#the only other shows ive been into for an extended period of time have an insanely samcoded character that held me there

[draculagerard]

how the fuck am i supposed to care about any other show ever . there is literally no sam winchester there......

[hannieehaee]

i dont know if u accept smut reqs but if u don’t please ignore my ask and i’m so sorry for overstepping!!

but could i please req a hard dom!seungkwan who teaches u a lesson at home after u couldn’t stop whining and begging for him at dinner with ur friends?

18+ / mdi

content: dom!seungkwan, afab reader, teasing, smut, oral (m receiving), letc.

wc: 1399

a/n: im so sorry i took so long to finish this!!! ive been trying to make time for all reqs so its taking a while to get them all out T-T anyways thank u for requesting and i hope u enjoy!!

masterlist

it was common for seungkwan to bring you along whenever he had dinner with the members. it had kind of become a tradition to have dinner together at least once a month, with the members' respective significant others tagging along.

you had been part of the crew for a while, having been dating seungkwan for an extended period of time by now. you were practically just another friend to the members at this point, making all of you quite comfortable with one another.

maybe too comfortable.

seungkwan always thought of you as a well-behaved girl. not even in a dirty way or anything. he just knew you were never the type to act out in public or to purposely become a nuance to him. yes, you would banter with him sometimes, but it was always in good faith and never really went anywhere. sure, you'd often tease him in the bedroom and take advantage of your effect on him time after time, but this always remained behind closed doors.

which was why seungkwan was quite shocked at the way in which you had suddenly decided to behave.

you weren't being too obvious about it, keeping your brattiness between you and himself. it started with a few touches far too high on his thigh, followed by raunchy comments hidden behind a cough. then it evolved into lustful eyes staring down on his own whenever no one was looking.

it even manifested itself into you cornering him on your way to the bathroom as he came back from a bathroom break himself.

you'd planted a steamy kiss on his lips and felt him up in a very unseemly way before letting him know you 'wanted his cock so fucking bad' and making your merry way to the bathroom as he walked back to the table completely flustered. it then (unsurprisingly) proceeded into a text message received by seungkwan a few moments later, a message containing your bare breasts and a look in your eye that he only ever saw between the sheets. except you weren't between his sheets. you were at the restaurant's bathroom, making a fool of him with a mere picture.

that was more or less where seungkwan felt it'd be appropriate to put his foot down. he was never good at resisting you, and he knew that adding the extra layer of being surrounded by his members would only make him break sooner or later. so he decided to throw you a curveball and storm after you in the bathroom, coughing out an excuse of 'forgot my wallet in the restroom' to the other guys before sneaking his way into the hallway leading to the restroom. that's where he found you making your way back to the table before wordlessly dragging you to one of the spacious gender neutral stalls and locking the door.

immediately pushing you up against the wall, he practically growled out his next words.

"you wanted me to embarrass myself out there, huh? knowing i dont know how to act any time you tease me," he assessed, knowing he was right by your shocked expression.

you clearly were expecting him to crumble and make up some weak excuse in order to take you home as you smirked next to him, giving the members clear indication of who begged for who in the relationship. but he decided to turn things on you and give you a taste of your own medicine, maybe show you what it was like to get on your knees for your beloved.

"no, i-"

"did i say you could speak? good girls stay quiet til i tell them do speak. do you understand?", his hands went to run up and down your body, making a game plan of how he was going to take you.

"y-yes."

"good girl. now ..."

his eyed drifted down to your cleavage, reminding him of the dirty picture you had sent him earlier.

without a second thought, his hands grabbed onto your cleavage and forcefully pulled it down, ripping a bit at the arms of your dress before diving right to your tits, mouth open and willing.

"k-kwannie, what are you-"

he ignored your gasp, simply adding more force to the suckling of your breasts, using his arms to push up your hips against his own as he began to grind against you. his groans and your gasps were the only thing that could be heard in the empty restroom.

after getting his fill of your tits in his mouth, he became too frustrated by the mere friction he felt at the grinding of your hips, opting instead to guide you into a kneeling position in front of him.

"you're gonna be a good girl and take care of the problem you caused, right, baby?", he looked down at you with indescribable lust in his gaze.

"yes, kwannie ... want it in my mouth so bad," you begged, licking at him through his pants while you gave him the prettiest eyes he'd ever seen.

in any other occasion, this would've had him on his knees, begging for your mouth around his dick and crying as he felt the barest touch, but today he had to prove a point.

"stop messing around and get my cock out. don't make me repeat myself," he didn't recognize himself as he ordered you around, but he liked the shudder he saw go through you at his demanding tone.

without complaint, you hurriedly undid his pants and brought his boxers down, immediately getting to work as you licked and kissed at his tip.

he threw his head back at your teasing, unable to reprimand you for it. it just felt so fucking good.

luckily for both you and him, this didn't last long. before even realizing it, you were already gagging on as much of his cock as you could get into your mouth, looking up at him with furrowed brows as you wordlessly begged him. he was confused as to what you were begging for at first, only realizing what you meant when you brought his hands behind your head, slightly making him push your head forward and- oh.

was this what you wanted? was this what you'd been after all along?

you wanted him to take control and use you for his pleasure. fuck.

he almost came at the realization, until realizing that he'd much rather cum after fucking your mouth until you cried.

he began pistoling his hips against your mouth, moaning as you let yourself become his pretty fleshlight while he groaned at both the sight and feeling. maybe you weren't a bad behaved girl after all. maybe all you wanted was him to take his frustrations out on you and use you like the pretty doll you were.

or at least he hoped this was the case, because he was already addicted.

"pretty thing ... oh, fuck. such a pretty thing for me to use, aren't you? gonna cum in your mouth, okay? gonna fill you up and you're gonna swallow it all for me, yeah?", he mumbled between moans, knowing his end would come faster than expected.

and he was right. his orgasm took over just moments later, with his hands dragging your head up and down his cock while his hips thrust into your awaiting mouth. he completely lost himself as his orgasm washed over him, making him lose all sense of his surroundings and almost disregard your gagging as he filled your mouth.

he pulled away moments after, crying out in painful pleasure when you still managed to suckle on his sensitive tip as he pulled himself out of your mouth.

he let himself fall down against the wall, now sitting at your level as he tried to catch his breath.

"i hate you," he groaned between breaths.

"yeah. i believe that. you just fucked my mouth like you wanted me dead," you chuckled as you also attempted to regulate your breathing.

"wasn't that what you wanted?", he quirked an eyebrow at you.

"maybe."

"you menace," he chuckled despite his words.

"you like it," you got close enough to him to land a sweet peck on his lips.

"i wont when we have to go out there and explain what we were doing this whole time."

"i got my fill of cock, nothing else matters."

he'd been completely wrong. you were absolutely not a well-behaved girl.

[cherrypikkins]

Here is my contribution to today's prompt from @fe-oc-week! Oct 13 - Joy

Once again with more Kitt lore :3

(cw blood, injury, body horror)

everything below the read more!

Gwyn, the Unsung Hero - Part II Though the story of Gwyn is little known in Fodlan society, one tale that has recently surfaced from obscurity is that of the Ghost of Annwen.

Legends say that the spirit of a fallen warrior sleeps for a hundred years at a time, deep beneath a lake hidden in the Oghma Mountains. When it wakes, it shows one of two faces - that of a great hero or a terrible demon. None may know which face it will show when it awakens - only that the world will be forever changed. Even in sleep, it guards the mountains, ensuring peace and order, answering the prayers of those who are in great danger. However, those who dare incite violence and tragedy within the ancient sanctuary will be hunted down without mercy by the Demon of Annwen.

There was a time in ancient history when it brought unfathomable destruction and chaos to Fodlan, and was condemned to death for its misdeeds.

And yet, there was another time when it saved Fodlan from certain doom, sacrificing itself in the process.

The hero is just and fair as much as the demon is cruel and wretched, so says the tale. So different in their natures, yet they are bound together, trapped to wander this mortal realm in a hopeless, never-ending search for salvation. But what is the true meaning of the 'salvation' that it seeks? How does one grant salvation to that which is already dead?

Once there was a scholar who penned this tale in full, even citing evidence that attributes this tale to Gwyn, the Unsung Hero of Annwen. However, this script has since been struck by the Church, under the orders of Seteth. How strange that such a simple tale would be condemned as blasphemy under the eyes of Seiros.

Supposedly, the librarian Tomas took such an interest in the tale that he traveled to the Oghma Mountains for months at a time to visit the village of Annwen, hoping to learn more. In recent years, he seems to have returned to his duties working at the Garreg Mach library full-time. When asked of his research, he said that his efforts bore little fruit - it seems that the so-called 'Ghost of Annwen' is little more than a fanciful story.

These days, it seems more and more likely that no such spirit exists today - for Demonic Beasts now roam and rampage the once tranquil mountainside where Annwen formerly stood, and there is neither a hero nor a demon present to keep the peace. And yet, those brave enough to venture into the forbidden wilderness will find it mysteriously strewn with corpses - that of both monsters and sinister mages garbed in masks and dark robes.

The Capricious One - Part IV Of all Nabateans, the Capricious One was said to be the most talented in their ability to shapeshift and transform.

They even had the ability to suppress the power of their Nabatean blood, hiding their Crest in order to better assume the guise of a common beast or a human.

Some said they were the weakest amongst their family. Others said they simply preferred to keep their true strengths hidden, and were not to be underestimated.

Little did the Children of the Goddess know, that so great was their power to transform that they could split their physical forms voluntarily, with each part fully alive and able to act independently of the other. But to do so repeatedly and for extended periods of time would invite confusion. Changes in personality. Distorted memories. A loss of self. And eventually, madness. Thus, whether in form or in spirit, all parts must one day rejoin, lest existence itself become unbearable.

The only one who knew of this power was the Hammer of Judgment. When the two were younger, he saw that the Capricious One was eager to test their limits, and so asked his sibling, "Do you not fear losing yourself forever?" The Capricious One laughed at this and answered, "To remember who I am, I need only to look towards The Beginning."

Now, Sothis is gone, leaving behind nary a beacon to guide a lost and shattered soul from the depths of madness. And to this day, there exist countless Demonic Beasts that carry even the smallest essence of the Capricious One's blood in their veins. With each one felled, they reclaim a part of themselves, that even in death they may someday become whole once more.

[hood-ex]

so ive only watched a few spn episodes ever, and your tags whenever you talk about any batfam member and comparing it to them makes me curious about your full thoughts regarding them, as in: who do you think dick is more like between dean and sam?

Dick shares qualities and experiences with both brothers, but I personally think he's more like Sam than he is like Dean.

I think when Dick was younger, he more closely resembled Dean in the sense that he started fighting young as Robin, and he wanted to be Robin. Likewise, Dean was brought into the hunter fold (or the knowledge of it) earlier on in life, and he enjoyed hunting, unlike Sam.

Dick and Dean also had a more similar relationship with their fathers. Bruce had high expectations for Dick to be Robin while John had high expectations for Dean to protect and provide for Sam. Essentially, if Bruce and John told their sons to jump, Dick and Dean would be the ones asking, "How high?"

Despite that, I think Dick and Sam are more similar for the following reasons:

Dick and Sam are more independent. Dick left Robin behind as well as his place at Bruce's side so he could become his own man and hero. Sam left a life of hunting behind to go to college and to live a normal life. Sam was also left by himself a lot when John and Dean went hunting, leaving him to fend for himself many times.

Dick went to law school and apparently has a law degree. Sam went to Stanford and intended to go to law school until he got dragged back into the hunting business. Speaking of school, Dick and Sam were more academically studious than Dean.

Dick and Sam are both good at leading teams. Dick has led multiple teams, and Sam led a group of hunters to take down the British Men of Letters as well as led members from the apocalypse world.

Dick and Sam both have a repeated history of loss of autonomy. Both are possessed or taken control of quite a few times.

Dick and Sam are generally more health conscious and aren't as gluttonous as Dean.

Dick and Sam are more empathetic/compassionate. Dick is willing to extend a hand to others even when they stumble on their path. Sam's empathy deals more with morality and how he realizes that not all monsters are inherently bad and that they don't all deserve to die. Sam can also be a lot more gentle and understanding when dealing with monsters or victims (hence why Dean once remarked that Sam was always saying "pansy" stuff to people).

Sam would absolutely murder Joker if given the chance since he HATES clowns and fears them. Dick and Sam have clown killing solidarity.

Dick and Sam's guilt has pushed them to extremes on a few occasions. For example, Dick and the Blockbuster situation. Dick tried to convict himself to prison over it. According to Bruce, he had also been showing suicidal tendencies during that period. Sam is similar in that he saw his imprisonment in hell for 100+ years as atonement for his sin (aka getting tricked into freeing Lucifer from his cage which then started the apocalypse). He also was going to let himself die after doing a series of trials because he no longer valued his life after viewing himself as a screw-up/unworthy.

When they take parental roles, Dick and Sam are more patient and understanding with their kids. Dick with Damian and Sam with Jack (Jack is a nephilim who becomes Castiel, Sam, and Dean's kid). Now Dean is actually great with kids (no surprise since he's got a baby brother) but he's horrible to Jack. I actually don't even like to think of him as one of Jack's parents because he never really trusted Jack and wanted him dead multiple times. (SPN characterization was not always... the best... in those later seasons alksda.) And listen, sometimes Dick did lose his patience with Damian, but he was never horrible to him the way Dean was with Jack.

There are also ways Dick, Sam, and Dean are all similar such as how they're all clever and inventive. Dick's a detective and uses his skills to solve problems. He also builds gadgets or inventions to assist him in his cases.

Hunting monsters also involves some form of detective work, but Sam is smart in other ways such as figuring out how to do a reverse exorcism on the spot. In season 11 when Sam got infected by a rabid virus and was trying to find a cure, he lured a rabid man to him with a video and then zapped him with a taser he built with materials from a hardware store.

Sam will be referred to as the brains of the operation, but Dean is smart as well, and Sam even says so in canon. Dean's good at lore and at figuring things out on a hunt. Plus, he's an amazing mechanic and knows how to work a car, which is something that he shares in common with Dick. Sam is less so involved with the mechanics of the car, but Dean taught him more about it before he was dragged to hell.

All three of them are also intimate with sacrifice. In general, they give up so much of their own lives to help others. In specific, Dick sacrificed everything to infiltrate Spyral. Sam sacrificed himself to lock Lucifer away in hell. Dean sacrificed the rest of his life to bring Sam back to life. And those are only a few examples. They sacrifice so much more.

[omegasmileyface]

HEY ITS ME although I am obviously super invested in Astro Boy I still want to ask questions out of evil intent. So I wanna know !! What are your favourite versions of Bem and Atlas ?? Which adaptation do you think handled their characters best / most interestingly ?

>:3c

hmm... the only versions of Bem i can think of are the 60s one and the 2001 one (though i do see a bit of em in tima metropolis) and i actually haven't seen the 2001 movie hehe ,, so i don't think i can pass judgement here BUT. 60s bem is perhaps my favorite astro boy character Period, and the 2001 version would have a hard (but not impossible) time beating the original with regards to their weird alien magic, their apathy in response to catastrophe, their grace in self-sacrifice, whatever the FUCK they were doing with gender, and their relationship to atom. ough. i want to find a method to save them at the last minute and then adopt them and let them enjoy human hobbies forever. here have this bem i doodled last night

[ID: a cartoony red pencil doodle of Bem from Astro Boy. Their humanoid part (a robot which looks like a preteen human, with hair shaped like bird wings) is floating casually above their non-humanoid part (a box like a minifridge), wearing a chef's outfit and giving a peace sign. End ID.]

now what would you do if i said 50s atlas. huh ?

[ID: a picture from a black and white manga panel. It shows a robot who looks like a teenage boy. He's not wearing clothes, and the tube of his torso extends down past his pelvis and works as a rocket propeller, giving him the look of a torpedo with limbs. His solid, black "hair" has several tubes jutting up from it. End ID.]

actually in the process of getting that screenshot i reread The Entire Atlas Story. not as silly as i remember! he serves as sort of an introduction to the capability of robots to do evil on purpose. he's capable of evil thought because of the Omega Factor (not to be confused with the Omega Radar, which atom and cobalt use to find each other), which his creator also wants to put in atom, so that they can help him get revenge on colonial/imperialist society (one of tezuka's semi-successful attempts at commenting on systemic racism). its implied that atlas is capable of good, too, he just hasn't been introduced to it. he gets fucking disintegrated btw.

that serves as a very good intro ramp before the Blue Knight Saga and its approaches to good amd evil, and tezuka's preferred order puts it shortly before, likely for that reason. I'm not sure how to feel about the idea that atom isn't capable of evil, and what that might say abt how "advanced" he is- i like to think he's capable of evil, and actively chooses to be good, but whatever. also im just gonna say it this design is ugly as fuck lol

80s was fun. kinda fused atlas and blue knight into the same character? ive never gotten the chance to see the anime episode with small atlas, so i only know his lore from the 80s comics, which i bet is different and siller. he's like atom, except he needed a special 8th power, and his creator decided that would be pissing on things to blow them up? "Like a cicada"? ok . he drank ink once. i love him. hes like jetter mars to me. anyway. as an adult in the anime he did surprisingly well as a long-term antagonist for astro. it's hard to take that damn show stylishly, but i did cry in the finale when atlas declared himself atoms brother. i liked the idea that they were going for, where the two have a lot in common both physically and mentally, and this omega radar ties them to each other unendingly, but atlas will always have a grudge against humans and atom will always love them? that's great. but i feel like they didn't explore it much, and a lot of it was just Come Fight Me I Fucking Dare You (maybe also to mix in Pluto with atlas and bk? saving on voice actors lmao). and i don't even know what was going on with Livian. shrug. congrats to atlas for having a third boob added though!

now 2003. OUGH 2003 did so nicely as an addition of previous atlases. they kind of departed a little bit from previous versions by having him be, for instance, a creation of tenma, but i don't dislike how they used that change. the way they took the "im just like you" thread that they started on with 80s and amped it up by making atlas not only the second robot ever to be made with the same heart/adaptability as atom, but also to be ANOTHER desperate failed father's attempt at fixing his mistakes, resulting in a new person coming out of the ghost of his neglected son?? he's not just atom's foil to the viewer, he's atom's foil to tenma. he leads up perfectly as the step before Pluto (before Shadow) and before Blue Knight in introducing robots capable of evil to society, in introducing robots who don't want to be nice to atom, and in developing tenma's obsession with evolving atom to greater lengths. here's a vengeful robot with the memories of a vengeful son. here's a robot too powerful for atom to fight without, somehow, growing. here's a victim of the growing anti-AI tide. here's someone who's just like you, here to warn you that something bigger is coming.

also he looks cool as hell. shoutout to 03 atlas

[ectonurites]

can anybody please explain the appeal of tim drake because ive been into the batfamily for a while now and tbh im really confused on why people like his character so much compared to the other robins. like they all have their own thing going on and he just... doesnt?

Have you read his Robin solo? Because if not and you want to try to like him but just don’t understand why people do, that’s what I’d recommend. That and like, Young Justice 1998. 

Because Tim definitely... does have his own thing going on. Maybe not in the same way as the others, but like, there’s a reason he has a 183 issue long solo comic that ran for like 16 years: he was fun to read about!

But I will give some more specific thoughts on the subject as a Tim Drake Appreciator™ (this got long im sorry)

The appeal of Tim (especially early on Tim) is kinda the fact that he’s this more normal kid. For a while that is his ‘thing’. He was basically designed to be a self-insert (he definitely became more than that along the way, but from the start he was meant to be relatable) in a different way than how Dick and Jason had been before him. 

Like the role of Robin from the start was this way to create a character young readers could identify with more, could see themselves in more. And Dick and Jason did that, but they still had this element to their lives and stories that was more... unattainable for the average reader. Dick was a circus prodigy, Jason was either also a circus prodigy if we remember pre-crisis or if we go with his post-crisis story he’s this street-wise orphaned kid who had a really tough life but still went on to be a hero anyways. Obviously those lives are relatable for some people, but those’re definitely not as broadly recognized as common upbringings especially not by DC trying to market to the ‘average’ kid/young teen.

But the creation of Tim changed the game a bit. Dick and Jason were these aspirations a kid could look to like ‘wow I want to be cool like that!’ but Tim was a Robin designed for kids to look at and go ‘wow, his problems and civilian life are just like mine AND he’s a hero, I want to be cool like that!’, ya know? Tim was... just a clever kid with an average life who managed to connect some dots and had enough drive to want to fix things he saw were a problem, he didn’t have the same kind of heightened drama backstory the others did. The Robins that came after Tim definitely didn’t have this idea of relatability in mind the same way either. Unfortunately Steph’s time as Robin was much more of a marketing ploy than an actual like... decision to make her Robin, so it’s hard to really fit her into this conversation. But Damian from the start was first of all initially created not to be Robin but just as the son of Talia and Bruce back in the 80’s, but when he was later reimagined into the character that would become Robin he had the whole ‘raised by and is the heir to the league of assassins and is the son of batman’ thing going on still. He just was not supposed to be relatable that same way, he was a character designed with different things in mind.

I really think it was more just DC’s 90′s era younger-audience comics in general that tried to push that relatability thing (like in YJ how Cissie even after quitting the team stays a major character as a civilian throughout, and the civilian aspect that’s super present in Bart’s 90s solo too, etc), but later in the 2000’s that idea was definitely pushed to the side in favor of... putting in even more dramatic superhero-y stuff.

And the other thing that’s... such a more normal thing but it actually made him unique here, was that Tim’s dad was still alive until like 2004 (so 15 years into Tim being around as a character). This gave Tim a lot more typical ‘family school girlfriends normal life etc’ problems on top of/in contrast with his superhero problems. These just manifested in very different ways than they could with the other Robins because of that unique situation with a living civilian parent who doesn’t know about hero stuff (until he did find out which lead to that whole Unmasked thing, but there was only the brief time around War Games & Identity Crisis where Jack knew Tim was actively Robin and he was... still alive) Tim also had his life at school expanded way more than most other Robins, like, he had such an extended supporting cast of civilian friends which is a really interesting thing to read about (and the fact that he hasn’t had that stuff since the New 52 I think really hurts his character)

And then related to that loss of his dad... Personally another thing about Tim that really interests me is how a lot of things were more... his choice. if that makes sense. A lot of characters in the Batfamily were struck with tragedy/extreme trauma before they became heroes and that’s what spurred them into this life of becoming heroes. Tim’s situation wasn’t like that at all! When he first got involved in everything during Lonely Place of Dying, the only tragedy he’d experienced was watching Dick’s tragedy happen. Which sure yes traumatic obviously, but that’s not the same as how pretty much all the other Bats had gone through these very personal losses or other sorts of very first-hand personal traumas that served as motivators. Tim didn’t start to experience those things until after he got involved in the hero life, and aside from his Mom’s death which was more of just an unrelated incident (that technically happened before he was officially Robin but it was during his time training to become Robin), pretty much all these other tragedies and things... would not have happened or been experienced by him had he not become Robin. 

That’s not me placing blame on him or anything like that, because god no that’s not how that works, but it’s very interesting because from his point of view he definitely feels that guilt because he knows him being Robin played a role in a lot of it (Thinking specifically about in Adventure Comics #3 when Kon even says “I know what guilt does to you” to him like it’s... it’s a thing with him!). His dad was murdered because he was Robin. He only met Steph and started dating her through being Robin, and thus he would not have experienced the loss of his girlfriend dying like that had he not been Robin. Tim met both Conner and Bart through being Robin, and would not have had a personal connection to them when they died otherwise. The whole Bruce’s death thing after Final Crisis, like. I could go on honestly, that was only talking about losses not even his own experiences nearly getting killed, but yeah, all these personal tragedies were experienced by him specifically because he chose to bring himself into this life, which I think in turn plays into how throughout his comics you see him go from having this really optimistic view on things and being really hopeful to seeing him at that low point he reaches by the time of Red Robin. (thinking about that one post that points out how Tim started out in the 90′s as an optimist and Steph a cynic and by the time they were Red Robin and Batgirl in 2009 they had switched outlooks...) 

I also think that him having had such a great team book with the original Young Justice can help contribute to people liking him. His friendships with the rest of the core four and that team in general are really compelling. (and that’s something like again when looking at the other Robins, while Dick had the Titans ofc, Jason never really found footing with a team outside of like one mission with the Titans and then We All Know How Damian’s Teen Titans Stuff Went. Steph also only ever really worked with a team outside the batfam on very brief occasions) and even though I’m not as big of a fan of the 2003 Teen Titans run that came after YJ, people who read Young Justice and also that could follow and be attached to those same characters over a pretty decently long period of time. 

Idk man, I don’t really have an ultimate point here i’m just rambling. I can definitely understand not seeing the appeal to him right away (honestly i’ve been into Batfam since like 2013/2014 and Tim did not become one of my faves until 2020) especially if like... idk when you say ‘into the batfamily’ that can mean a lot of different things. If you’re reading more like the bigger events with the batfam sure Tim can kinda fade into the bg a bit, if you’re more talking about fanon the fanon version of him is prettyyyyy uhhhhh not really the same as how he was in pre New 52 canon, if you’re mainly reading New 52 era Batfam stuff then that Tim I also don’t understand the appeal of bc thats Not My Boy, if you’re interested in a different member primarily and only familiar with Tim when he shows up in things focused on that other character then it’s easy to not really understand the appeal right away bc he’s more there to support that character rather than shine in his own right. 

I think it’s also worth mentioning he’s just not everybody’s cup of tea, and that’s totally fine. Like, these are fictional characters and sometimes you just will vibe with a character and sometimes you won’t! idk if this helped at all or even made sense. but yeah. I just think he’s neat 😌

[thedevilliers]

THE GARDANIAN GUIDE TO TRAVEL: VOLUME 1

Royal Family Edition. while on break, I decided to expand my already written About Gardania page on my blog! Under the cut (and on said page) you can read a little more about Gardania and the ‘unwritten’ rules the RF has to follow ♡

Throughout the years, experts have identified a certain amount of ‘unwritten rules’ that most members of the De Villiers Royal Family must follow, more specifically every heir:

1. The De Villiers official color is DARK BLUE.

De Villiers women are supposed to wear the family color, this being dark blue or indigo blue, to every event. This ‘unwritten rule’ was followed by centuries with it’s exceptions, such as mourning periods, it wasn’t until Queen Alena was the first to ‘break it’ by wearing other colors to official and foreign events. She was cited to have said ‘The De Villiers have left a lasting mark around multiple kingdoms. What I decide to wear won’t change any of our longstanding impact. Thank you.’’ Consequently, Queen Blair and Crown Princess Amelia followed her footsteps by showing up to events in not only dark blue, but other colors. It’s now only recommended that if possible, they should wear dark blue to foreign royal events to represent and symbolize the De Villiers royal family.

2. No foreign marriages for the Heir.

Throughout history, no De Villiers crown heir has married foreign royalty. It’s always been tradition for Crown Heirs to marry locally. This doesn’t mean that they can’t, only that it’s so deeply rooted that the De Villiers family, to keep Gardania being represented by other fellow Gardanians, should marry a Gardanian. When Crown Princess Amelia becomes Queen, this tradition will follow, with The Duke of Clermont, Oliver De Villiers, being born in Gardania. It’s expected that when the time comes, it will continue with Princess Emilia, and so on. This last point does not extend to the spares, who are free to marry either locals, nobility, foreigners or foreign royalty.

3. Engagements rings are always sapphire.

Every engagement ring given to or by the Crown Heir has to be Sapphire. Once again, Sapphire being a reminder of the official De Villiers color. To this day, all engagement rings have followed this tradition.

4. Divorce? Not an option.

No Crown Heir or Monarch has ever divorced their partner, most considering it’s not even an option for couples. The Queen and King and the Crown Prince(ss) and their partner are seen as an inspiration and an image of the ‘perfect union’. Spares are, of course, allowed to separate without trouble.

5. Two Queens in a Row.

Crown Princess Amelia will be the first ever Queen of Gardania, followed by Princess Emilia, who will follow her mother to become Gardania’s second Queen ever. CP Amelia’s approval ratings are higher than her father’s when he was Crown Prince, most of the public supporting her for ‘being outspoken and kind’’.

6. Up to the monarch: death or abdication.

The Gardanian throne can be inherited by the heir, either by death of the Monarch or by abdication. Throughout history, Kings have only abdicated in favor of their heirs due to extreme illness, this being the case of King Gideon, King Nolan and the last one being King Alexander. There has only been a case of a Queen regent with Queen Gwyneth stepping up for then Crown Prince Nolan until he became of age.

List of Gardanian Monarchs — Current year is 2053.

[...] King John I, King Louis I, King Louis II, King Louis III, King John II, King John III, King Phillip I, King Frederick, King Gideon, King Nolan, King John IV, King Benjamin, King John V,

King Alexander (1906-1975) → Married Queen Amelie.

King John VI (1930-2000) → Married Queen Anna (1939-1988) in 1964.

King Louis de Villiers IV (1955-2019), ruled from 2000 to 2019. → Married Queen Alena (1964-2019) in 1986. 

King David de Villiers I (born in 1987), is currently ruling. → Married Queen Blair (born in 1992) in 2016.

LINE OF SUCCESSION — As of 2053 (as of march 2021).

–♚ HM King David I

HRH Crown Princess Amelia [daughter of King David]

HRH Princess Emilia [daughter of Crown Princess Amelia]

HRH Prince Alexander [son of Crown Princess Amelia]

HRH Prince Theodore [son of Crown Princess Amelia]

HRH Princess Theresa [daughter of Crown Princess Amelia]

HRH Prince Harry [son of King David]

HRH Princess Madeleine [daughter of Prince Harry]

HRH Princess Lorelei [daughter of Prince Harry]

for full line of succession, HERE.

[boxdyeblonde]

Safety

A/N: this is the first fic ive posted on tumblr.... so we’ll see how this goes, lol. i wrote this to cope with some stuff and was honestly thinking about how i need soft but protective Din in my life

Warnings: TW for mentions and vague descriptions of sexual assault, plus consensual nsfw moments

Rating: 18+

Pairing: Din Djarin x reader (i think i kept this gender neutral until the last little bit)

Word count: Just under 2.9k

---

You sat alone in the back of the Razor Crest, blanket draped around your shoulders. It was one of those days again. You couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened, how even though you said no, and pushed away, no one ever listened. All of your past lovers had been greedy. Greedy for you, or at least the physical side of you. It made you sick to even think about.

The ship touched down and you heard some shuffling from the cockpit, along with the child’s babbling and murmur from Din in response. Din walked back towards you, the child in his arms. You held yourself, still feeling uncomfortable and somewhat nauseous from your thoughts.

“Hey,” Din says, looking at you, “Are you alright? You’re not looking too well.” You could hear the concern in his voice, and could picture it written across his face, the face that you had seen only once before. You look up at him, slowly pulling yourself out of your own head.

“Hm? Oh, yeah,” you mutter out, “Yeah, I’m not feeling the best today.” You looked at him nervously as he tilted his head.

“Okay, well, I’m going to go into town with the kid. If you’re up for it you can come with,” he said, the concern in his voice mixed with a hopeful tone. While you didn’t necessarily want to be alone, you weren’t sure that you had the energy or focus to go out with them. You didn’t want to be a burden if a fight broke out, you typically could hold your own, even in a sparring match against Din, but you were too distracted today to be of any help.

You shook your head, “I think I’ll stay here,” you say, offering Din a weak smile, “I’m going to go lie down for a while.” You stand up, walking towards the cot in the back of the ship.  As you near him he gently grabs your arm. You glance up at him.

“We won’t be gone long,” he says looking down at you. “If you need anything you know how to reach me.” You nod, placing your hand on the breastplate of his beskar.

“Thank you,” you say, “Be safe out there.” You reach over to the child’s head and give it a soft pat. Din nods, and opens the ship’s hatch.  You walk over to the cot and sit down, watching him leave.

After Din has left you lay down staring at the wall, your thoughts slowly consuming you again. Most days you were fine, repressing the feelings for long periods of time, but when they resurfaced, they came all at once, and more intense than before. You felt hopeless at times, at others you dirty or unclean, and sometimes you felt as if you wouldn’t be able to have a successful relationship with anyone ever again. Even in the few times a relationship between you and someone else had started to bud, the minute anything more than just “romantic” happened, you immediately went on edge, and would end things immediately after.

You felt extremely relaxed around Din, though. The two of you had expressed the way you felt to each other a few months ago, and he knew all too well about your past. Din had helped you out of a night out that had gone bad. He wasn’t typically one to get involved in other’s problems but he couldn’t just walk away when he heard your cries for help from around the corner of the cantina.

—

He wouldn’t let go of you, no matter how much you struggled. You managed to get a solid right hook in but he was a lot stronger than you, and you hadn’t had a lot of fighting experience yet.

But then Din appeared, shrouded in beskar and accompanied by a small green child, coming to your rescue with a swift sucker punch. He and your attacker continued to throw punches until the Mandalorian had landed a hard uppercut, knocking the man out cold.

By now you were seated on the ground, having slowly slid down the outside wall of the cantina still in shock from everything that had happened. The Mandalorian walked over to you, offering his hand.

“Are you alright?” He asked, his voice was smooth despite the raspy edge that his helmet’s modulator created. You were taken aback, but reached for his hand anyway. As he pulled you up to your feet you could see the child’s face peak over the pram he was in. Nodding slowly you muttered out a confirmation.

“Do you have somewhere safe to go?” The Mandalorian asked, looking down at you. He had a gut feeling that you were someone he could trust, as did you. You shook your head no and looked down. “I have a space on my ship where you can stay for the night.”

You nodded, “Okay… Thank you,” you murmured out.

He led you back to his ship, where he set you up with his cot and a blanket or two.

“There’s only one bed here?” You said, your anxiety beginning to spike.

“I know,” he said, “I’ll sleep in the cockpit, don't worry. The bed is yours for the night. Get some rest.” You sighed in relief shoulders beginning to relax.

As the Mandalorian put the kid down for bed, you stayed on alert until he was on his way to the cockpit.

“Hey…,” You say quietly, feeling nervous as he turns his head to look at you. “Um.. Thanks…”

“Din,” he says, “you can call me Din.”

“Thank you, Din.” He nods back at you before heading up into the cockpit.

—

You were glad that the one night you were supposed to stay turned into a week, which soon turned into a month, and so on. You truly felt the safest with him, even when you were shooting up stormtroopers, tracking down bounties, and settling fights outside of cantinas.

A few tears slipped down your face as you thought about what might’ve happened if he hadn’t been there that night. The thought causing your stomach to drop.

The door to the ship slowly hissed, lowering itself, your anxiety spiked until you heard the little laugh of the child. The time had flown by, you were too lost in your memories to notice.

After Din had entered the ship, he set the child down in its pram, and walked back over to you. Leaning one arm against the door frame he spoke up, “How are you feeling?”

You wiped you face and sat up, sniffing slightly. “Better,” you said, voice cracking.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, a pang of sadness and concern running though him. “Do you want to talk about it?” He asks, taking your hand.

You shook your head, “It’s just the usual… can’t shake the memories.” He nodded.

“Come here,” he says, extending out his arms. As you slowly meld against his body you can’t hold back the tears.

"I just want to be okay again,” you say in between sobs. His heart aches, hearing you sob into the crook of his neck, feeling your body shake in his arms. He desperately wanted to make all of your pain and suffering go away, and he was willing to do anything it would take.

“Hey,” he cooed, “It’s okay, cyar’ika. I’m here, and I will always protect you.” He shifted you onto his lap as he cradled you against his body. You sat there in his arms, crying until you ran out of tears.

“Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum.” he whispered, pressing a soft kiss against your temple.

—

Two weeks had passed, and you were finally feeling better. You were onto another planet with Din and the child, a less busy planet, where the three of you could lay low for a week or two.

Din peeled off his beskar, leaving only his underclothes and his helmet. He stretched his arms over his head, unaware of your staring as his shirt slowly rose above his waistband. You desperately wanted to feel the warmth of his skin against yours. You came out of your trance when he winced slightly, lowering his arms, and rubbing his neck and shoulder letting out a sigh.

“Come over here,” you say, seated in the middle of the bed, patting the space in front of you. He walks over and sits down on the edge of the bed, looking back at you. “Turn around,” you coo, shifting behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder. If it were anyone else he wouldn’t have complied but he trusted you. As you knelt behind him you began to rub small circles into his shoulders, kneading at the tight muscles. He let out a groan that caught you by surprise.

“You’re so tense, love… When is the last time you stretched?”

He chuckled slightly, “Not for a while.”

“Din…,” you sigh, shaking your head. This man needed to take better care of himself, you thought to yourself.

As you worked your way around his shoulders and neck, diffusing each knot you found, he let out small moans of relief.

It started to get to you. You started to wonder if those were the very same sounds he would make if you kissed him, if you ran your hands over the rest of his body.

You kissed his shoulder, signaling that you were done massaging, as you snaked around to the front of his body, straddling him and hanging your arms around his neck. He looked up at you, shocked. He figured that it would take you a long time to get truly comfortable with him and with your past before you would do something this intimate with him.

“Cyar’ika…” He says, trailing off, his hands gravitating to your hips. You took a deep breath, knowing those were his hands on your body and no one else’s, knowing that he only ever held you with kindness and love.

Your hands moved up to his helmet. “Can I?” You asked. You never asked, not once over the year you had spent with him, never forcing or begging him to show his face.

—

The first time you had seen his face, you had been shot.  During a long fight with some Imperial troops, one of the sharpshooters had grazed your side with a blaster shot. You managed to keep shooting from your cover, but you couldn’t go anywhere.

After Din had finally taken care of the rest, he came running back to you. The fear coursing though his body as he saw you holding your side in pain.

Kneeling down next to you he pulled your hand away from the wound. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad.

“This is gonna be uncomfortable,” he said. Not wanting to put you in any more pain, but needing to get you back to the ship, he slipped his arms under you and picked you up. You groaned in discomfort.

When he got you back to the ship he treated your wound. Taking off his gloves he kneeled at your side and applied bacta, bandaging you up after.

“Don’t do that again,” he said, still kneeling next to you.

“What? Take out half the platoon for you?” You asked, somewhat defensive, while wincing in pain.

“No, get hurt…” he says.

“This lifestyle can’t support that promise,” you say, chuckling slightly and holding your side.

“I just— I can’t—” he starts, looking down and searching for the words to say. He reaches up to his helmet, slowly pulling it off. Your eyes widen with shock, you had never seen Din without his helmet.

“Din…” You say, involuntarily reaching a hand up to caress his face.

“I love you,” he states abruptly. His eyes were somewhat glossy from all of his pent up emotions. Fear, anger, guilt, concern, and love. “I just want you to be okay.” He looks down, afraid of your reply while simultaneously hiding his emotions so clearly splayed across his face.

“I love you, too,” you whispered back. Guiding his face back up to yours, and looking into his dark brown eyes.

—

Din nodded to you, at a loss for words. How could he ever say no to you? Especially while you sat on top of him, gazing down upon him. You were like an ethereal being looking down upon him from the heavens, and he was blessed by your presence alone.

You slowly lift his helmet off, and set it down on the bed next to you. One hand reaching up to caress his cheek, the other moving to tangle into his hair.

“I love you,” you say, stroking your fingers though his soft curls. Feeling your body pressed up against his, you yearned for more. The desire you felt inside hadn’t been around for years, but somehow it was roaring back to life in this moment. You pushed your hips down against him slightly, leaning in to plant a kiss on his lips.

He sighed against your lips, running one of his hands up your back, pulling your bodies closer. One of your hands slowly slid down to land firmly on his chest, while the other cupped the back of his neck. You could feel the firm muscles of his chest, and the warmth of his body radiating through his shirt. You began a trail of smaller kisses down his neck, wanting to explore more of his body, taking more of his shirt into your fists.

His hands moved the the hem of your shirt, “Is this okay?” He asked, wanting to make sure that you were comfortable with the pace of things. He wouldn’t forgive himself if he were to make you feel unsafe like those before him.

After you nod in response he pulls your shirt over your head, removing his immediately after. You sat back for a moment, taking in his body. You had never seen this much of him, the most you ever saw of him was when you were bandaging up his body after some quarrel.

Finger skimming along his chest, you notice every scar, leaving soft kisses amongst a few. Din reaches over, setting his helmet on the ground before scooping you up and laying you down on the bed.

He hovers over you. Nervousness, love, concern, and desire were all visible in his face. You reached up and stroked his cheek.

“The moment you feel uncomfortable please tell me,” he said, love and concern washing over his features. You nodded.

“I will.”

He slowly planted a kiss on your lips, stroking your hair out of your face simultaneously.  Your hands explored the muscles of his torso. He was fit. And while you weren't exactly surprised, it was different experiencing his body rather than simply imagining how it looked under all that beskar. Your hands moved to his back, pulling him closer to your own body, as he slides one of his hands down your side. He looks into your eyes as he slowly pulls back, grabbing the waistband of your pants. He shimmies them off of you, reading your face for any signals that he might be overstepping.

Placing a few kisses along your chest and stomach, he works his way down to the mess that you’ve become in your desire for him. He plants a few more kisses along your hips and inner thigh.

“Are you sure about this?” He inquires, double checking that this is what you wanted.

“Please Din,” you ask, running a hand through his hair.

And before you know it, his tongue is moving in magical ways that you hadn’t felt before. You couldn’t help from running his soft curls between your fingers and intermittently tugging when he would pass over your clit.

You moaned out his name and desire surged through his body, pulling you down closer to him, his shoulders resting underneath your thighs. He was relentless. And all you could do is tremble beneath him, letting out breathy moans that he so desperately wanted to hear.

He pulled back, replacing where his mouth had been with his hand, slowly working over your clit. He shifted back up to kiss you and you could taste yourself on his lips.

“I’m close,” you whisper, cupping his cheek and looking into his eyes. You couldn’t help it but tears were welling up in your eyes, you were so overwhelmed. He brushed his thumb over your cheek.

“Let go, cyar’ika,” he says, voice dripping like honey. Planting a kiss below your ear he nips at the skin, and you can’t hold back any longer. The expertise of his hands had sent hot shock waves through your body and your entire body tensed until the waves slowly resided.

“I love you, sweetheart,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to your temple. A few tears spilled down your face, concern racking his body. “What’s wrong?” He asked, eyebrows furrowing.

“Nothing is wrong, my love,” you say, taking his face in your hands. “I am just so grateful for you.” His body immediately relaxed.

He pulled you up against his chest, the warmth of his body comforting you as you pressed a kiss beneath his collar bone. You really did feel the safest with him. And that’s all he wanted; For you to be safe and loved.

[certifiedceraunophile]

DISCLAIMER :

SMUT SMUT SMUT and FLUFF. (NSFW)

It’s basically a 5k porn smut-shot about dimples and dick. Mostly dimples but there’s gratuitous dicking too, because of course my brain saw a gif set of Mr. Klaus Forbes flashing his dimples and thought PORN.

ALSO,

Nominated for Best Smut Oneshot in the 2020 KC awards

(I mean I have been called an excellent homoerotic muse so I shoulda seen this coming)

Tags:

D/s undertones,

Dominant Caroline

somewhat bregrudgingly submissive Klaus.

——————————————————————————

TREAT AT MY BEHEST

The conversation was flowing smoothly, a little too smoothly, it truly was a sight to behold,

She doesn't find awkward bumps that the participants uncomfortably had to step over stilling the flow, no problematic cracks people either ignored or tried to tear open with their teeth, no blunt blows to the back off the head, or venom tipped words sharper than the fangs the Mikaelson family sported, Hell, even Kol kept his sexual innuendos count to an all time low of two per sentence, and it wasn’t tedious either, it was sunny honest conversation one that flowed and ebbed in tranquil warmth enveloping all those who took part in it.

But of course, the insufferable bastard she’s been calling her husband for the last handful of decades, and her last love for two centuries now, decides he’ll singlehandedly throw all progress out the backdoor.

Her husband, and his freaking audacity to flash those dimples, in that exact way, throw all progress out the backdoor if she’s being more accurate.

God he’ll be the end of her.

It’s no grand truth, that she’s very very closely acquainted with his dimples, and she means, ‘lick a sweet path from dimple to lip as per her wish’ closely acquainted, those perfect indents on his cheeks, make no mistake, they are hers for the taking,

But she admits, she has her preferences, she’s a bit finicky with her interests,

She’s not too fond of his shit eating ‘Yet again I’ve bested you, my love.’ dimples, or any other variant of that he flashes in the rare case he has the upper hand between the two of them.

She’s quite partial to the one sided dimpling the evil villain smirk has to offer, one she’s privy to during their hunts, or the ‘Ive got one word for you: run.’ smirk he displays before transforming into a walking talking guillotine, those are quite entertaining to watch bloom, and the customary thorough debauching of her body that follows any such murder work out is nothing dismissible.

Now the almost bashful and youthfully eager ones he shows her when he talks about his place in the world as an artist, when for once his hand can create instead of destroy, those are entirely just for her, that sit there pretty on his cheeks in the privacy of his studio, where they continue to relive a thousand different times in a thousand different places including Rome, Paris and Tokyo, that one day, when he thanked her for the first of many things he feels gratitude for, her honesty,

He still remembers it as the day he allowed the truth to be something he didn't particularly like for the first time in a long time, she however still remembers the day by the absolute fishing he did, standing there in his studio as he introduced his passions to her, patiently waiting in silent humility for her to notice these paintings were his and compliment him.

He still doesn't allow this truth to remain, she of course always knows better.

Then again she also loves the shy soft little ones he offers her and only her, the ones he gently picks from the buried bounded depths of his heart and places in her hand with such care, as he sweetly leans into her palm, moist plump lips pressed against her pulse. When he is so beautifully hers that the hybrid gold of his eyes is the sun and when directed at her is as warm and sweet as golden honey. Or when he nuzzles his nose into the curve of her neck, the swell of her breast, half laying on top of her, when he gathers her close pauses and then closer, as if he finds the flesh separating them offending, as though his very existence is meant to directly infect her soul unimpeded by skin and bone, as if he means to exist in her and through her, and live only within her.

He’s a bit pretentious with his love.

But she’s told him

‘Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.’

His simple response was to pull her to him and offer his neck,

“Drink.”

She’s never brought it up again,

His devotion for her, his raw thirst for her, it unnerved her at first when she finally decided after

The numerous ‘Sweetheart, they were not bloody staged’ run-ins in every continent she dared to set foot on,

The two times she needed his blood in the century she spent on her own,

The one night she needed his arms and scent to engulf her and his dead heartbeat to soothe her when Elizabeth Forbes passed at age ninety four,

The one time when she realised somewhere along the way between the sporadic meets and witch hunts, the werewolf venom and death counts, the art and music and culture their souls burgeoned to connect, the great cities they carved into their own stars, the languid conversation as they winded through both cobblestones and pink sands, underneath both fluttering snow of and steady stars, the silent moments of equal awe they both shared between the most downtrodden godforsaken places of hunger and poverty and the most lavish heavens, between all the beauty and filth in the world when they only had eyes for each other, amongst the scent of both death and life when they only inhaled a shared breath so sacred they locked it in and never let it out, when seas and continents and words couldn’t keep them apart, when neither his ego nor her stubbornness could count for any importance in the face of each other, when the one time she realised immortality for her wasn't the ungodly number of years she’s left behind still apple cheeked and smooth as milk, but was the ungodly amount of years still ahead of her that somehow always evinced his hand in hers,

When she finally, one balmy faultless Sunday afternoon, in the thick of Thanjavur’s humidity in India, sitting barefoot as per the town’s religious customs on the ground, sprawled carefully in the warm green grass that precedes the entrance of the glorious Brihadeeswarar Temple, that is almost as old as the man occupying her thoughts,

She finally finds her deviously elusive,

Oh.  

moment, proceeded by the

Oh fuck.

Moment,

Realisation hits her with the weight of immortality and her acceptance that there was no other possibility but this, that this has been inevitable for the better half of the last century, carries the weight forward into her heart and fills it with such indisputable finality, that Klaus’s place is by her side and hers alone.

And after that, well, what else was there to do?

After all of that, it’s one knock on his door, and,

“Alright, apparently However long it takes only lasted a total of 113 years, 6 months and 25 days. I thought I’d last longer, but I’m not as stubborn as I wished I was.”

That night was the first time she realised it wasn’t the first time they’ve made love, slow and sweet and beautiful, But it was the first time Klaus with all the vulnerability of a little boy back in Mygradrir who wore a sterling around his neck tight as a noose because his mother loved him so much, asked, mouth against her skin, face hidden in her neck, a whisper that shook in the middle and dissipated at the edges,

“You’ll stay, not just tomorrow, but after?”

“Yes, yes I will.”

That was about two centuries ago, and apparently after did not mean the day after tomorrow.

But she hasn't had too many complaints, she admits the novelty of him has worn off, he’s a bit grating on the edges, the sides and the middle, he’s entirely too insufferable to put up with for an extended period of time, definitely is only enjoyable in moderation and bite sized doses,

But she did let him put a ring on her finger, and also stood there holding his hand as they were bound by a witch in supernatural matrimony, so she can’t really tell it’s wholly his fault, but she apparently likes him too, in addition to loving him, so she’ll stay.

But she digressed a whole lot,

Where was she again?

Yes, his dimples.

Correction, her dimples

Their appearances are continual and each unique situation had one kind assigned to it, but that does not mean they are repetitive, Klaus is many things but least of all predictable, So he presents her with new ones every now and then, dimples she’d like to kiss till they imprint on her lips,

She knows that even if she goes on to live twice the millennium Her husband experienced, and even if every glittering rarity becomes a hackneyed iteration, and every resounding wave of novelty is a mere echo she’s experienced a thousand times, even if there is nothing new as she leads time through this carousel world as the closest thing to omniscient, then she’ll at least know her husband’s smile will always catch her a tiny bit off guard. That she will always take a second to touch it and see it widen even further when she does.

But there was this one single type of smile he flashed from time to time, a rarity in its own right, that one smile basically threw all progress out the backdoor,

The smile is always characterised by the fact that it’s not for her, or for his siblings, or his enemies, it’s for the world, it’s a smile that he never intended to give but slipped out of his hand anyway, and somehow ends up smiling with his entire body, but he’s done that countless times for her, smile with his whole being, she’d say at least twice everyday, usually more, but when he does it for the world, she’s a bit unprepared,

She knows his hostility against the way of the world all too well, it’s why he’s so adamant on dictating it, she knows the millennium of undead life under Mikael’s hatred left him with a tight grip on the world but only because he was hanging on to the edge of it with both hands, his legs dangling, but he doesn’t show it that way, instead phrases it as ‘I had the world at my finger tips, Now I have it beneath my feet.’

He’s a bit flashy with his pretty words, that total honesty to this man is as difficult as love will never surprise her, but the fact that this same honesty sometimes slips out so easily, unfettered and ensconced in peace and content, that does surprise her, like for instance, right now, He’s sitting there ankle over knee, occupying an entire settee with the way he’s sprawled because of course he has to be the biggest being in the room, he needs to know his ego easily accomplishes that for him, holding in his hand one of the thousand sketchpads he’s still kept after paper was no more the norm nor necessity but became a relic of bygone ages for centuries now, and as he sits there sketching god knows what, in the same room as his siblings, their chatter as perfectly idle as a family’s,

He’s smiling, not at her, not to his siblings, hell not even at his drawing, she knows he’s not listening to the conversation, so it’s not something Kol said or Rebekah whined, he’s perfectly uninterrupted in his smile that just bloomed on his face with no given reason, and there as he bows his head a little closer to the page, not because he wants to hide the smile but because he simply wants to see the sketch closer, she knows he doesn't even know he’s smiling, but he is.

So wide and beautiful and honest, and just because, a smile directed at the world, and to think he doesn’t even notice, to know that it’s so whole and full, that there isn’t a place left in his heart or mind to remind him to restrain it.

She knows she’s smiling just as wide too.

God, the things this man does to her heart,

And not just her heart, apparently her body too if the heady arousal that rushed straight to her clit as if a phantom hand rubbed it is anything to go by, because of course, she’s never so aroused by him as she is when he dimples.

TO CONTINUE READING

AO3

ff.net

If you find this plotless 5k smutshot of my infernal sub Klaus fantasies doing things to you that are best not done in a church parking lot, please feel free to vote for it in the upcoming KCAWARDS under the BEST SMUT ONESHOT category.

Much love and peace

XX

Srishti🤍

[blackboar]

Journey to Bosworth: Participants and their motives at Bosworth field: Henry Percy, the failed fence-sitter.

Hello! I wrote this piece as I had  numerous sources on the War of the Roses at hand thanks to my master. I hope folks who enjoy reading about this period would like it!

At Bosworth Field, August 22th 1485, the last Plantagenet king was killed. Richard III died on a last, desperate charge against a rival whom little foresaw as a viable contender for the throne. With him died the longest ruling dynasty in England's history. Except for this symbolical conclusion, Bosworth field's importance was magnified by Tudor propaganda, as an ultimate fight between good and evil and the end of the Middle Ages. It forgets that the battle lasted at best for an afternoon and was quite ill-documented, to the point where the battlefield was inaccurately identified at first. It is thus fair to say that Bosworth mostly holds importance in retrospect. If Henry Tudor had been defeated or killed before he could uproot his new dynasty, Bosworth would have been seen as one of the many sterile struggles for the Crown in XVth century England.

Today, I would like to share some informations about one of the major participants of this battle. One whom, not by his actions but by his inactions, changed the outcome of this day.

The powerful Henry Percy, the fourth earl of Northumberland. Henry came from a family traditionally considered as one of the major power players in Northern England. The famous saying: ‘the North knew no Prince but a Percy’ was quite self-eloquent, even if exaggerated. During the 1400s, the Percies opposition to Henry IV almost led to the king's destruction at the battle of Shrewsbury. After their attainder, Henry Percy’s grandfather (another Henry) did reconcile with the House of Lancaster but lost many lands and prestige. Even after those losses, the Earl of Northumberland was one of the major supporters of the House of Lancaster in the War of the Roses, their current Earl dying at Towton against the newly crowned Edward IV.

Edward IV had counted on their rival: the junior line of the Nevilles, which was one of the mightiest Houses in English history. Through marriages, alliances, and shady maneuverings, the Kingmaker Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and Salisbury hold the inheritance of houses Montagu, Beauchamp, Despencer, and also the bulk of the Neville inheritance in the North, against the senior line who retained the title of Earl of Westmoreland and less important holdings.

Richard Neville and his family were quite ambitious, and as the leading supporter of the burgeoning  House of York, they were lavishly endowed by the new king. Richard’s brother took in 1464 all the lands of the House of Percy, with the title of Earl of Northumberland, thanks to his service in the North. However, for Henry Percy’s fortune, Edward IV and the Nevilles had a falling out, as it often happens between king and Kingmaker. Richard Neville opposed Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth  Wydeville, from a modest, noble family, and his policies in favor of Burgundy. Likely worried about the rising star of the Nevilles in the North, Edward IV decided to clip their wings by giving back his titles and lands to Henry Percy, which would be formalized solemnly in the 1472 Parlement.

This decision was a disaster for Edward IV, as the loyal John Neville, unhappy with the compensations, decided to join his brother in his attempt to restore the House of Lancaster. As for the new grantee, he seemed to have become a cautious man, conscious of his predecessors' tragic end, and seemingly determined not to reproduce their mistakes. It can be seen in the events of 1470-1471. Henry Percy didn’t help the Lancastrians in their effort to resurrect their rule on England in 1470. He also didn’t try to stop Edward IV when he landed in Yorkshire the following year while he was on the first line.

After the Yorkist victories of Barnet and Tewkesbury, the civil war was over. The destruction of the lines of Lancaster and restored peace in England. Henry Percy, confirmed in his lands and titles despite his fence-sitting, was prepared to restore the House of Percy to its rightful place after a decade of unrest and absenteeism.

The conditions were seemingly favorable to prepare an extended Percy hegemony in the North. Hadn’t the Kingmaker died and his holdings taken back by the Crown? Wasn’t the Earl of Westmoreland mad and the Cliffords at odds with the king? Percy seemed in favorable conditions to fill a region partially poked power vacuums. It was without another newcomer: Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester. The twenty-year-old duke was originally granted extensive estates and offices in Wales, the Welsh Borders, and East Anglia. However, the Nevilles' demise gave Richard a unique opportunity to replace them. From 1471 onward, Richard secured from his brother the bulk of Neville’s northern estates. By his marriage to Anne Neville, the youngest daughter of the Kingmaker, he could pretend to be the heir of the deceased Earl and not someone put on by royal authority. Richard constantly tried to accrue his northern estates at the expense of other regions. By the demise of his brother Clarence in 1478, he trades with Edward IV several northern holdings, including the Honour of Richmond, for other estates he had in the south. By the many offices he was appointed and the leadership of the Council of the North, Gloucester was the natural hegemon in the North. Henry Percy became one of his retainers and obtained the preservation of his traditional hegemony in Northumberland. Was Henry Percy happy with the arrangement? He did follow the Duke of Gloucester in his main activities as local ruler of the North, especially the war against Scotland in the early 1480s.  Henry Percy also supported Gloucester’s usurpation of the throne in 1483, although it’s quite possible that he wanted to get rid of his influence in the North for good. If so, he was sorely misplaced, as the Council of the North continued with his heir, the Prince of Wales and after the Earl of Lincoln. Worse, the Duke of Gloucester now had the full power of the Crown for his patronage. His brief reign was marked by extensive and heavy-handed trade in favor of northerners. The Earl of Northumberland did profit from this situation, as he was granted the reversal of the attainders of his ancestors during Henry IV’s reign and the lordship of Holderness.

But Richard III also started to infringe on Henry Percy’s indenture of retainers. He needed loyal service in times of treason, and the new king seemed to have placed enormous trust in northerners. Richard III began to employ and endow many Percy retainers. This was a threat for Percy’s base of power, as he couldn’t match a king’s patronage. Even the death of Anne Neville and his only son Edward of Middleham during his reign didn’t seem to waver northern loyalty toward Richard. His ‘good lordship’ and the lavish grants he gave to his retainers made him simply paramount in northern politics.

Henry Percy was threatened on the very basis of his power. His retainers were becoming broadly too loyal to Richard III to allow the Earl to join the Tudor cause, even if he willed so. His ‘good lordship’ necessitated him to represent his affinity, and his numerous retainers wanted to keep Richard III on the throne. Henry Percy was on the verge of becoming a non-entity, with no true autonomy as his servants would become Richard’s.

There is evidence that Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, tried to sabotage Richard III’s war effort. He showed up with only 3,000 men at Leicester for the confrontation with the rebels. It seems that the Earl deliberately forgot to recruit men in several key northern areas, even though Richard III had given him the commission of arrays to do so in Yorkshire. He notably didn’t try to recruit soldiers from York, who upon their own authorities would raise eighty men to join Richard III at Bosworth. They would arrive too late. Richard III knew Northumberland’s guile as he had received messengers from York. Perhaps Northumberland brought, as a justification, the fact that the city was enduring an epidemy of plague. Or maybe Richard III was overconfident upon his forces and eager to show by chivalric prowess his right to retain the Crown. Those petty moves didn’t interest him in front of the upcoming battle, which was God’s judgment. In any case, Richard III put him in charge of the rearguard, but close enough to the immediate action.

In the heat of the battle, Henry Percy refused to support Norfolk against the assaults of the Earl of Oxford. This decision had a fateful consequence, as it prompted Richard to led a personal charge against Henry Tudor in the hope he would slain him. After Richard’s demise, Henry Percy surrendered to the triumphant Tudor king. He was briefly jailed by Henry VII, who kept him as his lieutenant in the North in place of the Council. Northumberland wouldn’t be more loyal to him, as he didn’t genuinely commit force during Lambert Simmel’s rebellion in 1487. Neutrality, once again, might have been the best thing he has to offer to Henry VII, as the North was sympathetic to the yorkists and Richard III’s heirs. However, Northern hatred against his behavior was ostensibly shown in the uprising of 1488. Initially a popular revolt against taxes, the rebels would have Henry Percy as their sole victim. The Earl, who was murdered in front of his retainers during a meeting with the rebels. His retainers simply didn’t defended him. Thus ended the fourth earl of Northumberland, abandoned by his retainers the same way he forsake his sovereigns.

     Sources:

Chris Given-Wilson, Paul Brand, Seymour Phillips, Mark Ormrod, Geoffrey Martin, Anne Curry and Rosemary Horrox. Parliament Rolls of Medieval England. Woodbridge, 2005. British History Online: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval.

Great Britain. Public Record Office. (1891). Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public record office. London: H.M.S.O.. HathiTrust: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009029274.

Hicks, Michael. Bastard Feudalism. Longman Group, 1995.

Hicks, Michael. Edward IV. London; Oxford University Press, 2004.

Hicks, Michael. The Fithteenth Century, Volume II: Revolution and Consumption in Late Medieval England.  The Boydell Press, 2001.

Hicks, Michael. Richard III and his rivals: Magnates and their motives in the War of the Roses. The Hambledon Press, 1991.

Hicks, Michael. The Political Culture in the Fifteenth Century. London, Routeldge, 2002.

Hicks, Michael. The War of the Roses. Yale University Press, 2010.

Lander, J.R. “Attainder and Forfeitures, 1453 to 1509”. The Historical Journal Vol. 4, No. 2 (1961), pp. 119-151.

Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard III. Traduction d’Eric Diacon. Fayard, 1979

Kendall, Paul Murray. Warwick, le Faiseur de Rois. Traduction d’Eric Diacon. Fayard, 1981.

Wolffe, Bertam Percy. The royal demesne in English History, Alden Press, Oxford, 1970.

[goldtracing]

Part VII – England: The Georgian Era (1700 – 1830)

So, I’ve decided to immediately do another post about England, because I love Regency Period and also so that I can finish off with England and America simultaneously in the future.

England:

This was the period containing the fashion we usually think about when hear historical men’s fashion – either high boots or low-heeled shoes with buckles. The white wigs came from this era as well as the tailored suites with the brass buttons

As mentioned before, boots were common in this time, most of them black – from the knee-high Wellington boot to the Hemming boot that reached midcalf. Arthur would have been more into wearing boots than buckled shoes, because of how often he would have been deployed in the field for the numerous wars that were waged in the 18th century.

Wigs. Before he would have worn one, he would have gone through the tedious process of growing his hair out to the appropriate length, tying it back with a ribbon, slicking it with pomanade, and using obscene amounts of powder to colour his hair white. Powder was used rather than dye because better results were achieved that way. The powdering of the hair was hard and messy, with a whole room being set aside for that purpose. That’s why Arthur would have soon switched over to wearing a wig.

It was only in the late 18th, early 19th century that these wigs went out of fashion because of the French revolution. Short hair with sideburns became popular and moustaches came back into fashion.

Not to forget the hats! The bicone and the tricone are from this period, being the mark of a military man or at least a man of high status. The top hat came into fashion in the Regency era.

During this century, elaborate braid and brocade came back into fashion, although never to the extent of the previous centuries. Think about gold trimmings and embroidery along the collar and by the hems. The suits either dark or vivid in colour (Arthur in a red coat!) and extended to the thigh in the beginning of the period. The pants were preferably the same colour as the coat. Then, they gradually got shorter in the front and longer at the back resulting in the high-waist waistcoats with long tailcoats. Also, at the end of the century breeches went out of fashion and were replaced by trousers. White trousers in particular. Arthur would never have known how difficult it is to perfectly clean white fabric because he would have left the washing to his servants.

Then, in the Regency era, lace, braids and other lavish styling of the garments went completely out of fashion giving way to the plain style of men’s clothing we are familiar with today. Tailored and well fitted clothing became a sign of quality over anything else, with the aim being to highlight a man’s physique. Or, in other words, show of the assets.

This post wouldn’t be complete without at least mentioning the banyan. This was a thick dressing gown made out of silk or linen. And guess what, it was considered completely fine to receive guests wearing at. Here Arthur would have developed a love for dressing gowns.  

 Part I – On the fashion attitudes of England and America

Part II – England: The early years (950 – 1400)

Part III - America: The early years (1600 - 1700)

Part IV - England - The Tudors (1400 - 1600)

Part V – America: Independence (1700 – 1800)

Part VI – England: The Stuarts (1600 – 1700)

Part VII – England: The Georgian Era (1700 – 1830)

Part VIII – America: The Civil War & The Gilded Age (1800 – 1900)

Part IX – England: The Victorian Era (1830 – 1901)

Part X – England & America – Edwardian Era to Roaring 20s (1900 – 1929)

Part XI – England & America – Great Depression to post-WWII (1930 – 1949)

Part XII – England & America: Cold War Part I (1950 – 60)

[storybookprincess]

Fellow chronically ill and local "new chapter kudos -> <3" commenter here to say it's never dramatic or attention seeking to take care of your health! Your readers will be here whenever you post, but I hope your health gets out of this slump soon! Have some positive vibes -> <3 Also I wanted to ask: any advice for spending an excessive amount of time in an infusion center? I'm trying a new treatment this week that requires 10-15 hours of infusions over 5 days and I'm not looking forward to it.

omg another chronically ill pal hello!!!!!!!  and it’s beloved ao3 user alexak omg!!!!  thank you for your well wishes!!!  i’m really going through it rn, but i know it won’t be this awful forever.

and yes i totally have advice about chilling in the infusion center for extended periods of time lol!!!!!  i’ve never had to spend that much time in the infusion center all at once (and that lowkey sounds terrible i’m sorry), but i’ve been getting bi-weekly 2-3 hour infusions for nearly 6 years now so i have def spent a lot of time there!!!!

i’ll start with the relatively obvious stuff.  first, def bring snacks & drinks.  there are nearly alway snacks at the infusion center, but in my experience they’re not particularly filling or good for you, so bring something like a sandwich or bagel or whatnot to eat while you’re there.  also dress comfortably & in clothes that are easy to go to the bathroom in.  it’s hard enough trying to pee while hooked up to an iv pole--wearing a romper is only going to make that situation worse.  do your best to hydrate prior to your appointment so that your veins are nice & juicy & easy to stick (unless you have a port or picc line ofc).

okay, onto the fun advice--stuff to do while you’re getting that sweet, sweet vein juice!!  infusion centers nearly always have wifi, so in college & as a working adult, i mostly just work as i’m stuck there.  i would get my infusions on saturday mornings in college & it was always awesome if i could knock out my homework for the day during my appointment & had the rest of the day to relax and have fun.  now i’ll usually answer emails, work on presentations, update data, and do other work tasks while hooked up to my iv.

but honestly you can do pretty much anything while you wait--bring headphones & watch shows or movies, read fanfic, message with friends online, play video games, etc etc.  pre-pandemic i got my infusions on the weekends & since i wasn’t a student anymore & didn’t have homework to worry about, i’d often write fic & answer comments during my appointment.  just make sure your devices are charged and/or that you bring a charger.

i hope the infusions end up helping you feel a little better <3 <3 best of luck being stuck there this week!!!!  i hope it ends up being an okay time & that you have fun distractions to enjoy!!!! xo

[transcendentalpisces]

The Feminine Rhythm Log: Cancer ♋

The Feminine Rhythm Log: Cancer 

 Despite the countless studies debunking the moon cycles relation to the bleeding cycle, I beg to differ, and my study specifically honors the reality of the relationship between my womb cycle and the lunar cycle.  

 The archetype of the moon in nature shows the reflection of the sun exposing the dark. In astrology, the moon is symbolic of the mother, the home (cooking, gardening, atmosphere), ancestral land/culture, reactions, and feelings respectively. In astrological houses, the 4th house which governs that of the moon, as well as the womb, is before the house of Leo representing children, joy, entertainment, pleasure, and performance respectively. Before the female can produce a child, her egg must plant itself inside of her and be re-absorbed by the body as the lining of the uterus sheds through the vagina, also known as menstruation. The menstruation cycle is repeated every month for an average of 28 days. The lunar cycle, similarly, is repeated every month for an average of 29.5 days.

Menstruation takes place for about 7 days while the moon changes phases every 7.4 days. The correlation between both synchronistic durations have been studied for centuries and even holds meaning in ancient civilizations, although we must keep in mind that contraceptives and other means to stop periods long-term exist and thus will alter this study case by case.

 The moon sign and phase that falls on the first day of the cycle holds importance in by which vital information is being shown to the woman (relating to her inner life). For example the signs element and modality may explore the current feelings of the woman or what she desires. In my case when my period followed through on waxing gibbous Libra moons, this led me to follow my own symbology as it stands with them both. Each woman has the ability to trust her own intuition as it pertains to her cycle and her own personal meanings behind what words and energy mean in her own life. It is important to note the ebbs and flows of the energy being experienced throughout time and focused themes and feelings in ones life when taking into account what moon phase and sign is repeating; if at all.

 The waxing gibbous is the moon phase that is presented anywhere from 3-5 days before the full moon. It is a time for preparation and harvesting what we have gathered from the previous moon days as well as checking and perfecting. Sounds a lot to me like the archetype of Virgo LOL. The waxing gibbous urges us to take one last check around our surroundings before the party truly begins; a party where we can either sit and relax/ be confronted with the shadow energy of that which we have been ignoring.

The astrological sign of libra is associated with relationships, partners, contracts, justice, truth, and (outer) beauty respectively. It is represented by the scales and is the only astrological symbol represented by an inanimate object, pointing toward its detachment and sense of order to achieve balance. In medical astrology it rules over the kidneys and some of its functions include:

maintaining overall fluid balance

regulating and filtering minerals from blood

filtering waste materials from food,     medications, and toxic substances

creating hormones that help produce red blood     cells, promote bone health, and regulate blood pressure[1]

Libra is a cardinal (initiator) air (mind, thoughts, communication) sign, ruled by the planet Venus (love, resources, grace) and characteristics of Libras tend to include charming, flirtatious, vain, ditsy, and clingy. So what did it mean when my periods began on Friday (ruling day of Venus), moon in Libras? Well around these times I was focused heavily on my relationship to femininity and how expressing it, authentically and naturally, looked to me. Throughout my childhood and adolescence I longed for tenderness, and lacked that from most female figures but especially my mother. When I reflected over my own symbology of femininity, a new softer, aware version of what I needed and how I was going to give it to myself exploded. My relationship to solar and lunar Libras around me followed suit as well, being introduced to many new Libras in my life and the overwhelming amount of conversation around me whether publicly or personally surrounded the notion of balance.  Even my solar return ascendant for the year was in Libra.

 My feelings about the lack of nurturance received as a child and growing up was pushed to the background because it was too difficult to innerstand and thus I chose to ignore it. I believe that Libra was presenting just how imbalanced my inner life was, being that I barely received or gave physical affection to anyone. In my natal astrological chart, Libra sits on the cusp of the 8th house. The 8th house in the astrological houses governs intimacy, shared resources, exchanges (whether through sex, the mind, or monetary), death, and transformation respectively. I also natally work with Venus in Capricorn opposite moon in Cancer, which is the push and pull between what you need and how you receive it. Oftentimes oppositions can show struggle, in my case between how I wish to give and receive affection and my feelings inside. Also with moon square Saturn being one of the two tightest aspects in my chart, my moon was stuck between a rock and hard place.

 In Human Affection Exchange: XV. Metabolic and Cardiovascular Correlates of Trait Expressed Affection by Kory Floyd, Colin Hesse, & Mark T. Haynes relay their study on the correlation between physical affection and blood pressure.

 Introduction of study: Recent research on the communication of affection has begun to illuminate its implications for mental and physical health. Specifically, when compared to non-affectionate people, self report studies have indicated that highly affectionate people are less suscep-tible to depression and stress, and endocrine studies have shown that highly affectionate people have more differentiated 24-hour cortisol rhythms (a pattern indicative of adapt-ive physiological stress management). The present studies extend this knowledge by focus-ing on the associations that trait affection has with cardiologic (resting heart rate),vascular (resting blood pressure), and metabolic (glycosylated hemoglobin) properties of physical health. Participants in both studies provided self-assessments of their trait levels of expressed affection and received affection (the latter for use as a covariate). Resting heart rate and blood pressure were assessed in the first study, and glycosylated hemoglobin was assessed in the second study. Results indicate that when the influence of received affection is controlled for, trait expressed affection was inversely related to resting blood pressure and glycosylated hemoglobin (but not heart rate), suggesting that the expression of affection is associated with a healthy vascular and metabolic profile.[2]

[1] Jewell, Tim. Kidney: Function and Anatomy, Diagram, Condition, and Health Tips. (2018).

[2] Floyd, Kory , Hesse, Colin and Haynes, Mark T.(2007) 'Human Affection Exchange: XV. Metabolic and Cardiovascular Correlates of Trait Expressed Affection', Communication Quarterly, 55: 1, 79 — 94

[hawkland]

Dear Fandom5k Author

My AO3 account (sidewinder)

Hello and thank you for writing for me! I’m excited to give this exchange a try for the first time and cannot wait to read what you can come up with for one of my requests. Please note I’d love any of them equally, no matter if I have more prompt ideas for one or the other. Some I seriously would love just about anything about since they are so rare, others I have more specific requests to scratch itches I haven’t seen written before (or that much.)

General Likes:

Soumates with a twist. I love soulmate/soulbond AUs, as long as it’s just not a shortcut to happily-ever, no-conflict fluff. I want there to be some difficulties or angst involved. For instance, I’d love seeing any fusion/inspired-by fics based off the concept of the AMC Soumates series - where there’s a newly-developed scientific test a person can choose to take to find their soulmate (if the other person out there has also taken the test). That way it’s a choice to find out or not. Would an already established couple want to take the test to find out if they’re really “meant” to be together or not? What if they find out other people are their “soulmates”? What about the possibility of platonic soulmates vs romantic? Discussions for the future if/when one partner dies before the other? I’d love to see these questions played out with one of my fave ships in either a  happy or somewhat angsty/dark way.

Vacation/travel stories. Being unable to travel this past year+ thanks to covid-19 has me desperate to explore and live vicariously through my favorite characters! So I’d love a story involving travel to somewhere new (to them). It could be a romantic getaway/honeymoon trip to somewhere special - and I love it when an author “takes me” to a favorite city/place of their own. Or two friends just going on an escapade together, maybe one sensing the other needs some time away from a stressful situation or workplace.

Smutty likes: I love extended kissing scenes, frottage, light restraint play, sharing-one-bed-for-~reasons~-ooops-how-did-we-wake-up-cuddling, bathing/caretaking an injured partner-turns-erotic, desperate/reunion sex.

Canon-divergent AUs - I’m always good with fix-its, shifts in canon that only change one thing and see what happens next or instead.

Do Not Wants:

A/B/O dynamics, mating heats. (I do like Supernatural fics that explore Castiel and the angels having bird-like behaviors and instincts, however.)

animal abuse/death

anything related to pregnancy/childbirth/kidfic (except for Jack in SPN)

formalized BDSM relationships

scat/watersports

unrequested alternative-universe scenarios such as high school/mundane/genderswap/coffee shop/fantasy/etc. There are a few ships/groups where I would enjoy specific AUs, and those are outlined below.

Completely sad endings/permanent character death or injury that isn’t part of canon

Rape/non-con between requested characters. Dubious consent is fine in situations like magic spells/possession/fuck-or-die, however.

Supernatural

AU - Canon Divergence, Character Development, Established Relationship, Getting Together, Fix-it fic, Interpersonal Drama, Smut, Angst, Canon-Style Plot - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery/Procedural, Slice of Life, Worldbuilding, Horror

In general for SPN, I love canon-divergence AUs at pretty much any point in time (especially as they kept having so many dumb reasons in canon to keep Dean & Cas apart just when one or the other seriously needed support or TLC!) I’m okay with post-series Heaven fics as well as canon fix-its/completely ignoring the finale, and I like exploring both human!Cas as endgame or Cas keeping/getting his full angelic grace back (which is a slight preference to me, as he repeatedly seemed to genuinely value/want to be an angel? But exploring all possibilities in fic is cool for me.)

I’m a sucker for Castiel Whump/hurt!Cas in general, so long as the author remembers Cas is a bad ass and not just a baby in a trenchcoat. If he’s going to suffer, I want him to suffer stoically until he just cannot keep up the facade any longer.  

SPN-specific DNWs: mentions/implications of Wincest, past or present; extreme bashing/characterization of John and Mary Winchester, or Jimmy Nowak, as homophobic. 

Group: Castiel/Dean Winchester Group: Castiel/Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester

Give me all the finale fix-it fics - no I’m still not over it, I’m still happy to read any new twist on how Cas got out of the Empty and got back together with Dean (and Sam). If Dean still dies early/ends up in Heaven, I’d like a story that explores what happens when one gets bored of peace-and-happiness-ever-after. (Yes, I’m a big fan of The Good Place and as such it makes me wonder if eternity with no conflict and everything you could ever want would just melt your brain and identity after a few millennia.) So what then?

I’m also stealing a Tumblr rant as a prompt I’d love to read, if you want to get into some good dirty smut:

ive had it up to here with fictional gays being like “i love you and if all i can ever have is that knowledge it’s enough for me” we need more “i have been struck down by horny insanity and i beg you to fuck me once. i’ve had three smirnoff ices and i’m gonna be crazy now. we can pretend it didn’t happen i don’t give a shit just gimme daddy’s blunt instrument” it’s more realistic [x]

Um so yeah. I’d love an au where, anywhere along the line when it’s been their/someone’s/the universe’s life on the life, Cas takes the initiative decides they’re gonna have crazy sex even if it’s just once before the end of the world/we die. But then, oops, we’ve survived, now we have to deal with it. ...Please?

For something different, maybe more romantic/fluffy, I’d really love a vacation/getaway story here, since they never really got anything like that of substance on the show. I want to see Cas take Dean somewhere beautiful and amazing in the world he’s never gotten to see before. Show him there’s more than just greasy diners and the landscape of America to enjoy and experience. If you want, they could stumble on a case/haunting/monster from another part of the world while they’re at it...but I just really want to see Dean having some mind-opening and expanding experiences beyond what’s he’s known and seen so far in life.

In specific with Cas/Dean + Sam, I love another tumblr idea I saw recently where Sam totally keeps bringing up the idea of “Sastiel” as a fun joke between him and Cas, and Cas plays along, and it drives Dean up the wall. Cas has to just keep re-assuring Dean that no, he doesn’t see Sam that way...but why does it bother Dean so much? A.k.a. Dean has to finally own up to the fact that it bothers him because he wants Cas to feel that way about him.

Castiel (Supernatural)

I just love Cas, period, end of story, he’s my One True Character of SPN. I love any stories that try to explore him more fully—be it his relationships in the past with other angels and being a BAMF commander/warrior of Heaven, or what specifically it is that keeps him so tied to the Winchesters. I love stories that feature his true-form in some fashion or try to dig into the alien/different nature of angels vs. humans.

Also, another Tumblr-musing-turned-prompt (I lost who posted it, sorry!) I'd love to see explored in a canon divergence fic focused on Cas. Specifically: 

"I would have loved an arc for Cas (after he got his grace back) where he wanted to help people, like he was helped. Spending time in soup kitchens or healing people, and through that developing a sense of self purpose, leading to his grace replenishing unexpectedly. Sort of fulfilling the traditional angel role (as we know it nowadays) by replacing his faith in heaven/dean with faith in himself, to redefine himself as a protector of humanity instead of heaven's soldier."

Group: Castiel/Dean Winchester & Jimmy Novak Group: Castiel & Jimmy Novak

We know Cas carried a lot of guilt for what happened to Jimmy and his whole family. So I'm interested in a post-finale, canon-compliant (I guess?) fic where Cas tries to reconcile things with Jimmy in Heaven. Maybe Jimmy & Amelia were one of his first "projects" or test cases in trying to build a new and better Heaven with Jack? (And it's what he was so busy with while Dean was still alive.) Or, is it weird in Heaven with Cas and Jimmy looking so similar? Does Cas still fight doubts as to whether Dean really loves him, or just desires this body/form that isn’t his own?

Otherwise, I've been thinking about Endverse!Cas, who had lost his grace/powers as the angels have all left and abandoned humankind. What happened to/where is Jimmy in all of that? (If we go by the canon that Jimmy was not killed, nor went to Heaven, until the end of Season 5, when Lucifer blew up that vessel and Cas was resurrected by Chuck.) Are they now two "mortal men"/souls trapped sharing one body? Is that why Cas is so messed up/always seeking an escape through drugs and sex? (Besides of course Dean having changed so much.) This is one prompt where I don’t mind a very dark/not-so-happily-ever-after ending.

The Police

Angst, Character Development, Established Relationship, Getting Together, Humor, Interpersonal Drama, Smut

Group: Sting/Stewart Copeland

Yeah I’ll always request these two together even though I know it’s a long shot to find anyone else as obsessed about them as I am. Really anything at all whatsoever would make me happy for this ship: Reunion Tour-era fic, early punk days before they grew successful, soulmate AUs...

I’d also love a spooky story where they’re on tour/on the road somewhere and end up in a haunted hotel. Or their tour bus/van breaks down in the middle of nowhere and they have to seek shelter in an abandoned house or farm or something...and supernatural weirdness ends up affecting them or bringing them together.

If you want to go the crack route: it wasn’t enough for Miles to take them all around the world to tour in “exotic” locations back in the day. He’s arranged for them now to go on the ultimate tour...of outer space and alien worlds.

Crossover Fandom

Action/Adventure, Character Development, Interpersonal Drama, Angst, Canon-Style Plot - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery/Procedural

Group: Abe Morgan (Forever TV) & John Munch (L&O: SVU)

I’ve had a long running headcanon that these two could have been friends back in their respective 60s/early 70s hippie days. I’d love either a story set back then, “pre-canon”, or them running into each other in NYC later in life. Munch ending up in Abe’s antique shop, for instance, while on an investigation?  

Group: Dean Winchester (Supernatural) & Ezekiel Stone (Brimstone) Group: Castiel (Supernatural) & Ezekiel Stone (Brimstone)

I’m fascinated by the idea of crossing over these two canons. Even if there’s some conflict in their approach to Hell/Lucifer/demons, there’s still a lot in common. Dean & Ezekiel having both put in their time in Hell and being demon hunters, for instance, and their complicated relationships with (fallen) angels. I’d love to see them bonding over their experiences (Maybe they even meet in Hell? Time DOES work differently there…) Maybe somehow after Ezekiel completed his mission for the Devil, he did get his second chance at “life on Earth”…but the devil’s trick is that it’s not HIS Earth, it’s in a different dimension (Supernatural’s). I’m also curious how Ezekiel might respond to Castiel as an angel–perhaps he mistakes Cas for a demon at first, with his powers, but then they realize they are in fact hunting the same demon? Cas is stuck in an alternative dimension and recognizes Ezekiel as a similar soul to Dean’s, and seeks out his help?

Basically I’d love some kind of casefic/demon hunt here, with the characters bonding over their shared/similar past traumas, taking care of each other when/if injured on a hunt, and/or perhaps helping them sort out their complicated feelings for another (ie, background Cas/Dean and/or Zeke/the Devil are TOTALLY welcome here, as I ship both of those ships.)

Law & Order: SVU

Group: John Munch/Odafin "Fin" Tutuola

Character Development, Established Relationship, Humor, Getting Together, Interpersonal Drama, Canon-Style Plot - Freeform, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery/Procedural, Slice of Life, AU-Genre shift

Munch/Fin is one of my eternal OTPs so I’m always happy to see something new featuring them! I’m always good for procedural/case-fics. And this is one request where I’d love to read some AU-Genre or setting shift, reimagining the two in some other situations besides police work. I’ve always loved the idea of John hosting a conspiracy/weird news radio show or podcast, and Fin as someone completely skeptical but who gets wrapped up in one of John’s mysteries. Or John as the owner of a bar somewhere that Fin is one of his regulars, and over time their friendship develops/deepens into something more.

Supernatural RPF

Misha Collins/Jensen Ackles Established Relationship, Getting Together, Smut, Fluff, Slice of Life, Humor

It’s odd for me to be into an actor RPF fandom (I usually only fall for music/band-related ones), but what can I say...these two just make it almost impossible not to see the possibilities!

I was thinking I’d love something set post-Supernatural...their first time seeing each other again after a long time apart? (What with the show ending, covid, Misha’s surgery, etc etc.) Could be at a convention or maybe they get to go off on a getaway together somewhere private/romantic and it’s...kind of tense and maybe nervous/angsty at first? Like with doubts about whether they can/should go back to the way things were before.

Or: putting tin-hatty speculation about the “secret/real identity” of Alma Perpetua aside, I love their poetry and I’d love any “Cockles” fic using one of their poems as inspiration.

[the-busy-ghost]

@ardenrosegarden​​ in reply to your query: “ I'd love to hear your thoughts on Malcolm IV, most of the older sources I've seen compare him to William the Lion so I don't know a lot about him”

Thanks for this and I should apologise in advance because I feel like I ranted in a rather incoherent fashion but I wasn’t sure exactly what you’d want to know, so I sort of loosely covered everything. To be honest nobody really knows a whole lot about him (at least, not like the info we have for later mediaeval monarchs) and he died quite young (aged about 24) so it’s difficult to know what his reign would have been like if he’d been an adult for most of it instead of a child. It’s also so easy to compare the brothers- they had quite different characters and sometimes seemed like polar opposites, though they did share a lot too, especially in their aims.

One thing that really annoys me is when people use the fact that he was nicknamed ‘the Maiden’ as if that meant he was effeminate (and indeed as if being effeminate was a bad thing). This isn’t just an issue I have for Malcolm, but really applies to any situation where a word like ‘maiden’ has been misconstrued in a modern context. Maiden is *specifically* a translation of “virgo”, which nowadays we might translate as virgin instead- i.e. he is not widely believed to have done the deed (and certainly never married). Not that surprising really since, as I say, he was 24 when he died and might have suffered from chronic illness in his early twenties, and was also reputedly more pious than certain other kings, but of course 20th and 21st century writers look at the word ‘maiden’ (or even, indeed, ‘virgin’) and suddenly start sniggering, or assume that the nickname was originally meant to be pejorative- whereas it looks like it was at best a compliment and at worst a mere statement of fact.

Speaking of nicknames though, one thing I find very Interesting is the possibility that he was the original Malcolm “Canmore” (Ceann Mór) and not his great-grandfather Máel Coluim III. When noting his death, the Annals of Ulster describe Malcolm IV as “Malcolm Cendmor, Henry’s son”, whereas Malcolm III is not known to have been called that in contemporary sources- though of course the Irish annalist could just have been confused, and I (among many others) still tend to mean Máel Coluim III when I say Malcolm Canmore, since it would cause confusion otherwise (and it does kind of suit him). So firstly that raises the old problem of what we should call the dynasty those two kings belonged to (nobody knows- I tend to go with Canmore dynasty since Margaretsons and MacMalcolm dynasty looks a bit wrong to me but it’s a whole Mess and I don’t think anyone can claim to be right. The only surname which any one of the ‘Canmore’ kings seems to have used at any point was de Warenne- which is inappropriate for the whole dynasty for obvious reasons). But it also raises queries about the nickname’s meaning. Ceann Mór translates directly as ‘big head’, though one could also loosely interpret it as meaning something like ‘great chief’- and Máel Coluim III certainly suited the latter meaning at least (and maybe also the former). On the other hand, although I would argue that Malcolm IV was not obviously a ‘weak’ king, it’s difficult to see him being given an honorific for his power rather than something more obviously central to his character, like his piety. 

On the basis of the Annals of Ulster (and William of Newburgh) some people have interpreted this nickname to mean that his head was literally bigger than usual, and so this has led to some theories about the nature of the illnesses which plagued him in the last years of his life. Some have theorised that he suffered from Paget’s disease. Whatever the case Malcolm is known to have been seriously ill on at least two occasions, in 1163 when he was at Doncaster and then before his death in 1165. Although these could have been isolated incidents, the evidence suggests that these illnesses had lingering effects on his strength and that Malcolm may well have been aware that he was unlikely to live long. Which, for all that we know very little about him and he was still a mediaeval monarch (with all the flaws that entailed) I do find genuinely sad. He didn’t need to worry for the succession- he had two healthy younger brothers, who, although nobody could have known in 1165, would both live to a good old age (for the time period). He also doesn’t seem to have been completely side-lined from government like some other kings either, though he may have had to take it easy in the last couple of years. But being aware that you’re not likely to last very long and that you have to pass on the kingdom in a good enough shape to a younger brother who, though loyal, had a very different and more impulsive personality, might have been quite worrying. 

And then, as I say, along with his illnesses he was also quite young when he succeeded to the throne. That might not seem surprising given the later history of Scotland (of the 17 monarchs from Malcolm IV to James VI, including the Maid of Norway, 12 succeeded to the throne aged sixteen or younger), but in light of what had gone before that was quite surprising, since previously adult males seem to have been favoured as candidates for the kingship and it could be a dangerous business even for them. Even more interesting is the fact that he succeeded his grandfather without a huge amount of civil strife (though there was certainly some). For years Malcolm’s father Prince Henry had been the heir presumptive to his father David I, and had built important networks in his lands in the north of England and in Scotland. He was an adult of much experience and influence, he was well-equipped to succeed to the throne, and he seems to have been popular enough, from what little we know about him. But when Henry predeceased his father in 1152, suddenly everything was thrown into doubt. David I quickly arranged for the eleven year old Malcolm to be taken around the kingdom by the Earl of Fife, as his designated successor, but there was really no way to be sure that acts like this would absolutely secure Malcolm’s succession. There are some indications of trouble following David’s death the next year, such as Somerled’s rebellion in 1153 and the alleged treachery of a knight named Arthur in 1154, but on the whole the wider political community seems to have supported Malcolm’s right to rule and he remained on the throne (and reconciliations with men like Malcolm MacHeth and Somerled followed in later years, even if Somerled did have another go in 1164). As well as the clergy and greater nobility who had supported his grandfather, Malcolm also had his mother Ada and other family connections for support. Nonetheless the careful networks that David I and Henry had built up in the north of England seem to have collapsed upon the succession of a boy-king to Scotland and his younger brother William to the title Earl of Northumbria.

This stake in the north of England has been the cause of some controversy- historians tend either to imply that Malcolm IV was at fault for humbly surrendering the northern English lands in 1157 (when some sources would indicate he could easily have pressed his rights if Henry II had promised his grandfather not to challenge Scottish claims there, as certain English chroniclers claimed); or that his brother William was rash and petty not to accept that they were permanently lost to him (those who see Scottish history primarily as a series of failed invasions of England tend to see this as a nice moral tale). I think that both points of view vastly underestimate the complexities of twelfth-century politics, of what nobles and kings perceived their ‘rights’ to be, and indeed the complexities of dealing with Henry II of England in particular. On the one hand I could point out that Malcolm was sixteen and was not in the same position of strength re: England as his grandfather had been, so peacefully agreeing to surrender certain territories but secure acknowledgement of his rights to other areas could be seen as quite a sensible move, and on the other hand I could point out that William was sort of right to be a bit miffed about having his inheritance granted away, especially since Henry might have broken his promise. But overall it was a complex and probably difficult situation and since we definitely do not have all or even most of the facts (in contrast to later other disputes over the sovereignty of Scotland and Scottish claims) I’m not sure it should really define our views of Malcolm’s reign, even if it does tell us quite a bit about his brother’s personality.

For all that he was reputed to be pious, young, and possibly chronically ill though, Malcolm does not seem to have been an obviously ‘weak’ king either, nor did he show a complete lack of interest in war and government as some other ‘saintly’ kings are reputed to have done. We find him leading military expeditions in the years 1159-60, and he does seem to have thought of knighthood as a desirable object. Admittedly on two of those military expeditions in 1159-60 may have been in response to the dissatisfaction of his own subjects re: his support of Henry II at Toulouse (or perhaps they were just unhappy that he had left the kingdom for an extended period). He also had to deal with discontent from other key nobles- a reminder that the reports of English and Norman chroniclers regarding 12th century Scotland and its supposedly ‘saintly’ and ‘civilised’ kings may only reflect one particular view of what constituted ‘civilisation’ and successful kingship. That being said, like his grandfather David, we cannot really show that Malcolm was actively opposed to Gaelic culture and the native nobility of his kingdom, even if he might have been inclined to view the feudal ways of the Normans as the ideal way to govern. And overall, despite his illnesses and his youth, contemporary reports of his reign appear are actually largely positive and even complimentary. Perhaps this was helped out by the fact that he died young, and, again, that many of these reports come from English and French-speaking cultures (to them, Malcolm was the perfect successor to his grandfather David, and indeed in one of Kelso Abbey’s early charters they are portrayed together in a manner which echoes the biblical king David and Solomon). Although he faced rebellion from some of his chief subjects, especially those from Gaelic-speaking areas, there were also many native magnates who were supportive of him and his grandfather and it seems unlikely that they would have been seen as such successful kings otherwise (indeed, since the majority of the traditional kingdom of Scotland outwith Lothian was still Gaelic-speaking at this point, that has to count for something). Overall, I can see no reason why we shouldn’t consider Malcolm to have been a competent ruler, even if I wouldn’t necessarily describe him as successful like grandfather or some of Scotland’s later monarchs.

I do apologise for this screed of vaguely incoherent info- I am genuinely interested in Malcolm IV but haven’t had to think about his reign in any depth for a while. Lack of evidence and his early death prevent us from making any deeper assessment of his character and reputation, but I’ll round off with some quotes from contemporary and later sources about him that might give a much better idea of how Malcolm IV was viewed than any of my ranting can. Although obviously the full versions of some of these chronicles are online too (and are worth checking), I’ve quoted mostly from A.O. Anderson’s collections ‘Early Sources of Scottish History’ and ‘Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers’, since these sourcebooks are also really good starting points if you’re curious about any further aspects of Malcolm and William’s careers (you can always ask me, but obviously my view is always subjective). William of Newburgh is a major source for Malcolm’s reputation imo though and the Chronicle of Melrose covers some of the Scottish aspect- and there’s always the anecdote of Ada de Warenne allegedly trying to sneak a girl into Malcolm’s bed which is... dodgy to say the least, but probably meant to show how ‘saintly’ he was and was perhaps also a callback to figures like his distant kinsman Edward the Confessor. Overall though, if Anglo-Norman chroniclers wanted to wax lyrical about the ‘saintliness’ of Scottish royals, and David I and St Margaret weren’t available, Malcolm seems to have been the next best thing.

“Malcolm Cendmor, Henry’s son, the sovereign of Scotland, died: with regard to charity, and hospitality, and piety, the best Christian of the Gaels to the east of the sea.” - The Annals of Ulster

“To the king of Scots also, who possessed as his proper right the northern districts of England, namely Northumbria, Cumberland, Westmoreland, formerly acquired by David, king of Scots, in the name of Matilda, called the empress, and her heir, [king Henry II] took care to announce that the king of England ought not to be defrauded of so great a part of his kingdom, nor could he patiently be deprived of it: it was just that that should be restored which had been acquired in his name. 

And [Malcolm] prudently considering that in this matter the king of England was superior to the merits of the case by the authority of might, although he could have adduced the oath which [Henry] was said to have given to David his grandfather (...) restored to him the aforenamed territories in their entirety, and received from him in return the earldom of Huntingdon, which belonged to him by ancient right.”- William of Newburgh

“These are the ones who survive from that holy generation. From the Empress Matilda you came, most illustrious man, whom we now hail as Duke of the Normans and of the Aquitainians, Count of the Angevins, and truly heir to England. Your brothers are Geoffrey and William, of whom we hope for good things, to whom we wish the best. From Queen Matilda and the devout King Stephen came William, count of Warenne and Boulogne. From Henry came Malcolm, William, and David, heir to his grandfather’s name. May God have mercy on their childhood and may you too be merciful, whom divine-loving kindness has established as the most noble head of your whole people. May your holy gaze, your loving heart, and your effective action be upon them in all their necessities. They are orphans, left to you by their grandfather, who loved you above all people; you will be a helper to these your wards, for you are in age more mature, in hands stronger, and in feeling more experienced than they.” - Ailred of Rievaulx’s appeal to the young Henry II in his ‘Genealogy of the Kings of the English’- naturally there is quite a bit of hyperbole in this and I do have to suppress the urge to react to it with “Lol” every time I read it. This quote is not taken from one of Anderson’s books. 

“About this time the most Christian king of the Scots, Malcolm, of whom we have made mention, as was fitting, in the preceding book, upon Christ’s summons put off the man, to be associated with angels; and lost not his kingship, but changed it. A man of angelic sincerity among men, and as it were an earthly angel, of whom the world was not worthy, the heavenly angels snatched him from the world. A man of wonderful gravity in tender years, of astonishing and unexampled purity upon the summit and in the delights of the kingdom, he was taken from a virgin body to the Lamb, the Virgin’s son, to follow him where he should go.

Clearly he was taken away by an early death lest the wickedness of the times should change his marvellous innocence and purity since so many opportunities and incentives drive astray a young man on the throne.

But because among the tokens of virtue were not wanting in his admirable soul some small stains resultant from royal delights which nevertheless he rather endured than enjoyed, a visitation let fall, not sent down, from heaven chastisted him with paternal lash, and refined him to purity. For before his death he so languished for several years, and besides other sufferings endured severest pains in his extremities, that is his head and feet, that any repentant sinner would seem capable of being cleansed to pellucidity by so great flagellations.

(...)

His brother William succeeded him; a brother, indeed, as it appeared, readier for the uses of the world, but not to be more fortunate than he in administration of the kingdom. 

The world which his brother wished to use simply, and for that cause piously and laudably, [William] purposed not only to use but to enjoy; and striving much to exceed his brother’s measure in temporal excellence, he yet could never equal his glory even in temporal felicity.” - William of Newburgh again, who seems to have been a bit of a fan. 

I’d personally like to find out more about what any surviving Gaelic sources might have thought but that will have to wait. On the whole though, while I’m not convinced that Malcolm was the perfect angel some sources make him out to be, I can at least say with absolute certainty that he doesn’t give me the Fear like Alexander II has somehow managed to do from beyond the grave.

(David I and Malcolm IV, portrayed in 1159 in a charter from Kelso Abbey. The initial they are sitting in is ‘M’ and is the start of Malcolm’s name)

[diancellec]

HOW TO TREAT INSOMNIA

DIAGNOSING

You can consult with the doctor or another licensed physician to address symptoms and get a prescription before insomnia therapy can begin. Insomnia diagnostic requirements include difficulties beginning or sustaining sleep, waking up earlier than expected, and aversion to going to bed within a decent hour. These signs must persist for a period of 3 months despite sufficient nightly sleep opportunities. Additionally, to obtain an insomnia diagnosis, you must have one or more of the following daytime symptoms:

Fatigue or malaise

Impairments with memory, concentration, or attention

Negative impacts on social, family, occupational, or academic performance

Irritability or disturbed mood

Excessive daytime sleepiness

Hyperactivity, impulsivity, aggression, or other behavioral problems

Increased risk for errors and accidents

Lack of motivation or energy

A regular clinical test and questionnaire will include an insomnia diagnosis. These protocols allow your doctor to decide whether insomnia is an isolated disorder or whether you have signs of insomnia related to an underlying illness or medical problem. You will inform the psychiatrist with the diagnosis by recording your nighttime sleep habits, awakening episodes, and alcohol and caffeine consumption in a sleep journal for one or two weeks prior to this visit.

  Actigraphy, a screening procedure that allows you to wear a body sensor when you are sleeping for up to two weeks, should be administered by the doctor. Blood checks to rule out underlying medical problems that cause signs of insomnia can also be recommended. For at least three months, chronic insomnia includes signs that arise at least three days a week. The disease is called acute, or short-term, insomnia before these benchmarks are met.

TREATMENT

Two key aims are to cure chronic insomnia: to increase the consistency and length of sleep and to decrease associated daytime impairments. Usually, a chronic insomnia care regimen requires at least one therapeutic modification, which sometimes takes the form of insomnia cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT-i)

Since it does not bear the health risks associated with sleep medicine, CBT-i is considered a first-line therapy for insomnia. In most cases, a certified psychologist who has received qualification for this form of therapy delivers CBT-i. CBT-i works on understanding the anxieties people with insomnia often have about sleep, and then substituting better values and habits for these anxieties. In addition, one or more of the following elements may be used in this form of therapy:

Sleep education and hygiene

They will help them understand why they have signs of insomnia by teaching patients about healthier sleep schedules and lifestyle behaviors. Sleep hygiene primarily focuses on which habits that enhance the consistency and quantity of sleep while eliminating behaviors that create issues with sleep.

Stimulus control

Many persons with insomnia feel discomfort at the slightest risk of falling asleep, which may worsen their symptoms and extend them. To minimize these anxieties and establish a healthy interaction with your sleep environment, stimulation management requires a set of actions you should take. This involve laying down only when you're feeling sleepy, having a bed for sleep and sex only, and setting an alarm every morning for the same time. CBT-i therapists also advise sleepers to get up if, after 10 minutes of lying in bed, they are unable to fall asleep, and then return to bed when they are exhausted. Stimulus control also discourages daytime napping.

Sleep restriction and compression

By minimizing the amount of time a person lies in bed, these two approaches aim to increase the quality and quantity of sleep. Compared to the length of time they lay up in bed, a CBT-i doctor will use records from a patient's sleep journal to assess how long they sleep at night. A sharp reduction in time in bed requires sleep restraint, while sleep compression is a more incremental operation, but both approaches are intended to accomplish the same goal: less time per night awake in bed.

Relaxation

A handful of calming techniques have been identified by sleep researchers that can help people with insomnia. They include exercises for breathing, calming the body, and meditation. Biofeedback can also be beneficial for minimizing symptoms of insomnia and optimizing sleep, which lets you monitor multiple body processes dependent on your blood pressure, breathing and heart rhythms, and other metrics.

MEDICATION

Before taking any insomnia drug, make sure to contact your doctor or another qualified practitioner. For certain individuals, since stimulus management, calming strategies, and other CBT-i techniques have not been successful in enhancing their sleep, medicine is a last resort. Insomnia drugs fall into many separate groups, including:

Benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines, known as BZD for short, are a class of psychoactive medications. For long-term insomnia treatment, BZDs are usually not recommended because there is a high risk for misuse and dependence; all five insomnia BZDs are listed under the US as Schedule IV controlled substances.  Additionally, people who take these drugs often develop a tolerance for their sedative effects.

Nonbenzodiazepines

This class of medications, known as Z drugs for short, was developed to provide the same BZDs for relaxation while reducing the risk for side effects and violence. That said, Z medications (like Ambien) still require a prescription, and they have been listed as controlled Schedule IV substances.

Melatonin agonist

When natural light continues to dim in the evening, the brain's pineal gland releases melatonin, a hormone that triggers sensations of sleepiness and relaxation. A medicine known as ramelteon serves as an agonist of the melatonin receptor and can be used to relieve anxiety along with sleep onset or falling asleep. In contrast to BZDs and Z antidepressants, the symptoms of ramelteon tend to be less extreme, while patients often feel dizziness, nausea, and fatigue.

Orexin receptor antagonist

Orexins are neurotransmitters that control sleepiness and wakefulness feelings in the body. The medication known as suvorexant functions as an antagonist of the orexin receptor which can be used as insomnia therapy for sleep onset or sleep maintenance. Suvorexant is a controlled drug obtained from Schedule IV.

Off-label treatments

Some drugs that are specifically meant to treat other disorders can also alleviate the effects of insomnia. That include some antidepressants and drugs for antipsychotics. For certain cases, they may be recommended.

Over-the-counter medications

Any over-the-counter antihistamines have sedating effects and can act as aids for sleep. Also available are melatonin supplements designed to better regulate the levels of melatonin in the body. Although they don't need prescriptions, before seeking an over-the-counter alternative, always talk to a doctor.

Finally, a word on natural options for insomnia care. People have traditionally used herbal supplements such as valerian and kava to decrease the effects of insomnia and improve their sleep. Any new studies show that such supplements might not be the same as once believed. Valerian and Kava have also been associated with adverse side effects and are not commonly recommended for the treatment of insomnia.

That’s a wrap! Lets go get those z’s !! Repost this if you want some more to this series.