#tricks to be successful

[benniefranky]

THE FIRST TIME I SHIFTED AWAKE…

was horrifying. I was feeling hopeless, it was around 6 in the morning and i still had a few hours before i needed to make my way to work.

HALF ASLEEP, i thought it would be a good idea to test a subliminal i saw the night before. at this point in my journey i was actively trying different subliminals for shifting and rating them online based on if i shifted or not.

the subliminal was only 1 minute and 40 something seconds long. 6 am Nicky thought “why not?”

“Why not”? because for me personally nothing had been working those past 2 weeks. i was struggling and felt like i lost my groove of falling asleep and waking up somewhere else.

5 months into my success journey i was only shifting using asleep methods, i never thought you could actually shift awake. i assumed that it was easier for me to shift when i was knocked out.

so i closed my eyes and thought “what was the worst that could happen?” and just waited through it. listening to the subliminal, i zoned out, and within seconds my body ascended.

i started to panic. i wasn’t in my bed anymore. i was in a different bed, a familiar one.

everything was fuzzy for a few seconds, i felt my soul leave my body, my position in my bed change, and heard the grandfather clock in my bedroom go off. It was my heart bed, the bed Jonathan and I unofficially shared before our wedding that was completely against my father’s wishes. I was alone, which was good for my anxiety but different than every other morning.

as i opened my eyes and adjusted, i realized something was off. it was my room, but Jonathan was nowhere to be found. i was under a tower of blankets, with his side of the bed being left untouched. i took it as a sign that he was here.

with the thought lingering a second longer i remembered he came in around 2 in the morning. but he was gone now.

i got up, the shock of shifting now completely gone and was immediately replaced with “where’s my fiance?”

just as i went to grab my robe and head towards the door, i checked the grandfather clock. 8:03 in the morning. amazing. in new jersey it was 6 am. on solaria it’s 8.

there was a disagreement down the royal hallway. Jonathan and my assistant, Julia, who was been with me since my early youtube days, were arguing over something. they were far away enough that i couldn’t hear, but i could see them, and these two were huge on body language.

as Julia turned around to start to walk towards my door, i went panic mode. closed the door, sat down at my desk, and left. 6:04 am. new jersey. groggy.

the shift happened in less than a minute.

and i could finally say i shifted awake.

this was back in 2021 and the my first awake shift to my winx reality. i remember the entire thing to this day and it truly changed how i looked at my shifting journey.

[thatsbelievable]

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Miraculous vs The Power of Love

I've written several posts where I talked about Miraculous' poor use of the power of love trope and how that massively turned me off to canon. Three strikes and you're out! When this topic comes up I usually bring up Adrien and only Adrien. This has led to some anger at the fact that I didn't mention love failing anyone else as it absolutely has. I've also seen some anger over my desire for Adrien to defeat Gabriel's control and win the day since Adrien is a victim and that means that it's perfectly fine if he fails to beat his father's control no matter what the consequences of that failure are. After all, the failure isn't really on Adrien. It's on Gabriel. A sentiment I understand, but don't agree with since this is a writing blog. I'm discussing the message the writing is sending not which character gets the in-universe blame.

I'm not going to change how I discuss this topic since it is my honest opinion, but I can explain that opinion in depth to hopefully save us all from miscommunication! That's why I'm making this post! It addresses all of the above. I'll be linking to this whenever the topic comes up so that I can include some nuance without having to go into all of the detail I'm about to go into because - as you'll see - this is a long one which is why I don't go into this depth in other posts. It would just totally derail them. I'm also not going to go into the deconstruction aspect of things here because this is already really long, but I do have a post on that for even more nuance!

If you disagree with any of this, that's totally fine! I just ask that you keep the your counter arguments civil. Remember, we're talking about a badly written kids show that none of us have the power to change and the magical power of love isn't real so it doesn't actually matter if I'm right about this. Nor is Adrien going to thank you for coming to his aid. He doesn't exist and, as always, my issue is not him as a person. My issue is the way the narrative uses him as a storytelling tool.

What Is the Power of Love?

The power of love is a trope where either platonic or romantic love saves the hero from some type of conflict or upsetting situation. It's a rather broad trope that can be used in conflicts of any size, but even TV tropes acknowledges that it's primarily "applied in dire situations to make things better. In fact, in many Disney movies it's the solution to everything." That definition is how I approach the power of love.

To put it more bluntly, unless we're talking about a specific example, when I say "the power of love" I am thinking of a story's climax or, in the case of something like a multi-season show, one of the climaxes. More specifically, I'm thinking of the lyrics to one of my favorite cheesy pop songs:

There comes a time When you face the toughest of fights Searching for a sign Lost in the darkest of nights The wind blows so cold Standing alone Before the battle's begun But deep in your soul The future unfolds As bright as the rays of the sun You've got to believe In the power of love

If it's not the toughest of fights or the darkest of nights, then the power of love failing may disappoint me, but I don't consider it an unforgivable sin. In some cases, I'd even be disappointed if the power of love was brought in before the climax! The power of love is the ultimate cheesy move so it makes sense to save it for the last minute if using it earlier would lessen or even ruin that last minute epic save.

To show what I mean, let's talk about another trope that Miraculous has failed to use well, but that doesn't ruin the show for me. A trope that has led the show to do the exact thing we just discussed: ignore a small moment when love should have won to allow for a bigger win when all hope seems lost.

The Evil Clone Thing

[Image description: the Buzz and Woody meme with the words "Evil Clones. Evil Clones Everywhere"]

There have been an absurd number of episodes where the evil clone/evil twin trope came into play, but the three big ones are Ladybug, Optigami, and the season four final. In each of these episodes, we see a good character replaced by an identical evil version. We also see the good character's love interest fail to recognize that their crush/romantic partner has been replaced. That means that all three of these episodes see the power of romantic love failing. We also don't see a more platonic version of love show up to save the day.

The worst of these episode is the season four final where Marinette doesn't recognize that Felix has taken Adrien's place. That deception is how Gabriel steals the miraculous so it's obviously a pretty big deal and can be argued as a major fail for the power of love. I don't disagree. I think that Marinette's love should have let her see through the lies and dislike that the writers took this route to make her lose. However, I don't have this on my list of moments when the power of love needed to win for the story to work.

While Marinette failing to recognize Felix leads to her darkest hour, it does not happen in her darkest hour. Her darkest hour comes when she actually loses the miraculous which happens in a completely different scene from the one where she's deceived. It's also worth noting that Felix is not present in this moment of loss so there was no opportunity for the power of love to pull off a last minute win.

The loss of the miraculous leads to a scene where Ladybug is sitting alone in the rain, ready to give up all hope. And what happens next?

[Image description: Chat Noir standing in the rain, smiling, holding out his hand to Ladybug]

Chat Noir shows up to reignite Ladybug's will to fight via his love and support. She takes his hand, he draws her into a hug, and they stand together as one, ready to once again face their enemy:

Cat Noir: We're gonna get them back one by one…until the very last. And we'll make sure this never happens again. Ladybug: You...and me? Cat Noir: You, the best superhero there ever was... and me, your loyal partner.

A lot of people love this scene and it led to some major hype for season five which means that it's time to quote some more of that cheesy song that I brought up at the start:

Stand by my side There's nothing to hide Together we'll fight to the end Take hold of my hand And you'll understand What it truly means to be friends You've got to believe (you've got to believe) In the power of love

While I don't love the season four final, it is a B-tier execution of the thing I was talking about earlier. Canon let love fail in a small moment to increase tension and give Ladybug a "darkest night" moment. That darkest night moment then led to a semi-epic power-of-love comeback that understandably got a lot of fans super excited for season five because they assumed that it was going to be the season of Ladynoir. In other words, for a lot of fans, the power of love did its job in the season four final!

All of this is why I don't bring up Marinette when I talk about the power of love failing. It does fail her, but not in her darkest nights and toughest fights. Any time she's overwhelmed and ready to give up all hope, someone comes along to give her the will to fight on. That person is usually Chat Noir because he's her end game love interest so of course the writers use him! His "you and me against the world" moments may not be the most epic example of the power of love winning, but they are the power of love winning, so saying that the power of love fails Marinette feels like an overstatement of harm. She's never had a total loss.

The closest we get to Marinette truly losing is the season five final. That episode feels like an ultimate-level failure to many of us, on par with Ephemeral, but the writers clearly don't agree. For them, season five had a happy ending which makes critiquing that final fight tricky. I'll be arguing that Adrien lost hard in the next section, but I can't say the same for Marinette and this section is about her so let's focus on that for now.

No matter how much I hate the final, I can't look at the picture below this paragraph and argue that love failed Marinette because what did losing cost her? This isn't the season four final where she genuinely suffered. This is her getting everything she's ever wanted! The miraculous are back in her hands, she won the heart of the boy she loves, and no one is actively messing with her love life anymore. That's a pretty solid win even if she didn't win the actual fight.

[Image description: Adrien and Marinette at the end of the season five final, kissing in the spot that used to house Emilie's statue.]

This is further complicated by the fact that - as written - the season five final doesn't put Marinette in a position to use the power of love. She's never given a chance to save Adrien or even just talk to him. She doesn't know that's he's in trouble, locked up in a padded cell, suffering all alone! And Adrien's love can't rally her in her darkest moment when all hope seems lost because - for the first time ever in a season final - she never got one of those! She was a badass in the final fight! No pep talk or supportive teammates necessary! She would have had a total victory if the writers hasn't made her try to talk sense to the villain or sent her Adrien's ring just so Gabriel could make the wish, further adding to the problem of this show's absolutely vile messaging around love.

In other words, lack of love isn't why Marinette loses the final fight. She loses because the writers wanted love to empower Gabriel in his darkest moment, a move the writers have the audacity to call a mutual victory. (Gross. Abusive terrorist should not get power of love moments without a massive redemption arc first. It's yet another insult to the trope. Gabriel did not deserve peace while his son goes on to suffer.)

If you think about the episodes Ladybug and Optigami you'll notice a similar problem. The power of love failed to let Chat Noir and Alya recognize that their romantic interests had been replaced, but that failure didn't lead to their ultimate defeat. It didn't even lead the villains to a minor victory! Both episodes maintain the status quo.

This doesn't mean that I like those episodes. I would rewrite both of them to let love win because they're good examples of small moments where love can win without cheapening or ruining the season's big climax. I just don't view these episodes as times when the show needed to use the power of love if it wanted to honor its chosen genre. That requirement only applies when it's a darkest night or toughest fight.

Before we move on, please note that Ladybug was the power of Adrien's love failing, yet I never mention it when I'm complaining about the power of love failing. That's because I'm never purposefully listing every time Adrien's love failed and ignoring everyone else. I'm simply listing the moments when love needed to let the heroes win because we were in one of the show's darkest hours and that is the only time when I consider the power of love a true requirement. Love can fail in small moments to increase the tension, but if love fails at the moment when all hope seems lost, then why are we even here?

There are only three episodes that get that level of criticism from me and each one had a single character whose writing infuriated me: Adrien.

Adrien vs The Power of Love

There are three episodes where Gabriel's identity is revealed and the final fight goes down. Those episodes are Chat Blanc, Ephemeral, and the season five final. In each of these episodes, Adrien suffers on a scale that no other character has had to suffer:

In Chat Blanc he is akumatized and forced to use his cataclysm to kill both his father and the love of his life, dooming him to spend eternity alone in a dead word.

In Ephemeral he is akumatized and forced to use his powers to hand the love of his life over to his father, thereby allowing Gabriel to win and rewrite reality.

In the season five final, Adrien is left alone in a jail cell, tormented by nightmares while his father dies leaving Adrien an orphan. Adrien is then told some truly colossal lies about what actually happened, leading him to believe that Gabriel scarified himself to save Ladybug's life. Since Chat Noir's usual role in fights is protecting Ladybug, this is arguably the equivalent of Adrien being told that his failure to show up killed his father. I'm not even sure if that's the wrong message because Gabriel did die from a cataclysm and Adrien would understandably blame himself for that, too, so maybe this was a way to address that without going too dark for kids and why does that argument hold water? Wtf was this trash fire of a story line???

When you compare Adrien's treatment in these episodes to something like Marinette's treatment in season four final you can hopefully see why it feels like comparing a broken arm to a mortal blow. It's not that Marinette doesn't suffer. In terms of individual moments of suffering, Marinette beats out every other character! But while she may beat Adrien in breadth, he is the clear winner in terms of depth and the only one who never gets a true power of love moment.

Marinette's darkest nights and toughest fights ultimately work out so that she can go on to some new type of suffering, the old suffering fading away to nothing more than memory. Adrien's darkest nights and toughest fights lead to loss and suffering for which there is no cure other than rewinding time or rewriting reality. The season five final even has Adrien directly state that he's not worthy of Marinette's love:

Adrien: I'm not in my right mind. I'm too angry — at myself for falling short of Marinette's love, at my father for sending me here in London, at this stupid app and these rings that use my image... it makes me sick! This nightmare is giving me the horrible feeling that, if I transform, I'll get akumatized and destroy everything with my Cataclysm — Marinette, Ladybug... (Takes off the ring and hands it to Plagg.) Plagg: Surely Ladybug can help you. Adrien: If I ask her for help, I'd have to give her information that would jeopardize my secret identity... and I can't.

This is literally Adrien's last scene in the main story line. He doesn't show up again until the happily ever after epilogue where he and Marinette kiss. In other words, the show had Adrien directly state that he's unworthy of Marinette's love and then did nothing to counter that statement. I guess this poor unfortunate soul is just lucky that Marinette likes him enough to keep him around in spite of his many failings...

Writers, seriously, what the hell are you doing? This is the kind of dialogue that should lead into a power of love moment! How is thinking about Marinette leading Adrien to despair instead of strength? Why is Plagg just accepting this? Plagg is a magical being who was assigned to watch over Adrien. Shouldn't a character like that help Adrien rally in his darkest night? Where's Adrien's you and me against the world pep talk? That should go both ways!!! Have him break out, call Ladybug to tell her that he's not coming, only for her to rally him so he comes and at least fights outside in the city while she does her solo fight! Don't leave him alone to rot while almost every other character in the freaking show gets to fight!

It would be one thing if Adrien gave up because he was alone and scared, but Plagg is there and the writers directly bring up Marinette and love only to do nothing to show those as positive forces in Adrien's life!!! Instead, Marinette is the thing that keeps him from the fight because Adrien's nightmare is him getting akumatized and killing Marinette even though Adrien knows nothing about Chat Blanc.

[Image description: Adrien's nightmare where he's a blue haired version of Chat Blanc, holding Marinette's body in his arms having killed her with a cataclysm]

To be clear, in each of the three episodes I listed above, Adrien is undeniably a victim suffering at the hands of his main abuser. They're also some of the worst moments of abuse in the entire show. It would be perfectly reasonable for a real life person to give into despair if they were put into this situation, but real life people don't transform into magical cat boys who wield the raw power of Destruction. I was not looking for realism here. I was looking for hope and inspiration!

I wanted to see Adrien win! I wanted his love for Marinette and/or his friends to give him the strength to overpower his father's control because that's what the power of love is all about! When all hope seems lost, it's there to let the hero win because love is stronger than despair, hatred, fear, and magical remote controls! It is the bright light that blasts away the darkness in your darkest night! Unless your name is Adrien Agreste, then no love for you! Suffer, feather boy, suffer!

Example of what I wanted from canon

There are many ways to fix these three episodes so love wins, but to keep this simple let's focus on Chat Blanc and what the power of love winning might look like if we let canon play unchanged up until the moment where Adrien loses control of his powers:

Hawk Moth: Cat Blanc, I'm giving you the infinite power of destruction!! Together, you and I will seize Ladybug's Miraculous and awaken your mother!!! Obey!!! Cat Noir: (tries to fight back but fails) I'm sorry, Ladybug! (He succumbs his akumatization and transforms into Cat Blanc. Ladybug watches in horror at his transformation.) Hawk Moth: Seize her Miraculous, My Son!!! (Cat Blanc lifts his right arm to Ladybug, activating Mega Cataclysm.) Ladybug: No, Adrien! You have to resist!! (Cat Blanc whimpers as he changes his mind and points his arm to Hawk Moth.) Hawk Moth: How dare you!? Not me, Adrien!! Cat Blanc: (whimpering while looking to both of them) I... I don't know what to do!!!!!!

Instead of having the mega cataclysm go off here, we instead see this: Ladybug and Hawk Moth both realize that Chat Blanc is incapable of listening to either of them. Hawk Moth's reaction is to turn and run away, desperate to save himself. Ladybug's reaction is to run to her boyfriend's side, not caring about the danger. She wraps her arms around him, closes her eyes, and tells him that it's okay. That she's here and she loves him and she'll stay here and love him no matter what. It doesn't matter who his father is, it's still him and her against the world now and forever.

The more she talks, the weaker the mega cataclysm grows. By the time she makes her final vow, the mega cataclysm is little more than a flickering glow. A black clad hand touches both of her hair ties, disintegrating them, leaving her hair to fall free around her face since that was a thing in this episode. The minor wardrobe change makes her pull back and look at her boyfriend to see that he's back to Chat Noir, a purified akumas fluttering off in the distance. Chat Noir is crying, clearly distraught, but he's himself again because Marinette's presence allowed him to focus on her love over his father's poison. They won. Love won. Fear and abuse lost.

The couple embraces. Hawk Moth's big gambit failed and they now know his identity so the fight is almost over. Paris will soon be free.

From there you can have an epic battle with the temp holders where the butterfly and the peacock are recovered. Nino gets to punch Gabriel in the face a dozen times or so as a treat and Adrien gets to cuddle up with some treats, sitting the fight out since he's already done his part by surviving the reveal of his father's identity.

You could also have Gabriel just give up because he doesn't have any moves left and the full implications of what he did are smacking him in the face, sapping him of the will to fight. Anything that lets this asshole suffer is fine by me! Emilie's fate is up to you. I like to make her at least semi-decent and revive her to give Adrien a happier ending and Gabriel the horror of divorce papers, but that's just me.

Final Thoughts

As I said at the top, I'm going to continue to complain about the way that Adrien was written in these episodes. I don't consider his victim status a reasonable excuse for the way these episodes played out. If anything, his victim status is an even bigger black mark against the writing!

I come to family-oriented media for hope and happy endings! I want stories about victims being empowered! I want Gabriel's controlling nature to totally backfire on him and not in a mutually-assured-destruction way like we saw in Chat Blanc. I want Gabriel's choice to cost him everything and for him to suffer that loss for the rest of his life while Adrien gets endless love and support, allowing him to survive the reveal and go on to live a happy life. If that's not what you're selling, then I'm not buying thus me giving up on canon after the season five final. There's just no coming back from that kind of colossal writing failure.

I will try to remember to use the word "forced" when describing the problems (as in "forced to kill"), but that's the only thing I can change while still sharing my honest opinion since my main problem with these episodes isn't Gabriel's treatment of Adrien. While I don't like how far these episodes took Gabriel, you don't need to rewrite him to make the episodes work. It doesn't matter how far the writing takes Gabriel, he should never be able to successfully manipulate Adrien while threatening Adrien's supposed True Love.

As soon as Adrien knows that Marinette/Ladybug is in danger, it should be game over for Gabriel because love is supposed to be stronger than all of the awful things that Gabriel has done up to and including the sentimonster crap. In fact, the sentimonster crap just makes it even more important for Adrien to win! Gabriel should think he has victory in the bag because he views Adrien as a perfect doll, but love proves Gabriel wrong letting Adrien overpower his amok and win. The trope is called "love conquers all" not "love conquers the mildly inconvenient." The more dire the straits, the more important the win!

Unfortunately, that's not the message Miraculous is sending. By letting Adrien give into his father's control in the show's darkest hours, the message is that Gabriel's control is stronger than love. That Adrien will never be free. That he was Gabriel's perfect doll and you were silly if you ever expected him to be more than that. That's not a message that I'm that ever going to agree with and is yet another reason why I only bring up Adrien + these three episodes when I talk about the power of love failing.

You are never going to convince me that Adrien being allowed to give into despair was a good thing unless you pair that argument with some major changes to canon like love square not being together and/or Adrien not knowing that his actions would endanger Marinette. Even then you need to design that fix in a way that ultimately allows Adrien to win otherwise you are sending a terrible message to the audience. There should never be a scenario where the final battle ends the way canon had it end.

Gabriel is the show's big bad, Adrien is his main victim, and the theme of their relationship has been control. That means that, when it comes to the final fight with Gabriel, Adrien needs to be involved in a way that gives him agency. I'm not saying he needs to fight his father on his own or even at all! I'm okay with him sitting out the fight so long as you pair it with something big like Adrien being the one to learn Gabriel's identity or something more dramatic like my simple Chat Blanc fix.

However, Adrien sitting out only works if it's his own, freely-made choice. As soon as you pair it with something like magic nightmare dust you are once again sending the message that Gabriel's control is the strongest force in Adrien's life. I truly don't understand how anyone can embrace that message and call it good, especially when canon didn't ultimately do something positive with it like letting Adrien become stronger as time went on. He actually got weaker as the show went on!

Chat Blanc saw everyone lose because Adrien was able to at least try to fight back, denying his father total victory. Ephemeral saw none of that fighting spirit and Gabriel just outright won. Season five once again saw Gabriel win only, this time, the show didn't even let Adrien be part of the fight. What an uplifting character arc for Adrien! (That was sarcasm.) Play the episodes in reverse order and you might actually have something if you add a fourth one where he finally wins!

If you want to talk about more minor conflicts where the power of love should have won then I'm happy to do that! Canon has lots of options to pick from! But unless you specify that you want to talk about something minor, these three episodes are going to be my only examples of the power of love failing because they are the only times when love completely failed the character in question. Total loss, no silver lining, writers wtf are you doing?

Listing times when love failed Marinette or Alya in the same list as these three episodes just feels insulting to Adrien unless the context is something like a list ranking the failures from smallest to largest. I'll once again point out that I don't even list the other times when love failed Adrien because my issue isn't Adrien as a person. My issue is Adrien as a tool of the narrative and the asinine message that the Agreste arc sends to the young children this show is aimed at. I wouldn't even be okay with this in a show aimed at adults unless it was clearly marketed as a grimdark take on superheroes. Miraculous should not feel like a kiddiefied version of The Boys and yet here we are.

Why was Adrien granted magical powers and allowed to fight his controlling father for five seasons if Gabriel was just going to die without Adrien getting a decisive victory? Why focus season five on Gabriel controlling Adrien to such an extreme if Adrien was never going to be allowed to break free? Why make Adrien the main love interest and focus the entire show on romantic love if you don't have anything positive to say about romantic love? Why bother getting the love square together before every single final showdown in the freaking show if their relationship status was going to mean nothing? Where is my power of love always so strong?

(Btw, that song I kept quoting is from the original English dub soundtrack to Sailor Moon R - The Promise of the Rose. It plays as love and friendship save the planet Earth from an asteroid. The updated dub replaced the song with the original Japanese soundtrack and the comments are full of people complaining about the change because the song just takes this scene to the next level! I bring this up because Sailor Moon set many people's standards for the magical girl team show genre that Miraculous is clearly taking inspiration from, but failing to fully embrace. If you don't want love and friendship to be on par with nuclear weapons and asteroid attacks, then don't write a show about love and magic aimed at kids.)

[babygothprincess]

Deciding you have something and knowing it’s done no matter what you see outside of you is all it takes for you to have anything in the world 🌎 🩷

[undomesticated-animal]

I have the feeling I'm going to keep returning to this idea of sexual agency a lot from different directions because like.

Okay so I only really date other trans, intersex, or gnc folks right? But I fuck a LOT of Straight Men TM, and I pretty much always have a good time, but this is NOT because they're all good in bed. In fact, a lot of them basically have nothing but size and stamina (the two things I care least about) working in their favor.

But this is where being vers as fuck comes into play. Because even as a bottom, I fuck like a queer. And I look pretty visibly queer, I have a voice that's rough and low. And they're attracted to all of it get me? It's safe because I have tits and a vagina and they can just pretend they're fucking a dyke, not a GUY but friends they are absolutely fucking a guy. And they learn that the minute I'm on top of them, which is why men love it so much when I ride them and I can almost never get another position out of them after that lol

What do I mean when I say I fuck like a guy? I mean I ride like I'm penetrating them because circlusion is basically the only form of clitoral stimulation I enjoy, and while I would need a strap and a willingness to try anal from a partner to ACTUALLY fuck them, it turns out that using the movements and thrusting rhythms is actually still pretty fucking stellar when both parties are getting that experience. It's basically like 69ing with eye contact, and every Straight Man TM who has experienced it for the first time with me becomes slightly obsessed and seems to have some kind of sexual awakening in the process. Tbh I had one too the first time I experienced the sensations because they're WILD but for me there was no morality involved, just sensation-seeking. The best way I can think to describe it is "what if the dick belonged to both you and you BOTH experienced the pleasurable sensations of fucking your partner and being fucked by your partner?

See, I tuck my ankles up between their thighs for better bounce, and I lace my fingers under their neck and the heels of my palms under their ears so I can hold their face at kissing angle, and between the two, I have discovered that a lot of Straight Men TM find themselves experiencing for the first time what it's like to get fucked missionary. Some of them do NOT like it, but the vast majority spend the whole time looking up at me with literal awe and frantic desperation as they forget to even try to fuck me back. I suspect it's the sensation of having their thighs pressed open is a big part of it for them, it makes them feel vulnerable, but I'm really good at keeping them anchored through it, so it's rare for vulnerable to tic all the way over into fear or threat, and usually the second it does, I'm topping from the bottom anyway, so they get to regain their feelings of autonomy while maintaining the vulnerable sensations, and psychologically that'll fucking break a person's self control like no one's business lol.

It's easy for people to forget that penetration is vulnerable and emotionally intense, esp if they're not set up for easy or consistent experience of the sensations of penetration. But folks. Folks, the look on a Straight Man TM's face when he realizes that he can have his dick sucked or fucked as a SUBMISSIVE experience FOR HIM? That's the good shit right there. That's what sexual agency is. The ability to sit with yourself and really ask "why do I like this and what else might I like?" and allow the answers to come without shame or fear.

Anyway, next time you want to switch shit up, try setting your top up in a comfy oral chair and let them start off thinking this is gonna be service as usual from their sub, but little by little, get your arms around their thighs and hips from underneath so you can get your face deeper into their crotch while holding them more and more still so all they can do is experience what you give. If they try to push you to give more, dig your nails into the soft part of their inner thighs and apply some gentle suction to the head (clit or cock) while sticking your tongue out and sort of grinding your tongue and chin against the underside of the shaft (clit or cock), but go slow and firm, not fast or intense. Watch them start to fall apart and get twitchy and incoherent. Watch as they go from trying to grab your head and take what they want from you to grabbing at themselves, their hair, their clothes, half sobbing at how good it feels and how they can barely stand it. If they whimper and beg for a specific sensation, make a thoughtful hum at the back your throat the vibrates against their pelvic bone and once those little frantic sounds start coming because they're trying not to push your head where they want you because they want to be so fucking good for you so you'll keep doing what you're doing, give them what they asked for. Watch their head snap back, hear the moans turn to wails, feel the way they pulse and swell under you, and do not fucking stop unless you have to.

When they come, they WILL grab for you again, but even as it is to keep your mouth on them the way they like, it is not a command anymore. It is a caress, a desperate plea to touch and be touched in turn, an expression of vulnerability no different from the wail of despair I make every time someone pulls out of me. They have forgotten what their body feels like without you there and they are afraid to remember.

If you really want to fuck a bitch up, this is the point where you slowly, gently, softly, lick them over and over again while they shake and plead and yell until they're nothing but putty in your mouth and holding off the next orgasm by the skin of their teeth.

[holly-mckenzie]

This is real. Remember this, this slant of light. Remember this. This is it.

THE BEAUTIFUL LIE S01E06 written by Alice Bell SUCCESSION S02E01 written by Jesse Armstrong

[declamationark]

Danny gets punted into the DC universe for some reason and proceeds to haunt Gotham because it’s gothic and there’s this hero cave with a bunch of cool tech (he misses Sam and Tucker) and this big family (he misses his mom and his dad and his big sis). He helps the vigilantes there with their battles and writes info he learns from spying on rogues on sticky notes (he misses clockwork) to leave by the files in the batcave. He thinks he’s being slick and stealthy but all the batfam realizes he’s there and basically pspspspspsps him into the family and somehow Danny never catches on

[its-to-the-death]

Glasses Swag Sequel Preliminary Round #7

Only one will make it into the bracket!

[pageofheartdj]

Fanon Donnie: He acts aloof and has a poker face.

Canon Donnie: He thinks he acts aloof and has a poker face. He doesn’t.

[thatsbelievable]

[acespeon]

I love both Stan twins but fandom really takes the Filbrick way of thinking wrt how smart Stanley is

[akajustmerry]

I'm going absolutely feral over the reveal that Roman was (more or less??) having sex with tabs in season 4. Because 1) it does confirm how much of Roman's shame around sex was enforced by Logan (in a deleted scene he even says, "my dad died and my dick started working") which is fucking horrific 2) it confirms that tabs does indeed genuinely like roman despite [gestures vaguely] and 3) the "post-coital" reveal scene between tabs and roman was literally at the start of living+, the same episode Roman fired Gerri, and adds an extra dimension of misogyny to Roman firing Gerri because we now know he wasn't just firing her because she refused to blindly support him, but also because he had no more use for her sexually either. She was no longer the only person who had that hold for him. Guillotine!!!

[bbddbopp]

Manifestation techniques #1: Water technique 💧

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡

This technique is by no means, a new one nor do I claimed that I was the one created this technique. I’ve seen countless people share similar methods, with slight variations, across many social media platforms. It’s a concept that’s been around and shared by many.

I first encountered a version of this technique sometime between 2020 and 2021 (I can’t remember exactly when) while watching a tarot reading video on YouTube. The tarot reader suggested placing a water bottle by the window during a full moon to harness its energy for manifestation. This idea immediately reminded me of a lecture I attended around 2016-2017, where the speaker (whose credentials and name I completely forgot lmao) talked about Dr. Emoto’s research on water molecules.

For those interested, I’ll also share a link to Dr. Emoto’s full study below:

The water research, combined with various religious practices involving the 'blessing of water'—such as baptisms in Christianity and ruqyah with water in Islam—motivated me to try the water method for myself. In this post, I’ll be discussing the technique, along with my personal experiences and the results I achieved using these methods.

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡

TL;DR (just in case if you're too lazy to read the whole study lol)

Dr.Emoto found that water exposed to different types of stimuli, such as positive or negative words, music, and even human thoughts, resulted in distinct crystal formations.

Positive Influence: When water was exposed to positive words, music or thoughts (like “love,” “gratitude,” or “peace”), the resulting ice crystals formed beautiful, symmetrical patterns.

Negative Influence: When water was exposed to negative words, music or thoughts (like “hate,” “angry,” or “evil”), the crystals were chaotic, disordered, and ugly.

In short, Dr. Emoto’s work on water suggests that our thoughts, words, and emotions can influence the molecular structure of water, and by extension, potentially impact our physical and emotional well-being.

Note: There are criticism against Dr.Emoto's work on water, mainly for its lack of replicability and control that failed to meet the scientific standards. Since I want this blog to focus on the techniques rather than his study (which is only meant to support and explain my beliefs), I’ll link to a Google Doc that may help those who are more logical or have difficulty overlooking the criticisms of his research.

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡

Both Emoto’s study and various religious practices suggest that words have a noticeable effect on water. Based on this, we can apply it to our manifestation practices.

There are 2 ways of doing this method:

The Affirmation way.

Write down your affirmations, either on paper or in your phone’s notes. I recommend focusing on 3 or fewer goals at a time. You can do more, but it will take much longer, so unless you have plenty of free time, I’d suggest keeping it to 3.

Grab a bottle of water and open the lid.

Read your affirmations aloud, making sure you’re close to the bottle.

Once you’ve finished, close the lid, and make sure the bottle is kept away from anything you consider as negative influence.

The water now 'holds' your affirmations, and you can drink it at any time to help manifest your desires!

Tip: I personally like to use a large bottle for this method, storing it in the fridge for about 3 days. I cover it with cloth to prevent mold or algae from forming, and I always close the lid after drinking. This way, I don’t have to repeat the process daily to avoid it feeling like a chore that I had to do.

The Subliminal way.

Choose your favorite subliminal or playlist and play it near your water. I recommend choosing subliminals that don’t have music, as some songs have lyrics that can carry negative connotations that could adversely affect the water’s molecules.

Make sure the volume is loud enough, or that your device is close enough for the affirmations to be 'absorbed' by the water.

After the subliminal or playlist finishes, close the lid or let it play on loop for however long you want.

This method is really convenient because you can let the subliminals run while you’re doing other things. If you have a long playlist, consider following the big bottle tip I mentioned earlier.

It's up to you whether you want to do the 1st or the 2nd method or both. It's just depends on which one is more suitable for your current lifestyle and schedule.

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡

My Experiences & Results:

Grades: I used this method to manifest better grades and ended up with straight As for two semesters in a row.

Clear Skin: I was able to maintain relatively clear skin for a whole year! While I did get a few small pimples, they were barely noticeable and only popped up a couple of times during the year. This was a huge improvement, considering I usually dealt with painful cystic acne every month.

Love Life: After breaking up with my ex, I manifested a guy who was exactly as described in my affirmations. We've been happily together for 4 years now 💗

Free Stuff: I didn’t specifically affirm for free stuff, but I think it might have been in a subliminal from an old playlist I used to play for this method. Several brands sent me duplicate items I had ordered, or even extra items I hadn't requested but found useful at the time. Sometimes this happened by mistake (which they did informed me to just keep it after I told them about the mix up), and other times as an apology for delays. Either way, I usually ended up with more than what I paid for!

Money: Because of my academic success, some lecturers gifted me with free stationery, food and money. Even my family started giving me money randomly, even though I never asked for it.

I stopped doing this method after about a year because my schedule became pretty hectic, but I have to say—it helped me manifest many of my desires and was a fun, fulfilling process!

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆.✧˚༘˚⋆𐙚｡

That’s all for this post, everyone! I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you decide to try out this technique, remember to have fun with it and not stress too much about the results. Manifestation should be fun, not stressful! ✨

11:11 11:11 11:11 11:11 11:11 11:11 11:11 ⋆.˚🦋༘⋆ 11:11 11:11 11:11 11:11 11:11 11:11 11:1

[mandizo]

i will always be a #zozohead... my heart and liver are with you

tnahk u so much ur such an inspiration to Me. check out my sick japanese stationery

[eulaliasims]

Goth Dormie is back after befriending Louise over the phone. Either she doesn't know how to end unwanted phone conversations or Louise is less annoying when she's not in person.

Goth Dormie: You look tense, darlin'--how about a backrub?

Louise: Wow, you are so sweet.

Oh. 😬 I knew Arthur was a romance sim, soooo I shouldn't be surprised. Arthur, we thought you were just being very responsible about your classwork!

Louise: Two hot people swooning over me? Am I dreaming? Eh, who cares.

[guiltylovestar]

jokes on him trucy pretty much immediately accepted phoenix as her new dad so stfu