#enjoy this pain

[axreliono]

Osamu was not a perfect brother; not by any stretch of the imagination.

His and Atsumu's relationship had never been like in the movies. It was always roaringly loud or stiflingly quiet, none of this "I love you bro" bullshit. It's not like they didn't love each other - they did, deeply, but they sure had odd fucking ways of showing it.

It would take more than his two scarred hands to count the number of times his and Atsumu's fights had ended in a fretful hospital visit, their mother despairing as they sat in the waiting room for hours on end, bruised and pissed off. Their screaming matches had driven away a good few neighbours (not that either of them really minded that). Pranking each other, stealing from each other, crossing the boundary over and over.

Or saying nothing. Sitting for hours in silence. Refusing to talk directly, avoiding each other's eye line, positioning themselves as far away from one another as possible.

Still, Osamu knew he'd rather have the highs and lows of coexisting with your mirror image in a very small space. He'd rather have that than silence that stretched over miles, over prefecture borders. He'd rather have yelling and punching than civil phone calls once a week. A sofa just slightly too small for two would always be achingly empty for just one.

It's not like Osamu wanted to lock them both in. He would kill Atsumu himself if he decided to squander his talent and stay home forever. And professional volleyball was a big fucking deal. Bigger than either of them could've ever really imagined for themselves. Even so, it stung to think of the last videogame round, the last midnight chat, the last fight, the last hissy fit and falling out. Osamu would take a lifetime of those if it meant things would stay as they are.

But time has never worked like that.

"Stop cryin', scrub." Atsumu scolded. "'S not like I'm goin' off to die in war."

"Fuck you," Osamu snapped, wiping his eyes, which were not watering.

Atsumu sighed, stopping in the doorway. "I'm serious. I'll be back. You don't seriously believe I'm leavin' before the score is evened?"

Osamu let out a watery laugh. "Good luck winnin' enough fights to even get close to me."

They hugged, tightly, both of them sniffling to themselves as if they could possibly pretend they weren't crying right now.

"'M serious, 'Samu," Atsumu said. "We're brothers, ok? We'll find our way back to each other, I promise."

Osamu nodded, throat tight, words refusing to form into coherent sentences in his mind. Atsumu grabbed his backpack and forced a grin.

"Besides, if yer some famous chef, I expect my free fuckin' food. So you'd have to kill me ta keep me away from that."

"I'll spit in it all, specially fer you," Osamu promised, grinning back.

It was a promise, a quiet declaration of love, shrouded in jokes and insults, paraded as normalcy in the face of the biggest fucking upheaval either of them had faced so far. But if they could make it through this, well...

They were brothers. No distance or time apart would change that. Nothing could.

[phantom-scrybe]

At some point, the Bad Batch are going to turn their blasters off stun.

And there’s a good chance it’s when they come face to face with Crosshair for the final time.

[aelswiths]

Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police

Inspired by this post.

Dedicated to @aadmelioraa

For @tlkafterparty, prompts: inspired by another work + romantic relationship + angst

[inkskinned]

the thing is that they're so fascinated by sex, they love sex, they can't imagine a world without sex - they need sex to sell things, they need sex to be part of their personality, they need sex to prove their power - but they hate sex. they are disgusted by it.

sex is the only thing that holds their attention, and it is also the thing that can never be discussed directly.

you can't tell a child the normal names for parts of their body, that's sexual in nature, because the body isn't a body, it's a vessel of sex. it doesn't matter that it's been proven in studies (over and over) that kids need to know the names of their genitals; that they internalize sexual shame at a very young age and know it's 'dirty' to have a body; that it overwhelmingly protects children for them to have the correct words to communicate with. what matters is that they're sexual organs. what matters is that it freaks them out to think about kids having body parts - which only exist in the context of sex.

it's gross to talk about a period or how to check for cancer in a testicle or breast. that is nasty, illicit. there will be no pain meds for harsh medical procedures, just because they feature a cervix.

but they will put out an ad of you scantily-clad. you will sell their cars for them, because you have abs, a body. you will drip sex. you will ooze it, like a goo. like you were put on this planet to secrete wealth into their open palms.

they will hit you with that same palm. it will be disgusting that you like leather or leashes, but they will put their movie characters in leather and latex. it will be wrong of you to want sexual freedom, but they will mark their success in the number of people they bed.

they will crow that it's inappropriate for children so there will be no lessons on how to properly apply a condom, even to teens. it's teaching them the wrong things. no lessons on the diversity of sexual organ growth, none on how to obtain consent properly, none on how to recognize when you feel unsafe in your body. if you are a teenager, you have probably already been sexualized at some point in your life. you will have seen someone also-your-age who is splashed across a tv screen or a magazine or married to someone three times your age. you will watch people pull their hair into pigtails so they look like you. so that they can be sexy because of youth. one of the most common pornography searches involves newly-18 young women. girls. the words "barely legal," a hiss of glass sand over your skin.

barely legal. there are bills in place that will not allow people to feel safe in their own bodies. there are people working so hard to punish any person for having sex in a way that isn't god-fearing and submissive. heteronormative. the sex has to be at their feet, on your knees, your eyes wet. when was the first time you saw another person crying in pornography and thought - okay but for real. she looks super unhappy. later, when you are unhappy, you will close your eyes and ignore the feeling and act the role you have been taught to keep playing. they will punish the sex workers, remove the places they can practice their trade safely. they will then make casual jokes about how they sexually harass their nanny.

and they love sex but they hate that you're having sex. you need to have their ornamental, perfunctory, dispassionate sex. so you can't kiss your girlfriend in the bible belt because it is gross to have sex with someone of the same gender. so you can't get your tubes tied in new england because you might change your mind. so you can't admit you were sexually assaulted because real men don't get hurt, you should be grateful. you cannot handle your own body, you cannot handle the risks involved, let other people decide that for you. you aren't ready yet.

but they need you to have sex because you need to have kids. at 15, you are old enough to parent. you are not old enough to hear the word fuck too many times on television.

they are horrified by sex and they never stop talking about it, thinking about it, making everything unnecessarily preverted. the saying - a thief thinks everyone steals. they stand up at their podiums and they look out at the crowd and they sign a bill into place that makes sexwork even more unsafe and they stand up and smile and sign a bill that makes gender-affirming care illegal and they get up and they shrug their shoulders and write don't say gay and they get up, and they make the world about sex, but this horrible, plastic vision of it that they have. this wretched, emotionless thing that holds so much weight it's staggering. they put their whole spine behind it and they push and they say it's normal!

this horrible world they live in. disgusted and also obsessed.

[lilybug-02]

Pain is a great motivator…

Part 26 || First || Previous || Next

—Full Series—

Meanwhile Toriel:

(Loud noises don't wake her up usually.)

Artist note: I’m so proud of this :))) I know it’s a lot of dialogue and reading, but dialogue is grueling work for me. I’m glad with the art and for the amount of pages I made in such a relatively short time span -w- page 5 was super fun to work on. A lot of blood, sweat, and hours here... :) The backgrounds were a big bore tbh, but I finished them! Yippie!

[khytal]

and there was only one bed (oh my god there was only one bed)

extra:

[azrielfiend]

artificer and spearmaster for a huge rw project im working on

[egophiliac]

swipes everything else off of the table to yell about diasomnia flower bookmarks

(I gave Silver one too :D)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[qrowscant-art]

MY BROTHER ; THE PARASITE

People die, and sometimes they come back. Your brother is one of those. Even as his body rots and his mind unravels, he still has control over you— just like when you were kids.

A short, interactive story about a corpse, a complicated sibling relationship, and the things we forget. Made in Twine. Written, illustrated, and coded in about three weeks for the IFComp.

Content warnings included on the itch.io page and in the story itself.

|| PLAY HERE! ||

[matchakuracat]

"You're so lucky! I wish I could just stay at home all day instead of going to school or working"

I have to go to school/work just as much as anyone else does, the difference is that I physically can't. Not having the same choice as abled people does not make me lucky. Staying at home because I can't go to school or work does not mean I get to do whatever I want. Staying at home every day without being able to do anything is not fun. Not being able to do anything but lay down in bed or on the couch gets boring really fast. That's not even taking the chronic pain I endure into account.

Being chronically ill is not being lazy. It's not a choice, or something anyone would choose. It's a disability.

[swiftmitsu]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KILLER‼️‼️‼️💥

MY FAVOURITE BURNT TEARS LEAKING GREMLIN EEHEHE 💛💛💛

extra:

little context: killer was left alone on his birthday, so Nightmare had Error bring him to the anti void to meet his new friends. :)

they wanted to give Killer those kitties in particular to give him familiar company while they… deal with some things. :)

[mikashida]

it's a russian taunt

[fountainpenguin]

Tango and GeminiTay visit Etho post-charity stream travel while Grian interacts via chat. Etho says he and Joel were alone all week and everybody teases him.

19 minutes into Tango's "I AM THE MASTER" stream, April 2024

Transcript:

Tango: So, Etho, what did you do all week by yourself? Were you lonely?

Etho: Dude, it was so dead on this server-

Tango: It was so quiet! I know.

Gem, overlapping: Did you miss us?

Tango, overlapping: He DID! He did!

Gem: Awww!

Etho: A little bit... It was just like- It was like Joel and me, and...................... and that was about it... And Cub came back eventually.

Gem, overlapping: Of COURSE you mention Joel first.

Tango: Yep, yep; of course.

Tango, quietly sing-songing: Obsessed~ ... Obsessed...

Etho: [Laughs]

Gem: Not your neighbor, Cub. JOEL. Joel's top of the list.

Etho: But I couldn't even go see Joel because it would've been awkward to, like... just be alone.

Gem: You poor thing...

Tango, reading Grian's message in chat: 'Joel is enough for you.' Yeah...... I see more statues popping up- Who's making them?

Etho: Not me! Okay, something weird is going on- I don't know the deal behind it-

Tango, laughing: Uh-huh...

Etho: I've made two statues... Total.

Tango: Which ones did you make?

Etho: The Joel one... and the other one's... a secret.

[End]

Next, Tango and Gem tease Etho because they're pretty sure the other statues he built are the giant Etho statues, implied to be something he put in front of Joel's base himself. Etho says this is "not confirmed in his video."

[theramblingvoid]

Low level/continuous pain tips for writing

Want to avoid the action movie effect and make your character's injuries have realistic lasting impacts? Have a sick character you're using as hurt/comfort fodder? Everyone has tips for how to write Dramatic Intense Agony, but the smaller human details of lasting or low-level discomfort are rarely written in. Here are a few pain mannerisms I like to use as reference:

General

Continuously gritted teeth (may cause headaches or additional jaw pain over time)

Irritability, increased sensitivity to lights, sounds, etc

Repetitive movements (fidgeting, unable to sit still, slight rocking or other habitual movement to self-soothe)

Soft groaning or whimpering, when pain increases or when others aren't around

Heavier breathing, panting, may be deeper or shallower than normal

Moving less quickly, resistant to unnecessary movement

Itching in the case of healing wounds

Subconsciously hunching around the pain (eg. slumped shoulders or bad posture for gut pain)

Using a hand to steady themself when walking past walls, counters, etc (also applies to illness)

Narration-wise: may not notice the pain was there until it's gone because they got so used to it, or may not realize how bad it was until it gets better

May stop mentioning it outright to other people unless they specifically ask or the pain increases

Limb pain

Subtly leaning on surfaces whenever possible to take weight off foot/leg pain

Rubbing sore spots while thinking or resting

Wincing and switching to using other limb frequently (new/forgettable pain) or developed habit of using non dominant limb for tasks (constant/long term pain)

Propping leg up when sitting to reduce inflammation

Holding arm closer to body/moving it less

Moving differently to avoid bending joints (eg. bending at the waist instead of the knees to pick something up)

Nausea/fever/non-pain discomfort

Many of the same things as above (groaning, leaning, differences in movement)

May avoid sudden movements or turning head for nausea

Urge to press up against cold surfaces for fever

Glazed eyes, fixed stare, may take longer to process words or get their attention

Shivering, shaking, loss of fine motor control

If you have any more details that you personally use to bring characters to life in these situations, I'd love to hear them! I'm always looking for ways to make my guys suffer more write people with more realism :)

[dxxtruction]

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