#black methodologies

[fatehbaz]

Edit: Removed the screenshot so as not to share dm stuff, but I got a message from someone who couldn't send an ask, inquiring: "i was wondering what book it was that you mentioned about the philippines? i'd be interested in reading it." Sorry to post; figured it would be a subject worth sharing with interested others. Good news: It's an article, so it's relatively easier to access and read.

Jolen Martinez. "Plantation Anticipation: Apprehension in Chicago from Reconstruction America to the Plantocratic Philippines" (2024). An essay from an Intervention Symposium titled Plantation Methodologies: Questioning Scale, Space, and Subjecthood. Hosted and published by Antipode Online. 4 January 2024.

Basically:

Explores connections between plantations in US-occupied Philippines and the policing institutions and technologies of Chicago. Martinez begins with racism in Chicago in the 1870s. Coinciding with Black movement to the city (from the South during Reconstruction and the Great Migration) Chicago was, in Martinez's telling, a center of white apprehension. Chicago public, newspapers, and institutions wanted to obsessively record information about Black people and labor dissidents, including details on their motivations and inner life. Between 1880-ish and 1910-ish Chicago then became a center of surveillance, records-keeping, classification systems, and new innovations in collecting information. Within a year after the labor rebellions, the Adjutant General of the US Army who led Chicago's militarized crackdown on the 1877 Great Railroad Strike immediately moved to DC and proposed establishing "the Military Information Division" (MID); eventually founded in 1885, MID started collecting hundreds of thousands of Bertillon-system intelligence cards on dissidents and "criminals." Meanwhile, National Association of Chiefs of Police headquartered their central bureau of identification (NBCI) in Chicago in 1896. At play here is not just the collection of information, but the classification systems organizing that information. The MID and related agencies would then go on to collect mass amounts of information on domestic residents across the US. In Martinez's telling, these policing beliefs and practices - including "management sciences" - were then "exported" by MID to the Philippines and used to monitor labor and anticolonial dissent. Another Chicago guy developed "personality typing" and psychological examinations to classify criminality, and then trained Philippines police forces to collect as much information as possible about colonial subjects.

The information-gathering in the Philippines constituted what other scholars like Alfred McCoy have called one of the United States' first "information revolutions"; McCoy described these practices and social/professional networks as "capillaries of empire." Martinez suggests that it's important to trace the lineage of these racialized anxieties and practices from Chicago to the Philippines, because "such feelings were fundamental to linking plantations which at first seem so spatially and temporally distant." And "[u]ltimately, the US colonial plantocracy in the Philippines built its authority around information infrastructures [...] and feelings emanating from Chicago [...] that extended from the image of the American South."

Important context: 1899/1900-ish is when the US occupied or consolidated power in Panama, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii, and the Philippines.

---

Side-note:

The Bertillon system (bertillonage) was standardized at about this same time, 1879-ish, and in similar social and racial contexts, becoming popular in other Midwest/Great Lakes cities, especially to track Black people (though it was also rapidly and widely adopted famously as an essential approach across Europe). The system used body measurements to identify and classify people, especially "criminals," significantly involving photography, such that Bertillon is also sometimes credited as the originator of "the mugshot."

I'd add that the aforementioned police chiefs National Bureau of Criminal Identification (NBCI) stayed in Chicago from 1896 until 1902, when the killing of President McKinley frightened officials with potential of wider popular movements; at that point, it was moved to DC, as William Pinkerton (co-director of the Pinkerton agency) donated the agency's photograph collection to build the new bureau, and NBCI strengthened itself by collecting fingerprints and became the precursor to the FBI, founded 1908. (After 1895-ish especially, European authorities were transcending their petty rivalries to attempt forming international police agencies and share documents, tracking each others' domestic radicals/dissidents.)

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You could compare the colonial use of Bertillon-style intelligence card systems in Chicago and US-occupied Philippines to the rise of fingerprinting as a weapon of Britain in India.

Edward Henry was the Inspector-General of Police in Bengal, appointed 1891, basically the top cop in British India. He exchanged letters with notorious eugenicist Francis Galton, wherein they specifically talked about the importance of developing a classification system for fingerprints that could be used alongside the Bertillon system of anthropometric identification. (Another British imperial administrator in India, Sir William Herschel, had previously been the first to pioneer fingerprinting by taking hand-prints.) By 1897, police forces in India had been adopting the so-called Henry Classification System, and the Governor-General of India personally decreed that fingerprinting be adopted across India. By 1900, Henry was sent to South Africa to train police in classification systems. By 1903, Henry was back in Britain and became head of the Metropolitan Police of London, now the top cop in Britain. (Compare dates with US developments: British police in India adopt fingerprint identification system the same year that Chicago police found their proto-FBI central identification bureau. Less than a year after the US head-of-state gets killed, Britain super-charges the London police.)

So, the guy who pioneered fingerprinting classification for use in maintaining order and imperial power in India and other colonies was eventually brought in to deploy those tactics on Britons in the metropole.

The kind of colony-to-metropole violence thing described by many theorists. (Britain also developed traditions of police photography in context of rebellions in Jamaica and India. Outside of London, the first permanent "modern" police forces across the rest of Britain were legally provisioned for with the Irish Constabulary of 1837 and County Police Act of 1839, "coincidentally" just before/during a 27th of July 1838 "Vagrancy Act" law that made "joblessness" a crime which was put into effect JUST FOUR DAYS before the 1st of August 1838 date when emancipation of Black slaves in the British Caribbean was allowed. As in, four days before nearly a million Black residents of the Empire got legal freedom, Britain outlawed vagrancy and was building permanent national police forces.)

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The 1890s were outrageous. Japan's domestic 1880 Penal Code was built on French models. The Ottoman Empire built a system of passport requirements to monitor movement; France did something similar in Algeria. In 1898, the Austria-Hungary imperial foreign minister called for the formation of an "International Police League." This prompted an Italian radical at the time to write:

"The police are the same in all parts of the world. Laws have been fabricated by the bourgeoisie on the same model; in this, the bourgeoisie is more international than we are."

And Great Lakes cities, after the Great Migration, were notorious for this kind of police violence. Consider how the Bertillon system was used early-on by Minneapolis police to track and target Black "alley workers" (try keyword-searching "Minneapolis Bertillon alley workers"). Or how Chicago was a focal point of antiblack violence in the Red Summer of 1919. Or how Milwaukee has some the most distinct Black-white segregation of any large urban area in the US. Or how, after Elliot Ness lionized law enforcement officials in Chicago during the Al Capone case, he then led policing operations in Cleveland culminating in the mass eviction and the burning of Kingsbury Run shantytown. (Chicago is like a funnel, a node, a hub. Especially after the 1860s: Center of railroad networks. Center of telegraph networks. Destination for Texas/Kansas cattle shipped to Chicago meatpacking houses. Destination for Corn Belt prairie agricultural products. Hence the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and Chicago's turn of the century image as a modernist metropolis. So they had to keep the laborers in line.)

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Anyway, the other story that I mentioned regarding Philippines was from:

Gregg Mitman. "Forgotten Paths of Empire: Ecology, Disease, and Commerce in the Making of Liberia's Plantation Economy." Environmental History, Volume 22, Number 1. January 2017.

For context, I'd note that this takes place in the midst of the US's "conquest of the mosquito" in its militarized occupation of Panama, where the canal was completed by the US between 1904 and 1914. (Again, US was occupying Philippines, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.)

In Mitman's story, Richard P. Strong was appointed as director of the brand-new Department of Tropical Medicine at Harvard in 1913. Shortly thereafter in 1914, as he toured plantations in Panama, Cuba, Guatemala, etc., Strong simultaneously took a job as director of the Laboratories of the Hospitals and of Research Work of the United Fruit Company (infamous for its brutal labor conditions in plantations, its land-grabbing in Central America, and its relationship to US corporate power). Harvard hired Strong partially on the recommendation of General William Cameron Forbes, who was the military governor of US-occupied Philippines from 1909 to 1913. When Harvard hired Strong, he had been living in the Philippines, where he was the personal physician to Governor Forbes, and was also the director of the Philippine Bureau of Science's Biological Laboratory, where he had experimented on Filipino prisoners without their knowledge; Strong fatally infected these unknowing test-subjects with bubonic plague. Then, Governor Forbes, after leading the US occupation of the Philippines, himself became an overseer to Harvard AND a director of United Fruit Company (also Forbes was a banker and the son of the president of Bell Telephone Company). Meanwhile, Strong also became a shareholder in British rubber plantations; Strong approached Harvey Firestone to help encourage the massive rubber company to negotiate a deal to expand plantations in West Africa, where Firestone got a 99-year-long concession to lease a million acres of land in Liberia. So there's an intimate relationship between military, plantations, colonization, medical professionals, corporate profiteering, land dispossession, etc.

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So, in each case, there is imperial anxiety about the threat of potential subversion from recalcitrant laborers. Imperial authorities cooperate and learn from each other. The rubber plantation owner is friends with the military general, who's friends with the laboratory technician, who's friends with the railroad developer, who's friends with the cop, who's friends with the forestry minister, who's friends with banana plantation owner. There are connections between the exercise of power in the Philippines and Panama and West Africa and Bengal and Chicago. Connections both material and imaginative.

[thanatologie]

in a secondary, follow up note, in which no one cares (but me), full disclosure i'm a big fan of commonplace books. i keep one for every character i rp which...means i currently have a grand total of one (1) for @transistorized and it's full of mechanical and electrical engineering, space stuff, notes from books he canonically has mentioned he enjoys and i decided to read (i really do need a refresh on le morte d'arthur), stuff like that. character knowledge for the sake of having knowledge that character would have, just because i don't pick up characters easily, and when one decides to hang around, we're in it to win it.

so i guess that means i need to start a second one, because while i have a friend i can bug for mortuary stuff (he's a mortician) i'd also like to collect other fun tidbits like a magpie. and unlike with tony, who would scribble on a napkin and therefore would not give a tin shit about paper quality, it gives me an excuse to maybe use one of my everyday books from galen leather with the cosmo air light paper.

[grim-has-issues]

To stan Blind Simon, or not to stan Blind Simon; that is the question

[aroceu]

shame is the self killer shame is the authenticity killer shame hides the honesty of your art and the beauty of your own individual uniqueness and voice and thoughts. without embracing the parts of you that people might think are annoying or imperfect or cringe the road to self acceptance and inner peace and lasting happiness will continue to stay that much harder

[angelprickandholysemen]

imo black metal would've gone a lot further and been able to adapt to its generalization if it made a direct critique of commodity society

[systemsandteams]

At Systems and Teams, our mission is to provide business owners with the tools and methodologies they need to scale their companies efficiently. We specialise in reducing the dependency on key individuals by systemiing processes to ensure daily tasks run smoothly. From improving team efficiency to creating predictable workflows, we make businesses more profitable and less reliant on constant oversight.

[reasonsforhope]

"Since 2008, homelessness rates in Finland have dropped by 75%. 

It’s a feat that is even more remarkable when noting that their method of counting — and defining homelessness — is much more inclusive than other leading countries. 

In Finland, for example, homelessness statistics include individuals temporarily living with friends and relatives, living in an institution, staying in hostels, congregate shelters, and “rough sleeping” outside on the streets. 

Their complex method of counting homeless populations goes hand-in-hand with the country’s “Housing First” method of approaching homelessness, by recognizing that homelessness is not a black-and-white discussion — it’s a systemic issue that can manifest in a variety of ways. 

In 2017, the Y-Foundation — which promotes social justice by providing affordable housing to low-income families as Finland’s “fourth-largest landlord” — released a 128-page report on successful Housing First policies. 

The foundation said that Finland’s success in lowering homelessness rates can largely be attributed to the country’s “Name On The Door” approach, which was introduced to Finland’s Minister for Housing in 2007. 

The methodology made a sound argument for ending homelessness from a moral, legal, and economic perspective. 

“The ethical perspective means that homelessness has to be eliminated because human dignity belongs to everyone. A home is a human right,” the Y-Foundation surmised.  

“The legal perspective emphasizes, for example, that according to the Constitution of Finland, anyone who is unable to acquire the necessary security for a dignified life is entitled to essential subsistence and care.”

“Eliminating homelessness is also a worthwhile investment in terms of the social economy,” the nonprofit added. “The report states that the economic conditions for eliminating long-term homelessness were better than ever (in 2007).”

Reducing homelessness has been a source of pride for the country’s leaders for nearly two decades...

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Helsinki Mayor Juhana Vartiainen said that Housing First is “the right way to fight the problem of homelessness.”

“That’s really the fundamental idea of our policy,’ Vartiainen said, “if we give people a home, there will be very positive side-effects.”

In the last year, national cuts to income, social security, and housing support have resulted in the first notable change to homelessness trends in over 11 years. 

Even with the slight rise in homelessness seen locally in 2024, Finland estimates that 3,806 citizens are currently experiencing homelessness (about 0.06% of the Finnish population).

In comparison, over 771,480 Americans were counted as unhoused in January 2025 (about 0.2% of the US population). 

Regardless of short-term challenges, the “Housing First” approach is still at the core of the organization’s mission. 

The Y-Foundation’s head of international affairs, Juha Kahila, told The Globe and Mail: “When people have a roof over their heads, they can overcome the challenges they have in their lives and not have to worry about where they will sleep that night or where they will live next month.”"

-via GoodGoodGood, April 18, 2025

[fatehbaz]

Originally I had attached these tags about British imperial forestry to a post about United States treatment of forests, Indigenous peoples, and land administration from 1900-ish to 1935-ish, during a transition period when clear-cutting logging was threatening profit so the US turned to a German- and British-influenced "sustained yield" forestry paradigm:

And in response, someone added:

In the midst of the first Empire Forestry Conference of scientists, academics, and administrators in 1920, the chairman of the Forestry Commission of Britain, Lord Lovat, said that forests were "grown for use and not for mere ornament ... Forests are national assets only so far as they supply the raw material for industrial development."

Rajan (in Modernizing Nature) directly quotes professor of forestry at Oxford, R.S. Troup, who had been influential in the Indian forest service; at the same forestry conference in 1920, Troup promoted sustained yield like this: "Conservation was a 'wise and necessary measure' but it was 'only a stage towards the problem of how best to utilise the forest resources of the empire'. The ultimate ideal was economic management [...], which regarded forests as capital assets, fixed annual yields in such a manner as to exploit 'to the full interest on this capital [...]' and aimed for equal annual yields so as to sustain the market and provide regular supplies of timber to industry."

One of the big - and easily accessible/readable - summaries of the shift to sustained yield and rise of US and British administrators embracing "economic management" of forests:

Modernizing Nature: Forestry and Imperial Economic Development, 1800-1950. S. Ravi Rajan. 2006.

Concise look at the trajectory from East India Company and Royal Navy timber reserves; to British foresters training in Germany and/or in German traditions (including sustained yield) before joining as officers in the powerful British-Indian land administration bureaucracy; to US scientists being trained by those British administrators; to 1920s/1930s Empire Forestry Conferences promoting industry while identifying forests as essential to power.

---

This has also been covered by:

Vinita Damodaran, Richard Grove, Jeyamalar Kathirithamby-Wells, Jonathan Saha, Gregory Barton, Rohan D'Souza.

More summaries of the situation (shorter length, accessible):

"Imperial Environmentalism or Environmental Imperialism? European Forestry, Colonial Forests and the Agenda of Forest Management in the British Empire, 1800-1900". S. Ravi Rajan, In: Nature and Orient: Essays on Environmental History of South and South East Asia, 1998.

"'Dominion over palm and pine': the British Empire forestry conferences, 1920-1947". J.M. Powell, Journal of Historical Geography, Volume 33, Issue 4, October 2007.

Elsewhere, Elizabeth DeLoughrey and George Handley described it like this: 'These forest reserves [...] did not necessarily represent "an atavistic interest in preserving the 'natural' [...]" but rather "a more manipulative and power-conscious interest in constructing new landscapes [...]."' While Sharae Deckard adds: '[T]he subversive potential of the "green" critique [...] was defused by the extent to which growing environmental sensibilities enabled imperialism to function more efficiently by appropriating botanical knowledge and indigenous conservation methods [...].'

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And the book:

Commonwealth Forestry and Environmental History: Empire, Forests and Colonial Environments in Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia and New Zealand.

Edited by Damodaran and D'Souza, with work from conferences hosted by Grove, in 19 chapters including:

"Worlds Apart? The Scottish Forestry Tradition and the Development of Forestry in India" (K. Jan Ootheok); "Redeeming Wood by Destroying the Forest: Shola, Plantations and Colonial Conservancy on the Nilgiris in the Nineteenth Century" (Deborah Sutton); "Nature's Tea Bounty: Plant Colonialism and 'Garden' Capitalism in the British Empire" (Jayeeta Sharma); "Industrialized Rainforests: The Ecological Transformation of the Sri Lankan Highlands, 1815-1900"; "Forestry and Social Engineering in the Miombo Woodlands of South-Eastern Tanganyika" (Thaddeus Sunseri)

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Rajan also points out (again in Modernizing Nature):

"[An] extremely important aspect to the repackaging [of forestry science and management] [...] [and] a critical principle that stands out here is that of sustained yield, or sustainability (Nachhaltigekeit). This concept was fundamental [...]. By the turn of the [twentieth] century a large pan-colonial [British-United States] scientific community was in existence, trained in the German and French tradition of forestry [...]. Following the revolt of 1857, the government of [British] India sought to pursue active interventionist policies [...]. Experts were deployed as 'scientific soldiers' [...]. Dietrich Brandis [...], considered the founder of Indian forestry [...] married Rachel Marshman, who was [...] also the sister of the wife of General Havelock, a close friend of Lord Dalhouse, the then governor-general of India. On Havelock's recommendation, Brandis was put in charge of the forests of [...] Burma [...] and was subsequently appointed inspector-general of forests of India. [...] He also trained prospective foresters of the forest department of the USA, including Gifford Pinchot. [...] Chancellor Bismarck gave the visiting British Prime Minister Gladstone an oak sapling [...]. Prussia prided itself on helping devise [...] modern forest management. [...] [T]he Forestry Commision [...], [or] [t]he Imperial Visionaries, as they became known, believed that an increase in primary production in the tropical dependent empire would result in the growth of the British economy. [...] They deemed their own job to be serving the imperial economy."

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And also:

Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism. GA Barton, 2002.

"Colonialism and Green Science: History of Colonial Scientific Forestry in South India, 1820-1920". VM Ravikumar Vejendala, Indian Journal of History of Science, 47:2, pages 241-259, 2012.

"Imperialism, Intellectual Networks, and Environmental Change: Unearthing the Origins and Evolution of Global Environmental History." Vinitia Damodaran and Richard Grove, in Nature's End: History and the Environment, 2009.

"The Reconfiguration of Scientific Career Networks in the Late Colonial Period: The Case of Food and Agriculture Organization and the British Colonial Forestry Service" by Jennifer Gold, and "A Network Approach to the Origins of Forestry Education in India, 1855-1885" by Brett M. Bennett. Both chapters are form Science and Empire, 2011.

Triumph of the Expert: Agrarian Doctrines of Development and the Legacies of British Colonialism. Joseph Morgan Hidge, in Series in Ecology and History, 2007.

Nature and Nation: Forests and Development in Peninsular Malaysia. Jeyamalar Kathirithamby-Wells, 2005. And also: "Peninsular Malaysia in the context of natural history and colonial science." Jeyamalar Kathirithamby-Wells, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, Volume 11, Number 1, 2009.

"Empires of Forestry: Professional Forestry and State Power in Southeast Asia, Part 1". Peter Vandergeest and Nancy Lee Peluso, Environment and History 12, no. 1, pages 31-64, February 2006.

[jewish-sideblog]

I think people forget that the Nazis never said they were the bad guys. If someone says, hey, I’m evil! You don’t let them take over your country. They presented themselves as scientific, not hateful. By their own account, they were progressives, and the superiority of White Europe over the other races was a proven and immutable fact. They had scientists and archaeologists and historians to prove it. They didn’t tell people they wanted to kill the Jews because they were hateful. They manufactured evidence to frame us for very real tragedies, and they had methodological research to prove that we were genetically predisposed to misconduct. Wouldn’t you believe that?

Hollywood has spent the last 80 years portraying the Nazis as an obvious and intimidating evil. That’s a good thing in some ways, because we want general audiences to recognize that they were evil. But we also want them to be able to recognize how and why they came to power. Not by self-describing themselves as an evil empire, but by convincing people that they were the good guys and the saviors. They hosted the Olympics. Several European countries capitulated and volunteered themselves to the Empire. There were American and British Fascist Parties. They had broad public support. Hollywood never shows that part, so general audiences never learn to recognize the actual signs of antisemitism.

People today think they can’t possibly be antisemitic, because they’re leftist! They abhor bigotry! They could never comprehend Nazi ideology coming from the mouth of a bisexual college student wearing a graphic tee and jeans. How could they? The only depiction of antisemites they’ve ever seen have been gaunt, pale, middle-aged men in black leather trench coats with skulls on their caps.

If the Nazis time-travelled from the 1930s and wanted to take power now, they’d change their original tactics, but not by much. They would target countries suffering from an identity crisis and an economic collapse. They would portray themselves as the pinnacle of what that society considers progressive. Back then, it was race science. These days it’s performative wokeness. Once they’d garnered enough respect and reputation, they’d begin manufacturing propaganda and lies to manipulate people’s anger and fears at a single target— Jews.

If the Nazis made an actual return, they wouldn’t look like neo-Nazis. They wouldn’t be nearly as obvious about their hatred. Their evil wouldn’t give them yellow eyes, and no suspenseful music would play when they walked in the room. They’d be friendly. They’d look like you. They would learn what things your community fears and what things you already hate. They would lie and fabricate evidence to connect the rich elites and the imperialists you revile to a single source of unequivocal Jewish evil. It wouldn’t be hard— they already have two-thousand years of institutional antisemitism they can rely on to paint their picture.

If you’re curious why antisemitism today is coming from grassroots organizations, young, liberal college campuses, suburban neighborhoods with pride flags and All Are Welcome Here signs? That’s why. It’s because, as a global society, we’ve forgotten that the world didn’t used to see the Nazis as bad guys. And what is forgotten about history is doomed to be repeated.

[endlessandrea]

"For the most part, people don’t imagine that ordinary folks have that capacity for imagination. That they don’t have desires that are that enormous." –> awfully wrong

Saidiya Hartman on Fugitive Feminisms:

“In writing The Anarchy of Colored Girls Assembled in a Riotous Manner what I wanted to make visible is a long history, a long tradition of Black women’s radical anti-state struggles. There is a way these struggles fall out of view, because they are illegible to the interpretive grids of a Marxist tradition and even to the grid of a certain Black historiography, that is looking for signs of activity and agency under the aegis of the Black worker. Very much in the spirit of fugitive feminism, that I am looking at forms of practice that are trying to flee certain organised terms for making sense of them. One might be the category of “woman,” another might be the category of “worker,” another might be the category of “citizen”. So, I am thinking about The Anarchy of Colored Girls as really trying to unearth and tap into an imagination of freedom that is so much more capacious than what we usually imagine. The desire for a radical other way of being in the world. The desire for a different planetary set of arrangements. For the most part, people don’t imagine that ordinary folks have that capacity for imagination. That they don’t have desires that are that enormous. Looking at everyday practice, I try to attend to and unearth those dreams that fueled their waywardness. A waywardness that could only be understood as criminality, or pathology, or disorder, or feeble-mindedness, as opposed to waywardness as the latent text to a practice of creating the social otherwise, of living the social otherwise.”

[thatonebirdwrites]

(I wrote this article to help remind myself that even small actions like maintaining my microlibrary matters. I've included my methodology below and why I do it. I also includes some resources that go into further depth).

Archiving Our Works Offline

Since we are entering a fascist era where I live, archiving literature of all types becomes more pertinent. Especially with the current rise in book-banning and censorship (much of that focusing on marginalized groups like LGBTQIA people and Black and Indigenous people).

So how do we archive literature and keep knowledge safe from censorship or destruction by authoritarian regimes? There’s various methods, but I’ll speak of a way one can do this without a degree or beforehand knowledge of archival practices.

I’ve been archiving my eBooks and the studies I’ve read for a long time now, but it’s only recently I’ve been working on transferring them to a safer, offline drive. I also have a large physical library of books from various genres and covering many different topics. I collect books and can often find them cheap at book sale fundraisers, estate sales, sales in book stories, discounts in online stores, etc. 

Due to how extensive my library is, it’s inspired my friends to read new authors or genres or to tackle new topics; the archive gave us room for discussion. It also helped friends or community members who don’t have access to a library still access a digital copy by checking-out a copy from me. Now, one doesn’t have to share their archive with anyone, but I find it helpful to do so.

The goal however should not be to archive the most famous books — as if everyone did that we wouldn’t preserve much knowledge, so focus on unique and lesser known literature and media to preserve those too. This is why I focus so much on marginalized authors, who are not well known.

Archiving knowledge is why physical libraries in a town is so crucial. They are bastions of knowledge and archived books, media, and documents. Supporting your local library and fighting with your library to keep them open is crucial. This also requires fighting against book bans that would censor/restrict what a library is allowed to put on their shelves and archives.

What I’m suggesting here isn’t to replace libraries. It’s to augment the community’s archives of knowledge, media, documents, and books. Since Public Libraries are the forefront of the fight against banned books, it can be crucial to make sure the banned or censored books are preserved somehow.

While the authoritarian state may easily target Public Libraries, they can’t so easily target civilians, especially if the archival project is done quietly among small groups of people. These smaller projects are how some of the lost knowledge from before the 1930s Nazi book-burnings were salvaged; everyday people like you and me archived books and documents and kept them safe.

Experts often discuss four stages to censorship:

Stage one: Not allowing certain topics to be discussed. This is similar to laws in Florida, where speaking of LGBTQIA folks (trans in particular) can be penalized. This primarily impacts schools, but not necessarily the publishing industry as a whole.

Stage two: Bills that censor the Internet. The terrible KOSA bill (Kids Online Safety Act) is an example, where it sought to censor the existence of LGBTQIA and/or Black and Indigenous literature, media, and documents on the Internet. This is where sites that carry these media may start to go dark digitally.

Stage three: Penalizing anyone who sells, disseminates, or produces censored materials. This is when authors, publishers, bookstore owners, libraries, and others are attacked directly and penalized for having any literature or media the state deems ‘bad.’ The penalty can range from fines to jail time to death.

Stage four: book burnings. This is full-on blatant Nazi-esque book burnings and trashing of any institution or public archive of knowledge and media that holds the censored materials. For example, the Sex and Gender Institute in Germany in 1930s was the first targeted institution for book burnings by Nazis. A century worth of data on LGBTQIA (and specifically trans and intersex individuals) were lost. The only remnants that survived was documents smuggled out before the book burnings.

For the country in which I reside, we are hovering between stage one and two. I suspect by the end of these four years, we’ll be closer to stage three. This is why it’s crucial to keep an archive of knowledge, and if many people are doing this, the higher likelihood that more data can be preserved. It may seem daunting, but that’s why it’s helpful to work with other people and focus on a specific genre or topic for the archival project you start.

I personally started with Leftist books focused on anti-capitalism, anti-racism, building communes, and science fiction and fantasy by marginalized authors. I was a little broad in my choice of topics, but there’s no need to be this broad.

For example, one could pick to archive only trans literature or only literature by Indigenous authors. Also remember, you cannot archive every book in your chosen topic. You will be curating these archives to some degree because that’s inescapable. Do not fret over this or agonize over being unable to archive all the books.

Preserving some knowledge is better than losing it all. That’s the goal. Take it a step at a time. For me, I’ve been adding to my archive for over four years. It’s sitting at around 25 gigabytes, and it’s something I added to slowly over that time. I took breaks. I set aside time each month to update the archive, and I asked others for help during high pain times. (This was helpful during the start of Covid, where I started up a digital archive of studies. Friends helped catalog them.)

Preserving knowledge and literature is crucial in times where censorship and book bans are on the rise. There’s a lot of great knowledge, literature, and media out there that should be preserved for future people to read or watch.

When an authoritarian regime starts to censor the sharing of knowledge, data, and stories, this is when archival practices become crucial for the survival of people’s history, culture, and stories. Anyone can work on an archival project, though I recommend building up a group to help make it easier in the long run.

1. Hardware. 

Obtain a large storage drive, as in a 1 or more terabyte SSD drive. This will serve as the data repository for the digital portion of the archive. This drive must not be used regularly. It’s meant to store the data, then be placed in a safe storage area (at just the right temperature to avoid degradation of the drive).

Since books can range in size, multiple storage drives may be needed. If one is seeking to also rescue/archive media such as photographs, videos, music, podcasts, etc — then you’ll need larger storage drives. This storage drive should not be connected to the Internet in any way. It’s meant as an offline archival device.

Servers can also be used as archives, where the data is stored on the server, but a server is connected to the Internet. Depending on the circumstances, it may not be wise to have the back-up archive in the cloud. A back-up should be stored offline for any archive security.

Try to avoid cloud storage, especially if based in the USA. Do not use googledrive or dropbox or any similar cloud storage. If you must use cloud storage, always have an offline backup on your own SSD drives, and seek out a storage service that is based in a country with good privacy laws that has encryption embedded in it such as cryptpad.org.

Next make sure the computer hardware needed to open those drives are kept in top-notch shape. The digital archive will end up useless if there isn’t a device capable of connecting with the storage drive. Most devices with USB ports have the capability to connect to a storage drive.

2. File types.

You need to make sure the file types used in digital storage can be easily accessed by the majority of devices currently in existence. At this time of writing in January 2025, PDFs, ePub, .Doc, .mp3, .mp4, .wave, and .zip  are the most common file types and the most accessible. Could this change in the next decade? Maybe, but for now, focus on the most common file types that are accessible by the majority of systems.

3. Avenues of procuring the literature for archiving.

There’s two forms of archival data: Physical form and Digital form. 

For the physical form, that consists of print books, magazines, newspapers, photos, etc. These can be purchased online or in physical stores. They also can be traded for using a grey market system. (Grey market is where the item is obtained legally but then sold by someone who may not have a license to sell. Black market is when item is obtained illegally.) Physical forms of literature are the superior archival forms. Books can easily outlast our lifetimes if stored in a dry, lukewarm temperature storage space.

Digital forms do not have a physical version of the data. The storage device or server is the only sign it exists in the physical realm. Digital forms can be compressed into smaller file sizes for long-term storage. Buying eBooks is also cheaper than a print physical copy. There is also online PDF/eBook libraries where one can download the book for free (for legal reasons, I cannot recommend. For ethical reasons, I maintain archiving literature to make sure it doesn’t disappear or is destroyed by censorship is important in the long-term).

Once the item is procuring (in hopefully legal way as I in no way suggest breaking the law), then it becomes important to store it appropriately.

4. Storage of archival data and literature.

The storage drives in point 1 become crucial for the digital forms of literature and other data. Storage drives need to be kept in a relatively dry, cool space and kept offline. When I saw cool, I’m speaking of between 50 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Best to keep it at a steady temperature. I prefer 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. This prolongs the shelf-life of your drive. To avoid stressing the drive by using it often, try to time the storage so that you store as many files as you can in one boot-up.

Another important component to using storage drives is the power of encryption. A drive can be encrypted, and the key needed to use it safely guarded. I’d recommend this only if there are concerns of increased scrutiny to penalize the possession of certain types of literature and archival documents and media.

For example, if a law is passed to ban trans or queer literature, there’s a few ways the law could be written: it can focus on who sells or prints this literature, which means possession of it is not part of the law. A second way is to penalize both selling, printing, and possession. It’s this latter form of law that needs to be watched out for, and if it comes to be, that’s when encrypting the drives and keeping that key safe is crucial.

I am not an encryption expert, however. So be sure to research encryption to determine the best way to build up this security.

For physical storage, the area needs to also be dry and in that same temperature range. Storage in bins such as metal or plastic bins can also help preserve the books and magazines. Finding a space big enough can be difficult. Sure, a storage center could be used, but if you lose access to it or one is raided, you’d have no control over rescuing your archive. Better to work with your community (and friends) to store it yourself, so you have control over who has access to it.

5. Building up these archival Libraries in your communities.

If this feels daunting, then take a step back and think about who you know that may be interested in assisting. You can then talk with those people and work out a system to spread the tasks and make the project less intense. By working together in community, you will lessen the risk of burnout, which is crucial since it can take anywhere from weeks to years to recover from burnout.

What is burnout? It’s when stress on the body and mind pushes one past their limits and causes illness — physical or mental illness. The body and mind are exhausted, and so activities becomes increasingly hard to do. The best way to avoid this is to share the burden in projects like these. Take breaks often to give your body and mind rest. Spend time with family and/or friends and/or pets to help recharge. Take some solitary time too.

Working with other people in community is crucial for surviving fascist regimes. We are not islands, as that saying goes, and even islands are not isolated and independent. For the island relies on the larger, interconnected ecosystems of earth to exist. 

Mariame Kaba, who wrote ‘We Do This Till We Free Us,’ wrote about her father and something her father shared with her: “You have a responsibility to live in this world. Your responsibility is not just to yourself. You are connected to everyone…. because the world doesn’t work without everyone.” 

We are interconnected with other people and the environment as a whole. No one is “self-made” as that is individualistic capitalist propaganda; all of us had people throughout our lives that taught us what we know, socialized us into society’s norms (or out of those norms), assisted us in hard times, and so forth. Humanity are inherently social creatures, so do not discount the power of community.

Resources

For ways to build up your own groups and communities, I recommend starting with Surviving the Future edited by Branson, Hudsen, and Reed and How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong. Group-building can be as simple as a book club, who meets monthly, deciding to take on archiving the books they read.

For further reading, the following article discusses archiving and rescuing trans literature, but it’s tips apply to everything I’ve discussed above and to many other types of literature: A Practical Guide To Resisting Censorship. It includes tips for ways people can work together to safeguard knowledge and literature, which is nicely organized based on your role in the literature ecosystem. 

Feel free to share thoughts and tips below. :)

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

A tiny little parallel/foreshadowing hint that I love in Six of Crows is that in the parley when they pat the Black Tips lieutenants down for weapons, Jesper finds a tiny knife and tosses it aside to make both the Dregs and the reader comfortable with the idea that if there were any other weapons they would have been found and to trust the implication that the knife was the only weapon, making the shock of Geels pulling the gun on Kaz all the stronger. They operated using the exact methodology Kaz uses with the lock picks in his mouth at the Ice Court: “You have to make the mark feel like they’ve won”

[whatudowhennooneseesyou]

𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢 𝟏𝟖+ 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬 (𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 & 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝)

Disclaimer: This is for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken seriously. 18+

Methodology: Traditional and Whole Sign

Placements:

Leo Sun

Cancer Moon

Sagittarius Rising

Virgo Venus (retrograde)

Scorpio Mars

Is He A Fuckboi?

6/10

People who have a Virgo Venus can enjoy having sex without feelings involved so Mingi probably can be a fuckboi but his Cancer Moon would intervene and he would become emotionally dependent on you very quickly.

His Sagittarius/Jupiter influence means he has a high drive like super fucking high he can go all day if he had the opportunity.

So, I feel in his horny moments he could just fuck a random stranger but afterwards or when it's out of his system, he'd probably feel bad or low-key guilty about pursuing sex if there's no 'feelings' involved.

Red Flags:

Mommy Issues! Mingi is a huge Mommy's boy and he's mentioned in the past about how his relationship with his mother is the most important to him.

This is EXTREMELY common in men who have Cancer Moons and they usually grow up with a mother who 'babies' them and have a borderline codependent relationship with their mother.

So you might struggle with being accepted by his family and consistently fight for approval or validation from the women in his family.

Green Flags:

Your No 1 Support Person! You will feel like you haven't experienced as much support and hype energy from your loved ones like the support you'll experience from Mingi.

He will be devoted to you and worship you and do whatever he can in his power to ensure your life is easier and more enjoyable whenever you're with him.

Whilst Mingi is a high-maintenance partner, his presence as a boyfriend would have a healing impact on you and life will fill like a more positive experience when you're with him.

Ideal Type: If He's Into Women (Which I'm Damn Sure He Is)

Personality Traits:

Extroverted!!! He has a 5th House in Aries so he is attracted to women who are loud, outgoing, extroverted and are not afraid to speak up about their needs.

Mingi is someone who's a constant over thinker so he needs a partner who is okay with being upfront about what their needs and expectations are of him, it's why he has a strong friendship with Yunho because Yunho tells him what to do and he does it.

Protective!!! He really is low-key looking for someone who will embody a 'mother' role and ensure he feels safe, protected and cared for all the time.

If you look at heaps of fancalls with Mingi, the ones where you can tell he's invested in the Atiny are the ones who lead the fancall and just basically hype him up and froth over him.

Physical Traits:

Here's the Link to a fancall with an Atiny where he explicitly says 'you're my type' and you can TELL omg he looks like he wants to devour her in those remaining 30 seconds.

A feminine/girly aesthetic with a slight emo/punk twist combined with a masculine attitude is the best way to describe Mingi's type physically.

If you don't want to click the link, he says word for word to the Atiny 'look so amazing, black (he did say that but the Atiny muted it), and dark, and your accessory and outfit is so beautiful...yeah my type'.

The Atiny later revealed she's British and Dominican so the rumours of Mingi being attracted to women who are of a different ethnic background are probably true (a win is a win).

Sub, Switch Or Dom?

Mingi is a switch with a submissive preference and the only member of Ateez who has a submissive preference and would fall into the category of being an obedient and needy/clingy sub.

He has an 8th House Moon and these people are NASTY in the bedroom usually so his partner would have to be open to trying new things.

In a dominant position, Mingi would become a soft/service/pleasure dom and would probably still need a lot of reassurance even if he's taking the lead.

And men with a Scorpio Mars are the type to fuck and love passionately so whilst he's not a degrading/mean lover...he wouldn't necessarily be a gentle lover either because he struggles with verbally expressing his love for you so he's going to ensure you know he loves you in another way.

Which usually manifests in him fucking you so deep your hips bruise, legs are shaky and there's an ache in between your thighs the next day.

Speaking of thighs...

Kinks: (Just A Few)

Ass and Thigh play!!!

Mingi is an arse and thigh guy all the way, he loves seeing your arse jiggle as he fucks you doggy style and leave hand prints all over your cheeks.

Would enjoy a late night lovemaking session where he can hit it from the side and squeeze and play with your thighs as he fills you with his love.

He'd enjoy pulling out and covering your arse with his sticky cum, watching it drizzle down your thighs while he takes a few sneaky pics for his phone collection.

You think he's been a bad boy and want to punish him? It hurts his feelings that he can't fuck you but he'd be more than okay with pushing his dick in between your thighs and just getting off in that way.

And don't think this is just for you no honey, this goes both ways.

You riding his thighs? Using him like a personal toy just to get yourself off? He'd have to force himself from not cumming in his pants with how hard it would make him.

Scratch his thighs, smack his arse, you can low-key bite the meat of his arse and leave a bruise there and he would enjoy it all the same.

You just need to validate him and tell him how good he is, how proud you are of him, how wet he makes you feel.

'Look how wet you made me right now mmmh? You deserve a reward for being such a good princess for me right?'

On a more taboo level, Mingi could also be into kinks like anal, arse play (both giving and receiving), rimming, and I think in the right environment he'd even let you peg him.

Just ensure he receives the most immaculate aftercare, allow him to do the same to you and he'll never leave your side.

He's tied to you for life.

I won't be publishing anything in September because I'll be writing for Kinktober so pls enjoy this longer post!

It's been a struggle for me to stay motivated on here because my last few posts have flopped with receiving attention and/or interest...considering how long I have been on here.

So adieu until October!

Taglist: @scuzmunkie @marievllr-abg @umbralhelwolf @starsareseen @lino-jagiyaa @mischiefsmind @mrcarrots @junieshohoho @gyuhanniescarat @partywithgyu @whatsk-poppinhomies @hologramhoneymoon @staytinyinmybpack @necessiteez @wooyoungmybelovedhusband @berryberrytan @laylasbunbunny @bangchanbabygirlx @i-love-ateez @anyamaris @krishastumblernow @hexheathen @michel-angelhoe @northerngalxy @justaaveragereader @ja3hwa @silentreaderthings @daddysspecialdollyworld @abby-grace @wisejudgedragonhairdo @smilefordongil @writhingwrecked @hongthoven @youre-alittle-taste-of-hell

[sorryitsmyfirstdayonearth]

Quick

(Sam Winchester x female reader)

Summary Sometimes, you just need a couple of minutes with Sam to make it all better. CWs Quickies. Sweetheart Sam who also fucks. Sam in a suit. Rated 18+. 1.4k words.

Sam Winchester masterlist ⏐ SPN masterlist

Sam’s pushing you into the cubicle with the Out of order sign on it after you’ve made sure it’s not horribly disgusting in there. He crowds you until your back hits the partition wall, your head bent as far back as possible so that your lips can meet his even from this close. His hand is already pushing between your legs, your skirt bunched up as Sam runs his fingers over the fabric of your panties, the fabric that has picked up your wetness already.

“Are you wet for me?” he asks, as he begins rubbing you through the fabric, your intense arousal immediately making the touch a relief, something you crave and need and want more of even though it’s already happening.

“Yes, baby,” you breathe and Sam grins as he watches your face while his fingers work away at you. He’s figured out exactly the pressure, exactly the speed at which you need him, because Sam likes learning, likes understanding.

You’re different, not as methodological, but then that’s exactly what Sam needs. Someone who wants him so badly that there’s no time for thinking, no time for being reasonable or practical. Someone who can make him shut off that big brain of his, at least for a little while.

Someone who’ll drag him into the bathroom of a police station in the middle of a case because she’s so desperate to feel him inside her that there’s simply no other choice.

Your fingers are clawing into Sam’s shoulders, while under your breath you encourage him to keep going, to keep touching you. Another thing Sam needs – reassurance. He might have intellectualized the majority of his pain and trauma, but being wanted like this, being needed like this, shoots right into that part of his brain (and as a result, his pants) that’s convinced of his own wrongness.

Making Sam feel desired makes him eager to show that he deserves your affection – which is what he’s doing right now, with that perfect practiced pressure building inside you, ignited by him. Your head is all the way back, because that way Sam can dip his own head down and kiss you where he wants to, but also he can watch every miniscule movement on your features, every twitch, every slight furrowing of your brows, every opening of your mouth to let out another sound, another praise.

You’re flying high so fast it threatens to make you dizzy, but Sam’s big body so close to you makes it feel like he’s there to catch you. When you feel that familiar twist in you begin, the one that radiates outwards and makes it feel like you have electricity running through your veins, you open your eyes.

“Wait,” you pant and Sam, sweet Sam, immediately stops, listens, wants to make sure nothing’s wrong. You feel sorry for getting him worried but that look on his face melts your heart like an active volcano would melt a popsicle. To make up for it you grab him by the tie, pull him closer to you until you know he can feel the movement of your lips on his.

“I want you inside me when I come,” you say, and the change on Sam’s face from worried to a mix of horny, happy and loved is everything you live for.

His hands leave you to go to unbutton the fly of his pants, but his mouth stays on you, his eyes looking deep into yours, as you tug down your panties, let them fall to the floor. When he’s taken himself out, while you keep looking into his eyes because right then his pupils are black holes pulling you in, he stoops down a little, and that’s your cue to wrap your arms around his shoulders. His hands go around your waist, he hoists you up and when you sling your legs around him too, his hands wander lower to hold you up.

To make things easier, and also because if you don’t get to see, you want to at least touch, you reach between your two bodies, find him, and guide him to your entrance. Then Sam helps you sink down on him, and on that first stroke you always make sure to watch his face. Because he looks like someone who, after an arduous and long journey, has finally come home.

Sam leans in and kisses you again, and then slowly holds your body so that he’s dragging out again and then pushing back in, all the while rubbing his face against yours, staying in contact. He never lets you go far.

Sam fucks you slowly and gently – he always does at the beginning. He’s pulling out of and pushing into you so slowly that you can feel every inch of him, every vein.

It’s not the easiest position, but Sam’s got the bulk to make it work. One of your arms goes up, grabbing the top of the partition, to help hold yourself up. Sam hooks your legs over his arms, and it allows him easier movement. It also allows him to go faster.

Which he does, while his nose is pressed against your temple, his hot breath fanning over your face. He makes those little grunts, sounds that coming from someone with the self-control of Sam, are all the more erotic.

“You feel so fucking good,” he says, deep voice so close to your ear that you’d think he’s inside your head. All you can do in response is moan. You’re close, and every second Sam is bringing you closer with that perfect twist of his hips.

When you come, Sam presses his face against your neck, stops moving so you can grind yourself against him the way you want to. You pull him close with your legs and the arm still around him as you moan your way through the intense relief, Sam bringing you back to earth by sucking and licking at the sensitive spot under your jaw.

He waits until you’ve come down, blinked your eyes open, look deep into his. It’s not until he sees the bliss and relaxation in your face, knows that you’re taken care of, that Sam begins again.

For his own end, Sam doesn’t just thrust into you – no, he manipulates your entire body. There’s something animalistic and needy about it, the way he lifts his arms and your bent legs along with them, then lets you sink down again on his cock. You know Sam is intensely tuned into your pleasure, on if he’s doing everything right, but there’s something about being handled like that that makes you feel like you’re losing your mind.

Sam’s jaw is tensed and his upper lip pulls up a little as you moan for him, squeeze him inside of you, lean your head back.

“Oh God, Sam,” you press out as your sensitive pussy keeps taking him. Seeing you turned on like this, enjoying him, makes Sam pant as he fucks you quicker, moving his hips along to meet your body.

“Fuck, I’m gonna—Fuck!” he grunts, his face looking pained, and when his orgasm starts, Sam quickly slings one arm around your ass, pulls you as close to him as possible. You know to hold on to him as you feel his warmth spreads into you, as the other hand holding you up shoots up to the partition wall because Sam needs to steady himself. He keeps grinding into you, face pressed against your neck, deep moans that make you shudder leaving him.

Sam eventually stops moving, shoulders rising and falling. You stroke his head and neck and shoulders, coo to him, tell him how hard he made you come, how you love feeling him inside you, all hot and strong. Sam allows your words to wash over him, hums contently. Soon he’ll raise his head, lids low and blink at you, bangs hanging into his eyes. Best bed head in the business, you once told him, making him laugh. He’ll kiss you, so deeply and gently that it makes you want to cry from love.

Ten minutes later you’re both stumbling out of the bathroom, you still tugging at your skirt and Sam smoothing down a crease on the back of your jacket, before he grabs his own collar and readjusts it. You know you’ll get an epic eyeroll from Dean, but you don’t care.

You hold Sam’s hand just for a second before you walk back into the sheriff’s office, and the look he gives you makes you want to cry from happiness. Because in these moments he looks sure. Sure that he is loved, that he is safe, that he is right. That everything will be okay.

[tricksh0t]

★ the aspect of the warrior

☾ ellaria sand & oberyn martell x top m reader (+ olyvar)

𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘩0𝘵 ⛥ first threesome 😜 (technically orgy); connected to broken merchandise (petyr baelish) but can be read as a standalone. unfortunately ended up having a lot more olyvar than i intended, so take that in mind.

𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘴 ⛥ 3.25 words

cw: switch reader, top male reader, bottom oberyn, switch oberyn, blowjobs, non-descriptive cunnilingus, prostitution, use of the name whore, missionary, doggy, mentions of the Faith religion, lighthearted and humorous s*x, unfortunately rather fast paced

You've served a long variety of clientele before. Men and women, cock and cunt. You've tugged brown, black, blonde and red hair; stared lustfully into brown, onyx, green and blue eyes; kissed both rough and soft lips as well as given and taken.

You've had real warriors who played into your character or were simply too clueless.

Bastards, too. Waters, Rivers, Flowers, Hills and Stones. Maybe a Pyke and Snow or two, but never a Sand.

Nobles, as well, of many different statures. Wealthy and unfortunate, Lords and Ladies, heirs, but never a Prince.

Prince Oberyn Martell and his paramour, Ellaria Sand, were simply not an offer you could refuse; but they had come without an appointment or any notice, and so you were already caught up with another client.

You'd never miss this for the world, though.

"There he is. The Aspect of the Warrior." At the sound of Oberyn's voice, Olyvar pulls off the prince's cock with an obscene, wet pop.

Prince Oberyn looks you up and down, taking every inch of your well-oiled, famed muscles, from your neck to your calves. Eventually his eyes land on your already sweaty small clothes, and the forming bulge of your arousal. "You are very late, Ser Strong. We would have died if you had been a second too late. You come without your armor, even."

"Cut him some slack." Ellaria chimes. She pets the girl's hair who's currently eating her out absentmindedly, like it's nothing. "He was obviously previously preoccupied. Though, if you ask me, he should've cut whatever he was doing to come straight here."

Olyvar watches, both amused at your humiliation and also annoyed because you've taken his attention.

Oberyn grabs a handful of your new salesman's hair, just calling for his attention as he tugs. "How much is he, then?"

"Expensive."

"More than you?"

Olyvar scoffs, but does give in and nod.

The prince doesn't let the gesture slip by. "What is it, do you two not like each other?" He is growing more amused by the second.

Olyvar looks at you. There, beneath his glare, you catch a glint. He's just playing. While both the prince and his paramour may know your warrior reputation is only a facade, they do not know many other things about how you play. "He is distasteful. Just look at him, all that muscle and he does nothing but fuck all day."

Both Ellaria and Oberyn laugh, falling into the web of how captivating Littlefinger's whores can be.

"Let them have a go at each other, see if that settles their differences." Ellaria suggests.

Oberyn agrees by silently letting go of Olyvar's hair, but his face gives off all his excitement. He's looking for a show.

Olyvar approaches you in quick strides, then he's quickly wrapping his arms around your neck and giving you a kiss that'd steal the breath of anyone that isn't used to him. You reciprocate, roughly grabbing hold of his naked hips, shifting more towards the small of his back. You grasp, getting the bones of his hips and the meat of the top of his cheeks within your knuckles.

"Let's give them a show." Olyvar whispers as he pulls away. You can barely reply before he's pushing you, knocking you down on the bed right between Ellaria and Oberyn. The perfect spot.

He climbs onto your lap and you're back to kissing again. It's a clash of teeth this time, a methodologically feigned hunger for you and what you can bring him. Your hands quickly find his hips, and you're playing just as hungry, guiding him into a harsh, unsubtle grind over your thinly veiled cock.

You can faintly hear the other girl shifting, pulling away from Ellaria as the woman has stopped paying attention to her.

Olyvar moves and so do you, back on your elbows and lifting your hips so he can take your small clothes off. Your cock springs out and he's already grinding against it, ready to take it in in one swift go.

Before that even happens, though, Ellaria gasps a "ooh" and Oberyn wolf-whistles.

The prince's voice stops the two of you. "Now that is a cock that cannot go to waste."

You and Olyvar exchange looks. It's a quick thing, before the blonde is slipping off your lap, his job accomplished.

Oberyn gestures for you to come to him, but Ellaria grabs hold of your bicep before you do. Her hand cannot even wrap around it. "Ladies first." She says, addressing her lover with a smirk.

The prince obliges with a smile of his own, but you've long years of reading people and can see below that a slight bit of disappointment.

Ellaria lays further back onto the bed, her short hair falling behind her, splayed out like a halo. She spreads your legs as if to show herself off as your prize, that charming smirk on her face daring you to take it.

You kiss a path up her ankle. A Sand, tanned skin and dark hair yet both are smooth and shiny, unlike what Lords tell you about Dorne. They portray it as a land where the people broil miserably under the heat, causing wrinkles in the youthful. Perhaps it is that they are wrong, or perhaps it is that Ellaria Sand is a woman well taken care of, lucky to have caught the eye of a Dornish prince.

That same eye follows you as you trail up her leg and to her cunt, getting a taste of it; protective, perhaps, or otherwise jealous.

"I've had enough of tongues," Ellaria says, calling your attention. She tilts up your chin with just two finger, "'sides, that cock of yours is what we're interested in, Aspect of the Warrior."

"Nothing about my muscles?" You respond, fixing yourself up into position, kneeling between her legs.

Ellaria can admit that her eyes trail down, beginning at your shoulders and your biceps all the way down until she can't. "They are very appealing, but you must understand I often get my fill." She glances towards her lover.

Oberyn winks when you glance over.

You concede with a small laugh and the shake of your head. "Then what appeal is there to The Aspect of the Warrior?"

"Fame and reputation." Oberyn answers for the both of them. Ellaria is much too impatient on the other hand, and beckons you in by kicking your ass slightly with her foot. "You're rough, but also pliable. Headstrong, but also willing."

You'd reply, but Ellaria is staring you down with such a look of "just do it already".

You obey her, slowly pushing into her warmth. Her hand lands on your shoulder, well-kept nails digging into the flesh.

"I'm not fragile." She says confidently.

And again you obey, though you'd been cautious initially for a reason. Ellaria gasps, legs wrapping around your waist with a start. Her nails rake down your back.

"A stretch?" Oberyn asks, head propped up with his elbow, much more interested in this than the whore licking at his asshole and prepping him.

"Very." She says, almost having to choke it out. She sounds eager anyway when she continues, "Go on."

The first you give her seems to Ellaria much too boring. If you have a big cock, she expects you to know how to use it. "Is that the hardest you can go, aspect?"

You'd expected her to learn her lesson after the shock of having to take all of you in swiftly.

"The Aspect of the Warrior is also part of the Faith." You almost scold as you grab her by the lower back and hold her up, giving you a better angle to thrust into her cunt. "So, as much as strength is a part of him, the Faith cares for his subjects."

"Very charming, the way he talks in third person." Oberyn jokes, but his paramour is much too preoccupied with the cock splitting her open, the way she seems to like it.

She clenches around you, head already falling back. Her mouth splays open with mutterings of curses and moans.

She can hardly let go of you, even, the clench keeps you there, as if her legs don't do a well enough job already, and her arms are wrapped around your back.

"You must have a name, beyond Faith and Warrior. You don't expect her to scream those, do you?" Oberyn steals one of Ellaria's hands from your back to lazily intertwine his fingers with hers.

"They have been heard, around the halls." Olyvar responds for you, still servicing the prince with his tongue.

He looks amused at that, exclaiming sarcastically, "Oh, warrior! Save me, warrior."

"Yes," Ellaria moans, caught up in her own world, "yes, ser."

"Hmm." Oberyn hums, impressed. "That works."

You wonder if you're doing a better job than the prince usually does. For a couple so active, you'd imagine there's some sort of desensitization by now. There's some pride in knowing that you're making her feel this good, to lose her mind, when Oberyn might not even do the same anymore.

Speaking of, he watches in interest as you lick your thumb to press it down against his paramours clit. She keens loudly as you rub the nub in circles, prompting a quick and shuddering orgasm.

"That was fast." Oberyn teases, giving her hand a squeeze.

"Oh shut up, you." Ellaria wheezes out, regaining her breath. She squeezes back.

She gives your cock one final squeeze, like a parting gift, as you pull out. As soon as you do so, Oberyn is beckoning you over, much better at hiding his impatience and so displaying it now.

He's slower with it, though. It is merely having you that excites him already.

He parts only one leg, encasing your side with it, while he keeps the other under you so your hard lengths are not far apart. When he grabs the back of your neck to pull you down for a kiss, it is an intentional move, as you lean down towards him and your cocks press against each other.

His tongue was hot against yours, his swollen lips addictive, and so you chase him as he parts from the kiss. He grinds his cock up against yours, and so you chase that as well with your hips.

Oberyn's already got you wrapped around his finger.

You hardly notice the way Oberyn is sizing you up until Ellaria speaks up, propped up against the pillows in a heavenly kind of way in her post-orgasmic glow. "He's bigger. No use in denying that."

"I usually don't like brutes." Oberyn says, and somewhere, vaguely, you know he's playing it off by monologuing. His hand reaches down to guide your cock to his hole. "The bigger men get, the more disproportionate and ugly they become. Take the Mountain, for example. That kind of man can only be loved by his mother."

"I bet even that isn't true." Ellaria laughs.

Between the two of them, you're more preoccupied with getting your cock into the prince. For one, you've yet to orgasm, for two, he's a prince.

Maybe it's being a Prince that makes you pretty, or maybe it's being a Lord that makes you ugly, because in the hierarchy of nobility, Oberyn Martell is probably the best noble you'll ever get to fuck, and it isn't for his money or his status.

Oberyn stares you down as you push in. His stare keeps you in place, washing away any aspects of having the bigger body and muscles, of being The Aspect of the Warrior.

He's stoic, like this isn't his first time.

Olyvar speaks up, calling your attention. He's splayed out comfortably on the bed besides Oberyn, instigating, playing that game again. "Have you taken any bigger, Prince Oberyn?"

You and Oberyn turn back towards each other at the same time. The prince reaches up to cup your cheek, some form of endearment that once more keeps you submissive to him. He's inclined to say yes, to poke fun, but, "No, I have not."

"You're playing him a fool." Olyvar says. His hand is warm on the small of your back. Its thumb flicks over your spine, making you shudder.

Oberyn whistles. He felt that. "It is rather fun, you know. A brute at your heels."

Not The Aspect of the Warrior, pointedly. Oberyn sees past your act, doesn't care for it. To him, you're just a big man with a big cock and muscles you don't know how to use.

He takes the sex casually, not giving much reaction to the thrusting of your hips, however slow you're taking it right now. You can't help but take it as an offense. You've always been revered as The Aspect of the Warrior with your clients, for your strength and your build, even by Ellaria herself.

You yearn for a reaction from this tough prince.

You play into the submission, leaning down to capture Oberyn's lips in a kiss, because you want him to think you're needy for it.

He smiles into the kiss, heaving a small laugh through his nose. He finds you amusing.

Little does he know, it's only a distraction. You lift him up, causing him to gasp, then place him on his stomach. Oberyn immediately turns his head to look back at you with indignance, but his eyes shut quickly when he you thrust up to the hilt, because he gets to feel all of you.

"Does that feel good?" You lean down to whisper into his ear as you start up again, going slow just to tease him, because you know he can take more. "To feel all of me?"

He tries to keep stoic, but it's clear in the way his breaths grow ragged that the answer is a resounding yes.

"Did you prep him properly, Olyvar?" You ask just to tease the prince, feigning care.

The blonde chuckles. "Spit and tongue then oil and fingers, my love."

"My love? They've been playing us a fool, Oberyn." Ellaria jokes, but her paramour is much too preoccupied with the cock splitting him open on the more literal sense to notice.

Oberyn sucks in a gasp when you thrust up particularly harshly for the first time, then follow up with that same strength over and over, resulting in a sharp whistle-y sound. It seems to embarrass him.

Much of you embarrasses him, though it seems to please him at the same time. You're bigger than him in body and muscle, engulfing his figure as you fuck into him; you've got a bigger cock, and you pleased his paramour well with it.

There's jealousy somewhere in there, but he doesn't act on it, not when he gets to have you.

"He's good, isn't he?" Ellaria hums.

"Yes he is." Oberyn replies. His face isn't even pointed towards his paramour. It's rather amusing for you this time.

You pick up the pace, and he still doesn't break; because it's not admitting that you're good that you want, it's making him moan unabashedly.

You move his knees, propping him up on them to better fuck into him. Oberyn's breath hitches. Then you press a kiss upon his spine, and, "Oh, warrior!" How ironic.

A steady stream of groans leave Oberyn's mouth as you fuck him. You keep a hand beside his head to lean over him, and another warm hand over his cock. It wraps around the girth of it easily, and then some.

Ellaria laughs, because she of all people should know that Oberyn does not often get like this. "You're no Warrior."

"You're the Stranger." Oberyn chimes up for his part. The need for humor and the lift of his lips in an open-mouthed smile afterwards shows you just how much he likes it.

You chuckle, "Shall I be the death of you today, then, Prince Oberyn?"

"You know, at some point," He laughs too, shakily, "it gets rather fatuous."

He is right. You let your movements take over, pleasuring him. As is your job, pleasuring him, and even past the "honor" of fucking a prince, there is the pleasure of fucking Oberyn.

He's tight, but not like a virgin, you're not his first experience and you like that, because you can go as rough and fast as you like and Oberyn will take it. The pleasure is in knowing that you're the one creating the obscene slapping of skin in the room, and the eyes that watch you, the beautiful Ellaria Sand and Olyvar, your occasional lover. The pleasure is in knowing that you're making a real warrior such as Oberyn shiver and moan.

The hand you have wrapped around him begins to work him in tandem with your thrusts, and it has him spilling over.

Oberyn slumps forward with a sluggish smile, closed teeth now that he has a break. "Will it put a dent in the fortunes I have brought if I ask for another round?"

Olyvar smirks, "If you make it quick, it won't."

"And the warrior still hasn't finished." Ellaria remarks as you pull out of her lover, cock still proud and strong.

"Endurance," You reply, "a selling point."

"And here I thought we were simply not good enough for you." Oberyn turns around to lay on his back. His breaths slow as he relaxes. He nods his head between you and Olyvar, "So, you and him, history?"

"Just coworkers." Olyvar says, all business. "I'm sure you know there are certain folks that simply aren't good at this sort of thing."

"So we weren't good enough." Ellaria laughs. "I'd like to see you get the aspect off, then. If we simply aren't experienced enough."

Olyvar is more than welcome to. In fact, he seems eager to, as you fix yourself upright on the bed and he crawls towards you. Once more, you are playing a show, except this time, there is no goal except to pleasure you.

"Prince Oberyn, Lady Ellaria," Olyvar says as he nears your cock, "take pride in knowing you are simply not whores."

You feel like a King, getting to have all this: a Sand's cunt, a Prince's hole, your part-time lover's mouth. "I'm pampered." You voice.

He stares up at you as he takes you down to the base, something that causes clear surprise in the two Dornish. Olyvar's words make sense to them now, it's the experience that comes with working as a whore that allows him to do this. Or perhaps it isn't, perhaps it is your history together.

You won't voice it, but it's comforting coming back to Olyvar. The way you watch him isn't sultry, it's endearing. The way you grab a handful of his blonde hair isn't sultry, it's appreciative.

Olyvar has boundaries with his clients. He won't swallow, and he won't let them finish inside him, but you're not a client.

When you cum, you do so down his throat, and he swallows gladly.

Oberyn applauds, pulling you away from the sight of Olyvar. "And the show comes to an end."

"So it does." Ellaria sits up and leans towards you, capturing you with a much-needed kiss. She is just a good a kisser as her lover. "Whenever we find ourselves in King's Landing again, I'm sure we'll cross paths."

"I might have him brought back to Dorne, actually." Prince Oberyn jokes.

"You'd like the competition?" Ellaria teases.

Oberyn's eyebrows furrow at that, his anger at the idea almost real. "Perhaps it is a bad idea, then."

A Sand and a Prince, added to your list.