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miniwheat77 · 2 years ago

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Dark. (Ghost x Reader.)

!CW! NSFW, Smut, p in v sex, implications of somnophilia, non-con, stalking, yandere behavior, read at your own risk, MINORS DNI!!!!

(Summary): No matter how close he is to you, it’s never enough.

*Not proofread*

His dark eyes always watched you from afar. Maybe more than he should. More than anyone realized. When you'd tag along with him on missions, he watched you like a hawk and was always checking up on you, making sure you were okay. Obviously, as guarded as he was, he did it indirectly. He didn't speak much, he was more of an observer.

He seen almost everything. He knew what foods you liked, and what you favored versus just tolerated for the job. Those few foods you absolutely hated and under no circumstances would you eat it. He knew all about your extensive nightly routine, skincare, haircare, and all. Soap always interrupted your routine which usually resulted in you threatening the poor lad, but it was entertaining and always left Soap walking off snickering like some kid. Maybe he shouldn't know that, maybe he had snuck into the women's barracks a couple times. Maybe he's seen your body, but who's keeping count right? He’d never admit to anything. No harm no foul.

Ghost actually quite admired how much you cared for yourself, and he knew why. Countless hours of research, hacking, taking your phone in the middle of the night. He knew everything there was to know about you. What schools you went to, who your parents and siblings were, who you hated in school, who your friends were. He didn't know it then, he knows who all of your ex-boyfriends were. But he knows you pay so much money and put so much effort into your skincare because you were relentlessly bullied for having acne. He doesn't see it, to this day he doesn't think he could even point out one blemish on your face, or maybe he thought that was just him being so in love with you that he doesn't see any imperfections.

He's gotten up close looks. He might have a couple pairs of your panties from missions he's gone alongside you on over the years. Maybe he'd slipped something in your drink a time or two to help you to bed, maybe he'd help you into your pajamas after you'd passed out, and yeah. Maybe he looked and touched a little more than he should. You were just so beautiful, he couldn't help it. It started to get worse. He'd bring vials of any medication he could get his hands on. He often compared himself to the creepy villain in 'The Resident.' Injecting those syringes of medication into your toes so that you'll stay asleep, so that the pinch won’t wake you. He'd admire you, sometimes he'd touch you. Your Captain always worried that you were so tired, but you still functioned nonetheless. He felt guilty for taking advantage of you in your unconscious state, but he just couldn’t help himself. You were so beautiful. So stunning to him, you were made for him. Only him.

Ghost often wondered, how far was he willing to take this? Could he imagine making innocent people disappear? Because there was no way he was going to allow you to have any guy friends or boyfriends. No way, he’d stop that every time. Ghost even went as far as moving near you. So than, he’d still be near you even when you weren’t on a mission together. Sometimes you’d invite him out for drinks and he always agreed.

His fingertips danced over your stomach, he didn’t see it, but in your groggy state, you knew who it was, who was touching you.

When you woke up the next morning all of your questions had been answered. The sore feeling in your toes, being groggy, KNOWING someone was in your room but never being able to catch them in the act. Finding out it’s Ghost sends you spiraling. You wondered why he was doing this, but the way his lustful eyes stared down at you, you knew why.

You’re sitting on the rooftop, Ghost was taking over for your watch this time. It was no surprise that he shows up early. He’s quiet, regretful eyes as he avoids your gaze. He feels remorse for doing what he’s doing. And he doesn’t even know he’s been caught yet. You pretend like nothing happened. You want to say something to him, tell him you’ve caught him. But you don’t. You continue on with your night.

A couple hours later when his watch was done, you pass him in the hallway, on your way to the showers. You walk into the women’s locker room, laying down your clothes and pulling off your dirty uniform. You fold them up, placing them down on the bench. The moment you stepped into the shower, you could feel eyes burning into you. That’s when you first notice it.

The tiny peep hole bored into the tile. You swallow hard. Maybe you could play his game.

You take your time lathering up your body. Washing yourself off. You quickly finishing washing your entire body and face, hair following. You bite your lip, hand sliding between your legs. Your fingers started to dance over your opening, and maybe your moans were a little louder than they intended to be. But you went with it, moaning as you slipped your fingers into yourself. You’re sure those watchful eyes are connected to a hand. Touching himself. Eyes screwed shut, stroking himself.

“I know you’re watching me.”

His eyes snap open and he freezes. Was it his mind playing tricks on him? He stares through the hole again. You’ve slowed and your eyes are fixed onto the wall he’s stood behind. “I left the door unlocked. I know you’re there.” You breath. “You can come in, I won’t bite.” You whimper.

You don’t hear anything, and for a moment you don’t think he’ll go for it. But you hear the door open.

He closes it behind himself, locking it. Walking in.

His mask is intimidating. He towers over you, a mountain of a man. He closes the gap between the both of you, face only centimeters from you. “I know what you’re doing to me.” His eyes flare out. “Drugging me while I’m asleep. Touching me.” You breath. His posture goes rigid, and he jumps back as you reach a hand out.

“It’s okay.” You reach for his hand that’s laying limp at his side. You grasp it, raising it up, pulling his fingers apart and laying it over your breast. He closes his eyes tightly. “You didn’t have to wait until I was asleep. You could’ve just told me, come right in.” He gives your breast a squeeze, barely being able to contain himself. “You’re starved for it, hm?” You smile. You lean into him, lips brushing over his mask slightly. He grasps a tight hold of your throat, pushing you back into a row of lockers. They rattle as your back meets with them, a gasp leaving your lips. “So fucking beautiful.” He lifts his mask up to the bridge of his nose. He smashes his lips to yours, teeth knocking into yours as he kisses you fervently. He tears his gloves off, jacket following quickly. The rest of his uniform comes next until he’s only got on a pair of jeans and his mask. He’s attacking your neck with kisses and you’re moaning out. “Ghost..” his name rolls off of your tongue and his pupils flare out again. He quickly picks you up by your thighs with ease, lifting you up and walking with you back into the shower you had left running. He lays you down onto the cold tile, the warm water keeping the both of you warm as he makes his first move.

He soaks his jeans, tearing them off and struggling a bit as he does, but when he gets them off, he lines himself up with your entrance. “So sexy..” he growls. He attacks your nipples with his tongue, sucking at them until they’re sensitive, causing you to raise your hips into him. “Ghost- please.”

“Simon. Call me Simon.” He pants. His mask is soaked and water drips off of it. His lips and nose are still exposed and he’s panting, like a wild animal. He pushes the tip of his cock into your hole and he’s huge. He starts stretching you straight away, a moan leaving your lips as he slides into you. You tilt your head forward, watching his massive cock slide into you, moaning out. “Like that? Huh?” He pushes his hand against your throat, pinning you down onto the floor. “Like watching my cock slide into you? Hm?”

A strangled “yes” leaves your lips and he groans out. “I’ve been waiting so long for this. So long to be inside of this sweet pussy.” He growls.

It’s filthy. Luckily the shower running conceals the lewd squelching sounds of your wet pussy, the way his skin slaps up against yours, your moans. It’s something you’d hear in pornography. Your body is soaked and the water is still warm, he’s fucking himself into you at a fast pace, splitting you open with his cock. At the pace he’s going, you’re not sure how much you’ll be able to take. “S-Simon-“ you gasp, pushing his hips back. He almost cried at the thought of you stopping him. “Relax, m’not going anywhere. You can take your time with me.” You’re breathing hard and he’s panting above you. “Sorry- I just. You’re so beautiful. I’ve wanted this for so long.” He’s still rolling his hips into you. You nod your head. “Relax, you don’t have to be rough for it to feel good.” You wrap your arms under the bends of your legs, spreading your legs wider, opening yourself up to him. His eyes widen slightly, he’s completely taken back by the fact that you actually want him. He tries to be gentle but he still fucks himself into you quickly, chasing after that high. He’s hitting deeper inside of you, leaving you crying out. You’re close to your first high already, but he’s made it clear this won’t be your last.

“Such a good girl, mine. All mine.” He growls, leaning down to attack your neck with his lips. Sucking marks into your skin. “S-Simon.” You whimper. “Gonna cum!” You gasp. “Cum for me baby. Give yourself to me.” He breathes. He props himself up onto his hands, keeping a steady pace to ride out your high. He tears a cry out of your lips as you cum hard around him. The throbbing coming from you leaves him moaning out. “Fucking hell. Can feel you throbbing around me.” He bites his lip, eyes screwed shut. He grasps his soaked mask, pulling it off and throwing it to the side. You look up at him, lifting yourself up to rest on your elbows. “Kiss me. Please.” You whimper. So he does. He’s handsome, you expected him to be obviously, the massive frame, deep voice. You knew he was hot. Wouldn’t take a genius to tell. “You-you’re really- Ah- handsome Simon!” You gasp, “and you’re fucking beautiful.” He’s distracted, the force of his thrusts have your tits bouncing, hair moving each time his hips meet with yours. He’s admiring your body, there isn’t an inch of it he doesn’t want. He wants you, all of you. He wants to fill you full, claim you as his. He’d kill for you, die for you. He can feel you tightening on him once more, and he knows your second high is approaching. He’s close too, that knot in his stomach is getting harder to ignore. “Simon!” You whimper. “I know baby. I know. It’s going to be too much but you have to let it. Gonna fill you up okay?” He breathes. He’s focused, the steadiness of his hips getting hard to control as he gets closer, he’s sloppy. He’s rolling his hips into yours, panting.

A cry leaves your lips and clutch hard at the air, skin turning a shade of red from being overwhelmed. White clouds your vision and you nearly pass out. Maybe it’s the warmth of the water, or the second mind blowing orgasm. Simon has a death grip on your hips, surely there will be bruises there when you wake up the following morning. “Fuck- fuck. Going to fill you baby. Gonna fill this tight pussy with my cum.” He growls. “Mine. This is my pussy, mine to fuck. It belongs to me.” A sob leaves your throat from the overstimulation. “Yes, it’s all yours. All yours Simon.” You’re crying. He tilts his head back, cock twitching hard and throbbing as he hits his high, cum filling up your insides, coating your walls with his seed. “Fuck!” He growls. His hips come to a halt and he’s still panting, reaching up to turn the water off as the both of you come down from your highs. “Shit.” He sighs. He draws his hips back from you and you moan as he does.

You stand up, gasping as you feel him dripping back out of you into your thighs. His eyes widen and he feels himself hardening again. His cum is sliding down between your thighs. “So fucking sexy.” He palms himself. “You gotta do me a favor sweet pea.” He breathes. “Hm?”

“Need you to go into my room and get me clothes.”

“I shouldn’t. I should leave you here for being a pervert.” You giggle to yourself. He smirks. “You’d regret that.”

“Why?”

“Because. I’ll tie your up and play with your clit for hours. Edge you and than overstimulate you. Is that something you want?” He asks. You shake your head. “Good girl. Now help me out please?” You nod your head, a smile on your lips as you begin sliding your clothes on.

Once the both of you are dressed, your mission in getting him his clothes without being seen was accomplished, he’s laying in your bed as you finish your skincare routine. “Why do ya even need all that ah?” He asks, already knowing the answer. “Skin looks perfect.”

“My skin looks perfect BECAUSE I do all of this. And if you must know.” You pause, “it’s because I was bullied in school about having acne.” He nods his head. “I’m sure 18 year old me would’ve fucked 18 year old you.” He smirks. You roll your eyes. “No more sneaking into my room when I’m asleep. If you want to see me naked just knock or wake me up.” He nods his head. “M’sorry.. you’re just so beautiful.” He sighs. He knows he’s a freak for what he did, he regrets it. You make your way over to him, straddling his hips. “Simon. I don’t mind.”

You can’t tell him, ‘I like it because it shows you’re interested in me.’ But you want to. “I forgive you. Just wake me up when you want me.” You laugh. He nods his head. “Want you now..” he sighs. “So take me.” You smirk, pulling your shirt off.

#call of duty mw2 #soap mw2 #cod mw2 #ghost mw2 #captain john price #price mw2 #alejandro mw2 #captain price #johnny soap mactavish #mw2 smut

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isolan-landings · 2 years ago

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I'sola - Physical Descriptions/Visuals

Image 1 (Below). Were you to catch them awake, the I’sola would appear to be six-legged dragons, with stingray wings and green leaves littering their whip-like tail.

I’sola are generally a dark black-blue, with strips of phosphorescent yellow dug into their skin, winding in unique patterns for each one you meet, but always with brightly shining strips cut horizontally up their long necks.

But let's look a little closer.

See the Google Doc with additional formatting and higher quality images Here.

Image 2 (Below, Left). Their heads, snake-like in construction, have no mouth to speak of and barely-visible strips of mesh-like material indented into the sides of their snout in place of nostrils. Their four eyes more than make up for this visual lack. Two of them, blank and yellow, are nestled into each other on each side of their head, so large as to take up a near third of where their skulls would sit.

[Though these antennae are nearly identical between males and females of the species, they provide very different functions - the males’ giving off pollen, and the females’ collecting it.]

Just behind the antenna is a soft flexible frill, laying flat back against the I’sola’s neck. It, like the rest of the I’sola’s body, is mostly blue with patterns of yellow. This frill is slightly shaped like a crest of a triceratops, and it - along with the I’sola’s neck stripes and antennae - are used extensively in communication.

Image 3 (Above, Right). Here you can see the front view of an I’sola, the way that the neck stripes seem like carved wounds into their neck, and how their legs sprout from beneath their wings.

Image 4 (Below, Left). Though these large creatures seem like they would need a great amount of physical support, their torsos are not solid at all, but seem to be branches forming a facsimile of ribs, protecting something vital inside. That ‘something vital’ seems only to be present in half of the population: two large seeds nestled within inner roots. See [Life Cycle] post (not yet linked). They do not seem to breathe, and they make almost no sound as they walk, sometimes even using the reduced gravity of their home world to glide along with their stingray-like wings.

Each of their long spindly legs seem to be made up of bark-like segments, split at the joints. They each have the same general construction, but the two forelegs contain an extra joint in both the leg and the fingers. Their limbs each have a foot with three spread toes ending in wide shovel-like nails. In addition, the toes on the back four legs are slightly more flexible to allow for an easier grip as they navigate their rocky home.

Image 5, 6 (Above, Right). When moving about, they walk on slightly-raised toes, protecting a hole placed at the center of the bottom of their feet. When they lay down to sleep, they spread their limbs out around them and their toes out wide and flat, revealing this opening and allowing their roots to extend outward. These roots can then dig deep into the soil to collect nutrients while they rest.

Image 7 (Below, Left). As plant-based creatures, they need sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, and additional nutrients from the ground soil around the rivers to survive. I’sola usually gather what they need during the Ring, sleeping near the rivers with leaves pointed towards the Ring in the sky and looking like large, fern-covered rocks or vines spiraling up toward the sky. Nearly three quarters of their days are spent in this state.

Image 8 (Right). Their Life Cycle will be discussed later on, but here you can see a depiction of a young I’sola, growing out of the ground before it has gained mobility. I add this here to give a better understanding of how their tails might look.

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dwellordream · 4 years ago

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“Besides Thracians, Greeks encountered many other tattooed people among their neighbors around the Black Sea and in Pontus, major Amazon strongholds. Numerous authors reported tattooing among Scythians. Hippocrates, for example, remarked that the Scythian nomads “branded” figures on their shoulders, arms, chests, and thighs to “instill strength and courage,” suggesting a magical function of tattoos. Herodotus wrote that the Thracians thought plain skin signaled a lack of identity. Elaborate tattoos were considered beauty marks of nobility for both men and women in Thrace; even ordinary folk had a few small tattoos.

Some four hundred years after Herodotus, the Greek orator Dio Chrysostom remarked that the women of Thrace were still covering themselves with tattoos as marks of high social standing. Herodotus also described the tattoos of the Iranian-speaking Scythian-Thracian people called the Agathyrsi. According to a story he heard in Pontus, the Agathyrsi claimed descent from a Scythian woman and Heracles. The Agathyrsi were one of the tribes that had repelled Darius I of Persia (sixth century BC). Later (fourth century BC) they would migrate north to the Sarmatian steppes. Agathyrsi women especially favored tattoos, noted Herodotus. The higher their status, the larger, more richly detailed and colorful were their skin designs.

Ammianus Marcellinus (fourth century AD) reported that Agathyrsi tattoos were checkered designs in blue-black ink. When the Greek general and historian Xenophon led his army across Pontus (ca. 400 BC), the land of the Amazons, he observed that the skin of the men and women and children of the Mossynoeci tribe was covered with colorful tattoos of flowers. Pomponius Mela also reported that these people completely marked their entire bodies with tattoos. The Sarmatians, strongly associated with Amazons, received their first tattoos as children, according to Sextus Empiricus and Pliny; Pliny also reported that among Sarmatians, Dacians, and Britons, the women “wrote on their own bodies.”

Clearchus of Soli explicitly stated that Scythian women—the historical counterparts of Amazons—taught the art of tattooing to Thracian women who lived on the northwestern frontiers of Scythia. A Greek philosopher who traveled widely and wrote extensively about Thrace, Clearchus reported that Scythian women “used to decorate the Thracian women all over their bodies, using the tongues of their belt buckles (or pins of brooches) as needles.” After several generations, Thracian women began to add their own embellishments and other designs to the Scythian motifs.

Ancient accounts of tattooing by the Thracians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Agathyrsi, Mossynoecians of Pontus, Illyrians, Dacians, Geloni, and Iaopodes are compelling evidence that many of the women known as Amazons also practiced tattooing. Because the Greeks thought of tattoos as marks of degradation instead of signs of nobility, courage, and beauty, they sought to explain why women would choose to endure pain to decorate their bodies with indelible designs. Clearchus implied that tattoos were initially inflicted violently by Scythian women and then later embraced by Thracian women, who cleverly transformed “shameful” tattoos into lovely body ornaments.

Scythians did invade parts of Thrace, intermarried with Thracians, and influenced Thracian culture. Forcible tattooing of captives is certainly attested in ancient and modern times. But sharing tattoo motifs and techniques among cultures is also well known. What was the historical context of Clearchus’s report? Did some Scythian women once tattoo captive Thracian women? Or did they simply teach their Thracian neighbors how to tattoo? Other literary evidence for tattooing customs among steppe cultures comes from sources far removed from Greece.

…Tattooing is often associated with women in many of the ancient and modern examples. Tattooed Thracian men are not represented in Greek art, although Herodotus, Xenophon, Cicero, and others included men in their descriptions of tattooing. Archaeological evidence hints that female tattooing may have an extremely ancient history across Thrace and western Scythia. Neolithic sites of Cucuteni culture (4800–3000 BC) in the forest steppes of Romania and southwestern Ukraine have yielded hundreds of clay female figurines inscribed with lines and spirals; some scholars believe they represent tattoos. Along with the clay figurines, archaeologists also unearth caches of inscribed horse phalanges (toe bones).

The bones’ natural shape suggests a nude female torso; the distal condyles resemble breasts or shoulders. The four-inch-long bones were smoothed and polished and then incised with geometric designs (sometimes nipples were indicated). One obvious interpretation of the decorations is that they signified tattoos. Similar incised figurines have been discovered at sites of the same date near Lykastia, Pontus (a region known for women warriors, according to Apollonius of Rhodes; chapter 10). Painted spiral patterns also decorate similar figures of the same time frame in Turkmenistan. Yet another region long associated with Amazons, Gobustan in Azerbaijan, has about seven thousand ancient petroglyphs (Neolithic-Bronze Age) depicting symbols, animals, and people armed with bows, axes, and spears, some riding horses.

One composition shows eight females (carrying bows?) whose body markings could indicate tattoos. The curious practice of creating decorated female torsos from horse bones was very widespread, from Romania and Pontus to Kazakhstan, the heart of ancient Scythia. Troves of these incised female forms, along with vast collections of horse remains, were recently excavated from sites of the Botai culture of northern Kazakhstan (ca. 3700–3100 BC). These seminomadic people were among the first to domesticate horses. The archaeological evidence shows that they also made human skulls into bowls, drank fermented mare’s milk (koumiss; chapter 9), and apparently enjoyed a high level of gender equality, prominent features of Scythian-Amazon life reported by Herodotus and others.

The archaeologists interpret the geometric markings on the Botai horse-bone figures as some of the earliest representations of ancient clothing construction. Based on their assumption that the marks on the Neolithic female forms, incised with tattoo-like designs, indicate stitching, belts, and necklines of clothing, the archaeologists suggest that Botai horsewomen wore stiff, loose-fitting, ankle length dresses of homespun hemp. If the incisions on the torsos do represent clothing, a close-fitting tunic might be indicated, since nothing below the hips is shown. (Wide skirts could be modified into trouser-like garments for riding; see below and chapter 12).

An alternative possibility, not mentioned by the archaeologists, is that the lines on some of the female torso shapes represent tattoos. As we have seen, it can be difficult to distinguish tattoos or body paintings from garments in ancient artifacts. The Botai patterns that the archaeologists interpret as stitched seams call to mind the ladder/fence tattoo designs that mimic the seams of sleeves along the edges of the bare arms of Thracian women on Greek vases. Similar stitching/seam patterns appear on nude female clay figures from Turkmenistan (2600– 2100 BC); they also appear on Bosnian and Kurdish women’s arm tattoos.

The deliberately smoothed surface of the horse bone to make it look more like a shapely female torso—sometimes with dots around the pubic region or nipples—conveys an impression of nudity. If these objects had some ritual purpose, as argued by the archaeologists, a naked female form seems more appropriate and powerful than a clothed one. It is interesting that the dashes, zigzags, cross-hatchings, ladders, triangles, and chevrons prefigure some of the patterns on both the exotic attire of Amazons and Thracian tattoos in vase paintings. At any rate, the mysterious female forms created from horse bones point to a strong, very ancient relationship between horses and women in Thracian-Scythian lands.

Tattooing traditions among women persist in many locales associated with ancient Amazons, both mythic and historical. As in the Balkans, in Dagestan between the Caucasus and Caspian Sea (where the Amazon queen Marpesia was active) women still tattoo their arms with geometric symbols. Their traditional marks include dots (coded love messages), moons (for happiness and luck), and bird-tracks (thought to make a girl a fast runner). Ornamental tattooing is also practiced by Aghach Eris women, Turki-Persian-speaking nomads of Iran, and by Turkmen people. Kurdish women of northern Iraq and the southern Caucasus, thought to be descendants of Bronze Age Hurrians who spoke a Caucasian language, still tattoo themselves with rayed circles and half-circles, dots, chevrons, and stitch, fence, and comb shapes.

On his journey across Central Asia in the thirteenth century Marco Polo described how women and men used needles and ink to engrave the “strange likenesses” of raptors, lions, and dragons on their bodies. In many cultures, tattoo designs are repeated in clothing, textiles, and other objects, which helps explain the similarity of motifs on barbarian clothing and the skin of Thracians, Scythians, and Amazons in ancient Greek art. Some modern scholars argue that Athenian vase painters drew tattoos on Thracian women to brand them as savage “barbarians” who failed to conform to the classical Greek feminine ideal.

Likewise, the exuberantly patterned clothing worn by Amazons and Scythians in Greek art is thought to be an artistic convention for signaling “Otherness.” But the artfully rendered tattoos of the Thracian women on Greek vases were grounded in fact: such tattoos were a daily sight in Athens. The specific forms of the Thracian tattoos—repeated in the patterns worn by Amazons—were not simply invented by Greek artists in pottery workshops. The same abstract and animal designs appear on leather, wood, and golden objects and textiles excavated from tombs of Thrace and Scythia, and they also match traditional tattoo motifs on once-living inhabitants of ancient Amazonian territories.

Tattooing methods, like tattoo motifs, are extraordinarily conservative, unchanged over millennia (needles, pigments, and stencils have been recovered from Scythian graves). First the design was drawn or traced on the skin. A bundle of three to seven needles punctured the design into the skin and then pigment was rubbed in (carbon paste from charcoal ash). The paste was variously mixed with other substances, such as tallow, honey, wild berry juice or indigo (for blue pigment), sap, ox bile (to set the dye), saliva, or the breast milk of a woman nursing an infant girl or, in the Balkans, a son. The colorful flower tattoos of the Mossynoeci of Pontus suggest that colored pigments were known in antiquity. Tattooing equipment was recently excavated in 2013, next to a skeleton dressed in a richly decorated tunic and trousers, buried with lavish grave goods in a Sarmatian-Scythian kurgan on the steppes between the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea.

The tattoo kit consisted of pigments and spoons for mixing them on two stone palettes, gilded iron needles, and other tools. Many Scythian burials contain similar items, which had been mistaken for women’s cosmetics by earlier archaeologists. Plentiful evidence makes it safe to assume that Greeks were familiar with tattooing practices of Scythian and related Eurasian tribes, and that they would expect the women they called Amazons to wear inked designs. The most powerful proof is frozen in time—inscribed on the skin of mummified bodies recovered from icy graves in the Altai. Thanks to some extraordinary recent discoveries, we now know precisely what sort of tattoos were worn by real horsewomen of the steppes.”

- Adrienne Mayor, “Tattooed Amazons.” in The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World

#the amazons #tattoos #fashion #history #ancient #scythian #kurdish #thracian #sarmatian #adrienne mayor

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kiki-shortsnout · 4 years ago

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For intimacy prompts: #17 laying your head on someone’s shoulder for Frostiron! 💚❤️ Thanks!

I'm back!!! Sorry it's taken so long, but I'm back to answer my prompts! Thank you so much for this one! I enjoyed writing this!

***

Loki stumbled as the Bifrost set them both down, too exhausted to shake off Thor’s steadying hand on his elbow, his brother’s own exhaustion evident in the slump of his shoulders. Loki had no strength left in him to make a jest about Thor’s overprotective tendencies, instead looking around the Midgardian cityscape he’d come to think of as a second home, his limbs limp.

Part of his atonement for his war crimes was to take a more active role in defense of the planet he sought to enslave. His mother and brother’s pleas not to imprison him swaying his father from a harsher sentence. He was a…tolerated member of the Avengers, a proverbial thorn in the side for most. He’d formed a tentative, begrudging respect towards the Black Widow, but he was a constant source of irritation for the rest of them.

Well, someone needed to keep the Avengers on their toes.

Loki was still called upon to keep Asgard and the realms it protected safe, and that was where he and Thor had been, subduing marauders on Vanaheim, listening to whispers of an event called a Convergence was impending, a cataclysmic occurrence that had them all on edge.

It felt as though his very bones rattled as he trudged across the roof of the Avengers Tower beside Thor, like his skin was stretched too taut over the excruciating ache of his muscles. As they came into the hanger, they both looked around, used to having at least one member of the Avengers greet them after their excursions off world.

Despite being used to being treated with distrust and trepidation, the bitter sting of their rebuke still penetrated the fatigued miasma clouding Loki’s brain.

He’d managed to convince one Midgardian that he was not the nemesis that all perceived him to be, that it was an illusion he portrayed to hide the crippling weakness he felt. This one Midgardian had seen through Thanos’s manipulations of his mind, had shattered the deception he shrouded himself in. It was Anthony he looked around for now, bewildered as he was met with nothing but silence, not even JARVIS speaking to them.

‘Is Earth under attack?’ Thor questioned, wiping the grime from his eyes as he frowned, moving towards one of the huge windows. Loki reformed his daggers as he took a step forward, ears straining to hear, his body sluggish and unwilling to cooperate.

The door at the far end of the room creaked open, and Loki teleported beside it in an instant, flinging it open and pointing his dagger at their enemy.

‘Pepper?’ Lowering his dagger, he immediately noticed she looked as tired, if not more so than the both of them. Her usually glossy hair was dull and frazzled, wisping around her face in auburn tufts, her eyes encircled with grey smudges.

‘What has happened?’ he asked, his words curt despite how he’d promised Anthony he would respect this mortal. It was an easy promise to keep, treating the two people Anthony treasured above all with care. Loki genuinely liked Pepper, her attitude, her bravery, her fiery temper. He and Rhodes tolerated each other, their mutual like for Anthony the only thing stopping them from attacking each other, settling instead for snide comments.

‘It’s Tony, he…he’s been really sick, Loki,’ Pepper gasped, her lower lip trembling as she swayed into him.

‘Where is he?’ Loki demanded, catching her by her shoulders. It was as though his body had been invigorated with lust for battle, any fatigue he’d felt moments ago burned away. Instead of the adrenaline he usually felt under such circumstances, his body felt cold, terror seeping down the back of his throat, stroking its clammy fingers across his skin.

Why wasn’t I here?

‘He’s in his room now-’

‘Where was he before?’ Thor asked before Loki could even put words to the thoughts scattering in his mind, the guilt webbing in his lungs, tugging at him with every breath.

‘The medical bay downstairs…JARVIS has the most extensive anatomy files because of the arc reactor and-’

‘Thor, look after her for me,’ Loki ordered, teleporting away despite them calling after him.

Anthony was huddled in his bed, the numerous blankets piled on him quivering as he trembled. The sickly scent spiraling in tendrils through the air made Loki recoil. This…was not something he was comfortable with. He’d never cared about another enough to warrant any actions of concern from him, had never been able to see past his own arrogance and selfishness to consider others.

‘An…Tony?’ he called, scared at what he was going to find, at how sick his mortal was. He’d seen Tony sick before, seen him with what they called a cold, all snuffy nosed and demanding and clingy. This silent, still, Anthony frightened him. What ailed him so? What illness had made Pepper look like a shadow of herself? Why had he needed to go down to the medical bay? Loki had seen Anthony after a battle, had seen him spit venom at any who dared suggest he seek medical help when he was injured, only allowing Loki to tend to his wounds hours later when the pain had grown too much to bear. Even then, he’d pretended it was for his own sake, that he was the one who couldn’t bear to see Anthony in pain.

He took a step backwards, wanting to flee, wanting to escape the fear plucking at him. He’d been in countless battles, fought with odds against him, had stood and waited for punishment by his father. This, seeing someone he had grown to care about like this…why was this affecting him so?

Anthony had reached out a hand in friendship despite all the atrocities he had committed in both Midgard and Jotunheim, the countless lives he had taken and lasting repercussions, Anthony Stark had given him a home, a means to make penance for those he had wronged. He hadn’t forgiven him, not straight away, that had taken time and trust to develop between them.

It was that belief in him, an emotion that so few beings were unwilling to extend to him which made Loki fall in love with the Midgardian, a feeling he had not given life with his words yet. It was this unnamed feeling which made him shove all his selfish fears aside.

Anthony needed him.

‘Anthony?’ he called again, peeling back the covers, his breath hitching at the sheer heat radiating from the man.

‘Hey,’ his voice cracked, his lungs rattling as he drew in a breath, hands tightening from where they were wrapped around himself in a pitiful hug.

‘What…what happened, should you even be here?’ Loki asked, dropping to his knees by the side of the bed, his hands hovering over Anthony’s body, uncertain, scared to touch this fragile creature.

Anthony rolled over in bed, and Loki was horrified at the sunken look to his skin, the waxy grey pallor, the red-rimmed eyes.

‘Oh, beloved,’ Loki breathed out, his hand stroking through clumped together hair.

‘Not a pretty sight,’ Anthony wheezed out. ‘You should’ve seen me a few weeks ago.’

Weeks? He’d left him behind in a worse condition than this for weeks?

‘How did your health deteriorate so fast? You weren’t in this condition when I…’ Loki’s eyes narrowed when Anthony’s gaze dropped, one of his tells when he wasn’t telling the entire truth. ‘You were ill when I left.’ Loki didn’t phrase it as a question.

‘Honestly, Lokes, don’t-’ Anthony’s protest was cut off with a wracking cough, the sheer force of it scaring Loki, sweeping aside whatever anger that had been beginning to build a few moments ago.

‘Why did you not tell me? If I had known-’

‘Thor needed you,’ Anthony said weakly, sagging back into his pillow. ‘Besides, this isn’t…this isn’t what we do.’ He closed his eyes as if the mere act of breathing pained him.

He was correct in his assumptions. They laughed, talked, had sex…keeping everything light and frothy and pleasurable, avoiding anything that encompassed feelings, vulnerabilities, neither wanting to be beholden to the other. It was a foolish act on Loki’s behalf, wanting to keep a distance from attachments, fearful of what Anthony could mean to him.

‘Move aside,’ Loki commanded, shrugging off his cape and unfastening his arm bracers.

‘Loki, what?’

‘Unless me joining you is going to impede your recovery in any way?’ Loki hesitated, suppressing his smirk at Anthony’s interested, fatigued gaze on his now naked torso. Lying beside his mortal, Loki gathered him in his arms, arranging them so he was on his back, Anthony half on top of him, his head on his shoulder.

‘Listen to me,’ Loki whispered, the words delicate, but infused with such meaning that it made them hang thickly between them. This was a precipice on which he stood, a moment he had read about in countless epic sagas. The hero baring the depths of their love after a heroic deed, or a noble act of self-sacrifice… not holding a sickly mortal. ‘I am not…not very good at this,’ Loki finished, his voice trailing off pathetically.

‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,’ Anthony said instead, wriggling his body closer, enjoying the cooler feel of Loki’s skin. ‘I’m a shitty patient, and I didn’t want you to see me like this.’

That Loki could understand. Only his mother dared to face his wrath when he had been sick, her gentle hands and calming voice the only things he would tolerate. But there was a deeper meaning behind Anthony’s reasoning too, the unwillingness to reveal a weakness, the fear of being abandoned.

‘I am not angry you did not tell me. I am infuriated with myself for not recognizing the signs of your ailment, of leaving you behind for such a long period of time when I know you do not like seeking help.’

‘Then what-’

Loki clutched his mortal closer, resting one hand on his brow to both to measure Anthony’s temperature and to cool him down.

‘I have never felt this way towards another being, mortal or not. I am sorry that you felt as though you could not tell me you were unwell, that I acted as though my intentions towards you were not serious. You plague my waking thoughts, my unconscious dreams, beloved, there is none I would rather be with.’

Rather than receiving a heartfelt confirmation of Anthony’s own feelings, the mortal stiffened in his grip, his rattling breathing halting. Fearful his illness had gotten worse, Loki rose a little from his waist so he could look down, confused at the angry frown Anthony was displaying.

‘Anthony-’

‘This is going to keep happening,’ he interrupted with a snap. ‘My insides are completely wrecked, my lungs, heart… Christ my liver…they’re all damaged and I’m not as young as I once was. I don’t know about you, but this is a wakeup call for why we shouldn’t be fooling around…let alone catching feelings for me.’

‘It is not for you to tell me my feelings are wrong,’ Loki admonished gently.

‘Loki, look at me. I’m a mess. I got a simple cold and it morphed into pneumonia. I might be out of the medical bay, but it’ll take weeks to-’

‘More of a mess than I am? Loki, the God of Mischief who manipulated my brother into going to war with my birth world, who allowed myself to be manipulated by Thanos-’

‘Loki you were tortured…’

‘And I threw you from a window, killed innocent people.’

Anthony didn’t answer that.

‘I know my actions of New York were not wholly my own, that I agreed to invade under duress, that my thoughts were not my own. Anthony, those thoughts were not just placed there by Thanos. I had always regarded Midgard as a lesser race. Those emotions might have been warped and heightened, but they were my own. I tricked my brother into a war against Jotunheim because I was jealous of the attention my father bestowed on him. These are not trivial things to be forgiven. They are sins I will atone for the rest of my life, and still, you found a way to love me.’

Anthony’s breathing hitched, turning into a cough, and Loki ran a comforting hand over his back to calm him.

‘I care not if your body is injured, that you are more susceptible to illness. It does not make you weaker in my mind, it highlights the battles you have endured, the strength it takes for you to continue living,’ Loki told him, lifting a hand to place it over Anthony’s arc reactor, protecting it. Despite his earlier fears earlier, the words he spoke were the truth, and it pained him that he had waited so long to tell him.

Even as he held his sick mortal close, wishing he could create a spell to eradicate any vestiges of this illness, Loki was plotting. He wouldn’t let Anthony be snatched from him by something trivial like time or illness. Technically he needed his father’s permission for his plan, but he knew his mother would see his way of thinking, would be happy he had found another to share his life with.

‘Feels like you’ve been shortchanged here,’ Anthony grumbled, settling his head back down against his shoulder.

‘I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds like you are degrading yourself after I’ve confessed my feelings for you. This is meant to be a momentous occasion and-’

He laughed as Anthony silenced him with a hand over his mouth.

‘Alright, alright, you’re lucky, I’m a peach, I get it.’ Anthony burrowed closer, his sweat-slick hands wrapping around Loki’s middle.

‘Next time, promise me you will tell me if you are feeling unwell.’

‘You had to go- ‘

‘Nothing is more important to me than you. Father and Thor can protect Asgard. We have an army for that reason. I will always fight for Asgard, for its people, but not if you need me.’

Anthony squeezed him close, his legs twitching as he drew closer to sleep.

‘Thank you.’ Loki felt the words formed against his skin rather than hearing them, and he smiled, holding Anthony closer.

‘I love you too,’ he whispered when he was moments from sleep, and Loki didn’t respond, knowing his beloved needed rest, that he would be here to watch over him while he slept.

#writing prompt #fanfic prompt #thanks for the prompt!#thanks for the ask!#frostiron #tony x loki #tony stark #mcu loki #sick fic

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tipsydipsydo · 5 years ago

Text

Touched [M]

Pairing: Yoongi x Reader

Gender of the Reader: female

Word Count: 2.2k

Rating: 18+

Genre: Fluff; Smut

Warnings: tooth rotting fluff; Full Body Massage; Petnames; Praising; Body-Worshipping; Nipple Play; Fingering; Mentions of pubic Hair; kinda tantric orgasm (?); Yoongi is awfully sweet and adorable! 🤧💕

A/N: I wrote this here for my sweet Darling Sibi @borathae who had an incredible awful week and I just thought about how to make a little bit up for this shitty week. I love you and I hope you like it, Baby~ 🙈💖

Summary: This week was just so awful and shitty, every muscle in your body hurts and you're absolutely exhausted from this horror week. But Yoongi has an Idea to relax you and make you feel so loved in a way, that couldn't make thousands of compliments.

[Links]

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「© tipsydipsydo」

This following story is my intellectual property and belongs only to my blog tipsydipsydo.tumblr.com!

I’ll not accept any kind of reposting, stealing or using/editing my work!

That includes reposting my content on other social media platforms too, even when you link me as the original author.

Thank you.

"Just relax. And if you don't want something, please just tell me.", Yoongi whispers in your ear as he lays you down on your stomach on the big king size bed. You just nod exhausted and worn out, really don’t want anything more than relaxation and rest.

This week had just been terrible and exhausting. You don't know why, but Mother Nature thought this week is a good week to let the temperatures reach 40°C. Exactly in the week where you no longer have lectures and therefore you have to work a 40 hours week in your side job. Not that it's bad, no. You work at a photographer and you study photography, so it couldn't be that bad... wrong. It is already shit if you have to renovate in blazing sun without shade a barn (for photo shootings etc). You are studying photography, not trained as a craftsman! Now you regret having applied with your craft skills.

Yoongi already said the last few days, you should finally quit and find a better part-time job, with a boss who also appreciates your photographic skills. But you need this Job, your Boss pays you well. Only you would like to do more often the things you have applied for and no other stupid work.

Especially when this man, who call you your boss, is sitting in his air-conditioned office and you had to work outside your ass off in this unbearable heat?!

But now this cruel week is finally over and you should not get upset even more with it. You’re finally at home, with Yoongi.

You close your eyes, inhale deeply the smell of the Ylang Ylang oil, which the Oil Burner on the windowsill lets spread throughout the room. A slight smile plays around your lips, Yoongi has remembered which kind of scents you like so much in the summer months. In your bedroom it’s pleasantly cool, the approaching night brings the first fresh breeze through the wide-open terrace door to you, caresses your naked skin tenderly. The sinking sun bathes the entire room in a soft red-orange tone.

It is incredibly comfortable to lie on the bed just in panties, between all the big soft pillows and blankets.

Your Boyfriend is up with something for you, something that is relaxing, sensual, tender. You admit, these last few weeks, you couldn't really be there for each other. Too much work, too many other things had just taken too much time. And the fact that he also spoils you now, only made your guilty conscience towards him grow even more.

The mattress sinks down a little, you felt him shift his weight and sit in front of your head.

He seems to rub oil or something else between his hands before bending over and stroking with his warm and big hands over your shoulders to the swell of your butt cheeks. You sigh softly at this loving touch, enjoy this single touch already so much.

His hands glide again and again in full strokes with gentle pressure over your back and then begin to massage you gently. Your breaths get deeper, undreamt-of tension gradually eases and you enjoy every single caress from him.

Circling, he lets his fingertips wander over your back, scratching lovingly with his fingernails delicately over it, which gives you tingling goose bumps.

Every patch of skin is getting pampered by him and leaves pure relaxation and deep inner peace. You no longer think, you just feel and and

gratefully accept his tender touches and this deep calm as a sensual and confidential gift from him.

Finally, he straightens himself up again and goes to the height of your hip and kneels above you, but lets his hands lie on your lower all the time, thereby not interrupting this physical and mental contact with each other.

His hands exert completely different pressure on your body through this altered Position, which is a completely different experience.

Yoongi really always knows what is good for you, even if you have never said those things before. He likes to massage you, let all his love and appreciation flow into you through these touches.

Things he would never have gotten over his lips otherwise, so that you feel downright adored.

Yoongi had always been a quiet man who had a hard time getting feelings across his lips and yet he is so incredibly soulful that he constantly tries to express all his love differently. And it is precisely through these touches that he can convey it much better than with any words.

For what he feels for you and shows you through these gestures, there are simply no words.

You groan softly and muted as his lips touch your neck and shoulders. Every single feather-light kiss leaves an exciting tingling on your skin, which made your pleasurable sigh slightly tremble.

You gulp a little, a lustful feeling shoots through your nerves and bales in my stomach, which slowly pulls into your lower abdomen.

His tender kisses and nibbles on your skin excite you. It is not a hot and craving desire, it’s a permanent subliminal and sensual pleasure that goes through your entire body and reaches, occupies all nerves and fibers.

His body slides backwards, his hands wander over your butt. It was just a gentle stroke over it and yet it aroused you even more. He continues this loving, slow treatment on your legs, massages and kisses every conceivable place. Even the soles of your feet and toes were kneaded with calm pressure. Your body is completely relaxed and yet you feel pleasure. Lust that let you otherwise expectantly tense. It is new and exciting to experience it like this.

His fingers are back up on your thighs and each of your two butt cheeks is now nestled in his palms.

From your coming sigh your excitement can now be heard, which makes him hum contentedly. There was still the thin stuff of Panties between you, but that doesn't stop your excitement for more. Rather, you feel your nascent moisture between

your legs just even more. At some point, his hands glide once more over your entire back, over your arms and hands, which you have placed at a laterally bent angle next to your head.

"Please turn around, Darling.", he breathes into your ear. A little sluggishly and slowly you turn on your back and notice how some blush rises on your cheeks. Your Breasts are bare. Even though Yoongi is your Boyfriend, it was often unusual for you to show yourself so naked, so vulnerable.

He spoils you now just as tenderly as it has done before with your back. Massages and rubs your scalp, temples and stroke all over your body in long strokes.

Every now and then a fresh breeze pulls over your body, brings the Lust in your blood more into action and makes your nipples hard. You you’re feeling warm, even quite hot. Yoongi feels your Lust now downright, nevertheless he spoils you slowly further, which became a sensual tormenting. He bypasses your erogenous zones, cancels them until the end of the extensive Massage.

Kissing every accessible spot of my skin and you feel as valued as you haven’t felt for a long time. You are tough and don’t get overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted easily, you want to show that you, as a woman, can be strong and independent. But you are also just a normal person, you struggles sometimes too, you also need from time to time a shoulder to lean on.

Yoongi gives you exactly this shoulder to lean on. He is solid as a rock and catches you when you fall. You are not alone in this cruel world. Yoongi is with you.

A light sweat film lies on your skin and you bite down on your lower lip softly, trying to hide your moaning away. Your breath is still deep, but it trembles a little with excitement and arousal.

Every Pore begins to tingle longingly, all over your body, from the hairline to your toes. From your feet, his hands glide in a fluid motion across your shins and the insides of your thighs. Caressing strokes, no more than a breath of wind over your Vulva.

You sigh tremblingly, automatically open your thighs a little more and your fingers run through your hair, which is spread like a fan around your head.

His touches give you immense trust in him. You present to him your soul. Your wishes, dreams, ideas, but also your fears and insecurities. He accepts you, he accepts you the way you are.

Touch you almost reverently, as if you were something so precious that is not worthy his touch. This realization of being valued and on an equal level with him, with him as a man, almost brings tears to your eyes. He shows you the respect that every woman would have deserved.

His fingertips dances across your Vulva up to your stomach and draw blurred lines that find themselves somewhere invisible.

They keep sliding back up and finally, they find your breasts. Finally. You wanted to be touched by Yoongi there so badly.

His fingertips drawing a spiral that circles ever tighter and ultimately reaches your nipples.

Carefully he caresses them and gently breathes his hot breath on them. Your body trembles.

Your folds were swollen and wet with Lust. This sensual game arouses you completely. How badly would you be touched there by him, caressed... Suddenly, his warm lips closes around your right nipple and caress it with light sucking, touching it with the tip of his tongue.

Your body is completely relaxed and yet it seems to you that everything in you is contracting with longing for him.

He plays the same game on your other nipple and you put your head in the back of your neck with your eyes closed. You whole body is so hot... A soft lustful moan escapes your open lips.

"You are so beautiful... you’ll ever be.", Yoongi whispered softly. His voice is also shaky and... there is a certain awe in his deep harsh voice. Another gasp comes out of your throat, his deep voice makes your hot, aroused body tingling. Makes my body pulsate. His lips touch your chin and kiss a trail down between your breasts across your stomach to your hot center.

Just before your Panties he stops and hooks his thumbs under the waistband on each side. Slowly he takes off the last piece of clothing before he lies next to you in a sideway position and lets his one Hand slip between your thighs.

You gasp for air and open your thighs a little more. His fingertips glide through the soft curls of your pubic hair, tugging gently on it to make you mewl. Moving lower to your folds before dipping with two of his fingers between them.

Gently he caresses them, playing gently with your entrance, while you quietly gasp out my Lust. Yoongi kisses your shoulder and your neck, in the Moment he finds your Clit that finally wanted to be found.

Your hip bucks up, you just bring out a strangled moan. You trust him so much, want to be able to open yourself completely up to him and let yourself fall, in the conscience of being caught by him again. He feels this intimate emotion in you, this desire to be completely his.

He whispers barely audible words into your ear, tells you what he loves about you and puts after each compliment a kiss under it. His fingers rubs over your pearl, carefully and sensually. Taking his time for you.

Again and again, two of his fingers sinks deep into you, then he stimulates all over again only your clit. A long, lustful game begins.

Your pelvis rises towards him, you reward his actions with soft, breathless moans and the search of your lips for his own. Your thighs fall apart to the side, open your folds open even more up for him and the idea that it sees you so open, bare and so vulnerable turns you incredibly on.

It’s the last time when his fingertips circles around your pearl, until you tremble and cramp with the fulfillment of your Lust. Feelings and emotions rain down on you, which could never have been properly described with words. Only your facial expressions can show approximately what fulfilled pleasure you are feeling right now.

Tenderly Yoongi kisses you and wispers a breathy "I love you" into your ear, before you look into his dark brown eyes and find nothing but love, honor and respect, which applies only to you alone.

#btswritersnet #suganetwork #bts smut #bangtanhq #yoongi smut #thehouseofbangtan #yoongi tantric massages #bts x reader #houseofddaeng #yoongi the soft fluffball #bangtanarmynet #yoongi x reader smut #by tipsydipsydo

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velnoni · 4 years ago

Text

Lick Lick

Pairing: Fem Kaminari x Jirou

Also on Ao3

Word Count: 1.2k

Summary: Jirou reflects while her girlfriend fingers the absolute fuck out of her

Tags: smut, fluff, fingering, teasing, ear licking/stimulation, heavy squirting, soft praising

for @narutos-fat-meat <3

*Illustration included!

Her girlfriend was the one that often pushed her out of her comfort zone if Jirou had to be honest. What she lacked in smarts she made up in sweet compliments and encouragement. It often embarrassed Jirou but it was always reassuring that Kaminari would always be right behind her.

It was quite embarrassing that Kaminari was indeed right behind her, smiling coyly in the crook of Jirou’s neck while suckling gently on the exposed skin. Jirou could feel the plush softness of Kaminari’s boobs squished against the small of her firm back. She feels fingers that are not her own gliding down between her legs and delving into the innermost parts of her thighs, soon to become slicked with her juices and forcing out choked moans from the musician. It annoyed her more than she cared to admit that despite how loud Kaminari was in class she was extremely docile in the sheets. Calm and calculating and it put Jirou on edge because she could never tell what that blonde had in store for her.

The last surprised, Kaminari had licked up Jirou’s armpit and laughed at how scared she looked before getting shocked by earphones. While she lay on the mattress convulsing, Jirou’s face was deep inside a pillow, her hidden face a heavy shade of pink at how the sensation didn’t feel that bad.

But that was last week. “Jirou.” Kaminari’s voice brings her out of her trance, mind sluggish from stimulation and she’s only able to hum in response. The tips of her earphone curled and twisted in pleasure the deeper Kaminari’s fingers went and she couldn’t find in herself to feel embarrassed when the loud obscene noises of her sloppy cunny being lovingly wrecked became quite vivid. It filled the room like how her bass would when she played for Kaminari, loud and beautiful.

It wouldn't be long before those experienced fingers would hit that one spot within her velvety walls that always sent Jirou spiraling.

“F-fuck!” Jirou huffs and flips her head, nearly head butting Kaminari as her hips start to rock back forth. “Right there! Again!” Her pussy ached with want, and her body shakes with need as the fingers move faster and deeper as they could in this position. Her slim thighs quiver at the familiar warmth starting to come forth, her slickness messing up the towel underneath her. Jirou's toes curl when she feels other fingers tugging at her nipples and then a small kiss on her neck once more. She wished she could see Kaminari’s face right now. Seeing her face flush red just like her own and body voided common sense. Jirou truly adored her so much.

At some point Kaminari manages to stroke a coarse thumb over her clitoris; circling around the minora before slamming her thumb down roughly without warning. It makes Jirou grit her teeth in an attempt to suppress her loud cry. It wasn't fair. She’s so close, she can feel the inside of her screaming to just let it all out, to go limp and have Kaminari finger her till she’s too overstimulated. To just give her complete control of her body like many other times. But she knows better than to assume it’s that easy. Kaminari still didn’t reveal her ace up the sleeve.

She can barely even form a coherent word, eyes glazing over. “K-Kami-" she stutters and moans when the fingers spread her once more, pussy red and puckered. Ready for a good licking if Kaminari were to be between her thighs.

She hears her hum and then a giggle erupting when Jirou lets out a tiny whimper. “So pretty” she coos. Knowing her girlfriend would already deny the claim in her head she continues with the compliments, fingers never ceasing. Her breath tickles Jirou's nape and it makes her turn her head a bit. “It’s true tho. You’re so talented and cool. And cute, I can’t help it.” Jirou could imagine the genuine smile on Kaminari’s face when she said those words.

The way her messy locks would cover a bit of her golden eyes and how her cute pink lips moved when she said cute shit like that. If she was in her right mind she would've yelled at Kami to stop since compliments tend to be a bit much for her at times. But Kaminari always knew how to raise her to the top of the metaphorical mountain. It made her feel incredulously warm and disgustingly sappy inside.

Jirou gasps out again as she gushes out more slick and extends her earphone just above her clit. Receiving the message Kaminari removes her thumb and the metal of the earphone lays on her clit before small vibrations start to rock forth. Jirou positivity moans and buckles when Kaminari’s finger pinches on her now abused nipple.

She was so racked up on the oncoming orgasm that she nearly screams bloody murder when she feels her girlfriend breathe against the shell of her ear and then her hot tongue intertwining with the extension of her ear. Saliva lewdly dribbles down the fleshy wire and on her shoulder and Jirou can only manage a choked "no!" when she feels the tongue plunging as far as it could go into her ear.

A multitude of things happen in the span of two seconds. First the disgust of feeling a tongue in her ear (why is she so sensitive?), the tingling electricity that quite literally shoots down her spine and the mind blowing orgasm that has her nearly flying off her bed and squirting further across the laid out blanket, body convulsing insanely. Her cunt squeezes Kaminari's fingers for dear life as she milks herself and makes a mess on the bedsheets and floor. Tears prick her eyes, fogging her eyes as she bawls from feeling so damn good.

She croons when her pussy makes a slurp noise, loose and wet when Kaminari removes her fingers. She almost begs for her to put them back but instead gets flipped by the blonde to face her. If it wasn't for Kaminari she would be a puddle on the bed. Jirou practically drools all over herself and lets out another sob when Kaminari tilts her head and dives down into her ear again. Her slicked hand rubbing the other ear with Jirou's own essence. It feels so nasty, so good, so fucking right. God bless this girl beside her.

“Holy fuuccckkkkkk” she feels Kaminari’s throat vibrating, she’s laughing no doubt but the purple haired girl could give less of a damn as her body starts humping the fabric underneath her. Her tiny boobs bounce up and down in the air and in all honestly it’s a miracle she can pull off another orgasm before becoming completely slack again. Her bones felt like marshmallow. The squelch and the hot breath of Kaminari was so loud and too close that all she could do was wait till she finally pulled away. When she feels Kaminari caressing her hair she manages to open her eyes (when did she close them?) to see her face smiling brightly down at her.

Damn it she did it again!

#bnha smut #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #my hero smut #kaminari x jirou #kamijirou #jirou x kaminari #denki kaminari #kaminari denki #jirou kyouka #kyouka jirou #mha jirou #mha kaminari #bnha jirou #bnha kaminari #rule 36

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septiembrre · 4 years ago

Note

30 for the kiss prompts!!!!

Prompt: Weak, sweaty kisses because it’s unbearably hot.

@sothischickshe, I made a concerted effort to keep this silly and short. And I gave myself frown lines as I watched it grow longer and longer and… angsty. D:

Featuring:

A magical reappearance of Beth’s furniture

A broken air conditioner

A heatwave

Lots of summer clothing

Sweat (but like the typical annoying kind. This is not a euphemism for sex)

Beth and her anxiety

Rio, a certified Goth™

A relationship not yet ended

Pain

And a Mick cameo, of course!

On AO3, too!

---------

I’VE GOT TO LOSE MY COOL

Beth’s first mistake was not calling the HVAC technician first thing in the morning. She had called on the way out the door, left a voicemail.

It shouldn’t have been a big deal. Wednesdays were usually slow. She would be able to sneak away at almost any point to take a call back. In the message she left, Beth made sure to mention that her only conflict was at three (the weekly drop of bills from Mick). Otherwise, there was plenty of time to schedule the service visit with perfect timing for the impending heatwave.

But, of course, her life was no longer neat.

On this random mid-day shift, there had been a flurry of customers at the store -- multiple special orders for invitations, a desperate maid of honor running in for last minute bridal shower details. And, naturally, it was in this hubbub that the tech had returned her call. There was another subsequent round of phone tag. Beth left a new message.

On her phone, there was also a text from Mick. He was held up -- and that never happened. The texts hinted at some mysterious, more-important errand for their boss and she was a little curious. He had quashed her follow-up questions (only a couple!), with a gruff, “I’ll get there when I get there.”

And he indeed eventually arrived to Paper Porcupine -- a whole hour late and in a terrible mood. He barreled in the backdoor, sans his typical flannel and sans-leather jacket. Instead, he was in a t-shirt and sweaty as all get out in the late afternoon heat. Beth had stared at him aghast as her phone chimed with another call. It had been a perky soundtrack to Mick’s string of colorful swears when he realized he had left behind half the one-dollar bills needed for the next print run.

Well, at least that mess wasn’t on her.

When Beth finally caught the technician on her drive home, she confirmed what Beth had begun to suspect in her gut: they were all booked up with service calls until next Monday.

“It’s the heatwave, Mrs. Boland,” the tech explained over the car’s speaker phone. “Half of Detroit is calling in about faulty units. We can get you in first thing next week.”

Beth had nodded unseen and despairing. She had the AC blasting in the car, but she was still sticky with sweat. It was going to be precisely eleven degrees hotter by tomorrow. Then, it would chart 105 the day after that.

Good Lord.

Her second mistake was not immediately driving to the store to purchase a pool.

This is how Beth finds herself in the middle of the brutal once-a-year Michigan heatwave, reflecting on how truly her life no longer plays out in the tidy, pre-ordained trajectories it used to. And some days this is thrilling but other days, today, it’s...

Terrible.

Beth tries to do what she can.

She digs out her most breathable pair of exercise shorts, short short and purchased two children ago. She dons her comfiest, lift bra and throws on a frayed pink tank top. She no longer wore these articles of clothing in the presence of her husband (especially after that comment now etched into her soul about “a great ass and perfectly shaped boobs”) but kept them tucked into her dresser for such hellishly hot, solitary occasions such as today.

She pulls her hair messily into a lofty bun leaving no opportunity for it to cling to her neck. She also temporarily appropriates three of the flagging household fans and angles all of them carefully at her, meticulously layering the currents. Finally, she sprawls on her bed, starfishing her limbs for maximum air-to-skin contact.

All of it helps a little, but she’s still hot. Beth can’t fathom anything outside of her misery, wants to shed her skin.

She momentarily considers taking her third cold shower of the day.

Then, without realizing it is happening, Beth finds herself an hour deep into a frenzy of online shopping, precariously balancing her laptop so it doesn’t touch her skin.

Her focus: sandals.

Beth knows she shouldn’t go through with the purchase. Rationally, she can admit it is a feverish spiral, fixating on one fraction of why this week is awful. But, it is all she can think about: she does not have any appropriate footwear for this heat.

How will she survive?

From there comes a whole whorl of scenarios. If she could get away with not leaving the house, she could stay barefoot, stick to the shadowy corners of her house, shower any hour of the day. In fact, this was (part of) the reason why she had chosen to stay home as Dean took the kids to the community pool a few blocks over. Her old pair of ratty flip flops had finally given out and the mid-morning heat already had Beth at her wit’s end. God, she just needed some quiet and some sense of distance from Dean. So, she suggested the idea, urged him to go and leave her in peace.

Perhaps, she could send him out for all the kids’ needs and assorted errands?

...But, could he be trusted?

Well, if Beth refused to leave the house, that meant she was also choosing not to go with the kids to the movies or the library, places with functioning air conditioners where she could cool off. And what else could they do tomorrow? Maybe she could dig out the old sprinkler from the garage… But, then she’d have to go into the garage, and the temperature in there--

Anxiously, Beth meanders the tabs on the DSW website and adds two new pairs of flip flops to her cart. One’s a little more casual, definitely good for pool-side and backyard time. The other pair is a little more dignified. They didn’t look like they would clack.

Well, she doesn’t need two pairs...

She’ll narrow it down later.

In the back of her mind, Beth can acknowledge she doesn’t really need to buy anything at all, and that these sandals will not make her current discomfort any more bearable. But, it doesn’t hurt to look.

Oh, goodness -- what about when she has to go back to Paper Porcupine for her next shift? The thought of putting on any of her flats seems like too much to bear, claustrophobic as they were in the heat. Pumps were out of the question. Which brings her to her last job-appropriate footwear option -- her ankle boots. Weirdly, that seemed to be a fashion trend that was happening now, but nope, absolutely not.

It is in this fever pitch, that Beth makes her third and perhaps most egregious mistake: when Rio knocks on the French doors, she lets him in.

In her defense, she’s a little dazed. As mentioned before, the current state of Michigan is literally hell and Rio’s appearance… takes her by surprise. She was not expecting him to show up today with a duffle of the rest of the small bills. He hadn’t texted and to top it off, he is wearing... an outfit she has never seen before.

A sleeveless shirt.

A sleeveless shirt and joggers, fancy athletic ones that look a price point (or three) above the ones she usually buys for Dean. However, despite this new foray into athleisure-wear, Rio remains head to toe in his favorite color with black on black Chucks rounding out the look.

What a goth, Beth thinks, shaking her head to herself. This outfit in over-100 degree heat?

She feels hotter just looking at him.

Like Mick the other day, Rio is sans-jacket, sans-button-up, and sans-beanie and there’s just… miles and miles of uncovered brown, freshly sun-kissed skin.

Maybe, it’s her deep-seated jealousy of people who can tan. All her skin is good for is glowing in the dark and flash burning at the slightest interest from the sun. And mind you, she’s currently safe inside her dim bedroom, but it’s the strangest thing... She’s burning now as her eyes trace the smooth skin exposed at the base of his neck, burning as she follows along the neat, sharp line of his collarbone where she had bit--

Stop, Beth. Why did she still want--

Had he purposefully shown up with a work excuse on the hottest day of the year to pester her? Was this a latent extension of his punishment? Beth thought they were past this.

But, you know what? Whatever. Let him try.

She’s cool. She might be sweaty as hell, and wanting to crawl out of her skin, but she is cool as a cucumber, cold as ice, profoundly unbothered.

She’s so cool that she doesn’t say a word.

Not to greet him, or remark upon the mistake with the drop or… his atypical clothing choice.

She doesn’t comment either on the state of their business or ask after whatever it was he had assigned Mick to do this week and had seemingly gone awry.

She doesn’t comment as his mouth drops open with surprise as he takes in her appearance, his eyes widening with something as intolerably warm as the air around them. The bag slips from his grip just inside her doorway.

Nor does she say anything when Rio follows her back to bed, tethered to her through a tenuous spell of heat (weather or otherwise). She’s cool, indifferent, breezy actually as she repositions herself in the crosshairs of the fans. If she pretends he doesn’t matter, she doesn’t have to share the breeze right? So she doesn’t pay much mind as Rio slips off his sneakers and settles next to her. Instead, she re-balances the laptop and resumes pursuing the online DSW store.

She doesn’t say anything as he eventually shuffles closer, presumably to watch as she adds strappy sandals to her cart (or more probably to peek down her shirt). And god-- this stupid tank top. Maybe her boobs look better from over there in Rio-world, but over here she is sticky with underboob sweat and crossing her fingers that none of it shows through her bra.

His shoulder leans against hers.

And she has every reason to push him away, but… his skin is cool and smooth and not the most intolerable part of this weekend. So, she lets him stay there.

And she continues to ignore him, cool-like, or cool-aspiring.

Until he no longer lets her.

Concentrated as she is on her shopping, she notes idly as Rio’s foot reaches out to nudge one of her fans to aim more directly at him.

Beth can’t help the snarl that comes out of her mouth, “Don’t.”

He always brings out the worst in her.

There’s a low snicker. Her gaze drops down to take in Rio’s arm as it presses up fully against hers. His fingers reach over to pinch her thigh.

“Damn, ma.”

There’s that heat again, the one from inside. God, she hates him.

Beth shuffles away, frowning at her screen. Rio shuffles too, sidling up next to her again. She adds another pair of sandals to her order and then considers her cart.

“Elizabeth…” In the corner of her eye, she catches the movement of Rio shaking his head with reprove. “Think about where you live.”

Beth flails on the bed in a display that admittedly reminds her of her own children in a fussy mood and it only annoys her more. Her bedspread sticks to her arms, the backs of her legs, and the exposed sliver of her midriff where her top is creeping up. Beth shifts, trying to dislodge the cover from her skin, mindful to protect the laptop. It’s only happenstance that she manages not to shift a single inch of where the length of her arm touches Rio’s.

As she tries to calm down, a brief vision comes to Beth -- an alternate universe where the laptop is safely tucked away and the HVAC blessedly functions. The Rio and Beth of this fantasy are them but also not… maybe she’ll call them Christopher and Elizabeth. That Beth -- Elizabeth -- is only mildly inconvenienced by the heat raging outside. She can rest her dampened forehead against the cool arch of his-- Christopher’s neck. She can lean in to press a weak kiss at his collar bone. In fact, she can kiss it anytime she wants, invited to touch him anywhere she like. In this dream, Elizabeth’s ministrations don’t have to be surer or bolder or cool -- because she has him.

All the time.

She can afford to be soft.

In turn, Christopher nuzzles his face into her hair fondly, and that Elizabeth receives a soft kiss at the crown of her head. There’s an undercurrent of sex between them, the suggestion of it, but overall the scene is sluggish in the zenith of summer and content. Elizabeth can curl her body around his and let him hold her--

How silly.

Beth shakes herself out of it and realizes that Rio has shifted on his side, watching her as she’s zoned out staring at the cart full of sandals for too long. His lips twitch and almost pull into a smile. Then, he quells them into mock seriousness.

It feels too intimate, him with her on this bed, her bed, the bed. It feels like Before.

God, why is he here anyway? If she was alone, she could peel off all her clothes and… take an ice bath probably.

Not think of him at least.

Not think about that wild, feverish idea of curling up, fitting her body into his and surrendering to the heat. Not think about how desperately and pettily she wants to pinch him back. She wants to kiss that stupid look off of his face or... Maybe she could purchase all six pairs of sandals and start browsing for pools on Cloud 9 just to spite him--

“I am thinking about where I live and actually, it’s the middle of summer here--” Beth bites out. “--and it’s outrageously hot.”

“Just buy yourself a pair of sturdy white lady shoes. You mean to tell me you don’t already own some Birks?”

“Excuse me--” Beth splutters, incensed. She had considered them first but had been discouraged again by the price tag for a single pair. “White people aren’t only ones who wear Birkenstocks.”

Without missing a beat, Rio volleys back, “Baby girl, what are you going to do with so many pairs of sandals in Michigan the rest of the year?”

“Says you.”

“Oh?”

“You literally have a million pairs of shoes. Your closet is insane.”

It dawns on her, what she just said.

Oh.

Not good.

It’s the fucking heat. At least, the discomfort can’t blotch her cheeks any more than they already are.

She knows that if she looked at him now, she would see Rio doing something... obnoxious with his face. He’s probably smirking in that terrible, gloating, dumb, sexy way that he does, but too bad.

Beth refuses to look at him.

She’s indifferent and unbothered. She’s cool. She’s the kind of Beth that would never ever even think about his closet or daydream about them folding clothes together or fucking on--

So, instead, she snaps her laptop close with a final click. The sandals were a half-brained idea anyway and that was a conclusion she already came to on her own. Thank you very much, boss.

She starts to get up but then Rio’s hand reaches out to curl around her thigh, pinning her to the bed. He squeezes her leg gently, as he has the audacity to shush her.

It’s enough impetus for Beth to rear her head back to meet his gaze again and level him with her most withering glare.

And, what do you know? She was correct. He appears to be very entertained.

This time she feels the heat surge on her face and knows without a doubt that it shows on top of the heat rash.

“Yeah, so… are you ever gonna tell me what you were doin’ at my house?”

“No.” She snipes, prim.

“No?”

“I wasn’t doing anything.” It's outright untruth.

Rio’s amused disbelief and her defensiveness meet in a standoff. Beth knows from experience he’ll try to wait her out and she gnashes her teeth.

Then, there’s a twitch of movement at her thigh, the flex of fingers she realizes are still there and Beth registers the warm span of his hand a few inches above her knee. Her gaze darts down to look at where he’s touching her. He glances down, too. Together they watch as his thumb slowly strokes her skin. Then, again.

They both observe as the muscles in her thighs just perceptively clench.

God, him and her, in this bed.

His voice softens to that ridiculous mumble, both low and rich. “Aw, c’mon, darlin’. You can tell me.”

The tone raises her hackles -- as if she wasn’t already too familiar with this trap! She tries to affect nonchalance -- she’s cool -- and shrugs, “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

Rio grins. It’s sharp like a knife and charming. She hates that he’s the most attractive person she’s ever met. “You liked my closet?”

Then, an idea comes to her-- how she can best him at his own little game.

Beth curls on her side towards him. Her cleavage deepens and god, she can instantly feel more sweat bloom but she knows what he likes. The line of their bodies is parallel, only separated by an inch or two. They’re sharing the breeze from the fans now and wisps of her hair have gotten loose from her bun and are blowing into her face. Rio’s hand shifts to resettle and it drifts up to stroke her hair back behind her ear. Then it drops to curl at her waist. And you know -- nice move -- but she can do him one better.

“Yes,” Beth says simply. She brings her hands up to trace along the neck of his shirt, across his pecs, and the expanse of skin she hasn’t seen since that afternoon of Before. “I didn’t see this though.”

Then, in a moment of haughty malice, her fingers find the notch of his clavicle. She watches his throat bob as he swallows hard and she counts the success. She ignores the tell-tale temptation to gift him more bruises, to kiss him…

The thought occurs to her, distantly, slowly emerging through the fog of heat, that if she tugged the fabric to the side a bit, she’d find one of the scars she gave him. Her hands become clammy and they retreat.

“You like it?” Rio’s voice comes out a smidge hoarse. But, perhaps only someone who knows him like her would notice.

Beth shrugs a shoulder.

His eyes are bright as he looks back at her. His gaze shifts crass, laden with the suggestion of sex, and there’s a tinge there that's not quite sour per se. But, it’s heavy with the particular weight of who they are now. His line of sight deliberately drops to her cleavage with old, salacious purpose.

It’s not the way he looked at her that day, that one time (or two).

Self-rebuffed, Beth tries not to think too much about how she hates that Rio caught her dressed like this. She itches to pull her top up to her neck or scramble off the bed to find something else to throw on. She itches to disappear entirely or to retreat into her bathroom (and see if this time he’ll follow her there too).

Slowly, in performance, Rio moves the fingers at her waist and dips them under the edge of her tank top. He traces teasingly underneath along her sweaty skin.

“I like this.” Rio says, biting his lower lip lewdly, tugging along the hem of her shirt.

And Beth feels-- she feels--

Too hot.

Too objectified.

Her stomach drops and she wants to crawl out of her skin. This wasn’t, this isn’t-- This isn’t what it was.

No matter who they are this minute, whatever mess continues to unfold, this isn’t what that day was.

She won’t let him ruin it.

“You know I did really like your closet. I liked your shoe racks--” she scrambles, trying to dangle a little of what he wants and to remind him. “Your pictures. Nice touch.”

The comment serves its purpose. It makes him pause, sufficiently rebuked by all the ways that she knows him.

Rio extricates his hand, pulls away from her skin, as she tries again to calm herself. She needs to be cool, cool, cool.

But, it’s unbearable -- who they are now.

She feels frazzled and depleted as she watches Rio roll onto his back. He looks up at her ceiling, not at her. “Why can’t you be honest with me for once?” He says it tiredly, without artifice.

She can’t stand it.

“You’re one to talk.”

Beth watches as Rio is now the one gritting his teeth.

“Y’know--” There’s a poignant, festering beat and then he says, “When I fucked you in this bed, I had wanted…”

More.

That want goes unsaid, suspended in the air around them with the heat.

“But, you just wanted me to fuck you,” he finishes quietly, leveling her.

Her stomach bottoms out newly pained and she wonders if that day, those two times, are already ruined for him. Certainly, she can understand if it’s because of the bullets. But, if he still has any doubt--

She makes a last-ditch attempt at levity.

“You’d probably say this is really… basic bitch of me.” The phrase fits awkwardly, and the call back immediately has Rio’s attention. She knows in her race to pull something together, to make it better, something bearable, whatever she’s going to say is going to be too candid.

“Yeah?”

“But, the times that I’ve been the most… attracted to you--” Oh god, this isn’t coming out light and casual at all. Oh no.

Rio shakes his head at her, “Don’t stop now, Elizabeth.”

“Oh my god, shut up,” Beth huffs. Then, she tries again. “One is definitely when you were bashing in that butt-ugly car.”

Rio’s eyebrows raise comically high.

“You know with the crowbar,” She gestures, swinging her hand gratuitously. He absolutely already knows what she’s talking about.

“And two..” Beth shuts her eyes and takes a steadying breath. She hopes for the best and tries not to rush the next bit. “--was when I saw your closet was color-coordinated.”

She sneaks a glance at him, and her stomach twists again.

He has absolutely no business looking so fondly at her.

She strives to clarify. “But, that was before.”

“Not anymore?”

“No.”

Rio nods, presumably in acceptance of her refusal.

But, then he tugs her to him, across him. Beth settles on top of him, too hot, too sweaty. Her forehead comes to rest, pressed against the soft hollow of his neck.

#My writing #my fic #beth x rio #tbh i don't love how this came out but I need to get it off my hands #but I hope folks enjoy it!#and remember what summer feels like #nbc good girls

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thebeltanequeen · 4 years ago

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The (Blurred? Nonexistent? Inconsequential?) Line Between Canon and Fanon: An Impromtu Essay by Me

I’m currently have an existential crisis. An absolute, balls to the walls, pull my hair out, stare at the walls wondering what the meaning of existence is, kind of existential crisis. Why, you may ask? Because the older I have gotten, the more Fanfiction I have read. That’s normal. Millions of other people read fanfic like me. Well, in the past few years, I have also realized that the more fanfiction I have read, the less shits I give about the actual canon of the media I love. I care less and less about what “actually” happened, and delve into fanon instead. It’s as if the two have SWITCHED ROLES in my brain. The canon is the lie, and the fanon is the truth. This used to not be the case though, so how did we get here? And why… why is this realization sending me into an absolute spiral of insanity? Why do I feel like I have been sucker punched in the jaw? Let me explain.

I’ve been reading and dabbling in writing my own fanfiction for over twelve years. It used to be an escape, a way to further delve into my latest obsessions and become consumed by them. I have this annoying habit of also picking ships that do NOT become endgame, so I’ve always sought out fanfiction as a balm for my shipper’s soul as well. I still read fanfiction as if my life depends on it… but now it’s at the expense of reading new books. Watching new media. When I do eventually dip my toes into a new fandom, I either reject it quickly or become consumed again and make a grab for fanfiction… but in the past few years, something in not only me, but in fandoms in general has shifted.

The difference between me now, and me back then is this… I used to uphold the canon as sacred. Untouchable. Set in stone. The only credible source for the media I consume. All of the fanfiction I read was just beautiful window dressing. A lovely past time to further increase my dopamine intake.

This is no longer the case.

Now, when I read and write fanfiction, it’s as if it is an act of protest. I am actively seeking to reform the narrative. It’s to “take back” the story, the characters, EVERYTHING, for myself. To make it anew. To make it perfect. I’m not alone either. I see you. I see all of you. Now more than ever, I see more and more of us doing this exact same thing.

THIS is why I am having an existential crisis. I have just realized that I will no longer be content with the canon. Ever. Even the canon of my favorite media. It’s not enough. It’s no longer enough. It won’t ever be enough again. Why? Because there will always be places where the canon is falliable. The authors of the canon, are falliable. As an author myself, this is at once an alarming yet powerful realization.

I went to college for creative writing. At the beginning of my academic career, I thought of fanfiction as a beautiful fairytale world. It was glorious, but it was other. Separate. Not as credible as canon. Had I read fanfiction better than the media it was based on before I entered college? Absolutely, but in my head it still didn’t matter because the canon was the word. The canon was the law. As a writer, I held the power of the author (and by extension the power of myself) as sacred. By the end of college, that began to change.

The more I was taught about writing, the more I came to realize that sometimes, authors are just straight up WRONG. Sometimes, there’s soooooo much potential… AND THEY JUST FUCK IT UP!!!!!!! The bones are incredible, but the canon is weak, the logic is lacking, the story makes no sense, the characters don’t reach their full potential and you know what? I’m tired. I’m tired of it. This is why fanon is canon’s salvation. Fanon makes canon look pathetic. But… if I accept the fanon as the reality, and make the canon the lie, does that still make it fanon? No. I don’t think it does. I think fanon has become something other. Something greater.

I have become disillusion by “published” or “credible” books. 95% of the novels I actually buy at the store today are garbage. Trash. Half written nonsense that only serves the purpose of paying people. I’m TIRED OF IT. I’ve become disillusioned by the “power” of the author. I have become disillusioned by canon. FUCK canon, quite frankly. Rip it apart. Dissect it. Take out it’s beating heart and transplant it into a new body. Give it the soul that the narrative was begging for. REVIVE IT. LET YOUR OWN IMAGINATION MAKE IT ANEW. Characters mean too much to people. Fiction means too much to people. Stories mean too much to people for anything less. Only then will you or I be satisfied.

Now, even an impromptu, unedited, gibberish essay is not complete without examples. I’ll start with one that you probably thought of while reading this. Game of Thrones. I think that two years ago, the ending of the most influential show of the entire decade, is where my subconscious began to shift in this direction. Now, I doubt my opionions about GoT are the same as yours, but you know what? It DOESN’T MATTER because FANON CAN FIX THE CANON. The stories that meant so much to millions can be fixed by accepting the fact that THE CANON ISN’T THE LAW! IT FUCKED UP!!!! CANON DOESN’T DESERVE TO SPEAK ANYMORE!!!! TAKE BACK THE STORY AND TRANSFORM IT INTO A VERSION TRULY WORTHY OF THE GLORIOUS BONES IT HAS!!!!!

We also can’t ignore the role that monetization plays in the media we consume. Why leave our fiction in the hands of just the big names? Why let money dictate what is real and not real? WHY SETTLE FOR MEDIOCRE STORYTELLING JUST BECAUSE IT WAS SOLD TO YOU AND THEREFORE IT’S “LEGIT CANON”??? FANFICTION IS FREE, AND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PIECES OF WRITING I’VE EVER READ WERE WRITTEN BY FANFIC AUTHORS WHO DID IT FOR THE STORY. WHO DID IT FOR THE ART. WHO ACTUALLY DID IT JUSTICE. FUCK THE CONCEPT OF FANON AND CANON. THE STORY WE WANT IS ALL THAT MATTERS. GET MONEY OUT OF HERE.

Ahem. To avoid going on even more of a tangent, I’ll move on and give the example that triggered my existential crisis in the first place. Sailor Moon. To give some background, Sailor Moon is it for me. I have grown up with it. I’ve watched it my entire life. As a child, I ran around with my toy moon rod and desperately wanted to be Usagi. Ironically, I grew up to be quite a bit like her (but with Rei’s temper admittedly). It is my comfort show, my happiness. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry. I never tire of it. It makes my heart swell. I have never, nor will I ever, love any piece of media the way I love Sailor Moon. Flash forward to today, I watched Sailor Moon Eternal, the two new movie adaptations of the Dream arc in the manga (stick with me non-manga and anime lovers). I liked the films, but I was left with a deep, disatisfied yearning. I want back the feeling of complete bliss I experienced while watching the 90’s anime as a child. The problem with this? I’ll never get it back. I’ve just realized this. I’ll NEVER get it back. Why? Because it’s no longer the perfect version of Sailor Moon that it was to my young eyes. Crystal, while good, is also not the perfected version I seek in my adulthood, and Eternal has not scratched my insatiable itch. I am heartbroken because I’ve realized that Sailor Moon in its perfect form doesn’t exist anymore. If I held any canon sacred, it was this. But the story is flawed. The manga is flawed. The anime is flawed. It’s not infallible, as much as it truly, deeply hurts me to admit to the world and to myself. The only perfect version of Sailor Moon is the one in my heart. It’s the one I choose to piece together for myself with the building blocks that others who came before me have handed over.

Another, more recent example of falliable canon is The Grisha Verse. More specifically, the Shadow and Bone trilogy. I was brought in to the fandom by Ben Barnes’ depthless eyes and magnificent scruff. And you know what? I liked the story, but I stayed for Ben Barnes. I liked the Darkling so much that I bought the entire grisha verse books. It was a premature decision. I’ve only made it halfway through Storm and Seige, and you know what? I’m tired of the canon already. It’s not that great. The bones are there, but it could be SO. MUCH. MORE. I haven’t read the crow books yet, and by all accounts Leigh Bardugo has improved tremendously as a writer. Which incidentally proves my point. Authors are falliable. Ergo, the canon is falliable. I can’t help but think while I read these books, “Damn. I could write this better.” and you know what? I’ve read fanfics that HAVE written it better.

Am I saying this to trash Bardugo? Or even GRRM? (Yes I admit to trashing D&D but that’s beside the point ahem…). NO. I am NOT trashing the writers. I’M A WRITER. I GET IT. YOUR STORY IS YOUR BABY. I G E T I T . But I’ve realized, and what I think future authors will also have to realize, is that fiction doesn’t belong to anyone. As soon as it’s out the door, the fiction no longer belongs to the author. It belongs to us. The people. That’s what is beautiful about fanfiction. It’s not here for the money. It’s not here for the clout. It’s here for the fiction itself. Plain and simple. It belongs to no one and everyone.

In the past, I would have fought this. I would have wanted my work’s canon to be law. To be the word, the truth, the way etc. Now? I can’t be a hypocrite. I can’t be selfish. It isn’t about the author. It’s about the vision. It’s about the story, the narrative, the characters. It’s about art. And sometimes, the authors give birth to the idea (and they deserve credit for that without a doubt), but it’s also true that sometimes, someone else just writes it better. Someone else quite simply saw the vision, the story, the characters, more clearly than the author did. I make this vow now, as an author, to strive for the vision. If someone takes my vision and does it better than me, that only improves my perspective of my own story. It improves the world of fiction as a whole. It makes me better.

So, canon? Fuck the canon. Take back the story. Take back the characters. Take back the art. Fiction is ours. It belongs to us, and we can do with it what we please. Let’s strive for OUR OWN perfected version of the media we love. Canon doesn’t truly exist. The concept of Fanon doesn’t even exist anymore in the way we used to think of it. The author’s version of events is their own Fanon of the story. Canon is meaningless now. There is only the story that you accept in your own mind. There is only the story that I accept in my own mind, no matter how different it is from yours. There is only the art. There is only the limitless potential of countless people’s imaginations. Let’s continue to collaborate and celebrate beautiful stories together, in any conceivable way, over and over and over again, until the end of time.

Fin

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hysteriium · 6 years ago

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Can’t Help Falling In Love

(A/N): Okay so I originally made this for one of my bois @jane-may though I extend it to everyone who’s having a tough time! Y’all are strong and I stan you!

Summary: Arthur calms you down during a panic attack.

Pairing: Arthur Fleck x reader.

Word Count: 2465.

Warnings: mentions of anxiety;

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Anxiety Headcanons:

Incredibly understanding - he’s well acquainted with anxiety and just how bad it can be. So, he knows or at least likes to think he knows, how to help.

While he had to endure a lot of it alone, he doesn’t want you to suffer the same fate - that’s literally the last thing he wants.

His favourite thing to do is try and distract you, to try and get you to focus on your surroundings, as opposed to the actual symptoms themselves; uses the 5-4-3-2-1 technique.

Will tell you to take deep breaths as he seats you somewhere comfortable, either the couch or the bed.

If you weren’t home, he’d promptly pull you aside and pull you into him, whispering soothing things into your ear; a gentle hand would reach up and rest against the back of your head as he did so.

Whether you were having panic attacks, negative thoughts/spirals, or perhaps, the whole shabang, he’d tell you how much he loved you and how proud he was of you for coming as far as you had.

He’s a sap, meaning he’d downright compliment and praise you until his face turned blue (lol). He wouldn’t let you doubt yourself, and if you didn’t believe his reassurances, he would 100% make it his mission to prove it.

Lots and lots of kisses. Hands, cheeks, your forehead - you name it.

Arthur is BIG on affection. He really loves hugs, and he feels as though a really long one could solve any problem.

Literally hates seeing you sad and stressed, so he’ll tell you one of his jokes from his journal. Anything to distract you.

Sometimes he does panic when you have a particularly bad attack. It isn’t because he’s overwhelmed, it’s more so him freaking out about how his tactics aren’t working - about how he’s unable to assist. He’d pretty much feel helpless. Like stated earlier, he really hates seeing you so distressed.

Regardless, he sticks by you for however long you need. He wouldn’t dream of leaving you in the middle of an attack.

One of his favourite things to do when he sees you stressing is to play with your hair or trace soothing patterns into your skin.

After the attack - HE WILL DANCE WITH YOU.

SORRY, THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL.

This bad boi will pull you into his arms and start swaying with you to some funky jazz tunes whether you like it or not.

Will not stop until he’s seen you laugh, or, at the very least, smile.

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Today had definitely not been your day. While you had been on edge for most of it, feeling the sinister itch of anxiety in the back of your mind, you tried your hardest to work through it; to get on with your day. Some part of you, faded along with the negative thoughts - a gut feeling - knew, however. Knew that the crucial question wasn’t if you were going to have a panic attack - it was when. In all cases, it felt inevitable.

Rain pelted the window - Gotham’s signature song as you found yourself alone in Arthur’s apartment. He’d left a little bit ago, promising to only be a moment as he mumbled something about groceries.

In the space of what had probably been an hour since Arthur’s departure, your theory had been correct. Like the opportunistic beast it was, your anxiety had decided it was the perfect time to flare up. The telltale signs - ragged breathing, the hammering of your heart which matched the booming of thunder, upon the multitudinous concoction of other symptoms created the perfect storm; much like the one outside.

As the seconds passed and the poor weather continued its total pandemonium, your neurotic state worsened. The last straw was when your chest started to close up, constricting as if you had been sat on; about to be crushed. Familiar were the knots in your stomach, twisting and turning.

In one cataclysmically exhausting whirlwind of thoughts, one that virtually took all your energy to keep at bay, you felt the jitters in your leg and the compulsive fidgeting which followed behind, manifest. In the dim lighting of the room, you curled up into the sofa’s side, trying to remember what you had been taught for times precisely like these. How you were meant to breathe, use your logic, even if you were, for the most part, stripped of it. To try and focus on other things, repeat the mantras that you had once found calming. You conjured the reassuring voice of your lover, remembering Arthur’s soothing words and how he worked you through prior attacks.

Yet still, you couldn’t breathe.

Perhaps luck had been shining down on you in that moment. You certainly felt so when you heard ruckus behind the front door. The key scraped against the lock, a recurring phenomenon which was then followed by a soft curse, leading to Arthur’s eventual success as he stumbled inside.

“I’m ba-”

Arthur froze when he saw your cowering form.

He pushed the door closed with his foot, knowing immediately what was happening and abruptly dropped the bag of groceries onto the floor with a thud. Without stopping, he hurried over.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” his voice sweetly requested as a hand gently moved your face to look down at him.

In his crouched position his leg was tucked underneath him while his other rested against the couch’s foundations. Arthur’s thumb started to rub soothing circles into your flesh once his hands fell to yours, immediately snapping to your action plan.

“Tell me five things you can see.”

Nodding, you obeyed. The mere euphony of his utterance already had you calming, a tender warmth which began to thaw out anxiety’s glaciers. After your eyes darted across the room, you listed the first things you could see.

“I-I” You swallowed as you tried to get a grapple on your wobbling vocals, “I see the curtains.”

“Tell me about them.”

“They’re hideous,” You replied, prompting a laugh from your lover. The delicate creases around his eyes - laughter lines - had been enough to momentarily halt your disquietude, a short-lived delight replacing it.

“What else?”

“An-and I see Murray.”

You moved to point towards the tv in front of you. Arthur moved aside when your wobbly arm extended. A small smile graced his features when he drank in the man dancing along to the intro, perfectly in time with the sporadic notes of the live band.

No matter how much he loved the show however, he loved you more. This was evident in the way he quickly turned back to you, a silent signal to continue; to reduce your apprehensive state. While the twitching of your fingers was yet to pause, their ache to squirm overbearing, you were sure Arthur picked up on the way your breathing had started to regulate.

“Um, the” your eyes darted to the floor, your toes wiggling against the fluffy feeling of the synthetic fibres, “the carpet...”

Moving your foot slightly, you watched as the action revealed a sinister blob. You weren’t entirely sure how it got there, even Arthur was confused when you had casually brought it up. Arthur must’ve followed your gaze because you both spoke at the same time.

“And its stupid stain-”

“The stain.”

You breathed through your nostrils in a subtle amusement as his lips upturned; relishing in fact he knew you so well. You hadn’t been kind to that rug, not even in its debut, and you knew he felt as though he was more likely to witness hell freeze over before he’d witness you display a shred of warmth towards the piece.

Once more, your eyes bounced around the room to find another object. Placed delicately against the closed window, you noticed small green stems protruding from a red brick coloured pot.

“The plant we’ve somehow managed to keep alive.”

An arrangement of white rings wrapped around each extension, the mere sight of the potted plant brought on a deep fondness - reminiscence with a tone of yellow; of sunshine and fresh air. You and Arthur had somehow ended up buying a zebra succulent. It was an impulsive decision, one that had almost led to its unfortunate death an embarrassing number of times.

From overwatering to all too friendly bursts of wind threatening to topple the plant, to forgetting to water it entirely, the succulent that had been named ‘Victory’ for its unlikely survival. Most certainly a hero to all succulents out there, the flora continued to trudge on, despite life having tested it. In some strange way, the plant had binded the ends of your relationship together, strengthening it with a flame - prevented it fraying.

“Victory…” Arthur furrowed his brows, “Tory.”

“Tory,” you repeated, smiling.

“One more left,” he squeezed your hand.

Your eyes remained on him, flickering over his dishevelled appearance. You had only managed to notice his state then, with the heavy burden of worry elevated. His hair was wet, soaking really, and his clothes were just as much. It was a miracle he wasn’t shivering.

“You’re all wet.”

His brows upturned at your laughter, his own amusement following behind. He mumbled something about managing to keep undercover for the most part, and the imagery of him trying to do so was something you found adorably amusing.

You had somehow forgotten about the turbulence of the weather, and when you were so rudely reminded with a clap, you jumped. It had caught you off guard, and the sound was so loud it shook the window frame. Whether that was just the shitty Gotham apartment you found yourself in, or if it had hit the building you weren’t sure.

Arthur perked up when he saw you jump at the thunder, his lips instinctively pressing against the soft skin of your hand, leaving a warm tingle.

“You’re okay,” he whispered, “you’re doing so well.”

“Now tell me, what can you touch?”

“Your hands…” you gave them a quick squeeze before pulling away, his arms moving to rest against his knee while yours moved to your sides.

“The couch.”

Arthur nodded at your words, his bright blue eyes reflecting encouragement.

“My hair,” you said, twirling a strand with your trembling hands.

“Your hair” you laughed again when they dove into his wet locks. Arthur scrunched up his nose and shut his eyes with a smile. Then, he shook his head against your hand. The goofy action sprayed gentle droplets of water on your skin, making you giggle in surprise.

His hands interlocked with yours once more.

“What can you hear?”

“Rain...cars.”

“Gotham never sleeps,” Arthur quipped.

By then, your breathing had completely righted itself, a lot of your symptoms had dissipated, and you were starting to find yourself more grounded in the moment. Thoughts no longer raced. Hot and cold flushes no longer gripped you. You had started to feel some semblance of control.

“Smell?”

“Vanilla - the candle I lit earlier...your...your cologne.”

The scents tickled your nose, the latter smell, Arthur’s cologne, a particularly welcoming scent. You mentioned often enough how much you liked it, and it was apparent it was no coincidence that he started wearing more of it.

“And finally, what can you taste?”

“Strawberry lip balm,” your nose wrinkled as you focused on the strange flavour.

Arthur gave you a funny look, one that challenged your disgust.

“Trust me, it’s not as good as it sounds.”

“Let me check,” a cheeky grin befell your lover.

You responded by playfully pushing his shoulder. In seconds, he had shot up from the ground, hands latching onto your forearms, pulling you up with him. A surprised gasp left your mouth, though it hardly wiped off Arthur’s evident joy. With a certain finesse, the man twirled you into him, his lips finding yourself sweetly. They moved against yours, a simple, yet mind-numbing act; an act in which completely transformed the last of your nerves into dazzling butterflies.

When Arthur eventually pulled away, his stunning eyes searched yours for any traces of your panic.

“You’re right, it’s not as good as it sounds,” he said, urging you to jokingly roll your eyes.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better now,” you giggled, brushing your nose against his.

The smile was still yet to leave him when he gradually pulled away, arms leaving your waist, “wait here.”

You watched him skip to his record player - a beautiful antique thing. It was a delicate and cherished object, one adored by the man who was about to place a record into it. As the circular frame was hidden from your perspective, you were forced to wait, rendering the song a complete and utter mystery. His skilful movements eventually produced a scratch, and then, a song.

It was a song you instantly recognised.

Wise men say only fools rush in

The realisation made you giggle while his twirling form made his way towards you.

But I can’t help falling in love with you

Shall I stay?

You watched his shoulders sway with the tune, and the way his feet moved oh so gracefully - better than you could ever hope to coordinate.

Would it be a sin?

If I can’t help falling in love with you?

Then, suddenly, he was in front of you, hovering over you while an inviting hand extended. When you wordlessly accepted, you were suddenly in his arms again.

Like a river flows surely to the sea

Darling so it goes

Some things are meant to be

His guiding hands found your waist, encouraging their soft sways. As music filled the apartment, your worries melted away. No longer conscious of the storm outside, which had yet to halt. No, you were transported into your own personal bliss, your head resting fondly on Arthur’s shoulder. Anxiety was no more than a distant memory, no longer gripping you in an iron chokehold; it had evanesced entirely.

Take my hand, take my whole life too

For I can’t help falling in love with you

Before you knew it, the song neared its end, and Arthur’s frame had pulled away to glance at you.

“For I can’t help falling in love with you,” he sang adoringly, finishing the lyrics with a lightness. His eyes then flickered towards your lips.

Not missing a beat, you softly captured his in another kiss. Tilting your head to deepen the affection, your arms crossed behind his neck. Your giddiness went straight to your head, leaving you dizzy, while the swirls of infatuation bubbled from deep within.

When you finally pulled away, his head rested against your forehead. Nothing else mattered in that moment - not even Arthur’s drenched clothes. All that mattered was the way you felt in his arms.

Just him.

#arthur fleck x reader #arthur fleck #arthur fleck imagine #arthur fleck headcanon #anxiety headcanon #joker x reader #joaquin phoenix joker #joker 2019 #joker imagine #the joker x reader #joker headcannons #fanfiction #my writing #dc x reader #batman villains x reader

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yhella18 · 4 years ago

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Women’s Individual Rhythmic Gymnastics from Rio 2016 || A Sports Analysis

Rhythmic gymnastics, the performance of systematic physical exercise with the aid of such hand apparatuses as ropes, hoops, balls, clubs, and ribbons. It is closely related to women's artistic gymnastics—a sport performed on the vaulting horse, uneven parallel bars, balance beam, and floor—and, like synchronized swimming, is allied with dance (Bhutia, 2018).

Today's blog will focus on a given video, specifically, Full Individual Women's Rhythmic Gymnastics Replay from Rio 2016 | Throwback Thursday. This analysis will also consist of the court dimensions, equipment, basic skills, technical and tactical skills of each team, rules of the sport, officials of the sport, and the overall performance.

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Court Dimensions

The FIG is an international organization based in Switzerland, so the measurements follow the metric system. An Olympic floor exercise mat must be 12 meters by 12 meters, which equals 39.37 feet by 39.37 feet. The standard distance from one corner to the opposite corner is 1,697 cm or 55.68 feet. Allowances are made for competitions in case the floor exercise measurements are not precise. For the length and width, the 12 meters has a 3 cm margin of error. The floor has to be within 5 cm of the standard measurement for the size from corner to corner.

The 12 meters by 12 meters measurement covers the performance area. As you may have noticed when watching Olympic gymnastics competitions, there is a thick border around the floor, often marked by white athletic tape. This is called a delimitation strip, and it measures 5 cm or just under 2 inches. A gymnast is permitted to step on the delimitation strip during competition without penalty, but if she moves beyond the border, a deduction will be made. Many floor exercise platforms are raised slightly to accommodate springs and foam padding. The slope leading from the floor to the floor exercise mat must not exceed a measurement of 25 percent (Oleskewicz, n.d.).

Equipment

Costume

Gymnasts usually use leotards or singlets. Leotards can be short-sleeved or long-sleeved and cut at the groin area much like a bikini so that there will be no hindrance to an athlete's flexibility or movement.

Hairnet

Female gymnastics commonly have their hair tied back. No bangs or loose hair is allowed in the front. Its primary purposes are to prevent hair from getting in the way of a gymnast, provide a uniform and elegant look, and maintain focus on the athlete.

Toe shoes

Toe shoes are specially designed professional shoes for rhythmic gymnastics. They cover toes while the heels remain open. Silicone elastic band fixes the toe of the shoes around the heel.

Apparatuses:

Hoop

Made of plastic and wood, it is a circular apparatus with a diameter ranging from 51 to 90 centimeters. Gymnasts will be able to rotate it with either their hands or their body.

Ball

The ball is made of rubber or synthetic has a diameter of 18 to 20 centimeters, and its minimum weight is 4000 grams. When using the ball, it should rest in the gymnast's hand and should not be grasped or rest on the wrist. Gymnasts perform throws, as well as tricks such as bouncing and rolling the ball.

Clubs

Resembling bowling pins, the clubs are of equal length, typically about 0.4 to 0.5metres long. They are made from wood or synthetic material. Gymnasts use the clubs to do tricks like circles -in which the clubs swing parallel to each other, mills - the clubs swing opposite each other, and throws and catches.

Ribbon

The ribbon is a single strip usually made of satin, attached to a stick made of wood or synthetic material. Gymnasts create all sorts of patterns with the ribbon, including spirals, circles and snakes. The gymnast must keep the ribbon in motion throughout the entire routine.

Basic Skills

Locomotor Skills:

Walking- Both feet move alternately, with one foot always touching the ground or floor; when one foot goes down, the other foot comes up and moves forward.

Running- Running is a fast pace motion where both feet briefly leave the ground. Running is performed with the body leaning slightly forward, knees are flexed and lifted, and arms rotate back and forth from the shoulders with a bend at the elbows.

Leaping- Leaping is an elongated step used to cover more considerable distances or move over low obstacles.

Jumping- Jumping involves taking off and landing on both feet. The arms move forward with an upswing motion, and the body movement combined with the force of the feet helps lift the body's weight.

Hopping- Hopping involves propelling the body up and down on one foot.

Galloping- When galloping, the body faces forward and one-foot leads and the other moves rapidly forward to it.

Sliding- Sliding is similar to gallop. However, the body moves sideways in a 1-count movement. The leading footsteps to the side and the other foot follows quickly.

Skipping- Skipping is a series of step-hops done with alternate feet.

Non – Locomotor Skills:

Bending- bending is a movement at a joint

Swaying- is a slower controlled movement that occurs when the center of gravity shifts fluidly from side to side.

Swinging- involves moving body parts like a swinging rope or pendulum. (Arms and Legs)

Turning- is rotating around the long axis of the body.

Twisting- is rotating a selected body part around its long axis.

Stretching- moves body parts away from the body's center, or moving a joint through a range of motion. Stretching is necessary for increasing and maintaining flexibility.

Apparatuses Skills:

> Hoop

Swinging Movements- requires good alignment between the body and the hula-hoop. Hoops can be swung by the athletes in a frontal, sagittal, or horizontal plane.

Spinning Movements- Turning the hoop with both hands or one.

Circling Movements- Hoops can be twirled by hand, wrist, arm, leg, or entire body.

Tossing and Catching Movements- Toss the hoop in the air with one or both hands, then catch it with one hand between the thumb and index finger.

Rolling Movements- Roll the hoop on the floor in either a forward or backward direction. Or move it on the body in different ways.

> Ball

Handling the ball: the fingers should be closed and slightly bent with the ball.

Resting in the palm.

Throwing the ball: the ball can roll from the fingertips.

Catching the ball: the ball returns immediately to the palm.

> Club

Performances with clubs are fast and slick, showcasing the gymnast’s agility and accuracy, using their hands and wrists.

Core moves include circles when the clubs swing in the same direction and mills when the clubs swing in opposite directions.

As is the case with every piece of apparatus, throws require the most skill. The difference with this apparatus is that you can perform throws with one or both clubs.

> Ribbon

Swinging Movements- involves large swinging motions that require whole-body coordination.

Circling Movements- Large circles involve the strength and movement of the whole arm; smaller circles involve the wrist movement.

Zigzag Movements- Zigzags can be made in the air or on the floor. Use the movement of the wrist.

Spiral Movements- Make spirals either from left to right or right to left.

Technical and Tactical Skills of Each Team

Margarita Mamun from Russia

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Mamun used the apparatus like it's attached to her body and made sure that the hoop works well at all the parts of her body, which made her a lot of smooth transitions. Every step that she had made were all pointed toes. In addition, illusion turns were her signature skills in this rotation and the way she moved the hoop were precise. She ended this rotation with the ring high up in the air and then caught it with a jump followed by a pose on the circle in her body. It was indeed a beautiful performance.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Mamun used passion and being expressive in her performance for the second rotations. The ball is said to be an extension of the body, and she used the apparatus quite well and made it connected to her. She also added complexity to her spins, leaps and jumps. The ways she ended her performance was lovely.

Rotation 3 (Club): Mamun chose her music to be the song "We Will Rock You by Queen". It was high beat music, and she used the apparatus like she was drumming. She was tricky enough in handling clubs and showing expertise. She also performed maximum extension of the jump, offering her flexibility to the audience, and then end the performance with a peace sign. It was kind of a different way to end the show.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Mamun's use of the ribbon was flawlessly and had a fast movement. She also threw the apparatus so high and still manage to catch it. She made it look like it was easy to perform around, even though we all know that it was challenging to do. Moreover, she had a clean and beautiful balance showing stability in her dance and consistency in using the ribbon skills.

Marina Durunda from Azerbaijan

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Durunda's performance was choosing a piece of beautiful music and matching it with her choreography. She was swift with the apparatus and catching it with extra movement. She also used three turning leaps and had perfect timing on her show showing exact direction and speed.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Durunda showed a strong personality in dribbling and throwing the ball high up in the air. Her hand movements were exaggerated and used excellent styles like having the ball contact her chest and rebound it. It was new to the eyes of the audience and found some originality in it.

Rotation 3 (Club): Durunda had the same type of music as the other athletes in which they had in-beat music. She has shown artistic expression in her performance, gaining additional points to her scoring. She also did flawlessly doing the routine and not had a hard time, and just enjoyed and did her best.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Durunda decided to match the ribbon with her costume. She has shown plenty of energy throughout her performance which made her used multiple skills underneath the spins and the jumps, a fantastic series of spins, and full extension of the leaps. She tended to throw the ribbon so high up in the air, and she quickly caught it without a sweat on it.

Yana Kudryavtseva from Russia

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Kudryavtseva started with ultimate control of the hoop with her body. She chose a slow and smooth song that synchronized with her movements in which she moved around the floor so lightly that she looks like she's floating in the air. In addition, she worked with the apparatus well, causing the apparatus and the body to all work in one piece. Moreover, she tended to roll in the back of the hoop and made medium illusion turns, which is considered difficult. She used complex movements like having a big throw on the apparatus and caught it with her leg. Then she slowly ended it with backspin and posed her last stance, which significantly impacted the audience.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Unlike other athletes, Kudryavtseva chose slow music that rhymes with her choreography. She has shown mastery of the elements that she has performed. What truly gained the audience's attention is when she spins the ball with her thumb while she did the side scale balance element. Moreover, the movement and the body are so smooth, and every transition along with the body is seamless and neverending. She has shown a flawless and beautiful performance.

Rotation 3 (Club): Kudryavtseva had control of the positions she has used, and the change of rhythm of her performance was seen clearly. She has shown good balance and unique use of the apparatus, causing her to demonstrate mastery. However, in the last stunt, she didn't catch the ball, causing her points to be deducted, and her rank have become second place.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Kudryavtseva has shown an elegant kind of performance. She used soft music and a lot of twirl in the apparatus. She did her best despite having a mistake in the third rotation. By this, she did her best on the last part, and she has formed beautiful body shapes in her performance. It is like the routine that she has shown is dancing and flowing around in the air.

Katsiaryna Halkina from Belarus

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Halkina started with a sitting position with pointed toes. She executed nice combinations of rotations and used lovely control of her series of spins. Then she ends it with the same position at the beginning of her performance.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Halkina used suspense Music and have shown tremendous leg strength, making the ball so high up in the hair. Thus, causing her to have reasonable control of the ball. All in all, she has done a well-executed performance.

Rotation 3 (Club): Unlike other athletes, Halkina’s song was not upbeat. Instead, it was slow and quite sad, which made her had expressive at the same time beautiful turns and jumps. She also had tremendous balance and executed high flying leaps. Moreover, she is good at using the apparatus in which she had a different movement of the clubs showcasing asymmetrical.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Halkina used her feet to handle the ribbon at the beginning. Her music was in a groovy kind of way then turned into upbeat. She had excellent control of the apparatus and matched it with some dance steps. She also has shown plenty of energy, and the ways she ends her performance portray a circle pattern with a lot of twirls on her spin.

Kseniya Moustafaeva from France

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Moustafaeva made her opening with a lovely high and showcasing emotions right away to match her selected music. She made her balance smoothly and cleanly and have shown total concentration in her performance. She also used leaps that are fixed in shape and are high enough to get that shape acquired. All in all, she has shown outstanding performance.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Moustafaeva start was a serious face matching with the dynamic and robust music they have shown. She had good alleviation and had a somewhat abstract choreography. Simultaneously, she also had strong legs, which emphasizes her excellent control of the ball. However, in the middle part, she was losing the power that she had but still able to end it with a good performance.

Rotation 3 (Club): Moustafaeva decided to be lively and have shown by swaying her hips that rhymes with the music. As a dynamic gymnast, she has chosen the music which suited her style. The way she used the apparatus are sometimes symmetrical and asymmetrical and showcasing succession of the throws, which are astounding,

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Moustafaeva’s expression was used in the ribbon to convey the song much well. She was very consistent with her performance but still sometimes showed a hard time controlling the ribbon. Despite that, she showcased a dazzling and dramatic performance.

Melitina Staniouta from Belarus

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Staniouta's intense music matched with her choreography, and she has shown excellent performance. The techniques she has shown were all astounding in which one of them was rebounding the hoop with her legs. Then she ended her performance by catching the hoop while lying down.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Staniouta has shown a fantastic performance. The way she moved and balanced herself on dramatic music. She used the ball and rolled them around her arms which was excellent to see. She also has shown beautiful spins and jumps on her routine. All in all, she combined sports and arts on her show.

Rotation 3 (Club): Staniouta decided to have piano phased for her performance. She has showcased to the audience her spins and jumps that are well-executed. She also attached expressions making her dance more expressive enough, so she had a breathtaking effect on the audience.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Staniouta used the apparatus as she was enjoying the routine and performed her very best. She has used her signature turns and had succeeding movements. She also threw the ribbon across the court, causing it almost to exceed the court's line. However, she was able to catch it and still able to continue her dance well.

Carolina Rodriguez from Spain

Rotation I (Hoop): Rodriguez decided to be suspenseful and had a definite style selling to the audience and the judges. She made large throws of the apparatus and executed back illusion multiple times. It was quite a sassy performance, and she showed a model of consistency and expressiveness. To end it, she looked at the judges and gave a breathtaking smile to them, showing that she had fun throughout her performance.

Rotation 2 (Ball): It was a dramatic dance for Rodriguez and has shown expression. It was considered a mature performance since she indeed brought her personality and expressed what she wanted to convey. She was also an expert at illusion turns and executed a series of them as to why her performance was consistent.

Rotation 3 (Clubs): Rodriguez has shown lively and fast movements in her performance, and her expression was severe and sometimes fierce throughout the show. She had the consistency of turns and executed massive throws of the clubs. At the same time, she was showcasing synchronization with the apparatus. Thus, it leads to thinking that clubs may be her most substantial apparatus to use.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Expressions were found at the beginning. The turns or twirls of the ribbon were synchronized with the selected music. Rodriguez shone all the techniques used for the apparatus and have performed complicated back illusions turns which she matched to tune well.

Son Yeon Jae from Korea

Rotation 1(Hoop): Yeon Jae’s flowery costume was catchy and making her look fresh looking. It made her performance to looked smooth and put some moves on the classic lines that she has selected for her music. Moreover, she had exhibited immense control over her movements. Incredibly, her throws shone through her routine. All in all, she had managed to utilize the apparatus well.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Clean and Elegance was Yeon Jae’s main asset in her performance with the ball apparatus. She has shown precise body movements, and the placement of her feet and arms were stunning to look at, especially if she will emphasize them.

Rotation 3 (Club): Yeon Jae’s started with an exquisite turn and flawless control of the club. She has showcased an excellent performance with opening strong pivots and circles behind it. She has shown a bewildering performance.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Yeon Jae’s float made the leaps execution to be around and perplexing. She made her movements with the changing phase of the music, which matched it well to her performance. She tended to throw the apparatus with her foot and still catching with ease. Overall, she showcased an astounding performance.

Ganna Rizatdinova from Ukraine

Rotation 1 (Hoop): The shape and the pointing of the toes are what really seen in Rizatdinova's performance. It was intense, and the flexibility that she performed was way beyond. She also had executed complicated yet magnificent movements, which all lead to a great ending.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Rizatdinova's had an excellent technique in which she trapped the ball around her back and legs. She also started to sway her hips and shoulders like she's dancing around. The way she shaped her legs and made them move was excellent, and she had her eyes concentrated on the ball whenever she moved. She has shown astonishing performance.

Rotation 3 (Club): Rizatdinova's start was impressive. It was technically beautiful on the speed of her movements and the club's balancing in one foot. It was great done, especially the control of the apparatus's balance and even with all of her events. She also showed symmetrical throws of the ball and ended it with a passion and drama performance.

Round 4 (Ribbon): It was a precise start for Rizatdinova. She appeared to have good balance and her throws of the ribbon are high and still able to catch it quickly and flawlessly. The movement of the ribbon was well exaggerated and robust. Also, she danced when the time is almost in one minute and proven to the audience she had excellent execution.

Nevianna Vladinova from Bulgaria

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Vladinova made her apparatus turn in the leg and made series of turns on it. She also tended to squeeze the hoop around her body and showcased that her choreography was capitalized or defined to the audience.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Starting with fast and upbeat music made Vladinova had a lovely catch of the ball. At the same time, she used her expressions to match with music and her movements. Her movements were energetic, and has executed her routine without fail. She has also shown her flexibility and skills in her performance.

Rotation 3 (Club): In the beginning, Vladinova showed how flexible she is and fast with her movements. The change of pace of the gestures was there even though the music and the rhythm were still rapid. It was a clever use of the music since it enhanced more of her performance. Furthermore, she has used skills or techniques on her execution, like rebounding the club on her knee, which was quite different from other players. Overall, she has shown a dynamic performance.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Vladinova was the end performer for the Olympic for Rhythmic Gymnastics and still showed how calm she is and without being nervous at all. Her fast movements and choreography match the music very well. She simply did her best and made a lively and energetic performance that is good to end the Olympics.

Rules of the Sport

Rhythmic gymnastics combines ballet, dance and acrobatics with expressive movement and manipulating apparatuses such as the ball, clubs, hoop, and ribbon.

This sport is ideal for developing flexibility, strength, as well as body coordination. It stems from various dance styles and exercise regimes that share the common idea of expressive movement as an exercise tool.

> Individual programme

During the individual programme, an athlete will manipulate only one of these five apparatuses at a time - rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon. One apparatus is rotated out of contention every two years, with the gymnast required to compete on the remaining four events.

> Music and Choreography

All routines must be performed with music, with only short pauses of music allowed. The choreography must centre around a theme developed from beginning to end using a variety of body movements and the handling of apparatuses.

> Movement Rules:

o Leaps and jumps

All leaps and jumps must be of a good height, have a precise shape and good amplitude.

All leaps with the back arched must have the head in contact with the leg.

o Balances

All balances must be performed on the toes or the knee. These must be held clearly and have a good, fixed shape.

o Pivots

All pivot combinations must be performed entirely on the toes without heel support.

> Basic Rule:

Each gymnast must perform choreographed routines using each of the following four pieces of apparatus:

Ball

Hoop

Clubs

Ribbon

> Scoring

Performances in rhythmic gymnastics are given a maximum of 20, comprising difficulty (D) and execution (E) scores.

The D score is based on each performance element, including leaps, jumps and use of apparatus. These D scores are averaged to give a score out of 10.

The E score is based on how well the routine was executed either by the individual or the group. The final number is an average of the middle three scores awarded by the judges.

The D and E scores are combined at this stage, giving a mark out of 20. Then, any deductions are taken away. The list of instant deductions is incredibly long and complex in rhythmic gymnastics. Competitors can be penalized for anything from breaking the apparatus to landing heavily on their feet.

> Judging

o Good Form and Execution: In elements such as leaps and jumps, a gymnast's toes should be pointed. Her legs should be straight. She should maintain tightness in her body and each skill should look planned.

o Control of the Apparatus: The gymnast should keep her equipment moving and look as if she has complete control. Dropping the apparatus is a deduction. If the equipment rolls away or off the floor, more penalties are incurred.

o Flexibility: Rhythmic gymnasts should achieve a minimum of a 180-degree split on split leaps and jumps, and often they go much further. A great rhythmic gymnast will exhibit flexibility in her back, legs, and shoulders.

o Choreography: The intricacies of movement are essential in rhythmic gymnastics. Each routine should be a performance, and the gymnast's music should be a necessary part of the routine, not simply used as background music.

o The Uniqueness of the Routine: A great gymnast will perform a routine that looks different from the rest. It will have something special about it, risky throws and catches, complicated choreography, extreme flexibility, or simply unique skills from others performed in the competition.

Officials of the Sport

Meet Referee

Conducts the judge’s education meeting prior to the event,

Makes the panel assignments or conducts a draw,

Has ultimate control over technical decisions,

Judges every routine within human possibility,

Can question a panel score, even if the judges are in range, if she feels it is not appropriate,

Can call a conference of either judging panel, can make the decision to go to base score,

Keeps track (with the help of an assigned volunteer secretary) of all scores and rankings,

Determines the number of sessions in association with the meet director,

Makes sure the timers and line judges are knowledgeable about the rules and their function,

Serves as the spokesperson for the judging panels to the organizing host and the participants,

Makes sure the Head Judges review the official score sheets before signing them,

Mediates all professional disagreements, and has the final response,

Is responsible for any media involvement concerning the judges,

Respond to any written inquires before a session has ended.

Head Judge

Attends pre-competition education session,

Makes sure judges scores are within the proper range,

Requests the MR to call a conference if there is a disagreement,

Keeps track of rank order for assigned events.

Acting Panel Judge

Attends pre-competition education session,

Judges each routine assigned with undivided attention.

Line Judge

A Line Judge determines if the athlete and the apparatus are within the boundaries of the field of play. There are two line judges for each individual routine, and you will be responsible for the two lines that are in your “corner”of the carpet. Each judge is responsible for the line to their right. The red line denotes the warning area, and if the athlete or their apparatus touches the line they are still in bounds. If any part of the athlete’s body and / or apparatus touches the floor outside of the red line, then she is out-of-bounds and the judge immediately hold up one flag high in the air for a few seconds. If both the apparatus and gymnast touches the floor outside of the red line, then immediately hold up both flags high in the air for a couple of seconds.

Timers

Each timer requires a stop watch that indicates the minutes, seconds and milliseconds, a rotation order, timer judge chits and a pen.

Procedure to follow as a Timer Judge:

Have a Rotation List available.

Check off each gymnast as they are announced so that you know which gymnast is on the floor.

Start the timer when the gymnast starts moving (or first gymnast in group), and stop the timer when the gymnast stops moving (or the last gymnast in group). Record the time to the millisecond on the rotation order. For example, 1:30:05. If the routine is over or less than the required time (times to be provided by the Meet Director), then also complete the Timer Judge Chit.

Give the timer judge slip to a runner to take to the head judge for inclusion in the scoring papers.

Judge Administrator

The primary responsibilities of the Judge Administrator are to act as the GCG representative at EC and CC, to ensure that all Judge Rules and Technical Rules are followed, and to ensure that all score ranges are within FIG requirements. The JA does not act as a reference judge and does not score the routines.

Apparatus Judge

Every apparatus will be checked during the Warm-Up prior to the start of the competition rotation. If there is a fault with the apparatus measurement, the apparatus judge will show the coach, so the athlete has time to change apparatus. If a coach/athlete refuses to change apparatus, the Apparatus Judge will retain the piece of apparatus, complete the judge chit and send it to the JA immediately. The JA will come to verify the concern as soon as is possible, but it may not be until a break in the competition. The apparatus must be retained until the JA has completed the verification.

Overall Performance

All in all, all the athletes have shown their determination and passion in doing Rhythmic Gymnastics. They were different techniques and tactics with their stunts, leaps, jumps, and spins using the four various apparatuses: hoop, ball, clubs, and ribbon. With all their performance, the audience has been amazed and enjoyed the execution of ten different athletes. However, there is always one winner in the competition, and Margarita Mamun from Russia was the one who claims the gold medal for Rio Olympics 2016 in Rhythmic Gymnastics. The sweat, the never-ending stunts and no-fault steps or movements were what made the audience amazed by her performance, leading her to be the right one to gain the first place. She gave the audience an outstanding performance.

#sportsanalysis #rhythmic gymnastics #blog

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nutellamilkshake · 4 years ago

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A SPORTS BLOG: Women's Figure Skating Short Program | PyeongChang 2018

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEtYYtwX1sM

Introduction

Figure Skating is a sport in which single athletes or teams of athletes conduct artistic performances on ice. Both men and women participate in their own singles events with pair skating events and ice dancing events open to both genders (usually one male and one female).

Athletes produce a wide variety of moves in order to impress a panel of judges, who score the athletes based on their grace, flair and control. Moves include jumps and spirals in the air, spins on the ice and a number of different step sequences.

Figure Skating has been a part of the Winter Olympics since the games first began in 1924, and also made appearances at 1908 and 1920 Summer Olympics before that.

The United States are the current world leaders in Olympic Figure Skating, holding a total of 49 medals overall. Russia and Austria are the closest rivals with 26 and 20 medals, respectively. The Soviet Union also picked up 24 medals during their time in the competition.

Court Dimension

Figure Skating Winter Olympics 2018 was held at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, South Korea. Figure Skating Rinks have a total area of 18,707 ft2 (1738 m2), with an average length of 196.85’ (60 m) and a width of 98.43’ (30 m). Hence, its corners have a circumference of 27.89’. (8.5 m).

Equipment

Costume - The figure skating costume should be made of light and elastic materials, as a rule, these are stretch fabrics. The costume of the figure skater reflects the style of the program and the music.

Figure Skates - Professional skates for figure skating are made of thick durable leather, have a long lacing and a large tongue. For professional skaters, skates are made individually. The blades are made of carbon steel and consist of two parts. The curved rocker for a good glide on ice. The toe part has teeth, for the execution of jumps and some elements of the program.

Basic Skills

Turns - Figure skating turns are an important part of the sport. Some turns are part of the basics and others are advanced and difficult to perform. Figure skating turns are important because they are part of the advanced figure skating moves. For example the entrance to certain jumps includes a three turn or a mohawk.

Steps - Figure skating steps a skills that when put together form what is called a footwork sequence. Some figure skating steps are variations on or combinations of turns. Power three turns, twizzles, and running threes are example

Spins - Spins in figure skating are often the most fun for the skater and most appealing to the figure skating audience. Crowds love to watch an elegant or super fast spin. There is so much important information related of figure skating spins that we have an entire section devoted to these figure skating skills. This section includes descriptions, pictures, and video demonstrations of figure skating spins.

Jumps - Jumps are spins in the air. Actually a jump is a back spin in the air. These figure skating skills have become one of the most important aspects of the sport since the creation of the international judging system. Triple and quad jumps receive so many points that they overshadow most of the other skills when competing. Some of the most elegant skaters have lost in competitions because another skater executes a series of point grabbing jumps

Spirals - Spirals are glides with one leg way up in the air. There are many variations of these figure skating skills. The first figure skating spiral learned is usually the arabesque. Skaters will then learn a catch foot variation. Important aspects for figure skating spirals are good extension, get the free leg extended high in the air, and moving steadily across the ice. A change of edge during a spiral will receive extra points

Moves in the field - Really moves on the ice not in a field! They are in some ways a replacement for "figures". The moves tests are intended teach the skater the skills they need to excel in the sport.

Technical and Tactical Skills of each team

Most individuals showed their different choreographed figure skating performance. Each figure skaters from different countries were such fascinating to watch and most of their performances are masterpiece. Let’s start with Russia (Alina Zagitova), she gracefully executed her performance through combinations just like double axel-triple toe and triple lutz-triple toe. She really had a flexible body which benefits her in her technical and tactical skills which helped her get the victory of the event. Next is from Russia (Evgenia Medvedeva), She performed with different varieties of movements which made her performance stunning, she had jumps and spins that results as an extraordinary performance. Next is from Canada (Kaetlyn Osmond), she has done such combos like triple-triple combos. She performed with a fast pacing combined with turns and jumps which made her performance eager to watch. Next is from Japan (Satoko Miyahara), watching her performance, she had leaps and jump variations that leads to triple toe loop. She showcased also spiral movements that makes the audience enjoy her performance. Next is from Japan (Kaori Sakamoto), her performance was really jaw dropping because of her splendid production. She has done such unique movements which made her almost got a high score to the judges. Next is from Italy (Carolina Kostner), She did a magnificent move in the field, spirals and jumps which made her performance opulent to the eyes, I can really say that she went through a lot failures in her practices because she showcased such a hard performance which I can really say that all her practices were really worth it. Next is from Canada (Gabrielle Daleman), I can notice in her tactics in presenting her performance is through mostly jumps and such spirals, resulting her performance with such superb presentation. Next is from South Korea (Choi Da-bin), she started her performance with a move in the field, she had jumps and turns in her way of her tactics. Next is from United States (Mirai Nagasu), she is such a skillful figure skater because of her performance with such impressive spins and jumps. She had points from the judges with her layback spin because it was really a hard thing to do which shocked most of the people and also me. Next is from United States (Karen Chen), she had tactics like toe jumps and lutz. She presented great progression of moves in the field and spirals which made her performance imposing. Next is from United States (Bradie Tennel), she showed tremendous jumps and spirals which is her tactics in the event. Next is from Russia (Maria Sotskova), Most of her tactics are spiral jump and moves around the field and gliding throughout her performance. Next is from Slovakia (Nicole Rajicova), her tactics were done through leaps, turns, spirals and jump. She showed an organized performance which I can really say that she really mastered her movement all throughout her performance because of her body language being showed in the performance. Next is from Germany (Nicole Schott), Her performance was spectacular to watch because she really moves gracefully and her movement has timing towards the music. Next is from Kazakhstan (Elizabet Tursynbayeva), extraordinary spirals, jumps, spins, steps turns were all present in her performance which is her tactics in the event. Next is from Australia (Kailani Craine), she was really energetic in her performance which helped her execute such stunning jumps, spirals and spins. She really enjoyed her performance. Next is from Brazil (Isadora Williams), her performance was having the tactics of different combos of spins and jumps combining with the music to result a spectacular performance. Next is from Finland (Emmi Peltonen), she had showcased jumps and spins that can really prove that she really mastered it well and has a unique ability that is not present to other players. Next is from Switzerland (Alexia Paganini), her tactics was done through spins and jumps from what I observe in her performance, she really mastered these two in order to add opulent view in the eyes of the audience. Next is from Belgium (Loena Hendrickx), her tactics in the event was through her strength in spinning and the combined with jumps to make her performance stunning. Next is from Hungary (Ivett Toth), she showed tactics of being classic, she wore a costume with a very simple design emphasizing her passion or theme of being punk and being classic. Next is from Latvia (Diana Nikitina), her way of presenting his performance was through spins, she mostly showcased this skill with a unique kind of way of executing it and that’s her tactics in the event. Next is from Sweden (Anita Ostlund), she has done a tremendous performance with her tactics of upright spin, this spin is really hard because you really need to have lower strength in order to perform this which results toa plus points to then judge scorecard. Next is from Kazakhstan (Aiza Mambekova), her tactics was through her hands, to add more joy in her performance. Lastly, is from Ukraine (Anna Khnychenkova), her tactics was through skating with one leg only. She had also executed such upright spin reaching her toes which made her performance outstanding.

Rules of the Game

Players & Equipment

Figure skating is a sport in which both men and women compete, and the only equipment needed is a pair of specially designed skates known as “Figure Skates.”

Figure Skates

Figure Skates are specially designed skating shoes with thick steel blades at the base and jagged grooves at the front known as “toe picks” – which assist athletes with their footwork on the ice, as well as landing and spinning. The specific style of toe picks can vary.

The key blades are usually about 4 millimeters wide, although this varies depending on the athlete’s foot style. They also have a small bend on one side to help with ice turns.

Figure skaters will often want to skate on the outer tips of their wheels. In order to accommodate step-work rather than skipping, ice dancers normally have slightly narrower blades on the base of their shoes, with a slightly different shape.

Costumes

In order to perform on a professional level, all men and women must wear special costumes. Men are expected to wear pants, while women must wear skirts and tights, trousers, or neon spandex.

Scoring

Figure skaters are judged by a jury of judges who use the ISU Judging System to rate them (usually nine judges including a technical inspector, and also a referee). This system works by giving varying numbers of points to competitors with different kinds of movements, as well as how quickly and successfully they are performed. A Grade of Execution (GoE) is measured, followed by a Scale of Success (SOP). A Grade of Execution (GoE) is measured, and this grade is then converted into an overall mark using a Scale of Value Table.

Ability, footwork, performance, perception, overall execution, choreography, and timing are the key factors scored during a normal Figure Skating performance. The more complicated maneuvers are often awarded the highest scores if they are done correctly. For example, the more rotations in a leap, the higher the score.

Winning

The athlete or team with the highest total score wins a Figure Skating competition.

Figure Skating Rules

Figure skaters must make their results interesting. According to the Zayak Rule, no participant can try triple or quadruple jumps more than twice.

If participants may not follow the rules and regulations for music and costumes, judges can penalize them or disqualify them entirely. Certain forms of music are forbidden, and costumes must be free of “excessive decoration” or be too revealing.

Time penalties will also result in athletes being disqualified.

How to officiate the sport

Officiating officials are the backbone of Figure Skating, ensuring fair competition for all skaters by enforcing the rules and regulations that govern the sport of figure skating.

Accountants

Accountants are also responsible for providing the judges, referees and technical panel officials with documents for recording their decisions. The accountants are also responsible for ensuring that the scoring software is set up properly, the scores are entered accurately and the results are calculated correctly.

Announcers

Announcers are responsible for announcing competitors before they perform at a competition. Announcers might also be asked to announce scores, names of officials and other general competition information as necessary. As the voice of an event, announcers need to be able to work as part of a team and have the ability to communicate effectively with competition hosts, referees and other officials.

Ice Technicians

Ice technicians are utilized at certain qualifying and international competitions to ensure the safety and quality of the ice surface. Primarily utilized at large competitions, the ice technician is the go-between for the event referee and arena personnel, and ensures each event runs safely and smoothly.

Judges

There are 2 types of Judges: Test Judges & Competition Judges

Test Judges: who can judge test sessions and nonqualifying competitions

Competition Judges: who can judge nonqualifying and qualifying competitions

Music Technicians

Music officials are responsible for the setup, tear down and operation of the equipment used to play music at competitions.

Referees

Referees are the designated leaders and spokespeople for an event. They also manage the panel of judges and, depending on the size of the competition, may serve as one of the event's judges as well.

Summarization

Everyone did well in the event, however Alina Zagitova from Russia got the victory with the score of 82.92. Second place is Evgenia Medvedeva also from Russia with a score of 81.61 and third place is from Canada named Kaetlyn Osmond with a score of 78.87. Watching the figure skating event was really fun and at the same time jaw-dropping because of the extraordinary performance of the players. I can really say that figure skating is not an easy sport, it requires determination to improve and will go though different failures in order to grow as a figure skater. I really respect those players since they really tried their best to win.

References:

Figure Skating. (n.d.). Retrieved from Sportwiki: https://sport-wiki.org/sports/figure-skating/#Equipment_for_figure_skating

The Basics. (n.d.). Retrieved from Go Figure Skating: http://gofigureskating.com/skills/index.html

Officiate. (n.d.). Retrieved from US Figure Skating: https://www.usfigureskating.org/support/officiate

Figure Skating Rules. (n.d.). Retrieved from Rules of Sport: https://www.rulesofsport.com/sports/figure-skating.html

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miniaturetacopuppy · 4 years ago

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Full Women’s Figure Skating Short Program | PyeongChang 2018

Court Dimension:

The 2018 Winter Olympics' ladies' single figure skating competition was held at Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, South Korea, with an Olympic-sized figure skating rink measuring 30m x 60m (98.4ft x 197ft).

Equipment:

The basic equipment you require for figure skating is boots, blades, and comfortable appropriate clothes.

Basic Skills:

Basic 1

Sit on ice and stand up

March forward across the ice

Forward two-foot glide

Dip

Forward swizzles (6-8 in a row)

Backward wiggles (6-8 in a row)

Snowplow stop

The rocking horse (2–3)

Two-foot hop in place (optional)

Basic 2

Forward one-foot glides (R and L)

Backward two-foot glide

Backward swizzles (6–8 in a row)

Two-foot turn from forward to backward in place

Moving snowplow stop

Forward alternating half swizzle pumps, in a straight line (slalom-like pattern)

Basic 3

Forward stroking, showing correct use of blade

Forward half swizzle pumps on a circle (6–8 consecutive clockwise and counterclockwise)

Moving forward to backward two-foot turn (clockwise and counterclockwise)

Backward one-foot glides (R and L)

Forward slalom

Two-foot spin (up to two revolutions)

Basic 4

Forward outside edge on a circle (R and L)

Forward inside edge on a circle (R and L)

Forward crossovers, clockwise and counterclockwise

Forward outside three-turn, R and L from a stand-still position

Backward half swizzle pumps on a circle, clockwise and counterclockwise

Backward stroking

Backward snowplow stop (R and L)

Basic 5

Backward outside edge on a circle (R and L)

Backward inside edge on a circle (R and L)

Backward crossovers, clockwise and counterclockwise

Beginning one-foot spin (up to three revs, optional entry and free-foot position)

Hockey stop

Side toe hop (both directions)

Basic 6

Forward inside three-turn (R and L from a standstill position)

Moving backward to forward two-foot turn on a circle, clockwise and counterclockwise

T-stop (R or L)

Bunny hop

Forward spiral on a straight line (R or L)

Forward lunge (R or L)

Technical and Tactical Skills:

There are six common jumps, which can be split into two basic categories: toe jumps (toe loop, flip, and Lutz) and edge jumps (Salchow, loop, and the axel). As the types imply, with toe jumps, a skater uses the pointy toe of the skate, called the “toe pick”, during takeoff. With edge jumps, they use the edge of the skate (inside or outside).

Toe jumps:

Toe loops —This jump takes off going backward on the right outside edge. As the skater leaps into the air he would twist left, crossing his left leg over the right, make 1,2, or 3 revolutions, and land on the right outside edge. Then swing his left leg behind to follow through.

Flips — The skater moves forward on the left leg and makes a 3-turn to get into the backward position. Skating backward on the left foot, back inside edge, the skater would then use the toe pick of her right leg to vault her into the air. After making 1,2 or 3 revolutions the skater would then land backward on the right foot, outside edge.

Lutz’s — It’s very difficult to stay balanced when launching into a full, mid-air revolution from the outside edge of the skate. While skating backward on the left foot, back outside edge, the skater uses the toe pick to vault into the air. After making 1,2 or 3 rotations the skater would then land on his right foot, outside edge.

Edge jumps:

Salchows — The salchow jump sees the performer launch into the air by pushing on the inside edge of their strongest foot. After performing a half-revolution in mid-air, the skater then lands smoothly onto the outside edge of their weaker foot, before continuing to skate their way across the ice.

Loop jumps — When attempting a loop jump, the figure skater takes off from the outside edge of their strongest foot before spinning a full-revolution in the air. The performer then lands back onto the same foot and either carry on skating across the ice or prepares to launch into another spin.

Axels — The axel takes off from a forward position on the left outside edge. The skater must then rotate 1 1/2, 2 ½, or 3 1/2 times before landing on the right back outside edge. The triple axel is the biggest challenge for women.

There are three common spins: the camel, the sit, and the upright.

The camel spin — is a one-footed spin in which the free leg is extended straight back above hip level, with both the leg and chest parallel to the ice.

The sit spin — is pretty self-explanatory. It’s done in a sitting position with the skating leg at least parallel to the ice.

The upright spin — is any spin with the skating leg extended, or almost extended, that’s not a camel spin.

Rules of the Game:

Individual events consist of a short program and a free skate. The former is seen as the technical test for skaters, where requirements are stricter and mistakes more costly. Of the 30 initial skaters, 24 make it to the free skate portion. For both men and women, the short program is 2:50 long (+/- 10 seconds). The women’s free skate is 4 minutes (+/- 10 seconds). The men’s is 4:30 (+/- 10 seconds). The scores from the short program and the free skate are combined to determine a winner.

Officiating the Sport:

As I observe there is one referee who oversees the ice conditions, ensures that all rules applicable to an assessment or competition are followed. Nine judges officiate at all levels of competitions and are responsible for assessing the quality with which a skater performs. One Technical Specialist and TechnicalControllers who are former athletes, coaches, Skate judges, or referees recruited for the correct identification of elements and levels. One Data Specialists are the individuals responsible for calculating the marks awarded by the judges and tabulating the final result.

Analysis:

USA 🇺🇸 — is the 1st performer in the single figure skating program. She did an explicit performance having the cleanest spin with a lovely line and extension for ribs changing position as layback spin to catch the foot, the footwork step in a sequence, the toe loop is clear. However, in the opening jump, she misses the triple combination that causes a one-point deduction in the overall score performance further than that team USA did a wholesome show.

BRA 🇧🇷— is the 2nd performer in the single figure skating program. She completed the required element for the program and did well and the safe landing on the double toe as well the loop is nicely executed. However, she is not that flexible makes her layback spin with the catch loop will be only level 2 even so she stimulates the music very well which makes her performance admirable because she's showing expression while performing.

UKR 🇺🇦— is the 3rd performer in the single figure skating program. Her performance is quite a pity since she got a two-point deduction for her performance. The opening first triple toe in the combination was quite good, however, she does not have enough speed to carry through the second jump that she missed went through the same thing that happens in the triple loop. She executes well on the double axel, her performance is more on footwork, and gestures tropical ended her show with a layback to catch-foot.

LAT 🇱🇻— is the 4th performer in the single figure skating program. She has exceptional choreography as she did the triple toe, triple loop, double axel, back entry to the combination spin to side waist-length leaning turn to the layback to the catch-foot are well played. However, she lacked step-on footwork and did not complete the three basic spin but did a classy performance.

KOR 🇰🇷— is the 5th performer in the single figure skating program. She's a strong competitor for 17 years old and her performance is lovely because of the right speed and choreography completed the triple toe, triple loops, double axel, startling footwork, jump in spin to the outside edge changing the position to the layback with speed to catch-foot. Overall her performance is surpassing, although she is unsatisfied with the score she got.

SWE 🇸🇪— is the 6th performer in the single figure skating program. She has a good speed and great flow on footwork and did a jump sit to a broken leg position that is very low and centered, did triple axel and the triple toe to triple toe, but on the second triple toe spin, she almost lost her balance, finishing her performance to a layback spin with a catch-foot. She's disappointed after finishing the presentation since made a big mistake at the top because she did a single jump which is not a valid element in the program.

CHN 🇨🇳— is the 7th performer in the single figure skating program. She has good quality on the combination spin with all quality position to camel spin proceeding to the footwork, good work on the triple toe-triple loop, double axel is outright low but very well done. She's completing all the position and movement to classic layback position to side waist to catch-foot. However, she missed the opening jump which was the opening triple flip that was supposed to be the combination. Moreover, she got full marks on the triple toe-triple loop jump combination.

SUI 🇨🇭— is the 8th performer in the single figure skating program. A 16 years old girl with no missed in the seven elements and did an excellent performance. She has done an outstanding job on the triple toe-triple toe together at a quality speed and footwork, the footwork doesn't cover much at the ice as it quite complex and it's not flowy, footwork to transition up to double axel, the side waist spin is unusual, back entry back camel spin and some illusion to change-foot and finish her performance with the flexibility and a smile.

KAZ 🇰🇿— is the 9th performer in the single figure skating program. She performs a piece of exotic music with exotic performance having an opening combination which is the triple axel-double toe it is a low-level combination jump but well successfully succeed, footwork is step sequence, she did pretty well delivering on the short progress although there is some problem.

FIN 🇫🇮— is the 10th performer in the single figure skating program. She wondrous performs lots of speed and high-quality jump on the triple toe-triple toe surprisingly clean, then executes a good transition on a high-quality double axel movement to marvelous lift even to the layer backspin to body movement and step sequence. However, she missed the triple loop because she does not have enough strength to land causes a one-point deduction to her score.

CAN 🇨🇦— is the 11th performer in the single figure skating program. She has a good speed as she did the opening combination triple salchow-triple toe but she sadly missed the landing on the triple toe for the reason of a one-point deduction, doing well on footwork, did the double axel that was a bit shaking as she lands on the ice, overall her performance is well-made.

FRA 🇫🇷— is the 12th performer in the single figure skating program. Her performance on the opening jump combination as she flips almost lost her balance that makes her hand touch to the ground proceeding to the double toe did the back camel to an upright position to sit position, done right on the triple loop, and the step sequence is slow, however, the crowd is enjoying it.

AUS 🇦🇺— is the 13th performer in the single figure skating program. She is a beautiful skater were emphasizes her performance with a charming expression that fascinates the crowd. She did a triple flip on the opening, has a great spin starting with a toner, step sequence using edge and loop, spectacular move on a double axel, excellent speed, and layback spin is nicely done. Overall, her performance is clean for having a green light on every element since she has a sense of expression and music.

HUN 🇭🇺— is the 14th performer in the single figure skating program. She chooses bright and rock music as she has delivered a fun performance. She did an excellent job on the triple toe-triple toe alternating the foot combination offset with the sit-to-back camel to an upright position means that she completed the three basic positions. Also, did well on a triple loop, has a good step sequence, and did a rush and split into a double axel to tropical entry to the layback.

ITA 🇮🇹— is the 15th performer in the single figure skating program. She has an interesting transition on the music among expression and composition with the triple flip, double axel, and good speed. Her performance was different where we want to figure out what it meant but it doesn't matter because it was well delivered. She may fail to complete the triple then combo where she misses on her next jump or both jump elements because of too much stress, however, she was please with her wonderful performance.

BEL 🇧🇪— is the 16th performer in the single figure skating program. She did a terrifically athletic performance, to have great movement and strength a good flow of footwork across the ice to a strong edge opening with a triple loop-triple toe, a big to sit spin to a nice irregular camel spin to change position to sit, and the upright, step transition to double axel, more footwork and did a single flip which is an invalid element, continue with a tropical entry into the layback to catch-foot with a good speed. She was unhappy with her performance since she doesn't have a point in one element because it's an invalid element.

GER 🇩🇪— is the 17th performer in the single figure skating program. She's a skater filled with confidence when she jumps and lands where you don't need to feel like you wonder if that's going to land or not because she can make the crowd feel comfortable. Her jumps are not that high but over well-executed, she did a neat triple flip for the opening also did triple toe-triple toe has a good series of turns and step sequences where curves are visible in and out.

SVK 🇸🇰— is the 18th performer in the single figure skating program. A clean performance for her for a good transition on the layback spin change position and speed to camel spin to sit spin to eight ball spin to upright spin. All the element step she plays was level 4 for every single element has received a positive grade for execution.

JPN 🇯🇵— is the 19th performer in the single figure skating program. She performs a centered layback spin, synchronizes footwork, expended execution on flying camel spin, completes the triple flip-triple toe and the triple loop, the jumps and spin are of dignified quality for a brilliant performance having the green light to a positive grade on every element. Her achievement is very pleasing to have a great flow and the jump looks effortless same as the spin for her to be called an astounding performer.

USA 🇺🇸— is the 20th performer in the single figure skating program. She looks tense since she's was next to perform to Japan who currently tops for all performers in the single figure skating program. She completed all the position and movement to layback position to side waist to catch-foot, did naturally execute the triple flip-triple toe. She also did a safe landing on the triple loop, however, miss the chance to do the figure for the triple axel causing a one-point deduction to her grade. Overall the gesture and transition are well done.

CAN 🇨🇦— is the 21st performer in the single figure skating program. She has incredible speed, the jump was high but quite majestic, footwork straight to the triple loop which was even better since she misses the double combination on the opening program causing a one-point deduction, but she did splendid execution on the other element. Overall, her performance is entertaining because her interpretation of the music is compliant.

USA 🇺🇸— is the 22nd performer in the single figure skating program. Her first jump attempt was a little bit of tilt where she almost lost balance but thankfully didn't get the fall yet there's a deduction to the points. She completed the footwork into the triple loop-double toe for the combination, pulling up a lovely spiral which is barely seen to the other performers to double axel. Overall, her performance tells a story as the symbolism of her hand gesture from beginning to end.

KAZ 🇰🇿— is the 23rd performer in the single figure skating program. She did a magnificent combination spin, a triple salchow-triple toe for the combination jump, double axel to butterfly into the flying camel to the inside edge, the transition was fast and neat which she has air good position and did a great job executing her show.

KOR 🇰🇷— is the 24th performer in the single figure skating program. She has a beautiful performance for she can bring emotion into it for a clean short program. She executes well on the triple loop-triple toe, back entry to the camel spin to sit and upright all in one foot then move to the triple flip, footwork is simple but elegant. Overall the performance was stunning and green light all the way.

RUS 🇷🇺— is the 25th performer in the single figure skating program. She has an enchanting performance, what I like most about her is the emotional feeling she brings as she skates into the ice where the breath and heartbeat have to do with her soul, choreography was very mature as truly she is a strong competitor. She did the camel start the triple flip-triple toe, a beautiful landing on the triple loop and triple axel, another beautiful combination spin, polished a beautiful shapes layback with ending great expression.

JPN 🇯🇵— is the 26th performer in the single figure skating program. She did the triple loop combination jump, a light entry into the fine camel turn, back to footwork to a secured triple loop, wonderful composition, and transition an excellent sigh to the double axel, very flexible as she does the layback to catch-foot. Overall, she is one of the best performers in the program and her movement does have meaning on it.

CAN 🇨🇦— is the 27th performer in the single figure skating program. She did a brilliant clear transition on the combination where the high is equal, footwork change feet to the triple loops to double axel. Her vibe makes you feel like in the European coffee in the late 1950s, her jumps were quite fast and high but sometimes a jump can be risky, so when there's a risk there should be a reward making her jump attempt worth it and superior.

RUS 🇷🇺— is the 28th performer in the single figure skating program. She nailed it a marvelous performance for 15 years old from Russia. She did complete the seven-element with a high average score for the green light all the way, starting with the different composition of spins, step sequence on footwork, the triple loop-triple loop, triple toe, double axel makes her all in all performance almost perfect.

ITA 🇮🇹— is the 29th performer in the single figure skating program. She has a good speed and great flow on footwork and did a jump sit to a broken leg position that is very low and centered. Also did triple flip-triple toe just the right leg edge coming out a little slow and the triple loop she almost lost her balance which an error in the step on the triple loop where she touches down with a hand causing for a deduction to her score, and finish her performance with a spin.

RUS 🇷🇺— is the last performer in the single figure skating program. She completed the required element for the program and did well and the safe landing on the double toe combination as well the axel is nicely executed. She has a lack of confidence but gracefully delivered well her performance however she wasn't able to control the landing on the triple loop causing a one-point deduction for that.

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