#but it did definitely have an effect to the fashion and to the perception of nipple
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I've seen a post you've reblogged and added to, among many things about women showing nipples. Can you recommend any ref material (articles, videos, etc.) are share your knowledge about this? Cause I'm curious about that, as nowadays going out in a shirt without a bra makes you indecent, while in like 90s it was okayish? I wonder how it was in previous centuries.
There is a really cool academic paper about bare breast dresses in 17th century England specifically. I think anyone can read it by creating a free account.
Abby Cox also has a good video about the cleavage during the past 500 years in which she goes through also the nip slip phenomena.
I don't have other sources that specifically focus on this subject, though many sources about specific decades touch on it, but I do have my primary source image collection, so I can sum up the history of the bare nipple.
So my findings from primary source images (I could be wrong and maybe I just haven't found earlier examples) is that the Venetians were the first ones to show the nipple for courtly fashion. At the same time in other places in Europe they sported the early Elizabethan no-boob style that completely covered and flattened the chest. In the other corners of Italy the necklines were also low but less extreme. Venetian kirtle necklines dropped extremely low as early as 1560s and they combined extremely sheer, basically see-through partlets with their kirtle. First example below is a 1565-70 portrait of a Venetian lady with the nipples just barely covered waiting slip into view with a movement of arm. There was an even more extreme version of this with the kirtle being literally underboob style, still with a sheer doublet. Though I believe this was not quite for the respectable ladies, since I have only seen it depicted on high class courtesans. They were not exactly respectable ladies, but they did have quite good social position. The second example is a 1570s depiction of a courtesan, which is revealed by the horned hairstyle. By the end of the century this underbust style with only see through fabric covering breasts, had become respectable. In the last example it's shown on the wife of the Venetian doge in 1597.
Around the same time, at the very end of 1500s, the extremely low cut bodice fashion enters rest of Europe. The low cut style was present in the bodices of all classes, but the nipple was really only an aristocrat thing. The lower classes would cover their breasts with a partlet, that was not sheer. Bare breast was ironically from our perspective a show of innocence, youthful beauty and virtue, and to pull off the style with respect, you also had to embody those ideals. Lower class women were considered inherently vulgar and lacking virtue, so a nipple in their case was seen as indecent. Bare boobs were also a sort of status symbol, since the upper class would hire wet nurses to breastfeed their children so they could show of their youthful boobs.
Covering partlets and bodices were still also used in the first decade of 1600s by nobles and the nip slip was mostly reserved for the courtly events. The first image below is an early example of English extremely low neckline that certainly couldn't contain boobs even with a bit of movement from 1597. The 1610s started around 5 decades of fashion that showed the whole boob. The first three were the most extreme. Here's some highlights: The second image is from 1619.
Here the first, very much showing nipples, from c. 1630. The second from 1632.
The neckline would slowly and slightly rise during the next decades, but nip slips were still expected. Here's an example from 1649 and then from 1650-55. In 1660s the neckline would get still slightly higher and by 1870s it was in a not very slippable hight. The necklines would stay low for the next century, though mostly not in boob showing territory, but we'll get there. But I will say that covering the neckline in casual context was expected. Boobs were mostly for fancy occasions. It was considered vain to show off your boobs when the occasion didn't call for it and covering up during the day was necessary for a respectable lady. You wouldn't want to have tan in your milk-white skin like a poor, and also they didn't have sun screen so burning was a reasonable concern.
1720s to 1740s saw necklines that went to the nip slip territory, though they didn't go quite as low as 100 years earlier. The nipple was present in the French courtly fashion especially and rouging your nipples to enhance them was popular. Émilie Du Châtelet (1706-1749), who was an accomplished physicist and made contributions to Newtonian mechanics, was known in the French court to show off her boobies. An icon. Here she is in 1748. Here's another example from this era from 1728.
The Rococo neckline never got high, but in the middle of the century it was less low till 1770s when it plunged into new lows. In 1770s the fashion reached a saturation point, when everything was the most. This included boobs. The most boob visible. There was a change in the attitudes though. The visible boob was not a scandal, but it was risque, instead of sing of innocent and did cause offense in certain circles. I think it's because of the French revolution values gaining momentum. I talked about this in length in another post, mostly in context of masculinity, but till that point femininity and masculinity had been mostly reserved for the aristocracy. Gender performance was mostly performance of wealth. The revolutionaries constructed new masculinity and femininity, which laid the groundwork for the modern gender, in opposition to the aristocracy and their decadence. The new femininity was decent, moral and motherly, an early version of the Victorian angel of the house. The boob was present in the revolutionary imagery, but in an abstract presentation. I can't say for sure, but I think bare breasts became indecent because it was specifically fashion of the indecent French aristocracy.
Here's example somewhere from the decade and another from 1778. The neckline stayed quite low for the 1780s, but rose to cover the boobs for the 1790s.
The nipple didn't stay hidden for long but made a quick comeback in the Regency evening fashion. It was somewhat scandalous by this point, and the nipple and sheer fabrics of the Regency fashion gained much scorn and satire. The styles that were in the high danger nip slip territory and those that allowed the nipple to show through fabric, were still quite popular. The sleeves had been mid length for two centuries, but in 1790s they had made a split between evening and day wear. The evening sleeves were tiny, just covering the shoulder. Showing that would have been a little too much. Like a bare boob? A risque choice but fine. A shoulder? Straight to the horny jail. (I'm joking they did have sheer sleeves and sometimes portraits with exposed shoulder.) But long sleeves became the standard part of the day wear. Getting sun was still not acceptable for the same reasonable and unreasonable reasons. Day dresses did also usually have higher necklines or were at least worn with a chemisette to cover the neckline. Fine Indian muslin was a huge trend. It was extremely sheer and used in multiple layers to build up some cover. There were claims that a gust of wind would render the ladies practically naked, though because they were wearing their underclothing including a shift, which certainly wasn't made from the very expensive muslin, I'm guessing this was an exaggeration. Especially though in the first decade, short underboob stays were fairly popular, so combined with a muslin, nipples were seen. Here's an early 1798 example of exactly that. The short stays did disappear eventually, but in 1810s the extremely small bodices did provide nip slip opportunities, as seen in this 1811 fashion plate.
Victorian moralizing did fully kill the nip slip, though at least they were gender neutral about it. The male nipple was just as offensive to them. In 1890s, when bodybuilding became a big thing, bodybuilder men were arrested for public indecency for not wearing a shirt.
#there was also the new femininity aspect to regency nipple which had to do with breastfeeding becoming fashionable among upper class#it's about the whole motherly thing that came with the french revolution#i can't remember the book i read it from so i didn't go into it because i couldn't remember the details lol#but it did definitely have an effect to the fashion and to the perception of nipple#historical fashion#fashion history#history#dress history#fashion#answers#painting#fashion plate#renaissance fashion#elizabethan fashion#rococo fashion#baroque fashion#regency fashion#will tumblr prove itself to be again more prudish than elizabethans and label my post as mature content?#remains to be seen
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Looks Like Lingerie to Me - Sanji x Reader
Word count: 854
We gender-neutral and short af today boys. This is crack treated semi-seriously lmao, and an actual drabble. I love idiot!readers, there isn't enough rep for us dumbasses. This is written with OPLA!Sanji in mind bc I dig the super effective suave vibe
Suggestive, there's swearing, the word cock is used once. Brief description. (Ha! Brief!)
Let's be real...Sanji might wears shirt stays....and that's hot as fuck
It was midday when you found yourself outside the men's quarters. You had been lounging around on the upper deck when Usopp had asked you to grab a wrench he'd left in his room. Fair enough, you weren't doing anything, wouldn't hurt to help. And so you padded off, making your way to the bedroom. It was the middle of the day, no one should be in there. You'd passed Zoro napping against some bags, you could still hear Luffy. Sanji definitely had to be in his domain of the kitchen. Still, you offered a quick courteous knock as you flung open the door to the men's quarters, wandering into the space with no preamble.
"Sorry boys, I gotta grab Usopp's- Holy shit!"
Sanji's head shot up to stare at you, cheeks lightly pink. He was stooped over, pants pooling at his knees. Sure, his thick thighs were enticing, and his position stuck that gorgeous ass out at a delicious angle, but your eyes were fixated on the crossing fabric that adorned his upper legs. Was that…a garter belt? You felt lightheaded at the view before you. He looked delectable. The cook quirked an eyebrow at your staring.
"See something you like, love?" He drawled, sending you a cocky grin. Sanji felt his ego swell when you tripped over your words. Had you actually paid attention, you'd notice how his usual clothes were covered in flour, but you weren't exactly the most perceptive.
"I…thighs." You spoke dumbly, causing you to mentally smack yourself. "I mean, sorry. I didn't think anyone would be in here at this time."
With great hardship, you tore your eyes away from the garment. It looked like a garter belt, had to be! You always knew Sanji liked fashion, and that he could be a pervert, but you didn't expect him to be unembarrassed at being caught wearing lingerie. As if they were possessed, your eyes trailed their way back to his thighs. The elastic was biting into his thigh meat, bulk deliciously spilling over the edges. Saliva flooded your mouth. What you wouldn't give to touch them. To bite them. Fuck what if you-
Wait.
Sanji had said something.
"Wha?"
Nice going idiot.
Sanji had abandoned his grip on the trousers, gracefully dropping them and stepping out of the puddle of fabric. Your breath hitched as he turned to you.
Abort mission!
Fuck you didn't even look at his underwear. Shit, fuck, that…that was clearly the outline of his cock, a pair of grey boxer briefs doing a horrible job at hiding his silhouette. You were thankful that the length of his dress shirt covered the majority, or you'd be due a visit to chopper from fainting.
"I said can I help you, love?"
An awkward cackle escaped your throat and you blushed. Oh, he could help you alright. Instead, you opened your dumb mouth again.
"Is that…why are you wearing a garter belt?"
Sanji froze. An uncomfortable silence filled the room.
Oh shit! Oh fuck!
You opened your mouth to apologise when that bell-like laugh permeated the awkwardness.
"What?" He laughed incredulously. "They are shirt stays."
Sanji felt his heart squeeze when you cocked your head confused. You really had no idea how cute you were, did you? Trying to be polite and stop laughing, he coughed into his fist.
"They keep my shirt tucked in sweet thing. Can't be looking unprofessional around you cuties." Sanji winked, smirking with satisfaction as your face grew redder. He expected an 'oh' or a 'sorry'. He certainly didn't expect a;
"I'd call having no pants but lingerie on unprofessional."
"You were the one who bust in here!" He argued. "And it's not lingerie!"
"Ah…sorry about that. I meant to grab a wrench Usopp left in here. I…uh…I should go."
"Mmhmm."
You wandered stiffly to where Usopp slept, finding the tool with ease, and trying desperately to not look at the cook. Sanji watched you, amusement clear on his face at your robotic movements. Wasting no time, you rushed back to the door.
"Oh, uh, Sanji?" The man hummed in response. "I, uh, I'm sorry for thinking you were wearing lingerie. Not! Not that there's anything wrong if you were, you'd look hot in it. I mean! I….uh…no, you'd definitely look hot in it. What was I saying?"
Silence. Sanji was staring at you with wide eyes, face now red from your comments. You clicked your fingers.
"Right, right! You should probably put some clothes on. Don't want you catching a cold ha ha." You forced out a robotic laugh. "Sorry again."
You slammed the door shut, leaving a confused and slightly aroused man in your wake. Sanji sighed, making his way back to his sleeping area to change into clean clothes. The door creaked back open. Sanji groaned quietly. Who now?
"You have to admit, they are kinda slutty though, right? Sorry! Bye again!"
You were gone before Sanji could even process your words properly. He groaned audibly this time, raking his hands down his face. He needed a fucking smoke. You were going to be the death of him.
#sanji x reader#one piece x reader#black leg sanji x reader#vinsmoke sanji x reader#opla x reader#i scheduled this post baby it is 5am and i am fucking asLEEEEEP when this posts#okay so my formatting is doo doo ass bc i cant read very well? i have shitty vision lol so i prefer clear paragraphs#i also write everything on my phone like a monkey.
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Hello!! I briefly saw in your tags one morning about the flowers that Harry was wearing in the LNT mv. Did you ever elaborate more about the flowers? What can you tell me about them, if you don’t mind? Thanks!
Hi love!
I talked a bit about it here because it was the first thing I noticed, of course, its just a queer reading but I found it quite interesting that he was wearing the big flowers in three scenes, the observed bed/ the date/ the wedding. so it made me think of Queer Botany and The aesthetic movement in Britain and how flowers were queer coded in what comes to art either writing (oscar wilde, virginia woolf..etc) or visualized like paintings (Van Gogh's sunflowers) and decoration. And besides Lavender and violets were and still representitive for lesbians and sapphic women, the Pansy Craze well for ''pansies'' and effeminate men, green carnation is famously worn by Oscar Wilde as a symbol of homosexuality and sunflower and the lily were also one of the most recognizable floral icons of the Aesthetic Movement and their significance has a queer connotation through this movement.
and recently the V&A Museum did an exhibition called Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear with Gucci as a partnership, and on the finale of the show they had the Gucci ball gown that was worn by Harry on the cover of Vogue to talk about gender-blurring fashion X
they also have Harry as the background for the exhibition announcement on the website
he is was wearing one of the now exhibited suits
In the exhibition they also have a section called ''Queer Botany'' where they explain how flowers and botany, in general, was used to signal queer identities:
Oscar Wilde for example was famously known for wearing the green carnation during appearances ''the color green and the carnation flower were queered representations of the homosexual “underbelly” of the Aesthetic Movement'' X
and it makes you think of the big flowers or the lilies Harry was wearing in the music video with his date and on the wedding
not only the Green Carnation was a representation of the queer side of the aesthetic movement but also Lilies and sunflowers.
for example, these two teapots satirise, mocking with their big flowers (lily and sunflower) tucked in their buttonhole and their limp wrists the movement, these two teapots were actually a satire with a criticism underneath it towards the way the movement was defining gender and sexuality, under the teapots is written “Fearful consequences through the laws of Natural Selection and Evolution of Living up to one’s Teapot'' portraying ''fears circulating in the 1880s about the effects that effeminacy and the blurring of gender roles might have on the future British population'' X
the lily and sunflowers were sort of used to symbolize how queer people used them to reverse a heteronormative meanings of the flowers, and how they were used to gender bend what feminine and masculine means:
the sunflower and lily were typically ascribed to the male and female gender, deftly queers the sunflower motif as it also existed as an “emblem of aesthetic longing” related to both unconditional, yet unrequited love [...]
the sunflower and lily are symbols of aesthetic longing and purity, respectively (..) the sunflower speaks to unrequited love that “dares not speak its name” as Wilde is often quoted, or a love that could not find valid acceptance in nineteenth-century society. X
the lilies for example, through this aesthetic movement and the queerness that defined it, these flowers were queered enough to no longer mean traditional interpretations of purity but as a way to reevaluate the definition of purity and '' arguing for a perception of queer identity that isn’t considered “dirty”'' X
like the Lily, through this movement and the queerification of botany as aesthetic, ''the actions of queer couples could be and were viewed as natural and organic within this cultural subset. Natural, beautiful, and pure, the lily could thus be invoked as the apotheosis of the Aesthetic Movement, while simultaneously being a symbol and defense of homosexuality'' X
so yeah, to just conclude, I think its really interesting that he had the flowers (that are actually from the new collection of Gucci called love Parade) with his date and while officiating that wedding :)
#sorry for the lobg post but I love talking about queerness 😭#long post#lnt#queer botany#late night talking#lnt mv
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‘Do memes provide a useful way of understanding politics?’
Before we get into our topic, what exactly is a memes?
These days, memes have grown in popularity. A meme, in my opinion, is a piece of information that is hilarious, goes viral on the internet, and may be remixed and changed over time. These are also the main elements that define a meme. As to Pettis's (2018) study, Richard Dawkins provided the initial definition of the term "meme" in his book ‘The Selfish Gene’. The term "memes" was first used by Dawkins (1976) to describe the transmission of ideas virally. Memes are similar to biological "genes" in that they are self-replicating and convey information, opinions, perceptions, and beliefs that are shared across individuals (Kasirye 2019). Dawkins defined a meme as any unit of culture that might be copied and transmitted among humans; examples of such units of culture include popular songs, fashion trends, or religious traditions (Pettis 2018). Dawkins did not define memes only as pictures and videos.
Do memes provide a useful way of understanding politics?
Even though memes might be a fun method to share knowledge, they are not a reliable tool for understanding political topics in their entirety. For what reason? Memes frequently employ humour, satire, or exaggeration to express a point; it is impossible to determine if the content is real or fabricated. It could also include bias from the author. For instance, if I dislike a politician, my memes will highlight all of their flaws, even if they are good politicians overall. However, it also offers a useful way of knowing politics, as shown in the memes below. Through this meme, teens will know that who is our Prime Minister and what happen between them.
Memes provide a useful way of understanding politics because of the funny point, it can attract teenagers easily, compared to news. It can serve as a gateway for young people to become more politically aware and involved.
Simplified Political Messaging
Besides, the complexity of political messages is another reason why the majority of people in today's society don't fully understand politics. Political information is more widely available to the general public because to memes, which frequently create complicated political messaging into formats that are easy to understand. For instance, the government usually makes announcements through news or videos during the MCO time. Personally, I am lazy to bother watching these announcements, especially because the most of them are in Bahasa Melayu. Because of memes, they made the announcement in this instance easier for me to understand. Memes need to be humorous and relatable, like I already stated. On these two main components, they simplified political message, people began to share with their friends, and the general public began to understand politics. However, this can also lead to the dissemination of false information or misinformation due to the bias of the authors.
Impact of Politics Memes
In 2019, the government officially announced that the voting age would be lowered from 21 to 18 years old. But when it comes to voting, memes could have an impact. Since those teens have minimal political knowledge, they will select politicians who frequently appear in memes. Participants may also use an anonymous account to publish their own memes in order to market themselves and make teens remember them. In the book "Memes in Digital Culture," Shifman explains how memes were effectively used in the US election of 2008. Because to memes, Obama received around 70% of the vote among Americans under 25 in the 2008 US presidential election (Oakes 2020). Politicians may create humorous content and advertise a nice, friendly image to the public by using memes. They will be able attract more teenagers to vote for them if they use this strategy.
Conclusion
Memes, in my opinion, can help us understand politics, but only if we are able to identify the difference between information that is true and that is fake. Political memes may make politics easier for pupils to recognise and comprehend than heavy textbooks, especially for those taking history exams. Additionally, because of its hilarious element, which makes politics less boring, and since it is simple to attract people in, it is also a helpful approach to learn about politics.
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References
Dawkins, R 1976, The Selfish Gene , download.booklibrary.website, viewed 19 October 2023, < https://download.booklibrary.website/the-selfish-gene-richard-dawkins.pdf>.
Kasirye, F 2019, ‘THE EFFECTIVENESS OF POLITICAL MEMES AS A FORM OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AMONGST MILLENNIALS IN UGANDA’, Journal of Education and Social Sciences, vol. 13, no. 1, viewed 20 October 2023, <https://www.jesoc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/KC13_032.pdf >.
Limor Shifman 2014, Memes in Digital Culture, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, viewed 20 October 2023, <https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=348695e0-233d-3fc5-9070-95351505ffab>.
Oakes, A 2020, How has social media changed the US presidential election?, New Digital Age, viewed 21 October 2023, <https://newdigitalage.co/social-media/how-has-social-media-changed-the-us-presidential-election/>.
Pettis, B 2018, ‘Pepe the Frog: A Case Study of the Internet Meme and its Potential Subversive Power to Challenge Cultural Hegemonies’, Scholars’ Bank (University of Oregon), University of Oregon, viewed 17 October 2023, <https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/24067/Final%20Thesis-Pettis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y>.
Shifman, L 2013, ‘Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a Conceptual Troublemaker’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 362–377, viewed 20 October 2023, < https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/18/3/362/4067545>.
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Given Will and Spring Bonnie are the same in his eyes, I'm curious, how does Will feel about Henry and Fredbear?
He most definitely views Fredbear and Springbonnie as extensions of he and Henry. Those characters were the first they made together, and he very much views Henry as the bear to his bunny. Whether Henry agrees on this or not is beyond him. The iterations would always shift but stay the same in the ways that matter:
You can't have the bear without the bunny.
It's something that's quite obvious in every single iteration of the band. As much as he knows Henry is trying to erase him and be rid of the memories that haunt them, it still doesn't change the fact that they're effectively cosmically tied to one another in that fashion. At least in William's eyes.
While it's insinuated in the comics that William did in fact wear the Fredbear costume at least a few times, it definitely wasn't the same as when he wears the Springbonnie one! He found himself in the suit, in that character. The death of what he lost on his happiest day was finally returned to him in his eyes, and it was only through Henry that this happened.
He was drawn to him in that regard, always has been. Like a moth to flame. William is brilliant, despite how insane his ideas and actions are, there's no doubting the technological skill he possesses. But he was smart enough to note the spark that Henry was able to place in his work, a spark that Henry himself seemed to miss! I think that's what drew him to Henry in the first place, and started him down the path of his remnant experimentation.
He thought if anyone could fix him it would be Henry, that Henry would be the answer and he wanted to love like him. To create. Genuinely. There was a warmth that was beaming from Henry that he'd seen since the very first day they met. It's him, it's always been him. The line from the Silver Eyes really drives home the point of his obsession and admiration to me. The idea that Henry "fixed" him.
"We both wanted love. Your father loved, and now I have loved."
William has always felt hollow, empty. There was no love in his home and he wasn't sure he knew how to love. Wasn't sure he was capable of it. He could play any part, certainly, but that didn't mean anything. It was a just a mask to wear, something to make his life easier. That is until Henry came along. All his work, all his attempts have been ways he's been trying to "fix" himself and learn how to love, to create life like Henry.
Of course, with his descent to madness, so too came the contrasting aura of self-importance. Manipulation came easily since he was a child but there really wasn't anything personally about it, even when he was an adult that fact stayed the same. It was only after he'd died and suffered further extensive trauma that his perception and behavior became more warped.
Still though, no matter what, at least for my William portrayal. Henry is his other half, the bear to his bunny. He's been in love with him since the first time he laid eyes on him, and losing him killed a part of William. In his eyes, he and Henry have always had a special relationship. One leagues above the ones they had with their wives and families. It was a "special connection" and he explains it as such in his journal. This was a means to cope with Henry getting married, as the news was world-shattering for William. Still living by the rules of another's game, he figured that he was then also supposed to find a partner and have a family since "that's what he's supposed to do" --- He is so far in the closet he's not even aware of it, and still struggles to come to terms with it in his redemption verse.
And while William and Clara had their own complicated relationship, ultimately, he was always in love with Henry and she knew that. William was desperately trying to keep their false family together, unwilling to face who he was because he didn't know who it was. He had spent so much time trying to do "what he was supposed to" in order to feel love and be happy that he never figured out what he wanted. What would make HIM happy, which ultimately ... it was Henry. Unfortunately, this love bordering on obsession with Henry was still not enough to save him or his family from William.
It's most certainly a case of being each other's opposites, their narrative foils. Cosmically fated to be locked against each other. There is no way they can have a happy ending, not in the main universe or the Redemption one for that matter.
But perhaps a content one would be enough, perhaps it would be enough for them to sit at the end of it all with the burning memories of their past. Taking each other hand in hand for one last performance.
The bear and the bunny, one last time. One last dance. One last song. That is all that remains for them.
#I am always so tempted to make journal entries for william to really convey his sporadic thoughts and feelings#I'm sorry I exploded about these two but they're evrything to me and I thnk about them so much#under a read more bc I went a little batshit#- ̗̀ headcanon. ⌜ 🇦🇫🇹🇴🇳. ⌟ ❛ 🇪🇲🇵🇱🇴🇾🇪🇪 🇧🇦🇨🇰🇬🇷🇴🇺🇳🇩 🇨🇭🇪🇨🇰. ❜ ̖́-#- ̗̀ out of character. ⌜ 🇬🇪🇳🇪🇷🇦🇱. ⌟ ❛ 🇴🇫🇫 🇹🇭🇪 🇨🇱🇴🇨🇰. ❜ ̖́-
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The representation of beauty in the worlds of fashion and advertising is not without controversy. Renowned lingerie company Victoria's Secret sparked a great deal of discussion and criticism with their "The Perfect Body" ad. The campaign, which showcased models with uniform body types, sparked conversations on diversity, body image, and how society defines beauty. The objective of this essay is to analyze and dissect Victoria's Secret's "The Perfect Body" ad, exploring its effects, disputes, and ramifications.
2014 saw the debut of Victoria's Secret's "The Perfect Body" campaign, which featured a lineup of models donning lingerie with the slogan "The Perfect 'Body'." The campaign's visuals, which mostly portrayed tall, thin, and conventionally attractive individuals, reflected a limited and idealized definition of beauty. Because it failed to reflect the wide range of body types, sizes, and identities that really exist in the real world, this representation of the "perfect body" sparked concerns about its discriminatory nature. Customers, activists, and proponents of body positivity swiftly reacted negatively to the advertisement, denouncing its promotion of unattainable beauty standards and its ability to encourage people to have low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction. Many claimed that the phrase "perfect body" alienated those whose bodies did not fit in with societal norms and was subjective in addition to reinforcing negative stereotypes. Dissension turned to social media, where #IAmPerfect and #BodyPositive emerged as a rallying cry against Victoria's Secret's limited representation of beauty. Protesters urged corporations to celebrate various bodies instead of upholding unachievable ideals, and they demanded greater diversity and representation from brands.
Eventually, in response to growing public pressure and criticism, Victoria's Secret changed their marketing strategy and renamed the campaign as "A Body for Every Body." With the intention of promoting inclusivity and showcasing a wider range of body types, the revamped campaign had a more varied cast of models. Despite the fact that this transformation was a positive development, some questioned the brand's genuineness in embracing diversity and whether it was just a calculated reaction to negative public perception.
The "The Perfect Body" ad from Victoria's Secret is a powerful reminder of the influence and accountability that fashion businesses have over how society views beauty. It emphasizes how crucial it is to support diversity, inclusivity, and body positivity in advertising by highlighting the wide range of bodies that exist outside of predetermined parameters.
The campaign also emphasizes how social media and consumer activism may be used to hold companies responsible for their messaging and business practices. Companies need to cultivate an inclusive and accepting culture by being sensitive to the values and expectations of their audience in a time when people have the means to express their thoughts and bring about change. The "The Perfect Body" advertisement by Victoria's Secret sparked an important discussion on diversity, representation in the fashion industry, and beauty standards. Even if the first version was not as inclusive as it could have been, the negative response that followed led to a review of marketing tactics and a pledge to increase diversity. In the end, the debate surrounding the ad pushes corporations to embrace diversity and highlight the beauty of all bodies, which ultimately spurs change.
The debate about Victoria's Secret's commercial is indicative of larger cultural conversations around representation, identity, and attractiveness. Due to social, cultural, and historical influences, opinions of beauty differ greatly throughout cultures. Brands run the risk of diminishing the depth and diversity of cultural aesthetics by presenting a homogenized ideal of beauty, which perpetuates Western-centric norms as the norm. In order to promote inclusivity and honor the diversity of identities and experiences within international communities, it is imperative that varied beauty ideals be acknowledged and celebrated. Even though Victoria's Secret's ad generated significant dialogue, there is still more work to be done in the areas of diversity and representation. Proponents of more diversity in recruiting, casting, and marketing strategies are asking for systemic change within the fashion industry. In order to create inclusive narratives and visuals, brands need to give voice to the viewpoints and experiences of underrepresented communities. We may advance toward a more powerful and inclusive definition of beauty that honors the value and individuality of each person via concerted efforts and persistent campaigning.
Persistence of Narrow Beauty Standards: Although the tagline appears to be inclusive, Victoria's Secret's history of showcasing models with a narrow range of body types casts doubt on the slogan's sincerity. The brand's persistent emphasis on models who are tall, typically slim, and primarily White, according to critics, goes against the idea of "a body for every body." The contradiction between the brand's real actions and its slogan draws attention to issues with performative inclusion and shallowness.
Lack of True Diversity: Although Victoria's Secret's casting decisions have frequently fallen short of this promise, the motto suggests a dedication to displaying a varied variety of body shapes. The lack of significant representation for people with disabilities, non-binary people, plus-size people, and people from a variety of racial and cultural backgrounds in the brand's advertising campaigns is a subject of contention for critics. The motto runs the risk of sounding phony and fake without real diversity and inclusion—that is, it will only advocate for inclusivity on the surface without actually bringing about any real changes.
In the context of lingerie marketing, the usage of phrases like "A Body for Every Body" can have complicated effects on people's perceptions of their bodies and sense of self. Diversity in representation can encourage inclusivity and body acceptance, but it must be done carefully and true to who you are. Slogans such as this one might unintentionally cause people whose bodies depart from society norms to feel inadequate and alone when combined with visuals that reinforce limited beauty standards.
Customers have grown more critical of Victoria's Secret's messaging due to the company's history of contentious internal policies and marketing initiatives. Belief in the authenticity of catchphrases such as "A Body for Every Body" can undermine brand credibility and trust, prompting customers to doubt the company's dedication to true diversity and representation. Consumers now appreciate authenticity and transparency, so companies need to show that they are truly committed to diversity by acting on their words as well as by their deeds.
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First Guide To Speaking Value
Subsequent, divide that outcome by 9, which can give you the maximum grams of whole fat really useful for you. Consider the AMC Eagle, at this time referred to as the first crossover vehicle, however first outlined as "What the hell is that," an apt description that may possible be used on many of the newer crossover vehicles trundled out annually. As AMC gross sales flagged the firm started mixing parts of the two corporations to spice up sales and revive the badge. As more crossover automobiles hit the market in the late 1990s and early 2000s journalists and automobile firms started hammering out a loose definition of what a crossover car was, and utilizing that definition and time period on their fashions. Surviving Eagles look like the "early man" version of a CUV, sort of a missing hyperlink of the automobile world. In the U.S., a handful of children have died from head injuries after leaning out bus home windows and being hit by roadside objects like indicators or trees.
It is a typical admonishment made to folks with a penchant for sticking their heads, arms and even their ft out the windows of transferring vehicles, trains, school buses and extra. Spread baby's arms out to the sides, convey them in across his chest, and unfold them out once more. Slowly pull her to a sitting place (let her use her arms and abdominal muscles as a lot as doable) as shown in Step 2 above. If escalade limo service take pleasure in jogging as well as walking, nonetheless, be aware that you can't use the similar pedometer -- set to the identical adjustment -- to gauge your performance in each activities. Nonetheless, the time just wasn't proper for these kinds of vehicles -- but. Hold water bottle in proper hand and curl it up towards your shoulder. Have you ever put your arm out the car window and let the wind catch your hand like a sail? The truth is, in 2015, a female passenger on an extended car ride throughout Ontario, Canada, did what many individuals do. The Jeepster was a two-wheel-drive convertible coupe that was designed to enchantment to individuals who may be turned off by the utilitarian qualities of different Jeep vehicles. Not all limbs which are caught out a moving car window end in amputation, however we do know that of the 2 million folks who have had limb amputations in the U.S., Forty five % of those amputations were prompted by trauma.
But it is this free mixing of perception and phrase alternative that makes finding who coined the time period "crossover" so tough. Who coined the term 'crossover vehicle? There's the Oregon man who lost an arm when the automotive he was in sideswiped a tractor trailer. And then there's the story of a 5-year-old boy in Rockland, Maine, who looped a jump rope round his wrist and trailed the finish out an open window. The automobiles labored properly and bought effectively and pushed AMC sales up for a number of more years before changes out there, specifically new players in the nascent area of interest crossover market, put AMC out of business. Their first experiment was taking an AMC Concord and equipping it with a Jeep driveline underneath chief engineer Roy Lunn's guidance. One other Jeep that could possibly be thought of a crossover was the tough and well-liked Jeep Wagoneer, which featured a station-wagon body atop a 4-wheel-drive Jeep chassis. Your metabolism, or calorie burning, not solely quickens during the time you're truly strolling, your body continues to burn fat at a higher-than-standard fee for as much as six hours after you have completed your workout.
If you're respiratory easy and may belt out a tune while you're figuring out, you need to choose up the pace a bit to burn fats. As you progress by means of the program, you can take your pulse solely every 20 to half-hour to make certain you're working in your goal vary. But do not suppose you can raid the henhouse anytime you like, either. Think once more. Each are literally on the elite roster referred to as the National Historic Car Register. Suppose Steve McQueen's authentic "Bullitt" Mustang and the first Plymouth Voyager minivan don't have anything in common? Amongst the cars in 2018 were the original 1968 Ford Mustang pushed by McQueen in the film "Bullitt"; the 1985 Modena Spyder Ferrari from "Ferris Bueller's Break day"; a 1927 Ford Model T; a 1918 Cadillac U.S. You're not alone. It is like the National Register of Historic Locations, however instead of recognizing places, this registry acknowledges cars.
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SDL - ROUTE PLANNING
Keywords:
Illustration, Photography, Typography, Music packaging, Magazine design, Advertising, Cover art, Merchandise, Packaging, Videography, Animation, Clothing prints/ design, block colour, fashion design, photo manipulation, sets of 3 posters, digital illustration, etching.
Culture, Mental Health, Body Image, Money, Art, Diversity, Education, Music, Politics, Fashion, Nature, Environment, Travel, Film, Vibrant Colours, Movie Posters, Book Cover Design, People.
Resources:
Instagram, AUT Library, Pinterest, Behance, best awards, online magazines, AUT Google scholar
Expanding Ideas:
Illustration: Line drawings, bright coloured drawings, overlapping photography. Do different types of illustration appeal to different age groups?
Photography: People, Objects, Places. Modern day photography or focus on the vintage film approach?
Do people feel more connected to photographs of something that sparks a memory? Explore this connection. This could relate to a special place, person, item/ object or even time in their life. Slowing down. Travel
Typography: What letterforms are people most drawn to? Are there certain type faces that attract different groups of people?
Music album covers/ posters: Does the album cover affect the listeners perception of the song? Does a music poster design influence the overall vibe of the artist or band? What about these posters or covers attract people to purchase the CD/song or listen. Could the cover make someone want to listen or turn them away?
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/7-definitive-record-sleeves-from-2021/
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/under-the-covers-m-i-a-s-arular-proves-that-great-design-isnt-all-about-understanding-photoshop/
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/label-focus-united-artists-pushed-narcotic-tinged-design-weirdness-groundbreaking-sleeves-against-the-odds/
Movie Posters: What makes a movie poster eye catching? What makes a movie poster successful? How have these changed over the years? How much of an influence does a movie poster have on the public?
Magazine Design/ Editorial: What is the first thing that draws a person to a magazine? Is it the brand of magazine, the photograph or the title?
Could relate to Body Image. Magazines and their effect on body image, now social media.
Advertising: How often does the audience think or feel about the product, service and the design of the advertisement once they have seen it? Do they think about it later on?
Could relate Body Image
Branding: Can brand identity design make or break a brand? How effective is branding identity system?
Videography: Fast paced or slow paced videos?
Photo manipulation:
Art + Environment: Human intervention on the landscape. Was it intentional. Did the artist intend for the art to last a certain amount of time?
Other topics: Culture, Mental Health, Money, Art, Diversity, Education, Music, Politics
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/landing-page/best-advertising-work/
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Things We Just Don’t Know
I like to believe that in some fashion, we are cosmically linked in some way to the wider universe. In fact, for a long time, I have wondered whether answers to mysteries the size of the universe have anything to do with our reality as we live.
I’ve been watching a lot of a YouTube channel called PBS Space Time. It’s much better than a lot of other channels about space, as it explains phenomena in a clear way that keeps much of the nitty-gritty of physics and math still at centre stage. By doing this, I cannot say I understand everything that Matt discusses in his videos, but I do believe I’ve gained knowledge of some sort by osmosing the recurring themes.
One thing that really stands out to me about wider space is just how weird and unknown it is to us. Even with our silly little instruments and advanced CERN laboratories and whatnot, we still have so much we simply know little about. Here are some examples:
Dark matter counts for 80% of all the mass content of the universe, and yet we have no concrete idea what it might be. We know it exists due to its gravitational effects, but it does not interact via electromagnetism and so we cannot “see” it in the way we can view stars and galaxies and dust clouds across the cosmos. What is dark matter?
Worse: what about the mystery of dark energy? While dark matter makes up 80% of matter, mass-energy equivalence means there is more to the universe than just the mass of matter; accounting for all energy in the universe, dark matter only takes up around 27% of it, with baryonic matter taking up 5%. The rest? Dark energy, at around 68%. This material is what is assumed to be responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe, perhaps being a constant within space.
There may be “sterile” neutrinos. Neutrinos, like dark matter, do not interact via the electromagnetic spectrum, only providing interactions via gravitation and the “weak” force of atoms. The weak force is how we know they exist, because usually they completely phase through matter. But sterile neutrinos are a hypothetical type that does not interact via the weak force, thus making their detection even more difficult. Do they exist, or are they purely hypothetical?
The inability to mesh Einstein’s general relativity with quantum physics is perhaps the greatest mystery of them all, and the search for a “theory of everything” is still ongoing. String theory and M-theory are possible explanations, but how do we prove they are real?
There are so many other questions. Why is there baryon asymmetry? What is the definite shape of the universe? Is the universe infinite? What happens eyond a black hole’s event horizon or at its singularity? What is dark flow? Is the universe infinitely recurring and cyclical?
I am a nincompoop majoring in English, not Physics, so I’m not exactly in a position to help answer these problems. But they all tell me that there are gaps in knowledge that we have yet to uncover, things hiding in our reality that we will uncover with new technology, new science, and new ideas.
Surely, before the neutrino was first confirmed to exist in 1956, even before it was hypothesized as an idea in 1930, it must have existed, trillions of them streaming their ghostly presence through the bodies of 19th century mathematicians, serfs in the dark ages, Neanderthals and Homo erectus, even the dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous. Surely, they did not care that we had no idea of their existence. Of course, there is always the possibility that the only thing in existence is something perceived by a conscious mind, but you equally have realists that claim reality exists regardless of whether we are here to perceive it. But what about the perception by a conscious mind of a conscious mind?
There are things yet to be discovered--things all around us that are hiding in plain sight--and perhaps there are things within this category that we will never be able to interact with as beings made of matter. Is the truth of consciousness one of these? Is the soul a substance to us like the neutrino was to Renaissance thinkers? Are we looking for something that isn’t there, or are we looking at the wrong thing, using the wrong instruments, going in completely the wrong direction about it?
You probably know by now that I believe a soul or essence exists. It is not a matter of a “nonphysical” substance against the material truth of neurology - I don’t think it has to be at odds with established science. As I’ve said before, we know that different parts of the brain construct what we perceive, how awake we are, and everything else we experience. But there should be a reason that I am me, and not you, even though all our brains have this capacity. There should be something letting me perceive my own existence, that silent observer irreducible to anything my brain processes. My brain has created me, but my soul is me, like how printed words give a blank paper its meaning. But if the brain is atoms and electrical processes, perhaps even quantum in nature, then what could that soul be? What is the nature of the paper on which our stories are written?
Perhaps the imagination can provide a semblance of an answer, because, while I lack the ability to do complex equations or simulate the universe, I most certainly can partake in flights of fancy.
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Theory: Todd is the sleeping Godhead that we all talk about. Also he achieved absolute CHIM
You're definitely free to come up with whatever theory on that you like, but if you're genuinely curious, I would say you're a bit off from the intended takeaway.
Trying to figure out who the Godhead is a bit of a self-defeating exercise. In fact, to get a bit ahead of the point I'm going to make, it's often easier to describe the One by what he is not. If you're looking at the rare in-series mentions of the Godhead (most of the uses of "godhead" are actually referring to more generic godhood, which is also a more modern form of "godhead"), you come up with two mentions of the Godhead, and only one of them describes the Godhead at all.
The eyes, once bleached by falling stars of utmost revelation, will forever see the faint insight drawn by the overwhelming question, as only the True Enquiry shapes the edge of thought. The rest is vulgar fiction, attempts to impose order on the consensus mantlings of an uncaring godhead.
From Waking Dreams of A Starless Sky
The Godhead is uncaring. And that is basically the depth of actual text on the Godhead. If you go with sources that did not appear in the game, you'll do a bit better, but not really to any satisfying degree. So how do we get a satisfying answer? We escape the confines of the rare and deliberately esoteric mentions of this part of the lore and look at its real-world inspiration. Speaking for myself, the best summary of this part of the lore I ever read is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism
Sincerely, after reading that and its associated articles, I went from "wow this is all a bit complex" to "alright, this is surprisingly straightforward". To tangent slightly, while there are numerous fan writings that try to explore these concepts, and I do enjoy a lot of them, I find that some of them often have trouble expressing what it all actually means because they often restrict themselves to the trappings of TES. We're going to remove those trappings, and see if it helps.
If you want more help, here is how I mentally tie some TES lore topics to its real world counterpart.
The Godhead is the Godhead (Monad)
CHIM is Gnosis
CHIM has been described as the secret syllable of royalty. It is best understood as a state of being which allows for escape from all known laws and limitations. It is the process of reaching some sort of epiphany about the nature of the universe and one's place in it, leading to a simultaneous comprehension of the full scope of existence as well as one's own individuality.
Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge. It is best known from Gnosticism, where it signifies a spiritual knowledge or insight into humanity's real nature as divine, leading to the deliverance of the divine spark within humanity from the constraints of earthly existence.
Amaranth is Emanationism
The Tower touches all the mantles of Heaven, brother-noviates, and by its apex one can be as he will. More: be as he was and yet changed for all else on that path for those that walk after. This is the third key of Nu-mantia and the secret of how mortals become makers, and makers back to mortals.
Emanationism is an idea in the cosmology or cosmogony of certain religious or philosophical systems. Emanation, from the Latin emanare meaning "to flow from" or "to pour forth or out of", is the mode by which all things are derived from the first reality, or principle. All things are derived from the first reality or perfect God by steps of degradation to lesser degrees of the first reality or God, and at every step the emanating beings are less pure, less perfect, less divine. Emanationism is a transcendent principle from which everything is derived, and is opposed to both creationism (wherein the universe is created by a sentient God who is separate from creation) and materialism (which posits no underlying subjective and/or ontological nature behind phenomena being immanent).
Anu and Padomay and their derivatives are Aeons
Lorkhan is the Demiurge
Lorkhan, the Missing God, is the Creator-Trickster-Tester deity present in every Tamrielic mythic tradition. He is known as the Spirit of Nirn, the god of all mortals. Names for versions or aspects of Lorkhan include Lorkhaj (the Moon Beast) in Elsweyr, Lorkh, the Spirit of Man, the Mortal Spirit, or the Sower of Flesh to the Reachmen, Sep in Hammerfell, Sheor in High Rock, Shor in Skyrim, and Shezarr in Cyrodiil. He convinced or contrived the Original Spirits (et'Ada) to bring about the creation of the Mundus, upsetting the status quo—much like his (figurative) father Padomay is usually credited for introducing instability, and hence possibility for creation, into the undivided universe (or the Beginning Place).
In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. The Gnostics adopted the term demiurge. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the monotheistic sense, because the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are both considered consequences of something else. Depending on the system, they may be considered either uncreated and eternal or the product of some other entity.
The word demiurge is an English word derived from demiurgus, a Latinised form of the Greek δημιουργός or dēmiurgós. It was originally a common noun meaning "craftsman" or "artisan", but gradually came to mean "producer", and eventually "creator". The philosophical usage and the proper noun derive from Plato's Timaeus, written c. 360 BC, where the demiurge is presented as the creator of the universe. The demiurge is also described as a creator in the Platonic (c. 310–90 BC) and Middle Platonic (c. 90 BC – AD 300) philosophical traditions. In the various branches of the Neoplatonic school (third century onwards), the demiurge is the fashioner of the real, perceptible world after the model of the Ideas, but (in most Neoplatonic systems) is still not itself "the One". In the arch-dualist ideology of the various Gnostic systems, the material universe is evil, while the non-material world is good. According to some strains of Gnosticism, the demiurge is malevolent, as it is linked to the material world. In others, including the teaching of Valentinus, the demiurge is simply ignorant or misguided.
I think that by seeing these concepts side by side it will help make sense of it all. You can definitely research this further, and argue that specific parts of the lore are more directly related to other concepts, but from my limited understanding of theology/philosophy, this is a framework for understanding what the lore was based on, and the ideas that might otherwise go unconnected. If you can do better than me here, by all means, be better than me.
But this takes us to the secret question within all of this: How does this effect the setting? The answer to that is that it really doesn't. Knowing that the setting of The Elder Scrolls is the material world created by the Demiurge, separating its inhabitants from the Godhead, doesn't really change anything. After all, you can literally say the exact same thing about our world. The presence of these concepts in The Elder Scrolls setting should change how you appreciate it in roughly the same way that this school of thought existing in our own world changes your view on our setting.
If you thought this was interesting, I certainly agree with you. If you think this is all a bit too much, and don't want to think about it anymore, you won't be missing out on much by ignoring it going forward. If you want to explore different theories on this, you’re definitely free too, I hope you enjoy exploring your own thoughts on this subject.
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the years start coming and they don’t stop coming
In which Lilith’s return distorts her brothers’ perception of time.
Part 2 here
You’ve never seen the demon prince look so embarrassed.
“I can call for —”
“No, it’s okay. They deserve this.”
But you don’t, goes unspoken. You can see the pity in his eyes, feel the palpable disappointment in the air. Even Simeon and Luke make sure to hug you extra tight before stepping through the portal to the Celestial Realm, and Solomon promises to check up on you after you’ve returned home.
Thanking Lord Diavolo and Barbatos for their hospitality, you turn towards the final demon in the council room and put on the biggest grin your breaking heart can muster. “Hey, c’mere.”
Satan doesn’t hesitate to throw his arms around you. It’s almost like he’s trying to make up for his brothers’ absence, the way he crushes you to his chest and cradles the back of your head.
You can’t find it in yourself to blame them. As far as miracles go, this is a pretty big one. Lilith coming back to life is an unprecedented event, one not even Barbatos had seen coming. Nobody has any answers either. She’s definitely not a demon, not an angel, not human; just an immortal who knocked on the front door of the House of Lamentation three days ago.
Her brothers haven’t left her alone since. You’re happy for them, you really are, but a bitter part of you can’t help but wish her return had waited until after the exchange program ended. At least Lucifer had the courtesy to pull you aside and thank you on his family’s behalf (though you’re quite certain you had nothing to do with your ancestor’s sudden revival), in addition to making a pact with you as a token of his gratitude.
With that, you could have summoned all of them to send you off just as effectively as Lord Diavolo giving the order, but it won’t be the same and you know it. Your only saving grace is Satan, the one brother who’d kept his head and anchored you in the sea of loneliness you’d been set adrift in over the last few days.
“I’m gonna miss you, cat boy.”
“I miss you already,” Satan laughs softly, pulling back with a warm smile. “I’ll stay in touch, I promise.”
You squeeze his arms affectionately and glance past his shoulders at the closed doors. There’s the smallest shred of hope in you that thinks the others will come bursting through any moment now, scrambling for one final chance to see you. You give yourself five seconds, silently counting down to a pipe dream, before pressing a kiss to Satan’s cheek and releasing him.
“It might not seem like it now, but the Devildom will always be here for you,” Lord Diavolo says as the world around you fades to white. “Farewell.”
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“Did you lose track of time at the library again? You missed dinner last night LOL.”
“Levi, be nice!”
Satan only hums quietly in response. He can’t be bothered to correct the assumption; it’s a convenient excuse for when his brothers actually notice he’s missing anyway.
The irony of Levi calling him out isn’t lost on him. While the otaku is still obsessed with his games and shows, he’s no longer as shut-in as he used to be, venturing outside the comforts of his sanctuary more often. Satan has passed by the common room on many occasions to find him and Lilith gaming or binging anime together, and the content expression on Levi’s face proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the void from his Henry’s departure has long been filled.
“Oh, but speaking of,” Lilith sets her cutlery down and smiles shyly at the fourth-born, “I haven’t had the chance to explore the libraries here yet. If it’s not too much trouble, can you show me around and recommend a few books?”
Shrugging non-committedly, Satan continues with his meal, not once looking her in the eye.
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.
You’ve always wondered how someone with the Avatar of Lust for a brother can have such terrible fashion sense. It should be impossible to go wrong with dressing for a funeral, but you guess life (along with a certain eyesore of a tie) just loves to disappoint you. Still, you’re too glad to have Satan with you right now to care.
“Thanks for coming.”
“Anytime.”
You lean into the demon’s side as he holds an umbrella over both of you. Your eyes are drawn to the flowers he’d placed on your mother’s grave, the only splash of color against the dull tombstone. For the longest time, all you can process is the pitter-patter of the afternoon rain on the plastic wrap of the bouquet, and the comforting weight of Satan’s arm across your shoulders.
“She was in a lot of pain,” you admit after a while, your voice slightly hoarse. “The doctors had to sedate her. She went in her sleep.”
“I’m sorry.” Satan fidgets awkwardly, not quite sure what to say. He’s no stranger to death, but the loss of someone dear is unfamiliar to him. “Perhaps Simeon can find out if —”
“No, no it’s fine. I just — I need to —”
The umbrella is forgotten as Satan catches you, lowering you gently to the ground when your knees give way. You cling to him desperately, and it’s all he can do to draw you close as you start to wail.
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.
Satan barely makes it three steps into the house before getting pounced on.
“How was it? Where did you go? Ooh you lucky demon, I want to hear all the details!”
“Oi, oi! What are you babbling on about?”
“Don’t act coy with me! Lilith saw you at the florist’s yesterday with the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers!”
“Yesterday? But —”
“How come you never told me someone caught your eye? I would have dolled you up, lent you some of my clothes —” Asmo gasps dramatically. “You didn’t wear that horrid jacket to your date, did you?”
Wrestling a hand free, Satan musses his younger brother’s hair. “None of your business,” he growls, walking away with a smirk when Asmo immediately releases him to fix his appearance. “Who do you take me for, anyway?”
“Aww come on, just give me a hint! Do I know them? Is it someone from RAD? Ooh, did you meet them at the library or —”
Ducking into the safety of his room, Satan shuts the door in Asmo’s face.
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.
“Thank fuck. Who picked your outfit this time?”
“Barbatos. And shut up.”
You grab Satan’s arm with a laugh and lead him towards your table, politely introducing him as ‘Stan from work’ to any relatives who ask about the handsome young man accompanying you. Satan’s usual mask is in place, but there’s no mistaking the gleam of wonder in his eyes as he takes in his surroundings.
“Finally,” you sigh, sinking into your seat and grinning sheepishly at the blond. “Sorry about them. It’s just that they’ve never seen me with anyone, so they’re really curious about you.”
“Well, I’m glad you invited me along. I’ve never been to a wedding before.” The romantic in Satan is openly basking in the ambience of the reception. “You mentioned that your niece had gotten married?”
“Technically my first cousin once removed, but yeah.”
“And you’ve not been seeing anyone?”
“You would have been the first to know if I have,” you tease, nudging him playfully. “Apparently a lot of people are put off by the way I dress. Too modest, they say.”
But not without good reason. The pact marks on your body may be slightly faded from disuse, but they’re still discernable if stared at hard enough: Lucifer’s at the back of your neck; Mammon’s over your heart; Levi’s curled around your right calf; Satan’s circling your left arm; Asmo’s dangerously close to tramp stamp territory; Beel’s just under your navel; and Belphie’s on your ribs at the side you like to sleep on.
Passing them off as tattoos without attracting the wrong kind of attention is a little tricky, so you’d rather take a page from Solomon’s book and cover them up. Being called a prude is easier than dealing with cultists.
(It also helps you to keep your mind off of them, because some wounds continue to hurt even after they heal, so there’s that.)
Sensing the drop in your mood, Satan clears his throat to get your attention. It’s only then that you realize there’s music playing in the background, and couples moving from their tables to the floor.
Your companion stands up and offers you his hand, this time with a genuine smile on his face. “May I have this dance?”
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Lucifer’s tone books no room for argument. “This will be a family event, so I expect your attendance. Don’t think I haven’t noticed your little escapades over the past few months.”
“Tch.”
“Do I make myself clear?”
“Whatever. I’ll be there.”
Satan has to resist the urge to hurl his hardcover at the back of Lucifer’s head when he takes his leave. That’s no way to treat a book, after all.
Beel’s Fangol team has an upcoming match and it’ll be Lilith’s first time watching him play. She’s been hyped up for weeks, so it comes as no surprise that Lucifer would use the opportunity to turn it into a family outing. He’s been doing that a lot lately.
Gone is the stuffy first-born who can spend days in his office if left unchecked. Lucifer is still as strict as ever, still fulfills his duties to Lord Diavolo diligently, but it’s like he’s managed to master balancing work and play overnight. He makes more time for his siblings now, even if it’s to dole out punishments for their endless shenanigans, punishments that vary in severity depending on how cutely Lilith pleads on their behalf.
Lucifer has always doted on her, and she has him wrapped around her little finger. Belphie has even gone as far as corrupting her into pranking him, and she need only bat her eyelashes to get off scot-free.
Lilith was the catalyst for the Fall, her descendent the glue that brought her siblings back together, and her return the final piece in making their family whole again.
But you were family too, Satan thinks sourly, pulling out his D.D.D. to mark the date in his calendar.
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.
.
When you invite Satan over to your apartment for tea, he never expected to be introduced to your new housemate: a handsome fellow with chestnut brown hair, sharp jade eyes, a runner’s body, and the softest-looking toe beans he has ever seen in his immortal life.
“Satan, meet Satan!” You hold out the tabby towards him with a shit-eating grin.
Both demon and cat blink owlishly at each other. The blond doesn’t know whether to feel endeared by the feline sharing his name or insulted that you would replace him so easily, but all it takes is a single bop on the nose with a curious paw for him to melt.
Satan the tabby, who normally prefers to scale your shelves and nap between your books, spends the entire day a purring puddle in Satan the demon’s arms, shamelessly relishing in pets and massages to the extent that at some point, you have a very real fear they might just end up absconding back to the Devildom together. Thankfully, some kibble and freshly baked treats help you separate the two for a while, at least long enough for you to get some decent conversation in.
You brew a pot of Earl Grey with the beautifully crafted tea set Barbatos gifted you when you had first moved in, and serve the scones you made earlier in the morning using the baking tools blessed by Luke during your housewarming. You don’t know if the little angel had actually imbued them with Celestial magic, but everything you cook somehow always lifts your spirits when consumed.
Satan has to catch himself in the middle of regaling you with Mammon’s latest half-baked scheme. The wistful look on your face is new; you’re usually eager to hear what his brothers have been up to, but something feels off today. He pours you more tea, slides another scone onto your plate, and waits.
“…Are they happy?” You ask after a while.
The demon knows better than to lie, even if it’s to spare you from the truth he suspects you’re already aware of. “Yes,” he admits grudgingly.
“I’m glad.”
Your smile doesn’t reach your eyes.
.
.
.
Lilith stands outside his room, holding a tray of tea and cakes.
“Hey, um, may I come in?” Her smile is both hopeful and uncertain. It’s a gamble, ambushing the fourth-born when he obviously has no interest in her. At best, he’ll make up an excuse to turn her away or just ignore her completely; at worst, well… she doesn’t really want to think about that. To her visible relief, he opens the door wider and steps aside.
Satan clears a space for her to set the tray down. There’s the briefest moment of hesitation before he drags your favorite armchair over and offers her a seat as well. He looks guarded but not openly hostile, a promising sign so far.
“You’ve been in and out of the house lately, so I haven’t had the chance to catch you. I thought we might sit down and talk,” Lilith says, pouring two cups of the hot beverage as she chooses her next words carefully. “The others told me about how you were born, but I understand that you are your own person. I’d like to get to know that person.”
A part of Satan is acutely aware of their one-sided relationship; he is familiar with her through Lucifer, but she has never met him. It makes sense for her to be curious about him, though Satan isn’t so sure he wants to return the favor. She reminds him too much of you in the way she prepares her tea, how she sits on your chair, her shy lopsided smile —
But she’s not you, and you’re not her, Satan has to remind himself lest he commits the same mistake his brothers nearly did after your lineage had been revealed. Now in a convoluted turn of events, it’s you who’s gone and Lilith here, and there’s no reason why he can’t give her a chance and treat her like the sister she could be to him.
It’s what you would have wanted.
Lilith tries not to let her shoulders slump too much when Satan quietly stands up and heads towards his door. She’s prepared to pack up and leave until she spots him grabbing several books from a nearby shelf.
“Have you ever read Mid-Fall Murders?” He asks, handing her a hardcover with a shy smile of his own.
.
.
.
“What’s it like?”
Satan’s grip on your hand tightens. “I don’t actually know,” he confesses, shuffling closer so that your shoulder and arm are pressed against his. It’s a strange sight, the two of you lying side by side on your bed, staring aimlessly at the ceiling.
“Will it hurt?”
“No.”
You’ve never heard a single word hold so much promise, but you have no reason to doubt the demon’s sincerity. Satan wouldn’t take pity on you just because you’re —
A light knock on the door, and in pokes Simeon’s head. “Ah, little lamb! I’m glad we made it in time.”
“Not so little anymore, Simeon.” You laugh softly, greeting Luke and Solomon as they trail in behind him. Satan brushes his lips over your forehead before getting up to receive your guests.
The day is as ordinary as it can be. You talk and catch up with your friends, trading stories and laughter over cups of tea that neither grow cold nor go empty. When the session turns into a mini book club gathering halfway through, Luke helpfully retrieves the debated titles from the massive shelf in the living room. He takes a while to find them; you’ve accumulated plenty of works over the years: recommendations by Satan, literature published under Simeon’s pseudonym, and handwritten tomes from Solomon to keep you in touch with your magic. The shelf is practically jam-packed with books, the only exception being a corner on the topmost tier, housing a little space that’s empty save for a worn green collar with a rusted bell.
Come sundown the five of you are still neck-deep in discussion, but as with all good things, the get together eventually reaches an end.
“Thanks everyone, it’s been fun,” you say, reclining back in your bed as Satan wordlessly cleans up. You squeeze his hand when he returns to your side and bid the others goodbye. “Hopefully I’ll see you guys soon?”
“About that…” Solomon clears his throat, wearing the smug look that usually accompanies a trick being pulled out of his sleeve, but this time it’s tinged more with excitement than mischief. “Simeon has a little present for you first.”
The guileless smile on the angel’s face betrays nothing as he steps forward and reaches into a small pouch at his hip. “Solomon, Diavolo and I have a theory. Now, keep in mind that this is all very experimental, but if it works, you’ll have more options to choose from, should you so wish.”
And then he brings out a ring.
.
.
.
“Are you, uh, are you okay?”
“Not in the mood, Mammon.”
“Oi, I’m trying to be nice here! Who do you think covered for your sorry ass when you came back past curfew the other day, huh?”
“What the hell do you want?”
“You may think you’re all stealthy and shit, but your eyes were pretty red that night. I thought you were at a book club meeting. Did something happen?”
“None of your business.”
“Argh, fine then! This is the last time I try to be a good big brother.”
“…Mammon?”
“?”
“...”
“...”
“I’m sorry.”
“Eh, what are you — you can’t just say that and then run off! Get back here!”
.
.
.
“Twenty, nineteen, eighteen…”
Lilith’s countdown echoes along the deserted hallway, prompting Beel to nudge the deadweight on his back. “Belphie, go get your own hiding place.”
“Mmngh… zzz…”
“Come on, or she’ll win this round with a two for one. Again.”
“…Just dump me somewhere she won’t find me then.”
A tall order, especially since Lilith can easily track them down by listening out for Beel’s stomach and/or Belphie’s snores. Still, the sixth-born lumbers through the house as quietly as he can, doing a one-eighty whenever he hears Lilith’s cheerful hums coming from the opposite direction. Technically they can avoid being caught if they keep moving, but that would be cheating. They hid in the attic previously so that’s a no go, their room’s too obvious, the kitchen too tempting, the common room too exposed…
Maybe Levi’s room? The otaku had sound-proofed his walls to avoid distractions from the outside world when he’s gaming, so it’s an ideal location to hide. He can stash Belphie in the bathtub and run interference until time’s up.
Backtracking, Beel breaks into a light jog towards the other wing, keeping his ears open for their seeker. It’s only because of his heightened senses that he’s able to pick up the faintest traces of magic on one of the walls, causing him to pause in his steps.
“Hmm? Why’d you stop?” Slightly more awake now, Belphie rubs his eyes and slides off his twin, who’s studying the blank space intently. “What’s wrong, Beel?”
“There’s something here, something…”
“It’s just a wall —”
“No, don’t you feel it? I know you weren’t around then, but it’s the same glamor as that time Luke went missing and we —”
Beel goes white. He whispers a name, a name not spoken in the house for years, and a door flickers into view. One hand grabs Belphie’s in a death grip as the other twists the knob and pushes the door open, revealing an old yet familiar room.
The place is devoid of life. Most of the furniture are covered by sheets, resting under thick layers of dust. In the middle sits a tree, sagging with age and soft with rot. Sunken footprints mark the demons’ furtive venture into decrepit memory, and the creaking of floorboards with every step only tethers the growing nightmare closer to reality.
A photo frame crashes to the ground.
.
.
.
They deserve this.
Satan feels it the moment the spell concealing your room was broken. It had been his way of protecting your memory, ensuring that your sanctuary would only be accessible to those who made the effort to remember you. He cast it about a year after you had left the Devildom, after he realized that leaving your door in plain sight wasn’t doing you any favors.
Hidden away in an alcove at the back of the garden, curled up with a blanket and a thermos of hot tea, Satan slides a bookmark between the pages of his latest novel and leans his head back, closing his eyes with a heavy sigh.
Even this far away from the house, he can hear the cacophony of screams and shouts, objects being flung and shattered into pieces, a muted bang suggesting that a wall has just collapsed. The fallout comes as no surprise; waking up after living the past hundred years or so in a daze will do that to a person – or in this case, demons.
Although the sounds of fighting call to the rage bubbling within him, the vindictive thoughts of his brothers getting their just desserts cool it to a simmer. He knows he’ll have to face them eventually, but he’ll cross that bridge when he gets to it.
“Meow?”
Emerald eyes blink open. There’s a faint rustle from the nearby bushes as a tiny Calico wanders out of the foliage, peering around the garden curiously. Upon spotting the blond demon, it perks up and makes a beeline for him.
“Hm? You’re not Callie. Are you new here, little one?” His mood considerably improved, Satan extends a hand towards the kitten. It skips the finger sniffing step and goes straight to headbutting his palm, begging for attention.
“You’re an affectionate one, aren’t you?” Satan caves immediately and scritches away with a delighted chuckle. He examines the markings on its tri-colored fur, wanting to recognize the friendly feline if it comes back in the future. The Calico is mostly white with patches of brown and black splashed over the back of its neck, near the base of its tail, just under the side of its ribs, and several other spots that seem to collectively resemble a familiar pattern…
Satan’s hand stills. He whispers your name, trembling with hope, and the kitten practically leaps into his arms, nuzzling his chin with a happy purr.
#writing#obey me#obey me fanfic#obey me lucifer#obey me mammon#obey me leviathan#obey me satan#obey me asmodeus#obey me beelzebub#obey me belphegor#obey me lilith#obey me diavolo#obey me barbatos#obey me simeon#obey me luke#obey me solomon#obey me replaced mc au
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Real Dinosaurs Versus Reel Dinosaurs: Film’s Fictionalization of the Prehistoric World
by Shelby Wyzykowski
What better way can you spend a quiet evening at home than by having a good old-fashioned movie night? You dim the lights, cozily snuggle up on your sofa with a bowl of hot, buttery popcorn, and pick out a movie that you’ve always wanted to see: the 1948 classic Unknown Island. Mindlessly munching away on your snacks, your eyes are glued to the screen as the story unfolds. You reach a key scene in the movie: a towering, T. rex-sized Ceratosaurus and an equally enormous Megatherium ground sloth are locked in mortal combat. And you think to yourself, “I’m pretty sure something like this never actually happened.” And you know what? Your prehistorically inclined instincts are correct.
From the time that the first dinosaur fossils were identified in the early 1800s, society has been fascinated by these “terrible lizards.” When, where, and how did they live? And why did they (except for their modern descendants, birds) die out so suddenly? We’ve always been hungry to find out more about the mysteries behind the dinosaurs’ existence. The public’s hunger for answers was first satisfied by newspapers, books, and scientific journals. But then a whole new, sensational medium was invented: motion pictures. And with its creation came a new, exciting way to explore the primeval world of these ancient creatures. But cinema is art, not science. And from the very beginning, scientific inaccuracies abounded. You might be surprised to learn that these filmic faux pas not only exist in movies from the early days of cinema. They pervade essentially every dinosaur movie that has ever been made.
One Million Years B.C.
Another film that can easily be identified as more fiction than fact is 1966’s One Million Years B.C. It tells the story of conflicts between members of two tribes of cave people as well as their dangerous dealings with a host of hostile dinosaurs (such as Allosaurus, Triceratops, and Ceratosaurus). However, neither modern-looking humans nor dinosaurs (again, except birds) existed one million years ago. In the case of dinosaurs, the movie was about 65 million years too late. Non-avian dinosaurs disappeared 66 million years ago during a mass extinction known as the K/Pg (which stands for “Cretaceous/Paleogene”) event. An asteroid measuring around six miles in diameter and traveling at an estimated speed of ten miles per second slammed into the Earth at what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The effects of this giant impact were so devastating that over 75% of the world’s species became extinct. But the dinosaurs’ misfortunes were a lucky break for Cretaceous Period mammals. They were able to gain a stronger foothold and flourish in the challenging and inhospitable post-impact environment.
Cut to approximately 65 million, 700 thousand years later, when modern-looking humans finally arrived on the chronological scene. Until recently, the oldest known fossils of our species, Homo sapiens, dated back to just 195,000 years ago (which is, in geological terms, akin to the blink of an eye). And for many years, these fossils have been widely accepted to be the oldest members of our species. But this theory was challenged in June of 2017 when paleoanthropologists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology reported that they had discovered what they thought may be the oldest known remains of Homo sapiens on a desert hillside at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco. The 315,000-year-old fossils included skull bones that, when pieced together, indicated that these humans had faces that looked very much like ours, but their brains did differ. Being long and low, their brains did not have the distinctively round shape of those of present-day humans. This noticeable difference in brain shape has led some scientists to wonder: perhaps these people were just close relatives of Homo sapiens. On the other hand, maybe they could be near the root of the Homo sapien lineage, a sort of protomodern Homo sapien as opposed to the modern Homo sapien. One thing is for certain, the discovery at Jebel Irhoud reminds us that the story of human evolution is long and complex with many questions that are yet to be answered.
The Land Before Time
Another movie that misplaces its characters in the prehistoric timeline is 1988’s The Land Before Time. The stars of this animated motion picture are Littlefoot the Apatosaurus, Cera the Triceratops, Ducky the Saurolophus, Petrie the Pteranodon, and Spike the Stegosaurus. As their world is ravaged by constant earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the hungry and scared young dinosaurs make a perilous journey to the lush and green Great Valley where they’ll reunite with their families and never want for food again. In their on-screen imagined story, these five make a great team. But, assuming that the movie is set at the very end of the Cretaceous (intense volcanic activity was a characteristic of this time), the quintet’s trip would have actually been just a solo trek. Ducky and Petrie’s species had become extinct several million years earlier, and Littlefoot and Spike would have lived way back in the Jurassic Period (201– 145 million years ago). Cera alone would have had to experience several harrowing encounters with the movie’s other latest Cretaceous creature, the ferocious and relentless Sharptooth, a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Speaking of Sharptooth, The Land Before Time’s animators made a scientifically accurate choice when they decided to draw him with a two-fingered hand, as opposed to the three fingers traditionally embraced by other movie makers. For 1933’s King Kong, the creators mistakenly modeled their T. rex after a scientifically outdated 1906 museum painting. Many other directors knowingly dismissed the science-backed evidence and used three digits because they thought this type of hand was more aesthetically pleasing. By the 1920s, paleontologists had already hypothesized that these predators were two-fingered because an earlier relative of Tyrannosaurus, Gorgosaurus, was known to have had only two functional digits. Scientists had to make an educated guess because the first T. rex (and many subsequent specimens) to be found had no hands preserved. It wasn’t until 1988 that it was officially confirmed that T. rex was two-fingered when the first specimen with an intact hand was discovered. Then, in 1997, Peck’s Rex, the first T. rex specimen with hands preserving a third metacarpal (hand bone), was unearthed. Paleontologists agree that, in life, the third metacarpal of Peck’s Rex would not have been part of a distinct, externally visible third finger, but instead would have been embedded in the flesh of the rest of the hand. But still, was this third hand segment vestigial, no longer serving any apparent purpose? Or could it have possibly been used as a buttressing structure, helping the two fully formed fingers to withstand forces and stresses on the hand? Peck’s Rex’s bones do display evidence that strongly supports arm use. You can ponder this paleo-puzzle yourself when you visit Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition, where you can see a life-sized cast of Peck’s Rex facing off with the holotype (= name-bearing) T. rex, which was the first specimen of the species to be recognized (by definition, the world’s first fossil of the world’s most famous dinosaur!).
T. rex in Dinosaurs in Their Time. Image credit: Joshua Franzos, Treehouse Media
Jurassic Park
One motion picture that did take artistic liberties with T. rex for the sake of suspense was 1993’s Jurassic Park. In one memorable, hair-raising scene, several of the movie’s stars are saved from becoming this dinosaur’s savory snack by standing completely still. According to the film’s paleontological protagonist, Dr. Alan Grant, the theropod can’t see humans if they don’t move. Does this theory have any credence, or was it just a clever plot device that made for a great movie moment? In 2006, the results of ongoing research at the University of Oregon were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, providing a surprising answer. The study involved using perimetry (an ophthalmic technique used for measuring and assessing visual fields) and a scale model T. rex head to determine the creature’s binocular range (the area that could be viewed at the same time by both eyes). Generally speaking, the wider an animal’s binocular range, the better its depth perception and overall vision. It was determined that the binocular range of T. rex was 55 degrees, which is greater than that of a modern-day hawk! This theropod may have even had visual clarity up to 13 times greater than a person. That’s extremely impressive, considering an eagle only has up to 3.6 times the clarity of a human! Another study that examined the senses of T. rex determined that the dinosaur had unusually large olfactory bulbs (the areas of the brain dedicated to scent) that would have given it the ability to smell as well as a present-day vulture! So, in Jurassic Park, even if the eyes of T. rex had been blurred by the raindrops in this dark and stormy scene, its nose would have still homed-in on Dr. Grant and the others, providing the predator with some tasty midnight treats.
Now, it may seem that this blog post might be a bit critical of dinosaur movies. But, truly, I appreciate them just as much as the next filmophile. They do a magnificent job of providing all of us with some pretty thrilling, edge-of-your-seat entertainment. But, somewhere along the way, their purpose has serendipitously become twofold. They have also inspired some of us to pursue paleontology as a lifelong career. So, in a way, dinosaur movies have been of immense benefit to both the cinematic and scientific worlds. And for that great service, they all deserve a huge round of applause.
Shelby Wyzykowski is a Gallery Experience Presenter in CMNH’s Life Long Learning Department. Museum staff, volunteers, and interns are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.
#Carnegie Museum of Natural History#Dinosaurs#Dinosaur Movies#Jurassic Park#Jurassic#Land Before Time#Paleontology
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Hi. You made a post a couple of days ago about how queer historical fiction doesnt need to be defined only by homophobia. Can you expand on that a bit maybe? Because it seems interesting and important, but I'm a little confused as to whether that is responsible to the past and showing how things have changed over time. Anyway this probably isn't very clear, but I hope its not insulting. Have a good day :)
Hiya. I assume you're referring to this post, yes? I think the main parameters of my argument were set out pretty clearly there, but sure, I'm happy to expand on it. Because I'm a little curious as to why you think that writing a queer narrative (especially a queer fictional narrative) that doesn't make much reference to or even incorporate explicit homophobia is (implicitly) not being "responsible to the past." I've certainly made several posts on this topic before, but as ever, my thoughts and research materials change over time. So, okay.
(Note: I am a professional historian with a PhD, a book contract for an academic monograph on medieval/early modern queer history, and soon-to-be-several peer-reviewed publications on medieval queer history. In other words, I'm not just talking out of my ass here.)
As I noted in that post, first of all, the growing emphasis on "accuracy" in historical fiction and historically based media is... a mixed bag. Not least because it only seems to be applied in the Game of Thrones fashion, where the only "accurate" history is that which is misogynistic, bloody, filthy, rampantly intolerant of competing beliefs, and has no room for women, people of color, sexual minorities, or anyone else who has become subject to hot-button social discourse today. (I wrote a critical post awhile ago about the Netflix show Cursed, ripping into it for even trying to pretend that a show based on the Arthurian legends was "historically accurate" and for doing so in the most simplistic and reductive way possible.) This says far more about our own ideas of the past, rather than what it was actually like, but oh boy will you get pushback if you try to question that basic premise. As other people have noted, you can mix up the archaeological/social/linguistic/cultural/material stuff all you like, but the instant you challenge the ingrained social ideas about The Bad Medieval Era, cue the screaming.
I've been a longtime ASOIAF fan, but I do genuinely deplore the effect that it (and the show, which was by far the worst offender) has had on popular culture and widespread perceptions of medieval history. When it comes to queer history specifically, we actually do not know that much, either positive or negative, about how ordinary medieval people regarded these individuals, proto-communities, and practices. Where we do have evidence that isn't just clerical moralists fulminating against sodomy (and trying to extrapolate a society-wide attitude toward homosexuality from those sources is exactly like reading extreme right-wing anti-gay preachers today and basing your conclusions about queer life in 2021 only on those), it is genuinely mixed and contradictory. See this discussion post I likewise wrote a while ago. Queerness, queer behavior, queer-behaving individuals have always existed in history, and labeling them "queer" is only an analytical conceit that represents their strangeness to us here in the 21st century, when these categories of exclusion and difference have been stringently constructed and applied, in a way that is very far from what supposedly "always" existed in the past.
Basically, we need to get rid of the idea that there was only one empirical and factual past, and that historians are "rewriting" or "changing" or "misrepresenting" it when they produce narratives that challenge hegemonic perspectives. This is why producing good historical analysis is a skill that takes genuine training (and why it's so undervalued in a late-capitalist society that would prefer you did anything but reflect on the past). As I also said in the post to which you refer, "homophobia" as a structural conceit can't exist prior to its invention as an analytical term, if we're treating queerness as some kind of modern aberration that can't be reliably talked about until "homosexual" gained currency in the late 19th century. If there's no pre-19th century "homosexuality," then ipso facto, there can be no pre-19th-century "homophobia" either. Which one is it? Spoiler alert: there are still both things, because people are people, but just as the behavior itself is complicated in the premodern past, so too is the reaction to it, and it is certainly not automatic rejection at all times.
Hence when it comes to fiction, queer authors have no responsibility (and in my case, certainly no desire) to uncritically replicate (demonstrably false!) narratives insisting that we were always miserable, oppressed, ostracised, murdered, or simply forgotten about in the premodern world. Queer characters, especially historical queer characters, do not have to constantly function as a political mouthpiece for us to claim that things are so much better today (true in some cases, not at all in the others) and that modernity "automatically" evolved to a more "enlightened" stance (definitely not true). As we have seen with the recent resurgence of fascism, authoritarianism, nationalism, and xenophobia around the world, along with the desperate battle by the right wing to re-litigate abortion, gay rights, etc., social attitudes do not form in a vacuum and do not just automatically become more progressive. They move backward, forward, and side to side, depending on the needs of the societies that produce them, and periods of instability, violence, sickness, and poverty lead to more regressive and hardline attitudes, as people act out of fear and insularity. It is a bad human habit that we have not been able to break over thousands of years, but "[social] things in the past were Bad but now have become Good" just... isn't true.
After all, nobody feels the need to constantly add subtextual disclaimers or "don't worry, I personally don't support this attitude/action" implied authorial notes in modern romances, despite the cornucopia of social problems we have today, and despite the complicated attitude of the modern world toward LGBTQ people. If an author's only reason for including "period typical homophobia" (and as we've discussed, there's no such thing before the 19th century) is that they think it should be there, that is an attitude that needs to be challenged and examined more closely. We are not obliged to only produce works that represent a downtrodden past, even if the end message is triumphal. It's the same way we got so tired of rape scenes being used to make a female character "stronger." Just because those things existed (and do exist!), doesn't mean you have to submit every single character to those humiliations in some twisted name of accuracy.
Yes, as I have always said, prejudices have existed throughout history, sometimes violently so. But that is not the whole story, and writing things that center only on the imagined or perceived oppression is not, at this point, accurate OR helpful. Once again, I note that this is specifically talking about fiction. If real-life queer people are writing about their own experiences, which are oftentimes complex, that's not a question of "representation," it's a question of factual memoir and personal history. You can't attack someone for being "problematic" when they are writing about their own lived experience, which is something a younger generation of queer people doesn't really seem to get. They also often don't realise how drastically things have changed even in my own lifetime, per the tags on my reblog about Brokeback Mountain, and especially in media/TV.
However, if you are writing fiction about queer people, especially pre-20th century queer people, and you feel like you have to make them miserable just to be "responsible to the past," I would kindly suggest that is not actually true at all, and feeds into a dangerous narrative that suggests everything "back then" was bad and now it's fine. There are more stories to tell than just suffering, queer characters do not have to exist solely as a corollary for (inaccurate) political/social commentary on the premodern past, and they can and should be depicted as living their lives relatively how they wanted to, despite the expected difficulties and roadblocks. That is just as accurate, if sometimes not more so, than "they suffered, the end," and it's something that we all need to be more willing to embrace.
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Teaching Entrepreneurship with Shaun Johnson
This interview is part of our “Getting to Know You” series, featuring brilliant entrepreneurs from the NY Tech community.
Shaun Johnson is an experienced entrepreneur who has worked across the fields of technology acceleration, early-stage investment, and ecosystem development. He lives in New York City and teaches entrepreneurship at Fordham University & Parsons School of Design. Shaun is also a Board Member of the NY Tech Alliance. He agreed to speak with us about his career journey, the lessons learned along the way, his take on diversity in tech, and what makes a successful entrepreneur.
“One piece of advice I’ve been given and still sticks with me in a perplexing way would be to say that perception equals reality. Even though this isn’t always a universal truth, I often wonder if it’s true, untrue, or sometimes true — as there are times one can influence the other, and other times, not at all.”
Tell us about yourself
I like to describe myself as a helper of people, and that has taken a lot of different shapes and forms. I actually started my career in the federal government, then as a management consultant, and finally transitioned into the world startups as an early employee at Techstars, where I ended up spinning out a company called Startup Institute — a career accelerator aiming to equip people with the network skills and mindset to be immediately impactful in the startups that they join.
You teach entrepreneurship ー according to you, what are the skills one must develop to become a successful entrepreneur?
In teaching entrepreneurship, there are a lot of things that are important, especially at the university level because there’s always this tension between “can entrepreneurship be taught?” or “should you just go out and do it?”
The mentality of doing and learning through action is definitely a skill worth acquiring, whether in the field or the classroom.
There will always be a lot of little failures along the way, and that’s actually a good thing, but it can be counterintuitive for folks who aren’t used to accepting failure on their way to success. Grit is also another important factor. And then the last one, just because I want to leave it at three, is empathy. To have a deep understanding of your customer, the mission that you have, and the people that you’re building around helps you to build exceptional teams, exceptional products, and ultimately, address your market in an exceptional way.
What’s your favorite thing about teaching entrepreneurship?
The people. Students are always so different. People come from multiple backgrounds, different parts of the world, different industries, and with different perspectives. Even if you are teaching one specific course on entrepreneurship, it’ll never look the same because it’s always dependent on the people who are there. Everyone brings their unique personality, and the diversity and plurality come together to create a unique experience.
My desire and appreciation for plurality reflect my sentiments about New York City itself. The city is made of 8 million people coming from different backgrounds and places, who all have unique personalities, desires, hopes, and dreams.
We all have to interact with each other and try to build a better future. Whether it’s through entrepreneurship or just our own coexistence, I think that there’s something productive and meaningful about that.
How do you think the tech industry can become more diverse?
I think one of the challenges is that we tend to take one shade or one arc of diversity, drill in on that and assume that we’ve done our job. For example, one aspect of diversity can be ensuring your company hires people of color, or getting women into the tech ecosystem and make sure that there’s equal pay and that gender rights are respected.
But can you actually look at this kaleidoscope and not just say, ‘Hey today we want to focus on, like, LGBTQ rights?’ Or ‘today we want to focus on Black people or women.’ But instead, the dialogue has to answer the question of: “How can we actually approach inclusion and value creation that is accessible to all?”
Rather than trying to identify a specific group on its own, let’s actually think about how we can lift everyone up together while also valuing their uniqueness.
Is this part of the reason or the reason why you wanted to become involved with the NY Tech Alliance?
I’ve been a huge fan of the NY Tech Alliance since my career in startups has begun. Before I was living in New York City, I would take a bus from out of state to attend NY Tech Meetups, to see that the energy in the room with so many different people there.
It just felt like a panorama of what the startup ecosystem has to offer. It was a great entry point for me. And the NYTA still serves in that capacity for others and provides a jumping-off point, an entry point, and a point of connection, learning and motivation for people.
When given the opportunity to serve on the board, it was something that I couldn’t pass up.
Which trends do you think will emerge in the tech industry in the near future?
You know, I never pretended to be a fortune teller, but I think the year we just survived showed us that despite quarantine and isolation, we still need to connect with each other and be productive. It has been great for Zoom but so many people are zoomed out and looking for different ways of connecting with people that may not just be from the shoulders up.
You’re also seeing some trends around climate tech. The conversation is now rightly shifted from climate change to the climate crisis, and it is attracting a lot of bright minds and big dollars. And I think that’s great because it’s imperative for our survival as human beings.
How has a past failure set you up for success?
I mean, I guess I’m always failing at something. If you’re not failing, you’re probably not trying hard enough. I think the little failures along the way are indicative of trying to do something audacious or something that you’re unsure of. I couldn’t point to one specific failure because there’s just a butterfly effect of one thing leading to the next thing. But overall, the lesson in failure is really to process it and move on to the next thing, ideally in an upward fashion.
As New Yorkers, there may not always be the time or space to do that. You know, we move so fast. We break things, we execute, and there’s so much going on that we can forget to stop and reflect for a minute, look objectively at failure and ask “What could I have done better? What did I learn here? What would I do next?”
It’s important to reflect in a way that builds off of that failure rather than just repetitively coming right back at the same scenario, which is likely to lead to the same outcome.
What was the biggest challenge that you faced in your career?
Walking away from something that just wasn’t for me at the time. With an early career as a management consultant, a lot of things about that job were great: the prestige, the nice fancy suits, the travel.
But then you start to just understand what your calling is, what motivates you or what nourishes you. Changing your career to pursue your calling can be risky, but it ultimately is good for the soul. At the time, I didn’t know exactly what my calling was going to be. And it took courage and conviction to just say “Ok, all these things are good and everyone else loves them for me. But I just don’t love them as much, and I’m willing to look out into the abyss and seek out something that actually is more aligned with who I am and who I want to be.”
It was really scary and that’s one of the biggest moves I’ve made. That’s the advice I give to my students. Do what you love. Life’s too short!
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given?
One piece of advice I’ve been given and still sticks with me in a perplexing way would be to say that perception equals reality. Even though this isn’t always a universal truth, I often wonder if it’s true, untrue, or sometimes true — as there are times one can influence the other, and other times, not at all.
I apply that saying as a prompt for a lot of different things, from looking at analytics and wondering what’s going on with your company, checking in with your mental health and wondering if all of this anxiety or depression is actually real or if your perception influences what you’re feeling. And it’s also a way to keep yourself grounded.
Any final words?
Yeah. If Alicia (interviewer) says or types anything that makes me sound stupid, that was her edit. Everything that I said was brilliant (laugh). And she’ll make sure that it comes across!
To connect with Shaun on LinkedIn, click here.
To learn more valuable lessons from Founders, watch our NYTA Founder Spotlight series on YouTube.
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Fermata ft. Chuu
length ✦ 5651
genres ✧ Dal Segno sequel; dirty talk; oral; makeup fetish; more subby!Chuu
✦✧✦✧✦✧
You write to keep your concentration and disconnect you from your ever-changing concerns. For all your ideas, the true crux of putting a piece together is actually making something concrete. The self-control you require to be consistent, and consistently creative, is what makes music so hard to stay focused on. This album must be finished. This year. No written promises but you have to do right by her after all you've invested. You fucked Jiwoo in the mouth yesterday. Real right of you to do.
“Coming!” Jiwoo must be far from the front door with how her holler resounds the apartment. Where do you put your hands? Pockets are natural though they don't feel like it. Many but not enough footsteps grow in loudness but you expect a stampede anyway when the door opens. Instead, only Yerim and Sooyoung manifest in the opening hallway.
“Hello, oppa! Jiwoo unnie is just… Umm. Taking care of business.” Yerim playfully elbows you when she pulls you in but you stop her to take your shoes off. Sooyoung sends a brusque wave your way and not much else as she collects assorted effects and clothing around the living room. There isn’t nearly as much noise as you expect.
Look around in confusion. “Did I miss something? Is today a holiday?”
“Jiwoo isn’t the only one who’s got schedules, PD-nim,” Sooyoung says.
Yerim turns around. She also has some nicer pants on, and a loose-fitting red top. “Unnie, you’re just visiting your family.”
“And that’s a schedule.”
“Well oppa, I have a CF to film so, ha!” Yerim raises a hand, victorious she just won the conversation. High five. She’s satisfied but Sooyoung gives no regard, clearly looking for something.
“What about the other girls?” you ask.
“I’m not a manager. Just count yourself lucky the dorm is so empty.” Yerim says.
“Damn, we can even record some demos too. Good thing I brought the mic. Hold on, before you guys go, wanna listen to some of our songs?” you say.
“Finally!” Yerim says.
“Just play it out loud, I can hear it,” Sooyoung says. You offer your help with whatever she’s searching for though she brushes you off and insists she can do it herself.
Yerim brings out a bluetooth speaker from underneath the living room couch and coughs because of whatever dust she just procured.
Pull out your Macbook from your backpack and connect it to the speaker. You think about which track to play and pick the one that shows off Jiwoo’s voice the best so far, Jiwoo - Deeper.
Yerim immediately gets into the beat, bobbing her head and dancing. However, when the chorus hits, her ears perk up and she starts cheering at the notes that Jiwoo belts. Sooyoung also turns an ear towards the speaker in curiosity.
A vacuum interrupts the music. Jiwoo swoops in with the machine, scurrying her shapely legs with no heed to their bareness. She pushes up her fake circle glasses and says over the commotion, “I knew you needed this! Oppa, hello!”
“I’m trying to listen to the music here!” Yerim covers her ears.
Sooyoung looks down and pauses at the edge of the couch. “Oh hey, there’s my bracelet! Really nice music by the way!”
“Wow, you guys are so kind.” Jiwoo says, her voice piercing the screaming vacuum without effort. She turns it off realizing she's the only one can really do so. “You still like the music now?”
“No unnie, I mean it,” Yerim says.
“Why are you wearing just that big tracksuit sweater? Do you even have shorts on?” you interrupt the gushing. Jiwoo turns around and hugs herself as if she dropped a towel, even though her immodesty comes from her lower body. Good thing no one notices her sweater ride up for a moment to reveal white panties. Sooyoung looks at you confused while Yerim smirks to match yours. She wasn't even looking at Jiwoo but she could probably tell from your face. Damn, she’s too perceptive.
“Well, it looks like that’s my cue to go,” Yerim says.
“I’m so confused,” Sooyoung looks back and forth at you and the other two girls in the room. You shrug your shoulders, pretending to take solace in her ignorance of the situation.
“Come on unnie, we’ll go together. I’ll go out to get money and you go out to get your kisses from mommy and daddy.” Somehow that didn’t sound too offensive but Sooyoung punches Yerim anyway.
“Oppa, can you finish vacuuming for me?” You’re about to make a retort about labor laws but Jiwoo runs to the bathroom and immediately you hear Jiwoo practicing melodic runs. They’re definitely not the ones you taught her, unless moaning was part of the routine.
“So she has to get her vocal cords ready too huh? I’m suuure that’s all she’s doing in there.” Yerim keeps poking at your bicep with two fingers. You turn on the vacuum to try and hide her overt naughtiness but Yerim’s devilish look tells enough. For full measure, she winks at you as she drags Sooyoung out of the dorm. Mental note to deal with that can of worms for later.
Head to the big bedroom where Jiwoo’s still doing vocal exercises. Three bunk beds line the walls while pillows, blankets and bean bags litter the floor. As the centrepiece of the room sits a simple wooden table, short enough to rest on the polystyrene filled chairs while adequately comfortable to get work done. She stands proud on top of the table as she practices the actual runs you tell her to do.
“Oh, oh, ohhhhh, oh, ohhhhppa!” She jumps down from the table and nearly tackles you when she locks her legs around you in a hug. Take a second to balance yourself while holding her as tightly as possible.
“Jiwoo, you’re eager today.”
“Of course I am, oppa. I’m soooo excited to. Record. Of course.”
“Well if you are, please get off of me.”
“Oppa! You don’t like my hugs?” she says nearly falsetto. Her aegyo throws you off, so you throw her off. Onto a bean bag. “I guess that’s a no.”
“No, not no. I mean. We have to be focused, Jiwoo. Is there any rope or anything?”
“You just said we have to be focused, oppa.”
You wave your hands in denial. “What’d I say about acoustics?”
“Ohhh, like the foam at the studio?”
“Exactly. Especially with how big this room is, we’re going to have to need all the insulation we can get. Ahhh!” Your random shout rumbles throughout the room and startles the relaxing Jiwoo.
She stands up. “I get it! Geez.”
“Oh yeah, I need a pop filter too.”
“A thin fabric right? For all the p-p-plosives.”
“Mhm.”
Inevitable. Jiwoo takes off her panties and you shake your head laughing in disapproval.
“Come on now, that’s just not sanitary,” you say.
“So you’re saying you don’t want them?”
“No, I’ll just confiscate them for your stupidity. Tsk. Find some pantyhose.“ She gets up. “Ahem. Not used.”
The panties have a tiny wet spot, and your nose takes a quick bask in its musk but Jiwoo immediately catches you.
“And I’m too horny,” Jiwoo says with characteristic sass. You put it in your pocket as she gets pantyhose from her drawer. After fashioning a stand for the pantyhose for her to sing into, you both get to work hanging up blankets from the bunk beds while clotheslines become pillow-lines. A makeshift room within a room, still centered by the table but now surrounding you with cushioning cloth instead of acoustically reflective drywall.
Barely enough space for jumping jacks but you start doing them anyway and it flummoxes Jiwoo for a moment. You don’t need to tell her to join in. Sit down to play an instrumental from the laptop and she pauses the exercise before you motion for her to continue.
“I need you with the right energy for the beat.”
“Yeah, I figured. Synthwave is really popular now, huh?” Her bouncing to the rhythm rides her hoodie up again but now her cute slit and bare legs are plain to see. Your tongue dries your lips. She catches her breath before stretching one last time. Keep it together. “So are we recording?”
You nod. Take out the microphone and two pairs of in ear monitors for listening, and connect all the devices to the computer. After setting everything up, Jiwoo gets up and you hold the microphone and filter for her.
Click. “Aaand, recording.”
Click. “One more.”
But that’s it. Two takes. You could not get a better sounding Jiwoo than that. Not a quick demo but the actual release vocal track, since even in such an imperfect recording environment, it sounds perfect to your ears. A little frustration since where was this Jiwoo in all the previous sessions? Maybe you’ll have to consider more visits for recording though you’re not sure if you could make another miracle happen to have everyone else out of the dorm at the same time.
“Jiwoo, that was a- Dammit, that was perfect,” you say.
“Of course, it was!” Not that there’s much room in the improvised recording studio but she ensures you feel even less of it when she gets closer. “Sooo. Wanna fuck my face?”
“That’s not the arrangement! You didn’t mess up.”
“You definitely sound disappointed I did a good job,” Jiwoo says.
”Of course I’m not disappointed.” You sigh. Are we doing this again? A single flitter of her brows. “I’m not going to fuck your face this time, okay? You have to be able to take that dick all the way down yourself.”
No protests. She lowers her head once in gratitude.
"Thank you for the meal!" Jiwoo says as she shows off her pearly whites in a big smile. She turns her head up to look at you lovingly as she cups your balls with her hands before she lowers her head again for a precursory smooch onto your cock. This time, she gives the same slow care to your shaft with her lips as she is to your balls with her hands. As if she wasn't going to ruin her makeup.
Restraining your panting and cries of ecstasy is arduous enough with Jiwoo engulfing you when-
“Kim Jiwoo!” Sooyoung’s voice reverberates from maybe the living room or the foyer.
Jiwoo side-eyes the study door. Her head does not stop its seesaw. Is this girl so entranced by your cock that she feels not an ounce of dread?
Sooyoung yells, “I forgot something! Just wanted to let you know I’ll be back later with dinner!”
“Okay! Thanks! We’re busy,” you choke on your words as Jiwoo does the same on your dick, “Uh, listening to the mix!”
Sooyoung, still shouting, but attempting to say lower, “Sorry! I’ll go now. Bye.”
Wait a few minutes before getting up, and of course Jiwoo’s lips are still wrapped around your cock as you walk towards the door. Dorm is empty. She must have performed magic taking off her shirt and underwear to play with herself because you can't remember if she's ever stopped sucking you off. The kinematics don't add up. More likely, you’re slightly faint from her perilous suction, making left and right difficult directions to parse from each other.
"Fuck you're already so good, Jiwoo."
Pull her up and carry her to deposit onto the bottom bunk of the bed by the window. She ends up belly diving onto the mattress’ surface and her buttcheeks recoil just the slightest bit. Jiwoo notices and starts giggling when she plays around with her perky cheeks.
"You like my ass, oppa?" Nod.
“I said I wasn’t going to fuck your face today. Fuck. Maybe I’ll fuck you there instead,” you say in a low bass.
Her eyes turn into full moons at your suggestion. You laugh.
”Naughty fucking girl. Next time, when you’re a good girl. Such a fun ass though.” Follow through with the compliment as you line up your cock to the prone girl’s mouth, arcing down to fondle her round buns. It's a miracle and also a bit embarrassing that your erection is soft after all that. Best guess is that it's had so much stimulation, but all of the masturbation after recalling your previous facefuck probably didn't help. Jiwoo takes her index and middle digits and raps them on your cock to a freeform beat.
“Aww oppa, your cock. I need to make it big and meaty again,” Jiwoo whines and her pout confesses that she's a little disheartened, however her eyes are more determined.
“Tell me all the ways you want me to use you." She raises her vivid eyebrows and lists her head a little forward. “Okay, miss ‘I won’t let go of this cock even when there’s others in the house’. Don’t worry, we have plenty of time. Just relax and go on.”
“Hmph. Fine. Well, your dick is right here, sooo after I lick it up,” which she begins doing by inspecting your shaft with intent, before finding a spot she deems scrumptious enough to lap up. “You fuck this dirty mouth pussy clean while I play myself on my tummy just like this.”
Jiwoo sounds ridiculous talking with her tongue out but at the same time, her cheeky lisp fortifies your cock. Her hands wander underneath herself and she reels back, titillated by her own words. You watch the small woman fondling herself with both hands while your erection at half-mast presses against her face in suspense.
“I could flip myself over and I’d never let go of oppa’s cock, I promise, then you could see your bulge in my fuck hole.”
How could this girl talk so filthy? Her face doesn’t even look like it should utter the word darn, yet here she is giving a study of her throat’s distension from your dick.
Jiwoo continues, one hand rubbing her clit fervently, “Then, maybe. Maybe oppa could get on top of me and pretty please eat my little pussy out while he shoves his cock into me?”
You couldn’t just stand idly by, though it wouldn’t be the worst with how her mouth vibrates your cock harder as her tone gets more gravelly and hungry. When you reach down, you see her wet slit preoccupied with two fingers from her other hand. It doesn’t stop you from slipping one in the increasingly creamy hole.
“Then oppa, if you still wanna at least?” her voice shrinks, but then returns in volume as she crescendos, “You keep your mouth on my slit as you lift up my legs and your silly slut is upside down and she’s choking on your cock and Jiwoo can’t breath and all the blood rushing to her head and you cum and Jiwoo doesn’t let any of spill out cuz Jiwoo is a good slut for oppa, and oppa, oppa, please!”
You join in stroking and rubbing her squishy soaking pussy lips and she looks up from her haze.
“Kim Jiwoo.” Your voice is stern and it seems more than any physical stimulation that your deep beckon is what sends her past the edge. Her pussy swallows whole your finger still inside her, wetness replacing all sensation that the digit once had. She accompanies her whole body’s spasms with loud visceral moans. It takes more than a mere moment to close her eyes and restore her breathing. The bedroom smells a little salty from all the fluids leaking her mouth and slit.
“How much porn have you been watching?” you say.
“As much as you oppa.”
Swallow down a bit of spit. “Huh?”
“Remember our very first recording session, you forgot your laptop and I returned it to you?”
“Fuck,” you say. Jiwoo stretches and lay spread-eagle on the bed, a gooey strand connecting between her two thighs. She licks her fingers.
“You're lucky I found it. Oppa, it’s all your fault I’m like this. Plus all those fancams of me in the same folder. I wanted to confess sooner but I needed more opportunities to be with you.” She sucks her hand more earnestly.
“I didn’t think sucking dick counted as confessing.”
“Hey, I did say I like you. Did you already forget? Tsk. Typical boy.”
“Look at this dick.” You didn’t have to say that because she’s already drilling holes into it with her eyes. “Remember how I said I was basically recording for free? Make your own inferences.” The round shape of her mouth in understanding is perfect. "Now, open wide."
"Yes! Mm..."
It’s hard to say which position is your favorite.
Fucking her face is straightforward but you pay closer attention. You’re certainly not down that deep, as you can still feel her uvula recoil on your tip and react with thick gagged out spit. Nothing like your cum but she sucks and spits the liquid in and out anyway. She definitely enjoys playing around with fluids in her mouth.
Jiwoo pulls away when she upturns herself, as she coughs with whatever throat muscles you hit. Her head hanging upside down off the mattress would be the perfect perspective to see your cock’s imprint on her neck but she still can’t manage the depth. The angle certainly makes your pistoning easier as your balls slap against your nose in more forceful pushes, playing vulgar slapping noises that mix with her gagging.
Afterwards, you lean over and move her head to get the mattress’s support instead of dangling. Hunch down to her wetness and the taste of her nectar more than makes up for the difficulty of thrusting while on top of her. Already having difficulty breathing with a cock in her airways, you don’t want to crush her under your weight. Still, you spend the most time between her thighs, taking in the muskiness of her pussy and all that it releases. It explains Jiwoo’s long drawn breath through her nose if you have a similarly alluring scent. There’s also the possibility your length steals too much air from her wet, gagging mouth but in this position, it’s her choice to hold your shaft in her throat for that much time.
Pick her up by the ass and cup the top of Jiwoo’s cheeks. Well, now they’re the bottom as she’s upside down in this piledriver sixty-nine position, both of you sucking and licking as closely as possible. She’s definitely enjoying the scents and tastes. You could drop her on her head and she'd thank you if you kept your cock in her mouth. Maybe you heard her mumble something like “yummy”, but anything resembling consonants are far past the point of physiology and linguistics. If anything, holding Jiwoo upside down makes her look more like a used sex doll than the cute girl that she is.
A whole lot of mess to clean up later. Cans of Febreeze, maybe some rags and a mop. New sheets, soaked with nearly every bodily fluid mouthfucking can provide. However, all that work pales to the pure torture you’ve put upon yourself to not cum. It helps with how often you pull out of her mouth as for all her prodigal gagging, she also looks thankful when you give her moments to rest her jaw and lips. Somehow you're in control the entire time yet you have not an ounce of it, avoiding your inevitable fate. Finally, you can rest. Now you’re thankful you jerked off many times before this to last as long as you have.
Of course, resting did mean you were on an office chair and she was on her knees, but still. It’s a break from all the exercise.
“You know oppa,” she says with a smile on her face.
“I was waiting for you to ask,” mumbling as she often does on your erection.
“Jiwoo-ah! Wear lip gloss.” How she manages to get that out so adorably with a cock in her mouth, you will never know.
“But I figured,” bobbing down, “I was sucking you off so sloppily,” and up, “It’d be such a waste of makeup.”
The girl made a point though you say, “I’d still like to see it one time. Alright? I don’t wanna have to ask either.”
“Okayyyy.” She says as she purrs on your dick. The little devil knows how weak you are when she talks with a full mouth. You still aren’t going to succumb this time. Pulling out of her mouth is as difficult as last time but you snap your head back and you snap your head away.
"Nooo." A familiar cry. What if she didn't even like the taste of cum? No time for questions as your body falls apart in the clashing brass and woodwinds. The obnoxious dissonance making you pulse and pulse. You aim below her neck to allow the cum to drip down her collarbones and petite tits. Rub her nipples, sticky with your load and she lets out a little squeal when you tweak them.
"Pwetty pwease oppa. Your cumdump Chuu-ah really wants your cum." She puts her pointer on her swollen cheek. God, she's too much for one man but that’s the situation you put yourself in.
Plop.
Plop.
"Jiwoo, please. It's so sensitive," you whimper as she keeps sucking the tip.
"You get to do whatever you want oppa."
"Fuck.” Pull Jiwoo off of you. “Maybe I will."
You collect your load from her tits as an impressive volume drips down.
"Ahh," Jiwoo says but you push her down one last time with your unstained hand and your other uses a finger to penetrate her little pussy, providing it with the semen that she desperately wants.
"I hope this is good enough for now." Her squeaks in time with each finger on your sticky hand exploring her insides confirm that it is indeed.
A step closer and your rehardening cock finds her labia, small but inviting. She gasps and shudders as you tease her pussy lips in a familiar way. It’s just as sensitive for her as it is for you with how much she sweats and writhes from the shaft The friction of the pussyjob is unbearable and instead of juices dripping from within her, a heavy volume of watery liquid squirts out.
“I’m so, I’m so sorry oppa.”
“It’s okay, Jiwoo.” You put the tip in. “Doesn’t that feel so good.”
“Yes! Thank you. Awwww,” She says when you pop it out. In another world, that tip pushes past and you ravage her. But at this point, you have standards to uphold.
“Be a good girl for me and you can have more, okay?” Give her a rainbow dildo to practice with.
"Oh I already have one, oppa. This looks like it fits better though. Well I guess worse considering how much bigger it is. Just like. Yours. Fuck."
Despite all her orgasms, she looks ready to masturbate yet another time.
"We can't just cum all day Jiwoo," you say. She sighs and nods in understanding.
“Where am I gonna hide this? It really stands out.”
“Just keep it inside you.” Her eyes light up. “No wait.”
Jiwoo giggles. “C’mon oppa, they should be back any time soon.”
You finish up some final touches in your recording. There’s definitely more hitches when it comes to dealing with vocal recordings in such an improvised setting but it’s certainly not as much of a problem as looking at any of the other members in the eyes as you stay for dinner.
✦✧✦✧✦✧
tYou tend to get in a rush when you procrastinate as much as you do. It’s her first album, there’s no reason to rush her first album. Besides, the strength of any artist’s work is in their sophomore album, since they’ve had forever to work on that first one and now people are expecting the second. In either case, you really have time, but you don’t let yourself feel that. Instead, mixing and recording, once a job you enjoyed doing, has turned into a series of stressors in your life.
Jiwoo’s in a rush too. Why is she in such a rush?
“Hello. Oppa. I. Uh. Heard you got into a fender bender.” Every word sounds laborious as she opens the door to the studio. You step out into the hallway then look left and right. Nothing out of place.
“Yeah, just some scratches. You okay, Jiwoo?”
Her lips tuck in when she walks forward even a step. “Yep, doing juust fine. We gonna get to recording or what?”
“I mean if you say so.”
Each step towards the booth has her hitch her breath just a little, but she looks focused as ever so you waste no time and hit record. Should you text another member and ask if anything's off about Jiwoo today? Her singing is fine, maybe a little more vocal fry in her voice than usual, but it fits the sultry ballad.
You text Chaewon as Jiwoo keeps trying out different intonations for the pre-chorus.
Chaewon: "she was all flirty and weird today"
You: "lmao aight, tell something idk"
"yeah yeah, but this is different"
"different how? she's always like that"
Jiwoo sees you typing and stops her singing to ask if anything's wrong. You shake your head and wave your free hand, gesturing for her to continue.
"i guess less wordy and more touchy today? good luck, lmk if you figure it out"
"i will. see ya later"
Curious. You set your phone down and inspect Jiwoo's eyes and her crinkled nose. Hmm.
A few hours later, you’re still recording. For how well the session at the dorm went, it feels like you’re back to square one with all of her mistakes today. She had such a good first takes too but her vocal quality is definitely receding, and in a different way than usual.
“I need to go to the restroom. I’ll be back,” you say into the microphone.
You go quickly to relieve yourself. A lot of water today. Needed it looking at Jiwoo in whatever weird state she's in. For some godforsaken reason you have an urge to take her mouth right now and completely ruin her. This album is never coming out.
Slowly creak the door to the studio open. No need for surprise anymore. Jiwoo pulls out a dildo from her sobbing vagina in the vocal booth and drags it up her body. Her eyes are closed, her focus clearly on the sensation of the dildo finally removed for her. She really went through with your suggestion. Must've been in there for a while considering Chaewon noticed something off earlier today. The dildo meets Jiwoo's lips, both wet from her desire and she shoves it in as deep as she can in the first try.
Walk towards the Macbook and notice that it's recording. Shit, how much space did you have left on it? Hopefully, not going to have to clean it up later.
Finally, her eyes open and she smiles looking at you while she touches herself with one hand and deepthroats herself with the other using the toy you gave her. She pauses her masturbation for a moment, tapping her ear. A new audio clip in Ableton, so put on your headphones.
“Come here oppa. I did a bad job today, didn’t I?”
The only words she needs for you to drop everything and walk into the booth.
“You did,” you say as you unbuckle.
In a single stroke, she swallows your cock, matching the reinsertion of the dildo into her pussy. Jiwoo makes a tight vacuum seal with her luscious lips and shows off how well she manages her breath. Air squeezes through in her nose as you rarely unfastened yourself from her suction, and as she rarely allowed you to. Her lips are a good cock ring, her mouth a fleshlight. At the very least, this gave you much patience with her recording, knowing you were allowed to use your frustrations to turn the talented young lady into an object to use.
It’s incredible how little she has to touch herself to achieve orgasm when your cock is in her mouth. To be fair, keeping the dildo as long as she has inside of her must be a feat of its own.
“Jiwoo. Did you have this in you all day? I bet you’d prefer it were the real thing, huh?”
“Mmmhm. Mmmm!" She convulses at once. The toy squeezes in and out of her while she moans and spills saliva all over your cock. “Fuck, I wanted to cum all day but I had to wait. It’s your turn now, right?”
Jiwoo pulls out the soaked dildo and with her little fingers teases the skin of your dick before maintaining a tight grip. Her hand’s perfect rhythm and all the sucking she’s done so far today gets you right there and over the edge as quickly as she did. You unload all over the colorful sex toy and Jiwoo doesn’t let you have time to think as she puts the cum-covered toy back inside her.
You suck in some air. ”Who said you could have that cum? Lie down on the couch.” No pretense. Is there love between you two? Pull down her spotted top before mounting her modest but perky tits. It’s been barely a minute yet you’re already ready and solid once again. She tries to lean her head forward to retrieve her oral punishment-
“Thank you!”
Reward. Now that you think about it, maybe this isn’t working. The supine girl beneath you flitters her lashes, curious as to why you haven’t yet thrust into her mouth.
“You know much I love to see you work for it. Go on.”
As your cock is standing upwards at attention, she struggles raising her head to match yours, gently poking her tongue out to lick the frenulum.
“Ahh. No fair! I can’t reach. Ppfh.” She spits on it in frustration. “Ppptt. Let me have it.”
Her tongue wiggles around fruitlessly. Spit on her face in retort and you both laugh looking at the mess you’ve made. Yet at last, after playing with her food for what feels like an eternity, Jiwoo manages to wrangle your head with her tongue, guiding it to her eager lips.
“Now I better not feel that barrier, okay? Track 1.” And slowly force your way into her throat. You feigned frustration with her inability to fully take you down, but this was heaven. Regardless, stopped by her cursed reflex, you say:
“Not good enough.” You’d almost feel bad about this.
“Again.” If it didn’t feel so good.
“One more.” Another submersion into her sopping mouth, the friction of her soft lips and tongue opposes all the lubricating slop from her throat.
Unsheathe. “Oppa, oppa wait. Let me get something. You’ll like it.” You concede, getting off of her, and she pulls from her purse bright red lip gloss. “Watch me stain your cock!”
In a rush, Jiwoo vandalizes her lips red. Her makeup artist would be embarrassed. Of course, that makeup artist would be outright scandalized if they could see the precious idol with her back hunched over the arm of the couch, her upside down face inviting you.
You walk up and give her a good view of your balls. Tickle her neck and she leans forward to plant a pure kiss. On your cock head. “You know we haven’t kissed once yet? You haven’t even said anything about how you feel about me!”
“Neither did you.” Move your hands from Jiwoo’s neck to her bare chest and play with her stiffening nipples.
“Well, let me show you.” She plants another smooch on your shaft. And another. Yet another, until it’s turned into a full-on makeout session with your penis. The upended Jiwoo has to twist herself to leave the entirety of your flesh marked with lipstick stains. However, her best work is her french kiss where takes your dick in and plays around with her tongue, as if the mindless beast could kiss back. She leans her head back out one more time to receive you.
A sharp push and her tiny tits respond with the subtlest jiggle.
All but an inch of your shaft covered red. “I’m so close,” she pouts.
“Well, so am I.” You keep thrusting and feel your orgasm get closer. You’re on the edge.
“Mwah.” Her lips’ release leaves your blank head even emptier. “Mwah mwah, mwah.” She fixes her top back and wipes around her lips.
She takes wet wipes then a mask from her purse while you stand dumbfounded. There are four walls in the room. Wires spill from your laptop. One, two, three, four. You are one beat away from orgasm.
Her voice snaps your focus back. “Oppa, that was a good recording session, but you know. Ha Rin unnie has to pick me up. Bye!” Jiwoo scampers away, wiping at her face.
You might actually explode next time, in more ways than one. Guess you deserve this one though.
✦✧✦✧✦✧
AFF, AO3
Just wanted to get one more thing done before the new year so I chose this since like I said, this was originally written as one part. In fact, this is actually the very first smut I wrote. However, I kept getting stuck and adding more, so a trilogy it is then. That’s right, one last one coming up!
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Fate and Phantasms #167
Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making the single horniest character in FGO (in every sense of the word), Heaven’s Hole, a.k.a. Kiara Sessyoin. One half enlightened saint, 99% insatiable demon, all NSFW. Kiara’s an Open-Hand Monk to give off that aura of purity she loves so much, but she’s also a Great Old One Warlock to finally answer the question, “Can you really be a warlock if your patron is yourself?” (The answer is yes)
Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!
Next up: Cheer for your empress! Wooooo!
Race and Background
Kiara may be human, but she’s been infused with the spirit of an otherworldly horror. That’s a Kalashtar, baby! This gives her +2 Wisdom and +1 Charisma, as well as some other mentally themed goodies. Your Dual Mind gives you advantage on all wisdom saves, and your religious training gives you the Mental Discipline to resist psychic damage. You can Mind Link to creatures within 10 times your level in feet, speaking to them telepathically for up to an hour or until you end the effect or link with another creature. Finally, you’re Severed from Dreams, meaning you’re immune to spells involving your dreams. Sleep still works, Dream doesn’t. God I wish that was me, it would make youtube so much less annoying.
As a Devilish Bodhisattva, you’re kind of a Sage, giving you proficiency with the Arcana and History skills.
Ability Scores
First things first, you’ve got to be so hot you can make people masturbate to death. That’s non-negotiable. I’ll leave the exact mechanics of that to your imagination, but it’s probably based on Charisma. Aside from manipulating people, you’re also just as good at reading people, and that’s Wisdom. You fight in a habit and do it all without dying, so your Dexterity isn’t that bad either. Unfortunately this leaves your Intelligence a little lower than we’d like. You’re a hacker nun, but we needed other stuff more. Your Constitution isn’t that great, you’re so eager for pleasure you don’t last that long. Finally, dump Strength. You’ve got a demon god to do all the lifting for you, who needs muscles?
Class Levels
1. Monk 1: Starting off as a monk gives you Unarmored Defense, which is really useful for that “not dying” thing you like to do. You also get Martial Arts, letting you use your dexterity for your unarmed attacks. You can also attack as a bonus action after attacking with your action, and your unarmed attacks deal 1d4 damage, and they grow as you level up.
You get proficiency with Strength and Dexterity Saves, as well as Insight for your psychological training, and Religion for the whole nun/buddhist thing. You have a lot going on as a character, to be honest.
2. Monk 2: Second level monks get Ki Points they can spend to attack twice, dash, disengage, or dodge as a bonus action. You also get Unarmored Movement to speed things up a bit, and you get even faster as you level up.
3. Monk 3: Third level monks can summon a bit of demon pillar to Deflect Missiles, slowing down incoming ranged weapons and possibly even shooting them back as a reaction. (Obviously the demon thing isn’t all monks, but hush.) You also set down the Way of the Open Hand, learning the Open Hand Technique in the process. When you hit a creature with a flurry of blows attack (the two attacks as a bonus action thing), you can: force a dexterity save to knock the enemy prone; force a strength save to push it away; or remove its ability to react for the round. I’m not sure how you touching a person makes them fall to their knees or get distracted, get your mind out of the gutter.
4. Monk 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Dexterity so you can actually hit people with your fists. You can also Slow Fall to reduce falling damage, presumably by swinging around on a demon pillar like some kind of spider woman, and you get Quickened Healing, letting you spend a ki point as an action to heal thy burgers. Despite your looks, you’re pretty tanky with all that healing.
5. Monk 5: Your Extra Attack does exactly what it sounds like, attacking twice in a single action. You can turn any of your attacks into Stunning Strikes, forcing a constitution save against getting stunned for a round. Ironically this is just leading into the explosive climax, where you beat the hell out of them. Where did you think I was going with that?
6. Monk 6: Sixth level monks get a little magical thanks to their Ki-Empowered Strikes so now your unarmed attacks ignore nonmagical damage resistances. You also gain a Wholeness of Body to heal yourself as an action. Unlike quickened healing, this baby heals you for 3 times your monk level once per long rest.
7. Warlock 1: Making your hands a little magical is nice, but we want to make stuff a lot of magical, and for that we’ll need to make some questionable deals. That’s where the Great Old One comes in, giving you Pact Magic you can cast with your Charisma and an Awakened Mind. It’s more telepathy. Not a huge boon, but now you can talk to two people at once, neat!
As far as spells go, Chill Touch lets you make creepy hands (kind of your thing), and Eldritch Blast gives you some generic magic projectiles. Charm Person makes you a bit more charming, and Protection from Evil and Good will help cut through those pesky rulers more easily by just straight up ignoring their god.
8. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, to customize your soul pact a bit. Beguiling Influence makes you proficient with Deception and Persuasion to help cover up the whole demon pillar thing, and Thief of Five Fates lets you cast Bane with a spell slot once per long rest, further weakening your enemies.
You can also cast Arms of Hadar to launch more arms all around you for an AoE attack.
9. Warlock 3: Kiara’s definitely a weird one when it comes to her pact boon. Books have kind of fallen out of fashion by 2030, she doesn’t use weapons, and she really doesn’t care for a sidekick. That leaves her with the Pact of the Talisman to make her a little bit better than everyone else, letting the wearer add 1d4 to a failed ability check Proficiency times per long rest.
She can also cast second level spells now, like Enthrall! She’s the only person in the world according to herself, and now she is to you too! Just fail that wisdom save and you’ll have disadvantage on perception checks to notice anyone else!
10. Warlock 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger warlock spells. You also get the On/Off cantrip from a super old UA to become a bit of a hacker, magically turning on or off an electronic device within range. You can also Detect Thoughts to be one hell of a therapist, being able to read the mind of a nearby creature as an action while the spell lasts. You can read surface thoughts over and over again, or you can probe deeper into the mind of a creature you’ve already read, forcing a wisdom save against the intrusion. Also, creatures are aware you’re reading their mind, and they can force a contested intelligence check to end the spell while they’re being read.
11. Warlock 5: Your first 3rd level spell is Hypnotic Pattern, to help dominate the minds of crowds all at once. You can also Mire the Mind to cast Slow once per long rest with a spell slot. Up to six creatures make a wisdom save, or they have their speed and AC reduced, take a penalty to dexterity saves, and can’t use reactions. On their turns, they can make either an action or bonus action, not both. It also can’t make more than one attack per turn. Finally, spellcasters affected by the spell have a 50% chance of taking 2 turns to cast a 1 action spell. Another wisdom save at the end of each turn can end the effect.
12. Warlock 6: All those hands and mind tricks coalesce into an Entropic Ward this level, letting you spend your reaction to impose disadvantage on an incoming attack. If it misses, you get advantage on your next attack against that creature. You can use this once per short rest.
You can also slip into your Heaven’s Hole persona by donning a Spirit Shroud, dealing more damage within a short area around you, preventing healing from enemies you hit with attacks, and slowing them down even further.
13. Monk 7: Bouncing back into monk gives you the Stillness of Mind to end effects messing with your thoughts as an action. The only person around here doing any charming today is you, thank you very much. You’d also be correct in saying the only person around here period is you, but I digress.
Your Evasion boosts your dexterity saves, so your failures are as good as other people’s successes, and your successes avoid damage entirely.
14. Monk 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Wisdom to become more observant, and get stronger techniques and a higher AC.
15. Monk 9: Ninth level monks get an Unarmored Movement Improvement, helping you run straight up walls and over water, as long as you end the turn on solid ground. Admittedly that’s not very in-character, but you’ve got tentacles growing outta ya, I’m sure you can justify it somehow.
16. Monk 10: Tenth level monks have a Purity of Body that makes you immune to poisons and disease.
17. Monk 11: Your final level of monk grants you a Tranquility that makes you harder to hit, effectively giving you the effect of a Sanctuary spell starting and ending on your long rests, though the spell ends early if you directly attack or cast a spell at an enemy. While active, creatures trying to attack you directly have to make a wisdom save. If they fail, they have to choose a new target or waste their action. The DC is 8 + your wisdom modifier + your proficiency bonus.
18. Warlock 7: Seventh level monks get fourth level spells, like Evard’s Black Tentacles. A 20′ square becomes a mass of tentacles (or demon god pillars), forcing a dexterity save against taking bludgeoning damage and get restrained. They can use their action to try and escape the tentacles, otherwise they don’t get a save on their next turn to avoid damage.
You can also use your Gaze of Two Minds to see and hear though a willing humanoid, like, say, your enthralled servants. Great for espionage, or just being a creep in general.
19. Warlock 8: Use your last ASI to max out your Charisma for super strong spells and the most sex appeal you can squeeze into a single servant.
You can also cast Summon Aberration now to give Zepar a bit of breathing room outside of your body. Honestly the poor guy deserves a break.
20. Warlock 9: Ninth level warlocks get fifth level spells, and Dominate Person lets you completely take over a creature’s mind. They have a wisdom save to avoid it, and they can make another every time they take damage, but if you’re forcing them into a really one sided fight, like say, against an agent of the counter force, that’ll be a one hit kill, so you don’t have to worry too much.
You also get one last invocation, and the Grasp of Hadar turns your eldritch blasts into even more hands, so once per turn you can pull a creature hit by the blast 10 feet closer to you. Bet they thought they were real smug waiting on the other side of your tentacle pit, huh?
Pros:
With an AC of 16, tons of mobility, and a wisdom save between you and even getting hit in the first place, you can be tough to attack, giving you a weird sort of tankiness to avoid conflict altogether.
You’re also good at manipulating people, with charms, mind reading, and just good persuasion scores making it easy for you to turn the tide of a conversation in your favor. Also if you’re having trouble with an enemy you can just dominate them and tell them to jump off a cliff, really easy. You won’t even have to fight if you can just inspire a mob to do it for you.
While the biggest part of your defense does come with a caveat, you’re good at indirect combat, which will keep your sanctuary up longer. Sure, you can’t cast spells affecting a creature, but you can always cast a spell now, and have it affect a creature later, the old “I’m just moving my fist and walking forward, if you get hit it’s your own fault” technique. Putting Evard’s Tentacles down between you and enemies, summoning aberrations, and just using On/Off to cause industrial accidents are all ways to get around this restriction and leave you looking clean as a brand new pair of panties.
Cons:
Your dexterity isn’t great, especially for a monk. That’ll make it harder to effectively use your martial techniques later in the game, and it also hampers your AC.
Despite all your defenses and healing, you’re still only rocking a touch over 100 HP, meaning a light sneeze will put you into power word kill territory. Which is, admittedly, still affected by your Tranquility, so it might not be a bad way to trick people into wasting a 9th level spell...
You only get two spells per short rest, that just isn’t enough to manipulate everyone you want to, so you’ll have to learn to pick and choose what happens when.
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