#turtledove tag

[spoonerisrns]

man I'm bummed MN lost but that was a fucking FUN game to watch

[bungoustraypups]

time 2 enter the autism zone:tm: aka finish writing this goddamn monster of a "scene" that is now basically turning into a oneshot but not a proper one bc it starts in the middle of a story that isn't technically written yet that takes place in the silly crossover i have with @hellonoblesky so consider this the official-ish-maybe-perhaps crossover lore post(tm)

we call it "crossover verse" or "crossverse" and basically it utilizes the canonical fact of the bsd universe being a known multiverse which is also canon to bspverse aka my canon-divergent next gen series (linked there in case the hyperlink isnt obvious bc blog themes/dashboard layouts n all that) and the characters even mention frequently in the lore of bspverse that they are well aware of the existence of other universes n all that

but basically. fukumori from my good friend turtledoves doomed execution universe* get dropped into bspverse, which is arguably one of the best timelines for almost any bsd character with the most ideal series of events which still takes place in a canon-adjacent universe to the actual canon bsd, and shenanigans ensue from that. it naturally focuses on ex fukumori existing alongside bsp fukumori and their nine mostly-insane children + riki (their youngest child's sapient dog. it's a long story but hes connected to their ability) + the other inhabitants of the home/their friends & other family, etc etc

i once said that crossverse material is either equivalent to an ed edd n eddy episode with the jokes n shenanigans n slapstick comedy etc, or its some angsty hurt/comfort make a grown man cry type shit, AKA basically most of how i write BSPverse anyway lmfao. if that gives u an idea.

*theres two fics in it thus far and if u havent read them u can do that! read this one, "a lone wolf is no wolf at all" first, and then read the next one/sequel "tamed wolf; beaten dog", if u read out of order they wont make sense but they're worth it. read them now im holding u at katanapoint (/j /nf)

you can also find some of the existing art turtle has done for this crossover by clicking on this sentence

[hellonoblesky]

I need to know EVERYTHING about Alice and Gwen’s dynamic because yeah Alice pokes fun at everyone but Gwen enters the room and suddenly there’s like?? This vitriol in her voice??? Or am I seeing something that’s not there

[agamemnon-sux]

Ongoing list of D&D characters I've played (excluding characters from pathfinder, GURPS, etc.). Why did this post take me over a year to write.

-Bongo bard (D&D one-shot, autogenerated): simple one-shot character. Update with name if I can find the sheet. Happy-go-lucky, impulsive. Played this game in anno domini 2019.

-Ribble "Turtledove" Itheroy (D&D campaign): this character means Everything to me & my tablemates for this game. Gnome paladin in service of Lady Boldrei, the hearthkeeper, with protector fighting style and oath of redemption. Has a mild temper, a deeply ingrained set of morals and a bleeding heart type of charisma. He's a wide-eyed young man away from his huge family and sprawling burrows on his first quest, and his arc ended up exploring what it means to be taught kindness, empathy, protecting the weak, and self-sacrifice vs what it means to actually apply those values in tense & nuanced situations. He also is about what it means to love and unconditionally care for people who don't always want you around, and who you can't expect to be with forever. I love this little church man and his unending choice to make home, whatever it takes. He also has a Summoned Mount, a big ol chow chow named Yona. I roleplayed so hard on this dude that when Ribble convinced himself he was going to have to die fighting the BBEG I made myself & my DM cry.

-wibble (D&D campaign): Wibble is a ribble retooling using elements that I played with for Ribble but ultimately couldn't make work. I play him in a highly infrequent campaign I do with my brothers like twice a year. He's a forest gnome instead of a rock gnome, oath of the Ancients, and leans much harder into being a silly little fey trickster who operates under his own opaque moral compass.

-Maud Wraithmore (D&D one-shot): much like Ribble, this character wormed her way into my brain and has taken up residence in my psyche. It started with a friend helping me min-max for a one-shot and we ended up with a bladesinger wizard who started with one level in barbarian, plus a little bit of metamagic. To make sense of that, Maud is a variant human kid from nowheresville, grew up by the swamp and wanted out, got into an underground fighting ring when all she had was her rage and her fists, and after that she started leaning into her spark of magic, making deals for scraps of spell instructions and moving into some more performative fighting circles, creating this WWE-inspired wizard streetfighter persona. I've got this idea that she's called back to the swamp by her hometown by some worrying dreams and ends up living in the ribcage of the dead titan that summoned her for a while, which is where she's able to learn most of her formal magic before she goes off and joins the BBEG she works under in the one-shot I made her for (she's evil, by the way). She's got a pretty broad stat spread so of course she has a -2 to Chr. This lady is intelligent and competent and will fall flat on her face in ANY conversation. Fortunately she is somehow able to poorly flirt her way into the heart of the DM's traveling salesperson, Rosie the Tiefling, who she will eventually marry & have a moss dweeb circle of spores daughter (Adelhaid) with. Disaster swamp wizard with a lust for life. Uproariously fun to play. I also have a build I made for a one-shot of Teenage Maud, while she's in the midst of growing her fighting ring reputation and not particularly evil yet besides just being an angsty rage-filled teenage girl.

-Volans (D&D oneshot, not mine): a borrowed character for a last-minute one-shot, a circle of stars Tiefling druid w/ his star map tattooed across his chest and an obsession with immortality. Interesting dude who got me interested in circle of stars for the first time (more on that later).

-Sorrel (D&D oneshot): a Tabaxi way of shadow monk I made for an Oops! All monks! one-shot, and one of my simplest characters personality-wise. I made him on a bootleg online character sheet creator that was mostly in French. His background was anthropologist specializing in... elves, I think? He was just a mildly slippery cat trying to prove his worth as a martial artist, who considered himself more an outsider & documentarian than a direct participant in his life.

-Feverfew (D&D oneshot): Feverfew is a funny case; I made her as an alternate to Sorrel depending on monk party comp, using the limited free options on D&D beyond. They clearly have the same history (why else would they both be named after herbs) but her background is Haunted One. I still had her character sheet up when our RA came by and we strong-armed him into playing for like half an hour, so bam, Feverfew was Real. So, she & Sorrel were brought to the monastery together and they trained until in her teens she had a nightmare so bad it changed her forever (maybe accidentally astral projected into the Abyss or something) and went out on the run, wandering in search of either answers or means of protecting herself, but occasionally still contacting Sorrel (or, in the case of the one-shot, being spectrally summoned to fight alongside her old classmates in a multidimensional Monk Tournament, which sounds way cooler than the game actually was).

-Mira (desert, D&D campaign): MIRA! Miramiramira. This character has everything: she's a crowgirl (crow cowgirl) druid with a rifle who has been stalking the Magnolia desert for the whole of her adult life, killed a dragon once, and has an innate hatred of being infantilized. She's circle of stars and her star map is an intricate embroidery project on the underside of her hat, the result of many long, lonely nights watching the stars. Mira (MiraBile, mee-RAH-bee-lay, btw) was hatched and raised in a traveling circus (owned by two very difficult women who called themselves sisters) and performed with another Kenku, AnDerLwm (OHN-dare-loom) as another "sister act." They were unrelated birds, but AnDi kept Mira safe, taught her most of her words, gave her her name, and was generally the brightest star in Mira's sky, until she disappeared. Mira, still a child, escaped from the circus soon after intent on finding her sister, and picked up her gun skills by long practice and her druid spells from a wandering deputy. Mostly, she watched the stars. For the campaign, her tendency to overhear things she shouldn't gets her looped into a series of fetch quests for incredibly powerful, potentially world-ending artifacts with a secret organization masquerading as a normal organization. Her arc & development revolve mostly around her willingness to trust others to understand her wants/needs and to look out for her, and her recapturing her lost childhood by embracing simple joy and silliness with her companions. She's even learning to play guitar from her warforged friend, a form of expression unhindered by her imitative speech. As her attunement with nature grows, she gains access to divination and seeking magic, which will allow her an understanding of the universe bigger than her missing "sister."

-Mira (islands, D&D campaign): My beloved crowgirl was my PC for more than one campaign; she was dreamed up for this one but played first in the desert (where she is ultimately a better fit...). The islands Mira has a similar backstory but is significantly more driven towards finding AnDi, falling in with her travelling group at the beck of some gods she doesn't understand (one thing that's true about Mira in every universe: gods and religion are near-completely foreign to her. She just Doesn't Get It). She's a grumpy crow lady who never knows when to call it quits. She has spent a lot of time learning how to front, how to deal with civilization without getting killed or mugged or run out of town, and she did her best to pass that information on to some of her companions who had similar trouble with social norms, to limited effect. Funny enough she also learned guitar, this time as a gift from a god to give her some form of social expression (the bass guitar, this time). She died in a scripted TPK to a zealot, that the DM intended to revive us from but we mutually agreed to stay dead. Because that campaign is behind us (rip Styx, the raddest character in the world), I get to decide what happened to that Mira, and I think she probably came back some three hundred years later as a false duragh (a wonderful idea from @/filibusterfrog). She was a restless, hunting soul who died outside of her home forest, and so the land itself would eventually shake her awake and send her on her way, dooming her to wander until she could find her sister. I wonder how that would shake out for her, given what I know about AnDi, but Mira does not.

-Hermés Mercurie (D&D oneshot): bubbly Satyr drag bard that I drew up for a heist one-shot. My beloved. The reason that I could do a Greek accent for like twelve hours before losing it again. A great solution for my DMs calling my characters by female pronouns regardless of their genders. It's important that you know that she's just here for the job. She's just here to get paid, man. She plays like a dozen instruments and can vogue with the best of them. I managed to roll two nat 20s in a row to keep a vampire count distracted long enough with a lute/piano duet for the party to steal the macguffin so that count is gonna remember her forever.

-"Chestnut" the Firbolg (D&D oneshot): the Firbolg, like most of its kin, doesn't really have a name, but its party insists on calling it "Chestnut." It's an unnerving mountain of a person who shouldn't be left alone around still-warm corpses. Absolute savant with a quarter-staff.

-Sid "The Id" Wicked, the priest of the people (D&D oneshot): My bastard son. The priest of the people. As a half-elf son of a wealthy elf socialite put to shame by her fling with a human, Sid grows up contemptuous and irreverent, gallivanting the streets of fantasy London and eventually falling into the newly-reignited cult of Argos, a minor god of vision (Argos's domain is... complicated, but I like to think of him as the god of Witnessing, and of feeds from unsecured security cameras). The cult was meant to just be a front for a bunch of punk-ish street kids to operate behind but unfortunately Sid & his friend Teddy commit to the bit perhaps a little too hard and end up properly pulling Argos from obscurity, leaving Sid a legitimate cleric ready to adventure. Sid is gross, mean, and way, way too excited to get your skull under his elaborately studded boot for someone who has cleric HP. He's besties with the party's bald wizard and makes Pal'leth the githyanki deeply nervous. I only got to play Sid for a brief window, but I've had lots of time to think since about the dreams Sid might start to have after prolonged contact with Argos, the Visions, and how well he might be able to handle that.

But I digress... Sid dresses himself somewhere between a mantis shrimp and an 80s goth rocker. He's got a stupid little French mustache. He carries a once-ceremonial mace that he stole from home into which he's inscribed "pick a god and pray". He's bisexual but he doesn't know that yet. He has a relationship with his mother constantly bordering on violence but he's also the only person in the world who understands her. He dyes his hair black to piss her off and then begs her for money. He says he's the frontman of a band that existed for like six months when he was 16. Literally what's not to like.

-Nizoirse "Nisa," the New (et Hrothgar, D&D oneshot): the instant I found out they had added Verdans to the game I knew I wanted to play one for a one-shot. Additionally, I had agreed with another player prior to create a pair of characters that we could play in-tandem, allowing him to play a private, unexpressive character and lean on my roleplaying skills for the both of us. We landed on a bugbear & a Verdan, giving them camaraderie as goblinoids. Both monks, though the bugbear (Hrothgar) had some prior levels in assassin rogue. She exists in a one-shot world in which most humans vanished from existence in semi-recent history. She woke up in the shadows of the Teeth (a mountain ridge), amnesiac and in an unfamiliar body. She was taken in easily by a nearby monastery and trained in martial arts, meditative grounding, and pottery. The monastery was headed by a'Era the Inquisitive, a curious and kindly copper dragon. She was ambushed by Hrothgar while traveling and subdued him, but recognized in him a hungry, desperate man and invited him to study at the monastery. After many trials of self-denial and physical resilience, she underwent a sudden physical transformation (a Verdan growth spurt, but when you're the only Verdan you know that's not exactly self-explanatory) and became an object of fascination for a'Era; she began training under him directly and received a dragon's name: Nizoirse (knee-ZER-shuh) the New. She & Hrothgar would eventually leave the monastery in pursuit of knowledge and adventure, meet new friends, and make a few interesting discoveries.

Nisa's area of fascination is anthropology, especially of humans-- she associates the disappearance of humans with the mystery of how she came to exist, and pursues cultural knowledge to fill the void of the absolute nil of her own past. She will put the discovery and preservation of knowledge above her and her party's safety. She prides herself on being extremely composed & unflappable, and keeping her emotions from affecting her work. She would fight and die for Hrothgar and cares deeply for the rest of her crew as well, but finds their worldly attachments misaligned and frustrating. I find Nizoirse really compelling, especially her brand of positive nihilism and the fact that she can manifest sick ass dragon wings from her ki.

-Designation 24 (D&D oneshot): I had a few thoughts when making this one-shot character: what if an angel was a robot, and what could possibly be going on in-world with a paladin-warlock multiclass? In terms of characterization and dogma she borrows heavily from Gabriel Ultrakill, because I wanted to play Gabriel Ultrakill, sue me!! I decided she wouldn't have a name, because she's someone who gave up their whole personhood, whole past for a higher purpose, instead she would be designated 24, a number I chose at random. She's a paladin sworn to some sort of angelic order of the sun, which, um. Nobody told me until after about the Solari, a race of sun angels in the D&D cosmology OF WHICH THERE ARE ONLY AND EXACTLY TWENTY-FOUR. She was DESTINED to be.

Anyways, Designation 24 is a giant heavily armored woman with flaming sword and shield. She follows a goddess of cleansing fire and ancient pacts (unnamed at this time but in fact another facet of Boldrei), and was trained in a secretive ultra-militaristic cloister of angels, her Sisters. She doesn't fly nor is she particularly fast but she does a kind of threatening lumbering teleport. She has an ongoing issue where the very sunfire that fuels her will rip through her, pouring from the gaps in her armor and burning her awfully in the process. She thinks in the past few years that she's been in closer contact than ever with her God, but when you're staring into the brilliant fire in front of you it's nearly impossible to tell that the Voice you're hearing is coming from the deep, cold shadows pooling behind you...

Under the helmet she looks exactly like Rorshach from Watchmen. I <3 you scary dyke of all time.

-Sycorax Font-of-Tumult (D&D campaign): oh, my boy. My baby... Sycorax is a fairy & a wild magic sorceror. They were born from a condensed pool of chaos and immediately stood up, dusted himself off, and became a low-level politician utterly and disastrously outspoken against the king. He had enough sense to be an activist generally within the law, but got themself in immense trouble when a wild magic surge went haywire at a demonstration and disfigured one of the king's generals.

Sycorax is an idealist, finds it hard to sit still, and is very difficult to tell no. They believe that the ultimate forms of good include small joys, whimsy, and regicide. If you leave him in a room full of people long enough he WILL start a riot and it doesn't really matter to them what it's about. There's a brief period where they wild magic surge himself down to about 3 inches tall and bright blue, which messes with his relationship to their physical body for the rest of his life. He figures out eventually that the robot they've been traveling with is constructed from the same chaos he bubbled out of and immediately latches onto it as their sworn brother.

They're dead, by the way. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to the campaign's finale session so I asked the DM to kill me. Sycorax was shot clean through by never-before-seen assault weaponry during a capital riot, and guided their party and the remaining protestors to a safehouse before succumbing to the injury. His last words were "what a wonderful thing it is to be alive" before dissolving back into the chaos he was born from. And yet they linger; in every oil-slick shine on the ground, in every flickering shadow, in every murmur of unrest and its following outcry for change. In every cicada's song rests Sycorax, waiting to be the crack where light gets in.

-Ethel of Sunspring (et Frederick, D&D oneshot): Another one-shot character I built in tandem with another player, in this case my brother! We decided it would be fun to play in-game siblings and wrote up Ethel and Frederick of Sunspring, both warlock multiclasses who belong to the Nightwatchers, a local cult following a Lady Umbra, a historic nighttime vigilante (Robin Hood style) who was powerful and beloved enough to ascend to demigod-hood. They were two orphans who grew up together and Frederick mainly pursued the Arcane (divine sorcerer, fey-touched) while Ethel, the more grounded of the two, pursued martial excellence (samurai fighter, devil-sight).

The DM pulled a fun trick on us for this one-shot; we knew the party knew each other in advance, but we showed up and he said "okay, you've all known each other for decades at this point, you're all elderly and live in a retirement community together" which is so much fun, it instantly made Ethel (and everyone else) into cool ass grandparent adventurers taking on One Last Job. So you get this old-lady rōnin type character with otherwordly red eyes and impeccable aim. And she and her brother are still constantly messing with each other and conspiring amongst themselves. We need more grandmas who kill people in media.

-Posey Lanier, "the Jester" (D&D oneshot): Posey is the nomenclative punchline in a rule-of-threes joke involving a trio of pink tieflings (Mowzie, Rosie, Posey, the worst cousins in the world who you should never trust with anything, most especially your money. Rosie is the one who's married to Maud!). He calls himself "The Jester" and wears a blue and white porcelain Venetian mask with a jester's outfit to match. He's a rake rogue (a "swashbuckler" if you're nasty) with an especial talent for mockery; if you need a guy eviscerated in public but without any bloodshed, the Jester is your guy. He's genuinely mean, but at least he's genuine! Except also not genuine at all, since he's a sneak using Batesian mimicry to convince you he's some kind of bard.

Whatever the dynamic was with the one-shot's fairy mead crew was borderline polycule. I'm convinced they all sleep in one heap in the middle of the floor. He's especially sweet on one of the crew's druids (Rivari, I think, but it could have been Yinner. I really should start putting down player names when I make these lists) and has been roped into collecting a great many botanical field samples at personal expense that way. Posey occupies the Faceless archetype, and so goes between the Jester alter ego (loud, exuberant and deliberate) and Posey-as-himself, who is lank, reserved, and generally kind of a bummer. These days, he's the Jester most of the time. It's all fun and games with Posey until the jingling of bells ominously stops.

-Ken'renaq (Pathfinder 2e campaign): I said I wasn't gonna talk about my Pathfinder characters but that was over a year ago and I would like to tell you about her. She's from my brother's campaign & he has a really fun set of player races (essentially re-categorizing all the humanoids into elvish or goblinish) including a handful of beastfolk, one of which is bearfolk, the Takiaq. Ken'renaq is a champion (Pathfinder Paladin) who is surprisingly sneaky for a fully grown brown bear wearing armor. She follows the Liberator cause which means she respects the hell out of people for making their own decisions and demands freedom at all costs (weirdly enough, this campaign is also about regicide. Even here, Sycorax haunts the narrative). She's friends with Solid Snake from the metal gear solid franchise. I don't remember a ton about her background because we haven't played in months and I can't check my character sheet outside of Foundry.

She's just Ken.

-Doctor Flichard "Flinch" Underfoot (D&D oneshot, sort of): a wonderfully eloquent friend of mine could only describe Flinch as a "little creep" and I couldn't agree more. This guy sucks so bad. I got to drop in for a session on the campaign my old group had been playing for the last year as a weirdly pathetic lackey to the Big Bad. As with many of my characters, he's just a string of keywords that I've smushed together into a person: he's a bard but his performance skill is university lecture on planar cosmologeology, a field in which he was a premiere researcher. He had a psychic Incident 400-something years ago in an attempt to "open his mind" that left his head permanently cracked open to the psychosphere and him vulnerable to predatory thought entities (and gave him some sick ass lightning scarring cause. duh) and made him into a psychic halfling vampire who doesn't need brain juice to survive per se but just kind of likes it. He has a strong Jersey accent and says shit like "in my salad days". He's been living in Hades for at least decades and his coworkers have been stiffing him out of some of his pay because he sucks and because he's the only one that's not a yugoloth. My siblings and I spent so long laughing at shitty halfling names when I was trying to make him. I wish him as well as he deserves wherever Banishment spit him out.

IMAGES TIME

Ribble (& Yona!)

Maud, Maud & Mira pride art

Sorrel (left)

Mira

Hermes

Sid

Nisa

24 (insanely sick commission by @bedrock-to-buildheight)

Sycorax

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Educating you.

Tread carefully

Okay. Okay, holy shit.

Also, you all want to know what I thought dead dove was? I thought it was a Good Omens specific tag.

Because I've seen many times that while Crowley is the serpent, Aziraphale is the turtledove.

I assumed that, well, these are fics in which. Aziraphale does not... Make it. Well. I'm now not sure which is worse. Thanks, Good Omens fandom.

[illusivesoul]

9 People I'd Like To Know Better

Was tagged by @greypetrel @judithmactir @corffiser and @marythegizka Thank you :)

I'll tag @griffoncito @master-dellamorte @jemandthesingalongs @vorchagirl @mtreebeardiles

@theredtrails @lelianasbong and @sunstridering . Only if you feel like doing this, of course.

I'll put the blanks here and my answers under the cut.

three ships:

first ship:

last song:

last movie:

currently reading:

currently watching:

currently eating:

currently craving:

.

three ships: Leliana x current lady from DA my brain is obsessed with shipping her at the time (currently its Charter but it's been a constant rotation between my Brosca, Wynne, Isabela, Bethany, Josephine, etc), Cortez x Kaidan and Jill Valentine x Sheva Alomar from Resident Evil.

first ship: Leon and Ada from Resident Evil, even though I wasn't aware of what a ship was back then lol. I was constantly going "Gosh, Ada, why don't u love Leon back?". But my first proper proper ship which I shipped wholeheartedly and gave me brainrot was Femshep and Liara when I first played Mass Effect back in 2017.

last song:

last movie: Watched Blade for the first time a couple days ago.

currently reading: Re-reading the Stolen Throne and concurrently reading Fallout by Harry Turtledove. It's an alternate history novel set in the 50s in which the Korean War escaltes into WW3. The novel follows the lives of several characters in different parts of the world during those events.

currently watching: Started watching the John Adams miniseries on HBO

currently eating: Nothing

currently craving: The chicken with tomatoe sauce, spices and sliced potatoes I'm currently cooking

[puckpocketed]

people I'd like to get to know better :3

Tagged by: @neonfretra neon my turtledove my carabiner my little pogchamp!!!

Last song: Jump Into The Fog by The Wombats! I am so so soooo weak to random indie/folk rock bands <3

Currently watching: the Ducks hanging my beautiful boy Dosty out to dry on one monitor. My cursor blinking in a textbox of the sharks primer in another . ahaha <33

Spicy/savoury/sweet: trick answer I actually love bitter flavours!! my coffee order is a double ristretto with a dash of hot water.

Relationship status: In an eternal 1v1 with my oven (been learning how to bake)

Current obsession: hrgk.. hockey.,. Recently I had a meeting with one of my lecturers about a hockey essay and she was like OH you're really invested huh. this is your Life now huh. my siblings in hockeyblr, (stares at the several essays I've produced and the 140 slide sharks primer)

EDIT I FORGOR fav colour: i am a huge fan of Sharks teal these days. but otherwise RED!! FOR DANGER!!!

tagging: @olliebjorkstrand @jules-in-deep @puckinggoalies @dwisp @stillfertile @dijkstraspath @em-ptynet @alltyresnomanagement

oughh i dont have the brain power to think anymore .. idk who has been tagged already!! consider yourself tagged if you see this <3

[josiewrites]

Baptize Me, and I’ll Be Your Sin: Part 2

Part 2 baby! I remembered my House pet story, and I figured y’all needed part 2. Here’s the start of the smut.

Tag List Babes:

@writtingrose , @munsinner , @rubyred1980 , @letmebeawesome , @unlikelywrestlingfan , @rollynchwhore , @legit9thlunaticwarrior , @demonqueen29 , @auburnwrites , @baysexuality , @elitehoe , @wwenhlimagines , @omg-im-such-a-masochist , @seeingstarks , @damnnhausen , @xladyxfatex , @himbos-hotline

I sucked in a breath as the door clicked open, pushing my chest out more as Buddy came through the door first. "Welcome home," I said softly, looking up into the rich dark eyes of Buddy Matthews. 

Buddy let out a growl as he pushed into the room, Brody following behind. "You're so good, kitten." His fingers quickly knotted themselves in my hair, tugging my head back. I mewled slightly at the delightful sting in my scalp as he spit into my open mouth. Without command, I swallowed it gratefully, showing him my empty mouth. 

“Buddy,” Brody’s voice drifted to us. “She cleaned for us. We should give her the same respect.” Buddy nodded, releasing my hair before kissing my forehead softly as he walked into the bathroom. Brody smiled as he opened the door to the suite adjoining ours. “Thank you, turtledove.” My heart swelled as he stepped into the next bathroom, the water running in both.

Julia stepped through the adjoining door, closing it behind her. “Where is Malakai?” I heard my voice take on the higher, softer tones of my headspace. 

“He’ll be here soon,” she said, offering me a hand. I took it, allowing her to pull me up slowly. “In the meantime, the boys asked me to keep you company. Is that okay?” I nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed, bringing me to about the same height as her. She smiled, leaning in to press her lips to mine. 

Her jacket fell off her shoulders as I allowed her tongue to explore my mouth, leaving her in her black bralette and slacks.Though it had become more common since she joined the House, Julia still kissed me with slight hesitation. Her fingers still had a small tremble as they caressed my skin, but gained surety as she stroked between my legs, swallowing the small moan I let out. 

“All this just from them?” Her lips took on a wicked smirk as she plunged two fingers inside my wet heat. She gently pushed my knees apart as she knelt down, letting her breath roll over my slick folds. “You’re such a receptive pet.” 

Before I could respond, she began to tease my clit with little kitten licks as she pumped her fingers slightly. A sharp gasp escaped my throat as she curled her fingers into my sensitive spot, smirking against my skin as she continued to lick and suck my clit, very clearly relishing the moans and whimpers she was coaxing out of me. “Jules, I…fuck.” She picked up her pace slightly, drawing me closer and closer to my own orgasm.

“Go on, princess." As though waiting for permission, my thighs clenched as my climax washed over me, much to Julia’s delight as she lapped at my sweetness. “How do you always taste so good?” She stood, kissing me again as she pushed me onto the bed. 

"Jules…" My voice was weak as she straddled me, the fabric of her slacks rubbing against my naked skin. Her slim fingers ran over my breasts, plucking at the hardened peaks of my nipples. Her earlier hesitance seemed to melt away as she pulled more whimpers from me. 

She hovered above me, laying a gentle kiss on my lips as she unclipped her bralette, tossing it behind her. "Y'know," she said softly against my lips, "before I joined the House, I never would've thought to do this."

"I know," I giggled, caressing her smaller breasts. "One of the reasons I was excited for you to join."

"Oh yeah?" She smirked, letting out a soft gasp as I rolled her sensitive nipples between my fingertips. I nodded, one hand sliding down her body, dipping beneath the waistband of her slacks. "Oh, princess," she moaned as my fingers swirled against her clit, feeling her grow wetter at my touch. 

"Good girl, kitten."

I turned to see Buddy staring intently at us, ginger hair still slightly damp from his shower. "Make her come for me, baby." His accent grew thicker, his hand slowly working his length. 

"Yes, Daddy," I purred, dipping two fingers into Julia's heat as my thumb continued to play with her clit. Curling my fingers slightly, I felt her clench around me as she moaned, which only spurred me on. She bucked against my hand as my thumb rubbed circles against the sensitive bud, coaxing her towards the edge. A few moments more, she let out a cry as she clenched again, coating my fingers in her essence. 

"Good girl," Julia breathed, giving me one last kiss before untangling from me. "I guess it's your turn now," she smirked, turning to Buddy. "I'll go grab Brody." Buddy nodded as she stood, stepping towards the adjoining door.

[spoonerisrns]

My beloved: I can't believe you made a hockey blog.

Me: Me neither. I did not have suddenly becoming a sports gay on my bingo card for my thirties.

My beloved: It's wildly out of character and I love it.

[encrucijada]

heads up, seven up!

tagged by my darling @cream-and-tea <3

because i have actually not been writing i decided to just... look for whatever i liked and share that lmao. i'm going with this! the beginning of the short story i'm technically writing though not really. title: god is somewhere here.

The thrift store was the place where you walked in to buy one thing, to look around, and then you went home with the bodies of angels (porcelain, about the size of turtledoves) and lamps with the colours of a church stained glass window.

A dreamer and an artist walk in with the intention of buying new Christmas lights. Right outside are the big yard decorations, a light up all-plastic nativity scene and weeping angels with their heads bowed, La Virgen María with her lovely hands outstretched and dressed in baby blue — she could be yours for only ₡32,000.

“It’s August,” Jesús says unnecessarily, “how do they already have Christmas decorations?” They are the first thing you see once inside.

tagging: @filmografo @coffeeandcalligraphy @dallonwrites @saltwaterbells @shapeshiftersandfire @teddywriting and anyone else who might want to do this!

[hellonoblesky]

I can’t even explain how happy I am about this. Like yeah I guess it’s a little silly to be so happy that a friend isn’t upset with me for such a simple mistake but also I did spend the last 4-5 years of my life involved with someone who would freak out if I didn’t answer for like an hour? Like I guess when you’re with someone who will constantly be passive aggressive and mean if you don’t answer immediately the relief of someone not being upset with you for answering late is just. Yeah. God I lvoe my best friend so so much

[the---hermit]

23 books in 2023

I was tagged by @medustudies thank you!!💜🌿(I know it took ages for me to complete this)

I had done this last year (here's the post) and I read more or less half of the books on that list. I am a mood reader so I don't really follow tbrs, but I think it's fun to create a list at the beginning of the year and then see how many books I have actually read at the end. I have lowered my reading goal for 2023 at 52 book, so one book a week, because I have no idea how much I will realistically be able to read with going back to uni and everything. I therefore tried to curate this list a bit more, including also a few books that were on last year's list. Since I want to lower the number of unread books on my shelves I included in this list only books I have physically in my home (some aren't mine, but of some family members, but I didn't include anything from my wishlist). We'll see at the end of the year how many of these I actually read.

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

The Sandman volume 7 by Neil Gaiman

The Sandman volume 8 by Neil Gaiman

Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell

The Tower Of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski

Paradise Lost by John Milton

Bisexuality In The Ancient World by Eva Cantarella

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Scheletri by Zerocalcare

La Scuola Di Pizze In Faccia Del Professor Calcare by Zerocalcare

Bloody Summer by Carmen Maria Machado

Cain's Jawbone by Torquemada

La Strega e Il Capitano by Leonardo Sciascia

The House At Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

Alice Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

100 Hugs by Chris Riddell

Celtic Myths by T.W. Rolleston

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Japanese Tattoos by Yori Moriarty

The Misplaced Legion by Harry Turtledove

Solanin by Inio Asano

I don't know who else in the knife gang hasn't done it yet, so I'll just tag the post and whoever sees and hasn't done it consider yourself tagged! I also tag @oneanxiousstudybuddy and @just-a-cup-of-anxietea !!

[uwuinhell]

As per usual, I have far too many ideas to decide from SO here I am

Obviously they're primarily sketches

The worm on a string was my first idea but then I had So Much More (i have more ideas sketched irl)

Right now I prefer the turtledove and the gator... Thing... More and then the wolf puppet

[panzershrike-pretz]

UHHHHHH ANOTHER TAG GAME MADE BY THE MOST AMAZING @onehelluvamarine!!! I LOVE THESE KEKKEKEKEKEK

----------------------------------------------

A band you don’t like that many others do:

Well, it's not that I don't like, it's more like: I only ever heard probably 3 songs. That would be The Beatles; I never got really interested in their music, they're not my vibe really

A childhood memory that you remember vividly:

I have many, but one of them was when I was maybe 6? and I went with my dad to the bank deposit money. He found a friend of his and started talking to him, while I picked up some pigeon and turtledove feathers up off the ground. That friend was deaf, but he could still speak a little and he congratulated me on the feathers then gave me a pat on the head (he was strong as fuck??)

Least favorite animal and why:

Any insect, but ESPECIALLY cockroaches. I'm so fucking scared, you have no idea 💀

Hot fandom take:

Scourge is one of my favorite characters from Warriors, I don't care if he's an edgy bitch. My man clawesd open Tigerstar'sbelly and made him loose all 9 lives at once???? Scourge is very fucking cool (also purple collar is the real collar. But I like rainbow)

Do you were any jewelry, if so, what’s your favorite piece:

I have a pair of gold earings! When I was born, my ears were pierced and I got those. I only ever changed them once (boughr a pair that's a little bigger, but my baby earings are still here). I can't use any other kind of earing or jewelry on the ears or else I'll have an allergic reaction 🤡

A movie others liked but you didn’t:

How To Train Your Dragon 3 (actually, did anyone like that??) I don't like the Light Fury and it feels so wrong having Toothless leave Hiccup 😭😭😭 It's a damn pretty movie but I still consider itto be non-canon <3

Three things you love about yourself:

My sense of humor, my eyes and my hair

A place you hope to visit in the future and why:

Paleontological digging site. I know I'll visit it with my college, but!! I can't wait!!

There's also this wildlife reserve-park thingy on the way to the state of Paraná called Vila Velha (Old Village) that I NEED to visit one day. It's such a pretty view from the road, I swear 😭

An actor that gets on your nerves and why:

I know nothing about famous people, so I don't care for their lives. I have my own problems, no time to bother with theirs :3

Things you’re excited for in the nearby future?

TAXIDERMY CLASSES! TAXIDERMY CLASSES!!! TAXIDERMY CLASSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Least favorite ship in a fandom you’re in:

The fuck is with people shipping Alastor (Hazbin Hotel) with everyone. He's canonically aroace, get a grip fellas 😭😭 (yes aroace people can still have any kind of relationship but fuck. Alastor? He very clearly is NOT in the game for a ship,,,,,, and when I finally find a lil' scrap of representation, people want to strip that from the character??? Nuh-uh, I hate Alastor ships. Leave him be!!)

What’s the most toxic fandom you’ve been in?

.........Dream SMP 💀 *explodes and dies*

List three things you find beautiful about life:

Being able to hear birds singing (and see them flying), snuggling together with my dog when I'm feeling down and long walks on the beach with said dog.

Any dreams for the future?

I have a big big BIG interest in falconry (although it's a very odd thing for Brazil 😭) and, obviously, i can't wait to learn taxidermy. I know it's a stinky and slow process to learn and mount stuff, but I can't wait to start learning and hopefully have my first bird piece done!

How are you really feeling today?

I just woke up to a pair of chacalacas (why the fuck araquã in English is like this?) screaming like crazy, so I haven't had the time to feel anything xD

Damn this got big-

Tagging (no pressure!): @onehelluvamarine (do your version >:3) @xxluckystrike @blueberry-ovaries @1waveshortofashipwreck @grumpy-liebgott @executethyself35 (and whoever else wants to join!)

[ya-world-challenge]

2023 Wrap-up

I fulfilled 31 countries for the World Challenge this year, bringing my total up to 57 out of 208.

I also read about 14 other books that were repeats of countries, additional books in series, and ones I just randomly picked up, so something like 44 in total.

I also finished up all the backlog of countries I had rolled with the randomizer, so in the new year I will get to roll some new ones - yay, exciting.

So here are my top favorites from the year!

Top 5 reads in 2023

The Orphan Sky by Ella Leya

A really beautiful novel of a prodigy pianist coming of age in Soviet Azerbaijan. Musical prose and just breathtaking story.

2. The Exiles of Crocodile Island by Henye Meyer

This was an unexpectedly really good book that I was lucky to find for the tiny islands of São Tomé & Príncipe. Following a group of Jewish children forced to a Portuguese settlement. Really insightful characterization and lovely writing.

3. The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk

Such a unique folklore-esque story by an Estonian author. A clash of modernity with ancient ways, and what gets forgotten.

4. The Key by Sara Elfgren & Mats Strandberg

Book 3 and finale of the Engelsfors series set in Sweden really brought the series to an amazing climax and gave us great character development. Also I think, the longest book I read this year.

5. The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa

Super fun queer pirate adventure! This was just so refreshing and comforting at the same time.

Honorable mentions:

All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue; Travelers Along the Way by Aminah Mae Safi; I Am Kavi by Thushanthi Ponweera; On the Edge of Gone by Corrine Duyvis; When a Bulbul Sings by Hawaa Ayoub

See my book review tag for all my reviews!

Full list of countries read this year

Here's all the countries I fulfilled this year and the books I read for them.

🇦🇺 Australia - Ghost Bird, Lisa Fuller

🇦🇿 Azerbaijan - The Orphan Sky, Ella Leya

🇨🇺 Cuba - A Tall Dark Trouble - Vanessa Montalban

🇩🇰 Denmark - The Shamer's Daughter, Lene Kaaberbøl

🇪🇪 Estonia - The Man Who Spoke Snakish, Andrus Kivirähk

🇫🇯 Fiji - The Wild Ones, Nafiza Azad

🇮🇷 Iran - Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi

🇮🇶 Iraq - Yazidi!, Aurélien Ducoudray & Mini Ludvin

🇮🇪 Ireland - All Our Hidden Gifts, Caroline O'Donoghue

🇱🇹 Lithuania - Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepatys

🇱🇺 Luxembourg - The Elf of Luxembourg, Tom Weston

🇲🇹 Malta - The Maltese Dreamer, Catherine Veritas

🇲🇽 Mexico - Secret of the Moon Conch, David Bowles; Guadalupe García McCall

🇳🇵 Nepal - What Elephants Know - Eric Dinerstein

🇳🇱 Netherlands - On the Edge of Gone, Corrine Duyvis

🇵🇸 Palestine - Travellers Along the Way, Aminah Mae Safi

🇵🇹 Portugal - Mariana, Katherine Vaz

🇵🇷 Puerto Rico - The Wicked Bargain, Gabe Cole Novoa

🇷🇴 Romania - And I Darken, Kiersten White

🇱🇨 St. Lucia - 'Til I Find You Greta Bondieumaitre

🇸🇲 San Marino - The Gladiator, Harry Turtledove

🇸🇹 São Tomé & Príncipe - The Exiles of Crocodile Island, Henye Meyer

🇸🇳 Senegal - No Heaven for Good Boys, Keisha Bush

🇸🇬 Singapore - Sofia and the Utopia Machine, Judith Huang

🇸🇰 Slovakia - Impossible Escape, Steve Sheinkin

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka - I Am Kavi, Thushanthi Ponweera

🇸🇪 Sweden - The Circle, Sara Elfgren & Mats Strandberg

🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago - When the Vibe is Right, Sarah Dass

🇹🇳 Tunisia - Other Names, Other Places, Ola Mustapha

🇻🇪 Venezuela - The Sun and the Void, Gabriel Romero Lacruz

🇾🇪 Yemen - When a Bulbul Sings, Hawaa Ayoub

And here's the moods that Storygraph says I read which turned out to be pretty varied.

------------------

Overall not bad progress, and I look forward to continuing to read in 2024!

Have you read any of the books I picked or have them on your TBR? Feel free to comment!

[catholicjinx]

finally making a tagging system

[🕸] one last night i'll kiss your lips again <- textposts

[🎭] lost in a coma and covered in cake <- others art tag

[🎨] you put the spike in my heart <- my art tag

[🖤] <- this post

[🌹] you must fix your heart <- the HOLY SHIT. LOVE THIS tag

[🐑] so long and goodnight <- poetry/words tag

[🎼] sing a song for california <- music tag

[🩸] from the razor to the rosary <- inspo/fashion/gender tag

[🌋] golden gods forcing your throat to sing <- wips tag (mostly poetry, punk stuff etc)

misc tags include:

mcr, bsd, save, moi dix mois, malice mizer, asks, etc (essentially just tagged by fandom)

[mutuals name] [emoji of their choice]

[thing] tag, etc - essentially just used for a misc item that i want to save.

turtle tag - TURTLEDOVE ASKS!!!

tws are not usually included but if u want me to tag something as such i will 👍