#and there is no leeway here we have to be entirely out with the place completely clean by noon thursday

[kurthorton-moving]

my roommates flight home has been canceled and i am not doing well

[spicyyy-muffin]

Hide n Seek

Scare kink, size kink, this is literally pure smut please be warned. 18+

“catch me if you can”

i pressed my walkie on its specific channel to ghost.

“you’re an idiot y/l/n” he spoke through the Bluetooth device in my ear

“get outta my ear McTavish”

I climbed over old couches and rusted warehouse equipment. I needed to find a good place to hide that wasn't blown to pieces or see through.

turning off my walkie and even going as far as lowering the volume in the bluetooth device in my ear.

 I would never live it down if he found me.

“he's got tha name ghost fora reason, you daft dimbo.”

“don’t you think i’m aware?”

I crouched and squeezed in between a small space under an abandoned desk.

trying to make myself as small as possible, i curled up bringing any residue around me as a cover.

“He's gonna get you little one.”

The quiet groan of the door forced me to shut the device off completely.

his footsteps i couldn’t hear, aside for the slightest crunch in gravel beneath his combat boots growing increasingly closer to me.

looking through the cracks in the metal, no guns were drawn except for a knife in his right hand.

my heart sank, i trusted him with my life. but spooking a member of 141 was a death wish. and catching them at the wrong time would be a one way ticket to wherever my six feet deep hole waited for me. 

he slithered through the door, continuing to the next room while I waited for complete silence.

I opted for the door he came through, thinking he would be in an entirely different side of the building than me.

I kept my hands free of any weapon, preparing for the slightest sign I might have to run or crawl my way out.

I stood at the top of a flight of stairs. no sound, no lights, no gravel, I could have been alone.

a breath shot down my neck.

in seconds I was against a wall with a burly man pushing against me. his cool blade against the soft of my neck.

his eyes glowed into mine, heavy breaths breaking the silence.

"I thought you were the shit?"

I shuffled my arms underneath him trying to find a leeway. His eyes brightened in amusement.

The fabric on his face lifted revealing his mouth seconds before he dropped it to my neck.

The knife was digging into the left side of my neck, drawing blood in his wake. Hurting more the harder his kisses became.

“Ghost, Mctavish is- he’s right-” 

He brought his head up to look into my eyes, “at the bar two blocks from here. You underestimated my intentions for hide and seek sweetheart.” 

Pocketing the knife, his hands rustled with my clothing until they landed on the button of my jeans. 

On his knees he looked up to me. Even though he was supposed to be feeling vulnerable we both knew that I was the only submissive one here. 

“I wanna taste.” 

My fingers traced his plump lips first, short stumble scratching me.

I smiled looking down at him, trying to memoriize the outline of his beautiful face. 

“I want a kiss.”

In seconds his large hands covering my cheeks, lips ravishing mine as if we were running out of time. Time seemed to slow down when his tongue traced my bottom lip, pulling away to take a breath and pushing into me deeper. His hands were everywhere, m,y hair, taking a minute to wrap around my throat, he reached both of them down under my butt and lifted me on his waist. 

A few inches above him again he pulled away to look up to me. 

“Don know how long I can do this sweetheart.” 

He panted onto my mouth. 

“I wanna taste you so bad but another part of me is saying I should jus fill you to the brim.” 

A hot bolt of arousal shot down my stomach into my clit. 

I laughed against his lips kissing them one more time. “Maybe you should just hurt me.” 

He groaned pressing his forehead onto mine. 

“There you go saying some dumb shit again.” 

My back pressed against the cold concrete floor, combat pants somewhere across the room his head was in between my legs and he wasted no time. 

Switching between tongue fucking me and wrapping his lips around my clit and sucking so hard I knew I wasn’t going to last long. 

I threaded my fingers through his hair trying to mask my sounds. 

He pulled away his hand gripping my throat, “Unless the bar Soap’s in can hear you, you’re not loud enough. N what does tha mean angel?” 

My breath was shaky, “I don- I don’t get to cum.” 

“Mmmm good girl.” 

His mouth resumed and this time I let my noises be whatever they wanted. My orgasm consumed me. My lower back lifted from the ground as I pleaded with him to stop before he flipped me around and did exactly what he said he was gonna. 

He filled me to the brim. Hot pants on the back of my neck I tried to grip onto anything I could to distract me from the pleasure I was feeling from his cock hitting my cervix. 

“Sososo- so good, please don’t.” 

“Fuck baby, I’m not gonna.” Seconds, minutes im not sure how long until I could hear the slight sound of a phone buzzing. 

His phone. 

He flipped me around again, putting my legs around his neck he found new spots that drew me crazier to the edge. 

One palm covered my mouth as he leaned down to my ear, “Be a good girl and stay quiet for me.” 

My brows scrunched up before he reached his other hand down to grab his cellphone and he answered the call. I could hear our captains voice over his balls slapping against me. 

“Ghost, you copy?”

“Yes Sir.” 

“Clear?”

“Yes Sir.” 

“I have one more important thing to discuss with you, when-” The Captain continued as Ghost screwed his eyes shut in pure irritation. 

“Yes Sir.” 

“Good.” 

The call ended and he abandoned his phone near my head and removed his other from my mouth. 

“Fuckin prick.”

He smirked down at me.

“It turned you on, could feel you squeezing me harder.” 

“AsshoLE-” He pounded into me harder. 

“We can try that another time.” My vision turned murky as stars exploded behind my eyes. 

“Fuckin hell, I don't think I’ll ever get tired of that.” 

[algolstare]

if you have the means, please help us escape our abusive family

the short version: we need out of here, and if you have the means to comfortably help us, you can help us with getting together the funds to try again to escape here (I will edit the goal when I am able to, the progress shown is for our first attempt earlier this year, which did not last)

the long version.. I don't even know where to begin. Our name is Teddy, and we're living in hell, again, and trying to escape it, again. It was so amazing to be out of here. It was better than anything we'd ever experienced before, in our entire life.

I have been so angry with myself for being unable to keep things that way, we undershot the goal by so much that time because I felt ashamed to ask for more than the bare minimum to get out - no leeway for job searching time, or anything else. It was a mistake to do it that way.. following shame usually is, but what's done is done now, and I am trying not to add any more hurt onto my plate beating myself up over such mistakes.

an update was written for the fundraiser itself, I won't copy it in its entirety to here. I know that everyone has it hard right now, and there is so much hurt in the world, mine is only a drop in an ocean - but I am choosing to believe my loved ones when they say that my life is worth trying to save, and so I am asking for help doing that.

we're doing what we can do on our own - I am back to work that I walked away from for the sake of my mental health before on top of trying to build up less ptsd-exacerbating works, because I feel it is maybe my only shot at a decent steady income, to prevent the same from happening again if I manage to get out of here in the first place. I was not even up to snuff to sell burgers.. It is difficult to cover up bruises in order to look appealing.

but for so many reasons, I can't do this on my own. the hurdle is too high to get over to get out, even though I have by now proven that I can do quite a lot in terms of providing for myself - it's hard to keep anything together when you are also constantly in fear, and hurting, and being threatened, and having to hide any money we make and limit what we do to only what can be hidden, so many obstacles, that we are having any success despite them is proof enough to me that I can continue with this if we can get out. but that's if we get out.

that we even had our first time out of here, was a miracle. I am so eternally grateful to everyone who helped us have that, and to everyone who has been encouraging me and helping to support us while we are here again, it means the world to me, it is everything to me. It feels so amazing to be an adult, and be alive, and have people who care for me, it's so much different from how I understood my world to be before in all the best of ways.

if you are safe, and if you have enough for yourself as well as to extend help to another, please consider helping us. 💟

thank you for taking the time to read this, for even considering to help us, for all the ways you all have shown me the warmth of the world.. words cannot express how happy I am even to be able to continue to struggle forwards.

thank you for your kind words, and for sharing this, for helping in what ways you can, I hope that your kindness is returned to you tenfold, I hope that if you are in a situation like mine that you also can have a way forwards, I hope that you are all safe and well-fed. 🧸💗

[rambunctioustoons]

porch lights and fireflies

reader/moon, word count 600

✨

Your socked feet quietly stalk along the hardwood. Groggily trying to evade triggering the call of creaky floors. Led between the cracks of unpolished maple right up to the wide open doorway. 

Gaze not deceiving you for once. Moon sat alone on the porch, huddled into himself. So often darting away from you, you half expect his nimble limbs to straight up and bolt away from you into the forest. 

Polite statement radiating hollow, you could do better than that. Sitting down next to him, the squeak of protest from worn down steps earning you a twitch of his faceplate. 

But you're not getting your hopes up. "Hey," You say, barely above a murmur. Tightening the throw blanket wrapped around your shoulders. Hesitantly moving forward past the burn out porch lights. It shuffles further away from you, evading you entirely. But not running, not bolting. "Good to see you." 

"go sleep." He tuts. Tone lacking the heeded warning it usually had. No walled in corridors anymore to chase you in, free reign surrounding you. Left fumbling on if that had been the reason you've barely seen him since the 'Plex. Sun having no answers, and leaving assurances in place of words you'd just needed to hear. 

If it's more freedom he'd wanted, that they'd both wanted, you'd be more than happy to oblige. More than happy to help if they'd just stopped reverting back to old habits. Shutting you out of whatever was happening. 

"Go charge." You settle on. Sliding ever so slightly closer to him proves to be a mistake. Balancing himself half off the top step at this point, goosebumps of shame prickling along your neck. Face flush as you pull back again. "Sorry-.. I just- I missed you—" 

Words crumbling out into the open air. Brisk crispy breeze cupping your cheeks, as you hear another squeak. Much too sharp to emit from wood, but, there's no solace to be had if your fretting breaks the stairs. Facing his direction upright, you catch him holding a throw blanket bundled in his lap. Little time to really question it. 

"I couldn't sleep, doesn't look like you could either. I—" 

The folded bundle on their lap, rustling and squeaking. Their widened eyes meeting yours, clutching the displeased creature tighter. 

In the end, little feisty claws are no match for his clutches. A raccoon, bolts from under the covers and out into the open. Blurry haze of fur illuminated by startled, scattered fireflies. 

Statute no longer hunch, sprawled out along the steps in woeful defeat. That solves one problem. 

You know the answer. You know. 

"You were trying to bring that inside?" You ask anyway, deadpan. 

"it's small, and alone." He mumbles. "likes peach slices." That. Explains why the peaches kept going missing, and Sun's insistence the fruit just goes bad super duper quick. Yet, refused to quit buying heaps of peaches. 

"It's got friends nearby," Leaning against the worn banister. "I'm sure of it." 

Moon hums. An off centered acknowledgement it hears you, but. He's absolutely going to keep trying to bring raccoons into the house. No dice convincing him otherwise. Roaming around the yard, settling to lay down on a patch of overgrown grass. Gaze trailing sleepily between the stars. 

"Is that what you've been doing out here, all this time?" 

"sometimes."  

Crawling over, nestled up against your side in an impressive but entirely unnecessary half roll to get to you. Faceplate pressed flat to the ground, theatrically slumping himself down. Like his whole body had participated in a sigh. 

A click somewhere in his upper casting, chiming alongside you as you'd giggled. Something tells gauges this had been an impatient attempt to whisk the creature inside. 

"We should name it," Names spurring immediately to mind, but you hadn't swaddled it like a baby. Didn't think that gave you any real leeway. "The raccoon." You add. 

Muffled voice eventually piping up from the twilight grass blades. "peaches.” 

[turtleblogatlast]

Thinking about the Don Suave scene and what it means in terms of LGBTQ+ representation because my brain does nothing if not torment me with random topics to ramble about on the regular.

Anyway, I just wanted to ramble about why I like the scene but to get it out of the way - the scene can very easily be interpreted in so many different ways, and all of them are valid. I personally see it as Leo having at least some attraction to a man. And the following is an explanation of my own interpretation and thoughts on it and what it means especially for Leo’s portrayal in the grand scheme of things.

Long-winded interpretation under the cut!

Now, to start with, it’s important to me that in the scene Leo looks at Don Suave in the very beginning and then for the entirety of the rest of the time the man is on screen, Leo’s eyes are closed. Yet, in the end, he is still visibly enamored with Don Suave, happily cuddling up to him as he’s being carried away.

You can very easily interpret this as Leo being spellbound and that’s honestly super valid and I believe he likely was at least somewhat in the beginning, but considering how fast he looked away and how he never looked again, I personally think it makes more sense to read it as Leo just finding the man attractive, at least somewhat. (For the record, I personally headcanon Rise Leo as bisexual with a heavy preference for men, but I want to be blunt when I say that any interpretation is valid. Literally any. Ace, pan, gay, bi, none of the above or a mixture of something new literally all of it is more than okay and fair. Hell you could even interpret this entire scene as more romantic attraction than physical and it would still work. Anything goes!! Don’t bother people, guys, really.)

The main reason I take this scene to be at the very least LGBTQ+ adjacent isn’t just because of how it’s portrayed, but because of who Leonardo is. Not in terms of Rise of the TMNT, but in terms of the entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™️ franchise.

Leo’s a character who, while changing with each iteration, has still at his core been around for decades upon decades as “the blue one”. One fourth of the team. He’s the one most are going to look at as the Leader, and oftentimes he is the one closest to having the title of Main Character. Not to say the others aren’t just as important, but Leo’s presence in the A plots of basically all TMNT media is often something very main character-esque.

And that’s very, very important to note. Here we have a Main Character of a prolific and decades long-running franchise distributed by a children’s television network. You can play around with his and his brothers’ characters all you like, but there is always going to be challenges to dodge around, especially since this was still in 2018-2019.

For example, you can play around with their designs so long as they’re color coded turtles, but their sexualities? Now that’s tricky.

“But what about Hypno and Warren?” Not main characters and also they’re Rise originals. They have a lot more room to play around with than a character like Leo does. But even talking about main characters in the franchise, you could arguably have an easier time playing around with Donnie or Mikey’s sexualities than Leo or even Raph, as (unfortunately) the former two tend to get more B plots, so they’d likely have had a little more leeway (still not a lot though.)

So, where does this leave us?

It leaves us in a place where outright stating and/or showing undeniable proof of Leo’s attraction to men is very, very difficult. So, workarounds!

Workarounds like the entire Don Suave situation.

To be honest, as left up to interpretation and lowkey and deniable as it is, this whole scene means a lot to me because of who Leo is as a character. It’s just nice when we get so see even the bare bones of representation with characters that have been such a large part of pop culture for decades, y’know? Even if more would be so much nicer, this is better than I thought we’d ever get for these boys.

And, again, literally nothing I’ve said is the only way to interpret it, I’m more than happy when people interpret media on their own honestly, it’s just something I’ve been thinking of lately and I was wondering if others felt the same way.

Whatever you think when you interpret this scene or Rise Leo as a whole, I just thought this would be interesting to think about, even if it was ramble-y, haha.

[princesssarcastia]

things i’m still thinking about after my second showing of across the spider-verse

Ham and Noir never showed up at headquarters, but they showed up at the end when Gwen and Miles needed them.  I’m actually very curious about that—they both enjoyed working with Miles, Peter B., Gwen, and Peni in the first movie, so they don;t object to working with others on principle.   I wonder if their spidey senses pinged when Miguel or Jess showed up to recruit them, and they said no.  Or: they got all the way to headquarters, caught the vibe, and refused to sign up, not even to see their new friends.  Certainly, Noir is enough like Hobie to see the problematic elements of this place quickly and refuse to take part in it.  And Ham really loves Miles.  If he made it all the way to the part where they explain the anomaly, and how Miguel believes Miles fits in...I think he’d walk out.  My boy Ham would not have stood for that chase bullshit

(Or:  Miguel took one look at Ham and Ham’s world and said “Fuck that, no way.”)

(Or: Peter B. didn’t push for Miguel and Jess to recruit Ham and Noir.  Didn’t push for them to recruit any of the people he grew to love and love working with, during the collider incident, because he knows Miguel, and knows deep down that this environment is toxic, and not at all what he wants for them)

Which brings me to another thing I can’t stop thinking about: how Peter B. definitely knew Miguel before this whole inter-dimensional spider club got started.  They are definitely friends, or they were.  It gives Peter more leeway to fuck around with Miguel, and it gives Miguel more leeway to be an uptight fascist with Peter.

I also think that the reason Peter B. and so many other Spider-People buy into that bullshit narrative about canon events is because they, like so many traumatized people before them, want it all to have meant something.  They want there to be a reason, a divine purpose, a plan, so that their suffering isn’t pointless.  Peter B. has convinced himself that purpose makes the loss hurt less—and it’s not until Miles rightfully calls them all out on it that he starts to realize it actually makes it hurt more.

“All this loss makes us who we are!”  Bullshit, Peter B., you should know better.

We never meet another Miles, not once.  I know some people are speculating that 42!Miles was supposed to get bitten by that spider, but I don’t think that’s true.  

I think the Miles Morales in 1610 is something wholly new in the entire multiverse, and I think that should and does terrify the everloving pants off of everyone involved in the status quo.  In every peter who likes feeling special, who likes being The One And Only Spider-Man, In Every Universe.  In Miguel, who’s clinging desperately to the boxes he’s shoved the universe into so he doesn’t have to try and get better.

And Miles Morales is...oh, he’s mind-blowing.  I can’t stop thinking about the way he! plows! through! an! entire! multi-verse’s! worth! of! spider-people!  All of them!  It’s hard, but he fucking does it and he beats them and he’s RIGHT.   They should fucking crown him king.

Not only that—he beats them at the violence from the moral high ground!  He doesn’t give into despair, doesn’t take the easy route of “I couldn’t stop it, leads to, I shouldn’t stop it.”  He puts the onus on himself to do both.  To save the world and his father.

Miles Morales Is Better Than You

The way that Miles and Gwen seem to have some sort of trans-dimensional spider-sense hookup is so fucking cool.  Gwen stands in his room long enough to spider-sense out through the whole UNIVERSE and tell that he’s. not.  here.  they’re CONNECTED they have a CONNECTION.

Speaking of, Gwen Stacy is trans as fuck.  Claiming her now.

Hobie is a delight.  He sees, I think, what Peter B. sees (and what I think Ham and Noir see) which is that there’s something special about these kids.  (Obviously, that something special is that they’re the main characters.  But for the most part, Miles and Gwen are fighting head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd, and on their way to thinking head and shoulders above the crowd, too)

I wasn’t expecting the movie to focus on Gwen so much, but her story was heart-wrenching.  Her dad, picking her job over his daughter.  Getting a second chance, with some people she clearly desperately wants to be her new family, but that second chance is contingent on her ability to perform for the Mission—and comes at the expense of the only friend she’s made since Peter died.  And then...then she fucks up the mission.  And loses everything.  Big oof.  She gets punched in the face so many times, but every time she gets up angrier than before and starts hitting back.

[tobiasdrake]

That's everyone. Time to check out the Favor Tree, then we're on to the Clocktower meetup.

So how's this work? Do I just tell the tree what I want? Do I yank off a leaf and then write my request on it?

I dunno. Given that the rules are lax enough that a Favor Tree is as simple as "the biggest tree nearby" I think there's probably some leeway here. There may not be any particular rules for how we're supposed to pray to it.

Then again, that is the kind of logic that leads to the Bystander Effect. If everybody thinks like that and then nobody wishes for Vaugarde's salvation, that's a whoopsy-doodle. So it's better to inconvenience myself, at the risk of redundancy, for the sake of locking in aid for people in crisis.

Of course, it's not impossible to have your cake and eat it when it comes to wish-granting. All of these potential wishes are things that my team wants to do once the King has been defeated. Granting a wish for these things necessarily requires that Vaugarde be saved.

Therefore, I can wish for something for myself that nonetheless adds the strength of my wish to whatever existing pool of wishes towards Vaugarde's salvation already exists! This is what we call "gaming the system".

And while I wish the best for everyone, there is one person whose desires matter more than anybody else's.

Odile, Maribelle, and Isabeau all have dreams and ambitions for the future. That's great. I'm happy for them. But Bonnie doesn't. Bonnie has trauma. If I'm going to spend a wish on anyone, it's going to be for Bonnie to be healed.

If only one of us can have what they want, it should be them. A lost child's wish to save their family is worth more than gold.

Okay PARTY TIME

Alright y'all, come clean. Who ripped the bread in half and just left it on the table like that?

Or. Wait. Is that the bread, of "breaking bread"? Did we literally break bread? And then not eat it?

Are... are you supposed to eat it? Is it rude to break the bread and then not eat it? Or is it sacrilegious to eat broken bread? I feel like the bread's just going to waste if you don't eat it. But maybe it's a holy gesture? Maybe the act of letting the bread go stale... symbolizes its Change from a state of freshness to a state of badness.

Or maybe one of us here is just a dipshit who doesn't understand the phrase. Looking at you, Isa. On the "Risk of Dipshit" Scale, you're Suspect #2.

Suspect #1 is me but I'm, like, 65% sure I didn't do it.

You made the entire feast all by yourself? I am simultaneously very impressed with you and also tremendously disappointed in the rest of us. Four grown-ass adults and not one of us pitched in to assist the child in the kitchen. I am ashamed of every single one of us.

SPEECH SPEECH SPEECH SPEECH

Uh. No. Appreciate the sentiment but you're wrong. I don't know if you have Pocket Notes on the stakes of this thing but "Everyone dies tomorrow" isn't something people get to opt out of.

I know you don't want to think of membership in this crew as compulsory but... it kind of is. Our options are "Roll the dice tomorrow" or "Find a nice place to die". The latter of which is something most of the town is actively preparing for.

People are capable of tremendous acts of selfless courage when they have no hope of survival. With that in mind, I intend to be very brave tomorrow. There's only one place to do that.

You know, I'm used to rousing campfire speeches having a lot more swearing, raging narcissism, and thematically inappropriate criminality. But this is nice too. All-a y'all are swell. I'm happy to be a part of this.

My dude, I was wide awake. I slept all day today. I was just trying to be politely still so everyone else can sleep, while quietly going over Rock Paper Scissors strategies in my head.

The trick is to not throw the wrong symbol. But to make them think you're going to throw the wrong symbol, so they play into your hands when you throw the right symbol. *sage wisdom*

I love you too, man. Still making sense of things too much to decide if that's romantic or platonic but one way or another we're tight.

Mm. Pillow beats Rock. Good to know. See, that is why I've been silently reviewing Rock Paper Scissors strategies.

Good night, Isa. We'll continue this talk on the day after tomorrow, so long as it comes to pass.

[justanotherbirdbrain-blog]

may i receive your rant on why every videogame ever chooses to have columnar basalt in places basalt should not be, like in unsuspecting caves or just dotting beaches with no volcano in sight... because god, that gets me going.

Let me preface this rant by saying, I love when videogames at least try, like I can look at a rock and actually say, "hey that's columnar basalt and not *generic rock texture*" (Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's texture shortened my lifespan). So generally speaking, if I can tell at least vaguely that someone googled photos of rocks when creating a game I am more happy than not, but!

My GOODNESS! I think I could extend this rant to just videogame cave systems in general! Like, caves are only formed in limestones and marbles (And some limey sandstones and salt deposits), BUT for some reason we are mining and finding Rubies? Emeralds? Metals? These caves they are depicting are clearly just supposed to be these natural caves and not abandoned mines, which would give them some leeway to put whatever desirable gemstone or ore they wanted in the game, but they don't choose that for some reason, and it is beyond me why!

And can we talk about how all of these caves got there in the first place? Like limestone only forms in marine environments! Are you telling me that the entire continent you designed was underwater to the extent to have a spiraling cave system forming at least every ten miles of trail explored (Skyrim I am looking at you)? And how acidic is your rain? Are we experiencing an industrial evolution? I CANNOT, also in what situation are these random massive quartz crystals in otherwise fine-grained material forming? Like one, Who would actually leave that laying there? No one. And two, how is this forming? Like are you trying to say this formed after the cave was created or what? If that's the case the more likely mineral would be calcite or gypsum.

My little bird brain can't wrap my head around what they are trying to do here! (The second image is from ESO and I give it a lot of lenience and to be fair they are trying to depict these are geodes that are surrounded by a massive basalt but they are also showing stalactites and stalagmites which aren't in basalts so it still gets points docked).

But yes! Seeing inaccurate geology, columnar basalts included can take you out of a game so fast, same with the imaginary ores that are kind of based off real metals. I think I would be more ok with completely fake names, because then at least I wouldn't have anything to associate it with.

That being said! I will end this rant by pointing out videogames that when either I was playing or my fiancé was playing I was pleasantly surprised by the geology/accurate textures.

ESO- elder scrolls online, I know I just docked it points above, but genuinely they do an amazing job depicting different rock types to the point that on their islands they have limestones. with. fossils. I nearly cried. Of course they still have random metal seems everywhere but it is an MMO and resources are necessary so I can ignore that as long as they keep making accurate landscapes.

Titanfall- I will just add an image because it will speak volumes

like does that shale/siltstone have ripple marks in the middle right hand side? beautiful. amazing. perfect. chief's kiss. (Apex also does a decent job which is a battle royale game that takes place after the Titanfall games, the textures aren't as good obviously but you can definitely tell what kind of rocks are at each map)

3. Horizon Zero Dawn- the graphics in this game are just genuinely impeccable and it takes place in the US but after the collapse of civilization. In a lot of ways, I think it made it a bit easier for the designers, but they still did an amazing job depicting the rocks accurately! I believe there is a Youtube video which compares the actual locations to the videogame locations.

some obviously tilted sedimentary rocks

sandstone arches

@cosmic-tuna please add more games if you know any!

[lunanoc]

first tentative meta post about wu xie my beloved, more specifically about his characterization in his less than stellar moments, sparked by a discussion with @thelaithlyworm about whether or not the lost tomb 2.5 is in character for wu xie according to the books. i figured i'd take the rest of my thoughts to a separate post since our exchange was clogging up poor OP’s replies, and because i feel like a difference in opinion like this is worth being made public if only so people can get both sides of a rare discussion about the books and reach their own conclusions, so for those who are interested here’s a link to the original post where this discussion takes place in the replies if you'd like the full context. sorry in advance for how long this will likely be, and i hope there's no problem with me directly tackling some of the arguments that were made in favor of lost tomb 2.5 being an accurate adaptation of book wu xie's characterization, which is a take i strongly disagree with

i think much of the problem in the discussion simply lies in the fact that we seem to have fundamentally different interpretations of wu xie’s character in the books, because as i see it, none of the insistences that were quoted prove that wu xie has ever acted the way he does in 2.5 in the books—if anything, they disprove it. the quote from ch. 92 of sand sea that was brought up goes as follows:

this is where i believe the problem of different interpretations is at play, and to be fair some of it is ambiguous so there is some leeway, but i read this recollection very differently from how @thelaithlyworm seems to. as i see it, wu xie is recalling a time where pangzi, understandably concerned about his friend because he sees the toll the sha hai plan is taking on wu xie, and the lengths he’s having to go to in order to set it in motion, tells him it’s not too late to stop and turn back. to which wu xie replies that even if he had decided to stop and live his life blissfully unaware of the extent of the wangs' reach and their machinations, things would have caught up to him eventually given they’d infiltrated the jiumen to the extent they had.

“and at that time you’ll have already left me one by one, leaving me to foolishly face those fists” is the most ambiguous as to what exactly it's referring to, but i personally see it as referencing either the fact wu xie and his friends would have by then eventually drifted apart or they'd have stopped giving him their support should he have decided to ignore the truth and sit around doing nothing, or more sinisterly, would have potentially all been replaced by then if there hadn't been a plan in motion. it's likely a little bit of both. to which pangzi replies that he’s right, conceding and agreeing that wu xie never truly had a choice about his involvement to begin with, which is more or less the entire point of sand sea and the wider narrative of the main story.

no part of this conversation is reminiscent of the open conflict between them in 2.5 in that neither of them here are angry, and neither of them are even aggressive or antagonistic towards each other or in general. this is quite a calm if resigned conversation wu xie is recalling that also fits the overall cynical tone of the chapter itself, and wu xie’s certainly not acting out and pushing his friends away in a bid to deal with everything himself. if anything the entire point of sand sea is to show that despite each character acting independently, the sha hai plan only succeeded because they worked together and not alone, and that wu xie needed his support system to create an invisible yet tangilble network that could take down the wangs. so no part of this particular passage reads as though pangzi is saying he ever considered bailing on wu xie because of his behavior, and even if that were the case, it would still be referring to a hypothetical situation and not their current one.

wang meng's behavior in ten years later is also not the greatest example to use as an argument to prove 2.5 wu xie’s characterization is present in the books, mostly because it's actually wang meng himself who's more so the one acting like that than wu xie himself. wang meng, in his concern for wu xie, tries to guilt trip him into letting go of his obsession with xiaoge, and he is the one who instigates a conflict with wu xie that culminates in him staging xiaoge's "death" as a last ditch effort once spewing bottled up vitriol at wu xie and threatening to take over wushanju don't work.

it's however misguided at best given that not only did all of wu xie's close friends who participated in the sha hai plan agree to do so willingly (i’m of course not talking about li cu and co among others who very much did not consent) and so accusing wu xie of having coerced them takes away from their own agency, but the sha hai plan was a necessity beyond freeing xiaoge, which is something wang meng fails to understand. wang meng makes the mistake many people in the fandom do of pinning wu xie’s determination to see that plan through solely on his desire to free xiaoge, and of course that’s an important part of it, but the narrative makes a point of building up over the course of the main books and tibetan sea flower that wu xie’s entire family was at stake as well, and had been for several generations, so on a personal level it went beyond xiaoge alone. but again, whatever truth there is to wang meng’s words (which is an interesting but entirely different topic) still doesn’t make it true that wu xie was either actively petty or vitriolic towards his friends as a way to vent his own frustrations.

several moments in which wu xie objectively does terrible things or acts horribly were listed as a way of justifying that his behavior in 2.5 is in character and in line with how he acts in the books. and of course these moments do happen, and it's very true in sand sea especially that wu xie does terrible things (it's part of what makes him such an interesting character). but again, this argument feels somewhat in bad faith in that it conflates all negative behavior and traits together regardless of what specific shape those negative behaviors take in order to justify that his portrayal in 2.5 is faithful to the books simply because he displays negative behavior in that adaptation, completely disregarding that his less than stellar actions and emotions aren't expressed in the same ways in the books and in 2.5. my dislike of wu xie in 2.5 doesn't stem from him doing unlikeable things, otherwise i wouldn't like wu xie as a character in general. wu xie absolutely does do a lot of terrible things in sand sea especially, but the inherent problem with 2.5 is that none of the things he does or the way he acts in the books ever lines up with the specific way he acts in 2.5. 

in the books, even before sand sea, yes wu xie is manipulative (re: threatening bodily harm to himself to force wu erbai into sharing information with him), yes he cut up bodies and sent them to li cu among other extremely morally questionable things, yes he kidnapped li cu and made him go through literal hell, and likely did much the same to other people before him (hence the seventeen scars on his arm). he has and continues to have even in recent book canon re: yucun biji the ability and will to inflict permanent psychic damage on people he deems to be deserving of it or a threat. he’s by no means perfect or even overly kind, and if someone were to say that a number of the earlier drama adaptations especially soften his character and make him much more wide-eyed and innocent than he actually is in the books, i would absolutely agree with them. i would also agree if someone said that gap in characterization is why some people don’t like him much in the sand sea drama. but the fact is for all the negative traits and behavior he displays at varying points in the books, none of them are ever expressed in the very specific way they are in 2.5.

@thelaithlyworm rightfully mentions wu xie's ptsd as justification for much of his more "toxic" reactions to things, and his ptsd is incredibly important in understanding how wu xie works as a character and what his experiences have forged him into, to the point it's a topic that deserves its own in-depth post. but saying we have different definitions of what ptsd is is both accurate to the complex nature of ptsd, and a bit disingenious because of the complex nature of ptsd, because the emotional dysregulation and impaired decision-making it entails won’t necessarily manifest in the same ways in different people.

in 2.5 wu xie, ptsd manifests in the form of vitriol and anger he directs at pretty much everyone in his immediate vicinity, more especially pangzi, because it has no other outlet in that situation than outwards. and i’m not saying ptsd expressing itself like that never happens, because it very much does. what i'm saying is that book wu xie's ptsd, while very real, doesn't manifest in the way it does in 2.5 wu xie.

in book wu xie, ptsd manifests in much more internalized ways, and so he’s far more prone to directing the anger and pent-up emotions inwards through self-harm, both mental and physical (i.e. the scars on his arm, his persistent self-hatred, etc.), and the emotional dysregulation very often comes not in the form of chaotically expressed emotions, but rather abnormal lack of them, as arguably wu xie's bad coping mechanism is emotional dissociation, and when the emotions are truly too strong to be distanced from, they come out in the form of panic attacks he often doesn’t recognize as such (i.e. when he finds xiaoge and believes he’s dead in book 8, or when he has flashbacks on their way to motuo in yucun traveling notes) or of general breakdowns (i.e. wu xie stays numb once xiaoge disappears behind the gate up until he starts crying in the street once he returns to hangzhou).

it’s incredibly rare that wu xie’s trauma directs itself outwards towards his loved ones, and while he might do so in his head quite frequently (which we the readers see since most of the books are from wu xie's point of view), it's rare he actually externalizes it, and since his comments can only lead to conflict if they're extrernalized, there's rarely ever genuine conflict between him and his friends. one of the only times it happens with pangzi specifically is in tibetan sea flower were he makes an honestly cruel dig at pangzi about yuncai because pangzi’s withheld information about xiaoge from him:

but even this scene, which is the closest to anything that's portrayed in 2.5 between them, plays out differently, not only because wu xie knows very well he’s going too far, his mention of yuncai isn't solely an outlet for his anger. he’s very consciously trying to bait pangzi into telling him what he knows, and so aims at where he knows will hurt most. it's targeted and mean because it's meant to be, but it's also not a gratuitious outlet either unlike his comments are more often than not in 2.5. it's manipulation, and he's certainly not trying to push pangzi away, nor is it driving a wedge between them despite how uncalled for his comment it. and more importantly, pangzi once again proves himself to be the most emotionally stable of the iron triangle by not stooping to that level or making light of the conversation. he knows perfectly well what wu xie is doing, so any conflict is diffused before it can even take root, and stays an isolated incident, whereas in 2.5, conflict is an underlying theme.

ironically there are more examples of this type directed at xiaoge, but even those don't showcase the same blind anger or gratuitous meanness that 2.5 wu xie consistently displays, and it's that specifically that's out of character. while wu xie vents his frustrations at xiaoge in book 4 over being kept in the dark, he's more serious about it than angry, and very quickly realizes his foot-in-mouth comment and backtracks accordingly:

he's at his most openly angry with xiaoge at the end of book 8 when xiaoge leaves them all in banai, and even goes as far as trying to have xiaoge detained by qiu dekao in a last ditch effort to force him to stay (which in itself is the real manifestation of him not being able to control his emotions correctly and reason going out the window where xiaoge is concerned, and it only ever really happens in relation to xiaoge, but that's also a topic for another post):

but again, while he's visibly angry and upset, and is looking for support from others around him to validate his upset at xiaoge leaving, he never actually spews any vitriol at xiaoge himself despite his anger being obvious, never actually calls him names outside of his own head despite the rare quality of his anger, never tries to instigate conflict for the sake of venting his overflowing emotions, nor does he ultimately stop xiaoge from leaving. even later as he follows xiaoge up changbai mountain, his desperation eventually turns into resignation and acceptance, not venting.

this post is way too long, but my entire point here as it has been from the start of this discussion is that while wu xie in the books does get angry, he does have ptsd, it does manifest in the ugliest ways and he's certainly not an angel, his anger in general never veers into extended open conflict or gratuitous vitriol thrown at his loved ones as a misguided form of venting his own emotions like it does throughout the vast majority of lost tomb 2.5, just like a number of the conflicts he gets into with other characters stem from out of character reactions from those characters to begin with (i.e. xiao hua absolutely losing it over wu xie hiding wu sanxing's betrayal of xie lianhuan in 2.5 vs. this information being very casually received in book 7). and that's where my point of contention with that adaptation lies.

i feel as though this is a case of agreeing to disagree as far as interpretation of wu xie's character goes, and that's absolutely fine, but in the same way that it's alright to dislike things simply because, it's equally as alright to like things for the same reasons. it's fine to like lost tomb 2.5, and my opinion of it is purely my own, but liking it doesn't necessarily have to be rooted in whether it's adapting the books correctly, even if it can be.

my dislike of 2.5 stems from how i consider it to be out of character by comparison to the books, and my entire point here has been to explain that different interpretations of any particular source material can exist, and therefore yes, it's entirely possible to view 2.5 wu xie as out of character, just as it's entirely possible to dislike that adaptation for the same reason. and i'm far from the only person to have this interpretation. so no, my dislike of 2.5 doesn't come from not liking it when wu xie’s doing unlikeable things, or else i wouldn't like wu xie as a character, nor is it because i don’t understand what ptsd is given the particular ways in which it can manifest from one specific person to another

[thewritingofspencerrose]

What She Doesn't Know

as promised, the next piece of the maggie & trevor saga 🫶

anything past the line that is italic is in the form of a hockey announcement :)

The first thing Jack can here when he picks up the call is her sob, and that's already too much.

The last time he heard her cry like this- he can't even remember when.

"Mags, what's wrong?"

Her breathing is rapid, words hardly capable of making their ways out of her mouth.

"I think he's seeing someone else."

"We're on our way."

"And welcome to tonight match up of the visiting Vancouver Canucks and your ANAHEIM DUCKS!"

It's the knocking on the door that wakes me up.

Or maybe it's the sound of my phone ringing.

Either way, they're the indications I need that my brothers are just a moment away, which is enough to prompt me from my bundle of blankets on the couch, where I've been most of my week off, the boys away.

It's as I open the door that I realize that maybe I shouldn't have called my brothers, because seeing the look on Jack and Luke's faces at the sight of me makes me want to curl back up and hide away.

"Oh, Mags," Jack mumbles, his entire tone disheartened as he pulls me into his arms and into the apartment, Lu closing the door behind us, the boys duffle bags in hand. Well, until they're on the dining table.

"Hey, you're hogging her," Lu grumbles, pulling me out of Jack's arms and into his own. "How're you doing?"

"You mean other than being sure that my boyfriend I've just moved in with is seeing someone else?" The question is sarcastic, and bitter, but I've earned myself some leeway here.

Jack's leading me to the couch now, sitting down beside me as Luke takes my other. "You said that on the phone, but why do you think Trev is seeing someone else?" He's pulling me into his side like when we were kids, Luke taking a pillow and placing it on my lap, laying himself across me like he's not a giant but simply still my little brother.

"He's been distant, and I know it's to be expected that we would need time to adjust to living together, but when i walk up at work he changes the conversation, if he even lets me get that close to him. And he's been coming home later and later even when he doesn't have practice, and I'll ask Jamie where he's disappeared to Jamie doesn't know. And he won't answer my calls or texts for ours at a time which yeah, I get it we're both busy but we work together for God's sake! I shouldn't be seeing the other boys more than my own boyfriend. I shouldn't be waking up and falling asleep with him gone," I'm rambling, it's word vomit, a month's worth of insecurities spilling out of my mouth and for my brother's to see.

But neither responds, both processing everything I've said.

It takes them what feels like forever, but is probably only five minutes before their's a response from my twin.

"I'm going to kick Trev's ass."

"OH! And look at that hit from Captain Quinn Hughes from the Canucks! Very abnormal to see a hit like that from him."

"Must be some trouble between the in-laws John, that hit was to Trevor Zegras who is very publicly dating Hughes younger sister and Ducks sports nurse, Margaret."

"Hughes happens to be miked for the night, let's see what was said."

"What the fuck Quinn!"

"That is for Mags, jackass."

"I would definitely say, that was personal, John."

I wasn't expecting the next person through the apartment door to be Quinn, I had forgotten he was in town for a game at all with the other two showing up. But he's to me and pulling me into a hug before I can really fully process what's happening and who's barged their way in.

It had been quiet before the door had been slammed open, but I can feel my head quieting in the arms of my big brother.

Everything gets loud again, though, when Jamie walks in, a fuming Trevor hot on his trail.

"Dude, what the fuck was that!" Oh God.

"I was just playing defense, you know, my job," Quinn bites back sarcastically, tucking me behind him.

That's not the right thing to say, Trevor only seeming to get angrier. "Doing your job? You tossed me every chance got!"

"Well maybe that's what you get for sneaking around on our sister," Luke's the one to grumble, and you can tell he didn't intend it to be heard, but it is and it freezes everything in the room.

"What did you just say?" Trev's not angry anymore, his voice in quiet confusion before his eyes meet mine. "You think I'm cheating on you?"

"I-"

"Why would you think that?!"

"Let her talk," Jack's standing now, moving between where Trev's dropping his bag and where Quinn stands with me.

"What are you even doing here?"

"I called them," I mumble in answer, "I needed my brothers."

"Because you think I'm cheating on you?" Trevor is getting more insecure by the moment, I can tell in his body language.

Why is he getting insecure?

"You- you've just been absent lately. And avoiding me. And -" He's taking steps towards me, and all I want is just to be pulled into his arms.

"And you don't have to continue," He's cutting me off, looking at my human-barrier. "You guys can move. I'll let quick throw me again if this doesn't turn out in a way you approve of." The boys hesitate, but a tap on their shoulders has them relenting and plopping down in age order on the couch, Jamie taking a seat in the arm chair.

And it's just Trev and I, standing in the middle of the room.

His eyes are honest, and as he pulls me closer by my hips I can smell his shampoo from his post-game shower.

"Baby, I'm not seeing anyone else, and I'm sorry that I gave you so many reasons to think I was."

"It's really not - "

"Shh," he's interrupting. "I'm sorry that I've been suspicious and distant, but I knew that if you were around I'd ruin the surprise of it all."

"Surprise of it all?" I have no idea what he's talking about.

"All my phone calls I've been taking in other rooms, not telling you anything about? Have been with Ava. My little sister," He tells, and from the corner of my eye I can see Jamie shift, anticipating something.

"Why would you be talking to Aves in secret? You know I love her?"

"Because she's been helping me plan my proposal."

"SHE WHAT?"

YOUR WHAT?"

TREVOR WHAT THE FUCK?"

Yeah, my brother's have pretty much summed up my internal thoughts.

"I- You're proposal?" I can't help but question with a disbelieving sigh, his fingers gripping tighter to my hips.

"My proposal, that I've been planning since before you moved in. It just got a lot harder to hide with you here, and I clearly didn't handle it the right way if you're thinking I'd ever even think about someone else."

The smile that comes to my face is nearly painful, and I think I'm physically buzzing with joy as I turn to my brothers who are still sitting in shock.

"Oh my God, you want to marry me?"

He's chuckling, no insecurity or rage in sight. "Have the ring and everything."

"Trevor, oh my God, I'm so sorry," He won't let me pull away, but now the guilt is eating me alive. "You want to marry me and I thought you were cheating."

"And had every reason to, especially with all the gossip pages lately," He's giving me an out I'm not sure how to accept.

"So, when are you going to ask me?" I can't help to ask, wiggling about.

"Not tonight, I've got plans, woman," There's my golden retriever boy. "And you didn't even give me enough time to ask these loser first. I've only gotten to ask Jim."

"Our DAD knows about this and you're still alive?" Luke's asking the right questions, although his eyes are wild and he looks like he might throw up.

Trev's nodding, smirking at my three brothers. "Jamie was surprised too."

"You knew!" I can't help but yell at our best friend, him chuckling brightly.

"Of course I knew, Ava lives too far away, I had to be to inside man around here."

"Hey," Trev's pulling my attention back, "We're ok?"

"We're more than okay," I can't help the giggle that escapes my lips as I lean forward to kiss his. "I'm going to be Mrs. Zegras one day."

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

1/2 So this is driving me crazy cause I only noticed it after my hundredth rewatch of khux, but do all the cutscenes involving the union leaders only take place in like 4~ish days? I know UX is suppose to take place over a year, but when looking at the cutscenes with just the union leaders I think I counted like 4 days lol. I think the first day is from when they meet in the graveyard to when they enter the foretellers chamber for the first time cause Skuld tells them "not the touch anything".

no yeah you’re on the right track here!!

We have no hard confirmation for the timeline of…any of the union leaders scenes, really. But we do know that a lot of the scenes do happen in tandem and consecutively or like you said, within the span of a few days. Let me follow things with you…

Shift Pride’s the tricky part because that could’ve happened at literally any point after they began working on the Spirit Pets. Could’ve been a week, a month, a year. I like to think at least 3 months passed offscreen to account for them settling into their new responsibilities, getting to know each other better, and Player going to some disney worlds in between. The way they talk in the Shift Pride scene also suggests that a “substantial” amount of time has passed since they met at the graveyard. Like for example, Ephemera asks if they all remember reading about Shift Pride in the rulebook. He wouldn’t be asking if that they’d all just read it a few days prior, you know what I mean?

Following along the next scenes…yeah, it checks out. Lauriam meets Elrena, then returns to the tower. Then I assume he meets Player later the day after, since Eph says he wants to spend the day with them (implying “an entire new day”). Then the glitches happen and Eph and Player go off to Game Central Station. I’d guesstimate Eph is there for the rest of that day, and returns to Daybreak later that night.

Everything that happens after Eph returns from GCS (aka the impostor leader stuff, Maleficent vs Lauriam, Lauriam’s breakdown) happens concurrently with the rest of Player’s time in Candy Kingdom, which could reasonably be an additional 1-2 days maybe? And then they return to Daybreak just in time for the fight against Darkness

The next possible timeskip we get is after Ven’s sacrifice, where he’s unconscious. I can’t imagine it’s more than a day though, since Darkness just informed them that the world is ending, so there’d be that sense of urgency to get the lifeboats and everything all set up. I’d say maybe a few hours passed. And everything that follows in the finale happens consecutively.

So if we wanna approximately add it up…the union leaders’ collective screen time would encapsulate a week or less than a week’s worth of in-universe time. (4 days like you said seems reasonable, I’m just overshooting it a bit to provide some leeway.)

So in conclusion, we only got to see about one week of the time the union leaders spent together. Which is really insane to think about if you ask me!!

[wolfeyedwitch]

Weapons Don't Weep, Part 11

Chloe calls home.

Masterlist

---

“Hey, Mom. Yeah, we got it; thank you, as always. I would definitely have gone insane by now without the care packages.”

“Yeah, everything’s… no, you’re right, everything’s not okay. It’s all—”

A sniffle.

“It’s really bad. Like, really, really bad. I know I have the least experience on the team, but this is messing with all of us.”

“Well, by now you’ve seen the news about it. The city, with the protesters, and— yeah, that one. We… we were too late to catch it on the way in, but on the way out…”

“Mom, it wasn’t anything like we were expecting. None of our guesses were even close. It. When we got the door open, it…”

A pause followed, filled with harsh, shuddering breaths. 

“Mom, it was a person.” 

“Yeah. A living, breathing, flesh and blood person. I think this means Hayden wins that bet you guys made, about those rumors of people having superpowers.”

A shaky laugh.

“Yeah. I’m sure Dad is going to make that reference too. But this person, they’re not— they’re not doing this for fun. They didn’t choose this. They’re not… hell. I don’t think they’ve had any real choices for a long, long time.”

“They were chained up in there! They were in that transport, and instead of having a seat, they were chained to the floor like, like how you’d transport a bomb. When Zeke asked their name, they replied with a fucking serial number. And yes, I’m sorry for cussing, but I think this situation warrants a little leeway on language!”

A long sigh.

“No, they haven’t been aggressive. If anything, they’re so damn docile it’s creepy. I don’t know if it’s because of whatever propaganda Government told them about us, or if that’s how they’d act with anyone. They flinch from everything, and I haven’t heard them call anyone anything other than ‘sir’.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know how you can help. Add some books on deprogramming brainwashing victims and clothes that’ll fit someone one size up from ‘Holocaust survivor’?  There’s so much, they need so much help, and I don’t even know where to start, Mom. And that’s not even touching on everyone else’s reaction.”

“Well, Zeke seems like he’s sympathetic, but that won’t change his actions if he decides they’re a threat. Riley is being pragmatic, and Tyler is, well, Tyler. It feels like the only person on my side here is the doc.”

“No, I didn’t even think of that. God, I’m so— no, sorry, you’re right, I won’t. No negative self-talk. I was preoccupied and didn’t think of how Zeke is going to have to report this and then we’re going to have the entire network breathing down our necks about them. Better?”

“I know it won’t change anything, but I don’t know how to just stop worrying, Mom. Not everyone is in this because of compassion.”

Another sigh. 

“Yeah, I got the extra from the people who were short-changed in that department. I just wish that caring didn’t hurt so much, sometimes.”

---

Sometimes compassion and empathy can be overwhelming. The world is a tough place, and it can be easy to let that get to you. Take care of yourselves, everyone.

Taglist:

@ghostfacepepper @kim-poce @badluck990 @cupcakes-and-pain @lonesome--hunter @wits-and-wrongs @neuro-whump @winedark-whump @aswallowimprisoned @rose-pinkie @whumpy-writings @whump-cravings @secretwhumplair @hobiisthesunfiteme @whumpcreations @myhusbandsasemni @heart4brains @kixngiggles @neverthelass @extrabitterbrain @towerlesskey @ohnowhump @vickytokio @whumpinggrounds @thingsthatgo-whump-inthenight @extemporary-whump @pigeonwhumps @ifurd4d @aswallowimprisoned @the-magpiesystem @someonecradlemeintheirarms @sacredwrath @whump-in-the-closet @whumpfessional

[crabdrabbles]

Here's Chapter 5 for @pricegazweek week! Chapters: 5/7 Fandom: Call of Duty (Video Games) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Kyle "Gaz" Garrick/John Price Characters: Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, John Price (Call of Duty) Additional Tags: Presumed Dead, Blood and Injury

I know I'm a few days behind, but I should hopefully finish the remaining two chapters by Wednesday <3

“I expected... more from not just one– but two SAS soldiers.”

“Undo these ropes and I’ll show you exactly what we’re capable of.” Price spat, very much a spitting image of a large, and furious, animal. Gaz, who was kneeling beside him, remained quiet– but his eyes burned with a rage that matched that of his captain’s. 

Poor intel was part of the job, gaps missing in the portfolio, sending soldiers in blind– shit like that happened. It was Price’s entire job to adapt to any situation thrown at him– to change plans at the drop of a hat. To keep his men safe. There was only so much he could do when intel was not only flawed, but falsified completely. And Price had led himself and Gaz right into danger with little to no backup. 

‘Just routine.’ he had said to Ghost after his Lieutenant had asked if he needed him and Soap on standby. ‘We should manage just fine.’

‘Something doesn’t feel right about this, Price.’ Ghost had said as he poured over the copious amount of files and reports– months worth of investigations and surveillance. 

‘Intel’s from one of Laswell’s agents. I trust her judgement.’ SImon had looked like he wanted to say something more but Price had brushed it off. If it was important, then the mancunian would have spoken his mind without a second thought. He should have pushed him– pressed him to speak his mind because then maybe he and Gaz wouldn’t be stuck in this situation– at the mercy of some greed driven arms dealer. Even as they were climbing into Nik’s heli, Simon had that look on his face– the one that said something wasn’t quite right. Why didn’t Price ask? He had never had a problem listening to his men before, appreciating any input anybody had– he wouldn’t have shut Simon down. He would have brought all four of them on the mission if the Lieutenant was that worried. 

Although, that may have meant all of the team would have been captured instead of just half. Hindsight was a petty bitch and, if Price got out of this alive, he would have to have a stern word with her. And maybe Laswell, too, to watch her agents a little more closely. He flexed his hands, tensing to feel the knot wrapping around his wrists. If given enough time, some leeway, and a little bit of luck, he might be able to shimmy his way out of them. He just needed to keep Sergey talking. It must have been the bastard’s first capture, because the idiot had left most of their gear on in his haste to get them tied up and kneeling. Amateur.

“What do you want from us?” Gaz asked and Price’s eyes flicked over to his lover, worry flashing for only a moment before he schooled his expression back into a mask of fury. 

“Information.” The arms dealer, Sergey, said. Sergey was a sickly looking man– wiry yet fat in all the wrong places that made his body bulge in strange parts. He wore an ill fitting suit that was clearly too small for his size but also somehow managed to look too big at the same time. In all honesty, he looked exactly what one would expect when thinking of what an arm’s dealer would look like– right down to the untrustworthy moustache. Not to mention he looked like he was almost constantly constipated and, from the way he was holding the pistol in his shaking hand, he had never wielded a weapon before. Ironic– a man who had never sampled his open products that he was illegally shipping off to the highest bidder. Not one to get his hands dirty– but more than happy to dip them in blood. 

“What sort of information?” Price spoke up before Gaz could open his mouth back up. Attention on me, Price’s face screamed. Don’t look at him. Look at me. The more attention on him, the less likely that Gaz was going to be put in harm's way. Price could deal well enough with being tortured and interrogated– could handle it better than the sergeant. 

“Just a little bit of information, that’s all I want, and I’ll be happy to let you both go. And, depending on what you give, you may walk away with heavier pockets.”

Of course a man like Sergey would offer a bribe in exchange for information and freedom. Price expected that from someone who had never been told ‘no’ his entire life. If Price had taken every bribe thrown his way in the past 20 odd years, he would have been able to afford a private island with a complimentary private jet. Maybe one of those fancy yachts, too, so he could go out fishing in the ocean. With the amount of money he could have got, he’d be buying private islands for each individual fish he caught. 

“Cold of you to assume we’ll give you anything.” He continued slowly, clenching his hands into fists and straining subtly to fight the rope. His wrists would be red raw by the end of the night but if it got them out alive he’d take a bullet too for good measure. Just a little more…

“I imagine that you will. I can be quite… persuasive.” Gaz snorted to Price’s left and he sent a scathing look his sergeant's way. Antagonising the man holding the gun was the last thing that they wanted right now.

“And if we don’t?”

“I kill you both.” An emphasis on his words with a point of his pistol to Price. He was shaking, the metal rattling from his trembling. Jesus wept– had he ever even held a gun before? 

There– he could feel the ropes loosen ever so slightly, just enough for him to start sliding his thumb through. It would be uncomfortable and quite painful, but it was enough. 

“Then you get nothing.” Panted through clenched teeth, masking his pain for anger.  “Go on, then, shoot me.”

“No. I still need you, Captain. Your friend, however…”

Before anyone could do so much as blink, the gun moved to point at Gaz in all its shaking glory. Two clear shots rang out– followed by a body hitting the ground. Price’s heart kicked into gear– blood rushing in his ears, heart hammering against his ribs as if trying to jump out of his very chest in order to get to– 

Gaz.

Price stared at the motionless sergeant, eyes wide and every instinct in his body screaming at him to move– to check on him. A small puddle of blood was already forming underneath Gaz’s body. No. No, no, no, no–

“Gaz!”

Read the rest on AO3!

[darkonekrisrewrite]

Another they did it quick but at least they got it done

Catra from She-ra and The Princesses of Power

Was it rushed in the last season, yes, but we see changes in her behaviour, her apologizing without excusing her past shitty behaviour

Meanwhile Bakugou and Endeavor have had multiple seasons to get better. And they certainly talk a lot, the other characters certainly talk a lot about how much they've improved/ how amazing they are

But the second you analysis their behaviour they suck! They haven't changed they are just getting treated differently, mostly at their command

Bonus points, Catra had a long list of issues and problems leading to her shit behaviour. Here's a simplified list: she was abused, her best friend (and crush) chose strangers over her, because of preexisting and very obvious issues with the Hoard, the people she looks up to constantly pick other people over her, she doesn't believe she can be loved so she doesn't take it seriously when she is, lost cost fallacy, etc

Bakugou and Endeavor, they weren't worshipped enough. That was the fucking reason, for their years of abusing others, they weren't worshipped enough. "Redemption/ atonement" my ass

Bakugo and Endeavor's character arc and how other characters react to them, has always been all over the place.

No one on the hero side ever being super critical of them, despite the fact that there's a lot wrong that's going on with them.

Bakugo's main issue started with: 'Everyone praises him, resulting in a superiority complex.'

That negative quality doesn't have to be so unlikable by itself, but the real problem started when little izuku tried to help him as a child and he took it as some world shaking personal slight.

As if the very common and friendly gesture of extending a hand as a sign of concern after someone falls down, was a giant middle finger to Bakugo.

It's very petty but he's a little kid at the time so he's gets a little leeway.

But he never really grew out of that mindset until much later in the series, when it should have been obvious that izuku never looked down on Bakugo in the first place.

"He's looking down on me!!" is an entirely baseless delusion that came from a simple act of compassion, that had Bakugo steaming and blowing up at izuku for years.

It would be kind of silly if it wasn't played like a big dramatic conflict.

Endeavor's kind of the same way, only with worse justification.

Endeavor lost his father at a young(ish) age and that 'presumably' gave him trauma that compelled him to reach power that would lead him to the top, to overcome weakness.

But when you look at the results of that path and what Endeavor kept doing after he saw the results of that path, it becomes clear that his motivations were entirely selfish.

For his own sake and not for others.

The absolute point of that proof is when touya 'died' as a child, as a direct result of the fire Endeavor lit within him and his absence as a father when touya needed him.

Touya's death should have been the end of Endeavor's ambitions, that was where his atonement should have started, if he really felt remorse at killing his own child through neglect.

Only after Endeavor got what he wanted, the number 1 title, did he start feeling regret.

The timeline makes any sentiment of atonement feel hollow, because it always comes far too late for it to matter.

[sakumasmut]

Five Eccentrics x Ex-fine!Male!Reader

This idea wouldn’t leave my head, so I decided to just go for it. Hope others will enjoy it too!

tags/warnings: Cnc, hate sex, rough sex, breeding bench, cock rings, orgasm denial, anal sex, slapping, degradation, blowjobs, facefucking, cum swallowing, spitroasting, facials, aftercare

also on ao3

Your heart skipped a beat as you heard people’s voices from afar. Your current position didn’t allow you to face the door, but it wasn’t like you needed to see who would enter—you were well aware who was coming. The door swung open and the chatter died down, a soft chuckle rising above the remnants of noise.

“My my, what do we have here?” A smooth voice spoke as heavy footsteps approached you. You felt the leather of a gloved hand reach out to trace the curve of your back as Rei came into your vision. The vampire leaned down close to your face, and your Adam’s apple bobbed as you gulped.

“/Name/, formerly of fine, what a delight to see you like this.”

Your body was bound to a breeding bench, limbs locked in place with nylon clasps. Your knees dug into the cushion of the bench, your legs forced apart to present your ass to anyone and everyone. The rest of your body lay flat on the upper half, your arms also bound to either side of the contraption so that there was no leeway to move. A shining metal cock ring was clasped around the base of your erect member, with an extra ring that went around your scrotum holding your balls together, lifting them up just slightly to make sure they didn’t touch your crotch.

“It’s an amazing sight!” Wataru laughed heartily. “A good way to get rid of all that pent up anger, no?”

“I-I thought you didn’t hold a grudge!” You stammered, lifting your head up as best you could to look at Wataru.

“I don’t! But I can’t say the same for the other four, and it’s no fun to be left out!”

“And ‘this’ is Tenshouin’s ‘doing’?” Kanata asked, circling around to join Rei in peering at you. His gaze wasn’t mischievous like Rei’s, but the darkness in his emerald eyes sent chills down your spine.

“Don’t mention that filthy name.” Shu snapped, eyeing your body with a mixture of curiosity and disgust. “Though he…does have his ways. I’ll admit that.”

“Ooh, the anticipation makes me want to combust! Let’s move onto the main event!” Wataru patted your head. “Now then, how shall we do this? Youngest first?”

The fifth and final person who had entered the room still hadn’t said a word, but you could feel his gaze eating up every inch of your prone form. A pit of dread built up in your stomach.

The Five Eccentrics of Yumenosaki. The ones whose reputations you ruined. Granted, you could point fingers at Eichi all day to make him take the blame, but you knew it was a joint effort. He wasn’t the only one at fault, and while you didn’t regret your actions, there was still room left for atonement.

The sound of pants unzipping was the only thing you could hear besides the blood rushing to your cheeks. You had no way of knowing what he was doing, and the suspense was killing you. A finger prodded your hole without warning, and it ripped a gasp out of you as you clenched around nothing.

“Sakasaki, you need ‘lube’ to make it ‘wet’.”

“I doN’T.”

Natsume’s thumbs pressed against either side of your ass and pulled against your skin, stretching your hole as taut as he could. You felt something press against your entrance, and your eyes widened.

“W-Wait—”

You screamed in pain as his cock slammed into your unprepared hole, the dry friction sending a searing pain through your entire being. You let out a choked sob as your asshole clenched around his cock tightly, not even getting a second to adjust before he pulled out and slammed into you again.

“S-Sakasaki! Please—”

“Be quiET.” He snapped, sliding his cock out until you were only clenching onto his tip, then immediately shoving his length back in, forcing your walls apart to take more of him. His fingernails dug into your skin as he grit his teeth, channeling his anger into fucking you. You wailed at the pain, tears beginning to form in your eyes.

“Shu-oniiSAN.” Natsume spoke up. “Can you shut him UP? That stupid voice is getting on my nervES.”

A grumble came from the older boy, but you watched as Shu unzipped his own pants and brought his cock out, stroking it gently.

“Don’t even think about using your teeth.”

You gave him something close to a nod, and opened your mouth when he gripped your hair with his hands, bringing your face up to meet his cock. Your lips closed around his head, muffling your cries as Natsume continued to fuck you without mercy. You naively thought that Shu wouldn’t be as rough with you, but that belief shattered when he began to thrust into your mouth, forcing his cock down your throat. You gagged at the sheer size of him, throat clenching around his shaft and making Shu groan in pleasure.

You were now being fucked in both holes—your ass being abused by Natsume, who was determined to make it as painful as possible, and your mouth claimed by Shu, who seemed to care more about his own pleasure than letting you breathe. Your attempts at strangled moans from the way Natsume was pounding your ass were always cut off when Shu gave a particularly hard thrust. They were in perfect sync with the sole purpose of making you feel like a complete whore, just someone whose holes had to be filled.

Your body jerked when Natsume brought his palm down onto your ass, your throat contracting around Shu’s cock, making him moan.

“Sakasaki. Again.”

Another smack. You couldn’t stop your hole from contracting around his dick each time his hand brought itself down on your reddening cheeks, the pain giving way to pleasure for all three of you. Shu’s movements began to stagger, and he pulled your head down as far as it would go as he moaned, his seed shooting straight down your throat without warning.

“That’s riGHT. Swallow all of it, whoRE. We’ll make you our cumdump, /naME/.” Natsume hissed as you were forced to gulp down the salty load that was pumped inside of you. Shu kept his cock in your mouth as Natsume’s thrusts finally slowed, filling you with a last thrust before you felt him release inside of you.

“Don’t use that word. It’s so…vile.” Shu huffed, releasing his hold on your head as his cock left your mouth with an audible pop. He stuffed it back into his underwear and composed himself. “You heathens would do a better job ruining him than I’d like to bring myself to do.”

“But Itsuki still ‘used’ /name/ for his ‘pleasure’.” Kanata tilted his head. Shu ignored him and sat down next to Wataru, who had been watching you intently the entire time with his own erection in his hand.

Natsume grunted as he pulled out, your walls clenching around him until the last second. He hummed at his handiwork, seemingly satisfied as he gave you one last smack on the ass before joining Shu. You should have felt relief at finally getting a chance to rest, but your body felt empty without anything inside of it. Your cock also remained untouched, left reddened and twitching as you tried to hump against thin air to get your release. The moment of respite wouldn’t last long, for better or worse.

“I can’t let you two have all the fun now, can I?” Rei chuckled deeply, surveying the debauched mess Natsume and Shu had left you in. Cum poured out of your ass and trailed down your thighs, where it was beginning to collect in a small puddle. While your mouth looked cleaner, it was just as abused as your hole, if not moreso. Rei quickly noticed the way your cock twitched with need, still erect from no stimulation.

“Aww, does our cute little cumdump need to cum himself?”

His words made your hole clench around nothing. His gloved hand reached out to brush your length, just the ghost of his touch leaving you mewling and wanting more. You tried to move your hips to rub against his fingers, but they were just out of reach.

“Hmph, look at how needy you are. Was Sakasaki and Itsuki combined not enough to satisfy you?”

Rei pulled his hand away and unbuckled his pants, erection already straining against the cloth.

“Shinkai, want to take his mouth?”

“If that’s what you’d ‘like’.”

Kanata took his member out at the same time Rei’s tip pressed against your entrance. You whimpered as the vampire leaned down to your ear, his hot breath making you shiver.

“/Name/, I’d say I’ll be gentle, but then I’d be lying.”

Rei bottomed out inside of you with a single thrust, the leftover cum from Natsume making his entrance much smoother. It didn’t hurt as much as Natsume penetrating you with no lube, but Rei was girthier. Your mouth opened to moan, and Kanata took the chance to push his own cock past your lips, your mouth engulfing him all at once.

“A shame I won’t be able to hear your pretty whines, but sharing with companions isn’t so bad either.” Rei nipped at your earlobe before standing back up, placing his hands on your hips as he began to thrust.

Rei was by no means as rough as Natsume, but he was much more experienced. He was focused on hitting all your sweet spots, making you feel every inch of him before sliding out and doing it all over again. You barely felt the sting of your last round as he kept bringing wave after wave of pleasure onto you. You kept trying to moan, but Kanata’s cock forced you still, unable to vocalize your pleasure. Kanata wasn’t large, but anything felt like too much after Shu’s harsh treatment towards you. He didn’t move at all, rather he let Rei’s movements force your head forward, to take his length deeper into your mouth until your nose was touching his skin.

“Do you like being filled like this, /name/?” Rei chuckled, pressing his cock against your prostate just right, making your eyes roll back in your head. If Natsume’s way of torturing you was fucking you until your hole bled, Rei’s was whispering filthy things into your ear, maximizing your desire while knowing damn well he wasn’t going to let you get your release.

“I thought you would have loosened up after one round, but look at you, you’re still so tight for me.”

His movements slowed, and you let out an unheard whine as you clenched around him, struggling against your binds to try and tell him to move, to touch you, to do anything.

“Hm? Do you want something?” He smirked. “Why don’t you tell me what you need? I wouldn’t know otherwise.”

You obviously couldn’t talk with Kanata’s dick in your mouth, so all you could do was tremble as he continued to tease you with slow thrusts, your unattended member oozing with precum while your balls rubbed against the metal of the cock ring, the accessory feeling tighter with each passing second. You needed your release badly, but the fact it was just out of reach made the blood rush to your cock even more.

“Fuck, you really do feel good.” Rei panted softly, his thrusts getting sloppier as his grip tightened. “Be a good toy and take my seed, m’kay?”

He rolled his hips, and with a shudder his warm load shot out to mix with Natsume’s cum inside of you. He continued to give you shallow thrusts as he rode out his orgasm, each one sending sparks of pleasure coursing through your veins, down to your throbbing member. He sighed contentedly as he pulled out, loving the sight of your ruined hole trying and failing to suck his cum in, leftover sperm dripping out of it.

“Shinkai, you can take your turn over here if you haven’t cum yet.”

“Ah, there is no ‘need’.”

Kanata pulled his cock out of your mouth, and used his hand to stroke his member. You embraced yourself as spurts of cum shot out from it moments later, most of it landing directly onto your face. You sputtered as you felt the sticky fluids drip down your forehead, getting onto your cheeks and chin.

“What an amazing show! A round of applause!” Wataru cheered, clapping loudly. Nobody joined him.

“This was ‘nice’, but I must ‘puka-puka’ now. I feel very ‘dry’.”

Kanata excused himself and exited through the door. Shu got up to follow suit, and soon enough the other Eccentrics had left too, save for one.

“My, they really did a number on you.” Wataru sighed as he walked up to you. Your face and ass were a bright shade of red, not to mention completely covered in cum. Kanata’s seed coated your face and hair, and Natsume and Rei’s cum gathered in a pool between your legs. All the while your erection hadn’t been touched at all, ignored in favor of using your body for pleasure. Wataru slathered some lotion onto your abused hole, and the cooling sensation nearly brought you to tears. Finally, some relief in the aftermath.

“You were truly amazing, dove. I still can’t believe you agreed to all of that! I’m glad things went well, you didn’t even have to use your safety gestures.”

“I almost did.” You huffed. “Sakasaki’s entry hurt.”

“My bad! Perhaps I shouldn’t have let him go first.”

His fingers rubbed against the base of your length, and you whined desperately.

“H-Hibiki, please…” You swayed your hips as best you could while still restrained. “Please. I-I need to cum.”

“Ah, right!”

Wataru was more than happy to stroke your cock, his entire hand easily grasping onto its girth. You wanted to moan just from the smallest bit of stimulation. After two rounds of no relief for yourself, you came immediately just from his gentle strokes. Your cum shot out onto the bench, an excessive amount dripping from your dick as you breathed a sigh of relief. Your cock remained erect however, the ring keeping it from losing its hardness until your balls were emptied.

“My my, you’re still not satisfied even after all of that? Perhaps Sakuma wasn’t far off calling you a whore!”

You wanted to object, but you were too tired to really care. Instead you moaned as he continued to stroke you, the coil in your stomach beginning to twist.

“Hibiki, f-fuck me. I need you.”

Wataru smiled, feeling his own erection growing harder.

“Well, I’m a man of the people. I suppose it’s time for an encore!”

[brodinsons]

"Instead of highlighting the character's Jewish origins, 'Man of Steel' features a Randian Christ-figure who commits genocide against his entire race, then causes multiple mass casualty events."

I apologize in advance for the incoming rant but I am sick and tired of sitting quietly for this relentless bullshit and at some point, enough is enough. I'm not naming the individual I'm quoting because I'm not interested in starting fights. This is my space and I'm venting a collective decade of frustration and anger.

Noun. Randian (plural Randians) A follower of Ayn Rand.

God damn, y'all just can't help yourselves, can you? You just slurp up every bit of nonsense from all those puffed up "YouTube Essayists" with god complexes from 2015 and take it as fucking fact.

Not to mention, y'all cannot seem to let a random baseless accusation from a disgraced sexual predator go. That's him! He's the one who started it! The very one to fling the first scrap of "Zack Snyder is a Randian Objectivist who hates Superman and is poisoning the DCEU!" bait out into the twittersphere for the rest of the ravenous bloggers to jump on. I refuse to take anyone's treatise on the modern superhero myth seriously if this is the depth they'll stoop to in the middle of their piece.

Snyder made one single offhand comment about maybe adapting 'The Fountainhead' (for its aesthetics, mostly) years ago and now he's a sexist racist fascist objectivist and the root of all evil.

Objectivism: "The exceptional people among us have a divine right to decide our fate and we should not oppose them."

Does that sound like the message of any of his DC films? Movies that end with speeches about heroes wanting to be on the ground to do good in crises and how good humanity can be despite its faults? What about MoS specifically, where the ultimate immigrant allegory struggles to find his place in a world that does not accept him yet still fights for and protects humanity because this world is his chosen home?

Not to mention, where the fuck is this genocide-committing Jesus Superman? Clark t-poses out of the Black Zero one goddamn time while looking sadly back at his dad because Snyder is a visual filmmaker with a penchant for dramatic shots and everyone loses their fucking minds. He goes to the Lutheran church he presumably attended with Martha & Jonathan as a child to seek the counsel of Father Leone because Clark Kent is not canonically Jewish (may the memory of his Jewish creators be a blessing). There's stained glass iconography of Christ in the background at one point because it's a Christian church in middle America. Clark himself never once espouses any religious lines or strict beliefs. Nor does he position himself as a "Christ-figure", either through himself or via the story??????? He doesn't want the responsibility that comes with putting that suit and cape on. But he does it anyway because he understands the stakes when shit gets real and he refuses to let his adoptive world pay for unwittingly bringing the worst remnants of his old world here.

Also, Clark only kills one person: Zod. The U.S. military "bombs" the Black Zero with the starcraft that brought Clark to earth in order to re-open the Phantom Zone and send Zod's forces (the pack of militaristic extremists known as the Sword of Rao) into it. Given what we know of the Phantom Zone in various canons, that's a fate almost worse than death. Then, after being given an ultimatum that either he dies or Zod will, he makes the impossible choice that will haunt him the rest of his life to save a human family moments from being obliterated by Zod's heat vision and kills the general. Nowhere in this catastrophic battle did he "commit genocide against his entire race" (did everyone forget that he himself is the Codex's host and therefore the living possibility of Krypton's rebirth?) or "cause multiple mass casualty events".

I understand that the scale of fictional damage was perhaps a touch more realistic than the near identical scale featured in all of the Avengers movies. It's fine if it's not your thing. Move along. That discomfort still doesn't give you enough leeway to point the finger at a rookie Superman on his first day on the job and say "all that destruction and death was his fault". He tried to take it out of the city! Zod—a vastly more experienced military leader with blind genetic fanaticism on his side, by contrast—refused to allow it. His goal was the annihilation of earth and as much collateral damage as possible (preferably the entire human race). Clark had to stand between humanity and that with zero combat experience and no clue he'd be forced into a no-win scenario to stop the carnage.

I'm tired. It has been ten years. I'm so fucking tired. Can you people give it a rest? None of you are the ultimate authority on superheroes and positioning yourselves as something dangerously close to that with these twitter threads and blog treatises and reviews full of big words in nerd outlets only poisons the fandom well further.

You are allowed to dislike things. You aren't even required to justify that dislike. What you aren't allowed to do is declare something objectively bad based on nothing but your own subjective reaction to it, then invent criticisms that aren't even applicable to the thing in question.

The day we lost the ability to differentiate between "I did not enjoy this media so I guess it wasn't for me" and "I did not enjoy this media and therefore NO ONE SHOULD BECAUSE REASONS I WILL INVENT FROM SECONDHAND HEARSAY" is the day media literacy ceased to exist in pop culture.