#for example the most complicated one: white

[gamebunny-advance]

Hm.

I probably should have paired the 1010 question with "How old do you think 1010 are physically?" since those can have different answers. But I don't want to over-do the polls in 1 day.

[twoastricts]

Here are some of the 112 vessels in the story. Though I couldn't possibly flesh out all 112, I wanted to work on some of them so here ya go:

Tonya (3):

their the most important to establish so they come first. See, in the Abyss where all the vessels were thrown down all the vessels were given 2 options: either hold onto your shell and stay a vessel, or return to the sea of void from whence you came. At first, most vessels stayed, holding onto the naive hope that they could become a pure vessel, but over time, more and more of the vessels gave up on that hope and returned to the void. Tonya is important because unlike every other, they didn't only care about being the pure vessel. See, their life philosophy is that life is going to suck, but you can't just give into it, and that if you stare down life with determination while giving it the middle finger for long enough, it will get better, you just need to move on from failure and make the most of what you have. So when they failed to become the Pure Vessel they didn't care and moved on to make the most of the abyss. They were to most mature of the vessels down there, and thus led a group of vessels who followed their lead and stopped caring about being a pure vessel and instead made the most of living in the abyss instead of giving into failure and returning to the void. They were a great leader who cared about everyone in their cohort (as I call them) but secretly really wished they could just take a break. They found one of the few nails in the abyss and were the one who figured out how to use void to repair the shells of vessels when they got hurt, though it doesn't work nearly as well as soul. They also found small puddles of void that were calm enough that the vessels could relax in them, unlike the void sea which was artificially calmed but the light before it forced the poor bug in the lighthouse to turn it off, which then the sea let out it's rage, making it not a good place to relax in it. After the Radiance was dealt with and PK decided to save the vessels locked in the abyss, Tonya was the first to lead the remaining vessels out and, like most vessels, really like their father, though mostly because it means they can take a well deserved break. Overall, their a mama's kid who like to relax at the Queen's Garden with Lady often.

Lux (24) & Nox (25): these 2 vessels are really crafty, and extremely close to one another. They are the craftiest of Tonya's Cohort, great at getting into places they aren't supposed, though they never found a way out of the abyss, mainly cause they didn't care enough to try. While in the abyss, they found a way into lifeblood room, though didn't really do anything there besides stealing the arcane egg. They found ways to use the broken eggshells that the vessels hatched out of to make little homes, were the ones to throw most the vessel corpses into the birthplace as no one really wanted to see them all, made games to pass the time and built up the wall of rocks that helped defend Tonya's Cohort from some of the predators in the abyss, and the occasional predator from the void sea. When the remaining vessels rose from the abyss, Lux and Nox still stayed as close as ever, were fond of their father, and still were crafty and into getting into places they are supposed to be. Sneaking into the bedroom of many people, PK's workshop, where they became really into some of the non-void based experiments he was doing in their, the kitchens, to steal food, and even out the palace entirely. Yes, most the vessels like to escape the palace as they want to explore the kingdom, though they are too young to be out on their own, and so no adults let them leave without supervision, though that doesn't stop them, and when it comes to leaving the palace without permission, Lux and Nox are the best. They help the others escape, and when mass escapes happen it's normally because of them. When exploring the kingdom, avoiding the great knights who went looking for them, they tend to gravitate towards Deepnest, as of all the places they aren't supposed to go, Deepnest is the crowning jewel that they constantly want to explore, though can never seem to cross the border before being caught.

Echo (111):

Echo really likes being strong, while in Tonya's Cohort, they were the guardian of the other vessels, wielding the only other nail in the abyss and using it to defend the others from threats. After leaving the abyss, they are happy that the others are safe, but not really into the fact that they are treated like a child, which they are, but they are also fiercely independent. They run off during escapes to try to regain that independence and protect their siblings from some of the threats of Hallownest, like fool eaters, guards, predators that escape from Deepnest, sporgs, blugg saccs, mantises that are mad at intrusions into their territory, roaming fools looking for a fight, bees that attack anything that comes remotely close to the hive, giant falls, acid, stalactites, spikes, etc. They really look up to the great knights, especially their bigger sibling (bigger, but not older, they are actually one of the youngest), wanting to be a knight just like them.

Oji (101):

A bit of an outcast amongst Tonya's Cohort, they never had many friends, but always wanted them, they were just too shy to talk. After rising from the abyss, they still struggle, having a hard time finding people in the castle, so during escapes they look for friends throughout the kingdom.

Eclipse (30):

She's a special vessel as after leaving the abyss and learning what gender is, she realized she was a girl! She looks up to Hornet, liking to take dance lessons from her, though she has a hard time defining what it means to be a girl vessel. (Also, after she came out, they stopped calling Hornet the gendered child) I imagine that she'd figure out her gender identity in the fic, though I don't think I know how to write that.

Nyx (66):

Another vessel that looks up to Hornet, though they prefer learning to weave from her, making them another part of the Hallownest Clothing Club (seriously, I have so many characters that know how to make clothing in this story, Hornet weaves, Hollow and Nyx learn to weave from Hornet, Hornet has a cousin named Enlan who weaves, Herrah weaves, Lady can weave though she prefers stitching, Seer knits and crochets, Ivyln is a jack of all traits, master of one, that being clothing design, and Illaria (Ze-Mir's girlfriend) is a tailor, (she also plays the harp and violin and knows how to cook, paint and do advanced mathematics, but that's beside the point))

Dawn (54), Dusk(55), and Horizon (56):

This trio of vessels tends to stick together alot, they like to cook, hanging around the kitchens often and helping out wherever possible. They want to learn from everyone in the kingdom, and out of it too, learning dishes from anyone they can when escapes happen.

Null (2):

Null is a special vessel, in that they WEREN'T a part of Tonya's Cohort, in fact, they weren't even in the abyss. When PK first created his plan to end the infection, he didn't believe that a vessel that rose from the void could be impure, so he made one egg, with one child in it, and placed it in the abyss. When the child hatch, he took it to the palace, but immediately realized they were impure, after 2 weeks of study, he decided that he needed to try again with more vessels, giving the failed one to Monomon to raise, as he decided he couldn't raise a pure vessel, be a king, AND be a father at the same time. Null has been salty ever sense, believing it Hollow's fault they got replaced, the only one of the vessels to have never given up on being the Pure Vessel, they really don't like Hollow, and spend their time trying to impress their father by being better than Hollow, who really hates the fact that one of their siblings hate them. Being raised by Monomon, they are the only vessel to be literate, and they helped out around the Teachers Archive though only because they had nothing else to do, they distinctly don't like Monomon, trying to run away to find the palace many times, but always failing. After the infection ended, Monomon gave them back to PK, as the agreement they had was that she would raise them till the infection was defeated. They are overjoyed to be back with their father, but hate that they live with Hollow now. And even though they really love their father and want to impress him, they have a small part of them that resent him for pushing them off on Monomon. They are based on the Broken Vessel.

I guess I should talk a bit about Ghost here, so here I go!

(Little) Ghost (112):

Also was a bit of a loner during the days of Tonya's Cohort, though that never bothered them. They, unlike the other vessels, are mute, and that's not because of any "no voice to cry their suffering" reasons, they would've been mute regardless of void influence and experiments. They were able to find a way out of the Abyss, but came back, as they always seem to go back to the abyss, even after rising out of it, they seem to be drawn their. They get along well with Hollow, and don't remember the moment hanging off the edge of the platform being left behind by them, nor do they care. They also chill with Hornet as well. They don't really know what they enjoy, or want to be even. And are one of the few vessels who didn't return to the void to not be overly fond of their father, not really thinking much of him. They're arch is about finding themself, and learning what they want to be.

I also have somethings I want to talk about that pertains to the vessels as a whole.

The numbers, you've seen em by the names, after bringing them up out the abyss, Wyrm gave them all numbers to help with organization, as he didn't know all their names at first and needed something to help make things easier, and putting them all in an order was one way to do that. The numbers are used for the order they line up in, seating charts, and other stuff where an order of some sorts are needed, they don't go by the numbers. Though when the siblings fight they sometimes call eachother by their numbers (Null just calls Hollow "1" by default), but nobody else uses them.

Voices and talking, all vessels can talk, but need to learn who to, they have a base knowledge of how to understand Hallow Tounge, Wyrmish, and (without  PK's knowledge) can read, speak and understand the ancient and forgotten language of Abyssal Tounge. Ghost is the only one who is mute. Null is the only one who can read and speak Hallow Tounge at the start. Hollow has an issue with talking were they can, but don't like it after years of conditioning not to. They're working on it, but how much they talk depends on the person, talking a lot to Hornet, their siblings (minus Null) Lady, Seer, the great knights, Monomon and Quirrel, Illaria, the traveling troupe, Enlan, and Confessor Jiji, while being quite quiet around Wyrm, Null, Lurien and Lucien (the butler), Herrah, most of the royal retainers, most strangers, anyone who is of the noble rank, and most of Hornet's side of the family.

Next is that fact many people have this vessel/void telepathy they put in fanfic, and I'll just say it, vessels don't normally have telepathy. I imagine that, once Little Ghost becomes the lord of shades, they can kinda do a telepathy thing with the others, mostly just this sort of influence thing were they can compel the others to do something, but the others know that it's Ghost doing it and can deny the order if they want. Then the void entity, which is an amalgamation of all the vessels in one, allows all the vessels to work together perfectly and fluidly till they split back into individual shades, though they each still are individuals in the void entity, each wielding a part of the power, though Ghost definitely heads the void entity.

The question of where they all sleep. Hollow has there own room, all the others share a bedroom full of bunk beds, for a while, I imagine an arch where Lady decides to try to make Null and Hollow get along by moving Null into Hollow's room.

Oh, eating! They don't need to eat, though do it cause they want to. How? By shoving the food into the eye holes in their shell. The void that makes up the shade inside dissolves the food on contact, allowing them to taste it. Each vessel has their own preferences for food, Hollow likes sweet stuff, especially the nectar of the hive, Ghost likes stupid amounts of salt on their food.

Is a vessel the shell or the shade? Definitely the shade, the shell is basically clothing to them, the reason they have them is because shells are perfect at keeping out warmth and light, as shades feel actually pain when touched by light and their void bodies can come apart when too hot (don't worry, all they need to do is go back in the cold to reform, though they won't be able to move during it).

How mutable are they? The games show that PV can shoot out a tentacle of void from their arm, so many people say vessels can somewhat shift their shell around, I imagine that the little ones can't do it, as the shell is basically the corpse of the vessel that died in the abyss and infused with the void. Their essence infused with the void, becoming shades, which puppet the shells around. The shell and shade need to fuse together to allow the mutability to accor, and the vessels need to go through their 2 pupal stages for that to happen, and vessels don't pupate naturally, seeing as that requires to wake up the part of the shell that allows for growth, as the shell, being a corpse, has forgotten it can grow and thus needs to be reminded that it can be it does. Same thing goes with healing. Shells don't know that they can heal, so they don't until they are reminded by soul (the life force of all living things) flowing in them again, in which that soul will be used to heal. That being said, shades are different from shells and are really mutable. In fact, when shades for are made they take no proper form, only filling the space they inhabit. As the shade gets used to inhabiting the shell, they take the form of the shell, the more a shade grows and pupates, the less mutable it becomes. A fully grown shade will refuse to change at all.

This has also made me realize that my idea of vessels are technically undead, so that's fun.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

.

not sure it's my post to make particularly, but I do fucking hate how the concept of white guilt gets weaponized within white people ingroups to throw at each other in order to goad each other into emotional passivity, detachement and inaction, it's just so extremely not what the concept is about initially and is actually still an extension of white guilt it turns out!!! as it's still reacting to that idea and concerned by trying to sever oneself from its perceived effects, regardless of what those are and what they do and what bigger picture they exist in!!!! anyway.

[saetoru]

AGE IS NOTHING BUT A NUMBER — GETO SUGURU.

kinktober day two — overstimulation ; find masterlist here

synopsis. befriending nanako and mimiko has its perks—like fucking their father, for example. suguru might have aged over the years, but that doesn't mean he's lost his touch. don't believe him? that's okay—he can always just show you instead

length. 5.3k words (bro this fic was agonizing)

contents. minors do not interact, fem! reader, dilf! suguru, college au (reader is a student), age gaps (20+ difference), jealous suguru, teasing, cunnilingus, fingering, edging, nipple play, unprotected sex, multiple orgasms, overstimulation, creampie, pet names (baby, sweetheart, princess, angel)

notes. this took me so long bc i hate it so im posting it and running away to play genshin to slave away for primos

most people can tell their best friends everything. not you, though—you have a secret. a dirty, shameful, horrible little secret, in fact.

no one knows that every chance you get, every small little moment you can possibly squeeze in, you fuck your two best friends’ father—and it’s going to stay that way, unknown and forever hidden. suguru is young as far as parents go, just barely in his twenties when he’s found himself a single father of two, but that doesn’t mean he’s not too old for you. and it especially doesn’t mean that it’s not inappropriate to fuck the man that raised your two closest friends.

you meet nanako and mimiko during your freshman year of college—the rest is history. the first time you spend the night at their place, suguru (he insists you call him that on your first meeting) is overjoyed that his girls have someone as lovely as you.

who wouldn’t be? you’re smart, well-mannered, respectable, and incredibly studious. what a perfect role model for his girls—after all, every father’s worst nightmare is his sweet, precious daughters venturing off to the real world. men are dogs—suguru should know. they’re sleazy and prey on young women who are naive and unsuspecting, taking advantage of their hopefulness before completely destroying their innocence. suguru can’t bear the idea of his perfect little girls becoming victims of such sinister behavior—but that’s all quelled when he meets you.

but he never thought, not even for one second, that he’d become one of those men.

those older men who fuck girls half their age—the girls that are barely in their twenties and still don’t even really understand how taxes work. the girls that have just started to learn how to hold their alcohol and can only recently buy it legally. the girls who don’t realize how complicated adulthood can be, just barely spreading their wings and learning what it’s like to be free.

suguru has always found those men deplorable. they’re the awful, disgusting, untamed vermin of society—women must be protected from them at all costs.

but now? well….now he’s one of them—and he finds, even as disgusted with himself as he is from time to time, he has little regrets.

not when you’re sprawled under him, hands tracing over his bare chest, feeling the soft skin under your palms in wonder. suguru, though he’s not let himself go by any means, is past his prime—he still frequents the gym, and he has more time to go now that the girls are gone most of the day, but he’s not immune to the effects of aging.

his hair has more than a few strands of white sprinkled in now; nanako makes sure to remind him not to pull them out unless he wants more. he’s still managed to keep the abs he was once so proud of in his youth, but they’re still not as hard—layered over a slight belly that he can’t seem to get rid of no matter what he tries. his skin is a bit looser, and his eyes have slight wrinkles in the corners of them, but despite it all, suguru still looks as handsome as ever.

he’s aged well, still looks remarkably young for men his age, and still looks like that dashing young man he once was who stole hearts. in fact, he still hears about his looks, especially from nanako and mimiko’s friends—he’s always chuckled to himself and shook his head in amusement.

that’s your dad? god, he’s so hot.

what? he’s single? oh my gosh, do you need a mom?

i can’t believe he’s never been married—women in his generation don’t deserve him. i’ll take him off their hands.

wait, do you have pictures of him when he was younger?

oh my god, he’s so fine. are you sure he’s in his forties?

nanako and mimiko, bless their hearts, have always crinkled their noses at the…less than proper comments they’ve had to witness about their father. in fact, they’ve watched teachers practically throw themselves onto suguru at parent-teacher conferences. it’s bothersome—a little disturbing to hear their friends talk about all the things they’d let their dad, of all people, do to them.

but you? you don’t make unhinged comments. they appreciate that.

but if only they knew…

if only they knew that sometimes, like right now, when you’re spending the night, you don’t actually sleep—instead, you sneak off to their father’s room, lay on his mattress under his body, and feel his touch. you can feel him, hard and throbbing in his sweats as his clothed cock presses against your thigh—but he takes his time with you, and doesn’t do anything about the clear arousal pooling between your legs just yet. 

instead, he focuses on remembering your body—it’s been a while, after all. he hasn’t felt your hips, hasn’t tasted your skin, hasn’t heard your voice. 

“missed you,” suguru breathes, hovering over you as you hum, nipping at your skin as his nose brushes along your neck. your hand is playing with his hair, twisting long, black and white strands along your fingers. “haven’t seen you in a bit, angel.”

“i’ve had midterms,” you murmur.

suguru knows—nanako and mimiko have been studying for them themselves. he’s more than a little disappointed that you haven’t come over to study with them yet. but then, just the other night, mimiko mentions you’ve been spending your time with a boy at the library, sharing a table as you lean over his shoulder to look at his laptop. nanako giggles that you might have finally gotten yourself a boyfriend. mimiko hums and nods as she murmurs it’s about time.

suguru swallows down every bite of dinner with an aftertaste of bile that night.

a boy—a boy? you’ve been skipping coming over to study with the girls (and, by default, seeing him) just to study with some boy? what’s got your attention on the guy so badly? why would you break the routine you’ve had for the last few semesters for someone you just recently met? have you finally started to realize that this is a mistake? is suguru a mistake?

he thinks maybe not, now that you’re back in his bed—but he still has too many unanswered questions. 

“so i’ve heard,” he says lowly, “i’ve also heard there’s a certain boy on your radar.” he smiles bitterly, pulling away from your neck to stare at you with those dark, sharp eyes of his. “a much younger, and fitting match for you, i suppose.”

you roll your eyes, snorting.

“is that what nanako and mimiko have told you? honestly, those two,” you huff fondly, “i told them already. he’s just my partner for a presentation. we’re practicing.”

“oh?” suguru raises a brow—and then he shivers lightly when you lean up and kiss his jaw, eyes fluttering shut at your touch.

“yes,” you giggle, “no need to be jealous of someone half your age, you know.”

“that’s exactly why i’m jealous,” he breathes, leaning in to kiss you softly.

your lips taste like honey—probably sweeter, in fact. they drip with that decadent, saccharine taste of youth. he feels twenty again every time he kisses you, feels not a day older than his glory days.

“oh, you poor thing,” you grin, cupping his face as you scatter kisses along his cheeks and nose, thumb tracing the skin. fuck, is this what it feels like to be in love? it makes him feel so young, so free, and hopeful for the future. when was the last time he felt this way? “have you been losing sleep over my nonexistent college boyfriend?”

“well, kids your age fool around quite a bit,” he says in that father tone that he uses on nanako and mimiko, “what was i supposed to think?”

you’ve heard that tone so many times before; the one where he talks like he knows better, like he’s wiser, like he’s aware of something you’re not. 

girls, make sure you share your location with me—i need to find you in case anything happens. it’s for your own safety, end of discussion.

make sure you watch over your drinks, okay? men these days take every chance they get to spike them when you’re not looking. mimiko, i was your age once, too. i’ve seen this happen plenty.

don’t walk alone in the streets at night. call me. i’ll pick you up—no, nanako, it’s not lame. the streets are dangerous at night. there are creeps, you know.

don’t get into any boy’s cars, girls. you never know what’ll happen; one mistake is all it takes to ruin your life—hey, don’t roll your eyes at me. one day, you’ll understand i’m right.

“i’m not a kid,” you pout, and then, smugly this time, you wiggle your brows. “did’ya lose sleep over my imaginary boyfriend? you need plenty of sleep at your age, y’know.”

“no, you’re not a kid,” suguru agrees, “you’re a brat.” and then he’s back to pressing those hot, open-mouthed, hungry kisses along your jaw, humming in delight when you angle your head to give him better access. 

sometimes, it’s fun to get under suguru’s skin—it’s fun to break that carefully built, mature patience of his, pulling a twitch of his eye and a furrow of his brow from him. so, you grin widely as you murmur, “who knows? maybe he’d fuck better—more stamina, y’know?”

it’s supposed to just tease him, to make him glare at you unimpressed so you can giggle and kiss between his brows—but suguru stills at that, painfully stiff for a moment before he bites at your skin. hard. 

“oh yeah?” he hisses, his voice low and dangerous as he pulls away to glare down at you, “you think so? what, you think an old man like me can’t fuck you long enough?”

you don’t get a chance to reply—not before he pulls your pants down your waist to reveal your soaked panties, pulling a hum from him as he grins at the damp patch of fabric. his fingers circle over your clit for a moment, right over the cloth, making your breath hitch as you buck into his touch. 

“suguru—”

“look at that,” he chuckles, “wearing my favorite one, huh? can’t fuck you that bad if you try your best to impress me. isn’t that what you wanted? is that what you were thinking when you put these on before coming over? how precious,” he murmurs—he speaks so condescending, so knowingly, as if he’s read your mind just by looking at the red lace covering your dripping cunt. you cover your face in humiliation, but he grabs your wrists and pins them over your head, clicking his teeth in disapproval. 

part of you knows you should quit while you can—the other part? well…it wants to test the limits a bit longer. suguru has never been so easy to rile up, you want to indulge in it for just a bit longer if you can help it. 

“well,” you huff, “what’re you waiting for, then? don’t tell me the age has slowed you down—”

“you really don’t know when to quit, do you?” he says in a low snarl, “fine, you want me to hurry up? you got it, princess.”

it all happens before you can even register—one moment, you’re grinning at him with mischief in your eyes; the next second, he has you in nothing but your bra, bare in his bed as he pulls your legs apart and leans close to your pussy.

“you know the thing about guys your age,” he hums, toying with your clit lazily as you gasp with a twitch, “is that they really don’t know how to take care of anyone but themselves. guess they just don’t have enough experience to really figure it out.”

his lips latch onto your clit, sucking before he rolls his tongue over the sensitive bud as his fingers sink into your core, pushing past your folds and stretching you open. it’s slow—deliberately so, in fact. it makes your head spin, and your fingers curl into the bed sheets as you pant. 

“suguru, m-more—”

“don’t worry,” he coos, pulling away from you to grin up at your glossy eyes, “you’ll get plenty, baby. we’ll see if you’ve got the stamina. y’know, since you’re so young.”

his lips are back to wrap around your clit, fingers sinking and curling exactly where you’re most sensitive—suguru finds your sweet spots instantly the first time he has you sprawled under him. didn’t even take a moment of trial, just knew where to touch and kiss to have you unravel in his hold. that much still hasn’t changed—his fingertips press against the sensitive spot in the back of your walls, pulling pretty little whines from you as his tongue flicks over your clit. 

it’s always been a blessing that nanako and mimiko’s room is across the house—had they been closer, they might hear the mewl you let out as his fingers bully into you faster, unforgiving as they brush against your walls and build the ache up between your legs until it’s about to burst. 

“s-suguru, ‘m close, so, so close—”

“already?” he gasps, chuckling as he presses a kiss to your clit with a sly grin, “thought you had more in you than that, baby. so youthful—figured you’d last a bit longer.”

he’s mean about it—rubs it in your face some more that you’re so close so fast before he pulls his fingers away and doesn’t even give you the satisfaction of falling apart on his digits. it makes you sob, hips bucking up to chase the friction of his fingers, but he’s already gone, leaving your walls empty and fluttering around nothing.

“no,” your voice breaks, “n-no, so close, please. i want—”

“that’s what he would’ve done,” suguru hums, “pulled out before you even finished. that’s what guys your age always do—they don’t know how to make girls finish. you ever had that problem with me?”

“no,” you say quickly, shaking your head. you’re a pretty little thing, he thinks—pouty, wobbly lips and those glossy eyes as you sniffle. “no, you always make me cum—please, i wanna cum, sugu.”

“yeah?” he pouts with faux sympathy, “didn’t feel good, huh? feels better when i take care of you, doesn’t it?”

“uh huh,” you nod—you’re still panting through the aftershocks of having your orgasm ripped from you, chest rising and falling harsh enough that it fills him with pride he can pull such drastic reactions from you. no one knows your body like suguru—he’s too good at giving it what it wants for anyone else to compare. 

“think that boy—” he spits the last word like it’s poison on his tongue, “—can take care of you?”

“no,” you whimper, “no, he can’t. not like you, never like you.”

“that’s a good girl,” he nods approvingly, rubbing his slick-coated finger over your clit, toying with it teasingly as you writhe, whining for more. “you know something else about men your age? they don’t care to please a woman—don’t bother to appreciate them enough to make them feel good. you think that boy would be here—” he pauses to motion between your legs, where he’s currently situated, “—willingly? taste you willingly? let you cum on his tongue willingly?”

“i-i don’t…i never asked someone to—”

“did you ever ask me?” he interrupts, raising a brow at you, “you ever have to ask me? i just do it. wanna know why? because i know what i’m doing—know how to treat you right, how to give you what you need. isn’t that right?” 

“yes, yes—you always give me what i want—”

“what you need,” he corrects, “and you know what i think you need right now? this.”

his tongue licks a stripe along your entrances before you can say anything else, pulling a gasp out of you as your hands find his hair and tug—suguru groans at that, feels his pants get impossibly tighter as the aching erection he sports throbs between his legs at the way you pull at the strands so desperately, so needy. for him. only ever him. 

his tongue fucks into you, messy with the way he devours you, the slick arousal pooling from your cunt coating his lips, his cheeks, his chin. you moan—and really, it’s almost a squeal—when his fingers are sinking back into you, tongue flicking away at your clit mercilessly as he thrusts his digits in and out of your pussy. you’re close, painfully so, the pressure steadily building and building until you just can’t hold it back anymore. 

“sugu—’m c-cumming. god ‘s so good—feels good,” you babble, thighs closing around his head as his fingers curl into your sweet spot over and over again, not stopping for even a second as he helps you ride out your high. your walls spasm around his fingers, tight as they flutter around him and make him groan at the thought of being inside you. 

he watches, hungry and in awe, as your back arches off the mattress and your mouth parts, broken little wails of his name rolling off your tongue in a sweet melody. 

“i bet he’s never seen someone look like this,” suguru murmurs, watching the way the ecstasy takes over your features as your face falls slack from pleasure, “so pretty when falling apart. bet he’d never even get close to making you look so fucked from just his tongue.”

your orgasm ripples through you—it’s not new, the way he makes you feel so good, but it’s definitely nothing to get used to either. your body slumps back onto the mattress as you finish, panting harshly while he climbs up to hover over you once again. 

“that felt good?” he asks, nosing at your cheek as you nod breathlessly.

“yeah,” you breathe, wrapping your arms around his neck. 

“hope you’re not tired out just yet,” he says smugly, eyeing the way sweat clings to your forehead and huffs of air exhale from your lungs with each labored breath, “because we’re nowhere near done, baby. not even close.”

just like that, your bra is unclasped and pulled off, freeing your tits for his mouth to latch onto a nipple, sucking and lightly grazing his teeth along the bud while his fingers tease at the other, pinching and rubbing over it with his thumb. you whine, eyes squeezing shut as your hand cups the back of his head and keeps him in place. 

“bet i could make you cum just from this,” he says with a laugh, “i don’t even need to fuck you.”

“please,” you dig your nails into his shoulder, moaning as he switches to wrap his lips around the other nipple, “please, sugu—n-need more.”

“be more specific,” he says lowly, looking up at you in amusement, “gonna need more than that, princess. you gotta help me out here—i’m afraid i don’t know what i’m doing.”

suguru is doing everything he can to drag this out—if you’d known one small comment would have him riled up like this…well, truthfully, you can’t say you wouldn’t have made it anyway. it’s exciting in its own right when he’s so determined to show you why you need him, why no one else but him is meant to see you like this, make you fall apart like this, have you sprawled under them like this. 

no one can know about you and suguru—not nanako and mimiko, not your other friends, not your family. you know what they’d say, how they’d feel. 

disgust—shame, even. he’s far too old for you, you know they’d say; he’s a red flag for getting with someone so young. no one can know that you come here, dead in the middle of the night when your friends are asleep, and fuck their father. not only that—lay with their father, talk about your hopes and dreams for the future with their father, giggle as you gossip with their father, fall in love with their father. 

something tells you the feeling is not unreciprocated—that suguru feels the same, that he loves holding you in his arms just as much as you love laying in them. maybe it wasn’t a joke, what you’d said. not to him, at least—maybe deep down, it stung; maybe he had something to prove. that boy might be closer to you in age, but he’ll never, ever treat you the way suguru does—no one will, for that matter. perhaps he has to show it so you really know. 

so you look him in the eye, pull him closer until his forehead is pressed against yours and you can press a delicate kiss to his lips before you murmur against them, “fuck me, suguru. please—need you.”

he groans at that, closes his eyes before his hips move to press the thick tip of his cock against your folds, dragging it along your entrance as he coats his head with your slick. it’s flushed a deep pink—it’s been neglected for so long that he shudders at the way it aches, at the way even the slightest friction along the sensitive tip pulls a soft gasp from him. 

for a moment, he wonders if he really will last long enough to fuck you properly—he might not, with the way your walls always squeeze around him, always have him ready to fuck his load into you just as soon as he’s inside you. the thought alone almost makes his cock twitch—but suguru is a man of patience, so he slowly pushes into you, inch by inch, looking down and watching as his girth disappears inside you. 

“look at that,” he coos, grinning wide as he looks back up at you, “took me so easily. ‘s cause when you do it right, it doesn’t take much, does it?”

“f-fuck—” your head presses back against the pillow, mouth hung open as you breathe heavily, trying to squirm and get even the slightest bit of friction from him as he stays painfully still. “move, suguru—please, c-can’t wait anymore. jus’ wanna feel you.”

“i know,” he chuckles, “patience is a virtue, sweetheart.”

despite it all, suguru is not feeling very patient anymore—it’s been long enough. his hips roll slowly at first, a shallow thrust of his hips that makes you both moan lowly before he all but pulls out and slams back in, hard. you can feel the burning stretch of his girth practically splitting you open, every thick vein dragging along your cunt and every brush of his tip against the back of your walls. it’s loud—the sound of skin slapping against skin, the sound of his deep groans and your breathless whines, the sound of the headboard hitting the wall as he fucks you into his mattress. 

“god—fuck, suguru—th-there,” you mewl as he slams into you right where you need him. 

you’ve lost count of how many times suguru has fucked you like you’re his. in his bed at night, in his shower in the mornings, on the couch when you drop by when the girls aren’t home, in his car that one time he drove you home when it rained, in your apartment that one time he dropped off your laptop because you forgot it. there’s one common denominator—the way he makes you feel, not just from the way his cock ruts into you, but from the way his fingers tangle with yours, from the way his mouth finds your jaw to kiss, from the way his forehead presses into your shoulder with warmth. 

it’s exciting, maybe. at first, it’s scandalous and a little thrilling in its own right. by now, it’s something much more than that—you don’t think anyone could make you feel the way he does, fuck you like he does, even if they tried. even if they knew where to touch and where to kiss. even if they knew what you liked and what you didn’t. 

they couldn’t be suguru—would never be suguru. 

“there, huh?” he pants, moaning softly as he feels your walls flutter around him tightly, “i know. i know how to fuck this pussy—my pussy. you think some boy you hardly know would know? think he’d care to learn? think he’d even try?”

“no,” you gasp, shaking your head as your hips buck up to meet his sharp thrusts, “no. no one would make me feel this good. make me feel so good, sugu.”

“ngh—sh-shit,” he hisses at your words, cock almost swelling harder at the way you praise him, at the way your words are almost slurred with no real thought behind him. it’s a little pride-inducing, the way you’re still able to sing his praises without having to really think about it first. he can hear it, the way you’re lost in the drag of his cock, drunk in the haze of pleasure, unfocused on everything else besides the way he bullies his thick girth into your abused cunt.

it’s a mess, it’s filthy the way there’s a mix of pre cum and your slick at the base of his cock, along your inner thighs, coating your skin as the squelching sound of him nudging past your folds fills the room.

it’s good, the way he makes you feel—he can hear it in your voice as you wail his name.

“s-suguru—oh.”

“what, you gettin’ all fucked out on me? ‘m not even close yet, princess,” he hums, leaning down to kiss your neck as he sucks softly into your sweet spot. you throw your head back, rasping out a cry of his name again as his balls slap against your ass with a harsh roll of his hips. 

and then his hand makes its way between your bodies, thumb attaching itself to your clit before rubbing punishing circles into the bundle of nerves—you sob at that, back arching up as your chest presses against his, nipples hard as they brush along his skin.

“s-sugu—close, ‘m gonna cum a-again—so close,” you pant brokenly, every sentence cut off with a sharp gasp as he thrusts into you. 

you’re close—you can’t fight back the way the coil in your belly snaps as he teases your clit. it’s still sensitive from the last orgasm, every nerve still burning up from before as he gives you more, gives you too much, almost. you cum harder this time—your second high creeping up on you when you least expect it. 

it makes your eyes roll back, makes your thighs quiver, and tears stream down your cheeks as you chant his name over and over. suguru, ‘s so good. suguru, ‘m cumming. suguru, ‘s all for you.

every sentence makes his cock drill into you faster, sloppier in rhythm, maybe, but faster. needier. bordering on desperate. 

“f-fuck, baby,” he grunts, “squeezin’ me so tight—such a tight fuckin’ cunt. you think just anyone deserves this? think you can just walk around and let anyone fuck this? ‘s bullshit—ngh.”

you don’t answer—can’t answer, in fact. it’s all teary eyes and soft sniffles as you mewl with every thrust, voice breaking between every pretty little sound you make. he’s still fucking into you, still dragging his cock against those sensitive walls, still bumping against your clit with his navel, still nudging against your sweet spot with his thick, swollen tip. it’s almost too much—it is too much, making you writhe under his body as you try to form the words. 

“‘s t-too much, sugu—c-can’t anymore,” you try, “can’t.”

“what?” he gasps, furrowing his brows in mock confusion, “you’re tappin’ out on me already? but ‘m not even done yet, sweetheart. haven’t even finished yet—don’t tell me you’re already spent. how will you keep up with your little boyfriend’s stamina if you can’t even take an old man like me?”

“c-can’t take anyone but you,” you sob, “jus’ you—only you. promise.”

“yeah? you swear?”

“uh huh. jus’ you, sugu—don’ want anyone else. won’t fuck me the same.”

“atta girl,” he coos, chuckling as he leans down to kiss your jaw, trailing soft pecks until he meets your lips, “that’s what i thought. make sure you don’t forget, okay?”

“fuck, suguru—’m…g-gonna…”

“gonna what? cum? you’re cumming again?” you nod at that—he grins wide, pride settling into the crinkles of his eyes before his thumb rubs harsh circles into your swollen clit once more. he looks pretty like that—hair framing his face, the mix of black and white strands sticking to the damp skin of his forehead. his skin is flushed, abs flexing as he pants over you. sometimes you feel guilty that half of why you come over to visit nanako and mimiko is to fuck suguru—the guilt is quickly extinguished when you see him like this, bottom lip caught between his teeth as his arms barely hold him over you, eyes shut tight as he groans. 

“i-i’m—fuck, fuck, fuck,” you can’t form sentences anymore as you cum—again. not that you really could before that, but now all you can offer is croaked half-syllables and shaky sobs. your walls squeeze around him, tight as they hug around his throbbing cock. 

it takes one, two, three more sloppy rolls of his hips before he lets out at a low, “baby, fuck—’m gonna fill you up. want that? want me to cum in you? make you mine? always been mine, haven’t you?”

“yes, yes—yours, sugu. yours, yours, yours,” you babble, words slurred between breathy moans and broken sobs. “wanna be yours.”

you can feel him—feel the way his cock twitches in you, the way he grinds into you to ride out his high, the way sticky, hot ropes of cum fill your walls, the way he fucks his load deeper into you with every sloppy thrust of his hips. his arms quiver as he holds himself over you—just barely, though. you can hear the way his voice cracks as he gasps your name over and over, as he mutters lowly about how you’re his, how you’ll always only be his. 

“mine,” he grits, “you’re fuckin’ mine—see how you’re suckin’ me in? see how i fit in this pussy like it was made for me? ‘s cause you’re mine.”

his body slumps onto yours as he finishes, head pressed into the crook of your neck as he kisses the skin while you both catch your breaths. you whimper, still sensitive, as he pulls out of you, a soft chuckle falling past his lips as he pulls his head up to look at you and press a kiss to your cheek. 

“so,” he starts, eyes laced with amusement as he takes in the fucked out look on your face, the tears still drying your cheeks, the swollen flush of your bottom lip, “still think you need someone with more stamina? someone who’ll fuck you better—”

“god,” you groan, slapping his shoulder, “will you drop it already? you got what you wanted, didn’t you?”

“no,” he murmurs, pecking your lips, “still wanna hear it some more.”

“your ego needs a reality check,” you huff as you brush a strand of hair from his forehead, “think i’ve fed it plenty all night.”

“actually, i think you crushed it,” he pouts theatrically, “talking about some asshole who doesn’t care about you right in front of me. after i take such good care of you, too. the girls already think you should date him,” he adds the last part with a slightly bitter roll of his eyes, pulling a giggle out of you.

“they think i don’t know how to talk to men,” you snort, “imagine they knew i was talking to men old enough to be my father.”

“hey,” he clicks his teeth, falling onto the mattress beside you—he pulls you into his chest, letting your cheek rest on his bare skin. it’s so wrong—lying in bed with the father of your best friends. but somehow, suguru feels like the only thing you’ve ever done right. “age is nothing but a number, sweetheart.”

if i have to see the word cock one more time im going to eradicate all humans that have them

do not comment about a part 2 !!!!!!!!!!

[sha-biest]

SHA's Golden Future DTIYS [Art & Writing]

Close ups of Mikey

About 10 days ago I had the idea to host a DTIYS and even though I told myself it wouldn't happen anytime soon.. the idea struck and it wouldn't let me go. SO, here it is! One thing before everything else:

1st place: One handmade custom plushie made by me

More information about this DTIYS down below

I am aware that this is a rather challenging DTIYS but it was done so intentionally by me. (Trust me, I tortured myself too 🙃) HOWEVER. you are allowed to chose to draw only one segment of the whole piece and not every single one! You will however get more points for including all 3 parts of it. I will judge the pieces based on: • How many segments of the whole piece were drawn • Creativity (in what way was it changed from the original to emphasize your own style for example) • Colors (did you chose to use colors or is it black and white?) • Hands. I do accept written entries for this as well! I love reading and I don't want to exclude writers for this one should they decide they want to tackle this! You are allowed to use my art up top of the DTIYS to promote your writing!

If you want to participate be sure to @sha-biest and use the tag #GoldenFutureDTIYS Additionaly, let me know what YOU would like to get as a plushie! (don't worry, you don't have to stick to that decision should it change over the course of the DTIYS)

Deadline: 10th March 2025 1st June 2025

More Info: • #GoldenFutureAU art tag • Written Story by Co-Creator @rosesofenvy (More about Mikey's mindscape and him unlocking his full mystic powers can be read in "Keep You Safe" especially within Chapter 4 and Chapter 8) • The Sun God's appearance here and here References:

Mikey's mindscape in Golden Future:

In the beginning he thought it was black water but it's actually black sand

He can dive into the sand and uncover "treasures" (parts of his mystic energy)

Diving down means no vision, sound or air gets through to him

He can uncover the mystic powers by pulling them up with his chains

Uncovering a "treasure" will turn that part of the desert golden

Disclaimer: • The plushie that can be won cannot be used to be reproduced and/or sold • The size of the plushie depends on the character chosen by the winner and by the package size I can send • I am by no means a professional plush maker so I do have the right to decline a character should I not be able to turn it into a plushie • Changes might need to be made to the chosen character for the plushie for more complicated details (I will provide sketches of possible versions) • Minors are permitted to participate, but only with the express permission of a guardian and limited correspondence if they win • You can chose to get a full illustration piece instead of a plushie should you win! (if you are too uncomfortable sharing your adress for example)

Plushie examples:

Questions can be send in via my ask box! I will try to compile them in here or give them a dtiyas specific tag! I'm curious what you guys come up with and most of all.. have fun! :D

PS: I will consider doing two first places (one for writing and one for art) depending on how many entries there are

[f1cflcfic]

Won't Say I'm In Love (SMAU ft. Lando Norris) - part xviii

pairing: lando norris x fem!reader; past carlos alcaraz x fem!reader

summary: As a general rule, y/n does not date athletes. You've been there, done that - would not recommend. Besides, you definitely don't do love. There's no time in the world for complicated feelings when there's a career Grand Slam to be won. But what if your heart just refuses to listen?

genre: social meda/mixed au, friends to lovers, tbd

note: this is RPF and is obviously in no way, shape, or form reflective of real persons

series: part i, part ii, part iii, part iv, part v, part vi, part vii. part viii, part ix, part x, part xi, part xii, part xiii, part xiv, part xv, part xvi, part xvii, tbd.

bonus: one, two, three, four, five

a/n: so happy for Lando that he won Austria, and what a great and fun, clean battle between him and Oscar today! It got me a little distracted, but here we are :)

July 21 - 23, 2025

[Excerpt: Transcript Podcast Episode with Y/N]

Obviously the next big tour is coming up with Wimbledon. Now, there's been a lot of talk - as every year - considering the fashion of it all. It's one of the few tournaments where you're required to wear all white or risk disqualification. What are your thoughts?

"You know, there's something nice about the tradition of it all. It elevates it to this special tournament where everyone looks a certain part. But rules and traditions should also make room to evolve and adapt over time. To be honest, Wimbledon is the worst and the best. It's my home Grand Slam, but I've never won it before. It's got a lot of prestige attached to it, which also means a lot of pressure. And I've genuinely had many bad dreams about getting my period in the middle of a tight match on court. But hopefully, third time's the charm to win the final."

You bring up an important point. Periods. Menstruation and sports, is that something you have to plan around?

"I mean, a lot of us will probably all be taking some type of contraceptive that helps with that. But it won't look the same for everyone, and you all have to have a period at one point. So, yeah, you can try and plan around it, but anyone who menstruates will have had a period hit at the most inopportune time. I've been on my period during the US Open, for example. It was not fun. And even if it's not that, also like being at a friend's house and realising they don't have any period products is the worst. Thankfully, most of my male friends grew up with sisters, so they'll know better - but gents, if you're listening, get your period products in order!"

[...]

But after Wimbledon, there's a little bit of breathing space in an otherwise super tight calendar. What have you got lined up to relax over the summer? Your sister is getting married, right?

"Yes, she is! I'm so looking forward to it. They've been together for a long time now and have a kid together. But yeah, Derek proposed to my sister and then a day later they found out that Vic was pregnant with Jessie, so it's been in the works for a while this wedding. Obviously that also means that she's had to make changes all the time when it comes to the table setting, guest list, stuff like that. But I think it's going to come together really beautifully."

Have you been able to be as involved as you'd like?

"Well, I'm super glad my sister wanted to make sure she picked a date that I could actually attend. Still, there's stuff that I wasn't able to do with her, like a bachelorette party and all. But I'll get to be her maid of honour on the day itself, so that's nice. And I get to bring my best friend as a plus one, so I'm looking forward to that, too. Some of my friends have gotten close to Vic and her partner as well throughout the past years, so it's nice to be able to celebrate altogether."

July 23 - 25, 2025

[Excerpt: Transcript interview George Russell]

Now George, you're getting ready for qualifying, but we heard you joke about Lando Norris' poor eyesight after he collided with a door earlier today. You'd expect better from the championship leader, wouldn't you?

"I mean, sure. But aside from driving he's a bit of a mess. Just, chaotic, frenetic energy. Always very competitive, but also a genuine hazard for himself at times. As was apparent today."

You also play padel with him and the others, you posted a photo just the other day with you and fellow drivers. Who'd you say is the worst?

George smirks, then pretends to think it over. "We played padel the other day yeah, but who's the worst? I'd have to say Lando. You'd think he'd be better considering all the private lessons he's gotten from Y/N - but I guess they haven't really been very productive. Or he's just a lost cause."

Thankfully he's better on the racetrack.

George laughs. "I mean, that's great for him, but bad for me. If only it'd be as easy to beat him on track as it is on the padel court."

July 25 - 28, 2025

a/n: And look at that, y/n is making an effort and she is choosing to stay (for now hehe)

♥ likes, comments, reblogs and asks are always very much appreciated - i love chatting and hearing your thoughts! ♥

taglist (open): @linnygirl09 @julesbog @midnight-and-books @sarx164 @obxstiles @freyathehuntress @vhkdncu2ei8997 @berrnuu @lightdragonrayne @glow-ish @batsratswrites @blushmimi @colmathgames2 @esw1012 @sadiemack9 @tremendousstarlighttragedy @awritingtree @its-elias-world @sarah-thatstings-ann @jessicanotta @fairyjinn @destinyg237 @verogonewild @annimausi @taetae-armyyyyy @jkoooooooookie @coral7161 @chezmardybum

[gothwizardmagic]

god ok also gotta say as a choreographer, whoever did the superbowl choreo was a fucking GENIUS like. it manages to be so effective without ever being flashy or complicated & like. flashy & complicated are great but to do the basics this effectively is PHENOMENAL. the repeated motifs are so striking and so strong and so CLEAR in their meaning its PAINFULLY effective - the contrast of more relaxed dancers just vibin and having a good time at the beginning & end, when its just people being themselves vs. "what america wants" - disquieting, emotionless, rigid lines of soldiers throwing salutes while kendrick & sza are singing on stage in the middle, keeping the people entertained & distracted as the goose-stepping dancers circle like sharks

and thats not to even mention the SCALE - working with such crisp colour lines in such an ENORMOUS group is staggering to even fathom like. making sure all the reds are in the right place at the right time & you dont have someone who was a blue in one section but accidentally wound up in the white group somewhere in the shuffle....... the formations are UNBELIEVABLY complex & span such an enormous space, its mind blowing to think about. over a hundred dancers. over a HUNDRED people to keep track of at all times to make sure they're getting from one place to another in the right way at the right times in the right formations. over a HUNDRED.

the dancers executed FLAWLESSLY too - taking big steps and remaining PERFECTLY in line is incredibly hard & they made it look effortless. the amount of split-second transitions to nail and vibe-shifts to hit.... oh my god. also shot to the camerapeople who were working their asses off on those transitions just as much as kendrick & the dancers were

also thinking of scale like... arena choreography and stage/film choreography are VERY different things. on a stage or in a music video etc. you have ONE front. at most on a big stage the audience might wrap slightly around the sides but generally speaking, you're choreographing for the people or camera in front of you, and they're gonna have a pretty good view of your face the whole time. arenas are MASSIVE, and there are people on ALL SIDES. you can't pick A Front, you have to be entertaining people all around you simultaneously, which means completely rethinking how things are structured. you also can't rely on detail nearly as much, because the audience is Really far away. even if there are screens, you want to make sure that there's something to look at on the stage itself, so the audience doesn't feel like they're just watching a music video. it's still a live show & you want it to feel like one

so theres a balance to strike between giving the individual artist focus & acknowledging that they literally... can't face every direction at once. even if kendrick is facing away, there are always dancers doing something that'll be visually striking at a distance for the audience to enjoy. but at the same time because there ARE cameras, it also has to work for video & HAVE those detailed up-close elements, so the footage doesn't just look like a guy bopping around with people walking past him for the whole time. the most effective example i can think of is in peekaboo - the groups of white-clothed dancers in the X is visually strong from a distance - even if you can't see exactly what's going on, it's an interesting visual, whereas up close you have the strong music video feel of kendrick popping up out of nowhere; of all these different up close groups of dancers giving their full performance directly to one front while that front is rotating from one group to another, as opposed to the multiple surrounding fronts on the main stage. it transitions from an arena show to a music video (and then back when he walks out onto the main stage with that trail of dancers so the visual is most effective from above rather than up close) SO EFFORTLESSLY and makes absolutely brilliant use of the space

this is literally jsut stream of consciousness it could definitely all be phrased better & honestly i could keep talking for a Long time like i didnt even get in depth abt the use of colour in the costuming & the way every costume is slightly unique in the up close shots but when you pan out to the stadium they become lines of clones like. god i could go on!!!! i coudl go on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its a masterpiece choreographically fr its elegant its communicative its mindbogglingly complex ive watched it five times now trying to absorb as much as i can

[billyrussoapologist]

Rewatching LOST, and I gotta say, I don’t think this show gets enough credit for how socially aware it is (in some ways, and considering the time it was created!) Take Sayid for example. Sayid is a man originally from Iraq, who served in the Republican Guard. LOST started in 2004, just a few years after 9/11, and, considering it’s a show about a plane crash, it was bold for LOST to tackle the discrimination that anyone of middle eastern descent might face in the U.S.A. The majority of the survivors are white people with English as their native language. Some of them are wary initially about Sayid after learning about his time in the Republican Guard. Sawyer even accuses him of being a terrorist, and cites how Sayid was pulled aside by TSA (his intention is to use this as evidence to back up his claim, but he’s really just proving the discrimination against people from the Middle East). However, Sayid proves to be one of the most caring, patient, and genuine characters on the show. Like many citizens of any nation who join any military force, Sayid had good intentions, and got more and more tangled in the complicated, morally questionable (to say the least) web of war. He escaped, and felt immense guilt for his involvement in both sides of the war (he ended up also helping the Americans, after they convinced his to interrogate and torture his own commanding officer). During his time on the island, he is generally a helpful, benevolent man. Ultimately, his past doesn’t matter - and neither does anyone else’s. They’re all on the same team once they crash on the island. And then there’s the other bold choice - to have him romantically involved with a blonde, white woman (Shannon). Having an Iraqi man and a white, American woman as a couple on TV in 2004 was groundbreaking. I don’t think Sayid as a character, or Naveen Andrews as an actor, gets enough credit.

[redsugarx]

青白之魅 2: Background & Influences

1 Introduction & Presentation // 2 Background & Influences // 3 Hair & Makeup // 4 Set Design // 5 Clothes & Accessories // 6 Conclusion

You want the nerd stuff? This is the Nerd Stuff post. Here are the main pieces of media that inspired the shoot, which I will be referencing in subsequent posts.

I'm not gonna be re-detailing the events of the legend itself in this post, because there are like a billion versions out there that you can easily find, but if you're not familiar with it here is the Wikipedia page. I'd give the plot a quick glance-through!

白蛇傳/白蛇传/bai2 she2 zhuan4/Legend of the White Snake

Mural depicting Bai Suzhen at the Beijing Summer Palace. Src: Wikimedia Commons, 颐和园长廊绘画，白蛇传, December 2005

It’s hard to say when exactly the Legend of the White Snake originated. When it first started out, it was likely just another standard married-a-pretty-girl-but-actually-it-was-a-demon fable. It didn’t stay that way—the Ming and Qing dynasties favored romance and feeling (google the Cult of Qing, it’s too complicated for me to go into and frankly my grasp on it is hazy at best), sort of like the way Europe had a Romantic period, which impacted literature in a variety of ways.

One of the most well-known early versions is a Ming Dynasty story called 白娘子永鎭雷峰塔/白娘子永镇雷塔/bai2 niang2 zi0 yong3 zhen4 lei2 feng1 ta3/'Madam White is Imprisoned Forever Under the Leifeng Pagoda,' from Feng Menglong's famous 警世通言/jing4 shi4 tong1 yan2/'Cautionary Tales.' It portrays Bai Suzhen, then called 白娘子/白娘子/bai2 niang2 zi0/Madam White, in a more sympathetic light (although she takes on somewhat of a crazy ex-girlfriend role). Later depictions focused on Bai Suzhen as the main character.

Src: Wikimedia Commons, 杭州西湖边，许仙、白娘子、小青塑像, May 2009

I like to consider this folktale as an example of how people and culture can change drastically through time, and how the boundaries between ideas become more blurry the closer you look. I also like to look at it as an example of people's views on something changing for the better as a result of familiarization: while the original snake-wife horror story likely stemmed from a fear of venomous snakes and supernatural threats, the propagation of the story throughout literature, opera, and other media encouraged understanding and sympathy over terror and rejection.

Most versions of the Legend of the White Snake end after Bai Suzhen gives birth to her son, only to be imprisoned under the Leifeng Pagoda by the monk Fahai, who Xiaoqing is not yet strong enough to defeat alone. Fortunately, a commonly-accepted sequel story involves either Xiaoqing coming back to fight Fahai and free her sister after cultivating her abilities to be strong enough, or Bai Suzhen's son growing up to show so much filial piety that the heavens were moved to release her.

Today, some people worship the snake sisters as deities, especially Bai Suzhen (there are a couple temples dedicated to her!), as symbols of health and medicine. In this way you can see that the sisters achieved immortality in the end :)

青蛇/青蛇/ QING1 SHE2/GREEN SNAKE (1993)

src: TMDB, liml715, 青蛇 (1993)

In my first semester at college I took a spectacular class called Sex and Gender in Premodern Chinese Culture. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least, though extremely challenging. At the end of the semester, we watched Green Snake, a 1993 Hong Kong movie directed by Tsui Hark 徐克 based on the novel by the famous author Lillian Lee, 李碧華.

A majority of white + green snake photoshoots these days base their model styling on this movie. It’s a beautiful story that touches on sensuality and suffering, simultaneously exploring and questioning Buddhist and traditional Chinese philosophies. The film is wrought with natural imagery and symbolism, containing allegories for 'othering' and perceived righteousness that I think are very relevant to today’s society. I especially appreciated its portrayal of the raw, animalistic nature of 'coming into womanhood,' and the question of whether form dictates identity or vice versa.

I watched the original Cantonese version, but I found this dubbed mandarin version on Youtube with simplified and English subtitles for your viewing pleasure.

A lot of design choices I made were impacted by this movie, especially the set design. The film focuses more on the two snake sisters as the main characters, rather than Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian's romance being the focus of the plot, so it expounded more on Xiaoqing's character than the opera or the original folktale. The overall aesthetic was very mystical and alluring and I used that as inspiration for my set design.

戲曲/戏曲/Chinese Opera

Chinese opera played a big role in popularizing the Legend of the White Snake, especially the romantic version popular today. There are lots of different kinds of Chinese opera (jingxi, gezaixi, kunqu, yue, wu, etc etc etc), and many of them have their own structures and versions of the Legend of the White Snake. The version I watched in full was Peking opera (because it was free and on Youtube lol, highly recommend).

Chinese opera has specific 行當/行当/hang2 dang1/‘role types’ for its characters. You might call these 'tropes' or 'archetypes'—it’s similar to how you’d call someone the female lead or male lead, or maybe 'sidekick bestie' or 'comic relief,' except more specific. Each role type has its own set of rules for costuming, the skillset the actor has to have, and the role of the character in the overall story. Sometimes there are subtypes of roles. In the Legend of the White Snake, both sisters are 旦角/dan4 jiao3/‘female leads.’ 

src: Wikimedia Commons, Legend of the White Snake in Beijing Opera, Feb 2008

Bai Suzhen is a 正旦/正旦/zheng4 dan4/‘righteous woman,’ also called the 青衣/青衣/qing1 yi1/‘teal-dressed.’ Most operas have this role as the female lead. A zhengdan is a dignified woman with steadfast virtues and an elegant demeanor, often already married or middle-aged. She is strong-willed, sophisticated, and fights for what’s right. Usually, her actions and decisions drive the plot of the story.

Xiaoqing's martial uniform. Src: 典藏臺灣, 青蛇戰裙襖-衣、褲（典藏號fir_09_0106_169）, March 2008

Xiaoqing can count as either a 花旦/花旦/hua1 dan4/‘flower maiden’ or 武旦/武旦/wu3 dan4/‘martial woman.’ The huadan is a younger girl with a lively and more naive personality, often accompanying an older and more mature zhengdan or guimendan (I don’t think this opera has a guimendan so I won’t go over it). As Bai Suzhen’s sworn sister, she playfully fulfills the duties of a maid, acting as her confidant and assistant, even helping to set up the meet-cute between her and Xu Xian.

借傘/借伞/jie4 san3/'Borrowing the Umbrella,' the scene in which Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian meet.

Both sisters carry swords, have extensive fight scenes and can be considered wudan in the scenes they fight in. You’ll see that during these scenes, there's a costume change into the wudan’s soldier uniform, 戰襖/战袄/zhan4 ao3/battle costume. They each perform a variety of acrobatic tricks with swords and spears that the actors have to train for years to master, especially Xiaoqing.

金山寺/jin1 shan1 si4/Jinshan Temple plainclothes rehearsal, one of the two extended fight scenes in the opera.

The opera is significant for a couple of reasons—one being that it helped me get a sense of the snake sisters' characterizations, and two being that it helped to see where hundreds of years of the story's evolution finally landed. I didn't use the opera costumes for inspiration in the clothing design, since opera costumes tend to be more similar to Ming/Qing clothing and my design was based off of Northern/Southern Dynasty silhouettes, but opera elements made their appearance in several ways in the hair design, which I'll expand on in the next post.

Popular Adaptations I Did Not Watch

白蛇：緣起 and 白蛇2：青蛇劫起 (2019-2020 Donghua)

新白娘子传奇 (2019 Cdrama)

Why? These are more modern adaptations of the legend. I've seen clips from them both and they are breathtakingly beautiful in their own right! But because I was creating my own adaptation of the legend, I wanted to primarily reference older media (at least pre-2000's), rather than using other peoples' ideas from the past few years. Again though they look absolutely amazing, so for anyone who wants more engagement with the legend, I highly recommend trying them!

If you made it to the end, congrats :) I'll try to get the next few parts out relatively quickly before my memory fades so I can continue writing more informational stuff in the future. The subsequent parts will focus more on the shoot itself and the design work I did for it. Happy Year of the Snake!

1 Introduction & Presentation // 2 Background & Influences // 3 Hair & Makeup // 4 Set Design // 5 Clothes & Accessories // 6 Conclusion

[literaryvein-reblogs]

What is the difference between urban fantasy and low fantasy?

Using the Fantasy Fiction Continuum, urban fantasy is closer to "reality" in comparison with low fantasy. But also consider other elements that further distinguish both of these fantasy subgenres.

Urban Fantasy - fantastical characters and concepts are placed in a real-world urban setting, often in the present day; also sometimes called "Modern Fantasy"

Low Fantasy - set in the real world, and includes unexpected magical elements that surprise ordinary characters

Urban Fantasy can also be split into 2 distinct subgenres of its own:

The fantasy elements are out in the open

Or they exist in a kind of a shadow society, with the rest of the world operating normally, generally unaware of its existence.

Elements of Urban Fantasy

If you’re asking yourself “what is urban fantasy?” think of it this way: Imagine a book that combines the dense worldbuilding of fantasy and science fiction with the gritty grounded reality of contemporary novels set in New York City, Chicago, or other iconic urban locales. That’s the urban fantasy genre. Here are some key elements of urban fantasy novels, short stories, and films:

Fantasy tropes: Urban fantasy storylines combine the real-life grit with of modern world with fantastical worldbuilding.

An urban setting: Although small town urban fantasies do exist, most take place in present-day major cities.

Magic: Supernatural elements, sci-fi technologies, fairy tales, and folk mythologies are all found throughout urban fantasy novels.

A noir aesthetic: Urban fantasies lift genre conventions from noir and gritty police procedurals.

Mythical creatures: Urban fantasies are populated with supernatural creatures including (but not limited to) undead zombies, vampires, werewolves, druids, demons, shapeshifters, and perhaps a mage or wizard.

A protagonist with a foot in both worlds: The main character of an urban fantasy is typically savvy to the real-life ways of their urban environment yet can also wield or exploit magical powers.

A young protagonist: Relatively young characters who practice wizardry or witchcraft are common in urban fantasy series.

Elements of Low Fantasy

Low Fantasy is a catchall, and inexact, term for secondary world (i.e., a constructed world; a completely fictional setting, rather than our world) fantasy.

The designation is not a description of the quality of the work, but rather the prevalence of fantastic elements.

Tends towards less “traditional” (simplistic) morality.

Sometimes comedies are also excluded from the genre, but either way the works that remain don't have a natural unity.

However, while there is no complete list of defining features, there are features and tropes common to many Low Fantasy works that can help distinguish them from other fantasy works; each tends to be the opposite of one of the defining features of High Fantasy. Examples:

Magic: While Magic is prominent in High Fantasy, it's generally rare if not non-existent in Low Fantasy. What magic does exist is complicated, ambiguous, reserved for a very select few and/or has specific scientific rules. It's also likely to be dangerous, corruptive, or difficult to control, and magic-users are likely to be distrusted and often genuinely untrustworthy sorts.

Heroes: Usually normal people that have taken up a cause rather than The Chosen Ones of High Fantasy. It's not uncommon for them to be an Anti-Hero of some kind and/or have non-heroic motives (e.g. they take up a cause for personal ambition, for vengeance or just to survive as opposed to doing it for the 'greater good').

Shades of Grey: While High Fantasy usually features Black-and-White Morality with clear-cut heroes and villains, many Low Fantasy works have Grey and Gray or Black and Gray. More importantly, the success of the victor often has no bearing on their motives or honor.

Methods: Victories are usually achieved through physical combat and cunning, not magical battles and certainly not by moral superiority.

Scope: Down to Earth. Tends to focus more on the survival and tribulations of one or a few individuals rather than the whole world.

Examples of Urban Fantasy Works

The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher (2000)

The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch (2011)

The Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews (2007)

The Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton (2000)

The Hollows series by Kim Harrison (2004)

The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs (2006)

The Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter (2009)

The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris (2001)

Moonheart by Charles de Lint (1984)

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (1987)

Examples of Low Fantasy Works

When the plastic figurines come to life in Lynne Reid Banks’s The Indian in the Cupboard (1980).

A Song of Ice and Fire is a generally low-magic setting, with a cynically pragmatic worldview and a focus on political maneuvering between rival factions who are all at least morally gray; however, the politics spans two continents and reaches epic levels on its own even without more traditional, stirring High adventure elements. However, because The Magic Comes Back slowly over the course of the story, the fantasy does get progressively Higher as the series goes on, even though the general tone remains Low in nature. The magic and other mysteries are treated as ambiguous, yet highly dangerous, potentially world-changing and complicating factors in an already combustible political and social situation.

Tangled has very little magic — with the only source of it being Rapunzel's hair. Besides the animals being somewhat more intelligent than normal, there's little else. The protagonists are all human, and the story is mainly Rapunzel's journey to the kingdom. The antagonist is said to be a witch, but she has no powers other than knowing how to activate Rapunzel's magic. As far as Grey-and-Gray Morality goes, one of the lead characters is an unrepentant thief and various side characters are implied criminals with Hidden Depths.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Do go through the sources for more details and examples. Hope this helps with your writing!

[menlove]

hey can you please explain it to us? like how are we supposed to just understand? why would a large ethnic minority vote for an open racist who hates them? this is not intuitive

wasn't trying to imply you're just supposed to understand- sorry, it's just always a lil bit of a uh bitter inducing moment when this topic comes up bc it makes it really obvious that a lot of people just don't engage w the latine community

but basically, most latines are conservative christian. usually catholic (my family isn't catholic, though my grandmother was raised that way). a solid majority of them are one issue voters, usually on the issue of abortion because many catholics & conservative christians are one issue abortion voters.

there's also the immigration issue. a lot of these conservative latines do in fact care about better immigration reform, but a lot of them also have this attitude of "I did it legally, so why can't you?" so they don't even see themselves as a PART of the group being targeted. and if they do and they take issue with it, they tend to go "okay, but the republicans agree with me on everything else and I can't in good moral conscience vote for the other party who disagrees with everything I stand for as a moral christian"

and while many latines have voted blue over immigration in the past, harris leaned pretty heavily right on the immigration issue so it's like. to them. are you choosing the guy who agrees with you on everything but immigration, or the woman who disagrees with you on everything Including immigration?

and then you also have to get into the race of it all because race is beyond complicated in this case. non-black latines sit in a weird in between space with whiteness. to the right, we're white when we're Good. to the left, we're white when it's a Problem. whiteness is conditional. and this is the case for many demographics, but it's especially relevant here. when people sit on that edge of whiteness, they WILL throw each other and other minorities under the bus to earn the protection of whiteness. so you know. behave, vote red, show yourselves to be moral, legal citizens, and MAYBE you'll be granted the protection of being considered white in america. and we aren't. but that doesn't stop people from trying. even taking my dad as an example, I grew up with him talking about how much he hated white people. today, he's out here calling himself a proud white man who voted for trump. it's conditional. and people know whiteness is a protection. naturally, this leads to a lot of antiblackness in the community as well as just racism in general.

it just boils down to latines by and large being conservative christian/catholic and voting based on that rather than viewing themselves a minority race. and being way way more split on the immigration issue than people might imagine, because I've absolutely heard it parroted time and time again that "I got here legally, so can they"

[mandrake-mistakes]

Let’s talk about the Prim Reaper

Listen. It’s funny. I enjoy a big tall glass of I hate Gale juice in the morning with my bacon and eggs as much as the next girlie. But he’s also super interesting and complicated and important and I have a million thoughts so buckle up for a lengthy journey through the Gale Hawthorn section of my brain.

Why Gale is good

He wants a better world for everyone in panem

He stepped up to care for his family as a 14 year old

He took care of Katniss’s family while she was in the arena and would have continued to feed them for the rest of his life if she’d died in the games. At great person cost

Every single person from district 12 who is alive at the end of the games (besides the victors) is alive because of Gale. He pulled people out of burning buildings, he tore down the fence, he fed and led all the refugees to d13

He’s smart, resourceful, capable, determined, idealistic, stubborn, and honest.

Why Gale is important as a character

His anger at the state of Panem is (1) valid and (2) representative of a feeling held by a LARGE number of people. Katniss doesn’t talk to a lot of folks openly, but it’s safe to assume everyone overthrowing their districts was just as angry as Gale. He puts a voice to that fury

His focus on violence as a solution and his quickness to assimilate into the military and his trust of Coin make him one of the most notable mirrors held up to society in the original trilogy. Susanne wrote THG inspired by Americans response to the Iraq War. We were dealing with things like the Patriot Act, anti-Muslim sentiment, and enlistment propaganda in the states when these books were first written. Gales view on enemies and war were incredibly normal takes for the average American citizen at the time. She didn’t write him to be a villain, she wrote him to be US

The belief that some collateral civilian death is necessary and acceptable in war is NORMAL (bad, but very very common). All of you reading this live under governments that operate that way. It’s KATNISS’S beliefs that are the outliers here. The fact that Susanne got us all to agree with Katniss on this is wonderful and impressive and half the point of the books. But that doesn’t make Gale a stand out villain, he’s representing the norm. He is who we were before we read THG

Gale is a foil to so many things I don’t even know where to begin. His morals contrast Katniss’s and make her views more solidified and defined for the reader. He does the same for Peeta by being a contrasting romantic lead. Also Finnick to a lesser degree. He mimics some of Snow’s philosophy, reminding us the call is sometimes coming from inside the house. And he exemplifies Coin’s control and influence over her people. Not all of these are examples of literary foils but if you’re not Mrs Pierce from 12th grade English you don’t get to call me out about it

Why Gale sucks

He has a strong Us vs Them mentality, which is very normal, very problematic, and very worth critiquing. He has a chip on his shoulder about the “well off” merchant class in district 12, he has no empathy or forgiveness for capital citizens like Katniss’s prep team, and holds onto prejudices against victors. Unlike Katniss, he doesn’t get to know people and change his mind about their motives, he doesn’t give respect or humanize those he thinks are against him. He does not remember who the real enemy is

He also has a strong “if you’re not with me you’re against me” view of people. Anyone who isn’t rebelling loudly enough is making themselves his enemy. He’s angry with katniss in Catching Fire for not wanting to join the rebellion, he complains she should be doing more to spread dissent instead of trying to protect herself and her loved ones. He says that anyone sweeping floors in the Nut in district 2 is working for the enemy and deserving of the same treatment as those actively firing weapons against him. He’s very black and white about who deserves mercy and who does not.

He’s a really bad friend!!! He rarely gives Katniss any sort of comfort or emotional support. He ignored it when she’s struggling. He ignores the trauma she went through in the games. He goes so far as to ignore it when her SISTER DIES. When she acts out of fear (trying to run away, performing with Peeta for the cameras, refusing to define any romantic relationships atm) he belittles her.

It has to be said, we all knew this bullet point was coming, the romantic pressure he puts on Katniss is not chill. He kisses her without permission, guilts and manipulates her, gets angry when she doesn’t make a “choice” about who her “boyfriend” should be in the middle of conversations about who will be brutally murdered next. He does not read the room and does not accept her no or empathize with her confusion or fear.

“‘It’s the way he hates you. It’s so… familiar. I used to feel like that,’ he admits, ‘when I’d watch you kissing him on the screen. Only I knew I wasn’t being entirely fair. He can’t see that.’” - Gale says about hijacked Peeta after he’s insulted and embarrassed Katniss in the dining hall. Hijacked Peeta, who barely sees Katniss as human, who tried to kill her, who at best sees her as cruel and manipulative and wicked at this point in the story. Gale relates to that overgrown, violent, jealousy so much he tells katniss it’s FAMILIAR. He says that TO HER FACE. Evil. I know he goes on to say a nice comforting thing about how hijacked Peeta isn’t seeing the real her right after this quote but I will never be over that he says this and I shan’t forgive him for it.

What happened with Prim and the bomb

This gets its own section cuz it’s a big deal and super twisted by in fandom discussions

We know that Gale didn’t make the choice to use the double bomb when and where it was used. He was with Katniss and Co.™️ in the capital when it went down

Gale and Beetee are not even sure that it was their trap design enacted by Coin. But they seem to suspect. Katniss is sure it’s true. We the readers are meant to believe that’s what happened. It was Chekhov's gun, it had to go off

Gale would NEVER hurt Prim on purpose. He’s proven himself to be a protector, and Prim is one of his priorities. He’s saved her life, he’s cared for her, he cares a lot about Katniss and knows better than almost anybody how important Prim is to her. There’s no reality where Gale knew she was going to be in the capital and allowed it. No world where he saw her on the street and pressed a button to drop a bomb on her.

However, Gale is okay with the death of innocence. His design preys on compassion, it intentionally targets medics and those rushing in to help. It reflects his belief system about collateral damage in war perfectly. He knows it’s not pretty, but he believes it’s necessary and the ends justify the means. When he says this he’s imagining the trap being used on the ENEMY. He’s comfortable thinking about the deaths of theoretical, enemy Prims.

The fact that this got turned around and used on allies and ultimately kills someone close to him and ruins the relationship he cares most about is a huge lesson for Gale. He never learned to remember who the enemy is and that failing lead him right up to that scene with katniss in the mirror. He thought there was a wholely good and wholely bad side to the war. He thought his designs would only be used on enemies. He thought those getting hurt would deserve it. He thought the loss of life would be worth it. He was wrong.

[knight-a3]

Hazbin Masterpost

Heavenbound Masterpost

Sera, high radiant seraphim

I wanted angels to look more human. The whole "biblically accurate angels" thing is not quite as biblically accurate as you probably think.

More under the cut

This gets into some theology. So, I wanted heaven to be more human, since God created man in his own image, and it works best with the lore I am building. It just gives a more heavenly vibe when the angels aren't some creature-things. I want heaven to feel heavenly, okay?

Clothes: I changed her outfit, because the canon one is a bit too complicated and I didn't understand the construction of it. So I did something that's easier for me to understand. It's overall more animation friendly, and that pleases me.

Halo: I have specific ideas about halos. They denote the type and rank of angel they are. Seraphim have two silver ring halos. I haven't decided if I want to make her one of the Seven Heavenly Virtues (the Elder Seraphim) or just the head of the Radiant Seraphim(the broader rank of seraphim). Either could work. But if she's a virtue, I'd need to make a small change to her halo, as per my own lore rules.

Wings: I've decided to give seraphim wings with three sets(six total) of primary feathers, instead of six entirely separate wings. Mostly because I do not want to draw that many wings nor figure out the anatomy of it. It mimics the six-winged look while being easier for me to wrap my head around and draw. I also just like the look better.

They can also be summoned and dismissed at will, because I don't want to have to draw them all the time. It's a cop out, but I will do it.

--Biblically Accurate Angels--

"Biblically accurate" is not quite what most people think. Y'all are like, "biblically accurate angels are crazy looking eyeball and wing monstrosities, no wonder people were scared!" But that's literally not what the bible says.

Angel means "messenger", and they often appear as regular-looking people. Sometimes they have a "countenance of lightning" and "raiment white as snow". Jesus was once described(post-resurrection) as having feet of molten bronze(the molten part is the key: it's literally white-hot, not brown) and hair as wool(specifically referring to the color, not texture, and the commonly associated color is white). These are descriptions of glowing.

The crazier depictions tend to happen in visions or dreams, too. It's likely they were symbolic descriptions rather than literal. That the individual components had a cultural connotation that implied something about them. Many eyes symbolized constant watchfulness, for example. I mean, we sometimes describe an angry person as having fire in their eyes or steam coming out their ears, and that's not literal. We describe a sly person as a snake or a fox, but it's not literal. The book of Revelations and the Old Testament, in particular, use imagery, symbolism, and metaphors A LOT. And things get a little muddy when carried between language, culture, and time. Translation, localization, and modernization are tricky processes.

--Seraphim-- <-Link to some helpful info about this topic, if you're interested in that type of thing.

"Seraph" is a back-formation. It's a singular form of a pre-existing plural word. Seraphim is the plural form. I will probably use seraphs and seraphim interchangeably, so just don't worry about that.

The Hebrew root word "sarap" means something along the lines of "burning". It was often used to refer to snakes (possibly because the venom causes a burning sensation, or maybe as a metaphor for purification). It is only used once to describe a heavenly being, in the book of Isaiah. Every other time, it is translated as "burning ones" or "fiery flying serpent". In Egypt and other surrounding cultures, cobras would be used to symbolize divinity, sovereignty, and royalty. The Hebrews probably adopted the imagery. The seraphim described in the Bible might not even refer to what we typically imagine to be angels.

Long story short; seraphim means fiery flying serpents and symbolize divinity and/or purification.

--Cherubim-- <-Link to more cool info!

While I'm on the topic of the etymology of angels, I might as well address cherubs. Cherubim is the proper plural form, but I will probably use cherubs and cherubim interchangeably as well. Just roll with it, it's fine.

The youthful child depiction possibly comes from some rabbinic folk lore that claims the word is related to the Aramaic term for "like a child" or "youthful", but I'm not sure if that's true.

What I'm seeing most consistently is that they're implied to have wings. It seems commonly accepted that it comes from an Akkadian word meaning, "to bless". One source claims it means "hybrid" or "mount, steed" and refers to winged beasts that the Canaanite sky god would ride. Which would align with the depictions of cherubim as tetrads(a hybrid of four creatures), and/or the use of it as some sort of divine flying chariot.

There are a lot of theories, but nothing concrete. It gets very unclear and I'm not an expert. But I'm incorporating a variety of ideas into my lore, and I think I'm doing good with balancing them.

--

In the end, I'm using the terms seraphim and cherubim to describe ranks of angels, because it's what works best with our current understanding of the words. I'm not going to include the other traditional classes of angels like dominions, thrones, etc, because it's overly complicated, and not actually biblical. I don't want to waste brain power on that. Also, the Bible doesn't actually describe the hierarchy of angels at all. It's not even clear if seraphim and cherubim are supposed to be considered angels.

[bloomeng]

I stopped playing genshin awhile back less out of protest and more out of disappointment and frustration towards the game, so know that what I’m about to say is not an attack on genshin players because I too was there for a long time. I’m a strong believer in that all media— even the most highly regarded— will have issues and simply enjoying said media does not reflect on your values so long as you can recognize when something about it could be better. In general fandom bashing to me is a pointless endeavor that only hurts people’s feelings and is ALWAYS hypocritical because maybe you don’t like one thing that you deem bad but I can guarantee, right now, you also like something that has made mistakes.

With all that being said it makes me very frustrated when genshin fans act as if the only issue with the designs is the fact that they’re white. It misses the point. Sure, they would be better if they weren’t paper white, definitely a step in the right direction but genshin is beyond help. Natlan was just the final tipping point. At its core, genshin’s designs have fundamental issues. The colorism is the most obvious, but the lack of body diversity is also an issue. Not to mention the lack of hair texture or features, the way they homogenize culture, the stealing random cultural names or elements with no consideration for their origins, the orientalism, the age issue, and the sheer fact that their shape language/character design principles are just bad from a design standpoint. (I wrote a mini-essay on that part alone.) The list goes on.

Perfect example: I saw the new cow-girl design they released and she’s slightly wider than their other models, not even mid-size, but by genshin standards that’s fat and her defining trait is how much she eats, she’s literally a cow and one of her attacks is to accidentally sit on her opponent. Not to mention the fact that it’s supposed to be a stumble into a fall while in a tiny skirt which makes it feel suspiciously like fetish content. Fully sums up my entire point that genshin has fundamental problems with its characters.

There are plenty of people who speak out but there’s a very prevalent narrative amongst the fandom that (whether intentional or not) implies everything would be fixed if they just made them not white. And it irks me, because at this point it feels willfully obtuse. Again it’s fine to play the game, to enjoy it and interact with genshin content like you would any other fandom space but there’s a hypocrisy to the people who believe they’re speaking out by editing the skin tone and maybe adding some freckles. This is a nuanced thing. It’s about how the work is created. If you are simply an artist drawing a character with some of your headcanons that’s not an issue, it’s not even a statement really, it’s just artistic interpretation. What I’m specifically referring to is when people make edits/artwork with the intent of “fixing genshin” and the only thing that changes is skin tone.

To truly fix genshin’s designs you would have to start from scratch. And yknow what? Character designing for cultures we’re not apart of is really fucking hard and that’s why they have teams of people working on them. It’s a thin line to balance. As individuals it’s not really our responsibility to fix them but if you do walk into that territory (aka making art or edits with the intention of fixing), you do now hold some of that responsibility. I’ve seen several artists fall into this trap where they go in with pure intentions of trying to help but quickly find out how complicated it is, not only to design a good looking character, but one that respectfully includes real cultural elements (that they aren’t familiar with) and it goes poorly. Again this is why these projects have teams of people as well as diversity coordinators.

And I think the key aspect that makes designing for genshin really hard is that they will always be limited by being a fantasy setting that is almost entirely based on real world cultures. No matter the intention this type of world building makes it extremely easy to fall into offensive streotypes, because you aren’t just showcasing a real life culture, you have to take the additional step in making it into something new. We run into the issue of diluting real world cultures down to aesthetics or implying things for the purpose of narrative, among many other challenges. Inherently by making that leap into the second step we are in muddy waters. Even shows like ATLA—which are held in high regard for their integration of real world culture into their fantasy world building— still have issues (which is also a fascinating conversation but not on topic).

Suffice to say it’s really hard to do. But with the access to resources that Hoyoverse has, it’s ridiculous that these compounding issues continue to persist.

[drdemonprince]

I should probably preface this by saying that this is a genuine question, not an attempt to "own" anyone, not a troll, etc. I'm genuinely curious and interested: Has there been any good scientific studies done on the question "Does having a kink about a 'problematic' subject, reading about it, fantazising about it, roleplaying it, etc., make a person more or less likely to do that problematic thing in real life?" Do you know of any good research papers or articles on the subject? Maybe it's a whole field of study?

I feel like if I ever (god help me) would have to defend a position of "other people's kinks, no matter how disgusted they might make me feel personally, are none of my business" to someone, it would be useful to have some kind empirical science to point towards.

Again, I'm not trying to be a jerk saying "source, please?", I'm genuinely interested in reading about it.

So a good place to start here is in thinking about how this kind of topic gets data collected about it. So if you're wondering about the relationship between, for example, fantasizing about bestiality and actually abusing animals, your primary way of being able to study actual, real-world behavioral outcomes would be to identify a source of data on acts of bestiality...which would almost exclusively come from the police state. If you really wanted to study who actually does commit these acts and what their history was, you'd have to look at people who were convicted for having committed animal abuse of a sexual nature.

The problem is, that data isn't necessarily representative of what abuse actually occurs and how often. The police aren't trustworthy, the carceral justice system is profoundly unjust, not every person gets investigated or tried fairly, and even if all those systems DID operate justly and fairly, you'd still be missing all the people who never got caught. And we know that since these systems are racist, classist, ableist, etc, that they are not 'catching' real offenders from all groups equally. Poor & Black people who have committed these acts are most likely to get caught, rich & white ones least likely. And so the data is skewed.

This is FURTHER complicated by the fact that even if you do look at this data, you are only seeing the people who *have* harmed animals sexually, not the people that haven't, and so that is going to be susceptible to confirmation bias of your prior assumptions and not be representative of the whole population if you use it to draw conclusions. So, for instance, if you look at the porn habits of every person who has been convicted for bestiality, you will probably find a lot of bestiality porn (both fantasy and real) in their histories. Okay, not surprising... but of the average people watching this porn, how many actually go on to offend and how many don't? We have no way of knowing. And because such an activity is so stigmatized (and in the case of real porn, itself illegal), you're going to not be able to get self-report surveys from the general population on this.

If you did try to give out surveys on this kind of stuff, you might be forced to report any of your respondents who did admit to doing something illegal. It wouldn't really pass most ethics boards to do this research at all.

So you can see why this is such a shadowy field of discussion. The thing to keep in mind is that the number of people who do get arrested for things like bestiality, child sexual abuse (especially the kind that is driven by an attraction to children rather than your garden variety case of a parent abusing their power over their kids in multiple ways, including sexual, but the sex is incidental), etc are very small. These are vanishingly uncommon crimes. and we can't really trust the police state to give us reputable information on this. and it is very hard for scientists to study well, and most who study it do approach it in a pretty sensationalistic way.

So, to answer your question, yes you can hop onto google scholar and dig around for studies on 'paraphilias' and their relationship to criminal offenses, but most of it is going to be profiles of people locked in mental health institutions and jails that SOUNDS super scary and fucking disgusting but is not a good reflection of whatever the hell is going on in the actual world. I think it's evident that a hell of a lot more people are fantasizing about this stuff than are offenders. Especially if we are drawing a distinction between fantasy and porn that depicts actual abuse. The people drawing dogs fucking on like deviant art or whatever probably do not pose any actual threat to real animals 99.99% of the time.

And if and when a person with a desire to DOES harm animals, it is because of the legal construction of animals as property that it is possible for them to do so. once again power is the root of the crime. more than a 'paraphilia' making someone like, evil. a lot of this stuff is values based and a philosophical case about how the world works rather than a specific statistical claim. but the number of real offenses that happen are so vanishingly thin that we could barely empirically study them anyway -- it's too small a sample size, and there is no ability to locate comparison groups of non-offenders who share these kinks.

I hope this helps answer your question. Obviously I am using bestiality as one example here but you could apply this to CNC and rape porn, child abuse and age play porn, etc etc.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped counting Covid-19 cases, according to wastewater data—which emerged early on as an accurate tracker of the ebbs and flows of the virus—we are currently in one of the biggest surges of the pandemic, amid the spread of a new variant, JN-1, as the virus keeps mutating. More than three-quarters of U.S. hospital beds are currently in use due to Covid hospitalizations. Uptake of the most recent booster shot, which should help to protect against the new variant and lower the risk of severe cases and the odds of getting long Covid, hovers around 19 percent. Meanwhile, the most recent White House response to a question about whether they had any guidance for hospitals, some of which have brought back mitigation protocols in response to the most recent Covid spike, came courtesy of press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: “Hospitals, communities, states, they have to make their own decisions. That’s not something we get involved in,” she replied, appearing exasperated. “We are in possibly the second-biggest surge of the pandemic if you look at wastewater levels,” said Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, who runs a long-Covid clinic at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and has had ongoing Covid symptoms since August 2022. “There is no urgency to this. No news. No discussion in Congress. There is no education.”

[...]

Since the Biden administration declared the end of the national emergency in May, Americans across the political spectrum have largely followed the example set by the government and entirely disposed of any level of Covid precautions. Liberal and left-wing outlets have participated in the normalizing of Covid too, dismissing or even ostracizing people who still take precautions as if they are tin-hat conspiracy theorists. “We can’t be in lockdown forever,” has become a common refrain, as if wearing a mask on the subway constitutes “lockdown.” In September, Biden himself participated in the spread of this kind of harmful disinformation when he declared the pandemic “over” on 60 Minutes. “If you notice, no one’s wearing masks,” he said. “Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape.” This is, essentially, governing via “vibes”—so much for “following the science.”

[...]

The consequences of discarding all Covid precautions are becoming clearer, as more people get repeated infections and long-term symptoms, amid an alarming spike in heart problems among healthy young people. People are getting sick more often not due to the myth of “immunity debt,” which posits that the lack of exposure to other people during lockdown has made people less able to fight off infections (three years later), but because Covid weakens the immune system. Each time someone contracts Covid, the odds of long-term complications increase.