#all of your courses teach you about different general parts of the world

[punkpandapatrixk]

🪷Sacred Lotus Within You ♦︎ Timeless Pick A Card

‘If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than what you are now.’

‘I don’t wanna be more! I like who I am.’

‘You don’t even know who you are.’

‘What do you— Of course I do; I’m the Dragon Warrior!’

‘And what exactly does that mean—Dragon Warrior?’

—  Po and Shifu’s conversation from Kung Fu Panda 3

SONG: Pure Imagination by Gene Wilder

MOVIE: Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)

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A hard Life is not always a divine punishment of sort⛈More often than not, the Universe’s most advanced Souls choose to be born—as Humans—into much sorrow and a perceived sense of limitation just for the joy of experiencing a personal breakthrough out of a cycle of—both—good and bad Karma🍄

Seen from a Soul’s perspective, all events in this mortal world are just drama. drama. drama~🎭It’s so exciting to co-Create massive stories with other Souls in this theatre of the Universe🎪This Play in itself, a spiritual evolution of sort for all beings of Love and Light🩰

This world is at best the dream of a Butterfly🦋Have fun; and have faith that in time all things bloom magnificently like a Sacred Lotus emerging from the mud🪷Ultimately, all of us, we bring with us only memories of our lifetimes when we are done playing our roles in this Grand Experiment of a Cosmic Drama💫

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 1 – Peace Maker

VIBE: Master Shifu asking Po to teach him inner peace

seeds of beauty in you – 10 of Pentacles Rx

Encoded in your DNA is the very gift of healing itself. You were born into this world of stupid carrying seeds of peace-making. Yup, you were the kid who was always able to tell when a grownup was lying. Like, OMG, so disrespectful…they think I can’t see through such obvious lies? In fact, too many things were obvious to you because you are gifted with a keen ability of observation. We’re talking superhuman-level observation, baby~

With that, the world around you was often terribly dull. You’re definitely the type that wants to travel and see the world for yourself. Wanting to see what other people of different nations and races, customs and cultures, even religions, have to share about what this Life is all about~ You had A LOT of questions!

Alas… You soon realised that most people’s perceptions, priorities, and overall ways of life are low-quality at best. Your interactions with people, your observations of them, gave you almost nothing but disdain. People…are not intelligent enough. But more disturbing still…people are not noble enough in their pursuits of a good Life.

In your eye, most of the time, people don’t have enough integrity, character, or personality🤷🏻‍♀️

blooming in spite of muddy water – 7 of Pentacles Rx

If you’re often distressed by the state of Humanity, it is because you possess this divine ability to pierce through bullshit and reveal the true essence of all things. You’re a deep diver. You truly are a scholar. You’re the type that seeks to bridge between differences and clashes, so that people find a common ground upon which they could build a harmonious society. You most likely have a significant placement in the 7th House or blessed with a strong Libra/Venus aenergy~⚖️

Essentially, you’ve come into this world with an almost specific purpose of bridging differences between generations. All because your Oversoul was sick of watching Humans being fools amongst themselves. So you plunged into this world of illusions in the hopes of elevating people’s spiritual intelligence. Your unique gift of observation is piercing and high-vibrational and the reason it can bridge generations is that the wisdom you will develop as a person is both universal and timeless💎

You are an Ascended Master, you know. Like Po returning to the mortal world after defeating Kai. Like Gandalf the Grey returning as Gandalf the White after defeating the Balrog. All because you’ve got shit to do in this world of stupid—your wisdom is gravely needed! I’m not teaching you to be conceited or anything, but by means of technicality, you’re not here to learn anymore; you’re here to…teach🤣

tulips of happiness – Knight of Cups

No matter your age or their age, you’re here to teach the infantile Humans about inner peace and true, everlasting, sustainable, manageable, actually reasonable sense of Harmony🌷You do that by setting an example; by first bridging confusions and calming down chaos within yourself; then you talk about the walk to anybody interested enough to listen to you🌾

In this lifetime, as an Ascended Master playing Human, there’s probably a lot of heartache you’ve needed to learn to forgive. If you’re in your early or mid-20s when reading this, you’re most likely just beginning to learn it. You don’t have to act perfectly though. Healing and forgiveness are not about being or doing perfect. It’s perfectly OK, too, not to forgive—certain cruelties in this world are simply beyond absolution, ya know?🤬

What does truly matter is that you forgive yourself. Just yourself. You can forgive the situation. You can forgive the fact you fucked your way into this or that mess. Where applicable, you can give thanks to the experience and then move on to the next thing. Be glad about the fact that you’re still alive after all of the fuckery, and that you’ve enough self-awareness, and how that self-awareness has grown you as a person. It is such a beautiful thing to have grown up in the mental and spiritual~🦉

ESSENCE OF BEING HUMAN🔻💜

the script you chose – Silver Alchemist (Ramon Llull)

path of self-transcendence – Priestess of Healing

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☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 2 – Pink Radiance

VIBE: Master Oogway sending universe mail to Li Shan

seeds of beauty in you – III The Empress Rx

Oooh~ You’re pretty~ That much I can tell🙊You probably are blessed with some significant Aries, Aquarius, or any Cardinal aenergy in your birth chart; could also have Venus/Moon in the 1st or 11th House~ And do you know why you’re bestowed with an outer appearance that’s easily considered attractive in this realm? Because you’re meant to have an audience🎙

You’re meant to be heard; to have a platform and be some sort of a leader. And since being pretty in this world brings a lot of privileges, your Soul chose to be born with this specific setting in your birth chart wHoA~ A pretty face gets attention more effortlessly and that’s just how it is with this world~🙈

So, you see that there’s meaning in having some forms of privilege whether it’s your face or your family/economic background, or even heritage or some special lineage thing going on in your Life🎰And yet, it seems you could’ve been blind to all this ‘upper hand’ and not see much value in your existence.

None of this has felt all that special…well, because you were born with it. It’s not special; it’s normal to you; and you definitely want to feel special…not really grasping others would kill to have what you were born with…🐞

blooming in spite of muddy water – XVI The Tower

In spite of all of the privileges that seem obvious and enviable to others, you yourself have not felt all that blessed most of your Life. There is this thing that people don’t understand about you: EXPECTAFUCKINTION. Expectation could kill, depending on situation, and depending on where you are in Life. In many ways, you haven’t really ever felt FREE in your beingness. You don’t really know how FREE truly would feel like. You can imagine it, but you don’t really know if that’s even real🤷🏻‍♀️

Whether it’s status, prestige, or simply beauty, sometimes you’ve felt victimised by the very things other people wish they had. They literally don’t know how suffocating it is to be wearing your crown~ You often feel like you don’t have autonomy over your own Life. In some instances, you may even have experienced your autonomy getting violated. And it’s so heartbreaking.

At some point in Life, you will suddenly and gradually lose access to all of these beauties and privileges, maybe even some of your talents, babe. All these things that came ever so naturally to you, once you’ve lost ‘em, you will die in spirit, and be reborn with a renewed sense of appreciation for the fact you have always, ALWAYS, been extraordinary👿

tulips of happiness – King of Swords

Whether you are a girl or a boy or straight or gay or whatever, you are an ally of the world’s Divine Feminine aenergy. Do not worry about losing your glory; it will aaalll come back stronger and sparklier once you’ve graduated the University of Hell a.k.a Saturn Return🪐

It is part of your Soul’s Blueprint to experience losing privileges, perhaps money, talents, friends, freedom, hair, weight, and everything else, momentarily. This period of your Life—whether it’s your first or second Saturn Return—can be likened to a pregnant woman who’s now restricted from drinking, eating, doing, or even being near certain things. She’s not so free, but for all the right reasons; she’s protecting her foetus.

This Saturn Return period of your Life where you’re experiencing losing yourself is like a pregnancy where you’re gestating a newer, stronger, clearer, more confident version of yourself. The restrictions put around you are meant to suffocate you further, enough for you to want a breakthrough. All so you can become a pure Pink Radiance of a miracle this miserable world needs, for that is your purpose for being born🌷

Shine on, Pink Diamond~

ESSENCE OF BEING HUMAN🔻💗

the script you chose – Green Historian (Herodotus)

path of self-transcendence – Priestess of Prosperity

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☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 3 – Magic Worker

VIBE: Po teaching the tribe to be THEMSELVES

seeds of beauty in you – 9 of Cups Rx

Within you are seeds of a luxurious lifestyle that you ought to nurture slowly throughout the course of your Life. You may have come from a background of lack just to make this whole scenario more exciting (to us as Souls contrasts are exceedingly attractive when thinking of a spiritual breakthrough). With that, you could’ve grown up with lots of daydreaming about feeling fulfilled—emotionally fulfilled.

Though you may have daydreamed about luxurious environments and things and situations, at the core of everything, all you yearn for is a feeling of safety; stability; of having just enough…of being enough, in fact…all because you weren’t emotionally nurtured as a child. You were the kid who were neglected by everybody, both the adults and your peers.

You felt unseen most of your Life. But even those who acted like they saw you, somehow the view was inaccurate. You felt this way because you didn’t understand yourself either. Children learn about themselves through the feedback of their environment; so the ones who were mostly neglected…how could such children even begin to learn to comprehend their identity?

Because you didn’t really understand yourself, it was difficult to manifest properly. In your psyche, there are way too many threads of wishes that are tangled up, causing you to manifest clashing Realities…and then disappoint you…

blooming in spite of muddy water – XXI The World

The reason for this difficulty is that you needed to learn and discover for yourself the true Essence of being alive. You are essentially God’s messenger to help Humans overcome their addiction to material possessions. Omaigosh if you know how TikTok shopping culture is making people poorer and more miserable in the emotional, I’m sure this will ring a bell in your Soul Memory.

People who grew up poor are the main target of evil marketing because they crave that feeling of ‘having’. Sometimes, it’s a feeling of having things—trendy things; some other times, it’s a feeling of having friends—cool friends; and some tragical times, of having someone to love—which usually only translates to ONS or casual hookups without any real emotional connection.

Anyway, back to talking about material possessions though, there’s this:

‘Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body.’ – George Carlin

This, is a concept, a Reality, you’ve needed to learn and fully comprehend, and then unravel by means of your personal spiritual transformation. That way you can be an example and a guide to others. Reminiscent of Uncle George himself, you’re somebody who holds an Elder Archetype aenergy about you. You’re ‘worldly’ in the sense that you’re based, well-thinking, and most of all, you can embrace perspectives that are UNIQUE. You’re able to hold a knowledge that encompasses the whole of the Universe itself.

tulips of happiness – 4 of Pentacles

In a sense, know that you are a born leader. Though I sense, you may be more interested in being a thought leader🧠You don’t seem that interested in leading an envoy or a movement of any sort hahaha You’re a loner; you like being in your own company. After all, people are stupid and it’s exhausting to have to interact with them. And that’s all fine~

In the future, when everything’s said and done, you’ll meet your Soul Tribe—people who are just as weird, misunderstood, deep, sombre (probably), wholesome, complex, and loyal such as yourself🫀Your Spirit Guides are really saying: it’s perfectly fine for you not to extend too much compassion for those who aren’t worth your while; hoping you’d calm down some clashing ideas about your personality.

It sounds cruel? No, really; not everybody is worth paying attention to or share affection with. If you do that you’re only going to be sucked dry of Life Force. It’s a similar principal with money spending. Just because you see a lot of items being displayed with attractive, persuasive DISCOUNT signs, doesn’t mean you have to give your attention, or money least of all, to ALL of that. Got it?🤪

‘Even if something is on discount, if you don’t need it, it’s too expensive.’ – Love Marie Escudero’s husband, Govt. Chiz

ESSENCE OF BEING HUMAN🔻🧡

the script you chose – Green Physician (Paracelsus)

path of self-transcendence – Priestess of Intuition

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

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#Punk Panda Pick A Pic #sacred lotus #pick a card #pick a card reading #tarot pick a card #pac #pac reading #tarot pac #future spouse #astroblr #tarotblr #writblr #witchblr #witchythings #spirituality #spiritualhealing #divine feminine #divine masculine #lightworker #starseed

[be-my-ally]

Let Yourself Go

Overstimulated Reader! Request.

my darling, what a dream request - thank you anon! for both your very kind words + excellent request!!! this has consumed my brain for the past week; I originally intended it to be short like 2.5-3k, and then it turned into 4k and then I realised that in all of those words elvis had only been treated once so it turned into 6k. so this is 6.7k of pure, absolute, filthy smut just for you that i really hope lives up your expectations!

summary: slightly innocent!reader is convinced girls can't really orgasm - elvis sets out to teach her how wrong she is.

pairing: afab!reader/elvis (big daddy e)

warnings: 18+, 18+, 18+, tiny bit of daddy kink, implied age difference, oral (p+v receiving), p in v sex, fingering, mirror sex, overstimulation, very brief spanking. I think that's it? Reader does attempt to stop the proceedings a couple of times and elvis doesn't stop but it is all consensual.

wc: 6.7k

suggested listening: the end of such a night + of course, let yourself go.

You’ve not been together very long and you were still learning about each other in many ways. It confused you a little that he, who you knew had girls throwing themselves at him, would take the time to bother to get to know you better. He’d picked you out of the crowd and put you on his lap in his dressing room before he’d even learnt your name. When you’d told him, earnestly, that you didn’t expect to be married or anything but you were a good girl, who wouldn’t sleep around, you’d expected him to tell you that he wasn’t going to see you again. But no, he’d put in the effort and here you were, a few weeks later, at Graceland of all places. You’d been brought back with him after his engagement at the International ended for this year, allowing him a short break before he resumed touring. 

He’d taken you out on his bike earlier, showing you the sights of Memphis and you’d loved the rush, so unlike anything you’d experienced before. Despite the fact that you dreaded the call from your parents at the photos that would inevitably be published of the two of you - you hadn’t really been dressed to go out (the outing unexpected), nor had you been able to help snuggling into his back, your hand resting on his solid thigh at the lights. When you’d gotten back to the estate you’d expected a party - a celebration of his homecoming, and you’d been bracing to have to deal with losing him for the evening, but you’d been pleasantly shocked when he’d kicked everyone out after dinner, announcing that he wanted a night just the two of you. 

You wanted to tell him that his expectations were a bit forward, to not get his hopes and that you still weren’t sure you were quite ready to have actual sex with him but in all honesty, you were ready and only your (perhaps misguided) morals had prevented you thus far. You had been slightly surprised at how unbothered he had seemed at the concept of sex - he’d laughed you off when you’d told him you didn’t want to sleep with him on the first night; telling you that was all very well but would you sleep with him because he couldn’t “bear the long nights all on my lonesome”. He hadn’t pressured you at all, less than your last boyfriend for sure, and seemed to genuinely enjoy your makeout sessions as much as you do. To tell the truth, you weren’t really sure why anyone was that bothered by sex - it felt fine sure, but it didn’t blow your world apart, was mostly very awkward, and you couldn’t understand what the fuss was in general. 

You’d followed him into the bedroom, into his room, and while part of you wanted to inspect every little detail of this hidden, protected space, the other part of you could feel his impatience from the bed and when he smiles at you - all cheeks and teeth, asking; 

“Wanna have some fun tonight darlin’? Cleared the place out for ya, didn’t want you to go all shy on me…some girls get nervy at the number of people in the place. Get real quiet and the like, even though I tell ‘em I got the sound locked down.” You forget any desire to rifle through his drawers and instead stare at him, slightly confused - just hoping he’s not going to be disappointed; 

“Uh, oh, well, I can’t say I’m that loud anyways, always, I always thought that was just a thing girls, uh, exaggerated?” You look down, embarrassed that you may be having to burst his bubble - you don’t want to be the first to tell him that from what you know there’s nothing to be shouting about. But he doesn’t react in the way you expect - blinking at you from under his glasses and patting the bed next to him. 

“C’mere doll, tell daddy what you mean.” You sit where he tells you to, tiny shorts hiking even further, and you curl your legs up underneath yourself. 

“I don’t, sorry, I don’t understand what you’re asking? I’m just, just, saying that I never understood what those girls on the … on the … the stuff you like to watch, what they’re shouting about is all. Never seemed like anything worth carrying on like that is all.” He’s a little shocked but not altogether surprised - you’re young and a little sheltered, perhaps more than he thought at your reluctance to even said the word ‘pornography’ and he knows your only other relationships have been serious with boys from home, less about fun and more about futures, and he knows that they don’t always put the effort in they should. Still, he needs clarification - his eyes burning with curiosity; 

“You mean you ain’t ever .. got your rocks off? Never creamed those lil’ shorts of yours?” His thick hand finds its way onto your thigh and he flicks the hem of your shorts, practically between your legs. You giggle, pushing his hand off.

“Elvis. Don’t be silly, unless you’ve been with some funny sorta people - girls can’t do that! That’s… I might not know much but I do know that.” He looks back at you, utterly stunned, before smiling like all his Christmases have come at once, a full cheshire cat grin. 

“You - you ain’t never?” He’s shocked, but desperate to know your answer, taking his glasses off, leaning closer and waiting with practically bated breath in excitement, clenching his hands on his thighs. 

“I just told you E, that’s not something girls can actually do. Don’t you think I’d know! If you’re just gonna tease me I swear I’m gonna walk right out of here!” He laughs again at your indignation, shaking his head, 

“Naw little one, don’t do that, don’t do that - I just uh, I think I might be able to teach you a few things tonight is all. Just, ah, need to re-evaluate some things’all.” He frowns, “You know the other day, baby, when I stroked your little pussy and you pushed me off - told me you were all done?” 

You remember the incident he was talking about, He’d had his fingers up you, rubbing you exactly how you needed and you’d crunched with an involuntary shudder, couldn’t quite catch your breath properly and had told him to stop. You’d pushed him away in a panic that you didn’t know what was coming, but that that was certainly enough. He’d been a little worried then, worried that he’d pushed you into something you hadn’t wanted to do. But, he’d relaxed when you’d relaxed on the bed - he wasn’t happy with leaving you like that, on the edge, but he’d figured you were just shy, nervous that his entourage was a mere wall away. The thought hadn’t even occurred to him that you genuinely believed that was you finished. 

“Yeah, but what about it? We were done - I was done, it was starting to make me feel weird. I actually think we went too far.” He lets out a pure incredulous laugh, shaking his head. 

“Oh baby, baby. I’m gonna, I’ll teach you baby, it’ll be ok.” You nod, but you’re honestly a bit confused about what he’s even planning on teaching you, but you don’t want to tell him he’s wrong again. You suppose he does have quite the reputation, so maybe he does have some things to show you, you doubt it somewhat but keep that to yourself. 

“Right, yittle, need these all off of ya,” He tugs at your shirt, starting to unbutton it. “and these, these slutty little shorts need to come off, lemme see what I’m working with.” He’s practically crooning at you, slipping your shirt off gently, divesting you off your shorts - undressing you as if you were a babe. He strips you of your bra, leaving you in little white panties, before pushing you back onto the bed to lie flat. He doesn’t give you time to worry about your nudity, cupping your cheek with one thick hand, leaning over you to kiss you. 

His tongue slips in, it’s like he’s mapping your mouth and you don’t bother to fight for dominance, letting him in, submissively brushing your tongue against his. He pulls away slightly, grabbing a breath and you can’t help it, his pouty perfect lips too tempting, you surge forward to softly suck on his bottom lip, nibbling gently. He responds in kind, pulling your head back, baring your neck - he tugs your lip between his teeth pulling as he pulls away. You moan at the little sting, and he presses a soothing peck against it. Before trailing down and pressing little open-mouthed kisses at your cheek, mouthing at your neck - tiny little suctioning touches until his hand, which he’s not resting on, is trailing further down. His fingers spread across a breast, fingertips playing with your nipple. You can feel the heat coiling in your tummy - your throbbing heartbeat between your legs. He’s pressing little kisses down your soft stomach, and he grunts as he repositions himself - up on his knees slightly. It worries you briefly, he’s been using a cane as more than just an accessory more frequently lately - his youthful actions having been hard on his knees and legs, before your mind is wiped by his actions again. 

His hand trails lower, even as he continues to press soft kisses on your stomach, and he swipes down in a languid stroke over your panties, feeling your pooling wetness through the forming damp spot. He pushes it into you, rubbing you over them - the fabric catching slightly, along with your breath. He moves his head back up, sucking you by your collarbone and on your neck, hard enough to leave a bruise. The noises coming out of your mouth are unlike how you’ve ever heard yourself before, and as he hooks his fingers into your panties, pulling them down and off - the dampness making them pretty much see through - you would normally cringe in embarrassment but as you watch him lift them to his mouth and suck on them you can’t do anything but stare in an absolute state of shock and arousal. He’s still fully dressed although his shirt is so lowly unbuttoned, his chest with its covering of hair, god even his nipples practically out, that it barely counts. You can feel his own arousal growing against your side, still confined in his tight, slightly flared, trousers the heat of it, and can’t help but wiggle against him. He folds your panties, scrunching them up, before shifting to push them into his trouser pocket. You gape at him, 

“Good lord, you can’t - they’re so dirty Elvis - you can’t keep them. They need to be washed!” He smirks at you, smirk turning to a grin as he leans over you to whisper in your ear, moving his hand away from you as he does. 

“Baby, when they taste that good, I’ll do what I damn well like.” He licks your cheek, and it's something that you would have found disgusting from anyone else, but somehow him doing it makes your heartbeat pulse in your core. He lets his hand come back down, lightly slapping against your pussy, you jolt forward, mouth falling open, and eyes rolling slightly at the sudden intense pleasure from it. He chuckles into your ear, tickling your neck, “Oh - you like that mama? Like that baby?” He does it again, and you’re horrified at the wet slapping noise - but also at the sudden surge of wetness, you can feel.  

“Oh god, Elvis, you gotta - gotta do that again. Please.” He obliges, patting you once, twice, three times before letting his hand fly slightly harder, you can feel your heat rising - and you shiver slightly. You’ve reached the peak of where you’d been before. Your heartbeat fast, and a constant thrumming at your centre. He laughs, teasing you in a low tone, 

“God, who’d have thought you’d be such a dirty fucking girl, letting me - begging me to spank that yittle cunt of yours.” He puts an inflection onto yittle, as if even when talking about your ‘cunt’ he’s unable to stop his penchant for baby talk. 

He uses his fingers to spread you apart, middle finger sliding in your slick. The metal of his ring is cold against your burning skin, sending goosebumps down your flesh. You think he can’t make you feel any better when he slips two of his fingers inside you. His huge square ring catching on your entrance for a moment and you buck your hips as he slides it in. He pumps them, in and out, as you squirm on the bed. Your eyes fall closed for a moment and he whispers to you, 

“You like that little? My fingers in you? Gonna show you how girls do it, teach ya how it goes.” You respond with a whine - his words causing a blush to travel from your chest. You’re simultaneously embarrassed at needing to be taught something about your own adult self and aggressively turned on by his narration. 

You’re breathless and while he’s looking at you with a soft smile on his face - pure concentration in his burning eyes, you can’t help but wonder what he’s getting from all of this attention on you. But to be the centre of his focus, him looking at you like you’re the whole world - the only thing in the world, is another level of high. Behind him you can yourself reflected in the mirror above - you look fucking debauched, unlike yourself and seeing him from above, in all his iconic glory, reminding you this is Elvis fixated on you brings you even closer to the cliff edge. 

He pushes into you, unnecessarily - his fingers were long enough he could reach with his thumb without having to strain at all - to reach your hooded clit. He finds it expertly, rubbing it just so. You shudder, and he keeps going just as he was, but kisses down your neck to your nipple again, swirling it in his mouth, pulling it with his teeth slightly and you can feel yourself about to fall. You panic at the unexpected and unknown feeling and try to throw him off, 

“Elvis! Elvis stop - stop I can’t - I can’t do it, it’s too much - you gotta, you gotta st-“ You’re thrashing about the place, arms flailing as you try to push him away, but his fingers don’t stop and he hushes you as he’s suddenly stroking this little spot inside of you. You can feel it’s different but can’t quite tell how until he crooks his fingers and presses. You shudder, your mouth falling open, although you’re still far quieter than he’d like - he makes a mental note that his aim tonight is to make you scream. And then you’re shaking, convulsing on his hand - stomach and core muscles clenching of their own accord. He rubs and strokes you through it. Your mind is blank and all you can feel is your thighs shaking - your head rolling from side to side. He keeps going and you keep going for him, clutching the covers in tight fists, mouth open in a silent scream as one of your legs randomly seems to jump about. He can tell you’re at the end of what you can do for him at the moment. He softlypulls his fingers out, trying to bring you down gently. His fingers leaving feather-light touches across your mound and thighs. 

“That good, baby?” He pats his sticky, wet hand on your tummy and you can’t speak, taking heaving breaths. 

“W-was,” You’re slurring as you come back to, your ears ringing, “Is that, what I’ve been missing? Is that meant to happen?” He laughs at you, finger drawing little shapes on your stomach, 

“Yeah, when you’re with someone who knows what they’re doing.” He puffs his chest out a little, clearly proud of himself, “A real man.” You laugh, and he kisses you again and again until your lips are swollen and bitten raw and you’re gasping for air. You lay back for a few more moments, looking up at him leaning over you. He moves his arm, and you’re not quite sure what comes over you, but the movement had spread his shirt even more and it’s not something you’d ever considered doing ever before, but he did do it to you earlier so you gain the courage to ask; 

“El- can I, can I…please can I taste you?” He raises a brow at your polite request, but is not going to turn down such an offer, 

“Sure baby, lemme get lil’ Elvie out now - “ You frown, interrupting him. 

“No, no… can I just… like you did earlier?” He looks slightly confused, his brow furrowed, but he agrees nonchalantly - clearly used to letting whoever do whatever they like with his body. 

“Sure - “ He starts to say something else, but you’re too distracted by the permission, rushing forward to kiss his chest, moving down to capture his nipple. He jerks,

“Christ - Oh lord,” You’re practically suckling him, one hand threading through his chest hair, feeling his stomach, the hard line where he’s definitely still muscular somewhere underneath but is soft and cushy above, grasping at his pillowy sides. His hips are bucking, circling with the effort not to throw you off accidentally, “Oh gods, baby, christ little one, lord, oh lord.” He’s unable to be silent, constantly babbling a stream of curses and praise. You pull off, and suddenly, you’re mortified. 

“Oh my goodness, Oh, Elvis, I - uh, sorry, I don’t know what came over me.” You’re shocked at yourself but he’s panting, and you can feel him straining against his pants. 

“Oh darlin’, lord, darlin’ it’sss ok, it’s so good, so good baby. Love your lil’ mouth on me.” You smile a little bashfully as he pats at you as if praising a dog. “Think now little Elvis would too baby, get him out - show him how much you ‘preciate him too?” You pant back at him nodding your agreement. He’s resting further up on the bed than he was before, you’d both travelled around the last few minutes and he sits to take his shirt fully off, before unbuttoning his trousers finally and wriggling out of them. He shuffles further back and you get yourself situated between his legs, bracketed by his thick thighs on either side of you, their covering of downy hair tickling your sides. You lean down, gently stroking his hardening cock - but then pause, 

“Elvis, I ain’t ever - you gotta tell me how to do it.” He groans, his head falling back, 

“Goddamn, like you were made for me, fucking made for me honey,” he peers down at you, over the slight swell of his stomach, tucking his chin in - one of his meaty fingers stroked the side of your face before gently grasping your head, lowering it to his cock. “You gotta, gotta say hello little one, give ‘im a little hello kiss now - “ You do as he says, brushing your lips against the very tip. You’d seen it briefly before, so although not this close, and you had given him a … helping hand over the past few weeks so you’re not surprised to see he’s uncut nor at the size of him - generous in length and girth, but it’s still fascinating to you up close. You can't help but study it briefly - assessing how his foreskin is starting to retract back slightly and you absentmindedly reach for it, gently rolling it forward and back a little bit, unsure how far it should go. His hips jerk, 

“Christ, baby, you gotta warn a man first.” You smile, meeting his blazing blue eyes and amused expression. 

“Sorry - I thought me being here was warning enough.” He laughs and pats your cheek. 

“Right little one, back to work. Kiss down little Elvis, let him know how much you wanted to see him - ‘ You obey his orders, pressing little kisses all the way down his shaft. “Ok, now doll you're gonna take him in that hot little mouth of yours - gonna be re-eal careful of your sharp little teeth, got it?” You obediently bob up and down in a nod, making sure not to scrape him.

Instinct seems to kick in and you take a moment to suck down on him, flattening your tongue against his underside. His other hand finds its way into your hair accompanying the one still resting on your cheek and neck, hand spanning across the distance. His hip jerks forward and it causes his dick to knock further back than you were expecting and you pull back with a little cough.

“S’ok baby, sorry, felt so good, couldn't help myself, not gonna make you take all of him tonight, you can use your hand go on, show the rest of him how much you love him.” He pats you again and it’s enough encouragement for you to go back down on him. You do as he suggested, stroking and pulling him with your hand where your mouth can't comfortably reach, growing bold enough to reach down and delicately hold and stroke his balls. His hands are insistent on your head, not forcing you but certainly moving you exactly how he wants you. You can taste the thin salty trickle of precum starting to dribble out of him.

“That’s it, baby, I was already so close, just from touchin’ ya honey, just gotta suck me just like that, that’s it like a damn popsicle.” His hands grow a little rougher, tugging on your hair slightly, as his hips circle and his thighs clench around you. “Gonna, you gonna stroke me now, yittle, you just gonna stroke me, I’ll let you have a taste, give you a treat but that’s enough for now - ’s about you tonight, about you honey.” He's babbling now, and you're not paying much attention to his words coming out of his mouth except when his request filters through to your brain, and you pull off with a little wet pop, stroking him to completion. He squirts over your hand - ribbons of white hitting you on the chin and chest, moaning as he does and his eyes falling closed.

He leans back, breathing heavily as his cock finishes jumping about, slowly softening before your eyes and you glance around, before grabbing his discarded shirt to wipe your hand on. Before you can raise it to your chin to wipe it off of there he sits up and moves his hand from your face to swipe a finger through it. “C’mon baby, gonna have you swallow it next time,” You're uncertain about this, but don’t bother to say anything right now as he rubs his fingers on your lips, “Go on, open up honey, have a taste for me. Lick it clean.” You do as he commands, tasting the salty tang of a man’s cum for the first time. It's not wholly unpleasant, although you're not sure about the texture, but you can’t say you'd be jumping for joy at the prospect of swallowing his full load. He watches as you suck his fingers, licking them completely clean looking up at him under your lashes as you do. 

He leans forward to kiss you but then suddenly grimaces, frowning. Twisting slightly in an attempt to relieve some of the tension from his hips and back. 

“I’m sorry, honey, but I gotta- I gotta lie down again.” You frown, worried. 

“Of course! don’t - you’re meant to be relaxing!” He’s proven himself to you - taught you that there was something on the other side of the cliff edge and it was good. But you weren’t worried - didn’t see any reason to continue, you’d both been taken care of and you were now perfectly happy to be tucked up in bed for the night.

“Oh no, I don’t mean I’m done. Get over here, little girl…” He manhandles you, ringed fingers digging into your thighs as he arranges you over the top of him. He then lies down, sliding between your legs, before huffing a tiny bit as he heaves you up from his chest and down onto him. “That’s it, mama, right over my face. Lemme get to that poor little kitty of yours.” You’re confused as to what he’s going to be able to achieve from this angle - he can’t possibly just want such a closer look, can he? But then, without warning, he pushes his head up licking down your labia before pulling you off balance to literally sit on his face. 

“Woah - Oh, Elvis I’m gonna hurt you like this, I can’t just - I’m too heavy!” You try to move away but you can’t escape from his tight grip. 

“Ain’t gonna hurt a fly baby - lemme just.” And he pushes his tongue into you, spearing into your hole. You’re sopping wet already, his fingers having seen to that, and the noises are obscene - the wet smacking and sucking. 

“Elv-oh my god, Elvis you can’t-“ You try to get off but his hands don’t let you move at all - pinning you onto him. But as you struggle your thighs touch and you can feel the wetness and the stickiness that’s spread throughout - tangling your curls, sticking your thighs. “It’s- it’s - it’s dirty, you can’t, you shouldn’t - that shouldn’t, you’re not meant to do that.” You can feel him chuckle, the vibration making you gasp, but he doesn’t even respond, simply holds you down and goes harder.

You’re supporting most of your weight on your own legs but every time you clench or move you can feel his fingers digging tighter in - sure you’ll have bruises where his rings and fingertips have been. You can’t help but move, grinding onto his mouth. It’s outrageous and you can’t believe this is something people do, but now it’s happening you wonder how you’ve lived this long without it, without knowing how this feels. His tongue is flicking between lapping at your hole and your inner folds. Your hips circle and one of his hands comes around your thigh - curling around to join his mouth. He moves his mouth up to suck on your clit, and the warm wet pressure, the suction, the everything - it’s too much. You’re losing control again, fighting the panic for a second time that evening - but this time, the pressure is growing even stronger and though you recognise the feeling now it feels different. 

“Oh my god, Elvis, god, Elvis, Elvis please, please, you gotta stop! I’m gonna-” You grind your hips again, but he must be able to hear the sudden change in your tone - the sudden, very real, panic. And despite his instinct telling him not to he worries it’ll make you lose your relaxed state and he pulls away, kissing your inner thigh, 

“Relax baby, dontcha worry, oh my poor baby’s little neglected pussy - you’ve got no idea, just been waiting for a real man, for daddy, to show you what you’ve been missin’ all this time.” He croons into you, hands stroking your thighs, soothing you into compliance. As soon as you relax into his hold again he surges forward once more. Your folds are swollen and slick, feeling like they’re burning, you feel so hot. And your entire focus is on your cunt and Elvis. Unable to even think about your thigh cramping or your foot falling asleep. He kisses up you, capturing your little puffy clit in his lips again and sucks hard. You think you might be about to pass out - it feels so overwhelming, but suddenly the pressure changes - and as he slips a finger back inside you it starts to feel a little too similar to something else. 

Your panicked noises come back out, and you once again are begging Elvis to stop warning him; “I think I’m gonna pee, Elvis, seriously! I can’t - I can’t hold it! Elvis - daddy, fuck, I can’t, I seriously think I’m gonna - gonna pee.” But he doesn’t stop this time, not even to reassure you, just continuing his steady ministrations, speeding up, and the pressure is steadily mounting again, reaching the peak. Your orgasm rips through you and you have to throw your hands out to support yourself on the headboard to simply stay upright but you’re barely able to think about it, moving on instinct alone. You’re shuddering and he’s continuing, won’t leave you be. And then, the pressure seems to burst - slowly yet somehow quicker than anything you’re ever felt. It’s like your vagina is simultaneously your whole body and also entirely separate from your body as it clenches before you’re gushing, liquid shooting out of you. It drenches his face, it’s in his hair, in his sideburns, and he sits up, as you fall off of him to one side, and he’s glistening. 

You’re in a daze but a little embarrassed, both at him covered in your juices and that he was right and you were wrong about your abilities. But his reaction makes you second guess your immediate response - he’s grinning, licking his goddamn lips like he’s just eaten the best-tasting dessert of his life. He uses one of your discarded shirts to wipe his face off, smiling at the damp patches it causes. 

“There we are baby, Daddy got’cha there, got you to that special place - that’s what it’s meant to be like darling. Told you didn’t I, told you, you just gotta listen to me, let yourself go.” 

You lay back panting - you’re a little sore and a lot tired and you’re sure you’re done. You can feel his cock hardening against you again in a gentle coaxing sort of way, and you reach over a hand. You can do this, but you’ve just not got the energy for anything else - and your pussy is still pulsing, soft and swollen and puffy. He bats your hand away though, 

“Right, mama, gonna show you how it’s really done, you’re gonna reach your little o on my cock, and you’re gonna know that’s how it should be every time.” He kneels up on the bed, pulling you up onto your knees too, and he’s putting you exactly where he wants you. You want to refuse, but he’s so convincing, and you are a little curious at how he might be able to make even this so spectacular for you, an act that you’d been ambivalent about, mostly put up with; knowing it was something women just did to keep their partners happy. He manhandles you into the perfect position for him, your back slightly arched, hands clutching the top of the headboard and he brushes your sweaty hair off of your neck, kissing where it lay before. 

You stay where he puts you, slightly shell-shocked at your easy compliance, and at what he’s suggesting. You glance up from under your lashes and notice the huge mirror above the bed - you’d seen the one above yourself in the bed but not the glass above the headboard - and can see how you look. You watch your face contort slightly as he presses a few of his fingers into you again, testing if you’re ready. But you’re loose, in a novel sort of way - so aroused that it’s easy in a way it’s never been before. You’re studying your fucked out face, shocked at how wide your pupils are, the redness of your lips and cheeks, before you turn your attention to Elvis watching his rosy reflection - his hair sticking down, body and chest shimmering with sweat, clinging to his chest hair, his plush lips bitten red and his face still with a hint of damp, blue eyes sparkling. You’re about to utter something completely embarrassing like, “Oh my god, you’re so pretty,” or “I love you.” But you’re (somewhat thankfully) distracted by him rubbing himself on you a couple of times before fucking into you. You jolt forward, mouth falling open as he simply pushes his whole length in, immediately pulling back out to shutter his hips forward again - gripping your waist and pulling you back onto him too. You’re shouting, finally, garbled noises and moans as he gives you no time to adjust and instead slams you back and forth to him, his balls slapping against your wet skin. 

He spanks your ass and you shudder, the tinge of pain mixed with the pleasure of him hitting that spot in you, getting in so deep you feel like he’s in your soul and not just your body. You can feel yourself starting to go again, starting to ride the crest of that wave when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror again and you can barely breathe, noises catching in your throat at the sight. 

“That’s it sweet, that’s it sugar, look at yourself,” He wraps an arm over your chest and grips your chin, pointing it straight at the mirror, “Look at us honey.” You can see him behind you, behind your flushed body - himself pink and damp with sweat from the exertion, its practically dripping down his forehead and onto his chest - he lets go of your chin and moves one hand to fondle your breasts, pinching your nipples, the other to slip between your legs. You jerk when he strokes where the two of you are joined. It’s filthy. You’ve never been this visible like this before, having very much been under the covers with previous lovers, and your knowledge of positions was limited to on your back, on your front and your side. Very much lying down. The image of his cock sliding into your folds, the pink fuzzy base barely visible through your own fuzz and his hand splayed over your stomach as if supporting where he sits internally is filthy in the best possible way. 

You feel utterly surrounded by him, you can’t think of anything but how he feels, how he looks, you can’t sense anything else. You can’t see anything but him, it’s all him as you look around - the mirrors on the back wall and above you reflect back the image of the two of you, but your eyes skip over yourself only seeing him. His thick form. He’s muscular in a solid way, an accidental way, and the layer of softness that covers all of him, but especially over his tummy, only makes him more attractive to you, more real. When you close your eyes the vision of him is imprinted on your eyelids, and all you can smell is him. He’s got a slight sweaty musk to him from the exertion and activity, but under it you can still smell the hint of his cologne. His sheets smell aggressively like him, like the Vegas him and the home him - he must use the same products (or his laundry service must) wherever he is. The room too - there’s his unique blend of homely smells but also the heavy scent of the blend of his favourite specific brands of cigarettes and cigars. The smoke, despite him claiming he only smoked very irregularly, clings to his thick curtains and the drapes that surround the room. The room which screams, as much as the rest of his house does, of him - of solely him, of his outrageous, outlandish, tacky, wonderful, style. 

You aren’t able to have any of these thoughts though, as his fingers stroke himself before once again finding your clit. He captures it between his fingers, rolling it, before brushing his finger over it and before you know it you’re quivering - shaking as your orgasm overcomes you again. It’s too much, your body has barely had a chance to recover and while you’re not passed out you’re also not…all there. Your body slack as Elvis holds you up, just a rag doll for him to take what he needs for his own orgasm - chasing his completion. He does, barely a few strokes later, a litany of praises spilling out of his mouth, pulling out as quickly as he could, seemingly caught a little by surprise. And you can feel the last few sprays from him as he splatters over your already sticky and trembling body. You slump down without him holding you up by the waist and hips, and he catches you - laying you out on the bed. He lays next to you, panting, chest heaving for a few moments before propping himself up on an elbow next to you. 

You’re sore, internally and externally and worse - sticky, but he doesn’t let you sleep yet, running his cum-covered fingers through your soft pubic hair, before tracing shapes on your lower tummy, gently brushing lower and lower until his fingers are stroking through your sticky soft folds. You squirm, sleepy, and he hushes you, 

“C’mon baby doll, give me one more, gotta make up for lost time darling. Give em all to you tonight. One more baby, c’mon do it for daddy, give daddy one more.” He’s speaking lowly, so as not to disturb your sleepy state, but what he’s asking you to do is bringing you back to awareness. He’s barely touching you, nudging your little stretched hole with his wet fingers, barely pressing the outer rim before delicately stroking your sore, puffy, clitoris again. You feel your legs shaking, seemingly of their own accord, and can’t focus on anything he says, resorting to begging over top of his continued whispers; 

“I can’t, I can’t, Elvis please, daddy, please, it’s too much, I can’t,” but you’re already so close to the edge that you gasp, mouth open, as he inserts his fingers again, and it only takes him crooking them just so for you to shudder and scream. It’s borderline painful, and your legs are shaking, “Lord, daddy! Oh my god, Elvis, daddy, oh my lord. Oh - “ and as he continues to stroke that little place inside of you, as you ride the waves that wash over you, your words trail off to just noises. You're practically yowling as you slump over, still shuddering and stomach still convulsing when he slows his ministrations and pulls his fingers away. Your vision is white and black and you can't focus on anything he's saying through your ringing ears although you're aware he's talking. It takes a few minutes for your body to calm down, Elvis’ large hands gently rubbing you down like a horse after a race, and it's not until your heart rate slows again that you’re able to open your eyes and try to focus on what he's saying.

“Told you didn’t I, you gonna learn to believe your daddy now? Believe what he tells you?” He’s unbelievably smug and you can hear it in his voice, and in the way his eyes crinkle looking down at you. 

“Course, Daddy,” You blush, “Elvis. Of course, I just - I just didn’t know! I didn’t know what that was…inside me.” He laughs, 

“Well, not everyone can find it doll, it keeps itself real hidden like, less you’re just the right fit.” He squeezes your cheek as he says it before he pats you again and heaves himself up into standing. “Right honey, gonna have to get you all cleaned up - you’ll be drippin’ all night else.” You wince as he wipes at you with a little towel, even his expensive cotton too much abrasion on your still throbbing centre. You roll into the bed, far too exhausted to even stand up, and your eyes are closing as he comes back over with a glass of water, he makes you drink half and you do so, sleepily, while he maintains his grip on the glass. “We’ll have to shower in the morning honey, think you’re fixin’ for a snooze now.” He pulls the top comforter off, throwing it on the floor, and you can just see through your hazy tired gaze that there’s a large wet spot on it. “Least we ain’t gotta change the bed.” He mumbles as he climbs into it. You squirm as he pulls you close against your chest and his hands find their customary positions - one just a little too close to between your thighs but he pets and shushes you, humming a tiny lullaby that makes you fall deep asleep almost immediately. 

#elvis smut #elvis x you #elvis x reader #elvis fanfic #elvis presley smut #elvis presley x reader #fic request!! #be-my-ally #big daddy elvis

[vivipokedex]

Your animal anatomy foundation 100% feels very solid, do you have any books or online sources to recommend to budding artists?

thank youuuu :)))

im gonna be honest... i never really specifically sat down to study drawing animals, or followed any art-oriented books or guides about that or anything. tutorials tend to not be very helpful to me because they rarely deal with gesture and focus more on getting the proportions right, which by itself is only a small part of it. and live drawing classes rarely involve animals...

i think it helps to have an existing, like, sense and confidence when it comes to observation and capturing volume and gesture in general. at the end of the day pretty much everything can be broken down into basic shapes, planes, blobs. actually A Blob is a good starting point to draw pretty much any animal... draw a blob and then put a head and limbs and appendages on it. yknow?

another thing is to just be curious and have an interest in the diversity and minutiae of the animal kingdom. i know it sounds very basic but I Love Animals. there are some real crazy creatures out there. obviously i recommend looking up as many reference pics as you can, not necessarily to copy stuff, but to have a handy guide of where stuff goes. but just looking at pictures honestly isnt quite enough in my opinion... read up on the animal. get a sense of what makes this particular species unique among ones similar to it, how it lives and functions in its habitat... watch a nature docco. watch some footage of weird little shrimp. learn how to tell different species of aeshnidae apart.

also, yeah, youre gonna have to look at and draw some animal skeletons at some point. i dont think you have to like, study the skeleton of every vertebrate you wanna draw, but yknow, its good to have a general knowledge. it really does teach you a lot to draw a horse skeleton and the individual parts in it. ideally of course you would be sitting in front of either the real thing or a 3d model, but sometimes photos and illustrations have to suffice... it's just important that you pay attention to what you're doing.

as for books... well, a relevant point here is that photos arent everything. obviously theyll give you a faithful picture of the living breathing animal, but thats the thing, they wont always let you see the exact shape, all the distinctive details, and so on. so this is where i recommend getting into some old timey illustrated books. yeah youre gonna have to do some treasure hunting... but listen. ive got this awesome book from 1979 for example, which lists pretty much every species of bird that lives in my little corner of the world, along with amazing detailed illustrations. it's so inspiring and informative. it is the kind of stuff i really wanna urge everyone to get into.

#book is Welcher Vogel Ist Das? by dr walter cerny and karel drchal

[maple-the-awesome]

Friend or Foe || Part 1/3

Part 2 || Part 3

Pairings: Four, Hyrule, Legend x GN Reader

Overview: Link visits an alternate world without its hero and, more importantly, a version of you without your Link. Unfortunately, it seems even the smallest of details can lead to disastrous results. In spirt of October and Halloween, I've decided to do a little evil prompt because none of the Links have enough emotional damage yet😈

Zelda Masterlist 💙Fandom Masterlist

Four has known you since childhood, both of your families having been good friends for generations. You've always been peas in a pot together with a level of closeness that results in a lot of ‘old married couple’ jokes. You're usually the first person Four returns to after his adventures, never sparing a single detail as he knows he can trust you with his life if it were to come down to it which makes this situation so perplexing...

This you is nothing like his dear friend back home. You don't have that same sweet smile that makes his heart do loops of delight, rather a wicked grin that makes his stomach turn in disgust. When he heard murmurs about an evil magic-wielder terrorizing this world, it would've been his last guess that such a person could look exactly like you - same face, same name, same everything!

"What an interesting assortment of weapons, especially this one!" Four bites back a snarl when this cursed version of you holds the Four Sword high into the sky with a teasing smirk, "It's practically dripping with magic. Where did you get it? ...Still not going to answer me? Oh, but you were so talkative earlier - what, with all your meaningless questions and desperate begging.”

Trapped behind cold iron bars, all Four can do is watch helplessly as you search through the rest of the items you’ve stolen from him, making little comments here and there which he refuses to acknowledge (he’s learned from Vaati that responses are only encouragement). The others should be here to rescue him soon anyway. In the meantime, he’s trying to make sense of this whole situation as he has been since you first caught him.

'This just can't be our flower. I refuse to believe it. They'd never be so cruel to us like this! They're our friend!' 

'Of course they aren’t, you idiot! There's no way they'd be evil at all! This scum is an imposter and the second we get out of this prison we'll teach them a lesson about why they shouldn’t dare tarnish an angel's name like -!'

'- Calm down. We're in a different version of Hyrule which means this is more than likely this kingdom’s version of -'

'- Hogwash! Don’t you dare finish that sentence! They'd never act like this even in a different world!'

'I don’t want to believe it either, however the fact of the matter is it isn’t impossible. Think about it. Everything about this world is similar to our own excluding our existence. There is no hero meaning we weren’t ever there to protect them. Did you think about that?'

'...No...'

'That's so sad!'

Four must agree with his arguing thoughts. Although this you isn't the one he has waiting for him back home, he can't help feeling some pity towards you, refusing to believe you could simply be born evil. Something led you down this path you currently trek, and maybe this world isn't necessarily within his range of responsibility, however he still feels a bit guilty for not being able to help any version of you, here or there.

Hyrule met you shortly after meeting Zelda which was natural considering you were the eldest child of the crown. He must admit he's unfortunately never gotten the chance to know you too well, seeing as you have so many responsibilities that keep you busy while he, himself, is often sidetracked venturing through a broken world, yet nevertheless, he does know you to be a kind and generous leader - someone he’s always admired very deeply which is why he’s having so much trouble accepting you could ever be like this…

This kingdom has a sort of sadness that flows throughout the dusty sky and crumbled grass. Legend mentioned something about visiting a kingdom like it before, although Hyrule wonders now if all aspects of the Vet's experiences would match. He would ask, however such a question wouldn't be appropriate at the moment given as both heroes have been brought to their knees, spears held close to their heads to keep them submissive (not that it gets rid of Legend's scowl).

When Hyrule first laid eyes on you while being forced him to take a knee in front of your throne, he had been relieved, so certain that you'd immediately wave off your hostile guards and take note of the obvious misunderstanding that has occurred, after all this traveler is a dear friend of yours who should be treated as such. Alas, Hyrule shivers instead, frozen under your cold gaze as you glare down upon Legend and him.

"These are the heroes you found? I thought they'd be taller - more a threat than little mice," You sigh boredly with your head rested against your hand, although you do take a second longer to admire Hyrule, smirking at the boy who unlike his feisty friend looks absolutely petrified to be in your presences. 

Pushing yourself off your throne, you approach the poor boy and kneel before him. Despite his attempt to flinch away, you still succeed in running your hand against his cheek, "...Oh, but you're a cutie, aren't you? A rare gem in a world so broken."

At least you're aware of the current status of this kingdom. Hyrule would like to think that with some bitterness in mind, however he actually manages to feel sympathetic while watching you wander back to your throne, not missing that frown upon your face. 

It’s then that he’s reminded of a story his friends and him were told upon arrival here - that this world’s hero had died tragically many years ago. There’s no evidence that this world’s current state is because of you which means you could’ve simply inherited a cursed throne and allowed your own heart to hardened under the depressing circumstances, a fate Hyrule fears might have easily occurred to his own version of you as well if not for the support you had received from your siblings and himself. If only you weren’t alone in this world. Maybe then you could have become a beloved queen here, too.

Legend denies that he ever knew you; it hurts too much to accept otherwise. For the short time that he had known you, you had been a light in his life, always so sweet and magical in a way that could lift even the darkest of thoughts. There's a side of him who wishes every night that he'll be blessed with a dream about you because much to his dismay, that's his only way of seeing you again. He'd give anything to meet you in person once more even if for just a second, but not like this...

He's trying hard to keep the scowl on his face - trying to act unintimated, trying to act annoyed - despite how much his heart is aching deep down. He can feel his eyes burning. He can taste iron as he bites down upon his lip, praying to Hylia he'll wake up any moment now.

Promptly after arriving in this Hyrule, the Chain had received several warnings from locals about a ‘demon’ which lurks in the night. They claim that the creature only ever appears in the shadows, preying upon weak minds and cursing them with cruel nightmares. 

Legend, of course, dismissed it all as a story meant to scare children, even going as far as to give Warrior a hard time for being jumpy while the group was setting up camp in a forest right outside of town. Unlike some of the others, Legend doesn’t care if the wind whispers or how certain trees around them look like faces, and he was actually sleeping quite well amongst it all until getting up to go to the bathroom. 

Walking back into camp, he had been alarmed to notice a cloaked figure hovering right above Wild, their hand outstretched towards his head as the Champion shifted and whimpered in his sleep. Everyone else appeared to already be in similar states of distress, even Time’s stone expression crinkled in pain.

"HEY! GET AWAY FROM THEM!" Legend was quick to shout, catching the monster's attention before drawing his sword which he had thankfully taken with him earlier. He planned on fighting off the beast then hopefully waking the others from their nightmares, yet instead he found himself trapped in one of his own when the cloaked figure removed their hood.

Now he can't move, frozen in terror as he tries desperately to shake the feeling...No...No, it can't be you. This is a trick - an illusion the monster has created to mess with him. You would never stain your beautiful face with such a wicked smile. You'd never hurt anything or anyone the way this thing already has!

Regardless of his doubt, Legend can only shake as you approach a lot faster than he can process, likely aided by your ability to effortlessly float his way. Whether due to a spell of yours or a result of his own weak will, he doesn't jerk away like he wants to when you run a hand over his cheek, cooing in a mocking way, "Aw, get a lot of nightmares, do you honey?"

"N-No. Not at all," He manages, at last finding the strength to swing your way which is an action helped by closing his eyes. If he can't see your face, he won't have to battle his concern over hurting you; he can better convince himself that you aren't truly here as you've never been.

"Liar," You easily dodge him, using merely two fingers to grab his sword midair. Keeping it in place, you lean forward, your breath making his legs wobble as the tears finally begin to prick in the corners of his eyes, "I can read your thoughts - see your fears…Oh, but this is far worse than any nightmare you've had, isn't it, my dear? Far worse than any I could bestow upon you with my magic. Poor thing. You miss them terribly, don't you? If that's the case, then you shouldn’t avoid me so. Soak it up. Remember what I look like. After all, it's the last chance you'll ever get to reach out and touch me."

#lu four #lu four x reader #lu hyrule #lu hyrule x reader #lu legend #lu legend x reader #linked universe #linked universe x reader #link x reader #x reader

[grievedeeply]

Ok I saw your Gow and spider æ crossover and it was AMAZING and I got a idea that you can totally not do if you don’t want to 🫶

What if, Avatar twow and spiderverse crossover, and the reader is a silly or apart of the Metkayina and they just learn abt her and hang out

Again don’t need to if you don’t want to and take your time 🩷

AVATAR AND SPIDERVERSE i am obsessed!!! again, i didn't want to get too repetitive with these so forgive me since they're short </3

gn!reader | no tws | includes: miles, gwen, hobie and pavitr

the spiders with a metkayina na'vi (avatar crossover)

miles morales

the first time he meets you, he's doesn't really know what to say. it's a bit confusing for him to meet someone who isn't.. yknow, human

but after his initial shock, he's more than happy to talk to you. he has plenty of questions he wants to ask so be prepared for a long conversation

teaching him the way of water would actually be so fun for him. he loves spending time with the people he cares about in any sense, so when you teach him bits of your culture it's something he really appreciates

your height is always going to be a bit intimidating to him but that doesn't mean he doesn't like being around you :)

gwen stacy

she actually asks why you're blue the first time you meet

it kinda just slipped out, but all you do is laugh and explain where you're from and she nods. she's curious about you and the na'vi in general but she won't ask you tons of questions

though she's willing and ready to listen if you're up for teaching her about it all

she adores swimming but she feels sooo slow when she swims with you around. asks you to teach her if there's anything she can do to improve

hobie brown

i don't think hobie is the type of guy to ask a ton of questions right at the beginning of your friendship. he doesn't want to overwhelm you

it's a bit odd for him to have to look up when talking to someone. he's used to being the tallest person in a room so your presence is different, but he doesn't mind

he loves learning about your home and your people, though. if you're willing to teach him parts of your culture, he's happy you think you're close enough to him to do so

you look different, but he won't ever make you feel like you're not welcome around him and his friends

pavitr prabhakar

pav is vocally curious, asking you a ton of questions about where you come from and what you are

he has no ill intent, he just really wants to know. he just likes to learn in general

he ends up spending a lot of his time with you and you get along really well even if you are from a different world

he's just adores you and he's sooo happy to participate in your traditions and celebrations, and of course he invites you to all of his families as well

#atsv #atsv x reader #across the spiderverse x reader #across the spider verse #across the spider verse x reader #across the spiderverse #miles morales x reader #hobie brown x reader #gwen stacy x reader #pavitr prabhakar x reader #avatar x reader #the way of water x reader

[mazeinthemiroh]

i’m deep in my feels rn haha could i request a soft little skz reaction where their s/o puts a lot of thought into learning about their interests and stuff? i want the skzers to feel special and appreciated cos they are :(

stray kids reactions to their s/o putting effort into their interests

genre: general

word count: 0.7k

warnings: none

pls like and reblog if you enjoy! feel free to request anything <3

bangchan

channie is a workaholic and so his interests lie with what he is working on at the moment. he would absolutely love it if you took an interest in his work, and will even run you through how to compose a song, write lyrics, produce, etc... he might even let you make a song with him on the side for fun! i mean, it's not impossible. he's made a whole song on one of his lives! so doing it with you should be easy, and really makes him happy.

lee know

minho has quite a few interests but the one that dominates his heart the most is, obviously, his cats. he can't help but speculate on different toys he should buy them and whether they need any supplements or different meals. he loves taking care of his babies ;-; so when you take an interest in his fluffy children, his heart simply melts. it's definitely important to him to that you get on well with his cats because he loves them so much <///3

changbin

binnie's main interest is working out. which, of course, is not for everyone. if you are the type of person who likes the gym just as much as he does, he would love to share his time at the gym with you! if you are not the type to usually go to the gym or don't regularly work out, but still try your hardest to get involved with that interest of his, changbin will be really flattered and make sure he will help you and make your gym experience worthwhile, since you're doing such a nice thing for him.

hyunjin

hyunjin would probably appreciate his s/o doing this the most. he likes feeling understood. but also, he spends a lot of time on his passions and interests, in particular, his art so they have become really important to him. they are a part of him. so the fact you want to get involved in what he loves? he's over the moon. he would love to teach you how to do certain techniques and even share his hobby with him.

han

han loves getting into new things to watch, especially anime! forget sleeping, he's bingeing the new episodes of what he's currently watching atm. he loves it when you get involved with the shows he's watching because it means he has someone to completely rant about the plotline or openly simp over a character with someone who knows what he's on about. it makes him feel like he has a voice and he can express how passionate he feels about a character being killed off in the third episode because wtf?? he needs someone to talk about this with!!!

felix

this gamer boy would LOVE it if you joined him playing video games. he's so invested in the storylines of certain video games and will get so excited when you ask him about it and genuinely take an interest. and he will happily tell you all the things he knows. he gives you advice on what each of the characters does and which is the best character in his correct humble opinion. will be super excited to play these video games with you and will really appreciate you being interested in what he loves.

seungmin

seungmin has been getting into more artsy stuff lately. he likes photography, for instance, and likes to get outside and look at the world through a different lens other than his own eyes. he would love it if you were to join him on a little photography date uwu. ALSOOOO reading dates are totally his thing. he loves burying his head in a good book, and having you taking an interest in his hobbies means that he can share these peaceful moments with you.

jeongin

jeongin is a fashion lover. we know how well he dresses and how his style is always on point. even if you are not so keen on passion but find ways to make his interest feel understood, he will love you even more. like sometimes you will get him an expensive item of clothing or maybe even suggest going clothes shopping with him. he likes it when you ask for advice too, so he can put his fashion knowledge and expertise to good use!

#skz #stray kids #kpop #skz scenarios #skz imagines #stray kids scenarios #stray kids imagines #stray kids reactions #skz fluff #stray kids fluff #kpop scenarios #kpop imagines #bangchan #bang chan #chan #seungmin #kim seungmin #jeongin #yang jeongin #hwang hyunjin #hyunjin #han jisung #han #lee know #lee minho #changbin #seo changbin #lee felix #felix #kpop fluff

[koorinokujira]

Transformers thoughts that wouldn't leave me alone - Forgotten melodies of eld

I have a bit of a tendency to overthink my favorite media and make strange associations with other things, and Transformers is no different right now. Those robots are spinning in my head like leftover pasta in a microwave. Anyhow, last night I was thinking about Cybertronian music.

(Ramble incoming! Also I might get stuff wrong, I am still fairly new in the fandom, after all. So please, forgive my potential ignorance.)

Now, there usually isn't that much lore on it from what I've seen, which absolutely sucks and I need more. What I've also noticed is that there often seems to be more of a focus on the musical instruments (which I also definitely need more lore on), rather than vocals. And hoo boy do I have thoughts about that specificallly.

Cybertronians have voice boxes, right? And considering their mechanical anatomy, it's pretty safe to say that they can hold on for way longer than our vocal cords. After all, it's not like a computer or its speakers start breaking down after a few hours of music being played continuously. Of course, such a voice box would be more complex, and there are definitely some more unique ways for it to break or damage, but... I generally like to think they are pretty durable when they are used for speech or song. Which brings me to the concept which I decided to call "mechanical elves", or something to that effect.

Now, what does that even mean? It's simple; I was inspired by the portrayal of elven music in various fantasy media, like J. R. R. Tolkien's works. Songs that reach the deepest parts of your soul in an ancient, ellegant language, voices that sing heartwrenching ballads for hours on end about tragedies that happened millennia ago. And I thought... wouldn't that work for Cybertron? Or at least, Cybertron in its beginnings?

You have a race of giant, mechanical beings, many of which have lived for millions of years. And they do love their music, even if we often have no idea what it's like and get only snippets from their culture. You have people like Blaster, who is literally nicknamed "The Voice" in the IDW1 comics and uses his voice to inspire his fellow Autobots, among other things. Just their voice boxes alone have so much potential, and that just makes me feel stuff, honestly.

Why wouldn't they sing for incredible amounts of time without stopping, at least when the times weren't so complicated just yet?

Did the first Cybertronian who ever hummed a melody feel so much joy that he simply kept going and couldn't stop, before excitedly teaching others? When a friendship started to feel more than it already was, did the night start with a passionate serenade sung by a singular voice, which, as the hours went by, turned into a duet full of affectionate words to one another? When a Cybertronian died for the first time, did his brothers sing for his memory, and to survive the sorrow as they had no tears to weep?

Mechanical voices crying out in raw emotion to let the world know they're there, only for others to answer. Languages and dialects no longer spoken, beautifully haunting melodies long forgotten. And as the time went on, the world started to get more and more quiet, before the old compositions finally gave way to the new ones. Perhaps the Titans who yet live still remember a few notes or words once sung.

All that's left of the beginnings now is a requiem doubling as an ode to hope.

Its words?

"'Til all are one."

#alright alright this turned from a headcanon to a story real quick #but i couldn't help myself #i value music as a form of expression quite a bit #and the idea of ancient forgotten music just GETS me okay #let the robots make art and tell us more about it #i would literally pay to have a mini-series dedicated to pre-war cybertron and its culture #transformers #transformers hc #transformers headcanon #maccadam #transformers analysis #kinda(?)

[that-irishman-fan]

night at the museum jedtavius as dads to a daughter headcanons!

[ Full credit to the owners of the GIF and Night At The Museum, none of these characters are mine in any way! ]

FANDOM: Night At The Museum, 2006

GENRE: Headcanons, parenting au, LGBTQIA+, and fluff!

SYNOPSIS: What's its like being the daughter of Jedidiah and Octavius!

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Female coded reader, angst at some parts, and minor swearing, this is meant to be fluffy!

Notes: I started these headcanons with a daughter/female reader in mind, since that's how the idea popped into my head—but I am already planning out two other parts for a son/male coded reader and for a gender neutral set in the future. I realize it would be unfair to not follow up with similar ones, since I understand my audience is absolutely not exclusively women. So, keep a watch for parts two and three to come soon!

I also want to note quickly that there will be some worldbuilding sections I've included—just adding in some extra exhibits we don't see in the first movie as a sort of behind the scenes slash for plot thing. With that said, let's dive right in!

• Let's start by establishing your role in this situation. You'd be one of the full sized models on display, much like Teddy Roosevelt and Sacagawea ( take your choice as to what historical period, it doesn't really make a difference ). You arrived a while ago as a part of a brand new exhibit meant to reignite interest in the museum. Discombobulated, frightened, and frankly lonely, you searched for friends in this strange new place. It ended up being Jedidiah, the cowboy, and Octavius, the Roman general. Both were already lovers when you came around.

• Jedidiah and Octavius wanted to try their hand at raising kids together. But because of their plight of being tiny models, they'd given up on it. Your arrival was a dream come true. You three quickly had a found family dynamic, and sure enough they took you in as their daughter. You are perfect in their eyes in every way, an answer to all their prayers.

• They'd be your gay dads, with Teddy as a grandfather, Ahkmenrah an older brother, Sacagawea a mother figure, Attila the cool uncle, and all the others your friends. Soon, you found your place amongst the others.

• Both have their own pet names for you. Jedidiah calls you little lady, missy, and pumpkin. Octavius calls you mea columba ( my dove in Latin, since I have two years of it under my belt ), darling, and my princess. You call them by their actual names, or 'daddy' for Jed and 'father' for Octavius.

• I like to think they'd put emphasis on immersing you in their respective cultures. Giving you the best of both worlds, the Wild West and the Roman Empire.

• Jedidiah would show you all the classic cowboy staples— gunfights, rodeo, catching robbers, and playing songs by the campfire. You love it when he dazzles you with stories of outlaws, broncos, and especially cowgirls.

• Octavius would let you watch his army train, teaching you military strategy; not only that, but also attending senate meetings, participating in banquets, and telling you Roman myths and legends. If you gave your best shot at any of it, they'd be so proud of you. Just having your interest is reward enough, but if you actually did it yourself? They might just die of happiness right on the spot.

• Your dads love to hear about anything and everything that you're passionate about too! Please talk to them about whatever makes you excited, and they'll be as enthusiastic as you. They make a point to be interested since you try so hard for them.

• I get the vibe that Jedtavius are more free range parents in the sense that you're allowed to go anywhere in the museum you like. Outside is off limits, of course, which you understand. However, they are old fashioned. Not to the point of chaperoning, but cautious regardless. Jedidiah and Octavius are believers in women being treated with the utmost respect, they're very chivalrous. As such, they'll be on top of things to make sure you don't get hurt. With that said, they trust you to be responsible in your own right. They're just protective, you're their sweet baby girl after all. And God forbid anyone dare to lay a finger on you the wrong way.

• When morning comes, its hard for you to return to your place. You feel empty, almost lost, knowing you'll be gawked at come daylight. By yourself without them there. Sometimes, this can bubble up into small episodes. You'll feel resentful, crying bitter tears at times or just angry on others. Jedidiah and Octavius wouldn't leave your side until you were calm, both comforting you without a hint of judgment.

• " Aw, pumpkin, don't cry. S'alright, yer Daddy ain't goin' nowhere. We'll be right back where ya found us, ya hear? " Jedidiah would coo to you.

• " No more tears, fear not. It will pass once again as it always does. Our brave girl, my little princess. " Octavius would add on, gentle as his husband.

• Every night, the minute you'd come to life, you'd run as fast as you could to the Diorama Room to be reunited with them. They're your haven, your home, your safety net. After long days of noisy crowds and superficial cares, you're revitalized in their presence. And Jedidiah and Octavius are delighted to see you again, the hole in their hearts filled when your face appears.

• On to happier things now. Jedtavius are always ready to shower you in affection. I feel Jedidiah is the gruff type, his love language being praise, affirmations, and encouragement over physical gestures. Octavius is the opposite, being very tactile. For him, it's offering you hugs, soft touches, and gentle kisses. It's really ironic considering these guys are warriors in their own ways. Two macho men who are such softies for you.

• If you don't like physical contact, though, they respect that boundary completely. They're both so loving and supportive that you never have to worry about feeling neglected.

• The size difference poses an issue. You three have learned to work around it through trial and error. They may be small, but they have big hearts and an endless amount of love to give. You're definitely their soft spots, one could say weaknesses, but they have no shame over it. Not when it's you.

• I can imagine them being saddened by your insecurities, not able to understand why you don't see how special you are. It's not disappointment at you, rather pity for you. And they're quick to reassure you, genuine in every possible sense of the word.

• " Why's our precious lil' Y/N so down in the dumps? Ya know I hate seein' a frown on that dad gum pretty face of yers. Talk to us, why're ya beatin' up on yerself so hard? " Jedidiah would say, sitting you down in front of his diorama. At your shoulder level, he'd stand next to you, putting a tiny hand on your cheek.

• And you'd tell them everything on your mind. All the things bothering you. Neither of them would interrupt you once, letting you speak. Nor would they try to discount any of your feelings. But it does pain them to see you so sad.

• " We would not lie to you, daughter. When I say you are fairer than Venus, cleverer than Minerva, and braver than Diana, I mean it. For you are beautiful, you are intelligent, and you are strong. Most of all, you are you, as you are meant to be. " Octavius would tell you, his dark eyes adoring. His lips would touch your hand as if to further make his point.

• " And yer our girl no matter what. Yer daddy and yer father love ya, missy, even when ya go gettin' yerself into trouble. We wouldn't want nobody else as our daughter, yer all we could ever ask for. " Jedidiah would grin, patting you on your shoulder.

• Okay, now onto the stuff relatively separate from Jedtavius. In your free time when you're not hanging out with your dads, you get into plenty of mischief on your own with your fellow museum residents.

• Playing with Dexter and Rex in the Hall of African Mammals, surrounded by the jungle setting. The lions, elephant, gazelles, ostrich, and zebras don't mind you for some reason, and they're quite tame around you. You like to climb the display trees, cuddling with the snakes or swinging around with the monkeys. And playing fetch with Rex in the front lobby is always fun too.

• Teddy would take you on hunts, throwing you on the back of his horse. If you really wanted to, he'd even teach you to ride. Jedidiah was enormously proud when you showed up in the Diorama Room like an equestrian show rider.

• Sacagawea and you communicate through sign language. She likes to tell you many stories of her travels with Lewis and Clark, as well as legends from her own culture. You intently listen to each one, always raptured by the brilliant way she breathes life into the old tales.

• One time you tried to help the Neanderthals light their fire. It wasn't successful, but they welcomed you as a member of their family. You don't understand most of what they say, though you're always kind to them.

• Attila would teach you swordfighting, passing down all his wisdom as a master warrior. You two love to spar, often quite viciously to the point that Larry Daley has to tell you two to knock it off before you lop off each other's heads. Both you and Attila would be fascinated by magic tricks too, eager for Larry to show you a new one every shift he takes.

• Before he released Ahkmenrah from his sarcophagus prison, you made an effort to visit the pharaoh so he wasn't lonely. You two chatted well into the night about whatever came to mind; but you had a penchant for stories of his past in Ancient Egypt. You two have a platonic relationship characterized by him being wiser, more experienced, and far more worldly than you, your big brother who you've got wrapped around your finger.

• You also like to hang out in the other exhibits too. Watching the blue whale float idly in the Marine Room, singing its beautiful songs and you doing the same for it. You've danced to many a sea shanty with the model pirates, the favorite of Captain Blackbeard. The Kushite kings, Babylonian priests, Celtic bards, noble samurai, and Viking chieftains also enjoy your company, fascinated by your wits and amicable nature.

• I headcanon that the models can hear and see their surroundings during the day, they just can't interact with them in their frozen states. You've seen thousands of faces before in all your years in the museum, but the one you always like to see is that of Dr. McPhee, the curator. He's fussy, arrogant, and pompous from what you've heard, but you couldn't help your crush on him. You wished to get to know him more. For him to see you.

• Overall, life is fantastic for you in the museum. You've got Jedidiah and Octavius, all your friends, and a great big world in one small place to call your own.

Well, that's all I've got for right now! I hope I've done this justice. It was such a cool idea, and I couldn't resist dropping everything to jot down my thoughts on it. Once again, I am planning two other parts so as to be more inclusive to my fellow menfolk and out of the binary peeps! If you want to be included in a tag list for anything Night At The Museum or my other content, please drop a comment, and I'll add you from now on! Please have a fantastic rest of your week, and thank you SO much for all your likes, reblogs, comments, and interactions. It means the world to me!

#night at the museum franchise #night at the museum #jedediah natm #octavius natm #jedtavius #natm jedtavius #jedediah and octavius #jedidiah x octavius #night at the museum fanfic #night at the museum headcanons #my writing

[fakeshibe]

the internet is so overtly hostile to kids and young people. commercialisation and profit margins killed off the places younger kids were safe and welcome to be in, creeps and those seeking to goad people towards extremism took over those spaces designated for teens.

There is no safe place. Every time i see a 14 year old on twitter, I see them being told to get off the platform. It’s not safe, it’s not for you. And that’s entirely correct, twitter is not a safe place for a 14 year old, but where is? Tumblr? not really. Club penguin? it’s dead. Community forums? not really a thing anymore. Discord? not without that teen being very aware of their safety and how to look after themselves, at which point they may as well have stuck to twitter.

Like it or not, it’s the job of every single one of us to make a space that is safe for teens. Doesn’t mean you have to be kid friendly, just means you need to take reasonable precautions that your not-kid-friendly content stays in your space, that they can’t accidentally come across it. Content warnings, censoring/spoilering posts, possibly avoiding the main tags for a thing if that topic is child friendly and your art is not. stuff like that. Like if young people are likely to search for stuff like lego, maybe don’t put your nsfw bionicle ship art into the general lego tag, stuff like that.

It’s your job to keep an eye out for your fellow humans. If you see a young person they you know displaying signs that they’re possibly being harassed/groomed/generally made uncomfortable/not doing well, make sure they have a safe person to speak to. You don’t have to be that safe person, you just need to make sure there’s someone who can listen to them.

If you see a kid doing something they really shouldn’t be, it’s on you to explain why they shouldn’t be doing that. Don’t berate them, don’t attack them for it. Explain, help them to understand why that’s concerning to you. We all know internet safety classes in schools are pretty rubbish, usually super outdated. I did a child safety course like two years ago that still included tips on building a safe myspace page. School isn’t going to teach kids about the immediate issues on todays internet, it’s on the community around them to guide them and look out for them.

Also playground humour is fine, just be aware when you’re joining in to not take it too far or make it weird. And bear in mind that even just by virtue of being a couple of years older than whatever young person you’re talking to, there’s a power imbalance in that conversation. Don’t encourage playground humour to the point of making it an entirely inappropriate topic. Your the one guiding this conversation, steer it in the right direction.

And if you see someone being weird towards any minor, wether you know them or not, call that shit out. Let it be known that someone is keeping an eye out, let that kid know that they’re welcome and they’re looked out for. Let that creep know that people see them, and people are very, very aware of what they’re doing. Make them feel unwelcome, run them out of your spaces, spread awareness of risky people. Keep your spaces safe.

This is all especially as important as IRL spaces become more hostile to potentially vulnerable young people. Queer teens especially are going to be looking for community and safety online more and more frequently. Make sure that the places they find will be a respite from the real world, not just a different set of threats to navigate.

Make sure young people feel safe on the internet, and make sure that those looking to take advantage of their presence, don’t.

Why am i writing all this? I’ve seen too many posts about people’s experiences as a young person online, and i talked to my brother the other day about him and his friend’s experiences and it’s terrifying that there’s really nowhere for young people to go. Also i’ve realised that i’m not doing enough to be part of the solution. so this is part of that, im gonna be far, far more aware of the issue and doing more to try and help.

#internet safety #This post brought to you by seeing several communities on twitter oust dodgy people the last few days #no beef with bionicle fans btw i just couldn’t think of another example

[nadiawritessomething]

I think one of the biggest differences between my vision of Miles G and the general fandom is how I see him interacting with other people. Because, honestly, I don't think he would be... rude. At all. I mean, I'm not taking away from his Brooklyn slang or his experience in the criminal streets. I don't mean he doesn't have triggers that would make him loose himself and be rightfully pissed off because of it. Just like 1610 or any other traumatized person would do.

It just doesn't mean in my mind that he would swear a lot or behave aggressively.

Given the environment in which he grew up for most of his life, none of this would have led to an unreasonable outburst of anger or disrespect.

Look, in ATSV, we have already seen how Rio (remember, his main and only parent) is quite sensitive and serious about the vocabulary her son uses. Take the same moment with "whatever," her reaction was quite strong, primarily because such vocabulary in response to an important speech was hardly something she would want to instill in her child. And, realizing that Miles G will clearly receive even more advice and instruction from her in his later years than his 1610 counterpart, I don't think the strong guidance on his own behavior in social circles would have disappeared quickly even in the worst of worlds. That's why I hc him being more polite that 1610 from time to time — Rio's lessons seems quite strong and unbeatable.

And also about Aaron - as much as people like to hold him up as an example of a "bad influence" on his nephew, he is NOT a bad person. Seriously, the worst thing he did to Miles in the first movie was probably that "hey" trick. Yes, his work as the Prowler wasn't nice or morally right, but we were made to understand that he never meant Miles any harm.

(Did you see the deleted scene from ITSV where Aaron almost literally tells Jeffernos that he doesn't want Miles to end up "like him"?) He would be just about the last person on the list of people who would teach a child to smoke or swear violently, let's be honest.

(I'm not American and I'm not from Brooklyn, so I wouldn't mind if someone corrected me on that part).

However, as a person who knows the belligerent and disturbing atmosphere in my city, it seems to me that you should be cautious rather than angry here. Except for the Prowler, of course: Miles has a little more freedom here and a literal need to be fast and scary, so he deserves a little Spanish swearing in the face of a conventional Octavius.

But if you take, for example, a normal civilian going out and shopping, I don't think that in a world full of crime, Miles G will be looking for a fight. In such cases, you always have to look and know what to say, and who it is better not to approach at all, because the person, for example, may have a gun. Of course, if someone openly insults or threatens him, he can defend himself easily, but in other cases, you need to be even more polite and quiet than usual. His goal is to buy the damn milk and leave, so if he has to say "excuse me, please" to some man at the checkout, nothing terrible will happen. If you ask me, this kind of communication with silent strangers is probably the first thing that comes to mind, but it depends on your perspective.

And the last thing is that he is a child - no 15-year-old teenager with a desire to help his family and psychological isolation will drink alcohol or be angry with all the people in the world. Thank you.

#don't even get me started of how he doesn't want Rio to worry abt him so probably would follow her advises like his life depends on it #DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON PPL HEADCANONING HIM USING SLURS FOR WOMEN OR BEING MYSOGINISTIC? #he was raised by a SINGLE mother If there's a group of ppl he is especially polite with it's women and children #(the group of ppl he wouldn't especially polite with? Man police workers/hj) #don't even get me STARTED on how Aaron probably rethought some of his habits and quirks when starting to take care of Miles and Rio #cause he didn't want his nephew so pick up some parts of him that he didn't like #DON'T EVEN- #across the spiderverse #atsv #miles morales #miles 42 #prowler miles #miles g morales #earth 42 miles #spiderverse #aaron davis #jefferson morales #rio morales #rio morales 42 #character analysis

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hey, I just came across your blog and get the feeling that you're involved in the environmental and education sector. It's something I've been wanting to get into, but there's so much out there that I don't know where to start. Do you have any good resources on career paths and short/MSc courses?

I am! It's a big ole' sector, that is true; from our course we've had people head off into fields as disparate as land management, flood defence, sustainable fashion, environmental law, recycling firms, research science, environmental engineering, government work, sustainability advisory for companies, environmental activism, wildlife conservation, renewable energies... the list goes on.

If you feel comfortable shooting me a private message off anon and telling me the sort of things you've done so far (undergrad degree topic, for example) and roughly where you are in the world, I can probably be more specific. But my generic advice is that for the best shot you need two things, to whit:

A qualification to at least undergrad level in an environment-related subject

At least a year's experience (but volunteering while you study is 100% valid and volunteering opportunities are plentiful)

So an MSc could work very well for point one. If you have a specific idea about which way to run you can pick a course that will let you specialise; for example, University of South Wales offers one in Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology. If you're wanting a broader course that will give you the foundation you need while keeping you more employable to a wider variety of fields, on the other hand, UWTSD have Environmental Conservation and Management. I think both of those can be done part time over two years, too - the UWTSD one definitely can, so if you're working at the same time (or even just... want a more leisurely pace), that makes things easier.

For point two, you really can find volunteering opportunities very easily. Pick a few in different fields and have fun.

ALSO, if you're UK based, I can tell you right now that we are in desperate need of botanists and bat workers. For botany, practice is key, but ecology firms across the land will run little evening courses to teach you ID for certain plant families, like grasses or winter trees or what have you.

For bat work, you attend an ecology firm's evening class on how to survey bats, then you go with them as a volunteer surveyor to start working towards 100 hours of bat surveys. After a while, especially if you're also working towards an official MSc, they will take you on as a seasonal ecologist (April-September), which is paid work. Once you have 100 hours under your belt, you can get your bat license. This makes you VERY MUCH more likely to then get a Junior Ecologist job somewhere. Particularly considering that ecology firms love offering graduate schemes.

Oh, and GIS. Your MSc will teach you it, if you go down that route, but if you don't, download QGIS and follow some of the many tutorials online - it's all free, but it's vital these days across the sector. Well; unless you go into law or fashion, I guess.

Anyway, I hope this helps!

#asks #environment!

[kimbapisnotsushi]

shiratorizawa/inarizaki headcanons bc i miss them and i love them and i crave yamagata and reon content so i have to be the change i want to see in the world. so let's go!!

reon, the love of my life

i actually think he really likes comforting cozy slice-of-life sim games, like stardew valley and animal crossing and such

okay this is the part where i retcon the entire haikyuu timeline bc i really like the idea of everyone piling into reon's and tendou's dorm and watching reon game on a switch

or just like. gathering in the common area and squishing onto the couch or whatever while reon roams his island collecting fruits and bugs or whatever

(these games are the only sense of peace and stability reon gets at this goddamn school)

anyways it's funny bc tendou screams every time reon runs into a wasp's nest and yells "RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN" until reon either gets stung or successfully evades them

admittedly i do think the ds and gameboy are sacred and, for the sake of nostalgia, are definitely used to play pokemon (of which everyone has a favorite gen and get into endless arguments about it)

tendou DOES teach goshiki how to pirate shit and get ROM hacks and emulators and such tho

reon and semi are the most popular members out of the third years btw

they're both polite and calm and generally nice and don't have an RBF that makes people nervous

too many people keep trying to fight yamagata just bc they think he's glaring at them and he is SO tired

yamagata (slightly inspired by my own recent purchase) decides to get a phone charm to see if it'll help him keep track of his phone btw

he mentions this idea to semi who mentions it to reon who mentions it to tendou who blabs to the whole team. and guess what? everyone gets the absolutely brilliant idea of gifting yamagata a phone charm!!!

so now he has like a dozen different ones. and he's STILL losing his goddamn phone, so now his convos are like "have you seen my phone? yeah right now it's got a little phone charm hanging off of it, so just keep an eye out for that. what does the charm look like? oh i meant it's a charm that is literally a phone. of course it was tendou, who else do you think it was"

tendou has also taken to putting stickers on yamagata in an attempt to make him "less scary". sometimes yamagata knows about it. sometimes he doesn't.

kawanishi: "yamagata-san, pardon me for asking, but why do you have one-punch man on your butt" yamagata: "i have what now"

tendou meets someone he can talk to manga about online in some fandom/community forum or whatever and he is absolutely BETRAYED to find out that it's akagi michinari of inarizaki

okay not really but he is SUPER dramatic about it and keeps going on and on to akagi about how he can't be caught fraternizing with the enemy

akagi is just like "yeah yeah now are we going to talk about the complexities of yoru being both a victim and a perpetrator and his inevitable redemption arc or what"

(GO READ GOKURAKUGAI I AM BEGGING)

aran is still scared of tendou btw. like he won't outright admit it but he's still not over the time tendou yelled that he was going to piss in his pants from all the way across the court.

when akagi tells him they've become friends aran is like "are you SURE about that"

also i know tendou gets pissed off at suna. but i think it'd be REALLY funny if suna got pissed off at kawanishi

something something "he should be more sure of himself, he'll never stop aran-san like that" something something "and i thought i was a sarcastic little bitch" something something "no i DON'T think he's cute what the fuck are you on about"

(i didn't mean for it to go that way when i started typing it but i DO think it'd be an absolutely hilarious development)

i htink kawanishi and shirabu go on a lot of study dates, holing up at coffeeshops and boba cafes with their backpacks and notebooks and spending hours on homework and studying

shirabu worked his ass off to get into shiratorizawa and he intends to keep it that way!! he's a model student. probably even the top of their year. everyone knows him as the high-achiever.

kawanishi is there to make sure shirabu doesn't get lost inside his head and gets him take breaks and makes sure he doesn't get sucked into the endless soulless spiral of academic rigor at an elite private high school

basically: shirabu's consistently on the path to burnout and kawanishi is there to keep the flames alive

(hey that would be a good fic summary)

maybe that's another thing, then, that helps kawanishi and suna become friends. because suna's been there. suna knows, sometimes, that feeling of imposter syndrome. feeling like you don't belong. feeling like you have to prove your worth, your entire existence, just to be able to stay in a place you love, even if that place might not love you back.

and kawanishi knows shirabu would rather shove a volleyball down his throat than open up about the bad days and the bad feelings, so he picks suna's brain instead to find out how he can help. what he can do. what shirabu might be thinking and how kawanishi can fix it

you can't, suna tells him, you can't fix something like this. he has to learn to live with it. to grow around it. to believe in something better until it's the only thing he believes in. but having people you care about care about you helps. it did for me.

and so kawanishi is there to draw the blanket around shirabu's shoulders, and he's there to put snacks on shirabu's desk, and he's there to flip shirabu's textbook close when the clock hits eleven they need to sleep, and he cares for shirabu in all the ways shirabu can't care for himself and hopes that it's enough

#'sou leave suna's homesickness out of it whenever they write an inarizaki hc post' challenge FAILED!!!! #it gets me EVERY time okay #anyways i actually can't see kawasuna working SUPER well bc their personalities/attitudes are more parallel than complimentary imo #suna just thinks he's kind of cute that's all #BUT this is excellent excellent bait for kawashira. the beloveds #anyways shiratorizawa is just full of people with self esteem issues #oohira reon #tendou satori #yamagata hayato #semi eita #akagi michinari #suna rintarou #ojiro aran #kawanishi taichi #shirabu kenjirou #kawashira #haikyuu #haikyuu!! #haikyuu hcs #sou says stuff

[poorlittleyaoyao]

Care to share your backstory for Meng Shi?

Anon, I would LOVE to! I want to write about her so badly, but I have neither the stamina to finish it nor the skill to execute it properly. Here is a big wall of text of my THOUGHTS and FEELINGS described to the extent possible without needing a cw:

Meng Shi is the only child in a solidly middle-class (insofar as "middle-class" is a thing you can be in that setting) family of artisans (Painters? Scribes? The MDZS world inexplicably has no civil service system, so they can't be court clerks.) in a mid-sized riverside town near Yunmeng. Her parents teach her to read and write so she can help with the family business. She also learns to play the guqin for fun and because down the the line it'll be an attractive quality for a marriageable young lady to have.

When she is 14, her hometown is devastated by a catastrophic flood. (I go back and forth on whether this is the work of supernatural forces unchecked by cultivators--thus contributing to JGY's decision to spearhead the watchtower project later on--or if it's a regular old environmental disaster.) Her family's home and wealth are all lost, and her family themselves are all drowned save for Meng Shi and her father's youngest brother.

Meng Shi and her uncle travel and take on what work they can to support themselves, but her uncle is frustrated that he as a skilled craftsman has to work as a laborer and/or as a junior outsider subservient to a family no better than his own. He is unwilling to keep his head down and work his way up. He resents his newfound poverty and resents his niece, whom he views as a burden.

After spending some time in the merchant hub of Yunping, Meng Shi is abruptly taken to what she is told is a matchmaker. She answers the woman's questions honestly--yes, of course she is a maiden! yes, she can play an instrument! no, she doesn't think she has any ailments--but senses that the vibe is off. She's even more suspicious when her uncle won't let her see the paper that the "matchmaker" has him sign. When she catches a glimpse of the text, she tries to run. It does not go well.

Meng Shi latches onto reading, painting, and music as connections to her life before the flood. Since these things are also part of her appeal to clients, she has a repertoire of texts to read and music to play during work that is distinct from what she reads and plays for herself. It is of paramount importance that these things are kept strictly separated.

Since these skills are not shared by the other women in the brothel, they also enable her to mentally separate herself from them and her current life in general: she views herself as Different and Better, and her circumstances must therefore be temporary. This lets her keep going, but it also tanks her chances of forming kinship with the other women.

Her one friend in the brothel is Sisi, who is a couple years her senior and looked out for her when she first arrived. Meng Shi continually repays this kindness until Sisi's contract is bought out years later by a wealthy merchant who wants to make her his kept mistress. (Relatedly, JGY does not realize Sisi is among the women he exploits for his patricide until after the fact: as far as he knew, Sisi was still living with that merchant somewhere in Yunmeng.)

Meng Shi earns extra money by helping the madam with bookkeeping, a task she eventually teaches her son. She tracks expenses and revenue and knows exactly how much debt each woman or girl has left. The contract documents themselves are kept locked away and she fantasizes about finding and burning them. (When she is older, she briefly has the chance... and doesn't take it, because any hope of Meng Yao being recognized as his father's son hinges being able to prove her own identity, and the prospects for her as an unwed mother with no family or resources are slim even if she manages to shake the stigma of the brothel. She sticks with the devil she knows, because at least here she has the bare minimum of food and a shelter.)

She also keeps meticulous records of every man she ever has to serve--names, appearance, preferences, any details they share about their lives. It's insurance if things go badly, and she finds that they treat her somewhat better if they think they matter.

Meng Shi is 20 when Jin Guangshan hires her, and her decision to carry his child to term is a calculated one: since JGS has no heirs at the time Meng Yao is conceived, Meng Shi figures JGS will take her as an official concubine for the sake of his family line. The risks and physical hardships of childbirth and pregnancy are deemed worth it, because being beholden to just one man who can confer status and security is a hell of a lot better than the brothel, no matter how insufferable that man is.

Meng Shi is nonetheless blindsided by just how disruptive a baby is, never mind how long it takes her body to recover from childbirth. When Meng Yao is old enough to sleep for long stretches and no longer needs to eat every few hours, a new problem arises: where to keep him while she works now that she can't stow him in his cradle. Sisi will watch him when she can, but the other women aren't inclined to communally babysit a child they didn't choose for someone they don't like. Meng Shi gets the madam to agree to move her to a larger room, with enough space that she can partition off a section just for herself and Meng Yao. With the resultant increase in what she owes for room and board each month, plus the cost of feeding and clothing her son, Meng Shi's net income plummets. (Having a separate space makes it worth it, though.)

Even with the partitioned section, Meng Shi tries to keep Meng Yao away from the room entirely when she has to work. Eventually he works downstairs in the restaurant, but when he's younger, Meng Shi sends him up to the roof with a book and candle when the weather permits so he will be left alone.

Teaching Meng Yao to read and write isn't just about making sure he's a Proper Young Gentleman; it's also a way for her to share the things she loves and connect with her son through learning the way her own parents connected with her.

She likes to make as big a fuss as she can about festivals and birthdays, because she and Meng Yao deserve something nice.

Since the Jiang clan doesn't practice musical cultivation, and the pamphlets Meng Shi acquires for Meng Yao emphasize swordsmanship above all else, she only teaches Meng Yao the very basics of the guqin. He likes to listen to her play, though, and she composes lullabies for him that are later modified to help him with meditation. He does not like to meditate without her in the room.

She writes to JGS at least once every two months. He never responds. She tells Meng Yao and herself that perhaps he simply hasn't received the letters, though she suspects that's not the case.

There's a temple to Guanyin in the hills outside the city. It's a couple hours' walk each way for her when she's healthy, so Meng Shi doesn't get to go as often as she'd like. The monks there are kind to them, and Meng Shi is never sure whether it's because they're monks and kind to everyone, or because they don't know who she is.

No matter how much of a burden Meng Yao is, or how much she sometimes regrets her choice (to have a child, to not run away before, and on and on), Meng Shi never once considers trading Meng Yao's wellbeing for anything. She wonders what sort of monster her uncle must have been to sell her.

She is ill for a little over two years.

The only time she ever raises a hand against her son is when he suggests, in a calm and rational voice, that he should take on her debt instead. She's horrified by her action, but it has the desired effect.

She is initially buried up in the woods near the temple. Meng Yao counts his paces carefully so he can find the place again later.

#meng shi #if anyone has added info with citations HMU #also HMU with any fic recs where she lives bc PLEASE HELP HER

[petruchio]

Okay YES!

You said Dolly Parton and that’s EXACTLY what I mean!! She has the quintessential East Tennessee voice and I saw so much of her influence in Rachel’s amazing characterization of Lucy Grey!!

Tbh I think there’s a level there that plays on the current day stigma that comes with being Appalachian. Like I don’t want to act like the image of Appalachia as backwards is unfounded (it’s not), but it’s also wielded unfairly. Like is Appalachia underfunded and undereducated? Yeah. But every community has strengths and weaknesses! In fact diversifying those is good!

By having an accent in the Midwest, I indicated to my peers (no joke) that I must be less intelligent. And this wasn’t entirely new, even in Tennessee, being “from the mountains” was seen as a sign that you must be stupid/backwards.

And there was a spectrum of dialect that they considered acceptable. On multiple occasions I had Tennessee teachers teach me not to accent certain words in certain ways (because that would be inappropriate and hick - which is funny because we all sounded extremely Tennessee, but we didn’t ALL sounds so Appalachian)

So moving to the Midwest and having that “acceptable range” immediately moved to zero was jarring. I’d never thought I sounded like Dolly Parton before, but suddenly everybody I met was mentioning her and asking if I was from Tennessee.

It very much puts you on a stage, and there’s this immense pressure to mitigate it just so you can get off stage. I think there are some intentional links there with the “stage” and preforming that Lucy Grey encounters in the capitol!

Will you try to hide how you talk? Not just your sound but your word order and sentence structure? Your blatant colloquialisms?

Dolly is a very interesting comparison because her answer is generally, no. When Dolly does her thing, the colloquialisms are part of it. She won’t hide, she might tweak some things for the stage, but she clearly retains her identity and culture. (Just like Lucy Grey.)

And we get this layered commentary about the double stage with both of them!

There’s the stage they’re put on as outsiders. Moments like “only her pearly white bones” (such a southern thing to say lmao) show this off. Lucy Grey’s world is a stage now, it’s felt that her differences are othering, but still she throws out a colloquialism. Dolly is similar, even “off stage” she’s being judged for her background and is forced to preform. Yet she chooses to retain some the most othering characteristics, just like Lucy Grey.

Then of course, on an actual stage with a guitar and a song, Dolly and Lucy Grey have incredibly similar stage personalities. “Is that for me?” “I stopped drinking when I was 12!” “It’s to clear my pipes!” Lucy has never expressed an interest in alcohol, or even mentioned it prior - but she plays it up for the crowd, and the fact that they know it’s untrue is half the joke. That’s incredibly similar to Dolly, if there’s one thing Dolly Parton will do it’s tell a joke before her set.

So I think your Dolly comparison is super interesting and that there are layers there I’m not even thinking of atm. (I feel like I’m in front of a conspiracy board right now, but idc bc you really got me thinking!!)

I also think this could be related to your thoughts on Lucy Grey as an inversion of Peeta! Like I can’t help but think back to that moment before their first game where he says something like “I wish there was a way to maintain my identity.”

Like choosing whether or not to hide those Appalachian traits is a thing people struggle with to this day! I remember sitting in front of the mirror and practicing not a “non accent” & not jutting out my jaw when I spoke (catch Rachel Zegler doing exactly that - performance of the century)

Even beyond speaking, cultural norms like not trusting cops and insistently sharing food with everyone (also asking for food never being rude), knowing your neighbors personally and being familial with them, (“you think I don’t hear your stomach growling Jessup Diggs?”)

Even choosing to find Jessup immediately and sharing everything with him! (Coryo’s face when he said “are you going to share everything I give you with him?” 😭 Like, yeah. seek help sweetheart)

(There’s also the obvious theme of validity between different lifestyles. Like, I’d rather be uneducated than allergic to sharing. Yeah Lucy is a bit backwards but all the funding and education in the world didn’t teach Coryo not to be a selfish bitch??? So like?? Hmmm. Maybe there are many ways to live?? Anyways!)

When it comes down to it, Lucy Grey will do what she needs to do to survive. But the forefront of her mind is maintaining her identity, maintaining her humanity. Which may or may not be palatable to the Capitol audience, and may or may not immediately other her, etc. Peeta is doing this too - unlike Katniss and Coryo who are in survival mode - Lucy Grey and Peeta are concerned with their identities. They both choose to play it up for the audience, but also remain dedicated to keeping that humanity (as they know it) intact. So it plays super well to have that identity be such a culturally distinct existing one!

Anyways!!! Just some thoughts!

oh wow what a gorgeous ask! i don't know that i have that much to add but this is one of those asks that just must be published because you've said so many beautiful, fascinating things here.

i think the thing that really strikes me in your piece is the way you've hit on so many hidden markers of class in american society and identified so many of the subtle ways in which accents denote a particular class background or education level. (and love your acknowledgement of the ways in which structural inequality is baked into these stereotypes. because, like most inequalities, class is real and not real (wink wink) at the same time. it's an external construction -- it's not in any way intrinsic to humanity -- but it has very real effects that ripple through almost every aspect of our lives. we have to be able to hold both of those truths at the same time in order to unpack and combat the effects. and yet i think you've also framed it so beautifully that it's also important to embrace our differences as unique but beautiful threads that make up the fabric of humanity. lovely. but let me get back to the point.)

i think this discussion of accent and class is so interesting because i think it's something we hear a lot about in british english, but it isn't as often spoken about in the united states, and seeing it all laid out here is really illuminating!! and that, to your point, makes it all the more special that rachel zegler (and the filmmakers) made such a conscious effort to preserve lucy gray's accent in the film -- because all those subtleties that you just pointed out are present in a way that they might not be (or at least, would be harder to parse as a viewer) had they just had everyone speaking in the standard californian/hollywood american accent.

and to your point about class and performance... WOW! YES! i love the way you teased out that connection between lucy gray, dolly, and particular accents as being both markers of performance and authenticity. because there is this sense that your accent would be you at your most "authentic" you -- and thus adopting the accent of those around you is "performative" -- but then when you think about the ways those markers of class are so pervasive, to suggest that "authenticity" is even relevant might come into question. it kind of ties back into the post i made earlier about snow and katniss both understanding the ways in which poverty forces someone to "perform" the role of a wealthier (or more comfortable) individual, and playing an accent up or down is another extension of that. so in that way, it's interesting that lucy gray makes absolutely no effort to do that -- she's performing, but she's NOT performing. she's being authentic and playing a role at the same time. she's both; she's neither. she's alive but she's dead, etc -- she's a mystery.

i loooove the way we're connecting this to dolly too! because for me, when i think of dolly, i think of someone who saw the way the world was perceiving her, and rather than trying to squash that down and become more palatable to the masses, she tapped into all those things she was being mocked for and said: "you think you can make fun of this? i'll do you one better -- i'm in on the joke." and that's kind of the magic of dolly, that she's in on the joke, and she's having fun doing it. you can't help but love her for it; she projects such a confidence in herself and her persona, and it's part of her magic. she KNOWS it's a costume -- and that's kind of the whole point.

and i guess there's a way in which that's kind of the brilliance of lucy gray as well -- that she's in on the joke. she's in on the game. and nobody expects that of her. because the point of the games is to show "true human nature" but lucy gray identifies, from the minute she's called on stage at the reaping, that nothing is authentic about the games at all. because nothing is authentic about LIFE. everything is constructed, everything is performative. it's about realizing and acknowledging that, and breaking down the assumption that there is any "one true human nature" -- because there isn't. we're just here for a good time. we're here to make art, to make friends, and then maybe at the end of it all, we can say that we sure did put on a good show. for ourselves and for our communities.

maybe we wrote one great song -- and maybe that one great song will matter, someday, to someone. maybe it will be our song that changes the world <3 and that's why we keep trying.

#answered #anonymous #tbosas thoughts

[sprintingowl]

Nahual

Nahual is one of my favorite Powered By The Apocalypse games, but I guess there's folks who don't know it, so here's a quick overview:

-You play as shapeshifters who own a business together.

-You own that business together because you're each poor, but as a group you can scrape by.

-Your business is the hunting of angels, and you sell their meat.

This is the least wild part of Nahual, a vibrant, flashy, vividly surreal dark urban fantasy.

It's also impressively grounded. For as much as you can teleport as the Aguila or harden your skin as the Armadillo, the game spends a lot of design energy tying you to your business, to your customers, to the structures of mortal power that surround you.

You might be able to 1 v 1 a mobster without much trouble, but that means angering their family, attracting notice from the police, disrupting the thousands of tiny currents of relationship and power that make up a city.

Of course, Powered By The Apocalypse's strength as an engine is that it promotes drama, and Nahual thrives on that drama. Mediocre rolls usually mean a choice---giving up something to get what you want. Bad rolls mean a new complication, or a much more dire choice. And the raw numbers of your character are fairly limited, so choices and complications will happen often.

Character progression is a core part of the game, and your shapeshifter develops as you play. You can make it easier on yourself to transform (normally you need a mask and psychoactive substances,) you can develop more abilities associated with your totem, and you can gain new totems. There are eight in the core book, each with a distinctly different feel, and more in the planned supplements---although I maintain the best is the Tlacuache, who can die temporarily to get out of danger.

Nahual is a relatively intricate game, and if you're planning on GMing it you should read it all the way through at least once, but on the players' end everything is pretty intuitive. The book does a very good job of teaching its mechanics and intended style of play, and even though there's a lot of it, it's not overwhelming.

Also, there isn't really a good place to bring this up organically, but I have *never* seen art in an rpg that's like Nahual's. Edgar Clement's work is detailed and expressive and weird and gorgeous. It's powerful and beautiful. Seriously, click over to the website for the single best piece I've ever seen in an rpg.

Overall, if you like things like World Of Darkness, or the show Diablero, or urban fantasy in general, or stories about crime, or games that feel intensely human, I strongly urge you to pick up Nahual. It's a striking, well-made game, and I'd love to see more people checking it out.

#nahual #rpg #ttrpg #ttrpgs #indie ttrpgs #pbta #ttrpg homebrew #ttrpg design

[jwenvs3000w24]

Final Blog: Beliefs of a Nature Interpreter

Hey everyone, welcome back! This will be my final blog post and I just wanted to take a quick second to thank everyone for reading my thoughts and ideas and I wanted to say it was a wonderful time! I really enjoyed seeing all your opinions about my thoughts and I hope to see them one last time in this post! Stay strong, protect the natural world around you, and keep exploring! As always I hope you enjoy my thoughts and pictures.

Nature is such an important part of everyone's life, and must be preserved at all costs. However, to some nature is more than just an escape. It’s a calling. I believe that every little thing in nature is worth saving, protecting, and maintaining its beauty. In the class content it said, “we can create nature-rich communities where kids feel a deep and abiding love for the living systems that we are all immersed in” (Hooykaas, 2024), and this quote really stuck with me because I believe that every person in this world should be given the ability to establish their own special bond with the natural world around them. I believe the preservation of nature should be of the utmost importance because if the natural world changes too much there may not be any of the same things that we hold dear left to explore, and without it so many people would be left confused and unsure where to wander. I believe it is also extremely important to teach others, especially the younger generations how very important it is to maintain the beauty of what can occur when humans do not manipulate the environment. I also believe it is important to not interfere with natural occurrences that you might stumble across no matter how disturbing, awkward, or sad it may be. For example, last summer I came across many different animals doing various things from water snakes mating to a garter snake eating to a family of beavers building a damn under a dock, of course I tried to take pictures if I could, but not a chance would I get too close or startle the animals due to the slightest chance of it messing with their routine.

This is a collage of a few things I’ve witnessed while out exploring nature. Top left is a shaggy mane mushroom, top right is a member of the beaver family that was creating a dam, bottom left is a garter snake attempting to eat an earthworm, and the bottom right is a very large wolf spider that was just hanging around.

Being an nature interpreter is a role that must help others explore aspects of nature that they wouldn’t have thought to look at. Nature interpreting is so much more than simply a job. As I said before it’s a calling, a passion, a craving for exploration, and bringing what is unknown into the light for other people to be in the know. Nature interpreters have some of the largest responsibilities for the future. They hold the responsibility of being storytellers for future generations. They won’t just say facts about nature because that is not what gets people, more importantly kids, interested in the natural world. Kids are interested in video games and have simulations of nature, however, it is the responsibility of nature interpreters to tell exciting and eccentric stories that get them wanting and willing to go out and experience it for themselves (Boeckel, 2015). It is also the responsibility of the interpreter to be well-prepared, insightful, and communicate efficiently and in an appropriate manner depending on the audience that they are attending to. It is also the responsibility of the interpreter to, while telling the stories, make sure that everyone who is listening knows how important even the smallest thing in an ecosystem is all the way down to the small twig/branch the kids may want to pick up and play with. 

This was a location that we visited called Overhanging point (name is kinda self explanatory) during a guided hike. This was carved out by glacial ice movement.

As an individual it may seem difficult at times to think that what you say has an impact on the overall scheme of things, but there are many things that one person can do that can change and pull so many more people in. As it says in the textbook, find a way to articulate your ideas and points in a relevant, creative, and caring manner because that is what draws the attention of others (Beck, Cable, and Knudson, 2018). There are many ways to engage groups of people, and some effective ways are: holding interactive presentations for specific topics, creating a podcast that can appeal to younger and older audiences with many games such as guess the bird call, or guess that animal by the description, guided hikes are also a good tool to pique the interest of the more outdoorsy type of person, and sometimes even simple blogs like this one is an effective tool for getting ideas across to a very significant amount of different people. I know from personal experience that the two most effective ways to reach me with different information is an interactive presentation, or a guided hike. These two speak to me the most because I find them the most useful for engaging people. Guided hikes are a very nice way of exploring the wilderness because not only do you get to be out in nature, but you are able to hear the backstories of all the caves, rock formations, or anything that you may come across during the hike. However, each person has a different way of engaging with nature.

That’s all I have on my mind for now, and I hope everyone enjoyed my thoughts this time, and I hope you have all enjoyed my previous posts too! I had a wonderful time sharing my opinions and thoughts over the past months. I am looking forward to everyone's replies and ideas of their own. 

Beck, L., Cable, T.T., and Knudson, D.M. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage: For a Better World. Sagamore Publishing. 

Boeckel, J.v. (2015). At the heart of art and earth: an exploration of practices in arts-based environmental education. Envir. Edu. Research. 21 (5), 801-802. https://doi-org.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/10.1080/13504622.2014.959474

Hooykaas, A. (2024). Unit 10: Nature Interpretation’s Role in Environmental Sustainability. University of Guelph. https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/858004/viewContent/3640024/View.

#nature #wilderness #wildlife #hiking