#I chose the last option of the first poll

[wundrousarts]

While I'm doing a bunch of housekeeping, I want to run this by folks. October is a ways away, but I always start thinking about the upcoming prompt list months ahead of time. I know that a lot of people (myself included) struggle to get through it, so I want to shorten it for this year and the future. I am thinking of going with 9 prompts, but I want to know what other people think. Also, if anyone has any other feedback regarding Mogtober, please don't hesitate to share.

[christiansorrell]

Play-By-Blog #0: Cloud Empress

My first Play-By-Blog (of Luke Gearing's The Isle) just recently wrapped up, and now, we are getting the next one going with Cloud Empress: Land of Cicadas! If you missed our run through The Isle, you can find all of the entries here.

Recently, I ran a poll to see what folks were interested in for this second Play-By-Blog and the voting was an exact tie between Cloud Empress and Mausritter, but since I'm the one doing all the writing, I was the tiebreaker and chose Cloud Empress and its hexcrawl, Land of Cicadas, as a new twist on the Play-By-Blog format and because the game has a set of solo rules in which you create and play as an entire party, not just a single character.

If you aren't familiar with Cloud Empress, here's a quick description straight from the game's product page:

Cloud Empress is an expansive, Nausicaa-inspired fantasy campaign setting for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. Cloud Empress places you in a world ruled by the patterns of giant magical cicadas. Cloud Empress creates a new Earth, thousands of years in the future inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and Hiromu Arakawa’s Full Metal Alchemist.

The full rulebook for the game is FREE over at DriveThruRPG.

Land of the Cicadas takes this world and opens it up across a large hexmap, allowing us to explore the Lowland Wastes (Cloud Empress's take on a farflung future American Midwest) during the summer of the Century Brood and 29th Expedition (an ongoing military incursion from the Cloudling cities).

If you missed the last Play-By-Blog, here's an idea of how it works:

I write up the situation, NPCs, and more, just like a DM/GM.

You vote in the poll to help decide the party's next course of action.

I roll the dice, resolve actions, and write them up in the next entry.

So on and so forth for the rest of the adventure!

With all that said, let's get into Party Creation, vote on our first decisions, and get this whole thing started! Thanks for coming along for the ride.

We'll be generating 3 characters for our starting party. For the sake of our first poll and the number of base Jobs available in Cloud Empress, I'll take the top 3 most popular results and roll up a character for each (unless the All Random option wins the entire poll, in which case all characters will then be randomly rolled). So if Sellsword gets 8 votes, Lordling gets 4, Magician gets 3, and Courier gets 2, I'll roll up a Sellsword, a Lordling, and a Magician.

For variety's sake, we won't double up on Jobs (unless All Random is chosen, in which case it would be possible to get doubles of a Job within the party).

In Cloud Empress, there are 4 different Jobs available to characters:

Sellswords can handle themselves in a fight, but long to find a home. The long lost fighters and gritty mercs of the Wastes.

Lordlings are groomed to lead and strike fear into those around them. Strange and privileged, they stand out among the Wastes.

Magicians sacrifice their bodies to cast dangerous spells. Esoteric but powerful. There are no old Magicians.

Couriers are scrappy travelers who’ve witnessed the best and worst of the world. The salt of the chalk-covered Earth.

After we have our characters, we'll get our starting location and our initial job - the focus of our travels across the Land of Cicadas - from the Solo Procedure tables. Then, we'll be off!

[gleasonlovesjasontodd]

🎀also this post is talking about my real life jason todd and i know some people are mad about me using the tags but this is how people who want updates find my posts for updates so don’t read if you don’t wanna hear just scroll also i did a poll and mostly a lot of people want me to use these tags🎀

okay this is my update from our date thursday so he picked me up at my house and i had my cute blair waldorf outfit even curled my hair and put my cute embroidered bow on and we drove to barnes and noble and we listened to his music which had a mix of 80s and some 60s and he added taylor swift for me (i died dead when i heard superman playing) and so we decided that we would buy each other a book to read like alsomething we wouldn’t typically read and he said choose a romance book and i was like are you sure and he said absolutely and i chose him icebreaker because i really liked that book and he got me a freakin jane austen book which don’t kill me i’ve only read pride and prejudice but he got me the book emma and it was like the pretty cover and we met up 10 minutes later after we bought them and i got him a little harry potter bookmark cause he likes harry potter and he smiled at it and he has dimples which is so cute and then he asked if i wanted to keep looking around and i said of course and he held my hand which i blushed at and we were talking about some books and we probably were the only people in the store and i was leaning on the bookcase because my back was hurting (thank you cheer 🙄) and his hand was right by my face which is so jason todd coded and i wanted to just kiss him there but obviously i didn’t and then he asked about my love for fashion cause we were right by the fashion books and i told him i just really enjoy it and then the comics and graphic novels were right next to the fashion books and he said i’m gonna go look at these and i said you read comics and i am so thankful he did not notice how red my cheeks were and he said yeah i read them mostly online now but sometimes i just look at them when i come here and i asked what he prefers and he said batman and that he is a huge batman fan and i said that’s good to know but inside i was dying and we sat down in like the kids section as he was explaining me his comics and he was so cute doing it and i didn’t wanna tell him i understood everything he was saying because i like batman as well and then he said we should probably get dinner so we checked out and went to a nice restaurant and then we talked more getting to know each other more and then at dessert time when the waitress brought the the tray he asked if there’re was any sugar free options for me because i’m diabetic and i died dead at the table and was so fucking red then after he took me home and we kissed that was my first kiss and his hand his musclar hand was on my face and i was blushing so hard once again before he walked me to my door and then left and then he texted me saying he had a good time with me and i said me too and we need to go back again and then yesterday we didn’t see each other cause i left for nationals but he said he was gonna watch me on the channel we were on and then today he sent me flowers because he knew i was nervous and sad since this year is technically my last year cheering

[moonelnone]

LUFFY WANTS TO FLY A KITE AU QnA!!! Thank you for supporting my mini comic, as a ty I compiled a bunch of questions below.!

it’s a long one, so beware!

Q (Anonymous): What inspired you to write this comic? Outside the horrors what are you trying to tell?

A: Inspiration would probably be the frequent hallucinations I have and my longing to go back in the fields... I miss my cows 😭 As for the story i’m trying to tell.. It’s a bit hard to explain without spoiling the story….

Q: (@oddity-txt): For your kite au- what do ace and sabo see when they look at luffy?

A: Clearly something that isn't Luffy, but it looks like Luffy

Q: (Anonymous): Since Vivi is introduced would she play a key role or would she appear for like just a few parts, would she have a blog like Sabo?

A: She's important to the story!! She's child of the pastor in this au-- Sabo and Ace used to be Altar servers for his church so they have history of working with her before... As for a blog.. No not really. Though if you look close enough you'll find that you can contact Vivi just before the events of the story to pry information.. But unfortunately whatever happens to her is set in stone •ᴗ• Q: (@washingmachineonfir ): Can you elaborate in religion topic in the city? About the house, why its like this? How many kids disappear?

A: The religion in ASL's neighborhood is simple, you know it already. Now about the house? You don't wanna know. As for the kids... hm.. Depends on how many kids can fill a school bus Q: (@courtroomac3): Hi

A: Get outta here boy Q: White boy Flavor of the month...

A: idk Q: (@humoofsegsual) Is there a possible ending in which everyone dies?

A: nods nods, when that happens everything disappears . Don't forget to say goodbye before it happens!!!! Q: (@plastirk): What kinds of trigger warnings are we gonna see?

A: everything in this list

Q: (Anonymous): Why does Nika go after Ace and Sabo?

A: Because Luffy wants to be with them . But Nika doesn’t want to let go of Luffy.

Q: (Anonymous): Does Nika hate Ace and Sabo?? all their interactions with them are with malice 😭

A: I wouldn’t say malice I suppose… I’d say maybe frustration?

Q: (Anonymous): Where are other characters in this? Like Garp, Dragon, and etc

A: They’re living their normal lives somewhere else!! Koby and Helmeppo are employees at the store Sabo often goes to. Vivi is a librarian, her father is a priest in the town’s church, she met Ace and Sabo a lot because they were altar servers back then! Law is one of the brothers’ neighbors, he frequently leaves though. (Copy pasted from my discord)

Q: (Anonymous): Is it true that one of the brothers might die ☹️

A: . Yes! Im cheering for their downfall! but you guys aren’t 😞

Q: (Anonymous): Are ASL biologically related here?

A: …No

Q: (Anonymous): What does the kite have to do with this au?

A: It’s something Luffy owns!!!! Don’t worry about it too much ;]

Q: (Anonymous): Is there a symbolism with the ghost costume? It makes me wonder what was it for other than to scare A and S

A: It’s by far the biggest hint in the first part 😵‍💫 I wonder if anyone caught it at first

Q: (Anonymous): Are Luffy’s friends going to appear? (Zoro, Nami, Sanji, and Ussop?)

A: mhm! You’ll see one or two of them sooner or later

Q: (Anonymous): What wouldve happened if we chose the other option in the first two parts?

A: The first poll would’ve decided on who runs the ‘blog’ ^w^!!

the one who wasn’t pick was cursed to run a tumblr blog lmao

Last Question:

Q: (Anonymous): Why are Luffy’s friends here if Nika just wanted him?

A: Luffy treasures his friends.!!

Bonus:

Q: (Anonymous): Will Detective Chopper have the same horror elements as the Kite au?

A: Yeah, but I suppose it’s more drama oriented

[hilkaro]

I've played through the DLC for TPoF countless times. Eventually, after some time, I unlocked an achievement I had no idea existed - called Real Simp. I completely forgot about it, but when I wanted to play the game again next time, alongside the memelord mode, another one called Simp Mode appeared. I turned it on, and OH MY GOD, IT COMPLETELY CHANGES THE GAMEPLAY! I don't know about other characters, but with Fox, everything is better.

At the beginning, of course, there's the auction where you beg the announcer to take you every time you have the chance. Then you wake up in a bunker, and that's when the real rollercoaster begins. From my experience, I can immediately say that Chat doesn't matter at all, only Fox's points matter. I'll give you a brief walkthrough in case you haven't unlocked it yet.

Warning: spoilers ahead!

You wake up in the bunker, it's dark, you're tied up. You make noise and catch Fox's attention. Nothing changes here, but your thought process is… significantly different. Someone is in front of me. I focus my gaze and see my favorite beastkin. He looks great, only he wears a mask covering his handsome facial features. Too bad, a great pity.

Fox asks how you feel and if you remember anything. You get several options, including a new one to click on: I meant your bedroom. This leads to a dialogue: You: (sigh), I don't want to be rude, I really appreciate that you fulfilled my request and took me, but I meant your bedroom more than this musty basement. He is silent for a moment, looking at you, then bursts into laughter.

It's the standard text about not worrying because you made the choice to be his co- star. You look around, see cameras, he says no one has ever asked to go with him before. Then you notice the lingerie he chose for you, praise it, and he's happy, standard. For a while, nothing changes; you choose the option to Stay quiet, then Put it back. Fox turns to the cameras and talks to Chat.

This wasn't what I expected from our first night. I'm a little disappointed, you think bitterly.

Let's move on to the foot and there's a slight difference here. Fox: She's gotten nice and wet… What do you think Chat? You (smiling weakly): I'm nice and wet, not only there But Fox rudely interrupts you by sticking his finger into your wound.

Still nothing changes. When you get a choice, you click on Beg him to stop. He cuts you with a knife until you bleed, you cry, standard. At WoundFucker's request, Fox starts choking you, but before you choose the Please, I don't want to die option. He chokes you with a cable until you pass out, then he smashes your face on the concrete, great.

The next game is a gun blowjob and here you have to click Obey confidently, because this time Fox forgot to do the poll. So you do your thing, looking deep into his eyes, he touches himself , nice time. Everyone is impressed by your skills, so you survive, but it's not over yet, because the icing on the cake awaits you. AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Once Fox holds your poor eyelids, a new narrative emerges. I know well what will happen next…. And you can select the Open Mouth option, but it only lasts for a few seconds, so you have to be quick. Once you manage to click it, this appears: I open my mouth and stick out my tongue. He must be surprised by my reaction, because the grip of his claws on my head weakens and I manage to squeeze my eyes shut at the last moment, just before his cum lands all over my face and hair. But not in DAMN EYE! Fox is a bit surprised, ends the stream and you pass out from blood loss.

You wake up in a cell. He speaks to you with ordinary words. You look around and express the hope that now that you've performed so well, Fox will finally take you to his home. He just laughs and states that you now work for him. He's about to leave when you stop him and choose the option: Please stay, I don't want to be alone. Fox tilts his head, with a half-smile, remains silent for a moment, and exits without a word.

Then, you sit in the cell and contemplate. All narratives about the eye are, of course, omitted. You worry that perhaps you didn't try hard enough, considering Ren didn't want to take you home. Since you care so much about him, you decide to give it your all the next time you see each other.

Finally, they come to you. You dress up in a sexy mesh outfit and decide firmly that you'll survive this stream too. When given the option, you choose: Please go easy on me, and Fox likes it. He's about to start when someone asks: What happened to her? And Fox tells and shows everything. Fortunately, your eye is intact.

You move on to the soldering game, and when he asks you, you confidently reply that it's a soldering gun. You're not stupid, duh. Fox burns a heart on your back, and when he shows it on the camera, you comment aloud: You: Wow, it looks great, much better than a tattoo. Fox: I'm glad I fit into your tastes, darling.

Then you let him set up your arm without any protests, standard.

And the sex scene. Not much changes here except when Ren wants to put a tentacle dildo in your mouth, you have a time-limited chance to click: Open your mouth. Probably just to score points with Fox. Of course, while you're at it, you're pushing against him with all your might, in fact, you've been dreaming about him fucking you. It's a bit shame to be in front of the camera and with that collar with needles, but you don't complain, you take what they give you.

After everything, perhaps the biggest change. Because there's no longer an eye operation. Instead, there's a game with a nail gun for questions and answers. The first question is, of course, about Fox's name, and here, a window appears WHERE YOU CAN TYPE YOUR OWN ANSWER! There's no other option; you type REN HANA, all in capital letters, because you're so excited to finally let it out at this moment. He looks at you carefully, averts his gaze, and… shoots!! Shocking. Here, I think there may be several reasons for doing so. Firstly, theoretically,you don't have the right to know his name as MC, and maybe it unsettled him, put him on high alert or something. Or it could be an option that it was a warning shot. Ren didn't want to reveal his identity to Chat. Generally, the matter is a bit strange because if you answer all the questions correctly, he shoots a nail into the middle of our forehead, killing you. Okay. Some sample questions: What is today's date?, Whose father is my most loyal patron? And the question about the last letter of the alphabet, but it's time-limited. If you answer this incorrectly, Fox mocks you. After this wonderful game, you are forced to remove the nail from your body, which is quite painful but concludes the second show. You lose consciousness.

You have various dreams, when a touch wakes you up. Fox strokes your head. The beginning of the conversation is the same, there are no texts about the eye prosthesis because you have that eye. You ask: Why are you helping me? He explains that Chat loves you, but it is picky, and you may not survive for long. You relax and gaze at him, and he points out that it's not very polite. You ask, Who did this to you? He responds in the usual way. But your reaction is different. You: Are you sure? Fox: About what? You: That if it weren't for that person, you would be in exactly the same place doing exactly the same thing as now? Fox measures you with a probing look from half-closed lids and says it's time for him. Then you have the option to click: Hug him. You do it, and he looks at you surprised. You ask him not to leave yet because you don't want to be alone. He also lightly hugs you and strokes your head. After some time, you drift away.

And the ending. THE BEST.

You wake up in a bright room. Apparently, someone's bedroom. You feel an electric collar around your neck. Fox appears, wrapped only in a towel, wet hair, bangs falling on his forehead. He pins you to the wall, his eyes glowing, and says: I decided to keep you for myself. You're mine.

[cinamun]

Wow, its been forever since I opened this thing up but so much has happened since graduation day which was apparently the last entry. Turns out, college degrees are totally worth it. But only if they are free... deadass. I know, I know... privilege. Anyway, I love writing and found this poll that said the best option for me was Communications, so I went into journalism. I nailed it but it got nasty, switched over to PR and have been climbing the ladder ever since...

I guess I chose the right path since I just reached the top of the career. I've also been discovering so much about myself

I always knew there was more to me than just a hot-headed romantic with a love for the arts... like why did I love swimming and running so much?

Go figure... good thing my mom told me to find what I love. Turns out being active is just part of who I am. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about what it would have been like to be a simlympic athlete. Gold medals instead of framed paper... whatever. That's life I guess.

I also love writing and Jayce was right, my children's book series on swimming is now required reading at Copperdale Elementary! But my favorite is Love on Vinyl...

Its how I met the love of my life... My first everything.

He makes me feel like I'm a superstar. He makes me feel the way dad told me I'm supposed to feel when I'm with someone.

He has this little strut that he does after he shaves his back hair...

And he's a goofball, and he cracks me up and I can't imagine coming home and him not being there... and I can't believe I'm going to call him my husband soon.

But its real, its all real. I'm thriving, I'm happy, I'm healthy, I'm paid and I'm loved.

What more could I ask for?

Not a damn thing.

Her safe space | Next

[whomstress]

Heme no jax (A song for Jax)

First Crush Human au BunnyDoll Fic I promised with the poll on Tumblr!I've been practicing Hula dancing and learning more about Pacific Islander culture and LOVE this video and how the professional hula dancer in this moves. It's just so graceful and beautiful. And the tradition and heart that goes into it really inspired me.

SO I based my obsession of this amazing dance on my current hyperfixation lol. It's short so you can watch it or not but just know that Ragatha is pretty much dancing the same as the woman in the video and she is singing the song in it.

This very much a passion project fic so I hope you guys like it.

It was a beach day again. Caine tried not to do the same thing every day, but of all the time he’s been here, there have been a handful of days by the water. Usually by the lake, but on a rare occasion he’d heard from Ragatha, he’d take them to a room he made. A beach that only reached about a mile around in a circle. Sand, cocunut trees, and the ocean included.

Rolling his eyes, he lazily lays in a hammock under the sun with his hands behind his head and watches the others from behind. It’s been a while since he got some serious sun, and his skin was starting to look more purple than brown, which always rubbed him wrong way. They were all granted bathing suits, and they got to choose, for the most part. He chose to avoid it all together, changing into a purple hoodie and yellow swim shorts. He may be the most attractive one here, but he also had to be humble that way. He couldn’t help but chuckle at his own sarcastic thought.

He looked around at the others, as most of them played in the water. Kinger was building himself an actual sand castle to hide in, while Gangle helped him with her comedy mask intact for once. As much as he hated it, the old man actually had a good body. How did the guy always bend over, like a question mark, and have abs? Gangle, of course, was boring as hell and also sporting a jacket, but it had little cat ears and cat paws to cover her hands. She was hanging out with Ragatha as she went over her encyclopedia of ocean knowledge. As someone actually forced to have stupid animal ears come out of his head. The cutsie jacker made his eyes roll so back in his head that he actually saw black for a moment.

Ragtha, of course, had to be wearing some kind of traditional hula outfit. Cheater. That wasn't in his options. It was a long red dress with many folds that looked fluffy but sturdy at the same time and swayed with every move she made and, whatever that leafy hula hat thing was called on her head. He made a joke about weren’t hula girls supposed to wear coconut bras and grass skirts with a wink, but instead of getting flustered, she gave him a 5-point lecture that he once again only half listened to.

Ever since Caine let them know they were going to the beach Ragatha had practically been vibrating in place from excitement. He never quite paid attention to what she was saying when she’d gush about going to the beach, but since she told everyone and their mother too, he happened to pick up that one of the few things she remembered all this time was her being Hawaiian and having a deep appreciation and “heart” with the ocean. Whatever the hell that meant.

Jax understood her, kind of. One of the few things he also remembered, though he rarely spoke it out loud, was thinking in Spanish as much as English and the food he grew up with. He didn’t like speaking about, and he liked to be left alone about his past.

Not that he’d ever admit they had something in common. Her chipper attitude did get on his nerves at times, but over the years, he’d been there with the variety of characters he’d cycled through. He’d rather have her stick with him this long than anyone else. Kinger was fun to mess with, but he was also so out of it most of the time that his insults and jokes went straight over his head. When Gangle lasted longer than most, she became a new target as well.

There was always something different about Ragatha, though, that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He didn’t like to dwell on it too much, but he did learn when her smiles were fake and rarely true. Though he stayed mostly to himself today, Jax caught himself staring at Ragatha more often than normal. Not that he usually stares, but it was just that her smile was brighter than the damn sun today.

It was… weird.

And it made him feel weird. She’d directed her smile straight to him at times and beckoned him to come over to them as if she genuinely wanted his company for once. He refused every time but something uncomfortable would stir in his chest, seeing her smile fade for a moment like she was upset, he wouldn’t spend time with her. He decided he wouldn’t even entertain a thought of what that could mean, and even with the blazing sun, he forced himself into a sleep. A habit he unfortunately had to learn to do.

He slept in what could only be described as a gentle nightmare. It was the first time he broke down when he got there. The memory of that awful day and all the feelings that came with the realization that he couldn’t leave. He'd tried so many things to get out. But on that horrible, horrible day, he had a nightmare about what happened after running out of options to escape. Everyone was a monster to him, believing they weren’t real. He even threatened Ragatha with a knife he found, but she showed him he couldn’t get a cut on her, and he broke.

This is usually where his nightmare ends, but today he remembered what happened next. As everyone else backed away from his downward spiral, whispering something about "abstraction,” she walked forward. He tried to threaten her again, but she just kept coming. She tried to touch him, but he wouldn’t let her, and when he thought he was at his bottom, he heard a beautiful voice. It was gentle and calm, and even with his hiccups and heavy breaths, he could hear her through it. He listens distantly and slowly focuses. He doesn’t know when he starts to calm, but he’s mesmerized by the voice. It’s in a language he doesn’t know, but it doesn’t matter because his breath begins to even out and his head finally starts to clear. He doesn’t know how many times she’s sang the whole song, but it’s enough times he starts to notice the sounds of the first lyrics when she starts over.

Jax doesn’t know her name, but part of him coming down from his terrible high is taking in every bit of her face. Her eyes were closed, but she looked like a doll. Her frizzy red curls looked like they were soft as yarn, and her skin looked plush. He focused on her mouth and her slightly pink lips as they formed beautifully around her song. Something like a chill comes over him when she slowly opens her red and blue eyes and gently smiles at him. “Are you okay?”

He doesn't answer, but says, “One more time.” He’d never ask again; this is the only time anyone here would see him like this, including her. He says it all in his eyes, and without a word, she nods, starting over.

Jax closes his eyes and waits for the soothing feeling to come over him one more time.

“O Kalākaua he inoa

'O Ka pua mae'ole i ka lā”

His eyes snap open, and he searches for the sound to make sure he hasn’t lost it. It’s sunset, and his vision takes a hit from accidentally looking directly into the sun. As his vision clears, he finds Ragatha dancing on the beach, singing the same song she sang to him years ago. And all of a sudden, he’s back. Back to that day, back to that moment, where he is mesmerized by every one of Ragatha’s gentle moves and sounds.

“Ka pua maila i ka mauna

I ke kuahiwi 'o Mauna Kea”

The way she moves her body almost completely matches the waves behind her, as if she and the sea are dancing together. The movements are so fluid and blend together so effortlessly that it makes it seem easy, but from spying on her trying to teach Gangle earlier, he knows it's anything but. Her dress flows when she spins like a halo around her body.

“Ke 'ā maila i Kīlauea

Mālamalama i Wahinekapu”

Dancing always seemed like a waste of time to him, but watching her movements as captivating as her song, he finally understood why it was a profession. How can someone invoke such beauty and emotion with such a simple melody and sway of the body?

“A ka luna o Uwēkahuna

I ka pali kapu o Ka'auea”

And her song. so kind to the ears. It wasn’t just him. Even Kinger was completely still for once, allowing everyone to lull into a comfort they no longer had the luxury of.

“Ea mai ke ali'i kia manu

Ua wehi i ka hulu o ka mamo”

Anyone could fall asleep to Ragatha like this.

“Ka pua nani a'o Hawai'i

'O Kalākaua he inoa”

He wanted to fall asleep with Ragatha like this.

“He Inoa No Kalani Kalākaua Kulele”

Finally, she finishes with a strong movement, just slightly out of breath, and silence lets the moment of tranquility last a little longer before Cain sets off a confetti cannon, scaring everyone half to death and inviting them to a dinner. Coming back to earth Gangle and Kinger rush to her side, giving her compliments galore, and he watches her as she tries to stay as humble as possible while also showing appreciation for their compliments.

Ragatha is so distracted she doesn’t notice Jax had come closer when Kinger and Gangle started to move toward the feast. She saw him from the corner of her eye and turned to him with a teasing smile to ask, “So what did you..." She paused at the intensity of his eyes and asked, “think?”

Jax stays steps closer, her tan skin glowing with a golden light from the sunset, making her look like an angel in the light. She shuffles a little, uncomfortable under his powerful stare, her face starting to flush pink. She tries to joke, “Was it that bad?”

“What do I think?” He moves closer into her space, and she moves back just a mini step suddenly realizing how much taller he is than her. He looks at her face over like he's trying to memorize what she looked like before slowly moving to her eyes. “Do you really want to know?"

She pauses moment and then nods. Her mouth is slightly parted and he's watching her reaction when his hand moves closer. He brushes a loose curl behind her ear before dragging her fingertips softly across her cheek, making her shiver. One finger reaches her lips and he places the slightest pressure as if testing the feel agaist his skin, and she gasps. "I think," He pauses holding her in anticipation and moves in just an inch closer, but she feels like there’s no space left between them. He looks up back to her face a in a deep blush and hooded eyes and smirks just the slightest bit in pride, moving so he can whisper in her ear, “You're weird.”’

She blinks not registering anything but his hot breath against her ear when he snaps back with a with a wicked smirk and lazily walks away with his hands behind his head. “You coming, or what dollface? I’m starving!”

She’s left there light-headed and breath still caught in her chest, and it takes a moment to compose herself and her flustered nerves. What was he doing? He had never acted like this before, she questioned herself. But what she doesn’t know is that he was asking himself the same thing.

[crowncrown]

MORE GENLOSS BRAINROT LETS GOOO

!!!MAJOR SPOILER WARNING!!!

Generation loss’s ending is so incredible I can not STAND IT OH MY GOD I need to write out my thoughts before my brain explodes because I haven’t been able to think about anything else since.

The first episode was an absolute curveball to everyone who’s been keeping up with the spooky ranmail and everything and I’m not gonna lie I was a little nervous about what this show was really gonna be when I was watching it. But the thought process it took behind every detail to make something so goofy actually be horrifying once you understand the context of the next two episodes WAS BRILLIANT. Every piece of the puzzle just adds more and more to the storyline and it makes me want to dissect every detail of the vods for hours.

But I think the most bone chilling part of this-very intentionally I must add- is the final sequence. We witness every one of the characters sacrifice themselves for GL!Ranboo and GL!Slime isn’t any different spending his last breaths being killed by the wire creature (for lack of better words) to make sure Ranboo hits the finish line. But as soon as you feel any level of triumph you realize that Slime is just like Sneeg in the episode before sacrificing himself to ensure the show goes on.

Because it was never about the hero.

Ranboo isn’t special. He’s just another pawn in the game with the illusion of being the protagonist to make it more interesting for the desensitized viewers watching these people die over and over.

He was never meant to win.

And then that leads to us.

The audience.

Given the illusion of choice.

Do you publicly execute this man? Or do you let him live to be tortured the rest of his miserable existence until he is inevitably killed by Showfall for breaking the rules. If you spare him, is it a fate worse than death? We fight with this moral dilemma, trying to decide if it’s our decision whether people live or die.

But he’s a murderer! He killed people and showed no remorse! Showfall metaphorically whispers in our ear that he earned this fate for the terrible actions he committed. But was it him? Did he have any control over the actions he committed throughout the show or is he a victim?

He begins begging to be let go. To just escape from this snare he never asked to be trapped in the first place. The audience heavily leans towards letting him live because maybe being alive in this horrible show is better than the execution. But he knows that was never an option for him. He watches as a cartoony figure jokes about his demise and a audience poll decides his fate. And in that moment he realizes his choices were never his own.

So he gives up.

Begs to just be put down because being part of the cast means he will hurt more and more people the way he’s been hurt. That he will be the cause of more and more pain, and very likely more murderers.

And the audience decides death is the best route for him to take.

Maybe he died believing this is his fault. That the audience decided he should be dead for the horrific things he chose to do. But did he ever really choose?

His story was a tragedy before he could even pick up the pen.

And then there’s Showfall. Once again the ever present voice in our ear. Whispering that we are just the same as he is.

You just chose to murder a man. Is that not any different than him killing the innocent to progress in this game? Showfall now has the audience in the same grip as the man in the guillotine.

Your story as an audience is a tragedy long before you will ever pick up the pen.

[kaidanworkshop]

Workshop Progress: Nickname Winners & First Commission Update

As April comes to an end, we are proud to announce that we have completed our first set of commissioned lines with Paul Warren! We covered approximately 260 lines of dialogue in two hours, and our staff is already working hard to split and process the audio files in Audacity.

We hope to begin implementation over the next two weeks as our Creation Kit & Assets team continue their work with rebuilding Kaidan's follower framework. Once complete, we will be uploading a video on our YouTube page featuring Mr. Warren's rendition of Kaidan during his 'A Bounty For The Hunter' intro quest, so make sure to check in periodically! Besides that bit of exciting news, we are also ready to announce the winners of our first nickname poll -- with a small change.

Lad/Lass/Friend as a nickname was the most requested option (almost half of all participants chose it!), due in great part to requests to have Kaidan acknowledge which pronouns your character uses and ensure queer representation. We loved the idea so much that we ultimately concluded we should add this nickname in by default, rather than having it compete against the other nicknames. So to that end, we have decided to use the top six results (instead of the top five) for our first wave of nickname implementation. Those winners are: 1) Lad/Lass/Friend 2) Little Dragon 3) Trouble 4) Sunshine 5) Starlight 6) Dragonborn

Our goal for these nicknames is 4 - 6 lines per name, with a maximum of 36 total lines for this first iteration. We will be setting up a thread in our 'I Had An Idea' channel to hear your suggestions on what those lines should be, so hop in there and get involved! The last two months flew by, and we can't wait to share more developments with the community as we begin the re-voicing project. Thank you once again to everyone who has participated, donated, or otherwise encouraged this project along the way! (and don't worry -- if your nickname didn't make the cut, it will still be in the next nickname poll!)

[sailormoonrarepairweek]

Sailor Moon Rare Pair Week Bracket Game

Hope y'all are having fun creating your entries!

If you remember in the lead-up to last year's Sailor Moon Rare Pair Week, I conducted a bunch of polls to determine who was the favorite partner for each of the Guardians. (You can find the results here.) This year, I thought it would be fun to do a bracket tournament to determine the best non-UsaMamo pairing overall! For the choices, I used the winners of each poll, except when a pairing won both polls. (For example, Seiya won Usagi's poll and Usagi won Seiya's poll.) In that case, I chose one of the second place finishers instead for the second winner. (Yeah, a bit of personal preference, but my game, my rules!) In the case of Setsuna, where the "Other" option won so there was no obvious winner, I also went with second place. And since there were only fifteen polls, I included both the first and second place winners of the "Civilian or Villain" poll (which luckily included both a civilian pair and villain pair, so both are represented) to even things out.

To determine the brackets, I used random.org to randomize all the pairings, then used tournamentmgr.com to fill in the brackets, so the team-ups are completely random.

Here's how the brackets stand:

Starting today, Feb. 3, each round's bracket polls will be posted each Saturday and stay open for a week.

Let the games begin!

[monarchisms]

oh yeah, now that it's closed, here's the post i wanted to make about that rt rebrand poll i made last week. this will be pretty long and kinda rambly, so feel free to just blacklist the "long post" tag :)

so like, i made the poll because of 2 main reasons: 1. because of a mix of comments i saw on other sites from people who also didn't know what color it was supposed to be, and 2. because of myself confidently believing it was some shade of orange until i switched from looking at it from my laptop screen to my phone screen.

it being a godawful shade of red/red-orange was mentioned in the article itself, which is why my question was phrased "what color do you guys think it is?" since either red or orange is both technically correct. going more into the specifics of the poll numbers:

tumblr doesn't show the specific number of people who voted for any given poll option by default, just the percentage, so i went digging and followed this tutorial to get the raw data using firefox's inspect tool. the final results are, with 934 votes total, red at 551 votes (59%), orange at 303 votes (~32.4%), and other/a secret third thing at 80 votes (~8.6%).

red winning wasn't a surprise, really, but i was pleasantly surprised at how many people didn't have a definite answer or switched between answers like i did. i can't exactly pin down why that is, but if i had to wager some guesses...

the color scheme has a high chance of being a callback to rooster teeth's Popular Web Series Red Versus Blue™:

and with a want/need for rt to rebrand, the idea of keeping the color scheme while also making it modern and pop out is really cool, but its execution is uh...

i couldn't fit everyone's tags, but you get the gist. it fucking sucks, man.

as @god-of-arts-and-crafts has pointed out:

orange and blue are complementary colors, with them being opposite each other on a color wheel except the people who made the rebrand chose a deeper shade of blue??? they couldn't even get that right, oh my fucking god, so while its technical color is red-orange, it can be overwhelmingly orange when paired with a similarly bright shade of blue, which is what's causing many people eyestrain. hell, the first time i looked at the picture when the news dropped, it literally gave me a headache lol

finally, as i've said in the tags of a different post about this eyesore, this is an accessibility nightmare. with the worst color combination possible, the colors used for the new font and logo are definitely not ada-compliant. there are free sites out there to test images for general accessibility issues. contrastchecker is what i use sometimes, and below is what i got using red-orange as the background and blue as the foreground, and vice versa:

(both versions had the same ratio and color difference lmao)

the americans with disabilities act recommends that the contrast ratio be 7 at the lowest, but should ideally be higher than that, if possible. this is objectively and subjectively a very bad corporate rebrand, and i really, really want rt to break their "no jokes on april 1st because that's our anniversary" rule this year. if for nothing else, then just so that people who haven't read the variety article and/or the reactions on social media aren't jumpscared once the new intros/endcards/whatever else start rolling in.

[mari-lair]

I always wondered who the scientist responsible for Aoi in the Nursery Monster AU was, as this was never mentioned in the event posts. I even considered that it was Akane and that she would be called Aoi in this universe because he is terrible at giving names (or simply didn't even bother to give her an original name because he doesn't like monsters) and just gave her his last name, but I am not sure. What would your opinion be on this? (I know it's kind of a silly question because Aoi wasn't even featured during the event, but it's a genuine curiosity. I hope you have an opinion on this!).

Your ask got me curious too so I went to dig as much info as I could on her! Which... isn’t much. Aoi has so little spotlight in the monster nursery au that I genuinely do not know if she is named ‘Aoi’ in it.

They don’t call Aoi by name in the wiki, even her assigned name is ‘staff-in-training’ instead of an actual name.

And the monster eggs are identified by a single letter or a number:

So for all we know, Aoi could be called ‘A’ in this AU.

The researchers are also called by a letter though, like Kou being Researcher K and Sakura being Researcher S, so it could just be an aesthetic...

I’ll assume that’s how they are professionally called since I don’t have much to work with on this AU world building, and I need at least crumbs to speculate and overthink stuffs: So either they keep things very impersonal in this nursery, or this manager character (the au self-insert) is not fully trusted and information is being kept from them.

It get the feeling the researchers raise the monsters but do not name them, since the name was drawn in the eggs before people decided which researcher would take care of which egg, so I doubt who named Aoi was the one that raised her.

Most workers seem relatively attached to monsters so I am torn between Sakura (who introduce us to the eggs and always refers to them in a professional manner) or Akane (who was the one that sent the 'manager’ to check the nursery, but is still just named ‘supervisor’, so he is impersonal with anyone in the job) as the ones behind naming the eggs.

As for who raised her, it is just as hard if not harder to try to figure out since we really have no info on them, but I feel like is either Akane or Sakura again

Akane raising her would make sense if we assume that to work on the nursery the MS Countermeasure Department must deem them safe for work (Osha approved vibe) and that would be hard to accomplish considering Akane is skeptical if the nursery should exist in the first place and even when the “keep the nursery open” option won the AU poll, he still isn't very convinced.

He also immediately assumes the manager is ‘swayed by emotions’ so he must have some experience with being attached to the point of blinding his rational mind, which brings me to how Teru and Aoi are the only monsters we 'meet’ that are not kids/ seem to work in the nursery, so if Akane got attached to Aoi while raising her, it would explain why she got the job.

This option does make me sad though... Cause this is an au where every monster is loud and somewhat feral, very beast-like, but Aoi, who is described as ‘very bright’ is not sociable or confident, or if she is and just doesn't like the manager character, she is still not wild. If she was raised by Akane, who isn’t good at hiding that he thinks monsters are ‘dangerous’, yet she still chose to work in the nursery, she must genuinely be fond of her caretaker, and feel like she is better as quiet and ‘nondangerous’. If we assume she has the same canon problem of not wanting to be hated and Akane being oblivious to it unless she explicitly tells him, it would make her quiet attitude even more depressing... But I'm getting off topic tfyifgtydf

And I chose Sakura as the other option cause Sakura comments you shouldn’t step on Aoi’s tail when we pass by Aoi, so she seem to have some experience with Aoi, plus, the two are seem together here.

And Sakura is very quiet and calm, so if she raised Aoi and Aoi got attached to her, it would make sense for Aoi to try to copy her behavior and want to work with her!

[here2bbtstrash]

✨ valentine's build-a-fic: finish with some flavor! 💘

what a crazy week it's been 😩 to recap our build-a-fic thus far: y'all chose a throuple, enemies to lovers, reader dating jihope when they hate each other 🙈, and ...oh yeah! you want it maximum spicy!!! 🌶

i love it 😈😈😈 now i basically have everything i need to take this fic and run with it, BUT - i did think of one more choice y'all can help me with!! and this very last poll is gonna work a liiiiittle bit differently, because this time: literally every vote counts 👀👀👀

essentially, this poll is a list of smutty ~flavors~ that i custom-selected to pair with these prompts. rather than only using the most popular answer, i'll take a look at how every choice fares, and use that data to determine exactly what kinda nasty smut y'all will get - cause it'll certainly be more than just one of these!! 🥵 so i know it's hard, but please vote for the one "flavor" you MOST want to see!! (and if you really want to pick more than one, you can leave a comment after you vote 🤭)

i hope this makes sense 🙈 since y'all went FULL NASTY WITH IT i couldn't exactly limit us to only one of these options!!!! so i'll give you as many as you want 😈 i've had so much fun running these polls for y'all and seeing all the excitement - THANK YOU to everyone who has participated in some way!!! i hope you've enjoyed it too!!!

once this poll wraps, i'll be working on this fic as much as i can while still doing my usual jihope month (and various other wip!) things. i can't promise a firm deadline, bc i want to take my time to make this good! i'll DEFINITELY keep y'all posted on the progress and let you know when she's about to drop tho 😘 but first - i'm excited to see what flavors you chooose 💋 signal boost reblogs are appreciated as always!!! 💘

[k3fanblog]

Best K3 song bracket: KKJ edition!

Overview group stage

Overview round 1

Overview round 2

Overview quarter finals

Overview semi finals

Overview finals

Results

I hope we all had fun in the full K3 song bracket, but because the og songs were dominating I suggested to hold separate polls for the other 3 generations and over 20 people thought that was a fun idea, so here is the first of the three competitions: The KKJ bracket.

KKJ have 61 songs on my last count, so I chose to do a 32 song bracket, where similar to the big K3 bracket, all singles automatically qualified, that is harder to determine but I got to 23 songs, leaving 9 spots for other songs which we'll again determine through a group stage:

The winner of each of these groups will place for the tournament the other 4 songs will be chosen from the songs that placed 2nd and third in those groups, they will be divided over 2 groups, the winner and runner-up of these two groups also place*

Similar to the earlier bracket, all polls will again last a week.

FAQ:

What will you tag the polls?

All polls will be tagged #Best KKJ song bracket

When does the tournament start?

I'm planning to start on July 31st

How did you seed the bracket/make the groups?

I seeded the bracket based on the songs' performance in the big bracket. (See this post for a full ranking of all 128 songs.) I did a similar thing for the group stage, but that was more coarse, as many songs only got 1 vote in the original group stage, so I got to also shuffle them around a bit to get a proper division of the different albums.

Why is De revolutie in the group stage? It was directly placed for the original bracket

De revolutie was a tough song, as it was originally an og single, but was only released on the MaMaSé album. Since a poll under the followers of this blog showed that most considered it also a KKJ song, I included it in the bracket, but that because it was only released as a single by the og, it would have to go through the group stage.

How did you determine what songs are singles?

A combination of the Discografie van K3 Wikipedia page and looking at what songs have video clips. With clips from specials it was a bit confusing, because not all felt like they should be counted as singles? However the group stage should make sure all actual popular songs get through to the main bracket.

Why is this in English?

Because I want to leave the option open for non-Dutch speaking people to be(come) K3 fans.

What happens if a poll ends in a tie?

I will let them face off in a 1-day poll, if that doesn’t give a winner, both will continue.

*OP reserves the right to switch the order of the group winners in the final bracket based on results in the groups/earlier rankings (Because Winner Group 1 has a better rank than Winner Group 5 right now, while maybe Winner Group 5 proves to be much more popular. Though this was probably a bigger problem in the original bracket, where Winner Poule 20 was up against Tele-Romeo, the later number 2, and Winner Poule 1 was up against Bubbel which ended in 75th place.)

[throughpatchesofviolet]

OMG a new OC for your Mer AU? I would like to hear more ✨️w✨️ (if you get the time/energy to talk about it)

@thedragonlover Yeah, a new OC for the Mermaid AU!! I'd be happy to talk more about him, actually! Putting it under a "read more" because I typed a lot--

I've been thinking of my Mermaid AU on and off since last May because I am super invested in it--I mean, I drew Heathcliff's Mer form and poured hours into his scales, so of course I'm invested--and one of the things that was holding me back from actually writing more was the lack of characters I had to work with. Ishmael is obviously the first mate of the Evangeline (the logic there being that she's grown since the Pequod was destroyed by the White Whale, but didn't lose her way like in canon Limbus), Sherry's a passenger, and Heathcliff is our Mer, but three characters does not make a crew! This ship's going to flounder if we don't get her some proper sailors.

So, to remedy this, I spent the last couple months looking into other classic novels that involve seafaring. I actually found three that were in my parents' collection: Gulliver's Travels, Treasure Island, and Robinson Crusoe. My OC is inspired by the last one!!

I have yet to draw him properly, so I hope this L. Corp Picrew icon suffices ... the left (or top) is when he was younger, and the right (or bottom) is how he'd appear in the AU (at least, with what the Picrew can do--I want to sketch him out, eventually)!

Anyway, allow me to officially introduce you to the Evangeline's second mate, Robinson Crusoe--or Crusoe, as he's usually called.

I read through his entire source novel, and while it certainly has some issues, I don't regret it (fun fact: I tried to read it as a preteen and couldn't get past page one, so this is a grand achievement for me).

For his lore, Crusoe takes a lot from his counterpart: from an early age, he wanted to sail, but his parents wanted him to become an attorney. However, he stole away one night to join a crew disembarking, and experienced a shipwreck pretty much immediately. He was saved by a passing vessel (as was the rest of the crew he joined), and for a time he debated returning home--but, because he was ashamed of going against his parents' wishes, he chose not to, and instead kept on sailing.

He learns a lot from a captain who takes him in, so he isn't a terrible sailor by any means, and he has a number of misadventures--most of which end up with him being captured by a Syndicate known as the Twinhook Pirates, and most others ending in shipwreck.

His last shipwreck of course lands him on the island he ends up surviving on for 28 years--in the book, anyway. He gets off it a bit earlier in my lore, but he's got scars and scruff and gray hairs (not in the Picrew options, sadly) that show he's been through it.

Even now, well over a decade later, Crusoe refuses to return home because he's afraid to face his family (this ties into the theme in Ishmael's Canto about how those who join ships that hunt Whales are all fleeing from something), so he keeps sailing--that's how he ends up on the Evangeline.

He has a dog and a parrot in the source, but I fused the two pets so Crusoe has a dog named Poll (pronounced Paul ... it was the name of the parrot) who has a taste for Mermaids ... I like imagining the awkward dynamic the animal has with Heathcliff.

Anyway!! Crusoe got a lot of experience fending off Mermaids while on his island, so he is certainly in favor of killing them on sight (Heathcliff is just walking--or, perhaps, swimming--right into a place where everyone wants him dead, huh--).

Also, because of (almost) every ship he's sailed on meeting misfortune, it's become a running gag to blame any problem a crew encounters on Crusoe. He takes it well enough, though.

And that's pretty much it? The only other thing is I imagine Crusoe is the one who leads most of the shanties! He and Ishmael have an interesting dynamic, as well, but that's for another day--

Crusoe is one of those OCs who, once I had a name for him, he just manifested in my brain and began filling the role he felt fit for. Very fun character, and I have a soft spot for him since he's existed in my brain for a while, but he didn't have lore or a name until I read Robinson Crusoe.

[eldritch-spouse]

Y'all really chose the horniest people you could the moment Pinnie did a poll

Im ashamed in y'all but tbh I'd do the same

As an outsider, I would probably pick the most violent ones, just for funsies. In fact, I voted for Vinnel on the very first poll (because I knew he'd be the last). Don't worry, I didn't vote on the second and I likely won't be voting at all for the next parts, even if I'm tempted to.

If we ever do a rerun, I'll remove the options you've already picked- Meaning, for example, you can't pick Santi again as a starting staff member.