#aka prongs

[c0nsumemy5oul]

WIP Wednesday Thursday

I've been working on something ever since I saw this post by @emlovessid and after a lot of planning and hard work I finally have a little snippet to share! I'm still in the first draft phase, so a lot of this might change but I really like what I've got going.

So, jegulus microfic (?) 766 words, rated T.

He knows that it’s impolite to answer the phone, especially when you’re in a radio interview, but it’s Regulus. He can’t not answer.  “Would you mind if I answer that?” Dave, his nosy interviewer, didn’t even have the time to nod before James picked up the call regardless. 

“Hey, hun.” James grinned, hearing his boyfriend’s voice. He lowered the volume so only he could hear it.  “James, hi!” A beat of silence. “Your voice sounds different, are you alright?”  “Oh, don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” Dave’s eyes were growing wide in his curiosity. James’ eyes twitched in annoyance.  “Okay, well, I just wanted to make sure you can make it to my gala next weekend? You’ll finally get to meet my friends!” Regulus’s voice sounded a little on edge, like he thought James couldn’t make time for it in his busy schedule. Which is outrageous because that’s exactly what he drilled his assistant about when they made said schedule.  “Of course.” James quickly shut down his doubts. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”  “Okay,” Regulus made a sound and James instantly knew he was biting back a smile. “Are you busy? He asked after several beats of silence.  “I am a little occupied, yes.” James shot a glare at Dave from under his mask. “But I’ll call you when I’m home.”  “Alright. I’m gonna go have dinner with my brother now.” Reg told him.  “Have fun.” James smiled widely.  “Love you!”  “Love you too.” James replied, watching the screen as Regulus hung up. He turned back to Dave, uncrossed and recrossed his legs. “Uh, sorry, what was the question?”  “Who was that?” Dave borderline demanded, his eyes alight with curiosity and the prospect of a scoop.  Have some subtlety, at least. James smiled tightly, “Wouldn’t you like to know.” His years in media training will not go to waste.  “Yes, I would.” Dave smiled toothily, like this was some game to him. “I would like it very much.”  Well, James won’t play. “It was my mother.”  He can see the hesitancy on Dave’s face. But the man had to know he can’t call out a celebrity on a lie.  He can’t be an amateur.  “Mr. Prongs…”  Or he can.  James wished Remus was with him so could deck Dave in the face.  “Don’t you know, Dave? I’m a total mama’s boy.”  Dave laughed nervously, a retort on his lips, about to cross the fucking boundary.  “Let’s move on with the interview, shall we?” James said pleasantly, but his voice was laced with poison. “What was the next question?”  Dave cleared his throat and rearranged his notes, finally taking the hint. “Right, um. Fans are speculating about the new album you’ve been teasing, anything you can tell us about it?”  Finally, a question they had agreed upon.  James rattled off a practiced answer hinting some more to what the album is about and the style of the songs. (Mostly love songs. That’s Regulus to blame.)  Towards the end, the same question that James has had to answer in every single interview he ever had as Prongs came up.  “Why the mask?” James had a few answers ready. Imprinted in his mind forever due to the frequency of the query. He got tired of it all.  “Why not?” He replied. “You can’t fault a man for wanting to keep his public and private life separate. And I like my stag mask.”  “I understand the stage name,” Dave smiled again. James wanted to punch him oh-so badly. “But your face, Mr. Prongs.”  “Exactly. My face.” James nodded. “If I were to show it, I would lose every spec of privacy I had left. This way I can go outside and blend right in when I want to.”  “Well, you’d have some privacy left. Your mother’s calls, for example.” Dave joked. He chuckled innocently. James didn’t laugh. He was too focused on not ripping the man to shreds.  He stood up. “Oh, would you look at that! We ran out of time.” They still had five minutes to go. But James can’t bear sitting in the same room as his interviewer anymore. He’ll get shit for answering the phone anyway, might as well really piss off his publicist.  “Maybe we’ll continue in another interview.” They are not doing another interview.  Dave looked at him with hopeful mischievous eyes. James is never stepping foot in this building again.  “It was a pleasure to host you Mr. Prongs.” Dave said. “Good luck on your upcoming album.”  “Thank you.” James nearly spat the words as he stormed out.  He hated radio.

It's not coming out any time soon, if ever. But I do hope you like it. Would love to hear your thoughts!

[orcelito]

Wonderful news, after a month of flossing almost every day, my gums are finally no longer bleeding every time I floss!! 😃

[whatdoeseverybodywant]

Ok, so I am up from my nap lol.

I have TWO new stories dropping very soon.

1. Neon Hearts- Chantelle aka Honey is a 33-year-old stripper who works at The Blue Thunder. What happens when a blast from the past blows his way back into her life.

2. Til' Further Notice (based on Travis Scott's song) - He's been gone for 4 months. 118 without a phone call or a text. What happens when he finally shows back up to work? Will he give Kaela the answers she's looking for?

my forever tags: @paigereeder @harmshake @empressdede @theninthwonder @qveenmikaelson

@black-yn @mzv11 @shantinextdoor @sheydnni @zillasvilla

@thatone-girly @christinabae @southerngirl41 @reci1996 @xmonetsworld

@alyyaanna @li-da-savage @kill-the-artiste @that-one-anxious-mango @mersers-moonypadfoot-prongs

@trashbin-nie @adoreesun @shayaaaaaaa @bebesobrielo @bookuce

@rianasixx @kat3457 @queeny23 @privateeyed95

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ADDED TO MY FOREVER TAGLIST, JUST COMMENT "FOREVER"

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ADDED TO NEON HEARTS, COMMENT "NEON HEARTS"

IF YOU WANT TO BE ADDED TO TIL FURTHER NOTICE, JUST COMMENT "TFN"

IF YOU WANT TO BE ADDED TO BOTH NEW STORIES AND ONLY THOSE TWO, JUST COMMENT "BOTH"

ALSO IF YOU WANT TO BE TAKEN OFF ANY OF MY TAGLIST, JUST SHOOT ME AN INBOX AND I'LL REMOVE YOU, NO HARD FEELINGS 🫶🏽

[scientia-rex]

Best Things I Have Bought

I'm not sure how successful I will be in remembering all of it, but I'll try. These have all been game-changers for me, in a variety of ways. If teen me had had access to all of these, I would have been a vastly happier person.

This one is long, so I'll put in a cut.

-outlet timers. Not having to go around and manually turn off lamps at bedtime? Amazing. I bought these but you can and should get some that have a grounded outlet with three prongs so you can attach good extension cords to them.

-famotidine. aka Pepcid, it's the safest option I currently know of for managing acid reflux. I get nauseated when I get acid reflux, so this is a necessity for me.

-T-Gel shampoo. The only one that keeps my husband's insane dandruff under control. Coal tar shampoos smell peculiar, but are totally worth it if they work. For my hair, I like anti-dandruff conditioner--I apply it to my scalp and my other conditioners to the length of my hair. After bleaching my hair, I use Olaplex 3 to prevent more severe damage; the difference is very noticeable.

-white vinegar for a laundry rinse. I get horrendous contact dermatitis and adding this in the "fabric softener" cup in my washer keeps things from making my skin burn.

-on a similar note, all Oxy laundry booster. Doesn't make my skin burn but does make stains and smells noticeably better than detergent alone.

-Aquaphor. If you have eczema, nothing helps like Aquaphor, unless it's hydrocortisone ointment (the same white petrolatum base as Aquaphor but with hydrocortisone) or a prescribed steroid.

-Bissell Stomp 'N' Go pads. I have stomped. The stain goes.

-Prune puree. A packet a day keeps the chronic constipation at bay. Less volume to consume than prune juice and, in my opinion, slightly more palatable.

-Chinotto is a bitters-based beverage that I discovered by accident really helps my chronic nausea. I've tried other brands, and San Pellegrino is definitely my favorite. Tastes weird at first, but when heavy-duty ginger ale doesn't ease it, Chinotto can. And when that doesn't work, I have Zofran (ondansetron) my doctor prescribed me for the nausea I get with migraines, and that's an effective anti-nausea agent for more than just migraines.

-"You Just Need to Lose Weight (And 19 Others Myths About Fat People)" by Aubrey Gordon.

-rolling laundry cart. Doesn't have to be this one but if you CAN roll your laundry to and fro from the machines, do it.

-"Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men" by Lundy Bancroft. If you Google, you can usually find a free pdf floating around.

-"The Vagina Bible," by Dr. Jen Gunter.

-satin scrunchies. Wet Brush. Terry cloth lined shower cap. AOA terry cloth hair turban (way, way better than similar ones from drugstore).

-stretchy work pants.

-bra liners. For large-chested people who tend to get sweaty underboob, this is a life-saver.

-Goo Gone.

-Dr. Scholls medicated foot powder and the Earth Therapeutics tea tree oil foot spray. The foot powder works for super long days and the spray for lighter days.

-Reflective heat pad. I use this on my car seat in the winter and I am so happy for that every single chilly morning. I've repurchased it... once or twice? now.

-Retin-A. I used to use Differin, which is adapalene, the most potent retinoid available over the counter, but the switch to prescription-only Retin-A has been very noticeable. Decreased wrinkles, clearer skin. More inclined to flake and burn but it's worth it for me.

-Red LED therapy. Near-infrared stimulates collagen production in the skin. The only other thing that really does that is retinoids. I bought the Omnilux mask, which is certainly high-end, but HotandFlashy (a YouTube content creator) did a great comparison of different masks available by specs and this was the best at the time. The difference is noticeable within days. I've tried other, lower-powered masks, but what made me make the jump to high-end was that I got the Dennis Gross red LED eye mask for crows' feet off eBay and I was like "holy shit, this is better." And Omnilux is better still. It makes sense, since they were the OG of the models that have been in dermatology clinics for a couple of decades now.

-AOA foundation has been at least as good at my TooFaced foundation, and it's like 1-2 bucks instead of 40. There are light, medium, and deep shades, each on different pages; I'm linking to light because that's what I use. The lightest shade works for me, and I'm basically translucent.

-AOA VitaGlow tinted moisturizer is absolutely my go-to for lighter coverage days.

-AOA PawPaw blending sponges. Best out there and also the cheapest.

-(do not buy any of the AOA eyeshadows. Total waste of time, zero pigment. I've tried repeatedly and they're just garbage. The highlights are generally fine though.)

-Direct acid foot peels. The calluses come off. Just don't do it when you have ANY open wound on the feet, because it's acid and will sting like hell.

-blendercleanser solid cleanser for blending sponges and brushes. Actually a) gets them clean and b) rinses out.

-PureWine wine wands. I let these puppies sit for three minutes in a glass and suddenly I can drink red wine without migraines or hangovers. Fucking miraculous.

-Dustbuster. Holy shit it's amazing for ADHD peeps. Small thing bugging you? Can't get yourself to bust out the "real" vacuum? USE THIS.

-Crocs. Don't @ me. I wear a black pair around the house and for garden chores and they make my feet happy. Salonpas patches and/or BenGay for a topical when you're sore--topicals are great pain relief.

-Vibrating neck pillow. Don't need it right now? Wait until your next head cold. Vibration clears sinuses.

-PooPourri. I love not having to smell poop. This, and similar products, work pretty well by trapping scent particles in the oil layer instead of letting them evaporate into the air.

-Electric snow thrower. I can't manage a large, heavy snow blower and I don't want to deal with a gas engine. This little guy helped me clear my large driveway in 3-4 hours instead of 12.

-The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan.

-Handheld home IPL for hair removal. I ordered this exact one and I like it. You can get these on eBay or Amazon for cheaper sometimes; just make sure you PROTECT YOUR EYES during flashes. Targets pigment in the hair bulb so lighter skin and darker hair work better, and deeper skin tones may burn.

-Lanolin chapstick. Makes all other chapsticks I've used look like garbage.

-Steam eye masks. ShopMissA sells these and you can find them on a lot sites; shouldn't cost more than about a dollar per mask. I ended up buying an electric eye mask because I wanted to treat my dry eye and that just felt more environmentally responsible, but I love falling asleep with these on and I can't do that with my plug-in mask.

I think this is where I'll leave it--I've gone back quite a ways in my shopping history across multiple sites and thought about my daily routines--but if any of these problems torture you, these are my suggestions.

[queerpumpkinnn]

Kinktober 26th: Poker Face

aka exhibitionism with the Marauders

1k words

Summary: You've always had a fear of flying, but your boyfriends have a very unorthodox way of distracting you.

Pairing: Boyfriends!Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and James Potter x reader

Warnings: mention of fear of flying, reader wears vibrating panties on an airplane, talk about being caught/other passengers watching, degradation, public orgasms, overstimulation, et me know if I missed anything!

~

You really wish you could have taken a train. A bus, a horse, hell, you'd even hitchhike across the French-Italian border if it meant you could avoid flying.

But here you were.

The plane hadn't even taken off yet, but your anxiety was still soaring. Your grip on your boyfriend's hand was deathly, but he made no comment. He seemed to be preoccupied with something in his pocket.

"How long until we're in Marseille?"

"Four hours and thirty minutes." Sirius replied glancing over at you with a sympathetic smile. "And we'll keep you distracted the whole time, lovie, don't you worry."

And following his words was a faint buzzing on the seam of your pants that made your entire body tense.

You'd expected him to turn on the underwear eventually, you supposed, so you really weren't that surprised. You remembered burying your face in Remus' arm when you placed your carry-on bag on the conveyer belt, coming out of the bathroom shortly after with reddened cheeks and shoving the remote into Sirius' hands before stalking away.

It was Sirius' idea to begin with. When the boys had learned about your apprehension towards flying when planning your summer travels, it had not taken long for him to suggest the idea.

And so you wound up here.

Sirius was trying to suppress a grin by playing a faux concerned look. "Are you alright, pet? You look frazzled."

You nodded, not trusting yourself to talk. Sirius passed his tongue over his teeth, leaning back proudly in his seat.

And for the first ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, Sirius toyed with the settings of the vibrator, watching out of the corner of his eye as you squirmed and sweat. He offered you his hand to hold, but other than that, he appeared to take no real notice of your plight.

And that's what frustrated you. He must have, because the vibrator always switched off completely just seconds before you could be relieved. You could have swore you saw his shoulders shaking with silent laughter, but every time you turned your head his eyes were closed with his headphones back on.

By the fifth denial, your hand was shaking in his. You thought it might be a miracle when he pulled his headphones down around his neck. "Are you alright, lovie? You're shaking."

"I wonder why," you grit out, biting harshly on your cheek when the vibrations strengthen at the remark.

Sirius clicked his tongue, stroking your cheek with his knuckles. "Poor thing." He clapped the side of the seat in front of him, and James' head came into view. "Prongs, I reckon your presence is needed."

James hummed, and he and Sirius stood to swap seats.

"How're you feeling, bun?" James coos. You don't want to trust the sweetness of his voice because you know they must have exchanged the remote in passing, but coming from his pretty lips you couldn't not.

You're able to earn more sympathy from James, able to lean your head on his shoulder while he pets your hair. Your soft whimpers are muffled in his jumper.

"Shhh, I know. I know, baby, I know. You're okay." He would always murmur when he had to snatch your orgasm right out of reach. "Doing so well, yeah?" In a way, James was worse than Sirius. The latter you could expect to be mean, but with James it felt like betrayal when he whispered sweet praise into your ear as he denied you pleasure over and over again.

It's been almost an hour and at this point you're on the verge of tears. At this point, there's a wet patch on the front of your pants noticeable if you looked long enough.

"Please, Jamie, please..." you groan as quietly as you can- which isn't really very quiet.

"Remus, I think it's your turn." James whispers into the gap between the front seats. He gives you a kiss to the temple before switching seats with Remus.

As soon as Remus sits down it's a completely different atmosphere. His hand immediately finds a home on your thigh, kneading gently at the flesh. You felt the vibrator quickly ramp up almost to its highest setting, causing you to grasp onto his arm.

"Fucking calm down, you're going to get stares." Remus mutters, squeezing your thigh in warning. You hope that your face in his shoulder looks more like napping than trying to hide the fact that you're close to an orgasm.

"Oh, but I bet that's what you want, isn't it?" His voice is stern as he amps up the intensity again. "You want to get caught, isn't that right? Want everyone to know what a little slut you are, can't even wait until we get to the hotel to get your rocks off."

Remus' breath is hot on the shell of your ear, and it takes all of your strength to keep your legs from shaking, not to thrash around, not to moan out loud enough for everyone and their mother to hear.

"Maybe that wouldn't be so bad," he continues, "chances are someone would enjoy the show, yeah? Enjoy hearing your dumb little moans, how bad you are at hiding them, enjoy smelling you. I can see how fuckin' wet you are, I bet you're so close."

You nod your head frantically, squeezing his hand.

"You think you can handle it? Think you can keep quiet in front of all these people?"

You nod again, and you feel the vibrator amp up to a higher intensity than you've felt the whole flight. It doesn't take long before you're tumbling over the edge, gripping your armrest and your boyfriend for dear life. You're biting your lip so hard it could bleed, and your vision turns white as your eyes squeeze shut at the overwhelming pleasure.

As the wave subsides, however, the vibrations don't stop. Your legs start twitching, and you have to keep them flexed to keep from shaking.

"Remus, Remus, I can't-"

"It's gonna be a long flight for you, bubs. Better get comfortable."

.

Remus Lupin Masterlist

Sirius Black Masterlist

James Potter Masterlist

Kinktober 2023 Masterlist

Harry Potter Masterlist

Main Masterlist

[alwayshinny]

Lil Prongs and Lil Padfoot - 🦌🐾

AU where Jily and Blackinnon both have sons on July 31st, and the prophecy is about two brothers who will vanquish the dark lord.

Harry and his godbrother form their own Marauders group (which obviously includes Ron), and yes, Harry recognizes Ginny a lot sooner thanks to his brother. Lil Black has his heart set on another redhead, aka Harry's little sister, and he doesn't know how to come to terms with his feelings.

[your-local-crypt1d]

@madsy-prongs OKAY !!!

For a small bit of background context, I had this idea that Tommy is Mumzas' child because it's poetic in a way. A boy who loves the living so much being a child of death. Anyway

Kristin tampers with Tommys' respawn point so when he gets revived, he ends up in the Grimlands.

She was intending to send him to Pixandria, the copper king being another one of her "children" (like Tommy, aka a death prophet), but the magic was disrupted.

fWhip finds Tommy wandering around his forge in awe of all the machinery and inventions. It's not exactly unusual to see another person in the forge, like members of the engineering guild, their apprentices, messengers looking for him, etc, but a pale teenager in raggedy clothes? That's a bit weird. Not the weirdest thing that's happened to fWhip but weird.

Tommys' head wounds from being beaten to death are still there, still bleeding, Tommy just genuinely didn't notice the pain while so heavily focused on the other sensations that come with being alive again.

Fwhip notices, though, and Tommys' broken prosthetic arm. One panicked conversation and a whole load of mistrust later, Tommy is in the infirmary wing of the Eastvale manor.

fWhip promises that he's just doing his due diligence making sure Tommy doesn't bleed to death in his forge then he can go back to living under floorboards and eating trash. He manages to get a laugh out of Tommy for that one.

That "little stay" ends up extending when he turns out there are a lot more wounds on him than just a forehead cut and a few bruises, turns out getting beaten to death multiple times kind of hurts! Who knew (:

Then it gets longer when fWhip starts working on a replacement arm for Tommy, nothing he hasn't done before. I headcanon the Grimlands exporting prosthetic limbs and other mobility aids for all kinds of species, with their technical geniuses inventing ones even for merfolk or winged people.

Then that stay becomes indefinite when Tommy let's slip that he's in danger, that someone is wanting to murder him "again", and not just regularly kill him, permanently kill him.

fWhip had honestly just assumed the white streak in Tommys' hair was premature greying or an accident with ice magic, Gem had some white streaks in hers after Scott used his ice magic on her. He didn't think it was because Tommy was genuinely brought back from the dead.

After that, fWhip promises that so long as Tommy is in the Grimlands, he is under fWhips' protection and that no more harm will come to him. He's not going to allow some child-abusive maniac to hurt Tommy again, not when fWhip, regrettably, has gotten quite attached to the loud, foul-mouthed teenager.

fWhip schedules an audience with Pixl after that, to discuss "personal matters" he explains in the letter and how it's of utmost urgency. He knows Gem would have books on revival and rejuvenation magic, but he's not looking into the practical side of it, he's looking into the after-effects and spiritual side of it all.

Besides, Tommy said he sometimes sees visions about how someone will die before it happens, and who better to ask about that sort of thing then a very famous prophet of Lady Death, the Copper King himself?

Eventually, fWhip takes on Tommy as an apprentice in the forge. That really solidfys Tommys' stay in the Grimlands being a more permanent thing than originally planned, it's not like he has anywhere else to go after all. He has no family, everyone thinks he's dead, Dream wants him dead.

fWhip is also very purposefully NOT telling his siblings, and subsequently the rest of the Wither Rose Alliance, about his new kid. He's really too busy dealing with everything going on at the moment for that can of worms.

Thats sort of the gist of what I have so far! I will hopefully finish up the art I have to post and maybe even some writing of it soon

[discluded]

MileApo and the rise of Thai soft power

Mile and Apo talking about the Thai period film at the Vogue Thailand Gala on 2022/9/21

I've been meaning to sit down and write about this for a while now, ever since I saw the pattern of Mile and Apo injecting it into their talking points about the 2023 historical film, but it's taken some an effort to actually lay it out. Hopefully the time I sat with it will make the it a more insightful, rich reading experience.

Disclaimers:

(1) I have no formal experience in international relations aside from reading and watching the news, but my strong point is research. Folks with a more formal backgrounds in policsci or IR are welcome to add their input!

(2) Comments about policies or political actions of nations, whether positive, neutral or negative, are not meant to reflect on private individuals of the nationality, even those with a notable amount of social-cultural capital. Private individuals, despite their positions of social influence, most often have little to no individual influence on a policy level**.

So without further ado:

What is soft power? (aka soft power for dummies)

Joseph Nye, a then-Harvard professor, coined the term soft power in the 1980s/early 90s. He described it as:

“A country’s ability to influence the preferences and behaviors of various actors in the international arena (states, corporations, communities, publics etc.) through attraction or persuasion rather than coercion.”

In his book Bound to Lead, Nye established that three prongs of a country's soft power were its culture, its political values, and its policies. Here are two different graphics that further break down what those look like when evaluating soft power in practice.

If you feel like all the above is still vague to the point of unparsable in an applied context, I spent the majority of the time researching how to demystify the term especially in the way MileApo discuss it, and found this great explainer:

A strong nation brand and positive soft power perceptions allow a nation to promote itself as a place for people to visit, invest in, and build a reputation for their quality of goods and services. [...] it is often overlooked that a strong nation brand and soft power can deliver better outcomes at home. Primarily it encourages domestic tourism, the consumption of domestic goods and services (rather than imports). Less tangibly it also just makes people feel better about their country.

Expressed in this context, soft power can be understood as the act of building trust in the cultural products of a nation domestically -- some more abstract in the form of art (music, film) and culture, some more concrete like products including fashion and beauty -- in a manner to appeal to its own citizens while also broadening the appeal of cultural goods abroad in a which can drive international tourism, trade, and commerce.

In other words: yes, our collective desire to actually taste Farmhouse bread.

The Thai government and the push for soft power

While my interest in this topic was originally piqued by MileApo's comments, soft power policy has to originate at the government level. Note again that Nye's definition of soft power is centered around "a country’s ability to influence", therefore soft power policy must always formally be expressed nationally.

Around the time MileApo consistently began promoting soft power in alignment with the period film, I noticed a slew of references in Bangkok Post, one of the reputable English online publications based in Thailand.

Back tracking through some of the articles as a reflection of national conversation, since 2020, there has been a consistent theme in terms of what the government is attempting and how well it's going (or not going):

On Thailand's soft power and positioning in the world, Feb 2020:

According to Kitti Prasirtsuk of Thammasat University, who has carried out extensive research into Thailand's branding and repositioning in the age of interconnectedness and social media, Thailand and its culture, values and foreign policy have charisma and high persuasive power which can attract admiration and cooperation. But the Thai people and bureaucrats must change their mindset and perceptions and appreciate their country in real terms first before they take up new challenges.

Within Asean, Thailand is behind Singapore as No.1 [among SE Asian soft power rankings]. The report stated that Thailand has the potential to rise into the top 30 in the world, if the country can strike the right political balance between the rural poor and urban elite. It went on to say that Thailand's weaknesses are problems related to corruption and inequality. It also said that the Thai government is failing to showcase the full potential of Thailand's rich cultural offerings beyond tourism. One more weak link is its poor performance in public diplomacy and digital infrastructure.

(Mile, Apo, and Bible all attended Thammasat University, which is considered one of the premiere universities in Thailand. Apo later transferred and graduated from a different university.)

On Milli, a Thai rapper who performed at Coachella in Spring 2022:

The presence of the 19-year-old rapper Milli at the Coachella Music Festival in the United States has reinvigorated Thailand's soft power ambitions -- an area the Thai government has not fully explored nor exploited. Milli, whose real name is Danupha Khanatheerakul, is the first solo Thai artist to perform at Coachella, a music festival that draws tens of thousands of fans annually.

[Milli's prescence at Coachella] was able to advance Thailand's soft power [in ways previously stalled]. It is not that the government is clueless about "soft power". For decades, governments have focused on presenting Thailand's soft power to the world. However, that iteration of "soft power" mainly consisted of Thai customs and traditions such as food, costume, classical dance, Buddhism rituals and the wai. These aspects of our cultural heritage, despite being charming to foreign tourists, are not sufficient to catapult Thailand's into a stronger position in the global market. Thai cultural heritage has failed to catch up in the digital age…

Milli's song also includes ideas relevant to international audiences. One of her songs openly discusses sexual consent. Being relevant is one of the keys to increasing the nation's presence among diverse populations. The cultural impact made by a young girl like Milli should make the government rethink its cultural promotion strategy. More support is needed for progressive Thai artists and innovators.

An opinion rebuttable on Milli's performance and the government's blundering of reaching for soft power while not meeting basic domestic requirements:

One of the minister's advisers belted out a long speech that did not seem to address how Thailand will become a "soft power" but used the term multiple times. One can't help but wonder if the ministry knows what it is doing, or what the so-called "soft power" it is espousing is about.

Milli's self-taunting line "I don't ride an elephant" may sound a bit old but her rapping about how "the country is good, people are good, our food is good but the government is bood," seems to have struck a chord. "Bood" means rotten in Thai. It is thus understandable if the government was not too coherent when discussing anything about the phenomenon that Milli created. Indeed, [Thailand's Prime Minister] Gen Prayut should feel awkward discussing the "soft power" of Milli and mango sticky rice when he filed a defamation charge against the teen rapper himself back in June last year.

Talented as Milli is, and extraordinary her achievements both locally and at one of the world's most famous music festivals have been, the teenage rapper really has nothing to do with so-called "soft power" which government figures are talking about. Her success is largely individual. Milli created a sensation and a craze. For Thailand's "soft power" to be built, let alone recognised globally, it takes more than one successful artist…

The whole product must be good if it is to exert influence. As experts argued, it takes a wide range of qualities for a country to say it has "soft power". These include the quality of its political institutions, education, digital development, innovation, cultural appeal, strength in arts or business brands. That is why it is odd for everyone to talk about Thailand's "soft power" now when we don't seem to have ticked any of the basic requirements.

On Bangkok International Fashion Week (BIFW):

BIFW2022 has been [a] major and continuing mission to promote and drive Thai fashion to international levels. The event strategically aligns with the government’s strategy to empower Thai fashion industry as fashion is one of the most influential soft power that stimulate economic growth.

Note that multiple actors in BOC walked BIFW2022 in September, as well as multiple actors from other Thai BL shows that aired in 2022.

On the increasing popularity of Thai BL:

Thai BL is now popular across Southeast and East Asia[, and] has been gaining traction in Japan, the home of BL, since 2020. Posters of famous khu jin were put up in a train station. Magazines that cover Thai drama, including BL, are rolled out for the Japanese audience. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has launched a Twitter account that uses BL to engage Japanese consumers. They are conducting research on these issues in the context of soft power.

Yes you read that correctly. No joke, BL as a facet of Thai soft power is so prevalent now that the government is literally tracking its popularity and Twitter conversation around the topic.

So what does this all mean?

Thailand is a country within Asia and internationally that has a lot of appeal as a tourism destination. However, with many competitor alternatives in both entertainment (particularly film and music) and beauty/fashion, which are major drivers soft power within Asia and internationally, and domestic dissidence of policy and politicians due to social conditions, Thai cultural power is not as prominent as it could be and also suffers at the international level.

While there is appeal of specific Thai cultural products internationally (such as Milli at Coachella or in the case of Kinnporsche the Series) the government has failed to activate these prominent media products as part of a cohesive soft power strategy.

However, the government does seem aware of the potential, specifically in the realm of BL. Thailand has always maintained an image of being LGBTQ-friendly among all the Asian countries, and may now be looking to push LGBTQ-aligned media (BL and GL dramas) specifically as part of its soft power strategy to increase pop culture and media appeal.

MileApo on Soft Power

Part of the reason my ears perked up at MileApo's consistent talking point of soft power is again, because even without a polisci background, I'm aware that soft power is expressed at the country policy level. Thus when both of them started specifically using the term to discuss the film in pre-production phase, it got my brain gears turning.

Mile talking about the film on 2022/9/24 at the D7 Grand Opening (vid/txt)

"Nong Po will act with Hia Mile -- please look forward to this movie next year, please look forward to that a lot. We want to expand Thai culture and soft power..." Apo on the Thai period movie at the KPWT Send off on 2022/9/11

Mile Phakphum's speech on Mother's Day in Kalasin, 2022/8/5

Here's what we do know. Apo's dance training for the film is with a teacher affiliated with the academy that also produces dancers who specifically entertain the royal court.

And here is what they individually said in the Vogue Thailand print interview (completed in late August 2022, published October 2022)

And I would be remiss and dishonest to not point out that Mile's family is prominent in Thailand and his mother is part of the Queen's inner circle. Keep in mind that Thailand is a constitutional monarchy where the monarch has limited powers in practice (think: Japan or UK), and Thailand has a history of cyclical political instability that does not displace the monarchy. So believe him when he says he has limited power compared to Kinn. He travels on a private citizen's passport like all the rest of the cast. (Though my eyes start watering when I'm thinking about baby chaebol CEO Mile and destiny.*)

That being said, what these connections likely did get the production team was access to cultural resources such as the dance expert and most likely credentialed historians to consult on the period film. I would surprised if there aren't ministers' offices who are in the loop about film's production in a way they would not pay to other film or show production teams. I'm sure we will find out more about the interesting and important people involved in the production process around the time the film is released.

Another aspect that stood out to me is the fact that Mile and Apo, neither of whom have policy backgrounds, started iterating the discussion point of soft power in a way you don't see Milli, or Mew Suppassit (who let's not forget was also a RSIFF invitee and the first Thai artist to break into the Billboard World Song Chart), talk about it. Mew actually has talked about soft power a couple of times, but only in the context that he is part of a cultural wave that can increase Thailand's influence globally and never specifically in relation to a project he is promoting. That speaks a lot to the team behind the scenes involved in the writing and consulting (and marketing) process of the 2023 historical film.

The timeline of when these comments popped up is also interesting. While they do coincide with the release of the trailer post KPWT Bangkok, most likely what's happening during this time period is that BOC and more specifically Mile is shopping for sponsors to the project.

Think about Mile speaking about Thailand soft power to an audience of mostly older businesspeople at the mother's day event -- what would the purpose be except an ask for partnership on a project that he is on, which can become a vehicle for Thai products both domestically and globally? Look at the timing of the announcement of the Srichand partnership (end of August), and how successfully that broken the brand into the lucrative Chinese market, moving millions of THB worth of product for a brand that had struggled to get any traction previously. While Srichand's focus is currently on China, working with a Thai beauty brand for a film where the trailer highlighted many historical makeup elements is an actually ideal brand partnership and project alignment.

(Sadly for us, I don't think the film will be the second longest bread commercial in existence. But based on the Farmhouse CEO's comments, I would be unsurprised if they signed on to support the film project too. Ancient Thai bread I guess *jazz hands*)

In Conclusion

MileApo's soft power talking point was an intentional move specifically to shop the film project around for sponsors. The Srichand partnership proved MA-as-a-brand's ability to move product in a lucrative, hard-to-crack foreign market, though Srichand (and Giffarine) as brands aren't necessarily able to stand in the market independently as of yet. Their past brand partnerships' success simultaneously showed how lucrative it is to book MA for a product domestically. I'm sure we'll see a slew of new interesting sponsors and brand partnerships this year. This is only the beginning of MA's power as a cultural brand domestically and internationally.

Mile and Apo have also expressed their pride in the past in being cultural ambassadors of Thailand, both at the RSIFF and when speaking about engaging tourists who are visiting Thailand. Their praise of Thai products (for example, the artistry of Thai silk in the Vogue Th Gala interview) and their active choice to work with mostly Thai brands speaks to their values as businessmen who genuinely want to uplift Thailand's influence in the global market.

That being said, the Thai cultural ministry cannot rely on a single cultural emissary to advance its soft power agenda globally, and as of right now, despite ...some attempts, a cohesive government strategy around soft power does not exist.

MileApo have demostrated their brand has strong impact, and that they can influence purchase behavior internationally (e.g., KPWT ticket sales, Srichand) in ways many Thai media figures have not been able to as of yet. But they are not formally tied to the Thai government, nor should the government intervene and attempt to direct artistic expression.

Culture is one aspect of soft power, and political/humanitarian expression is another major component that advances an international soft power agenda. There are already articles discussing Thailand's problems of political corruption and self/journalistic censorship due to political conditions that prevent full freedom of expression. But that's the government's problem to address that. There is a lot of unharvested potential in multiple realms.

This essay is not about that though. I'm just a fan.

Can it be December 2023 yet 🥺

Additional notes that don't fit into the essay under the cut:

(1) There was a lot of fandom hand-wringing in August and September about Apo publicly having working dinners with Pond over the film project. Let's not forget Mile is someone who cares deeply about the art he makes, and he and Apo both have said multiple times they talk almost nightly about their artistic intent. If Mile talks to Apo and Apo was talking to Pond, why would Mile, a person who cares deeply about art, not be talking to Pond in pre-production? Obviously the answer is a division of labor in the relationship: Mile was working on funding which is just as important, and Mile also needs to sleep and rest and not work. There wouldn't be anyone else he would trust to convey his artistic intent to the director except for Apo. True power couple behavior right there.

(2) * everyday I go feral over baby chaebol CEO Mile. If someone made a kdrama about a handsome chaebol baby who was a CEO but also an actor and model who met his soulmate in university but it was a missed connection and then the soulmate went on to become a famous actor/model who quit because of bullying, but then they met again when the baby chaebol WHO IS STILL A CEO BUT ALSO AN ACTOR met at an audition for a drama... *foams at mouth* I would call this show bizarre, nonsensical and incoherent, and yet HERE WE ARE IN REAL LIFE. The jetsetting supermodel with wealthy CEO part of reality which is now bending around MileApo so they can live their wattpad fanfic life. What the hell am I looking at, I ask myself every day.

(3) ** this statement does not include billionaires like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos whose net worth exceeds those of small and mid-sized countries. Per today's estimate, ~50 people/families have more wealth than 90 of 190 countries. If your net worth can run the economy of half the countries in the world, then your wealth/resources hoarding behavior can control what the media says and influence otherwise free and fair elections.

Once again, Some of you need some contextualization of how comfortably wealthy vs. billionaire resource-hoarding rich looks like.

[oneluckygoose]

(I’m actually so late to the trend but I’m curious Ig, I also genuinely can’t tell)

[ntls-24722]

Ah, my favorite part of speculative biology... the flying Thingmajigs!!!

Instead of domesticating wolves, the Music Men's best friend is birds. "Cloes," specifically. Many of them are insectivores because they're an alliance over their crops (music men get their crops free of pests, cloes get snacking) but they do have "raptors" that help them locate and catch prey and game that I should also design.

The Debu have domesticated the Homo Mousike equivalent of bats. Nocturnal, communal, cavedwelling cloes that even sleep upside-down! Though that last part isn't special, most cloes sleep/roost upside-down - have slight prongs on the ends of their muscular tails to help them hook on to a branch they're hanging on.

Originally they were the pests but now they keep pests out, not just bugs but any small animal. They're also communal much like most domesticated cloes, and by mimicking their calls you can command an entire flock, which is an especially potent ability when the only thing stopping these guys from going after bigger prey is numbers.

The gap between their front and back teeth are especially large so they can have a gap for Grip. They use their long middle finger to stab insects.

The Zebraelves have their insectivores, but they actually have clohe mounts! Diving, powerful flyers the size of our storks that they ride. They're not as communal as most domesticated clohes, and they sleep/roost on the ground, unlike most cloes. They actually can use their tail like a fish's, and swim like one beneath the water.

They're almost a bit too water friendly, and oftentimes, if you fly over water with them, there's a half chance they'll dive for a snack... It's best to keep them extra-fed but there's no cure for impulsivity.

Behold... the cloe equivalent to a crusty white dog. This one is a basic clohe domesticated for the purpose of keeping pests off your garden but the wealthy have begun breeding fancier cloes from the already curly-furred, cute, insectivores in nature.

Wouldn't be a true "dog" without the unethical breeding for cuteness

They have a version of fetch (aka some game universally played with cloes) where they toss them up in the air and let them glide/fly down into their hands. Once they industrialize/modernize I imagine cloe movies will have someone reluctantly adopt a cloe after literally tossing it away and having it fly right back over and over.

That one picture of the zebraelf holding her laughter in inspired me to make these 3 characters - these 2 mailmen who ride their cloes to far-out cities and deliver things and their kinda uptight boss who always catches them on stupid tomfoolery. Mordecai, Rigby, and Benson dynamic.

They actually do know Sindeer, Rinkalla, and Lepit, but the first one (fanny pack, "Mauli") is seen as a treat to have in the house and the 2nd one (mohawk, "Pua") is seen as a PEST by specifically Sindeer because she caught her stealing from her farm Only Once

Also, Rinkalla's petroglyphs.

The first one is set mostly in the past. shows the nigh-falling out between Sindeer and Lepit that led them searching for someone new, Lepit making his seperate burrow now that Rinkalla is there to sleep beside Sindeer, something she made to comfort Sindeer on her infertility woes, and Rinkalla offering Lepit a razor to shave off his back fur, alongside making fur extensions from them. Surprise! i forgot to mention that in their introduction post but Rinkalla and Lepit are trans and they have a sick trade deal

This one is mainly set in the now with just very domestic scenes for the most part of Rinkalla offering Sindeer handmade blades, Lepit caring for her when she got stupid sick, but that one gruesome, blood-covered scene was how this series of skirmishes with a group of Zebraelves ended, where a group of exiled, unwillingly nomadic raiders were attempting to drive the 3 out from their homes so they could take it. The first time Lepit got stabbed badly when they came, they got away and stole a big chunk of their food, but the 2nd time, Sindeer literally picked up one of them, chucked them into the air, and called their cloes to feast on the fucker midair.

That ended that issue very quickly! It was the scariest thing Rinkalla had ever seen and she commemorated it

[doberbutts]

no judgment at all, i don’t know much about dogs/dog training, but why do you use a prong collar? i always thought they seemed a bit mean, like they would hurt the dog. i know a lot of people are against them. what benefits do you get from using one with your dog? genuinely just curious!!

Once again, I am really not interested in a tool debate.

Anything used improperly can hurt an animal. And we as humans have a tendency to associate metal with harshness, when in reality many fibrous materials can be equally or even harsher than metal.

Out of the various training tools in my collar bin, the prong is the one Fenris needed the least introduction to in order to get him to tolerate wearing it (almost none) and also the most effective at the lowest level of correction (meaning usually he does not need more than self-correction, aka hitting the end of the leash naturally and feeling the collar activate, and when he does need more it is with a very small amount of effort from me).

Compare this to "nicer" or "gentler" tools like head halters (we love cervical spine fractures and slipped discs) or front clip harnesses (pinching the shoulders together and tightening over the ribcage, potentially permanently altering the way the dog walks as it damages joints and muscle growth during a puppy's key developmental stages) and perhaps it's just that we see cloth as soft and metal as hard and don't really consider how these tools work.

He was great at loose leash walking until he became a teenage butthead. I think he will return to being great at loose leash walking when he is not being a teenage butthead. Unfortunately, my back hurts when he yanks forward on the leash to go piss on a tree or chase a squirrel, and since he's squarely in that developmental period, he gets a reminder for why we don't injure dad's back any more than it already has been.

[lilyblackdraws]

198 - Plume as every class.

Musings on the choices below.

Vanguard: This one's just Plume. You know this one.

Guard: I struggled a bit to find a good subclass here. A lot of them are kinda too fancy for her. Could've gone with Dreadnought, since that's just souped-up Charger, but went with Liberator because it's interesting. Her weapon is just a Monster Hunter Gunlance. During her charge-up time she sharpens and reloads the thing and waits for Wyvernfire to come off cooldown and also recovers her stamina. She starts her skill with several big aoe blasts and then goes into regular sweeps and slams. Plume's not very strong, so I took her coat away to lighten the load a bit.

Defender: Plume's not really suited to this class. I thought about Duelist, since she's already in the "stat stick" subclass of Vanguard, but it didn't feel right. I chose Protector because it's very plain and Plume's very plain. Double up the coat, put a lil guard on the halberd and that's good enough.

Sniper: There were obvious picks in Marksman (default) and Deadeye (great eyesight makes for good long range), but I didn't have any good ideas for Marksman and Deadeye felt too fancy again. Besieger would also play into the long range aspect, but I didn't feel it. In the end I went with Flinger because I liked the idea of her throwing explosive darts.

Caster: The "physical" jobs were easy. Plume can swing a weapon around just fine, but for the "magical" stuff I had to think a bit. I played into Plume's patience with Mystic. (That was also a point for Liberator) She knows to bide her time to find the right spot to strike. I went for a very different outfit base for the green classes, because I wanted something lighter. Mystic Casters tend to wear like "high society" clothes anyway for the most part. Iris and Ebenholz come to mind. I like the look for Plume; It's like a discrete bodyguard at a party. The staff keeps parts of her halberd and the three-pronged design is just an obvious thing for Mystic. The halberd blade can be the fourth point if she gets that module. The stored casts have an arrow-like appearance, because it felt nice. Another subclass I considered was Phalanx, but I went with this. Phalanx was too "hit take-y".

Medic: Medic. This is the class Plume's the least-suited for. I think the extent of her medical knowledge is enough for her to apply first aid and field medicine stuff, not be an actual Medic. But I also think that if you handed her a light crossbow with healing bolts prepared that she could handle that just fine. She looks quite happy here, which is a bit out of character. Not that she's never happy, she just tends to have a more subdued expression. That's because my basis for her pose is the "Think fast!" thingy. It made me laugh.

Bard: She could've been mostly any kind of supporter, aside from Artificer I'd say. The most "basic" type is probably Decel-Binder, but I only base this on the fact that that's our only 3-star type. She's not big on arts. But you don't need arts to sing. Plume's from Laterano aka "I can't believe it's not Catholic" so there's no way she didn't receive some kind of musical education. Probably some choir singing. I think it's a nice image, Plume sitting there, playing her bass and singing a little song. I like it. I also wanted to draw her in an outfit like this too. The specifics of the dress and the veil all play to my tastes.

Specialist: This could've been Executor too. It was either that or Ambusher, both work. Even when she's beaten and broken, Plume will keep defending you to the bitter end. You should meet her devotion in kind.

[comicaurora]

Hey, Red, I wanted to ask your insight on one thing about comic writing yet again

How do you write "serialized" media in comparison to traditional writing? Like, people often say that "your first draft will be bad, so you have to get back to it and revise at some point", but, like, for media released periodically, like webcomics, it's much harder to do, unless you write down the entire story beforehand in a lot of detail, and revise *that* instead, and only start drawing after like third or fourth edition of the script.

But, like, I assume that, beyond basic outline, some cool scenes in the middle, and the ending, there is only so much planning you can viably do. How do you handle it? Do you sometimes have to draw a page without knowing yet what will happen five pages later? How do you balance between leaving yourself the freedom to alter things (and also free time not spent on writing a novel before transforming it into a comic) and having a good written story, with themes and foreshadowing and stuff?

It's certainly different than traditional writing, because progress becomes a rolling, iterative thing rather than full draft passes.

What I have is a many-pronged approach that gets more detailed the farther in it goes:

The toolbox. This is a big pile of characters, subplot concepts and plothooks I add to whenever I think of something new and fun. When I'm building out a new arc from scratch, this is what I draw on.

The roadmap. This is a rough plan for the overall shape of the story - I know where the characters start and where they end, and I have a rough idea of waypoints they'll hit along the way. I have one of these for the story as a whole, with each "waypoint" basically being a rough-draft concept for the premise of a single arc. To give an idea of the level of specificity, the "waypoint" for this first arc was literally just "getting the gang together." It was the one thing I needed to have happen. On a smaller scale, individual sub-arcs have more detailed roadmaps of their own, but they mostly fit the format of "characters arrive in location A -> characters fight bossfight B" with the rest fleshed out in between.

The checklist. This is the specific list of "things I need to happen in this specific substory," aka the waypoints on the smaller-scale roadmaps. It gets fleshed out as the actual story gets closer to it and specific character arcs take turns I might not have been able to anticipate. This is close to a timeline, but it's more flexible, as at this stage it's okay to shuffle around the order of things - in fact I almost never make solid linear timelines of events, because sometimes I split the party and things happen at their own pace. In these cases I just set waypoints for when different sub-timelines will intersect - at what point in the conversation will the large flashy thing interrupt, at what stage in the fight will the cavalry arrive, etc. I just need to be sure to hit all the important parts. I'll know a story is ready to turn into a storyboard once I have every important detail nailed down - what specific sticking points will come up in the character conflict, what hidden threat is going to be in the environment they enter so I can set it up correctly, what conclusion will a character come to and how will they want to proceed, etc.

The solid storyboard. This is what I turn into finalized pages, and I work several chapters ahead to make sure I have the rhythm of the story. Once it's down on paper it generally doesn't change much, though specifics of dialogue can be reworked right up to the export. This is linear progress, and it usually happens in very discrete bursts. I don't storyboard something until I know exactly what is happening in this specific scene, where they're going, where it'll end and what it's setting up for later. Sometimes I get stuck on a single panel because I'm not sure which choice a character will make, and then when I come back to it I set down that panel and like five more pages flow out afterwards. Sometimes I'll just reread all my storyboards up to the current endpoint, take a nap, then wake up knowing exactly what to put on the next panel. Sometimes I'll do a reread and tweak the dialogue at several points because the first draft I wrote doesn't sound good to me anymore. This is where I do the bulk of the work that traditional media would do in the second draft.

In order to avoid rewrites - because in serialized media, rewrites are very bad - I frontload as much of that work as I can. I don't start the storyboard until I know all the relevant details of the scene's setup, so I don't end up retconning anything important. If there's a specific hidden enemy in the environment, I want to foreshadow it accurately, so before I draw the area it's in I want to know exactly what it looks like and where it could be hiding. If they're in a facility designed for a specific thing, I want to know exactly what that thing is so the clues and details line up. If I've reached the start of an argument, I want to know what is going to end it before I draw the first panel.

I don't need to know every detail of exactly everything that's going to happen, because the characters work better when I let them make their own choices on a panel-to-panel basis, but I need to know every detail of what they're reacting to and interacting with. In a way it's a lot like running a TTRPG. So there are many times where I draw a page and don't know what's going to happen five pages later - in fact I'd say that's the vast majority of my experience - but I always have a narrowed-down space of things I know will need to happen in the next sixty pages.

[queerpumpkinnn]

Kinktober 7th: Inside Joke

aka mommy kink with James Potter

3.5k words

Summary: Jamie's poker face is put to the test when you surprise him with a new toy.

Pairing: Collegeau!boyfriend!james potter x reader

Warnings: mommy kink, unprotected piv sex (don't do this at home), james wears a buttplug in public, sirius is a dance major because i said so, nipple play/sucking, slight anal play, exhibitionism kinda, cum eating, degradation with a healthy dose of condescending praise, alcohol consumption, smoking (not reader or jamie, just the people around them), overstimulation, maybe hints of cnc (jamie expresses discomfort but doesn't ask to stop or struggle), cunnilingus, finger sucking, let me know if I missed anything!

While reading, I recommend you listen to guys my age - a Spotify playlist by me!

~

"You what?"

"Did I stutter?" you crossed your legs, turning back and forth a little in James' desk chair.

Meanwhile the man in question stood dumbfounded with an unwrapped package in his hands and his jaw dropped. "I-in front of everyone?"

"Well, yeah. But it's not like they'll see it." You quirked a brow. "Unless you make it really obvious."

James' cheeks burned scarlet at the thought. "I won't." He doesn't fully believe himself as he says it, but as he stares down at the brand-new silver toy in his hands, he doesn't really care.

"Good." You stood, kissing him on the cheek. Your touch was electric on his skin, from your lips to your hand on his chest. He was sure you could feel his heartbeat racing. "Cause we're leaving in ten."

. . .

As soon as he crossed the threshold of Sirius' house, he knew he had severely overestimated his ability to be subtle. Your fingers were locked together so as not to get separated- the house was overflowing with raucous college students and blaring music- but James was using it as a stress toy, squeezing it every time the plug nestled inside of him moved. He had worked up a thin line of perspiration under his glasses and across his hairline.

James could feel the bass of the song vibrating in his feet as he walked, through the walkway down towards the living room. His ears perked instinctively at the sound of a clear, crisp whistle from somewhere deeper into the room. He glanced around until he found the familiar, wide-grinning visage of his best friend. Sirius jerked his head, as if telling him "come over here", raven hair swishing with the movement.

You must have noticed, because when you turned back from him, one hand gripping two beer bottles by the neck, you nudged your chin to signal him forward.

"Welcome, welcome, my dear comrade!" Sirius hollered, holding a red plastic cup up in the telltale grandiose joy that always overcame him when he was drunk. "And Prongs."

James rolled his eyes, unable to help the grin splitting his face as Sirius clapped him on the back.

"Sit, sit!" Sirius beckoned them to the couch, where Remus was draped over the arm, blunt in hand. The sandy-haired boy waved lazily.

James struggled to hide a grimace as he sat down, the prodding of the metal becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. He was grateful for the bottle you passed him, eager for something to ease his nerves.

"Relax, baby," you murmured in his ear, breath tickling his cheek. James' neck felt hot, the hair at the back prickled.

All he could do was swallow thickly, nodding and taking a swig.

"Good boy," you purred, toying with the hair at the nape of his neck. "You might want to cover up a little though, hm? A poker face doesn't help much when you've got a boner."

James' eyes shot down. Indeed, there was a growing bulge in his pants.

Before he could say anything, you stood, pushing his legs apart. Shock coursed through him before you sat on the floor between his legs, arms draped over his knees and head leaned against his lower stomach.

This made it infinitely worse. Now he had a bird's eye view of your cleavage, and when you looked back up through your eyelids to smile at him, he had to bit down on his lower lip to keep from groaning. Your head rested so conveniently against his crotch, and when he shrunk back from it, the plug nestled around.

"Oi, Prongs. Y'alright?" Remus nudged the man with his foot, concern painted on his face.

"Yeah," he managed to choke out.

"Sure? You look like y've got something up your arse."

James could feel you shaking with laughter underneath him. He exhaled, shaking his head. "Just tired, s'all."

"Aren't we all." Remus nodded, head lolling over to watch the dancers- or rather, one singular dancer. "But we've got the whole summer ahead of us to loosen up."

James lifted his half-empty bottle of beer in agreement. Remus wasn't even watching, his eyes were trained on Sirius, swaying to the music. He was a dance major for a reason.

James' attention was snapped away to his crotch when you began nodding slowly to the music. You were engrossed in conversation with Dorcas and Marlene- when did they get here?- but James knew that through all your subtlety you knew exactly what you were doing. What you were doing to him. James huffed, gripping the glass bottle so tight to keep himself from holding onto your hair. He wasn't even sure what he'd do with it once he had it. Would he tug your hair away, or rut against the back of your head like a bitch in heat? He knew you'd call him that if he did, you'd call him desperate and such a needy little whore-

He almost sobbed when your head froze. His fingers itched to touch you, but he knew better than to grab your head. So he opted to look down at you. You were glaring a cold fire, so he followed your gaze across the room to some girl whose name he didn't know and whose face he didn't recognize. She wiggled her fingers at James, and as she did so, she leaned forward and pushed her arm into her tits, accentuating her already plunging neckline.

Ah, James thought. He was almost amused at your annoyance, if he wasn't already so turned on at any meager touch from you. Your hand reached under the crook of his knee to rest on his upper thigh, sending electricity shooting through his muscles.

Your head tilted up, and he knew exactly what to do without you even needing to ask.

The minute your lips touched together, mashed in a frenzy of tongue and teeth and quiet sighs, James' body was set alight. Your hand kneaded at his thigh, and he could feel you smiling- you thrived on making him squirm, and you knew when you were succeeding.

By the time you parted, James' head was swimming. He watched through lidded eyes as you licked your lips at the girl, and as the latter rolled her eyes and stalked off.

James was throbbing. He couldn't help his hips from rising up into your hair, even if his efforts were hopeless. His face was red and he was breathless.

He squeezed your hand, and you looked up in question. He didn't even have to say anything.

"Wait." You told him firmly, taking another swig.

Wait? He couldn't wait, he'd been waiting all night.

"Please," he whimpered, leaning down to your ear.

"Patience, Jamie." He hated and loved the nonchalance in your voice, the indifference.

"Need you, so bad..."

"Wait."

"Mommy!"

It wasn't that loud, barely a sigh, but it rang in your ears, scorched your belly. You scrambled to your feet, hooking a finger in the collar of his shirt.

"Can't hardly wait a few hours, huh? I thought you could last longer than that." You snarled, turning and dragging him with you.

James held close to you, trying to hide his raging hard-on by pressing his front into your backside. You slithered through the crowd, around the pillar, up the stairs, and into the first bedroom you saw.

James quickly recognized it as Sirius'. Various posters were plastered almost on top of each other, so that there was more picture than wall. The smell of weed was fainter here than downstairs, and there were clothes- mostly black, but there was an occasional red or silver- scattered all over the floor. Makeup was scattered over the dresser, where a mirror was propped up haphazardly. The bed, however, was as tidy as ever, decorative pillows propped up and everything.

The click of the lock brought James back to the moment. You were standing at the door with one hand on your hip, tongue poking at the inside of your cheek.

"Go on." You said simply. Irritability was painted on your face.

"Huh?"

"Since you needed me so badly you couldn't wait until we got home, go on. You have me. Show me how badly you need me."

James' head went dumb at the idea, and his body acted of its own accord. He stood from the bed, taking your hand and pushing it into his crotch. A low moan was pulled from his throat when you cupped him, gently massaging the ache between his legs. His face dropped into the crook of your neck, relishing in the overwhelming sensations- your smell, the strain of his leaking cock against his jeans, your free hand tracing down the back of his neck. He shivered, gasping and arching his back when your finger trailed down his spine. It lingered at the base of his tailbone, sneaking under the waist of his jeans and tracing feather-light over that ticklish patch of skin.

"Mommy, please," James whined, fingers clutching your wrist.

"Turn around," you muttered, pushing him around by the waist. You walked him over to the bed until his knees hit the edge of it, trapping himself. Instinctively James reached down so he could plant his hands on the mattress, rendering himself entirely vulnerable to your will. Both of your hands groped at his behind. You reached around to unbutton his pants, tugging them down along with his underwear.

"No touching," you snapped before his hand could take his cock, bobbing heavily under its own weight. He let out a weak noise as it dripped onto the blanket pathetically.

You were still entranced with his ass, or rather, what was inside of it. Your fingers went from groping aimlessly to pulling his cheeks apart, finger trailing delicately around the little stud. At even the slightest of pressure, James' now shuddering body arched into your touch and he let out a noise so loud and unabashedly pornographic you had to clap a hand over his mouth. It wasn't until you felt the plug moving that you registered the rhythming clenching of his ass, a telltale sign that he just came.

And glancing around his body, you were right. There was a pool of white under his now softening cock, strands of cum webbing between the tip and the sticky puddle.

"Jamie." Your voice wasn't loud, nor really that stern, but it made him jump regardless.

He didn't dare look at you, but he also didn't dare fight the gentle hand of yours, guiding his face to turn back and look you in the eye.

"Jamie, baby, what am I going to do with you?" You shook your head, clicking your tongue.

It was a rhetorical question, but James gave a weak, defeated sound anyway. He wouldn't have been able to talk, your hold on his jaw having grown tight enough to hold him in place.

"I give you a nice, pretty new toy, help you stay hidden when you can't do it yourself, even start to indulge you when you can't even be bothered to wait, and you cum just like that? Without even asking?"

James knew it was a twisted description of the night's events, but shame boiled in his stomach anyway. "'M sorry, Mommy. Jus' felt too good."

You suck in a breath through your teeth. "I really thought you'd be good this time, bub. But I guess not."

James felt tears pricking in his eyes. But he was. He was so patient. You were just mean.

"Alright, on your back." You released your hold on his face.

"H-huh?"

"If you're just gonna be a needy little brat who cums whether I let him or not, I might as well get some use out of you."

James crawled, with shaking legs, up the bed, until he was propped up against the pillows, beefy legs spread enough to where you could see his sticky cock limp against his stomach and the plug, that goddamn plug that had gotten him into so much trouble in the first place.

He felt as though he were under a microscope, in a cage at the zoo, on a stage, the way you were staring at him. Hungrily, menacingly, with plans in your eyes that he was both terrified and excited to learn of. You kicked your shoes off slowly, stripping off your outer layers without breaking eye contact. James' eyes bulged when you shimmied out of your pants.

"Mommy.." he sighed, fingers flexing over his thighs as he willed himself not to touch.

"Shh, hush baby, I know," you crooned, crawling over to him. Your fingers, lithe and light, traced the underside of his dick, making him gasp. You only seemed to be spurred on by his reaction, your other hand brushing over his thigh.

"You just couln't help yourself, hm? Isn't that right?" James shook his head, resorting to clutching the comforter by his side. "Well, I guess we'll just have to work on that, won't we?"

James didn't have the opportunity to ask what you meant by that, because as you said it, you were shuffling up so that your hips hovered over his cock you were holding upwards. That was the other reason he couldn't ask you, because in his sensitivity, your touch knocked the breath from his lungs.

"Aw, pretty boy, what's wrong?" You cooed, though there was a mean tone to it. "You're so tense."

James gives a hiccupped whine, his lower lip trembling. When your hips rolled deviously over the tip of his weeping cock, his head kicked back against the lush pillows.

"Nuh uh, none of that." You snarled, taking a fistful of hair and tugging his head up so that his gaze, under hooded lids, met yours.

James' hands, now clutching your waist as though it were the only thing that would keep him from drowning- in what, he didn't know- trembled as you sunk down, slowly, onto his poor cock.

"Ah! M-mommy, too much, 's too much-"

"No." You stilled, which was somehow worse. "You're going to take it. I've been dealing with you being impatient and selfish and useless all night, it's my fucking turn."

He shouldn't have throbbed at the word, but he did. James nodded after a moment, when he noticed a tinge of concern in your eyes. It disappeared as soon as it came, and then, inch by agonizing inch, you sank down on his cock until you were sat fully on him.

You didn't move immediately, instead relishing in the feeling. Your eyes fluttered closed and you flexed your fingers over James' chest, which, oddly, seemed to upset you. Your eyes snapped open, staring down at James' chest, plucking at the material of his shirt.

"Off." You grunt, pushing the material up his stomach. James pulled the material from his body faster than he's ever done anything- anything to please you.

You seem satisfied; your hips roll against him, and James feels as though he's been set on fire. The evidence of his previous orgasm was not yet dry on the bedsheets, and here you were sitting on his cock- no, your cock. Your useless cock.

"Aw, yeah, see Jamie?" You dip down, mouthing around his heaving chest. "This is what happens when you don't wait. Mommy's going to get ther way either way, it's not my fault how that turns out for you."

James only nodded frantically, breathing heavy and yelps and gasps giving way to long, high moans. Your lips reached his nipple, and your tongue traced over the sensitive skin.

"Mommy! Please, mommy, don't stop-" James' pleas were cut off when your lips wrapped around the bud, tonguing and sucking and pulling the sweetest, most shameless sounds from the depths of his throat.

A new kind of panic settled over James as your hips sped up. He felt it in the throbbing up his cock, in the heat brewing in his lower stomach. He wasn't going to last.

"Mommy, Mommy slow down, please, 'm not gonna last," he pleaded, tears pricking in the corners of his eyes as he tried and failed to think of anything else. He was already denied looking away from you, but even if you'd let him he wouldn't want to.

"Oh, but you will," you purred in his ear. "You're gonna get Mommy off if it kills you."

"Can't, Mommy, 'm sorry," he wails, eyes screwing shut.

"Hold it." You grit, but the firm cant of your hips up and down his length make your orders impossible. White-hot pleasure mixed with shame washed over James as he, against his own will, releases into you.

You were fully planning on continuing regardless of whether or not he came, but seeing the way he fell into a series of jolts and falling limp, you had a lapse of pity. You could tell by the crossing of his heavy eyes that he was exhausted.

Once you were still, and James had caught a breather, he tried nestling his face into the crook of your neck. "'M sorry Mommy. I tried, I really did. Wanna take care of you, wanna make you feel good. Wanna taste you Mommy, please?"

"That's the first smart thing you've said all night, Jamie." You combed a hand through his hair. Gently, slowly, you lifted yourself off of him, rolling over and lying on your back. James was quick to follow your movements, chasing the warmth of your body despite being sweaty and sticky.

"Go on, baby," you nod, legs spreading open. You wince a little at the feeling of his cum leaking out of you, but James was ever so quick to replace it. His eager tongue lapped at you, licking his own cum out of you.

"That's it, sweet boy, just like that, doing so good for Mommy."

James' efforts redoubled at the sugary sweetness of your voice. The hand that was kneading your thighs slithered between your legs, tracing around your hole so his lips could wrap around your clit, tongue laving over your skin in a manner that could only be described as hot. Big doe eyes gazed up at you, pouty and longing for approval. Your moans and praises were confirmation enough, spurring his fingers to sink into you with ease.

James’ mouth and hand worked wonders, that was never a debate, but it was the devotion and surrender in his actions that sent you barreling towards that high. It was watching him earlier as you rode him, watching him try to stave off his orgasm for as long as possible, denying himself overwhelming pleasure simply because you had asked. Your pleasure was his pleasure.

“Ah, Jamie, so close baby, so good- ah!” Your hands flew to his hair when he delivered a particularly harsh suck to your clit; bleary, blinking eyes clouded with lust watched your face contort in pleasure.

You writhed underneath him, and at this point, you were bucking your hips up into his face, pulling it so that his nose rubbed over you exactly how you needed it to.

When your high hit you, your hips stuttered, so James took it upon himself to maintain the rhythm for you, head bobbing with the movement as overwhelming pleasure set your body alight.

The air was thick with the smell of sex as you basked in the afterglow; you’d only just realized how hot your body had become when you pushed your hair out of your face.

“Did I do good Mommy?”

James was blinking up at you wearily, but he looked content as ever. A mixture of your slick and his own cum was strung between his tongue, still poking out over his lip, and your lips.

You hummed, swiping your thumb over his chin to clean him. “Of course, Jamie, did so good for Mommy.”

James happily suckled on your thumb, laying his head on your thigh.

You watched him for a while, content in the silence, until you became suddenly aware of the music still blaring downstairs.

“Oh God, wait-”

. . .

Back at home, you sat with your legs dangling over the bathroom counter as you brushed your teeth. You were contently scrolling, not even paying attention to what rolled down your screen when a familiar name dropped down from the top.

Sirius “The Whore” Black: hey bestie boo

Sirius “The Whore” Black: why are my bedsheets gone

You snorted, clicking on the banner to respond. But before you could type, a few more messages popped up.

Sirius “The Whore” Black: they’re in the fucking washer

Sirius “The Whore” Black: why are they in the washer

You: Because I put them there??

Sirius “The Whore” Black: oh

Sirius “The Whore” Black: oh my god

Sirius “The Whore” Black: YOU HAD SRED

Sirius “The Whore” Black: SEC

You: Take your time

Sirius “The Whore” Black: fuck off

Sirius “The Whore” Black: copulation

You: there you go

Sirius “The Whore” Black: ON MY BED

Sirius “The Whore” Black: so I got cockblocked because of you

Sirius “The Whore” Black: Now Remus thinks I'm a disgusting slob who doesn't even have bedsheets

Sirius “The Whore” Black: I had it so perfectly made too

You: I can say with full confidence that your chances are not ruined

You: Besides

You: Would you rather I had just left the dirty sheets there?

Sirius “The Whore” Black: god no

Sirius “The Whore” Black: but I'm never using those sheets again anyways

Sirius “The Whore” Black: I'm burning the entire bed

Sirius “The Whore” Black: And you will be purchasing me a new set since you're soooo considerate

Your head kicks back in a cackle.

"What's so funny?" Came James' voice from the shower.

You scroll up so that you can show James the conversation. When you push the phone past the shower curtain, the words James reads aloud are not the ones you'd read.

"Sirius "The Whore" Black sent you an ApplePay request - €300."

~

James Potter Masterlist

Kinktober 2023 Masterlist

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[phoenixs-fandoms-and-writings]

We’re Here For You

Pairing: none. You might see it differently, but when I was writing it, I was trying to write them as friends, maybe with the reader choosing to date one or all three of them. I’m leaving that open to interpretation.

Characters: James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and reader

Summary: you saw one of your abusive ex friends and it makes you spiral. The only reason you can get out of the spiral is because of three amazing friends of yours.

Warnings: referenced toxic friendship (past), hurt/comfort, implied/referenced abuse (past), really bad thoughts

Note: I don’t own Harry Potter. I don’t agree with JKR’s views. This account will always be a safe space for all (except any prejudiced, bigoted, fascist, rascist, homophobic, transphobic or ableist people).

I wrote this story when I was at a low point to help myself feel better.

Cross-posted on AO3 as simplyreflected

A few years ago, you had ended up in a bad place thanks to finally getting out of two really toxic and abusive friendships; if you could call them that. They did so many things that demeaned you and made you feel like you were the bad guy. What helped you start to get better was that you’d become friends with the Marauders, they helped you realise it should’ve happened sooner, and the longer you spoke about it to them, the more you realised there were more red flags than anything else that you wish you had noticed.

However, you recently ended up back in that place, the one where you felt like everything was wrong, after seeing one of your ex’s again. You felt really low and like your world was crumbling. So instead of going to eat dinner once you got home that day, you sat on the couch, stared off into space, crying.

One of your flat mates - James Potter came through the front door and was about to call out to see who was home, when he saw you on the couch. He walked over as he tried to get your attention. You hadn’t seen or heard him, because you were stuck in your own head. Your mood was getting worse because you kept hearing the same things go through your mind:

No one wants you.

You’ve never been wanted.

You’re an inconvenience.

You’re worthless.

A waste of space.

The world would be much better off without you.

Even those you call friends now don’t want you around.

If they did want you around, you’d be with them.

“Y/n,” a voice said quietly, jarring you from your thoughts. You jumped slightly, not having realised someone was there, you wiped your eyes and when you looked up, you saw James looking at you so tenderly, slowly reaching out to cup your face. “Are-are you ok?”

The action was so tender that it had you in tears again as you leaned into his hand, and whispered, “No, Jamie. I saw my ex again today and it triggered me.”

“Oh, love. C’mere,” he held his arms open for you to go and hug him. You moved quickly into them and hugged him back. “If you want to talk about how you’re feeling, I’ll listen. Padfoot and Moony will be here soon and I’m sure they’ll listen too.”

“Thanks,” you whispered, feeling safe with him at that moment. “I kept having thoughts come into my head telling me that I’m worthless, a waste of space and an inconvenience. They keep telling me that this world would be better off without me.”

“ That is definitely not true,” James told you quietly as the front door opened again, only this time Remus Lupin aka Moony and Sirius Black aka Padfoot walked in. “If you don’t believe me, we could always ask the boys.” He called over his shoulder, “Hey Pads, Moony! What are your thoughts?”

Sirius called back as they both put their coats on the hooks by the door, “thoughts on what, Prongs?”

“Y/n here, just told me those thoughts they used to have came back, and this time they’re telling them that they’re worthless, an inconvenience, a waste of space and that the world would be better without them. What do you think? Because I told them that’s not true.”

“Oh, pup,” Sirius sat down and looked directly at you in James’ arms. “You are none of those things. And I can tell you for us, our world would lose its light without you.”

“Not only that,” Remus said from where he was now sitting behind you. He reached up and wiped one of your tears away. “You are one of the most incredible people we know.” He paused. “What brought on these thoughts?”

“Do you remember what led us to meeting? The horrible break up with the people who used to claim to be my friends?”

“Of course,” Remus whispered loud enough for you to hear.

James held you closer, “how could we not? If that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have met the amazing person that I’m currently hugging.”

You giggled a little at that, before saying, “Yeah, well, I saw them again. The moment I saw them, it triggered me. It triggered all the bad emotions and thoughts. I feel like I lost my self-worth all over again. And as the day went on I kept hearing those thoughts, telling me I’m worthless, useless, an inconvenience and a lot of other things. I couldn’t get them to go away, and ever since I got home, I’ve been here on the couch. The more I heard them, the more I believed them.” By the end of your speech, you were in tears again. You turned into James’ chest and hid your face.

The boys didn’t try to coax you out. In fact, they didn’t do anything except comfort you; James moved one of his to play with your hair, Remus moved to hug both you and James, and Sirius turned himself into Padfoot, who nudged you until you moved one hand down to pet him, which he loved and knew you loved too. Padfoot kept nudging your hand when you’d stop, as if to remind you and say, ‘we’re here’.

“Shh, it’s ok,” James said as you cried into him. “We’re here for you. We love you.” He stopped as he heard you hiccup. “Do you want to hear what we think of you, love?”

“Please,” you whispered. “I just want to hear your voices. All of you are my comfort, you’re here for me and you’ve always been here for me when no one else was. Please tell me what you see when you look at me.”

“You are brave,” James told you, before he kissed the top of your head.

“You’re one of the kindest people I’ve ever known, and you always see the good in people, even when they don’t see it themselves,” Remus told you.

Padfoot turned back into Sirius and he whispered so only the four of you could hear (even though you were the only ones there), “you are loyal and so strong.”

“You are so, so brilliant,” James told you. “You are always there to support me or any of us when we are doing anything, no matter how silly it is.” You giggled at that.

“Thanks, guys,” you snuggled into James as you smiled the first real smile since you saw your ex.

“You’re welcome,” James said. “You will get through this, and even better for you, until you feel more confident in yourself again, we will be here for you, we’ll keep you company, if that's what you want, love. Even if all you want is quiet, and to not be alone.”

“For you, angel, we will do anything to make you feel like the amazing person we know you are,” Sirius told you.

“After all, you deserve the world, and so, so much more,” Remus whispered before kissing the side of your head.

The four of you hugged before Remus decided to get up and cook something for all of you, and you all decided to just enjoy each other’s company in the kitchen. Sirius was sitting on one of the benches as you and James were hugging by the window as you watched Sirius and Remus work together on making something for all of you to eat.

[seven-thewanderer]

Oka my evice is lagging the whole time I type this, but I don't care (despite it messing with my typing)

There was someone else in the Lunar and Earth Show today (I took a screenshot but I'm strugglingto tell who it was)

(outside the window to the left)

Now to me it looks like 3 possible people, 1 the most, 1 the least, and 2 make more sense than the third

Forkface/Frank Now this is the one I believe it to be the most. The face looks like the nose sticks out slightly, but it's hard to tell if the top prong is there or not. Also, it looks like a shadowed version of them (not Eclipse form, just shadowed by the outside). Now, it'd make sense to be Forkface because of the whole 'nightmare' thing. They appeared during Earth's nightmare (and kind of woke her up, but also possibly caused it? no clue), 100% caused quick nightmares for Stitchwraith and Bloodmoon, and apparently (I forget who said it but someone else stated this one) they appeared at the end of a nightmare Monty had, both before & after the nightmare ended (I also don't know what episode it was but I'm taking the word of whoever said it). Thus, it'd make sense that they'd appear near the end of Lunar's nightmare too, right? They'd be keeping an eye from the distance, so of course they'd be there.

Bloodmoon While it doesn't look entirely like Bloodmoon's current model, it does seem to have a large grin like Bloodmoon's, and it slightly looked like Bloodmoon from a distance. It could make sense to be Bloodmoon to a degree, however, since Bloodmoon did attack Lunar (the arm + eye incident), and almost killed Lunar's sister (technically) in front of him!! He'd probably have a bit of an underlying (is that the word, idk) trauma from that incident, that hasn't fully been diven into yet. Looking at it up close, it doesn't look too much like Bloodmoon, but there's still the possibility.

Ruin Eclipse (but the old model) This one makes the least sense to me, since why would Ruin be there, specifically the older model? Sure, Eclipse appeared in Lunar's dream as the oldest(?) version, where it was just Sun with the glow feature on, and in Solar Flare's body, but that had a reason!! It was due to Lunar's trauma. But why would Ruin Eclipse's old model be there? There wouldn't really be a reason for them to be there. It just at a glance slightly looked like Ruin's old model to me, but there wasn't really a good reason as to why they'd be there.

But yeah, just a thing I wanted to point out, I honestly think it was Forkface, but there's also still the entire possibility that it was just one of them (the voice actors) accidentally being in view while trying to stay hidden, as they almost immediately began changing models and walked out of the window's view

(also this was the final seconds of the video "Lunar's DISTURBING NIGHTMARE in VRChat" on the Lunar and Earth Show, from around 13:19 to the end, aka 13:25)