#ch 1075

[the-frizzle-fry]

Excuse me!!!!??!!!

What the actual fuck?!!!!

[curapicas]

lil' buddy was afraid he broke ANOTHER gadget

[ninhaoma-ya]

Chapter 1075 — Labostratum Death Game

This arc has it all! Murder mystery! Whodunnit! Imposter! Split teams!

And not to be like that, but damn if that isn’t an ominous chapter title.

However, "Death game" has a nicer ring to it than "Battle Royale" which would imply all-against-all.

Nice parallel between Shaka and the Shadow's poses.

Poor Luffy, noticing something's wrong…

…and yet suspecting he might have broke it somehow :,)

Really enjoying the team-ups! I just hope it gives everyone a chance to shine like the diamonds Nami found.

It's fifty-fifty if they a) come back for the bag, b) forget the bag and Nami remembers once they are out at sea, or c) it comes tumbling down a ruined labostratum later on in the arc and she catches it.

Vegapunk's satellites really vary in size, don't they?

And I love the ongoing gag of Robin's morbid sense of humour. Just waiting for the day it turns out she's right.

But the mystery deepens…

Who doesn't belong? Or has one of us turned against the rest?

I just really likes this panel. Lilith could be a bit more evil, but Usopp's fright and pose, info drop about the bubble gun (which probably will come in handy later on), the sheer size of York…

…which comes into play really quickly!

She is visible when they find Pythagora's head–

–but not in the discussion with Pythagora's head! Where can she have gone?

Usopp, my beloved.

Kind of a major mistake from Vegapunk? Never create something you don't have the control over. Unless your goal is true anarchy, of course, but most people who design weapons of mass destruction usually want them to be under their control.

Zoro's sense of honour is just so cute.

a) Of course there will be a team-up of former villains. Why didn't I anticipate this?

b) Lovely to see Luffy and Zoro's upset faces! We got the rest of the crew, but I don't think we got them in Wano.

So.

Going back to chapter 1072, we have the command hierarchy:

And combined with Stussy's comment a few chapters ago of her inability to override the earlier commands of Lucci and Kaku, it seems like the first command by one authority level holds presedence (which is a really weird choice. What if things change in the middle of battle and the Pacifistas are still hell-bent on taking down object A while object B is now the priority?).

a) Does the Stella have a higher internal Vegapunk-classification to the satellites?

b) Which part of Vegapunk issued the order to wipe out the people in the labostratum?

c) Is an Elder Star already on the island, as the main authority?

I wonder if all the satellites will be decomissioned (i.e. killed) and it's a part of Vegapunk's plan? Or is it all part of the Five Elder's plan – or do they even know what's happening on Egghead?

It would have been nice with a little longer breather between the intensity of Wano and the suspense of Egghead, but the arc is shaping up nicely!

Great chapter. I give it a twirly moustache and a magnifying glass.

[larkreadsop]

Oda realizing he hasn’t used this face in a while so it was obviously time to bring it back but even with this I was like 99% sure they’d be teaming up anyway.

[beaulesbian]

ONE PIECE ep. 1107 || "What's wrong, Luffy?"

& ch. 1075

[akutagawa-daily]

Akutagawa daily 1075/★

[favoriteonepiecepanels]

[alexblakeisgay]

Dating App Mishaps (Ch. 15)

Ship: Alex Blake/Reader

Summary: Alex didn't have Tinder by choice...but that doesn't mean it isn't going to come in handy.

Word Count: 1075

"Long time, no see," Tara greeted Alex, pulling her into a familiar embrace.

Every few months, they'd meet to catch up, having been introduced a few years earlier by Emily who seemed to think – for whatever reason – that they would have a lot in common. (She was right, of course, but they didn't need to give her the ego boost of letting her know that...)

"It's been a crazy couple of months," Alex agreed, settling into the seat across the table from Tara.

"I'll bet..." Tara said with a knowing smirk.

Alex raised a brow, curious as to what Tara had meant by that. She wanted to ask, but was also just a bit afraid of the answer she might get...

Tara waited several moments, grin getting progressively more smug as the seconds ticked by with Alex struggling to form speech. Eventually, though, she seemed to take pity on her and asked, "Who is she?"

Stammering for a few moments, Alex tried to find words – any words – that would accurately describe the quasi-relationship in which she'd inadvertently found herself.

After watching her struggle for a few moments, Tara just laughed. "Wow...I don't think I've ever seen Alex Miller speechless before." When Alex's cheeks flushed red with embarrassment, Tara reassured her, "I'm not judging – I'm just curious about how much of what Garcia said was truth..."

"I should have known..." she muttered, shaking her head slightly. "I'm sure she's let her imagination run away with her and told you a lot of Garcia-brand fiction." Tara continued to stare at her expectantly, so she gave a sigh of concession and said, "What did she tell you?"

"She said you matched on Tinder while you were trying to make your ex-husband jealous..."

Cheeks pinking slightly with embarrassment, she admitted, "Well, that part is true."

Tara's brows leapt up her forehead. "Really?" When Alex seemed to shrink a little under her incredulity, she shook her head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so...shocked. It's just... You don't seem the Tinder type."

"I'm not," she agreed, "Garcia made me install it when she found out about the divorce."

Tara nodded knowingly, all too familiar with Garcia and her antics. "She also mentioned this girl is on the young side?" she prompted.

Alex just shrugged, not wanting to admit to exactly how young you were.

With a laugh, Tara held up her hands and said, "No judgment here." A beat. Then, because she couldn't seem to resist prying just a little, she said, "Do you have a picture?"

"No!" Alex was quick to insist. Then, just as quickly, "Well, yes...but no."

Tara crowed with laughter then. "You dog," she teased, knowing that reply meant pictures did exist, they just weren't the kind of pictures you could show anyone... She didn't want to embarrass Alex, though, so she let the matter die there. Then, gentler, she asked, "Are you happy?"

She didn't answer right away, which probably said more than she would have liked on the matter. When she did speak, it was a carefully measured reply of, "I'm not unhappy..." For a linguist, that said a lot.

For several moments, Tara sipped her cocktail, deciding how to phrase the next question. "What's vexing you?"

Alex inhaled deeply, trying to bolster her confidence to speak the truth (and not having any idea why it was that she was so willing to confess in the face of Tara's gentle prodding). "I think feelings have been entering into the equation," she admitted.

"Ah," Tara made a noise of understanding. "On whose part?"

She shrugged again, though there was no uncertainty as to the answer. "I think on both sides..."

Cocking her head to the side, rather confused, Tara asked, "Then why do you seem so torn up?"

"I just... I don't know if a new relationship is a good idea," she said, "Right now it's just, well, sex and that's good – it works for us. I think. And if we change the dynamic, add something romantic into the mix...I just don't know if it's wise."

"Permission to be frank?" Tara said. When Alex nodded, she continued, "Speaking as someone who's been through a divorce, I think this might be a case of sabotaging your own happiness..."

Alex sputtered for a few moments, not having expected such an up front and honest response. "How so?" she eventually managed to form speech.

Tara's expression was pointed. "If she makes you happy, what does it matter if it's 'too soon' or it's 'complicated' or whatever excuse you've come up with to justify being unhappy?" she said. "You don't need to pay the universe penance to earn your happiness. You can just be happy..."

She sipped her drink slowly to buy herself a moment to think about her response.

As if reading her mind, Tara added, "How many years did you remain in your marriage while being unhappy, simply because it was what's expected?" She didn't answer, but Tara hadn't really expected an answer anyway. "Sometimes doing the things we're not 'supposed' to is what truly makes us happy."

"Why are you so staunchly pro-Y/N?" Alex asked, curious as to her motives.

Tara just shrugged. When Alex continued to stare at her expectantly, she broke down and confessed, "I have it on good authority that you'd been kind of a – to put it politely – grump until you met her."

"Who said that?" she demanded.

With a laugh, Tara held up her hands in self-defence. "Their identity is being shielded for his or her own protection," she said. "My point is that you shouldn't let societal expectations dictate something as important as your happiness. If you want to be with her, then you should tell her that. Yeah, it might be difficult to navigate and you'll probably have to deal with people who have a negative opinion, but there's always going to be someone who has a negative opinion, regardless of who you're with."

Alex spent a few moments mulling that over, chewing her lip in thought. She knew Tara was probably right, but knowing it and acting on it were two very different things...

[mangamob]

[the-frizzle-fry]

Luffy’s classic nicknames.

Vegapunk Shaka - Helmet Guy

[journeytothewestresearch]

Taoist Work that Influenced JTTW

https://journeytothewestresearch.com/2022/03/13/archive-34-understanding-reality-a-taoist-alchemical-classic/

I’ve archived the the Wuzhi pian (悟真篇, “Writings on Understanding/Becoming Aware of Reality”, 1075), a Song-era work of Buddho-Daoist philosophy by Zhang Boduan (張伯端, a.k.a. Zhang Ziyang, 張紫陽, mid to late-980s-1082) (fig. 1). Shao (1997) expertly shows that Zhang’s writing had a huge impact on the standard 1592 edition of Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記) (see especially ch. 4). For example, the reason that the first half of Sun Wukong‘s story (ch. 1 to 7) is Taoist heavy (i.e. his quest for immortality and later ascension to heavenly rank) is because this follows the first part of Zhang’s philosophy, which is attaining the golden elixir (jindan, 金丹). And the reason the second half (ch. 14 to 100) is Buddhist heavy (i.e. building merit by protecting Tripitaka on the pilgrimage west and the rise to Buddhahood) is because the second part of Zhang’s philosophy involves attaining the Buddha-Mind. Combined, these achievements make someone a true transcendent, one free from the wheel of rebirth. 

A line from the Wuzhi pian is a prime example of Zhang’s stance on those who strive only to attain the elixir: “A halo behind the head is still a phantom; / Even when clouds rise beneath your feet you are still not an immortal” (Zhang, Liu, & Cleary, 1987, p. 161). This explains why Monkey is banished from heaven and imprisoned under Five Elements Mountain. He has yet to attain the Buddha-Mind.

[sophieiles]

Stepping Foward - Critical Role Widojest!AU Fic

After I drew older Caleb and Jester I wrote a little one shot widojest fic. 1075 words. One shot. growing old AU.

It occurred to Caleb one crisp winter’s morning that his arms don’t itch like they did all those years ago. He reasoned there are several reasons for that. His days are too full now to be troubled by the past. Students need attending too, the administration needs to be organised and planning for his instruction in Conjuration had to be completed. But he knew that it’s more than just keeping his keen mind busy.

Full Story undercut:

----

It occurred to Caleb one crisp winter’s morning that his arms don’t itch like they did all those years ago.

He reasoned there are several reasons for that. His days are too full to be troubled by the past. Students need attending too, the administration needs to be organised and planning for his instruction in Conjuration had to be completed.

But he knew that it’s more than just keeping his keen mind busy.

His eyes stay shut as his head rested in his fine bedding. Whilst the fireplace has long since gone out, he can still smell the remaining embers that fill the room. The window shed in a semblance of light from the stained glass window, lighting the bedroom with soft purples and green hues.

As he muses about moving, her warmth moved closer to him in the bed, as a gentle blue arm snaked around his waist. With a sideways smile, he brought her hand to his lips. “Not yet,” she pressed into his ear.

Despite the plea, Caleb exhales as he starts to shift. “Es tut mir leid, Liebling. I’ve got meetings, and you’re seeing Veth this morning aren’t you?”

“Yes but...oh Caleb...!”

The moan of disagreement prompted a chuckle, a warm rumble in his throat. He peeled himself from her embrace despite the protest. “No buts. I really must.”

Caleb turned from their bed to go through which of his robes would be appropriate. He had a meeting with one of the Cobalt Soul archivists about a project for the Academy, and he was trying to decide if he wanted Beauregard’s colleagues to be bemused at his attire or surprised. He wondered if he could do both at once.

Usually, he would ask Jester, but despite his prompting, she had turned back from him, stealing his leftover warmth in their bedding. Her horns and hair almost the only thing visible.

Stealing a glance over, he dressed, checked the mirror that the robes were suitable, before moving back to the bed to sit on its edge. With a smirk, he gently pressed his finger at the base of one of her horns and rubbed. Her horns after all were quite ticklish.

He could feel the reaction under the bedding, a sharp awakening as she jostled out of the covers and sit up.

“Caleb!”

“What? I didn’t do anything!”

“Oh, you’re a terror!”

“--and you’re not?”

Her eyes twinkled up at him. Her cheeks, even now they were more pronounced as she’d gotten older were a stunning shade of violet.

“No. You’re much worse. You’re the one no one suspects!”

She pulled him in for a kiss of greeting, soft, cosy, usual. How that had happened still rocked his world over and over. As he pulled away from it, he kissed her forehead. “Well, I had a good teacher, didn’t I?”

“Yes you did, I’m very good,” Jester beamed up at him before she eyed his robes with approval.

“You’re wearing the green robes today...not the nice new Cobalt Blue they gave you?”

His eyes twinkled at her, “Certainly not, Liebling. As nice as they’ve been, it’s a reminder that this meeting has been set up on my terms, not theirs.”

Jester nodded, now she was moving to get out of bed to dress, and Caleb despite knowing every curve and crevice of his partner’s body took to looking away to check he had his components. By the time he had finished checking Jester twirled in front of the floor mirror to check for creases or hair tangles. Her chosen purple robes had a certain playful shine in the light that seemed to shimmer pinks and greens if you stared for too long, which Jester was also admiring with delight.

Jester may be older but her childish sense of self had never left her and even after the many years spent in each other’s company, its these moments that linger in his mind as the most precious. Jester finally stopped swooshing her dress robes and turned back to him.

“Veth and I are meeting with a client this morning, then I’ll be back this afternoon.”

“I’ll also be free this afternoon, as long as my meeting doesn’t overrun.”

A conspiratorial grin passed in the sweet silence between them.

“Do you fancy taking me dancing later?” Caleb asked her.

“Of course!” Jester giggled, she leaned up to him and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Make sure you bring your dancing shoes.”

“I always wear my dancing shoes,” he replied dryly.

She giggled again. Her fingers played with his now longer braided beard, now flecked white and grey. “Message me when you’re free then, or I’ll send to you.”

Caleb smiled, he pulled away from her, picking up his bag and checking once last time he had everything he needed. He moved back to his desk and added some more notes he’d mislaid that other night.

Jester’s voice alerted him as she hovered at the door. “Oh, I almost forgot -- Caleb?”

“Hmm?” He said absently.

“Can I have Frumpkin?”

Without looking up he clicked his fingers. There was a whooshing sound and the fey ginger cat wrapped around Jester’s legs. With a flourish the tielfing picked him up, scooching him close to her like a baby. He looked up to watch her with him. “Should I dare ask why?”

“Oh, It’s our secret, isn’t it Frumpkin?” Jester cooed before putting him on her neck like a scarf just like Caleb often did before wrinkling her nose. “Just kidding! After seeing Veth, I’m popping in on Victor and Verity. I didn’t think you could come, so I thought Frumpkin could come instead.”

Caleb raised an eyebrow before his mouth twisted wide. “Well, depending on my meetings, I’d like to see our children too?”

Jester’s eyes only seemed to be brighter. “I hoped you’d say that. I love you! See you later!” And before Caleb could say anything else, Jester bounced out of the door and out of sight.

“Wir sehen uns dann, Liebling,” Caleb said to himself, the smile permanent before he too left the room leaving it still and silent.

It had occurred to Caleb that crisp winter’s morning that his arms don’t itch as they once did, and he knew why. He’d left those feelings behind as the years progressed. The memories lingered but he had made some new ones, bold ones, wonderful ones, with Jester and their family at his heels.

***

[larkreadsop]

...So you knowingly designed creations so powerful that there’s no possible way for any normal person to subdue them. Great!

[beaulesbian]

ONE PIECE ep. 1108 || "They're not listening to you!"

[theficpusher]

Here to Stay (here to Play) [ch 8] by SadaVeniren | E | 1075 Larry Kinktober 2020

Prosperous; Flourishing by vinoharry | E | 2551 Unsurprisingly, this isn’t the first time that Harry’s been blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back and a butt plug up his arse.

Not So Anonymous by vondrostes | E | 3010 Harry was the type of coy who would cross and uncross his legs just to draw attention to the space between them, the type to dance around mentioning sex just because he liked the teasing more than the follow-through. Harry was exactly the type of coy that riled up Ben the most.

if you don't want to take it slow by istajmaal | E | 4120 Before Harry's brief affair with a warlock in uni, he was perfectly happy getting off by himself into a sock every night before bed. But after that one disastrous night where Harry came prematurely in Nick’s eye and ran away mortified before getting the other boy off, he's been physically incapable of orgasm unless he's actively giving someone else pleasure. or, Harry sucks a lot of dicks but won't let anyone suck his, until Louis.

use somebody by istajmaal | E | 5023 Nick put a hand through his hair. “I’m not entirely sure I want it like this,” he said, even though his dick was expressing another opinion entirely. Louis slapped Harry’s arse sharply and smiled as he watched him struggle to scramble onto all fours with his hands tied in front of him. Then he looked back at Nick. “That’s up to you,” he said. “But I think you need to get used to the fact that this is the only way you’ll ever have him.” or, Louis and Harry invite Nick to a threesome but it's not what Nick had in mind, exactly.

Read you like a book by becka | E | 8089 Louis realises Harry can read his mind. He'll do anything to make Harry admit it. Set during the North American leg of the WWA tour.

In the Dark by FallingLikeThis | E | 12029 Harry Styles is lonely and one of his band mates decides to take care of his needs. The only problem: he doesn't want Harry to know who he is.

[favoriteonepiecepanels]