#I have no idea how to check actual statistics for this

[reiderwriter]

Elevator Pitch

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

WC: 2k!!

Warnings: Smut, fingering, semi-public sex/ foreplay, praise kink-ish, some pet names completely ignored Spencer's germophobia to make this work 18+ MINORS DNI

Summary: Getting trapped in an elevator is never fun, but at least the attractive you're sharing the metal box of death with has an interesting idea about how you can pass the time.

A/N: This is just a really quick drabble for @imagining-in-the-margins Meet Cute challenge for this month!! I have an idea for another one that I'll post closer to Halloween too, so look forward to that alongside all the kinktober fics 👀

Check out my masterlist here!

You weren't planning on running late on your very first day on your new team, but here you were. You were scheduled to meet Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner in his office at 9 a.m. sharp, and here you were at 8:57, trapped inside an elevator. At least you weren't alone, but alone with a stranger, and one who seemed to be talkative in the worst way wasn't exactly ideal either. 

"Hey, don't panic. There are about 6 elevator-related deaths per year and about 100,000 injuries. I'm pretty confident about those statistics." He said, taking a sip of his coffee as he stood calmly by the door, pressing buttons and waiting for something to happen. 

"Oh god, I'm gonna die in here." You whimpered a little bit, falling to your knees and screwing your eyes shut. 

"No, I said we're not gonna die. Or its at least very unlikely." 

"And I'm supposed to trust you?" 

"Yes, I'm very good with numbers. Elevator accidents account for 0.00024% of all elevators in service in the US. There you don't have to panic anymore." Almost punctuating his words, the elevator gave a low groan and fell an inch lower, pushing him off balance and toppling to the floor right next to you. 

"That was just unfortunate timing." He said, his breath hitting your face. Your eyes opened again finally, and you noticed that due to his topple, he was way closer than before, face merely inches from your own. Whoever this overconfident stranger was, he was attractive. Distractingly so, as you didn't respond to his sentence the entire time he was there in front of you, words suddenly escaping you as you stared into his dark, wide eyes. 

"Mechanical issues are the cause of about 15.3% of elevator incidents. Since we're in Quantico, we can probably rule out foul play, which means that they'll probably have us back up and running in around 27 minutes." Opening his mouth ruined the fantasy for a minute, waking you up to the reality of your situation. 

"Did you work an elevator case or something, why do you know so much about this?" You regretted the question as soon as you asked it, as he launched into another speech. 

"I read the statistical reports published by the CPSC and the OSHA. It’s really interesting stuff actually, there are-”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way but I need you to shut up. I don’t think I can take any more statistics about my inevitable death by elevator. Can we do something else instead?”

“Like what?” 

“I don’t know. Can you… Can you hold my hand?” You felt yourself flush red the second the words left your mouth, and suddenly it was your turn to talk too much. “My mom used to do it when I was scared as a kid, and obviously you’re not my mom, and you don’t even know me, but I thought it could help comfort both of us. Human contact and touch is supposedly comforting in times of distress so I just thought…” He cut you off by silently grabbing your hand and settling into a seated position beside you and you sent a little prayer up to god to spare both your soul and your heart. 

Because Jesus Christ it was beating hard now.

“Oxytocin,” he said and you looked up at him with a questioning look. “Oxytocin is released when you come into contact with other people, it’s the reason newborn babies benefit from skin-to-skin contact and why humans enjoy petting domestic animals so much. And the whole sex to destress thing.” He nodded and looked away, but you could have sworn the oxygen was completely sucked out of the room when he mentioned sex. 

“Sex?” He turned to you as you said the word, as if processing the conversation you were in the middle of it. 

“Yeah, never heard of it?” You rolled your eyes and squeezed his hand in your own for a second, but his body was leaning closer into yours now, his entire attention on you, as if he expected you to answer the question. 

“Of course I have.” 

“And what do you think? Can it help you de-stress?” 

Your mouth moves before you can stop it. “Can we stop talking about this please, I’m already scared, I don’t need to be scared and horny.” You close your eyes and groan as his widen again, and suddenly you’re praying again, but this time you wouldn’t really mind if you became one of those six elevator malfunction deaths. 

“I don’t know, maybe it would help you. There are some studies that show that stress can have aphrodisiacal impacts in women, you know?” His voice was light, but your entire body stiffened as you looked into his eyes, trying to gauge what this stranger was offering. 

“So what, you’re suggesting I just get more and more turned on until I’m not worried about death?” 

“No, I’m suggesting I close the gap between us and distract you for a while.” You spared a glance down to his lips then, his tongue darting out to lick them and pulling you in closer. You nodded quickly, a small movement and he pushed his lips down into yours. 

He was soft at first, and you almost felt like pulling away and scalding yourself for engaging in risky behavior during a near-death experience. But just as you moved to pull away, his hand came up to your hair and you melted right back into him, the kiss deepening as you slanted your neck up to give up more of yourself to him. 

You barely feel his hands pulling you into his lap, but you’re suddenly there and so happy you are. Your free hand wanders up to his chest as he squeezes your connected digits again, sending your heart into a fit of palpitations. In a panic you pull away, groaning a little as you can feel his not stiff member poking between your legs. 

“Sorry, I don’t think we exchanged names. I’m Y/N. Y/N Y/L/N..” 

“Nice to meet you, Y/N.” His lips fall down to your neck as he whispers the words into your skin, and you let your head fall back as his hands untangle from you and fall to your hips, encouraging your movements as you begin grinding over him.

“And you said we had twenty-seven minutes before we’re free, right?” 

“Whose the one talking too much now?” He bit into your neck sharply then, and you moaned out, battling the urge to let him take you there on the elevator floor. From it’s perch on your hip, his hand slips down and pops the button in your pants, pushing inside and finally touching you through your panties.

“That’s it, good girl, just keep grinding down on me.” Unconsciously, you press your hips into his hands, the pressure leaving you letting out a whistful sigh of relief. 

“God,… Should we be doing this here?” Your words were unsure, but your movements weren’t as you pushed yourself into him again and again, desperate to feel more of him as he rubbed circles into your clit, driving you closer and closer to your peak. 

“Let’s assume for now that the elevator malfunction has wiped out the CCTV,” he says, lips pressing against your skin as you lose yourself in his touch again. “We absolutely should be doing this.” 

His words fell straight to your core, and you felt yourself grow more aroused as you pondered being caught in such an intimate position with a stranger.

“You think you can cum right here, baby? Think you can give me one soon?” His words almost sent you over the edge, his smile widening as your hips twitched over his. 

“Fuck, yes, yes, please, don’t stop.” 

“Not so scared about this elevator anymore are you? Or did you want to spend your last moments coming undone in my hands?” With his words, you lost the ability to speak, simply moaning out your agreement to his every word. 

“I think I can hear someone talking through the walls, baby, you’re going to have to cum now for me, can you do that?” You nodded to him as he increased his pace on your words, and within seconds, you were letting it all out, head falling against his shoulder as you twitched through your orgasm. He pulled his hands out of your pants quickly and pressed a kiss to your lips, pulling you up to a standing position and making you look presentable as the doors to the elevator were finally pried open from the other side. 

“Hey, how are you guys holding up in there?” The call came from the maintenance staff, and you were sudden;y thankful that he’d finished you off when he did because as horny as you’d been, actually getting caught like that was something entirely different than the fantasy of it. 

You’re almost sorry that you have to leave when you do, suddenly absolutely involved in helping him “destress” the same way he’d helped you out. But he removes his hands from you and strikes up a conversation with the maintenance staff working to get your elevator level with the floor doors. You gravitate to the back of the stall, gripping the railing while your brain catches up to the circumstances. 

In no time, the elevator is back in working order, and you and your stranger are stepping foot on steady ground again, and saying your goodbyes.  

“Aaron Hotchner’s office is through those doors. Up the stairs to the left.” He smiles and nods at you before turning down the corridor and leaving you there by yourself. A glance at your clock tells you you’re too late to question his words, and how he even knew where you were going. You take off down the hall, ready to profusely apologize to your new boss and pledge to take the stairs for the rest of your days. 

When Hotch finally greets you, he has already heard about the elevator malfunction, and all is thankfully forgiven. You have to bite your tongue before asking if everyone on this floor is psychic. But you’re still late, and you have a case, so your introductions have to take place in the briefing room and you half-run, half-walk behind the older man as he makes his way down the hall. 

“Everyone we have a new team member today, please help her out for this first one and show her the ropes.” He introduces you by name, and you’re suddenly doing your best to memorize the names of a Prentiss, a Rossi, a Morgan, a JJ, and one Penelope Garcia. They seem to be waiting for someone else, but with the clock ticking, Penelope begins debriefing you on the next case.  

“Sorry I’m late,” a voice calls from the door, and you feel the hairs on your neck stand up in shock as everyone slowly turns to greet the newcomer. 

“What time do you call this?” Morgan laughs as the familiar man approaches, and a quick glance around tells you that the only seat left at the table, which had been so obviously reserved by the pile of paper files in contrast to everyone else's digital alternatives, was right next to you. 

“Spencer, we have a new team member, this is Y/N. She’ll be joining us on cases from today onwards.” Hotch quickly says, and you lock eyes with the man just as he falls into his seat. 

“I think we’re acquainted. Nice to meet you, Y/N. I’m Spencer Reid.” The room falls silent as he holds out his hand for you to shake, and you do your best to not show your shock and embarrassment on your face. You let your hand fall into his, the same one that you’d held earlier, the same one that had worked you up to the edge and then helped you pour over it, the same one that had pulled you together afterward. You said nothing after you’d finally pulled apart, waiting for him to make the next move once again. 

“I look forward to working with you.” 

[mochiimadness]

hi! i really like your works, so i'd like to request a ( sort of angsty ) scenario where the rottmnt boys react to their s/o losing their memories after getting injured from a bad guy fight, so they completely forget who the boys are

Hello! I want to preface this by saying: this is mostly from their POV, so their thoughts are very much self-blaming, even if what they think is not at all the case!

Slightly angsty, filled with self blame and anxiety.

Rottmnt x S/O who loses their memories after a fight

Neon Leon

Leo feels the weight of this horrible situation crush him like a fallen building.

If only he had just been a little faster- or planned ahead better

Maybe if he had been more serious about his s/o and their safety this never would have happened.

He’s in shock at first when you flinch away from him

Whether or not you were genuinely scared or just shocked at seeing a mutant ninja turtle-

It hurts him all the same because of one thing

The genuine confusion on your face-

No trace of recognition in your gaze

He shuts down for a few moments as his brothers try to figure out what they can do to help

The ringing in his ears grow loud until the high pitch whine is all he can hear

He can’t even see you nor his family in front of him anymore- everything far too blurry

Just vague shapes and blobs of color…

Distorted and unrecognizable

Is that how his s/o saw him??

All he can think is;

He should have gotten to you quicker

He couldn’t even portal to you because he didn’t know where you were.

It’s his fault that you don’t remember him,

The life you two have life together,

All the laughter you shared,

Just gone… like it never existed…

…

He should’ve been better.

Don Tron

Donnie’s already trying to scan his s/o and check for any injuries the second he finds them

What could’ve caused their condition??

Blunt force trauma to the head?

Mystical memory wipe??

What’s ever caused it, he’s going to find it

And he will not rest until he can reverse this.

Absolutely could not handle your reaction to him-

Not knowing who he is,

Not knowing all the wonderful progress you two made together,

Helping him with his experiments and machinery,

Getting comfortable with prolonged touch,

The late night rambles-

Immediately started murmuring the statistics of regaining your memory under his breath

You had to get their memory back- you absolutely had to.

Statistics be damned- he’s making sure it’s a 100% chance.

There’s anxiety gnawing away at him slowly from the inside,

Creeping and burning like static in his bones.

Not even the numerous photos he has of the both of you are helping- maybe it’s just too soon

You did just wake up after all… but why-

Why couldn’t he have prevented this?

All of his fail safes,

The numerous emergency alert devices he gave you,

He weapon he had specifically designed to be easy to conceal and have on you at all times,

Even his GPS tracker-

None of them had worked to keep you safe…

He failed, and this was worse than any experiment exploding in his face.

He failed you and now you have no idea about just how close you two actually are

…

He will fix this- there’s no room for error this time.

Mystic Mike

Mikey’s on the verge of waking up the person who was cruel enough to harm you this badly- just so he could beat them up again.

They hurt you- hurt you so bad you can’t even remember his name

Let alone everything you two have been through together

Mikey feels rage

At the situation,

At the villains who did this,

And at himself-

Why hadn’t he been strong enough to stop this?

He can throw buses, skyscrapers even,

He can maneuver his way around places with ease with his razzmatazz mastery

But what was all that strength and skill for if none of it could help you?

He’s frustrated enough to cry

But he’s also the quickest to compose himself

Several deep breaths in and out before he's able to pull himself together enough to crouch down beside his beloved s/o

Gently reassures you that he means no harm,

That you were in a bad fight and letting you slowly collect yourself.

He also uses photos- but rather than doing this to specifically try to jog his s/o's memories,

It's more to show them that they actually do know him-

Trying to get your memories back can wait for later,

His main focus is making sure his s/o is calm and comfortable around him- at least enough to trust that he won't harm them.

Once you feel that they can trust him- even if only a little bit,

He'll take you home and make sure you're alright physically.

Later on, he sneaks off quietly to the gym area

Demolishes the punching bag they had-

All of his worries and frustrations are taken out with every punch

Would you ever remember him?

If you never regained your memories, is there any chance you two would ever have the relationship you once had again??

They're going to need more punching bags,

All the extra ones are destroyed too.

His family is worried, but Mikey is only focused on two things;

Helping you remember him and getting revenge for you.

He will make sure this won't ever happen again.

Big Red

What do you mean you don't remember him??

You're his s/o!

His partner!

Surely you must be playing a prank or something-

He is in complete denial at first,

Then, as his family explains that no-

You aren't joking,

You genuinely don't remember him,

His denial shatters into gut wrenching dispair.

How did this happen-

Why did this happen?!

...

This was all his fault.

Why wasn't he there for you when you needed him??

He's suppose to be able to protect those who he cares about

Especially his beloved s/o

Yet he failed

He wasn't there,

He wasn't able to help you, to stop you from ever being hurt this badly

And now you can’t remember a single thing about him, your relationship together, nothing.

RAPH is still able to move and check on you-

Though, it’s more like hovering worriedly while Donnie and Leo do their best to patch you up

He is watching like a hawk, making sure that you’re in no additional discomfort or pain

Once you’re clear enough to be able to go home though

Raph is stressing

If you leave now you could get hurt again!

But he doesn’t want to scare you off by being too overbearing

Especially if he wants any chance of you remembering him-

He can’t cause you to feel uncomfortable around him- or worse

Frightened.

He’s able to stop his anxiety fueled spiral before it consumes him

Focusing on making you’re you get home safely

Even if you decline having him walk with you-

He’ll make sure to follow stealthily from a distance

Once he’s certain you’re absolutely safe and sound

He’s pacing around the lair and pulling at his mask

What if you don’t remember him?

Donnie said you likely just had “mild amnesia” but what if it was worse?!

There’s a chance you’ll never be able to remember him-

And it’s all his fault…

He couldn’t protect you

It all boils down to one simple fact ringing in his head:

He wasn’t there

…

He’ll make sure he’s always there

He will be there for you.

Hello, I hope you enjoyed

Also for those who may not have watched ROTTMNT- Mikey is shown to be a little angry ball of revenge at times, while Raph is shown to be full of anxiety and mother-henning™️

So they may seem a little ooc compared to other versions of them!

[serendipnpipity]

Favorite DnP Tour Song Statistics

Settle round, little ducklings, do I have some statistics to share with you all!!

A grand total of 156 people participated in this survey, so thank you if you took the time to fill it out! 🧡

As a teaser, here’s a pie chart of the votes for your favorite song! We’ll be discussing this in depth in its own section but I know some of you f*ck vibe with pie charts more than the bar charts I use there…

To give you a clear vision of what we’ll be looking at, here are the categories of the upcoming analysis:

Phandometrics (community growth on a viewership & fandom scale)

Favorite Song (general)

Favorite Song vs. Phandometrics (the main hypothesis!)

Honorable Mentions (fun little quirks I noticed along the way)

Ready? Time to read on.

PHANDOMETRICS

Lag between year started watching -> year joined the phandom. This can be seen most obviously in the 2009-2015 portion of the graph, likely when the community was just building up. I went back to check individual points, and many people seem to join a year or two after starting to watch.

Three distinct peaks of phandom growth: 2015 (dnp popularity peak), 2019 (coming out), and 2023 (dnpg comeback, dnp renaissance). Pretty expected, but still cool to see!

The difference between the peaks when you look at viewership vs. phandom is interesting though! Especially 2019 seems to be a huge spike in viewership, but the phandom growth seems a little more gradual (maybe more people lurked at first, then joined the phandom in 2023 once they were more active?).

The 2012 peak is really interesting. Most popular year to start watching from this sample, apparently!

FAVORITE SONG

"The Internet is Here" won 51.3% of the votes... which didn't surprise me all that much. It's iconic, okay?

II is about half as popular, and beyond the song qualities themselves, I wonder if a contributing factor to this pattern could be its lack of availability as an officially released song.

I think Everything's Fine is so low partially bc I closed the poll before WAD released to prevent the recency effect from skewing the data. (Especially because I thought we were getting "Everything's Fine (Acoustic)" smh.)

FAVORITE SONG VS. PHANDOMETRICS

By era...

I had a hypothesis: based on the year you joined, which I now realize in my head wrongly equated with the year you were most active in, you'd be more biased towards the song of that era bc a) you were more likely to go to the tour or b) epic nostalgia hit.

Yeah, I was wrong.

When you group the eras you see that TIIH wins in almost every single group by a similar proportion to the total, which means this attitude is fairly evenly distributed amongst the phannies.

By year...

Separating by year, you begin to see that, hold up, the hypothesis could have some merit! In either 2017 or 2018 on both graphs, the II finale actually does win.

The super high TIIH votes bleeding in from 2015/2016 and from 2019 seemed to mask this pattern.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

I have no idea what happened here but both ways you slice it, Interactive Introverts was fighting for its life amongst the 2012 phannies???

We got three phannies that have been watching since 2009!! The fact that people have been sticking around so long (up to fifteen years!!! and this was only a sample of 156 of us!!!) is really heartwarming for me bc it's a testament to how strong of a community dnp have built their viewership to be.

At the end of the day, what can I say? That was a lot of statistics. I hope you enjoyed or took something away from this little survey. Lmk if you notice any other cool trends or have any theories on what the data means!

Thank you for listening to my yapping; have an orange heart.

🧡

[salvadorbonaparte]

How to set up a research journal

This is just one way you can set up a research journal but it's helping me tremendously so maybe it also works for you. My set-up is partially inspired by this video by Answer in Progress and I suggest you check out their curiosity journal.

Preparation

First you need a notebook. The trick is to find a notebook that you're not afraid to "ruin". We all want a really neat, aesthetic research journal, but the reality looks more like hasty scribbles, but that's okay, that's where the research breakthroughs happen.

I personally bought a cheap lined notebook from Søstrene Grene that I thought looked cute and put a sticker on it. That way I feel good about using it but I also don't mind when my handwriting gets messy because it was only like 3€.

You should also stock up on pens you like writing with. Different colour highlighters and post-its are also a good idea but not a must. Keep it cheap but comfortable.

Title Page

Here you should put down all the really important information: year, title, deadlines, word count, supervisors. Maybe add an inspirational quote to spice it up but keep it simple and relevant.

Key

This should either be your next or your last page. I personally use the last pages of my journal so I can add thing and find it easier. Your key is there to list abbreviations and symbols.

For example, I have different symbols for statistics, dates, new terminology, questions, breakthroughs, important notes and abbreviations for the most important terms in my field. It's shorter to write T9N than Translation.

The trick here is to have enough abbreviations and symbols to save time and effort but not so many that you constantly have to look back and forth between your page and key. They should be memorable and not easy to confuse.

Topic Mind map

If you hate mind maps you can skip this of course or use a different method but what helped me is to visualise all the topics that connect to my research project in a mind map. I then colour-coded the main groups of topics with my highlighters. It helps me to keep an overview on how many topics I need to do research on.

Proposal

If you're writing a thesis/dissertation it can be helpful to have a page set aside for your proposal and take some bullet point notes on methodology, chapter structure, research context, aims and objectives and think of some titles. You can also do this for your lit review and a list of works to include.

Hypothesis and Question Pages

I set aside four pages for this but you can adjust this to your needs. The first page is my hypothesis. It doesn't have to be fully formed yet, it can just be bullet points with five question marks. You can always revise and update it but it is important to keep an eye on what you're actually trying to find out.

The next idea is basically just stolen from Answer in Progress: a section for big questions, medium questions and little questions. These aren't necessarily hypotheses you aim to answer but questions you have about your topic that might be good to look into (maybe they lead somewhere, maybe they don't).

Research Notes

Now comes the big, fun part. Research notes are allowed to be a little messy but you should have some sort of system so you can actually find what you're looking for afterwards. I'm currently just looking at books and articles so that's what my system is based on. You can totally adjust this to include other forms of research.

What I do is that I put down and underline the author and title of my source. Underneath that I use my highlighters and mark the topic of the paper based on how I colour-coded them in my mind map. You might have to do this after you've finished reading. For example, if a text talks about censorship and dubbing in Germany, three of my topics, I will draw three lines in light blue, dark blue and red, the colours I chose for those topics. This way you can easily browse your notes and see which pages are talking about which topics.

When it comes to the actual research notes, I include the page number on the left and then take bullet point notes on whatever is relevant. These are often abbreviated and paraphrased but if something is especially important I will write down a full quote.

As mentioned earlier, I have a key of symbols I use so I can simply put down a '!' in order to differentiate a research breakthrough from a normal note. You can insert your own thoughts much more easily when you know you'll be able to tell them apart later on. At the end of each article, book or even chapter I write down my main takeaway.

Other Notes

This is your research journal and you can do with it what you want. I also added lists of films that might be relevant for my research, a list of databases and publishers to check for papers and tips on research strategy.

If you're working with interviews or surveys you could write down your questions. If you're nervous about your research you could include a list of reasons why your research project is important or why you're doing it. You can include a to-do list or a calendar to track meetings with supervisors. Anything that helps you with your research.

[suzukiblu]

Day seventeen of fic NaNoWriMo, obligatory sugar daddy Tim/sugar baby Kon AU.

“I think it's pretty normal to give someone a phone when you want to talk to them,” Tim lies. Bruce gives the other Bats burners sometimes, though. And also communicators. And Robin’s loaned plenty of allies communicators before, including Superboy. So it's normal in their circles, whether Kon actually knows they're both in said circles or not. 

“. . . I like the green one,” Kon says after a moment, which is a little bit of a surprise. It's a nice sort of deep, leafy color, Tim guesses, but he would've expected Kon to go for black or red or blue; maybe yellow. 

He wonders how green Hawaii is, come to think of it. 

And how much green Kon regularly sees these days, living underground in a lab. 

“Okay,” he says, then gestures towards the phone case display with his smoothie. “Let's get you a screen protector and a case too, just in case.” 

“You don’t have to,” Kon says. “I mean, I am gonna have my TTK on it.” 

“Yeah, but that only works if nobody knocks it off the table or something when you’re not holding it,” Tim says. “Besides, better safe than sorry, right?” 

“Um, okay,” Kon says. Tim leads him over to the phone cases, and Kon glances them over indecisively, clearly paying more attention to the price tags than personal preference. Tim decides distraction is the better part of valor, in this case. 

“I don’t recommend anything superhero-themed, for the record,” he jokes. Kon snorts. 

“That’s called a feint, thank you very much,” he informs him mock-primly. “Nobody’d think a superhero would actually have the balls to go around with a superhero-themed phone case.” 

“They’d think Superboy would,” Tim says in amusement. 

“. . . okay, fair,” Kon allows, making a face at himself. Tim laughs. 

“How about that one?” he suggests, pointing towards the second-most expensive one on the rack–so Kon will know money isn’t a concern, but also so Kon won’t realize he’s specifically doing it to make sure he knows money isn’t a concern. 

“It looks like a tire tread,” Kon says wryly, which is a fair assessment. It’s one of the heavy-duty cases, so it’s pretty bulky as it is, and the pattern on it is a little tire-like. 

“The ones down here have glitter, if that’s more your thing,” Tim replies in amusement, pointing again. 

“Glitter is more my thing,” Kon says, leaning over to peer down at the indicated row. Tim probably should’ve expected that response, considering, except also he would absolutely never have expected Kon to willingly admit to liking glitter. At least not without being concussed first. “Hmmmmm.” 

“That's a nice one,” Tim says. Kon’s looking at a green and blue case with bright gold glitter swirled all over it in abstract designs; it looks a bit like ocean water, if you look at it the right way. It’s definitely not going to be anywhere near as durable as the tire tread one would, but Tim isn’t particularly concerned about that anyway. He was gonna get accident insurance no matter what. Statistically speaking, Kon will probably go through more than a few of these. He hasn't had the same phone for longer than three months since starting up as Robin. Something always seems to happen to them. Usually a supervillain. 

“Too bad they don’t have anything with a cute little goat on it,” Kon jokes as he straightens back up, regrettably letting go of Tim's hand to take the green and blue glitter-case off the wall. “You know, commemorate our first date and all.” 

“That was not our first date,” Tim says, mildly disgruntled but mostly flustered by the idea. “I'd have planned a date a lot better than those morons planned their dumb heist. And bought you something from the gift shop, if nothing else.” 

“Could've just kept the goat, I guess, but Superman would've made me give it back anyway,” Kon muses idly as he looks over the case in his hand and takes another sip of his smoothie. “This is for the right model, right?” 

“Should be,” Tim says, though he double-checks anyway. “Yeah, no, you're good. Lemme go grab a clerk so we can get the plan set up. We'll just go through my name, I can probably set up autopay for the bill easier that way.” 

“Um, sure,” Kon says, biting his lip for a moment and then glancing sidelong at him. “So is this our first date, then?” 

“No,” Tim says, though technically it probably is. But given how Kon’s been acting about the idea that Tim would actually be interested in dedicating actual time and attention to him–“I'll take you somewhere nice for that.” 

“Somewhere nice?” Kon says, hiding a very unsubtle grin behind the phone case. It'd work better if his stupid pretty eyes weren't sparkling for it, Tim thinks in resigned accusation. Kon doesn’t ask what “somewhere nice” means, but Tim is already trying to figure out what restaurants he knows that might appeal to Kon’s palate. If he likes Hawaiian flavors . . . there’s some Asian influence in that, right? He thinks, anyway. Japanese, at least. Maybe Filipino? Polynesian? Any other influences or parallel cuisines he’d have to look up to figure out, though. 

Tim knows absolutely no Filipino or Polynesian restaurants, much less actually authentic Hawaiian ones. He could definitely do Japanese, though. Japanese would be easy. Just going to a restaurant isn’t much of a date, probably, and he can’t take Kon on patrol or anything like he and Steph used to do, but they could maybe go shopping in a nicer boutique or something? Or go to a museum for actual entertainment instead of just business, if Kon would be interested in something like that. Admittedly, it’s hard to picture him being particularly into museums as a concept, but it might be worth a try. 

Maybe he’d like the aquarium or planetarium more than something involving art or history or science, though. Those are a little cooler than just wandering through a bunch of random exhibits, Tim thinks. Or at least, they might appeal more to Kon. The ocean, or stars and planets, or . . . like, whatever, he guesses. 

He’ll have to do some recon, probably. Light interrogation. Figure out what Kon would be the most interested in. 

Or they could just go to the beach. It’d require a little bit of travel on his part, but likely wouldn’t be a big deal for Kon; he could just fly. Though in retrospect Kon’s probably spent about half his life on a beach, so maybe that’s not interesting enough. And the Jersey Shore probably wouldn’t measure up to Hawaii in his eyes, either. 

Hm. Yeah, Tim's definitely going to have to do some recon. 

Tim is possibly putting in too much effort here, considering Kon is going to lose interest in actually flirting with him in about five minutes. Kon never seems to really properly date anyone, as far as Tim's seen; just flirt around a lot. So he should be prioritizing shopping and apartment hunting, really, before Kon gets bored of the flavor of the week and wanders off. 

Tim Drake is not exactly an exciting date, so . . . yeah, Tim’s not expecting Kon to stay interested for long. He’s just got to take advantage of it for as long as it lasts to leverage Kon into letting him buy him that cul-de-sac and go from there, that’s all. Kon seems to stay friendly with the girls he flirts with even after things fizzle out or fail to go anywhere, so he assumes it won’t be any different with Tim Drake. As long as Kon’ll let him keep paying his way, that’s all that’s going to matter. 

Tim is really going to need to frontload that, though. Establish him paying for Kon as the new status quo very quickly and get Kon used to it before he loses interest in him, so he won’t feel awkward about accepting it by then. Or so Tim will already have signed all the paperwork and it’ll be too late for Kon to protest; whichever. 

He’s definitely going to have to frontload it.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Since 2023, three articles have appeared in scientific journals, with 45 authors in all, arguing that the claims made on behalf of the wood-wide web have far outstripped the evidence. The objections are numerous. Many studies of inter-tree transfers have found only minuscule amounts of sugars shuttling between the trees – “statistically significant” but not necessarily “biologically significant”, one group of authors says – and most don’t rule out the possibility that the resources travelled through the air or soil rather than fungally. Despite Wohlleben’s insistence in Hidden Life that in a mycorrhizally conjoined forest “it is not possible for trees to grow too close to each other”, studies have not generally shown that seedlings ensconced in fungal networks do better when close to older trees (they often do worse). And although many trees are colonised by mycorrhizae, there is debate about whether those mycorrhizae actually form a durable network through which nutrients and signals could pass. Nature, the original venue for Simard’s research, recently ran an explosive news feature by Aisling Irwin on the “groundswell of unease” among ecologists with public discussions of mycorrhizal networks. Irwin reports on the scientists’ general scepticism and on a particular episode that has raised concerns. In her memoirs, Simard makes much of the idea that “mother trees” favour their kin. She describes in detail field research by her graduate student showing that seedlings placed in a fungal network “survived better and were noticeably bigger” if they were genetically related to nearby older trees. But that field study, the critics have noted, actually showed the opposite: the related seedlings were likelier to die, though the trend was not statistically significant. (Simard says that other studies by the student, from the laboratory, support her claims and she’d merely made a narrative choice to describe the results as emanating from the forest. “I do not, and would never, imply anything misleading when presenting research,” she told Irwin.) What makes the recent criticisms of Simard’s work so striking is that some come from her former colleagues and admirers. The first critical review of evidence was by three scientists – Justine Karst, Melanie Jones and Jason Hoeksema – who had all co-authored papers with Simard. The lead author, Karst, has discussed how she was inspired by Simard’s research to become a mycorrhizal ecologist. The second, Melanie Jones, appears in Simard’s memoirs as a hero who supported Simard when few others would. Jones co-authored the 1997 “wood-wide web” article, though she no longer stands fully by it. It was the cultural obsession with intelligent trees, from television shows to airport books, that impelled Karst, Jones and Hoeksema to reconsider their own earlier work. Simard, who is preparing detailed replies, regards these in-the-weeds debates as distracting from the urgent task of protecting forests. She has described the attention that Karst, Jones and Hoeksema’s criticisms have received as “an injustice to the whole world”. Perhaps, but it is exceedingly hard to read the recent reviews of evidence and retain faith in the wood-wide web as settled scientific fact. “Why do we so badly want this to be true?” Karst has asked. Maybe the unrelenting news of global warming and its attendant catastrophes – wildfires, hurricanes – has driven readers for respite toward calmer environmental stories. Or perhaps recent political cruelties have led us to seek reassurance that, in nature, beings are thoughtful and kind. The connective aspect seems important, too, as if trees’ fungal friendships could release us from our phone-checking isolation. Fairly or not, we’ve loaded our aspirations on to the forest: be the tree you want to see in the world.

[...]

A tree, Farmer writes, is “a radically nonhuman thing”, and a large, old tree is especially one. If trees have conceptual value, it is not because their similarity to us elicits our sympathy, but because their difference from us enlarges our horizons. They are the most visible markers on the evolutionary road not taken. Trees stand in for all the photosynthesising, carbon-dioxide breathing, fixed-in-place species that share our world yet have fundamentally different ways of living in it. Contemplating trees should be, above all, an exercise in humility. The mountains and woods, Santayana told his California audience, allow you to “take yourselves simply, humbly, for what you are, and to salute the wild, indifferent, non-censorious infinity of nature”. Perhaps the presence of beings older, larger and more numerous than we are – whether or not they resemble internet users or our mothers – can be a reminder that we are not everything, and that everything is not us. “Let us therefore be frankly human,” Santayana enjoined. And let the trees be trees.

[lokiiied]

it’s time for my long awaited autistic coded jamie post. okay so…

sensory issues? check. also his lil tongue thing.

not understanding social cues & having to be told/explicitly asking how to interact with people and then learning & adapting; asking for and actually taking every piece of advice he gets from people who are important to him. that’s like. literally the base struggle with autism.

mislabelling his own behaviour as thinking he’s “being a prick” at times when he’s genuinely just expressing his thoughts/gently explaining something to people because other people have always told him that’s what he was instead of differentiating for him that he’s actually really smart and has good ideas.

sometimes he is just a prick tho.

plus there’s his trauma to factor in where he’s also afraid to share his ideas & feelings cuz of his dad.

the way he just assumed he misinterpreted everything and was sent off to man city as punishment for not doing enough about his behaviour and then never asked ted about it after he came back (even though ted really should have had a conversation with him and cleared everything up.)

how he’s remembered all these little factoids about amsterdam that he learned ten years ago and he might’ve had a little amsterdam and/or movie hyperfixation after the holiday with his mum to cope and distract himself from the traumatic memories of the previous time w his dad.

fully accepting his title of being a lil dumb/himbo. even though he also has a lot of knowledge about random things, is one of the best footballers in the league, and works really hard/wants to learn to be better. feel like this can generally be applied to all autistics (replacing football w that one thing that you’re really good at). and idk i feel like autistics invented himbos. so yeah!

also before someone tries to apply all of this to = ptsd…you can have ptsd and be autistic. not everything is a trauma response, and statistically autistic people are more likely to have trauma, anxiety, depression, & comorbidity with other disorders. it’s all very interconnected! xx

while i’m at it, roy’s autistic too!

difficulty expressing emotions and verbalising his thoughts/feelings. growling when he’s angry/non-verbal literally the most autistic shit ever.

his voice. as an autistic who has a very monotone/hard to hear/control voice i. recognise ways of speaking and i register his voice as part of his autism.

not great at communication/assuming people just know what he’s thinking.

also incredibly blunt/direct doesn’t sugarcoat things or lie when it may be socially expected to do so.

literally. his resting face. “you frowned your whole career” “no, i never smiled, that’s different.”

two autistic people trying to hug each other:

+ “well, you came at me too fast!”

anyways mostly they’re autistic cuz i’m autistic and my spidey sense says so.

[finalfrontierpublishing]

A Great and Gruesome Height by @moku_youbi. 

So this bind was a wild ride, with experimentation galore. It’s my 10th bind (HURRAY) and I started this bind knowing I wanted to play with thread, given I had so much fun with the stab binding. I had some red thread which i had originally purchased for the VTE bind - and just the right shade i was going for so i went for it.  

the original idea i was going for was ‘red thread of fate, but make it MURDER’ and so this tidy little concept was born. half way through the design conceptualization phase i had a little epiphany while watching season 3 of hannibal that blood spatter stringing was ALSO red thread and i just couldn’t resist (yes i know hannibal’s little murder tableaus seldom have blood but the string! MORE STRING!) 

More photos under the cut. 

Statistics: 

115559 words || 426 pages

Body Text: Crimson Text 

Chapter Headers: Cormorant Garamond

I quite like the experimentation with body fonts and trying to divert away from regular Garamond. So far, I’ve only used Baskerville, Garamond, Liberation serif and Cardo, but I do like this one. I lack the typography terminology but it feels fancy and posh and something Hannibal would enjoy. 

I also aggressively rounded this book - boy is it ROUND, perhaps a little too so. i had a difficult time getting the spine piece to be as round as I liked. 

Also, it was my first time putting a quote on the first few pages - i have zero regrets. Also featuring my new imprint page with AN ERROR (IT’S DECEMBER 2022 NOW OOPS). 

I didn’t have enough heat-reactive foil and this fic has 40+ chapters so I could only foil the last couple of chapters which were actually short mini-sequels to this fic which I also added in. I have to say, using a laminator over an iron for heat-reactive foil is MUCH superior. I didn’t have to work myself into a frenzy trying to get an even layer of foil on it. 

Endpapers are a little bunchy because of the thread. But i had to put butterflies because THE CHRYSALIS has hatched (i will never tire of hannibal metaphors).

See below for the conceptualization phase on cricut and er paper. I have zero art skills and have aphantasia so I had to print it out to try and figure out where everything needed to go. 

This bind is also the bind where I won my blood sacrifice badge - don’t use rusty tools guys. The spouse had borrowed my rotary cutter to cut wrapping paper for christmas wrapping and is RIGHT-HANDED. Self is LEFT-HANDED. Tool returned to me as is and I did not check if the blade protector was on the correct side as the tool will get flipped direction wise depending on the handedness of the user. So guess who needs to get a tetanus shot today? :joy:

 All in all, still a successful bind. It is a little busy, and if I had to do it again, I might not put the titling on the spine (always a little crooked, cause I roll that way). The Siser gold and silver metallic HTV for the hands fought me the entire way, and I’d probably not use it for such delicate lines - only part of it adhered and it made me very upset at first but since the bind is for myself it’s fine. 

I’d also use a thinner red thread next time (the thick waxed linen thread for leather work doesn’t fuck around, WILL NOT BUY AGAIN) because as you can see 3-4 rounds around the finger looks like it’s choking it and i had some space limitations at the edges. 

Well, a fun idea, with less than perfect execution but I’ll probably do it again one day if i ever summon up the courage to consider making this again (perhaps for the author if i get over my massive to-bind pile). PROBABLY NOT IN WHITE - gad WHITE IS SO SMUDGEY - nothing to remind you how dirty your hands are than white bookcloth. this is off-white pearl BUT fingerprint smudges!!! 

Resources: Page dividers made by evil-robot-cat here. 

EDIT: THE AUTHOR WANTS A COPY!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  🥳  😱 🫠 yessss AUTHOR COPY!!!! 

[randomnumbers751650]

I finally have time to talk about Lone Trail. I will be focusing on its depiction of science, technology and its progress. Will get a bit political, but funnily enough less than I imagined.

The thing that called my attention most in Lone Trail were the discussions on the nature of scientific progress. This is a theme that’s dear to me and the stuff I research about. It’s easy to think of scientific progress like an inevitable march forward, like an escalator. After all, we are much richer than we were before, right? Go to OurWorldInData dot org to play around with economic statistics in time – make sure to check the World GDP chart, from year 0 to 2000 and see it taking off like a rocket from year 1700.

What kind of Uncle Ted fan or neoluddite would go against that? Haha…hah…

Truth is that, although its effects are there, it’s not a clear if this is the little, neat process techbros want us to believe. It’s new and produces more, therefore it’s good, right? I could be writing this as a new wave of AI-generated NFTs pollute my algorithm.

That’s what makes the storytelling in Arknights so effective: it mashes together fantasy and sci-fi to really tell stories on the role of beliefs, technology, science and religion. The Rhine Lab saga is definitely an exploration of technology, with focus on the equivalent of the United States. During the period before the First World War, 1870-1913 (which is the one that Arknights draws most from), the world underwent through the so-called Second Industrial Revolution and I’ve read economic historians considering it the most innovative period in human history. I mean, obviously, there is an absolute number of inventions in our current age, but in relative terms 1870-1913 experienced a much larger number relative to the previous one.

The escalator narrative constructs scientific achievements as work of daring people (mostly men, but there were women like Marie Cuire), that combined science and technology to help mankind, like Prometheus giving mankind fire from the gods (in fact, one of these books is even named “Prometheus Unbound”); more than often they have to fight against the establishment. Remember Ignaz von Semmelweis? He just wanted doctors to wash their hands. Even I learned this standard narrative in the university. But that’s not the entire story.

The positivistic paradigm – of a science free of value judgements, made with the power of math – has actually helped build this escalator narrative. In reality, some scientists and scholars are horrible people. Later, I learned that Semmelweis, as much as he campaigned for the right thing, was a very arrogant person, who abused everyone around him, to the point few people went to his funeral.

Narratives focusing on one single hero are easy to sell and the ones building them are always on the lookout. Remember how ten years ago, a lot of people tried to push the narrative Elon Musk was going to create a new industrial revolution? Nowadays he’s just an arrogant loser who keeps dragging on his midlife crisis. The 1880s also had similar people like that, such as Thomas Edison.

Kristen Wright is definitely better than them both, because she is actually an engineering genius. But she’s also just like them, in the sense of unethical experiments, collusion with the military-industrial complex and being an overall superficially charismatic, but rotten to the core person. And she’s surrounded by a lot of people like Parvis and Ferdinand.

Breaking this line of reason, I have to say how much I hate Nietzsche’s ubermensch and master-slave morality, I hate Great Men theory, I hate Ayn Rand; these people are sheep who think themselves wolves. And before you say that Nietzsche didn’t consider himself an ubermensch, well, neither did Parvis and his reasoning was the same. For every person fancying themselves ubermensch, there’s a lot of those whom he’d call untermensch to clean up their messes. You have no idea of how times I stumbled upon people (especially libertarians) that advocate lower barriers to regulations that were written in blood, so that progress can happen quicker. Creative destruction works, as long as some people get “creative” and others clean the “destruction”. Deaths and injuries? Acceptable, just give them a pension (but fight tooth and nail in the court to not do it beyond the barest of the bare minimum, because it’ll lower the shareholder profit in 0.01%). Increase in inequality? Nobody will care in a few years, it’ll make everything cheaper anyway (look up Baumol’s cost disease to see how wrong that statement is, without being incorrect). I’m not exaggerating, sometimes the people saying that don’t even bother lacing it in politically correct language.

Because Lone Trail showed it “worked” – Kristen Wright broke off the ceiling over Terra and that will have consequences (especially with Endfield coming closer). The data from her experiments will advance science, the sight of a broken ceiling will inspire artists and prompt politicians to act. Was it worth it? Well, it will depend on who you ask (like, Ifrit or Rosmontis would have strong feelings), but it’s just there now. Serious history isn’t kind on this question as well – many technologies have a lot of transgressions, both legal and ethical, in their supply chain (both the American and Soviet space program come to my mind – guess who helped them); the difference between an entrepreneur and a criminal are contextual, because both are finding new opportunities of profit and both interlock frequently.

In the end, anyone can put an equation that has its uses, not mattering if it’s a good person or not. But that is no excuse to find good ethical practices. Silence saw everything with her own eyes and I’m really glad she’s leading the initiative for a more ethical science in Columbia – especially because people who are willing to break moral rules tend also to be willing to break research rules (this is why the “research” made in concentration camps is actually useless, it didn’t respect experimental rules). So I’m really glad for the Arknights writers for understanding these nuances and communicating them to the audience through one of the best stories of the game.

[cheeriecherrymain]

For request 🥺 viktor and a nervous reader’s first time

An attempt was made! Again, kind of ran away with the prompt in my mouth and chewed it a bit until I was chased down and made to spit it out. Sorry

---

Viktor x fem!Reader (18+)

Content tags: first time together | oral (f and m receiving) | simp Viktor p much

---

-You had…kind of expected sex to just happen naturally in your relationship. You had expected that you’d go through each new milestone as they came, from holding hands, to a first date, to a first kiss.

-And for the most part, it had happened like that. Viktor had asked you out to coffee one evening, when he was frazzled from work and already a little jittery from his rather impressive (and detrimental) caffeine intake throughout the day. 

-You’d softly denied his suggestion, and quickly replaced it with something a little less…unhealthy. You invited him over for dinner, instead, offering to make something hearty and spiced, but easy on the stomach. He’d accepted, of course, and that night had been one filled with a whole bunch of firsts.

-But now, four months into your (official) partnership, he still had yet to touch you. Well, he touched you, yes - all the time, in fact. He always liked to have a hand on some part of your body, in the most innocent sense. You’d learned quite early on that physical affection was one of the silent ways he told you he cared for you. And that he trusted you.

-What you mean is that you hadn’t…

-He hadn’t…

-You haven’t had sex. Ever.

-Not only with him, but…in general. None of your past relationships had ever gotten to a point where you’d felt safe enough to open up about that sort of thing, or made you feel comfortable enough to bare yourself so openly. But you want that, with him.

-You’ve heard as many horror stories as you have pleasantries about the whole ordeal, ranging from pain and discomfort, to not being able to come, to muscle cramps and weird noises and knocking foreheads when you tried to-

-You take a deep breath, in a vain attempt to calm yourself down. You know it’s not always like that. You know that Viktor would never hurt you, or make you feel weird or unusual for something so trivial.

-You’ve heard good things about sex, too. The emotional intimacy it could achieve, on top of the physical pleasure - little giggles and feelings of elation. One of your friends had said she’d never really experienced good sex until she’d met her partner, and they’d actually talked about what they wanted. Openly and without judgment.

-You’re a little bit cranky that you’re probably going to have to be the one who brings the subject up with your boyfriend. You wish that you could just…fall into it, and talk about it afterwards, but realistically? It’s a conversation that needs to be had.

-You want him to know what you want.

-You want to know what he wants.

-So on a weekend, as the two of you sit comfortably at your tiny dining table, eating some kind of cheesy pasta dish that you don’t know the name of, you broach the subject.

- “What do you think about sex?” you ask him, during the first lull in your mutual chatter. You want to hit yourself, with how the question comes out, but you suppose there’s no going back now.

-Viktor nearly chokes for a second on a bite of food, his gaze snapping up to yours as a light dusting of pink begins to appear on his cheeks. “Pardon me?” he coughs, clearing his throat.

-You sigh.

- “I just…I want to know where we’re at,” you explain, setting your fork down. “Most people usually…do it within the first month of being together. And we’re on month four, so I- I just want to…check in, I guess?”

-You can feel your face beginning to heat up, as the mortification sets in. “I’m not saying that we have to have had sex by now,” you ramble, “I’m just talking about the statistical average! I mean, I’ve never even done it before, so it’s not like I have any frame of reference - I just thought! It’s a thing a lot of couples do, so maybe it would be a - a good idea to - talk. About it. About if that’s something you want.”

-You set your face in your hands with a groan, feeling the tips of your ears burn from the awkwardness of it all. You knew it was going to be uncomfortable and kind of weird to bring it up, but of all the ways you could have messed it up and stuck your foot in your mouth-

- “Is it something you want?” he asks suddenly, surprising you well enough that you crack your fingers apart to peer at him with a single eye. He’s flushed, as you expected him to be, but he doesn’t look particularly embarrassed. Not like you thought he would.

-You sigh again.

- “I…think so,” you admit, finally pulling your hands away from your face. “It’s like I said - I’ve never done it. I know I’m late to the party, but-”

-He reaches across the table then, all but throwing his fork down in lieu of reaching for you. Wrapping his hand tenderly around your own, in an attempt to comfort you.

- “There is no time limit on something like this,” he tells you. “If the moment has never felt right, then that’s…that’s okay. If you’re unsure about making our relationship more physical, then we don’t need to rush. There is no rule saying we have to do certain things at a certain time.”

-You carefully knit your digits around his, staring down at the little details on his hands. The angular curve of his fingers, long and slender and dextrous, along with the little moles and freckles and scars that dot across his pale skin. You’re rendered breathless for a brief moment, upon the realization that every part of him is stupidly attractive.

- “I want you,” you mumble, shyly avoiding eye contact. “The number of times I’ve thought about you during one of my ridiculously long showers is…too many to count. I guess I just. I dunno. I’m nervous. I don’t want to be bad at it, and I don’t want to mess something up, and I’m worried I won’t….”

-You sigh for a third time.

-Thankfully, Viktor has known you for a significant amount of time by now: he knows your moods and feelings, knows your little secrets and tells. He knows what you’re thinking about, just by looking at you. You don’t need to say so much out loud.

- “Nothing you could do could put me off of you,” he promises, as he rises from his seat. Keeping your hands entwined, he maneuvers his way over to stand in front of you, bringing your knuckles up to his lips once your knees knock against him.

- “If I’m being honest, I’ve been…quite horrendous about controlling myself around you,” he admits, without an ounce of shame. “Most nights, when I’m alone in the lab, I’ve taken myself in hand to the thought of you. The way your hair smelled that morning in bed, the way your lips are so warm on mine.”

-You swallow hard, as your stomach flutters wildly.

- “And then, of course, there are the things I don’t know,” the corner of his mouth quirks up at the edge, mischievous and playful. “I like to think about the way you’d taste on my tongue, how I could make you squirm. The pretty little sounds you’d make as I gave you pleasure. How divine you’d feel, wrapped around my cock.”

-You nearly stop breathing, the softest of whines falling past your lips.

-Viktor looks down at you like he knows exactly what he’s doing, like some kind of devilish, scheming man. Bringing his lips to the back of your hand again.

- “If it’s something you want, would you let me have you?” he asks, his gaze meeting yours. “Would you allow me to make you feel good tonight? And every other night you so please?”

-If you weren’t already sitting, you know for a fact that your legs would have given out beneath you.

-The second you nod, he leans down to kiss you. Sets his cane in the crook of his elbow, and takes your jaw in hand, pressing little circles into your skin with the tips of his fingers. It’s sweet as can be, warm and comforting like you’re used to, but with a sharp bite to it.

-Sharp, like the way he nips at your bottom lip.

- “As much as I would love to have you right here,” he murmurs, barely pulling away from you, “I would at least have our first night together be somewhere more fitting. I want to take my time with you.”

-And so, the two of you find your way to the bedroom, significantly slower than you usually would, stopping every couple of steps to mesh your mouths together. Or for him to find any exposed piece of skin he can, latching onto you to suck and bite little bruises.

-By the time you actually make it to your destination, you’re mostly divest of your clothes. Save for a soft undershirt and a pair of pastel panties. Viktor fares no better, his usual vest and tie dropped somewhere along your path, his shirt hanging open and his trousers halfway unbuttoned.

-You stop at the foot of the bed, and he comes up behind you, wasting no time in getting to feel you - feel the warmth and the gentle squish of your flesh beneath his fingers. The soft hairs across your body, your skin rising into goosebumps along every trail he makes.

-His breath, hot against the back of your neck, as he slowly slides the bottom of your shirt upwards. So slowly. 

-You appreciate that he’s giving you time to back out, should you so desire: that his touches are meandering and lazy, enough that you could stop him with ease. But you don’t want him to.

-You squirm where you stand, trying, hoping that he’ll understand what you’re hinting at. But the devious bastard only smiles, laying a smattering of kisses across your shoulders.

- “You’ll have to use your words, milý,” he mutters, toying with the edge of your shirt. “How can I know what you want, if you don’t tell me?”

-Your face feels like it’s on fire, embarrassed even though you know you have no reason to be. You trust Viktor, more than you’ve ever trusted anyone: you know he’s just being a tease.

- “Take it off,” you whine, and thankfully he doesn’t push you on it further, demands no more explanation.

-The next couple minutes are a total blur, wrought with new sensations and little thrills of pleasure. He settles you comfortably on your back, once you’re fully bare to him, and for a moment he just…stares. You wouldn’t exactly call it humiliating, not with the way his eyes darken with lust, but you’re certainly shy.

-He kisses a scalding path down your body, more tongue than anything else. Stopping for a few dozen seconds to pay attention to your chest, wrapping his lips around one puffy bud, sucking hard for a couple seconds before soothing the ache with the lave of his tongue.

-Until both your nipples are drawn into stiff peaks, and the soft of your skin is littered with the dull imprint of his teeth. 

-And then he continues his path downwards.

-Kneading the insides of your squishy thighs, he slowly coaxes you to open your legs, murmuring praises all the while. He’d done the favour of removing the last of his own clothing for you, not wanting to stress you out by demanding some kind of reaction from you.

-You’re grateful for it, in a sense, but you’re also desperate to get a peek at him. Hard and dripping, watching as a pearlescent drop beads at the tip of his cock the moment you open your legs for him. You whine quietly, when you finally get to see how you’re affecting him.

-He lays kiss after kiss all over your spread thighs, foregoing his earlier cheekiness for obvious and genuine care. Treating you sweetly, with the most gentle and loving hand that he possibly can.

-He wants this to be good for you.

-He needs this to be good for you.

- “Tell me, milý,”  he says lowly, “How far have you gone on your own? Have you touched yourself here?” he lowers his thumb to your clit, already already swollen and thick with your arousal, and begins rubbing slow patterns onto it.

-You mewl at the new sensation, not overly pleasurable, but the fact that he’s the one doing it makes it infinitely better.

- “Yes,” you breathe, fisting your hands into the sheets beneath you. “I - I’ve done that. Several times, in fact. S-sometimes out here, spread open like this, on my own. Other times…”

-He quirks a brow at you.

- “Other times,” you continue, “I…use the showerhead. Once or twice when you were staying over.”

-He groans, then, letting his eyes fall shut for a few moments while he lets his cheek come to rest on your thigh. You think for a second that you’ve somehow offended him, but he’s very quick to mitigate that worry. Bright honey eyes snapping open to nearly glare up at you with palpable desire, so strong you’re made breathless again.

- “To think, I could have tasted you weeks ago,” he sighs, almost sounding genuinely saddened. But it’s quick to pass, as he descends upon you with the hunger of a man starved.

-Licking a solid stripe up your drenched slit, drawing his tongue into a point near the end to flick it against your clit. Again and again, he repeats the motion, watching with rapt attention as his spit mixes with your sticky fluids, dripping down onto the bedsheets below.

-It’s not long before he changes his technique on you, startling a moan out of you when he wraps his lips around your puffy bud and sucks. He leaves you trembling, positively quaking, with his ministrations. You never thought that you’d ever be able to have an orgasm approach so quickly, but now, as he continues his onslaught of pleasure, even going so far as to dip his finger into your drenched hole, you can’t even find it in your heart to be embarrassed about it.

-He doesn’t stop touching you, doesn’t stop pumping his slender digit into you, doesn’t stop the movement of his tongue on your desperate slit. You know he can feel you squeezing around him - he’s got to. 

-But he never stops.

-He tenderly works you over the edge, groaning and sighing along with you as you find your high, nearly grinding against his face in an attempt to seek out more, more. Anything to prolong the pleasure.

-Until you’re rendered boneless beneath him, breathing hard while you wait for all the little stars in your vision to fade away. You barely even notice him removing his finger from you, popping it into his mouth to suck your juices off, as if it’s some kind of rare delicacy.

- “Holy shit,” you squeak, followed by an almost disbelieving giggle. You can’t help yourself - you don’t think you’ve ever had an orgasm quite like that before. Your own fingers were well enough, you supposed, and the showerhead was certainly intense, but…

- “You’ve ruined me, Viktor,” you laugh, smiling down at him with a dopey grin. “I’m never going to be able to get myself off after this - I’m only going to want you.”

-His brows rise by a fraction, a moment of disbelief immediately followed by his own self-satisfied smirk.

-You’re hardly shy after that, despite being unsure of what to do and where to put your hands, or of what might feel good. Your boyfriend, to give him credit, is a good teacher - guiding you through the motions of what he likes best, what makes him squirm, what makes him come.

- “It’s you,” he says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Your touch, and your hand wrapped tightly around his drooling cock, your mouth wrapping around the blunt, flushed head, and your tongue sliding along his shaft to slick him up.

-And it’s you who lets him rut up into your grip, staring up at him with naught but adoration shining in your beautiful eyes.

-Like you, he’s neither embarrassed nor ashamed about how quickly he reaches his end, far too pleased by the fact that you’re finally touching him. That he’s finally gotten to see the gorgeous face you make when you come, and that’s he’s gotten a taste of your perfect pussy.

-He tries to warn you before he comes, but like he had earlier, you don’t pay him any mind. Until his release hits your waiting tongue, you continue to work him.

-Until he starts whining and batting at your hand, you work him.

-It doesn’t go much further than that, for the time being. The two of you carefully and tenderly cleaning each other up in the aftermath, sharing kisses and blissful little bouts of laughter, your hands never really leaving each other’s bodies. You have as much time as you desire, to figure everything out, and to learn.

-To discover new things about one another, and forge this new part of your relationship.

-Though let’s be honest, he does get a little handsy the following morning.

[study-with-aura]

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Today went very well. I am glad that I was able to catch up on my posts during my break earlier. I am now eating my evening snack, and then I will get ready for bed before spending a bit of time with my parents until it is time for sleep.

I am not quite sure if I am a fan of statistics quite yet seeing as conditional probability took me a little longer to understand, but I do think I finally figured it out so it made sense in my brain. On the other hand, the book that I am almost done with is so good. They mentioned the father of taxonomy, who I only recently studied in Biology. Yes, I forgot his name, but it isn't important as he did a terrible thing by assigning value to a person based on their race and said that there were four races, and technically even five, and then he assigned them an order and why they were in that particular order. Apparently, that was one of the ideas behind race realism which is pseudoscience at best in which geneticists even say there is no actual scientific backing for despite how it is often displayed. Although, I am finding this out from this book, with what I know in general, I trust it. Sometimes non-fiction can be difficult to read, but when it's written like this, and because I like history, I don't want to put the book down. It's strange that I somewhat remember hearing about some of the events mentioned in the book, but I can't recall it perfectly. I was only 7 then!

Tasks Completed:

Geometry - Learned about conditional probability + practice + learned to check for independence with conditional probabilities + practice + honors work

Lit and Comp II - Reviewed Unit 23 vocabulary + read chapters 54-55 of Emma by Jane Austen and finished the novel + took quiz on Emma (12/10)

Spanish 2 - Copied and studied clothing vocabulary

Bible I - Read 1 Samuel 13-14:1-15

World History - Learned about Anne Frank + read some of Anne Frank's writings + learned about Nazi ideology

Biology with Lab - Completed virtual mystery "lab" story (14/15)

Foundations - Read more on thoroughness + took next quiz on Read Theory + read steps of Monroe's "Motivated Sequence" + read about the psychology of persuasion

Piano - 60-minute piano lesson + practiced for one hour

Khan Academy - Built into coursework

CLEP - None today

Streaming - Watched Greatest Events of World War II in Color episode 3

Duolingo - Studied for 15 minutes (Spanish, French, Chinese) + completed daily quests

Reading - Read pages 323-376 of Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater

Chores - Laundry

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (2 Corinthians 6)

Ballet

Pointe

Journal/Mindfulness

-

What I’m Grateful for Today:

I am grateful that my piano teacher was very proud of me today for having three of my pieces fully memorized and almost a fourth!

Quote of the Day:

Without music, life would be a blank to me.

-Emma, Jane Austen

🎧10 Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75 - Sergei Prokofiev

[doberbutts]

I just wanted to say thank you for the post about the safety precautions video. I take a lot of similar precautions (I have the same portable door lock) because of my PTSD and OCD and the fact my abuser knows where I live. I even have an emergency escape plan out a window and onto the roof! I live in a really poor area with a lot of violence, there's been three murders on this street in the last couple years and our cars been vandalised recently. I know what people are *trying* to make a point about in that post, but it does make me feel bad seeing such overt mocking. So I really appreciate you pointing out so much of this can also come from genuine trauma not just "watching too much true crime"! I hope you have a good day 💖

Yeah it's always obvious to me that the folks who think some of this stuff is silly or overkill have never really lived through a situation where that could have been a life or death thing. Which, honestly, that's great for them! I wish everyone could live somewhere that they did not have to fear break-ins and active threats on their lives! But that's also unfortunately not where everyone lives and that does include white people (although the point about it being weaponized unfairly against people of color, poor people, and disabled people, the populations that are the most at risk of this type of violence, is also extremely valid)

It's similar to my discussion about weapons, arming yourself, and self-defense. It is all good to say that most people in this country will never actually need to defend themselves from this type of harm. It's also untrue to say that it never happens, because it has happened to me, it has happened to my friends, and it has happened to people I know even only tangentially.

I have a doberman in part because I want a dog that has a fairly decent chance of biting the fuck out of someone who breaks in to hurt me. I carry a weapon everywhere and I took a fairly serious self-defense class. Why? Because when I was in college, a drunk man repeatedly tried to break in while I was sleeping and I have no idea if he would have hurt me if that door had actually opened. My parents' house was broken into while we were home when I was still a child, and my sister was sitting only a few feet from the door when it swung open. Between her scream and our dog coming barreling down the stairs at him, he chose to flee, but what if he hadn't? What if she'd been in bed like the rest of us were, away from the door? What if we hadn't had the dog, or if she hadn't heard my sister and come charging in ready to defend her family?

Someone broke into my mom's dorm when she was in college and stood next to her bed touching himself. He did not ever touch her, and she reported it the next morning, after laying awake frozen in fear all night about what could have happened. Multiple someones broke into my aunt's dorm at a completely different college and did touch her, for hours, and she was found the next morning as a beaten and bloody whimpering mess. My aunt has severe PTSD and was diagnosed with schizophrenia shortly after. She never had symptoms before, but now she sees those men everywhere she goes. My other sister was beaten to a bloody pulp by her former partner and spent many years looking over her shoulder expecting to see him reappear. My dad was shot in the arm just walking down the street from his mom's house to his school due to gang violence and watched a man die on the same block as his mama's doorstep, and now has a ritual every night of checking each and every door and window despite living more than two hours away from that neighborhood 40 years later.

I am glad that so many people have never had to consider protecting themselves from this kind of violence. I am glad that the crime statistics say that this type of violence is becoming more and more uncommon. I am still going to lock my house up and install security measures and keep a weapon on me and know how to defend myself with it and teach my dog to bite the fuck out of anyone who walks through that door. Mostly because I remember being a terrified teenager holding the hammer out of my toolbox to my chest and staring at my fire escape door until the banging stopped at 3 AM.

[djddni]

Could I ask about your medic fang au 👀✨?

absolutely.... i made it a while back, inspired by that one vampire ratchet au that was floating around for a while basically, the idea is transformer medics have these teeth that function as syringes! the inner pair inject, the outer pair extract. theyre named accordingly lol ^-^ those that are "forged to be medics" (like ratchet) are . forged with them ! while cold constructed medics obviously are built with them. you can also get them added post forging/building as a sort of body mod, but it can be looked down upon because people might assume youre a medic both of these sets of teeth can fold in and out, and its actually "proper etiquette" to have at least one set (usually extractors due to how they morph the mouth unnervingly) folded in, for the comfort of your non medic peers though, having the teeth folded like that can be painful for the medic themself, as it forces the teeth in a position they arent supposed to be for an extensive amount of time </3 medics that wear faceplates have to fold both sets in, which is uncomfortable the fangs each connect to 2 small sacs in the medics throat, which are connected to each other through a pinched connection the medic can open and close, like a valve (a literal one. dont be weird lol) ALSO their spit is numbing! which can make kissing even more awkward for them. and if 2 medics kiss without folding their fangs back then theyre liable to getting stuck lol heres an old art diagram of sorts

due to these teeth, biting the wrist to extract energon for testing is a p normal part of a check up... which can add to a fear of doctors lol. they can also bite the neck if needed ive also thought about how theyd word socially.. (mostly thinking abt idw, ik i drew tfp ratchet up there lol) these can feed into anti cold constructed rhetoric, as built fangs tend to be larger and "less durable" than forged fangs, despite the fact theyre just as good. theres also stereotypes that cc medics are more likely to have leaks, but the statistic is just from the fact theres more cold constructs than forged bots nowadays forged medics are commonly specifically requested just for this. with specific fang hcs for medic characters, i only have pharma and ratchet done </3

for ratchet, his are near "perfect fangs". they are thin, forged, and all 4 are around the same length. he has a crooked extractor from folding them in for a prolonged period of time, though. it gives him toothaches :(

pharma's are bigger as his are actually bot made! he wasnt forged with fangs, as he is a jet. (theyre linked to alt mode). bot made implanted teeth are usually perfectly aligned, but its rare for a forged medic's fangs to be perfect. so, pharma has since altered his fangs in an attempt to conceal the fact he had them put in. he wants to create the illusion that he was forged with them. large crooked ones create a sort of permasmile, which is what pharma has as he doesnt fold his teeth in after delphi. predelphi, he folded the extractors in the same way ratchet does :3 medic beauty standards are also fairly centered around the fangs. again, ratchets are near perfect ty for the ask!! i think youre my first real one <3

[noodledesk]

update: FREE habit tracker template (with new progress bars!)🌱💗💞

i've received a few questions about how i track habits, which honestly changes often, but i thought i'd share how i do it right now.

other posts that may interest you: making a dashboard in notion (with template) | my notion tag | my other free notion templates

this is a pretty low-maintenance and simple way of tracking habits, while still using the wonderful database feature. i hope it helps you ✨😋

post text in alt text and also under the cut:

title: how i track my habits on notion (an illustrated guide + free template)

habit breakdown: every year i take some time to define exactly what my habits are first (i like to use icons for simplicity). this way, i know what i have to do to check off a habit on a day

how i use it: every day, my dashboard has a habits section that updates daily. when i practice the habit, i just check it off. this refreshes automatically so it’s convenient.

how i use it: at the end of each month, i can see how consistent i was with specific habits. i do this by looking at my monthly percentages and looking for patterns: did i burn out on a particular habit? why? and i think about how i should adjust these to my current reality every month, because life happens!

how i use it: then i jot down these numbers so i have a general idea of whether or not i’m being consistent with the intentions i set at the beginning of the month. i ask myself, why or why not? and then i make adjustments to my new interests and priorities.

benefits

benefits — an easy habit tracker helps you see what you’re doing each day so you have an idea of what you want to practice more, practice less, and gives you a better idea of how your habits are affecting your wellbeing, instead of just relying on vibes, which can make you hard on yourself.

encouragement — checking it off gives me a sense of accomplishment. i had a tendency of thinking i wasn’t ‘doing enough’ each month, but when i write things down, i have concrete proof that i did things that were important to me. you also get to look back on your month and be like, look at all these things i did for myself! and have a little celebration :)

how it works: calendar view: of course i’ve created a template for you to use (yay!), but it’s worth learning how i set up the template so you can adjust it to your needs. basically, each habit is a property, and each page corresponds to a day, which has all the habits on it like a checklist. every month i duplicate the page each day for a month (it sounds cumbersome, but actually only takes about a minute total). this allows me to review every month if i want to keep my habits the same, set habit intentions each month so i can reflect and consider, what habits should i continue? what should i stop? it keeps it flexible. also, if you’re going on vacation, need a break, or anything comes up, you can take days off and that way your statistics won’t be skewed by stretches of time where you aren’t planning to practice your habits.

tip: hold alt + drag your mouse to duplicate pages super quickly for this step

how it works: count page: all you have to do here is filter the date to the interval you’d like to see your habits summarized in. i keep mine as calculated per month, but you can set your interval for a week or year or something more specific.

how it works: daily view: i create a linked database and set the view to gallery, filter to “Today” and make sure that all the properties for habits are enabled so they appear in a little task list. then i just check them off each day. it updates automatically.

closing: and that’s it! for me, simple is best. i change how i track stuff all the time, but for now, this works just fine. i hope it can help you too.

[faline-cat444]

An image of what seems to be the main cast for Wonderful.When it comes to the little bit of details being expressed so far it's a mix of weirdness but I generally have a good feeling over the upcoming season's theme and execution.The main idea is showing us that our leading Cure is actually a dog who gains the ability to transform into a human girl and of course a Pretty Cure.I can excuse her name being Cure Wonderful thanks to that,if anything thanks to the pun it might be better off calling her Cure Wan-Derful.

For past experiences her voice actor has taken credit for that's a character I know she's supposed to be Kanna from Dragon Maid.So using that for reference this isn't her first time dealing with what I think can classify as "Shapeshifter".Her dog genetics also say she's the Papillon breed which being more of a cat person I don't really have much experience to but a page on the American Kennel Club website did provide some handy statistics that might be worked into her character.

As I said already the naming scheme for the initial Cure Status Quo feels a bit weak compared to the motifs of previous seasons but I can excuse that when your team leader is an actual dog most of the time.

Bringing us to our next most major Cure we have a bit more info on,Iroha Inukai aka Friendy.Her name in magical girl form is likely rooted to how dogs get referred to as "Man's Best Friend".

Design-Wise I'm not quite sold on her default outfit and hope the fashion she'll get later on(When the seasons change or similar) and I think the hat would look better if it covered her whole head rather than being a tiny thing on the side.Her voice apparently being who does Anya [Forger] among a few other characters makes me really want her to be worthy of my ever expanding list of favorites and shows this isn't her first time being a magical girl or dealing with a weird dog.

Similar to the season we're closing off on we don't have true details for Nyammy and Lillian but it isn't too hard to put the clues together.

"Nyammy" contains Nya which is how Japan tends to express what English would call "meow".There is a white cat named Yuki present along with her owner,Mayu Nekoshiyama.

The pink ribbon placements sort of remind me how Blake concealed her cat ears in the first volumes of RWBY.With how order is place in the quartet Yuki is going to be the one who transforms first followed by her owner.Not too sure how much of a time skip this will be in the grand scheme but the little bit of info presently given on Mayu says she recently moved into the town."Lillian" might also be an odd choice of name considering the limited knowledge at the moment for it's a name that seems rather human instead of descriptive or constructive(Then again,Laura just used her last name) and seeing the meaning of it as a girl's name it's supposed to give a sense of peace and passion but at the same time it's based on lily flowers...Which I have seen several informative sources say are HIGHLY TOXIC TO CATS and it might be very telling that a cat is possibly implied to have assisted in her owner's Cure name.

Our last duo in the visual is currently more for the hypothetical theories right now than outright stated from initial visual choices.If it's going the way they're wanting us to think they're who I am really pinning the money on.

Glasses Boy is Satoru Usayama while his bunny's name is Daifuku

The former is definitely hinting to have a lot of those marks I said I'd want for a male cure successor for Tsubasa:

Classmate to one of the main characters(So he does attend the school)

Outfit hints he's going to fill the niche of the yellow/orange/gold member to the team

Ends up needing to be a secret keeper about the girls' being Pretty Cure

If he keeps his glasses or they turn into a monocle when the time comes and everything checks out that's perfection in my book.In regards to his rabbit...

Apparently that's one brave bunny not that I can read that going by the facial expression the first impression is giving.Need to wait for the show proper to truly see the loppy lapin in action.

Now for the final shreds of detail that more-or-less are "public"...

Whatever role these animals will be serving they very much seem a bit like an extended cast including recolors of the animals from Healin' Good

Lastly is our first shot at one of our monsters of the episode which this time around are starting out with the name of "Garugaru"

This might very well be best viewed as the Pretty Cure spin on some subject matters Animal Detectives Kiruminzuu dealt with and all we have to do is wait for the fourth of February to see it start to unfold

[ohmeadows]

topaz splash details appreciation:

is that a jade bracelet i spy?? only other we have seen with one is tingyun and while i do know the meaning of it in contemporary practices, i think that's a really cute detail. you could definitely build some cute ship art/ideas out of that.

her boots are gorgeous, actually, i love the entire palette they got going for her outfit and how it's utilized

am also a big sucker for capes, i wonder what the symbol there is

anyway we know she's aligned with IPC so no surprise that the big brooch on her chest is amber and gold, and looks a little bit more stylized than the other IPC logos we've seen if it is IPC-branded?

also again with women with black leather collars and harnesses. the strap in this game is so real

i really prefer 帐帐 zhangzhang as a name for the trotter over numby, but i get it, also: YOU'RE SO CUTE LIL BABY ZHANGZHANG. does topaz keep it on a leash? does she feed it? does she coo over it when it sucks up all the overdue taxes from last quarter?

also the announcement mentions zhangzhang can do actuarial sciences which according to a search means: "Actuarial Science is the discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to the systematic observation of natural events to assess the risk of events occurring and help formulate policies that minimize this risk and its financial impact on companies and clients."

interesting. warp trotters are so weird

i wonder if this scale will play in. also, that one world with the orbiting green moon, weighed against all that money? ooooh so intrigued

so far from her titles we only know she's in strategic investment department working with special debts picket team so, yeah, checks and balances at IPC? a corporation we know very little of except that:

while they have an alliance with the xianzhou they will not lend any military support to xianzhou, which has the xianzhou pretty tepid on them;

their dedication to the path of preservation is mentioned in radio broadcasts a lot, their alignment with qlipoth interesting as qlipoth themselves seek isolation between worlds (by extent would they be in opposition to the star rails?) but the IPC enables and furthers trade between worlds. curious!

they really do not like the stellaron hunters but want elio alive