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shrenvents · 19 days

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Guard Dog II

Part one

Warning: minors dni, fluff, smut, fingering, penetration, no protection, language

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x you

Summary: You and Daryl have started seeing each other, but not much has changed between you two. Yet, all you can think about is how much you need it to —need him to touch you, but he hasn’t made a move. Thus, you take charge.

Word count: 1.6k

…

Though it hasn't been said, flat out, you and Daryl are dating. And although nothing about your dynamic has altered, you’re still fairly certain, you're dating now.

But, the routine is just the same. You go somewhere, Daryl follows. However, nowadays you talk regularly, and he's visibly more comfortable. The others even started to notice your relationship and the changes in Daryl as well. One of which is, according to Eugene, is he seems happier, lighter, like a weight has lifted from his shoulders.

So, how is it that you feel something missing? You guessed a relationship with Daryl would be nothing less than this. But deep down, you expected him to at least touch you. And all you really wanted, was a kiss.

Sometimes, when he's close enough, you feel his warmth radiate over your very being. Sometimes, you sense his touch from when he grabbed your wrist, and held you in his arms weeks ago.

It left you craving more. Perhaps it did for him too...

Various times you swore his hand would hover over your skin, debating whether to reach out to you or not. Other times, he follows you to your house, but never steps foot inside, not since that day. He continuously stops short at your front deck, giving you a prolonged nod for a goodbye.

You’re shy in many ways, as is he, so if things were to change, you figure you have to be the one to take the reins. After all, he did admit to "wanting" you, so what did you have to lose?

…

Sighing, you open your door, squinting to welcome the blazing sun.

As of late, your mornings consist of this smouldering summer shine, and a mouthwatering, sleeveless Daryl Dixon, leaning against the pillar upholding your porch, waiting for you to wake.

"Morning!" You greet cheerfully. Daryl looks at you, and his scowl instantly softens. "I'm thinking we should do something today, together," you boast, trudging off the porch. "You know, switch up our usual routine somehow." Pausing thoughtfully, you notice how patiently Daryl observes you, waiting for your word, without any interruptions. It almost shocks you how docile he truly is, beneath that dim, tough exterior.

Your eyes explore Alexandria's landscape, catching areas with dull greenery. Your mouth opens in 'ah!'

Daryl appears disquiet and you holler, "Gardening!"

"No," he contradicts, quickly shutting down your idea. You huff, hindering a small smile. "Oh please, it would be fun!" You persuade, "This place needs more character, it's too-" desperately searching for a word, you make Daryl smirk a bit. "Colourless right now," you proclaim.

"And adding some flowers, will make this place look less like a 'dump'?" He mocks plainly.

"I don't think it's a 'dump,' it just needs some," once more, you seek the appropriate word, and Daryl expels a breathy chuckle. "Sprucing," you finish, and he nods with a tiny shake in disbelief. "Let's go!" You shout, heading to a plain field of grass.

"Yes ma'am," Daryl grumbles behind you, and you giggle.

...

The both of you spend hours outside, digging up weeds, replanting flowers, and spreading plant seeds across the lot. The whole ordeal left you both filthy, decorated in dirt. Though it's nothing new for Daryl, you feel pretty disgusting, not to mention 'hideous.'

Engrossed in your obsessive thoughts, you miss the way Daryl longingly watches you. That’s until you feel a plant stem, tuck your hair behind your ear. You spy Daryl’s calloused fingers, gently placing a pink flower there. His pinkie lightly coasts down your locks, to your shoulder.

You peer into his eyes, struck by his tenderness. His dilated pupils hold so much depth, that you get lost in them. So absentmindedly, you shift closer to Daryl.

His eyes roam your face, down to your lips, focusing on them.

A short breath escapes you, heart dropping, and he stands up. Now on his feet, Daryl brushes the grime on his hands in a clap, then lends one out to you. “You’re covered in dirt,” his throat bobs, “Let’s call it a day,” he heaves you upright, “take a shower.” You nod in agreement, kind of discombobulated.

Hand in hand, you silently walk to your house. Once you get there, he retracts his palm from yours and scratches his crown awkwardly. “You’re not coming?” You mumble shyly, and his wide eyes shoot to yours.

You fight to remain calm, staring at him. He licks his lips, once again, looking at your parted ones. “Separate showers, or...?” He asks airily.

“Whatever you want,” replying in a whisper, you slowly back up your steps, intently watching him. He refuses to break eye contact as he follows you inside.

When the door clicks shut, the only audible sound is his breathing, which is more like panting.

“You sure about…?” He trails off, delicately admiring your face. When you faintly mouth a 'yes,' his eyes train to your figure. You leisurely stride towards him.

“You’re so,” before he finishes, you peck his lips. He jerks his jaw moderately, and his gaze struggles to decide, whether to look at your eyes, or your body.

“Touch me,” you practically beg, nudging his abdomen with your knuckles. His sharp breath fans your face, and his expression distorts right before he instinctively, crashes his mouth into yours. Tongues mingling together, he grunts quietly, and you hum a whine in return.

Bodies pressing hard against each other, his hands tangle into your tresses, cupping your head. He rolls his hips rather harshly and you whine louder.

Breaking away with his name on your tongue, you clutch his hand and haul him upstairs.

Reaching the top of the staircase, he hugs you from behind and buries his face into your neck, breathing in like you're his lifeline.

“Daryl,” you sigh then gasp when he suddenly lifts you up. Your toes drag on the floorboards while he sucks on your nape. “Bathroom,” he rasps.

“To your left,” you huff in response, pushing your backside atop his crotch. Daryl just about growls, hastily carrying you into the bathroom.

Putting you down nicely, he forcibly tugs the shower curtain to the side. You spin to look at him and see him surveying you, staring down at your frame like he's in heat. You bite your lip, raising a hand to push away the black hair blocking his eyes.

“Can I?” He asks politely, gesturing to your clothes.

“Yes,” you nearly moan.

Together, you remove each other’s garments, one by one, piece by piece. Eyes equally wandering, to every newly revealed section of flesh. Daryl adorns your naked body and his lip tilts. You lean towards him to turn the shower knob.

The shower head roars, and Daryl tenses when the tips of your breasts graze his chest. “God,” he groans then takes your dome in his hands again, yanking your mouth upwards.

Your fronts fix together, and he palms your ass, reddening the skin there. His hard-on rubs your cunt, and he ambles you both under the flowing stream of water.

“Fuck,” you moan wildly when your spine hits the cool wall.

“Ya feel amazing,” he resounds into your ear, kissing it with a swipe of his tongue. You grind onto him. “Like that baby, again,” he instructs hoarsely, almost pained.

Moving in sync with each other, his cock continuously moves over your clit. You whine his name over and over and scratch your nails down his lower back. You moan out appraisals and smooch a trail from his chin to chest.

His hushed tone chants your name, trying to get your attention. But, when he gets tired of you ignoring him, his digits abruptly slip into you. You instantly cry out, then move in rhythm with his fingers, riding them. He begins to elicit an orgasm, so you pull away from his aggressive kiss. “Wait, I’m gonna cum,” you whimper.

“Good,” he groans with a smirk, trying to capture your mouth again.

“No, no, I wanna cum with you,” you plea, whispering, "on you," barely coherent. His fingers immediately slow and withdraw, at once, replaced by his girthy cock.

You scream a yelp and Daryl releases a lengthy, unreserved, animalistic groan. “So, tight,” his dark voice grates your ears. He cups your breast, playing with its nipple, and you sob while he mutters how badly he needs this.

After a moment of adjusting, Daryl starts thrusting. "Harder!" You express, and his hips lunge into you, untamed and vigorous.

Though his bottom half ruthlessly takes you, his hands and mouth are kind and attentive. His palms glide over your torso, holding you securely, and he kisses your features.

“Daryl, I love it,” you exclaim, then repeat yourself.

“Y-yeah?” He stammers, pinning his forehead to the side of your skull, and you grip his muscular biceps. “Yes, you’re so good.”

He growls your name, pumping even faster, evidently getting closer to his climax.

His hands move to squeeze and spread your ass, and ever-so-slightly, his finger sweeps across your unfilled hole, circling it teasingly. You squeal and huddle into him, and he murmurs something so quietly, that you can hardly hear it.

“What?” You gasp, craning your neck back.

“-fucking love you,” Daryl moans roughly, hoisting up your leg by its thigh.

“Shit.” Pushing into you one last time, he pulls out to cum on your stomach.

Daryl's confession strikes such a cord, that you also cum when he removes himself.

Blanking, you aimlessly watch him stroke himself, and he grits his teeth at the sight of you flushed, and wet.

Eventually, his meaty arms embrace your trembling form, snaking around your curves firmly. And after a short while, you hug him too, burying your face in his sternum.

“Can you, say that again?” You ask meekly, and as if he can hear your smile, he chuckles. “Later,” he pauses to kiss your scalp, “Lemme catch my breath first baby.”

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ilooklikeaburntchickenugget · 1 year

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It’s The Little Things

A/N: I know it’s been a hot second since I’ve posted anything, but I had this little idea after seeing a video of a girl do this for her boyfriend and just wrote this quick little, fluffy story. So I hope you guys enjoy! Pairing: Gerard Way x F!Reader Word count: 1,690 words Warnings: Lots of fluff :)

Gerard was practically living with you at this point.

Yes, technically speaking, he did have his own place. And no, technically he didn’t pay for rent (though that was a recent conversation between the two of you where he attempted to insist he needed to and you promptly said no). But he was here at least six out of seven days a week, if not all seven.

You didn’t mind by any means, having your boyfriend to help out around the place a bit or cuddle with when he was consistently home was nice. But his long days now working on the upcoming album on top of his already long commute from his place and LA traffic to the studio space was what had him staying here so often. Your apartment was roughly 10 minutes from the studio, his 45. Yours was in an area he liked better anyways, more parks and things to do and much less hectic than his area of town.

While spending time together, however, you had noticed his growing feeling of disconnect. You didn’t need him to outright say that he was losing some connection with people back home, the things he would say, even the slightest hints in conversation gave you all you need. This was because of the primary problem that you didn’t have a gaming set up, at all.

It was the way he communicated best with friends back home who lived on the other coast of the country, was through gaming. You had no problem with him doing it, and it wasn’t like he was addicted or anything. He knew how to time manage well, and if you needed help on anything he would be there within a minute of your request. But now, with not being at his place where all his set up was, he didn’t have the opportunity to use that as a stress reliever or to be able to actually communicate with some of his best friends.  And this is where the combination of your master plan (sponsored by your recent bonus check) came to mind.

He already had been keeping a list of new equipment he wanted, and thanks to your inside source (AKA Mikey) you had gotten ahold of just that list. Sure, most of this stuff wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t overly expensive either. So as soon as your additional check processed you went on a shopping spree for your boyfriend, without him knowing.

It had taken a full day, or the entire Thursday out of this week for you. It started as soon as he left at 8:45 to get to the studio. As soon as his car was about 10 minutes down the road, you took your own first to Best Buy to get the simple things, then across to some more specialty stores around town to find just what he needed (suddenly thankful for just how big LA was and therefore it’s variety). Shipping stuff was not an option, it would’ve made it far too obvious and ruined the surprise.

It didn’t take all that long to get everything, it was just setting it up that was a bit of a pain in the ass. First, the IKEA desk was a handful, which you had to get one of the guy’s you knew down the hall to assist you with. Then it was figuring out power cords and confusing directions with lists of terminology you had never seen before. And finally, turning it on to make sure nothing was broken, either by the manufacturer or you.

Everything was set up and ready to go by 5, which was going to be early anyways. Gerard usually didn’t get back until 6 or 6:30 at the earliest, his average being around 8, and some nights going until 10. You pondered what to do in the meantime, all the productiveness of the day powering you on to continue. You might’ve been going a bit over the top with the niceness today, but you figured the world needed more kindness over everything, so you decided to make his favorite food, which happened to be a combination of your mom’s spaghetti recipe and his. You weren’t sure how, but over the last year and a half or so of dating, you had managed to combine a bit of both their recipe’s to make your own hybrid sauce, which he practically melted over when you made it.

It took the sauce a while to boil down, as in a good three-ish hours, and you figured or at least hoped he would be home by then and could wait just a bit for the food to finish. In the meantime, you decided to finish a few minor work things, and move on to a TV show you watched on your own knowing damn well he would not enjoy it (but you also knew he would sit through it and pretend he liked it even if he didn’t).

Just as you were a good couple episodes in, you heard the lock on the front door jingle a bit. You turned off the TV, hopping up and making it just in time to greet him at the door. “Hey Gee!” You smiled at him, his tired face forcing a small but genuine smile.

“Hey, baby.” He replied, shrugging hit coat and shoes off before giving you a light kiss.

“How was your day?” You asked next, he sighed a bit in response.

“Exhausting, frustrating, the usual.” He replied, “Glad to be home.” You loved it when he called this place “home”, and nuzzled into his side a bit with your head on his shoulder in appreciation. “Yours?”  

“Good, I have a surprise for you actually.” He smiled a bit more with a chuckle.

“Is it what I think it is? Because I think I smell your spaghetti sauce but I didn’t wanna get my hopes up.”  

“Well there’s that, yes, and then one other thing.” He wrapped his arms around you, giving you a little squeeze before you pulled away to lead him into the back part of the living room. “You gotta close your eyes, babe.” You said, which he chuckled at a bit closing his eyes. “I don’t fully believe you. Hands over them too.” He took a huff and followed your instructions as you lightly took his arms and gently led him right next to the new desk with all his equipment. “Okay, ready? Open.” You said and he followed.

At first his face looked a bit confused, but it soon turned to amazement, and then back to confusion as he looked at you for clarification. “It’s a new gaming set up.” You said simply.

He looked back at it in amazement before responding, “F-for me?”  

“Yes, for you silly.” You smiled up at him, “I figured you practically live here now, you might as well have one here too. And that way you can still talk to the guys back home and have fun.”

“Babe,” He said simply, before turning to you and giving you one of the biggest hugs you had ever received, and most likely would ever receive in your life. “I- I mean, how did you know what to get? And did you buy this? I can reimburse you and-“  

“No baby, none of that.” You replied back, “I paid for all of it, no worries. And not to snitch, but Mikey may or may not have sent me the list of new stuff you wanted for your gaming set up so I just went ahead and bought it.”

“You’re amazing, you know that?” He asked, cupping your face with his hands and leaning in to give you a slow kiss that he clearly meant with all his heart.

“I’m glad it makes you happy.”

  “Very happy, actually. Like ecstatic.” He smiled.

“Anyways, you can set it up with all your stuff if you want. I gotta finish dinner.”

“No, I’ll help you,” He replied, promptly following you into the kitchen. “I can’t believe I’m getting your spaghetti and a gaming set up in a day. How will I ever repay you?” He asked to which you laughed.

“Just come to bed at night and don’t stay up forever, I like having you next to me.”  

“That’s not really repaying you, hon,” He explained, “I like that too, I wouldn’t worry about that being a problem.”

After dinner and clean up, which he insisted on doing, you let him set up all of his stuff and play for a bit before hopping in the shower. You were glad to see him this genuinely, truly happy for the first time in a while, and hoped that maybe he would feel even more at home here than he already did. “I’m going to bed, love.” You said, walking up behind him as he removed his headset off of one ear. You gave him a kiss on the head and gentle rub on the shoulder.

“Okay, do you want me to come with?” He asked genuinely with big eyes of slight disappointment but not seeming to mind much. You softly smiled.

“Gee, I’m not your mom.” You chuckled, “But come to bed eventually tonight, I sleep better with you there.”  

“Of course, hon, just like 15, maybe 20 more minutes I promise.”  

“Alrighty baby, love you.” You replied with a soft smile, watching him go back to his screen.

“Love you too.”

You climbed into your bed on your side, taking your nightly vitamins before tucking yourself in and slowly trying to drift off. You loved making him happy, and seeing him act almost like a kid again brought some joy soaring deep through your veins. It wasn’t but 30 minutes later that you felt the bed next to you sink, and his body quickly engulfing yours, his head nuzzling onto your shoulder as he planted a soft kiss on your cheek. “Love you, sweet girl.” He whispered just loud enough so you could hear it. You smiled to yourself contently, interlocking his fingers placed lightly on your stomach with your own.

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autisticlancemcclain · 1 year

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“Lighthouse keeper, huh?”

Keith watches Shiro’s face carefully, because he’s not sure what to expect. Not anger — Shiro doesn’t do angry, not with Keith — but not exactly excitement, either. He’s not sure.

Shiro sighs, hanging his head. He doesn’t speak or move for several moments, only staring at his clasped ands, jaw set. Keith remains where he is, leaning against the bookshelf covered in stickers placed carefully by six-year old Keith, ugly as sin but impossible for sentimental Shiro to throw out.

Shiro braces his hands on his knees, sighing again as he heaves himself up and walks over to Keith. He cups Keith’s face in his hands and leans their foreheads together.

“Why do you always have to choose the least safe option, huh, kiddo?” His voice is a mix of tired and fond; strained and loving.

Keith shrugs. His hands tighten on Shiro’s shirt. “That’s what you did.”

The remark makes Shiro crack a smile.

“Do as I say, not as I do.”

“Tyrant,” Keith says. The familiar tease — remnant from when Keith was younger and angrier and fought every choice Shiro made for him, regardless of whether it was the right one — makes Shiro huff a laugh, pressing a kiss to Keith’s forehead before pulling away.

“You have to promise to call me every week, okay? At least once. Lighthouses get lonely.”

“Okay,” Keith says quietly.

“And get decent groceries when you go out. Vegetables. Lots of them.”

“Okay.”

“And don’t do anything stupid, like go swimming in an icy ocean at night to chase a cryptid or something.”

Keith smiles a little. “No promises.”

Shiro sighs again, but it’s not as heavy this time. This time there’s an edge of acceptance to it.

“Just — be safe, kiddo. I can’t lose you, too.”

“Okay,” Keith says again, and he means it.

———

Lighthouse keeper. Lighthouse keeper.

What an insane job.

Is Keith qualified for it, technically? No. Not even a little bit. But after a little resume-fudging — okay, a lot of straight-up lying — and a myriad of people refusing to come near the lighthouse they swore was haunted, Keith landed the job.

“Look, it’s kind of isolating, okay?” says the coast guard, pressing a massive ring of keys into his hand. “Like, it’s not a hard job, really, except for during storms. You mostly just get to chill and check on the bulb every once in a while. But it can get…lonely.” She cuts him a sideways glance. “You know the story?”

Vaguely.

Keith shrugs.

“This used to be a real popular port,” she says. “People landing day and night, every day of the year. Used to be people manning the light every second of every day, groups of six or seven living here at once, like one big family. But then we shifted from using coal to using all that renewable shit, and the port stopped being so popular ‘cause there were less ships out to this area. Employees dwindled to just one guy, here by himself, every day of the year for decades.”

She pauses for a moment, drumming her hand on her car door. Keith pretends to be way less intrigued than he is.

“He went mad,” she says quietly. “No wifi or anything in the 60s, you know. Not a damn thing to do. He said he fell in love with the moon. Refused to retire, to resign. Stayed up in that tower until he was way too old to be manning it. Died in one of the storms ‘cause he was just to frail to be out in those elements, y’know? But he wouldn’t leave the damn place behind. People say he never really left — that his ghost haunts the place. That’s why it’s been abandoned for so long.”

She shrugs, somber look melting off her face as quickly as it came. “Well, I’m sure it’s all shit, anyway. You’ll be fine. Good luck!”

Before Keith can so much as utter a single ‘hey, what the fuck’, she ducks into her car, slamming the door and speeding down the gravel driveway.

“Well, goodbye,” Keith mutters, shaking his head and walking down the cobblestone path to the door. “Thanks for that.”

Ghost, huh?

That sure as hell wasn’t on any of the waivers he signed.

He hopes it’s not an angry ghost.

———

Turns out Shirt had nothing to worry about. Keith keeps a radio on him once it gets dark, making his way up to the light when he gets word of a ship coming near, just to make sure everything’s okay. He doesn’t really do much except watch the sea, basically. He supposes he’ll be a lot busier in a giant storm or if something breaks, but as of right now, his biggest trouble is boredom.

And oh, what a trouble it is.

Turns out manning a lighthouse is boring as shit. 24 hours is a lot of goddamn time in the day, and there’s only so many times Keith can scroll through his phone or read a book before he goes insane. It’s almost never worth the gas money to drive into town, and besides he doesn’t know anyone, so mostly he just sits and mopes out the window or skips rocks along the shoreline (his current record is 20 skips in a row, which would be cool as shit of the every second of every day didn’t feel so blah). Even the calls with Shiro are too mundane to pique his interest — his brother’s life isn’t too exciting, either, although talking with Shiro still has its enjoyment.

There is something magical about the stillness of everything, though. Like, yeah, Keith would love it if he could maybe experience something that was even a little interesting, but he’s felt more peace in the past few months than he has his entire life.

(Not that that’s saying much.)

(But, still.)

He particularly likes sitting out on the balcony by the light once the sun has set, watching the stars. It’s gotten warm enough now that he can sit out for hours without getting cold, just watching the stars. He’s so far away from any city that he can see what feels like every star in existence.

The moon, though, is the most breathtaking of anything. Somehow it looks more breathtaking every night. This far out on the coastline Keith can see it with startling clarity, every dip and crater and crevice glowing a soft silver. Sometimes Keith is so captivated by it that he watches it from sunset to sunrise, feeling like barely an hour has passed.

It makes Keith feel a little less lonely, somehow. Like maybe his heart doesn’t hurt so bad.

———

Keith wakes up at two in the afternoon feeling strangely pleased.

It’s not because he slept in, or anything — he usually wakes up at around two, since he’s up all night manning the light — or even that his sleep was particularly restful. He doesn’t know why he feels so…excited? Maybe that’s not the right word. But he goes through the day feeling all floaty, humming as he cleans up his living space and dancing around as he makes food. The air buzzes with anticipation, although for what he’s not sure.

Closer tonight.

Keith freezes.

Huh?

He waits a moment, hands still int the soapy water. What was that? That was a strangely…foreign thought. What’s closer tonight? What does that even mean?

He shakes himself out of his stillness when he realises the water has started to go cold, continuing to scrub the dishes. Whatever. He has weird, intrusive thoughts all the time. It’s nothing new.

Full moon. Closer to Earth.

“Okay, what the fuck.”

Keith drops the dishes, yanking his hands out of the sink and taking a stumbling step back, stopping when he backs into the fridge. His wet hands drip onto the tile floor, steady plop sounds, one for every heavy inhale.

“Okay,” he tells himself, “I am going to dry my hands and then sit down on the couch. I am going to remain still for twenty minutes. If I hear a weird thought again, I am going to freak out. If not, I am going to assume my brain is trying to freak me out to make things more interesting, and I am going to dismiss this entirely.”

Twenty minutes later, when no weird thought occurs, Keith sighs in relief.

God, how bored must he be, for his brain to make up weird voices or whatever? Maybe he should take up another hobby.

Knit, or something.

Can’t hurt.

———

“Did you get lonely a lot, when you were deployed?”

Shiro hums; tinny through the shitty cell reception.

“Yeah, lots. There were a lot of long stretches where I felt like I might be the only person in the world. Made everything feel smaller. Why do you ask? You getting lonely?”

“Just curious,” Keith denies. He pauses a moment.

“Did you ever hear…voices?”

As soon as he says it, he knows he’s fucked up. The comfortable silence between them gets charged immediately, tense, and they may be hundreds of miles apart but Keith can physically feel the concerned look Shiro is sporting.

“Keith, maybe you should call a doc —”

“It’s not me,” Keith says hastily. “I’m just — I read a lot now, right? I don’t have much else to do. And I was reading one of the manuals lying around this place, and it said that if you experience any strange mental symptoms to switch out shifts, but I was just curious about what strange mental symptoms might be, I’m not actually —”

“Okay,” Shiro interrupts. “It’s fine. I believe. Just — stay safe, okay? Don’t be afraid to call for help, to call it quits. We can always figure out what to do next.”

Keith takes a deep breath, running his hands through his hair and smiling slightly. No matter what, he can count on Shiro.

“Okay.”

“Good. Love you, kiddo.”

“Love you, too.”

———

Keith squints at the sky. He tilts his head, considering, then squints harder.

“Maybe I am going crazy,” he says to himself. He hasn’t heard any weird voices since that one time, but he’s been feeling a lot of weird things in his chest, near his heart. For two weeks the night sky has felt almost…distant? Cold, even. But then he started to feel this growing pull to be outside more and more, the strong desire to stand and stare out at sea during the day, swaying with the waves, and to stare endlessly at the sky at night, drinking in the sights, watching the moon turn through it’s phases. The feeling is almost suffocating, now, like if he’s not outside he’s incapable of breathing. Everything feels so restless during the day, soothed only by the light of the moon.

“Or maybe I’m just dead bored. Who knows.”

———

Finally.

The voice startles him right out of a nap, tumbling off the couch onto a heap on the floor. He blinks himself awake fully, blearily checking his watch. His eyes widen.

“Shit,” he says, scrambling to his bedroom to grab his radio and sprinting up the stairs to the light. He’s late. He doesn’t seem to have missed any calls, thankfully, but still, he needs to be up there in case a ship’s radio is broken and they can’t call, or what if —

He freezes on the top step.

“What the fuck.”

Elbows on the balcony railing, leaning out facing the ocean, is a man. He’s tall, curly brown hair whipping around his angular face in the sea breeze, eyes closed in serenity.

Every part of him, faintly, glows silver.

“Took your sweet time,” he says, not opening his eyes. His voice is strangely familiar.

“What the fuck,” Keith repeats. He’s not sure how else to encompass the pure bewilderment he’s feeling.

Finally the man turns slightly to face him, lips curled in amusement and eyes opening to reveal a deep, dark brown that sparkles faintly in the moonlight.

“You’re supposed to be here when the sun sets, yes?”

Keith hums, nodding his head.

“Yep. I’ve officially gone insane.”

The man laughs, head thrown back and teeth gleaming white.

“Perhaps. Are madmen always so eloquently charming?”

“Figments of my imagination are not allowed to be mocking,” Keith snaps, because if he’s going to go insane it’s going to be on his terms, goddamnit.

“Good thing I have nothing to do with your imagination, then,” the man shoots back easily. He smirks. “You couldn’t come up with something as pretty as me if you tried.”

Keith scoffs, but doesn’t deny it. Figures that his brain would cook up a bratty loudmouth with a bright smile to torture him. He’s his own worst enemy.

“I’m going to ignore you,” Keith informs the man. “If I don’t acknowledge you, then my brain will get the message and you’ll disappear.”

The man pouts. “Don’t be so callous. I only have three days, and then I’ll not see you again for a month.”

Keith ignores him. This lighthouse gig is kind of boring, sure, and yeah, he’s a little lonely, but it pays well and includes room and board. There’s not a chance in hell that he’s succumbing to his insanity and returning to fucking retail, or something, no sirree. He’s stubborn. He can wait this out.

The man sighs petulantly. “Of course you’re boring,” he mutters. “The last Moon Guardian got to fall in love with the lightkeeper, and I get someone who can scarcely believe I’m real. How unjust.”

The last lightkeeper… what was it the coast guard had said?

He said he fell in love with the moon…stayed up in that tower until he was too old to be manning it. Died in one of the storms.

“Oh, real original, brain,” he mutters to himself. “Real fuckin’ original, with the Hollywood spooky stuff. I need to stop watching horror movies before bed.”

“Ugh,” the man says, rolling his eyes. “You’re stubborn, aren’t you? I bet you will refuse to even acknowledge me for months or even years. I should have chosen to guard one of Venus’ moons when ‘Llura gave me the chance.”

“Nope,” Keith says, waking to the other side of the balcony. If his brain is going to torment him with ridiculousness, then he is not going to listen.

He’ll just wait it out.

———

For the eight hours of sundown, he manages. He keeps stubbornly away from the hallucination, ignoring the man’s huffing and puffing and muttering, firmly telling himself that he’s just overtired and that he’ll sleep in extra tomorrow morning so this won’t happen again. The very second the sun peeks above the horizon, Keith books it for the staircase, rushing for the door before the hallucination can so much as mutter a word. He runs straight to his bed and sleeps for sixteen straight hours, completely dead to the world. When he wakes, he convinces himself to check the balcony, and is relieved to find the man gone.

“See?” he reassures himself. “Just sleep deprived.”

He believes it all the way until sundown, when he jovially makes the climb up to the light, whistling to himself, only to trail into silence when the man stands there again, smiling smugly at him.

“Good evening,” he says.

Keith throws a book at his face.

———

“I despise you,” the man says nasally, glaring at Keith through bruised eyes.

Keith winces, dabbing blood off the man’s nose as delicately as he can with a damp cloth.

“Sorry,” he says, as genuinely as he can. “I really did think the book was going to go through you. How was I to know that you’re — well, that you’re real?”

“Because I told you!” the man cries. “Thrice!”

Keith huffs, stepping back as the man wrestles the cloth from his hands and starts to wipe the blood off himself. “Well, I said I was sorry, okay? Jesus.”

The man glares at him one more time before sighing. “I suppose I can forgive you.”

“Cool.” Keith shifts awkwardly. “Um, not to be rude, but who the hell are you? Now that I know you’re not my brain, it’s kind of super weird that you’re here.”

“I have many names,” the man says. “Luna, Alqamar, Dal. Moon. But the other Guardians call me Lance, so perhaps that is the name most suitable.”

“Okay,” Keith says, like this isn’t lunacy. “So you’re not just some random dude? You’re, like, the — moon? In the fucking sky?”

“Our spirits are one, yes.”

“Mhm. Great. That cleared up nothing.”

The man — Lance — raises an amused eyebrow. “What more must be made clear to you, Lightkeeper? The Moon and I are one. I am he who guards her, I am her. Is that so confusing?”

“You must know that it is,” Keith says flatly. “Like, up until right this second, I though the moon was a lifeless rock floating in the sky.”

“You’ve never felt the pull?” Lance asks softly. “Your kind has built your culture on her. Every one of you worships her in some way, ever group looks to her with some kind of fondness. You truly did not feel any of her pull, of her power? The power of any of the celestia? Have you not looked up and felt the breath knocked from your lungs?”

“I have,” Keith admits. Lance is right — the moon has always has spirit. Keith just didn’t think it was so literal.

“Good,” Lance says firmly. “There is hope for you yet, Lightkeeper.”

“Keith.”

“Hm?”

“That’s my name,” Keith says awkwardly. “Keith.”

“Oh!” Lance exclaims. He smiles, just as he did the first time Keith saw him, faint silver glow making him appear ethereal. “It’s good to meet you, Keith.”

Keith cracks a smile. This is weird as hell, sure — but didn’t Keith ask for something interesting to happen?

“It’s good to meet you too, Lance.”

———

“A friend?”

“Yep,” Keith says, popping the p. “All by myself and everything.”

“That’s great!” Shiro says enthusiastically. “How did you meet? Is he working for the lighthouse too, or does he work in town?”

“He’s a…traveller,” Keith says hesitantly. “Yeah. Only here three nights of the month, so I let him crash and we hang out.”

It’s as much of a truth as any. Keith has learned over the last few months that Lance can only come to Earth when the moon is closest — when it’s ‘full’.

“Your human denominations make no sense,” Lance argued. “I am always full, I’m just simply not always facing you. What is a ‘new moon’? I never change.”

Keith shrugged. “Do I look like I named the damn phases? People didn’t always get that, man. You looked like a crescent, you were called a crescent. Simple!”

“But you have advanced! You know the truth, now, so why keep the archaic language?”

“Lance. Dude. I am a lighthouse-keeper, and I made up all sorts of shit to get this job. I am not an astronomer.”

“Ugh. Humans perplex me.”

“Okay, mythical being.”

“…but I’m glad you’re not so lonely,” Shiro continues, snapping Keith out of his thoughts. “I was worried for a while there, kiddo.”

Keith snorts. “Thanks, Shiro.”

“Hey, don’t give me that! You have a tendency to get yourself into sticky situations and then make it worse by stubbornly refusing to back out while you can!”

“I do not,” Keith says, lying.

“Mhm, sure, kiddo. And I didn’t have to rescue you from a cult two separate times.”

“Whatever,” Keith says, scowling. “I’m hanging up now.”

“Yeah, yeah, goober.”

As much as Keith hates to admit it, life really does improve between Lance’s visits and Shiro’s calls. Both give him something solid to look forward too, and Lance’s visits especially often give him the element of physical touch that Keith didn’t realise he was missing.

Not that he’ll admit that.

But it’s nice, kind of. Even though Lance’s skin kind of feels like cool marble, and every time they hug it’s like the warmth is leeched out of him.

Not that they hug a lot.

Well, kind of. Lance is a touchy person. Moon Guardian.

Whatever.

———

“How does the guardian thing, like, work? In terms of science?”

Lance shrugs. “I haven’t the faintest clue,” he says easily. “My friend — he’s the Guardian of Phobos — he has a much clearer idea. It has something to do with quintessence, he supposes.”

“Quintessence?”

“Life force. Energy. The pieces that make up atoms.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that had a name.”

“Everything does. That’s why it exists.”

“Huh.” Keith sits with that for a moment. Not that he ever probably could, but he’d love to explain this to Shiro, to watch his nerd brain explode. It would be hilarious. “So do you guys just…spring to life when a new planet it formed, or something?”

“Oh, no,” Lance says, laughing. “I am only…twenty-five rotations around the sun.”

Keith raises his eyebrows. “Seriously? You’re my age?”

“Are you insinuating that I look older?” Lance teases. “Because if that’s the case, I can arrange to have you smited.”

Keith laughs.

Then he gets nervous.

Can Lance have him smited?

“No, no, you look great,” Keith says. Better safe than sorry.

“You look beautiful, really. It definitely makes sense that you’re the moon guardian, y’know? Like, if I had to picture someone who matched the moon, it would be you.”

Well.

That was certainly more than being ‘safe’.

Sometimes, Keith wishes he had even a little bit of a filter.

“You think so?” Lance asks quietly. Shyly.

“Yes,” Keith chokes out, picking a random star and praying to it that his blush fades. “I think so.”

A cold finger curls around his.

“I think you look beautiful, too.”

———

“Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith —”

“Shiro, piss off,” Keith mumbles, reaching blindly for a pillow to smack his brother with. “I’m tired.”

“Well, get up! This only happens thrice a year, and I want to make the most of it!”

Wait. Keith only knows one person — well, ‘person’ — who says thrice unironically, and it’s not Shiro.

“Lance?!” Keith yelps, startling awake. He shoots a confused look to the frankly ecstatic man before him, and then looks, even more confused, out his window. The sun is high in the sky, it can’t be more than noon.

“How are you here?”

“Supermoon!” Lance shouts excitedly. “Every four months, I am as close to Earth as I can possibly be, even closer then what you humans call a ‘full’ moon, and so I can be on Earth a full day cycle! It’s very exciting. I tried to wait for you to wake, but you slept so long. I couldn’t wait any further.”

“Ugh,” Keith groans, flipping back onto the pillows. “It’s early.”

Really, he’s as excited as Lance, but Lance can’t know that.

“Half the day has passed!” Lance argues. There’s a dip in the bed, and it’s Keith’s only warning before there’s suddenly a weight flopped on him.

“Oof.”

“You’re being exceptionally boring,” Lance says, pushing himself up on Keith’s chest to look him closely in the face. “I want to explore the town. I’ve always been too shy to go on my own. Take me, take me, take me!”

Keith fights off a blush, both from their position and Lance’s accidental innuendo.

“Okay,” he says weakly.

Lance cheers, scrambling off him and running out of the room.

“Hurry and get ready! I will try and make us breakfast — I think I understand how to use the stove!”

“Yeah, yeah.” It takes a moment for Lance’s second sentence to sink in. “Wait, Lance, no, stay away from the stove, you don’t know how fire works yet!”

———

Keith is going to collapse into particles. Really. That, or melt into goo on the ground.

It’s just that Lance is so cute.

Sure, he’s always beautiful. Ethereal, really. And he’s funny, and smart, and obviously very fascinating on principle alone.

But watching Lance flutter excitedly through the tiny coastline town, fascinated by every tiny, mundane thing?

Oh, Keith is not going to make it out of this one alive. Seriously. It’s straight out of that one scene in The Little Mermaid, except Lance is a million times more adorable, and knows what a fork is.

“Oh my stars, look at all these things! It’s all ridiculous! There’s no purpose for it! I want one of everything!”

“How do you even — wait,” Keith says, as something occurs to him. “Do you have, like, a house on the moon, or something? How do you store all your shit? Because you clearly have, like, clothes and stuff. And you understand some book references. Is there like a Celestial Guardians neighbourhood, or something…?”

“Oh, everything I have is stored with yours, only on the astral plane,” Lance says dismissively.

“Right. Okay,” Keith says. He pats Lance on the shoulder. “This would be one of those times where you say something that you think is very normal, but is actually batshit insane.”

Lance blinks. “Oh.” He pauses for a moment, tilting his head. “If you don’t know about the astral plane, it might be hard to conceptualise.”

“Let’s grab some food,” Keith suggests. Lance lights up at the suggestion, making Keith smile. Lance loves human food.

Once they’re settled at some random, tourist trap restaurant, Keith pokes Lance in the shoulder.

“Astral plane?” he prompts.

“Right,” Lance says, speaking through his bite of food which should be disgusting but is instead only endearing. “Quintessence is a very finicky thing. It exists and it doesn’t, in more places than are possible. It is, in many ways, the explanation for things that do not make sense.”

“So it’s not a specific material?”

“It is, it’s just also everything else that doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, that’s confusing.”

“Mhm. That’s what’s so fun about it! The most important parts that you need to know, though, is that every physical plane has an inphysical plane, and every single thing on those two planes are entwined on a quintessential level.”

Keith nods. “That means almost nothing to me.”

Lance laughs. “Well, think of you and me, yes? You are a human, a physical being. I am a Guardian of the Moon. I am physical only in certain ways, and only because my quintessence is tied completely with yours. We are mirrors to each other, connections to the two different worlds. Does that make sense?“

Keith stills, fork halfway to his mouth. Because, scientifically — no. Nothing about what Lance said is in any way something Keith can conceptualise.

But, like, on spiritual terms?

“That makes it sound like you’re my soulmate,” Keith says quietly.

“That’s a great way of putting it!” Lance says, smiling brightly. “Our souls are mated, yes. That’s one way of seeing it. Every part of our lives has been linked together from the moment we existed — I exist, as a Guardian, because you exist, because you are my tether to the physical plane — and will continue beyond that. Fascinating, yes?”

Keith nods numbly.

Soulmates.

For the second time since he’s met Lance, Keith thinks back to the coast guard’s story, back to the man who guarded the lighthouse and fell in love with the moon, who never retired, who stayed with the moon until his very end.

It sounds a lot less spooky, now.

———

Lance is still a bundle of energy when they finally head back to the lighthouse, sun beginning to set on the horizon.

“You’re my favourite human I know,” he says, pressing a smacking kiss to Keith’s cheek. “Thank you for taking me to the town.”

“I’m the only human you know,” Keith responds wryly, hyper aware of the spot on his cheek that Lance’s lips just touched.

Soulmates rings in his ears.

They climb the stairs in comfortable silence, lying down on the balcony next to the light and looking up contentedly at the stars.

“It looks far more wondrous on Earth,” Lance says quietly. He smiles. “Most things do.”

“Yeah?” Keith asks, just as quiet. “I would’ve thought you could see more out in space.”

“You can, but there’s something special about being down here.” He turns to face Keith. His smile has turned shy. “With you.”

Keith’s throat goes dry. He takes a deep breath, then reaches out a shaking hand, cupping it around Lance’s cheek. Lance leans into it.

“Lance,” he says, voice surprisingly steady. “Do you know what it means, for humans, to be soulmates?”

“Yes,” Lance whispers. “I was — I know what it means to me, at least. And I know what I hope it means for you.”

Slowly, Keith brushes his thumb across Lance’s cheekbone, back and forth. His skin has started to glow again, in tandem with the moon. It makes the brown of his eyes seem darker.

“What do you hope it means?”

Lance’s gaze flicks down to his lips. “That I am yours.”

“And what about me?”

“What do you want to be?”

“Yours, if you want me.”

Lance smiles, a flash of white in the darkness. “I do. I always have.”

“Always?” The words are barely a whisper, their faces so close together that their breath intermingles, tiny freckles over Lance’s nose shining like mini constellations.

“Yes,” Lance says, and then their lips finally meet, Keith’s eyes fluttering shut as he cradles the face of the Moon carefully in his hands, caresses the coolness of his skin. He breathes in the scent of his soulmate, and he knows he will go just as mad as the lightkeeper before him; desperately in love with the Moon.

Somehow, he doesn’t mind.

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mycological-mariner · 2 months

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Dude dude dude. Wdym you know lots about Cornish history. Please share. I want this info dump. I want to know more. I will beg on my knees if necessary.

!!!!

I guess it depends on which period of Cornish history you wanna know about! I admit I don’t know a great deal about say Dunmonia or the really properly ancient culture in Cornwall. I take more of an interest in the social and industrial side of Cornish history. But I can give you a run-down of some parts of Cornish history you’ll never shut me up about!

The Cornish Jacobites and their rebellion in 1715! It actually had an impact on the 1745 rebellion, as well, as one of the Cornish Jacobite leaders’ (who was tossed in Newgate prison) family were suspected of harbouring Prince Charles Stuart, though it’s unlikely this did in fact occur. Actually this whole period is really interesting!

Cornwall during the French Rev wars!! So actually. In Cornwall, the ideas of Liberté, égalité, fraternité we’re quite popular. So popular in that in St. Just which was on the Tin Coast, a group of men planted a Liberty Tree. There was also a great deal of economic struggle (Cornwall has always been one of the poorest regions in the UK, however it was particularly drastic at this time, so much so that if you were a working family, you’d likely not be able to afford wheat for bread as it was extraordinarily highly priced). In fact, the officials of the area feared an uprising. I don’t have the number off the top of my head, but the reason they feared an uprising in Cornwall so much was because they’d be extremely outnumbered. Like I said, don’t have the precise number but it would’ve been a blood bath. Though luckily enough, the wars would very soon come to an end. Until the Napoleonic Wars kicked off.

Cornwall during the Napoleonic Wars is just. I could write a book or a very, very long essay. It’s also a very important time for industry. However Cornwall also held a unique position, being so close to France. French refugees trying to flee the war would be snuck across the channel and into Cornwall. They would also be given English names and set up with work. Not official, by the way. This wasn’t exactly a government approved activity. However there were also a few prisoner of war camps in Cornwall, a notable one in Roskrow. Detectorists must have a blast there… I’m also extremely emotional about one Captain James Quick, a St. Ives merchant captain who was taken a prisoner of war after setting sail from Falmouth and his ship, the Hopewell, becoming extremely damaged, losing all sails and being driven to the French coast and grounded in November 1810. He married his wife in just September. I actually have read the letters he wrote to his wife Harriett during this time and Christ. It’s a hell of a thing. He eventually made it home in 1814.

Industry in Cornwall is something I’ve touched on already a bit. But mining, fishing and farming were the biggest. And there’s the technology developed for it. One day I’ll need to talk in depth about the submarine mines, specifically Levant Mine (though it is a truly horrific story). Levant was actually 600 meters deep and before the “man engine” men and boys would have to climb around 80 sets of ladders up and down every single day, twice a day, in extremely hot mines that, at their longest stretched a mile beneath the sea floor. It wasn’t uncommon for men to just pass out from exhaustion on the ladders. A beam engine was introduced, which is still there. The only one in Cornwall.

By WWI, Cornwall has been pretty well established as a major entryway for trade into and out of the UK. Falmouth was THE port of call for ages. However, there was something called spy mania. Officials were worried German spies may use Cornwall to get into the country. This led to mass incarcerations of “spies” (many of whom were proven innocent) and subsequent executions. However even if you weren’t a spy, people coming into the country could be detained, thrown into a jail/workhouse and then drafted against their will into the war. It would have been a horrifying time to try and come into the country. On the topic of world wars and Cornwall, there are some places — one, I actually believe around Falmouth — where coastal defences managed to sink German uboats and at low tide you can even walk out to them (or at least they become exposed enough you can clearly make them out).

Once the tin and copper dried up, many Cornish miners were told they could have free land in places like Australia (and if this sounds a bit like what the US government told labourers in the mid 19thc, well it’s a theme). Besides Australia, many MANY miners also went to North America. In Mexico there’s even a town called Real de Monte, sometimes called “Little Cornwall” for its Cornish heritage there. Some Cornish miners also went as far West into America as California — again, which has a number of Cornish names about — and into the Appalachians and all along the east coast. The Hoosac Tunnel Disaster in 1853 was heavily being worked by Cornish immigrants and took over 20 years to complete.

I’ve not even touched on the language and the rebuilding thereof, nor cultural history or festivals. Or the smuggling!!! Or the civil war!!! Or it’s number of rebellions!! As I say, it really depends on which era and what aspect of Cornish history you’d be interested in learning about! I just kinda did a quick play by play, highlights! I highly recommend going to Kresen Kernow’s website (archives in Redruth) as well as the Royal Cornwall Museum which has quite a few digitised records in their online archives. Bodmin War Museum and the Falmouth Maritime Museum are also very useful! And if you ever go to Cornwall, PLEASE go to the local museum! You won’t believe the kind of things the volunteers will tell you or the absolute wild history of some of the objects. I can also recommend some reading, too.

#please don’t beg on your knees #I will happily always talk Cornish history #I’m just shy lol #anyways YEA!! there’s A LOT of history here and while I have my own specific areas of interest I did want to cast a wide net lol #pls feel free to ask me about anything here #gonna get sad thinking about James Quick brb #thanks for the ask!!!!!#<33333

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kyuohki · 9 days

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Gimme some director's cut deets on your modern AU!

Oh, goodness, my modern AU (with all the BDSM and Petplay...)

First the Party, in their majors (I think I commented on some of these, but I figured out Valere and Zale finally):

Garl is majoring in Family/Child Psychology, and probably gonna continue on to get a master’s degree (maybe eventually a PhD? I thought Culinary Arts, but it’s a bit too on the nose; plus, he was so amazing and supportive throughout the game, and he was absolutely great with Malkomud). Garl has a variety of scholarships, grants, and financial aid getting him through college.

Teaks, of course, is getting a degree in History (minoring in Creative Writing (she writes horror/thriller in her spare time, and some of her work is getting popular)). Teaks is also using a variety of scholarships, grants, and financial aid.

Seraï is getting a restoration ecology degree, with an eye to getting a masters (then a PhD). She wants to help with restoration projects in areas that have been damaged by humans. (She hides the fact that she's rich-rich from everyone as long as possible, which eventually results in Zale having a conspiracy theory that she's a Yakuza heiress).

Valere intends on getting her degrees in Physics and Engineering. She's has an idea of becoming an aerospace engineer, wanting to create more efficient and eco friendly airplanes and the like for travel. Valere is in on a tennis scholarship, grants, and financial aid.

Zale is going for a basic degree atm, but will land on something in Fine Arts (honestly with my obsession with pottery rn it'll probably end up being something to do with ceramics). (His family is the same as in Bloodlines (same thing for Valere), and Haris and his shop were big influences on Zale growing up). Zale is in on a soccer scholarship, grants, and financial aid.

Resh'an and Aephorul are married and professors at the university; they own the duplex that the group is renting (unknown to the group, they live just down the street in an even older historical home. The duplex is Resh'an's, and their current home is Aephorul's).

Resh'an actually has a variety of classes in various subjects he cycles through every couple of years, and each of the group probably end up in one of his classes at one point or another (he feels like a Jack of all Trades to me).

Aephorul is a neuroscientist, reluctantly teaching classes between his research (he doesn't exactly hate it, just has no patience for most of the students who try to coast through his classes).

B'st is a contemporary of Resh'an and Aephorul, and with him being a Songster, he teaches a large variety of music classes and theory. He is good friends with the "pirate" crew after they graduated, as all of them took his classes for their degrees.

NSFW exploration under the cut:

'Kay…it’s probably absolutely clear to everybody now that I have a kink for main characters willingly giving up their control to their partners (or losing all control to someone stronger).

So...…Teaks introduced the idea of BDSM to the trio. First to Valere after they’d gotten together, with shibari; then to the boys when she and Valere were not as thorough in cleaning up their supplies from a play session in their living room. (There was much blushing from everyone when Zale found the cuffs and rope, then a lot of teasing.)

Garl and Zale were actually not together when they all moved into the duplex. Between being introduced to the concept of BDSM, and constant pining on both sides since their high school days, it all came to a head when Zale got really drunk and kissed Garl (and as I love the stupid trope, he passed out and didn't remember it in the morning). Garl corners him not long after, they have a long talk, and start dating (bc like hell Garl is gonna let the pining continue if he can be cuddling, kissing, and smexing his Kitten bff).

Zale came up with the Kitten-play all on his own, having stumbled on it online while looking for gifts for Garl. He ended up missing getting it all for Garl's bday, as it took a while to collect everything. He did have a very embarrassing outing with Valere to figure out what kind of lingerie to get; bc Zale chickened out going on his own, and was overwhelmed by all the variety (she didn't know about the whole Kitten bit, tho.)

Zale finds that he likes being a Kitten, and he and Garl explore it a bit deeper after that first time. Garl gets an at-home belled collar to match the lingerie, and a more incognito necklace that Zale can wear all the time (Garl has a matching bracelet). After getting his collars, Zale starts experimenting with being a Kitten a bit deeper (with non-verbal communication and non-sexual play). They actually mostly do non-sexual play in cuddle and "grooming" sessions after long days of school or work.

Garl is a Soft Dom. These two don't really "switch" their roles all that often (Zale *likes* being a Sub, and Garl *likes* being a Dom), but that doesn't mean that Zale is always bottom. Garl does get his sounding fantasy played out, and all his ideas for Zale on rings and cages actually end up being used on him more often than not (Zale finds he also likes being a bratty Kitten and torturing Garl.)

Teaks and Valere figured out that being tied up helps Valere relax. Doesn't even have to be for sexy-times...if Valere is stressing over school or whatever, Teaks will offer to tie her up in either simple or complex shibari.

Seraï ends up walking in on one of Teaks and Valere's innocent sessions, and is flustered over it. Teaks and Valere discuss it, and slowly start romancing Seraï when she doesn't push them away when they broach it to her, and they end up in a happy threesome. They all like switching up who is dominant for any given session.

#writing #my fics #all of these will eventually get written out #some for the smexytimes others for the slice of life fluff

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sixminutestoriesblog · 11 months

Text

blue men of Minch

The world is full of secret beings tradition has packed into almost every hidden corner and shadow. Wherever man has gone, we've brought our mirror realms and watchers in the dark with us. With scientific advances and steel and smog replacing the green grottoes and deep silences of the woods though, they've faded, slipping away from our consciousness as we filled it with TV sitcoms and internet cats. There's no room in our age of the fears of climate change for capricious elemental beings or for sea monsters over the roar of our whale hunting boats. Our grandmother's grandmother's folklore is far from us.

Most days.

On June 28, 2023, sitting on the sand at Eoropie Beach on the Isle of Lewis, a mother watching her family play in the water felt what she called a premonition.

"I was at the beach with my family and they were jumping in and out of the water – I've never felt uneasy and am in the water a lot, but I kept telling them to get out." [Story by Talker News • Yesterday 12:12 PM]

Everyone knows the capriciousness of the sea and, as the US's own Gulf Coast has recently proved, currents can snatch a person away without any warning. A mother of three children has a right to feel unsettled. It was what she did next that makes this a story.

She took pictures of the waves washing up on the shore.

"I felt uneasy about them being in there. I was taking loads of pictures but it wasn’t until I got home and looked through them that one picture stood out."

The picture in question was this one.

I - honestly see nothing. Or rather, what amazes me about the picture is how empty the beach is. I can't remember the last time I managed to find a beach that wasn't awash with people and it looks to me as if she had this stretch of beach entirely to herself, a mystery all of its own. For some reason though, she looked closer.

Stephanie Cranston thinks she might have caught a blue man of Minch on film.

“The way the sea is in that picture, you can see what looks like a figure coming out of the water.

My hair stood on end, it was pretty creepy – I've never seen anything like it before.

I don’t really believe in any stuff like that but I caught that in the picture and thought this is absolutely crazy.

The Hebrides has got myths about the blue men of the Munch – looking back at the picture it’s quite creepy.

I think if it is what I think it is, it’s the only one that’s ever been caught on camera.”

Let's roll this back a bit for those of us who aren't native enough to the area to know what's going on.

The blue men of Minch are basically storm kelpies. They haunt the waters of the area, looking to drag sailors and sometimes even their ships down to a watery grave in the darkness below the waves. When the weather is clear and the water is calm, the blue men sleep, sometimes drifting up to float on the surface, more often retreating to their underwater caves. When the weather is stormy however they rise to the surface and ride the cresting, wild waves, reveling in the chaos and looking for humans to drown. Woe then to any sailor who finds himself still caught out in the waters away from the safety of the shore. All hope isn't lost however. Sometimes, a clever and quick tongue can get you out of your approaching doom. Legend has it that, like the Mari Lwyd of Wales, the leader of the blue men will challenge a ship's captain to a poetry slam. Two lines a piece and if the captain can not only keep up but get in the last word of the poem, the blue men will let him and his ship go free. If he loses however, they will take their long arms and shake his ship to pieces, dragging anyone onboard to their deaths.

One of the odd things about the blue men is that they stick to a very small section of the coast. The Minch is a strait of water that separates the mainland of Scotland from a series of islands known as the Outer Hebrides or the Western Isles. It's only about 70 miles or 110km in length and can narrow down to as little as 14 miles or 23km across in some places. In the wideness of the world's oceans, that's not much. It's also believed to be the site of the biggest meteorite to ever hit the British Isles. The blue men are said to live here, and only here. Beyond those narrow shores, they're practically unknown.

The blue men are described as - well - blue. Sometimes its their caps that are described as blue and they themselves are grey faced. They skim either just on the surface or just under it when they swim, sometimes rising up as high as their waist in the water as they move like a dolphin, diving like dolphins too. They're human in appearance and size and even though they're described as kelpie I haven't found any references to them changing size or shape, never appearing as anything but regular sized human men in the water. There's no mention of women.

Clever poetry could appease them and like most ocean spirits, they could be bribed into bringing good fishing and weather. A candle lit on the shore at Halloween honored them and ale could be poured out into the wavebreak in the hopes that they would leave seaweed on the shore the village could use for fertilizer. Like most ocean spirits though they were the personification of the sea itself and just as capricious in mood and action.

The origin of the blue men might come from several points back in the island's history. There is speculation that the 'swimming above the water up to their waist' might have started with blue painted or tattooed Picts in low boats speeding along the strait, half hidden by the waves. Another explanation might be the North African slaves the Vikings brought with them when they wintered nearby, with both blue clothed Moors and the 'blue men of the desert' Tuareg people being suggested. Whatever the base of the legend was, it blended well with the idea of dangerous sea spirits along the coast and created the very unique blue men of Minch.

#folklore #scottish folklore #minch #blue men of minch #kelpie #ocean folklore #in the news #mythical creatures #myth #mythology #superstition #mythology and folklore #rap battle

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pico-digital-studios · 2 months

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Into, Across and Beyond! Scripting: Bar Stop-Off

In One More Hero's fourth chapter, CR!Sonic came back into Dimension MP-2021, immediately going to find OMT!Tails and OMT!Mina.

CR!Sonic: Tails!

OMT!Tails: Huh? Sonic?

CR!Sonic: Look, I... I'm really sorry about earlier. I've got a lot on my plate, and I want to make it up to you however I can.

He noticed Tails was just looking at him.

CR!Sonic: Uh, what are you doing?

OMT!Tails: Making you feel guilty proper. ...Is it working?

He was making puppy-dog eyes at CR!Sonic.

CR!Sonic: How could it-? No. Look at me, does it look like it's working? No, it's... no it's... ohhhh...

He covered his face in embarrassment.

CR!Sonic (muffled): MMMMPH! DON'T LET HIM WIN!

He uncovered his face after a moment, having given in.

CR!Sonic: *sigh* Alright, kid. You win.

OMT!Tails: Oh, yeah! This is Mina, by the way. I thought she had undergone the name "Mairead", though she told me it was just an alias.

OMT!Mina: Hello!

CR!Sonic: Oh, you guys know each other? Very cool. Well, c'mon, then! No time to lose!

Cut to them sitting in a bar area at McLovely's.

OMT!Tails: So, remind me what we're doing here again.

OMT!Mina: Dang, the menu here's appetizing!

CR!Sonic was having a breakfast chilli dog for himself.

CR!Sonic: Just a quick snack before we get down to business.

OMT!Tails: Before we continue, by the way, I was looking for petitions on behalf of a friend who wants AI-generated art outlawed around here. You guys alright with giving signatures?

CR!Sonic: Huh! I'm down for it!

OMT!Mina: Me too!

OMT!Tails: Sweet! Just be careful not to get any chilli stains on the paper.

The two put their signatures on CraftyCorn's petition sheet.

OMT!Tails: So, got any advice you can share with me now that we're back to equals?

He had to keep CR!Sonic from pilfering his burger while asking this.

CR!Sonic: First off, train your body to become immune to motion-sickness, or doing any of my stunts will suck. Uh... Definitely don't go crazy when you're full on chilli dogs, like me. Threw up like a water hose last time I did that.

OMT!Tails: Right, got it. Anything else?

CR!Sonic: Uhh... I dunno. Not really the... mentor type of guy. I'm more of a... action type.

OMT!Tails: Ah, I see. So, what's the plan once we arrive at the crashed Death Egg site off South Island's coast?

CR!Sonic: Easy! Step 1: I break in, Step 2: infiltrate the lab, Step 3: sneak in, destroy a couple of robots while I'm at it. Step 4: you two come in and help me gain access to the computer, Step 5: download the important stuff, Step 6: grab a sandwich from the cafeteria, and Step 7: dip it outta there and fix everything!

OMT!Tails: Okey-doke! Also, just to let you know, the head scientist at that place is that brown-haired lady with the bike. I saw her in one part of a documentary at my new school's taster session.

CR!Sonic: ... Got it. Step 8: re-evaluate my personal biases.

OMT!Tails: Well, that's our plan, right?

OMT!Mina: We could practice jogging somewhere on the way!

OMT!Tails: Sure!

After they paid for the meal, they got on a bus on their way to Emerald Coast.

CR!Sonic: Just to be clear, we're not running all the way over to the shore just from the city. Not after a hearty brunch. Keep your legs fresh, kid. You're gonna thank me later.

OMT!Tails: Fair enough.

CR!Sonic: Supporting public transportation is always a plus, especially when you're a hero! Some cities just don't put enough support behind it!

OMT!Mina: (Deep down, he really is a hero like he always was.)

CR!Sonic kicked back.

CR!Sonic: Gosh, helping out this alternate Tails is actually kinda fun. I wonder how the guys back home are doing?

(Cue everything going to shit in Crossover Realm's Knothole and Newtropolis, fire everywhere, buildings tipping over, everyone screaming and running in chaos)

Gary: (screaming in hysterics) WHERE'S MY WISH?!?! I WANT MY WISH!!!

CLE: Oh BEC, PLEASE hurry up with those wishes!

Back with the main crew...

CR!Sonic: Eh, I'm sure it'll be fine.

OMT!Tails: What is it like at your universe?

CR!Sonic: Long story. It'd boggle you just processing it if I told you.

Elsewhere (for whatever reason)...

Exegod: The nerve of that Pico (yep, he means me). Inviting me to go Into, Across and Beyond for another scene. On such short notice! Even if I wanted to go, my SCHEDULE WOULDN’T ALLOW IT! (Looks at schedule) 4:00, wallow in self pity. 4:30, stare into the abyss. 5:00, fix the Sonic franchise for good (tell no one). 5:30, pics of Sally_ALT in incognito mode. 6:30, dinner with me, I can’t cancel that again. 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked! Of course if I hold the loathing to 9, I can still be back here in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness. But WHAT WOULD I WEAR?!

#sonic exe #sonic the hedgehog #spider verse #sth #sonic #sonic fandom #sth au #sonic au #spider man

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twistedminutia · 2 months

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Also, im not sure who turbulent the weather is in Twisted. But, how funny would it be if Gray (don't know where she lives in The USA), but I know that the weather there is weird or turbulent. Like if there is a tornado? welp time to go to the tornado room earthquake? casually walk out the building quickly and crouch down (safely), or in go to under the table and stay away from the dangerous shit. tsunami? grab the nearest student with good competency to fly and force them to fly.

Or Gray knows the danger of some animals, and knows what to do or deter them away. Like seeing apes, don't look at them, don't smile, and don't give them a reason to hate you. Hears a mysterious crying in woods, likely a bobcat. Sees a moose, be far away, don't disturb it. Heck, I have seen a video of a Moose walking on water briefly, while the original poster was canooing on a river.

So Gray comes from a similar area in the US that I do, meaning northeast coast, so she actually has pretty mild weather. Most she’s ever dealt with are like some bad storms in summer and a couple nor’easters in winter. So I think SHE would be the scared one when it turns out NRC does semi-regular tsunami drills!

Yes, I headcanon that they do tsunami drills. They are on the very edge of an island. Admittedly, they are also pretty high up, from what I can tell in the maps of the campus, and they probably have magic defenses, but I say they get run pretty often as a safety measure anyway. (I have Thoughts on the safety measures they should have in place at NRC but I’ll save that for another post.)

As for other weather phenomena… The Queendom of Roses has tsunami drills as well, though that is partially dependent on what area you live in (Riddle canonically lived inland and therefore didn’t have any until he went to campus). They also get hit with tropical storms sometimes, although usually only the southern portion of the island experiences these. NRC is a bit too far north to really get much in the way of tropical storms.

The Sunset Savannah and the Scalding Sands both experience droughts, and I had canon that the area Kalim and Jamil live in gets earthquakes semi-regularly, though not super strong ones. The Sunset Savannah also has a wet season, which can cause flooding, so there are a lot of flash flood warnings at that time of year.

The Shaftlands has the most diverse weather patterns of all the homelands, with the mountainous and northern areas getting avalanches and blizzards, and tornadoes appear more toward the south. The Coral Sea obviously doesn’t have the same weather patterns, being under the water, but it does freeze in the winter, causing an ice floe season.

Briar Valley benefits from having some extremely powerful draconic rulers who are able to somewhat control the weather, preventing too many serious storms from crossing their borders, Briar Valley also suffers from having some extremely powerful draconic rulers who are able to somewhat control the weather, causing serious storms if they lose control of their magic. Also, it’s decently far north, so it’s got some frigid winters. (Do you ever think about how Sebek canonically hates being cold but also he’s from a country that’s super far north???? Poor guy!)

All that to say, Gray probably doesn’t have more knowledge than an average student, and would need to follow the drills, same as everyone else. I think it would be similar for animals- she actually would know a little more than average, compared to some students (like Ace or Deuce) but she’s certainly going to know less than, say, Rook. But she could at least guide people out of an animal attack. Or she’d just throw herself in front of them to get eaten while her friends run away. She’s self-sacrificial like that.

#twisted wonderland #a million and one minutia #asked and answered

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e7y1 · 10 months

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Hurricanes

Okay so! I hear there is a hurricane hitting something other than the East coast and in all honesty, I don't know how normal that is. So! I want to make a post to help.

First thing to note is what level of a hurricane it is. If it's a tropical storm to 2, you will need to prepare a bit but in all honesty, it's more like a strong storm. You just need to take some precautions. 3-5 is more concerning and in all honesty, I don't know what to do for 4-5. I've prepared for a 3, not the other two.

.Power outages: Tropical storms - 2 has a lower chance of having power outages but they are not unheard of. 3 - 5 is almost a guarantee of having them.

These power outages tend to depend on where you are, and what has happened. I've lost my power from 12am to around 4pm. In that same hurricane I had friends who didn't lose their power, and another friend who had her water out for a week. A good thing to do is have a basket or something together of all of your flashlights, candles, book lights, whatever light source you have that does not use an outlet. Some people get generators, I don't know anything about that. .Water: If your power is out, your water probably also is. This is pretty much why a lot of people stock pile water around this time.

If you have a 2 or higher coming, a good idea is to fill plastic baggies with water and put them in the freezers to keep them cool. In an emergency, this can be water.

Big tubberware of water is also a good idea.

Another thing is to fill your bathtubs with water. This is good for the toilets.

.Flooding:

Alright so, I have not had to deal with this but this is something to think about for 2 and higher. Also if you are at a flooding risk area, live on the coast, or in a mobile home. I am just going to put down what my family did in preparation but please know that I have not dealt with flooding.

We all made go-bags. This is the stuff we said "if we need to leave, I want to take this." This had some of my electronics, pictures, drawings, irreplaceable things. I would probably also put a change of clothes in there.

Again, I have not actually dealt with flooding but my family stored our important documents in the dishwasher. These things are supposed to be water tight.

Please also look up hurricane evacuation routes as well as where is hurricane shelters.

.The day before the hurricane:

You want to prepare the week beforehand (everyone goes nuts) but the day beforehand is when you actually see signs of this storm. The times you get on the trackers is the times when the eye is over you (about the middle point).

The day beforehand you want to make sure that everything outside is secure. Lawn chairs and the such needs to come inside.

Is there branches hanging low on the trees? Such as ones that can touch your house or are close to windows? Trim them.

Make sure that you have a room set up to hang out or sleep in that is not near a window. If you live in an area that gets tornadoes, it is the same sort of concept.

This is also the time to get your water into the containers, baggies, and tub.

If you are staying somewhere else during the hurricane, this is a good day to leave.

.When your home is not safe to stay in:

Some people actually cannot stay in their homes during a hurricane. I don't know if it is 4-5 that means you need to leave but I do know that even in lighter hurricanes, some houses just aren't safe.

If you live near the coast, are in a mobile home, or are in a higher level area, you should spend the hurricane in a hotel, or at a friend or family member's house. Also look up if there is hurricane shelters in your area.

Make sure to have a go-bag also.

.Day after the hurricane:

When the rain and wind is calming down, you have officially made it through the storm! There is still stuff to be done though. Such as check to see if you still have a fence. (I still don't know where my old fence went.)

If you have a tree, there will be branches everywhere. Do research to see if there is a "hurricane clean up" service. There might be some people that will swing by one day of the week to pick up your branches if you leave them by the side of the road.

If there are any damages, see if you can fix them yourself or if your insurance will take care of it. I don't know anything about the insurance thing though so... yeah.

Please remember to keep an eye on your roof. You will most likely lose shingles. If your are concerned about your roof. Check it out.

.Fun things to do in a hurricane:

I just thought to add this because why not? I know this might be a crazy time and that some people get anxious during storms so yeah.

.Hurricane parties: Some people go and spend the hurricane with others and have "hurricane parties." They play games, eat snacks, watch movies, just have a party.

.Games: This is a good time to have your board games out and to finally play that one game that your family got for Christmas but never seem to have the time to play. Also look into D&D.

.Reading/drawing/hobbies: Hobbies are a good thing to do at this time. This is something that is going to last a whole day so you will have time. Plus, you get rain ambience.

.What not to do during a hurricane:

.Don't drive unless if it is an emergency! Even then, call 911 if someone is hurt! The winds will push your car around!

.Do not go outside! It looks like a thunderstorm but the winds are not a joke. If you must step outside, be careful dang it!

.Be near windows in 3 or above. Winds be wimdy.

.Conclusion:

In all honesty, I would take a hurricane over a tornado but then again, I haven't dealt with a tornado. If you take the right precautions though, this should be okay.

Dang it though, if your weather station tells you to do something, do it.

If anyone has questions or other things they want to add, reblog or comment! I want to try to help.

#hurricane Hillary #Hurricanes

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levelzeo · 11 months

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Level Zeo’s Brilliant Diamond Nuzlocke - Part 1

I’m going to do a Nuzlocke of Brilliant Diamond. I never played the gen 4 games growing up, and even now I have never finished a playthrough of one (not for lack of wanting to, it's a long story), so this is going to be semi-blind. I also like Nuzlockes a lot as a storytelling device, so as I play I like coming up with headcanons for my Pokemon and their personalities, and I thought it would be cool to share those alongside the factual info of what happens in the run.

What are my rules? Well, I am pretty bad at video games. But I’m also better than the pure damage move spammer I was as a child, so I’m going somewhere in between casual and hardcore. Rules are as follows:

Pokemon faints, Pokemon dead.

I can only catch the first Pokemon I find on each Route/Area.

Nicknames for everybody!

No duplicates! If my first encounter is a duplicate I am forced to try again until I get something new.

Level Caps. Nobody is allowed to level past the next Gym Leader’s Ace.

Items. I will allow myself to use healing items in battle, but no battle items. If I find it too easy, I might put a limit on the number of heals I can use in one fight.

I will be playing in Switch Mode. As I said, I am bad at video games. I’m going to be losing a lot of Pokemon to stupidity and cockiness already, so I don’t need the extra challenge of Set Mode.

Okay then. Let’s begin.

I start up the game, pick the base female avatar, name her Zeo, and name my rival Melvin. Entering the game world proper, Melvin drags me to Lake Verity where we steal borrow some Pokemon from a briefcase to protect ourselves from getting mauled by wild animals. I pull a d6 from my pocket and roll it into the tall grass to decide which one I will pick, and I end up going with the middle Pokeball, Chimchar. Do I even need to say how this fight goes? We all know what happens here.

My new Chimchar has a Careful nature, and a characteristic of being Very Finicky. That makes me feel as though he is a very nervous creature. Cautious of everything, even to a fault. Perhaps he is right to worry so much, since on the way to Sandgem Town, he gets Crit TWICE by random encounters, forcing me to go home and heal each time. Poor fella.

I finally make it to Sandgem, and can finally give the Chimchar a nickname. I decided to go with Simmer, since he doesn’t seem like one to turn up the heat right out the gate. I get my Pokedex from my second favorite Professor, and the adventure can truly begin. First things first, I buy some Pokeballs so I can get an encounter from Route 201.

I end up with a lvl 2 Starly as my first encounter on the route. Don’t ask me why, but the Starly line has always reminded me of the seagulls I would always see on the coast. Because of that, I name this Starly after the food those winged rats would always steal from me. Chips. He has a Jolly nature, and is Strongly Defiant. These traits make me think that this virtual bird would try to steal my food just like the real ones. A hungry and energetic little gremlin. I imagine that he would quickly get on Simmer’s nerves.

After 201, I head north to Route 202. There, I ended up with the encounter I knew I was going to have going into a Sinnoh game. Bidoof. She has a Brave nature and Likes to Thrash About. I probably could have picked a name that goes better with those traits, but since I only get to know them after the nickname, her name is Boof.

This is where I make the stupid mistake of not going back to heal. Because of this, I almost have a complete wipe against my very first trainer fight in the entire game. Luckily, newcomer Boof is able to pull through and win the day with a sliver of hp remaining, and nobody dead. A Brave soul indeed. I hope this close call is not an omen of things to come.

Next stop is Jubilife. Pros of Jubilife: the music. Cons of Jubilife: the clowns. I get the Poketech before heading north again for more encounters. Between Route 204 and The Ravaged Path, I gain two new friends. Doc the Zubat, who is Hasty and Finicky. And Petard the Geodude who is Jolly and Somewhat of a Clown.

Between the name and traits, I think of Doc as a bit of a mad scientist archetype. Cackling maniacally as he swoops in and out of combat, scoffing at anyone who dares question his intelligence (despite not actually being as smart as he thinks he is). Simmer and Boof definitely aren’t buying the act, but Chips is all for it. I imagine Chips sees this as an opportunity to make a friend (and also to mooch food off of him), while Doc sees this as obtaining a new minion. Mwahahaha. Since they’re both flying types it saddens me that I will need to box one of them eventually, since I probably won’t need two fliers most of the time.

Being Jolly and a bit of Clown would normally make a Pokemon a bit of a prankster in my mind, but something about Petard being a Geodude wants me to go in a different direction. I’m picturing just a very chill and laid-back kinda guy, always trying to lighten the mood and crack a joke. Maybe even a bit of a “stoner” (cue rimshot and/or gunshot from the audience). Him and Boof would get along great due to them both being tanky and willing to roll with the punches. He is also willing to let Chips perch on his head, which is very cool of him.

I feel like I’m forgetting something else about my Geodude… oh right! I named him Petard after a type of bomb. In poor taste? Maybe. Does this mean I will be keeping and/or using self destruct when he learns it?

…

No comment.

Something I notice is that Simmer doesn’t really have anyone he can connect with. Chips definitely thinks their friends, not realizing how much his antics and gremlin energy annoys the Chimchar. Meanwhile Boof/Petard try to keep Simmer included, but his nerves and caution to most situations cause them to do so less and less. Doc just laughs and calls him a pitiful cowardly wretch of a fire type.

Poor Simmer. His loneliness is somewhat of his own making, but you can’t force yourself to be around people you don’t vibe with. As the Starter he is in a “Team Leader” role by default, and he’s definitely the powerhouse of the team, but is he confident enough in his abilities to be the leader they need right now? Probably not.

Enough characterization for now! Let’s get back to the game.

Since northwards is a dead end as of now, I go back to Jubilife. Popping into the trainer’s school, I have a vague memory of losing all of my Pokémon to the two Charge Beam Abras in there the first time I tried playing this game. Luckily Petard is immune to anything they do and he is easily able to slowly beat them into the dirt.

After that I head east onto Route 203, where I am immediately jumped by Melvin who challenges me to a Rival Battle.

It’s not a hard battle. Petard is tanky enough to not be hurt by anything the Starly can do, though I do switch to Boof to finish them off after the bird used Growl enough times to make the fight annoyingly slow. My decision that these two should be friends solidifies.

I have discovered in retrospect that Piplup has no water moves at this point, but at the time I didn’t know, so I sent in Chips instead of Simmer, who probably could have done it faster. I choose to believe I was just role-playing my starter’s careful nature. Chips is probably excited to prove himself though, and he certainly does. It’s a close battle, but I prove that my bird is superior and win the day (probably also stealing Melvin's lunch in the process).

I thought about continuing after that fight, but decided this was enough for a first update. If you read this far I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing in! Again, I think Nuzlockes are a fascinating medium for storytelling, and I hope the personalities I gave my Pokémon are fun to think about. I know that I like them. Next time I update I hope to at least get to the first Gym. Hope to see you then!

(PS, I am not an artist. I am bad at art. But for some reason I wanted to draw my Pokémon children. They aren’t good, but here they are. Let’s hope none of them die on me.)

#feel free to message me if you have any questions about my run or my pokemon #or if you just want to share your own nuzlocke stories with someone #id love to hear them #level zeo nuzlocke #nuzlocke #pokemon nuzlocke #nuzlocke story #pokemon #pokemon bdsp #brilliant diamond #pokemon brilliant diamond #brilliant diamond nuzlocke #nuzlocke art #chimchar #starly #bidoof #geodude #zubat

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static-sulker · 5 months

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Tavs as an Origin Character (Pt.2)

ANOTHER ONE. I CAN'T BE STOPPED. From both posting about my baby, as well as making more tavs

This next one is Reef Solrane. Assassin rouge/Great old one Warlock high elf, very chill man but also is very much blind.

also, first one here! Next one here

Reef Solrane is my silly adult man who is my friend. He is a lot more mature and less of a goofster but I do still see him as yippie cat. Like Sniper from team fortress two.

He was raised in Silverymoon and very much not like the happy cheerful place. He's not evil persay but he isn't very chipper. More like a gambler type of good person. Has the best intention He lost his sight early in his life, about 23 years old. He was cocky and persuasive and stole from the wrong traveler, who actually was a very famous and ill-tempered Wizard of the Sword Coast. He ended up getting cursed, loosing as much as he stole. Which was his left eye. Kinda harsh punishment. He then has to live with it for about years at this point. Grew to gain incredibly well hearing and works around his disability. The Wizard, Morden comes in every now and then to see if Reef as "proved himself worthy of seeing whats right." Later on in their life, about 200s maybe, they gain contact with a mystical being from the far realms who wishes to strike a deal. If he gives up his other eye, he'll gain power beyond his own comprehension. Reef was a bit of a hungry guy for power, so he accepted. He gained shaded Pince-nez glasses, that gave him what is practically truesight and enhanced power, with it being a conduit for the godly beings power. He did begin to have highly increased hearing and overall learnt how to know his surroundings far easier in a natural state as well. He then spent his time killing for hire and some petty thievery from his clients.

If he was an origin character, he'd have a pretty strange questline at first. He'd be found in the little beach area right after Shadowheart, searching for his glasses. If you help him, he'll thank you and become able to join your party. When you see them, they'll gain attention to your steps at a pretty quick pace and call to you, asking if your friend or foe. They will have their eyes jammed shut and quickly get up from the floor when you get close. If you ignore them with a failed stealth check or say foe, they'll grow aggressive and try and either attack or look for their glasses depending on your response. If you say you are peaceful and not wish to hurt them, they'll calm down and try and find his glasses. Once he joins you, his questline would be called "The Blinded Thief" and the first part of the quest is to find his glasses. When he does (Stolen by an Absolute member at the goblin camp) He gains access to his warlock spells.

He's a bit hungry for power as he literally is the prime example of "selling an arm and a leg" for the stuff but in this case it's his eyes. It's less of an Astarion hunger of bending people to his will, but more of a type of hunger to make sure he is never in a situation where he can lose more than he has. In this playthrough, I romanced Astarion and I think it's very funny how their dynamic works. Astarion is the type of flirt that uses his form and longing glances and smirks to get people under his command. Reef can't fucking see. So Astarion has to improvise and Reef is completely in the know how that Astarion is not used to it. I also think Reef is a very good example for Astarion of what greed and hunger for power can do to people. They are very epic fail together.

In his epilogue, he actually has three possible endings. The "third eye" ending (He bets more of his body away to get more power, specifically his arm), the "truesight" ending (He finds a way to take control of the being he uses for power and uses it for good) or "Open-eyed" ending (he gains his sight back after proving himself to Morden). In the third eye, it can only be gained by learning in the sorcerous sundries vault that his ancient helper can take more deals if he commits a sacrifice of another body part in his name. It could give the party the strength they need to defeat the brain. If he isn't persauded to not do it or in a situation of the game where he emotionally is better, then he will cut of his arm in the name of the being, gaining an etheral one during combat that does WAYYY more damage. During the epilouge, in this ending he'll already be looking for a way to do more and seems now to be like Astarion in less of a protection type of power but more for the sake of having the power. To gain the truesight ending, you can avoid the vaults information and go through a route where Reef beings a "better person". He'll end up becoming a treasure hunter with the help of his truesight and hearing. he's happier and working around his loss of sight and progressively trying to relax more. If romanced (you can't romance for the third eye, he'll break up the relationship due to his newfound "view of a new future for himself" when he finally cuts his arm off.) He'll be hunting for treasure wherever the two of you go, seeing you as "grounding" or "giving him just enough beauty just through words to make sunsets or starry not matter to blinded eyes.". In the "Open-eyed" route, he finds the book and doesn't do it, realizing he doesn't need the power (either by persuasion by romanced partner/ally, or being a better person and persuaded in a good route several times before the event.) After this , he will gain his sight again. Well, at least his left eye, the right is still gone because of the godly being. In this, he just is a wanderer, seeing the world with literally new eyes. He sees the world and tries to get used to the colors of everything again. If romanced, he travels the world with you and just takes in how beautiful you are <3

He's a bit less tricky to romance than Astarion, but isn't a cake walk. Anything that is overly cautious or maybe a few tricks on people who deserve it are very common. Normally avoiding Jaherias drink is a good example. Kinda like shadowheart.

Voice-lines - approval greetings

Low: ""Stop staring and go on out with it." "What?", "I can hear you fidgeting, out with it." "Yes?", "What is it?"

Neutral: "Hmm?" , "What is it?" , "Oh, hey. Didn't see ya there.", "What can I do ya for?", "Hey there, kid."

Medium: "Just the person I was thinking about." "Can I help you?" "I can hear you, do you needs something?", "Didn't expect to see you around here-well-I suppose hear you." , "Why hello, my trusted companion."

Romanced: "What can I do ya for, Love?", "Ah, theres the voice I know and love." , "Now your a sight for sore-ears? That didn't sound right...", "Hello, Love. Do you need something?

Third Eye: "Oh, it's you. Sorry I was stuck in my own head, can I help you?", "...Ah! Sorry, you surprised me. Yes?", "*muttering to himself on plans idk* I'm preoccupied but I am listening." , "Great god of old, grant me this-Oh, hi. Need something?" , "I'd shake your hand but It's...busy."

Broken up after Third Eye: "Hello, my past sliver of humanity." , "Oh, my little flame, you have returned." , "I sensed you were here, I didn't expect you to speak though." , "You seem awfully cordial with me. I applaud your ability to see my newest perfection."

Truesight: "You look different then I imagine." , "You were saying?" , "Apologies, It's hard to focus with the newly added vision." , "Anything you ask." , "What can I do you for, my trusted companion?"

Truesight, Romance: "You look stunning. Just as I thought." , "My Love! You are truly a sight for sore eyes. Eye, I suppose." , "Yes, Love?" , "Im listening. And seeing. Oh this is going to take awhile to get used to."

Open-eyed: "Oh, hello there!" , "My most trusted companion, and wisest. What can I do you for?" , "Are you alright?" , "Thank you for coming by and helping me. You truly are a good friend."

Open-eyed romance: "My love, thank you for staying to chat. And many other things..." , "What can I do you for, love? I am in your greatest debt after all.." , "The voice of my savior, what can I do you for?"

Misc lines-

Selected

"I heard that..." , "Wherever my feet take me." , "Let's get this over with." , "Let's get going, everybody." , "I didn't expect to enjoy a walk like this." , "Let's hope it's not rough terrain..." , "Let's do this professionally, alright?" , "Trained for this." , "Oh, hello there." , "Didn't expect this today..." , "What was that?" , "Walking in a new place is definitely harder than I imagined." , "Now thats a smart idea."

Selected (Combat)

"Taking the shot." , "Now isn't this just terrible for you." , "Ain't you surprised, ha!" , "Fighting is just muscle memory now." , "If I can hear you, it's too late." , "heard that..!" , "let's make this quick." , "You shouldn't have done that." , "By the ways of the old one, You'll be on the floor before ya know it." , "Not the best luck for you." , "Aim for the eyes." , "Oh, sorry mate. You got me on a wrong day. For you." , "Your blood will clean my blades." , "I like where this is going..."

Movement

"Thank goodness for truesight." , "Let's hope it's this way." , "Don't bump into a tree please..." , "Keep going." , "A nice jaunt." , "Let's hope for smooth terrain..." , "Keep up everybody! I need eyes ahead." , "Right on time." , "Easy." , "One foot in front of the other..."

Low health

"I need some help over here!" , "HEY! Somebody get over here and heal me!" , "I'd say the light was fading but-hells this is no time for jokes." , "Everything sounds...foggy.." , "That was too close..."

After Short rest

"A little shuteye was nice..." , "Time passed a little too fast." , "Back to the job." , "Welp, time to start moving again."

Character deaths

(Tav) "Oh hell, it can't be you!" , (Durge) "You can't die just yet, you have people to slay!" , (Astarion) "Astarion, don't you bleed out yet, we need you!" , (Gale) "GALE! Not yet, oh hells not yet." OR with low approval on Gale Origin "don't explode don't explode don't explode..." , (Shadowheart) "Stay here Shadowheart, we'll help!" , "KARLACH! You can't die out now!" , (Wyll) "The Blade can't break just yet!" , (Minthara) "You have so much more to do! For better or for worse, you can't die!" , (Halsin) "HALSIN! don't shrivel up now...!" , (Jaheria) "Jaheria! Don't give up yet!" (Minsc) "Minsc can't die! not now!"

I SPENT WAY MORE TIME ON THIS ONE GOOD GODS.

#bg3 #bg3 tav #bg3 astarion #bg3 oc #my ramblings #Tav as Origin Character #bg3 oc thoughts #baldurs gate tav

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ghostiewriter · 2 years

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summary: Riven realises a stakeout mission with Musa becomes a whole lot harder when his feelings get in the way. Or, day nineteen of ghostie's spooktober spectacular.

read here on ao3.

Missions were simple.

Well, not really. But they were all Riven really knew for certain. From a young age when he was scouted by specialists for his skills and talents, training and learning the code of the specialists and their way of living, knowing by twenty-five he would either be dead or training youths below him. It was a life he was well aware of and one he knew the consequences of.

And he knew that a part of his job would be to go on missions.

Long missions where he would be staking out enemies. Short missions that would lead to hand-in-hand combat and sword fighting. Difficult missions where he would be alone for weeks at a time to reduce risks. Easy missions where he would work with other specialists he would maybe even call friends now.

His life was missions and he knew that. He was fine with that. He was prepared for that. He had been trained for that.

But Riven had never been trained to go on a mission with a fairy he was pretty sure he was in love with.

Musa was not like other fairies.

Most fairies tended to avoid missions unless their help was absolutely needed. They were rarely put in the field for very long, and even the ones that were, had years of experience and practice on their side.

But Musa was different.

She wasn’t just a fairy, but a specialist too. She was in some weird limbo grey area where her powers were still developing but she was just as skilled with a weapon than she was with wings. Riven knew that damn well considering he had trained her for a short period of time.

He never expected he would be out on missions with her though.

The mission itself wasn’t even that bad. It was a simple stakeout, just for the day and just for observation before they would return to the school. Unfortunately for them, the weather of Andros wasn’t as reliable as they assumed it to be and there was no way for them to board their ship back to Solaria without alerting enemies and potentially losing themselves in the hurricanes that had broken out along the coast of the kingdom.

It meant Riven and Musa were forced to stay in Andros for the night until they could contact their team back in Alfea the next day, and it meant they would need to find a place for the night.

It wasn’t too difficult to do considering that weekend was the big Andros water festival that would take place over three weeks. Tourists from around the globe were attending so it was easy enough to blend in, their issue laid in the fact everything was booked out and busy.

It was late by the time they found a small motel, quite a distance away from civilisation and a hefty walk from their ship. Their eyes were drooping shut by the time they made their way to the reception desk, asking for a room and throwing whatever money they had (Riven was also pretty sure the cranky woman overpaid them but he was too tired to argue).

However, his exhaustion would hardly be an issue minutes later when he walked into their room and realised a big problem.

There was only one bed.

“Deaf cow clearly didn’t hear me correctly,” Riven grumbled as he narrowed his eyes at the bed. “I swear—“

“Shut up, Riv,” Musa grumbled as she waved him off, too tired and sore from their hunt that she didn’t even care. She couldn’t bring herself to care as long as they had a roof over their head and a bed for the night.

Riven’s eyes narrowed at her. “You’re okay with this?”

“If you have an issue, you can enjoy the floor,” she retorted, completely unbothered as she began to shrug off the leather harnesses and weapons attached to her.

“I’m not sleeping on the floor,” Riven stated.

“Then suck it up, big boy. You can share for one night.”

The fact the mind fairy failed to realise was that Riven wasn’t acting all pissy because he was a snob who didn’t want to share. Riven was acting all pissy because the idea of being in such a close vicinity to her and keeping his head straight was damn near impossible.

He used all the military tactics he was taught if he was ever caught by enemies and tortured for information.

He ran through the royal bloodline of the Solarian line dating back to the first king—forwards and backwards. He listed the large number of poisons he could find in the wild and their antidotes. He even tried the bullshit meditation and breathing techniques Silva tried to teach them one term.

They all were fucking useless against the soft, overwhelming scent of her perfume so close to him.

“Stop lying like a fucking board,” Musa muttered from her side of the bed. It was a simple double bed, comfortable enough for both of them to lay side by side with a few inches to spare between them.

Riven’s eyes darted to the lump of her body, the room too dark to make out any proper features but he knew she was there.

“Are they not uncomfortable?” he asked quietly, almost scared that if he spoke too loud he would ruin whatever weird ambience had settled over them.

There was a pause before she spoke. “I’m used to it.”

His eyebrows furrowed together. “What do you mean?”

Riven felt her shrug from beside him, the tension thicker than now and she didn’t know how she felt about it.

“I don’t know,” she admitted with a heavy sigh. “Sometimes it’s just easier to keep them on…sometimes I forget to take them off. Sometimes there’s no one about to take them off and I don’t really fancy being a bother.”

Riven’s eyes darted down as though he could see the runic limiters in the dark. “You never ask me.”

Musa snorted. “Thought you didn’t like me in your head.”

“Well, things change.”

He could feel Musa shuffle around and he knew if he could see her, she would now be facing him.

“What did you say?” she whispered.

“Put your hands out,” he stated simply and held his breath. He waited for her to argue or to put up a bit of a fight, to be the stubborn little fairy he knew she was and say she was fine.

But much to his surprise, she held her hands out.

His touch was gentle and soft as he slowly pried the runic limiters off her wrists. It was a touch much different to that of his during training, or just in any scenario before. He muttered hushed apologies under his breath as the thorns ripped through her skin, and he winced a little whenever she let out a small whimper.

But she never told him to stop.

Riven didn’t say anything as he placed the bracelets on the bedside table, and yet it didn’t stop his heart feeling as though it was gonna break through his chest as his grip remained on her wrists.

The darkness was the only thing that gave Riven the courage to duck his head down and press a soft kiss to her wrists.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to say anything when she could feel every damn thought and emotion he had.

Maybe he really was a coward or maybe that’s just how much she had weaselled herself into his head. Maybe this was just how Musa affected him.

“Goodnight, Musa.”

Yeah, he was a coward but maybe he would find the confidence in the morning. Maybe he would finally admit to himself the way he felt for the kind fairy was something much stronger than friendship.

“Goodnight, Riven.”

And maybe she would have the courage to tell him she loved him too.

#ghostie's spooktober spectacular #rivusa #fate: the winx saga #fate #riven #musa #rivusa fic #rivusa fanfic #rivusa fanfiction #fate: the winx saga fic #fate: the winx saga fanfic #fate: the winx saga fanfiction #fate fic #fate fanfic #fate fanfiction #my writing

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irishgolfadventure · 1 year

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The Road to Mount Falcon

Today we ended our stay at Rosapenna by playing their signature course, Sandy Hills. Afterwards, we traveled the winding roads to Mount Falcon Estate located just outside Ballina, Ireland. Ballina is located on the northwestern coast of Ireland.

The Sandy Hills course was a beautiful links course that was designed by Patrick Ruddy, a well known Irish designer. The course was one of my favorites we have played so far. Very narrow fairways that wind through the seaside dunes. If your tee shot was not accurate you stood a good chance of losing your ball in the monsterous ball eating heather! We lost a few, (10 between us....KB 7 GB 3).

The course had a lot of elevated tee boxes and greens. And three of the par 3′s were forced carries. We both struggled on them. Although I just lipped out a put for birdie on the par 3 16th. The second par three of the day saw me card a triple and Kim pick up. (Think she will admit this was not her best day although she finished strong!)

I had my best round so far carding an 85 with 7 pars and only one really bad hole - 10 bogeys and one triple. As I mentioned before, I wish the pictures could capture the elevation changes. Sandy Hills has such dramatic changes in elevation and rarely was any lie level on the massively rolling fairways and greens. They say it looks like a lot of dead elephants have been buried on the greens and fairways. Not the easiest of walking courses!

Our three hour drive to Mount Falcon was fairly uneventful. Kim never yelled, screamed, slammed her foot on the non existing brake on her side or closed her eyes once! Driving up to the Estate you were winding your way back into a very dense forest and the Estate setting had had an almost medieval feel.... except it has wifi :-) I’ll spend some time with my next post giving you the details of the Mount Falcon Estate. It’s quite a place, with lots of history and all kinds of things to do on the property - salmon fishing, falconry, golfing and hiking.

Stats Summary

Score 85/638

Holes Played 18/126

Yardage Played 5923/43004

Lost Balls 3/14

No. of Pars or Better 7 pars/ 4 birdies 28 pars

Steps Walked 13634/99368

Miles 6.58/46.28

Green Fees $180/$1640

Caddie Fees $75 plus tip/$560

Tomorrow is a day of rest from golf. Looking forward to checking the area out! This area of Ireland is more mountainous than I had anticipated. It’s not the Rockies but it’s more than just rolling country side! gb

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oldguy56-world · 1 year

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Beaches

Okay, let's talk about the elephant in the room. As you know all of my blogs are named after either a movie I have seen or a song I have heard so yes, I did watch the movie Beaches. It was a long time ago and I had just watched the Leafs lose a playoff round and the movie came on later that night. I was vulnerable, and too upset to go to bed so I watched it. There is no need for me to hand in my man card.

This blog is about beaches not relationships, or rather the 5,000 mile wide hazardous algae making it's way to the coast of Florida. Come to think about it a story regarding a large blob that invades your space and affects your way of life could be a relationship story but not in this case.

Many are put off by having to inhale the toxic smells emitted from this thing but not me. I have spent a lot of time with my father and other relatives away fishing where the main foods on our menu were pickled hard boiled eggs and beer. Consume that in a small environment like a cabin and you are prepared for whatever foul smells come your way in later life.

So there are a lot of experts talking about this phenomena and how it is natural, why it is coming, and what will it do. I have my own theories and observations that I will share with you now. If you do not want to know what I am thinking you can stop reading at any time.

God is punishing Florida for what DeSantis has done to Disney. God likes Disney especially Bambi. If I were old Ronnie I would be worried about locusts, frogs or suspicious moles that suddenly appear on my body.

This is something cooked up in a shark lab. (Yes there is one near Atlantis) They will use the algae as cover to get very close to the shore where there is lots of tender pink flesh half drunk and splashing around in the water. A spring break buffet.

Aliens are testing us. They want to see how we react to the unknown before they come for a visit. If algae freaks us out how will we react to beings that have their genitals on their foreheads?

It is part of a plan hatched between Trump and Putin to distract Americans from what else is happening in the world.

Fish fart and there has been a build up of their gas as they ingest all of the toxins we dump into the ocean. Call it unintentional revenge.

Aquaman had diarrhea.

Poseidon did some spring cleaning. He moved a lot of stuff from the main floor up to the attic which just happens to be the surface of the ocean.

Just another spring break event that no one can explain.

One thing that I don't understand. There is concern that the algae is emitting hydrogen sulfide and that it smell like sh#t. Why can't they harvest it and use it as fertilizer making some areas more arable for growing crops?

(I have to go lie down now. Too many big words in the paragraph and I don't really understand what I was saying)

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: The problem with humans is that we worry more about things that happen naturally than the things that are man-made.

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carpe-mamilia · 2 years

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OP has made the original post non-rebloggable, presumably because @marzipanandminutiae reblogged it with this very fair explanation:

Yes, but you’re not living in a world where looking up-to-date in at least basic silhouette and outfit composition (within, say, 5 years of the current fashions) was considered an element of respectability in most settings, and your social standing- and therefore your job prospects, marriage prospects, or husband’s career as relevant -could suffer if you didn’t keep up. Only the very VERY wealthy/socially secure could buck the rule (or people destitute enough to have nothing to lose, I suppose)

It’s socially acceptable to wear clothing you had as a teenager NOW. That wasn’t always the case

... but I wanted to add this bit of extra information I find interesting. Looking at 18th century gowns in particular you tend to see quite a lot of this:

and this

While the details changed, the basic shape and structure of gowns in the 18th century stayed much the same for a long time, meaning that crisp, high quality fabric could easily be refashioned into a more up-to-date dress in order to save money. However, past a specific point (generally the 1780s) they stop being altered. The fashionable silhouette for women changed radically after this point, becoming softer and simpler. It was out with the stiff taffeta and in with gauzy muslins.

You see a lot less upcycling of materials in the 19th century, most likely because of how bodice and skirt shapes changed so wildly between decades (not to mention fashions in colours and trimmings, though these were far easier to alter and many people did). I like this example though:

Of course, all of these examples involve the re-using of good quality fabrics, i.e. those belonging to relatively well-off people. There's no reason to believe that poorer women throughout history wouldn't have re-used fabric in this way. If anything, they would have re-used it into oblivion: an adult skirt cut down for a child, or window curtains, or a quilted bedspread, with worn or stained or many-times-mended areas becoming rags used for cleaning or sanitary towels. Surely, then, only wealthy women would have made sure they weren’t wearing clothes from an earlier decade?

The answer to that is: mostly no, but it depends on the time and place. In the early part of the 19th century

[in] the villages of the north-east, some women wore quilted petticoats that had been fashionable wear in the 1760s. Women in most other parts of the country had long abandoned these garments, but they were still popular, and widely made by the fishermen’s wives along this stretch of coast, because the locals had come to think of them not as old-fashioned garments but as part of a style unique to themselves. Welsh women, too, often had a regional identity and were well known for their tall black hats and red shawls, and also for their preference for using the local striped wool cloth to make their skirts. Irish women, different still, were often characterised by bare feet and short, knee-length skirts. The fast-growing fashions of London coexisted with traditional dress in all these communities, but local considerations still endured. A woman in the Rhondda Valley might well have found that the cheap printed cottons so abundant in Cheshire and Hertfordshire were not so readily available to her as the coarsely striped local wools. Tradition also played its part, and their were provincial fashion leaders who held sway in small areas. To wear the clothes of one’s community could make a person feel closer to their home; looking like an English outsider sometimes held little appeal. As the railways pushed their way into every corner of Britain, some of these local considerations began to have less influence. Materials became more evenly available, and people moved around more often. In 1861, the tax on paper was repealed, and this, along with a series of technological leaps forward in the printing industry, made books, magazines, flyers, catalogues and posters significantly cheaper and more prolific. Fashion information was one of the boom areas of print, and served to standardise aspirations across the country.

An 1859 fashion plate from Godey's Lady's Book (a popular 19th century magazine) showing crinoline fashions. Beginning in 1853, almost every issue also included an illustration and pattern with measurements for a garment to be sewn at home.

For those for whom even the ready-to-wear market was just too expensive, and for whom occupational or regional dress had little meaning, clothes still carried one important cultural message. Were you a member of the ‘respectable poor’, or were you one of the desperate? As long as you could keep up appearances, there was hope, but sink below the acceptable level of clothing standards and doors would be slammed in your face, opportunities closed off to you.

Working class women in 1803 and 1805. While aristocratic ladies wouldn’t have been seen dead in these cheerful printed fabrics, which were cheap and plentiful, the shapes closely follow the fashionable silhouette of the time

But what about the lowest of the low, those inmates of what must be the last word in popular conceptions of Victorian poverty: the workhouse?

Each workhouse union was free to choose its own uniform. Most remained roughly in line with the general styles of working-class clothing of the period, erring towards the old-fashioned… The fabrics were among the very cheapest of the day and, with only cotton fabrics covering the upper body, would not have been very warm. Having two chemises, two jackets and two pairs of stockings, the women could maintain a reasonable level of cleanliness with one set on and the other in the wash… Women’s clothes within a workhouse were usually made up by the women themselves, which might suggest that they were allowed to make sure they fitted, but in practice this was usually frowned upon by the management, who preferred to set sizes so the clothes were interchangeable. A woman would therefore wear whichever garment was handed to her from the week’s wash, rather than having her ‘own’. Some of these uniforms were scarcely updated throughout the entire history of the workhouse, which made workhouse clothing increasingly anachronistic and even more noticeable to those outside. A photograph of St Pancras workhouse in London taken at dinner time in 1900 shows hundreds of forlorn women sitting in rows dressed in a baggy version of 1850s dress.

(Above quotes from Dr Ruth Goodman’s How to be a Victorian)

Tl;dr: if you were a working adult (and let’s remember that the majority of adults in the UK were working), you needed to look respectable. This meant keeping vaguely up to date with current fashions in outerwear, even if that necessarily meant using plainer or more hard-wearing fabrics, and making other changes in order to be practical for one’s own life (all women in the 19th century wore corsets, but if you weren’t a fine lady with nothing on her to-do list that day except for sitting for Mr Singer Sargent you wouldn’t tight-lace).

Before the mid-20th century, people were far more attuned to the subtleties of clothing than we are now, and what it could supposedly tell you about people. Fashions changed more rapidly and more radically in the 19th century than ever before, thanks to advances in manufacturing and the dissemination of media, but also at least partly so the wealthy could stay ahead of the working poor and lower middle classes. If you could afford it, you made sure you were as up-to-date as possible, as well as being clean and neat, as a matter of personal pride. It’s an attitude that can feel rather alien now, in a world of style subcultures, where the cycle of what is considered fashionable has narrowed spectacularly: the structure, materials, and manufacture of today’s clothes haven’t changed much for forty years, aside from the slow (and still fairly niche) rise of more sustainable materials. Details change, of course, but OP can still wear items they bought in high school, whether that was last year or ten years ago, because, providing they aren’t damaged or stained, they look much the same as items being made now. Bizarrely, that makes us far more like the Georgians with their re-used gowns than 19th century or 20th century people.

#19th century #victorian fashion #18th century #georgian fashion #historical fashion #illustration #vintage #I haven't gone into a bunch of stuff like heirloom jewellery or the way even working class people had ruffs in the 17th century #I thought this was probably long enough already #long post

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