#also they are...proportionate to each other. a foot a difference between them

[nu-carniviva]

Hi there - re: your stance on proshipping, doesn't Nu Carnival have elements in it that could be considered problematic? Aster fits pretty neatly into the 1000-year-old loli/shota trope, and consent in intimacy/H-scenes is sometimes rather dubious. Are these somehow not problematic things? And if they are problematic, doesn't continuing to play the game while acknowledging that basically constitute taking a proship stance toward it?

Alright. I'm not targeting this specifically at anon, but I am really sick and tired of Aster being called shota bait so I thought I'd put that to rest with a little anatomy lesson. Bit of a lengthy post ahead

I'm going to be using this image as a reference, since it lists all the measurements needed in making an anatomically accurate adult male. While the origin of the image is a little old, the measurements are still used today so I believe it can still be applied:

These are all those measurements applied to Aster. Specifically, his default sprite:

Woah. Seems like a lot, right? Let's go step by step, then. Or rather, list item by list item. Click on each image to see them in full. It's also important to note right off the bat that each line is EXACTLY THE SAME LENGTH, and each line is THE SIZE OF ASTER'S HEAD

"An adult stands 7 to 8 heads tall" - Color coding each line to make things easier to see, if we count all those lines up from the top of his head (hat not included) to the bottom of his feet, we have 7 lines. 7 heads. Anatomically correct for an adult male

"The width of a man's chest (under the arms) is equal to the width of his hips" - Aster is standing at an angle so I can't give 100% exact measurements in this particular part, but he's close enough to be forward-facing that it's safe to assume his measurements line up. Even if they're not exactly the same, the difference in length between his chest and his hips are not apparent enough to say that his proportions are childlike rather than adultlike

"The crease at the inside of the elbow will be near the waistline" - Seems to check out here too!

"The distance from the elbow to the finger tips is 2 heads" - Since Aster's hand is at an angle, I added a third little line to connect his finger tips to the tip of the other white line (which, bringing this up again, is the same length as his head.) Using a ruler to keep the lines perfectly straight, I was able to successfully connect the lines together, checking off this box as well

"The length of the head, the length of the inner forearm, and the length of the foot are equal" - These seem to match up as well, though his foot might be a liiiiiittle bit smaller

"The distance from the heel to the knee is 2 times the length of the foot (2 heads)" - If you look back at the reference image I'm using, "heel to knee" refers to the heel of the foot to the very beginning of the knee — meaning at the very very bottom. My measurements seem to match up to that as well... And that checks off all the boxes on the list

Conclusion:

Aster is proportionally correct for an adult male. He is just short. Short men exist.

On top of that, children are typically drawn with chubby, rounded features. Aside from his thighs and hips, Aster's design uses a lot of sharp lines to accentuate his features — such as a sharp jawline and sharp, slender fingers

One might argue that his voice is high pitched, so he must still be shota bait... But men can have high pitched voices too. Anyone can. Men are more likely to have deep voices, yes, but it's not a guarantee that all men will have deep voices

One also might argue that Aster is childish but... Is he really? Sure, he acts cutesy, but that's to get attention from people (especially Eiden.) That's really the only childish personality trait about him. Other than that, Aster is a natural leader. He's demanding, he's business-minded, and he's sly. Aster has no issue taking charge and giving instructions. After all, he's been the owner of the mansion ever since Huey left AND he's the owner of several businesses all throughout Klein. He spends most of his time working and doing business-related tasks. Hell, one of the things he complains about is how much work he has each day, but he knows it has to get done

"But he likes cute things!!!" You can be an adult and like cute things

Honestly, I see no reason why anyone would genuinely believe he's shota bait other than he's short, likes pink, and likes cute things. Those are all traits that can be seen in an adult. Traits that don't take away the fact that someone looks and acts like an adult

This isn't targeted at anon but tbh... People who insist Aster is shota bait are weird bro. Why are you so determined to say this is a sexualized child?

Side Note:

You mentioned that there are moments of dubious consent in some h scenes, and I agree. Especially with Edmond and Karu who are typical tsunderes, sometimes their scenes start off a little iffy. I am in no way saying that those moments are totally fine, but it is important to note that every single one of those scenes quickly escalates to them expressing their pleasure both physically AND verbally. They start the scenes aroused and okay with the idea of sex, but their tsundere nature can makes the consent come off as dubious — I get that. Though I don't recall ever seeing a scene were consent is explicitly ignored or consent is forced. Eiden is a very patient and understanding man, and he's shown that he will stop if his partner truly doesn't like what he's doing. So while the consent can be dubious at times, I wouldn't say it's entirely problematic

#forgive me if some of this doesn't make sense #i'm a little tired right now #but i'll be very happy to clear anything up or discuss something further if needed #i'm super passionate about this topic though #because i think it's fuckin stupid lmao #it's like adults can't be short or cutesy #i've seen that kind of bait before #and i really do not see it in Aster #i truly truly don't #nu carnival #nu: carnival #nu carnival aster

[rebeccathenaturalist]

How to Identify Belted Kingfishers

Originally posted at my website at https://rebeccalexa.com/how-to-identify-belted-kingfishers/. Click here to learn more about the How to Identify article series.

Name: Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon)

Adult female belted kingfisher. By Mister Pingo, CCA-SA-4.0

Range and typical habitat(s): Widespread across much of North America except for Arctic areas, all through Central America, and the northern coastline of South America; occasional vagrants in Greenland, Iceland, British Isles, and elsewhere. Commonly found along both fresh and salt water, often seen perching in trees or on other structures while they watch for potential food in the water.

Distinguishing physical characteristics (size, colors, overall shapes, detail shapes): Belted kingfishers are around a foot long; the head with its long, spear-shaped bill, is rather large in proportion to the rest of the body, especially when the crest of feathers on the back of the head is raised. The wingspan is generally about 18-23 inches across.

Adult belted kingfishers are a dusty grayish blue on the head, back and wings, and a blue band across the breast. The neck has a wide ring of white around it, and the belly and other underparts are white as well. Look for a small patch of white in front of each eye. Adult females additionally have a rust-colored band across the belly; this is the easiest way to tell the difference between the sexes. Immature birds of both sexes have similar blue and white markings, except both have a rust belly band with white flecks, and the breast stripe is rust instead of blue.

The primary wing feathers of both sexes are white with black tips underneath, and black with a wide white band on top; the secondaries have incomplete black stripes underneath, and are back and blue with white spots on top; and the tertiaries and coverts are blue on top and white underneath. The tail feathers are blue with white stripes. The bill and feet are dark gray.

Belted kingfisher diving. By Andy Morffew, CCA-2.0

The belted kingfisher’s posture when perched is upright and alert. When diving into the water to catch prey, it holds its wings outspread, but then tucks them closer to its body just before it hits the water.

Behavior: Since these birds live primarily on fish, amphibians, and other aquatic prey, they’re most often observed waiting for food, or making a lighting-fast dive. However, they’ve also been known to eat mollusks, insects, small mammals, berries, and other terrestrial foods. In the nest, the young are able to digest the entire prey including bones and exoskeletons, but once older they regurgitate pellets of indigestible materials.

Belted kingfishers form monogamous pairs, and build their nests in cavities in dirt banks and cliffsides. These can be up to six feet deep, with an upward slope which helps to keep water out, to include during flooding. The female lays up to eight plain white eggs in each brood, and may have up to two broods a year. They hatch in a little over three weeks, and the young stay in the nest for almost a month before fledging.

If there’s a threat, belted kingfishers raise their crest of feathers and bounce their body up and down. They may also fly in an agitated manner while making loud rattling noises. Belted kingfishers often rattle while in flight, so keep your ears open near waterways.

Other organisms it could be confused with and how to tell the difference: The ringed kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata) looks quite similar to the belted kingfisher, but is larger and heftier, and both sexes have a copper-rust breast and belly.

Ringed kingfisher. Note the rust-copper breast and belly, as opposed to the single rust band across the banded kingfisher’s breast.

The green kingfisher is much smaller than the belted, and has a proportionately longer bill. It is metallic green where the belted is blue, and the male has a rust-copper breast while the female has a couple of green bands across the breast and no rust. Both of these lookalikes’ ranges barely reach North America, but overlap significantly with the belted range in Central and South America.

Male green kingfisher; note the green head, back and wing and the copper-rust breast with white belly. By Cláudio Dias Timm, CCA-SA-2.0

Anything else worth mentioning? Belted kingfishers are primarily found near natural waters, but may also be seen near artificial ponds with goldfish or other cultivated fish. And though they are most frequently sighted near water, they can be seen further inland from time to time.

Also, fun fact: it’s thought that both the belted kingfisher and its ringed cousin evolved from an African kingfisher species that found its way to the Americas millions of years ago.

Further reading:

All About Birds: Belted Kingfisher

Audubon Field Guide: Belted Kingfisher

American Bird Conservancy: Belted Kingfisher

Missouri Department of Conservation: Belted Kingfisher

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

#kingfisher #birds #birdblr #ornithology #wildlife #animals #wild animals #biology #zoology #birdwatching #birding #nature #outdoors #environment #conservation #ecology #bird

[lucienh]

Week 3 Design Fundamentals Penguins!! 10th March

Hello, and welcome to my class 3 of design fundamentals post! to start of with I just wanted to say that I really liked this class and I enjoyed exploring new tool in Illustrator, and being creative with design choices.

Before I start talking about this class I am going to share my project work from last class. firstly here are the two images that I gave my partner to Illustrate.

I thought these two would be fairly simple, but have their challenges with having to use broken and hybrid points in some areas. And down below are the drawings I made from the images I was given. I found the goldfish one to be more difficult due to not fully remembering steps, and having to go back to my notes to check how todo things. But when I did the rooster I had got the hang of it better and found it easier. A challenge I did face while Illustrating them both, was not knowing that I could lock layers, So I kept on accidentally working on the wrong layers and having to redo steps. But now I know how.

So now we get to what we did in our week 3 class, which was make Penguins!! Below will be images of my progress and notes.

Here is the first thing we had todo, which was make this sort of ghost shape. We started by creating a circle then, splitting it in half by selecting half of it, then using the cutting command to remove it then copy it elsewhere, so we had now to seperate elements. The I had to join the two half together with lines, by selecting the anchor points and shift, then using command J to join them. And lastly we added new points and adjusted the curves to create the ghost tail. (also I will have an image of all the notes I took at the end of the post)

Now we are at the stage of not having a ghost blob and now having a more penguin looking shape that I think looks like Pingu. Mostly everything we did here, by adding and adjusting new shapes, was very similar to all the other steps we had done so far, so It was pretty easy. (We also made sure to save our projects after each step.) But the eyes were a bit different to make. We had to change the colour of the eyes and fill them in, and then add a radial gradient effect to the eyes to get the yellow around the black iris. Then copy one eye to now have two. while we were working on the eyes I learnt a lot about the stroke and fill sections and how to swap between the two and more about what they do. learning the radial gradient tool has been really helpful to me recently as I was able to use it for my graphic design poster assignment.

here is an image of the start of creating a penguin foot. This was one of the more complicated parts of making the penguin as we had to add dimension to them with different layers, stroke and fill options and colours. But here I had just flipped the top half of my foot to make a whole foot for my penguin. Before skewing it to add more dimension to it. I also put the background grid on to help me keep my handles on likes and shapes more proportionate.

This is an image of some of the option windows I had open for different tasks like the stroke and where it would be compared to the initial line, the pathfinder and the swatch section.

Here we were creating different layers before locking them etc for colouring in the penguins. I enjoyed learning about layers on Illustrator as I have only ever learnt about photoshop layers which are different.

And tada here we have my final penguin! Here it is fully coloured a shaded, using layers of layers to layer on the shadows and highlight. And using the pen tool to make the shapes of shading like the light blue around the pengiun's face. Also the opacity tool lower the opacity of different shadows. was used to The the I really enjoyed this and being wild with my shaping and Im really happy with how it turned out! Overall a really fun lesson and I learnt a lot. and I'm excited to use my new found skills in other classes.

[reanimationstation]

there are two types of cat owners

#ok yes i know technically its not Herb's cat—this is for the sake of the joke shshajsjd #and yes i know its a really bad joke lmao #i just..drew herb. and then rufus. and then fluffy–which led to griffin!! #also they are...proportionate to each other. a foot a difference between them #its really funny to me ok #also PLEASE look at how weird i draw cats (animals in general) #why do i draw them like that. what the fuck they look like cryptids #also i guess griffin is wearing some new clothes #gothic romanticism bastards #romanticism boys #mad scientists #griffin #the invisible man #herbert west reanimator #herbert west

[pseudofaux]

I already sent my ask a couple weeks ago.. but I didn't know it was that close to your birthday!!!? So because you rarely open your messages, (😛) I'm ASKING that you had/have an incredible birthday! Oh.. and actually.. I guess my now ask would be.. what YOU would ask for, if you were asking yourself for an ask.. then write it as if you were a nonnie, asking you for an ask. Confusing? 😉

Happy birthday lady. You deserve the best.

[I’m sorry! I am terrible at messages. 😩 These days I mostly get on tumblr to reread favorite stuff that’s only posted here, or when I’m feeling like I have a lot of creative potential that needs to be tapped/it’s time to open requests. The last year has made this even worse, I’ve got lots of good vibes but rarely have the “oomph” to get back to people properly by putting the vibes into words. 😫🙇🏻‍♀️ I don’t think I can do your earlier request in the HC style I had open for this set, but I am holding onto until then! It is safe in my ask box! It’s more story-style and I want to try to do it justice. Late April! Look forward to rain and one moody, silver-haired ninja IN IT. 🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️]

Hmm. I feel really freed up by requests/asks because then I know what someone wants and I can work toward it. I’m not very comfortable telling people what I want, so this is hard to pin down! A lot of my favorite characters are tied up (ahem) in my WIPs folder... but y’know, I’d love to do some thinking and writing about what kind of lover IkeSen Shingen actually is, beyond “amazing”. So that’s what I’ll do for this one! Thank you!

So Shingen is a lover’s lover— he can, believably, give you whatever you ask him for. Want him to hold your wrists behind your back and plow you? This is a thing he will do. Want him to eat you out slow and devoted, and keep going when you start crying? It’s the only time he’ll ever ignore your tears. Eat your ass? One of his favorite meals. Want him to hold himself in an upward plank so you can ride him while his whole torso is as rigid and yours as his dick? Angel, he is already clearing space on the floor. 😌

His own style, though, what he wants, is to love you long, slow, thorough, and soft. He loves a quickie, but he loves you more, and his style is one of the ways he wants to show it: hours of nothing but you two loving each other, taking you places where you can make love with the sunlight (or moonlight) touching your skin.

He is. THICK. His length is proportionate to his body (rip to all of us, it’s the way we deserve to go), but the glory of his cock is that is is. THICK. So you really have to start slow or have engaged in some day-long flirty foreplay to warm up your body (thankfully, duh, he is amazing at this!). You feel nearly as full when he’s a few centimeters inside as you do when he’s as far as he can go, because the stretch of him is that wide and good. And a stretch it will be, probably a deliciously slow one, because if he’s in charge he would never, ever, ever tear you on the most micro scale imaginable. Slow and steady, receptive and ready. You okay, you feeling alright? That’s good, that’s so good.

Other applicable words: slick, wet, hot, caress, overwhelming. He’s big above you and big inside you and treats you like a treasure unless you tell him you want otherwise. Big hands (BIG) stroking your hair and face, or tucked behind your hips to tilt you so you can just relax into his strength and not worry about holding yourself up. Low whispers you may not be able to hear over your own pleasured whimpering or moaning. Just the tenderest praise beyond your imagining, and while he definitely tells you what feels good each time, there’s no script. He’s got different things to say and ways to say them.

No consensual act between the two of you is too depraved for his taste, but maybe a bit surprisingly given how flirty he is, he’s a pretty vanilla guy— he wants to please you, he’s certain his dick and hands and mouth can do that, so he just does. You can make him happy when he’s at it by grabbing for his ass (it’s okay if you can’t quite reach, he knows what you meant and it warms his heart), by saying his name any time you have the slightest inclination to, and by kissing his fingers when you’re snuggled up in the afterglow. Return his sweetness in any way and it’s going to land right at the foot of his grateful heart. If you want to explore his body, just tell him which side you want him to lay on and do what you want. You have carte blanche. This man is yours, his heart is yours. If you want to get yourself off riding the meat of his thigh while he watches but doesn’t touch, you have every right.

You also have every right to get off on the meat of his thigh while he touches a lot, or “thoroughly facilitates” the riding... by holding your waist and grinding against you so you can just feel. Just breathe and feel. He’ll make sure you feel good.

Once your body is happy around his, he might put one elbow down to hold his body up and then use the other to hold you to him, so he can rut into you close and a little less gentle, feel your chest by his. Both you can hear every moan each of you make until you start drowning each other out and he has to put you back down. He would die before he ever used his strength to hurt you, but can he pick you up like a rag doll? Absolutely.

Even the way he spanks you (and he loves to) is about the contact of it, the way his hand can come back to your skin and cup it in his palm. The way a gentle cuff can ripple out from the way he lands... he likes that. No smack necessary unless that’s what you’re looking for.

In general, he’s a gentle giant. There’s a reason he keeps saying Yukimura has a lot to learn. Shingen has already learned it, and it’s a lot!

#Ikesen shingen #ikesen headcanons #Ikesen hcs #erinlynn007 #pseu slings #this post brought to you by the schedule function #last one! wooooo! will make and post a masterlist this weekend!

[baoshan-sanren]

Chapter 27

of the wwx emperor au I’m thinking of calling Lan QiRen’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week oh god it’s only gonna get worse

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 Part 1 | Chapter 8 Part 2 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 Part 1 | Chapter 15 Part 2 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 Part 1 | Chapter 22 Part 2 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26

WangJi is not familiar with YiLing.

His first sight of the town had been marred by the stress of the six day travel, and all the unpleasantness that the trip had encompassed.  Their inability to find any accommodations for the Lan Sect escort had also contributed to the unfavorable impression. Overall, YiLing is not much smaller than Gusu, but significantly older, its streets and canals having sprouted wherever they were needed.

There is symmetry and regularity to Gusu that has always appealed to WangJi’s need for clearly discernible orderliness; it had been designed with care, roads proportionally wide to the demand, the street market restricted to specific areas built to accommodate the resulting foot traffic.

In contrast, YiLing had formed itself around a popular trade route both by land and by water, and had grown as the fame of the Immortal Mountain had grown, without any order or forethought. Some alleys are wider than the main roads, some are cobblestones and the others dirt, and in some, stubborn weeds and vines have taken root, choking the nearby walls and hedges. Some canals have so many bridges, that one could cross half of YiLing just hopping across them; some only have single, narrow bridge, and those are perpetually clogged by carts and carriages. Handsome mansions sit next to houses of ill repute, next to tanneries and farriers, the stench mixing heavily in the day’s heat. The street markets have taken root wherever there is space, and in many places where they clearly should not have, their stands and awnings blocking the thoroughfare. The result is haphazard at best, an overwhelming chaos made worse by the seven-day festival in honor of the Emperor’s birthday.

Wei WuXian loves it.

WangJi can hardly keep up with him. It is a relief to know that Nie MingJue has stationed multiple members of the Nie Sect throughout the town, because Wei WuXian seems to have entirely forgotten to worry about his own safety. Everything is fascinating to him; everything is new, and exciting, and worthy of exclaiming over. Not a single piece of cloth, or an ornament, or a children’s toy has been overlooked. Wei WuXian has to touch everything, ask about everything, haggle over everything. His smile is so wide and bright that WangJi is finding it hard to focus on anything else. Multiple times, he has found Wei WuXian’s hand wrapped around his wrist, tugging on his sleeve, pressing on his shoulder. He is like a child who needs to see everything, but also needs WangJi to see it as well, even if Wangji hardly has time to offer an opinion, before being tugged to the next stand, the next alley, the next bridge.

Wei WuXian has dressed to blend in. His robes are dark gray, lined in red, sleeves tightly tied off at the wrists. It is a uniform more suited to a rogue cultivator, or perhaps a second or third young master of a middling clan. But WangJi is certain that no set of dark, unadorned robes would ever prevent Wei WuXian from standing out. His smile is infectious; people smile back without meaning to, as if compelled by some invisible force. Those that do not, are still left looking dazed, blinking into the space where his smile had been moments ago. The red ribbon in Wei WuXian’s hair is perhaps the most conspicuous part of his outfit, fluttering as he darts from one corner of the street to another, a bright splash of color WangJi can easily follow even when left behind.

“Did you know you look an awful lot like the Emperor?” an old lady says to him, and Wei WuXian laughs loudly, turning to WangJi.

“Did you hear that Lan Zhan? What do you think? Am I as handsome as the Emperor?”

WangJi feels his face heat, but Wei WuXian is already skipping away, exclaiming over a row of grass butterflies. He buys three of them for A-Yuan, then dashes to the next colorful thing, a row of bright scarves embroidered with lotus flowers.

They have long lost sight of Nie MingJue and XiChen; WangJi knows they had not intended to stick closely to one another throughout the evening, as the sight of two Lan Sect members together may raise suspicion. They do not know if the assassin or their accomplices have eyes and ears in YiLing; the rumors in the Immortal Mountain City have placed the Young Masters of the Lan Sect in the Imperial Gardens, along with the Emperor, and Jiang WanYin had been quite insistent that they do nothing to compromise the plans set in motion. Both WangJi and XiChen had dressed simply enough to be mistaken for the Lan Sect escort still residing outside the YiLing proper, but once they are standing side by side, their resemblance is difficult to ignore. Still, WangJi knows his brother will worry, and wishes he could at least catch a glimpse of him in the crowded streets.

“Lan Zhan! Lan Zhan! Look at this!”

Wei WuXian had stumbled upon rows of paper lanterns, each one delicately painted with a different woodland creature in careful strokes. These are, by no means, the first paper lanterns they have seen on their trek across the market. Later in the evening, when the darkness fully sets, thousands of them will be released to the sky, as is tradition on every fifth day of the Emperor’s birthday festival. But these are the first lanterns WangJi has not found visually overwhelming, and he watches Wei WuXian haggle with the merchant for a little while, before simply stuffing the amount the man had wanted into his hands.

“Lan Zhan! He was going to sell it for less!”

The man shoots Wei WuXian a look that clearly says he was not going to do any such thing, but WangJi does not care either way.

“Which one?” he asks, and that is all it takes for Wei WuXian to become distracted again, exclaiming over hedgehogs and deer, until he settles on a lantern depicting a white rabbit.

“Do you like rabbits, Lan Zhan?”

WangJi nods. He has never before considered his feelings about rabbits in any detail, but now, he finds himself quite fond of them.

“Hm, I think we should eat. What do you think? After, we can find a peaceful spot to watch the lantern festival.”

Anything with a word peaceful in it is more than satisfactory to WangJi, and he nods again, letting Wei WuXian pull him to the nearest winehouse.

The common room is crowded and loud, the stench of alcohol mixing with the sharp scent of spices. Majority of the patrons seem to be merchants, but WangJi sees a few cultivator swords leaning against the table edges, despite the fact that their owners lack discernible sect uniforms. YiLing has always been a popular town for rogue cultivators. The Immortal Empress herself had belonged to no sect or clan, and each year, even the largest Sects see a number of disciples leave to strike out on their own, the idea of being anchorless and sectless doubtlessly more romantic in theory than it turns out being in truth. Still, WangJi is more focused on ascertaining if any of them are Sect members in disguise, than he is on Wei WuXian’s conversation with the serving girl.

Once the proprietor approaches however, he finally recognizes that there is an issue.

A single glance at the man’s face explains the situation fully, and WangJi steps closer to Wei WuXian, who is still visibly confused.

“We should leave,” WangJi says softly.

Wei WuXian does not listen. The common room is crowded, but there are clearly at least two unoccupied tables, and Wei WuXian does not understand why the serving girl would pretend otherwise.

The proprietor, unlike the serving girl, has no qualms about speaking plainly, “The Lan sect is not welcome here.”

WangJi had remained a few steps behind Wei WuXian, and cannot see the expression on his face, but he can perceive the telltale stiffening of his shoulders, the tightening of his grip on the sword. WangJi feels a moment of pity for XiChen, having to deal with his own eerily similar reaction in MoLing.

“Excuse me?” Wei WuXian says, his voice cold.

The exchange has drawn notice of the few nearby tables, most of them occupied by men who clearly know how to use their swords, and WangJi can see this situation escalating past the point where it can be managed peacefully.

He grabs Wei WuXian by the elbow and pulls him backwards, stepping in front of him.

“Forgive my friend,” he says, bowing to the proprietor, “he meant no offense. We are leaving.”

He has to physically push Wei WuXian outside. The line of his back is iron hard under WangJi’s hand, and his grip on the sword has not loosened.

“How dare he?” he bursts out, before they are even fully in the street, and WangJi pushes him harder, hoping to put some distance between them and the common room as quickly as possible.

“Do not be angry,” he says softly.

“Do not be angry?” Wei WuXian spits out, fury making his voice vibrate, “By the time I am done, he will be lucky to run a QiShan whorehouse!”

WangJi steers him down an empty alley, afraid that someone might decide to follow, “We are in disguise. The proprietor mistook you for a rogue cultivator. He did not know that he was insulting the Emperor.”

“He knew he was insulting you!” Wei WuXian whirls to face him, his expression outraged.

This is the second time WangJi has seen him angry in response to the mistreatment of the Lan Sect. It is just as overwhelming as the last time, and he is equally as incapable of formulating the correct response.

“This is YiLing,” he says, “the home of the Empress. The Lan Sect has never been welcome here.”

“Are you saying that they are all like this?” Wei WuXian’s voice is dangerous now, and WangJi does not know how to answer that question in a way that will deescalate the situation.

He should have known that this would happen. He should have steered Wei WuXian away from the places that he knows are likely to refuse to serve him.

It was stupid and thoughtless of him to forget. The evening had been going so well. Wei WuXian had been genuinely happy, and now he is furious, and WangJi does not know how to fix what he had broken.

Feeling agitated and unsure, he reaches for Wei WuXian’s hand, “Do not be angry. The street merchants will not care what sect I am from. We can buy food from them.”

He watches Wei WuXian’s anger bleed away in a rush, but it is replaced by frustration and grief, both nearly as crushing as the anger had been.

His fingers press into the back of WangJi’s hand, “Is it like that everywhere?”

“Sometimes,” WangJi says, “but it does not matter right now. You wanted to eat. We should do so before the festival starts, and the streets become crowded. Come on.”

He tugs Wei WuXian slightly, desperate that the subject be dropped, desperate for the return of the happy, smiling Wei WuXian, who seemed to not have a care in the world.  

Wei WuXian lets himself be led, but it is a long time before he smiles again.

#the untamed #cql #mdzs #wangxian #ficlet #m #wwx emperor au #yes it's 4am #i have no idea what day it is #can't for the life of me remember if i ate yesterday #the next time my job switches my shift like this istg imma quit and go work full time in the detox #take this small offering #lord knows when i'll have time to write more #ily guys #thank you for all the sweet messages

[thecreaturecodex]

Ultima Weapon

Image © Square Enix, accessed at the Final Fantasy Wiki here

[Commissioned by @warfares-bridge​. Ultima Weapon first appeared in Final Fantasy VI (although the FF3 import I grew up with referred to it as “Atma Weapon”). It has had multiple recurring appearances in the series since then, with different appearances and abilities. This version builds most heavily on the Final Fantasy XIV version, where it is the final boss of the main campaign. That battle has a timer on it--if Ultima Weapon isn’t killed within a certain time limit, it casts Ultima, which in that game is an auto-TPK. I wanted to capture that flavor, but instant death is frowned upon in Pathfinder, and I had to come up with a rationale as to why it wouldn’t just use that ability Round 1 and save itself a lot of trouble.]

Ultima Weapon CR 24 LE Outsider This colossus appears something like a mechanical reptilian centaur, but its body appears to be grown from metal rather than forged. Blade-like wings and a lashing tail grow from it, and all six of its limbs bear deadly claws. Its head is proportionately small, and vaguely like that of an insect.

Ultima Weapon is a relic of the early days of the multiverse. During the Titanomachy, when the thanatoic titans rebelled against the gods, the inevitables donated their services to create potent weapons to strike against the titans and their elemental allies. Multiple Weapons were forged, Ultima being the most infamous. Ultima Weapon was corrupted by the temptation of power and struck out against inevitables and titans alike. Ultima Weapon maintains a low profile for millennia at a time, and its appearance is a sure sign of cosmic calamity.

Ultima Weapon was designed to be a mobile prison, capable of binding titans to itself and delivering them for judgment. It still has the ability to bind powerful creatures, and hunts down exemplary outsiders such as balors, solars and pit fiends in order to enslave them. Any creature it has bound to itself it can call upon to assist in combat, and Ultima Weapon has rotated its cast of servants over the course of the ages to suit its needs. Even if its servants are defeated or dismissed, Ultima Weapon lives up to its name as a mobile artillery platform. It can fire beams of divine lightning from its hands and chest, direct powerful magic missile-like effects in an instant, and crush opposition with its claws and tail. Most feared is its namesake ability, which has only been activated three times in known history, each time when the Weapon was on the brink of death. The Ultima energy mimics an implosion spell but can affect dozens of targets at a time.

Ultima Weapon   CR 24 XP 1,230,000 LE Colossal outsider (evil, law) Init +12; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +37, see invisibility Aura awe (30 ft., Will DC 32) Defense AC 42, touch 21, flat-footed 33 (-8 size, +8 Dex, +21 natural, +1 dodge, +10 deflection) hp 492 (25d10+300 plus 80); regeneration 15 (epic) Fort +19, Ref +22, Will +23 DR 20/epic and good or epic and chaotic; Immune constructed; Resist acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10, sonic 10; SR 35 (40 vs. divination) Defensive Abilities freedom of movement, superior ferocity Offense Speed 60 ft., fly 180 ft. (average) Melee 2 claws +32 (4d6+15/19-20 plus 2d6 electricity), 2 wings +30 (2d8+7), tail slap +30 (4d12+22) Space 30 ft.; Reach 20 ft. (30 ft. with tail slap) Special Attacks binding shackles, force missiles, magitech beams, powerful blows (tail), trample (8d6+22, Ref DC 37), ultima Spell-like Abilities CL 25th, concentration +35 Constant—freedom of movement, nondetection (self only), planar adaptation, see invisibility At will—arcane sight, dimensional anchor, greater dispel magic, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. objects only), moment of prescience 3/day—binding (DC 28), earthquake, empowered meteor swarm (DC 29) 1/day—freedom, gate (planar travel only), imprisonment (DC 29) Statistics Str 40, Dex 26, Con 33, Int 21, Wis 29, Cha 30 Base Atk +25; CMB +48 (+52 bull rush); CMD 77 (79 vs. bull rush, 81 vs. trip) Feats Awesome Blow, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Dodge, Empower SLA (meteor swarm), Greater Bull Rush, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Power Attack, Staggering Critical, Stunning Critical Skills Acrobatics +33, Diplomacy +35, Fly +28, Intimidate +38, Knowledge (arcana, planes) +33, Knowledge (dungeoneering, religion) +30, Perception +37, Sense Motive +37, Spellcraft +33 Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Giant, Infernal, truespeech SQ no breath, planar acclimation Ecology Environment any Organization unique Treasure triple standard Special Abilities Aura of Awe (Su) The first time a creature approaches within 30 feet of Ultima Weapon, it must succeed a DC 32 Will save or be dazed for 1d4 rounds. Regardless of whether it passes or fails the save, it cannot be affected by Ultima Weapon’s aura of awe for the next 24 hours. This is a mind-influencing effect and the save DC is Charisma based. Binding Shackles (Su) Ultima Weapon can use its own body as a spell component for the binding spell-like ability. When it uses binding, it can make its own body the focus of the minimus containment version of the spell. Ultima Weapon can shackle a number of creatures to itself equal to its Intelligence modifier. Ultima Weapon can only use this ability on creatures with Hit Dice equal to or less than its own. Ultima Weapon can summon a creature contained inside itself as a standard action. The creature appears within 60 feet of Ultima Weapon, obeys Ultima Weapon without question, and counts as a summoned creature for the purposes of spells and effects. The creature remains for one minute or until slain, whereupon it returns to within Ultima Weapon without harm. Ultima Weapon cannot summon more than one creature this way at a time, and may summon each bound creature once per day. When Ultima Weapon is slain, the creatures remain bound inside its corpse. If freed, they behave as normal for their attitude and alignment, although they will likely be at least indifferent to any rescuer, if not more favorably disposed. Constructed (Ex) Although Ultima Weapon is a living outsider, their body is constructed of physical components, and in many ways they function as constructs. For the purposes of effects targeting creatures by type (such as a ranger's favored enemy and bane weapons), Ultima Weapon counts as both an outsider and construct. They are immune to death effects, disease, mind-affecting effects, necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep, stun, and any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless). Ultima Weapon is not subject to nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. They are not at risk of death from massive damage. They have bonus hit points as constructs of their size. Force Missiles (Su) As a swift action every 1d4 rounds, Ultima Weapon can fire 10 missiles of force. It may fire these all at a single target within 240 feet, or split fire between enemies, but multiple enemies must be within 30 feet of each other. Each missile strikes automatically, ignoring cover and concealment, and deals 2d4+2 force damage. Magitek Beams (Su) As a standard action every 1d4 rounds, Ultima Weapon may fire three beams of energy as 120 foot lines. A creature caught in each beam takes 25d6 damage, half of which is electricity and half of which is typeless (Reflex DC 33 half). A creature caught in multiple beams does not take additional damage, but suffers a -2 penalty to its save. These beams may be in fired in any direction from Ultima Weapon’s square. The save DC is Constitution based. Planar Acclimation (Ex) Ultima Weapon is always considered to be on its home plane, no matter what plane it is on. It never gains the extraplanar subtype, and the planar acclimation spell protects it from the hazards of any plane except the Material Plane. Superior Ferocity (Ex) Ulitma Weapon does not die until its negative hit points reach twice its Constitution score, or -66 hp. Ultima Weapon is not staggered when using ferocity, but does suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls and to the saving throws of its special abilities. Ultima (Su) As a standard action once per day, Ultima Weapon can set up a destructive resonance in the bodies of all corporeal creatures within 60 feet. A creature affected takes 250 points of damage (Fortitude DC 30 half). A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this damage is destroyed and can only be returned to life by a miracle, true resurrection or wish spell. This can affect undead and constructs as long as they have a physical body—creatures in gaseous form and incorporeal creatures are unaffected. Ultima Weapon can only use this ability when it is below 0 hit points, with its superior ferocity ability. The save DC is Charisma based and has a -2 penalty from superior ferocity.

#ultima weapon #final fantasy #final fantasy xiv #pathfinder 1e #commissions

[dungeonecologist]

Right near the exit of the 3rd floor we got a little sneak peak at the Wolf FOE.  It’s a deceptively modest enemy... and then we emerge on the 4th floor and immediately are made aware of [i forgot to count before i started killing them, but, like, half a dozen probably?] of FOEs on this floor, and they are in fact a whole pack of Wolves.

On top of all the things we’ve been learning about FOEs floor by floor until now, we get another new mechanic: Once in battle with one Wolf, every Wolf still on the map outside of battle with aggro and close in on your fixed position each round of combat.  If they get to your position while you’re still in combat the FOE can join the battle.  To make this more complicated, the floor is another series of winding, narrow hallways; so one misstep could get you cornered in a deadend and dogpiled by Wolves.

I know broader game design isn’t really the point of this blog, but I gotta say, I really love the fact that they added an in-dungeon heal spot at the end of the 3rd floor.  It’s very unlike this game and this franchise in general, but it’s kind of a subtle genius move here; right now the approach to FOE has been to avoid them entirely, and their placement and patrol routes are optimized to let you; but this 4th floor makes them unavoidable.  But to unlearn our survival tactics and incentivize more aggressive hunting of these Wolves we’ve had several steps to ease us in.  When we fight the first Wolf on 3F, it’s an event trigger, and not facing down the FOE orb on the map; by telling us when we enter 4F that the FOE are Wolves, there’s no apprehension about entering into a battle unprepared like first encounters with other FOEs; and the heal point allows us to confidently throw ourselves into these dangerous fights without fretting over retaining enough HP and TP to make it all the way back to town.  It’s a really delicately designed situation.

Oh, but also Clawfly???  This trips my usual petpeeve with recolors: I feel like recolors are best used with a good amount of distance between their appearances, and/or with clear meaningful distinctions in their M.O.  This is neither.  In fact they appear along side Clawbugs, but unlike the Venomflies, which had distinct difference from their more harmless Woodfly counterparts, the new Clawflies are really just slightly stronger versions of the Clawbug.

Also now that I’ve had to fight Wolves, I went back and started seeing how I stacked up against other FOEs.  Turns out I’m on good footing with most of them by now, although without the heal point on 3F to work off of, it’d be a different story.

If there had been anything I might have liked done differently about this, I feel like it would’ve been kind of neat to see the Fender monsters conspicuously missing from this floor, implying they’d been the natural dominant species of the first stratum but hunted by the wolves since their unexpected arrival from the lower levels.  Even that premise to this whole mission, which I guess I kinda glossed over before, is a great little detail.  The deeper levels of the dungeon are an unknown factor, but as something disrupts the ecosystem, monsters of disproportionate strength start making their way up into vulnerable weaker levels near the surface.  The second stratum Boss implicitly driving out the wolves, who show up and threaten the Fender herd and aggravating the Ragelope.  I’d actually really LOVE an RPG that accounted for some kind of ecosystem (un)balance in its design, where attempts to grind or farm would actually proportionally affect shifts in the monster appearance, distribution and levels; grinding on enemies thinning out their population, starving out the stronger predators, effectively drying up the available experience and loot pools; or overhunting powerful enemies drawing in ever stronger boss-tier monsters into the power vacuum.

#etrian odyssey

[elmidol]

Get Ready (NSFW)

Read on AO3

based on this post by me

a thank you to @kylorengarbagedump​ for helping me on part of Kylo’s dialogue that was giving me issues.

----

The mattress squeaked in protest of your movements, and normally such sounds would have caused your heart to race in fear of being caught. There was presently also no need to silence the moans that spilled from your lips, nor the way you were panting as you chased your orgasm. It was building with every slick, wet slide of your finger along your clit. Each clench of your walls around three of those digits as you thrust them into yourself. You planted your feet firmly, raising your hips off the bed and pushing in more deeply. No one else was around to hear you. The post you had been sent to was not to be viewed as a punishment. You were sent there as a spy for reconnaissance. But kriff it had been a boring day. You whimpered, your head lolling towards the side. Drool dribbled out of the corner of your mouth to pool on the pillow. You imagined that the bedding underneath your ass was just as wet. Working a fourth finger into yourself, you imagined being filled with a thick, hard cock.

Maker, you should have brought some toys. You slid your free hand down the length of your body, beginning at your throat, which you squeezed, and going further. Tugging at a nipple. Drawing sloppy swirls on your lower belly. Another swear erupted, this time accompanied by a groan. There was a chiming ring from across the room on your dresser. You shook your head. It wasn’t important, it wouldn’t be important. And you were so close. “Oh,” you whined, fluttering your eyelashes. Undulating your hips in time with the thrusting fingers, you worked to get that delectable image back. Someone nameless. Their identity didn’t matter, only their cock. Thick, stretching you open. The muscles in your legs tightened at that thought. A swooping sensation traveled from your stomach to lower. You were clenching around your fingers now, and you coated those of your other hand in the wetness to assist in toying with your cilt. You flicked it back and forth, worming two fingers up and down with the nub between them.

You rolled onto your knees, face pressed into the pillow out of habit to stifle the scream of pleasure as you came. You continued to ride your fingers to draw out the orgasm for as long as you could. Felt your toes curling, your hot breath creating moisture against the pillow and the lower half of your face. The ringing was starting anew. You shook your head, thinking how much trouble you were going to be in if it turned out to be one of your superiors. That only made you moan at the thought of being punished. You collapsed onto your side, both your hands between your legs, and stared at the wall. Tried to catch your breath. Allowed yourself to sink into the calm that was spreading throughout all of your limbs. A sort of tingling, a vibration and pulsing that you had not felt in quite some time.

For a third time the chime began to sound. This time when you swore it was in unison with leaping to your feet. You darted into the refresher to straighten yourself out. Scrubbed your hands with soap and water, wondered for a moment why you were worried about the scent in the room. Whoever was on the other side of the transmission wouldn’t be able to smell you. You felt your face flush and bit down on your bottom lip. Then jerked back to attention. The caller was persistent. Was it an emergency? You did not want it to be one, did not want to hear that someone had been killed, but the alternative was that this person was going to be pissed off.

You scrambled into your uniform, pulled your hair back in a way that would allow it to have the appearances of being in regulation, and smoothed the front of your shirt before accepting the transmission.

The face and torso that met you was not who you had been expecting at all. You felt dizzy, vertigo threatening to make you lose your footing. You were already nearly breathless from your previous activities, however now you did not know what breathing even was. “Su-Supre-reme Leader.” Maker take you for stuttering. You bowed your head, unable to meet his gaze. Those eyes were some of the most intense that you had ever seen. They were brown, but sometimes they felt as though they were fire that could melt your soul.

“What was so important that you failed to answer?” Nevermind that it had been more than one call that you had missed.

“I…” You licked your lips, wetting them though your mouth felt as dry as a desert. “My comm unit was…” You touched your throat with the tips of two fingers, feeling a tightening in it. Furrowing your brow, you worked to carry on speaking, well aware that your silence would be punished. “I was away from--” Now the invisible force that constricted around your windpipe like a vise made itself known in full. Trembling, you clutched at your neck with both of your hands and met the Supreme Leader’s gaze with tears beginning to form as you fought to breathe. He would accept no lies. No matter how much it would kill you to admit the truth, he would kill you if you did not. “I...was...mas...tur...ba...t-ting.”

The pressure lessened enough that you could greedily gulp air. It felt little different than taking a drink of water. “Show me.” Those words were spoken with such a calm curiosity that you could not tell if he was interested to watch you or simply bored with life at the moment. Perhaps it was to humiliate you. The blue hologram warbled, static cutting in for the briefest of seconds. That did not interrupt the connection his powers had against your throat.

Still shaking, you stepped backwards once, tentatively, unsure what he would do. His eyes flicked along your face then down to your chest, where your hands had shifted. You gave them a small squeeze. Tried to buy yourself some time, not because you were flustered by his command--well, partly that--but more that you were still sensitive from what you had just done. You backed up again and again until the mattress hit the backs of your legs, the material bending to your weight.

You climbed onto the bed, hooking your thumbs into the waist of your pants and tugging them off as you did so. Your underwear were still on...for another three seconds. Supreme Leader Kylo Ren had raised one hand, palm facing you, and hooked two fingers. That was all he had needed to do to rid you of your panties. Or maybe he hadn’t needed to do even that. Perhaps that was just for your benefit. You squirmed under his scrutiny. His gaze was resting on your thighs, which you parted. You glanced up at the ceiling. Kriff, you were already wet. Not just with your cum, but from the arousal spreading through you as you realized that the Supreme Leader wanted this. He wanted you. To watch you.

Sucking the tips of two fingers, you dipped them between your folds and made scissoring motions. Parted your folds enough to give him a glimpse but not enough for him to truly see how wet you were becoming. There was a slight twitch of his nose, as though he was fighting off a snarl. The pressure at your throat increased. You obediently spread your legs, now in full view. Supreme Leader Kylo Ren leaned back. The transmission warbled again. This time when it corrected, you could see the man in full. He was seated at a desk of some sort. Alone. His feet stretched out. He was sitting so sloppily, but that was just as well given the fact that it gave you full view of what he was doing. He placed one of his large hands on his thigh and started to move it towards the bulge you could see beginning to tent his pants.

“Supreme Leader,” you whispered, eyes wide. That gaze again threatened to sear your face. You lowered your eyes, feeling unworthy. Peeked at him through your eyelashes, because, Maker help you, you did not want to look away. You used your index and ring finger to spread your lips open wide and ran the pad of your middle finger up and down between them. Smearing the wetness along your opening and your clit until your cunt was glistening. Your breathing was growing louder, reaching your ears. But it was not so loud that you couldn’t hear the alteration in Kylo Ren’s breathing. They were deeper, more primal. The grip around your throat clenched again before it trailed along your collarbone. Down. It moved with his eyes along your body.

You pinched one nipple as the Supreme Leader used the Force to knead your other breast. He opened the front of his pants. Your jaw could have hit the floor. Even over the transmission, you could see just how large he was. How proportionate his dick was to the rest of his body. He wrapped one gloved hand around it, allowing you to better appreciate its girth. “Please.” The word tumbled from your mouth of its own accord.

“Do you think you can take it? Your fingers were enough to keep you from answering.”

You wet your lips again, sliding three fingers into yourself. His mouth quirked on one side in the beginnings of a smirk. The pressure on your breast crawled down, split into two. You wondered if his hands would feel the same, they were so large, they would spread your thighs like he was doing with the Force. Kylo Ren stroked his cock, its head bobbing. You hungrily watched him swipe his thumb along its tip. You leaned back and planted your feet on the side of the mattress, shifting into an awkward angle that also allowed you to watch him as he observed you.

“Please.”

“Perhaps you should occupy your mouth before you disappoint me.” You did not flinch at his words, simply whimpered. Then felt something shift along your tongue. It stretched your jaw, opening your mouth. You could feel it thrust forward into your mouth and towards the back of your throat in time with the first roll of his hips. Stars, he was so big. You were starting to drool, saliva running from your tongue as you tried to feel more of him. But it wasn’t the same, not quite, as having him in your mouth there in person.

He yanked you up onto your knees with the Force. You kept rotating your fingers against your clit and toying with your entrance in alteration. Kylo Ren stood. His hand wrapped around his cock was about the only part of him that you could see in the transmission. Just the one hand. The other was using the Force, making you feel like it was at the back of your head, shoving your head down to take in more of him. You gagged around the cock that wasn’t physically in your mouth. Whined in want. Maker, you wanted him to fuck you, to use you. The invisible hand jerked back your head. Shoved you down again. You could see his hand, only part of his cock. The rest was not visible to you, a fantastic trick that strengthened the illusion that he was fucking your mouth. Your jaw nearly popped with the next thrust. You clenched around your fingers, which you had started to push into yourself.

“Are you ready for me?” He knew. He could see you completely from whatever angle he had the comm device. You whimpered and tried, failed to nod your head. Gurgled out a distorted yes, supreme leader that was wet, obnoxious, a choked out noise. He shoved you back. The hand in your hair tugged, pulling so that you tilted back. He used the Force to change the angle of the comm device on his end. You were looking up at his face. “Hmm?”

“Yes...Supreme Lea...der…” You shuddered, preparing yourself for rejection. That would be the perfect punishment for failing to answer him. It would shame you. Hurt you.

Instead you were shoved backwards. Those wonderful hands, the tendrils in the Force that were as thick as Kylo Ren’s hands, forcing your legs to bend; knees pressed towards your breasts. Ass lifted off the bed. His cock, so thick, beginning to push into you. You felt the head began to part you, stretching you. Opening you to take him inch by inch. Your hands were bunching up the bedsheets as you scrambled to grab something, anything. He was so big. You felt full, felt like he was going to split you in half but you loved it.

“Oh, please!”

“You feel so tight.” You wondered if he could actually feel you. You hoped he could. Hoped that he could feel how you were clenching, how you were so wet for him. “Play with your clit.” You once more obeyed without question. Fingers swiping along your clit, pressing down. Giving it lazy swirls whilst pressing the heel of your hand against your pubis. Kylo Ren rolled his hips. You could see him on the transmission as he once more surprised you with his capabilities by changing where your device was. So that he was staring down at you.

And as much as you enjoyed that angle, you wanted to see his cock. Wanted to--you moaned in delight. Whether or not he could read your mind, you did not know. All you knew was that the Supreme Leader ensured you could see his entire body once more in the transmission just as he could see yours. You watched his hand slide on his cock. Felt it inside of you.

Another hand around your throat, tightening, cutting off your air, letting up so that you could breathe, choking you again. Your walls constricted in time with your throat. It was not just your fingers toying with your clit either then. Kylo Ren sent out yet more tendrils. These ones explored the sides of your clit. Let the nub slide away from their grasp. Sought it out again.

He pounded into you, the mattress squeaking. Now you wished there was someone there to hear it. To know that you were going to make the Supreme Leader cum, that he was going to make you cum. You moaned out his title, knowing how much he loved it. He withdrew almost completely. Slammed back into you. His gloved hand going from the base of his cock to the head. The muscles of his abdomen, just visible, tightening. Fuck, you wanted to feel them.

“I can see why this tight cunt kept you from me.” He was growling out his words, so close to cumming. You did not know if you should apologize or not, so you kept silent. Tendrils gripping your hips, forcing them higher into the air. You were nearly seeing stars. Your vision swam. You were screaming in orgasm, feeling him continue to slam into you over and over again. His thrusts were growing more frantic. Shallow. His hips jerking, his hand moving to meet his thrusts just as you were doing the same. Taking more of his cock in. The sound that came from his mouth as he came had you shaking, your body hot and still ready for him to use more.

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren shoved you off of him, onto the bed, and removed all of the tendrils of Force energy off of you. The last to leave was the one at your throat. You blinked repeatedly. Weakly moved your legs. Up onto your knees. Feeling empty without him, your cum leaking onto the bedsheets underneath your body. Chest heaving with every unsteady breath. Your eyes were on his softening cock, which he tucked away. Then only his face and torso were visible to you again. Meanwhile you, the complete mess that you were, remained exposed to him in your entirety.

“My ship will be arriving in the next hour. Be sure you are ready to receive me.”

Please, your mind whined as you dared to hope he meant what you so desperately wanted.

#kylo ren x reader #kylo x reader #kylo ren smut #kylo ren imagine #kylo ren

[canid-slashclaw]

The Outliers - A Guild Wars Love Story

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9,  Chapters 10 and 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16 , Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19

Chapter 20

One month had passed and Kaleb and Amalthia's passionate relationship continued unabated. Whenever either had the chance to steal away for a moment to see the other, they would do so. But on this night, the continuity in both of their lives would drastically change forever.

Under a moonlit pasture just outside of Claypool, Amalthia straddled atop her lover as the two began to work their bodies up to the moment of orgasmic ecstasy. Kaleb, meanwhile, held his essence for as long as he could until the moment was right.

"I can never get over just how not painful this is whenever we join as one," Amalthia said as she began riding him hard.

Kaleb breathed heavily while his member throbbed deeply inside his feline lover. "I just can't get over how warm and tight you are. In spite of our differences, our bodies match up so well. Proportionally, we are pretty close to being the same."

"True. I think this sort of thing would be a bit awkward if I were larger like most females of my kind. But even if we weren't, I would still be yours, Kaleb. You are my mate and my love," she said between intense yowls of ecstasy.

"The way you end your sentences in soft purring sounds just turns me on even more. I love you so much, Amalthia Steelblade!"

"And I love you too, Kaleb Grimwald. Ohh myyy..." Her body convulsed in sheer pleasure.

"Oh gods!!" Kaleb unloaded into her as the two of them groaned in orgasmic harmony.

After their intense lovemaking session was over, both got dressed then headed out to the waypoint that connected to Kessex Hills. Once there, Kaleb escorted Amalthia back to her loft above her father's butcher shop.

"When can I see you again?" Kaleb queried as he gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek.

Amalthia flicked her ears and replied; "tomorrow is going to be busy for me as my father wants me to cut up a large order for a business client. Perhaps the following day would be better since I'll pretty much have the whole day free."

"I would like that very much."

Once they arrived, she noticed that the downstairs lights were on. But she dismissed it as nothing unusual as her father would typically forget to turn them off.

As Amalthia walked up the staircase leading to her upstairs loft, Kaleb raised his hand to say goodbye. "See you in a couple of days and," saying in a much softer voice, "I love you!" before he began to turn around and depart.

She gave him a parting kiss in the wind before attempting to unlock the door. To her surprise, she found that the door would not open.

"Something's wrong with the damn lock. I can't get it to open," she growled as she shoved the key back into her coat pocket.

"Any possibility that your father's still up?" Kaleb asked just as he was about to leave.

"Doubtful. I've never seen him up this late at night. Anyway, this is starting to piss me off."

"Mind if I come in? I mean, none of the... you know... just figured I'd like to spend a little while longer with you, that is, if you don't mind."

"I would normally never say no, but we are going into the main house where my father resides. Remember, love, I haven't cleaned up yet and there is always a risk of our scents being picked up by him."

"But you said he's rarely up this late," Kaleb reminded her.

Amalthia relented. "Well, I suppose it will be okay. We just have to dash up to my room. No dilly dallying."

Kaleb nodded as she unlocked the main door to the butcher shop. Once they entered, she locked the door behind them as they started to head towards the spiral staircase. But as they did so, Amalthia caught wind of something that suddenly sent a chill to her very core.

"My. Oh my. What has my little cub and this mouse been doing together out so late?"

The lights from the butcher counter area flicked on revealing the form of Siri Blastfuse. Her snout immediately began to sniff the air as her face drew to a deep scowl.

"Mother?" Amalthia said in a shaky voice as their gazes met.

"What is that foul stench coming off you? It's also coming off of him as well. Nooo... this can't be?!"

Before she could react, her mother bounded towards her like a hungry cat about to pounce its prey. She briefly sniffed Kaleb's groin area as her murderous green eyes met his. Next, she shoved her snout into her daughter's crotch then withdrew and let out a horrific shriek.

"YOU FILTHY LITTLE SKRITT-FUCKING WHORE!!"

Siri brought her clawed right hand with full force against the left side of her daughter's upper neck causing four deep lacerations. She then turned her rage towards Kaleb who was too much in shock to react.

"You disgusting little squealer! I will rend parts off your body you don't even know you HAD!!" She lunged at him at full momentum, but was stopped short by Amalthia's quick reaction.

"Mother!! Don't you dare hurt him! I swear I'll kill you right here and now!" She bellowed as she reached for her sword.

Although much older and slower, Siri was still quick enough to blunt her daughter's attack. "Not if I kill you first, cub!"

Within moments, mother and daughter were in a deathwatch with claws and teeth flashing. Kaleb could only watch in horror as he saw the two charr tearing into each other like savage beasts.

Suddenly, and from out of nowhere, came a thunderous bellow that emanated from the hallway. When he heard it Kaleb snapped out of his state of shock.

"ENOUGH! NOT IN MY HOUSE!! Both of you - stand DOWN!" Ludrick roared as he lunged in on the melee using his good left foot.

Kaleb reached in to try and pull Amalthia off of her mother. But as he did, a massive clawed furred hand grabbed him by the throat then slammed him against the wall.

"You..."

For the first time in his life, Kaleb was terrified to his core as he looked to see the murderous eyes of none other than Ludrick himself. Gone, was the softhearted charr that he came to know and respect. What stood before him was the embodiment of hate itself.

"...aren't going ANYWHERE!"

Ludrick grasped hold of Siri's large cranial horn with his other paw then forced her onto the floor. "And you... I... am... not... through... with you... either, bitch!"

"SIRE! Please... don't hurt him!" Amalthia screamed as she tried to intervene.

Her father bellowed in rage. "Back off, cub! He has crossed the line. Both of you have."

"Ohh. They've done more than crossed it... they've..." Siri's words were cut short by a sharp twist of Lucrick's powerful arm.

"If I hear so much as a fart out of you, I'm going to snap your neck. You hear me?!"

For the first time in her life, Amalthia had never seen her father this angry. It was also the first time in her life that she was afraid - afraid of him.

"Please, sire. Father. I am the one who is to blame. Please, don't hurt Kaleb. He saved my life and... he is, your friend," she said as tears began streaming from her eyes.

Ludrick closed his eyes and bowed his head then eased his grip upon the young man. "Go to your room, Amalthia. Trust me for what I have to do."

Kaleb mustered enough nerve to speak. "I... it's okay, Ama. No matter what happens to me, just remember that nothing will ever change my feelings for you."

"Father. Promise me you won't kill him. If you do then you will lose a daughter as well. And I mean it too!" Amalthia snarled.

"Amalthia. Please trust me. Now go to your room. I will deal with this boy in the best way I see fit." He nodded to her with a much softer expression on his face.

"I love you, Kal. No matter what happens, you are my mate in body and heart," she said as she ran up the stairs crying.

Siri could no longer contain herself. "I might take you up on that offer of wanting to snap my neck in two, centurion. Otherwise I might just die from drowning in my own vomit."

Amalthia stepped down the stairs for a moment and commented; "make her wish come true, sire. You'll get no complaints from me."

"To your room and not another word, cub!" Her father bellowed as he turned toward Kaleb with a hateful glare.

"I trusted you. She trusted you. We both trusted you and this is how you repay us??? Did you think she was some exotic plaything that you could just manipulate for the purpose of satisfying your own lustful fantasies?"

Kaleb steeled his resolve then looked Ludrick in the eyes. "I would never have taken those arrows for a mere plaything, sir! I love your daughter more than life itself. A fact, I might add, that I've already demonstrated. So go ahead and kill me if you wish. But know this... Amalthia will never forgive you for being such a coward to face an obvious truth. And that truth is that love observes no boundaries regardless of kind."

Ludrick grimaced as he forced Kaleb towards the door while keeping him in a chokehold. "Do you delude yourself into believing that love alone will offer the happiness that either of you believes the other deserves? Listen to me, cub - no matter how much the two of you may love each other; the rest of the world will hate both of you because of that love. The oceans of blood spilt between our peoples for so many centuries can not so easily be forgotten."

"You fear change. Both you and Siri fear change. I honestly cannot believe that a relationship such as ours can be so unique. Surely, there has been a human and charr who have loved each other in such a manner, sometime in the past. Am I right?" Kaleb said as he suddenly felt noticeable quivering in Ludrick's hand.

The old charr flipped Siri on her backside by rapidly pulling her horn until she nearly fainted from the excruciating pain. He then pushed Kaleb out the door as he held him tightly by the throat.

"Such a thing cannot happen in our lifetime. Not without consequences. You have broken my trust by going back on your word. You crossed the line!"

"With all due respect, sir. You only imagine me agreeing to your terms. There was at no point that I ever agreed to 'not crossing the line' as you so aptly put it... sir."

In a fit of rage, Ludrick flung Kaleb hard against the ground nearly knocking the wind out of him. As the old charr stood over him, he stooped down and pointed his massive clawed finger just inches from his face and said in a gruff voice; "you are to never come near these premises again. If I so much as catch wind of your scent, I will tear your heart out myself. Now be gone and never return!"

Reeling from the shock, Kaleb staggered away from the shop, both his body and heart in tatters. From the distance, he could hear a long mournful yowl coming from Amalthia's loft.

Ludrick turned back towards the door all the while suppressing the immense pain that was bearing down on his already bleeding right foot. He saw Siri's lanky silhouette emerge from the shadows then bounded towards her, preventing her from leaving.

"This, this is complete madness. My own cub... doing that? And you... why didn't you just shred that disgusting piece of meat when you had the chance? But if you won't do it then perhaps the task must fall to me since you no longer seem to have the stomach for such things." Siri raged as she attempted to leave the shop.

"No! You stay! You stay until I'm finished telling you something, something I should have told you a long time ago," Ludrick said as he bowed his head.

"I'm in no mood to hear anymore of your rehashed war stories, you impotent old bag of piss. If I could get away with it, I would kill all of you if nothing more than to remove the blight that has already tarnished my reputation," Siri said in disgust.

"No one but those present even knows of this. So there's no need to worry about your precious reputation being defiled. But that human was right about one thing..."

"Oh. Do tell."

"It has happened before - intimate relationships between human and charr. And it's closer than you can imagine."

"I can imagine quite a bit. Try me!"

"I know the power that falling in love can have on someone... even if they are different species."

"You know nothing!" Siri spat.

"I do know because it once happened a long time ago... to me." Ludrick closed his eyes and remembered the face of a human woman he had loved so long ago. He clasped hold of a chain necklace that he had worn for many years and pulled out what appeared to be a pendant that was broken in half.

"Her name was Karla and she saved my life."

(All chapters have been posted to AO3. Chapter 20 is posted here.)

#gw2 fanfic #tyriaslibrary #the outliers #kaleb and amalthia #cw adult situations #guild wars 2 romance

[monsterywriting]

Monster Boyfriend (Dirrath) - pt. 2

Part 1

-

Part 3

words: 2,068

tw: some blood and violence

After nearly three weeks spent entirely glued to a chair in your study and tutor after tutor rotating with mind-bogglingly boring lessons, you were just about ready to tear your hair out in frustration.

You hadn’t found economics or history very interesting before now, but without the brief reprieve of mindlessly walking from one end of the castle to the other in between, you now found the subjects downright intolerable.

You understood the time crunch, with less than a week before you left to speak with the foreign king and negotiate a trade deal that would impact both of your kingdoms, but you were itching to do literally anything else than hear about another ancient trade route between Altruria and some other nation.

Dirrath, meanwhile, had become something of a faint nuisance. He was nothing more than a vaguely menacing presence standing in the corner during your lessons. Even with him now wearing your personal emblem on his loaned armor, he was far from integrated into your personal guard.

Usually you only had one or two guards at any given point in the castle, but you’d ordered Olek to leave you at least five besides Dirrath since you found out that he had insisted on choosing his own armor rather than receive whatever Olek brought him, stating he didn’t want any cursed armor.

There was nothing special about Dirrath’s armor in particular, and you certainly hadn’t ordered anyone to tamper with it.

You weren’t even bothered by the fact that he suspected you would. It was a common practice for mercenaries to be given armor that would curse them to be forever loyal to more unscrupulous employers—and you were known to have a particular interest in curses and enchantments—but it did make you wonder what exactly Dirrath was trying to avoid.

The most pressing issue you took with Dirrath, however, was the glamor he wore.

It was a very good one—you had only recently began to notice it after spending so much time analyzing his every move—but there was the unmistakeable hint of the magic surrounding him. Your spell-casting  tutor had spent weeks teaching you how to differentiate between different disguising spells, given your position.

You hadn’t had a chance to meet with the High Queen since she ordered you to keep Dirrath around, and you weren’t even certain that she didn’t know about it.

Simply put, Dirrath’s very existence just rubbed you the wrong way.

His seeming vow of silence hadn’t lasted long, fortunately, though he still kept quiet for the most part. You’d tried your best to get him talking at first, usually over your meals, but you soon gave up on trying to get more than short, one-word answers out of him.

Your mind soon drifted even further off of your lesson, drowning out the voice of your tutor.

The sudden sound of the two thousand page leather bound Pre-Great War Era History of Altrurian Commerce and Trade Policy slamming shut caused you to snap upright, the 8th Princess standing abruptly.

“We’re going to the training grounds,” she said, already halfway to the door and leaving you scrambling after her.

“What about the lesson?” You asked, pins and needles shooting up your leg from your feet from disuse.

“There is plenty of time for you to learn,” was your only reply.

The arrival of two princesses at the nearest training grounds—which happened to be for your own guard—caused something of an uproar, guards immediately dropping everything to bow in greeting.

“You, get us two swords,” the 8th Princess commanded Olek as she bunched up her linen tunic into her belt and waiting for your to do the same, “let’s see if you’ve gotten any better since you first arrived here.”

You didn’t respond, taking a sword from Olek with a grateful smile and turning to the 8th, who gave her own sword a few experimental spins with an almost giddy grin. Both weapons were so blunt they were practically two sticks of iron on a handle, likely due to how fights with the 8th usually ended.

The 8th was no spring chicken, her time as a famous general before ascending to Princess was over long before you were ever born. But she’d won every single match against you when you first arrived in the castle and took fighting lessons before the High Queen found more “appropriate” tutors to teach you rather than waste the 8th’s time.

You weren’t any more confident in your ability now than then, even with more experience and teachings under your belt. Nevertheless, you knew the 8th wouldn’t hold back in what she considered an equal fight, which meant you would have to give your all anyways if you didn’t want to spend your final days before your journey taking lessons in the infirmary.

Olek gave the signal and the two of you began slowly encircling each other, both taking time to look for any openings for attack.

As the two of you moved towards the center of the courtyard, the guards all scrambled to get out of the way, the grounds emptying of all but you and the 8th.

Finally she moved first, lunging with an inhuman speed that was barely discernible to you until she was right in front of you, bringing down the handle of her sword on your head.

You were prepared, however, this being a fairly common first move for her, rushing forward and using her own speed against her as your forehead slammed into her nose.

The 8th stumbled back a few steps, dazed. You took the opportunity to go after her with your sword, muttering a quick strength spell to put more power into the swing.

The 8th caught her footing before your blade could connect to her side, blocking your blade with her own and grabbing at your wrist.

Quickly pulling your arm away and leaping back, you put as much distance as you could between you and the 8th, who took the time as an opportunity to wipe away the blood that had trickled down from her nose.

“You finally managed to land a hit,” she taunted, “is that the best all those fancy instructors could do?”

You gave a shaky grin but made no reply as you advanced again, faking another swing of the sword but dropping down to sweep the 8’s legs from beneath her.

She landed on her back, a wheezing breath escaping her just as you leapt on top of her, holding your sword to her neck.

Before Olek could call the fight, however, 8’s fist connected to your face, right into your left eye.

While your hand instinctively went to cradle your eye, the 8th kicked you back, her boot slamming right into the center of your chest and your sword clattering on the ground. She grabbed it and held both in an X over your throat, her boot still holding you down.

“You did better in your last match with me,” the 8th tutted, handing the swords to Olek as another guard helped you up, though you couldn’t be bothered to see who, “I didn’t even have to use any particularly difficult magic against you this time. How long did she last, Olek? Last time was nine whole minutes.”

“Just under four minutes, Princess,” Olek said solemnly.

You hissed as the guard’s hand brushed against your rib, your vision going in and out of darkness. That was definitely broken, you realized miserably.

You tried and failed to make a witty remark, the pain in your chest becoming unbearable as you were forced to stand upright. You couldn’t even stand on your own feet, clinging to whoever was holding you.

“Take me to the infirmary,” was your final slurred words as you went entirely limp, too far gone to even flinch as you fell head first into the ground.

When you came to, you were practically sealed into an infirmary bed, your sheets tucked almost entirely underneath the mattress. You also realized you weren’t wearing your normal clothes, now in a simple cotton slip.

You felt like shit, though not just your eye and chest. Based on your cottonmouth and the fact that you felt like you’d been on the receiving end of a stampeding herd of Gollonath hooves, you figured you’d recently had some heavy duty healing done.

“You’re finally awake.” Your head turned towards the sound of the voice, disappointed to find Dirrath sitting on the next bed over, his helmet off for what you were certain was the first time, “The healer left a while ”

The man—or, rather, the glamor—underneath the helmet wasn’t exactly remarkable. Long black hair was swept over Dirrath’s shoulder, framing an otherwise average face. The more you looked at it, however, the averageness became almost unnatural in its perfection. A proportionately sized straight nose, decently sized lips, not-too-strong eyebrows, even entirely ordinary brown eyes. There were no blemishes on his skin, no flaws in his features. Just more evidence of a glamor hiding his true form.

Half your guard had gotten crooked noses and all had gotten scars at some point or another during training, and based on how you had seen Dirrath fight he definitely had fighting experience.

“I’m in too much pain to humor you right now, Dirrath,” you grunted, unable to even turn around in finality as you lacked the strength to make the sheets holding you even budge.

“Humor me?” You could practically hear the condescending eyebrow raise behind you.

“Yes, humor you, Dirrath,” you spat, “right now, the High Queen herself couldn’t make me let you stay anywhere near me. Get out.”

“You? Let me stay?”an infuriating chuckle, “You aren’t exactly in the condition to force me to leave at the moment.”

Dirrath’s words made your blood run cold, twisting around to stare wide-eyed at the mercenary faster than you probably should have in your condition. Up until now, your distrust of Dirrath didn’t have much footing. And while there was no overt threat, the implication was clear enough. Dirrath was not loyal to the kingdom or you, no matter the emblem he wore on his armor.

The panel of elders was still out on his loyalty to the High Queen.

It was in this moment you finally understood your seemingly irrational fear of Dirrath; he was a loose cannon, an outsider you couldn’t control with your title alone. And here you lay weakened and basically trapped under a few sheets.

“I’m kidding, princess,” Dirrath laughed and stood up. But for just a moment, so quick you almost believed you’d simply imagined it in your primal fear for your life, you thought you saw past the glamor, a flash of something inhuman behind it.

As soon as you heard the click of the infirmary door shutting after Dirrath, you quickly kicked your legs until the sheets loosened enough for you to squirm from underneath them, reaching for your clothes laying neatly folded at our bedside table.

Just as you slipped you pants back on, Olek burst through the infirmary door in a panicked frenzy, running straight towards you.

“Did he do anything, Princess?” Olek asked, looking just about ready to fall on his own sword in retribution if Dirrath had tried something.

“I’m fine, but I don’t want him on my personal guard detail any longer,” you replied, shuffling your way to the door, “I don’t care what you have him do, but make sure he’s too busy for anything else. And I don’t want this to happen again, Olek.”

You never used your authority against Olek before, not that he ever gave you a reason to. But this brief brush with someone you’d made abundantly clear to your captain that you didn’t trust and to then been left alone with while weakened left you nearly shaking with rage, even as you kept your actual reprimand brief.

“I’m sorry, my princess,” Olek hung his head in shame as he followed you out of the infirmary, “From here on, I will be on all of your security details personally.”

“I’ll handle the High Queen if she objects to Dirrath being removed,” you sighed, ready to collapse in your bed for the day and certainly not feeling up to getting into it with the High Queen over the outsider.

#exophilia #monster boyfriend #male monster #female reader #reader insert

[juju-on-that-yeet]

I beg you ELABORATE BIGLY

*cracks knuckles* Hell yeah

Actual footage of me writing this all out:

To start off, I’ll say that the egos are technically all roughly the same age. They’re figments, not humans, so it’s all a little fuzzy. Some of them look younger and/or act more childish, but even then they’re physically/mentally 20ish at the youngest. But they’ve all technically only been alive for a few years at the most (except for Dark and Wil, who as we know are ALL sorts of fucky), so the age differences between them all mean a lot more proportionally. I’ve mentioned this in fics before, how even a few months age difference means a lot to figments because they haven’t been around very long in the first place.

(pls lordt let the readmore work)

But on the whole, the egos fall into three groups:

The Older/Oldest Ones/The Elders (or The OGs, as I kinda like calling them) consist of Dark, Wilford, King of the Squirrels, The Host, Dr. Iplier, Silver Shepherd, Google, Bim, and Ed Edgar. They’re the ones at the conference table in MarkiplierTV, because they’re the head honchos. Dark may be the boss with Wil as his right-hand man, but all the older egos have the respect of the younger ones. They’re on the whole more mature than the others, and when things get crazy, they’re the ones the others look to for guidance (some of them are even older brother/father figures to certain younger egos) (tho Dark and Bim each have a boyfriend among the younger ones, which got some side-eyes from their peers at first but everyone’s over it by now). They’re also the group with the most politics in it: Dark and Wil don’t respect Silver at all, for example, and half of them only trust Dark as far as they can throw him (except for Google, who actively hates him in addition to not trusting him). But they’ve been around since the beginning, since before Ego Inc. even existed, and remember what it was like to live apart from one another without a solid way of life or place to call home. Dark was the one who brought them all together (not without resistance, mainly from Host, then The Author), so as wary as the others are of Dark, they do all respect him with various levels of reluctance. They also know very well what it’s like to lose egos, to see them get forgotten by the fans and fade away, and they’re all a little desensitized to it. It usually takes them a while to warm up to new egos for this reason.

If you look at the birth dates of the egos (at least among the main ones + ones that are in my canon), there’s a couple big gaps between new ones cropping up. Not that none appeared, but that none appeared and survived. The first such gap comes after Ed Edgar was made, leaving a space of a year and a half where no egos had enough footing to stick around. This period finally ended when Yandereplier popped into existence and became the first real baby of the family. Even though Ed was previously the youngest, he wasn’t much younger than the next-youngest (Bim) and never felt like the baby, nor was he treated like one. But Yandere, between his appearance after such a drought of new egos and the fact that he was the first one to really look younger than the others, made the whole group collectively say “oh, he’s baby.” It didn’t last very long, though, because more egos showed up pretty soon after, and became…

The Middle Kids: Yandere, MarkBop, Bingiplier, Oliver, Plus, Chrome, Reporter Jim and Cameraman Jim. They’re not quite babies anymore; they’ve been around for a couple years or more and they’ve become savvy to how things work in Ego Inc. But they’re still much younger than the oldest ones, and are still less mature than them. Of the three groups, this one causes the most trouble by FAR (Yandere likes wrecking shit in the city and is constantly getting hurt, Bing picks fights with 3/4 of the Googles and Plus and Chrome pick fights with him in return, and the Jims are just constantly Up To Something™). They mostly see the older ones as authority figures, but they aren’t quite up in the politics that the older ones create (even Yandere, who gets away with everything thanks to having Dark and Wil wrapped around his finger, barely notices that fact most of the time). They haven’t seen as much death among the egos as the older ones have, but they’ve seen enough to make them a little cautious around newbies. The hardest hitting deaths for them were the first pair of Jims, Weatherman Jim and News-anchor Jim. Those two were unusual in that they lived for a good few months before they faded, which hadn’t really happened before. The newer Jims, RJ and CJ, ended up evoking the same “they’re baby” response that Yandere did for this reason (and the one place where my subconscious grouping was inaccurate was with the Jims, who I associated as being in the younger camp, when they’re really just the youngest middle kids).

After the Jims show up, it’s a little over a year before the next ego shows up, leading to…

The Youngest Ones/The Newbies/The Babies: Eric Derekson, Yancy, Illinois, and Captain Magnum. Granted, Eric is almost a year older than the Heist egos, but let’s be real, he’s still baby. These four are still finding their footing among the group, still figuring out who their friends are, still finding the limits of Dark’s patience. They know the written rules but not the unwritten ones, essentially. To them, the middle kids are a mixed bag of fun friends/intimidating authority figures (half the noobs are scared of Yandere, for example, and they’re all intimidated by Plus and Chrome, but they like the others pretty well for the most part). They listen to the older ones and follow their lead much more than the middle kids do, and are intimidated by pretty much all of them. At the same time, the softer-hearted among the older egos (Doc, Silver, Bim) baby them a LOT. They’re not spoiled rotten, but they sure are spoiled. On the flip side, though, they haven’t been exposed to the loss of egos like the others have. Eric’s only seen a few egos die, and the Heist egos haven’t seen any die at all. They’ll be the most optimistic and hopeful when new egos show up – and be the saddest and most horrified when new egos die.

But yeah, I kinda subconsciously had them organized like this and it’s always influenced how I write them, even though I only just recently realized it enough to put it into words. It’s pretty wild what your brain can come up with without even trying! I truly love this dynamic for them, and it’ll be cool to see how it changes as more egos crop up (we’ll see if E-boyiplier manages to survive his first month without being forgotten :3c)

This is already way too long but I did compile a list of the egos in age order with their birth dates for my own reference that I can post if y’all want it (plus their astrological signs because I’m that bitch) (side note @ Mark WHY are so many of your characters Scorpios??) (also idc what Eric said in his video, he was introduced on December 2 so he’s a Sagittarius and not a Libra and that’s that on that)

#kristin says stuff #ask #anon #markiplier #markiplier egos #i am NOT tagging all these mfs #but honestly i live for this shit #I LOVE MAKING UP LORE AND WORLDBUILDING MAN #ask me about this all day everyday #i'm always down to talk about it

[kougarisa]

I feel like I can now post the first chapter of my Remake Fic. qwq Many years ago, I originally intended it as a slow burn fic, but I decided that in the current situation, the remake would be more of a summary of past events, and I would try to condense it into 6-7-8 chapters if I can. oo” Maybe there will be pretty long chapters. ^^” I made bigger changes compared to the original, but the point remained.~ (In the future there will be a second story after the events of the Final Act)

- Inuyasha Universe

- Self insert / selfship 

The story comprehensively focuses on the relationship between Kouga and Arisa (OC) at the past, the encounters, how it was possible to find each other with several little help.

I do my best to translate to english as correct as I can. >

I’m not going to give the writing a title this time, I’d rather start with a quote. It fits them very well.. quq

Pleasant journey! ^^

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

"You were kinda cold like snow when we first met, but after awhile you grow warm like the sun."

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

She had been traveling with them for a few weeks. She arrived at a waterfall hidden at the end of a cave, guarded by a soul of a once powerful wolf demon and its remains. It endowed the girl with half-demon power to protect the Sacred Jewel, to help her new comrades. Because she was originally born mortal, not even the spirit could give her full demon power. There was a slight change in the appearance of her because of the power her got. Over his head, above his brownish blondes, a pair of ears rose, as did the grumpy breed known as Inuyasha. She grew stronger, her stamina surpassing the limits of her human body.

"Your heart is like that of wolves. Let the spirit of our ancestors and the strength of our warriors lead your way."

The words of the demon echoed in her head.

Fortunately, she has acquired a weapon since, a sword forged by a certain Toutousai master to her so that she can defend herself and not stand empty-handed in the fights those will face her. It didn’t hurt to be careful, as they had no idea what abilities the wolf demon gave to her and when they would revive in her. Still, she felt awkward compared to the others. She had never wield a sword before, in fact ... Even with her bare hands, she only rush at the chosen ones in one or two exceptional cases, when her anger prevailed over her, even though she would have done it several times in her heart, a few people would deserved it over the 18 years of her life. If she was hurt or her self-confidence was manhandled, she easily fell into herself, and at the same time her tears quickly started to wash her face. How could she benefit the team?

She was grateful for their kindness. In what they knew helped her. They told her to where, at what era and events she had fallen, what mission they were in. Arisa was afraid in deep inside, but she was reassured by their closeness. Inuyasha tried to train her over time on how to handle the sword, the others taught her everything else.

Along the way, an orphaned wolf cub joined to the girl. He lost his father, the last member of his family in a battle against an evil demon. By the time they got to the scene of the duel, Arisa could no longer help with her healing ability, which had shown during their adventures. The little ones fur coat was deep brown, almost black, with his golden brown eyes watched every move of his new pack-member and followed in her footsteps. Arisa called him Shadow.

They headed northeast, in the direction of the constellations Taurus and Tiger. Kagome talked to Arisa in a good mood, pushing her bike beside her. They came from the same world — although from other countries — they had much in common. The magic of the spirit guard at the waterfall also helped the now half-demon girl to communicate in Kagome’s language so they could understand each other.

From a distance, all of a sudden they all saw a whirlwind approaching, which was familiar to most.

"Keh ... This damn wolf again ..." Inuyasha growled. “Whatever. It’s nice to volunteer to run in front of me so I can cut him off!” He swung the Tetsusaiga to the side from its scabbard.

Before he could strike down, and before Kagome could say a word, that certain one, the boy's face had a painful encounter with the ground. From above, a furry, armored figure with sole of the foot came to the top of Inuyasha's head and gave the starting push. He bounced off it, entrusting the rest to the gravity, then landed behind his back.

"Don't play with such a dangerous toy, mutt, you could cut yourself."

“Bastard …”

Arisa blinked at the scene, what almost familiar to the others. There have been examples of this before.

“Kouga.”

The addressed immediately looked to Kagome.

“Maybe is there trouble? Did something happen?”

The boy walked over to her, sensing from the corner of his eye that someone was standing next to the girl, then stepping away from them as he got closer. She was unfamiliar to him, he hadn't smelled her scent near Kagome and his team before. Acknowledging his perception to himself, the next moment he devoted his full attention to the ebony-haired girl, whose one hand he lifted off the bike and grabbed by two of his palms.

“It's okay, my dear. I just smelled your scent and wanted to see if you were alright.”

Kagome reassured Kouga with a confused smile that he had nothing to worry about. This was not the first time the boy had approached her for a similar reason, or say, an excuse(?).

Characteristic face, bronze brown skin, proportionately muscular silhouette, and pleasantly metallic voice. It was only through his presence and radiance that he attracted attention.

In the mirror of a pair of green eyes, several kinds of feelings swirled. Surprise, touched by the gesture she had just seen, and a little envy. When she realized she was staring, Arisa caught his eye in embarrassment. She tried to look in a different direction, but the event that had just taken place in front of her and the sight from time to time lured her back in the direction of the "couple." But she was confused by what she heard. Isn't it that Inuyasha and Kagome ...?

As soon as she saw Shadow fumbling in front of Kouga, sniffing his legs and then his mid-legs curiously, she startled out of her thoughts.

“Hm? ... Where did you come from?”

She looked at them, holding her breath, but there was no cause for concern. Kouga was surprised at first, then got on his knee with a gentler smile and stroked the cub’s head.

“What is it, little man? Can you smell my shards?

She would have calmed down but she heard her name leave Kagome's lips.

“He's Shadow. He belongs to Arisa.” She looked at her new friend.

Her gaze followed by the boy’s. Kouga then took a closer look at the other girl.

She was in a strange outfit. Her body language revealed "Don't even listen to me." Arisa smiled in embarrassment and wondered what she could say.

“That's true.”

With her head tilted aside, her wolf-ears also betrayed her mood, shrugging slightly downward.

The boy's eyes caught on the ears. She smelled like a wolf, but he wasn't sure in it. He slowly straightened up.

“Are you a half-demon too?”

“Something like that.” Arisa smiled again.

“Kougaaa!”  It sounded not so far away.

The noble pair usually arrived late compared to their leader. Ginta and Hakkaku slowed with panting, then stopped, leaning on their knees. In their wake, their wolves also hung their tongues. Arisa was unknowingly grateful for the arrival of the two boys dressed like Kouga. She was blocked in embarrassment, unable to maintain a more meaningful conversation anymore, they saved the situation for her.

She looked through their wolves. She had felt a special attachment to these animals since she was a child, which is why she was happy with her abilities “borrowed from them”. Shadow also took her off her feet when he adopted himself with her.

Word followed word.

Kagome enlightened Arisa that the wolf demons are kind of their allies. Then she remembered again to the demon at the waterfall.

"... our warriors ..." Did it mean them?

As the three boys said goodbye and moved away from them, Kagome immediately spotted the faint blush on her staring face, and grew a privy smile under her nose.

The next time when they ran into each other again, Ginta and Hakkaku were defeated by their curiosity. While Kouga was preoccupied with rivalry with Inuyasha and, of course, gaining Kagome's grace, they went there to Arisa with interest. She told them everything where she came from, what things had happened to her here.

“Seriously?! Did an ancient wolf spirit give you demon power?!

“Amazing!”

The two teams met several times during their journey, in which case the small trio, if they could, always talked. The wolves also began to receive the girl in their confidence. Lying and rest next to her, went to her in hopes of get love and caressing, which Arisa was happy to do. Over time, Kouga also noticed the thing. That is, most of all, how well she gets with those two kooky guys, but when he gets close to her, it’s like the blood in her veins freezes. When he spoke to her, she answered him, but when they met, she usually hid in the company of the other two. On one occasion, while talking to Kagome, his companions managed to make the other girl laugh, and her voice startled him. Involuntarily, he turned to the direction of Arisa. It was not conscious. He didn't even notice on himself. Unlikely Kagome.

#self insert #selfship #inuyasha #fanfiction #kouga #arisa #kougarisa

[nadezhda-wexler]

I Love The Way Your Body Moves, Towards Me From Across The Room.

 (heyaaa. So this has been going around in my head for the longest time and I finally wrote it. It's not the greatest thing ever, bit I hope you enjoy it. Also special shout out to @meepmorpperaltiago for reading through this and helping me with this. You rock!)

The first time it happened, it was an accident. Amy wasn’t used to the space and Jake already used ṭo the empty space. There were apologies all around, one laced with jitters about first impressions and the other with awkwardness around something new.

 As it went on (Jake’s restless legs would encroach Amy’s leg space and Amy’s incessant need to sit into the desk wasn't doing either any favours, too), the apologetic smiles kept going down and huffs, puffs and eye rolls proportionally increased. Of course, one’s (Amy’s) reaction only spurred the other(Jake) on. But Amy also grew up with seven brothers and knew exactly how to handle this man child. Even though his long legs gave him an advantage, Amy made sure her shoes were, pretty solid.

 But they grew, it stopped being just about fights. There were fights galore, but it became familiar, comforting. From deskmates to partners, they both found a kind of anchor in each other. On the days when Amy would become so lost in her own head, creating monsters that don’t exist, locking herself out, Jake would be there. He would be there with a  slight nudge and a quirked eyebrow or a small smile tell her it’s okay. It’s okay to make a mistake, to have a typo, to not close a case. Amy was also there. When the darkness blew out his happiness when he was too late, the victims too young, the sadness too familiar, she’d be right there. Her right foot pressed to his, assuring him he’s not alone.

 Over the years, as their partnership grew, their friendship grew, their something grew, they would find a thousand different ways to communicate. There’d be looks that could accuse, smiles that tease, touches that soothe, but it was the legs, impossibly close, constantly brushing, always hidden, that was was truly theirs (of course, if both made a little effort, lean back a little, tuck in a bit, it wouldn't happen, but whether or not it occurs to them, both never do it).

 After a ballroom dancing competition (where their legs met, brushed and much to Jake’s chagrin was constantly stamped on) and an unexpected parking lot confession, for six months, Amy was knocked off her axis. And while she missed everything, she probably missed this the most. And when he came back (after another confession), she kept to herself, held back, not knowing the new boundaries between them. But a single mother and a missing kid hit him, very hard and her right foot was pressed against his and it was like nothing had changed.

 But of course, it had. There was Teddy, Sophia, a disastrous double date, awkward feelings and undercover missions, all leading to a spectacular, spell-binding, axis-shifting kiss. And in a real date this time, when their legs touched under their table, it was goddamn electric.

 It was awkward in the beginning, both don’t deal well with changes, but after four drinks and a summer night walk later, she was pressed against his door. And this time when their lips met, hands touched and legs pressed, there were goosebumps all over her like she was a map unlocked, and Jake was determined to explore. And as she was being lulled to sleep that night, excited and exhausted, legs tangled, Amy could feel something had fundamentally shifted. But it was getting colder and forever was distant (light and breezy, her head kept chanting), and it’s like her legs have finally found their place, she pushed it all away and slept.        

#my writing #b99 fic #brooklyn nine nine #brooklyn 99 #jake x amy #jake peralta #amy santiago #fanfic

[ganymedesclock]

Okay so... I’ve gotten so distracted talking about the Atlas that I didn’t make a post about this beauty! Which is a crying shame. Because when it comes to the Hammerhead Robeast, as I call her, I have two major contentions:

1. Haggar has likely retrieved Sincline and is using Lotor’s designs and research for her own purposes, and the Hammerhead is merely a prototype for what’s to come

and

2. I don’t think the podded Altean removed from Hammerhead’s body was only a battery.

For point number one, well.. if you look at Hammerhead and you look at Sincline:

Look at the shoulder plates, look at the prongs on the feet, the lateral ‘fins’ on the head, the spines protruding from the center of the hips and the overall “hourglass figure” build of it. The “cuffs” on the wrists with fully articulated hands. The glowing ‘panes’ on the upper biceps.

Furthermore, you can compare Sincline’s favored two blade weapons:

to what the Hammerhead splits its scythe into:

Several of those pieces- the specific way the foot prongs are set up- are allusions to the generals’ armor, not something Haggar would put on a structure on her own. While other pieces of it highly resemble the upgraded sentries (its overall color scheme and face plate in particular) I can’t help but feel the Hammerhead was designed by Haggar looking at Sincline. Which she wouldn’t have seen back in s6 because Sincline was only assembled in full after she’d tapped her sleeper agent spy- Shiro- and he was in a totally different galaxy trying to kill Keith.

Haggar has retrieved Lotor from the rift. Collected him, as she collected the colony Alteans, and that’s most likely what she’s been so busy with while AWOL for four years with the druids and Sendak keeping all her enemies busy. With the Hammerhead being the fruit of her labors.

The Hammerhead has Haggar’s handiwork all over it. Its chest laser uses her unique black-on-purple energy scheme that we’ve never seen even other druids use, it’s explicitly compared to the Komar, her previous opus, and I was thinking about how much s1e3 and s7e13 mirror each other. Sendak is set up against the paladins and fails, his ship crashes... and Haggar rapidly retaliates by sending down a Robeast.

But it’s using Lotor’s designs, Lotor’s work, Lotor’s research. And, given the revelation of the Altean inside of it, the people Lotor wanted to protect- which was his goal, as he repeatedly says- he earnestly believed sacrificing a proportionately small number of the colony Alteans was his only means to stay in power to protect the rest of them.

That’s significant, because it raises the implication that Haggar’s use of Lotor’s work is likely against Lotor’s own wishes... but Haggar made it clear she was going to move ahead with this back in s6e5.

Remember:

Haggar’s primary objective with tapping Shiro as her spy was to bring Lotor to her. That’s why she started watching in s5e2, after her flashback about Lotor. In s6e5 she had Shiro leave a trap for the paladins but focus overwhelmingly on bringing Lotor and the Sincline ships to her. She didn’t have him stay behind and kill any of the people he took out.

Haggar put an awful lot of effort into that whole dramatic Honerva reveal and trying to talk Lotor to her side. As soon as he didn’t go for it, she got angry, and demanded the generals take him away from her, which makes two things clear: she wants Lotor, and she doesn’t care how Lotor feels about it- if he won’t walk into her arms as her son, he’ll stay as her prisoner.

She also outright commends Lotor for “continuing my work” which in and of itself suggests she’s got interest in what Lotor was doing on the colony and with Sincline- since she did want those ships.

It’s unlike Haggar to just passively give up on something she sunk that much effort and resources into. It’s unlike Haggar to give up on anything, unless she’s got a bigger fish to fry that will get her the same result. So I really doubt Acxa threatening her once with a shot that she effortlessly dodged was enough to make her give up on Lotor, who she’s been scheming after for a while.

And Haggar has a marked habit of attacking right at the end of a battle. As soon as her enemies are exhausted or don’t have any fight left in them.

Let’s think about how nicely s6 worked out for Haggar.

Lotor rejects her, sneers in her face, he’s adamantly her enemy, he doesn’t want her approval, and the last thing he’s gonna do is share his work and the people who he at least has mixed sentiments about wanting to protect with her. He actively challenges her that the end is near and he only might spare her.

And then Lotor rushes off, urgently, trying to reconnect with Allura, the generals, the rift, and three for three, they all fall through on him. Sincline has its defenses torn down by Voltron, who’s unable to stay in the area to secure it, Lotor’s alone, and very likely injured himself.

He’s in no state to fight a second drawn out battle against Haggar, who we caught only the faintest glimpse how vast Haggar’s forces are in s6e5.

Haggar could just pluck him out of the rift like an apple off the tree. She’s got Sincline, and she’s had enough time to study it. She may have even had Lotor’s “help” constructing Hammerhead, because it’s established that when the empire (both Slav and Sam Holt’s cases) or Haggar (the many allusions that druids can search people’s minds) really wants someone to design for them, they don’t take no for an answer.

So I would expect Lotor is alive and out of the rift, but, in one way or another, he’s either Haggar’s prisoner or her thrall.

Onto point number two:

Hammerhead doesn’t merely stand out compared to the other robeasts for her sheer power, but the versatility of her armaments and strategic cunning. Because the robeasts as we’ve seen them are one-trick ponies; Prorok as a galra comes up with rather ingenious tactics like we see in s1e7, while as a beast in s2e3, he operates exclusively by vacuum, laser, rinse and repeat. Drazil’s one trick is lasers. Myzax’s one trick is catching people between his own attacks and the energy ball.

They lack much imagination, and we never see them obviously take in and reconsider their environment.

But Mecha Zarkon, and Sincline have an edge in that category because the person inside hasn’t been turned into a monster, they’re still awake. They’re driving.

And Hammerhead is more like Sincline than Drazil in this regard. She obviously strategizes- uses very different tactics vs. Voltron and vs. Atlas. When Atlas first takes the battlefield in its combat form, Hammerhead backs far off and stays away from its blasts, then changes to hit and run moves using that bigger energy form sparingly and trying to hit Atlas in its blind spots, use its size and relative slowness against it.

Hammerhead has a broad diversity of weapons and makes use of all of them. With the implication being...

This person is not merely the beating heart of the Hammerhead beast... she was likely its mind as well. Voltron and Atlas weren’t fighting a robeast with a hostage... they were fighting her.

Which puts a whole new concerning edge on this stinger, and what’s going to happen in s8 when she wakes up. How conscious she was, how deliberate her attacks were... that she’s at least in some sense a victim is obvious to me because an exploitative, abusive person like Haggar doesn’t change her stripes, but if the Hammerhead fight is an indication of this lady’s personality, I’d expect her to be tenacious, clever, and aggressive by her own merits.

Especially because while I know I’ve been enthusiastically looking for a certain DotU Queen of Darkness in every mystery female character that shows up...

This is a pale-skinned redhead with “horns” positioned up and wide on her forehead with distinctive blue shoulder pads, pointed ears (since she is an Altean) and... just compare the line on Merla’s metal headpiece to the “shadow” on the pod Altean’s helmet, and the red, diamond-shaped “brooch” both of them have in the exact same place.

Which, incidentally, if this is correct, would be another thread pointing towards Lotor’s survival- since Merla mostly worked with Lotor. And it could also be very interesting since, if I recall correctly, there genuinely was a scene where Merla appealed to the paladins to try and get them to help Lotor (she questions them being defenders who are supposed to help anyone in need, no matter who it is, to which Lance fires back a “Lotor’s not a who, he’s a what” which IIRC Jeremy Shada actually recreated in his modern Lance voice once at fan request)

#voltron legendary defender #vld #Hammerhead Robeast #Mystery Altean #Lotor #Haggar #readmore

[artshmart]

1.JOURNALING

The Principals of Design

1.Unity & Variety

Unity & variety are opposites. Unity is the appearance of oneness such as a painted wall that’s only one color or monotone. It gives a sense of order. Meanwhile variety is diversity and sometimes even chaos. It’s like going to a good supermarket knowing they’ll have a huge variety of snacks or fruits in multiple colors and textures.

2.Balance

Balance is the peace we all seek. It’s the state something is in when it is perfectly even. The image of a yin and Yang symbol comes to mind with its perfect balance of dark and light. Balance in life and in art gives the feeling of harmony.

3.Emphasis & Subordination

Have you ever had a big red pimple on your face? That’s a natural example of emphasis and if your skin is extremely pale white it acts as a perfect subordinate to make the pimple pop in your school photo. You see emphasis is used in art to bring attention to a focal point and it works with subordinates to make an art piece what it is.

4.Directional Forces

Directional forces are an interesting part of art. Us humans like to fill in spaces that are implied or close but don’t touch. Our minds will fill in the blanks and follow them. This is what makes directional forces work they are implied or visible lines that our eyes naturally follow. I picture a close up of a dandelion from below blowing in the wind. Your eye would follow the straight line of the dandelion ending in a diagonal line of blowing dandelion seeds into the wind.

5.Repetition & Rhythm

Repetition and rhythm go together like peanut butter and jelly. Repetition is the tapping of the foot where as rhythm is the changes between those constant repetitions. I see repeating elements all the time such as in the cover art of my game cases. There is always a repeating element of the color and shape of the cases and the accompanying logos. Within those repeating elements lies a rhythm to each game case always coming in the same dimensions as others but changing the actual cover art per game for a unique experience with every game cover, but with familiar repeating elements found on all game cases for that particular system.

6.Scale & Proportion

The scale of something is a size compared to another size where as proportion is the size of something in relation to other parts of the same thing. The scale is adjustable on a scale of human to cat I’m a solid human size, but to my cat I’m giant and he’s normal. This is how scale works I’m big to my cat but he’s small to me. Proportion is like how most things in life are equally proportionate on both sides such as my tv. The proportions are even on each of its sides.

2. WRITING AND LOOKING

Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork, carpenter contains proportions with aman whose hands and head are larger for his body creating an older more tired look of the man. It also contains implied lines and focal points beginning with the eye line that takes you to the hands caw the wood. The frame is unbalanced leaving a third of the frame empty giving the piece a more solemn and serious look rather than a more centered framing that would make the carpenter look more interested in his work. As it stands the carpenter looks as if he’s working but thinking of something else with the empty space behind him.

3. CONNECTING ART TO YOUR WORLD

Color is a key part of the art making process, and has always been the hardest part for me. What color do you use? What color compliments another? And, why are there so many different shades and hues of the same color? Thoughts like these have prevented me from fully using color in my personal art work. I remember being in high school making a student film and having to make graphics in “LiveType” or “FinalCutPro” and opening the color tabs. There was a little grey box that opened with a circle of every color. You could drag a point across this circle, and it would change the font or graphics color based on the location of the point. What was cool for me was being able to drag this point all around and seeing the shades and hues change on whatever I was editing, and it allowed me to really appreciate how fun it could be to find just the right color for the opening title or snappy background to compliment the title font. Once you had your color picked there were even deeper editing tools that worked with sliders increasing a colors intensity or saturation to make for an edgier or more colorful look. All this still overwhelms me, yet I’ve remained interested and ready to dabble more in color. Learning more on complimenting colors and slight touches to enhance a art piece is my current goal when working with color.