#she wrote me this and allowed to translate into english and post it

[0039pf-third-blog-hooray]

leon is urgently called on a mission

leon: sorry, mr. president, i'm in madrid. with the daughter of the previous mr. president. no, i can't, i'm at a wedding. mr. president, this is my wedding. no, not with the daughter of the previous mr. president, luis serra. yes, a criminal in 10 countries, but like i said, i’m in madrid.

there’s a wedding march in the background

by @pol-parketny

[sisterdivinium]

Finding "the meaning" to a show that could have had up to five or seven seasons but was cancelled after the second is somewhat like trying to understand a novel composed of seventy chapters by having read only twenty — there is a whole wealth of information which we do not possess that could alter our reading of any given element or of the entire thing in itself.

Still, there are always patterns that weave a story into a cohesive unit and they can help us to better grope in darkness towards comprehension. One such pattern in Warrior Nun appears to be how the consequences to mistakes, "sins" or evil deeds committed by characters manifest.

Basic storytelling usually requires characters to act on something so that complications or resolutions may arise from their choices and move the plot forwards. In Warrior Nun, many of these actions are quite tragic in nature: Suzanne's arrogance and pride lead to the death of her Mother Superion; Vincent's allegiance to the higher power he believed Adriel to be inspired him to kill Shannon; Ava's flight from the Cat's Cradle ends up damning Lilith as she is mortally wounded and taken away by a tarask... All of these events have negative outcomes and heavy repercussions on all characters directly or indirectly involved. Something changes permanently because of them, be it in the world around them or within the characters themselves.

And yet, it would seem that all of these dark deeds not only move the story forwards but might also have overall positive results. We would have had no protagonist without Ava — and she would arguably never have received the halo to begin with had she not been murdered. What's more, on a personal scale, the horrifying crime she suffers is, in the end, the very thing that allows her a second chance in life, a new life.

An act of outside evil permits Ava to grow and develop, shows her a path she would not otherwise have found. Without her own season in some sort of hell, Lilith would not have been able to advance towards other ways of being and understanding beyond her very strict limitations. Vincent and Suzanne would not have embarked on their own journeys of enlightenment without having caused the pain they are responsible for.

Beatrice might have been paying for someone else's mistakes, but she, too, is given the chance to grow into herself through it. The afflictions that torment these characters advance the overall plot, but they also advance them, as individuals, as long as they are willing to learn and keep going despite the calamities large and small that they are faced with. Beatrice keeps going after parental rejection, Mary keeps going after losing Shannon, Jillian keeps going after losing her son (in part through her own actions, adding insult to injury)... Trouble and the adaptation that follows it, if one is open enough to learn from the experience, motivates the characters, propels them forward, teaches them.

The problem of evil has occupied the minds of many a thinker throughout the ages, given how the very existence of it, evil, might call into question that of God (a good, omniscient, omnipotent one, anyway). A common way of justifying suffering (and also God), then, is by claiming, as Saint Augustine, that "God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist".

Now, it would be rather ridiculous to say of Warrior Nun that it follows in Leibniz's footsteps, also because this philosopher, expanding on the augustinian concept, attempted to defend the goodness of a real God with his "best of all possible worlds" while all we have is... Well, whatever/whoever Reya is.

But there seems to be an inclination towards some sort of optimism as a worldview nonetheless.

Betrayals reveal truth and grant knowledge (Vincent's culminates with the coming of Adriel, which allows us to know of the threat of a "Holy War" and thus prepare for it; Kristian's gives Jillian much needed insight, William's lights up the fuse for the fight to be taken more seriously...), crimes committed willingly or not open the way for Ava (Suzanne's killing of her Mother Superion causes the loss of the halo, which is transferred to Shannon, whose death opens the gates for Ava to walk through after being herself murdered by sister Frances)... The magnitude of these positive outcomes is perhaps not "balanced" when compared to the evil that brings them about, but there is still something to take out of the catastrophe.

However tragic the tones of a given event, the show itself appears to shun the predetermination that makes tragedy as a genre; if everything is connected, here it at least appears to not necessarily drag everyone into their horrible dooms.

What's more is that this lurking "optimism" matches really well with our own protagonist's personality.

And it makes perfect sense that Ava would do the best she could with whatever she is given.

Life for her, in the conditions she experienced after the accident, would have been unbearable without some sort of positive outlook on life. However deadpan, the joking and the "obscene gestures" and whatever other forms of goofing around beside Diego are a way of turning a portion of the situation in her own favour. Proverbial eggs have, after all, already been broken right and left — might as well make an omelette of whatever remains.

Humour is just another way of looking at the bright side of something, or, at the every least, of mitigating the utter horror it might bring. If the show allows for moments of lightness, if it lets us laugh, if it takes us through a perilous voyage which still bears ripe, succulent fruit instead of the rot of pessimism and its necessary contempt for humanity, it is because Ava herself sees things in this way. It isn't gratuitous or naïve in this case, but a true survival strategy, especially as it is confronted with the morbidity of Catholicism.

Here is a religion that soothes its faithful with the promise of reward in the afterlife — how else does one charge into battle against the unknown, risking one's own death along with that of one's sisters, without the balm of believing that we shall all meet again eventually, "in this life or the next"? How else does one come to terms with the ugliness and the pain of this existence if not by looking forward to a paradise perfect enough to make all trials and tribulations here worth it?

True nihilism would have annihilated Ava. Her present perspective is what avoided the abyss.

And there is nothing Panglossian to her attitude or what the show might imply by giving us her view on things. This isn't about "the best of all possible worlds", but of making the best of whatever situation we're in, of taking what we have and doing something with it, something good, something of ourselves. It isn't God making good out of evil, but our choices.

Killing innocent people and feeling no remorse will never be the best someone can aspire to do. Sister Frances, cardinal William, Adriel all learn this the hard way.

Those who do their best find that, somehow, they can move on from whatever it was that paralysed them. Ava, most of all, knows what it is to be stuck, frozen in place; she can never be the character who refuses to grow, even through pain, lest she condemns her spirit to the same fate her body is all too familiarised with. Those around her wise enough to let themselves be touched by her, by the dynamic power she carries, walk forth with her and live.

It says very little about "God" that Warrior Nun should adopt its heroine's views and seem "optimistic" as it progresses — but it speaks volumes about the values it presents for pondering, of the inspiration its protagonists provide, and of the multiple reasons why this is a story unlike most others.

[petday]

whats little magic?

It is a puzzle game for the Super Famicom and Game Boy Color video game systems. I like the Game Boy Color game much more for its art direction, and it's also just more fun for me to play with the 'bubble magic' mechanic in that version. I wrote more about my enjoyment below, in case anyone is curious.

The game’s box art is very beautiful, right? It caught my eye right away. The in-game 'cutscene' artwork appears to be carefully-made pixel art versions of the same artist's illustrations and they are similarly beautiful. (Sorry in advance if my photograph quality is not great.)

But the actual levels themselves look very haphazard. Clashing colors and tiles. It's easy enough to guess that a blue tile next to a white tile represents water and snow, respectively, but what does the yellow cluster-of-boxes tile represent? Yellow bricks of a tower…? How about the spike-y objects in the snow-water levels? I guessed they were underwater mines, but then there's the same tile in a later level too, just palette-swapped to be red… The two monochrome tiles in the third picture above teleports your character, but it has a two-frame animation that made me think of an ‘industrial grinder’ and ‘static noise’, so I assumed it was dangerous at first. Was it intended to be nondescript ‘sparkly magic’? Where are all of these levels taking place, anyway? No other humans are in these areas, just various animals and vague environmental indicators. There are cute snakes in some ‘yellow brick’ levels that end your life upon touching them. Seems irresponsible for a teacher to allow her student into perilous areas, no matter how eager she is to pass her final exam at magic school and become a magician.

Oh, I should explain the story. (None of the above photos are in sequence, just wanted to show more of the game.) The story is about a girl who attends magic school, and aims to pass a series of tests to become a full-fledged magician. Her teacher encourages her. The lack of explanation in the story is another fun point for me. Her magic teacher doesn't explain why 'learning magic' consists of pushing a heart into a heart-shaped hole that triggers a staircase to appear, which is what you need to do to complete each level. (It’s a beating heart – is it alive?) No explanation as to why snakes end your life instantly upon touching them. The context of 'because you want to pass your exams, a teacher is putting you through trials to help you become a master of magic’ isn’t an adequate explanation, because the teacher also tells you that she has not passed the final exam - why is a teacher putting a student through something that is too difficult even for herself? Who is in control of all of the strange areas you need to ‘complete’ in order to become a real magician, then? (After you complete the game with the student, you can play a different set of levels as the teacher, but even the usual sparse context-giving ‘cutscenes’ are not there… Mysterious…)

So, all of that is why my drawing about ‘Little Magic’ is about ‘confusion’, ‘going along with something that makes sense at first, but quickly unravels to not make sense any longer’, ‘growing distrust of authoritative figures’, and ‘frustration from stagnation.’ https://petday.tumblr.com/post/730315736066768896

Maybe the instruction booklet explains everything; I did not have access to that while playing, and I like that feeling. ‘Renting a game from a video game rental store that did not come with an instruction booklet, and being perplexed by it, forced to create your own context because you have nothing else’ feeling. Randomly selecting games to play that do not have much documentation online is enjoyable to me, because of that feeling.

A fan translation group translated the Game Boy Color game from Japanese to English in 2018. There wasn't a lot of dialogue in the first place, though. I like games where there is little to no dialogue because one can imagine a story/context besides what is shown. Up until 2022, I could not find a solution for the teacher’s final puzzle, so I interpreted the ending of the game’s story as, ‘The magic teacher thought she could harness a type of magic far stronger than what she could handle, accidentally designed an impossible puzzle for herself and is trapped for eternity.’ Of course, the puzzle has a solution, but I wanted to honour my strange interpretation regardless. When I play games and have weird interpretations of them, I am definitely not saying, 'I bet this is what the people who worked on this game were thinking!' I dislike that attitude. It's just imaginative interpretation, and working with the odd way I interact with things in order to maximize fun for myself…

A part about old games that I also love, is that they can never be updated; they had one chance to release a finished game, and maybe another chance to fix glitches in a re-release if they sold very many copies the first time. I greatly enjoyed the ‘imperfect’ tilesets and abrupt feeling of this game, which might have been ‘improved’ in a patch if it had been released in recent years instead of 1999.

(I wasn’t sure where to include this point, but I must also say, my favourite YouTube comments are about someone’s unusual interpretations of a game, when they did not have access to a guide at the time. I read one recently – the comment author and their brother rented ‘Final Fantasy IV’ from a rental store, and they did not know about the ‘Poison’ status effect that depletes the characters health. There is a strange pixelation effect and a ringing sound when you walk around the overworld while poisoned. Because the save file they were playing from was during a point of the game where you visit the moon, and because of the unfamiliar visual and sound effect, they interpreted the ‘Poison’ status effect as, “The moon must be running out of air.” Things like that are beautiful to me.)

(I also wasn’t sure where to put this point, but the main character, May, from ‘Little Magic’, is stylized differently in some ‘cutscenes’. She resembles a dragon to me. It’s cute.)

[mari-lu0-0]

Childbirth

Daemon x f!reader.

Summary: You are having a difficult labor.

Description: Description of labor pain, small mention of blood.

Total words: 618.

I do not allow translation or any adaptation of my works.

Screams of pain shook the great stone walls of the dragon and reached as far as the dragon pit.

"I can't do it anymore, Daemon! This hurts so much, please make it stop!" You said desperately as you clawed at the sheets soaked in sweat and blood. It's been hours since you went into labor, the other day it was almost due and the child didn't show any signs of coming out.

"Come on my love, just a little longer. You're doing well, you're doing a great job." He encouraged her

"I can't, I can't take it anymore! Just get the child out of me!

One of his servants tried to wipe his forehead with a cloth, but Daemon just took it from her hands.

"You know I won't allow something like that, I can't lose you." He spoke while wiping off all the sweat that dripped from his forehead.

You winced from the pain. The birth of her other two children had not been as far and painful as this one. Which made her start to think that the Gods were punishing her for something she had done. Until a miracle the midwife breathes a sigh of relief.

"I can see the child's head, my princess. Just a few more pushes and the baby will come out."

"Come on my love just a little longer, you're the strongest woman I've ever met, so I know you can do it, I'm here with you."

With the rest of the strength you had left, you squeezed Daemon's hand as hard as you could, pushing with all the strength in your body. The harder you pushed, the sooner it would all be over. With a final push, his vision began to blur and his mind went blank, a feeling of relief washing over his body.

But you were taken out of your trance thanks to your husband's voice calling you desperately and a small cry.

"It's a boy". She stated proudly. "A strong and healthy little dragon, princess, you don't need to worry." She says handing the boy to Daemon, who takes him with a big smile.

"He looks just like you my love." He says as he moves closer to the baby so you can see him.

The boy was a true Targaryen, he had snow-white hair and skin, and dark purple eyes that would certainly turn lilac in the future.

"You're a terrible liar dear, he's a copy of you." You say with a weak, tired laugh.

"Looking at him, he's as handsome as his daddy here." He says in a convinced voice.

The bedroom doors were quickly opened and two small figures with white hair ran in.

"He's finally born, is he a little brother?" She said the first while sweating in bed next to her mother.

"I want to see it too." He said the other pushing his brother to the side.

"Boys slow down or you'll hurt your mother."

"Alright, let them meet him." You say, taking the small package the baby was wrapped in and turning towards the boys.

"I told you it was a boy Viserys."

"Ah be quiet Aegon... Mună (mother) what is his name?

"Well... I was thinking about calling him Baelon Targaryen, what do you think dear."

"Baelon is a good name dear." Said Daemon with small tears in his eyes, as he slowly stood up watching his children and their waiting.

If he had had any doubts before, at that moment they had completely disappeared, he loved them more than anything and would do everything possible and impossible to keep them safe through all the confusion that was about to come.

I hope you liked the story, I've been writing for a while but I only wrote in Portuguese, but I'm thinking about posting my stories in English here.

I hope that you enjoyed.

[canmom]

when robots got muscles

You can blame @centrally-unplanned for this post. She(?) wrote...

The ‘chrome’ designs pioneered by illustrators like Hajime Sorayama (Sexy Robot from 1984, for example) tended to be more in vogue at this time (or just…a  hot girl, who is apparently a robot, trust me bro), you don’t see designs like this too commonly until later (ask resident robo-fetishist/animator expert @canmom for details on that timeline).

After a challenge like that how can I refuse? Although the question is ‘when did robots get muscles’, this turned into something of a historical survey of robot designs from the 80s on with a throughline of biomimesis.

(Originally this was just going to be an excuse to talk about Ghost in the Shell... but I gotta be thorough.)

This was all brought on from this picture from a 1989 fanart magazine...

by an artist going by ‘Facepunch Tatebi-kun’ (顔面強打たてびー君, Ganmenkyouda Tatebii-kun). I remarked that it was interesting to see these kinds of ‘robot muscles’ in a picture from 1989, since I thought that kind of design became popular in the 2000s.

On some reflection, I think I gotta revise that opinion! I think ‘robot muscles’ became a thing around the mid 90s in anime; in the West I think it took a bit longer. But you can also see precursors already before that.

So. One thing artists are super into is biomimetic robots. That is, robots whose form (and perhaps function) is similar to animals, especially humans. The word ‘android’ referring to a human-like automaton dates all the way back to the late 19th century, but the modern ‘android, robot, cyborg’ taxonomy apparently became established around the 40s.

There’s two types of humanoid robot that get a lot of play, especially in anime. One is the convincingly humanlike cyborg, which is the same size and shape as a normal human; the other is a what we call in English a ‘mech’, i.e. a big robot you can sit inside.

Of course, if your androids just act like humans all the time, then there’s not much point having them be robots. To really create the frisson of contrast between human and mechanical forms you have to show the mechanism somehow. This could be because the machine isn’t perfectly human-like, and has visibly mechanical joints - take a look at the works of @sukabu89​ for very inventive depiction of this theme - or, the android could be damaged or undergo maintenance.

When you attempt to translate biological forms into a more mechanical design language, the traditional way has been to use hard, rigid shapes, since these make the contrast especially clear. In more recent designs, particularly as we started to see real robots with ‘artificial muscles’ such as the ones created by Boston Dynamics, we get another sort of design language to express ‘mechanical parts’, and robots start having more biological forms with exposed plasticy muscles.

So let’s tell the story. We begin at the end of the 70s.

the dawn of mechaguro

For an early example of ‘mechaguro’ (a term I’m applying very anachronistically!), when a robot gets smashed up, we have Alien (1979). This film did a ridiculous amount to define sci-fi design language, and of course the alien itself blends mechanical and biological forms, with its glossy black surface allowing it to seem to melt into the exposed pipes of the spaceship. But let’s focus on the character Ash, a secret android who is broken apart in the second half of the film.

When Ash is torn apart by the alien, his insides consist of weird white plastic beads and a milky fluid that seems analogous to blood. It’s not clear what the function of any of this tech is - it’s intended to be vague and mysterious. The outside is biomimetic but the inside is anything but. He has a kind of artificial skin which resembles a latex mask.

The Terminator films are another major touchpoint for 80s science fiction. Late in the film, Arnie starts taking damage which reveals the Terminator skeleton underneath his fake skin.

The stop-motion Terminator model is basically designed according to the principle of ‘replace human bones and muscles with hard metal bits’. So you have a metal skull, metal clavicles (which are pistons for some reason), metal shoulder blades, hydraulic pistons generally in the places where muscles are. e.g. in the above picture you can see pistons that stand in place of the sternocleidomastoid muscle, and in this picture...

...you can see metal scapulae and piston biceps and triceps and a piston. The shoulder joint by contrast built in a very non-human-like way. Also there’s random tubes everywhere lol.

That’s generally how androids are portrayed in the 80s. The ‘droids’ in Star Wars are similar; C-3PO is an arrangement of metal plates with gaps suggestive of underlying mechanical details and rudimentary joints and pistons.

In Blade Runner, we have the Replicants, humanoid robots - but by the premise of the film, they are essentially indistinguishable from humans. So when the Replicants die, we never really get to see their robo-innards.

and now, anime

OK, that’s the big four Western 80s sci-fi movie series; what of anime? Of course, androids in anime go all the way back to Astro Boy. But most of these early designs don’t really focus on mechanical details all that much. Super robot designs are more like tokusatsu suits than anything. There were certainly instances of impressive mechanical animation in the 70s, with early experts including Kazuhide Tomonaga on Space Battleship Yamato. Then there’s Hayao Miyazaki’s episodes of Lupin III Part 2 which featured proto-Nausicaa flying a prototype of the robots from Castle in the Sky. It would be some years before anyone could come close to matching these!

The original Gundam in ‘79 famously started the ‘real robot’ movement [Animation Night, so let’s take a brief look at how a Gundam fits together.

Generally speaking, the way Gundams are drawn in Gundam ‘79 is kind of rough. The methods to animate these rigid mechanical systems in super accurate perspective were just not yet established at the end of the 70s, certainly not on a TV budget. The actual joints on the Gundam are left very vague, but it broadly speaking seems to move like a human in armour.

But the OVA boom was about to begin, and while it would be a while before we saw the heights of Headgear/Production I.G./Gainax, things were going to change a lot. Mechanical design and animation was about to get much more sophisticated very very quickly.

In 1982, we have Super Dimension Fortress Macross, with robots that transformed into fighter jets. Its robots are designed by Kazutaka Miyatake, who cut his teeth doing mechanical design for Space Battleship Yamato and Daicon. The Macross TV series introduced the world to the animation of Ichirō ‘Missile Circus’ Itano. [AN64] A plane with legs... honestly looks kind of goofy, but Itano’s ambition to have a highly mobile 3D camera that could move in ways that would simply be impossible in live action marked a huge step up in how robots are animated. And this would get refined even further in the film Do You Remember Love.

In terms of design, we’re really moving our inspiration from ‘tokusatsu suit’ to ‘military hardware’ here. A Macross suit has to look like something that could transform into a plane, so its silly little arms and legs have to look kind of plane-like. In any case, we are definitely still in a world of hard and rigid robotics.

Dallos (1983-4) dir. Mamoru Oshii is known as the first OVA, if not the first successful OVA [AN115]. It features a variety of mining robots on the surface of the Moon, which are generally less humanoid, taking their design cues from JCBs...

...as well as humanoid robots with fairly clear joint patterns...

...and more humanoid robots too.

The eponymous Dallos, however, is a huge humanoid robot that looks like this...

Here we have a pile of mechanical shapes that vaguely calls to mind a human face. It’s suggestive of motifs we’d see later in works like Akira.

A year later in 1985, Megazone 23 really kicks off the OVA boom in earnest [AN 103]. It also has a robot, in the form of a transforming bike that can become a humanoid piloted mech...

You can see mechanical designs and shading have become considerably more detailed; its motion is a lot more complex as well with a ton of indulgent background animation shots. The actual details of the bike -> robot transformation are rather brushed over. But to sort of sum up the design language: we have organic but hard-edged shapes contrasted by inorganic but round shapes. (These terms ‘organic’ and ‘inorganic’ refer mostly to symmetry and a sense of ‘flow’ in the shape.) There are few right angles as such, but a lot of broadly boxy topology. The shapes are broken up by elaborate specular highlights in complex shapes, a motif of the later Kanada school.

OK, but that’s all variants on ‘rigid robot’ so far - what about the androids? What about the more directly biological designs?

Following the enormous success of Megazone 23 Part I, Toshiki Hirano got the chance to adapt his favourite lesbian cosmic horror hentai manga Fight! Iczer One into a rather more tame OVA which released from 1985-87. In terms of mechanical design, this starts to do some interesting moves towards blending biological and mechanical forms...

Of course it has a robot in addition to the requisite bishōjo and lightsabers. In contrast to the boxy shapes we’ve seen so far, the robots in Iczer-One have a much more curvy organic sort of design language. Still, there is not a lot of emphasis on the precise details of mechanical articulation outside of select shots. (It is however notable for the first ever Obari punch!)

Despite the change in shape language, these are still very clearly animated as metal plates and not yet muscles.

In 1984 we have a very important film (for this narrative, and in general), Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the film that created Studio Ghibli. Here we have the ‘God Warriors’, giant humanoid weapons with the ability to shoot a massive laser out of their mouth. Rather than robots, these are very much biological in nature, having to be grown in a kind of cocoon. In the film version of Nausicaa, an incomplete God Warrior is released, leading to an iconic scene animated by Hideaki Anno in which the God Warrior attempts to blow up the oncoming wave of Ohmu.

The God Warrior’s melting flesh is gorgeously animated, bubbling and sloughing off in great big lumps as the skeleton pokes out from underneath. Throughout, Nausicaa is full of beautiful and impressive animation of both machines (mainly planes) and biological (the giant insects), but the God Warriors, as human-made lifeforms, bring the two together. However, this strand wouldn’t be especially followed up on for a long long time.

Right, but what about Bubblebum Crisis (1987-91)? That is, after all, the iconic 80s robot girl OVA. It’s inspired heavily by Western robot-related films like Terminator and Blade Runner; here we have ‘Boomers’ (never stops being funny) as androids that can appear convincingly human. Like the Terminator, the underlying metal parts can burst out. Here we have a metal frame designed to resemble muscles, and also metal tentacles.

The shapes of these robots are a lot more organic. The robot neck has tubes that sort of resemble the neck muscles, metal plates that resemble pectorals and abs and deltoids and biceps and so on. You’ve even got a direct riff on the Terminator ‘fleshy face falling away to reveal metal skull with glowing red eye’! Under the plates there are clusters of tubes which also heavily resemble muscles. Also you’ve got the classic ‘three small circles’ motif there.

Contrasted against them are the Knight Sabers, who aren’t cyborgs as such but fight in powered exoskeletons which fit the design motifs of robot girls.

These suits are quite form-fitting, with a rubber under-layer and metal shells on top. There is definitely some attention paid to how they’ll articulate around the joints. One very recognisable 80s motif is the sort of extending spike thingies you can see on her hat there; there’s also the jets that extend out behind the suit. And, you have that multi-layer shiny highlighting of course!

Still, the way the characters move in Bubblegum Crisis is still very squarely Kanada School poses; big movements, lots of held poses accentuated by flashing and line boil, not a lot of concern for conservation of momentum or anything like that.

For a contrasting strand we can look at the rise of the ‘Otomo school’ (if you will) of realism. Around the end of the 80s, a pool of talented animators were gathering around Katsuhiro Otomo. Their most famous work is Akira, but I’m actually going to begin with Robot Carnival (1987), a wonderful anthology of short films from 1987. This features a huge variety of interpretations of the concept of robots.

For example, for Kōji Morimoto, later co-founder of Studio 4°C, the robot is a kind of cobbled-together steampunk Frankenstein’s monster. It’s a very cool design with all sorts of asymmetries and exposed parts suggesting its cobbled-together nature. And although all the robot does in this short is stand up and then fall over, a great deal of attention is paid to the little details of its articulation and its movement through space.

Presence, directed by Yasuomi Umetsu, is notable for its steps in the direction of realism - Umetsu’s characters are hyperdetailed and in some ways over-drawn. The opening shots establish this is a world where lifelike androids are common, when an android gets his head kicked off and stolen by children. Here the robot-as-doll metaphor comes in, something that will be increasingly central in the next decade. The robot girl is essentially a human-sized doll in a room full of other toys. Her creator smashes her to pieces with a wrench; later her ghost visits him as an old man. We see the girl attached to a bunch of wires, but she bleeds like a human.

Cloud by Manabu Ōhashi features another humanoid robot, an Astro Boy-like child recognisable as a robot based on his segmented torso and legs and robotic ear... cones. Here the robot is a standin for human emotions, the boy’s struggles projected onto the constantly changing sky as he walks against the wind.

Strange Tales of Meiji Machine Culture: Westerner’s Invasion by Hiroyuki Kitakubo (later to direct Golden Boy, Roujin Z and Blood: The Last Vampire) is a sendup of mecha shows in which two very goofy looking steampunk robots operated respectively by Japanese and Western crews duke it out, laying waste to the city around them. The Japanese robot is basically a big wooden samurai...

and the Western (more specifically American) robot is, uh

sorta big barrel with little eyes on top? I’m not entirely sure what the deal is with this design!

That’s really not relevant to our story tbh I just think it’s a neat short.

Chicken Man and Red Neck, by Takashi Nakamura, features especially distinctive robot designs. The film is kind of a dream sequence in which a terrified drunk man witnesses the revels of the machines of Tokyo, transformed into robots; the robots are extremely shaped, moving through a world that is pretty much just pistons...

These robots call to mind the dancing demons in Fantasia’s Night On Bald Mountain sequence, or even Bosch.

Otomo’s own segments feature the Robot Carnival itself, a vast mechanical structure built as... well some kind of entertaining spectacle, but which now drives around the post-apocalyptic wasteland dropping robots which explode as bombs. It’s cute.

OK, to wrap up the 80s, we gotta cover Akira (1988) [AN34]! Akira has plenty of impressive mechanical animation of helicopters, hovercraft thingies, satellite lasers and of course the famous bike, but it doesn’t really feature robots as such - but what it does have is a blending of mechanical and biological forms in its climactic sequence where Tetsuo’s psychic powers go out of control. First, wires start to spread like the roots of a plant from his robot arm - less an actual machine and more something he assembled with his psychic powers...

He takes a bullet, and the mechanical wires and muscles start to blend together and spread out like a slime mold...

...which he can extend as essentially a giant tentacle.

When his powers fully go off the rails, he bulges out into big blobs of flesh which have both veins and wires running over them. These burst out of the metallic parts as well.

He turns into essentially a giant biomechanical baby.

Did Akira invent these images of blending biology and machinery? Probably not, but I’m not really familiar enough with manga of the time to say. What can at least be said is that Otomo’s absurdly meticulous style could really sell it. Otomo was truly a god of perspective and detail; Akira the film was an enormous, prestigious production that threw ludicrous effort and resources towards realising his vision (which doesn’t mean it paid its inbetweeners much more...). A lot of the animators who worked on Akira would go on to be prominent in...

the 1990s

So, the 1990s. If the 80s was dominated by the later Kanada School, the new movement of the 90s, at least as far as film animation goes, was ‘realism’.

But before we get onto that, let’s take a brief look at Gunnm (1990). Known as Battle Angel Alita in the West, this manga by Yukito Kishiro depicts a world in which most people are cyborgs; it was adapted to an OVA by Madhouse in 1993 and became wildly popular overseas. Its protagonist Gally, aka Alita, starts out the story as a wrecked cyborg body like this...

Looking at this design, you can see similar patterns as we have so far. We have metal clavicles, metal sternocleidomastoid muscle, metal pectorals, metal spine. There aren’t robot muscles, per se, but there’s a lot of attention to detail on mimicking biological shapes.

Before long she is rebuilt (twice in the manga, once in the anime). Her new body is like this...

...which is to say a skintight bodysuit in the middle, and metal arms. These arms, although designed in a way that indicates hard surface and with a hinge joint at the elbow, are designed in a way that mimics the flow of muscles in a human arm. By contrast, her sorta-love interest Yugo has a body like this:

which gets mashed to pieces in the finale of the OVA. There’s a striking mechaguro scene in which Gally catches Yugo, but leaves him hanging by a fraying arm, which snaps, leaving him to fall to his death. Compared to later iterations of the ‘robot arm torn apart’ device, this one’s relatively light on detail...

Cyborg bodies in Gunnm are used as a visual indication of character type. Gally has curves but also sleek robo muscles: she’s a Beautiful Fighting Girl, sweet but also extremely powerful. A huge ‘muscular’ cyborg with wide shoulders is likely to be a brute. Yugo here has much more plain, simple shapes with visible bolts, not precision pieces like Gally.

I don’t know how much of this originates with Gunnm. I’m sure the idea of cyborg girls was in the air long before, but this became an influential example on the tail end of the time of the 80s bishōjo. One device that is notable here is the idea of a ‘full body cyborg’, which is only human down to the brain (or perhaps not even that). Body swapping is a major theme in Gunnm, something that would be expanded on before long...

And if that was going out, what was coming in? Let’s look at Patlabor, which traces the evolution of the Headgear artistic collective and IG Tatsunoko into Production I.G.. This is about as down to earth as giant robot stories can get, with robots as just everyday machines used for work and by the cops. But where things really go nuts in animation terms is the opening to Patlabor 2 (1993).

Here you can see some of the most impressive sequences of mechanical animation ever drawn. We see pilot Noa testing out the robot, and especially notable are the scenes of the hand flexing and of walking. Enormous attention is paid to the articulation of joints. The robot’s hand can swivel 360 degrees, unlike a human; however, like a human, the articulation of the fingers seems to be controlled by hydraulics in the forearm (whereas in humans, the muscles and tendons in the forearm control our fingers). When the robot’s foot steps, it flexes like a real human foot, with believable joints, and a sensible arrangement of pistons to absorb force.

It’s not imitating a human’s muscles, but the attention to the details of the robot’s mechanical design serves precisely to draw our attention to the ways it’s like/unlike a human - the robot’s hand impossible motion immediately contrasted with its pilot shot from the same angle. And the perspective drawing is absolutely impeccable. The robot is made of purely rigid structures, and the way rigid structures articulate is not at all how a human’s joints articulate.

The sequence above was animated by Atsushi Takeuchi. But across the board, the bar was getting pushed for mechanical animation. For example, observe this cut from Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1996-1999), in which the robot tears off its own arm and beats up another robot. The precision of the way the joints are animated and the way the robots move in space is just completely on another level compared to what Gundam had been doing a couple of decades prior.

Anyway, we’re here to talk about robot muscles, and we’re just a few years out from that now!

The year that robots got muscles, at least as far as anime is concerned, is 1995.

You can probably guess the next part. In 1995, we get Eva and GitS. Let’s start with GitS, to continue the Production I.G./Mamoru Oshii thread. The opening sequence of GitS, animated by - who else could it be? - Hiroyuki Okiura - has to be one of the most iconic segments of video ever drawn. Here’s a merely 720p youtube upload but go and find the place you have GitS stored on your hard drive and watch it in proper quality eh.

OK, yes, a lot of it is a naked lady floating around, sue me or whatever. But the sense of form. We see early on an appearance of ‘robot muscles’, here closely resembling real muscles...

We can see from the way this is drawn that it’s made of a combination of artificial muscles, solid segments, and flexible, fabric-like panels. One of my favourite shots at the beginning shows the solid segments of the skull clicking into place. Here we have a very clear contrast between the angular, hard edges of the mechanical pieces against the organic forms of a human body.

Elsewhere in the film, we see various incredibly cool bits of ‘wouldn’t be fucked up if a body did this‘, like the fingers...

Here, what we expect to be soft biological fingers is contrasted with unexpected rigidity, mechanical joints under a shell.

Also in this scene we encounter a robot body that has been stripped of her arms, legs and hips but is nevertheless still alive...

most extraordinary hacker in the history of cybercrime and you have your titties out and yet you still can’t get them to stop misgendering you, smh

For the Terminator, having its body smashed up and continuing to walk was a demonstration of its strength. Here, as would become perhaps an increasing motif, having a robot body is a source of vulnerability: people can do things to you that would kill an ordinary human but you keep going through it. Not surprisingly, ‘robot body maintenance’ is a recurring porn device. (One that GitS deploys in SAC s2).

But of course this all builds up to the all time classics of mechaguro scene at the ending where the Major attempts to tear off the hatch of a spider tank. Muscles ripple individually under the surface of her skin, her arms bulge in exaggerated contraction, and then her arms fully tear apart under the force.

Here, we’re showing her as mechanical not by contrasting rigid forms with biological ones, but by exaggerating the biological ones to the point of doing something extremely unnatural. Human muscles do not generally flex in such an individual way, nor are they strong enough to tear the arm apart, but robot muscles? Yeah, they could do that. This sets up the next scene where the Major lies unnaturally still, but can still exert control through hacking through her union with the Puppet Master.

Robots holding onto something so hard their arms explode has become... if not a recurring image, then at least one that was called back decades later in Violet Evergarden.

The final scene of GitS brings back the image of robot-as-doll, with the Major’s consciousness now uploaded into a black-market robot body that resembles a child in a dress.

This is further expounded on in Oshii’s second GitS movie Innocence (2004), with its Ballade of the Puppets in the soundtrack as Batou and Togusa (and eventually, the Major) are attacked by essentially an army of ball-jointed doll gynoids. The puppets’ movements are extremely unnatural and erratic acrobatics, constantly flipping all over the place; when hit by bullets, panels pop open to reveal the underlying brass skeleton. It’s a very cool image. (The thing that lets the sequence down is the extremely dated CGI and aggressive digital compositing.)

It also has Donna Harraway as a literal cyborg!

Now, the GitS movies didn’t drop fully formed out of nowhere, but draw on the work of Masamune Shirow. The manga has a somewhat different design sensibility than the movie, distinctive and shiny as all Shirow’s art. It is more rounded and organic, less cold.

So, the basic design of a cyberbody originates with Shirow. You can see it on this page (unfortunately from a flipped version, translation Dark Horse):

You might be able to determine from how the nurses are dressed that, yeah, the GitS manga is in significant part fetish porn. But really nerdy fetish porn, which is the best kind. This chapter is almost entirely dedicated to explaining how cyborg bodies are constructed in great detail, from the ‘sensory film’ (that’s what’s being applied in the opening to the 1995 film) to the hair implantation.

It’s interesting seeing how some of the more out-there designs of the manga, like Chief Aramaki, are transformed into the realist style of Hiroyuki Okiura. It’s Okiura, so it works great of course.

I don’t know if there are manga examples of such detail about cyborg bodies that predate Shirow.

Anyway, that’s just one of the two punches dropped in 1995. The other is Neon Genesis Evangelion. To the pedants: sure, the Evas are not actually robots, but they’re giant cyborgs that play the role of ‘robot’ in the story and they look like robots so I’m counting them.

Anyway, the thing about the Evas is they are incredibly lithe. They run, rip and tear and swing heavy objects around in a way that’s both weighty and distinctly biological. Their bodies are extremely flexible compared to prior mechs (look at how much the spines bend in that Iso cut from EoE!), but not without hard, rigid components such as the shoulder towers. Their jaws are bestial but feature mechanical-like components like interlocking hexagonal teeth and jet-like vents. They are in short a fantastic design that blends biological and mechanical features.

The impact of Eva on just about everything can’t be overstated, but as far as robot design, well. There certainly were works that leaned on the precedent set by Eva, as for example RahXephon, which also treats robots as something spiritual, prone to popping into a blob of weird little bubbles just like in Eva.

There’s a great deal missing from this account. I am very focused on anime because I’ve watched a lot more anime than I’ve read manga or played games from this period. So I’m sure there’s major foundational works I’m missing here!

the 2000s

When did the West start to catch up? eh that’s subjective - David Cronenberg was way ahead of the game! - but specifically in the sense of robots with mechanical muscles, I think the major points in the timeline go a bit like this.

In 1999, there’s the Matrix, which leans heavily on anime. This features a similar ‘robot takeover’ premise to Terminator, but here it’s biomimetic robots modelled after squids, with clouds of constantly moving tentacles that sweep behind them. After making a cool half a billion dollars, the Wachowskis decided to pay all their favourite anime directors to make short films. I’m not going to comment on every part of the Animatrix, since most of it isn’t really relevant, but I will point to this horrifying cut by Takeshi Honda in The Second Renaissance in which a robot woman has her clothes torn and then skin bashed off by a mob. The framing, motion, her expression of abject terror, and the ‘reveal’ of her ‘true’ nature, all viscerally call to mind a trans bashing.

On the manga side, a big one to mention is Gantz, a gory nihilistic seinen manga which ran from 2000-2013. The characters in Gantz fight in special latex-like suits which take on the appearance of muscles while engaging superstrength, but can also sustain damage that causes them to drip fluids from ports located at the neck and become fatal to their wearer. Gantz was adapted to anime by Ichirō Itano in 2004, but I haven’t seen it so I can’t comment on any notable animation.

Cyborgs are a favourite subject of games, but in the 2000s, games are really pushing art direction and biopunk stuff is in. Half Life 2 (2004) has its spider-crab like Striders and dropships and so on. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee (1997) bases its whole concept around the sheer variety of weird creatures that would inhabit its dystopian factory. And I gotta give a shoutout to Septerra Core (1999) - in case one other person has played that lmao

At some point after 2005, Boston Dynamics became a viral sensation thanks to their robot BigDog. BigDog is just welded steel and hydraulics, but its lifelike hopping movement style definitely brought to mind the idea that the future of robots is going to be in biomimesis.

So, 2007, here comes Crysis to melt your PC! This is an FPS with the not-uncommon premise of being a supersoldier fighting (country America hates) and also aliens, but its gimmick was that you have a special exosuit that wraps around your body with artificial muscles, making you much stronger and manlier or whatever.

This is indicated by a visualisation that could be right out of a toothpaste ad, where tiny little balls drop into the character’s pores and somehow go straight into the bloodstream which is of course a void full of flying red blood cells. And so on. It sold the game, though! The ad there focuses almost entirely on the suit and not the character wearing it, who is basically an irrelevant soldier man. What it entailed in gameplay terms is that you have a mode switcher so you can have strength or armour or invisibility or whatever. But it’s cool military superscience, you see!

Anyway. Not like my preferred flavour of cyborg is any less stupid I guess x3

In the same year, Bayformers started. These films’ robots are honestly just visual noise, there’s so many moving metal shards going every which way that it’s next to impossible to discern any sort of underlying mechanical principle. A similar ‘overwhelming business’ visual effect would be applied the next year in Iron Man, kicking off the MCU. So mechanical muscles definitely weren’t the only expression of ‘hyper-advanced robot’ in Western visual media in the late 2000s.

I’m going to end my story with two more games: Horizon Zero Dawn and NieR Automata.

Horizon features a world inhabited by a large variety of robot animals, using the peak of AAA rendering techniques. The robots are designed to be biomimetic after both modern animals and prehistoric ones, and feature a combination of hard surfaces and softer biological muscles. For example, a robot horse:

The discipline of making designs like these now has a name: it’s called ‘hard surface modelling’ and it involves boolean operations and bevels and other techniques designed to create a balance of hard edges on a surface against the smoother parts. The design language of Horizon says that the hard plates are white, the soft parts are very dark and may be patterned like a cloth texture, and there can be small colour accents here and there.

I think you can definitely see the influence of Boston Dynamics’s robots (and recent military tech in general) in these designs, iterated on through a decade and a half of increasingly intra-referential concept art. They are visually very busy designs, but there are a couple of recognisable features that draw attention by being inorganic, such as the cylindrical fuel tank at the back. Vitally, the silhouette is very readable.

This robot T. rex for comparison serves as a world boss monster, and you can see it’s got a bunch of military looking attachments that look like radars and missile launchers and so on. As real tech evolved, so too did our idea of what a scary robot ought to look like.

So, that’s where this kind of design pattern has gone in mainstream games.

Now to finish, a brief comment on NieR Automata. Its designs draw hard on those of Ghost in the Shell. Visually it draws a strong contrast between the Machine Lifeforms, who have inorganic shapes (spheres and cylinders) and very visible and plausible mechanical joints, and the doll-like androids, who might as well be human (although A2 provides some contrast in an android who is damaged enough for the underlying materials to show through). The mechanical nature of the androids is communicated by the acrobatic way they move and the interface elements, and dead androids you find in the field - and later when they start losing arms and stuff, it’s a whole thing. But just like humans in Yoko Taro Games, they’re capable of dying in a puddle of blood.

(I guess if you take one thing from this post it’s that if you’re a robot, don’t expect to keep your arms.)

Robot muscles gives you a chance to give both the ‘anatomy porn’ of drawing something very precisely right, with the added bonus of giving you a reason to draw the muscles écorché, and the chance to make it weird and defamiliarised by splitting it with mechanical elements. In short... they look cool!

In this whole post I’ve basically not touched at all on illustration. I can point to a variety of illustrations of robot girls, but in terms of periodising them, I just don’t think I know enough. Though it’s safe to say that cyborg bodies in various states of construction or disrepair are now a mainstream of concept art - and that Ghost in the Shell is usually cited as an influence. I don’t know if robot muscles ever truly became the mainstream way to depict a robot, but it does feel like they’re increasingly common.

One artist I will briefly mention (besides sukabu), mostly bc I think they’re neat, is Haruyo Megurimu, who draws these very intricate designs of ‘necrotech’ which is sort of very biological robots extending out of human bodies - limbs extended on long spindly insectoid strands, jaws splitting open, that kinda thing. Can’t say who influenced them or anything but it’s a compelling extension of the idea into a particular corner of aesthetic space.

And that’s all I’ve got I think. There’s definitely big gaps like. More recent sci-movies. Western comics. Nevertheless, that’s an arc.

If you’ve read this far: thank you for indulging my autism.

[i-only-ever-asked-questions]

Map of Soho Good Omens Season 2 - Part 3 (the intersecting street)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 Update: Map and pictures further down now have Lucky Snake, and the description of both the Lucky Snake and The Chinese Buffet Restaurant have been updated too.

We don't know the name of the street that crosses Whickber Street. It starts between the market and the furniture store, and after a crooked crossing of Whickber St., it continues between the bookshop and the Dirty Donkey Pub until it ends on Wardour Street. On that upper block we have: -A. Z. Fell & Co. The bookshop has a backdoor that leads to this street. -Bilton Scaggs Hats and Caps This shop has been here for centuries. Originally Bilton and Scaggs was a publishing firm that printed among other things "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch." Neil believes they went out of business in the late 19th century and the hat makers took over. Their shop was called Bilton and Scaggs Milliner & Haberdasher for a while and eventually they changed to Bilton Scaggs Hats and Caps. But honestly, only Aziraphale knows the whole story.

On the other side of the street we have: -The Dirty Donkey We don't know how long this pub has been in business, but we know that it was already there in the 40's when the zombies used it to hide and spy on the heroes. And then in 1967 Crowley used a private room to set up the caper to steal holy water from a church. The set was also used to set up two of the pubs where Gabriel and Beelzebub met. Both scenes were filmed on the same day! After the tour, the first episode of Season 2 was screened inside the pub for those lucky enough to win spots. The Dirty Donkey Pub has also appeared in Neil's "We Can Get Them for You Wholesale" and "Sandman: Overture." In the show, one of the elevators to Heaven and Hell opens inside the Dirty Donkey, maybe this supernatural ability allows it to show up in many different Neilverses ;) -"Model" This is Mrs. Sandwich mysterious establishment. Nobody really knows what happens there. We know the upper floor has lovely pink curtains, presumably for her girls who also love coffee. -Will Goldstone's Magic Shop Named after Will Goldston (not sure why an extra "e"), a stage magician who wrote many books on magic. The store existed in 1941 when it was run by Pat (who met a gruesome end at the hands of zombie nazis). Will Goldston himself died in 1948. So, was he the owner of the store and Pat just an employee? Did someone use his name? Or is that the reason behind the additional "e", to claim it wasn't him? We don't know. In current times it is operated by Mutt.

This street ends on Waldour Street and because we don't see much of it, I included those shops in this post: -Chinese Buffet Restaurant (updated) The English sign just says "Chinese Restaurant", Google translate gave me "Chinese Buffet Restaurant" for the sign on either side (if you look closely both sides say the same thing). There is no other writing that I could see so I would say that we don't know if it has another name or where is it written (inside maybe?). @embracing-the-ineffable raised the question of how do we know Mr. and Ms. Cheng own the restaurant. The truth is that we don't know for sure. We have assumed it probably because Aziraphale and Ms. Cheng are in front of the restaurant when he invites her to the meeting, but for all we know she was just walking on the street when they met. The Chengs could easily own the Herbal Pharmacy or the Grocery Store. We just don't know for sure -Lucky Snake (updated) To the right of the restaurant (our left) there is another store with yellow walls and red lanterns. It was brought to my attention (thank you!) that this is the infamous Lucky Snake we see in Aziraphale's typed list of shops. In Season 1 it was called "Oriental Delights" but this season it is a grocery store. -Herbal Medicine and Pharmacy - Traditional Chinese medicine appointments To the left of the restaurant (our right) we have the herbalist/pharmacy. This is written in English while "traditional medicine appointments" is written in Chinese. There is no other name outside either.

Turning around and looking towards Whickber Street, we can get a peek all the way to Great Windmill Street, between the news agency and the market. -Windmill Theatre Today it is called Windmill Soho but the name Windmill Theatre is equally recognizable. In 1941 it was owned by Mrs. Laura Henderson. The theatre was famous for 1)not closing at all, even during the heaviest of bombings and 2)its motionless nude girls (tableaux vivants) called the "Windmill Girls". Because of this, it used the motto "We Never Closed" (although people modified to "We Never Clothed"). In the set, the doors are not props, they are the real doors to the internal docks of the studio, which honestly it is very clever.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4

[nightsadness]

Ring...

Tags: fem!reader, angst

Pairing: Fyodor Dostoevsky x fem!reader

Warning: The death of a canon character, the reader longs greatly. There may be errors in the text, as I am not a native English speaker, I often had to use the help of a translator

Synopsis: Fyodor didn't keep his promise.

A/n: This short story was written out of boredom, but I liked it so much that I decided to post it here. As I wrote above, I don't speak English, so I used a lot of translators, trying to write normally 😞. Please let me know if it's really bad.

- I promise I'll be back. - Fyodor held the girl's body tightly in his arms, resting his chin on her shoulder and slightly covering his eyes.

- I believe you - almost whispered the girl, hugging Dostoevsky tightly, and did not want to let go. She really believed that he would come back having fulfilled his purpose, though inside her everything was turning upside down because of bad thoughts and worries, but it was Fyodor Dostoevsky, right? He has everything perfectly planned, there were no mistakes and there can't be. But no matter how hard she tried to chase away those bad thoughts, something inside told her that this was their last dialog....

- You promised, you bastard! You promised me! - The girl screamed hysterically, breaking everything in the house, from dishes to furniture. She was a whirlwind of emotions, she was angry with him and at the same time her grief had no end, because it was unbearable to lose a loved one.

In the end, she just collapsed on the bed, choking on her tears, which the already wet pillow took in. It was the first time Y/N had ever felt such intense heartache that was nowhere near physical pain, which one in her entire life, she had known it in all its colors. How now to live and move on...without him? Of course, the girl realized that it was possible, that it was not the end, that she could survive it, but it would take too much time to heal such a huge wound. But would she be able to? Though Y/N was strong physically, mentally and morale, but Fyodor was her greatest weakness.

Three hours have passed after dark thoughts and bitter memories. The girl was no longer crying, but just staring at the ceiling, and the memory of the black-haired man still tormented her, she knew she had to get her act together and move on, but there was neither strength nor desire. The girl scolded herself for showing weakness, for not even being able to move, morale condition did not allow such luxury.

Days, weeks, months, and so it passed 3 years, Y/N more less recovered, but still day and night missed Fyodor, dreaming to see him again, to hug again, but it is simply impossible! The world collapsed for her, lost all their colors, she just existed, every day come in low-paying job, on her way home and then going to bed and so day after day.

On one of those days, the girl came home as usual and went straight to the shower. Lying in the bathtub, she looked at her hands with a blank stare.

- Our time is encased in a ring, - Y/N smiled slightly at the corners of her lips, a lone tear rolling down her cheek as her gaze stopped on the ring Fyodor had given her almost immediately after they met.

Still lying in the tub, she leaned her head back, trying to occupy her bad head with various thoughts, but there was still only the image of Fyodor in front of her.

nightsadness © 2024

[mirjam-writes]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @suavissimapenna <3 Sorry it took so long!

How many works do you have on ao3?

7 for Sherlock and 23 Good Omens that are completely mine. 6 collaborative fics I have either partly written, or just made art for. So, 36.

What's your total ao3 word count?

380,863

What fandoms do you write for?

Good Omens! I used to write for Sherlock too, but that's now in the past.

Top five fics by kudos:

Truth Or Dare (E, 6.5K words), my first proper smut ever! Post s1 gettig together story.

Angel Of Justice (T, 9.5K), my first ever Good Omens fanfic. Post S1 from Michael POV, A/C as a background couple.

!False (It's funny because it's true) (E, 5.4k), an office romance human AU set in software company.

A Stable Relationship (E, 9.9k), horse rider AU with trans Aziraphale. Friends with benefits becoming a romantic relationship.

Girls Just Wanna Have Sun (G, 1.7k), outsider pov scene about Robin's day at the beach, where she meets two weird gentlemen who have never been to a beach before.

Do you respond to comments?

YES I DO! Slowly, possibly, but yes I do, and I read and reread them!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uhhh... angsty ending? What is that? Technically Be Still My Soul: The Rift, but does that count if it's a middle part of a trilogy? That's definitely my angstiest fic of all time BUT I tried to write the happiest ending possible to it. But also, yeah, people died in the war (just not A or C), so maybe I'll count that story.

Edit: WAIT NO! To Love Somebody, a story from Shadwell pov about how he fell in love both Aziraphale and Crowley, and how that changed him. That's sort of angsty and the ending is bittersweet!

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmmmmmm. I have so many. I can't compare. Maybe Watching You (Watching Me), it's the porniest porn i have ever written, and it has...uh... several happy endings :D

Do you get hate on fics?

Not so far!

Do you write smut?

Yessss. I'm in my porn writer era at the moment :D

Craziest crossover:

I did some super weird anime crossovers as a teen (I hope those are long lost) but haven't dabbled on that since apart from very vague blink-and-you-miss-it references.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

One of my Sherlock fics was translated into french in 2018!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Only for one round robin event, which produced four stories! Not sure if that really counts as collaborating since we weren't allowed to talk about it when we did it, we just got the fic, read it, and added 600 words and gave it to the next one! It was super fun though.

All time favorite ship?

Aziraphale and Crowley. No competition there.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I don't usually start posting unless I'm 100% confident I'll finish the story, so I don't have public wips.

I had one pretty cool Sherlock post-apocalypse story idea, which I'd love to talk about if someone is interested, but writing it? Hmm probably not. But it's not really a wip, if I have only like two bullets in a doc?

What are your writing strengths?

I think I write pretty good bickerflirting and humour even in dark situations. And, uh... historical research.

What are your writing weaknesses?

LONG ASS SENTENCES. I need to cut them down. Chop chop chop. Also, I over-use commas and em-dashes.

Also, not being a native english speaker, but I think I've got a lot more fluent during the past years, so maybe that's not my biggest weakness anymore.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I have done it myself, in a situation when my pov character wasn't supposed to understand what was being discussed, but I did only a couple of lines.

My languages (apart from english) are finnish, very rough swedish, and teeny tiny bit of german, but many fics I've read that have used another language in dialogue, use French or Spanish (which are popular languages for English speakers to learn in school!), and with those I'm woefully lost!

But honestly, i don't need to understand every fic under the sun! You do you, I bet there are people who can understand whichever languages you'd like to mix in your story, and that will be amazing for them!

First fandom you wrote in?

The Book Series That Must Not Be Named. I projected so much of my teenage angst into wizard school drama.

Favorite fic you've written?

You monster! Making me choose. Uh.

Okay, fair. It's easy. Be Still My Soul, hands down. @be-still-my-soul-fanfic

No pressure tagging: @hkblack, @ambrasue, @tawnyontumblr , @ack-emma and @zehwulf and anyone else who wants to answer!

[jeon-s-sins]

Forbidden 1 | The Meeting

Warning : jk!dom; reader!sub; fingering; eating pussy; sucking; spanking; degrading!names; dominant; public!sex; outdoor!sex; unprotected!sex; cumming!inside; client/waitress

Word count : 11.6k

Chapter's song : Ride - SoMo

n/a: English is not my first language, so there may be some mistakes that I missed while proofreading. Sorry for the delay in posting this first chapter, but it's been a few years since I wrote this story, and when I reread it before posting it here on Tumblr, I didn't like the result at all, so I rewrote it from scratch, which took me longer than I expected. Anyway, thanks for understanding, and I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you for the next ones. Enjoy reading it; please don't forget to vote and comment 😁.

Translations, republications, and rewritings of my stories are not allowed. Failure to comply with this request will result in legal action.

© Jeon_s_Sins

Index

Paradise Hotel Bar/Restaurant | 3:00 p.m. | YN's POV

During this summer vacation, and just like the previous ones, I worked to save money. Originally from Daegu, I am in one of Jeju Island's hugest hotels.

Paradise is one of the most popular Asian hotels for celebrities from all over the world. Actors, singers, businessmen, and even politicians stay on this heavenly island for a while. Last year, I had the great fortune and honor of taking a picture with Queen B herself. 

Beyoncé had just finished her world tour and, accompanied by her family, decided to spend a few days at the hotel. I work in the hotel's bar and restaurant as a waitress, and sometimes I have to take off my waitress apron and put on my barista apron and my bartender apron when we are short-staffed, or someone is unavailable. Beyoncé and her family were assigned to my area, and throughout the evening, I prayed to God that I wouldn't drop the tray, make a mistake with the order, or embarrass myself in front of them. 

It's crazy how people are made, or at least how society makes us act. Beyoncé is a woman like any other. The only thing distinguishing her from the other women on Earth is that she is talented, sings like a goddess, and is rich as Croesus. But the pressure I put on myself was immense. I still get sick to my stomach just thinking about it. 

But I am also lucky to be part of her world. I could even say I am on the same level as everyone in this hotel. My mom is a very famous fashion designer. Many celebrities wear my mother's clothes; some even wear clothes I designed, but no one knows, and I don't want them to know. So I hide behind my mother's name and let her take the credit. 

Contrary to what people might think, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I have struggled a lot in my life. 

Before my mother became the person she is today, we were just ordinary people from Daegu, living in one of the many working-class neighborhoods in the area. Fortunately, when God created my mother, He gave her talent, determination, and strength. During those dark years of our lives, I would sometimes help my mom create pieces for her collections that, once she made a name for herself, she would show to the world after making a few minor changes. 

Looking back, it's incredible how much my life has changed these last seven years. I'm usually very private, and many colleagues don't know who my mother is. The only person who knows is Evie, another waitress I've managed to bond with. 

One day, as our first shift was ending and we were setting up tables for the next shift, taking advantage of the fact that it was just the two of us in the restaurant's large room, Evie asked me why I was working if my mother was a famous fashion designer. 

"To be honest, I don't like depending on my mom. My whole childhood, my mom raised me to depend on myself." I placed the knife on the right side of the plate and the fork on the left. "She always believed that you can't live off your creations. And if one day, for whatever reason, she would leave this world before me, I would only be able to rely on and depend on myself. So I guess if I'm working as a waitress today, that's my way of being independent". 

My independence only grew over the years after my mother's success. As she became both a stylist and a businesswoman, she was hardly ever at home, always traveling from one country to another. So I learned to make it on my own. But I don't blame her. On the contrary, if she is living her dream today, I know that the main motivation for her life change is me. 

My mother is a great woman. She is humble and has a heart on her sleeve. She has sacrificed so much for me, my education, and for me to have everything I need. Today, I fully understand her dedication to her work. This does not mean she is so focused on the work that she neglects me. Not at all, quite the opposite. 

We call each other almost every hour daily and talk a lot via messages and video calls. 

I'm also in awe of how easily she moves between her different lives. She goes from mother to businesswoman to girlfriend with ease. Also, her status will change in a short time. She will go from being a girlfriend to being a married woman. 

It has been a few years since my mother met a man, and they have a healthy relationship. Seeing her smile every time she mentions him always makes me happy. As for me, I haven't been around him much. 

My mother didn't want to impose her relationship on me. I know it's never easy for a child to see their mother - or father - in a relationship with someone other than their parent. So I saw him several times, and he seemed great. 

I know he has a son who is only a year older than me. Unlike his father, I've never seen him. But, like my mom, her boyfriend didn't want to force his new life on his son, so he had my respect. 

They have been together for six years. He has been a great help to my mom, filling her in on many things. If my mother is the powerful woman she is today, it is partly thanks to him.

Right now, they are preparing for their wedding, which will take place in a few months. This will allow me to see some of my family members and meet new ones, especially my mom's boyfriend's son.

By the way, I have very little time left here on the island. I will return to the mainland in a few days, and my landscape will change completely. I will not return to my house in Daegu but to my new home in Busan.

Given their upcoming marriage, my mother finally united the two families. She wants me to meet her future husband's son before the wedding, to bond a little, and not be strangers anymore. So in a few days, I will be on my way to one of the biggest cities in South Korea, Busan. 

To say that I'm excited about the change of scenery and my way of life would be a lie. I will leave everything behind, my friends and the places I used to go. But if turning my life upside down is the price I have to pay to give my mother some happiness after all the shit she's been through, then I'm happy to do it. Besides, what could go wrong? 

By the way, her fiancé is a CEO. I don't know what he does, but I know he has a business, so my mom got some great advice. It also means that he'll be out of town a lot, and I won't have to see him all the time if things don't go as planned, which I doubt, but you never know what tomorrow will bring. As for my relationship with his son, I don't want to bet too much on that either. I'd instead let the universe do its thing—one step at a time. 

"Hey, Park! Are you listening to me?" Just then, she snaps me out of my reverie.

"What?" Evie smiles, realizing I was lost in my thoughts. 

As moving day approaches, it becomes increasingly difficult not to think about meeting the new family member. You could say that I'm pretty anxious and fearful of how the introduction to my supposed step-brother will go. 

"I said the drinks are ready." There was a tray of drinks on the bar counter.

I hope I don't drop anything. Walking on the sand with a full tray is tricky. Even though this wasn't my first rodeo, I still managed to get caught. 

"Thanks." Evie nods and continues to set the tables while I hurry to finish the last order.

Outside, the weather is beautiful. The sky is clear with a beautiful shade, with no clouds on the horizon. The panorama is worthy of a postcard. A blue sky, no clouds, a beautiful ocean, its waves playing with the sun's rays. There are deck chairs all along the coastline - at least on the private part belonging to the hotel, with fine white sand. 

And very hot. 

Sure, the sun is beautiful, and the view is like an island paradise, but the heat of the sun and the sand is not a good mix. My feet burn with every step. I should have worn my slippers. It's very comfortable to wear shoes, but it's really uncomfortable when sand gets in your shoes. 

I was in a hurry to get the drinks to their destination, not only because of the hot sand but also because it was getting heavy. 

Fortunately, the clients are not far away. They are in a more private area of the beach. Arriving at my destination, I thanked the heavens for not dropping anything. Otherwise, I would have had to turn around, and the customers would have waited twice as long, allowing them to complain to my superiors. I wouldn't have had any troubles, but it's unpleasant.

Without putting the tray on the table, which would look bad, I put the glasses and other drinks.  

"Thank you very much." Sitting on one of the chairs watching his friends play volleyball, a very handsome young man thanked me. He was young, in his late twenties. He had an undercut, while his fringe was parted down the middle, revealing his forehead. He had a loose white top covering his torso, wore blue and white trunk shorts, and had sandals on his feet. 

"You're welcome." One thing is done. I can finally go back, finish setting my tables and take a break before resuming tonight's service. 

The evening shift is usually busier than the lunch, so I'll have three hours of a break after setting the remaining tables. 

I started walking toward the restaurant when something hard hit me in the back of the head. I lost my balance and felt myself moving forward, but I managed to regain my balance and avoid making a fool of myself in front of the customers. 

"I'm so sorry." A little stunned, I still heard the male voice speaking to me. 

I found myself face-to-face with a man in a short time. It wasn't the customer from earlier. Sure, the previous man was very handsome, but the one I'm looking at now is gorgeous. 

This one also has an undercut like the previous man, while the top part is slightly longer and darker. I could see the dark eyes despite the sunglasses on the bridge of his nose while his look was dressed by surprise and concern. The jaw is sharpened, while his face is quite childish. 

On the other hand, his body is far from childish. Who are Apollo and Adonis beside him? He should probably be arrested 'cause, for sure, he stole the thirteen' gods and goddesses' beauty. 

Initially, he has tanned skin, but I could see he has taken advantage of the sun because his skin is quite caramelized, well tanned.

He wears a blue and white shirt with some leaf designs printed on it. A few buttons are open at the top and bottom, exposing his torso and muscular stomach, showing some of his abs. Underneath, he wore white swim shorts, and I could also see his black bathing suit.  

A true masterpiece. 

How do people as beautiful as he lives free on Earth? No doubt he already has someone in his life. 

"Take a picture, honey. Will it last longer." A smile was born on his pretty lips. 

He's a charmer. He's certainly made many girls fall for him in a blink of an eye.

"I beg your pardon?" His sentence had the same effect as a cold shower, bringing me back to reality. He was undoubtedly gorgeous, but his attitude had broken the spell. 

"You're not subtle when you give me a makeover." I was so obsessed with his beauty that I didn't realize I was staring at him. 

"My apologies, sir." The last thing I wanted was to get in trouble with the customers. It would have looked bad on my record. I've been working here for a few years, so it would really piss me off to lose my seasonal job and the bonds I've built with my co-workers because of a misstep.  

I kept a low profile, trying to put some distance between us and regain my composure. 

"Don't apologize. I might take it the wrong way. I am flattered that a beautiful young woman like you would look at me that way." I get this flirtation with two bullets at least once daily from male clients who think they are desirable just because they are rich. But this is not often the case. 

Unfortunately, although his attempt at flirting was lame, I couldn't stop my heart from racing. The stranger was a handsome man. He knew it and took advantage of it. He must have charmed a lot of girls about it. But, stupid as I am - and also because of the lack of affection I felt at that moment - I was fooled by his comment. 

Don't blush, don't blush!

Without breaking the contact of our eyes, he comes closer. I could smell the scent of sunscreen on his skin. Without any embarrassment, careful to hide my body with his from the sight of his friends, the stranger caresses the exposed skin of my arm with his fingertips. 

His touch is subtle, as soft as the caress of a feather, causing my body to react to his touch, covering me with shivers from head to toe. My breath catches in my throat as his deft fingers run from my wrist to my shoulder. 

I wish I could figure out where my mind went. This is not normal, letting a stranger do what he wants, let alone allowing him to touch me almost intimately. And yet I don't move a muscle. 

What's wrong with me? 

The hotel's uniforms - at least for the waitresses and the other bistro staff - are pretty revealing. Surely to attract more customers, especially males, and make them spend more time at the bar and money on drinks. Some even make excuses to their partner to offer them a meal, with only the intention of gawking at the pretty waitresses. 

I wore a white crop top with the name of the hotel printed on the left side of my chest and black shorts. As a waitress, I take orders and serve customers, so I always wear a black apron with the hotel's name. Unlike other aprons, waitress aprons start from the waist to the middle of the thigh. 

The man leans forward when his hand reaches my shoulder, closing the distance between us. 

"Behind the rocks, in five minutes. I'll be waiting for you." Without giving me time to say anything, the stranger leaves, volleyball in hand, joining his friends.

Shocked by his boldness and confidence, I stood there for a few seconds, not really understanding what had happened. Had he just suggested - even ordered - me to join him and do what I thought? It's bold of him to believe that I would listen to him and join him. 

Five minutes later, I was behind the rocks waiting for him like the carefree idiot I am. 

This story will only serve to get me into trouble. But in my defense - even though I don't think it's valid - it's been a while since I've done anything with anyone. My last sexual relationship was three years ago when I was with my ex-boyfriend. 

He was a real asshole. I had no feelings for him, but at least I was intimate with him almost daily. Is it wrong to stay in a relationship just for the sex, even if the partner is not good at it? Very bad. But I was young and horny at the time. To err is human. 

Time passed, and the stranger was still not there. Had he stood me up? Was he laughing at me with his buddies? I didn't want to wait for him forever, especially since, unlike him, I was in my workplace. I would wait another three minutes and leave if he didn't show up by then.

As I found myself alone with my thoughts, I began to rethink the situation. We were still in a public place and in full view of everyone, sure the rocks would hide us, but we are never safe from anyone, especially if someone decides to venture behind the rocks for some reason. I can't even imagine the scandal and trouble if my superiors ever discovered that I had a case with a client. I could say goodbye to my reputation and next employment opportunity the following year.

Was I really going to risk screwing everything up just for sex? With a stranger, no less? Apparently so. 

At the moment, the temptation was stronger than reason. Luckily, it was my break before the second shift. Usually, at this time of day, I find myself with Evie sunbathing by the sea, sipping cocktails - free because we work at the bistro - while waiting for the time to resume service. 

A pair of arms encircle my waist, and I tense briefly before I learn the owner's identity. My stranger hadn't stood me up after all. 

"Good thing you told me five minutes," I said sarcastically, which made him laugh.

"Sorry, gorgeous. My friends wouldn't let me go." His mouth had quickly become acquainted with the sensitive skin of my neck. "But I'm here now. So it's not worth the trouble. Instead, let's enjoy getting to know each other better. If you know what I mean?"

His hand settles on my cheek, turning my head, gaining access to my lips. Wasting no more time than we already had, his soft pouty lips linked to mine. 

The kiss is slow and gentle before we both become consumed with desire and take things up. 

When my neck starts to hurt from the position, I turn around while his arm still wraps around my waist, holding me to him. With my chest pressed against his and our private parts finally glued together, I wrap my arms around the back of his neck to pull him even closer to me. If that were possible.

The more he gave me, the more I wanted. His hands ran eagerly over my body. The one resting on my hip began to rise, exploring under my crop top.

It wasn't long before his hand made contact with the fabric of my bikini top. Although it wasn't what he was looking for because, without wasting any time, his hand went under the material and directly touched my left breast's soft, supple skin. 

He grabbed it with his whole hand, although he didn't hold it. Despite my smallness - 1.55 m tall -I had inherited a rather generous and well-rounded breast from my mother. 

My handsome stranger, unhappy with the confinement of my top, pulled my garment over my head in frustration before abandoning it somewhere on the floor. Without hanging around, my swimsuit top follows my crop top, giving the stranger better access and a view of my naked chest. 

"Now that's more like it." The stranger's eyes sparkle with satisfaction and mischief like a child in front of a Christmas tree filled with presents. Then, in the blink of an eye, his gaze changed utterly. I was no longer facing a young man with sparkling eyes but a predator with his gaze fixed on his prey.

A dark veil of need had taken possession of his gaze, leaving me unable to react other than to feel a chill in the pit of my stomach caused by the excitement. 

He was danger, determination, and excitement. 

I was at the mercy of his carnal desires, but that wasn't enough for my lover. Seeing that I still wasn't breaking through the barrier in which I felt safe, the stranger gave me a little push. He took my hand and led it to the member in the hollow of his legs.

It was hard. When I felt the bulge over his shorts, it was as if something had clicked. Without needing his help or thinking twice, I finally listened to the little voice of the little devil sitting on my shoulder and let myself go. 

No more restrictions or limitations. He wanted to tease me, have me for a day? No problem, he would get what he wanted. I'll go with the flow and let the remorse come later. 

"Fuck." He grunts with a sigh as I take his erect member in my hand and stroke it over his swim trunks. 

From that moment on, he had no control over himself or his actions. It was as if, by grabbing his cock, I had activated a mechanism that caused him to lose all consciousness and restraint, releasing the incubus that lay dormant within him. At the same time, the succubus in me awoke, summoned by the incubus in him. 

Not finding it fair that I was slightly more exposed than he was, I removed his shirt, putting us on equal footing. But that wasn't enough. I wanted more, much more. 

My partner dominates me, setting the pace and rhythm of this frenzied dance we are engaged in. His body sticks to mine while my front is against the rigid rock torso.

His lips devoured mine with passion. He takes one of my legs, lifts it up, and presses our hips together, rubbing one against the other. 

My thoughts were obscured by the pleasure that dominated me. I was no longer aware of my surroundings. Only pleasure, and he was present in my mind. The rest was non-existent. The way he dominated me and had the upper hand in the situation made me want to submit completely to him and let him do what he wanted with me. This has never happened to me before, and to be honest, it scares me a little but turns me on at the same time. 

His fearless and naughty attitude turns me so much that even though we are just kissing, I can feel a puddle of moisture forming between my legs and seeping into my underwear. His lips move from mine to the hollow of my neck, leaving hard kisses while his hand tenderly caresses my breast. The contrast in his actions heightens my arousal.

His teeth move down, grazing my neck as his hips rub against my crotch, still pressed against his increasingly swollen bulge. I can barely breathe, and my head is already spinning.

My hand caressed his torso until it reached over his shorts again. Wasting no time playing with the hem of his shorts, I ran my hand right through the hem, finding direct access to the hot, sensitive skin of his cock, eliciting a moan from him.

I let out a moan in return when, without warning, his teeth sank into the sensitive skin of my shoulder. As my fingers caressed the swollen head of his member, he quickly unbuttoned my shorts and stripped me of the last of the clothes in his way. 

Suddenly he slid a finger inside me. "Fuck, you're already all wet for me." My wetness lubricated his finger, allowing it to sink into me and move smoothly back and forth inside me. He then takes the opportunity to insert a second finger. 

I am immediately overcome by heat, and I don't think the sun has anything to do with it this time. My legs start to shake from the pleasure this stranger gives me, burning like the fires of hell. Now that his member is free of his clothes, doing what I have in mind will be easier.

I take over - or so I think - and let us change positions. Now he finds himself wedged between the rock and my body. Surprised at first, then aroused by my actions, he doesn't protest, probably having some idea of what is about to happen.

I kiss his muscular torso, tracing a path from his neck to his sweet spot. As my lips contact his soft, smooth skin, I feel his cock quiver excitedly and slam against his stomach. His cock is so big that I wonder if I could easily take it. Let's hope so.

As soon as my hand touches his member, he grunts. I start pumping while watching him. I don't want to lose any of his reactions. His eyes close, and he leans his head back, completely lost in the pleasure I am giving him without counting. I have never seen such a stunning human being. His ebony eyes contrast perfectly with his caramel skin. His steel muscles make him even more irresistible.

His veiny forearms would drive anyone crazy. His big hands, soft and firm at the same time, would run all over my body, electrifying me. Eventually, his long fingers got lost in my hair. I moved my head to the rhythm he was giving me. A regular cadence that ensured constant pleasure.

If all went well between us and we continued our ménage after today, my goal was to make him crazy about me so that I would have a better chance of seeing him next year. I wanted him to have a good memory of me, for me to cloud his thoughts so that every time he tried to fuck another girl, he would see me instead.

Maybe it's selfish of me, but I want to pollute him. To pollute his mind with obscene and detailed images of what I would do and how I would make him feel. I want that, even if his mind forgets what I look like, his body will still recognize me among thousands. I want his skin to bear the mark of my passage and have an indelible effect on his physical memory.

When he is completely naked, his shorts and swimsuit around his ankles, I finally tease the tip of his cock with my tongue. Caught off guard by my sudden, reckless move, he gives an uncontrolled jerk of his hips. His excited member enters my mouth entirely and hits the back of my throat.

My moan of surprise causes his cock to throb and rest heavily on my tongue. "Oh yeah." He grunts as the pressure of his fingers around my hair hardens a little more. Seeing that he enjoyed it, I pull his cock out of my mouth, leaving only the glans inside before taking it all back in. 

There were moans from him. He loved it and kept asking for more. He even helped me by repeatedly thrusting his cock into my mouth, each time increasing the pace of it. 

It didn't take long for his body to tense up. Not that he had climaxed, but it would be soon. He wasn't too far from cumming, but it was too soon. I didn't want him to cum in my mouth but somewhere else. Before I could stop my movements, he tugged at my hair with his hand in it, pulling me away from his hardened member.

I barely had time to get up before he switched places again and pinned my back against the rock. Without wasting any time, he undid the button of my shorts and pulled down my panties. 

He crouched down and took my leg on his shoulder, giving him better access to my intimacy. As his tongue made contact with the burning skin of my privates, a gentle warmth washed over my body. At that moment, I lost all sense of reality and wandered into the world of pleasure.

He knew exactly what he was doing. His tongue played directly with my clit, without any shame or restraint, causing me to lose my mind. His tongue not only teased my clit, but it also went in and out of my slit.

At one point, he closed his lips on my nerve button and began to suck on it vigorously. My legs are on the verge of giving out, and at the same time, I am in danger of collapsing to the floor, so much so that the sensation of his mouth and his expert tongue gives me. The feeling is exquisite. Nothing like what I experienced with my ex.

To my dismay, the stranger stops all movement before standing in front of me again. His hands go straight to my thighs, squeezing them gently. "Jump." 

He lifts me up, and I wrap my legs around his waist as my hands find their place around his neck. I don't know when he did it. I was so lost in pleasure that I didn't know what was happening around me, but as my handsome stranger grabbed his rigid member and stroked his cock over my slit, I realized he had already put on a condom. At least one of us hadn't completely lost his mind.

He spread my wetness along his entire length and the integrity of my slit to my clit, making us moan. I couldn't wait any longer. I had to have him inside me, and it didn't matter if he only stretched me with two fingers. The excitement was such that I felt I could take him inside. Besides, the wetness from my slit was enough to make it a little easier.  

He stroked my clit once or twice before thrusting it into me once and for all. I could feel every millimeter of his cock pushing into me. The burning was not unpleasant. The sensation added to the pleasure. 

Surely to distract me from the potential pain, my partner kissed me. His tongue caressed my lower lip asking to access mine. Generous as I am, I gave him access without asking. Without wasting time, his tongue found mine and invited him into a wild dance. 

The mixture of his thrusts and tongue battling with mine was so exquisite that I could only moan as my stranger hungrily swallowed my moans.

The thrusts got harder. I was sure that in the end, it would not be me who would leave an indelible mark on the memory of my partner's body, but the opposite.

"You like it rough, don't you?" Usually, I'm not very vocal, but I couldn't hold back my moans with him. I just couldn't do it. 

"I asked you a question." His strokes got harder as his hand spanked my butt's soft, flaccid skin. 

"Yes," I say in one breath. 

The spot where the stranger slapped me burns as tingles run down my body.

"Yes, what?" My whole body shook with the pleasure that built up as he took more and more control, becoming more and more dominant. 

"I love it when you fuck me hard." A smile appears on his sinful lips and disappears as quickly as it appeared, "But most of all, I love it when you spank me at the same time you fuck me hard."  

His eyes change, becoming darker. I didn't think that was possible. His jaw clenches as his tongue pocks the inside of his cheek. 

In less than a second, I find my chest pressed against the hard surface of the rock, my ass exposed and at the mercy of my partner. My whole body shook with excitement and anticipation of what was coming. I knew exactly what he would do, so I waited patiently for him to give me what I deserved, like a good little girl. 

Bam! The first spanking had just landed on my ass. He sank hard into me, and the mixture with the heat and the tingle of the spanking was wonderful.

"Is this what you want? Is this what you like?" Unable to form sentences, I just nodded. 

Bam! Another slap, then another and another. He wasn't going easy on me, adding to the pleasure. Then his hand left the reddened skin of my butt to take care of my clit. He wrapped his muscular arm around my waist as his upper body pressed against my back while his other large hand rested on my belly. 

"Let's see if you'll like this too." He stroked my clit with his finger. A flash of pleasure traveled over the integrity of my body, causing me to lose my mind. I think the fact that someone could catch us in one of the most vulnerable moments of our existence sent adrenaline coursing through my veins.

In addition to the beautiful feeling caused by his actions, the adrenaline pushes me off the cliff of ecstasy. It doesn't matter that we are in a public place just a few feet from where I work. The pleasure is so intense that I can't help but moan loudly. 

As I cummed around his cock, he shut me up with his big hand above my mouth while I let the pleasure wash over me from the depths of my being. I felt like he had just thrown me off a cliff, and I was in free fall. A fall I wanted to last forever.

As my pussy tightened around his dick, he emptied himself into the condom, still buried deep inside me, while his hands grabbed my hips. 

Turning me back to face him once more, we tried to catch our breath. With a goofy smile, he caressed my skin and planted a few kisses on my lips, swollen from his care. 

"I didn't think you were so wild." His comment made me smile.

"I could say the same about you, sir." I returned his remark. 

After ensuring I could stand independently without collapsing, he gently set me down on the floor. When his arms were no longer around my body, he collected our clothes before handing me mine so I could hide my nakedness before pretending nothing had happened. 

Now that the fire of passion has been tamed and my desires have been satisfied, I don't know how to react. Are we going to pretend that none of this happened? Should we continue our escapades? After all, I knew nothing about the unknown men before me and only had a few days left in the hotel. 

Not wanting to show my stranger that I was touched by our coupling, I quickly put my clothes back on and pretended that this wasn't my first rodeo with a stranger. I grabbed his wrist where his watch was to check the time.

"Shit, I have to go. I have to go back to work soon." It's not good to lie, YN. I still had a two-and-a-half-hour break before my next shift, but he didn't need to know that. 

I use my phone's camera to ensure everything is in order before I go out, and before I leave, I check to ensure I haven't forgotten anything. 

What should I do? The discomfort is so palpable that the only thing I want to do right now is going back to my room and not come out. Should I tell him how good it was? Should I give him one last kiss before I leave? Should I say "see you later"? Or should I go without saying anything? 

Not knowing what to do, I follow the last suggestion. I turn my back to my stranger and am about to leave when a large hand grabs my wrist and forces me to turn around.

"Not so fast, gorgeous." He kisses me again. His hand travels down my body but comes dangerously close to my butt. I feel him slip something into my back pocket before he pulls our lips apart. 

"This is my room pass. Meet me as soon as you finish your shift." He plants a last kiss on my lips and leaves first, again leaving me alone.

"What did you get yourself into, Park YN?"

Paradise Hotel Bar/Restaurant | 1:57 am | YN's POV

I had been trying to get a customer out of the bar for over half an hour so I could close up and go to bed. Unlike him, I wouldn't have time to catch up on sleep tomorrow. 

I only have four hours of sleep left before my next shift because, in addition to making lunch and dinner, we also make breakfast, and that fat bastard is keeping me from getting any rest.

I'm so mad at this client for not getting enough sleep and being grumpy the next day that if I see him again tomorrow, there's a good chance I'll put something in his food. 

I even got scolded by my manager, who was already, when I called him to help me get the customer out. That was not all; I had to mop the floor because the son of a bitch was too drunk and ended emptied his stomach on the fucking floor.

As I mopped, I looked at the clock nailed to the wall. It was already past two in the morning. I was so tired that I was about to fall asleep on my feet. When I finished cleaning, I put the cleaning equipment back in its place, closed the bar/restaurant, and left the keys at the front desk.

When I got to my room, I didn't waste any time. I undressed and went straight to the bathroom. The warm water caresses my skin and instantly relaxes me. 

The events of the day replayed in my mind. I close my eyes and let myself be carried away by the pleasant memory. What happened earlier in the day was wrong, forbidding even, but so exciting at the same time. It's so bad, but at the same time, so correct.

I don't know what to think anymore. It's evident. On the one hand, I feel bad about having sex with a client at work. I could kiss my summer job and reputation goodbye if this got out. 

I can't help but think about the possibility of someone seeing and videotaping us. I don't know anything about my lover, and I don't know if he's a celebrity. If he is, he could be an idol, and I don't know. 

The people on this island are so used to having stars of all kinds visit them since Paradise was built that they are willing to do anything to hear about them. So making a sex tape and selling it to the highest bidder was an easy way to make money. 

Not that I was a famous person in the eyes of the world, but my mother was. It would have a massive impact on her career. And the last thing I wanted was for my mother to be hurt by my mistake. But above all, I would not bear the look of disappointment on her face. 

But on the other hand, he was so good. His gestures were so confident, so supportive, but at the same time, so smooth and comforting. You could tell he was in control; it wasn't the first time he'd done this. 

His hoarse voice was full of desire. When I heard his deep voice near my ear, it turned me on so fast, which scared me slightly. 

I needed him like I had never needed anyone before. The dominance of his movements had me on my ass. He had a significant effect on me. He managed to do what I wanted to do to him. And lo and behold, the spell was cast on the wizard.

Speaking of ass, something that had completely slipped my mind. He gave me his room pass so I could join him. Considering it's too late, he's probably sleeping or fucking someone else. And I should do the same, not fucking someone else, but sleeping. Tomorrow morning - rather this morning - it will be almost impossible for me to wake up on time. I'll be a zombie for sure.

By the way, tomorrow I must go to the reception and leave his room card. I'll say I found it by the deck chairs to avoid suspicion.

When I get out of the shower, I wear a loose T-shirt and throw myself under my blanket. I was so exhausted from the day that it didn't take long to welcome Morpheus with wild open arms while my thoughts were on my handsome stranger.

Paradise Hotel Bar/Restaurant | 10:00 pm | POV by YN

My shift had just ended. I was at the bar with Evie, drinking a Sex on the Beach, before I locked myself in my room and rested. Unfortunately, summer ends in a few weeks, and I'm going home in three days. In three days, I'll return to my new life in Busan. 

Busan. I've never been there, but I heard it's a beautiful city. It attracts millions of tourists from all over the world every year. 

"So, are you ready for the big move?" Evie was the only one who knew my family situation. 

"I wouldn't say I'm ready, but do I have a choice?" I don't have a place yet, but it wouldn't last long. 

In addition to looking for an apartment, I also had to deal with enrolling at Busan University. At the beginning of the summer break, I transferred my school records to my new university in Busan.  

My next school year will be at Dong-A University. According to my research on the Internet, I will be assigned to the last building to be constructed in 2021, the Bumin Campus. It is located in Bumin-dong, Seo-gu, Busan. In the same building, I will be with the students of law, social sciences, and many others. 

I've seen the pictures, and the campus size is pretty impressive. It has nothing to do with my little university in Daegu.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine. You know that you can call me and vent if there's any trouble. That's what friends are for." Unfortunately, I won't have the chance to have Evie by my side anymore. She's going back to Seoul tomorrow. That's why, despite my tiredness, I still enjoy her presence without renouncing it. Unlike her, I have to work tomorrow. Besides, it is my last day of work, after which I can use the remaining three days to recharge my batteries and play the tourist in my turn. 

"Change of subject. Have you seen your handsome stranger today?" The first thing I did when I came to work this morning told about my misadventure with my stranger yesterday. At first, I didn't want to tell anyone, I tried to keep information to myself for once, but after being haunted by the stranger in my thoughts all night, I couldn't help but tell Evie everything. 

Contrary to what I thought, she hadn't judged me. On the contrary, she even congratulated me. "I thought you were a tightwad because you never shared any juicy information about yourself, but I see I was wrong about you." She told me before adding, "I'm proud of you," with a pat on the shoulder.

Since day one, I saw Evie as a friend and an older sister that I never had. Just like my mother, she was my confidante, and I could talk to her about things that I couldn't speak to my mother about. 

"No, I haven't seen him. And that's a good thing. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known how to react." On the other hand, I had seen some boys who were with him the day before. Although I didn't want to admit it, too ashamed of my moment of vulnerability, I spent the day glancing back and forth, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, even if only from a distance. Not happened. 

The rest of the evening was summed up by Evie and me drinking more cocktails in honor of her departure. I wasn't drunk, and I thanked God for giving me a high tolerance for alcohol. 

At some point, Evie left me to join a pretty customer who kept looking at her from across the room. So I took the opportunity to call it a day and returned to bed, frustrated at not seeing the handsome stranger. Indeed, after he had his way with me, he must have moved on to another victim of his charm. 

I had left my empty glass on the bar and was physically preparing to leave the bar and return to my cozy nest when I felt a presence at my back. I don't have time to react when I hear an angry voice in my ear.

"Better meet me in my room in five minutes." The voice's owner disappears as quickly as they appear. 

Did I dream this? 

Last night I told myself that I had to go to the reception to leave the room card of my unknown lover, but since I woke up late due to lack of sleep, I didn't find the time to go to the reception, as what, it seems that the universe did not want that my way and that of the unknown deviate. 

I put the badge against the black box and heard the unlocking sound. I look to the right and left of the corridor to ensure no one in the hotel sees me entering a customer's room. Before standing in front of my lover's door, I quickly went to my room to change and put on a hoodie to hide my face from the surveillance cameras, thus obscuring my identity in case the security guys decide to look at the images recorded by the cameras. 

When I entered the room, I saw that the lights were off. Only the moonlight was illuminating the room. When I first entered the room, I thought I was in the wrong room because I couldn't see anyone. But as I walked further into the room, I was startled.

"Damn, you scared me." Sitting in an armchair in the darkness of the night, the stranger stood before me. Sitting in all his glory, his legs spread, his body leaned back with his arms resting on the chair's armrests. 

"I thought I told you something last night. Why didn't you come?" His voice was low, deep, and accusatory. "I was waiting for you like an idiot, alone in my bed. Eager to fuck you again." I couldn't see his eyes but knew he was watching me. I could feel his gaze on me. I felt naked in front of the stranger despite being dressed. 

"I had plans for both of us." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his muscular thighs, his hands clasped under his chin, his gaze still unwavering. 

"We could have had a crazy night." His eyes began to grow heavy. Despite the vastness of the room and the fact that it was well-ventilated, I still felt like I was suffocating within these four walls. "We could have lost ourselves in pleasure before we found ourselves in each other's arms."

I'd never heard anything so lame, but my body ignited because it was him. Why? Nothing was exciting in what he was saying. But I had to admit that the atmosphere between us, the room's darkness, and the fact that he was upset probably had something to do with it. 

"I couldn't," I didn't have time to say anything because my lover had abruptly gotten up from the chair. His gesture, by the way, made me take a few steps back. 

"Shh. I don't want to hear anything." My back hit the hard surface of the bedroom wall. In no time, he's standing in front of me, trapped between his muscular body and the wall. "Keep your excuses to yourself, gorgeous. Tonight the only sounds I'll allow you to make are your delicious moans and my name. The rest you can keep to yourself. Do I make myself clear?"

Who am I to deny it? For a brief moment, I was almost tempted by the little devil sitting on my shoulder telling me to contradict him. But on the other hand, the little angel of pleasure told me to be a good girl and give him what he wanted. So tonight, I decided to listen to the little angel. Anyway, I'm already in trouble. No matter what I say, he would probably make me regret not coming the day before. 

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to answer him. In no time, I found myself again, my back stuck to the front of his body while my chest was stuck to the wall. He spread my legs with his before pulling down my shorts and panties.  

I was left with my ass in the air as his hand came down on the tender skin of my butt. My moan echoed around the room. 

"Shut up, babe. Let's not alert the others. It would be a shame if you couldn't go all the way because you couldn't hold back your sinful moans. Wouldn't it?" The tingling spread to the area where he has spanked. 

"Not a fucking sound." A finger found itself inside me. A moan escaped me. 

"What did I say?" His voice was as dark as the room, but I wasn't afraid. I didn't know him, yet I was confident he would do no harm. He had this aura about him that immediately inspired confidence, comfort, and safety. And that was what scared me the most. "I don't want to hear anything."

He pushed a second finger into my pussy. I moaned, but unlike the last time, this one didn't come out of my throat, barely hearable. But the second finger brought more pleasure. Damn, that feels good. 

He pressed his body closer to mine and nibbled on my earlobe. "Listen carefully, baby, because I have no intention of repeating myself." His fingers leave my slit and begin to caress my clit.

"You have been a naughty girl, and I must punish you. Yesterday I told you to come to the bedroom after you finished your shift, but you disobeyed me." He planted kisses on my neck, making me lose my mind.

"I wasn't happy." His deep, low voice argued in my ear, sending shivers down my entire body, hot with excitement. "I had to jerk off, using my memories of your pretty little pink pussy." His lips come dangerously close to my sensitive area.

"I had to search in my memories, images of what we did earlier in the day to help me get off when I could have created new ones." He found my sweet spot and licked me before biting hard and sucking.

"You forced me to imagine your soft little hands caressing my hardened cock. I had to play your fucking moans against my ear in my head." He ran his tongue over the fresh mark he had just left on my skin.

Between each sentence he said, he pushed his fingers deeper and deeper into me, making me lose my mind.

"But tonight," he stops pumping his fingers inside me. "I don't have to imagine any of this anymore because tonight," he plants a wet kiss on the hollow of my neck before his mouth moves closer to my ear. "You're the one who's going to take care of it." He removes his hand from my clothes, grabs my hair, and drags me to the bed.

I thought he would throw me on the bed, but against all odds, my handsome stranger, who has been very dominant so far - much to my delight - sits down on the mattress without taking his eyes off me. I stand at the foot of the bed before him, waiting to see what he wants. 

"Dance for me, baby." Sorry? I was expecting something else. "Take your clothes off while you dance." 

This is my first time being asked to remove my clothes, but I think it'll be enough. Every day when I'm home alone, I put on music and dance. I always have music on in the shower, cooking, or cleaning.

I can't help but think of the song Ride by SoMo. 

Ever since I first heard it a few years ago, I thought it would be cool to fuck, foreplay, or strip to this song. The lyrics alone were suggestive and left a lot to the imagination. 

Take off those heels, lay on my bed Whisper dirty secrets while I'm pulling on your hair Poison in our veins, but we don't even care Candles dripping on your body, baby, this ain't truth or dare Everybody wonders where we run off to My body on your body, baby, sticking like some glue Naughty, let's get naughty, girl. It's only one or two The fevers fucking running. Feel the heat between us two!

Slowly controlling my movements, I moved my hips to the song's rhythm playing in my head. I slipped my hand under my shirt and placed it on my stomach, simultaneously moving my hand up the shirt before moving it over my head. 

When my top hit the ground, I touched my shoulder, caressing it and sliding the strap down my arm. My eyes never left his face. I couldn't see his eyes, but I could see his body, and I knew that everything I didn't leave him indifferent. 

His breath struggled to leave his throat. One of his hands gripped the duvet as if his life depended on it while the other stroked the growing bulge in his pants. His body was tense, and his tongue played with the inside of his cheek.

I'm gon' ride, I'm gon' ride I'm gon' ride, I'm, I'm gon' ride on you, baby On you, lady, all night, all night! I'm gonna take care of your body I'll be gentle, don't you scream It's getting hotter. Make it softer Feel your chest on top of me I'm gon' ride, I'm gon' ride I'm gon' ride, I'm, I'm gon' ride on you, baby On you, lady, all night, all night! I'm gon' make you feel that loving Getting weak all in your knees Kiss your body from the tip-top All the way down to your feet!

I didn't have my shorts and panties because of my handsome stranger. So, I didn't have much to tease him with, so I used what I had. Me. My body. Moving closer to the handsome stranger, I grabbed my breasts before putting them under his hungry eyes. 

I could see he was itching to replace my hands with his own. Big and powerful. But he couldn't. I wouldn't let him anyway. 

He wanted to play? Fine, we will. But two can play. 

He moved around on the bed, manspreading even more. Probably because his pants were too tight by now. But that was not my problem at the moment. I had a striptease to continue. 

As I kneaded my breasts, I turned my back to him, showing him my well-humped ass after hours spent at the gym. During those hours, I was proud of myself for all the suffering in the gym. 

I undulated my hips and moved them from side to side. My hands let go of my breasts to caress my body. I leaned forward, still caressing my skin, and held my ass up in front of his face, giving him an excellent view of my ass and pussy, which was already quite wet for him. 

"Fuck." Looking over my shoulder, a smile on the corner of my lips, I saw that he had removed his pants, which were already on the floor, keeping my top and bra company. His hand was taking very good care of his already swollen member.

The sun's coming up, oh You're on my side, oh I rub your thighs, oh You look in my eyes, oh And I just see the skies (see the skies) I'm so high, but I ain't smoked yet I'm just coming down from this! I'm gon' ride, I'm gon' ride I'm gon' ride, I'm, I'm gon' ride on you, baby On you, lady, all night, all night! I'm gonna take care of your body I'll be gentle, don't you scream It's getting hotter. Make it softer Feel your chest on top of me

Not happy that he has decided to pleasure himself without my permission, I run to him and unhook his hand from his cock. I sit on his lap and place my lips on his to finally taste him. His hands rest on my cheeks. The contact is electrifying.

With one hand, I hold him. With the other, I grab his hair and deepen our kiss. How could I become so addicted to a stranger's lips in such a short time? He was like a drug I was ready to overdose on.

I had only known him for one day, the second time we had met, and yet here he was, addicting me to his body, kisses, and caresses. 

But I wanted more. A lot more. What he offered wasn't enough. Frustrated by his lack of initiative, I rubbed my pussy against his naked cock. He grunts, making his chest vibrate and mine at the same time.

It feels good, but it's not what I was looking for. Breaking the kiss, I rise from his lap and grab his hand, forcing him to do the same. At this point in the evening, excitement runs through my veins. Right now, I am the epitome of lust.

I ripped off the rest of his clothes, leaving him completely naked. His already hard cock slammed against his belly, ready to be stuffed and jerked until its owner emptied himself entirely into me.

I can't stand all these dirty thoughts in my head anymore, so I push my partner onto the bed, and the next thing I know, I'm astride him, sitting on his erection.

I attacked his lips again and resumed my movements on his cock. 

"Oh, fuck. Go for it, baby." With his encouragement, I continued the movements, rubbing us together. Fuck, I've been dreaming about this all day.

All day I was haunted by the image of his body rubbing against mine.

Our moans blended into the most beautiful melody I'd ever heard as if they were meant to be played together. 

My swollen pussy, excited and quite wet, slid easily over his member. I quickened the pace of my movements, making us moan in unison. As I unleashed myself on him, I tilted my head back, consumed by pleasure. Without noticing, the tip of his cock wedged itself into the folds of my slit before landing entirely inside me.

I wasn't expecting it at all. Neither did he. As if struck by lightning, my lover came to his senses. Suddenly I was lying on the bed, while he was standing at the foot of the bed. 

What had happened? 

No sooner had I formulated my question than I felt hands grabbing my ankles before I found myself on all fours with my ass in the air. 

"Who allowed you to stick my cock in you, you naughty girl?" He brings his hand down on my ass once, twice, then three times. Again and again, until my pussy clenches in the void, begging for his cock to sink back in. My cries and moans are not lost on him as he grunts in response to them. 

"You like it when I'm hard on you, don't you?" He spanks me again. I can feel my wetness running down my thigh. "My needy slut." 

"You want me to sink into you hard, right?" I knew it was a rhetorical question. He didn't need me to answer it to tell himself he was right. So I didn't say anything. The only response he got was a whine. 

"Well, if that's what my baby wants," he steps forward, speaking in a low voice so only I can hear as if he's afraid someone might be listening. He steps away from me. "So this is what she'll get." Again he penetrates my pussy even harder.

Without giving me time to get used to his size, he continued his thrusts, increasing the speed more and more. 

Nothing made sense anymore. My mind was a mess. I couldn't see anything because I was so overwhelmed by the pleasure; the tears had taken possession of my eyes. I had to close my eyes to take in the overwhelming sensations.

I had to bury my head in the pillows to stifle my moans. I didn't want the neighboring rooms to complain about the noise and the risk that they would discover that I was being fucked by a hotel guest when I was only an employee.

My walls were clenching around his fat cock. I'm about to cum. But, he had sensed it. "Not yet, baby." He pulls out of me before turning me over. I am now facing him, my back pressed against the mattress. He grabs my ankles again and draws me closer. Closer to the edge of the bed.

He leans over, and I see his face dangerously close to my eager pussy. His warm wet tongue makes direct contact with my pussy. His tongue shamelessly plays with my clit. 

At times he changes between my clit and my slit. He plunges his tongue in several times, teasing my walls before his mouth settles on my clit and sucks it intensely. 

As I leaned back and clutched the blanket, I saw stars dancing above my head. I didn't know how much longer I could hold back the pleasure that brought me closer and closer to ultimate pleasure with each stroke of my lover's tongue. 

My moans flooded the room and echoed through the four walls. I tried to keep my cries down, but my partner wasn't much help. The coup de grâce came when he grunted against my clit. The vibrations increased my pleasure, but I managed to block the pleasure that threatened to explode. 

I'm about to come, but what should I do?

Should I give in to the pleasure and let the wave wash over me at the risk of making him even angrier? After all, it wouldn't be so bad. It would be another opportunity to be punished again. Or should I be a good girl and tell him I'm about to cum? 

No, that would be too easy. If I cum, it won't be my fault. He's the one who's too good at what he does. So it's decided: I won't tell him anything, and it's too bad if I cum and he doesn't like it.

My walls continue to contract around his tongue buried inside me while my desire threatens to explode like a nuclear bomb, irradiating my whole body. He sensed that I was about to climax because he stopped all movement.

When he stands up again, he inserts his member into mine, slowly at first, letting me feel every inch of his cock, which drives me crazy. When he reaches the bottom, he repeats the previous action ten times. After the eleventh, his movements intensify.

The slapping of our skins, moans, and bed creaking is a beautiful symphony. He was so hard on me that the headboard kept hitting the wall. I hope the room next door is empty. Otherwise, I'm screwed.

"Don't hold back anymore, baby. I'm coming, so come with me." He quickened his pace, which was the last straw. At this point, nothing could stop me from feeling what I felt. My mind was foggy. There was nothing in this world but lust.

This feeling is so unreal that I have no words to describe it.

My lover was also lost in pleasure. At the same time, as he poured into me, his grunts sounded like a sweet melody. His body had collapsed onto mine. His whole being trembled as he came to.

Though breathless, our mouths joined in a wild dance. "I have no words to describe what just happened. I moved a strand of wet hair stuck to his forehead.

"Then don't put it into words." This time I was the one who pressed our lips together. At that point, we were no longer customer/waitress. We were two strangers enjoying each other without worrying about consequences and retribution.

YN's car | 12:41 p.m. | YN's POV -Five Days Later-

I had been driving for an hour. According to the GPS, I had only 8 minutes left to reach my destination.

During those 8 minutes, I took the opportunity to look at the landscape. I identified a few things that would probably be useful to me.

Since it was hot, I opened both front windows, which created a slight breeze. I stopped at a red light and took the time to look around. The beach was beautiful. The trees surrounding the road made the scenery even more exotic.

I think I'll spend the afternoon sunbathing by the water. I'll try to get some more color. More of what I already had. 

My new life will look like this: spending time at the beach for the few days I have left before returning to school. I will enjoy the beach every chance I get, as long as the sunny days are there. I will also take advantage of the opportunity to meet new people. Go out, party. Drink like never before. Yeah, that's definitely a good plan.

The sexy stranger from the hotel left the day after his "punishment," but I could tell we enjoyed our last night together as we said goodbye. Three days after he left, I couldn't hide the fact that I was lonely. I thought I'd be able to spend more time with him and enjoy potentially hot nights, but that clearly wasn't the case.

In the absence of his presence, I resorted to my faithful companion. My vibrator, which I had taken with me. 

However, before he left, the stranger gave me his phone number and made me promise to warn him of my arrival at the hotel the following year so that we could "start again." It seems that he will be back the next year. 

Let's just pray he doesn't find a girlfriend by then. 

One thing he didn't tell me was his name. But now that I have his phone number, I could ask him later. Since he had given it to me, I had not had the opportunity to contact him. Honestly, I didn't know what to say to him. 

Should I send him a nude picture? Or should I start gently, like a civilized person? 

"You have arrived at your destination." The robotic voice of my GPS warned me.

"Holy shit. Is this where I'll live?" The building in front of me was sublime, prominent, and wealthy. The facade alone reeked of wealth. I wouldn't even be surprised if I ran into a few celebrities. This building looked to be a little over 50 stories high.

I went straight to the underground garage and looked for my assigned parking space. Before I left, my mom texted me to give me an overview of what she had told me a million times: the address, the parking space number, the floor, and finally, the apartment number.

I only took the suitcases that I had in Jeju. The rest of my stuff that was in Daegu had already been delivered. Once inside the elevator - magnificent and luxurious - I dial the code as the golden doors close.

As the elevator rises, my heart rate increases. The stress begins to overwhelm me. My hands get clammy and shaky. Yes, I was nervous about meeting my soon-to-be father-in-law, but what made me even more unsettled was meeting his son. 

I hope he's not an arrogant daddy's boy. If he is, he and I might not get along. 

When I leave the elevator, which alone reeks of wealth, I go down to my new floor and walk to the door of my new home. I ring the bell and wait a few seconds before the door opens. 

Without realizing it, I take a few steps back, dropping my bags as my mother hugs me. 

"My baby, you're finally here! How was your trip? Did you have a good trip? Wasn't there too much traffic?" Typical of my mother, bombarding me with questions without giving me time to answer. 

"Take it easy, honey. At least give her time to get home and unpack. Come on in, YN. Welcome to your new home." My mother's companion is forced to pull her off me so I can pick up my things and enter the apartment. 

I take off my shoes before following them into the living room, which is enormous. "Welcome to your new home, baby." My mom said. 

A man was sitting on the large couch in the living room, and he seemed to be obsessing over his phone screen before his father cleared his throat. I turned to face my mother's companion, who was about to speak. It would be rude of me to turn my back on him when he was about to talk to me.  

"YN, let me introduce you to your soon-to-be step-brother." He gestures with his hand in the direction of his son.

But when I turned to look at the man who had been sitting on the couch a few seconds ago and was now standing in front of me, towering over me with his great height, my eyes went wide.

This is a joke.

Next ↦

Translations, republications, and rewritings of my stories are not allowed. Failure to comply with this request will result in legal action.

© Jeon_s_Sins

[writebackatya]

Was tagged by @justaboot in a post with a lot of questions, let's do this!

how many fics do you have on ao3?

14

what's your total ao3 word count?

159,641 words. but let's be real, a good chunk of them are song lyrics.

what fandoms do you write for?

DuckTales (2017)

what are your top five fics by kudos?

Indi-Quack!

Rainbow Connections

Home for the Holidays!

Moon with a View!

Let's All Go to the Movies!

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

For the most part, yes. I try my best to get back to people's comments, especially if they have questions. But sometimes I just don't have the energy when I wish I did

what's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'd say the ending to F.O.W.L. Play! from Indi-Quack! might be the angstiest. Nothing like ending a story where you go through the morning routine of one FOWL employee and finding out she keeps her sanity by getting high with another underpaid employee who works her ass off a minimum wage and is also not happy where she is in life

what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hard to choose since I almost always go for the happy ending route. I think any of the stories for Home for the Holidays! could be the answer to this one cause those stories are nothing but holiday and winter fluff.

do you get hate on your fics?

it happens but not often. the first time I ever got hate was from a Della hater troll and they seem to be the only one who leaves hate on my fics

do you write smut?

no, but I've thought about it before. I don't mind sex in a story, but I don't know if I'm the right person to write that kind of stuff in a story. Honestly, the only reason why I wanna write smut is because I've plenty of jokes that I think are funny that would only work in a smut story

do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've ever written?

kinda??? would you consider having characters from various Duck media that never appeared in DuckTales 2017 crossover stuff? Heck I've got a couple of Della Duck stories in the works where she interacts with Mickey and Friends and I don't know if that should be considered a crossover

have you ever had a fic stolen?

no. thanks guys!

have you ever had a fic translated?

no, but that'd be neat!

have you ever cowritten a fic before?

no, but that is something I wouldn't mind doing some day

what's your all time favorite ship?

Of all time!? I don’t know. I love love

what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oh so many: An Act of Murder!, Back in the Game!, F.O.W.L. Play!, The Iron Duck of Steel: The Gizmoduck Movie, Part I!, The Spear of Selene, and Thanks for the Memories!. I've just been working on these for so long that it feels like I'll never finish any of them

what are your writing strengths?

when I'm in the mood to write I can really write, I like to think my dialogue is interesting, characterization, and I'd say my rapid fire humor

what are your writing weaknesses?

I'm a terrible planner, I don't write stuff down, I keep stuff in my head like it's the best storage place, I underestimate how big some stuff will be, I don't allow myself to just write

thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I've mainly used Google Translate for other languages such as Jose and Panchito's dialogue in The Three Cabablleros (and Della)!. But for Let's All Go to the Movies! I got my buddy @tokuvivor to translate a conversation between Fenton and Gosalyn. Honestly, one of my favorite parts of that story and I think tokuvivor translating it himself adds to the joke. Both Lin-Manuel Miranda and Stephanie Beatriz both know Spanish, so having someone who can help me translate my dialogue so that it can sound natural and be a bonus to bilingual speakers just makes me happy beyond comprehension

I will say I did use Google Translate for that story, but for English! So for the Fight Fighters game I wanted to get that badly translated English feel for the dialogue so for pretty much every dialogue in the game was translated to Japanese and then back to English. Except the line "Now I will kill you until you die from it!", that comes from the movie Hot Shots! Part Deux

first fandom you wrote for?

...Sonic. it was a phase, i have no strong opinions about that blue hedgehog these days I mean I guess his games are...fine? The cast of characters are...pretty cool, I like Tails I guess.

favorite fic you've ever written?

hard to say, but I think I'd put Indi-Quack!, Rainbow Connections, Let's All go to the Movies! in the top spot

I choose to tag: @tokuvivor, @imjustusingthistolikeartists, if they choose to answer these questions

[indecisivepsyche]

Dracula: The Evidence

Well, now that we've finished reading Dracula, I'd like to highlight yet another upcoming way to read Dracula! This one is Dracula: The Evidence by Beehive Books, a small press imprint in Philadelphia currently available to preorder. Let me preface this by saying that I'm not affiliated with the creators of this project. I'm just discussing it because I think it's cool. I'll also warn that the two cheapest options for purchasing these items are $400 (for the complete artifactual experience) or $100 (for a hardcover version). If that's too much for you, I'd still recommend taking a look at the neat prototype images and information about the creation process found on their product pages and project updates.

Dracula: The Evidence is a project recreating the primary sources that make up Dracula. As they describe it, "In our edition, you are not merely a reader – you are an explorer making your way through this archive of first-hand evidence, retracing this nightmarish story through the remnants it left behind: correspondence, charts and diagrams, memoranda, artifacts, photographs, and much more."

That means you'll be receiving items like Jonathan's journal and letters from Lucy to Mina in their complete (and unburnt) form.

For people willing and able to shell out the $400, these items will come in a suitcase. For those who can commit $100, you can purchase a hardcover art book with pictures of the artifacts and transcripts of their contents.

There's also the option to purchase a vinyl record of Seward's phonograph recordings (also for $100).

I'm going to ramble a bit more about the project under the cut, but before that here's a link to a post I've made with links to the project. One of them is a promotional Twitter thread written by a fictional archival intern hired to process the Stoker Papers. It's pretty fun.

Edit: It slipped my mind that there was a PDF preorder on offer on Kickstarter for $25. It's not currently on the Beehive Books storefront, but it might be sold once the preorder period is over.

Beehive Books has been transparent about supply chain issues and events like the calligrapher they cast to write for Jonathan Harker being conscripted in the army causing delays. However, it is currently projected that the products will ship in early 2023.

Speaking of calligraphers, they've hired over a dozen of them to write for the different characters. It's neat to hear that they've put a lot of consideration into how the personalities of the characters should be reflected in their handwriting.

If you want to hear a sample of their recordings for Dr. Seward's diary, check out the September 12th Kickstarter Update on either edition. The updates are open to the public, and they've posting a link to a Dropbox with a two-minute sample from Jack's May 25th entry.

Check out the update from January 10th, 2022 to hear how they're tackling the fact that most of the documents that make up Dracula are originally not written in standard English. Here's an excerpt from it:

"For Mina, we've had her switch back and forth between shorthand and longhand throughout her diary. We've used it to enhance character building and storytelling. She's using the journal as an opportunity to learn and practice shorthand -- so which sections does she feel most urgent about, and might she scrawl down in her natural hand without translating into her shaky shorthand? Which sections might she feel private about, and want written in an alphabet that someone who comes upon her diary might not understand?

And then we have Mina's typescript, which transcribes every word of every document contained therein, and more. This allows readers to work with the two documents side-by-side, decoding shorthand or Russian with the help of the typescript."

On the update from October 29th, 2021, they discuss how the Captain of the Demeter wrote his log before the modernization of the Cyrillic alphabet and how they had to find a linguist to rewrite their Russian translation.

Seriously, even if you can't afford to buy this, there's a lot of fun to be had in poking around the project updates and looking at the prototype images they've shared.

That's all from me! It's time to see some of the adaptations for myself, starting with Dracula (1931).

[silv3reyedstranger]

20 Questions

thank you @appropriatelystupid for tagging me! i just finished my french exam this morning so doing this is an awesome way to spend my afternoon🥳

How many works do you have on AO3?

i was not aware that i had seven written and posted?? that's wild :0

2. What's you total AO3 count?

31,822 words?? also a massive surprise since i don't write or post nearly as often as i'd like...but hey, i'll take the win!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

okay, so obviously supercorp lives rent free in my head, but i'm also deeply entrenched in the cissamione and bellamione fandoms. i've got a fuck ton of wips for them, but i haven't put much out yet. however, recently, rojarias (reignjas) has been taking up ALL my brain space—i'm dying to write a lawyer au.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

erm. well, since i only have seven, i'll give you the top two? 1st: i'm home when i'm with you...2nd: this color looks better on you than me

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i used to be really into and really good about responding to comments because i really appreciate every single one (and i still do) but it took a lot out of me and made me a little anxious, so i don't do it anymore. that being said, i still love and cherish every single comment that's ever been left!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i'm really not the biggest fan of angsty endings, so i don't write them very much. i'd much prefer piling on the angst throughout and giving them a happy ending. there's too much sadness and grief in the world already, i feel like everyone should get a happy ending.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

oo, okay, i'm not sure about happiest since they feel pretty even, but if i really had to pick maybe oh how love stings?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

i don't currently, which i think is in part because of how lovely most people in the fandoms i'm in now are, but years ago i wrote a dramione fic and people had a lot (which wasn't necessarily hate, but it was still unnecessary) to say about that.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

i've tried on occasion, but let's just say i'm still working out the kinks (pun intended)

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

i don't and i don't think i will anytime in the near future because i feel like a lot of planning will have to go into that and i don't have the brain space right now. but secondly, i don't feel an immediate urge to merge any two worlds currently.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

luckily, no, not that i'm aware of—hopefully it stays that way!

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

i've had someone ask in my comments before, but as mentioned above i don't really answer comments and i'm still not sure if i'm entirely comfortable with translations even if it allows a larger audience access to the fic.

13. have you ever cowritten a fic before?

i was working on one with @glitterslytherin a few years back, but we never quite got much of it finished haha

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

it's gotta be supercorp, but currently, rojarias and cissamione have me in a chokehold (i suppose i'm on my supercorp detox atm? maybe i'll be able to churn out fics after this little break)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

i think this applies to all my WIPs to be honest. obviously i want to finish them all, but motivation is a bitch and she tends to come and go as she pleases XD

16. What are your writing strengths?

i'd like to think i do a pretty good job with dialogue. i used to be better at descriptions, but i think the balance has tilted the last couple of years.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

being able to just write and not edit on the way (another reason i rarely finish things) also planning is very much not my forte💀

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

while i am bilingual and almost trilingual, i do tend to stick with english since i feel like it's jarring to have a bit of a different language suddenly pop up and then the reader has to read the translation. and two, i'm not even grammatically accurate in english all the time, so forget about another language!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

oh, this is so mortifying...i believe it was percy jackson, but following closely behind was harry potter.

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

i don't think i love any of the fics i have out at the moment—like, don't get me wrong, i'm super proud of them—but there's not one finished one that parades in my head all the time. the rojarias lawyer au and a supercorp orchestra au are constantly being thought about though?

tagging a couple of mutuals if ya'll wanna take part!

@theredcapeofk @yanana94 @belladonnainbloom @coffeeshib @naralanis @an-organism

[lil-cutesy-things]

How to enrich and expand your vocabulary (Writing 101 with an old soul #2)

Hi lovelies and welcome to the second part of my series "Writing 101 with an old soul"!! *clap clap* 👏👏👏

So today's lesson is going to be about:

┌─── ∘°❉°∘ ───┐

Enriching your vocabulary

└─── °∘❉∘° ───┘

Here are some basic tips that worked for me and allowed me to expand and broaden my vocabulary:

✘ Read. A lot. I know it may sound annoying as hell but I hardly ever find myself learning new words when talking to someone, unless they are really eloquent or use technical vocabulary of course. I would recommend reading basically everything, even the material that you dislike or do not find interesting. Just a brief reminder – there are lots of media out there that you can find really easily. Literature is not limited to novels – think of short stories, fanfiction, poetry, comics, manga, graphic novels, etc. (And most of the time you don't even have to buy them to read them!)

✘ Watch movies, series, documentaries, etc. It may help you learn technical vocabulary if its main focus is on a topic that you want to learn more about. Plus it can be of great help to learn more about timelines, managing space and time, well-written or poorly-written characters, recurring themes, symbols and metaphors, etc.

✘ Listen to music which the lyrics are not in your first language. It will not only help you learn little by little other languages, but will also help you broaden your point of view, expand your mind and your horizons. Obviously you have to stay patient and be kind to yourself –it will not happen overnight. But I can guarantee that it will have a positive cultural and psychological impact on you.

Now you may wonder, "What should I do with my new breadth of vocabulary?"

Here is an example. You want to describe one of your female characters who is called Poppy (yes, just like the flower) and give your readers a glimpse of what she looks like. You already have some ideas about her physical appearance and made a list out of them:

Quite fragile/delicate at first sight

Real pretty though

Black ebony eyes

Red hair + thin, white strands

Soft & smooth skin

No make-up

So now that you have enough words to describe Poppy, you can start writing a descriptive passage focused on her.

I would advise you to start with very simple, basic sentences in order to be able to make them more beautiful later. It could be something like:

"Poppy seemed quite fragile at first sight but she was really pretty though. She had black ebony eyes and red hair with thin, white strands. Her skin looked soft and smooth even though she was not wearing any make-up."

Let's try and embellish this description, shall we?

I took this descriptive passage from one of the stories that I posted on Wattpad – be careful that I first wrote it in French and then translated it in English for this lesson. So your Poppy is:

"[...] of fragile and delicate beauty. She had long, straight bright red hair with thin, white strands that she braided and adorned with pearls. Whenever she smiled, little wrinkles formed at the corner of her bright eyes, black ebony eyes being a sharp contrast to her milky complexion. She had high cheekbones, lips in bold red barely lighter than of her hair. [...] She [...] never wore make-up. In truth, she did not need any of it – with her pale complexion, perfect smooth skin, lively eyes and naturally red lips, she was so beautiful she could make envious even those who were most confident in themselves."

Do you see the changes I made? Can you now clearly picture Poppy in your mind?

When I wrote this descriptive passage, I made sure to use lots of adjectives to characterise her and make her livelier and easier to imagine. I think it is a description that plays on the visuals (see the colours that pop up again and again, can you see a theme there?) and one I'm very proud of.

┌──❀*̥˚───❀*̥˚─┐

Homework

└───❀*̥˚───❀*̥˚┘

No, you're not dreaming, lovely people! There's homework for you to do! For real!

Instructions: Think of something you like, something that feels familiar and makes you feel safe and comforted. Try and write a description of it. I want you to be proud of the final result. You can post it in the comments if you like.

And that's all for today. As always take care of yourselves and stay safe. You're worth it, darling~ ♡

꒒ ০ ⌵ ୧ ♡

[pandasmagorica]

First watch: DNA Says Love You

Okay, first let me say I enjoyed this and recommend it. It's not perfect. It's a bit slow, and some plot points and side characters take a long time to come back to. I felt the chemistry between the two leads developed well over time. There is a lead role for a character who is part of a sexual minority we rarely get to see at all, let alone in a lead role. There is both queer pain and queer joy. There is a touch of fantasy, although it is not completely developed. There is a strong female supporting character who, while she loves one of the leads, never turns evil when she can't have him (although she does make one misstep).

But there was plenty of light moments and leavening humor, an established gay couple, and lots of food and scenery porn.

Content warnings: Suicide attempt, possible suicide contemplation, major medical decision made for a child without the child's consent, bullying, gay panic (non-violent), sexual minority phobia, outing, pronoun issues in the English subtitles (but not the original spoken script).

I was mildly unhappy with the subtitles. Typos were plentiful and there was an issue with gender (details after the jump).

See also my mid-watch thoughts and COVID masking in DNA Says Love You posts.

Spoilers follow

Childhood friends Le, Yu-He, and Wen-Wen were inseparable until Wen-Wen was whisked away overseas by her parents. Ten years later, Le wonders where Wen-Wen is. A moment later, Amber enters the cafe where Le and Yu-He work. He reports that he has just returned from overseas.

The timing is a little too obvious. We as audience are clearly meant to understand that male Amber and female Wen-Wen are the same person ten years apart. If it's not clear to some of us at the start, the show continues to drop bigger and bigger hints. Eventually, Amber absentmindedly sings a song the three of them wrote as kids and Yu-He catches him and confronts him about his identity. She proceeds to out him to Le, who reacts badly that he feels he has been deceived.

A lot of things we learn from flashbacks. Apparently, some viewers are not fans of flashbacks. I personally love them as they allow me to recontextualize what I have seen. I feel they were well-used in this series, although the timing of some of them were odd.

I initially thought Amber was a transman, and that the family left Taiwan after Amber came out to his parents as male. However, it appears that Wen-Wen, after initially being thought to be female and raised as such, was discovered to be genetically male and was taken to the UK to be medically affirmed (not sure this is the right word - that's more of a trans term) as male and re-socialized to be male. It is not clear how much say Wen-Wen had in this decision - likely not much - but clearly it was traumatic for them to be uprooted from their friendships.

Not sure what pronoun to use here. I'm a cis queer male and I don't know how the character identifies or how voluntarily that identification was. We don't really get enough information about Wen-Wen/Amber's transition.

As a side note, Amber is a strange name choice for someone transitioning to male, as it's a female name. I'm guessing that's an error on the part of the writing team.

I'm also not happy with how the translators handled this transition. Spoken Mandarin pronouns do not distinguish for gender, but English pronouns do. So sometimes in seems that Wen-Wen/Amber was being misgendered. He was, sometimes, in the subtitles, but not in the spoken script.

There was at least one other gender error in the subtitles when referring to one of the other characters.

There was a bit of a fantasy element with regard to the hunt for a mysterious temple. In one episode they hunted for it and wound up going in circles. But it never appears.

A reasonable complaint about the series is that Wen-Wen/Amber likely didn't have any choice in his transition. I am given to understand this is also true of most intersex transitions in real life, although the intersex community is working to change that. I'll say that this is not an area that I am knowledgeable about and that if you want to know more, seek out writing by the intersex community in print and on the internet.

What I do know is that over my long lifetime, mainstream queer content went from the queers nearly always die in the end to the queers rarely die. Ann Bannon, when writing her classic Beebo Brinker novels had to leave Beebo unhappy at the end and her female lover in the arms of a man. Gay-themed films ended unhappily at best and tragically at worst. Side gay characters often died, for example in Francois Truffaut's The Last Metro.

Eventually, there were more films with gay characters and happy endings started to appear. There was Will and Grace on TV.

We are starting to see well-rounded trans characters in QL: Mae in 3 Will Be Free is an outstanding example of a major character who has a clear vision of herself and a major impact on the plot, even if she loses the men who accept her for who she is. There are other smaller trans roles appearing now in QL and I hope the trend continues. While Only Friends left a bad taste in my mouth, at least Yo's story ends well. And there is a happy trans member of a couple in The Warp Effect and one in Not Me. And a happy (mostly - there is some bullying) non-binary character in Secret Crush on You. All of these shows are Thai.

To me, the biggest problem with this show's handling of the intersex subplot is not that Amber has no choice in his transition, but that there is a total lack of intersex stories. It's a big step forward that Amber is a main character, and we need to have more stories, including stories of intersex characters who get to choose their future. It's too much to ask one story to be perfect, but it's not to much to ask there to be more and varied stories.

Let me correct that. I was not happy they chose to have the one intersex character attempt suicide when their love object panicked about their relationship. (Similarly, having side character gayly coupled Li contemplate suicide - at least that's how I read the scene - was over the top.) That's too close to the historic tragic gay narrative. I would hope we get over that. It wouldn't be an issue if it were one of dozens of narratives, most of which didn't include attempted suicide, but it's not.

The side couple of Li and Gwan was handled a bit lackluster, but it was nice to see their domesticity.

In all, I recommend this series, but be aware of its shortcomings going into it.

[this-curiouscat]

🌀,🌤️,and 🌈 please!

🌀 Post the pitch for a game you’re working on

I have to cheat a little for this one because my games are currently either done or such vague ideas that I can't even pitch them properly.

But let's talk about Bunny, We Bought a Dungeon, which Jasmin Neitzel and me actually wrote first before we hacked it into Dolly, We Bought a Dream House.

Here's the pitch: You're a group of anthropomorphic bunnies who have bought a dungeon to move in there together. As you narrate the exploration and renovation of the dungeon, you draw a map of it together.

Mechanically, we're calling it a GM-less OSR story game. We're using OSR elements like dice drops, random roll tables, and of course a classic fantasy dungeon setting and combine them with GM-less story mechanics, action rolls inspired by Lasers & Feelings (but not exactly like L&F), and the idea that dungeons can also be homes.

We've already published it in German earlier this year and I've recently translated it into English and will release it tomorrow at the latest.

🌤️ Share your favorite mechanic from a game you’re working on

Same disclaimer as above. So let's talk about something I've already published! I'm still proud of my supplement Alternative Crowns of the Queen for Brindlewood Bay.

As in the original game, it's a set of narrative prompts that allow more insight into the characters' backstory and current life outside of investigating murders and supernatural conspiracies (you use them to bump up a roll one level). And as in the original game, they're meant to show the Murder Mavens "as a woman."

However, my Crowns of the Queen cover a lot more ground than the ones in the original because a senior woman's life of course contains many other relevant aspects than being a daughter, mother, or wife/romantic partner (which is what the original game focuses on). Therefore, my Crowns offer you prompts about bodies, aging, and health, female solidarity and friendship, professional successes and failures, and of course an option to tell a coming-out story.

(In case anyone reading along is wondering: Yes, I absolutely think asking questions/giving narrative prompts is a proper game mechanic just as much as rolling dice or drawing cards or ticking boxes on a sheet is.)

🌈 Share your favourite class/playbook from one of your games (name the game, or let me choose)

So far, I only have one game that has something resembling playbooks, so we're talking about my Firebrands game Miss Bernburg's Finishing School for Young Ladies here. It's set in an all-girl upper-class boarding school in the 1950s (located in Western Europe or North America).

It has three cliques to choose from, which function as character archetypes more than social circles: Homemakers, Bookworms, and Rebels (the latter may be renamed in the translation of the second edition I'm planning for sometime in the future). You get a short flavor text, a list of attractive characteristics to choose three from, and some name suggestions. There are further character questions to answer, such as items they've put on display or keep hidden in their dorm rooms (those are partly different in the first and second edition of the game).

I always enjoy playing a Homemaker (or seeing them played) because there's so much variety you can bring to this type of Young Lady. You can play her as a naive, down-to-earth person who just enjoys traditionally female activities and responsibilities. Or you can play her as a charmingly manipulative person who sees this role as the best opportunity to at least have some social and political influence in her life. Or you can play her as someone who aims to use a facade of respectability to create space for a relatively unbothered queer life on the side. Or maybe she's just waiting for someone to nudge her out of her conformist comfort zone and discover a curious or rebellious streak?

As always, we play to find out, and the Homemakers nearly always have some of the most interesting story arcs I've played and witnessed in this game. (Ask me again and I will tell you the same thing about the other two cliques, though!)

(Cover illustration by Christiane Ebrecht)

Thanks for asking! 💖

[staceymcgillicuddy]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @astorytotellyourfriends! ❤️❤️❤️

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

On this account? 8. Total across every fandom (hi, yes, I get paranoid about bothering people from old fandoms with new content so I make new names like a dork), 74. Wow, that is So Many.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

In Hellcheer, 237,256. Across everything, 1,311,715.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently just Stranger Things, but past fandoms were LoTR, a brief dabble in the MCU, X-Files, RPF which shall not be named, and uh... Dawson's Creek. Yes, I am old.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Only looking at Hellcheer fic:

to get my soul known again

If She Lived in Space, Man, I’d Build a Plane 

Trudge on Home to Celebrate 

crimson & clover pulling overtime 

model citizen; zero discipline 

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I love interacting with people, and I figure if they're kind enough to leave a comment, I ought to be kind enough to respond. That said, I'm way behind on Kinktober comments.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I have never written an angsty ending in fic, because fic is my happy place. I have written some bittersweet ones, though.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Happiest? Damn. I mean, I haven't actually ended a Hellcheer longfic yet but Soul is absolutely a HEA.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

People have been surprisingly kind throughout my fic history. There have been some trolls and dickheads, but for the most part everyone has been super generous.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes! Usually kinky stuff, which is where I have the most interest. I find vanilla stuff kind of boring, so there's usually some power dynamic or another in there to pique my interest and keep me inventing weird stuff for them to do.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I wrote an X-Files/LoTR crossover in high school but that's not that weird.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I've been made aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have, with my best friend. We wrote together in high school, and in some early fandoms. I really enjoyed it and would love to do it again, but it's a funny alchemy to find someone who fits your vibe and who you bounce off correctly and who wants to tell the same story you're telling.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Radu/Elmira. There's a deep cut.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

There's one in another fandom that is legitimately my only unfinished work in that fandom and it makes me sad. I do have a lot of half-started WIPs in draft that I haven't posted, so I guess those count. Maybe the western AU?

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I am decent at dialogue and description, and that I am better than some writers but worse than others. This is as close as I am legally allowed to come to complimenting my own work, thank you for understanding.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Literally everything else.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I would absolutely either have someone else help me, or I would write it in English and italicize it to indicate it's in another language.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

X-Files.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I genuinely love Soul and am so proud of it, but I don't know that it's my favorite. I don't even know that I have a favorite, because I love them all for different reasons and get sad when the ones I am excited about don't hit as hard as the ones I'm 'meh' on.

Throwing this to @binickandros @justhere4thevibez @1lostsoul0fishbowl aaaaaaaand @pipergirl17