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alyjojo · 7 months

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November 😶‍🌫️ 2023 Monthly - Virgo

Whole of your energy: 9 Cups

You’re gaining necessary clarity in your world this month in regards to some 3rd party, which is giving you the opportunity to move forward towards something you want. Or what someone else wants. Even if that hurts, for some of you it’s like you’ve known but have ignored what you know, or any red flags you’ve seen. There’s definitely an energy of “being nice” causing you to miss some things or purposely overlook them for the sake of being kind. You could be faced with some inner demons you know you need to work on. One of the stories I’m getting is about obsession - over an ex. Or a current partner on some bs. The other is about financial codependency and being a supportive person to someone in need, which may have started positive but is becoming kinda toxic to you. It could be your child, or whoever has been this way since they were a child, that’s not for everyone. Whatever the story is, The High Priestess shows you know, you just don’t want to face the truth. Or haven’t until now, but it’s like the clarity you’re getting is determining 9 Cups for you - what you want. Your dreams, and how to make them become a reality, however that applies to you. You could be keeping quiet about what you really want and how you really feel, the truth. Or things are coming to light that is a wish come true, you might not have to say the thing at all, if this is someone else’s issue. 9 Cups can be a selfish energy, it’s pleasing ourselves, getting what we want, which is usually positive, but in your case I’m not sure it is.

What’s going on in November:

The Lovers rev:

A friend being freshly out of a relationship could be needing your help financially, could be a child or anyone really, it’s someone you love dearly and are very generous to. You want them to heal and are willing to do whatever they need you to do in order to help make their lives a little easier. If that’s the case, you could be needing to stop giving so much and cut someone off financially, like it’s been enough time for them to be feeling okay now, go do something. Others of you are the ones healing from a breakup, and you’ve given your person *space* with the hopes of a return, healing, probably reconciling, and didn’t intend this to actually end, for good. You’re not getting help in this case, you’ve assumed you’re being gracious by backing off awhile, and others will do whatever they will do.

Queen of Pentacles:

This feels like your energy, in any story, you’re perfectly fine handling things on your own, you’re a responsible, dependable, and capable sort of person. She’s followed by the King - your formerly perceived soulmate, or for those in healthy relationships, a divine counterpart that really is your soulmate. Queen of Cups follows them and it’s this Queen that’s the issue in any case. Could be a water sign, she’s someone very loving, kind, nurturing, possibly a parent, a 3rd party regardless of who she is, she pours genuine emotions into everything she does and she’s the sort that would do anything for anyone she loves.

Some of you are her friend, parent, sister idk, and she’s telling you about a tragedy in her life, probably relating to love, possibly relating to a child as well. Or she is the child and it’s her parents. You & your person could be helping her out financially while she gets back on her feet from whatever this is, she needs healing. For those going through a breakup, your person already has a new person, and either they told you this or you found out from spying on social media or something, you’re aware, and it’s rocking your entire world like who tf is this person and why are they suddenly around? Motives, facts, the truth, this is what you want and also what you avoid.

The Hanged Man:

If you’ve gone through a breakup, this row is saying your person waited to be single to plan moving forward with this other person. They don’t want you to think they cheated (but I mean, it’s a technicality that they didn’t). Some of them held off from even planning a future at all with you, they always have, it always gave you red flags, and you & them both know they’re full of shit. They had other motives. Hopefully they weren’t using you, I assume that’s only if they were getting something out of you. Money? That could definitely be the case with the friend or more casual person you’re helping out. Hopefully not love. Is it intentional, yes and no. Do they mean to hurt you, no. Are they abusing your kindness, probably. They could not have enough, make enough, or be mentally with it, their head is obsessively with what’s happened in their life, could be any number of things. It hasn’t sunk in yet, and you don’t want to be the one to make them “face facts”, though that’s kind of a Virgo gift where others are concerned, you all are typically very knowledgeable and wise in the ways of life. But you don’t like to be mean. Part of your hesitation is not knowing how to say it. Or this is all switched.

4 Pentacles:

This is an extremely protective energy, possessive even, you could be protecting someone from necessary truths or they feel like they’re doing that with you. In either case, it’s not very helpful, because it just leaves someone to stress out and come up with their own solutions & answers, which may or may not be the truth. You or your person may be afraid to bring light to the elephant 🐘 in the room. If your ex is with some new person, you could be holding grudges and pissed off, assuming the worst or fearing it, they must have been cheating and now you know the truth. I don’t get that…exactly. You (or them) are just devastated that they’re acting perfectly happy without you, wtf kind of person can just do that? Unless they were fake all along.

Separately, if you’re being too open with your finances and helping someone out, you’re needing to rein it in and be more protective of your money and where it goes. Someone may be spending freely like they’ve just got it to spend and you need to step in and say something, stop giving so much.

The Devil:

It’s toxic. No matter how you swing this, it’s toxic. A dynamic, a relationship, what someone has done, the obsession surrounding this, codependency, everyone avoiding accountability or just assuming things, it’s all unhealthy and not something you can continue doing. If it’s you, you’re needing to see the truth, if it’s someone close to you, you could be the one needing to deliver the message. You’re bound to something unhealthy you feel you can’t escape, and that’s only true if you continue to allow it. For the shady partner story, did they cheat, I get no. They did flirt. They did have the opportunity. They may have even given some person money or a gift of some kind. I’m again being pushed to the row of this person waiting to be single to move towards something new, but the something new may have been in the background waiting, knowing, expecting, that’s true. Some of you have a child or person that’s financially codependent on you, and you may have helped make them this way, like they were Page of Cups before but they’re Queen of Cups now. There’s some self accountability there, and also they have to learn to manage without you. Eventually, right? If it’s a friend, similar energy that they’ve always been this way, and may be unconscious to that being the case. You could need to be kind in how you speak to them, especially if they’re unaware of an issue, or you’ve never tried to before, because I get it’s out of a place of genuine care & concern, you love this person.

666 shows that a mutual breakup is necessary because something is toxic, maybe the *way* something ended was toxic, or you’re needing to disconnect from someone or something you’re giving so much of yourself to, because it’s keeping you trapped to something unhealthy.

444 is here showing a need to heal the past and any grudges that come with that in order to have a more positive future.

222 shows you know what needs to be done, you’re just ignoring it, or someone else is, and a plan needs to be made to move forward, towards progress, looking towards the future, where to go from here.

Signs you may be dealing with:

Capricorn, Virgo, Taurus, Gemini, Libra, Cancer & Pisces - heavy earth 🌲

Oracles: ✨

4 Past, Present, Future ☸️

We all arrive on this earth with a plan. We all have lessons to learn. In the process of learning these lessons, most of us will encounter experiences that we will label as “bad”. This labeling and duality we carry with us wherever we go is what we call our so-called “baggage”. When we let these labels direct our reactions to life and experiences in the present, or even project them into the future, we are working with a lower-energy vibration. When you are able to integrate your lessons without labels, then you are free to remain in the present experience and enjoy it for what it truly is. You can then move forward into the future without expectations or agendas and be much more open to what will be for our highest and best. Let go of labels and judgements surrounding this situation.

We enter into November as:

She Shaman 🧝🏾‍♀️

“I will guide you to your muse.”

She Shaman whispers to you “Do not be like the old birch and wait for anyone else to tell you of your muse. Connect with it!” This is your destiny calling. The path you have chosen is an artistic one. The universe is waiting for you to begin your dance and express your love in a tangible art form. The time is now, the moment has arrived, it is a time for decisions to be made. Dance! Rejoice! Do not seek council outside of yourself to confirm what you know to be true inside. Do not wait for permission to act. You must trust your instinct and act from the voice within. Let go of any need for approval, your answers are within. You will not be alone, Spirit is with you.

What is to be learned in November:

Grass 🌱:

“Your message to others is best expressed by being uniquely you.”

The time is right for you to move on from anything holding you back from full self-expression. You are being told to break away. Be different. Be unique. It is time to grow! It could be time to plan a change of scenery. Take a tour, go to a spa, get into shape, visit a foreign place, learn a new skill, depart from the mundane. Take the chance you’ve always wanted to. Most importantly, grow. This is an indication you also need to become more in touch with your spiritual side. You’ve strayed from your inner voice, Spirit invites you back. It is time for your personal growth.

Green may be a lucky color 💚

#Virgo #astrology #monthly tarot reading #November 2023 #tarot #tarot blog #tarotblr

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monstersandmaw · 2 years

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Male werewolf (Rollo) x female character - Part Two (nsfw)

Disclaimer which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere.

Here’s the third out of my batch of five commissions for you! I hope you enjoy it. It features my commissioner’s feisty girl Frost, and our gruff but sweet werewolf boy Rollo.

Contents: There’s a healthy dose of pining and idiots in love, with a bit of minor aggression from another party towards Frost, who handles it pretty easily, and some nsfw to finish, featuring knotting and claiming. Wordcount: 7048

Part One, in which they rescue a Lord Blackthorn’s prize stallion, and Frost makes a reluctant friend in doing so, can be found here (3rd person, sfw)

I had so much fun with this one, so thank you for letting me borrow your OC again, dear commissioner, who wished to remain anonymous again.

“How long will you be away this time?” Livia asked with surprising clarity of diction, given the choke-hold in which Frost currently had her. “Gods dammit!” she laughed, tapping out. “How do you always get me in a head-lock so quickly?”

Frost snorted, glanced up, smirked, and with a calculated shove, released the nobleman’s daughter, sending her reeling across the dusty yard. Livia screeched and windmilled her arms in a vain attempt to avoid planting face-first in the dirt, but her staggering fall was broken by the quick reactions and strong arms of the russet werewolf whom Frost had seen coming over, and Livia had not.

The blush on her friend and pupil’s cheeks was almost better than the way Levi’s ears swivelled back shyly and he set his employer’s daughter back on her feet with a mumbled apology and a dirty look at Frost.

Frost cackled unapologetically, and cracked the tension from her neck. Across the other side of the yard, a grey-pelted werewolf was watching her with steady, golden eyes, and as their gazes met, he smiled a fraction and shook his head slowly. Even from that distance, she could tell that Rollo was amused by her antics, and was also trying not to show it.

“Please try not to dump the lady in the dirt,” Levi said flatly.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Livia chuckled, patting her father’s guard on his huge bicep and making his tail wag inadvertently.

He stopped when he caught Frost’s eyes on it, and growled a fleeting warning to her as he stalked off to talk to his brother on the far side of the yard.

Oblivious, Livia turned to Frost and asked, “So? How long will this trip be? Your last job took you away for a month. Levi refused to help me with my training, and you said when you got back that I was worse than when we started!”

This time Frost’s playful mood softened and she folded her arms, cocking a hip. “You know I only said that to tease you, right? You’re doing fine, Livia. Better than fine. I mean, you won’t be joining me to protect Miriam’s shipment this time, but you’re stronger and fitter than you were when all you were doing was needlework and wistfully staring at Levi’s broad shoulders and chest…”

Livia yipped and lunged at Frost, clapping her hand over the other young woman’s mouth and glaring at her. “Shut up!” she laughed. “By the Gods, don’t embarrass me any more today, alright? You’ve already made him have to catch me, for goodness’ sake.”

“Well, you are quite the catch, darling,” Frost purred, and Livia rolled her eyes. “And he loved it. Why do you think he had to leave so suddenly.”

“To talk to Rollo?”

Frost raised an eyebrow.

“Stop deflecting,” Livia grumbled. “How long will you be gone?”

Frost shrugged. “It’s, what, a four day ride by horse and cart to Harrow Ridge?”

The young noblewoman gave a nod and started to brush down the smart riding trousers she wore whenever Frost was giving her a self-defence lesson.

“So just over a week then, at a guess. Miriam’s paying me enough to stay the night in town after we’ve delivered her lace shipment, so once the horses have rested, I’ll come straight home. It’ll be a piece of cake, and you’ll barely miss me.”

Livia grinned, and they headed inside the main house for some refreshments.

Of course, the best laid plans, and all that…

Rollo, in his usual werewolf form, had seen her off after walking with her in companionable silence to the drider’s lace workshop. Their friendship had been slowly developing since the successful return of Lord Blackthorn’s prize stallion, Silver Shadow, but Rollo was still gruff and silent most of the time. Of course, after their adventures together, Frost knew that he wasn’t being actively hostile — that was just how he was. There was a steadying pull to his silent presence, and she found almost any excuse just to be near him these days, even if he was as hard to read as he ever had been. Still, he hadn’t sent her away, so she supposed that was a good sign.

With the two valuable crates of lace securely fastened to the small cart, and the two mules harnessed and ready, Frost swung up onto the back to sit with the cargo, and grinned at the driver to set off. Dangling her legs over the edge like a child, she waved at Rollo before he nodded once and turned away, his storm-grey tail dragging through the dust as he headed back to Lord Blackthorn’s fancy townhouse, and she left Linden Corner for the wide open countryside and the market town beyond.

The driver didn’t say a word to her as they rumbled along the well-kept Queen’s Road to Harrow Ridge. Frost thought the small, wiry, taciturn faun was named ‘Sage’, but she had only met them once in all the weeks she’d been at the town, despite the fact that she’d been employed as an extra pair of hands by almost everyone at one point or another.

They had dyed their long, curly hair a pale, lichen-green, and the entire length of both cervine ears were pierced with a series of gold rings, with another through their septum, and they had the most startlingly dark green eyes Frost had ever seen, but what their voice sounded like, she hardly knew. After the four days it took to reach the bustling town though, she finally worked out that they were simply extremely shy, which manifested in an awkward exterior, and a solitary career as a wagon driver for the village.

None of that bothered Frost, and she left them to their own devices while they travelled, though she quietly hoped the space would let them adjust to her presence. The weather held, the bandits stayed away, and she spent most of the ride staring up at the open autumn sky above, with the rattle of harness, the rumble of wheels, and the soft snorts of the mules for company.

It was only once she reached the town that things went a little downhill.

Frost should have heard the footsteps coming up behind her, and she should have reacted sooner, but she and Sage had finally managed to have an actual conversation as they made their way from the adjoined stables round to the inn, and she was tired and distracted.

A gang of three surprised her and Sage, emerging from the shadows of a nearby alleyway. Two of them took Sage by the arms and dragged them back into the dark like a spider down a tunnel.

“Where’s that fat sack of coin we saw you pocket earlier then?” a third man growled as he grabbed her and looped his thick forearm around her neck.

A moment of blind panic shot through her before she made her body go limp and awkward and heavy until her boots hit the stone again, at which point she jabbed her elbow into his ribs and used her shoulder to flip the surprised and winded assailant over her shoulder onto the ground. He knocked himself out on the cobbles as he landed, and she sprang away, drawing her knives from her belt instead of her sword since the alley was narrow.

The scrap didn’t last long, and it ended with one of the thugs bleeding from a cut on the thigh, crying for his mother with Frost’s blade at his quivering throat, and the other trussed up in their own scarf. Sage darted away to fetch the City Watch, and before too long they were explaining what had happened to a Watch Captain in plate armour.

The centaur staring down at her with a stern expression nodded. She told her and Sage to be more careful, and then dragged the big man on the floor away by the scruff of his shirt, his back scraping on the flagstones of the street as she hauled him off to the clink with an orc and a minotaur handling the others.

“You alright?” she asked Sage as the pair stepped shakily into the inn, and the faun nodded shyly.

Word had apparently spread of the assault and of its outcome, because they were heralded as something akin to conquering heroes by the entire common room of the inn, much to Sage’s embarrassment and Frost’s amusement.

“You should hear about the time I had to rescue a harpy from three rampaging boars, with nothing but a pot of honey and a small zither…” she muttered to Sage as they collected their free drinks and headed for a table in the corner. Sage’s eyebrows sailed high, but they grinned, and Frost realised she had made another friend from Linden Corner.

It wasn’t until much later that the previously unseen bruise blossomed fully around Frost’s eye, and when she came down to breakfast the next morning, Sage gasped. She hadn’t known the wiry faun had it in them to fuss so spectacularly, but somehow they managed it. They didn’t let up until Frost informed them that she’d received far worse by accident from her rough-and-tumble, adoptive gnoll family.

Still, Sage did let her ride up beside them on the way home, and when Miriam insisted she keep a little more coin than they’d agreed on for the inconvenience of the black eye and split lip, Frost didn’t argue. “My money was well spent on you, clearly,” the older drider said in a motherly tone that reminded Frost of her own adoptive mother’s.

“Thank you,” she said, and pocketed the extra gold without further protestation.

With the extra coin to spend, she could have gone to the inn, but Lord Blackthorn had let her keep a cot above the stables, in the section of the hayloft next to Rollo’s room, and she fancied a quiet, private evening to herself. She went to wash up in the kitchens of the townhouse first though, praying she wouldn’t see Livia just yet and have to explain to her pupil how her self-defence teacher got surprised in an alleyway by three common footpads.

Combined with the contents of the small lock box under her bed, she also now had more money in her possession than she’d ever had in one go in her life, and thoughts of her family nagged at her.

“I’ve got to go back and see them,” she muttered to herself as she left the kitchen by the side door after her bath, wet hair plaited and dangling down her front, while dusk pooled in the corners of the courtyard beyond and torches were just beginning to be lit in the town beyond.

Her plans to be stealthy, naturally, were foiled when Rollo emerged from the stable block and stopped dead at the sight of her. As usual, he was in full shift, with his smoky grey fur rippling softly in the evening breezes. The little white highlights at the tips of his ears and the flashes of scarring over his muzzle and cheek were picked out like lines of lightning in the twilight. He stalked over like another of the shadows in the courtyard, looking relaxed and happy to see her again, but when he joined her, his lip curled and he growled, reaching for her face with his paw-like hand. His black claws pricked her skin and made it tingle.

“What happened? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Rollo,” she snorted, pulling her face back however reluctantly. “Don’t get your tail in a twist.”

“Who did this to you?” he growled. “Who hurt you?”

The protective rumble in his voice went right through her, but Frost had to laugh. She waved her hand dismissively at him and rolled her eyes. “Some losers in Harrow Ridge who thought they could help themselves to Miriam’s coin,” she said. “Don’t worry, they’re all in irons now, and I doubt they’ll get off lightly. Gods, you should have seen the muscles on the centaur who dragged them away after I wrapped them up for her like Yule gifts.” A slight exaggeration of events, but still; she’d won.

His soft growling filled the air again and looked up at him. The gruff wolf’s shoulders dropped and his growl turned into a pathetic little whine. “You're really alright?” he asked in a low rasp.

Taking pity on him, she stepped close and boldly put her hand on his cheek. “Yes,” she breathed, letting him nuzzle her palm. He closed his bright gold eyes and his tail swept once across the dirt behind him in a quiet, relieved movement.

“Good,” he rumbled. “That’s good.”

“You’re sweet to worry about me, Rollo.”

He stared at her for a long moment and went sad once more. “You’re not sticking around are you? You’re heading out again.”

She nodded. “Yeah. My family gave me everything when they took me in as a child, and I owe it to them to share my good luck with them,” she said, patting the coin purse on her belt.

Thoughtfully, he nodded. “I’ll go with you. I’ll have to clear it with his Lordship, but —”

“— no, Rollo. It’s fine. You could keep training Livia for me though.”

He raised his lip at that. “I’m not a nursemaid.”

“Good thing she’s not a child,” she fired back, laughing. “She doesn’t need to become the next leader of the Queensguard, Rollo. She just wants to feel like she’s not completely helpless. Plus, she wants to impress your brother a bit, and we all know he’s got a crush a mile wide on her. Help a pair of hopeless lovers out for me while I’m gone, would you?”

Something flashed in his eyes but he looked away before she could tell what it was. She thought he was going to argue more with her, but instead, he fell silent and subdued, nodded, and stalked off without a word, the tip of his tail dragging in the dirt of the stable yard.

She didn’t see him again before she left.

Lord Blackthorn lent her one of his rangy old mares from the stables for the journey, but Rollo was nowhere to be seen when she went to collect the horse. She rubbed Silver Shadow’s nose as she passed, leading the bay mare out towards the sunny courtyard, and the stallion whickered at her, hoping for an apple. “Sorry, you spoilt little brat,” she laughed at him. “Any treats I’ve got are for Moss here.”

Moss, the scrawny bay mare, swished her tail and pretended like she wasn’t the least bit interested in any apples Frost may have had, but by lunchtime, the mare was reluctantly eating out of her hand, and Frost had made another friend.

She spent a fortnight with her family, and definitely picked up a few more black eyes and bruises as she sparred and scrapped with her five brothers, though each blow dealt was accidental and was hardly serious.

“Tell me about him, this werewolf ‘friend’ of yours,” her adoptive mother smiled one evening as she raked her clawed fingers through Frost’s hair while her daughter rested her head on her scarred thigh and stared into the flickering campfire flames in front of them. Her mother’s ears were ragged from her years of fighting to maintain her territory, and her muzzle bore more bite marks than almost the rest of the clan put together, but it had never hardened her heart. She listened while Frost reluctantly spilled her growing feelings for Rollo, speaking of their adventure through the woods to rescue the stallion, and when her younger brother — sitting cross-legged nearby and whittling a new amulet — heard her tale, he flicked an ear and listened too.

She’d expected playful teasing from the gnolls about falling for a werewolf, but in the end, her family told her that if he was a good soul, then she should muster the courage to tell him how she felt. “If only it were that easy,” she muttered.

Two weeks later, she hopped back onto the rangy mare and prepared to head back to Linden Corner.

“Frosty, wait!” At the sound of her younger brother’s friendly yip, she rolled her eyes and turned in the saddle to look at him.

“I hate that name and you know it,” she groused but he just giggled and bared his teeth at her in a shy smile.

“I’ve got something for you,” he said, holding out a necklace in his paw. A delicately-carved, birchwood pendant dangled on a long leather cord, and as she leaned down to take it and turned it over in her fingers, she saw that it showed a pine tree with a stylised moon behind it. He’d carefully singed the wood black to make it stand out against the unmarred moon, and he’d found some green ink to dye the tree before sealing it and stringing it.

She turned it over and over, and then looked down at him from the horse’s back with blurred vision. “You’re really good you know?” she croaked, and his big, round ears swivelled back against his head and he wagged his stumpy tail.

“I wanted you to have it. To… To give to your werewolf,” he said shyly. “As a courting gift. Blessing from the family and all that…” he added in a mumble.

Frost choked softly and hopped down from the saddle, flinging her arms around his neck. “Love you, you big softie,” she said into his fluffy mane.

His arms closed around her and he held her tightly. “Love you too, sis,” he grinned. “Take care out there, alright?”

She nodded, mounted the horse for a second time, earning a soft snort and a flick of her tail in admonition, and with a final glance back over her shoulder to wave at her gathered family, she set out for Linden Corner again.

This time when she rode into the stable yard after a long journey, it was bustling with people.

Savi, the gnollish guard she’d first encountered on duty out the front of the house with Aster the enormous minotaur, let out a long, low whoop when she saw her, and it made something tug inside her at the family she’d just left behind. Rollo was nowhere to be seen, but his brother was training what looked like a new recruit in how to use a sword, and to her surprise, Livia stood beside him, following along with her own wooden practice sword.

“Those two finally figure things out?” she asked in a whisper as Savi joined her and took the mare’s reins from her.

Savi rolled her eyes and then giggled so loudly she had to clap her hand over her muzzle to shut herself up.

“Took them long enough,” Frost smiled.

Livia looked up halfway through one of the patterns and screeched with delight. Letting her practice sword fall to the earth with a clatter, she left the small class and raced over. She slammed into Frost, nearly knocking her over and ignoring Levi’s yelled ‘oi!’ to get her to come back. “We missed you!” she said, pulling back. “Welcome home.”

“I hear you had something to take your mind off my absence though,” she snorted pointedly, and Livia blushed a deep crimson as she shot Levi a look over her shoulder. His gaze was very deliberately not directed at her.

“How can you have heard already?”

Frost nodded at Savi’s retreating back as the gnoll led Moss away to the stables for her.

“She’s probably still annoyed that she didn’t win the betting pool on which one of us would make a move first. Well, I suppose she’s still in with a chance to win the one on you and Rollo, but —” her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh my goodness, I wasn’t supposed to tell you about that!”

Frost halted. “Does Rollo know about it?” she asked first. “He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d take something like that too well.”

“Don’t think so,” Livia said.

Levi came up behind her a moment later and casually put his hands on Livia’s shoulders. She leaned into him and Frost grinned. “Welcome back, Frost,” he said, and the conversation slid away from bets and wagers. “How was your family?”

“Well, thank you,” she smiled, looking around the yard and finding the absence of a certain dark grey werewolf disconcerting. “Your brother around?”

“He’s moping in the hayloft,” Levi grinned. “If you head up now, you might catch him before he goes for his usual evening run. He’s been going further and further each time.”

There was a note to the older werewolf’s voice that sent a quiet chill through her. “Levi, is he alright?”

Levi huffed a laugh and nodded. “Yeah. He’s been moping around since you left; trying to tell himself he’s not worried about you out there in the world, all on your own…”

Frost rolled her eyes. “I arrived at this town on my own. How does he think I got here?”

“Not through your nice manners and pretty needlework,” Livia grinned and Frost lunged for her.

To her pleasant surprise, Livia fought back well, though she was quickly overwhelmed. Right before she yielded though, Levi grabbed frost by the belt and yanked her back like a pup by the scruff of her neck. “Go find my brother and pull him out of his funk, and leave Livia alone.”

With a playful scowl, Frost nodded, but ducked into the stables first to check that Moss had been made comfortable. Savi was rubbing her nose and the mare was tolerating it politely. “Ah, you love it really, girl,” Frost grinned at the mare, who tossed her head but certainly didn’t object to the continuing attention.

By contrast, Silver Shadow whickered warmly at her as Frost passed his stall, and she paused to scratch him between the eyes the way he liked. “Good boy,” she smiled, kissing his velvety muzzle. “I’ll see you later. Got other hellos to make first.”

The smooth rungs of the wooden ladder up to the hayloft felt familiar under her hands as she climbed, but instead of turning left to her own, small, partitioned-off section, she went right and knocked on the rustic door. The wall was hardly more than a series of vertical planks nailed to the beams above and the floor below, but it afforded a hint of privacy, and it was warm enough for a werewolf up here. Come full winter, she’d need more insulation, but for now, it was fine.

“Rollo?” she called and pushed the door open.

Curled on his bed, fast asleep with his nose under his tail, was Rollo. She drew up short, not ready at all for how sweet he looked, but she couldn’t help noticing the slant of his ears and the slight pinch to his brows. He didn’t look relaxed, even in sleep.

His right ear twitched and he jerked his head up with a snarl, lifting his lip until he saw who was standing there and, rather comedically, froze. “Frost?” he breathed, getting up and swinging his legs off the bed before pausing with his hands on either side of his thighs. “You’re back.”

“Yeah,” she smiled. “I… uh… I just arrived. Listen,” no point beating about the bush, “I’ve got something for you… From my family. Well, from me, but my little brother carved it. I…” and with that, she marched over to the bed and tugged the leather cord off over her head, thrusting it out to him. The pendant dangled at the end of it, swinging back and forth, and for a long moment, Rollo just stared at it.

Carefully, he took the warm pendant in clawed fingers that trembled slightly, and he turned it over to see the moon and pine tree.

“I told them all about rescuing Silver Shadow from those bandits,” she mumbled, cheeks heating with awkward embarrassment. “I think it inspired him.”

It became apparent that he couldn’t wear it when he was a werewolf — the continuous length of cord wouldn’t fit over his head, let alone around his neck — so he nosed it once and then hung it reverently over the wooden post of his bed frame. “I’ll wear it when I’m human,” he said, though that was as rare as a blue moon, “And it can live there while I’m a wolf.”

She smiled. “Glad you like it. Listen, I should… I should go. I… I need to grab my things from Moss’ stall. I left my saddlebags with her stuff, and I should clean the tack, and I need a bath because I’ve been on the road for days and I literally slept in a bush last night, so… yeah. Anyway.”

“I’m glad you’re back safely,” he said once she’d stopped herself rambling, with his steady gaze locked on her face. “I’m glad you came back.”

From the doorway, she paused and looked at him. He’d actually doubted that she would return at all, she realised with a sudden crushing sensation in her chest. “Yeah,” she said, voice unexpectedly rough. “Me too.”

Three days later, her frustration with herself for not coming out with her true feelings for Rollo started to get the better of her.

She snapped at Levi when he quipped in passing that she had been going easy on Livia’s training. “Alright then, tough-nuts,” she snarled, balling her fists and bristling. “Come on.”

He’d agreed to spar with her readily enough, but when she started to get too serious, his ears flattened and his eyes sharpened. His claws dug into the dirt of the stable yard and he had her on her back, winded, in under a minute.

“Again!” she called, shoving herself upright and raising her fists. “Come on, Levi. Stop holding back.”

He shook his head. “No. You’re done, Frost. Go clean up.”

“What? Afraid I’ll make you eat a muzzle full of dirt this time?”

He rolled his eyes and darted at her, grabbing her around the middle and depositing her inelegantly onto her backside again. She sprang back to her feet immediately and swung wildly at him with a fist and a yell. This only gave him ample opportunity to grab her by her punching arm and simply tug her off her feet, using her own momentum against her. She fell face-first into the dirt with a disgruntled, bitten-off screech, but she knew she was bested.

With another inarticulate snarl, she got up and slouched off across the yard, pausing by the water pump to clean herself up. She took a deep breath and then meandered more calmly into the stables to find Silver Shadow looking at her quizzically from his stall. He whickered gently, and she softened, heading over. He exhaled his warm, hay-sweet breath over her palms and then nodded his head when she moved up to stroke the whorl between his eyes, lifting his silvery forelock to one side.

“I’m an idiot, Shadow,” she sighed.

They stayed there a long time before he twitched back, ears flat, and eyes rolling. He gnashed his teeth and nickered a warning, and Frost laughed quietly. “There’s only one person he hates that much,” she said, turning to find Rollo standing well out of range of the stallion’s pincer-sharp teeth.

“Mmhmm,” he agreed. He wasn’t looking at the horse though. “You alright?”

Exasperated, she rolled her eyes, folded her arms, and turned to lean her backside against the stable door, using Shadow for cover to keep Rollo out of range. Coward, she scolded herself. “Yeah.”

Rollo’s wolfy brows rose and she made another grunt of disgust. “Fine. Levi wouldn’t spar with me properly. I needed to blow off some steam, he was holding back, I goaded him into going more full-on, and he just tipped me into the dust. I got exactly what I deserved, but I just… I was annoyed with him for going easy on me to start with.”

“You do realise how strong a shifted werewolf is, don’t you?”

“I grew up with a whole clan of gnolls, Rollo. I’m not an idiot.”

“And yet you goaded a werewolf in full shift to fight you?”

“Shut up,” she snorted, unable to stop the good-natured laughter creeping into her voice.

Rollo moved a pace closer, but Shadow wasn’t having any of it. The stallion lunged over the stable door at him, teeth bared and snapping, and Rollo snarled right back at him.

“Stop it, both of you,” she said, stepping forwards and grabbing Rollo by the arm to pull him out of the stables. Over her shoulder, she pointed her finger at Shadow and said, “That was rude. No more treats for you.”

The horse looked unrepentant and glared at Rollo.

“C’mon,” Rollo chuckled. “Walk with me?”

However much of a mess she was feeling, emotionally, she was unwilling to pass up the chance to spend time alone with Rollo, so she nodded and they headed through the back of the stable yard and out into a small copse that bordered the fields where the horses would be turned out during the day. Almost all the fiery autumn leaves had been whisked away by the strengthening winter winds, and the branches stood starkly against the deep blue of the evening sky like delicate, black lacework.

“I know…” Rollo began uncertainly as they wound leisurely down a path between the trees, “…I know you don’t seem to set much stock in your own wellbeing…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she laughed.

He shrugged. “You’re not afraid of anything, it seems,” he said. His tone was somewhere between awestruck and anguished. “But you…” he sighed heavily and stopped walking. “Frost, it scared the shit out of me when you came back with that black eye.”

“Rollo, it was just a bruise. You should have seen the other guy!”

“What if he’d had a knife? What if —”

“Then I would have changed my fighting style. I’m not an idiot. I know how to handle myself.”

Rollo let out another rough exhale. “I know you do. I just…” He turned his smoky grey muzzle away. With his ears and tail down, and his hands clasped behind his back, he looked the picture of misery.

“Rollo?” she murmured, stepping close to him and touching the soft pelt on his chest. It drifted through her fingers like campfire smoke and she splayed them wide, enjoying the warmth radiating off him in the chilly evening. Rollo gave a low rumble and she looked up to find his eyes closed. “Rollo?”

“Frost, I’ve… I’ve grown… fond of you. I’m not good at expressing myself, but… I don’t think I could bear it if something happened to you, and seeing you hurt — even a little bit — it spooked me. Left me… shaken.” And with that, he did look at her again. Somehow, despite being much taller than her, he managed to look at her through his lashes, and her heart swooped.

“Rollo, what exactly are you saying?”

“I’m saying I care about you. A lot. More than I ever thought I would care for a human — for anyone. And the idea of something more serious happening to you… scares me. And I don’t know what to do with that.”

She slid her hand up through his fur to his face and cupped his jaw in her rough hand. Wolves obviously didn’t purr, but he rumbled something quiet and gentle and closed his eyes again, leaning into her touch like a cat all the same. He let out another shaky breath and didn’t open his eyes.

“I didn’t know you felt that way about me, Rollo,” she said. “Savi’s going to have a field day. She’s got a betting pool on how long we’re going to keep dancing around each other or something.”

“You’re kidding?” he laughed, letting his eyes fall open and finding her face. “I’m going to have her running drills for a month for that.”

“I knew you’d hate it.”

“How come you knew about it and I didn't?” he chuckled, his shoulders dropping and the tension dissolving from his muscles.

Frost grinned gnollishly and Rollo just stared at her.

“You’re so fierce,” he whispered at last. “Gods, you’re so beautiful, and so fierce. Frost, I’d… I’d like to court you, but —”

She shook her head and his ears swivelled back so quickly she was surprised they didn’t fall off. “No, Rollo. I know what I want.” She paused, and stepped right up to him, gazing into his face while he stared down at her with his jaw slack with disbelief and his hands soft at his sides. “I want you.”

With that, he leaned down in a rush and scented her, rubbing his cheek against her neck and face with his soft fur, his hands going to her hips while he whimpered quietly and keened her name. “I’m yours,” he whispered, drawing back a little. “Come on,” he added, with an eye to the fading light and the way their breath fogged between them in the deepening dusk. “Let’s get back.”

He led her by the hand back to the grounds of the townhouse, and he followed her up the ladder and into his secluded part of the hayloft without a word. He closed the door behind them with a soft click and stared down at her, waiting like a hunter for a signal to move.

She smiled up at him and crossed to his bed, undoing her belt as she went and slowly turning back to look at him. “Gods, look at you. You’re gorgeous, Rollo,” she laughed as she stared at him. “You could be quite intimidating you know? Standing in the doorway all menacing like that…”

A long, low, rumbling growl rippled across the room from him and she grinned at him.

“Oh, I love that sound,” she smiled, eyes flashing. She lifted her top over her head, her long plait swinging down her back, and undid the simple bindings that held her chest during the day. Only after she began to unlace her green buckskin leggings and lever off her boots did Rollo move.

He dropped to all fours and paced across the bare floorboards to her, and as she let the very last of her smallclothes hit the ground, he took her hips in his hands and nosed between her legs. His tongue laved over her sex and she bucked, shivering. “Rollo,” she breathed, hardly daring to believe it was finally happening after all those months of looking and wondering and fantasising…

After tasting her again with the tip of his tongue just once more, Rollo reared up to his full height again, hands still on her hips.

For a long moment, he just stared at her, pupils blown huge, tongue just beginning to loll, shiny with drool as he started to pant, and she glanced down his body to see the red tip of his cock starting to show through the soft fur. “I want you,” he growled, still waiting for her cue.

“I’m yours,” she echoed back at him and he finally acted on it.

He began to scent mark her neck and collarbones and cheek again, first slowly and then with growing urgency until he was rocking his cock against her hips as well. Then he began to snarl and mouth at her neck, raking his teeth across her pulse and laving his tongue along her throat. She shuddered and went slack in his grip, letting him hold her up in his arms, her spine bending backwards like a willow towards the river.

Rollo couldn’t stop growling, the vibrations of it rumbling through her as he moved his cold nose and hot mouth to her breasts and began to curl his tongue around her budding nipples, finally taking them between his front teeth and tweaking her hard enough to make her jerk and gasp against him.

“Rollo, please…” she grunted. He still had hold of her hips, so she simply lifted her legs and latched them around his waist, just above his tail. At that, he snapped his teeth with a groan and laid her down on the bed behind her. She did not unclasp her legs from around him.

He locked his jaws right around her throat, pinning her in place for a moment. Her hands scrabbled at his chest as she gasped in pleasure, and Rollo loomed over her with his tail high behind, his hips still rocking against her. His slick, hot tip nudged against her entrance and she moaned, spreading her legs further for him. “Yes…”

“You’re so wet,” he grunted, pushing back and putting his palms on her thighs to stare openly at her. “So beautiful. Can I use my mouth on you?”

Mutely, she nodded, and nearly passed out at the sight of him disappearing between her legs and licking his tongue in a searing hot strip across her sensitive, wet folds, upper teeth resting on her mound. She felt almost devoured by him. Now, he took his time with her clit, working her into a shaking, shivering, begging mess until she arched her back and almost screamed his name in frustration. “Rollo please, I need… I need you… All of you.”

His lips lifted into a beautiful snarl, and then he finally — blissfully, tantalisingly — lined himself up with her. And then the bastard halted again. “Are you sure?”

“Gods yes,” she yowled. “Rollo, if I don’t have you inside me right now, I swear I’ll —”

He didn't give her the chance to finish that, sheathing himself inside her with a slow but unyielding thrust.

Frost had never felt so full, and she grabbed onto his shoulders, breathing hard while he let her adjust to the sheer size of him all the way inside her. “Alright?” he asked, his voice making him sound wrecked already. He was shaking all over from the effort of holding himself back.

“Yes,” she said, relaxing and looking up at him. “Gods yes…” she said with a smile when she met his eyes. “Look at you… I’m good. You can move. Please move?”

He laughed softly and then rocked his hips and she let out a long, broken mewl.

“Gods you’re so tight, Frost,” he said, leaning forward after a few long, deep strokes to brace his weight on his left hand and letting the other close around her exposed breast. His claws pricked her skin and she bucked, clenching around him until he growled again and didn’t stop. His teeth closed on her collarbone as he picked up his pace, drool sliding down his tongue and over her skin as he marked her, snarling his pleasure as he fucked into her over and over without releasing his jaws from her shoulder.

“Gods, Rollo,” she panted as he sped up, thrusting deep inside her with calculated force. “I’m close. I’m going to come.”

The werewolf didn’t have words any more, and she felt what was unmistakably his knot swelling inside her. He wasn’t able to pull all the way out any longer with each stroke, and he began to whine behind the continuous growling.

“Shh, I want it,” she crooned, stroking his fur and making him whimper and shake. “I want you to knot me. Gods that’s big,” she grunted. “You’re so big. You feel so good…. that feels so good. Your knot feels so good…” she babbled senselessly.

Heat crescendoed in her muscles as he swelled, her core tightening to a white hot furnace, and she began to lose track of herself as she bucked upwards into him, taking his knot as deep as she could. The bed rocked beneath them as he still tried to thrust, but he was tied to her now.

Without warning, his relentless rhythm faltered and he flung his head back, arching his spine and emptying himself into her with a howl that no one would ever let them live down. In that moment though, tied to him as he filled her, he then claimed her as his own with his cock buried inside her and his teeth around her neck, gripping her tightly without breaking the skin.

Her vision whited out as she came around his huge knot while he was still coming inside her, and he shook with the intense pleasure of it all until finally he collapsed on top of her, breathing hard. When she grunted, a little sore and almost mindlessly full, he rolled sideways and dragged her with him, holding her carefully.

He opened his eyes at last and his gaze drifted down to the marks he’d left all over her neck and shoulders. He looked horrified for a long moment until she laughed and brought her fingers weakly up to run them over the tender bruises.

“Yours,” she smiled dazedly up at him.

“Yours,” he mirrored, licking the tip of his tongue sweetly over them. “Did I hurt you? I didn’t plan to knot you… I haven’t… had one in a—”

She shook her head and kissed the tip of his scarred nose to silence him before she burrowed into the paler fur of his chest. “No, you didn’t hurt me. It was perfect. I won’t be able to walk properly for a week, but I don’t mind right now.”

With a soft, doting chuckle, he tugged her somehow even closer and cradled the back of her head with one paw-like hand. “I probably should have been in my human form for our first time,” he mused.

“When have I ever gone about things the easy way, Rollo?”

“True,” he said and nuzzled his nose into her hair. “Gods I love you.”

She squeezed his ribs until he wheezed, and then, just because she could and she was curious, she clenched her inner muscles around his over-sensitive knot and he whined, snapping his jaws in a gentle rebuke.

“You're courting trouble with that, Frost,” he growled without bite.

Naturally, she did it again.

___

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dear-mrs-otome · 3 years

Note

As someone who can’t read Japanese, could you please spoil Faust’s route? I’m really curious!

I can, sorry this took me awhile to get all down!

I’ll give you a summary of Faust’s route below the cut, so for those zooming past BE WARNED. SPOILERS FOLLOW.

SPOILERS AHOY!

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO HAVE THE WHOLE ROUTE SPOILED IN DETAIL???

I MEAN IT - A GIANT WALL OF TEXT EXISTS BEHIND THIS CUT, ALL SPOILERS…

Faust’s route begins as all of the ‘Act 2’ routes do - just as MC is attempting to return home after her month vacation in the past, the door to the Louvre appears to malfunction and she’s forced to remain in the 19th century until Comte can figure out what is going on.

Life carries on much as usual for her, as she tries to keep her spirits up, when one day in town she stumbles across a church on the edges, presided over by a kindly priest (Faust) who seems impressed by her generosity towards a poor woman he’s given medicine to whose son is suffering from a mysterious epidemic that’s begun circulating the city. One night she attends a party with Comte when a critter of some sort steals her hair ornament. Chasing after it, she winds up in a graveyard, where to her horror she sees a figure digging up a fresh grave. She tries to run, is caught by said figure (Faust), and bitten until she faints. (First CG)

She wakes up in the church from earlier and the kind priest who claims he was merely a Good Samaritan seems willing to help her get home. Soon though it comes to light that she is the woman staying with Comte, and Faust drops his ‘nice’ mask and reveals himself as a vampire - biting her once more to observe the effects and proclaiming he will abduct her to be his new guinea pig, curious about her as a person both from the future and who has been living with vampires.

Waking up in Vlad’s castle now, she meets the Terrible Trio and struggles to deal with her situation now - Faust feeds on her for the purposes of observation again, and she goes on a hunger strike briefly, defiant and unwilling to accept being captive. Only when Faust threatens the other residents of the mansion does she reluctantly settle down, and they butt heads over their wildly different philosophies on life - Faust’s mission to grant humans eternal life, her proclaiming God gives us only that which we can handle, and Faust’s disagreement.

To prove his point he begins bringing her to the church with him disguised as a nun, where she witnesses firsthand the cruelties of fate in ways her 21st century self had never encountered before - children orphaned senselessly, people coming for confession bearing the crushing weight of guilt over their own poverty and misfortune. She begins to realize how she may have been wrong, but she and Faust continue to disagree over their different viewpoints. MC still believes that hope is real and necessary, whereas Faust is a committed cynic.

She slowly comes to lose her fear of the other residents of the castle as well, as they are nothing but kind and welcoming to her, though she still is unsure of what to make of everything and remains defiant.

The arguments between her and Faust come to a head when the son of the woman MC met that very first day outside the church comes around, seeking Faust’s blessing to send him on to the next life and refusing the medicine and help offered him. Faust reacts harshly to the man’s willingness to quietly acquiesce to his fate, to MC’s horror, and when she asks him if he has nothing of hope left Faust assures her it’s long gone. When she spots Napoleon and Sebastian later, she dithers for a bit but eventually tries to call out to them, only to have Faust intercept. Still unsettled from their argument earlier, he reiterates to her that she belongs to him and bites her on the church altar, as if to prove that bad things happen to good people no matter what.

Things are strained between them after that, not helped by MC’s increasing suspicions that the strange rumors of ‘resurrections’ going on around the city in the wake of the disease are somehow Faust’s work - an accusation that clearly wounds Faust upon hearing. She meets a young university student, Alex, who desperately wants to be Faust’s assistant and is studying the epidemic. Days pass as they continue working at the church and the orphanage, until one day the disease strikes even there - and finding Faust’s medication is running out, over his protests and concerns MC volunteers to help him make more, the two of them working day and night together to develop and manufacture enough to save the children.

They’re successful, save for one girl Lina who is still very sick that they bring back to the castle to finish nursing to health. They succeed, but afterwards MC falls ill with the same sickness and collapses...only marginally coherent of a desperate Faust doing all he can to save her life. (2nd CG)

She has time and evidence to rethink some of her assumptions about Faust, realizing that despite his best efforts to crush whatever heart and kindness he has it remains. There’s more to him than just icy logic. And when she asks him about his past he finally tells her some of it - that he was abandoned as a baby, raised in an orphanage by a kindly nun, and that when she fell ill he sold himself into slavery to provide her with money for medicine. It made no difference in the long run though, the woman still died...and Faust remains the cynic when they discuss hope and happiness and how MC still clings to these things.

Rumors abound about Faust’s miraculous work stopping the epidemic at the orphanage, as things return mostly to ‘normal’ for them both, working at the church and such. They’re each grappling with changing feelings for each other, Faust suffering his first bout of bloodlust, when one morning Faust collapses in agony bleeding from his mouth horrifically, falling unconscious for days.

Everyone at the castle is fretting, Faust growing weaker and weaker, as Vlad explains his theory that Faust has altered the timeline too much by stopping the plague at the orphanage and the universe is attempting to set things to right again by erasing him from existence. He claims the same thing has happened to him before when he tries to change world events too drastically - the difference being that as a pureblood he can’t die. Faust, however, can.

He proposes traveling back in time and attempting to nudge humans here and there, make tiny alterations to the timeline to achieve the same goal of saving the children without the backlash falling on Faust, and MC insists on going along - realizing now that she’s faced with his death, she can’t bear the thought of losing him.

Going through the door in the castle with Vlad, she ends up first back at the mansion shortly after her own disappearance (where she assures Comte she’s doing well, thereby explaining why the mansion wasn’t losing their minds this entire time) and recruiting Comte’s help fiddling with the timeline. Upon the next passage she’s ripped from Vlad and dumped far in the past - where she witnesses firsthand little Johann’s heart and faith breaking upon the death of his beloved mother-figure nun, and then the natural disaster that crushed a town he frequented as a young man. This was the moment that solidified for Faust his determination to fight against God and Fate with all he had, and kicked off his obsession with discovering eternal life. (3rd CG)

After one more timey-wimey meeting with the Past!Faust at the point when they were nursing little Lina, where she offers him some much-needed words of encouragement, MC finally finds herself in the recent-enough past to travel around Paris with Vlad and encourage people to be more aware of the spreading plague. She even urges Alex to be more wary, prompting him to start developing his own medication from notes he’d taken from Faust.

Back in the ‘proper’ time, their efforts seem to perhaps have paid off...they return to find Faust gone, and after searching frantically around the city they find the orphanage has been set aflame on the strength of rumors that the plague spread from there. (As if the universe has manufactured some new tragedy instead for it, she realizes) Faust had gone into the blaze to save the last child, but comes out horrifically burnt and near death.

They take him to the church, where things appear dire...but Faust admits to finally seeing hope and accepting this outcome, just glad that something good has come of it all. MC refuses to accept his death though, and after Faust nearly dies again she cuts herself and he eventually revives. After he recovers, Faust corners her into confessing her feelings for him and admitting his own in return, before they finally consummate their love.

MC returns to the mansion as she had promised Past!Comte she would, happy to see all her friends again. A few days pass before Faust and Charles come to collect her, setting off an amusing set of interactions between the Mansion Boys and the Dastardly Duo, but it culminates in a scene where Faust thanks Comte humbly for his assistance with the timelines and for his consideration of MC. The couple then has a late-night conversation at the church where they’re both working again about the future of their relationship.

In Faust’s dramatic end, he asks MC to accompany him as he returns back to the place of that town that was destroyed, Faust making peace with his feelings surrounding the situation and reiterating his love for MC and how she’s helped him to see hope - before he asks her to help him with a different sort of ‘eternal life’, AKA having babies with him.

In Faust’s romantic end, he explains a bit about what motivates him to take on the role of a priest, and then he takes MC back to the castle where he intends to make love to her - saying that he can’t ever lose her but can’t stomach the thought of anyone other than himself ever biting her so he will have to work all that much harder to achieve his dream of eternal life so that they can continue to thumb their noses at God and Fate for all time together.

------

Even long as this is I’m clearly glossing over things - it’s a very busy route! And it’s complicated by the time travel stuff, which thankfully doesn’t get TOO complicated. If anyone’s interested in hearing my thoughts on Faust himself I’m happy to share, just let me know...I think he’s a fascinating complex character that definitely won’t be for everyone, but I am happy he exists in the IkeVamp cast and glad for this route.

#ikemen vampire #ikevamp #ikevamp faust #spoiler #spoilers #ikemen vampire spoilers #ikevamp spoilers #legit guys this is the entire route summed up here #consider yourself warned!!!#Anonymous #route summary #ikevamp jp

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tyremarbles · 3 years

Text

Post-Race McLaren Strategy Analysis

Foreword: Y’all know me, I try to make sure I know everything I can before I actually say anything, and this analysis took me nearly 5 hours last night. I didn’t go to bed until like 3am because I was so busy double-checking all my facts lmao. Special thanks to @imthebadguyyy & my dad for being my test readers :)))

During the Dutch Grand Prix Race Session this past Sunday, September 5th, 2021, McLaren made some strategy calls that presented as the team favoring Lando over Daniel. The opinion that came to light was that McLaren were making Daniel into the secondary driver, which is something he had come to the team in hopes of avoiding. This opinion, while it is a valid one to express, isn’t one that holds much water when you zoom out from the context of that set of radio transmissions.

McLaren is a midfield team. They aren’t focused on winning the championship; just on getting the highest place they can in order to get the most money. Their best chance of doing that is by ensuring they get the most points out of each race.

Despite the fact that Lando has been with McLaren for five years now, he isn’t their number one driver; McLaren doesn’t have one. They can’t if they want to maximize their opportunity for points. What they can do, though, is prioritize whoever is consistently delivering the better results on a week-by-week basis. Thus far, that driver just happens to be Lando. Which makes sense, considering that Daniel is just starting to really feel comfortable in the MCL35M.

Lando has felt more comfortable in the car over the course of the 2021 season. An obvious explanation for this is that Lando has been with the team since 2017, where he signed as a Junior Driver, and has had much longer to adapt his driving style to the car. This is Daniel’s first year with McLaren. His previous seasons have been spent, for the most part, in a RedBull-designed car. Even when he was at Renault, it was expressed that the cars handled very similarly to a RedBull. The MCL35M, as he has expressed, handles very differently than what he had grown accustomed to, and doesn’t particularly seem to fit his driving style. As the 2021 season has progressed, however, Daniel has shown he has made progress in adapting to the car.

Comparing qualifying results to race results, Daniel has consistently started further back on the grid. This puts him at a disadvantage from a points strategy perspective. The further back you are, the harder you have to work to gain places over the course of a race. I’m not saying he’s incapable of gaining those places back; he’s shown quite the opposite actually, most notably in Portugal and Austria this season with a 7-place jump from 16th to 9th and a 6-place jump from 13th to 7th, respectively. What I am saying is that if you’re not comfortable in the car, or you’re at a track where overtaking is nigh-impossible, or you’re already close enough to the points to get there on your own, team strategy may not fall in your favor.

But despite his difficulties adjusting to the car, Daniel is in no danger of dropping off and playing second fiddle to Lando like you all suggest. Daniel is a talented driver. If he wasn’t, would he really still be in the sport after a decade? Would McLaren have followed him for years, determined to add him to the team? His move to McLaren, while still in its adjustment period, is one that’s beneficial and positive for all parties involved. Lando may have talent and skill, as clearly shown by his F3 Championship title and frankly outstanding performance the past couple seasons (4 podiums, a front row start, most consecutive points finishes), but he’s still very young. This is only his third year in Formula 1, and he’s only older than me by three years. Compare that to Daniel, who’s been competing in Formula 1 for ten years now, was a driver for one of the two top teams for over half of his career (7 years, counting Toro Rosso), and placed 3rd in the WDC for said team twice in 2014 & 2016. Do you seriously think that McLaren gives him a multimillion dollar paycheck because they want him to play racetrack bodyguard for Lando?

Bringing in someone like Daniel, who has years of training, skill, and knowledge, and an invaluable perspective on not only racing, but on one of the title contenders, is a major asset to all aspects of the team. Sure, he may be new to McLaren, but he is a long way off being new to racing.

Was the strategy this weekend arguably a hot mess? Oh, absolutely. But it wasn’t a one-team phenomenon. Strategy overall this weekend has been all over the place, and I kinda see why. We haven’t raced at Zandvoort since 1985, when the track itself and the cars were much, much different. You can’t really go off of race strategy from the mid-80’s when the track did not include the bankings it currently has and when the car and tyre specifications have changed drastically. Everyone was basically flying in blind.

What the teams could rely on, was all the data they were getting from practice sessions (even if every single one was red-flagged at some point). And the data that McLaren was receiving likely suggested that Lando would be a stronger contender for points, based on comparative lap pace alone.

Over the course of 18 laps in FP1, Lando’s lap time was quicker than Daniel’s by 0.402s, or an average of 4/10ths.

Over the course of FP2, where Lando ran two more laps than Daniel, Lando’s lap time was quicker than Daniel’s by 0.669s, or nearly 7/10ths.

Over the course of 19 laps in FP3, Lando’s lap time was quicker than Daniel’s by 0.232s, or an average of 2/10ths.

During Qualifying, Daniel actually had the faster lap time, pulling an even 0.24s on Lando, and only just squeezed his way into Q3.

The gap between Lando (P13) and George (P11) was 0.074s. That is a tiny gap to cover, and had there not been a red flag to close out Q2, I feel like Lando could have easily cinched a Top 10 start.

During the race, did the strategy of McLaren look as if it was all being done in the favor of Lando? Yes, it kinda did. But when you look at things like race pace, tyre degradation, and what other teams are doing, it’s not necessarily difficult to see why. Over the course of the weekend, Lando consistently put out faster lap times and gained three places on his own during Lap 29, when the three cars in front of him all decided to pit at once. And yes, Daniel did pit first out of the two McLarens, but he was going to have to do so anyway. He started the race on the set of Softs he ran during Qualifying, and Lando started on Mediums. Mediums last longer than Softs. Later in the race, it looked as though Lando had the pace to push past the Alpine cars ahead of him & Daniel, so a call was made to basically switch the two of them around. From what I saw, this call is what made people the most upset. I, as a big fan of both drivers, was also upset at the time, as it felt strange to not just have Daniel try to gain places he was already closer to. But the longer I put thought and research into this analysis, the more I think I see what they were trying to do.

Had this moment of strategy been implemented a few laps earlier, and had it gone according to plan, Daniel could have held off Checo until Lando passed them both (making it a P9/P10), then followed Lando until he got around Esteban and then try and take his shot as Esteban as well (which could’ve given them a P8/P10 or P8/P9). At no point does this potential line of strategy truly favor either driver. Now, obviously I do not work for McLaren and have no true insight into their plans, but this is simply what made the most sense. Have the driver who’s already there hold off the car in between until the other driver can overtake/pass, and then have the first driver follow behind until there’s an opening to make the same move on the next car. Easy points, easy money!

But, mistakes were made. That call came much too late for it to truly work, and that’s just the risk they had to take. At the end of the day, it was not a call made to screw Daniel over, or to play favoritism to Lando. It was simply what could’ve been a good call made too late for good execution.

[I made some graphics to aid my own thought process and I’ve stuck them under the Read More for y’all to look at if you want!]

#please ignore the weird lines in the graphics my ipad likes to try and be ‘helpful’ and it thinks those are phone numbers mlejdfkh #also shoutout to my dad who look at me and said ‘i’ve created a monster’ when i asked him to read over this lmao #OH and please tell me if everything works on mobile i’ve never made a read more post before and idk if this’ll format correctly #hedge trimmings #daniel ricciardo #dr3 #lando norris #ln4 #mclaren #mclaren f1 #dutch gp 2021 #zandvoort #formula 1 #f1 #f1blr

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cursed-saphire-hart · 2 years

Note

Im sorry if you ever get tired of Eddsworld stuff considering you're getting back into homestuck. I'd participate in more of that but I don't know anything about it so ive come to bother you with 2 things on my mind

1: Is it weird to imagine that if Anya's social circle was a little bigger when she was a kid (including teen years), she could have gotten by a little better??? I mean ofc it was bad regardless of exactly what happened to her because abuse and neglect are just bad but like. I think about how if given the option, some tend to stay away from home as long as they can. Give the fact her parents just don't care, I don't think it be that big a problem if Anya left the house for a while, perhaps staying with a friend. If she had friends who knew what was happening to her, they could try to work to get her out of that situation or at least try and give her what her parents wouldn't (Proper sustenance, support, etc.). I think if she'd been around a bit more positive influence, she'd have a better understanding of how she deserves to be treated, rather than boiling things down to "we can coexist without them trying to kill me its fine"

I know she had Jenny, but other than her, Anya didn't have a lot of real people (and by that i mean people who arent faker than plastic, like her exes) in her life. And while no doubt Jenny did all she could, and one person's actions can mean a lot, Jenny is, as stated, just one person

Anywho on a much lighter note

I remembered Purple Perfume and recalled seeing aesthetic attraction described as "wow that exists" and I just

👏👏👏

Don't worry, I don't mind still talking about Eddsworld stuff, it's still alotta fun, I'm just a little burned on it after my insta and tumblr feed being a wall of drama for a bit (anxiety likes to kick ya in the crotch)

Gonna put a read more here, cuz this is another long one.

I do wanna confirm that Anya did have friends as a child, they just sadly weren't very close. I said in a very early post that Anya couldn't speak very good english when moving to the UK when she was 10 (I dont remember if that changed in said post, I'm just going off my most current notes) but as a younger girl when she was still in Russia she was actually very social. But when moving to a new place, and having her only barrier of safety gone, that drastically changed, and it wasn't helped by the fact she couldn't speak the same language very well.

While I know there are good teachers and people out there who would jump at the chance to help a child out of a bad situation, sadly during the time Anya was a child/ teen, less people knew how to handle this kinda thing, and found it easier to just not get involved.

I can at least confirm there were friends and nicer kids in her school that helped out best they could by sharing lunches with her, but kids can only do so much, and with her parents labeling Anya as "a slow learner" to her teachers to excuse why she could speak clearer English yet, and having "Eating problems" to doctors, a lot when unnoticed. She literally couldn't speak up for herself due to her parents neglect to put effort into helping her learn a second language she suddenly NEEDED.

To her, Anya was truely alone. If it wasn't for her instant reaction to physical pain, she might not have survived as long as she had, or at least she never would have broken up with her 3rd boyfriend (the first to abuse her physically)

On that note, to turn to a lighter topic.

Purple Purfume is one of my favorite minor AUs. When reading up on poly relations, I found it pretty interesting to read about situations like Matt, Amanda and Marks with that au, where a straight woman, a bi man, and a gay man could have a very healthy poly relationship.

Like every relationship, it doesn't have to be based solely on physical or emotional, so long as there is understanding and communication between all parties, it can work with many dynamics.

In this case, they all love each other, but for different reasons and attractions. Matt is attracted to both partners, and he loves the, dearly. Amanda and Mark have a good relationship, but can be described mainly as friends, they love each other and find each other attractive in an objective way, they're just not "in love". Amanda understands Mark is gay, which means he's not sexually attracted to her, and she's ok with that, being a asexual and poly romantic woman.

Mark can find woman aesthetically attractive, meaning if he sees a woman who is in fact cute or pretty, he can recognize her as such, but that doesn't mean he's sexually attracted to her. Him and Amanda get along, and he apricates her as a close friend who he shares a boyfriend with, as well as personal interests. She makes him feel loved and comfortable, but doesn't push the boundaries of his sexuality (which yes, even in todays world some people find surprisingly hard) Which is what makes it work between them, since its not about sexual attraction, it's just about having a shared bond.

Matt loves them both and is happy so see them get along. For him, it's just about being with the ones he loves, seeing them happy, and knowing he's provided a safe place for them. He's fully aware of Amanda's asexuality, and doesn't overstep as much as he can, if he does, he apologizes and steps back if or when needed. With Mark he's fully aware Mark is not inlove with Amanda, but they obviously get along without Matt always in the middle. He doesn't feel the need to make them get along better, or that the relationship would 'be better' if they were in love, because he feels loved by both, and even if it's not the same kind of love, he knows they have a bond.

Poly relations can be a bit messy, and yes, sometimes unhealthy for a big number of reasons just like monogamous relationships, or relationships that float on other dynamics. Story and character building wise, they can be very interesting to explore the different dynamics, the reasons each character has, heck even how the era would effect such relationships. Hopefully I can keep making interesting topics for all of you to read and enjoy :33

#eddsworld #poly representation #poly relationship

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starshine-hockey-girl · 3 years

Text

We survived.... Journey to the Emerald City chapter five

Summary- Teddy and Lex are faced with two challenges as a couple- their parents meeting for the first time and Lex’s first long road trip of the season.

Warnings- some unspecific talk about therapy/anxiety issues; smut at the end; fluffiness abounds because I can’t resist with my two cupcakes

Master List of previous chapters - https://starshine-hockey-girl.tumblr.com/post/660693863760019456/magical-mystery-ride

@miranda0102

October 3rd, 2018

Teddy fidgeted in the car waiting for her parents arrival. Lex put his hand on top of hers, "Why are you fidgeting Bliss?”

"Hi, did we just meet? Girl with chronic anxiety?” she laughed wryly, “What if they don't get along? What if they hate each other"

Lex laughed, "They will be fine. They love us. Even if they hate each other, they just have to be able to tolerate each other. I think that they can handle it."

Her head snapped up, "But what about holidays? Our wedding? our kid's birthday parties? Christenings?"

They stared at each other before Teddy spoke, "Did I say that out loud? The part about the wedding and kids?"

Lex smiled, "Yep."

Teddy grumbled, " Awesome, something new to stress about."

Lex kissed her cheek, "I love you Bliss, but you didn't say anything I haven't thought about already so you didn't scare me. The answer is still the same. They don't have to be best friends- just get along. My bet is that our moms do become friends. I just feel it in my bones."

Teddy sighed and relaxed, "I love you more than you will ever know, my Lex."

The jet landed and Robert and Elizabeth emerged into the bright sun. Teddy ran and jumped into her father's arms and cried, "Daddio!"

He swung her around before squeezing the tight, "Teddy Bear, my love, I missed you."

Lex bent down to give Elizabeth a hug, "Jamie- Good to see you."

Teddy and Lex switched partner with the men exchanging side hugs and back claps. "Jamie, have you been treating our girl well?"

Lex shrugged his shoulders, "You'll have to ask her, but I think so."

Teddy poked him in the ribs, "He is the best boyfriend ever. Absolutely no complaints."

Her parents beamed as they watched the two lovebirds. Robert wrapped his arms around his wife's waist, "They remind me of us. Do you remember being that in love?"

She turned to kiss his cheek, "Still am."

Teddy took her mom's hand and led her to the car, "So did you bring my kolaches?"

Lex and Teddy got her parents settled into their hotel suite then turned around to go back to a different airport to pick up Lex's parents and Penny. Hugs were given all around. Penny grabbed Teddy's arm and walked with her through the airport, "I have video ideas."

Lex watched Teddy and Penny together with a bemused smile. They piled into the rented SUV and made their way home. Allison asked about Teddy's parents’ flight into town. "You'll meet them at dinner. They are excited to meet y'all," Teddy explained.

Penny asked, "Are we still doing a spa day?"

Teddy nodded yes, "Friday while Lex is at practice. Tomorrow I thought we would sight-see. There is carnival Friday night." Lex looked in the rear view mirror and laughed at Teddy's detailed itinerary. He loved the comfort it gave her to have her meticulous plans and her delightful smile as she explained each detail. She looked up, caught him stealing glances and mouthed "I love you."

Teddy's parents were waiting outside the restaurant when the Oleksiak clan and Teddy approached. Elizabeth held a large box wrapped carefully with a large bow. As Teddy made the introductions, Elizabeth handed the package to Allison. Allison squealed when she opened the box of kolaches, "I am not sure that these will make it back to Toronto, but now I know where Teddy gets her thoughtfulness."

Teddy blushed and Elizabeth beamed. As the walked into the restaurant, the elder men and women were paired off in lively conversation. Lex held Teddy's hand and whispered in her ear, "I think we are safe for the wedding Bliss, but Christmas may be battle of who can host. We're good."

The next night the group was a spectacle to behold as they entered the PPG arena all wearing Oleksiak jerseys. Heads turned as the taller Oleksiak led them to their rented luxury suite. Teddy snapped a selfie of the moms, Penny and herself and sent it to Lex with the caption "Team Oleksiak". He responded with smile emoji.

Allison and Richard looked at each other as Teddy headed out of the suite to go downstairs for warm up. Penny spoke up, "Jamie doesn't like it when we go down for warm ups. He doesn't like the distraction."

Teddy crinkled her nose, "Huh, that's odd. He never said that to me. I have gone down for all the preseason games." She shrugged her shoulders and went down to stand by the ice. Sidney Crosby saw her first and called to Lex who waved. Teddy pointed to the suite and Lex looked up and waved.

Lex's dad whistled, "I'll be damned."

Robert turned his head and joked, "There appears to be different rules for Teddy, don't you think?"

Richard shook his head, "I shouldn't be surprised. He's head over heels for that one. You got one hell of a girl."

Robert, "You have one fine young man. Let's toast to them!" Teddy walked back into the suite just as the buzzer sounded for the end of warm ups. She looked down and saw Lex gazing up at the suite.

When Lex scored the opening goal of the season, Teddy leapt to her feet and cheered. Lex pointed up to her during his celly. After the Penguins won in OT, they all made their way down to the locker room to wait. Lex emerged from the locker room and made a beeline for Teddy. He wrapped her in his arms and swung her around, oblivious to the families, "That was for you Bliss. I love you."

She shrieked and drew the attention of Crosby who walked over for introductions. Robert shook his head and razzed the captain about his chirping the past spring, "Have you stopped talking about my daughter?"

Sidney gulped and looked up at the man, "Yes, Sir."

Robert didn't let up, "Don't let it happen again."

Sidney shook his head, "No, Sir."

By the Sunday morning, the parents were thoroughly bonded and plans had been made for a joint Thanksgiving celebration in Pittsburgh in November. There was even talk of a trip to St. Thomas with just the parents. When Teddy returned from airport drop offs and Lex returned from practice, they collapsed on the couch completely exhausted. "Lex, how are we going to survive Thanksgiving?" Teddy questioned.

Lex yawned, "I have no clue. Red Bull? Maybe make less plans? You were worried that they wouldn't get along for no reason. I don't think they would even notice if we had disappeared -which we totally should have Friday night."

Teddy rested her head on his chest and sighed, "Disappeared and done what?"

Lex pulled her tight, "Made love in the back of my truck while they walked around the carnival."

Teddy moaned, "Next time your parents need to get a hotel room. Oh, they can all get an Air BNB and stay together. Then we can have all the noisy sex here by ourselves."

He pulled her closer, "Nap then sex?"

Teddy laughed, "You want to nap first? Have we officially ended the honeymoon stage where we can't keep our hands off each other? Like an old married couple?"

Lex kissed her softly, "We'll, you were the one who was talking wedding and babies a couple of days ago.”

He looked at her with soft smile, “How many babies do you want to have with me Bliss?"

Teddy blushed, "Don't mock me."

He kissed her neck, "I want four so there is no middle child. That's how many babies I want with you Bliss."

She kissed his neck, “We should probably practice then if we are going to make four of them.”

October 16th

Teddy sat quietly and observed Lex packing his bag for the first road trip. She asked questions about what he was choosing to pack and he explained patiently. "You've seen me pack for road trips before Bliss," he stated.

"I know, but that was before," she answered.

"Oh, before," he chuckled before turning serious again, "I get it Bliss. I do."

He reached into pocket of the bag and pulled something out, "Don't need these any more." He tossed the condoms on the bed with a smile. He looked up at Teddy who had pursed lips, "Tough crowd today."

Teddy looked up, "Sorry. It will get easier, right?"

Lex walked over and enveloped her in a hug, "I hope so because this one is sucking and we haven't even started."

Teddy leaned into him, "Is it bad that I am glad it's not just me who is miserable? Misery loves company and everything, right?"

Lex held her tight, “Are you coming to the game tonight? You don’t have to come. We can say goodbye before I leave for the game.”

Teddy pulled away, “No, I want to say goodbye after the game so I’ll come. Then I can drive the truck home. Finish packing so we can take a nap.” Teddy waited until Lex was deep asleep before slipping out the the bedroom and placing a stack of envelopes in his bag along with small framed photo. On the way to the game, both were unusually quiet. Lex suggested that they listen to Wicked, but she declined. They were almost to the arena when Teddy said quietly, “I made an appointment with a therapist. I figured I might need some objectivity while you are gone. My therapist in Dallas recommended her to me so there’s that. I also am going to go Dallas next week which will kill some time too.”

Lex squeezed her hand, “This is the longest one of the season, Bliss. It’s all down hill from here.” Teddy put on a brave face as they went into the arena. The Penguins lost in overtime.

While waiting for Lex to emerge, Teddy called Tyler.

“Hey,” he answered, “What’s up?”

Teddy sniffed, “Nothing- just waiting for Lex to come out of the locker room.”

“Teddy, are you crying?” he asked.

“Maybe. I am trying not to cry so can you distract me?” she said softly.

“Distract you from what? The game wasn’t that bad Teddy.” he said with confusion in his voice.

“It’s not the game. It’s the road trip. They are leaving now to fly to Toronto. He’ll be gone for 10 days. The first road trip was only 3 days. I know I have to do this and it comes with territory, but...,” she rambled.

“Oh,” he said, “There’s not much I can say to make it better Teddy.”

She sniffed again, “I know. I just thought I would try. I am coming to Dallas on Saturday and staying for a bit.”

Tyler paused, “I am pretty sure that we are in town. Wanna hang out?”

Teddy paused, “I was actually hoping that you could come with me to the musical. It’s Hamilton this year.”

Tyler laughed, “I heard that you hooked up with the last guy you took a musical. Don’t expect me to put out for you, but yes I will go with you.”

Teddy laughed, “Thanks. I will try to control myself. Listen Lex is coming out. Thanks for the laugh. It will help me get through the goodbye.”

Tyler smiled, “Glad I could help. You can do this Teddy. Call me when you get home so I know you are okay.”

Lex picked her up as she was saying goodbye to Tyler, “You’re laughing. That’s a good sign.”

Teddy wrapped her arms around his neck, “Yeah, he made me laugh. I am determined not to cry so maybe just hold me until you have to go and not talk. If I try to say goodbye, I am going to choke.” They held each other until Lex had to get on the bus. As she turned to walk to the truck, she literally ran into Crosby. She wiped her tears and apologized. He pulled into him for a side hug, “You got this Teddy. Don’t worry about Big Rig.”

October 18th 2018

Lex came back to his room after morning skate and lunch. He reached into this bag and pulled out the envelope marked Toronto. He had discovered the pack of neatly written cards and framed photo of Teddy when they landed the day before.

Lex- If you are reading this, you are in Toronto (or at least supposed to be). Hopefully you are reading this before your game so I can wish you luck. I love you and miss you. Have fun with your family and enjoy your days off. Love, your Bliss.

He picked up the phone and dialed her number. "Hey you," she answered sweetly, "how is my Lex Love?"

He chuckled, "I got the Toronto card-totally made my day. You spoil me, Bliss. How did therapy go?"

Teddy sighed, "The first session with new therapist is always the hardest, but I like her. She gave me a few things to think about, and I feel less anxious which is a relief."

There was a moment of silence before he asked, "What things did she make you think about?"

She paused, "I need to be taking practical steps to build my new Pittsburgh life that are not focused on my work and you. I have some ideas now that I want to investigate- volunteer, explore the city, and do some more work on my anxiety. I feel like I am putting too much pressure on you to be my everything. It triggers my anxiety which sets off my guilt and shame.”

Lex sighed, “I don’t feel pressured Bliss. I love you and want to take care of you. It’s not an obligation.”

She smiled, “I know you love me Lex, but I need to get stronger- not just for you but myself. Otherwise, I am going to live in a constant fear of eventually pushing you away by depending on you too much. Before you say anything, I know that is my anxiety talking. If I get stronger, I can fight that thought more easily. I feel really good today Lex, like really good and I didn’t think I would be able to say that with you being so far away. I want you to have the best day you can. Enjoy family and kick some Leafs ass, okay?”

Lex smiled on the other end of the line, “Yes ma’am. Any other orders?”

Teddy thought for a moment, “Can you I listen you, you know- later after the game?”

Lex laughed, “only if I can listen to you too. Deal?”

Edmonton-October 23rd

Lex- If you are in Edmonton, that means I am in Dallas. We officially been apart for 7 days. I am sure that I am missing your arms around me at night keeping safe and protected. I also sure I am missing other appendages as well. Miss you like crazy. Love-your Bliss

“Bliss! What are you doing?” Lex shouted into the phone.

“I am out drinking to celebrate my hot man scoring TWO goals tonight. Holy shit Lex, you were on FIRE. What are you doing?” she shouted back.

“I’m out with the boys tonight- late dinner and drinks. Did the Stars win?,” he answered back.

“Yeah, they won but I didn’t pay too much attention to the game because I was trying to watch your game. Cell service at AAC sucked though. Saw the fight though. Kassian’s a pussy” she laughed.

Tyler’s ears perked up, “Hey, are you talking to Big Rig? I want to talk him.” Teddy swatted at Tyler, “No, only I get to talk to my Lex. Go find a girl and leave me alone.”

Lex joked, “How many shots have you had Bliss?”

“I lost count. Hey Seguin, how many shots have I had?” she questioned. Tyler held up 5 fingers and walked away. “Five, I’ve had 5 shots and two drinks. I am going to be hating life tomorrow morning. Hey Lex, have I told you lately how much I love you? I love you so much. You are my very best friend and miss you. Don’t worry about me though. I am not sad or anxious though. You know I love you, right? Do I tell you enough? Because I really, really love you.....” she rambled before Katie put her hand over her mouth.

“We get it Teddy- you love Lex- we all love Lex,” she giggled. “Apparently that asshole Kassian doesn’t love Lex. He hit my baby Lex. I don’t like him. I am going to kick his ass. Hey Tyler, let’s go kick Kassian’s ass. You, me and ..... We’ll bring Benn too. Lex, we are going to come up there and kick his ass, okay?” she rambled again.

“Bliss, give the phone to Tyler,” he said seriously. She handed the phone to Tyler, “Seguin, make sure she gets home safely. Let her have all the fun she wants, but get her home safely, okay?”

Tyler grinned, “Oh, she is having fun alright. She is rounding up Rad right now to take on our ‘kick Kassian’s ass’ road trip. I will have call you when she gets home.” They hung up and partied on for another hour before hitting Cafe Brazil for late night grub and coffee.

It was almost three AM when Teddy called, “Hey, don’t wake up. I am home safe and sound in my bed.”

Lex replied sleepily, “I wasn’t asleep yet. I couldn’t sleep until I knew you were safe. You’re fun when you are drunk.”

Teddy stretched, “Yeah, I get all lovey and horny when I am drunk. My body misses you Lex. Your voice is doing things to me.”

Lex lowered his voice, “Did you bring pinky with you?”

Teddy giggled, “Hey did you just call my vibrator by a nickname? That’s funny Lex but no, I am too scared to take it on the plane. What if it turns on while I am at security? Why do you ask?”

Lex kept his voice lowered, “I wanted to listen to you. You know since my voice is doing things to you.”

Teddy whispered, “Oh, I can use my hands- you know old school style.”

Lex laughed, “Why are you whispering? No one is there with you. Old school style is good. I like the idea of that. Do that.”

Teddy whispered, “Okay, why are you whispering?”

“Because I don’t want Rust to hear me. Hold on, I am going into the bathroom.” he whispered as he snuck in the bathroom and turned on the shower, “Okay, I’m good to go.”

Afterwards, Teddy listened as he cleaned up and returned to bed, “Goodnight my Lex Love. Only 5 more days.”

Calgary-October 25th

Lex- Calgary means I am still in Dallas and going to the musical tonight. The musical is when started to fall in love with you. Remember making out at intermission? Hope that you are having a good time in Alberta. Come home to me soon. Love-your Bliss

Tyler looked nervous as he waited in front of the music hall. The Baxter family approached looking happy, but Teddy frowned when she saw Tyler fidgeting. “Why are you fidgeting?” she asked in his ear as they hugged.

“I am pretty sure that your dad hates me,” he whispered back.

“What?” she took a step back, “Why do you say that?”

Tyler looked at her and laughed, “Because he gives me a death glare whenever I see him. Look right now.” Teddy turned and noticed the look on her father’s face and her face dropped.

“Hold on,” she said as she approached her dad, “We need to talk, Daddio. NOW!” She marched away from the group and stood to the side with her arms crossed. Robert shot Tyler another look and followed her.

When he got to her, “Teddy Bear, what’s wrong?”

Teddy shook her head, “Don’t ‘what’s wrong Teddy Bear’ me Daddio. What is your deal with Tyler? You’ve got him scared to death.” Robert and Teddy both looked back at Tyler who shrugged his shoulders and looked at the ground.

“I don’t like him- that’s my deal. He’s playboy who uses people and gets coddled every step of the way,” Robert explained to Teddy.

Her eyes flashed, “You don’t know Tyler at all. Tyler hasn’t used me and I certainly don’t coddle his ass. He could tell you that. I don’t let him get away with anything, but that hasn’t stopped him from being a VERY GOOD friend to me. I am disappointed in you Daddy. You taught me to be a better judge of character than that and you are being unkind.”

Robert’s voice lowered and hissed, “He didn’t use you that first night? When he had his flat?”

Teddy took a step back, “What? You think I slept with Tyler and then LIED to you about it? I told you then that I didn’t have a visitor that night and I am telling you again. Tyler has NEVER been but a perfect gentleman with me, but even if he had it’s none of you business. I am a grown-up and not some little baby.”

Robert blinked, “Really? Nothing ever happened between the two of you?”

Teddy yelled, “Really, that’s my answer. If that has been your assumption all this time, then let me disavow you of it. I have never FUCKED Tyler and he has NEVER used me. So you go over there and apologize RIGHT NOW.”

Tyler involuntarily laughed but kept his head down as they approached. Teddy gave her father a death glare and he spoke softly to Tyler, “I guess I owe your an apology, Mr. Seguin. If you are character of man that Teddy believes you to be, then I apologize for my behavior.”

He stuck his hand out and Tyler took it, “No worries. I would be protective of her too if she was my daughter.”

Teddy took Tyler’s hand, ”If you people make me late for Hamilton, I am going to get really angry.” Once they had enough distance from her parents, Teddy slowed down, “Tyler, I am really sorry. I had no idea that he was carrying that idea around. It’s unfair to you. You know I don’t think those things, right?”

He didn’t speak for a second, “You don’t need to apologize, Teddy. I know you don’t think that about me. I don’t know why you believe so much in me, but I know that you do.”

Teddy stopped and looked at him, “Tyler Seguin, do I need to list all the reasons I believe in you? I will, but I will sum it up- you are good person once you drop all of the bullshit. I will fight anyone who tries to imply otherwise.”

After the musical, she called Lex, “Guess what Lex? I have a new musical to torture you with.”

He rolled his eyes, “Great, at least this one is about war and politics and not love struck witches.”

Teddy laughed, “Ha-I am buying us tickets for December. How was the game? I saw that you had an assist.”

Lex described the blowout game in which the Penguins spanked the Flames to the tune of 9 to 1. “How was the musical? As if I need to ask,” he questioned.

“The musical was awesome. Seriously Lex, you are going to LOVE it. Did you know that my dad thought that I slept with Tyler? All of this time he thought I slept with him on the first day and lied to him about it. Fucker, “ Teddy free-flowed.

“Uh, what? How did you find out that tidbit?” he replied.

“I confronted on why gives mean looks to Tyler all the time and he drops it on me. I don’t know what offends me more- that he thought I would sleep with someone on the same day I met them or that he thought I would lie to him about it, “ her voice cracked, “I don’t why this is so upsetting to me.”

Lex joked, “I don’t know why you are upset either, but let it go. So your father isn’t perfect and was being mean to Tyler? He’s a big boy and believe me worse things have been said about him. I do think it’s sweet that you defend the people you love so fiercely. You should that to yourself too.”

Suddenly the moment got serious between them. “I do that a lot, don’t I?” she asked, “That’s a bad habit Lex. Thank you for pointing that out to me. You’re the bestest. I just want to kiss your smooshie face right now.”

Lex sighed dramatically, “And with that, we’re back to silliness.” Teddy stuck out her tongue, “You are adore my silliness, don’t lie, but I gotta go pee. Talk to you tomorrow”

Vancouver-October 27th

Lex- You are coming home to me tonight/tomorrow morning. I will have survived your first long roadie which solidifies my status as a hockey girlfriend. I checked the rules. Wake me up when you get home-no matter how late you get in. I have such naughty things I want to do to you. Love-your Bliss

P.S.- It's the anniversary of us fucking in Tyler's powder room. Hope we don't get interrupted by a crazy Russian again. That was hot-like really, really hot.

Lex entered the apartment quietly and set his bag in the entry way. He heard the TV in the living room and saw Teddy asleep on the couch in her Oleksiak jersey. It was nearly dawn and the exhaustion was kicking in. He turned off the TV and picked Teddy off of the couch. Lex placed her on the bed and stripped down. He turned on the shower and examined his face in the mirror.

"Still the most handsome man ever," she yawned from the doorway. He turned to her and held out his arms. She ran into them and squeezed tight, "We did it. We survived the first long road trip."

He kissed her neck, "Yes, we did. I didn't mean to wake you Bliss. I need to take a shower. I feel disgusting from the plane." Teddy sat on the cabinet and watched him shower. He was quick and efficient but her mouth salivated as she watched the water cascade off if his muscles. She handed him his towel and watched him with hooded eyes. "I can feel you sizing me up like a piece of meat Bliss," he hummed and shook his ass.

"I can't help it Lex. You created a sex fiend," she gulped, "if you are too tired, I can wait."

He picked her up and carried her to the bed. He reached in the drawer and pulled out Teddy's preferred vibrator while Teddy sat up on her elbows, "Seriously, if you are too tired, I can wait."

Lex turned on the toy and ran down her thigh, "Bliss, I gotta get you off with this because I am not going to last long." He trailed the toy on her other thigh and ghosted it over folds before lightly touching her clit. Teddy moaned loudly as she arched her back, "Lex love, kiss me." He kissed her face and neck and pressed firmer on her clit, "I've missed you so much Bliss." Her hips began to buck as her legs began to shake. She grunted as she came hard and fast. Lex removed the vibrator, placed her legs over his hips and slid into her. "Oh God, you feel so good around my cock. I missed fucking you so much," he huffed as he drove into her hard and fast. She whispered into his ear until he exploded inside of her, collapsing on top of her. He looked up at her and asked, “What did you say at the end?”

Teddy grinned, “Fuck me future baby daddy. You liked?”

He kissed her hard, “Oh yeah, I liked. I can’t wait to make babies with you. Maybe when we are thirty. Sound good?”

Teddy nodded, “It’s plan.”

#nhl imagines #jamie oleksiak imagines #dallas stars imagine #nhl fic #nhl fiction #journey to the emerald city #jamie oleksiak smut

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gallickingunsteals · 4 years

Text

Gallickingun/Lilhemmo is tracing art, reposting art and gifs, stealing ideas, and more

We’re going to start by introducing ourselves: we are a group of anonymous artists, writers, and editors that are either in @bnhabookclub or have left it for various reasons related to the admin and creator, @gallickingun / @lilhemmo and the mod staff as a whole. This doesn’t mean all of her staff is bad, but they’ve strongly enabled, overlooked, and allowed Morgan to steal for too long. We’re not associated with @gallickingunexposed, but we would like to work with them if they have more they want to share. The reason we’re remaining anonymous for now is because some of us are still in Bookclub. As you’ll see below the cut, and if you go through gallickingunexposed, you’ll find that Morgan has ruthlessly degraded and talked shit about people within Bookclub as well as kicked people without saying why or telling her mod team.

Next, we’ll explain why we’re doing this. Many people will respond with “Why not message Morgan? This isn’t right. You’re creating drama.” We’re not sorry to say this, but theft is not drama. It’s disrespectful and rude as well as illegal depending on the circumstances. Alongside this, Morgan has been contacted about these actions in the past multiple times by multiple people but continues to do it and/or insist she’s in the right. At that point, what else would you propose when handling it privately doesn’t work?

Additionally, all creators deserve to know that someone is blatantly and consistently disrespecting their mutuals or people they follow by stealing their stuff. They all deserve to know that there is someone (Morgan) out there who might steal their work or break their posting rules as she’s done to others, as well as know if she’s already done it to them. Had this happened once or twice then we wouldn’t be posting this, but Morgan has a record of reposting art, gifs, stealing fics, ideas, and tracing art and she continues to insist that she doesn't do that.

This post is meant to give Morgan a wakeup call and inform everyone of things they are ignoring or unaware of. If you decide she is still in the right after reading this, then we hope you and her are blocked from other creators’ accounts so that you don’t get the chance to steal their work. This is not a discussion. This is a compilation of just some of the things she did.

Please keep in mind that this isn’t just about creative laws, this is also about creative decency and integrity, and the respectful treatment of creators. All of those have been continuously ignored by Morgan and other Bookclub staff after it is brought up multiple times, which proves that they are unfit to be in any position that allows them access to others’ pieces or a position that lets them dictate what people post. It also shows how little they care about creators as a whole.

A solution: remake the Bookclub, remove Morgan from Bookclub staff at least, and possibly get new support staff (unless the current staff truly does disagree with her ways). If the other support team and members excuse her for stealing, reposting, etc., then they are just as bad, and those in support staff team shouldn’t be in there any longer. Shame on them for promoting and enabling creative theft. That is not an environment anyone should be promoting or enabling. Fair warning to anyone interested in BNHA Bookclub right now — they currently do not care about your work being stolen and the head admin herself has and still does steal from and ridicule and disrespect others even in Bookclub. The Bookclub was completely stolen (details below) and shouldn’t get the benefits and praise that come with zero credit and claiming originality.

And for Morgan, when you see this, we know you’re going to delete your theft posts so that the original artists and editors won’t see it. You’ll say you deleted it because you “know it’s wrong” and you “shouldn’t have posted it” but if that were the case, you would’ve done so the first time people have brought up you stealing, not the 2nd or 3rd or 4th — this is a trend. Delete them after you own up to it with the original posters. Let them see that you’ve done this. You can’t cover up what you’ve done by saying you didn’t do it or garner pity with a long apology. We also know that’s something you tend to do right before you repeat the same “mistakes,” feed into hate messages, and throw a pity party with your followers to feel better about your wrongdoings. An apology is the bare minimum. You should actually stop posting things that aren’t yours, stop copying ideas that aren’t yours, and stop covering up your theft. You are not the victim here!

ART (reposting and tracing)

Recently, Morgan got an ask and said she doesn't repost fanart without permission. Right before that, she had done just that with screenshots of a bunch of Bakugou art in a Google search. We felt this was still a form of reposting, but we wanted to ask the artists themselves too since Morgan didn’t. They all agreed that it’s still reposting because it shares their content where they don't allow even if it's not the HD image. She didn’t have to post the art. She could have gotten her notes without reposting art (yes, she cares about that and you can see in the link shared in the stealing ideas section of this post).

She edited this post to crop out the art, so someone must have told her to do so. We would like to give her more credit, but the BNHA Bookclub rules are a strong indication of her beliefs: that no matter what the artists and others think, she doesn’t believe she reposted -- she doesn’t want to admit she’s wrong or facilitating reposts.

“9. Do not repost content without credit... But we realize sometimes you’re just doing a google search and can’t find the original poster.”

The rules of the Bookclub themselves, as pictured in @rivendell101′s post about Morgan stealing the Bookclub entire set up, rules, theme and concept of Bookclub from her, do not mention anything about reposting content or plagiarism or anything else that would promote protecting creators. So what?

This means you’re safe (by Bookclub standards) to repost and steal on your blog! And with that, you’re safe to do it in the server too because Bookclub staff has deemed this okay. So all of support staff are guilty of enabling and practically promoting theft.

It unfortunately gets worse from here.

Morgan has not only reposted art, but traced art too.

The original artist, @lem0uro, doesn’t allow reposts or tracing of their work (read - one, two, three, four) (here’s the original art). They have also said that this counts as reposting because again, their work is being shared in a manner that is not on their blog or being reblogged. But Morgan wouldn’t count this as reposting.

There is no permission like she says she would get if she reposts (but she doesn’t, remember?), neither is credit given. You have to zoom in to find the blurry watermark and hope that you got it right so you can find the original artist.

Who, again, doesn’t allow tracing. Most, if not all, artists don’t. You can easily overlay those two images and see that it was traced, not referenced.

GIFS (reposting)

Fandom editors typically don’t allow reposting of their work. If they do, you follow their rules for reposting (common rules are either get permission, credit them, or both). In Morgan’s case, she has reposted multiple gifs over the years, and also posted a submission of someone else’s gif — yes, that’s still reposting because she still chose to post it when she knew it wasn’t hers.

(x)

We couldn’t find the creator of the submitted gif but if someone does, please send them this or tell them about this happening so that they can know. It’s not the person who submitted it as there are multiple reposts dating back to before Morgan’s post.

The second gif is by @slaughterofinnocence found here and it’s unclear if they allow reposts (but that doesn’t make it free real estate, Moe).

(x)

This gif is by @sstarphase found here and they don’t allow reposts.

(x)

Again, not Morgan’s original gif because it’s been reposted multiple times before. If you know the creator, please let them know this is happening.

(x)

This gif is by @bellblake found here and they don’t allow reposts.

(x)

This gif is by @billrskarsgard found here and it’s unclear if they allow reposts.

(x)

We couldn’t find the original creator but if you know then please make them aware.

(x)

We couldn’t find the original creator but if you know then please make them aware.

(x)

We couldn’t find the original creator even with the watermark, but if you know then please make them aware.

We’re aware that some of these posts are old, but that doesn’t excuse her actions, especially since she insists that she doesn’t repost. That only shows that this isn’t a one time issue.

IDEAS (exact copy and pasting and mimicking without inspo credit)

We won’t be addressing Morgan stealing fic ideas because that has been brought up by multiple other people already including @gallickingunexposed and @lady-bakuhoe. Keep in mind that this is a compilation of observations no matter how small.

You can read this post about Morgan stealing the entire idea of Bookclub. Are network and archive blogs and servers exclusive and original ideas? NO! But Morgan didn’t just copy the idea, she:

took credit for it

copy and pasted the rules from @southsidearchive

copied the same exact theme as ^

copied the set up of the server from ^

bonus: shit talked the admin of ^ and said she’d use them for notes and only add them to Bookclub at the very last minute

Again, you can’t take credit for a common concept like Morgan did, but you can easily give credit to where you got the idea or what you’re basing your actions off of, which Morgan didn’t do. That’s called saying who inspired you. Since Morgan and staff legitimately plagiarized the entire Bookclub setup, they didn’t just get inspiration in that case.

Moving on, all of the people contributing this post except a few have been here since the beginning of Bookclub and have either left Bookclub or remain in it. We remember what it was like when it started up and we’ve seen the changes it has gone through. Interestingly enough, these changes were not original.

NOTE: Because Morgan and Bookclub staff have stolen and taken credit for the entirety of southsidearchive’s set up, this is being brought up because it is no mere coincidence that they’re doing the same things again. The only difference is that they were caught sooner.

A couple of us noticed the current changes reflecting @haikyuucreations‘ server only after Morgan had joined. This is a smaller instance compared to the previous, but that should mean there’s no issue with mentioning “I got this idea from them” just like @southsidearchive did with their rules and haikyuucreations did with their set up.

There was no mention inspiration when Morgan took all of these from haikyuucreations:

QOTD (role and channel)

the same bots

a split administrative staff between the blog mods and server mods

As you can see here, Morgan didn’t join the haikyuucreations server until July 25th, and she only waited a couple days until she started copying the way they did QOTD. Previously there was no role or a separate channel, but Morgan shamelessly used that idea and didn’t say she got inspiration or anything. Instead, she passes it off as her wanting it to be more active. The nice thing to do would be at least promote or mention the people you got your ideas from even if they aren’t original ideas. We’re sure Morgan wouldn’t want someone writing a whole fic inspired by hers without saying, or creating an entire blog and server like hers without saying.

Below we’ll talk about the dates that Morgan and Bookclub staff copied the same bots as haikyuucreations. Public bots are not exclusive, but the idea of Bookclub is completely unoriginal since it is a carbon copy of southsidearchive and now it’s imitating haikyuucreations.

Once again, no one owns common concepts, but we believe the timing is all too convenient for Morgan to be adding in the same bots after joining the haikyuucreations server. When we first joined Bookclub, Writer-Bot and Carl Bot weren’t there, but Morgan went ahead and added both of them in like she “just came up with it,” to quote her directly in the post linked earlier from southsidearchive.

You can see the earliest messages from those two bots in the haikyuu server and compare it to when Writer-Bot joined Bookclub. There isn’t anything about when Carl Bot joined, but we and anyone else in the server can confirm that it wasn’t there until after Morgan joined the other server.

Besides this, she got her character bot ideas with prompts and flirty lines from the southsidearchive server, but there was no inspo credit for that.

We will, though, reach out to the staff of haikyuucreations to see if Morgan at least asked about getting inspiration for how they run their server. If that is the case, we’ll delete everything regarding Morgan copying from them. But that’s really unlikely since she didn’t do that for southsidearchive.

Another instance of copying without inspiration credit is Morgan copying haikyuucreations split staff setup. Since at least June, their blog and server have been split between two different teams. This third screenshot is from August 22nd after a Bookclub member spoke with Candy from the Bookclub staff. This change of Bookclub being split is a recent one, once again only coming up after Morgan has seen it work in the haikyuu server. This information was sent via DM, and Bookclub staff is continuing to avoid acknowledging that they’ve stolen ideas from other archival blogs and servers.

MISC

This is unrelated to creative theft. We want to point out another inconsistency where staff has failed to uphold their rules and protect their members, specifically about incest.

They make it very clear that incest is not a topic allowed in the server or in fics submitted to the blog, yet they allowed this conversation about Todoroki family incest to occur. If it’s allowed in specific channels, then that should be clear in the rules but it isn’t. But that’s just what happens when you copy and paste someone else’s rules and don’t have any familiarity with them:

According to gallickingunexposed, there was also the instance of minors getting into NSFW channels by lying to staff and by staff opening the channel up temporarily for everyone to participate in. This isn’t legal. It’s unfair. It’s disgusting. Being lied to is out of your control, but Bookclub support staff willingly opened up a NSFW channel for minors to get in. Temporary or not, that’s unacceptable.

And to discuss rule 11: Lyssa/@burnedbyshoto was kicked without notice to anyone, members and mods alike, just because Morgan didn’t like her (referencing gallickingunexposed). This doesn’t mean Lyssa was innocent, but since only Morgan knew about kicking her, no one could personally take it up with her. That’s an abuse of power and a fine way for Morgan to go around her own rules. With all of that, Bookclub members are literally forced by the rules to respect staff and their decisions, breeding an unhealthy environment where no one can speak up without facing backlash in the server or in DMs -- like Morgan shit talking her own members and other bloggers.

CONCL.

We compiled as much as we could, but there is definitely more that Morgan has stolen and more that her staff has enabled. We believe the best solutions include

1. Bookclub to be remade since it was completely stolen and continues to steal from others.

If someone steals a gif, art, or writing, the proper response is to delete it. It’s unlikely Bookclub staff will do that with Bookclub, so the least they could do is stop benefitting from others’ ideas. Had the Bookclub been marginally influenced by the Riverdale and Haikyuu servers and blogs then it would be different, but this is too far. There is no telling how far they’re going to go and Morgan has no limits of what else she’ll steal and defend. This also needs to happen because the rules themselves are not followed by staff. If you don’t know your own rules or you’re not going to follow them then change them. They were never your rules in the first place and the power is being abused anyway.

2. Morgan needs to leave Bookclub staff.

She may have started it, but it was never her idea or setup in the first place. Considering she doesn’t follow the rules she copy and pasted, abuses her power, and consistently disrespects other creators either personally or by stealing from them, she doesn’t deserve to get by with another fake apology. Multiple apologies over the same thing followed by the same “mistakes” are worthless. They’re emotionally manipulative and only serve to let her get by with doing it again and get pity when she’s caught. We considered suggesting a suspension, but since Morgan has already left the server once and came back with the issues persisting and more arising, we don’t feel like this is a proper solution. She will only come back and continue to be a risk to the members of Bookclub for talking poorly about them behind their backs and for stealing from them and others. We sincerely hope that Bookclub mods are capable enough to run Bookclub without her, especially if they remake it to fit them. It’s understood that Morgan did most of the admin duties on her own and wouldn’t let mods participate despite being told or asked of, so we hope that that’s even more reason she shouldn’t be in staff.

3. Apologize to the original posters and follow their instructions.

Don’t delete the posts before they see, that’s just running away. If they tell you to credit them, do it. If they tell you to delete it, do it. But don’t delete it and brush it under the rug. And once you do apologize, don’t go back to posting and pretending everything is normal. This is a serious topic and deserves serious reflection. Every time this comes up, Morgan goes in circles victimizing herself, giving an apology, and repeating. That doesn’t work 10 times in a row.

This post will remain up until all three of these suggestions are taken. We’ll continue to help find more content that Morgan and staff have stolen, even if it means getting no sleep because this matters. As writers, artists, and editors, Bookclub staff should understand that. Morgan may not and has proven that she doesn’t care enough to change her ways, but we won’t stop until we see what we want.

#gallickingun #bnhabookclub #plagiarism #art thief #art theft #dont steal or repost #artists on tumblr

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youngbloodlisk · 3 years

Text

Worth It // Kim Sunwoo Model AU

Chapter 2

chapter genre: slight angst, fluff

Worth It series masterlist can be found: under my tbz masterlist in my pinned

"Everyone, I'd like you to formally meet our newest members."

A room full of perfect looking people give a round of applause while staring at Juyeon and me. The director tells them our names and I hear some scattered murmurs of 'oh, I recognize that name'.

I look into the faces of some of the greatest models of all time. Models who are used on a regular basis by some of the biggest brands.

Lee Sangyeon, famous for his work with Calvin Klein (yes, that means exactly what you think it means).

Ju Haknyeon, famous for his work with Dior.

Ji Changmin, famous for his work with Louis Vuitton.

And of course, Juyeon's (intensely denied) celebrity crush, Choi Chanhee. Famous for his work with Gucci, as well as having his own monthly Worth It magazine. Issues of NewShot sell out entirely every month, without fail.

NewShot aka the magazine which has made Juyeon cry way too many times, no matter how much he says he 'had something in his eye'.

"They're from Imaginary Parties. I'm sure you know the agency recently went bankrupt due to a corrupt leadership partner. We are extremely excited that they got our offer and decided to join us. They're here to stay. Be nice. Ah, and if you two haven't already met your roommates..." The director flips through the pages on the clipboard in his hands. "Here." He reads off my roommate first, and I'm quite shocked to hear him say Sangyeon's name instead of the "Park Sanhyo" that I was expecting. However, I'm not given much time to think about it before I catch my friend trying to control his red cheeks. "Lee Juyeon, you're with Choi Chanhee."

As the director walks off and people begin to mingle and talk again, Chanhee smiles and raises his hand to wave Juyeon over to talk with him.

Juyeon turns around and stares at me with wide eyes.

"I can't."

"You can."

"I can't."

"You have to, you're living with the man."

"I'm gonna freeze."

"You're gonna be fine."

"I can't do it, I really can't-"

"Hey, I'm Chanhee." Juyeon chokes and starts coughing when he looks to his left to see Choi Chanhee has approached him. "Woah, are you okay?" Chanhee lightly pats Juyeon's back.

"Ju, I'm gonna get you some water." I subtly wink at him as I walk away from the boys, knowing the kitchen is on the other side of the large house and that would give them plenty of time to talk... or plenty of time for Juyeon to embarrass himself. Tomato, tomahto.

I lean against the counter and sip on the cup of water I got for Juyeon, debating if I should go back to him or "accidentally get lost".

I decide I'm gonna "get lost on the way to kitchen", but I do sneak back to spy on Juyeon.

I find Juyeon and Chanhee laughing, smiling, talking, and neither of them (Juyeon) are hyperventilating. Seems to be going well.

I feel a pair of eyes on me from somewhere, so I scan the area around me until I lock eyes with a certain Ji Changmin.

However, as soon as my eyes find him, he turns and averts his gaze...

-----------

I swipe my glossy, white keycard and slowly push the door open just enough to speak through the crack.

"Is anyone in here?"

"Yeah, come on in!" A male voice prompts me. I push the door again and enter the room, giving a shy smile to Sangyeon. "How's your first day going?"

"It's alright. Everyone seems nice enough. I do just have one... question-"

"Why am I in your room when the door says it's supposed to be Sanhyo?"

"Yep, that's the one."

Sangyeon chuckles. "This used to be Sanhyo's room, no roommate. She left the agency a week ago when they told her she'd have to give up her solo room." He notices my horrified face and quickly adds detail. "Don't feel bad! She was always a diva about everything. I'm sure if it wasn't the room, it would have been the minor schedule changes they just made. Don't worry. When she left, staff forgot to change the room signs. I used to room with Chanhee."

"Why didn't they just put me and Juyeon together?"

"They wanted you both to feel more welcomed. Figured that putting you together might just make you feel isolated from everybody else."

I nod, letting him know that I see how that makes sense.

"Do you want some help unpacking your stuff?"

"Huh? Oh! No, no, no... that's okay. Thank you though."

"Are you sure? Here, I can at least handle the bedspread for you. And if I do it wrong, feel free to yell at me."

I smile lightly and pick up the box labeled "bed", handing it to him.

"Thanks."

Silently, we both start unboxing and unpacking my stuff.

Once he finishes making the bed, pristinely, he sits on his own bed on the other side of the room.

"Hey... if rooming with me makes you uncomfortable at all, I can unofficially bunk with Haknyeon and Changmin. I'm sure being put in a room with a man you don't know isn't exactly what you were hoping for."

His thoughtfulness makes me smile, as well as makes me feel a bit safer.

"No, it's okay! Really, I don't mind. Even thought I don't know you personally, it feels as if I know you on some level. The famous Lee Sangyeon. I think I own at least half your issues of Calvin Klein."

He laughs with a beautiful smile on his face.

"You might rival my parents' collection. Gotta be honest... it's a little weird for your mom to buy eight copies of a magazine just because you're on the front cover in your underwear giving the camera bedroom eyes. But you can't stop a proud parent."

Our funny banter continues on as he keeps helping me unpack and decorate.

Soon, my new room looks quite similar to my old room.

"You have a lot of pictures with Juyeon. You guys must be close, yeah?" Sangyeon asks, looking over my photos on the wall.

"He's my best friend. Losing him was the scariest part of our company going under. I'm really thankful that Worth It wanted both of us... I don't know what I'd do without him."

"Well... I'm really glad to have you both here." A genuine smile as sweet as candy grows on his face, with kind eyes to match.

-----------

"Thank you all for gathering, we have some very exciting news." The same staff member who introduced me and Juyeon yesterday now stands alongside a couple other staff members.

"More new people?" Changmin's eyes are wide with excitement and hope at the idea of more new friends.

"No, Q, we'd have to build more dorms. We have something far more exciting to tell you about. Somebody from Versace called today and said they wanted to use some of our models, in collaboration with them and some models from Guy.exe, to reshoot all of their products. All for a special edition catalog."

Gasps and chatter erupt, until I hear Haknyeon groan next to me.

"Guy.exe..." He mutters, his voice full of distain, with a sharp eye roll. "That place is full of snobs."

"Haknyeon, play nice. You're gonna have to work alongside them." Sangyeon nudges him.

"Who exactly from Guy.exe?" Chanhee asks.

"Uhh..." One of the staff members flips through the papers in her hand. "Versace has confirmation from Kevin Moon, Jacob Bae, Kim Younghoon, and Eric Sohn. Still no firm answer from Lee Hyunjae or Kim Sunwoo, but they were requested."

Half the room groans and rolls their eyes, almost directly mirroring Haknyeon's earlier reaction, at the mention of the name "Kim Sunwoo".

"I know!" The staff cuts them off. "I know, you guys have never gotten along with the boys from Guy.exe... especially Kim Sunwoo. But like Sangyeon said, you have to play nice and be professional at the shoot. That being said, if anyone would like to reject the offer, now is the time."

The room is silent, despite the energy being heavy and very loud.

"Alright. I'll call them back and confirm that you will all be attending. You're dismissed, more details will come later."

-----------

(3rd person POV)

"Sunwoo!" Eric jumps over the back of the expensive leather couch to drop down next to his friend. "Check this out."

"What is it?" Sunwoo's eyes don't leave the video game he's currently winning.

"It's from Worth It. They have fresh meat."

Sunwoo turns his head immediately, suddenly forgetting about his game, and drops his controller to grab Eric's phone. Sunwoo scrolls through the photos and reads the welcoming caption, before clicking on the models' own Instagrams and looking through them.

"Fresh meat... from Imaginary Parties? So they're new and desperate... Will they be at the Versace shoot?"

"Kevin said they would be."

A cocky smirk appears on Sunwoo's face, clearly already coming up with ideas.

"This should be fun."

#ciiikbwork #sunwoo au #the boyz au #tbz au #sunwoo fluff #the boyz fluff #tbz fluff #sunwoo angst #tbz angst #the boyz angst

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onslaughtsixdotcom · 3 years

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Scaling Up Dragon Heist

Around April or May of 2019, I started to run Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, one of the official WotC 5e hardcovers. I’m still not done with it, although that is largely the fault of COVID and my own extensions to the campaign.

I think Dragon Heist is one of the better 5e modules by WotC. I think it’s got a strong playground for the characters, and Waterdeep has 30+ years of publication history to draw on. The release of the module also heralded in a HUGE amount of third party extension content, including the famous Alexandrian Remix. I hadn’t heard of this before I started running my campaign and having ideas about how to do it, so it didn’t influence me--although I’m sure we came to a lot of similar conclusions and ideas, based on common perceptions of what the actual flaws are of the module.

Still, despite those flaws, I think they help the module rather than hinder it. It gives the DM a shitload of room to improvise and draw in the margins, rather than some other 5e adventures which feel like they can’t be fucked with in the least.

Here’s the kicker: I started my adventure at level 4. We had a pre-existing party that I had run through the classic N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God. (Fun fact: A map that I drew is the 3rd Google Images result for that. Woah.)

The party spent a few real-world weeks traveling across about 7 days of overland travel where I ran some drop in one shots; including Mike Krahulik’s Dusk (a Twilight parody) and a really fun 2 hour diversion where the players saw an ancient blue dragon take off the roof of a church during a wedding. Then they arrived in my city: Dawnharbour.

I don’t run the Forgotten Realms. I find it not to my taste. Most of the names suck. The lore is invariably boring or weird, and not the fun kind of weird. I was going to run Dragon Heist, and I was going to put it in my own city. I gave the players some justification previously for why they would want to go there: The cleric’s sister had been kidnapped by the Cult of the Reptile God and turned into a Yuanti; a snake person. The bard had stolen a golden statue of the Reptile God and wanted to melt it down and plate his violin with it. I told the cleric that they would need a high level magic user and someone in Dawnharbour could probably help them; ditto the bard needing a highly skilled magical blacksmith. The third player didn’t really care where they went since he was on the run from his home country. So, off to Dawnharbour. They reached level 4 when they got to the city.

I won’t bore you with the rest of the details of my city or everything I changed for the campaign. Instead, I’ll talk up some hard and fast ways to make the adventure work for a higher level party. Most of them revolve around the encounters. I’m assuming the party will start around level 4 or 5.

Chapter 1

The book opens with the players in the Yawning Portal, a famous tavern with a big ass well to a megadungeon underneath. (More on this later.) They’re hanging out doing whatever when a troll and some stirges pop out of the well. The book says that the players get attacked by the stirges while the owner of the bar, a typical Forgotten Realms 15th level Fighter running a fucking bar for a living deals with the troll.

A troll is CR 5. They can handle a troll. If they can’t, you have a bigger problem.

Next up the book leads them to a Zhentarim warehouse. When they get there it’s abandoned and there are (ugh) 3 Kenku. Kenku are like tengu if they sucked. They’re bird people who can only speak in mimickry, like parrots. They can only repeat words they’ve heard before. This is stupid as fuck (especially when a player wants to be one) but more importantly, they are incredibly weak. I think the kenku are just hanging out or they got captured by the Zhentarim who left them there after they bail or something like that. Whatever.

I put the Zhentarim there instead. I put like 20 Zhentarim. I used the Spy statblock; they don’t have a lot of CR and at level 4 or 5, the players are real slice and dicey about killing them. They can basically carve through two of these dudes in a turn. It was *really* fun to just have the players mow down these mooks. They used the 2nd floor to their advantage, casting Grease on the stairs and creating a bottleneck and then picking them off with ranged attacks and spells. I think I might have given the Zhents 1hp and treated them as minions (see 4e).

I think I had the police show up after they were all dead; someone heard the commotion and called the cops. I think I also put an NPC there; I shuffled around a bunch of the NPCs the module uses. (They got their quest to save Volo from Bigby in the Yawning Portal; instead of finding Volo here, I think they found my equivalent of Renaer Neverremember.) There was a day’s break between this and them going into the sewers in the next part.

The sewer introduces the Xanathar’s minions. I believe a Duergar is actually there and I took this as a sign--I made most of Xanathar’s mooks Duergar, and then decided--this dude is a Beholder and he has a Mindflayer for a lieutenant. The Xanathar’s forces should ALL be classic D&D dungeon monsters, like rust monsters and umber hulks and ropers. This gives you a wide variety of weird shit you can throw at your players at different CR levels, and the idea of a gangster Beholder who thinks hiring a bunch of umber hulks to go shake down a local deli is fucking hilarious. But, it doesn’t make them any less dangerous. Throw some umber hulks or something in this lair. Go nuts--the weirder, the better. Xanathar’s crew should have no qualm about hanging out with a gibbering mouther or a carrion crawler.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 is the least developed chapter in the book. It also revolved around a bunch of Forgotten Realms faction nonsense that I wanted nothing to do with. I used this time instead to formally introduce the Xanathar, the Cassalanters and Jarlaxle. After they foiled his plans to rig a goldfish competition (think a dog show but for fish), the Xanathar became convinced the players worked for the Zhentarim and invited them to have a sit down about their intentions; if they worked for the Zhents he wanted to formally declare war. The players hated the Zhents--they killed an NPC they liked back during N1, partially to set this all up. Xanny was cool with that.

The Cassalanters were a way to introduce a new player. They call up the Blackstaff to say, hey we have a magic item, can you send a guy here to deliver it? (Magic item possession is illegal on the streets in my setting, but if someone important hires you to transport it, then you can do it. This makes being a courier a very lucrative job; lots of people are just carrying around other people’s stuff for a living.) They almost immediately knock out the new player sent to pick up the item, and replace him with their dofflegagher. The idea was that the dofflegagher player would then infiltrate the Blackstaff’s organization.

Blackstaff is no dumbass and hired a random dude off the street--my new player. Then, Blackstaff hired the rest of the party to go rescue him--mostly as a ruse to snuff out the Cassalanters and get evidence that they were shitty.

When they encountered the Cassalanters, I used a Cambion; one of their servants turned into him. This guy slowly became a recurring lieutenant; he was basically the Goldar for the Cassalanter’s Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa. At the time, I hadn’t read any lore for Cambions; I’m not particularly concerned with monster lore the way the guys who make the game write it. I literally thumbed through my deck of monsters, saw this winged devil horn dude, and said, “Right on, he looks like he’ll work.” A Cambion is CR5, more than suitable for the encounters the party will have with him over the next few levels. The Fiendish Charm ability is fun and can really fuck with the players; I ruled, of course, that anyone under its affect would obviously be free if the Cambion was killed. Even after it was killed, he just kept on coming back, because he’s from Hell and killing him on this plane doesn’t really do anything.

As the players continue to face the Cassalanters, a go-to seems to be spined devils. This is fine but not very powerful for a level 4, 5, 6 party. Therefore I suggest supplanting it with barbed devils. They’re CR5. Adding one or two of those to an encounter with spined devils can make this a real fun encounter that isn’t too horribly overwhelming, especially if at least one of your martial characters has a magic weapon (which they fucking should; they’re level 5!)

IMO you can also introduce Jarlaxle in this chapter; a fun way is through his Zardoz Zord persona. It could simply be that Jarlaxle knows Volo (or any other NPC the players know) and wants to invite them to a free meal to get to know them. In my game, Jarlaxle operates openly as himself (I found it would just complicate things if he was someone else) and invited the players to his yacht shortly after they met the Xanathar, to formally tell them all about the Vault of Dragons, the Stone, and how everyone they have met in the city is after it.

Chapter 3

I am not the biggest fan of this part of the module. I think nimblewrights and similar creatures are really dumb and don’t fit my D&D world. A lot of the stuff in this chapter is investigation stuff, and you can play that out however you like. It doesn’t drastically need scaling up, though you may have to account for something like Zone of Truth that they might not normally have access to. It also helps if you do the opposite of the book, and make the police a bunch of shitheads who don’t care about the city--this way the players are actually motivated to help. I’ve seen a LOT of posts that open with “the fireball happened and my players shrugged and said they would let the police handle it.” Horrible! The police should either be incompetent, apathetic, or (best case) both. They don’t care who did this and if they did, they wouldn’t be able to catch them. Now it’s completely on the players.

IMO it also helps if you do the leg work to make the NPC someone they actually care about. In the book it’s an NPC they’ve never met but they have a mutual acquaintance through--it would be nice if they get invited to a dinner with this NPC or something similar prior to this. Or, change it to be any NPC they like who you don’t mind killing. Hell, they’re level 5 or 6 at this point--if they got a cleric, they can even cast Revivify and wake the dude up. They could even cast Speak With Dead and immediately find out who blew him up or what he was doing here!

Moving on, there’s the Gralland Villa. I retooled the name to actually sound like a good name; sue me.

The book has a bunch of Zhents hanging out here. A simple way to make this dramatic and hard is to pull the trigger and make the players fight their way in. The stone is right here at the villa and they need to steal it. Sounds simple enough.

Things got complicated for my party when a recurring NPC appeared. She was an ex girlfriend of the bard in our party; they were both Tieflings. She now worked for the Zhentarim and was basically their second in command. And she was here to steal the stone, come Hell or high water. The bard, still in love with her, was perfectly content to let her steal it and even cover her getaway. The rest of the players, not so much, but when the chaos was ensuing and she was literally running past them with the stone in hand, made the decision that it was smarter to try and help her escape and then figure out how to get the stone from her later, than try and get it from her now.

This led literally directly to chapter 4.

Chapter 4

By now it’s obvious: I used all 4 bad guys.

I ran through the chapter and picked the coolest maps and best encounter ideas, including the rooftop chase, the theater, the sewer and the courthouse. I weaved them together carefully, and all the changes I had made to the groups paid off when they entered the theater, chased by barbed devils and our Cambion friend, only to have an Umber Hulk with the Xanathar’s logo painted on his face crash through the stage, flanked by two Duergar. Add in some Drow gunslingers and it was a fucking party.

(the large hexagon is where somebody cast Darkness; the big scuffed circle is a grody spot on my grid tiles. I still need new ones...)

The courthouse had a great scene where the Cassalanter dofflegagher impersonated the chief of police, interrogating the players for the code word to activate the stone (I added one; who cares?) until the real chief of police showed up! The players had to do an entire encounter with this guy while handcuffed; thank god for verbal only spells, right?

From here the stone ended up with the players, and then it ended up with Jarlaxle who they are working for. Jarlaxle attuned to it and told them the Vault of Dragons is inside Undermountain; 3, 5 levels deep? Who knows? And it requires 3 keys: The Crown of Asmodeus, the Ring of Winter, and the Robe of the Archmagi.

I gave these 3 magic items to the Cassalanters, the Xanathar and Manshoon. This is a pretty common hack and it means the lairs in the book actually get used. I made up one of the magic items (Crown of Asmodeus) and stole another from a module I don’t intend to run as written (the Ring of Winter is, I believe, in either Tomb of Annihilation or Storm King’s Thunder). They’re fun!

So the rest of the campaign has been the players bouncing between going deep into Undermountain, the megadungeon underneath the Yawning Portal, and going to the 3 different villain factions to steal their shit.

The villain lairs are NOT statted for level 5 players AT ALL. The players have no hope of actually killing ANY of the villains at level 5; to fight the Xanathar is a pure TPK at level 5. But at level 8, like where my players are now? One of them died and then got Revivified; the others all survived or made their saves when they were hit by death or disintegration. (In the spirit of the Xanathar, I rolled every eye beam randomly, rerolling if I had used that ray in the last round.) That’s about the best you can hope for with a Beholder IMO!

The rest of the lairs you can mostly run as-is. Any very low CR mooks, basically anything lower than 1 or 2 CR, I would probably replace with a higher CR variant. We’ve already discussed what you can replace them with above, and if you’ve made it this far into the module, you should have a pretty good sense of what your players can handle.

#dnd #dragon heist #waterdeep dragon heist

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josefavomjaaga · 3 years

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Sir Robert Wilson on Murat and Eugène

Okay, so I said I would read up on Wilson first before reading anything by him – but I had already looked into the second volume of his diaries, and this is just perfect: During the final days of March and April 1814, when the First Empire ended in Upper Italy, he visited both Murat and Eugène and had dinner with them.

Please bear with me, this is going to be lengthy. Plus, I do not know if these diaries were truely private or intended for publication, so I have no clue in how far they were edited later and how trustworthy they are as a source.

We start off in mid-March. Eugène is still holding the Mincio line for Napoleon. Murat has received the ratification of his treaty with Austria but is still on awful terms with Austrian Field Marshal Bellegarde – and with Bentinck [»Lord William«, as Wilson writes], of course.

March 15th – As I am of the species of anecdote collectors, I must note a speech of Beauharnois at Verona, which has made an impression in his favour, although it is not sufficiently towering for a hero's last struggle and would rather suit a sixth than a fifth Henry:

"Pour moi, je suis monté par un escalier si bas que je ne me ferai pas du mal en descendant. Je n'aurai que du chagrin pour ma femme, née et elevée princesse."

In English: "As for me, I have climbed a staircase from so low that I shall not harm myself on the way down. I will only grieve for my wife, born and bred a princess." That was Eugène’s usual attitude. Auguste did the same, in reverse: Of course she never wanted that crown of Italy for herself. But her Eugène (best of husbands™) deserved it so much more than anyone else in Napoleon’s family!

There are many others recorded equally meek; and this humility of spirit, combined with other good qualities and his present martial and military conduct, excites great interest in his favour.[...]

Yesterday, Colonel Cattanelli arrived and brought me advice that Lord William and Murat were at Reggio, contending for and against the British occupation of Tuscany. [...]

March 20th - We have no further advices from Reggio, but are most anxious to know the result of Murat's and Lord William's final conference.

Cattanelli tells me that Murat said to him: "Whereever I am in all the great battles, I have seen General Wilson. He is certainly one of the most distinguished officers, and if it had not been for him, we should in various instances in Russia have got through much better. He has done us infinite harm, but it is a fatality that he should always be opposed to me." He then continued his remarks, observing that I was an enemy to him, his family, the French nation etc. Cattanelli told him that he had heard me extol his military conduct, which pleased him much.

The fact is that I have not written a line or given an opinion under the influence of personal feeling. I have not shown the smallest prejudice in conversation or official correspondence, although I consider Murat's conduct as very dishonourable with reference to his benefactor. I have always said that the Allies did not give his renegade zeal fair trial, and that our present propositions are inadmissable by a King of Naples having only an armistice with England.

There is a reason, why, personally, I would wish to serve Murat. He now knows it, and will be satisfied that at all events I respect myself too much to wrong him.

March 29th, Bologna. - In consequence of the difficulties which existed and seemed to increase, I was requested by Lord William to negotiate with Murat. Constant to the principle of promoting public utility, I acquiesced, but I felt much personal reluctance. […]

At midday I went with Lord William, and was introduced to Murat. He received me very amicably; and we had more than an hour's very interesting conversation on past military events, particularly those relating to the Russian campaign; and I acquired some valuable information on that subject. Murat's dress was singular. Hair curled in Roman coiffure—two ringlets, or what, à la Parisienne, are styled “pensées”, dependent on each shoulder. Blue uniform coat, red pantaloons, yellow shoes, with spurs; sword, with three pictures in the handle. His countenance martial, his manners soft, his conversation easy and intelligent. I reserve further opinion until I have transacted business with his Majesty.

30th. — I dined with the Duke di Gallo - a handsome entertainment and a well-chosen party. In the evening went to the opera. Murat was seated as a Sultan -- princes and dukes all standing behind his throne-chair. He is by far the best actor that has appeared in the royalty theatre. This morning Lord William is gone to have an interview with the Pope. I am left to negotiate. I find myself much like the Allies in France—without any base for operations, line of communication uncertain, various interests clashing, and no unity of direction. [...]

April 1st. —On the evening of the 29th, at half-past six, I was at the dinner-table with Murat. The banquet was according to all the rules of perfect gastronomy. The master's manners were very gracious. It was impossible for Lord Chesterfield to have done the honours better. A certain high personage in England would, I am sure, ever feel a little jealous of his kingly courtesies. There was somewhat more of ceremony in the arrangement of the table than I ever witnessed before in royal fêtes. Murat occupied one whole side himself. Three persons sat opposite, and two at each end. With the exception of this distinction, there was no extraordinary attention paid to him, and the conversation was as general, fluent, and free as in private society. After dinner was over we remained talking till near eleven o'clock. I fought with his Majesty all the battles over again which we had witnessed together. He was exceedingly interesting, very candid, and by no means a Gascon for himself or his brethren in arms. I profited by this opportunity again to acquire information on various subjects which he was best qualified to give, and which may tend to make a posthumous memorandum of the late campaigns more valuable. […]

3rd. - I, yesterday, had a very long audience of Murat, and received his ultimatum on the subject of Lord William's demands. I begged, however, to have the statement in writing, and Murat promises to give it under his own hand. I think his case a good one. In foro conscientiæ he is justified. He has had much reason to feel mistrust and suspect hostile intentions under the pretext of peace. […]

Wilson actually lists up a whole bunch of reasons why Murat was justified both to mistrust the Allies and to break away from Napoleon, including Napoleon's intended takeover of Naples. So, in comparison with what he wrote on March 20, his opinion of Murat seems to have improved much by the end, on meeting him personally and on hearing his side of the story.

I skip over some stuff: The Allies and a bit later the Italians receive the news of Napoleon's abdication, which leads to a first military convention between Eugène and Bellegarde. Then we get the anti-French riots in Milan as soon as the senate tries to install Eugène as king of Lombardy, Pina gets tortured to death. That’s the point when Eugène quits the game.

25th. —Events have streamed so rapidly that I cannot attempt to note their progress. Yesterday, Marshal Beauharnois agreed to surrender the kingdom of Italy. The insurrection at Milan and the intelligence of Buonaparte's cession of the iron crown, with other circumstances, determined that measure.

I have, in my despatch to Lord Castlereagh, rendered justice to his conduct as an administrator, a general, and a man.

I passed the whole of yesterday evening with Beauharnois and in Mantua, and enjoyed very interesting conversation on all subjects. He treated me with a confidence that very few friends could experience from a person in his situation, and earnestly begged that I would see him again to pursue our discourses. There is unquestionably great satisfaction in a reception which gives proof of previous good repute, and shows the existence of unlimited credit on the heart's stores. [...]

Well, if I may suggest – don’t flatter yourself too much. That has, I fear, a lot to do with Eugène and rather little with you. (And btw, Eugène was not a marshal!)

The dinner was a most agreeable part of the day's entertainment, not only because we did not sit down till 7 o'clock in the evening, which is a great extension beyond 2 o 'clock, but because the society was very select, there not being more than eight, including three ladies appertaining to the Princess whose presence embellished the company. The Princess was herself not visible, having been confined only eight days, but they say she is very handsome. Her children, four of whom I saw, are of the best appearance and manners.

Beauharnois asked much after the Duke and Duchess of Bedford.

And that’s because he kinda knew the duchess pretty well before she became the duchess, during the peace of Amiens, when all the Brits crowded Paris. (There had even been talk about marriage but in the end either First Consul Bonaparte or the Duchess of Gordon decided against it.)

He is altered, but has a great resemblance to Moreau, and is as plain as Murat is gaudy in his dress. He is, in my opinion, just the man to suit some good Englishmen of my acquaintance.

Something makes me think he does not intend this to be a compliment 😉.

27th. — Yesterday, Beauharnois and his Princess arrived here. The preceding day there was much reason to fear that there might be obstacles to his departure, as the Italian generals, etc, were greatly displeased with the second convention which surrendered the capital and the fortresses without any arrangement made for them, according to the express stipulation of the first convention to that effect. I think, however, that Beauharnois does right; especially as Berthier desired him to withdraw, and the people had commenced a senseless and what threatened to be a very sanguinary insurrection, only to be repressed in its first outbreak by the presence of an Austrian force. [...]

The Princess, although only brought to bed twelve days, bore the journey very well; but Assalini tells me that she is very delicate, and that he fears the more for her as her mother died after child-birth. I have just sent her a bottle of Tokay from the cellar of John Sobieski. It was given me when I was in Warsaw, and I have carried it about intact on the presumption that I might one day apply the nectar to a better purpose than the gratification of my own palate. If I have not, as I hope, combined the “ utile dulci,” I have at least combined in this instance the “decorum dulci,” and this is more in character.

28th - Yesterday, Beauharnois showed me a letter from his sister, the Queen of Holland. It was full of anecdote about Buonaparte, the Empresses, etc, and proved that she possessed much good sense and good feeling. One of her remarks was—“Fatality determined that no experience, no counsel, not even the Emperor's own intelligent mind should discover the bandage which it had bound over his eyes. The perception of the heart was wanting, and great geniuses rarely possess it. He has been abandoned almost by all. Rustan (the Mameluke) is even about to quit, and when I saw the Empress Louisa the other day, she had not more than one valet-à-pied in her service. She came to the advanced posts to embrace her father before she followed her husband, but it is now said that she will not be allowed to go after him. It is true that he was not latterly kind to you, but I am sure you will remark only his benefactions at this time.” The tears started in the eyes of Beauharnois as he read.

May 1st. - I dined on the 29th with the Prince Eugène, the Princess and three ladies of her court; no other persons present. A conversation of five hours enabled me to travel over much matter, but without exhausting our subjects. I had every reason to be pleased with the Prince, and to be assured that we did not separate without a mutual wish to meet again. He was very anxious that I should be at Paris when he was there, but as I hate traitors and cowards - however beneficial their treason and baseness — I shall not sojourn in that city. I would rather be Buonaparte, to have written his last bulletin, than any one of the yet prosperous renegades.

So, to sum up: Murat fascinating but hard to assess, Eugène plain boring. No surprises there.

#joachim murat #eugene beauharnais #eugene de beauharnais #napoleon #italy1814 #sir robert wilson #abdication #trust in whoever meets murat to describe his outfit in detail #napoleon's marshals - not!

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