#for aa long time before

[icteridcorvid]

hourly comics from thursday

[bleaksqueak]

I'll miss you, horrible little raccoon Elias, but it's time for a different creature to get the icon privilege.

Speaking of, I'm thinking my fox tails/animal tails/fur and critter brushes will be this month's big reward! The fox tail brushes are puffy color changing pressure sensitive brushes that let you get the basic shape/painted poof in with one stroke. Choose a light color as your main brush and a dark as your secondary color and then apply gentle pressure>hard>gentle for white tip and big wintry coat taper. There are a few more different styles than my test sheet here, including (ragged fur, puffy-scared fur, more watercolor looks and other fur effects)

[raven]

thoughts on Narumitsu?

love them. i do actually have a rich inner canon for them lol.

heres my vision: i believe they fucked after rise from the ashes and edgeworth left to kill himself the next morning. quite literally fuck nasty kill yourself immediately after--- AND i do believe he DID want to kill himself. then of course they fucked again after farewell my turnabout and left on good terms but they were not together. bridge to the turnabout you know what happened.. sex. and then edgeworth went on his epic journey. i feel like they were like "we'll talk about this when you get home." and then he got home. did all his bullshit. once edgeworth finished, magnifi died 5 days later. 5 days after that phoenix was put on the case.. they were fucked... edgeworth has experienced an arc. he knows love. he can be open. and phoenix has closed himself off again. what can edgeworth do? he just fucking.. goes to europe. he'll give phoenix and trucy a few vacations, and he and phoenix will talk, and probably have sex, and just know that it wont work. because now phoenix has that wall and DAUGHTER. and its kind of in limbo for those entire 7 years, which is also when phoenix is actually in a relationship with kristoph (TO ME) in order to get information and have an epic divorce #KRISNIX but edgeworth knows and hes fine with it. he'll be the side chick Because edgeworth also has a casual sexual relationship with shi long lang. but of course they are still #ineachothersthoughts. and bodies as much as POSSIBLE . after apollo justice... YEARS! after apollo justice. i think they do get together for real (like theyve already been acting like theyre together at this point too)(lang can hang out if he want.) but theyre not together in a boring way like everyone has it. their dynamics with everyone is crazy not just dads. oh but you know edgeworth is trucy;s dad though. but like people love to make them stable marriage from when theyre in their 30s like. no . they dont fully get together till much layter but ar e hoooking up throughout. or at least not married or anything. and they are NOT the dads. fuck athena all my homies hate athena shes not even here. fuck APOLLO phoenix HATES apollo hes not his dad hes his boss..! edgeworth respects apollo as a lawyer but will not really interact with him unless trucy brings him to family dinner and they get along. kay should hang out with trucy. edgeworth does not like klavier. but phoenix has forgiven him and is trying to guide him to the right path. and they have their own issuessss like . ok anyways. havent been in the aa fandom for awhile so i cant rememver other things i hate them for.

[possiblytracker]

godddd at a late enough stage in packing up when the room doesn't feel like it's lived in anymore like it stops being Yours and just another blank space full of bags and boxes. and I do not want to leave

[omegasmileyface]

naps are fucked up when you cant make yourself get up at the right time. like one moment its 4 pm and youre a lil sleepy and your bed is soooo comfy and the next youve experienced 10 years' worth of apocalypse-themed dreams and youre a couple universes away with little memory of your prior life for the next 5 minutes and once youve regained your sense of self turns out ypu missed dinner

[corvidcall]

thought too hard about possible future careers and got sad again!!!!

[chisungie]

.

[ciboriaadastra]

GhostBat's "distractions" giving me the same energy as Wrightworth's "unnecessary feelings"

[spittingstar]

fhsjsa

[mostlysignssomeportents]

It all started with a mouse

For the public domain, time stopped in 1998, when the Sonny Bono Copyright Act froze copyright expirations for 20 years. In 2019, time started again, with a massive crop of works from 1923 returning to the public domain, free for all to use and adapt:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2019/

No one is better at conveying the power of the public domain than Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle, who run the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain. For years leading up to 2019, the pair published an annual roundup of what we would have gotten from the public domain in a universe where the 1998 Act never passed. Since 2019, they've switched to celebrating what we're actually getting each year. Last year's was a banger:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/20/free-for-2023/#oy-canada

But while there's been moderate excitement at the publicdomainification of "Yes, We Have No Bananas," AA Milne's "Now We Are Six," and Sherlock Holmes, the main event that everyone's anticipated arrives on January 1, 2024, when Mickey Mouse enters the public domain.

The first appearance of Mickey Mouse was in 1928's Steamboat Willie. Disney was critical to the lobbying efforts that extended copyright in 1976 and again in 1998, so much so that the 1998 Act is sometimes called the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. Disney and its allies were so effective at securing these regulatory gifts that many people doubted that this day would ever come. Surely Disney would secure another retrospective copyright term extension before Jan 1, 2024. I had long arguments with comrades about this – people like Project Gutenberg founder Michael S Hart (RIP) were fatalistically certain the public domain would never come back.

But they were wrong. The public outrage over copyright term extensions came too late to stave off the slow-motion arson of the 1976 and 1998 Acts, but it was sufficient to keep a third extension away from the USA. Canada wasn't so lucky: Justin Trudeau let Trump bully him into taking 20 years' worth of works out of Canada's public domain in the revised NAFTA agreement, making swathes of works by living Canadian authors illegal at the stroke of a pen, in a gift to the distant descendants of long-dead foreign authors.

Now, with Mickey's liberation bare days away, there's a mounting sense of excitement and unease. Will Mickey actually be free? The answer is a resounding YES! (albeit with a few caveats). In a prelude to this year's public domain roundup, Jennifer Jenkins has published a full and delightful guide to The Mouse and IP from Jan 1 on:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/mickey/

Disney loves the public domain. Its best-loved works, from The Sorcerer's Apprentice to Sleeping Beauty, Pinnocchio to The Little Mermaid, are gorgeous, thoughtful, and lively reworkings of material from the public domain. Disney loves the public domain – we just wish it would share.

Disney loves copyright's other flexibilities, too, like fair use. Walt told the papers that he took his inspiration for Steamboat Willie from Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, making fair use of their performances to imbue Mickey with his mischief and derring do. Disney loves fair use – we just wish it would share.

Disney loves copyright's limitations. Steamboat Willie was inspired by Buster Keaton's silent film Steamboat Bill (titles aren't copyrightable). Disney loves copyright's limitations – we just wish it would share.

As Jenkins writes, Disney's relationship to copyright is wildly contradictory. It's the poster child for the public domain's power as a source of inspiration for worthy (and profitable) new works. It's also the chief villain in the impoverishment and near-extinction of the public domain. Truly, every pirate wants to be an admiral.

Disney's reliance on – and sabotage of – the public domain is ironic. Jenkins compares it to "an oil company relying on solar power to run its rigs." Come January 1, Disney will have to share.

Now, if you've heard anything about this, you've probably been told that Mickey isn't really entering the public domain. Between trademark claims and later copyrightable elements of Mickey's design, Mickey's status will be too complex to understand. That's totally wrong.

Jenkins illustrates the relationship between these three elements in (what else) a Mickey-shaped Venn diagram. Topline: you can use all the elements of Mickey that are present in Steamboat Willie, along with some elements that were added later, provided that you make it clear that your work isn't affiliated with Disney.

Let's unpack that. The copyrightable status of a character used to be vague and complex, but several high-profile cases have brought clarity to the question. The big one is Les Klinger's case against the Arthur Conan Doyle estate over Sherlock Holmes. That case established that when a character appears in both public domain and copyrighted works, the character is in the public domain, and you are "free to copy story elements from the public domain works":

https://freesherlock.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/klinger-order-on-motion-for-summary-judgment-c.pdf

This case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, who declined to hear it. It's settled law.

So, which parts of Mickey aren't going into the public domain? Elements that came later: white gloves, color. But that doesn't mean you can't add different gloves, or different colorways. The idea of a eyes with pupils is not copyrightable – only the specific eyes that Disney added.

Other later elements that don't qualify for copyright: a squeaky mouse voice, being adorable, doing jaunty dances, etc. These are all generic characteristics of cartoon mice, and they're free for you to use. Jenkins is more cautious on whether you can give your Mickey red shorts. She judges that "a single, bright, primary color for an article of clothing does not meet the copyrightability threshold" but without settled law, you might wanna change the colors.

But what about trademark? For years, Disney has included a clip from Steamboat Willie at the start of each of its films. Many observers characterized this as a bid to create a de facto perpetual copyright, by making Steamboat Willie inescapably associated with products from Disney, weaving an impassable web of trademark tripwires around it.

But trademark doesn't prevent you from using Steamboat Willie. It only prevents you from misleading consumers "into thinking your work is produced or sponsored by Disney." Trademarks don't expire so long as they're in use, but uses that don't create confusion are fair game under trademark.

Copyrights and trademarks can overlap. Mickey Mouse is a copyrighted character, but he's also an indicator that a product or service is associated with Disney. While Mickey's copyright expires in a couple weeks, his trademark doesn't. What happens to an out-of-copyright work that is still a trademark?

Luckily for us, this is also a thoroughly settled case. As in, this question was resolved in a unanimous 2000 Supreme Court ruling, Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox. A live trademark does not extend an expired copyright. As the Supremes said:

[This would] create a species of mutant copyright law that limits the public’s federal right to copy and to use expired copyrights.

This elaborates on the Ninth Circuit's 1996 Maljack Prods v Goodtimes Home Video Corp:

[Trademark][ cannot be used to circumvent copyright law. If material covered by copyright law has passed into the public domain, it cannot then be protected by the Lanham Act without rendering the Copyright Act a nullity.

Despite what you might have heard, there is no ambiguity here. Copyrights can't be extended through trademark. Period. Unanimous Supreme Court Decision. Boom. End of story. Done.

But even so, there are trademark considerations in how you use Steamboat Willie after Jan 1, but these considerations are about protecting the public, not Disney shareholders. Your uses can't be misleading. People who buy or view your Steamboat Willie media or products have to be totally clear that your work comes from you, not Disney.

Avoiding confusion will be very hard for some uses, like plush toys, or short idents at the beginning of feature films. For most uses, though, a prominent disclaimer will suffice. The copyright page for my 2003 debut novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom contains this disclaimer:

This novel is a work of fiction, set in an imagined future. All the characters and events portrayed in this book, including the imagined future of the Magic Kingdom, are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. The Walt Disney Company has not authorized or endorsed this novel.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250196385/downandoutinthemagickingdom

Here's the Ninth Circuit again:

When a public domain work is copied, along with its title, there is little likelihood of confusion when even the most minimal steps are taken to distinguish the publisher of the original from that of the copy. The public is receiving just what it believes it is receiving—the work with which the title has become associated. The public is not only unharmed, it is unconfused.

Trademark has many exceptions. The First Amendment protects your right to use trademarks in expressive ways, for example, to recreate famous paintings with Barbie dolls:

https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/summaries/mattel-walkingmountain-9thcir2003.pdf

And then there's "nominative use": it's not a trademark violation to use a trademark to accurately describe a trademarked thing. "We fix iPhones" is not a trademark violation. Neither is 'Works with HP printers.' This goes double for "expressive" uses of trademarks in new works of art:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_v._Grimaldi

What about "dilution"? Trademark protects a small number of superbrands from uses that "impair the distinctiveness or harm the reputation of the famous mark, even when there is no consumer confusion." Jenkins says that the Mickey silhouette and the current Mickey character designs might be entitled to protection from dilution, but Steamboat Willie doesn't make the cut.

Jenkins closes with a celebration of the public domain's ability to inspire new works, like Disney's Three Musketeers, Disney's Christmas Carol, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Disney's Around the World in 80 Days, Disney's Alice in Wonderland, Disney's Snow White, Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney's Sleeping Beauty, Disney's Cinderella, Disney's Little Mermaid, Disney's Pinocchio, Disney's Huck Finn, Disney's Robin Hood, and Disney's Aladdin. These are some of the best-loved films of the past century, and made Disney a leading example of what talented, creative people can do with the public domain.

As of January 1, Disney will start to be an example of what talented, creative people give back to the public domain, joining Dickens, Dumas, Carroll, Verne, de Villeneuve, the Brothers Grimm, Twain, Hugo, Perrault and Collodi.

Public domain day is 17 days away. Creators of all kinds: start your engines!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/15/mouse-liberation-front/#free-mickey

Image: Doo Lee (modified) https://web.law.duke.edu/sites/default/files/images/centers/cspd/pdd2024/mickey/Steamboat-WIllie-Enters-Public-Domain.jpeg

CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

[luveline]

Hi Jade ! I loove your sunshine!readers, could I request one for Carmy ? Maybe someone calls her to get to the restaurant when hes feeling anxious to calm him down idk if thats good lol love ya !

ty for requesting <3 fem, 1.4k

Is it The Beef or The Bear? In your head, despite the wishes of everyone who works there (except for Ebra, who seems to have mixed opinions), you always call it The Beef. But the sign brags otherwise, and when you push open the doors, nothing inside is left to remind you of the old restaurant. It was a total gut. 

“Hi, gorgeous,” says a familiar, warm voice. 

You almost walk straight into her table, distracted looking for brown curls through the kitchen door’s little window. “Hey, Tina.” You grin at your second favourite chef. Your most favourite Sous. “You taking a break?” 

She offers you a round butter cookie from a sleeve of them. Her cup of coffee billows with steam. “Uh-huh.” 

“Hiding from a meltdown?” you ask, taking a cookie, fingers oily with butter, sugar grains falling to the floor. 

“It’s not like that,” she says. 

Well, what is it like? you think. 

Richie’s text wasn’t exactly descriptive. Need ur help with the little Bitch, he’d said. Then, when you didn’t answer, ASAP!!!!

You figured it must’ve been another rant. He’s prone to these… episodes of anger where he doesn’t realise he’s spinning out and hurting people who really care about him. You try to bring him out of it, but he’s a Berzatto. They’re all the same, sort of. Everything that’s wrong with them has been stamped into them a long, long time ago. 

He’s been better since Nat steel armed him into AA, but still. You tilt your head to one side, sugar cookie between your fingers, listening for the goings on in the kitchen. “Sydney’s here?” you ask. “I thought she was sick.” 

“Sydney gets sick, but she doesn’t take sick days,” Tina says with a loving shrug. 

You smile at her in brief goodbye for now and make your way to the kitchen, where you push in quietly. All their ‘Behind!’ and ‘Corner!’ and ‘Hands!’ makes you laugh, and you can’t take it seriously so you don’t, but you’re not trying to be dangerous in there either. 

“Hello?” you ask. 

Sydney and Richie look up from a cramped notebook at the table nearest to the door. There are employees you're unsure of prepping vegetables along the wall, but Carmy isn’t anywhere to be seen. 

“Fucking finally,” Richie says, before rubbing his face regretfully. “I’m sorry, it’s just– I texted you an hour ago, babe, you’re letting me down.” 

You laugh. “Sorry, babe,” you tease. “I have a job, just like you.” Your hands are cold where you tuck them under each armpit, crossing your arms. “Hi, Sydney. You feeling okay?” 

“No. He’s stressing me out.” 

“Which one?” 

“Both of them.” She looks like she might rub her face too. “I need him to be in here right now, he should be doing this, but he keeps walking away and– and not saying where he’s going.” 

“He is stressful,” you agree, though usually Carmy’s stress tends to bounce right off of you, “I’m gonna find him and strap him down for you.” 

Sydney just frowns. 

“I’ll see what’s up,” you say more seriously. “In the office?” 

“Out the back,” Richie says. “Smoking like his mother. He’s a fucking steam train lately.” 

It’s like they want to worry you. You give them grateful nods, sorry nods, and start to make your way out of the main kitchen, past the dishwashers and the dessert station to one of the back doors. Carmy isn’t your responsibility. You don’t have to apologise for him, you don’t have to mother him, he should commit to his responsibilities all on his own, but… it’s hard. You like apologising for him because his behaviour isn’t always on purpose, and he struggles with commitment for similar reasons. There’s this aching, stagnated grief in him that’s reawakening, there’s the stress of the restaurant, his business, the scars of the last ten years, and before that. You know it isn’t your job to come here and make him feel better, but isn’t it? When you love someone, it’s half the deal. 

Carmy shouldn’t yell at his friends, or employees. He shouldn’t chain smoke, and he shouldn’t be sitting on the low wall by the dumpsters shaking so hard with his head so low that you can see the first notch of his spine in his shirt. 

“Carmy?” you ask. 

His head ducks further down. You can hear him breathing, not too hard as to alarm you, and yet unrelaxed. 

You smile without thinking. You hate seeing him like this, but looking after him is a pleasure. “Hey, Carmen. Can I sit with you?” 

He forces his face up. “What are you doing here?” he asks. 

Trying to make sure he doesn’t tear another chunk out of Richie. “It’s my lunch break.” 

You perch on the wall beside him and snap your nearly forgotten cookie into two pieces, one side bigger than the other, which you offer him. 

Carmy takes it. Looks at it without expression, though that slowly turns to a dry ire you’ve felt directed your way a hundred times. “What the fuck is this?” 

“Cookie.” 

“I don’t want this.” 

“Could you just eat it?” You put your own half in your mouth in its entirety, all aligned to your teeth. It shatters into sweet, soft crumbs between your teeth. You talk with a hand over your mouth, “It’s not gonna kill you.” 

Carmy looks at it for a long time before he eats it. 

You watch him. He’s more tan than you’d think, that Italian gene kicking in, skin clinging to whatever sunshine it finds. He spends enough time inside that you’re surprised it can muster the energy. He looks better with it though, his curls look gold toned under the sun, and his clenched jaw doesn’t seem so harsh. 

“What’s wrong?” you ask eventually. Almost conversationally. 

“Nothing.” His hand shakes on his thigh. He turns his palm down to clasp his knee. 

“You sure?” 

“No.” 

“That one’s my favourite.” 

“What?” 

You poke toward a tattoo on his hand. It’s a simple flower, same style as most of his tattoos. “I like it ‘cos it’s just a flower.” 

“My least pretentious,” he guesses. 

“Something like that.” 

He tips his head back. 

“Richie texted me. He thinks I’m gonna… like, I’m gonna calm you down, I guess.” 

“You always do,” he says. 

You give him a long, smiley look. “So you’re in love with me?” you ask warmly, pushing up into a knee to wrap your arm behind him, hugging him before he can move away. “You’re totally fucked for me, Berzatto, that’s fucking crazy.” 

“Fuck off,” he laughs. 

You rub his arm, his skin hot in your hold. He touches your waist very, very lightly. “What am I supposed to do, anyway? I can’t cook. You and Syd are on your own.” 

“You already… already did enough.” He grabs your waist where you wobble on the brick wall, grit biting your knees, his hand comparatively soft. 

“Such a crush on me,” you tease in a whisper, his hair crushed under your cheek. 

You’re tempted to kiss his temple, but affection with Carmy is like oil and water sometimes. You give him a last protective squeeze and sit yourself down again. 

“Carm,” you say, “you know you can call me, right? Like, if you don’t feel okay.” 

“Yeah. Yeah, I know.” 

“Or text me. If that’s easier. It’s hard to say hard things out loud.” 

He laughs again. “Sorry.” 

“I know, I don’t– I don’t seem like I know what you’re talking about, I get it, but I do understand. N’ even if I didn’t, I don’t mind listening. Or laughing at you.” 

“What’s that about?” 

“The laughing?” you ask. “You tell me.” 

His hand slides behind your back in half a hug. “Guess it’s funny.” 

“Can I change my mind about the tattoo?” 

“The flowers not your favourite?” 

“No. You know which one I like best?” 

His thumb rubs into your back. “The snail.” 

“Absolutely the snail. You’re so fucking silly sometimes, I’m supposed to take you seriously when you’re yelling and red in the face with a snail on your arm?” 

You can’t see his face with your cheek to his shoulder, won’t know that he’s smiling at you with a rare aura of peace. Can’t see the wanting, either. 

[hellsitegenetics]

Long before time had a name, Ninjago was created by the First Spinjitzu Master, using the Four Weapons of Spinjitzu. The Scythe of Quakes, the Nunchucks of Lightning, the Shurikens of Ice and the Sword of Fire. Weapons so powerful, no one can handle all of their power at once! When he passed away, his two sons swore to protect them, but the oldest was consumed by darkness and wanted to possess them. A battle between brothers broke out, and the oldest was struck down and banished to the Underworld. Peace returned, and the younger brother hid the weapons, but knowing his older brother's relentless ambition for power, he placed a guardian to protect them. And for fear of his own demise, a map for an honest man to hide. That honest man was your father. The older brother is Lord Garmadon, and I... need to find those weapons before he does.

String identified: g t a a a, ag a cat t t t at, g t a t. T ct a, t cc gtg, t c a t . a , ca a a t at c! a aa, t t tct t, t t t a c a a at t t. A att t t t, a t t a tc a a t t . ac t, a t g t t a, t g t' t at , ac a gaa t tct t. A a , a a a t a t . Tat t a a at. T t Gaa, a … t t a .

Closest match: Neoneuromus ignobilis isolate Gutianshan chromosome 5 Common name: Dobsonfly

[6esiree]

Why Alastor Wanted To Adopt Your Daughter…And More Pt.2

“Mmm.”

“Yes, yes, that’s it! Mmm, and then ama.”

“Mm… aa… dada?”

“Yes—wait, no! It’s mm…ama!”

“Mmm?”

“I’m sorry, but did she just call you… dada? Like, daddy?” Lucifer inquired over a glass of whiskey from the bar, inebriated enough to tolerate the idea of holding a conversation with Alastor. “You, her dad—or a dad in general? That’s… ha!” He continued, a toothy grin overtaking his features as he watched the man’s ears fall back against his head. “That’s hilarious, honestly.”

The sound of your sweet, little 10-month-old daughter calling the Radio Demon her dad between a series of babbles was just… comical, to say the least. Alastor wasn’t her father, and as far as Lucifer could remember, he wasn’t your partner. While he noticed the way the two of you would gaze at each other from across the room when either of you weren’t looking, your eyes full of longing and an unspoken desire to unite as a blended family since he started looking after your baby, you still remained a single mother with a child without a paternal figure.

“My, my, has my memory failed me?” Alastor hummed from the parlor, his knees digging into the plush carpet as he sat in front of your daughter, holding an open canister of baby puffs in his clawed-hand. “Because I don’t recall asking for anybody’s opinion, better yet yours.”

“Mm…dada?” There it was, that term Alastor had come to dread out of guilt; but he couldn’t stay mad at your daughter, his sharp features softening as she scooted closer to him on her bum, her chubby little hands making grabbing motions at the sweet treats in his grasp.

The sight surely made Lucifer’s drunken heart flutter, but he also despised Alastor. He despised him so much that he couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if he congratulated him for your child’s first words, and how… interesting it would be if you just so happened to step into the room at the same time. That sardonic smile he reserved for him and him only would probably twist, turn, and contort into all of the unique ways he could smile to communicate how he felt before the corners of his lips ultimately fell as you gasped in shock—or worse… horror.

And almost as if Alastor knew that, his head snapped over his shoulder with a dangerous glint behind those red eyes of his that promised to make the fallen angel’s life a living Hell—or more like a living purgatory—so long as he decided to linger in the Hazbin Hotel. He was trying to make things right, fully comprehending the weight of your daughter’s words and how it could hurt you after she brought back a memory nestled in the deepest, darkest crevices of his mind. A memory of the person he cherished the most and missed oh-so terribly: his beloved mother.

The memory was so fleeting, and yet the way her gentle voice echoed in the back of his mind as he walked away from Cannibal Town and down the streets of Hell, your daughter clinging onto the lapels of his coat like a lifeline, had his stomach churning with guilt. He vividly recalled how much it had meant to his mother that his first word as a baby had been mama, especially after life had treated her so unjustly. So, it only made sense that he believed that you’d feel a similar way as a single mother.

“Here, little one, for being able to pronounce the ‘M’ in mama,” Alastor affectionately hummed to your daughter as he gingerly placed a puff in her palm, trying to ignore the ache in his heart. “Now, unless you have something of use to provide me,” He continued, refusing to look at Lucifer, “I suggest that you resume your ritual display of drunken mediocrity and leave me in peace.”

“Excuse me? Oh, you piece of—look, even if you teach her how to say mama,” Lucifer scoffed before bringing the glass of whiskey back to his lips, savoring the sensation of the thick, warm liquid slowly trickling down his throat, “The moment that precious little girl sees you, she’s going to call you…” and he purposely emphasized each vowel with that forked tongue of his, “…da-da.”

Oh, Alastor had had enough, and he made that known as his tendrils materialized underneath Lucifer’s barstool and traveled up and up and up, till they wrapped around the man’s limbs, twisting and turning on the length of his arm and constricting his muscles much like a snake would before forcing his hand closed just enough to shatter the glass in his grip, whiskey trickling down the counter and staining his pristine white pants. That certainly made Alastor feel a bit better. Just a bit. Although the way his eyes squinted in amusement said otherwise.

“I was going to offer you some help, but now that you’ve stained my favorite pants—“

“Oh, you wear those pants all the time! They were due for a good washing.”

“That’s not true! I have others like—you know what? Fuck you!”

“Ha-Ha! I’m beginning to think that’s exactly what you want to do.”

“Oh, I’d apologize to Adam for taking both of his wives first—which I don’t regret at all—before even entertaining the thought of touching you.”

“Every word that’s seeped past those wretched lips of yours have been completely and utterly useless—come now, little one. Let’s get going.”

“Well, what did you expect? I don’t like you, but—hey, hey! You can’t leave! What if her mom hears that she called you dad—“

“Wait, what?”

Your voice suddenly penetrated the room, the silence that immediately settled between the two squabbling men almost deafening, but at least the sound of your daughter munching on her baby puffs made the tension in the room more… palpable. More palpable than the truth both Lucifer and Alastor thought would be difficult to digest, that the life you had created dared to utter the word ‘dada’ instead of ‘mama’ as her first word; and while you had to admit that you were slightly disappointed, it had more to do with the fact that you hadn’t been able to witness such a huge milestone in your daughter’s life.

“Why didn’t you tell me she said her first word?” You asked Alastor as Lucifer practically scampered out of the room, leaving the two of you alone. In his defense, he had to clean himself up, even though he could easily do that with a mere snap of his fingers. “And that it was—“

“Dada!” Your daughter interrupted you, offering the man carrying her a puff. He accepted the puff, but he didn’t eat it because why would he?

He had you standing right there before him, confusion etched onto those soft features of yours that made his stomach churn with something he couldn’t quite put his claw on. And the way you stared up at him in anticipation only exacerbated that foreign feeling, his heart-rate picking up, his adam’s apple bobbing underneath his collar, and his palms turning sweaty. It was all so strange—everything he was feeling at that very moment, to be exact. Perhaps some sort of illness had spontaneously befallen him?

“I hope you are not upset, darling. I allowed her to call me so out of… well, I’m not quite sure why I allowed it, admittedly,” Alastor stiffly spoke, readjusting your daughter on his hip, feeling her slip from his sweaty grip. “But I can assure you that I tried to fix my mistake, the little one is just rather stubborn—“

As Alastor uncharacteristically rambled on about his initial shock over your daughter calling him dada, you couldn’t find it in you to be upset at anybody in the room, not even if you wanted to. Your baby was… well, just a baby, and the man unconsciously bouncing on his heels in front of you as he slowly dissolved into a nervous mess? He obviously cared for her, and if she regarded him as a paternal figure… well, that was just alright with you. And you made that unequivocally clear by bringing him in for an embrace, your daughter squealing in delight.

You rested your cheek on his chest, your hands splayed across his back as you held both of your favorite people in Hell close to you. With your ear right above his heart, you could hear it beating rapidly against his ribcage, a smile tugging at the corners of your lips as his body relaxed in your embrace… but not his heart-rate. ‘Babies do what they want, Al,’ You spoke, moving your head up to look at him, his stare already fixated on you, but the best part was when his pupils dilated. ‘I’m not upset… just, tell me next time, okay?’ Of course he nodded, but he still wondered if—

“Oh, and if she calls you daddy, it’s alright with me,” You hummed, balancing yourself on your toes, your plush lips pressing against his chin in a fleeting kiss that had his tail wagging underneath his coat. Fortunately, you couldn’t see. “Her biological father is a deadbeat, anyway.”

“Duly noted,” Alastor chuckled, finally returning the embrace; and despite how much he enjoyed your kiss, it was the way you and your daughter fit so perfectly in his arms that had that foreign feeling in his stomach—that supposed illness—threatening to consume him entirely.

Want to read part 1? Here it is —> 🤍

[avocado-writing]

little horny Logan x reader thing. set after the events of deadpool + wolverine. may turn this into something longer one day

tw: alcoholism, AA meetings

rating: explicit

You are two broken people attempting to piece each other back together. 

It feels like a fruitless task sometimes; a Sisyphean boulder, both of you trying to rebuild a heart which has been shattered so many times it can hardly hold love any more. 

But then there are those moments that shine through. You ask him not to smoke, he puts his cigar away. You stop off at the corner store to grab a six-pack, he reminds you that you just got your one year token. 

You met him at AA of course, he was the new guy who had his walls up, you were the old-timer of the group who kept trying not to relapse. Alchohol had taken a lot from you and you didn’t want to let it take any more. Pushing back against it felt impossible but hey, one step at a time. 

Those groups, tucked away in a church basement - buried in the ground as if to, ironically, avert the eyes of god - were your lifeline for a long while. 

After trying to strike up conversation with him, you assumed he hated you. Maybe he was just that brisk with everyone, never sharing at meetings or sticking around to talk after. But then one night he found you about to go into a bar because you were so fucking stressed and a glass of whiskey sounded so so good, and all gruffness and flannel he’d managed to talk you out of it. He’d bought you a coffee and managed to wring out of you that your landlord was pressuring you for money you didn’t have, and you’d rather spend your last twenty dollars on something which made you feel good than try and meet a rent which kept skyrocketing. 

Logan had looked at you, levelly, and told you he’d speak to the guy for you. 

You got a text the next day from your landlord to say that your rent wouldn’t be increasing and, actually, would be going down considerably instead. 

And it was the start of… something. Something strange and fragile, but it was there. You walked his roommates’s dog with him, the weirdest little fucking thing you’d ever seen but quite affectionate despite her bug-eyes and lolling tongue, and Logan was the softest you’d ever seen him when he carried her in his arms when she plopped down on the sidewalk and refused to move any more. 

He fell off the wagon a lot, but that was okay. Recovery wasn’t a straight line, that was something you knew all too well. He was a struggling man and he was trying. To attempt to keep him away from the bottle you’d invite him round practically every night to watch a movie. Action flicks, sappy romances, stupid comedies, the two of you got through them all, and every night you got closer and closer on your beaten-up old couch until he finally fucking kissed you. 

He pulled you into his lap and you felt him get hard in a way which suggested he hadn’t been this close to someone for a long time. His tongue was hot, his hands rough, and you palmed him through his jeans until he came like the two of you were teenagers messing around for the first time. 

You were worried afterwards that you’d scared him off by being too forward, but you got a text asking if you were on for a movie that night. 

It got to the start of the second act before it was forgotten about entirely, your jeans thrown over the end table where you kept the popcorn as he fucked you with his mouth. You tangled your fingers in his hair and pulled until he grunted in satisfaction. Afterwards, his lips and beard were glistening with you. You tasted your orgasm on his tongue as you kissed. 

The night after, you were on your knees between his thighs, his cock buried in your throat and his grip practically tearing your pillows to shreds. 

“You can grab onto me, you know,” you’d whispered, spit dripping down your chin, slightly concerned for your sofa’s upholstery. Logan had stared at you like you’d hung the fucking stars. 

“Yeah, fuck. Okay, baby.”

He dragged you up and down the length of him, fingers against your scalp, and he came so hard that you couldn’t swallow it all. 

Things just… progressed. 

It wasn’t perfect. The two of you were finding your feet again in a confusing and hostile world. But you had each other, and that was a hell of a lot more than most people had. When you fucked, when you felt him slide inside you in a way which made you feel more full than you ever had before, the way his whispered your name like a little prayer and you were his god, all of it… just fucking perfect. 

But the best part was always after. When you were in the hazy glow, cheek against his chest, feeling his heart beating steadily at the comfort of having you pressed up at his side. 

Well. 

You made each other’s worlds brighter.

[nyaagolor]

Ace Attorney law school headcanons because I'm trying to wrap my head around how all these characters are lawyers so young

Applying to law school in the AA world requires specific prerequisites and you have to take the LSATs, but they don't specify the ages for that. As long as you have the classes and the score? They have to consider your application

Once you’re in law school you take all the classes and eventually take the bar exam at the end to be certified and then you can practice

If you're a normal person like Phoenix, you'd take these pre-reqs in college and take the LSAT shortly before or after graduation then go to law school (ending up a lawyer ~24 years old)

If you're a normal but insane person like Apollo, you'd take as many of these pre-reqs in high school as u can so you can graduate college early and expedite the process (ending up a lawyer at ~22 years old)

Since lawyers are like celebs, there's a lot of pull around Lawyerly Degrees and whatnot. Prep academies started realizing "hey we can teach those classes to rich lawyer-nepo-baby kids with absurd amounts of money. Let's do that" and a bunch of legal prep high schools started cropping up that allowed kids to enter law school without college bc technically a bachelor's isn't a requirement, only the classes and test

If you're rich and / or have connections (the gavins, the von karmas, debeste, etc) you usually end up in one of these schools and are practicing law by the time you'd normally be in college (lawyer at ~18 years old)

I need to see an office christmas party where all the prosecutors and defense attorneys are chatting about Themis and practicing law before they could even pay taxes and whatever and Apollo and Phoenix are standing off to the side like "YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE NOT UNIVERSAL"

[star-suh]

Do Your (Blow)Job

Kim Mingyu x Male Reader

cw: office au, handjob, blowjob, assjob (i just made that up, don't know if that's how it's called 😭), teabagging, rimjob, facial, cum eating, just yn pleasing mingyu, creampie, there's no sex here btw, blackmailing, sort of exhibitionism, semi-public sex, spanking but just one time.

—

it's 4:00 am and the alarm is ringing and yn gets up to turn it off, "god, i hate my life," he exclaims, muffling his screams with his pillow. today his boss called him early because he had a very important meeting and yn was the perfect person to make sure everything was fine.

“he's such an asshole, making me go at five am when the meeting is at nine ugh!.. i hate his ass with passion” he was murmuring while walking quickly towards the building.

yn started to hate his boss, mingyu, when he unexpectedly began to overload him with work, yes, he is his secretary but that doesn't mean he has to do everything, now he did not have a moment of rest.

mingyu made him go to the other side of the city just to buy his favorite coffee and not to mention the times he had to clean his office after his "meetings" with daughters and sons of important industry people to “seal deals”.

like always, yn went to get his boss’ coffee, he came just in time, way before the meeting ended, "here's your stupid coffee” he murmurs as if mingyu were in front of him. “shit!! i need to go to the bathroom” he exclaimed going to his boss’ thinking that he wouldn't notice because he was busy.

the meeting was over, unfortunately for yn mingyu arrived at his office and locked the door. yn was too busy checking the elegant bathroom that he didn't hear his boss arrive "this looks much more luxurious than my entire house”.

mingyu unzipped his pants and pulled out his dick, he started stroking it while watching a video on his phone that one of his many hook ups sent. thick pre-cum drops rolling down his thick shaft “fuckk” he moans quietly.

suddenly the bathroom door opens and mingyu yelps in surprise, both stare at each other for seconds but it felt like hours, yn's eyes went down staring at the other’s hard dick, “oh my fucking god it's huge” he almosts yells that last word.

“shit yn what were you doing at my bathroom” mingyu questioned, turning around to hide his dick. then an idea came to yn's mind “damn boss you're such a pervert” he smirks “it would be a shame if someone finds out that such a respectable gentleman is a naughty man”.

“fuck off” he says angrily “what do you want?”; “an increase in my salary and to stop overloading me with unnecessary work" the other responds quickly. "mhmm… smart" mingyu praises "ok, deal".

yn was ready to leave when a pair of strong arms pushed him against the door, mingyu was behind him, his thick dick rubbing against yn's clothed ass "where are you going? as my secretary you should already know how i like to seal deals" his deep voice making yn's knees feel weak "but mingyu... boss.. i don't.."; "what happened with that confidence from before? i thought you were a tough one”

yn's hands were going up and down his boss’ dick while he squirted more lube on top of it “fuck your doing a good job” he said throwing his head back due to all the pleasure he's feeling. yn decides to speed up the pace, wanting to see his boss' dick squirting jets of white sticky cum, he feels the dickwa aas throbbing and getting ready to came but mingyu stopped him, “not yet, i want to use you properly”.

mingyu unzipped the other's pants and pulled them down along with his underwear “holy fuck look at this ass” he spanks it leaving his hand printed on it “if i had known that you have all that under your pants i would’ve made you my bitch a long time ago”. he puts his dick right in between both cheeks and starts to rub it, the friction producing a pleasurable warm sensation “if this is how it feels outside it must be way better inside, don't you think?”, yn was too flustered to speak “y-yes boss.. i’ll make sure to make you feel good” he bit his lip trying to contain his moans. “you better do, but that's for another day”.

“come in” mingyu said when someone knocked on the door, it was one of his employees. they started to talk about business and all that while yn was under the desk sucking his dick. he was being careful to not produce a moan or a wet sound, if someone finds out about what he is doing he would be doomed.

as if it was a tasty lollipop yn kept sucking and licking mingyu's salty pre-cum “mhmm” he let out a not so quiet whimper that mingyu has to disguise as if he was yawning “i'm kinda tired so can we talk about this tomorrow?” mingyu demanded and the employee just nodded and left the office.

the taller pulled yn out from under the desk and sat him on top of it, discarding his pants “it's my turn to make you feel good”, his face was now inches away from the other’s hole, his breath making yn’s hole to clench. “it looks so tasty” mingyu’s said in a low whisper as if he was hypnotized by that sexy ring of tight muscles. the boss keep teasing yn, kissing around and blowing air around that desperate hole “please, just do it already” yn cried, tears starting to form on his eyes, mingyu laughs “okay as you wish, sir”.

mingyu bury his face in between yn’s ass, his tongue reaching deep inside that hole. mingyu was trying so hard to reach yn’s prostate with his tongue that his grip was leaving marks on the other's ass, “fuck” yn bit his finger trying to contain his moans, he slowly pushed his hips back and forth trying to meet his boss’ tongue thrusts. after some minutes mingyu and yn were reaching their climax, mingyu’s dick smeared and dripping a mix of pre-cum and lube, his face smeared in thick saliva with some of it dripping down his chin. meanwhile yn kept stroking his dick “keep going i’m c-close” and as he said he came spurting white ropes of cum over the shiny glass of the desk.

mingyu stopped his rimjob, threads of saliva connecting his face with that ass, god he really loved eating it, “look at this sloppy mess” he says getting up and jerking his dick right above the puckered hole. with some final strokes he aims the tip to the hole so all the cum goes inside of him and to make sure that no drop is wasted he used his fingers to maintain the hole open.

yn with his face down against the desk rolled his eyes back when he felt the warm liquid going deep into his insides.

“come here” mingyu grabbed yn by the shoulders and make him kneel again “look at you, you're a hot mess… and that made me hornier” his dick got hard again and he started to stroke it his balls resting on above yn’s nose and mouth so he can play with them, the intoxicating smell of it making him feel dizzy “give me that load sir” yn begged while kissing the other's shaft, “that's the idea” mingyu says as he came again covering his secretary’s face with his cum then scooped it with his tip and put it all on the other’s mouth who licked clean the other’s dick, not leaving a single trace of sperm on it, “good job” the muscular man whispers and slaps gently yn's cheek who just smiles feeling proud of what he did.

people started to notice how mingyu's meetings with members of other companies lasted less time, many assumed that he had found a partner and that was why he stopped his habit of sleeping with them, but actually mingyu no longer sell deals with them he now prefers to celebrate the deals with his secretary.