#when it plays in the space and lets itself have some fun its good

[vivalasthedas]

i always get such big 'thinks a modern feminist retelling of the persephone and demeter story is one where demter is an evil bitch' feelings from the show

[ameliaenya707]

Wait wait, maybe of its not to much trouble~

You could do period sex with keigo? 😏

I love you annon ♥

Lemme bust this out rq

I had so much fun writting this actually

☆ Messy ☆

You found yourself laying on the couch, stuck in the fetal postion wincing it pain with ever sharp shoot of agony in your abdomen. Keigo had gone to work already, so you were all alone whimpering in pain as the news played in the background. Although you'd never admit it to yourself - much less him - you found yourself missing him, the warmth of his body and his touch. And in times like these when your damn uterus was tearing itself up you missed him the most. You could only see him on the news, him hanging around at the end result of a villain attack, holding some girl to his chest to comfort her. A slight tinge of jealousy filled your mind. Why did he kidnap you and go through all this shit if he was going to let dumb fangirls be all up on him?!

It all hit you too fast and a sharp ache spread down to your thighs. Tears brimming your eyes and you hopelessly clung onto the plush pillow, nails digging into the fabric as you squeezed your eyes shut in pain. Suddenly you felt something tickling the exposed skin of your neck, then your cheek. You reluctently opened your eyes to be met with the crimsion of Keigo's feather tickiling you. You almost entirely forgot about the necklace he made for you with his feather, adorning your neck. He could hear you through them, track your heart rate ect ect. He must have picked up on your agony.

You couldn't help but let out a giggle at how the feather zipped around, rubbing against your cheek. You take it gently in your hand, tracing your finger down its spine.

You glanced back at the TV, the news had changed to some disaster in Kamino ward but to your relief Keigo was no where to be seen on the sight. But your breath hitched when you heard the familiar jingle of keys. Something that used to be horrifying. The sound of the front door creaking open and the sight of Keigo when you peeked over the couch cushion.

"Dove, you should have told me and I would have stayed home with you," you frown when you hear him sigh, watching silently as he takes off his coat and discards his visor onto the coffee table. Now standing in front of you. Pretty amber eyes staring down at you, a twing of concern clouding them.

"M' sorry...it didn't hurt bad this morning...and I didn't wanna take you away from your work..." you mumble, averting your gaze from his.

Please no punishment.

Please no punishment.

Please no punishment.

You aren't sure you're in the mental space for the cage right now.

"I'm not mad baby, just worried. C'mon baby," he coos, sitting down next to you on the couch and patting his knee. Inviting you to sit on his lap. You hesitant before shifting to sit on his lap, your back against his chest.

You stiffle a giggle when his blonde hair tickles your neck as he rests his chin on your shoulder. You gasp when you feel his fingers hooking under the band of your panties.

"No! It's gross, I'm all bloody and it's gonna stain th-" you stop abruptly when his hand slaps over your mouth, silencing any further protests. You whine as his hand snakes down further, jolting when he gives a small pinch to your clit.

"Just lemme make you feel better baby, promise it'll be fast dove." He mumbles, honeyed words seeping through your weak mental. His lips pressed against the shell of your ear. The pads of his fingers parting your folds and his thick finger sliding into you. Eyes squeezing shut the only way you could deal with the intrusion, your cunt clenching down on his finger as tears brimmed your eyes. He let you adjust to it, your breath calmed, the feeling still foreign but now distracting you from any previous cramps.

"One more, yeah? Think you can handle it baby? I know you can, you always do, such a good girl..." Keigo chuckles lowly, shoving another finger inside of you, pumping them in and out at a resonable pace. His thumb moving to rub against your clit. The feeling of his fingers numbing everything, the feeling of blood gushing out starting to feel hazy, your head lolling to the side and resting back against his shoulder as your eyes rolled back.

"K-kei please! Gonna cum please lemme cum!" You plead, knowing better now than to cum without his permission. Maybe today he'd take mercy on you and let you the first time you ask.

"Go ahead pretty girl, go and cum on my fingers." He nips at the flesh of your neck. The feeling of blood trickling down your skin and spilling out of your cunt drowning every throught out as your cunt clenches down on his fingers, the cord in your abdomen snapping and the waves of your orgasm washing over you.

You thought maybe he'd be nice but he pulls his fingers out of you, holding them infront of your face. Scarlet red mixed with slick dripping down his digits. He chuckles as your face burns with shame.

"Look what a mess you made baby,"

[toskarin]

As someone knowledgeable about MMOs, and given the topic of SAO just came up. If you were to write a .Hack/SAO/Log Horizon style story, what kind of things would you focus on? I personally feel like there are a lot of different elements of MMO culture anyone writing about them could really delve into. So I'm curious what Tumblr user Toskarin would choose.

condensed

back when I played Perfect World, it had some empty spaces. this wasn't uncommon for mmos, and if you can name one older than 15 or so years, you can bet there were vast empty spaces on the world map that existed to pad it

but they were important! sure, they added nothing of obvious value and could cynically be read as existing just to pad travel time, but they also made the worlds feel bigger than you what you were doing in them. and more mysterious.

some friends in my guild and I got a message one day that one member was going to roll a new character and wanted help levelling. a complication: their starting zone was across the sea.

a few friends and I volunteered to swim across the sea to their zone. there were definitely easier ways to go about it, but setting out to do something just to see if it was possible seemed fun

now, they may have changed this since then, but the sea in Perfect World felt strange in a way I haven't seen any game really emulate since. the sky was a dull, and as was the fashion, everything was a bit muted. the sea itself was opaque, and when you swam under it, there was a significant amount of grey-blue terrain that seemed to stretch on forever into the fog

and of course, there was fuck all in it. nothing alive. no monsters until you got close to a shore. just vast empty sea that you swam through, only your friends' characters to break up the odd stillness of it. you probably turned the music off at this point, too, so there was only ambient sound and splashing

this is because you were supposed to fly over it, if you crossed it at all. and because there wasn't really a good centralised source of knowledge on these things, it wasn't really clear if it was entirely empty

the trip there was fine, if a bit boring and lonely. during the trip back, I accidentally clicked on something in the middle of the ocean

now, there weren't supposed to be things there. I had my friends, but I clicked on a monster, and when I swam down to look at it, I saw that it was actually an enormous sea monster

so I pinged one of the guildmates swimming with me and they thought I was lying, so I showed them, and then we repeated this several times until everyone in the group had seen this weird thing that felt like it came from a schoolyard rumour

Ancient Sea Dragon. 99,999,999 health points and none of us could find anything on it posted online. it was pretty common for players to run into it and be shocked, but we didn't know that

so we naturally let the rest of the guild know, got a hunting party together, and spent the better part of a day just whittling its health down

with the benefit of hindsight and documentation of this thing existing now, I can spoil this and tell you it didn't drop anything, but this long down the line, I still think about how deeply surreal it felt to stumble on an enormous sea monster in the middle of what my brain had come to understand as a liminal space. the sea was supposed to be mostly empty, and here was this thing

which is a very long way to introduce what I think is lacking here: we need more of those enormous empty spaces that leave characters with nothing to do but talk and feel completely isolated. sometimes you get to a sprawling castle city and it's completely empty because the players moved on. sometimes the devs threw an enormous monster in the middle of nowhere just to fuck with you, and that was kind of cool even if it sucked

[animeshotsh]

Let me show you Crazy - Various x Jinx!Reader

Warnings: Jinx is a complex character herself. Im only using a small part of her personality to write this small piece. There is not connection to the events of arcane.

HH Violence - Cursing - Various!xReader - Platonic - Mentions of mental breakdown - Hallucinations - Past Abuse - Vaggie seems bad but she wishes the best -

The normal red sky of hell was tainted in blues and purples as laugh filled up the streeets.

Sinner who knew better took a step aside as bullet flew past them.

The target?

No one in particular.

You were just bored, and the voices kept whispering to you, if you closed your eyes silouhets of now nameless faces would appear.

Thats why you needed this.

Cherri will for sure be pissed at you for have not inviting her to your little outbrust, but hell was alywas up for another bombing so you were not so worried over it.

Just as the last bombs exploted and your gun was hot from shooting you decided to stop and find a place for the night, your hideout was too far away now to go back.

--------

You entered Angel Dust aparment without a problem, all his pink colors made you want to puke but you hold back, soon his little pet came to welcome you, seeing you as a parent figure of sorts.

Even if you have joked that you could made some good meat with it.

"Hey, who is the bitch that-" Angel stopped his cursing and lowered his guns seeing you.

"Oh, hey Spidy" You joked seeing his pet go back to him.

"(Y/N), I thought these were your bombs"

"Hell yeah they were" you responded, passing by him and getting onto his bed. "Had a sweet time shooting these fuckers off"

"Yeah...thanks for the invitation" Angel joked back getting on the side of the bed. He knew how unestable you could be, but he could figure when you were out having fun and when you just needed to be out.

Maybe his way to cope with trauma was sex, yours was violence, this was hell, everyone did what they could.

"I thought you were being re made Spidy, the Princess got a nice place? I might just crash there next time"

Angel had to sight to himself imagining the chaos you would make, not only that, you would for sure make Alastor lose his cool the second you set foot into the hotel.

"Yeah well, you get a room, food, all free, i think you should try it" Angel said seeing you play with your hair. Now he did think you should try it, maybe it could help you, maybe you could get better.

"Uh, it seems too good to be true" You responded looking past Angel to nameless figures now behind him, one of them biting Angels neck and the other one just staring at the roof.

"N-no, i dont need help. Hey! shut up, who said that i was considering it? NO!! IM NOT WEAK" Angel stood aside as you passed by his aparment, your hands on your hair pulling pieces of it, talking to things that were not there. "SHUT UP, YOU KNOW NOTHING".

"(Y/N)...." Angel tried when he saw you fall to your knees, memories of a terrible past revealing itself to you.

"I SAID, SHUT UP" Angel found himself with a gun to his face. Your gun, with trembling hands, you were not looking at him but at someone else, someone who had hurt you at some point.

Angel had to thank whatever was above him by his agility, because not a second later you shoot to now an empy space. He quickly moved to take the gun from you and get you in a hold.

"Shh, its me, Angel Dust, remember? Its me, your friend, you little blue flare, you got nothing to be scared of" Angel told you half screaming, and having just enough emotion in his voice to break you from your episode.

"Angel?"

"Yes Y/N?"

"Are you real?" You asked not knowing what was going on anymore, Angel felt his eyes tear up as he let go of you to hug you properly.

"Of course Im you idiot, why do you want to be alone so much?"

You did not respond, these were the few times your mind was quiet. No voices, no images, just the present, you still did not know if he was real, if he was talking to you, or if he was other one of your friends.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Angel asked easily picking you up and taking you to his bed.

"I- I dont want to be alone" was all you said as he pulled the blankets up to you and took your hand in his.

"You wont"

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

"Do you know who that is?" Vaggie asked pointing at you and Angel. You were looking at everything in the loby of the hotel with Angel trying to keep you in check.

"Yes, they are a sinner who needs help" Charlie responded her girlfriend also looking at your somehow childish behaviour.

"Thats Jinx, is one of the most unestable and unpredictable sinners from the circle, and thats is something to say with how many we got"

"Vaggie, I offer salvation to anyone, I dont care who they are as long as they want to be saved"

"And you think they want to be saved?" Vaggie asked somehow exasperated by now.

Before Charlie could respond you appear besides her, giving her a crushing hug.

"I must say Princess, Spidy said this place was neat but he did not mention it was this good, where is my room? oh! can i decor it? I love blue you see, and I paint, you wanna see some of them? SHH, WHO SAID SHE WONT LIKE IT?"

"Jinx!!" Charlie said not noticing you almost having another episode but pulling you right back into the hug. "Yes! of course you can decorate, and i would love to see your art"

This made you smile, taking her hand and pulling her towards a near table where your stuff was.

"Can my room be besides Spidy?"

Charlie just nodded already exploring your odd draws.

-------

"I need to talk with you" Vaggie said, not happy to have come to this but seeing it as necesary.

"Oh? and what will you need from me?" Alstor asked smirking at her.

"Jinx, if she does something to hurt Charlie or the hotel purpose..."

"What?" Alastor knew what Vaggie wanted, and knew who you were. True to be told, he did not like you being in the hotel, you could ruin everything, but he also liked a good show, and that needed good characters, and you were for sure one hell of one. So he could let you stay and watch you and your actions.

"...Stop them, however you need to do it" Was all Vaggie said. Now wanting to listen to Alastor moral speech she went back to her and Charlies room.

Now, Alastor would not let himself be ordered like that ny anyone, but he knew Vaggie wishes and his own reasons did aline this time. He will let it pass, and maybe use it for the future.

If Charlie knew Vaggie was going behind her back, telling Alastor to dispose of troublemaker sinners....well she would be heartbroken.

[cosyvelvetorchid]

for the prompt thing: beach day with jee-yun

Such a cute prompt! Thank you!

Enjoy 🩶

As always you can send bucktommy prompts to my ask box at any time. I love writing them so have at it 😊

*************

"So what plans have you got for the day?" Maddie asked on the phone.

"Tommy and I are taking Christopher to the beach for the day. What about you?" He asked. Maddie grunted in response.

"Everything. I promised Jee's daycare I'd make 50 cupcakes for tomorrow. The house is a mess that I need to clean. And I have to find time to go to the bank and the lawyer."

"Lawyer? Is-is everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah. You wouldn't believe the amount of paperwork that comes with getting married. Doug wouldn't put my name on anything, so I had no idea. But with me and Howie combining everything equally, it means putting his name on my stuff and mine on his. Honestly, at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the lawyer fees topped the cost of the wedding itself."

"Well, hey, why don't we take Jee with us? Give you some time and space to get everything done."

"Oh my god, really?!"

"Sure. I haven't seen her in at least 4 days, so I need some Jee time anyway."

"You are the best little brother in the world!"

***

"There's snacks in the bag, extra clothes. Her swimsuit is on under her clothes now. Oh, and don't forget sunscreen. Every hour and extra if she goes into the ocean." Buck swung Jees backpack over his shoulder and picked her up.

"You ready for a fun day at the beach?" He asked her.

"Yeah!" She nodded .

***

They had a blast at the beach. Tommy helped the kids dig a hole. Buck consoled Jee when the tide came in and filled it. They ate ice cream, and sandwiches that probably had sand in them, though nobody really noticed.

"What?" Buck asked noticing Tommy watching him.

"Its sweet - the way you're looking at them." He gestured to Jee-yun and Christopher playing a few metres in front of them. "You want that in the future? Kids, I mean?"

"Uh, yeah. Someday. What about you?" He asked. Tommy sighed and looked towards the kids.

"Honestly, I'd never really considered it. I guess I always thought I'd never find someone to have that chance with." He answered honestly.

"Thought? Past tense? You, uh.. you think differently now?" He asked tentatively. They were way too early on their relationship to think seriously about kids, or even marriage, but knowing where their intentions laid was a good thing.

"Now.. let's just say that there's more hope these days." He smiled softly at Buck.

***

The sun was starting its descent, allowing the sky to begin glowing in beautiful shades of pink and the temperature to begin lowering.

Tommy was helping the kids build a sand castle. Sand city was more accurate. If he wasn't a firefighter, he could definitely throw his hand at architecture, Buck thought.

He sat back on his chair just watching him. The way Tommy joyfully and enthusiastically played with the kids made Bucks' heart bubble over in his chest. He'd make a great dad.

"Letting Tommy do all the work I see?" Eddie's voice came from above. He looked behind to see both Eddie and Chim walking towards him, then sit down.

"They have a good day?" Chimney asked.

"Let's just say I think they'll both sleep tonight." He laughed.

Buck continued to watch Tommy fondly. He thought about how different his life was a year ago. Struck by lightning and having no idea where is life was going. Now he was sat on a beach, at the end of a beautiful day, staring at the man he was hopelessly and disgustingly in love with. Eddie and Chim both noticed how he was looking at Tommy.

"It's a bit early, don't ya think? Eddie told him.

"Huh?"

"To think about having kids with Tommy." He said

"I am not." Buck replied defensively, with a glint in his eye. "We've been together barely 6 months."

"Exactly." Chimney added. "So I hope you're both using protection."

[institute-of-dolls]

I have a question that may be a bit strange since I feel like I should know what to do myself but I need a bit of advice.

Here's the thing, I have a doll who's purpose is to be cared for but she's not used to being vulnerable. She's not used to just... letting go and letting me do what I'm supposed to do when it comes to properly taking care of her. She's worried about it making her look weak or lazy.

Do you have any advice on how to help her just... accept it? I do everything I can to reassure her that it's fine but, once she lets go it doesn't take her long to try and fight it, even though she wants to accept her purpose too.

I'm open for suggestions and advice from other dollmakers and owners out there too.

Hey there, This is a very good question, and, I will admit, one I'm going to ask for other input on as well.

This is a difficult one, it's hard to find how to be vulnerable when it hasn't been safe to.

I must admit, I might not have the best experience or advise for this- a few dolls close to me have this issue as well, and I am learning to help them but it's difficult. And to be honest, I struggle with this too: learning how to turn it all off and unwind, relax, be vulnerable. It's hard.

The best way I know how is… well, slow. It's about creating the safety they aren't used to in order to allow them to learn to unmask or unwind or relax to allow themselves to be vulnerable You have to be patient and gentle in places where it can be hard to be. Work to create practices and spaces that allow them to practice, maybe in little bursts. Use that space to allow them to be vulnerable, and then give the space for that vulnerable part to be imperfect. Being unable to be vulnerable is often about hyper-vigilance, an inability to risk being unsafe. It is a learned method of being safe, which means it needs to be consciously unlearned, which takes practice and time.

From a more practical advice, I've tried a few things for me and my dolls.

One of these was requiring maintenance time. Basically assigning rest and down time as a task, a chore, to be completed. This takes the process from being about making the doll convince itself to rest on its own and instead makes it a required service; a task like any other. It's a band-aid solution, but it makes a dedicated time to practice, and takes some of the cognitive load off of the doll.

Another one was taking some self-care stuff and making them something like a service task. Sit and listen to you while you do its hair for it or similar things. It again, makes it part of the dolls purpose, lets the doll re-frame it, and allows it practice. And it lets you take care of it for a bit in the process.

We also do a thing sometimes called game piloting. We have some dolls in my group that are very into, good at, or willing to learn highly specific or difficult games that a person doesn't want to. They play it together, the doll playing with the other making the choices. This lets you do some re-framing again, and creates another together activity in the process. It allows you to assign taking downtime for hobby or fun if the doll struggles with that on their own.

These all don't all directly address vulnerability, and might be not perfectly relevant. But they do let you have structured ways to practice it, and does allow them to practice being cared for, resting, and downtime.

If anyone has some advice, as always do speak up. It's always appreciated and would be rather helpful.



[blueberrypancakesworld]

Wake Up

Kappa x fem reader

Summary : A happy evening with your family comes to an end and you peacefully fall asleep in your bed. But for the time being you don't notice a break-in by a certain cult leader, nor do you notice how a hand wanders over your body again and again, a body presses itself against you and then you open your eyes...wake up.

warning : +18, minors don't interact or read, smut, p in v, somnophilia, drugging, druges sex, some humping, blood kink, knife play, kissing, biting, non consensual sex, the whole story is non consensual, afab reader

masterlist

Info : So it's finally done and it was a hell lot to write but it's done yeahhh :) So get all you Kappa juices and have fun reading oh and please mind the tags :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a lavish evening. They had all gone on a family outing together. An outing that was much needed during all this. She had missed her parents and siblings and her parents and siblings had missed her. It was a prepared trip during her college holidays.

It seemed too long that she had seen her family. In the evening, they went to the cinema, which had a preview of the latest technological inventions. Which, much to her delight, also showed new things about space.

Space surrounded them at all times and was somehow like an embrace for the earth. The endless vastness of space in which her father was now partly. But it didn't bother her, she knew he had important work to do.

It was at least a working environment in which she wanted to work. Whether as a stronaut, researcher, biologist or with technological things. She had a goal and knew it in the endless beautiful dark space.

But even though her "father" was now somehow with her as a robot, that didn't bother her either. Her siblings sometimes still tried to understand how it worked.

How her father tried to explain it to the two younger ones and it usually ended in a confused fit of laughter. But no matter how funny, confusing or even adored her family was. She loved them with all her heart.

The evening only got better after they left the cinema and went to the restaurant. A small but expensive good restaurant where they got a table and spent a few more hours.

They ate well and drank well, at least she had overdone it a little. But she wanted to celebrate that she was almost finished with her thesis, was back with her family and just wanted to let herself go a little.

Which is why the family were all slightly exhausted and especially tired when they arrived home. ,,So you sleep in the guest room," she heard her mother say, holding the door open for her daughter. ,,Thanks mom" she mumbled and gave her mother a kiss that was slightly shaky but it only made her smile. ,,Night, star!" she heard her father call from her siblings' room, putting them to bed. Laying down in bed and giving her mother a thankful look, the older woman closed the door.

Snuggling into the pillows and blankets, she was glad to sleep here again. Finally to be with her family again. Before she closed her eyes for a few moments and fell asleep.

She didn't notice anything of the horror that was about to hit her. She was too deeply asleep for that and didn't hear how the window broke and things were knocked over. She didn't hear how the cult group broke into the house and helped themselves to alcohol.

Didn't hear how her father woke up indirectly and crept downstairs. The disaster would take its course and soon ruin would befall her family. The student did not hear Kappa ask if anyone else was there and beat her father relentlessly.

Before the leader's eyes fell on the family photo, he tilted his head and laughed. ,,A pretty flower," he muttered, taking the knife with him as he scratched across the walls. He had his target, he had chosen it. His flower.

When Data's hammer struck her father's head again to quell his warning cries. But it was too late, the black-haired man had built himself into a spiral of intoxication.

A mix of drugs, alcohol and lust. And he wanted to satisfy all three things today. Whether with violence or without was up to her.

The doors of the rooms on the upper level opened one after the other. All until he had reached his destination. ,,Are you asleep already?" he purred and knocked on her door before waiting for an answer, which did not come.

His eyes rolling as his flower did not cooperate, he went into her room. It was dark, the light from the streetlamps was shining through the curtains and he could make out the outline of the room.

He found his way around and when his bright eyes landed on the sleeping body in the bed. ,,So you are asleep after all" he thought and smirked as he walked closer to the bed. He tilted his head slightly and looked at the sleeping woman for a moment. She slept soundly as if she had taken something.

Sleeping pills or alcohol? No matter what it was, she didn't notice that someone had joined her next to her. She pulled the loose blanket off her body and the nightgown appeared underneath.

If you could call it a nightgown at all, the fabric was clearly visible even in the low light. ,,What pretty blossoms," he purred and ran his hand over her head.

Stroked the soft hair and played with a strand, twisting it between his fingers, which already had blood and the dark liquid of the robot on them. He leaned down slightly and caught the fruity smell of her shampoo. Heaving a sigh of relief, he moved his nose from her hair to her face.

Nestled against her for a moment, enjoying her warmth, her beauty, letting himself be intoxicated by her self, her worthless state. While his mind was already thinking of all the possibilities he could do to her.

She was like his puppet not like his followers he could connive around if he wanted to. No she was like a puppet to manoeuvre his and use his as he wished. An aroused imagination. An imagination that he felt was slowly making him hard.

A pleasant shudder ran through him as he pressed himself against her. Playing the big spoon while his other hand, still holding the knife, ran over her body.

The tip of the cold knife ran over the thin nub and despite the poor light he saw the red stripes. He ran his fingers over it and felt the heat of the superficial scratch. A slight moan came from his lips as he pushed his hardness lightly against her back.

The brief arousal just a little taste of what was to come. But what he had was what he got from her. ,,Fuck you're going to be so good for me" he murmured and as his hand continued to draw strings with the knife his free hand went to her breasts.

Pushing down the nightgown and sliding it under her breasts so that they were automatically free, he got another piece of his flower.

His hand began to massage her breasts which seemed to fit perfectly in his hands. His pulse increased for a moment as he heard a soft sigh from her lips. ,,I knew you'd like it," he smirked and continued to massage her breasts while his lips left kisses on her neck.

The knife that was still dragging the strands around was directed at the fabric before you heard it rip. She had blossomed, her flower lying completely bare beside him. ,,So beautiful" he purred and pulled the excess clothing from her body and felt her body against him.

Warm and soft, alive and his. His for at least the next few long moments. He heard the goosebumps on her body rise to escape the cold that had easily reached her through the fabric and she pressed herself closer to him.

His cock produced further waves of arousal and he continued to rub against her. He felt his lust for her increasing more and more and finally had her completely to himself.

He could already feel the first drops of pleasure beginning to form a small spot. ,,,Fuck-blossom...you're doing things" he gasped and continued to rub himself against her for a few more moments, hearing her gasp again and again. She felt something happening to her body but in her mind it was just a nice dream. Nothing more, nothing less. But leading him it was like the main prize.

Before he repositioned himself he bit up her leg until he heard her groan and try to pull her leg away. Her body tried to move away but he pulled her back against him. ,,Don't run away sweetie" he murmured over her skin and licked almost apologetically over the bites moving up her leg.

He smirked as he reached her red panties and chuckled that she was already slightly damp from his touch. The smell of her sex in the mix of drugs and alcohol seemed to make him feel even better. Letting his nose brush her middle for a moment, he caught her scent.

He felt how he would have liked to run his tongue over her middle and his cock twitched at the thought. A moan escaped his lips as he let go of her middle and put his lips on her nipples.

Kisses and bites on the sensitive areas left him aware of how her body was bucking up every now and then to reach out to him. But with every further action on his part, more reactions were triggered in her. Actions that drove him to have her for himself.

He felt her rubbing her hips against him and wanting more of the excitement. ,,Can't stand it, huh?" he asked her and kissed his way from her breasts over her body again when he reached her centre.

Listening into the house for the last time, he heard nothing but the voices of his followers. Nothing that could have kept him from her. His fingers hooked under the waistband of her panties and pulled them over her legs.

Carefully but hastily pulling them over her ankles and inhaling her scent. Feeling her body move again and her understanding seem to shift slowly. Shifting into a different state.

Her scent, her sex seemed to make his mouth water again and he licked his lips. Placed himself a little further down and bit his way up her legs again. harder and harder he saw how he left marks and imprints.

Cresting her centre, he ran his fingers through her soft slightly wet lips, slightly trembling with excitement. Watching the slightly translucent slightly white sticky substance stick to his fingers. He heard her moan as she tried to close her legs. Ignoring her for a moment he cleaned his fingers with his tongue.

Sucked her juice from his fingers and it was better than any drug. ,,Fuck...sugar-" he started and was about to finish his sentence when he saw her body move again and her eyes flutter open. ,,Wh-What?" he heard her soft muffled murmur as she slowly opened her eyes and confusion still moved through her mind.

Confusion that didn't yet understand why she was hot and cold at the same time, why she was disgusted. But most of all why there was another person in her bed.

Opening her mouth and taking a breath to scream, he was already pressing his hand over her mouth and the cold knife was against her neck. ,,One sound, one scream or one noise that could alert the police, sweetie, and that's inside you...understand?" he said after a short pause, seeing tears gathering in her eyes and her pulse increasing under the knife.

But she nodded her agreement and he slowly took the knife a few centimetres from her neck. ,,Now kiss me," he ordered and in a look that could not have been more insane, she hesitantly did what he asked. Her hands ran lightly over his body for fear it would get worse.

They held on to him lightly before she put her lips on his. But barely touched, he bit down and made her yelp, which was accompanied by a whimper.

His tongue entered her mouth and he seemed to enjoy it more than she did. Even though she had realised her arousal, the throbbing between her thighs and the slight tingling on her nipples.

She knew that it had been much longer than she had thought, that he had not just broken into her room. How long had he been making love to her? He had exercised his lust on her and feasted on her, and she didn't seem to feel the pain of the bites and red strands.

After a few moments, Kappa broke away from the kiss, a small, shimmering thread of saliva connecting them almost like something super-erotic as he reached into his pocket. ,,Now we'll have some real fun," he murmured and tilted his head slightly as he showed her the small colourful pill. A pill with a Smiely face punched on it and yet she knew what it was.

She had been drinking alcohol for a while and smoking weed when things got too stressful, but never anything stronger. She didn't really want to, her fantasy was enough, the sex she'd had so far was perfect enough. But now?

How different could sex be with a stranger in her bed on drugs and a knife? Reluctantly opening her mouth and sticking her tongue out slightly, the black-haired man smirked in passing, enjoying her reaction, and lowered the knife slightly.

Only to let it slide over her body again in a circular motion as he watched her take the tablet into her mouth. He had placed it on her tongue and waited a few seconds before he suddenly pushed two fingers into her mouth.

Making a choking sound and wanting to protest, she only felt the knife suddenly go deeper over her skin and a small trickle of blood flowed down her stomach. ,,Good girl," he praised, watching as she sucked on his fingers and let her tongue roam over them, making them as wet as possible.

While he bent down slightly, hands still in her mouth, and licked the blood from her body. Taking in as much of it as he could and sucking it lightly.

It only excited him more the mix of alcohol, drugs and her blood coupled with her sex was just too intoxicating. ,,You don't know what you're doing to me," he smirked and wiped away her tears with his hand holding the knife.

Kappa saw the fear in her eyes as the knife came closer to her face and he took his fingers out of her mouth. Her saliva shone lightly on his fingers in the slightly lighter room due to the time that had passed.

But they still had plenty of time before it got light and the sun rose. ,,Relax sugar...it's going to be good" he chuckled and gurgled as he winked and pressed one last kiss to her lips before kissing his way down her body one last time while running his moistened fingers between her thighs.

He felt her tense for a moment and exhaled in surprise as he inserted his fingers inside her. Moving them and preparing her for what was to come because he was sure she needed it. He had his experiences of how it could go but he was not a complete inhuman.

He saw her avoiding his gaze, he liked to watch her, to see how she would react. She as a human being and not a machine that only reproduced emotions. ,,You have pretty eyes," he murmured and saw her blink several times before she nodded almost apathetically. So the drug was beginning to work, a joyful realisation for him and for her.

Before he leaned towards her again, he forced her into another kiss that was clearly more reciprocal than the one before. The fear had left her body and was replaced with complete relaxation.

But the look, that certain something in her gaze, the knowing that he was there, that it wasn't a dream. That was what turned him on. He used his fingers one last time to prepare her for him before he took off his trousers and threw them carelessly into the room.

He saw her gulp when she saw his aroused cock and he smirked again before pressing himself against her. He felt her shudder as their genitals rubbed against each other. ,,Ready sugar" he murmured in her ear and took the knife from her body for a moment.

Giving her even a moment before he positioned himself properly and her laziewes nod was a yes and entered her. A moan of praise came from his lips as he lost himself completely for a moment in the feeling of having her around him.

Her throaty moan reached his ears and she relaxed back into the pillows, easily coping with the situation. ,,Fuck-ah...sweetie you're tighter than I thought...fuck that feels good" he moaned throatily and his drug and alcohol addled brain seemed barely able to think straight. But this was mutual as she had also caught the drugs completely by now.

He began to thrust into her, addicted to the feeling of ecstasy and lust, wanting more and needing it. To move until he found the rhythm that brought him just that.

But her pleasurable noises also increased through the room while her hands searched for hold. His rhythm gave her what she wanted under drugs, what her body needed her mind made her believe that she needed it more and more, It seemed almost like his personal music the mix of her lust and his.

A mix that conducted them both. He felt her fingernails scratching his arms, his shirt shifting with all the movement. Her red strands replaced his own, his knife for a moment, and he enjoyed it.

He enjoyed the pain and engaged her in another more intimate kiss, muffling her noises for a moment. ,,So good" he heard her mumble and saw the unnaturally dilated pupils that must have resembled his. He lost himself in her lust-veiled gaze as he felt her legs wrap around his waist again and again.

Her moans and pleas increased in incomprehensible words and he took her voice away again and again and kissed her. Not seeming to get enough of her, he let his hand wander over her body with the knife.

With every stroke he caused, every little trickle of blood that ran from the small cuts, it excited them both more and more. Causing both of them another intoxication.

A rush in which he continued to lick the blood from her house, incomprehensibly drugged, telling her how good she was. Trying to get more from him more and more to have. While she pulled him more and more and ran her hands over his body. Tangled in his hair and she demanded him stronger and stronger.

He followed this and increased his thrusts, letting her pull his hair lightly while the cold metal ran over her body again and again. He let his lips wander over her body more and more often. Biting until a throaty mix of scream and lust came from her throat.

Her legs closed tighter around his waist and he felt himself coming closer to his climax and she closer to hers. ,,Ah-wanna see you" he moaned and put his free hand to her neck forcing her to look at him. Saw how her half-open eyes, also filled with exhaustion, fixed on him.

He felt her swallow, she pulled him against her one last time and he sealed his and her last screams in a kiss as they both climaxed. Her fingers clung to him convulsively and he sank his teeth into her neck, demanding blood from her one last time.

He felt her completely let go, relax and sink into the pillows, her eyes closing and her body falling into a sleep. ,,Told you...it would be good" he murmured and looked at her sleeping body as he pulled out of her. In the brightening light he saw some cum leak out of her and wiped it away with his fingers. He grabbed his clothes and took the knife to sort himself out.

Before he ran his fingers through her hair one last time and planted a kiss on her head. ,,Thank you flower," he murmured with a giggle and pulled the blanket over her used sleeping body before her door opened and closed again.

The cult had taken their victims that night and it was only a matter of time before she would find the other unnatural robot. Or he would meet his new favourite flower again. Another night, he was sure, would.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@icarus-star , @angelsanarchy , @quicksilversg1rl , @spookyorchid , @milaeth , @jzzminex , @roryculkinsgf , @707otto

[tricitymonsters]

I know I put a lot of attention on Steam because of the sheer size of the marketplace and the effort Steam itself takes in marketing for devs but I really wanted to take a second to shout out TCM's numbers on itch.io because I really feel like the game found it's first platform there and I especially want to highlight what a great community it is for Indie Devs of all experience levels.

So I have TCM split up between 4 titles on itch- the main one is for all the new stuff and then each beta has it's own homepage. Downside, it kinda splits all my metrics up but the plus side its much easier to navigate for yall so I'll refrain from complaining lol.

Now given we started with just the Mori beta in late 2021, and added chapters slowly over time, here's where we're at right now.

Views: 312k

Downloads: 22.3k

Browser Plays: 35.6k

Ratings: 347

Collections: 5295

Comments: 189

So there are a couple really interesting things going on with this data. Let's analyze

Firstly, the numbers on the main chapter beat the *hell* out of the beta numbers. BUT this makes sense as more people are going to find the main game or PLAY the main game first at a vastly higher rate. So even though that game page has been up the least amount of time, it gets *by far* the most traffic. For example, if we take away the main page numbers, here's how the betas are doing on their own:

Views: 63.3k

Downloads: 5.4k

Browser Plays: 18.2k

Ratings: 133

Collections: 847

Comments: 42

So, if you were an indie dev posting your game on itch.io, these numbers should tell you to carefully consider how you're going to organize your game- especially if it comes in multiple parts. When I was going through the betas I did consider keeping everything on one page and therefore aggregating all of my traffic stats into one place but there are pros and cons.

Mostly, I went with separate pages because:

It's easier to organize files for downloads per character/game piece than to have a huge list of system-specific builds for every character that players have to scroll through. It's just hard to parse out.

Second, I thought that breaking up the chapters like this might help me better gauge each character's popularity via their stats. This... sort of worked. Because the Mori beta went up almost a year before Amir's, his numbers are MUCH higher and I have to be careful not to conflate that with his raw popularity. Another tricky note is that since Mori was the first chapter uploaded, many people will play his beta and then if they decide they're not into the game, won't play the other two characters, which again inflates Mori's numbers.

It was obvious in the gap after Spooktober 2021 and Amir's chapter that I had a project worth pursuing but the way I structured itch.io has made it hard to accurately gauge how popular exactly each character is.

Most of you know I'm running a popularity poll right now for some milestone art and while I expected Mori to lead (even with all the caveats I just listed, he does tend to be the most popular of the bunch) but I did not expect Akello to be *right* on his ass, even before weighing the patreon votes so.

Goes to show you that understanding structure and traffic trends can really go a very very long way to engaging your audience and build a stable, fun community around your game.

Another huge advantage to itch is that- in generalities- the community and ecosystem there is much kinder to beginner devs and passion projects. On steam, I'm taking up the same marketplace space as AAA multimillion-dollar games and while the eyeballs that comes with that is great for TCMs longevity hopefully, it also comes with the reality that I'm marking a queer niche adult visual novel right next to Mainstream Gamers. Now, I do want to be extremely clear that my experience with Steam so far has been really good- TCM has good and (more importantly) honest reviews, people have passed constructive critique to me and been extremely reasonable, I've managed to connect to some content curators who have similar tastes... But Steam is also the home to like. "Oooh Naur Woke Games Kill Art" Lists and stuff so. My experience on Itch is that- while some of that exists to a certain degree- the general ecosystem is much more forgiving and less sharply fractured.

I'm not sure that I would change anything I've done in the point leading me here so far, I think that by and large I've made the best choices I could given what I knew at the time and also managed to roll with the punches as the come but my experienced advice at this stage is definitely for an indie dev who hasn't landed a solid success yet or a hobby dev looking for feedback to start with Itch.io as a place to build your game's community.

There are other game hosting sites too, like Gamejolt, for instance, but while TCM used to be on Gamejolt their content policies and audience demographics were not a great fit, as was my experience with Newgrounds.

So. there are MANY choices but in all I'm grateful I didn't jump right into steam and also that my itch.io audience has been SO supportive and so enthusiastic about rating/commenting/and curating TCM to help spread the word. Especially since early in the project I had basically no marketing budget (I have a very small one now that covers the occasional blazed post but still).

ANYWAY thanks for reading my big dumb rambling posts but I really wanted to shed some light on the virtues of Itch after I've been chasing my own tail trying to get Steam working for me the way I want.

[anachilles]

“It’s getting crowded. Here, hold my hand.” for Blakely/Douglass. Please & thank you!

omg, fun! thanks so much for the excuse to write a lil ev and doug 🥰 -> prompt lists i'm currently accepting requests from: [ x ] [ x ] <-

"Single fillies. C'mon, boys, time to get the lead out."

Everett resisted the urge to wrinkle his nose in distaste at the lewd comment, choosing to let the buoyant atmosphere (sans whatever bizarre stand-off Bucky had just decided to pick with Harding) and passable-at-best whiskey warming his insides draw an incredulous, good-natured chuckle out of him instead.

He could feel Doug's eyes hot on the back of his head from where he'd floated towards the back of the pack, and glancing back in his periphery, he caught the moment Doug's gaze flitted away from him, and in the direction of Tatty Spaatz just to Everett's left.

They'd been circling each other for weeks now, Doug and the General's daughter, which in itself on its own was playing with fire, if you asked Everett. She hadn't been his first choice even out of just her friend group when they'd first met, and seemed to be very much aware of the fact every time he'd attempted to flirt with her since. She was a stiffed-lipped, straight-faced sort, deadpan too, and didn't generally entertain much of Doug's foolishness like a lot of the other Red Cross girls on-base. Suppose that's why he kept coming back around trying to crack the nut; he liked the push and pull.

Everett let Doug make a blatantly purposeful move in her direction, one the other boys all would've noticed, before quickly side-stepping into Tatty's space himself, offering his arm and a barely concealed smirk.

"Hey, Tatty. You know you can't resist..." he goaded, a knowing smile crossing her ruby red lips as she took the proffered arm, letting him lead her out towards the dance floor while Doug was still caught mid-stride, half a step behind.

Everett liked Tatty a lot, truth be told. Enough to have his own privately-held suspicions, bolstered by the uncumbersome kinship he felt when they sought each other out for a dance during these shindigs, the easy laughs and conversation that never even threatened to stray anywhere close to the belt. Enough to save her, at the very least, from another round of Doug's games, despite how she seemed to revel in finding new and creative ways to shoot him down.

After that, Everett spent the rest of the night much the same as he usually did at these things - drinking, chatting and chain-smoking mostly, interspersed with a couple of dances with some of the other girls he was friendly with. Not to mention having a front-row seat to Doug's shenanigans as he jumped from conversation to conversation like a bee pollinating flowers in the springtime, only rounding back to the centre table every so often to drop into the crew's conversation, slinging an arm loosely around the back of Everett's chair each time he did.

You'd think a guy might get jealous. Only, for better or worse, Everett knows his bombardier all too damn well by this point, every good pilot does; his switches, his tells, how he needs to be handled. He'd recall irrefutably how Doug's eyes had snapped to him first, and how Everett knew immediately where he'd end up that night.

Everett stuck around right up until the death of the party, the crowd thinning out as each quarter hour ticked by, the band having packed up their equipment, the bartender having called last orders long ago. The last guy in the group he'd been sitting with departed for bed, slurring his words and stumbling slightly on his feet as he went.

Suddenly, he felt slightly awkward sat at a big table by himself, and so moved to one of the many abandoned chairs far off to the side of the dancefloor and pulled his cigarette case from his inside jacket pocket. He settled one between his lips and started scouring his pockets for a lighter, but didn't manage to get too far before a figure appeared in front of him, playfully tapping at his legs with a foot where they lay loungefully outstretched.

"What's the difference between a hippo and a zippo?" Doug asked with a shameless smirk, producing his own lighter from his pocket, sparking it to life as if in demonstration, before chucking it in the other man's direction. He was aiming for the crease of Everett's lap, but Everett intercepted it quickly, catching it deftly instead.

"You've used that one already tonight," Everett quipped, taking a deep drag from the cigarette, before slipping the lighter into his own jacket pocket. Doug made no protest, just shrugged, still smirking. "You've got to get some new material if you want to keep up."

"It's a good joke, what can I say. Worth stealing if you get the chance." His voice sharpened into a point on that one word of the sentence, and Everett couldn't help but mirror the other man's smile. He raised a chin a little further, managing somehow to look down his nose at Doug from where he was sat, despite how he was stood over him.

"Is that what I did? That easily? I mean, it wasn't hard. Perhaps you've just got to up your game."

A faux-indifferent shrug. Another drag of the cigarette, coupled with a long, deliberately charged exhale. A beat of silent anticipation as Douglass sized him up and down, eyes narrowed in challenge as they held each other's gaze, but also edged with something else. Clearly loose from the liquor, Doug's crystalline eyes darkened a little, his bottom lip briefly rolling in behind his teeth as he bit down teasingly.

Doug's eyes did a quick scan of their surroundings. The club had fairly emptied out, the closest others to them at the far end of the bar area and well out of hearing range.

"It's, uh, it's getting a little crowded in here," Doug started, his voice pitched low and verging on sensual, a smile still twitching at his lips even as he was trying to pretend to be serious, and held out his arm in Everett's direction, like he was one of his dames. "...why don't you take my hand and we'll get out of here?"

Everett made a point of hesitating for a moment, letting out another long, slow exhale of smoke as he made Doug wait for it, resigning himself to acquiescing their little game. If the man was a dog, his tail would be damn well wagging he seemed so keyed up for it.

"Oh how flattered I am to be your back-up plan. More flattered about it than Tatty Spaatz is, at least," Everett joked as he rose from the chair, pointedly not taking Doug's hand, but sticking close to his side as they made for the exit side-by-side, both their minds fixed on the empty fort, their fort, ahead of them, waiting at the airfield.

Once they were in the clear, the night air hitting them both like a tonne of bricks after being cooped up inside there all that time, Doug chanced a cheeky swat at Everett's ass.

"Well, you're prettier than her. Prettier than all of them," he teased, though his voice melded into something sweeter, more affectionate than the words themselves would give away alone. "My number one back-up. Always."

[gaviicreates]

FO: time flies by in the yellow and green...

...Stick around and you'll see what I mean

(there will also be more pictures under the cut)

Remember literally yesterday when I mentioned I was doing a stretchy bind-off purlwise, and I loved the fluidity of it? Well, obviously a bind off pretty much heralds the end of a project in sight so here we are. I was so eager for this one to be completed that I lightly washed the shawl and pinned it overnight so that, by today, I'd have my first finished, knitted shawl.

Pattern: Mara Shawl by Madelinetosh, available here through Ravelry

Yarn: Arcane Fibre Works, "Calm Waters" -80/20 Extra Fine Merino Nylon Super Wash Fingering Weight. (2 Skeins)

Tools: Clover Takumi Bamboo Circulars - US 5 3.75mm, Eucalan Lavender Wash for blocking

This shawl is a garter stitch shawl with yarn overs down the center and sides to both increase and add a bit of lacy interest. I had actually started on this before I finished the throw blanket, so these two pieces together were so critical for my knitting journey thus far, and I've learned so much already.

While the throw maintained the upward structure of its rows, this shawl gave me the experience of increasing along the center and sides, working outward as well as up. Once I figured out the yarn-over and the cadence from row to row, the location of the yarn-overs was easy to remember. Simple, but elegant on the piece. It did take me a few rows in to figure out that a stitch marker for the RS vs WS would probably be helpful, and from there it was smooth sailing.

Almost too smooth, because I just kept going. I don't remember the cord size I used, but eventually working the stitches scrunched up on the needles, and the work curled into itself. Once that started, I had a hard time imagining what it would look like finished. I had no idea what the shaping would look like once it was off the needles, so my plan was to hope I just figured out when would be a good time to stop. Low stakes winging it, if you will.

She's big. This is no shawlette you behold. The length surpasses my wingspan on both sides, and the drape down the back is lovely and full while the fabric itself is light and breathable between the stitches. I think because the needles were a bit bigger than recommended size for fingering weight, this resulted in some space between the stitches.

I'm dreaming of that first cool day of fall, and wrapping myself up with her covering my shoulders pinned with a nice brooch, or rolled into a scarf around my neck over denim. She's going to be a wonderful addition to my wardrobe, and I am ecstatic with the final length and look.

I mentioned above I used two skeins. Another learning curve for me - one I intentionally played with here - was the way the colors fell. I don't think it's a crochet thing specifically because I know opinions still vary, but coming from a craft that tends to create potentially less ordered fabrics with variegated yarns, I'm kind of open to color pooling at times. It's not for everyone, but I think there's a fun little magic in letting the colors land the way they want to in both crafts it seems.

I started with one skein, then switched to alternating after a while to learn that technique, then ended with one skein again as I finished out the project. I was nervous about this choice, especially as I started seeing entire blocks of yellow forming. But in the final garment, I don't feel like these larger streaks take away from the color combination. I'm loving that it's not uniform and there's a bit of fun and randomness to how the colors fall.

Towards the final rows, the pattern switched from garter to 1x1, then 2x2 ribbing, which I could see being a great opportunity to switch out to another color to complement. But I really wanted to have my yellow and green shawl, so I decided to keep working up with the same yarn. Plus I am kind of in love with seeing how different stitches create a new texture that gives the colors in a variegated yarn a bit of a different life to them.

Now - I do have one more skein of this colorway, as I had bought a just-in-case extra. I am thinking my big shawl needs a little something else to go with it - maybe a hat or some fingerless gloves, oooh! or some socks.

Now, I have... how many more months till I can wear this?

[invisibleraven]

going to the garden center and picking out plants for Rose/Ray(/Reggie) because the studio plant wall, my beloved.

When Rose and Ray first suggested doing something with the studio space, Reggie kind of shut down for a bit. He knew it was healthy to move on, to accept that changing the space didn't erase his memories, or the guys.

It was just...so hard.

It took some time, and a lot more therapy, but he finally agreed to let them do whatever they wanted with the space. Just...not to expect him to spend a lot of time out there.

"That's fine tesero," Ray assured him. "But you should still get a say in what we do."

"Plus a little retail therapy is always a balm," Rose joked.

They got some throw pillows from the thrift store, a baby grand for Rose from an estate sale, and some chairs that the petal Pushers wanted to string from the ceiling-and no matter how much Reggie begged, not even Hazel would let him into the reason why.

"How about some plants?" Reggie shyly suggested. "None of us could keep anything alive, but if we're giving the studio a second life, maybe something living would be a good start?"

"To the garden centre!" Ray proclaimed, Rose giggling as she jumped on his back, the three of them galloping off to the car.

The garden centre itself was a little intimidating, but Reggie kind of loved being surrounded by all the greenery. He had nixed flowers-he got hay fever too easily. But ferns, succulents, and other leafy plants could be nice.

Rose and Ray picked up every plant that Reggie seemed interested in or fondled the leaves of, then loaded their cart up with pots, tools, and a cute watering can to boot.

"We can't fit all of this in the car!" Reggie protested, laughing all the while as Rose contemplated a spider plant and Ray weighed two seemingly identical cacti.

"Sure we can," Rose assured him.

"We have to put something back," Reggie insisted. "They'll think we're crazy."

"Well we kind of are," Ray replied with a shrug, finally picking one cactus. "Plus they're getting paid, so why do they care?"

Reggie shook his head, but he kept smiling despite himself. He started picking up plants to put them back, knowing that there was no way they could afford this, or even needed this many plants.

But every time he took a plant and put it back, it seemed that his partners had put two more in its place.

"It's too many plants!" he insisted, but he was smothering his laughter, eyes watering as Ray and Rose defiantly added plant upon plant to their already overfull cart.

"If they make you smile and laugh like that, then it's never enough," Ray finally stated. "But we really should put some back because my bank account can't take it."

"Spoilsport," Rose stated, sticking out her tongue, even as she started putting plants back.

Finally they had waht Rose insisted was a reasonable number of plants, even though Reggie was sure there were still too many, but Ray agreed with her, and there was no way Reggie could stand against them when they presented a united front.

The fun of fitting it all in the car was less than ideal, but Reggie did put his many hours of playing Tetris to good use-finally fitting everything in, though Rose would be sitting in his lap for the ride home.

"Oh no, what a shame," Rose snarked, pressing a sloppy kiss to his cheek as she made herself comfy.

Later, Reggie helped unload the car, and even set the plants up, too distracted with making it look nice to notice where he was. But then he stepped back, looking at the wall of plants behind the piano, the way the afternoon sun shone in, making the place glow.

And it didn't hurt.

Yes, this space had been Sunset Curve's, had been the last place they had been together, happy, and all alive. But Reggie realized by making changes, it didn't erase that past. Simply enhanced the future he had now-with Ray and Rose.

"Play with me?" he asked, sitting down at the piano bench.

"Any time," Rose replied, lifting the cover to the piano. "Islands In The Stream?"

"Only if I can do the Dolly parts."

"And we rely on each other..." Rose hummed, with Ray grinning off in the corner as he set out the other knick-knacks they had gotten for the space.

Later on, Ray would show him the photo he had taken of him and Rose playing together, framed by a sea of plant life, both smiling so wide it was impossible to doubt how happy they were.

And that they had totally not gotten enough plants.

[goodluckclove]

Writer ask game, let's go. 10, 19, 38, and 39 please c:<

Shit. Oh shit, oh fuck.

Okay yeah let's do this, Mushy.

10. Do you set yourself deadlines?

I mean I definitely used to. I've said before that I got my start in National Novel Writing in a Month, or NaNoWriMo, where you write 50k words in 30 days. The org has since proven itself to be less than reputable with its recent scandal, but I still stand by the belief that endurance sprints like that are a great way to get the muscle formed to write long-form projects. And you can just do it too, you don't need the backing of a semi-scammy nonprofit.

But now? Not really. I kind of set goals to keep work moving. I'll be like hope I finish editing by the end of this week. But I very rarely make it a hard deadline with actual...I don't know. Stakes? My brain don't work like that.

19. How do you keep yourself motivated?

I stand by the methodology of giving yourself a little reward after writing sessions, although at this point I space mine out more than I would suggest newer writers to. For me this is usually a fun drink or nice little baked good - I'm especially fond of what I refer to as a medium-fancy cake. Something with mousse. But it can be anything really.

Small breaks also help, although I am less good at keeping up with that. I actually haven't taken a full day off in like three weeks but shh don't tell anyone. I'm also very fond of reading over what I've already written and just enjoying it. Or reading books that relate to my character's interests - I'm reading a very interesting book on bird lore that I know Edgar from Songbird Elegies would love.

38. Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had

My weirdest play is probably Naked Lunch: The Musical, which follows a happy-go-lucky, classic musical lover who gets roped into adapting the essentially grindhouse experimental William S. Burroughs novel into a musical and goes a little insane in the process. He imagines himself befriending the ghost of William S. Burroughs, and the ghosts convinces him that to adapt his work properly he needs to do a lot of drugs and have a lot of gay sex, both of which go very poorly. I think Lin Manuel Miranda is mentioned as an unseen side character that my protagonist sees in the audience and threatens to beat up?

And my weirdest novel turned play is Bloodletting, which is based from a dream I had when I was detoxing off of weed - I was like addicted, not a casual stoner. I essentially dreamt that someone made me drink their blood and the blood got me high again, and from that point I developed a sort of sci-fi world where street drugs are so potent that they turn the blood of addicts into a new intoxicant that they can then sell as its own drug. I think they can also sell their blood to major medical organizations and have it used in pharmaceuticals. I still like this concept and might reuse it since I can't find the finished play it turned into.

39. Weirdest character concept you’ve ever had

Bloodletting had a romantic couple made up of a drug dealer and the AI house he was squatting in. My second novel had a leitmotif of the characters experiencing a feeling of "static" in their heads that I later on made into a sentient side character. I think I wrote a short play with a cannibalistic Guy Fieri. I started writing another play based around Sonic the Hedgehog where it was planned for Shadow to non-ironically become a rabbi, but frankly if you consider his character I do not think that's too far from canon.

I'm still percolating a project to do either alongside or after Songbird that's like Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City but with an all-robot cast. And the main character eventually transitions from a human-passing robot to some form of non-human looking machine and is much happier for it. Which I'm excited to put to paper.

[starlightkun]

sorry if you've gotten this ask before aljrksjd

you don't have to answer this, but I just wanted to know how you write longform fics or just long pieces in general. it's one of the things I've struggled with as a writer, and I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how I could go about it or do it.

I'd be so grateful if you could provide some advice or suggestions 🥹🥹

i want u to know that i saw this ask when u sent it, but i had a 5hr drive today and wanted to make sure i had time to answer this!! it's under the cut bc i yapped a bit <33

so one thing that i feel the need to say up top is that i never go into pieces with a "goal" length/word count (often times my fics end up being longer than i expected/intended). because i never really write with the goal of a specific length in mind, these are things that i think have helped me write more cohesive and narratively fulfilling pieces in general, which tends to make my fics longer

my first thing is planning/outlining!! i used to just write my fics start to finish in one go with little to no planning, and since i've started slowing down and taking my time outlining/planning beforehand (and even during the drafting process i continue adding to my outline), i've seen the average lengths of my fics go up a lot. you don't have to have every single scene, moment, and piece of dialogue planned out before start writing (lord knows i never do), but you should have a pretty good idea of the major story beats, character dynamics, and any important conflicts, and make sure it's written down in a way that's easy for you to refer back to while you write. never think you're gonna keep it all in your head

build out your characters' lives!! i love introducing a good b-plot involving the main character's friends (see: strawberry sunday) that doesn't take too much attention away from the main plot that it seems out of place, but instead complements the main plot and allows there to be space in between those major plot beats for the readers and the characters to breathe. it also helps make your characters feel more well-rounded and real to the readers if you throw in a scene of their daily life at school or work or with their friends/family both to add texture to them but also to your world. it can also be good to use an establishing scene towards the beginning of their daily life, then a similar one towards to the end that shows any character development, or some other impactful change that happened during your story. instead of just telling us that everything in your character's life changed, show us how it did (or didn't! or maybe it only changed a little, but the little change was important, too)

in a similar vein, build out your world!! im not saying to spend ten pages describing an intricate magic system to us that has little bearing on the plot itself, but feel free to weave in extra details about where/when we are and how the characters interact (or dont!) with the world around them (even if its our normal old world in the modern day)

and i mean i guess my last thing that's really helped me is just sort of getting out my head when it comes to writing? like, not forcing myself to write everyday, not having any sort of word count goals, no posting schedule, etc. just letting myself sit with my ideas for a while and really play around and have fun with them. it's made writing fic something that i look forward to doing when i come from work, or when the weekend is approaching, and i genuinely am making probably my favorite things that i've ever made right now. and they happen to be pretty long!!

i've talked some more about my writing process in some other asks (x, x, x, x, x, x) and i have a writing tag where i post about more general writing stuff if you want to hear me yap some more

[lackoftrumpets]

The TTRPGs I played in 2023: Part 2

Near the end of November, I asked for recommendations on one page TTRPGs I should play for a event I ran. The goal was to play a TTRPG for about 40-50 minutes before swapping to something new. While I sadly didn't get around to playing all of the recommendations, I still appreciate all of the games people showed me. Reading new game is something I enjoy doing, so I still had fun even if they didn't make it to the table.

Before I go into each TTRPG individually, there was a common running theme between playing all of the games that I feel like I should say. As much as I enjoy the concept and writing one page and other extremely small TTRPGs, I will admit that playing them was a rough experience. Working with that small amount of mechanics and concepts was something me and the table were not used to and I'm not sure if these kind of games are something I will play more of later. Whenever I got excited by a mechanic is one of these games, I always felt like I wanted something more. I think these types of games are great thought experiments for game design, but I can understand why these type of games haven't gotten much traction in the mainstream (with a few exceptions). However, don't let my thoughts discourage you from writing these type of games. I still love making them because its a fun challenge to see how much content you can cram into such a small space. This was something that most of these games did fairly well, so lets move onto that. If you want to check out any of these games or their authors, I have everything linked on this post.

Rollers of the Lost Artifact by JayBlnk6

This was the starting game and it left a good first impression. In this game players are archeologists looking for special artifacts. The simple skill system was nice, but what I really loved was the inventory system. Each item size has a certain shape and you have to fit it into a 3x3 square. I always love inventory systems that force you to play a Tetris (turning a mundane thing into something fun), and this game did a good job fitting it into a smaller system. Since we were playing multiple games at once, the players didn't get to sell the artifact, but I still appreciate the rules where players get a choice on what they wish to do with it.

Rats in Space by Jay Writes

I think the title of this game explains itself. The players are rats in space looking for a special piece of cheese. The theming of this game was a lot of fun to play with. The morale system was also an interesting addition to the d6 system I've seen a lot of one page games (including my own) use. It was fun to see the players start to panic as their moral system got lower because of a large streak of bad rolls. I also really liked the d6 table for determining one last consequence when the cheese is found. The players thought they finally found it, but then realized they had one last obstacle to conquer (that being the horrible smell in the room).

Rough Beginnings by @tornioduva

This was the most unique game I played that night and despite some odd moments, I had a lot of fun with it! The players are simple group of adventurers, but there is a small element of mystery to it. They each have a secret personality trait and one of them is secretly try to sabotage the rest of the group. I love the creative ideas this game had, but it was a bit of an awkward play. In order for the adventurers to escape, the GM needs to roll a 9 from a 2d6 on the scenario table. The first round, I rolled a 9 for the first scenario. The second round, I rolled a 9 after the players went through about 15 scenarios, the majority of them being the players getting HP for succeeding. I love the concept of this game and I think it inspired me to make my own deception based TTRPG, but it was rather clunky. I have no issue with that at the end of the day. I love playing games that take risks and try new things!

By String and Song by @efangamez

I've enjoyed participating in game jams run and reading some games by efangamez before, so when somebody at the game community mentioned one of their one page games but couldn't remember the name, I knew where to find it. While the game they were recommending was Barbaria, I ultimately ended up going with this game because bards seemed like more fun to play and most of the games in this series seemed like they were reskins of each other. I feel kind of bad saying this, but the game just felt like one page D&D 5e. It's a d20 game which seems to be rare for one page TTRPGs and the way everything was written with Skill Checks and attacking seemed to invoke that game. I guess if you wanted to introduce smaller games to people who have only played D&D I guess this could be a good starting point, but I think most people would just ask to go back to D&D. If I had to guess, most of my negative feelings about this game likely come from me just being burnt out of D&D. It was written well and the enemy descriptions were flavorful, but I don't ever see myself going back to play this.

Honey Heist by gshowitt

Whenever I hear one page TTRPGs discussed, this game always seems to be recommended. After playing it, I can see why. The concept of being normal bears trying to break into a convention was already an instant sell. I loved the idea of the balance of trying to keep your bear and criminal parts from not taking over. It was one of the most interesting ideas for a fail state I've seen in a game. This the game we played for the least amount of time because it was near the end of the meeting and we were all tired, but the random animal chaos mixed in with surprisingly intricate criminal planning made for a fun mix.

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 20/02/2024

Chex Invaders

Season 4 Episode 1 No Album Release (Read More) Circus (Chex Mix) - Five Nights at Freddy's

Ripped by LiterallyNoOne

Requested by Realchickenmanny! (@realchickenmanny)

So remember back when I said in Goodbye To Love that I'd be providing some sort of further explanation to the Circus rips at a later date? Uh, yeah - that later date is today, and I still...don't really know how to properly explain it.

It all feels like a giant web of in-jokes that were never quite properly explained, culminating into a channel-long mainstay to the channel. SiIvaGunner presents itself as a place for listening to edited video game music, and it certainly stuck to that for...at least its first few weeks? That blurry line would get pushed and prodded with rips of "Nintendo Direct themes", rips of fake games like Battle Theme - Zeno Blade Chronicle X, and rips that didn't contain the original track supposedly being ripped at all for a complete bait and switch - all of it leading up to the release of Rip Squad, the first Circus rip ever, on March 16th, 2016. In just 37 seconds, it manages to be extremely memorable from just how good the execution is, with the beginning music box jingle, the coy transition out of it, followed by the hilarious skrillex-like dubstep drop edited to play the Flintstones theme. Given that the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise was still enjoying meteoric success from the original four games releasing across 2014 and 2015, yet lacked much of any music to rip on SiIva, to do this sort of complete bait-and-switch was a pretty fun workaround for a one-time gag. Yeah. One time gag.

Except, with just that one rip, NBGMusic had seemingly summoned a monster - due to the Circus theme technically just being the ditty playing at the first few seconds of the rip, any remaining runtime could be dedicated to doing exactly what Rip Squad itself did - quite literally anything on the planet, related to video game music or not. Circus thus became home to every kind of rip under the sun, with the very same song being ripped again and again and again with different "mix" names for each one to at least ATTEMPT to distinguish them. Trust me, "Chex Mix", as Chex Invaders dons, is far from the most absurd mix name out there, and given their sheer variety going to the Five Nights at Freddy's playlist alone is akin to playing a ripper-based game of russian roulette.

But then, let's return to Chex Invaders then - because with the unlimited freedom that Circus rips provided, not even asking rippers to come up with fake games to loosely attach their rip jokes to, they were free to go absolutely hog wild with whatever concepts they could think of. I praised Plantasia 2 yesterday for just how well the theming of its joke and game ripped matched together, yet Circus mix embody the complete opposite side of that spectrum, and take full advantage of it. The only tie that Chex Invaders has to your expectations is the dubstep-adjacent electronic music featured in it, which many rips taking after Rip Squad also did, but it's not as if that's at all a constant for Circus rips - that rule was broken by Chaze the Chat himself just a month after the Circus rips began.

No, Chex Invaders isn't playing on any sort of emotional attachment you may have to Five Nights at Freddy's, not any sort of expectations on the part of viewers upon clicking - it simply appeared in SiIvaGunner fans' subscription boxes like a face-down card, its true intentions unknown to those who didn't click it. Those who did, however, were met with one of the few contributions to SiIvaGunner by the excellent artist LiterallyNoOne, still going strong today with 245K subscribers on YouTube. And while I'm unfamiliar with their more numerous contributions to fan channel TimmyTurnersGrandDad (as mentioned in V​-​v​-​v​-​v​-​v​-​a​-​V​-​v​-​v​-​v​-​v​-​v​-​r), Chex Invaders alone proves their talents to me in its sheer quality. The base track Space Invaders by Teminite & MDK is played with in so many creative ways, from sections of melody-swapping in and out of one another, to overlaying vocals from other songs and clips onto the song, to full-on mashups, to moments doing all three in harmony...the amount of jokes featured, especially during Season 4 Episode 1, feels almost overwhelming! From the first four years of the channel's life, there's only a few channel mainstay jokes to NOT be featured here, from Flintstones to Snow Halation to CaptainSparklez to Megalovania to Inspector Gadget, yet it all ebbs and flows in and out of one another at such a befitting pace. A calmer moment in the song will play Fireflies, a more ominous section plays 8-Bit Beast's Haunted House (see Maroon 5 more like Maroon 8 hehehehehehe), the beat drop at one point is a single "op" from Gangnam Style - for having SO many different pieces of SiIvaGunner's long history in play, for being a rip made by just one person, it all fits together shockingly well, to where I almost forget that Space Invaders is a song that exists outside of this rip!

Loud, bizarre, unexplainable, and as memorable for their contents as they are easy to forget from their titles and presentation...Circus rips on SiIvaGunner are a true enigma, and I'm really not sure if I've even listened to them all. Yet there's rarely one that's disappointed me thus far - without a source game to pull from, it feels as if a rip almost has to be inherently interesting to have even been submitted as a Circus rip to begin with. Chex Invaders most certainly isn't an example of just HOW deep the rabbithole goes with these rips - but it is an example of an absolute banger from them.

[goqmir]

i kind of like maybe just a little adore the new clue set cards like. the clue set itself is a weird and overpriced product and the physical cards themselves are definitely gonna be stupid overpriced because nobody wants to buy a board game to crack packs but like. the cards themselves? kind of fire?

i kind of adore that theyre not just all rares and we are getting clue set commons and stuff :3 its cute! and we're getting a new lonis too-- its not a super interesting card but i adore lonis and im very excited to play with more of her. and we get an interesting new land cycle in the cluelands too! the art for them kinda blows at the moment but at some point in the future i assume they'll be reprinted in a set that gives them fun and interesting art? maybe? please? im not exactly itching to play them but ill never turn down another cycle of duals teehee

id love to talk about some individual cards from the lineup so far that i adore! these are just my top picks but id recommend going and looking at the full list spoiled so far on scryfall :3

for starters, my favorite card from the whole spoiler season right now i think has to be scuttling sentinel. i dont think i want to play her in any commander deck, but in my opinion this is like one of the top cards for cubes in 2024 period-- like cankerbloom tier of cube card. she's awesome! a crab elf which is such an awesome creature type, playable with green or blue, puts 1/1 counters on things and its main draw is just being a decent body that offers protection :) she's great!!!! ive already slotted her into the cube ive been piecing together recently. i like her a lot.

resonance technician is such a cool spell copier <3 every part of it is kind of expensive so im not really sure where youd play it but it does a lot of cool things all at once on a single card which is fun! the flavor is cool-- we all love weirds here-- and the functionality is useful and cute. cool card. big fan

we also have portal manipulator who is like one of the weirdest and strongest combat tricks ive ever seen? this is like if aetherize also fucked your shit in. so i can absolutely see this seeing a lot of play honestly. but lets be real here this card just has amazing art. thheres portals around her skull !!! god shes so cool.

corporeal projection gets a shoutout because what a fun effect <3 it being izzet is awesome and on-flavor and the card itself is both an interesting choice to give your creature myriad for extra damage and a fun wincon :) im glad theres a simple and convenient way to give one creature myriad now that isn't a brick to run in my commander decks because it has a high-cost endgame mode. yay!

finally it wouldnt be a goqmir set review if i didnt shout out the new cards that work well in Naya Cast From Exile :3 Boros Strike-Captain seems kind of mid but it's important to remember that the card never goes away, and you can cast it any time after when you attack with at least 3 creatures even if BSC is off the battlefield. big fan of this one! im not sure if i can find the space to jam him in my Rocco Street Chef decklist but he's a very playable option.

Personally, i think Headliner Scarlett is the winner this set. She's a very good hit pretty much any time-- you're always gonna get a minimum of 4 free damage when she sticks, and if you play her early you get some pretty strong card advantage, which turns into very very strong card advantage in both Rocco and Prosper. if you pull her late, she can win you the game straight up by allowing you to swing out uninhibited-- though i can't speak for Prosper players, this will pretty much always be at minimum a knock out if you pull it lategame in Rocco. definitely making room for her in my decklist.

anyway thats just some cards i liked from the weird product thats coming out :3 i was and still am iffy on purchasing the product and expect the cards to be a little too expensive but as far as designs go they're pretty cool and im very happy that they exist! um sqrrk <3