#The caption is about the Demon Core by the way | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

x--daughters-of-darkness--x · 2 years

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NITA STRAUSS: 'Alcohol Was Extremely, Extremely Detrimental In My Personal Life'

During appearance on "Guitar Autopsy", the video podcast hosted by Rusty Cooley, ALICE COOPER guitarist Nita Strauss spoke about how she managed to lose 50 pounds and get sober while on tour back in 2015.

"My whole approach to sobriety and health and fitness is to educate but not ever force," she said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "I wouldn't ever want it to be, like, 'You have to stop drinking. You have to do cardio every day,' or whatever. All I can share is really what worked for me, and that was alcohol was extremely, extremely detrimental in my personal life.

"I got sober in 2015 and I basically just decided to make the most of it and said, 'If I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it right,'" she continued. "And I switched from going to the bar after the show to going to the Barbell in the morning, for lack of a better term. [Laughs] I hooked up with great bodybuilding coaches that [helped] me [with] my diet and my workout while I'm on the road. I use the right supplements, I eat the right food. I have dieticians at RP Strength, I have a workout coach, I take all the right supplements, I drink my green drinks, I take all my vitamins and I stay on track. And the more I did it, people in our community — the rock and metal community — were starting to ask how I did it. And I was writing these long captions on my phone: 'First things first, you drink a lot of water…' da da da. And so I thought why not inspire people to do more. So I created 'Body Shred'. And 'Body Shred' is the first fitness challenge that I know of that is aimed at the music community."

Nita celebrated the sixth anniversary of her getting sober this past September.

A year ago, Strauss credited her longtime boyfriend and manager Josh Villalta with helping her live her life without alcohol. At the time, she wrote: "I thought I needed a drink for just about everything. To be confident on stage. To be social after shows. To celebrate. To mourn. To take the edge off frustration or the sting out of a bad day. To relax and laugh at lunch with girlfriends, or watch football with the guys on Sundays. I was terrified that my life was going to change, that without alcohol I wouldn't be ME anymore, that I would lose my circle of friends, and my onstage charisma, and become someone else. ALL those things happened... but not in the way I thought they would.

"Change came first in my relationship, in the form of less fighting and drama, and more productivity, peace and love. Thank you @thejoshv for being the catalyst to the best thing I ever did for myself. I love you.

"The ME that I was before would have stayed up until 6 am at the bar or in the bus front lounge. The ME that I became would rather get up at 6 and get to the gym before starting the day.

"My busy circle of friends was almost immediately reduced to a core 3. I've learned that when it comes to friendships, quality is ALWAYS better than quantity. If your friends have no interest in spending time with you after you make a change for the better, they weren't your real friends.

"My first show without alcohol was in front of 15,000 people. I felt like a scarecrow someone had propped up on stage to scare birds. Nothing felt natural. I was going through the motions, with this absurd idea running through my head 'everyone is looking at me. Everyone knows.'

"I went out by the bus to talk to fans afterward, and do you know what they said? 'Wow you were so great! Where do you get all that energy? You add so much to Alice's band!'

"ALL of that insecurity, ALL the fears, ALL the doubt was in my head. Those are your demons that make you think you need them.

"I'm content to sit at the bar, order a soda water with lime and watch the game now. I wouldn't trade back to my old life for anything."

Back in 2018, Nita spoke openly about how she got finally sober in September 2015, saying that her boyfriend has always been "a tough-love type" in the way she approached her sobriety. "He's, like, 'Look, you're on this path, and I support you, but I'm not changing the way I do things at all," she explained in an interview with "Chasing Glory With Lilian Garcia". "And I'm kind of glad, in retrospect, that he did that, because it threw me into the fire and showed me, like, 'Hey, you can be [around people who are drinking] and not drink.' He has continued to drink throughout [this entire period], but he didn't want me to drink, because when I would drink, I would start fights and I would get emotional and I would overreact to stupid things, like you do when you drink — it's part of drinking; it heightens all your emotions and everything." Nita also revealed that she has never participated in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to help her stay sober.

Strauss has been playing with Alice Cooper since 2014 when she replaced Australian musician and former Michael Jackson player Orianthi. She joined Alice in time for a mammoth MÖTLEY CRÜE tour. She was recommended to Cooper by the legendary rocker's former bass player and WINGER frontman Kip Winger.

Nita's debut solo album, "Controlled Chaos", was released in 2018 via Sumerian Records. A follow-up effort will arrive next year.

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#Nita Strauss #2021 interviews

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lovehotelreservation · 4 years

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(Demons 'tween her thighs come and make them stand-Powerwolf) Band rivalry between you and Belial has always had underlying sexual tension. Headlining at the same event after Belial makes yet another flirtatious you finally snap. Dragging him back to your tour bus, you pin him and give him exactly what he wants (something about Belial just really make me want to top him idk man he’s so thirsty)

Headlining at Auguste Music Festival.

It was the dream for any rock band in the current day and age to realize into existence.

And yet, even after you sang your heart out to a sea of attendees who paid top dollar to enjoy the festival, you were pissed.

You couldn’t have asked for a better performance from yourself or your bandmates. No technical glitches, the crowd was lively and full of fans who knew the lyric to every song you performed--even the unreleased tracks that you played just for the fun of it.

Social media was ablaze with the name of your band trending across the world.

But it wasn’t merely because you put on one hell of show.

Rather, it was because Belial, the lead singer of Paradise Lost, was live-streaming himself standing to the side of the stage while you performed. From bluntly uttering out vulgar comments when you would so much as bend over while singing out to the crowd or twirl the microphone in your hands, to hungrily licking his lips when you would tug at the collar of your top to relieve yourself from how warm your body was becoming, he held not a sliver of shame while spectated by thousands of his fans and onlookers who hopped on once they saw his face on the trending page.

After all, it was a well known fact that there was a rivalry between your band and his, since the both of your groups began your rise to acclaim at the same time. You never hid your disdain when interviews would bring up Paradise Lost, especially as a means to compare your music with theirs, all while Belial--seemingly thrilled by how annoyed you were--would go on and on of how he prided himself on being an inspiration of sorts for your music.

HLAGHLKAGLHKA BELIAL REALLY NOT GIVING A FUCK OMGGG WE STAN A KINKY KING!!! AUGUSTE GIVING US THE DRAMA WE DESERVE!!!

It was one of the many comments that was displayed on your screen as you scrolled through social media on your phone.

Having since retreated from the stuffy Auguste heat of the open-air mainstage to the enclosed chilled air of your tour bus, you did what you could to bring yourself down from the rage that spiked through your blood upon realizing what was going on online.

And shutting up Belial was the first step towards some much needed tranquility.

Not even making it to one of the tour bunk beds, you had him sprawled upon his back on the floor. With your thighs on either side of his head, you kept him pinned beneath you while your hips pressed down against his face, your dribbling core planted right over his awaiting lips. One of your hands kept a firm grip on his wrists while anchoring them to the ground, the fingers of the other swiping through your timeline to like and share fan photos, videos, and comments.

As much as an arrogant, shamelessly depraved individual that he was, at least Belial wasn’t lying from all those encounters where he would purr into your ear on how he knew how to put his tongue to good use.

For every touching fan comment you read that made your heart swell, the quick circling of Belial’s tongue circling around your clit made your breath hitch.

“Enjoying the appetizer, baby~? Just wait until we get to the main course~”

The swipes against your core came to a pause, with those words just spoken to you hummed against your inner thigh. You could feel a shift beneath, which--with a glance back--was due to Belial eagerly bucking up his hips, having your eyes shift to the large bulge that had formed and was protruding through the intricately designed leather of his pants.

Your phone still in hand, you reached to grab at a handful of his hair as you readjusted your hips, planting more of your weight against his face. Ignoring his pitifully delighted groan, you huffed out, “Don’t get any ideas. This is just to shut you up.”

He obliged, the drags and licks of his tongue far more frequent and eager, seemingly enthused by your taking charge.

As your back arched against his mouth, you released his hair to continue searching through social media.

The next post you encountered was a screencap of Belial’s livestream, of him grinning to the camera while he made a heart with his thumb and index finger while you were in the foreground, all with the caption of “i wish these two would get along :((( they could be so powerful together if they collabed!!”

You turned your head back towards his hips, your gaze lingering on his stiff erection, which just looked so constrained within his pants.

Your mind weighed the options of having his body on yours after years of rejecting his stupid boldly flirtatious ways.

Switching off your phone, you set it on the ground before you released a contemplative sigh as your fingers reached for the hem of your top.

“...If we do more than this, you better shut your mouth forever.”

Belial grinned.

Like he could ever bite his tongue around you.

#belial #belial (gbf)#granblue fantasy #gbf #reader insert #Hoechella #super freaknasty writing #Anonymous #management will return in a queue minutes

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nutty1005 · 4 years

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How “The Untamed” reversed its fate, Xiao Zhan went the hard way in his depiction of Wei Wuxian

Original Article: https://www.weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404476523863212216#_0 Original Author: 乍暖已寒 (Published by: 爱战DAYTOY_1005)

(TN: The Untamed was based off the novel “Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” or “Mo Dao Zu Shi / 魔道祖师”. Bringing this novel to the silver screen had its fair share of troubles and many did not look kindly at this project in 2018, nor believed that it would fair well in China.)

I have said this before – when a new top celebrity with stunning good looks appears onto the scene, immediately accompanying it will be forceful criticisms of his/her acting. Xiao Zhan, who burst into fame because of The Untamed, is no exception to this as well.

Endless negative articles, out-of-context screen snaps with negative captions (e.g. the first 3 episodes where he had to act as Mo Xuanyu, a lunatic), slowed down GIFs, or even insinuating special effects… they really tried their best to smear his acting.

Just this once though, Xiao Zhan prevailed despite all of these. The endless waves of well-prepared negative articles did not prevent Xiao Zhan’s acting chops from appearing on Weibo’s trending topics (instead of his appearance). His unforeseen, exceptional performance in The Untamed proved them wrong – such a great refute to their efforts!

Xiao Zhan’s Exceptional Moments

He had multiple different ways in handling his crying scenes, and they were all able to invoke a lot empathy in his audiences. There were tears of helplessness, tears of doubt, tears of pain, tears of false bravado, tears like that of a lost child – and every teardrop touched his audiences’ hearts.

This scene was my personal favorite – it was as painful as it was beautiful. Besides grief and hopelessness, you could also sense Wei Wuxian’s helplessness, and it became extra heartbreaking. Yes, many would always forget that beneath the all powerful Yiling Patriarch, he was merely a teenage boy, and he had just lost his home.

Besides his crying scenes, Xiao Zhan also had similar delicacy and accuracy in managing the character’s psychology – for example, the scene which Wei Wuxian discovers the method to transfer the Golden Core. At the moment of discovery, he was filled with exultation, but the joy in his eyes slowly dimmed down, ending with relief. There was this sliver of sadness amidst the jubilation but it was quietly set aside.

Xiao Zhan used his “eyes acting” to great effect, and performed the series of complex emotions perfectly – from the discovery of a cure, to understanding that someone has to sacrifice his Golden Core, to deciding that he would be this person. This made the audiences want to ask, “What about you? What is going to happen to you?”

I also admired Xiao Zhan’s attention to details in the scene where Wei Wuxian brings Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli to Yiling Supervisory Hold – he was like a helpless prey trapped at a dead end.

Wei Wuxian was just an child when his family perished, and he had just went through another massacre – there was simply too much death and bloodshed. He was high strung and any bit of provocation could make him lose his rationality. He was instinctively biting his teeth and shaking as he forced himself to protect his only remaining kin.

In fact, after leaving behind the first 10 episodes of happy-go-lucky, Xiao Zhan had countless exceptional moments such as these. I could not even finish describing 10% of them in this long article of mine. For someone who was the lead actor for the first time, his future is really filled with endless possibilities.

As such, I could not even fathom why someone would blindly mock Xiao Zhan’s acting, even more so than when someone mocks his appearance. For someone who could weep while script reading with his fellow actors, how could he be someone with “zero acting chops”?

“Empathic” Style of Performance

The most apt words I can use to describe Xiao Zhan’s acting are “graceful” and “touching” – there appears to be no discourse to his acting, but yet his acting draws empathy and his characterization extremely believable.

To an actor, this is a solution, but this is one of the dumbest method as this is also one of the most harmful method. This is because this method requires the actor to breakdown his personality and restructure himself to suit his character. It makes entering and exiting the role extra difficult – every teardrop is created from the actor’s blood and soul.

To me, I am an extremely sensitive viewer and I like the acting to be natural; I cannot accept any bit of deliberation. I do not like it when performance leaves a trace of the techniques used, instead this “dumb” method is what that can touch me – to become one with the character.

This is probably why this silly child could weep like this during script reading. He might really be a natural born actor, but also a gentle angel – what kind of soul resides in him? How is he able to empathize entirely with Wei Wuxian such that he could tear up like this? Who would not love this boy, who is naturally extraordinary, but yet also incredibly compassionate?

He Understands Wei Wuxian

And because he understood the true meaning behind “becoming Wei Wuxian”, so he understood him even in the smallest details.

Have you ever wondered how Wei Wuxian was like beneath the manically cool Yiling Patriarch and suave youngster?

Firstly, he was an insecure person.

Below is from the author’s Weibo:

His childhood as a stray set the tone for him as person who is always filled with uncertainties – he will subconsciously attempt to change his facade in order to please his loved ones.

And it is evident that Xiao Zhan understands this – you can see that Wei Wuxian has a different facade when dealing with different people. To Jiang Cheng, he is his best buddy; To Nie Huaisang, he tries to be the friend who leads him astray; To Jiang Yanli, he is unashamedly a child begging for praises; To Madam Jiang, he is the most proper and obedient student.

In fact, this scene of an obedient Wei Wuxian gave me more affirmation that Xiao Zhan knows Wei Wuxian, more than any of his crying scenes. (Madam Jiang appeared, and he was the first person who stood up, in apprehension.)

Secondly, he puts up a false front.

Before the broadcast of the drama, Xiao Zhan gave an interview which caused displeasure among part of the novel fans. He said “Too many crying scenes, Wei Wuxian cried too much.” Some of these agitated fans expressed that Wei Wuxian was actually a cheerful happy-go-lucky person, he does not like to cry – he only cried twice in the books, Xiao Zhan must not understand his character!

However, is that really so? Evidently not. The novel was written from Wei Wuxian’s angle, therefore the story was told to us by Wei Wuxian, and hence we are actually reading his version of the story.

When you think about it, how is it possible for Wei Wuxian to not be devastated at the massacre of Jiang Family, the death of his brother-in-law due to his misstep, the death of Jiang Yanli, who took the sword on his behalf, or his own death, where he despaired and allowed himself to be devoured by ghosts? It is definitely not possible, but why were these not described in the books? Because, Wei Wuxian, who liked to put on a false front, decided to sidestep these in his own version.

Yes, our Wei Wuxian was the sort of person who only spoke of the good, but never the bad. No matter how much trauma he suffered physically or mentally, he kept smiling and kept his false front. He always looked like nothing mattered to him and he never suffered.

Hence, when he was battered and wounded by the demonic dog in the drama, despite being covered in wounds, after he took a bite of the bun he got from Jiang Cheng, he smiled brilliantly and said “delicious”. This part made me cry for him – I felt so much for this stubborn child.

Below is why, I was sure from the beginning that Xiao Zhan would do a good portrayal of Wei Wuxian. He told Wei Wuxian at the end of The Untamed shooting to “cherish yourself more, stop putting on a false front”.

He really knew him. He really felt for him.

He came from a boyband, he had no professional acting training, he did not even have much experience in acting, but he lived up to Wei Wuxian.

In the End

Finally I wanted to say, analyzing anyone’s acting using static pictures, GIFs or even short video clips, without script or character context, are all biased analysis. True performance is not pieced together by short clips, but by complete characterization. As such, perhaps my article may just be as truthful as those gossip articles online. You are welcomed to watch The Untamed in order to truly understand how Xiao Zhan did.

#xiao zhan #sean xiao #xiaozhan #肖战

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raibebe · 4 years

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Triple Threat

Genre: Smut Words: 4722 Prompt: Meanie threesome, female reader Warnings: Meanie/Wongyu (member x member, you have been warned), dom/sub undertones, oral (female and male receiving), light cumplay, light degradation(?), daddy kink

A/N: Most of this was written in one sitting until 2am in @min-inu‘s DMs to attack her. Long story short: She didn’t stop me, I got possessed by the smut demon once again and originally wrote 2.6k straight up PWP smut in her DMs. But fear not, I cleaned it up and hopefully fished out all my typos and grammar errors and fixed the beginning so it has a minimum amount of plot and also it’s suddenly over 4k. Oopsie.

The three of you had been riled up all day, starting when Mingyu had sent a selca to your group chat after his shower in the morning when Wonwoo and you had already left the house for your classes. Not only was Mingyu winking at the camera but he hadn’t bothered to put on any clothes, the reflection in the fogged up mirror clearly showing his naked ass in all its glory. But what really put the cherry on top was his caption: No one was there to play with me this morning, so I had to do it myself. Wonwoo’s answer came almost immediately: If you behave like this no one will play with you tonight either, puppy. But I dreamed about the two of you, Mingyu replied and you could vividly imagine the way he probably was pouting right now. What did you dream about, puppy? You asked before the elder could scold him further. You both were sucking me off so well, always stopping when I was about to cum and then you kissed so messily right between my legs. You edged me until I was trembling and crying out for you. But right when Wonu promised to let me come, I woke up all hot and bothered and alone, Mingyu wrote. “Fuck,” you cursed under your breath, feeling yourself getting aroused just from the words alone. I’ll keep that in mind, puppy, Wonwoo answered after a while, adding a picture of himself sitting in the lecture hall, smirking at the camera, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

You had no idea how you made it through all of your classes and through your shift at work when Mingyu kept sending pictures throughout the day. Some with more, some with less clothing. He really shouldn’t be left alone on his day off, shamelessly sending videos of how he was palming himself through his sweats before pulling them down just enough so you could see the flush head of his cock. Don’t you dare cum again before we are home, puppy, Wonwoo scolded him but added a picture of his own hard on visible through his tight jeans.

You were always shy about sending pictures yourself but felt a flash of bravery when you changed out of your work clothes in the locker room and snapped a picture of the pretty white lingerie you were wearing. The reactions of your boyfriends came within seconds. Can’t wait to rip that off of you, angel, Wonwoo wrote. Don’t make us wait any longer or we need to get started without you, Mingyu teased. Grinning at your phone, you quickly got dressed and hurried home despite knowing that Wonwoo would never let Mingyu start anything until all three of you were home.

When you finally arrived home, Wonwoo was already waiting for you in the hallway, pulling you into a deep kiss. “Welcome home angel,” he whispered against your lips before stealing another kiss. “Have you eaten yet?” “Yes, there were so much leftovers at work,” you answered while shedding your jacket and slipping out of your shoes. “Great, I don’t think Mingyu can wait any longer,” Wonwoo chuckled, wrapping his arms around your waist and pressing little kisses along your neck and jaw. Sighing you leaned back against his slender yet strong frame. “Are you going to punish him?” “Not today,” he said, releasing you from his grip and taking your hand instead, pulling you along to your shared bedroom, “He was so patient and obedient when I got home. I think he should get to play with you a little.”

As soon as you two entered the bedroom, Wonwoo went ahead and pulled his shirt over his head and gently pushed you towards the bed where Mingyu was already waiting, naked except for his dark boxers. “Go ahead, puppy, she’s all yours,” Wonwoo told him, sitting down in the big armchair facing the bed. Like the eager puppy the younger truly was, he wasted no time to pull you onto his lap and connected your lips in a kiss that could only be described as desperate. “I missed you so much today, baby,” he whined against your lips, letting his hands slip under your skirt to grope your ass, making you gasp and feel just how much he missed you. “You are so hard already,” you teased, running your hands over his strong chest, brushing your thumbs over his nipples before pressing kisses along his strong jawline.

“All because of that pretty picture you send,” he rasped, breath hitching when you gently raked your teeth over his Adam’s apple. “Let me see that pretty body of yours.” “What’s the word, puppy?” Wonwoo cut in from where he was watching the two of you. “Please,” Mingyu whined, bucking his hips up into your clothed core, making you both moan out. “Come on angel, be good for our little puppy,” the eldest cut in again, his voice gentle yet unyielding.

Slipping out of Mingyu’s embrace, you quickly pulled off your top and slipped out of your skirt, leaving you in the lingerie you had shown them before, a slight blush creeping up your cheeks when you felt their eyes raking up and down your body. “Lay down, angel. Let Mingyu make you feel good,” Wonwoo instructed, while taking off his glasses, carefully setting them aside. The simple action somehow always made you feel hot all over, arousal rushing to your core.

When you had settled onto the pillows of the bed, Mingyu wasted no time, to attach his mouth to your neck, sucking a dark bruise onto the skin right next to another fading mark that you had covered with makeup. “Don’t like it when you cover them,” he growled, his large hands massaging your breasts roughly through the fabric of your bralette before raking his sharp teeth over your collarbone, nipping at the skin of your cleavage. “Mingyu, don’t,” you whined, but arched into his touch anyways. He knew that you had told him not to mark you up where it couldn’t be covered with clothes countless times but he never listened, couldn’t resist the smooth skin of your neck.

Instead of answering, he made quick work of your bralette, all but ripping it off you, immediately attaching his lips to one of your nipples, tearing a surprised moan from your lips. He gently grazed his teeth over the nub before soothing it with his tongue while rolling the other one between his fingers. You threw your head back in pleasure, your hands immediately finding Minguy’s dark hair, threading through the thick strands to press him close. Sneaking one of his hands between your bodies, Mingyu quickly found your clothed clit, rubbing it in quick circles, tearing a loud groan from your lips.

“Don’t make her cum yet, puppy,” Wonwoo warned from his place in the armchair, making you whine and turn your head to pout at him. But he just grinned , his pants pushed down to reveal his hard cock. “Come here,” you whined, releasing Mingyu’s hair to make grabby hands at your other boyfriend. “I don’t think you have earned it yet, angel,” he chuckled, “Take her panties off, puppy.” Gladly obeying, Mingyu pressed one last kiss to your chest before kissing his way down your body, nipping at your hipbones before slowly pulling off your soaked panties with his teeth. When he pulled it off of you, he threw it into Wonwoo’s direction before kissing up your legs, sinking his teeth into the soft flesh of your thighs, leaving dark marks but always avoided your throbbing core. “Please,” you whined, bucking your hips up, thrashing when Mingyu pinned them to the bed.

Sighing deeply, Wonwoo got up from his armchair, slipping out of his pants and boxers, his cock standing up proud when he walked over to the bed, kneeling down beside Mingyu, just out of your reach. “Come here puppy,” he beckoned Mingyu over, grabbing him by the longer strands of hair on the back of his head, so he could connect their lips in a messy kiss, licking into Mingyu’s mouth. A high pitched whine left Mingyu’s lips when the elder pulled just a bit harder on the strands of hair, forcing him to crane his neck even more, making his back arch all pretty. Chuckling into the kiss, Wonwoo let his other hand slip over the younger’s chest, twisting one of his nipples, making a broken groan leave Mingyu’s lips. Sliding his hand even lower, he pressed the heel of his palm against Mingyu’s hard on, palming him not so gently over his boxers where a wet spot had already formed. “Such a good puppy,” he breathed against the others lips. A breathy curse left your lips, seeing the two of your boyfriend’s making out always turned you on beyond believe and you loved watching them but you just really needed to be touched right now. “Please touch me,” you whined, desperately rubbing your legs together for at least some kind of friction.

But while Mingyu tried to wiggle out of Wonwoo’s grip to touch you again, Wonwoo was having none of that, pulling his hair so the younger was forced to bear his neck to him. immediately sucking a dark purple bruise onto the beautiful tanned skin, growling deep in his chest when the other went pliant in his hold and let out a mewl of pleasure. “Lay back, puppy,” Wonwoo ordered and with a whine the younger complied, lying down beside you, looking up at his boyfriend with dark eyes, the pupil overtaking the iris almost completely. “My little babies, both so eager to please,” Wonwoo chuckled.

“Wonwoo, please,” you tried to pursue him, but he shut you up by just raising his eyebrow and giving you a disapproving look. “Daddy,” Mingyu tried instead, batting his long eyelashes at his boyfriend. “See, this is how good boys and girls should behave,” Wonwoo spoke, running his pale hands over Mingyu’s tanned chest, brushing his thumbs over his sensitive nipples. “And good boys deserve a reward,” he continued, pulling Mingyu’s boxers off his long legs, making his already hard cock slap wetly against his toned stomach. “Such a good and eager boy,” Wonwoo cooed, settling between the taller’s broad thighs to suck a mark into his inner thigh, making him mewl in pleasure.

“I’ll make it up to you daddy, I promise. I can be a good girl for you too,” you whined, rubbing your thighs together, desperate for some kind of friction. “But good girls know when to shut up and wait for their turn,” Wonwoo said calmly, not even bothering to look at you, focused on decorating Mingyu’s groin in lovebites, making the younger shake with effort not to buck his hips to chase the warmth of the other’s mouth. “I’m sorry daddy,” you tried again, shifting on the bed to sit up on your knees to give your boyfriend your best innocent look.

“I don’t think you are sorry at all,” he snarled, finally looking at you while stroking Mingyu’s cock, who was trying to keep his moans down, biting down hard on his bottom lip. “I think you just want to rile me up, so you can have all my attention when you don’t even deserve it.” You couldn’t help the small smirk that formed on your lips, you were sure you had won this time. “But it’s working, isn’t it?” You dared to ask.

Grabbing your hair with his unoccupied hand and yanking it sharply so you were forced to bear your neck to your boyfriend, he growled deep in his chest, before biting down on the soft flesh of your throat, leaving his own marks next to the ones Mingyu had already left. “I think I need to teach you a lesson of who exactly is in charge here, babygirl,” he breathed against your abused skin. “And I know just what will make you shut up.” Using the grip he had on your hair, he pushed you down hard so you were level with the flushed tip of Mingyu’s cock.

“So tell me, babygirl, is your mouth good for anything else besides talking back?” Wonwoo challenged you, slapping your boyfriend’s cock against your lips, smearing the precum that had already leaked. Mingyu, who had just watched the whole scene with wide eyes, groaned loudly, throwing his head back against the pillows. “Fuck, you are so hot like this daddy,” he whispered, a glassy look to his eyes. Chuckling, Wonwoo turned towards him and gently took his larger hand to guide it to grab onto your hair instead. “Get ready for your reward, puppy.”

The oldest didn’t need to tell Mingyu or you anything else. When Mingyu firmly threaded his fingers through your hair and pushed you down to swallow his cock, both of you let out moans of pleasure. The vibrations your moan send to his cock made him buck up into your hot mouth uncontrolled, making you choke. “I’m so sorry,” he apologized, pulling you off of him. But Wonwoo’s slender fingers didn’t let him, instead pushing you down again. “No need to hold back puppy,” he said, “She likes having her mouth stuffed with cock.”

Letting out a sound that could only be described as a desperate whine, Mingyu gave in to his pleasure and bobbed your head up and down his length, his eyes fixed to how obscenely your lips were stretched around his girth and how your eyes started to water. He wasn’t small by any means but you took him into your mouth so eagerly, letting your jaw go slack and sucking harshly whenever he pulled you back up, desperate to please him, fighting back your gag reflex as best as you could. “Just look at how desperate both of you are,” Wonwoo chuckled while stroking his own neglected cock.

“Daddy, I’m so close,” Mingyu whined, his hips stuttering, loosing their rhythm. It filled you with a weird sense of pride how fast he was falling apart under your skilled tongue. Messy blowjobs had always been his weakness, loving the way your spit mixed with his precum was staining your lips and the obscene sounds you were making. “You are such a good boy Mingyu,” Wonwoo cooed, swiping his boyfriend’s sweaty bangs from his forehead, the praise making the younger mewl. “Will you promise to be a good boy for daddy and take everything he’ll give you?” “Yes daddy, I’ll take anything. Please let me cum, please,” Mingyu whined, his eyes screwed shut and breathing heavy from trying to fight back his orgasm. “Cum for daddy, puppy. Paint her pretty face for me.” Wonwoo didn’t need to tell Mingyu twice. Just when the words had left his lips, Mingyu pulled you off of him roughly and you felt his hot cum hit your face while he let out a broken scream that could have been either yours or Wonwoo’s name. Grinning you made a show of licking the cum that had covered your lips and proudly showed your tongue before swallowing it.

“Such a good boy,” Wonwoo praised, helping Mingyu through his orgasm, stroking him until the younger squirmed in overstimulation. “It’s too much daddy,” he whined, trying to squirm away from the stimulation. “You promised to take it, puppy,” Wonwoo reminded him, but let go of his spend cock, to yank you up by your hair again, taking in your wrecked look.

Tears were drying on your face along with Mingyu’s cum, the sight making Wonwoo growl deep in his chest. “You did so well babygirl,” he praised, capturing your lips in an open mouthed kiss before licking the cum off your face, feeding it to you in a messy swirl of tongues. You couldn’t help but feel proud when you looked over to where Mingyu laid on the bed, chest heaving with heavy breaths, his eyes still dark and his spend cock twitching with interest as he watched you two kiss messily, his cum now also staining Wonwoo’s face.

“Don’t you think our little girl deserves a reward, puppy?” He asked him, while sneaking one of his hands between your legs, running his fingers through your wet folds, making you whimper. “She’s gotten so wet just from sucking you off,” he grinned, showing Mingyu his glistening fingers before sucking them into his mouth to lick them clean. “She’s basically dripping.” “Fuck,” Mingyu cursed, “Please let her sit on my face daddy, want it so badly.”

Now it was your time to whine. If Mingyu was good at one thing it was eating you out. “Please daddy, I’ll be so good I promise. I’ll do anything you say. Please. I sucked Mingyu off so well, please, I-“ Any further pleas got stuck in your throat when Wonwoo pressed down his thumb on your clit and circled it around the bundle of nerves, a broken moan leaving your lips instead. “Shhh, babygirl. How could I deny you anything if you ask so nicely?” He chuckled and nodded his head.

It was almost comical how fast you scrambled to crawl over to Mingyu, to straddle his face. With shaking thighs you held yourself above him, looking down at him, his black hair fanned out on the pillow, his eyes glued to your glistening core. “Take a seat, baby,” he rasped before he cupped your thighs with his big hands, guiding you down onto his tongue.

When he first dragged his skillful tongue through your folds, a blissful mewl left your lips and you threw your head back. “You taste so good baby,” Mingyu murmured, his hot breath fanning over your core making you shiver. “Need you,” you whined, grabbing the headboard to support yourself. Not replying, your boyfriend instead dragged his tongue over your entrance, barely pushing it inside, pulling a groan from your throat. But before you could complain to Wonwoo about the teasing, Mingyu stretched his jaw wide and pushed his tongue past your entrance, eagerly lapping up your juices, exploring your velvety walls, tearing moan after moan from your lips.

When you heard the familiar click of the lube bottle, you knew exactly why Wonwoo had allowed Mingyu to eat you out like this and you couldn’t help but smirk down at the man nestled between your thighs, stroking one of your hands through his soft strands to get his attention. “You’re so lucky, puppy.” Before he could even think about pulling off of you to reply, Wonwoo had already coated his fingers in a generous amount of lube and slid the first finger into Mingyu, whose surprised moan vibrated deep inside your core, making you clench around him and moan in return. “Oh, my babies, what a beautiful sight,” Wonwoo rasped, his already deep voice dropping another octave, gently working his finger in and out of Mingyu. “But babygirl, don’t let our puppy do all the work, ride his face like the good girl I know you are.”

Wonwoo’s lust clouded voice made it impossible to disobey him, the sound alone pushing you closer to your orgasm. Nodding eagerly, you braced your hands on Mingyu’s tanned chest after uncurling his hands from your thighs and placing them on your boobs instead, your height difference making it easy for him to knead to soft flesh. Arching your back and pressing into his touch, you began to grind your hips against his face, chasing your orgasm that you felt steadily building.

When Mingyu suddenly jerked beneath you accompanied by a loud moan, most likely when Wonwoo had found his prostate and his nose accidentally brushed against your clit, a shock of pleasure went through your whole body and you felt something inside you snap, making you grind your hips harder, desperate for release.

“You’re so cute babygirl, desperately trying to find your release. You want to cum?” Wonwoo chuckled behind you, working his fingers in and out of Mingyu in a smooth rhythm, admiring how his cock was already hard again, resting heavy against his abdomen. “Yes daddy, please. I’m so close,” you moaned, feeling your thighs already shaking. “Come for us, baby.” You weren’t sure who of your boyfriends had spoken the magic words when your orgasm finally crashed over you and your vision went white for a second, your whole body buzzing and shaking with pleasure, thighs clamping around Mingyu’s head who eagerly lapped up your release, moaning loudly himself.

“Thank you,” you murmured weakly, your voice sounding hoarse when Mingyu lifted your still trembling thighs and pressed a gentle kiss to your clit, making you jolt in his hold.

If he wouldn’t have held you up, you were sure you would have suffocated him between your thighs. You felt like all your bones had suddenly turned to rubber. Everything seemed cloudy when you went pliant in Mingyu’s strong hold and all but collapsed on his chest, nuzzling against his jaw until he craned his neck to kiss you deeply despite the weird angle. You could still taste yourself on his tongue but you couldn’t care less.

Grinning Wonwoo had removed his fingers from Mingyu and playfully slapped your ass. “No passing out now, babygirl,” he chuckled, grabbing the bottle of lube again and slicking up his own cock, hissing when he finally felt some kind of friction. “Babygirl, can you ride Mingyu’s cock for me? He got all hard again just from a bit of fingering and eating you out,” he asked with a voice that sounded way too casual for what he was suggesting. “Mmmmh can’t feel my legs,” you murmured but reached behind you to grab Mingyu’s cock regardless, guiding it to your still throbbing core. “Such a good girl,” Wonwoo praised, winding his arms around your waist to pull you upright again, your back resting against his chest. He pressed a couple of sweet kisses along your shoulder, running his hands all over your chest before wrapping his slender fingers around your throat. Not squeezing just yet, just a sweet promise of what he could do, showing what power he had over you.

“You two are going to be the death of me,” Mingyu groaned, not knowing if he should buck his hips up, so he could sink his cock into your wet core or if he should push back to where Wonwoo’s cock was resting at his stretched entrance. Chuckling darkly, Wonwoo pinched one of your nipples between his fingers, making you squirm. “Like what you see, puppy?” Mingyu could only grunt in affirmation because Wonwoo chose this exact moment to finally sink into Mingyu’s tight heat all while gently pushing you onto Mingyu’s dick as well. Your moans mixed with those of your boyfriends when they both finally bottomed out. “Fuck, I’m not gonna last long like this,” the taller cursed, his fingers twisting in the sheets.

“Me neither, fuck. How are you always this tight?” Wonwoo groaned, slowly fucking into Mingyu to get the younger accustomed, who writhed and squirmed beneath him and inside you in turn, making his cock press against your walls just how you liked it. “Fuck me like you mean it daddy,” Mingyu dared his boyfriend, a wicked grin on his face when he rolled his hips, tearing moans from both of you. “I don’t want to hear any complaints that you can’t walk tomorrow,” Wonwoo replied before sharply snapping his hips forward, the sound of skin slapping on skin mixing with the lewd sounds all three of you were letting out.

You didn’t know where you took the strength to lift yourself off of Mingyu to ride his cock in time with Wonwoo’s strong thrusts but you knew all the muscle ache was going to be worth it when you saw the blissed out expression on Mingyu’s face, his eyes unfocused and head thrashing.

Just when you felt your second orgasm threaten to wash over you, Mingyu let out a particular loud scream of pleasure, his hips bucking up into you a couple of times before his whole body seized up, his back arching off the bed obscenely and you felt him release deep inside of you. Seconds later you heard Wonwoo cursing behind you, when Mingyu clamped down around him, triggering the elder’s orgasm deep inside the younger. Just the sight of Mingyu spread out beneath you, completely fucked out and Wonwoo muttering sweet filth into your ear was enough for you to fall over the edge again, screaming both your boyfriend’s names when your orgasm washed over you and you shook in Wonwoo’s strong hold before you collapsed onto Mingyu’s sweaty chest, making his cock slip from your core. Cursing Wonwoo also pulled out of Mingyu and watched in awe how his and Mingyu’s come ran down your bodies, adding to the mess you all had made.

“Fuck, you both are so gorgeous,” he smiled, fondly running a hand over Mingyu’s spread thighs. “Shut up, we are probably filthy,” Mingyu laughed when you had rolled off of him and collapsed next to him onto the mattress. “You know that’s how I like my babies the best,” Wonwoo chuckled, pressing sweet kisses to both of your foreheads before disappearing to find a wet cloth to clean you both up quickly.

“Come cuddle, Wonu,” you murmured from where you were cuddled up against Mingyu, making grabby hands at him. Chuckling he climbed behind you, pulling the big blanket over the three of you. “I love you,” he whispered into the darkness of the room, only earning affirmative grunts as an answer but he knew that Mingyu and you did feel the same for him.

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verus-veritas · 5 years

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Collan's Caption This Catch Up

I was obsessed with Cullen McCathers. Coming to live in a college dorm after years of a hermit-like high school existence was culture shock. Back home I was the weird, skinny nerd, the token gay social outcast who did his best to avoid the rest of the small-minded, small town denizens who were all too willing torment the obvious outsider given the slightest opportunity, never mind that I had been born there just like the rest of them. So I had made sure the opportunities they got were few and far between, and I had assumed I would continue staying out of the way in college. Keeping my head down was a winning strategy. Why mess with success? What I hadn't counted on was the reality of being forced to live cheek-by-jowl with a seeming unending parade of ideal male bodies. Within the first hour I was overwhelmed by them. On the paths of the campus they walked, in the lounges of the dorm they casually relaxed, in the halls they fist bumped with their bros, and one in particular even invaded my room. I had requested a single room and had thought it had gotten approved, but in typical bureaucratic fashion I showed up on the first day of Freshman orientation to find someone already occupying an obvious double room. I had a roommate. Cullen McCathers. From that very first day, I discovered that even though he spoke to me in a friendly enough fashion and I apparently responded appropriately to the conversation, none of it really registered. He remained a remote and unattainable object despite our sharing a living space, because my thoughts, my gaze, the core of my very being seemed to be pulled into his orbit on a visceral level. He was muscled and toned like a fitness model, and he had a strong face that lit up when he smiled. His voice was sexy, his eyes were sexy, his walk was sexy. His scent, whenever I managed to get a whiff of it, drove me wild with desire, and after watching him unself-consciously change in our room to go take a shower, I knew he was hung so big that I wondered how he dealt with all of that meat in his crotch on a daily basis.

Within a day my universe shifted, and he became its center. He filled my waking fantasies and starred in my nightly dreams.

I was obsessed with Cullen McCathers. ***********

I guess my capability for intense mental concentration and focus, coupled with the depth of my obsession helped trigger the beginning of it. Each night I would think of Cullen as I drifted off to sleep, going over in detail the fragments of him I had collected in my mind that day, cherishing the nape of his neck, the swell of his bicep, the revelation of his tongue darting out to moisten dry lips. I yearned for him and cast myself towards him with wild abandon in my head. And then one night a couple of weeks into the semester, I felt myself drift off to sleep as usual with thoughts of Cullen filling my head, like the proverbial visions of sugarplums, but instead of my consciousness slipping away until morning, it slipped sideways instead and I found myself hovering just off the floor next to Cullen's sleeping body. I looked across the room towards my bed, if what I did can be called looking, seeing as I was a bodiless consciousness, and I saw my own body just where I would have expected to see it, lying and breathing gently in slumber. I was surprisingly unconcerned with what was undoubtedly a highly unusual occurrence. Instead, I was fascinated by what was happening and started to examine my disembodied self. I seemed to perceive some sort of silvery cord leading back to my body, and a scrap of information surfaced from my endless eclectic reading over the years. Astral projection. This is what this was. I had written it off as new age crap, but here was proof to me that not only was it not crap, but I had somehow managed to achieve it. I turned back to look at Cullen and saw the same silvery cord stretching out of his body and out through the wall, anchoring his dream self to his physical self as he journeyed through the night. The instant I realized this, my thoughts became action, and I flew out of the room through the wall, following Cullen's silvery cord.

The world blurred by dissolving into formless colors, before brightening and resolving into a daytime city street. Cullen was there, arguing with a police officer, a clown, and a talking cartoon goldfish in a bowl hovering in mid-air. Cullen was dreaming, and I was in his dream. I sensed some sort of change in myself and looked down to see that I had a body again. I walked towards the arguing quartet, but as I did the police officer flew up into the air, the clown popped like a balloon, and the goldfish in the bowl turned into a demonic cheerleader who began to chase a suddenly terrified Cullen down the sidewalk towards me. I was enraged that anything would dare to try and hurt Cullen, so I grabbed a parking meter out of the sidewalk and stabbed the cheerleader through the chest with it. She dropped to the ground instantly and vanished. "Oh, man! I thought I was dead for sure! You saved my life! Thank you!" said Cullen and hugged me tight. I went rigid in shock. Cullen had spoken to me, and for the first time it had actually registered as words instead of meaningless gibberish. Cullen had touched me. Cullen had hugged me! For the briefest of moments Cullen's dream world had become real to me, and the combination of his speaking to me, touching me, and hugging me threw me into such turmoil that between one instant and the next I was suddenly waking up in my bed in my darkened dorm room, gasping for air and shaking in reaction. I was obsessed with Cullen McCathers. ***********

To say that my obsession with Cullen deepened from that point on would be a gross understatement. Now that I knew I could spend all of my sleeping time with Cullen, I began to do so on a regular basis. He had starred in my dreams and now I began to star in his, sleep-stalking him every night. In his dreams, I found I could actually talk with him in a way that I was completely unable to in the waking world. Admittedly, most of the conversations were variations of his thanking me for one rescue or another since I became his dream protector and hero, saving him from countless monsters, demons, witches, aliens, and bad guys who were gunning for him because someone had framed him for a murder he didn't commit. After that first dream hug, I did everything I could to initiate physical contact between us during our nightly escapades, an arm casually draped over his shoulder, a hand gently tousling his hair, countless little touches, smiles, looks into his eyes. In the waking world, he grew more open and friendly towards me, looking at me more, smiling at me more, continuing to try and engage me in conversation despite the fact that I continued to blank it all out and watch our interactions as an observer, rather than as the active participant I was when we dreamed together.

It also dawned on me that there was a sexual tension between us that hadn't existed before. I was still jacking off to mental images of him every chance I got, but I realized he was spending more and more time wearing less and less when we were alone together in our room. He had never been shy about displaying his body, but as the days went by he went from t-shirts to muscle shirts to tank tops to bare torso, and from sweats to shorts to briefs to nothing at all. I exerted every ounce of my self control to not stare at the obvious things and be as casual and nonchalant about it as he seemed to be. The weeks passed, and the days grew shorter as fall progressed towards winter. I welcomed the turning of the seasons, because longer nights meant more time to sleep and dream with Cullen. Things might have continued on this way, but one evening in early November I went to sleep and slid sideways out of my body to find I wasn't alone in the room. There was another presence like myself, hovering just off the floor next to my bed as I was hovering next to Cullen's. It was another waking dreamer, I knew, and as I looked more closely I realized its silvery cord led straight to Cullen's sleeping body!

"Now it all makes sense," came Cullen's voice in my mind. "This is what you do. This is how you're always in my dreams." "Yes," I replied. "It happened first spontaneously, but it quickly became directed. I'm sorry. I can't seem to help myself where you're concerned." "You love me, don't you?" he asked. "Yes," I admitted sadly, thinking that this was probably going to be some sort of ending. "I've been obsessed with you from the first day. Love followed quickly once I started to get to know you through your dreams. I can't seem to talk to you when I'm awake. I think the reality of you is too much for me to take after a lifetime of isolation, but all I want is to be with you, in all ways, always and forever, to love and protect you, to be one with you. I'm sorry." "Why are you sorry? Can't you tell I feel the same way? Ever since you invaded my dreams and started saving me, I've become obsessed with you too. I go to sleep each night, knowing that you'll be there to keep me safe, even though you can't say so during the day. I could tell the feeling was there somehow, that we were connected on a deeper level. I've been longing to meet you on that deeper level, and now, suddenly, here we are." "You love me too?" I asked incredulously. "Yes," he said simply, and even though he had no body at the moment to express it, I felt the warmth of his smile on me anyway. I moved towards his warmth, and he moved towards me. We met in the center of our dorm room, still hovering just off the floor, and with no transition our bodiless bodies merged into a single being with two silvery tethers anchored at opposite sides of the room. There are no words to describe the unity we experienced in that moment. Pile every description imaginable of physical and emotional intimacy on top of each other, squeeze them all together, multiply all of that by any impossibly large number you can think of, then magnify it all again by an equally impossibly large number and you still won't approach it. Neither of us were prepared for it, and like the first time Cullen had hugged me, I found myself suddenly abruptly awake in my body in my bed. The only difference was that this time, Cullen was awake too. He launched himself, naked and erect, out of his bed and across the room to mine. I had thrown my blanket off, and his beautiful bare body landed on top of me, his mouth seeking mine to devour me. His gigantic cock leaked onto my stomach as he ground his crotch into mine, only my briefs separating us. He moaned his frustration into my mouth as we kissed, then he sat up and back, reached down, grabbed the opening in the front of my briefs, and with a grunt, ripped them open and yanked the remains out from under me, leaving me as naked as he was.

He laid himself fully down on top of me again and our legs intertwined. He kissed me again, and we were touching all along the length of our bodies, from feet to crotch to mouth. His cock ground down into me and my hips pushed myself in turn up into him, trying to somehow physically force our bodies to merge as our essences had in the moment before we awoke. Given our frenzy, we didn't last very long, and we shot together allowing at least part of our physical selves to merge into one as we mixed our cum together between our heaving bodies. As amazing as the orgasm had been, as amazing as it was that I now knew this beautiful body on top of me held a soul that loved me in a way that I had never felt before, my eyes started to fill and tears began to drip down my cheeks with sadness, because I knew that I would never be able to experience in the waking world the unity we had shared as we slept. I looked up at Cullen, and saw tears to mirror my own. I was with Cullen McCathers. ***********

I'm not entirely sure how we got through the next few weeks. We somehow got through classes and kept up some semblance of normalcy during the day, but it all seemed remote and unreal, because at night we left our bodies behind and merged together until dawn. After a while, it became harder to determine where I ended and he began. Our body language, speech patterns, and ways of thinking became similar to the point that at times it felt like we were one person living in two bodies. Thanksgiving approached, and with it the inevitable family obligations. We had become so detached from life outside school and each other that it was almost a surprise when it was time to part and we realized we should have made plans to avoid the separation. There was no help for it, though, so off we both dutifully went, to our individual destinations. Wednesday night was misery. I was back in the place I had grown up, that I hated and that hated me. I went to bed early, eager to experience the all-consuming love that I had discovered with Cullen, only to discover that I was unable to reach him fully. We had a vague sense of each other across the distance, but we couldn't seem to connect. I spent the night lonely and aching in my heart. Thursday was just as bad, spending Thanksgiving Day with my perpetually distant parents. It made no sense to me that they would want me here today after years of not really caring whether I was around or not. I had someone now who wanted me and I wasn't with him. The night was another one of yearning and a futile struggle to connect with Cullen in our dreams. Friday the separation became actual pain. My head hurt, my heart hurt, my body and soul ached to be with Cullen. I begged off the Black Friday shopping trip, knowing I would not be able to bear the long drive to the nearest town that was large enough to have decent places to pointlessly spend money on meaningless gifts. My parents drove off and I went back to my old room and flopped on the bed. After the last two frustrating nights I was feeling defeated and depressed, and I began to resign myself to not being with Cullen again until Sunday. I eventually felt myself drifting off to sleep, only this time, for the first time in months, I actually slept and dreamed. Except it wasn't a dream, it was a horrific nightmare, the details of which I didn't remember upon my panicked awakening except for the sensations of terror and profound loss. I curled up on my side, hugged my pillow, and sobbed uncontrollably at the feeling that if I didn't do something drastic, I would somehow lose the connection Cullen and I had found. I couldn't let it slip away, to become just me again instead of the unity of us. I had slept longer than I had expected to and it was already late afternoon. Knowing my mom, my parents wouldn't be back from the shopping frenzy until late so I had hours left to be undisturbed. Dropping off to sleep had almost become second nature to me, so it was easy for me to roll over and take back control of my unconsciousness. One thought was uppermost in my mind. I had to reach Cullen, no matter what. My eyes closed, my breathing deepened, and unlike earlier in the day, I slipped sideways out of my body as I fell asleep. This time I had a new determination and started to fly across the miles to my obvious starting point in my search for Cullen – the room that we shared. I felt pulled tight across the distance from my body, but I held on to where I was through the familiarity of the location. Uncertain what to do next, I hovered once again in the place that was ours, where I could feel him all around me even without his being there. I knew my sense of time was distorted when I noticed it was dark outside. I had been here simply contemplating Cullen, and hours had drifted by without my realizing. I began to notice, too, that my sense of him was growing stronger rapidly. My excitement and longing for him grew with each passing moment until the door opened, and there he was. I could tell he was as angry and frustrated as I had been. I moved to surround him and comfort him, but he couldn't feel me there. He sat on his bed for a little, but his tension didn't seem to be allowing him to relax. He turned to his travel bag and pulled out a bottle of wine, opened it, and drank some straight from the bottle, then went and sat on *my* bed and put his face into my pillow, breathing in deeply through his nose. He hugged the pillow to his chest and a tear dripped down his cheek. After a bit, he got up, tossed my pillow back on my bed, grabbed the bottle and headed out the door. I followed wondering where he was going. His goal turned out to be the top floor lounge at the back of the dorm, where very few people bothered to go. It was deserted, since it was the Friday evening after Thanksgiving. Cullen drank some more wine and gradually seemed to relax. By the time the bottle was empty, he had propped himself up across a couple of chairs and was staring blankly at the wall. Bit by bit his eyes closed, and then there he was, slipping sideways out of his body to join me. "You're here!" he said with surprise. "I've been waiting for you. I pushed and pushed to get here across the distance. I wasn't sure where I was going to go from here. The distance is difficult, but you came back, and you're here, and now we can be together again." And just like that we were. We were one again and our joy was endless. The unity of ourselves into a single being was a miracle, and all the sweeter for having been denied it the last two days. The only things that marred our joining were the silvery cords heading off to different places, Cullen's to his body in the chairs just next to us, and mine to my far away self. We were one. We needed to be one. All other parts of us were one. The cords needed to be one too. We were tugging on my silvery cord in an attempt to push it into his, when suddenly there was a sensation of severing, and an unattached tendril reeled in from a distance, flailed around as if seeking purchase, then laid itself down over Cullen's cord and into his body. ***********

We awoke with a start, disoriented from being in an unaccustomed place, uncomfortable from having fallen asleep on the chairs, and still drunk from the wine. We felt such an overwhelming feeling of happiness and well-being that we wished we could tell someone, but we knew no one would ever really understand. As I stumbled back to my room, I knew that the other bed would be remaining empty, but that was ok. I was with my love and I was within my love. We were one person forever. I was one person with no further need for two bodies. I undressed for bed and looked down at my body as usual and for the first time, happy with what I saw. I was masculine and strong in my body. I was loved and protected in my soul. I was Cullen McCathers.

Source: “Collan's Caption This Catch Up (10th May)”

#possession #astral projection #soul #roommates #love #permanent #maletransformationblog

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nerdarchy-blog · 4 years

Text

The follow up to 2017’s Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, on Nov. 17, 2020 fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons upcoming Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything must indeed possess powerful magic to contain so much stuff in 192 pages — the exact page count of its predecessor according to Jeremy Crawford, principal rules designer of the game. The product of 18 months work the book includes material for Dungeons Masters and players of 5E D&D alike. I had an opportunity to join the press briefing with Crawford and Greg Tito, communications and press relations director for D&D and let me tell you, sitting on this was really exciting. Reading and hearing what players speculated on and wanting to say, “You’re all right! It’s all in the book. All the character options and new stuff you’re guessing about are inside!” So let’s get into Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

On the cover for Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Tasha holds an ornate grimoire covered with symbols from the planes of existence in stunning art by Magali Villeneuve.

A delightful conversation about 5E D&D

No sense burying the lead — all the options and fresh new modular content you thought might be in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is there. Subclasses for all the classes are in there. Alternate class features from the most popular Unearthed Arcana in the entirety of 5E D&D are in there. The artificer class is in there — including some tweaks, new infusions and the Armorer subclass that was loved by people, according to Crawford. The Aberrant Mind sorcerer, UA’s most highly rated content ever, is in there and so are many from the past year. Spell Versatility and new Beast Master Companions are in there and I know there’s untold numbers of players stoked to hear this. There’s new artwork for the Artillerist Artificer Specialist that was shared during the briefing too.

A human artificer balances his Eldritch Cannon on his shoulder as seen in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. [Art by Brian Valeza]

Like XGtE the book explores the titular character’s wonderfully complex point of view in comments on the content throughout, with nods to Tasha’s history in her comments and captions. One clue about Tasha’s mysterious origin reveals itself on the cover. The tattoo on her cheek is a chicken leg, which Crawford explained is an “echo of the chicken-legged hut that Baba Yaga lives in.”

A bunch of subclasses and class features only chicken scratches the surface of the scope of material. Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is organized into four chapters. While perusing the material in the book readers learn more about Tasha and the lore surrounding her. Tasha’s life has involved the fantastic since the very beginning of her origins in the fey realms. As she became a brilliant and powerful wizard her adventures took her to other planes and dimensions so she is unfazed by beings of any sort, least of all her frenemy Mordenkainen.

Character options

Spells and magic items

Group patrons

Tools for Dungeon Masters

Customizing your origin is an important part of the development of the book and something the design team seems particularly proud of, for good reason. Players love the idea of more personalized character origin stories. I use This Is Your Life stuff from XGtE all the time and TCoE builds on that tremendously. Like, seriously a lot. The design goal was tools for players to create truly unique characters with amazingly magical origins and backstories.

This includes modifying traits during character creation to better reflect the story players want to tell and offers a lineage template with fill-in-the-blanks tools to totally personalize characters. The Lineage System introduces a new way to approach creating and playing characters and adventures in 5E D&D, a responsibility the design team takes very seriously as stewards of the game. During the press briefing Crawford and Tito explained how TCoE is one of multiple books demonstrating a shift in how D&D handles things like race.

Other changes include the removal of negative racial modifiers for certain races from Volo’s Guide to Monsters via errata. Crawford explained how their original intention for races like kobold and orc was as Monstrous Adventurers, separate from standard character options. This is why those options are included in their own section in VGtM along with options considered more powerful than standard in some cases, like yuan-ti and to a lesser extent goblins. Because this context is lost through the way so many players engage with 5E D&D through online tools and resources like D&D Beyond, it became a pain point for players and TCoE will include updated versions. Hooray for kobold and orc enthusiasts!

The Lineage System offers tools to create characters not bound by a species archetype. I love the way Crawford explained how this modular piece of content interacts with existing 5E D&D material. The core game, what is presented in the Player’s Handbook and other sources, illustrates an archetypal adventuring character like an elf. Choosing this option for your character represents playing Elfie McElferson in other words — the exact kind of elf that comes to mind when you think of D&D elves. The Lineage System gives players and DMs tools to disentangle characters’ personal traits with cultural traits. And worry not! The path to customization is very smooth according to Crawford, who emphasized it is not complicated at all.

Along with the new class options and alternate features players can customize how each class feels. This includes something that worms its way into the mind of every edition of D&D sooner or later.

Psionics! The Aberrant Mind is just one of the psionic themed subclasses from UA. Along with a few others, these psionic subclasses use a modifed version of the playtest mechanics, which Crawford described as “evolved.” I’m pretty middle of the road when it comes to psionics, neither thrilled to use them or abhorred by their inclusion in the game but I’ve got to say I really dug that Psionic Talent die so I hope that’s what he meant.

During the press briefing they did not get too deep into new spells and magic items in TCoE but there are some tidbits to share. For starters Tasha adds new spells of her own design to D&D canon. Tasha’s caustic brew and Tasha’s otherworldly guise are two mentioned and I’m excited to see more. Spells named for the wizards who created them evokes a sense of mystery and wonder in all D&D players and after all her incredible excursions and magical experimentation I’m certain Tasha’s influence on 5E D&D will be immense.

Spellcasters can boost their power with new spell focus magic items too, which sounds awesome. There’s got to be a magical cauldron, right? One of the magic items Crawford talked about sounds totally awesome — the Tarokka Deck. Not like, any old prophetic card deck though. This is THE Tarokka Deck, an artifact capable of trapping spirits. Can I tell you I lost track of what they said for a moment because I was daydreaming about a Ghostbusters inspired 5E D&D campaign.

Sidekicks (remember them?) get expanded in TCoE too. Resources to create your own customized sidekicks sounds like a lot of fun new toys to play with. When asked what the most surprising thing about the book is, Crawford revealed there’s a sidekick class. You can play as a Warrior, Expert or Spellcaster, which offers a slimmed down experience for perhaps new players or those looking for less complexity. This sounds awesome to me. I’ve used the Sidekicks content from UA several times and it is terrific, so more of that and more ways to use it can’t go wrong.

More than that though Crawford was surprised by “how much liberty players have to customize.” The Lineage System, tons of new class options and alternate features, spells, feats (wow I didn’t even mention those!) all combine to create more levers and dials players and DMs can use to tailor our game experiences and tell the kinds of stories we want with exactly the kinds of characters we imagine.

“Our work on the game is a delightful conversation with the community that never ends,” as Crawford put it. With tremendous amounts of fun, cool sounding new content like they’re brewing up in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, I don’t doubt it.

#gallery-0-3 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-3 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-3 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-3 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

A tiefling sorcerer levitates several feet off the ground. [Art by Kieran Yanner]

A lineup of four homunculus servants. [Art by Irina Nordsol]

The young wizard Tasha studies her spellbook in front of Baba Yaga’s hut. Looming nearby is Baba Yaga herself, watching her adopted daughter intently. [Art by Brian Valeza]

This is a massive tome holding secrets of ultimate evil. The exterior of the book reflects the evil within. The covers are made of dark demon scales, which are trimmed in rune-carved metal shaped to look like demonic claws. [Art by David Sladek]

Two wood elf lads swim in a glittering pond, which is fed by a waterfall that pours out of a face carved in a bluff. [Art by Robin Olausson]

A youthful merfolk king lounges on his throne underwater. [Art by Andrew Mar]

Using a psychic spell, a wizard battles a troglodyte underground. [Art by Andrew Mar]

Sidekicks will be expanded in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

An alternate cover art version is only available through local game stores. [Art by Wylie Beckert]

A heavy, ominous storm brews at sea as clouds gather. But these are not normal storm clouds. These have formed into a churning mass of enormous skulls in the sky. [Art by Titus Lunter]

Oh! Are you still here? One last thing I’ll mention is the section on Magical Environments includes Eldritch Storms, magical fruits and magical roads, a Mirror Realm and a Mimic Colony. Stay nerdy.

Congrats! That new #DnD stuff you thought would be in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is in there. #staynerdy The follow up to 2017's Xanathar's Guide to Everything, on Nov. 17, 2020 fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons upcoming…

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jewish-privilege · 5 years

Link

...There are two related, yet distinct, kinds of anti-Semitism that have snuck into mainstream politics. One is associated with the left and twists legitimate criticisms of Israel into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. On the mainstream right, meanwhile, political leaders and media figures blame a cabal of wealthy Jews for mass immigration and left-wing cultural politics in classic anti-Semitic fashion.

[Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN)] tweet was a pretty clear example of the first kind of anti-Semitism. Plenty of Jews who are critical of the Israeli government, including me, found her comments offensive...

But it’s also clear that a lot of Omar’s critics don’t have much of a leg to stand on. Conservatives have been trying to label Omar an anti-Semite since she was elected in November, on the basis of fairly flimsy evidence. (...) Trump once told a room full of Jewish Republicans that “you’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money,” adding that “you want to control your politicians, that’s fine.”

The fact that Omar apologized under pressure, and that Trump and McCarthy have never faced real consequences for their use of anti-Semitic tropes, tells you everything you need know about the politics of anti-Semitism in modern America.

...There are two core truths about this incident. First, Omar’s statement was unacceptable. Second, Republicans going after her — including the president — should spend less time on Democrats and more time dealing with the far worse anti-Semitism problem on the right.

...In the day and a half since Omar’s initial comments, a number of left-wing writers have emerged to defend her. They argue that Omar was attempting to point out the financial clout of the pro-Israel lobby — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC — and not to make generalizations about Jews. The pushback against Omar, they say, is part of a broader campaign to smear a young Muslim congresswoman and silence criticism of Israel.

...It’s true that in some cases, all criticism of Israel or AIPAC, even if it’s legitimate, is labeled anti-Semitic — and that’s a real problem. Omar’s faith has made her a particular target, and it’s fair to want to defend her against these smears in the abstract.

But the specifics of Omar’s tweet make things quite different. In the original context — where she was quote-tweeting [Glenn Greenwald]— she says that US lawmakers’ support for Israel is “all” about money. Yes, it’s a Puff Daddy reference, but she’s a member of Congress and maybe should be a little more careful about the implications of what she says...

There are two problems here: First, the tweet isn’t true. The US-Israel alliance has deeper and more fundamental roots than just cash, including the legacy of Cold War geopolitics, evangelical theology, and shared strategic interests in counterterrorism. Lobbying certainly plays a role, but to say that “US political leaders” defending Israel is “all” about money is to radically misstate how America’s Israel politics work (and discount the findings of the scholars who study it).

Second, and more important, totalizing statements like this play into the most troubling anti-Semitic stereotypes. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamous early-20th-century Russian forgery, describes a plot by Jewish moneyed interests to subvert and destroy Christian societies through their finances. This in turn draws on longstanding European anti-Semitic traditions that portray Jews as greedy and conniving.

After World War II and the creation of the state of Israel, the conspiracy theory shifted. Anti-Semites started using “Zionist” or “Zio” as a stand-in for “Jewish,” using Jewish activism in favor of the Jewish state as proof that they were right all along about the Jewish conspiracy. David Duke, the former Louisiana state representative and Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, released a YouTube video in 2014 that bills itself as an “illustrated” update of the Protocols. The video features footage of leading Democratic and Republican politicians speaking to pro-Israel groups, with the caption “both are in the grips of Zio money, Zio media, and Zio bankers.”

...Omar is, of course, not coming from the same hateful place as Duke is. But by using too-similar language, she unintentionally provides mainstream cover for these conspiracy theories. After her comments, Duke repeatedly defended her, even tweeting a meme that said “it took a Muslim congresswoman to actually stand up & tell the truth that we ALL know” (he rescinded the praise after her apology).

This is not to equate Duke and Omar — which, to be clear, would be absurd — but rather to point out how if you’re not careful when talking about pro-Israel lobbying, you can provide ammunition to some awful people. By saying that US support for Israel is “all” about money, Omar was essentially mainstreaming ideas that have their roots in anti-Semitism, helping make them more acceptable to voice on the left.

...There’s a real dilemma here. Pro-Palestinian activists, writers, and politicians have every right to point out what they see as the pernicious influence of groups like AIPAC. The group is undeniably powerful, and it’s worth mentioning in our conversations about both Israel policy and money in politics. You can and should be able to say, “AIPAC’s lobbying pushes America’s Israel policy in a hawkish pro-Israel direction,” without saying that it is literally only about dollars from (disproportionately) Jewish donors.

At the same time side, there is a special need on the left — where most pro-Palestinian sentiment resides — to be careful about just how you discuss those things. It’s not just a matter of providing ammunition to the David Dukes of the world; it’s about the moral corruption of the left and pro-Palestinian movement. If references to the baleful influence of Jews on Israel policy become too flip, too easy, things can go really wrong.

...When left-wing insurgent Jeremy Corbyn won the center-left Labour Party’s leadership [in Britain] in 2015, the people who inhabited these spaces seized control of the party power centers.

Corbyn, who had once referred to members of Hamas and Hezbollah as his “friends,” opened the floodgates for the language of Labour’s left flank to go mainstream. The result is a three-year roiling scandal surrounding anti-Semitism inside the party.

Dozens of Labour elected officials, candidates, and party members have been caught giving voice to anti-Semitic comments. One Labour official called Hitler “the greatest man in history,” and added that “it’s disgusting how much power the Jews have in the US.” Another Labour candidate for office said “it’s the super rich families of the Zionist lobby that control the world.” The party has received 673 complaints about anti-Semitism in its ranks in the last 10 months alone, an average of over two complaints per day.

...This is why Omar’s tweet was so troubling, and why the pushback from leadership really was merited. If the line isn’t drawn somewhere, the results for Jews — who still remain a tiny, vulnerable minority — can be devastating.

...The way Omar handled the controversy is interesting. Her apology was certainly given under immense pressure, but it reads (at least to me) as quite sincere[, and] this kind of sincere willingness to reconsider past comments is characteristic of Omar. She had previously gotten flak for a tweet about Israel “hypnotizing” the world, and recently gave a lengthy and thoughtful apology for the connection to anti-Semitic tropes during an appearance on The Daily Show.

“I had to take a deep breath and understand where people were coming from and what point they were trying to make, which is what I expect people to do when I’m talking to them, right, about things that impact me or offend me,” she told host Trevor Noah.

This is not the kind of behavior you see from deeply committed anti-Semites. Yair Rosenberg, a journalist at the Jewish magazine Tablet who frequently writes about anti-Semitism, argued on Monday that Omar has earned the benefit of the doubt:

“I’ve covered anti-Semitism for years on multiple continents, and this level of self-reflection among those who have expressed anti-Semitism is increasingly rare. Not only did Omar apologize for the specific sentiment, but she put herself in the shoes of her Jewish interlocutors and realized that she ought to extend to them the same sensitivity to anti-Semitism as she would want others to extend to racism.”

...This is what it looks like when the system works. A member of Congress says something offensive, most of her party explains why it’s wrong, and then she issues a sincere apology and demonstrates an interest in changing. That is a healthy party dealing with bad behavior in a healthy way.

This is not what you see on the Republican side when it comes to most forms of bigotry — up to and including anti-Semitism.

...Last summer, McCarthy sent a tweet accusing three Democratic billionaires of Jewish descent — George Soros, Tom Steyer, and Michael Bloomberg — of trying to buy the midterm election...

...Around the same time, President Trump claimed that protesters against Brett Kavanaugh were being paid by Soros...

And Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz suggested Soros was behind the so-called “migrant caravan” coming to the US through Mexico, a theory spread when Trump tweeted the video in Gaetz’s original tweet...

This all follows years of Soros demonization in the conservative press, with everyone from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to Fox News anchors blaming the Jewish billionaire for various ills in the United States.

The defense of these lines is the same as the left-wing defense of Omar: It’s not anti-Semitic to simply state facts. But many of these “facts,” like Soros masterminding immigrant caravans, are false. Moreover, creating a narrative in which Soros and other left-wing Jews are puppet masters, using their money to undermine America from within, they are engaging in the same normalization of Protocols-style anti-Semitic tropes as Omar.

What’s more, they’ve done it with virtually no official pushback. The GOP has not reacted to the Soros hate and other anti-Semitic conspiracy theories with the same fierceness with which the Democrats responded to Omar’s comment. There has been no leadership statement condemning the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism; in fact, demonizing Soros has long been part of the overall party strategy. In 2016, Trump released a campaign ad that played a quote from one of his speeches over footage of Soros and former Fed Chair Janet Yellen (also Jewish) that comes across as an anti-Semitic dog whistle...

...“Don’t kid yourself that the most violent forms of hate have been aimed at others — blacks, Muslims, Latino immigrants. Don’t ever think that your government’s pro-Israel policies reflect a tolerance of Jews,” Jonathan Weisman, the New York Times’s deputy Washington editor and author of the new book (((Semitism))), writes. “We have to consider where power is rising, and the Nationalist Right is a global movement.”

...While the Democratic Party handled an offensive comment quickly, Republicans have never shown a willingness to do the same when it comes to right-wing anti-Semitism. There’s a reason most Jews in the United States are Democrats, and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.

[Read Zack Beauchamp’s full piece at Vox.]

#long post #antisemitism #if you reblog or reply with antisemitism or any defense of antisemitism i will block you #if you reblog or reply with islamophobia anti blackness misogynoir or any other bigotry i will block you

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shirtlesssammy · 5 years

Text

4x13: After School Special

Then:

Sam and Dean were once kids, and they had a pretty crappy father.

Now:

High school, amirite?

A joyous time where friends call you “slut” so you turn around and call a nice helpful classmate a “fat, ugly pig”, only to have the nice helpful classmate turn around and swirly you to death the next day in the bathroom. Plus your parents set your curfew at 9 pm on weekdays.

April, the girl who murdered her classmate, is in an institution. No one believes her story, but Sam Winchester in white scrubs does. Sam asks about sulfur or black smoke, but April just thinks he’s crazy.

Back in the Impala, Sam tells Dean that he believes April’s story and thinks they’ve got a case of demonic possession. The only thing off about it is that she didn’t see any black smoke. Time to check out the school. Dean sarcastically agrees. “Truman High, home of the Bombers.” (Oof, I’m surprised there wasn’t a referendum in that town to change that mascot!)

(And because I paused the video and was granted this aesthetically pleasing shot, I will share with the class)

It seems that the brothers went to this school once upon a time. Dean wants to know their cover. “FBI? Homeland Security? Swedish Exchange students?” Sam’s got an idea.

Cue Foreigner’s “Long, Long Way From Home”, porn shots of Baby, and a flashback to Sam and Dean’s first day at Truman High. A) Baby Sam in his little Carhartt just is the cutest thing ever. B) For all the math nerds out there, the caption says “Truman High School, 1997”. Sam says that it’s November. So, do the math and Dean should have graduated in the spring of 1997. We all know he didn’t because he got his GED. So, the question remains, was Dean held back in school (a VERY real possibility considering his extreme intelligence and extreme dislike for book learning, and all the monster hunts and moving and being a full time parent, etc.) or is he going through the motions of school just to watch out for Sammy? I don’t know which is worse.

Sam and Dean are introduced to their respective classmates. As Sam plops his stuff down on his new desk, his butterfly knife falls out. Millhouse Barry, another student that will soon become friends of sorts with Sam, notices.

Dean, meanwhile is pressing hard on the condescending, misogynistic bravado that we all know isn’t him at all. I really love this tidbit of information that Jensen gave to Brock Kelly, who played the flashback Dean in this episode.

In Sam’s classroom, while the teacher discusses an essay assignment, Barry gets bullied by another classmate. Sam Fucking Winchester tells the bully to knock it off. Sam, who hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet, is called a midget and Sam, gifted with the self-confidence of a boy that has his tribe (albeit small) and an outsider’s assurance that fitting in won’t matter to his drifter lifestyle (and that butterfly knife in his pocket, no doubt), challenges the bully. The bully flinches.

Present day Sam wanders the halls of Truman High as a custodian. He just walks past his old English class when his old English teacher, Mr. Wyatt, comes out.

Present day Dean is A LOT. He’s dressed as the substitute gym teacher. And well, we all know how much Dean loves to dress up. When he leans into an act, he leans into an act.

He tasks his poor underlings to the art of the Dodge while reconvening with Sam. Sam shames Dean’s outfit, and Dean’s slight look of abashment is so sad. The dude loves to LARP. Sam has been all over the school but not one clue. Maybe there isn’t a case after all.

Meanwhile in Home Ec, Male cheerleader threatens his table partner with a fist to his throat if he doesn’t share his homework. So, the other dude does what any sane person would do and takes said fist and pushes it into a whirling food processor. Sam is there to see the cheerleader whisked away and the other kid fall to the floor, black goo oozing from his ear.

While the school has a non-violence assembly, Sam and Dean have free reign to search the school for EMF and ghosts.

They’re dealing with a seriously pissed off ghost. Dean already did a little searching in the principal's office and found out that there was one suicide back in 1998, Barry Cook.

Flashback to this gem of a school banner:

Mr. Wanek is the art teacher. ALL THE HEARTS.

We’re shown more bullying of Barry with Sam coming to help. Sam learns that Barry wants to be a veterinarian. “You like animals?” dog loving Sam inquires. “They’re a lot nicer than people.” We also learn that Sam is adorable in his little brown striped hoodie.

Dean, meanwhile, is making out with a fellow student in the broom closet. This whole scene is a gold mine for Dean analysis. Needless to say, the more Dean tells the girl about his life, the more her alarm bells are going off for him. You’re life isn’t normal or healthy, Dean bby.

Sam and Barry run into Barry’s bully, Dirk, in the hallway. Sam tells Barry to run while Dirk threatens Sam. Sam just stands him down, and starts to walk away before Dirk punches him. His English teacher breaks it up.

In the present day, Sam and Dean burn Barry’s bones and leave town.

Sam laments the fact that if he could have stayed at Truman High just a little longer, maybe he could have helped Barry. Dean tries to console him, and tells him that it was a good thing they got out of there so soon. Sam doesn’t think it was all bad.

Flashback to Dean raging about what Dirk did to Sam, but Sam doesn’t want Dean’s help. He wants to be normal. They’re stuck in this town for at least another week (MY GOD, JOHN WINCHESTER. This. Is. Child. Neglect.) (Sidenote: Dean tells Sam that Amanda wants him to meet her parents. He then says he doesn’t “do parents” and well, we know he met Cassie’s mom and he met Cas’s dad, so sometimes he’ll meet the parents. Just saying, and welcome to my world where I can make literally anything about Dean and Cas.)

Back in time, Mr. Wyatt pulls him aside to ask him about a “non-fiction” essay he turned in where he describes how he and his family killed a werewolf over the summer. Sam’s only somewhat abashed. He’s clearly taken on the mentality that whatever he does in class won’t matter since they’ll be moving on soon. But the teacher tells Sam that his work is good enough that he could be a writer someday. Sam shuts him down: he has to go into the “family business.” (Hey Sam, you can always write on the side, baby.) The teacher asks him if he wants to go into the family business. “No one’s ever asked me that before,” Sam says. SAMMY. While I weep over Sam’s childhood, the teacher encourages Sam to make his own choices in life.

For Pretty Patterns Science

In the present, Sam heads back to find the teacher who encouraged him when he was a child. Standing nervously outside the door, he’s interrupted by a girl who asks him for directions. “Thanks, Sam,” she tells him when he helps her and then she STABS HIM OH MY GOD. “You got tall.”

She starts beating him up, ectoplasm oozing. Sam shoves a handful of salt into her mouth and expels the ghost.

Back at the car, Dean mirrors the school scene from earlier. He feeds Sam alcohol while he rages about ripping out the ghost’s lungs. “Or, you know what I mean.” They realize that all three of the attacking kids rode the same school bus.

Cut to Dean stalking through the suspect school bus with his shotgun, as one does.

They’re looking for hair, for skin, for anything that might tie a ghost to the bus. Dean finds the bus driver’s recent certification; he started the route 2 weeks ago. He’s the dad of Dirk, Sam’s youthful tormentor.

In the past, Sam confronts Dirk for beating up Barry. When Dirk attacks him, Sam’s had enough. He pulls out his raised-from-birth fighting tactics and quickly beats Dirk to the ground. “You’re not tough. You’re just a jerk. Dirk the jerk.” The nickname spreads like wildfire.

Sam and Dean talk to Dirk’s dad. Dirk died when he was 18 of an overdose. Dirk Sr. tells them that Dirk was poor and bullied. When he was thirteen, his mom got cancer and Dirk took care of her while he dad worked three jobs. As a cloud of guilt descends on Sam, Dean asks for Dirk’s burial site. Unfortunately, Dirk Sr. had him cremated. “All of him?” Dean asks. Dean. Bean.

It gets the job done. Dirk Sr. keeps a lock of Dirk’s hair in the bible on his bus.

That evening, the bus ferries a load of (presumably) football players to a game. Ectoplasm oozes out of the bus driver’s nose. The bus rams over a set of road spikes. I’m asking the screen WHY there are road spikes when Sam Winchester approaches the bus driver. Yeah, motha fuckahs, it’s a Winchester trap. (Related: they keep ROAD SPIKES in Baby’s trunk? Ooookay.) Dean ties up the bus driver, aka Dirk, in salt-soaked rope and then heads into the bus to find Dirk’s remains. He gets recognized as the gym teacher but Dean deflects: He’s 21 Jump Street, man. This ain’t nothin’ but a drug bust.

Dean finds the bible, but there’s nothing in it. Dirk falls into his villain monologue. In his experience, Sam and the popular kids are the bullies - they’re evil. “I’m not evil,” Sam protests because he is CUT TO THE CORE by being called evil. (Me: remembers that this is Season 4 and nods knowingly.)

“We were scared and miserable and we took it out on each other...that’s high school. But you suffer through that and it gets better.” Sam’s words don’t convince Dirk, who bursts free of his bonds. He gets shot out of the bus driver’s body and possesses one of the students. While Sam’s getting the crap beaten out of him, Dean searches everywhere for the hair, eventually finding it in the bus driver’s shoe.

Dean fumbles with his lighter (MY GOD invest in better lighters, boys) and then lights the sheaf of hair on fire. Dirk bursts free from the student and dissolves into flame.

And...we’re in flashbacks again. Dean’s kissing a different girl in the supply closet. Amanda walks in and Dean very, very poorly tries to cover.

Amanda delivers a scathing analysis of Dean: “I thought maybe underneath your whole ‘I could give a crap,’ bad-boy thing, that there was something more going on. I mean, like the way you are with your brother. But I was wrong. And you spend so much time trying to convince people that you're cool...but it's just an act. We both know that you're just a sad, lonely little kid. And I feel sorry for you, Dean.” This devastates Dean, of course. We close the episode with Sam riding an absolute high, beloved by the school and Dean at his lowest. John Winchester shows up just in time, or way too soon, depending on your viewpoint. They climb into John’s car, Sam waves goodbye to Barry, and they leave town.

In the present, Sam finally heads in to talk to Mr. Wyatt. (Sam’s still bruised and cut from the fight so...awkward.) He thanks Mr. Wyatt for the advice he gave him years ago. Sam admits that he made his own choices for a little while but got pulled into the family business in the end. Oh, Sammy. <3 “You took an interest in me when no one else did,” Sam tells him. “That matters.”

“The only thing that really matters is that you’re happy,” Mr. Wyatt tells him. “Are you happy, Sam?”

And...fin.

Rollin’ with the Quotes:

You got your lunch? Books? Butterfly knife?

The whistle makes me their god.

I have to go into the family business.

There may be three or four big choices that shape someone's whole life, and you need to be the one that makes them, not anyone else.

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #spn 4x13 #After School Special #dean winchester #sam winchester #supernatural season 4

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belizedeservesbetter · 5 years

Text

In Which David Korins Stole the Whole Show

but otherwise it was disappointing disappointing disappointing

I got to see Beetlejuice with my mother so I suppose I’ll begin with her first thought about the show, which was:

“How come all mothers in pop culture have to die of cancer?”

The more I think about it, the more I know she’s right. All dead moms in film, theatre, television and books (except Catelyn Stark) typically die of cancer or some other illness. I don’t know why. It’s become an “easy” trope by which I mean I feel like writers have it happen so often because it’s a simple way to give a character a sad backstory without it raising too many questions. And Beetlejuice uses it literally in the first couple of minutes. The show starts at Lydia Deetz’s mother’s funeral, where Lydia sings a brief ballad before Beetlejuice himself comes in with a “A ballad already?” kind of joke.

I too was wondering “A ballad already?” exactly when Beetlejuice made his first appearance. I was also wondering “Beetlejuice, already?” when he pops out in literally the first five minutes when I thought he’d be the big reveal of the show. He wasn’t.

The big reveal, then, was the amazing set. My goodness the Maitland’s house set was incredible. Both before Beetlejuice took over and afterwards, everything about that set was stunning. It was so cool and so fun and so detailed and felt like it was taken right out of a painting. The longer I stared at it the more I loved it. David Korins walked away with the whole show, which is something I’ve never said before.

The lighting and sound design was incredible too. It added so much to the show, giving it exactly the right feel. Even if the book/score/directing didn’t understand the tone of the piece, the lighting and sound did. I especially loved how the netherworld lighting drew itself on the set.

As for the man himself, Alex Brightman is clearly having the time of his life playing Beetlejuice. His vocal cords must hate him but he sounds great and looks great and is milking the part for all its worth. He’s so fun to watch. I also think Brightman has the perfect energy for the part, which also made him perfect for School of Rock and by that I mean he has this kind of energy where he’s still a grown adult but not a creepy adult. Like he could play Dewey Finn well with the kids in that show and it doesn’t come across wrong and the same is true for this show with Beetlejuice and Lydia. Especially in Beetlejuice he could have been the wrong kind of creepy but he isn’t.

Leslie Kritzer is an absolute gem as Delia and Miss Argentina. She’s hilarious and embodies the spirit of Catherine O’Hara without mimicking her performance. I kept wishing for more Delia scenes because she was so so good.

That being said, Beetlejuice should’ve been a good musical. When they first announced the show was being done in DC, I was stoked! Beetlejuice seemed like the perfect movie to adapt into a musical. I thought it would’ve been weird and different and cool and fun. I thought it would be a musical that could and would take a lot of risks.

It wasn’t!

It’s really bland, actually.

First of all, I can’t believe they didn’t let Tim Minchin do the score for this. He would’ve done such an amazing job! This kind of show is right up his alley! I wanted the score to be a mix of both Matilda and Groundhog Day with an extra dash of spookiness. He has that very specific voice that would’ve been perfectly suited for Beetlejuice and yet they gave it to Eddie Perfect. Eddie Perfect who, between this and the disaster that is King Kong, will never write a Broadway musical ever again. The score was so boring. Every song sounded the same. I can’t remember a single song except for “Day-O” and “Jump In the Line,” which are both songs that were in the movie/already written! I didn’t even like that “Dead Mom” song everyone kept telling me was oh so good.

I enjoyed Act One of the show and thought it was fun, but Act Two was a complete mess.

They also somehow managed to mess up the story. The movie is about the Maitlands but they made the musical about Lydia and Beetlejuice, which is the B story in the movie. I get that everyone loves Lydia and that everyone has made the line “I myself am strange and unusual” an instagram caption/bio at some point in their life BUT she is the side character in the movie! She isn’t as fully fleshed out as Adam and Barbara because she’s a side character, so making her the main character reduces her to one single problem and like two character traits that honestly becomes super grating.

So I guess the show has a Lydia problem in that she keeps saying the same things over and over and over again and she no longer becomes interesting or strange or unusual. Also, her dad is completely right so it was hard to see him as the bad guy. They do have to keep moving forward after her mom dies and maybe a new start is a good thing and geez Lydia, it’s okay if your dad remarries! Likewise, Lydia is blaming adults for everything wrong in her life, and yet when a little girl scout comes along she tortures the little girl instead! I wasn’t sure how to root for Lydia Deetz because she made it incredibly difficult at every turn. Sophia Anne Caruso is clearly very talented and very clearly has a wonderful voice, I just wasn’t a huge fan of her Lydia. I feel like her voice is more better suited for a rock musical. She sounds like a baby Lena Hall, and I love Lena Hall, but Lena Hall is better in rock musicals than more traditional style musicals, or whatever style of musical Beetlejuice is.

Likewise, the Maitlands, who have been reduced to supporting characters who honestly don’t really affect the story all that much in this version, are boring! Beetlejuice even tells them they’re boring to their faces. I get that’s their charm but it wasn’t fun to watch them. I felt bad for them, actually, because they’ve essentially been written out of their own story.

But the problem with writing away the Maitlands is that the story becomes paper thin and falls apart when you give it literally any thought. Likewise, the emotional core becomes trite and predictable, because instead of the story being about a couple coming to terms with their own mortality and the family they never got to have, it’s about a girl who’s sad and a demon monster thing who is also sad but neither of them will listen to literally anyone so they’re sad cause they choose to be. Honestly, I’m not even totally sure of Beetlejuice’s motivations cause they changed so much. Likewise, he became a complete idiot in Act Two when he was pretty smart in Act One. It’s not even an interesting show about a girl dealing with the death of her mother because everything that happens with that has been done a million times before. Lydia and Beetlejuice are fun, but they’re side characters for a reason.

The tone of the show was all over the place because they wanted to be so many things but ended up failing at all of them. They wanted to be a raunchy comedy. They wanted to be spooky. They wanted to be an Adult show. They wanted to be a fun heartwarming show for the family. The end result is a bad mix of all of them, none of which makes all that much sense. I wish they picked one and really committed to it. I would’ve appreciated the boldness. Because otherwise? This show felt so safe. I wanted something cool and new and what I got was something any writer could’ve written in their sleep.

I think at the end of the day I’m more disappointed than anything. I really wanted this to be good. I really really wanted this to be good. At least the Hello, Dolly! references were fun.

I also really liked the snake puppet, which is truly giving a more exciting performance than the King Kong puppet could ever dream of giving.

#beetlejuice #broadway #alex brightman #sophia anne caruso #review #voice

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operationrainfall · 5 years

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Title The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia Developer MorbidWare Publisher Headup Games Release Date February 14th, 2019 Genre(s) Action, Bullet-Hell Shooter, Indie Platform PC Age Rating Unrated Official Website

As its name implies, The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia is a game about typing and exorcising demons. Make no mistake though, this is not a collection of elementary typing exercises or a simple Typing of the Dead clone. It’s a bullet hell shooter that involves dodging enemy fire with the arrow keys while trying to type various biblical passages and Latin exorcisms at the same time. I took a look at this interesting mixture of ideas about one month back when only the beta version was available. Now that the game has seen a full release, can I say that it lived up to my initial impressions?

The narrative of The Textorcist is centered around Ray Bibbia, a disgruntled former exorcist now working freelance in Italy. Having left the Vatican due to “creative differences,” Ray gets involved with the Holy Church once again after learning about some strange demonic incidents that seemingly relate back to it. Along the way, he discovers that these occurrences extend way higher within the church than he initially suspected. Things end up getting personal and Ray makes it his mission to uncover the truth and put a stop to the unholy deeds of the Holy Church.

Both the story and the setting are noteworthy for a few reasons. I mentioned briefly that this game takes place in Italy, but it’s not full of picturesque vineyards or people riding on gondolas. What’s presented instead is a somewhat dystopian version of Italy set in 199X. The Holy Church is seen as a controlling authority and they are no longer respected. You can pick up on this right away if you look at the various graffiti spread throughout each location. Of the various locations that Ray visits, “Naples” is by far the strangest. While named after a real location in Italy, the version of Naples that you visit in The Textorcist is modeled more after a rural town in Japan, complete with a scene of Ray eating pizza using a pair of chopsticks. With its eclectic set of influences, I was pretty thrilled with game’s setting. I’m a big fan of the futuristic yet nostalgic atmosphere and things that I didn’t think would pair well together actually did.

My opinions of the narrative are unfortunately not as positive. While the story had a decent enough premise, I was not overly thrilled with how it was executed. From playing the demo and observing Ray’s unpleasant yet comedic attitude, I had high hopes going in. To my dismay, I found the full story to be a bit scattered and uninteresting. Ray’s secretary Magda is introduced near the onset of the game, but there isn’t a ton of banter between her and Ray despite the opportunity being there. There are a few other characters introduced throughout the game, but Ray doesn’t interact with them all that much and they aren’t given much screen time.

Additionally, the story as a whole seems to be given a back seat in favor of the core gameplay: the fights. You essentially go from one fight to the next with maybe five minutes of dialogue thrown in between. Adding to that, with the main emphasis being placed on the fights themselves, there isn’t much room to convey the story. The levels themselves that exist in between the fights tend to be small and linear. An example of one of these little intermissions is a stage in which Ray searches for clues in a suspicious convent. While these cutaways are nice, they’re never expanded on in any meaningful detail. By the end of the game, it felt as though not much had actually transpired except for a string of loosely related boss fights. The story that is there isn’t bad by any means, but I would’ve appreciated more of it. I think more narrative between fights would’ve made each feel more important and helped to flesh things out a bit more.

With the majority of the game’s focus being on gameplay, how does it fare? My answer to that is a bit mixed, but my thoughts are generally positive. At its core, The Textorcist is a very competent bullet hell shooter. The bullet patterns in each fight are intricate and no two fights are quite the same. In addition to the normal objective of dodging these bullets, you are also tasked with typing the text that appears on-screen, generally in the form of English or Latin exorcisms. Depending on the boss, these phrases have a tendency to change on a whim as well, making each fight difficult in its own unique way. That leads into a point where my feelings start becoming less positive: the difficulty can be a bit staggering.

Going in, players should expect right away that this is going to be a tough game to beat. After all, your goal is to type with both hands while also using your right hand to move around and dodge bullets. The fact that roughly 75 percent of the phrases are in Latin (sometimes upside-down or out of order) also adds to the challenge. These things make the game very challenging, but they are indeed perfect for what the developers were trying to go for. What doesn’t work as well are the penalties associated with typing a wrong letter. Rather than simply not registering the incorrect letter that you’ve typed, the game actually takes away the previous letter, making you type it again as well. This can be very problematic when you need to type things as fast as possible. Making minor mistakes while typing in English is one thing, but making them while typing in Latin is another beast entirely. I found the later levels so challenging that I legitimately started using keyboard macros to record and subsequently type the exorcisms for me. Even this proved difficult since the phrases could change on me without warning. I honestly don’t know how someone could breeze through this game without using my macro method, though some reviewers on Steam claim to have proven me wrong. Quite frankly, I rather doubt their claims.

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One big plus is the soundtrack. As the game proudly boasts, the music was provided by GosT, a synthwave artist who I’ve actually had the pleasure of seeing in person. His work with this soundtrack shines just as brightly as his other work. The pleasing mixture of metal guitar riffs and uptempo electronic beats lends itself well to both the fast-paced gameplay and the game’s dark atmosphere. Of course, the music played during boss fights is where most of this shines through, but even the ambient tracks that play outside of them fit quite nicely and sound pleasant. Overall, I found the sound design to be top notch.

Visually speaking, I can also report that I was very impressed. The developers chose to go with a pixel art style and all of the sprites look very detailed (especially the bosses). There are a wide variety of colors utilized and (once again) the bullet patterns for each fight are all very intricate and well designed. There are a handful of cutscene images thrown in as well, which remind me of something I’d see in an older DOS title. These weren’t used all that often, but I really enjoyed seeing them when they did pop up. Much like the sound design, the visuals are also deserving of an A+.

Overall, I found The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia to be a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, the main focus of the game was on the boss fights and those were handled exceptionally well. While the difficulty will certainly seem daunting to some people (myself included), I can’t fault the game or the developers for making it hard as nails. After all, that’s really the point of such a title. On the other hand, I found the other big piece of the game, the story, to be somewhat lacking and deserving of more content. At the risk of assuming too much, I think that the boss fights were likely created first and the story was added as an afterthought. Some players may not care about this as much, but I was slightly disappointed nonetheless. Using a heavy dosage of macros to crawl through the later boss fights, I was able to clear the game in around 15 hours. I’ve seen people on Steam claiming that the game took them only a few hours to complete, but I see no way that those claims hold water. Even with macros, there are ten boss fights and all but a few require a great deal of trial and error to beat. Because the story was lacking, I can’t give this game a perfect score. What I can say though is that it’s certainly worth your consideration if you’re a masochist or just really enjoy interesting shooters. With its regular price on Steam set at just $14.99, The Textorcist is certainly worth picking up and trying for yourself.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

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A review copy was provided by the publisher.

REVIEW: The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia Title The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia

#bullet hell shooter #headup games #Indie #Morbidware #PC #Steam #The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia

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otdderamin · 6 years

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Transcript Talks Machina 2018-02-20 0:20:50 How Molly uses appearance to assess people

Taliesin chose to play a tiefling because he "wanted a comfortable outsider." (TM 2018-01-16 0:34:49) Tieflings are already visibly, inescapably marked by their infernal heritage. In Western society, tattoos and piercings (especially lots of them) have long been regarded as outside polite society. Molly's body modification signals that he's leaning into outsider status and a refusal to conform, nor will he be quiet about it. His ostentatious clothing, too, serves to amplify the volume of his presence.

This is a very old counter-culture technique (used especially loudly by punk and goth culture) to see how people react to new ideas by deliberately trying to trigger the backfire effect (which The Oatmeal wrote a wonderful comic about). Basically, you've built up a worldview where everything fits together nicely and neatly and makes sense. It's built of things like religion, tradition, upbringing, family, peer group, life experience, and preferences. When new ideas don't fit our world view and threaten to destabilize it, we protect that world view by reacting like we're being attacked by a predator.

A "big demonic face with a bunch of piercings and tattoos" immediately forces the question "How do you feel about people who obviously do not conform to 'polite' society and don't want to?" Molly's looking for the immediate amygdala threat assessment reaction, not the secondary conscious effort to be polite. If someone flinches or recoils, he knows that accepting outsiders is not part of their core beliefs, and they aren't to be trusted, even if they then put on a veneer of politeness. If they don't flinch, he knows they are at least open to outsiders. He might not immediately trust them, but they're worth his time finding out. It's a quick and passive way to screen out bullshit he doesn't want to deal with.

Scene runs: 0:20:50 to 0:22:47

0:20:50 Taliesin: "He's still forming opinions of everybody in this group. He's not come to… He's somebody who makes a lot of snap judgements. Which, I'm sure, in a D&D environment when you have a, you know, big demonic face with a bunch of piercings and tattoos you can immediately look at someone and immediately make a character assessment of them."

Brain: "That's true, yeah."

0:21:15 Taliesin: "It's the joy of playing- It's the joy of being a character like that. And I will say, like, I mean like, even the joy of, as a teenager, running around with a mohawk, and a trench coat, and ridiculousness, and sort of being extravagant in any way, is that immediately, when people meet you, they usually are polite enough to immediately tell you exactly who they are. By their reaction and their- the way that they treat you. There's just- There's no attempt at being subtle, there's no- there's just this immediately- 'I'm laying out the table all my issues, all of my problems, everything I am as a person, and you can do whatever you like with that.' And he's a big fan of that as a person. That's one of the reasons why he is so decked out is because it's such an easy way of immediately assessing people."

Brian: "Oh, interesting, put it out there."

0:22:02 Taliesin: "Yeah. So, it's like, 'Yeah; ah okay. This is somebody who, you know, I can manipulate one way, or someone I can manipulate another way.' And everybody so far has been relatively nice. Even the people who are not- don't like him aren't vicious."

Brian: "Hostile, necessarily; yeah."

0:22:20 Taliesin: "And so he thinks they're cute at the- so far. And definitely was meditating upon the notion of taking all their shit and vanishing in the night. Definitely thought about it. But so far just wants to see where the chips fall at this point. He's undecided, and he wants to see how they handle- deal with pressure and what they… how they treat other people. Which is kind of the big deal at this point."

0:22:47

If you like this transcript, please consider donating your time to Critical Role Transcripts, @CRTranscript on Twitter, to help them provide closed captioning to Critical Role. We'd like to share this wonderful show with as many people as possible, regardless of hearing ability or English language skills.

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#critical role #talks machina #mollymauk tealeaf #critical role meta #critical role transcript #talks machina transcript #transcript #CRT-TM

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tonystarkbingo · 6 years

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Week 4 Roundup

Name of Piece The Botanical Garden by @duckmoles Square Filled S4: Crossover Rating teen Warnings demons, identity porn Summary Tony Stark/Steve Rogers (light)

Steve doesn’t know Tony Stark very well. After a battle, it turns out that he knows even less than he thought.

A daemon au.

Mod Tisfan Commentary Cute piece, if you like daemon AUs... little bit of identity porn and a little bit of Steve being a snoop

Name of Piece The Futurist and the Stonekeeper by @rinnwrites Square Filled T2 - Drabble Rating Gen Warnings light angst Summary Tony Stark/Stephen Strange

The Futurist & The Stonekeeper turn from what is there, and hold fast to what is here.

Mod Tisfan Commentary Cute, very poetic.

Name of Piece Dear Thor, You’re Still a Dick by @dracusfyre Square Filled K5 - Five Things Rating not rated Warnings epistolary format Summary Loki/Tony Stark

Tony writes a letter to Thor and thinks back over the years since he got soul bonded to Loki (AKA Five Things Tony Learned About Loki) For Square K5: Five Things.

Mod Tisfan Commentary I am continuing to enjoy this series.

Name of Piece That’s a Sharp-Ass Knife by @toneestark Square Filled T1 - Fuck or Die Rating explicit Warnings dub-con, whump, non-con Summary Tony Stark/Steve Rogers

When a familiar foe captures Tony Stark and co., he makes sure that Tony is hurt in every way possible. Will be multiple chapters. For T1 fill for Tony Stark Bingo 2018: Fuck or Die.

Mod Tisfan Commentary pretty harsh, watch your own mental state.

Name of Piece: A Year of Gravestones by @mariesbookblog Square Filled: K2 - Graveyard Rating: Teen Warnings: past canon minor character death, minor made-up character death Summary: Graveyards are a good place to think. To find the strength to face the future. Or: After the Civil War, Tony visits the dead.

Mod Tisfan Commentary lovely, and sad

Name of Piece Tony and Jarvis by @toneestark Square Filled S4 - Jarvis Rating gen Warnings none Summary Art of a young Tony Stark looking at JARVIS’s core code. Tony has a screwdriver tucked behind his ear. Caption: Little Tony’s hard work pays off when he finally meets baby JARVIS. Mod Tisfan Commentary this is amazing, I love the colors, both warm and secretive

Title of Piece: One Hand Washes the Other by @tisfan Also on A03 Square filled: A4 - WTF Warning: unrepentant fluff, weird coping mechanisms, first date Pairing: Tony Stark/Bucky Barnes Summary: Bucky doesn’t always eat with the team. It takes Tony a while to figure out why.

Title of Piece: The Weapon-Maker’s Son by @polizwrites Rating: General Audiences Square K5 - Fairy-tale style narration Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Crossover, Gentlemen Bastards Summary: Once upon a time, a man who had everything wanted more. He took a wife, a lovely, talented young woman who he bent to his will. In time, she bore her husband a son and named him Antonio. A brilliant, strong-willed child, Antonio could stand in his father’s shadow only so long.

Mod Tisfan’s Commentary good style, very epic poemish

Title of Piece At Your Own Risk: Chapter 1- Priorities by @dracusfyre On AO3! Square: A1 - Doing Groceries Warning: None (for this chapter) Rating: General (for this chapter) Relationship: Loki/Tony Summary: When Loki and Tony get stranded on an alien planet, Tony at least has his priorities straight. This chapter is for Square A1: Doing Groceries. Part 4 of Loki Radio, aka the Soul Bond verse, in case you’re like uh wtf is happening.

Mod Tisfan Commentary This was hilarious and I loved it

Name of Piece: Drink Me Down by @27dragons Square Filled: S2 - vampire/werewolf Rating: E Warnings: Sex, Blood-drinking (vampire) Summary: Tony Stark/Bucky Barnes

Of course Bucky’s grateful to Tony for showing him that he doesn’t have to be a monster just because he’s a wyr. But that’s not the full extent of his feelings for the vampire.

Mod Tisfan’s Commentary I love it. vampire, werewolf, pining, Steve being a jerk (in a loving way)... what more could you want?

Name of Piece So I Give You My Life to Keep by @ayapandagirl Square: R4 - arranged marriage Rating: Explicit Warnings: dub-con (magic-induced lust) Summary: Ironstrange,

The Ancient One came to Tony Stark seeking a husband for student, Stephen Strange.

Mod Tisfan’s Commentary I really enjoyed this piece. So much sass!

Title of Piece: Finding Balance by @tisfan Square: K5 – Innocent until proven guilty Also on A03 Warning: blow job, Anal Sex, barebacking, breakup and get back together, lying, stealing, jealousy issues, mention of intended rape, gambling, Irish AU, caber tosser Bucky, irish dancer Tony Summary: Tony Stark/Bucky Barnes

Tony’s still trying to get his life back on track when he runs into his ex. Bucky, who gambled away a fortune and then stole money from Tony… and then lied about it. Well, Tony’s still trying to find some balance…

Name of Piece You Broke the Rules by @trammelsb Square A3 - Freespace Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Bruce Banner/Tony Stark Additional Tags: BDSM, Flogging, Dom Bruce, Sub Tony, Dom Bruce Banner, Sub Tony Stark, Self-Hatred

Summary:

Tony looked over at him, eyes wide. Bruce glared at the bruising down his neck from the fall he took in the fight. Bruce wanted nothing more than to grab Tony and hold him for the next week, keep him safe, but that wasn’t what Tony needed right now. What either of them needed. “But, I - I didn’t-” Tony tried to back away but Bruce held him, tugging at his hair. Tony froze. “Mm. You did. You know you did. You broke the rules. You know what happens when you break the rules.”

Mod Tisfan Commentary delicious

Title of Piece You’re Welcome to Try by @wakandan-wardog Rating: General Audiences Square Filled: K4: Nick Fury Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Voice Acting, Workplace, Fluff, Snark Summary:

Nick finds out that Tony and Steve are dating, and calls Tony into the office to talk about it. Tony takes it about as well as you would expect, but luckily his boyfriend's waiting on a shining motorcycle to speed him away to lunch.

Mod Tisfan Commentary Continuing to enjoy this little bit of fluff series, too

Title of Piece: Negative Space by @duckmoles Square Filled: K3 Character Death Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Additional Tags: Grief/Mourning, Hurt No Comfort, Angst, Clothing Summary: If he closes his eyes and breathes, he can still catch the smell of Tony’s aftershave and shampoo.

Mod Tisfan Commentary I almost skipped reading this because I wasn’t in the mood for death fic, but I’m glad I did. it was lovely and beautiful and very, very sad.

Title of Piece Wedding Dress for Sale (worn once) by @voodoofee Rating: Mature Square: A3 - freesquare Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark Additional Tags: Wedding Dress, Amputee Bucky Barnes, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Shy Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes Feels, Tony is wearing a dress, crossdressing but not really, it was a bet, but a good bet, now with art!, amazing araydre Summary:

Bucky finds a strange note in the elevator reading, Wedding dress for sale, worn once by mistake, with the number of someone named Tony. Bucky only knows one Tony but he doesn't think that's the guy’s name. Why else should the packages he sometimes receives be addressed to one A. Edward Stark? Whoever it is, Rebecca's wedding is coming soon and he wanted to buy her a dress. Maybe this one fits? He's pretty sure she won't mind that it has already been worn once...

Mod Tisfan Commentary continues to be cute. now with art

Name of Piece A Shard of Fear by @rebelmeg Square Filled: S4 - Reunion Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Additional Tags: Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Tony and Nebula: Dark Humor Buddies, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Science Bros, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Mentions of Major Character Deaths, Blood, Major Character Injury, Thaddeus Ross is a dickwad and Tony shuts him down, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony is not in a good place, Mentions of Pepperony, Tony willingly going to medical is a bad sign, Tony Stark Bingo 2018, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Mentions of Iron Dad and his Spider Son, Thor is also not in a good place, neither is clint

Summary:

Picking up immediately where "I Told You So" left off, everyone gets caught up with what has been going on. They're all suffering. They don't know what to do. And Tony is bleeding.

Mod Tisfan Commentary tries not to cry... cries a LOT

Name of Piece Language by @hereandnowwearealive Square Filled R1 - May Parker Rating T and up Warnings language Summary Hypocrits, the both of them

Comic: May Parker and Tony Stark discussing every day events with swear words. Peter almost knocks over a glass and says Shit. Both May and Tony fuss at him for language.

Mod Tisfan Commentary hilarious, and cute!

Name of Piece Slack Water, part five: Tsunami by @tisfan Square Filled K4: Mates Also on A03 Rating Mature Warnings: violence, gore, panic attacks, hurt/comfort, mermaid AU Summary: Tony Stark/Bucky Barnes

Bucky and Tony need to get out of the Hydra facility. Too bad the Red Skull and Zola have been notified about their escape attempt…

#tonystarkbingo2018 #tonystarkbingo #week 4 #weekly roundup

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thequillswhims · 3 years

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One to Three

It's borderline funny how hope can be the most treacherous backstabbing two faced traitor out there, the most pristine snake slithering in the quaintest of dainty garments, hiding it's face behind a richly adorned fan, eyes locked on you, whispering seductively about promises to come, unbound and unlimited happiness, and when you halt on the road of your life to land an ear to the siren's whimsically entrapping song, you allow your heart to dream and escape in the blinding mists, let hope take you on it's wings and wrap itself around you, coiling it's body around your heart and eyes, and then, when you are perfectly content, and happy, your little heart like a spring lovebird elated with the poison that hope had lovingly nurtured you with, the snake retracts from blinding your sight and you see and the snake's fangs are already sharply planted deep within your heart, biting and claiming every ounce of your delusions, drenching your heart with it's suave fatal poison.

And as much as I would love to blame the other, and Fate and Life and the Universe, I think it's simpler and overall easier, if not straight up lazier with a sense of escapist mentality, to just take one of the team, team being me myself and I, and conclude that: I misread silly casual flirtation, I overblown something that wasn't really there, I ... I was wrong. I got caught up in my feelings, for they themselves, if I treat them like an exterior force to my rational self, were, out of the Wahoo exceptionally crazy strong in intensity, but that does not automatically equate to the other party feeling the same things, or assessing, if he had felt the same, the same way I had. The intensity of my own feelings were not an assured guarantee, an official formal contract binding my heart to his, in any capacity. My feelings were mine and that is all that it was. After all, each individual has their own proper right to feel and understand, assess and react to feelings as goddamn well as they please. That is the core beauty of the human species, at the end of the day. Every single individual has their own selfish right to experience the same banal experience in their own secluded divine right; intense, or dismissed. No one has the right to judge for interpretation. And, although it could have - would have - been potentially nice to board the ship together, sometimes, it's best to miss the boat and take a plane, or a train, or a bus, to another, far far away destination.

Although, the fall from heavens was one of the most excruciatingly brutal ones I had encountered in my existence, I believe that it was actually, a blessing in disguise.

In the spring of this fateful unnamed year, although, I will give it a label, so then, in the fateful spring of X19, he shared a photo on one of his social media accounts; pink lily with a view of a rustic wooden bridge leaping over a small pond in the background. The caption called out for celebrating the hope of something going either spectacularly well, sealing happiness on the long term, or catastrophically wrong, because he was such an optimist. My heart leaped and bound in my chest when I saw this and falsely assumed it was in regards to me. I was a devout pink color and flowers enthusiast; my own social media - the one where this was posted - being majorly constituted of flowers, nature, butterflies and other artistically invasive macro shots of the smaller wonders of nature. Hope is indeed a beautiful silk wearing sharp sword. Assuming that a potential love message was destined for me, solely based off a few flirty interactions, however honest and genuine from my end did not in any way shape or form requested similar authenticity from his end, and I am the only one at fault for having ever believed we had that shared intent towards each other. I was the first to congratulate him on that. Because it's who I am. Even if I had a lingering doubt in the back of my mind, which I unceremoniously hushed and tried to silence. I wanted my happy hopeful dream of eternal bliss and happiness.

But ... nothing happened, for the most of the spring and summer. Flirtation continued, cordial, adorable, silly, fun, light hearted. Burning with passionate fire on my end; calm, cool and collected on his. I should have seen the red flags. But I willfully ignored them.

Came summer and came another wild hope. Maybe he would reveal the recipient of the pink lily at my birthday and make a grand gesture. My heart throbbed and swooned at the hope of it.

And my heart crashed and burned, and broke, and shattered. Although, I will give him credit, he did wait three days after my birthday, so as to not inflict salt and vinegar on the wound he knew he was surely inflicting. The stabbing felt ... actually it felt truly spectacularly painful, given it was a one side fling all along and he had zero obligation to return my sentiments and favors, attachment and dedication and all the lovely sappy romantic feelings I had poured into the hope of potentially one day "us". It was a sharp, barely bearable sting or pinch, like a fire heated sword plunged in the chest, straight through the heart and poking back out, with the distinctive burn and sharp pain through the soul. it's funny though, two years later, as I sit down and memorize this mess, I now only vaguely remember the pain. I remember being there, sitting with a friend, chatting over coffee and cake; my phone lit up with a notification, and curious, because I had recognized his name within a fraction of a glance, I swiped to see what the hubbub was about. And my heart sank and shattered. My friend told me I became livid, as if all life had been rightfully drained from my body from some unseen demonic entity. My hand trembled a little. My mouth was dry. My whole body, apparently was closer in appearance to that of a corpse than a living woman. The happiness, the carefree that had enveloped my friend and had been stripped, ripped right out of a two meter if not more, range and only a sense of heavy cold dread was now upon us. I instantly felt sorry for my friend, to have him dragged in a mess in which he did not belong. With a shaky hand, I rotated my phone and slid it in his direction so that he could see. He slurped his large coke, expecting anything but what was under his eyes, and with his knowledge and appreciation of my situation and feelings, I felt bad and responsible when I heard him, like a distant echo, choking on his beverage, take another sip to calm the irritation down.

I felt a complete fool and a renowned idiot. Pieces of a puzzle t thumped gracefully into one another. Privileged Lady. False Person. The Devil. Three of Cups. Three of Pentacles. The Moon. His thoughts. The Snake. The Cat. It all made sense. Hope had blinded me but now I was seeing clearly. Repeating patterns across various cartomancy and divination systems all told me the same thing. They all tried to warn me and I consciously and foolishly discarded them with a superior hand gesture; you are all wrong. Let me have this. Please. Please be wrong.

And then came September. The Thirteenth of the month, as an odd redemption ark.

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