if i see a single one of you pissed that your faves canceled an event or a con appearance because they're striking for fair wages then imma come for you in your sleep 🔪🔪🔪

(direct that fury where it belongs: AMPTP and the execs)

following up on my post from earlier, I'd like to remind all darkl!ng stans that Nikolai faced all the same problems as king (in the kos duology) that the darkl!ng did, as well as several other new problems (the demon, having to find a wife, etc) and committed ZERO mass murders. your fav could never

Word on the street is negotiations between the WGA and the studios are still currently taking place going into the evening…

Are Sebastian and Alex going to learn about bdsm and safe practices/negotiation? Or do they keep fumbling around and doing what they're doing?

Hi anon,

People who learn about BDSM don't necessarily practice safe practices or negotiation.

And there are elements of negotiation in this story! It's not a black and white 'they're not doing this in a paint-by-numbers sort of way and therefore it doesn't count' situation, y'know?

They are two characters in their mid-20s who live in a tiny town, one of those characters is dyslexic to the point that he can barely read, and the other's method of doing things has worked for him all his life (or so he thinks), they don't have any reason/s to learn about BDSM, and it's not likely that either of them ever will.

That also doesn't mean that they can't enjoy their kinky sex life.

There has been a lot of discussion already, and there will be more and more going forwards. It might not be at the level most people want, but Sebastian has certainly obtained consent (more than once), offered and then insisted on debriefs and post-sex discussion, explained to Alex how to communicate if he hates something, and made it clear that what he likes is unusual and sadistic in nature. It's also clear that Alex likes being pushed, i.e. - not being forced to give consent in every circumstance when someone can take control and give him what he wants anyway. That's actually pretty common in some people with a child abuse background who become people pleasers.

If you want negotiation + safe practices at a certain level, you'd have to completely remake Alex's character into someone who can magically be a functional, communicative, healthy human being, and he's not that. Alex is getting better at communicating (that's how we go this far in the story in the first place), but if you expect this story to end on Alex being a perfect human who can do Instagram-level kink negotiation, then no, this isn't the story you want, anon.

If you look deeper and don't expect cookie cutter kinds of dialogue, there has been ongoing negotiation in the story since the early chapters. When Alex makes it clear through physical response and then verbal that he doesn't like yelling, Sebastian stops yelling. When Sebastian makes it clear that he has complicated feelings about hiring his ex-school bully as a cleaner, Alex makes it clear that he doesn't share those complicated feelings, especially in light of the pay rate. Sebastian consenting to Alex being his cleaner makes it clear that those terms are acceptable to him.

When Alex tries to undervalue himself, Sebastian makes it clear that he's not comfortable paying someone less simply because they value themselves less. When Alex then takes that pay, it's a form of consent to Sebastian's attitudes. Their relationship has been an ongoing negotiation since the beginning, and that's how they've grown closer. If you're used to only looking for very obvious signs of negotiation, it might be easy to miss the non-verbal and subtle forms of negotiation that are happening.

For example, it might not seem like it, but Sebastian - many chapters ago now - talking about how he likes control in the bedroom and that turning Alex on long before they'd ever shared anything sexual together, is a form of communication. Alex learns he likes the idea of it without it ever been forced on him, and Sebastian wouldn't have that conversation with someone he didn't trust (for example, Alex in the beginning of the story). They had to have trust to have that conversation, Alex had to have trust to ask Sebastian questions about it in the oblique way he did, and they had to share a common comfortability have a conversation in that direction in the first place.

In A Stain that Won't Dissolve, these things don't look like a psychologist's version of: 'Okay, what do you want, and this is what I want, and here's where we meet in the middle' - a lot of life doesn't look like this (but if you want that, I've written that in Falling Falling Stars - it still has dubious consent though, lol). Both Alex and Sebastian have poor communication on their side, and it's a growth story for the two of them.

But no, I have no intention of Sebastian ever learning terms like 'subspace' or 'RACK' or anything like that. A lot of people in the world, especially prior to easy access to the internet, figured this stuff out on their own and many of them made it work even without the rigid or codified structures of the world of BDSM (and some of those people went on to invent the world of BDSM that we take for granted today).

It's the kinks that make you kinky, not the knowledge of an acronym or the world it engenders.

There's also no reason to think that Sebastian has access to a healthy education about BDSM there, it's not like Elliott was practicing much healthy BDSM in my other Stardew fic, The Wind that Cuts the Night, :D Elliott knew all about safe practices, negotiation, and BDSM, and chose to ignore a lot of the safe stuff over messing around more dangerously.

The fumbling around is the point, basically. Growing up is messy, and dubious consent is hot (for some of us), and there are many ways we communicate with the people around us, especially when it's two guys in a town the valourises machismo and stoicism over emotional openness, and one of those guys was beaten by his father over not being macho and strong enough which makes him exceptionally resistant to communicating clearly even about basic subjects and needs.

That's the part I actually really love about this story.

hate when i see a post and i just Know it’s gonna majorly prevent me from writing anything for like. a solid week.

someone wanted more fanart of @lumpsbumpsandwhumps’ Malik & Jonas <33

[more art]

The way I need more people to realize that Harvey's literally the most normal, ordinary, average motherfucker in Gotham. Like.

He doesn't have any super powers besides mental illness and a soul full of spite. If Jason told him Gods and aliens existed he'd pop like a firework

having several (VERY GOOD) Emotions over Murderbot book update

my System Collapse is finished, my crops are watered, and my soul is fed

“He would not fuckiNg say that !!!” what if I had a gun to his head what then

I find everyone feeling bad for Carlos weird like he was told privately about Lewis and his contract was ending this season anyway. He has almost a year to find a new team and he gets to finish his time at Ferrari. He hasn’t performed to the way he was hyped up to be

in general, unless a team actively and publicly stated their dislike of a driver or disrespected them while they were still on the team (seb w ferrari in the end and the way gene and gunther talked abt mick, everything abt mclaren n daniels exist for example) and u get a year to find a new team I dont really feel bad bc thats just the sport.

I do think it's very ferrari typical to get another wdc in when they have a decent younger driver in their car rn who has only spoken well of the team but ferrari are not being disrepectful abt this at all w carlos.

thinking about 2x10 in terms of the tomshiv and kenstewy parallels and feeling slightly insane. there's something there with both of those relationships, about sacrificing the relationship in the name of saving the other person. how shiv seemingly throws tom under the bus in the breakfast scene ('to save you I can't be seen to be acting in self-interest') - but she does look out for him in the end, and chooses to save him even above her own brother. but the damage is done, and the way their relationship develops afterwards is very much affected by this moment. and then stewy denying the deal, at least in part because it includes ken losing his board seat (this is only hinted at in the scene but you can definitely tell there's some nonverbal communication happening between them when logan mentions the board seat and Arian later confirmed in an interview that this was how he played the scene. plus, they do want the deal. they seem eager for it at the shareholder's meeting, which is only like two weeks later? and the fact that stewy even agrees to meet them and seems optimistic about logan's proposal to get the deal done and eat some octopi, AND the deal being objectively pretty good for them makes it seem likely that the board seat thing is why he ultimately says no right away without even consulting the Sandys, as Logan points out) thinking he's looking out for him but obviously not knowing that he's actually dooming him, as a deal would've been the last chance at saving Ken from being the sacrifice.

way too late to be articulating this thought but every time i loop hayloft and see the goofy utsuro!takasugi->oboro!takasugi noooo lil sibling dont kill sensei by killing sensei. kill sensei by killing ourselves. convolution. i am more and more fueled into getting as stupid as i can in my gntm postcanon lol. takasugi's eye has always been fine and he crawled out of that tower miraculously alive. so did oboro. separately. bc they. separately. uno reverse took over shouyou and utsuro's bodies respectively. all the other altana bodies in the terminal died for real tho so shouyoutsuro did as well. so whos that baby? why its my good friend shouyou(tsuro. theyre integrating.) the fourth :)

and the shouyou body takasugi took over just had a normal ass stab wound thats easy street hes fine now. but the utsuro body oboro took over was 1. largely metaphorical 2. also stabbed 3. more importantly underwent ego death something bad. so oboro's still on borrowed time he just gets enough to hang out with everyone until they get bored of him after a month and then he goes crawls in the woods and dies. one more time

If you were a pirate captain, what would be your jolly roger?

this is a trick question because I would never be a pirate captain, but keeping in the spirit of the ask I think these are a few that might work depending on what theme of pirate crew I was running, plus a skull that likes to tell jokes. Skull jokes, as it were

When ya'll told me I was crazy for saying s5 is gonna take up to a year to film and so I stayed quiet, but now it's low-key being confirmed:

Zaku versus Kermit, on committing crimes as puppies:

Me: Please stop chewing on the dresser/my face/Kermit's ears and play with this toy instead.

Zaku: Okay!!! :D

---

Me: Okay, this is the third time I've tried to redirect you, so you are going to sit in the crate for five minutes so you can think about your life's choices and then I'm going to let you out and give you the opportunity to do the activity that I am suggesting for you and if you don't do it I'm putting you back in the crate, and I am prepared to do this for as long as it takes for you to stop eating the fucking poisonous plant.

Kermit: But I want to eat the poisonous plant. >:[

my souheki warriors kill this gacha video now