#segmented sleep

[tibbycaps]

rendog: Woew

[black-and-yellow]

'He's just like me fr'

[jonasiegenthaler]

is Nico really not a morning person? Is that a fan made perception or is it based off some information given by Nico or a teammate?

#confirmed not a morning person from here! h/t @imperatorrrrr for the nico lore-keeping

and of course, "this guy loves to sleep"

[cake-chad]

*the group trying to decide what to do about an impending attack*

Derek: "I have so many smart ideas but Bitsy is just holding me hostage."

[azzymaxxing]

IFUCKING WIN

[mxtxfanatic]

Hi, I saw how you compare fan and official translations and I was wondering about one section in svsss 4 100 questions. Trigger warning-its about the reference Shang qinghua makes to bingge raping women in the double digits. I hadn't run into that before. If you'd be willing to and when you might have time, would you tell me if that was a totally accurate translation?

The original Chinese version has a word bleeped out and I'm not knowledgeable enough about translating to tell if seven seas is off. I just saw some ppl calling bingge a rapist and while he is certainly guilty of a lot of things, that wasn't one that I was aware of. I mean the number of wives is sketch but ive always kinda thought about that whole situation as political benefits/stallion novel ridiculousness in numbers/bingge is emotionally unavailable. Not as him gathering women regardless of consent. With power dynamics there can def be some dub con stuff but readers have limited knowledge about bingges world and the presence of aphrodisiacs can create some not great scenarios.

Anyways! I'm a little biased cause I'd like it to be a mistranslation but i just wanted to check about it before I accept that as a canon thing.

This is the raws next to the 7seas translation:

尚清华心酸不已: 洛冰河在他笔下，明明就是个只追求肉 【欲的 绝世种马，强 【哔】 的妹子绝对有两位数吧...... Shang Qinghua thought sadly about how under his pen, Luo Binghe had obviously been a peerless stallion who’d pursued only his desire to beep— , and the number of women he’d r- beep —-ped had definitely been in the double digits...

The section you're looking for in the raws portion is highlighted, which could be roughly translated to "This peerless stallion of lust, forced [beep] of maidens," so yeah, it's not ambiguous that this is about Bing-ge forcing himself on women. The svsss translations have always been fine, so I had no doubt that this was an accurate translation.

I think your shock at this reveal just may be that you're forgetting that the world of PIDW post-Shen Yuan's transmigration isn't the same world as the og!PIDW that follows its own logic. PIDW is a stallion novel, a male power fantasy where the male protagonist always gets the girl no matter what, and this sort of logic necessitates the absence of sexual consent. It's not so much that the women are "unwilling" but that no woman can be forever unwilling in this type of world. Any "unwillingness" is spice to the story, not a permanent feature or moment of horror. In essence: a "no" is just an eventual "yes” if you bulldoze through it forcefully enough..

Shan Qinghua, as a writer who had a very clear understanding of his audience, would know that this is what he was writing when he turned the novel into a stallion novel. And Shen Qingqiu, as the former reader Shen Yuan, is also aware of this logic and (unsuccessfully) attempts to use it to his advantage when he hadn't yet realized that the genre had changed. We see this in scenes where he tells Luo Binghe to leave him alone, only for him to get upset when Bing-mei does in fact leave him alone. He's not expecting his "no" to carry weight in the world because in the original novel and the genre in general, it wouldn't. However, his changes to the world made the novel not a stallion novel and made Luo Binghe into a better (not-rapist) version of himself.

(Also, got your other ask; my response still stands.)

[lemonsweet]

Would love to see an anthro daddy longlegs. Really really talk legs and the smallest little body that's conjoined to the head along with long arms

[kristinbayleigh]

Bruce is so the parent to tell his kids that if their friends ever need a place to stay the manors doors are always open. I mean sure he’s all grumpy and brooding but you can tell me that, that man doesn’t have a heart of gold, it just might need so polishing.

Also I 100% believe Dick has cried listening to “you’ll always find your way back home” from the Hannah Montana movie, bc you can’t tell me that Richard “Dramatic-ass” Grayson hasn’t seen every single episode of Hannah Montana.

[le-trash-prince]

two more hours 😭😭😭😭😭🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼

[whisperwritingstuff]

hope someone ordered some more reverse untamed beasts, because looks like that's what we've got here

in which stuff does not cease from continuing to occur

-----

Grian wakes to the murmur of words above him. Little movements reveal him to have been rearranged to lay across Scar’s lap. He’d know the feel of the thighs under him anywhere.

It’s a slog to drag his brain to focus on what’s being said, fighting off the urge to slip into sleep once more. Thankfully his curiosity wins.

"-ub, come on, easy there." Scar's voice is gently steady. "You're doing so good, Cub, just focus a little. Just stay with me."

Something in Grian's chest aches with the tenderness of the moment, like he's not meant to be here witnessing it. Something hungry in him quiets.

The thigh under him very slightly twitches.

"Eavesdropping is a bad habit, or so I'm told." Scar's tone shifts into something light and friendly, something made of plaster-thin cheer.

"Is it eavesdropping when you're doing it directly above my head?" Grian cracks open an eye, peering up at Scar. Scar still has a hand on Grian's Vex's cheek, even though he's looking down at Grian instead.

"Yes, because you weren't invited. It just can't be done anywhere else." Scar nods to himself, as if that makes any kind of sense at all.

"What are you doing to-"

"Stop." Scar snaps, sugar-brittle cracks crashing over the rest of Grian's words and bringing them to am abrupt jerk of a halt.

Grian's Vex growls softly, sounding almost uncertain.

"It's fine, I'm not hurting him, he's fine, see?" Scar's tone instantly switches over to its previous tenderness, all the force behind it suddenly gone as he soothes Grian's Vex. Scar lifts Grian's hand, placing it in Grian's Vex's hand. Grian gives its hand a little squeeze. He can feel the way it relaxes some after that. Grian's not entirely sure why he's cooperating with Scar about this, but… He doesn't want his Vex to be upset, or to get violent again. He can help with that, at least. Granted, Grian feels significantly less comfortable when Scar's attention shifts back to him. For just a fleeting moment there's something wild and icy-amused in Scar's eyes, but it smooths back down to Scar's normal friendliness in a deliberate way. Scar's letting him see that, Grian realizes. Scar wants it to make him uneasy.

Grian puts on his best unphased expression, unwilling to let Scar see it shake him.

Scar taps Grian's nose, making Grian's expression scrunch up again.

"You will not call him it." Scar's voice cuts through the distraction to completely envelop Grian, sticky and consuming, drowning honey seeping against the cracks of his mind until it permeates through.

Grian jerks slightly in place, something screaming to him that this is wrong, something's wrong, this isn't how it's supposed to go- He clings to his Vex's hand and tries to twist away from Scar.

Scar roughly grabs his face and forces Grian to look directly at him. "You will not." He repeats, voice thick with power and authority.

Despite putting up as much resistance as he can, something inside Grian's mind buckles at that firm touch. He can feel that soft piece of himself simply give way, accepting and even welcoming the demand placed on him. His body relaxes without his say-so, the honey-sweetness coursing through his veins and wracking him with bliss to seal the deal. By the time Grian manages to surface from the aftershocks of- Whatever that was, Scar is slumped forward onto Grian's Vex, panting shallow breaths. A hint of defiance glints through his exhaustion, when Grian manages to catch his eye. "Do whatever you want to me, I'm not undoing it." Scar was almost certainly aiming for some kind of tough guy tone, but it's a bit undercut by the way his voice cracks and has to pause for panting breaths.

Grian can't help but snort half a laugh at the dissonance.

Grian's Vex slowly loops an arm around Scar, like rediscovering something that was once familiar, tucking him close. Admittedly, Grian is becoming more and more curious about what it's-

Grian's body jerks with a sharply overwhelming spark of pain, and then a cool wash of soothing.

What… was he thinking about again? His Vex looks comfortable like that, holding Scar. Grian shuffles himself around until he can sprawl on both of their laps, unable to just pick one.

Scar plays with his hair again, which is nice.

"You'll learn quick, I know you will." Scar's voice is steadier now, soft. Still laced with tiredness, but the long weighty kind more than the brief sharp sort. "I wasn't gonna be responsible for my actions if you said that again, I couldn't- I'm trying really really hard to be understanding, okay? Like, really hard. You can be reasonable, right? I know you can, you-" Scar pauses his rambling to touch his own throat. "We'll figure this out, we just needed some ground rules, is all." He finishes with a nod. "Why are you so invested in what I call my Vex?" Grian manages to dredge up enough thought to actually make a coherent inquiry about all of Scar's complete nonsense.

Which means he gets to watch as Scar's expression does something that is very much not anger, but something of an entirely different shade of color. All Grian can read of it is that the tail end of it morphs into guilt, though.

Which tells him absolutely nothing.

"Grian." Scar's voice shifts to a simple tone he only uses when he's being his most genuinely serious. "This is Cub. Actual real o- my friend Cub."

"What? No, this is just a magic construct I summoned that looks kinda, maybe okay a little, like if you look at it sideways a little squinty sorta like Cub. It's not like. Cub Cub."

"Have you checked?" Scar challenges.

"I don't need to." Grian dismisses. It'd be silly to check something that couldn't possibly be true.

"Grian."

Grian looks away instead of answering, disliking the mounting discomfort from meeting Scar's gaze and thinking about the conversation too hard.

"That's him, Grian. That's Cub. Check."

"I don't. Want to." Grian protests, even though it sounds weak even in his own ears.

"Check." Scar insists, with gentle firmness.

Grian looks at his Vex, seeking any kind of excuse to put this off. Which means he's watching as his Vex reaches out and takes Scar's hand, holding it carefully, as if to comfort Scar. Scar's chest flexes and flutters with unnamed emotion in Grian's peripheral.

It's almost not of his own volition at that point that Grian shifts his sight just off-kilter enough to clearly see the name attached to Scar. Sweeping his vision back over to his Vex-

The damning sword of Damocles hangs clear over Grian's Vex's head, reading Cub's name clear as day.

"No." Grian protests, faintly. "Yeah." Scar almost looks pitying. "He's been Cub the whole time." Scar gives Cub's hand a squeeze.

"But. He's mine." Grian didn't mean to say that aloud, but the words got away from him. They're true but they were still supposed to be inside-head words. Grian's Vex- Cub, nods slightly.

Scar makes that unknown expression again, then gives a soft growl. "That's complacated." "He doesn't act like Cub." Grian protests.

"Not the Cub you know." Scar says distantly, before shaking his head. "The summoning does this to us."

Us. Scar's too tired to fight him right now. It'd be so easy to just make this problem go away- Just claim Scar, summon him, and then he'd stop saying all these- These uncomfortable, upsetting things. It'd be simple, everything could be simple again.

Grian closes his eyes, tensing up as he fights down those thoughts. He wants-

Scar kneads at his scalp. "Shh, it's okay. You stay with me too, alright?" The shapes of the sounds are all correct for comforting, but somehow it doesn't sound the same as when Scar was soothing Cub. Grian feels a kind of way about that. "Yeah, yeah." Grian brushes off, rolling onto his side so he can 'naturally' flop a wing over himself. "I'm here. So how do we fix- him. That's what you were trying to do when I woke up, right?" It makes sense, if Scar knows that this does this to them, then at least one of them must have gone through it before, and been brought back. And Scar's patter earlier was sort of shaped that way. Scar hesitates. Even without looking at him, Grian can feel it in the play of muscles through Scar's thighs.

Grian feels an indignant prickle, low in his gut, that Scar would withhold something from him that might help his Vex. He flexes his talons slowly, grabbing and releasing the sheets of the bed.

"It gets more difficult, when he's been like this so long after summoning. I can do some, but- It might work better if it were you." That last part sounds almost like it was torn bloody and dripping out of Scar, an unwilling admission resented for its truth. "Of course I can do it better." Grian snips. Does he have any idea how to do this? No. Is that going to stop him? Also no.

…even if it maybe should. What if doing this means he loses his sweetly pliant Vex? That's what they're talking about, right? Making that go away, filling that space with-

With Cub, their friend. Their friend whose space that was to begin with. Grian curls his claws into the meat of his palms, willing himself to stay on-track. He wants Cub back. Maybe they're not close-close even if Cub is his but they're friends, right? Grian- Grian would miss him if he were just. Gone. For real. Forever. He has to focus on that part. On reminding himself there isn't a Cub just waiting back at home.

This is the only Cub they have. "Stop that, you're ruining the bandages." Scar chides, taking Grian's partial hand in his. "Look at this, now there's holes in them. What do you have to say for yourself, mister?"

"It's better than the alternative." Grian speaks without inflection, flat.

"A poor excuse if I ever heard one. And now we're going to have to clean this up, before- The mess gets everywhere." To someone who knows Scar less well, the pause where he switched tracks to hide something he didn't want to say would be less evident. To Grian it blares like a siren alarm, prodding at his curiosity like a jabbing stick through an animal's cage. "What-" Grian starts.

"Oh I brought bandages with me, no worries." Scar cheerfully talks over him, as if that answer makes sense.

Grian grits his teeth, but lets it stand. Scar unwinds the bandages, pressing a light kiss to the wound, before re-wrapping them with fresh and tucking the old bandages away in his inventory.

"Can never have too much kindling." Scar grins.

"No fire tick." Grian answers automatically.

"I'll make due." There's something almost soft in Scar's tone that makes Grian finally turn to look at him again.

"You didn't have to." Grian says quietly, flexing his thumb, his index and middle fingers, the remaining ones on that hand.

"It was the neighborly thing to do." Scar shrugs, too lightly.

Grian looks away again, ignoring Scar as Scar cleans the blood from Grian's other hand as well. Much more interesting to look at his Vex, who has an intense expression of concentration as he watches the pair of them.

…it does kinda make him look a little more like Cub. "Cub?" Grian asks, without meaning to.

Cub tips his head slightly, evidently pondering, before he nods.

Grian frowns. He reaches out, tracing the curved backs of his claws over Cub's throat. There's no strangling magic there, not like there'd been with Scar. "I didn't- He hasn't said anything. This whole time." Grian struggles for a moment to remember if that's right or wrong. Scar presses himself close to Grian's back, and Grian pretends he's simply being polite by tucking his wings in closer to himself when Scar does.

"That's how this takes him. The magic for that isn't in his throat, it's in his nature." Scar sighs softly. Grian can still hear him picking his words carefully, the sound of sunflowers and secrets.

"Am I supposed to undo his nature?" Grian balks slightly.

"No, he does that fine on his own. He just needs a few nudges to kickstart him. To call him back." Scar rests his chin on Grian's shoulder. Grian thinks it should feel comfortable. It usually does. It's familiar, certainly. But the muscles of his wings won't unwind, everything feels like tight springs just waiting to be let loose on one another.

But they're both ignoring that, of course. If they pretend it's fine, that's close enough, right? "Is it really as simple as telling him to come back?" Grian asks, skeptical. "Wouldn't you have already done it by now if it was?"

"It's different, when it's- The magic makes it different, coming from you." Scar's voice is almost a hiss in his ear, a bare breath away from being able to be pinned down as resentment, but not quite that.

"Fine." Grian figures he can just shove Scar off the bed if this is to make him look stupid, or something. But enough of thinking about Scar. Grian focuses on his Cub instead.

Grian's hand drifts up until he can brush the pad of his thumb over Cub's cheekbone. Soft, cool skin, familiar under Grian's hand by now.

"Come back to us, Cub. We miss your sparkling wit." Grian gives a little half-smile. "You can't leave me with just this bozo for company. I'll go mad." Grian jerks his thumb in Scar's direction, before returning his hand to Cub's face, this time to trace the line of his jaw.

Scar grouches indignant sounds, tucking his arms around Grian's torso and squeezing just a little too hard to be quite playful. Grian is shocked to find his hand pushed away, the motion drawing his attention back to Cub where-

The simmering steel of anger in Cub's gaze hurts more than Grian expected it to. In the space between one breath and the next, Grian's hurt transmutes into a fury of his own, prickling down Grian's arms, along his legs.

Grian tries to lunge forward to wipe that wrong expression off his Vex's face, but Scar's arms drag him back harshly.

"No, no this is good!" Scar sounds disgustingly excited, completely ignoring the way Grian claws at his arms.

Cub's gaze flicks down to Scar's blood welling up around Grian's claws, showing a sharp spike of distress accompanied by the faintest whine that has both Scar and Grian freezing in place. A quick glance at each other says that they both heard it. "Cub? Are you with us, buddy?" Scar asks, bubbling with hope.

"If you two could stop making my head split open, that'd be great." Cub grouches, closing his eyes and pressing the heel of his palm into the underside of his eyebrow.

"Cub!" Scar detangles himself from Grian in record time, and launches himself bodily at Cub, clinging onto him. "Cub Cubby-Cub Cub Cubster Cub." Scar rubs his cheek against Cub's face like he's trying to sand it down to the bone. "Yeah, man. Yeah, I know. Yeah." Cub huffs, but leans ever so slightly into Scar instead of pulling away from him.

Grian's whole chest twists, like he's losing something precious, slipping right through his claws. He draws back from the pair, tucking his knees up to rest his chin on and wrapping his wings forward around himself, under the guide of giving them privacy.

Mostly Grian just can't stand to look at them anymore. Grian stops counting the seconds after sixty, and dully accepts that the pair are too wrapped up in one another to pay him any heed. Not- Not like he'd expected either of them to reach out to him anyway.

That'd be stupid, given the circumstances. Given what he's- How he's been treating Cub. How he treated Scar.

Grian covers his ears with his palms and rollingly taps his fingers down the back of his head, to drown out the thought that he treated them as they should be treated. That if he'd just stuck to that way, he wouldn't be hurting right now. He wouldn't be alone.

He likes alone anyway. Alone is fine. He's fine with this. He should be more alone, actually. That'd be better.

Grian slips off the bed and silently pads his way out of the cottage.

The sky calls to him, but- Something about the thought of feeling that kind of joy right now only sours his stomach when it would usually clear his head.

He heads down into his mine instead, a small thing. Tight spaces, messily sprawling corridors. He can just pick a new direction and go, his body moving thoughtlessly with the familiar task.

He pushes away the thought that he's gathering materials for nothing. For a house that isn't a home anymore. For a place he doubts he's welcome now anyway.

If he's still thinking at all, he's not working hard enough, clearly.

He lets himself get entirely lost in mining.

[puppetmaster13u]

I just wanted to draw Batgirl Barbara with some Oracle vibes, like an inbetween stage of sorts.

Au is by @phoenixcatch7 and you need to check them out if you haven't <3

[charmfamily]

CORVUS CROSSING: A CHARM FAMILY STORY. CHAPTER I "BOY, YOU'LL BE A MAN REAL SOON." PART VII. Transcript Beneath the Cut.

MINERVA [inner monologue]: It wasn't ever like that… Was it? And if it was, it wasn't always… Right?

EMERSON: You're not getting rid of me if I have anything to say about it… I love you too damn much.

MINERVA [inner monologue]: I know you did, but not ever quite as much as the glory, the recognition, the legacy. Was it ever me or did you love the way that I loved you? The way I followed you like a lost lamb and looked at you like you were the center of the universe, some embodiment of everything I once thought I wanted to be? Was it me or the fact that I had a gift that made your greatness greater? If I wasn't the best and brightest in a useful discipline you needed for your team, would you have ever looked at me at all?

EMERSON'S DIARY: On July 26, 2015 at approximately 7:00 AM, Dr. Emerson Charm and his wife, Codicologist Minerva Charm, found the lost temple of Zazatotl.

MINERVA [inner monologue]: "Minerva reading glyphs along the way, making notes to make sure we weren’t just going in circles…" I get you to where you've always wanted to go, I finally find some impossible lead after years and years of fruitless searches, and at the end of it all the "fierce and powerful genius of a girl" who spent her best years propping you up becomes nothing but a footnote in your field diary. Your name though… your name's on plaques, in history books, there's a Fates-be-damned portrait of you hanging in the very institution you loathed and thought you were too good for.

MINERVA [to Emerson's portrait, aloud]: I don't know where in the Aether you ended up, but if you can hear me there at all, hear this: I will be dead, cold, in the ground, and with a soul too far gone in the hands of otherworldly parties before Damien Aurelius Charm sets a single fucking toe in Selvadorada to take up your family's quest. If it takes me the rest of my life I'm gonna make damn sure that it ends once and for all and that it ends with you, you understand me? You checked out of this life chasing accolades when that boy was twelve: he's my legacy. Not yours. You don't get to leave me here and still get a say. [Minerva pulls out her phone with a frown, scrolling through her contacts to find Gemma's number. The phone rings twice before the line picks up.] Hey, I know you're probably having fun with the aunts but… how do you feel about staying a little longer, me joining you guys, and us having a girls' day? Get hair and nails done, take you out to eat…

GEMMA: Really?! … Can we buy new clothes?

MINERVA: [smirks] Within reason — I am still saying firm no's on any kind of crop top or two-piece bathing suit, I don't care if it is summer.

GEMMA: I won't even try to argue about it if we can bring Cassie too. I don't think her and her dad have a lot of girls' days…

MINERVA: Of course you can invite Cassie too. Actually, I'll text Mortimer and if he says okay, I'll pick her up and we'll meet you there. Sound good? GEMMA: … Hey Mom?

MINERVA: Yeah?

GEMMA: When did you get to be kind of cool?

MINERVA: [smirks] Oh I was born cool, angel baby. I just think I… forgot for a while.

[secret-spirit]

I'm calling the doai "Halloween 86 incident" the "Hour of Six" now /hj

[jayparked]

snail quote of the day

[puexii]

Cant sleep so have this drawing I probably won't finish :P

Pose suddenly didn't make sense so I stopped, ye

Strings in their hands are supposed to show how Axis has much control, they were gonna be blue

However, Axis is very much not free, under the constant threat of deactivation, they must do everything perfectly with no mistakes, or they will become like the first Overseer. A constant threat Axis experiences. Other strings were gonna be white

While they may not experience most emotions, they can experience fear, which to their understanding was meant for self preservation

Additionally, despite all the power they have, they are stuck in their greatest blind spot (by design) which is sector zero

Actually, Axis's emotions are disabled, not non existent, implying they can be reenabled somehow, which I don't think they would like. Such large scale influence must not be hindered by selfish experiences, the quest for perfection in efficiency is one where you do not matter. Emotions will only blind you and destroy all you've built, as has happened with the first Overseer.

And yet, Axis chose to reactivate him, the failure they've always been warned against becoming,

Because they did not trust that they could keep this perfect efficiency constant, at least, they needed a backup in case of their inevitable failure.

And what better than your own predecessor?

[psychopomp-namine]

still chewing on this but I do think there's a lot to be said about sora and kairi mirroring each other (it's more in your face in remind but I think it's something the series has been doing in small doses over multiple games)