#now do I think maxim caused this to happen?

[mewkwota]

"...Wake up... Wake up...!!!" That voice... it isn't mine...

This is very-very conceptual art, like the one before it, but with more interaction and I wouldn't even think of it as something that actually happened-- unless you want it to. Nothing else can be done about it.

[gemsalive]

re: that HEFTY siffrin sweep on id5’s isat favourite blorbos poll — this might sound silly but i do actually think it’s kinda fascinating that isat, as a game so inseparably steeped in (for lack of a better way to describe it) queer fandom culture, managed to so completely sidestep the common Fandom Phenomenon that i suspect was behind the poll in the first place by creating a main character that is also overwhelmingly the fan favourite character for once.

obviously there are any number of factors we could point at to explain the extent to which siffrin nomiddlenames nolastnames manages to grab people and absolutely not let go, but personally i think one of the most interesting ones to consider is the one specific to the medium — that is, how siffrin subverts the “silent blank slate video game protagonist” archetype in such a way that happens to be primo brainrot breeding grounds.

like, when a video game dev makes a silent protagonist it’s usually a bid to maximize immersion by closing the aesthetic distance between player and character as much as possible, right? which is especially true of rpg video games — players find connection in the generic, as that is what gives you the freedom of motion to insert yourself into the story in whatever unique shape suits you best. you are your character and your character is you.

(as ever, post ran long. yall know the drill. tossin in a quick header pic before thoughts on blank slates & blorboification continue under the cut)

and then you’ve got siffrin, who is expressly pointed out to be the taciturn type; who when initially giving the player exposition about their journey so far doesn’t seem to hint at a life or history or even really any motivations outside the journey; whose every thought and action is narrated in second person so as to keep tracing and re-tracing the connection between him and you.

even their design — all darkless and shapeless, bundled up in that big cloak, as if an invitation for you to fill it in with whatever lets you relate to them most! at this point they are their own character for sure, but they also have enough very clear parallels going on with the silent protagonist archetype to feel more than accidental.

of course, as you keep playing you start to recognize that his blankness is much, much more than just a grab at immersion; his apparent lack of backstory, itself a fundamental piece of backstory. this is where he flips dramatically in the player’s perception from “generic vessel for story delivery” to “thoroughly multidimensional character trapped within endless torment nexus custom-built to target and exacerbate all his very specific worst traits rooted in very specific traumas”.

yknow, the good stuff !

but by then you have also been playing enough to be feeling the effects of the thing isat’s design does best of all. i’m talkin bout that ludonarrative lockstep baby. every piece of isat’s gameplay is designed to make you feel what siffrin is feeling — you understand by now that he is not a stand-in for you, but all the same you share in his frustration, his grief, his rare moments of joy and the subsequent heart-in-your-shoes devastation when that joy is inevitably poisoned — and through it all, the desperate grasping for anything new — all as if they were every bit your own.

so in this way the connection is maintained, even if you were someone for whom siffrin’s particular traits & struggles might not otherwise cause you relate to them at all if you had encountered them elsewhere, in a setting where you weren’t actively controlling them as a player. siffrin still gets to carry all the “just like me fr” impact of the blank slate protagonist in the tropes he embodies and in the game mechanics’ design, while totally free to evolve completely into his own character and keep you relating to closely them all the same. now toss back in the fact that said traits & struggles very much ARE of a flavour that a great many people Would Tend To Relate To and just like that you’ve got a perfect storm cookin.

too individual and compellingly written to be an empty vessel for plot delivery. too closely connected with the player’s emotional state to be a story observed impassively from the outside. he has 92 mental illnesses and for the low low price of free u can give him yours to carry too. nobody is doin it like him. congratulations on your well-deserved nose sniffrin nomiddlenames nolastnames <3

[obsessedwithceleste]

Theodore Nott Headcanons

Dedicated to this lil request here 🫶🏽

©️ obsessedwithceleste. all works posted here belong to me and should not be reposted or copied in any way or form.

It’s no secret that Theodore Nott had a rough childhood

Between witnessing his mother’s death at a young age and having a particularly ruthless father, Theo learned to be quietly reserved early on

1000% Theo is an introvert

Despite being seemingly closed off, he’s extremely observant and good at reading others and picking up on things quickly

While he may not be the best at deciphering his own emotions, he’s able to sort through others’ easily

This makes it easy for him to be rather manipulative because he knows what makes other’s tick and how to go straight for the jugular

He may be distant and off putting in the beginning, but once you get close, he’s a clingy bastard because he doesn’t let many people get close, so once you make it there he’ll basically hold you captive forever

He’s also stupid smart

(Canonically he’s able to re-create an illegal time turner after they were all destroyed in the department of mysteries so//)

And this makes him a bit of an arrogant asshole

Looks down on people he thinks aren’t as smart as him

He definitely thinks that he knows best and can have a “my way or the highway” type mindset

Probably has some type of gifted kid™️ trauma and a crippling fear of failure

Anyway, he’s super intelligent and witty and has the potential to do really well in classes

But he has a nasty habit off skiving off with Mattheo Riddle

Who happens to be his best friend along with Lorenzo Berkshire

A lot of people think Theo is the “mother” of the group, or at least the one with the most impulse control

They’re wrong

Theo is the one that Mattheo goes to with his dumbass ideas and Theo’s response is generally something along the lines of-

“Absolutely not you tosser. If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right”

Queue Mattheo’s initial plan- only methodically planned out to cause maximal amounts of emotional trauma for the Hogwarts population

Theo and Mattheo are also a chaotic duo on the quidditch pitch

Theo is a chaser

Making the quidditch team in his third year is one of the only times his father showed a hint of satisfaction with the boy

Being on the Slytherin quidditch team, he’s often labeled a preppy jock

And Mattheo does help him break out of his shell more

But he’s a nerdy lil book worm at heart and likes to be holed up in the library most days

Theo also has quite the reputation of being a ladies man with rumors about his escapades swarming the student body

But really they’re just that- rumors

Lorenzo is more of the openly flirtatious pretty boy, and Mattheo certainly knows how to make his way around which is perhaps why people think Theo would be the same way

But he isn’t one to really form physical attachments- emotional or not

He prefers to fly under the radar

He may have had a fling or two, but isn’t one to kiss and tell

He has a hard time entering a real relationship

Mostly because when he first realizes he’s caught feelings, he’s convinced he’s actually just ill and stays in bed pretending to be sick

But once he comes to terms with things, he’s one determined wizard

Makes sure everyone knows that you’re off limits (possibly before you know yourself)

Definitely goes to Enzo for advice on how to woo you

With varying degrees of success

King of subtle PDA (just enough to mark his territory)

Confident and secure in his relationship, but also still jealous as hell

Will hex the living shit out of someone for breathing at you the wrong way

Finds it amusing when you get jealous though

But will shut it the fuck down as soon as he picks up on you being actually upset (probably embarrassing whoever it is in the process)

Not always the best at communicating his feeling cause he’s emotionally constipated af

But tries because he knows he doesn’t want a relationship like his parent’s

Okayyy I think that’s all for now, but I have a feeling these will grow and evolve with time sooo- ongoing (?) idk

[the-soliloquies-of-sadists]

#386

“I guess you’ll do.  I didn’t know what to expect when I contacted you.  As I told you, I’ve never been with a gay boy.  Your ad said that you offer a deep throat with no reciprocation.  Good, cause I ain’t touching you.  Your ad also said that you only blow eight inches or more.  Well I got nine.

“I just need a blowjob.  Neither my wife or my girlfriend give it to me whenever I need it.  I have to take them on a night out.  So much goddamned work for something I should have every single day.

“I work hard; I need relief.  So I hope you live up to what you are promising.  If not, I will make sure you do.  On your knees bitch.

“That’s right.  You know your fucking place is on your knees.  Take of your goddamned shirt.  Let me see your titties….  Ooh they are soft.  I like playing with titties when I’m getting blown.

“Here’s my pouch.  Big isn’t it?...  Don’t say anything.  Take a deep whiff.  Smell that?  I didn’t take a shower after playing 18 holes in the hot sun.  You won’t mind. 

“I can see you salivating.  Go on.  Reach up.  Pull down my jockeys….  Huge isn’t it?  And it’s soft.  Take it in your mouth bitch.  Let it grow down your throat.

“No, no.  Don’t touch it with your hands.  I don’t want a fucking handjob.  Only your mouth touches my dick.  Your hands need to be on my calves, so I know where they are at all times.  Don’t even think of playing with yourself bitch.  I hate the fact that I have to resort to using fags to get a throat that will accommodate me, the least you can do is not get pleasure out of it.

“Your mouth is too high.  Sit on your ass.  In fact, sit there.  Put your head against this brick wall.  Spread those legs wide.  Hands on my calves and open that cunt of a mouth wide. 

“Look up at me.  I want to see that hunger on your face give way to the realization that my cock is too big for your throat.  I have seen it in every bitch I have used.  All I am doing is letting it get hard.  Feel it?  There’s no place for it go other than down your throat.  Don’t fucking start gagging now.  We’ve only begun.  That throat hasn’t even begun to stretch. 

“Open it up.  Accommodate me.  This is what you are here for. 

“No. No. No.  No pulling off.  I’m in control of this blowjob, not you.  That throat of yours is my toy to use.  Breathing is a luxury for you, get it however you can.

“Oh fuck.  I’m almost hard.  I can feel your struggle on my cock.  I’m just standing here; I haven’t even begun to fuck your throat and I can feel it pulsate. 

“Look up at me….  Damn, I can see the terrified look in your eyes knowing that my hard on is stretching the hell out of your throat.  You know what I don’t see in your eyes?...  Tears.  So the lack of oxygen hasn’t hit you yet.  Don’t worry.  It will.

“I’m gonna fuck your mouth and one of two things is going to happen; you will either learn to breathe around me or pass out trying.  I’m gonna fuck your cunt mouth hard, and I don’t care what you opt to do.  I need to get my nut.  Normally I will fuck a throat for hours, but today expediency is needed.

“You ready?...  I don’t care if you’re not.  Keep your fucking hands on my calves.  My hands will hold your head in the exact position I need to maximize my pleasure to my dick.  I am not one who likes to give up control of a blowjob.  I slam fuck like this until I cum.  And that’s what I’m about to do, right down your throat.

“I haven’t cum in a few days, so it’s going to be massive.  I need to do this quick….  Keep those hands on my calves.  Just adapt!  If you want to help me to cum, stick your tongue out and try to lick my balls as they slap your chin….  Oh fuck, like that!

“Here it cums.  Here it fucking cums!  Right down your throat.  Ahhh!  Ahhhh!  Fuck yeah!...  Shit!...

“I dumped it straight to your belly.  You don’t even get the pleasure of knowing what it tastes like.  Too bad.  Maybe next time. 

“Here take a few gasps of air.  My dick ain’t coming out yet.  I need to take a piss.  And I have a toilet mouth wrapped around my cock.  Too bad, I’m losing my hard on; I would have pissed directly into your gut. 

“When I tell you, just start swallowing.  You will drink it all.  Let’s see if a gay boy can do what all those bitches promised but failed.  Swallow….  Ahh.  That feels good.  You might not get to savor my cum, but you will have the taste of my piss in your mouth for a while.

“Good boy.  I want the last drops on your face.  There you go.  You look like the whore you are.

“Well, you lived up to what you promised.  You could take my dick.  If you want to do this again, next weekend you can come over to my garage.  I have it set up for whatever crosses my mind.  I have a few stations I can install you in so I can use your mouth for hours.  And I mean hours.  I built most of the equipment there for women, but I can modify it for you.  The garage is soundproofed.  A bunch of my golfing buds rent out the house and we use it to bring bitches to use.  One will bring an occasional gay boy.  The detached garage is entirely for me and my sick mind.

“You want to come by and be used by my cock?...  Good.  Damn.  I just noticed that I didn’t work over your nips.  I won’t make that mistake the next time.  I’ll be in touch. 

“Nice place.  You are sitting in a piss puddle you should clean it up.  Slurp what you can, then clean it up.  Another round of golf is in order.”

[blackbird5154]

I'd like to talk about why Rite Here Rite Now has script problems (as well as Ghost lore in general).

Even taking into account that this is a concert movie, a movie in which the presentation of the characters is of secondary importance, there are still certain requirements to that presentation. Over the years, we have been told a story. There is an expectation that there is some consistency in that story: causes must produce effects. I'm talking about the point that in a “good story” the actions of the characters have consequences. If a cold-blooded murder occurs, the characters responsible must either go through an arc of remorse or receive some sort of retribution for their actions. You can't kill three iconic characters and just forget about that and move on. The consequences can be different, depending on how the author wants to develop this theme. But they have to be.

I'm not really clear on how Tobias is developing Copia. The first time he appeared, he threatened Terzo behind his back and promised to stomp him into the dirt. You can still find that video on the official Instagram. Obviously, he was involved in the murder that Sister organized and had a vested interest, or maybe he was even an executioner himself. Either way, he ascended to the position over the corpses of his predecessors, and that's clearly what he was aiming for. Even the introduction to RHRN shows him as a maximally selfish character who thinks only of his own success and survival: he believes that he is a better entertainer than his brothers and that he doesn't deserve the same fate. However, the movie tries to instill in us that Copia is a good man who is worthy of sympathy and hope that his fate will be better than his predecessors. I wonder why exactly he has earned such privileges.

Sister Imperator is portrayed from the beginning to the very end as an overbearing, dominant, cruel woman. She obviously hated the brothers and didn't just organize their murder, but did it with relish (a cruel joke just before the injection). She has taken over all the remaining characters, becoming the de facto leader of the Clergy, and has succeeded in building her empire. She controls Copia's every step and also tells Nihil what to do. Yes, we're shown the motherly side of Sister in the movie: she seems to really love her son and wants to leave him an empire to inherit. But that doesn't atone for her cruel behavior, sadism and the crimes she has committed in the past.

Nihil is shown as an irresponsible and weak-willed man, an unreliable lover, a careless father who allows his sons to die. He tends to wallow in fantasies, replacing reality with them and allowing horrific events to happen literally in front of his nose. He was a bad father to his official sons and a bad father to Copia. He is probably the only one in the movie who went through personal growth: he was finally able to talk to his youngest son, finally became a good father to him. But his older sons are still dead and it doesn't seem to be a problem for him.

Apparently, Tobias decided to move from more gory plots to more family-oriented ones. All three characters are now presented as a caring, somewhat weird, but loving family. Their past has been left out of the picture. They haven't drawn conclusions from their mistakes, they haven't atoned for their wrongs, they haven't gotten what they deserve. The screenwriter seems to have forgotten that the members of this family recently killed each other with minimal regret. It doesn't matter now, because the previous characters are just “taxodermically propped up” stuff. The woman who manipulated other people and destroyed everyone who stood in the way of her ambitious plans, dies a peaceful death in the family circle, having achieved all her goals and leaving an inheritance to her son. A happy ending for the sadistic bitch. She's now a positive character, and her peaceful death closes the possibility for a fairer ending to this arc.

Copia who all along demonstrated passivity, infantilism and inability to make any decision, also got his happy ending. You may feel differently about Copia, but I still remember him wearing Terzo's white gloves in concert like some kind of trophy. I remember him threatening Terzo in a tape deck commercial. Why have we all collectively decided to forget that? This is a man who got everything for free, thanks to his mother's patronage. We're even shown how he spends his free time: playing video games, loafing around and avoiding adult responsibilities like paying bills. He just goes with the flow, accepting the blood-stained regalia that is handed to him. And now once again we see another promotion just falling into his lap. What did he do to deserve it? Yes, I agree, he did a good job on stage during his eras. So did the First, the Second and the Third! However, now they are “taxodermically propped up” and he is Frater Imperator.

Apparently Tobias is now targeting a younger audience and use a more pedagogical style. If this is true, perhaps he should have shown how the characters take responsibility for their past. The statement “live here and now, stop thinking about the past” sounds immoral coming from the mouths of characters who have committed multiple murders and have not repented of them. Injustice and inconsistency are two words that come to mind when I think about how this story ended. Sometimes I feel like these characters are just plastic toys for Tobias to play with, and in the process he forgets where the game started.

The problem is that some do remember. Some remember everything.

[crimsonedquill]

Could you do some headcannons for when they are jealous and things get… interesting? (Gender-neutral MC) If your not comfortable I completely understand, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!

How they take out their jealousy on you (Hogwarts Legacy)

I'll be the first to admit that smutty HCs are my guilty pleasure, so don't worry, we're good 😅

Tried to make this as gender-neutral as possible, though you know how it is, things always get grey area-ish when certain... body parts are involved. Anyway, hope it meets your request (which I very much enjoyed writing! 🖤)

Content warning: NSFW (18+). Unfiltered smut.

Poppy Sweeting 🦡

Even though you’ve been dating for a while, she still feels that hot sting of insecurity whenever she catches someone leering at you, knowing very well that you could have anyone you want (at the very least certainly better than her)

That said, she usually isn’t very upfront with her emotions, which is why you’re more than a little surprised to hear her request the next time things get hot and heavy between you two

“Could I… be on top this time?” she asks when she withdraws her tongue from your mouth, looking at you with an expression that immediately causes a rush of heat between your legs

You gladly indulge her, if only to see where this newfound confidence is coming from. Hardly any time is wasted in shedding your clothes, and soon she’s mounting you, leaving a trail of slick arousal on your leg as she moves up your thigh

Her movements are sloppy and her rhythm is showing a rather clear lack of experience, though you find yourself hardly in any position to care as she moves atop you with a ferocity so… dominant, using both of your bodies to maximize your shared pleasure

There are hardly any words to describe how she’s feeling. She’s so… in control, never breaking eye contact as she moulds you into a moaning shaking mess

She doesn’t look away even when you finish, wanting to see you come undone before her own climax has her falling apart on top of you

You’re too tired to talk about what happened afterwards, but she doesn’t need to. Softly wrapping herself in your arms, she smiles as she knows that you belong to each other.

Ominis Gaunt 🐍

He hears the way you talk to that Ravenclaw during Astronomy. It’s innocent, but not quite subtle enough to mask the flirtations and suggestive hints

Of course, it doesn’t take long for you to notice something’s wrong when he starts acting all petty, ignoring you and asking whether you’d rather not spend time with “them” instead

The only way to get to him when is being like this is to get right in his face, so that’s exactly what you do, confronting him in a bathroom after classes

There’s a lot of shouting. He reacts to you, you react to him, and within moments you’re exchanging every accusation and insult you can possibly think of

You don’t know whether you’re simply not thinking straight because of your anger or whether it’s the fact that you’re both hot and bothered, but without really giving it any thought you stride over to him, asking him if it’s the insecurity about his own cock that makes him act like a petulant little child (gripping the front of his trousers for emphasis)

That’s all the encouragement he needs. Within moments, he has you on your knees and forces himself between your lips, holding your head as a low, guttural grunt passes through his gritted teeth

He usually takes it slow with you, but this is no time for softness. He grips your hair as he thrusts into your mouth, hissing at you to take it all like the filthy little cunt you are

His release is hot and sudden, leaving you eager to swallow all of him as he braces himself against the wall, moaning your name with a lust that makes you easily forget any ill words spoken between you

After you clean up and leave the bathroom holding hands, you share a kiss and promise each other that you will employ make-up sex as a solution to arguments more often from now on.

Natsai Onai 🦁

You remember well the first time you got a taste of Natty’s particular brand of jealousy. You both felt confident enough to take things a step further after your first couple of dates, and you had been so bold as to conjure a bedroom in your Room of Requirement, having a clear sense of where that night’s events would lead

As soon as your bodies hit the sheets, however, it became clear that whatever control you thought you held was but a figment of your imagination

You feel the ties around your wrists as her lips pull away, a slightly taunting grin masking the absolute excitement she feels at having the so-called hero of Hogwarts right at her fingertips, away from all the flirty looks and comments

She makes a show of stripping out of her clothes, cautioning that she wants your eyes only on her tonight. You ache to touch her, to explore every lovely naked curve, but there’s no use fighting the tight straps

Natty, on the other hand, has your entire body at your disposal. She relishes the control, placing open-mouthed kisses on every bare inch, every single one leaving you just a bit more unravelling than the last

Eventually, she moves her fingers in place to where your excitement is most palpable, the warm throbbing betraying your need

You gasp and twist and plead for her to release you as she gets to work, but she rebuffs every single one of your attempts, enjoying the hold she has on you far too much to let you go so easily

By the time you are falling apart, she instructs you to look her in the eye as she asks who you belong to

“You!” you cry out, and finally she allows you your release, smiling as you shake and quiver until she crawls up to you, placing a wet kiss on your lips before she makes the straps disappear with a flick of her fingers.

Sebastian Sallow 🐍

Of course Possessive Slytherin Bad Boy™ gets jealous easily. It doesn’t take much other than you exchanging a simple look with someone else in the corridors for him to get all clingy and needy.

What many don’t realise is that you love this little part of your relationship. Driving him to the edge with subtle looks and flirtations turns you on more than anything, mostly because it’s always a surprise how far you can push him each time

One time, when you’re taking things a bit too far, you end up having a bit of an argument. It’s not anything serious, but you’re still a bit surprised when he storms you, grabbing the front of your robe as he pushes you against the drawer

“It seems that you need a little reminder,” he snarls before his lips violently crash into yours, robbing you of your breath

You try to get a word in, but he makes perfectly clear there are no words to be said. You gasp in surprise as he turns you around and bends you over the drawer, yanking your trousers and underwear down before you have a clear sense of what’s happening

“Sebastian…” you mutter, but your comment is drawn out by a cry as his palm meets your flesh in a firm strike, your apparent shock met by a content growl

It doesn’t take long for him to drop his trousers and enter you, your hands clamping down on the wooden panelling as you feel him stretching you, biting down on your lip to keep yourself from crying out in unrestrained lust

There’s no love here, no soft passion. It’s raw, primal fucking, and it has you utterly falling apart at the seams

His hand finds its way to your throat as his teeth graze your ear. “You’re mine,” he grunts, and you hardly find yourself in any position to disagree as the feeling of his throbbing inside you rips away any rational thought

His climax is announced by a loud groan, and you find it difficult not to pass out as he claims you as his own.

You’re his, and you’ll gladly be reminded of that.

Imelda Reyes 🐍

It’s not exactly out of character for her to get pissy, but this training session is different. You’re not playing any worse than the others, though you still find yourself on the receiving end of most of her criticism and outbursts, to the point where you decide to confront her afterwards

She’s just getting out of the shower by the time you enter. Her athletic frame wrapped in a white towel, she gives you the stinky eye and asks what the fuck you want

As always, you’re naive enough to try to approach things rationally at first, though it’s clear enough that she doesn’t want to see reason. Only after much meandering (and a lot of creative insults) you get a sense of what this is all about.

You assure her that you care only for her, but she doesn’t believe it. You ask what it would take to convince her. After a few seconds of contemplation, she drops her towel.

Understanding the hint, you move in place on the floor and press your tongue against her folds, the overwhelming taste of her arousal confirming to you that she probably had this in mind from the moment you walked in

You gently fuck her open, using the tip of your tongue to spread her wetness around her lips. She gasps and grabs your head, egging you on with whispered curses and light taunts

But you know how she likes it, and you’re determined to erase every shadow of a doubt from her mind. So you begin ferociously probing her, your hands sneaking around and your nails burying themselves into her arse as she begins whining and pushing your face further into her cunt in a desperate attempt to drive you deeper

You soon have her barrelling towards her orgasm, and she comes with a scream, her juices coating your lips as her knees buckle, her convulsing body only held up by the power of your jaw

As soon as she’s able to walk, you get up and ask if she’s convinced. She only casts you a mischievous smile, telling you that she might need a little more persuasion – her bed, tonight.

Amit Thakkar 🦅

Jealousy works a little differently with Amit. It’s not that he gets mad – his insecurities do, however, translate to performance issues in bed.

After ten minutes of kissing and ‘fondling’ like he’s never touched another human body before, you pull back to ask what’s wrong. It’s only after a lot of effort that he manages to find the courage to confess to you, telling you about his lack of confidence in his ability to please

You’re a bit surprised to find out that he feels this way, but it doesn’t change the way you feel about him. Taking one of his hands into yours, you tell him to follow your lead, gently catching his lips with your own

You take the time to put him at ease as you progress slowly, only relieving yourself of your trousers and undergarments so as to not make things too complicated

He gasps as your fingers close around his length, though he doesn’t pull away, the presence of a steady throbbing signalling to you just how eager he is despite his fears

Stroke by stroke, you feel him growing in your hand, and you gently take his hand to guide him towards your own centre, softly kissing his neck to ease any worry he might feel

He’s clumsy and it doesn’t really feel like he knows what he’s doing, but gradually you both work yourself into a steady rhythm, your breaths meeting in quick gasps as wet sounds fill the room

He’s the first to cum, but he manages to surprise you by working you to your own orgasm soon after, a strained whimper heralding your release as you spill all over his hand

After cleaning yourselves up, you settle against his shoulder and ask about his feelings. He admits to still being afraid, though he knows that with you he doesn’t have to be. You end up kissing and falling asleep in each other’s arms.

Garreth Weasley 🦁

He’s particularly whiny about seeing you flirting with other students. He constantly follows you around, pestering you with stupid questions as you try to work on your potions or practice your charms.

Eventually, you get so fed up with him that you back him into a corner between classes. You take a good few minutes to cuss him out and ask what the fuck his problem is

Poor boy doesn’t know what’s happening to him. He grows red in the face and tries to utter a sensible response, but all that comes out of his mouth is rambling.

His embarrassment, though, is nothing compared to the shock when you suddenly seize hold of the small bulge in his trousers, a wicked grin spreading on your face

He gasps as you work yourself into the fabric, earning a chuckle from you as he instantly grows hard in your hand

The words feel hot to his ear as soft fingers begin to massage his length: Does my Garreth feel insecure? Is my poor boy worried that someone else will steal me?

He braces against the wall, groaning as you pump him mercilessly. You smile and decide to let him in on a little secret: I’m addicted to this hard, beautiful cock of yours. You can have me whenever you want, whenever you like. All you need to promise is to stuff me, to stretch me until I’m swoll with your cum –

He cums hard. You watch him unravel before withdrawing and making a show of cleaning him off your fingers.

You leave him with a lack of breath and a giant mess to clean up. That should be enough punishment for daring to question your loyalty to him.

[terramythos]

Anyway here's my breakdown of the ffxiv jobs, my opinions on playing each, and the tier rank of how good their story was

TANKS

WARRIOR - warrior is so fucking funny why did they make it able to solo heal itself and the entire party in 90% of the content in the game. Raw Intuition/Bloodwhetting is so broken in dungeons its hilarious. And then they have like 3 additional healing skills on top of that. And they kept buffing it throughout Endwalker. So it is currently the easiest to play, does the most damage (i think...?), and has the best healing of any of the Tank jobs. 2nd fave probably.

Story Tier: C, it's ok, Curious Gorge is a good name. i have like nothing to say about it it's a generic AF story

PALADIN - I used to hate PLD but I think the partial rework they got halfway through Endwalker helped it a lot. It's much less clunky now. Probably still my least favorite Tank though Hallowed Ground is fun and it's pretty close to Gunbreaker for me.

Story Tier: F, this is the worst class storyline in the entire game. It's so stupid. The writing is so bad the writers acknowledge it makes no sense at all and I'm like. Yeah, thanks, I am experiencing this shit. Perhaps write a story that makes sense next time instead of pointing that out.

DARK KNIGHT - Unfortunately this is my favorite Tank 🫡 which is rough since it has the worst survivability out of any of them. But I love how you use MP and the silly number of OGCDs. The Blackest Night is such a fun ability and it's a crime that it's not a baseline skill you get from the start. Why do they have so many DRs that only cover magic damage. I must ask.

Story Tier: S, there's a reason it's the most popular and well regarded class storyline. It's really good, also the only questline I know of that uses the quest log text as part of the narrative. Outside maybe a few of the very late Endwalker quests. And, well... same writer lmao

GUNBREAKER: I think GNB looks cool as fuck and I like that it has 2 DPS rotations. The Gnashing Fang combo is so fun. Superbolide memes are always fun. My main issue with it is a skill issue because I am just constantly misaligning its burst windows.

Story Tier: C. It has some interesting lore but I found it pretty forgettable as a story.

HEALERS

WHITE MAGE: I hated White Mage for a while but something clicked and now I totally get it. I find it fun in dungeons cause you get to Holy spam and stun lock everything. As uh. The healer. That's fun. Once you get Afflatus heals (and then Afflatus Misery) it clicks. It's fun maximizing damage and playing chicken with the tank's HP.

Story Tier: B, you get a lot of lore around the Padjal, and I think the Stormblood story where you find a padjal living in hiding with her mother is pretty good! Also it's not technically the job storyline but there's a WHM side quest to get a unicorn mount? i guess it's technically a CNJ quest but same diff. no one else gets that shit. so that's cool

SCHOLAR: probably my least favorite of the healers... it just feels super clunky. You can tell a bunch of different design philosophies went into it over the years and none of them mesh very well. They've made it so the Fairy Gauge controls literally one spell. Why have the gauge at all? It's also a huge missed opportunity that there's no tie in or interaction with the fae in Shadowbringers. I love the idea of a battle tactician healer but I think it needs a rework.

Story Tier: B+, I liked the characters and its the main way to get backstory and lore on what happened with Nym.

ASTROLOGIAN: While I think AST has a similar issue to SCH (lots of different design philosophies over the years) I find it way more fun to play. I like the card mechanic and how it interacts with the rest of the party. AST is basically the only job that has its own like. Minigame? As part of its rotation. And I know a lot of people don't like the RNG for it but personally I find it fun. I know AST is getting a redesign in Dawntrail so hope it's good.

Story Tier: C? I think? I'll be honest I don't remember it super well but I didn't find anything objectionable about it. And I like the tarot aesthetic and lore and how it's healing based on manipulating luck.

SAGE: I think SGE is tons of fun, I'm not sure if I like it or WHM more. I love all the skills SGE has for preventing damage and the gimmick where your DPS heals someone in the party. Visually the hi-tech laser shooting healer is a lot of fun. IT HAS A GAP CLOSER. The only thing i wish was it wasn't so MP negative and that it did more damage. It's a little sad its DPS output is so low compared to the other healers (even AST when you factor in how it buffs the party). Since SGE is supposed to be a healer that heals through damage it's silly its damage kinda sucks.

Story Tier: A, I loved this storyline. Both the Endwalker job stories are very self contained and interesting. While the twist is pretty obvious it's still an interesting exploration of uh. Scientific ethics. Yeah

PHYSICAL MELEE DPS

MONK: I've probably played MNK the least of the phys melee but I like the whole adaptable combo thing. Not much else to say since I have played it so little. Might bring it back out and try again. It DID have the funniest guide in the Balance discord for a while.

Story Tier: D. I think? I remember thinking it was dumb, lmao. Sorry.

DRAGOON: MAN I wished I liked DRG more. It looks so fucking cool and I like how it interacts with the dragon lore. But I find it very punishing to play. To do good damage you have to align so many different cooldowns... and snapshot your DOT correctly... and screwing one thing up just fucks your DPS output forever. Like AST I believe this is being reworked in Dawntrail so I hope it feels better to play.

Story Tier: C+. I think it starts strong since you get to meet Estinien pre-Heavensward and it melds nicely with that story. But I found it pretty directionless post-HW which is a shame.

NINJA: I remember finding this one fun. I like that there are different combos you do that have varied finishers depending on the situation. I am just... bad at remembering which combo to use to get which finisher, lol. So I haven't played it as much. NIN gets a lot of flavor other jobs don't get with their unique run and jump animations. And you get a Bunny of Shame on your head if you fuck up a combo, which is incredible.

Story Tier: A. The Rogue story is probably the most memorable of the basic class quests. Ninja just has great characters and a fun story. What is with that one guy. Karasu? If you know you know. I also like how the Rogue characters show up later in the Ninja story. That's fun.

SAMURAI: I had a similar experience to WHM here because I initially hated it then really came around once it clicked. SAM seems very complex, it has a ton of buttons and different combos. But it is actually quite intuitive once you figure out the general pattern. And it does INSANE damage. I think it's the highest DPS output in the game? I love building the combos and then doing a huge finisher for a bajillion damage. The guaranteed crits and constant OGCD weaves make me feel unstoppable. I think this is tied with RPR for me.

Story Tier: B+. I found the exiled samurai character and his journey toward redemption very compelling. I won't spoil beyond that. However it does fall apart a little in the second half. Still fun but not as good.

REAPER: I love RPR, the teleportation is a lot of fun, and I love finally unleashing the demon form and going ham on the enemy. The weapons are the coolest looking in the game. Every scythe design hits. I probably played this the most in Endwalker. My main critique is the Death's Design mechanic. I hate having to keep a stupid debuff on the target to do damage. It's like a dot but without the optimized snapshotting. If they want to keep this idea i think it would feel better to change it into something like SGE's Kardia where you apply it to one enemy to do increased damage to it without having to worry about reapplying it. not sure how they would balance this for aoe but that's not my job. But even with that caveat I still really enjoy the job.

Story Tier: A+. While it doesn't reach the highs of DRK's story it comes close. I love the badass old lady main character. Her hunting a voidsent that possessed her grandfather would be cool enough but making her a Garlean exile in hiding who grudgingly agrees to train you just adds an extra cool factor. I really enjoyed this story. As a bonus theres a lot of incidental dialogue in the post-6.0 Endwalker story if you completed the RPR story because it ties in a lot.

PHYSICAL RANGED DPS

BARD: It's a bit clunky, its got some outdated design elements, it has one of the lowest damage outputs in the game... and i LOVE IT. this was technically the first job I ever played? totally different character like 8 years ago. and i was so so bad. I think i am actually pretty good at current BRD. the animations look cool. i like that it's a class you really need to work for and optimize to eke out that last bit of damage. and boosting everyone else's damage by existing is kinda neat.

Story Tier: B. I'll be real I barely remember this but I do remember it was gay as fuck so immediately gets an extra tier for that.

MACHINIST: MCH is really funny right now because like. It's phys ranged, right. The design behind phys ranged is you have 100% uptime cause you can freely move around and not have to worry about cast timers or melee range or anything. So the trade off is that they do less damage than other classes. Endwalker MCH did not get the memo and does insane damage anyway. My controversial opinion is that it has similar burst DPS to RPR. No i will not elaborate. I'm also bad at doing good damage on MCH which is impressive since it is easy.

Story Tier: B+. Some Ishgard noble's gay son wants to build machines instead of killing dragons the good old fashioned way and has to prove himself to get taken seriously. A tale as old as time. See I haven't done this quest in like years but I still remember it. He is a memorable character. It's just not like. knockout wowza compared to the A tier stories.

DANCER: Dancer is the second easiest DPS job in the game behind SMN. So if i am sleepy it's the one I like playing. You play simon says. you do a lot of damage when you play simon says then do almost no fucking damage otherwise. I think it's the lowest direct damage in the game? for a dps i mean. You have high stakes sexual tension with a DPS of your choice via Dance Partner. I wish other DNC players knew how Dance Partner works. YOU CAN DANCE PARTNER ANOTHER DANCER. THE BUFF STACKS. BUT YOU CANNOT DANCE PARTNER THE SAME PLAYER AS ANOTHER DANCER. THOSE BUFFS DO NOT STACK. ok i'm good. anyway

Story Tier: C. there's some shit about negative emotions and purging them? in theory i think this has some interesting implications with Endwalker lore considering Dynamis and its role in the story. Very similar mechanically to what's going on with the DNC story. but i really don't think the writers made the connection so it's like pure speculation and not the actual story. It's meh. fine i guess. i did like all the flashy dancing sequences.

MAGICAL RANGED DPS

BLACK MAGE: I am so so so so so so so bad at BLM. i pull up the guide. i read the guide. it all makes perfect sense. i go into a dungeon or trial or something. somehow i always get like Zeromus or some shit. and i drop Enochian or something and everything goes to shit and i'm yelling and i'm not even like slide casting or teleporting or anything i just run around crying. then i remember i have like 10 more buttons i haven't been pressing and oh god the dot fell off. people play this? for fun? i admire it. apparently they do a ton of damage if you can play it. could not be me.

Story Tier: B? There's some voidsent and Thirteenth lore. all the black mage characters are Lalafell because it's funny i guess. OH YEAH it has like the one named male Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te NPC in the entire game and he's fun. look at this twink:

sorry i don't have anything to say about BLM i am bad at it

SUMMONER: easiest DPS job in the entire game. they redesigned it for Endwalker so it is practically a new job. i have no idea how it played before. but it is super streamlined. maybe too streamlined? it's another one to play if you want to turn your brain off. i like that at 90 you summon The Actual Primals instead of little representations of them. and i like the way your burst phase switches between Bahamut and Phoenix. it all looks very cool. they should add Leviathan as a summon in Dawntrail.

Story Tier: C.. i don't remember a single thing about this questline except you interact with Y'shtola's half sister. i think you go to Cartenau at some point. idk

RED MAGE: RDM is one of those jobs that looks really complicated when you start then you actually play it and it is just super super easy. that being said i think it's really fun. I like balancing the white and black magic gauges. Dualcast is a great gimmick and it feels cool to lob two big spells in a row at something. Dualcast Verraising a chain of dead players is so fucking funny. it's a shame that the existence of Verraise means RDM does shit damage to compensate for its utility. It and DNC just sit at the bottom with BRD barely scratching ahead of them. i think? i don't remember LOL

Story Tier: A, I really like the story and characters. I like that you have a middle-age world weary catboy (catman) as your mentor. and i like that he canonically trained Alisaie too and you chat a little about that. it's a fun story!

BLUE MAGE: what the fuck is a blue mage

Story Tier: ???

[luckycharms1701]

Maybe a request, you can ignore if you don't like the idea tho!

What about f!reader pegging one of the turtles headcanons? i'd ask specifically for Donnie in this one.

😬 gonna be real here anon-chan. i’m so glad you’re here but i’m not sure i’m the one to fill this request. see, the problem with sending this to me is that i am a bottom. i am like super bottom. pegging isn’t really my thing. but! the people i would send you to have requests closed right now, so i will do my best to tide you over until you can ask someone else. i am sorry in advance.

edit: uhhhhhhhhhh spicy. so spicy. i uh cannot emphasize enough, 🌶️🌶️🌶️

It definitely starts as an experiment, something he’s heard about and wants to try. When you do, he finds that he loves it. He loves it a Lot.

He creates a strap specifically designed to maximize pleasure for both of you. It takes him a couple of attempts to get it right. The less said about that the better. It’s worth it though, for what he ends up with. A double-sided strap-on, thick and heavy on one side for him and a rabbit on the other side for you. It vibrates. Everywhere.

He always makes sure to get you off before asking you to peg him. The more he wants it, the more orgasms he gives you first. One of his favorite things to do is fuck you with his fingers until you’re practically insensate and then ride you.

Even better when you suggest it. He gets this look on his face and practically tackles you onto the bed. He’s so happy that you enjoy this too that he gets overeager. The clothes practically fly off. Still, he’s the king of prep. Neither of you is doing anything with the strap-on until you’re both ready.

He loves that you can share this experience, getting to fuck someone you love. When he can, he’ll pay attention to how you fuck him and use that knowledge to absolutely devastate you when it’s his turn. You didn’t think he could get better at fucking you, but he proves you wrong.

His favorite thing. Is when you first bottom in him. He’ll whine and beg for more, even knowing you can’t go any further.

~~~~~~~

i. i’m sorry that’s all i’ve got headcanon-wise. however, a little blurb DID pop into my head that’s uh more my speed and therefore might be a little better? maybe? anyway it won’t leave me alone so here you go, a little extra for you. featuring donnie topping from the bottom.

edit: uh. well! that wasn't supposed to happen. what. enjoy?

~~~~~~~

Donnie whines as you bottom in him, and you shudder before forcing yourself to still. You are desperate to rub against the smooth silicone pressing into your clit, but you know what will happen if you do. You try to think about anything else as he continues to whine and pant and writhe, getting used to the strap-on inside of him. He sounds so beautiful, and you answer his whine with a moan of your own. His eyes pop open, and his lips twitch upward.

“Are you ready, baby?” He laughs lowly at how quickly and violently you nod your head, then stretches to reach the bed stand. You can see the way his movement causes him more pleasure, your cock deep inside of him rubbing against his walls. He picks up the remote that haunts your dreams.

The lowest setting immediately sets you to shaking, but you don’t move yet. “Good girl!” Donnie’s praise goes straight to your core, and you can only whine in response. “Look at me. Don’t look away. I want to see you.” You raise your head from where it had fallen to your chest. The desire in his eyes sends an electric thrill through you that causes you to practically gush around the dildo deep inside of you. You start shaking harder for a different reason.

Donnie takes a deep breath and squirms as the vibration courses through him as well. He gets a wicked look in his eye, and an alarm goes off in the part of your brain that isn’t mush. Before you can say a word, he ups the vibration and thrusts upward, pushing the strap-on deeper into you.

You feel the sheets stretch underneath your fingers as your whole body stiffens, desperately holding back the urge to match the way he’s grinding into you. You cannot hold back the scream or the tears though. It takes everything in you to keep your eyes on Donnie. The satisfaction on his face as he drags you to the edge once again does not help with your struggle, and he knows it.

His eyes go half-lidded with his own pleasure as he continues to grind into you. His hand that’s not holding the remote comes up and presses into your lips. You obediently open your mouth and his thumb snakes in and holds your tongue down. “You’re doing so good for me, darling. So, so good.” You hold his gaze, trying to convey your desperation. You’re not sure you could speak even if his fingers weren’t in your mouth.

Donnie leans up and his tongue joins his fingers. He leisurely maps out your mouth, as if he has all the time in the world. Your moan is garbled with all of him in your mouth. He pulls back, hand leaving your mouth and stretching around your neck instead. He stares at you, still grinding hard, and waits. You swallow and open your mouth.

“D-Donnie… please… please!”

His smile is wicked as he clicks the vibration higher, causing both of you to gasp. “A-alright love. You can move.” You barely catch yourself from dropping your head in relief, then you pull back and start to thrust.

~~~~~~~

head bonks: @yorshie @avery73 @justalotoffanfiction @thejudiciousneurotic @writinandcrying

[in1-nutshell]

Hi again, I’m here to spread the propaganda of every maximal being a dad lol 😂

Now I request Dinobot as a dad. It would be cute if the sparkling turned into a little bird.

Dinobot would take a lot of time warming up to the kid but I think if megatron ever took the sparkling captive Dinobot would go apeshit.

Yes! Spreading the Maximal Dad's everywhere! Hahaha! I had fun making little bird Buddy with Dinobot.

Hope you enjoy!

Dinobot finding an abandoned sparkling

SFW, familial, platonic, mentions of kidnapping but happy twist, Cybertronian/ Bot reader

Beast Wars

The sparklings beast mode is a canary.

Dinobot has a complicated history.

From being one of Megatron’s top soldiers of the Predacon’s; having to defect to the Maximals; from trying to get along with the team; living up to his warrior’s code of honor; and narrowly escaping death (Just ignoring canon here. Don’t mind me.)

He has his work cut out for him.

“Hey, watch where you’re going Scale belly.”--rattrap

“I would if I saw were you were Vermin.”--Dinobot

“Oh, yeah what about my height? You want to go Chomperface?!”--Rattrap

“Meet me outside in 20 minutes. We will settle it then.”--Dinobot

“…Its literally 3 am. Why are either of you up?”--Cheetor

“We could be asking the same thing to you kid? Go back to bed.”--Rattrap

“But—”--Cheetor

“Go to bed!”—Rattrap and Dinobot

He honestly thinks he has peaked in the weird things that have happened.

Let’s change that with story time.

It was chaos on the battlefield.

It was an interlock shooting battle between the Maximals and the Predacons over the newest pod that had just crashed down.

Dinobot and Rattrap were the closest to the pod hiding behind a rock. They were running out of time and ammunition. The pod had just finished scanning for a life form and the pod’s door was stuck. The bot inside couldn’t get out even if they wanted to.

“I’m going in.”--Dinobot

“Say what?”--Rattrap

“Cover me!”--Dinobot

“Dinobot!”--Rattrap

Dinobot starts sprinting towards the pod while Rattrap was doing his best to keep him covered. The rest of the team soon followed suit. Dinobot yanks the pods door clean off its hinges and grabbed the bot body close to his chassis as he turns to run back. He makes it back to the rock and shields the bot with his body.

“Don’t let the traitor escape!”--Megatron

“Hey Megamouth! Try this on for size!”--Rattrap

“Grenade! Grenade!”--Terrorsaur

“Take cover!”--Waspinator

Rattrap manages to throw a grenade at the Predacons which causes them to retreat. As the smoke clears, Dinobot still has the bot close to his chassis waiting for the sounds of blasters to stop. Then he hears the sound, a sound that he hadn’t heard in eons.

A sparkling chirp.

He quickly looked down and sure enough in his arms was a sparkling. This sparkling was smaller than the average sparkling.

They had a beast mode that honestly made a little difference in their size.

They were still so small.

The sparkling ended up nuzzling themselves further into Dinobots chassis.

Happy chirping noises

“…”—Dinobot and Rattrap

“Don’t you dare.”--Dinobot

“Hey everyone!—”--Rattrap

“Rattrap!”--Dinobot

Oh boy…

Dinobot didn’t want this.

The next few days Dinobot is trying to do his regular duties without being seen by the sparkling. The sparkling, if they found him, would make a beeline into his chassis and start cuddling. His teammates found this funny as Dinobot would try and get out of the sparklings grip, but they would always come back.

“…Coast is clear…”--Dinobot

“Hey there Dinodip.”--Rattrap

“…”--Dinobot

“…”--Rattrap

“…Don’t—”--Dinobot

“Hey Buddy, Dinobot’s here!”--Rattrap

“You insolent rodent!”--Dinobot

Chirpping getting louder.

The sparkling was an energetic induvial that had a terrible habit of getting into bad situations. And it wasn’t like the sparkling was looking for it either.

“So why are we here again?”--Blackarachnia

“It’s a team meeting.”--Silverbolt

“What is it about?”--Tigatron

“It’s about Buddy.”--Airazor

“What about them?”--Dinobot

“Have you notice that they manage to attract a lot of bad things?”--Rattrap

“Oh, I get what you mean.”--Cheetor

“What you lost me. What things?”--Rhinox

“Just the other day I had to save the kid from a falling beam.”--Optimus

“I just checked those things a few days ago.”--Rattrap

“We went outside and Buddy nearly got attack by two snakes, several big fish and a rabbit. How does a mere rabbit attack Buddy?”--Dinobot

“Yeah, maybe we need to see into this.”--Silverbolt

“Wait has anyone seen Buddy?”--Dinobot

Giggling noises

“Oh scrap!”--Rattrap

They kept everyone on the team on edge whenever they went somewhere alone.

Dinobot didn’t care though.

He didn’t care that this little creature gave him spark attacks every time they were in danger. He didn’t care that they got hurt doing the simplest things. He surely wasn’t teaching them some self-defense techniques. He definitely doesn’t freak out when he hasn’t heard their annoyingly cute chirping sound—

Oh…oh…

No, no, no, no, no, he doesn’t care about that pesky little sparkling. Dinobot tries to keep his distance even more after this realization is made. He makes it clear that he doesn’t care to the rest of the team as soon as the parent jokes are made.

He doesn’t know that Buddy was making their way past the room. They only see an angry Dinobot, they think about some flowers they saw earlier. That for sure would cheer him up! So, they mosey on over to the entrance of the base and are on their way to go get the flowers.

It takes a couple of minutes for Dinobot to realize that things are too quiet.

“Where’s Buddy?”--Dinobot

“Oh, they’re right—”--Cheetor

“They’re gone again!”--Rattrap

“Fan out and watch your step!”—Optimus

Now everyone is looking around for any sign of Buddy.

Then they get the call.

The Predacons had Buddy.

“Maximal scum. If you ever want to see your precious bird again then come to the base without your arms. Maybe a negotiation can be reached? Yess.”--Megatron

“Megatron, once I get my servos on you I am going to shove my sword up—”--Dinobot

“Enough. Now come over, if you ever want to see your precious bird again. Yesss.”—Megatron

Everyone is ready to get Buddy back. Dinobot is out for blood, they manage a plan, and they are ready to execute it.

For Buddy.

The Maximals are halfway to the base when they hear a familiar buzzing sound and chirping.

Dinobot is leading everyone.

They remove the thick bush when they find a peculiar scene.

It was Waspinator and Buddy. And it looked like Waspinator was… teaching Buddy how to fly?

“Yes, little bird bot is doing it!”--Waspinator

Happy chirping

Buddy looked at their family and happily chirped and went for Dinobot. For once reciprocated the hug.

“Where is Megatron?!”--Dinobot

“He’zz not here. Only Wazzpinator and little bird bot.”--Waspinator

“What?”--Dinobot

“Megatron wazz going to bring little bird bot to mean Spider bot. Bad things… Wazzpinator didn’t want new friend to get hurt.”--Waspinator

“You… saved them?”--Dinobot

“Yezz. Wazzpinator save little bird bot and want to be Maximal like Lizard bot.”--Waspinator

Dinobot contemplates this as he looks over Buddy seeing no harm was done.

So they all returned with a sleeping Buddy and newly formed Maximal Waspinator.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Universities secretly sold their students to online casinos

End-stage capitalism’s defining characteristic is making money rather than making things. Think of how Jack Welch destroyed GE by transforming it from a manufacturing company to a financial engineering shop:

https://the.ink/p/like-capitalism-itself-business-journalism

Hospitals are invoice-generating factories with a sideline in medicine. The electronic health record only incidentally records your health. Its primary purpose is to record your billing-codes:

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/ehrs/physicians-spending-nearly-2-hours-a-day-on-ehr-tasks-outside-work.html

And universities? Ugh. Most universities now have more administrators than faculty:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/08/administrative-bloat-harms-teaching-and-learning/

Much of that “administration” comes down to begging alums for money to funnel into vast endowments, but heaven forfend those endowments would be used to cover payroll and other essentials, even in a pandemic emergency:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/reneemorad/2020/04/21/harvard-under-fire-for-accepting-nearly-9-million-in-coronavirus-relief-funds/

Nor are endowment funds available to pay the education workers who actually teach students, but can’t afford the rent, food, or family:

https://www.capradio.org/articles/2022/11/14/nearly-50000-university-of-california-graduate-student-employees-launch-open-ended-strike/

The point of the endowment is to increase the size of the endowment — not to improve educational outcomes or research. That’s why Harvard is “A hedge fund that has a university”:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-hedge-fund-that-has-a-university-1510615228

This is the overwhelming logic of capital: capital exists to increase capital, and the underlying mechanism for that increase is irrelevant. This was the reasoning behind the surreal bid to sell the .ORG nonprofit registry to a secretive hedge-fund.

The point of the .ORG registry is to host domain records for nonprofits; incidentally, this throws off some extra money that is turned into grants for public interest projects. The board decided to sell off .ORG so it could make more of these grants, despite the fact that this would compromise the mission of hosting .ORG domain records:

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/org-domain-registry-sale-ethos-capital-rejected-stunning-victory-public-interest

Likewise, this was the reasoning of the Mountain Equipment Co-Op board when they decided to sell off the member-owned co-op (“the most trusted brand in Canada”) to a US private equity fund without consulting the members:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/16/spike-lee-joint/#casse-le-mec

The expand-capital-at-all-costs mindset is a virulent species of brain worms. It’s the basis for surreal movements like effective altruism, which encourages people who want to do good for the world to sell out to the most toxic industries on Earth, amass gigantic fortunes, and then, upon their death, donate them to causes that in some way remediate the harms they themselves wreaked:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earning_to_give

In his new book Survival of the Richest, Douglas Rushkoff calls this “The Mindset” — “I need to make vast amounts of money, no matter what the consequences, or I will not be able to afford to insulate myself from the consequences of how I made all that money”:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn

Once you let people with The Mindset anywhere near your institution, they will take it over and turn it into a paperclip-maximizing killing machine, one that abandons and then betrays its mission to increase its profits, eventually killing its host. Anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop:

https://doctorow.medium.com/anything-that-cant-go-on-forever-will-eventually-stop-110ba9711133

That’s what’s happened to higher ed. It’s not just the payroll full of starving adjuncts, facilities workers, etc. It’s not just the way that universities join forces with textbook monopolists to gouge their students:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/07/markets-in-everything/#textbook-abuses

Beyond academics having to rely on food-stamps, students going into lifetime debt to enrich predatory textbook monopolies, and the other horrors of financialized higher ed, there’s the special evil of college sports.

Like all finance-bro motivated reasoning, college sports are sold as a way to do well by doing good: “Look! We’re giving poor people a chance at a great education based on their physical prowess, and we’re racking up tons of money for the university!”

But — like all finance schemes — college sports is a self-licking ice-cream cone that destroys the lives of the people who generate value for it, even as it devours its host institution from within.

Did you know that until very recently, college athletes weren’t allowed to make a penny from their labor?

https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/06/in-unanimous-ruling-court-agrees-with-athletes-that-ncaa-violated-antitrust-laws/

Did you know that those same athletes experience lifelong brain injuries?

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2791303

Did you know that college sports are a cesspit of long-term, officially tolerated sexual abuse?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/nov/30/ohio-state-michigan-doctors-sexual-abuse-college-football

Did you know that the highest paid public employee in many states is a football coach at a state college?

https://www.profootballnetwork.com/highest-paid-college-football-coaches-2022/

Did you know that college coaches conspired with the rich parents to steal sport-related admission slots from poor kids and give them to mediocre winners of the orifice-lottery?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varsity_Blues_scandal

In many universities — whether public or private — the sports program effectively runs the show. Take the University of New Hampshire: back in 2016, a university librarian named Robert Morin left his life’s savings to the school after 50 years of service. Morin lived frugally for that half century and amassed a personal fortune of $4m.

He believed so deeply in the university’s mission that he turned it all over to the school without any restrictions. Talk about earning to give! The university blew Morin’s gift on a new jumbotron for their sports stadium:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/16/university-to-buy-1-million-football-scoreboard-with-thrifty-librarians-money-outraging-critics/

The people who see universities as inconvenient adjuncts to exploitative sports teams know that there are still rivals within higher ed who think the point of the school is to educate students.

That’s why the universities that arranged to allow sports gambling websites to target the young people in their care did so in secret.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/20/business/caesars-sports-betting-universities-colleges.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhlSVUZAybfQMMmqBCdnr_EybEnj2XlaTONTixe1KEfDpSc-kHCILdlZsU-xS-aWN5MK_okQ_h2w-BSJAptVwys6NOiqagyHh8U-8i1T39kmNXER6w5-jvnKWDmIe5ymOTn-hvbbzH1XKzbg2lxIVpvvZY2d12t3yMDwKmVFfVnmYUrhYdXDZ54TT8KZiWY7bK_W1glZoLwPlyL4RI2WupZRTnQgdWfjrsCew5TAl7FJ2httSd-sJgPfYNKY9usakIoa8H8gr4OCmd3LYvPBpQ5RILck70Coqf9dPDE9RFVhqXegnp2EK4F

Writing for the New York Times, Anna Betts, Andrew Little, Elizabeth Sander, Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly and Walt Bogdanich reveal the extraordinary corruption and depravity of college administrators who colluded with sports book companies to bring gambling to campus.

Implicated in the scandal are such top schools as Michigan State, U Colorado Bolder, Louisiana State, Syracuse and Texas Christian Univeristy (mission: “to educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens”).

On the casino side, the major player is Caesar’s, which is only fitting — Caesar’s was driven to bankruptcy by private equity who managed to financialize a casino into ruin:

https://www.ft.com/content/a0ed27c6-a2d4-11e7-b797-b61809486fe2

Caesar’s offered universities millions of dollars for the right to directly sports betting to students. The MSU deal, brokered by university officials Paul Schager and Alan Haller, was worth $8.4m. That is to say, Caesar’s was asking the university to help it drain at least $8.4m from students’ bank accounts in order to turn a profit.

Louisiana State U did a similar deal with Caesar’s, and then embarked on a direct marketing campaign to sell sports gambling to students who were too young to legally place a bet.

LSU says this was a mistake. Cody Worsham, a university official who holds two offices — associate athletic director and chief brand officer (!!) — said that Caesar’s and LSU “share a commitment to responsible, age-appropriate marketing.”

Meanwhile, U Colorado Boulder struck a deal where it earned a $30 bounty every time a student went from non-gambler to gambler — in other words, Boulder didn’t make money by advertising gambling to students — it made money only if its students started gambling.

These student gambling programs are designed to keep children betting even if they lose money, with teaser offers that refund some losses if students keep placing bets.

This is obviously unsavory stuff. That’s why the architects of these programs went to enormous lengths to keep it secret. The state schools involved funneled their deals through private marketing agencies that were shielded from FOIA requests, specifically to prevent the public from learning how public universities were conducting their affairs.

As MSU executive associate athletic director Paul Schager put it: “With the multimedia rights holder, public institutions like Michigan State no longer have to disclose all those sponsorship deals. This helps with the sponsors being able to spend what they feel is appropriate without having the public or employees or stockholders question that investment.”

The deals themselves are far-reaching. As part of MSU’s Caesar’s deal, tailgate parties before big games would be “Caesarized,” with the casino providing ad-copy for the live announcers to read to attendees. As a figleaf, $25,000 of the millions that MSU received from Caesar’s was earmarked for gambling addiction education.

The deals weren’t just kept secret from the public — they were also hidden from top university oversight. At UC Bolder, the Board of Regents was informed of the deal mere hours before it was announced to the public.

These deals have only been running for a couple months and it’s too soon to chart the long-term harms they’ll create in the student body. But, the Times* notes, there is an one harm that surfaced almost immediately: student athletes are now subject to vicious abuse by their fellow students, who lose money they can’t afford when their peers lose a game.

[Image ID: A gaudy casino floor. In the foreground is a figure in college graduation robes giving a double thumbs-up. His head is a grinning skull with a mortarboard.]

[chopprface]

giggling to myself knowing ive infected a small amount of the beast wars fandom with my dinocharge (depthcharge/dinobot) brainworms so here we go

depthcharge starting out very skeptical of dinobot’s allegiance to the group even despite the other maximals sharing stories with depthcharge on the rare occasion where he decides to socialize with them.

BIG BIG MASSIVE spoilers for both depthcharge and dinobot's arcs coming up, id advise finishing beast wars before diving into this cause otherwise youre going to be so lost. /srs

they’d avoid eachother at first until theyre completely cut off from the rest of the maximals and are forced to work together, similar to the episode where rampage is introduced and blackarachnia and silverbolt start getting closer (possibly replacing them in that episode?). more arguing and less cooperation with each other, but they come out of it with an odd amount of trust in each other now that they’ve gotten out of a tough scenario together.

with the tension between them cleared for the most part, dinobot gets depth charge to open up about his information on rampage, thinking that getting firsthand experiences from someone who oversaw his containment might help them find a weakness to eliminate a major threat like rampage.

depth charge's initial distrust is replaced by a surprising amount of transparency, possibly because he feels he failed his fellow maximals and can no longer relate to them as he let them down on omicron. something about their similar feelings of lacking belonging among the other maximals (at least initially) draws him to dinobot.

both dinobot and depth charge lie in that odd middle ground where they don't feel like they don't belong with the maximals no matter how much their colleagues insist they do, but fight with them regardless. they have their different reasons for fighting, depth charge wanting to take revenge for omicron by killing rampage and dinobot's reasons slowly shifting over time as his priorities and the scope of his goals change. (i could make a whole post purely about dinobots development and goals changing as his arc progresses, alas this is about the both of them so i'll stop here.)

depth charge slowly starts coming to dinobot more and more as their pool of info on rampage expands with new battles with the predacon, though eventually they run into dead ends and reflect about their lives back on cybertron- something barely anyone on the axalon has time to do anymore with megatron growing increasingly aggressive. the two of them develop a very quiet romance together, talking late into the hours of the night. dinobot gets depth charge well and truly out of his cold shell, having allowed him to see through his obsession with rampage to the bots around him who care about him.

a few of the other maximals notice the change, of course. mainly primal, who gets in a comment or two about how depth charge seems to finally be moving on a bit from omicron, with pieces of his personality before rampage came into his life seeming to shine through occasionally.

they'd both be very standoffish about being affectionate around the other maximals, to the point where none of the others are truly aware how close they are. they're both sad old men who bottle everything aside from their anger up, and wouldn't fess up about their own feelings unless it was literally tortured out of them. this is particularly true for depth charge, as in the show he never really goes into detail on omicron, perhaps due to his guilt around being the only survivor.

the events of what depth charge saw on omicron after rampage's massacre were probably supposed to be expanded upon in the show, but depth charge probably didnt have any time dedicated to that because of how late into the show he was introduced. at least, that's how i imagine it to have gone considering other characters like tigerhawk who were nearly cut last minute but made it into the show for toy sales. either way the vagueness of what happened on omicron and how it effects depthcharge is truly up to interpretation by the fandom as i doubt we'll get anything close to an answer any time soon. as i imagine it, and lining up with how the show characterizes him, id like to think his survivors guilt makes it hard to talk about his own thoughts on omicron, though he's regurgitated the events of what happened enough for it to be ingrained in his brain module forever. (maybe ill write a whole ass post about this too who knows)

i think if depth charge had been around much earlier in the series and and had been allowed to build a relationship like this with dinobot in the 90s, code of hero would have made the most gut-wrenching angst ever, especially if rampage had had a much bigger impact on dinobot's death.

depth charge is there to see the only bot who'd gotten him to talk about omicron truthfully die, taking whatever thoughts and memories depth charge had shared with him to the last flicker of his spark without so much as a parting word about what depth charge had meant to him.

rampage- still functioning, of course, can practically see and feel the feast of emotion tearing through to the weakest flickers of the manta ray's spark, even blasted halfway across the valley where dinobot had made his last stand. these feelings were something he hadn't experienced since the first time he'd seen depth charge after omicron.

depth charge, a few cycles after code of hero and still reeling from the loss of dinobot, ends up in battle with rampage, his spark still aching and tinged with grief. Rampage, now the only one to know what dinobot had meant to him, is shamelessly gloating about having killed the *one* bot he'd been able to get close to after omicron, mocking depth charge just to see how it makes him tick.

despite all his anger, he comes back to the maximals seeming no more than merely frustrated at the fact he's yet again failed to kill rampage, though over time he begins to withdraw from the others, totally regressing back to where he had started as an uncooperative mess, utterly obsessed with killing the one person who's taken everything from him. its only when depth charge completely relapses into his obsession that dinobot's impact on him becomes well and truly obvious, but by the time that happens there's little any of them can do to stop him from completely self destructing. only he can do that for himself by killing rampage.

anyway now that i've given you all with a brief glimpse into my sick and twisted doomed yaoi mind i'll leave you with the tags

[randomthefox]

I really wish sega would be like "don't do that with our property" more often

Especially back in the 90s

SEGA doesn't care as long as they're getting money and not losing any money. That's why they were so hands off with Archie. They saw Archie as just a free running commercial for their games which, unlike their regular marketing department, THEY got paid for instead of needing to pay for. It was a no brainer to just let Archie run in the background, collect the licensing fee, and occasionally tell them to make a game tie in issue or two to advertise the hot new release. The fact Archie and its creators didn't realize this was their relationship with SEGA was the cause of all the friction with the licensing partnership.

Every time someone references that interview with Ken Penders where he talks about how SEGA asked them to make a tie in storyline for Sonic Adventure but didn't give them an advanced copy of the game or game script, in all his Ian Flynn-ian "ugh big bad Sega amirite" tone, I just shout internally "WHY THE FUCK WOULD THEY GIVE YOU A COPY OF THE SCRIPT ALL YOU NEEDED TO DO WAS MAKE A FUCKING 20 PAGE COMMERCIAL FOR THE GAME WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"

Every single fucking time Archie fuckers complain about how SEGA would occasionally force them to make issues that tie into a new game release because it interrupted the storyline they were in the middle of, all I can respond with is WELL THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN DOING THAT! WHY THE FUCK WERE THEY MAKING ORIGINAL STORYLINES? THE PURPOSE OF THE COMICS WAS TO SERVE THE GAMES, IF THEY WERE TRYING TO DO THEIR OWN THING THEN THAT WAS A MISTAKE AND YOU HAVE NO ONE TO BLAME FOR THAT BEING DISRUPTED BUT YOURSELVES!

Anyway! SEGA eventually only started actually caring about Archie because Archie started costing them money. The lawsuit drama when Ken Penders was smart enough to retain the intellectual rights to the characters he created (I actually deeply respect him for this, good on him. Walt Disney had to learn that lesson the hard way) caused SEGA to actually start paying attention because they had to start asking the question of "why is our legal department setting up board room meetings over this fucking comic book?" Suddenly the comic was not just a source of free licensing fee income, but now it was a possible source of losing money to legal drama. So while they were happy to keep accepting the licensing fee payouts, NOW they actually had to monitor this shit and make sure nothing that would cause them to lose money happened again in the future by applying actual scrutiny to the comic.

So basically SEGA finally needing to put their foot down and say "don't do that with Sonic" was an example of "this is why we can't have nice things" because Penders and Archie and Bioware had a bumblefuck that caused the lawyers to start getting involved. So now in the interest of ensuring they maximize making money and minimize losing money, SEGA actually will devote time and resources to monitoring the comic and making sure it doesn't fuck up their brand.

They're more lenient with the movies because the movies are a different medium, they were an unproven market so they were more swayable to studio insistence on changes needing to be made, plus the revenue from movie sales is so much higher than the comic sales that it'll make your head spin AND due to the difference in the contract between IDWs licensing fee and their arrangement with the movie studio SEGA actually likely makes a percentage of the box office gross and DVD sales for the movies whereas they don't make a single dime off of IDWs comic sales. So it's just a different can of worms there.

[ravioligobbler9000]

Finished Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier last night and oh my god how do I even begin to describe this book... It is SO good.

The way our perception of Rebecca is completely changed by what Maxim says and what he says is basically the only insight we have on what actually happened, and the way he is really unreliable so we will never know who is actually the bad guy in this story.

How the main character has no name cause this story isn't really about her, it's about Manderley, it's about Rebecca.

I love that Manderley itself feels like a character and how it seems to have control over everybody... When Manderley ends, the story ends.

And the fire is a curse as much as a liberation, Rebecca's last victory, her last curse, liberation from all of her schemes, liberation from the pressures to maintain a historical family estate, freedom from memories, from the past and from the ghost of Rebecca.

I must confess that at first I, like many, thought this was a romance book, our main couple being haunted by the memories of Maxim's ex wife and her beauty, but upon thinking further, this book takes a situation so bizarre, our main character stuck in this really weird marriage, Maxim acting cold and distant and never telling the narrator what she did wrong, while also not giving her insight into his past for her to understand why what she did was wrong, treating the narrator like a child, which she basically is, the insane 20 year age gap, and I absolutely love that at first glance and not thinking much about it, the author makes us think this is normal, even after the revelation towards the end of the book, Maxim is the good guy, and Daphne du Maurier makes such a great job of making the reader irrationally root for him, cause after all we want what the narrator wants. But then you think about it and, is Rebecca really the bad guy? Is Maxim really the good guy? Did Rebecca really deserve what she got for what she did? At what point does Maxim turn from a tired man who just wants real love and someone faithful, into a murderous manipulator who just hated the way Rebecca stood up to his lack of emotion by doing what she wanted, so he made up all this story about how she was a sociopath to justify what he did to her??

Also Mrs. Danvers.... Oh my god Mrs. Danvers who was insanely loyal to Rebecca, who knew of Rebecca's insanity and disgust towards men and embraced it and loved it, who had a sort of weird one sided psychosexual relationship with Rebecca and who makes the narrator's life a living hell because of her loyalty to Rebecca, the chokehold Rebeca has on the world even after she is dead, and the fact that her whole life was devotion to Rebecca, and it shows by that ending, if her Rebecca can't own Manderley, no one can. All the scene's with the narrator and Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca's room, especially the window one, that were just perfectly written, perfectly suspenseful, show us just how Rebecca was the mastermind, she was pulling the strings even after her death, she bended everything to her will, even the weather, how can someone else ever possibly be the Mrs. de Winter of Manderley?

Just as a final thought, I love the gender fuckery of it all, the main character is a sort of Haruhi from OHSHC, she couldn't care less if she looks like a boy or a girl, cause frankly it isn't even important for the story, she asks Maxim not to love her, but to treat her like a companion, a friend, "a sort of boy". And I think that's really cool, after all, gender doesn't matter in this story, only Rebecca, and we also know Rebecca wasn't big on gender roles either haha ("should've been a boy" as said by Mrs. Danvers)

I cannot squeeze anymore thoughts out because I also haven't had breakfast yet BUT I absolutely loved this book and I will so absolutely read it again, I'll shut up now, I've rambled enough :)

[starryvelvet-art]

☆Eng:

I finished it a year later! The comic is an illustration of one of my favorite moments from the book. I started drawing this thing last summer when I was very interested in the "Prisoners of power". Actually, my skill has grown a little during this time, and I already see a lot of mistakes, but to fix them, I would have to start all over again, and I don't want that.

I tried to translate these lines for an English-speaking audience, but perhaps I did not succeed very well, since English is not my native language. I tried to adapt the text of the English translation of the book, for greater authenticity.

Tap on this↓

1: Wastelands. The impact of towers = 0% -…Well, all right. We'll check it out right now. What do all of you do at ten o'clock? you form up into even ranks and yell your lungs out about being ready to shed blood for your cause. Remember? -And it comes straight from our hearts! -No, it's hammered into your empty skulls. Never mind, we'll find out very soon where it comes from. 2: -(Trying to sing) Forward, legionnaires... -Come on! -(Trying to sing) Forward, legionnaires, men of iron…… …Forward, sleep… …sweeping away fortresses, with fire… …shall smash the foe with… (He stopped singing) Stop staring at me! You're upsetting me! Besides… it's hard to sing well out of formation. -Don't give me that stuff. You used to do just as well outside of formation. It was frightening to watch you and Uncle Kaan. You'd be bellowing 'Men of Iron,' and Unc would be drawling 'Glory to the Creators'. So, Guy, what has suddenly happened to your intense desire to burn and slaughter for the glory of the Creators? 3: -Don't you dare talk that way about the Creators! If what you say is true… it means only that the Creators were duped! -Who duped them? So the Creators are not all-powerful? …What's wrong, Guy? Are you in pain? -No… -Why are you so sulky? -Oh, I don't know… I feel sort of lousy. Maybe I'll lie down.… -(Thinks) So that's how it is… It's not as simple as I thought… He's been living inside that field all his life. Maybe he needs it? Suppose he gets sick?? What a mess! 5: "He looked through the hatch at the pale face and grew increasingly fearful. Finally, unable to restrain himself any longer, he jumped into the compartment, turned off the engine, dragged Guy outside, and laid him on the grass by the side of the road. Guy muttered and twitched in his sleep. Then he began to shiver; he hunched himself up, as if trying to warm his body. Maxim placed Guy's head on his knees, pressed his fingers to his temples, and tried to concentrate. He hadn't performed psychomassage for a long time, but he knew that everything except the patient must be excluded from one's consciousness. He must assimilate the patient into his own healthy system. For ten or fifteen minutes he maintained the same position, and when he returned to his normal state of consciousness, he saw that Guy had improved. His color had improved, his breathing was regular, and his shivering had ceased. Maxim made a pillow out of grass and sat next to him for a while, chasing away the insects. Suddenly he remembered the long journey ahead of them and the leaky reactor. That was dangerous for Guy; he must figure something out. He rose and returned to the tank."

(PART FOUR: PRISONER, Chapter 14)

☆Рус:

Я закончила это спустя ГОД! Коммикс-иллюстрация к одному из моих любимейших моментов из книги (Часть четвёртая. "Каторжник". Глава 14). Я начала эту штуку ещё прошлым летом, когда увлекалась "Обитаемым островом". На самом деле мой скилл немного подрос за это время и я уже вижу много ошибок, но чтобы исправить их пришлось бы начинать заново, а я не хочу. Дешифровку моего почерка оставляю вам, хах.

[jahayla-parker]

Hello beautiful! May I request a fic of Freddy taking care of you when you're sick?

Once you're doing up to it, ofc. 💜

Under The Weather: Freddy Carter x Reader

Description: 3.6k wc, reader is sick and Freddy goes into protective and caring boyfriend mode as he works to get her feeling better.

Warnings: mentions of being sick, fainting, hospitals, otherwise fluff

“Take 5” the co-director andy shouts, making the cast quickly scatter to maximize their break.

Y/n steps slowly to keep her balance, but each step causes a fresh wave of pain in her head.

As she makes it off the set, she nearly trips stepping down.

“‘ey love, careful” Freddy chuckles, catching her by her arm to steady her.

She blinks a few times and fakes a smile up at him, “oh, thanks”

Freddy raises an eyebrow as he catches onto the fake smile, “love?”

She forces the smile more and nods at him, wincing after from the dizziness, “yeah?”.

“Darling, you’re wincing” Freddy gasps, “what’s happening?”

Y/n grabbed his hand tightly, “I think I just tweaked something”.

Freddy frowns, “during the scene? Where does it hurt?”

“I’m okay Freddy, really” she says softly.

He stares at her questioningly, “y/n, what is-“.

“Alright, places” Andy shouts, interrupting Freddy.

Freddy sighs and squeezes her hand, silently pleading with her.

She gives him a weak smile before she excuses herself to go back to her mark.

“Is she alright?” Amita asks, appearing next to Freddy.

He hesitates but nods, “yeah. She’ll be fine”.

Y/n glances over at him, giving him another tiny smile and shoos him off with her hand.

He shakes his head but gives her a kind smile before walking back to the other stage building for his own next scene.

“Cut” Eric shouts as Kit mixes up his line.

Amita laughs loudly, smacking his arm teasingly.

“It is been not bean Kit” Danielle jokes.

“Obviously” Kit laughs.

“Freddy!” Ben yells suddenly.

Freddy looks up from his phone instantly, the panic in his stomach intensifying; Ben should be in a scene with y/n not here.

“Y/n,” he says, breathing heavy from running.

“Where?” Freddy asks, discarding his characters props on the set floor as he sprints over.

“They’re bringing her back to her trailer “ Ben informs him, turning to follow him out of the room.

“Freddy, what’s wrong?!” Amita calls out from behind them.

Freddy shakes his head, “you’ll need to do a different scene for now”.

With that, he races out of stage 3 and towards y/N’s trailer.

Ben struggles to keep up, “Freddy, slow down mate”.

“What happened?” Freddy responds, not slowing down at all.

“I don’t know” Ben admits, “one second we’re doing the scene, the next she passed out”.

Freddy skidded to a halt, turning to face ben, “she fainted?!”

Ben sighs and nods.

Freddy spins back around and speeds up his journey to her trailer.

He doesn’t bother knocking when he reaches it, instead he barrels inside instantly.

He nearly falls to his knees when he sees Archie and y/N’s manager standing next to y/n as she lies there on her trailer’s couch motionless.

“Is- is she” he breathes heavily, “is she going to be…”

“Yes Freddy, she’ll be okay” Alexia, her manager promises, a soft smile, “she just needs to sleep, she is sick and pushed herself too hard”.

Freddy nods, kneeling next to his girlfriend, her hand tightly clasped in his.

Y/N’s eyes flutter open and she tries to sit up but Freddy holds his hand on her chest softly.

“Sorry for waking you, my love. Go back to sleep” he encourages, brushing hair from her face.

She smiles tiredly at him, squeezing his hand, “What about-what about work?"

He sighs, shaking his head, “you're exhausted, honey”.

She shakes her head stubbornly, wincing as she does, prompting Freddy to give her a knowing look, one similar to that of his character.

“I’ll be fine Freddy “ she argues weakly.

He shakes his head, “no you won’t. You scared me nearly to death! My god baby, y/n, why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling well?!”

Y/n frowns with a guilty stare and shrugs.

Freddy sighs, “it’s alright angel. I’m sorry, I was just so worried. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it all”.

“Freddy, you have work-“ she protests.

“You think I’m going to work right now? You fainted!” Freddy scoffed

She pouts, “but, -“

Freddy cups her face, “no. I’m taking care of you. I'm going home with you. I don't want to leave you by yourself knowing you're feeling this bad."

As she frowns at him, he sighs and kisses her forehead, “stop with that guilty look, you don’t have anything to feel guilty for. Just let me take care of this.”

“They’ve dismissed us for the day” Freddy said, putting his cellphone back down.

She nods slowly, “okay”.

Freddy squeezes her hand, “I’m going to need you to sit up Angel”.

Y/n hesitantly leans forward, Freddy steadying her with a hand to her back and chest as she moves.

“That’s it, good job, my girl” he smiles, “can you walk?”

“Yeah” she said quietly, holding his hand tightly as she pulls herself off the couch.

“Good job,” he encourages, grabbing her bag from beside her.

“We’re going to take it really slow, okay?” Freddy prompts, placing the across over his body, hooking one arm around her waist.

She complies, taking tiny steps at a glacial speed.

“You’re doing great” he promised, turning to kiss the top of her head as she looked up and sighed at the distance left.

“Woah, it’s alright” Freddy says, using his arm that was around her waist to lift her up as her legs start to give out just as they get to the car

“Lean on the car here a moment dear” he says, placing her shoulder against the back door of the car.

He opens the passenger door, guides her to the seat, and buckles her in with a tender kiss to her forehead.

“Oh hun, you’re burning up. Let’s get you home and we’ll find a way to take care of that” he frowns.

“Wait right here love, I’ll grab you some comfortable clothes” Freddy promised, setting y/n on the bed.

He quickly located their basket of clean clothes they hadn’t had the chance to put away yet, grabbing the first set of clothes he could reach.

When he made it back to their bedroom, he saw y/n had fallen asleep in her clothes, on top of the covers, shivering.

He frowned to himself and quickly walked to her, sighing as he gently woke her.

“I promise to let you sleep soon, but we should get you changed and under the covers first” he said as her eyes stared up at him.

Freddy held her up, delicately raising her shirt over her head.

Once he’d helped her remove her work clothes, he slid the new shirt he grabbed esrlier and slid it on over her head and then helped her out her arms in.

“Better?” He asked smiling at her sitting in his shirt.

She gave him a weak smile, “much”.

He let out a sigh of relief, reaching back to tie her hair more neatly so it stayed out of her face better.

“Do you want trousers?” He asked, holding up the pair he grabbed, which just so happened to be his as well.

She looked at her lap, seeing the shirt covering her thighs and shook her head.

Freddy watched as she flinched, holding her head.

He sighed, “no more shaking your head princess, just use your words please”.

“My throat hurts” she countered.

Freddy nodded, “okay… ummm.. okay, squeeze my hand once for yes and twice for no?”

The left corner of her lips curled up as she tried to give him a smile to thank him for coming up with a solution.

Y/n reached for his hand, squeezing it once.

Freddy beamed, pleased his idea would work, “good girl, I’ll make you tea”.

“Love, drink this for me please” he asked, handing her a warm cup of tea.

She began to sip on it, Freddy’s concerned eyes not leaving her as she slowly drank the hot tea with honey.

When she finished she set the cup on her nightstand, lifting her eyes to him and gave him a tiny smile, “thank you”.

He hated the way her voice cracked, but he was pleased to see she drank the full cup.

He nodded silently, leaning over to tuck her back in since she’d moved slightly to drink.

“I'm fine. It's fine. Stop-stop fussing over me” she coughed.

Freddy raised an eyebrow at her, “clearly”.

She laughed a little, causing another cough.

Freddy promptly grabbed the glass of water be brought earlier and held it out for her.

She sipped on it, rubbing her neck a bit when she finished.

As she leaned back into the pillows he stacked behind her, her eyes closed faintly.

“I am going to check the thermostat to ensure the flat stays warm and then make some soup” Freddy told her, towering over her as he felt her forehead, “before I go, may I have a kiss?"

"I'll get you sick if you kiss me” she sighed.

Freddy chuckled quietly, stroking her cheek, “That's alright darling, I'll survive. Besides, better you than anyone else”.

“You’re going to kiss someone else?” She pouted, a weak glare in her eyes.

“Of course not love, I was saying better you be the one to get me sick than someone else” he laughed, shaking his head at her illness-induced confusion.

“Why?” She asked, no longer glaring.

“Because it’ll at least be worth it” he admitted, holding her head softly.

She shut her eyes as she gave him a soft smile. Y/n reached out and grabbed his hand, giving it a soft squeeze.

Freddy grinned, delicately pressing his lips to her’s before pulling back and smoothing her stray hairs away from her skin, “get some sleep”.

“F-“ she coughed, making him turn back to her with concern in his eyes again, “Freddy, where are y-you going again?”

He gave her a sympathetic smile, “to the kitchen dear. I want to make you some soup”.

“I c-“ she coughed, glaring at nothing out of frustration, “I can help”.

Freddy hummed, smiling at her persevering determination to help others, “you want to help?”

She looked and saw she wasn’t in reach of his hand so she tapped her bed sheets once, making him giggle.

“I don’t need help with the soup, but I have another way you can help me” he told her, resting his hand on the blanket over her legs.

She tapped the bed again one time, showing him she’d nod if it didn’t hurt her to do so.

“Stay in bed and rest, for me?" He pleaded, watching as she sighed but tapped the bed one more time.

He smiled at her, “thank you darling. Call for me if you need me. Use your phone if you have to”.

She smiled weakly, tapping the sheet again before letting her heavy eyes close fully.

Freddy watched her for a moment, waiting until he saw her chest rising and falling.

“Th-“ she coughed, leaning her face into her elbow, “this is very good F-Fre-“.

He nodded quickly, squeezing her free hand as she set the bowl down, “shhh, thank you honey”.

Her eyes began to become heavy again, but she looked up at him through them anyways, giving him a small smile.

Freddy moved the bowl from the bed to the nightstand and felt her forehead.

His eyes widened and he glared at his hand, displeased with the temp.

Freddy quickly sprinted to their bathroom, grabbing a clean washcloth and holding it under the sink.

He tried to get the perfect temperature so she wouldn’t get chills but also would cool down.

However, as he heard her coughing again from the other room, he bolted back in there, the cloth in his hand.

“‘ere, try this darling” he said, placing the cloth lightly onto her forehead.

“Is this cloth too hot or cold?" Freddy asked as he adjusted it to keep it in place.

“No, it's perfect” she whispered, tugging the blanket towards her chin as she closed her eyes again.

Freddy relaxed slightly, “good”.

That night Freddy changed in their bedroom, planning on moving his discarded clothes to the hamper in the bathroom the next day as he didn’t want to leave her sight tonight.

He grabbed her phone, sliding the side button down so it would be on silent and not wake her up.

He then did the same with his, plugging it in next to his side of the bed.

Freddy slid quietly under the blankets, watching to make sure she didn’t wake up from his movements.

He sighed in relief as she kept sleeping.

However, when she began tossing and turning, with a clear shiver taking over her as well, he pulled her to his chest.

“Shhh” he soothed, grabbing the remote to turn the tv off before looking back at her, “I’m here, shhh”.

She slowly opened her eyes, staring into his worried blue ones, “you’re too close. You’ll get si-“.

He cut her off with a shake of his head and pulling her closer to him, “you won't get me sick. Well… You might, but I don't mind. Move over”.

She shuffled cautiously, making more room for both of them in the center of the bed.

Freddy smiled as she placed her head on his chest, her arms unconsciously latching onto his frame.

He knew she was right, this distance did leave him at risk for getting sick.

But as she was lying there with her head on his chest, all Freddy could think about was her soft breathing and hair minutely tickling his face.

“Ahhh ahhh, what do you think ‘er doing princess?” Freddy asked, looking up from his book he’d been reading on the couch.

Y/n shrugged, stumbling further into their flat, “I need to get stuff done”.

Freddy shook his head, setting his book down next to him.

“You need to sleep” he argued, briskly walking towards her.

“No, I’m fine” she said stubbornly.

“What is it you think you need to do?” He countered, holding her waist to stop her.

“Empty the clean laundry basket, dishes, work on my l-“ she stopped as she began coughing loudly.

“Stop. I can handle everything else, you need rest” he said firmly, his panic taking over.

She frowned but squeezed his hand once in partial agreement, “after I-“

He kissed her earlier earlobe, wincing at how warm it was, “come on, now”.

She squeezed his hands twice stubbornly before trying to walk away.

“Mmm nope” he smirked, lifting her up.

“You’re getting rest” he demanded gently, cautiously carrying her back to bed.

“I need to be productive” she groaned.

Freddy rolled his eyes, “sleep is productive”.

Freddy walked into their room, frowning when he saw she was awake and holding her head.

“Is it hurting again?” He asked rhetorically as he walked to her.

“Yeah” she whimpered.

“When did you last take some meds?" Freddy inquired, grabbing the medicine bottle from beside her bed.

He’d been out getting groceries so he wasn’t sure how long she’d been awake.

“Last time y-“ she coughed aggressively, wincing as it shook her head.

“Last time I gave you some?” Freddy clarified for her, opening the bottle.

She reached out and squeezed his hand once.

“Then you can have more, come ‘ere” he said softly, dumping the next dose of meds into his palm.

She cooperatively took the medicine and laid her head back down on the pillows.

“I also picked up this” he said, reaching into the bag he brought to their room, “it should help”.

She looked at the cough medicine bottle in his hand he showed her.

Y/n scrunched her nose and shifted away.

Freddy laughed softly, “I know it's minging, but I need you to take it anyway”.

She glared weakly at Freddy, still pouting.

“For me?” He pleaded, holding the cap full of medicine to her.

She winced as she tossed back the liquid medicine into her throat, grimacing at the taste.

“Thank you lovely” Freddy cooed, rubbing the back of her hand.

“Please” y/n whined, despite her eyes attempting to close.

Freddy sighed, “honey, you can't keep asking me to allow you to stay up."

Y/n scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly, “why?"

“‘cause you need sleep and I can't say no to that face you make and you know it" Freddy chuckled, tapping her stuffy nose.

She grinned acutely, “read to me then?”

Freddy hummed and nodded, “first we need to get you tucked in more”.

Despite her pretend state of annoyance, Freddy wrapped y/n up in a blanket until her face barely peaked out of the burrito like wrap he made.

Y/n wiggled her way down on the couch, placing herself between his legs as she rested her head on his chest.

Freddy bent his head down to kiss the space between her eyes before he picked his book up off the coffee table.

“Hope is a powerful thing. Some say it’s a different breed of magic altogether. Elusive, difficult to hold on to. But not much is needed” Freddy read quietly.

As he read to her, he grinned to himself as she drifted in and out of consciousness as if debating whether she wanted to listen to him more or sleep.

Freddy paced back and forth in the bedroom as he ran his hand through his hair in frustration, “please?”

“Come on. There's no need to overreact about this” y/n sighed.

It had been a few days now and she was overall doing better but was very lightheaded still.

“You are literally passing out” he countered, staring at her like she was insane.

“No hospital." She declared and he sighed as he saw the determined look in her eyes.

He knew she wouldn’t intentionally risk her own life just to not go in, but he was worried.

“If you even slightly lose consciousness, I'm taking you to hospital. I don’t want to hear any resistance” he compromised.

“Okay” she agreed, turning on the TV to keep her attention.

Freddy sighed, walking back to the bed so join her.

“You’re driving me insane” he muttered, holding her tightly.

“I’m okay Freddy, there’s not much they can do” she told him, rubbing his cheek.

“You should not be passing out” he complained, staring down at her, his eyes full of fear.

“The doctor said it should be over in another few days. I just over did it” she admitted.

“Yes, you did” he agreed, tightening his hold on her.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t-“ she began, frowning at him.

“Don’t apologize. Just communicate that you’re sick next time please” Freddy rebutted.

“Okay, I will. Sorry “ she agreed.

“Stop apologizing to me for this, angel, just keep your eyes open” he said, stroking her hair.

“Ahh, no, eyes open” Freddy said, tapping her cheek as her heavy eyelids began closing.

“Sorry, I'm... I'm really dizzy” she admitted weakly.

Freddy sat up more, holding her face steady between his hands, “am I taking you in now?”

Y/n hesitated, Freddy took that as a yes.

He pulled her up to the head of the bed to lean her back on the bed frame, “sit still baby”.

Freddy rushed to the bathroom, putting on his slippers and grabbing y/N’s.

“Okay,” he said breathlessly, reaching down and scooping her up in his arms, “I’ve got you”.

“I’m sorry you have to car-“ she sighed, her eyes fighting to close.

“No more apologizing, I’m glad you told me” Freddy promised, sitting her in her seat, “just let me handle this”.

After bucking my her in securely, he rushed ti the driver’s side and quickly began to drive to the nearest hospital.

Freddy sighed, relieved as the staff called y/N’s name to bring her back to be evaluated.

“I’m sorry we’re here, I know it’s late and-“ she began to ramble as Freddy pushed her in the loaner wheelchair.

"If you say ‘I'm sorry’ one more time, I'm going to be extra caring until you can't stand me” Freddy smirked, making y/n let out a breathy laugh.

“Right this way” the staff instructed, leading the couple back to the bed they wanted y/n in to be seen by a doctor.

Freddy lifted y/n out of the chair and onto the hospital stretcher.

“I’m sorry you're sick, my love. I wish there was more I could do to help” he cooed, fluffing the pillow before she laid back.

“Freddy” she pouted, grabbing his hand, “you’re doing more than enough”.

He sighed but nodded, sitting next to her, “hopefully they have something to help you”.

“I just need you “ she argued.

“Uh oh, you’re fever must be back” Freddy teased as he felt her forehead, making her laugh quietly.

“Thank you for bringing me in” she said, holding his hand.

“Thank you for dropping the stubbornness and letting me” he winked, relaxing as he knew he was now surrounded by people who would try to help her feel better.

“Let me draw you a bath” Freddy said as they entered their flat.

Y/n hummed in agreement, complying with his desires since he’d gone above and beyond to help her.

While the doctors at the hospital had already made her dizziness better, if this would make him calm, she’d let him do it.

“You're too good to me” she smiled as Freddy lead her to the bath tub that was now full and had Epsom salts in it, essential oil candles lit nearby.

“Not possible” he argued, helping her out of her clothes.

“You really didn’t have to do all of this” she smiled, holding his hand as he lead her into the tub.

“You’ll have to get used to it” he laughed.

“You plan on me being sick again soon?” She teased, relaxing her muscles in the warm water.

Freddy shook his head, his cheeks warming, “no, no. We just were talking about our future the other day and, well, ‘in sickness and health’ you know?”

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Current tag list (comment here to added): @ell0ra-Br3kk3r @brekkershadowsinger

[sapphichymns]

I’ll admit, I’ve been thinking about Kerblam a lot due to the rise of AI and how it’s used as a gotcha about the politics of 13′s era being actually conservative and not ‘woke’. So basically, Kerblam is a really annoying fungi in the fandom wank.

Here’s the thing, I know what the problem with the episode. It’s the word System. System is only ever used to describe the AI. Never was used to describe the way Kerblam uses the capitalist system to operate in Kandoka. Of course, it wouldn’t really raise eyebrows for a script editor, it really isn’t contradicting anything that came before. But when the Doctor says:

DOCTOR: The systems aren't the problem. How people use and exploit the system, that's the problem. People like you.

It somehow automatically became about the capitalist system Kerblam operates on. If it had been:

DOCTOR: The AI isn’t the problem. How people use and exploit the AI, that's the problem. People like you.

the fandom wank about it wouldn’t have ever reached this level of political jerk off (I swear I didn’t want to reach this level of the metaphor but I did).

The episode is not about capitalism in space(!), it’s about automation anxiety. How Kerblam is using an AI to replace jobs from people to maximize profit and it does cause an issue to the people of Kandoka.

KIRA: I was terrible too, my first week. I'm amazed the System kept me on. But now I just take a deep breath at the beginning of every shift and tell myself, Kira Arlo, you can do this. Sometimes I almost believe myself. DOCTOR: What I don't understand is, why does Kerblam need people as a workforce? These are automated and repetitive tasks. Why not get the robots to do it? KIRA: Do you not watch the news? DOCTOR: We travel a lot. RYAN: A lot. KIRA: Kandokan labour laws. Ever since the People Power protests, companies have to make sure a minimum ten percent of the workforce are actual people, at all levels. Like the slogan says, real people need real jobs. Work gives us purpose, right?

The people of Kandoka were indeed holding Kerblam accountable for the push of automation, even the way the episode ends is a continuation of that.

SLADE: We're suspending all operations for a month, pending review and while the TeamMates are rebuilding Dispatch. JUDY: All our workers have been given two weeks' paid leave, free return shuttle transport. And I'm going to propose that Kerblam becomes a People-Led Company in future. Majority organics. People, I mean. We're always looking for good workers to join our management team. DOCTOR: Er, thanks. We're strictly freelance.

(Note: Charlie did not  care about the people who worked at Kerblam. He only cared about Kira and only because, it affected him directly.)

I understand Oxygen is more popular because the Doctor says capitalism sucks and it’s basically abolished by the end of it but not every story needs the Doctor to just show up and somehow solve a systematic issue. Some times, talking about the importance of fighting little by little to make things better is just as important. It’s a recurring theme in 13′s era.

I don’t even think Kerblam needs a medal for effort or its issue is somehow some big moral failure. It just happened. It’s common for this show (or many others) to have its moment where it trips on itself. It’s just the conversation around it is so fucking dumb.