#Finite mindset

[telatire]

Even if things aren't progressing as fast as I'd like them to be so everything is solved (I'm anxious, surprise), things are being resolved, and will be - and I'm taking a two week break not because I'm lazy, but because I speedran two 10k fics in two months. Yet the brain is doing the funny brain thing where it's trying to convince me I'm wasting time by not writing.... even though the point of the break was.... to not write. Can't ever win these things, I swear.

[pumpkinrootbeer]

Only making and sharing art for attention is kind of asking yourself to get burnt out with the hobby i think. if you find yourself wanting to draw one thing but you know you'll get more notes if u draw another thing instead so you don't draw what you wanted to, your asking yourself to get burnt out. if you feel drained and frustrated looking at your activity feed, where art simply becomes a means to chase engagement, you are asking yourself to get burnt out.

I understand this is a hobby where monetary value is involved a lot of the time— from commissions, to patreons, to zines, often times it's not a hobby but an actual career. In which case chasing engagement is a financial necessity. But for everyone who is just drawing fanart for fun, the person you need to be drawing for the most is yourself otherwise you're going to become disillusioned with art. just make what you want, please yourself first and foremost.

[lemme-be-ur-motivation]

Fuck an abundance mindset, I'm all about the abundance grindset on my way to following and realizing my dreams

Me to myself justifying my shopping spree at Indigo today

[wickedzeevyln]

Everyday Counts

In a universe teeming with a gamut of randomness, today is not just another day. Yours, whether good or bad, is happening. While it’s madness to audit every second, you will come to realize that seconds we have are finite. You are blessed with both pain and pleasure and at the cusp of these moments are empty pockets waiting for you to pour meanings that matter to you. Missed the bus? Lost a job?…

[darudedogestorm]

kind of hellish to have an art blog when your number one fears re:my art are 1. "everything i make is derivative" and 2. "nobody will love this" (the eviler cousin of 'nobody will like this')

[fungifanart]

Checkmate?

Characters: Leona Kingscholar, Grim, Yuu!reader, male reader

Cw: Chess *horror movie scream*

Word count: 1.9k

Notes: Look! It's my piece for the @princes-uprising zine! It's been an absolute blast working with everyone, so I hope y'all enjoy our work!

-----------------------------------------------------

Life is one big chessboard.

This is the mindset that Leona has abided by ever since he was young.

It's the easiest way to make sense of the world around him.

People are forever bound to positions given to them upon birth with no hope of changing, such as how a pawn has no hope of becoming a king.

Everyone has a finite amount of actions they can take, which are clearly defined, leaving whether or not they succeed as a matter of skill.

Which also means that luck, too, is calculable and thus, predictable.

Or at least, it should be.

That is, until the school's spelldrive tournament happened and everything fell apart like a harsh wave crashing into a sand castle.

And because of such a stupid plan, too. To this day, Leona is mortified that he got blindsided by such a ridiculous plan, thought up by a magicless herbivore, no less.

Well, there's no way he'll let himself get played like that again.

Much like he did with Azul, Leona decides to observe how the herbivore strategizes.

His plan for knocking the Octavinelle housewarden down a peg gave Leona some good initial insights, such as how he places a LOT of faith in the people who have the shallowest reasons to help actually pulling through. He should consider himself lucky that Leona had a deeper reason to help than what he gave.

But that's not enough for him. Being lucky is not a strategy and clearly not the only factor at play letting a magicless nobody pull the wool over the eyes of TWO separate housewardens. It baffles him to think that both him and that octopunk actually got suckered in by those schemes.

Ok, now Leona's getting angry.

Simple observation isn't enough this time. There's only one way to get to the bottom of this irritating little conundrum.

Portable chessboard in hand, Leona begins the trek to the place the herbivore almost lost with that gamble of his, otherwise known as Ramshackle dorm.

After knocking on the door, Leona hears a ruckus on the other side and the sounds of both the Prefect and his feline companion yelling before the sound of footsteps approaches the entrance.

The door then opens, revealing the Prefect in his infuriatingly enigmatic glory.

"Oh, Leona! Hi! It's great to see you!" He greets the lion warmly, "What brings you here?"

'Figuring out what makes you tick.' Leona thinks to himself, but what he actually says is, "I was bored and thought you'd be able to amuse me with a game of chess."

The simplest of lies, one that any other person at this school would see through and reject instantly, but the Prefect smiles nonetheless.

"Well, I don't know if I can really provide the mental stimulation you're looking for, but if that's how you want to spend your afternoon, then why not, I guess." He responds while stepping to the side to allow Leona in.

Leona pulls up a chair to the table in front of the lounge couch and starts setting up the board as the Prefect rushes to the kitchen for refreshments.

After coming back with water and snacks, the Prefect takes his place on the couch in front of the white pieces leaving Leona with the black.

"Myeh! So how does this 'Chess' thing work, anyway?" Grim asks while hopping up beside the Prefect and shoving chips in his face.

*crunch*

"Well, both players take turns moving one of their colored pieces at a time across the board in an attempt to capture their opponent's king piece. And each piece has its own way of moving to account for," The Prefect answers while picking up one of his pawns and moving it forward one space, "For example, your pawn can usually only move one space up, down or to the side at a time."

"Mm." Leona adds, having already shifted into his focus mode and moving one of his pawns two spaces forward.

*crunch*

"Hey, wait! You just said the pawns can only move one space!" Grim complains between bites in that irritatingly shrill voice of his.

"Pawns can move forward two spaces when it's the first time you're movin' 'em. Next question." Leona explains bluntly while trying to refocus on the board.

"Yeah, what Leona said." The Prefect agrees before picking up his bishop and using it to capture Leona's first pawn, "Next is the bishop that can move as far as it wants, but only diagonally."

Tch, why did he move his pawn there?

*crunch*

The next few turns involve the moving of pawns, but, just when Leona had them lined up to leave the other man's bishop open to his queen, he quickly moves his bishop back to its original spot.

Is that so?

*crunch*

Moving another pawn forward to capture one of his opponent's, Leona then finds said pawn captured by the Prefect’s knight, "Next, we have the knight, which can only move in an L shape in any direction, but is the only piece that can jump over other pieces in its path."

"Whoa, that's cool!" Grim comments before shoving a whole pawful of chips into his mouth, making a loud crunch that makes Leona's ear twitch in annoyance.

"Herbivore, can ya get the furball outta here?" He says, slightly rubbing his temple while sending his rook out to capture the Prefect's rightmost pawn.

"Don't be mean, Leona. Grim's not hurting anyone." The Prefect responds before using his other knight to capture Leona's first rook.

With a slight smirk, Leona uses his other bishop to capture the knight that was left exposed.

*crunch*

The Prefect's eyebrow twitches and Leona notices the kind, calm gaze he'd held since his arrival lose its warmth, becoming more calculating.

Looks like the kid gloves just came off.

*crunch*

The Prefect moves his pawn.

*crunch*

Leona moves his other rook directly downwards.

*crunch*

The Prefect captures said rook with his other bishop.

*crunch*

Leona moves his queen into place--

*crunch*

The Prefect moves his pawn.

*crunch*

Leona uses his queen to capture the other bi--

*crunch*

The Prefect moves his--

*crunch*

Leona captures--

*crunch*

The Prefect moves--

*crunch*

Leona--

*CRUNCH*

Leona pounds his fist onto the table in great frustration at the unceasing sounds of that DISGRACE of a feline chomping away at his chips with no regard for the people trying to focus, "Will ya just can it, ya little runt?!"

"It wouldn’t kill you to be nice for once, you know! The game's almost over, so it doesn't matter much anyway." The Prefect protests, making Leona's eyes widen.

"What...?" He responds before quickly looking back at the board.

Wait.

What?!

Well into his side of the board stands a single white pawn, clear as day, which the Prefect moves into Leona's first rank, setting it up for promotion.

"Well, well. I think I'll be promoting my pawn to a queen." The Prefect says, his face a twisted mirror of the smirk the lion himself had worn not too long ago, "And I do believe that's more or less checkmate!"

Scanning the board again, Leona realizes what the other man means.

He'd never moved his original queen, which left her poised to shut down any attempts to retreat on Leona's part and even if he did escape at first, there's no outrunning two queens with so few pieces left on the board.

He's well and truly trapped.

Begrudgingly accepting his defeat, Leona sighs, "Fine. I surrender."

"Yay!" The Prefect pumps his fist in the air, looking very pleased with himself before reaching into the bowl of chips the little runt had been devouring, finding it empty, "Grim! You know it's rude to eat all of the food meant for everyone! Go to the kitchen and get some more for me and Leona."

The direbeast complies with a disgruntled look on his face as Leona goes over the match in his head to figure out what went wrong.

How did he let himself get cornered like that?

"It’s called 'Misdirection', dearest." The Prefect says smugly, no doubt after reading Leona's expression, "When you keep someone's attention on one thing while you're busy doing something else under their nose?"

"Ok, but when did ya 'misdirect' me, as you so eloquently put it?" Leona fires back, rapidly losing patience.

"Well, technically *I* didn't do anything beyond trusting in those powerful beastman ears of yours." He answers in a way that makes everything click in the lion's brain.

"You had the furball eat those chips so loud that it would distract me from the game?" Leona asks in slight disbelief.

"Yes and no. I really wasn't confident that I'd win on a completely level playing field, so when Grim jumped in, I thought I'd play along and see where it would go." He answers matter-of-factly.

Leona can't believe what he's hearing, "So you're tellin' me that you based your strategy around the whims of a CAT?"

"Isn't that a mark of a good leader, though?" The Prefect tilts his head, "Being able to improvise and pull through when things aren't going as planned, I mean.”

"Ya say that like it's some failsafe 'Get out of jail free' card." Leona says, slightly irritated, "Ya came up with some halfway decent plans in the past, but no amount'a 'improvising' would've saved ya if they went south."

"Wh– says the guy who fell for one of those 'halfway decent plans!'" The Prefect counters, hitting the scar in the lion's pride dead-on, "Look down on my strategies all you want, it doesn't change the fact that they worked!"

"Only because ya skated by on dumb luck!" Leona stands up from his chair, thoroughly offended, "At least I have the sense to not leave the crux of the plan up to chance and 'improvise' if it doesn't work!"

"Well, at least it's better than shutting down and giving up once something goes wrong like you did just now! Like you did at the Spelldrive tournament!!!" The Prefect stands up as well, unyielding to the lion's gaze.

"ARE YA CALLIN' ME A QUITTER, YA MAGICLESS NOBODY?!" Leona practically roars, shoving his forehead against the other man's, uncaring of personal space, but the Prefect stands his ground all the same.

"BETTER A MAGICLESS NOBODY THAN A COWARD PRINCE!!!" The Prefect yells while pushing back and maintaining eye contact.

"WHAT'D YA JUST SAY?!"

"YOU HEARD ME!!!"

"Hey, Henchman! Turns out that was the last of those chips, so I made popcorn instead--" Grim says as he walks in on what may well have turned into a fistfight, "U-uh, what're you guys doing...?"

The Prefect quickly breaks away and sits back down, taking a deep breath to calm himself, "Nothing, Grim. Just a little discussion between friends. Right, Leona?"

"...mm." Is his sole response before sitting back down with a huff as well.

“Are ya sure?? You guys looked like ya were ready to throttle each other!” Grim says while cautiously walking forward and placing the bowl of popcorn on the table.

“Don’t worry, Grim.” The Prefect reassures his companion with a headscratch, “We were talking about what strategies we might use for the next match, isn’t that right?”

‘The next match, huh?’ Leona thinks to himself, initially not interested, but eventually deciding to “see where it goes.”

This was his thought after the first match.

And the second.

And the third.

And the four-- oh, screw it. He's having fun.

He can't really explain why, but playing with the Prefect has caused a fog he didn't know was there to lift from his mind.

It's made Leona realize something he should've known from the start.

A pawn has no hope of becoming a king, but with time, effort and some luck, he supposes, it can still become a queen, which is more than enough to win the day.

"Checkmate.”

[wooshofficial]

I’ve been ruminating on this last garages album for a bit, and wondering why I haven’t been sad.

For anyone unaware: The Garages released the last album of the “we are the garages” series, titled We’ve Been The Garages, as our last album before the release of Expansion and the simmering shutdown of the band as we knew it.

I had a huge hand in this album. I wrote two songs for it—one old, one new—and helped on two others. I helped with tracklisting. I put a lot of emotion + energy + work into this, and now that it’s out, I’m left with this feeling of pride and joy.

But from reactions here on tumblr and by friends, it’s clear that feeling just pride is a singularity. A lot of people are grieving the terminal loss of the band and at large, the shocking, sudden loss of Blaseball, the game that started it all. People are left with a hole where it used to be, and it is making them rightfully very sad. I’ve gone through these same experiences with them, so I should be sad, right? Hell, I’m a part of the band that’s ending- I should be distraught. I should be grieving, it feels like.

But I’m not. I can’t find it within myself to be sad about this release, nor can I be sad about the loss of Blaseball, nor that I have to do other things now. This is because of two reasons, one of which is more important than the other:

I’ve always been terrible at handling grief in a healthy or normal way (unimportant)

I have a very different mindset about this particular ending.

For me, this album isn’t a death. This is a graduation.

I’ve known for a long time that Blaseball was finite. It was born of an era that existed only because it had to, and once that era was over, so was the game. TGB put it best when they shut it down- it was unsustainable now that the pandemic had been societally declared over. Blaseball was built in the absence of a thing that was now back, and no one could dedicate their full time to it anymore now that they weren’t locked in their houses indefinitely. When I heard the news, I had a flash of anger on how it ended, but it was quickly replaced by a resolute feeling of knowing this was going to happen eventually. It was always going to end, and it’s a shame that it did so in this way, but it had to. I wasn’t sad about it.

And with the death of Blaseball came the death of the thing that had been the Garages’ muse for so long. How long could a thing last without life support, especially when we, the people behind the band, were subject to the same situation of being needed somewhere else? The Garages’ end was going to follow Blaseball’s eventually, even if it took nearly two years to do so. I knew this and understood this deeply.

I also knew that the end of the band wasn’t going to suddenly kill the bonds I had made with my bandmates, people I have the honor to call friends, best friends and colleagues. None of us were suddenly going to drop dead (knock on wood, you bitches better survive), we were just going to stand there after the lights went out and say “now what?”. There was always going to be an end, but there was also always going to be an after.

A graduation is not a funeral. You can grieve the fact that it’s over, but really, you are meant to reflect on the wonderful (or horrible) things that have occurred in the time since you’ve started. Take all the good and the bad and the deeply complex and turn it into fuel for the new you’re about to step into. Understand just how far you’ve gotten since that initial point, and maybe see how far you can go.

I graduated high school in June 2022, about 10 months into my being a part of the band. They were among the first people I told I was going to college and that I had just thrown my cap. It rained that day, and the venue was outdoors, and I had food poisoning, but when I threw that cap, I wasn’t upset at any of that. I wasn’t upset that high school was over (for a plethora of reasons), nor was I sad that I was going into a new part of my life. I was actually thinking about my graduation cap itself, and how hard I had worked on it the night before, painstakingly painting it and making sure it was perfect. I was so happy that I had done the damn thing, and it had gotten a moment to glimmer in the air, even if a little smeared due to the rain. I walked out of there that day so proud of myself for making it through and making that cap.

And almost ironically, the words I had painted were “I’ll figure it out eventually”. I didn’t know entirely what I was going to do after high school besides go to college, or what I wanted to get a job in, I just knew that there was going to be something there. I knew that I would keep going. All I had to say was “now what?”, because this was an end, yes, but there was always going to be an after.

I don’t know what the band will become after we release the last of our stored works. We have some ideas. We don’t know what our legacy will look like in a year, or five, or ten, or fifty. We don’t know what’s coming for us, but we’ll figure it out eventually. There’s always an after, and we will make it ours.

And I’m not sad about that.

[astra-ravana]

Polyamorous Heathens!

Polyamory is often embraced within pagan and witchcraft communities due to shared values of personal freedom, authenticity, and conscious relationships. Many pagans reject rigid societal norms, including traditional monogamy, in favor of relationship models that honor consent, communication, and emotional honesty. The mythologies and deities in various pagan paths often reflect diverse and non-monogamous expressions of love, further normalizing these dynamics. For witches and pagans, polyamory can be both romantic and a spiritual practice—rooted in love without ownership and a deeper understanding of self and others. Here we will explore why polyamory is so prevalent within these spaces.

Cultural and Philosophical Alignment

• Emphasis on Personal Freedom: Many pagan and witchcraft traditions prioritize autonomy, personal power, and nonconformity to mainstream societal norms. Polyamory, which challenges conventional ideas about relationships and ownership in love, aligns with these values.

• Rejection of Patriarchal Norms: A lot of modern pagan paths, especially goddess-centered or feminist witchcraft, critique patriarchal systems—including monogamy as it has often been practiced. Polyamory can be seen as a form of resistance to these inherited structures, offering more egalitarian and intentional forms of connection.

• Historical and Mythological Precedent: In many ancient pagan traditions, gods and goddesses had multiple lovers or relationships that weren't constrained by modern monogamous ideals. Pagans drawing from these myths see polyamory as a natural or sacred expression of love and desire.

Community Ethos

• Acceptance and Inclusivity: Witch and pagan communities often serve as havens for LGBTQIA+ individuals, neurodivergent folks, and others who live on the margins of mainstream culture. Polyamory fits into this inclusive ethos, where diverse expressions of identity and love are welcomed rather than judged.

• Open Communication and Intentionality: Both polyamory and pagan spiritual paths emphasize conscious living—making choices intentionally and communicating openly. In ethical polyamory, these same principles are crucial for navigating multiple relationships in a healthy, honest way.

Spiritual Benefits of Ethical Polyamory

• Deepened Self-Knowledge: Navigating multiple intimate relationships challenges individuals to confront jealousy, insecurity, and emotional triggers. This often leads to accelerated personal growth and spiritual introspection.

• Expanded Capacity for Love: Ethical polyamory pushes the idea that love is not a finite resource. It invites a more abundant mindset, where love is shared without diminishing its value, echoing spiritual concepts of universal love and interconnection.

• Sacred Relationships as Mirrors: In many spiritual traditions, relationships are seen as mirrors for self-growth. Having multiple partners means having multiple reflections—each showing different aspects of the self, catalyzing healing and awareness.

• Non-Attachment and Ego Work: Letting go of possessiveness and embracing fluid connection can be a profound spiritual practice. Ethical polyamory can foster non-attachment, helping practitioners reduce ego-driven desires and focus on genuine connection.

Polyamory is more common in pagan and witch communities because it harmonizes with values of personal freedom, sacred sexuality, and conscious living. When practiced ethically, it becomes more than a relationship style—it becomes a spiritual path in itself, challenging the practitioner to grow in love, honesty, and self-awareness.

[not-too-many-eyes]

Something really fun about 37's interpretation of "infinity" and her insignificance within it as comforting is that it's not really cause she's so small the universe doesn't care about her that gives her comfort, but because that means she is contained within it.

She is "apart of the infinite" and while infinite is infinite and she's ultimately not special in the grand scheme of things she and is theoretically replaceable and replicable, it makes her and everything else "eternal."

It's interesting as well that she also believes that being replaceable and replicable and finite and having bounds and means is still...maybe not exactly Valuable but not a flaw or problem when it comes to human existence.

It's an idea "something supreme existences" (ones who know, see, understand, everything, ones who can do anything they want) can never understand.

Not in a "there a things beyond mortal comprehension" or a "there's a point we as people cannot pass" way but in a "This lack of understanding and security in the world, this existence within it that is chaotic, fallible, unstable, and Unimportant. Gives us a completely different way of understanding the world." way.

Which is just really intriguing and reflects well on both her detachment from the physical world (because it's ultimately still a belief that the physical world is Unimportant and Unstable, and that the only things that are eternal are transcendental and numerical) and her choice to be "involved and suffering" within it. It's just putting her words into practice. Proving her theorem, if you will.

It's also interestingly close to the mindset she says "irrational numbers" display in this sense. Where Regulus doesn't accept having "all the answers" (infinite secrets) cause she wants to find them herself. Though 37 is already said to be appreciative of all numbers.

I haven't finished reading her Prisoner in the Cave character story or reviewing her appearances it's just something that was on my mind. But it's also interesting given that 37 still believes in something that is "eternal" and says that she doesn't like the word hobby cause it implies "something that doesn't last" even though she herself thinks that hers and everyone else's existences are finite. And how when she's talking to Sophia she mentions that:

Which again reflects on her detachment from the world. Everything will be washed away, however the Truth will not be. Though she says when you I2 her that:

37: The shape of truth is not fixed. Anyone who tries to figure it out is doomed to get lost on their way. So I decide to draw the one I assume… but just to get it out of my mind.

Implying a similar unreliable and unstable nature to truth. I dunno. A lot of things going on here. I need to read philosophy books or something for this-

[transgenderer]

attention conservation notice: utter bullshit

ok so i was thinking about the hippie thing where they say normies are "asleep". and i dont think that's really fair. but it does seem to me sometimes that many (most?) people arent...paying attention? or at least, not to the things i'm paying attention to. people talk about zoning out when they drive and suddenly waking at the end. and i used to do that, but i don't anymore. i pay attention, i think, i listen to music. i dont know what changed. in general i find it easy to get into a mode where i'm mostly just acting on autopilot (i start to do this wihle programming sometimes, and then the program doesnt work and i have to properly "boot up").

and this all seems...bad to me! you have a finite number of minutes, and most of the time youre not in like...pain, agony. its worth paying attention to everything youre experiencing, all your sensory information. its worth paying attention to how you think about things, and what you say, its all worth paying attention to. and it seems psychedelics shifted me into a more "paying attention" mindset

so anyway. all that is old news. you know this idea even if you dont agree with it. but it makes me think of the "dark room problem", in predictive coding theories of the brain. the idea is, essentially, that the brain is fundamentally a prediction organ, trying to minimize "surprisal", getting things wrong, being surprised by new information. but its a prediction organ that's connected to manipulators in the world. and it has certain base-level predictions hard-coded, like "i will not be hungry", and so operates to minimize surprisal by getting food or whatever.

it might be legit, real neuroscientists swear by it. but real neuroscientists swear by anything, so who knows. it has this problem, where if you want to minimize surprise, why not spend all your time in a dark room, not acquiring any new information? (there's all sorts of explanations for this, like maybe "social interaction" is one of our hard-coded predictions) and it seems to me that this "not paying attention", well...it looks a lot like a dark room! if you don't pay attention to things, you dont notice when your subconscious predictions are wrong. if your experience of the world is just a summary rather than a detailed experiencing of everything around you, then it's much easier to predict! and so one can imagine under this theory how this behavior would be rewarding, as long as you maintain satisfaction of those "hard-coded" predictions (and how curiosity is a sort of opposite urge, a monomaniacl fixation on predicting more and more details, by building a more elaborate model)

anyway, as i said up top, this is all nonsense. but it struck me, and i needed to get it out. it's neat, at least

[girl-lostconnection]

OMG I love the 141 concept you did a lil bit ago 😭😭😭

Since I am, ✨✨ just a girl✨✨ have you thought abt a part 2 a angst/comfort where reader isn’t dead and comes back all wounded and 141 goes overdrive

But I understand sometimes angst fics are awesome (guilty pleasures lol)

Thank youuuuu have a great day/night

So, I did in fact thought about it because practically every person that read the angst snippet was crying screaming throwing up and trying to find my address. But I also don’t really want to write a part with Reader returning.

I understand why so many people wanted it but I honestly didn’t plan to revive Reader. Because for me personally it felt like that would sway the focus point from them to 141 and how they were sort of “punished” for not noticing or for being not as observant as they maybe should have. And for me that defeats the purpose of my intention whilst writing the snippet.

Guilt and grief do not wash away the mistakes of the past. Sometimes death is death, sometimes things are finite in the most unfair fucking way and you don’t get a say in that.

I understand that probably many people would be thrilled to see a continuation of sorts about it. But I don’t want there to be one. In a way it was my letter to other versions of 141 I am writing.

You always feel like you have so much time, that you are destiny, that no matter what happens you will come back together. Sometimes it doesn’t happen.

Sometimes it’s nobody’s fault. It’s just happens and you have to accept that it does.

But also, as someone who for a long time was reading 141 fics with a “well, I’d be a third wheel or fifth leg in this setting” mindset — No.

You and I are everything and more than these fictional men could dream of. Than real people could dream of. We exist to live for the pleasures we can partake in, experiences we can learn and excitement we get to feel.

Our value is not defined by someone realising that we were important only when we are gone.

We define our value. Not men, not relationships, not even stuff we do for other people. We deserve adoration, we deserve devotion, we deserve love.

I enjoy writing these things because it allows me to dig maybe a little deeper than I would have voluntarily gone in real life while keeping me safe distance away from it all. I do like angst and hurt comfort pieces. It’s just that this specific one for me was just *shrugs* a way to work through what I felt.

Honestly, I never expected it to blow up.

And thank you so much for your ask, the answer is a little longer and a little messier than I planned but I hope I answered your question in full! You have a good one too🌟

[draculasfavoritewife]

Idle Hands

Summary: Whenever Tony forgets to go to bed, it's always been up to you to bring him back to your side.

Pairing: Tony Stark x fem!Reader

Warnings: Heavy on the softness compared to most of my other stuff; I was in a very sentimental (read: sad and touch-starved) mood back when I wrote this lol. Tony Stark is a TEASE both in word and deed -- I have said it is canon therefore it is now. The feral way he makes me feel should be illegal. Also you can read the...implications of my vague wordings towards the end as tame or as smutty as you wish ;)

I feel the need to mention here that Tony Stark has been my most favorite comic book character since I was but a mere 11 years old. He holds the distinction of being my longest-running fictional crush/object of my obsessions and I love him so deeply and for so many little reasons that I could write a PhD dissertation on him. So please enjoy my little love letter to the man that has held my heart for nearly a decade and a half <3

It's that point of the night where you really can't decide if it should be counted as ungodly late or ungodly early. 4:00 am does tend to scramble the thoughts.

You've been drifting in and out of an uneasy sleep for what feels like forever, and as you roll away from the digital clock display on the wall with an annoyed sigh, you suddenly see why.

The other side of the bed is utterly untouched.

He hasn't been here with you at all.

You sit up, trying to remember if he had plans tonight. The calendar app on your phone has no record of a gala, awards ceremony, board meeting, or anything else that might have taken up his time.

Which means he's probably down in the lab again.

Briefly, you contemplate trying to call him, but you know from experience that he probably isn't taking calls right now, even if FRIDAY tried to put one through for you. He's in that zone that only designing and building can put him in, the one mindset where his too-busy brain is crystal clear and the world at last makes sense to him.

So you pull yourself out of bed, throw one of his old sweatshirts on over your cami and pajama shorts (he keeps the AC cranked all the way whenever it's warm outside) and pad out of the bedroom and on your way downstairs.

His lab is awe-inspiring as always, no matter how many times you see it. The purring thrum of the generators and the comforting pulse of dimmed lights, the heavy, electric feeling of the air itself -- he's described his workspace to you as having a life of its own before, and you can understand so well why time escapes him down here.

You just hope he's not using it to escape from other things as well.

He's deeply absorbed in his work on something at a station opposite the door, and your heart skips a beat even as you smile fondly at the familiar sight. Clad in sweatpants and a black tank through which you can just barely see the blue glow of his arc reactor, he looks all at once more human than usual and like some being from another world entirely.

It's the Stark curse, he told you once, and you recall the wry slant of his lips as he said so. To know you're a god trapped in a mortal body, an infinite mind with a finite number of years to use it. It's the reason behind all his greatest triumphs -- and all his harshest falls from grace.

And somehow, you were lucky enough to be the one he fell in love with.

It still feels like a dream sometimes.

Realizing he isn't going to look up on his own anytime soon, you stifle a yawn and knock sharply on the doorframe.

"Tony?"

He stiffens as if he's been shocked (always a possibility, when he's rewiring) and shoves the safety glasses high up on his forehead. "That would be yours truly. Everything alright?"

With a laugh, you cross the room, warmth rising in your chest as he immediately sets down his tools and steps out from behind the table to meet you. And damn, he always looks good -- he is Tony Stark, after all -- but there's always something about him when his hair gets all unruly and he has THAT look of intense concentration on his face that really drives home to you all over again just how gorgeous he is.

You cuddle up to him, and he kisses the top of your head.

"Asked you a question, Honey."

"Do you know what time it is, Tony?"

There's a prolonged moment of answering silence as he glances up at one of his nearby monitors. "Crap. Well, why are you up?"

Pulling back slightly so you can tease the protective eyewear off his head, you give him a look. "Can't sleep."

An eyebrow tilts; he's playing dumb.

"And that's my problem why?"

"Jerk." You take your time playing with his glossy dark hair, neatening it back up before raking your fingers through it to mess it up again. "Maybe because you love me...?"

"Oh, so you're down here looking for sympathy, got it." He smirks at you, a well-practiced and infuriatingly handsome look. "In that case, sorry about your insomnia, Beautiful. There's melatonin in the drug cabinet upstairs." He snares the safety glasses from your fingers once more and makes as if to return to his work. "Sympathetic enough for you?"

You wrap your arms around his waist from behind, stopping him from going any further, though the smug son of a bitch starts tinkering with his new designs again even through your persistent clinging. It mesmerizes you for a couple seconds, always has, the way his hands work with such delicate precision and dexterity, and you can't help selfishly wishing he would turn them towards other, less...mechanical endeavors at this moment.

He probably would, in all honesty, but Tony Stark is the king of making you work for it. Philanthropic he may be, but some things even you have to earn from him when he's feeling particularly devilish.

"I don't want your pity," you hum, pressing a sleepy kiss to his shoulder. "I was lonely without you."

"Perfectly understandable. I've been told by many that I'm scintillating company. You can, by all means, stay and watch me work, you know. Feeds my humble ego."

You roll your eyes and impatiently reach up under his shirt, feeling his muscles tense at the unexpected coldness of your hands.

That finally gets his attention and makes him turn around. Before you can even fully comprehend it, he's swept his work out of the way and lifted you up onto the worktable instead, restless fingers drawing intricate patterns on your inner thighs, though his eyes never leave yours, crystalline blue pinning your attention to his amused face instead of his very distracting hands.

"That," he grins, "was adorable. Sleepy version of you is so much more demanding. Maybe I should stay down here too long more often."

You try to frown at him, though his sparkling gaze and mischievous touch make that impossible. "How dare you."

"I do a lot of dumb things to see where they get me. You know that." He nods at the thick gray sweatshirt still keeping you warm. "Why don't you take that off for me, Sweetness. You make me cold, I get to return the favor."

Unable to come up with something snarky to say in return with the way his hands are making you shiver now, you do as he suggests with little resistance, the exposed skin of your arms and chest prickling at the much cooler air.

He leans in to tenderly kiss your neck, and your breath leaves in a sigh at the way his facial hair scratches at your throat. He's always been a helluva kisser and the meticulously maintained goatee is just the icing on the cake. Making out on his worktable was not the original plan when you first came down here, but even by his own admission Tony's best plans are usually improvised.

And you're certainly not complaining.

"What did you want from me again?" he murmurs, close to your ear.

The absolute audacity of him.

"Mmmmmmm," seems to be about all you can manage at the moment, and you know very well what's coming next.

He pulls you closer to him, the movements of his fingers turning agonizingly slow and prompting a slight gasp from you.

The smile that gradually spreads its way across his mouth is absolutely wicked.

"What was that, Sweetheart? I didn't quite catch it."

You try to reclaim some semblance of coherence, but his firm hold on you prevents you from escaping his delightfully systematic torture, so instead you grab on to his well-defined shoulders, your forehead resting against his chest. The mechanically-stabilized beat of his heart echoing beneath his skin a brief reminder that he's alive, despite everything he's been through, and he is yours. There's no one else on his mind, no one else he's let this far into his messy and often painful world.

The world may know him as Iron Man, the one who has saved them more times than they could ever count, but how many people really know the Tony that you know?

That same Tony who now raises one hand to tip your head back, whose sharp eyes soften with affection for the slightest of seconds before the anticipated words fall from his tongue, the words he knows will always unravel you.

"You just have to tell me what you want. Come on, Princess. Use your words."

You shudder and lean in to beg for another kiss.

"You, Tony. Always you. Please."

He kisses you back with renewed intensity, leaving you completely breathless.

"There we go...was that so hard?"

[lsunstreakerl]

Not my dumbass seeing 'winreem' and bc i don't know who what where that is immediately stop reading to do a quick Google search... Which (obviously) had exactly 0 answers for me lmao.

Anyways! Max is not there cause he's pregnant!!! Also our childREN?????

Mick climbing through the window and attacking Rico to see if be could rlly protect his queen. So valid.

Also pls tell me the Winreems are not endangered 🥺 I always feel so bad about hunting lol but it's also a bit about how I personally get really stressed while thinking about finite resources. Like. What if one day it's just gone you know?

Honestly the fighting scene was really good!! While reading I was even wondering if the northerners took fighting inspiration from the winreems or like if their style adapted to winreem hunting and I was gonna send an ask about that but then you beat me to it in the ficlet!!

I ate this up as usual 😋😋

whoops— in fairness, usually you can google most of the stuff I talk about in a ficlet. except for the un-googleable winreem.

potentiallyyyyyyy! listen, the apothecary and the midwives are saying all signs point to twins, you can't blame rico for being optimistic. (and by signs, I mean superstitions.)

mick and max are besties for life. he never would've tolerated max's husband being weaker than him!

they are not endangered :) they actually grow out of control when the population is left unchecked, so there's a bit of a delicate balance going on there between the winreems and the people up north. the verstappen's have a very, very long lineage of being skilled winreem hunters.

that lineage shows in their fighting style! northern fighting definitely takes inspiration from the winreems, but max (and victoria) are both able to feel it when they're fighting— they just have that mindset that not everyone can reach.

[stardustchimera]

Fascism is just the logical conclusion of the capitalist mindset. The idea that a person deserves better quality of life because of where they were born or who their parents were. Money is a man-made finite resource that can grant you anything, even time. Most people don't have the money to do better for themselves and the world around them, so they accept subpar conditions for themselves, and decide that it is not bad. This happens generation by generation, each one accepting worse and worse, no moral reasoning required- they're just doing what they have to to survive. And more and more people feel they deserve better, they worked harder, they did more important things. But importance is made up to justify what deserves more or less money, and good is unimportant in the face of survival, and survival is unimportant to those whose survival is ascertained, thus desire lives above all else. Desire to be above others, desire for control, desire for land, desire for recognition, desire for praise, desire for sex, desire for luxury. All above survival, which has been above good forever by this point.

[alexxncl]

‼️NIGHTBRINGER LESSON 34 SPOILERS‼️

masterlist | all lessons | season 2 | lesson 33 | lesson 35

i might be getting ahead of myself here, but are we lilith ?? like is that what's happening rn ??? he's not saying mc's name, and raphael doesn't day their name in the next scene...if so then that's actually really fucking sad 💀

it makes sense though, belphie not wanting mc to go into his head bc he's still clinging to the past and doesn't want to lose them forever like he lost his little sister forever, especially since human life is so finite compared to that of a demon or an angel or a reaper

also it's obvious by his choice of words that despite him looking older, belphie is very, very young in his mindscape, just like mammon was. i feel like this also shows how close mams and belphie are even if it's not shown much on screen in the game, or at least how much belphie takes after mammon's, if not all of his older brothers traits, for better or worse

well nvm...i still think my theory is valid though. belphie wants to go back to his old life and end up not losing lilith, but still have mc with him

i wonder how similar mammon and belphie's bond in the celestial realm is to their bond in the devildom. is belphie still as reluctant to ask for help and advice openly? is the banter still the same? are there less insults? how does the age gap here cause them to treat each other differently if at all? or the lack of angelic status?

oh i'm gonna cry

big brother mammon will always have my heart and i need more of him

we know belphie's love of stars and constellations and the night sky in general started when he was in the celestial realm, and seeing it manifest in mammon in his mindscape makes my heart happy, even if mammon isn't the reason he became interested in astronomy (was it michael? lucifer? idk i don't remember)

i also think it's very interesting how belphie's brain is actively working against him "wanting to hide from mc". he literally said "i don't want you to see the inside of my mind" and is hiding away from them. i think, in reality and in his mindscape, he's running from the fact that he has to face his feelings about the idea of mc leaving to go to the "human realm" and the possibility of losing them forever like he lost lilith

this was (obviously) not beel speaking, but his inner thoughts in the shape and voice of beel. circling back to belphie having the best and worst traits of his brothers, his insecurity and need for reassurance rivals levi's, and we don't get to see it as blatantly because he masks it way better than levi does

ok so we're here in the timeline...interesting. how much time passed between luci and dia's first meeting and the celestial war? how much time had passed between the celestial war and mc's initial arrival to the devildom? how much had belphie aged?

angels and demons age different than humans do, and belphie doesn't feel any older than like...10 or 11 at the most, but beel seems older than that. maybe its his mind warping things to make himself seem and feel younger, but maybe he really was that young. was lilith even born at this point? how old was belphie during the time of the war ?????

also i'm mad we didn't get to see michael bc i wanna know what he looks like but oh well 🧍🏾

oh baby :((((

i'm not the biggest belphie fan AT ALL, at least canon belphie, but i think it's necessary to acknowledge how his trauma severely affects the way he acts. he went from blaming himself, to blaming an entire race of people for his sister's death. he feels like he should've been the one to die, even if it meant leaving his twin without him

now, if he got a proper redemption arc after lesson 16, THEN we could talk. i think the devs fumbled his character in that regard, but my hcs about his redemption will have to suffice for now

he didn't want mc to see this dark part of himself because he hates that he still has this mindset, that he's trapped in a cycle of "what ifs" and wishing it were him instead of her, constantly ruminating and letting his anger and grief fester without ever dealing with it properly and letting himself heal. he not only thinks he doesn't deserve to heal, but that he doesn't deserve to live long enough to see himself heal, that he doesnt deserve to live at all

WHY ARE YOU BEING DIFFICULT????

i mean i knew this would happen since its only lesson 34 and there's still 6 more to go...but damn

i love and hate the fact that he's so smart. like, they could easily just ask barbatos to send them back to the human realm if it was that serious. he's clearly taken a liking to them. lucifer knows something's up, and he won't forge a pact with them until he gets to the bottom of whatever's going on

initially, i thought it was a spell to bring them back since he'd been the one facilitating the trips into the brothers' mindscapes this whole time, but this is wayyy more interesting

i feel like the barbatoses communicate across timelines, or that their lives intermingle with each others' somehow, so whatever they feel for one person in a specific timeline is felt for ever version of them in every timeline. we know barbatos, at the very least, knows that kayden is an important person in the grand scheme of things, whether it be because of the way diavolo feels about them or because they play a large part in the obey me version of a canon event

if it's more than base level importance, we can assume that there's a level of trust and love that barbatos feels for mc that stretches across time (callback to the login screen's dialogue)

maybe he gave us the piece of the grimoire for a reason outside of belphie's mindscape escapades. what if this is how we gain lucifer's trust? if a demon as powerful as barbatos can give mc a piece of his grimoire, then he should be able to make a pact with them, seeing as they're trustworthy enough to be in cahoots with THE time demon

anyways barbatos is nightbringer and you can't tell me otherwise. unless you think it's michael. then i might hear you out...i'm stuck between thinking either of them is the titular character simply because of the simultaneous lack and abundabce of emphasis on michael's importance

[arclundarchivist]

[Spoilers C3E103] Can we talk about…

How some of the party and members of the fandom are just kinda… ignoring how bad things are right now, and it’s wholly Ludinus’s fault??

Like there is this focus on what comes next, and Ashton’s belief that things will somehow *just get better*, but look the fuck around at what Ludinus did when it just comes to him reaching Predathos.

Wards destroyed, resurrection fucked, transportation and communication hamstrung.

They Key is mangling the leylines to the point where not matter *what* happens magic is going to be altered in a way it wasn’t before.

And that’s not even getting into the aggressive alien army he’s now letting run roughshod across Marquet.

If the Gods die/vanish, why is there this concept that those magics will just be fine, when shit is already fucked from his manipulations?

Something *ate* half of the Turst Fields, a farming community that was a staple for all of Tal’Dorei.

Desirat is free, which for those not in the know was trapped beneath a volcano directly next to Beau’s hometown and was the source of about of the geometric activity in the region. I can’t imagine things went *well* there.

*Something* sent sea monsters racing in fear towards the shore in Nicordranas, I’ll give you three guesses.

We saw what happened to that bastion in the Grey Valley, *what the fuck do you think has happened at Bazzozan* the former seat of the Demon Lords?

The Empire of fucked five ways to Sunday.

The Horn of Orcus may be waking up the dead beneath Vasselheim.

And that’s just the shit *we know about*

Is all of that just, what, gonna go back to normal if the Gods die/go away? Fuck no! Now I’ll admit, that doesn’t mean things will go back to normal if the Gods are victorious of course, but I wild bet good money shit would be easier to handle if a vast chunk of the world wasn’t also going through a vast identity/cultural crisis.

Also shit since we’re on hypotheticals let me ask another one.

Folks talk a lot about how divine magic will be fine if the gods vanish, not really acknowledge the colossal amount of trauma and confusion that will afflict every culture as they are abandoned/lose their gods, and we don’t actually know what kind of effect that will have on clerics.

What about the arcane?

Matt never said the Arcane predates the Gods. (Not that I’m aware of anyway.)

In fact if anything Downfall hammered home that the arcane is a creation of Tengar. They leave or die, what happens to it?

Also, shit think about this, wouldn’t the Gods want all the power they could to possibly survive Predathos? Now the Arc Heart, the gifter, not the creator, it seems, claims to be fine with being finite.

You wanna know who isn’t?

The Spider Queen, who if how things were presented in Downfall are true, claims to have given arcane magic to the Arc Heart and regrets it.

Do you think *she* wouldn’t snatch that back out of spite to give her even a bit of a chance to survive? She’s the *most* Betrayer, Betrayer.

I just can’t grasp Ashton’s mindset at all, or those that seem to be agreeing with him and I’m just staring at all the shit that has already gone wrong and wondering how shit doesn’t just get infinitely worse if such a colossal and drastic change takes place.