#and it has taken an insane amount of grinding

[jorvikzelda]

ALSO ALSO ALSO ALSO

!! IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE A NERD LIKE ME !!

NOW WE KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH XP IN TOTAL YOU CAN HAVE WITHOUT DOING EVENTS OR OTHER TEMPORARY STUFF

Zelda Bowsmith currently has 79335 XP. The following things are still not completed:

The final quest of Farah’s Workshop for 5 XP (=79340)

Soul Riding, for another 700 XP beyond the XP already collected from it (=80040)

today’s short Main Quest for 150 XP (=80190)

The total amount of permanently available XP (XP attainable without participation in events or other temporarily available activities) is thus… (drumroll, please?) …80190.

Go forth! Calculate how much XP you have collected from events! (If you have not done all the quests I cannot help you! The Dino Valley skeletons do not, however, give XP so you can ignore those!)

Also this officially means that you have no excuse to still be level 20! Go do your quests!

[artbyblastweave]

So I recently had the thought that Superman as depicted in the DCAU canon probably has the best-articulated-by-the-narrative and most-consistent character flaws of any Superman I’ve seen, in a way that’s enabled by the long-formedness and consistent creative vision of the series.

He’s got an Atlas complex that grinds the gears of his equally-durable, equally-capable colleagues in the Justice League. He has deep-seated fears of moving the wrong way and breaking something or someone, which is then upstream of some moderate control issues. He’s got anger problems, although it’s rare for someone to push him far enough that this takes center stage; you see this with Prof. Hamilton in the series finale of STAS, but also in a number of fights against opponents strong enough that he starts getting frustrated. When the stakes are lower, he can be cocky bordering on genuinely vindictive; there are lots of examples of him rubbing his opponents' noses in it when he finally gets them on the back foot, and it’s shown in flashbacks that he was genuinely kind of a dick when he was a teenager and hadn’t completely sorted out what proportional responses looked like. He doesn’t always think through the implications of his grand projects, be that the implicit threat-escalation posed by the expanded JLU, or the massive disarmament project he spearheaded that turned out to be part of an alien invasion scheme. There are probably more of these that I’m forgetting. The final roundup here is that he’s a good guy. He’s far and away from a perfect guy, with perfect judgement. All of this amounts to something that’s more coherent and specific than the contradictory, subject-to-eternal-revision mess you could assemble from his 60-something year publication history in the comics, but nonetheless with a substantial-enough runtime that all of these traits can be put on display again and again.

In turn, this allowed the collective DCAU continuity to get away with at least three “what if Superman went rogue” plots- four if you count the mind-control situation in Legacy- specifically because they did the legwork to establish the concrete neuroses and psychological vulnerabilities that might cause this specific version of Superman to go rogue. It was never completely insane that Luthor might figure out the exact set of words, actions, and personal losses necessary to coax this depiction of Superman into an authoritarian partnership for the supposed greater good. It’s not completely insane that this depiction of Superman, if pushed far enough, might lose faith in the collective judgement of humanity and decide to put the world and all his loved ones in a bottle. And when the Cadmus plot rolls around in JLU, it’s as effective as it is because they’ve already advanced two roads-not-taken, established what levers you need to pull to make this specific version of this guy cross the line, and that Cadmus and Luthor are pulling all of them. 

I emphasize the specificity here, because the flipside of this are Superman-gone-rogue narratives that jump right to that as the cornerstone of the continuity, with no real opportunities for juxtaposition. A major issue I eventually developed with the Injustice franchise is that despite its pretenses of being an alternate universe, there’s no established continuity that it’s deviating from, bar its own. To some extent I feel as though it’s banking on the audience transposing their gestalt-understanding of Superman and the broader DCU- hell, their understanding of the Justice Lords arc in particular- in order to elide that they’re playing extremely fast-and-loose with the specifics of what has and hasn’t happened to Superman in this continuity. The DCEU is a runner-up- jumping right to the Damocles-sword of a bad-future after two movies is jumping the gun, in the same way everything about the 2010s DCEU was jumping the gun. I think you could plausibly attack TDKR’s portrayal of Superman under this logic, although I personally wouldn’t- but that’s its own post.

Point being that you can’t sell me the upset of a paradigm if you never established it-you need to set up the pins before you can bowl worth a damn.

[bewitched-bee]

Could you maybe write Swiss x reader where Swiss strip dances for the reader and gives her a lap dance before fucking her? You cannot tell me Swiss isn’t a good strip dancer he got the moves-

Anon you are so right he definitely has the moves. Also this isn’t the best I’m sorry I’ve never wrote about a striptease or lap dance before...

As soon as the words leave your mouth that you want a striptease…he will gladly do it

You want a lap dance too? Oh you should have asked him sooner, he’s been wanting to drive you insane

He will take the tease part literally, he’ll go so agonizingly slow

I don’t suggest trying to make him go any faster

And if you touch him without permission? Oh you’re getting the use of your hands taken away

He will tie your hands behind the chair (if you’re in one)

If you’re on the bed he’ll handcuff you to the headboard

Music selection I honestly see him picking the stereotypical things you would hear in a strip club

He will be cheesy and choose the most overused songs for his striptease

As for how he is when it comes to actual stripping like I said he will be a tease

Again he will go slow, by that I mean he’s going to space everything out as much as he can

The shirt? He will take like 5 minutes to take only it off

The pants? Probably the same amount of time but he’ll linger with unbuttoning and unzipping them

Once the outer clothes are off fully expect that he will run his hands down his body

After he does that and sees your reaction he will come over and start giving you the lap dance you wanted

If you’re good he might just let you touch him during it (assuming you still have use of your hands)

Once he gets you worked up from the grinding and small touches is when he’ll remove the last piece of clothing on his body

Then he’ll start undressing you…and if your hands are tied or handcuffed…your shirt will be shredded

Once he gets you undressed he’ll either immediately start pleasuring you…or he’ll tease you some more

It all depends on how good you were during his “performance”

Be good and he’ll reward you…be a brat and he’ll continue the teasing until you’re crying and begging for him to touch you

He’s going to dominate you either way but if you were a brat he will put you in your place

He’s also going to leave marks on you…especially bite marks

It’s his favorite way of claiming you after all

He’ll go multiple rounds with you as well, he almost always does

He’ll break you apart as long as you’ll let him

It’s probably one of his favorite things to do to you honestly

[oultonparks]

transmasc reader x mark - belly bulges 😋

there is a frankly insane amount of brainrot under the cut.

mark webber x reader transmasc!reader, belly bulge, 2 uses of 'daddy' but no real dynamic going on, use of 'good boy' as a pet name also

"just, oh fuck-- slowly," you gasp out as you work another inch of mark inside you, gently rocking in his lap as his broad, warm hands rest on the curve of your hips. you've taken his fingers before, three of them stretching you out as he bit into the flesh of your thigh and made you sob with the pain-pleasure of it all; and you know how (frankly unreasonably) large his cock is from the time you took it down your throat on your knees in his posh kitchen, grinning with cat-like satisfaction at the dazed look on his face once you were done with him.

but having that same, heavy cock inside you properly, stretching you out so much deeper than his fingers ever did? it's burning you up, pure desire and want igniting your nerves like fuse lines.

"never asked me to go slower before," mark mutters against the hot skin of your neck, good-natured despite the deepening rumble to his voice - a telltale sign that he's just as desperate for this as you are. as if to prove that point, he rocks his hips up deeper into your cunt, and bites his grin into your neck as the pleasure has you choking on the shape of his name in your mouth.

you go limp against his chest, breathing ragged. mark rubs small circles with his thumbs, kisses the top of your head as he encourages you -- you're almost there, pretty boy, doing so well -- even as you whine and let your nails bite crescent moons into his strong upper arms. one of his hands shifts downwards, to rub those same steady circles over the tender nerves of your swollen clit, distract you from the final inch he presses up inside you; the pleasure of your pussy clenching down onto him, wet and tight, momentarily knocking the breath out of his own chest as you continue to keen out his name.

you're trembling, and mark is so deep inside you, and then his other hand is cradling your jaw as he kisses you, all-consuming despite its tenderness. he rolls his hips, thumb still working your hard clit -- you clench down, and his hips stutter harder than he intends, and you both moan into the kiss as it grows messier.

soon he has you rocking your own weight back and forth onto his cock, releasing you from his hot kisses despite your whines of complaint to sit back and watch the muscles of your thighs tense and work, to watch how your cunt stretches open around him, pink and red and ripe.

then, he sees it -- as you've settled back down, full to the hilt, that wet, tender flesh pressing against his balls -- a strange, gentle curve to your stomach. on instinct, mark reaches out, abandoning your clit even as you whimper a small, questioning daddy? to press his hand against the shape. he feels it -- his own hand, pressing against his cock, where he's carved out a place inside your body to fit himself inside.

"shh, baby, baby, look," he soothes, taking one of your own hands and guiding it to press against the bulge of his dick inside you; and he knows the exact moment your pleasure-drunk brain understands what he's showing you, because your mouth falls open with a low, drawn-out moan and you make a valiant effort to grind your hips harder against his, despite the sweat sheening your skin and the evident exhaustion.

"you want me to do the work, huh?" mark asks, readjusting his grip and wrapping his hands around your waist. "want me to fuck you, sweetie?"

your broken moan doesn't satisfy him, and he grins, all teeth, like a hunter. "c'mon, be a good boy, need you to say it," even as he's already beginning to lift your hips, just teasing the offer he's giving you.

it's only when you finally gasp out "mark-- daddy-- jesus christ, just fuck me, please," that he starts moving your hips in earnest, fucking you on and off his cock. he doesn't stop you when your head lolls forwards onto his shoulder, doesn't attempt to muffle the broken little sounds you make each time he fucks his hips upwards to match the way he's pulling you down

[latikaa-renaz]

FFXIV Writes; Day 25

cw: medical procedure, eye injury mentioned. Set during the Siren's Specter Campaign

characters: Latika'a, Sloane, mentions of Erlanis

The amount of slowly escalated fighting, genuine to the point of nearly reaching physical blows, that had gone into getting the consent he needed was intense. Careful suggestions, pointed comments, and genuine concern had all soured with time; each word said turning spiteful and angry with the hurt pride and fear coming from every side. Even a brief period of screaming when Latika’a had snapped, pushed too far from their situation and Sloane’s stubborn nature striking words like the bullets he shot against every one of Latika’as attempts to convince the man to let him aid. Had it not been for the terse snapped words Erlanis gave then, it would have drawn even more Voidsent to them than was already being sporadically fought off. 

“Fine. Just get it over with, but know if you fuck up…” The words he’d been *needing*, been *waiting* so impatiently for, that Lati would have given up on if this weren’t such a drastic situation. When Sloane finally gave in after another fitful attempt at rest for the three, the bells of moving and scavenging what they could with less and less results wore them down hard… Lati nearly dropped the makeshift bag of lichen and seaweed he’d been trying to clean. The few measly fish they’d managed to gather had already been cleaned and ready to cook as much as possible- the skins stripped down to act as bandaging under the strips of cloth already gathered. “Yes, I get it, you-” Deep breaths were taken, teeth audibly grinding. 

“I get it, I do. I won’t mess this up, now lay down and let me work.” The tension does not dissipate, while Lati turns their hiding spot into an emergency operation zone. Strain and stress fill both Sloane and Lati’s faces as the ultimate creativity and supply use has to come into play. One does not have the tools of the trade needed, and the other struggling past deep rooted fears and thoughts that while Lati does not know… he can empathize with. It’s why he’s let the man go so long without either forcing the procedure or leaving Sloane to die.

He gets it, so much more than Sloane thinks he does. He understands the glimpses of someone else that come in the moments of giving silent company when another nightmare of past traumas lurk up from Lati’s mind, when rough words come out in demands for Lati to take care of himself, when Erlanis is showing his insane amount of skills in fights and there is finally a working balance between them all. Sloane is an asshole, and sometimes so unpleasant when their conversations aren’t superficial flirtations… yet Latika’a grasps what understanding he can.

So he works with precision, with what speed he can- shaping tools from the very earth around them and turning them sterile with his ingenuity and precise spellwork. He cycles the work of slicing mangled flesh out with continuous waves of healing to keep the agony at bay. The wrapped leather torn from his own clothing can only do so much to cushion Sloane’s gritted teeth when the pain flows, the lichen being used as a sponge only holds so much blood that flows from the eye cavity being emptied. It is not an easy procedure in comparison to many- but he takes the route where as much as possible *can* be saved. 

He takes the route of a future prosthetic being possible, even if it means having to fashion a grotesque and slapdash version of the clean dressings he’d normally use. Fingers stained and slick with the eye’s fluid and the body’s blood work through the disgusting sensations. It’s draining, both on his mind for how it screams at the many risks taken and the lack of what he desperately wants in hand compared to the pale imitations he uses despite how his heart screams that he cannot let crew fall. He cannot let the stubborn ass of a man succumb to the infection that awaits, when a future of painful but necessary adjustments and *living* is in sight. 

The moment he’s done, when he can be grudgingly satisfied that the burn of tense muscles have signaled a job well done… what water they have will be split between himself, and the panting Sloane that he eases into sitting. 

It was messy, but it was done. They can call it a day.

[cosmictapestry]

B26? :D

B26. morphussy pegging

utterly Insane amounts of tenderness

prompt list here

"Is there a particular way you'd like to do this?" Lucienne asks between tiny kisses on her lord's parted lips. He pants and shivers beneath her, holding her face in his hands, grinding his hips up into the two fingers inside of him. The cock he shaped for her is heavy between her legs, its harnesses soft and secure, the base vibrating softly against her clit.

She’s never taken him this way, while he’s wearing this sex. He’d said he was excited to try it. That was enough motivation for Lucienne to do a lot of things.

His hips still, and he breathes for a moment, his eyes darting the way they do when there is something he wants and he is trying to decide whether or not to ask. Lucienne waits him out, her free hand stroking back his hair, her other pushing lazily inside him, thumb circling his clit. "Might I," he swallows, his voice very hoarse, "I would—ride you," he says, stumbling over the modern vernacular. "If you are amenable."

"Of course," Lucienne murmurs, kissing him again to soothe. "Whatever you'd like, love." She draws her fingers from him, his slick abundant and stringy between them, and she pops her fingers into her mouth, smiling at his hoarse little noise. She helps her lord to sit up—he is shaky already, dazed and strung-out on shared fantasy.

They trade places, Lucienne sitting back against the headboard, supported by an abundance of pillows. No sooner has she gotten comfortable then Lord Morpheus is in her lap, drawing her head up to kiss him, breath all shivery. His hands tremble on her face, his lips frantic with how they slide against hers. "My lord," Lucienne murmurs, and she pushes him back gently, and he stares at her with wet eyes. "Are you alright?"

He frowns, frustrated, and his eyes skitter away from her face. It takes longer for him to formulate a response when he's like this, all hazy and overtaken. "Am I not—" and he pauses, swallows hard, his face heavily flushed. "You are always so. Confident, when you do this. I am trying. To emulate you."

It's so sweet that Lucienne can only stare for a moment before she starts to fawn over him, cupping his cheek with one hand, petting back his hair with the other. He glares at her, his lips trembling, and Lucienne kisses him. "You don't need to do that," she tells him in the spaces she takes to breathe. "I like you just the way you are."

This doesn't seem to soothe him, and she runs one hand down his neck, his lean chest, thumbs over one pink nipple to make him jerk and whine and admit, “I want to make you feel—the way you make me feel.”

Lucienne tilts her head. “How is that?”

She shouldn’t be making him talk so much, probably. He looks a mess, red and glowing with sweat, his thighs trembling, rivulets of slick tracing down the sculpted muscle. Lucienne’s mouth waters from the smell off him, electric and hot. His chest heaves. “Like I can’t keep my hands off you,” he rasps. “Like I’m on fire.”

Lucienne swallows hard, sweeps her thumb under his eye, catching a tear. “It sounds like you’re worried you’re not sexy.”

He blinks at her. “Am—” he’s positioned over her cock, the tip of it nudging at his clit, but he doesn’t chase it. “Am I?”

At first, Lucienne wants to laugh, and she’s certain her expression must be incredulous, bemused. He just stares. “My lord,” she says, and this is so surreal she wonders if she’s managed to wander to some primordial corner of the Dreaming. “You are the single most beautiful being I have ever laid eyes on.” And, because if this is happening, she’s going to be honest, “I want to eat you alive, most days.”

“Ah,” Lord Morpheus says.

“I want you in every way conceivable,” she continues. “I want you as you are. However you are. You don’t need to try to be sexy for me, alright?”

He doesn’t answer verbally—he is likely out of words, now, out of the wherewithal to verbalize his storm. Instead he nods, and he takes a shaky breath, and he smiles for her, a quirk of one corner of his mouth that she kisses. He leans forward, and her cock presses against him, and Lucienne feels herself clenching at the ecstatic little part of his lips.

Trembling, he raises himself up higher. Lucienne looks down, at the puffy pink swell of his mound, dribbling now down her shaft, nudging at her tip. She steadies him with hands on his sharp hips as he takes the tip of her cock into his body.

Her lord makes a noise, tiny, breathless, and he bites his bottom lip. He steadies himself on her with one hand on her shoulder—the other he slides down to spread himself so they can both watch the glide of rigid black heat into his cunt.

The vibrations at the base of the toy ramp up then, and Lucienne jolts, and her lord gasps, loud, warbling. “Oh, look at you,” Lucienne whispers, and she fights not to arch up, not to pull him down and sheathe herself completely. She watches him sink halfway down, then rise up again, wonders if his legs will be able to support him with how he shakes, and is enraptured when he sinks back down and his head tilts back, exposing all the long white column of his neck.

He works himself on her slowly, shallowly, his body gripping her, slicking her thoroughly until their fluids are mingling under the toy’s base, and Lucienne sits back and watches and realizes she’s going to come like this, quickly, easily. His head falls forward again on his next descent, and he takes her deeper, and his mouth falls open on a harsh moan, his eyes closed, and Lucienne’s vision whites out.

She comes back to herself with Lord Morpheus blinking at her, a wondering smile on his face. “Good?” he asks.

“So good, baby,” she whispers, and her hands clench on his hips. “Get yourself there, love, let me see.”

His body swallows her entirely now, takes her down to the still-vibrating base, the sound obscene, the look on his face all concentrated bliss, bottom lip worried between his teeth and brows drawn together and tears sparkling on his lashes. Soon he gets into a rhythm, and Lucienne maneuvers him just so, has him roll his hips against her, and he keens prettily.

It doesn’t take long then for him to work himself to a panting, trembling edge, back arched bowstring-taut, little noises escaping him until a final grind takes his breath away entirely. He, impaled to the hilt, writhes and shivers on her cock until it is too much, and the vibrations stop. He collapses forward into her arms, lets her gather him up against her chest with her hand tangled in his hair. “Good,” she tells him, and she kisses the side of his neck, “gorgeous.”

He doesn’t say anything, but he makes a muffled sound that might have been thanks, and he quivers in her arms.

[thefaiao]

   I love games. I can’t remember if my first experience ever was Halo 2 or Fable, but I love them both a lot for different reasons.    Halo 2 is a really good game, it is as much a sandbox as it is a straightforward single-player game. A lot of the longevity of Halo lies in just how much players can break the levels or abuse the physics, even if it’s not as extensive as something like Half-Life 2.    Fable on the other hand doesn’t have amazing gameplay, but in its place it has a very charming world that immerses you to a great extent. The notions the game has of good and evil are hard to take seriously, yet they feel sincere in their sarcasm. It’s hard not to respect the game for going so hard into one way. The freedom of this game is much lesser than the one in Halo 2. You can grind early and become a powerhouse, which is funny since you get to see your character as a great warrior when he should be in his first quest, but the game doesn’t seem to take that into account. You are just breaking it for yourself.    With Halo 2, there were many hidden skulls and secrets that required you to break the level to get, and not in a pretty way. More in a “We won’t even put textures in this area but you can still get here” way. The gameplay was bigger than the amount of work they could put into polishing everything. With fable the gameplay feels smaller than the polish and presentation.    Yet there are better simulation games than Halo 2, and better presented games than Fable. But I have a hard time liking games that you could argue are factually better because of this or that. Perhaps it’s because Halo 2 and Fable are children of their times, and every popular game in history has always been about their limitations. You could break a chess board in your knee, but you wouldn’t be playing chess. You can make a machine that automatically scores goals at a supreme speed, but it wouldn’t be playing soccer.    Nowadays the limits and boundaries of game making are more due to a single person’s time and imagination. We can get our hands on every tool, and many assets, and figure out a way to give them meaning. But we still have to eat, we have to see our friends, to sleep, to be depressed, lazy, or manic. These are the limits to which we play the game of making games, the physical limits of our body. I think the true information that games communicate is the time we managed to spend making them despite our constant decay and needs.    As a snapshot, it’s probably hard to distinguish a game that was made with a person’s needs taken into account versus a game made as a product, and there probably isn’t a pure version of either of these opposites (except Killer7, that game is simply too good in this sense). But over time games that are relevant and resonate with people stick out.    Even the art of producing something that is required is a standout at times. Many utilitarian things have flaws, but still manage to sate their niche well enough to warrant notoriety. And in the future usually become represented by their small flaws, rather than their perfections.    Making games is very frustrating, as you are giving someone a lot of control over your work. You have to take into account their humanity to an insane extent if you want to make something that will satisfy everyone’s internal requirements of a meaningful experience. Perhaps any really good media gets into this territory, but with games I feel it’s right at the entrance. As soon as you control it, it’s yours.    Sometimes good things exists and no one notices. You also have to be ready for that. In a way, that is wonderful. There are probably many things that are great, great, great, but no one has found them yet, and you can go out and look for them right now.

[theonlyflynn]

Hey Guys #11

welcome to hey guys, where dr. flynn gives you the diagnosis of nerd (it might not be very favourable to your future)

didn’t have internet this week (pried from my walls) so my little goop brain’s capabilities were limited, but i managed to do a smidgen of stuff

I’ve played more of splatoon 3, and now that the initial hype, while not having died, has gotten to a point where i can discuss it. i really like splatoon, but nothing had drawn me into splatoon 1 or 2 very heavily, but the 3rd game has had something about it. it’s taken everything it’s learnt and fully optimised it - the lobby, the character designs, maps, weapon system, clothes, just generally existing in the game is nice. turf war, while fun, gets boring after awhile for me atleast, so its dope to have salmon run to jump back into for extra stimulus. the game’s great, and ill be playin it a bunch - my only complaint is that there seems to be a little amount of short burst goals, and there could be a lot of grinding to get to a certain point. also havent played story mode yet!! ill get there

luigi’s mansion 3 is hype as shit banger game lord of the games you guys ever played fuckin scare scraper that shit’s insane wow get a load of that (genuinely fun game to play with friends)

i swear to god, bluey is possibly the happiest show ever. it’s impossible not to be insanely happy!! really puts me in an imagintative, creative place and gall darn do i love it

overwatch 2 is fun??? fuckin hated overwatch 1 but am really bangin with the new game for some reason. excited to play it with friends! and to get good at the game! help!

watched the first episode of invincible, and holy shit. i won’t be continuing, but if it explores how it ended in an interesting way i get why it’s so highly praised. scared the shit out of me though lmao

thank you everyone this has been dr flynn ill see you again next week for your next annual appointment that we have scheduled for you specifically thank you

[jaythelay]

So one of my best friends describes themselves as not a gamer, for the most part they played fighting games, but also sly cooper and some other games.

Anyways, his first game in god knows how long, he actually chose based on my discussions of the game.

Now, you'd think, 'Woah buddy, Dark Souls? For a non-gamer?"

But you'd be surprised. Sure, I did have to take time to explain a looooooot, everything from UI, to dodge rolls, blocks, eeeeeverything.

That being said, I'm trying to play the role of "online community" and somewhat a mentor. He has a question, depending on severity for himself to find out or not, I'll guide him. Thankfully someone he knew also told him this: Dark Souls is a journey, play it your way and do whatever to win

Which is the truth, he kinda felt like he was cheating for grinding but honestly man I keep tellin' him it's his journey and he gets that now, like, he has the freedom to do anything, and it's all progressing him in some way. No way is more valid than any other.

Anyways, the coolest god damned thing in the entire world is watching this dude get better over time. Went from blocking everything all the time everywhere to mostly dodge rolling, seeing him explore a totally unseen world and learning locations and enemy placements, attacks patterns, dude's genuinely got skill now.

It's super cool watching someone take time in places you never did, but especially when they find something new, DS has an insane number of shortcut falls I didn't know about, attacks, etc.

Anyways, he beat Ornstein and Smough, which was his toughest bout yet. Good on him, but now I'm sitting here thinking about the second half of this game, and that is where my confidence wains a bit.

BoC, the lead up to Seathe, the entirety of the tomb of giants, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't anxious.

See the first half of Dark Souls is so great because you're constantly working yourself up in some measure, you aren't trapped ever, there's usually a workaround, some measure you haven't taken, and experimentation will make things that much more possible feeling. I mean, you're essentially setting yourself up for Ornstein and Smough for that first half, there's no wrong choices except Resistance.

But the second half? There's not much advice one can give. Little direction, little to give. Those dumbass crystal guys combined with the channelers, that place is going to be hell.

The tomb of giants isn't impossible by any means, just gonna be hell, it's the Nito fight I'm worried about, it's genuinely just not a good fight with all those damn skeletons, sure, you Can set up for it, but Do You Ever? Especially for a first time playthrough, the biggest fear is just getting bullshit stabbed through the ground and beaten up by skeletons. Then the walk back ain't exactly easy or quick.

But BoC is where I'm just completely without certainty. I never beat this pos first time, let alone 10th, it's honest to god one of the worst bosses in any game, but especially Dark Souls.

At least with tomb of giants and seathe, you can level up, try different equipment, and if you're lucky, different strategies. Learning enemy placement is key. Learning attack patterns is key, knowing your enviroment, not so much anymore but still semi-present.

BoC is none of that. It's a forced carnival ride, an extended QTE sequence that changes button inputs at random, no amount of armor, health, strategizing, nothing, makes BoC possible. You Have to follow a strict path and if you do one side before the other you genuinely might soft-lock yourself with how impossible they made it by not testing a single god damned part of this boss before release.

Guess we'll see. The first half of Dark Souls made a self-described non-gamer into a self-described gamer. But this second half? My god. Doesn't matter how new or old you are, that second half makes my entire opinion of the game utterly plateu until the 4 lord souls are over with.

And again, I'm playing the role of Online Community and Mentor, he has a question, I answer without spoilers or something that'd make discovery lesser feeling. Really I did just let the training wheels off after a while and he did fine. But man, this second half is gonna be a ride.

I'll keep ya updated, let ya see what the freshest possible perspective is on this second half. Because hot damn was that first half actual gold content as always.

[forabeatofadrum]

The Slovenian Glossary - Part 2

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4

6. Type

There is a fancy looking place called Kavarna Zvezda and Blaine tells Kurt that he’s read online that they have great cakes there.

This is one of the first places I visited when I was in Ljubljana. My parents have been in Slovenia twice. We visited for three days in January 2020, just so that I could feel more secure. Not to go too deep, but 2019 was a terrible year and I was this close to cancelling the entire exchange because the nerves were getting to me. My teacher suggested that I visited first, which we did. I moved to the city a month later, in February 2020. My family was supposed to visit in April 2020, but Covid happened, but instead they visited in July 2020, when the borders were open under conditions and then I went home with them.

All of this to say that this is a place I obviously remembered in February. I actually took my roommate S. with me there on our first day, since it was S’s birthdays and they have great cakes here. I also think of Kavarna Zvezda when I think of the lockdown, but that’s another story.

Oh, and a dude with an emu hangs out here every now and then. Yes, a man… walking his emu. And then he takes a break here.

The Slovenian mountains are a gorgeous sight, so the drive to the places is also enjoyable.

This is a Google image result when you look up “Slovenian mountains next to highway”. I do not know where this is taken and I also do not remember the actual scenery, but you get the vibe. You gotta remember that I am from the Netherlands and these mountain ranges don’t exist here, so to us Dutchies it is an absolute sight to be seen.

They park the car and walk to the pier. It’s a lovely sight. Koper is the biggest city at the coast, but it’s not as touristy as Piran. Just like Ljubljana, the city centre isn’t that big, but that makes it fun. Kurt and Blaine explore all the smaller streets and it’s as if they’re in a small fairytale. There is a mix of Venetian and medieval architecture.

Koper and Piran! We start with Koper. Koper is often overshadowed by the more touristic Piran, but that makes Koper less crowded. I mean, it wasn’t crowded at all when I was there due to the borders being closed. The pier was huge and there were actually some grassy areas with wooden chaise lounges to chill out. I definitely liked the vibe of the smaller streets as well.

Titov trg is the heart of the city and it’s surrounded by gorgeous buildings. Kurt and Blaine visit the Pretorska palača or Palazzo Pretorio in Italian, they admire the Armerija in Foresterija and there is the Stolnica Marijinega vnebovzetja. There are a also lot of little cafés around, but Kurt is actually a bit hungry.

Kurt and Blaine’s Koper trip was definitely better than mine. I travelled with two others and we didn’t really plan anything, so we completely missed these things mentioned above, so I have nothing to say here. For this fic I looked up what you can do in Koper, which is why they’re in the chapter.

7. Grind

Blaine is definitely jealous of this whole Boni system. Kurt picked a restaurant called Sarajevo 84, which also has a venue in Ljubljana, and the amount of food that he gets for a small price is insane.

TripAdvisor says that the upper photo is taken in Koper, so I guess I gotta believe it. I didn’t go outside, as you can see in the lower photo. That is my photo. We sat outside.

They move on to other topics and when they finish their lunch, they walk back to the pier. There’s a small beach area, but it’s too cold in February.

I also didn’t go to the beach. We actually travelled to another beach. In between Koper and Piran, we made another stop in Ankaran for a beach moment. Kurt and Blaine obviously don’t go to the beach because it’s too cold for them.

Blaine’s standing in the middle of Tartinijev trg and he’s making one big panorama photo of all the gorgeous buildings surrounding the square. He definitely understands why tourists come to this place.

I’m happy I found a photo of the square in the evening, since we got to Piran in the evening. It’s a lovely place and there are cafés around the square.

“We can get an even better view,” Kurt says. He’s reading something on his phone. “The Bell tower has 146 steps and it gives a great aerial view of the plaza.”

Again, the three of us didn’t look up anything. I didn’t know about the Bell Tower and the walls until this fic. I am glad Kurt and Blaine get to see more.

They then walk towards the medieval walls, a little bit outside of the centre. It’s a climb and luckily it isn’t too hot in February, so it’s fine. A ticket to walk the walls only costs €1.

Again, nothing to say here.

Eventually, they go back to the centre and they explore some more. Just like Koper, there are a lot of smaller roads to explore. There’s also a lot of Venetian architecture and Blaine hears a lot of Italian speech.

These narrow streets really reaffirmed the Italy feeling.

The boulevard is another highlight and there are a lot of seafood restaurants here. Unfortunately for Kurt, there is no Boni in Piran.

I spent a lot of time at the Boulevard as well. We made chalk drawings on the ground and we saw a little crab. The boulevard is beautiful, as you can see. There are also a lot of fancy restaurants with a beautiful view on the water. As I said, most of the restaurants were closed when I was there, since Piran relies a lot on tourists from Croatia and Italy (and tourists visiting Croatia and Italy who make a little stop in Piran).

They run into Sunil in Ljubljana and when Kurt tells him that they’re looking for another place to eat, Sunil happily accompanies him to his favourite Chinese restaurant.

I visited this place in January and I was so glad when I found it again later. As you may get from the photo, Zhong Hua is located in a more obscure place in the city centre. I liked the atmosphere of Zhong Hua. Like, there is a huge Chinese restaurant at Kongresni trg, but then I prefer the smaller scale. This restaurant is run by a Chinese family.

8. Thunder

He also finally takes Blaine to the burger place, which has a lot of tables outside in an alley. When Kurt first visited Burger Time, he had to sit inside, which was also fun, but sitting on these wooden benches under arched roof adds something to the experience.

Ah yes, Burger Time! Of course Kurt was going to take Blaine there. Burger Time is also a bit farther away from what many see the centre of the centre (Prešeren Square and immediate surroundings). Like the fic describes, the restaurant’s terrace is located in a roofed alley. I like their Boni. In summer, I also took my family here and a waiter remembered me and he said I was happy that I came back and brought people along.

This place also has its own speciality beers. I suppose Kurt and Blaine shared a beer during their dinner, but I completely forgot about it since I don’t drink alcohol.

Luckily, the building has an arch so he can shelter from the rain, but he is pissed and annoyed and he does not feel like making the small trek back home, because then he’ll have to wait at the bus station in this rain.

Not gonna lie, I am not sure if this AVA building is also part of the AGRFT building that houses Kurt’s faculty, but this arch is very convenient for this story.

This is the Ajdovščina bus stop on the aforementioned Slovenska Cesta. Honestly, you can also get off at Pošta, the stop after this, or Konzorcij, the one after Posta. It of course depends on where you want to go, but just take the bus to Slovenska Cesta and you’re fine.

Basically, if you take the bus from where Kurt lives to where Blaine lives, and you take a line that drives on the main road Dunajska Cesta, that eventually flows into the Slovenska Cesta, you get Mercator, Stadion, Astra, Razstavišče, Bavarski Dvor, Ajdovščina, Pošta, Konzorcij, Drama, Mirje and then you end up at Križanke. Kurt and Blaine have to switch lines once, though, or get on/off at Drama. I have actually never gotten farther than Drama, but uhm I did look up the bus lines for this fic, because I am me.

[ronniekingofficial]

Well will ya look at that!!!!! Congratulations to @rootsofmine so stoked to be playing on your Record!!!!!! Posted @withrepost • @rootsofmine Holding that #3 spot on the Reggae Album Charts all night ! If you haven’t heard the new album yet, go check it out and let us know what you think!! 16 tracks recorded, mixed and produced at @17thstreetrecording by our good friend Lewis Richards 💥 We’re so proud of the entire team that made this album possible. 💥 @nicksabia once again crushed harmonies and some vocal production for us. 💥We collabed again with Josh Cardinali aka @stoneyeyestudios on FIVE whole Dub Remixes (John loves dubs... he has a problem and we’re addressing it...) but these dubs are INSANE! 💥We got Eric Hirschhorn, Cade Gotthardt and Phineas Crisp — an absolute power house horn section (Rebelution, Tribal Seeds) on 3 of our tracks. 💥 2 epic features from our boys @dreadkennedy_ and @shakamonofficial 💥 Guest production, backup vox and drums/percussion from the legendary Stanton Frazier (Sugar Ray) 💥 Guest keyboards from the legend @ronniekingofficial (2pac, Pepper, NOFX) 💥2 of our songs featured in the new @thatkevinsmith movie @clerksmovie 3 !!! (Thank you @lashbz !!) 💥Epic album art by @quesoversus_quesobobby It’s unreal to me the amount of love, hard work and time that went into these tracks. I’m so excited to finally show you guys what has taken years to tweak and perfect. Love you guys and thank you so much for the support you have shown us over the years... it makes this grind so much easier knowing we have people that believe in us. I promise you won’t have to wait so long for the next one.... we have huge plans for 2023... but in the meantime, PLEASE share this and let us know what you think! Much Love — John Landry #reggae #reggaemusic #newmusic #music #newalbum #17thstreet #caliroots #reggaeriseup #sugarshack #losangeles #orangecounty #california (at Chateau Relaxo) https://www.instagram.com/p/CianZeIpufV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[tojisblunt]

OVERSTIMULATION HCS — genshin edition.

hcs — original, not requested.

AUTHOR’S NOTE. my first genshin work... hehe im so very excited to get back into the writing game ^_^

CHARACTERS. diluc, dainsleif, zhongli, xiao.

+ includes. overstimulation (duh...), daddy kink, size kink, squirting, multiple orgasms, fingering, slapping, mean!xiao, praise, edging

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT I AM A DARK CONTENT BLOG.

— DILUC.

he overstimulates you because he’s not even aware of it in the first place.

diluc is a certified himbo, i swear. he loves u so much and would do anything for your pleasure.

but the thing is.......he’s too focused to realized that you’ve been doing nothing but cumming.

he only realizes once you squirt all over him, your cream soaking his digits and your cum bleeding through the sheets.

“d-diluc!” you squeal, back arching and hips shooting forward into his fingers as he continues to move them around inside of your weeping cunt. diluc’s other hand is focused on your tits while his dick is standing up proud, the red tip angry from how horny he was.

he just wants you to cum on his fingers before he makes you cum again and again on his cock, but poor little diluc; he’s far too focused on your pretty tits to notice that you’ve cum a long time ago.

“baby,” you cry, putting your hand over your mouth to muffle the embarrassing sounds leaving your lips as you feel his finger tips graze against your favorite spots. his palm is catching your clit every time his hand creates a motion, and it makes your legs quiver and the knot in your stomach to tighten.

“just cum, baby, it’s okay.” diluc reassures you, and you want to smack him. he’s been spewing bullshit about wanting you to cum when you’ve been doing that this whole time.

“i-i can’t!” you sob, head thrown back when he stops thrusting his fingers for a second, opting to grind the pads of his finger tips against your g-spot. it sends electricity through your body, and you can’t help but tighten around his fingers, body quivering as you experience a body-wracking orgasm.

you’re crying underneath him, eyes widening as you unconsciously spread your legs further open, feeling your orgasm drag out for much longer than planned.

you curse, squirting all over your boyfriend’s fingers and abdomen, thrashing your head side to side from the overwhelming feeling of a mind numbing orgasm that you just experienced.

“oh.” diluc stills, realization hitting him as he processes what just happened. “sorry,” he says sheepishly, and you roll your eyes. he cleans off your cum from his fingers, bringing your body closer to his lower half as he lines up his cock against your pussy.

“what are you—?!”

“—who said i was done?”

he’s gonna be the death of you.

— DAINSLEIF.

likes to do it because you look so pretty crying underneath him.

and also because he’s a service dom who’ll do anything for you to be happy in his sheets :P

loves to edge you tho... it makes your orgasms make you really sensitive after and he just loves the reactions.

tbh everything u do is attractive to him but if ur extra sensitive? u become a lot cuter to him.

“s-sen..” you blabber, and your boyfriend simply does nothing but looks up at you, keeping his eyes focused on your face to watch for any hints of uncomfortableness on your end.

“repeat that?” he asks, slamming his hips against yours purposefully, hoping to get a reaction out of you; in which, he does. dainsleif knows you too well, your body included. he knows where to hit it to get a certain reaction out of you.

“too sensitive!” you cry out in response to his thrust, feeling your thoughts swirl around as dainsleif begins thrusting into you slowly, before his rhythm speeds up. “no, no, no, no...” you trail off, mind going blank as your brains get fucked out of you.

“you can take it,” he says, soothing his hands over your stomach to reassure you that he’s still there. “my good girl, you look so pretty like this.” he smiles, face showing nothing but complete adoration for you as you cry beneath him, legs spread and cunt almost red from the abuse it’s taken from his edging.

no matter how much you want to finally cum, the stinging that you feel as he rocks his hips against yours is so good yet so painful that you’re not sure what to tell him. he’s been edging you for so long that you’re not even sure if you really did cum.

dainsleif knows how sensitive you get every time he stops his thrusting to edge you. the cries that leave your lips once he begins thrusting again, it’s all so good. but, as he watches you babble incoherent words, he decided that it was enough.

after all, nothing beats the sight of you cumming all over his fat cock.

— ZHONGLI.

LET ME TELL YALL ABOUT HIS BIG ASS DICK. (i would know i experienced it first hand)

dear gawd this man has such a size kink... thousands of years of struggling to find someone that would take his cock properly is finally catching up to him!!!!!

because now he found a cute lil plaything such as yourself who gets off on the fact that his dick cant fit easily

and the amount of times he’s made you cum before being fully in... it’s embarrassing but did you expect any less from a dragon?

“daddy!” you gasp, feeling his fat cock throbbing against your sensitive walls. even after years of experience in bed with your boyfriend, zhongli, your poor little cunt still struggles to take his much bigger cock.

you don’t complain, however, no matter how much your pussy hurts the next day from the stretching it received the previous night. no, how could you complain when he makes you feel so good?

“hm?” zhongli hums, keeping his grip on your thighs strong so he has control of how spread out you are for him. using that fact to his advantage, he brings your thighs further apart, cock twitching at the sounds of your mewls from the feeling of his cock hitting deeper.

“f-feels...i feel so good, daddy...” you sniffle, bringing your hand to his abdomen to rub on it, just for your own satisfaction of having your hands on him 24/7. you’re obsessed with having zhongli’s skin against yours, and he finds it so adorable the way you depend on his touch.

“yeah?” he quips, slowly grinding his pelvis against your sensitive clit, causing your mewls to transition to slightly louder moans. he takes note of how sensitive you can get sometimes, which is why he’s careful with exactly where he’s hitting his cock, but his cock is just too big that he sometimes accidentally (more like purposefully) grazes it against your g-spot.

he feels it before his brain could process your loud cries of pleasure. “i’m cumming, fuck! oh fuck!” you gasp, hands gripping the sheets and back arching as you cum hard all over your boyfriend’s cock.

he quickly puts his thumb on your clit, rubbing gentle circles on it to help ride out your orgasm, and you’re crying from the overwhelming feeling of his hands on your clit. your legs are shaking, and your moans have grown too loud, forcing you to cover your mouth in a desperate attempt to keep the maids from hearing you.

“daddy, please,” you sniffle, mind blank from how fucked out you already are. zhongli smiles, caressing the side of your face before he brings your legs over his shoulders, loving the wide eyed reaction that you gave him.

“you can take more, right darling?” he smirks, doing a few experimental thrusts against your sensitive pussy. but before you could even process anything, you’re cumming all over his cock for the second time.

— XIAO.

LITERALLY ONE OF THE MEANEST!!!!

does it purely bc he loves it when ur crying like a dumb little whore

he just loves to fuck u into oblivion so ur rendered speechless :blushes:

degrades u whenever u cry bc of overstimulation, but gets so soft when u apologize for cumming too much :( i love him..

“nngh!” you bite your lips the hardest you could, eyebrows furrowing as you throw your head back. your eyes are rolling to the back of your head, and the continuous trembles that are going through your body right now has your boyfriend holding onto you to support.

he keeps his eyes locked on your cunt, eyes scanning the way you wrap around his cock perfectly, cream soaking his dick as you cum over and over on his cock. you’re too overstimulated at this point, one simple move from him can have you cumming again.

“you don’t stop do you?” he teases, and you wiggle your hips in place in response to the proud smirk adorning on his face. “feel good?” he asks when he notices that your panting has calmed.

you nod, still lost for words as your brain is jumbled from the numerous orgasms your boyfriend was so considerate to give.

he ghostly leaves his thumb resting on your throbbing clit, ignoring the small whines that leave your lips in reaction. he then brings your legs over his shoulders with his free hand, and you can’t do anything but just give him a hesitant look.

“what?” he asks, leaning down and placing both hands on either side of your head. “don’t you cream so nice and hard like this? hm?” his vulgar words bring arousal to your hot cunt, enough arousal where your hips jumped from the sudden stimulation it brought to your clit.

“daddy...” you sniffle, feeling his cock throb inside your awaiting cunt. he gives you a single glance before thrusting hard once against your hips. hard enough that it would be pleasurable for the both of you.

“you talk too much,” xiao sighs, and you squirm, impatience settling in your bones. “quit it.” he grunts, lifting his hand to land a quick slap on your face, causing you to gasp.

“no, fuck!” you cry, hands immediately rushing to his arms for support as your body trembles underneath his, cunt completely losing it on his cock.

xiao swallows, head going light from the intense arousal that he’s feeling as he watches you cum just from him slapping you.

if overstimulation can get you to cum this easy, then you better be sure as hell that he’s going to fuck you insanely stupid every time.

copyright © tojisblunt. do not plagiarize, modify, or repost.

[somya-tsugikuni]

💌: Hey this is the author- ❤🍡

This au is where the reader is Muzan's sister who Yoriichi has stolen from muzan when they fought.

Yes, this is a reader x yoriichi

Warning ⚠️

Slightly NSFW, spanking, muzan being terrified of yoriichi 🌚 , other NSFW things

Let's get started-

—------------------------------------------------

Yoriichi x muzan's sister SFW and NSFW headcanons ✨

Yoriichi kidnapped you after Muzan had fled to safety from being bullied by Yoriichi.

He kidnapped you because he felt your powerful aura and knew it was unsafe to just let you go.

You didn't want to go with the man that just almost murdered your brother

Yoriichi just tossed you over his shoulder and took you away to his home.

After his dear wife and child died he had taken it upon himself to make sure that never happened to anyone else.

He would take you with him on missions because he didn't trust you to stay in his home.

Over time he started enjoying your company a little…

(keyword "a little")

He would still have to listen to your tantrums of wanting to be free but he would just pretend you are saying nothing 🙂

When he does start to like you a little more he would give you head patts whenever you did something good.

And maybe spank you if you did some bad.. (poor reader's ass 💀🥲)

He would still take you with him because he knew Muzan was probably wanting you back and could feel him watching both of you

And also he would maybe be a little bitch and spank you right when muzan was watching and could feel his anger but also fear radiating from him.

Muzan is too much of a coward to directly fight yoriichi for it and yoriichi knows it too.

Yoriichi would sometimes on rare occasions buy you mochi and other desserts as a gift.

After a lot more time, maybe after two or so years of you getting kidnapped he would cuddle you and give you affection because you would give him a little bit of affection.

He would give you flowers and take you out for little walks and let you enjoy nature.

A part of him would say it was wrong to fall in love with you but another would say it was nice that you liked him and gave him affection that he missed…

He would sometimes sob in your arms while you comfort him.

He would also start to be more affectionate in a spicy way too. (🌚 iF yOu KnoW wHat I mEaN-)

He would kiss you on the lips and snuggle into your chest.

While muzan would want to kill yoriichi for touching his sister he couldn't…. Because he is a coward…

Yes, kokushibo would be your brother-in-law and yoriichi would be muzan's brother-in-law if the two of you got married…🙂✨

-Onto the little bit more NSFW headcanons-✨🌚

• He would be a little rougher with you than he was with Uta.

• He would worship your body a lot of times, just leaving kisses all over your body and making sure to mark you everywhere.

• By the end of you guys doing it, there is a 100% chance you are covered in bite marks.

• His teasing would also rise when he was with you.

• He always knows how to get you under him and become all flustered.

• He has an insane amount of stamina… and when I mean insane I mean it 😶

• This man can go for 10 or so rounds while you probably need to take breaks to keep up with him.

• Whenever he has a tiring or bad day he will take his anger out on you.

• On those days he is a lot rougher than normal days.

• You will probably need him to carry you the next day.

• He would love to just tease you the entire day but when you want to do it with him he will ignore you.

• You will try to get his attention by kissing his neck and saying you want him but he will just ignore you.

• Imagine you grinding on his thighs trying to get yourself off while he just watches you with his neutral expression. (Sorry, your author needs to wipe her nose ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ)

• He would definitely make you moan as loudly as possible specifically if he knows Muzan is around the both of you, just to make him angry

• Whenever muzan would have enough courage to ask for you back he would just say "you took my brother, I took your sister 🙂" with a small smirk on his face.

• He would leave butterfly kisses all over your neck and shoulders.

—------------------------------------------------

That's the end for today 🌚✨

Hope you have a great day/night depending on where you are.

[castielcommunism]

I’m not sure how to phrase this properly, and I don’t want what I’m about to say to sound completely insane or like I’m making excuses for how violent spn is, but one of the things I struggle with is the level to which the violence in spn should be taken literally - more specifically, the interpersonal violence between the main cast, especially dean v cas and sam v dean, which are the two most common. As in, do we take an instance of them physically attacking one another as literally textual? Did they literally try to kill each other?

And on the surface that sounds like an absurd claim, like those things do quite literally happen on the show and are given a great deal of narrative and visual significance. The plot will grind to a halt to show us this happening (Dean beating up Sam in season 6), or conversely, the plot intentionally leads up to instances of this sort of violence happening (ie the Mark of Cain arc fight between Cas and Dean, or the crypt scene in S8). But I’ve been thinking a lot about this video essay by Jacob Geller, where he talks about the limitations of human language to accurately capture the emotion of specific events or memories. He makes the point that people often exaggerate the things that happen to them when describing the events to other people, usually to give these stories added comedic or dramatic tension. And he argues that storytelling in general is a way of describing the “vibe” of a moment in time, or a common human experience, or even a historical event, but at the expense of literal technical accuracy.

And I think this is true generally, obviously. Fictional stories are far more dramatic and bombastic than real people’s lives. The events that happen in them would very often irrevocably traumatise a person (or straight up kill them), but these characters carry on anyway. Most of the things that happen in books, in shows and movies, and in video games are things people don’t want to happen to them in real life, be they a gunfight or catastrophic familial drama or the loss of a loved one. A lot of the times the things that happen in stories are also impossible in real life, and so exaggeration turns into complete fabrication. But because you are trying to tell a story, emotional consistency, entertainment, and thematic weight are more important that a 100% accurate representation of the thing you’re describing.

So back to spn. The violence in the show is often comically dramatic. You cannot get thrown around and have the shit beaten out of you that frequently and expect to be okay. You cannot go through that amount of trauma and come out the other side a functional human being. You cannot do that many horrible things to your friends and family and expect them to still associate with you. So I think that, beyond adding to the entertainment value of the show (it’s fun to watch people beat the shit out of each other), visually dramatic physical violence is an easy way of communicating tension and conflict to the audience.

And like, that’s a cheap cop-out if that’s the case. There are tons of examples of shows/movies/books/etc creating tension and communicating conflict between characters without resorting to that level of literal “conflict”, but for a cable television show that is meant to be consumed without thinking about it too much, and for one that’s been running as long as spn has, you have to keep reinventing micro-dramas to hook the audience, and the easiest way to show These Guys Have Beef is to make them lash out at each other, even if it’s eye-roll worthy levels of stupid drama, and even if this happening in real life would end in all parties involved never speaking to each other again.

I don’t intend for this post to conclude with “all violence on spn is metaphorical”, because that’s not what I’m arguing. But I think there is a hyper-realistic element to its violence that is not wholly literal. I don’t even think it’s possible to parse, like, okay 40% of it is literally canonical and 60% is metaphorically or symbolically canonical. There’s just a weird grey area it exists in, which makes it hard to situate that violence when trying to unpack and understand these characters. The show itself seems confused about which violence is a literal canonical event and which violence is meant to be dramatic or metaphorical for some larger conflict.

It’s also why I sometimes feel uneasy when people cite the violence on spn as a literal instance of horrible behaviour some character commits, not because I want to deny the reality of the show itself, but because you could not possibly judge these characters as real human beings because they are dramatic caricatures of an ACTUAL human being. They are situated in a narrative that is just as dramatic, ridiculous, and divorced from reality. But by the same token it’s difficult to say that like, oh I dislike the metaphorical “vibes” of this episode or this interaction between cas and dean without grounding it in a literal event that takes place. So I sometimes will agree with a person’s overall argument about a particular event in spn but disagree with the interpretation, taking some events as more literal than metaphorical and vice versa.

Not sure if any of this makes sense lol, but - in short, I think there’s somewhat of a contradiction vis a vis the violence in supernatural, which is meant to be taken simultaneously as both literal and metaphorical. As I said, I think show seems confused about which instance of violence is which, and it often conflates the two, and generally treats them as interchangeable, so it sometimes feels impossible to come to an agreement with people about how to interpret it, even if you’re both operating from the same general understanding and knowledge of the text.

[redorich]

Hey what if the Hermits got to see Tommy’s version of war. Someone mentions going to war but it’s the friendly hermit kind of war. Tommy while he seems calm is internally panicking. He grinds just like Techno in the neather. No one sees him for three days and then he grabs a few people on his side and says, “It’s finally done come on- well not totally done but good enough to show.” And he leads them to a far off hidden base with chests of top tier armor, golden apples, over a dozen full stacks of tnt and one full stack of wither skulls. Tommy even shoves a sharpness 3, burning, looting, and unbreaking sword into Grain’s arms while talking battle plans -🐍

The thing is, Impulse thinks, none of this is impressive to him. Well, relatively. Tommy's eyes shine at the elaborate secret base he's built, but he doesn't even have a redstone door. It's just a block in the ground that he mines up and replaces every time he wants to get in and out. There's enchanted netherite armor for everyone, and yeah, the stuff's not easy to get, but Cub has a whole room in his pyramid made of ancient debris. Impulse knows that Iskall has an insane gold farm, so golden apples come cheap. The very specific eleven and one half stacks of TNT are pocket change to Impulse, who regularly steals from Tango’s creeper farm. The damn thing’s so efficient that Tango doesn’t even notice. Impulse himself has a wither skeleton farm so efficient that he sells beacons for dirt cheap.

But here’s the thing.

Tommy doesn’t have a wither skeleton farm. He has no creeper farm, no gold farm, nothing. Every farm he has is small scale, so early game that most of the hermits barely bother with them: a wheat farm, a pit with some cows in it, an afk fish farm. (Tommy doesn’t even know that fish farms are out of fashion, now that 1.16 has nerfed them.)

For Tommy, what he has is the pinnacle of grinding. He’s spent days preparing for war. He comes from a poor server, everyone is aware but is too nice to say. He hoards shulker boxes like they’re 12 bamboo, hides anything he doesn’t want stolen in his ender chest even though he trusts the hermits now. How long has it taken him to accumulate this much? How much time did he spend mining away in the Nether, all alone save for his determination? How many times did he die to a creeper trying to collect its gunpowder? How long has he spent underground, mining away at gold ore?

It scares Impulse. Tommy’s a motivated person, yes, but this level of material preparation? It makes Impulse think that Tommy doesn’t quite understand what the hermits mean by war. Impulse looks at the young man, really looks at him. His coat is even more raggedy, meticulously stitched back together. His body language betrays the exuberance in his voice; the boy is dead on his feet. If Impulse were to remove Tommy’s smiley mask, he knows he’d see deep-set bags under Tommy’s eyes. Impulse thinks that Tommy is so tired he might just let Impulse do it.

Tommy understands war a little too well. He is familiar with it, has personally danced with the devil in a way that few hermits have. Impulse puts his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“Tommy,” he says softly, “I don’t think we have the same idea of what war is.”

Tommy tilts his head in silent confusion.

“Don’t get me wrong, this is all very impressive,” Impulse sighs, gesturing to all the accumulated weaponry, “but Hermitcraft doesn’t do war like that. No one’s going to be in danger.”

“But it’s a war?? Danger’s kinda-- it’s kind of a requirement, innit?”

Impulse tries a different tactic. “Remember when you were new here, and you explained to us what a ‘canon death’ is? And how Xisuma told you that you’re always allowed to respawn?”

Tommy nods warily, so Impulse continues. “So if we’re always allowed to respawn, why would we kill each other?”

“Is... Is Hermitcraft war about suffering, then? If you can’t kill your opponent, then you make them suffer while they’re alive, right?”

Impulse is horrified. As soon as he’s done with Tommy, he’s going straight to Zedaph’s base for a hug and possibly booze. What the actual fuck, Tommy is so young! And he genuinely believes that the hermits would... Tommy must have been a child during whatever war he’d seen, participated in! Is he even an adult now? Is he still a kid?

Impulse has been silent for too long; Tommy can sense he’s said something wrong. He doesn’t correct it, though. Xisuma rolled back the server to give him his compass back once, after he died in lava. Xisuma will do it again if Impulse kills him.

“Hermitcraft war isn’t real war, Tommy,” Impulse says softly. “It’s not about hurting other people. It’s about winning. It’s about having fun. We solve our wars through minigames, and PvP matches, and pranks, and IOUs. We’re all friends here.”

“I don’t understand.” Tommy’s reverting back to the quiet, contemplative young man that he was when he first showed up, the man they know now that he is not. Impulse has to stop this before it gets worse.

“We call it war, but it’s just a competition. I appreciate the amount of effort you put into trying to protect us, but we were never in danger.”

The masked young man says nothing, but sits down on the floor heavily. Impulse sits down with him.

“Hey, it’s okay. Let me tell you a funny story from the Hermitcraft Civil War of season six...”

It’ll be okay. It has to be.

[salt-volk]

Okay. I've been trying to be as neutral to the custom stuff as I could. Rich players do rich players things.

But the recent events brought up the facts I was unaware of (some high end endgame bug that could net you 2+ up to 10??? custom makers that no one has fined nor removed which is just insane). Not being an endgame or being too poor player to spin for a custom maker isn't a sin, but I feel double damned now. Two custom makers is insane riches (one to make your own pet and sell its mirrors and the other can be sold for unimaginable amounts of cash), but 5-10 custom makers???

Holy cow.

You can just buy half the market with those if not all of it (including KS, alpha, beta and limited items). How comes those people haven't gotten fined the excess ones (so each one affected would only have 1 maker each)? Given they very well knew it was "weird" and encouraged each other to spin more and faster before it gets fixed (somehow they knew they wouldn't be punished for this bug even though they were aware this is a bug). And no one did anything for something this big. That was a bug affecting the top tier item, the ultimate goal of the game (so it's gamebreaking even, because Anji is complaining about being overloaded with work on customs now), yet no actions were taken, I cannot even wrap my head around it.

I just can't. I think now I can see why people were quitting this game, besides the atrocious daily grind and stupid annoying layouts of everything that refresh the whole page after a smallest click (and you do A LOT of clicking in this game). Shitty short 3 month cooldown for drops doesn't matter at all now. Nothing matters. I'm not even angry anymore, I just feel empty inside.