanny feeling of walking into an MBA seminar.

This is in fact an extremely famous and successful book – I know, because this is a heavily revised second edition, and the new material never missed a chance to say so. Having come out in 2013, the updated material – overwhelmingly about software UX, the internet, and smartphone design, because of course it is – is already somewhat charmingly outdated. The additions did include a long and very interesting section on changing standards, standardization, and when it is or isn’t worth the massive disruption involved (including a fascinating if probably not entirely trustworthy digression into the history of the QWERTY keyboard), so on the whole I’m happy I got this edition rather than the original from the ‘80s.

Overall, not a book I’m likely to open again anytime soon unless I end up making a dramatic change of careers, but interesting enough that I don’t regret reading it.

[tessellatedheart]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and kind comments. I really needed the confidence boost. Life has been a bit rough for me lately. Last week I went part time at work because I can no longer physically handle full time and while doing half the work is definitely better if I'm honest I'm still struggling. I'm trying to really throw myself into my art both to help supplement my reduced income and maybe eventually get myself to a point where I can quit my job all together.

But for this week instead of focusing on projects that might make me money I'm instead giving myself a break to have fun working on my most ambitious crochet project :

curtains based on the stained glass windows from La Sagrada Familia. I will need to make 4 of these panels total. I'm using a 3d modeling software to help figure out the portions and math for the stitches. the points were the hardest part to figure out, all the other shapes should be simple in comparison. It looks a little twisted at the moment but as I add pieces it gets pulled into place so it should even out in the end. I'm hoping to finish all of the points this week before I jump back into projects that I intend to actually write patterns for.

[synapsid-taxonomy]

On Smilodon mouth tissue

Keep in mind through this entire post that this is pretty rough and I don't specifically study sabercats. But we might as well take a closer look at the controversial Smilodon lip and gum tissue and see what it'd look like step-by-step. Let's start with a Smilodon skull (real fossil, not cast) with articulated sabers. Keep in mind the tip of this saber is broken off.

You can pretty clearly see the division between the enamel-covered portion of the teeth and the cementum. In modern felids, this cementoenamel junction is roughly where the gum line ends, and this is also what Riviere and Wheeler 2005 concluded for Smilodon. So if we take that and apply a gumline to this skull, it looks like this:

Now that looks like a pretty deep gumline! The full canines of Smilodon don't necessarily need to be covered by lips; even though they are covered by enamel, it's a very thin coating that doesn't require extensive hydration. This is also the case with the fangs of musk deer and Chinese water deer, who have their canines hanging on the outside of the mouth. These fanged deer, as well as tusked synapsids like walruses and Tiarajudens, have canines that project far beyond the bottom of the lower jaw (see below for the alternative) - and none have the massive bloodhound lips you may see around for Smilodon.

The gums, however, would need to be hydrated and covered by the lips. So that pink line could be an indicator of the minimum extent of the lip margin. But what I notice about these gumline comparisons is that we're looking only at the skull. If you bring in Smilodon's mandible and articulate it so that the mouth is closed...

The gumline doesn't go below the margin of the lower jaw. So the upper lips would not need to droop beyond the margin of the lower jaw. And as discussed above, the rest of the canines wouldn't necessarily need to be covered. Goodbye bloodhound Smilodon. This is consistent with how the lips do not droop beyond the margin of the mandible in any "saber-toothed" animal. Fanged deer and walruses have exposed canines. Clouded leopards keep their impressively-sized canines in the mouth; while the lips are relatively big, they don't droop over the lower jaw...

And saber-toothed animals that aren't smilodontines - including other true sabercats like Homotherium - don't actually have teeth that project beyond the bottom of the lower jaw (accounting for tooth slippage). Most of them have a deepened "chin" that follows the sabers. So it's possible, if not likely, that these animals simply had sabers covered by the soft tissue of the lower jaw when the mouth was closed. That would keep the teeth and gums moist regardless of how far down the gums went. Even if the teeth were exposed, the upper lips still wouldn't need to go very far down to keep the gums moist (you can see where the cementoenamel joint is on the Eusmilus skull replica in the lower right).

(top: Homotherium; bottom left, Thylacosmilus)

Now let's take the rigorous reconstruction of Smilodon from Turner et al. 2011 - and overlay it over the image above, to see if "traditional" Smilodon lips would cover all of this expanded gumline or not.

That looks like a pretty close match, I'd say! Being generous (and looking at clouded leopards as a very rough guide), I can see the margin of the upper lip maybe going like this. Lippier than usually pictured, but not shockingly so.

So not much would change.

Now, why would Smilodon need such deep gums? Simple - the longer a tooth is, the easier it is to break off. So more extensive gum tissue would help stabilize the sabers in the mouth. Which makes sense. The current model for sabercat predation is that they would subdue prey using their beefy muscled forelimbs, and only use the sabers at the end for the killing neck-puncturing bite. Don't wanna break them beforehand.

[koolades-world]

Big S is in the house aka.dude who always writes way too long requests🗣️

Happy 2k followers and here is a request

"what're you doing out here at this hour?"

"you're so cute, it hurts"

"to me, you're perfect. i don't care what anyone else says"

With my one and only babyboy Asmodeus, Assmuah, Asmuadelisa, the best boy in universe and my husband i do not accept other opinions 🥰

So Asmo was gone for entire day for work, like majorish stuff where he was working at his new collection of makeup and modeling and other things, and something got him insecure, that new collection is not good enough, or is modeling is not perfect, like someone said that he is not natural enough in his poses or that the pigment of eyeshadow is not bright enough, overall bro stressed out and came late.

"what're you doing out here at this hour?" MC is like "bro ur ok? Where uve been, it's late"

And when he tells them they are like "you're so cute, it hurts to see you so stressed, i wish i could come with you to help you with that, but i can't bro im not a pro at that shi, want a therapy cuddle?"

And they cuddle while watching some Romantic Comedy that Asmo would love even tho MC doesn't really like them. and MC is like "to me, you're perfect. i don't care what anyone else says" and they muah muah and cute fluff of two cute patooties i love my husband give me some cuddle fluff my request making machine(/j)🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

thank you!! great to see you again :)

i just want to say i absolutely love the way you spun the you're so cute it hurts one??? that's so genius and i would've never thought to use it that way

enjoy <3

prompts 29, 32, and 37 w/ Asmo

“Mr. Asmodeus, ready to head home?” One of Asmo’s dedicated helpers from Majolish poked their head in the door of his studio.

“Are you closing up?” He looked up from the color wheel he was studying in comparison to the proposed and actual eye shadow pallet colors.

“I tried to get you twenty more minutes, but Ms. Ezos is about to fall asleep.” Ezos was the project manager who’d been working with him for his makeup line from Majolish. She’d been very helpful and sweet, and seemed just as invested in the production of the line as he was. The entire thing had been something of a struggle, and it felt like there was an obstacle around each corner. The latest issue was that the colors of his eyeshadow pallet weren’t what he imagined. They were supposed to be lots of different shades of pink with a couple other colors thrown in, but none of the pinks are what he’d imagined or proposed originally. To him, they all looked too similiar.

“It’s alright. What time is it?” He yawned and took a sip of his water in an attempt to wake himself back up.

“Just past midnight.” The helper checked their watch.

“I didn’t realize it was so late. I’ll pack up my things.” With a sigh, he gathered up all this things and packed them away. He grabbed his bag and with one last look at the test pallet, left the room. The helper locked it behind him. He knew he’d be back in that room sometime tomorrow.

“I think you did really great today.” They trailed after him.

“Thank you. It does need some work. I don’t think I’m happy with it yet.” He took some of the samples home with him to compare with items he owned to see if it actually wasn’t the color he wanted, or if he just needed rest. He left the studio without trying to look for Ezos or anyone else he’d worked with. They probably had went home already anyways. His assistant waved him off, promising to let everyone know he’d gone home.

Since Majolish wasn’t far from home, he walked to and from the studio. Most everything was closed, save for a couple shops. None of his favorites were open, so he had no excuse to stop and shop to lift his mood. When he got home, the house was silent. He made his way to his room to put this things down and get ready for bed. He went for a bath and changed into his pajamas. He sat and thought for a little bit before deciding to eat a little something before bed, as he couldn’t recall the last thing he ate.

He made his way downstairs, and purposely avoided looking at all the clocks on his way there. He opened the fridge to look for something to eat, and when he shut it, you were standing there. It scared him a little.

"So, what're you doing out here at this hour?" Mc was holding a bowl full of snacks, which they set down, implying they'd been in the kitchen in the entire time. He had totally missed them.

"Mc! I'm just a little hungry is all. I've been working on my new makeup line all day." His stomach growled at the thought of eating again.

"Asmo, it's almost two am. You left before I even woke up this morning. You need to treat yourself better. You're so cute, it hurts to see you like this." He couldn't meet your eyes, because you looked genuinely upset.

"I know I've been slacking more recently, but it's only because I'm putting everything into developing.

"You look worn down. I can't offer much, but if you want, we can cuddle and watch something of your choosing?" You opened your arms, much to his delight. He rushed in and enthusiastically hugged you.

"You're just delightful! Can we watch a romcom?" He knew you weren't the biggest fan of them, but you did say he could pick.

"Of course. Lert's get you some food, then we can do that. It's important to fuel your body." He was glad he had you. You let him know what the family ate for dinner, which he opted to eat. The two of you went back to his room, where you put on a romcom of his choosing. He leaned heavily into your side while he was eating, and once he finished, he made sure you properly cuddled him. You were only half watching the movie he'd put on. You were mostly looking at him. He looked more relaxed now.

"Asmo," you said.

"Hmm?" He looked up at you.

"I think you needed to hear this, but you can tell me otherwise. To me, you're perfect. I don't care what anyone else says." You gave him a forehead kiss. He didn't respond for once, but he gave you a cheek kiss back that conveyed all the emotions he couldn't put into words. That's all he needed to hear, especially from someone he loved.

[stage-of-sekai]

lesson O1: cel shading and how to achieve it.

Project SEKAI uses a unique shading method, which is a cross between rendering techniques and what is commonly referred to as "Cel Shading." Cel Shading was a term coined by animators before computer animation, who worked in "cels" or hand-drawn scenes. Because of the limitations of the time, the animators had to find a cheap and simple way to shade, resulting in the shading we see usually in modern animation.

Project SEKAI uses this style in combination with rendering tactics to create their iconic art style.

In this lesson, I'll be going over how Project SEKAI achieves that look by breaking down their Live2d models and card cutouts.

Cel Shading is the basis upon which everything in Project SEKAI is shaded. Commonly, this is seen in: Live2d models and card trims. Here are some examples.

In both examples, you can notice the more "simplistic" style of shading. Now, the real question is: "How is this done?"

To explain this, I'll be using the card trim on the right as an example.

Firstly, artists need to put base colors under their lineart. Base colors are the bare-bones, not shaded colors. This is to provide a guideline as to what areas need what colors. Below, you can see the same Nene card trim, but reduced to its base colors.

It is a bit sloppy, considering I made it myself, but the point is; there is still **some** shading blocked out where it's needed. For comparison, see below.

So, now the question is: "how do I even do Cel Shading from here? I've gotten my base colors down, now what?"

And, luckily, I can share that too! First, let's start by doing the most important thing, deciding where our light source will be.

In this card, it looks to be at the top right, coming down to shine on her.

The yellow is where I estimate the light would hit her. Now, we need to decide where our darkest areas are.

In this card, the darkest colors would be away from the light, meaning they would be to the left.

The red is where I estimate the darkest areas would be. The areas behind her arm would also be darker than the rest of the card, since they aren't being hit directly by the light.

This understanding of lighting will help me to place my shadows and highlights later!

After this, I'd suggest putting in a new layer on top of your base colors, and clip it.

Now, I would be sure to grab a reference. For this drawing, I will be referencing the original trim, as well as the full card. I will be using a reference window, but use whatever works for you!

Now, we can get started! First, I'm going to block out where the **lightest** areas would be. I will be loosely following the card trim as a reference. Using the places we previously determined would be hit by the light, I blocked them out with loose colors.

We know that these areas would be directly exposed to the light if it continued at the angle we previously determined. Now, as for the headband, I decided to block out a very light yellow color. This is because of something called ambient lighting. Ambient lighting is just when highlights have a similar color to their light source. This is seen a lot in photography, and sometimes, even in cards!

As you can see here, the light itself has a yellow tint, so the wall behind it will also appear yellow as a result.

We can also see it in Rui's newest card!

The light behind him is a reddish-pink, so that light bounces onto him, and makes the highlights appear that color. You can also see it on the railing and the building behind him!

Back to Nene, I then blocked out some of the darkest parts of her, based on our previous assumptions about the source of the light.

I shaded the areas of her dress according to how the bow was shaded. Since they were in almost the same place, we can use it as a guideline. We know that the dress isn't exposed to the light, since it is in front of the bow. As for the arms, we know the arm closest to her face would be fairly far from the light source, so I blocked out a shadow there as well.

Here, I adjusted some of the shadows, and I added some shadows to the dress. I blocked them all out in shapes, which I will go back and refine later.

I also added some shadows to the white fur on her dress. I paid specific attention to the edges of it in an attempt to make it seem "fluffier."

Here, I blocked out more shadows of her dress based on how the light would hit her. Now, we'll move on to the hair!

While it is messy, I wanted to ensure that the areas I placed shadows in would line up with my assumption of the light source. So, I toggled back and forth between the reference for the light source and the card itself to see where it fell. Now, with that, we are done blocking our our shading! I would suggest duplicating this layer to touch up everything to ensure you're satisfied with it.

The eyes will be a lesson by themselves, seeing as I didn't want to rush out two lessons in one and overwhelm people with so much information. This was a longer post than I anticipated anyhow.

If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me a dm or an ask in the ask box! I hoped this helped at least a few people, and I will try to do weekly/bi-weekly lessons if I can!

If you found this helpful, please consider reblogging this post for more reach! I want to help as many people as I can!

[genshin-stats]

On Natlan Characters' Skin Colors

I sampled the skin colors of all of the characters in Genshin Impact with unique models, as well as the upcoming Natlan characters. I didn't include NPCs as there are over 3,000, guaranteeing neutral lighting is difficult, and this blog is a side project. I tried to get the lightest part of the face from the character cards where I could, but there were some cases where I had to find another spot (for instance, Raiden Shogun's face has a purple tint due to her artwork featuring her pulling out a glowing Musou no Hitotachi, but her thighs do not have such a tint). Then, I looked up a list of various foundation brands (listed in the tags), with a focus on getting a wide range of shades. This let me sample the colors of foundation offered (as a stand in for real life human skin tones).

I then took the hex code samples online and calculated the relative luminance of that particular color. Luminance is a measure of reflectivity or brightness of a color. It's a weighted average of the red, green, and blue components of a color. True White (#FFFFFF) has a luminance of 1.00 and True Black (#000000) has a luminance of 0.00. With the luminance of all skin colors calculated, I then graphed it based on luminance. The graph is shown below.

These figures have the top 25% of the sample represented by the line on the top, the middle 50% represented by the box, and the bottom 25% represented by the line underneath. For example, with Liyue's sample size of 20, we would see that the top 5 luminant skin colors range from roughly 0.96 to roughly 0.91 or 0.92. Then, the middle 10 luminance values range from 0.91 to 0.86. The lower 5 luminance values range from 0.86 to about 0.47.

Looking at these graphs, I can only draw one conclusion, especially with the small sample size of Natlan characters right now. They are darker than many of the other nations' characters. They still look very light, however. That may be due, in part or in whole, to the fact that the Natlan characters really start to show up in the same range as the lightest foundation shades I examined (and not for lack of searching!).

There are two issues at play here, ones that became even more noticeable with the release/marketing of Sumeru and Natlan characters.

The skin colors are over-all very light. The lightest foundation shade I found has a luminance of 0.86, while that the 25th percentile for the luminance of Genshin Impact characters.

Hoyoverse has a very strong bias towards making their characters lighter skinned.

Issue 2 is somewhat visible in the graphs shown above, but it's better illustrated in this one below.

[By "% Lighter" on the y-axis, that is the percent of the sampled population that has a greater luminance than the position on the x-axis. For instance, going up from 0.20 luminance on the x-axis, we see that 70% of foundation shades sampled were lighter than that.]

For the makeup, you see that it decreases fairly steadily, showing a reasonable distribution throughout. Genshin Characters, on the other hand, show a steep drop around 0.85 luminance to 0.95. That indicates that the majority of the over 90 characters used for this study are around there. Again, 0.85 was the very highest end for the foundations.

I have a few other graphs I made while making the other ones that can help illustrate just how much lighter Hoyoverse's characters in Genshin Impact are in comparison to a real human range.

Focus is on Natlan right now, which is fully understandable, but the issue is much deeper than just them. It's all the characters from all of the nations. The only solution is to bring all of them to a more human range, and add more variety.

[sunsuns-babie]

XO (Only If You Say Yes) | NON IDOL!K.SUNOO x F!IDOL READER

💬: Certified Sunoo Haters Club 👺

Description of characters below ⬇️

SUNOO - Self proclaimed #1 Y/n from CUPETTES fan and runs the biggest Y/n fan account on Twitter ‘Strawberry Cake Y/n’s Hubby’. He does genuinely love her and is a bit delulu but not enough to be completely unhinged. He does know his boundaries as a fan of Y/n. He’s currently a college student just trying to graduate and doesn’t really want the spotlight on him, unlike his friends who have put themselves out there as public figures of sorts. Honestly Sunoo just wants to be in love with Y/n in peace and graduate from college with his degree in teaching.

HEESEUNG - A self sufficient Indie artist who’s on the rise with a bright future ahead of him. He’s been writing and producing his own music and is self taught at it. He is quite popular but hasn’t really broken in to the mainstream market yet. He funds all his music videos and helps directs them with some help from his friends. He even has his friends star in them with him, also with his dancer friend Niki helping him come up with some new choreographies for his new more mainstream “Kpop” era.

JAY - Is a pretty well known but still small YouTuber who’s known for his angelic covers and phenomenal guitar skills. He’s also Heeseung’s main music video director and does all the editing for him when it comes to his music promotional videos; whether that be the mvs, album track sample visualizers, concept films, etc. He also has a passion for fashion so he styles Heeseung a lot. Despite this though he himself is quite passionate about music and has been working on his own music projects, secretly for a while now. Oh, Jay also hates the comparison between himself Jay Park to the other Jay Park. Especially after his “fans” tried to say he was copying the other Jay Park, starting a smear campaign against him back in 2020.

JAKE - In the grand scheme of things at YouTube you could consider him a “small” YouTuber with only 2M+ subscribers but he is a popular streamer and gamer on both Twitch and YouTube. He has a devoted following that has opened many doors for him, making him successful in his field. Usually he does solo plays but a good half of the time he does gameplays with his friends Heeseung, Sunghoon, and Jungwon. Every once in a while Jay and Niki join in, while very rarely Sunoo agrees to join in.

SUNGHOON - A famous and even Olympic champion figure skater who’s started breaking into the typical celebrity world by guest starring in a few dramas and sometimes being a substitute MC for a few music shows, let’s not even get started on his modeling career. He has a very loyal fan base and is one of the youngest and most successful people of the current generation, making a name for himself through his hard work, dedication, and passion. His talent is great and unlimited, truly there’s nothing he can’t do.

JUNGWON - Is a college student alongside Sunoo and his best-BEST-friend since childhood. Because of their mutual friend Jake and his gaming streams Jungwon grew to like playing games and recording himself (since Jake filmed face cams of his friends when they played together all except Sunoo who wants to maintain his privacy). So Jungwon created his own Twitch channel where he streams random games here and there when he’s not swamped with college work. He mainly plays Minecraft and Roblox Dress to Impress though. Did I mention he’s openly gay and has a crush on Jay that only Sunoo and Niki know about?

NI-KI (RIKI) - The VERY youngest choreographer in the game, he is known as a dance prodigy, and works with many Kpop groups sometimes working as a backup dancer. He now mainly works with the girl group CUPETTES being credited as the choreographer for pretty much all of their choreographies. Not that his friends know that because he’s chosen to keep that fact to himself, mostly because in general he doesn’t talk about the celebrities he works with. He’s pretty famous himself with his own fanbase after going viral for his visuals in a fan cam for SHINee’s Key when he was a dancer for him and his choreographer in 2020.

masterlist | profiles (2)

taglist open 🏷️: @starlit-rin @onlyhyunjin @sol3chu @sugariricookies

[blitzbahrain]

A Closer Look at ACB vs MCCB vs MCB: What’s the Difference?

When it comes to electrical protection and control, selecting the right type of circuit breaker is crucial for safety, efficiency, and performance. Among the most common types of breakers used in low-voltage electrical distribution systems are ACBs (Air Circuit Breakers), MCCBs (Molded Case Circuit Breakers), and MCBs (Miniature Circuit Breakers). Each of these has its unique features, applications, and limitations.

In this article, we’ll break down the key differences between ACB, MCCB, and MCB to help you make informed decisions for your projects.

What is an MCB (Miniature Circuit Breaker)?

An MCB is a compact protection device designed primarily for low-current, low-voltage circuits (typically up to 100 A).

Key Features:

Rated current: Up to 100 A

Breaking capacity: Up to 10–15 kA

Trip characteristics: Fixed (B, C, D curves)

Voltage level: Low voltage (generally 230V/400V)

Commonly used in: Residential and light commercial installations

Advantages:

Small and space-saving

Easy to install and replace

Cost-effective

Quick response to overcurrent and short circuit

Limitations:

Not suitable for industrial or high-load applications

No adjustability in trip settings

2. What is an MCCB (Molded Case Circuit Breaker)?

An MCCB is a more robust and versatile breaker designed for higher current ratings and industrial applications.

Key Features:

Rated current: Up to 2500 A (some models go beyond)

Breaking capacity: Up to 50–100 kA

Adjustable thermal and magnetic trip settings

Voltage level: Low to medium voltage (up to 1000V)

Commonly used in: Commercial and industrial distribution systems

Advantages:

Wide range of protection (overload, short circuit)

Adjustable settings provide flexibility

Suitable for motor protection and feeder protection

Can be used for selective coordination

Limitations:

Larger than MCBs

More expensive

Manual reset required after tripping

3. What is an ACB (Air Circuit Breaker)?

An ACB is a heavy-duty breaker used mainly in main power distribution systems, typically at the incoming (main) panel level.

Key Features:

Rated current: Up to 6300 A

Breaking capacity: Up to 120 kA

Voltage level: Up to 690V (Low voltage applications)

Trip units: Digital/microprocessor-based (with features like communication, metering, diagnostics)

Commonly used in: Industrial, commercial, and utility-scale applications

Advantages:

High breaking capacity

Advanced protection and control (via intelligent trip units)

Remote monitoring and operation

Easy maintenance and servicing

Limitations:

Large in size

Higher initial cost

Generally not suitable for final circuit protection

Comparison Table: ACB vs MCCB vs MCB

Feature MCB MCCB ACB Current Rating Up to 100 A Up to 2500 A Up to 6300 A Breaking Capacity~10 kA Up to 100 k A Up to 120 k A Trip Setting Fixed Adjustable Advanced (Digital/Micro)Application Residential /Light Comml. Industrial/Commercial Main Distribution/Industrial Size Very compact Medium Large Cost Low Moderate High Remote Monitoring No Optional Yes (Smart Trip Units)

How to Choose the Right Breaker?

It depends on your application:

Use MCBs for final circuit protection in homes, offices, or small shops.

Use MCCBs for motor protection, feeder circuits, or larger loads in industrial/commercial setups.

Use ACBs for main distribution, large generators, or transformer protection in industrial facilities.

Conclusion

Understanding the differences between ACB, MCCB, and MCB is essential for electrical engineers, panel builders, and procurement professionals. While they all serve the purpose of protecting circuits from faults, their capabilities and applications are very different.

As a trusted switchgear supplier, we help our clients choose the right protection device for their needs — whether it’s for a home panel or a high-capacity industrial switchboard.

Need help selecting the right circuit breaker for your project? Get in touch with our technical team today — we’re here to support you from specs to supply.

sales@blitzbahrain.com +973 35682029

[blackblooms]

Irredeamable developpement retrospective Part 4: The city of dolls Well, took us some time, but we finally reached a project that actually got some gameplay. Not much mind you, didnt even finish the first area, but youll probably notice some stuff that did manage to make its way into irredeamable in some form. So this game was meant to be a simple, self-contained story to introduce the new setting of the fountain (aint that familiar) It was about this city whose entire economy and structure was built around hyper-inteligent android/animatronics called the dolls. Here is one with a human for comparison. Aint they cute? (the horns were meant to be some kind of stylised antennas)

Everything was going fine for the city, until one day where the dolls appeared to suddenly go mad. They became violent, unhinged, destructive, causing a terrible riot to wage through the city, forcing the local authorities to take action. (the object on the right is a doll recharge station, which would be used to save and heal)

That`s where the player character comes in. Cassy-A, a new military doll prototype is sent through the ravaged streets of the city to try and find the source of the madness that has taken over the dolls and stop the riots. Unlike most dolls, her humanoid proportions and appearance allow her to blend amongst humans and her intelligence and ability to adapt is far beyond the usual doll.

For the first few areas, Cassy fight against the maddened dolls and human rioters until she is met with a very unusual masked doll, Smile/Smiley.

Unlike the usual doll who are only capable of speaking in pre-recorded sentence, Smile can piece out speech from diverse recordings, delivering her intentions to free the dolls from their metal prison and offering for Cassy to join her. As expected, Cassy refuses and defeats Smile, only for a nuke to detonate and raze the city. Cassy consciousness is then rewinded and she is brought back to the moment she was activated. With her new understanding of what is to come, she now has to make different decisions if she wishes to stop Smile's plans and save the city from destruction.

And here come the struckture of the game, where the player must explore different paths, to gather information and find how to stop the nuke and any other threat the city might be facing. So now that we got the premises set up, here are some of the plans i had made for it.

This one shows a bunch of different dolls. They come in all kind of shapes and size but generally were tough, bulky ennemies with sur-human strength, abilities to control energy/electromagnetism and even some built-in weapons for military models like the seraph.

This one shows some notable characters, such as Reeve, the commander of the city of dolls military. Kay-C a Cassy model doll that had joined Smile. Cassy-B and Cassy-D, a second pair of dolls that serves the government and are sent to face against the player if they stray out of line and Aria Rottendale, the robotic CEO of dolls incorporated. There is also this one maid doll, which was intended to reveal the true nature of the madness where the dolls are sentient, but trapped inside a limited body and mind, unable to express their true feelings in any other way than violence. By this point the dolls are able to manufacture screams out of statics and compose cries for help out of disjointed syllables from their pre-made sentences.

These show some of the planned routes. Red being the initial riot, leading to the doomed fight with Smiley, blue being a route where Cassy turns against the government (leading to the Commander Reeve and Double Cassy fight). Purple has her hide in a shelter, allowing her to survive the nuke and investigate the aftermath. Orange has her investigate the doll mansion and discover the maddened maid doll and Yellow would be an infiltration of the Dolls Inc. building to find the origins of the dolls. Each dead end is some kind of ending where either Cassy is inevitably defeated and contained, or destroyed, forcing her to rewind to a previous point. Aniway, like usual, there are some plans that dont quite fit this story, such as those maps that included the lore of the fountain in some way.

Aniway, this is it for this part of the retrospective, but lets end on a positive note. Despite this game being abandoned pretty early, some parts of it still exist in irredeamable today. Most notably is Lady moveset which is nearly identical to how Cassy played and even the concept of a robotic superweapon being the playable character has stuck from this point.

The forced grins of the dolls was incorporated into the edenian aesthetic in the form of their metal masks. And i even added a doll enemy late in development, with a bit of an updated look and lore that reference the original game story.

Anyway, i hope you enjoyed this tour of the defunct city of dolls. We are almost at the end of this retrospective, for the next part is the project that preceded irredeamable and where i began working on the setting that would flourish into the one you get to experience. Tune in for part 5: Project Watchmakers

[allegraforchrist]

Self Image as a woman is constant battle between comparison and content.

Idolize the perfect body, the perfect hair, the perfect skin routine, the perfect face shape, the perfect breast size, the perfect gym glutes, the must-be-perfected everything about ourselves.

And after we ‘achieve’ one of the above, we move on to the next project of ourselves.

Women of God, there’s a difference between bettering your body and eating habits, versus objecting your body and eating habits. What I mean by objecting is subjecting ourselves as constant object of attention - attention to the self, and not to God. Attention to the self-image, instead of God’s image.

We should want what is God’s best - for our souls, minds, bodies, and health. We are the temple for the Holy Spirit. But taking that best and turning it into nitpicking obsession, is never going to satisfy your fleshly self-image. You are created in God’s image.

You are the rib, the daughter, the child, the woman of God. When you complicate your beauty in Christ, (beauty as in faith, modesty, prayer, love, kindness, fruits of the spirit, peace), you compromise Christ.

Instead of reflecting Christ, you’re reflecting the world. You’re fixing your outward appearance to match the mask of unpredictable industries.

You can’t say you love God, but then love complaining about your facial features, your body shape, your weight, your stretch marks, your hair, your lips… your whole Godly make up boiled down to what the world defines as a “woman”.

I’ve been here, and I am here, and to be honest, nothing in the world is going to make you a more beautiful daughter, sister, mother, wife, than being in Christ.

We need to value ourselves according to the Word, and not the word of articles, tiktoks, hacks, tutorials, skinny exercise Pilates or whatever.

We mustn’t trade our authentic femininity for short-lived vanity. Don’t idolize what you wear, your makeup, your hair, your skin, your fitness level… etc. Instead of praising God and giving Glory to Him, you give praise and glory to companies and models, and products. I’m not saying don’t get your hair down, don’t go to the gym and get fit, don’t get your nails done, don’t eat healthier, don’t try new methods to help with your acne and stretch marks and dermatological complications, don’t not love your gift of being pretty. I’m saying we mustn’t make our outward appearance the standard over Christ. Our outward must reflect our inward, and that happens when we take our eyes off our insecurities and set them in Christ and the loving Word of God.

Nothing in appearance lasts forever, we aren’t going to look younger and cuter when our bodies are buried one day. Proverbs 31:30, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

Seek God, seek His image in you, seek His beauty, His purity, His love: because we are made in His image. We are fearfully and wonderfully made! Psalm 139:14, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

No, maybe you’re not a Victoria Secret Model like Adriana Lima. You’re not the ideal blonde like Taylor Swift, you’re not curvy like Kim Kardashin, you’re not fit like Simone Biles, you’re not attractive like the DCC Cheerleaders, you’re not super intelligent like Amy from the TBBT, you’re not cleared skinned like Jennie from Black Pink. It doesn’t matter what you’re not, it matters what you are: a woman of God. What makes a woman of God attractive and beautiful and intelligent and pleasing, Her love for Christ! PROVERBS 31! Your value and belle is beyond worldy measure. Proverbs 31:15-18, “…She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed.

Don’t spend your life hating your body, it is your vessel for the Adonai Almighty.

^ 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

^ 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Don’t simplify your significance to God, by treating it as an insecurity. You’re perfect as following Him makes you to be. Matthew 19:21, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”